CTC BLOG

Mehul Reuben DasJan 12, 2023 17:06:57 IST

Elon Musk and his team at Twitter had once considered selling usernames to generate revenue for the platform, a report by the New York Times has revealed. Elon Musk is taking some drastic steps in order to generate a better cash flow and revenue stream for Twitter, however, some of the steps that the social media platform and Elon Musk have taken, are downright bizarre.

Elon Musk expects to free up a bunch of usernames when Twitter deletes about a billion inactive accounts on Twitter. Some of these usernames are quite unique, which Musk plans on auctioning to get more revenue for Twitter.

Two Twitter employees who have first-hand knowledge of the plan spoke to reporters from the New York Times and revealed that Twitter employees have held conversations about selling some user names for the service since at least December, the people said. Engineers have discussed running online auctions where people can bid for the user names, which are the words, numbers or string of characters that follow the @ sign by which accounts are identified on the platform.

Elon Musk had said in December that he wanted to start eliminating inactive accounts on Twitter and free up 1.5 billion user names. Naturally, some of these usernames would be of a high value, especially for businesses and public individuals, who, Musk assumed, would pay for a username of their choice. 

User names or handles that are unique can be very profitable, just like certain URLs on the website. Early adopters of social media platforms often open up multiple accounts and claim these URLs, hoping that some individuals and businesses are ready to spend thousands of dollars on them. 

People also often purchase such user names on black marketplaces, which have popped up because they contain a short word or number and may have been abandoned by their owners. In most of these cases, the username is stolen from an account that has been lying dormant for a long time, and which was recently hacked.

The purchasing and sale of handles are prohibited per Twitter policy. Hackers have historically been drawn to the trade. A 17-year-old Florida man was detained in 2020 after hacking into Musk’s and other celebrities’ Twitter accounts to gather user identities to sell.

Popular messaging service Telegram announced that starting in October, users would be able to auction off their handles.

Musk tweeted that he will “absolutely” look to delete accounts that have been dormant for a year, some of which had sought user names, four days after buying the firm in October. Twitter will provide the identities of accounts that were “obvious account cancellations with no tweets & no log in for years,” he claimed in December.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 10:50:01 IST

Samsung will launch their upcoming Galaxy S23 series at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1. However, thanks to numerous leaks and rumours, we already have a pretty clear idea of what the design of the upcoming devices will be like and what are they going to entail. Now though, we have a confirmation of sorts on the design aspects of the S23 series, thanks to an accidental leak from Samsung, that reveal both the design and colour options available for the base model Galaxy S23 handset.

Samsung’s base variant Galaxy S23 will not have a camera island, and is expected to come with a brighter OLED display, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, and a triple camera setup.

According to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, these are official marketing images from Samsung, and not fan-made renders based on previous models or design predictions. If you want a better look at the new handset, WinFuture has other images listed on its report.

WinFuture has a stellar record when it comes to leaks and more often than not has been correct about Samsung’s devices. If this leak turns out to be accurate, then the Galaxy S23 will not have the raised camera island that featured on its predecessor, the Galaxy S22, so that the phone’s three cameras protrude individually from the back of the housing. Instead, the camera housing will be flush with the main body, and only the external lens element will protrude out. 

According to leaked renderings, the S23 will come in four colours – black, white, green, and pinkish-lilac. The S23 chassis appears to have the traditional metal frame and glass cover combo we’ve seen on past versions.

The S23’s specifications are still unknown, but it’s rumoured to have a new, brighter OLED display. Additionally, the lineup is anticipated to be powered in North America by Qualcomm’s newest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and to have a higher resolution camera sensor with improved low-light performance.

Given that WinFuture is claiming that these images were leaked by Samsung accidentally, and were actually meant for the press as part of their marketing and PR campaigns, the chances of this leak being accurate is significantly high.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 12:20:58 IST

Wisconsin and North Carolina signed orders that banned TikTok on government-issued and maintained devices owing to cybersecurity concerns on Thursday. Wisconsin and North Carolina join Kansas, Ohio and several other states to ban the social media platform owned by ByteDance. 

Wisconsin and North Carolina took the tally of states which banned TikTok in the US over 20. Wisconsin has also banned other Chinese businesses and several Russian businesses as well.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers also announced that the state would be banning vendors, products and services from other Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies, Hikvision, Tencent – the owner of WeChat, and ZTE Corp. Wisconsin is also banning some Russian businesses as well from government-issued devices. Russian-based Kaspersky Lab is one such business. 

“In the digital age, defending our state’s technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and protecting digital privacy has to be a top priority for us as a state,” Evers said.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an order directing officials to develop a policy within 14 days that prohibits the use of TikTok, WeChat and “potentially other applications” that present cybersecurity risks on state devices.

So far, more than 20 states have banned the social media platform along with several other applications that are owned by Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance from government-issued devices. 

TikTok, meanwhile put out a statement, saying it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”

TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew recently met officials in the EU to assure them that they take user’s privacy and cybersecurity very seriously. 

TikTok is looking at getting banned in the United States at a federal level after FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November it poses national security risks. Wray flagged the threat that the Chinese government could harness the app to influence users or control their devices.

For three years, TikTok has been seeking to assure Washington that the personal data of U.S. citizens cannot be accessed and its content cannot be manipulated by China’s Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing’s influence.

Last month, President Joe Biden signed into law a government funding bill that included a ban on federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices.

The law gives the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 60 days “to develop standards and guidelines for executive agencies requiring the removal” of TikTok from federal devices. 

FP StaffJan 14, 2023 19:43:10 IST

Intel launched its 13th Gen desktop processor in September globally, whereas the lineup was launched in mid-October in India. This month, they are launching its fastest desktop processor to date, which breaks the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds for the first time. 

Intel is going all in the CPU wars with the latest Core i9-13900KS. The i9-13900KS is the fastest desktop CPU in the world and is able to hit the 6Ghz mark on turbo, without any additional overclocking

The new Core i9-13900KS is without a doubt the fastest desktop CPU on the market right now and is based on the 13th Gen Core i9 13900K that came close to the 6GHz barrier with its 5.8GHz turbo frequency last year. The new KS version has been priced at $699 or Rs 56,800 in the US and is likely to be priced similarly in India.

The CPU is aimed at professional creators, gamers and other enthusiast-level users. It uses Intel’s performance hybrid architecture to give users an unparalleled experience in productivity-related tasks, gaming, and content production.

The 13900KS is the first CPU to achieve 6GHz without overclocking, breaking over the 6GHz barrier and enhancing PC gaming performance. It does this by utilising Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology.

Intel has bumped up the base power of the 13900KS to 150 watts, from the base power of 125 watts of the 13900K. At max turbo power, the KS version will hit slightly above 250 watts.

The base frequencies of the Performance cores have been bumped up to 3.2GHz, up from the 3GHz on the 13900K. Other than that the new CPU is similar to the 13900K. The new 13900KS CPU has the same eight Performance and 16 Efficiency cores for a total of 24 cores, which run on 32 threads. The new CPU has 36MB of Intel Smart Cache, and 20 PCIe lanes, of which 16 are PCIe 5 and four are PCIe 4.

The new 13900KS is compatible with Z790 motherboards as well as Z690 motherboards, although to get the best out of Intel’s flagship desktop CPU, it is better paired with Z790 motherboards. Users will need to update their existing MoBos with the latest BIOS for the best gaming and content creation experience.

As for RAM, the 13900KS supports DDR5 RAMs with speeds of up to 5600 MT/s and DDR4 RAMs with speeds of up to 3200 MT/s.

The Intel Core i9-13900KS is available with major retailers for users planning to build their own PCs, and will soon start appearing on OEM machines.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 16:10:20 IST

It seems that TikTok just can’t catch a break. After getting banned from state-owned computers and mobile devices in over 20 states in the United States of America, where it faces a possible federal-level ban, the social media company was fined $5.4 million by France for inappropriate handling of cookies and online tracking. 

The $5.4 million fine and sanction on TikTok by France comes just a day after TikTok’s CEO met EU officials to assure them that all ByteDance ventures take data privacy and cybersecurity very seriously.

France’s CNIL or National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, the protection watchdog whose job it is to ensure that all companies operating in France abide by the nation’s data laws, said that its investigation only concerned the website tiktok.com and not the service’s much more heavily used smartphone applications.

The CNIL discovered that TikTok users who used the web version, found it more difficult to reject internet trackers than to accept them. Additionally, the authority determined that internet users were not adequately notified about TikTok’s usage of cookies.

The ByteDance-owned company has since said that they have now resolved the issue.

“These findings relate to past practices that we addressed last year, including making it easier to reject non-essential cookies and providing additional information about the purposes of certain cookies,” a spokesperson for TikTok told Reuters.

“The CNIL itself highlighted our cooperation during the course of the investigation and user privacy remains a top priority for TikTok,” the spokesperson added.

According to regulations set forth by the European Union, websites must expressly request internet users’ permission before using cookies, which are little data files saved when a user is browsing the web.

The fine comes just a day after TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew met a contingent of EU officials in Brussels and assured them that TikTok takes data privacy seriously and will work closely with officials to safeguard users.

FP StaffJan 14, 2023 19:23:08 IST

Intel has finally launched its 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor (code-named Sapphire Rapids). At this week’s launch event, Intel described the new Xeon as one of its most significant product launches to date.

The new Intel Xeon CPU Max Series, also known as Sapphire Rapids HBM, was introduced at the event. It is an x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory that is intended to boost HPC applications without requiring modifications. Additionally, Intel unveiled its Data Center GPU Max Series, also known as Ponte Vecchio, which was created to offer better edge, cloud, network, and edge computing capabilities.

Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Max Series CPU is the first and only x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory, accelerating many HPC workloads without the need for code changes.

Besides improving data centre and cloud infrastructure performance, the new CPUs are important to Intel and its partners for other reasons. The delays, initially from manufacturing issues and ultimately to a flaw discovered last year, helped AMD expand its data centre presence.

According to Intel, the 4th Gen Xeon processors provide clients with a variety of options for controlling power and performance, making the best use of CPU resources to aid in the achievement of their sustainability goals. These processors are Intel’s most environmentally friendly data centre CPUs.

As using built-in accelerators, consumers of the 4th Gen Intel Xeon may anticipate an increase in average performance per watt efficiency of 2.9x for specific workloads when compared to earlier generations.

The company said that the 4th Gen Xeon family greatly expands on Intel’s purpose-built, workload-first strategy and approach. It also offers a family of processors specifically optimised for high-performance, low-latency networks and edge workloads.

Additionally, the Xeon CPU Max Series is the first and only x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory, speeding up several HPC tasks without requiring code modifications. According to Intel, the Data Center GPU Max Series, which is Intel’s highest-density CPU, will be offered in a variety of form factors to suit various client requirements.

Additionally, the 64 GB of high-speed RAM that the Xeon CPU Max Series delivers on the package considerably boosts data throughput for HPC and AI applications.

Major cloud providers that have already deployed Intel’s new 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor include AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, IBM and Oracle. AWS has already deployed the latest processors in its EC2 service, said Amazon VP David Brown.

The Xeon CPU Max Series outperforms top-tier 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors by up to 3.7 times 10 in a range of practical applications including energy and earth system modelling, said Intel.

Officials from Intel also praised the security upgrades made to the 4th Gen Xeon Scalable CPU. The 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable CPU from Intel has Software Guard Extensions (SGX), which this processor supports. By minimising the attack surface in private, public, and cloud-to-edge situations, Intel SGX offers secure computing.

Trust Domain Extensions (TDX), a virtual-machine isolation technology that Intel created to make it easier for apps to move into secure computing environments, is now a feature of the new 4th Gen Xeon processor.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 13:47:32 IST

Tim Cook will take a substantial pay reduction in 2023 after he urged that his remuneration be changed in response to feedback and criticism from Apple’s stakeholders. Apple today published its annual proxy statement for investors, revealing a number of details about executive compensation, shareholder proposals, and more. 

Even though Tim Cook is voluntarily taking a massive pay cut for 2023, there are several other benefits that he still gets to enjoy. For example, he will continue to have a private jet at his beck and call for all business and personal travel.

The report that was released alongside the statement revealed that Tim Cook will have a “target compensation of $49 million” in 2023, a decline of around 47 per cent compared to what he earned in 2022.

Cook’s 2023 target total compensation has been set $49 million, which is a reduction of more than 45 per cent from his 2022 target total compensation. Taking into consideration Apple’s comparative size, scope, and performance, the Compensation Committee also intends to position Cook’s annual target compensation between the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to our primary peer group for future years.

The Compensation Committee of Apple’s board of directors is in charge of matters like executive compensation. According to today’s filing, Cook himself recommended that his compensation structure be adjusted based on feedback received as part of the Compensation Committee’s “Say on Pay” survey and vote.

Prior to the start of each fiscal year, the Compensation Committee assesses and decides on compensation. The results of the 2022 Say on Pay advisory vote led to broader shareholder engagement on executive compensation in 2022 of approximately 53% of institutional shares held. Apple’s outstanding performance, shareholder comments, and Cook’s suggestion that his remuneration be adjusted in light of the feedback received were all taken into account by the Compensation Committee.

In 2021, Tim Cook received total compensation of around $98 million. Sixty-four percent of votes cast at the next year’s shareholders meeting were in favor of the 2021 compensation paid to executives.

Cook’s target compensation for 2022 was $84 million, but he actually earned roughly $99.4 million since a large portion of his income is performance-based and linked to Apple’s stock.

For 2023, Cook will receive a base salary of $3 million and an annual case incentive of $6 million. There are no changes made to these figures. However, as we said, a majority of Cook’s remuneration is tied to Apple’s stock. For 2023, his equity award value has been capped at $40 million. This is down from the $75 million he made in 2022.

Cook stated in a 2015 interview that he intends to use a “systematic approach” to donating in order to distribute all of his fortune. He did not provide specifics at the time, just stating that he had begun giving money “quietly.”

Besides this annual compensation, one major benefit that Cook enjoys is the availability of a private jet for all business and personal travel. For “security and efficiency considerations,” the Apple board of directors adopted a policy in 2017 requiring Cook to fly privately for all of his professional and personal trips.