🧑💻Audience Hacking, Snapchat Drones, and an Epic Victory
your brain in the cloud
Friends! How are you doing this Monday?
We had a pretty bad cold last week - it was not fun. Fortunately, we did not have to take our little son to the hospital at all (bad cough at times) - and our daughter somehow has a super immune system. She didn’t get it at all!
Last week was an absolute crypto blood bath - DOWN ONLY as they say.
I am no longer singing Stablegain’s praises - thanks to the UST crash. Yeesh. I may write a deep dive soon on some of the UST drama - as it relates to Stablegains.
My little UST bag before UST depeg
My UST bag now
I’ve been reading all the theories about the possible attack on Luna - and Do Kwon’s propositions for saving Terra. I’m not terribly optimistic - but hey - you never know. Maybe there’s a comeback in store!
In any case - I’m probably only “trusting” in USDC as a stablecoin now. 🤔
Annnnyyyywayyyy, I finally got around to watching Spiderman: No Way Home and I LOVED it. The nostalgia evoked by some of the characters was fantastic.
I may watch it again soon . . .
Oh! Starting this week - I’m adding a little Web 3 section to the newsletter. I’ve found too many links NOT to share at this point. Don’t worry - the point is not to gush - but to share actually cool stuff as opposed to “this is a degen 100x for sure bro” type stuff.
🧑💻Audience Hacking
I think it’s only a matter of time until we see some really weird stuff happen with hacking again - like the early 2000’s.
Remember when the war started in Ukraine - and everyone was creating little “ddos Russia” websites?
“Just visit the site to help attack Russian sites!”
NGL - it evoked some serious early 2000’s vibes for me - but in a bizarre mainstream way. I never imagined that “passive hacking” could go mainstream!
Recently - I discovered that a Russian Hacker group “Stormous” recently took a poll vote in their Telegram group to determine which target to attack.
reports suggest that the decision to target Coca-Cola’s network infrastructure was arrived at after a poll was conducted on Telegram. “We will give you five targets” the message on the Stormous’ channel reads, “you will choose one and we will attack it”. Coca-Cola gained 72% of the overall vote, with toy company Mattel coming a distant second with just 9%. The other available options in the poll were Danaher, education tech company Blackboard, toy maker Mattel, and General Electric subsidiary GE Aviation. (source)
They then attacked Coca-Cola’s servers - and claim to have stolen a bunch of data (which is now available on the dark web for sale in Bitcoin).
Could we begin to see major DDOS attacks coordinated through audience interactions?
Could hacking groups like we saw in the “Watch Dogs” games ever exist?
To a small degree - we already see this kind of thing with the Youtubers who “hack back” scammers.
Heck - dozens of channels exist to ONLY hack + troll scammers.
For example . . . take this hilarious video.
Scammers take millions of dollars from unsuspecting consumers - so no one really cares if a small cottage industry of Youtubers exist to troll them.
The looming existential question is - what happens when Hackers start hacking companies and foreign governments for the memez? for an audience?
It’s a interesting hypothetical question . . . for now.
✈️Snapchat Drone
Why is it that Snapchat is one of the few tech companies experimenting with fun hardware?
Yes - not many people use the “Snapchat Spectacles” - but they’re pretty cool. If I had the opportunity to travel a lot, I think they might be worth getting.
Snapchat recently unveiled their drone “Pixy.”
Oh great - another drone you think, but hold on a second.
There is no drone aimed at the average consumer when it comes to normal everyday use. Unless you’re trying to get “epic drone footage” there’s really no reason to drag a drone around.
They’re large, clumsy, loud, and take time to set up.
Snapchat’s Pixy changes the equation. This is a drone meant for use in everyday life.
Here - watch the Promo.
Isn’t that cool?
It’s only a little larger than the palm of your hand - and you don’t have to learn complicated controls either. It flies itself - no human intervention necessary.
The Pixy can handle about 5-8 flights per charge - but it’s quite easy to swap out the rechargeable batteries if you need more flights.
All you have to do is choose a flight pattern (hover, orbit, reveal, follow) and the drone takes care of the rest.
Want Pixy to take a video of you and the squad? Easy.
Want Pixy to take a video of you while you skate? Done.
It’s as non threatening of a drone as you can get - and there’s a ton of use cases I could see for it.
Getting a shot by a cool landmark (when noooone is around to ask) becomes an easy task to handle. No more awkward holding out your hand with your smartphone.
Sound intriguing?
Go check out the Pixy at the link!
🏆Epic’s Victory
Remember when Apple took Fortnite off the IOS store because they wouldn’t pay Apple a 30% cut anymore?
Yeah - it was a HUGE deal. Epic even made a 1984 style Fortnite video about it.
Here’s a bit of their manifesto against Apple.
Epic gave Fortnite players on iOS and Google Play a choice between Apple/Google payment and Epic direct payment, passing on savings to direct purchasers. Both Apple and Google retaliated by blocking Fortnite updates. Further, Apple threatened to prevent Epic from creating software for all Apple devices — not just on Fortnite but all of our games, and Unreal Engine too. Apple demanded that Epic revert Fortnite to exclusively use Apple payments. Their proposal was an invitation for Epic to collude with Apple to maintain its monopoly over in-app payments on iOS, suppressing free market competition and inflating prices. As a matter of principle, we refused to do so. You, as a mobile device owner, have the right to install apps from sources of your choosing. Software makers have the right to freely express their ideas and to compete in a fair marketplace. Apple and Google’s policies take these freedoms away. (source)
Ever since then - Apple + Epic have been locked in legal battles. It hasn’t been pretty.
Here - check out this massive article for all the action.
Epic has just won a round in the great war - with Fortnite now available for FREE on IOS and Mac devices via Xbox’s Cloud Gaming capabilities.
As of May 5, anyone in one of 26 countries with a Microsoft account, an internet connection, and a compatible internet device can use it to play Fortnite via the Xbox cloud servers. No other accounts or subscriptions are required. “It’s an important step to add a Free-to-Play title to the cloud gaming catalog as we continue our cloud journey,” Xbox said in a blog post. “We’re starting with Fortnite and will look to bring more Free-to-Play games people love in the future.” (source)
That’s a huge smack in the face for Apple.
Now anyone with access to a web browser and fast internet can play Fortnite on an IOS and Mac device.
Try and stop that access Apple. You can’t do that . . . .
Honestly - I haven’t touched Fortnite in several years, but it’s easily one of the best available games when it comes to playing with touch controls on a phone. Touch controls are hard to do - and Epic figured out how to make them work pretty well.
AND - other than COD or Apex Legends, it’s the most popular Free to Play game around.
I imagine Epic had to do some kind of revenue split or multi year “prepay” on the backend with Xbox - as it does cost $$ to take up server space when you play.
Every person who plays Fortnite for free takes up “room” on Microsofts servers - and that costs Microsoft real $.
Of course - Microsoft is hoping people sign up for their premium Xbox Game Pass as well so they can play all the other games available - so it’s a long term win-win to have SOMETHING for free.
It’s a page straight out of the ole’ Google playbook.
Remember Youtube without ads? or when Google Photos had unlimited storage?
Yeah. Microsoft is playing the long game with this partnership.
Go check it out at the link!
🐙The Land of Random
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The Coolest Portfolio Ever
Don’t you want a cool website like this? I hope he gets hired immediately.
The Oldest Internet Result
This is a ton of fun - Find the oldest results for something via ye olde Google Search.
Horror Synthwave
Horror Vibes
What do the Data Brokers know about YOU?
More than you want them to . . .
Everquest Players Kill THE DRAGON
Only in the sense that this was a old school fan server that only has the first two expansions. They killed the dragon.
Deletionpedia
If an article gets deleted on Wikipedia - it shows up on this site!
These Squirrels Will Do Anything
Seriously - a whole maze just for a snack.
🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss
I want to know more about this too. Like what do you do.
Ok - Now THAT is a throwback meme.
Why buying a home in Middle Tennessee is impossible
Sooooo Jolly Ranchers blow bubbles
I want this retro Star Wars Movie to exist
This would save Marvel NGL
💸The Land of Web 3
Not Today Club is an NFT project that is building a Skate Club + Brand. As an aging Millennial who is choosing Skate clothing as more fashionable “Dad Clothes” - I’m a big fan. I currently own two of these NFT’s - and I look forward to seeing how the project moves forward! The team is really friendly, the discord is fun to hang out in, the art is cool, and I can’t wait to see how the roadmap develops!
If you want “the one” article that made me decide to think Web 3 is worth adding to my newsletter - this is that article.
Start checking out wallets with this cool site. There’s a lot of sites cropping up like this - but the UI of this one is pretty nice. Check it out.
There’s so much Web 3 social media - and none of them have particularly stood out yet. PostPlaza is pretty interesting - every post is an NFT. I hope they make it - but something like this will eventually catch on.
That’s all for this week. See you next time!