Recent comments in /f/technology

Killer_Moons t1_jcjy5mq wrote

Reply to Rolls-Royce secures funds to develop nuclear reactor for moon base by Vailhem

Important context from article:

*All space missions depend on a power source, to support systems for communications, life-support and science experiments.

Experts suggest nuclear power could dramatically increase the length of lunar missions.

The UK Space Agency has announced £2.9m of new funding for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor.

This comes after a £249,000 study funded by the UK Space Agency in 2022.

The science minister George Freeman said: “Space exploration is the ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth: from materials to robotics, nutrition, cleantech and much more.

“As we prepare to see humans return to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources for a lunar base.*

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w1n5t0nM1k3y t1_jcjwlyw wrote

Reply to The FTC is looking into Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch’s advertising practices by marketrent

>The FTC is “seeking information on how these companies scrutinize and restrict paid commercial advertising that is deceptive or exposes consumers to fraudulent health-care products, financial scams, counterfeit and fake goods, or other fraud.”

Spoiler, these companies aren't doing anything to stop scam ads

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marketrent OP t1_jcjqpwv wrote

Reply to The FTC is looking into Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch’s advertising practices by marketrent

From the linked^1 content:

>The FTC is “seeking information on how these companies scrutinize and restrict paid commercial advertising that is deceptive or exposes consumers to fraudulent health-care products, financial scams, counterfeit and fake goods, or other fraud.”

Further reading:^2

>The amount of money consumers have reported losing to fraud that originated on social media platforms has skyrocketed since 2017. In 2022 alone, consumers reported losing more than $1.2 billion to fraud that started on social media, more than any other contact method, according to FTC data.

>The Commission also is seeking information about how the social media and video streaming companies ensure that consumers are able to identify commercial advertising on their platforms as advertising.

>The orders, which the companies are required to comply with by law, were sent to: Meta Platforms, Inc.; Instagram, LLC; YouTube, LLC; TikTok, Inc.; Snap, Inc.; Twitter, Inc.; Pinterest, Inc.; and Twitch Interactive, Inc.

^1 Jay Peters for The Verge/Vox Media, 17 Mar. 2023, https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/16/23644215/the-ftc-is-looking-into-meta-youtube-tiktok-snap-twitter-pinterest-and-twitchs-advertising-practices

^2 FTC issues orders to social media and video streaming platforms regarding efforts to address surge in advertising for fraudulent products and scams, 16 Mar. 2023, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/03/ftc-issues-orders-social-media-video-streaming-platforms-regarding-efforts-address-surge-advertising

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Hrmbee OP t1_jcjiwg6 wrote

Reply to No one will replace Silicon Valley Bank and that’s a big problem for tech by Hrmbee

>Although there are almost 5,000 banks in North America, only a handful focus on startups, despite the importance of software, biotech and clean technology to the future of our economy, health and environment. While traditional commercial banks will only lend against “hard assets” or your personal guarantee, people such as me or SVB’s team have spent decades building the expertise to provide debt capital based on the value of your “enterprise,” taking into account your company’s IP, revenue or both.
>
>When these startups approach a lender, they’re rarely profitable. That lack of profitability often scares both bankers and regulators. And yet, as SVB and other lending teams have proven across multiple economic cycles, loan losses in this sector are no higher than those in the broader economy – provided you have the right expertise.
>
>SVB recognized this market gap and became the 16th-largest U.S. bank. As memories of the last dot-com bubble waned, SVB’s success spawned a few smaller competing banks. If you were an entrepreneur, you welcomed the new competition and the lower cost of capital that resulted.
>
>...
>
>But no competitor can do in five years what took SVB decades to accomplish with its 6,000-person team. Over a 40-year period, SVB built a US$30-billion loan portfolio, and about half of that capital is already at work in the economy. SVB has also deployed another US$40-billion in support of venture capital, infrastructure and private equity funds for their day-to-day business needs. That capital and know-how helps create thousands of new, high-paying North American jobs each month. All of which came to a screeching halt last Friday.
>
>With the loss of such a large debt partner, many VC funds will need to reserve more of their own capital to fund each and every new startup. Which means these same VCs will have no choice but to back fewer new firms. And fewer new startups means there’s a irrefutable risk that the “next Moderna” won’t get that first round of essential funding. The consequences of this single bank failure are difficult to overstate.

This kind of concentration of capacity within one organization and market dominance is a problem not just with finance but with any other critical pieces of business infrastructure. They become critical points of failure when things go wrong, and as we're seeing now there can be significant widespread damage to the ecosystem because of it. There ideally should be a degree of redundancy built into all of these systems, so that in the event of a failure there can be sufficient capacity to keep things going during the rebuilding phase.

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