How Intel makes a chip Before entering the cleanroom in D1D, as Intel calls its 17 million-cubic-foot microprocessor factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, it’s a good idea to carefully wash your hands and face. You should probably also empty your bladder. There are no bathrooms in the cleanroom. Makeup, perfume, and cosmetics are forbidden. Writing instruments are allowed, as long as they’re special sterile pens; paper, which sheds microscopic particles, is absolutely banned. Bloomberg
Google comes down on the wrong side of the TPP This is extremely unfortunate, but not surprising. Google has made some noise sounding supportive of the TPP over the past year or so, and now it's put out a blog post strongly supporting the agreement, and claiming that it's good for intellectual property and the internet. The company is wrong. The statement is right about a big problem on the internet -- the growing restrictions and limitations on the internet in different jurisdictions: Tech Dirt (The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A step forward for the Internet)
NSA looking to exploit internet of things, including biomedical devices, official says The National Security Agency is researching opportunities to collect foreign intelligence -- including the possibility of exploiting internet-connected biomedical devices like pacemakers, according to a senior official. "We’re looking at it sort of theoretically from a research point of view right now," Richard Ledgett, the NSA's deputy director, said at a conference on military technology at Washington's Newseum on Friday. The Intercept (also, Tech firms say FBI wants browsing history without warrant)
Over 8 billion devices connected to the internet By the end of 2015, there were 8.1 billion internet-connected, claims a report by IHS Technology. These devices consist of smartphones, tablets, PCs, TVs and TV-attached devices such as Apple TV and Chromecast, and audio devices. Averaged out across the globe, this works out at four devices per household. The breakdown of those devices is also quite an eye-opener. Smartphones are without a doubt the dominant device, outnumbering PCs by about 1.8 to one, and outnumber tablets by around 4.6 to one. ZDNet
Prosthetic arms inspired by 'Deus Ex' are coming next year Remember that prosthetic arm, inspired by Metal Gear Solid, that Konami developed for a British amputee? Well, it seems the company has started a trend. Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal have now teamed up with Open Bionics, a specialist in low-cost prosthetics, to develop some designs based on the world of Deus Ex. The franchise delves deep into a possible future where human augmentation is commonplace, changing society and warfare in equal measure. Engadget
The all-American iPhone Donald Trump says that if he becomes president, he will “get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China.” Bernie Sanders has also called for Apple to manufacture some devices in the U.S. instead of China. Neither candidate could instantly make that happen. As Steve Jobs once told President Obama when he asked why Apple didn’t make phones in its home country, the company didn’t hire manufacturers in China only because labor is cheaper there. MIT
How Fable Legends took down Lionhead Earlier this year, the UK lost one of its longest-standing game developers. Lionhead Studios, founded in 1996 and bought by Microsoft in 2006, was closed on the 29th of April, with the loss of around a hundred jobs. The game Lionhead was working on,Fable Legends, a four-versus-one fantasy-themed multiplayer game that was already in closed beta, was cancelled. Despite the reported emergence of several interested buyers before Lionhead’s closure, neither the studio nor the game was saved. Kotaku
Cryogenically frozen RAM bypasses all disk encryption methods Computer encryption technologies have all relied on one key assumption that RAM (Random Access Memory) is volatile and that all content is lost when power is lost. That key assumption is now being fundamentally challenged with a $7 can of compressed air and it's enough to give every security professional heart burn. ZDNet
Spaceship Apple Three miles from Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters, the tech giant is building something as massive as its own global reach: Apple’s Campus 2. The Spaceship, as many have nicknamed it, is over one mile in circumference -- that's wider than the Pentagon. When it’s completed later this year it will house 13,000 employees -- including design grandmaster Jony Ive, who helped sculpt the iPhone, and CEO Tim Cook, who helps keep profits in the "billions-with-a-B" territory. Popular Science
Apple's Glass House by PopSci
Open access: All human knowledge is there -- so why can't everybody access it? In 1836, Anthony Panizzi, who later became principal librarian of the British Museum, gave evidence before a parliamentary select committee. At that time, he was only first assistant librarian, but even then he had an ambitious vision for what would one day became the British Library. He told the committee... Ars Technica
How a bad UI decision from Microsoft helped macro malware make a comeback Following numerous reports from various security firms about a large number of malware variants that use macro scripts embedded in Office documents to infect users, the US-CERT team has issued an official alert to all organizations about this resurging threat. Macros are not malicious by nature, being added to automate various operations in the Office suite. Softpedia
Postmortem: Offworld Trading Company's Early Access campaign The most common problem in the games industry is waste -- wasted time, wasted effort, and wasted money on design ideas that aren't actually fun in practice. Often, this discovery is not made until shortly before shipping when the game is finally played outside of the development team. Basic assumptions about how the game should be played might be wrong, and a community more dedicated to winning can easily find holes in the balance. Gamasutra
Meet the new Apple tax, same as the old Apple tax Here’s the good news: The famous “Apple Tax” is dropping to 15% after one year, and developers can finally offer subscriptions. Here’s the bad news for app developers: Apple still owns your billing relationships, which means it owns your customer relationships. We’ve been here before. Venture Beat
~ Matthew DeCarlo
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