cgWerks

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cgWerks
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  • Tim Cook: Mass layoffs a 'last resort' and off the table for the moment

    cgWerkscgWerks
    vvswarup said:
    Tech companies like Meta and Google did massive layoffs because in the years leading up to the pandemic, they spent money left and right, and spent even more during the pandemic thinking that the money would flow forever-except it didn't. In the tech world, it was all about "growth", and "user base." Let's take Snap (formerly Snapchat) as an example. It was worth over a billion dollars-without a penny in revenue. When the tech media questioned this strange valuation, key investors, that too Harvard MBAs, replied that people didn't know how to value a company without revenue, as if being Harvard MBAs they had some secret method. People who used terms like "cash flow" and "profits" were derided as bean counters who couldn't innovate.
    ...
    I think there are two reasons behind the mass layoffs. First of all, the economic climate has gotten more uncertain with rising rates and the possibility of a recession. During such times, companies do have to focus on pursuits that are yielding cash flow. But I think there's another factor here. Tech companies' can't afford to have long periods of depressed or stagnating stock prices, not when employee compensation is tied to stock. Mass layoffs were tech companies' way of telling the market that they were serious about getting their costs under control and generating cash flow. 

    Good points! Yes, we went through a phase of 'easy money' and 'free money' driven by market excitement (which often isn't very grounded in reality, cf. dot-com bubble), a lot of which was fueled by gov't money printing (a form of redistributing wealth to the elite) and even artificial popularity of certain services forced by un-normal circumstances (pandemic, for example). This is all coming to a screeching halt now that reality is setting back in, and money is more costly.

    I think Apple is in a good spot with the cash reserves, but they've also bought into some of this with their services division. They also benefitted from the pandemic-effect in terms of phones/computers, which will now likely take a hit/correction. I guess it depends on how deep the recession gets, but they are about as well setup to survive as anyone.
    muthuk_vanalingamvvswarup

  • iOS 17 could introduce updated Control Center, says leaker

    cgWerkscgWerks
    Sounds like some good changes/additions, but I wish they'd bring back the simple ability to actually turn WiFi & Bluetooth on/off.
    That said, I kind of worked around Apple's 'madness' by creating a couple Shortcuts I put on my Widgets screen.
    martinreadwilliamlondonnapoleon_phoneapart

  • Big changes to Podcasts for listeners & creators are coming in iOS 16.4

    cgWerkscgWerks
    A whole bunch of great apps to explore:
    https://podcastindex.org/apps?appTypes=app&platforms=iOS

    I like Castamatic, but also use Overcast for non-Podcasting 2.0 podcasts (I keep moving them to Castamatic as they add 2.0 features).
    appleinsideruser

  • Future Mac Pro may use Apple Silicon & PCI-E GPUs in parallel

    cgWerkscgWerks
    thadec said:
    … So, there never has been any reason for Apple Silicon Macs not supporting discrete graphics via M.2, PCIE or Thunderbolt other than Apple simply not wanting to. Which was the same reason why Apple locked Nvidia out of the Mac ecosystem and had people stuck with AMD GPU options only: purely because they wanted to. My guess is that Apple believed that they were capable of creating integrated GPUs that were comparable with Nvidia Ampere and AMD Radeon Pro, especially in the workloads that most Mac Pro buyers use them for. Maybe they are, but the issue may be that it isn't cost-effective to do so for a Mac Pro line that will sell less than a million units a year.
    Exactly! And, if this is to be, this pretty much solves Apple’s gaping GPU hole. People who need a fairly good level of GPU performance might be fine ‘out of the box’ and people who need more, could add it. I just hope the eGPU aspect is the case, so it isn’t limited to the Mac Pro.

    keithw said:
    Absolutely 100% accurate! They simply "don't want to."  If my old iMac Pro can get top-notch graphics performance across a TB3 interface, there is simply no reason they couldn't do the same thing with ASi, whether through TB3 or a PCIe bus.

    Yes,. for some things the bus matters, but for the most part, the bus isn’t saturated with normal app to GPU communication. TB3/4 has been mostly fine, and TB5 is on the way, right?
    williamlondonwatto_cobrakeithw

  • Show off your thoughts with Twitter Blue's new 4000 character limit

    cgWerkscgWerks
    mattinoz said:
    What was wrong with threads?
    Oh that's right threads allow for sensible debate as each point needs its own tweet and therefore counter points can address directly.
    The new wall of text allows any sensible counter to be sunk below a sea of noise. 
    Fair point, but it runs the other way as well. It’s easy to just post a short tweet challenging something, but often takes a lot more words, clarity, and data to rebut something.

    The main issue with threads, I guess, is just having to keep breaking stuff up, and all the sub-threads under a point part-way in a series and such. This *might* clean things up a bit, but who knows.

    A point, then response, then response, etc. will remain a thread. It just won’t *have* to be a 4 or 5 tweet response, but can be a single tweet responding adequately.

    That said, I do fear the ‘wall of text’ aspect if it gets abused. I don’t think most people will read bigger tweets anyway, as they barely read headlines as it is (or even a 280 character tweet well enough to often respond well).
    williamlondonFileMakerFellerwatto_cobra