Verging on Insanity - DTNS 4907  ## Metadata - Author: [[Daily Tech News Show]] - Full Title: Verging on Insanity - DTNS 4907 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/81746348-1c7d-4e26-b4e5-1d2f8457fe2d ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **China's Mineral Restriction** - China restricts exports of gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials, impacting U.S. electronics manufacturing. - These materials have dual-use applications, meaning they're used in both civilian and military tech. Transcript: Tom Merritt Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce announced restrictions on the export of dual-use items related to gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials to the U.S. That's a quote from the ministry announcement in translation. Those minerals are used in the manufacturing of most electronics, and gallium and germanium are the ones used most often. If you're wondering what dual use means, dual use is a term also used by the United States and other countries to apply to products or materials that can be used for both civil and or peaceful Means or military and or not so peaceful purposes. The ministry also said it will require a, quote, stricter review of end usage for graphite dual use items. Graphite is a common coating material used in many things from power cables to power plants. And it's used in so many things, it may be why they said it's a stricter review rather than banning it outright like they did Gallium. In addition, four Chinese industry associations put out statements warning other companies in China that purchasing U.S. Chips is, quote, no longer safe. This is the big card, Sarah. Everyone said, you know, when China gets serious, they're going to try to stop shipping these rare earth minerals to the U.S., and now they've done that. Sarah Lane So here's my question. My question is fact that gallium and germanium specifically are able to be mined in China. You know, is there no other place or is there no other way to kind of kind of rock the system anywhere else? You know, it's sort of in the way that you now have diamonds that are either you can mine the diamonds or you can actually cook the diamond in a lab. Yeah, yeah. Tom Merritt No, it's a good question. First of all, germanium and gallium are not mined. They are byproducts of refineries. So usually it's zinc or aluminum. When you're processing zinc or aluminum, which are very mainstream minerals, you get the byproduct of gallium and germanium, and then you're able to collect the gallium and germanium And sell those off. China delivers 94% of the world's gallium and 83% of its germanium. So yes, to your main question, there are other places to get germanium and gallium, and I could kind of run through some of those. Sarah Lane But they're, yeah, I mean. But it's going to take some time to ramp that up. Tom Merritt Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like most of the gallium and germanium are coming from elsewhere. So some of these other sources really aren't producing it in great amounts. Also, one of the major supplies of gallium could come from aluminum production in Russia and Ukraine. Sarah Lane But as you may know, yes, I can only imagine that would be seamless. Tom Merritt Those two countries are at war with each other. Uh, so that, that sort of complicates things. Uh, South Korea and Japan can supply gallium from their zinc production. Uh, germanium could be supplied from some producers in Canada, the U.S. And Belgium. And then actual mining operations of zinc and aluminum could start doing things to generate germanium and gallium. The U.S. Has some mines that would be good for this as well. And then the last one would be recycling. A lot of recycling already happens for these minerals, but that could be increased. The efficiency could be improved, et cetera, et cetera. Like, oh, China has 50% and these other countries have 20%. We'll just order more from them. China is so dominant in this space that the infrastructure for creating it would take some time to ramp up to meet the needs. Sarah Lane Well, and I think that this is one of these, we talk a lot about the global economy. It's like, this is a great example of this. It's like, I don't know. I didn't buy anything from China today. It's like, no. You did. So, so, so many things that you bought were actually, you know, created in China and with, you know, rare earth materials like that. Tom Merritt At least part of it. Right. Almost nothing is created in one place. That complicates things because you have the minerals and then you have the parts and then you have the packaging. And then, you know, it's it's it's a very complex world that we live in to make these very complex machines. And you can't you can't just simplify it like that. China has been in the pole position. On the other hand, this was their trump card. This was the one thing they could play, and they played it now. So a lot of people look at this and say they knew the incoming administration was going to play even more hardball than the current administration has been playing, which it just put In the fourth round of restrictions against China. So it's not like the current administration wasn't playing hardball. And China just wants to lay it out right up front. Like, fine, we're going to cut you off from essential minerals. Now, a lot of these minerals have been stockpiled by companies because they knew this was starting to become a possibility. So I wouldn't expect there to be an impact right away. But the longer this ban persists, the more it's going to cause prices on electronics to go up worldwide. ([Time 0:11:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/03008dd9-cf18-4cf1-b411-787116114f6c)) - **EEG Tattoo** - Researchers created a temporary tattoo ink to simplify EEG brain wave measurement. - This eliminates the need for uncomfortable wires and gels, potentially improving diagnostics. Transcript: Tom Merritt EEGs are used to measure brain waves. They are used for a lot of diagnostics on brain activity and brain health. Normally, to do it, you have to place wires and electrodes and gel on a person's head. It's a tricky process. Technicians have to measure not only the size, but the shape of your scalp and map out how the electrodes are going to get placed. And then the gel, which is used to improve the reception of your brain waves, can dry out and then it doesn't work as well and you got to replace the gel. All those electrodes and wires are uncomfortable for the patient. So Nanshu Liu led a team at the University of Texas at Austin to create ink for a temporary tattoo that could be printed on your skin so that you could have an easier time reading your brain Waves. The ink is made of two polymers. One is P-dot, the other is P-S Our show notes will have their full names if you want to find those out. They are conductive, but they don't irritate the skin. The design of the tattoo is created by a program that does a 3D scan of the scalp and then figures out where the printing needs to happen. And then a robotic arm controlled by the printer can apply the ink. Physical wires are only used on the back of the neck to connect with the tattoo and send the signal to a small device to record the data. So it's much more comfortable than having the wires all over your head. Now, so far, it's only been used on people with bald heads or buzz cuts. The video they have on their website shows somebody with kind of, you know, a short hair buzz cut. But the team actually thinks that a modified nozzle design, incorporating robotic fingers for hair parting, could make it work on longer hair. So you wouldn't have to shave someone's head to do the EEG. And there's the possibility that they could embed wireless transmitters in the tattoo. So you don't even have to have the wire coming out of the back. ([Time 0:17:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e31c099e-64d6-48da-9878-15565874df7a)) - **Verge Plus Subscription** - The Verge launched Verge Plus, a subscription service offering fewer ads and unlimited articles. - Consider subscribing if you value their journalism and want a better reading experience. Transcript: Sarah Lane So The Verge has launched a new subscription service called Verge Plus, because everybody got to do the plus, priced at $7 per month or $50 per year, offering fewer ads, unlimited access To full text articles, and an ad-free experience on the site overall. Subscribers will also get access to a full text RSS feed, exclusive content also being part of this. The Verge says the goal is to provide a more seamless personalized reading experience for people supporting the Verge's journalism. Now, I very much like the Verge's journalism. But it got me it got me thinking, you know, what do we pay for and when do we do it? Tom Merritt First of all, I don't have a problem with this at all. I thought the way the article introducing it was written really laid out like, hey, here's why we're doing it. We get it. We know paywalls aren't great, but, you know, we're trying to make it as consumer friendly. However, calling it Verge Plus feels like giving up. I guarantee you there have been Verge articles making fun of other companies for calling everything Plus. Sarah Lane Everything's Plus. Yeah. Everything. I mean, truly, it's like, it's, I mean, what else, like, where's the other example of, like, a successful, I don't know, entertainment brand that didn't just say, like, CNN Plus? Peacock Premium. Tom Merritt Okay. Netflix Premium. Yeah. Sarah Lane Plus disney plus hulu plus but that is like premium yeah everything's plus oh apple one for your bundle but it is apple tv plus for streaming yeah i mean so so one of the things i i i thought Was uh interesting about this and it's because I really do like The Verge. Tom Merritt And, you know, every single morning of my life, a big part of, you know, how I say, yeah, when I see a Verge article, I know I'm going to get a good take on a story for sure. Sarah Lane It's essential news. At the same time, it's like, all right, well, there are going to be certain paywalled articles. And at that point, what happens? And this is something that I think if you're not news gathering probably as much as we are every single day, your mileage may vary. But for me it's like all right well let me find the second article that said the same thing that that said that the verge was the original source you know so like you know we're not we're Not doing anything nefarious here but like that's the article that i could use you know for the for for the actual information because i am now paywalled behind it. There are workarounds. Many of you know what they are. You know, if it's, you know, sort of like a VPN thing or a Chrome extension thing, there are many ways to do this. What I have noticed, and I'm sure that these companies are going to put a kibosh on it as soon as possible, is that if I run, if I, if I, you know, like command A, like everything in that article Is, has been copied, put it in JATGPT. It's like, oh yeah, here's your article. Even if I can't access it yeah it'll it'll be able to reconstruct it uh through through search and it never says something like well wait a second you know this is a paywall item type thing There are workarounds that's my point yeah but i i i just sort of i wonder how everybody out there is consuming news because we can't all just subscribe to all of these news organizations, You know, every month. I mean, there's Apple news that I've kind of tried here and there, but I feel like it's too much money for what I get out of it. And I'm more of a hunter and gatherer online. ([Time 0:26:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/56c34ed8-282f-4147-be78-75e5863f2985)) - **Apple Passwords Review** - Craig, a 1Password user, tested Apple Passwords and found it comparable to other managers. - He's waiting for features like storing credit cards and emergency access before switching his family. Transcript: Sarah Lane Writes in, as the family admin that transitioned to 1Password from LastPass a few years ago, I decided to test the Apple passwords before migrating the rest of the family. Here are my thoughts, says Craig. Number one, as a basic password manager, it's on par with others I tried. I actually find it takes fewer steps to log into sites. Granted, I'm fully on an Apple ecosystem. Number two, Apple passwords is missing some features that I hope will come, such as storing credit card numbers, passport information, secure notes, emergency access, the main ones I miss. Number three, not sure if this is a setting on my phone, but Apple Password will not open with just the phone's passcode. It requires Face ID to launch. On the Mac, you have to authenticate from a trusted device. Number four, says Craig, passkeys, amazingly simple to use in Apple passwords. The experience is seamless. Even with Google, it was extremely easy to set up and use. Craig says, I'm still not ready to migrate the rest of my family, but I think in the next year, if they continue to add features, that will be the best option for users that are in the Apple Ecosystem. Tom Merritt Interestingly, I am able to, if you cancel like failed face ID several times, you will get prompted for the pin on password manager. So, you go in, like I'm holding my phone straight up so it can't see my face, I hit unlock, face ID fails. I say, try face ID again. It fails again. Then I get enter passcode. So I'm curious if Craig has tried it that way or not, but it does fail back to the password on mine. Maybe it is a setting. That said, it seems like a pretty positive review for Apple passwords and pretty consistent with what Allison was saying yesterday. ([Time 0:34:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d92346c1-addb-48ee-8ceb-e81e70a839dc))