Tech talk on ABC - Google preferred sources, the X algorithm, and cutting the price of hearing aids

Have you noticed those new "Make this a preferred source in Google" buttons appearing on news websites? What do they actually do? 

Could choosing your trusted news sources help support journalism in the age of AI summaries and algorithmic feeds? 

Also, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled “Value misalignment of X’s feed algorithm” found, unsurprisingly, that the site’s algorithm prioritised engagement above all else when it generates a users “For You Page”.

What’s been revealed is that rather than simply showing more of what we agree with, the algorithm is deliberately mis-aligned in that it shows us things they know we don’t agree with so that we are prompted to comment on it, often angrily.

Finally, in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates hearing aids and last week they approved Samsung Galaxy Earbuds under a category of “over the counter” hearing aids.

This follows a similar decision in 2024 about Apple AirPods Pro. Having the two biggest manufacturers of smartphones able to sell hearing aids at a fraction of the price of prescription products: $400 rather than $4,000 is a major win for people with milder types of hearing loss.

You can listen here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/nightlife-tech-talk-with-peter-marks/107077464 

Vale Hansen Yee

Beloved next door neighbour Hansen Yee aged just 82 has died.

Hansen was charming, modest and clearly intelligent. He was Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Sydney University. Aparrently a brilliant student. 

After his wife Cora died, he joined us for Xmas dinners and was a lovely part of our children's lives. He tutored daughter Cat in Maths. 

Vale Dr Hansen Yee BSc BE PhD, MIEEE.

CYD Ham Dashboard

The "Cheap Yellow Display" boards are a low cost board with an ESP32, a colour touch screen and a bunch of other useful I/O. I've long used them to display my solar stats (generating, using, net). I just noticed this excellent project HenrysCat esp32-cyd-ham-dashboard. There's an excellent web flash tool which works well.

It can roll through seven screens (you can turn some off if you wish). Here's a few:

The web flash tool shows this. I used the first option.

But my screen came up mirrored so I tried the second. In that case the screen was blank white so I went back to the first. When it boots up it creates a Wifi network with a captive portal. I found that the setting default to mirrored - which seems like a poor choice.

It's a great gadget to stick up in the shack. Great work to HenrysCat and claude. Source code here.

MacBook Air 11 - still great after all these years

I hand down my old laptops and phones to the kids who happily use them for years. Sometimes I try to hand down an update and are met with resistance - this (old) one still works fine, why should I change? When they do, they're stunned by the performance improvement. They are still going through the Intel to Apple Silicon transition.

Recently I got an 11-inch, Mid 2013, MacBook air back, and decided to get it going. The battery was completely dead. I paid $45 for a battery on AliExpress. They are easy to install on the 11 inch Airs and the battery came with the two screwdrivers needed.

There was quite a lot of dust and fluff to remove but the fan still moves well. My daughter got very good use out of this machine. It has a few dents in the edge but the screen is good and all the keys work. (I've done a lot of cleaning with a cotton bud but more to do). What's striking is that she's typed so much on it that the most used keycaps have worn the labels off them.

Even with "just" 4GB of RAM, the machine is surprisingly usable for email and web surfing. But being stuck on macOS 11 means that there are many apps that won't run and lots of sites complain about the version of Safari.

Some apps, like my beloved BBEdit, still keep old versions available.

I love the compact size of these and the fact that I could replace it for under $200 if the need arose means that this would be a good laptop to take somewhere where it might be stolen or damaged without too much anxiety.

Apple should make a new compact laptop. I love my modern Air but would be very attracted to something smaller for my messenger bag.

Pain points of running macOS 11

It's getting harder to operate on macOS 11. (Not as bad as macOS 10 which I initially installed - Safari's certificates have expired and it couldn't load any web site with https). Here are some notes on software versions that work:

• BBEdit 15.1.4 https://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/updates.html#up151
• Obsidian 1.10.6 https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases#release-v1.10.6
• NetNewswire 5.0.4 https://netnewswire.com/old-versions.html
• Chrome 138 https://google-chrome.en.uptodown.com/mac/download/1095647884

Tech Talk on ABC - Is AI killing the goose that laid the golden egg?

For more than a year many web sites have reported a dramatic decline in traffic, pointing to a broader structural change in how the web is being used by all of us. 

Many sites that create content - be it news or analysis - are funded either by advertising or subscription. The reduction in traffic threatens their business model. 

Peter Marks, software developer and technology commentator from Access Informatics,  joined Philip Clark and listeners to Nightlife with the latest tech news and information. Listen here and read Sue Ahearn's piece here.

Great interview with home brewer Paul VK3HN

Paul is an inspiring QRP home brewer. Great interview on a recent podcast. https://youtu.be/Rkd1o2PQI9M?si=gzKmEFHAueIDsdYK

Recommended.

Single step debug on a PICO

As you might guess, I'm really getting in to using the Raspberry Pi PICO for embedded development. If I can do a job in MicroPython I will but the C/C++ tools and the library they provide is a fantastic step up from the Arduino. The official plugin for Visual Studio Code is really excellent. I purchased the official debug probe and it seems excellent. 

You can compile and run with a single button but more interestingly you can single step debug and look at variables.

Claude code is a real help and just for fun I asked it to make a program that makes the PICO emulate a USB audio output device feeding the audio to a PWM DAC pin which I've added a simple low pass filter to.

It sounds great:

The debug probe makes it easy to install and run new builds. You don't need to unplug and plug while holding the Boot button, you just click the run debug button. Interestingly it loads the ELF binary rather than the UF2 binary that you'd drag to the mounted volume.

My interest in being a USB audio device stems from my interest in making an embedded version of at least bits of FreeDV RADE. 

The PICO 2 is quite a powerhouse although doesn't have enough RAM for what I have in mind. I haver some 3rd party boards on the way with extra RAM so we shall see.