Numlock News: April 11, 2024 • World of Warcraft, Jeopardy!, Strip Malls
By Walt Hickey
WoW
Blizzard Entertainment has cut a new deal with Chinese gaming titan NetEase that will bring World of Warcraft back to China. Previously, the companies had a 14-year running arrangement where NetEase would distribute the game within China, but a failure to reach a new arrangement led to an acrimonious split in which lawsuits were hurled. China’s gaming market is the biggest in the world — revenues last year were up 13 percent to 303 billion yuan ($42 billion), and NetEase is the second-largest online gaming company in the country behind Tencent.
Jeopardy!
A long national nightmare comes to a close, as Jeopardy! is back airing normal episodes following weeks of filler tournaments that were intended to plug the show’s gaps spurred by the writers’ strike. When the writers went on strike last year, Jeopardy! filmed by reusing old questions; thinking that was not appropriate for full-fledged competition, they then resorted to an exhaustive series of tournaments. The last actual episode of Jeopardy! aired July 28, 2023, and it’s been followed by seven weeks of Second Chance competition, 17 weeks of Champions Wildcard, three weeks of a Tournament of Champions, and then a three-week Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, all of which combined to make the flagship quiz program in the U.S. sound like some kind of poker circuit. That streak of 152 consecutive tournament games is a record — the previous longest stretch of filler was 86 episodes in 2005 — and now it’s back. That does mean it’s harder than ever to get on the show, as in a given year the 230 episodes of Jeopardy! mean hypothetically 460 new spots for contenders, and this season the 78 fresh episodes mean just 156 spots.
Power
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that cryptocurrency mining accounts for 0.6 percent to 2.3 percent of all domestic electricity use, but given that the whole point of the enterprise is that they prefer information about energy to be better, the EIA actually would like to narrow that down quite a bit. They requested information from 82 mining companies reporting the electricity used at 150 different mining facilities in January, a request that has been met with protests from the industry and lawsuits filed by the Texas Blockchain Council and miner Riot Platforms.
Music
The dictator-controlled autonomous region of Chechnya has banned any music that is slower than 80 beats per minute or more than 116 beats per minute, as well as music that does not “conform to the Chechen mentality and sense of rhythm.” The state, in its seemingly infinite wisdom, has given artists until June 1 to rewrite any nonconforming sound. The average tempo of 2020’s bestselling pop songs, for comparison, was 122 beats per minute.
Rachel Treisman, National Public Radio
Ai, Ai, Ai
A new survey of 1,073 Americans found that the most commonly cited feelings about advances in artificial intelligence included “cautious” with 54 percent of respondents, “concerned” with 49 percent of respondents and “skeptical” with 40 percent of respondents. “Curiosity” was the feeling held by just 29 percent of respondents, “excitement” just 19 percent and “impressed” a rather paltry 17 percent. Overall, 55 percent said they do not trust AI much or at all, and 63 percent do not trust it to make ethical decisions. Perhaps if AI had started its rollout by replacing, say, human toil and labor rather than immediately targeting and automating the artistic and creative pursuits that make life worth living, you know, it might have better numbers.
MTA
The very cradle of technological innovation in the United States, the San Francisco Bay Area that encompasses Silicon Valley, runs on floppy disks, and will continue to do so for quite some time. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority runs on 5.25-inch floppy disks, which a few decades ago was deeply impressive and made it the bleeding edge of transportation software management in the world. Now it just makes it a bit of a dinosaur, as floppies remain essential for the Automatic Train Control System and despite efforts to move beyond them, completion of the ATCS overhaul isn’t expected until 2029 to 2030.
Strip Malls
The United States is home to 947.5 million square feet of strip mall space, and lots of those physical retail environments have been struggling amid digital competition, with many malls in general falling into disuse. Converting that unneeded retail space to high-demand housing is not only feasible, but could add significant amounts of multifamily housing and apartments to desirable and accessible locations. A study that came out last fall found that strip mall conversions — which have been successfully executed in many places already — could create 700,000 new homes, 300,000 of which are lower-density duplexes, triplexes and town houses, with the other 400,000 properties up to six stories tall. The main impediment is zoning.
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I am rarely shocked by any of your stories, but the one about the floppies blew my mind--this is 2024!!! We have AI. My cell phone has a terabyte of memory, and yet a major city's transportation department is using (early) 1990s technology to operate?????????????
That story about floppies and dialup-speed modems running the train system of a major metropolitan area is almost beyond belief in 2024!