Hi there,
This week I flew back to the Netherlands to spend some time with family. No blog articles this week, but here’s what I found on the web.
📃In this week’s mashup:
⭐Highlight: Starlink is Skybound
🔍Valuation: Elon’s Twitter Play
🌐Web: Social Media and the Fragmentation of Everything
🎁Extra: Microsoft Edge and why I’m switching
⏭️Next
Have a great week!
⭐Highlight: Starlink is Skybound
Starlink has been a blessing for people living in rural areas of the globe. Because the network’s satellites orbit much closer to earth the latency (“ping”) is comparable to fiber (and will be better than fiber at some point). It has helped bring remote medicine and education to communities and can be used to circumvent censorship.
Soon, the service will be available on planes, after a test by Delta Air Lines. If you have ever used airplane wifi you know how tight the data caps are and how slow it is. That’s because you’re sharing a single link to a satellite in “geostationary” orbit, much higher than Starlink’s, meaning signals simply take longer to reach them resulting in lag. With Starlink on board that will soon be over.
Check out the Wall Street Journal article below.
Delta Air Lines Tested SpaceX’s Starlink Internet for Planes, Delta CEO Says - WSJ
Starlink, part of Elon Musk’s space company, aims to provide broadband to airlines as it pushes to reach business clients
🔍Valuation: Elon’s Twitter Play
The Dean of Valuation, Dr. Aswath Damodaran, has done a valuation on Twitter, in the midst of Elon Musk’s bid to take the company private. The board of Twitter has argued that Musk’s bid undervalues the company. A Monte Carlo simulation by Dr. Damodaran shows that it is actually closer to the 70th percentile, i.e., it is above what currently seems to be the most likely (median) fair value.
This video gives you an insight into the valuation method and the key assumptions/story behind the results.
Elon’s Twitter Play: Valuation Question or Political Rorschach Test?
On April 4, 2022, Elon Musk announced that he had taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, setting off a hectic chain of events, where he joined and unjoined the board…
🌐Web: The Fragmentation of Everything
A long but interesting look at the effect of social media on democracies, with a particular focus on the U.S. It argues that social media has created new towers of babel. It reaches the conclusion that the institutions we built in the pre-digital age are not suited for the new multi-dimensional fast moving world of today. It also gives some recommendations on how to mitigate some of these issues, such as strengthening institutions and reforming social media platforms. An interesting read regardless of which side of the argument you are on.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid - The Atlantic
It’s not just a phase.
🎁Extra: Microsoft Edge and why I’m switching
If I recall correctly the last internet browser I used before Chrome was Internet Explorer 7. Now, Chrome has become the new internet explorer with almost 70% market share. Microsoft tried to make a comeback with Edge on Windows 10 but ultimately failed (mostly because websites nowadays only support Chrome, so they were breaking left and right).
In 2020, Microsoft changed Edge substantially to “Edgium” or Edge based on the same “engine” (called Chromium) as Chrome. It contributed to the development of Chromium and implemented its own features on top of it. That means Edge still has all the great productivity tools, such as Web Capture (full page screenshots), and is more energy-efficient.
I’ve been using it on my secondary laptop for a while now and today I will switch to Edge on all my devices. Microsoft announced Web Select, accessible with Ctrl+Shift+X, which is now available in the latest version. It brings the ability to easily select a table and copy it with the right formatting, something I do daily. The browser’s productivity features are really cool and it also “feels” faster.
Microsoft Edge vs Chrome: Which One is Best for You? - The Teal Mango
With the release of Windows 11, there’s more emphasis on Edge Browser rather than Chrome. Here’s a comparison of Microsoft Edge Vs Chrome.
⏭️Next
I’m preoccupied next week so I doubt there will be any new content, but the newsletter will continue as usual.
Have a great week!