IBM’s ‘Dinobabies’; Zoom Bug on Macs; Snap Creators Get Ad Revenue Sharing; Western Digital Loses Huge Flash Storage

In documents filed in support of a lawsuit filed against IBM, execs allegedly called older workers ‘dinobabies,’ who should be extinct. Business Insider reports that the suit also claims to show IBM plans ‘to oust older employees from its workforce.’ The legal battle actually dates back to 2018, when Big Blue fired tens of thousands of workers over 40 years old. The language from emails detailing plans to replace older workers with millennials also complained about the company’s ‘dated maternal workforce.’ An IBM spokesperson says the company has ‘never engaged in systemic age discrimination.’ 

If you have a Mac computer, and do Zoom meetings, you need to update your Zoom software right away. Theverge.com says there is a bug that leaves your mic on after you leave meetings in MacOS Monterey operating systems. Zoom had earlier gotten into hot water in 2020 when they claimed end to end encryption when that wasn’t the case. Make sure you are updated to version 5.9.3…you don’t want to say something snide about your boss or the meeting leader or co-workers after a meeting, and find that you just ended your career!

Good news, bad news from Snapchat. They will start dropping mid-roll ads into Stories of creators. The good news part? According to theverge.com, they will share revenue with the creators. The deal is only available to Snap Stars…those who are creators, have large followings that Snap has verified, or public figures. (Look for the gold star.) There were already ads in between friends’ Stories and in the Discover section, but this is the first time creators will get a cut of the ad revenue on Stories. 

Everything has seemingly been going up. Now, flash memory will take another, unexpected hike. Mashable.com reports that Western Digital has lost 6.5 BILLION gigs of flash storage due to contamination during production. The issue was discovered late last month at tow plants in Japan that producer NAND chips. The plants are run by WD’s partner Kioxia. What caused the contamination is unknown at this point. Western Digital has about 30% of the total flash storage market, so this is a big deal. This is expected to push the prices of SSDs up by around 10%.