12 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE
SADNEWSCAMEfor fans ofsci-fi vehicular football recently,as
Rocket League developer Psyonix announced it would be ceasing
support forthe MacandLinux versions.This wouldinclude shutting
down their respective online playservers: an effectivedeath
sentence for agame so centred around competitive multiplayer.
Idon’t playRocket League –Itried it once acouple ofyears ago,
but wasn’t immediately excellent at it, so uninstalled it –but the
resulting explosion of frustration and bewilderment is at least
understandable.The announcement post uploaded to the game’s
websitewas incredibly vague. Theentire given explanation was, word
forword, “it is no longer viable forustomaintain support forthe
macOS and Linux platforms”.And, considering this is agame about
playing footie with cars, it’s bizarrely curt as well.
Tech companiesare prettyuselessatpassing on badnewstoconsumers,but at leasta
couple of firmshave some good newsto shoutabout when it comestoplastic pollution
RANTS&RAVESS & S
ItwouldbenearlyaweekbeforePsyonixtookamore
onciliatorytone,offeringrefundsand–finally–
explaining that dropping Mac and Linux was an
unfortunatecost of aplanned switch from DirectX 9
to DirectX 12. By then,itwas toolate, andthe
eveloper was lefttofacethe worst kind of nerd rage
he kind that’s sort of justified, considering.
his is unfortunate, but not surprising. Tech companies
are frequently laughably terrible at bearing bad news. Mere days
before Psyonix’s grumpyblogpost, speaker firmSonos posted one
of its own, explaining how aslew of older products would soon
cease to receive software updates due to the limits of the ageing
hardware.Not unreasonable in itself –but the implications were left
to an unclear, throwaway“your sound system will eventually be
disrupted”,and it was later revealed that both this obsolescence and
the user backlash had been anticipated by Sonos formonths.
In both cases, the initial issue mayhavebeen inevitable –old
hardware does become incompatible with new software,and no-one
can compel game developers to run theirservers until the heat death
of the universe.But the subsequent failure to explain them in a
transparent manner only stirred up ill will, and unless this level of
communication improves, those same tensions will keep bubbling up.
PLASTICPOLLUTIONISincreasingly damaging to our planet, but
finding ways to tackle it continues to prove ahuge challenge.
The disappearance of single-use bags has led consumers to treat
their 5p reusable bags as throwaways; Greenpeace foundthat
shoppers purchase an average of 54 per year.Meanwhile,plastic
bottlesliterally hang around polluting the seas fordecades, as
highlighted when a47-year-old bottle of Fairy washing-up liquid
washed up on to aUKbeach in pristine condition.
While Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg carry on their war of
words over climatechange,behind the scenes, technologists are
working to tackle some of the most pressing problems.
One of the biggest challenges with plastic wasteisthatsomuch
of it, from shopping bags to crisp packets, cannot be recycled by
conventional means. Recycling Technologies is working to transform
the future of this ‘unrecyclable’plastic with the RT7000, amachine
that converts the mixed plastic wastethat currently ends up in
ndfill orincinerationintoareusable product. The
esulting Plaxx oil is then reused in the manufacture
ofnew plastic.
So far,Recycling Technologies has partnered with
Tesco to trial recycling bins forsoft plastics, and has
eamed up with Total, Nestlé and Mars to target
tic packaging wasteinFrance.
ther scourge on our planet is microbeads, tiny
particles hidden in products like face scrubs or toothpaste. Not only
do theyend up polluting the seas after they’re washed down the
drain, but we also ingest about 100 solid plastic particles aday.Yum.
If you want to steer clear of these hidden plastics in your
products, it’s worth downloading the CodeCheck mobile app,which
scans the barcodes on cosmetic labels to show any hidden
ingredients inside.
Tech is also being used above the seas to fight plastic pollution.
Drones are being fitted with cameras and flown locally across
coastal regions, while AI is being trained to recognise the difference
between images of shells, jellyfish and plastic products snapped by
the cameras to aid the clear-up of ourwaters.
Technology alone can’t solve pollution –for that, it will take a
huge reduction in single-use plastics, recycle-friendly product
design, and astrong recycling industry.But at least fornow,tech is
being put to good use forsuch avital cause.
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