Horizon Cutting-room Links: Monday, 13 January 2025

Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are Open. Employees are expected to begin the workday on time. Normal operating procedures are in effect. Mostly sunny, with a high near 48. Southwest wind 1 to 5 mph.

“Jeju Air Flight Recorder Stopped Working 4 Minutes Before Plane Crash,” New York Times

“Data extracted from the so-called black box, consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, is generally crucial in investigations of aviation accidents. Officials in South Korea, who have been working with the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board, have said that the flight data for the plane’s last four minutes would be especially important in this crash. But on Saturday, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that for reasons not yet determined, the black box of the Boeing 737-800 had stopped recording then.”

“ Investigators might be able to reconstruct part of the conversation inside the cockpit based on interviews with control tower officials. Radar and other data suggested that the plane tried but failed to gain altitude after reporting a bird strike and hurried to land.”

“Google Cloud could overtake Microsoft’s No. 2 cloud position this year,” Fierce Network

Google Cloud’s pure cloud hosting revenue is likely much closer to Azure’s than Microsoft wants it to be. Within $1 billion, in fact. And the former could soon overtake Microsoft’s number two spot in the market, according to Gold’s calculations.

“Delta Expects 2025 To Be Most Profitable Year Ever,” One Mile at a Time

“Delta had record revenue for [2024], though margins weren’t quite as good as they were in the previous year. Perhaps what’s most interesting is what Delta is predicting for 2025. The airline expects this year will be the strongest in the carrier’s history, with a pre-tax income greater than $6 billion, and earnings per share greater than $7.35.”

“Google launches a ‘neutral’ Chromium development fund,” the Verge

“Google is partnering with The Linux Foundation to launch an initiative meant to “fund open development and enhance projects” in the Chromium ecosystem, according to an announcement on Thursday. The fund, called Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers, is billed as a “neutral” space to support Chromium projects.

“Google launched Chromium alongside its Chrome web browser in 2008. It’s the open-source infrastructure that powers Chrome and many other browsers built on it, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave.”