Dish strikes a deal for an Internet-only TV service and suddenly everybody says they’re about to do it. Plus things look bad for Aereo and Twitch gets the partnership for E3.
Daily Tech News Show
DTNS 2187 – The Encryption Prescription
Molly Wood joins to talk Edward Snowden’s SXSW prescription for solving the world’s surveillance issues. It’s pretty much encrypt all the things.
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Headlines
Ars Technica reported on Edward Snowden’s address to the crowds of SXSW Interactive, appearing by Google Hangout, allegedly behind seven proxies, Heyo! Snowden reiterated he does not regret leaking the revelations. He emphasized that encryption is good and easier encryption methods are needed to protect privacy. He also called again for better oversight of intelligence agencies.
Forbes reports attackers took over the Reddit account and personal blog of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karepeles on Sunday posting accusations that Karpeles had kept some of the supposedly lost BitCoins and presenting 716 megabytes of data allegedly taken from MT. Gox’s servers as proof. Before you go downloading that file though, be warned there are reports that links int he file may install malware. Meanwhile, ZDNet reports Mt. Gox filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States. The company has already filed for bankruptcy in Japan.
Engadget reports iOS7.1 is now available as a free download. The latest update comes for anyone with an iPhone 4, 5th gen iPod touch or iPad 2 or newer. The update includes CarPlay support. Cars with CarPlay can interact with Siri, access music, navigate with Maps, answer calls and send texts, all hands-free. The feature comes on select new Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari models for now.
Ars Technica reports Sony and Panasonic just announced a new optical disc specification. What you say? Optical is dead? Maybe for your music and possibly video but certainly not for archival purposes. “Archival Disc” format promises to store between six and 20 times the data of a standard 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. The first round of discs should become available in summer, 2015 and hold 300 GB of Data, 150GB per side. The companies hope to boost that to a terabyte eventually.
ITProPortal reports on UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at CeBit, and announcing a 5G wireless research partnership between the UK’s King’s College University, University of Surrey and Germany’s University of Dresden. The PM also committed £45 million to Internet of Things research. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also re-iterated commitment to a single European telecom market and the abolition of roaming charges.
Reuters reports a US biotech company has received approval in Britain to manufacture an edible tablet containing microchips that can tell if a patient has taken their medication while also monitoring vital signs like heart rate. Proteus Digital Health’s sensor is the size of a grain of sand and is powered by stomach juices. Info is sent to a small skin patch, which then passes the data on by Bluetooth.
News From You:
KAPT_Kipper submitted a CNN report on HBO Go experiencing problems loading video for on demand viewers as millions tried to watch the season finale of True Detective. HBO Go tweeted an acknowledgement of the problem and attributed it to overwhelming demand. As of Monday the service was back to normal.
gowlkick posted an Ars Technica story that the Linux Foundation will work with edX to make the “Introduction to Linux” course free and open to all. The course usually costs $2,400. Students can choose to audit or receive certification. More than 2,500 people signed up for the course in the first hour after posting. The official start date has not been posted but it will be scheduled sometime this summer.
And MikePKennedy pointed out the Verge story about Neil Young’s new high quality music project. Starting March 15th, a Kickstarter for PonoPlayer will give music lovers the chance to pay $399 to get a triangle-shaped player that will work with the high fidelity music to be sold at PonoMusic.com. PonoMusic will not feature any DRM, but you’ll only be able to store 100-500 albums on the 128GB PonoPlayer.
Discussion Links: Snowden at Southby
http://recode.net/2014/03/10/eus-neelie-kroes-snowden-gave-us-wake-up-call/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/10/Snowden-encryption-and-oversight/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/10/snowden-the-nsa-is-setting-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet
Pick of the Day:
The intrepid Daily Tech News Show team spent the weekend rigorously testing all the Texas BBQ we could reasonably get our hands on. If you’re in Austin, here’s our BBQ pick of the day, also maybe the century. It’s The Salt Lick in Driftwood Texas. It’s a bit of a drive, but the brisket made Jennie cry a little. Find a friend with a car! Go! You won’t regret it.
Brisket, Turkey, Sausage, Ribs = weeping.
Today in Tech History
Today in Tech History – Mar. 10, 2014
In 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell spoke the immortal words “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” over the a telephone in his Boston laboratory, summoning his assistant from the next room. It is widely considered the first instance of someone using technology when they bloody well could have just got up and spoke to someone in person. It is also widely considered the first phone call.
In 1891 – Almon B. Strowger was issued a U.S. patent for his electromechanical switch to automate a telephone exchange. Strowger wasn’t the first to think of of automatic switching but he was the first to make a practical switch.
In 2000 -The Nasdaq hit 5,048.62, the highest point of the dot-com boom. The bust began the next day.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Shows, Sword and Laser
FEATURED REVIEW: Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Welcome to our first Featured Review! In this series, we’ll be highlighting book reviews from the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica
I dig the basis of this book. A generational spaceship has been exploring so long that it’s forgotten its purpose (coughing-allegory). They find a planet that has evidence of horrible stuff that happened to the planet’s inhabitants. The explorers quickly depart only to discover an enormous alien spaceship adrift. Next, they explore the alien spaceship and discover, wait for it, wait for it, horrible stuff that happened to what appears to be humans that mirror what they found on the planet.
Richard Paul Russo writes a slow burning SF thriller that ultimately fizzles. If you read this anticipating the end justifying your reading, disappointment lies ahead. But if you read this for the experience, then I think you can find happiness or at least some measure of satisfaction.
No spoilers, but my favorite character is the coffee-growing dwarf who occasionally drinks too much of his homebrewed whiskey.
I was underwhelmed with the whole theological dilemma that’s hoisted and hung on the hook. Is there a God? If there’s a God, why do bad things happen? Oh, they happen because we have freewill? Oh, we have freewill, and God feels guilty because he gave it to us?
There’s nothing wrong in asking these questions or writing a story about them. I’m grousing because for as much as these issues were intended to drive the narrative, they’re never satisfyingly resolved. In the end, they act as more of a distraction (allegorically ironic?) and less centrally relevant. I just wish Russo had been subtler and allowed the reader to make more of the connections rather than painting such a vivid theological landscape.
As previously mentioned, the book’s conclusion is a bit flat. But the best part, my favorite part, was when they were exploring the enormous alien ship. So good, why didn’t we get more of this? I could have been as happy as a clam at high tide to be shown more of those endless passages and odd little rooms with their secrets.
Today in Tech History
Today in Tech History – Mar. 9, 2014
In 1948 – The University of California at Berkeley and the Atomic Energy Commission announced the artificial production of mesons using the 184-inch cyclotron at the university’s Radiation Laboratory.
In 1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launched, carrying a human dummy and the dog Chernushka. It completed 1 orbit and was successfully recovered upon return. Yes, the dog made it back unharmed.
In 2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery on Mission STS-133 made its final landing after 39 flights.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History
Today in Tech History – Mar. 8, 2014
In 1955 – Doug Ross demonstrated the Director tape for MIT’s Whirlwind machine, the first digital computer with real-time text and graphics. The idea of the Director Tape was to allow multiple problems to be read by the computer in one session without humans having to intervene and change tapes. In other words, an operating system.
In 1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, was transmitted on BBC Radio 4. Some credit Adams with accidentally predicting the PDA and smartphone.
In 1979 – Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called “Philips Introduces Compact Disc.”
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Shows, Sword and Laser
New Sword and Laser T-Shirts!
We whipped together some new t-shirts for the Kickstarter last year, and if you weren’t able to pledge at the level you can get them now from Slashloot!
For the first time our album art is available as a t-shirt featuring the expertly characterized demon-hunting Veronica and spaceman Tom.
And the lovely 3 Lem Moon concept by Scott Johnson will definitely impress the cyborg-dragon lovers in your life.
Of course the original logo shirt is till available too.
Get these and many shirts related to podcasts you love at slashloot.com.
Daily Tech News Show
DTNS 2186 – Bridge over Troubled Trolls
Darren Kitchen is here for his Friday gig along with Russ Pitts. We’ll talk with Russ about how he thinks sometimes you SHOULD engage trolls. Also why the Aereo case could kill cloud storage. Plus the two main reasons for SXSWi to exist. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Darren Kitchen, Russ Pitts, & Len Peralta
Headlines:
I am not Dorian Nakamoto: Yesterday was an eventful day for Dorian Nakamoto. CNET’ Eric Mack summed up the day and proposed a theory. First Dorian came out of his house yesterday afternoon, grabbed an AP reporter, saying he wanted his free lunch, and headed to the AP offices in downtown LA for an interview followed by a train of reporters. He told the AP he was misunderstood by Newsweek and as far as Bitcoin goes he told them, “I got nothing to do with it.” Later a new comment from Satoshi Nakamoto appeared on the original 2009 Bitcoin forum post, saying “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” CNET freelancer Eric Mack’s theory? We’re all getting trolled and MAYBE Satoshi Nakamoto is Andy Kaufman.
Dev build of Mavericks gettin’ all 4k and stuff: 9to5 Mac reports Apple’s latest developer build of OS X Mavericks lets users with 4K monitors natively set them to run at a pixel-doubled “Retina” resolution. It ends up thesame as running a Retina MacBook Pro. The screen doubles the resolution in the same space so you see sharper graphics
Samsung brings the Milk: PC World reports Samsung announced a new online radio service Friday called Milk. The service is available for free. No ads. No log in. Really? really. Oh here’s the catch. It’s only in the US. AND It’s only available in the Google Play store and only works with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung says they are thinking of expanding to non-Samsung devices though, and they WILL expand worldwide eventually.
Pebble 2.0, now with more Android! Engadget reports Pebble 2.0 is now available for Android users, giving them access to the Pebble App Store, a new interface and a new locker for apps and notification improvements.
Privacy questions raised about Facebook & Whats App: Digital Democracy are asking the US FTC to investigate how Facebook’s proposed purchase of WhatsApp will impact the privacy of WhatsApp users, who exchange private messages via the service. The complaint alleges Facebook’s plans for WhatsApp would violate WhatsApps users understanding of their exposure to online advertising.
News From You
metalfreak submitted a ScienceMag article about a system that can turn images into sequences of sound, allowing blind people to see. The system builds on work from 1992 by Dutch engineer Peter Meijer, who created vOICe, an algorithm that converts simple grayscale images into musical soundscapes. In 2007, neuroscientist Amir Amedi and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem began training subjects who were born blind to use vOICe. Amedi’s team recently released a successor to vOICe, called EyeMusic, as a free iPhone app. The new algorithm produces more pleasant tones and can even provide color information.
normgregory directed our attention to a Deadline article reporting that Aereo’s appeal of the injunction Utah has been denied. The 10th Cicrcuit Court of Appeals denied the request to overturn the injunction 2:1. That means Aereo will have to go dark after all in Salt Lake City and Denver, despite the fact that the company is headed to the Supreme Court April 22.
tsukiri submitted the Ars Technica story on the US Navy deploying its first directed energy weapon this summer on the USS Ponce. Oh wait did I not say laser? Because lasers. IN fact it’s called the LaWS for Laser Weapon System. The lasers can explode fuel aboard smaller targets and blind drone or missile imaging sensors. Larger targets still need missiles and guns, but the laser is cheaper to fire at a bout a buck a shot. Also, thank you to all the men and women serving on the USS Ponce.
And on the other side of the drone aisle, or weapons emplacement, KAPT_Kipper pointed us to the Ars Technica tale of Judge Patrick Geraghty dismissing a $10,000 fine against Raphael Pirker, who used a camera drone to film on the University of Virginia campus for commercial purposes. The judge said the FAA rules were not enforceable against model aircraft whether commercial or not.
Discussion Section Links: Don’t Feed The Trolls, But Don’t Let Them Feed on You.
http://www.falsegravity.com/?p=603
http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/030414-why-aereo-matters-to-the-cloud-a-primer/
SXSW Pick of the Day: Austin BCycle. Bike share, duh! If you’re at SXSW you can ride one of these cheerful red bikes to and from all the various events– believe you me, the walk from the Convention Center to the Paramount Theater is no joke. So don’t walk! Take a bike. Also thanks to Kristin Nelson for taking the time to talk with us about SXSW. :)
Austin Pick of the Day: Barbecue! I’m going to to the Salt Lick, like, NOW. (jj)
What an online troll looks like in real life: http://lenperaltastore.com/products/dont-engage-the-troll
What was that weird thing at the end of the show? Matt talks tech in which Producer Jennie interviews her husband Matt about technology. Matt knows a lot about comedy, screenwriting, and 80′s sitcoms, but technology? Not so much.
Monday’s Guest: Molly Wood of the New York Freakin’ Times!
Guest Appearances
The NextMarket Podcast with Jack Conte & Tom Merritt!
Had the pleasure of appearing on Michael Wolf’s Nextmarket podcast to talk about my experiences going indie and funding Daily Tech News Show on Patreon. Better than that though, Patreon founder Jack Conte talks with Michael about why he started Patreon and how it’s going.
Get the episode here.
Today in Tech History
Today in Tech History – Mar. 7, 2014
In 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a US patent for an “Improvement in Telegraphy” (No.174,465) which established the principle of bidirectional signals that made the telephone possible.
In 1926 – The first successful Transatlantic telephone call was placed between New York City and London. Transatlantic service began the following year at $75 a minute.
In 1994 – The Supreme Court found that 2 Live Crew’s parody of Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman” was fair use, and not a violation of copyright, thus ensuring the future of The Onion.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.