DTNS 2527 – Physical Denial of Service Attacks

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson and Peter Wells join the show and talk about Microsoft throwing their support behind using Minecraft in education. But is it the right kind of support?

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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Peter Wells of Reckoner, Australia

Headlines:

The Verge reports on an update rolling out to Snapchat on Android and iOS today. Among the changes, you no longer have to keep your finger on the screen to view snaps and stories. There are also two new ways to add friends. And add nearby finds anyone else who also happens to be looking at the add nearby feature in your vicinity. The other lets you use a screenshot of a QR code to add someone.


Fortune reports Facebook changed its logo. Did you notice? The a in Facebook is now a simpler “single-story” a, the letters are slimmer and there’s more whitespace. Facebook apparently wanted to modernize the logo and make it better suited to viewing on mobile.

ReCode reports Facebook is offering a few dozen partners 55% of revenue from ads shown next to certain videos, starting this autumn. Selected partners like the NBA or Funny or Die will can make money off videos featured in a new area called Suggested Videos. Ads in the Suggested Video feed are autoplay but live on their own and play as you scroll. The feature comes to iOS within weeks and Android and the Web in a few months.


Marc Gurman of 9 to 5 Mac is at it again with two rumors about the next iPhone. I’ll start with the first. Gurman’s source showed him a picture of the logic board with Qualcomm’s 9X35 Gobi modem platform. That chip is more power efficient, a little smaller and best of all supports LTE speeds up to 300 Mbps.

So it’s probably going to look totally different right? Well, no. The source images show a case for the next iPhone that is almost identical in size and design to the current generation iPhone 6 and 6+. Everything else, camera holes, connectors, speakers, mic, all the same. So how do we know it’s not just a picture of a current iPhone case? Different internal mounting structure and Marc Gurman’s trust in his sources.


PC Mag reports YouTube announced you can now watch non-live video at 60 frames per second in its Android and iOS apps. The higher frame rate was already available on the desktop, Apple TV and PlayStation. It’s not available for mobile Web or third-party apps yet.

TechCrunch reports a regional court in Austria ruled as inadmissable a class action lawsuit brought against Facebook by Max Schrems. The suit claims Facebook has violated EU privacy protection laws. The Austrian court said it had no jurisdiction since Facebook’s headquarters is in Dublin and a case would have to be filed in Ireland. The judge also raised questions about Schrems status as a private individual since he organizes vocal protests against privacy violations.


Reuters reports India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading a digital week meant to deliver on a campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019. Officials will announce billions of dollars in investment and plans to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020 with the aim of creating 100 million jobs. Before this week the main thing the government has been credited with is bringing free WiFi to the Taj Mahal.

The Independent reports that ARIN, the administrator for IP addresses in North America has become the last regional registry to activate its unmet requests policy. While ARIN has some smaller blocks of addresses available the organization encourages companies to make use of the IPv4 transfer market. Or, you know, switch IPv6 already.


The Wrap reports that the full length trailer for the feature film called “Steve Jobs” was released today. The trailer features Michael Fassbender as Jobs, and Seth Rogen yelling, I mean, playing Steve Wozniak. The movie has an October 9 release date. It is directed by Danny Boyle and written by “The Social Network” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. No truth to the rumors that Aaron Sorkin’s next movie is about the founding of LinkedIn. “C’MON REID – NO ONE’S GONNA WANT THAT MANY EMAILS!”

New numbers from the Kantar World Panel for the quarter ending in May show Android gaining back 2.8 percent points in market share in the US for 64.9 percent. Credit was given to strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy S6. Android dropped 2.9 points in Europe’s big five markets of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The iPhone 6 topped the charts in all those markets except Spain. In China, Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi were the top three in order all with in a half percentage point of each other.

News From You: 

habichuelacondulce reports that the FBI is searching for suspects who have been cutting fiber optic cables in California’s Bay Area, disrupting Internet service as far north as Seattle. The Wall Street Journal reports that cables in Livermore, CA were severed early Tuesday morning causing disruption to Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, and to services provided by Hurricane Electric and Wave Broadband.


starfuryzeta passed along the Ars Technica story that starting today in Australia hundreds of mobile apps will not be allowed to be sold in the Google Play and Firefox app stores because they have been refused classification. It’s a pilot program that requires all apps to be rated by the International Age Rating Coalition. Those refused classification cannot be sold in participating app stores. So if you want to play Shroom Tycoon 2 or Pop Pet, looks like you’ll have to sideload.

 

Discussion Section: 

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/microsofts-new-minecraft-site-pitches-it-to-teachers-as-prime-tool-for-classrooms/

http://education.minecraft.net/http://www.cnet.com/news/teaching-kids-to-code-using-minecrafts-building-blocks/

http://www.cnet.com/news/young-minecraft-players-invited-to-design-the-perfect-park/

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/minecraft-education-strategy/http://minecraftedu.com/newshttp://computercraftedu.com/

 

Pick of the day:

I was browsing new releases on the Xbox One store and found there is a new, free Tunein Radio app. While I’m sure the traditional radio content is great I downloaded this app for one reason… Alpha Geek Radio. With this Tunein app I can get Alpha Geek Radio and it’s great geeky content on my Xbox One, including DTNS, what more could one want?

From Nik

 

Messages:

Tom and distinguished guests,

I think the reason people are trying to make a big deal out of Beats 1 Radio is because of the severely deprecated state of terrestrial radio, at least in the US. Aside from the usual Morning Zoo and drive time shock jocks, commercial radio has gone to great lengths to take the experience of curation away and to make it as mechanical as possible (there are several stations in Cleveland that don’t even have DJs, just robot voices telling you the song name and artist between each track). I think there’s a really interested audience that wants a curated experience from someone that’s enthusiastic (or at least good at pretending to be) about sharing new and interesting music , especially people with access to the industry. Just as podcasting in a lot of ways borrowed some of the format of AM talk radio & NPR and put it out to a worldwide niche audience, I think Beats 1 could take what was great about FM radio in the 70s and 80s (minus the coke and payola?), and update it to make it relevant today. If anything, I’d love to see them allow people to create their own little radio programs and host them through the service (for subscribers only, obviously), but that seems like a total pipedream.

Rich from Lovely Cleveland

Full disclosure – I am a DJ on WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland (a college station) and therefore have not undue (arguable) bitterness toward commercial radio. <shameless plug> Also please listen to the MP3 Removal Squad on 91.1 on Sundays from 6-8am EST (a week long archive is available at wruw.org). </shameless plug>

Hi Tom and the Gang,

This Jemuel (pronunced “gem-you-L”) from sunny sometimes rainy Trinidad. More important to me than if Spotify, Rdio, Google Music, Xbox Music or Apple Music is better, is, which one is available in Trinidad. So as nice as the debate about which works the best or has the most users today or has the best features, what really matters is availability. Apple Music launched in 100 countries on day one. Before today if i wanted streaming music I had no options, I tried using a DNS proxy to get Spotify for a while but that stopped working. I dont see the rest of the other service going worldwide anytime soon. So even if Apple is not No. 1 in the US they still might end up with the most users simply because its available in more places.

P.S. Side note the price is cheaper here too $5.99US ($39TT)

Keep Up the good work

Jemuel

Hi DTNS All star League, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad” here. Just wanted to share this link and I can confirm it worked (if it has been plugged when you are recording this) and what I really want to ask is this just a bug or should we be concerned about apple and security.

http://www.androidauthority.com/listen-to-beats-1-on-android-621699/

Thursday’s guest: Dan Patterson

DTNS 2526 – Worldwide

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMolly Wood and Justin Young talk Apple Music launch and what companies do with your personal data when they get sold or go bankrupt. Hint: The privacy policy may no longer apply.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines 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, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Molly Wood

Headlines:

Ars Technica reports Apple released iOS 8.4 today fixing the text message bug that could crash the operating system if a certain string of characters was received. iBooks can now be used for audiobooks as well as a few other new features And of course an updated Music app includes Apple’s new $10 a month music service, the Connect social network, For You recommendation engine and Beats One radio station.

TechCrunch reports that Cisco is buying OpenDNS for $635M In Cash. OpenDNS brings Cisco traditional network edge protection. OpenDNS runs 24 data centers, and claims more than 2 percent of the world’s DNS traffic with 100 percent uptime. Cisco says it will continue to offer the free version of OpenDNS.

Fortune reports a US Second Circuit Court in New York upheld a 2013 verdict that Apple organized an illegal conspiracy with five book publishers to raise the price of ebooks. The publishers have all settled out of court. Apple agreed last year to pay $450 million to customers if it lost the appeal.

Engadget reports the European Parliament and European Commission have agreed on a plant to eliminate roaming fees within Europe. Roaming charges will be limited from April 2016 €0.20 per MB, €0.06 per SMS and €0.05 per minute then eliminated altogether on June 15, 2017. New rules for an Open Internet were also agreed upon. Starting April 30, 2016 ISPs will be banned from blocking and throttling online content and services, with one exception. “Specialised services of higher quality” can receive special treatment as long as it doesn’t affect the rest of the “open Internet.” Also, zero rating is ok.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft released Windows 10 Build 10158, with the “Edge” branding for the Project Spartan browser. The new app ID causes any favorites, cookies, history and Reading list items saved in Spartan to be lost if not backed up before the update. The new build also includes updates to Continuum, the Photos and Snipping Tool apps, and bug fixes for Surface 3 and Surface 3 Pro. Microsoft will also release a test build of the Windows 10 software development kit to Insiders including an emulator for Windows 10 mobile.

Reuters reports Thibaud Simphal, manager of Uber France, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, general manager for western Europe will stand trial in France on September 30. The Uber executives face charges of deceitful commercial practices, being complicit in illegal operation of a taxi service and keeping and using personal data without authorization. Uber is separately fighting an October 2014 law banning apps that put clients in touch with unregistered drivers.

Xiaomi announced that the Redmi 2 handset will be available in Brazil for 499 Brazilian Real ($160) according to The Next Web. Xiamoi has a deal with Foxconn to manufacture Redmi handsets in Brazil. The Redmi 2 features a 4.7-inch screen, dual-SIM supporting 2G, 3G and 4G, and an 8MP rear camera with an f2.2 aperture and is available in dark grey.

TechCrunch reports Amazon is launching physical good sales in Mexico at Amazon.com.mx. Amazon previously only sold ebooks in the country. It’s also launching online selling and Fullfillment services for Mexican business. This puts them in competition with MercadoLibre, Walmart and Inditex. Mexico’s e-commerce sector, which is growing at 34 percent annually.

News From You: 

spsheridan noted the ReCode report that Microsoft is selling it’s aerial, 3D and street-level map imaging operations to Uber. 100 employees will transfer to Uber as part of the deal as well a Boulder, Colorado data center and some license to intellectual property.

motang pointed out the Wall Street Journal article that AOL will take over sales of display, mobile and video ads on Microsoft properties in the U.S. and eight other markets. 1200 Microsoft employees will be offered jobs at AOL. Bing will now become the search engine for AOL properties for 10 years and Microsoft will continue to sell its own search ads.

Discussion Section: 

www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/technology/when-a-company-goes-up-for-sale-in-many-cases-so-does-your-personal-data.html?_r=1

twitter.com/btaylor/status/613951532917108736

www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/newspubs/releases/2013/True_Beginnings_objection_to_sale.pdf

www.hulu.com/privacy

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/ftc-proposes-a-compromise-so-radioshack-can-sell-consumer-data/

www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/business/bankruptcy-judge-approves-sale-of-radioshack-name-and-data.html

Pick of the day:

Jesse (a.k.a. hometownrival in the sub-Reddit / DTNS Contributor)
Indianapolis:

If you’re like me, you could with less junk paper mail in your mailbox. Enter PaperKarma for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. I simply snap a photo of any junk mail I’ve received and PaperKarma will contact the sender and have you removed from their distribution list. In my experience, 9/10 senders honored my requests within a matter a weeks; for those that don’t, PaperKarma recommends re-submitting any new mail items and they’ll contact the sender again.

The only downside is that the junk mail needs to be addressed to a specific person. Advertisements or other junk mail items that are labeled as “to the current resident,” or something similar (what PaperKarma refers to as being “carpet-bombed over an entire postal code or mail route”) can not be removed from a mailing list.

PaperKarma is free to download, and offers four free unsubscribes. After that, you’ll either need to share the app on Facebook to extend your free subscription for three months, or pay $9.99 for a one-year subscription.

Messages:

Scott Napier – Hagerstown, MD writes: 

Early in the headlines yesterday, Veronica mentioned that she thought our search habits have been formed so that if the top results are not what you want that you did something wrong. I would take issue with that, but maybe it is just me. For searches where I really know nothing about the topic (or product) I quite often scan at least three pages deep. This has come from me trying to ignore or avoid the auto filled (otherwise known as useless garbage) search results that so often fill up quite a lot of the first page and almost never provide anything useful. This applies even more as the searches become more obscure. Surely I am not the only one who does this… right?

Wednesday’s guest: Peter Wells and Scott Johnson! 

Cordkillers 77 – We’re Pirates on Moon

How TV won, lost, and coexisted with the Internet all at once. What Hulu’s partnership with Showtime means.

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CordKillers: Ep. 77 – We’re Pirates on Moon
Recorded: June 29, 2015
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

  • How Television Won the Internet
    – -NYTImes Michael Wolff “How Television Won the Internet”
    – People spend more time watching TV than they spend on the Net
    – Glut of traffic on Net drives down ad rates
    – TV moving off advertising to pay model
    – Half of broadcast and cable’s income is non-advertising based.
    – Netflix bills itself as a disrupter of television — except that it is television, paying Hollywood and the TV industry almost $2 billion a year in licensing and programming fees.
    – Yahoo just cut its first big sports deal. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook says that his company’s future is video. Just last week, BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post announced their new TV plans.
    – A premium product that people pay attention to and pay money for. Credit cards, not eyeballs. 
  • OTT and TV Will Coexist, and It Will Be Beautiful 
    – ReCode: OTT and TV Will Coexist, and It Will Be Beautiful
    – Dermot McCormack, President, AOL Video and Studios
    – “History has shown the new does not supplant the old, but is instead the catalyst for change and evolution. “
    – TV tell stories. They can be told across screens
    – “Imagine finishing an episode of a TV show, and turning to your tablet for a related short that fills in a key plot point. — – Then you open Snapchat to see what happened offscreen at the pivotal moment from another character’s point of view. Later on, you’re sitting at your desk and you get a FaceTime call from the protagonist foreshadowing what’s to come in next week’s episode”
    – OTT will shape the development of TV, and (eventually) seamlessly combine with it to become something bigger and better than the sum of its parts.”
  • Years Of Pretending Netflix Cord Cutting Wasn’t Real Is Biting The Cable Industry In The Ass
    -TechDirt Karl Bode “Years Of Pretending Netflix Cord Cutting Wasn’t Real Is Biting The Cable Industry In The Ass”
    – FBR Capital Markets claims Netflix will have a larger 24 hour audience than any broadcast net iun US by end of year
    – 2 hours of viewing per subscriber per day. a 2.6 rating on par with ABC and NBC
    – Choose between Netflix and a cable or satellite TV subscription, 57% picked Netflix, with 43% opting for pay TV, according to a survey FBR conducted with ClearVoice Research in April. 

Signal Intelligence

  • Showtime Becomes The First Premium Service To Be Offered By Hulu 
    – Showtime purchased through Hulu will be $8.99 a month
    – Hulu subsidizing the difference between that and normal $10.99
    – Showtime shows will be available in Hulu app
    – Please note: At launch on Hulu, you will be able to watch live only on the web at www.hulu.com.

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys, this one is for Bryan!

Bryan, as one of your bosses at the UK office of Cordkillers, I’d like to hereby give you permission to use the BBC IPlayer to watch on demand content guilt free!

It’s a common misconception (that I’ve even heard before on Cordkillers) that UK citizens pay their TV Licence Tax to either own a TV, or to watch On Demand services like the BBC Iplayer. This is not true. People pay for the licence to watch LIVE TV as it’s broadcast.

This is shown on the Iplayer itself as when you try to watch live content, you get a popup that asks you to confirm if you have paid for a licence – you don’t get this for On Demand content.

I think it’s important to point out this distinction A.) So you don’t get more guilttrippy emails and B.) Because I’m sure there are many UK Cordcutters like me who don’t watch live TV and exclusively watch On Demand services like the Iplayer who could be saving £120 per year.

Thanks,

Your boss,

Benno 

(Link to the BBC guide that explains this below)

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/technology–devices-and-online-top8

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/iplayer_outsideuk_app

 

 

 

Howdy boys,

Just wanted to share some recent observations I’ve made comparing television series rollouts on Netflix to a normal weekly schedule.

Recently, I watched the Game of Thrones season 5 and my wife watched Orange is the New Black season 3. I really think I got the better experience. Watching Game of Thrones weekly gave me two and a half months of entertainment. I enjoyed watching the episodes religiously each Sunday night, reading the reactions and reviews (especially on Spoilerin’ Time), speculating about what might happen next, and talking about it with friends during the week. She finished the OitnB season in 2 days, and that’s all she gets out of it.

Of course, she could have watched one episode a week, but there’s no way to keep the entire internet on that schedule. While I’ve binge-watched series on Netflix, such as Battlestar Galactica, the only new series on Netflix I’ve ever really gotten into was Daredevil, and I can only imagine how much better the experience would have been watching weekly along with the entire world rather than in a few days all by myself.

Now, there’s a simple way Netflix could satisfy both those that want to binge-watch the whole season right away and those that want a weekly viewing experience. When a new season debuts, people could select if they want all the episodes available right away, or on a standard weekly schedule that is the same for everyone, or on their own schedule they can set up themselves.

Just my 2 cents! As always thanks for the show and I’m glad to support it!

Andy in Taylor, Tx

 

 

 

Having just completed Sense8, I feel compelled to share this [spoiler free] assessment.

Marketing this series was always going to be tough and dropping names like The Matrix into the promo material probably did more harm than good. It is like expecting to see Star Wars and getting 2001: A Space Odyssey instead.

In many ways, this seems like a refinement of what the Wachowskis tried to do with Cloud Atlas. Sense8 is heavy on mood, location and atmosphere, which all feel very “now”. The fantastical elements exist only to further the personal stories of these eight people who should have nothing in common but share hopes, fears and dreams despite being worlds apart.

Not all the subject matter makes for comfortable viewing and some of the emotional notes may hit a little close to home (well, for me at least) but if you can buy into the conceit, it is profoundly rewarding.

This is most decidedly NOT for everyone but a Netflix Original in the truest sense.

P.S.
I can’t help but think that the global, inclusive nature of this show helped it find a home at Netflix, which itself is increasingly trying to be all things to anyone with an Internet connection, wherever they might be in the world.

Graham “Goucham-in-the-chat-room” Elliott
 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
2015 Winter Movie Draft

DTNS 2525 – Google: Do Know Evil

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comVeronica Belmont is on the show to discuss how large companies often eat smaller startup’s lunch. Is that what Facebook’s trying to do to Snapchat?

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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 headlines 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, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Veronica Belmont

Headlines:

TechCrunch reports Facebook has consolidated some photo upload features and added a couple to its app. When you upload a photo to Facebook you’ll immediately see a prompt to swipe to autocorrect or use a filter. You can also choose to overlay colored text and paste stickers. If you’ve used Snapchat or Line you get the pictures. The new features are rolling out to iOS app users and being tested on Android apps.

Yelp paid Legal scholar Tim Wu and Economist Michael Luca to work with its Data Science Team on a research paper that shows evidence that Google manipulates search results in its favor. According to Re/Code, Yelp used a browser plug-in that re-created Google’s search page stripped of the OneBox listings that Google began inserting in 2009 for searches that trigger local results. That page was tested against Google’s normal version with 2690 participants. Users clicked through on the stripped down version at a 45 percent higher rate. Google has repeatedly argued that its revamped search puts the most relevant results in front of searchers and has declined to comment on the paper.

Reuters reports that Google now has until mid-August to answer charges from the European Commission that it abused its market share in a dozen EU countries. The EC accused Google of distorting search results to favor its shopping services. Google could face a billion euro fine, based on Google Adwords revenue generated from European users as well as revenue from its comparison shopping service and search queries.

TechCrunch reports that Paypal will update its User Agreement to clarify how the company is allowed to contact customers, after an earlier updated policy on robocalls ran afoul of the US FCC. The revised User Agreement clarifies that Paypal “primarily” uses pre-recorded or auto-dialed calls to protect customers from fraud, provide account notices to customers, or collect a debt. It also states that PayPal will not market to customers using automated calls and texts without explicit written consent. Customers can revoke that consent at any time.

ReCode reports Facebook has chosen Johannesburg, South Africa for its first business office on the continent. It will serve as a sales office for regional small businesses. Nunu Ntshingila, chairman of Ogilvy South Africa, will run the office as Facebook’s new Head of Africa.

TechCrunch would like to remind you that Apple Music launches at 8am Pacific time tomorrow. And so does iOS 8.4, which is required for Apple Music. In case you forgot, Apple Music will have a three-month free trial and a streaming radio service called Beats 1, which features artist-hosted programming sections as well as a team of full-time DJs headed by ex-BBC host Zane Lowe.

News From You: 

Hurmoth and flyingspatula both submitted versions of the story that the US Supreme Court has declined to hear Google’s appeal of the Google-Oracle API copyright dispute. Ars Technica explains Google used names, declarations and header lines of the Java API in Android. A San Francisco federal Judge ruled that calls to an API could not be copyrighted. A Federal Appeals Court ruled that “declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection.” Google will now return to the lower court to determine if the company’s use of the API headers could be defended as fair use.

KAPT_Kipper submitted the BBC article that it has published a list of links removed from Google’s European searches as part the “right to be forgotten” ruling. BBC head of editorial policy said the company would continue to publish the list in order to further a meaningful debate about the policy.

StarFury Zeta shared the story that French authorities took two Uber executives — Thibaut Simphal, the CEO for France, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, the CEO for Western Europe — into custody for questioning. An Uber France spokesman told ARS TECHNICA: “Our general managers for France and Western Europe today attended a hearing with the French police. The primary regulatory issue in France is that UberPop’s drivers operate under a VTC license designed for pre-booked travel.

From Patrick Beja: Basically the government voted a law clearly targeting UberPop (which is “pretending” it is a ride sharing service when it CLEARLY isn’t), and Uber is fighting it in the courts, which they clearly have the right to do. But since the taxis are pissed and are burning cars (and maybe since the gvt wants to scare the big evil US corps that “don’t pay taxes in FR” – even though changing EU tax law is what’s really needed to fix that), they’re deciding to crack down on Uber, justifying the taxis’ appalling attitude and violence (how can they ever say “burning cars is bad” ever again after that?!), and stepping on the separation of power (AGAIN) since the legal procedure IS in progress and will likely result in UberPop being illegal, but they essentially don’t want to wait and are pulling stunts on them.

Discussion Section: 

techcrunch.com/2015/06/28/facetext/

insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the_second_mover_advantage

www-bcf.usc.edu/~tellis/pioneering.pdf

Pick of the day:

Victor writes:

You have had several picks over the last few weeks regarding online books and I wanted to chime in. For those who want to get access to Safari Books Online or Books24x7, another great book site, but are on a budget I would like to recommend joining a professional organization. I strongly recommend the Association for Computing Machinery or the IEEE Computer Society. (My personal preference is ACM for the record). Both of these have many benefits including limited access to resources from both Safari Books Online and Books24x7. Membership is $99/year for ACM and, if I read the membership page correctly, is either $56 or $249.

I suspect that other professional organizations provide similar benefits for a comparable cost. I also recommend checking your company’s training website and resource library (for those who work for large organizations) as many provide access to these resources through there. I know many people I work with are unaware that we have access to these and other resources, including the entire ACM digital library, IEEE digital library, etc.

Thanks for a great show!

Messages:

Bobby Hendrix, Mobile Support Specialist writes:

In episode 2521 I think I heard you mention that you gave away your Apple Watch. Could you please comment on why you gave it away? I’m very curious to get your thoughts on the Apple Watch? Did you ware a watch before the Apple Watch? I do have an Apple Watch and am still trying to decide if it’s going to be a flop or hit for Apple. I’m a watch wearing and have been all my life. I’m still not convinced it will be a hit even with feature editions???

Paul Franz writes:

I can’t wait for more of these devices to be available. I think this is that next move in PC development. To me this is the ultimate in portable computers. All you need is an HDMI display and the wireless keyboard/mouse and you are good to go. Most of the things that you need are on a cloud service so you don’t need much storage space. I can see this as a perfect thing for the road warrior. You can work on documents then store them locally or on the cloud or using as a thin client PC (i.e. a PC that can be used to control a remote VM). Using VMs in the enterprise is very hot at the moment. This keeps the information safely stored within the enterprise instead out on a laptop that could be stolen. For me, this would be perfect since I am an administrator and mostly login to remote machines to do my work.

Jason from Pottsville, AR writes:

Jason re-emphasized that selfdriving cars don’t get distracted by Twitter and radio statiosn and such. and summed up his thoughts with “I love to drive, and have driven competitively to some success, but I’d much rather share the road with a bunch of machines following the rules and making good decisions than the lot of morons I see on the road every day.

Tuesday’s guest: Molly Wood and Justin Robert Young! 

DTNS 2524 – Self Driving Kobayashi Maru Test

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJonathan Strickland is on the show to help explain how two self-driving cars did NOT almost crash and why it is that we have to explain that. Also a new fiber tech could unleash crazy Internet speeds. And Len Peralta captures it all in art.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Jonathan Strickland of howstuffworks.com and Len Peralta, artist

Check out Len’s amazing art from this week’s show celebrating “The Strickman”

Headlines:

Geekwire obtained a company memo sent by Satya Nadella to Microsoft employees revealing the company’s new mission statement is To “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” He added that the company could achieve the mission with 3 interconnected “bold ambitions.” One: Reinvent productivity and business processes. Two: Build the intelligent cloud platform and Three: Create more personal computing. In a related story someone created styamania shirts at teespring.com/satyamania

The Next Web notes Lenovo is looking for feedback on whether it should build a new ThinkPad with a classic ThinkPad look. The laptop would have modern components in the classic design featuring the old rubberized paint, the classic multicolor ThinkPad logo. And the whole thing would be 18-millimeters thick. So thinner than the original.

Physics World explains the work of Nikola Alic and colleagues at the University of California San Diego that could double the capacity of fiber-optic cables. One limit on Fiber optic cables is noise. Some noise comes from amplifiers used to boost the signal every 100 km or so. The other is caused by the power of the signal. The higher the power the more noise. This second is a non-linear, but deterministic function that can be calculated and adapted to. The problem is that laser frequencies drift a bit, so nobody could factor out the noise, until now. The researchers used a “frequency comb” basically a signal that acts as a ruler showing what the actual frequency of the laser is. That way you can boost the signal, then factor out the noise based on the frequency comb. That means the signal can be at a higher power, travel longer, use fewer amplifiers and carry more data. The research is published in the journal Science.

Engadget reports the second-generation FLIR One thermal camera is available for iOS devices with an Android version shipping in July. It’s a standalone device with it’s own battery that attaches by the lightning port or microUSB. You can preorder now for $250 and the first-generation which came in a phone case sells for $150.

9 to 5 Mac noticed that the Apple Watch is coming to the Netherlands Sweden and Thailand on July 17th. The Apple Watch goes on sale today in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.

The Next Web reports that OnePlus will launch its next phone, the OnePlus2 (does this mean we can call it the Three for short?) on July 27th. The device will have a USB-C port, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 version 2.1 chipset under the hood and it will run OnePlus’ Android-based OxygenOS. The OnePlus 2 will launch with a VR experience usable with a specific cardboard viewer. You’ll need an invite to buy one, I mean the two the one plus .. to buy it.

Tech Crunch reports that Tumblr has launched “Tumblr TV”, showing trending animated GIFs, one after the other, in a full screen viewing mode with play, pause, forward and backward at tumblr.com/tv. Trending GIFs are determined by a variety of factors, including the freshness of the GIF and recent engagements. They are only pulled from Tumblr itself but Bill Eager, Tumblr Product Engineer, said “GIFs are a core feature of Tumblr.”

The Next Web reports that OneWeb has closed a $500 million funding round to build a satellite system to provide affordable broadband services across the globe. Airbus will build more than 900 satellites for the project, 648 of which will be launched and the rest kept as spares. OneWeb plans more than 65 launches starting in 2017, including 39 from Virgin Galactic and 21 from Europe’s Arianespace using Russian-made Soyuz rockets. The project is slated to launch in 2019.

And a followup. Apple told TechCrunch “We are not removing apps that display the Confederate flag for educational or historical uses” and is working with developers to quickly get their games reinstated to the App Store.

News From You: 

merelyjim shared that a senior U.S. official has confirmed to the Daily Beast that attackers accessed the intimate personal details of government workers found in the “adjudication information”, a file compiled on employees and contractors applying for security clearances. That information includes details about workers’ sexual partners, drug and alcohol abuse, debts, gambling compulsions, marital troubles, and any criminal activity. Three former U.S. intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that the adjudication information are effectively dossiers on current and former government employees. White House officials previously acknowledged the breach of information found in Standard Form 86.

starfuryzeta sent us this Engadget report on Audi’s partnership with a German team called “Part-Time Scientists” competing in Google’s Lunar XPRIZE. Audi says it’s providing four-wheel drive tech, as well as expertise in lightweight construction and piloted driving. In return the rover will now be called the Audi Lunar Quattro Moon Rover. Google’s Lunar XPRIZE offers a $30 million prize for the first team to get a rover to the moon, cover 500 meters of it, and broadcast high-definition video back to Earth as it goes.

And finally gowlkick submitted the Ars Technica story clarifying that despite headlines you will see in every major news outlet around the world, two self-driving cars did not almost crash. What did happen was a Delphi self-driving car was about to change lanes and noticed that another car ahead of it was moving into that lane and so it waited until it was safe to change lanes. The car ahead of it just happened to be a Google self-driving car.

Discussion Section

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/06/no-2-self-driving-cars-didnt-have-a-close-call-on-silicon-valley-streets/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/26/us-autos-selfdriving-nearmiss-idUSKBN0P601T20150626

Pick of the day

My pick of the day is Jonathan Strickland because its his birthday. Happy birthday Mr Strickland from Trinidad and Tobago.From Marlon ” the guy from Trinidad” ColbertLateShow.com
Jennie’s pick today is Stephen Colbert’s new Colbr app and accompanying podcast. The App is iOS only, but all the content will also land on ColbertLateShow.com. But it’s the podcast that Jennie really loves, b/c it’s a look inside the ramp up for the Late Show launch on September 8. After all the years of hearing Stephen Colbert the character, it’s fascinating to hear Stephen Colbert the writer and comedian speak with his long-time creative collaborators. The podcast is also available solo, everywhere podcasts are. :) & Colbr app on iOS
Send your picks to feedbackatdailytechnewsshow.com and you can find MY picks at http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/picks/

 

Messages 

Hi Tom, Jennie and the Friday crew,

Great to hear you cover John Brodkin’s piece on Vivint. I live in one of the first neighborhoods where they rolled out wireless broadband service a couple of years back. When their salesman stopped by, I signed up right away, eager to have an alternative to Comcast. I experienced the early stability problems Brodkin mentions in the article. I couldn’t keep my home connected to the hub home even though it was right across the street and I ended up having to go back to Comcast. (Can’t have Netflix cutting out on the kids on a Saturday morning.) Because their technicians couldn’t solve my connectivity issues, they had no problem letting me out of the 2 year contract I had signed. My neighbors who serve as hub homes report that the 28GHz connections they have are pretty stable. So if they’ve improved the 5 GHz home to home connections, they’ve got a viable service on their hands.

And even though I didn’t stick with Vivint myself, when I called Comcast to sign back up, I told the rep I was in a neighborhood that had Vivint wireless broadband and I was able to negotiate a comparable price on my new service. Yay for competition.

Proud Patreon supporter,

Nate
From the windy west bench of the Salt Lake Valley

==

Apurva commented on the blog about an LA Times story describing droine flyers disrupting firefighting efforts in Big Bear lake: This is an example of a consequence that is ignored or quickly dismissed by drones enthusiasts pushing the FAA to rush rules for allowing more drones. While the early enthusiasts might be involved and know all the rules, most new users will not be as responsible. The vast majority that will take this up as prices drop will be ‘knuckleheads’ (and this is a legal term now, see the recent 9th circuit ruling regarding a man who pointed a laser at a plane) who will not know the rules or care. Their first thought will be, “Won’t it be cool if I could get a aerial video of the forest fire.”

Monday’s guest: Veronica Belmont

DTNS 2523 – Treasure Truck Tales Tempt Throngs

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Young and Iyaz Akhtar are on the show today to talk about Amazon’s true intentions with the hyped up Treasure Truck. Plus theories on Apple Music continue to haunt us.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines 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, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Iyaz Akhtar

Engadget reports that Yahoo has partnered with Oracle to get users to try out Yahoo’s third-place search engine as part of their next Java update. The update comes with a pre-checked installation box to make Yahoo the default search engine. Yahoo says the on boarding process is “highly transparent and gives users choice.” Java and Yahoo Toolbar installation have a astoried history.

ZDNet reports that iPhones on the T-Mobile network have been hit by a “blue screen of death”. According to the reports, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices running iOS 8.1 or 8.3 on the T-Mobile network are being affected by freezes, restarts and crashes. The issue is being blamed on an update pushed to the devices to enable Wi-Fi Calling. Several possible fixes have been suggested including disabling Wi-Fi Calling, disabling Voice over LTE or LTE altogether, hard reseting the iPhone, deleting old text messages from the past few days and factory restore the iPhone using iTunes. However users report mixed success. No word yet from Apple or T-mobile on fixes.

Microsoft has revealed new desktop wallpaper for Windows 10 according to the Verge. The default Windows 10 wallpaper uses a Windows logo with a twist! The logo is made entirely out of light. Microsoft used camera mapping techniques, lasers, and projectors in two custom installations in a San Francisco studio. Light beams out and around the edges of a sunbeam-like version of the Windows logo. This new wallpaper will start appearing on desktops once Windows 10 ships on July 29th.

Bloomberg reports on major protests in the French cities of Paris, Marseille, and Lyon by taxi drivers opposing Uber’s operations in the country. Burning tires blocked part of the ring road around Paris and overturned vehicles, and fights were reported. Police in riot gear at one point intervened using tear gas. Roass into Roissy airport were blocked and air travelers were forced to use the train to get to that airport. France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has called for a nationwide clampdown on UberPOP arguing the service represented unfair competition. Meanwhile Ars Technica reports Uber has launched a ferry service called UberBoat in Istanbul today to take passengers across the Bosphorous strait.

Ever wonder why the Amazon Echo’s virtual assistant is called Alexa? That’s because they’re not the same thing. TechCrunch reports Amazon has freed Alexa to live on any device or app that will have her and they even gave her spending money. The Alexa API lets developers build support for Alexa into their apps, Alexa Voice Service can be integrated into hardware and the Alexa Fund is $100 million to support devs and gadget builders looking to build voice-powered stuff.

The New York Times reports Apple will pay two one-hundreths of a cent for each stream of a recording during the free trial of Apple Music — This is supposedly a similar rate to free tiers at other services. Although unlike other services, Taylor Swift has agreed to allow her new album 1989 to stream on Apple Music. All of this hooplah leads up to the launch of Apple Music on June 30th. The Beats One radio station launches that morning, too with Zane One’s interview of Eminem.

News From You: 

metalfreak flagged an Ars Technica writeup of an interesting broadband service provided home security firm Vivint. It’s 100 Mbps wireless service provided by identifying hub homes that get the service for free. In exchange for the service, Vivint mounts three antennas on top of hub homes. The hub receives signals from fiber-connected tower in the 27GHz spectrum then broadcasts service to around 128 homes in a 1,000 foot radius over the 5GHz system. The software and hardware were designed by Vivint to avoid interference. ReadJon Brodkin’s excellent article for more detail.

techstress sent us the Kurzweil AI report that Stanford University scientists have invented a low-cost 1.5-volt water splitter that uses a single nicel-iron oxide catalyst to produce both hydrogen and oxygen gas for more than 200 hours continuously. The researchers believe that the device, described in in Nature Communications, could provide a renewable source of clean-burning hydrogen fuel for transportation and industry.

the_corley sent us this story from R&D Magazine about a team led by Professor Debashis [Da-bash-ee’s] Chanda at University of Central Florida’s NanoScience Technology Center and College of Optics and Photonics that has created the first full-color flexible thin-film reflective display. Applied voltage changes an interaction between liquid crystal molecules and plasmon waves on the nanostructured metallic surface. In simple terms it makes it reflect a different color of light thus changing the apparent color of the material. The display is only about few microns thick, compared to a 100-micron-thick human hair. Professor Chanda said it could change not only electronic displays but camouflage, clothing, and more.

aggblade submitted the Toucharcade version of this story but everyone is reporting that Apple has joined Google in removing apps featuring the the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, commonly known as the Confederate Battle Flag. The flag has caused controversy because of its use by racist individuals and groups. The apps being pulled have included some civil war-based games that used the flag to identify southern soldiers, which has caused another, much smaller, controversy.

Discussion Section

https://www.amazon.com/treasuretruck
http://recode.net/2015/06/25/amazon-puts-a-store-on-wheels-continues-to-flirt-with-physical-retail/
http://recode.net/2015/03/30/we-may-have-just-uncovered-amazons-vision-for-a-new-kind-of-retail-store/
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=(Steven.IN.+AND+Kessel.IN.)&OS=IN/Steven+and+IN/Kessel&RS=(IN/Steven+AND+IN/Kessel)

Pick of the Day

Andy from CT here:

I thought I’d point out a great two factor authentication tool that works with LastPass called Duo. Duo, www.duosecurity.com, is a two factor authentication app that works with your mobile device to give you quick access to a second factor approval. It works with many apps, is easy to set up with LastPass, supports the fingerprint reader on your phone and best of all is free for personal use. They recently announced Apple Watch compatibility so you can authenticate a second factor on your watch if you are so inclined. I set up Duo at work as an alternative to RSA hard tokens and it’s been big hit with everyone who’s tried it. You can set up pin codes as an alternate to the device should you not have your phone, or it can call a phone number you designate and read you your pin as a backup. There are lots of other security features and options for the Enterprise that are really neat – check it out!

Thanks Tom, great show!!

Messages 

Brandon Writes:

Hi Tom!

Co-Exec producer here! Just wanted to ring in on the Windows 10 retail USB rumor brought up on Wednesday’s show. I work on the software buying team for a large US retailer and we have not heard anything about these alleged USBs yet. The USB format makes sense for ultra books and 2-1/Hybrid devices, but the rumored Win 10 price points are the same as current Win 8.1 price points of $119.99 and $199.99; which IMO doesn’t support a more costly format to switch from CD’s to USB’s. Just my .02!

Thanks again!

From Mike:

I think Lexus creating a hover board is more of a research endeavour into new forms of automotive suspensions. Cars already use magnets today to create better suspensions for racing or maybe comfort so this could be research towards that. This could be something they are researching for a racecar or their Lexus LF-a rich boy toy.

Here is an article that might be cool to show how magnets are used today.

http://jalopnik.com/5932764/how-magnets-make-the-camaro-zl1-dance-around-a-race-track

==

Friday’s Guests:  Darren Kitchen & Len Peralta

Week 3 Lines

Sorry for the Delay, things have been a little hectic on Shecky’s end, but here are the lines for Week 3.

Week 3 Lines

Best of luck and as always “Bet Early and Bet Often”

S&L Podcast – #221 – From Authors To Hollywood Moguls!

Ellen DeGeneres is apparently interested in adapting Naomi Novik’s Uprooted as a film. But, we all know there’s a long road from “interest” to “released.” Just ask Neil Gaiman. The good news is Gaiman’s American Gods is finally green-lit for TV! So there’s hope. Unless you’re a god from the Continent! More about that as we wrap up The City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.