DTNS 2168 – Today We Flap Back

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDavid Prager joins us as we enjoy “Today We Fight Back” “Safer Internet Day” and the idea of an airline gate agent wearing Google Glass being a first class ticket perk.

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Warning: David’s video mysteriously disappears 20 seconds into the show. David’s video after that is replaced by YOUR IMAGINATION. Use it wisely.

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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 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

Dong Nguyen: Flappy Bird became addictive product Forbes spoke with Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen and got a little more info about his reasons for removing the popular game from the app stores. Nguyen said “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.” Nguyen met a Forbes reporter at a hotel in Hanoi after meeting with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Duc Dam. Nguyen also said he will continue to develop games and he does not plan to remove his other games, some of which are also highly ranked.

The internet fights back against surveillance: A broad coalition of organizations, companies, and individuals joined together today to take a stance against unwarranted mass spying—over 6,000 websites have demanded reform. Some links:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/02/today-we-fight-back-against-mass-surveillance

https://necessaryandproportionate.org/take-action/EFF

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/02/11/microsoft-google-and-twitter-mark-safer-internet-day-with-privacy-awareness-initiatives/#!vhUn0

News From You

spsheridan submitted a GigaOm story about HP deciding its time to start paying for firmware upgrades. In an HP Blog post Monday, ZDNet’s Ed Bott noticed that starting Feb. 19 HP says it will “provide firmware updates through the HP Support Center only to customers with a valid warranty, Care Pack Service or support agreement.” Everybody else has to pay. The new policy applies to ProLiant system ROM and CPLD firmware. Security patches will remain free, as will upgrades to HP’s iLO server management, I/O and controller firmware.

And oh what a little competition can do. jaymz668 pointed us to this Ars Technica story about San Marcos, Texas-based Grande bringing GigaBit Internet to western parts of Austin, Texas this week, several months ahead of AT&T and Google Fiber. Grande’s President Matt Murphy told the Austin American-Statesman that the service will cost $65 per month with no contract required.

More links from the show

Lithium Technologies will acquire Klout, the ranker of popularity on the Internet

Google and Foxconn discuss building robotic manufacturing technologies

Yahoo acqui-hires company that makes Days App

Verizon says they are not throttling Netflix

Hackers launch DDoS attacks across the Bitcoin eco-system in an effort to exploit the software vulnerability known as “transaction malleability”

Sprint Q4 earnings

Two competing wireless charging standards agree to join forces

Cordkillers Ep. 6 – Get off your apps!

Lamarr Wilson joins us to talk about HBO and Netflix’s size debate and whether the Olympics are anti-cordkillers.

Download VIDEO

Download AUDIO

CordKillers: Ep. 6 Get off your apps!
Recorded: February 10 2014
Guest: Lamarr Wilson

Intro Video: 

Primary Target

Secondary Target

Signal Intellegence

Gear Up

Under Surveillance

Front Lines

On Our Radar

On Screen

Dispatches from the Front

  • Big thanks to Jay in Toledo who’s sent us great feedback from the TV side of things and hooked us up with an interview with Jerry Anderson at his station in Toledo! You rock Jay!!

     

  •  Check out one of my fave web series, the very funny @SubmissionsOnly. http://www.afollowspot.com/2014/02/its-date-submissions-only-comes-back.html

    Lisa Glassberg

     

  • I honestly don’t believe I did this https://soundcloud.com/sebgonz/cordkillers

    @sebgonz

     

  • Message: On the cordcutting decision… I set my directv account on vacation mode (six months) just to try cordcutting. After setting up a windows media center system I can now kill the directv account with confidence as I’ll be ready to counter any argument with the Directv retention department. Great Show!

George
 

  •  I’m proud to say after a long time watching another show about cord cutting and moving to Cord Killers after it was cancelled about a month ago, that I have taken the plunge and cancelled DirecTV.

I cancelled my service on the day of the Big Game, and was able to watch the death of the Broncos just fine with my brand-spanking new Leaf antenna. Go figure.

I had been wanting to cut the cord for a while. Holding me back was my local NHL team, and wrestling. The WWE Network announcement was a game changer for me. A complete no-brainer purchase for me, not just for the PPVs. The weekly shows would be made available on it immediately after they air, and I don’t normally watch Monday Night Raw until Tuesday anyway. I was suddenly only being held back by arbitrary blackout decisions enforced by a regional sports channel. Right as I began seriously considering the feasibility of cord cutting my first year of DirecTV passed and my bill increased by $40 a month. It was a sign.

I put together a spreadsheet showing what my costs would be and I would be saving over $1000 a year. That included a way to watch the Carolina Hurricanes on NHL GameCenter Live. The decision was made. I got the usual retention offers, but their best effort wouldn’t even save me $500 a year.

What was really interesting to me was that I didn’t get any real fight after mentioning the WWE Network. I was expecting to have to explain the crazy notion that I don’t have to spend $55 on a pay-per-view ($65 for WrestleMania). Instead I got sad understanding from the other end of the line.

Charles in Raleigh, NC

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmPuGnaNHdHd5VDZCTFgxYk9WMTFrNDYwV1hVbEE&usp=sharing

 

  • Hey guys, after episode 5 I finally decided to get rid of my cable with Verizon. They offered to charge me $94 for internet and basic cable but I turned them down. I went from paying $213, which also included home phone service I stopped using to $106 a month for a 75/35mbps connection. Thanks guys, keep up the work.

    Mike

     

  • I’m a long-time listener of yours from the TWiT days, and have happily followed you to the new cordkillers show, to which I donate through Patreon.I just listened to the most recent episode, and there’s something that bothers me as a listener. When comparing devices to use to cord cut, consistently, there is misinformation pushed about the AppleTV and airplay. As is often the case, the impression is given that AirPlay only supports mirroring mode, in which essentially the app takes over the screen, and is mirrored to the television, rendering the device (tablet/phone) un-useful for any other purpose. This is always contrasted against the Chromecast, which does not dominate the device after the video is slung from the device (android/ios) to the Chromecast. This is NOT the case at all. Mirroring is but one AirPlay mode. Almost all apps though support the second mode, where, just like the Chromecast, the video is targeted to the AppleTV, but then the device is free for other work. Often, I sling a Netflix, YouTube, DailyMotion, etc, etc, etc video to the AppleTV using a button that looks just like the Chromecast button, then continue on to read my email, play a game, etc. It absolutely does NOT dominate the device. Every app doesn’t support it, but most apps do. I think by continuously misrepresenting the capabilities of the AppleTV, which supported this years in advance of the Chromecast, you are spreading misinformation. I say this as a person who owns Android and Apple devices, and has both an AppleTV and a Chromecast. I just tire of the misinformation out there.

Bob

Links

DTNS 2167 – Flappy Drone

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAndrea Smith joins us to lament the fate of Flappy Bird, duck drones in Dubai and get prepped for protest.

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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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

Developer removes Flappy Bird game from Android and iOS stores Reuters reports that Dong Nguyen removed his popular app Flappy Bird from the Android and iOS App stores, this weekend. Now that it’s gone, phones with the game installed, which still works, have showed up on auction sites like eBay, some with bids in the tens of thousands of dollars. Nguyen posted on Twitter that the game’s success ruined his simple life and he couldn’t take it anymore. He says the removal was not about legal issues, and he would still make games.

Nokia to launch Android-based phone at Mobile World Congress Mashable passes along a Wall Street Journal report that Nokia will launch an Android-based phone later this month at Mobile World Congress. The device will not come with the Google Play app store and will target emerging markets. Microsoft is in the process of finalizing a deal to acquire Nokia’s handset business which predominantly makes Windows Phones.

News From You

AllanAV posted a cleantechnica article to the subreddit. The article describes a Polish Startup producing grapheme. The startup is co-owned by mining company KGHM and the Industrial Development Agency (ARP). It uses technology developed at the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology in Warsaw. That would make the company the only one commercially producing graphene. Graphene-based devices could make a big difference in solar power and energy storage among other industries.

Kylde, our self-described Subreddit janitor, submitted an article from AndroidPolice noting T-Mobile winning its lawsuit against former suitor AT&T over the color purple. A federal court in Texas has ruled that AT&T’s budget carrier AIO Wireless infringed T-Mobile’s corporate trademark magenta. Aio said it was plum not magenta.

And spsheridan and habichuelacondulce both submitted articles from geek.com and geekosystem respectively, discussing a DARPA program to develop a brain implant for soldiers to help trigger memories and overcome memory loss. The device would record and stimulate brain activity.

More links from the show

HTC to focus on low-end smartphones in an effort to boost sagging profits

Huawei to show off a smartwatch at Mobile World Congress later this month

Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange still down

Microsoft opens multi-factor authentication to all Office 365 users

Giveaway: Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard



Moth and Spark: A Novel

By Anne Leonard

Hey all, Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard is coming out Feb. 20 so Viking press gave us 5 copies to giveaway! The book comes out Feb. 20, so we’ll pick that day to announce a winner drawn at random from respondents to this thread.

To enter, head over to our Goodreads thread entitled “If you were a recently freed dragon, what’s the first thing you’d do?

Listen to the show or check back in the thread on the 20th to find out who wins!

DTNS 2166 – Radio Winnebago

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen joins the show to talk about NBC’s Sochi hacking report among other things, and Len Peralta illustrates the stories.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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

Kill Switch legislation to be introduced in CA The LA Times reports California lawmakers led by State Senator Mark Leno plan to introduce legislation requiring devices like smartphones and tablets to be sold with a “kill switch” that would render them inoperable if stolen. Some devices, like the iPhone and the Galaxy S4, come with such features already. The carriers are lukewarm on legislating technology, but most are waiting to see the text of the bill before opposing or supporting it.

Facebook lets you Look Back at your Look Back video (and edit) TechCrunch reports Facebook has added an edit button to the “Look Back” videos it automatically created for most users in celebration of its tenth anniversary. The function lets you pick new photos and posts from a pre-populated list and no you can’t change the order. if you never got a video, then you also don’t get the edit feature.

Nokia and HTC bury the patent hatchet For all you people who complain that all we report is bad news, patent news, or both, here’s a ZDNet story for you. Nokia and HTC signed a patent and technology agreement that dismisses all patent litigation between the two companies. HTC pays a little money. The collaboration involves HTC’s LTE patent portfolio. Lawyers cash fat checks. Consumers get to buy phones. Everyone goes home happy.

NSA metadata program collects less data than you might think The Wall Street Journal has a new report, not from Edward Snowden leaks this time, that cites anonymous sources saying the NSA metadata program only collects data for 20 percent or less, because it doesn’t cover most cell phones. The Washington Post said even that smaller amount is still useful.

News From You

jaymz668 posted a story from the WSJ’s Corporate Intelligence blog, indicating that next year the US will joint the majority of the world in implementing a chip and pin system for credit cards and ditch the old signed receipts. Both MasterCard and Visa have set October 2015 as an important deadline in the switch. That’s the “liability shift” After that time liability for fraudulent transactions switches to the merchant unless they are using chip and pin.

MANAGEMIKE WHO’S ALWAYS SHOUTING HIS NAME submitted an Ars Technica story of one Ronaldo Boschulte who got a new modem form his ISP Comcast, which unbeknownst to him, doubles as a public WiFi router. Comcast started adding the modems by default in mid-2013. Comcast reassures customers that their broadband connection will be unaffected, but if they REALLY want to switch it off, they can, they just have to perform the arcane ritual of self-immolation known as calling Comcast customer support.

People in Russia may not care now, but SkyJedi does, and he submitted this coin desk post that bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox paused all withdrawals yesterday while they tracked down an issue encountered by some bitcoin withdrawals. Not only that but they promised an update Monday. At least that’s Monday Japan time. Users with bitcoin withdrawals stuck in limbo started to receive their coins back in their Mt. Gox wallets this morning.

More links from the show

Fazio Mechanical Services issued a statement Thursday saying it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack and is working with Target and the US Secret Service to investigate.

Amazon integrates image recognition into its iOS shopping app, no barcodes necessary

Apple buys back $14 billion of its own shares in the past two weeks for a total of $40 billion over the last 12 months

Russian officials rule that BitCoin is a money substitute and can not be used by individuals and legal entities

DTNS 2165 – Full throttle?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comBrian Brushwood joins us to chat with Peter Bright about whether Verizon has started degrading Netflix traffic after they won their recent court victory over Net Neutrality. Also Sony ditches their PC business so it’s time to reassess how dead PC’s are.

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Note: The video stream (which is in beta mind you) experienced a catastrophic streaming failure. We’re hoping it pops up out of YouTube at some point and we’ll put what survives up here. In the meantime here is a post-show hangout nee encore. – Tom

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) of a video that’s just a still image with the audio from Archive.org.

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

Sony to dump PC business
Recode reports Sony announced it will sell its VAIO PC business to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) by the end of March. In the meantime Sony says it “will cease planning, design, and development of PC products,” and the Spring 2014 line launch will be its last. VAIO owners will still get support from either Sony or JIP. Sony will also make its TV division into a subsidiary and focus on high-end 4K models. All of this means about 5,000 jobs will be cut. Engadget reports Sony is also shutting down its digital bookstore in the US and Canada, transferring customers to Kobo starting in late March. Sony did have some good news, announcing a profitable 3rd quarter with $23 billion in revenue, up 24% over the same time last year on the strength of the PS4. However in a revised full-year forecast, Sony expects to lose $1.1 billion.

Verizon could be throttling Netflix and Amazon, but no actual evidence so far

News From You:

webitube posted on the subreddit a GigaOm article about an attack on an electrical substation near San Jose California. The Wall Street Journal reports snipers fired on the substation for almost 20 minutes, knocking out 17 transformers, as well as cutting nearby telephone cables. The damage took a month to repair. The attackers and their motives are still unknown.

habichuelcondulce and jaymz668 and Jose Gomez by email all sent us various links to the story of Dennis Aabo Sørensen who live science reports lost his hand as a result of a fireworks accident but now has a prosthetic hand that has a sense of touch. Electrodes embedded in Sørensen’s arm communicate with touch sensors in the prosthetic to deliver impulses to his remaining nerves. He can tell different objects by feel, according to a study detailed in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Silvestro Micera, a neural engineer at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in Switzerland, led the team that developed the hand.

mcfads23, who also happens to be our producer Jennie, submitted this psfk article on the subreddit, about Changefolio,at changefol.io a platform that makes it easy donate money to charities. The service connects with a user’s bank, then lets the user pick a charity. From then on, purchases can be rounded up or small percentages of purchases can be taken and automatically donated as micro-transactions. So for example you can have the service take 2% of your grocery bill every time you shop and donate it to a food bank. And of course their are graphs and achievements and the ability to post to Facebook and Twitter.

DTNS 2164 – (wo-JIT-ski)

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAmber Mac joins the show to talk about YouTube’s boss, Susan Wojcicki. Can she do for YT what she did for AdSense on Google Search? Also a way to revolutionize academic publishing with BitTorrent.
MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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

Wojcicki is new YouTube head: ReCode reports Susan Wojcicki, SVP of advertising for Google, is SVP of YouTube. Current YouTube head Salar Kamangar will apparently start work on his own projects, similar to the shift Andy Rubin made when he left Android. Wojcicki has recently been splitting her commerce-oriented duties with Sridhar Ramaswamy. She was the 16th employee at Google and housed the company in her garage for a time in 1998. Wojcicki has led the department responsible for AdWords and AdSense, the most profitable arm of Google.

Google and EU reach agreement to settle antitrust investigation Bloomberg reports Google and the EU’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Alumnia have reached an agreement to settle a three-year-old antitrust investigation. Google made a five-year pledge to grant three links to rival services next to any specialized searches of Google’s own, such as Google Shopping. Competitors will pay at least 3 euro cents to bid for a spot with images in a shaded box on some of Google’s search pages. The deal will become legally binding sometime in the next few months after the Commission formally rejects complaints against Google. The EU is still informally investigating Google’s use of Android.

The Daily Snowden: British Intelligence agency has conducted cover action against Anonymous  Ars Technica reports NBC News published new documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealing the British intelligence agency, GCHQ, conducted covert action against the activist collective that often identifies as Anonymous. Among other things, GCHQ infiltrated IRC chat for Operation Payback, which targeted payment providers after they stopped donations to WikiLeaks from being processed. GCHQ employed a covert informant and conducted social engineering, DoS attacks and deployed malware. GCHQ crippled the operation, unmasked some members and led to the arrest of Edward Pearson aka Gzero.

DARPA creates an Open Catalog InformationWeek reports the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, aka DARPA, most famous for bringing the world the Internet, has created an Open Catalog at darpa.mil/OpenCatalog/. The site includes software toolkits and peer-reviewed publications from XDATA, a big data initiative. The software projects listed on the site include visualization, analytics, and infrastructure and link to code repositories.

News From You

isting posted this TechCrunch article about NewEgg getting into the free shipping biz. Similar to Amazon Prime, NewEgg has launched a program called Premiere. For $50 a year, Premiere subscribers get free 3-day shipping and discounts for 2-day and 1-day delivery. You also get restocking fees waived on returns which also get their shipping paid for, as well as special customer service and special deals. Customers can try Premiere free for 30 days.

pete_C and Amber both pointed us to a WSJ article about US electronics retailer Radio Shack closing around 500 stores in the coming months. Radio Shack has roughly 4,300 stores. The Journal did not know which stores would be closed. Radio Shack had received some praise for a Super Bowl ad promising to bring the store out of the 1980s.

More links from the show

Samsung Reins In the Theatrics for Galaxy S5 – NYTimes

IPCom suing Apple for more than 2 billion – The Verge

Windows 8.1’s first update, called cleverly, Update 1, may not arrive until April after all – ZDNet

Xbox One owners are in for two updates not just one – Engadget

Twitter announces its first quarterly earnings – TechCrunch

Researchers use torrent site as free academic library – PSFK