DTNS 3235 – Real Facts About Fake News

MIT researchers discover false news travels faster and farther on Twitter than factual news, Amazon explains why Alexa has been uttering creepy laughs, and Flippy the burger flipping robot gets turned off.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Justin Robert Young.

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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 Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – March 8, 2018

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500MoviePass updates its iOS app after location tracking confusion, new alliance seeks to unify smart camera data, Oculus updates software after Rift headsets stopped working.

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Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – March 8, 2018

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.

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/03/0308doug-ross-director-tape/

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.

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hitchhikers-history1.htm

1979 – Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called “Philips Introduces Compact Disc.”

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Compact_Disc_Audio_Player,_1979

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3234 – Random Laughing Isn’t Funny

Can unplugging yourself from 24 hour online news feeds and social media make you a less stressed and better informed person? Plus the Dig Once bill is shaping up to become law, making it cheaper and faster to roll out fiber optics, and Amazon has admitted its voice assistant randomly laughs.

Starring Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson and Roger Chang.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Subscribe through iTunes here.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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 Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – March 7, 2018

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Amazon announces lower-cost Prime memberships for Medicaid recipients, Microsoft will repackage Windows 10 S into a mode on Windows 10, US foreign investment panel calls for investigation into Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – March 7, 2018

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.

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/albell/bpat.1.html

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.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/on-this-day/march-7/

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.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1292.ZS.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3233 – Watch Movies, We’ll watch YOU

Popular dating app Bumble says No to firearms in profile pictures, the EU is worried about clocks losing time, and the author of a controversial MIT paper estimating the low wages of ride hailing drivers fires back at critics.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane and Roger Chang.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Subscribe through iTunes here.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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 Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – March 6, 2018

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Washington State passes net neutrality protections, Bumble to remove firearms from profile photos, Google and DoD working together on AI drone footage analysis.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – March 6, 2018

1937 – Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Yaroslavl region of Russia. She would grow up to become the first woman in space and only woman ever to fly solo in space.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/tereshkova.html?

1992 – The first media-hyped computer virus reached fever pitch as the Michelangelo boot sector virus began to affect computers. Worldwide catastrophe did not follow.

http://www.zdnet.com/news/michelangelo-virus-is-it-overhyped-or-a-real-threat/98759?

Safricom launched M-Pesa in Kenya, a service to let users receive, send and store money using a basic mobile phone.

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/media/vodafone-group-releases/2017/m-pesa-10.html?

2009 – NASA launched the Kepler space observatory, with a mission to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/launch/index.html?

2012 – Google consolidated its various online stores, Android Market, Google Books, Google Music, and Google video, into one store called Google Play.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/google-play-launched-feeling-the-amazon-squeeze/7073?

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.