DTNS 2521 – Google “Oh Sh** Button” 1.0

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comVeronica Belmont joins the show to talk about Google’s Unsend feature. Do humans have no impulse control? On the other hand is five seconds of delay even helpful?

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Show Notes

Today’s guests: Veronica Belmont

The Next Web reports Instagram has updated its app to let you find images by location. There’s also a tab called Explore in the US version that shows trending tags and features a curated selection of accounts, places and topics organized into collections. The update rolls out to Android and iOS today.

New Scientist reports on an experimental algorithm from Facebook that recognize people in photographs whose face is hidden. The algorithm looks at other features like hair, clothing, body shape and pose. The neural network had 83% accuracy in a test using 40,000 photos pulled from Flickr.

CNET reports Google Play Music has launched a free ad-supported version of the service. A blog post introducing the product was written by Songza CEO Elias Roman. Google bought Songza last July. Curated radio stations for mood, genre, decade or activity will be offered alongside the ability to pick a song and listen to a station of similar music. The free service launches in the US first, on the Web today and later this week to Android and iOS.

PC Mag reports that the task management app ToDoist is getting a refreshed Android version in the Material Design style. The simplified ToDoist app includes a “quick-add” option, and allows users to include start and end dates to capture recurring due dates. Dropbox also updated its Android app using Material Design, including the ability to take a photograph right from the file where it will be stored and move, rename and favorite options on the info pane. Both apps are available for download in Google Play today.

The Next Web reports that its Amazon Echo device is now available to all US customers. The voice controlled device has added support for Pandora, Audible, WeMo, IFTTT and Google Calendar since launch. It costs 179.99 and begin shipping July 14th. Alexa, add chocolate chips to shopping list.

IBM is opening up its Chef Watson web app to the world. It’s been almost a year since IBM teamed up with Bon Appetit magazine to begin working on the app, and it has spent the last eleven months testing it out. The app lets you choose at least one ingredient and then suggests recipes using that ingredient. You can also choose a particular type of dish or style of cooking. When you find a recipe you like you can save it to a folder in your account. You can take a look at ibmchefwatson.com.

The Independent reports that a German law prohibiting the sale or display of erotic materials during daylight hours is now being applied to ebooks. The change relates to a legal complaint regarding a German erotica eBook called Schlauchgelüste (Pantyhose Cravings). Adult ebooks will only be allowed to be sold between 10 PM and 6 AM and violators can be fined up to €500,000.

TechCrunch reports that Alibaba will fold its first effort at a US ecommerce company, 11 Main into social shopping service OpenSky. Alibaba will also fold in tits logistical enterprises, along with Auctiva, Vendio and SingleFeed into OpenSky and become a 37% owner of the combined company. The new combined business will have inventory from 50,000 brands and “millions” of shoppers. It’s not clear if 11 Main will continue to exist as a separate site or brand. The deal is set to be finalized at the end of July.

News From You: 

metalfreak sent us this story. It seems the US Navy will pay Microsoft 9.1 million dollars to keep approximately 100,000 Windows XP machines afloat according to PC World. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command signed a contract earlier this month for continued access to security patches for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003. The Navy began a transition away from XP in 2013 but needs time to finish executing the plan. XP systems are still connected to both NIPRnet, the U.S. government’s IP network for non-classified information, and SIPRnet, the network for classified information.

starfuryzeta shared a “I want one of those” stories with us. Engadget is reporting that UK-based Malloy Aeronautics in co-operating with Maryland based defense firm Survice Engineering Co. is developing a hover bike for the US Army research laboratory. The current design features two pairs of horizontal adducted rotors placed in tandem– one in front of and one behind– the pilot seat. The project aims to create “a new class of Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle (TRV) that can replace some of work currently done by helicopters.

Discussion Section:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2939321/google-finally-makes-undo-send-an-official-gmail-feature.html#tk.rss_news
http://gizmodo.com/gmail-officially-adds-undo-send-turn-it-on-right-now-1713353235
 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/us/gmails-undo-send-option-can-help-end-email-embarrassment.html
 http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-undo-send.html
 http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/unsend-it-email-app/

 

Pick of the Day:

Justin C writes:

I have a pick, if you’re interested:
The Stephen Baxter Manifold trilogy. Probably my favorite current-ish scifi. For fans of those who love massive space-operas and well-founded yet thoroughly creative fiction.

Messages 

David Redding writes: 

I was just listening to your discussion about Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple and how it’s only right to pay artists for their work. To bad she doesn’t practice what she preaches

http://petapixel.com/2015/06/22/an-open-response-to-taylor-swifts-rant-against-apple/#more-170376

Just another talking point

Niyas is a project manager with an airline and has some comments on the LOT airline grounding: 

“The design of an airline’s business IT network (business IT to distinguish from internal IT for office users) is pretty much the same as it would be for most other IT networks.

We are currently building a new data center …and these designs involve key components such as a web application filter and API manager (among others) to make sure that our systems are not vulnerable to cross site scripting, DDoS, even legitimate request overloading etc. Further, during the build, we do extensive stress testing to simulate these situations and make sure it doesn’t happen or to identify these vulnerabilities and patch them before the system goes live.

So… I take issue with the statement (from the CEO) that all airlines are vulnerable to this kind of attack. I’m sure there are many airlines that are vulnerable, just as there are many that are secure – as is the case with most industries. Just thought I’d throw in my two cents :)

==

Wednesday’s Guests: Scott Johnson

This Week in Tech 515

Was invited on to TWiT and had some excellent conversations with Baratunde Thurston, Ben Thompson and Leo. For a fun game, play spot the Taylor Swift song title references!

Today in Tech History – June 23, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1912 – Alan Turing was born in London, although his father worked for the Indian Civil Service and his parents lived in India. He helped break the code of the German enigma machine and developed the Turing test for artificial intelligence.

In 1943 – Vint Cerf was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He grew up to become known as one of the fathers of the Internet, most famously for his co-creation of the protocols underlying TCP/IP.

In 1983 – Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel ran the first successful test of the automated, distributed Domain Name System at the University of Southern California School of Engineering’s Information Sciences.

In 1996 – The Nintendo 64 launched in Japan becoming the first home console to rely on the analog stick as its primary control.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Cordkillers 76 – Hulu, It’s Better Than Hulu

PlayStation overplays the a la carte hand, Roku’s ads get in your head, what Bill Simmons should do.

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CordKillers: Ep. 76 – Hulu, It’s Better Than Hulu
Recorded: June 22, 2015
Guest: Fraser Cain

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • Hulu Plus changes to just Hulu
    – Hulu officially changed the name of Hulu Plus to Hulu
    – So now if you’re watching the free version which used to be called Hulu it is still called Hulu
    – But if you’re watching the paid version of Hulu which used to be called Hulu Plus it is now also called Hulu
    – This was done to eliminate confusion.

Gear Up

  • Roku And Innovid Roll Out Interactive Video Ads, Including SMS-Based Reminders To Watch
    – Roku and Innovid partnering on interactive ads
    – Games, quizzes, videos
    – Personalized using data (location, demograpchis)
    – CBS (CBS News, CBS Sports, CNET, GameSpot), Vevo and Crackle are early partners
    – Roku SDK will now include Innovid as part of the Roku Ad Framework
    – Results in extended time spent with ads. Doubled the preroll
    – Soon can extend ad across devices. Movies times sent to smartphone for instance by SMS
    – Reminders about show airings

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

It’s the story of Steven Quartz Universe, an 11 year old boy whose parents are Greg Universe, a former rock musician who now runs a carwash and lives in his van, and Rose Quartz, an immortal alien hero who protected the Earth for thousands of years before giving up her physical form to bring Steven into the world. It follows Steven as he tries to grow into his mother’s legacy and join The Crystal Gems, Earth’s protectors (who are also his three moms). The series is the creation of Rebecca Sugar, who was responsible for the best episodes (and songs) of Adventure Time before she left that show to create this one.

The first 35 episodes are available on Hulu Plus and all eps to date can be bought from the major online marketplaces.

Rob

 

 

I was a little disappointed at how negative you guys were about Tivo adding streaming access through web browsers on local computers. Ok, I get it, I’d also like to be able to open my laptop on vacation and bring up my recordings. Who knows, maybe they’ll add that, but for now I’m happy that I can at least do that within my own home.

Matt
Sterling, VA

 

 

 

 

First review of TiVo Online: not only does it make you login to your tivo account AND your cable company account, it just plain doesn’t work. Not tonight, not here. I’ve been waiting to stream a video I know is on my TiVo, the latest Big Bang Theory, for like 10 minutes so far. Silly spinning wheel is all I get. I don’t see this becoming a habit quickly.

Whistl

 

 

 

Just a Sling tv tip.

As we know Sling TV offers ESPN and ESPN2. You can download the ‘Watch Espn’ app and login with the Sling TV credentials and watch ESPN3 programming.

I was able to watch the NBA finals on ESPN3 too.

Ryan in Iowa 

 

Links

www.patreon.com/cordkillers
2015 Winter Movie Draft

DTNS 2520 – Swift Justice

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comBreki Tomasson is on the show to talk about Taylor Swift’s ‘victory’ against Apple Music. Is Taylor Swift the Music Industry now? The Internet? Un unstoppable force that has already amassed too much power and become a queen terrible as the morning and the night?

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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: Breki Tomasson

Google officially announced its new site called News Lab today. Tech Crunch reports that the goal of the program is to connect journalists with programs, data and other resources. There will be tutorials and tips on best practices when using Google products in reporting. The site will also showcase Google’s new media partnerships such as the YouTube newswire and other partnerships with Storify announced last week.

The Verge reports Sony is releasing the PlayStation 4 1TB Ultimate Player Edition. The updated machine will be 10% lighter, use 8% less power, and have a matte finish for the hard drive bay. It will release in Japan before the end of June and on July 15th in Europe and North America. Sony also released changes to the PlayStation companion app for iOS and Android letting users redeem gift codes without powering up a playstation console and display comments from viewers while streaming gameplay.

Ars Technica reports on documents leaked by Edward Snowden that show the US NSA and UK’s GCHQ attempted to subvert antivirus software in order to to succeed in attacks on intelligence targets. GCHQ attempted to reverse engineer antivirus software from Kaspersky Labs and others. The NSA intercepted email to Kaspersky containing malware samples. They used those samples to bolster their own network defenses and proposed reusing them to to attack other intelligence targets.

TechCrunch reports Docker, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are working with the Linux Foundation on the Open Container Project, a standard for software containers. Docker will contribute its container format and runtime to get the project started. Containers allow software to run on almost any server. The project will create a standard container that can work with any runtime whether its from Docker, CoreOS or someone else.

Reuters reports 1400 airline passengers were stranded at Warsaw’s Chopin airport Sunday when the flight plan system went down for five hours. LOT airline Spokesman Adrian Kubicki said the outage was due to a “capacity attack” essentially a DDoS.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Australian Senate passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015, introduced into parliament by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull 37-13. Right’s holders can request a judge issue an order to block a website if its primary purpose is facilitating copyright infringement. Australian internet providers, such as Telstra and Optus, would then need to comply with a judge’s order by disabling access to the infringing location.

Newly unsealed court documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the US Justice Department won an order forcing Google to turn over more than one year’s worth of data from the Gmail account of Jacob Appelbaum, a Tor developer who worked as a volunteer for WikiLeaks. The order also prevented Google from notifying Appelbaum. The Justice Department argued that Appelbaum had “no reasonable expectation of privacy”. The Justice Department asserted that “journalists have no special privilege to resist compelled disclosure of their records, absent evidence that the government is acting in bad faith”. Google’s attempt to overturn the gag order was denied by magistrate judge Ivan D. Davis in February 2011 and denied on appeal in March 2011.

Remember the emotional robot Justin Robert Young and I talked about last week that was going on sale in Japan this past weekend. CNET reports that Softbank’s Pepper robot sold out– 1,000 robots– in one minute. Pepper costs 198,000 yen (USD $1,610). SoftBank plans to produce 1,000 units a month, with the next batch planned for launch in Japan in July.

Confused about whether you can get Windows 10 for free as a preview user without upgrading from a previous genuine install? The Verge has the answers. Tom Warren interprets Microsoft’s pythoness-like pronouncements to mean the following. Anybody who does a Clean install of Windows 10 preview edition and continues to receive pre-release updates can keep using the OS for free. Anybody else will have to prove they once had a genuine copy of Windows 7 or 8.

News From You: 

KAPT_Kipper sent us the news that Taylor Swift has changed the flow of time. I mean singer/songwriter Taylor Swift wrote a super polite open letter to Apple on Sunday morning, telling them that their plan to not pay artists during a user’s three month free trial of Apple Music was “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company” and that she would be withholding her mega popular album 1989 from the service. By Sunday evening, Apple media chief Eddy Cue announced Apple would pay artists an undisclosed amount per stream for listens during the free trial. And all over the world, glitter fell from the sky and enlightened citizens of the tswiftverse rejoiced.

danielhprice1986 submitted the Globe and Mail article on how US intelligence officials followed Chinese hackers for more than five years then lost the trail last summer. It is alleged that these same groups gained admin privileges in the networks of the US Office of Personnel Management. The OPM suffered an attack that gained access to personnel records. Much of the data was stored on lightly protected systems because of the cheap available storage space.

Discussion Section

http://recode.net/2015/06/21/apple-says-it-will-pay-taylor-swift-for-free-streams-after-all/
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/612841136311390209
 http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor
 http://www.wired.com/2015/06/taylor-swift-apple-internet/
 https://www.google.com/search?q=cheerleader+taylor+swift&oq=cheerleader+taylor+swift&aqs=chrome..69i57.3571j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8
 https://junction10.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/those-in-glass-houses-shouldnt-throw-stones/

 

Pick of the Day

Vance wants to pick Android TV as set-top platform:

“It has been adopted as the smart TV interface for a number of TV manufacturers like Sony, Sharp, etc.” He likes the UI and says, “While it is lacking an Amazon Prime app, it makes up for that if you use Google Play Music or videos and has the best You Tube app going and a powerful voice search function (as you would expect).

The Nexus Player is $79 on Amazon, and while some find it a bit underpowered, at that price you not only the Android TV interface, but it serves as a Chromecast as well. I recently picked up the pricier nVidia Shield Android TV and am very impressed so far.

Messages 

Alan writes:

Modern garage door openers (like since 1995) use rolling codes, the same tech on a car’s keyfob. Basically, it uses a random number generator to determine what code(s) to allow entry, with a +/- range to compensate for accidental pushes and multiple vehicles. Once a code has been accepted, it can no longer be used.

So garage doors are harder to spoof than you might think these days.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/remote-entry2.htm

==

Tuesday’s Guests: Veronica Belmont

Today in Tech History – June 21, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1948 – The Small-Scale Experimental Machine, SSEM took 52 minutes to run its first program, written by Professor Tom Kilburn. SSEM was the first computer to store programs electronically. The SSEM was nicknamed the “Manchester Baby”.

In 1981 – IBM retired the last of its “STRETCH” mainframes. These mainframes were part of the 7000 series that made up the company’s first transistorized computers.

In 2004 – SpaceShipOne became the first privately developed piloted vehicle to leave Earth’s atmosphere and reach the edge of space.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – June 22, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1675 – Britain’s King Charles II established the observatory at Greenwich with the main purpose of determining precise longitudes to aid in navigation. This purpose led to Greenwich being marked as the prime meridian and later Greenwich Mean Time.

In 1799 – The first definitive prototype metre bars (mètre des Archives) and kilograms were constructed in platinum.

In 1999 – The first demonstration of live rats directly controlling a robot arm with their thoughts was published by Nature Neuroscience.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – June 20, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1840 – Samuel F.B. Morse received a US patent for “Improvement in the mode of communicating information by signals by the application of electro-magnetism.” We call it Morse code.

In 1963 – A hotline was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis. While later it would become the famous “red telephone” it started as a teletype.

In 2003 – The WikiMedia Foundation was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida by Jimmy Wales to oversee the various Wiki projects like Wikipedia.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2519 – Always Use a Condiment

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on the show to talk about Global Solution Networks. Awful management buzzword for NGOs or the key to solving world problems? Len Peralta is in to illustrate the show too. Be nice to him folks. He’s from Cleveland.

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

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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:  Darren Kitchen, founder of hak5.org and Len Peralta, artist

The Next Web reports that Twitter is testing two new types of pages. First, dedicated pages for businesses where users can find information, images, related tweets and prices. And in great news for businesses, users can also buy products right from the app or web. The second page type is Collections, where you can aggregate products and places that might be of interest to your followers. So if you want to know what type of products Reese Witherspoon and William Shatner really love, this is your lucky day.

USA Today reports Google says it will honor requests to remove nude or sexually explicit images posted on the Internet without consent, the same way it honors requests to remove personal information like bank account and Social Security Numbers. An online form will launch in the coming weeks for submitting requests. Google normally only removes links subject to a valid legal request.

The US FCC has clarified its interpretation of a 1991 consumer protection law to assert that text messages are the same as phone calls, and that phone carriers may block robocalls to consumers if asked.The Wall Street Journal reports that despite the creation of a national Do Not Call List, the FCC still receives more complaints about robocalls than any other issue. The FCC will also make it easier to remove consent for robocalls.

9 to 5 mac reports that the original iPad mini has disappeared from Apple’s website and is no longer available to purchase new from the Apple Store. The first iPad mini was introduced in October 2012. Refurbished iPad minis will remain available from the Apple Store for $209 and new iPad minis will be available from third-party resellers until they run out of stock.

Engadget passes along a report from Juventud Rebelde that Cuba’s telecom company will open WIFI hotspots in 35 locations across the country starting in July. An hour will cost $2 with speed capped at 1MB per user. Presumably meaning 1 MBps.

Reuters reports Nokia is finally admitting it wants to get back into the phone business. Nokia can’t sell its own phones until 2016 due to its agreement to sell its handset business to Microsoft. But Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri told Germany’s Manager Magazine that Nokia “will look for suitable partners” to design and license phones to be manufactured under the Nokia brand name.

News From You: 

d8uv would like you to know that the Heinz company had great idea to put a QR code on its Ketchup bottles so Ketchup enthusiasts could design their own labels. A German man named Daniel Korell thought that was a great idea, so he scanned the QR code on his phone. One problem: He was directed to a German porn site Fundorado. Turns out Heinz ran the contest between 2012 and 2014 and the link expired this year. Unlike the ketchup in Daniel Korell’s fridge, apparently. Korell wrote to Heinz on Facebook saying “Your Ketchup isn’t really for underage people.” Heinz’s social media team apologized and said Korell could still design his own label. Porn site Fundorado offered Korell a free year’s subscription to their site. So, pretty good day for Daniel Korell!

starfuryzeta submitted the IT World article that the US Court of Appeals for the ninth Circuit rules Thursday that Google Earth Images can be used as evidence in court. Paciano Lizarraga-Tirado claims he was on the Mexico side of the border when US agents arrested him and charged him with illegal reentry. The government has introduced GPS coordinates recorded at the arrest and used Google Earth to show the location. The court determined that machine results cannot be dismissed as hearsay though they can be contested on grounds for accuracy.

Discussion Section

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/global-solution-networks-emerging-alternative-governments/ 

http://gsnetworks.org/ten-types-of-global-solution-network/http://gsnetworks.org/the-gsn-team/

http://gsnetworks.org/the-world-needs-solutions/

http://gsnetworks.org/gsn-blog/http://dontapscott.com/global-solution-networks/http://martinprosperity.org/

https://us.fsc.org/our-history.180.htmhttp://www.accenture.com/Microsites/ungc-ceo-study/Pages/home.aspx

http://www.bitnation.co/

https://www.freedomonlinecoalition.com/

Pick of the Day

Great discussion on robotics yesterday in DTNS 2518. This has been an area I’ve been paying closer attention to recently because as you stated we are now getting to the point where we have the option to buy robotics for our home. One point I wanted to raise is the impact this will have as our population ages. As Pew has highlighted the population pyramid (large base of young people with a small peak of older adults) is turning into a solid bar ( http://www.pewresearch.org/next-america/age-pyramid/  ). That means we won’t have enough caregivers to take care of us in the same way that people are cared for today. While we may not all get a Rosie the Robot yet, we are seeing massive advances.

So here is a related pick of the day. The movie Robot & Frank (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1990314/) which talks about an ex-jewel thief whose kids get him a robot to take care of him. Really enjoyable film – but maybe as we get robot caregivers we’ll also need a few extra robot security guards!

Thanks again, love the show!

Steve

Messages 

Tom – you’re brilliant! Your comment on garage door openers being just a little unsecure led to a flash of inspiration.


I’ve been setting up Belkin Wemo LED light bulbs, cameras, motion sensors and switches in my home. It occurred to me that I could set up two factor authentication for my garage door by using a Wemo switch as well as the garage door remote – as I arrive home I use the app on my phone to turn on the Wemo switch which supplies power to the door opener and then I use the remote to trigger the door opener. Hey presto!


Even if someone spoofs my remote while I’m not home the door won’t open because it doesn’t have power.


Of course this won’t stop someone physically forcing the door but a couple of antipersonnel mines should do the trick there :)

Cheers, Mike from wet and windy Western Australia.

==

Hey, guys. Really enjoyed yesterday’s discussion on technology and companionship. It brought to mind part of Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trend Report where she discussed messaging leaders.

Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Snapchat started out as relatively straightforward messaging platforms, but are now providing things like payments, games, taxi services, and even food delivery.

I think this transformation is fascinating because a more traditional software mindset would be to solve a particular problem (like food delivery), then tack a social element on as an additional feature. But we’re now seeing models emerge where human connection is at the heart of the service — where social is the platform — and then additional value is added from there.

In my mind, these types of approaches are a much better reflection of who and what we are — and hence, what we really want from our technology.

Best,
Christian

 

Friday’s Guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta