Search Results for "october 29"

Today in Tech History – May 22, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1973 – Bob Metcalfe of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center wrote a memo on an IBM selectric typewriter, outlining how to connect personal computers to a shared printer. Metcalfe says “If Ethernet was invented in any one memo, by any one person, or on any one day, this was it.”

In 1980 – Namco released an arcade game called Puck-Man. When it was released in the US in October the name was altered to Pac-Man.

In 1990 – Microsoft released Windows 3.0. It featured big improvements in interface and multitasking. It’s Control Panel feature caught the eye of Apple which sued, and lost.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2226 – Uh-OAuth

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on the show to help us understand why we shouldn’t freak out about the OAuth flaw, and what Apple, Google and Facebook are really doing to protect their users from government data requests.

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

Today’s guest: Darren Kitchen, hak5.org

Headlines

Our top story on the subreddit was submitted by Beatmaster80 and tekkyn00b. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google are all updating their policies to expand the notification they give users when a government agency requests their personal data. Yahoo announced a similar policy in July, and Twitter has always done so. Users would not be notified if a court order prevents it or if there is imminent risk of physical harm to a potential crime victim. The policies will have no effect on NSA data collection or National Security Letters both of which are required to remain secret by law.

bmorales submitted a CNET story about Nanyang Technolohical University student Wang Jing uncovering a flaw in OAuth and OpenID that could be used to steal a login token from services like Facebook or Google, when using those services to login to a third party site. The token could then be used to retrieve data from Google or Facebook. Mashable’s Christina Warren has an excellent writeup of the issue. It’s not a weakness in OAuth at all but caused by a weak implementation on the third-party website’s side, which could be mitigated by certain practices on the side of Facebook or Google. Also, the attack requires you to click a suspicious link AND choose to then login with a service. So no. This is not another Heartbleed.

The Next Web reports Microsoft’s Windows Phone manager, Joe Belfiore held a Reddit AMA today where he said Windows Phone will get a file manager by the end of the month, hopefully. The app will let you create new folders, move files from one folder to another, and search within folders.

Ars Technica reports on a system called Large Emergency Event Digital Information Repository, meant to let citizens upload videos and photos to help police investigations and disaster response. Amazon Web Services has teamed with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on the project. Santa Barbara, CA authorities are the first to use the system and are calling on the public to upload images taken of a riot last month at the Isla Vista community near the University of California at Santa Barbara. Apps for LEEDIR are available for iOS and Android. 

The Verge reports the next Call of Duty game, Advanced Warfare, will launch on November 4th, and star Kevin Spacey as head of a private military corporation that has launched an attack on the US. The first trailer showed up on the official Call of Duty YouTube page late last night. 

Macrumors reports Apple is expanding its iTunes Match service to Japan. The service, which costs ¥3,980 per year, lets iTunes users match their library with cloud versions of the songs for quick storage, which can then be accessed from any Apple device.  

News From You

KAPT_Kipper posted a GigaOm story that a class action complaint has been filed against Google, alleging secret deals force Samsung and others to use the Google search engine on mobile devices, creating a search monopoly, which in turn makes devices cost more. The crux of the complaint is that Google offers Mobile Application Distribution Agreements, which require device makers to make Google the default search engine if they want to include Google’s other mobile apps like YouTube and the Google Play app store. Google told GigaOm by email “Anyone can use Android without Google and anyone can use Google without Android. 

metalfreak sent in the PC World story about the Attorney General for the US state of Washington filing a lawsuit against a company that raised $25,000 on Kickstarter but failed to deliver its product, a retro-horror playing-card deck called Asylum. The project funded in October 2012 and has yet to deliver any rewards. Kickstarter’s terms of use requires creators to fulfill all rewards of their projects or refund backers. The complaint, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks restitution for consumers and as much as $2,000 per violation of the state’s Consumer Protection Act.

Beatmaster80 pointed us to the Record story that Lila Tretikov has been named Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia among other projects. Outgoing director Sue Gardner will end her term on June 1. Tretikov was previously chief product officer at SugarCRM. Tretikov’s personal background growing up in the Soviet Union and her experience with open-source engineering seem to be the main reasons she got the job.

KAPT_Kipper posted an ITWorld story that Sony has developed magnetic tape that stores data at 148 gigabits per square inch, 74 times the density of standard tapes. That could mean 185 TB tape cartridges. Current LTO-6 cartridges can handle up to 2.5 TB. Tape is still used for long-term data storage. The Tape Storage Council industry group reports tape capacity shipments grew by 13 percent in 2012 and were projected to grow by 26 percent last year.

Pootinky pointed to a a slashdot posting about a Vanderbilt University graduate student, working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who has discovered a way to create three-atom-thick nanowires capable of linking transistors and other components. It’s a step toward devices that could be as thin as paper.

Discussion Section Links:  New Security Flaw discovered

http://www.cnet.com/news/serious-security-flaw-in-oauth-and-openid-discovered/

http://tetraph.com/covert_redirect/oauth2_openid_covert_redirect.html

http://mashable.com/2014/05/02/oauth-openid-not-new-heartbleed

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-v2-threatmodel-08#section-4.1.5

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-facebook-others-defy-authorities-increasingly-notify-users-of-secret-data-demands-after-snowden-revelations/2014/05/01/b41539c6-cfd1-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html?hpid=z1

Pick of the Day:  Dogeforsale.com via Luke Olsen

Looking to get into some Dogecoins before the DogeCar takes the track at Talladega this weekend. Not sure how to how to navigate crypto exchanges? Have no fear dogeforsale.com is here. Its a site where users can buy and sell Dogecoins with paypal, google wallet, debit cards, etc. The site is a basic escrow service, it holds the coins during the transaction. Get Dogecoins fast and securely. much speed very secure. DISCLAIMER: I’m a seller on the site “SkyJedi” 

Good cause of the day: Podcamp Nashville

PodCamp Nashville happening May 17 in Nashville, TN is one of the last and largest Podcamps in the country. They are in need of sponsors and patrons or will have to cut out major parts of the event or cancel. For as little at $100 you can become of friend of this event the has been so vital to the Nashville creative community. This Friday is a deadline that they need to make a $2500 payment for the event. If you or a company you many know would like to help out Podcamp Nashville please visit: http://bit.ly/pcn14friend

Len Peralta was on assignment today :( So Jennie did some 8th grade-level fear-based art: What’s A Poor Normal To Do

Monday’s guest: Jon Strickland

DTNS 2224 – Wheeler keeps on turning

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comBrian Brushwood joins the show to chat about Facebook getting all privacy-friendly and Hulu allowing free full episodes on your phone. The FCC even says it will fight for municipal broadband. It’s the nicest day on the Internet ever!

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

Today’s guest:  Brian Brushwood of the Night Attack  e

Headlines

Facebook had a few big announcement at the F8 developer’s conference Wednesday morning. Using Facebook to login on another service is now entirely under the user’s control. Users can choose line by line what they will and will not share with another service. Up to and including the ability to log in entirely anonymously. The company also promises to fix bugs within 48 hours, support all APIs for two years, and open source a system called AppLink that makes it easy for mobile apps to link directly to each other without going to a browser. Finally Facebook announced their “Audience Network,” a way to buy ads on non-Facebook sites that benefit from Facebook’s data. Facebook Audience Network is open for registration today.

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins announced in a blog post today that this summer Hulu’s mobile apps will get a selection of full episodes for free, without needing a Hulu Plus subscription. Hulu added clips from shows to the Hulu app for non-subscribers in October. The feature will come first to its Android apps. The post also mentioned a redesigned iOS app coming later this summer as well as new ad units, including one that would allow a viewer to order something like a Pizza without leaving the Hulu experience.

Our top story on the Subreddit today, Ars Technica reports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, speaking at the Cable Show, said he intends “to preempt state laws that ban competition from community broadband.” 20 US states have laws limiting muncipalities ability to create their own broadband infrastructure. TechCrunch also reports Wheeler said “If someone acts to divide the Internet between “haves” and “have-nots,” we will use every power at our disposal to stop it,” including considering reclassifying ISP’s as telecommunications providers. Wheller also said “Prioritizing some traffic by forcing the rest of the traffic into a congested lane won’t be permitted under any proposed Open Internet rule”. State laws that ban municipal Internet will be invalidated, FCC chair says

The Verge reports Google launched standalone iOS and Android apps for Google Docs, its word processing program, Google Sheets, its spreadsheet program and Google Slides, its presentation program. The new apps are similar to their counterparts in the unified Google Drive app, but with a different color scheme.

Wired reports on Dark Wallet, a bitcoin application designed to protect its user’s identities in more ways than the bitcoin system does on its own. Chiefly the application encrypts and mixes together users payment infos, so its not easily traceable from the Bitcoin public ledger. Dark Wallet was conceived by Wilson and Amir Taaki. Wilson Taaki also created the first entirely 3D-printed gun. Dark Wallet is set for release on Thursday. 

News From You

MikePKennedy submitted the Engadget report of the WSJ story THAT Google has stopped scanning the 30 million email accounts registered under its apps for education program. Google scans email in order to display ads triggered by keywords. Ads were never used int he product, but the data was mined to inform targeted ads elsewhere. 

metalfreak submitted the Slashdot posting alerting readers to the fact that the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), is being considered by the US Senate Intelligence Committee. This third version of the bill was written by committe chair Dianne Feinstein and is circulating but has not yet been introduced. Under the current draft of the bill, companies could not be sued for incorrectly sharing customer information with the federal government, and broad law enforcement sharing could allow for the creation of backdoor wiretaps.

tekkyn00b submitted the Verge story that the US Supreme Court made it easier to force the losing party in a patent suit to pay the legal fees of the winner. This is widely seen as a way to discourage frivolous patent lawsuits. The Patent Act stipulates a case must be exceptional in order for the legal fees to be shifted to the loser. Lower courts have used a high standard to determine when a case is exceptional, meaning it is rarely found to be so. Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing for the 9-0 majority, said judges should define an “exceptional” situation as “simply one that stands out from others.” 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/30/hulu-is-opening-up-free-video-streaming-to-mobile-devices/

http://blog.hulu.com/2014/04/30/today-at-the-hulu-upfront/

http://io9.com/dreamworks-predicts-that-in-the-future-well-buy-movies-1569787028

Pick of the Day:  http://owncloud.org/

I love using Dropbox for storing and sharing many of my personal files. However as I work in healthcare I have to be extra careful when it comes to storing and sharing Protected Health Information. I highly recommend ownCloud (owncloud.org) as a private cloud alternative. They have Mac, PC and Linux clients as well as iOS and Android apps. The data is securely stored on our company servers. And best of all it’s open source software.
Cheers, Dave (aka DaHa the rare times I get to visit the chat room)

Thursday’s guest: Denise Howell

DTNS 2207 – Flexible future

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll discuss some pretty cool flexible tech that could let you scan things by laying it on your screen. Also, we get the scoop on Android TV from The Verge’s Sean Hollister.

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Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

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

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar of CNET & GFQNetwork

Headlines

GigaOm reports Android lock screen app Cover said Monday it was joining Twitter. The app that launched in invite-only beta in October, replaces the Android lock screen with one that suggests apps based on location. The current Cover app will remain in the Google Play store for now, but the development team will be working on things for Twitter.

Geek.com has the story of Seagate’s 6TB hard drive, matching Western Digital in capacity, but without needing to fill the drive with helium. The Seagate Enterprise Capacity hard drive is available in 2, 4, 5, and now 6TB capacities with a 128MB cache and spin speed of 7,200rpm. No pricing or word on consumer models were made available.

GigaOm reports two new chips from Qualcomm were announced Monday. The Snapdragon 808 and 810 support 64-bit computing, support LTE-Advanced wireless speeds up to 300 Mbps and dual-stream 82.11ac WiFi. The 810 also gets 4K video support. Apple has 64-bit support in its A7, and Intel has a 64-bit Android Kernel, but Android does not have an official 64-bit version yet. Google I/O is coming up end of June though. The new Qualcomm chips will become available in commercial devices in the first 6 months of 2015.

Microsoft introduced a new version of Skype for broadcasters Monday morning, called Skype TX. The “studio-grade” version has high-quality audio and video without unnecessary features like call notifications and ads. Skype TX comes with HD-SDI video output and input, balanced audio output and input, auto aspect ration conversion, support for multiple, simultaneous calls, operator previews, and more. Media organizations can sign up at media.skype.com/skype-tx but no other details on pricing or shipping were announced.

The Verge reports M3D launched a Kickstarter today to bring a new consumer 3D printer called Micro. The Micro accepts PLA and ABS plastics as well the company’s own Micro filament spools. The company also claims it has made much more intuitive software. M3D hopes to have assembly line production rolling between August and September for delivery starting in March next year. The printer costs only $249 but you’ll have to back at $899 if you want one from the first batch. The $50,000 was reached in minutes and in the first day, M3D has raised almost a half a million.

News From You:

Our top vote-getter on the subreddit was submitted by KAPT_Kipper. The TechCrunch story relates the protest that took place against Kevin Rose outside his apartment in San Francisco. Rose, the co-founder of Digg and Revision3, works for Google Ventures now. Protestors targeted Rose because he is a venture capitalist and because of controversial things he said on the show DiggNation in the past. The group demands Google give $3 billion to an anarchist organization to create autonomous, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist communities throughout the bay area and northern California.

Draconos posted the Ars Technica article that the US Supreme Court has declined to rule on the constitutionality of the NSA’s bulk telephone metadata surveillance program. Activist Larry Klayman had appealed directly from the US Distric Court decision in December, skipping over the US Appeals Court, which has been done before. That means the case would have to go through the appeals court, which also means it would likely not be resolved before the US Patriot Act expires on June 1, 2015.

tekkyn00b submitted the 9to5 Mac story on a demonstration at Microsoft’s ThinkNext Conference of a device that charges batteries compact enough for smartphones in 30 seconds. StoreDot claims the commercial version of the charger will only cost about twice as much as today’s chargers but production isn’t expected until 2016.

gowlkick sent us the CNET story on HTC’s earnings. It’s not a good report. Between January and March 2014 HTC’s total revenue fell by more than twenty percent over the previous quarter with a loss of $62 million. However, sales didn’t fall for the first time in 28 months AND KGI INvestment projects a 50% rise in Q2 sales due to the popularity of the HTC One M8 and HTC Desire 816.

cincyhuffster posted the Verge article about the Amazon Dash, a 6-inch long plastic stick that lets customers of the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service, add items to their shopping list either by voice command or scanning an item itself. Shoppers then have those items already queued up the next time they need to place an order.

And pnthrldy posted the OMG Chrome story that the London Borough Council for Barking and Dagenham is replacing 2,000 of its Windows desktops with Samsung Series 3s running Chrome OS. The council expects to save £400,000. About half that is from licensing costs and the other half to power efficiency.

Discussion Section Links: Android TV and flexible tech

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/5/5584604/this-is-android-tv

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/07/how-thin-flexible-electronics-will-revolutionize-everything-from-user-interfaces-to-packaging/

Pick of the Day: Roboform.com

Tuesday’s guest: Michael Wolf, Forbes contributer and host of the Next Market Podcast

DTNS 2191 – Drones > Pi

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is back for Pi Day and a discussion of what freedoms we should preserve for flying drones. Also Len Peralta is in to draw the show!

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

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen & Len Peralta

Headlines:

XBox One and OnLive sittin’ in a tree … :The Verge has a post about images found by Zatz Not Funny showing a purported Amazon game controller. The pictured controller looks like the Xbox One and OnLive had a baby and pasted Android back, home, and menu buttons across its face. Oh look, it has its momma’s media control buttons and its dad’s offset analog sticks! It’s so cute! So expect an Amazon set-top box game controller called the Kindle Fire At Aliens or something soon.

Settings > General > Software Update: iOS 8 is probably Apple’s worst-kept secret yet. It’s almost as badly kept as a Samsung secret. 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple plans to simplify the notification center, more data-sharing options between apps, better voice memo access, eliminating the GameCenter app, and CarPlay support over WiFi. Also it’ll be faster. And betterer. And Jonny Ive-ier.

Just kidding, suckas: Remember the Asus Transformer Duet shown off at CES that dual-booted Windows and Android? Well, I’m sorry I brought it up because you can forget about it. GigaOm reports the WSJ sources say Asus is scrapping the touch screen laptop at the behest of both Microsoft and Google. One big loser will be Intel, which used the device to show off its versatility in supporting desktop and mobile on its chips.

Engadget reports Samsung introduced three new accessories designed to help disabled or visually impaired users.

UberX, Lyft changes: Ars Technica reports UberX has expanded its insurance coverage to include drivers waiting for a fare, not just drivers with passengers in the car. Lyft has also made a similar change to its insurance. Two months ago, a six-year-old girl was killed in an accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco who was not carrying passengers at the time.

Everyone do the IPO! Bloomberg reports Chinese tech giant Alibaba is preparing to file for an IPO of stock in the U.S. as soon as April. Yahoo owns a 24 percent stake in Alibaba. A U.S. share sale by Alibaba would be a blow to Hong Kong, which hasn’t hosted an IPO of more than $4 billion since October 2010. In other IPO news, the WSJ says GoDaddy is finally about to interview underwriters for its IPO.

GigaOm reports Nokia’s Android-powered Nokia X has received one million pre-orders in just four days.

Oh, Russia: Reuters reports Russia has blocked access to the websites of government critic Alexi Navalny and chessmaster Gary Kasparov as part of a new law that cracks down on extremists or those who call for illegal activity. The state regulator said Navalny’s blog violated conditions of his house arrest, and Kasparov and two other sites called for “participation in mass events conducted in violation of the established order.”

Rdio nom noms Dhingana: MediaNama reports music streaming service Rdio acquired India’s defunct streaming website Dhingana which shut down last month after music label T-Series decided not renew its music license. Dhingana founders Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde will be joining the Rdio team responsible for expansion efforts in India.

News From You

metalfreak pointed us to the eWeek article about the pwn2Own event taking place at CanSecWest in Vancouver. Security researchers at the Pwn2Own security challenge found new zero-day flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader technologies. $400,000 in prize money has been awarded. VUPEN security is dominating again, earning $300,000 of that prize money by successfully exploiting Firefox for $50,000, IE for $100,000, Adobe Reader for $75,000 and Adobe Flash for $75,000.

robstak posted the Gizmodo article about GE’s method of cooling a refrigerator with water-based fluid and magnets. The magnets agitate particle in the patented water-based mixture to bring down its temp and the circulate it to cool the fridge. GE thinks the system could be more than 20% more efficient than the current electric compressor and chemical coolants we use now. GE thinks they could have one ready for sale in five years, and could even show up in other cooling appliances like air-conditioners.

habichuelacondulce posted The Guardian column about Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, making a call to U.S. President Barack Obama to complain about all the spying. Leaks from Edward Snowden yesterday showed the NSA has been spoofing Facebook in order to implant malware. Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook that the government should be a champion for the Internet, not a threat and be more transparent about what it’s doing. His call left him with the impression that it will take a very long time for true full reform. Somewhat echoing Tim Berners-Lee’s webwewant.org, Zuckerberg wrote “it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want.” Dan Gillmore of The Guardian says he’ll join if Zuck will promise a Facebook option that doesn’t track or store data about its users.

Discussion Section Links: Here a drone, there a drone/Hacking the hackers

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/drone-flight-over-harlem-disaster-shows-messy-state-of-faa-rules/

http://mashable.com/2014/03/13/drone-east-harlem-explosion/

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/so-you-want-to-fly-drones-heres-what-the-law-says/

http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=76381

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-20/faa-finds-drone-flights-hard-to-police

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/03/nsa-botnet/

Pick of the Day:

Super passionate Patron, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad,” recommends Interviewly.com, which basically makes reddit AMAs beautiful and easy to read.

Monday’s  Guest: Tim Stevens of CNET

DTNS 2145 – Watch this!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMyke Hurley from 5 by 5 joins us to review some of the cooler items from off the beaten path at CES.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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 subreeddit

Show Notes

As I mentioned on the show today, next Thursday and Friday I’ll be shooting season 2 of Sword and Laser’s video show. So I need YOU to guest host.

Next Thursday and Friday will be special “News From You” shows. I’ll still pop in with a couple late-breaking headlines but I want to hear YOUR news reports. What’s the tech project you think isn’t getting
enough attention? What’s that point about wearables you think nobody else has mentioned? Let your voice be heard!

Here’s what you do
Record your bit as an audio file LESS THAN 30 SECONDS PEOPLE, and email it to [email protected] and use the subject line NEWS FOR YOU. If we get it by 3 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific Thursday morning, we’ll consider it for that day’s show. Same thing for Friday.

More Notes

Samsung to announce the Samsung Galaxy S5: Bloomberg reports Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile, Lee Young Hee said the company will announce the Samsung Galaxy in March or April along with the successor to the Galaxy Gear which will have more advanced functions and an improved design. Lee also said the company is investigating iris recognition for the phone and will announce at least one more wearable device this year. Samsung registered a design for eyewear in October.

Gmail to allow users to send messages to Google+ users: The Next Web reports that Google will allow Gmail users to send messages to Google + users, without knowing the email address. The email address behind the G+ account will only become visible to someone who has received a message from that account. Also only one message can be sent to G+ name until that person responds. So if you don’t reply, they won’t know your email, and they won’t be able to email you again. If a sender is in your circle, their message will show up in the primary tab on Gmail, while other messages will go to the Social tab. You can override all this by changing a setting in Gmail to limit who can send you messages to your circles or nobody at all. The feature will roll out to all users over the next couple days.

FCC chairman weights in on AT&T’s sponsored data plan: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is not shy about commenting on AT&T’s sponsored data plan. Yesterday at CES, The Verge reports Wheeler said “Be sure, that if it interferes with the operation of the internet; that if it develops into an anticompetitive practice; that if it does have some kind of preferential treatment given somewhere, then that is cause for us to intervene.” And GigaOm reports that in a speech at the Computer History Museum in San Jose, today, Wheeler said “It is not the sort of thing that should be prohibited out of hand. But, again, history instructs us that not all new proposals have been benign.“

News From You:

More security experts pull out of RSA conference:  habichuelacondulce submitted a story from Information Week reporting the number of security experts pulling out of the RSA conference in protest of their dealing with the NSA has risen to nine. AS we mentioned before Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure was the first to pull out but now Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst for the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project; Google senior staff software engineer Adam Langley; attorney Marcia Hofman; and Taia Global CEO Jeffrey Carr. are among the people who will not attend their presentations or skip the conference altogether. RSA has said it did not use an algorithm now known to be weaker because of the NSA, but it has not denied receiving a $10 million payment.

Infected Yahoo ads in Europe part of a Bitcoin mining scheme:  webitube pointed out a TechDirt article explaining that the malware that recently infected Yahoo ads in Europe was Bitcoin mining software. The idea would be to use infected computers to mine for bit coins and credit any coins minted to the malware authors. This would have the negative effect of running infected computers constantly and running up infected users’s electric bills.

More links from the show: 

Snapchat is sorry:

http://gigaom.com/2014/01/09/snapchat-says-sorry-for-getting-hacked-updates-app-with-phone-number-opt-out/

Apple and Samsung want to work it out via mediation:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/09/us-apple-samsung-idUSBREA0802P20140109?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

WWE launches its own network: The online network will be available on computers, iOS and Android devices as well as the Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, PS3 and 4 and Roku but only in the US.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/8/5289714/wwe-launching-24-7-subscription-network-to-bring-wrestling-to-you

Makerbot announces the Replicator Mini:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5281882/makerbot-replicator-mini-announced-ces-2014

Pebble Steel actually steel:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126190-pebble-goes-premium-pebble-steel-available-from-29-jan-for-249

S&L Podcast – #135 – Wrap-up Among Others, Kick-off Ringworld

Tom blows Veronica’s mind, she implies dirty things, I imply them back and we all look forward to Ringworld.  It’s like going to camp.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Murphy’s Irish Stout

Veronica: Hendry Ranch Pinot Gris

QUICK BURNS

Science Fiction and Fantasy Author Richard Matheson Dead At 87

2013 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductees

WINNERS: 2013 Locus Awards

Your First Look at the Epic Fantasy Novel Everybody’s Raving About

Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ prequel launching October 30th, first image and plot details emerge

Online Voting is Open for The 2013 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award

Why Big Publishers Think Genre Fiction Like Sci-Fi Is the Future of E-Books

Pop Culture References You Probably Didn’t Know Were Created by Science Fiction Writers

CALENDAR

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: exclusive excerpt

OUTLANDER TV series greenlit

BOOK KICK-OFF

Kick-off Ringworld by Larry Niven

Ringworld Wikipedia article

Larry Niven Wikipedia Article

Official Larry Niven site

The Guide to Larry Niven’s Ringworld

Interactive guide to Ringworld (includes a kind of Google Maps for the Ring)

Don’t forget : ‘Ringworld’ miniseries in the works at Syfy

Alternate Pick – Redshirts by John Scalzi

BOOK WRAP-UP

Wrap-up Among Others by Jo Walton

Anyone else get this through Interlibrary loan? – Erik

Who Died? – Paulo

Magic In the book – Nathan

The books! All those books! – Rob

Novels mentioned in Among Others

ADDENDUMS 

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Direct download link for the show here!

Tech History Today – May 22, 2013

In 1973 – Bob Metcalfe of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center wrote a memo on an IBM selectric typewriter, outlining how to connect personal computers to a shared printer. Metcalfe says “If Ethernet was invented in any one memo, by any one person, or on any one day, this was it.”

In 1980 – Namco released an arcade game called Puck-Man. When it was released in the US in October the name was altered to Pac-Man.

In 1990 – Microsoft released Windows 3.0. It featured big improvements in interface and multitasking. It’s Control Panel feature caught the eye of Apple which sued, and lost.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

S&L Podcast – #79 – Sell me this Doctor

Wherein Tom decides to spend $1,000 on an Alastair Reynolds book, Veronica decides to become an author, and we remember “that comedian”. It’s a chatty episode, a little longer than some have been, but we hope you find it chock full of goodness.

QUICK BURNS

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd Edition) goes live

Agatha H and the Airship City: Girl Genius book is a cross between a comic and a prose novel

Cover art for BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH by Alastair Reynolds — Tom’s excited about this series

SF Authors Predict Computing’s Future

CALENDAR

Oct. 18 2011
Aloha from Hell, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Oct. 20 2011
The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding
Oct. 25 2011
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 
Oct. 27 2011
The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Initiate’s Trial by Janny Wurts
Nov. 8 2011
The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson
Stands a Shadow by Col Buchanan
Endurance, Jay Lake (Tor)

Get the full calendar

BARE YOUR SWORD

Neal Stephenson – Feminist?

Siri brings nerd humor to iPhone

NaNoWriMo 2011

TV and Movies

Sell me on Dr. Who

Who watched The Walking Dead?

Giveaway Announcement

Write a pitch for a NaNoRiMo story, we’ll pick a winner randomly from this thread. You have until October 31st to post, and you could win a Kindle!

EMAIL

Tom and Veronica,

Every once in a while Tom mentions that he’s always looking for books. I’ve also come to the conclusion from a few subtle hints that have been dropped here and there that he’s a baseball fan. So I’d like to add the following to Tom’s reading/listening queue (as the Audible version of this is a fine performance: Summerland by Michael Chabon, winner of both a Hugo and a Pulitzer (not too shabby and a thoroughly uncommon combination). YA fantasy (though as a middle-aged geek, I enjoyed the heck out of it as well) about trans-dimensional travel, elves, dwarves, magic, good, evil, and baseball. Not just baseball, but baseball as a metaphor for life.

Who knows, it might even be an excellent selection for S&L.

Love the podcast, even though I can’t always keep up on the reading.

Yours in geekdom,

George Van Wagner, occasionally known as GVDub in various places on teh intarwebs.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Dave, David, Louise, Mike, Amir, Jason, Ben, Cappy, Rebecca, Gregory

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

Shadow and Claw – The S&L Podcast #53

All is good this episode as we wrap up Good Omens, kick off the Book fo the New Sun, and learn how to properly pronounce Neil Gaiman. Plus Josh Lawrence joins us to share his knowledge of Gene Wolfe.
QUICK BURNS

Boston Science Fiction Film Festival Feb. 11-21
2/8/2011(2/17 on Kindle) The Bitter seed of Magic by Suzanne McLeod – unless Genny can find a way to break the fertility curse afflicting London’s fae, she knows this is just the lull before the magical storm. Then a faeling – a teenage girl – is fished out of the River Thames, dead and bound with magic, and Genny is called into investigate. As she digs through the clues, her search takes a sinister and dangerous turn, exposing age-old secrets that might be better left buried. 
2/8/2011 The Scar-Crow Men by M. Chadbourne The year is 1593. The London of Elizabeth I is in the terrible grip of the Black Death. As thousands die from the plague and the queen hides behind the walls of her palace, English spies are being murdered across the city. The killer’s next target: Will Swyfte.5
Bantam Books (UK): 21 February
Tor US: 1 March
Gollancz (UK): 1 March
DAW (USA): 1 March
Patrick Rothfuss ON TOUR!! “San Francisco March 3rd, SF in SF Reading Series
BARE YOUR SWORD – feedback from the audience
BOOK WRAP-UP
Good Omens
Subversion of religious idioms.
Light entertainment – the Aziraphale and Crowley show
Could have done without Newt and Anatahema. (V would spare Shadwell for the accent)
Didn’t like Adam?  Why? Was he supposed to be likable?
Would you reccomend it?
BOOK KICK-OFF
Other resources
invaluable, but somewhat spoilery
roleplaying campaign sourcebook based on the books, for the GURPS RPG system 
mega-spoilery
Big influence on New Sun:

WolfeWiki

Where to find Josh Lawrence:
EMAILS:

Hello Veronica and Tom,
 
This is totally unrelated to books but I was so excited when Veronica said she had been to a Get Up Kids show. I grew up in Kansas City and remember going to one of their first shows at a local all ages club in KC when I was in high school and their, at the time, last show at the Granada in Lawrence years later. They are still one of my favorite bands and listening to them always makes me homesick. Thanks for that extra moment of fun during the show, which was also great fun on the book-related information front.
 
I always enjoy the podcast, thanks for all the great work!
 
Cheers,
Beth

***
Hi Tom and Veronica
Longtime listener, avid forum poster… but you may have missed someone’s comment about how to correctly pronounce Gaiman so I thought I’d send it again.
From his mouth directly!
http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronounce.cgi?aid=1433
GAYman.  GAYman.  Not GUYman.
Hehe.  I just thought we should do our living authors justice, particularly when you are growing in popularity. Who knows, maybe he would one day want to stop by for a quick interview.  But only if you say his name properly!!
Cheers,
Jenny
***
Hey S&L,
I thought you might be interested to know that Terry Pratchett’s next
novel, Snuff, has been given a date! The book is coming out on October
13, 2011 (http://themorporkian.com/news/snuff-gets-a-release-date/)
and there is also what looks like a blurb for the book in the linked
piece.
Also, after hearing your discussion on whether Pratchett or Gaimen
came up with Pollution, the horseman of the apocalypse, I wondered if
you’d heard of Ronnie? Ronnie stars in The Thief of Time, and is “”The
Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, who retired before they became
famous.””
Love the show.
English John from England

ADDENDUMS
Partner Sticker Fu.  Use the code Sword1 and get 10% off the stickers.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals.   For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword