Movie Draft Update, Orange is the New Black (301), Game of Thrones (510), The Shield (603)
00:29 – Movie Draft Update
04:22 – Orange is the New Black (301)
14:45 – Game of Thrones (510)
37:40 – The Shield (603)
Today in Tech History – June 17, 2015
In 1936 – Edwin Armstrong presented FM radio at FCC headquarters. Armstrong played a jazz record over conventional AM radio, then switched to an FM broadcast. “[I]f the audience of 50 engineers had shut their eyes they would have believed the jazz band was in the same room.”
In 1946 – The first mobile telephone call was made from a car in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 1997 – Programmers deciphered code written in the impenetrable Data Encryption Standard, the strongest legally exportable encryption software in the United States. The hackers organized over the Internet and cracked the software in five months, proving that stronger encryption was needed.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2516 – Password: Cake, Monkey, Fish Flag
Patrick Beja is on to talk about announcements from Sony and Nintendo. Was there nothing good at E3 this year?
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja
Headlines:
CNET called Sony’s E3 press event a mix of nostalgia and exclusives. Halo creator Bungie announced a new expansion for Destiny coming in September. Sony has exclusive deals for early access to Square Enix’s next Hitman, called Hitman, Street Fighter V and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will offer PlayStation only missions and the next Disney Infinity game will come with an exclusive Star Wars figure in a PlayStation-only bundle. Square Enix remake Final Fantasy VII as a timed exclusive for the ps4. Sega launched a kickstarter for Shenmue 3 which funded its first 2 million dollar goal in 9 hours. Sony introduced a first-person shooter called Rigs that’s exclusive for Sony’s Morpheus virtual reality headset. And Sony PlayStation Vue the TV service arrived in San Francisco and LA while Sony promised future al la carte channel purchasing options. OH and Last Guardian is coming in 2016. Yeah they opened with that bombshell.
Nintendo’s E3 digital announcement conference had a lot of new titles for 3DS and a lot fewer new titles for the Wii U. Nintendo will release Amiibo for Bowser and Donkey Kong that will work in the Wii U version of Activision’s Skylanders Superchargers in September. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes comes to the 3DS. A three-player cooperative take on the classic adventure franchise that has online play and arrives this fall. For 2016 the 3DS will also get Metroid Prime: Federation Force a multiplayer-focused online shooter set as a spin-off and Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam.
For Wii U owners this year there’s Super Mario Maker coming September 11th. Yoshi’s Woolly World October 16th. And later this year Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis:Ultra Smash, and Star Fox Zero. Nintendo also teased Fire Emblem: Fates and Xenoblade Chronicles the next installment in the popular JRPG.
Twitter is going the way of autoplay. The Next Web reports that video and GIF’s will now play automatically, but that the sound will be muted until you click on the video or turn the phone to landscape view. Users can opt out, and Twitter automatically disables the feature if it thinks you have low bandwidth. The change rolls out today to Twitter.com and Twitter for iOS. Android coming soon.
Computer World reports that a UK company called Intelligent Environment is promising to bring emoji-only passcodes to banks.
They claim emojis as a PIN will prevent hackers from identifying common and easily obtainable numerical passcodes, like a date of birth or a wedding anniversary. There are forty four available emojis which equals 3,498,308 unique combinations of non repeating emoji. No banks have signed on to the system yet.
TechCrunch reports Adobe’s Creative Cloud new milestone update was announced. The big addition is Adobe Stock a new stock photo and video service created after the acquisition of Fotolia. Photoshop and Lightroom get a dehaze filter. And Photoshop now has support for artboards as well a an HTML5-based design space that shows only the tools optimized for app design.
TechCrunch reports Box is now integrated in Microsoft Office Online. Box has already been available in Office 365. Box competitor dropbox integrated into office online in April.
The Verge reports Razer’s Open Source Virtual Reality platform will now support Android and position tracking. Position tracking, was a noted absence from OSVR’s initial release back in January. Hardware support within OSVR will eventually be added to allow Android phones to take the place of a dedicated VR display. In total, OSVR is now up to 144 supporters including the Unity and Unreal engines.
News From You:
KAPT_kipper submitted the Last Pass blog posted that attackers had penetrated the password manager’s network and accessed account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts and authentication hashes. The passwords may still be difficult to crak as Last Pass uses 100,000 rounds of server-side PBKDF2-SHA256 in addition to client side rounds. And to be clear the database of stored passwords for OTHER accounts, the whole reason one would use Last Pass, was NOT accessed. LastPass has put in place email verification, suggest turning on multifactor authnetication if you haven’t already, and encourages all accounts to change their master password.
Starfuryzeta posted the article from Mashable that Google Maps can now warn you if a destination will be closed by the time you get there. Of course, the hours of operation have tobe correct and Google’s traffic estimator has to be accurate. But still, nice touch Maps.
TheRealFrankL sent us the New York Times report that the FBI is investigating whether employees of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team hacked into the internal networks of the Houston Astros to steal data on players. Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials may have obtained internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports. Astros GM Jeff Luhnow left the Cardinals in December 2011. The FBI believes the attackers used a list of passwords Mr. Luhnow had used while working for the Cardinals, to access the Astros network.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Franz from -insert weather conditions here- Austria:
To play your existing PC games in full stereoscopic 3D, I recommend TriDef 3D.
The software acts as a middleware driver for games that use Direct3D 9,10 or 11. It offers extensive tweaking, works with all brand GPUs and many types of 3D technologies including color separation, and even VR headsets. There is a list of supported games on their website, but after testing all my other games, I found that a surprisingly large amount of them (>75%) did work – some even as old as 2003!
There are two downsides however:
One: At 40 USD, it’s expensive, but there is a free 2 week trial.
Two: the hardware requirements are steep, obviously, and also it takes a certain mindset to tolerate the necessary tinkering and potential frustration that come with the initial setup process
But once it runs, it’s great. So if 3D is your sort of thing, check it out.
Messages:
Alan writes:
I find it interesting that Microsoft is adding backwards compatibility to XBox One. If I remember correctly, they omitted it completely from Xbox 360. Sony got a little backlash for no backwards compatiblity in PS4, but they did start out with some backwards compatibility in PS3 before phasing it out. To me, this makes it seem like backwards compatibility is only a move to make when you’re behind in the market. That may not be the case, but it kind of looks that way. I still haven’t bought a current gen console, but I tend to favor Playstation. It seems to have more variety, since I’m not big on the most popular genres of shooters, sports, and racing. Nor fighting or zombies, so as you can see I’m really not a gamer.
Jonathan writes:
Catching up on my DTNS feed, I listened to episode 2513 where Allison and Todd talked about the FTC taking consumer protection action against Erik Chevalier for his 2013 Kickstarter campaign; a game entitled “The Doom That Came to Atlantic City”.
As an active member of the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS), I try to keep up with the boardgaming news. I wanted to note that in 2013, board game publisher Cryptozoic Entertainment, rescued the project and delivered the game in 2014 to the Kickstarter backers as was promised by Mr. Chevalier. Cryptozoic did this without receiving any money from the original campaign.
I felt they deserved a shout-out for that amazing gesture of good will toward the boardgaming community.
Relevant links:
Cryptozoic Entertainment 2013 press release – https://www.cryptozoic.com/articles/cryptozoic-saves-doom-came-atlantic-city-board-game
Dice Tower News coverage – http://www.dicetowernews.com/the-doom-that-came-to-atlantic-city/1220
Cryptozoic Entertainment 2014 game fulfillment page – http://www.cryptozoic.com/articles/doom-filled-dream-becomes-reality-42
Boardgame Geek listing – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124548/doom-came-atlantic-city
Columbus Area Boardgaming Society – http://www.cabsgamers.org/
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Wednesday’s Guests: Raj Deut & Scott Johnson!
Today in Tech History – June 16, 2015
In 1911 – The Tabulating Company (founded by Herman Hollerith), the Computing Scale Company, and the International Time Recording Company merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York. They would later change the company name to International Business Machines,and later just IBM.
In 1963 – Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times.
In 1977 – Software Development Laboratories was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates. They later came up with the catchier name, Oracle.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers 75 – 9PM is the New 3AM
Is Yahoo the broadcast network of the Internet? Can YouTube steal Twitch’s users, and how TiVo’s own money gets in the way of good features.
DTNS 2515 – We’re Doomed
Veronica Belmont and Roger Chang join to discuss Microsoft’s announcements of backwards compatibility and Minecraft for Hololens at E3. And is it truly the best lineup of Xbox games in history?
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If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Veronica Belmont and Roger Chang
Headlines:
Microsoft had their E3 press conference this morning. The crowd-pleaser was the announcement of backwards-compatibility fro Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One. Select titles will show up automatically if bought through Xbox Live or can be added by inserting a disc. A new Xbox Wireless Elite Controller was also announced coming in Autumn, no price. It is fully reprogrammable and even has swappable buttons and sticks. Windows 10 was announced as a platform for Valve VR and a version of Minecraft has been crated for HoloLens. Among the game announcements were Halo 5 Guardians coming 10/27, Rainbow Six: Siege October 13th, Rare Replay with 30 classic games for $30 August 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider November 10. Also Cuphead, Dark Souls 3…. We’re going to talk more about this hang on.
Bethesda kicked off the pre-E3 press extravaganza last night. A new Doom, just called Doom is the first game on the new idTech 6 engine, has an accessible modding tool called Snapmap and will come to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in Spring 2016. Elder Scrolls: Legends is a strategy card game with a trailer very similar to Hearthstone’s, free to play on iPad and PC by the end of the year. Dishonored 2 is coming though we don’t know when. And Fallout 4 arrived November 10, with mods you can create on PC and transfer to Xbox One and a pip-boy app that can be best used inside a full-sized real-life Pip-Boy sleeve available in a collector’s edition. And a free to play Fallout mobile game called FalloutShelter has launched.
Facebook launched a new app called Moments that groups photos based on when they were taken and identifies who is in them. You can then choose to sync them with specific friends and vice versa. It can also group photos based on who is in them and let you search for photos of particular people. Moments launches today in the US on iOS and Android with more countries to follow over time.
Re/code has a breakdown of the revenue split for Apple’s Music. Apple executive Robert Kondrk, who negotiates music deals, says Apple will pay out 71.5 percent of the $10 a month subscription revenue from the US. Outside the US the percentage will be around 73%. That will be split up somehow among music owners (labels and publishers) one assumes based on plays. Apple however will not pay labels for rights to their music during the three month free trial which begins June 30th.
Venture Beat reports that Razer has acquired android game console-maker Ouya. Investment bank Mesa Global has confirmed the deal but Razer has not confirmed. VB says Ouya debt holders triggered the sale and would cost $10 million to buy out the debt holders. Razer has its own Android console called the Forge. Ouya has a library of 1124 android games including some exclusives and more than 40k plus developers.
The Next Web reports that Skype for web is now available worldwide. Skype’s web app works with IE, Chrome, Safari and Firefox on Windows and OS X as well as on Chrome OS and Linux. For now, you’ll need plugin to make calls, but in the future the web app will use Web RTC.
The New York Times reports IBM will commit hundreds of millions of dollars to developing Apache Spark, the open source project for real-time data analysis. Spark was developed at the Algorithms, Machines and People Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. IBM said it will put more than 3,500 of its developers and researchers to work on Spark-related projects, embed Spark in its data analysis software and offer Spark as a service.
Engadget reports Spotify has launched a site called spotify-tasterewind.com which analyzes your music library to recommend decade-specific playlists from the 1960s through whatever we call the last decade before this one. So for instance if I like Major Lazer, Wiz Khalifa and Pitbull, my 1970s playlist might have Bob Marley, The Isley Brothers and Julio Iglesias. Which is what happened for Tom.
News From You:
t2t2 informed us that the makers of Notepad ++ have left SourceForge. A blog post on notepad-plus-plus.org cites SourceForge’s several incidents where sourceforge bundled ad-ware into hosted open source projects, without notifying the owners and creators of the software. The post reads, “Such a shameless policy should be condemned, and the Notepad++ project will move entirely out of SourceForge.” The post encourages other project owners to also move off SourceForge.
tglass1976 sent us a Gizmodo article about the first prosthetic leg that can simulate sensation. A team at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria relocated a patient’s nerve endings closer to where the prosthesis connects, and connected the nerve endings to stimulators located in the prosthetic legs, which are then connected to six sensors on the sole of the prosthetic foot. When the sensors push against the ground, the nerve endings get a sense of feeling. The sense of touch makes the user safer and can help stop phantom limb pain.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Devulu wanted to share this:
I found a beautiful website called http://species-in-pieces.com/.
The website was created by Amsterdam-based Designer Bryan James, who decided to push the limits of CSS’s animation capabilities while also building a platform for raising awareness of endangered species around the world. The result is “In Pieces”, an interactive catalog of 30 animals created entirely with CSS.
The animations are fascinating and it also raises awareness, how cool!
Works best in Google Chrome.
Messages:
Russell writes in:
On Friday’s show you were talking about Google being forced to block a website as part of a judgement by the Canadian court against a company called Datalink. The strange thing about this was the use of a private company, Google, to enforce a judgement. I am not a lawyer but it would seem the enforcement of a judgement would lay in the hands of law enforcement, the judicial system or the correctional system. This seemed like a very strange thing to do and felt a bit off. Wondering if there is a lawyer in the DTNS community who could shed some light on it.
Great to have seen the next Patreon goal met!!
Scott writes:
With Friday’s news/rumour that Blackberry may be working on an Android based phone I’m wondering if Nokia and Blackberry aren’t perfectly suited for a technical partnership of some sort.
Blackberry brings device management & security, with Samsung Knox nipping at it’s heals. As well as BBM, one of the largest messaging clients, fourth or fifth?
While Nokia brings solid mapping, which it really wants to become a viable smart phone alternative to Google Maps and/or Apple Maps.
Both have a devote fan base, and I believe that both have moved away from producing their own hardware.
Perhaps a partnership of two drowning rats?
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Tuesday’s Guests: Patrick Beja
Today in Tech History – June 15, 2015
In 1878 – Photographer Eadweard Muybridge used high-speed photography to capture a horse’s motion. The photos showed the horse with all four feet in the air during some parts of its stride. Stop-motion photography was born.
In 1949 – Jay Forrester wrote down a proposal for core memory in his notebook. Core memory was the standard for computer memory until advances in semiconductors in the 1970s.
In 1987 – Compuserve’s Sandy Trevor and his team, which included inventor Steve Wilhite, released GIF version 87a. The new enhanced format allowed people to create compressed animations. “Under Construction” GIFs everywhere became possible.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – June 14, 2015
In 1822 – Charles Babbage announced his difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables.”
In 1951 – The US Census Bureau officially put UNIVAC I into service calling it the world’s first commercial computer.
In 1962 – The European Space Research Organization, which would become the European Space Agency, was established in Paris.
In 1967 – NASA launched Mariner 5 on its mission to fly by Venus.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – June 13, 2015
In 1925 – Charles Jenkins publicly demonstrated synchronized transmission of silhouette pictures and sound, becoming the first person to demonstrate TV in the US.
In 1941 – John Mauchly visited John Atanasoff to see his computer. The two computer pioneers later battled in court over who was the legal inventor of the electronic digital computer.
In 1944 – Germany launched the first guided missile attack in history, sending V-1 rockets into London.
In 1983 – Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to pass outside Pluto’s orbit and leave the central solar system.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
FSL Tonight Week 1 – Teamwork? Who needs it?
Coruscant sends Tony Stark back to the pit and the Guardians show that teamwork isn’t always necessary.