S&L Podcast – #188 – It’s a Dragon Con Plex

We talk with Naomi Novik, fanfic writer, Ruby on Rails coder and author of the Temeraire series, from DragonCon 2014 in Atlanta! Then, we wrap up Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

Download link here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Dos Perros     
Veronica: Blackstone Pumpkin Ale    
Naomi: Hap and Harry’s Original Tennessee Ale    
Thanks to Les for bringing us the beer!    

Blood of Tyrants came out in mass market paperback July 29 and look for Uprooted coming June 30, 2015.

ADDENDUMS

We time travel and wrap up The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Next time we’ll kick off Stories of Your Life and others by Ted Chiang

And check out our new STORE!

DTNS 2313 – Rejected Because Reasons

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about YouTube getting in on crowd-funding and our picks to backup and protect your data.

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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja, independent podcaster!

Patrick’s patreon: http://www.patreon.com/RDVTech

Headlines

TechCrunch reports Apple released a statement on their 40-hour investigation into the unauthorized access of celebrity photos. Apple determined that “ certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions.” Apple says that the intrusions were not a result of breaches in the iCloud or Find My iPhone systems. Ars Technica reports the FBI is also investigating whether the accounts of the celebrities were hacked.

The New York Times reports on a decision by a court in Frankfurt, banning Uber’s UberPop service from operating in Germany. The court found that Uber did not get the necessary licenses and insurance for all drivers, and selected passengers which is not allowed for Taxis who must take anyone who can pay. Uber Black— a service with luxury sedans— is unaffected by the ban. Uber says it will continue to operate in Germany. Uber could face fines of up to 250,000 euros, or about $330,000 if any taxi company brings a complaint over Uber violating the ban.

According to Ars Technica, more than two thousand game developers signed an open letter asking for tolerance and acceptance in the gaming community. Andreas Zecher wrote the letter which says, “everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened.” The letter comes in response to two recent incidents. Anita Sarkeesian, who creates videos analyzing the portrayal of women in video games left her home after being threatened. Also Zoe Quinn, creator of Depression Quest was harassed and threatened after an ex-boyfriend wrote a critical blog post revealing personal info about her. 

TechCrunch reports Google has rebranded its enterprise services as ‘Google for Work.’ Familiar apps all have enterprise versions which will now add ‘for work’ to their name to distinguish them from the free consumer versions. So, Drive for Work, Search for Work, et cetera. The new names are meant to make it simpler to explain what the tools are.

Netflix has partnered with Facebook to make video recommendations but maybe not in the way you’d expect. TechCrunch reports that if you’ve connected your Facebook account to Netflix, after watching a show, you’ll be asked if you want to suggest a video to a friend. If you do it, the suggestion will not show up on the Facebook news feed, instead it will op up the next time that person uses Netflix. Or if they don’t have Netflix it will be sent as a private Facebook message.

CNET reports that Sonos will now let users connect its speakers directly to a Wi-Fi network, without the need for a bridge connected to your router. Sonos Playbar in 3.1 or 5.1 configurations will still need a wired connection. A software update is available today. If you’re home is too big to get good WiFi everywhere you’d like a speaker, Sonos also has a new wireless peripheral called the Sonos Boost, available later this year, for $99. 

News From You

diggsalot submitted a post from WeLiveSecurity.com passing along the Popular Science story about fake cellphone “towers.” The article quotes CEO of ESD America, Les Goldsmith saying his team found 17 interceptors during the month of July. An interceptor is used by law enforcement and criminals alike to mimic a cell phone tower and ‘intercept connections without being detected. ESD America markets a hardened Samsung Galaxy phone called the CryptoPhone 500.

KAPT_Kipper passes along the TechCrunch report about Apple publishing the Top 10 reasons it rejects apps. Sixty percent of App rejections during a seven day period in August 2014 were due to these ten reasons. The number one most common reason? “More information needed.” The number 2 reason? Bugs in the code. Other reasons include not complying with the Developer Program License Agreement, an overly complex or poorly designed interface, or the use of placeholder text. 42% of the rejections were for ‘Other Reasons’, because– reasons. 

and tm204 passed along the 9to5 Mac story that Reddit has launched an Ask me Anything app for iOS that gives you an easy way to follow real-time and archived AMAs. AMAs are Reddit’s most popular feature, with 6.2M followers. A third of Reddits visitors come from mobile, so the site plans to try to address that user base more actively.

Discussion Links: 
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/01/youtube-now-offers-fan-funding-heres-look-works/

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052077

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6050322

http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/09/02/youtubes-new-fan-funding-feature-lets-you-donate-to-your-favorite-channel-owners/

Plug of the Day:  Daily Tech News Show Shirt with Mustafa from thepolarcat.com’s logo now available in white, black and Ash. Look in the podcasts section.

Pick of the Day: 

CrashPlan 

LastPass 

Tomorrow’s guest: Allison Sheridan, host of the Nosillacast

Today in Tech History – Sep. 2, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1859 – A unique combination of solar events including a magnetic explosion severely affected the young telegraph network in North America and Europe. Wires shorted out, fires started and some machines reportedly worked even when disconnected from batteries.

1997 – IBM announced that its RS/6000 SP model parallel supercomputer, was now 58 percent faster than Deep Blue, the computer that beat Kasparov at chess.

In 2001 – At ECTS in London, Blizzard announced an online RPG version of its popular Warcraft franchise, called “World of Warcraft”.

MP3

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

DTNS 2312 – Apple trifecta

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIt’s the Labor Day holiday in the US so just a short roundup of the headlines today.

MP3

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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Lasers turn glass into metal.

Today in Tech History – Sep. 1, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1902 -Georges Méliès’ Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) debuted in France. It is often considered the first real science fiction film.

In 1994 – The United States Library of Congress held the first of several meetings to plan the conversion of its materials to digital form to make them accessible by computer networks.

In 1996 – Apple released its Pippin game console in the US. The idea was to provide an inexpensive game-focused computer. Apple licensed third parties like Bandai to make Pippin consoles.

In 2008 – Google launched its Web browser called Google Chrome.

MP3

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

Today in Tech History – Aug. 31, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1897 – Thomas Edison received a patent for the kinetographic camera, the forerunner of the motion picture film projector.

In 1994 – Stockholders approved the merger of Aldus Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. It united the two driving forces behind desktop publishing software. Aldus Pagemaker became Adobe Pagemaker.

In 1997 – The developer release of Apple’s new OS, code name Grail1Z4 / Titan1U was released. It was known formally as Rhapsody and would evolve into OS X.

MP3

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

Today in Tech History – Aug. 30, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler received a patent for adding an internal combustion engine to a bicycle to make the first gasoline-driven motorcycle.

In 1963 – A direct line of communication between the leaders of the USA and USSR, dubbed “The Hotline” began operation.

In 1969 – BBN delivered the first Interface Message Processor (IMP) to the Network Measurements Center at UCLA. It was built from a Honeywell DDP 516 computer with 12K of memory, and would be used in October to make the first Internet connection with Stanford. Graduate students Vinton Cerf, Steve Crocker, Bill Naylor, Jon Postel, and Mike Wingfield were charged with installation.

In 1982 – A copyright was issued to 16-year-old V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai for a computer program he called “EMAIL,” short for “electronic mail.” While Ayyadurai may not be considered the inventor of email he definitely deserves credit for establishing the name.

MP3

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

DTNS 2311 – Microsoft Kills the Messenger before the robots kill us

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJonathan Strickland, Justin Young, Veronica Belmont join the show to talk about how the drones, AI and robots will kill us all thanks to Amazon and Google. +Len Peralta illustrates the show!

MP3

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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes