Had the pleasure of appearing on Michael Wolf’s Nextmarket podcast to talk about my experiences going indie and funding Daily Tech News Show on Patreon. Better than that though, Patreon founder Jack Conte talks with Michael about why he started Patreon and how it’s going.
Get the episode here.
In 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a US patent for an “Improvement in Telegraphy” (No.174,465) which established the principle of bidirectional signals that made the telephone possible.
In 1926 – The first successful Transatlantic telephone call was placed between New York City and London. Transatlantic service began the following year at $75 a minute.
In 1994 – The Supreme Court found that 2 Live Crew’s parody of Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman” was fair use, and not a violation of copyright, thus ensuring the future of The Onion.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Paul Spain joins from New Zealand and we’ll discuss the topic of Newsweek doxxing Satoshi Nakamoto.
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 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: Paul Spain, host of NZ Tech Podcast, NZ Business Podcast
Headlines
Bitcoin founder revealed: Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman published the results of her investigation into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin. After finding a Satoshi Nakamoto in public records on naturalized citizens, Goodman tracked a model train enthusiast to Southern California. When she showed up at his house, he called the Sheriff’s department. After they arrived, he told her “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” The Internet has largely reacted with rage, accusing McGrath of Doxxing Nakamoto.
The more things change … Engadget reports Facebook has redesigned its news feed to be a bit like the mobile version of the social network and bit like the older version of the feed. Typeface changes to Helvetica for Macs and Arial for PCs, shared stories will no longer indent when a friend leaves a comment, the left-hand column is simplified and photos will be full-width and multiple photos shared in a collage. The design is much simpler than the one showed off last March, which ReCode reports is the result of poor reactions in testing.
Apple vs. Samsung, Part XXIIVIIIIXXXXIIX: CNET reports Judge Lucy Koh gave the latest round of the long-running Apple-Samsung patent fight to Samsung. Apple had requested a ban on 23 Samsung devices found to have infringed on its patents. Early Thursday, Judge Koh denied Apple’s request. Judge Koh did uphold the $290 million in additional damages awarded to Apple by a jury last November. Both sides can appeal both rulings.
Oceans of money: TechCrunch reports cloud hosting company DigitalOcean raised a Series A round of $37.2 million. The company is aimed to compete with Amazon EC2, Rackspace and the like. DigitalOcean provides scalable virtual private servers for $5 a month to start.
How do you feel? How about now? GigaOm reports on an iPhone accessory called Wello. It looks like a typical iPhone case, but the small chip embedded in it along with two sensors, keep track of vitals like blood-oxygen level, blood pressure, ECG, heart rate, temp and more. You just hold your fingers over the sensors to begin tracking. Wello works by Bluetooth and is available for pre-order now in a number of countries. It is expected to retail for $199 in the U.S. and will ship in the fall, pending FDA approval.
Looking so long at these pictures of you: Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports Getty Images has begun a program where bloggers can get an approved embed code of Getty Images and use them for free on blogs and social media pages, as long as the use is not commercial. The embed code sends information about Web traffic back to Getty.
X marks your spot: Reuters reports Flickr co-founder Katerina Fake’s Findery site has launched its mobile app. Findery lets users mark important places on a map and include descriptions, pictures, videos and other information. Fake says Findery is meant to provide more meaningful info. The app is available in the iOS app store.
Doing the CEO shuffle: ReCode reports Sony has announced that Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (fine purveyors of PlayStations) will step down at the end of the month. Sony Network Entertainment International COO Shawn Layden will take Tretton’s place on April 1. Tretton has led the division since 2006 and worked on the team that launched the first PlayStation in 1995. In less disruptive, yet fun Sony news, Deadline Hollywood reports Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems production company has decided to develop a “live-action adaptation” of The Last of US.
News From You
KAPT_Kipper submitted the Next Web article about Firefox investigating why Dell UK is charging £16.25 to install Firefox on its machines. Mozilla, makers of Firefox, say they have no deal with Dell for such a questionably useful service, and it is a violation of the Mozilla terms of service. Dell told TNW it is charging for the service of installation, not the software itself.
TVSEgon sent us the sad AP story of the discovery of virtual currency exchange First Meta CEO Autumn Radke found dead near her apartment tower in Singapore. Singapore’s police say they do not suspect foul play, but did classify it as “unnatural,” which can mean accident or suicide.
And Draconos pointed us to the CNET story that hot on the heels of Dish’s deal with Disney, DirectTV told Reuters IT is in talks for a similar deal to be allowed to include Disney TV content in some future Internet-only video service.
Discussion Section Links: Finding the founder of Bitcoin/CEO of Bitcoin exchange found dead
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/leah-mcgrath-goodman-responds-2014-3
http://stream.wsj.com/story/markets/SS-2-5/SS-2-474236/
Pick of the Day: Producer Jennie recommends Intelligentsia coffee. Yeah, so the name’s a little much, and it ain’t cheap, but the fresh-roasted coffee is just that good. Intelligentsia has coffee bars in three cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. If you live elsewhere, they have a great online shop for both coffee and tools of the trade and a tremendous app that helps you make a perfect cup of coffee–whichever method you prefer. (They sell some pretty delicious tea, too.)
Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen & Russ Pitts
Anne Leonard’s first book JUST came out. Congrats Anne! Moth and Spark is about a Prince who has been chosen to free dragons from bondage to the Empire, but nobody’s exactly sure how he should do it, not even their riders. He meets a doctor’s daughter who discovers she’s a seer. She’s also a commoner, so he really shouldn’t fall for her How do you shine a spotlight on such a young career? It’s all in the backstory! Just watch.
Last year Len Peralta and I put out five issues of a comic called TenState. It was about what happened when ten reality show contestants, from different political and religious backgrounds, were shut inside a biodome for the finals of their show and suddenly, disaster strikes. The stakes of learning to cooperate went from making good TV to survival.
We used Kickstarter to fund those first issues and now they’re available in print and as digital editions from Comixology. Since then, we’ve all come to know Patreon as a way to fund creative endeavors. Patreon is perfect for something like episodic comics. You can pledge per issue and you’ll get the issue. Simple. We don’t put out an issue, it doesn’t cost you money.
I cannot wait to tell more of this story. We’ve lined out four “seasons” of content and the layers will just keep peeling away.
But we need enough people to pledge per issue in order to get started. So if you’re interested in seeing new issues of TenState, head over to patreon.com/lenperalta.
In 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Yaroslavl region of Russia. She would grow up to become the first woman in space and only woman ever to fly solo in space.
In 1992 – The first media-hyped computer virus reached fever pitch as the Michelangelo boot sector virus began to affect computers. Worldwide catastrophe did not follow.
In 2009 – NASA launched the Kepler space observatory, with a mission to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.
In 2012 – Google consolidated its various online stores, Android Market, Google Books, Google Music, and Google video, into one store called Google Play.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
As you guys know, we don’t typically post reviews here on the website, and this is mostly because Tom and I rarely have time to read books outside of the actual book club. However, we’d love to feature reviews from you, our audience!
If you think you’d like to submit a book review for the blog, head over to the Reviews FAQ and learn more! We think this will be a great way to highlight other books as well as highlighting the talented writers we have in our very own community!
Iyaz Akhtar joins us as we get the lowdown on Roku’s updated streaming stick, Logitech’s new remote, and some thoughts on Facebook, Yahoo, Guns and the Winklevoss Twins in space.
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: Iyaz Akhtar of CNET & GFQNetwork.com.
Headlines
Pssst, CNN; you’re selling Zite: ReCode reports Flipboard is buying Zite from CNN, which acquired the tablet newsreader company in 2011. CNN reported its sources (itself?) said the deal is valued at $60 million, but CNN PR says the report valuation is not accurate. Guys, it’s really hard to keep secrets from yourself. Zite will apparently shut down and most of its 20 employees, with the exception of CEO Mark Johnson, will work for Flipboard. Flipboard has also agreed to produce custom magazines for CNN.
What’s my password again? This was our top-voted story on the subreddit, LifeDownloaded and KAPT_Kipper both submitted links. Engadget reports Yahoo will soon stop allowing users to log in with Google or Facebook accounts. Yahoo started allowing third-party logins in 2010. The change has already happened on Fantasy Sports sites and will eventually spread across all services, including Flickr and Tumblr. Happy Tumblr Day!
More purple punch: SIT DOWN you are not allowed to leave the tech news until you’ve finished your Yahoo news. Every bit of it. CNET reports Yahoo acquired Vizify, a company that lets users create infographics and video out of social media. Vizify will shut down and the company will work to bring a more visual approach to data at Yahoo! We’ve all been wondering when that would happen.
Guns? What guns? Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports Facebook will crack down on illegal gun sales. The social network will delete posts where users indicate they would break the law. Private gun sale posters will be reminded to comply with the law. And pages related to gun sales will be required to include language regarding the importance of the law. Posts about illegal weapons are already banned, so the new effort focuses on emphasizing the importance of things like background checks.
Take me to your (new) leader: VentureBeat reports former IGN chief Mark Jung is the new executive chairman of OnLive. He hit the ground running with two new services. CloudLift lets users log in on any devices to get their downloaded games from services like Steam. And OnLive Go lets users play online games like Second Life on mobile devices. Stop it. There are people who still play Second Life and they will send giant penises at you if you mock them.
I WIN EVERYTHING: ReCode reports Dish Network won ALL of the wireless broadband airwave licenses recently auctioned off by the federal government. As we all know, the incumbent carriers in the U.S. have made no secret about the fact that there is a serious spectrum crunch, thus the need to exempt them from regulation. Dish won the 176 licenses because NOBODY ELSE BID.
Winkle, winkle little star: The Winklevoss twins are headed to space as part of Virgin Galactic’s program and they’re paying with Bitcoins, of course. On the application form under vital statistics, Tyler Winklevoss wrote, “I’m 6’5″, 220, and there’s two of me.”
News From You
Mranthropology pointed us to a Verge article about another crypto currency hitting the scene called MazaCoin. Before you roll your eyes ALL the way to the back of your head, MazaCoin is now the official currency of the seven bands that make up the Lakota Nation. MazaCoin was developed by an anonymous cryptographer as a new implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. The Lakota will keep half of MazaCoins in reserve to help prevent wild speculation.
And MikepKennedy sent in the Ars Technica story AMD is very excited about its new AM1 chipset, an SoC for desktops launching April 9. Because… desktops are hot still. Well, AMD might not be totally off the deep end here. The AM1 is meant for the still-selling low-cost desktops with a starting price of $60 for the chipset and motherboard combined. At that price, you can’t draw more than 25W and you’re restricted to PCIe 2.0. AMD’s pitting the AM1 against Intel’s Bay Trail platform.
Discussion Section Links: Roku Streaming Stick vs Google Chromecast: How do they stack up?
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/roku-streaming-stick-2014/4505-6739_7-35835337.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/google-chromecast/
Thursday’s Guest: Paul Spain
We finish our thoughts on House of Cards season 2. One third of the panel liked it. Then we move on to the amazing True Detective from HBO. Or was it?
In 1975 – The Homebrew Computer Club, held its first meeting in the garage of Gordon French in Menlo Park, California. 32 people showed up for the first meeting. John Draper, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were some of the more famous members of the club.
In 1981 – The ZX81 was launched by Sinclair Research in Britain for £69.95 and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world. It was much more successful than it’s predecessor the ZX80.
In 1982 – Four days after it’s twin, the second of two Soviet probes to Venus, the Venera 14 landed on the planet. Venera 13 and 14 would continue to send data until 1983.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.