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It’s our author guide to Max Gladstone! If you want an author who knows how to work the financial crisis into epic fantasy and is handy with a sword, Max is your man. We also get the final word on a showdown between him and Scott Lynch. You won’t believe who really runs the economy.
Patrick Beja is on the show and we discuss British intelligence looking at nude photos of Yahoo chatters, plus more net neutrality thoughts, and a very special birthday that made all of this possible. You have not guessed who it was, I promise.
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: Patrick Beja, host of RDVTech
Headlines
British spy program ‘Optic Nerve’ captures Yahoo web chats, including nude images: The Guardian reports on documents obtained from Edward Snowden describing a UK GCHQ spy program called ‘Optic Nerve’ which ran from 2008-2010 for sure and was showing up on an internal wiki as recently as 2012. The program captured images from Yahoo chats, saving a still picture every 5 minutes. Analysts could only look at metadata in bulk searches but could get images if a username was the same or similar to targeted individual. In addition to testing facial recognition and feeding some data to the US NSA. the GCHQ was surprised to find a “number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.” Around seven percent of the images included “undesirable nudity.” The report did not estimate the amount of desirable nudity.
Google’s Project Ara project to arrive as early as next year with $50 price tag: Time’s Technologizer blog reports Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone could arrive early next year priced at $50. That’s the phone that has blocks you can plug in and replace to add or upgrade functionality. Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group reportedly will finish a functioning prototype within a few weeks.The $50 version would only have WiFi, but then you could always get more block later. The freemium model comes to hardware!
Boeing to make secure phone CNET reports on Boeing’s dupe secure government and military phone: Yes Boeing is making a phone. Codenamed Black, it comes with loads of security features, dual SIM cards, a modular back for mission-specific needs like satellite communications or ultra-specific geolocation. Also any attempt to open the device would delete the data and software. The device won’t be available to the consumer market and technical information on “Black” is to remain confidential or protected by non-disclosure agreements. Also we never had this conversation.
News From You
Hey Steven Strogatz, I hope you made a bet on your prediction that computer-assisted math solutions would surpass human comprehension. Josh sent us an email with a link to the iO9 article about a computer that has solved the longstanding Erdős discrepancy problem. The solution is as long as all of Wikipedia’s pages combined and impossible for a human to confirm. The only way to check if it’s right is to see if another computer attempting to solve the same problem comes up with the same answer.
KAPT_Kipper posted the TechCrunch article about Sony announcing it’s shutting down 20 of its 31 retail stores in the US. Sony is busy offloading unprofitable parts of its business, even considering things like selling Sony Pictures, so this isn’t a shock. The 11 stores to remain open are in California, New York, Florida, and Houston, Texas.
And tm204 noted the Computer World story about Apple’s decision Tuesday that it will no longer issue security patches for OS X Snow Leopard. The last Snow Leopard security update came in September 2013. Snow Leoaprd was released in 2009. Apple generally only supports the newest and previous versions of its OS, but has supported Snow Leoaprd longer. Still. 19% of Macs were running Snow Leopard according to Net Applications data. Snow Leopard was the last version of the OS capable of running applications on the PowerPC processor.
Discussion Section Links:
Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/spy-agency-intercepts-yahoo-webcam-chats-nudes-and-all/
Pick of the Day:
I always heartily endorse Writer, at writer.bighugelabs.com Its essentially an internet typewriter, a super stripped down word processor. By default its green text on a black background (takes me back to my DOS days), and when in full screen mode it gives the best distraction free writing experience I’ve ever had. It has basic features, word count and a word count goal percentage, along with online saving across their servers. There’s a subscription option with some more advanced editing features and the ability to save to Google Drive/Dropbox, but the free version is all I’ve ever need. Every time I try NaNoWriMo its my go to.
Unprompted and hopefully not resented. Thanks
Rich from Lovely Cleveland
Tomorrow’s Guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org
Brian’s almost to the end. What has him despairing? What has him intrigued? What can’t Tom say to make him feel better about the show? Two out of three of these questions answered!
In 1891 – David Sarnoff was born near Minsk. He would go on to befriend Marconi and rise to the Presidency of RCA and be integral in founding NBC.
In 1932 – English physicist James Chadwick published a letter on the existence of the neutron, some say giving birth to modern nuclear physics.
In 1986 – The United States Senate voted to allow its debates to be televised on a trial basis. The trial was successful.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Sean Hollister is on the show to tell us how Google is about to conquer its own town. We’ll also update you on BitCoin and trot out some exciting new net neutrality metaphors!
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: Sean Hollister, senior reporter at The Verge
Headlines
Mt. Gox hit with federal subpoena: Ars Technica reports on the latest with Mt. Gox, the bit coin exchange that’s been down for more than a week. Wednesday morning, CEO Mark Karpeles wrote a new post on the Mt. Gox website reassuring people that he is still in Japan working hard to find a solution to Mt. Gox’s issues. The WSJ reports the US Southern District of New York has issued a federal subpoena to Mt. Gox. That court often deals with financial crimes. Japanese authorities say they are looking into the collapse themselves.
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We are very excited to show you the cover art for the Sword & Laser Anthology! Created by artist Cliff Nielsen, each globe within this crazy storage center is a self-contained world. This is how we think of the Anthology itself: twenty worlds that you can easily lose yourself within.
So yes, this means we are almost ready to send the Anthology out into the world! Just wrapping up a few tiny edits, waiting on some blurbs, and then it will be out into the universe! We hope you love it as much as we loved putting it together.
In 1896 – Hoping to test the sun’s ability to create X-rays. Henri Becquerel placed a wrapped photographic plate in a closed desk drawer, with phosphorescent uranium rocks laid on top. He left it in the drawer for several days until the sun came out. It was cloudy.
In 1909 – The first successful color motion picture process, Kinemacolor, was shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
In 1935 – Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated Radio Detection And Ranging to Air Ministry officials at Daventry, England. This RADAR proved quite helpful a few years later when war broke out.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in two years I will be coming back to the land of the bridge bats and the home of the Shiner Bock. Thanks to the siren song of Diamond Club TV I will be attending the Diamond Club shindig on Saturday. You must join me! And together we can rule Texas!
Shut up and give you details? Here goes!
Details
WHEN: Saturday March 8th 3-5 PM Central Time
WHERE: Handlebar.
WHAT: Brian Brushoowd, Justin Robert Young, Veronica Belmont, MAYBE Andrew Mayne, and myself hanging out chatting with chatters, and pretending to be the Rat Pick circa 1967.
MUSICAL GUESTS: The inimitable Tay Allen and Possum Posse.
What do I do?
SHOW UP.
See y’all there.
We chat with Bill Gourgey, who’s Glide Trilogy does not settle for a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic world. What happens AFTER the post-apocalyptic dust settles!? We also find out how a tech analyst ends up writing genre novels and poetry. You won’t believe his answer! Or maybe you will. You probably will. But you won’t know what it is, unless you watch/listen to the show!
Roger Chang joins me to dig into the Mt. Gox Bitcoin mess, have some further thoughts on Comcast-Netflix and look at a new language! Also, do selfies cause lice?
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: Roger Chang, TV and web video producer
Headlines
Mt. Gox goes offline: Ars Technica and really the whole tech journalism sphere are reporting on Mt. Gox going offline. The site has been replaced by a message that transactions are closed for the time being for the protection of users. A joint statement from other Bitcoin exchanges accuses Mt. Gox of being a bad actor and promises make botching more secure and easy to use for customers. A leaked set of slides purports to show Mt. Gox plans to name a new CEO and possibly sell the company to new investors and relaunch under the name Gox. The domain name Gox.com is owned by MT. Gox’s CEO and the record was updated Feb. 24th.
Apple releases OS X patch for SSL security bug: TechCrunch reports Apple has released their OS X patch for security bug that meant all data secured in SSL was susceptible to man in the middle attacks from nearby hackers. The bug was patched for iOS this weekend. Anyone running OS X 10.9 is urged to update the OS as soon as possible. The patch also adds audio-only capability to FaceTime on the desktop.
Blackberry announces a Foxconn-made phone called the Z3: TechCrunch has the new BlackBerry announcements including the much-rumored Foxconn-made phone called the Z3. The touchscreen smartphone has a 5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and an internal FM radio! The Z3 will launch in Indonesia first. BlackBerry also announced a 3.5-inch phone with a QWERTY keyboard called the Q20.
T-Mobile adds 1.6 million subscribers in Q4: But they lost $20 million or 3 cents a share on revenue of $6.83 billion. All those snotty ads cost money. Still they only added 61,000 subscribers a year ago so the expensive ads did seem to work.
Tivo founders launch QPlay device
News From You
pete_C posted a ZDNet story to the SubReddit that got some up votes. Seems Ars Technica noted the security team at FireEye developed a proof-of-concept app that could run in the background of a mobile device and log your keystrokes. FireEye originally posted that they successfully got such an app through Apple’s app store but that post has been removed. The defense for now is to be careful what apps you install, and only allow apps you trust to run in the background.
and sewell2 submitted the Ars Technica article on Stephen Elop becoming head of Microsoft’s Devices and Studios group, once Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset division is completed. Devices and Services makes the Xbox and the Surface among other things. The Nokia handset business will fall under that division as well. Julie Larson-Green, who currently heads Devices & Services, will become “Chief Experience Officer” of the “My Life & Work” team as soon as Elop joins.
News from Roger: Google sets roadblocks to stop distracted driver legislation
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/us-google-glass-lobbying-idUSBREA1O0P920140225
Discussion Section Links: Mt Gox Has Fallen
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02/mt-gox-once-the-worlds-largest-bitcoin-exchange-shuts-down/
http://blog.coinbase.com/post/77766809700/joint-statement-regarding-mtgox
http://www.scribd.com/doc/209050732/MtGox-Situation-Crisis-Strategy-Draft
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_Malleability
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/understanding-bitcoins-transaction-malleability-problem/
http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/77817993185/motives-disclosures-suspicions-mt-gox-update
Pick of the Day:
Tomorrow’s Guest: Sean Hollister, West Coast Editor at The Verge