Brian Ibbott is on the show and we’ll talk about the PS4 doubling Xbox One sales, Pandora guessing your political party, and what tech Coverville’s Mayor uses for music. Plus Len Peralta draws the show!
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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Show Notes
Senators introduce bill to require cellphone makers to include kill switch: Recode reports four US Senators have introduced a bill to require cellphone makers to include the ability to permanently deactivate devices if stolen, either through a kill switch or remote wipe. I hope it somehow involves a small plastic pocket of acid that causes the phone to self-destruct in the criminals hand. And eats their hand.
Bitcoins stolen from Silk Road 2: PC Magazine reports about $2.7 million worth of bit coins have disappeared from Silk Road 2, the replacement for the shut-down original Silk Road marketplace. According to its administrator Defcon, a Silk road 2 vendor exploited ‘transaction malleability’ to repeatedly withdraw coins from the system until it was empty. However, much of Reddit and an update on DeepDotWeb doubt that transaction malleability could be to blame and suggest Silk Road 2 staff may have taken the coins themselves and then blamed hackers. James from Irvine wrote in to point us to a Reddit thread that explains how transaction malleability works and how it cannot be used to directly steal coins.
Xiomi to expand sales area: Many have wondered when hot Chinese phone maker Xiaomi would expand beyond the Chinas (mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan). According to The Next Web, it happens February 21st. That’s when Redmi, the newly-named version of the Hongmi phone, goes on sale in Singapore for SG$169 unlocked . The Redmi will come with a 4.7-inch IPS display, 1.5GHz processor and the MIUI customization ROM.
News From You
AllanAV topped the subreddit charts pre-show with a BGR report surveying the state of broadband competition in the US. The story points out how ISps are pushing state legislation to prevent municipalities from building their own high-speed networks, and have successfully passed some restrictions in 20 states. While ISps are notoriously slow to roll out faster Internet, they very much do not want governments providing it.
habichuelacondulce AND KAPT_Kipper both all-star Subreddit submitters, and both submitted this story about the world’s largest solar thermal plant began electricity delivery from the Mojave Desert in California. CNET reports the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System — jointly owned by NRG Energy, Google, and BrightSource Energy — can produce 392 megawatts of solar power at full capacity. That’s enough to power 140,000 homes. However, like any power plant it’s not without controversy, as birds flying near its scorching hot towers have died or suffered burns.
And dbrodbeck sent in this story emblematic of Canada’s love of hockey. Hamilton’s thespec.com reported Sandvine estimates as much as 37% of commercial and residential web traffic in Canada on Thursday afternoon was linked to streams of Olympic hockey opener between defending champs Canada and Norway. Canada won 3-1 on goals by Shea Weber, Jamie Benn and Drew Doughty.
More Links From the Show
Windows 8 exceeds 200 million licenses sold