(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 282: Confidence Level

July 27, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the things that are making the tech world shake, rattle and roll — including Amazon’s facial recognition software not passing muster with the American Civil Liberties Union, Facebook’s stock price plummeting and the possibility of the Broadway musical Hamilton coming to Netflix. In the (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. also describes a new scam going around that shows off an old password you’ve actually used in the past. Ride along with Episode 282!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Amazon’s Rekognition messes up, matches 28 lawmakers to mugshots (Ars Technica)
Facebook Reports Second Quarter 2018 Results (Facebook)
Facebook Stock Tumbles as User and Sales Growth Slows After Scandals (The New York Times)
Facebook’s $100 billion-plus rout is the biggest loss in stock market history (CNBC)
Senate Intel Panel Plans Hearing With Facebook, Google, And Twitter Execs (BuzzFeed News)
Watch Party Launches Around the World (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook rolls out social video feature Watch Party to all Groups (Marketing Land)
YouTube hits Infowars with strike for hate speech, child endangerment (The Hill)
Trump Criticizes Twitter for ‘Shadow Banning’ Some Republicans (Bloomberg)
Twitter will lock your account if you change your display name to Elon Musk (The Verge)
Building on our cloud security leadership to help keep businesses protected (Google Keyword blog)
Google unveils 2FA ‘Titan Security Key’ w/ custom firmware, coming to Google Store (9to5Google)
A milestone for Chrome security: marking HTTP as “not secure” (Google Keyword blog)
Chrome now alerts you to unsecured HTTP sites (Engadget)
Samsung Display’s ‘Unbreakable Panel’ Certified by Underwriters Laboratories (Samsung Newsroom)
Round-up: user ‘solutions’ for thermal throttling of the i9 2018 MacBook Pro (Apple Insider)
The MacBook Pro’s throttling issues are fixed, but Apple hasn’t solved its biggest problem (Macworld)
Spotify added 8 million paid subscribers thanks to family plans (Engadget)
Liquid water ‘lake’ revealed on Mars (BBC News)
‘Hamilton’ Filmed Performance With Lin-Manuel Miranda Could Hit Big Screen: Report (Deadline)
myMTA app for Android and iOS
New York Today: A New App From the M.T.A. (The New York Times)
MTA Launches Test Version of System-Wide ‘MYmta’ App and New Responsive Website Designed by Customers (Metropolitan Transit Authority)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

- An Old Scam With a New Twist (The New York Times)
- Krebs on Security

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 281: The Jet Set

July 20, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

In this week’s show, J.D. and an overworked El Kaiser discuss the week’s news, including Google’s big fine and Amazon Prime Day’s big fail. There’s also an exciting turn of events for those wishing rocket jet-packs were real. J.D. also has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about making your Windows PC or Mac clean up after itself. Hear it all now on Episode 281!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case (The New York Times)
Antitrust: Commission fines Google €4.34 billion for illegal practices regarding Android mobile devices to strengthen dominance of Google’s search engine (European Commission Press release)
Android has created more choice, not less (Google Keyword blog)
Zuckerberg: The Recode interview (Recode audio)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Recode Decode: Full transcript (Recode)
Zuckerberg clarifies: ‘I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.’ (Recode)
Amazon’s website crashed as soon as Prime Day began (The Verge)
Amazon’s Website Crashes on Prime Day (The Atlantic)
Amazon sells more than 100 million products on Prime Day event (Reuters)
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket aces dramatic test launch (NBC News)
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos beats Bill Gates in new rich list (BBC News)
See What’s Next…On TV (Netflix blog)
Gravity Industries
Selfridges’ flying ‘Iron Man’ suit is now on sale to the public (The Daily Mail)
Samsung Plans to Launch Foldable-Screen Phone Early Next Year (The Wall Street Journal)

Reports of an unidentified flying man at #SelfridgesLondon have been confirmed. Introducing Gravity Industries, the world’s first jet suit, exclusively available at #Selfridges #takeongravity Gravity Industries Jet Suit pic.twitter.com/Jo9ilPkRWo

— Selfridges (@Selfridges) July 18, 2018

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

New Ways to Delete Old Files (The New York Times)
How to Free Up Space on Your Mac (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 280: Purge Surge

July 13, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Several companies have now stepped up the fight against fake news — most noticeably, Twitter, as the service finally began to delete fake accounts and return follower totals back to the realm of real people. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the efforts, as well as the state of streaming television, Apple’s latest updates and the things one can find for sale on the Dark Net. In a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. has some tips for how to stay charged up when traveling. All aboard Episode 280!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Confidence in follower counts (Twitter blog)
WhatsApp launches a feature that labels forwarded messages (Poynter)
YouTube to fight fake news with links to real news and context (Ars Technica)
YouTube TV Service Suffers Outage in Middle of England-Croatia World Cup Semifinal (Variety)
How to Watch the First Funded News Shows on Facebook Watch (Facebook Newsroom)
Findings, recommendations and actions from ICO investigation into data analytics in political campaigns (UK Information Commissioner’s Office)
Live TV Streaming Service Philo Raises $40 Million in Funding (The Wrap)
European Networks Are Joining Forces to Take On Netflix and Amazon (Hollywood Reporter)
Helping creators protect their content (YouTube Creators Blog)
Downloading on Netflix Just Got Smarter (Netflix blog)
FCC Set to Propose Easing of Children’s Television Rules (Variety)
3D-printed guns: Settlement paves way for DIY weapons (San Jose Mercury News)
Hacker Found Selling US Military Document on the Dark Web (Silicon Angle)
Apple updates MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros (Apple Newsroom)
New Apple products expected this fall include iPhones, iPads, Macs, AirPods, Apple Watches (Business Insider)
It looks like a Google partner might’ve just leaked Android P’s real name (BGR)
“Google Was Not a Normal Place”: Brin, Page, and Mayer on the Accidental Birth of the Company that Changed Everything (Vanity Fair)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Power to Go

Emergency Charging Options on the Road (The New York Times)
The Risk in Using a Public Phone Charger (The New York Times)
How to Pack and Prepare Your Smartphone for Traveling This Summer (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 279: The Long Arm of the Law

July 9, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

In that quiet time of the year between developer conferences and the back-to-school sales, product announcements are scarce — but the hazy, lazy days of summer are no vacation for the legal world! As El Kaiser and J.D. discover on this week’s episode, court rulings and decisions by lawmakers dominated the news this week, with a few bug revivals thrown in for good measure. J.D. also explores the new Windows 10 Timeline feature in Microsoft’s latest operating-system update, so beat the heat and find a cool place to settle in with Episode 279!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Episode

EU lawmakers vote against tough line on copyright reform (Reuters)
Kim Dotcom loses latest appeal against US extradition (BBC News)
Yelp can’t be forced to take down libelous reviews, court rules (The Verge)
Why California Privacy Law Promises Chaos by 2020 (eWeek)
Third-party developers could have been reading your Gmail messages – here’s what to do about it (London Evening Standard)
Ensuring your security and privacy within Gmail (Google Blog)
New Facebook privacy mishap: A software bug that ‘unblocked’ people (Recode)
Letting People Know About a Blocking Bug (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook’s Political Rule Blocks Ads for Bush’s Beans, Singers Named Clinton (Bloomberg)
Facebook Ads Offer Peek at Looming Supreme Court Fight (The New York Times)
Ugandans Aren’t Happy With New Tax for Using Social Media (Time)
Akamai Releases Summer 2018 State of the Internet Security Report (Akamai)
This password-stealing malware just added a new way to infect your PC (ZDNet)
Tech-support scammers revive bug that sends Chrome users into a panic (Ars Technica)
Samsung Note 9 Premium Smartphone to Debut on Aug. 9 (eWeek)
Amazon Takes a Page From Toys ‘R’ Us With a Holiday Catalog (Bloomberg)
An Archive of Radio Shack Catalogs

Windows 10 Timeline

Introducing Windows Timeline (Windows channel on YouTube)
Get help with timeline (Microsoft)
How to Use Timeline With Windows 10 (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 278: Fun with FragChucks

July 2, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser discusses his return to gaming and adventures with hardware, and J.D. explores the world of indoor maps. In tech news this week, Disney marches on to a Fox acquisition, Facebook tries a way to block spoilers, the Dark Net gets busted and this fall’s new Doctor Who series will have its own unique look and sound. Find a cool spot to kick back and spin up PTJ 278!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Disney Wins Approval From Department of Justice for $71 Billion Fox Bid (The Wrap)
Comcast Is Weighing Private Equity Partnerships for Fox Bid (Bloomberg)
Twitter adds support for login verification with USB security key (HelpNetSecurity)
Facebook’s retreat from the news has painful for publishers—including Slate. (Slate)
Keyword Snooze: A New Way to Help Control Your News Feed (Facebook Newsroom)
Apple May Create Subscription Service Bundle That Includes Original TV Content, Apple Music and News (Mac Rumors)
Apple, Samsung Resolve Smartphone Design Fight After 7 Years (Bloomberg)
First Nationwide Undercover Operation Targeting Darknet Vendors Results in Arrests of More Than 35 Individuals Selling Illicit Goods and the Seizure of Weapons, Drugs and More Than $23.6 Million (Department of Justice)
Amazon Alexa devices in hotels raise privacy concerns for some (Purdue News Service)
Amazon to acquire online pharmacy PillPack in a deal that could disrupt the US drugstore business (CNBC)
Snap gaming platform on the way now that Facebook has copied everything else (BGR)
Introducing the first version of BBC Sounds (BBC Blogs)
Doctor Who: Season 11 release date, trailer, plot details and more (CNet)
“Doctor Who” on BBC One (BBC)
Jodie Whittaker is the Doctor! (BBC)
Jodie Whittaker Unveils Brand New Doctor Who Logo (BBC)
Who is Segun Akinola? The composer reinventing the Doctor Who theme (The Guardian)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Explore the Great Indoors (The New York Times)
How GPS Works (GPS.gov)
GPS.gov

The independent audio magazine devoted to mashing up pop culture, technology and more. J.D. Biersdorfer and Pedro Rafael Rosado are your hosts. It's an Internet Radio revolution!