Category Archives: (Hopefully) Helpful Hint

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 322: Disney, Plus…

November 22, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. offer their initial impressions on The Mandalorian, the new Disney+ live-action show set in the Star Wars universe. After a quick trip through recent tech headlines, J.D. also supplies a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about getting started with touch-screen drawing apps. Use the Force and punch the button for Episode 322!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

“The Mandalorian” (Disney+)
An update on our political ads policy (Google Keyword blog)
Hey Google, play me the news (Google blog)
Spotify turns its personalization technology to podcasts with launch of Your Daily Podcasts (TechCrunch)
Uber Embraces Videotaping Rides, Raising Privacy Concerns (The New York Times)
Uber safety push includes plans to start audio recording rides in the U.S. (The Washington Post)
How Attackers Could Hijack Your Android Camera to Spy on You (Checkmarx)
U.S. approves first licenses for tech sales to Huawei (The Washington Post)
PayPal to acquire shopping and rewards platform Honey for $4B (TechCrunch)
Doorbell camera footage can be kept by police forever and shared with whomever they’d like (The Washington Post)
Amazon Announces New Fire TV Blaster, Giving Users Voice Control Over TVs and Cable Boxes (The Streamable)
Dead musicians are taking the stage again in hologram form. Is this the kind of encore we really want? (The Washington Post)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Can You Draw This? Of Course You Can. (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 315: Rise Up

August 7, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Hoverboard travel is here! In experimental trips across the English Channel, anyway. El Kaiser and J.D. take off through the week’s headlines, including more accusations of retaliatory workplace culture at Google, the move toward “pay with your face” forms of authentication and requirements for getting one of those new Apple Cards. J.D. also hosts a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about getting more of that notepad program on your smartphone. PTJ 315 awaits!

Terminating Service for 8Chan (Cloudflare)
Apple is spending more than ever on R&D to fulfill the ‘Steve Jobs Doctrine’ (Patently Apple)
Amazon Gives Option to Disable Human Review of Alexa Recordings (Bloomberg)
Our hardware sustainability commitments (Google)
Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo (VICE)
Apple Card Customer Agreement goes live on Goldman Sachs’ website ahead of August launch, warns about jailbreaking (9to5Mac)
Apple Card customer agreement (Goldman Sachs)
Half of all Google Chrome extensions have fewer than 16 installs (ZDNet)
Streaming media player growth slows, smart TVs step up (nScreenMedia)
As China turns towards facial recognition payments, are QR codes on their way out? (South China Morning Post)
For Many Diabetes Patients, Skin Patches and Phones Are Replacing Finger Pricks (The Wall Street Journal)
Flyboarding Frenchman crosses English Channel (BBC News)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Collecting Your Thoughts Is Good. Organizing Them Is Even Better. (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 312: Call the Law

June 24, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Big Government finally seems to be paying attention to Big Tech, but will anything actually change? El Kaiser and JD discuss some of the assorted bits of legislation aimed at regulating intrusive technology. And, in a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, JD offers tips for whipping up your own letterhead in case you need to fire off an old-fashioned epistle by post or PDF. Episode 312 awaits!

Is Firefox better than Chrome? It comes down to privacy. (The Washington Post)
YouTube under federal investigation over allegations it violates children’s privacy (The Washington Post)
YouTube weighs changes to how it handles children’s content (CNN)
The Most Popular Kids’ Video Site in the World Isn’t for Kids (Bloomberg)
How 13 Became the Internet’s Age of Adulthood (WSJ)
Senators Markey and Hawley Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Update Children’s Online Privacy Rules (Sen. Ed Markey)
Exclusive: Mark Warner wants Google, Facebook to put a price on your data (Axios)
Senate Bill 748
House Bill 946
Robocalls prompt bipartisan push in Congress (The Washington Post)
Robocalls are overwhelming hospitals and patients, threatening a new kind of health crisis (The Washington Post)
Coming in 2020: Calibra (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook announces Libra cryptocurrency: All you need to know (TechCrunch)
Libra, Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, isn’t likely to make it far (Axios)
NASA hacked because of unauthorized Raspberry Pi connected to its network (ZDNet)
Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35 (Raspberry Pi)
Google was never really serious about tablets (The Verge)
Walmart and Amazon want to see inside your house. Should you let them? (Los Angeles Times)
What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues (The New York Times)
Helping kids learn to evaluate what they see online (Google blog)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Get More From Your Letters With Custom Stationery for Print or Pixels (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 309: Vaporized

May 20, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Game of Thrones may be over on HBO, but El Kaiser and J.D are still here talking tech, pop culture and everything else in between. This week’s episode ponders the blacklist effect on Chinese telecom company Huawei and potential problems with accurate weather forecasting because satellites measure water vapor in the 23.8 GHz band on the wireless spectrum and the Federal Communications Commission is selling off adjacent frequencies. J.D. also has a suggestion for parents who need a project for their bored kids. All this and more, right here on Episode 309!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Episode

Exclusive: Google suspends some business with Huawei after Trump blacklist (Reuters)
Trump Huawei Ban Ripples Across Industry as Supplies Halted (Bloomberg)
Snapchat’s new gender-changing filter provokes strong reactions (Axios)
Kissing Babies, Loving Scrapple, Fighting Viral Hoaxes: ’20 Race’s New Routine (The New York Times)
Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 drops to $999 and adds Qualcomm’s XR1 (VentureBeat)
Microsoft’s Edge for Mac browser now available in preview (The Verge)
Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise. (The New York Times)
5G Networks Could Throw Weather Forecasting Into Chaos (WIRED)
Twitch Streamers Are Getting Paid $50,000 An Hour To Play New Games: They Deserve It (Forbes)
Tim Cook visits Ellis Marsalis Music Center in New Orleans (9to5Mac)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Give Your Kids A Movie-Making Project

How to Add Hollywood Special Effects to Your Videos (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 298: Over Easy

January 22, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Famous eggs, self-delivering scooters, rabbit-ears making a comeback and YouTube tries to ban stupidity — El Kaiser and JD catch up on a big pile of technology news from the past week or two. And in a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. explains how to use a free, pre-built spreadsheet to track your finances. Roll on into PTJ 298 to hear it all!

Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Facebook’s WhatsApp limits text forwards to five recipients to curb rumors (Reuters)
Uber plans to develop self-driving electric scooters and bicycles (The Daily Telegraph)
Google Maps wants to help you avoid that speeding ticket (Mashable)
Material Design for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites on Web (G Suite Updates Blog)
Oscars: ‘Roma’ Lands Netflix Its First Best Picture Nom (The Hollywood Reporter)
Netflix just announced the biggest price increase in the history of its streaming service (BGR)
Netflix in advanced talks to join major Hollywood lobbying group (Poltico)
Nielsen: 16M U.S. homes now get TV over-the-air, a 48% increase over past 8 years (TechCrunch)
YouTube bans dangerous pranks following Bird Box, Tide Pod challenges (The Verge)
An issue with protected Tweets on Twitter for Android (Twitter Help)
DuckDuckGo Taps Apple Maps to Power Private Search Results (Spread Privacy)
Twitter is bringing back the chronological timeline, and in a sensible way (Android Authority)
Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right? (WIRED)
Facebook’s own employees appear to be leaving 5-star Amazon reviews for the Portal camera (The Verge)
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield (TechCrunch)
You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It (Tim Cook in TIME)
Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Apple)
Google: data is more like sunlight than oil (Business Insider)
Who’s ‘Scam Likely’ and why do they keep calling you? (USA Today)
Roku Removes Infowars Channel Following Backlash (Variety)
An Egg, Just a Regular Egg, Is Instagram’s Most-Liked Post Ever (The New York Times)
Ishan Goel tells TooFab why world_record_egg struck such a powerful pop culture chord, and warns about the dark side of viral success. (TooFab)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

The Easy (and Free) Way to Make a Budget Spreadsheet (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 296: “Ring Out the False, Ring In the True!”

December 28, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2018 comes clanging to a close. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss Amazon’s healthy holiday sales, Instagram’s effects on people, Snapchat’s “dog lenses” and a new essay that wonders just how much of the Internet is real anymore. And in the last (Hopefully) Helpful Hint of the year, J.D. offers a guide for preserving your one-of-a-kind family photographs and slides in the digital realm.
Ring up Episode 296, right here!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Amazon’s Record Holiday Shows Consumers’ Spending Splurge (Bloomberg)
How Instagram has been good for independent bookstores like Books Are Magic and the Last Bookstore (Vox)
Instagram Apologizes for Horizontal-Scrolling Test Glitch, Rolls It Back After Quick and Furious Backlash (Variety)
Android TV sees huge growth thanks to 100 pay TV partners (9to5Google)
Apple’s Future Looks Rotten (Gizmodo)
Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt (The New York Times)
Snapchat Adds Dog Lenses, But I Still Won’t Use It (Gizmodo)
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? (New York magazine)
We finally started taking screen time seriously in 2018 (TechCrunch)
Hot tub hack reveals washed-up security (BBC News)
“Ring out, wild bells,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Digitize and Fix Your Ancient Photos

How to Rescue, Repair and Revive Old Family Photos (The New York Times)
Printers & Scanners (Wirecutter)
Google PhotoScan
Adobe Photoshop Fix

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 294: Location, Location, Location

December 10, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Of course, your apps are tracking you! El Kaiser told you that years ago, but The New York Times now fills in the details. J.D. rounds up the headlines from the past two weeks for discussion and also offers a (Hopefully) helpful Hint about recording your family’s history in audio and video this holiday season. Pull up a chair and join us for PTJ 294!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret (The New York Times)
Community Standards (Facebook)
Facebook’s Sexual Solicitation Policy is a Honeypot for Trolls (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
A better, more positive Tumblr (Tumblr)
Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th (The Verge)
AlphaFold: Using AI for scientific discovery (DeepMind)
Microsoft Putting Edge on Chromium Will Fundamentally Change the Web (Motherboard)
Justice Dept. investigating millions of fake anti-net neutrality comments: report (TheHill)
China bans many iPhone models in Qualcomm patent dispute (Axios)
Kuo: ‘All-new design’ AirPods in 2020, wireless charging model in first quarter 2019 (9to5Mac)
Apple Will Wait Until at Least 2020 to Release a 5G iPhone (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Is Worth as Much as Apple. How Did That Happen? (The New York Times)
Google acquires India-focused app Where is My Train (Android Authority)
EU questioning companies about Google’s search practices: report (TheHill)
Marriott Hacking Exposes Data of Up to 500 Million Guests (The New York Times)
AT&T details its streaming service plans as it weighs a sale of its Hulu stake (TechCrunch)
E Ink’s new digital paper lets you draw with almost no lag (The Next Web)
The U.S. Army Has A New Plan To Recruit Gamers (Kotaku)
Nasa’s Voyager 2 probe ‘leaves the Solar System’ (BBC News)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Record and Share Your Family History in 5 Steps (The New York Times)
10 Types of Microphones (HowStuffWorks)
StoryCorps apps
Oral History Interviews (The American Folklife Center)
Conducting Oral Histories with Family Members (UCLA Library)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 285: Hashing It Out

September 5, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

While the tussles between politicians and Big Tech heat up as August sizzles to a close, El Kaiser and J.D. sip fizzy water in the shade and explore the accusations and rebuttals coming from both sides of America’s political divide. Apple’s latest acquisition, Twitter’s recent experiment and a blockchain that few people realized was hiding in plain sight are also in the news mix this week, and J.D. has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about hopefully helping friends and family with their computer problems, even when you’re miles away. Crank up the air conditioner and PTJ 285!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Trump slams Google search as ‘rigged’ — but it’s not (CNN Tech)
Trump’s new fake news: fake social media (Axios)
Trump Claims Google Didn’t Promote His State Of The Union. Google And This Screenshot Say Otherwise. (BuzzFeed)
Google Denies Donald Trump’s Claims Of Left-Wing Bias: “Search Is Not Used To Set A Political Agenda” – Update (Deadline)
Why Google Doesn’t Rank Right-Wing Outlets Highly (The Atlantic)
Trolls propel Trump to top Google ratings for ‘idiot’ (Search Engine Land)
Googlebombing ‘failure’ (Google keyword blog)
Opinion | Trump’s Ludicrous Attack on Big Tech (The New York Times)
Inside Facebook, a Conservative Backlash Against the Liberal “Mobs” (Vanity Fair)
Google, Facebook, Twitter chiefs called back to Senate Intelligence Committee (TechCrunch)
Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling (Reuters)
Trump Gets Googlebombed In Google Images As Idiot (Search Engine Roundtable)
Facebook Watch Is Going Global (Facebook Newsroom)
Twitter is testing suggestions of accounts to unfollow (Axios)
Apple buys startup focused on lenses for AR glasses (Reuters)
Wear OS by Google: Health and help are just a swipe away (Google blog)
The World’s Oldest Blockchain Has Been Hiding in the New York Times Since 1995 (Vice)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Help a Fellow Mac User With Remote Tech Support (The New York Times)
Give Long-Distance Windows Help From the Comfort of Your Own Home (The New York Times)

(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)

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!