Tag Archives: NASA

PTJ 338: Flight CLUB

May 29, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Twitter’s act of adding fact-checking labels to a couple of presidential tweets set off a storm in the social-media world — almost at the same time real-life stormy weather caused officials to scrub the NASA-SpaceX launch to the International Space Station, the first on an United States rocket since 2011. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss it all ahead of America’s rescheduled return to space this weekend. Blast off with PTJ 338!

Trump signs executive order targeting Twitter after fact-checking row (BBC News)
Trump’s Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular: Donald Trump (The New York Times)
Trump’s Illiberal Internet Fairness Doctrine (National Review)
What journalists should know about Communications Decency Act Section 230 (Poynter)
Jack on Twitter
Defying Trump, Twitter Doubles Down on Labeling Tweets (The New York Times)
Facebook and Twitter clash over fact-checking as Trump threats intensify (CNN)
Appeals court ruling suggests little legal traction for Trump’s anti-Twitter campaign (POLITICO)
Twitter adds native “scheduled tweets” function (Twitter support)
Twitter, Facebook Win Appeal in Anticonservative-Bias Suit (Bloomberg)
Arizona sues Google for allegedly violating Android users’ location privacy (The Washington Post)
Microsoft launches Cortana app for Windows 10 without Amazon’s Alexa (VentureBeat)
Apple Buys Machine-Learning Startup to Improve Data Used in Siri (Bloomberg)
Apple acquires the full Fraggle Rock collection in first major licensing play (The Verge)
How Delivery Drones Are Being Used to Tackle COVID-19 (WeRobotics)
Drone drops off Isle of Mull coronavirus masks (BBC)
Visit Isle of Man (Isle of Man Government)

Spaaaaccce!

Space Out and Explore the Universe Without Leaving Home (The New York Times)
Launch America Overview (NASA)
NASA
SpaceX

Episode Links

PTJ 314: All Aboard the Claim Train!

July 29, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Pop Tech Jam returns from Summer Vacation Phase 1 to buckets of money from the Equifax data-breach settlement — or alleged buckets of money. While El Kaiser files his Equifax claim online, J.D. serves up the news of the week, including the Fortnite World Cup results, pocket air-conditioners and worrisome multimedia surveillance. And for those who dove headfirst into the Apollo 11 50th-anniversary coverage in July, J.D. has tips on where to find more archival material from that historic 1969 event — and the many other Apollo missions through the years.
Jump on PTJ 314 right here!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Fortnite gives away $3 million to its first-ever solo world champion (CNN Business)
Equifax settlement guide: How to get the money, and what you need to know (The Washington Post)
Welcome To The Equifax Data Breach Settlement Website
Look Out for Fake Equifax Websites That Are Trying to Steal Your Data, FTC Warns (Gizmodo)
In Hong Kong Protests, Faces Become Weapons (The New York Times)
Apple Siri Eavesdropping Puts Millions Of Users At Risk (Forbes)
Apple Contractors Reportedly Overhear Sensitive Information and Sexy Times Thanks to Siri (Gizmodo)
Sony Unveils Wearable Air Conditioner Reon Pocket (Hypebeast)
Young Instagram Users Give Up Privacy in Search of Metrics (Bloomberg)
Europe’s top court sharpens guidance for sites using leaky social plug-ins (TechCrunch)
(Don’t) hold the phone: new features coming to Pixel 4 (Google blog)
Samsung shows off what its fixed Galaxy Fold will look like (CNET)
Remember the Motorola Razer, 15 Years Later (Gizmodo)
This is What Photoshop Was Like in 1988 (PetaPixel)

The NASA Apollo Mission Archives Online

(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)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 303: Fire in the Troll Hole!

March 11, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Can Big Tech get busted up and does Facebook’s pivot to privacy seem legit? El Kaiser and J.D. roll through the recent news, stopping to ponder the “Save the Internet” Act, a slew of new streaming channels and the success of Captain Marvel at the box office — despite concentrated efforts from certain quarters to drag down the film’s ratings. It’s all here on PTJ 303, where we also have our annual guide to helping your friends and family avoid tax-season scams this spring.

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Here’s how we can break up Big Tech (Elizabeth Warren on Medium)
Elizabeth Warren vows to break up tech giants if elected in 2020 (BBC News)
A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking (Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook)
Facebook says the future is private messaging, not public posts (Columbia Journalism Review)
This could be the beginning of the end for Facebook’s social network (Recode)
The False Promise of Mark Zuckerberg’s Come-to-Jesus Manifesto (Vanity Fair)
Combatting Vaccine Misinformation (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook sues Ukrainian quiz-makers for stealing user data with malware plugins (The Verge)
SXSW Festival
Sunshine Week
The US Government Will Be Scanning Your Face At 20 Top Airports, Documents Show (BuzzFeed News)
In New York City? Grab a BuzzFeed print newspaper, today only (Nieman Lab)
Bicameral Democratic Leaders Unveil Save The Internet Act To Restore Net Neutrality Protections (House Committee on Energy & Commerce)
Text of the “Save the Internet” Act (House Committee on Energy & Commerce)
“I’m Just a Bill” (Schoolhouse Rock)
Democrats unveil “Save The Internet Act” to restore net neutrality laws (NBC News)
Colorado Senate passes bill to reinstate net neutrality regulations (Colorado Watchdog)
Disney’s new streaming service will offer entire Disney Vault of classic films (Fast Company)
NBC News Readies May Launch of Streaming-Video Service (Variety)
Comedy Central Launches YouTube Originals Channel (Variety)
Crew Dragon Splashes Down in Atlantic Ending First Commercial Crew Mission (NASA)
Trolls Are Tanking Captain Marvel’s Rotten Tomatoes Reviews. But They Can’t Stop Its Box Office Haul (Fortune)
Box Office: “Captain Marvel” Flies to Historic $153M in U.S., $455M Globally (The Hollywood Reporter)

Be On Guard This Tax Season

IRS Dirty Dozen 2019 (Internal Revenue Service)
Tax Scams / Consumer Alerts (Internal Revenue Service)
How to know it’s really the IRS calling or knocking on your door (Internal Revenue Service)
IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting (Treasury.gov)
Automated calls requesting tax payments in the form of iTunes or other gift cards (Internal Revenue Service)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 301: Golden “Opportunity”

February 14, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As NASA declares its Mars Opportunity rover’s mission to be over, El Kaiser and J.D. raise a glass to the plucky little machine who did far more than what was expected of it — and sent back so much science. This week’s batch of headlines also brings a potential new subscription service (or two) from Apple, Amazon bailing out of New York City and a Tinder-like app for cattle. J.D. also discusses apps to better plan your home renovation. Here’s a toast to Opportunity from PTJ Episode 301!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Dies on Mars (The New York Times)
NASA’s Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Photos From the Opportunity Rover’s Mission on Mars (The New York Times)
Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service (The Wall Street Journal)
Publishers cry foul at Apple’s terms in new sub service (Digital Ad Age)
Apple targeting April launch for video service (CNBC)
Apple Invites Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon to Video Launch (Bloomberg)
Apple Event Planned For March 25 Around A News Subscription Product (BuzzFeed)
Announcing Extra Crunch (TechCrunch)
Apple fails to block porn & gambling ‘Enterprise’ apps (TechCrunch)
620 million accounts stolen from 16 hacked websites now for sale on dark web, seller boasts (The Register)
JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency (CNBC)
Mozilla to use machine learning to find code bugs before they ship (Ars Technica)
Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters (The New York Times)
Amazon is acquiring Wi-Fi router company Eero (Business Insider)
An Update on Android Things (Android Developers Blog)
LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service (TechCrunch)
Tudder (ProductHunt)
Tinder-style app for cows tries to help the meat market (BBC)
Tinder for Cows: Tudder Mobile App for Breeders (Bloomberg)

Home Improvement

How to Make a 3-D Model of Your Home Renovation Vision (The New York Times)

(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)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 293: Mars, In Sight!

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

Facebook’s horrible, bad, no-good, you-brought-it-on-yourself-pal year continues with major revelations about how the company handles its problems and Apple’s iPhone orders have dipped, but at least we have a NASA event next week. El Kaiser and J.D. wade through the headlines of the week — including a long-awaited podcast-discovery announcement from Pandora. And El Kaiser takes a look at a sleek new pedestal to charge multiple devices. Once you put down the pie, spin up PTJ 293 — and everyone, have a happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis (The New York Times)
Zuckerberg Defends Company in Friday Meeting with Employees (The New York Times)
With Facebook at ‘War,’ Zuckerberg Adopts More Aggressive Style (The Wall Street Journal)
A Look Inside the Tactics of Definers, Facebook’s Attack Dog (The New York Times)
Now eight parliaments are demanding Zuckerberg answers for Facebook scandals (TechCrunch)
Reducing Inauthentic Activity on Instagram (Instagram blog)
How Hackers Are Stealing High-Profile Instagram Accounts (The Atlantic)
Apple Suppliers Suffer With Uncertainty Around iPhone Demand (The Wall Street Journal)
Amazon, Apple and Facebook Once Led the Market. Now They Are Driving it Down. (The New York Times)
Public Attitudes Toward Computer Algorithms (Pew Research Center)
Inside the British Army’s secret information warfare machine (Wired UK)
Amazon Is Getting Helipads At Its New Headquarters In New York And Virginia (BuzzFeed News)
Pandora launches Podcast Genome Project to make personalized recommendations (Apple Insider)
Pandora Podcasts Beta Access Request
New, Independent Criterion Channel to Launch Spring 2019 (Criterion)
NASA Brings Mars Landing, First in Six Years, to Viewers Everywhere Nov. 26 (NASA)
Mars InSight Mission (NASA)
Experience InSight (NASA)
Mars Insight: Watch Online (NASA)
Civil War Photo Sleuth is using facial recognition software to identify people in pictures (Slate)
Civil War Photo Sleuth

The El Kaiser Review

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 251: The One After the 250th Episode

October 22, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

El Kaiser and J.D. are back this week with the usual suitcase full of technology news to unpack, including Samsung’s announcement that its Bixby virtual assistant is open (source) for business. And while Blue Apron is folding up a bit of its workforce, and Google’s DeepMind A.I. software is folding proteins. Oh, and let’s not forget, the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update started to show up on PCs everywhere this week. Now, if only we can get to the sweater weather…slip on your flip-flops come on along for Episode 251!

Links to Stories Mentioned on This Week’s Show

Bixby 2.0: The Start of the Next Paradigm Shift in Devices (Samsung Global Newsroom)
Experience Samsung 360 Round, a High-Quality Camera for Creating and Livestreaming 3D Content for Virtual Reality (Samsung Mobile Press)
Facebook officially rolls out its discovery-focused ‘Explore Feed’ (TechCrunch)
AlphaGo Zero: Learning from scratch (DeepMind)
‘It’s able to create knowledge itself’: Google unveils AI that learns on its own (The Guardian)
Google Serves Fake News Ads in an Unlikely Place: Fact-Checking Sites (The New York Times)
Twitter account claiming to belong to Tennessee GOP was run by Russian trolls (The Hill)
McCain signs on to Democrats’ Facebook ad disclosure bill (Politico)
Facebook and Google Helped Anti-Refugee Campaign in Swing States (Bloomberg)
Dodging Russian Spies, Customers Are Ripping Out Kaspersky (The Daily Beast)
HP Unveils World’s Most Powerful and First Detachable PC Workstation (HP Newsroom)
Blue Apron announces layoffs (Axios)
Lego’s official ‘Women of NASA’ set goes on sale November 1 (TechCrunch)

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

What’s new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Microsoft)
How to get the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Microsoft)
The definitive Windows 10 Fall Creators Update review (Windows Central)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 250: “El Kaiser, Did We Forget to Mention This Was Our 250th Episode?”

October 6, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Google took its turn spewing out the fall product lineup this week, with the Pixel 2 phone, Pixelbook laptop, Pixel Pen Stylus — and a whole bunch of Google Home offerings — announced. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s big hack was worse then the company previously announced (why, yes, it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month). The former Equifax CEO got trolled hard at his Senate hearing and NASA invites space fans to send their names to Mars. Upward!

Links to Stories Mentioned on This Week’s Show

Here’s everything Google announced today (TechCrunch)
Facebook Fought Rules That Could Have Exposed Fake Russian Ads (Bloomberg)
Facebook tests explaining media sources (The Verge)
Monopoly Man photobombs Senate hearing on Equifax (CNN)
Yahoo’s 2013 Email Hack Actually Compromised Three Billion Accounts (Wired)
Sonos launches public beta for Alexa voice control (The Verge)
Sputnik-1 (NASA)
Sputnik beep (NASA audio archive)
NASA Audio and Ringtones (NASA)
Send Your Name to Mars! (NASA)
Mars Exploration Missions (NASA)
Everything We Know About Elon Musk’s Big Freakin’ Rocket (Nerdist)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 248: Knock, Knock

September 23, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Who’s there? It’s this week’s episode of Pop Tech Jam, with ideas for coping with the current state of the world. From SEC hackers to Nest’s new indoor/outdoor security system to Equifax still doing harm to its customers, it’s been a busy seven days. But hey, NASA has a free illustrated ebook on the recent Cassini mission you can download, so the week wasn’t all bad and El Kaiser offers up a review of two audio amplifiers to make your tunes sound better through your headphones when you’re on the go. In light of Mother Nature’s recent activities, J.D. shares a few lists of places you can send money to help earthquake and hurricane disaster recovery efforts in Mexico, Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the other Caribbean islands.
PTJ 248 is here to help!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Episode

Google and HTC Announce US$1.1 Billion Cooperation Agreement (HTC)
Google Is Buying HTC’s Smartphone Expertise for $1.1 Billion (The New York Times)
Statement on Cybersecurity (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
SEC says hackers may have traded using stolen insider information (Reuters)
Apple TV 4K review: so close, so far (The Verge)
Nest Expands into Home Security with First Security System Designed to Be Easy on Residents, Tough on Intruders (Nest blog)
Facebook will strengthen enforcement of ad targeting policies, add more human oversight, and urge users to report potential abuses directly (Sheryl Sandberg on Facebook)
Fake website fools Equifax staff (BBC)
The Better Together Update is here! (Minecraft.com)
The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini (NASA)

iPhone Audio Amps

(Hopefully) Helpfully Hint: How to Effectively Donate to Disaster Relief Funds

Where you can donate to help with hurricane and earthquake relief and recovery (Vox.com)
Places to donate to Mexico/Puerto Rico relief (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee)
How to Help Victims of Hurricane Maria (The New York Times)
Charity Navigator

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!