Tag Archives: NASA

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

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 247: Hello, Epic Equifail! Goodbye, Cassini!

September 18, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As the scale of the epic security fail at the Equifax credit bureau comes into focus, El Kaiser and J.D. throwback to Episode 159 and a previous conversation about freezing your credit to ice out identity thieves. Among other headlines this week: The end of NASA’s historic Cassini mission to Saturn. Later in the show, El Kaiser shares his tips for dumping useless followers on social media and J.D. has advice for parents dealing with new teenage drivers. Oh, and Apple did a thing a few days ago, too. Spin up Episode 247 and join in!

Links to Stories in This Week’s Episode

Pop Tech Jam Episode 159: Put Your Credit on Ice…Online
Failure to patch two-month-old bug led to massive Equifax breach (Ars Technica)
FTC probes Equifax; top Democrat likens it to Enron (Reuters)
Ayuda! (Help!) Equifax Has My Data! (Krebs on Security)
Congress will hold two hearings on the massive Equifax data breach (Recode)
Equifax’s credit report monitoring site is also vulnerable to hacking (ZDNet)
We tested Equifax’s data breach checker — and it’s basically useless (ZDNet)
Here are all the big products Apple announced on Tuesday (CNBC)
iOS 11 to be released to the public on September 19 for iPhone and iPad (9to5Mac)
October 4th is new Pixel day, confirmed by Google with video and billboard (Android Police)
Privacy enhancements coming to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Windows Experience blog)
Trump administration orders purge of Kaspersky products from U.S. government (Reuters)
DHS Statement on the Issuance of Binding Operational Directive 17-01 (Department of Homeland Security)
Mueller Probe Has ‘Red-Hot’ Focus on Social Media, Officials Say (Bloomberg)
Facebook bans monetization of violence, porn, drugs, hate (TechCrunch)
Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn (NASA)
Excitement and Tears as NASA Goddard Team Prepares for Cassini Finale (NASA)
Cassini’s End of Mission (NASA)

Social-Media Ghostbusting Services

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Apps to Provide Peace of Mind With a Teenager Behind the Wheel (The New York Times)
Eyes on the Road, Not on the Phone (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 244: Across the Universe

August 9, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Whether it be The Defenders kicking butt across the New York City zone of the Marvel Universe or NASA’s assorted spacecraft exploring the real universe, this week’s episode of Pop Tech Jam has you covered. El Kaiser and J.D. get their geek on with plenty of chatter about comics, consumer technology and spaaaaaace! Won’t you join us?

Links to Stories in This Week’s Episode

The Defenders (Netflix)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline (Infogrades)
Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline (AllTimelines.com)
The Great American Eclipse is 2 weeks away. Are you ready? (Space.com)
Here’s what it’s be to be the planetary protection officer at NASA (Seeker)
Planetary Protection Officer job posting (USAJOBS)
After 5 years on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still making big discoveries (Space.com)
Nostalgic Voyager documentary relives first exploration of the solar system (Science News)
NASA Voyager mission
Send a #MessageToVoyager (NASA)
Government to strengthen UK data protection law (GOV.UK)
Exclusive: Here’s the full 10-page anti-diversity screed circulating internally at Google (Gizmodo)
Google fires employee behind controversial diversity memo (Bloomberg)
Fresh leak of the upcoming Google Pixel 2 confirms our fears
(Android Authority)
Enjoy your entertainment virtually anywhere with the rugged and durable Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, available at AT&T on Aug. 8 (AT&T)
US military to shoot down consumer drones (BBC News)
DoD cracks down on use of drones over installations (US Department of Defense)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 242: So Long, Old Paint?

July 29, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is coming back for a 40th-anniversary run, but a couple of old standbys are getting boxed up for the software attic. El Kaiser and J.D. take a stroll through the week’s headlines and talk later about Google Street View — and how those who love it can make their own outdoor 360-images. Punch that Play button and come on along!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Episode

EU increases pressure on Facebook, Google and Twitter over user terms (Reuters)
Alphabet adds to cash pile despite higher costs, antitrust fine (Reuters)
iPhone 8 launch date: Expect hint in Apple’s earnings call next week (Business Insider)
Second version of HoloLens HPU will incorporate AI coprocessor for implementing DNNs (Microsoft Research blog)
“Perverse” malware infecting hundreds of Macs remained undetected for years (Ars Technica)
Roomba vacuum maker iRobot betting big on the ‘smart’ home (Reuters)
NASA invites you to become a citizen scientist during US total solar eclipse (GLOBE.gov)
GLOBE Observer app
Helping people in a crisis (Google blog)
Flash & the future of interactive content (Adobe Conversations blog)
Microsoft Paint’s days may be numbered (The New York Times)
MS Paint is here to stay (Windows blog)
Google Street View
Google Street View apps
Finding a map’s date on Google Street View (The New York Times)
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