Tag Archives: The Mandalorian

PTJ 347: Out With a Bang

December 22, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2020 winds down to its final weeks, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the recent spate of bad news regarding national security, pandemic spread and video-game fails. But as depressing as the news can be, there’s new hope for 2021 — at least when it comes to decent Star Wars movies and shows. Punch up PTJ 347 and join us for the ride!

A huge THANK YOU to BROS for hosting us and all our faithful listeners for riding along with us here in the Q-Zone. We’ll be back in January, so Happy New Year!

• Russia’s Hacking Frenzy Is a R eckoning (WIRED)
• Trump Contradicts Pompeo Over Russia’s Role in H ack (The New York Times)
• The Great iPwn: Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage ‘Zero-Click’ Exploit (Citizen Lab)
• A l Jazeera journalists ‘hacked v ia NSO Group spyware’ (BBC News)
• The Antitrust Case Against Big Tech, Shaped by Tech In dustry Exiles (The New York Times)
• Google’s Legal Peril Grows in Face of Third Antitrust Suit
(The New York Times)
• U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed C ompetition
(The New York Times)
• Tim Cook tweeted about App Tracking Transparency and it’s easy to see the targ et (iMore)
• Facebook’s Laugha ble Campaign Against Apple Is Really Against Users and Small Businesses (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• C OVID-19 closes n early 100 Apple Stores during holiday season peak (9to5Mac)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Was Supposed to Be the Biggest Video Game of the Year. What Happened? (The New York Times)
• A Complete Guide to Every Star Wars Show Coming to Disney+ (Esquire)
• ‘St ar Wars’ and Marvel’s Futures Now Flow Through Disney Plus (Variety)

Episode Links

PTJ 346: Pour One Out For Arecibo

December 7, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

After long, unintended absence, El Kaiser and J.D. are back to praise The Mandalorian, chew on the news, talk audio hardware and mourn the loss of the iconic radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory. As 2020 continues its quest for Worst Year Ever (Modern Edition), we remind ourselves to stay flex in the Q-Zone. PTJ 346 is here for you.

Links to Stories on This Episode

“The Mandalorian” (Disney+)

U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition (The New York Times)
‘It’s Hard to Prove’: Why Antitrust Suits Against Facebook Face Hurdles (The New York Times)
More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru (The Guardian)
Timnit Gebru’s team at Google is going public with their side of the story (The Verge)
Timnit Gebru’s actual paper may explain why Google ejected her (The Verge)
Timnit Gebru: Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher (BBC News)
The researcher, one of the company’s best-known Black female employees, said she was fired last week (The New York Times)
Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves (The New York Times)
Drones Are Poised to Reshape Home Design (The Wall Street Journal)
Updating our rules against hateful conduct (Twitter)
Twitter expands hate speech rules (Engadget)
‘W onder Woman 1984′ Heading to HBO Max, Theaters Dec. 25 (The Hollywood Reporter)
Warner Bros Sets Entire 2021 Movie Slate To Debut On HBO Max Along With Cinemas In Seismic Windows Model Shakeup (Deadline)
AMC Boss Adam Aron Slams Warner Bros HBO Max 2021 Theatrical Window Concept: Studio Sacrificing “Considerable” Profit (Deadline)
Disney f aces digital dilemma despite streaming success (Financial Times)
Apple Preps Next Mac Chips With Aim t o Outclass Highest-End PCs (Bloomberg)
Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal (TechCrunch)
Are cibo Observatory (National Science Foundation)
Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory: Its loss is already being felt, and it feels very personal (CNN)
Puerto Rican scientists mourn loss of Arecibo Observatory’s iconic telescope (Space.com)

Shure Microphones

• Beta 87A

• Beta 87C

• MV 7

• S M7b

(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)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 316: Jacked

August 31, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As The Summer of 2019 winds down, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss (among other things) the buzz around Apple’s annual fall iPhone event, Twitter’s account security issue with one of its major users, Facebook’s latest attempts at transparency in political advertising and Amazon’s growing video-surveillance network. And, as nerds, we used to always run after the shiny new gadget to have the latest and greatest gear — but have we gotten over that particular fear of missing out? Spin up PTJ 316 to hear it all!

Twitter C.E.O. Jack Dorsey’s Account Hacked (The New York Times)
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker | D23 Special Look (StarWars.com | YouTube)
The Mandalorian: Official Trailer (Disney+ | YouTube)
Apple Invites Media to September 10 Event at Apple Park: ‘By Innovation Only’ (MacRumors)
Apple is turning Siri audio clip review off by default and bringing it in house (TechCrunch)
Improving Siri’s privacy protections (Apple)
Apple offers customers even more options for safe, reliable repairs (Apple)
Huawei plans high-end phone launch under cloud of Google ban (Reuters)
Google set to move Pixel production from China to Vietnam (9to5Google)
Doorbell-camera firm Ring has partnered with 400 police forces, extending surveillance concerns (Washington Post)
Working Together for Safer Neighborhoods: Introducing the Neighbors Active Law Enforcement Map (The Ring Blog)
Updates to Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics in the US (Facebook Newsroom)
Telltale Games is being revived (Polygon)
Telltale Games Press Release
The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter (The New York Times)

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