Tag Archives: trolls

PTJ 329: Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

As more states and cities tell citizens to stay out of public places and do their part to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, El Kaiser and J.D. fire up the microphones in their respective recording bunkers to discuss the latest tech news. El Kaiser also offers his pro tips for looking and sounding better on those office video-conference meetings, and J.D. has a few ideas for parents trying to keep the kids busy after they’ve finished their online lessons for the day. It’s all here on PTJ 329 — right in the comfort of your own home!

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#StayHome Projects to Keep You (or the Kids) Busy

PTJ 303: Fire in the Troll Hole!

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.

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Be On Guard This Tax Season

PTJ 285: Hashing It Out

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!

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(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

PTJ 251: The One After the 250th Episode

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!

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Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

PTJ 236: Corporate Spies

On this week’s show. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss Google and Twitter’s current wave of privacy-policy changes and data-sharing with advertisers (all taking place before Facebook’s latest flap). Also in the news this week: patent trolls, resolution motion-sensor camera, Russian hackers actually hacking Russians and Iris, the data-sniffing dog. Buffer up and have a listen to Episode 236 of Pop Tech Jam!

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PTJ 224: Uncloudy Skies

Mobile World Congress brought in the new and the old this week, Twitter and Facebook are stepping it up to help users in need and Amazon Web Services had a sad day this week. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss it all — and YouTube’s big week of views and cord-cutting measures — on this week’s weatherproof episode of Pop Tech Jam.

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PTJ 221: Watching and Waiting

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the collision of the technology industry with the government, smart television sets that watch you, the ongoing battle with fake news and the demise of the message boards on IMDb.com. Get out of the winter weather and fire up Episode 221!

Links to This Week’s News Stories

More Gear for the Troll-Whapping Toolbox

Twitter, which has had its critics over its inability to police online harassment, is trying to step up its game in protecting its users from abuse — while still promoting free speech. In a company blog post this week, the bird-themed microblogging service announced new weapons in the defensive arsenal. The post reads, in part:

“Because Twitter happens in public and in real-time, we’ve had some challenges keeping up with and curbing abusive conduct. We took a step back to reset and take a new approach, find and focus on the most critical needs, and rapidly improve. There are three areas we’re focused on, and happy to announce progress around today: controls, reporting, and enforcement.”

Twitter’s post goes on to explain the upgraded toolkit, which includes:

  • A beefed-up Hateful Conduct policy that clearly explains what is acceptable and makes it easier to report bad behavior.
  • Retrained support teams who should be better equipped to shut down abusive users.

The company says it doesn’t “expect these announcements to suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter.” The post went on to say, “No single action by us would do that. Instead, we commit to rapidly improving Twitter based on everything we observe and learn.”

Whether the civility upgrade here goes far enough remains to be seen, but try it out if you need to. And let Twitter know how it goes so they can “observe and learn” even more about how the service is used.

PTJ 205 News: Grab and Go

fireexWell, it’s a week later and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 problem continues to grow.  Two government agencies have now issued warnings about using the new device. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging all Galaxy Note 7 owners to stop using the phones and to power down and stop charging them. And the Federal Aviation Administration is strongly advising passengers not to charge, turn on or even pack any Galaxy Note 7 devices in checked baggage. Samsung, for its part, is stepping up efforts with a quick-fix Galaxy Note 7 over-the-air patch designed to stop charging batteries form overheating by limiting the maximum charge to 60 percent. (And a quick correction to last week’s, it’s not just 1 percent of phones affected by the recall, it’s all of them.)

Could Google be working on a new 7-inch Android tablet to replace the retired Nexus 7 line? Several tech blogs are reporting that’s the case. (“w00t!” say we all!)

Google has also been doing some software updates this week as well. The company updated the iOS version of its Google Photos app to include a feature that turns iPhone Live Photos taken on a 6s or later into animated GIFs that can be shared more widely. And there’s also a new iOS version of the Google Cardboard Camera app for taking 3D 360-degree virtual-reality photos that look cool in your Google Cardboard Viewer. Of course, an Android version of the app has been out for awhile now.

cardboard

Facebook has also updated its Messenger platform to be much more an e-commerce engine. One of the company’s blogs has announced that the site was quote “starting to roll out ads in News Feed that drive people to chat with your bot on Messenger.” You have been warned, people.

Apple doesn’t seem to be sitting still while Facebook takes all the advertising dollars, though. The iMessage app in the iOS 10 software that arrived this week now has its own app store where users can purchase things like stickers and games.

instagramInstagram announced this week that it was adding keyword moderation tool that allows users to block comments using specific words from appearing on posts.  Twitter, are you paying attention?

But speaking of Twitter, The Verge and other blogs are reporting that the bird-themed microblogging service’s previously announced plan to stop counting links, polls and other media in the 140-character limit will go into effect on September 19th.

In Windows 10 news, Sling TV has an official Windows 10 app available in Microsoft’s Windows Store. The app allows the streaming TV service to work with Windows 10 and the Cortana virtual assistant to organize one’s television watching on the PC.

Blue Origin, the space exploration company owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, showed off some new rocket designs to the public this week. The designs were very nice.

And finally, NASA is working on that problem that another asteroid may smash into the earth and wipe out more than dinosaurs this time around. We need more knowledge on the topic, so last week, the agency launched a robot explorer craft called Osiris-REX (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) toward the asteroid Bennu, where it will orbit for two years. Before they part ways, Osiris-Rex will use its robot arm to reach out and take a piece of the rock before it turns around and comes back to each with the sample in tow. Talk about your takeout…

PTJ 205: Throwing Sevens

After a week to process the big iPhone 7 announcement last week, technologist Don Donofrio returns to the show to discuss the good, the bad and the stuff Apple skipped this time around. In the news segment, El Kaiser and J.D. bring updates on the increasingly combustible Samsung Galaxy Note 7 situation, rumors of Google doing another 7-inch tablet and plenty of other non-Apple news from the geekosphere. Let’s roll the dice!