WEBVTT - Tech News: Twitter Fires and then Re-hires Some Employees 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from My Heart Radio. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.120 Jonathan Strickland, Diamond executive producer with My Heart Radio and 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.759 how the tech are you. We're going to cover the 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:25.080 tech news today on Tuesday, November eight, two thousand twenty two. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.480 But before we get going, I do want to let 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.720 y'all know that tomorrow we're going to share with you 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.320 an episode of The Restless Ones here in the Tech 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.760 Stuff feed. The Restless Ones is a show I host 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:41.120 where I interview leaders in tech positions across different industries 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.919 to talk about things like technical challenges and innovations and 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.400 leadership strategies and things along those lines. I think you'll 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.040 dig it all right, But onto the news, and we're 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.040 gonna start with Twitter. Of course, there's a lot of 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:58.480 Twitter news because a lot has been going on over there. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.280 So last week was kind of a dumpster fire over 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.840 at Twitter, and this week has already proven to be 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.400 chaotic and we're barely into it. Last week I talked 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.039 about how the word was that Musk was going to 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.400 lay off approximately half of Twitter's staff, and that did happen, 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:21.560 and Musk tweeted out quote regarding Twitter's reduction in force. Unfortunately, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.039 there is no choice when the company is losing over 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.560 four million dollars a day end quote. But the move 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.000 to layoff staff was so rushed that well, there were 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.240 there were regrets. Apparently at least some of the folks 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:37.680 fired at Twitter, we're not supposed to be fired at all. 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:43.199 They got lumped in by accident. Their accounts were discontinued, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.160 they were suspended, and they were effectively laid off without 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.880 meaning to be laid off. That's pretty gush darn awful. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.440 That speaks to a certain level of incompetence on the 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.800 part of management. But on the other hand, there really 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.000 was a very short timeline to announce that kind of layoff. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.480 I mean, that was such an extensive move that and 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.440 you had so little time. Mistakes were bound to happen. 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.080 It's just when those mistakes are wrapped up in people's 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.200 lives and their careers that's it's just really hard to 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:19.320 get past. Right. Then, there were leaders who found out 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.520 that some of the folks that they had laid off 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.680 were whoopsie daisy, folks who are knowledgeable about specific projects 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.560 and who are responsible for a lot of work and 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.519 Without those folks, Twitter would be set way back on 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.280 those projects. And since Musk has been setting aggressive, in 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.960 fact unrealistically aggressive deadlines to get certain features built into 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.840 Twitter or overhauled at Twitter, they still need some of 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.280 those now former employees. And so, in a move that 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.360 I think you can only describe as embarrassing, various Twitter 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.040 folks began to reach out on some various platforms to 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.680 try and entice recently laid off employee is to come back, 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.880 asking could you please return to work? Now, keep in 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.080 mind these employees had already been locked out of company systems, 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.360 So if they had a company computer in their position, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.799 they got locked out of that. They were locked out 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.560 of Twitter's slack channel, they were locked out of their 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.840 employee email. So yeah, not a good look. Some affected 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.919 former employees are worried that if they refused to come 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.320 back after being laid off, then they will get fired. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.440 Now you might think, if you've been laid off, how 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.480 could you be fired? Well, if you've been laid off 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.760 and then the company says, wait, that we didn't mean 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.240 to do that, come back to work, and you refuse 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.360 to come back to work, then the company can say 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.839 we never really laid you off. We're firing you now. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.760 And by being fired rather than laid off, the employees 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.360 could potentially lose the sixty days of severance pay that 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.800 otherwise they would have received if you know, the layoffs 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.560 had stuck in the first place, which you might imagine 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.280 creates really nasty ral issues, and you'd be right in fact, 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.560 I honestly, I can't even begin to think of how 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.480 I would feel if this were happening to me. Meanwhile, 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.600 for the folks who are still at Twitter who didn't 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.400 get laid off, you have employees who are unsure of 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.320 what team they fit in, or or who they report 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:22.200 to because the company has been gutted, and reportedly some 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.720 employees and a lot of employees are left wondering about 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.839 health benefits because Twitter's open enrollment period was to begin 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:33.960 this week, but management has been pretty quiet on that front, 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.040 with no real word on what health benefits are going 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.000 to be. Now that Twitter is a private company, it's 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.240 no longer the same company that it was, you know, 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.960 a couple of weeks ago. So that's really concerning too. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.839 I mean, in this country, healthcare is at a point 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.800 where if you don't have insurance, you're really really in 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:59.360 trouble and insurance changes all the time, So having open 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.680 enrollment is important. And I don't know if that's been 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.280 resolved yet. It might have been, but the news as 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.800 I'm reporting it now did not have any indication of that. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.560 My hope is that Twitter sorted that out, because that's 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:16.640 incredibly important to employees. Twitter also rolled out the eight 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.520 dollar a month Twitter Blue subscription over the weekend. This 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.760 is the version of the subscription that's going to come 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.200 with it a new verified check mark, so you don't 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.480 have to go through the old verification process. You can 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.680 subscribe to Twitter Blue for eight bucks a month and 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.800 get that checkmark on your your account. However, the company 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.039 has subsequently decided to hold off on actually instituting the 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.000 check mark changes until the midterm elections are over here 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.920 in the United States. Those elections happened today, so we 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.160 should see the rollout happened later this week. But there 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.240 was concerned that people could rush to get verified accounts 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.040 and then use that check mark to lend credibility to 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.839 misinformation campaigns. Right if you're sending out lies about the election, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:01.680 but you have that little blue check mark next to 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.560 your name, people might think oh, this person's legit. So 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.240 for that reason, Twitter held back on actually implementing this 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.680 change so far. On a similar note, we learned that 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.440 free speech absolutist Elon Musk actually does have limits to 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.040 free speech. For example, if you make an account and 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.080 you claim to be Elon Musk and you're not clearly 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.760 stating in your bio that it's a parody account, Ellen 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.880 will ban you permanently one strike, and you're not just 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:31.560 out of the game, you are out of the league, 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.000 which is interesting. Musk said that now that the company 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.039 is rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.320 if someone chooses to impersonate someone else without clearly labeling 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.320 the account as a parody account. Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin, 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.880 both comedians, changed their verified names to Elon Musk, which 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.120 illustrated how having a verification system that doesn't, you know, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.640 actually verify that someone is who they claim to be 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.880 is just downright broken. Sort of like how full self 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.560 driving on Tesla vehicles isn't really full self driving. I'm 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.400 sensing a little theme along Elon Musk companies here. Another 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.960 issue is that Musk has said Twitter Blue accounts will 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.880 receive half the ad load of a regular Twitter user, 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.760 and analysts say if that happens, Twitter will miss out 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.320 on about six dollars of ad revenue per Twitter Blue 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.680 subscriber in the United States, and once Google and Apple 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.280 have taken a cut of the subscription transaction of eight 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.880 dollars per month to be in Twitter Blue, it's actually 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.960 possible that subscribing to Twitter Blue will cost Twitter money 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.440 so as people pay Twitter to use it. If in fact, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.440 this all stays the way it is, then Twitter will 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.880 lose money because it will not be showing as many 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.520 ads to those people and won't be able to monetize 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.880 their activity. So yeah, there's some questions about that long 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.920 term strategy, as it does not appear to be helping 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.120 the problem of losing more than four million dollars per day. 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.080 The Verge reports that at least some verified users are 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.880 now finding it impossible to change their names in Twitter, 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:10.960 leading some to wonder if perhaps the company is trying 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.000 to head off a mass musk ing, or just to 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.720 avoid Twitter turning into that free for all hell escape 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:21.560 the Musk was saying definitely would not happen. Elizabeth Lopato 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.720 of The Verge reported that she and her verified coworkers 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.440 all encountered an error message while they were trying to 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:32.080 change their names, but that her unverified coworker was able 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.400 to change his name on the platform without a problem, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.520 which does sound curious. Also, Musk warned that verified users 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.920 who changed their names would quote cause temporary loss of 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.520 verified check mark end quote. Elizabeth pointed out that if 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.319 she changed her Twitter name to Liz, which is a 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.319 name that some of her friends and colleagues use for her, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.680 that would technically mean she would be unverified, at least temporarily, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.280 even though she was just aaging one form of her 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.959 name to a different form of her name, not changing 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:09.000 her name to something else entirely, and still twittering over here. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.480 News outlet The State not to be confused with the 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:16.000 old MTV comedy Sketch group with folks like Thomas Lennon 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.240 and Joe Latrulia in it reports that quote Twitter's rules 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.520 under new CEO Elon Musk, published Monday do not include 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:29.959 policies about misinformation end quote. That's a big old yikes 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.960 that is concerning now there are rules in place. They 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.800 did publish rules for content moderation, So for example, it's 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.840 against the rules to engage in targeted harassment. You cannot 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.520 call for violence or glorify violence. You can't promote terrorism 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.000 that kind of thing. Also, they had rules against dox sing. 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:53.640 You cannot reveal personal information about someone else on Twitter. 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:58.280 That's against the rules. So there are content rules in place, 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.560 but when it comes of things like misinformation, none of 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.680 that is included in the rules. The State reached out 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:10.920 to Twitter asking if the company would allow clear misinformation 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:16.480 campaigns to to proliferate across the platform without moderation, and 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.520 seem to get the indication that Twitter will still look 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.800 for that kind of stuff, but it's not codified in 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:27.120 the rules. So who knows. Platformer, a tech newsletter written 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.320 by journalist Casey Newton, whose work is really good. By 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.360 the way, you're not familiar with Casey, you should check 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.120 out his work, revealed that Musk is allegedly considering putting 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.920 all of Twitter behind a paywall. Now, it sounds as 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.679 though this plan is to allow for a certain amount 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.080 of browsing on Twitter each month for free, but once 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.400 you hit a limit, let's say, like it's like I 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.400 don't know, five hours or something, then you would have 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.320 to pay to continue using Twitter for the rest of 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.760 that calendar month, or you'd have to wait for the 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.640 next month before you could use Twitter again, which sounds 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.600 a lot like some mobile games I've played, where the 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.040 game is designed to hook you into activity and then 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.040 has a cool down period, but you can skip the 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.360 cool down if you pay cash. As of this recording, 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.680 there is no word on how seriously Musk and his 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:19.000 team are considering this option. I would be really interested 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.360 to see if this got implemented. I mean, I'm already 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.160 kind of off Twitter myself, but yeah, I could definitely 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.440 see that brands would want to pay in order to 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:33.520 continue using Twitter. But if your average user isn't, obviously, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:35.880 that would not be a very sustainable model. I guess 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:41.319 they're they're really banking on people being addicted to using Twitter. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.720 Will be back with some more news, including stuff that 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:58.560 doesn't involve Twitter at all. After these messages. One thing 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.959 that some Twitter users have been doing is dumping Twitter 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:07.920 entirely and migrating over to Mastodon. Uh. Then a bunch 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.200 of people go to Mastodon and their left saying, what 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.880 the heck is this? How does this work? So? Mastodon 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.559 allows you to post messages, it allows you to engage 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.960 with posted messages, so you can comment on someone else's message, 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.480 you could repost other people's messages, that kind of stuff. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.520 So it has a lot of features that are similar 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.880 to what you can do on Twitter, but Mastodon is 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:36.760 organized in a totally different way from Twitter. Twitter is 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:44.120 a centralized service hosted on Twitter servers. Mastodon is decentralized. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.440 It is hosted on multiple servers that are owned and 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.600 operated by different people and organizations all around the world. 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.040 So when you start using Mastodon, the first thing you 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.240 have to do is choose a server to join. Servers 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.240 tend to have focus to them. That focus could be 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.679 topic based, It could be regionally based, could be like 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:10.040 this is a server for you know, Southeast UK, that 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.800 kind of thing. It can be demographically based. There are 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.760 a lot of lgbt Q friendly servers, and the server 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:21.920 you choose ends up becoming part of your handle slash address. 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.840 Folks who are on the same server that you're on 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.520 can just look you up by your handle, right, It's 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.640 like you're both in the same room in a house. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.920 They can just look across the room and see you there. 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.679 But they can do that just by using your handle. 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.280 If they're on a different server. They have to know 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.280 what server you belong to in order to look you up, 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:44.400 so they use your handle plus whatever server you belong to, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.160 and then they can send you messages and things of 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.800 that nature. All that being said, anyone on any server 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.480 can technically communicate with anyone else on any other server, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.839 but discovery is pretty challenging. Uh, it's a little more 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.640 umbersome that what you would find on Twitter. Also, if 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:08.719 whatever entity or organization runs your server stops supporting it, 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.400 you effectively lose your account. You would have to start 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.079 over by establishing a new account on another server. So 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.480 that is an issue with Mastodon. Uh. There are people 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:24.080 who are working to create kind of a buffer so 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.000 that if an organization plans to shut down a Mastodon server, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.760 people will have time to migrate their stuff over to 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.640 a different server. But as I understand it right now, 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.760 that's not the case. It's just kind of taking on 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.600 faith that the server you've joined, we're will still be 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:44.760 around tomorrow. Anyway, Mastodon has reported an influx of users 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.160 that's really pushed Mastodon to the limit on some servers. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.880 You know, a certain servers got way more popular then 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:57.320 that increase in traffic has really strained the server load, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.240 and it's you know, been a pretty quiet utility for 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.960 the last several years, except within certain communities. If you 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.120 are thinking about joining Mastodon and checking it out, I 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:14.000 feel that I should add Mastodon tends to lean left politically, 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.720 not exclusively, but it is a tendency. Now. I'm personally 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.440 a left leaning kind of guy, which I'm sure everyone 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:27.040 out there realizes based upon my my uh commentary in episodes, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.000 but I realized not everyone is, and likely a lot 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.400 of listeners will disagree with me politically, so I thought 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.400 it's only fair I mentioned that there is a somewhat 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.000 liberal leaning environment at Mastodon. As for whether I will 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.360 set up a tech stuff space over on Macedon, I'm 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.000 still thinking about it, and I will let y'all know. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.520 Several news outlets are reporting that Meta maybe gearing up 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.720 for its own round of layoffs. This week, The Wall 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.200 Street Journal reported we may hear about thousands of layoffs 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.480 beginning tomorrow, which would be Wednesday, the ninth of November 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.160 to thousand, twenty two for those of y'all listening to 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.400 old news episodes in the future. If these layoffs happen, 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.680 they will mark the first broad scale downsizing across Meta 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:16.120 in the company's history. It's not exactly shocking because CEO 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.680 Mark Zuckerberg has indicated several times this year that he 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.360 suspects Meta has more employees than there is work to do, 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.240 and that some folks aren't necessarily putting in significant effort 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.040 in their jobs, and that there are employees who may 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.920 not need to be there. And this is all talk 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.840 that indicates that there's a leader in place who feels 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:40.000 it's time to clear out some office space. Plus, Zuckerberg 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:44.960 continues to focus on his Metaverse project, which is costing 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.880 Meta billions of dollars each year. If you're going to 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.600 keep up with that kind of cash drain, you may 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.440 eventually have to look at making cuts elsewhere, like with 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.760 your head count on projects that are not directly connected 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.000 to your Metaverse vision. We've already heard reports that there 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.800 are folks in Meta who say they are on MMH projects, 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:10.119 which stands for make Mark Happy. That one way to 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.159 stay in good graces with management is to tackle whatever 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.040 pet project Zuckerberg has in mind at the time. But 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.080 that this gets tricky because Zuckerberg also is known to 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.800 change his mind about stuff, often due to the public 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:30.840 reception of his ideas, which then necessitates pivoting those projects 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:36.520 and being able to respond to new criteria. Now, I'm 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.919 no expert in any of this kind of stuff, but 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:40.840 to me, it sounds like Meta isn't a bit of 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:45.199 a vicious cycle right now. Investors are generally unhappy that 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.800 the company isn't performing nearly as well as it used 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.479 to who which is putting it lightly, And they're really 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.159 not happy that Meta is spending billions of dollars on 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.919 a project that will not see fruition for years if 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.560 it succeeds at all. And there's still plenty of skeptics, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.840 myself included, who think that the vision of the metaverse, 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:10.320 particularly as something that necessitates VR and a R headgear, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.959 is not likely to have broad acceptance. You're gonna have 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:21.560 probably a narrow band of extremely enthusiastic fans of it, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.880 but I just don't see it extending beyond that without 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.080 like a lot of growing pains. Now that being said, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.080 shares of Meta rose a bit after news broke that 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:37.000 layoffs are coming, because that's cheerful, And as of this recording, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.400 shares of Meta are trading and around ninety six dollars 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.480 per share. Now, this is up from its low of 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.480 eighty eight dollars per share, which was what it was 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.680 posting it just a few days ago. But ninety six 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.760 dollars a share is way way down from the company's 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.120 high this year of around three forty dollars a year 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.280 back in January. So yeah, it was trading at three 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.200 dollars at the beginning of the year. Now it's less 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.399 than a hundred dollars per share. You know, towards the 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.879 end of the year. Uh, it did have a little 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.480 bit of a recovery compared to its low, but yeah, 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.560 that is not in a great place. Whendows eleven users 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.359 might notice some new ads popping up as they go 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.639 to shut down their computers. Bleeping Computer reports that users 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.840 have noticed flyout ads popping up as they go to 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.520 shut down their machines. So they go into the start 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.480 menu and they pull up the little menu that comes 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.840 up when you hover over the power selection, and the 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.600 ads are really simple. It's just an option that if 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:41.760 you were to click on the option would take you 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.119 to a product page. So for example, like when you 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.240 would hover over that power button, you would get a 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.520 little menu that give you options like change account settings, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.600 lock to lock your computer, or sign out. But now 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.440 if you do it, you would also get a little 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:01.960 advertise service at the top. It would just be listed 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.280 as another option among these that are already there. So 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.920 you might see an option that says back up your files, 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.000 and if you click on it, it actually takes you 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.680 to Microsoft's one drive product page, or you might see 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.040 one that says sign up for Microsoft account. So, in 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.879 other words, the first option in the menu is trying 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.040 to sell you something specifically some sort of Microsoft service. Interesting. 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.080 People are already upset about it, which I get like 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:34.520 there they don't want to be confronted with sales messages 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.520 when they're just trying to access basic functions of a 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:42.760 computer like turning it off. So yeah, interesting little report there. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.119 And you know, we already talked earlier about how Microsoft 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:51.560 is apparently considering going down a strategy where they offer 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.640 PCs that are subsidized by advertising so that you could 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:01.080 purchase it for very little money relatively speaking. And the 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.560 tradeoff would be every time you're using your computer, you're 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.640 getting ads served to you, and that offsets the purchase 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:12.320 price of the computer. Uh, we've heard about that last week. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.840 Still no word on whether or not they're moving forward 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.440 with that, but we are starting to see Microsoft incorporate 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:23.040 Microsoft specific advertising in basic functions of Windows eleven, so 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.600 maybe that is where they're going over on the Activision 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.800 Blizzard side of things, which just as a reminder, Microsoft 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.480 is still attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard, but the deal 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.520 is facing some scrutiny in different parts of the world, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.680 So no guarantee that that's going to happen or what 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.200 timeline it might happen on. But let's talk about Call 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.320 of Duty Modern Warfare two and the upcoming free to 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:52.280 play companion title Call of Duty war Zone two point oh. 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:57.440 Engadget reports that Activision is launching some content moderation tools 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:02.520 meant to deal with toxicity in communications within the games. 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.200 And I'm sure that if any of y'all have ever 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.720 played any sort of competitive online game that features voice 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.960 chat or text chat, you have run into situations where 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.959 someone is being incredibly offensive and vulgar and are harassing 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.560 other players that you can hear like some of the 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.880 worst stuff imaginable in these games. And for folks who 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:28.120 make say they're living streaming, people who live stream games, 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:30.320 this can be a real problem because that kind of 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.040 language can get the streamer and hot water with whatever 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.800 platform they're using, like if it's YouTube or Twitch, even 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.919 if the streamer is not necessarily engaging with the toxic player, 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.959 like if there's proximity chat on and another player is 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.720 in the same general space as the streamer and then 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.800 just starts letting loose with ethnic slurs, that affects the 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:58.000 streamer too, right, So not to mention just normal players 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:03.440 who don't necessarily want to encounter that kind of abuse online. Well, 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.880 Call of Duty is going to have active moderation teams who, 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:09.840 once they verify that a player has engaged in toxic 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.600 voice chat or text messages within the game, they will 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:18.400 mute that player in all communication channels. That person will 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.439 no longer be heard or be able to text. They'll 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:23.959 still be able to play unless they have violated some 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:25.960 other rules, in which case they could get you know, 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:29.760 booted and banned, but they won't be heard by anybody, 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:32.199 which I think is a blessing. Uh. In order for 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:35.760 this to work, however, is being a reactive system. Players 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:39.359 will still need to flag offensive gamers to alert the 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.679 moderation team to look into them. So if you're playing, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:45.400 and you encounter someone who is just being the worst, 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.840 you can flag them. Then, at least hypothetically, the content 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:52.479 moderation team will take a closer look and listen in 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:55.359 on chat and start looking at the text messages, and 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:59.639 if they see that, in fact, there are instances of 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:03.280 a use, they will then mute the player. Still, considering 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:05.320 all the types of stuff that can get shouted about 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:07.680 in these games, I think that's a good choice. It's 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:11.040 not the best. There are more proactive approaches to this 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.520 kind of thing, but at least it's a way of 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:18.240