WEBVTT - Tech News: Nintendo Gets Direct and Peloton Cycles In Place 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.760 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio. And 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.520 how the tech already done. It's time for the tech 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:27.800 news for Thursday, February twenty two. Almost totally read that 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.120 date wrong. Um And and first personal update. Uh, those 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.360 who have been listening this week know that I have 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:41.440 been dealing with COVID. Despite taking every precaution and avoiding 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.520 tons of fun stuff, I still got the darned thing. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.440 And I'm feeling a little better. So that's that's the 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.240 personal news. Just wanted to get that all the way. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.000 Hopefully that means I'm on the other side of it. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.480 Um And that in a couple of days I can 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.200 emerge from isolation and become a butterfly. I'm pretty sure 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.680 that's how that works. I gotta be honest, I haven't 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.800 read up on it. But let's go with some tech news, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.360 and we'll start off with something fun for a change, 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.080 because I know, I know the news can be pretty brutal, 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.600 and I thought, why don't we do something fun and 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.680 not just bury it. So Nintendo held one of its 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:25.000 Nintendo Direct events yesterday and announced several upcoming titles. Sadly, 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.000 there was no mention of either a Legend of Zelda 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.960 Breath of the Wild follow up, nor was there any 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.880 talk of a Metroid Prime sequel, but the company did 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.560 share a trailer for Splatoon three, which is another sequel 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.800 to the surprise hit franchise, in which you play as 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.840 part squid, part kid, and all paintball maniac um. Actually 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:51.120 really fun game, so I'm glad to see that. If 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.960 you are a fan of soccer, or as it is 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.920 known pretty much everywhere else but my home country, football, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.320 and you happen to love mar EO, you might be 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.920 excited to learn more about Mario Striker's Battle League. It's 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.400 the first Mario Striker's game in fifteen years and will 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:13.840 feature five on five soccer matches, complete with special moves 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.640 that you're not likely to see in games like FIFA. 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.520 A trailer for Kirby and the Forgotten Land showed off 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.880 the cotton candy ghost like critters tendency to gobble stuff up, 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:29.040 including cars and vending machines, which was adorable and disturbing. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.040 As always, Nintendo also announced that Portal and Portal to 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.760 two very good puzzle games that have amazing songs by 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.760 Jonathan Colton, and them are both coming to the Switch 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.480 at long last, though we don't know exactly when. They 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.040 didn't give a date for that. Also, No Man's Sky, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.640 the game that lots of folks felt initially kind of 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.959 overpromised and underdelivered, is also coming to the Switch. I 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.080 also want to point out that since it's launch, Hello Games, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.640 the developer behind No Man's Sky, has released lots of 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.200 updates that drastically add to the game's content. So while 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.399 the initial response to No Man Sky was a bit 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:13.400 like oh, it has since improved. There were several other 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.560 announcements to that were done yesterday, so if you want 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.519 to learn more, you should track down the video. It's 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.079 available on YouTube on Nintendo's channel. It's also available through 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.000 like every video game outlet will have a version of it, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.920 as well as like probably commentary on on what was announced, 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.760 so check that out if you are a big fan 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:41.000 of Nintendo. Now a quick update to our update to 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.720 the Peloton story. So on Tuesday, I talked about how 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.800 the beleaguered company famous for its connected stationary exercise bikes 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.280 and treadmills, is going through what David Bowie would call 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:58.080 cha cha changes. John Foley, the co founder and now 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.960 former CEO of the company, has stepped into the role 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.560 of executive Chairman of the board then, just to be 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.880 clear fully, and his close colleagues control about eight percent 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.640 of the board's voting power, so it's not like he's 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.320 gone and forgotten. He's very much capable of being hands 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.840 on here. Barry McCarthy, who came over from Spotify as 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:25.240 Spotify's Chief financial Officer or CFO, is the new CEO 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.480 of Peloton, and the company made an announcement that it 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.760 would lay off around employees, or about twenty of its workforce. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.640 And now we've got a few more details. One is 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.080 that to help take the sting out of those folks 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.800 getting their walking papers, Peloton graciously through in a free 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:50.200 year subscription to you guessed it, Peloton all to the 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.840 employees who had been let go. And that's a big 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.200 old yikes, Like, can you imagine working for a company 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.479 that says, hey, we gotta fire you, but here's a 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.400 coupon so you can buy some of our stuff. Because remember, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.760 the subscription is really most useful if you happen to 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.400 also own one of the really expensive Peloton bikes or treadmills. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.880 Now you could just follow the online exercise routines on 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.520 your own device like a tablet, and use some ordinary 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:22.159 exercise bike or treadmill like a plebu. It wouldn't be 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.359 connected to the rest of the class in that sense, 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.880 so you wouldn't have the ability to tag in with 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.039 all the you know, competitive information, nor would you have 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.360 the dynamic response capabilities of some of the more advanced 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:42.240 Peloton equipment. So it's definitely not the full experience if 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.160 you do it that way, But it would also mean 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:45.760 that if you wanted to have the full experience, you 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.440 would have to PLoP down several thousand dollars to buy 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.080 the equipment to do it. So not the best way 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.200 to send off people who have just been let go, 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.280 and as you can imagine, a lot of affected employees 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.960 were a bit miffed about this. So when the company 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.400 held an all hands meeting to introduce Barry McCarthy to Peloton, 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.200 a whole bunch of former employees decided that they wanted 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.680 to be part of that meeting too, and they were 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.479 not terribly chipper about it. And this mess was probably 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.560 upsetting to pretty much everyone involved. I'm sure McCarthy was 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:24.560 a bit taken aback. The former employees were obviously very upset, 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.839 and Peloton's current employees, I mean, that can't be great 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.160 for morale to see a bunch of your former colleagues 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:36.279 coming in and just like you know, lambasting the company 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.960 and complaining and criticizing it. Not that a lot of 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.560 I mean, there are plenty of people who still work 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.680 at Peloton who also criticized the company. And meanwhile, investors 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.479 who were already concerned about Peloton, some of them feel 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.720 like the changes aren't actually addressing the underlying problems with 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.240 a company. For example, black Well's Capital published a sixty 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.200 five slide presentation criticizing Peloton and its attempts to right 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.600 the ship, and some analysts argue that McCarthy, being a 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.600 former CFO with no CEO experience, is the wrong leader 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.760 for the job. There are a lot of folks wondering 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.640 is this just Peloton trying to tread water until they 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.840 can figure out which, if any suitor they want to 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.960 go with in terms of like a acquisition, because there 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.360 are companies like Amazon and Apple that are rumored to 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.200 kind of be circling the waters. But yeah, that's where 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.320 we are right now. You're probably aware, especially if you've 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.560 been listening to my shows, that online services track a 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.840 lot of your personal information. Facebook is probably the platform 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.320 I think about most often in that context, but a 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.760 study released by the marketing company You Are l Genius 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.880 says that two other apps are really gobbling up information 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.120 about you. One of those is YouTube, which is no 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.400 shock there, and the other is TikTok. So with YouTube, 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:04.320 we know that a lot of the this data tracking 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.520 is revolving around how YouTube relies on data to both 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.040 serve targeted ads to you and also to recommend more 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.760 videos that are likely to keep you on the platform longer. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.880 And this is because, and I know I sound like 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.840 a broken record here, the two goals of these kinds 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.920 of platforms is to try and serve as many ads 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.200 to the viewer as that viewer will tolerate, and to 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.800 keep the viewer there for as long as you can 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.080 so that you know, in turn you can ultimately serve 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.679 them more ads. But then what about TikTok. Well, according 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:41.920 to the study, TikTok is a bit of a different story. TikTok, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.800 which is owned by a parent company, byte Dance, and 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.880 that's a Chinese company is mostly letting third party data 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.320 trackers collect all that juicy information about users. Uh. The 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:57.560 study identified fourteen trackers with TikTok, and thirteen of them 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.680 were third party trackers. Now, that in turn means that 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.000 we don't actually have very much information on what trackers 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.200 are actually using TikTok in order to collect data, or 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.400 what those companies are doing with the information that they're collecting. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.600 And that's probably not going to help TikTok fight against 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.880 the perception that the company could potentially be collecting information 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.880 on say, US citizens and then sending that information back 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.800 to China. That's a narrative that TikTok has had to 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.240 fight against for a few years now, and it really 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.160 came to prominence when former US President Donald Trump tried 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.079 to either force TikTok to shut down in the United 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.240 States or to have an American company come and buy 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.640 the service from byte Dance. Now, neither of those things 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.960 actually happened, and the story gets a little bit worse. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.240 According to that marketing company, UH that you are l genius. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.600 TikTok's data tracking apparently persists even if a user goes 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:58.200 into settings to opt out of tracking. Anyway, it's just 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.280 something for you to think about, for you to talk 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.320 fans out there. Your information is valuable and TikTok and 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.240 lots of third parties are profiting off of it in 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.720 some way. And again, if you want to interact with 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.880 the Internet in any meaningful way, it typically means that 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.800 you're also having to give up information about yourself. So 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.720 it's really up to each person to decide how comfortable 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.760 they are with that personally. I had TikTok for a 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.800 couple of months last year before I decided to uninstall 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.400 it because I'm past my expiration date for that kind 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.240 of stuff. So it wasn't really so much about the 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.480 dad tracking. It was just about me being old. All right, 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.720 this old guy needs to take a quick break, but 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:48.360 we'll be right back. Apple reported recently to the US 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.000 Securities and Exchange Commission that the company has ended partnerships 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.040 with twelve smelting or refining companies out of concern that 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.280 the companies operate in areas that have armed conflicts going 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.960 on in them, thus making these conflict materials. So you 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.400 may have heard terms like blood diamonds or conflict diamonds 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.080 or conflict minerals or conflict medals. All that gets to 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.640 what we're talking about here. So a lot of these 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.760 kinds of operations take place in regions that are, to 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.280 put it, mildly unstable politically, and there's a real concern 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.520 that funding these operations ends up creating brutal conditions for 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.160 the people who have to work there. Uh. There are 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:32.160 stories about folks being forced to work in say mining 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:37.439 operations or smelting or refining operations, and that essentially they 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.120 become slave labor for very powerful company leaders. Those leaders 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.920 might even employ armed forces, like armed guards to oversee 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.240 the operations. And Apple has made a commitment to avoid 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.600 contributing to these situations whenever it can detect them, which 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.240 is different from saying that it can confidently say it 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:01.160 doesn't support them at all, but rather if if evidence 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.880 comes up that that is going on, the company has 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.960 committed to severing those relationships. The only specific country that 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.360 Apple referenced in this recent report is the Democratic Republic 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.560 of the Congo, which has had a long history of 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:19.760 oppressive mining and refining operations and also a long history 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.400 of political instability. The company explained that the twelve refiners 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.000 and smelters that cut ties with either did not meet 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.880 standards or refused to participate in a third party audit 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.520 of their operations. We often see issues like this arise 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.920 in the tech sector, where much of the raw materials 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.040 that we depend upon for our technology comes to us 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:46.240 courtesy of oppressive working conditions in remote regions around the world. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.600 And back in two I actually did an episode of 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.920 Tech Stuff with my former co host Chris Pallette where 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.439 we talked about rare earth metals. I think it might 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.400 be time to do an update on that, just to 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.040 see where we stand today and why things are the 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.040 way they are. The State of California's Department of Fair 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.280 Employment and Housing has filed a racial discrimination complaint against 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.319 electric car company Tesla. This complaint alleges that Tesla racially 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:17.040 segregates workforces in its California factory and Fremont. Further, the 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.400 complaint accuses the Fremont factory of having a truly toxic 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:25.160 work environment that includes racial discrimination and abuses, with employees 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.240 reporting that they have been the subject of verbal attacks, 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.440 including racial slurs, and that they are regularly discriminated against 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.560 when it comes to job assignments, compensation, promotion, and discipline. 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.920 The agency goes on to make more specific and deeply 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:44.320 upsetting accusations regarding working conditions in the factory, and this 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.959 isn't by any means the first we've heard of these accusations, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.040 and there have also been related cases. For example, last December, 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.520 six women filed a lawsuit against Tesla, alleging that the 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.800 factory workplace is a dangerous place for women and that 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.680 the factory has a culture of sexual harassment. The company 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.880 released a statement saying that quote Tesla has always taken 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.640 disciplinary action and terminated employees for professional misconduct, including those 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.040 who utter racial slurs or harass others in various ways 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:18.440 end quote. Tesla also has recently issued a recall for 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.000 more than half a million vehicles, specifically some model S, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.680 Model X, and Model Y Tesla's from twenty two model years, 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.040 as well as some Model three vehicles from twenty seventeen 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:36.000 to twenty twenty two model years. So what's going on? Well, 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.400 the issue is that the US National Highway Traffic Safety 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:44.040 Administration or nht s A, has, after more than a 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.600 year's worth of discussions, determined that Tesla's boom box feature 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.160 could obscure important sounds that would otherwise alert people about 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.280 the presence of an electric vehicle coming down the road. 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.560 So by that I mean here in the United States, 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.480 electric vehicle manufacturing companies have to create a method for 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.000 electric cars to make an audible sound while they are 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.080 moving at speeds up to thirty kilometers per hour or 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.880 eighteen point six miles per hour. And the reason for 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.760 that is because electric vehicles can operate much more quietly 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:19.640 than gasoline or diesel powered vehicles, and the sound can 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.840 alert pedestrians, cyclists, and the visually impaired that there is 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:29.040 a car coming. But in December twenty Tesla launched the 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.840 boom box function, which lets Tesla drivers pump sound from 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:37.480 their car based entertainment system through the speakers that otherwise 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.880 the car uses as its pedestrian warning system. So, in 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.200 other words, the speakers that would otherwise indicate, hey, there's 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.920 an electric car coming, would now be saying, you know, 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.800 who let the dogs out? And the nht s A said, yeah, no, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.840 you need to keep that system dedicated to making an 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:00.640 identifiable noise so that folks know a car is coming. Meanwhile, 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.560 I'm thinking, how obnoxious can Tesla be. I mean, I 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.080 don't mind if a jerk face is listening to awful 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.520 music and the privacy of their own car, but once 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.560 they start pumping it out at the rest of us, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.040 that is an awful feature. Anyway, Tesla is pushing on 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.320 an update to these vehicles that will disable boom box 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.680 mode while the cars are in motion or in neutral, 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.320 so I guess it will only work if the car 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:26.400 is in park. So I guess you could use it 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.800 for like a block party or something. I don't know, 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.240 but boy howdy, this just reinforces my perception that Tesla 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.840 is the dude bro of car companies. Many years ago, 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.600 I appeared as an extra in a science fiction horror 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.280 film called The Signal. And just so you know, there's 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.000 more than one movie that has The Signal and its title, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:46.880 you would need to find the one that has Justin 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:48.720 Welburn in it to see the one that I'm in. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.760 And also you wouldn't see me because I'm on screen 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:53.640 for less than a second, and it's also in a 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.800 big chaotic crowd scene. And also it's just the back 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.760 of my head. So the movie's worth watching, you just 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.000 won't see me in it. Anyway. The premise of that 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.480 film is that there's this mysterious signal that gets broadcast 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.000 over pretty much every communication channel, and that once humans 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.800 are exposed to it, they go a bit mental. They 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.520 either become incredibly violent or terrified. Well, our next story 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.960 involves a radio broadcast that had a negative effect, but 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.440 not on people. In this case, however, it did affect 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:31.560 infotainment systems. K U O W ninety point nine, which 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.320 is an NPR station in the Seattle area, broadcast the 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.359 signal that ended up breaking the infotainment system for some 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.600 Mazda vehicles. The affected cars, which included Mazda's with model 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:49.399 years from TOEV, would get stuck to that radio station, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.440 which is very clever in pr nice way to absolutely 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.560 dominate the market. I'm kidding, it was not on purpose. Uh. 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.520 The infotainment screens would then go dead and the whole 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.439 system would try and go into reboot mode over and 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.840 over and over again. So it's start the cycle of 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.639 trying to reboot but never actually boot. To make matters worse, 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.440 the fix was to replace these systems Connectivity Master Unit 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:19.879 or CMU, and that is expensive, likes and more to 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.320 the point, right now, it's practically impossible to find them 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.440 because we have an ongoing chip shortage. So you might 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.800 wonder what the heck actually happened. How did a radio 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:35.159 broadcast brick an infotainment system. Well, it turns out the 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.919 radio station was sending out image files via radio waves, 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.399 and typically an infotainment system with a screen would handle 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.960 this right. You would get the incoming signal and the 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.840 screen would display whatever the image was. So you can 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.000 do this with advertising all that kind of stuff for 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.359 station identification, whatever it might be. But in this case, 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.000 the image files that MPR was sending out they lacked 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:03.160 a file extension, and apparently the Mazda infotainment systems from 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.760 those model years just can't handle that, and the systems 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:12.359 became corrupted. Yells them now. I again, I'm not blaming 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.840 MPR for this at all. This is a fault with 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.040 those infotainment systems right this it's it's kind of crazy 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.920 to think about that a simply a file that's lacking 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.119 an extension would be enough to completely shut down the system, 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.119 and there is no easy fix to this. It pretty 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.080 much means that affected Mazda owners have to take their 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.520 vehicles into a Mazda dealership and work with them to 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.520 solve the issue by submitting a good will request to 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.520 the warranty department in order to get the ball rolling. 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.600 So bad news for MASDA owners in Seattle. UM, I 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:48.560 guess it can be confident that they're not listening to 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.359 this show on the radio right now, if they if 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.560 they're affected. Okay, well, we have a few more stories 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.600 to cover, but before we get to that, let's take 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:08.119 another quick break. Okay, time to wrap up the stories 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.320 for today. One of those is that SpaceX recently lost 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:16.760 around forty of its Starlink satellites due to a solar storm. Now, 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.800 let's break that down so we can understand what we're 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.720 talking about. First. What is starlink. Starlink is space X 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.399 is satellite based Internet provider service. The idea being that 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.800 you launched thousands of these tiny satellites into orbit enough 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:35.000 so that there's consistent coverage over the service areas at 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.320 any given time of day, and customers down on the 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.560 ground will use satellite dishes that will tune in and 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:48.440 then track satellites, uh switching between satellites when when they're 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:53.000 starting to pass out of view, and maintain a satellite 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.760 based Internet connection, which is obviously slower or at least 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.720 less responsive, is a lot more latency than you would 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.240 get with say, fiber, but in a lot of rural 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.840 areas it's the only real method you can get to 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.080 get Internet. Heck, I have a little house where that's 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.760 the case, and I just don't have Internet. They're not 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.760 by choice, but by the fact that I don't have 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:22.840 any options really. So the company has already launched thousands 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:27.120 of small satellites into low Earth orbit to provide coverage 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.280 for customers, and right now there are very few customers. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.320 It's more or less in a limited rollout. Solar storms, then, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.120 are events in which we get a burst of radiation 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.960 and sometimes particles that are sent out from the Sun. 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.800 So these can sometimes but not always, include coronal mass 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.320 ejections or c m s. But in any event, a 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.600 solar storm means that the Earth gets hit by a 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:56.119 burst of energy and sometimes particles, and fortunately our magneto 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.000 sphere and our atmosphere do a pretty good job of 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.600 shielding us down here on the surface unless it's like 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.280 really intense, and then we can get things like blackouts 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.359 and stuff. Most of the time we're okay, though, but 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:11.280 for stuff in space it's a different matter. They're outside 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.840 of those protective barriers for the most part, and the 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.639 energy can overwhelm electrical systems in space or pose as 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.720 a potential health hazard to astronauts who might get dangerous 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.720 doses of radiation like gamma radiation and stuff. So that's 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.280 something that we've always been concerned with. But in this case, 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:34.159 the solar storm appears to have increased atmospheric drag, and 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:39.200 you might think, hey, space don't got no atmosphere, and yeah, 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.160 in deep space, that's true. There's no atmosphere here on Earth. 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.119 Once you get above a hundred kilometers in altitude or 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.119 sixty two miles up, you reach a point where the 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:53.480 atmosphere is typically too thin for any aerodynamic lift among 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:58.640 other things. There are other markers for that altitude as well. However, 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.200 that doesn't mean that the atmosphere just stops above a 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:07.000 hundred kilometers. There still is atmosphere further out, though obviously 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.040 it gets progressively thinner. There's more space between molecules as 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.560 you continue to go higher an altitude. The operational altitude 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:19.199 for Starling satellites is at five fifty kilometers or three 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.480 d forty miles out from the Earth, but even at 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:27.280 that altitude there is still atmospheric drag. In fact, SpaceX 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.840 depends upon atmospheric drag because the idea is that these 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:34.840 satellites will have a limited shelf life and they will 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:38.760 eventually break down and stop operating. So they're at an 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:43.400 orbit where atmospheric drag will cause the orbit to decay. 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:47.040 The satellite will slow down and start to fall back 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.960 to Earth eventually, not immediately, but over the course of years. 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:53.760 And these satellites are small enough that they will just 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:58.000 disintegrate upon re entry. Nothing should survive re entry at all, 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:00.640 so there shouldn't be any danger of it like colliding 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:04.400 with anything here on Earth, and that way, these satellites 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.240 won't just sit there up in space cluttering it up forever. However, 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:12.240 in this case, forty out of forty nine satellites that 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:14.760 were recently launched and were on their way to their 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:19.600 operational orbit experienced increased drag that slowed them down enough 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:22.400 to cause them to re enter earlier than desired, so 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:28.840 they went coutput. Speaking of SpaceX and Starlink, NASA submitted 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:31.520 a statement to the Federal Communications Commission, or f c 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:34.720 C here in the United States, saying that the agency 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:38.400 is a little bit concerned about Starlink's future plans, which 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:43.359 include launching thirty thousand satellites into low Earth orbit. Starlink 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.280 had received the go ahead for twelve thousand satellites in 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:49.840 its initial run, but now it's looking at second generation 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:52.439