WEBVTT - Tech News: The FCC Says Net Neutrality is Back on the Menu 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Be there 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.560 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.119 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.880 are you. It's time for the tech News for September 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.520 twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, and I am still in 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.240 Las Vegas, still recording from a hotel room. Interesting thing 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.559 for a Thursday's episode, it'll be a different hotel, so 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.240 a different hotel room. We'll see how how that sounds. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.000 But never mind that, let's get to the tech news. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.080 And first up here in the United States, we've got 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:48.240 this agency called the Federal Communications Commission aka the FCC. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:53.560 The FCC consists of five commissioners when it's a full commission, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:55.800 So for more than two and a half years, the 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.760 FCC has only had four commissioners, two who fall on 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.639 the Democrat ideological side and to who fall on the 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:08.280 Republican ideological side, which meant getting consensus on anything was 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.120 we'll call it a challenge. But earlier this month, the 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.240 US Senate approved candidate and A Gomez to the position 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.480 of commissioner, which means she will hold that position for 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:25.160 five years. Gomez also falls on the Democrat side of ideology. 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.560 This week, the FCC will once again tackle the issue 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.440 of net neutrality. Now, for those of y'all who are 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.800 unfamiliar with that particular term, net neutrality means a few things, 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.319 but essentially it gets down to the fact that Internet 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.280 service providers or ISPs, should treat all traffic on the 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:48.880 Internet equally, and further that it should mean that anyone 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:54.040 could access all Internet content with any Internet capable device, 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.160 no matter what ISP they connect to. Much of the 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.080 concern about net neutrality is on how imps have a 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.720 lot of power, and they could potentially allow some Internet 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.320 traffic to travel on a so called fast lane while 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.160 throttling traffic coming from other places. And since some ISPs 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.440 like Comcast are actually part of a multi billion dollar 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.960 conglomerate that also includes companies that actually, you know, make content, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.840 there's this concern that they could show favoritism. Right, So, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.840 a firm net neutrality policy would keep Comcast from, say, 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.840 throttling content that came from competitors while giving its own 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:40.120 content preferential treatment to its Internet customers. Now, there's a 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.519 whole lot more to the issue other than what I've 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.320 just covered, but that's kind of a high level look 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.360 at it. Well, back when Barack Obama was US president, 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.519 the FCC created a whole bunch of new rules to 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.600 try and ensure net neutrality, But then under the administration 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.360 of Donald Trump, the FCC essentially stripped away those rules 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.760 and them aside. Ajitpi, who was then the head of 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.160 the FCC, claimed that net neutrality was trying to fix 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.600 a problem that didn't really exist, and that keeping net 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.120 neutrality away would mean that ISPs would feel free to 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.959 invest heavily in innovation. We also found out that when 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.440 the FCC opened up its proposed policy for public comment, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:26.040 which is part of FCC's process, the ISPs spend a 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.760 whole lot of money to have more than eight million 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:35.080 fake comments come out against net neutrality to the FCC's website. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.480 So they were stuffing the ballot boxes effectively with fake comments, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.280 trying to protect their own self interest. Now, I will 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.360 say two things here. One, a lot of the fears 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.120 about what will happen if you don't ensure net neutrality 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.680 have not yet come to pass. We do not see 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:55.520 an Internet that has this vast difference in data speeds 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.240 depending upon which ISP you're connected to and what content 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.400 you're trying to act access. That hasn't really happened, So 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.440 the fearful worst case scenario hasn't happened. However, we also 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.440 have not seen ISPs spend a whole lot of money 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.520 in innovation because they have no incentive to do so. 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.720 In most places in the United States, you have very 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:21.080 little competition, if any, for Internet service providers. Well, without competition, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.640 there's not really any need to invest in innovation. You 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.400 could just use that money to return toward shareholder value. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.360 So why would you spend that money innovating if there's 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:34.520 no alternative to your service? I mean, no one's going 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.520 to go anywhere else. But yeah, as to the whole 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.840 stuffing the ballot box thing, that was a serious problem. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.880 In fact, according to an investigation, around eighteen million out 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:45.920 of the twenty two million comments that were posted to 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:51.279 the FCC were fake. Yikes. So anyway, I guess you 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.360 could say they were innovative in the way they gained 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.960 the system. But now it looks like we're going back 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.640 to establishing net neutrality rules again. The process is a 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.800 methought one, and after seeing the previous round of changes 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.520 that happened when one administration replaced another. I imagine a 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.040 lot of folks are wondering just how permanent any changes 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.320 would be, Like, are we just going to see this 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.440 flip flop depending upon which party has majority in the 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.080 FCC at any given time, because that just gets frustrating. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.400 It means that you never really meet a parody or 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.120 an equilibrium. It's just constantly flopping to favor one side 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.880 versus the other. So we'll have to see. Imagine a 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.880 lot of folks are just kind of fed up with 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.400 the whole thing. It is progressively harder to argue, at 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.080 least with any authority, that the Internet is not a 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.880 necessary component in telecommunications, at least in my opinion. I mean, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.800 the pandemic really brought that to light that if you 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:48.800 did not have access to the Internet, you were at 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:53.479 a incredible social disadvantage. In fact, in some ways, you 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.200 could not participate at all in modern systems. There are 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.560 schools that use Internet or related stuff in the curriculum, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.840 and without access to that, students cannot participate in the 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.920 education system. So I think it is high time that 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.760 we define Internet access as a necessity, whether that's by 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.120 defining it as utility or not. I don't know, but 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.360 we'll have to see. In an earlier tech News episode, 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.320 I talked about how a bill in California would require 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.359 trucking companies that wanted to use autonomous trucks to have 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.920 a human operator behind the wheel at all times while 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.919 driving in California. Now that bill had wide support in 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.560 the state legislation, only a few of California state legislators 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.280 actually voted against it. Almost all of them voted for it. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.560 So it then went to the governor's desk, and the 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.160 Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, did what everyone expected him 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.560 to do, and he vetoed the bill. He said that 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.760 current regulations are already fine when it comes to providing 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.400 oversight to heavy duty autonomous vehicles, that the DMV will 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.960 make these determinations, so there's no new legislation that is necessary, 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.200 and there's a ton of debate on this issue. Honestly, 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:05.880 I feel like I would need to dive in much 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.320 more deeply to get a handle on all of it. 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.080 Only a little of the debate actually deals with the 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.000 tech itself, and I think it is safe for us 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.560 to say that autonomous vehicle technology still has a long 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.640 way to go before it reaches a level of reliability 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.400 and safety that we could say is dependable. But the 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.960 actual debate rests on tons of other factors like politics 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.080 and money and jobs, and those are what are really 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:36.560 causing some figurative roadblocks. A ransomware hacker group says that 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:41.240 it has infiltrated quote unquote all Sony systems. Now, from 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.960 what I've seen, there's a lot of doubt out there 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.200 as to how far into Sony's systems the hackers were 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.520 actually able to get. Most of the reporting I've seen 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.360 has suggested that it wasn't really that far. It certainly 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.960 wasn't everything, at least from what we can tell so far, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.000 but there is a general agreement that hacker did infiltrate 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.280 some Sony systems and gained some level of access. The 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.200 group says it will sell the data that they stole 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.880 from Sony on the dark web. They have indicated that 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.280 Sony leadership refused to hand over a ransom to the group, 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.760 so this is the second method for them to get 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.800 money from their wicked deeds. That group, by the way, 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:26.080 is called Ransomed dot VC. According to the cybersecurity company 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.240 cyber Security Connect, the security company also said that the 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.760 evidence presented suggests that the intrusion was somewhat limited, but 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.920 it's possible that some of the files that were listed 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.280 could contain really sensitive information, like it could have business 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.040 info or customer data. It's hard to say. Ransom dot 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.640 VC presents itself as some sort of gray hat hacker group. 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.480 They claim to conduct penetration testing, and that's a real thing. 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.800 The way penetration and testing usually works is that you 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.040 have a company and you've got a computer system and 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.000 you want to see, you know, if your computer system's 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.440 security is robust or not, so you hire some hackers. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.400 Usually it's some sort of consulting group, and the hackers 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.840 are meant to probe your systems and look for vulnerabilities. 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.640 Then they share their findings, you can improve your security 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.160 wherever you need to, and the cycle goes on. That way, 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.679 you'd do this over and over again. But what ransom 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.839 dot VC does is it probes company systems without being 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.920 invited to do it. Then if they gain access, they 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:33.400 quote unquote seek compensation for our professional services, which really 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.280 is just saying we broke into your house and now 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.000 we demand you pay us for all the stuff we 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.000 took because we taught you that your home security is 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:45.559 not very good. It's not a very sincere or convincing argument, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.080 if you ask me. An Amazon executive who is leaving 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.840 the company told Bloomberg that he expects the high costs 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.520 of running AI operations mean that Amazon will one day 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.640 charge customers to use the Alexa voice activated assystem now. 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.240 He clarified that he thinks the tool as it exists 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.920 right now will remain free, that there will be a 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.160 basic free level of service, but that Amazon will one 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.720 day release a more advanced version with better features and 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.360 one that you would have to pay for. He also 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.360 said this is likely not that far off, and that 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.240 the payment would be framed, probably as a subscription service. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:24.880 I think that approach actually makes the most sense. If 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.520 Amazon were to suddenly tell its customers that the tool 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.720 they've been using for free for several years now is 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.120 going to switch to becoming a subscription service, that would 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.440 not go over super well. But introducing a new premiere 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.120 version might not be such a hard sell, and there 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.880 is no getting around it. Powering AI is expensive. It 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.679 requires a lot of compute power or requires a lot 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.160 of electricity, so there are some real costs to running 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.040 AI services. So I get what he's saying. I don't 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.480 think it's that shocking. I think the headline of Amazon 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.160 exec says Amazon will one day charge for Alexa. I 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.120 think that's just a big attention grabber. Okay, I've got 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.480 some more news items to cover in just a moment, 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:21.680 but first let's take a quick break. We're back. So 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:27.120 the US Securities Exchange Commission or SEC, is continuing its 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.920 probe into personal communications among various employees and executives at 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.360 major investment companies. So here's the deal. Here in the 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.240 United States, we've got a lot of obfuscation when it 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.960 comes to how money rolls around in the investment world. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.800 I mean, there's so many ways that investments can be 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:51.000 hidden away, but even that has its limits. Like as 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.920 dark as it can get, there are limitations, and there 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.320 are rules that you're supposed to follow, and one of 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:02.120 those is that business communications within and between investment companies 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.000 are supposed to be documented. That is a rule. But 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.920 over the last several years, some folks at these companies 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.080 have taken to using certain personal communication tools like Signal 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:18.240 and WhatsApp that are by design not transparent. Now, for 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.720 the purposes of protected communication. That's actually great. You want 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:23.920 these tools to be reliable. You do not want them 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:25.800 to be transparent. You want people to be able to 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:31.520 communicate privately with each other without worry about surveillance. All 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.319 of that is cool, But when it comes to official 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:39.200 business among these giant investment companies, it's a big no no. 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.720 Several big companies have already had to fork over substantial 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.800 cash in fines. Back in August, the sec find eleven 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.880 companies collectively the princely sum of two hundred and eighty 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.360 nine million dollars. Now that was divided up among the 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.960 eleven wells. Fargo had to pay the most out of 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.440 those eleven companies. Its share of that fear was one 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:05.160 hundred and twenty five million dollars. Yikes. And actually that's 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:09.480 an improvement over last year. SEC find ten companies about 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.040 one point one billion dollars last year. So this is 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.320 an ongoing issue, and again it just shows how tech 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:21.280 can play a role in intrinsic systems that are not 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.880 specifically tech related, but because of tech's involvement, it has 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.280 a huge impact. The Ford Motor Company says it is 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:35.040 pausing construction on a planned electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.520 Now this is happening the same time that there's a 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:42.120 union auto workers strike going on, which critics say is 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.160 not a coincidence. They argue that Ford is essentially threatening 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:50.359 twenty five hundred jobs. That's the estimated number of positions 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.560 that would be employed at this future battery plant, and 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:55.920 they're doing it before they ever hire a single one 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.360 of them. Now, there's a lot going on with this story, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.280 ranging from local resis csidents in Michigan opposing the plant 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.520 for various reasons, including the fact that it would take 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.040 up land that otherwise might be used for agriculture. There 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.280 are also a lot of political debates. There's also a 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:14.040 lot of just posturing, with various leaders coming out either 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.120 in support of Ford's decision to delay the project or 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:22.440 condemning the company for playing fast and loose while taxpayers 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.480 are on the hook for paying these massive subsidies that 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.240 made the deal possible in the first place. And then 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.880 there's another political angle in the form of the battery components. 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.200 A lot of those are coming out of China, so 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.640 that's become a big thing about, oh, you're enabling the 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:44.160 Communist Party in China by using these Chinese parts. The 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.760 entire industry uses those parts. There isn't an American equivalent, 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.560 or you know, an equivalent that's anywhere close to the 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:54.960 same price range is what you get out of China. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.880 It'd be great if there were, and maybe there should 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.440 be a lot more money and time spent building that up. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.800 That just doesn't exist right now. So a lot of 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.760 this strikes me again more as posturing than anything else, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.240 which is infuriating, as so much hangs in the balance. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.400 I'll keep an eye out to see how temporary this 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.480 pause actually ends up being. Reddit has announced a sort 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:24.200 of contributor program to encourage a contributor economy on the platform. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.760 It's not that different from what we've seen implemented over 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:32.640 at x formerly known as Twitter. So Reddit always had 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.160 this sort of virtual currency, couple of them really, in 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:41.040 the form of gold and karma. These weren't actually useful, 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.480 but they did become something of a status symbol for 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.120 some redditors. And now Reddit announced a program in which 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.480 people can trade in their virtual currencies, their virtual points, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.200 for actual cash. At least here in the United States. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.080 They're rolling that out now. There are some parameters. First, 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:04.040 anything post in not safe for work subreddits is off limits. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.560 So you can't just count on racking up tons of 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.400 karma by posting photos of your booty and all the 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.800 booty related subreddits. That's just not going to work. Karma 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:19.560 will determine your status. Specifically, post karma will determine your status. 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.360 Post karma is the karma you earn when people vote 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:27.440 a new post to Reddit, but comment karma, where you're 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.880 commenting on someone's post, that won't count. So if you 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.520 leave a great comment on someone else's post and you 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.200 get tons of up votes, that doesn't actually contribute to 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.040 this particular program. It's only the things that you post 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.880 to Reddit that's actually made people worry. That there's going 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.600 to be a whole lot of reposting going on as 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.720 a result of this. But that karma determines how much 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.520 each of your Reddit gold will be worth in real money, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.040 and that gets paid out on a monthly basis. So 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.000 if you have between one hundred and four nine and 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.640 ninety nine karma, you get ninety cents for every gold 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.840 that you've accumulated that month. If your karma is five 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.160 thousand or higher, you get a whole dollar for each gold, 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.080 So I suspect this is one of Reddit's strategies to 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.120 try and get the Reddit community at large to kind 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.840 of forget about how angry they've been about changes to 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.560 reddits API. If you recall that effectively shut down several 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.359 third party Reddit apps not too long ago. The question 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.639 is will this work? Will it mollify Reddit users? I 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.920 don't know. I do know that a lot of Reddit 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.800 users already think what's going to do is make Reddit 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.320 even worse, because they do worry that it's going to 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.240 mean we're going to have a huge influx of repost 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.680 bots that just take posts that were made in certain 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.879 subredds and then post them in other subreddits. And so 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.840 you just get this flood of the same material over 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.240 and over again in an effort to game the system, 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.320 and it won't do anything meaningfully good for the actual 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.160 users on the platform. We'll have to see if that's 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.359 how it rolls out. Apple is pushing out an update 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.240 to an old phone in order to fix an issue 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.240 in France. So this has to do with how much 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:12.399 radio frequency radiation the iPhone twelve emits. Now, to be clear, 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.719 there is no scientific evidence showing that radio frequency radiation 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:22.520 is actually dangerous. It is different from nuclear radiation. Our 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.639 f radiation isn't ionizing. It's not stripping electrons away from 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.119 atoms or anything like that. It's not doing the damage 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.040 that something like you know, nuclear radiation does. It can 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.320 mean that your RF device, like your smartphone, can get 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.159 a bit warmer if it does emit more RF radiation 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:47.000 than say another device would, And that's about it anyway, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.200 just to be on the safe side. Lots of governments 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.880 have rules as to how much RF radiation a consumer 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.320 device can legally emit, and they're not supposed to go 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.000 beyond that. Originally, the iPhone twelve fell within those parameters 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.439 in France when it was an initially tested in France. 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.480 But something has happened since the iPhone twelve came out 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.119 three years ago. Now the RF emissions, according to French regulators, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.919 are above the restricted level. So Apple has scrambled to 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.359 issue a software update that the company says, we'll fix 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.359 this problem. So according to Apple, the devices have not 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.959 mysteriously started to emit more RAF radiation. They're saying, actually, 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.240 our phones haven't really changed, it's just the methodology that 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.520 French regulators are using to measure it is at fault, 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.399 but the software patch should fix things anyway. Apple certainly 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.719 hopes that's the case at any rate, because the company 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.240 otherwise would face a country wide recall situation for iPhone 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:46.280 twelve owners and that would be expensive. Okay, I got 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.560 a few more news items that I got to cover 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.000 before we get to that. Let's take another quick break. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.440 So before the break has talked about the iPhone, let's 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.440 talk about Android. Ours Technica reports that the upcoming Pixel 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.199 eight smartphone from Google will actually receive seven years of 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.400 OS support as well as security support. So that means 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.240 if you purchase a Pixel eight, Google is guaranteeing that 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.080 your phone will remain relevant and up to date for 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.600 seven years. They're not going to abandon the device, you know, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.639 four or five years down the track. It may not 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:31.080 be able to do everything that a Pixel seven years 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.240 from now can do, like a brand new one, but 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.760 that won't be due to lack of support. Instead would 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.320 be due to limitations on the hardware itself. Right, Like, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:45.320 maybe the Pixel fifteen has a special three D camera 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.040 that the Pixel eight doesn't have. Well, obviously, the Pixel 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.399 eight can't just magically sprout a new camera, but it 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.080 would get other OS updates to make it still work 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.160 with you know apps of the time. This would put 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:00.480 Google ahead of Apple when it comes to supporting hardware 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.240 with OS updates. Earlier, the Pixel enjoyed just three years 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:08.200 of OS support and five years of security patch support. 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.720 Apple in the past few generations of iPhones has supported 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.360 five to six years of OS updates. They don't have 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.680 a defined, or at least not a publicly communicated support policy, 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.439 so yeah, seven years is pretty significant, although I'm still 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.240 having to wait to find out if the Pixel eight 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.040 is going to have features that I think are interesting 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.960 enough to merit an upgrade for myself. I'm still sporting 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.240 a Pixel five myself. The game company, Blizzard has been 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.919 hard at work adding in quality of life improvements to 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.840 the game. Overwatch two, the team based competitive shooter, has 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.679 had a pretty rough go of it. Blizzard changed course 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.080 before releasing the game, and I had a lot of 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:50.040 players that were left feeling that the game they got 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.360 was a long way away from what they had been promised. 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.080 But Blizzard has kept adding improvements into the game to 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.200 create a better user experience, at least better if you're 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.280 not a troll or a cheater. For example, the company 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:06.480 has incorporated AI which will analyze voice chat between players. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.080 So if someone starts using abusive language or otherwise is 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.280 using voice chat to disrupt the game, and AI system 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:16.560 verifies that the behavior is in fact disruptive and then 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.160 will issue a warning to that player in question. Blizzard 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.560 says that for the vast majority of players, this results 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.080 in an immediate correction of the behavior, that when they 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:30.240 realize someone in charge is listening, they knock that crap off. 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.320 Oh and Blizzard also says it has banned about a 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.080 quarter of a million players for cheating Yauza, and the 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.199 company is also targeting accounts that appear to team with 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:44.879 known cheaters, and a lot of those folks are getting 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:47.399 banned too. So even if you don't cheat, but you 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.119 tend to play with cheaters a lot by association, you 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.720 can get banned. I'm not sure that these moves have 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:57.199 actually turned the harshest critics around, but the chatter I 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.920 see among reviewers is that the game itself is pretty good. 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.040 It just suffers from the fact that the company had 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.560 made some promises it later chose to walk back. One 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:10.159 thing that happened over the weekend is that the Earth 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.360 got a delivery from space. The deliver was not door 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.280 Dash or anything like that. It was a spacecraft called 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:20.919 Osiris Rex, which we originally launched into space back in 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:24.960 twenty sixteen. The spacecraft traveled to an asteroid named Binu, 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:27.280 which I swear sounds like it came from a Star 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:32.119 Wars movie. Anyway, Osiris Rex reached Bannu in twenty eighteen. 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:34.879 Then it spent a couple of years flying around the 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.280 asteroid just looking for the right spot to land and sample. 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:42.439 In twenty twenty, the spacecraft landed on Banu scooped up 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.880 a sample of material. It stored it inside a capsule 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.879 that the spacecraft was carrying. It then launched off Banu 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:50.399 in the spring of twenty twenty one and started its 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:53.560 journey back home. It flew by Earth and released the 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.479 capsule and then continued on its merry way to go 0:23:56.520 --> 0:24:00.159 to a different asteroid. So scientists retrieved the caps and 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.080