WEBVTT - Tech News: Scams and Lawsuits 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.080 Jonathan strickland Um, an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:22.120 and how the Tech Area. It's time for the tech 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:27.640 news for Thursday, jan twenty twenty two. Let's get to it. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.120 Our first story is that we appear to be drawing 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.640 closer to the conclusion of a very long legal battle 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:41.200 between Apple and some of its employees, more specifically employees 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:45.400 who worked at Apple stores in California between July two 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:51.200 thousand nine until August two thousand and fifteen. So what's 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.240 at the heart of all this. Well, Apple had this 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.400 policy in place that every single employee was to submit 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:03.080 their bags and personal iPhones for a search before they 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.040 could leave the store. The company said this was an 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.600 effort to cut back on employees stealing products from the 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.840 store or potentially making off with trade secrets. A group 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.640 of employees sued the company and it became a class 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:22.000 action suit with more than fourteen thousand employees involved in it. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.600 But the core of the lawsuit wasn't so much about 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.520 the fact that the employees had to submit to a search. 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.679 It was more about Apple refusing to count that time 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.280 as time worked by the employee. In other words, Apple 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.080 was treating these searches as if they were off the 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:49.080 clock in the free time of the employees, which the 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.520 employees were arguing was a violation of California state law. 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.520 So the legal representation for the employees were they were 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.360 successful to say that the searches were a ring on 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.560 company time and that employees therefore should have been compensated 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.960 for that time. Now, you might wonder how much time 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.880 did these searches take. Well. Engadget reports that the average 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.520 weight was between five to twenty minutes. And that doesn't 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.440 sound like very much time, right, I mean, it's it's 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.560 just not five to twenty minutes. It's not a whole 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.560 lot of time. But if you've ever driven in California, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.480 you know that that state's rush hour ain't no joke. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.440 And every minute you're spent being forced to stay at 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.920 work where you're not on the clock not fun. Uh, 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.480 And I mean that's that's the point, right, It's still 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.760 your time, and you would not be doing it, you know, 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.519 not be spending it sitting at work. You would only 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.240 do that if you were on the clock. So employees 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.480 should still have been compensated for their time, even if 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.440 that time was still a short amount each day plus 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.880 over you know, a length of your term of employment, 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.880 that five to twenty minutes. That really adds up. So 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.640 Apple has agreed to pay out a settlement to claimants. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.359 The full settlement is a hair under thirty million dollars. 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.359 But again, we're talking about more than fourteen thousand, five 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.880 hundred employees who are covered in this class action suit. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.760 So each person should expect to receive a payout of 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.560 around one thousand, two d eighty six bucks. Uh. That's 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.880 significantly more than what I typically see when I look 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.440 at class action suits. Uh. You often see ones that 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.560 have hundreds of thousands of claimants, and so everyone ends 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.600 up getting like a fraction of a dollar. Uh. And 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.360 typically the lawyers make out like bandits. The individual claimants 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.400 get very little, and the company gets you know, a 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.600 a fine that they must pay. But anyway, this whole 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.360 agreement is not quite done and dusted just yet. In fact, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.800 the final approval for this settlement amount won't happen until 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:55.480 this summer. But then, assuming everything goes to you know, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.720 the courts approval, this story will finally have an ending. 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.080 A federal judge has ruled that the US Federal Trade Commission, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.320 or f TC, can move forward with an antitrust case 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:14.760 against Facebook slash Meta. Now this comes after lawyers for 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.240 Meta filed a motion to dismiss the case, and it 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:19.760 looks like it's going to be able to go on. 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.479 This was not always a sure bet. The FTC had 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.120 previously filed with the federal courts and received a rejection 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.840 from the judge. The judge said that the FTC had 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.520 failed to provide facts to support the case being made 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.040 against Meta. But second times the charm in this case, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.120 I guess, as the judge now says that the revised 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:44.320 filing contains sufficient support to merit a case. The argument 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.680 the FTC is making is that Facebook slash Meta had 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.960 a pretty simple and straightforward strategy when it came to 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.359 competitors or even potential competitors, and it boils down to 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.920 if you can't beat them, by them. So, in other words, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.320 when exectit, Facebook would look at services like say Instagram. 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.000 They saw that the photo sharing platform could potentially rival 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:14.080 Facebook itself and pull people's time and focus away from Facebook. Now, 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.520 I've talked about how Facebook's business model depends on keeping 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.800 people tied to the site for as long as possible. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:26.520 That applies to all of Facebook's platforms, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.440 whatever it may be. So obviously, anything that could threaten that, 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.200 anything that could pull people's attention away from those properties, 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.520 is seen as a problem by Facebook. So the FTC 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:41.360 is arguing that Facebook tries to sidestep this challenge by 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.680 just buying up companies that could stand in the way 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:50.640 whenever the opportunity arises, and uh FTC provided enough information 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.080 to support this argument to convince the judge that a 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.040 lawsuit can in fact move forward, an antitrust suit can 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.080 move forward. I would also like to add that Facebook 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.200 frequently tries to imitate other platforms like U TikTok is 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.080 a big example right now. Clearly Facebook has not purchased TikTok, 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.760 but I bet you dollars to donuts they've talked about it, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:17.600 at least at Facebook. But Facebook did introduce reels to Instagram, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.600 which is a product that looks an awful lot like 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.680 the video platform on TikTok and and reels, it just 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.640 seems to be their approach to trying to keep people 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:32.680 on Instagram rather than having them go off the platform 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.440 and and check out videos and doom scroll on TikTok 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.800 instead of doom scrolling on Instagram. Uh so, I mean, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:41.440 if you can't beat them, you buy them, And if 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.080 you can't buy them, I guess you imitate them. Anyway, 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.880 we still have to go through the actual antitrust suit, 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.880 Like this was just the preamble to see if if 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.039 a suit was you know, merited. So this matter is 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.120 far from resolved. It could potentially lead to a situation 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.039 where the US government forces to spin off some of 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.640 its properties. Maybe, but a lot of other things have 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.560 to happen before that comes to pass. An international group 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.760 of fact checkers have sent an open letter to YouTube's 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.120 CEO saying that the platform is quote one of the 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:20.960 major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide end quote this. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:25.600 According to the Associated Press, The fact checkers assert that 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.920 bad actors on the platform are utilizing it to spread 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:34.600 falsehoods and dangerous information, particularly in non English speaking countries. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.920 They say that YouTube appears to be doing very little 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.360 to address this problem, again in non English speaking countries, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.920 and that the company's efforts have mostly been focused on 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.840 English speaking regions and the meanwhile, there is real damage 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.640 being done around the world and it's facilitated by YouTube. 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.320 That's essentially the argument. They also called for YouTube to 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:04.840 superimpose images our messages that debunk misinformation when it's identified. So, 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.040 in other words, when you find a video that is 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.720 UH sending out falsehoods that there should be a visual 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.080 queue that says, hey, this is misinformation. Because the group 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.240 says that displaying fact checking information is much more effective 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.360 than just deleting videos. And of course, the big issue 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.200 with deleting videos is that frequently bad actors can just 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.680 re upload it on another channel they own. But by 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:34.360 creating a process to label videos as containing misinformation, YouTube 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.920 can take away the power of those videos. I think 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.200 that's a pretty great idea in general, but I do 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.520 wonder how you would go about implementing it, particularly on 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.679 a scale as large as YouTube. We know that hundreds 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:53.000 of hours of video get uploaded to YouTube every single minute, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.520 and I'm curious as to how you would design a 0:08:55.520 --> 0:09:00.840 system to catch stuff quickly and effectively. If you relied 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.120 solely on human beings to moderate content, you would have 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.800 a situation like that old I Love Lucy episode in 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.680 which Lucy is at the conveyor line as bond bonds 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.199 are zooming pastor and she's just shoving them in her 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.840 shirt and in her mouth and everything because she's overwhelmed. Well, 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.600 imagine that scenario and multiply it by I don't know 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.560 a Brazilian because as you would be reviewing one video, 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.280 more than a hundred hours of other video would be 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.480 joining the network every single minute. That's a dawning challenge 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.640 and I don't have an answer for it. I assume 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.040 you would have to go towards some sort of automated solution, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.120 but then you have to make sure that whatever automated 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.800 solution you design is effective and it's not prone to 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.040 bias or false negatives. There are a host of other 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.680 issues that come up, So I definitely feel that this 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.040 is a real world problem that we need to address. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.600 I am at a loss as to what that solution 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.240 could be, but then you know there are people far 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.280 more intelligent than I am who are working on this problem. 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.440 I have an update for the ongoing story about the 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:11.080 US Federal Aviation Administration or f a A, and it's 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:17.280 uh kind of tense conversation with the telecommunications industry regarding 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.960 five G, namely A T and T and Verizon. Those 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.000 are the two companies that are specifically kind of at 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.280 odds with the f a A. So the story so 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.959 far has been some tension between them and the f 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.440 a A over the rollout of five G technology, and 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:38.400 the concern is that five G frequencies, specifically those in 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.840 the C band spectrum of five G, could potentially interfere 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.840 with the operation of sensitive equipment on board airplanes and jets, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.280 like radio altimeters. So last year A T and T 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.719 and Verizon purchased up pretty much all of the C 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.760 band spectrum of frequencies in an auction. That's why those 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.400 two companies have been sing gold out. Now. I point 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.160 that out because until I read this update in Reuters, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.480 I actually didn't know why it was just A T 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.280 and T and Verizon that we're getting called out. That's 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.120 just bad form on my part for not diving in 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.440 deeply enough to find out the reason why. Anyway, we're 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.400 starting to see some progress being made. For example, A 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.520 T and T has agreed to create a sort of 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.640 buffer zone around fifty airports so that jets flying in 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.760 and out of those won't be bombarded with frequencies that 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.400 could potentially cause interference. Uh. The f a A has 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:39.640 issued new sort of directives for aircraft that have untested altimeters, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.079 you know, altimeters where we don't know if five G 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.959 would interfere with their operation or not, And the f 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.920 a A says that those aircraft will not be allowed 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.599 to land at air strips or airports in low visibility 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.640 settings if five G happens to be deployed within that region. Uh. 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.280 It sounds like there's a big move to replace older 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.280 radio altimeters with newer technologies that have more effective shielding 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.120 against these radio frequencies. So there's overall this kind of 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:12.720 push to adopt technologies that should at least theoretically be 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.920 resistant to this kind of interference. You might remember that 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.160 for ages, the rules on airplanes for bade people from 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.120 even having a cell phone on at all out of 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.960 concern that RF signals from the phones could create interference 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.080 for various airplane systems. Eventually we got away from that obviously. 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.320 Now you can have your phone on, although you're supposed 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.679 to have it an airplane mode when you're on an airplane. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.200 But you know, before you couldn't even do that, Like 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:42.160 you couldn't even have like an e book reader on 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.560 on an airplane. Uh. And then they said, well, okay, 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:46.599 you can have it on, but not during takeoff and 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:48.840 landing and all that kind of stuff. This is similar 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.360 to that, but we are seeing some progress. All right, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.559 We've got some more stories to get to, but before 0:12:54.600 --> 0:13:04.679 we get to them, let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.400 Business Insider reports that hackers have launched a malware campaign 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.240 that is likely using email as the delivery mechanism. This 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.160 is kind of old school to to blast out emails 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.760 containing malware. The malwaring question is wrapped up in a 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.319 file that has been named a Macron stats dot e 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.679 x c. That's an executable file. So it sounds like 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:30.800 this is a campaign that is leveraging the a Macron 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.480 outbreak in an effort to convince people to click on 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.600 the file. You know, if you scare people and say 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.199 you need to know this information, click on this, then 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:43.280 maybe it's effective, and then at that point malware installs 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:48.160 on the target machine. The actual malware is called redline stealer, 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.960 and it typically steals login information like user names and 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.640 passwords from the infected computer and then sends them off 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.320 to the hacker, who then sells that information on the 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.520 dark web. The security firm Forte Guard has identified twelve 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.800 countries where this attack has appeared so far, and it 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.080 sounds like this is not a targeted focused campaign. Rather, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.960 this is like a classic malware campaign where hackers are 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.480 just casting as wide a net as they possibly can 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.960 and hope to get some hits. So this is just 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.600 yet another reminder that it is a bad idea to 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.800 click on files that are sent through email, particularly if 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.840 they're coming from someone you don't know, and if they 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.960 are coming from someone you know, it's best to touch 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.080 base with that person make sure that they, you know, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:41.680 legitimately sent you a file before you do anything, because 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.360 this is just uh an easy vector for hackers to 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.160 to take. It's also an easy one for us to 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:52.640 avoid if we're just a little careful. CNBC reports that 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.760 there's a land rush going on in the virtual space, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:15:00.000 with folks spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:05.040 your virtual real estate. And yes, this relates back to 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.080 the concept of the metaverse. Uh. This story actually feels 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.720 like deja vu to me because I remember hearing similar 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:16.520 things way back when Second Life was buzzworthy. But yeah, 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:21.160 folks are shelling out big bucks to secure specific space 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:26.160 on digital you know, various virtual environments, including ones with 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.160 names like the Central Land and Sandbox. And we're starting 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.520 to hear a lot of people say, pump the brakes 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:38.080 a bit before you jump on this speculation board. Uh. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.000 And I would like to add my voice to the 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.600 folks who are saying, hey, be careful, um, don't put 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.320 any money that you aren't willing to just say goodbye 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.960 to into virtual real estate right now, right if you 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.960 can't afford to lose that money, I mean, just assume 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.800 that money is lost, because that way, if it's not, 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.000 if things turn around and things are great, that's fantastic. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.720 If you're counting on it and it doesn't, that's bad. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:09.080 So just say, all right, well goodbye three hundred thousand dollars. 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.440 I don't know who can afford to do that, but 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.520 that that's kind of the scale we're talking about. So yeah, 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:20.160 be careful and don't do that. Just just invest money 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.400 where you can afford to lose that money. And I 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:30.640 want to mention again that you know, we're so far 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:36.320 away from a real metaverse, a compelling metaverse, one that 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.080 can allow more than say, a couple of dozen people 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.640 to gather in the same virtual space at the same time, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.280 um and do things that are on a really kind 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.080 of deep level, Like you can have a little virtual 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.960 environment that people can log into. You know, we've got 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.520 video games that allow for the simultaneous play of more 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:58.640 than a hundred people. But that's a very narrow, narrowly 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.160 defined environment it right, where you have a limited number 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:04.880 of interactions you can take within that environment. Because it's 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.120 a game. You know, you're not allowed to do everything. 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.159 You're allowed to do whatever the game is meant for 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:14.200 you to do. While the metaverse theoretically is a place 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.439 where you would have much fewer constraints on what you 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.240 could do. You would have an enormous variety of things 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.320 you could do, perhaps even things that you could never 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.919 do in real the real world. Like I think of 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.080 the matrix where you know you see neo fly at 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.200 the end of it, well spoiler alert from a movie 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.000 that came out in the late nineties. But but but 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.320 you know, I think of something like that with the metaverse. Well, 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.439 you know, it's gonna take a while for us to 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.639 have the technology to support that kind of thing. In fact, 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.280 I mentioned last year that a VP at Intel said, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.760 our technology is is will need to be a thousand 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:56.280 times more powerful to support a really meaningful metaverse. Meanwhile, 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.280 if you go and buy virtual real estate in one 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:05.280 of these virtual environments, who's to say that that virtual 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.120 environment is still going to be around whenever the metaverse 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.240 actually does become a legit thing. If it ever does, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.359 I'm skeptical that it ever will. But even if it does, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.720 there's the very real possibility that the place where you 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:25.160 bought your you know, virtual acreage isn't really a thing anymore, 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.040 and is is the digital equivalent of a ghost town, 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:34.520 and isn't really connected to a larger metaverse that's meaningful. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.480 That would just mean that you wasted all that money. 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.200 So that would be a bad investment right now. The 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.119 folks who are running these virtual environments, they're making the killing, 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:48.159 particularly as virtual real estate prices balloon beyond belief. But 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.720 this is probably not sustainable. And I agree with folks 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.440 like Mark Stapp, who is a professor at Arizona State University, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.560 and he says, quote, if it continues the way it's going, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.800 it is most likely going to be a bubble end quote, 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:07.280 and like Professor Staff, I would never say definitively that 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.480 this is a bubble, but I'm gonna say that it 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.879 sure does walk and quack like a bubble. Besides which, 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.960 my guess is that again, we're several years away from 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.679 having a really compelling metaverse experience. If such a thing 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.160 as possible, it probably will be possible. I'm just grouchy. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.400 I'm determined to be a techno hermit. I don't think 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.720 you're ever gonna come across me in the metaverse. I'm 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:34.119 more likely to be sitting quietly in a chair, reading 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.840 a book, or perhaps playing Seven Days to Die because 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.760 I've gotten addicted to that game. In the state of 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.159 Massachusetts here in the United States, held a referendum on 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.760 a right to repair law for cars, and the voting 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:55.720 populace of Massachusetts overwhelmingly supported the law. Voted in favor 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.320 of it so voted against. That is an overwhelm homing 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.639 win when you're looking at a lot of votes that 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:07.920 come down to like fifty two versus is a huge win. Well, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.199 the car companies were not thrilled with this, and they 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.040 quickly filed lawsuits to reverse the law or the very 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.120 least delay when it would go into effect. See it's 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.439 supposed to take effect this year, but the car companies 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.880 say that's too soon and it should really be more 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.960 like or really never. Years ago, Massachusetts actually voted that 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:31.000 car companies would have to make wired connection telematic data 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.719 accessible in Massachusetts, and that would mean that say, an 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.840 independent repair shop or potentially even just a private car 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.080 owner would be able to diagnose problems with their car 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:47.000 and complete repairs on that car, rather than being forced 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.800 to take the vehicle to, say, an official dealership to 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.159 get the work done. We've been seeing this trend of 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.159 turning tech into closed off ecosystems so that one party 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.800 has essentially economic control over the whole thing. In fact, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.239 we talked about this earlier this week with Cannon and 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:09.600 its printer and toner cartridges. Uh. But anyway, that earlier 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.199 law which did pass, had a technical gap in it 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:17.920 because it did not anticipate wireless systems, and so the 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:22.560 law only required automakers to comply with it using wired systems. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.879 So then you saw car companies migrate over to wireless 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.840 approaches and they didn't have to comply because the wireless 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.879 wasn't covered well the law shut that gap down, and 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.320 according to Motherboard, car companies have brought a lawsuit against 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.360 the state, claiming the law to be unconstitutional. I am 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.000 not sure on what grounds that claim is based off of. 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.159 Sounds like a Hail Mary play to me, but I 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.359 could very well be missing something obvious. I am not 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.320 a legal expert by any stretch of the imagination, but 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:59.280 my guess is that with a seventy support in the state, 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:01.920 the car industry is going to have a real tough 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:06.119 time convincing lawmakers in Massachusetts to overturn this law or 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.400 to amend it in a way that takes the teeth out. 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.159 I think most politicians in the state are going to 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:14.520 feel a lot of pressure to stick to what the 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.200 voters were asking for, because doing otherwise is a great 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:23.080 way to find your exit out of local politics. Okay, 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.639 we've got a couple more stories to cover, but before 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:35.480 we get to that, let's take another quick break. Okay, 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.840 if you happen to be a famous person and you 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:43.080 are approached by someone who's asking you to endorse a cryptocurrency, 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:48.080 you might want to do your homework first. Kim Kardashian 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:51.760 and Floyd Mayweather are learning that firsthand, as they face 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:55.919 a lawsuit from investors who lost money in a cryptocurrency 0:22:55.960 --> 0:23:00.119 called ethere um Max, which I should add is not 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:04.919 actually related to the famous cryptocurrency ether that's on the 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.960 Ethereum blockchain. It has a very similar name, which is 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.000 a that's a red flag right there, but it's not 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:17.040 related to it. Both Kardashian and Mayweather promoted this crypto 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.240 token over the last year two and now a group 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:26.200 of investors claim that their promotion was spreading misinformation about 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:30.520 the tokens, and subsequently it drove up the cost of 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:34.359 the tokens temporarily before the bottom dropped out and the 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:37.400 investors then lost a ton of money. So what they're 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.120 saying is that ethereum Max was a pump and dump scheme. Now, 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.439 in case you're not familiar with that term, the idea 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.040 is that, let's say that you want to run this scheme, 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:50.320 so you either establish or you buy up a ton 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:54.960 of something that's super cheap and has low value, right, 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:57.960 low market value. Uh, this could be anything. It doesn't 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:00.560 have to be cryptocurrency. It can literally be anything, and 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.440 you just buy it up and then you use various 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:08.000 means to drive up excitement and speculation about that thing 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:12.280 so that more folks jump on board and buy it 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:15.919 all up. So this always makes me think of the 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:20.560 film trading places. But you get you get things moving 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:24.240 so that investors start thinking, oh, this is the next 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:27.040 you know, big ticket, this is the next to the 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.600 moon thing. We're gonna I want to get in on 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:32.439 this early on so I can make a mint and 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:35.679 a bunch of people start buying it. Well. Increased demand 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.600 typically prompts an increase in price. Right, if more people 0:24:38.600 --> 0:24:42.280 are demanding it, the value goes up. You can demand 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:44.160 a higher price for the thing. So there you are 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:47.440 sitting on amount of whatever it we're talking about here, 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:51.480 whether it's cryptocurrency or something else that you bought at 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:54.639