WEBVTT - Tech News: VPN Fails and Apple Vulnerabilities 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.000 Be there and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.680 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:27.960 tech news for Tuesday, July twenty twenty one, and let's 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.280 just get right into it. Misinformation is in the news, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.280 both you know, as a topic and literally as part 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.360 of the news, because that's the world we live in. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.640 The New York Times is Max Fisher wrote a piece 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.240 earlier this week titled Disinformation for Higher A shadow industry 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.040 is quietly booming. And the contents of that piece will 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.280 likely come as no surprise to anyone who has kept 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:59.120 up with the ongoing mess that is misinformation and disinformation 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.240 campaigns and the platforms that facilitate the spread of those campaigns. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.200 And it probably isn't a surprise that there are a 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.520 collection of companies that are kind of acting as guns 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.880 for hire to run and promote disinformation campaigns on behalf 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.760 of their clients. And it gives those clients kind of 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:24.720 a bit of distance from the cd and unethical campaigns themselves. Right, 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.360 If you want to have a smear campaign against say 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.320 a political rival. You'd rather not have that come back 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.960 to you if you're saying a lot of things that 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:41.080 are just legit not true. Anyway, we saw all of 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.479 this years ago with Cambridge Analytica. That was kind of 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:49.000 a an example of this, although they did other stuff too, 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.760 and that company was actually fairly clumsy when it all 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:53.840 comes down to it. I mean that that house of 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.160 cards came crashing in on itself. But on the flip side, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:03.000 there's also money to be made in fighting disinformation. So 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.920 we're also seeing startups come up to fight disinformation while 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.360 others are actively promoting it. So startups like Active Fence 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.639 are fighting disinformation. So we've got two sides of an 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.880 information war, both of which have turned this fight into 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.799 a profitable business. There's probably something really smart I could 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.919 say here about the whole situation and maybe about capitalism, 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:30.640 but I'm just going to leave that to someone who's 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.480 better equipped than I to make that observation. But just 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:38.800 like typical right anyway, Active Fence recently announced that it 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.400 has raised one million dollars in investments and is developing 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.480 a suite of tools to help detect misinformation campaigns. UH. 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.400 The company is using artificial intelligence as a way to 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.600 kind of crawl across various social platforms and not just 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:59.040 examine posts, but to look for connections between different accounts 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.359 and different groups, and those connections can point to concerted 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.320 efforts to spread, you know, a specific message or undermine 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.680 some other message. As we continue to deal with misinformation 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.919 campaigns around the world that deal with everything from politics 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.960 to workers rights, to vaccinations and beyond, it becomes more 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.240 important to be able to weed out the bad stuff 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.360 and to give people more opportunities to understand when they're 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.320 actually being manipulated and by whom and for what purpose. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.320 That's incredibly valuable information to have, assuming that you actually 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.360 take the effort to look into it and not just 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:41.520 allow information to confirm maybe preconceived biases or prejudices you 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.600 might have, or to comfort you into thinking that something 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:47.560 that is your fault is totally not your fault. Like 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.040 all those kind of earmarks for how misinformation can really 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.480 get its hooks in, Uh, it's hard to overcome. My 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.120 guess is we're gonna see a continued escalation between the 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.640 companies that are offering to handle disinformation campaigns and the 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.160 ones providing the tools to fight those campaigns and it'll 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:11.160 just keep getting messy. That's my, you know, incredibly obvious prediction. Alright, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:16.360 switching gears, let's talk about cybersecurity and software vulnerabilities. So 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.120 for many years, Apple products were seen as sort of 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:23.120 being bulletproof, and there were a couple of really big 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.240 major reasons for this. There are lots of reasons, but 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.200 two really big ones, and one was that Apple notoriously 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.760 follows a walled garden strategy in which the company makes 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.440 not only the operating systems, but the actual hardware that 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.080 those OS is run upon. Now, if you do this correctly, 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.039 you can actually cut down on potential vulnerabilities. You know, 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.320 you don't have different companies making different pieces and thus 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.440 creating the potential for gaps insecurity as much. It can 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.080 still happen, but it gives you a leg up. The 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.880 second big factor was that Apple, for many years had 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.880 much lower percentage of the market share when it came 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.320 to operating systems. So if you were a batty and 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.000 you wanted to make malicious software and your goal was 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.440 to affect the largest number of people you could, you 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.159 would focus on Windows based devices, Windows based computers. Like 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.080 this is before the smartphone era, and that's because Windows 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:24.120 was on way more computer systems than mac OS was, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.760 so it just made more sense you were going to 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.880 hit more targets if you aimed for Windows users. But 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.560 these factors do not make Apple immune to the problem 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:39.040 of malware. They're not, you know, completely uh bulletproof, as 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.719 I was saying. The Register actually reports that Apple recently 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.960 patched a zero day vulnerability in its various OS products, 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:51.520 including mac os and iOS, just yesterday on Monday, a 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.000 week earlier. The company issued updates to the various operating 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.680 systems to fix some other issues, and the patched vulnerability 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.120 was in a screen frame buffer. Uh. That's a feature that, 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.000 if it had been exploited by a hacker, could be 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.880 used to uh to to run malware, to execute malware. 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.120 The Register also reports that someone, though at the time 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.599 that I'm recording this, I don't know who, had been 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.960 exploiting that bug in some way. Uh. That could potentially 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.120 be the n s O group, that's the that's the 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.080 company that's behind the Pegasus spyware that I talked about 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.280 last week, the one out of Israel. At least one 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.720 security researcher has said that they knew about this particular 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.599 bug for several months, but did not report it that 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.320 they were working on their own kind of bigger report 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.880 that was going to incorporate this as part of it, 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.400 which is you know, a yikes. Anyway, this is one 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.680 of those things that really stinks for the end consumers 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.720 because bad actors can easily exploit vulnerabilities like these and 0:06:55.839 --> 0:07:00.520 use some fairly simple attacks to get people to fall 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.520 prey to them. I mean, the the NSO groups. Pegasus 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.800 uses a zero click attack through messengers like I Message, 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:14.320 and that that's very hard to avoid. Gizmoto has an 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:18.200 article listing the various Windows ten features that are going 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:23.360 to go away when Windows eleven launches, or rather Windows 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.840 eleven isn't going to include them. If you keep running 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.320 Windows ten, you'll still have access to these features. You know, 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.240 each time Microsoft updates its flagship operating system, we get 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.920 some new features and we say goodbye to some of 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.840 the older ones, and it doesn't always end up feeling 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.120 like it was a fair trade. So what is heading 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:47.520 out this time? Well, Internet Explorer will finally be really 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:52.400 most sincerely dead, at least on Windows eleven. Microsoft hasn't 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.120 really supported i E in a while. They moved to 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.000 the Edge web Browser instead, but they kept it around 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.960 for folks who refused to use Edge. UH and Windows 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.840 ten still had Internet Explorer as an option, but that 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.160 will not be the case with Windows eleven. Another feature 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.320 going away is the synchronization feature called Timeline. So the 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.840 idea behind Timeline is that you could essentially link different 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.120 Windows based machines that you work on and have them 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.040 synchronize your activities across the machines. So let's say you've 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.680 got two Windows based computers in your house, and you're 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.560 on one of those computers and you open up a 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.000 word document in your one drive, and you work on 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:35.640 it for a while, and you say that you close out. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.280 Then you move to your other computer. Later on in 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.640 the day, you open up Word and that document would 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.079 be in your recent documents list in Word, even though 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.280 it was a totally different computer, because Timeline was synchronizing 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.120 these activities across the two devices. That is going away 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.640 with Windows eleven. I'm sure there'll be some comparable feature, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:09:00.200 but it's not Timeline. Another thing that's going away are 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.840 live tiles, which I forgot we're even a thing for 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.640 Windows tin. I've never used them. These are little tiles 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:09.720 that you could put on the Windows tin desktop. They 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.760 can display live information, so you could have a tile 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.679 that has like a news ticker, that kind of thing. 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.480 It looks like when Microsoft is going to go back 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.480 to widgets for Windows eleven, which really aren't that different 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.400 from live tiles, I suppose, and I guess maybe this 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.480 will be the Windows where widgets really pay off. I 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.880 don't spend a whole lot of time looking at my desktop, 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.400 so maybe I'm just not the right person for these 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.040 kinds of features because I typically have programs on full 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.640 screen all the time. I've got multiple monitors and each 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.959 one has got a full screen program on it, because 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.640 I find lots of open windows in the same view 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.480 to be too cluttery. But when Whendows eleven, I'm gonna 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.080 put the widgets back. I don't think I'll be using them, 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.959 but they'll be there. Windows eleven will also remove your 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.920 ability to place your taskbar on whichever edge of the 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.959 screen you want, and now the task bar will live 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.440 at the bottom of the screen and you'll like it. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.400 And I actually do happen to like having the test 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.520 bar at the bottom of the screen. I get really 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.160 irritated whenever I accidentally relocate the taskbar to some other 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.880 part of the screen, which can sometimes happen if I'm 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.840 being sloppy with my key strokes, and then something I 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.440 can't find my start button because it's at a different 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.679 spot of the screen. So I'm totally okay with Windows 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.240 eleven anchoring it at the bottom. Windows eleven is also 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.439 apparently going to de emphasize Cortana. That's the virtual assistant 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.079 feature that's named after a character in the Halo video 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.400 game franchise. Cortana will still be incorporated into Windows eleven, 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.800 but won't occupy the same sort of screen real estate, 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.880 nor will there be a Cortana segment in the setup process. 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.880 And also Skype is going to get de emphasized as well. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:54.120 Microsoft's really pushing Microsoft Teams to be the main communication 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.679 tool on Windows based machines. There are a few other changes, 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.560 but I recommend going over to gizmoto and reading up 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.800 on the rest if you're thinking about upgrading to Windows 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.640 eleven when it comes out later this year. We've got 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.439 a few more news stories to cover, but first let's 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:19.800 take a quick break. I got a hypothetical for you. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.400 What happens if you run a company that's focused on 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.959 online privacy tools, you know, like virtual private networks or VPNs, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:33.040 and you get caught out running unencrypted services, well you 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.400 go into damage control, and that's kind of what's happening 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:41.280 with the company wind describe. Wind Scribe offers virtual private 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.800 networks or VPN services, and the way VPNs work, just 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.360 from a really high level, is pretty simple. So you 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.440 use a VPN client to log into a remote server 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.920 that is kind of standing as proxy for you. Then 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.920 all of your Internet activity actually filters through this VPN 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.040 server before it comes to you. Anyone who's snooping on 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.880 your connection will only see that you are communicating with 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.720 this VPN server. They won't be able to see what 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.320 you're doing beyond that server. So let's say you're using 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.480 a VPN to get past some regional controls, or you're 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.120 trying to avoid having your Internet service provider know which 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.680 sites you're visiting. Maybe you're shopping for different I s 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.880 p s and you would just prefer if the I 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.280 s P you have doesn't know about that. These are 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.920 all basic things that you could do, and this can 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.600 be really important for protecting your security and your privacy. Now, 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.440 it can also be used to hide your activity if 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.960 you're up to no good. So there is a double 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.000 edged sword here. But all of this really hinges on 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.719 having the VPN servers protected with encryption as well as 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.439 a good policy with regard to record keeping. So in general, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.360 it's it's considered best practice if the VPN is not 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.400 keeping activity log of its users, because if it is 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.960 keeping activity logs a compromise server, it could potentially reveal 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.280 all the stuff that the users were up to when 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.719 connecting to that specific server. Well, in the Ukraine, authorities 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.480 seized a couple of VPN servers belonging to wind Scribe, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.600 and those servers proved to be poorly encrypted using an 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.840 outdated methodology that has long since proven to be insecure. 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.080 It's been deprecated. In other words, we don't use it 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.640 anymore because it's not reliable. The company has essentially copped 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.240 to that, saying yeah, that is what happened, and they 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.920 said that generally they encrypt servers that are considered to 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.360 be in like high risk security areas, but they failed 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.439 to do so appropriately in this case in the Ukraine, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:48.880 which I would think of as being a high security 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:53.320 area considering the political issues that go on between the 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.040 Ukraine and say Russia, and this opened up the potential 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.880 for someone to compromise the system. And Ours Technica has 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.920 a really great piece about this. It's titled VPN servers 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:09.720 seized by Ukrainian authorities weren't Encrypted. That article goes into 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.319 a lot more detail about both the issue at hand 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.559 and wind scribes response. Also. Ours Technica wisely points out 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.760 that VPN services have really taken off over the last 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.200 few years, and there are a lot of different companies 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.600 that are offering them, So it really pays to do 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.800 your research to make sure that whichever service you're looking 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.120 into is following the best practices of the industry in 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.120 order to keep your activity the way Gandolf would want 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.280 you to. You know, is it secret? Is it safe? 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.440 If it's not, don't use it. The Verge has a 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:46.120 piece titled Vigilante app Citizen is paying users to live 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:50.720 stream crime scenes and emergencies, which to me just sounds 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.400 a lot like the plot to the film Nightcrawler starring 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.480 Jake Jillenhall. If you haven't seen that movie, it's intense. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.520 It's not for everybody, but the movie follows Jake Jillenhall's character. 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.880 He's a man who finds out that he can make 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.680 some pretty decent money if he's the first on the 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.800 scene of like an awful accident or a grizzly crime, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.360 and he shoots footage of it, and then of course 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.120 he gets more and more involved as it goes on. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.200 I won't spoil any more of it in case you 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.120 want to watch it, but it is a pretty intense film. Well, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.760 now there's an app for that. The company behind Citizen 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.800 is offering between two hundred to two hundred fifty dollars 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:33.080 a day for people to live stream quote unquote newsworthy 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.680 events in their local area, so creating kind of a 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:41.880 gig economy on on the ground instant reporting. The company 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.440 expects applicants to not just point a camera at like 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:50.480 a developing situation, but also to conduct interviews, like to 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.960 talk to witnesses and onlookers and the police. Now they're 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.000 not supposed to interfere with police procedures or to put 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.800 themselves in harm's way, but they are supposed to interview folks. Uh, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.920 this is I feel like it's active asking a heck 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.440 of a lot from users. The skill set for being 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:14.160 a good interviewer is a really nuanced and deep skill set. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.720 And I say this as someone who occasionally interviews folks 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:19.160 and I have for a few years, but I still 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.120 feel like I've got a good way to go but 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:26.320 to become a really great interviewer. And it just seems 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.880 disastrous to open this up to me. Apparently, the company 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.800 has folks in Los Angeles working ten hour shifts for 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.920 two fifty bucks a day, which you know is better 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.320 than minimum wage, but I imagine the work can get 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.080 pretty risky for numerous reasons. Also, I don't know how 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.400 the company works as far as paying people, Like if 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.160 you're wandering around your area and it just happens to 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.880 be a quiet day, do you still get paid. Also, 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:56.600 the Verge reports that there's some other disturbing things with this. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.640 For instance, Citizen, the company is apparently testing a private 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.080 security force, complete with patrol cars. Now Here in the 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.040 United States, we're already in a situation in which a 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.360 large segment of the population is calling for police reform 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.280 or outright defunding the police, and it seems like creating 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.800 private security forces, particularly when you take into consideration that 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.560 Citizen used to go by the name Vigilante, can raise 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.040 all sorts of red flags. Uh, certainly something that I'll 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:33.520 be following closely because this concerns me. It feels like 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:38.879 it could very easily tip into mob justice territory, which 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.879 which which can be truly disastrous Here in the US. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:50.320 During the previous presidential administration, the FCC launched the Rural 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.440 Digital Opportunity Fund, and the idea was that the FCC 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.520 would grant subsidies to companies that would extend broadband connectivity 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:03.160 to communities and agents in the US that lack broadband access. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.359 In other words, like, we need to get these people connected, 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.080 and here's an incentive for companies to to do that. 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.240 They'll get these great subsidies in return, which is a 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.040 pretty good idea, except the r d o F was 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.640 riddled with flaws that made it relatively easy for companies 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:25.760 to land those subsidies and then you know, not actually 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:30.800 provide services to rural or underserved areas. Some companies instead 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.120 focused on building out services in places that actually already 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.720 had broadband access, and that has led the f c C, 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.800 which of course is now under new leadership because of 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.320 a change in presidential administrations, to reach out to the 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.639 companies that were granted subsidies and say, hey, buddy, either 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.720 do what you were supposed to do or we want 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.960 our money back. And I think that's pretty darn keene 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.680 as there are lots of folks out there who really 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.880 lack any real access to broadband connectivity, and yet internet 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.320 access is increasingly a critical component to being a citizen 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.800 in the United States and just getting stuff done, particularly 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:10.800 in a world that is still in the midst of 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.919 a pandemic. When you have news stories about school kids 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.359 who have to go and sit in a parking lot 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.760 because that's the only way they're able to get internet 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:24.960 access in order to participate in school, that is a 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.440 serious failing of society and it's one that needs to 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.880 be addressed. The digital divide is not a new thing. 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.359 It has been a thing for decades. It's just not 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.840 getting better, and we need to do better. Well, we 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.359 have a couple more stories to cover, but before I 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:51.200 get to that, let's take another quick break. The New 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.280 York Times reports that a Toyota executive has been meeting 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:56.920 with congressional leaders in d C in a move to 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.919 push back against the planned path to adopting an all 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.120 all electric vehicle approach. And we're seeing various places around 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:08.000 the world go after fairly aggressive strategies to phase out 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.800 internal combustion engine vehicles entirely, at least for new vehicles 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.000 that is, and just move to all electric vehicles for 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:19.000 new cars. So to be clear, this doesn't mean that 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.840 you know, existing internal combustion engine vehicles are going to 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.280 all have to go to the scrap heap. No one's 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.640 coming to take your Dodge charger or anything like that. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.960 It just means that in the future, like not that 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.840 far out into the future, shopping for a new car 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.480 will be all about electric vehicles because internal combustion engines 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.600 will no longer be in production. Now, apparently Toyota would 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.560 really rather we hold off on doing that, as the 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.440 company executive is trying to argue for hybrids and hydrogen 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.960 fuel cell vehicles to also be part of this conversation 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.880 and they should also qualify as replacements for internal combustion 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.359 engine vehicles, and that an all electric vehicle approach is 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.520 just the wrong way to go. This could be because 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.439 Toyota might be lagging behind some other manufacturers when it 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.960 comes to, you know, the plans to switch to e 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.879 vs UH. I would say that including hybrids and fuel 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:19.360 cell vehicles in the conversation, is not necessarily a bad idea. 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:24.199 They can definitely help reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.080 are engineered properly, and they could have a legit seat 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:30.520 at the table when it comes to transitioning away from 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.439 internal combustion engines. However, Toyota's approach is one that's not 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.000 likely to win any supporters from those who want to 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.120 see big changes in an effort to reduce the impact 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.639 of climate change. So, in other words, it might just 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.400 come across as the wrong move. Toyota has had some 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:53.480 pretty notable, highly public pr issues in recent past that 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.680 have to deal with politics, so we'll see if this 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.520 also adds to the fire. Intel, which was once the 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.840 king of the hill when it comes to computer processors, 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.920 has slipped a little bit in recent years, but according 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:12.720 to the company's Intel Accelerated Virtual Event, the company has 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.280 a plan to regain the top spot by and part 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.600 of that strategy is a drum roll, please, a new 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.040 way of naming processors. Now, a lot of chips reference 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.119 the you know, size of components on a processor in 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.040 the nanoscale, which is a number that just keeps getting 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:34.000 smaller in defiance of physics itself. But as I recently learned, 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.080 those numbers don't necessarily actually reflect the actual components sizes 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.359 on the chip. That's a matter for another podcast. I 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:43.560 think I'm gonna have to do a full podcast about 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:48.280 how misleading those numbers are because it surprised me, and 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.160 I've been covering this stuff for years, so I need 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.400 to do an episode about it. The new naming scheme will, 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.040 according to Intel, create quote, a more accurate view of 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.479 process nodes across the end of street end quote. So 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.320 what does that mean, I'm gonna pull a Teva from 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:07.760 Fiddler on the Roof. I don't know, but this might 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.920 help Intel move away from a nomenclature that is at 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:15.200 best confusing and at worst misleading, and it might give 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.439 the company the chance to show off what it's hardware 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.280 can do without someone saying, yeah, but that number of 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.800 a day is better than your number, and it comes 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.359 down to performance rather than naming conventions. In other words, 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:29.879 and on that front, Intel's chips have been holding up 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.639 pretty well. Actually, honestly, I'm just curious to see if 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.280 this strategy is going to pay off for Intel the 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:38.639 processor industry as a whole, has had a lot of 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.840 shake ups recently, in large part because the pandemic has 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:46.119 really disrupted business and caused massive delays for long term plans. 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:48.720 So we'll just have to see how this all develops. 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:54.280 And finally, speaking of electricity, Dell and its subsidiary alien Ware, 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:58.240 have a shocking problem, and that's the fact that several 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:02.720 of the new alien Ware products those are like high 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:09.560 performance gaming rigs that they exceed the power consumption regulations 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:16.679 for states like California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:20.760 which means people in those states cannot actually order those 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:23.760 particular models and have them shipped to them. The company's 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:26.800 website makes this clear for those specific models that if 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:30.800 you order one and you happen to have a shipping 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.280 address that's in one of those states, that order will 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.200 not go through. So while the computers might go fast 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:39.840