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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I happened to be an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, and I also happened to love all

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Speaker 1: things tech. And this is the tech news for Tuesday, April. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it is four twenty, a number that has significance for

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Speaker 1: some reason. I wouldn't know, as I am a boring

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Speaker 1: old person. No, I mean I know why the number

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Speaker 1: has significance. I just you know, again, the boring old

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Speaker 1: person is absolutely true. I will also say, though, that

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Speaker 1: I have enjoyed a dose of something recently, that being

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Speaker 1: the second dose of the Fiser vaccine. I got the

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Speaker 1: first dose a few weeks ago. Turned out that that's

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Speaker 1: the only way they would give it to me. I

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Speaker 1: had to take the first dose and then the second dose.

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Speaker 1: I tried to convince some to reverse that, and they

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Speaker 1: said it doesn't work that way. I will say also

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Speaker 1: that the shot itself wasn't bad at all. It did

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Speaker 1: make my arm really sore both times, and the second

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Speaker 1: time I felt a little icky the evening after I

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Speaker 1: got my shot. I got my shot in the afternoon.

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Speaker 1: By that evening, I wasn't feeling so great. Next day

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Speaker 1: I felt great. The next day I did not feel great.

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Speaker 1: So it was a real up and down. But I

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Speaker 1: have received both of those shots, and a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks I should be fully vaccinated. I'll still be wearing

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Speaker 1: a mask. I'll still be socially distancing, because I want

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Speaker 1: to be as safe as possible, not just for myself,

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Speaker 1: but for others in my community and their loved ones.

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Speaker 1: And I urge all of those listening who have the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to get vaccinated to do so. I realized it

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Speaker 1: can be difficult depending on where you are. It was

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Speaker 1: a bit of a challenge here in Georgia. If I'm

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Speaker 1: being honest, we are a state that is still ruggling

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Speaker 1: to get up to speed with the rest of the US.

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Speaker 1: But I like being able to see light at the

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Speaker 1: end of the tunnel stay safe. The more we do that,

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Speaker 1: the fewer variants we will see, and the better chance

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Speaker 1: we'll have of establishing a normal that doesn't involve everybody

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Speaker 1: staying at home all the time. All right, got all

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Speaker 1: that all the way, Let's move on to some tech news.

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Speaker 1: My top story is that ingenuity a k a. The

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Speaker 1: little experimental drone helicopter that could has taken its first

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Speaker 1: flight on Mars. This was the high risk experiment, meaning

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Speaker 1: that there was never any guarantee of success. The engineers

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Speaker 1: here on Earth could only try and design an autonomous

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Speaker 1: flying vehicle and hope that it would work in Mars'

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Speaker 1: thin atmosphere. And it did work. This is incredibly exciting news,

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Speaker 1: at least to me, and I assume for at least

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Speaker 1: some of you out there as well. Because of the

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Speaker 1: distance between Earth and Mars, Ingenuity had actually made its

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Speaker 1: flight and landed several minutes before we knew about it.

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Speaker 1: It takes time for signals to travel that much distance

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Speaker 1: between Earth and Mars, and so Earth celebrated hearing about

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Speaker 1: it around sixty six in the morning Eastern Time, but

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Speaker 1: Ingenuity had technically set its feet down on the soil

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Speaker 1: for more than ten minutes. The delay in signals means

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Speaker 1: that it is impossible for a human pilot to guide Ingenuity.

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Speaker 1: There's just a ten minute lag is just way too much,

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Speaker 1: and that's why it has to be an autonomous device.

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Speaker 1: Ingenuity spun its rotors at around revolutions per minute. Helicopters

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Speaker 1: back here on Earth average out at around four hundred

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Speaker 1: to five d rpm, and that was just to generate

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Speaker 1: enough lift to carry this very light device through the

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Speaker 1: thin Martian atmosphere. The flight lasted about thirty nine point

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Speaker 1: one seconds. It re an altitude of around ten feet

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Speaker 1: or three meters, and NASA may conduct as many as

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Speaker 1: four additional test flights if Ingenuity is up for it.

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Speaker 1: The little chopper hitched a ride with the rover Perseverance,

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Speaker 1: but unlike the rover, Ingenuity isn't carrying any scientific equipment.

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Speaker 1: It has a camera so it can take pictures, and

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Speaker 1: it has the sensors it needs to achieve flight and

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Speaker 1: maintain flight, but that's about it. So this is really

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Speaker 1: the beginning of something really exciting. It means that NASA

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Speaker 1: and other space agencies could potentially design other autonomous aircraft

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Speaker 1: that can perform actual scientific observations in Martian atmosphere down

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Speaker 1: the road, which is pretty darn neat if you ask me.

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Speaker 1: Over the weekend, a couple of cryptocurrency stories lead to

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Speaker 1: Bitcoin's value dropping fairly quickly, almost like I picked the

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Speaker 1: wrong week to invest in cryptocurrencies now. For one, the

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Speaker 1: Nation of turn Key has banned crypto payments arguing that

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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency represents possible transaction risks and could lead to irreparable damage.

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Speaker 1: As such, the country's government forbids the use of cryptocurrencies

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Speaker 1: to pay for goods or services in the country of Turkey.

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Speaker 1: The lack of regulation was really the big sticking factor apparently,

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Speaker 1: and I have some thoughts on this now. It's no

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Speaker 1: secret that I think bitcoin is a pretty lousy currency

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Speaker 1: because the value of the coin is so volatile. It

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Speaker 1: would be like waking up to find that one day

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Speaker 1: a dollar bill could buy you a candy bar, and

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Speaker 1: the next day you find out that dollar bill could

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Speaker 1: buy you a dozen candy bars, and maybe in a

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Speaker 1: year or two, that dollar bill would be able to

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Speaker 1: buy you an entire candy store, all with just one dollar.

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Speaker 1: The dollar didn't change, it's it's purchasing value changed. But

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Speaker 1: this is an issue that could potentially work out much

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Speaker 1: further down the road and the future, should the value

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Speaker 1: of bitcoin stabilize. And there's no reason that you'd ever

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Speaker 1: use a single bitcoin for purchase. You're far more likely

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Speaker 1: to use just a tiny fraction of a bitcoin to

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Speaker 1: do it. In fact, the vast majority of bitcoin owners

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Speaker 1: don't own a whole bitcoin anyway. That's a different matter

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Speaker 1: than to suggest that the transactions themselves are risky. And

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Speaker 1: I know I've talked about bitcoin exclusively, but this really

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Speaker 1: applies to all cryptocurrencies. They just aren't all as volatile

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Speaker 1: or valued as Bitcoin happens to be. I would say

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Speaker 1: that the blockchain approach is actually very much not risky.

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Speaker 1: I would argue it's incredibly stable and visible. I suppose

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Speaker 1: you could argue that it would be risky if, for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason the value of the coin drops drastically, but

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Speaker 1: that can happen with fiat currencies, that can happen with anything,

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Speaker 1: So this move seems a bit disingenuous to me. Maybe

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Speaker 1: it's more that if it's outside the control of the government,

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Speaker 1: it's scary that kind of thing. After the announcement, Bitcoin's

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Speaker 1: value took a hit and it dropped about four percent

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Speaker 1: in value. However, it was still above sixty tho dollars

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Speaker 1: for the moment. Now that leads to the next story,

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Speaker 1: because I mean it got worse for bitcoin. On Saturday.

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Speaker 1: It dropped again in value. A massive amount of bitcoin

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Speaker 1: was sold off, and that meant that there was a

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Speaker 1: flood of bitcoins into the market. And that dropped the

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Speaker 1: value of bitcoin compared to the US dollar. And it's

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Speaker 1: a basic supply and demand thing. When supply ends up

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Speaker 1: suddenly increasing, then you typically see the price dropped because

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Speaker 1: the demand is now overshadowed by supply. So now that

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Speaker 1: sixty five thousand dollar bitcoin is down to about fifty

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Speaker 1: six thousand dollars, it's a nine thousand dollar drop. Amusing

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Speaker 1: estimates because the value change just so much, and a

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Speaker 1: nine thousand dollar drop is a lot of money, but

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Speaker 1: fifty six thousand dollars is a lot of money. However,

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Speaker 1: it means that if you were someone who had been

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Speaker 1: investing in bitcoin just as it was hitting sixty dollars,

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Speaker 1: now you would see the value of that investment has

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Speaker 1: just dropped a pretty significant amount. Some outlets have used

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Speaker 1: the word plunge to describe bitcoin's value, but I think

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Speaker 1: that's a bit too alarmist and extreme. So you might ask,

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Speaker 1: why was there this big flood of bitcoins sold back

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Speaker 1: into the market, why were they converted over? Well, the

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Speaker 1: the answer for that is not entirely clear, but there

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Speaker 1: are a few theories, and one is that investors who

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Speaker 1: were attempting to buy bitcoin on margin had their margin.

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Speaker 1: Called buying on margin is when an investor puts up

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Speaker 1: some money as collateral for a loan of more money

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Speaker 1: in order to make an investment. So, for example, let's

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Speaker 1: say I wanted to invest ten thousand dollars in bitcoin,

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Speaker 1: but I've only scraped together five thousand dollars. Well, I

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Speaker 1: could buy on margin by putting up my five grand

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Speaker 1: as collateral and then getting a loan for the ten

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which then I put into bitcoin. But the

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Speaker 1: lender at any time could end up calling my margin

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Speaker 1: and they demand I repay their loan of ten thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: Now that five thousand dollar collateral will go to some

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Speaker 1: of that, but I have to cover the rest. And

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Speaker 1: if the price of bitcoin has dropped significantly, it would

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Speaker 1: mean that I'm out a good deal of money. So

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Speaker 1: sometimes people who lend on margin are asking for the

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Speaker 1: payment back if they perceive a drop in value. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, Turkey says, we don't want to use

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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency in our country. Bitcoin's value takes a hit, the

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Speaker 1: lenders say, I don't want to lose money on this,

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Speaker 1: so I'm gonna call in my margins now. And then

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Speaker 1: you have a bunch of investors who are selling off

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Speaker 1: bitcoin in order to cover their margin, uh and not

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Speaker 1: to lose too much money. That would in turn mean

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Speaker 1: that you get this flood of bitcoins, saying the market

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Speaker 1: and the value could take another hit, dropping like fi

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Speaker 1: Insto just four. But that's just one possible theory. Another

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Speaker 1: is that it may be that a couple of major

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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency owners, which the current the community tends to refer

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Speaker 1: to as whales, sold off a lot of coin in

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Speaker 1: the hope of making that price drop. And here's the

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Speaker 1: logic behind that. Okay, you are a fat cat whale,

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Speaker 1: which I realized is combining a lot of animals. But

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Speaker 1: you've got a ton of bitcoin, is what I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to say. And for the scenario, let's say that the

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Speaker 1: bitcoin is valued at sixty five thousand U S dollars

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Speaker 1: per bitcoin. You've got tons of these things, so you decide, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna really make some money, and you convert your

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Speaker 1: bitcoins into US dollars. You're effectively selling your bitcoins back

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Speaker 1: into the market. You make billions of dollars because you've

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Speaker 1: got so many bitcoins. But by offloading all those bitcoins,

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Speaker 1: it causes the value of bitcoin itself to drop down

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Speaker 1: and it ends up settling around fifty six thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: per bitcoin. Now you buy back all those bitcoins you sold,

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Speaker 1: plus some extra because you've made a lot of US dollars,

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Speaker 1: and now the bitcoin compared to the US dollar is

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Speaker 1: worth slightly less than it was before, so you can

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Speaker 1: actually buy more of it, and then you just wait

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Speaker 1: for the bitcoin value to grow again. So occasionally you

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Speaker 1: might dump a ton of cryptocurrency, dropping the value of

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Speaker 1: the currency as the in the process, then buy it

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Speaker 1: back and make it into a long term investment. That

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Speaker 1: means like you'd be safe from stuff. I mean, if

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Speaker 1: worst case scenario, you you just get out of the market,

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Speaker 1: you've got billions of dollars which you can, you know,

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Speaker 1: do whatever you want with, but other investors could end

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Speaker 1: up suffering, at least in the short term. So it's

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Speaker 1: it's a move that a lot of people in the

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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency community considered to be um dirty pool, I guess

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Speaker 1: you could say. Meanwhile, one problem that bitcoin has, whether

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Speaker 1: the value is high or low, is that the process

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Speaker 1: of mining bitcoins requires a lot of electricity, and this

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Speaker 1: is directly tied to bitcoin's value. So we have to

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Speaker 1: talk about how bitcoin mining works from a very very

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Speaker 1: high level. So essentially, the way bitcoin mining works is

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Speaker 1: that computers all connected to the Bitcoin network compete against

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Speaker 1: each other in an effort to guess a really big number.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm oversimplifying a bit here, but that's the basic idea.

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Speaker 1: So the computer that does guess the correct really big

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Speaker 1: number first effectively verifies a block of transactions for the

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Speaker 1: blockchain and is rewarded in return with a certain or

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Speaker 1: of bitcoins. The number of bitcoins gradually decreases over time,

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Speaker 1: but right now it's at six point two five bitcoins

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Speaker 1: per block, and about a hundred forty four blocks get

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Speaker 1: mined every single day. And since each bitcoin is worth

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Speaker 1: more than fifty thou dollars, that adds up to a

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Speaker 1: lot of money. So if you buy a really fast computer,

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Speaker 1: like Screaming Lee Fast, even if that means you're sinking

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Speaker 1: thousands of dollars into buying that computer, you could potentially

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Speaker 1: make all that back through mining, as long as your

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Speaker 1: computer is faster than all the others on the Bitcoin

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Speaker 1: network at guessing that really big number. Except we are

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Speaker 1: well beyond talking about just fast computers. Were now up

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Speaker 1: to fast computer networks and server farms running multiple graphics

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Speaker 1: processing units in parallel trying to guess these numbers, and

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Speaker 1: these networks require an enormous amount of like tricity as

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Speaker 1: they try to be the first to get to that

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Speaker 1: solution before any other computer can manage it. As the

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Speaker 1: price of bitcoin goes up, the competition gets more fierce. Now,

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Speaker 1: at some point we should reach a stage in which

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Speaker 1: the rewards you get from mining a block will be

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Speaker 1: small enough that the computer systems will drop off the

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Speaker 1: network because it would actually cost more money to run

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Speaker 1: the systems than you would make in mining, so you

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Speaker 1: would be it would be a losing proposition. You'd be

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Speaker 1: spending more money just paying for electricity. Then you would

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Speaker 1: get out of the successful blocks that you mind. At

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Speaker 1: that point, the number that computers have to guess will

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Speaker 1: actually be easier to guess. The guessing game gets harder

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Speaker 1: as more computational power is directed at getting the right answer.

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Speaker 1: It's a dynamic system, which is pretty cool, But this

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Speaker 1: means that more electricity goes into mining bitcoins right now

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Speaker 1: than is used by some countries on a day a

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Speaker 1: league basis. That blows my mind. Well, China recently responded

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Speaker 1: to this problem. Inner Mongolia is the world leader when

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Speaker 1: it comes to bitcoin mining. It's responsible for eight percent

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Speaker 1: of all bitcoin mining, largely because Inner Mongolia is an

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Speaker 1: industrial region within China. You've got a lot of fossil

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Speaker 1: fuel mining and UH power companies located in Inner Mongolia.

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Speaker 1: So electricity in Inner Mongolia is significantly cheaper than it

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Speaker 1: is in other parts of the world. So that means

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Speaker 1: that your profit margins of running a mining cryptocurrency operation

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Speaker 1: in Inner Mongolia are much better. You're spending less money

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Speaker 1: just to run the systems. UH. The United States, by

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Speaker 1: the way, is that seven point two percent of all

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Speaker 1: bitcoin mining, So that shows you Inner Mongolia, just one

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Speaker 1: region in China, is responsible for more bitcoin mining than

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Speaker 1: the entire United States. Well. Now, China has banned cryptocurrency

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Speaker 1: mining in Inner Mongol y because the electricity requirements have

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Speaker 1: led to increased fossil fuel consumption. China has also struggled

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Speaker 1: between supporting cryptocurrency is a potential way for the country

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Speaker 1: to generate wealth versus the fact that as a deregulated,

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Speaker 1: decentralized commodity, the Chinese government doesn't really have regulatory authority

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Speaker 1: over the currency itself. And man, this just shows that

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Speaker 1: it's tough when your greed does battle with your authoritarian sensibilities.

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Speaker 1: My heart goes out to China. Over in the UK,

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Speaker 1: a regulatory body called the c m A, which focuses

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Speaker 1: on preventing, you know, anti competitive practices, raised concerns about

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Speaker 1: in Vidio's acquisition of microchip designer ARM. Now. According to

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Speaker 1: c m A, the concern is that the sale of

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Speaker 1: ARM could potentially create national security issues for the United Kingdom. Arm,

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Speaker 1: I should point out, originated in the UK, and the

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Speaker 1: Digital Secretary Oliver Dalton has issued an intervention notice, essentially

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Speaker 1: putting the acquisition on hold, so that the c m

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Speaker 1: A might ponder whether there would be any national security

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Speaker 1: issues should the sale go through. But and Video was

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Speaker 1: to purchase ARM from the Japanese mega company soft Bank,

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Speaker 1: which first acquired ARM back in so I guess the

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Speaker 1: concern is that a non UK company might purchase a

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Speaker 1: UK based company from a different non UK company. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if if soft Bank could acquire ARM and there were

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Speaker 1: no national security issues stopping that acquisition, why does that

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Speaker 1: potentially change when the company doing the acquisition is in Video. Still,

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Speaker 1: I think it's appropriate to scrutinize big acquisition deals because

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Speaker 1: there's always a chance that such a deal will reduce

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Speaker 1: competition in the market, which gives consumers fewer choices. It

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Speaker 1: leads to some pretty lousy consequences for everybody apart from

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Speaker 1: whatever company holds the monopoly. I just didn't anticipate the

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Speaker 1: national security angle. I think there's a good reason to

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Speaker 1: look into it. I just I mean, I don't see

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Speaker 1: where national security comes in. However, I also admit I

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Speaker 1: am not an expert on these matters, and I could

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Speaker 1: really be missing something really obvious. Finally, starting today, certain

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Speaker 1: Xbox Cloud Ultimate subscribers who have a Windows ten PC

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Speaker 1: or an Apple phone or tablet will be able to

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Speaker 1: stream a selection of about a hundred Xbox games to

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Speaker 1: those devices over browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, or of course,

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Edge. The company is opening this up gradually, and

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Speaker 1: so the first folks who will get a chance to

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Speaker 1: test this out will be a limited selection of Xbox

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Speaker 1: Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, who should be on the lookout

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Speaker 1: for an email notification from Microsoft. Players will need a

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Speaker 1: game controller that can connect to their computer via USB

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Speaker 1: or lue tooth. Fun fact that includes PlayStation four controllers,

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Speaker 1: so you can finally play Xbox games on the inferior

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Speaker 1: PlayStation game controller. Yeah. I know that's an opinion, it's

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Speaker 1: not a fact. A lot of folks probably disagree. They

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Speaker 1: love the PS four controller. But while I felt the

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Speaker 1: PS four was an improvement over earlier PlayStation controllers, I

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Speaker 1: still don't like those controllers very much. I find them

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Speaker 1: really cramped. Anyway, It's been a couple of years since

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Speaker 1: Microsoft really invested heavily in game streaming with the Xbox

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Speaker 1: Cloud service, which was previously called Project x Cloud. Uh,

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Speaker 1: subscription models bring in a guaranteed revenue month after month.

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Speaker 1: I mean, typically you can only sell a video game

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Speaker 1: once to each customer, unless you're me and you happen

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Speaker 1: to be one of those people who buys the same

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Speaker 1: game multiple times for different platforms. I have done that,

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Speaker 1: but most of the time you can only sell a

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Speaker 1: game once. If you do have a game that has

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Speaker 1: a subscription model, you know, like some online games, is

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Speaker 1: a little bit different, but this is a way for

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Speaker 1: Microsoft to generate an enormous amount of revenue month after month.

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Speaker 1: It becomes a kind of guaranteed income source. And when

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Speaker 1: it comes to the Ultimate subscription. You're looking at a

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Speaker 1: fifteen dollar per month fee. I am an Xbox uh

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Speaker 1: gain Pass subscriber, but I don't have the Ultimate subscription.

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Speaker 1: I think I have the Basic, so I will not

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Speaker 1: be part of this initial round. I will have to wait.

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Speaker 1: But in return for your subscription, you do have access

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Speaker 1: to a hundred titles that you can stream to your

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Speaker 1: Xbox console or starting today for some of y'all just

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Speaker 1: not me, a browser which is Bring nifty. Okay, So

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Speaker 1: that's all the news I have for you for Tuesday April.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of a lie. I actually had a couple

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Speaker 1: of other stories, but I didn't want to run too long.

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Speaker 1: But stay tuned this week. You will get another news

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Speaker 1: episode later in the week. And if you have any

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Speaker 1: suggest questions for topics I should cover on tech Stuff,

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Speaker 1: reach out to me on Twitter. The handle is text

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Speaker 1: stuff H s W and I will talk to you

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Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.