WEBVTT - Tech News: Good Vibes for the Woz and Bye to Omegle 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.480 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.120 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.360 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.400 Tech Are Yet It's time for the tech News for Thursday, 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:28.240 November ninth, twenty twenty three, and let's start off this 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.239 episode with a sincere get well soon for Apple co 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.640 founder Steve Wozniak. Reuter's reports that while in Mexico City, 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.519 Wosniak admitted himself to the hospital. There are actually conflicting 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.680 reports as to what prompted this move, and in the 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.360 absence of solid information, I think it just makes sense 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.839 for us to say we hope you feel better very soon, 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.720 mister Wosniac. For those of you who are not familiar 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.800 with his name, Wosniak was the other Steve who created Apple, 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.880 the other one, of course, being Steve Job and between 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.240 the two of them, Wozniak was really the big tech geek. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.640 He was the programmer, he was the phone freak. He 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.240 was the mischievous man who always wanted to know how 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.600 stuff worked. And he's been sort of this kind of 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.319 beloved figure in the tech world for several decades and 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.600 hopefully he'll be right his reign very soon. CNN's Brian 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.960 fun has a piece titled Mark Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta's 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:30.559 proposals to improve teen mental health. Court document's allege as 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.200 that headline indicates, this is pretty ugly stuff. So according 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.160 to these documents, these internal documents from Meta, numerous people 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:45.800 inside the company, including top executives like Adam Massari, the 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:51.560 CEO of Instagram, repeatedly brought matters relating to teen mental 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.360 health and well being to Zuckerberg's attention, only to be 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.280 shut down. The article really paints Zuckerberg as a tech 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:04.240 executive unconcerned about what impact his company might have on 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.360 its users. That really plays into this popular perception of 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.560 Zuckerberg as sort of an unfeeling, robotic sort of person 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.520 who has a reputation for expecting his you know, his 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.239 staff to carry out his decisions without objections. Now, one 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:25.040 example that was cited in the article relates to the 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.840 beauty filters on Instagram. I'm sure most of y'all are 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.760 familiar with these, but just in case you're not, these 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.320 are digital filters that apply some alterations to images. So 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.079 you take an image with your phone, the filter changes 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.360 them slightly, and the whole goal is to make the 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:45.320 final image appear more attractive. So the argument goes that 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:50.480 as teens encounter picture after picture of impossibly perfect people, 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.760 their own sense of self begins to suffer. There's a 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.440 worry that these kinds of users will start to feel 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.760 like they're an ugly outsider when all the folks on 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.400 the phone seem to live perfect lives, have perfect skin, 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.800 and travel to perfect places. Of course, any of y'all 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.360 who have actually interacted with an influencer, you probably have 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.840 this all figured out. They're just as messed up as 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.800 the rest of us are, sometimes even more so. I'm 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.360 actually reminded of a recent walk I took in a 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.240 park where I saw a young person doing the whole 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:27.040 influencer thing and working very hard to make a completely 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:32.280 artificial scene appear to be something they just naturally happened upon. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.440 I can tell you the process to get to that 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:41.320 final picture was anything but natural, but that's obviously just anecdotal, 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.520 it's not really evidence. The point is, it appears as 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:49.080 though Zuckerberg has consistently and repeatedly scuttled any efforts to 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.440 make changes to Meta's various platforms out of a concern 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.280 for the well being of users. Now, I don't think 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.120 we can go so far as to say that Meta 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.760 is a company ruled by a person who is only 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.440 can concerned with that company, or that all the other 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.120 leaders in Meta are somehow these valiant warriors trying to 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:11.040 do what's right. It's obviously way more complicated than that. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.960 But this is, as the kids used to say, not 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.000 a good look for mister Zuckerberg. He and the company 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.560 are in an ongoing lawsuit. That's why these documents were 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.120 even uncovered in the first place. It's all part of 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.440 that lawsuit that was brought against the company by the 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.039 state of Massachusetts, and we'll have to see how these 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:36.159 revelations affect the case. RDIBT at zd net has an 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.640 article titled Microsoft reveals plans to protect elections from deep 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.920 fakes and other misinformation. So here on tech stuff, I've 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.640 talked about concerns regarding say, generative AI and deep fakes 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.560 and other technologies that have the capacity to threaten the 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.440 process of democracy. Because when you get down to it, 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.960 you don't even really have to directly attack democracy in 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.320 order to weaken it. You just have to show that 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.200 it's possible to attack democracy, because if people are convinced 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.719 that nothing they see is reliable, they lose faith in 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.240 the system and the whole thing starts to crumble. Now 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.280 we're not quite there yet, and that's why efforts to 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.600 push back against technology that does pose a threat to 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:25.680 fair elections and other democratic processes is important. Microsoft's approach 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.400 is to institute what they call a five part plan 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.280 to fight back. Now, among those parts, there's one that 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.480 is about introducing a new kind of tool that they're 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.479 calling the Content Credentials as a Service tool. This would 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.760 let someone who creates some form of digital content sign 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.919 that work digitally, and that digital signature would travel with 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.160 the content wherever it happens to go, so if someone 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.440 clicks through, they'll see the person responsible for that piece 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:58.719 of content. It's meant to ensure things like transparency and accountability. 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.240 That's one little example of what Microsoft is planning. Some 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.320 other parts of the plan include assisting and educating various 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.600 campaigns and candidates as they navigate a world that now 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:14.919 has this powerful AI enabled technology in it. To no 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:20.320 surprise at all, Microsoft's plan also includes really promoting bing 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.159 search as being the most reliable when it comes to 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:28.760 presenting real information and weeding out misinformation and AI generated stuff. 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.800 So we'll see how that goes, because so far Bing's 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:36.000 command of web search has been let's call it underwhelming. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.760 Although at the same time, Google is currently involved in 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.560 a huge antitrust lawsuit that in part hinges on how 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:48.920 Google has used various measures such as paying enormous sums 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.839 to other companies like Apple, in order to guarantee that 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.320 Google Search would be a default option on lots of devices. 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.920 So maybe in the future Bing will have a larger 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.680 share of the market because Google will be forced to 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.640 break up. We'll have to see. If you're a Lego 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.320 fan and you have an account on the online marketplace Bricklink, 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.560 then it's time to hit those bricks because the company 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.040 has detected a breach in its systems and there has 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:21.000 been some quote unquote suspicious activity on the bricklink online marketplace. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:26.800 So at this marketplace, folks can sell parts and accessories 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.960 with Lego. Other folks can obviously buy them. It's just 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.680 an online exchange place for that kind of stuff. And 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.360 apparently some bad actors, some hackers, got unauthorized access to 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.120 some seller accounts and started to sell stuff off at 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.960 insane discounts and divert payments to themselves as opposed to 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.560 the actual seller who should have been in control of 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:53.320 the whole thing. And the company says it's likely that 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.440 what happened was these hackers did some credential stuffing. They 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.400 found some compromised user names and words on the Internet, 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.480 they applied those over on Bricklink, and they found a 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.640 few that worked, and that that's what they've been doing. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.920 They did announce that the hackers had issued a ransomware 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.560 demand from the company, but they said there's no evidence 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.680 that the hackers actually got access to any company systems. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.480 So that's why they're saying, like, we think that this 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:29.000 is not an actual ransomware intrusion, but rather someone being 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.120 able to use passwords to hack into accounts. So they 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.960 do suggest that users who have a Bricklink account go 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.439 in and update their password to a strong password that's 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.680 unique just for that service. You should be doing that anyway. 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.000 You should not be reusing the same password over and 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.680 over again. Just a bad idea, because all it takes 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.480 is one thing to get compromised, and then they have 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.240 the skeleton key to all of your accounts. You don't 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.040 want to do that. So just thought that was interesting 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.559 that it was hitting the lego community. Now, it should 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.560 come as no surprise that Amazon is reportedly working on 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.080 a massive artificial intelligence model. Of course it is. It's 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.959 a huge company, and all the other huge companies are 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.559 likewise hard at work at creating language models. According to 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:18.800 Business Insider, the Amazon model currently has the code name Olympus, 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.680 which seems pretty darn humble. I mean, it's the home 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.640 of the gods and everything. The Information reports further that 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.880 Amazon plans to integrate this large language model into lots 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:35.320 of stuff that faces customers, like its online store and 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.520 in that smart speaker line of products that have that 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.040 woman's name that I won't say, just so I don't 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.640 accidentally set any off near you. Then, Reuter's reports that 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.839 Olympus is actually a much larger large language model than 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:54.480 even open AI's famous GBT, in fact, twice as large. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.240 That does not necessarily mean it's better, but it is bigger. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.840 Rumor has it Amazon will be unveiling its plans for 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.360 AI next month, and that we might find out how 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.280 this could be incorporated into Amazon products moving forward, and 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.720 whether accessing those features will require some sort of additional 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.239 subscription or something. On a semi related note, the Hollywood 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.240 strike with sag AFTRA has come to a close. This 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:27.080 is the one that involved the union represented actors in Hollywood, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.920 So that strike is probably to a close, I should say, 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.680 because the strike leaders were finally able to negotiate a 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:40.080 deal with the AMPTP, that's the organization that represents like 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.400 the producers in Hollywood studios. But there are a few 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.400 components that need to happen, like there has to be 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.880 a full vote from the union to support this deal 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:53.400 before it's well and truly in place. Most folks seem 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.480 to think that is going to happen this week. And 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.400 there's some things in that deal that touch on tech, 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.040 which is why talking about it. Part of it has 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.600 to do with things like residual payments for stuff that's 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.680 on streaming services as opposed to on more traditional media 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:15.120 like film or television. There were really established ways to 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.240 determine how much money an actor would receive from stuff 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:24.080 they had done continuing to perform well in movies or 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.560 on TV or whatever, but there was less clarification in 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.400 the streaming world because that's a relatively new form of media, 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:34.840 so there's some elements of that in there, and there's 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.440 also elements that have to do with generative artificial intelligence. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.320 Now I can't give any details because so far the 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.360 terms of the deal are undisclosed, but the Union as 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.720 a whole will vote to ratify the deal pretty soon, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.480 and assuming that happens, business will be back to whatever 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.880 passes for normal in Hollywood. Okay, we're going to take 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:56.520 a quick break. When we come back, we've got some 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:09.480 more tech news stories. We're back. So. While Google is 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.120 facing heavy legal pressure here in the United States in 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:16.120 that antitrust matter I mentioned earlier, the company is also 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:21.120 pushing against Apple over in the EU. Google reportedly is 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.600 petitioning lawmakers in the EU to force Apple to stop 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.520 gatekeeping the infamous I Message app. The EU has a 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.920 law called the Digital Markets Act, and Google argues that 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.199 Apple's I Message is not in alignment with that law, 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.559 and that law says that Apple should allow I Message 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:47.400 to integrate seamlessly with all other messaging platforms. And this 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.719 really comes down to text bubbles and what color they are, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.360 right like, whether they're blue or green. It's crazy to 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:56.120 me that that's what it really comes down to it's 0:12:56.120 --> 0:13:00.600 even crazier that people would actually judge someone if their 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.800 text bubble in a group chat was the quote unquote 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.720 wrong color that you know, somehow they're not as good 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.640 a person because they have a different kind of technology. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.080 They don't have an iPhone, they're using an Android phone. 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.640 I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that. I mean, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.200 after all, I've seen the exact same sort of tribalistic 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.240 behavior in the gaming community forever. Right. You just ask 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.760 a group of gamers what's better PlayStation or Xbox and 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.440 then you watch the blood fly. So I guess it 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.040 isn't that biggest surprise. It's just kind of pathetic if 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.000 you ask me. Anyway, Apple says that it already meets 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.800 the requirements of the Digital Markets Act, So I guess 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.720 we'll see if Google's push for this wins out or not. 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.679 If it does, it may mean that we won't have 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.320 those different colors of text bubbles in the future, and 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.400 we'll have to judge people on other things, you know, 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.880 like whether or not they're a good person. Meanwhile, Apple 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.160 is potentially facing a big old tax bill in the EU, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:03.040 specifically the of tax breaks that the company got from Ireland. 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:08.080 So this matter has actually a very long history. The 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.840 way it works is that several years ago the government 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:16.440 of Ireland extended some hefty tax breaks to Apple to 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.920 attract Apple to build a facility in Ireland, to essentially 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.320 make Ireland its foothold for Europe and other parts of 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.400 the world. But these tax breaks were themselves, according to 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.960 one court case, not entirely legal. So this whole mess 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.720 goes to court, and originally the court agrees that the 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:42.680 tax breaks were not legal, that Apple therefore owed billions 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.280 of dollars worth of back taxes, and then Apple appealed 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.480 this decision. Three years ago, another court overturned the earlier judgment, 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.200 and now a lawyer advising the European Union says that 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.560 the decision to overturn was itself incorrect, that it was 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.480 guided by a bunch of legal errors, and the court 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:08.880 made a mistake in overturning the original court's decision against Apple, 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.960 and that Apple should therefore end up forking over around 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:17.840 thirteen billion with a b euro worth of back taxes. 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:20.440 At the heart of the matter is whether or not 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.960 the tax breaks Ireland offer to Apple constitute what the 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:30.360 EU defines as quote unquote state aid. So every member 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.440 state in the EU actually governs its own tax laws, 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.880 but the EU as a whole has authority over matters 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.320 where a government offers government backed aid to say, a 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.800 giant corporation, so as obi Wan would put it, it 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.880 all depends upon your point of view. Obviously, Apple reps 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:55.320 argue that that interpretation is not accurate. The most recent 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.200 court decision to overturn the ruling against Apple is really 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.840 the right one, and that one should stand. Ireland's government 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:08.680 also protests being said that to have offered state aid 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.160 to Apple. Ireland says that's not what it did. It 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.680 created an incentive to bring Apple over to Ireland in 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.440 order to turn Ireland into kind of a high tech 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:23.080 hub for companies mostly originating from the United States, to 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.320 have a base of operations for the rest of the 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.000 European Union. The whole darn story is taxing, if you 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.360 ask me. Speaking of taxes, authorities in Italy say that 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:40.400 Airbnb and the landlords using Airbnb have not been paying taxes, 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.920 at least not to the level that they should be, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.440 and as such, Italian authorities are getting ready to seize 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.280 more than eight hundred and thirty million dollars from Airbnb 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.320 as a result. Now, whether these authorities will also turn 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.400 their wrath to the actual landlords, that remains to be 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:02.760 seen so far, of just seen mention of only Airbnb. 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.520 So a lot of places around the world have been 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:10.280 striking out against Airbnb recently. The City of New York has, 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.239 you know, lots of other places. There are a lot 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.720 of places that have issues with housing availability that have 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.360 been really critical of Airbnb. So the complaint is that 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.760 landlords are scooping up properties that should be going to 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.040 residents and instead they're using them for short term rentals. Meanwhile, 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.320 you've got an ongoing housing crisis in some of these places, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:38.080 obviously in Italy. The issue also involves failing to pay 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.560 the appropriate amount in taxes on these rental agreements. Airbnb 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.320 reps say, unsurprisingly that they are disappointed by the decision 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.080 to go after their money. They also claim that they 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.240 have operated within the law. The company has the right 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.600 to appeal, which I can't imagine them not doing. I'm 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.959 sure they will. And CNN Business indicates that the actual 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.720 process for the authorities to get this money is not 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:08.399 exactly straightforward. It's not like it's easy to do. So 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.080 it may be that this matter drags on for a 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.720 very long time, but it really extends beyond tech into 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.840 the political and financial realms. I just thought that was 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.920 worth talking about because, like a lot of other companies, 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:25.919 particularly in Silicon Valley, Airbnb would often get the label 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.280 of being disruptive, and I just think it's good to 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.960 remember that sometimes when you're disruptive, sooner or later the 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.960 establishment hits back, and it's usually much bigger than you are. 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.240 That's not saying that that's the right thing, but it's 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.800 certainly something that can happen, and I think that's what 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:49.640 we're seeing with Airbnb now. Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:51.560 investors in a recent earnings call, and one thing he 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.720 mentioned is that starting next month, the company will roll 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.440 out a beta test of a streaming app that combines 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.239 both Disney Plus and Hulu into a service. This has 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.280 long been rumored to be in the works, and Disney 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.560 is currently in the process of acquiring comcasts thirty thirty 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.159 percent stake in Hulu for around eight point six billion 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.119 dollars at least. Eiger indicated that the plan is to 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.600 roll out the service in full sometime next spring. So 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.359 it sounds like only people who are currently subscribed both 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.560 to Disney Plus and to Hulu at the moment are 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.199 going to have access to this beta program in the 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.360 short term, which means I'm out. I'm just on Disney Plus. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.080 I haven't done Hulu yet, so I'll have to keep waiting. 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.080 There's a bunch of stuff on Hulu I want to see, 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.600 but I've been dragging my feet because I was pretty 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.760 sure that this thing was going to happen. And lastly, 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.360 I want to pour one out for a may Goal, 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.000 the online service that would match strangers up in chats 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.560 video chats online. So even if you've never used a 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.119 may Go before, I bet you can guess that a 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.800 lot of people took the opportunity to being randomly matched 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.240 with a stranger in a semi anonymous way to engage 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.800 in behavior, let's say, was questionable. There was never a 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.840 shortage of stories about people on Omego harassing folks or 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.000 using things like racist slurs, or exposing themselves that was 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.480 one that was frequently mentioned, or attempting to groom young users. 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.960 Really disturbing stuff like that. There are no shortage of 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.520 videos about that online too. But other folks made really 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:27.040 creative artistic uses of omegol. There's some great compilation videos 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:31.960 on YouTube of musicians who would delight strangers by playing 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.639 like a personal concert for them, just by being matched 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.840 up to them. That kind of stuff I think is 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.520 super awesome, and I'm sad that that's going to go. 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.119 I love the idea of strangers being able to connect 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.200 with each other and just have a conversation. You never 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.199 know where that's going to go. The problem is the 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.680 bad actors were really, really bad, and that overall gave 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.840 a stain on omegl and the creator of omegol announced 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.880 that it was just too much to try and keep 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.520 the site running, to fight against people who were abusing 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.000 the site, and to fight the organizations that had condemned 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.520 the entire site due to the behavior of these bad actors. 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.760 I recommend actually going over to omegle dot com and 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.800 reading the whole open letter yourself to draw your conclusions 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.040 about the whole thing. And that's it for the news 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.840 today for Thursday, November ninth, twenty twenty three. I hope 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.520 you are all well, and I'll talk to you again 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:40.960 really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production for more 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:45.760 podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:51.600 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.