WEBVTT - Tech News: A Software Update Crashed Computer Systems Around the World 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey therein 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.840 Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.079 an executive producer at iHeart Podcasts. And how the tech 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.479 are you. It's time for the tech news for the 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.520 week ending July nineteenth, twenty twenty four. And the big 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.200 story that I have this week is how a product 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:34.960 update for software called Falcon Sensor led to worldwide operating 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.960 system failures, which in turn necessitated that important businesses businesses 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.960 like airlines, for example, had to shut down or at 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.080 least delay operations while folks tried to fix the problem. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:52.640 The heart of the matter lies with a cybersecurity company 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.720 called CrowdStrike. So CrowdStrike pushed out a content update to 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:03.000 customers for the Falcon Sensor product. And Microsoft is such 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:07.120 a customer, and this update went out to Windows virtual machines, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.360 many of which handle mission critical operations for big customers, 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.240 including some major companies all over the world. The update 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:19.680 caught the machines into a recovery boot loop, which means 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.240 the machines never really loaded in. They would get to 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:24.800 a certain point of booting up and then they would 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.720 reboot and they would just keep doing this, and that's 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.480 when the failures began. So here in the United States, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:35.720 Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines all grounded their 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.360 flights because their systems effectively went down. In other parts 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.800 of the world, banks were affected, which severely slowed down 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.840 operations there. One stock trader called it the mother of 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:51.040 all global market outages. In the UK, Sky News went 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.480 off the air they were unable to broadcast. In Australia, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.320 emergency call centers reported disruptions due to this issue, which 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.040 is pretty darn scary. Everyone was plagued by the dreaded 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.120 blue screen of death. George Kurt's CEO of CrowdStrike, took 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.760 to x formerly known as Twitter, and posted quote, CrowdStrike 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.680 is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.840 in a single content update for Windows hosts, Mac and 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.080 Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.160 incident or cyber attack. The issue has been identified, isolated, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.280 and a fix has been deployed. End quote. Now, deploying 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.200 a fix is great, However, it does not magically stop 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.760 the already affected machines from being in that reboot loop cycle. 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.920 So to do that it admins will actually have to 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.919 stop the reboot cycle. They'll have to boot into essentially 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.440 safe mode and then navigate to the CrowdStrike file directory 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.600 and delete the appropriate file manually. And depending on the 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.840 it situation for each business, that could be a fairly 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.639 easy thing to do or a not so easy thing 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.320 to do. It's definitely a time consuming thing to do, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.720 but in the meantime, a lot of companies are unable 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.480 to function properly, some can't really function at all, and 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.800 this mistake really points out how reliant the world is 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.600 on a limited number of service providers, and I would 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.160 argue it also reinforces to hackers the potential impact of 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.160 targeting the supply chain because it lets you hit a 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.600 huge number of targets simultaneously and disrupt them. Though again 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:29.800 in this case, we're not talking about a hacker attack. 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.480 This was just a mistake that CrowdStrike made that has 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.840 affected a lot of people all around the world. And 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.480 I bet there's going to be some uncomfortable meetings about 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:44.119 it at CrowdStrike headquarters today, So yeah, yikes. Another obviously 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.760 huge story this week was the assassination attempt on the 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.920 life of former president and now GOP nominee Donald Trump. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.160 But this is not a politics or crime podcast, so 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.960 why would I bring it up. Well, that's because the 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.440 FBI took possess of the would be assassin's phone and 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.080 within a couple of days announced that they had successfully 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.560 accessed the phone's contents, which raised a lot of questions 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.640 in the tech community, as there is this ongoing concern 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.920 in tech about the extent to which your privacy and 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.640 security can be insured by the hardware that you use. 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.799 So if someone were to get hold of your device, 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.039 would they be able to access it without your direct aid? 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.920 And how did the FBI manage this? While the phone 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.919 in question is a Samsung device and it was locked 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.520 when the FBI received it. Bloomberg reported that the FBI 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.279 initially couldn't crack the phone's security, but then they worked 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:47.279 with an Israeli digital intelligence company called Celebrate to get access. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.960 Earlier this week, I saw online speculation that the at 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.120 that time unnamed Israeli firm was actually the NSO Group. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.760 That's the group that's best known for producing the spyware 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.440 on steroids product called Pegasus. But no, these are two 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:07.120 separate cyber intelligence companies. According to Bloomberg, Celebrate used new 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.600 software that's actually still in development, it's not offered as 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.880 a product yet, and cracked the phone security and gave 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.159 FBI access to it. A piece in nine to five, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.960 Mac points out that a data leak from within Celebrate 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.599 revealed its software is currently unable to crack iPhone security 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.080 at least on any devices running iOS seventeen point four 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.960 or later. So this just shows a gap between their 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:38.960 ability to crack security in iOS platforms versus Android platforms. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.359 And yeah, this is like an ongoing discussion in the 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:47.000 tech community. Is you know which operating system provides better security? 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:51.760 Can you expect to keep your stuff on lock even 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:53.600 if it were to fall into the hands of, say 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.400 the FBI. Like, there are a lot of conversations in 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.680 tech that follow that, which is why I covered the story. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.880 On Thursday, open ai unveiled a slimmed down AI Large 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.120 Language Model, So I guess a not so large language 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.880 model or LM, and it's called fittingly enough GPT four 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.000 to oh mini oh in this case is the lowercase 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.640 letter O not the number zero or the numeral zero 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.559 or however you want to call it. I'm not a mathematician. Further, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.080 this model is slated to take over from GPT three 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.080 point five Turbo for the purposes of powering chat GPT, 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.000 so it will be the language model behind the chatbot. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.760 It's currently available for consumer chat GPT users. It will 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.520 later spread to enterprise customers next week. For now, it's 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.080 similar to earlier large language models, but open ai says 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.640 this one will eventually be able to analyze and interpret 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.640 images as well as generate its own so not just text, 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.680 plus it will also be able to analyze audio. It 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.920 will not, however, have access to the latest breaking news. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.800 It will have a knowledge cutoff of October twenty twenty three. 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.119 So what's the benefit of moving to a smaller large 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.440 language model. Well, the big one is cost. They are 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.720 less expensive to operate and thus less expensive for customers. 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.560 They're still fairly robust, though they aren't as capable of 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:21.600 performing in depth analysis as their bigger siblings. They're good 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.880 for smaller and more niche oriented tasks, so the sort 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.920 of stuff you would probably encounter in your typical apps 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.440 that tap into generative AI. Because your apps usually aren't 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.960 do everything apps, they usually are keyed to a specific 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.720 subset of features. So, for example, let's say you've made 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.680 an app that is essentially a dynamic to do list. Well, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.720 you won't need access to a massive, large language model 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:52.160 to handle any AI component of this implementation, right, because 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.920 that would be overkill. Like, you don't need something that's 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.200 great at everything, or even passable at everything. You need 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.760 something that's good at, you know, a very small set 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.119 of tasks. But on the flip side, if you did 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:08.080 need some heavy lifting on the AI front, smaller models 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.760 aren't necessarily going to be as good of a fit 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.600 because they just won't be capable of performing that in 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.560 depth analysis. You would end up spending more time and 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.080 possibly more money to achieve the results you actually wanted, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.640 So there are trade offs. Plus, you are also still 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.720 beholden to whatever material was used to train the model 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.560 in the first place. That doesn't matter about the size. 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:31.680 In fact, like whether it's a small model or a 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.719 large model, the training material needs to be good. If 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.559 the training material is garbage, that's what you're going to 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.959 get on the other end, right, garbage in garbage out. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.079 I talked about this previously this week on tech Stuff 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.800 about how bad training material leads to bad AI performance, 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.960 and there's a real fear that AI models of the 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.880 future are going to be training off of AI generated 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.680 content from today, and that will lead to what is 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:03.920 called model collapse. That's a real thing. Listen to earlier 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.679 episodes this week to learn more about that. Ours Technica's 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.640 Ashley Bellinger has an article titled Elon Musk's X may 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.120 succeed in blocking California content moderation law on appeal and 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.040 I would like to touch on this. The matter at 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.200 hand concerns a law called AB five to eight seven 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.080 in California, and it is concerned with the terms of 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.800 service for social media companies. Specifically, the bill says that 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.200 social media companies must make available their terms of service. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.880 They must define clearly what is and is not permitted 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.960 under those terms, and then create a record of any 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.959 and all cases in which users or their content are 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.480 subjected to action from the company for violation of those terms, 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.000 such as when a company deletes a post or bans 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.240 a user, as well as a record of exactly what 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:55.480 violation occurred. X's law team argue that the law violates 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.800 the company's First Amendment rights to conduct content moderation. That's 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:04.119 forcing them to make a comment on specific controversial subjects, 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.160 and that is against the First Amendment, and you know, 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.440 to definitively state why someone or something was banned, which 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.000 also sends the message that stuff that is allowed to 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.480 stay on the platform is permitted. This is actually a 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.440 movement to create backlash against X, and the State of 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.120 California is determined to just stir stuff up, so to speak, 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.680 by making X essentially say, well, yeah, what this person 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.320 said was awful, but it's not against our terms of service, 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.560 or we don't like what this person said, so we 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.880 banned them. Bellinger points out that the appeals court seems 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.480 at least partly sympathetic to X, and I can understand 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.959 why I might not agree with stuff going on over 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.000 at X, and in fact, I disagree a lot with 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.319 stuff going on over at X. But you do get 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.960 into a pretty thorny issue when a company has to 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.400 first define what is and isn't acceptable. As one judge 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.120 pointed out, x's argument seems to be that the State 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.520 of California is trying to compel X to express company 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.600 views on these controversial subjects that range from stuff like 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.080 hates each to foreign political interference, and that compelling someone 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.800 to speak does seem like it is running a foul 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.560 of first Amendment protections. So does this mean the appeals 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.599 court will ultimately find in favor of X. Possibly, but 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.920 it's not a done deal yet. Okay, I got a 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.000 few more news stories to cover before we get to that. 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:30.520 Let's take a quick break. We're back, so and less 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.600 serious but still irritating news. Netflix is increasing the cost 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.640 of subscribers who want an AD free experience on the 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.560 streaming platform by getting rid of the existing lowest tier 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.040 in that in that range, so the monthly fee for 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.320 the lowest AD free tier, which limited users to viewing 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.000 Netflix on just one device at a time, as well 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.000 as viewing content and a maximum resolution of seven hundred 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.920 and twenty P. That has been twelve dollars a month, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.280 But now that tier is being ended phased out, and 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.320 current customers who are at that level will get shifted 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.960 to a different tier, less expensive per month, but it 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.720 is AD supported. If they want to move to an 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.040 AD free version, they'll have to go up to fifteen 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.719 dollars forty nine cents per month to do it. Now. 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.320 This is technically a different tier, a different plan. It 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.560 supports up to two devices and also a resolution of 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.240 ten ADP plus. Customers at this tier are allowed to 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.719 download content to a local device, So like if you're 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.280 going on a plane or something and you're not going 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.360 to have access to Wi Fi, you download the episode 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.679 or whatever tier phone and you can watch it then. So, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.400 according to Sharon Harding of Ours Technica, Netflix's strategy is 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.600 to get more people to move to this lowest lower tier, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.240 this AD supported tier, because ads are more lucrative as 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.080 a revenue generator than subscriptions alone. So their hope is 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:58.240 not to convince people to spend more per month and 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.560 move to the new lowest AD free tier, but rather 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.400 be content with the fact that they're also going to 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.199 have to watch some ads, because that is a more 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.120 lucrative revenue generation model. Of course, Netflix isn't the only 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.120 streaming service that has recently bumped up prices. That's been 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.760 true across the board. We've actually seen, you know, some 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.680 streaming platforms bump up prices a couple of times in 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:22.559 the span of a year. A heck, I just got 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.360 an email earlier this week about how my Peacock subscription 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.720 is getting more expensive and I'm wondering should I even 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.840 bother keeping it? I mean, I only use it to 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.480 watch like things super rarely, but I think this also 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.160 has to be expected because obviously, early on in the 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.360 streaming days, the game was all about getting as large 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.880 a subscriber base as you possibly could, even if that 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.240 meant you were losing money in the process. Like you 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:51.080 had these very attractive Intrey offers, you had a lot 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:55.280 of original material. But you can't operate like this forever. 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.000 You know, you do have to find ways to make 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.800 a profit or at least to keep shareholders happy, since 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.200 that's really what it's all about these days, and that 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:06.720 means you can't just give stuff away for very low 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.880 amounts of money. You have to figure out a method 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.880 to cover the costs of operation at the very least, 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.000 and preferably make a profit. Just Weatherbed of The Verge 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.440 has a piece about how Google is cleaning house on 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.600 the app front. The company says it will be cracking 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.000 down on apps that don't live up to Google's play 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.080 Store standards. So for apps that have extremely limited functionality 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.200 or content and thus are seen as low value apps, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.400 they could find themselves on the chopping block. So let's 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.920 say it's an app and all it is is like 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.320 a wallpaper. That's it. That's the whole app. This is 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:41.760 one little thing of wallpaper. That's the sort of thing 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.400 that Google says will not survive this change. Google already 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.000 has policies in place for apps that are downright malicious 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.120 or that introduce security vulnerabilities to hardware, which is a 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.000 no brainer. But this new rule says, not only must 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.400 your app be safe, it also has to be you know, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.000 kind of good. The new rule take effect at the 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.480 end of August. There's a famous saying that is often 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.520 attributed to Dustyyevsky, and it goes something like this, the 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.000 degree of civilization in a society can be judged by 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.760 entering its prisons. Now, before I go any further, I 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:19.560 should add that Princeton University's Russian literature professor Ilyavinitsky has 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.720 written extensively about how this quote is not in fact 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:28.400 from Dustyevsky, and actually it's in conflict with what Dustyevsky's 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.760 actually actual words on the subject of prisons have said. 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.680 It's a great read, by the way, I love reading 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.200 experts who are saying, yeah, everyone says this quote came 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.440 from this place, but it really doesn't. But wherever the 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.520 quote does come from, it has been repeated and reinforced 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.280 by lots of others, including like Nelson Mandela, And while 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.600 the origins of the quote are perhaps unknown and maybe 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.960 even unknowable, I do think the intent behind the quote 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.680 has merit no matter who it was that said at first. 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:57.520 Which is a long way to go to introduce this 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.200 next story, which is that the FCC has no now 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.120 closed a loophole that existed here in the United States 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:08.160 that allowed the various prison telephone service operators in this 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.320 country to place really high telephone rates on prisoners who 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.160 wanted to make calls, specifically intra state calls like within 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.840 a state. And most prisoners, like their families, live in 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.160 the same state that the prison that they're in is in, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.720 so most of the calls they want to make are 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.320 within the state. And for a long time, those rates 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:35.200 were pretty darn high. And like a fifteen minute phone 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.240 call might cost a prisoner eleven dollars thirty five cents. Well, 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.440 that doesn't sound like a lot maybe to you, But 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.160 then you've got to remember these prisoners are making pennies 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.840 on the dollar in prison. Like there's a whole conversation 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.760 to be had about what ultimately amounts to slave labor 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.080 and the prison system of the United States. But anyway, 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.880 now that eleven dollars thirty five cents is going to 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.640 be closer to ninety cents at least that's what it 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.400 would be for very large prisons, like prisons that have 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.199 at least one thousand inmates, if not more. This is 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.919 significant because a previous challenge to the FCC's attempts to 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:15.040 curb telephone rates in prisons was defeated when the companies 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.480 that are actually providing these services argued that the FCC 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.000 lacked the authority to impose price caps in the first place. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.720 But President Biden signed into law a bill that grants 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.280 such powers to the FCC. So now the FCC is saying, well, 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.359 Congress has granted us that authority. Now, so now you 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.600 have to reiin in your prices, and we've already analyzed 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.360 the numbers. We can prove that, based upon the information 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.920 provided by you, you'll still make a profit and cover 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.879 all costs of operations even with these lower price caps. 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.800 So there, so that's a good story. I think that 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.800 shows how if you don't have regulations, there's no check 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:58.600 and balance system for most vulnerable populations, right like powerful populations, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.960 ones that have a lot of sway they can push back, 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.840 and that's substantial. But when you're talking about prisoners, who 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:10.480 are the most vulnerable in society arguably or at least 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.639 among the most vulnerable populations in society, they have no 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:18.440 political clout. So obviously any company that decides that they're 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.520 going to price gouge, there's no checks and balances there. 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.760 So now the FCC is saying, well, we've been grinded 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.320 that authority. You can't do it anymore. We'll see where 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.440 it goes from here. To round up for recommended reading 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.760 this week, I've got a couple of space related pieces 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.520 from ours Tetnica, both by Stephen Clark, and I think 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.520 these are worth your time. So first up is his 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.320 Rocket Report, which is a weekly roundup of space news, 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.320 and it's incredible, Like he I don't know where he 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:45.800 gets the time to do all this, because he does 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.879 a great job. But you can learn about how a 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.720 space startup recently lost at CEO due to inappropriate relationships 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.960 with an employee of the company. You can learn about 0:18:55.960 --> 0:19:00.600 how SpaceX's Falcon nine rockets are temporarily grounded after a 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.560 launch vehicle. The second stage of a launch vehicle failed 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.800 to deliver twenty Starlink Internet satellites into their proper orbit 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.800 last week. That being said, the Falcon nine actually remains 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.400 the most reliable launch vehicle in history and it has 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.159 a ninety nine point seven percent success rate. This was 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.360 the first failure, so it's an amazing piece of technology 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.200 and the FAA is likely to lift that grounded status 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.240 within the next day or so. There are also lots 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.160 more stories in that roundup, and next up is another 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.479 piece by Stephen Clark in Ours Technica. It's titled NASA 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.840 built a moon rover, but can't afford to get it 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.560 to the launch pad, and it's the sad tale of Viper, 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.280 a project that already saw four hundred and fifty million 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.600 dollars of investment, but sounds like the various delays in 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.360 the project and the cost increases reached a point where 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.800 NASA had to make a decision they had to either 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.159 cut the project or they would have to cancel a 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.520 bunch of other projects in order to find money in 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.480 the budget to get it across the finish line. And 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.000 last is a piece in The Guardian by Charlotte thal 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:07.919 titled doom Scrolling Linked to existential Anxiety distrust suspicion, and 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.000 despair study finds. I think Thal did a really good 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.239 job pointing out that the study had some limitations and 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.760 it does seem to confirm a lot of common sense 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.239 ideas about the nature of doom scrolling, like it's going 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.520 to just sort of be like, yeah, of course. But 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.480 she also points out that due to the scope and 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.199 nature of the study, it is perhaps viewed as a 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.080 good reason to research the matter more thoroughly, rather than 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.840 to draw conclusions from the study itself. In other words, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.119 be careful not to fall victim to confirmation bias. And 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.200 that's it for the tech News for the week ending 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.840 July nineteenth, twenty twenty four. I hope you are all well, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:53.359 and I'll talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.400 is an iHeart Radio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.440 visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcas casts, or wherever you listen 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:02.520 to your favorite shows.