WEBVTT - Tech News: Twitter Shareholders Vote on Acquisition Today 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.319 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.960 Jovan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heeart Radio. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.279 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.439 tech news for Tuesday, sept twenty two, and first we 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.880 have a quick Twitter acquisition update. Today, Twitter shareholders will 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.160 vote on whether or not to approve the Elon Musk 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.600 Twitter acquisition deal, you know, the deal that Musk is 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.440 currently trying to back out of. And you might be 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.599 surprised to learn that this vote has not yet happened, 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.320 and that technically shareholders could reject the deal on the 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.120 face of it and then this whole thing just goes away. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.199 But that is not likely to happen because Musk's agreed 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.200 upon deal means he would pay fifty four dollars twenty 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.760 cents a share, and that's pretty darn good for shareholders 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.120 right now. The closing price for Twitter from yesterday was 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:10.039 forty one cents, so twenty is a step up there, right. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.320 You would get more than ten dollars per share over 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.000 the current going price for shares. That's a pretty nice 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.600 way to cash out of an investment. Anyway, Early indicators 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.360 suggest that investors are likely to approve the deal by 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:28.000 a comfortable wide margin, so this matter would then continue 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.880 unabated towards being decided in court. As must argues that 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.880 the deal has been altered, while Twitter says prey, I 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.800 do not alter it. Further attention mac os and iOS 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.920 device owners, at least for you know, relatively current devices. 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.639 H Apple has pushed out a security update to patch 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.360 a zero day vulnerability. This is the eighth time this 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.320 year that Apple has UH patched such a vulnerability, a 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.560 different one in each case, not like it was the 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.200 same one, but it's happened eight times this year. More. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.680 Apple says this particular vulnerability might have already been actively 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:10.120 exploited in various places, and that the vulnerability allows apps 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.959 that to contain specific malicious code that will allow hackers 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.359 to quote execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges end quote. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.079 That's a pretty severe security vulnerability, so it's a good 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.639 idea to update your devices. The company has not elaborated 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.920 on the scope or severity of these UH supposed attacks, 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.600 but kernel level access is serious business, and like I said, 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.160 it's the eighth time this year that Apple has had 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.600 to address a vulnerability like this. That just goes to 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:44.880 show how different the world is from when I was 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.360 a kid, because back when I was a kid, Apple 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:53.200 computers were thought to be essentially malware proof, that the 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:57.160 design of Apple was just superior to DOSS and later 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.920 to Windows based PCs. Though some would argue that Apple 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.880 was mostly enjoying security through obscurity, which just means that 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.640 because Apple had a smaller slice of market share, the 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.400 people who are making malware would focus instead on DOS 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.680 and Windows machines because that's where most of the targets were. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.160 You don't spend a ton of time to attack a 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.399 very small population if you can make a lot more 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.079 impact with a bigger one. Anyway, it's actually a good 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.840 reminder that no system out there is bulletproof and that 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.400 keeping up to date with security patches is a good idea. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:39.760 So update those devices. Yesterday morning, Blue Origin, the private 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:44.320 space company that Amazon's Jeff Bezos co founded, had a 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.040 bit of a whoopsie, And by that I mean there 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.160 was a booster failure in the Blue Origin launch vehicle, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.360 which was carrying an unmanned crew capsule up in a 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.600 flight out in order to deliver some payloads to outer space, 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.200 and this failure prompt did the launch vehicle to engage 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:06.960 the capsule escape system. As that name says. This system 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.080 separates the capsule from the launch vehicle in the event 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.200 of a failure, so that these two spacecraft can get 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.880 as much distance as possible between them to best protect 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:22.000 the capsule and potentially the folks who might be inside 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.160 such a capsule. This one, again didn't have any one 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.240 in it. The capsule performed just as it was supposed to. 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.400 It parachuted safely to the ground, so that whole system 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.239 worked as intended. That's actually great news, Like you want 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.560 that to happen if you have this kind of mishap. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.880 So yeah, these capsule escape systems are the kind of 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.160 things you never want to need to use, but you 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.200 sure as heck wanted to be there and to be 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:53.440 reliable if that need should arise. The launch vehicle crashed 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.599 back down to Earth, but reportedly caused no property damage 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.200 or injuries. It crashed within the designated hazard aarry. Uh, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.280 so that too happened as it was supposed to in 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.360 the event of a mishap. You know that the mishap 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.560 was not something that they were hoping for, obviously, but 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.880 everything happened the way it's supposed to end those events. However, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.760 now the US Federal Aviation Administration or f a A 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:24.279 must do a compulsory investigation into the incident to determine what, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.279 if any effect there was on public safety. And this 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.120 is standard operating procedure in the wake of an incident 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.320 like this, So this isn't like the f a A 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.279 coming down hard on Blue Origin. Now, assuming the f 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.600 a A finds no negative impacts to public safety, Blue 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.120 Origin will then be cleared to pursue future flights. Until then, 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.680 things are on hold. There were some losses that we 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.680 should mention, however. The spacecraft was carrying multiple payloads for 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.920 various scientific research projects, including several from elementary and high 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.280 school students and a couple from NASA. I'm not sure 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.080 where all these payloads were located. Did Some of them 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.360 may have been in the capsule and they could be 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.719 safe and perhaps even reused for a future launch. I 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.479 don't know, but at least two of them were attached 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.280 to the exterior of the booster, and presumably those are 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.400 shot at this point. This is a good reminder that 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.320 space is hard y'all. I mean, there's a reason we 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.280 refer to stuff as it ain't rocket science when we're 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.680 talking about degrees of difficulty, because rocket science is right 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.160 up there with brain surgery. The Wall Street Journal reports 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.600 that research documents from inside Meta indicate that the company's 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:38.520 push to mimic TikTok have not met with much success. 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:43.120 So while back Meta introduced reels on Instagram, and these 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.039 are short form videos and are a pretty obvious attempt 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.200 to imitate TikTok's format. And it's no secret that Meta 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.920 viewsed TikTok as the competition, particularly when it comes to 0:06:55.000 --> 0:07:01.160 attracting younger users. Now, when faced with resistance, Meta typically 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.520 does one of two things. It will either buy up 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:09.160 whatever company was competing with it for user attention. This 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.400 is actually what happened with Instagram back in the day. 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:17.480 Meta back then just Facebook purchased Instagram, partly because Instagram 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:22.360 was succeeding in gaining user eyeballs, which meant that fewer 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.600 people were looking at Facebook. So then Facebook bought Instagram. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.560 The other thing it will try to do if it 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.600 can't buy its competition is it will try to make 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.440 its own version of whatever is pulling people's eyeballs away 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.720 from meta platforms like Facebook or the aforementioned Instagram, and 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.000 I think pretty much everyone sees right through these efforts. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.840 I don't think anyone is fooled by this, but it 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:51.280 looks like, despite Meta's push of the reels project, the 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:55.080 short video format is not taking off on meta platforms. 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.600 The documents indicate that a lot of these reels videos 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:04.080 lack any significant engagement, and that people were spending one 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.600 tenth the amount of time looking at and engaging with 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.160 reels as the typical TikTok user spends on TikTok one 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:18.080 tenth the time, and also that influencers haven't really embraced 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.840 reels to the extent that Meta was hoping and you know, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.160 needing for it to make an impact. Plus, Meta has 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:30.880 been integrating reels into both Instagram and Facebook more intrusively 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.040 in an effort to kind of force the format to 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.520 take hold, and users have not reacted positively. A lot 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.679 of people have complained that reels are taking up too 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.479 much of their feeds, both on Instagram and on Facebook. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.280 And finally, a ton of the stuff posted on reels 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:51.000 obviously was created for other platforms first then ported over 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.240 to Reels, which is prompting some users to just go 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:59.720 to the source of the original video, most frequently TikTok. Anyway, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.640 Meta is clearly aware of all this, as the documents show. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.080 Representatives claimed that the information that the Wall Street Journal 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.400 reported on is out of date and that reels is 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.320 doing quite well, thank you very much. In any way, 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.920 even if it's not doing well, it's it's doing better 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.920 and it's getting better all the time. So thank you 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.440 for your interest. But we're fine here, We're all fine. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.360 I might be paraphrasing and editorializing more than just a 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.120 little with my interpretation of the response to this report, 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.440 but it will be interesting to see how that adjusts 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.839 its strategy at all going forward regarding Reels and the 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:41.040 threat of TikTok. Meta has also spun off its pie 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:45.720 Torch project into a new organization called the pie Torch Foundation, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.520 which will operate independently of Meta itself and as part 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.280 of the nonprofit Lennox Foundation. So you might wonder what 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.480 the heck is pie Torch. Well, the name comes from 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:03.520 the programming language Python and languages Torch library. That library 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:08.839 is mostly focused on machine learning processes and to get 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.280 into all of this would get really technical and just 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.600 full disclosure, I would need to read up on a 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.280 lot of stuff just to have a decent grasp about 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.920 it so that I could communicate it properly. So I'm 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.240 just gonna go super high level in this news item 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:27.000 in an effort not to present misinformation. But high Torch 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.840 serves as a kind of scaffolding for machine learning projects, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.720 and it frees up engineers and computer scientists to focus 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.960 on specific implementations rather than having to reinvent the basic 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.079 tools of machine learning for every application. I think of 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.120 it kind of as similar to creating a game engine 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.880 that can serve as sort of the core uh engine 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.880 of lots of different video games, each of which have 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.320 very different styles of play and stories and all that 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.200 kind of thing. And there's some pretty famous product still 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.520 there that make use of the PyTorch frameworks, such as 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.880 Testla's autopilot system, But really it's a framework that's applicable 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.000 to all sorts of machine learning implementations. And the new 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.640 governing board for PyTorch will still include reps from Meta, 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.840 but it's also going to include reps from companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.160 and in Video, among others. So the whole idea here 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.400 is to create more separation between Pyetorch and Meta in 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.960 order to avoid any conflicts of interest that could otherwise 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.920 arise if Meta were still sort of the steward of 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.760 this project. And that all makes sense to me. I'll 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.319 try to research PyTorch some more in order to do 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.640 a full episode about it in the future, but that 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.079 might take a while because this is seriously technical stuff, 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.400 particularly for someone who does not have a background in programming. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:48.960 All right, we've got more stories to come, but first 0:11:49.040 --> 0:12:01.840 let's take a quick break. We're act. Fast Company reports 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:06.120 that a survey created by a team and mass Challenge 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.720 reached out to more than five tech leaders across the space, 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.079 you know, from startups to established companies, in order to 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.480 get a grip on where industry leadership is headed as 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.520 a whole. And it's not all great news, tech folks. 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.520 It looks like a lot of those tech leaders really 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.160 want to follow the examples made by companies like Apple 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.840 and push for a return to the office. Now, that's 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.200 a pretty tough sell to employees who have proven that 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.360 they can be productive while working remotely and who show 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:42.200 a distinct reluctance being pushed back into office environments, pointing 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:46.400 out lots of issues with that, including the fact that 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.480 without that requirement, they can work from wherever they live 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.800 and they don't have to live and say more expensive 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.719 parts of the country where a company's HQ might be located, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.360 they don't have to deal with, you know, commuting back 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:01.400 and forth. They don't and have to deal with added 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.800 budgets for meals in expensive places. Uh, And that there 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:07.520 are a lot of benefits to it, and that the 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.000 company's benefit as well. But a lot of leaders are 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.599 still pushing for returning to the office. Ah. Now I 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.520 should add not all the tech leaders indicated that this 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.000 was their plan. It's not like eight percent we're saying 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.520 they wanted to do that. But according to the survey, 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.880 the more established companies were more likely to say that 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.640 they wanted to return to the office only. I mean, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.199 that's more than half, but it's not all of them obviously, 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.440 But yeah, those were the companies that were more likely 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.200 to say they want to go back to the office. 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.839 If you take into account all the companies across all 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:46.439 categories like including brand new startups, the percentage drops to 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.760 of tech leaders saying they want to push to return 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.960 to the office, so it seems like the younger startups 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:57.120 are more inclined to allow for remote work. Further, the 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.920 survey indicates that a lot of leaders see the economic 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.520 whatever this is we're in, but it's definitely maybe not 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.400 a recession, probably is likely going to help them out 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.760 in this effort because with that kind of threat looming 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:15.240 over employees heads. This, this threat of economic recession, folks 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.079 might be less likely to put up a fuss about 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.840 coming back into the office. So, in other words, it's 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.160 easier to coerce employees when they're scared that they could 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.040 be put out of a job in a tough job market. However, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.560 the survey also found that it's not actually that tough 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.920 of a job market for tech employees. Yes, the larger 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.400 companies like Apple, Meta, Google, and more are cutting way 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.560 back on expenses, which includes cutting back on hiring and 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.600 in some cases even holding layoffs, but across the industry 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.120 as a whole, that's not necessarily the case. Many companies 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:53.400 are actively hiring because they have experienced massive talent loss 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.600 in the wake of the Great Resignation, which is still 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.920 an ongoing thing. So it may be that high profile 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.200 companies are scaling back, but lots of other tech companies 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.080 are not, and so it may turn out that leaders 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.640 who are hoping to kind of lean on the economic 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.800 hard times as a way to you know, influence employees 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.960 might see that plan backfire on them. Also, you because 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:21.520 discussing power dynamics in the workplace, particularly when it's contextualized 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.600 as how bosses can exert more control on their underlings, 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.360 is just playing gross. Anyway, the survey had some interesting 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.680 things to say, and I recommend seeking it out to 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.200 get an idea of what tech leaders are thinking. Currently. 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.480 Google has shelved its pixel Book product line. The company 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.360 had a team working on the next generation of the 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.320 pixel Book, which is a Chrome Os powered laptop, but 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.720 now Google has dissolved that team and reassigned everyone too 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.760 different projects. Google, it appears, is getting out of the 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.960 laptop business now. I am not surprised by this. Hardware 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.520 is a pretty competitive field, and besides, always felt like 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.200 Google was really only into hardware because it was a 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:09.000 way to convince other hardware manufacturers to produce products that 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:14.360 work with Google and offer laptops and other devices that 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.840 run on Google's operating systems like Android and Chromos, like 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.320 you know, Google was pulling out all the stops to 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.480 offer sleek hardware in order to convince these companies to 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.840 join the club. And at that point, Google could then 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.560 extricate itself from the hardware business and really just focus 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.080 on providing the operating systems and software back end stuff. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.840 So this move does not come as a huge surprise 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.640 to me, particularly in an era where Google is one 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.800 of those big companies looking to cut expenses and move 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.080 away from parts of the business that aren't as profitable 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.240 as others. Now, that's a shame that the next pixel 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.120 Book will likely never see the light of day. I'm 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.880 pretty sure it must have been pretty close to being 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.680 ready for the market because they were supposed to debut 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.240 next year. But I'm glad to hear that the folks 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.399 working on pixel Book weren't like booted from Google and 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.320 instead of going to work on other projects. A related 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.400 Google story, or at least related to Google, is Loon. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.120 That's the project that had its start in Google's top 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:21.120 secret X division, which the company uses to pursue moonshot 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:26.200 R and D efforts, and Loon spun off from Google. Really, 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:31.240 you know, from Google's parents, Shell company Alphabet to become 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.760 its own company, and the goal of Loon was to 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.159 provide Internet connectivity via high flying balloons outfited with a 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.359 sort of mesh network, and to beam that connectivity back 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.600 to the ground so that really remote locations such as 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:50.520 isolated communities in Africa, for example, would still have Internet connectivity. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.159 These are places that are in such locations that it 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.000 would be very difficult to lay out physical wire like 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.840 physical cable to reach, so this was seen as a 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:07.199 potential alternative to that. However, it ultimately didn't work out 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:11.800 as a viable business and Loon ultimately shut down and 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.840 Alphabet has then moved the assets of Loon to a 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.399 startup called Aleria. So does that mean that loons balloons 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.440 are going to return. Well, According to the Verge, no, 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:28.000 Allria is looking to solve Internet connectivity issues, but instead 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:33.720 of using high altitude balloons, Allria is using laser beams 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.200 shot through the air for real, y'all. So the concept 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.320 is to have base stations and endpoints and the laser 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.200 beams will carry information back and forth. So you've got 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.080 your freaking laser beams carrying info. Now you might wonder 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.520 what the heck does a company that's going to be 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.960 using laser beams need with loons old assets. One of 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.760 the tools that the Loon project used is called space time, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.640 and not the community space time, it's a different space time. 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.280 But this tool would predict where loon balloons would shift 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.240 in the atmosphere in order to balance you know, loads, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.320 network loads, so that connectivity wouldn't be compromised. So this 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:19.760 was a very complicated predictive software model, and Aliria is 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.040 looking to use that same model to help predict things 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:24.920 like when a base station would need to hand off 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:29.679 connectivity too, something that's in a dynamic situation, like a 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.480 plane that's flying overhead and you know how to predict 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.399 where that plane is going to go, or a boat 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.639 traveling through the water, that kind of stuff. That's the 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.600 sort of application that this tool might be put toward 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.880 in order to maintain connectivity. It's pretty nifty. Okay, We've 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.680 got a few more stories to go before we get 0:19:50.680 --> 0:20:03.440 to those. Let's take another quick break. We're back now. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.000 You may have seen some recent news about China installing 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:12.400 a test stretch of conductor rail technology along one amounts 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.720 to a little less than five miles of highway seven 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.560 point eight kilometers to be more precise, and then testing 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:25.600 mag lev cars on this lane of traffic. And you 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.000 might wonder what the heck all of this is about, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.399 And a lot of it is about China taking sometimes 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:38.480 drastically impractical approaches towards solving traffic issues. Well, anyway, let's 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.280 let's get to this specific implementation. So maglev stands for 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.680 magnetic levitation in case you're not familiar, and this tech 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:48.520 is well understood, it's not like this is breakthrough technology. 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.159 They didn't build a hover car that could work on 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:56.760 any platform. This is a specific use case where you know, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.600 we've got mag lev train systems in operation today in 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:01.679 various parts of the world. It's not like this is, 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.760 you know, brand new. But the basic idea is that 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.320 you use the physical fact that if you have two 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:13.520 magnets and you bring the north poles of each of 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.800 those magnets closer together, you'll feel them repel each other 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:19.800 to the point where if you take your hand off one, 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.399 it will get pushed away by these magnetic fields like 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.800 repels like in other words, So if you have an 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.879 array of magnets, whether they're permanent or electro magnet and 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.000 in a track and a different array of magnets in 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.320 a vehicle, and you've arranged it so that the same 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.240 poles of the magnets face one another, so the north 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.440 poles face each other, for example. Then what you'll get 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.480 as a vehicle that will float over the surface of 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.480 the track itself because the magnetic fields are repelling one another. 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.040 Then using something like a linear motor, you can create 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.520 propulsion and send this vehicle flying down the track, like 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.760 literally flying in this case, or at least levitating, and 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.480 that means you have reduced resistance, like you have reduced friction, 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:14.760 so you can have a much faster moving vehicle. And um, yeah, 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:20.200 it's it's perfectly promulent technology. Now, normally we are talking 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.720 about like a railroad track kind of thing where there's 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:25.760 a guided track, but in this case, we're talking about 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.960 lane on a highway that's acting kind of like a track, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.679 and a car that has been retrofitted with magnets. So 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.080 this wasn't a car specifically built for this purpose, but 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.040 rather had been retrofitted with magnets so that it could 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.560 levitate over this this lane of of highway. And there 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:49.359 are videos of cars driving onto this stretch of road 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.320 and then kind of lifting off a few inches. The 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:56.920 liftoff isn't a very smooth motion in the videos, which 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.560 is kind of scary, and they float. It looks kind 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:04.679 of like an unsteady live in my view. I mean, 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.119 I could be wrong, but the video I saw it 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:10.720 did not look super smooth. But then they could come 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.840 back down on their wheels and continue this way. And 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.240 why would you do this? Well, for one thing, with 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.280 a computer controlled highway system, you could propel vehicles well 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:24.719 beyond their normal top speeds, drastically reducing travel times. Now, 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.360 you'd have to be really careful with that system so 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.000 as not to accelerate a vehicle too quickly and then 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:33.880 hurt people who are insite it. And also the stopping 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:36.600 is really important. You can't stop them too fast because 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:39.560 all that momentum will transfer to the passengers inside the car. 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:42.199 And if you're going at a top speed of like 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.399 a hundred forty miles per hour and you come to 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:46.840 a sudden stop, the people in that car will still 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:48.920 be moving forward at a hundred forty miles per hour, 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.880 and even if they're you know, safety strapped in, that's 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:57.040 gonna hurt. Like it could be kept strophic, so all 0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.840 this has to be handled very carefully and in a 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:03.159 controlled environment. You also, like, wouldn't want a car to 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:05.720 be traveling a hundred forty miles per hour down this 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:08.359 maglev track and then come to the end of the 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:12.200 track and touch down on its wheels and go from 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:16.720 a hundred forty miles per hour to rapidly decelerating while 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:19.000 it's on its wheels. You can easily lose control in 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:23.040 that situation, so there are a lot of safety concerns here. Um. 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:28.960 I don't think this is a very viable way to 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:32.199 transport people quickly. Um. I think you would have to 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:34.520 have an intelligent highway system in there, and as I 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:37.520 talked about in a recent tech Stuff episode, those are 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:43.480 complicated and not necessarily practical. I think it makes way 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:45.920 more sense to build out more trains rather than try 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:51.639 to outfit highways with like floating lanes. But we'll see. 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:54.760