WEBVTT - TechStuff Update Grab Bag 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.800 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:17.080 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.760 how Stuff Works, and I love all things tech, and 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.760 one of the greatest things about technology, in my opinion, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.520 is that it's always evolving. However, that does make covering 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:37.480 technology somewhat challenging or perhaps frustrating or infuriating, particularly if 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.000 you try to do an evergreen style show like tech Stuff. Ideally, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.480 an episode of tech Stuff goes out and you should 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.159 be able to listen to it today, next week, two 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:53.080 years from now. But sometimes stories will update, you know, 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.400 they'll they'll continue more things will happen between the time 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.520 I record a show and even when it goes live 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.160 some times. So this episode is all about giving updates 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.440 to various stories I've mentioned in previous episodes of tech Stuff, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.800 but mostly these are updates that are too short to 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.759 merit a full episode on their own. So let's get started. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:18.040 And I've done several episodes on the concept of net neutrality, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.880 including ones about the FCC reclassifying the Internet service providers 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.840 as common carriers, and the various campaigns for and against 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.160 the whole idea of mandating net neutrality. So if you 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.760 aren't familiar with the concept neutrality, it encompasses several things, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:37.720 but one of the things it says is that all 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:42.119 traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, whether that 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.480 is data that belongs originally to the Internet service provider 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.720 let's say that they also own some other services, or 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.840 it's to a competitor. All that data should be able 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.120 to travel across the Internet without any sort of interference 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.280 or preferential treatment or uh negative treatment in the case 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.800 of a competitor's services. It should all just go no 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.720 matter what device you have connected to the Internet, and 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:09.920 no matter what service you connect to, it should be 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.760 treated equally well. In early June two thousand eighteen, the 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.000 f c C repealed the previously established net neutrality rules, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.480 and those rules included restrictions on Internet service providers, such 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.320 as being able to give preferential treatment to certain types 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.800 of web traffic over others, or charging more for different 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.480 types of content. So, in other words, these rules were 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.480 meant to keep I s p s from being able 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.880 to serve up their own services on a fast track 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.120 while potentially slowing down or charging more or both for 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:42.200 competing services. So as an example, imagine you have an 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.440 Internet service provider, let's call it Bombast, and it has 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.000 its own streaming video service, and you can watch certain 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.519 films and certain television shows using that service. The I 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.799 s P might make the service free to anyone who 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.120 is a subscriber to that Internet service providers, so you're 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:05.600 already a bomb Bast customer. You get those services for free. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.720 And not only that, but they serve those videos on 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.200 a fast track, right They're using a lot of bandwidth 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.200 to get that stuff to you, and that way, on 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.800 your side, there's no buffering, there's no delays. It's a 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.240 it's a good user experience. However, that same I s 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.440 P then puts the brakes on competing services like Netflix, 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.840 so that you, as a Bombast customer, have a less 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.000 user friendly experience. When you try to use Netflix, everything 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.440 takes forever to load. You might even have to pay 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.440 extra just to be able to access the Netflix service. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.480 Under the previous net neutrality rules, that would be a 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.480 big no no, but now those rules are gone. Several 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.120 states in the United States have introduced bills that are 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.120 intended to act as a type of net neutrality on 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.040 the state level, but that's kind of a haphazard way 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.880 to go about it because not every state is proposing 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.640 such legislation. A little more than half of the states 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.040 and the u US have some form of legislation either 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.120 passed or in the process, and there's no guarantee that 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.240 the bills that have been proposed will be passed in 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.240 all the states that have taken up the SLACK. Meanwhile, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.000 the US Senate voted to reverse the f c C repeal, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.080 and it passed in the Senate. However, in the United 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:18.960 States we have not just the Senate, we also have 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.200 the House of Representatives, and in the House, the measure 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.160 did not see the same momentum. They needed two representatives 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.480 to agree to vote on that bill just to just 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.880 to have a vote for it, and every Democrat representative 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.080 signed the petition for this, but it was still more 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.840 than forty signatures short of getting the measure to the 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.920 voting floor, at least as of the recording of this podcast. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:48.719 So net neutrality currently in the United States is a 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.240 a dead concept. At the federal level, the f c 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.359 C is now pushing that over to the Federal Trade 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.280 Commission and saying this belongs to them, not to us. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:02.440 They'll make sure that no anti competitive monopolistic behaviors happened 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:07.479 across the internet. Meanwhile, critics of this say that fat 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.400 chance like that this was our best way of making 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.919 certain that users had a fair shake. So there's a 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.280 lot of rhetoric on both sides of this issue, and 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:22.080 it continues to be a big issue in the US. Recently, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.200 I also did some episodes giving an update on what 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.239 Microsoft has been up to since. One of the things 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:33.159 I mentioned was a dual touchscreen device called Andromeda. Well, 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.039 on July two, two eighteen, I saw an article stating 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.400 that the dual panel mobile device running the Andromeda OS 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:44.400 has been put on hold. So again, just after I 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.000 published this Microsoft update, they go and do this. But 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.840 what's really going on? Well, one thing I did not 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.839 mention in the update episodes for Microsoft is that back 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:59.400 in two thousand fifteen, Microsoft was calling Windows ten the 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.440 lab version of Windows. Now. That was not to say 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.640 that the company would release Windows ten then brush its 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:11.000 hands off and walk away whistling merrily. Instead, Windows was 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.600 meant to evolve almost like it's a service on demand, 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.680 so not your your traditional operating system, where you would 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.520 pay for an update, or you would get a regular update. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.160 It's the foundation. Windows ten is a foundation for the 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.159 service of an operating system, and Microsoft would continue to 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.640 support it and update it with new features as time 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.560 goes on, but there would be no Windows eleven. There 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.880 would just be updates to Windows ten that would roll 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.000 on out to users. One of those updates, which is 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.920 scheduled for the fall of two thousand eighteen, is code 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.200 named Redstone five. And what was supposed to happen was 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.200 that the Andromeda operating system, the mobile version of Windows 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.520 that was going to run on this upcoming dual touchscreen 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.400 foldable mobile device, it would be included in that update 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.400 to Windows ten. So you would have of this interoperability 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.320 between the full build of Windows for desktops and bcs 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.200 and laptops that kind of thing, and the mobile version 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.520 that would exist on the Andromeda device. The Andromeda phone, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.880 or mobile device I should call it, was rumored to 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.880 have cellular technology built into it, but not necessarily in 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.560 a way that was made to make it a competitor 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.800 with iOS or androids. So in other words, calling it 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.200 a mobile device is more accurate than a phone. It 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.360 might have had cellular technology built into it, but it 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.680 was really meant to increase the devices functionality, allowing you 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.400 to connect to the Internet, whether you had WiFi access 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.360 or not, so could you make calls on it. You 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.880 might be able to use a service like Skype, which 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.280 Microsoft owns, and make a call through that, but it 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.840 wasn't necessarily meant to act as a smartphone. It was 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.960 more like a device that could also make calls. But 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.200 as it turns out, it's all a moot point. In 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.360 the spring, Microsoft shook up the mobile division with another 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.920 reorganization ation, and the company reevaluated its strategy. The elements 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:07.000 of Andromeda OS either did not align with this new 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.240 strategy or they weren't ready to go, but either way, 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.080 they are not going to be part of the red 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:17.000 Stone five update, and the development has been shelved, possibly forever, 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.320 and some folks like zd Nets Mary Joe Folly have 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.520 pointed out this might not be a bad idea. The 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.560 Andromeda was rumored to only be able to run Microsoft 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:33.400 Store apps, which limited its utility considerably. Fully cites sources 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.280 that say Microsoft may still try to develop a multi 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.120 screen device running a build of Windows in the future, 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.920 but then it might more closely resemble a laptop inform 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.040 factor rather than a handheld device. Back on May twenty second, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:51.040 two thousand eighteen, I published an episode about Project Maven, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.680 which focused on incorporating elements of artificial intelligence in a 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.240 drone program for the military. Google had been involved in 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.480 that project and faced criticis them both from within and 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.440 from outside the company about its involvement. On June one, 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.800 two thousand eighteen, several headlines reported Google would not renew 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.679 the project, may even contract, according to Google employees. The 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.840 CEO of Google Cloud, Diane Green, addressed the company and 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.200 announced that once the current contract is over, Google will 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.719 not seek a renewal, and as a reminder, Google had 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.880 maintained that its work on the project focused solely on 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:32.920 non aggressive technologies and open source software, but emails from 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.360 within Google showed that executives were really eager to land 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:41.040 lucrative contracts with the Pentagon to provide services like machine learning, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.240 which could then be used to support surveillance efforts. Presumably 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.920 that same technology might in the future be used to 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:52.760 create autonomous or semi autonomous weapons platforms. So while Google 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.440 might have the plausible deniability of saying our work was 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:02.880 just to help with identifying places and people and activity. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.079 It wasn't meant to be used in and direct combat applications. 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.760 You could argue, well, with some small adaptation, you could 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:16.040 make that technology uh more of a weapons platform. So 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:17.920 it's to me it's one of those kind of weak 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.960 arguments at some moonpoint, though Google has now backed away 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.400 from that contract. The dramatic Bitcoin roller coaster story continues 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.760 today in the cryptocurrency hit an all time high of 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.000 nearly twenty thousand dollars per bitcoin. That was toward the 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.160 end of seventeen. Now, remember bitcoin is a digital currency 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.160 that can be divided up into much smaller subunits. After 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.920 reaching those incredible highs, the currency has slumped quite a bit. 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.560 At the end of June two eighteen, the value dipped 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.800 below six thousand dollars per bitcoin, which is still you know, 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.520 pretty pretty high, but it's a huge drop from that 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.160 twenty grand it enjoyed back in December twenty seventeen. And 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.760 as I researched these updates, Bitcoin is in another bit 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.400 of an upswing. It's recovered to above six thousand dollars again, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.720 like it dropped down to about five thousand, eight hundred. 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.679 Now it's back above six thousand, but cryptocurrencies in general 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.440 have had a really rough time of it. Recently, the 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.640 Japanese government passed some strict laws to try and eliminate 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.400 the use of cryptocurrencies and money laundering exploits, and some 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.320 high profile digital currency exchanges have been hacked recently. These 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.120 sort of events have really hurt cryptocurrencies in general. Just 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.719 like all currencies, their value rests partly on perception. If 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.440 we believe them to have value, they have value. And 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.880 if everyone just woke up one morning and said, wait 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.000 a minute, that's actually worthless, it would in fact be 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.240 worthless because no one would accept the currency for anything. 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.959 So it's only our our belief that it it's worth 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.320 anything that makes it worth anything. Now this is true 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.680 for any currency. It's you have the the assurance of 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.880 most currencies that have a bank or from behind them 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.319 that they are backing the value of that. But ultimately 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.560 it's just that we all agree that it's worth something. 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.720 If we all woke up and said, you know what, 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.360 this paper money really isn't you can't really do anything 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.120 with it. It's not really it doesn't have any real 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.880 worth to it, then the currency could collapse if everybody 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.720 did it. Now, the funny thing is that as I 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.360 researched this, I'm aware that this story could actually be 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.080 totally different by the time the updates go live, which 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.880 is how crazy and volatile Bitcoin tans to be. And 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:32.360 it also means that I may have to do an 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.800 update to my updates episode. The irony is not lost 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.280 upon me. While I wallow in some self pity as 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.200 I think about this, Let's take a quick break to 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:52.800 thank our sponsor. Back at the beginning of two thousand eighteen, 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:57.079 I did three episodes about YouTube's history, and that also 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.640 deserves a bit of an update now. Just as I 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.760 was king on the YouTube episodes, the company was getting 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:06.000 ready to roll out some major changes to its partner platform. 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.360 YouTube partner program is it's the platform that creators can 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.040 use to monetize their videos, and essentially it allows channel 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.560 owners to elect to have ads served against their videos. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.000 YouTube gets a cut and the video owner gets the rest. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.320 So if you have a really popular channel with videos 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.040 that get a lot of views, you can stand to 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.400 make some decent money from advertising. But in the spring 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:34.040 of YouTube was trying to deal with a really controversial 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:38.840 problem some users had been uploading videos that featured hateful content. 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.200 There could be racist content, misogynists content, other forms of 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.160 hate speech, and some of those users were YouTube partners. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.400 They had a large following, and they had ads served 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.400 up against their videos, and advertisers were not too keen 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.480 to have their brands associated with someone who was spouting 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.040 off hateful garbage. So youtubes Are sponse was to create 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.320 a new algorithm that attempted to flag videos that might 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.600 have problematic content in them and then demonetize those videos, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.680 essentially flip the switch off so that ads would no 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.360 longer be served against those videos, and no matter how 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.320 many views such a video would get, it would never 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.000 earn any money for the creator. Now, I personally do 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.000 not have a problem with YouTube demonetizing videos that advocate 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:30.040 for violence or spout off hateful things. YouTube is a company. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440 They have the right to do that, and I don't 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.680 see a problem with cutting off this, especially considering that 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.000 the business side of it is that YouTube has to 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.320 work with the advertisers too, and not a lot of 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.200 advertisers are too eager to have their brand associated with 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.480 that kind of stuff. However, the algorithm affected a much 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:57.680 broader spectrum of videos, including educational videos, advocacy videos, news 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.320 oriented videos covering topics racism in a newsworthy way. Some 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.280 of these videos were getting tagged as being inappropriate, even 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.160 when there was no real inappropriate content in them. Creators 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.280 began to refer to it as the apocalypse. YouTube had 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.360 swung hard in an effort to keep major advertisers on 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.200 the platform because there were a lot of big ones 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.760 that were threatening to leave. The alternative was losing some 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.680 of those valuable clients, and we're talking big companies like 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.960 auto companies and major retailers. However, in the process of 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.920 trying to mollify these major companies, the creators who are 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.560 actually making the content that ads were getting served up against, 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.800 we're hurting. So YouTube adjusted the algorithm in the fall 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.600 of seventeen to try and correct some of these problems, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.840 kind of a course correction, and the company noted that 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.080 no fix was ever going to be perfect, and there 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.600 would be some instances that would have to be handled 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.280 on a case by case basis where someone might see 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.800 that a video they've uploaded has suddenly been flagged as 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.880 being demonetized, and you would have to take it up 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.360 to YouTube and say, I really don't think that this 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.280 should count, and here are my reasons why, and could 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.960 you give me an explanation as to why my video 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.400 has been demonetizeding what I can do to fix this. 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.040 Of course, the problem is during this time you're not 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.359 making any money off views. They're coming to that video 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.480 and you might eventually get monetized again. Let's say that 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.120 YouTube says, oh, you're right, that was completely on us. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.960 The algorithm was over zealous. Let's fix this. It is monetized. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.680 We flipped the switch. You're good to go. Yeah, you're 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.200 good to go from that point forward. But all views 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.200 that had happened before then don't count because no ads 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.560 were served against your video at that time. And the 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.320 way videos tend to work, I mean, there are long 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.400 tail videos that will get views months and months and 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.400 months after they go live. I had a video go 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:56.000 viral nine months after it was published on YouTube. So 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.160 there are those cases. But a lot of videos it's 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.520 the first couple of days, maybe the first week, where 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.879 they get the majority of their views. So if it 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:10.120 takes too long to monetize a video again, that's lost revenue. Anyway. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.439 Now we're back up to January of two thousand eighteen. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.720 That was when I was actually publishing the episodes about 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.880 YouTube up to that time. To qualify for the Partner platform, 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.000 your YouTube channel would need to have accrued at least 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.919 ten thousand views across however many videos you had. If 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.520 you had one video that did great and you had 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.200 ten thousand views on it, that counted. If you had 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.320 a thousand videos and each one got ten views, that 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.680 gonna do, although you would still be under review about 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.040 whether or not you joined the partner platform, but the 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.520 overhaul ended up changing all of that. Anyway. Now, to 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.159 be a partner on YouTube, you have to have at 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.240 least one thousand subscribers to your channel, and you have 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.240 to have at least four thousand hours of watch time 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.160 over a twelve month period across all your videos. That's 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.879 somewhat problematic because if you're a creator who specializes in 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.760 short form videos, you might end up having lots of 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.320 views but still end up on the short end of 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.080 total accumulated view time. Because let's say that I make 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.840 a crazy popular video series, but each of those videos 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.360 is about three minutes long, and let's say that I'm 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.080 doing it maybe once a week, I have to go 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.160 for a long time and hope for really really big 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.000 audience reach. To reach that four thousand hours of total 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.280 view time, people have to watch tons of my videos. 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.200 I might have to step up production and start publishing 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:33.720 much more frequently to get to that four thousand hours 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.200 of total view time within twelve months. So if I 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.320 make really good longer form content, I could hit that 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.399 number with fewer actual viewers. Right. If each of my 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.680 videos is like an hour long and it's really really good, 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.560 people tend to watch for the majority of the video, 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:56.320 I'll hit that four thousand hour number way faster now. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.280 YouTube says that if you're uploading videos four or five 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.600 times a week and you have about a thousand subscribers, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:03.560 it shouldn't be too hard to hit that four thousand 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.679 hours of you content, but your mileage may vary. For 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:12.080 those who have actually met those requirements, some of them 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.840 have found the new approval process to take a really 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.040 long time. In April two thousand eighteen, the CEO of 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.439 YouTube said that the company would launch a pilot program 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.160 in which creators could provide more feedback about video content 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.920 in an effort to help YouTube find appropriate advertiser matches 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.800 and potentially sidestep false positive or flip flopping issues where 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.000 an ad gets monetized and then demonetized and back again 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.600 multiple times. So, in other words, let's say that you're 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.840 making a comedy series, and let's say it's a little raunchy, 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.040 not outside of YouTube's rules and regulations. You're you're still 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.919 well within that, but maybe it's a little bit more 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.439 on the rowdy side than your typical video might be. 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.000 That might mean that certain advertisers wouldn't want to be 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.000 associated with you, but other advertisers might be perfectly fine. 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.800 And this process would allow you a way to tell YouTube, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.720 here's what my video series has in it. Here are 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:12.200 the potentially problematic points. Uh So, can you find advertisers 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.679 that are okay to work with my particular content, and 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.160 then YouTube will match the two up. This benefits everybody. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.000 It benefits the advertiser, it benefits the creator, and ultimately 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.760 it benefits YouTube. YouTube only is making money when those 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.760 ads are being served against other content. Uh on the 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.400 setting aside subscriber models and all that kind of stuff. So, 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:35.880 in other words, this is supposed to be the solution 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.200 for everybody. The problem is it hasn't yet been really formulated. 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.080 In June, YouTube rolled out some more features, such as 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.520 channel membership model. Uh. This is where creators who are 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.640 partners can create a membership channel and charge users four 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:54.240 dollars a month to access special members only content, including 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.680 video streams and emojis. If this sounds familiar, it's because 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.199 it's pretty much what Twitched us with live streaming. With Twitch, 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.520 you can be a subscriber and you can get uh 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.679 special material through your subscription and creators when ten thousand 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.719 subscribers can sell merchandise directly from their channels through a 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.159 company called t Spring. But t Spring also takes a 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.880 pretty healthy cut of all sales, so you only get 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.280 a portion of those sales, which makes sense. I mean, 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.600 it's t Spring that's supplying the actual material. But still, 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:29.000 um so, some people say that these these moves on 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.200 YouTube's part to try and create new revenue streams for 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.879 content creators is still not really on the right track. 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.360 One last bit about the YouTube updates. YouTube recently posted 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.320 an apology on Twitter to the l g B t 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:49.119 Q community regarding how it's algorithm unfairly demonetized people in 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.960 that community. You know, creators in the l g B 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.959 t q community who had uploaded videos to their YouTube 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.920 channels start seeing their videos demonetized at a much high 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.400 or rate um even though they were treating the subject 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:10.720 matter with respect. They were not being racist or misogynistic 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:13.840 or using hate speech. They were treating real issues, and 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.800 they were seeing their videos get demonetized. And I said, well, 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.000 this is kind of discrimination. And not only that, but 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:23.240 some of their content got paired with ads that actually 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:29.119 ran with homophobic language, ads that were viewing that were 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:34.560 essentially from from organizations that view uh homosexuality as a 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.919 sin or as something that is immoral. And so this 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:41.520 was like a real slap in the face. Not only 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.040 were a lot of these videos getting demonetized, the ones 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:48.560 that weren't demonetized were getting paired with ads that outright 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:53.280 said the person who created the content was bad in 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.600 some way. The tweet said the company had taken action 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.560 on those ads and would tighten enforcement on its policies, 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.679 which I'm sure a lot of people appreciate, but it's still, 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:05.359 you know, it's it's not a great thing to have 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:09.280 to apologize for back in two thousand fourteen, So it's 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:11.560 going back quite a ways. I did a couple of 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.840 episodes about the automotive company Tesla, and a lot has 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:17.239 happened since two thousand fourteen. I could probably do a 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.600 full update episode, but I want to concentrate on just 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.320 a couple of little things. Uh. In fact, one of 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:27.040 the things that happened since then was some various incidents 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:31.000 involving Tesla's driver assist features, which the company referred to 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.879 as autopilot, a term that I really didn't care for, 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.120