WEBVTT - Tech News: Beavers Hate the Internet 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech stuff a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.600 You see a sponsored post as your browsing Instagram, then 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.040 you go to a shopping app to buy a product 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.440 that you saw on Instagram. Well, you know that Facebook 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.200 would love to know all about that. And so numerous 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.080 app developers gather even more information about users than the 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.200 users might be aware, because that information can include stuff 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.800 outside of the developers own apps. What the A T 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.640 T function does is give users a notification about how 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.919 an app wants to access their data, including whether they 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.280 want to collect data that is generated in between different apps, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.599 and it gives users the opportunity to opt out of that. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.720 And businesses like Facebook do not like this because they 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.880 suspect and probably correct e, that most people are going 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.880 to decline to share such data. That's not fair, yells Facebook, 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:14.000 you're hurting small businesses. Ah yes, Facebook, champion of small business. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.360 All Right, I'm gonna drop the sarcasm and just say 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.839 outright that if Facebook is upset about a feature that's 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.240 meant to give users more transparency as to how their 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.000 data is being collected and used, it's not because it 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:34.919 will quote hurt small businesses end quote. It's because Facebook 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.360 profits off of user data, and any restriction to access 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:47.000 of user data represents a decrease in revenue for Facebook. Anyway, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.280 Apple isn't backing down, though. I will say a t 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.840 T was ready months ago, but Apple actually held off 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.320 implementing it in order to get developer feedback and build 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.000 in some other options that would protect user data while 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.120 still giving companies marketing data. I'm signing with Apple on 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.160 this one, and that I think giving people the option 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.280 to either be part of a data collection system or 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.720 to be excluded from it, that's a good thing for 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.239 the individual consumer. Not that I think Apple is necessarily 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.320 being angelic here, that the company is taking a stance 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.760 that I can agree with. It also seems to be 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.839 in line with previous conversations Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.240 reportedly had with one another. Uh. There's a story that 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:36.680 Zuckerberg asked Cook about his advice of what Zuckerberg should 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.040 do in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal over 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.720 at Facebook, and Cook said that Facebook should just delete 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.360 all user data that was generated by third parties, and 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:53.040 Zuckerberg totally thought that was unreasonable. Um. Again, I side 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.800 with Cook on this one, But then Apple's business is 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:02.360 fundamentally different from Facebook's business. A Taiwanese publication claims that 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.720 Apple is behind schedule with regard to testing out it's 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.440 augmented reality glasses. According to reports, those glasses look a 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.920 lot like you know, high end sunglasses, but with thicker 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:19.280 frames to house all the electronics. The lenses themselves would 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.840 act as displays and allow you to see augmented reality 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.359 views of the world around you. If Apple can get 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:30.320 this right, they could represent a truly revolutionary a R device. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.520 They could you know, step away from the dorky awkwardness 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.240 of products like Google Glass. And I say that as 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.880 someone who used to own a pair of Google Glass. 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.680 The original schedule, according to these reports, would have had 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.240 Apple in the second phase of testing at this point, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.840 but that appears to have not happened yet. I should 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.080 add all of these reports are coming from non Apple sources, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.840 and the company itself has remained pretty quiet about this 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.560 whole project. Apple would likely need to hold another phase 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.560 of testing after the second one, before going through you know, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.800 more refined testing to tweak things and get it just right, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.000 and then move toward volume production to make them at scale. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.400 The original plan, according to these various third party sources. 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.280 Was to get into volume production by the beginning of 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:23.400 twenty twenty two, but now that might not be very likely. 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.320 We might see Apple announced this project at some point 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.960 this year, but we shouldn't expect to actually get our 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.520 hands on a pair of these until mid twenty twenty 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.760 two at the earliest, and it might be significantly later 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.920 than that. Then again, it's always possible that these sources 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.520 are off and maybe we'll get one more thing by 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.400 the end of one That would be spectacular. I imagine 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.200 these things are also going to be really expensive once 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.400 they launch. And one bit of good news for Apple, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.800 the company has announced it will be opening up an 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.120 East Coast campus in North Carolina within the raw A. 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.919 Durham Research Triangle Park area. This is a part of 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.880 North Carolina that has a very high density of tech 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.880 companies doing some pretty amazing R and D in fields 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:14.320 like qualtum computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and lots of 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.560 stuff that requires people way smarter than I am. Apple 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.040 says it's going to invest more than a billion dollars 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.160 into creating this campus and that they will employ at 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.600 least three thousand people there. That's a big office Anyway, 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.400 I'm excited to see what sort of facility they create. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.000 Maybe I'll even be able to visit it one day. 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.080 I mean, North Carolina is like next door to me, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:43.080 kind of switching from Apple to fellow goliath Google. There 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.880 is a battle raging between Google and Roku, the company 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.839 that makes online video streaming devices like the Roku stick. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.240 Roku sent a message out to customers on Monday saying 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.920 that the live TV service part of YouTube TV might 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.000 be shut down on Roku and possibly removed entirely. So 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.440 why is that Moroku's saying we're not doing it? According 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.480 to Roku, Google has been engaging in some anti competitive 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.520 demands and that Google has been looking to implement practices 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.600 that would quote manipulate your search results, impact the usage 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.880 of your data, and ultimately cost you more end quote. 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.320 A Roku rep also said Google might remove consumer access 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.400 to YouTube TV on Roku because Google has been demanding 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.480 these processes and Roku has been resisting those demands. It's 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.880 all a bit vague, and as I record this, I 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.880 don't have many more details. It sounds kind of like 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.800 the next generation version of carriage disputes, and these are 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:46.960 disagreements and negotiations that happened between platforms like a cable 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.479 service provider and content providers like channels. So, like I said, 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.920 you would occasionally see this with cable TV packages. If 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.520 you've ever been a customer of a specific cable company 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.240 and you wondered why a particular channel, or maybe even 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.719 a group of channels just mysteriously vanished from your service, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.440 it's likely due to a carriage disagreement. We're seeing similar 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.240 issues now in the world of streaming, but it obviously 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.880 is taking a slightly different tack than the cable version 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:23.120 and sticking with the online entertainment world. Engagement in that 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.560 world is currency. Creators who can show that they get 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.480 great engagement numbers, can secure sponsorships, and they can make 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.720 lucrative deals. They can get contract work. Heck, drive enough 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.920 engagement and you don't have to hustle. Instead, you have 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.120 to manage the influx of collaboration and sponsorship requests, and 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.440 you get to decide who you're going to work with 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.679 and who you're not. But what happens if it turns 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.760 out that those engagement numbers of yours are based on 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.400 a lie, Well, that's not so good. And sure enough 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.240 it is a problem. Just as people would pay money 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.840 in order to get tons of followers on Twitter and 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.840 raise their online social standing, there have been those who 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.880 have been doing that on Twitch to boost viewer numbers, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.520 and recently Twitch struck back. The Amazon owned company has 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.239 banned more than seven and a half million bot accounts 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.840 that Twitch says we're contributing to fake engagement. In other words, 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.880 these were bots that exist solely for the purpose of 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.280 making Twitch streamers seem more popular than they really are. 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.280 The accounts didn't belong to real people, according to Twitch, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.320 They're all just sort of empty shells. And now Twitch 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.400 is using a machine learning process to discover fake accounts 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.320 and then banned them, cutting way back on those fake 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.160 engagement numbers. Now related to this issue are other issues 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.760 where people have used fake accounts to harass streamers, not 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.480 to boost their numbers, but to give them grief. They 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.040 might direct accounts to join a particular person stream and 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.520 then use those accounts to flood that streamer's chat with 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.200 abut and those streamers who weren't trying to boost their 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.199 own numbers, they had nothing, you know, connected to all 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.480 those bots suddenly coming on. They might have their reputations 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.439 tarnished in the process because their numbers take this huge 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.280 jump that they can't easily explain. It makes them look 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.800 like they were the ones trying to buy views. So 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:25.559 from hustlers taking shortcuts to abusers leveraging tech to intimidate 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.440 or harass other streamers, these boats are pretty lousy, and 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.080 I'm glad Twitch is making moves to get them off 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.600 the platform. Hey have you ever wanted to go to Mars? 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.679 Are you just dying to go there? Well you might 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.600 want to give Elon Musk a call. Then, the SpaceX 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.240 founder said in an interview that people going to Mars 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.439 might not come back alive and that quote a bunch 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.720 of people will probably die in the beginning end quote. 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.440 So if you're looking for a one way ticket now, 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.920 I should say that. On the one hand, I credit 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:04.200 Musk's blind honesty here. Space is incredibly dangerous. I have 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.080 said many times that space is trying to kill you, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:13.760 and Mars isn't much friendlier. The planet's atmosphere is far 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.120 too thin, with too little oxygen for people to breathe, 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.160 so you would have to wear a space suit or 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.720 otherwise be in a pressurized craft. The thin atmosphere coupled 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.840 with a lack of magneto sphere, means that Mars offers 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:32.239 no real protection against stuff like cosmic radiation, and exposure 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.400 to cosmic radiation is not great. Most proposals I've seen 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.040 for colonies on Mars include building structures underground to take 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.320 advantage of the soil's protection. Cosmic radiation is not good 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.840 at penetrating soil, so you know, put a meter or 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.640 three of ground between you and the cosmos isn't a 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.480 bad idea. We might be able to harvest water on 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.280 Mars and thus be able to both supply water and 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.360 potentially oxygen to people, as well as create rocket fuel, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.120 but there are unanswered questions as to whether we'd be 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.079 able to actually grow anything in Martian soil yet. And 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.960 the trip to Mars requires months of travel, and once 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.280 you're there, you gotta wait around two years of Earth 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.600 time before Earth and Mars are lined up so that 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.440 you can make a trip back home. That also means 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.360 you have to figure out how you're going to make 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.840 that trip back home, so you have to use a 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.240 spacecraft that can land and then take off again from Mars. 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.680 You could presumably take stuff with you to make this easier. 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.160 But obviously everything you end up taking is going to 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.560 require a much larger effort back here on Earth and 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.439 or descended to Mars in the first place. And all 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.160 of this is really theoretical right now, Obviously we haven't 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.360 sent anyone to Mars. But Musk is right, the project 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.920 of going to Mars is incredibly dangerous with really high risks. Ideally, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.239 whomever undertakes this challenge will do so with enough support 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.880 to stand a good chance of making it to Mars 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:07.280 and back again alive. Like that. That is the goal, right, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.240 You shouldn't just dismiss it. So I don't disagree with 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.840 Musk's assessment that it is incredibly dangerous. However, I do 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.600 feel the way you phrased it seems to be dismissive 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.720 of human life, which I do have a problem with. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.160 And you know what else, I have a problem with 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.040 some mammals. You see, Residents of Tumbler Bridge, British Columbia, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.400 experienced a series of Internet outages early Saturday morning this 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.040 past weekend, and the reason was pretty much exactly what 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:41.240 you would expect. Beavers. Yep, it was a beaver problem, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.600 as some of those furry critters chewed through fiber cable 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.320 at a couple of different points, severing the connection to 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.320 the Internet at large. The cable had been buried three 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.760 ft underground and it also was coated with a conduit 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.360 that was four and a half inches thick to protect it. 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.800 But that beaver, it didn't care and went to town 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.040 on that cable. It dug it up and chewed through. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.880 It turns out the beaver was upset at how Bitcoin 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.800 took a tumble last week. Just kidding, The beaver just 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.439 didn't like the way the Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.559 and it was very upset. It's gonna have to wait 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.720 weeks for Loki to come out on Disney Plus. Now 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.800 I'm still kidding. The beaver, as far as I know, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.520 has never actually been online, so this was not some 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.400 form of, you know, technological commentary. It did, however, use 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.960 some of the stuff it chewed through to be part 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.840 of its dam, so it made better use of the 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.880 Internet than a lot of us do. And finally, in 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:39.199 our news that has no relevance to Jonathan whatsoever segment 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.679 Amazon is opening up a quote high tech hair salon 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.120 end quote in London. Now, I have not had to 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.720 see a barber since nine that's the last time I 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.719 had hair. So for all I know, hair salons now 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.880 have robots and food and pill form and flying hairdressers. 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.120 But according to the BBC, this high tech sal on 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.240 will have magic mirrors. Okay, well they're not magic, but 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.720 they are mirrors that incorporate augmented reality features in them 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.000 that will allow customers to see how certain hairstyles and 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.760 colors would look on them before they commit to anything. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.280 So they'll see their reflection in the mirror, but their 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.960 hairstyle will be a digital overlay and they can figure 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.800 out which one they prefer, So a customer could sit 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.920 down in the chair and flip through different options on 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.360 the mirror to find one that suits them. And I 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.680 think that's pretty cool, and it would mean that people 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.040 like me would avoid the embarrassment that comes with agreeing 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.880 to a stylist feathering your hair when you don't happen 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.320 to know what that actually means. And it was the 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:44.520 eighties and shut up. The hair salon will also offer 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.200 various beauty products, each one coupled with a QR code, 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.080 so customers can just scan the code on their phones 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:56.240 and then purchase those beauty products. Through trumpet Please Amazon, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.360 big surprise there. The whole thing is an experi perament 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.600 that Amazon says isn't an indicator of the future. The 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.560 company says it doesn't have plans to expand this further. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.320 There are other hairdressers in London who have already expressed 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.920 criticism for Amazon's move, pointing out that the salon industry 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:19.680 as a whole was hit really hard because of the pandemic, 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.320 like lots of those places went out of business and 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.360 had no way of coming back, and people lost their livelihoods. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:32.160 And meanwhile, Amazon has been breaking in enormous amounts of 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.240 revenue all through the pandemic. It does feel a little 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:40.040 bit like the big, mega corporation is making huge moves 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.600 on smaller businesses. But you could also say that's Amazon's 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.440 corporate history from the beginning when you really break it 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:53.040 all down. And that wraps up the news for today, Tuesday, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:57.400 April twenty one. If you have suggestions for topics I 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.560 should cover on tech Stuff, let me know over on Twitter. 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.200 The handle there is text Stuff h s W and 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:12.360 I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.520 an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.240 Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.360 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.