1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 3 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 4 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:19,600 Speaker 1: Radio and I love all things tech and we are 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:25,319 Speaker 1: continuing our top tech news stories of closing out the year. 6 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: What a year it was. And one thing I feel 7 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: I should mention right off the top of this episode 8 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: which I forgot about. Well, yesterday's episode went up. You know, 9 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: all that ranting about Meta and Facebook, I forgot to 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:42,159 Speaker 1: mention the company has been voted the quote worst company 11 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: of the year end quote. Now. That's according to Yahoo Finance, 12 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,480 Speaker 1: which selects a company for this dubious honor each year 13 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: using metrics like market performance and achievements, and mostly polling 14 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: people to find out which company upset them the most 15 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: over the course of the previous twelve months. This year, 16 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: that was met h slash Facebook, though notably the investment 17 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: service Robin Hood, which we will talk more about in 18 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: just a few minutes, was also a contender. Last year 19 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: it was the Nicola Motor Company. So you know Nicola 20 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: Tesla being this very instrumental engineer in the field of electricity. 21 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:23,119 Speaker 1: Of course, the Tesla motor company takes its name from him, 22 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 1: and so does the Nicola Motor Company that's an electric 23 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: truck company. It also got some votes this year, but 24 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: it won if you can call it that worst company 25 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: of the year last year at corn Yahoo Finance. Anyway, 26 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:38,760 Speaker 1: this isn't like a scientific examination of which company is 27 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: in fact the worst. I mean, it's a pole. There's 28 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: not even that many people who respond to it from 29 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,759 Speaker 1: what I can tell. Uh. And also meta slash Facebook 30 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: was in the news a lot towards the end of 31 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: this year, so most of that news was not positive 32 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: at all. It's not a big surprise. I should also 33 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: point out that TikTok and Twitter both end up on 34 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: a lot of hated company lists. Not necessarily the yeah 35 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: who finance one, but lots of companies or lots of 36 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: outlets will organize lists like this, and TikTok and Twitter 37 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: and Facebook are frequently in that mix. All right. In 38 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:15,639 Speaker 1: our last episode we ended with my rant about n 39 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: f t s, there was a lot of ranting. Uh 40 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: spoiler alert, there'll be more ranting in this episode. Well, 41 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: since we talked about n f t S in the 42 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,760 Speaker 1: last episode, I suppose we should also talk about cryptocurrency. 43 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: While we're on the subject of block chains and such, 44 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: crypto had another roller coaster of a year, with bitcoin 45 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:38,239 Speaker 1: prices climbing rapidly and steadily into early spring, reaching around 46 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 1: sixty thou dollars per bitcoin. Then there was a big 47 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: crash in May, with the value dropping by are you know, 48 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: around fifty or so. Then there was a recovery period. 49 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 1: It got back as high as sixty three thou dollars 50 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: per bitcoin in November. Uh, as I record this, it's 51 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: closer to around fifty thou dollars per bitcoin, but that's 52 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,680 Speaker 1: as I record this. By the time you hear this, 53 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: who knows. But bitcoin continues to be a volatile investment, 54 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: and I still wouldn't call it a currency because the 55 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: value fluctuates so dramatically that it's hard to imagine using 56 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: it as a practical currency. It's far more likely to 57 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: be used as either a way to invest money and 58 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: hope that the value of the bitcoin continues to grow, or, 59 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: as we've seen in the recent past, to use it 60 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: as a means to launder ill gotten gains and hide 61 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: the fact that you've been on Santa's naughty list. This year, 62 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: we've seen proof of work cryptocurrencies take a bit of 63 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: a beating on another pr front this year, one that 64 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: revolves around conservation and climate change. It's no secret that 65 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: proof of work currencies, particularly bitcoin mining, require massive amounts 66 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: of electricity. This is tied into the value of the 67 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: currency itself. If it is hugely profitable to mine the cryptocurrency, 68 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: well then you'll find people and organizations who will pour 69 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: a ton of money into building out mining operations. And 70 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: of course, these these operations that they're using powerful computers 71 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: to play a complicated guessing games. What it really boils 72 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: down to, But one thing that's not a guess is 73 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: the amount of electricity that these machines need. It's a lot. 74 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 1: So much, in fact, that it's not unusual for bitcoin 75 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: mining operations to purchase or at least facilities that are 76 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 1: co located to power plants, including coal fired power plants, 77 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: including ones that are no longer online, and then bringing 78 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: them back online. This has brought more focus on bitcoin 79 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,839 Speaker 1: mining and its impact on consumption and climate change. China 80 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,839 Speaker 1: has shut down bitcoin mining operations in several regions, citing 81 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: concerns over the potential environmental impact of bitcoin mining. However, 82 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: I think I should add that I suspect China's government 83 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: also has a healthy concern for any ind tree that 84 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: could potentially acquire enough power to rival the government itself, 85 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: and we're seeing some governments around the world at the 86 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: country or the local level consider or even enact bands 87 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: on operations that would require bringing defunct fossil fuel power 88 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: plants back online. So we have seen some opposition in 89 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: various places. Ethereum is currently also a proof of work cryptocurrency. Uh. 90 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: It does also have a much lower value than bitcoin, 91 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: so you don't see the same massive ethereum mining operations 92 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: because the the profits aren't there. It would cost you 93 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: more to run the operation than you would make in 94 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: mind cryptocurrency. So for that reason, mining rigs for ethereum 95 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,040 Speaker 1: are a little more modest than the ones that are 96 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: used by bitcoin miners. That's more than a little bit 97 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,680 Speaker 1: of an understatement. So it's the ethereum miners who frequently 98 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: go after graphics processors for their rigs, which of course 99 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: makes it even harder for gamers to get hold of 100 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: a good GPU at a decent price. You've got the 101 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: semiconductor shortage, you've got bots buying up cards and then 102 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: trying to sell them for marked up prices on secondary markets, 103 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: and you've got Ethereum miners who are after those same cards, 104 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: but for the purposes of mining cryptocurrency. However, Ethereum is 105 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 1: supposed to switch to a proof of steak approach next year, 106 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: which has a much lower computation requirement, so we'll see 107 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: if that actually changes things. But yeah, was a year 108 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: in which crypto sword to new heights, then plummeted, then 109 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 1: rose again, then plummeted again. You get the idea, and 110 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: a lot of this was fueled by a passionate and 111 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: frankly kind of scary community in places like Reddit. Oh 112 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 1: and also Elon Musk played a part in it too. 113 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna save a lot of my Elon Musk fire 114 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 1: for the third episode in this series. I think I 115 00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: also received a request recently on Twitter to do a 116 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 1: full episode about Web three, and I'm still planning to 117 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: do that, but I should talk about the emerging discussions 118 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: of Web three, which is usually spelled out altogether, so 119 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: it's w e B, the number three no spaces that 120 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: ended up becoming a pretty big thing this year, particularly 121 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 1: on Twitter. There were some Twitter spats about Web three. 122 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: There are also some parallels here between Web three and 123 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: the metaverse, because they're both kind of this concept of 124 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: what the next phase of the Internet, or at least 125 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,760 Speaker 1: internetwork connectivity are all going to be about. And like 126 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: the metaverse, the definitions here get pretty lucy goosey because 127 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: it doesn't exist yet, so it's kind of hard to 128 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: talk about what it is because there isn't anything at 129 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: the moment, and different people have sort of a different 130 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 1: concept of what it will be if it ever does 131 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: become a thing. But generally speaking, the concept of Web three, 132 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: at least the one that most people are referring to, 133 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: is one that uses blockchain as a backbone. And you 134 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:06,160 Speaker 1: might say, okay, how and uh uh hey, look over there, 135 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: it's something shiny, okay, so well, the concept is that 136 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,240 Speaker 1: Web three will leverage blockchain in such a way that 137 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: ideally the power of the Internet will be distributed to 138 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: those who are using the Internet. In other words, it's 139 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: kind of like putting the Internet's ownership into the hands 140 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:26,920 Speaker 1: of the people. That's in contrast with how Web the 141 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:31,400 Speaker 1: three enthusiasts see the Internet today, because they see the 142 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: Internet today as an entity that is heavily dependent upon 143 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: a few major companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta and 144 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: you know, like we'll talk about stuff like the Amazon 145 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: Web Services outage that shows that a lot of what 146 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:49,679 Speaker 1: we depend upon in connectivity does route through Amazon in 147 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: some way. So this general notion is that Web three 148 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: projects are are similar to cryptocurrencies and n f t s. 149 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: There's some form of implementation that relies on the blockchain 150 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: to keep track of transactions, though what those transactions actually 151 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: are varies dramatically from implementation to implementation. However, once you 152 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:12,360 Speaker 1: get past that kind of vague description, things really start 153 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:15,160 Speaker 1: to break down. I have yet to see a compelling 154 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:20,320 Speaker 1: case explaining how blockchain will enable a new version of 155 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: the Internet, or even of just the Web, because remember 156 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,440 Speaker 1: the Web and the Internet or two different things. The 157 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,720 Speaker 1: Web exists on top of the Internet. So I haven't 158 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: really seen a compelling case for this distributed ownership model. 159 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:35,560 Speaker 1: And there are a lot of folks who are expressing 160 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: skepticism about the idea in general, including people who say 161 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,679 Speaker 1: that if Web three does become a thing, it will 162 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: be a thing that is controlled by venture capitalists rather 163 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,320 Speaker 1: than big companies. But it still means that the hoi poloi, 164 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: meaning folks like you or me will still be left 165 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: out of the loop. Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, 166 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: made this point on Twitter, saying, Hey, you know, the 167 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 1: people who will own Web three will be venture capitalists, 168 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: not the people in general, and those making Web three 169 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: applications will be doing so with their investors in mind. 170 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: So it'll be the venture capitalists who are essentially directing 171 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:21,200 Speaker 1: how Web three evolves, again without really going into details 172 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: about what Web three is going to look like. And anyway, 173 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: that whole criticism is not making Web three evangelists very happy. 174 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,440 Speaker 1: So I'm gonna save a deeper conversation about this topic 175 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,760 Speaker 1: for a full episode further down the line, because honestly, 176 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,880 Speaker 1: it would take me hours of research to really dive 177 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: into it and separate the buzz terms from anything with 178 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,200 Speaker 1: you know, actual substance to it, Because every time I 179 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: read anything about Web three, I feel like I'm reading 180 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:52,920 Speaker 1: ad copy for a product that doesn't exist yet, and 181 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,680 Speaker 1: that's not really useful. But since we're talking about tech 182 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,640 Speaker 1: and money, let's chat about something that unfolded early this 183 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,080 Speaker 1: year that involved both, and it all has to do 184 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: with Game Stop and stock prices. Alright, So game Stop 185 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: is a video game retail company. They sell video games 186 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,880 Speaker 1: and video game systems. Early in two thousand twenty one, 187 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: there was a move to short sell Game Stop stock 188 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:22,000 Speaker 1: among certain hedge funds. So a short sell is when 189 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: you borrow a bunch of shares of a company from 190 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 1: another stockholder. You don't known these shares, you're borrowing them, 191 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: and you're promising that you will return that same number 192 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:37,520 Speaker 1: of shares to the stockholder at some agreed upon time. 193 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:42,600 Speaker 1: Then you take the shares you borrowed and you sell them. 194 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:44,679 Speaker 1: You know, the ones that you do not own. You 195 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: sell them and you take the money, and your goal 196 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: is to buy back the shares you just sold, but 197 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: at a lower price, and you pocket the difference. So 198 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:56,320 Speaker 1: what you're hoping for is for the stock price to 199 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: come down. You're hoping that a company hits hard time 200 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,199 Speaker 1: send their stock price reflects that. So you might sell 201 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,200 Speaker 1: a bunch of shares at around twenty dollars a pop, 202 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:09,199 Speaker 1: and then your plan is to buy back those shares 203 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:12,440 Speaker 1: when they reach five dollars a pop, and you pocket 204 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:16,440 Speaker 1: the fifteen dollars difference per per share. More or less, 205 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:18,319 Speaker 1: it gets a little more complicated than that, but that's 206 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:21,040 Speaker 1: the basic idea, and then you return the shares to 207 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:25,080 Speaker 1: the stockholder, you keep what's left over. Everyone's happy, while 208 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: the stockholder is probably not happy because their shares are 209 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: worth less now, but hopefully they're in it for the 210 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: long term because they believe in the company or some nonsense. Now, 211 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 1: if the price of the stock goes up instead of down, well, 212 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: you then have to spend more money to purchase the 213 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:45,440 Speaker 1: shares back then you made when you sold the shares 214 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: in the first place, because you still have the obligation 215 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:52,720 Speaker 1: to return those shares to the original holder, like you 216 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:55,600 Speaker 1: can't just walk away. So then you get a bunch 217 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,080 Speaker 1: of folks online who decided to do something called a 218 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: short squeeze. Is on some hedge funds that we're planning 219 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:06,800 Speaker 1: to short sell the game Stop stock. So what these 220 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,200 Speaker 1: folks did was they just started buying up shares of 221 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:14,520 Speaker 1: game Stop, like lots of shares, and that activity drove 222 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,080 Speaker 1: up the stock price because there was a demand for 223 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:20,319 Speaker 1: game Stop stock, so the price went up. Demand is high, 224 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: price increases, and that meant that these hedge funds were 225 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 1: suddenly faced with the very real possibility of having to 226 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: pay more money to buy back those shares that they 227 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: had borrowed than they had on hand to cover the 228 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 1: short cells. And it was a kind of activism mixed 229 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: with speculation because as the price was going up, it 230 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:44,120 Speaker 1: also meant that the stock that people were holding was 231 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: growing in value, that the stuff they owned was actually 232 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 1: getting more valuable, and their wealth was increasing. In fact, 233 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: it was increasing significantly. And you might wonder how significantly well. 234 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,960 Speaker 1: The stock price had been at around seventeen dollars per 235 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,959 Speaker 1: share before the squeeze really got moving. At the height, 236 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,920 Speaker 1: it was closer to five hundred dollars per share. So 237 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,520 Speaker 1: imagine you bought something for seventeen bucks and then you 238 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,600 Speaker 1: could sell it for five hundred bucks. So there were 239 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:15,240 Speaker 1: a lot of people who are jumping on board this 240 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,959 Speaker 1: not because they were trying to push against hedge funds, 241 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:22,360 Speaker 1: not because they were like trying to take down the 242 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:27,640 Speaker 1: the These these groups that were, you know, boasting memberships 243 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:30,200 Speaker 1: of incredibly wealthy people, and to stick it to the man, 244 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000 Speaker 1: they were joining because they saw this as a way 245 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: to get rich quick. So there was a mixture of 246 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: both of these kinds of people. Now, this peak wasn't 247 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 1: to last. It did settle down a bit. But even 248 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: as I record. This the stock prices valued at around 249 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 1: a hundred fifty dollars per share, so not quite ten 250 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: times what it was valued at before the squeeze. This 251 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,520 Speaker 1: also did force a few hedge funds to shut down, 252 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:57,400 Speaker 1: and it also brought to lights and disparities in the 253 00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: individual investor world. So the investment service robin Hood that 254 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,600 Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, it made headlines because it began to 255 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: deny robin Hood users the opportunity to purchase game Stop stock. 256 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: Like that's what robin Hood exists for, is for the 257 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,480 Speaker 1: individual person to participate in the stock market. Because the 258 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: individual typically if they have any involvement in the stock 259 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 1: market at all, it's because they happen to have something 260 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,680 Speaker 1: like a four oh one K plan where some fund 261 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:32,720 Speaker 1: manager is deciding, you know, what moneys go to what stocks. 262 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: This is a case where the individual person can say, no, 263 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: I want to buy fifty shares of game Stop stock 264 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: for example. Well, robin Hood's stopped that. They stopped letting 265 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: people do that on their service, and they cited a 266 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: desire to not contribute to an unstable market environment, which 267 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: is pretty rich when you consider robin Hood's namesake, right, 268 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 1: I mean, like the Robin Hood, the legendary figure, was 269 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: all about creating an unstable market environment. Anyway. This prompted 270 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,040 Speaker 1: folks to draw connections between Robin Hood and people who 271 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:11,760 Speaker 1: were involved in hedge funds who had participated in the 272 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: short selling, and some people started claiming that Robin Hood 273 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: was trying to mitigate the effects of the short squeeze 274 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: because they had financial interests in those, you know, folks 275 00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: that were higher up in the food chain of various 276 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: hedge funds. In other words, they were saying, you're not 277 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: really for the people, you're for other big companies. The 278 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,640 Speaker 1: whole game stop saga prompted a lot of folks to 279 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: get into individual investors stuff when they had never really 280 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: dipped their toes into it before, and several sub credits 281 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: saw their ranks swell due to this interest, and a 282 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,360 Speaker 1: lot of folks came out at the subject from all 283 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: different angles, a lot of them uninformed angles. You could 284 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: almost taste the frustration of the more seasoned investors in 285 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:58,960 Speaker 1: those groups as folks totally new to the field began 286 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: delving out their expert advice. You know, people who had 287 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: been investing for all of like two weeks were suddenly 288 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:09,560 Speaker 1: experts anyway. In many respects, this whole thing was part 289 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:12,400 Speaker 1: of a larger, more vague trend of people finding ways 290 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:16,399 Speaker 1: to push back against big corporate and financial entities. And 291 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: we'll talk about that more after we come back from 292 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: this quick break. So another kind of expression of this 293 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: anti corporate sentiment, and I don't mean that in a 294 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: bad way. I mean this, this feeling of I've taken 295 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:44,199 Speaker 1: all I can take and I won't take anymore. Was 296 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 1: this general trend of workers organizing and unionizing. Here in 297 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,199 Speaker 1: the United States, we're seeing support for the concept of 298 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:57,720 Speaker 1: unions grow, but the pandemic really pushed folks to move 299 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:02,360 Speaker 1: at a faster rate. Workers get to demand more from employers, 300 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,160 Speaker 1: and uh employers began complaining about stuff like labor shortages. 301 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,119 Speaker 1: They were saying, we can't we don't have enough people 302 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,199 Speaker 1: to do the work we need to do, and the 303 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:15,639 Speaker 1: workers were saying, well, there's no surprise there, you know, 304 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,879 Speaker 1: look at the compensation you're offering people, look at the 305 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: working conditions that people have to endure. It's no wonder 306 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: that you aren't able to attract and retain employees. You've 307 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:31,200 Speaker 1: got to offer more to them. And companies were like yeah, 308 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 1: that doesn't sound right. And then workers at lots of 309 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:40,360 Speaker 1: places said, okay, well, we're all going to band together 310 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:42,719 Speaker 1: and create a union so that we have the leverage 311 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,600 Speaker 1: to force you into negotiations for better conditions or else 312 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,360 Speaker 1: you don't have anyone to do your work for you, 313 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,879 Speaker 1: and where will that put you. So we saw unions 314 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: go on strike at Freedo, Lay, at Kellogg's, John Dear, Nabisco, 315 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: and more. And while John Dear is the only company 316 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: in that short list I gave that is most related 317 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:05,240 Speaker 1: to tech, at least as the way we think of it. 318 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:07,960 Speaker 1: I mean, all of these companies rely on tech obviously, 319 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,520 Speaker 1: but John Deere is a company that makes technological products. 320 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,080 Speaker 1: But the sentiment spread much further than just those companies. 321 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,320 Speaker 1: Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama rallied to unionize, 322 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 1: and they held a vote on the matter, but that 323 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 1: vote famously failed. In fact, it failed it like a 324 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,160 Speaker 1: two to one ratio. However, in the process of that, 325 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:35,439 Speaker 1: workers were alleging that Amazon had engaged in anti union 326 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,639 Speaker 1: practices and was actively trying to discourage employees from supporting 327 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 1: a union. This was enough to prompt the US Labor 328 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: Board to order a revote, which has not yet happened, 329 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,119 Speaker 1: but should in the not too distant future. On a 330 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: similar note, Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, 331 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:59,400 Speaker 1: filed a union petition earlier in then withdrew the petition, 332 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 1: and and this month chose to refile that petition. They 333 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: also staged a walk out during the holiday rush, placing 334 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:10,399 Speaker 1: enormous pressure on Amazon to respond before customers started losing 335 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,600 Speaker 1: their ding dang minds that their Christmas presents We're gonna 336 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:18,720 Speaker 1: arrive late. The message is clear. Workers around the US 337 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,560 Speaker 1: are starting to demand better working conditions and better compensation. 338 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,920 Speaker 1: Many of the industries involved are ones that required people 339 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:30,120 Speaker 1: to come into situations that are dangerous even when there 340 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: isn't a pandemic going on. Amazon fulfillment centers are notoriously hazardous, 341 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 1: for example. And we've also seen these kind of movements 342 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:45,359 Speaker 1: among hospital staff as hospitals get consistently overwhelmed and the 343 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 1: staff are demanding better conditions because they're under extreme circumstances 344 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:54,520 Speaker 1: for an extended period of time due to lots of 345 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: other factors that go well beyond the scope of this podcast. 346 00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: So don't worry. I'm not gonna rant about all that 347 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:05,000 Speaker 1: generally speaking, unionization has been on the decline in the 348 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,840 Speaker 1: United States until fairly recently, but we're seeing the movement 349 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: spread across multiple industries, including the tech world. In fact, 350 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 1: will tackle a really notable case in just a moment. 351 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: But uh, I should also add for full transparency that 352 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:23,120 Speaker 1: the I Heart Media podcasters also submitted a petition to unionize, 353 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: which passed a vote the podcasters past that now that 354 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: process is still ongoing, and considering my position, I can't 355 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:35,399 Speaker 1: really comment on it any further than that, but I 356 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,640 Speaker 1: wanted to at least acknowledge that it is a thing 357 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:42,600 Speaker 1: that is happening. All right. Now, let's tackle another really 358 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: big story in tech that unfolded throughout twenty one, the 359 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: story of Activision Blizzard. Now, this is such a big 360 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 1: and nasty story that's gonna take up essentially a third 361 00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: of this whole episode, and it plays into a lot 362 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,200 Speaker 1: of other trends in tech that we saw over the year, 363 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 1: such as the continuation of the Me too movement as 364 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,000 Speaker 1: a movement in which people are coming forward with allegations 365 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:09,600 Speaker 1: of like hostile work environments and sexual harassment and worse. 366 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: And it also ties into the labor organizing movement that 367 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: I touched on just a second ago. So let's dial back, 368 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: and let's go back to July twenty one. That's the 369 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,720 Speaker 1: date when the world at large got a glimpse into 370 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,959 Speaker 1: what the heck was happening over an Activision Blizzard. That 371 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: was when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing 372 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 1: or d f e H, filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, 373 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,400 Speaker 1: the video game company. So, in case you're not familiar 374 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:45,679 Speaker 1: with Activision Blizzard, it is a truly enormous company that 375 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:49,720 Speaker 1: has its roots way back in the Atari days. Activision 376 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,919 Speaker 1: originally formed with a group of Atari programmers left Atari 377 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: and found their own game company. The company is known 378 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 1: for a lot of ultra popular titles like Call of Duty, 379 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:07,840 Speaker 1: World of Warcraft, Diablo Overwatch, and dozens of others. Well, 380 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,800 Speaker 1: the lawsuit had some really ugly accusations in it, which 381 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: have been expanded upon quite a bit since then. They 382 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: included instances of discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile work environments, sexual 383 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: assault in some cases, and more. There are also charges 384 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,320 Speaker 1: that the company had very few women in leadership positions 385 00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:33,840 Speaker 1: and many women were subjected to unwanted advances from male coworkers. Further, 386 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,720 Speaker 1: the accusations said that the company's HR department had categorically 387 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:42,440 Speaker 1: failed to respond to complaints, furthering the idea that the 388 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 1: company's HR department isn't really there to protect employees, it's 389 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: there to protect the company. And that's a narrative that 390 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,640 Speaker 1: I wish I could say is unrealistic, but based upon 391 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:55,960 Speaker 1: a lot of similar stories in the business world in 392 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,879 Speaker 1: general and the tech world in particular, that's a hard 393 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:06,119 Speaker 1: narrative to refute. The complaints specifically called out Alex Afrasiab, 394 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: who had previously led the World of Warcraft creative department, 395 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,280 Speaker 1: stating that Afrasiab had engaged in quote blatant sexual harassment 396 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:19,239 Speaker 1: with little to no repercussions end quote. Now by that 397 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,960 Speaker 1: point he had already left the company, but this was 398 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,720 Speaker 1: sort of the reckoning of of his actions, and the 399 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,360 Speaker 1: next day, on Tuesday, July one, the press ran stories 400 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,680 Speaker 1: about this lawsuit. Activision. Blizzard Reps kind of went into 401 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: a damage control mode, claiming that the allegations that were 402 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:42,199 Speaker 1: being spread were not accurate and quote distorted and in 403 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: many cases false descriptions of blizzards past end quote. Then 404 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:52,720 Speaker 1: came a collection of contradictory reports about internal communications. Some 405 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: executives at activision Blizzard appeared decide with the people who 406 00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:01,320 Speaker 1: brought forward the complaints. They were essentially saying, that is awful, 407 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,679 Speaker 1: it is inexcusable, and it's something that must absolutely stop. 408 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 1: Then there were others who were denying that this was 409 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,640 Speaker 1: a problem in the first place, like, no, that never happened, 410 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 1: and you're wrong. In the public sphere, you had folks 411 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,840 Speaker 1: sharing video clips of a panel that happened at a 412 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: ten blizz Con event. Blizz Con is an annual conference 413 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,560 Speaker 1: that Blizzard held to promote games and build a community 414 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: of users and that kind of thing. The video clip 415 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: showed Blizzard executives ridiculing a request from one woman. She 416 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: took the mic and said, is there any way that 417 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:40,040 Speaker 1: future World of Warcraft female characters could be presented in 418 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: a way that was less sexualized? And the people started 419 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: joking about that as a response, it was not, as 420 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:52,399 Speaker 1: they say, a good look. Things escalated. Employees planned a 421 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: walkout and they issued demands to management. One of the 422 00:25:55,880 --> 00:26:01,040 Speaker 1: big ones was to end mandatory arbitration clauses and layee contracts. 423 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:04,639 Speaker 1: All Right, so this particular practice, which is pretty darned 424 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:08,679 Speaker 1: disgusting is one in which a company requires employees to 425 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:13,679 Speaker 1: sign an agreement UH that says if they ever have 426 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: a complaint against the company, they must first go through 427 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 1: internal channels before doing anything else. The employee is not 428 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: to go public with a complaint, nor are they to 429 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,600 Speaker 1: seek legal action against the company without first going through 430 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,440 Speaker 1: this internal process. So again, this is a damage control 431 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,320 Speaker 1: practice that tries to eliminate an employee's options to seek 432 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:40,200 Speaker 1: out any kind of external help for an internal problem. 433 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,440 Speaker 1: And as employees have frequently pointed out, this is an 434 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:48,120 Speaker 1: issue because if the system is rotten, then there's not 435 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,080 Speaker 1: like you have any hope that you're going to find 436 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,119 Speaker 1: a solution within that system. Right. If the system is 437 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: broken and it's favored for you know, keeping the status quo, 438 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 1: then going within the system them is going to be fruitless. 439 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,960 Speaker 1: So if the HR department frequently fails to act or 440 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,479 Speaker 1: to protect folks who are at the center of these complaints, uh, well, 441 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,760 Speaker 1: the employees remain the ones who are hurt and the 442 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: people who were the bad actors frequently they were people 443 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,919 Speaker 1: in positions of power, and the the tendency was to 444 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: protect the people in positions of power. After all, this 445 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: is a company that's making bookoos of money. And if 446 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,840 Speaker 1: the thought is, well, yeah, they're awful human beings, but 447 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,720 Speaker 1: look at how much cash they're making us, then there 448 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 1: was this tendency to protect them. The workers also demanded 449 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 1: greater efforts to create a diversified workforce, to publish compensation 450 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,680 Speaker 1: and promotion rates in an act of transparency, essentially to say, hey, 451 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,920 Speaker 1: I want to know how much my co workers make 452 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: because I want to know that we're being compensated fairly. Uh, 453 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,040 Speaker 1: and a lot of other similar demands along those lines. 454 00:27:55,600 --> 00:28:00,960 Speaker 1: The employees staged the walkout on July one. Game developers 455 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,360 Speaker 1: with other studios contributed their support with messages of solidarity. 456 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,360 Speaker 1: Saw a lot of that on Twitter, and that same day, 457 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,840 Speaker 1: Kotaku published a story about a room the blizz Con 458 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: staff would set up at their annual blizz Con uh 459 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 1: and the room had the nickname the Cosby Suite. The 460 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 1: purpose of the room, according to the jokes quote unquote, 461 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,720 Speaker 1: was to be a place where hot chicks would be 462 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 1: brought in their words, not mine, presumably for the male 463 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,040 Speaker 1: Blizzard staff to have someone to harass. Again, not a 464 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:37,400 Speaker 1: good look, now, Folks who were involved with Blizzard during 465 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: these days. Later on said what these rooms really were 466 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,640 Speaker 1: were just break rooms. They were like a green room 467 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 1: for people to rest between events, and that the whole 468 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: hot chicks thing was just a joke, it wasn't actually reality. However, 469 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 1: even if it's just a quote unquote joke, it does 470 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,959 Speaker 1: indicate a pretty pervasive sexist culture at the company. Again, 471 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: not a good look. The bad news was just beginning though, 472 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 1: with more people coming forward with truly awful allegations about 473 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:08,360 Speaker 1: the culture at the company. And I'm not going to 474 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: repeat all those stories because there are, first of all, 475 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: too many of them, and they also get super upsetting, 476 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: but I will say that the picture being painted was 477 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: one of a truly hostile and terrible work culture if 478 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: you happen to be, you know, a woman. Then we 479 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: started seeing some high level executives and creators exit Activision Blizzard, 480 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,640 Speaker 1: including the head of HR. The president of the Blizzard 481 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: division left and was replaced by two co head creators, 482 00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 1: so you you got rid of the one president and 483 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: then two people stepped in to fill that role. And 484 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: then some of the creative directors on some of Blizzards 485 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 1: big titles also left. One of those people, Jesse McCree 486 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: was the inspiration for the name of an Overwatched character 487 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:57,440 Speaker 1: who was previously called McCree. I say previously because the 488 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: company subsequently renamed McCree to Cole cassidy Activision. Blizzard then 489 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 1: committed to no longer naming characters or items in games 490 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: after real world people, and the company was also in 491 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,240 Speaker 1: the process of scrubbing references to alphre Siabi, which was 492 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,400 Speaker 1: that was in tons of other games, so they were 493 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: already in that that uh stage of trying to wipe 494 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: out those those markers. We also saw some corporate partnerships 495 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: appear to end. For example, T mobile branding that had 496 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:32,520 Speaker 1: been part of games like Overwatch mysteriously vanished. Uh. The 497 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,960 Speaker 1: company hired on a law firm called Wilmer Hale, which 498 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,440 Speaker 1: had a reputation that, you know, companies that want to 499 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: discourage employees from organizing will get the services of this 500 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,040 Speaker 1: particular law firm. So, in other words, like the workers 501 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: were saying, Hey, the law firm you hired on, they 502 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: have a reputation for trying to stop people from unionizing. 503 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: That didn't go over well either. In September, employees partnered 504 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,719 Speaker 1: with the Communication Workers of America to file a separate 505 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,160 Speaker 1: lawsuit against the company, this one about conditions that restricted 506 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,400 Speaker 1: employees rights to talk about stuff like hours and working conditions, 507 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,720 Speaker 1: as well as wages. A couple of days later, the 508 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: U S Security is an Exchange Commission or SEC, opened 509 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: an investigation into Activision Blizzard regarding the sexual harassment and 510 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: discrimination complaints. Things would continue to get worse, even as 511 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: the company publicly committed to making substantive changes to the 512 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:32,600 Speaker 1: culture and policies. For one, Jen O'Neill, who was one 513 00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: of the co heads of Blizzard, who was named after 514 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: the president of Blizzard had departed the company, she resigned. 515 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 1: She had only been the position for a couple of 516 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:45,440 Speaker 1: months at that time, and she revealed that she had 517 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,080 Speaker 1: received a lower compensation package than the other co head 518 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:51,840 Speaker 1: of Blizzard. So the two people, these two people had 519 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,680 Speaker 1: the same job, same responsibilities, right, they are co leaders 520 00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:59,480 Speaker 1: of a major division within the company, And she said, 521 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,480 Speaker 1: found that he's making more than i am, which makes 522 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,000 Speaker 1: no sense. I mean, we're doing the same job. And 523 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: of course the other co head happens to be male. 524 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 1: She also said that she had been the victim of 525 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: sexual harassment at the company as well. Another terrible terrible 526 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:20,640 Speaker 1: incident of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard. All right, we're 527 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,480 Speaker 1: gonna have more to say about that story, but first 528 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:25,720 Speaker 1: I need to take a breath, so let's take a 529 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 1: quick break. All right, we're back, and we're talking about 530 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:41,240 Speaker 1: Activision Blizzards terrible year. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 531 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,040 Speaker 1: or e o C reached a settlement with Activision Blizzard 532 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,320 Speaker 1: in September overall lawsuit about the sexual harassment claims at 533 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:52,600 Speaker 1: the company. That settlement would require Activision to establish an 534 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: eighteen million dollar fund to compensate employees who are claiming 535 00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 1: damages against the company. Now, the state of California's Department 536 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 1: of Fair Employment and Housing, which you remember, that was 537 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:08,360 Speaker 1: the department that filed the initial lawsuit in July that 538 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: started off this whole public pr disaster for the company, 539 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: They attempted to intervene here. They said that, you know, 540 00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:22,240 Speaker 1: the settlement could hurt other lawsuits and potentially allow Activision 541 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,480 Speaker 1: Blizzard the chance to destroy some valuable evidence. But a 542 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:30,400 Speaker 1: judge overruled their objection and a formal ruling on the 543 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,520 Speaker 1: decree will wait until January. And some people are expecting 544 00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:39,920 Speaker 1: that eighteen million dollar fund to grow significantly. On November six, 545 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: employees staged another walkout following an expose published by The 546 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal. In that piece, the Wall Street Journal 547 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,920 Speaker 1: shared a story in which CEO Bobby Kodick, who had 548 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:56,120 Speaker 1: so far more or less been expressing support for workers 549 00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:00,240 Speaker 1: and and committing to making changes at the company, well. 550 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,000 Speaker 1: According to this expose, he allegedly made a death threat 551 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,440 Speaker 1: to his assistant, and there was another incident in which 552 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:13,760 Speaker 1: he personally intervened during a sexual harassment investigation inside the company. 553 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,440 Speaker 1: The employees then demanded co tex resignation as CEO. Now, 554 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: as of this recording, he's still the CEO of Activision Blizzard, 555 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,320 Speaker 1: but calls for his resignation continue, and he has reportedly 556 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,600 Speaker 1: said to colleagues that should the problems that the company 557 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,520 Speaker 1: not be something that can be fixed quickly, he might 558 00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:35,360 Speaker 1: consider leaving. Then in early December, there was a third 559 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: walkout at Activision Blizzard. This one came in response to 560 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,640 Speaker 1: Raven Software. That's a company that's another part of Activision Blizzard. 561 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,239 Speaker 1: It was one that was acquired by Activision Blizzard not 562 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:50,840 Speaker 1: too long ago, and recently the company laid off twelve 563 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:56,320 Speaker 1: quality assurance contractors and that first compelled sixty raven Software 564 00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:58,960 Speaker 1: employees to hold a work stoppage, which as far as 565 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,800 Speaker 1: I know, is still going on right now. And then 566 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:05,239 Speaker 1: that spread to other departments with an Activision Blizzard, and 567 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,319 Speaker 1: it points to this growing anger of employees who are 568 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: really taking a stand against their employer. So this goes 569 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,400 Speaker 1: beyond the hostile work environment stuff. This is getting into 570 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:20,279 Speaker 1: solidarity territory. Other components of the story include the fact 571 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:23,839 Speaker 1: that the Game Awards, which is an industry awards event 572 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:25,839 Speaker 1: that pretty much does what you would expect it to do, 573 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 1: they announced that they would not highlight Activision Blizzard in 574 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,240 Speaker 1: any way outside of the nominations that the company's games 575 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 1: had already received. This was significant because, and if you've 576 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,279 Speaker 1: ever watched a Game Awards presentation you know this. The 577 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,360 Speaker 1: event is frequently one where gamers will see trailers of 578 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,959 Speaker 1: upcoming titles for the first time. But this meant that 579 00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 1: there would be no promotional material for upcoming Activision Blizzard 580 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:56,640 Speaker 1: titles like Overwatched two or Diablow, for pretty big blow 581 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 1: on the marketing front for Activision Blizzard. Now, the reason 582 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,600 Speaker 1: I dedicated essentially a third of this whole episode just 583 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:08,040 Speaker 1: to this topic was the stuff that's happened at Activision 584 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,480 Speaker 1: Blizzard is really just a microcosm for stuff that's going 585 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,720 Speaker 1: on throughout the tech industry and really with throughout business 586 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 1: in general. We're seeing a growing worker movement at different places, 587 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,279 Speaker 1: including companies like Apple. Uh the Apple too movement is 588 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,400 Speaker 1: still fairly young, but it involves people coming forward to 589 00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: protest work culture and conditions at the notorious secretive company. So, 590 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,960 Speaker 1: you know, usually Apple keeps everything buttoned up. That's kind 591 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,080 Speaker 1: of their work culture, and for years that was the 592 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,000 Speaker 1: way it worked. And now we have Apple employees coming 593 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,239 Speaker 1: forward and saying no, like, the only thing that the 594 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,920 Speaker 1: only person this benefits are the only entity this benefits 595 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,200 Speaker 1: is Apple. It does not benefit the employees. And so 596 00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:53,920 Speaker 1: they started speaking out and they formed websites to share 597 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:58,200 Speaker 1: stories about issues with work culture and demands that the 598 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:02,400 Speaker 1: company change things. And the Activision Blizzard story follows similar 599 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,440 Speaker 1: things we heard last year about a totally different game company, 600 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:09,319 Speaker 1: Ubi Soft, which has also had its share of scandals 601 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,680 Speaker 1: and awful revelations. Also, there's been some criticism about Ubisoft 602 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,840 Speaker 1: this year, with people saying that even in the wake 603 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,239 Speaker 1: of all those terrible things that came to light last year, 604 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:22,920 Speaker 1: the company has not done enough to address the problems, 605 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: and just to be clear, while stories like Activision, Blizzard 606 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 1: and Ubi Soft and Apple bring a lot of attention 607 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,959 Speaker 1: to specific cases, the underlying message here is that there's 608 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,719 Speaker 1: a lot more of this kind of toxic and harmful 609 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,880 Speaker 1: stuff going on that isn't making headlines. I have no 610 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,680 Speaker 1: doubt that there are those among you listening to the 611 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,440 Speaker 1: show right now who have experienced something akin to what 612 00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: I've described in this section at some company or another, 613 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:53,919 Speaker 1: and I expect we're going to see more stories from 614 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,720 Speaker 1: more employees at more companies about similar issues moving forward. 615 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,920 Speaker 1: My hope is that will actually you make moves to 616 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: address those problems and make workplaces a fair, equitable environment 617 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,640 Speaker 1: where people won't have to fear harassment and where corporate 618 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:16,320 Speaker 1: responses to such behavior are swift and just. Okay, let's 619 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:20,040 Speaker 1: move on from that now. In our episode yesterday, I 620 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,080 Speaker 1: talked about how various governments around the world are looking 621 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 1: at meta slash Facebook and considering the possibility of making 622 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: the company divest itself of properties like Instagram and WhatsApp. 623 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 1: In other words, the whole breakup Facebook movement. I also 624 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,840 Speaker 1: want to add that other companies are also falling under 625 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,920 Speaker 1: similar scrutiny, though in all cases very little action has 626 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: actually followed that scrutiny. But Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, 627 00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,560 Speaker 1: the other members of the Big five in tech, have 628 00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,760 Speaker 1: also served as a launch point for discussions about anti 629 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:58,040 Speaker 1: competitive practices, market domination, and a possible need to break 630 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,719 Speaker 1: up those companies into smaller entity ease. And while there's 631 00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,160 Speaker 1: been a big pr war waged in the press about 632 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,360 Speaker 1: this kind of thing, and we've heard politicians deliver rhetoric 633 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:10,960 Speaker 1: about how these companies hold far too much power in 634 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,680 Speaker 1: their various markets, as I've said, we've seen precious little 635 00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:18,640 Speaker 1: actual movement on those issues. I suspect we may hear 636 00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:22,000 Speaker 1: more about this next year, but honestly, at this point, 637 00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: at least here in the United States, I would be 638 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,359 Speaker 1: shocked to see any real progress being made on it. 639 00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:29,279 Speaker 1: Because there are a lot of other issues, many of 640 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:33,200 Speaker 1: which pertain to the infrastructure of democracy itself, that I 641 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,359 Speaker 1: suspect will take precedence over the need to curtail tech 642 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:41,920 Speaker 1: companies and their increasing hold over their various industries. Okay, 643 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: let's talk about some big fails in the tech space. 644 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:49,840 Speaker 1: In one, like literal fails, we saw a few major 645 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 1: outages across the Internet this past year. In June, a 646 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: cloud computing services provider called Fastly experienced what we in 647 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:04,360 Speaker 1: the tech biz like to refer to as a massive oopsie. See. 648 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:09,880 Speaker 1: Fastly service mostly involves having edge computing servers that store 649 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,800 Speaker 1: information on behalf of major sites so that when someone 650 00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:17,080 Speaker 1: calls up info from one of those major sites, it 651 00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:21,319 Speaker 1: gets that person more quickly. So let's say I'm in 652 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:25,880 Speaker 1: Spain and I want to pull up information that technically 653 00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:30,319 Speaker 1: calls a server in California in the United States home. Well, 654 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: that's probably gonna mean a longer load time, right like 655 00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,440 Speaker 1: that that has to travel all the way across the 656 00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,800 Speaker 1: Atlantic Ocean to California and across the United States to 657 00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:43,319 Speaker 1: to California, and longer load times are not great from 658 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:48,000 Speaker 1: a user experienced perspective. So Fastly is a service that 659 00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,120 Speaker 1: prides a way to store information on servers that are 660 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:55,120 Speaker 1: closer to the end user and thus reduced load times. 661 00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:59,120 Speaker 1: So this in that case, a fast Le server in 662 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:01,760 Speaker 1: Spain would hold copies of the information that I wanted 663 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:04,879 Speaker 1: to pull from the service in California, and it would 664 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,640 Speaker 1: just come from the server in Spain instead. It would 665 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,480 Speaker 1: look just as it would if it were coming from California, 666 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,440 Speaker 1: but it's faster that way, so Fastly is kind of 667 00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:16,040 Speaker 1: a way to I guess you could call it a 668 00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,319 Speaker 1: way to reduce buffering times if you want to think 669 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:22,920 Speaker 1: of it that way. Well, a month before the actual 670 00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:24,960 Speaker 1: old Age, so this would be May for those of 671 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,080 Speaker 1: you not paying attention, Fastly pushed out a software deployment 672 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:33,200 Speaker 1: and within this deployment was a little bitty software bug. 673 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:38,360 Speaker 1: And under most circumstances, nothing would actually happen with that bug. 674 00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:41,439 Speaker 1: It was just there, but it was inert. However, under 675 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:45,600 Speaker 1: the right situations, the bug would cause a massive shutdown 676 00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:49,360 Speaker 1: of the Fastly network. And in June, that's what happened. 677 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:54,600 Speaker 1: A customer mercifully unnamed, accidentally triggered this bug. Not really 678 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,840 Speaker 1: the customer's fault, it was a bug. So what followed 679 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,200 Speaker 1: was a massive outage of Fastly and affected dozens of 680 00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 1: websites and services, including major ones like the BBC, The 681 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:09,480 Speaker 1: New York Times, CNN, Amazon. You try to go to 682 00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:11,120 Speaker 1: those sites and you would get a five oh three 683 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:14,399 Speaker 1: error and you're wondering what the heck is going on. Now. 684 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,120 Speaker 1: It did get fixed, not you know, it didn't take 685 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,080 Speaker 1: too long to do, but it was one of those 686 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:24,360 Speaker 1: big things that affected lots of different sites. In October, 687 00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:27,880 Speaker 1: Facebook had its own massive outage. Meta would later say 688 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:32,600 Speaker 1: that this was a faulty configuration and it just brought 689 00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:37,359 Speaker 1: Facebook services down for several hours, like Facebook, Instagram, Watsap, etcetera. 690 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,919 Speaker 1: And as you can imagine, activity on other platforms those 691 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:44,760 Speaker 1: not owned by Meta anyway exploded, with lots of folks 692 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,040 Speaker 1: talking about how they were suddenly freed up to do 693 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:50,719 Speaker 1: other stuff like spend that time on other platforms. I 694 00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:54,400 Speaker 1: guess Google also had a massive outage back in April 695 00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,760 Speaker 1: that brought many of its services down, like Google Drive 696 00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,480 Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. It's actually amazing that knowledge 697 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,440 Speaker 1: wasn't noticed by yours, truly, because I depend on a 698 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:07,040 Speaker 1: lot on Google services. But then again, I also create 699 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:10,400 Speaker 1: tech stuff episodes using Office three sixty five software, so 700 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,360 Speaker 1: maybe I was actually, you know, working buckling down on 701 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,600 Speaker 1: a tech stuff episode when the outage happened. And of 702 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:20,600 Speaker 1: course there was the massive Amazon Web Services outage caused 703 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,960 Speaker 1: by a configuration problem in their network, and that one 704 00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:28,000 Speaker 1: fouled up everything from real world package deliveries from Amazon 705 00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:33,520 Speaker 1: to interfering with services like Netflix. It also impacted tons 706 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:37,120 Speaker 1: of apps that depend upon Amazon Web services, including apps 707 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:41,320 Speaker 1: tied to stuff like home automation systems. That particular outage 708 00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:45,960 Speaker 1: really illustrated how much we now depend upon the cloud 709 00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:50,839 Speaker 1: in order to get stuff done. All right, I'm gonna 710 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:54,560 Speaker 1: wrap this episode up because I still have other stories 711 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,919 Speaker 1: to cover for one more episode and um and I'm 712 00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:00,799 Speaker 1: tired of being angry and and next stuff. Y'all is 713 00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,400 Speaker 1: my thoughts on Tesla. So you know, I'm gonna be 714 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:06,160 Speaker 1: angry again, but I'm gonna save that for the next 715 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:10,239 Speaker 1: episode and then we'll start to you know, shift over 716 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:15,840 Speaker 1: to talking about stuff in two yea. If you have 717 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,240 Speaker 1: suggestions for topics I should cover in the future episodes 718 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:20,680 Speaker 1: of Tech Stuff, please reach out to me. The best 719 00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: way to do that is over on Twitter. The handle 720 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,160 Speaker 1: for the show is text Stuff hs W and I'll 721 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:36,040 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an 722 00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:39,760 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, 723 00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,280 Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 724 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:44,880 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.