WEBVTT - Tech News: Twitter Refuses to Hand Over Data to US Government 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.400 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.759 And how the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.360 the tech news for June nine, two thousand and twenty two, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.520 which is, as I recall, a Thursday. And for those 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.760 of you who were concerned and reached out, thank you 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.760 so much. Feeling much better now. My fever already broke 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.120 so and I've tested negative for COVID, thank goodness. So 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.400 it looks like it was, you know, just a like 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.080 a little bug that I caught, and I'm on the 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.040 better side of it. Now, let's get too news that 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.320 you really care about and not just me grousing about 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:54.640 feeling nikky, okay. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the committee 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.440 that's investigating the January sixth insurrection here in the United 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:03.600 States wants to get access to internal Twitter communications, including 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.639 messages sent on Slack between Twitter employees, in an effort 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.959 to determine what Twitter was doing to moderate discourse on 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.399 the platform as it was leading up to the violence 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.200 that happened on January six. Twitter so far has refused 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.560 to comply with that request, at least to the Investigating 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.920 Committee's satisfaction. Anyway. Twitter representatives say that the company has 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:31.280 already shared some information with this committee. There's been a 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.520 growing awareness that employees at several social networking sites were 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.959 aware of and concerned about the growing momentum that was 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.280 indicating that something was going to go down on January six, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.000 So presumably the Investigative Committee wants to see to what 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.400 extent Twitter employees were concerned and what the company's response 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.760 to those concerns were like. Was the company dismissing this 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:58.920 because they didn't want to rock the boat or anything 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.240 like that. Uh committee also suspects that participants in the 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.840 insurrection we're using Twitter to coordinate with one another, and 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.800 that perhaps the platform was then a facilitator for the events, 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.040 although not necessarily an active or willing participant, but you know, 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.680 it helped enable that, and that perhaps it could have 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.399 and should have done more to alert authorities about specific 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.800 plans of action. Twitter has argued that it has a 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.680 responsibility to protect its employees and that the government demanding 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.760 access to internal documents could be a violation of the 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.000 First Amendment. For those of you who are not in 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.280 the United States. The first Amendment to the U. S 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.280 Constitution is the one that guarantees the right of freedom 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:47.320 of speech, as well as freedom assembly, and religion. In 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.959 related news, the U S State of Connecticut has budgeted 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.280 to create a special position dedicated to fighting back against 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:59.000 quote misinformation narratives about voting end quote. So the job 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.480 title is Election Information Security Officer, and the budget also 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.799 includes money that is dedicated to educating various communication platforms, 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.720 both in old media and new media, on how to 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:17.600 recognize and respond to misinformation campaigns, specifically targeting elections. Other 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.959 states in the US have similar departments like this in place. Already. 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.640 Misinformation has become a massive problem in general in the 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.560 United States UH, and elections, of course, are particularly targeted. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.160 It's not exclusive, though, We've seen misinformation campaigns about COVID 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.080 and vaccinations, for example. On a personal note, I wouldn't 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.080 even know how or where to start in order to 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:44.320 fight back against misinformation. It's so prevalent and so invasive, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.320 and it involves so many different tactics. I hope that 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.040 the efforts in Connecticut and elsewhere are effective. I want 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.720 to see UH platforms that have trustworthy information on them 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:02.760 and people who know that the election process is being 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.000 done fair and square and not being you know, fed 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.320 lies that. That's just otherwise, because once you start undermining 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.040 confidence in the system, the system itself breaks down. That's 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:19.320 how democracy dies, Really, democracy dies when the people no 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.080 longer have faith that the system is doing what it's 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.760 supposed to. Uh, it doesn't even you know, it doesn't 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.200 have to be real. Like the system can be working 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.480 just fine, but if people lose faith in it, and 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:32.480 it doesn't matter if the system is working or not, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.479 the lack of confidence of the people is what will 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:41.800 kill democracy. Sticking with the United States, a collaborative effort 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.840 involving the FBI, the I R S, and the Department 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:48.599 of Justice took down four domains on the web that 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.360 hosted a marketplace called ss N d o B. That 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.840 marketplace was essentially a clearing house of stolen personal information, 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.799 including social security numbers and credit card number. The social 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.240 security numbers explains the s s in bit of the 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.760 name s s in d o B. The database held 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:11.280 information on more than twenty million Americans, and it's been 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.400 active for several years, perhaps getting started as early as though, 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.520 as you might have guessed, folks who run illegal operations 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.880 aren't super big on documenting their history of it. The 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.159 market was known to have pulled in millions of dollars 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.360 in revenue, a lot of it in cryptocurrency, and I 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.920 haven't seen any information about whether law enforcement has identified 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.159 the folks who are actually behind the database, So I'm 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.640 not sure how this will go beyond just shutting down 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.039 the service. Presumably you would have to go further, or 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.400 else those who are responsible might just create a new 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.200 database on another domain and thus only experience a short 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.120 interruption of services. So I'll keep an eye on this 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:59.120 story as it develops. Business Insider reports that Netflix might 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.000 be making a move to acquire Roku. While Roku was 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.440 one of the early companies in the streaming business and 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:11.080 has a big reputation in creating really good hardware for streaming, 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.839 like streaming sticks and such, it has been in a 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.440 slump lately. About a year ago, the stock price for 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:22.320 Roku was higher than what it is today, So that's 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.159 a massive slide obviously, and Business Insiders says that Roku 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.600 employees have been told that they are not allowed to 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.160 sell their stock right now. Companies typically will do this 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.799 when something big is happening behind the scenes. It's usually 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.240 an effort to prevent employees from engaging and stuff like 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.960 insider trading. That's when you take advantage of information about 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.719 a publicly traded company that the general public doesn't have 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.479 access to. Right So, if you know, for example, that 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.559 company A is going to buy a company B, and 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.480 that hasn't been announced to the general public, it would 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.280 be illegal for you to try and use that information 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.960 to your advantage because it's an unfair advantage. It sinside 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.240 or trading. Anyway, If you're wondering what, you know, why 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.520 does Netflix want Roku in the first place, one big 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.040 thought is that it isn't so much the hardware side. 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:16.400 I mean, Roku does make great streaming platforms, but we're 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:18.920 seeing more and more televisions come with that kind of 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:24.280 stuff you know, uh natively installed in them. So as 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.400 time goes on, things like streaming sticks become less relevant. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.559 It maybe the Netflix really wants Roku because Roku has 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.680 advertising on it. So Earlier this year, Netflix announced that 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.960 it was looking into new revenue sources after the company 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.040 had its first big setback. It had a decrease in 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.440 the overall subscriber number and then investor confidence in the 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.920 company just took a nose dive. With that it took 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.920 was one setback and people were out. So one of 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.400 the revenue sources that Netflix has been looking at is advertising, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.040 namely that Netflix would introduce a lower cost subscription tier, 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.800 and that that subscription would be subsidized by including ads 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.720 in the streamed content. Roku already has an advertising model 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.200 built out, and in fact, the ads contribute significantly more 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.200 revenue than hardware sales have, so this might be a 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.280 case of Netflix purchasing a solution to save itself the 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.280 trouble of building out one of its own. Now, to 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.800 be clear, neither Netflix nor Roku have commented on this 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.280 rumored deal, so it may not even be a thing. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.360 An ongoing trend we've been seeing around the world is 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.360 a move to transition from internal combustion engine vehicles or 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.440 i c E vehicles to electric vehicles or e vs. 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.600 The EU Parliament yesterday voted to require automakers to cut 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:52.520 c O two emissions by by now. Effectively that means 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:58.240 banning the manufacturing of any vehicle running on gasoline or diesel. Now, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.560 this is not the same as saying that I see 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.240 vehicles would be illegal, but rather that all vehicles made 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:10.400 from twive on should not be vehicles that emit CEO two. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.719 This move has to still be approved by the individual 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.960 EU nations, so it's not a done deal yet. There 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.319 has been some resistance to this push, with Germany's automotive 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.120 industry lobby v d A arguing that the mandate would 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:30.520 quote unquote hurt innovation. Hurt innovation to me typically is 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.240 is like a smoke screen. I see a lot of 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:38.520 companies talk about things hurting innovation, which usually just means 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.480 this will hurt our revenue and not necessarily it will 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.960 hurt innovation. In fact, a lot of times you could 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.680 argue that the status quo is what is hurting innovation. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.880 That's some commentary from yours, truly, I'll just get back 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.839 to the news now. And it might be that German 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.560 automakers are really objecting to this largely because they have 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.400 not been as a gre se in developing alternatives to 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.760 ice vehicles as automakers from other parts of the world, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.240 so in other words, they're behind when it comes to this, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.160 and that perhaps that might be part of the reason 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.240 for the objection. The v d A also argued that 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:22.600 the EU lacks sufficient infrastructure to support fleets of e vs. Now, again, 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.400 to me, that sounds kind of like a cop out, 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.199 because we are talking about the timeline that's more than 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.520 a decade out from today. You know, we have thirteen 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.000 years to to get this sussed out. Now, what I 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.760 will say is that as it stands, the world is 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.960 not yet producing enough EV batteries to meet the needs 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:44.680 of replacing all new vehicles with e V. S uh. 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.680 That's a challenge that we're going to have to overcome 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.200 or we'll need to see some serious movement on other 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.400 types of vehicles, such as hydrogen powered ones, you know, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.280 fuel cell vehicles, that sort of thing. But that's where 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.920 it stands right now. The EU nations are now poised 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.720 to determine whether or not they will adopt this approach 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.160 to ban the sale of new I C E vehicles 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.480 starting by when we come back, we'll have a few 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:16.240 stories about Tesla and then a couple of others as well, 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:27.400 So let's take a break for these messages. Earlier this 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.600 week I did an Elon update. Now I'm not gonna 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:32.720 do another one, but I do have a few stories 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.720 that do relate to Tesla, which of course does relate 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.080 to Elon Musk. First up is that Reuter's reports Tesla 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.200 will be holding a hiring event in China. Now, if 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.240 you remember, on Tuesday's episode, I talked about how Elon 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.319 Musk indicated there would be a hiring freeze at Tesla. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.680 He then subsequently clarified that he really meant hiring freeze 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.400 on the salaried employee or corporate side, not on the 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.520 hourly employee side, which usually means folks who work in 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.079 manufact training plants, like you know, floor workers at factories. 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.040 Reuters states that this hiring event will concentrate mainly on 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.559 engineers and managers, so it certainly sounds like salary jobs 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.760 to me, but I don't know anyway. Just interesting to 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.720 see that while Elon Musk is saying that the company 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.920 is putting a freeze, uh, it doesn't appear to really 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:26.400 be that, at least not globally. Meanwhile, in Germany, the 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.480 trade union i G Metal has responded to a leaked 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.439 internal email from Elon Musk that essentially told all Tesla 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.320 employees would have to work in the office for at 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.720 least forty hours a week before they could do any 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.400 remote work at all, Like he essentially said, if you 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.400 want to work from home, you can after you put 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.080 in forty hours of work at the office. So this 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.680 union has said, essentially, and I'm paraphrasing here, hey buddy, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.040 here in Germany, it doesn't work that way. An employer 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.120 can't just you know, act like a dictator to their employees. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.319 So Musk has been pretty clearly anti union over the years. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.040 I imagine this is not something he wants to hear. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.240 And considering that numerous studies have suggested that there's no 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.079 drop in productivity with remote work situations, I feel pretty 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.840 confident that a lot of Tesla employees see his demands 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:20.560 as being unreasonable. Now, there are people who believe that 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.560 the whole thing is kind of a work in the 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:28.480 parlance of the squared circle, that is, of professional wrestling uh, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.360 and that Musk's approach is really just an effort to 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.719 convince at least some people at Tesla to pack their 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.600 bags and leave, because that's one way you can reduce 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.720 overhead without having to worry about paying out severance packages. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.040 If people quit, then you don't know him severance. That 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:49.160 pretty cynical observation doesn't necessarily mean it's inaccurate. I can't 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.760 say one way or the other. And meanwhile, here in 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.240 the United States, Tesla's legal team has accused the California 0:13:55.320 --> 0:14:00.000 Department of Fair Employment and Housing or d f e H, 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.000 of skipping some key steps before that organization filed a 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:09.160 lawsuit against Tesla alleging racial bias and discrimination within the company, 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:14.360 specifically within the Fremont, California factory. So this all stems 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:18.000 from accusations that a former Tesla employee faced numerous incidents 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:22.120 of racial abuse while working at Tesla, and the d 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.480 f e H sued Tesla, But Tesla's legal team says 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.960 that the d f e H failed to take some 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.520 required steps that would normally include an attempt to mediate 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:35.000 a dispute before it would actually go to court. The 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.800 Tesla team then filed a petition with the Office of 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.240 Administrative Law in California over the matter. And while it 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.280 seems as though Tesla's objections have at least some merit, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.640 because the d f e H is supposed to follow 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.080 certain protocols that it appears to have skipped, UH, it 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.840 might end up all being moot anyway, because technically the 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.360 legal team would have needed to file this petition before 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.840 the legal case began, So in other words, it might 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.000 just be too late for this to matter. We'll have 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.760 to wait and see. Blizzard has been having a pretty 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.080 rough go of it recently. It's part of the massive 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:16.640 company Activision Blizzard, which itself is mired in controversy, ranging 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.960 from claims that the company harbored a toxic culture, claims 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.560 that I should say I seem to be largely substantiated, 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.440 to the company's attempts to discourage employees from being able 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.520 to organize into unions. But the problems I really want 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.040 to talk about with regard to Blizzard have to do 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.160 with the actual games that the company is releasing and 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.560 the response to those games. The games have been getting 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.200 pounded by user ratings on Metacritic. So the most recent game, 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.280 dia Blow Immortal, is a mobile game, and it's obviously 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.760 an entry in the dia Blow franchise, a long popular franchise. 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.640 That game currently has a user rating on Metacritic of 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.800 just zero point five out of ten. Now, to be clear, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.640 the critic review score, at least for the iOS version, 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.000 is sitting at seventy five out of one hundred, so 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:13.200 not great, but not awful either. However, that user score 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.680 of zero point five that is harsh as all. Heck, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:21.320 so why are the reviews so low? Well, it really 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.960 comes down to micro transactions, and we've seen micro transactions 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.000 worm into lots of different games over the last several years. 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.880 They represent a way for a game to continue generating 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.320 revenue indefinitely. You can even have free to play games 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.560 that are only supported by micro transactions, but we've seen 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:41.440 more and more. Even Triple A titles include micro transaction. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.280 So you go out and you shell out, you know, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.320 sixties seventy bucks for a game, and then you are 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.680 faced with all these other micro transactions as you continue 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.520 to play. Some games like Fortnite have thrived on micro 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.240 transactions and have done really well, and when they're implemented properly, 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.280 they typically can be seen as you know, harmless, maybe 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:04.440 a little irritating, but you know, not not really a problem. 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.680 For example, when all the things that you can buy 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.840 are purely cosmetic, but otherwise they have no impact in 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.520 how the game plays out, most gamers are gonna begrudgingly 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.880 accept that because at least it's not impacting the actual 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.000 game experience. But in cases where the micro transactions can 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.639 give players an advantage. Things get pretty ugly, and it 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.560 appears that in the end game, really post game part 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.840 of Diablo Immortal, where you've pretty much done all the 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.240 content of the game and then you start to focus 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.159 on things like player versus player interactions, the person who 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.400 is more willing to cough up cash for certain items 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.800 is the one who is most likely to win those encounters. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.119 It becomes a pay to win scenario in other words, 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.960 and gamers really really hate that. So the zero point 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.800 five score reflects this. Now, I should also point out 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.479 Metacritic doesn't have a system in place to determine if 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.679 a person is leaving a review has even actually played 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.040 the game, so it's entirely possible that some or maybe 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.920 even many of the negative reviews are from disgruntled gamers 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.119 who haven't even touched the title anyway. This is the 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.040 third Blizzard game in a row to receive a sub 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:21.399 one point oh score from users on Metacritic. It's not 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.800 a great reputation to have, and again, it mostly doesn't 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.000 seem to be targeted at the quality of the game itself, 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.280 but more due to other things like micro transaction policies. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.000 You know that feeling that you get when something you own, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.320 like a car, gets scuffed up for the first time. 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.120 I imagine that's how some folks at NASA feel about 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.480 the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope, which occupies an 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:46.880 orbit on the side of the Earth opposite the Sun, 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.159 has been hit with some micro meteoroids, and that was 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.159 to be expected. I mean, it's space. Micro Meteoroids are 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.600 out there. It was going to happen. In fact, NASA 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.240 knew that it would happen, designed the James Webb Space 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.680 Telescope to be robust enough to handle that. But one 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.800 of those impacts appears to be larger than what NASA 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.280 was anticipating. Uh. Now that that impact hasn't ruined the 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.040 technology of the telescope or anything like that, but these 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:19.240 impacts do degrade the telescope's performance, and so the more 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.680 it gets hit by them, the less well it will perform. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.440 NASA stresses that right now it's not that big of 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.040 a deal. The telescope is still an incredibly powerful piece 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.359 of technology. It's going to do some amazing science. However, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.320 it is a reminder that space is a dangerous environment, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.960 and as I've said many times, in the past, it's 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.760 trying to kill you. NASA has also indicated that during 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:45.240 more predictable events, such as a meteor shower, engineers can 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.680 actually reposition the telescope so that it can be more 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.480 protective of its optical systems. It's just that in this case, 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.360 this collision wasn't predictable, so it was unavoidable. Um, so 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.480 hopefully we don't see too many of these, especially early on. 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.080 I mean, we've just started using the James Webb Space Telescope. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.960 It hasn't even really gotten into some serious serious research yet, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.600 so we definitely don't want to, you know, pull the 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.440 car out of the dealership lot, take a right turn, 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.080 and then immediately scrape up against a fire hydrant. That's 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.760 what this kind of feels like. Okay, that bizarre analogy aside. 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.720 Let's take another quick break and when we come back, 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:26.920 we've got a couple more stories. I want to talk about. 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:39.119 Toyota and it's subsidiary company, Woven Planet, demonstrated a prototype 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.320 hydrogen cartridge that could be used in conjunction with fuel 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.080 cells in the future. So this kind of goes back 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.520 to what I was saying earlier about electric vehicles. You know, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.680 that seems to be the way that the world is moving, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.280 that that's going to be the next incarnation of the 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.680 personal vehicle will be an electric vehicle. But some companies 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.200 like Toyota have been pushing really hard for a while 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.359 for fuel cell vehicles, which are very similar to electric 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.520 vehicles but with some key differences, the main one being 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.200 that you do have to refuel them, but in this 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.879 case hydrogen rather than say gasoline or diesel. So this 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:18.640 cartridge is uh cylindrical, and it has a handle on 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.080 one end, and it measures sixteen inches or four d 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.520 millimeters in length and seven inches or a hundred eighty 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.920 millimeters in diameter, and when it's full, it's filled with hydrogen. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.080 The cartridge weighs about eleven pounds or five kilograms, and 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.560 the amount of hydrogen in one of these cartridges can 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.640 supply about three point three kill what hours of energy. 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.360 The cartridges are one way to really simplify the process 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.840 of refueling fuel cells. So just in case you're not 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:51.879 familiar with how fuel cells work, they are kind of 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:56.760 like batteries that a battery contains all the electrochemical components 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.320 it needs to generate electricity, and then a lot of 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.040 you know, the rechargeable ones, you just end up putting 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.440 electricity back into the battery and it reverses that that 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:10.399 chemical reaction so that it can happen again. So with 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.119 fuel cells, you have to supply the fuel to the cell. 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.000 The fuel undergoes this electro chemical reaction and in that 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.560 process releases electrons, but afterwards you can't reverse that process, 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:24.080 at least not within the fuel cell itself. So with 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:29.040 hydrogen fuel cells, this reaction happens between hydrogen gas and oxygen. 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.280 So I won't go into all the details of how 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:36.479 it works, but what you get out of it is heat, electricity, 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.960 and water. Those are your byproducts. You know, water vapor 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.960 typically because you're using operating temperatures that are high enough 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.440 to evaporate water. But that's it. You don't have any 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.080 carbon emissions or anything else. If you're assuming you're using 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.280 pure hydrogen and pure oxygen in a you know, hydrogen 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.919 fuel cell. So this cartridge approach reminds me kind of 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.760 the way propane tanks work, where you can, you know, 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.040 get a propane tank for something like a gas grill, 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:04.480 So you go out and purchase a new propane tank, 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:07.520 or you could take a propane tank to a facility 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.000 to refill it with more propane. I feel like that's 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:13.520 kind of where Toyota and Woven Planet are going. They're 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.280 also looking at a strategy that could include a delivery 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.760 service as well, so presumably you could order a new 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.280 cartridge when you start running low on hydrogen and they 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.760 would bring it out to you, which is kind of 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.399 a cool idea too. Toyota envisions hydrogen playing a huge 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:31.840 role in our energy needs in the future, not just 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:33.960 for our vehicles, but the power of things like homes 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:36.920 and businesses as well. There's still a lot of challenges 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:39.359 that are standing in the way of that future. Hydrogen 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.280 is the most plentiful element in our universe, which is great, 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:46.560 but it also tends to bond with lots of other elements, 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:48.760 which is less great because in order for us to 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.560 get at pure hydrogen, we typically first have to break 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:56.680 the molecular bonds that hold the hydrogen onto the other stuff. 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:00.359 And if the energy we're spending to get at the 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:03.240 hydrogen is more than what we're going to get out 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.280 of using the hydrogen as a fuel source, that's a 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:08.960 net loss and energy. So you have to be really 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:10.960 smart in the way you do this. For example, one 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:13.880 way that you can get hydrogen is you can take 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:17.040