Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: And how the tech are you? It is time for
Speaker 1: the tech news for March first, twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 1: this should come as no surprise, but the vast majority
Speaker 1: of the tech news today is revolving around the Russian
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine. First up, hackers compromise the websites of
Speaker 1: several Russian media outlets. Many of those outlets experienced outages
Speaker 1: on their websites. A few of those sites also displayed
Speaker 1: a message reading quote, Dear citizens, we urge you to
Speaker 1: stop this madness. Do not send your sons and husbands
Speaker 1: to certain deaths. Putin is forcing us to lie and
Speaker 1: is putting us in d We have been isolated from
Speaker 1: the whole world. They have stopped buying oil and gas.
Speaker 1: In a few years we will be living like North Korea.
Speaker 1: What is this for? So that Putin can get into
Speaker 1: the history books. It's not our war. Let's stop him
Speaker 1: end quote. So Russian media has reported that the responsible
Speaker 1: party was the activist group Anonymous and someone at least
Speaker 1: has claimed responsibility on behalf of Anonymous. Now, in case
Speaker 1: you're not familiar with Anonymous, it's a very loosely organized
Speaker 1: collection of hackers, activists, anarchists, and folks who fall on
Speaker 1: a pretty broad spectrum of mischief makers all the way
Speaker 1: up to cyber criminals. Occasionally, a significant percentage of Anonymous
Speaker 1: is you know, nebulous population will align on a cause,
Speaker 1: and a significant number of them will devote efforts to
Speaker 1: seeing that cause through. But the group is so amorphous
Speaker 1: that it often is pretty tricky to assign responsibility to them.
Speaker 1: In many cases, it might be a group of people
Speaker 1: who consider themselves part of the Anonymous, but they're acting
Speaker 1: independently of the overall group. That being said, a Twitter
Speaker 1: account named anonymous has called for hackers to dedicate their
Speaker 1: skills and resources toward hindering Russia's invasion efforts in every
Speaker 1: way possible. Of course, it's hard to say conclusively that
Speaker 1: the Twitter accountant has any real connection to the actual group,
Speaker 1: and this is partly how Anonymous can be so effective.
Speaker 1: It can claim or deny responsibility for just about anything
Speaker 1: with equal plausibility. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or T SMC,
Speaker 1: along with chip makers A M D and Intel, have
Speaker 1: suspended all semiconductor sales to Russia. This is to comply
Speaker 1: with US sanctions against Russia due to the Ukrainian invasion.
Speaker 1: Tsn CE is the big dog here, as the company
Speaker 1: produces approximately half of all semi conductors used around the world,
Speaker 1: whether we're talking the super powerful kind or the very
Speaker 1: simple kind in a you know, low powered mobile device.
Speaker 1: The company has suspended sales not just to Russia directly,
Speaker 1: but also too third parties that are known to provide
Speaker 1: products to Russia that use these t SMC semiconductors. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a blow to Russia, but the president of
Speaker 1: the semi Conductor Industry Association told The Washington Post that
Speaker 1: it's not a blow to the semiconductor industry because Russia
Speaker 1: only represents about point one percent of all semiconductor sales.
Speaker 1: So in other words, this is gonna hurt you a
Speaker 1: lot more than it's gonna hurt us, is kind of
Speaker 1: the message there. The text sanctions extend beyond hardware and
Speaker 1: into services. Google Pay and Apple Pay are no longer
Speaker 1: available to customers of certain Russian banks. From what I
Speaker 1: can tell, the services aren't total unavailable in all of Russia.
Speaker 1: There is some availability, but for anyone who uses those
Speaker 1: that are connected to accounts that belong to major banks
Speaker 1: targeted by the recent sanctions, those services are put Customers
Speaker 1: of those banks are no longer able to use any
Speaker 1: cards issued by the banks, as the foreign held assets
Speaker 1: in those banks have been frozen. The sanctions extend beyond
Speaker 1: that as well. Customers are not able to make online
Speaker 1: payments to companies registered in countries that have imposed these sanctions,
Speaker 1: namely the United States and members of the European Union.
Speaker 1: So this is really hampering a lot of Russian citizens
Speaker 1: in their daily lives. I started this episode talking about
Speaker 1: how hackers had compromised several Russian media sites within Russia.
Speaker 1: Well outside Russia, the country's media is facing some pretty
Speaker 1: tough opposition as well. Meta properties Facebook and Instagram have
Speaker 1: restricted social media access to Russian outlets today, and spot
Speaker 1: nick YouTube has also clamped down on those channels, as
Speaker 1: as TikTok. The EU has similarly placed a ban on
Speaker 1: Russian state media. So these media outlets are run by
Speaker 1: the government of Russia. Like everything that goes out on
Speaker 1: these outlets has been sanctioned by the government. And as such,
Speaker 1: these outlets tend to serve as propaganda outlets. They're pushing
Speaker 1: the government's narrative and worldview out to the public, so
Speaker 1: you could argue it's at least a skewed view, if
Speaker 1: not outright misinformation. In many cases, even before the Ukraine
Speaker 1: invasion began, sites were starting to clamp down on misinformation
Speaker 1: campaigns from these outlets that were meant to undermine support
Speaker 1: for Ukraine or to portray the invasion as a necessary
Speaker 1: and justified military action. Not only are we seeing sites
Speaker 1: close off opportunities for these media outlets to spread Russian propaganda,
Speaker 1: we've also seen Google and Meta goest ups further to
Speaker 1: prevent the Russian media from placing ads on their properties
Speaker 1: like YouTube or Google Search or Facebook. Meta also released
Speaker 1: an announcement on Sunday saying it had discovered and removed
Speaker 1: a pair of disinformation campaigns originating out of Russia and
Speaker 1: one out of Ukraine. According to Meta, the Russian campaign
Speaker 1: was the product of a group called ghost Writer, a
Speaker 1: known source of disinformation. Hackers with Ghostwriter had used phishing
Speaker 1: attacks on legit Facebook users to gain access to those
Speaker 1: users accounts and then post disinformation videos and messages on
Speaker 1: those accounts to try and spread the message. Meta has
Speaker 1: since blocked the domains that the hackers had been using
Speaker 1: in their phishing attempts and sent out notifications to affected users.
Speaker 1: The uk Crane group was slightly different. It was also
Speaker 1: launched in an effort to undermine Ukrainian efforts. It had
Speaker 1: fewer than four thousand accounts following its page. Is no
Speaker 1: telling how many of those accounts were just boughts uh
Speaker 1: that we're just designed to elevate the disinformation campaign. Russia
Speaker 1: has responded by saying it will restrict access to Facebook
Speaker 1: due to the company's quote unquote censorship. On a similar note,
Speaker 1: Netflix has reached a threshold size in Russia. Namely, it
Speaker 1: hit a milestone of reaching more than one hundred thousand subscribers,
Speaker 1: which you know, in the grand scheme of things, is
Speaker 1: not that many, but it is a level that would
Speaker 1: require Netflix to carry twenty Russian media channels on its service.
Speaker 1: Most of those channels are entertainment and sports related, but
Speaker 1: there are a few that are more dedicated to pushing
Speaker 1: out the government narrative. Now, all of this is according
Speaker 1: to a new law which is not in effect right now,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's just gone into effect. The information is
Speaker 1: not entirely clear. Today would have been the first day
Speaker 1: from what I understand, but this law requires any media platform,
Speaker 1: any ab based media platform of that size or larger,
Speaker 1: you know, reaching a hundred thousand subscribers or more, they
Speaker 1: would have to carry those Russian channels by this law. Netflix, however,
Speaker 1: said it will do no such thing. A spokesperson too
Speaker 1: said to Variety, quote, given the current situation, we have
Speaker 1: no plans to add these channels to our service end quote.
Speaker 1: So Netflix is currently the only foreign online media platform
Speaker 1: in Russia that meets the subscriber criteria of this new law.
Speaker 1: So this is a precedent that we're seeing set right here.
Speaker 1: There are other providers, like foreign providers like HBO Max
Speaker 1: that are active in Russia, but a lot of those
Speaker 1: providers are partnering with Russian platforms that are actually distributing
Speaker 1: the content. So while the source of the content might
Speaker 1: be from these other companies, the entity in Russia is
Speaker 1: a Russian one, so it's a different matter. Netflix doesn't
Speaker 1: do that. Netflix is going direct to Russian consumers. There's
Speaker 1: no word yet on lot, if any response. The Russian
Speaker 1: government will have to all of this, it is notable
Speaker 1: that Russia. Netflix doesn't have any offices in Russia, so
Speaker 1: while the Russian government might eventually order I s p
Speaker 1: s in the country to block Netflix, there's no physical
Speaker 1: location for the government to raid or lean on or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Twitter meanwhile announced yesterday that it will
Speaker 1: begin to label tweets from accounts that belong to or
Speaker 1: are linked to Russian state media outlets in order to
Speaker 1: show their affiliation their association with those outlets. So these
Speaker 1: labels will include an orange exclamation point to get users
Speaker 1: attention and to alert readers about the source of the information.
Speaker 1: Twitter also announced it will be dialing back the reach
Speaker 1: of those accounts, so that means fewer people should see
Speaker 1: the tweets in the first place. Like, if you've ever
Speaker 1: used Twitter, you've probably seen that there are occasionally stuff
Speaker 1: stuff that shows up in your feed where you're are
Speaker 1: like I don't follow this person, Like this isn't someone
Speaker 1: that I'm actively following, Why am I seeing their tweets? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of the ways that Twitter expands
Speaker 1: uh engagement and allows people to discover stuff that they
Speaker 1: might not otherwise see. So in this case, Twitter is
Speaker 1: essentially turning that dial down for these particular accounts in
Speaker 1: order to not have the disinformation campaigns expand. Uh. Further So,
Speaker 1: the platform is not going so far as to prevent
Speaker 1: the outlets from sending out messages entirely. They're not banning
Speaker 1: the outlets. Instead, Twitter is taking steps so that users
Speaker 1: will be aware of where information is coming from, and
Speaker 1: then the users can be able to to draw conclusions
Speaker 1: as to the motivations behind the messaging. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: Twitter isn't going so far as to say this isn't true,
Speaker 1: but rather more like, keep in mind where this tweet
Speaker 1: is coming from and don't just accept it on its face.
Speaker 1: All right, We've got a lot more news, including news
Speaker 1: about Russia and Ukraine. But before we get to any
Speaker 1: of that, let's take a quick break. After consulting with
Speaker 1: authorities in Ukraine, Google has temporarily disabled some of the
Speaker 1: features in Google Maps for regions within Ukraine, such as
Speaker 1: live traffic updates. The company made this move in an
Speaker 1: effort to protect citizens who might be seeking safety and
Speaker 1: specific parts of the city, provening Russian forces from targeting
Speaker 1: those areas specifically. This does, however, cut both ways, because
Speaker 1: there have have been researchers who have been using Google
Speaker 1: Maps to track the invasion forces, using that information to
Speaker 1: kind of infer where Russia's forces happen to be at
Speaker 1: any given time. Google has also said that people who
Speaker 1: are relying on turn by turn directions will still get
Speaker 1: information about traffic. So if there is someone navigating through
Speaker 1: a city in Ukraine, they aren't going to be blindsided
Speaker 1: by something it's affected traffic in the city if they're
Speaker 1: using the turn by turn directions, which I think is
Speaker 1: the responsible thing to do. Reddit has also taken steps
Speaker 1: to push back on Russian disinformation campaigns. The site has
Speaker 1: quarantined the subredits are slash Russia and are slash Russia politics,
Speaker 1: so a quarantine subreddit won't show up in searches or recommendations. Uh,
Speaker 1: the discovery ends up being cut way back. So essentially
Speaker 1: a redditor has to purposefully go to one of those
Speaker 1: subredits in order to see what's going on there, and
Speaker 1: they can. It's not it's not like wiped off the
Speaker 1: face of the earth or anything, or or locked down.
Speaker 1: You can go to them. You will be presented with
Speaker 1: a message that warns you about it before you do so,
Speaker 1: so like Twitter, Reddit has an outright banned Russian outlets
Speaker 1: or users from participation, but has instead limited the reach
Speaker 1: of that activity in an effort to mitigate disinformation and
Speaker 1: propaganda campaigns. In addition, like I said, if you do
Speaker 1: go to the r Russia subredit, you'll first see a
Speaker 1: message saying that the subredit contains a quote high volume
Speaker 1: of information not supported by credible sources end quote. So again,
Speaker 1: not outright saying that the stuff in that subredit is
Speaker 1: just a bunch of lies, or even that a lot
Speaker 1: of it might contain misinformation. Instead, it's a warning the
Speaker 1: visitors need to use discretion and critical thinking, something that
Speaker 1: might be a little bit of a stretch for a
Speaker 1: lot of creditors. There's this longstanding meme that a ton
Speaker 1: of people on Reddit never bother to read any further
Speaker 1: than a headline, though I think that's mostly a gross exaggeration.
Speaker 1: At least in some subredits, some are better than others.
Speaker 1: So again, it's not that everything in these subredits is
Speaker 1: toxic or wrong or or a misinformation campaign, just that
Speaker 1: there's a much higher percentage of things that are purposefully
Speaker 1: posted there in order to spread misinformation, and that users
Speaker 1: need to be aware of that. According to Elon Musk,
Speaker 1: SpaceX has reached out to help Ukraine by delivering a
Speaker 1: shipment of satellite Internet dishes that can link to space
Speaker 1: X's Starlink network. Starlink is a satellite system that uses
Speaker 1: small satellites in lowerth orbit to deliver Internet access to
Speaker 1: remote locations. It's currently in a a beta program with
Speaker 1: just a couple of thousand satellites in orbit. There is
Speaker 1: supposed to be tens of thousands in orbit to provide
Speaker 1: full coverage, so Starlink customers use a tripod mounted dish
Speaker 1: that can actually track the progress of satellites as they
Speaker 1: pass overhead, and they can switch to new satellites as
Speaker 1: the older satellite moves out of range. Um hackers reportedly
Speaker 1: launched a cyber attack against a different satellite internet provider,
Speaker 1: via sat, which is another American company but operates in
Speaker 1: Europe as well. So this could create expanded access to
Speaker 1: the Internet in Ukraine, though it is unclear how many
Speaker 1: kits SpaceX actually sent, or how those kits are going
Speaker 1: to be distributed, and how extensive the coverage of Starlink's
Speaker 1: coverage over Ukraine actually is. And I realized I was
Speaker 1: being redundant with coverage there. On a semi related note,
Speaker 1: the hacker responsible for setting up a Twitter account specifically
Speaker 1: to track Elon Musk's movements his movements via private jet,
Speaker 1: which is something that the CEO and billionaire has denounced
Speaker 1: as a gross invasion of privacy. Well he this hacker
Speaker 1: has now done the same thing for a group of
Speaker 1: Russian oligarchs. The account, fittingly titled Russian oligarch Jets, tracks
Speaker 1: the aircraft that's owned by Russia's wealthiest business folks. The
Speaker 1: Twitter feed updates automatically, so it's it's essentially tapping into
Speaker 1: air traffic information that regards specific takeoffs and landings. It
Speaker 1: looks for identifiers of aircraft belonging to these oligarchs and
Speaker 1: then posts that update whenever new information pops up around
Speaker 1: the world. So the Twitter feed shows that while the
Speaker 1: EU and the US are imposing sanctions on Russia meant
Speaker 1: to really clamped down on the activities of these these billionaires,
Speaker 1: who are often buddy buddy with Putin, uh, the Russian
Speaker 1: elite seemed to be globe trotting as if nothing was
Speaker 1: different from any other week. They don't seem terribly hindered
Speaker 1: by what's happened so far. Jack Sweeney, the person who
Speaker 1: made the account, has warned folks that while the tracking
Speaker 1: data tends to be pretty accurate outside of Russia, within Russia,
Speaker 1: it's a different story because air tracking data is not
Speaker 1: as readily available there. And on the space front, Russia
Speaker 1: has suspended its involvement in some joint space missions with
Speaker 1: the European Space Agency and also has booted the United
Speaker 1: States from a joint mission to send a probe to
Speaker 1: the planet Venus. The rose caused most Space Agency issued
Speaker 1: a statement saying it would be inappropriate to continue cooperation
Speaker 1: after the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Russia.
Speaker 1: The country's withdrawal from the spaceport at the Guyana Space
Speaker 1: Center could be a long term obstacle for the e
Speaker 1: s A, which partly depends on Russian spacecraft to launch missions.
Speaker 1: Without Russia's involvement, those future missions are in a kind
Speaker 1: of limbo. The Russian Space Agency has also indicated potential
Speaker 1: issues with the International Space Station. A good portion of
Speaker 1: the I s S is made up of Russian modules.
Speaker 1: In fact, a Russian module was the first module up
Speaker 1: in orbit, and the thrusters on some of those Russian
Speaker 1: modules are part of what helped the I S S
Speaker 1: maintain its altitude above the Earth to to maintain the
Speaker 1: correct orbit. While there have been no official movements to
Speaker 1: separate the Russian section with the rest of the I
Speaker 1: S S or to withdraw cosmonauts and leave everyone else
Speaker 1: just floating up there without a way to use the
Speaker 1: Russian thrusters, which are controlled from the ground in Russia,
Speaker 1: the agency has at least implied that such outcomes are
Speaker 1: not entirely out of the question, and now we can
Speaker 1: transition away from Russia and the Ukraine. Satish Kumbine, the
Speaker 1: founder of cryptocurrency exchange bit connect, has been indicted on
Speaker 1: charges that he used bit connect to run a Ponzi
Speaker 1: scheme that amounted to more than two billion dollars. Now,
Speaker 1: as a quick reminder, a ponzi scheme is a type
Speaker 1: of pyramid scheme. So the head of the scheme gets
Speaker 1: investors to pour money into it, and then the head
Speaker 1: of the scheme lives high on the hawk uses that
Speaker 1: investor money to, you know, go buy eluxury yacht or something.
Speaker 1: But you know that that investment money, that initial round
Speaker 1: is not going to stretch forever and Eventually, the people
Speaker 1: who invested money are going to expect a return on
Speaker 1: their investment, and if you're bilking wealthy people, they might
Speaker 1: also have the means to make your life really difficult.
Speaker 1: So to satisfy that initial round of investors, you go
Speaker 1: out and you get a second round of investors. So
Speaker 1: the second round of investors pours money into your scheme,
Speaker 1: and you use some of that influx of cash to
Speaker 1: pay out returns to your first round of investor. Stairs
Speaker 1: the first round says, oh wow, I'm making money off
Speaker 1: my investment. Look at this this dividend I got. This
Speaker 1: is really paying off. And some of them might even
Speaker 1: go and reinvest in the scheme, putting even more of
Speaker 1: their money into it, thinking they're gonna get even larger
Speaker 1: payouts further down the road. Meanwhile, the head of the
Speaker 1: scheme continues to live the lush life for as long
Speaker 1: as this can last, and you might think, hey, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound sustainable. Surely, at some point you reach
Speaker 1: a stage where there's no way to attract a new
Speaker 1: round of investments to pay out all the previous investors,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing will come crashing down. And you're right,
Speaker 1: it can take a long time, but these things are
Speaker 1: inherently unstable and unsustainable. Anyway, the Justice Department says that
Speaker 1: Kombani and his associates effectively ran a ponzi scheme with
Speaker 1: bit connect as the platform, and we've seen this crop
Speaker 1: up in a few crypto companies. As I've said before,
Speaker 1: one of the big problems with crypto is that most
Speaker 1: people don't really understand how it works, so they just
Speaker 1: see crypto as being this kind of license to print money.
Speaker 1: At least back when crypto was performing well, so people
Speaker 1: would very easily get swept up into cons because crypto
Speaker 1: just seemed to be like a magic word that could
Speaker 1: make your money turn into lots more money. And this
Speaker 1: was okay back when you know crypto was doing well. Obviously,
Speaker 1: things have changed because we've seen some dramatic fluctuations in
Speaker 1: crypto values recently, like some crypto has crashed super hard, recovered,
Speaker 1: a bit crashed again. That makes investors a little less
Speaker 1: enthusiastic about jumping on board. So that has mitigated this
Speaker 1: a little bit, but we've still seen a lot of
Speaker 1: of scam artists try and cash in on the crypto craze. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Kambani will now go to trial. So he's been indicted,
Speaker 1: but that was just an indictment, so now he'll have
Speaker 1: to go to trial. If he's found guilty on the
Speaker 1: charges against him, which include charges like wire fraud and
Speaker 1: money laundering, he could face up to seventy years in prison.
Speaker 1: We have a few more stories to go through before
Speaker 1: we conclude today, but first let's take another quick break.
Speaker 1: A Japanese supplier called Kojima Industries Corporation, which plays a
Speaker 1: pivotal role in supplying automaker Toyota with critical components, has
Speaker 1: been hit by a cyber attack. That attack created a
Speaker 1: domino effect which led to Toyota stopping all vehicle production
Speaker 1: in all of its Japanese manufacturing facilities. So this is
Speaker 1: because Toyota uses a just in time approach, which means
Speaker 1: Toyota only brings in components in order to install them
Speaker 1: into vehicles at that time, and that way, Toyota doesn't
Speaker 1: have to maintain warehouse facilities to just hold an inventory
Speaker 1: of parts. They just bring in parts when they need them.
Speaker 1: But because Cogima Industries operations were affected, that strategy then
Speaker 1: had a massive impact on Toyota itself because it doesn't
Speaker 1: have that large inventory of parts that it can rely
Speaker 1: on while Cogima Industries recovers from the cyber attack. Now,
Speaker 1: as of this recording, I do not have information about
Speaker 1: who was responsible for that cyber attack, nor do I
Speaker 1: know about the nature of the attack itself. I would
Speaker 1: not be shocked to learn it was a ransomware attack,
Speaker 1: but that's pure speculation on my part. It could be
Speaker 1: something totally different. Amazon continues to battle employee attempts to unionize. Now,
Speaker 1: the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, or r w
Speaker 1: D s U, has filed an official list of misconduct
Speaker 1: charges against them Amazon with the United States National Labor
Speaker 1: Relations Board otherwise known as the n l RB. So,
Speaker 1: the r w D s U is alleging that Amazon
Speaker 1: has continued and even stepped up anti union measures in
Speaker 1: an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Now, you might remember
Speaker 1: that employees at that warehouse previously attempted to hold a
Speaker 1: vote to unionize, but that vote failed to secure enough
Speaker 1: support from employees to move forward. Subsequently, however, the n
Speaker 1: l RB found that Amazon had illegally instituted policies to
Speaker 1: discourage employees from voting on the matter and interfered in
Speaker 1: the voting process. So these new charges. You know, that
Speaker 1: was last year, but this year, these new charges are
Speaker 1: accusing Amazon of essentially doing the same thing. Now that
Speaker 1: n l RB has actually ordered a redo of the
Speaker 1: union vote. They said the first vote is not legitimate.
Speaker 1: It does not necessarily show that employees didn't support a
Speaker 1: union because Amazon interfered, So we're gonna rehold that vote.
Speaker 1: And now the r w DSU was saying Amazon's back
Speaker 1: to trying to leverage its its power against employees. Amazon
Speaker 1: reps have said that they are finite the company has
Speaker 1: done nothing illegal, which doesn't exactly give you a full warm,
Speaker 1: fuzzy feeling, right like, hey, nothing we've done is illegal.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's not really uh a good response, I think.
Speaker 1: But according to Amazon union supporters, company reps have been
Speaker 1: removing pro union flyers and information that union supporters have
Speaker 1: put up next to anti union flyers. The pro union
Speaker 1: folks are doing this on their time off, which is
Speaker 1: allowed by law. You are on your own time allowed
Speaker 1: to put up pro union stuff, but apparently Amazon reps
Speaker 1: have been taking that down while leaving up the anti
Speaker 1: union stuff. The the n w DS you also accuses
Speaker 1: Amazon of holding mandatory anti union meetings to discourage workers
Speaker 1: from supporting the efforts, just as they said the company
Speaker 1: had done last year. Also later this month, in New York,
Speaker 1: Amazon employees at a totally different warehouse are going to
Speaker 1: hold a vote on whether or not to unionize. That
Speaker 1: happens the week of March. Now, I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 1: Amazon is trying to squash these individual efforts out of
Speaker 1: concern that we could see other warehouses in other states
Speaker 1: and cities follow suit. I think what Amazon is trying
Speaker 1: to do is prevent this from turning into a massive
Speaker 1: labor movement. But there's been a lot of momentum on
Speaker 1: that front. Recently. State House representatives in West Virginia are
Speaker 1: considering a bill that would outlaw over the air updates
Speaker 1: from car manufacturers directly to vehicles. And if that part
Speaker 1: of the bill, because that's just part of it. The
Speaker 1: bill covers a lot of other stuff, But if that
Speaker 1: part has passed into law, it would mean that people
Speaker 1: in West Virginia would be required to bring their vehicle
Speaker 1: to a dealership in order to get software updates. Now,
Speaker 1: as we've seen over the years, manufacturers have built more
Speaker 1: more computer systems into vehicles, and there's been a rising
Speaker 1: need to be able to update those computer systems with
Speaker 1: patches and such. Right now, car manufacturers can issue such
Speaker 1: updates themselves, and cars will receive them directly from the
Speaker 1: manufacturer over the air, kind of similar to how your
Speaker 1: smartphone will regularly receive updates to its operating system. But
Speaker 1: House Bill HBT sixty would make it illegal for car
Speaker 1: manufacturers to do that in West Virginia. Now, the bill
Speaker 1: does allow for software updates to entertainment and navigation systems,
Speaker 1: primarily so that folks wouldn't be stuck with outdated maps
Speaker 1: as they drive around, but otherwise, for any other type
Speaker 1: of software update, they would have to go into a
Speaker 1: dealership in order to get it, likely with a pretty
Speaker 1: hefty charge, when otherwise they would just get those updates
Speaker 1: for free over the air. Meanwhile, dealerships are marking up
Speaker 1: car prices to insane levels, largely due to chip shortages
Speaker 1: that have impacted some apply while demand remains high, and
Speaker 1: car manufacturers are not allowed to market directly to consumers,
Speaker 1: generally speaking, because of laws that were meant to protect
Speaker 1: small businesses. The idea was, you know, the individual dealership
Speaker 1: like the mom and pop car dealership would not be
Speaker 1: able to compete against, say GM, if GM we're selling
Speaker 1: cars directly to consumers. So these laws were put into
Speaker 1: place to protect those smaller businesses. But the problem is
Speaker 1: those small businesses are now effectively monopolies, at least in
Speaker 1: regional areas UH themselves. So I guess you could say
Speaker 1: I am against this particular section of this bill, especially
Speaker 1: since it could lead to dangerous situations. I mean, if
Speaker 1: an update is meant to address a safety issue, and
Speaker 1: if that means that people will have to take time
Speaker 1: out of their lives to go to a dealership in
Speaker 1: order to get a software patch to address something that
Speaker 1: is largely invisible. Right, software patches typically you know, you
Speaker 1: don't really you're not really cognizant of them. You're not
Speaker 1: aware of changes unless it's something massive. So for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, they probably just say, like, I can't
Speaker 1: deal with that, I'll do that later, I'll put that off.
Speaker 1: I suspect actually a ton of people would just failed
Speaker 1: to go and get their systems upgraded, and then you
Speaker 1: could have some really bad safety problems follow suit, like
Speaker 1: accidents and deaths and stuff. Now the bill will still
Speaker 1: have to pass state Senate before it can become a law,
Speaker 1: and to also have to be signed into law by
Speaker 1: the governor. So there's still a chance that the language
Speaker 1: could be changed, that this whole section of this law
Speaker 1: could be removed before it goes forward, and that's what
Speaker 1: I'm hoping for. Finally, some sad news, David Boggs, who
Speaker 1: was a researcher at Xerox Park, has passed away. Bog's
Speaker 1: co invented the Ethernet PC connection. You know, that's the
Speaker 1: connection that allows one computer to communicate with another over
Speaker 1: Ethernet cable or you know how a computer connect to
Speaker 1: a network of other computers and computer devices. The either
Speaker 1: net connection was one of many necessary components that allowed
Speaker 1: us to have computer networks in general and the Internet
Speaker 1: in particular. Uh. The other co inventor of Ethernet was
Speaker 1: Bob Metcalfe. He coined Metcalf's law. Metcalf's law states that
Speaker 1: the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the
Speaker 1: square of the number of connected users of the system.
Speaker 1: So as you add people to a communications network, the
Speaker 1: value of that network increases dramatically, which makes sense, right
Speaker 1: because you have more potential connections. Every time you add
Speaker 1: a person, that new person can connect to everyone who
Speaker 1: was already part of that that network. Thus the value
Speaker 1: of the network in general increases dramatically. Anyway, Boggs was
Speaker 1: an engineering genius. He was the guy who was the
Speaker 1: hardware guy, and that that group Metcalf was kind of
Speaker 1: a conceptual idea kind of part of the partnership, and
Speaker 1: Boggs was sort of the the engineer making those ideas
Speaker 1: become reality, kind of of part a very necessary part
Speaker 1: to make this happen. And his work made it possible
Speaker 1: for computers to send information back and forth to each
Speaker 1: other on local networks. The original Ethernet cable was able
Speaker 1: to send data at just two point nine four megabits
Speaker 1: per second. These days, according to c net anyway, the
Speaker 1: average Ethernet connection is closer to eight megabits per second.
Speaker 1: So it's not like it's screaming fast. Uh, they're even
Speaker 1: gigabit Ethernet networks, but the speeds that you find on
Speaker 1: the network tend to be a fraction of a gigabit
Speaker 1: per second. This is largely due not to downfalls or
Speaker 1: or or our flaws in the Ethernet cables or the connections,
Speaker 1: but rather just the nature of network traffic and how
Speaker 1: that can impact things, or how far you are from
Speaker 1: the source of the data the distance actually take matters
Speaker 1: as well anyway. Ether that was one part of the
Speaker 1: very large jigsaw puzzle that made computer networking possible, and
Speaker 1: our world would not be what it is now without
Speaker 1: that capability. David Boggs was seventy one years old, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, tech Stuff salutes your work, Boggs. Pretty amazing stuff.
Speaker 1: All right, that's it for the news for Tuesday, March first,
Speaker 1: twenty two. If you have suggestions for topics I should
Speaker 1: cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, please reach out
Speaker 1: to me and let me know. The best way to
Speaker 1: do that is on Twitter. The handle for our show
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