WEBVTT - 2015 Year in Review 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.280 I'm Julie Douglas, host of The Stuff of Life, a 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.560 podcast that teases apart the tales we tell, because when 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.039 we crack open a story and look inside, we see 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.880 the seeds of what make our world so maddening, so strange, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.880 and so achingly beautiful. The Stuff of Life is a 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.239 podcast about how we're all just getting by, learning and 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.920 surviving through the stories that we share. We'll look at 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.080 everything from fear and what fuels it, the inconceivability of 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.639 death and our desire to become immortal, to the big 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.440 universal question in life, why don't men dance? Join you 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.000 for the first episode on January. You can find The 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.639 Stuff of Life on iTunes or any other podcast provider. 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.840 Get in touch with technology with Hope Stuff from how 0:00:55.880 --> 0:01:03.760 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.160 I'm your host Jonathan Strictly. Now we're at the close 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.039 of two thousand fifteen, so that means it's time to 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.120 look at some of the big tech stories of the 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.920 past twelve months and to see what the tech world 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.560 has been up to over the last year. Now, in 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.880 full disclosure, I am recording this on December third, two 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.840 thousand fifteen, So when I get to the month of December, 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.479 there's not gonna be anything to talk about because nothing 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.040 really has happened yet. But there's a ton of stuff 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.720 to talk about from the previous months. So starting way 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.360 back in January, first, I'll talk about c e S 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.240 two thousand fifteen. I attended that last year, as well 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.520 as the seven years before that. At any rate, it 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.000 was all about things like wearables, the Internet of Things, 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.680 automated systems, and four K displays and eight K displays. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.680 Those were all the big, big items that were kind 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.400 of taking center stage at CES. There were a lot 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.560 of other devices that were also kind of capturing people's imagination. 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:07.480 I saw a lot of the very various devices meant 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.600 to allow you to scoot around, whether it was electric 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.400 skateboards like the hoverboard type stuff, or roller skates even 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.120 and some other ones. I didn't brave those. I didn't 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.919 try them because I was pretty convinced i'd be one 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.520 of the outlying statistics of people capable of falling down 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.839 on something that is supposed to be impossible to fall 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.079 off of. IM pretty sure I could. I could prove 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.000 them wrong on that one. We also saw more VR 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.440 headsets on display also a lot of conversion kits that 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:43.919 turned phones into VR screens. Augmented reality was still something 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.640 that we were kind of seeing some products show off, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.280 but I don't think anyone has found the perfect implementation 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.080 of that, with the possible exception of the hollow lens, 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.040 but that isn't yet available for consumers. Uh We also 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.120 saw a lot of autonomous vehicles, which I would argue 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.880 as another technology that's still in the incubation period. I 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.240 think we've got a lot of evidence to show that 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.840 autonomous cars are safer and more reliable than human drivers 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.519 are on a day to day basis, but still gonna 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.560 take some time before that is ready for actual street use, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:25.360 at least in widespread fashion. Early in January two thousand fifteen, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:29.240 the White House approved of sanctions against North Korea. Now, 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.800 this was in response to the two thousand fourteen Sony hack. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:38.960 Some cybersecurity experts expressed doubts that North Korea was the 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.960 originator of the attacks, but the government, specifically the FBI 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.680 and some other agencies said no, this this seems to 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.040 be the work of hackers out of North Korea. Uh 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.960 So there was some disagreement there in the cybersecurity industry, 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.000 but in general it looked like fingers were pointing to 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.920 North Korea, so the White House approved of sanctions against 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:09.960 North Korea. North Korea's reaction was understandably one of um disdain. 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.280 I guess is a good word, but whether North Korea 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.040 was ultimately responsible for the hack or not, that was 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:22.800 the expected reaction UM. During his State of the Union address, 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.359 United States President Barack Obama pledged to expand broadband service 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.440 to more United States citizens. Also wanted to push for 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.640 net neutrality and invest in cybersecurity measures, all of which 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.320 were prevalent on the minds of people. I mean, it's 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.080 one of those things that especially the Sony hack had 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.440 brought into the limelight. Also in January and the wake 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.440 of the terrible Charlie Hebdo attacks in which journalists and 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:55.640 their families were threatened and killed. It was terrible. Anonymous, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:01.440 the activist group announced a essentially a campaign against terrorists 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.320 and vowed to shut down communication tools and to weed 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:11.479 out terrorism using cyber attacks and and cyber strategies. And 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.760 this would go on throughout the entire year. Uh, it 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.960 really escalated in November, but it was going on throughout 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.080 the whole year. Also in January, Google ended up shelving 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.600 the Google Glass project. I wasn't really surprised by this. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.560 I was a little sad. I'm a huge fan of 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.760 Google Glass, but I also felt that it wasn't quite 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:40.600 right for consumers, and it was incredibly expensive as dollars 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.880 for a pair of Google Glass. But Google has stressed 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.880 that it plans to incorporate the technology into future products, 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.040 both physical and software products, and also that Google Glass 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.000 would return at some point once it was ready. So 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.159 I don't know when that will be, but supposedly it 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:03.080 will come back. In January, Bill Gates expressed concern that 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.279 artificial intelligence could become the biggest threat to humanity. He 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.880 said this during a Reddit a m a, which has 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:14.840 Reddit for ask me anything, Uh, kind of interesting. Speaking 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.840 of Bill Gates, the company co founded Microsoft introduced Windows 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.640 ten on January twenty one, and also showed off the 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.600 hollow lens headset. That's that augmented reality device I had 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.640 talked about. I wish I had had a chance to 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:32.400 actually experience a hollow lens. I have not done that yet. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.320 I really hope to have that experience at some point. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.200 I'm intrigued by the idea. I like the possibility of 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:45.200 the hollow lens adding a new dimension to computing, at 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.200 least some applications. Obviously, it's not ideal for everything. You're 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.400 not going to use the hollow lens for word processing, 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.960 I would imagine, but for gaming, for design, for understanding 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.760 how stuff works, that's something I'm really concerned with. I 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.840 really think the hollow lens is a potentially useful tool, 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:04.960 so I hope I get a chance to use it 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.640 at some point. At the end of January, the f 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:12.160 c C redefined broadband speed, calling it twenty five megabits 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.320 per second as download speed and three megabits per second 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:19.240 upload speed. It was a big increase from the earlier definition, 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.560 which I believe was ten megabit megabits per second down 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.840 and one megabit per second up. I got some I 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.200 s p s in a tizzy Internet service providers because 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.800 now they could not claim a ten megabit per second 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.800 speed as being broadband speed. They could not advertise broadband 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.040 speed unless it was at twenty five megabits per second 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.320 or faster, and uh that ended up impacting their business. 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.520 I'd say it was a positive impact for the consumer, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.800 and I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.360 I s p s in general when it comes to 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.840 defining broadband speeds. But that's because as of my own 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:05.960 personal perspective, maybe if I were running an i SP 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.280 I'd have a very different opinion. Moving onto February, we 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.080 saw more data breach problems UH. An insurance company, a 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:18.360 large one called Anthem, disclosed an enormous hacker attack in 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:23.560 which millions of people's personal information had been leaked not 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.240 just direct customers of Anthem, but Anthem also handles insurance 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.400 from lots of other providers. It's kind of like the 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.679 back end for a lot of insurance companies, so potentially 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.520 millions of people had their personal information leaked to hackers 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.320 in that attack. Just a few days later, the White 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.840 House announced the formation of a cyber Threat Intelligence Center 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:53.480 or Intelligence Integration Center, which would collect information and organize 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.000 it and and distribute it in such a way to 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.760 prevent cyber attacks from being successful or responding to eiber threats, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:06.240 although that also raised some people's flags worrying about how 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:11.960 this might end up impacting privacy issues uh February also 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.320 saw Twitter announced the new policy to handle trolls, streamlining 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.280 the internal process for identifying and dealing with online abuse 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.679 on Twitter, and said that after instituting the change, they 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.360 saw a five times increase in the number of people 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.400 being reported for harassment and abuse and they were responding 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.920 as fast as possible in order taking it seriously, which 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.800 was great news for people on Twitter. I have friends 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.480 who have been the victims of harassment on Twitter, and 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.960 it's a terrible thing. It's one of those things about 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.480 the Internet where the distance the Internet provides and the 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.480 anonymity you can have can create an environment that can 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.959 be pretty toxic in some cases, it's not always. I mean, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.320 it also provides the ability for us to communicate with 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.920 folks we otherwise can never talk to. So there are 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.560 great things about this environment, but unfortunately there are some 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.640 bad things too. So this was Twitter's attempt to counteract 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.199 some of the bad. On February twenty six, the FCC 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.880 reclassified broadband as a utility and past net neutrality rules, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.440 which lots of people on the Internet absolutely loved. I 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.160 s p s were not among them. Uh, And there 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:28.400 were some politicians who reacted negatively towards this, largely the 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:34.800 ones who who are also let's say influenced by lobbies 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.800 that represent I sps. We're still seeing those rules being 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:43.480 challenged by various affected parties. UM, we're going to continue 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:47.800 to see this shake out over time. But the reclassification 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.960 means that broadband would providers would no longer be able 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.400 to charge for prioritized traffic. In other words, they would 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.079 not be able to set an amount saying, uh, if 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.520 you create content and you want to go across our 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.200 networks at a decent speed, you have to pay this 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:08.480 amount that was no longer allowed. Uh. They also could 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.920 not selectively block or throttle traffic from sources. So in 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.880 other words, you shouldn't have a company like Comcast be 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:21.520 able to throttle content from a company like Netflix. That 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.520 that would be against the rules based upon this reclassification. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.080 In March, a lot of news happened here. On March six, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.920 the Dawn Probe entered orbit around Series, which meant that 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.360 for the first time ever, we had a spacecraft enter 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:37.959 the orbit of a dwarf planet, and that was pretty 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:42.880 incredible and uh, really exciting stuff. I was very pleased 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.960 to read the news about that, and the the information 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.720 about Series was really fascinating. We also learned in March 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.600 that Tinder. This will not be the only Tender story 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:59.160 in two thousand fifteen. I find Tinder endlessly fascinating. Tinder 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.800 we found out charges older users more for their premium 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.760 service than younger users. So if you are a user 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.240 of a certain age and you want to use Tender premium, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.199 your rates will be higher than people younger than you are. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.360 Tender's response was that old people tend to have more money, 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:27.360 so that's why I guess. Uh. Later in March, a 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:32.520 hacker created a program that connected straight men with other 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.559 straight men, but it appeared that each of the straight 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.240 men were in touch with a woman and created a 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.200 situation in which straight men were essentially flirting with each 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.400 other and Uh. The way it worked was the hacker 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:50.480 created fake bait profiles of women, and when two men 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.200 identified that they were interested in that specific woman, his 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.280 program would link those two men up to each other, 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.720 but they would each believe they were actually talking to 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.760 the bait profile, not to another guy. And when asked 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.160 about his motivation for this, the hackers said that he 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.320 had female friends who complained about the types of messages 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.760 they would receive on Tender, that they thought that they 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.400 were distasteful and harassing, and he thought, well, this will 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.320 give guys a taste of their own medicine. Um. Of 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:26.640 course this targets all guys, not just the ones who 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.520 are being jerk faces. UM. At any rate, it was 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.240 kind of an amusing story. Also in March, we saw 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.719 the launch of two different broadcast services too that we're 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.360 supposed to be using Twitter as a means of of 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:48.240 linking profiles, uh, mere Cat and Periscope. Now, between the two, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.839 Periscope did much better, but that's because Periscope was actually 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.280 being backed by Twitter. Mayor Cat was using Twitter to 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:00.480 link accounts to the Twitter service, so that if you're 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.040 using Mercat, the idea was that it could broadcast the 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.680 fact that you are online to your Twitter followers. And 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:12.560 then Twitter ended up blocking that app, um because they 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.200 had their own They had Periscope, and they had that power. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.000 So Twitter is like, well, we're doing our own broadcast 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.040 app that allows people to stream video live from their 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.239 phone to their followers, and we don't really want the competition. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.440 So guess what, you don't get to play in our yard. 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.200 And that was a big blow to mere Cat. Periscope 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.440 is still one of those things that UM, I think 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.960 is fairly popular, but not overwhelmingly popular. We like to 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.640 do it here at How Stuff Works. If you have 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.360 not followed How Stuff Works on periscope, if you have periscope, 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.400 you might want to consider following How Stuff Works because 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:57.040 we do periscope pretty frequently. Uh and you'll see it 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.040 from all sorts of different shows, like Stuff They Don't 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.320 Want You To Know does a periscope every week. Stuff 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.880 to Blow Your Mind also does a periscope every week. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.440 I'll be doing periscopes pretty frequently on How Stuff Works. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.600 Lauren vogelba on my former co host, She also periscopes 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.800 regularly for How Stuff Works, So check us out. It's 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.360 kind of fun and we like to respond to people. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.440 You know, you can send questions in real time and 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.080 we can respond to you. That's a lot of fun. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.800 Moving on to April, that's when Apple officially put the 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.600 Apple Watch on sale. You can pre order and buy them, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.880 and it started at around three dollars for your basic 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.120 Apple Watch model, so pretty expensive, particularly when you consider 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.720 the fact that it's not useful unless you also have 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.920 an iPhone Um. This is kind of typical with smart watches. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.040 Most of them require another device to pair with and 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.920 that's where they get their data. So, for example the Pebble, 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:58.440 it pairs via Bluetooth to a smartphone and then you 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.200 get notifications on your smartphone and then gets sent to 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.479 your Pebble Watch, and then that's what gives you the notification. 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.840 Same sort of thing with the Apple Watch, except of 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.120 course it only works with the iPhone. It does not 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.960 work with other devices. Early reviews the Apple Watch where 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:16.880 a little mixed. A lot of them said that there 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.680 was a pretty high learning curve um and not everybody 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.760 thought it was terribly useful. And again, like if you're 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.760 talking about you want just the Apple Watch and you 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.160 don't have an iPhone, you're looking at almost a thousand 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:39.880 dollars to get the watch plus a current iPhone UH 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.520 to be able to use the thing. So little bit 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.320 of a steep road. But for Apple fanatics, obviously it 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:51.680 was something that was greeted with glee. People couldn't wait 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.640 to get there. Well, I was gonna say get their 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.800 hands on it, but I guess get them on their 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:03.000 wrists would be more accurate. Also in April, HBO launched 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:07.239 HBO Now, which finally allowed people who did not have 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.640 HBO on their cable plan to get access to HBO content. 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.560 This is something people have been asking for for a 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.400 few years now, the idea of, you know, I want 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.199 to have an experience where I can subscribe to the 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.320 specific channels I want and I don't have to get 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.840 everything else. Uh. It turns out that we're gonna have 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.320 to do that ala carte channel by channel, or at 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.080 least that's what it looks like right now, and HBO 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.000 is one of those that you can do this with. 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.760 You can subscribe to HBO now, you don't have to 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.880 have HBO on your cable subscription, and you can get 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:49.040 access to HBO content. So uh. This has also led 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.639 some people to say, perhaps this is the beginning of 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.720 the end of the cable industry, the cable television industry, 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.600 which would be really interesting if that's the case, because 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.000 HBO played a big role in the beginning of the 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.920 cable industry. If you listen to the episodes we did 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.240 about the HBO story, you can hear about how important 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:15.240 HBO was when cable was just growing. Also, in April, 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.040 Comcast and Time Warner ended up calling it quits on 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.600 their move for a merger. This relieved a lot of 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.360 people who said that if Comcast and Time Warner were 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:30.119 to merge into one company, then even the illusion of 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:35.080 competition would be erased in the cable company and I 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.879 s P world, there are a lot of places where 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.280 Time Warner is the only choice for your cable, Comcast 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.840 is the only choice for your cable. This merger would 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.920 have made the company even bigger. And while Comcast kept 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:53.240 saying that it would promote competition, a lot of critics said, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:58.040 I can't possibly see how that would happen to us. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.840 It looks like you would essentially just dominate eight the 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.080 entire landscape. And if you listen to the Comcast story episodes, 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:09.880 you know comcasts history is essentially one of acquisitions. It's 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.760 a company that bought other companies, and that's how it grew. 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:18.200 Year over year. It added customers, not by improving their 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.800 their offerings necessarily, although you know, obviously I'm sure the 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.520 company tried to do that. Year over year two, it 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.840 largely added customers by buying up other networks and then 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.879 incorporating those networks into Comcast. But this one did not 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.800 work out, and so they abandoned it, largely because they 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.120 were facing some pretty stiff opposition in the general public. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:47.680 They were also seeing opposition from special interest groups from 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.400 other companies, and it was pretty clear there was gonna 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:52.880 be a really hard sell for them to be able 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:58.640 to merge, so they ultimately decided to quit finishing out 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.720 the news for April. A computer glitch in a digital 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.400 slot machine convinced a woman she had one forty one 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.479 million dollars. It turned out to just be a glitch, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.920 a mistake. I can't imagine what this must have felt like. 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:16.280 So the woman ended up suing the casino, saying she 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.160 was owed the money she was told she had one. 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.360 Imagine you're playing a video slot machine and you get 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:25.960 a message saying, hey, you just won forty one million dollars. 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.520 I think you'd be pretty disappointed to go to the 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.359 cashier and find out, Nope, that's the computer error. You 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.119 aren't owed any money, or maybe you're owed a couple 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.320 of bucks. I think it was two dollars sixty three cents. Ultimately, 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:46.280 for this person, the lawsuit was decided in favor of 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.359 the casino, and the judge said, here's the thing, and 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:54.080 the rules for the game are laid out. They're displayed 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.800 on the device or on the machine or they show 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:00.760 up on the screen and explains what the rules are. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.840 And included in those rules was the fact that the 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.560 maximum payout of this machine was ten thousand dollars us 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.800 that you could not win more than that, and based 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.960 upon the results of that spin of the slot machine, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.720 the woman would not have one a jackpot in the 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.760 first place. It was just a computer glitch. And that 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.399 you cannot expect a casino to change the rules of 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.200 a game while a game is being played. That would 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.560 be unfair to one party or the other, or both. 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.080 And so ultimately the judge said, you can't hold a 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.080 casino responsible for the malfunction of a screen. It's an 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.600 unfortunate experience, but it's not one that will result in 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.760 forty one million dollars going to you, Sad Trombone. In 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.560 May two fifteen, the big story was there was another 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:54.720 data security breach, and this time it hit the I 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.000 R S. By August, the U. S Government said that 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.960 as many as three thirty four thousand taxpayer accounts had 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.280 been compromised. Now in May, when they first announced the 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.080 discovery of the breach, they thought it was closer to 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.239 a hundred thousand. So it got worse as time went 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.760 on and as the investigation continued, the hackers had actually 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.199 used a program called get Transcript. That's the program I 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.840 r S had implemented, which was meant to allow users 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.680 to get a look at their tax transactions over time. 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.760 So the hackers took advantage of vulnerabilities and to get 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:35.000 transcript program to get personal information from taxpayers. It's pretty ugly, 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.119 but that's really the only story out of May. So 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.760 moving on into June, June and July, these are two 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.040 months with lots and lots of stories, so I'll try 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.000 and breathe through these as quickly as possible. First of all, 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:49.960 in June, Apple had its Worldwide Developers Conference, one of 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.159 the big events Apple holds every year, and at that 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.840 conference they unveiled OS ten dot eleven, also known as 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.199 El Capitan. They also announced Apple Music, which was a 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:05.639 It is a streaming music service competes with other streaming 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:10.040 music services, everything from Google Play and Amazon Music and 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:14.840 Pandora and Spotify, all those sort of things over and 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:17.920 read it. There was a bit of a brewjaha when 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:23.119 Reddit ended up essentially removing a few subreddits because they 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:30.440 were all centered around harassment, harassing different groups and read 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:34.560 it said that while it strives to be a platform 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:39.439 for free expression, it will not tolerate harassment. That actually 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:43.320 caused a bit of a stir. It was also announced 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:47.240 in June that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo would be stepping 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:51.800 down from the position and Jack Dorsey, the co founder 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.840 of Twitter, would be stepping in as the interim CEO. 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.480 By October this would change, Dorsey would be named the 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:03.399 new per minute CEO of Twitter, and so he is. 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.760 Also in June, Verizon completed its acquisition of A o L, 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:12.000 which was a four point four billion dollar deal, so 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:17.480 A o L is now a property of Verizon. Also 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:21.760 in June e three happened the big news there. Bethesda, 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:25.400 the company that creates games like Fallout and Skyrim, held 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:29.400 its first ever press conference and blew people away with 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:33.360 the the real pit Boy that you could order, as 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:36.680 well as a Fallout shelter which went which became available 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:39.919 that day at least for iOS devices. It was a 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:44.159 big hit. Microsoft showed off the hollow lens and that 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.280 got a big reaction. They also announced that the Xbox 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.520 One would get backwards compatibility with a selection of Xbox 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:53.159 three sixty titles. That was a big hit as well. 0:24:54.560 --> 0:25:01.199 Another big hit was Star Wars battle Front. Excuse me, 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:11.760 noll mm hmmm. Another big hit with Star Wars Battlefront. Uh. 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:13.879 It got a great reaction from the crowd when it 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:17.360 was announced. It has since come out and I think 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:22.320 see mainly positive reviews, but there are certainly some criticisms 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:25.200 I've seen. I I played in the beta and thought 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:27.760 it was really It captured the feeling of Star Wars 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:31.800 really well, but the gameplay left something to be desired, 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:34.040 at least for me. But then I haven't played all 0:25:34.080 --> 0:25:36.399 the game modes either. I only played the couple that 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.000 were available in the beta, so perhaps I would change 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:41.639 my mind if I played the full game. But there 0:25:41.640 --> 0:25:43.199 are a lot of other things that came out of 0:25:43.280 --> 0:25:47.959