WEBVTT - Tech News: Why Facebook Went Offline 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.400 and I love all things tech and it is time 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:25.840 for the tech news for Tuesday, October five, twenty one. 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.639 Let's get at it. Chances are you are aware that 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.279 yesterday Facebook and all of its services went offline for 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:41.320 several hours. That includes Facebook itself, Messenger, Instagram, What's That, 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:46.680 and Oculus VR. The outage began at approximately eleven forty 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.920 a m. Eastern time. That's when facebooks records on the 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:56.880 domain name system suddenly went So. The domain name system 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.200 or d n S is like an address or or 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.160 phone book for the Internet. So you probably know about 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.959 IP addresses, those numerical addresses, especially I p v four 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.600 is numerical, I p v six is a mix. But 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.520 this is how say a web browser connects to a 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:19.160 specific web page. It actually connects through an I p address. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.840 But IP addresses are not easy for most humans to 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.760 remember because again they just look like a jumble of 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.520 numbers or with I p v six numbers and possibly letters. 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.040 So we use words for our u r ls like 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.319 Facebook dot Com, for example, and the d n S 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.480 translates those words, which doesn't you know, words don't really 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.360 mean anything to web browsers. That's just how we navigate 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.160 the web. And so d n S says, all right, well, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.880 let me look and see what I P address that 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.360 particular series of words relates to, and then serves that up. Now, 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.080 on Facebook's case, the problems seemed to be that Facebook somehow, 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:03.880 probably through a miscon figuration, eliminated its Border Gateway Protocol 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.000 or b GP route. This is kind of like a 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.400 map of how data can get to Facebook's servers. Facebook 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:16.840 servers published this route to neighboring servers, and they propagated outwards. 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.359 So it's kind of like if you're driving through an 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.440 unfamiliar town and you stop to ask a local for directions. 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.680 You say something like, hey, do you happen to know 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.760 the way to get to Facebook, and they say, well, yeah, 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.800 go down this road a peace and when you see 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.560 the sign for Old Donigan's farm, you turn left. Now, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.160 if you pass an ambulatory scarecrow, you've done gone too far, 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:42.160 except because Facebook withdrew the b g P. If you 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.080 were to stop and ask for directions, and say do 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:45.800 you know the way to Facebook? You would get the 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.440 answer you can't get that from hreh. But wait, it 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:54.120 gets worse. See Facebook's systems are all internal ones built 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.800 on these computers that connect to these particular servers. That 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.320 got effect of Lee severed from the Internet and the 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.760 loss of the b g P meant that not only 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.240 could you as a user no longer check your Facebook 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:13.840 or Instagram or use WhatsApp, and you couldn't play Oculus VR. 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.960 If you were a Facebook employee, you couldn't access your 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.120 internal systems. You might not even be able to access 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.560 the building I saw. One person suggests that the security 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.000 system itself is tied into those servers and that your 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.959 security badge wouldn't work to let you in in that case. Also, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.560 Facebook has Facebook log In. This is where you know 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.080 various apps use your Facebook login for you to access 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.000 the app. That way, you don't create a user name 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.240 and a password for that specific app. Instead, you use 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.280 your Facebook login. Well, with Facebook servers down, there was 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.040 no way to authenticate that. So if you were not 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:53.120 actually actively signed into those services, you might have found 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.280 it impossible to connect to all those apps. It took 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.800 several hours to reconfigure the b GP routes, and that 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.320 has made more complicated because obviously the computers that you 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.480 would normally use to reconfigure that were the same ones 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.960 that were you know, quote unquote disappeared from the Internet. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.680 So it was a pretty rough day for Facebook. Now, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.400 this was just part of the drama that Facebook is 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.400 currently going through. On Sunday this past Sunday, former Facebook 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.559 employee Francis Howgan appeared on Sixty Minutes and it turns 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.680 out that Francis is the person who leaked internal research 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.120 documents to the Wall Street Journal. You know, the studies 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.320 that showed that Facebook researchers were concerned that Instagram was 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:43.200 harmful to mental health, particularly for teenage girl who girls 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.520 who were using the service um and that Facebook was 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.840 well aware of how misinformation was spreading across the platform 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:55.480 and how the algorithm was elevating misinformation campaigns. On the interview, 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.320 she alleged that Facebook, when faced with a decision to 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.640 either go for making a profit or go with an 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.039 option that would be better for users, would always choose 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.560 the profit option every single time. Today, she has scheduled 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.719 to appear before the United States Senate to answer questions 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.960 about her former employer, And of course we have been 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.800 having ongoing conversations within the government, the US government and 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.279 the European government as well about whether or not Facebook 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.960 represents a monopoly and if perhaps it might be a 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.280 good idea to, you know, force the company to divest 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:36.239 itself of properties like Instagram and WhatsApp. Now, I've also 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:41.039 seen some people suggest that somehow the outage yesterday was 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.320 linked to the hearing that's happening today and and the 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.920 sixty minutes expose that had happened on Sunday, that perhaps 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.240 someone over at Facebook was trying to hide something and 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:57.000 just took extreme measures. But that doesn't seem like that 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.720 doesn't seem to hold up even under casual screw utiny. 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.960 I would argue that the outage hurt the company big time, 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.440 and at the worst possible moment for Facebook, for one thing, 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:14.320 because Facebook went down and all these various integrated services 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.040 then became unavailable. The people who say Facebook has too 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:23.039 much influence have way more ammunition, right, because millions of 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.760 people rely on, say, WhatsApp to stay in touch with 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.279 family and friends around the world, including vulnerable populations who 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.840 use WhatsApp in order to maintain contact with people, like say, 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:40.800 back in Africa or in South America. But because WhatsApp 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.280 runs on Facebook's systems, that whole service became unavailable globally 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.839 for like six hours. This, the critics argue, is what 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.479 happens when we put all of our digital eggs in 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.560 one social media platforms basket. Right, If we have our 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.520 logins tied to Facebook, If the service as we rely 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.800 upon to stay in touch with everybody are part of 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.760 Facebook and Facebook goes down, all of that becomes unavailable 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.520 to us. That, as the argument goes, is an argument 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.800 against this kind of consolidation that we've been seeing with 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.800 platforms like Facebook, where you know, they're not just building 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:23.360 out their own tools, they're buying up tools that overlap 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.360 what Facebook already does. A lot of people have pointed 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.400 out over the years that Facebook has acquired companies when 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.680 it became clear that Facebook itself was not going to 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.320 be able to compete against those companies, and those companies 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.480 potentially stood as a threat when it comes to getting 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:44.600 people to spend more and more time on Facebook. Now, 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.280 beyond those pieces of evidence that suggests that this is 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.080 not something that the company would have wanted Bloomberg estimated 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.040 that the outage and the dip and Facebook's stock price, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:02.120 which has been going on since, you know, earlier in September. UH, 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.120 that also meant that CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his wealth 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:10.200 decreased by around seven billion dollars. Now that is beyond 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.240 a princely some obviously, and that's not to say that 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.280 he won't regain that wealth now that Facebook is back 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.960 up and running. Maybe he will. Maybe the company's UH 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.800 stock prices will improve, although with the hearing in front 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.600 of the U. S. Senate that's not certain. I would 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:31.440 argue no one would authorize some sort of extreme pull 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:36.520 the plug UH strategy at the cost of seven billion bucks. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.679 I'm pretty confident this was all coincidental. It was a 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.000 miss configuration, It was not done on purpose, and it 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.240 was just supremely bad timing for Facebook for all this 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.040 to happen at once. Will the U. S. Government force 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.880 Facebook to say bye bye to Instagram and WhatsApp? I 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.080 honestly don't know. There is precedent. We have seen the 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.800 government break up big company years before, but it hasn't 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.400 happened in a long time, and I'm not sure that 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.800 it will happen in this case. However, I figure there's 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.240 never been a time with more obvious support for that 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:17.440 argument than right now. Yesterday really brought that into, you know, 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.480 into the light. Last week, I reported that Amazon would 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.199 hold a hardware reveal event, but that my recording session 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.160 happened before the event occurred, so I couldn't actually say 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.520 what they were going to show off. I did mention 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.160 that the Verge had predicted a wall mounted echo device, 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.800 and we got one. It's called the Echo Show. But 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.800 that site also predicted we wouldn't see anything about the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.440 robot that Amazon had had in development for a few 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.800 years at that point. However, Amazon surprised us all and 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.160 in fact brought out a robot that it now calls Astro. 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.800 The robot will initially sell to a limited customer base 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.680 by invitation only, so you actually have to request and invite, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.520 and you must hand over the princely sum of nine 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.319 dollars to buy it. Later on, that price is actually 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:12.439 going to go up to around one tho. The robot 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.840 has a tablet like screen for a face, like it's 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.360 got these digital eyes. Essentially kind of looks a little 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.440 bit like Wally from the Pixar film. It moves around 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.640 on two twelve inch wheels, and it's got a little 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.520 castor like wheel in the back to provide more stability. 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.120 It's got cameras, including a five megapixel camera built into 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.720 the screen, but it's also got a periscope camera it 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.120 can extend and use to look around at surroundings. It's 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.880 got a speaker, it's got a microphone. It has facial 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.640 recognition technology built into it. It can learn a map 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.319 of your home, so you can have it learned the 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.680 layout of your home and assigned specific names to specific rooms. Thus, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.680 you could tell your robot, hey, you know, go to 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.160 the kitchen and it would navigate over to the chin 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.880 from wherever it happened to be. Um. It's got all 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.160 the Alexa capabilities built into it so that it can 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.760 respond to the request that you would typically use to 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.240 ask Alexa for stuff like what the weather is, or 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.640 to play a certain song and all that kind of stuff. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.160 Not everyone is sold on this robot. The m I 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.040 T Technology Review has called the robot stupid. The Verge 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.240 ran a follow up piece saying that developers who had 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.400 worked on the robot had reportedly called it terrible and 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.280 claimed it would make dumb mistakes such as throwing itself 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.560 off the stairs, So if you have stairs in your home, 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:37.760 you might not want to have this thing on an 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.600 upper level. I think I would advise folks to maybe 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.160 pump the brakes a bit before shelling out a grand 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.800 or more for this thing. While we have stuff like 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.679 room Buzz and those are reasonably popular, we're really still 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:54.320 waiting on the household robot that is a must buy. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.319 I've seen a lot of people suggest that this robot 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.440 doesn't do a whole really when you get down to it, 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.920 and the stuff that it does do, it doesn't necessarily 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:11.439 do super well, so it's not like a wise purchasing decision. Um. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.600 I mean, it would potentially give Amazon a lot more 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.040 opportunities to figure out how to sell stuff to you. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.080 I mean, if they've got essentially a computer that can 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.480 move around your house and observe stuff, then you could 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.920 argue this could just be another way for Amazon to 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.080 position itself in order to sell more products to customers. 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.720 And frankly, I suspect that that is a large part 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.040 of it. And you you have to pay for that privilege, right, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.080 You have to pay like a thousand dollars or more 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.480 in order to have the privilege of having a surveillance 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:46.240 device that is potentially giving more information to a company 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.000 to sell you more stuff. Anyway. Besides the robot and 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.760 the wall mounted Echo Show, which again is like a 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.320 smart display that you can attach to a wall, we 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.199 also saw the Echo Glow. This is a table top 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.480 tablet for video conferencing for kids, and it's meant to 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.280 appeal to children so that they video conference with distant 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.559 friends and family and they don't get bored and just 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.200 wander off. That was what Amazon said. The purpose was 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.079 behind the design. So in this case, the tablet actually 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.960 has incorporated inside of it a projector. The projector can 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:26.760 display stuff on the tabletop in front of the tablet. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.600 It even comes with like a white mat. It's kind 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.760 of like a movie screen, so you lay the mat down, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.160 you put the tablet behind the mat, and it can 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.240 project a screen down on the mat that's on the table. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.240 Uh that can become an interactive story book, you can 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:44.920 become a game. And there are infrared sensors inside the 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.960 tablet so it can track things like hand motion, so 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.679 when you're you know, moving stuff around on this screen, 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.120 it's acting almost like a touch screen. It's kind of 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.880 a neat idea. I'm not entirely sold on it, but 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.679 then I also don't have any kids, so um. Amazon 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.640 also revealed a smart thermostat fitness track your devices, and 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:09.160 also a version of its Echo device specifically designed for 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.400 Disney properties. So in the future, should you stay at 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.200 like a Walt Disney World resort, you might find that 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.320 there is a Disney themed Echo and you can use 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.480 it to ask questions like checking on dining reservations or 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.520 asking about park hours, that kind of stuff. Um, I 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:32.760 was not super impressed with the Amazon presentation, but then 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:34.760 I also don't want this to be an Amazon ad. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.560 So we're just gonna go to break and listen to 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.760 other ads and then come back with some more news 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.200 and we're back. Researchers at Trendy College in Dublin, Ireland, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.440 which by the way, is one of my favorite spots 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.760 in Ireland, have released a research paper that looked into 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.600 how much data iOS and Android devices gather from their 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.840 respective users. The paper says that both operating systems send 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.360 packets of data back to you know, their their respective 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.840 h q s approximately every four and a half minutes. 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.960 Whether you're using it or not. This happens even if 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.920 you've gone to the trouble of setting all data sharing 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.680 options to off. Keep in mind, some data sharing isn't optional, 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.080 it's mandatory. And the study did find some differences between 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.480 the two. Google, they said, collects much larger volumes of data. 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.640 The size of packets that Google sending back is much 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.920 greater than what Apple is doing. However, Apple, while sending 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:46.120 less data, overall, sent a wider variety of data, including 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.920 data about other devices that are connected to whichever network 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.200 you connect to. Android doesn't do that, so Apple is 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.000 interested in what other devices are on the same network 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.840 you're on. I guess. The Google reps have said this 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.880 is really just kind of how smartphones work. They compared 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.200 it to how modern day vehicles have components that send 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:11.400 data back to car companies for safety purposes. The researchers 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:13.920 said that if users really want to limit how much 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.840 of your data your phone collects and shares, you should 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.360 really go with an Android phone because despite the fact 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.360 that it's sending more data, you have more options. You 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.080 can have network connections disabled when you activate your phone, 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.880 and you should also disabled Google Play and YouTube, and 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.520 the Google Play Store. That cuts down on most of 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.080 the data collection. You would still need to sideload apps 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.960 and get them from someplace other than the Google Play 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.440 Store in order to avoid that data collection. Even then, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.240 you're just minimizing the amount of data that's being collected 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.280 and shared. They did say that Apple users are just 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.000 out of lock because Apple requires a network connection to 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.000 activate an iPhone. So Apple users are subjected to data 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.120 collection no matter what they do. Speaking of Apple, the 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.400 Wall Street Journal parts that Apple made more operating profit 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:07.879 from games than Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Activision Blizzard combined. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:13.240 And Apple doesn't make games, but profited more from games 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.960 than all those other companies. Al Right, so in some 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.359 ways this actually is not a big surprise, right. I 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.440 Mean we're talking operating profit, we're not talking revenue. So 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.920 companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and Activision Blizzard they actually 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.840 make games. Now that means that there are costs associated 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.959 with that business. You know, Profit is what you've got 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.080 after you've accounted for the costs of producing whatever it 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.119 is you're producing. So if I decide I'm going to 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.280 go and make a chair, and I sell that chair 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.840 for fifty dollars, but it turns out the materials cost 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.400 me sixty dollars. Well, I lost money on that, right, 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.280 I didn't make a profit. That's a loss. While Apple 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.680 generates revenue by taking a cut of all digital sales 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.240 up to in some cases, so Apple gets a slice 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.160 of the pie, which is I guess, Apple pie. Every 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.040 time someone purchases a game from the Apple App Store, 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.480 or and this is really important, they get a slice 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.920 of the pie if a person makes an in game 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.760 purchase on an app that was taken from the Apple 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.480 App Store. Apple has been going through a series of 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.240 court cases about those in game purchases, having recently been 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.320 ordered by a judge to offer alternatives or allow for 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.440 alternatives to Apple's own in app purchasing system. This would 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.359 give users the option to go with something else and 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.000 not go through Apple. This is at the heart of 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.040 the matter between Apple and Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.040 So again, yes, Apple has made more profiting games than 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.800 official game companies, but then Apple also doesn't have to 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.920 have the expense of development for those. A man named 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.120 O N. D As, a former elevator operator at Tesla, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.920 sued the company, charging that Tesla is a hostile work environment, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.320 and that he and other employees were the targets for 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.439 things like racial slurs and intimidation. A court found in 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.199 his favor, and the court has awarded him some one 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.360 seven million dollars or so in damages. Now, one thing 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.600 that makes this story really important is the fact that 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.480 Diaz was even able to sue at all. Tesla, like 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.879 a lot of tech companies, has a policy that requires 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:27.600 employees to sign an arbitration agreement. Now, these agreements say 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:32.199 that employees must work within company systems to resolve problems. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.639 They are not allowed to go outside the company and say, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.080 address the media or sue the company in a court 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.840 and take it to a public trial. However, Diaz never 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.040 signed that kind of an agreement, so he wasn't held 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:50.080 to those restrictions. He could sue without breaking an agreement 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.639 he had made with the company. And you might even say, hah, 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.959 kind of sounds to me like these sorts of agreements 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.280 would allow for a toxic work environment to flourish, and 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.640 that there would be no real way you could address 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.800 it because all the disputes have to be handled internally, 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:09.680 and if the system is rotten, then you'll never come 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.840 out on top because the game is stacked against you 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.760 from the beginning. You would not be the only person 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.800 to think that way. In fact, one of one of 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.960 the the investors of Tesla, an organization called NIA Impact 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.280 Capital Um, has sent uh the board of directors a 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.520 request to review this arbitration policy, raising concerns that the 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.560 policy enables harassment. Now, I would go even further than that. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.800 I would say it encourages harassment. Also, I mean, is 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.760 it just me or do you sense that there's like 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:46.320 a growing labor movement in the United States? You know, 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.359 I think we're still in the very early stages and 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.199 it could just fizzle out. But I also feel like 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.280 younger generations in particular are getting a bit more head 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.679 up about the status quo, and they're demanding things change 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.040 or they won't play ball. And hey, young folks, I 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.960 am with you on this one. You know, I might 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.840 not understand your squid games and your TikTok's, but I'm 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:14.080 all for overhauling the labor system. Also, here's hoping Tesla 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:20.040 cracks down on those internal problems and really does try 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.600 to change that toxic work environment. It would be really 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:28.520 nice to hear about companies actually making substantial transformational changes 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:32.520 in workplaces and find a place where employees are all 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.359 treated with respect and dignity, which I know that's crazy talk, 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.480 but it would be a nice change of pace from 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.720 the stories we constantly get about companies that have terrible 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:49.240 work environments, really demoralized employees, and just it just sounds 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.320 like the worst. So I am hoping that Tesla makes 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.040 those changes. Also, I hope that we start to see 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.400 more resistance to this trend of arbitration agreements being put 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.119 in place. It's just a way for companies to protect 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:08.919 themselves at the expense of their employees. And I don't 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.800 think that's I don't when we're talking about protection, I 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:13.960 don't think it's the companies that need to be protected. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.680 I think it's the individual employees who need the protection. Again, 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.840 that's my own opinion. Sticking with cars, since we just 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:27.480 talked about Tesla, let's chat a bit about California because 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.760 it's that state's Department of Motor Vehicles that just granted 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:34.520 permits to a pair of self driving car companies, that 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.200 being Way Moo and Cruise. They both have been given 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:42.280 permits to operate light duty self driving taxi cabs in 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:47.439 San Francisco and in way most case beyond. But these 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.879 permits do come with some restrictions. However, they're not open ended. 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:55.320 So in cruises case, that company's cabs will only be 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.720 able to operate between ten pm and six am, so 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.840 they can only operate it overnight. They are allowed a 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.520 maximum speed of thirty miles per hour, and they can't 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:10.160 operate during particularly foggy or rainy conditions. I actually find 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.800 that ten pm to six am really odd. I mean, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:16.800 maybe it's to avoid traffic. Um. I was trying to 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:20.800 find more confirmation on this and make sure that it 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.439 wasn't just a transcription error and that they didn't they 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.000 didn't mean between six am and ten pm, but rather 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:30.480 ten pm and six am. I I don't know, so 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:34.120 I'm just going with what the press release said. So, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:38.560 since we're talking San Francisco, and this does limit when 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:42.040 the vehicles can operate and they can't operate in bad weather, 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:45.040 it really does restrict when they would be able to 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:51.520 two autonomously drive the streets of San Francisco. WAYMO, which 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:54.400 is part of Alphabet that's the company that's also apparent 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:57.159 to Google, gets a bit more leeway the way MOO 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:00.600 cars will be authorized to travel up to sixty five 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:02.760 miles per hour, so they could go on too highways. 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.240 They can go beyond just San Francisco, but not the 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:09.160 entire state. Uh. They don't appear to have a limitation 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:11.680 on when they are allowed to operate, so we don't 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.240 have like restricted hours for waymo as far as I 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:17.440 can suss out. They also are not allowed to drive 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:19.800 if the weather is too nasty, so that restriction does 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:23.800 still apply. But does this actually mean that robo taxis 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.679 are right now prowling the streets of San Francisco. Not 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:30.160 quite yet, because the companies will still need to get 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:34.800