WEBVTT - Tech News: Did Samsung Fudge TV Benchmark Tests? 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:07.840 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.440 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.280 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.840 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:26.000 tech news for Thursday, June twenty twenty two. Let's get 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.480 to it here. In the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:36.720 has introduced the Health and Location Protection Act. This proposed legislation, 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.680 if it's passed into law, would place tight restrictions on 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.640 companies regarding user location and health data. As it stands, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.160 Warrent argues, data brokers can buy and sell that kind 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:54.200 of information, which obviously compromises people's privacy. And in light 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.520 of the expected Supreme Court decision to overturn Row versus Wade, 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.480 there's also a concern women who live in states that 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:06.320 outlaw abortion might be persecuted should they seek an abortion 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.320 in another part of the country. In fact, some states 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.440 might consider passing laws that would make it illegal for 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.800 citizens to leave the state in order to get an abortion, 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.840 which is a complicated topic. It would undoubtedly face multiple 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.480 tests in court, but in the meantime, Senator Warren is 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.200 concerned that people will be struggling while the political system 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.640 actually hashes everything out. So part of the impetus for 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.960 this legislation is the desire to protect those who need 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.200 to travel in order to seek out a medical procedure 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.280 that would otherwise be illegal for them. But generally speaking, 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.039 there's been a need for better protections for data for 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.560 a very long time for US citizens. We've seen other 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.000 parts of the world, notably the European Union past broad 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.560 legislation aimed at protecting citizen data, but here in the 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.480 US that really hasn't been a thing, at least not 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.080 at the federal level. Warren's proposal would give the FTC 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.680 the power to enforce rules regarding location and health data, 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.840 and it would also give citizens a path to sue 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:17.079 data brokers that are found to violate that law. Of course, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.400 a lot has to happen before a proposal becomes law, 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.840 so there's no guarantee that this will actually get to 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.480 a point where you know, we can rely on it. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.000 We'll have to see. While we're on the subject of 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.120 data brokers and user privacy, let's talk about a change 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.160 that Firefox has made recently. The browser has been employing 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.280 numerous protective features for several years now, back in Tighten 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.560 it launched the Enhanced Tracking Protection or e t P feature, 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.880 and initially that was an option you could activate, but 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:54.000 Firefox later would turn it on by default. ETP blocks 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.160 web cookies from known trackers. These are entities that attempt 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.840 to track user brow your behavior from site to site 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.360 in an effort to build out dossiers on those users, 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:10.040 typically so that the tracker can then sell that data 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.400 to data brokers, and they in turn typically sell the 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.720 information advertisers. Of course, there are a lot of other 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.240 things that can happen with your data, most of them 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.600 are not good. But the most recent feature that Firefox 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.400 has turned on by default is one that protects against 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:29.440 cross site tracking. That means this feature prevents cookies from 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.280 tracking where you came from and where you're going to 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.840 across different sites, and it's called total cookie protection. The 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.960 concept is that each website cookie will be siloed from 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.600 everything else. In fact, bleeping computer dot com has a 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.840 great way of putting this that each websites cookies will 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.280 be kept in that website's own cookie jar and they 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.400 won't mix with the other websites, so you'll still be 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.880 able to take advantage of what cookies can offer on 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.360 an individual site. So for example, uh, it could keep 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.400 your browsing history on a specific site, like a shopping site, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.400 so that way you can easily navigate to stuff that 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.960 you had shown interest in, or it might keep you 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.280 logged into a site between sessions. Those are useful things. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.600 So cookies are not all bad, but it will prevent 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.479 trackers from being able to build a browsing profile or 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.679 fingerprint on you. So this has led to some people 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.520 declaring Firefox as being the most secure browser when it 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.800 comes to user data, that there are the most protections 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.280 in place, many of them on by default that will 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.400 prevent your data from falling into the wrong hands, especially 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.640 without your knowledge, because a lot of that stuff happens 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:44.560 without us necessarily being aware of it. I don't often 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.880 talk about benchmark tests on this show, but I've got 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.320 a couple of stories that relate to them today. So 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.560 a benchmark test is one in which the test administrator 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.200 puts whatever technology it happens to be through a series 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:03.240 of tasks to measure it's actual output. Because sometimes actual 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.360 output and what was, you know, theoretically possible on paper 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.000 are two very different things. So Our first benchmark story 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:16.240 is about Apple's mto processor. Apple had been relying on 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.360 Intel up until a couple of years ago to provide 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:24.200 the processors for Apple's computers. But now the second generation 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.080 of Apple's own processor, the M two UH, is out, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.600 and the tests say that the new one is twelve 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.320 percent faster than the M one processor in the same 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.119 sort of machine if it's used in a single core 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:42.640 processor mode, but when used in multi core functions, the 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.839 M two processor is twenty percent faster. That's actually even 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.400 better than what Apple was saying. And it's w w 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.240 d C presentation about its upcoming computers it had more 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.960 conservatively placed the M two as being eighteen percent faster 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.480 than the M one, So this is really good news 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.279 for folks rely on Apple machines. Now we just have 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.960 to hope that Worth's law doesn't muck things up. And 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.840 in case you're unfamiliar, Worth's law is actually a kind 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.160 of a cheeky observation that says software is getting slower 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.840 at a rate that outpaces how computers are getting faster. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.120 Essentially that programmers, when they're given the leverage of better hardware, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:25.599 end up making even more bloated software. The other benchmark 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.040 test story I wanted to cover is about Samsung and 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:34.360 it's television's Vincent Teo of h D TV Test discovered 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:39.120 that the s nine five b q d O led 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.320 TV that he was testing in gosh, I just I 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.320 love model names, don't you. It's so easy anyway, that 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.279 this particular television he was testing was acting a little peculiar. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.080 You see, Typically, the way that test administrators check on 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.880 televisions is that they create a test window that only 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:02.040 takes up a certain percentage age of the full screen 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.200 of the television. You know, they're focusing on a sector 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.560 of the TV screen in order to do their tests, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:14.240 and the typical test uses ten percent of a television screen. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.400 These tests tend to measure everything from luminosity as in 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.440 how bright the images can get, to contrast which is 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.040 the range of colors between true black and true white, 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:31.920 and resolution, among other things. Teo documented that the Samsung 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.440 TV he tested appeared to be boosting performance within the 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:40.080 test area, which meant that the television was inflating its score. 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.040 It was cheating, in other words, was using an algorithm 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:49.200 to give unrealistic results that could not be replicated on 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.880 the television as a whole. This actually reminds me of 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.160 Diesel gait, which was the Volkswagen scandal from a few 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.440 years ago, if case you don't remember that. In that scandal, 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:05.520 people discovered that several diesel powered Volkswagen models would switch 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.000 into kind of a low emissions mode when the car's 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.520 computer system detected that the car was being tested for emissions, 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.440 But then once it was disconnected from the test system, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.360 the car would then switch into a performance mode, presumably 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.640 one that would not have passed the emissions test because 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.760 it was going to create more emissions, it was going 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.880 to output more power. Well, Samsung sounds like it was 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.800 doing something similar, and when tested, the television would send 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.439 more power to that little test region to boost stuff 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.079 like luminosity, But it wouldn't be able to do that 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.640 for the television screen as a whole, at least not 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:48.800 sustainably without risking damaging the TV itself. Teo and others 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.040 found that by using a non standard test window, one 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.760 that didn't take up ten percent of the screen, say 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.079 just nine of the screen, that the television would perform 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.280 and its normal pacity, and that this the so called 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.720 cheating algorithm, would be foiled. So Samsung came under fire 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.280 for trying to fudge its television benchmarks, at least allegedly 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.880 trying to do that. The company's response has not exactly 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.439 been an admission of wrongdoing. Rather, when responding to a 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.920 query posted by flat Panels h D, the company repped 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.959 from Samsung wrote quote, to provide a more dynamic viewing 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.800 experience for the consumers, Samsung will provide a software update 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:34.080 that ensures consistent brightness of HDR contents across a wider 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.640 range of windows size beyond the industry standard end quote. 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.840 Now what they're saying is, oh, we didn't account for 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.240 people using other sizes besides ten percent window because that standard. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.640 So we're just gonna update this so that when you 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.760 do your test window, no matter what the sizes, you're 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.880 gonna get the right results. It kind of sounds like 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.160 they're updating the cheating algorithm, as flat Panels a D 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.920 called it, in order to fool any kind of test. 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.960 But you know, maybe maybe that's just a misinterpretation on 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.679 my part. You know, we'll have to wait and see 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.520 if there's any follow up to this, and you know, 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.880 if if it turns out that the whole TV screen 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.800 actually is capable of the same things that the benchmark 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.080 tests were saying. There's a moot point, but flat panels, 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.480 HD and others have suggested that according to their tests, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.760 that just wasn't what they were seeing. So we'll have 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.480 to see if this story develops. We have some more 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.440 stories for today. Before we get to those, let's take 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:52.520 a quick break. We're back. It's time to get boring. Yeah. 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.280 The Boring Company, which if you weren't familiar, is an 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.920 Elon musk Endeavor, has received the go ahead to day 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.000 more tunnels beneath the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. So 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.920 the Boring Company previously built a tunnel system under the 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.920 Las Vegas Convention Center with the goal of making it 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.800 easier to get across the lvc C during busy conferences 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:18.000 like C s now way back in the day. In 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.559 the earliest days of the Boring Company, we largely associated 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.240 the idea of the Boring Company with the idea of 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.760 the hyper loop transportation system. But these days that vision 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:33.200 has been whittled back to essentially underground roads, at least 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.880 in the case of the Las Vegas Convention Center, because 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:40.160 they're rather than having passengers and cars moved through tunnels 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:45.280 on trains or even on sleds within tunnels where much 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.000 of the air has been pumped out in order to 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.680 reduce air resistance and increase the rate of travel. Instead, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:55.680 passengers hop into human driven Tesla vehicles. So really it's 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.920 ride hailing, but underground and with only Tesla vehicles driven 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:05.360 by humans. So this isn't even that first compromised vision 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.680 where we went from the hyperloop train to a moving sled, 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.240 so that you would drive your vehicle onto a sled 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.880 which would then take you and your vehicle to wherever 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.240 it was you wanted to go. Instead, this is just 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.800 getting into a vehicle and writing to a stop, at 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.040 least at the convention center. I don't know that that's 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.839 how it's going to be for Las Vegas as a whole, 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.480 but the City of Las Vegas has approved the boring 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.840 company's plan to dig a system that will spend nearly 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.959 thirty miles and will include more than fifty stops on it. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.839 And maybe that system will incorporate the sled devices we 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.200 heard about in the past, or maybe it'll just be 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.600 an underground road system that adds more traffic to Las Vegas. 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.280 Is just traffic that's happening underneath the city. Many critics 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.840 have argued that an alternative like a train system would 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.880 have been a much better option. But I suppose we're 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:55.880 just gonna have to wait to find out like it's 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.240 Once it happens, we'll be able to say more clearly 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.600 if it was a success or not. Of course, by 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.280 then it might be too late. But who knows. Maybe 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.760 the tunnels will be really effective. I'm a little skeptical, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.880 but I hope that I'm proven wrong. The Washington Post 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:16.240 recently published an article about how the US National Highway 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.120 Traffic Safety Administration, or n h t s A, released 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.719 a report showing that within the last year or so, 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.920 Tesla vehicles in autopilot mode have been involved in two 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.000 hundred seventy three crashes. That's a lot more than had 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.400 been previously reported, and according to the nh t s A, 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.280 Tesla vehicles made up almost seventy percent of all crashes 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.480 that happened while a vehicle was operating in an advanced 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.319 driver assistance mode, which is what we would call Tesla's 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.640 autopilot system. Now, I want to walk through a few 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.600 things before we really draw any conclusions. Y'all know, I 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.680 am not a big fan of Tesla the company, but 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.160 I think it's only fair that we really consider all 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.040 the different factors before we just say, oh, that means 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.720 Tesla vehicles are inherently unsafe. I don't think that's a 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:10.160 fair conclusion, because one is that you know, of all 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.600 accidents in driver assistance mode being Tesla vehicles. That is huge, 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.640 you know, saying that nearly three quarters of all vehicles 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.680 that are involved in crashes, all vehicles that were in 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.040 advanced driver assistance mode while being involved in crashes are Tesla's. 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.760 That does paint a bad picture. But does that actually 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.680 mean that Tesla system is inherently more dangerous than any 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:36.680 other manufacturers system. Not necessarily, because to draw that conclusion 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.120 we would need a lot more data. For example, you know, 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.480 Tesla is a really popular car model that has those 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:49.560 sorts of features. Not every car has advanced driver assistant features, right, 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.080 So you would first need to know what percentage of 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:58.760 the overall market of vehicles with these features does Tesla occupy, right, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.720 Because if Tesla has of the cars with these features 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:07.120 on the road, but only accounts for seventy of accidents 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.640 involved with these features, enabled. That's different than saying, oh, well, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.160 Tesla makes up of the market. Right. You have to 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.000 know all these things in order to be able to 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.880 draw some conclusions. Tesla maintains that its systems reduced the 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.360 likelihood of crashes, and it could be that Tesla's driver 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:30.480 assistance features have actually prevented way more accidents than otherwise 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.040 would have happened. So like, there's no way for us 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.280 to know that, right. We can't look back and say 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:40.400 how many accidents didn't happen because of autopilot. It could 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.600 be that if autopilot had not been a factor, lots 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.800 more people would have been in a lot more accidents. 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.280 It's impossible for us to say. So. Again, we can't 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.920 draw firm conclusions because we lack the data to be 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:57.080 able to do it. One other thing I did find interesting. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.960 According to the Washington Post, regulators discus heard that Tesla's 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:06.400 autopilot system would automatically shut off a second before impact 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:12.240 when the system detected an imminent crash. So the implication 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.520 there is that Tesla may have built in kind of 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:21.000 a plausible deniability switch that technically, when a Tesla vehicle 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.040 gets in a crash, autopilot wasn't in charge because autopilot 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.160 shut off a second before the truck the crash actually happened. However, 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.680 the nh T s A accounted for this by demanding 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:39.120 data for any accident that happened within thirty seconds of 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:44.920 an advanced driver assistant system being active. So you couldn't 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.640 ignore those cases. Right, if the autopilot shut off one 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.440 second before an accident, that would still qualify for the 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.840 nh T s A. UH and a thirty second gap 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.080 is long enough where you could reasonably say, well, the 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.680 auto pilot system or whatever the driver assist system was 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.680 couldn't have been responsible because there was a long enough 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:09.800 gap there between when it was on and when it 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.439 was switched off. So it had to be you know, 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:17.200 human responsibility, not not machine responsibility. So that was how 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.880 the nh T s A kind of got around that issue. Now, 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:25.080 this information about these accidents have prompted some lawmakers to 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.760 say they need to look more closely at this sort 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.040 of technology, and that does make sense. I don't think 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.440 anyone is going so far as to say these features 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.800 are a bad idea, but rather that the implementation and 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.480 deployment can put people at risk, particularly if people rely 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.240 too heavily on systems that are meant to assist, but 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.800 not replace, human attention and action. And now for a 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:54.720 couple of stories about censorship the web, misinformation abuse, that 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.320 kind of thing. And first up is Turkey, which may 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.760 soon pass a law that will make it illegal to 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.400 read fake news and misinformation on the Internet, primarily targeting 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.479 social media companies. And here's where things get really tricky. 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:13.480 So on the one hand, yes, misinformation is a very 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.520 real and global problem. We frequently talk about it on 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.679 this show, and there are countries all around the world 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.600 grappling with ways to hold platforms accountable for how they 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.840 respond to reports of misinformation. I myself am in favor 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:33.280 of measures that can detect and respond to misinformation. That 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.760 being said, we also have to remember that you always 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.639 have to ask the question who determines what is and 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.600 isn't misinformation? Because in Turkey that falls to a government 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.960 that has for years cracked down on various communications platforms 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:55.119 in an authoritarian approach to control the narrative. Now, this 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:59.119 is the sort of scenario that free speech absolutists often cite, 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.480 that any frictions on speech are going to be dictated 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.720 by an authority, and that authority might not have your 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.560 best interests at heart. So therefore restrictions on free speech 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.400 are bad and certainly, should this proposed legislation become law 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.400 and Turkey, I expect the government will use it as 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.960 a justification to censor any voices that oppose that government 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.399 in any meaningful way. However, we also have seen the 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:30.000 incredible harm that misinformation campaigns can cause, and shrugging your 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.600 shoulders and saying well, people just need to make up 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:37.320 their own minds, as Zuckerberg once said, that absolutely ignores 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.240 the truckloads of evidence we have gathered about how things 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:46.639 like echo chambers can help radicalize people. Anyway, long story short, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.720 I am concerned about this law, although I also think 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.119 the Turkish government has effectively been censoring stuff online for years, 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:54.919 so in a way you could just say that this is, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:20:00.239 you know, just a formality, and I, you know, I 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.439 also struggle with this. This is a complicated issue where 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:09.199 I definitely want to see misinformation get pushed back, but 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.680 at the same time you have to worry about who's 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.680 doing the pushing. Meanwhile, over in Japan, there's a new 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:21.040 punishment for people who are found guilty of insulting someone online. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.560 And first, by insulting, I mean insulting with the intent 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.320 to harm someone. So presumably the way Ben Bolan and 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.800 I insult each other would not qualify, because actually we 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.399 like each other, we're friendly with one another, but we 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.199 do insult each other on occasion. Secondly, I need to 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.080 say this isn't a new law. Instead, it's more of 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.080 an expansion of an existing law that's meant to deter 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.680 people from insulting each other and for those insults to 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:53.520 ultimately cause harm. So this expansion means that now if 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.720 you were found guilty of insulting someone with the intent 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.679 to harm that person, you can face up to a 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:04.560 year are in jail. Yikes. Now, there's already a plan 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.000 in place to revisit this law in three years, to 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:08.840 review it to see what kind of impact it has 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.240 on free speech versus civility. So it's possible that in 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.600 the future Japan will remove the jail time sentence. But yeah, 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.359 you gotta be careful who you call baca, y'all. All right, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.800 we've got a couple more news stories to go before 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:35.520 we get to that. Let's take another quick break. We're 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.160 back so some so nos customers got a little more 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:43.200 than what they bargained for, literally after they ordered products 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.520 from the company. So in a few cases, so nos 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:51.320 Is ordering system accidentally sent some customers extra products. So, 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.240 in one case reported on by the Verge, a customer 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.320 who ordered like six different things from so Nos ended 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:04.680 up receiving six of each of those items. Also, Sonas 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.480 charged people for the extra stuff it's sent. So this 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.160 isn't a case of so no Nos makes an error 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.600 in your favor or anything like that. That's not like 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.000 Sonas made uh an accidental mistake and as a result 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.040 charged you for one stereo system but sent you six. No, 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.720 it's more like it charged you for all six of those. 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.800 The company said that the system update it recently had 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:34.880 on its internal systems accidentally caused quote some orders being 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:39.480 processed multiple times end quote. Sonas has said it will 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:44.360 refund customers their money, which I mean, of course sons 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.720 is going to refund customers their money. They have to 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.160 do that because otherwise they would be breaking a federal 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:54.320 law that says you cannot charge customers for products that 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.320 they didn't order. Now, according to the Verge, for that 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.640 poor soul who ended up with more than thirty boxes 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:06.160 of stuff. It gets more complicated because so Nos, according 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:10.040 to the customer who was not named, Sons, has said 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.400 it will not issue a refund until it receives all 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:18.720 of the products that it accidentally sent out, which come 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.399 on so NOS. I mean, I understand wanting to get 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.840 the product back because that is a real cost to 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:29.679 the company. But this was so nos Is mistake. It 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:33.000 was not the customer's mistake, and it sounds to me 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.760 like the burden of getting everything set right is falling 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:40.320 more on the victim of this rather than the company 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:43.960 that made the dumb mistake to begin with. So this 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:48.000 is me officially wagging my finger at you, Sons. I 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.760 don't know if you can hear it. It's good audio. Finally, 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:55.720 you might have seen some news reports saying that Chinese 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:59.720 scientists thought they had detected radio signals that may have 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:04.800 come from aliens using a telescope RAO telescope called fast 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:10.119 f A s T, and that initial report, which originally 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:14.400 published on state sponsored media in China, has subsequently been 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:20.480 removed from said media source, so it's no longer up there. Secondly, 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:23.639 before we start flipping out that we've picked up I 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.600 don't know, TV signals from Alpha Centauri or something. We 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:32.600 need to employ some critical thinking. Radio antenna often pick 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:38.560 up odd signals. Sometimes those radio signals are extraterrestrial in nature, 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:42.479 but by that I mean the radio signals originated somewhere 0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:44.760 other than here on Earth. And there is a lot 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:48.760 of stuff out in space that generates radio waves. In fact, 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:51.359 that's why we have radio telescopes, is to you know, 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:54.600 measure those kind of things and learn more about our galaxy. 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:58.240 It's a natural phenomenon. In other words, it's not being 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:05.080 generated by an intelligent species out there. And several scientists 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:08.040 have already said that what this Chinese group most likely 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:13.880 detected was radio frequency interference or r f I, and 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:19.320 that was actually something the scientists themselves said was a possibility. 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:21.280 So our i f I is just that's just radio 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:24.480 frequency interference that comes from Earth. It's something that all 0:25:24.640 --> 0:25:27.840 radio observatories have to take into account. That's why a 0:25:27.880 --> 0:25:30.560 lot of radio observatories, most of them in fact, are 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:35.440 located in pretty remote areas where they're far enough out 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:40.800 from sources of radio frequencies that though that doesn't end up, 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:44.240