Nerd News Tracker
Web ad firms scrape email addresses before you know it • The Register
In the news that isn't news... An ad company is now leveraging ways to grab your information from forms before you submit the information. This gathering of information isn't new, however, in that Facebook and Google have been using their own tools to do exactly this...

First Electric Fire Truck Joins the LA Fire Department: Rosenbauer RTX
Los Angeles Fire Department has new tech. An electric vehicle in the form of a fire truck. Made in Austria, LAFD Station 82 in Hollywood will be the first to enjoy this high-tech wonder. It does come with a backup diesel engine as a range extender. Add in 7" to 19"...
Researchers invent iPhone malware that works even if your phone is off
Imagine a malware that could infect your iPhone, and a reboot wouldn't get rid of it. Apparently, the bluetooth firmware can be hacked, and without a solution at the moment. The good news is that good guys found this, not bad guys. The bad news is that hackers look...

Apple exec returning to Google due to in-person work policy – 9to5Mac
Apple started to require employees to return to the office. But their Director of machine learning said "nope" and headed over to Google, where he's worked before. When Apple found out this was the reason, they woke up to some of the major losses they could sustain if...
Netflix lays off 150 mostly US-based staff
If you work in a small company, the idea of Netflix laying off 175 employees seems huge. While it's the second layoff in the last month or so, it represents little more than 1 1/2%. Of course, to those laid off, that's rough, but it's not doom and gloom. Actually,...
Gas stations in Washington reprogram pumps to prepare for $10-a-gallon fuel | Daily Mail Online
As prices are climbing for gas, Union / Unocal 76 gas stations have started to rework their computers to allow for over $10 a gallon. It's scary, and shocking, but it's also a part of a tech and computer programming reality. They may not expect it to go that high in...
New bipartisan bill would force Google to break up its ad business
Our government is taking aim at Google again. The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act was brought forth this week by some unlikely senators on both sides of the aisle. It would ban companies that process more than $20 Billion annually in digital ad...
A Crypto First? What Happens When a Blockchain Like Terra Dies
Once worth $60 Billion. Let's wrap our brains around this... at it's high, it's value was more than all of Amazon's annual revenue for last year. The Terra blockchain, which was the tech behind the Luna cryptocurrency and TerraUSD stablecoin which was tied in value to...
Even Microsoft thinks you should uninstall the latest Windows 11 update | TechRadar
Microsoft has released another advisory about uninstalling a patch. This time, it's the struggling Windows 11. This patch is interfering with reliability of multiple programs, including Microsoft's own Visual Studio. The longest that I have gone without installing the...
Crypto is crashing, and that may make GPUs more affordable | Digital Trends
Another impact of crypto crashing... your higher end video cards used for gaming and professional graphics work, known as a GPU, may become affordable again. It may take some time to balance, but it should be good news for many of us. It's been a tough week on the...
Bitcoin crash erases $36 million in value from El Salvador government’s massive crypto investment as national debt grows
In 2001, El Salvador ditched their own currency and shifted to the US Dollar. They were the first country to make bitcoin as legal as well, the US Dollar... legal tender. They've lost $36 million. El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender in...
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, opens retail store in Burlingame – CBS San Francisco
Meta, aka Facebook, is now treating us like a customer, instead of the product. A new retail store opened up minutes aware from San Francisco airport. This store will sell Meta's AR glasses, the Oculus line of VR goggles. They also offer testing and ordering of Ray...
New York Times changes Wordle answer due to ‘major recent news event’
The New York Times, owner of Wordle, made a mid-day change this past Monday. They realized they had not only reused a word, but it was also one that was politically charged after a Supreme Court leak, and right after Mother's Day. They moved quickly and changed the...
Coinbase warns customers they may lose crypto if company goes bankrupt | Daily Mail Online
Coinbase gave a shocker, and mixed signals. The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US issued a warning that if they went bankrupt, that customers would not have access to their crypto currency. Their CEO then turned around and said "Your funds are safe at...
Ad-supported Netflix tier could come by the end of 2022
Netflix ripped off the band-aid. The last few weeks have been filled with news about Netflix exploring the idea of ads, and with some level of encouraging users to pay a little more when sharing passwords... presumably with a shutdown of leech activity. An internal...
Apple iPod touch discontinued
20 years ago, the iPod was introduced. It's demise has been foretold like many other prophecies, and now it's officially dead. Keith and I will discuss this, and more about iPods over the years on this weeks show.Apple said the iPod touch will be available while...
Google smart glasses prototype translates languages in real time
8 years ago, Google Glass was being sold, and it was a strange and clunky product. Others have tried since, and while we can't buy Google Glass anymore (but some companies can), Google announced smart glasses again this week... this time being able to translate...
Carmakers adopt What3words for voice navigation
I've always been fond of what3words as guidance to locations around the world. Now, it seems that nearly a dozen car manufacturers have provided this precise location guidance down as to where to drive. This helps when talking about Uber and Lyft drivers picking up...
Elon Musk could make some Twitter users pay ‘slight’ fee to tweet – will you be affected?
People are all atwitter about Musks plans for charging for Twitter. It's clickbait to some extent. He clearly stated not the standard users, but for businesses and government entities. Oddly enough, that still will come out of our pockets, through taxes, increased...
CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders
The government, in the form of the CDC, has been spying on us, tracking our travels to see if we obeyed COVID lockdown orders. Never mind the fact that this is a warrantless search of our whereabouts, of people who have committed no crimes, by an agency that isn't...
Ukrainian John Deere tractors stolen by Russia ‘bricked’ • The Register
A strange twist has arisen on the "you don't own your software" that's needed for your hardware. Yes, John Deere tractors have long held that only their software can be used on their tractors, and charged extra support prices to increase profits. Some tractors...
Apple employees are unhappy with CEO Tim Cook’s hybrid work plan | Fortune
The return to office mode, even in the hybrid model of one day a week is already wearing thin. 3/4's of Apple workers have already voiced their frustrations. This goes against a lot of what managers are saying, with equal numbers on the other side fighting back. It'll...
This write-once portable SSD can never be erased | PCWorld
Verbatim has come up with a WORM drive. Write Once Read Many was something from ages ago. It was cheaper than standard, but it was useful for throwaway situations. The selling points are for one-time usage for critical one-time backups, or spy craft, but at this size,...
Average consumer cutting 3 streaming services from their lineup in 2022 – Study Finds
After last weeks announcement of the average household having 4.7 streaming services, someone asked "you changing anything?" The response, the prediction, was not good for the services. The average person is looking to exit, not 1, not 2, but 3 services in the rest of...
FCC to vote on new plan to curb robocalls
The FCC now wants the carriers to fight robocalls. An upcoming vote may try to stop by leveraging against the varriers of international calls. The carriers must now try to determine if their paying customers are using services to perform robocalls, and then cut them...
Apple’s iPhone repair tool kit that it rents is wheeled and weighs 79 pounds | AppleInsider
Apple is now offering an iPhone Self Service Repair program. They'll provide tools for you at $49 a week including shipping. They will place a hold on your credit card for the price of the total kit (around $1000)... but this isn't small. The kit weighs 79 pounds, and...
Study: How Amazon uses Echo interactions to target ads • The Register
Apparently they have been able to find out a little more about Amazon's Alexa devices and how they spy on us. Some folks got data together at the University of Washington, Universities of California (Davis and Irvine), and Northeastern University. Through analysis,...
U.S. Households Are No Longer Adding More Streaming Services
The average home has 4.7 streaming services. Even still, Netflix is way out in front. People may start looking at the options of exiting these days, however, as this amounts to a large number of services each pulling $10-20 out of our wallets each month. Mrs. Nerd and...
Facebook Doesn’t Know What It Does With Your Data, Or Where It Goes: Leaked Document
A leaked document revealed that Facebook, as much as they track about us, they don't know where it goes, what they are using it for, or many other concerns. Apparently they have taken in so much and their various systems share information so widely, that nobody has...
Twitter accepts Elon Musk’s buyout deal
In a surprise turn-around from last weeks news, Twitter told Elon Musk that they would accept his offer. Reactions ranged from mild to massive, supportive and attacking, and everyhwere in between. His promise of open source algorithms, eliminating spam, and making it...
Jack Dorsey Tweet NFT Once Sold for $2.9 Million, Now Might Fetch Under $14,000 – WSJ
Careful on your investing. NFT's, or Non-Fungible Token's are plummeting in value. Jack Dorsey's first tweet was converted into an NFT and sold for $2.9 Million. Now that people understand what it is... it's worth about $14,000. Ouch. People play this up, but it's...
Windows 11 is within touching distance of Windows XP • The Register
The adoption rate of Windows 11, at 6 months in, is amazing... amazingly horrific for Microsoft. Let's dial in the simple numbers, and there's plenty of commentary elswhere. Overall adoption rate right now is 1.44%. Overall install base for Windows... XP... right now,...
Famed theoretical physicist calls NASA beaming Earth info into outer space a ‘horrible idea’ | Fox News
NASA came up with what is probably a bad idea. Sending out information regarding our DNA, our knowledge of physics, our human bodies... and oh yeah... our home address at the third rock around the sun. Michio Kaku noted a few problems with this. On the off chance that...
You could see ads in Xbox games in the future
Netflix isn't the only one thinking about ads... Microsoft is thinking of serving them up on your Xbox, while you are in the free-to-play games. Potentially seamless, it might be an in-game billboard like shown in various sports TV shows... like the banners of various...
Elon Musk Puts the Pressure on Twitter. All Eyes Are on the Board. | Barron’s
Elon Musk is exploring more options for Twitter. He's publically acquired $43 Billion backing for making a tender offer to a larger portion of stockholders. This may be a way around some of the other scary words like poison pill, and all... the equivalent of saying...
Houston Says Businesses Must Install Surveillance Cameras and Cops Can View Footage Without a Warrant
Houston is suffering from a crime problem. Their response? Massive spying on the level of Big Brother... not the TV show, the George Orwell concept. Bars, convenience stores, and a host of other locations will have to install cameras covering their entire property, at...
Warner Bros. Discovery Expected To Shut Down CNN+ – Variety
CNN+ also hit some struggles, and is shutting down. You didn't hear about them? I'm not sure if we covered it when they started up, but that was so long ago.... March 28th... of this year. Yeah, 10k subscribers, a continuing problem with the CNN branding, and more...
End of an era as Netflix faces stagnation challenges
This week, Netflix reported a drop of 200,000 users. This 1/10th of a percent of their subscribers moved on for whatever reasons. Netflix said it wasn't a problem as they'd add commercials to certain new tiers, but also tack on chargers to allow for previous...
Elon Musk gives Twitter reasons to reject his bid
Here is an in-depth (and negative) analysis of Elon Musks bid to attempt to purchase the social media giant called Twitter. Everyone has their comments, but this set explores some interesting items with better balance than others in hysterics."I don't care about the...
California proposes to triple electric vehicle sales by 2026 | The Hill
California, famous for rolling blackouts, expensive electricity, and gridlock, has decided to push electric cars. Already with 425,000 electric cars, they want to triple that number by 2026, and ban all combustion engines by 2035. Forget the lack of electric...
Major Twitter investor REJECTS Elon Musk’s bid and says $43bn offer is ‘nowhere near’ what he’d accept
A Saudi billionaire who owns a large chunk of Twitter came forward to say that he doesn'tg accept the offer, saying that Twitter is worth a lot more. This will continue to be an interesting story long after we talk about it this weekend on Computer Talk Radio. ONE of...
Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion, so it can be ‘transformed as private company’
In a matter of days, Elon Musk went from buying a small amount, to clamoring for the entire Twitter enterprise. His offer of $43 billion was running about 50% over where Twitter has been riding at for the year so far. He was also quite open about the desire to change...
Some Apple employees are losing their minds about its return to office plan
Apple employees are being told to return to the office. Apparently, however, they are less than thrilled. Meta and Google have noted their intent to let large numbers of employees continue to WFA in an attempt to keep key talent from jumping ship. Apple's own approach...
Google’s Gmail favors left-wing candidates, sends far more emails from conservatives to spam: study | Fox News
As I always say: Neither left nor right matters when talking censorship... the problem I have is with the action. An interesting study found that Gmail's spam filtering was apparently screening out large amounts of emails from one political party, but not allowing...
YouTuber buys a terrifying robot doppelgänger of himself
Tom Scott is a fascinating YouTube host, talking about nerdier items, from numbers to robots to science and beyond. He had a company in the UK make a robot duplicate of his head, and checking it out is uncanny. It's got a few odd quirks, but I've linked to the video...
Meta will charge creators fees of up to 47.5% to sell virtual wares in its metaverse
Meta, the Zuckerberg empire, has decided to show Apple and Google what he thinks about their 30% take of every app sold in their respective app stores. Asking for up to 47.5% percent on every virtual product is just amazing. This charge is split between Meta's store...
Elon Musk decides not to join Twitter board, says CEO Parag Agrawal
Elon Musks move to purchase made him eligible to be on the board of directors... but it also meant that he couldn't purchase more stock without their permission. In a shrewd move, he decided to forgo that, and keep them on their toes. He is no stranger to the tech...
Elon Musk delayed filing a form and made $156 million
So much can happen in so lilttle time. A few weeks back, apparently Elon Musk started buying lots of stock in Twitter. Now, he'll be in trouble for late notification to the SEC, and it'll amount to about the price of a new Tesla... but it made him about $156 million....
EU lawmakers back tough traceability rules on crypto transfers in fight against money laundering | Euronews
In recent weeks, I outlined the bad idea of government involvement in cryptocurrency. The EU, like any government (think US here...) has vested interest in knowing our every transaction. They hate cash, but know it has to exist until they wrest control from us. The EU...
E3 2022 crashes, burns with official cancellation of “all-digital” version [Updated] | Ars Technica
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is the famous video gaming convention in Los Angeles. It may be on it's way to dead, however. In 2020, with COVID rampant, they cancelled. In 2021, no physical, but they did a digital variation. Razer PR contact Will Powers, who...
Apple and Meta Gave User Data to Hackers Who Used Forged Legal Requests
Hackers pretend to be other people. Both Meta and Apple learned that the hard way, as news has come out that hackers pretended to be cops. In the follow-ujp of the extange, the hackers forged legal requests in an attempt to obtain information. One of the ongoing...
Post Office Cops Used Social Media Surveillance Program Illegally
A year ago, we talked about how the US Postal Service was accused of following and spying on social media users. The Office of Inpsecotr General found a large and significant number of searches performed were not only not legally authorized, many had zero relationship...
One-Third Of U.S. Netflix Subscribers Share Their Passwords, Survey Finds – Deadline
I talked a week or so ago, about Netflix cracking down on people who share their password inappropriately. Netflix clearly intends core family members to be OK, but then when we expand to kids moving out, the aunt and uncle many miles away, it's not appropriate....
Apple Stores Will Now Decline to Repair iPhones Reported as Missing – MacRumors
After an amazingly long time, Apple is now going to stop servicing smartphone devices that have been reported stolen or lost. This effort is to help in the prevention of stolen devices, through the lack of support. This is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that our...
NCLA Takes on U.S. Surgeon General’s Censoring of Alleged Covid-19 “Misinformation” on Twitter – New Civil Liberties Alliance
A legal group called the New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a lawsuit against the the U.S. Surgeon General and HHS. The lawsuit is over recent actions where our government, pressured Twitter, Facebook, and others to censor COVID-19 “misinformation”. Along with...
Running Windows 11 on an unsupported PC? Get ready for a desktop watermark | PCWorld
Microsoft will allow you to run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. But now they are adding a watermark saying it's unsupported. It's the latest guilt trip by Microsoft through Windows 11, to encourage you to spend more money on hardware. Right now it's just annoying,...
Tech talent flees Russia as Western sanctions bite | TechCrunch
Russia is suiffering in other ways as the war continues, with their nerds heading for the exits. This will be a long and hard road for them, as many people are struggling with the idea of giving a high priority tech job to someone who can't fully be vetted for the...
California Bill Aims to Make Tech Firms Liable for Social-Media Addiction in Children – WSJ
I struggle with the idea of making companies liable for the actions of their legal users. From addiction to caffeine, to firearms, and many other things, it's a world where opening companies up to frivilous misguided lawsuits is just wrong. California wants tech firms...
Russia officially bans Facebook and Instagram
In amongst the actions of a totalitarian country, they like to control the access and flow to information. Is it any wonder that Facebook and Instagram were shutdown in Russia this past week? Claiming Facebook broke the law by blocking access to Russian propaganda,...
Apple Music and the App Store are suffering another outage – The Verge
Apple had two significant outages this week, affecting much of their audio and app related items. While resolved, it underscores that just about any company can experience some shaky days in the tech world. Unfortunately, we are also living in a privileged society...
Starlink hikes prices for monthly service and starter kit, even if you put down a deposit – The Verge
Perhaps I'm sheltered, but I've never heard of a company changing it's mind on pricing for people who were already customers. Starlink is following with their sister company, Solar City, and telling customers that if they want delivery, it'll now be more expensive....
Netflix Testing New Feature to Combat Password Sharing – CNET
Netflix is testing a feature in other countries, that would allow sub-accounts for those family members in a different household. My wife and I both use Netflix, sometimes at the same time to watch the same movie (features on other services would make this easier,...
Tesla has quietly raised the price of its cheapest car by $10,000 over the last year
Tesla, which originally offered the Model 3 base model at $35,000. It was supposed to be the affordable electric car. In Feb 2019, when it hit the market, they kept true to that word. But today, it's now at $47,000, a huge difference from the $37,000 a year ago. Sure,...
Uber Drivers Say They’re Disappointed, Angry Over Fuel Surcharge
Uber and Lyft both added surcharges due to the rising price of gas. It's strange, as they could have just bundled that in behind the scenes of the pricing, but instead want to bring it right out front. On the other side, the amount is about $.50 per ride, which may...
Senate Unanimously Passes Bill to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent – CNET
The time change was this past weekend, and the Senate agreed together that it was time to make Daylight Saving Time a permanent fixture in the US. My own spin on things is even further... everyone should go to UTC, and forget about trying to figure out if the meeting...
Google “hijacked millions of customers and orders” from restaurants, lawsuit says | Ars Technica
A new lawsuit against Google alleges that the behemoth has been making money off their food by stealing away customers thinking they were bound for the restaurant website, and instead wound up on one of the many delivery services that advertise on Google. The Order...
Why Commercials Are Coming to the Biggest Streamers
Success is studied by everyone. Including the various movie and video streaming services. After some have worked with various tiers to allow for commercials instead of fees, or even just adding more ads, Disney and HBO Max announced their adventures into the field....
Why Most Crypto Backers Are Excited That the Biden Administration Is Wading Into Digital Currency
A headline reads that crypto enthusiasts are excited that the Biden Administration wants to dive into cryptocurrency. The whole appeal of crypto currency used to be to move money without government intrusion, to free oneself from the boundaries set by banks, other...
Airbnb emerges as tool for direct donations to Ukrainians
You may have heard, but people are booking Airbnb visits in Ukraine, simply to donate money to citizens in the beleaguered country. It's an ingenious way to get money there fast, to people who are facing problems right now. Sure, before too long, it could bring a...
DuckDuckGo ‘down-ranks’ Russian disinformation. The search engine’s users are not happy.
I've been fond of DuckDuckGo for years, but it's because they really haven't performed any censorship, manipulation, or other shady techniques. Google will push all kinds of soft censorship or promotion (in the other direction), and DuckDuckGo has stated for ages how...
China’s state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia’s line on war
Meta, aka Facebook, said no Russian paid ads, promoting the Russian side of the situation. Apparently, however, they didn't mention how they were going to continue to run ads and news items paid for by China that do the same thing. I'm not keen on censorship, but I'm...
Windows 11 update brings back Movie Maker as ClipChamp, for a price | TechRadar
Of course, I must have an obligatory comment about Windows 11. They have added something called ClipChamp which is... Movie Maker. Sure, it's updated a bit, and it's in the new Microsoft model of pay for additional features. At $10 a month, that places it far more...
Virginia lawmakers OK lifting ban on facial technology use | AP News
Virginia passed a big ban on facial recognition nearly a year ago. After supporting freedom, privacy, and maintaining control over tech's intrusions into our lives, they are backing off. Now they can use it to identify people who might have committed a crime, identify...
Amazon suspends access to Prime Video in Russia, halts shipments to the country | TechCrunch
Almost as fast as the wall fell in Berlin, and freedom stretched across the old Soviet Union, the digital walls are returning. Netflix and Amazon Prime, the two largest names in streaming, have suspended service. Amazon Web Services, disconnected from Russia (not...
Piracy favorite LimeWire returns from the dead…as an NFT marketplace | PCWorld
Long known for shady dealings with downloading files illegally, LimeWire is being rebranded. This is not like Napster, which was downloading music illegally, moving into the legitimate music sales business. Instead, LimeWire is staying in the shady world of NFTs. With...
Apple Event Live Blog: iPhone SE, iPad Air, Mac Studio, and More – MacRumors
Sure, this is what Apple talked about today. But what did Keith M. Sedor, our resident Macxpert think about the event? You'll have to listen to Computer Talk Radio this week on your local station, or check out the podcast at http://computertalkradio.com/Apple's...
Russian Internet Takes a Hit as Cogent Disconnects Backbone Network – CNET
As part of the backlash against Russia following the actions against Ukraine, Cogent has pulled the plug on their services into and through Russia. This will deeply impact reliability and throughput for Russians as other services must pickup the slack with no extra...
Brandon Sanderson’s secret novels break Pebble’s Kickstarter crowdfunding record | Engadget
A number of years ago, the Pebble Watch was crowdfunded to an amazing number, at about $20 million. The author Brandon Sanderson is so popular that he managed to blow through that record in 3 days. Brandon is a prolific author that is known for finishing the last half...
Namecheap ends service for Russian customers due to government’s ‘war crimes’ – The Verge
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper... As a part of the financial front in this cyberwar, NameCheap, a domain name registrar, has blocked services to Russia that...
Russia-Ukraine war: TikTok hack for stealing Russian armored cars goes viral
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Lastly, a TikTok hack came out about how to seal Russian armored cars. I’m not sure how wise that would be, considering the...
Crypto Exchanges Refuse to Freeze All Russian Accounts
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Further, crypto exchanges have held true to their word, and not frozen Russian accounts, going the route of the proverbial...
Circle CEO says Russia-Ukraine war is increasing crypto adoption
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Crypto-currency, which has been struggling for a few months, started to see a brand new level of interest around the world, as...
Fake Donation Sites Are Surfacing Amid Ukraine Crisis, Experts Warn
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper... Fake donation sites surfaced immediately, as I predicted last week, and they are skimming money off, or downright stealing the...
Netflix says it will refuse to stream Russian state programs, defying regulations
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Viewers of the small screen will be impacted with Netflix turning off services like hosting State TV propaganda… I mean TV....
The Batman pulled from Russia as Hollywood studios axe theater releases | TechRadar
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Movies like “The Batman” are also not going to the big screen in Russia, It’s sad that the Russian citizens will be punished as...
Witcher, Cyberpunk developer halts Russian game sales
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Many gaming companies jumped in on blocking sales in Russia, and it would take me hours to document them all. An effort to...
AMD, Intel halt chip sales to Russia | PCWorld
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Intel and AMD announced their stoppage of sales to Russia, and Namecheap, one of the big companies in domain name registration,...
Apple cuts Russia off from its products and services
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Apple cut off Russia from products and services, both from the aspect of exporting hardware to Russia, but also shutting down...
Google disables Maps traffic data in Ukraine to protect citizens – The Verge
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Apple, Google, and others worked to turn off mapping features in Ukraine that would allow Russia a tech advantage while...
Facebook removes Russian misinformation network pushing fake news about the war in Ukraine – The Verge
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...On another front, Facebook took actions against disinformation tactics from Russia, and started their fact checking network up...
Elon Musk Warns That Russia Might Target Starlink Dishes in Ukraine | PCMag
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Elon Musk got in the game, who immediately reworked satellites, sent hardware, and worked to keep Ukrainians connected to the...
College kid’s Twitter bot that stalks Musk’s jet now tracking Russian oligarchs | Ars Technica
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Even that twitter account that was recently tracking Elon Musk, has been employed to track the locations of some Russian top...
After Ukraine recruits an “IT Army,” dozens of Russian sites go dark | Ars Technica
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. Check out the podcast or broadcast. This reference is if you want to dive deeper...Ukrainian hackers jumped in, and regardless of their previous positive or negative affiliations, they appear to have been...
As the tanks rolled into Ukraine, so did Malware; Then Microsoft entered the war | World News,The Indian Express
News item to be covered on Computer Talk Radio this week. This reference is if you want to know more... When this first started to go down, we all expected some level of impact from the tech community, but it stretches far beyond expectations. Malware started right...
Amazon opens first Whole Foods equipped with cashierless technology – The Verge
A while back, I talked about how the Amazon Fresh supermarket works. It's called "Just Walk Out" cashierless, and has a few different things along the way, but it's more gimmick than novel tech. It would be a marvel to someone who had been asleep for 50 years, but...
New Windows 11 update is making the Start menu disappear for some users | TechRadar
This wasn't a good week for Bill Gates. The latest Windows 11 update is now creating a problem with the Start menu, where it disappears as soon as you hover over it. Imagine, you click on the mouse, and go to click on your program, and the menu closes. While they know...
Elon Musk’s promised Starlink terminals have reached Ukraine, according to official – The Verge
Starlink is going into play to help out the Ukrainian's. Elon musk has sent many terminals, and moved some satellite coverage to bolster the new needs. This is an amazing approach to providing internet where it's needed to keep people connected. He has mentioned that...
Wi-Fi 7 is coming: Meet the smarter, faster Internet of the future | PCWorld
You're going to hear about WiFi 7 for weeks now, but it's not even due to see our homes for at least a couple of years. 802.11be will be the latest in a long series of advances for us getting data to our various devices through the home. One of the name variations...
Melinda Gates talks Bill Gates divorce, ‘abhorrent’ Jeffrey Epstein
Being very cautious and respectful to both sides... Melinda Gates came forward with many details on her breakup with the billionaire. The interview on CBS Mornings aired Thursday, and it was not kind to Bill. Melinda French Gates tells Gayle King about her divorce...
Aon confirms it is investigating ‘cyber incident’ • The Register
Like the idea of cyber-insurance? It does exist, in case you get hit by malware, or other problems caused by cybertheives. There's an insurance company that does that, specifically, for a number of customers who they also protect. Sounding good so far, until you find...
President Biden Holds Big Tech Accountable
President Biden talked about proposing new legislation for Facebook and the rest of social media to protect children and their personal data. While I think there's something good for that, it's not exactly new, or even far enough. It's not revolutionary to suggest...
Apple Events – Apple
Next week, another Apple Event! Keith M. Sedor will be talking about if he thinks it was old or gold on next weeks show!Watch the latest Apple keynote stream, and check out the archive of special event announcements for our products and services. See full story on...
Four in 10 people ‘not confident using numbers in their everyday lives’ – The Irish News
4 in 10 people struggle with math. I'll explain this more simply, in case you're one of the four. Take 10 people. 4 of them will lack confidence in using numbers in everyday life. That's OK. Some people are good at people skills, or the spoken word, or at creative...
Intel claims new 12th-gen laptop chips outclass the M1 Pro | Digital Trends
Intel is claiming that the 12th generation of CPUs are going to beat out the M1 chip. One problem is that we are expecting Apple's next generation of chip very soon. Another is that most of the chip measurements on either side are biased, cherry picked data, with no...
IRS will let taxpayers skip facial recognition – Axios
The IRS saga of facial recognition continues. First they announced it was mandatory, then dialed back after the 3rd party, ID.me, appeared to have too much of an inside track. Now, the IRS have taken a middle road of allowing the facial recognition, and if you don't...