Nerd News Tracker

Alpha generation: Phones, tablets are ‘rewiring’ the way children see the world – Study Finds
An interesting look at how our brains, or future generation's brains, may become more highly detail oriented, because of the use of small screens which even finer details on the screen. Playing precision games, instead whack-a-mole, brought kids to seeing details but...

“Fludemic” model accurately maps where COVID hotspots will crop up a week out – Axios
Information is key in all kinds of areas. The latest leverage of data is in small increases in infection rates, which indicate that COVID is increasing nearby. Fludemic is a website that is tracking and working with data so tightly, that they claim 92% accuracy at...

Apple, Google lobbyists swarm Arizona over App Store bill – Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech
An Arizona State Rep is preparing a bill that would allow developers to make money outside of the Apple or Google app stores. Regina Cobb is seeking to break down the walls and allow programmers to make money in an open and more competitive market, than the two...
How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million | Reuters
People spend money, real and virtual, on the craziest things. In October, an art collector a 10 second video for $67k, and a week ago, turned it around for $6.6 million. A non-fungible token (or NFT) is a digital asset, using blockchain tech (like Bitcoin) that proves...

Feds warn threats are harder to track as extremists shift to encryption – Axios
In a changing of the guard, we see again, an attempt to present an argument for reducing freedom... by declaring encryption as being bad. Yes, some bad guys use encryption, but so do good people. We struggle with that box, and we sometimes want to open that box, but...
Google says goodbye to individual user tracking – Axios
This article paints Google as giving up on individual tracking, as they abandon cookies. Cookies for tracking users, however, is no longer needed. They have the power to track you, pitch to you, and it's all done through the information your browser provides freely....
Apple says all U.S. stores open for the first time since start of pandemic – Axios
It's a sign of the end... but to some it means good news, and others, the apocalypse. I think it's a good sign that Apple is moving forward, as it shows that Apple is trusting the path forward. The in-person shopping experience is key for certain items, especially the...
NASA sends nuclear tank 293 million miles to Mars, misses landing spot by just five metres. Now watch its video • The Register
Perseverance landed off by about 15 feet. It's just downright disappointing that it travelled 293 million miles to ultimately miss it's target. OH, WHO AM I KIDDING!!! That rocks, NASA! At least it didn't have problems like SpaceX has had with their more recent...
They break into your network but do nothing themselves: ‘Initial access brokers’ resell stolen creds for $7k a pop • The Register
We think of some cybercrime as being small time crooks, leveraging a few dollars here and there, but the world is evolving. Depending on the target, some networks are being broken into, just for access that can be resold. Access to your company network could be sold...
Elon Musk says bitcoin seems high after surpassing $1 trillion market value
Elon Musk, who recently had Tesla buy a big chunk of that change we call Bitcoin, also said about a week ago, that he thought Bitcoin and Ethereum were a bit high priced. The price of bitcoin crossed a major milestone Friday after the market value reached more than $1...
Square Adds $170 Million More in Bitcoin to Balance Sheet — Company Now Holds 5% of Total Cash Reserves in BTC – Finance Bitcoin News
Square is a company that started by enabling the little folk like us to accept credit cards. A small little reader, and then they moved into virtual cash registers on smartphones and tablets. You've probably used one at a restaurant while not knowing it. They have...
Child advocates call on FTC to investigate online math game-maker Prodigy – Axios
Prodigy Education, a math game company, has apparently pulled one of the tricks from the gaming world... where they offer a free-to-play version through schools, and then market a $60 premium membership to the kids who are using it. Worse yet, it's that same mechanism...
Starlink coverage map revealed — here’s where people are using the service | Tom’s Guide
Numbers on Starlink are coming out, and it's an interesting read thus far. I've had a couple of people advise that they are looking at it, including a couple of nearby friends. It seems that even people in bigger cities are excited for this, as it frees one from the...
Facebook to pay news industry $1 billion over 3 years – Axios
A week ago, Facebook was resisting efforts to pay for news in Australia. This week, we found out the cost to Facebook... $1 Billion over 3 years. This was to keep high-quality journalism rolling in the land of thunder, but I can't help but wonder exactly how large...
LastPass to limit fans of free password manager to one device type only – computer or mobile – from next month • The Register
LastPass, previously recommended by us years ago, is reducing their free benefit to just one device, which is nearly unusable for the greatest selling tool, that of helping remember your passwords across all platforms. It stayed free for a long time, but as the late...
Jeff Bezos reclaims world’s richest title from Elon Musk – CNET
In the world's most expensive game of Tag, Jeff Bezos is once again the world's richest man, and Elon Musk is in second place. Bezos announcing a smaller role with Amazon, and the new leader taking his place helped, and COVID has boosted Amazon's sales greatly. Musk...
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover – NASA Mars
Perseverance made it successfully to Mars. This is a new effort to look for life, not in the form of little green men, but algae and other simple organisms. It's also planned to gather fascinating rocks and other soil samples to hopefully be returned to Earth for more...
Texas power outages force chipmakers to halt production – Axios
The big headline is scary, Texas shutting down computer chip makers due to the weather issues this past week. It's not the 80's however, and the Silicon Plains just no longer make up a significant part of global chip production... just 12% per year. Samsung and NXP...
Parler reemerges after a month offline – Axios
Parler has been brought back to life, but still has a long way to go after Google, Apple, and Amazon beat them senseless, and left them for dead. If it were real people, and it happened in a dark alley in a major city, there would have been charges for attempted...
Facebook blocks Australians from accessing news on platform
Australia is proposing laws to make social media giants pay for journalism... for news content, even if it's just a link or a post. Facebook has decided to turn off all news content in Australia, and that will reduce education, discussion, and even understanding of...
Facebook, Google, Twitter draw up principles for handling online harms – Axios
How tech companies will control "harmful content and behavior online" is being decided right now with Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and a few more. The new rules will guide on adopting rules for conduct and content, enforcement, and complaints. The problem I...
A Hacker Tried to Poison a Florida City’s Water Supply, Officials Say | WIRED
In the latest creepy cyberattack, an employee at a water facility noted that someone was moving his mouse. Then that mouse moved to increase the chemical sodium hydroxide (we know it as lye) to deadly levels. Fortunately, he was on top of it, and fixed the problem,...
Average ‘gamer’ is full-time professional and dad-of-three, says new study
An unexpected statistic shows that the average gamer is not a deadbeat teenager, chugging down some high caffeine, high sugar rocket fuel to stay awake. It's apparently just your normal average person. Men are slightly more likely to play, or class themselves as...
Tesla buys $1.5B in bitcoin, may accept the cryptocurrency as payment in the future
Bitcoin does continue to amaze people, and Tesla's purchase of $1.5 Billion in the cryptocurrency, indicates some of their own faith and plans. To be honest, many people have made lots of money. Tesla does admit there is some regulatory concerns that they will have...
Inspiration4 – Home
A much better ad actually provided a contest to be on the first "all civilian" spaceflight. Backed with a rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", this commercial resulted in launching dreams of millions of people across the country, more exciting than having a...
We are all investors | Robinhood – YouTube
The Superbowl brought us one team that could only score with field goals, and a bunch of commercials that were less than thrilling. Robinhood.com provided a tonedeaf commercial that said that we are all investors... talking about realizing gains and losses......
‘Safe Tech Act’ could strip Section 230 user content protections from websites | AppleInsider
For 4 years, Congress couldn't be bothered with Section 230. It's a short set of words that protects internet companies from liability for user-posted content. A certain person in DC railed against Section 230 many times, and half of congress called him evil and vile....
YouTuber Shot and Killed Filming ‘Prank’ Robbery Video With Butcher Knives
Pranks have been a part of life for millennia. Sometimes they have resulted in death when someone did something stupid. The latest was how two guys pulled a prank robbery with a deadly weapon, a butcher knife, in Nashville, yes, the South... and someone fearing for...
Biden cancels Elon Musk’s adventures in space – Washington Times
Elon Musk's ventures with SpaceX may be coming to a halt. The FAA has halted approvals for the Starship rocket system. Whether you believe that China pushed Biden, that recent failures, Musk's intentions for Mars, or perhaps...
Don’t Share Your Vaccine Card on Social Media
Nothing stops or even slows down the scammers. The warning to not share your vaccine card is serious. I must pause to ask... did you post your drivers license, passport, or other personal information on the Internet? We are all way to free with our information, and...
Help! Should I Sell GME and AMC Stock Now or Hold for a Recovery? | InvestorPlace
This article gets into the nitty gritty of where GameStop's shares may go. All I'm noting is that as I type this on Thursday, it had already fallen to about $50 a share from the $400 high. With GME and AMC down over two-thirds from their highs, should investors hold...
Super Bowl LV Coverage To Leverage Innovative Technology In Broadcast – CBS Miami
This weekend's Super Bowl is going to bring new looks to keep eyes fixed on the game. Unlike some years where advances were few, this year includes many new technologies to enhance the experience with so many staying home. In all, over 120 cameras will be involved,...
FTC fines Amazon $61.7 million for withholding tips from Flex drivers
For a while, just like some of the other companies, Amazon toyed with withholding tips from their drivers. This sneaky approach was discovered, and lawsuits flew. Amazon will pay nearly $62 Million in fines, but in a rare twist, this will represent the full amount of...
Parler CEO John Matze says company’s board fired him – Axios
It's probably little surprise that Parler's CEO, John Matze, is no longer with the company. Can we call it a company if it's no longer viable? Can they even field a person who can bring the social media site back online? The controversies will probably stick with John...
Andy Jassy: What to know about Amazon’s new CEO – Axios
Stepping into Bezos shoes is this guy, who built AWS into an amazing service provider. If you are any size company looking for cloud servers, storage space, or other computing needs on the Internet, AWS is a good first look. People who like Amazon's entire range will...
Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO – Axios
The 2nd richest (money) man in the world is stepping down from his role at Amazon. Jeff Bezos started with a few books, in a garage, and look at what he made from that. OK, maybe a little poetic license there. Moving to the executive chair at the board in the 3rd...
Apple’s quarterly sales top $100 billion for first time – Axios
Apple's numbers keep turning out amazing. $111 Billion in a quarter is a hefty chunk of change. That's not an annual number... that's a QUARTER! Wow. The iPhone maker saw record results across geographies. See full story on Apple's quarterly sales top $100 billion for...
GameStop’s stock is soaring, thanks to Reddit. Here’s why – CNN
Gamestop, a company that should have died with the advent of internet delivery of software, is a controversial topic in the past few months. Who would have thought that the stock would drive from the ashes? I'll spend a full segment commenting on this on this weeks...
Facebook to downplay politics on its platform – Axios
Facebook is driving a new message that political speech isn't important. Their thoughts are that it's too much trouble, but isn't freedom worth it? After all, our world has always communicated their feelings on divisive topics like politics and religion. Yet, Mark...
2 in 5 U.S. seniors lack sufficient broadband – Axios
The group that most needs access to the Information Age is senior citizens. This enabling tool allows them to shop, connect, reminisce, and engage the brain through research, recipes, or whatever else. In the coming week or two, Keith will talk about some of the...
Double-Edged Sword: Facebook Censors Socialist Workers Party, Far Left
A couple weeks ago, I heard from someone who was unhappy that I was against Facebook censoring folks on the political right. This week, Britain's Socialist Workers Party was also squelched for a time. When Facebook determines what can and cannot be said, then everyone...
Alexa can now control your smart home gadgets without voice commands | TechRadar
Ever had a hunch? Apparently Amazon's Alexa gets those now, and can start helping automate your smarthome a little more. It does have a little creep factor, as I've noted before, but I think we'll get over it just as we've gotten over it listening to everything we...
Apple just released a security update for your iPhone. Download it now.
When someone says to update a security patch right away... and you hear things like Zero Day, or various announcements about urgency of updating... DO IT RIGHT AWAY! Apple's iOS 14.4 is the fix, and apparently there are folks leveraging this problem right now. The...
Dash Smart Shelf | Auto-replenishment scale for home and business
I like the dash button, but for the hackable nature of being able to use it to command things via IFTTT. The Dash Smart Shelf, however, does not do that... it locks you into reorders of items that are pricier than just going down to the store and buying yourself. Or...
Microsoft ridicules the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar in new Surface 7 advert | TechRadar
It's not surprising that Microsoft poked fun at Apple this week. For a long time, they've been on the receiving end for most of the jabs, but this one rang true. They went for the majority of the market, noting the stylus, touch screen, and price... and poked fun at...
Microsoft reverses Xbox Live price hike, will add free multiplayer for some games | Engadget
Someone wasn't thinking well at Microsoft. In the span of hours, they increased the price of Xbox Live to nearly double, and then came back down again, and made the free games truly free. Their backpedaling was quick and impressive, unlike many companies that like to...
Average U.S. iPhone price hits a record $873 – Axios
Apple has been soaking all of us for years. The price point originally was $599, but dropped to $399. Today, if you buy the latest version, you're talking a bit of cash after you pay for the charger (not included), earbuds (wireless, and not included), and case....
Scientists Created Microscopic Mushroom Shapes for Quieter Velcro
Velcro, that loud and noisy fastener, has it's faults, but we still love it. Now, there's a quiet version that may be coming to us soon. This new variation is made up of mushroom shapes that fit into each other, but they also don't attach to things that you don't want...
Linux has been ported to run on Apple’s M1 Macs – The Verge
Before we freak out too much, Linux has been run on most hardware. This was a matter of developing the right drivers for it. They did this on the back of a distro for Raspberry Pi, which will make the response time even more absolutely impressive. Corellium, the...
Back to the office with you: ‘Perhaps 5 days is too much family time’ – Workday CEO • The Register
The CEO of Workday doesn't appear to bet happy with being cooped up with his family. His quote was "Perhaps 5 days is too much family time" and indicated that most staff will be back to the office as fast as possible. He said this on a public call, and it really shows...
Rebranded Paramount+ streaming service launches on March 4 | AppleInsider
Years ago, there was UPN, the United Paramount Network. For the first time in decades, Paramount is the name of a TV service, but it's streaming. CBS All Access, suffering from a less than stellar reputation for not having enough content, is being renamed to...
The fight to make Netflix and Hulu pay cable fees – The Verge
As cord-cutting gathers more energy, and people opt out of cable, many cities are losing money. Their response, to strike at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the other streaming providers. This may wind up giving you a higher bill than you expected. Worse is that many...
Kids’ screen time sees a big increase during pandemic – Axios
No surprise that all kinds of screen time has gone up in the past year, nor changed since. I wish that we had some other options, but I think we've also overlooked that books are harder to come by in print, libraries aren't running, and more. Unfortunately,...
America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates
Farmer Bill? Really? Yes, 242000 acres, or a space about 1/4 of the size of the state of Rhode Island. Now this is farmland, and doesn't count the 40 square miles outside of Phoenix for suburb development, or various other investments around the world. Bill Gates,...
All the big CES 2021 announcements in one place – Axios
CES adapted. There were still announcements, and wonderment, and a number of different COVID related items as well. Still, just as some of my previous tech haunts have disappeared, I think we are seeing the last of the biggest annual trade expo in the country. How...
Dropbox to cut workforce by 11% – Axios
Are we surprised by another downsizing of a tech company with a ton of competitors? In all fairness, it's not a large amount, and it appears to be a minor correction to ensure longevity. Still, I feel for those who are having to move on. This will continue, and I'm...
Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes – DNyuz
Bitcoin went from $40k to $30k and back in a week. There are people ready to cash out some of it, and one is a programmer who has about $220 million (well, depending on what day) on a small hard drive which he forgot the password to. He's got two attempts to gain it...
Telegram hits 500 million active users amid WhatsApp backlash
There are a number of different social media platforms gaining attention, most due to censorship on other prevailing platforms. Telegram is one, over WhatsApp's changes in terms of service... gaining millions per day. Signal doesn't share their numbers, but Elon Musk...
Wi-Fi’s biggest upgrade in decades is starting to arrive – The Verge
Some of the nerdiest of pundits are talking about the latest version of WiFi... 6E. It was little more than a year or two ago when we were talking about moving from letters, B, G, N, AC, to numbers 1-6. And now we just added in a letter agin. It will expand from the 2...
That’s it. It’s over. It’s really over. From today, Adobe Flash Player no longer works. We’re free. We can just leave • The Register
Flash is dead. It'll no longer work, unless somehow you might have an old version of it on your computer. If it works, get rid of it. Adobe paid big money years ago for Macromedia, the makers of Flash, and got a lot out of it. Why they struggled and tried to push it...
Freedom of Speech is disappearing.
This isn't about left or right. I would scream about this no matter who is working to keep our voices silent. I despised the efforts years ago to censor music. I was against the censorship of a certain comedian who I found to be foul and obnoxious, as it made him more...
Ticketmaster admits it hacked rival company before it went out of business | Ars Technica
Years ago, it was the amateurs who would hack their competitor businesses. This last week, Ticketmaster admitted to hacking their rival, Songkick, and has now agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine, for what was apparently a sanctioned attack. Unfortunately, these...
Amazon surpasses Boeing as Washington’s biggest employer. Here’s what that means for how we live. | The Seattle Times
The State of Washington is where a number of Boeing aircraft are assembled. It's so massive, that 2 weeks ago, Boeing was the largest employer in Washington. This week, however, as the airline industry is dialing back plane orders, and more... a company that has been...
‘The Mandalorian’ Is the Most Torrented TV Show of 2020 | IndieWire
I'm frequently disgusted by what people use technology for. The Mandalorian, a Star Wars TV show, is the most pirated show of 2020. With all of the time that we have not spent in theaters, I'd think that people would just pay for Disney+ if they wanted to watch it....
Apple loses iOS copyright claim in suit against security firm Corellium | AppleInsider
A key court decision in regards to copyrights happened this week. Apple lost a claim against Corellium, who developed a way to build security software that found bugs in Apple's iOS code. Corellium sold their software to a limited number of customers, and vetted them...
Privacy, schmivacy: 2 in 3 Americans don’t care if their smart devices are recording them – Study Finds
Blind to the invasions of our personal lives, we have been using smart devices constantly. I'm just as bad at this, but I do care, and I make careful measures to control it. Do you? Or are you one of the 2 in 3 American's who now say they "don't care". I wonder if the...
Social platforms flex their power, lock down Trump accounts
This week created a lot of fireworks in the political world. I try to avoid divisive issues, and my first topic this week is regarding all of the social media craziness... without getting political. Social media platforms have all locked down the President's access to...
Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world, passing Jeff Bezos
The most meteoric rise to the top of the rich in modern history is now Elon Musk. At a valuation of $185 Billion, he's showing no signs of stopping. The richest in the world, but a year ago, he was only able to brag about top 50. Tesla is the big driver for him, but...
9 of the 10 most activated smartphones on Christmas were iPhones – BGR
Apple's reign in the US is getting stronger. 9 of the top ten most activated smartphones for Christmas... Apple. Now, part of that also comes from a smaller selection, and a highly fragmented Android market. The tenth, which happened to place tenth, a 2 year old LG...
FAA finally sets rules for piloting small drones | Ars Technica
The FAA has released the final words for drone usage, and it's a little easier than what was original proposed. They've smoothed out some items, so many of the desired items are objective approval, vs subjective, and you can do most things you could before, if you...
A Redditor is squeezing entire movies onto a single floppy disk
There are always competitions in the nerd world to see how much you can compress something down. Someone has managed to put all of Shrek onto a 3 1/2" floppy disk... yes, 1.37MB overall. Now, that's 4 frames per second, 120x96 pixels, and the color range is on par...
Bill Gates backs plan to tackle climate change by blocking out the sun
The 2nd movie in the Highlander franchise has this idea of blotting out the sun to protect us from holes in the ozone layer... aka global warming. There's a new plan out there to do exactly that, and we're not talking sci-fi this time... Bill Gates is funneling large...
Coinbase has stopped trading one of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies | TechRadar
One of my acquaintances was talking just weeks ago about XRP, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. He was hyped on it, but this week it was locked out of Coinbase, the largest trader in the United Staes. It's all due to an SEC investigation into how it's a security instead...
23andMe raises $82.5 million in new funding | TechCrunch
There is a headline about 23andMe, the DNA testing company making another $82 million in funding. I don't see this as the headline. Covid is the headline, and the interest that people have in the various benefits coming out of the pandemic for 23andMe, as well as...
Amazon saw some big changes in online shopping this Christmas | TechRadar
No surprise that Amazon has been doing well this year. The early numbers say 1.5 BILLION packages. Third-party sales up 50% year over year. Amazon ate $5 Billion in operational costs for sellers to build on their base. Q4 numbers are revenue around $115 Billion, so...
Space Tourist Smuggled Ashes of ‘Star Trek’ Engineer “Scotty” Aboard the ISS – Review Geek
James Doohan played Scotty on Star Trek. He passed in 2005 at 85 years old, after serving in WWII and losing a finger after being shot six times at Juno Beach on D-Day. His ashes have made it into space in a number of ways. One that was revealed this week, was that of...
AI ‘pre-cog’ predicts which Twitter users will spread disinformation
The dystopian creep factor was already detailed out 70 years ago. A Ministry of Truth (Twitter) surveils the public, and under pre-crime, it then censors those that don't go with the party line, before they speak a word. The words that you use will indicate the...
Cyberpunk 2077 issues have cost founders more than $1 billion, according to report | TechRadar
In a year where escapism has been the keyword, delivering subpar product was a bad idea. A long awaited game with many buyers was released just over a week ago, and the disaster is still unfolding. Cyberpunk 2077 makers are battling bugs, crashes, performance issues,...
Mark Cuban: Bitcoin is a ‘store of value that is more religion’
Bitcoin hit amazing numbers on Wednesday, passing $20,000... and Thursday it came within spitting distance of $24,000 before falling a bit. Remember that this is a clear sign of instability and is something I would avoid. I liken it to gambling, but far faster. Note...
More than 30 states level latest antitrust lawsuit against Google – Axios
If you are concerned by the Google outage this week, then perhaps you buy into the idea that Google is a monopoly. You'd be there with 38 states and territories who have filed the 3rd antitrust lawsuit in 3 months. This is taking aim at attacking their ad division,...
Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, and other Google services hit by massive outage – The Verge
A website outage for an hour, not all that bad. Google suffering a worldwide outage across most of their services, from Docs, to YouTube, Gmail, Assistant, and so much more, is a near disaster. That happened this past week, and while people could access the free...
Just how bad is that hack that hit US government agencies? | TechCrunch
One of the big names in the cybersecurity world has been breached. FireEye was hacked by what is believed to be Russian intelligence operatives. Several major US Government departments, Treasury, Homeland Security, State, NIH, and more, but also businesses have been...
Uber and Lyft start rolling out new benefits to California drivers – Axios
In an effort to move ahead of the government, many gig companies in California have been scrambling to make good. The benefits and rates are filling in some ground, and may serve to keep the wheels moving. Lyft and Uber are adding new things like a minimum earning,...
Apple Forced to Include iPhone Chargers After Not Demonstrating ‘Environmental Benefits’
While our resident fanboy supports Apple offering their latest phone without a charger, Brazil sides with me. They have stated that Apple did not demonstrate any "environmental benefits", and that the charger is essential for the use of the mobile device. To everyone,...
Bill introduced to strip Section 230 protections from the internet | AppleInsider
I find it strange that it is only after the election, and years of censoring various voices, that Congress is looking to remove Section 230. The list of requirements to be protected by Section 230 is lengthy, and would require many social media platforms to rethink...
Apple AirPods Max first look: lots to prove – The Verge
I wear studio quality headphones that retailed at a big price. I can't imagine what Apple was thinking when they decided to compete here, though. It's like they said "hey, let's make high-end audio based on our brand, but charge twice as much as the expensive Sony or...
Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ rejects calls to add ‘fiction’ disclaimer
In case you were unaware, Netflix's series "The Crown" is not a documentary, but a dramatization. Oh wait... you probably were aware of that. It's outstanding writing, and approach to the history of the longest living monarch is great, but now some in the royal family...
YouVersion Bible app engagement skyrockets in 2020 | Disrn
We've had the makers of the YouVersion Bible series of sites and apps on this show, many years ago. I'm happy to say they are doing well, especially as they announce amazing new numbers. Searches are up over 80%, reading is up, devotional plans, and more. The most...
Justice Department sues Facebook over favoring H-1B workers – Axios
Facebook has run afoul of the H1B Visa program, by failing to properly advertise positions in the United States, or even consider US born workers. Now, when you can't find talent, using the program is good. But if you aren't bothering to try, then it's clear abuse of...
Federal Trade Commission calls for breakup of Facebook
Now, before you get excited, the idea of breaking up Facebook has been floated for a while. The problem is that it will take years to happen. The AT&T breakup in 1984 was 2 years after they made an agreement, which was after 8 years of battle in the courts....
Netflix bids Death to 2020 in star-studded special from the makers of Black Mirror | TechRadar
Black Mirror, the dystopian show on Netflix, never predicted 2020... but they are about to take it on in a special. Not for the timid, however, I'm sure that they will send it out with a creep factor that can only come from the minds that predicted some of the other...
YouTube Bans Content Exposing ‘Election Fraud Or Errors,’ Vows To ‘Ramp Up’ Censorship – The National Pulse
It's interesting how exploring if something is true or false used to be allowed. We were encouraged to be free thinkers (not the atheist term, but just a general description). YouTube's banning of content exposing "election fraud or errors" follows many other...
Adobe Flash is going away for real this month
To quote Star Trek, "It's dead Jim." Adobe Flash has been lingering on the deathbad for far longer than it should have. It was not allowed in the iPhone or iPad, removed from FireFox and Chrome in 2016, and abandoned by most developers years ago. It was a target for...
Warner Bros’ 2021 Movies Heading to HBOMax: Why It Matters | Time
I'm not surprised that the movie industry has to adapt. In 2020, we've realized that entertainment at $30-40 a pop is just not workable. The theaters are going to suffer for it, and Warner Bros and HBO are going to lead the charge. I'm looking forward to some of the...
Travel industry lobbies for digital passport showing COVID-19 vaccination status | Disrn
International Travel may soon be covered with additional requirements for vaccination and testing, proved by tech. The idea of attaching a "digital passport" to our smartphones seems like an invite for another disaster for travelers. I support reasonable actions, but...
Notebook PC sales balloon, with 26-percent growth expected in Q4 | PCWorld
Wondering what the numbers for laptop and PC sales are for 2020? With the increased demand, year over year growth of 26% has left retail shelves bare, and even the ugliest tech is getting attention. Tablets? Up 10% year over year. 2021 numbers will be lower, but still...
Vaccine shipment companies targeted by cyberattacks, IBM says – Axios
In a despicable move by hackers, virus attacks are up sharply on companies looking to make, ship, and deliver vaccines for COVID. No matter where you sit on the effectivity, the choice to receive a shot, or various conspiracy driven theories, this is just downright...
Google Maps now lets you create Street View photos with just a phone – The Verge
Want to contribute to Google's mapping of the world through Street View? It has long required a special camera, but now Google Maps will now allow you to use your smartphone to do exactly that. I like this idea, as we seek to expand our view of different locations in...
Xbox Series X scalpers have 1,000 orders cancelled — karma wins | Tom’s Guide
I remember working for a retail toy store during the Cabbage Patch Kids years. The electronics industry has driven much of the supply-demand tricks over the years, by underdelivering stock, and hyping up to build demand. Scalpers have come along each time, seeing...
Arecibo Observatory brings forward ‘controlled demolition’ plans by collapsing all by itself • The Register
The radio telescope in Puerto Rico that you've seen over the years in movies and TV shows was scheduled for demolition. It started to fail and fall apart before that happened. From James Bond to Contact, the Arecibo Observatory was also responsible for mapping Mercury...
Apple enables HD FaceTime calls on iPhone 8 through iPhone 11
A nice minor reason to update your iPhone... HD Facetime calls. It's so minor that Apple doesn't list it in the release notes for 14.2, but it's important in this day and age when we're social distanced. Test it out by contacting a loved one today!Thankfully, Apple...
Zuckerberg sold $280M worth of Facebook stock in the past month
The financial based headline for Mark Zuckerberg cashing out over $12M of stock each day for the last month seems to scream of dangers. This is, however, equal to someone who makes $100,000 a year buying two Chai Lattes at Starbucks. When digging to the bottom of the...
New TikTok feature allows users to avoid videos with epileptic seizure triggers
TikTok has released a good option, avoiding videos that might trigger an epileptic seizure. This is a problem that affects 65 million people around the world, so stopping videos that can trigger, is important. Social media has so many other problems, including people...
Comcast to impose 1.2TB-a-month broadband download limits across more of America from next year • The Register
Across the country, Comcast is changing the idea of unlimited Internet, and now if you use more than 1.2 TB in a month, they'll charge you extra. To the tune of $10 per 50GB. Now, as I covered in another news item this week, that means that if your neighbor's Amazon...
Facebook reportedly tweaked algorithm to make a ‘nicer news feed’ following US election – CNET
Spin doctors are noting that the social media giant was changed to show "authoritative" news in your feed, instead of "misinformation". Sounds very much like the Ministry of Truth is calling the shots. This "nicer news feed", censoring of opinions, adding warning...