Where would life be without fascinations? Where would life be without exploring the different aspects of our world through laughter, amazement, curiosity, and that childlike glee when we see something anew for the first time? I only wish that I could somehow bring many of the different treats that arrive on my web doorstep to your attention. Of course, through the magic of the Internet, there are few constraints to this excitement.
On the last workday of the week (usually Friday), we will bring you something at 12:00 noon Pacific Time (that’s late afternoon on the East Coast, so you have something before leaving the office). It’s here to tickle your fancy, entice you to learn, entertain you, or simply explore your funny bone. It may not always be humor, but it should never be boring. It will be clean, safe for work and the family, and will be related to our core topics at Computer Talk Radio, that’s computers and technology, and occasionally just plain nerdy.
Further, like many of the other things around here, if you submit something that we use in our Friday Fascinations, I’ll also send you something from the grab box(es).
Benjamin Rockwell
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...
Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic over self-improving AI safety fears
A former Anthropic researcher chose to quit this last week, and threw a lot of people into a panic with claims that AI is out of control and could doom us all within the coming years. He wasn't the only one, with another active employee saying similar dystopian views....
Judge Lets Musk Keep ‘Twitter’ for Now but Forces Him to Release the Bird – CNET
Twitter was famous known for having a bird as it's icon, and referring to tweets as their messages. When Elon Musk bought Twitter, and renamed it to X, an upstart company named Bluebird came along and said "we want the name and logo". The claim was that X wasn't using...
Man Arrested After Showing Up at Police Station With a Truck Full of Flock Cameras
Flock will continue in the news, as well Axon, and other ALPR competitors as negative sentiment grows against these cameras along the roads. Last week, a New Mexico man, after his local city cut ties with Flock, decided to pull up 10 of these and turn them into his...
Hackers Drain $320 Million From Bitcoin’s Liquid Network, Keep $47 Million for Themselves in ‘White Hat’ Operation
This one get's wonky, so I'm keeping some terminology simple. This past week, some folks calling themselves white-hat-hackers drained 4,000 bitcoins out of a Bitcoin sidechain, or simply a variation of Bitcoin itself called Liquid. They leveraged a new bug, then told...
LG Denies Its Televisions Record Ambient Conversations for Ad Targeting – CNET
This week, a large YouTuber channel announced they had proof that hackers could get into your LG smart TV and gain all of the conversations in the room. This was then extended to all smart TVs, and then LG denied that claim. Claims went flying that everyone is...
GPT-6 Stole the Show, but Anthropic, Meta and Google Also Had New AI Models This Week – CNET
Unlike Apple, and many of the other hardware manufacturers, where devices are announced annually, AI models get updated far more frequently. This week was an oddity, however, with new models from all over. OpenAI announced GPT-6 Astra, Claude came up with Fable 5.1...
Doomscrolling at work wastes time, but the real cost is what happens after – Texas A&M Stories
Do people frequently complain that you used to be happier? Do you doomscroll at lunch? A new study at Texas A&M found that employees who consume negative news during the workday are more likely to stay focused in that negative space. Now, you may think it's only...
AT&T Sues Charter Over ‘Fiber’ Internet – CNET
AT&T filed a lawsuit against Charter, known as Spectrum to home users, over the use of the term "fiber." Wait... is it over the word itself, as I have fiber internet? OK, now before you go stir-crazy, it's part of a long-standing feud between the two, where...
Dyson’s first toothbrush costs as much as a budget smartphone and justifies the price tag with a camera and AI – Digital Trends
For people who have plenty of money to spend, but aren't interested in the Apple-1, there is now a Wi-Fi-connected, camera-enabled toothbrush. Dyson, long one of the more premium brands for vacuum cleaners, now wants to be part of cleaning your mouth. Yes, it's...
Rare Working Apple-1 Could Fetch $800,000 at Auction – MacRumors
An Apple-1 computer is going up for auction. The new estimates on a rarity such as this, along with some special correspondence, bring this up more. It has a full set of provenance with the original owner, and is even referred to as the "Hatfield", number 48 of the...