Nerd News Tracker

Malware keeps striking big names in government. It's interesting how the long term rule was "we don't negotiate with terrorists", but once people starting losing data... So, Broward County has the 6th largest district in the country, and are being asked to pay $40...

Down at the very Southern tip of Texas lies the town of Brownsville. Elon Musk is looking to get rocket scientists to move there for SpaceX, instead of the current digs in places like Southern California, Cape Canaveral, and so forth. If you're willing to move to the...

I find it amazing that AT&T would be doing this, but they are actively lobbying against fiber across the country. Why? They claim that 10Mbps uploads are good enoughf or anyone. Strange, as that's the upload speed that I had nearly 20 years ago. Today, I get...

Amazon worker votes are being counted in Alabama as to if they are going to unionize. Amazon is now the country's second largest private employer at 800,000 workers and this was the first union election at Amazon in years. Many unions are watching, and even some...

I forget if I covered this a few months back, but T-Mobiles entry into streaming TV is already dead. I remember thinking "what are you guys doing" when it came out, as it isn't really their wheelhouse, it was a late player in a crowded market, and it wasn't logical to...

I know there are companies out there that assist in cheating at videogames, but I always considered them as walkthroughs and things like hints and more. Books and magazines, and the follow-on like websites. But for $10 to $200 a month gamers were competing in...

Backpedaling fast when you've made a bad move is good. Cricut, mentioned last week for their intent on making makers pay, stepped back not just once, but twice after the backlash. First step back, they said they wouldn't impact current customers who registered by the...

Chip disruptions come in a variety of forms. A bit over a month ago, there were concerns in Texas, and now due to a fire at a Japanese facility. In this case, the chips involved go into cars, but it's unclear what chips, what car manufacturers, and more. They expect...

I do agree with Bernie Sanders, in what he said this week... while still noting many things that express his displeasure for President Trump.... his exact words in support were "yesterday it was Donald Trump who was banned, and tomorrow it could be somebody else who...

The person most known for Social Media over the past four years... former President Donald Trump, is looking to develop his own social media network. It's touted as news, but he's been stating this for a while. We'll wathc and see. The former president and adviser Dan...

I love my wristwatches. I'll be chatting about my newest watch experience this week. It's not as ornate as this baby, however... or expensive. Someone at a company called Behold, came up with a Lucasfilm-authorized timepiece that runs about 71,500 Imperial credits, or...

Years ago, we went through an education issue for widescreen movies on the old TV's. Movies were shot somewhere around 16:9, but TV's were 4:3. You just worked with the bars on top and bottom if you wanted to see the wide picture from the theater. Today, if you're...

While last weeks news of Disney+ acheiving 100 million subscribers, a bunch of fanboys decided to state that in 3 years, they will pass Netflix. It's an interesting extrapolation of data that doesn't seem to have anything other than the recent increase, without any...

Keeping people safe is a big concern these days. The blind date has less of a concern for someone now, as a background check can be performed before your next Tinder date. My only wonder here is that if something like this should be paid for through the fees, instead...

The time change this weekend will affect our sleep as usual. Congress, led by Marco Rubio, is looking to change that by eliminating the change once and for all. The target is to stick with Daylight Savings Time. It actually does seem to work out in a number of...

It's a leap of logic to say that anti-censorship bills which haven't even been worded, will lead to increased censorship. This clearly is an attempt to attack those that value freedom of speech. This is scary propaganda that ranks right up there with doublethink, and...

When Apple starts pushing old things out the door, Keith advises that new things are coming. The question is if this $5000 unit has something else equally pricey coming along. Rest assured that we will be following and discussing whatever new comes our way!!! Oh, and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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, 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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...