Bad Voltage

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which I buy your product but I still have virus, there are apparently cellphone pedestrian lanes all over the world, and:

[00:04:30] Microsoft Flight Simulator has a very tall building in Melbourne, although the community are on the case; the FBI are worried that Ring doorbells are spying on police; the city of Yamato has banned walking with smartphones; a woman sees Jesus’ face on a potato and then eats it, and this is not John McAfee

[00:17:00] Facebook threatens to pull news from Australia if new law passes, Zoom’s market capitalization is now roughly $115 billion, making it worth more than IBM, Amazon wins FAA approval to deliver packages by drone, and BMW plan to make owners pay subscriptions to get heated seats…

[00:30:54] There have been a bunch of news stories about Apple’s handling of payments in their app store recently: Hey, WordPress, and Epic Games. There’s an increasing pushback from developers about the way that app store owners are demanding payments, Google as well as Apple, but perhaps it’s just a storm in a teacup and it’ll all blow over? What is reasonable for app store vendors when it comes to influencing app makers? How much are you entitled to extract from an ecosystem that you created? This seems a subject with a lot of ramifications: we’ll dive into it in detail

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×12-staring-at-potatoes/12382

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which there is seemingly a theme but it’s wholly coincidental, succulent flaky pastry is mentioned, and:

[00:02:38] Japan opens see-through public toilets open in Tokyo parks, an Amazon driver allegedly defecates in a Nottingham woman’s back garden, and a man in Chicago breaks into an ATM, live-streams it, and then unsurprisingly gets busted immediately

[00:09:05] Apple and Epic get into an epic war (with Google involved too) about taking 30% of all money, and Mozilla lay off 250 staff

[00:26:13] Our main discussion: software has gradually moved over the last decade from a buy-it-it’s-yours model to a pay-every-month model. We’ve recently discovered with a little shock just how many of these services we’re each subscribed to, and it’s worth talking about; this is a big shift in how the software industry sells its core product. Why has it happened, and what are the benefits for both sellers and purchasers? Is software today a fundamentally different thing from how it was in 2005, or even 1995? And where does open source fit into all this?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×11-the-most-evil-mp3s/12379

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we take the security advice of international expert Hans Gruber, we find Jono’s lack of middle name preparation disturbing, and:

[00:02:00] Some “fresh baby witches” have put a hex on the moon, as if we didn’t have enough to worry about. Apparently this is bad because “inexperienced witches should only be researching and doing protection work”

[00:04:40] 14% of men fantasise about the voice of Alexa

[00:07:30] Serious book author fails to properly read google search results, includes things from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a historical novel about dye making

[00:09:33] The Irish Health and Safety Executive donates their “Covid Green” contact tracing app to the Linux Foundation global public health project

[00:12:59] The Twitter hack was apparently done via access to internal tools by compromising employees, although there are bigger questions, such as: should they have been better at doing crimes?

[00:18:31] According to The Markup, Google search results are now mostly to Google properties. We’re not sure we buy this, but they have a point worth thinking about

[00:25:55] Microsoft may be buying TikTok after conversations with the White House. The motives for this and the forces causing it to happen may be a little obscure, or may simply be Microsoft spotting a popular thing and buying it…

[00:49:43] Musicians just aren’t working hard enough, says the Spotify CEO. “What is required from successful musicians”, says Daniel Ek, “is a deeper, more consistent, and prolonged commitment than in the past.” Should being a musician today be significantly harder than it was for the Beatles? Maybe yes: this is the new world order, and the business of music is different now

[00:56:10] Google are partnering with ADT, using Google Home speakers for security to detect “critical noises” such as smoke alarms and breaking glass, and using ultrasonic sound as a movement detector

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×10-chardonnay-and-vinegar/12374

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which there is a certain amount of disagreement but it all works out in the end, and:

[00:03:20] There’s a lot of conversation about “open core”, and there’s increasing polarisation around the topic. But… what actually is an open core project or product? Does everyone even agree on the terms? And once they do, is that thing a good idea? And how do you do it right? We’re going to look into it in some detail; what are the accusations and defences flying back and forth, which projects actually are “open core” and which not, and what’s a good business model for open source in the modern age?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×09-ascii-code-0x46/12373

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the word “content” gets used a lot, Stuart steals a double-bass joke from Dirk Gently, and:

[00:03:20] In the second part of our speculation on how the tech world and the coronavirus pandemic intersect, we’re looking at how the world might be changed after the pandemic is over. What’s going to be the role of tech and the future state once we come out the other side of all this? We’ll look at when a vaccine might arrive and whether there’ll be systemic change. Then some thoughts on events: will tech events stay online even after life returns to mostly normality? What have we learned as a community about how to run an event online, and is that something that will alter how events work, or allow for new and different events even after that? And this plays into “content” more generally; when famous actors can entertain us with selfie videos from their sofas, and everyone is one decent camera away from becoming a YouTube personality, is there a place for high production values or have we decided that they aren’t important? Finally, we want to look a little at remote work: have corporate attitudes changed, and how many people might stay remote working when they aren’t forced to by the virus? What does this mean for cities and for companies?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×08-petrichoronavirus/12371

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which there is much argument about technology choices and:

[00:02:00] New York City Health discourages orgies, instead advocating “sexy Zoom parties”, and also in NYC apparently driving into protesters does not violate use-of-force policy, and on the morning of Juneteenth, Tesla tells employees they can take the day off. Unpaid

[00:12:10] The USA’s tax collection agency, the IRS, used cell phone data to try to track potential suspects, and following on from the last show Apple do indeed go ARM while never mentioning the word. We’ll quickly summarise some of the things from Apple’s WWDC event, including seeing the Gnome desktop on an Apple stage, blimey

[00:34:55] Our main topic is the coronavirus. More specifically, technology and the lockdown. We’ll look at contact tracing apps and why hardly any country is building something correctly, and why there’s such reduced takeup by people of these apps, and then at technology more broadly: what ways can tech help everyone deal with the current situation? There are big sweeping changes, but maybe there’s room at the margins for small but effective ways that tech can alleviate the crisis?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×07-my-heart-went-boom/12370

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which 286s make a comeback, we might be on Spotify, and:

[00:01:50] The BBC search desperately for a way to describe “anti-racism critics” while describing tea condemning racists, Burger King start selling the Social Distancing Whopper” in Italy which has three times the onions, and a hidden treasure chest filled with gold and gems was found in the Rocky mountains.

[00:07:30] In more serious news, IBM stop doing facial recognition technology because it’s used “for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms,” saying that tech “must not promote discrimination or racial injustice.” Privacy International call it cynical.

[00:12:06] Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced his resignation from his role on the board of directors and asked to be replaced with a black candidate. He has also donated one million dollars to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights campaign, and said he will funnel all future gains on his Reddit stock to benefit the black community.

[00:13:55] Apple seem to be going ARM for laptops

[00:21:16] Our main topic this week: exclusivity. With console games constantly being announced as “exclusives” to one platform or another, TV programmes only being available on one streaming service, and Joe Rogen moving exclusively to Spotify for a hundred million dollars, we look more deeply into the idea of exclusivity. What do the creators get out of it? What do the publishers get out of it? And can it ever be good for the audience?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×06-earballs/12367

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we are rendered with one meelion triangles. Also:

[00:02:20] Three Bolivian brothers deliberately get bitten by a black widow spider in an attempt to get Spider-Man powers, while North Korea finally admit that Kim Il Sung wasn't a wizard, you should go feed messages into thiswebsitewillselfdestruct.com before it, er, self-destructs, and Elon Musk and Grimes's child is renamed to something else Unicodely-challenging, although that's still not as good as Dave's mate Obvious Lee

[00:09:30] Gitlab spear-phish their own employees and then tell us the results, demonstrating their commendable commitment to openness and also that technically-savvy people are just as vulnerable to this as others, although what is to be learned from this is still in question; Facebook have bought Giphy (that's Giphy, not Giphy), and in preparation for next episode's discussion of exclusivity, Joe Rogan moves exclusively to Spotify

[00:20:30] Did you see the new Unreal Engine demo? Looks pretty amazing. We're going to look a little into this, movie-quality source art, the upcoming PS5, gaming PCs running this, whizzy new SSD technology, and whether this will radically change gaming

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×05-this-podcast-will-self-destruct/12362

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we like egg. Also:

[00:02:38] And now, this: Famous rapper Jason Zed orders deepfake parodies of his voice off YouTube… Virginia spend time debating whether it’s ok to be drunk in your car while it’s in your driveway… a five-year-old steals a car to drive to LA to buy a Lamborghini, gets a free Lambo ride from Utah philanthropist… and Twitter think you’re interested in “egg” and a bunch of other stuff besides, so share your lists with us on the Slack channel…

[00:15:35] The .org registry is being confirmed to not be being sold, Tim Bray, VP, quits Amazon over their firing of whistleblowers, and Facebook creates an oversight board, about which we are quietly pleased but a bit sceptical

[00:26:20] Our main piece: health and posture and wellness, both digital and otherwise. Most of us in the technology community probably need to do better at sitting up straight, positioning monitors correctly, standing up, exercising more, and so on. We’ve been taking a look at some of the tools to help accomplish this, from standing desks and posture monitors to education and putting your screen on a pile of books. This also dovetails with the drive towards digital wellness: after the big initiative a couple of years ago to have OS vendors build tools into their systems to help us switch off, did it work? What do the tools do? And is anybody using them?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×04-they-call-it-dot-egg/12359

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which apparently it is Coventry’s turn in the barrel, and:

[00:02:20] And Now This: it is possible that the MMR vaccine helps protect you from coronavirus, game over antivaxxers, in cyberpunk dystopia news Microsoft want to use your body heat for mining cryptocurrency, Belgians have been urged to eat fries twice a week, and the FDA say: don’t eat or inject yourself with disinfectant, which is a relief…

[00:09:10] News: 74% of UK IT pros are getting less than the recommended 7-8 hours’ shut-eye on a weeknight; a quarter of the sample said they got 3-4h (!); more than half of IT pros wake up still feeling tired, sleepy or groggy, leaving them less motivated, less productive, more error-prone and less happy. (65% of director/CIOs are satisfied with their work/life balance; only 36% less senior say the same.) The solution, apparently, is cloud technologies. “There’s a positive link between the adoption of cloud technologies and people’s work/life balance, with 57 per cent of those whose organisations have embraced cloud technologies feeling satisfied with their work/life balance”. And in more tech stuff, Britain’s NHS want to take centralized approach to COVID tracking, and seem to be disregarding that nobody trusts the government’s assurances that this will never be misused, at least partially because they expressed the secret desire to deanonymise users which is exactly what everyone’s afraid of…

[00:19:27] What’s digital fiat currency? It’s not cryptocurrency, and it’s not just avoiding cash. China and Sweden are looking into changing to digital fiat currency and some smaller countries have already done so, but why? As promised, we dive into this world, with an explainer of what this concept is, what some of the motives for wanting it are, and how it might affect the populace, restaurants and cash businesses, crime, trust, the economy, Facebook, and cocktails to be made at home. (The detail document Jeremy mentions is The Case for Digital Legal Tender.)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×03-massive-quantities-of-potatoes/12354

News music: [http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Robbero/59218](Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero), used with attribution.