Geekdays

Show notes and links:

* Disney+ app and worldwide rollout plans revealed (engadget.com)

* Facebook’s latest mishap involves bizarre messages printed on Oculus controllers – BGR (bgr.com)

* Every video game reference in Carolina Panthers 2019 NFL schedule video (polygon.com)

* Bloomberg – Are you a robot? (bloomberg.com)

* Foxconn and the village: the $10B factory deal that turned one small Wisconsin town upside down (theverge.com)

* Wisconsin Is Fighting to Renegotiate Its Foxconn Deal (vice.com)

* The People Keeping Bees on Paris’s Most Famous Landmarks (atlasobscura.com)

* Thousands of Bees Living on Notre Dame’s Roof Survived the Fire (vice.com)

Another week, another headache. Isn’t that how the expression goes? No? Another week, another bug-infested hell-hole for us to crawl out of? No? Dang it; I’m supposed to know this one. Another week, another florg driddy fnoop dardidae laminosa.

… Okay, now I’m either having a stroke or reliving a past life. Is this thing even on?

Show notes and links:

* Amazon shoppers misled by ‘bundled’ star-ratings and reviews | Technology (theguardian.com)

* Researchers Find Google Play Store Apps Were Actually Government Malware (vice.com)

* Grindr defeats appeal over harassment on gay dating app (reuters.com)

* Kaspersky Lab Will Now Alert Users to ‘Stalkerware’ Used In Domestic Abuse (vice.com)

* New Nintendo Switch controller lets you ditch mobile apps for Fortnite chat (update) (polygon.com)

* Labo VR modes come to ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ and ‘Breath of the Wild’ (engadget.com)

* College students allegedly scammed Apple out of nearly $1M in iPhone replacements (theverge.com)

* Cats Actually Understand When You Say Their Name, Study Finds (vice.com)

Now, this episode might be about the week that started on April first, but we make not a single reference to April Fools or the jokes told by the Internet At Large on said day. Instead, it’s all about Apple, Body Parts, Garfield Phones and Human Engineering. Also, … COME ON!

Show notes and links:

* Should I stand or walk for an efficient ride? (theconversation.com)

* The severed feet found on beaches near Seattle and Vancouver, explained (vox.com)

* Garfield beach phone mystery solved after 30 years (yahoo.com)

* This Strange Quirk in Your Brain Could Explain Why You Can ‘Hear’ Silent Gifs (sciencealert.com)

* Here’s why Apple is saying Spotify is suing songwriters (theverge.com)

* Apple Arcade wants to slay the free-to-play monster iOS helped create (theverge.com)

* Internal Documents Show Apple Is Capable of Implementing Right to Repair Legislation (vice.com)

“It’s been a while”, he said, remembering how often in the past he had spoken those very same words. “I come bearing news. News of the geeky variety. News to astonish and amuse; words to educate and entertain.” The words sounded hollow in his ears and he hoped nobody would hear the falseness in his tone. He was neither educational nor entertaining. At best, he spoke in trivia and puns, the lowest forms of both wisdom and comedy. But he smiled on, hoping that somebody would find some benefit in his efforts. That would make it all worth it – if just one person smiled.

Show notes and links:

* : Games :: NES :: Paste (pastemagazine.com)

* GMS: Hubble Treasure Trove Sonification (nasa.gov)

* Police in Canada Are Tracking People’s ‘Negative’ Behavior In a ‘Risk’ Database (vice.com)

* Ice cores reveal huge solar storm struck Earth around 660 BC – Physics World (physicsworld.com)

* This link has no title (indiegogo.com)

Show notes and links:

* Twitter says it’s building a feature that lets you hide replies to your tweets (theverge.com)

* YouTube CEO: Disabling comments on minor videos was ‘trade-off’ for child safety (cnet.com)

* A Child Explains Why He Built a Nuclear Reactor in His Playroom (vice.com)

* Bowser will replace Reggie Fils-Aimé as Nintendo of America president (arstechnica.com)

* Rumor: Microsoft Bringing Game Pass And Published Titles To Switch (gameinformer.com)

* Americans Are Literally Flushing Canada’s Forests Down the Toilet (vice.com)

It seems every episode begins with an excuse for why we’re late, so here goes… Sorry about this; I really thought we’d be on time this time around! We had our lineup of stories ready on Saturday, Breki had done his initial read-through on Sunday and was happy with how everything looked, but – come Monday – he started getting a nasty cold and couldn’t do his read… So, until we’ve perfected the artificial intelligences that will replace him, that kind of a thing is pretty much a showstopper. Anyway, we’re back on track and here’s the episode for this past week!

Show notes and links:

* An AI that writes convincing prose risks mass-producing fake news (technologyreview.com)

* This Website Uses AI to Generate the Faces of People Who Don’t Exist (vice.com)

* This Person Does Not Exist (thispersondoesnotexist.com)

* Behold, the Facebook phishing scam that could dupe even vigilant users (arstechnica.com)

* With the best air pressure sensor ever on Mars, scientists find a mystery (arstechnica.com)

* Samsung’s foldable phone is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold (theverge.com)

We’re late, I know, but like anything good in your life – we’re worth waiting for. Yeah, we’re that confident in ourselves and the quality of our show that we’re going to go out on a limb and say that even when we release an episode almost in time for next week’s episode, you’re still going to enjoy it.

… Please don’t tell us we’re wrong about our inflated self-confidence?

Show notes and links:

* Troubled Bitcoin trader QuadrigaCX takes another bizarre turn (vancouversun.com)

* Is This Your USB Stick Found Buried in Seal Poop? Scientists Want to Know (sciencealert.com)

* Target changes app after KARE 11 investigation (kare11.com)

* YouTube announces it will no longer recommend conspiracy videos (nbcnews.com)

It’s another week, so we have another episode of Geekdays. Enjoy the stories and figure out how Jeff handles things when the time machine breaks down.

Show notes and links:

* Online Piracy Can Be Good for Business, Researchers Find (vice.com)

* Hulu will soon show users ads when videos are paused (theverge.com)

* Netflix usage surpassed cable and satellite TV for the first time in 2018 – BGR (bgr.com)

* Mastering Jenga taught this robot real-world physics (engadget.com)

* Digital exchange loses $137 million as founder takes passwords to the grave (arstechnica.com)

* NASA Discovered a ‘Disturbing’ Glacier Hole Two-Thirds the Size of Manhattan (vice.com)

Another week, another delayed episode. Sorry to those of you who caught this on the Coffee With Jeff feed earlier, looks like we made a mistake in publication and put it in the wrong place.

Show notes and links:

* Doomsday Clock frozen at two minutes to apocalypse (bbc.com)

* The mystery tracks being ‘forced’ on Spotify users (bbc.com)

* Amazon made a vest to keep robots from pummeling humans (engadget.com)

* KFC Announces Major Plastics Pledge, Achievement Of Antibiotics Goal (forbes.com)

While we can’t boast the same beautiful transition from poo to peep like in last week’s show, we do have several things that speak for the consumption of this auditory geek-themed news programming. Most notably, of course, is that Breki … “Sings”. Kind of.

Show notes and links:

* Massive Collection #1 Breach Exposes 773 Million Emails (gizmodo.com)

* Fortnite made $2.4 billion in 2018 as free-to-play and mobile games dominated the market (techspot.com)

* Fortnite V-Bucks Used by Criminals for Money Laundering Schemes (digitaltrends.com)

* Twins get some ‘mystifying’ results when they put 5 DNA ancestry kits to the test (cbc.ca)

* The Government’s Secret UFO Program Funded Research on Wormholes and Extra Dimensions (vice.com)