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PTJ 101 News: Song of Dice and Ire
July 17, 2014 J.D. Biersdorfer	Leave a comment
This past Tuesday was supposed to be the end of the first-round public comment period for the proposed Net Neutrality (or Open Internet) rules but forth by the Federal Communications Commission. Due to an overwhelming volume of people trying to deposit their $0.2, however, the FCC has now extended the initial round of comments until Friday, July 18th, at midnight. [Quick! To the Rantmobile!] The FCC's website even has a chart showing the huge flurry of messages coming in through the site's Electronic Comment Filing System on this particular topic. In addition to mere mortals, several large tech companies have stated their support for an open internet and thirteen US senators also called on the FCC to support net neutrality. A decision could come in September, after the next round of comments.
The FCC is also hearing it from the DISH network, which has formally asked the agency to block the pending Comcast-Time Warner merger due to serious competitive concerns. (By the way, the FCC just picked its panel last week to review that looming deal.) DISH also doesn't like the proposed AT&T and DirecTV merger, but the company should be celebrating the recent court ruling in favor of its Hopper DVRs.
Adding to the alphabet soup: the FAA and the FTC: A few weeks ago, the Federal Aviation Administration said it wasn't authorizing drones for commercial use, but Amazon is persisting. Last week, the megamoo überstore filed an official request to the administrator of the FAA to ask for an official exemption from the No Commercial Drones rule. In other Amazon news, the battle with publishers over ebook pricing drags on and oh, by the way, the Federal Trade Commission just sued the company for improperly billing parents for in-app purchases made by their children.
If the rumors are to be believed, the iPhone 6 will come on two sizes, (a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch screen model) but are whispers from analysts that the 5.5-phablet-size version will be delayed due to complications with components and the manufacturing process. So if you want to buy the thing that doesn't offically exist yet, you may have to wait a little longer.
Microsoft, which is starting to but cloud and mobile moves of its own, has plans for a $199 Windows laptop from HP in time for the holiday season, as well as similar low-cost laptops from Acer and Toshiba for about $249. Take that, Google Chromebooks.
After a month of drama, diving and oh, fútbol, the 2014 World Cup wrapped up in Brazil this past weekend as Germany won the large gold trophy. Along with setting new records for global television viewership, the tournament was also the biggest streaming multimedia video event in history. The Spanish-language channel Univision Deportes got 81 million total viewers for the tournament and was up 34% in viewership from the 2010 World Cup.
Also up in recent numbers — album sales on vinyl. Nielsen Soundscan's mid-year report shows the once-dominate format for audio recordings has clawed its way back to 4 million units from near-extinction at the hand of CDs and digital downloads .
In robot news, the folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on phase-changing material made from wax and foam that could allow robots to become "squishy" or shift between hard and soft states. These robots are intended for good works.
Now, if you missed the supermoon on July 12th, there's another one on August 10th, and some are calling it the superdupermoon because it will be even brighter and larger than the previous mere supermoon. August 10th will see the moon's perigree coincide with the hour that the moon itself is most full. There will also be a supermoon hat-trick this year, with another (but dimmer) one occurring on September 9th.
The frostiness between Samsung and Google is probably going to get a little more polar vortex-y as Samsung has opened its own Android app store that its users can shop instead of Google Play. The new store is called Galaxy Apps and claims hundreds of exclusive programs just for Samsung shoppers.
Samsung is also working with Google's Nest division on their own Internet of Things standards club called Thread Group. They are not alone.
And finally, Dungeons & Dragons is not just a role-playing game, it's a skill-builder for writers and programmers. As The New York Times reported earlier this week, several renowned authors like Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Junot Díaz, Sherman Alexie, Sharyn McCrumb and yes, George R.R. Martin were all influenced by the game and said it helped with their development as writers. D&D's ability to teach players creativity, narrative and problem-solving skills is nothing new. In his 1998 Gen X memoir, Extra Life: Coming of Age in Cyberspace, author Davis S. Bennahum said the complexity of the game even got him into computer programming. Perhaps there's hope for the younger generation today, who have grown bored with repetitive casual games. Wizards of the Coast just released a Dungeons & Dragons Starter Kit for $20 this week. Get rolling!
Allseen AllianceAmazonAppleComcastdiceDishdronesDungeons & DragonsFAAFCCFederal Aviation AdministrationFederal Communications CommissionFederal Trade CommissionFTCGalaxy AppsGoogleHopperInternet of ThingsiPhoneMassachussets Institute of TechnologymergermicrosoftMITNestnet neutralityOpen Interconnect Consortiumopen InternetperigreePhabletprogrammingSamsungsquishy robotssuperdupermoonsupermoonThread GroupTime Warner CableUnivision DeportesvinylWorld Cupwriters
PTJ 100: Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now
July 10, 2014 Pedro Rafael Rosado	Leave a comment
As we approached the century mark in episodes J.D. and I considered all the cool things we could do to mark the occasion. Sky divers, bouncy castles, and a Blade Runner marathon were all discussed but in the end we decided to offer up what all of you have come to expect from us: tech news, helpful hints, product reviews and shenanigans. Thank you for sticking with us for these past 100 episodes and we look forward to serving up many, many more!
This week El Kaiser takes a listen to Bowers & Wilkins flagship P7 headphones and J.D. makes using your set top boxes a whole lot easier.
In the news, Facebook experiments with its users; the NSA takes a particularly strong interest in Linux users; protocols for the Internet of Things popping up like weeds; Python is more popular than Java in schools; and The Beatles film "A Hard Days Night" gets the remastering treatment.
A Hard Day's NightAllseen AllianceAmazonAndroidApple TVappsAssociation for Computing MachineryBluetoothBowers & WilkinsCodeacademycomputer scienceCriterion Collection. digital restorationdata scienceEditorial Expression of ConcernEdward Snowdenemotional contagionethicsFacebookFire TVGmail APIInboxInternet of StuffInternet of ThingsiOSkeyboardsLinuxLinux JournalLogitech Smart Harmony Keyboard RemoteMonty Python's Flying Circuso hai NSAOpen Interconnect ConsortiumPC salesPNASProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesprogrammingPythonRemoteresearchRokuRoku MobileSmart homesTailsThe BeatlesThe Home DepotThinkSoundTORvoice searchWindows 8.1Windows PhoneWindows XPWinkWireless
PTJ 100 News: Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge
Oh, Facebook. The revelation of your controversial "emotional contagion" experiment was weeks ago, but people are still talking about it. (In case you were on vacation, too, this was the one where Facebook deliberately tampered with the feeds of about 700,000 users back in January 2012 and took note of how those people reacted to really negative or really positive postings — but the site never informed the affected users that they were being used as guinea pigs.) The news broke in mid-June when a paper on the study was published and now the editor of that academic journal, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has issued an Editorial Expression of Concern over the whole thing.
Facebook, facing a backlash, defended the its actions and said a clause in its terms of service informs users that their data may be used for research purposes. But, as The Daily Dot, Forbes and others point out, that policy wasn't added until four months after the experiment took place. Why, yes, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has already filed a complaint against Facebook to the Federal Trade Commission. Regulators in Ireland and the United Kingdom are looking into the matter as well.
This is apparently nothing new on the Facebook campus, as a former data scientist for the company basically told The Wall Street Journal, hey, if you're a Facebook user, you've been experimented on. Andrew Ledvina, on his blog, later clarified some of his statements and said several were taken out of context by the paper.
Also in the Department of Things Under Scrutiny: Linux users. New disclosures about the National Security Agency and its practices claim the NSA is particularly interested in visitors to the Linux Journal site, along with those who frequent the TOR (The Onion Router) and Tails Linux distro site.
If we're going to have an Internet of Things, we're gonna need some protocols and specifications. Wouldn't you know it, major technology companies are jumping in to create an open-source standard for wirelessly connecting devices.The latest group is called the Open Interconnect Consortium and its founding members include Intel, Samsung, Dell, Wind River, Broadcom and others. However, this is not the first Internet of Things club. The Allseen Alliance, formed last year, counts Qualcomm, Microsoft, Cisco, LG, Panasonic, D-Link, HTC among its 50 or so members. (Will there be a nerd war over IoT standards?)
Interconnected smart homes are starting to go mainstream, though. Box-boxer The Home Depot, is now working with Wink, the app and platform that lets you control and monitor your connected thermostat, locks, lights, blinds and other household furnishings from your smartphone.
If you're getting ready to study computer science at any of the top universities here in the States this fall, odds are you'll probably be taking a Python course or two. According to the newsletter for the Association for Computing Machinery, Python has now passed Java as the most popular programming language taught in introductory computer-science courses. (If you can't afford the time or money to go to college, you can take a free Python fundamentals course online at the Codeacademy.) And yes, the name is derived from the British comedy classic, Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Also in education news, alumni from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dropbox have teamed up on a new email platform called Inbox. The Inbox announcement comes a few weeks after Google announced its new Gmail API at the I/O conference.
The PC market, once thought on the decline thanks to the rise of tablets and mobile devices, has had a bit of an uptick — or perhaps, less of a slump than expected, According to Gartner Research, PC shipments will only drop 2.9 percent this year, compared to a plummet of 9.5 percent last year. Part of this change is said to be people upgrading from their ancient Windows XP machines at last.
And finally, the latest digital restoration technology is to thank for the restoration and re-release of A Hard Day's Night, the 1964 film staring The Beatles in their youthful prime. The Criterion Collection folks created a 4K scan of the film from its original 35-millimeter negative to work with and added a 5.1 surround sound mix.
The restored film had a limited release in theaters last week and is also available on Blu-ray and DVD. Yes, it's true, money can't buy you love — but you can get a lovely restored classic piece of movie (and music) history on Blu-ray disc for less than $40.
A Hard Day's NightAllseen AllianceAssociation for Computing MachineryCodeacademycomputer scienceCriterion Collection. digital restorationdata scienceEditorial Expression of ConcernEdward Snowdenemotional contagionethicsFacebookGmail APIInboxInternet of StuffInternet of ThingsLinuxLinux JournalMonty Python's Flying Circuso hai NSAOpen Interconnect ConsortiumPC salesPNASProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesprogrammingPythonresearchSmart homesTailsThe BeatlesThe Home DepotTORWindows XPWink
o hai NSA
The Folding O' the Google Cardboard
February 4, 2016 Pedro Rafael Rosado	Leave a comment
I'll barter with some of my photographer friends soon for some studio shots. Hey, we're all about the homebrew around here…
DIY Show Logo Coming Along Nicely
February 14, 2014 Pedro Rafael Rosado	Leave a comment
The independent audio magazine devoted to mashing up pop culture, technology and more. J.D. Biersdorfer and Pedro Rafael Rosado are your hosts. It's an Internet Radio revolution!
PTJ 324: In With the New!
PTJ 323: Years and Years
PTJ 322: Disney, Plus…
PTJ 321: What's In Your (Digital) Wallet?
PTJ 320: The Ups and Downs of Package Delivery
The Kaiser on Episode 00: The Return
(Hopefully) Helpful Hint
Geek Recipes
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