Broadcasting. Live it's, America's, longest-running, talk show on computers, its computer, America, bringing, you the biggest names in technology with. Guest interviews, we products, and your, email listen. Live at computer, america.com. On any device around the world email. The show at live at computer, america.com, or, find, us on social media be, sure to check out our website for contests. Giveaways, Jono's. Live, video stream, podcasts. And more you're. Listening to computer. America. Hello. And welcome, into the computer America show we are the nation's longest-running it nationally syndicated radio talk show on computers, and technology I hope, you're having a great day a. Little, bit of a change here we're, still gonna hold out hope we are ever, hopeful, that our guests will be joining us today scheduled. Was, net, view technologies. They, make a smart, doorbell system and yeah. You know we were gonna talk all about their product and you, know what it does and you. Know just kind, of if you really. Need one and, unfortunately. Unable to get ahold of them so, we. Will actually be. Probably. Rescheduling, them again, they may come in during the show so we're. Gonna keep an eye out for that but, so far unable to get in touch with them it happens sometimes, live radio, hey. What are you gonna do so, with, that being said we're, just going to go, off and do our own thing and again. Keep a candle burning for our guests so but. Before we get started with our own thing a couple of things to mention including. Computer. America comm that's where you'll find everything about today's show be, it our guest website which again probably not to reschedule them be. It's any. Articles, videos that we show just, anything about today's show can be found at our website, while. You're there check out the social media contest brought, to you by logitech and of course giving, away, a prize tomorrow, live, on the air always, fun and then. The last thing is oh oh, yeah, the live video feed where you can watch computer, America and not, just listen and hey. You know pretty exciting, so. With, all that being said we, are just going, to jump into computer, and technology, news and yeah. So I, can. I mean you know we're gonna switch gears really, really quickly if. Our guest calls us but in, the meantime hey, we have lots of stories that we need to get to and, hey. You know some are. Crucially. Important, so why don't we just get started computer. And Technology, news here we go. All. Right so today, why. Don't we start, off with. All right why. Don't we go ahead and. Stay. Up. So yeah our first story today that we're going to cover is. All right this. Made it this made news yesterday but you, know we were talking about a bunch of different things yesterday definitely, check out Mike, cermak's interview but. In the meantime this, article, was put out and it's. Pretty cool I mean I don't think this is like, we've. Had an instance, of a self-driving car making. It from the east coast to the west coast, completely. By itself that's. Happened before but. A car, is not, a, big. Rig it is not an 18-wheeler, a car is a car, well. We can now add a new first in this, department, we're, just reported yesterday that a. Self-driving. Semi, truck this. Made its first cross-country. Trip, that's. Exciting, the, embarked. Self by, the way embark is the. Name, of the company so embarks, self-driving, truck. Jestro. From Los Angeles to Jacksonville. With minimal, help from its onboard human, driver. And of course I'm sure we're going to find out the extent, of what. Minimal, help means but, hey, that's, that's super impressive. So, the autonomous, tractor-trailer completed, a 2,400, mile, trip from Los Angeles California.
To Jacksonville. Florida in five, days. Traveling. For quote, hours, at a time with no disengagement. So. A disengagement, that's, the term that we're starting to hear more and more is when a human driver has to intervene or the. Autonomous. Vehicle. So. You're. Disengaging the auto. Essentially. The autopilot so, the, autonomous, technology inside, embarks, truck uses machine learning software as well as data from the five cameras, three. Long-range, radars, and to, light, detecting, sensors, and map its surroundings, in real-time and. Embark. Has not yet made it clear how many times the human driver had, to step in during, the 24 hundred mile trip which. Included, scheduled, breaks but, is working to assess all of the data collected in the cross-country. Trip. Because, you know even, if this truck. Could. Navigate every, single road road on the highway let's. Face it you know when it comes to human. Intervention. It still has to be fueled up by humans, is still you, know the human driving in it as their, own needs be it bathroom or you. Know hunger or things like that you know they're the, tractor. Is still. Subject. To human, variability. So. They. Said that the autonomous, trip is being considered a success, and that embark plans to have installed autonomous. Technology in 40. More tractor, trailers by the end of 2018. 40, not. Too many but hey it's start and however. Despite the sudden influx of self-driving technology, embark, assures, that the technology, is not meant to take jobs away from truckers, only to, increase, productivity, of. Course. We've seen these situations, where, increases. In productivity, simply. Mean that you can employ, less. People and get. The same amount of work done. Hey. You know that's that's what automation, does so, anyways they have a quote here saying that quote by allowing automation, to work together with local drivers the, handle less desirable, long-haul, routes we, will be able to increase productivity and, address. The current 50,000. Driver shortage while, also creating, new local jobs that, attract younger drivers, for the industry. You. Know and that's something I've heard was that when. It comes to Chuck driving how. The. Younger, generation. Is not, really, all that interested, in and I'm. Not sure if it's you. Know something having to do with the fact that truck driving is such. A. Such a strain, on the body and. Let's. Face it you have to spend a lot of time on the road and it's. Just not desirable, for the amount of pay that you get versus. Kind. Of being seen as a dead industry, where, or. At, least a dead-end industry. Where they said that you know by 2025. Some, people give different dates. Long-haul. Trucking or really, delivery trucks on highways. That's. Gonna be handled entirely. By, automation, I again. You know 2025, 2030 whatever, the new deadline is so. Okay. Maybe, you have a shortage I mean, let's face it there's lots of people looking for jobs but, at. The same time that's. Kind of the point of automation is that yes. You augment, your current, employees, but, at the same time you. Ideally, replace. Employees with. Automation, that, is a goal so. Anyways they said this is not their first attempt, playing that back in November of last year one, of em barks self-driving, trucks made. It, 650. Miles, with. The driver only, taking a troll while, traveling, off the, highway so for refueling, and things like that so.
You. Know hey this, is big. News because, this is the first time a, tractor-trailer. A semi truck has made. It cross-country 2,400. Miles with. Minimal. Human interaction. That's important, that's a huge step and hey. You, know if if, Embarq does it then you're, gonna see many many other companies start, to get the red light or I'm. Sorry start to get the green light or, their. Own technologies. At the same time so. Yep. Check that out and again. Link in the show notes. Except there's. That one and it's. Easy so. Why, don't we go ahead and move on to. This one made big news yesterday. I've, been. Interested to see exactly, how much because, the true extent like, many. Hacks out there. You can't truly know you can't truly know exactly, what the hackers did you can just see what they've accessed you can look at logs and see, you. Know what, accounts, free or what, IP addresses, were. Detailed. And you. Can see where they went but you can't see what, they essentially. What they took what. They you. Know kind of screenshotted, but. At the same time you know that they were there and their fingerprints, have been officially, found, again. Big news yesterday, that. The Russians have penetrated, the u.s. voter system, and that, is by top US official and this. Was during the, 2016. Presidential. Election. Because. Up until this point if you're wondering wow this is old news not. Really this is news in regards. To the fact that the. Russians up until this point have been accused of meddling. In. 2016. Election, with. Social. Media influence. They tried to, stir. Up controversy they, tried to sway. People's votes using. Facebook advertising using. Viral content by, making, fake. Accounts, and essentially, making. It look like people were making a bigger deal of smaller, issues, which, by then you know the nature of the Internet would, go viral and people would look, and point to something and say look. At this issue and that issue may have been manufactured. May have been all, fake. Or just. Not that big a deal and again. All of this came together in kind, of a holistic. Approach to. Influencing. Elections. This is the first time though that we've had confirmation, that, hey. The. Russian. Hackers, actually, got into some, of our voting systems, which, was, always a concern and why. They felt the need that you know even with electronic. Voting you, should still have paper. Backups, or paper. Alternatives. To. Electronic. Voting so. Here. We go this published, yesterday NBC. News and saying. That the US official in, charge of protecting American, elections, from hacking, says. That Russians. Successfully. Penetrated the voting registration rolls, of several. US states prior, to 2016. So they, said that the. Head of the cybersecurity, I'm. Sorry the head of cybersecurity at the, Department, of Homeland Security said, that she couldn't talk about classified. Information publicly, but. They saw 21, states and. And they, saw a targeting. Of 21 states and an exceptionally. Small number of them were, actually, successfully, penetrated. A little vague there but essentially, what they're saying is that yes our election, system has, been. So, Jay. Jay, Johnson who was, the Department, of Homeland Security secretary during the Russian intrusion, said, that in 2016, was a wake-up call and now it's incumbent upon States, and the feds to do something before our democracy, is attacked again and. Let's. Say so NBC, News reported. Back in -16, that more than 20 states have been targeted, by Russians, so, the. Fact that they were targeted, that's not news the fact that we're now getting confirmation that. A number, of. Voter. Registration rolls were, in fact compromised, that's the name they. Said that, in. January. 2017, just weeks before leaving, his post, they, had Johnson, declared that the national electoral system, part of the nation's federally, protected.
Critical. Infrastructure. Said. That, said. That it could be attacked and it, made protecting, the electoral, system and, official duty of the Department of Homeland Security, so. Let's. See blah blah blah. So NBC, News they've reached out 21 states five states including Texas. In California, said, that they were never attacked. And let's. Let's go ahead and skip over wrap this up and then you know talk about some, things that we know besides this they. Said that many, states complained. That the federal government did not provide specific threat details saying, that the information, was classified and, state officials did. Not have proper clearances, and. They. Said that other states, had. Been contacted, and are still waiting for cybersecurity help from the federal government, and some. State officials, had opposed Johnson's, designation. Of electoral systems as critical, infrastructure, viewing. It as a federal, intrusion. Johnson. Said that any state officials, who don't believe the federal government should be providing, help are being naive or irresponsible. To the people they're supposed to serve all. Right some things that we know. And this, is important when. It comes like, the further you go down in the elected, official. Hierarchy. When, you get down to the. Not. Even state, elections. But. County elections. District. Elections, you know like the further down you go the. Less protected. A lot, of campaigns, are and, I. Remember hearing details, about. When. You get down to things like City Council when you get things down. To things like Town Hall when you get down to you. Know these really, local. Elections. They're being run by, hey. Every. Day citizens I feel that they want to get you know started, in politics. Very. Rarely are these. Systems. In place you. Know let's face it usually. It's a, number. Of town hall meetings it's voting by paper ballot, it's voting, you, know on people. Who would, only be known inside. These circles, we've. Seen instances where, these campaigns, there's. No, system, in place or, elections. At a, national level there's no systems in place or elections. At a state level and, hey. You know when, you get really, down in there people. Are using Gmail accounts, you have people just you know registering, gmail accounts and if they want to you know conduct.
All Of their business via open, gmail. Accounts that could easily be compromised, that is very well done. You. Know everything, from communications. Of a campaign to how. Money is spent to. You. Know X Y & Z essentially. The. Further down you go the easier it is the hack and. The. Federal. Election is pretty darn. Hard to hack but. Hey, we have reports here that, we've, seen at least three states admit, the bait their voter rolls had been compromised. If that's possible and the, further down you go you. Can be sure that's. Everything. Below that is. Probably. Going to be targeted, depending. On how you. Know how. Exciting. But how valuable, that, district, may be and then. Everything. From compromising. Their email, addresses to taking. Over their website to seeing. Their, supporters, to. Mailing. List spam things, like that it's. All gonna be compromised, and that's. Almost a guarantee as, Russian. Influence. Or other countries, Russia. Just seems to be you know the big one of, the bunch. They're, going to target more and more critical, election. And they're, going to do so with, increasing. With increasing accuracy and increasing. Effectiveness. So. You. Know taking, this away saying that they have penetrated, the voter system we, still don't really have a true, idea of what that entails like I said at the beginning we know. That they were in there we know that they have been. Able to see them, and we don't know if maybe they were able to. Take people off the voting roll we don't know if they were adding. People to the voting role we don't know if they were changing. People's votes we don't know what, exactly they were able to do once they were in there but. At the very least we, know that you know even. Just foreign. Governments, looking, is, unacceptable. So. Hey. We have to take what we know and now we have to try, to respond as best we can, I. Mention. All this because. If it happened in 2016, it's, gonna happen in 2018, it's gonna happen in 2020, it's. Going to happen in every election going, forward, it's. Not just the, like. I said it's not just the. Facebook. Advertising, or, just. General, viral, content, that you have to worry about it's. Gonna be very specific, and targeted acts. That's. Something you're obviously going to have to start dealing with so. There, you have it that that made big news today and of. Course really, wanted to get, that in. All right so. And. Uh that. Was scary you know the fundamental of, our, democracy. Being, attacked, why do we go to something not, as. Painful. All right. How about, we do, this. One so Apple, not, too happy today as far. As things go Apple. Being happy is probably. Not one of them and. This. Is why we have an article here from Engadget saying. That. Crucial. Iphone source, code has been posted, in an, unprecedented, leak, and this. Coming to us once again from gadget soap. Yeah and you. Know they have some they have some quotes you're saying that this is the biggest leak. In history, and. Yeah. Anyways, so. Yeah, I purply, being thrown around but this is still definitely important and again. A bad day for Apple, so, critical top secret Apple code for the iPhones operating, system was posted on github opening. A new dangerous, Avenue for hackers and jailbreakers, to access, the device and this. Was a report by motherboard. So the code known as iboot has, been pooled but Apple may have confirmed it was the real deal when, it issued a DMCA, takedown, on github, and. So. I boot this, is an I boot is the name apparently of the code, that was posted to github I boot, is the Iowas code that ensures a secure boot, by loading and checking, that kernel, is properly. Signed by Apple before, running, the OS, so. The, version that was posted on github. Supposedly. By a Twitter user named, q3. Hard core was. For iowa's 9 but, much, of it likely still exists, in the latest version, iOS 11, because the. Further down you go into. The kernel the further down you go into the underlying. Software. But less likely they are to change you know they can change the. Look the field they could change the. Way something reacts, all. That is very. Oh that's very visual. But, the actual code it. Yeah that's still super important so.
Can't Be compiled because certain files are missing but, researchers, and hackers who know, what to look for but, probe it for vulnerabilities. Saying. That quote this is huge and they. Said that the this. Leak I'm, sorry this leak source of I boots brings, us closer to a truly liberated iOS. Boots on generic. Armboard, and/or, emulator. So. Levin, and other security, researchers, believe the code is the real deal so. While. We have not received a, you. Know an explicit. Apple. Well. Actually, before we're going further ELISA rated Apple's quote saying that old, source code from three years ago appears, to have been leaked but, by, design the, security, of our products, it doesn't depend on the secrecy. Of our source code there. Are many layers of hardware and software protection. Built. Into our products and we always. Encourage customers to update. To the new software to benefit. From the latest, protections. So there you have it Apple has responded, saying that yes it's from, three years ago, no. This, is not a huge, security vulnerability. Because. The. Source code is not. Truly. The. End-all. Be-all of security, you know just the fact that no one knew before doesn't. Mean that they really saw it as there. Ace up their sleeve. You, know a security. Feature. So. They. Said that iPhones, used to be relatively, easy to jailbreak before Apple introduced the new secure, Enclave, coprocessor. With. The touch ID of the iPhone 5s now. It's nearly impossible for. Hackers to even find bugs in Iowa's code making. IOS, exploits, relatively. Rare and. Which. Is, unlike, windows and Android as. Such. The iboot leak is exposing. Code that hardly, anyone. Has seen before. So. The. Iboot dump first appeared, last year on reddit but received little nose and notice, from the security community until, it hit github, Apple. Considers, iboot to be a critical, part of iOS that it offers. $200,000. For vulnerabilities. And of. Course that is the most in its bug bounty, program, and that. This means that the release of the source code could, amount to a gold rush for many, researchers I think. That's the big part of this is that I, mean. If Apple. If Apple was really concerned about this being leaked, they, now, have. Tons. And tons of. Security, researchers, and of course hackers of less, ethical hackers, out there but. Tons of security researchers. Now, poring over their code and looking. For, the. Smallest or the largest. Vulnerabilities. In this. Code so. Part. Of this is that some of it may have been changed and any problems. That they find may. Not be. May. Not be able to be replicated on, current. IOS but. If they, are if they find vulnerabilities on, iOS. 9 which. Then can be replicated in, iOS 11, or any. Future iOS, then. Hey, Apple, pays up the, $200,000. Or. Yeah. There's a new vulnerability, that every, iPhone now has to be warned at now it's be careful about. This, is going, to be either way a bad thing for Apple but. As far, as security goes in, the. Long run probably a good thing this, is just going to make us. More secure. So pretty, big deal but. Bigger deal if you, are Apple. So. So. Yeah that was that was pretty exciting all, right, let's. Talk, about. Our skimmers. We, have, seen. A number of them we just talked about them last month with, our guests Scotch. Over where. You, know they're. Getting harder, and harder to spots, and at, the same time it's. You. Know they're they're, becoming super, simple, to get and to. Hook up. Oh check it out if you're watching the video portion you, see the picture here and for. Everyone out there listening on the radio it's. A. Situation, where. All right so think, of the. Terminal. The device that you actually put your card into you slide your card that. Device. Imagine. Everything accepts. The screen part, of it so, the, keypad, the, little privacy blocker, all. The plastic bits that cover it. Everything. And anything is included. Except. For the screen and. That is this. New credit card skimmer, well. You. Think they'd be pretty easy to spot that eventually after you. Know dozens of people someone. Would spotted someone would say hey this isn't right, blah blah blah and yeah. Big catch on well. Apparently, this one was, used, in a, store. Or. Hours. Before. Anyone even caught on. The, police. And lower Potts Grove Pennsylvania, have.
Spotted, A group of thieves who are placing, completely. Camouflage, skimmers, on top. Of credit card terminals in Aldi. Stores and, the. Skimmers which the gang placed in plain sight of surveillance video cameras looks. Exactly like, the, original credit, card terminals but, would, store debit, card numbers, and pins, of, unsuspecting. Shoppers and. Yeah. This was pretty darn cool. Where. The. Wild. A payment terminal in the United States are capable of accepting more secure chip based transaction. The, company has yet to implement chip, based payments, and although. It does accept mobile contactless. Payment, methods such as Apple pay and Google pay and that, this is important because the overlay skimmers are designed to steal card data stored, on the magnetic. Stripe when, customers, swipe their cards. So, essentially this thing slips over it reads. The. Magnetic, strip as you. Swipe, the card and. You know hey that's not hard to do but. Then the keypad it overlays, it and essentially. You hit the numbers it, stores, your pin number stores your credit card number and, essentially. Lets you complete the transaction without getting in the way it just monitors, it just stores at which. Point they can then steal the credit cards. So, they. Said that interesting, interestingly. Commenters. Reported. That many Aldi stores support, chipped, EMV. Credit cards but, that they would often tape, over the slots and ask the, customers, to swipe instead. And, saying. That the Aldi store near me got a chip reader early last year and after. About five months they taped over the card insertion, slot and now require, customers, to swipe, again and they. Asked one of the managers and he said corporate, required, them to switch back because, these, swipes are faster. That's, the problem with, security. Security. Is the antithesis, of. Usability. And it. Just kind of sucks because hey, you know in this case you'd. Really hope that they use the chip base which were less. Likely to be stolen in this. Scenario, and. Here. We go they said that, point-of-sale. Terminals, are widely unguarded, and on for the best of security, theater you, think you're safe because you look because they. Look like the egg sacs of some armored beasts but. With a quick addition, of a skimmer you, could create something, that is deeply unsafe. And that, this skimmer ended up with just, shy of about. 12,000. Arts. There. You go well. And actually.
I Take the fact they said that the town only had 12,000, people so you, know depending on who shopped at Aldi and who's like their card, yeah. Any, number of those 12,000 people would, have been affected, and they, would not have been if the, chip had been implemented, correctly. So. There you go, keep an eye out credit card skimmers they're getting more common folks, they. Safe out there so everyone music means we're gonna take a break we'll be right back in, America right after this stay tuned. We. Are all four, other Wolf ten. Years ago a group of locals, banded, together to create positive change, we. Took animals, into our homes held adoption, events at local retailers and, talk, to the community about our mission, to help build a no-kill Asheville a decade. Later we, have achieved so many victories for animals in need there's. Been so much progress yet. There's still so much to do as. Part, of our year-long celebration, we, encourage, you to become a member of our special, compassionate. Circle program with. A monthly donation of, $10, or more you'll, have behind-the-scenes. Access, to the work we are doing at brother wolf our, goal, is to reach 1,000. Members because, we receive no government, funding working. Together we, can help build and sustain no-kill. Communities, learn. More a compassionate. Circle, dot BWA. Org. We are a 501. C, 3 tax, deductible. Organization. And. Welcome. Back to the computer America show it is 31. Minutes past the hour s we could send you on and just. An update for everyone we did, indeed, well, we were supposed to have on a guest. At. View technologies. Was, supposed to be joining us but unfortunately we were unable to get them and, we. Will have to be rescheduling. Them so. Yeah. Expect, to have, them on in the next couple of days but, yeah. It happens sometimes so, in the meantime we're doing current technology where we go over well, important, stories big stories, in tech and hey. You, know stories that we feel that you really really should hear about. Step. Let's go ahead and go to. This. Was pretty interesting, and I. Found. It to be one, of those things that we. Like to back on Netflix we say that they spend too much money we say that they you. Know they don't have a good catalogue bla bla bla but. At. The end of the day it does show that. Netflix. Or all the fact that they get. There. At least turning a profit and they're. At least doing something right and even. Though you. Know we see a lot of our favorite content moving from one service to the next a lot. Of the other ones that's, you. Know get a lot of praise because. They're not the biggest company. They. Are not doing it perfectly, either and, so. That's, what we have this article here. Building. Up the catalog and the fact that Hulu has lost, nine. Hundred and twenty million, dollars, in 2017. But uh. And that's including, after, parents, invested another, 1 billion dollars, so. Yeah you know looking. At just shy of about two billion dollars. This. Coming to us from variety mr. tots Spangler. Thank. That who who dropped deeper into the red last year as a boosted spending on originals. And launched, its live TV service, and that. The losses are expected, to mount in 2018. So. No. Change in sight and in. 2017 hulu lost nine, hundred, and twenty, million. Million, with an M. Versus. A loss of 531. Million a year earlier, and, by. The way for those who don't know and wondering, why so much content, is leaving, Netflix here. Is why. Hulu, has four different owners, or different companies that have a large stake in its. Success and, that's. Comcast. 21st. Century Fox is. Nee and Time, Warner, so. If you're wondering why so much content is leaving Netflix any property. Under those, four, companies, is, obviously. Not, going to go to the competitor, but rather go to, their. Own service Hulu, so. After, invested, one those, four owners invested, 1 billion dollars in, the streaming, service and, they.
Said That. Yeah. And they said that figures and they, said that the figures are based on, Comcast. 10k, disclosures, which, said that it invested 300 million dollars in hulu last year where, Fox is new and Comcast. Owns 30%. Of Hulu and Time Warner owns 10%. So Hulu, previously, disclosed that it expected. To spend about 2.5, billion dollars on content, in 2017. And. Let's. See at COTC hmm. Let's. Go ahead and wrap this up by saying that investors, in Disney and 24 Century Fox, should, demand, more disclosure, about Hulu's financials, and that. Yet, that's particularly, relevant since Disney will acquire 21st, Century Fox thirteen thirty percent stake in Hulu under. The mammoth pact the media, conglomerate, announced, late last year so. Disney, will be further, investing. Into. And who. Said that as of the end of 2017 it had more than 17, million subscribers. For its subscription, on demand and live TV package, which, are available in the US only but. It didn't disclose how many of these had the $40, per month live, surface, which. Is. Important, you, know because a lot of people assume that if they buy into Hulu they. Are dropping, their. Cable. Subscription, which. You. Know a lot of these companies also sell in home. Cable, and. In. Return of not paying and really, as much or. Services. That they're getting. Yep, Hulu not, exactly in the red but you're dealing with companies that have deep deep pockets, and have. A real vested, interest in getting their content to you in an. Effective way yep. With, that being said Hulu. He's. Work but hey they're trying and. Never. Hurts to have another company up there really. Investing, in original, content, because. Hey again, you know as the consumer Greenwich, went on that one. All right sad, story. Warning. Again, sad. But. Notable. Person. It's technology as. Asked. And this. Is the co-founder of the electronic. I think, it's the Electronic Frontier Foundation I believe, yeah. The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Co-founder. Of the e FF, Don, Perry, Barlow has. Died at 70. So here. We go and let's learn about what he did and, yeah. They, said that's again. Don. Perry Barlow has died at the age of 70 he, was a he. Was a San Francisco based digital rights advocacy. Organization. Our Mia, which is the FF said. That it was mourning the loss of its co-founder, well. It is no exaggeration, say. That the major parts, of the internet we all know and love today exist. And thrive because, Barlow's, vision and leadership he. Always all the internet as a fundamental, place of freedom where voices long, silence, and find, an audience people. Can connect with others regardless, of physical distance. So. Yeah. They said that in. 1971. After a few years bouncing around here, under Wyoming where, he worked on a ranch and, in. The late 1980s. ARLA, joined in early online community, called the well there. His rural libertarian. And psychedelic, roots began, to gel with a nation. Technology. Fueled reality, and. Yeah. Saying, that he's and. Here. We go thing, the paper. Said, that the e FF was was. Designed to make sure that the US Constitution did, not end at. The edge of cyberspace, and I. Think if we had not created the e FF, a different. Set of precedents. Would have been sets and trust, me we've dealt with the the, EF F here at computer. America they're a great organization, that again, just strives to. Kind, of help a digital. Citizen have. Their own Bill of Rights because. Her. Sir her there sure as heck is nothing, set in stone. So. In, the early 1990s, Barlow wrote for Wired magazine and eventually penned the cyberspace, independence. Declaration. ARLA. Remained on the board of the EF of the e FF even as his health declined and, they. Said that in recent year ARLA, made a point of attending quarterly, e of meetings, and. Yeah. Wanna quote here what, he's on the early internet was the idea that we could transcend, our bodies and transcend, our boundaries, regardless. Of who we were or where we were I. Think, that Barlow was the archetype, of that or the archetype of that it was kind it was. A kind and a generation, of people who were looking to transcend, the boundaries of what, kept us behind. So. There, you have it again. He was the co-founder of the, Electronic, Frontier Foundation, which still, to this day it's, an institute good work and to be an advocate for. Not. Just privacy, but but. Digital rights and. Yeah you, know again. John Perry, Barlow. Okay so. Again. Sad story but definitely. Happy to bring it to you in the fact that you know he did do a lot of great, work and his, organization that he founded, to.
Use To great work. All right hopefully. Hopefully. Hopefully hopefully this, will be the last time that we cover this, particular story. And. Hopefully. For Intel. As well. And split. City. Another story check that out all, right intel, has released. A new Spectre patch for its skylake, CPUs. Very. Important the, more than a month after we build. A pair of serious, dirty issues, affecting, the modern CPU, Intel. Is still working on updates that close the hole and. Written. And written, in a blog post, they said, said. That the company has released a micro code updates for skylake, base chips, to. Its end s industry. Partners, if one. Of those chips is inside your PC you, should expect to see a patch arriving, in the next couple of days so if you have let's. Say a, laptop. With. A skylake. Processor. Inside of it or if you have a computer with a problem, with a skylake processor. Expect. An update through. Whatever. OS. You are currently using, we'll have an update in the next couple of days as a. Security fix. So, just a quick recap for those you don't recall it was called Spectre meltdown. Those, were the two security flaws meltdown, was relatively, easy to fix factor. Though that was the one that led. Let's, different, programs, someone. Who had the right code go. In and. Essentially. Read, operations. Being done by, the processor. Before. They, were encrypted. By the operating, system so. Essentially. Before any kind, of security measures could be taken you. Could read what, your computer was doing and this could have led to. It didn't let you alter anything but, it let you rings, and. Or. Essentially. And really implicit for security reasons, that's. A big deal you. Know maybe to the individual person at that big a deal but, if that code was found and exploited. Any. Processor. By Intel, in the past ten years was. Vulnerable, and if, you really needed something read, off of a particular, computer this, was just another vector, that. They could come at you with. Pretty, big deal and they're. Still working on it so they. Said that. Broadwell, Haswell are included. In the skylake and they, said that they have seen an update, have. The company which after, reports of random reboots that's, right the code was not too good and basically. Keep an eye out again for the A's. Or an update if you happen to have one of these skylake, see. So okay. There, you have it and by. The way one other story that that. We just saw. Just happened a couple or just posted a couple of minutes ago. Geralyn. Lowe from a gadget just want to cover this one real quick as well that's. Um, yeah. And you can't even see here the story is developing, but. Essentially just. Real quick Qualcomm, has been. Not. So. Easily. Been in communication. With Broadcom Broadcom. Makes computer, chips they, are the number three manufacturer. Out there, Qualcomm, I believe is like the number two chip, manufacturer, out there and.
Essentially. Broadcom, was, making, offers, at qualcomm, that Qualcomm has been rejecting. Left. And right. They say that the transact or they say that the offers, have been way. Too low, and hey. It's, more good enough so. Broadcom, came back at Qualcomm, now, offering, to pay one, hundred and thirty, billion dollars. To. Acquire the, entirety. Of Qualcomm. And. By. The way 130, billion dollars was. The offer back in November so, Broadcom, followed, up this month by revising the, proposal to. Value Qualcomm, shares at about $80. So, just. Some quick. Just. Some quick journalism, here let's see. Come shares, let's. See how many outstanding. Shares Qualcomm, has welcomed. Currently, has a. Outstanding. Shares of, holy. Cow I am terrible, at reading, these. All right so. Anyways, whatever. It is times 82, that's what you do and that, would be the new offer, we're. Looking at oh. I. Don't know a, lot. More. Essentially let's, see the. So. They're still trying to purchase them with. This acquisition they would become the new largest. Chip manufacturer, in the world if the, two were, to come together, but. At this point Qualcomm, is playing extremely, hard to get and. Yeah. You know just, just. Not. Having it just, not having, it so. Not. Gonna happen, all calm still the thing Broadcom still separate and until. We hear further yeah. That's. About as far as we need to take that but. There. You go. All right so, let's. Go ahead and jump into. Some. Of these other stories some that I really, wanted to get into. Before. The show is over. All right how about this one so. Twitter. They've. Been. Really. Personally. I don't think they've been handling it very well, but, they can do what they want and at, the same time, the. Amount of odds. On. Their. Platform, is. Pretty vast they have a lot of bots on Twitter. So, but. We have the story here from, some of those BOTS a very select few, they said that Twitter says 49. Russian accounts tried to sway the brexit voter and. They. Said that cumulatively, they tweeted about a thousand, times, the. UK, officials have been pressing Facebook and Twitter to investigate, whether Russian, base accounts, attempted. To influence the 2016, election, 2016. Brexit, vote and. Previous. Responses, from both platforms found. To be inadequate by the chair of the UK digital culture, and media and, sport. Select, Committee. Okay. So, essentially they said nope, your your reports, were not good enough do better. Now BuzzFeed news reports, that the Twitter that twitter has in fact found some evidence of Russian meddling.
I'll Be at pretty small, the. Twitter's, UK, policy, chief, dick pickles. Told, the House of Commons Select Committee. At a hearing, taking place today in Washington DC that. 49. Accounts. Linked. To Russian internet research agency, tweeted. A collective. 942. Times during. The brexit campaign and that. They were reached and that they were retweeted. 461. Times and liked. 637. Times. So. Not. That much traction. They said that 49 they. Said that 49, such counts were active, during the referendum campaign which. Represents. Less than. 0.005. Percent of. The. Total number of accounts that were tweeted at the referendum. So Twitter has responded by quote saying as we. Noted, in our previous, letters so the committee our investigation, has been ongoing and, has not been limited to the information requested by the committee for the Electoral, Commission's. These, tweets. Cumulatively. Were retweeted, 461. Times and were, liked, 637. Times as we said before. Anyways. They said that they received. Very, low, levels of engagement. Essentially. They're saying very. Few accounts were. Active, during the, brexit campaign and even, the ones that were received. Very, little attention. And they. Said that that is a pretty, small number of tweets each, with a low engagement and. However. As twitter, has continued, to look into Russian involvement in the u.s. of presidential, election the, number of users who interacted. With Russian backed accounts, keeps, on growing. And while. Only time will tell if this, is the case or brexit, the, u.s. investigation yes. That the number can continue, rise and. Yeah you know that's kind of the thing where. I don't. Think either Twitter's, being, forthcoming with this or they. Themselves don't, know the true extent of. What. Really. Constitutes. A, Twitter, a Russian. Twitter user. Because they're always a, they're. Always suggesting, the number of dots, on their platform, and just. Like they said with the US one you, know that was. That was something that everyone should have taken. Note of. This. Was just posted like, a week ago saying, that the number of Twitter. Users that. Interacted. With Russians, BAM accounts, and, that. Would be people who followed, Russian spam accounts people who retweeted Russian, spam accounts people. Who commented, on Russian spam accounts. And, again the point of, clarifying. Russians, am account would. Be those that in a. Reasonable. Sane. Society. It, have gotten zero, interaction. But. Here we have it one point four million, users. Had retweeted. Commented. Followed. What have you. That. Is a huge conversation being, had by. A lot of people that. Otherwise should, not be happening and. By. The way. Twitter, and Facebook both have been alerting, people via email. When. They have interacted, with some, of these. Accounts. So they've been emailing you saying that you. Know you, have, been following a couple of these accounts you tweeting, these accounts, and. Yeah. We're just letting you know that you're being taken for. So these on these investigations they're ongoing and, they. Expect. That to be the case for a long, long time. Alright. So. There. You have that. Much I'll say about that. All right let's do this one. Nap. They. Are, not, the drink not, Snapple, Snapple is delicious. Snap. They've been doing well as far. As social media goes they. Are one, of the leaders in new. Engagements. Or. Horse. Platform, which. I think is great you know any company, that that. Looks like Disney World. Anyways, any, uh. Actually. I think it back but totally is Disney broke up. Wow. I am all, over the place actually Universal. Anyways, that. Being said if you're watching the video portion there's a picture that they have up there of how.
Snapchat, Is trying to engage with its users and one. Thing that they have been doing is that they've been trying to get Hardware, into people's hands, the, further increase, engagement on, their platform. Um. Snap. And, snapchat, by extension has been doing a lot of things they've been doing a lot of things well and at. The same time when, it comes to their hardware they've. Been doing some, things very poorly. We're. Looking at you spectacles. They, were hardware, they were glasses that you put on your face that could record short snaps or take, pictures sent. Directly to your snapchat account, there. Are literally. Warehouses. Full of. Unsold. Hundreds. Of thousands, of, spectacles. Or hardware. So. With, that being said very, cool to see this, article. From and gadgets Sharon Lynn Lowe saying. That snap is backing, away from reckless, experiments. And that's okay I think. That when snap first started selling is a video of recording glasses, the hype was real the. Company only focused, on software before that and was dipping its toe into, hardware with, a relatively, simple product, and. Now. Like we said they. Are languishing, in. Warehouses. So. All those snap minimize, risk by keeping spectacle, supplies low and not. Stuffing, the device full of superfluous. Tech, exploring. A category, it had a little experience in is a bold undertaking, and they. Admit it in its IPO that it has limited, manufacturing. Experience so. Either. The people on the board or, just, really. Everyone, involved in snap, they. Claim. That they're only good at software. Sometimes. And, they say that, but. The company also said in the same document that it's comfortable, waiting. For. A long time for its products, to reach maturity gain. Enough, traction to, hospitable. So, a year later Snap appears to have abandoned, spectacles, altogether, having, barely mentioned, the device in the last two earnings report and that. Even the company's quirkiest. Moves of late have been relatively safe it sold, a dancing, hot dog costume last year and launched, an in-app, store to sell merchandise, featuring. Its popular, AR characters. So. Uh yeah. Apparel, and plush toys don't generally, require, a much, as much investment as hardware at Lake spectacles, and. Saying. That it had it. Cut down cash, spent by 49% and, leading. To better margins, simply put with less money spent snap, lost less money which, is not only what, investors like to hear but, also bodes well for the company in the future. So uh that. That's done all, right. So. Meanwhile. Snap has double down on refining, what makes it's massively, successful in, the first place and that's. The app by, the way if you have used the app in the past couple of days, they've. Changed a lot they, have definitely. Done, some revamping. Of snapchat, and. They. Said that the retention rate of the new Android user increased, by twenty percent when compared to last year and that. Gaining, and keeping new users, is crucial, for businesses like Snap which, relies heavily on. Advertising. Revenue if the. Company wants to keep experimenting with new projects, it needs to start making a profit. What you did which, I believe it was actually, making money uh Twitter. Was making money I know that and I think snapchat was as well anyways. There's room for the app to keep generating revenue for the company they, said that snaps relatively. New maps feature still, isn't being monetized it's ad free for now and in. Response to a question, on the latest, earning call beagles, said that, he doesn't, expect, to try and monetize maps in the near future if.
The Company did eventually monetize, Maps though that. Would be an obvious and relatively safe way to gain more income. Which you could see some very obvious ways, to monetize, apps. You know points. Of interest that would be paid for things like that, anyways. Don't expect Spiegel or his team to stop taking risk altogether as indicated. In as a public. Offering snap. Is happy to experiment, without immediate. Payouts, and that's. Not unwise as long as it's conducted, carefully. So. Yep. Snapchat, as you, know what its continuing. To evolve and it's. Just good to see that. You. Know these companies they. Are. Happy. Do. Spend. Money make. Money but, at the same time. They. Should spend it intelligently. And, those. Wearables, those glasses. They. Were not the most intelligent. Way to. Go. About it. So alright oh wow. We have time for like, half a story if that, does. It alright, so, we've, covered a lot today and again if you wanted, to listen to our guests unfortunately, we. Were not able to, to, get in touch with them we will reschedule them and, have them back on the show to talk about their smart doorbell but. In, the meantime we've been in. Technology and. Yeah. You know really. The the. Only story that we were well, alright. This is one that kind of affects us here at computer America as well. We. Currently don't have HTTPS. We. Plan on getting it we, just don't see it as a priority because, well. We. Don't ask you for your personal information we don't ask you to make an account with us we don't ask you. You. Know give us your credit card details we, don't ask you, even. Sign up on a mailing list we. Don't ask you, really for anything, at computer, America is that you remain, a loyal listener hey we love you. So. With that being said. There's. A new feature come to Chrome and why, it affects us is that again we're not HT we, are not, HTTPS. Of, the. S being secured but. They can we don't ask you for much. But. Coming, to Chrome in chrome. 68, any website. That is currently running HTTP. Will. Be marked as not. Secure. Prominently. On the website, so computer America is going to be reading not secure, instead. Of unsecure, or, whatever. Essentially. That's, gonna make it very easy to see services, that do ask you for your credit card information and, make a private account with them so, on and so forth that do ask you for private for me you, should be able to easily, recognize. Them, and say hey these. People aren't secure I'm, not sure if I truly trust them with my payment, details with, my email with, my personal information, should. Make it a little bit easier to pick out who, you should rest to. Again, give out your patient. Tube, so. Look. Forward to that in the next chrome and in the meantime everyone, that's. Just about it here for computer, America thank you for tuning in thank you for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow repair, and, assuming, everything goes as. As. Planned, which it totally should, Ralph's bond he, is a computer, American correspondent he, is our chief. Science, and technology. Futurist. Kind of guy there's, another title we have form but, in the meantime everyone, tune. In tomorrow 4 p.m. 5 p.m. Eastern, and until. Until then have, a great day thank you so much ok bye-bye.
2018-02-09