3×32: Trigger’s Broom
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which God is not our co-pilot. Instead, Github Copilot is. What’s the deal with this thing?
Copilot is “an AI pair programmer that helps you write better code”, according to Github themselves. “GitHub Copilot draws context from the code you’re working on, suggesting whole lines or entire functions.” Is this useful? Is it good? Is it good for open source?
Matthew Garrett wrote a thing about Copilot which is worth reading, especially if your basic feeling is that it takes our open source code against the licence and that’s bad.
And what about the bigger picture? Github — well, Microsoft — are one of the biggest players in the world; is this what they should be doing? And if it isn’t… what is?
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×32-triggers-broom/12429
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×31: Weaponised Death Roomba
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which there is much news from all over the tech industry, including:
- [00:02:15] Anom app from FBI yanked in a huge amount of criminals
- [00:08:45] FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web, plus: how Apple’s rise to be the richest company on earth is wholly due to Airdrop
- [00:15:50] Our Jeff Bezos News Special: Bald very rich guy whose company makes a Linux OS is going to space. I feel like we’ve heard this story before, but there is a petition for Bezos to stay in space once he gets there and it’s up to 80,000 sigs… and in more Bezos petition news, another one demands that Jeff Bezos buys and eats the Mona Lisa…
- [00:21:30] Hyundair completes their acquisition of Boston Dynamics, makers of BigDog
- [00:28:00] OnlyFans moving to more non-adult content (and gets valued at $1b), plus also WordPress, which you wouldn’t think was connected to this, but hey, that’s the Bad Voltage vibe right there
- [00:37:00] Airbus designs in-flight quarantine tent
- [00:45:45] Amazon websites are blocking FLoC (with a side order of disturbing but important musings on how new standards get made from mnot)
- [00:56:20] Peloton start charging monthly money to existing customers of a treadmill that already cost three grand, in accordance with the prophecy (via @jimmysjolund on twitter)
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×31-weaponised-death-roomba/12428
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×30: Reduced Amplitude
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which it is all the news all the time, including:
- [00:03:30] The results of our (flagrantly biased) Room 101 polls from the last episode!
- [00:10:29] The biggest GDPR fines so far
- [00:16:45] Charlie Bit My Finger becomes an NFT
- [00:31:50] Tesla (arguably) throttle older cars (at least according to Norway)
- [00:36:50] Internet Explorer 11 is to finally be retired on June 15, 2022
- [00:44:45] AMP pages are no longer being prioritised in Google Search
- [00:59:15] People are taking UFOs seriously (!)
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×30-reduced-amplitude/12426
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×29: Down With The Peeps 101
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we emulate the old British talk/game show Room 101 by nominating our pet hates and consigning those hates to oblivion in Room 101, the ultimate destination for all rubbish things. Assuming, that is, that our explanations convince our colleagues, which is not as easy as one might think.
- [00:02:20] Jeremy: reality TV
- [00:08:05] Stuart: Pepe the frog
- [00:15:45] Jono: overly cartoony company mascots
- [00:24:20] Jeremy: Facebook
- [00:35:30] Stuart: peppers
- [00:40:30] Jono: new features that slow down devices, um, because they prioritise new features over the operational modality of a device
- [00:48:35] Jeremy: Peeps
- [00:55:10] Stuart: websites and apps that demand your phone number
- [01:00:05] Jono: cats
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×28: Eat The Show
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the subject of artificial intelligence is discussed. We’ve walked around the outside of this topic a few times on the show, and now it’s time to dig in; is AI actually real, or are the jokes about reclassifying a Python script as “AI” to get funding founded in reality? Is AI useful, or is it mostly for parlour tricks? What’s going on that provides genuine use to normal people? And… what does the future look like? Should there be legislation; are AI and ML two sides of the same coin or two fundamentally different things… there’s lots to get into.
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×28-eat-the-show/12421
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×27: Bargle-floop the podcast
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which horrible neologisms are proposed, things are both funny and also sad, and there is ooh gosh loads of news:
- [00:04:10] The BBC’s coverage of the life and death of Prince Philip breaks the UK TV complaints record, and the National Rail make their website greyscale, breaking it for visually impaired users
- [00:10:30] Sharding is called sharding because of the shards of the Gem of Immortality in Ultima Online
- [00:13:00] Researchers asked 100 people whether “a reasonable person” would unlock their phone and allow someone to look through it, and most of them said: no, definitely not. Then the researchers tried it, and 100 out of 103 people absolutely allowed it
- [00:18:00] Microsoft buy speech recognition firm Nuance for $16 billion
- [00:26:50] Oracle vs Google: an end at last as the US Supreme Court rules that Google’s use of Java APIs is fair use (but gives no ruling on whether APIs are copyrightable)
- [00:36:20] Jono thinks it is important that you learn that the world’s biggest rabbit has been stolen. We think: mess with the hoppo, bomb gonna droppo
- [00:38:50] In the last couple of years, the last couple of puzzles from Perplex City, an ARG from 2005, have finally been solved, the last in December 2020
- [00:44:44] China Creates Its Own Digital Currency, which seems like an alarmingly big deal for the future
- [00:49:10] Apple changes ‘subscribe’ to ‘follow’ on Podcasts because people think subscribing means paying. We’re not sure we agree, but then we’re not sure we don’t agree either. Maybe we need a new word
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×27-bargle-floop-the-podcast/12420
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×26: Luminiferous Aether
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which flock is more than wallpaper, we say the word “cohort” about fifty billion times, and:
- [00:02:15] FLoC, the “federated learning of cohorts”, is a proposal from Google as part of their Privacy Sandbox initiative to replace third-party advertising cookies but still enable targeted advertising; instead advertisers will be told your “cohort ID”, a calculated and anonymous summary of your last week’s browsing history, and then decide whether and how to target you based on that alone. It’s got some nuances: FLoC won’t appear in GDPR-covered countries because what it does doesn’t ask for consent, and those against targeted advertising entirely such as the EFF obviously don’t like it, but… is this an improvement? Is it detrimental? Does it change anything at all? And is it remarkably ill-defined and slippery deliberately or because it’s still being worked out?
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×26-luminiferous-aether/12419
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×25: Novel Finance Things with No Flamin’ Time for this New-Fangled Tosh
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we invite special guest star Augustus de Morgan to comment, there is an intemperate argument about jeans, and:
- [00:01:30] NFTs. “Non-fungible tokens“; a way to record ownership of some digital asset on a blockchain, something like a collectible or a trading card. Suddenly even more popular all of a sudden. So what’s the deal here? There are a lot of people saying these are nothing more than a big scam; there are a lot of others making bank while claiming this is the way art should work in the 21st century. We’re taking a look, including minting our very own NFT to see what all the fuss is about at rarible.com/badvoltage which you should immediately go and buy for a kajillion dollars. But seriously, folks… what’s the deal here? We have, not surprisingly, Thoughts.
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×25-novel-finance-things-with-no-flamin-time-for-this-new-fangled-tosh/12417
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×24: Weaponised Rooster
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and special guest star Alan Pope present Bad Voltage, in which we are large and in charge, there is ancient history about electricians and phones, and:
- [00:02:55] Rooster kills man in illegal cockfight
- [00:05:40] What are Twitter Spaces? iOS only, invite-only to create them, and not Facebook Spaces so no prediction point for Jono!
- [00:11:45] New EU right to repair laws require technology to last for a decade
- [00:20:35] The One World Government have appointed the three of us as Heads Of Social Media for the planet. We can change anything we want, which is nice of them. And our goal is: deal with all the hatred and conspiracy theories and misery that social media creates; if social media does actually have a negative effect on humanity, how can that be reversed?
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×23: Multiple Otter Jacobs
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Facebook aren’t watching our webinars and this is not nuanced, and:
- [00:02:50] Advertising. Apple’s new IDFA moves prompt a larger conversation about targeted advertising and whether it works, some examples of how we’ve actually tried using it, and then the bigger picture. Is highly targeted advertising or a waste of money, or does it work fine? If it doesn’t make money, is that because it really doesn’t, or because it does but all the value is captured by Google and Facebook? Is authenticity in advertising actually important? Is anyone actually authentic, or simply pretending? How can exaggeration be stopped in online advertising, and whose responsibility is it to actually do that? Does this relate to the differences between online and offline rules for product placement? And will anyone buy anything that you tell them about by just speaking into your mobile phone?
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×23-multiple-otter-jacobs/12415
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×22: Phantom Power
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we take what Jono calls an avant-garde and everyone else calls a ridiculous improvised approach to the set list.
- [00:01:10] Flash, aaargh. It saved every one of us. [Flash is now dead](https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html). We take a look back over the history of the web and all the places Flash fitted in, and look at the ups and downs of it all. Glad it’s gone? Yes. Is it replaced? Maaaaybe. We’ll look at Steve Jobs’s Thoughts on Flash memo from 2010, replacements such as Ruffle, and digital preservation projects such as Flashpoint, and ask the questions: are we sorry it’s gone? And what’s next?
- [00:47:05] And at the end, the news! Scientists have apparently taught spinach to send emails! People in the Bay Area! Get a blue verified badge for your house! The September that never ended had its 10,000th day on January 16th 2021! And now, Bad Voltage!
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
[forum_post_link]
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
Poetry in Notion
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Bad Voltage is on Spotify! Also, we have great content, you should review us on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere, and:
- [00:05:55] We review the Remarkable 2 e-ink writing pad, with reference to our previous show on using paper instead of tech and Alan Pope’s purchase of a Rocketbook. Spoiler alert: Jono likes it. Not a spoiler: Jeremy and Stuart have questions… about whether it’s useful, what it’s useful for, what it’s not useful for… we shall see!
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×20: According To The Prophecy
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we present our predictions for 2021!
- Stuart:
- [00:11:11] Remote work starts to hollow out cities and as a result, three major cities see population drops (or the populations drop more than they already were)
- [00:17:20] Social media sites band together to avoid fake news (and government regulation of what they do) with some sort of shared “credibility checker”
- [00:23:25] Amazon buy Zoom
- [00:25:10] Bonuses: somebody buys Canonical; at least one of us has not been vaccinated; Jono continues to buy Apple stuff
- Jeremy:
- [00:31:30] Jeff Bezos will become the richest American who has ever lived (he tops around $340b)
- [00:33:10] Google will make their largest acquisition in the history of the company
- [00:37:35] Bitcoin price will go below $5,000 or above $55,000
- [00:39:45] Facebook will lose 15%-20% of their active user count
- [00:41:40] Bonuses: Amazon builds a publicly-available general-purpose search engine; a security breach larger than Solarwinds will be discovered and will materially impact the position of a major cloud provider or public tech company
- Jono:
- [00:45:55] Sony will release the second version of the PSVR headset
- [00:49:25] A COVID “vaccine passport” will be required for at least three major airlines and five major countries
- [00:54:50] Donald Trump’s Twitter account will be disabled at least twice but will not be banned [editor’s note! this has happened once already, in between us recording this show and us releasing it!]
- [00:56:25] Zoom will start build a complete remote-working offering (the “Sharepointisation” of Zoom, as christened by Jeremy) and acquire at least one major remote-working company
- [01:01:25] Bonuses: Facebook Spaces will still be shit (even though it has been shut down since 2019, so maybe Facebook Horizon will be shit); Canonical will not get acquired (!)
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×20-according-to-the-prophecy/12406
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×19: We Have A Bit Of A Point
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we look back at 2×62, our predictions show from a year ago and see whether we correctly foresaw what happened in 2020, or… not. Also features SHAMELESS grovelling for points.
- [00:02:07] Stuart on Slack purchases, CCPA convictions, ePrivacy, Epic, and drones
- [00:22:20] Jono on Salesforce, quantum computing, colour Kindles, Canonical, the PS5, Facebook Spaces (again!) and Jack Dorsey
- [00:43:10] Jeremy on EA and Blizzard, convergent devices, Uber Eats, and autonomous cars
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×19-we-have-a-bit-of-a-point/12403
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×18: Ultracrepidarian
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we are ultracrepidarian, the Apple phone becomes slightly more annoying, and:
- [00:05:45] Lightheartedly, we take a look at metal monoliths around the world, drinking hand sanitizer instead of alcohol, a bunch of parrots were removed from UK family safari park after teaching each other to swear and laughing about it, and how Johnny Rotten was bitten by a flea on the penis after taking in squirrels
- [00:17:40] Salesforce acquire Slack for $27.7bn
- [00:30:55] CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream, which at least some people are really unhappy about
- [00:40:40] Apple release an ARM chip for next-generation Macs, and also drop $113m to settle the iPhone “batterygate” suit
- [01:04:25] Worst-kept secret in tech, that Google are making an OS, is admitted by Google as they open Fuchsia development to the public
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×18-ultracrepidarian/12398
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×17: Such People In’t
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the reality distortion field is strong in this one, the middle name game continues unsuccessfully, and:
- [00:02:03] Jeremy has opted for the Pixel 5! So it’s time for a review. The latest Google phone is out, and we have thoughts on the direction Google’s taking with it. And then… Jeremy’s not the only one with a new phone. Jono’s been shopping too, and maybe a little compare-and-contrast is in order with Mr Bacon’s slightly surprising choice. Let’s see what we decide! Does one cubic centimetre really cure ten gloomy sentiments? Enough to devote the whole show to, at least…
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×17-such-people-int/12396
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×16: Not Fun To Watch
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the utilities question comes up again, we create spin-off show “Sussing Out Stocks With Stuart”, and:
- [00:02:50] Sony allow recording and reporting of private audio chats
- [00:09:40] Zoom are refusing events which talk about Zoom censorship
- [00:30:00] Quibi crashes and burns having spent billions
- [00:45:30] Github remove youtube-dl after a DMCA report by the RIAA
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×16-not-fun-to-watch/12395
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×15: Interactive Multimedia Communications
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which things are not necessarily jazzed up versions of other things, we wonder what data truly is, and:
- [00:00:45] We dive in depth into the notion of “collaborative workspaces”. Coda and Notion both paint themselves as a new kind of document: something which lets you pull in all the information on a topic from all the different sources you use, something you can work on within a team, something over and above a folder of Google docs. They aren’t the first to pursue this dream. Is it a dream worth pursuing? And if it is, are Coda, or Notion, or both doing it right? We’ll go into this in detail, along with some philosophy on the very nature of collaboration itself
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×15-interactive-multimedia-communications/12394
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×14: Hard Where Thoughts
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which no news is good news, hardware makes us hard-wary, and:
- [00:01:45] The PlayStation 5 and the Xbox. Specifically, can you get a PS5? We can’t (and Sony admitted it), but the graphical things look amazing. They claim to have eliminated loading times with a new super-fast SSD… we’re looking forward to that, but what’s more interesting is that the two consoles seem to have pretty different business models…
- [00:26:00] …and in related news: exclusives. Microsoft have just bought Zenimax for $7.5bn, and this won’t be their last acquisition, although at least the Bethesda part of the purchase will apparently run “semi-independently”
- [00:41:36] And the final hardware question: are you going to buy a Pixel 5? The announcement of what the Pixel 5 will actually be was after recording time but before release time for this show, inconveniently, but we still have thoughts, and would like to hear yours…
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×14-hard-where-thoughts/12393
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×13: The Winter Of Our Content
Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the Magna Doodle makes a comeback, Stuart is discontent, and:
- [00:04:50] Taco Bell have made their own wine, which we’re sure is delicious… US customs seize a bunch of counterfeit Airpods which turn out to be completely legitimate OnePlus wireless earphones… and Dave Grohl is in a drum battle with Nandi Bushell, a 10-year-old girl from Ipswich, and it is delightful…
- [00:13:50] Oracle are buying Tiktok. Or maybe they aren’t. It’s hard to say. Microsoft aren’t. Maybe nobody is. And what’s actually being bought? The US operations? Not the algorithm. Probably.
- [00:19:08] Anyway, a more successful deal seems to be that Nvidia are buying ARM for $40 billion. What will this mean?
- [00:33:28] Our main discussion: non-tech tech. Jono’s been looking at the Remarkable 2, an e-paper-based note-taking tablet. But should we be just using paper instead? Is everybody already using paper instead? And is this nostalgia, the tech backlash, or none of the above? Are you a pencil or a keyboard person?
Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!
https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×13-the-winter-of-our-content/12390
News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.
Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!
3×12: Staring at Potatoes
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!
3×11: The Most Evil MP3s
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!
3×10: Chardonnay and Vinegar
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!
3×09: ASCII code 0x46
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!
3×08: Petrichoronavirus
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!
3×07: My Heart Went Boom
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!
3×06: Earballs
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!
3×05: This Podcast Will Self Destruct
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!
3×04: They Call It Dot Egg
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!
3×03: Massive Quantities of Potatoes
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.