(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 296: “Ring Out the False, Ring In the True!”

December 28, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2018 comes clanging to a close. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss Amazon’s healthy holiday sales, Instagram’s effects on people, Snapchat’s “dog lenses” and a new essay that wonders just how much of the Internet is real anymore. And in the last (Hopefully) Helpful Hint of the year, J.D. offers a guide for preserving your one-of-a-kind family photographs and slides in the digital realm.
Ring up Episode 296, right here!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Amazon’s Record Holiday Shows Consumers’ Spending Splurge (Bloomberg)
How Instagram has been good for independent bookstores like Books Are Magic and the Last Bookstore (Vox)
Instagram Apologizes for Horizontal-Scrolling Test Glitch, Rolls It Back After Quick and Furious Backlash (Variety)
Android TV sees huge growth thanks to 100 pay TV partners (9to5Google)
Apple’s Future Looks Rotten (Gizmodo)
Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt (The New York Times)
Snapchat Adds Dog Lenses, But I Still Won’t Use It (Gizmodo)
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? (New York magazine)
We finally started taking screen time seriously in 2018 (TechCrunch)
Hot tub hack reveals washed-up security (BBC News)
“Ring out, wild bells,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Digitize and Fix Your Ancient Photos

How to Rescue, Repair and Revive Old Family Photos (The New York Times)
Printers & Scanners (Wirecutter)
Google PhotoScan
Adobe Photoshop Fix

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 295: Smokin’!

December 18, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

The year is winding down, but the movie selection at the local cineplex is heating up with several sizzling releases this month. Also in the hot seat: Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, who got to have his belated chat with Congressional members, and social-media companies who missed the massive amount of misinformation spread across their platforms in 2016 and beyond. And for those don’t want to burn a lot of cash on wireless headphones, El Kaiser has a a review for you. Fire up Episode 295!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the box office with a $35 million opening weekend (Vox)
How Peter Jackson Made WWI Footage Seem Astonishingly New (The New York Times)
Can Aquaman and Wonder Woman save the DC superhero universe? (The Independent)
Aquaman (Official Movie Site)
New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep (The Washington Post)
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Withheld Russia Data, Reports Say (The New York Times)
Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate (The Washington Post)
Russian Trolls Came for Instagram, Too (The New York Times)
Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media (The New York Times)
Google Hudson Square: our expanded New York campus (Google Keyword blog)
Google CEO Sundar Pichai grilled by Congress on privacy, bias and China plans (CNN)
Amazon Is Reportedly Sick of Hawking You Cheap ‘Crap’ That Doesn’t Make It Any Money (Gizmodo)
A Year Without Net Neutrality: No Big Changes (Yet) (Wired)
Huawei Hemorrhages Allies in Europe on Growing Security Concerns (Bloomberg)
France to introduce digital tax in new year (BBC News)
SQLite bug impacts thousands of apps, including all Chromium-based browsers (ZDNet)
Kiwibot delivery robot catches fire after ‘human error‘ (BBC News)
Students set up candlelight vigil for delivery robot that caught on fire (Mashable)

The El Kaiser Hardware Review

Mixcder E7 Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones with Built-in Mic

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 294: Location, Location, Location

December 10, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Of course, your apps are tracking you! El Kaiser told you that years ago, but The New York Times now fills in the details. J.D. rounds up the headlines from the past two weeks for discussion and also offers a (Hopefully) helpful Hint about recording your family’s history in audio and video this holiday season. Pull up a chair and join us for PTJ 294!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret (The New York Times)
Community Standards (Facebook)
Facebook’s Sexual Solicitation Policy is a Honeypot for Trolls (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
A better, more positive Tumblr (Tumblr)
Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th (The Verge)
AlphaFold: Using AI for scientific discovery (DeepMind)
Microsoft Putting Edge on Chromium Will Fundamentally Change the Web (Motherboard)
Justice Dept. investigating millions of fake anti-net neutrality comments: report (TheHill)
China bans many iPhone models in Qualcomm patent dispute (Axios)
Kuo: ‘All-new design’ AirPods in 2020, wireless charging model in first quarter 2019 (9to5Mac)
Apple Will Wait Until at Least 2020 to Release a 5G iPhone (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Is Worth as Much as Apple. How Did That Happen? (The New York Times)
Google acquires India-focused app Where is My Train (Android Authority)
EU questioning companies about Google’s search practices: report (TheHill)
Marriott Hacking Exposes Data of Up to 500 Million Guests (The New York Times)
AT&T details its streaming service plans as it weighs a sale of its Hulu stake (TechCrunch)
E Ink’s new digital paper lets you draw with almost no lag (The Next Web)
The U.S. Army Has A New Plan To Recruit Gamers (Kotaku)
Nasa’s Voyager 2 probe ‘leaves the Solar System’ (BBC News)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Record and Share Your Family History in 5 Steps (The New York Times)
10 Types of Microphones (HowStuffWorks)
StoryCorps apps
Oral History Interviews (The American Folklife Center)
Conducting Oral Histories with Family Members (UCLA Library)

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!