Remote Work is so Close
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| Remote Work is so Close | |
| Number | 3706 |
| Broadcast Date | JANUARY 28, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 32:09 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
| Guests | Patrick Beja |
Ars Technica’s Lee Hutchinson describes how the site functions without a physical office. How does it work and what types of things are needed for it to work for the company.
Guest
Quick Hits
- Tesla has offered its customers in China free supercharging until the Coronavirus situation is resolved. China has restricted transportation in large parts of the country in order to impede the spread of the virus which has killed more than 100 people. The idea is to make it easier for those who do need to move around to do so without having to expose themselves to other people unnecessarily.
- The UK international money transfer service from Travelex is fully operational as of Tuesday. The service went offline almost a month ago because of a ransomware attack. Travelex has not disclosed whether it paid money to attackers.
- Facebook announced a set of recommended bylaws for its proposed independent oversight board including a 90-day process for hearing appeals, a requirement that one board member from the region involved be on the panel that hears the appeal and all decisions being published in 18 different languages. The board will be used to make decisions about content moderation. Facebook said but has narrowed down its list of prospective board members to a few dozen and expects to make formal offers in the coming months with hearings expected to begin this summer.
- Gartner estimates smartphone sales dropped 2% in 2019, the first drop since Gartner broke out smartphones as a separate category 11 years ago. Gartner forecasts sales will rise 3% worldwide in 2020 partly due to 5G rollouts.
- Apple reported earnings per share of $4.99 on revenue of $91.8 billion.
Top Stories
- Facebook made its "Off-Facebook Activity Tool" available to all 2 billion plus members. It shows 180 days of data Facebook collects from code used by non-Facebook sites to serve ads or offer Facebook interactivity such as likes or embedded posts. You can see how Facebook received information, such as whether you logged in using Facebook or did a search etc, and you can disconnect the third party from accessing your Facebook data with a clear history button, though any data it has already collected would not be affected. It also isn't the setting that will stop the third party from collecting data in the future. That's a different section of settings. Over the next two weeks, Facebook also plans to prompt all users to review those settings in the Privacy Checkup tool.
- UK Ministers on the National Security Council agreed the National Cyber Security Centre should issue guidance that high risk vendors should be excluded from the core of telecom operations and no high risk vendor should make up more than 35% of the edge access network, like phone masts. In addition, high risk vendors will be barred from sensitive locations like nuclear sites and military bases as well as any Critical National Infrastructure. The NCSC doesn't keep an exhaustive list of high risk vendors but Huawei is considered one of them. Huawei has more than 35% of the equipment in UK access networks. Telcos have three years to modify their implementations to reach the recommended levels. The guidance has been issued to telecoms but Parliament will need to enact legislation to implement the guidance as law.
- The UK government has proposed security requirements for IoT and smart devices. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport worked with the UK National Cyber Security Centre, security experts, product manufacturers and retailers on the proposed law. If passed, the law would require all device passwords be unique and not resettable to factory settings. Device makers would be required to provide a public point of contact to report vulnerabilities and act on them in a timely manner. And at the point of sale, manufacturers would have to state the minimum amount of time it would provide security updates. Products not following the rules would be banned from sale in the UK. The Department said it hopes it introduces legislation "as soon as possible" but did not commit to a timetable. Europe and the US are also working on legislation to secure IoT devices.
- The Verge has an article about a new service called Scroll that removes ads from participating websites for $5 a month. Scroll has partnered with sites like BuzzFeed news, The Atlantic, Vox and Gizmodo to set a cookie that tells the sites not to show ads on desktop and mobile. The tool allows for some native ads (like internal promotions), referral links and some basic analytics but most all ads will be gone. Scroll keeps $1.50 of the monthly fee and splits the rest up based on what participating sites you visit. You can see what sites got how much when logged into Scroll's site.
- Miso Robotics has a new design for its Flippy robot that can fry burgers and prepare french fries. Flippy robots currently sit on the floor and are in use at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Chase Stadium in Phoenix as well as some restaurants from Miso robotics investor, Cali Group. The new design of the Flippy Robot hangs over the grill or fryer which may boost adoption as it won't take up floor space and Miso says will operate more efficiently. Miso robotics offers Flippy for free, charging based on usage. The new design will be certified and available for kitchens in the second half of the year.
Discussion
Mailbag
- Brian had thoughts on Netflix subscriber numbers in the US versus in other countries:
For a country where the internet started we have the weakest structure compared to other countries.
Unless you are in a METRO area you are most likely suffering bandwidth through put issues and/or limits.
I live in an area where we can't get cable or fiber, and DSL is not available either. That leaves us with either mobile or satellite. Mobile suffers in the evening as others get home and are using the internet, and satellite is expensive and goes out in inclement weather. Add the fact that these last two have limits on their bandwidth and streaming is just not a viable option.
This is a case where the communication industry is causing others to suffer because of the stranglehold they have over who and who doesn't have good connectivity.
- Brian had thoughts on Netflix subscriber numbers in the US versus in other countries:
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "Grub Flub!" |
Remote Work is so Close |
Followed by: "Eggs In Apple Baskets" |