Nevada Gambles on A Tool

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Nevada Gambles on A Tool
Number 3718
Broadcast Date FEBRUARY 13, 2020
Episode Length 31:05
Hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang
Guests Justin Robert Young

In light of the failure of the app at the Iowa Caucus, Nevada will instead use a tool pre-installed on iPads that are not connected to the Internet. Unlike the Iowa app, the Nevada iPad tool will only be used in the room to collate those numbers. Will this method work better than the Iowa Caucus app?

Guest

Quick Hits

A judge has ordered a temporary block on the $10B Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, Pentagon cloud contract which was awarded to Microsoft last October. Last month, Amazon filed a motion asking the court to pause Microsoft’s work, claiming the evaluation process contained “unmistakable bias” and has since asked the court for permission to depose President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Foxconn told the Taipei stock exchange that reports by Reuters that it would be back to 80% capacity in mainland China by March were not factual. Meanwhile, Nikkei Asian Review's source said it will take one to two months for Foxconn to resume manufacturing. In a related note, Apple will reopen five stores in Beijing February 14 with reduced hours. Apple stores in Shanghai and Shenzhen remain shut.
WiFi 6E is the name for 802.11ax operation in the 6GHz band for more than 2Gbps speed. Thursday, Broadcom announced the BCM4389 client WiFi 6E chipset is available for the next generation of smartphones. It features lower power consumption and multi-radio Bluetooth 5.0 support to improve audio performance and range too. So to sum up, look for smartphones later this year with Broadcom chipsets that offer faster WiFi and better Bluetooth. Qualcomm is expected to have its WiFi 6E chipsets out soon too.
US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is the latest US legislator to propose a national law on digital privacy. Her bill proposes a new federal agency to enforce consumer privacy rights online. It would not preempt state laws, meaning it would not create national standards for privacy in the US. It's similar to proposals from US Representatives Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren as well as from US Senator Maria Cantwell. A bipartisan proposal from Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Cathy McMorris Rodgers does not include state preemption.
Uber is testing an option to book a ride by phone in Arizona by dialing 1-833-USE-UBER. An operator will give you a price estimate and order a car based on your details, then text you information about the car and driver. Uber stores your payment data the same way it would through the app.

Top Stories

US Senators Cory Booker and Jeff Merkley proposed the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence Act Wednesday that would stop the use of facial recognition without a warrant by federal agencies, government employees, and law enforcement until a 13-member Congressional Commission can recommend guidelines and place limits on the use of the technology.
As we reported on Wednesday's show, Mobile World Congress was canceled because the GSMA found it impossible to put the show on, despite health officials not requiring it to be canceled. Most big names had pulled out leaving smaller companies without anything for the money they spent in preparation and without the chance to make contacts and build awareness for their products. In addition, many companies are facing other problems related to the Chinese coronavirus, which has shut down factories in China, meaning parts for their products are delayed. Firms of all sizes are looking for alternate ways to make announcements and build relationships including more smaller trips and meetings and independent press conferences. While the GSMA says it will definitely hold MWC next year, some companies may learn they don't need it.
The US filed a superseding indictment against Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou charging them with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and conspiring to steal trade secrets. It also contained new allegations regarding violation of sanctions against North Korea and Iran. Among the allegations are using confidentiality agreements with US companies to obtain things like router source code and then misappropriate that property, aka use it in Huawei's own routers. The indictment lists other concrete examples like distributing confidential slide decks to its engineers and a person taking pictures of the interior of devices after hours at a trade show in Chicago. Other charges involve lying to federal investigators and hiding employment status with Huawei.
Last week we talked about the Jalopnik report that a man named Alec bought a used Tesla that he though had the Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features only to find out that Tesla removed it during an audit that showed he had not paid for the package. Which he hadn't, the original owner had. That led to questions about whether Tesla was tying packages to the original owner, etc. Well Monday Alec posted on a teslamotorsclub.com thread that everything is back now. He also offered to act as a go between with Tesla experience team members for others who might have the same issue. Tesla does these audits in order to correct for people who have been given the package without paying by mistake (which has happened) or who modified the software to unlock the package without paying (which has also happened.) Tesla has not made a public statement on the issue or clarified its policy on the transfer of packages in used cars.
Scientists at Switzerland's EFPL have developed a 3D printer that can build an entire object at once in seconds rather than building it layer by layer. The printer shines a laser on a liquid photosensitive resin (either biogel or liquid plastic) from multiple angles. An algorithm guides the laser to create a precise version of a 3D model. It can make two-centimeter structures at 80 micrometer precision right now. The team thinks it's capable of up to 15 centimeters. Printing can be done inside sealed sterile containers as well, which is useful for medical applications. A company called Readily3D has been created to market the system.

Discussion

In light of the failure of the app used in the Iowa Caucus earlier this month, Nevada reportedly has decided not to use an app, but instead a tool pre-installed on iPads that are not connected to the Internet. Which could also be called "an app." There is a difference. The Iowa app was meant to transmit vote and delegate counts to the state. The Nevada iPad tool will only be used in the room to collate those numbers, since the iPads won't connect to the Internet.

Thing of the Day

Chris Christensen aka the Amateur Traveler has a timely tip for upcoming travelers.

Mailbag

Regarding your story on the remote speaker from Sony. When I’m in the kitchen and want to hear the tv, I leave my iPhone in the lounge room and use live listen with my AirPods.
Sent by Andrew


DTNS 3717 talked about gift card fraud. I am an independent IT consultant and have a few large churches as clients. Probably 2-3 times a week we get emails sent to staff from Gmail accounts like [email protected]. ... I've had two people buy the gift cards the pastor asked for, but in both cases they then walked into his office instead of sending the codes to the criminals. I worked with the FBI on a couple of larger cases and found out how the criminals redeem the codes. ... The criminal sells the cards at a discount turning them into cash.
Sent by Ditchdoctor in Discord

YouTube

Links



Preceded by:
"Low Visibility Into Blizzard"
Nevada Gambles on A Tool
Followed by:
"Team Teams or Team Slack?"