A Fortnite to Remember!

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A Fortnite to Remember!
Number 3462
Broadcast Date FEBRUARY 5, 2019
Episode Length 33:42
Hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang

A Microsoft report shows a small but noticeable improvement in internet civility. Will it last or is this just a statistical anomaly?

Quick Hits

Alphabet's Q4 earnings report showed the company took more than $1.3 billion of operating losses in its “Other Bets” category, which includes its experimental X lab, the internet group Access, LTE balloon initiative Loon, drone delivery project Wing, and self-driving car unit Waymo. On the sales side the company earned more than $39 billion last quarter, with a profit of $8.2 billion, net revenue up 23% from the same quarter last year, but payments to partners also rose 26%.
A new Chrome Browser extension called Password Checkup is available that checks your login credentials against a database of compromised accounts. That database is maintained by Google but sounds similar to HaveIbeenpwned. Google uses a technique called blinding to create a secret search index. Credentials are anonymized with an Argon2 hash and encrypted with Elliptic Curve cryptography. All this is done to reassure you that neither Google nor anyone else is looking at your passwords, just checking to see if they match a known breached account.
Apple confirmed to Reuters that it has reached a deal with French authorities to back-pay 500 million euros in taxes. Apple's French branch confirmed the tax agreement but not the amount. French magazine L'Express reported the sum and said the deal was finalized in December.

Top Stories

Facebook will now let you delete messages from a conversation after you’ve sent them for up to 10 minutes either for just you or for both sides of the conversation. Last April, Facebook announced that it would build an “unsend” feature for all users within the next few months after it was spotted that CEO Mark Zuckerberg already had this feature. The feature rolls out on Android and iOS today.
Toyota and Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service are launching a gamified car subscription service called Kinto in Japan. The Kinto One level lets you choose a Prius, Corolla Sport, Alphard, Vellfire or Crown and pay between $420 and $900 a month. Kinto Select gives you a Lexus for $1,630 a month. Toyota said drivers will be awarded points based on safe or ecological driving. The points can be used to reduce your monthly payments. Kinto Select, the one with the Lexus is available now and Kinto One arrives March 1. Both are on a trial basis from select dealers in Tokyo. The plans will roll out more widely this summer. The points program won't launch until autumn.
Last October, IBM announced Philyra AI, meant to develop new scents for the fragrance industry. In addition to developing new scents it can also identify alternative materials and recommended amounts based on usage. It has helped Symrise create two new perfumes for the beauty company O Boticário. Now Philyra AI will help McCormick create new flavor profiles. It can use data on flavors and spices with sales and marketing data to improve recipes and tailor them to specific regions. Kosher, vegan and low sodium versions can taste very similar. McCormick also hopes to create an iconic food product like its own French's Yellow Mustard. The first new Recipe Mix flavors coming out of the collaboration are Tuscan Chicken, Bourbon Pork Tenderloin and New Orleans Sausage, expected by end of spring.
On February 2, DJ Marshmello played a concert in Fortnite that players could watch for free if they moved their avatar to Pleasant Park. On Twitter, Geoff Keighley said his sources say more than 10 million concurrent players watched the concert. There is, of course, Marshmello X Fortnite merch available for sale. An extended mix of the Fortnite set is available on Apple Music. Marshmello also announced that a collaboration with Bollywood composer Pritam and artist Shirley Setia, called BIBA is being released worldwide on the in-house label of Spotify Rival JioSaavn, which is one of India's largest streaming services. Though it's not an exclusive and is available pretty much everywhere.
Engineers at Dartmouth College have invented a dime-sized device that can convert kinetic energy from your heartbeat into electricity to power implanted devices like pacemakers. It uses a thin piece of polymer piezoelectric film, called "PVDF" to create electricity to recharge batteries but can also be used as sensors. The results of a three-year-study were published in Advanced Materials Technologies and the first round of animal studies will be published soon.

Discussion

Breaking News

Thing of the Day

Let's check in with Chris Christensen the Amateur Traveler on a way a love of flight might pave the way for a different kind of love.

Mailbag

Tim had thoughts on our conversation yesterday about whether people are aware of how ads work, and if they really care.

Until very recently I was unaware of Facebook's ads settings page, even though I've been using Facebook for many years, and am vested in my personal security and privacy.

When I first visited that page, I smiled thinking, "Boy do they have that wrong," as I looked at some of the items they thought I was interested in. I was tempted to correct it, but then had another thought. What if I pick complete nonsense, just to mess up their algorithm further?

Early last year I downloaded all of Facebook's data about me. I was pleased to find that I had only ever clicked on about 40 ads in the many years I have used Facebook, and I have never bought anything based on one of those ads. And so I decided to leave my Facebook ad settings alone, as they support just the behavior that I want to exhibit, namely not falling for ads. Sorry, Facebook advertisers, if you're not making any money off me.
Sent by Tim

YouTube

Links



Preceded by:
"It’s Like Eating Sugar" 		A Fortnite to Remember!
 Followed by:
"Spotify Sets Its Anchor"
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