Can We Have an Alert for the Alert?
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| Can We Have an Alert for the Alert? | |
| Number | 3199 |
| Broadcast Date | JANUARY 16, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 31:26 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane |
| Guests | Lamarr Wilson |
Was Hawaii mistakenly put on a ballistic missile alert by bad User Interface design? Can a push by Democrats in the Senate to Reinstate Open Internet Guidelines? And a Canadian man has been arrested for disrupting Twitch streams.
Guest
Quick Hits
- Congressional aides told Reuters that US lawmakers are urging AT&T to cut commercial ties with China's Huawei and oppose plans for China Mobile to enter the US market. AT&T abandoned plans to carry Huawei's latest handset earlier this month.
- Democrats have convinced Republican US Senator Susan Collins to support a resolution to reinstate the Open Internet guidelines which the FCC recently voted to change. Collins vote gives them 50 in the 100-member Senate meaning they would need one more to pass the resolution. The resolution would also need to pass the House and be signed by the President both of which are unlikely.
- Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 on January 9 and the last path to a free upgrade to Windows 10 ended Tuesday January 16th. This last path was meant for users of assistive technology.
- Google said Tuesday it's adding five cloud regions to its existing 13. The Netherlands and Montreal regions will open this quarter followed by Los Angeles, Finland and Hong Kong. It will also commission three new submarine cables in 2019. Google has direct investment in 11 cables.
Top Stories
- Evan Blass posted on Twitter that according to a C-level executive at a major casemaker, the Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9+ will launch 2/26 with Pre-orders starting March 1st and Shipping beginning March 16. Samsung is expected to make an official announcement at Mobile World Congress which begins February 26.
- Myce.com reports that Google Cast devices like Chromecast can temporarily interfere with multiple routers. TP-Link and Linksys have confirmed the issue. Recent Android updates cause devices to flood the network with packets looking for cast devices when they come out of sleep mode. Linksys and TP-Link have issued firmware updates to address the problem. Google is also working to address the issue.
- Yesterday the Netflixhelps Twitter account posted in response to a question that “There are currently no plans for Netflix on Nintendo Switch.” A representative from the company told Polygon that Netflix is still talking to Nintendo about it. Hulu launched on the Switch in November and Japanese video hosting site Niconico is on the Switch in Japan.
- A Canadian man has been charged with "mischief in relation to computer data" for disrupting more than 1,000 broadcasts at a time with racist and homophobic messages and disturbing images. Twitch investigated the attacks and found they originated with a Service called ChatSurge allegedly run by the man. The case is due to go to court in February.
- This weekend Google's Arts & Culture app featured a tool to compare your face to famous portraits and see how well you match. All in good fun. Except for people worried Google was using it to build a database of photos associated with user accounts. Google says the photos submitted are not used to train machine learning programs, build a database of faces or for any other purpose. The app claims the photos are only stored for the time it takes to make the match.
Discussion
- Hawaii’s missile alert interface had a one-word difference between sending a test alert and a real one
- Honolulu Civil Beat on Twitter: "This is the screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday. The operator clicked the PACOM (CDW) State Only link. The drill link is the one that was supposed to be clicked. #Hawaii… https://t.co/nrPi9ovsfl"
- Hawaii missile alert: How one employee 'pushed the wrong button' and caused a wave of panic
- Japanese broadcaster apologizes after false North Korea missile alert
Thing of the Day
Mailbag
- On Friday's show, you were wondering what the benefit is to Facebook for changing it's news feed algorithm to focus on meaningful social interactions.
I doubt Facebook is simply falling on its own sword to improve user experience. I think it's about increasing revenue from sponsored content.
Zuckerberg and his team are completely silent on whether this change affects boosted posts, and I bet it doesn't. With this change, page owners will be forced to spend even more to get their content in front of users.
When Facebook made its algorithm change in June 2016 to prioritize posts from friends and families, our expenses on boosted content from our Facebook page increased by at least 50%. And now, Facebook constantly prompts us to boost our posts to reach a wider audience.
I hate it, but it's a brilliant strategy. - Sent by Bruce from Peterborough, Canada
- On Friday's show, you were wondering what the benefit is to Facebook for changing it's news feed algorithm to focus on meaningful social interactions.
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "Beware the Baby Bots" |
Can We Have an Alert for the Alert? |
Followed by: "Sorry Dave, I Can’t Comprehend That" |