Ep 490: 2 Acres of Hope - Ad Free (Patreon)

2021, here we are; year-end wrap ups; Ticketmaster used stolen passwords to hack rival; Google workers union; Instacart is a parasite; gig companies seek labor deals in Europe; Chatroulette's AI is still people; AI vertical farming; self-driving cars have a bias problem; Tesla autopilot trip; Dave's no good, very bad Big Sur upgrade; Solarwinds hackers got Microsoft source code; security & your car; Facebook's megascale; holiday movies & TV; holiday apps & doodads; RIP, Flash; McDonald's ashtrays; Complexity Condensed; Obscure Sorrows; some good things from 2020 (a very short list).

SHOW NOTES

IN THE NEWS

Ticketmaster pays $10 million fine after hacking a startup rival

Google workers announce plans to unionize

Instacart Is a Parasite and a Sham

Uber, Gig Companies Seek Labor Deals to Avoid Workers Becoming Employees

Chatroulette Is On the Rise Again—With Help From AI

2-Acre Vertical Farm Run By AI And Robots Out-Produces 720-Acre Flat Farm

The Turing Test is obsolete. It’s time to build a new barometer for AI

Self-Driving Cars Are More Likely To Run You Over If You Are Black, Study Suggests

Tesla Autopilot Drives From Los Angeles To San Francisco With No Human Intervention

MEDIA CANDY

Wonder Woman 1984

Greenland

Soul

Your Honor

The Minimalists – Less Is Now

Death to 2020

The History of Swear Words

Neil Gaiman’s The Sleeper and the Spindle

The Midnight Sky

Palm Springs

The Stand

Star Trek: Discovery

The ashes of James Doohan — Scotty from Star Trek — are aboard the International Space Station

How Eve 6’s Twitter account became its own strange form of art

APPS & DOODADS

‘Privacy-first’ browser Brave now has native support for M1 Macs

DJI Pocket 2

Breethe

Roon

Dash Smart Shelf | Auto-replenishment scale for home and business | Medium

Adobe Flash rides off into the sunset

30 Things From The Past That Look Hilariously Obsolete Today

AT THE LIBRARY

Complexity Condensed

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Stand

SECURITY HAH!

The CyberWire

Dave Bittner

Hacking Humans

Caveat

‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ Trailer Reveals Lucasfilm’s New “Interconnected Mega-Story”

Kermit the Forg

Apparel & Collectibles – RadioShack

SolarWinds hackers accessed Microsoft source code

Your car may be recording more data than you know

Facebook’s Unknowable Megascale

BRIC-A-BRAC

2020 Has Had Some Impressive Technological And Scientific Achievements

Full post here by Martin Harbech

There are an insane amount of cool space things happening in 2021

FEEDBACK LOOP

Brexit deal mentions Netscape browser and Mozilla Mail

Julian Assange: UK judge blocks extradition of Wikileaks founder to US

The Quiet Americans by Scott Anderson

Alice in Borderland | Official Trailer | Netflix

The Mandalorian Light Show

Congo Free State

Explosions from Mt. Etna send lava rocks flying and lava flowing

Biden campaign says Twitter will wipe POTUS account’s followers

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Dawn Wells, Mary Ann on ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ dies of COVID-19 at 82

JEREMY CLARKSON REVEALS HE BATTLED WITH COVID-19 DURING CHRISTMAS

Dr. Demnto’s list of 2020’s best songs