TechCast with Jake Podcast

04/04/2024

Amazon Fresh and Go stores are abandoning their Just Walk Out technology. This is such a disappointment. It was so cool and convenient to shop and leave. I loved how fast it was. I really hoped that this was the future of grocery shopping.

Just Walked Away Amazon is giving up with its unusual "Just Walk Out" technology, The Information reports, which allowed customers to simply put their shopping into their bags and leave the store without having to get in line at the checkout. The tech, which was only available at half of the e-comme...

30/03/2024

AT&T acknowledges data leak of 73 current and former user accounts and has issued a password reset for these accounts. If you used your AT&T password on any other website or apps, you definitely should change it.

Telecom company AT&T said on Saturday that it is investigating a data set released on the "dark web" about two weeks ago, and said that its preliminary analysis shows it has impacted approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders.

26/07/2023

Hackers can use your voicemail to take over your online accounts | Mashable

By hacking your voicemail, a security researcher says he's found a way to take over Google, Microsoft, Apple, and WhatsApp accounts.

17/06/2023

Add emojis to any Windows Desktop or web app, including Outlook emails, Word docs and even Excel spreadsheets. Just position your cursor where you want to insert the emoji and press the Windows key + . (period). It's also useful for adding special symbols like ✅⬜ € § ℃.

07/04/2023

Heads up: your data and queries entered into ChatGPT become publicly accessible data. Assume this goes for all AI chat bots.

Samsung meeting notes and new source code are now in the wild after being leaked in ChatGPT

02/04/2023

Tesla ends first quarter of 2023 with a record of 422,875 delivered vehicles, a 36% increase over the prior year.

Tesla has just announced its Q1 2023 deliveries on Saturday morning and they hit a new record. Tesla produced 421,371 Model 3/Y units and 19,437 Model S/X units. The company delivered 412,180 Model 3/Y vehicles and 10,695 Model S/X vehicles. In total, production for Q1 was at 440,808 and deliveries....

21/03/2023

Tesla engineers tried to convince Elon Musk not to remove radar for Autopilot and FSD.

A new report states that Tesla engineers tried to convince Elon Musk not to give up on radar for its...

06/02/2023

AMC Theatres to offer pricing based on seat location.

At your next visit to AMC Theatres, getting a prime seat may cost you a little extra. The country’s largest exhibition chain is rolling out Sightline at AMC, a ticket pricing initiative based…

28/11/2022

GM dealers are quietly repairing Tesla, filling a much needed gap in service. Tesla has very few repair facilities which makes for long wait times.

Let’s see if Tesla moves to cut GM off from spare parts, or looks the other way to appease customers.

GM is now repairing Tesla electric cars. That gives many Tesla owners access to a nearby repair shop for the first time.

23/09/2022

Facebook has complete disregard for user privacy which is why it is one of the least trusted brands. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/09/lawsuits-say-meta-evaded-apple-privacy-settings-to-spy-on-millions-of-users/

A former Google engineer reported the risk, but Meta found no privacy concern.

08/09/2022

This is terrible. Over 610,000 students and staff impacted. https://apnews.com/article/technology-los-angeles-us-department-of-education-007f5c48d88536b623c1803ec88a6f08

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A ransomware attack targeting the huge Los Angeles school district prompted an unprecedented shutdown of its computer systems as schools increasingly find themselves vulnerable to cyber breaches at the start of a new year.

06/09/2022

Bitcoin projected to become first monetary system to hit net zero emissions by 2024 https://finbold.com/bitcoin-projected-to-become-first-monetary-system-to-hit-net-zero-emissions-by-2024/

Bitcoin is reportedly set to achieve a net zero emission by December 2024, becoming the first monetary system to attain the feat.

06/09/2022

Germany puts 5 hydrogen-powered commuter trains into service with plans to add 9 more. The only emissions are water v***r. https://www.engadget.com/the-first-hydrogen-powered-train-line-is-now-in-service-142028596.html

Alstom's Coradia iLint trains only emit steam and condensed water..

01/09/2022

We really need to consider rules for Artificial Intelligent and robots now, not later. https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmvqm/an-ai-generated-artwork-won-first-place-at-a-state-fair-fine-arts-competition-and-artists-are-pissed

Jason Allen's AI-generated work "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" took first place in the digital category at the Colorado State Fair.

18/08/2022

The advent of “quiet quitting:” Gen Z workers are not engaged, crave mentorship and are rebelling against America’s “rise and grind” work culture. https://www.axios.com/2022/08/18/anti-rise-and-grind-work-movement-gen-z-millennials-work-life-balance

Just 31% of workers born after 1989 say they're "engaged" at work.

12/08/2022

Competitive Microsoft Excel Spreasheeting - yes, it’s a real thing that exists. https://www.techradar.com/news/the-microsoft-excel-world-championships-is-as-brilliantly-entertaining-as-it-sounds

Don’t knock it before you try it

08/08/2022

The recycling of used solar panels will become a $2.7 billion market by 2030. https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/dead-solar-panels-are-about-to-become-a-lot-more-valuable-a-2-7-billion-market-by-2030/

PV panels at the end of their lifespan will be worth more than $2.7 billion in 2030, compared to just $170 million this year.

08/08/2022

Malcolm Gladwell slammed after criticizing WFH policies—despite having worked remotely for decades. https://fortune.com/2022/08/08/malcolm-gladwell-slammed-after-criticizing-wfh-policies-despite-having-worked-remotely-for-decades/

Gladwell, the author of “The Tipping Point,” said it was “not in your best interest” to “just sit in your pajamas in your bedroom.”

22/07/2022

Robotic dog uses artificial intelligence to learn to walk in its own. If AI can learn to walk, what else can it learn (good or bad)? https://www.analyticsinsight.net/this-robot-has-taken-its-first-baby-step-with-zero-computer-simulation/

Researchers used an AI technique called reinforcement learning, which trains algorithms by rewarding them for desired actions, to train the robot dog to walk from scratch in the real world.

20/07/2022

The Cloud is having a meltdown. Google and Oracle data centers in the UK are unable to keep up with crucial cooling in the midst of the heatwave in Europe, causing the tech giants to shut down their cloud servers. https://gizmodo.com/google-oracle-cloud-heatwave-europe-1849199124

Buildings hosting both Oracle and Google cloud servers in the UK failed to manage temperature spikes, causing shut downs during the ongoing Euro heat wave.

18/07/2022

Internet speeds of 100M should be the minimum US standard everywhere in the US. But one-in-four US homes don’t even have broadband Internet. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/fcc-chair-proposes-new-us-broadband-standard-of-100mbps-down-20mbps-up/

Pai FCC said 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up was enough—Rosenworcel proposes 100/20Mbps.

13/06/2022

Google’s chatbot has become sentient. Don’t we have enough problems right now? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/technology/google-chatbot-ai-blake-lemoine.html

Blake Lemoine, the engineer, says that Google’s language model has a soul. The company disagrees.

02/06/2022

This makes me kinda sad. I really like my Canon 70D and Sony A7iii mirrorless but my iPhone 12 Pro takes amazing photos and is much more portable. https://www.techradar.com/news/smartphones-will-kill-off-the-dslr-within-three-years-says-sony

Phone cameras are set to get even better, according to Sony

01/06/2022

The Ford F-150’s ability to be a electric power backup for homes may be just the thing to set it apart from Tesla EVs. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-31/how-the-ford-f-150-can-be-a-backup-home-generator

Transforming an F-150 Lightning into a backup generator means you can keep the lights on during blackouts. Here’s the extra equipment you’ll need to use the EV battery to power a home.

01/06/2022

Return-to-office workers are feeling frustrated by waking up early, getting dressed, sitting in traffic then doing what they could be doing at home: meeting on Zoom. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-01/employees-are-returning-to-office-post-covid-just-to-sit-on-zoom-calls

Those at companies pushing for in-person work are asking: What’s the point, if we’re still meeting online?

25/05/2022

We are so close to having Tatooine-style moisture farms. https://newatlas.com/materials/drinking-water-harvester-air-gel-film/

Water scarcity is a major problem for much of the world’s population, but with the right equipment drinking water can be wrung out of thin air. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have now demonstrated a low-cost gel film that can pull many liters of water per day out of even very dry...

23/05/2022

Graphene-based CPUs may replace silicon-based CPUs. This may be what we need to to keep making faster processors. https://singularityhub.com/2022/03/13/moores-law-scientists-just-made-a-graphene-transistor-gate-the-width-of-an-atom/

Pushing Moore's Law to its bitter limits, a new graphene transistor gate measures a mere 0.34 nanometers—a mark that'll be hard to beat.

18/05/2022

Rising Covid cases push Apple to reinstate employee masking at about 100 US retail stores. https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/05/17/apple-reinstates-retail-employee-mask-mandate-at-about-100-us-stores

Apple is reinstating its mask mandate for retail employees at about 100 brick-and-mortar locations throughout the U.S. in response to a national rise in cases.