Closing the Barn Door

I'm having trouble getting motivated to write this week, so I'm going to be lazy and jump on the anti-Facebook bandwagon.  I know that I said it was being over covered last week, but the new stories about The Zuck potentially doing some insider trading and how they have been scraping Android data from phones for years has got some creative juices stirring.

And now there's the newspaper ads that Zuckerberg took out.  You can read what you want into the ads as words like 'limit' and 'stopped apps like this from getting so much information' leave wiggle room for FB to provide some information to 'apps like this' and maybe more to other apps that aren't quite so like that.

All this begs the question of whether you should #deletefacebook.  The surface answer is easy: yes.  But there are consequences to everything, so lets look a bit closer.

Fifth Domain Electricity

There's been more than a few news articles this past week about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica and how user data was used to (maybe (almost certainly)) swing the 2016 election.  Enough coverage that I'm not going to talk about it here.  Suffice to say that anything you put on social media can and will be used in ways that you may not intend.  Including rambling blog posts.

Instead, I want to discuss another item that is not getting as much traction, but may be much more serious.  It's this opinion piece from The Hill that warns of Russia's ability to attack our infrastructure through the internet.  It sounds like something from a spy thriller and would be easy to dismiss if they had not already done it once.

Go Go Gadget Mobile!

A couple of months ago, my ten year old car decided to stop firing on one of its cylinders.  As that killed a quarter of its power, that made it a significant decision on its part.

As I believe in squeezing out as much as I can out of large capital investments, I dutifully took it in to the mechanic who changed the plugs, the wires and the coil.  None of which shut down the baleful red Check Engine Light on the dash.  This failure was beyond the quick fixes.  A quick comparison between the engine overhaul estimate and the Kelly Blue Book value of the vehicle put me in the market of a new (to me) car.

And, if I'm going to do that, then I might as well go electric.  With an updated electronics package.  And a bamboo interior with recycled fabric and LED lights that use light frequencies guaranteed to not hurt the eyes of roadside wildlife.

Mom, Dad: Please Stop Fighting

On Friday last week, Business Insider posted an article that stated Amazon will stop selling Nest products including thermostats and home security products.  Nest, which is owned by Alphabet (Google), was apparently expecting the call.

This is the latest in a long standing retail feud between the two Internet giants:

• Amazon would not sell the Chromecast for a long time ostensibly because it did not play back Amazon Prime Video in a way that Amazon liked.
• Google pulled YouTube from Amazon's line of Fire products, but then relented when Amazon agreed to start selling the Chromecast... though they still aren't showing up on Amazon three months later.
• Amazon does not stock the Google Home product that directly competes with its Echo line of smart speakers.

On the surface, it appears that Amazon is being the antagonist and using its e-tail power to try and curtail the Big-G.  Dig a little deeper and it is clear that both are holding their own share of the blame-bag.

Artificial Warning

An article about Artificial Intelligence crossed my consciousness last week.  It's called "Tech companies should stop pretending AI won't destroy jobs" and is written by Kai-Fu Lee.  This is a thought that I embrace whole-heartedly.

In it, he argues that soon at least half of all jobs will be better and more safely handled by AI.  That we are not ready for the dramatic social upheaval that this transition will cause.  That we should not look to previous economic revolutions (industrial, computer or otherwise) because the same sets of conditions do not apply: things are moving faster than those did, and the transition may not give rise to new forms of work.

For the most part, I agree with him.  AI and automation are going to cause incredible changes.  My first quibble is with the speed: some sectors will be changed much more rapidly due to the economic advantages automation provides.  My second is that Mr. Lee offers no solutions.

The Olympic Spirit

This last weekend saw the 2018 Winter Olympics kick off in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  And with them, I thought that I'd continue my 'State of Cordcutting' that I started last week with the Super Bowl.  And also because, the Olympics are one of the few sporting events that I actually care about, especially the Winter ones as I'm a skier.

I watch the Olympics because I enjoy watching people do things at their peak.  These are athletes who have trained hard, committed their entire existence to this one skill and are now using that skill at a level that at the edge of human capability.

Add to that the feeling of togetherness and internationalism that pervades much of the event.  Even though these athletes are competing against each other, most of them (not all) recognize that their competitors are more kindred spirits rather than enemies.  They have all worked hard at the same skill.  They understand each other's pain.  Something that we more baseline humans could stand to do better as well.

Despite all of that, I'm unlikely to watch any of it.  And that has to do with another spirit of competition: International Broadcast Rights.

Almost Superb Streaming

Last night, the Super Bowl happened.  Two teams.  One of them won.  There were commercials.  And I did not watch any of it.  Partly because I write this early on Sunday afternoons, but more because I don't care.

Maybe that makes me un-American.  I like to think that it makes me a new American.  One who better things to do than watch a contrived sporting contest (practice guitar, cook dinner, do the dishes, clean the bathrooms, write this blog).  And, if ESPN's subscriber loss is any indication, I'm not alone.

With all of that in mind, the advent of the Super Bowl seems a good time to take a look at the state of cord cutting and how technology has changes what and how we consume entertainment.  Buckle up, mes amigos.

Amazon Go Shrinkage

Last week, Amazon opened its pilot 'cashier-less' retail store to the public.  It was announced over a year ago and I discussed it then.  Now, people outside of Amazon's own employee base have had an opportunity to experience it.  And mostly it has been positive.

Reviewers like the low (but not quite gone) employee interaction.  Most comment on the novelty of stuffing things into your backpack and walking out.  They all look at the grid of cameras suspended over the store and try and figure out what is actually going on (Amazon is not saying).  All of this is great.

Then they start talking about the implications.  As I don't live anywhere near Seattle, that's where I can jump in.

Sideband Dreams

This last weekend, I got myself some sushi and a nice dry sake then sat down and watched the first episode of Amazon's 'Electric Dreams'.  This is their anthology series based on the writings of Philip K. Dick and their answer to Netflix's 'Black Mirror'.  Based on that first episode, the series will have a lot in common with Mr. Dick: mind bending ideas that supersede the character and plot.  But they will not be direct visualizations of his stories.  Just like every other PKD story that's been filmed: they will be sidebands to his fundamental concept.

Granted, I've only seen one episode, 'Real Life', but as I've said before, I have a keyboard and access to the internet.  Being semi-informed (at best) is what goes on out here, so I'm going to dive in to a review-slash-tear-down-slash-ramble on that one episode.

Modest spoilers ahead if you care.

Fundamental Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone for another year.  The annual celebration of technology as a consumer aspiration did its thing, attracting over 180,000 exhibitors, marketers, reporters, retailers and general enthusiasts (but only if they could borrow a badge from one of the first four groups).

On display were the biggest, smallest, fastest, farthest and most complex examples of electronic wizardry this side of DARPA.  TVs were bigger and brighter and more shapely.  Phones got thinner, faster and more... extendable(?).  There were robots that folded laundry and answered questions and guided people around.  There were new wireless technologies displayed that don't really exist yet.

On top of that the booths were more bombastic, curating brand and drawing attention and creating high concept experiences.  Experiences that were lost on the attendees as they threw elbows just to move and yelled at each other like couples at a rave club.

But none of those were the most interesting things at this year's CES.  At least, not to me.  No, the most interesting thing that happened at 11:30am PST on Wednesday, 1/10/2018.

That is when the power went out.

Stay Away

It's that time of year again, when the Tech Giants of the world descend on Las Vegas, NV and show case the things that they will make us buy in the coming year.

The big topics this year are going to be 5G and the general autonomy of Things.  That second is a sub-set of the Internet of Things that takes devices from remote controlled via the internet to making their own decisions as variables in their environment change.

Of course, there will still be the mega-booths devoted to TVs and audio equipment and all of the cars in the North Hall of the LVCC (and outside driving themselves around parking lots).  And there will be a excessive amount of people, an estimated 185,000 according the CES website.

Which brings me to my plea: Stay Away.

Five Giggity

For a variety of reasons, I've been investigating 5G, the fifth generation of mobile communications protocols.  Some of those reasons are pure curiosity and some of them are a bit more professional, but both lead to a "Great Googlie-Mooglie" reaction.  If they actually follow through on the promises this standard makes, then the world may actually change again.

The specs, taken at face value, do not tell the whole story:

• Minimum 20Gbps down per mobile base station, and 10Gbps up.
• One Million connected devices per square kilometer.
• Wicked fast mobility from base station to base station.
• Maximum 4ms ping times with the base station.

All they say is the usual more and faster story that each generation tells.  But these specs allow much more.  Read on.

[Had trouble feeling creative for the artwork.  Sorry]