Bad Voltage

3×69: They Call It Nice Jan 27, 2025

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which Jeremy is sadly unwell (get well soon Jezza!) and so we in theory look at the latest news but actually spend three quarters of the show on one topic! This is what happens when there’s no Jeremy to keep us on track. Including:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:00:32] Stuart and Jono are old
[00:05:25] Project Stargate: a whole bunch of companies club together to potentially invest a load of money in AI technologies. We get into the weeds a bit on whether this is a good idea, and the position of large tech companies within the zeitgeist (NB: this was recorded before the recent DeepSeek release, which would have come up in this conversation!)
[00:39:19] UK considers banning ransomware payouts in public sector — is this a good idea? Is it a bad idea but still better than all the others? A troubling question!
[00:50:32] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×68: In The Abysmal Sea Dec 19, 2024

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we are back, back again, Bad Voltage is back, tell a friend, and we look back a little at the big things that happened in 2024’s tech world:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:02:19] Social Media 2024
[00:26:19] Drones in NY
[00:30:28] The UK is over 50% renewable electricity
[00:37:27] AR over-taking VR
[00:54:16] Outro

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×67: Drunk From The Wrong Grail Aug 12, 2024

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there is a particularly excellent shirt, a particularly absent salting of the conversation with, y’know, actual facts and that from Jeremy, and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:02:19] CrowdStrike: how half the computers in the world went down (with thanks to abadidea for research)
[00:28:41] Reddit might paywall some subreddits and what this means about Reddit, their business model, and Silicon Valley thinking
[00:57:14] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg! News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×66: Return of the Mack Jul 11, 2024

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we return after an unplanned hiatus, there is a squirrel in your car (not a euphemism), and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:04:16] The US government demands that Bytedance sell TikTok, or do they? There’s lots going on in this case, and it leads into lots of discussion about the purpose of tech regulation as a whole, which may well become a whole other show
[00:24:59] Tesla’s US market share falls below 50%; the times they are a’changin’ for the EV industry
[00:46:03] Windows Recall recalled (LOL)
[00:52:00] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×65: Not Evenly Distributed Mar 01, 2024

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we look to the year ahead (well, the 10 months ahead) and predict what will happen in the tech industry and the world in 2024.

2024’s predictions:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:02:49] Jeremy: Sundar Pichai will not be CEO by end of 2024
[00:06:55] Jeremy: At least one major streaming service will be shut down, or acquired
[00:11:30] Jeremy: Elon Musk Sells X, or X goes public
[00:13:42] Jeremy: Bonus
[00:17:29] Stuart: Film studio to release movie with AI-revived deceased actor
[00:21:08] Stuart: Fusion reactor generates surplus power for practical use, ready for widespread deployment
[00:23:05] Stuart: A nuclear weapon is detonated
[00:26:23] Stuart: Bonus
[00:30:45] Jono: Tesla to release budget EV ~$30k
[00:35:22] Jono: Google Gemini will get shut down and replaced
[00:39:53] Jono: VR photorealistic avatars
[00:46:35] Jono: Bonus
[00:47:41] Gemini predictions
[00:49:23] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×64: Cassandra Go Home Dec 14, 2023

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which in traditional Christmas style we look back on our predictions for 2024 and Jono whines about half points. More successfully than usual this year, admittedly.

Have a happy holiday season! We’ll be back in the new year.

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:01:44] Jeremy: Tiktok gets banned in the USA
[00:05:59] Jeremy: Hidden Crypto Risks in a Traditional Financial Institution
[00:07:17] Jeremy: Netflix gets acquired
[00:08:26] Jeremy: AI’s Swift Progress Hits a Clear Slowdown
[00:21:42] Jeremy: Web Splinters into Sino, Euro, and American Blocs
[00:22:09] Jeremy: Mastodon Peaks Early, Declines Afterwards
[00:24:28] Jeremy: Significant Equity Stake Acquired in Canonical
[00:25:29] Stuart: Texas HB20 Social Media Law Heads to and is Upheld by US Supreme Court
[00:28:01] Stuart: Global daily Twitter users will drop a minimum of 10% by the end of 2023
[00:29:53] Stuart: AI-Generated Song Enters the Charts
[00:33:40] Stuart: Apple to Permit Sideloading or Third-Party Browser Engines on iOS
[00:34:49] Stuart: Someone buys Netflix
[00:35:59] Jono: Meta to Announce Large-Scale Layoffs in Metaverse Division
[00:37:45] Jono: Twitter to Introduce Long-Form Video Platform with Monetization Options
[00:41:31] Jono: Anticipated Legal Restriction in US or EU for ChatGPT & Large Language Models
[00:42:56] Jono: Apple’s AR/VR Headset Earns Praise Despite Lingering Viability Doubts
[00:47:20] Jono: Potential Reasons for Trump’s Election Exit: Claims of Persecution or Legal Hurdles
[00:48:36] Jono: Bing Introducing ChatGPT-Like Features, Expects Substantial Growth
[00:53:51] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social! Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×64-cassandra-go-home/12525

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×63: Autonomous Helicopters Nov 18, 2023

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which Jeremy is temporarily not present, website hosting issues are acknowledged and briefly discussed, and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:01:16] New York intends to have air taxis by 2025, including bonus London Illustrated News content
[00:10:23] Microsoft Teams announce upcoming 3D meetings in VR, including a Lex Friedman/Mark Zuckerberg interview
[00:24:32] As Nikki Haley pushes for “algorithm transparency” and banning anonymous accounts, we dive a bit into the murky waters of legislation of social media networks and what various governments want from that
[00:45:27] Outro

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×62: Class One Catastrophic Hypercredibility Oct 19, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we do a bit of a deep dive into the (semi-)recent trend of finding new ways for creators to get paid. Patreon’s been around for a long time (but could be doing better), and the idea of making a thing and getting paid for the thing has been around for considerably longer, but it’s a relatively new innovation for platforms to encourage payments and share revenue with creators. Or is it? Is this actually new? Is this what was there already but in a superficially different outfit? And… will it work?

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×61: A Room of Dalmatians Aug 26, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we revisit an old friend, Room 101, the place where all the things we hate should be banished. At least according to each of us: whether the other two can be so convinced is another thing entirely…

[00:04:07] Jono: All videoconferencing except Zoom
[00:11:04] Stuart: overly chummy email spam
[00:16:16] Jeremy: Influencers
[00:19:59] Jono: Marketing Gurus
[00:25:07] Stuart: “we are experiencing unusually high call volumes”
[00:29:26] Jeremy: Mozilla
[00:37:55] Jono: Men who wear scarves inside
[00:42:16] Stuart: “join our discord”
[00:45:25] Jeremy: a secret extra!

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×60: Never Eat Shredded Wheat Aug 13, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which multiple minutes of pre-show work are awkwardly wasted, we haven’t got a sign on the roof, and:

[00:01:39] GPTBot is launched to crawl your websites and add their technological distinctiveness to its own model, and there is discussion of robots.txt changes
[00:11:08] MDN, the central resource for web documentation, added LLM stuff which caused a lot of pushback (and a Mozilla postmortem)
[00:24:30] Apple announce a new VR headset, the Vision Pro
[00:40:34] Instagram Threads starts up, Reddit is… hard to say, Bluesky seems to have not set the world alight… now that we’re a month or two in to all this, what’s going on in social media land? Everything’s all over the place
[00:52:13] $5 billion lawsuit with Google over incognito mode tracking moves closer to trial

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×60-never-eat-shredded-wheat/12509

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×59: Addition Edition Jun 16, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we discuss ad-supported services and the (potential?) rise of subscriptions. Have ads gone away, or started to? Are social media networks being supported by ads now pivoting to something else? And are Patreon and sponsorships mostly a boon for small creators, or a seed of a shift in the culture of how businesses and services work online?

We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×58: Large Langridge Model May 19, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there is unsceptical intensity, we are all eaten by a T-1000, and we have collected a list of concerns about Large Language Model-based AI, which we’re going to dive into!

[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:04:30] The “free software” concern: it normalises inhaling information for free and then renting out access to it. Upcoming EU regulation requires LLM creators to declare copyrighted material used in training corpora
[00:09:30] The automation one: puts lots of mid-level workers people out of a job, with zero provision for what should happen to those people
[00:25:25] The costlessness one: if it’s free (or at least easy) to generate text (and images and sound and so on), it becomes easy to flood places with it, which leads to finding hotels online being even more difficult, more fake news sites, students submitting LLM-written essays, etc
[00:30:40] The inaccuracy one: LLMs “hallucinate”, meaning that they make up lies and present it with as much confidence as actual information, so it’s very hard to tell the difference, which is problematic when it’s relied upon and can be downright defamatory (as in the case of Jonathan Turley, law professor, on an LLM-generated list of “lecturers who have sexually harassed their students” which he didn’t)
[00:33:35] The magnification of existing bias one: generated text embeds existing biases
[00:53:30] The creativity one: where does the next generation of music and art and writing come from if this generation is written largely by LLMs?

Also, we’re now on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×57: Conspiracyers Mar 31, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there’s more smoky back rooms than usual, everyone’s on Orkut, and:

[00:01:14] Who likes Microsoft Teams? Microsoft promises it’s made Teams less confusing and resource hungry, while Teams surprisingly now has 270m users to Slack’s 20m.
[00:08:21] An “open letter” from tech pioneers calls for a halt on AI development
[00:20:31] USA wants to ban TikTok: is this tech, security, or geopolitics?
[00:33:25] Google Search Adds Features for Info Verification: will this work? can this work?

Also, we’re now on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmX7qyr1nV4 https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×56: Hyperbole is the Magic Word Mar 02, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we spend a show inventing topics which need a whole other show to talk about, we reminisce about Google Plus, and:

[00:01:36] Twitter Blue, Meta Verified: the social networks go premium. Is it going to work?
[00:35:45] The FBI recommend that everyone uses an ad-blocker
[00:45:16] Salesforce pays Matthew McConaughey $10M/year
[00:52:47] LastPass hack, allegedly via a senior developer’s Plex?
[00:57:11] Reddit does comments search!

Also, we’re now on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://join.slack.com/t/badvoltage/shared_invite/zt-1porzolgy-eNrK6wREoVIINTbLi_kbsg!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×55: Don the Mast Feb 18, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we look, as has been threatened a bunch recently, at Mastodon. What’s it all about? Is Mastodon the new Twitter, and is it trying to be? And how far have we got into it?

Also, we’re now on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×54: The Joe Dolce Music Theatre Jan 20, 2023

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we create predictions for 2023! What will happen over the next twelve months in the world of tech? Here’s what we think…

Stuart: the Texas HB20 social media law will come before the US Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court will uphold it as constitutional
Stuart: Global daily Twitter users will drop a minimum of 10% by the end of 2023
Stuart: A song claimed to be composed and performed entirely by AI will get in the charts
Stuart (Bonus): Apple will either allow sideloading or allow third-party browser engines on iOS
Stuart (Bonus): Someone buys Netflix
Jeremy: Tiktok gets banned in the USA
Jeremy: At least one traditional financial institution will have taken on substantial crypto risk that wasn’t fully disclosed
Jeremy: Netflix is acquired
Jeremy: The rapid advances in AI slow down in a very obvious way
Jeremy (Bonus): the web starts fragmenting into 3 distinct blocs: sino, euro, americano
Jeremy (Bonus): Mastodon usage peaks in the first half and drops steadily from there
Jeremy (Bonus): someone takes a large equity stake in Canonical
Jono: Meta will announce significant (1000+ peolpe) layoffs in their Metaverse division
Jono: Twitter will launch a YouTube competitor. Users will be able to upload long-form videos (1hr+), monetize their videos with ads, and see a video view
Jono: There will be at least 1 legal regulatory requirement be put into practice in the US or EU that restricts the use of ChatGPT and/or Large Language Models
Jono (Bonus): Apple will release their AR/VR headset, will garner positive reviews for the product, but press will still question the viability of AR/VR
Jono (Bonus): Donald Trump will drop out of the election for one of two reasons: (1) claims of persecution, or (2) a legal decision prevents him from running
Jono (Bonus): Bing will launch with ChatGPT-like functionality and see significantly increased growth. Significantly increased = 30%+

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×54-the-joe-dolce-music-theatre/12476

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×53: Representative but not Shining Dec 23, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage for the last time in 2022, in which we take a look back at our predictions for this year and review how we did. Surprisingly… not as badly as last year. Although as you may expect there is shameless jockeying for extra points. How did you do by comparison?

We’ll see you in 2023!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×53-representative-but-not-shining/12473

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×52: Click By 5pm Nov 20, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we are not necessarily “extremely hardcore”, we aren’t verified (or are we?), we aren’t fleeing the country with a load of money that isn’t ours, and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:02:37] Twitter and Musk: much change is afoot in the world of Twitter, as Elon Musk completes his purchase of the social media network and immediately starts changing things and staffing with varying degrees of competence and forethought. We have Opinions on this, not surprisingly
[00:34:46] Tech Layoffs: the world is heading into a recession, and tech firms are at the forefront of at least some of that. Some of the biggest names are laying off thousands of staff: many are affected
[00:40:24] FTX: the latest crypto explosion is bigger than most, but it’s also pretty confusing to understand what exactly it’s all about. We’ll dive in for explanations!
[00:49:38] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×52-click-by-5pm/12471

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×51: Control the Meta Connect Oct 24, 2022

Jono Bacon, Stuart Langridge, and special guest Adam Lorimer present Bad Voltage, in which reality is virtual, metas are connected, and:

Meta, nee Facebook, had their Meta Connect conference where they announced their upcoming plans, recent hardware and software releases, and the like. We have some interest in VR generally, as evidenced by Jono always having a prediction about it at Christmas, and so we’d like to dig a bit more into what’s going on over there, some of the upcoming hardware, and talk a little about the place of VR (and AR and MR) in the world order and how it does and might fit in with everything, especially with Adam who actually does this stuff for a living!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×51-control-the-meta-connect/12470

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×50: Two Riders Were Approaching Sep 15, 2022

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and special guest Erica Brescia present Bad Voltage, in which a generation of hypochondriacs is created, we are made to do research, and:

[00:01:51] VC/WeWork/Flow
[00:20:28] AI wins state fair art contest, annoys humans
[00:28:14] New smart watches
[00:38:22] Notkia
[00:39:52] OSTP Issues Guidance to Make Federally Funded Research Freely Available Without Delay
[00:42:47] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×50-two-riders-were-approaching/12468

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×49: The Noise of Doubt Aug 11, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the roflcopter is created, Soli is forgotten, and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:02:04] Chorizo space prank
[00:04:04] Floppotron 3.0
[00:10:47] Doom running on $15 smart lamp, and in Doom
[00:16:22] SCaLE 19X
[00:19:59] Who’s liable for AI-generated lies?
[00:28:48] Amazon Slashing Private-Label Selection
[00:31:29] Amazon to acquire maker of Roomba vacuums
[00:36:56] Apple expecting to ship 1.5mill VR/AR units in 2023
[00:38:37] VR as good as psychedelics to transcend
[00:55:24] Firefox adds client-side machine translation
[00:58:15] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×49-the-noise-of-doubt/12463

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×48: Brave Internet Explorers Jul 21, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which everyone’s middle name is Elaine, there is discussion of the nature of business in the modern age, and:

[00:02:45] We look at Brave, a privacy-focused web browser. They’ve got some interesting technical choices, but more importantly we want to look at the question of their business model. How do Brave propose to remain sustainable? How are they making money now? And once they get the cash… what are they doing with it?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×48-brave-internet-explorers/12460

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×47: Fallacious Piece of History Jun 24, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Victorian Tumblr is a thing, you should probably check out Lethality, Jono’s band’s latest, and:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:04:11] USB Type-C EVERYTHING
[00:17:33] Firefox and Google are arguing about extension APIs that ad blockers use
[00:34:00] Spotify comes for audiobooks
[00:57:15] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×47-fallacious-piece-of-history/12459

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×46: Srtrerarm Deck May 19, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and special guest star Jorge Castro present Bad Voltage, in which those of the team not currently having fun on a beach in Spain dig into the latest tech news, including (but not limited to):

[00:08:26] Github start requiring two-factor authentication for contributors
[00:16:21] This show was edited live on Twitch by our audio producer, Marius Quabeck of NerdZoom Media, and you can watch him do that and see what misery we put him through every fortnight
[00:25:05] Lots of Big Tech companies have put together $30 million to invest in the security of open source software in the Software Supply Chain Security Mobilization Plan, which is potentially quite great
[00:33:21] Jorge has a Steam Deck! We have questions about Jorge’s Steam Deck!
[00:48:11] Looks like USB-C is coming to Apple’s phones

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×46-srtrerarm-deck/12458

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×45: Natural Musk Apr 29, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Times Square is a much better example, it is Stuart’s turn to seemingly sound like he recorded this at the bottom of a coal mine (sorry about that), and:

[00:01:50] Elon Musk is buying Twitter. We have thoughts, and quite a few of them. There’s a question as to whether it’ll even happen, there are questions about what he plans to do, and there are questions (many, many questions) about what Twitter will look like after it’s been Elonified. Let’s dig into it

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×45-natural-musk/12455

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×44: The Loch Dustbinness Monster Apr 14, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and special guest star Alan Pope present Bad Voltage, in which intelligence is artificial, snaps are un-ned, and art is what you make it:

[00:04:00] popey’s latest tool is unsnap, which helps you “quickly and easily migrate from using snap for applications to flatpak”, and we’ll get into how it works and why it exists
[] AI-generated artwork. Aza Raskin made a very cool AI-generated video for Zia Cora’s song “submarines”, where he put together a list of text queries and then used AI algorithm Disco Diffusion to generate images as video frames. This sort of AI-generated imagery and art is increasingly common, whether This Person Does Not Exist or This Bench Does Not Exist or National Novel Generation Month or whatever. But what are the wider ramifications of this, for ownership, collaboration, and open source? What are your intuitions in this: is a list of text descriptions of an image really the “source code” for that image? If someone uses the same queries that you did, is their work a derivative work of yours? Would you feel delighted or ripped off if that happened? This is all a new area, and it’s evolving very fast: where are the precedents for this sort of collaborative art creation and where should we be drawing inspiration and understanding?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×44-the-loch-dustbinness-monster/12454

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×43: Self Assembly Mar 24, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jeremy Garcia, and special guest star Jorge Castro present Bad Voltage, in which we in theory want to talk about loads of news but actually we spend all our discussion time on one topic:

[00:02:00] Jorge is into Flatpak. And there’s quite a lot to talk about here. This is very much about the Linux desktop, distribution of applications, and how things have changed; stuff has certainly happened since the last time we looked at this, and it’s worth getting into. Let’s talk about what flatpak means today.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×43-self-assembly/12449

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×42: That High Level of Unlikeliness Mar 03, 2022

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia return, after a couple of months of trials and tribulations, to reveal our predictions for (the rest of) 2022! Prepare to find out What Comes Next in our roles as Cassandras:

[00:06:20] Jono:
- VR bonanza: Apple will release their VR headset this year, and PSVR2 will be released, both purchasable by real people. Both will experience critical acclaim (although we won’t have good sales figures)
- Tesla won’t release a phone, Neuralink will launch in beta this year
- Truth Social will experience significant growth (but nowhere near as much as Twitter etc) but will be plagued with (1) stability issues, and (2) extremist content
- Bonus 1: Canonical will not be acquired
- Meta’s VR services will actually not be terrible
[00:28:35] Jeremy:
- Apple will, for the first time in a long time, release a completely new product line. It will be AR/VR, and it will be panned by critics
- At least one very large (think FAANG size but does not have to be a FAANG) will walk back their remote work policy
- both the US and EU pass sweeping tech related laws that have broad impact on the industry (part of the “techlash”)
- Bonus 1: Gamestop stock price still above $100
- Inflation for the year below five percent
- Truth Social will shut down
- Mark Zuckerberg will not be CEO of Meta
[00:49:40] Stuart:
- Apple will either allow sideloading or allow third-party browser engines on iOS
- Matter (the common protocol for IoT stuff) will see first devices released, people will not care (they should, but they won’t, of course) and it won’t actually work
- Meta’s share price a third at end of year what it is at start: under $100 at end of 2022.
- Bonus 1: Some company will leak private customer data onto a blockchain so it’s there forever
- Someone buys Twitter (likely to not happen because of the regulatory environment, as Jeremy points out!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×42-that-high-level-of-unlikeliness/12447

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×41: By A Hair Or Two Dec 23, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia are in your ears for the last time in 2021, as we look back on what we thought this year would be back in January, and then how it’s actually been now that we’ve lived through it. Yes, it’s prediction review time! Did you do better than us?

We will do better next year. And we plan to do so, live and on camera! Keep an eye out for our first live stream of a show recording, January 13th 2022!

Have great holidays, and see you all in the new year!

[00:01:35] SIL: Remote work starts to hollow out cities
[00:05:44] SIL: Social media credibility checker
[00:09:37] SIL: Amazon buy Zoom
[00:10:58] SIL: Bonuses – Canonical, Vaccinations, Apple
[00:16:42] JG: Jeff Bezos richest man ever
[00:18:09] JG: Google makes largest acquisition in history of company
[00:19:20] JG: BTC below $5,000 or above $55,000
[00:22:05] JG: Facebook loses 15%-20% of active user count
[00:23:26] JG: Bonus – Amazon search engine, security breach larger than Solarwinds
[00:27:29] JB: Sony releases PSVR headset V2
[00:29:21] JB: vaccine passport required by airlines
[00:34:45] JB: Donald Trump’s Twitter account disabled but not banned
[00:35:52] JB: Zoom remote-working offering
[00:37:48] JB: Bonuses – Facebook spaces, Canonical not getting acquired
[00:41:12] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×41-by-a-hair-or-two/12445

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×40: The House on the Hill Nov 25, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia hold these rights to be self-evident:

[00:02:17] Adele gets Spotify to remove shuffle button
[00:09:20] Apple announces self repair program
[00:26:25] Meta has a new VR glove
[00:35:11] Ubuntu Accomplishments rides again
[00:39:03] FTC says “click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal
[00:49:16] Cryptobros try to buy the US Constitution, fail, with ConstitutionDAO
[00:55:46] El Salvador government strikes deal with Bitfinex for “Bitcoin City”

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×40-the-house-on-the-hill/12441

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×39: Ready Player No Nov 11, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia claim to do research, run conferences, encourage people to hire Marius, and:

Meta. Facebook rebranded to Meta and have gone all in on the “metaverse”, which they call “a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world”. VR and AR are coming with a Facebook brand on it, and we’re going to talk about it. What’s the metaverse all about? Can it work? Does anyone want it? And are Facebook (er, “Meta”) the people who should be providing it?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×39-ready-player-no/12440

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×38: Nikola Where Are You Now Oct 28, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and special guest Jorge Castro present Bad Voltage, in which Stuart honestly thought for one second that the Americans have a very worryingly-titled show called “Poor Patrol” before realising that he misheard, and:

[00:02:33] The return of the legendary Bacommunity app! Made by friend of the show Roger Light, who has also been celebrating the 12th birthday of Mosquitto, the MQTT server he built!
[00:07:02] Roku and Google are fighting over content
[00:15:59] A man ate for an entire year at the Six Flags theme park
[00:20:52] F12 is a crime in Missouri, it seems: don’t look in the HTML or they’ll try to send you to prison, you filthy h4XX0r
[00:25:09] Hertz orders 100,000 Teslas in $4.2 billion deal
[00:40:50] Truth dot social dot hahaha dot ohno
[00:45:35] Happy 20th Birthday Windows XP!
[00:51:27] The Steam Deck, with gaming correspondent Jorge

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×38-nikola-where-are-you-now/12439

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×37: I Will See Them In The Fire Oct 14, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which whistles are blown, audio is twitched, and:

[00:02:18] A whole show on one topic: Facebook and content moderation. Since Frances Haugen left Facebook for the life of a whistleblower, filing complaints with federal law enforcement that Facebook knows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest and conceals that knowledge, this discussion has been in the news a lot. We want to look at it from two different angles: policy and process. Obviously Facebook could choose to do better; if they do not choose to do better, what if anything can be done to make them do better? Regulation may be required, but what should that regulation say? And if we take the more charitable view that Facebook actually do want to fix the problems that hate speech causes on their platform and by extension for the world: is it even possible to do so? Facebook are in the business of spreading people’s thoughts, especially those which produce strong reactions. Is it possible for them to fix or even further alleviate this problem while continuing to be Facebook?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×37-i-will-see-them-in-the-fire/12438

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×36: Nor Any Drop Sep 30, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we discuss the mysterious arrival of boxes, how to play CDs, and:

[00:02:18] We review the 8Sleep Pod Pro Cover, an internet-connected mattress, which Jono claims is actually useful. There is, not surprisingly, some scepticism about this claim, but equally: sleep is important and basically nobody gets enough of it. So let’s have a look!
[00:21:35] There has recently been a bunch of governmental, court, and regulatory pushback on Apple around the world about their policies on their app store and their gatekeeping process for their platform: in the US and Japan, South Korea, and Russia among others. Relatedly, the UK are also doing a regulatory study into this sort of thing and Stuart was invited to speak to them as an expert and showed them some slides about browser choice on iOS. We’re going to talk about this a little.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×36-nor-any-drop/12437

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×35: Generated For The Purpose Of Journalism Sep 02, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which

[00:02:50] Online trolls are assholes offline too, at least according to a new survey
[00:17:20] Facebook Workrooms seem to be the long-promised “Facebook Spaces”, much to Jono’s intemperate joy
[00:29:50] Excellently detailed albeit mildly depressing summary of Google’s myriad messaging apps which is worth reading
[00:40:50] The UK government’s planned “Online Harms Bill” tries, among other things, to define what a journalist is so they can be exempt from some regulations, which is possibly a very concerning development
[00:55:00] Twitter are allegedly going to start requiring viewers to be signed in to view tweets (pro tip: embrace nitter.net if this is a problem!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×35-generated-for-the-purpose-of-journalism/12435

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×34: The Days To Come Will Be Filled Aug 19, 2021

Stuart Langridge and Jono Bacon present Bad Voltage, in which Jeremy is away, there used to be a star and now there isn’t, and we devote the whole show to a discussion of Apple’s recent announcement that your iPhone will now scan some of your photos and report them if they’re child porn. This has created quite a lot of discussion (ZDNet, EFF, Forbes). In particular, the concern from most is that this is the top of a slippery slope. We’ll dig into this a bit; when the former CSO of Facebook is writing New York Times editorials there’s a discussion to be had, at least, and when seventh-graders now think that Apple is looking at their photos, the message has got a bit out of control, especially as it may relate to Apple’s relationship with governments, especially the Chinese government. Let’s see what all this is about, and whether we’re merely one more screeching minority for asking questions.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×34-the-days-to-come-will-be-filled/12432

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×33: Eternal Bronze Medallists Aug 05, 2021

Stuart Langridge and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Jono is away, you too are not an astronaut, and:

[00:02:00] Shares slide after China brands online games “electronic drugs”
[00:03:50] The US FAA changes the definition of “astronaut” after Bezos and Branson go into space, LOL
[00:06:25] Machine learning sucks at covid
[00:12:15] Sinclair are 60, and some thoughts on retro computing popularity prompted by @popey
[00:15:45] The Pixel 6 has been announced; what’s the score? They’re being a bit close-mouthed about it, but it’s apparently a real flagship this time, whatever that means
[00:23:00] Firefox lost 50M users since 2019, down from around 250 million
[00:26:25] Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Winners, although this is decided by facial recognition
[00:30:00] Facebook creates new unit to build a “metaverse”
[00:34:50] Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over streaming of Black Widow
[00:42:45] Netflix Plans to Offer Video Games in Push Beyond Films, TV
And we said we’d look into Amazon revenue per business unit, and an infographic from “visual capitalist” suggests that it’s 50% from their selling on Amazon.com (and .co.uk, etc) plus another 20% from third-party sales through amazon.com (etc). AWS is about half of the remainder (12.4% overall), and the remainder is divided roughly evenly between subscriptions (Prime), real-world stores (Whole Foods), and other, all at about 5% overall each.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×33-eternal-bronze-medallists/12430

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×32: Trigger’s Broom Jul 22, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which God is not our co-pilot. Instead, Github Copilot is. What’s the deal with this thing?

Copilot is “an AI pair programmer that helps you write better code”, according to Github themselves. “GitHub Copilot draws context from the code you’re working on, suggesting whole lines or entire functions.” Is this useful? Is it good? Is it good for open source?

Matthew Garrett wrote a thing about Copilot which is worth reading, especially if your basic feeling is that it takes our open source code against the licence and that’s bad.

And what about the bigger picture? Github — well, Microsoft — are one of the biggest players in the world; is this what they should be doing? And if it isn’t… what is?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×32-triggers-broom/12429

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×31: Weaponised Death Roomba Jun 24, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which there is much news from all over the tech industry, including:

[00:02:15] Anom app from FBI yanked in a huge amount of criminals
[00:08:45] FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web, plus: how Apple’s rise to be the richest company on earth is wholly due to Airdrop
[00:15:50] Our Jeff Bezos News Special: Bald very rich guy whose company makes a Linux OS is going to space. I feel like we’ve heard this story before, but there is a petition for Bezos to stay in space once he gets there and it’s up to 80,000 sigs… and in more Bezos petition news, another one demands that Jeff Bezos buys and eats the Mona Lisa…
[00:21:30] Hyundair completes their acquisition of Boston Dynamics, makers of BigDog
[00:28:00] OnlyFans moving to more non-adult content (and gets valued at $1b), plus also WordPress, which you wouldn’t think was connected to this, but hey, that’s the Bad Voltage vibe right there
[00:37:00] Airbus designs in-flight quarantine tent
[00:45:45] Amazon websites are blocking FLoC (with a side order of disturbing but important musings on how new standards get made from mnot)
[00:56:20] Peloton start charging monthly money to existing customers of a treadmill that already cost three grand, in accordance with the prophecy (via @jimmysjolund on twitter)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×31-weaponised-death-roomba/12428

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×30: Reduced Amplitude May 28, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which it is all the news all the time, including:

[00:03:30] The results of our (flagrantly biased) Room 101 polls from the last episode!
[00:10:29] The biggest GDPR fines so far
[00:16:45] Charlie Bit My Finger becomes an NFT
[00:31:50] Tesla (arguably) throttle older cars (at least according to Norway)
[00:36:50] Internet Explorer 11 is to finally be retired on June 15, 2022
[00:44:45] AMP pages are no longer being prioritised in Google Search
[00:59:15] People are taking UFOs seriously (!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×30-reduced-amplitude/12426

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×29: Down With The Peeps 101 May 13, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we emulate the old British talk/game show Room 101 by nominating our pet hates and consigning those hates to oblivion in Room 101, the ultimate destination for all rubbish things. Assuming, that is, that our explanations convince our colleagues, which is not as easy as one might think.

[00:02:20] Jeremy: reality TV
[00:08:05] Stuart: Pepe the frog
[00:15:45] Jono: overly cartoony company mascots
[00:24:20] Jeremy: Facebook
[00:35:30] Stuart: peppers
[00:40:30] Jono: new features that slow down devices, um, because they prioritise new features over the operational modality of a device
[00:48:35] Jeremy: Peeps
[00:55:10] Stuart: websites and apps that demand your phone number
[01:00:05] Jono: cats

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×28: Eat The Show Apr 30, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which the subject of artificial intelligence is discussed. We’ve walked around the outside of this topic a few times on the show, and now it’s time to dig in; is AI actually real, or are the jokes about reclassifying a Python script as “AI” to get funding founded in reality? Is AI useful, or is it mostly for parlour tricks? What’s going on that provides genuine use to normal people? And… what does the future look like? Should there be legislation; are AI and ML two sides of the same coin or two fundamentally different things… there’s lots to get into.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×28-eat-the-show/12421

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×27: Bargle-floop the podcast Apr 15, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which horrible neologisms are proposed, things are both funny and also sad, and there is ooh gosh loads of news:

[00:04:10] The BBC’s coverage of the life and death of Prince Philip breaks the UK TV complaints record, and the National Rail make their website greyscale, breaking it for visually impaired users
[00:10:30] Sharding is called sharding because of the shards of the Gem of Immortality in Ultima Online
[00:13:00] Researchers asked 100 people whether “a reasonable person” would unlock their phone and allow someone to look through it, and most of them said: no, definitely not. Then the researchers tried it, and 100 out of 103 people absolutely allowed it
[00:18:00] Microsoft buy speech recognition firm Nuance for $16 billion
[00:26:50] Oracle vs Google: an end at last as the US Supreme Court rules that Google’s use of Java APIs is fair use (but gives no ruling on whether APIs are copyrightable)
[00:36:20] Jono thinks it is important that you learn that the world’s biggest rabbit has been stolen. We think: mess with the hoppo, bomb gonna droppo
[00:38:50] In the last couple of years, the last couple of puzzles from Perplex City, an ARG from 2005, have finally been solved, the last in December 2020
[00:44:44] China Creates Its Own Digital Currency, which seems like an alarmingly big deal for the future
[00:49:10] Apple changes ‘subscribe’ to ‘follow’ on Podcasts because people think subscribing means paying. We’re not sure we agree, but then we’re not sure we don’t agree either. Maybe we need a new word

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×27-bargle-floop-the-podcast/12420

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×26: Luminiferous Aether Apr 01, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which flock is more than wallpaper, we say the word “cohort” about fifty billion times, and:

[00:02:15] FLoC, the “federated learning of cohorts”, is a proposal from Google as part of their Privacy Sandbox initiative to replace third-party advertising cookies but still enable targeted advertising; instead advertisers will be told your “cohort ID”, a calculated and anonymous summary of your last week’s browsing history, and then decide whether and how to target you based on that alone. It’s got some nuances: FLoC won’t appear in GDPR-covered countries because what it does doesn’t ask for consent, and those against targeted advertising entirely such as the EFF obviously don’t like it, but… is this an improvement? Is it detrimental? Does it change anything at all? And is it remarkably ill-defined and slippery deliberately or because it’s still being worked out?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×26-luminiferous-aether/12419

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×25: Novel Finance Things with No Flamin’ Time for this New-Fangled Tosh Mar 19, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we invite special guest star Augustus de Morgan to comment, there is an intemperate argument about jeans, and:

[00:01:30] NFTs. “Non-fungible tokens“; a way to record ownership of some digital asset on a blockchain, something like a collectible or a trading card. Suddenly even more popular all of a sudden. So what’s the deal here? There are a lot of people saying these are nothing more than a big scam; there are a lot of others making bank while claiming this is the way art should work in the 21st century. We’re taking a look, including minting our very own NFT to see what all the fuss is about at rarible.com/badvoltage which you should immediately go and buy for a kajillion dollars. But seriously, folks… what’s the deal here? We have, not surprisingly, Thoughts.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×25-novel-finance-things-with-no-flamin-time-for-this-new-fangled-tosh/12417

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×24: Weaponised Rooster Mar 04, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and special guest star Alan Pope present Bad Voltage, in which we are large and in charge, there is ancient history about electricians and phones, and:

[00:02:55] Rooster kills man in illegal cockfight
[00:05:40] What are Twitter Spaces? iOS only, invite-only to create them, and not Facebook Spaces so no prediction point for Jono!
[00:11:45] New EU right to repair laws require technology to last for a decade
[00:20:35] The One World Government have appointed the three of us as Heads Of Social Media for the planet. We can change anything we want, which is nice of them. And our goal is: deal with all the hatred and conspiracy theories and misery that social media creates; if social media does actually have a negative effect on humanity, how can that be reversed?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×23: Multiple Otter Jacobs Feb 19, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Facebook aren’t watching our webinars and this is not nuanced, and:

[00:02:50] Advertising. Apple’s new IDFA moves prompt a larger conversation about targeted advertising and whether it works, some examples of how we’ve actually tried using it, and then the bigger picture. Is highly targeted advertising or a waste of money, or does it work fine? If it doesn’t make money, is that because it really doesn’t, or because it does but all the value is captured by Google and Facebook? Is authenticity in advertising actually important? Is anyone actually authentic, or simply pretending? How can exaggeration be stopped in online advertising, and whose responsibility is it to actually do that? Does this relate to the differences between online and offline rules for product placement? And will anyone buy anything that you tell them about by just speaking into your mobile phone?

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×23-multiple-otter-jacobs/12415

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×22: Phantom Power Feb 04, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we take what Jono calls an avant-garde and everyone else calls a ridiculous improvised approach to the set list.

[00:01:10] Flash, aaargh. It saved every one of us. [Flash is now dead](https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html). We take a look back over the history of the web and all the places Flash fitted in, and look at the ups and downs of it all. Glad it’s gone? Yes. Is it replaced? Maaaaybe. We’ll look at Steve Jobs’s Thoughts on Flash memo from 2010, replacements such as Ruffle, and digital preservation projects such as Flashpoint, and ask the questions: are we sorry it’s gone? And what’s next?
[00:47:05] And at the end, the news! Scientists have apparently taught spinach to send emails! People in the Bay Area! Get a blue verified badge for your house! The September that never ended had its 10,000th day on January 16th 2021! And now, Bad Voltage!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

[forum_post_link]

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Poetry in Notion Jan 21, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which Bad Voltage is on Spotify! Also, we have great content, you should review us on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere, and:

[00:05:55] We review the Remarkable 2 e-ink writing pad, with reference to our previous show on using paper instead of tech and Alan Pope’s purchase of a Rocketbook. Spoiler alert: Jono likes it. Not a spoiler: Jeremy and Stuart have questions… about whether it’s useful, what it’s useful for, what it’s not useful for… we shall see!

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

3×20: According To The Prophecy Jan 07, 2021

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we present our predictions for 2021!

Stuart:
- [00:11:11] Remote work starts to hollow out cities and as a result, three major cities see population drops (or the populations drop more than they already were)
- [00:17:20] Social media sites band together to avoid fake news (and government regulation of what they do) with some sort of shared “credibility checker”
- [00:23:25] Amazon buy Zoom
- [00:25:10] Bonuses: somebody buys Canonical; at least one of us has not been vaccinated; Jono continues to buy Apple stuff
Jeremy:
- [00:31:30] Jeff Bezos will become the richest American who has ever lived (he tops around $340b)
- [00:33:10] Google will make their largest acquisition in the history of the company
- [00:37:35] Bitcoin price will go below $5,000 or above $55,000
- [00:39:45] Facebook will lose 15%-20% of their active user count
- [00:41:40] Bonuses: Amazon builds a publicly-available general-purpose search engine; a security breach larger than Solarwinds will be discovered and will materially impact the position of a major cloud provider or public tech company
Jono:
- [00:45:55] Sony will release the second version of the PSVR headset
- [00:49:25] A COVID “vaccine passport” will be required for at least three major airlines and five major countries
- [00:54:50] Donald Trump’s Twitter account will be disabled at least twice but will not be banned [editor’s note! this has happened once already, in between us recording this show and us releasing it!]
- [00:56:25] Zoom will start build a complete remote-working offering (the “Sharepointisation” of Zoom, as christened by Jeremy) and acquire at least one major remote-working company
- [01:01:25] Bonuses: Facebook Spaces will still be shit (even though it has been shut down since 2019, so maybe Facebook Horizon will be shit); Canonical will not get acquired (!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×20-according-to-the-prophecy/12406

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

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