Techtonic with Mark Hurst:
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from December 25, 2023
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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm
Also available as an MP3 podcast.
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Upcoming events:
- Mon. Dec 23rd, 6pm - 7pm:
Don Fleming guest hosts Techtonic
- Mon. Dec 30th, 6pm - 7pm: Andrew Smith, author, "Devil in the Stack" (More info...)
- Mon. Dec 30th, 6pm - 7pm: Andrew Smith, author, "Devil in the Stack" (More info...)
December 25, 2023: Your favorite tech gifts
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Today: Your favorite tech gifts
Thanks to the listeners who sent in emails describing their favorite tech gift from holidays past!
• The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music, maintained by Thom Holmes, includes Merry Moog 2023, Merry Moog 2022, etc. Thanks to Webhamster Henry for the pointer.
• Myst for the Atari 2600 (Mastodon post, Dec 11, 2023) . . . or play it in-browser
• Coleco Electronic Quarterback Game on Wikipedia (similar to the Mattel Football and Football 2).
• The worst tech of 2023 (an anti-gift guide) (Brian Merchant in the LA Times, Dec 7, 2023): Don’t buy Amazon Ring.
• Annual Reminder: 23andMe Is a Dangerous Christmas Gift That Could Have Unforeseen Impacts on Your Entire Family, Your Children, Etc. (by Jason Koebler in 404 Media, Dec 6, 2023): “The ever-worsening 23andMe hack shows the inherent vulnerability of genetic databases designed to show connections between people.”
Koebler writes: “23andMe’s current privacy practices, security practices and policies, business models, advertising models, research practices, big Pharma data sharing agreements, and everything else are not guaranteed to stay as they are forever. Consider, for example, that 23andMe suddenly changed its terms of service in the aftermath of the hack to include a mandatory arbitration provision to prevent class action lawsuits. 23andMe has already been subject to a SPAC, while Ancestry was purchased by Blackstone, a gigantic private equity firm. We have no idea what 23andMe will be doing in one, 10, or 100 years, who will own it, what will happen to its databases, and who will have direct or indirect access to your DNA.
Business models change, companies are sold, strategies change, promises can be broken, privacy policies can be updated. These things are impermanent. But your DNA is forever.”
• 23andMe admits hackers accessed 6.9 million users’ DNA Relatives data (The Verge, Dec 4, 2023): “The data revealed includes things like display names, predicted relationships with others, the amount of DNA users share with matches, ancestry reports, self-reported locations, ancestor birth locations, family names, profile pictures, and more.”
--> As John Overholt posted on Mastodon (Dec 4, 2023), “23andMe was hacked, so if your information was compromised, make sure to change your genetic code ASAP.”
• Good news: The Hyperloop is dead (Futurism, Dec 22, 2023)
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| Artist | Track | Album | Images | Approx. start time | ||||||
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| Christmas 2023: Your favorite tech gifts | ||||||||||
| Tomaš Dvořák |
Game Boy Tune
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| Your favorite tech gifts |
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| Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews |
O Holy Night
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Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip |
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0:53:12 (MP3 | Pop-up) | ||||||
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Listener comments!
ultradamno:
Handy Haversack:
Bas NL:
Spikey BXL:
chresti:
Ken From Hyde Park:
Wendy del Formaggio:
Will thee Sound Guy:
ultradamno:
Wendy del Formaggio:
Listener Robert:
dale:
DjLorraine:
Handy Haversack:
mark/denver:
Handy Haversack:
Jim the Poet:
StringOFperils:
herb.nyc:
Handy Haversack:
Spikey BXL:
dale:
in the new york market 7, 11, 13 and 21 went to atsc 3.0. can still get the 1.0 transmissions if you have a vhf antenna as those channels are broadcasting around channel 7 now.
Boozy Swoozie Kurtz:
StringOFperils:
ultradamno:
StringOFperils:
ultradamno:
Wendy del Formaggio:
That said, the quality of MacBooks has severely declined, and is inferior to my old one from 2010 that died two years ago.
Handy Haversack:
StringOFperils:
Handy Haversack:
mark/denver:
dale:
Cooh John:
Ken From Hyde Park:
ultradamno:
Wendy del Formaggio:
Jeff Moore:
The most best thing was: my hp 25c programmable calculator I got as a young high school student in the 1970s.
It combined that absolutely impeccable Hewlett-Packard hardware of the day – every key or switch felt exactly perfect, the keys had the glyphs molded into them in inset different colored plastic so they couldn't possibly wear off... and it was PROGRAMMABLE!
This was the first of multiple times over the years that I'd find myself programming in a stack-based language.
dale:
dale:
Spikey BXL:
Handy Haversack:
Wendy del Formaggio:
Non-computer favorite game: many, many pinball machines, especially Cyclone and Funhouse.
herb.nyc:
Ken From Hyde Park:
Spikey BXL:
HyperDose:
Cooh John:
ultradamno:
Ken From Hyde Park:
cosmic matrix:
ultradamno:
dale:
Handy Haversack:
cosmic matrix:
MarciB:
DalesWife:
Is it surveiling me? I hope not. Is being able to listen to Frankie Goes to Hollywood on my way to work worth it? Oh hells yeah.
MarciB:
dale:
MarciB:
Bart:
Cooh John:
dale:
herb.nyc:
dale:
cosmic matrix:
MarciB:
Spikey BXL:
ultradamno:
Spikey BXL:
ultradamno:
Firepitmama:
Jim the Poet:
dale:
cosmic matrix:
Handy Haversack:
Spikey BXL:
Jim the Poet:
MarciB:
Handy Haversack:
Handy Haversack:
herb.nyc:
Great show tonight, as usual. Thx, mark. (“We go down to the metaphorical river…”🎶, Bruce, kinda)
Jim the Poet:
Juli:
?:
StringOFperils:
Bas NL:
Wendy del Formaggio:
HyperDose:
cosmic matrix:
lanky:
Troy:
Spikey BXL:
cosmic matrix:
Bas NL:
lanky:
Ken From Hyde Park:
sensisio:
DjLorraine:
chresti:
Mark Hurst:
Webhamster Henry: