It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, the year’s top math prize is won by a tea experiment, Valve announces a Digital Tabletop Festival, and Amazon is palms down on payments. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
MATH MAN WINS BIGGEST PRIZE FOR STIRRING TEA
Today’s leading story is near and dear to my heart, because my now 9-year old had the idea first. Mathematics genius, Martin Hairer, will be taking home a cool $3 million for receiving the top prize for the Fields Medal. The Fields Medal is the most prestigious award one can get in the math field, and his ideas and studies on the mathematics behind food beat the others in the field. My 9-year old came up with the idea of understanding how cream dissolves in milk when she was in fourth grade. Hairer’s work explaining how cream’s dissolution is predictable and can be calculated was where my then 6 year old lost out. Hairer’s experiments explaining how milk and cheese bake into soufflé also dazzled the judges.
AMAZON ANNOUNCES PALM SCANNER FOR SECURE PAYMENTS
Amazon already knows what kind of movies you like and you and your spouses pillow talk. Now they want to take a picture of your palm for secure payments. The company with the smile on the box has announced the Amazon One. A palm-based payment system, yes, the palm of your hand, that can be used at checkout systems as an Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Visa Pay, Cash Pay alternative. The technology works by capturing images of vein patterns underneath your skin. Vein patters in the hand and fingertips are unique from person to person and provide a means of identifying someone and referencing their payment information. #Nope!
DND NERDS CHEERS AS STEAM ANNOUNCES TABLETOP GAME FESTIVAL
I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was a teenager. My Level 4 Tiefling Rogue will actually be rolling with her homies to complete a campaign this Saturday night. From October 21st to October 26th, a Digital Tabletop Festival will be held on Valve’s Steam platform. The festival will feature the game designers of Plague Inc, Call of Cthulhu and others. Tabletop gaming saw a big move to digital as many players couldn’t congregate and don their elvish and paladin wears. Playing these games on Zoom has been extremely clunky and Valve producing a means for these gamers to play with better tools is a godsend.