I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent the week readying up on NFTs. It’s Thursday and I’ve registered for a chance to fly to the Moon! It’s another week with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. Last week we talked about China targeting US tech. This week, the US begins the process of revoking Chinese access to US telecommunications networks, I share some March Madness Tournament Tech, and seeking new pastures Facebook turns to newsletters. 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.

MARCH MADNESS TECH KEEPS YOU SANE

It’s true, it’s true. March Madness is back, and it starts today! Even though I’ve watched two college basketball games in partiality, I’m always ready to throw $20 in a pool and pick teams. I’ve actually won twice! To keep you in the game, download the March Madness Live app to watch all of the games any time you want to. I keep this open during business hours this time of year. SportsLine (subscription needed) has played all of the games in the tournament 10,000 simulated times and have already selected a winner. SportsLine has picked 15 upsets in the second round, and has picked the upset winners successfully…four years in a row. If you’re a Paramount+ subscriber you can start watching the tournament with your subscription this Friday.

FACEBOOK IS GETTING INTO THE NEWSLETTER GAME

Yeah. Facebook is getting into what is basically a 30 year old market. Facebook has been giving the world algorithmic news feed for many years now, and soon they will be delivering algorithmic articles to your email. Facebook will be providing self-publishing tools, access to Facebook Pages to cross posts photo and video content, and…will be targeting smaller, independent writers instead of larger publishers. I feel good and bad about this. Independent writers, myself included, are always looking for ways to get more eyeballs on their content, but at the same time, the bulk of the ad dollars will still shift towards the big-blue app. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t. Oh well, here’s how to get started.

CHINESE COMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES SUBPOENAED BY US

Yesterday, the US Department of Commerce has subpoenaed several Chinese communications companies to determine if they have been undermining US interests and are a national security risk. The Commerce Department didn’t name the companies in the statement, but information will be coming. As the Brits say, it’s about bloody time. It’s been no secret that Chinese companies have been engaging in hacks against US government organization and have launched cyber attacks against technology companies. In a similar move, the FCC has started procedures to revoke authorization for China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks, and ComNet to provide US telecommunications services. And for real, it’s not like China allows US companies to just operate on their soil without providing all sorts of hacks and network blocks that go beyond CALEA in the US.

We have a buzzy week in the technology news department. It’s Thursday and I’ve registered for a chance to fly to the Moon! It’s another week with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, China sets the US in its cross hairs again, Roblox achieves a $30 billion valuation, and hackers hack a security camera startup. 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.

KIDS PUSH GAMEMAKER PLATFORM TO 30 BILLION DOLLAR IPO

That’s $30 billion, with a ‘B’. I swear, I’m in the wrong business or I need to get my oldest daughter to begin making games. Roblox, the pixelated, boxy game and game building platform went public yesterday on the NYSE. Roblox’s opening share price started at $45 a share. The platform is aimed at kids between 9 and 12 years old. 3 out of 4 American kids are on the platform, my daughter is one of those 3, and it makes money. Developers who have published Roblox games have made between $10,000 and $100,000. I swear. I’m in the wrong business.

SECURITY STARTUP HACK EXPOSES 150,000 SECURITY CAMERAS

Security startup, Verkada, was hacked yesterday. Tillie Kottman, a hacker connected with an international ring claimed responsibility for the hack which exposed 150,000 security cameras including cameras in a Florida hospital and one of Tesla’s factories. This was a simple hack. Apparently, Kottman got access to a super administrator account and was able to gain access. The account username and password was publicly available using documentation found on the Internet. The moral: change all of the default usernames and passwords for software you use.

IN SERIOUS COMPETITION NEWS: CHINA UNVEILS FIVE YEAR PLAN

China is making waves this week by announcing its 5-year plan. China’s five year plan focuses on GDP growth, led by reducing or eliminating its dependency on foreign technology. China’s plan includes removing the need to import microprocessors, computers, and smartphone technology and instead inventing and building those products in-house. China is forecasting that it will grow it’s economy by 6 percent year over year which will put its economy at the same level of the United States. This year, China will spend 7% of its economy on technology research and development and is attempting to be the leading agent in AI, quantum computing, and smartphone development. Why did I bring this up? For many years, China has been stealing US intellectual property, and continues to be a technology sponge by creating US subsidiaries of technology companies run by proxy boards that take US technological know-how. We all know that the future will be influenced by the countries, companies, and agents that are at the technological forefront. Our current technology companies have left themselves exposed by shipping manufacturing to China, to heads of tech companies watching what they say about Chinese policies, and generally letting the wolves in the hen house. It’s time we start being careful, and time we begin doubling down on stateside manufacturing and innovation. We may need to pay more in order to stay ahead.

This week’s news is less crazy than last week’s. The biggest news is a rocket blowing up on the pad. It’s Thursday and I’ve registered for a chance to fly to the Moon! It’s another week with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, NFT art sales become the next digital bubble, SpaceX lands a rocket that blows up, and Fly Me to the Moon. 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.

WANT TO GO TO THE MOON, ENTER TO WIN A SEAT ON A BILLIONAIRE’S FLIGHT

Yesterday Japanese fashion mogul, Yusaku Maezawa, is paying for a trip to the Moon for 8 people who consider themselves artists. Yusaku has extended an invitation to the public for a 6-day SpaceX trip around the Moon in 2023. There are 8 seats available and potential passengers can apply for a seat up until March 14th. Maezawa has called the mission, Dear Moon. Maezawa had originally intended a search for a life partner to make the trip with him, and now has opened it up. Maezawa isn’t the only billionaire taking people to the Moon. Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4, is taking one person up with him to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. I registered.

SPACEX LANDS MARS SPACESHIP PROTOTYPE SUCCESSFULLY BEFORE IT BLOWS UP

In other space news, SpaceX’s latest prototype craft named, Starship, was launched yesterday at 6:14pm. The craft is designed to be a fully functional and reusable spacecraft for Mars flight. The rocket successfully launched and hover 6 miles above the surface before coming on approach for a landing. Starship’s onboard computer was able to successfully adjust rocket for landing and had a soft touchdown. Unfortunately, the rocket blew up 2 minutes after landing. Yesterday’s launch mission objective was to gather data for Starship’s computer controlled flight systems, not necessarily landing safely.

#SN10 reflew a lot quicker than any of us expected 🤯 that was insane!!!! So…. congrats and also RIP 🤷‍♂️😂 bye bye SN10, congrats on making history!!!! @spacex @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/FkDTa9ISRi

— Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) March 3, 2021

NFT ART ATTRACTS FUNGIBLE DOLLARS

In latest and greatest news, digital art has become the latest bubble. Authenticated digital art technology, made possible by a new use of blockchain technology, is starting to attract large sums. Music producer and spouse of Elon Musk, Grimes, has sold over $6 million dollars of art using a technology called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). NFTs provide a means of creating digital certificates of authenticity for art work. This insures there is some degree of rarity for digital art. Thing is though, the purchaser of the NFT doesn’t have ownership of the underlying art asset. Just the ability to…use it? NFTs started gaining hype last year when Beeple made all of their artwork available digitally.

It’s the unofficial start of the weekend and I’m glad to be back on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Big Tech gets big exploited again, sellers buy fake Amazon reviews in bulk, and Epic goes Meta-Human. 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.

EPIC GAMES CREATES METAHUMAN CREATOR I CREEP OUT

Yeah. It’s like that. For real, if you have a moment head over to YouTube an check out Epic’s metahuman creator. Using the latest in AI technology and rendering techniques Epic has created a people maker. The intro video shows an editor that’s not unlike Adobe Photoshop. The editor allows you to pick a human gender, a skin tone, eyebrows, facial hair, eye color, complexion, and more. Epic announced the product as a tool for creators to make more realistic content. It is totally amazing an possibilities are endless.

WANT FREE STUFF, WRITE AN AMAZON REVIEW

If you are an Internet denizen you already know about the, scam. And fake reviews are nothing new. Amazon has tried, and sometimes been successful, in taking down sellers who pay people to write fake reviews. Positive Amazon reviews are worth their digital weight in BitCoin. I was at dinner one night and was asked if I wanted in on a flat panel TV scam. You buy the TV from a specific manufacturer, write a 5 star review, and they’ll PayPal you the total cost of the TV. Well, according to the consumer group, Which?, fake Amazon reviews can now be bought in bulk. For about $30, an Amazon Marketplace seller can purchase one fake review but for a few hundred dollars tens of reviews can be bought. For more, thousands. Once seller had over 702,000 reviewers according to Which?

BIG TECH COMPANIES PAY BUG BOUNTIES TO HACKERS

The hits keep on coming don’t they. Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and 33 other technology companies have ha their supply chain systems comprised with some companies paying ransoms for being exploited using online, open source packages from NPM, PyPI, and RubyGems. Security researcher Alex Birsan found the exploit by using a technique called squatting where he created a nefarious, but publicly available software component that used the same name as another component. When the supply chain programs automatically downloaded the exploit, he was able to compromise their systems. The moral hear is to be careful, and make sure you are installing the proper packages in your end systems.