Hi Everyone,

Normally, this week’s Tech News Dispatch would be the annual gift guide. I had a series of events over the last couple of weeks that have hindered my progress. Don’t fear, though. The gift guide will be up and ready with plenty of tech you can get in the 2 weeks before Christmas. There’s a lot of inventory out there and plenty of deals to be had.

It’s Thursday, and I’m back on the air with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: Maryland bans Chinese tech from its systems, DC sues Amazon over stolen tip money, and San Francisco vs. RoboCop. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

MARYLAND BANS TIKTOK

Maryland governor, L. Hogue, aka Big L, aka Big Larry, aka Larry Hogan announced Maryland state agencies are to ban the use of TikTok, Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba, Alipay, WeChat, and Kaspersky products and remove them from Maryland state IT systems. The move comes after an NBC News report of ByteDance and other Chinese companies exploiting US consumer data while having connections to the Chinese government. Governor Larry Hogan cited national and cybersecurity issues for the ban, as well as the theft of $20 million of COVID relief funds being stolen by a Chinese government related hacking firm APT41. The $20 million theft of COVID funds is the first instance of fraud committed by an organization tied to a foreign state government. China has had a tough time in the technology arena as many US and other foreign tech companies are beginning to pull up stakes in China and move back to India and on to Vietnam. Apple has been widely reported in shifting production out of the country, with chips Made in the U.S.A.

AFTER ANNOUNCING KILLER BOTS, SAN FRAN DENOUNCES KILLER BOTS

Last week, the city of San Francisco announced plans to allow robots to use lethal force in specific incidences where risk of life to law enforcement is unavoidable. The San Francisco Police Department had considered using lethal force against any suspect, then the City’s Board of Supervisors added the ‘risk of life’ provision. Yesterday, San Francisco back tracked from their position and will not be deploying the bots at all. Civil rights groups and citizens had howled their opposition to the city’s idea. The robots would have been equipped with lethal weapons and could be used to kill a suspect. These kinds of robots are already used in other parts of the US. A robot armed with C-4 was used to kill a sniper. Theoretically, a robot could be outfitted with a high range rifle and remote controlled to do the same thing.

DC SUES AMAZON OVER FLEX TIPS

Amazon Flex is a gig economy service where regular, civilian drivers pick up Amazon packages and deliver them on behalf of the company. They serve as a buffer when Amazon can’t deliver output using their regular service. The Federal Trade Commission had sued Amazon for withholding $60 million one-third of the $180 million of tips over the course of 2 years. Amazon prompted its users to leave the drivers tips stating that 100 percent of the money will go to the driver. Well that didn’t happen. The FTC distributed the 60 million, but the city of Washington, DC says Amazon not fulfilling its promise violated its Consumer Protection Procedures Act which insures consumers are getting what they pay for. Or insuring that tips make it to their drivers. DC’s attorney general’s office has sued several gig economy companies over their payment procedures.

Thanks for reading and for listening. The latest episode of The Cloud is almost in the can. We’ve a series of missteps these last couple of weeks. I’m really sorry for the delays.

I hope you guys had a Happy Thanksgiving! For the second year, we smoked our holiday turkey and it was amazing. Thanks to the smoke, I have jars of smokey turkey stock made from the carcass that’s just fabulous for cooking.

It’s Thursday, and I’m back on the air with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: Twitter doesn’t pay employees or vendors, Rolls-Royce and easyJet announce new engine, and BlockFi files for bankruptcy. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

AFTER FAILING TO PAY SUPPLIERS, TWITTER FAILS TO PAY EMPLOYEES

Here’s the deal. Twitter CAN make money. It’s made some, and it can be profitable. After firing half, then most, and rehiring some, Twitter has failed to pay some of its European staff members in Germany and other countries. This news comes after Musk-led Twitter failed to pay some of its vendors and contractors in a bid to cut costs. Many believe the payment failures are due to a rapid cutting of operations staff versus the company being insolvent. Right now, current and former Twitter employees are complaining they haven’t been reimbursed for personal expenses incurred on company time. Hopefully, this is just restructuring pains and don’t point to long term problems. This news comes as Apple has threatened to withhold Twitter from the App Store due to content moderation issues, and Musk complaining about Apple’s 30% cut from in-app purchasing fees.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, BLOCKFI LATEST CRYPTO TO FILE BANKRUPTCY

Cryptocurrency lending firm, BlockFi, filed bankruptcy in New Jersey court yesterday. The company was one of the first cryptocurrency lending platforms issuing loans to users in cryptocurrencies. BlockFi listed over 100,000 creditors it owed money to, including the recently imploded FTX where it owed $275 million. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy stating that the reorganization will help it build value for its existing customers and creditors.

FIRST TEST RUN OF HYDROGEN JET ENGINE A SUCCESS

Yesterday, Rolls-Royce and easyJet announced they’ve successfully a hydrogen-powered jet engine. The companies announced the engine is the first run of a modern aero engine powered by hydrogen. Aerospace companies are working hard on building engines powered by cleaner fuels like hydrogen because it’s harder to create electric planes than electric cars. Hydrogen engines produce water vapor when fuel is burned instead of carbon dioxide. The challenges with hydrogen fuel engines is that currently hydrogen fuel is expensive produces and 4 times as much hydrogen is needed to produce the same level of output. A Boeing 747 would need 1 million liters of hydrogen fuel compared to 250,000 liters of jet fuel. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Thanks for reading and for listening, have a great weekend.

I’m running out of time!

There’s only a few days before Thanksgiving, and the McRib is gone forever. Heaven help me!

It’s Thursday, and I’m back on the air with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: FTX implosion results in $32 billion wipeout, more Twitter drama because Will can’t help himself, and Mr. Beast tops the YouTube charts. Plus…Artemis I! You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

FTX IMPLOSION CAUSES RECORD $32 BILLION LOSS

8. 16. 32. It’s crazy how those numbers lineup to powers of two. What are those numbers? $8 billion was the run on deposits cryptoexchange FTX account holders withdrew from the platform in a number of hours. 16 is the size of Sam Bankman-Fried’s personal wealth at its height during FTX’s run. $32 billion, 32 billion dollars is the amount of value lost within a day after Binance walked away from a deal to purchase FTX’s non-US operations. As we reported last week, Binance walked away from a deal to purchase FTX prompting users to withdraw assets in their accounts. FTX was propped up by a Sam Bankman-Fried hedge fund called Alameda Capital which filed bankruptcy, a day after Binance’s exit, last Friday. Experts are calling this the end of crypto. For my own play money fund, all of my holdings are down in the toilet since the beginning of the year and the currencies have furthered their slide.

BLUE CHECKS, GRAY CHECKS, TWITTER SEVERANCE CHECKS

I was told off last week. A reader emailed me and said I’ve spent way too much time on Twitter’s drama, and all I’ve done is boost is profile. Nay, I say. After firing half of its staff, rushing out a fake verification scheme, turning off half of Twitter’s software services, and calling out his own engineers publicly on Twitter, Elon Musk has laid down the edict to his employees, “commit to a ‘hardcore’ Twitter, or git.” It seems like Musk is bringing his legendary, 80 hour plus work week insanity made famous at Tesla to Twitter. It’s been hard to figure whether or not he’s trolling himself, or if this is his management style. One thing’s for sure he hasn’t read a management handbook.

MR. BEAST WINS TOP SPOT IN YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBER COUNT

Yesterday, YouTube sensation, Mr. Beast surpassed PewDiePie as the reigning champion of YouTube subscriptions. 112 million people, including my 15 year old kid, have subscribed to Mr. Beast’s philanthropic and cash giveaway channel. PewDiePie was the first YouTuber to gain 100 million subscribers in 2019 by commentating on his own video game experiences. Mr. Beast has launched a digital movement featuring philanthropic pursuits like community meal delivery as well as stunts like 1-day popup Beast Burgers shops. I’ve watched a little of his content, and I get it, but I don’t get it.

BONUS

In huge news! Artemis I successfully launched yesterday at 1:04am Eastern Time. The mission is to last 25 days with a retrieval on Earth. Artemis I’s ride was hitched on the brand new SLS rocket system. The SLS is the world’s most powerful rocket to fly a successful mission at 8.8 million pounds of thrust. This is the rocket that will take humans beyond the Moon to Mars.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Take Care!

I usually don’t send out a double header, but this news is a pretty big one.

FTX, has hemorrhaging money. Two days ago, the cryptocurrency exchange was close to completing a deal where its larger rival, Binance, would purchase FTX’s non-US held operations. FTX was facing a liquidity crunch and couldn’t support trades on its platform. Yesterday, $6 billion was withdrawn from the platform as investors got spooked by news that Binance was considering walking away from the deal.

Binance signed a non-binding agreement and has had a change of thought about the deal. Cryptocurrencies have lost value since the announcement. Bitcoin is down 5% at $17k, Ether is down since it’s lowest point in August.

The story is still developing.

With inflation high as Hell, the Federal Reserve trying to make a self-fulfilling recession come true, and technology companies finally being held to fundamentals. Cryptocurrencies and meme stocks (most stocks) aren’t backed by much. Just be careful about where you’re parking your money. There’s no such thing as a guaranteed thing.

I ate my second McRib of the season this week! Hot! I barely made it out of the McD’s parking lot. Sweet, tangy, and juicy. Delicious.

It’s Thursday, and I’m back on the air with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: nerdy algorithms run Washington, DC, Twitter drama is the gift that keeps on giving before Christmas, users seek out Mastodon in Exodus. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

TWITTER FIRES HALF OF ITS STAFF BEFORE ASKING THEM BACK

It’s true. First News on 570’s Mark Starling had chided me for years because I would often refer to Elon Musk as: “a genius, our generation’s Howard Hughes, he launches rockets!” I’ve had a change of heart watching his erratic stylings unfold in this year’s Twitter drama. His latest episode demonstrates that he’s never really run a company himself as he laid off 50% of Twitter’s staff last weekend. It’s obvious he hasn’t read many management books or attended a corporate leadership seminar. He asked managers to write two sentences, “Who works for you, and why should they stay?” In the ensuing layoff many of the managers themselves were let go in a case study of what not to do during any corporate downsizing. As the layoffs unfolded, whoever’s left to advise Musk learned that many people who held critical positions were axed. Before the weekend was out, managers were on Twitter’s Slack channel asking their employees to reach out to already laid off people to see if they’d come back. What the Hell?

This news comes as Musk sells $4 billion of Tesla stock this week. Probably to service much of Twitter’s debt. He’s still one of the world’s richest men, even after selling $20 billion, Billion with a ‘B’, of Tesla stock this year. Tesla’s share price is down 50% from the beginning of the year.

FOLLOWING CELEB EXODUS USERS CHECK OUT MASTODON

Crazy enough, some of my friends are thinking of leaving Twitter instead of sticking around to see how far it implodes. “Yeah, right.” I really solid alternative is Mastodon. It’s an open source project that has a mission of,  “active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.” Users are invited to and connect to a server that has its own themes. Mastodon servers may have communities focused on current events, politics, quantum science, and other topics. Mastodon has mobile apps for iOS and Android, and features a familiar interface. Since any old user can setup a Mastodon server, it’s ad-free.

BIG TECH COMPANIES LAYOFF THOUSANDS

Big employment cuts in the technology sector were announced this week. US tech companies were riding a tsunami of sales and profits when people stayed home during the pandemic. All of the gearing up and streaming was slowing down as society opened up and people had other areas to spend their money. Meta-land, Facebook, announced cutting 11,000 jobs after Zuckerberg spent heavily on building out the metaverse. Microsoft had already cut 1,000 employees in October and plan to cut more before Christmas. All told, technology companies have cut more than 45,000 jobs this year. Many CEOs said they over hired. These guys aren’t the geniuses we make them out to be.

ALGORITHMS RUN WASHINGTON, DC, YOU WOULDN’T KNOW IT

Ars Technica has run a great article outlining how algorithms and automation run the nation’s capital. Washington, DC is quietly running 29 or so algorithms that affect people’s lives on a daily basis. The Electronic Privacy Information Center conducted a study on Washington, DC and found that 16 algorithms affect people’s civil rights. These algorithms are used in law enforcement and other places. On the whole, city agencies have remained very secretive about the use of algorithms and more disclosure on how municipalities use automation should be required. If you want to learn more about smart cities and how algorithms can be used for the public good, listen to our first episode of The Cloud, Whatever Happened to Smart Cities. You could be living in one right now.

Thanks for reading this week’s Top Tech News and for listening to The Cloud.