It’s Thursday! And since I don’t own cryptos I still have money in my pocket. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, cold cash up cryptos down, El Goog comes in the clutch with Google I/O, a Waymo driverless vehicle pulls a runner. 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.

WAYMO CAR RUNS AWAY WHEN TECH SUPPORT ARRIVES

Waymo rider JJRicks experienced an episode when his Level 4 Waymo got stuck at an intersection in Chandler, Arizona. Waymo Level 4 vehicles offer customers rides without a safety driver and on this occasion Joel Johnson’s Waymo decided stop at an intersection. Unfortunately, when roadside assistance arrived on the scene Joel’s Waymo…decided to run away. Really. His Waymo got confused when construction cones were placed in the intersection and left him stranded. When support arrived, the car decided to run away. Kind of like how a child does when a parent catches them doing something they shouldn’t. We still can’t explain why AI learning systems like this work, and it shows.

EL GOOG HOLDS I/O CONFERENCE WITH NEW FEATURES

Google annual developer conference was canceled last year due to COVID-19, but it’s back and this year’s I/O Conference has some interesting features. Google announced its new Android operating system, Android 12 and has some features that have been familiar to Apple users like how Siri will create new Memories from a Camera Roll, but some new things like using AI to detect skin conditions. Android 12 will be featuring a new 3D video conferencing feature called Starlight which makes it appear people are speaking with you front and center. Android 12 will also feature a light to indicate when the camera and microphone are on, like iOS. Android 12 will also be featuring new privacy controls that allow a user to limit how much location information is reported to app developers.

BITCOIN, ETHER, AND THE DOGE SEE LOSSES AFTER MUSK AND CHINA KNOCK CRYPTOS

First, it was Elon Musk saying DogeCoin was just a hustle. Then, it was Elon Musk saying BitCoin was bad for the environment. Then, it was China banning financial institutions and payment processors from accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for transactions. Either way, cryptocurrencies and the trading platforms that exchange them took a hit this week. BitCoin closed at $37k per coin from its high of $64k yesterday. Ether closed down 22.5% of its value, and the Doge closed at 35 cents per coin losing 26% of its value. All told, $1 trillion, a trillion with a ‘T’ of value was wiped out this week in the crypto market. Binance and the CoinBase trading platform were experiencing issues processing trades with CoinBase losing 5.9% of its value yesterday.

Exxons had a hard time meeting demand in Maryland, but I still have to travel. My car might run out of gas, but the news never stops; and and it’s Thursday. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Elon Musk sends the Tweet heard around the Crypto World, people stop pumping gas in bags . 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.

MID-ATLANTIC GAS FRENZY SUBSIDES AS COLONIAL PIPELINE RESTARTS

I received the news about the Colonial Pipeline late Saturday night. I had just gotten a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal. I did not go out and refuel. Instead, I watched Elon Musk tell Michael Che Dogecoin (and other cryptos) were one big hustle. Late Saturday night, Colonial Pipeline Company received a ransom note from DarkSide, a known Russian hacking group. Colonial Pipeline operates the longest oil pipeline in the United States delivering 3 million barrels of oil across 5500 miles of pipeline from Texas up the East Coast every day.

Colonial Pipeline’s billing systems were compromised in the attack, and they couldn’t figure out how to bill customers so they shut off their systems. Working with the US government and private industry, Colonial Pipeline was able to find the missing data on servers in the United States that were subsequently shutdown. Thanks to this quick work, Colonial Pipeline will not pay a ransom and has apparently been able to restart their systems from backups.

I did receive some insider knowledge on this one. There were murmurs of this attack going down two weeks prior to it happening, and the government was notified. What’s at issue is that US infrastructure is constantly under threat, and every threat can’t be investigated.

Please note, this is serious. This is an attack on critical US infrastructure. If bombs were involved, we would be declaring war. I’m not sure there should be a distinction when these types of events occur just because they happen in the digital realm. Also, please take this into consideration. Given the size and scope of this attack, more of these are to come.

Also, there was no need for panic buying. Not this time anyway.

TWO DAY OLD CRYPTO RISES STRONG

A newly listed digital token currency called Digital Internet Computer has surged to a market capitalization of $45 billion, with a B. The digital token is designed to make it easier to publish content to the Internet. (Whatever that means) The token uses smart contracts to publish content to the blockchain’s digital ledger and is supposed to be an alternative to using reputable cloud services like Amazon and Microsoft. Either way, the token’s price is hovering around $700 right now.

TESLA STOPS SELLING BITCOIN AMID ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

Computers mining for BitCoin produce as much carbon pollution as the entire country of New Zealand. Computers are already notorious resource hogs, and the algorithms needed to mint the next BitCoin are some of the most energy intensive computations on the planet. In a bid to save the environment, Elon Musk Tweeted that Tesla will no longer be selling BitCoin or accepting as payment for cars. I’m curious to see what the impact will be on coins like BTC and Ethereum as their algorithms are the most environmentally impactful.

Think twice when you rent your next rental car. My weeks aren’t getting any easier. But, it’s Thursday, and I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Bill and Melinda announce a divorce, buyer beware, your car may be spying on you, and Epic and Apple go to court. 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.

BILL AND MELINDA GATES ANNOUNCE DIVORCE

I tried to come up with something witty, but I don’t like making fun of people breaking up. The biggest tech news of the week is Bill and Melinda Gates announcing their divorce. After 27-years, they’ve decided that they can no longer grow together and are going their separate ways. With over $146 billion in wealth, the couple had said that they planned to give away most of their wealth. They’ll both be continuing their work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has over $51 billion in assets. In some circles, JLo may have been the cause of the rift, but I honestly think Bill wanted to read his books, learn more stuff, and keep saving the planet, while Melinda wanted to grow. I wager a dollar on it. In related news, millions of women have been, shooting their shot, by invading Bill Gates’ DMs.

IS YOUR CAR PARKED OUTSIDE? IT COULD BE SPYING ON YOU

We all sort of knew our cars were up to no good, right? If you’re an owner (or renter) of a vehicle with CarPlay or Android Audio there’s a really good chance your car is collecting personal data you didn’t intend it to. The US Customs and Border Protection Agency has purchased technology that will allow it to extract driving data as well as address books, text messages, and other data. USCBP bought technology from a Swedish company that extracts data from cars with CarPlay. When you sync your phone with a CarPlay or similar system, CarPlay acts like a miniature version of your phone downloading your Address Book, call history, locations visited, and text messages. CBP wants to use this data follow suspects and persons of interest. The implications are even deeper because of the CBP has this data, other law enforcement agencies are close on their heels.

EPIC, APPLE SQUARE OFF IN ANTI-TRUST TRIAL, WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT MICROSOFT

On Monday, an epic battle in court began with the anti-trust suit Epic Games has brought against Apple. The main question is whether or not Apple’s App Store constitutes a monopoly and that the iPhone should support other App Stores. During the trial, however, a philosophical question came up. Is the iPhone more like a PC or an Xbox? Why does the answer matter? Because, if the iPhone is like a console like the Xbox, and Apple is found guilty in this trial, then every other console or platform that governs its own app store will be treated as a monopoly. My opinion? Apple should be able to dictate how its App Store operates and charge the fees they are charging. It is a risk, Apple may one day want to charge fees of 50%, but it is their device and platform. The government shouldn’t dictate how a platform delivers its products and controls its ecosystem. My opinion. No one would care about that fee unless the numbers were in the billions of potential revenues. The Google Play Store is known to have viruses being delivered on its platform. Is that something we really want? The other alternative is that there will be no App Stores and people can download apps directly from the developer. That would be the PC model.