Verizon’s $20 Billion Gamble on Frontier #1764

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Verizon is acquiring Frontier for $20 billion, aiming to expand its fiber network and compete

more effectively with AT&T. The deal will add 2.2 million fiber subscribers across 25 states,

expanding Verizon's reach to 10 million customers. The acquisition is a strategic

move to accelerate growth and enhance its offering as Verizon faces slowing revenue.

Frontier, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and settled with

the FTC over misleading speeds, brings valuable assets despite recent challenges.

I would contend they probably got a lemon. That and many, many more stories tonight.

You're listening to Geek News Central, episode 1764, coming to you this Thursday, September 5th.

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Savings today. So as I'm getting the stream going here, I'm looking at what's going on.

I've got a warning lights everywhere. What's going on? Yeah, the bandwidth is good.

Why are you complaining about the speed, YouTube? So let me let me stop some of the downstream

stuff that should help. You know, that's one that we've got bad weather. Well, very cloudy

weather here today. And when that happens, you know, Starlink doesn't perform as well.

It doesn't perform as good as it should. And that's just kind of the way the ball rolls. So

we're up and online and I'm glad you're all here. I definitely, you know, we had a holiday on Monday

with the Labor Day. But over the weekend, as I talked about my previous show, phase two,

phase two is finished. And so what is phase two? Phase two is I've got everything unpacked except

for one box.

I can't find which is probably in the storage unit, which has silverware in it. But all the

glasses, all the kitchenware, all my books, all my business accounts, everything that was critical

to be inside under air conditioning or heat, whatever it might be, is here. Everything is

here, organized, put away. And I've still got some drawer space left, a drawer and a half left.

So now begins phase three.

And phase three is where I now take whatever the extra stuff is here and I go to the storage unit

and I start sorting, start sorting through boxes of stuff that was in my storage room,

my secure storage room, which is a lot of stuff. I mean, a lot. And making decision,

sell, pitch, or keep. And that's the, that's going to be the game of it. Now, if you live,

in Southern Michigan, you might be able to take advantage of some of the stuff that I'm going to

definitely be putting on a marketplace at some point. But this weekend, my plan is just to sort

and to try to, you know, get through 20% of it. I'm hoping 20%, or maybe 25%. I'm not going to

go over there and spend 16 hours a day doing this. But I have a goal by the end of the month to kind

of have things kind of set up. I'm not going to go over there and spend 16 hours a day doing this.

Where I want it to be and down to one storage unit versus two. That's kind of the plan. But I was

able to take Labor Day off and relax around here, which was nice. And other than that, it's been a

very, very full week from work. It just, you know, just normal stuff. I've got everything now the way

I want it. And the only thing that really changed in the studio, and I don't know if you can see it

on this camera. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think

you can see it from this view for those of you that are watching. But I basically found a riser

on Amazon. And I was able to, on this side over here, I've got one computer that's dedicated to

doing the audio stream. And then another, the other computer here on the side is really me

being able to monitor chat in both Facebook and on YouTube. You got those set up in a way where

it's not piled on top of one another anymore. I've got the Rodecaster here below for some features

I use from other live events I do. But everything is pretty much dialed in as far as where

everything needs to be. I have probably minor tweaks. I got some comments from the last show

that everyone was like, wow, things have really improved. I'm just like, really? Things are really

improved? You know, it's not that much of a change, to be kind of frank. But just little tweaks here

and there. And I'm pretty, I'm pretty jazzed at where things are at. And considering it's just

been a month and I've got it dialed in, spent some money on doing some changes. But so far, so good.

And it talked about, I think it talked about last week about replacing the Mac Pro. That was a big

part of the expense. So, but I did, we did get a donation in. We'll talk about that later that I

definitely appreciate that it's helping the cause considerably. So let's go and get into the tech

show. You guys are, you guys want to hear about this news, about what's going on with Verizon.

And Verizon has basically said they're going to buy Frontier for $20 billion to expand its

network. And, you know, I'm going to be kind of frank. Verizon,

you know, I hope, I hope you did your due diligence because I think it's a big turd.

I really do. I don't think that this is potentially a good acquisition in any sense of the word.

So, you know, this company, first of all, they're going to, I don't know what's happened to the

government money that they got, that they're going to have to give back, that they didn't

use to expand fiber for this rural access.

Maybe the government will give them a pass and then Verizon won't spend the money either.

But, you know, they are a competitor to AT&T, I guess, going to help them out a little bit here.

So it's going to extend Verizon's reach again to about 10 million people in 31 states.

I'm just not a fan of Frontier, considered what they have done in this area.

You know, Verizon chairman and CEO Hans,

Vestberg, I said, if it will build on Verizon's two decades of leadership

at the forefront of fiber, it's an opportunity to become more competitive in more markets.

Well, after you clean all their crap up,

you know, they supposedly pivoted to a leaner business.

But, you know, they faced concerns about their bank accounts for a while and the FTC sued them,

claiming it misrepresented its actual speeds and the company had to pay a fine of 8.5%.

So I don't know.

I mark my words.

I think they're just buying a turd.

I really do, because I personally think Frontier is is is a turd in the kindest words I can use here.

A North Carolina musician has been charged with music streaming fraud aided by a I in a case in the first case of its kind,

which is very, very curious here.

Damian Williams.

The United States attorney for Southern District, New York, and Christy M. Curtis,

the acting assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the FBI,

announced the unsealing of a three count three count criminal indictment charging Michael Smith

in connection with a scheme to create hundreds of thousands of songs with artificial intelligence using automated programs called bots

to stream an A.I. A.I. generated songs billions of times.

So what they did is essentially made up junk.

They made up junk songs.

That they submitted to streaming services and then they made junk accounts and they use those bots to play those junk songs.

Millions of times.

And ultimately, they did such a widespread and uploaded tens of thousands of show of songs.

And tens of thousands of user bots and all this stuff that went on.

He was able to scam the streaming services of about a million dollars.

A million dollars in royalties.

They should have been paid to musicians, strong writers and other rights holders.

So if they were that dumb and we're playing this guy a million dollars for junk.

And weren't smart enough to see the bot accounts.

And he was he was.

Listen to this.

And when you when you see this, they generated six hundred and sixty one thousand played streams a day.

Which was able to.

Yield an annual royalty of one point two million dollars.

And he worked with some CEO of some A.I. company.

To do all this.

So, you know, it's all cool.

It's all cool until you get caught.

Right.

That's that's where things that's where things go sideways, to be honest with you.

In another cyber attack, a cyber attack has hit Planned Parenthood.

And.

They've had ransom.

A ransom hub claims responsibility.

This is, you know, ongoing.

We're seeing this all the time here.

Sexual and reproductive health care provider Planned Parenthood of Montana suffered this ransomware attack.

The company CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Montana confirmed the news.

Given usually advance of a prepared statement.

They said we're grateful.

I.T. staff and cybersecurity partners are working around the clock to restore impacted systems.

And.

And I don't know how much, but apparently they claim to stole ninety three gigs of sensitive data.

And he's given the organization seven days to come back with the money.

And we'll see.

We'll see if they are able if they're going to pay the ransom or if they are going to.

Just try to restore.

That's that's the question.

Waymo thinks it can overcome Robotech's skepticism with lots.

Of safety data to share with people like you and I.

The company's full driverless vehicles have driven accordingly.

Twenty two point two million miles.

The Alpha owned company revealed a new safety hub.

With the glossy graphics and a multitude of charts that will be.

Basically.

Periodically updated with the overarching message that is autonomous vehicles are not to be feared.

The moves comes as Waymo seeks.

To expand its footprint win over and win over new customers.

What do you feel about getting in a driverless taxi?

Now, you know, I have a friend who has a Tesla and he absolutely swears by it.

He says he drove it from Massachusetts all the way down to Washington, D.C.

And the car largely drive by itself.

I'm sure if it's on a highway, that's probably the case.

But the last time Waymo released a safety data was in December.

Twenty twenty three.

And the company had only driven seven point one million rider only miles.

But I guess this is doing this.

If you're in San Francisco and Phoenix.

Are any of you using any of these services and in any of those in any of those cities?

I'm really, really curious if you are.

Meanwhile, YouTube is stepping up their game and they are going to restrict teenager access to fitness videos.

And this is this interesting move.

Why are they restricting teenagers to to fitness videos?

They're basically say use YouTube is to limit recommendations of certain type of health and fitness videos to teenagers.

It says 13 to 17 year olds will still be able to search for and find fitness related content that will not be encouraged into reputed repeated viewing of similar videos.

You said this.

It's acting because it concerns that repeat exposure.

Such mature can lead to people develop negative beliefs about them.

System experts welcome the measure, but say it needs to be accompanied by a broader discussion about fitness and health for young people.

YouTube's log room.

You will usually recommend similar content for users.

And the platform says it will no longer be offered for teens when they view certain types of content.

So, again, I guess it's when they're doing comparison of physical features and idealistic fitness.

And I guess it's when they're doing comparison of physical features and idealistic fitness.

Levels or body weights.

You know, when I was a teenager.

I want to be kind of honest.

I think that if this type of content had been available.

I probably would have been down for it because.

You know, I remember running cross country.

We had a guy come in from Switzerland or someplace like that.

Lucky enough to do a two or three day camp with him.

And I learned.

I mean, I learned an incredible amount.

My local coach was only so good.

I could have.

I could have sucked up a whole bunch of cross country videos, training videos and learned a lot.

If there would have been a YouTube at the time.

So.

It seems to me a little odd that they're blocking.

This type of content from teenagers.

I don't get it.

I guess what they're trying to.

What is it?

If you're fat.

And you go on YouTube and you see a fitness video of a skinny person, does that discourage you?

Is it give is there is that what it is?

You know, I'm I struggle with the weight now.

You know, I've you know, I've I've luckily I've stayed the same weight for really about 10 years, but I could I could afford to be 20 or 25 pounds lighter.

But when I was in my youth, in my youth, I was I was pretty skinny.

I graduated high school like at 120 pounds, believe it or not.

So.

Yeah, I guess maybe that's the that's the thing.

And let's say you geek news at Gmail dot com geek news at Gmail dot com.

Now, YouTube is developing AI detection tools for music and faces, plus creator controls for AI training.

I guess that didn't work out so good.

When they were getting scammed on YouTube music for millions of dollars in in fake streams.

So they have to do do something here with this.

So they announced on Thursday a new set of AI detection tools to protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians, athletes from having likeness, including their faces and voices copied and used in other videos.

One key component of the new attack involved the expansion.

YouTube's existing content ID system, which today identifies copyrighted, protected material.

I'm going to talk a little bit about something that happened on YouTube here, too.

This system will be expanded into include new synthetic singing identification to identify AI content, simulate someone's singing voice.

Other detection technologies will be deployed to identify when someone simulated with AI, the company says.

Now.

A couple of days ago, I received.

An email from YouTube on a video that I did in 2020.

I don't want to get this video banned.

We were talking about the events that were happening in 2020.

And I was talking about.

What people were getting.

Getting, you know, getting inoculated for.

And I mentioned, I made a mention about.

Overseas on some challenges in the past that had been seen in some people.

You know.

And some hesitancy.

I guess I'll leave it at that.

I tried not to talk, talk around a little bit here.

And because I had said that overseas there had been some.

Some.

Some challenges and getting more people to.

You know.

Take this specific action.

They banned the video.

And they said, you don't get a community strike.

Because maybe you didn't know this violated our guidelines.

But what I had said.

In its entirety.

Was absolutely true.

There was nothing that was.

Misinformation or fake.

About what I was talking about.

Yet.

They pulled it down.

For.

Literally.

45 seconds.

Of me making a comment.

Of which at the time I had a link.

To a reputable news site.

With.

Talking about these specific challenges.

So they're still.

They're still on the kick.

That, you know, if you have not.

You know.

Um.

Take in the.

The items in which.

Was being pushed forward at the time.

They pulled it down.

So.

I found that very very interesting.

All this time later.

Four years later.

They pulled the video.

That did not give me a strike.

did not give me a community strike.

So it was very, very interesting to say the least

that this showed up so many years later

and them doing this.

Now, there's a new article over at Artificial Intelligence News,

artificialintelligence-news.com,

talking about how the UK has come up with an AI safety treaty

to protect human rights and democracy.

And I'm getting some word that the United States is involved in this as well

to a certain extent.

So they basically say the UK has signed a landmark AI safety treaty

aimed at protecting human rights.

A chancellor signed...

They signed the Council of Europe's AI Convention today

as part of a united global approach.

Artificial Intelligence has the capability to radically improve

the responsiveness and effectiveness of public services

and turbocharging economic growth.

However, we must not let AI shape us.

We must shape AI.

And this convention is a major step to ensuring

that new technologies can harness without eroding our oldest values

like human rights and the rule of law.

So the treaty ignites...

It acknowledges the potential benefits of AI,

but they basically say to truly outrun cybercriminals

and maintain a dispensative advantage,

robust framework for AI governance and ethical standards

must be established.

So this first legally binding international AI treaty

is another step towards a recommendation for both AI caution

and applications for good collaboration.

Now, I was trying to do some research on this

and trying to see where...

Where the United States came in.

Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee,

AI holds a potential to be the driving force

behind new economic growth.

A predictive revolution and true transformation in our public service,

but that innovation can only achieve if people have faith

and trust the innovation.

He says the convention we signed today,

which it must not be a treaty, it's a convention.

So the convention we signed today alongside global partners,

which is the United States, is a convention.

This will be key to the effort.

Once enforced, it will further enhance the protection

for human rights, rule of law, and democracy.

So how can the United States...

They call this a treaty.

They call it the AI Safety Treaty

to protect human rights and democracy.

So if it's a treaty,

a treaty normally has to be ratified

by, I believe,

the Senate.

Again, in their text, it says,

the treaty acknowledges the potential benefits of AI.

But yet, Peter Kyle,

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology,

said AI...

says this convention...

I'm confused.

Does anyone have a clue

the difference between

AI and AI?

You know, I thought treaties.

Treaties where you say,

we're going to reduce arms,

or we're going to do this,

or we're going to protect you.

You know, a treaty is something

that has to be ratified in Congress.

So maybe this is why he called it a convention.

Maybe the convention

doesn't require

ratification.

I'm bamboozled just a little bit.

Geeknews at gmail.com.

If any of you are going to do that,

I'm going to do it.

If any of you are going to do that,

I'm going to do it.

If any of you are going to do that,

I'm going to do it.

If any of you are going to do that,

and have a clue

what they have done here,

I would love to know.

I think we talked about this

already a little bit,

but the Internet Archive

has lost a landmark e-book

lending copyright appeal

against publishers.

I think we talked about this already,

but the second quarter of appeals

has dealt a blow

to the Internet Archive's

digital book lending program

in that,

But the court upheld a lower court's decision that IA's practice of scanning and lending copyrighted books without permission is not fair use.

IA's lending program directly threatens the revenue of publishers.

HarperCollins, John Wiley, and Penguin Random House sued IA in an archive for copyright infringement.

Of course, IA's library is a nonprofit organization, among other things, scans physical books in-house so they can be lent out to patrons as e-books.

The controlled digital lending practice allows for only one copy of a book to be lent at a time, mirroring traditional library lending models.

At the same time, however, CDL bypasses the publisher's e-book licensing model.

So, apparently, because of the in-house scanning services that differs from licensing agreements entered into by other libraries,

these agreements see library-licensed official e-book versions from publishers who are charged for every book that's lent out.

So, that's where they stand on this.

They lost.

So, that will probably be coming to an end.

All right, I want to thank our folks that are using new podcasting apps.

I got a thousand sats in from PestMerk.

He says, in regards to your scamming situation, I watch a YouTube named Scammer Payback.

I know this guy.

Very.

Very well.

I follow his channel.

He's a blue-haired guy that works with the FBI and other agencies to get scammers from other countries from trying to steal Americans' money,

especially the elderly.

It's hilarious.

It's a must-see.

So, PestMerk also, what they have over there is a place to submit numbers that they basically use bots and so forth to shut down.

Also, another thousand sats from PestMerk says,

Hey, Todd, only thing I want made out of titanium.

Titanium is my aviation engine components and blow dryers because they cool really fast.

Other than that, not the toothbrush.

So, hey, thank you so much for the sats.

I know you were streaming the show as well at 30 sats a minute.

So, thanks, PestMerk, for that and your participation in Value for Value.

At the same time, I want to thank Roger Nash for his $2 sustaining donation.

Richard Woodworth for his $10.41 Ohana donation.

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I got your email.

I read it.

I appreciate that you sent in the donation.

Thank you so much for your ongoing consideration to support the show.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

That goes a really, really long way.

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All right.

Samsung's new Galaxy Pro 5 brings together AI smarts with premium, quote unquote, premium

hardware.

And so what you need to know, the Samsung Galaxy Pro, excuse me, Samsung Galaxy Book

5 Pro 360, that's a mouthful.

Say that three times real quick.

Packs a series 47 tops of NPU power and runs on Intel Core Ultra Series 2, which is four

times more powerful than the last model.

It's a 16-inch dynamic AMOLED two-time screen.

It had a 28.

By 80, 20, 80 by 1800 resolution, 500 nits of HDR, 120 Hertz refresh rate, and includes

over 300 AI driven features across 100 apps for everything from work to play.

So what is it going to cost?

Does it say what the price on that bad boy is?

No, there is no price in this.

Oh, maybe there is down further.

No, there's no price.

But.

If you like.

Samsung Galaxy Book, this might be an option for you for a new notebook.

Bill Gates, he's got a good feeling about AI.

A good, good feeling.

Hmm.

Down in a good feeling, huh?

When someone says I got a good feeling about AI, it makes me wonder, right?

Gates has got a new Netflix series coming out called What's Next?

The Future with Bill Gates.

It launches September 18th.

Now, some people hate Bill Gates.

Some people like Bill Gates.

You know, I like what Bill Gates did early.

But what some of the stuff Bill Gates is doing now, something makes me go, hmm.

But The Verge had a little conversation with him.

And he asked him what makes him so optimistic about the tech covered in the series.

And he couldn't and they couldn't resist asking him about his days leading to Microsoft, too.

He said they said in the first episode, you asked ChatGPT to recommend an exercise you can do in the office to use ChatGPT in your day to day life.

He said, well, actually, not for exercise, although that was a good example where it gave a good answer.

He says, you know, I'm often learning about topics and ChatGPT is an excellent way to get explanations for specific questions.

I'm often writing thing and it's a huge help in writing.

Oh, oh, you know, Bill, that anything output is not can't be copyrighted.

Let's say the feature I use the most is the meeting summary, which is ingrained into teams.

I use a lot of the ability to interact and not just get this summary, but ask questions about the meeting is pretty fantastic.

Do you think and, you know, we turned off AI on Zoom because it just became a little too intrusive.

Sometimes you'd be I'd be in a meeting and be talking about stuff I didn't want recorded.

Like we're having legal discussions and that kind of stuff, not necessarily HR, any of that stuff.

And just, you know.

So sometimes you just don't want stuff recorded, right?

Private attorney client privilege, right?

But do you think Microsoft should expand its partnership with OpenAI or invest more in its tech?

He said, I'm an advisor to Microsoft.

It's strengthening the OpenAI relationship, doing a lot of it of its own.

I mean, the amount of investment Microsoft has in the field is hard to overstate.

And this comes up in the series.

What about all the prophecies of doom?

Are you worried about AI extrovertism?

He said, well, the near term issues are more using in a positive way in areas like health and education.

Even the United States, we have shortages.

The idea of a personal tutor, which I have seen out in Newark at Khan Academy's AI tool,

which is based on ChatGPT, seeing how great that is to help the teachers do the jobs,

help students are behind or stay ahead.

It is amazing.

So I think he's.

He's on to something in that regard.

Now, I'm going to leave the rest of the article for you to review.

And it's quite extensive.

It's a good interview by the folks over at The Verge.

I like his perspectives.

Don't get me wrong.

But, you know, I I'm using ChatGPT every single day.

Can't say how many times I use it, but I use it quite a quite a bit.

The FTC is urged to make smart devices say how long they will be supported.

Boy, oh boy.

This is fantastic.

Some of my smart devices that I've had around here for a while, they've been perfectly good.

All of a sudden, no more updates.

And it's a perfectly good piece of kit.

But yet.

It's junk because there's no more updates.

So it's pretty infuriating when a gadget stops working.

You know, big tech companies.

They're guilty of rendering hardware obsolete or stripping core functions.

In a letter sent today to Samuel Levin, Director of FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection,

and Serena Vizionathan, Associate Director of FTC Division of Advertising Practice,

represented from 17 groups and concluding Consumer Reports, USPRIG, and iFixit,

urged FTC for clear guidance around software tethering.

Software tethering, per the letter, is making functions of a device reliant on embedded software,

that ties the device back to the manufacturer's servers, as it extends the practices hurting customers.

Such as suddenly locking features behind a subscription, like the new smart bassinet recently did,

or bricking already purchased devices, which Spotify did with its car thing.

So I agree.

I think the FTC should try, at a minimum, to try to get companies to have to state how long they're going to support

a specific device.

Let's be real.

Some of this stuff will work a long, long time.

Look at the Mac Pro that I just put to pasture.

11 years.

And the only real reason that I had to get rid of it was because it had a fan that was running out of control

that I could not have running while I was doing the show.

And it just interrupted my workflow completely.

So.

In that regard, there's no way that Mac Pro could have been fixed.

I asked Apple if they could fix it, and they said not supported.

Maybe some third party could have fixed it.

Maybe it's something common.

I've got it in the back.

I'm not going to sell the unit.

I'm going to use it for video capturing Hi8 that I want to go from audio, I mean, from tape to video.

I've got, you know, 100 tapes I need to record.

So I'm going to use it in that regard.

It'll work just fine.

It's just be a little annoying.

But if I'm not doing the show, who cares if the chip howls or the computer howls?

So therein lies my dilemma.

OK, remember how folks said that there was not going to be any election interference?

How all our systems were safe?

So here's the latest.

U.S. targets Russian election influence operation with.

Charges, sanctions and domain seizures.

The U.S. has cracked down on the influence operation sponsored by the Russian government,

and they've announced charges.

The operation targeted a campaign dubbed a doppelganger,

which the Justice Department says violated money laundering and criminal trademark laws.

Campaign spread information to an effort to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The Justice Department did not clearly state,

but evidence made public on Wednesday shows,

influence campaign attempted to boost.

Listen to this boost Donald Trump yet.

Vladimir just today said he would rather work with Kamala.

So, OK, what's the real story here?

Of course, the U.S. has long used Russian government of trying to mirror in and disrupt its elections.

The goal of the campaign was to sow division.

And they announced a seizure.

Thirty two domain names created as part of the campaign.

Some of those domains had typosquatted names that were meant to trick business.

And believe me, there are legitimate news websites such as Washington Post, Fox.

One of the domains, for instance, was Washington Post dot p.m.

The fake websites copy legitimate sites and articles appear to be posted by known journalists,

Philly with targeted news organization.

However, the sites displayed false stories that promoted Russian government propaganda.

So this is just going to continue to rock and roll for a while.

Now, there's opinion piece by Mike Eglin over at Computer World saying that Apple's plan chat bot should have no personality.

He wants it to be a plain Jane.

Hello.

How are you?

How can I help you?

He doesn't want it to have any personality whatsoever.

Ever.

So.

Apparently, this is in response to Apple is developing its AI assistant and it's going

to have a persona will have a human like AI personality.

The new assistant could replace S.I.R.I.

on HomePod, iPhones, iPads and Macs.

But we know that personalities have not always worked out so well.

You know, one person asked me one time.

I use the S.I.R.I.

That is a man.

And someone asked me one time, why do you have a man as your S.I.R.I.

making a response?

I'm like, I don't know.

I said I set the voice.

It wasn't as annoying as the other one.

I think there's three or four voices you can pick from.

I said I wasn't annoyed when I heard it talking to me in that voice.

So.

Nothing.

Nothing against the person that made that, you know, made S.I.R.I.

sound the way it sounds.

So I don't know.

What say you?

Would you like an AI with no persona?

I kind of think it should.

And maybe we should be able to pick from personas.

Well, you know.

We never hear about people going to jail for scams.

Well, two Nigerians were sentenced to prison in the U.S.

Yes, two Nigerians.

How did they get them out of Nigeria?

Two Nigerian nationals were sentenced to prison in the U.S.

for operating a business email compromise BEC scream

that the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

One of the individuals, Ibuka Raphael Umedi, 35,

was sentenced August 27th to 10 years.

His co-defendant, Franklin, oh my gosh, Oko Wano, 34,

was sentenced on September 3rd to five years.

Each of the defendants was paid, was ordered to pay five million.

Between February 2016 and July 2020,

court documents evidence presented in court.

So the two sent phishing emails with payloads.

They were meant to compromise people's systems.

And they basically tried to cause over five million dollars in losses

to victim companies.

So both of these folks were convicted of wire fraud, conspiracy,

conspiracy damage, and computer.

How did they get them out of Nigeria?

That's, or were they just living here in the United States

and were part of, you know, they were just doing it here.

Bluetooth 6.0 is officially launched

and there's a little bit of an upgrade per se.

You're not going to see some of this come out real soon.

You know, Bluetooth to us is just kind of works, right?

And we all rely on Bluetooth.

An official announcement from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group,

which includes Intel,

Apple, Google.

There's a lot of emphasis on improving filtering efficiencies

that Bluetooth devices are only communicating with each other

when they need to and not sending random data.

And also to know how far away they are from each other.

That means that Find My Device services like Apple, Samsung, and Google

and TALOS should become more accurate and sensitive across a wider range.

I tell you, I'll be honest with you.

I find myself using Find My Stuff,

especially since I've been in this transition,

I'm a big mess.

Sometimes I can't find my phone and I have to go,

all right, where is it?

And, you know, I find it, it makes it ring itself.

You know, when you are in chaos, it works real, real well.

Why do you upgrade a phone?

I know why I upgrade a phone.

When it gets old, when it's not working as well.

So that's the study that just came out.

It said most iPhone 16 buyers will be upgrading

for one single,

simple reason,

obsolescence.

At the same time,

the FCC has finally banned Kaspersky from telecom kits.

So, you know, they're on the bad boy list.

The FCC has released a notice to confirm

it's prohibited the use of any equipment

that integrates Kaspersky cybersecurity or antivirus software.

This comes months after the U.S. banned the sale of their products.

At the same time,

North Korean hackers are targeting job seekers with fake interviews.

Researchers found that North Korean cybercriminals,

tricked unsuspecting candidates into downloading

fake Windows video conferencing applications,

which impersonated FreeConference.com.

The campaign was labeled Contagious Interview

after being discovered by an analyst.

The attack started through a job search platform

such as LinkedIn or Upwork.

The attackers reached out to the intended targets

to discuss a job opportunity

and invited them to continue the discussion via Telegram.

From there, the victim would be asked

to download a video conferencing app.

So always, if you're going to do something,

try to do it.

And try to use your own video conferencing.

Say, hey, I'll send you a meeting invite

and you can use mine.

Blue Origin drone ship has arrived in Port Canaveral

ahead of the new Glenn launch.

Now, this is pretty cool.

Another tug.

Pulling a drone ship.

Jacqueline's name of the drone ship.

That also happens to be the name

of the mother of Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos.

With Jacqueline's arrival,

Port Canaveral means that soon,

SpaceX will not be the only space company

landing rockets on drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

So Blue Origin has ambitious plans to do the same.

So it should be pretty entertaining.

They've got a flight launch coming up on October 13th.

And they're going to be sending a satellite

for NASA, I believe, into space.

Good luck with that.

Predator spyware.

There's resurface with signs of activity

according to information on interwebs.

So I won't go into this too much detail.

You can look it up within the article here on CyberScoop.

AT&T, meanwhile, has sued Broadcom

for breaking VMware support extension contract.

Basically, AT&T has two more years on an option to extend

and Broadcom is refusing to honor the contract.

And so AT&T says, fine, we'll sue you.

And so that will go into litigation.

No one wins, just the lawyers do as well.

Now, this is what I find to be kind of surprising.

MEDA's oversight board has separated death threats

and aspirational statements in Venezuela.

The board also criticized MEDA's policy

for throttling political content.

Now, what I find curious about this

is it weighed in on the company's content moderation policies

in Venezuela.

In mid-Valent crackdowns and widespread protests

found the country's disputed presidential election.

In its decision, the board said that Facebook users

posting about the state-supported armed group

known as colectivos should have more leeway

in making statements like kill those beep-beep colectivos.

The company asked oversight board for guidance on that issue,

noting that moderators had seen an influx

of anti-colectivos content in the wake of election

made a specific ask for the board's input.

Um, that MEDA says was directed at the organization

and at Facebook criticizing Venezuela's security forces.

The oversight board said neither post violated MEDA's rules

and it was, these were pretty like violent posts

that I would have surprised that they actually kept them online.

He says the target's aspirational violence

of state-backed forces that have contributed

to longstanding repression of civic space

and other human rights.

The violation was including in the present post-election crisis.

By contrast, the civic population has been the target

of human rights abuses.

So I guess because people aren't happy

in their civil rights abuses,

I guess it's okay for people to complain about it.

Huh.

It's very interesting.

The case isn't the first time the board has weighed into the debate

surrounding rural political content.

Earlier this year, the board accepted,

its first case related to posts on Thread,

which all expect a way and made as controversial decision limit

recommendations of political posts.

But at the same time,

don't post a picture of an eagle flying over a flag on Facebook.

It might disappear and be put as controversial content.

A U.S. judge says X must face class action age bias claims

over its mass layoffs.

Well, when it laid people off,

it laid people off.

But apparently in San Francisco,

there was 150,

150 older workers who were laid off by the social media platform.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illiston in a decision release late Tuesday

said the case represented a common question

over the impact of the layoff at the company,

at the company on workers that were 50 and older.

Now I'm pretty sensitive.

I understand what happens when you get older.

Um,

you have,

you know,

you become an expendable plaintiff.

John Zeman worked excommunication department when the company was called

Twitter sued in 2020.

He said now he left the whole communication staff off.

He said in his lawsuit,

the X laid off 60% of employees were 50,

50 or older.

And nearly three quarters of those who were 60% and over compared to 54%

of employees younger than 50.

Hmm.

So they laid off 60% of employees who are 50,

50,

or older and near three.

How is that?

Was it proportional?

So yes,

this goes back to,

he gets it,

you know,

everyone hates Elon.

So,

you know,

not surprised the court has done this.

What do you think on that?

I'd love to hear what you think about this,

uh,

this particular situation.

Geek news at gmail.com.

Not surprising.

This is big business.

PayPal pushes into person payments with cash back rewards.

Let me say that again.

PayPal pushes into in-person payments with cash back remorse.

So in other words,

cash app.

Um,

so PayPal is expanding.

Oh,

it's,

is it,

I thought this was person to person expanding to us point of sale payments

by integrating its debit card with Apple,

Apple's mobile wallet and offering 5% cash back rewards as the global online

payment giant seeks direct competition with tech companies and banks.

The bid to grab a slice of in-person purchases,

stores,

cafes,

and restaurants,

part of ambitious turnaround.

Huh?

Interesting.

So it's not like cash app.

It's definitely e-commerce 5% cash back for certain products up to a thousand

dollars per month is a pretty big reward.

I think at one time I had a PayPal,

a PayPal debit card.

I don't think I ever activated it.

I don't know where it's at.

To be honest with you,

it's probably expired.

Meanwhile,

a Amazon slapped itself on the back can congratulate itself for AI code that

mostly works.

Amazon web services on Tuesday took a amendment to pay itself,

pat itself on the back for being,

uh,

a thought of inside the box,

specifically the upper right hand square.

That's part of Gartner's trademark magic quarter.

What is this?

The particular set of boxes maps,

it consultancies view of AI code assistance,

AWS understand me,

Chuck Delana spot.

Okay.

I don't understand what he,

what they're even talking about.

Okay.

Uh,

this is something about some trademark magic quadrant.

I,

okay.

Uh,

let you all read that one.

Uh,

I just,

I just thought they were praising themselves at one point.

Uh,

I,

I don't know.

So according to wired Russia's most notorious special special forces unit

now has its owner cyber warfare team unit two nine one five five Russians

GRU military agency,

a team responsible for coup attempts,

assassinations,

and bombings has branched out into brazen hack operations across the world.

Huh?

Well,

we know the GRU is still doing these kinds of things.

A broad group of Western government agencies from countries including the U S U K

Ukraine,

Austria,

Canada,

and the five,

five eyes on Thursday revealed that hacker group known as cadet blizzard,

bleeding bear or gray scale.

One that has launched multiple hacking tents,

target hacking operation targets,

against Ukraine,

the U S and other countries is in fact part of the GRU unit two nine one five five.

This is the division of spy agency known for brazen acts of physical sabotage and

political motivated murder.

Um,

what part of the U S government does some of that stuff?

Um,

then would that be the CIA?

Google's AI powered asked photo feature begins U S role.

Now this was talked about at,

uh,

at their big event here some,

some time ago.

And,

uh,

this is,

uh,

basically announced in May.

Google's photo AI powered search feature is rolling out to users today.

The feature,

which allows users to ask AI to find photos using more complex queries will

initially be available in their early access to select customers.

Now,

one thing I will be honest with you wrong button.

I do like,

uh,

in my iPhone where I can say,

you know,

so many services now,

uh,

banks,

um,

investment firms,

Robin hood,

cash app,

all these folks are asking for you to enter your driver's license or your

passport to,

I,

to verify your identity.

Yeah.

I've took pictures of my driver's license a dozen times,

but it's way down somewhere in the stack,

right?

I can actually search for driver's license in my iPhone.

And,

and I don't bring my driver's license picture up.

I don't use it for much more than that.

But what do you use search for on your phone to find,

uh,

to find more pictures that you are looking for at the same time?

Open AI hits 1 million paid users for business versions of chat GPT.

That's a big number.

Of course,

they,

they introduced enterprise product a year ago.

We never went to enterprise.

We are still paying for individual accounts.

So basically enterprise essentially is one of those situations where,

um,

you can have a team and,

we,

we never paid for it.

We just,

everyone runs on their own,

uh,

own,

own account and,

and bills it to the company.

So,

um,

so very,

very interesting.

I missed a comment that came in from YouTube.

It says,

I have Comcast affinity.

They can't fix the issue.

And I wish Fios is available in my area of Cape Coral,

Florida.

Bobby,

what's going on with your issue?

And I wish Fios,

they can't fix the issue.

What issue can't they fix?

I don't,

I didn't get the rest of it.

Uh,

let,

let me know.

Hey,

you know,

if you've got a comment about the show today,

it's real,

real simple,

real simple.

Geek news at gmail.com.

And of course I'm on X at geek news.

And our sponsor page is at geeknesscenter.com forward slash go daddy.

You too.

Uh,

definitely check out go daddy products and services.

We want to thank those of you that have been using a podcasting 2.0 app.

And,

uh,

we did a demo today to about 40 of our customers that showed up for a webinar

that talked about some of the features of,

um,

a fountain specifically talking about,

about value for value,

talking about the transcripts,

talking about chapter files.

If you're not using any of those apps,

you're not able to experience the extra metadata that I'm putting into my RSS

feed.

That's picked up by these apps.

Every edition,

every episode of geekness central now has chapter files built into the

metadata.

So that if you want to jump to a specific spot in the podcast,

every article that I talk about has a chapter file.

So you can look in there,

go click and just jump to it so that if you don't want to listen to the

whole show,

you can read through the chapters and jump to the area you want to participate

in.

That's just one of the features of using a modern podcast app or podcast

apps.com.

All right.

Hey,

we'll be back with you on Monday.

And then next week,

Tuesday,

I go to Cleveland or Cincinnati.

One of the two for a artificial intelligence conference.

The same one I went to last year,

from Macon.

I'm absolutely excited.

I'm taking one of my team members.

We're,

we're going together.

We're,

we're dividing and conquering the session.

So we get the most value out of the two of us being there.

The very expensive conference to go to.

I think it's the ticket was like 1500 bucks.

Luckily the company paid it and,

you know,

we're able to go there and,

and get educated.

So I know Sam,

I know you sent me an email that said,

Hey,

wow,

I know you're going to,

to the event.

You know,

thank you for,

and I'll come back and,

and talk about,

of course,

everything that I learned.

Matter of fact,

let me find the email from,

from Sam.

Let's see here.

I got it.

I don't mind the right.

Yeah,

it's right here.

So Sam said,

I heard on a podcast,

you're going to make con.

I'm envious.

I listened to numerous AI podcasts,

including the artificial and show with Paul and Mike.

This is a definite listen,

Sam.

I took their piloting AI course and received my certification.

I hope you're really enjoying.

I get a lot of good info out of the conference next week.

Sam will hunt it in Albuquerque.

Sam,

I can't wait.

It's I've been,

this is the most excited.

I've been to go back to a conference in a long,

long time.

So yes,

I have a lot to say about it.

Also,

I want to talk to Bob Layton.

If any of you got a political ad as a pre-roll to the show,

let me,

or if you ever hear something that's not appropriate for this podcast,

let me know.

Bob,

let me know that he heard a political ad,

which we have blocked.

And I sent a map.

In fact,

I called our,

um,

our provider.

I'm the CEO.

I can call directly to the company we integrate with.

I said,

Hey,

Hey.

Um,

my show had a political ad running as a pre-roll.

I got that category,

um,

turned off.

Politics is not supposed to run on the show.

And right on the phone,

they looked it up,

said,

yep,

the vendor did not flag it as political content.

Uh,

we,

we were putting them on the ban list until they get this fixed.

So what happens is,

is near the end of the month.

And this was heard on the 30th.

What happens is,

is advertisers try to sneak inventory in at the end of the month and they turn

off the flags for their,

they're supposed to flag what the ad content is.

So that if I've said no political ads,

you don't get a political ad.

So my apology for anyone that got a political,

ad was not my intention to subject you to any political party ad from a tech

show.

And if you hear anything that comes up during the podcast,

that basically sounds like a political ad or gambling or anything that you

would think,

why would Todd run this?

Please email me immediately at geek news at gmail.com.

So Bob,

thank you for the heads up on that.

And I definitely appreciate your,

um,

your,

your fortitude here.

And,

uh,

I got an email from Mike.

Cause Hey Todd,

thanks for a shot on tonight's episode.

I'm glad that new cities coming together.

You got my name,

right?

Pay as in payday.

So Michael pay.

Thank you so much.

Take care of yourself and try not to work too hard.

Uh,

you know that I think that's a given.

So anyway,

thanks for the emails.

Everyone will be back with you on Monday.

For another edition of the geek and central podcast.

There'll be no show Thursday cause I'm going to be out,

but,

uh,

we'll have another fun show for you on Monday.

How are you guys liking the show?

And if you haven't watched the video lately,

please watch it on Apple podcasts.

Yes,

you can watch this show on Apple podcasts or on your Apple TV.

Go to the geek and essential video version and watch the show.

I've tried to spice things up,

change camera views a little bit,

get my finger knowledge down.

Uh,

let me know what you think of the video.

Those of you on YouTube,

thank you for being here.

Those of you on Facebook,

thanks for being here.

And if you're watching on any of the restreaming things,

say hello.

And I'll be back with you on Monday.

Everyone take care.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Take care.

Ohana.