DTNS 2179 – Set Sail for Google Island

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comSean Hollister is on the show to tell us how Google is about to conquer its own town. We’ll also update you on BitCoin and trot out some exciting new net neutrality metaphors!

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Show Notes: 

Today’s guest:  Sean Hollister, senior reporter at The Verge

Headlines

Mt. Gox hit with federal subpoena:  Ars Technica reports on the latest with Mt. Gox, the bit coin exchange that’s been down for more than a week. Wednesday morning, CEO Mark Karpeles wrote a new post on the Mt. Gox website reassuring people that he is still in Japan working hard to find a solution to Mt. Gox’s issues. The WSJ reports the US Southern District of New York has issued a federal subpoena to Mt. Gox. That court often deals with financial crimes. Japanese authorities say they are looking into the collapse themselves.

RSA CEO goes off-script, addresses RSA controversy: ZDNet reports RSA CEO appeared to go off the cuff during his keynote presentation at the RSA security conference. Coviello called for governments, intelligence agencies, vendors and individuals to unite under one set of guidelines. He said the guidelines should include renunciation of cyber weapons, cooperation in investigation and prosecution, insurance for economic activity and intellectual property and insurance of privacy. RSA previously denied allegations it took $10 million from the NSA to provide a backdoor into security software.

Google exec says company never made an offer for WhatsApp

Three mobile carries say they support ‘kill-switch’ legislation

More bad news about consumer security breaches, via the BBC

News From You

habichuelacondulce brought our attention to an Ars Technica article indicating Naoki Hiroshima, who famously lost access to his Twitter account @N in January, has got his account back. Hiroshima’s account was taken when a hacker claimed to have obtained details from GoDaddy and Paypal and seized Hiroshima’s domain names in order to bargain for the Twitter account. At 1:32Pm Feb. 25th @N tweeted “Order has been restored”

 spydrchick pointed us to a PandoDaily story about Daniel Lay, a 33-year-old blogger behind the VFX Soldier site using the MPAA’s own copyright policies against them. Two weeks ago the MPAA filed a briefing with the International Trade Commission, arguing that digital works should be considered every bit as real as traditional manufactured goods. They wanted strict import rules applied to copyrighted works. Howver MPAA member companies have been outsourcing visual effect work overseas, and then bringing those digital effects into the US to finish movies. Therefore the VFX workers can ask the Commerce Department and US ITC to slap a punitive tax on the import of subsidized VFX using the MPAA’s own logic.

stephenator pointed us to the fascinating Ars Technica article describing a theoretical rescue mission to bring back the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia from orbit, if they foam strike that caused the shuttle to be destroyed, would have been noticed earlier. The plan was created as part of the investigation of the disaster and involve scrambling to launch the space shuttle Atlantis and pulling off a daring in orbit transfer of the Columbia crew. Dear Alfonso Cuarón. Please make this into a movie.

And tekkyn00b posted the Cult of Android story about the fact that unlike the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Samsung Galxy S5 will not take up most of the phone with pre-installed crapware leaving only 9 GB of free space on the 16GB model. Nope instead the Galaxy S5 will only leave 8GB of free space out of the box. CoA points out for comparison that the Nexus 5 leaves 11.6GB of free space on its 16GB model.

Discussion Section Links:  Googletown

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-google-is-taking-over-mountain-view

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/25/5431382/the-internet-is-fucked

Pick of the DayImage archives: Art Resource, The Art Archive & The Kobal Collection. Jennie has worked with the folks at these image libraries for years. The Kobal Collection has on-set movie stills and posters–right now they’re featuring a nicely curated Harold Ramis collection. Art Resource & The Picture Desk offer a comprehensive library of fine art images and early photography. If you’ve ever been to a museum and fallen in love with an image, or a statue, chances are they have a picture of it. The best part: Real people work here, and they’ll work with you to help make your project a reality.

Tomorrow’s Guest:  Patrick Beja,  French podcaster extraordinaire

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