TEH 023: Connect THIS, Facebook

In This Episode: Facebook helps people connect (awww!) …including radicals like ISIS terrorists. Breach(es) of the Week involve Dasan routers, 7Zip, and Drupal-powered web sites. Verizon plans more bloatware for your phone. Apple says “Shazam!” but the EU says “Wait a minute.”

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:59 — 28.0MB)

This Week’s Hosts

• Randy Cassingham, founder of This is True and the Internet Spam Primer.
• Gary Rosenzweig host and producer of MacMost, and mobile game developer at Clever Media.
• Kevin Savetz, web site publisher and Computer Historian at Atari Podcast.
• Longer Bios on the Hosts page.

Show Notes

• In the warmup, Randy talked about the book he’s reading, Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern & David Grinspoon. His review of the book is on his blog. Kevin talked about interviewing (for his podcast) Cynde Moya, Collections Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs (listen here) and Jack Smyth, co-founder of The Learning Company (here).
• A study says Facebook helps people connect — including ISIS radicals (Gizmodo), which led to a discussion of “Vaguebooking” for sympathy.
• Breach(es) of the Week: bad news for folks with Dasan GPON Routers and (some) web sites running Drupal.
• Verizon bought Yahoo. What does that get you? Bloatware on your new Samsung phone! Oh boy! (Gizmodo)
• A serious security vulnerability has been found in the archiving utility 7-Zip, says PC Gamer.
• In Episode 21 we talked about the FCC sending warnings to six technology companies about illegal warranty exclusions (such as “void if you break seal”). Update: those companies are Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, HTC, Hyundai, and Asus. All but Hyundai “still include the language quoted by the FTC in warranty information on their websites.” says The Verge.
• A Canadian teen who accessed a public information web site was arrested for “hacking” — but has been released, according to a very brief news report, but Kevin gave some details.
• Apple bought Shazam last year, but the EU is saying that’s got potential for abuse (The Verge again). Gary says Shazam, a music identification app, is now built in to Apple’s Siri, and Randy notes a similar function is built into the Google app: you can simply ask either one, “What’s this song?” If you’ve got a song going through your head, Midomi will try to identify it if you just hum to it.
• Kevin and Gary worked together to create a new site where you can print out puzzles: great for kids
• And Gary talked about the tech behind his hiking trips.