TEH 076: Seeing is Not Believing

In This Episode: Adobe’s AI for detecting photoshop alteration leads to a discussion on deepfake video, implications on society, and what, if anything, can be done. Elon Musk posts an awesome video of a booster return and landing. Cameras using lasers to take 3-D photos. More help in the fight against ransomware. Kevin’s cleaning up cables, and Leo’s cleaning up after Corgis.

This Week’s Hosts

  • Randy Cassingham, founder of This is True.
  • Leo Notenboom, “Chief Question Answerer” at tech education site Ask Leo!
  • 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

  • With all four hosts back we recapped what we’d been up to. Leo got a new Android tablet, and is prepping for the upcoming Corgi picnic. Randy’s been traveling, a lot. Gary, that old dog, has been learning new tricks in the form of a new programming language and a new app: Bubble Blocks Puzzle. Kevin went to the KansasFest Apple II conference and is dealing with cable/electronics recycling.
  • Triggered by an article on how Adobe has an AI that can detect Photoshoped changes, much of the hour was spent discussing “deep fake” videos, fake photos, and their impact on society. Leo’s both encouraged by the advancement in detection technology, but similarly worried about the advancements in faking technology. We agreed everyone should just be more skeptical.
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 launches toward the International Space Station for CRS-18 (Cargo Resupply Services) on Thursday, July 25. (Photo: NASA, click to see larger.)

    Randy shared something special about the recent SpaceX launch: extra-cool video shared on Twitter by Elon Musk! What we’re seeing is not just synchronized uninterrupted video from four angles, but there’s apparently a microphone on the booster, so you can hear the whoosh of the wind (and the engine firing).

  • Gary mentioned an article that pointed out that future phone cameras could have (fricken’) lasers! Time-of-flight cameras actually use the speed of light to create what is effectively a surface map of their subject.
  • Leo closed by mentioning that in an upcoming Ask Leo! article he’ll be discussing two new tools in the war against ransomware: Macrium Reflect’s ability to lock image backups to prevent encryption, and OneDrive and Dropbox’s addition of “roll back” features.

3 Comments on “TEH 076: Seeing is Not Believing

  1. Hi TEH hosts!

    Glad to hear you are trying Startpage.com for search privacy.

    Startpage.com has a contract to serve Google results — but in privacy. No user personal information is logged or shared with anyone, including Google.

    Please check out the Startpage.com Anonymous View feature that lets you visit search results anonymously, too. Here’s more information on that: https://www.startpage.com/en/search/proxy-help.html

    I’d be happy to share more information. Feel free to email me.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Liz, for clarifying your contract status with The Goog. I’m the one who mentioned DDG, and it was Leo who suggested Startpage as an alternative. I will definitely give Startpage a try, and will look into your proxy service. The bottom line is, I’m getting mighty tired of being tracked all the time. I appreciate your reaching out.

      Reply

Leave a Comment