TWIG 601: Wear Your Dadgum Schnutenpulli!

Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…

What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!

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This is the second time I’ve heard discussion about the myheritage tool without someone actually just going to the dumb site and dropping a picture on it to see how it works. I used it with some old photos of myself as a two year old and some very old photos of my grandparents (who have both been dead for 30 and 50 years respectively), and sent it with my mom who was so overjoyed she was in tears. She said it was just like seeing her mom and dad again. She called me a few days later crying again at how happy it made her. So, I guess it’s creepy to some people, but it’s a pretty cool tool and could maybe have a big impact for some. There is an editor that allows you to choose different types of motion. The technology seems to work better with some photos more than others. I know its cool to be cynical about everything but sometimes there are some meaningful applications of technology.

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A Spückschirm is not a spit umbrella. Schirm is a general term for a shield, so it is a spit or spittle shield.

An umbrella is a Regenschirm (rain shield), a parasol is a Sonnenschirm (sun shield) in literal terms.

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I agree with that general sentiment about tech review but think MKBHD was a bad example. He seems to be on the better side of things he did a video talking about his ethics last summer.

Generally the episode was really interesting I’m excited to read Dr Weiss-Blatt’s book.

Also on SpaceX: Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica Eric Berger’s book about the beginning of SpaceX and the development of the Falcon 1 Liftoff came out earlier this week. It’s a great book really well written. Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger | Goodreads

I don’t know what I think about Mars I think that it definitely makes sense to go for science but I don’t know about colonization of Mars there’s definitely the justification of protecting the human race from extinction. Also, SN10 was successful but there was an issue with the landing legs which caused it to fall.

Pixar’s Soul has been out since December.

I found this just now: Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea | Electronic Frontier Foundation

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I’m sure I’m rare with this opinion but I wasn’t a fan of this week’s episode. Everything felt like everything had a political component to it and never really heard anyone play devils advocate. Will still continue to watch the show but can’t wait for Stacey’s return.

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That is the problem when politics takes an interest in big tech and media.

All around the world, the big 4 (Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google) are facing a public backlash and political pressure to “do the right thing”, whether that be to pay taxes where they make the money, abusing their market position, forcing people to use their payment systems or “interfering” with free speech, whether that be too lax or too much.

The expert guest also has a book coming out on the subject of the change in media coverage of tech and part of that is political.

There isn’t really a way around discussing how politics affects big tech and the cloud at the moment, whether it be the failure of the Privacy Shield, due to the total inaction of the US Government between 2016 and 2020 to fulfill its obligations in the treaty, Murdoch manipulating politicians in Australia to get his way with the media scraping tax or social media companies finally finding their teeth and blocking hate speech.

Big Tech has been too big for a long time and they used to grow and react quickly, whilst governments work slowly. The latter are slowly waking up to the situation and the former has become as cumbersome and unmaneuverable as an oil tanker and they are on a collision course. That means that there is no way to avoid the interplay of politics and big tech at the current time.

Heck, in Europe this has been going on for more than half a decade, but the US is also slowly waking up to the situation. People that have been saying that the EU has been picking on American companies are finally starting to realise that they aren’t picking on “American” companies, but purely companies that are out of control, that happen to be incorporated in America.

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I LOVE MKBHD, though I never see him as a journalist (nor am I). He’s awesome at what he presents. Soul is awesome. :fist_right:t5:

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Word. I’m definitely not a politics person, but it does have a place in tech news and discussion. Has for quite a while.

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I was more referring to the specific comments that Dr Weiss-Blatt was saying if I recall.

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Ah. Gotcha

In a weird, coincidental turn off events this past weekend I heard both this episode of TWIG and learned of a random other young female researcher’s dissertation (communication sciences, I believe) on how the media frames and discusses the Roman Catholic Church (not that favourably, it turns out).

Maybe only in my mind, there are parallels. A sizeable chunk of the discussion reverberates around respect and offence to the good standing of an authority, often clad as “the force for good in the world”.

Sure, there are voices that both mammoths (say Google, to make it more concrete than big tech, and the Roman Catholic Church) will not be able to win back. But there’s no doubt in my mind that neither institution can progress without addressing and engaging the mind of those doubtful or critical. That is if they do not want to turn fully authoritarian.

In my mind, the quality of challenges any growing organisation faces shifts - from mere survival as a start up to emancipation from being pushed around our bought up to reaching a meaningful market share to becoming the dominant player. Then, it’s a question of how you position yourself in your place of dominance - authoritarian or as a role model for behaviour. That’s a big challenge, granted. But it’s the burden of successful growth.

What I find hard to stomach is whining about how some of the largest, richest, and most influential organisations in earth are to be pitied because people are being critical and in some cases lack respect. It’s like criticising pebbles in the foothills for bickering about the magnificent mountain.

Organisations in the highest levels of power will hopefully always be held to the highest standards of accountability. Often enough, they systemically get free passes anyways. Especially journalists and their teachers will agree, no? :man_shrugging:

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So much this.

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I would agree if you add the word LEGAL between Highest and Standards

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