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!
My have the tables of turned. Twit suggested that when Trump wanted to ban TikTok that it was because of his Tulsa Rally (which is utterly ridiculous). Now that Biden wants to do it, it’s ok. The bottom line was it was always bipartisan
If Apple execs push for VR, it will be Tim Cook’s time to hang on the cross, I don’t believe even Apple can find the market for virtual computing with a headset.
It hasn’t progressed enough to make a NEED case
2 Likes
IMHO, I don’t think anyone thinks it’s simply OK. It is, and always has been, a fairly complex issue… far from a simple black and white, good or bad.
1 Like
Yes, the argument has always been, they collect teh information, which is bad, but so do all the other platforms, so it isn’t a TikTok issue, as such. Plus if the Chinese government really wanted the information, they could collect more by buying it legally, direct from data brokers.
The banning it from government or business devices is just common sense. Unless you are the media relations person / on their MR team, there is no genuine excuse to have social media apps on your company device, that should be kept for your private devices, where there is no company data.
1 Like
As I listened to the segment about TikTok, the more I started thinking of 2 things. Firstly the hold that the service has on younger people, I often hear of people saying they learn everything from TikTok these days! Secondly you have proof that a country can radically affect another’s culture, over here in the UK we are inundated with awful food from McDonald’s, unfunny TV from Friends, Seinfeld, Family Guy and the like and it melts the brain. You only have to look to K-Pop to see this reverse - without social media the US would still be stuck with Garth, Britney and Shania.
Its a glass door and things could come through it you may not want to see, but your kids may just take them on board… - @Leo they may just have some really tasty sandwiches!!!
1 Like
While I more or less agreed with Alex and Steven throughout the episode, I really took some exception with their arguments on the publisher’s lawsuit against the Internet Archive. Their positions strongly reminded me of the argument by the MPAA against piracy by treating every pirated copy as a lost sale. I don’t know that you can quantify lost sales this way because there are people who might read a book they might not otherwise buy if it was available for free. The power of libraries is that they make information available to their constituents’that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
I’ve also got some real issues with ebook pricing. It’s never made sense to me why ebook prices tend to be really close to the cost of a physical book. Once you eliminate production costs like paper, stitching, ink, distribution, and so forth - it would seem like you could reduce the cost of an ebook. Frankly - I’ve believed for a while now that books should follow the model of movies and provide a digital copy whenever you buy a physical copy.
I in no way begrudge authors their pay, but the pricing model in the modern age really hasn’t made sense to me.
4 Likes
I think, at a minimum, they could offer a free “search tool” for your books. Where there could be a unique code in the book (a serial number in essence) and you enter it into an online tool, so that it can help you with electronic searching. It might only return small snippits along side the page number in the physical book if they were really paranoid about not giving away what might amount to a second copy of the book. This would be a version of an added service that could make paper books more valuable.
2 Likes
You’re hearing what you want to hear. I was against the TikTok ban then and I still am.
4 Likes
I didn’t say you. I said TWIT guests. Look at the Windows Weekly from 2020 vs. this show.
I just wanted to throw this out there, if I am in the wrong place, please tell me and I can put it elsewhere -
The fight is on!!
1 Like
I am reminded of another time when the US government forced the divestiture of the American subsidiary of a foreign corporation.
The foreign company was “American Marconi”, a subsidiary of the British firm Marconi. The buyer was General Electric, with its new subsidiary Radio Corporation of America, or RCA.
A letter to shareholders from the president of American Marconi, 1919: A New and Powerful Wireless Company (1919)
[W]e have found that there exists on the part of the officials of the Government a very strong and irremovable objection to your Company because of the stock interest held therein by the British Company. This objection is shared by the members of Congress to a considerable extent. Consequently your Company has found itself greatly embarrassed in carrying out its plans for an extensive transoceanic traffic, and unless this British Marconi interest in your Company is eliminated your President and Board of Directors believe it will not be possible to proceed with success to the resumption of its preparations for a worldwide service
RCA of course, was a huge player in essentially all matters telecommunications from that transaction at the end of 1919 until the 1980s.
1 Like