July 19, 2020 - Episode 566 - Show Notes

July 19, 2020 - Episode 566

Sunday Jul 19, 2020 (01:18:59)

Description

This week, The FCC's got your back, Twitter's giving away access, and Peacock's got some confusing problems.

Participants

Scott Ertz

Host

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram Piltch

Host

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

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FCC and mobile carriers are taking on scourge of scam phone calls

While everyone agrees on how annoying robocalls, especially scam calls, really are, it has long seemed that there was nothing that could be done about it. However, over the last couple of years, the FCC has figured out that this scourge is within their purview and decided to try to alleviate it. The problem has been that enforcing these new rules has been difficult. The biggest fine ever levied against a medical scam ring is likely to never be collected. So, the FCC is giving more control to the carriers.

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Extra Life

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Microsoft clears out the old and announces the new for Xbox's future

While the rest of the world seems to be melting down, 2020 is going to be a big year for the major gaming brands. Both PlayStation and Xbox will be launching new hardware in the coming months, and Microsoft is already preparing for that transition to the new generation of console. They also announced some of how Project xCloud will work once it comes out of beta and releases to the public.

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Twitter's massive hack and the poor response from the company

Twitter's public perception has been dropping rapidly over the past few months, with many users abandoning the platform for alternatives. But, their public perception took its biggest hit this week when a collection of high profile accounts tweeted nearly identical Bitcoin scam posts. The affected accounts included Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and more. In total, 130 accounts were affected, of which 45 were fully hijacked. The hack generated at least $120k for the hackers.

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Peacock's launch has been confusing for both viewers and Comcast

This week, the much anticipated Peacock streaming service finally launched to a mostly positive reception. While some have complained about the number of ads, anyone who has used the NBC-branded streaming website or app knows it's still less than on that platform. However, the amount of on-demand content available for free is staggering: from modern favorites like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, to classic shows like The Carol Burnett Show and Murder She Wrote, there's a lot to watch.

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