February 14, 2021 - Episode 587

What this episode covers

Description This week, North Dakota wants to ruin the iPhone, Maryland is taxing advertisements, and Australia still wants a piece of Google. 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. Opening Powered by TeknoAXE Nifty Gifties Powered by Microsoft Store North Dakota wants to ruin iPhone, according to Apple privacy engineer Over the past few years, Apple has done a lot of marketing around the idea of privacy. This is likely because they have begun to lose their perceiver authority in security, which only existed because no one used their products, making them a worthless target. These days, however, Apple devices (at least the mobile kind) can be found everywhere, so there's value in attacking them now. So, the company's public perception of a focus on privacy has become its driving goal. However, there is a point where privacy, usability, and ownership collide, and iOS is that place. read full article Piltch Point with Avram Piltch Powered by PureVPN Extra Life Powered by Razer CD Projekt Red gets ransomed, auction fails to attract attention We have said many times that malware, including ransomware, can affect anyone, so everyone should be vigilant. Late last year, SolarWinds was hacked. This company makes network management software, and yet they were hit. Last month, malware detection company Malwarebytes was hit by the same group. The latest high-profile company to fall victim to malware is CD Projekt Red, the publisher for Cyberpunk 2077. read full article News From the Tubes Powered by RiffTrax Maryland becomes first state to implement tax on digital ads Over the years, many new technologies online have managed to go untaxed for long periods of time. In fact, even sales of physical goods managed to go untaxed for years. With time, states changed their laws requiring online sellers to tax any purchases made from stores doing business within those states. Early on, companies like Amazon avoided having warehouses, distribution centers, and offices within states that had implemented online sales taxes. Today, however, that is a thing of the past, as there is no avoiding it. The next online tax battleground has been chosen, and it is advertising. read full article * DRM Not Included Powered by Amazon Prime Google's publishing battle in Australia has led to global attention Last month, we learned that Australia wants to charge Google for news. The country's proposition stands in stark contrast to what Google recently agreed to pay in France. In France, Google will pay for access to republish some or all of a news article in its Google News app. In Australia, the proposition is to charge Google to LINK to a news article, including in Search. read full article Closing Powered by Tech Podcast Network