Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 02/10 – TikTok Pardoned By Biden?

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

Maybe… the whole TikTok kabuki theater is at its endpoint. Salesforce thinks the whole concept of the “9-to-5 workday” is at its endpoint. More smoke around the Apple Goggles fire. Why you need to get hip to the concept of non-fungible tokens. And why cops have gotten hip to playing Sublime songs to prevent you from filming them. Sponsors: EditorX.com TinyCapital.com Links: TikTok Sale to Oracle, Walmart Is Shelved as Biden Reviews Security (WSJ) Salesforce declares the 9-to-5 workday dead, will let some employees work remotely from now on (The Verge) Apple reportedly developing next-gen ultra-thin displays for AR devices with TSMC (The Verge) How Did A LeBron James Video Highlight Sell For $71,455? A Look At A Burgeoning Product Called NBA Top Shot. (Forbes) Biggest Ever NFT Sale Made as 'Axie Land’ Goes for $1.5 Million (Decrypt) Microsoft launches Bulletins and Milestones apps for Teams (Windows Central) Apple Maps Adds Waze-Like Features in iOS 14.5 for Crowdsourcing Accidents, Speed Traps and Hazards (MacRumors) Is This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ to Avoid Being Live-Streamed? (Vice) Subscribe to RideHome+ at tech.supercast.tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Wednesday, February 10th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Maybe the whole TikTok Kabuki Theater is reaching an endpoint. Salesforce thinks the whole concept of the 9-to-5 workday is at an endpoint. More smoke around the Apple goggles fire. Why you need to get hip to the concept of non-fungible tokens and why cops have gotten hip to playing sublime songs to prevent you from filming them. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Well, I'm sure glad we wasted all of our time worrying about this a few months ago. Sources are saying that the Trump administration plan to force the sale of TikTok to a group,

including Oracle and Walmart, has been shelved indefinitely, quoting the Wall Street Journal. Discussions have continued between representatives of bite dance and U.S. national security officials, the people said those discussions have centered on data security and ways to prevent the information TikTok collects on American users from being actually. by the Chinese government, they said. But no imminent decision on how to resolve the issues surrounding TikTok is expected, as the Biden administration determines its own response to the potential security risk posed by Chinese tech companies' collection of data. Quote, We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to securing U.S. data that addresses the full

range of threats we face, National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horn said. This includes the risk posed by Chinese apps and other software that operate in the U.S. In the coming months, expect to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face, end quote. So that definitely sounds like they're kind of sweeping this one under the rug. What I can't figure out from this whole mess is, was it always Kabuki Theater at least for the smart money? Like, did everyone that mattered know that this was just going to blow over eventually anyway? And that's why you didn't see big players wanting to touch it with a 10-foot pole. They basically just let the unlikely rubs of Oracle and Walmart step up to play the mark until the jig was up.

It certainly seems like that was the case now in retrospect, right? I'm trying to put together a weekend bonus episode with someone smart to talk about this whole idea of if remote work is going to be the new normal or not, if Silicon Valley is dead and all that. But until then, if Salesforce is to be believed, then this is a settled issue. because they are literally saying, and I quote, the 9 to 5 workday is dead, end quote, and that after the pandemic, most of their staff will work on a flex schedule, going into the office only about 1 to 3 days per week.

So do you think they regret building that giant skyscraper now? Quoting the verge. In a blog post published Tuesday, the company says the 9 to 5 workday is dead, and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return to the office once it's safe to do so. Salesforce will also give employees more freedom to choose what their daily schedules look like. The company joins other tech firms like Facebook and Microsoft that have announced

permanent work-from-home policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As we enter a new year, we must continue to go forward with agility, creativity, and a beginner's mind. And that includes how we cultivate our culture. An immersive workspace is no longer limited to a desk in our towers. The 9 to 5 workday is dead and the employee experience is about more than ping pong tables and snacks, writes Brent Heider, Salesforce's chief people officer. In our always on, always connected world, it no longer makes sense to expect employees to work an eight-hour shift and do their job successfully, Heider adds. Whether you have a global team to manage across time zones, a project-based role that is busier or slower depending on the season,

or simply have to balance personal and professional obligations throughout the day, workers need flexibility to be successful, end quote. Heider cites picking up young kids from school or caring for sick family members as reasons why an employee should not be expected to report to work on a strict eight-hour shift every day. He also points to how the removal of strict in-office requirements will allow Salesforce to expand its recruitment of new employees beyond expensive urban centers like San Francisco and New York, end quote. So again, that's does all sound sensible, delightful even, humane. So why am I still so skeptical it's actually going to turn out that way in the end? Now, I did just yesterday record the episode that will delve into the

state of VR and AR, so we'll either release that this weekend or next. But the reason we're poking into this stuff now, as I've said, is because there continues to be smoke around this. Niki Asia is reporting that Apple has partnered with TSM to develop ultra-thin micro-o-led displays for its, well, this article is calling it their augmented reality devices, but I suppose it makes more sense for a VR device, right? Although, remember, the rumors have been that Apple's first device would be VR acting as AR. Anyway, quoting the verge. The R&D project is said to be in a trial production stage focusing on displays that are smaller than one inch in size. and several years away from commercialization. Apple is also said to be developing micro-LED displays

at the same Apple Lab in Taiwan. According to Niki, the micro-O-LED displays in development are able to be so thin and compact because they're built directly onto chip wafers, rather than glass like traditional OLED or LCD screens. News of the project follows reports that Apple has both VR and AR headsets in development. It could release its first VR headset, codenamed N301, as early as next year, while a more lightweight pair of AR glasses, code named N421, could follow in 2023. As well as working on micro-Oled, NICA reports that Apple is also working on micro-LED display technology at the same secret of lab in Taiwan. These self-emissive panels, which use miniature LEDs to remove the need for a traditional backlight, could eventually end up in devices like

the Apple Watch, iPad, and MacBooks. Samsung already sells a micro-LED TV called The Wall, though the technology is a long way from being mainstream or affordable. As a side note, micro-Oled and micro-LED are distinct from mini-LED, which uses an array of LEDs as a backlight behind a more traditional LCD display. Mini-LED technology is already available in TVs from the likes of TCL, and Apple is also reportedly working to bring it to devices like iPads and MacBooks in the not-too-distant future, end quote. And we're probably going to have to get someone smart on for a bonus episode,

do an explainer about this. Have you heard of the whole non-fundable token market that is exploding? How there are things like limited edition pieces of art and other collectibles being traded on the blockchain for big, big money. As a quick explainer, I'm going to put a story from Forbes in the show notes about how three limited edition NBA highlight video cards have sold for more than $30,000 on NBA Top Shot, a joint venture between the National Basketball Association, the NBA Players Association, and Dapper Labs, which is best known as the creator of Cryptokitties. If none of that makes sense to you, then that's probably because you haven't taken my recommendation to listen to the Coin Talk podcast. But seriously, this NFT market is really getting crazy.

Word today, that nine plots of land on the blockchain game Axi Infinity were sold, for over 888Eth, or around $1.5 million, thereby setting a new record for the most expensive non-fungible token sale ever, quoting decrypt. The buyer was an anonymous entity known only as Flying Falcon, while the digital land is worth the same as a high-price property in a prime location in the real world, Flying Falcon said they see the potential for such digital ecosystems to grow even further. Quote, Axi land has entertainment value, social value, and economic value in the form of future resource flows, they said. Called the Epic Nine Plot Genesis Estate, the virtual land is a special supply-capped plot with a unique aesthetic and special positioning within the AXE land system. It's part

of an upcoming game mode within AXI Infinity that allows players to build or decorate property, harvest resources and battle their owned digital monsters called axes. Users can virtually train, raise, battle, and even breed their axes with other players. Every such Axi has a unique genetic markup, which in turn changes their in-game value, with some of them fetching a huge price on the open market. Players can even rent their property out, earn yields for doing so, and increase the land's value by hosting in-game events like concerts or art galleries. And the recent one-and-a-half-million purchase came as part of just that. Quote, Genesis land plots are the rarest and best position plots in Axi Infinity.

They were a natural fit for my thesis, said Flying Falcon in a tweet, end quote. So buying virtual real estate inside the metaverse, we are straight up now acting out the plot of Snow Crash, aren't we? It's just that Neil Stevenson never predicted cryptocurrencies. Or maybe he did. Maybe I'm forgetting. This is from the news you can maybe use department based on the premise that if the numbers I've been seeing are to be believed, then a lot of you listening to me right now, now spend your days

inside of Microsoft Teams. So maybe it would be useful for you to know that Microsoft has launched two new apps for Teams. The first is bulletins where organizations can share news in one place, and the second is milestones, which tracks the status of work items. Windows Central. Within Bulletin's articles can be organized under categories and include media such as images, videos, and actionable buttons. Publishers of content through Bulletin can keep track of different metrics, including how many people have viewed an article. The Bulletin's app can be pinned to teams and people can select categories to customize their view. Microsoft highlights that the Bulletin's app is optimized for mobile devices, meaning that important information such as

weather alerts and system outages can be viewed on mobile devices when people are in the field. The Milestones app creates a central location for keeping track of the status and updates of work items. You can track items by owner or status and updates are tracked in an activity log. Organizations can customize the Milestones app by updating fields labels, adding new fields or adding changes to process flows, such as adding notifications for workstream owners to keep people up to date, end quote. And from the could be useful file, although it could also be from the file of they did,

already do this? I mean, Waze has had this sort of thing forever, right? Apparently in the iOS 14.5 beta, there are indications that Maps is getting a feature that will let US users report accidents, hazards on the road, and even speed checks along their route using Siri or CarPlay, quoting Mac rumors. When you input an address, select a route and then choose Go. Siri lets you know that you can report accidents or hazards that you see along the way. If you swipe up on the Apple Maps interface where Maps details are available. You can tap on a report button that lets you flag an accident, a hazard or a speed check similar to other mapping apps like Ways. Taping automatically flags your location with no confirmation window, so it shouldn't be used except in a valid

situation. You can also say, hey, Siri, there's an accident, and Siri will send a report to Apple Maps. And presumably, if enough people file reports and accident site will show up in the Maps app through the crowdsourcing. This is available in the United States. in a test capacity at the current time, and it's not yet clear if it's also showing up in other countries. This also works in CarPlay, as noted on the Mac Rumors forums by Mosman 68, with the reporting interface available on the CarPlay screen, end quote. Finally, to paraphrase the Harvey Keitel scene in taxi driver, just because the cops don't look hip, you can't assume they're not hip. Apparently, police officers and Beverly Hills have been playing licensed music while being filmed

by citizens. What's this now? Well, it's apparently an attempt at a clever life hack. Big platforms like YouTube or Instagram have those automatic copyright content filters, right? So, if you were to play a song, maybe that prevents content from being posted to the socials, quoting Vice. Deveremont was at the department to file a form to obtain body camera footage from an incident in which he received a ticket he felt was unfair. Deveremont also happens to be a well-known L.A. area activist who regularly live streams protests and interactions with the police to his more than 300,000 followers on Instagram. So he streamed this visit as well, and that's when things got weird. In a video posted to his Instagram account, we see a mostly cordial conversation between Deveremont and B.H.PD Sergeant

Billy Fair turn a corner when Fair becomes upset that DeVermont is live streaming the interaction, including showing work contact information for another officer. Fair asks how many people are watching, to which DeVermont replies enough. Fair then stops answering questions, pulls out his phone, and starts silently swiping around, and that's when the ska music starts playing. Fair boosts the volume and continues staring at his phone. For nearly a full minute, Fair is silent, and only starts speaking after we're a good way through. Sublime's song Santoria, end quote. Okay, so playing Sublime is maybe the most L.A. thing ever, right? Someone remembers the summer of 1996 as well as I do, apparently. Vice goes on to outline to what

degree this tactic may or may not work well for the cops. Instagram especially has gotten aggressive about, well, policing copyrighted songs lately. That's definitely true. But as evidenced by the fact that you can watch the videos we're talking about right now on Instagram, then maybe it's not a foolproof tactic. Just last year, Instagram clarified that it tries not to take down incidental music playing in the background so that, you know, you can still post that video of you dancing in the club last night, even if there's a Beyonce song playing in the background. Still, quoting from Vice again, in an archive clip from a live stream shared previously to Vice Media that DeVermont has not publicly reposted, but he says,

was taken weeks ago, another officer can be seen quickly swiping through his phone as Deveremont approaches. By the time DeVermont is close enough to speak to him, the officer's phone is already blasting in my life by The Beatles, a group whose rights holders have notoriously sued Apple numerous times. If you want to get someone in trouble for copyright infringement, the Beatles are quite possibly your best bet. As DeVermont asks about the music, the officer points the phone at him, asking, do you like it? This would seem to suggest that playing copyrighted music as a deterrent to the First Amendment guaranteed right to openly film police is, if not BHPD official protocol, at least a technique that has been deployed by more than one officer, end quote. Ah yes, the old cat and mouse

game again. Protesters take to wearing shirts and masks with designs intended to mess up facial recognition algorithms. The cops take to playing music to try to trigger copyright enforcement algorithms when you record video of them. The cyberpunk future angle to all of this is all sides are just trying to game the true gatekeepers of modern life, the true rules enforcers, the algorithms. As William Gibson once said, the street finds its own uses for technology. I don't know. If you're looking for mid-90s nostalgia, I think sublime holds up pretty well.

You just kind of have to know exactly what you're asking for with Sublime. If you're looking to pretend like you're some mid-90s shirtless, tattooed, blunt-smoking, gutter punk, I guess you can't really do better than Sublime. This weekend, my wife and I wanted to watch a movie with the kids that we remembered from our childhood, so we chose Weekend at Bernice. And I tweeted out that I thought it really kind of holds up. And people thought I was joking, but I wasn't. If you want a movie that's like 100% just reeking of, just encapsulating the year 1989,

you can't do better. So if you're in the mood for that, Weekend at Burnies is the best. Plus, the internal logic of that movie is pretty airtight. I mean, the premise is absurd, of course, but the internal logic of the narrative and thus the humor is pretty unimpeachable because, seriously, movies from the 80s that get way more respect than Weekend at Burney's absolutely fall apart. when you really put them under the microscope, like a movie from that same year, Roadhouse? Just say the outline of the plot of Roadhouse out loud and see if you can make it make any sense.

Anyway, second day in a row that I'm getting all Old Man Waves Cane on you, but there you go. I just had a birthday last week, so I guess I'm feeling my age right now. Talk to you tomorrow.