(Season 3) Episode 1 – New Year, Same Old 5#!7 (Follow-Ups)

Welcome to 2021 folks! We’ve finally left the hell hole of 2020, none of the problems from there can possibly get to us. Instead, US Congress made illegal streaming a felony, while Facebook and Google are… well, it’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. (We suppose, then, that 2020 can still affect us)


EPISODE MISTAKES: We referred to the last 2020 stimulus bill as the CARES Act. This was, in fact, the original stimulus bill that passed (which provided $1200 per individual). The bill we are referring to is the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which included the felony streaming rider bill.


Sources:

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (includes “Protecting Lawful Streaming Act”):

Proposed DMCA Revisions & Notice-and-take down/stay down:

Section 230:

Facebook & Google Antitrust Allegations / “Jedi Blue”:


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(Season 2) Episode 3 – Apple’s (Not-So) Greatest Hits

The mouse, touchscreen smartphone, and the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack; these are all things that Apple has pushed the tech industry towards. Did Apple create all of those things? No (with the exception of the headphone jack)- but they have made these things staples of the platforms they are used on. But, why do they get the credit? And, furthermore, why does it matter?


EPISODE NOTES/MISTAKES: The Xerox 8010 Star was the first computer with a two-button mouse, whereas the Xerox Alto from 1973 was the first computer with any kind of mouse. The Apple Lisa mouse was, in fact, based on the Alto’s.

This episode was recorded prior to the iPhone 12 announcement, with the ~$40 magsafe wireless charger. Still overpriced.


Sources:

The 2007 released Blackberry Curve 8300:

Touchscreen Phones before the iPhone:

Xerox 8010 Star & Alto:

iPhone Woes (glue, headphone jack, notch, in that order):

iPhone 7’s Plastic Spacer & Strange Parts:


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(Season 2) Episode 2 – Apple Shillicon

Apple recently announced Apple Silicon, their overall transition to the ARM architecture. If you’re suddenly terrified of the idea of Macs running around with ARMS (and generally worried about the future of traditional computers), you’re probably not alone! But what does an announcement like this mean for the future of computing? Is this a good thing, or is it just another attempt by Apple to secure a monopoly? (Spoiler: Likely the latter, or at least a mix of both)


EPISODE NOTES/MISTAKES: We referenced that Linus Tech Tips had used a thermal pad to fix the Macbook Air’s cooling. They instead milled the plate to screw in more tightly, accomplishing the same end result (more mounting pressure).

ARM is not only more power efficient due to being a RISC architecture; generally, it’s also expected to be in sleep mode more often than x86 chips, and is often on a smaller nanometer process than x86, meaning it is a physically smaller chip. Decreasing the size of a processor increases efficiency, but is often difficult.

We neglected to mention that Windows on ARM has x86 emulation, allowing for usage of 32-bit Windows applications to run on it, recently they have also added 64-bit support.


Sources:

Apple moving to Apple Silicon:

Apple’s architecture swap from PowerPC to Intel (x86):


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