Starting with Facebook.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Category: Google
Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich
The first book I’ve read by this author, I downloaded because of the digital privacy theme.
Those details are fascinating. Reich does seem to understand technology.
We get to the DEF CON® Hacking Conference in Vegas.
But aside from that, the plot is stupid and lazy.
It kept me going, but I can’t recommend it.
Why we LOVE Stacey Abrams
If you’re celebrating seeing Donald Trump and the worst of his deplorable followers driven off social media, thank Stacey Abrams.
She devoted years to building the Democratic Party in Georgia. Wrote a book about voter suppression and co-produced an Amazon Prime documentary, “All In: the Fight for Democracy.”
People in the know credit Stacey Abrams for flipping the 2 Senate seats from Republican to Democrat.
NOW the Biden team has control of all 3 branches of government for 2 years.
NOW the Biden team can enthusiastically regulate BIG TECH.
NOW Twitter, Facebook and pretty much every other major platform is banning Trumpy hate speech.
Thanks Stacey.
We have to break-up BIG TECH
Professor Galloway recommends the American government mandates a break-up of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook shareholders would actually make MORE money after the split. And those companies would have a better chance to compete with one another.
Galloway recommends Amazon be split from Amazon Web Services (VIDEO).
He recommends YouTube be split from Google.
MORE COMPETITION is good for the consumer. Good for the economy.
MORE COMPETITION
Elizabeth Warren, for one, is keen to push that legislation. And I agree.
YES. I know governments will do a lousy job. Politicians don’t understand Tech.
But the alternative is even worse. Bezos and Amazon — at this rate — will have too much share of the world’s wealth.
Aggregation Theory postulates that it’s nearly impossible to compete with a company that is able to aggregate a majority of consumers.
How do you launch a company to compete against Amazon, for example.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Online education SUCKS
There’s no way online classes will be as bad in 2025 as they are today.
I expect Google, Apple, Amazon to be amongst the companies disrupting the current expensive American College system. Taking their money.
But it’s this organization — Outlier — that won a Time magazine BEST inventions of 2020 award.
At least they are trying to improve the experience.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
My Hiking YouTube channel
We love YouTube. My first upload was Mar 28, 2006.
Google bought the startup November 2006 for US$1.65 billion.
I spun off a hiking YouTube channel Jan 17, 2018.
Finally got it looking good October 2020. I’m studying how to post better videos in future. #CovidGoals
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube. Subscribe to be notified of future updates.
The best YouTube uploads have dedicated thumbnails like this. The rest show a somewhat random frame of the video.
YouTube thumbnail
I’m trying YouTube Premium
CAD $12 / month if I continue after the first free month.
💛 No ads 💛
I’m tempted. I hate YouTube ads, particularly the ones mid-video.
Subscription includes a short list of YouTube Original shows and movies.
In fact, I tried the service to watch the Gymnastics series Defying Gravity.
Better is YouTube Music.
I downloaded the YouTube Music app for my iPhone, as well. I can play almost anything with or without video. Offline if I download.
It does NOT include YouTube TV. That’s OK as it’s only available in the USA and costs $64.99/mo.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Censorship by flood of misinformation
Back in the 1990s I was completely convinced that Google and the internet would make the world a much better place.
If people had more information, they’d be able to make better decisions.
It turned out to be mixed. Smart people make better decisions.
But many are overwhelmed, disinterested and easily confused.
I switched from Chrome to Brave
Brave is open-source. Based on the same platform as Google Chrome. HTTPS Everywhere. A much better experience than Chrome.
In fact, many are switching away from Chrome as Google bungled 5-years ago in a decision to make Chrome work on the Android platform. Far ahead at the time, Chrome has fallen behind other browsers.
I was surprised how easy it was to switch.
I recommend you turn off the default Brave Rewards program and notifications. Those are annoying.
My search engine is DuckDuckGo as it was on Chrome.
Brave … is safe, fast, secure and crypto friendly – which Chrome isn’t so much.
According to developers, Brave is trying to fix the internet.They introduceed a system that block ads and ad trackers by default, eliminating the need of ad block extensions. …
The Brave browser is fast. The browser’s impressive speeds are due to lack of default lack of third party ads. …
Brave vs Chrome – Which one’s better and faster?
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Four by Scott Galloway
Four American companies have totally changed our lives.
Apple
Amazon
Google
Facebook
I use all four non-stop. Fantastic innovation.
Needless to say, there are downsides. Google no longer uses the mantra “don’t be evil”. They dropped it in 2018.
Scott Galloway has replaced Leo Laporte as my main tech guru. I just finished his book …
The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (2017)
It’s great, but you can get a good summary by reading Galloway’s article in Esquire:
Silicon Valley’s Tax-Avoiding, Job-Killing, Soul-Sucking Machine (2018)
