Last minute geek

1. YouTube is testing paid online hangs with influencers
(English/engadget)

Google is expertimenting with an events-focused crowdfunding service for YouTube creators, according to a recent report from Variety. The new effort, called Fundo, allows YouTubers to set up online meet ...

2. The guy who figured out Bernie Madoff's scam now says GE is about to go bankrupt
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... accuses the firm of using accounting tricks to paper over $40b in liabilities and to disguise problems with the company's stake in oil services firm Baker Hughes. GE does not dispute that it has $71b ...

3. In California, the 2020 elections will feature an epic battle to allow cities to reinstate property taxes
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

In 1978, anti-taxation extremists managed to get a California ballot measure, Proposition 13, passed, and with it, they managed to effectively end the ability of cities to provide services to their residents, ...

4. The MeatStick Wireless Meat Thermometer review
(English/the-gadgeteer)

REVIEW – Around here, we’re big fans of the Butcher Box.  It’s a monthly meat delivery service that sends boxes of meat straight to our house. Their beef is 100% grass-feed, and their chicken is free range ...

5. You can get ahold of this 1951 Vincent Black Shadow
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... member. A cosmetic refurbishment was performed by Mike White shortly before the seller’s father-in-law purchased the bike in 2001. A 2019 service performed by Vincent Club organizer Dave Molloy included ...

6. Spotify will reportedly test a price increase in Scandinavia
(English/engadget)

Spotify may get a little bit pricier for some Scandinavian users. The music streaming service plans to test a more expensive version of its family plan in the European region, reported Bloomberg. It's ...

7. How to Check for Listening Ports in Linux
(English/Linuxtoday)

Learn how to find out which services are listening on which ports using the netstat, ss and lsof commands. Read all  ...

8. Netflix's fifth Dave Chappelle comedy special debuts August 26th
(English/engadget)

Dave Chappelle has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Netflix over the last few years, having released four stand-up specials on the streaming service, picking up a hefty pay packet and Grammy and Emmy ...

9. Wework loses $5200/customer, lost $1.3B in H1/2019
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... to lose per active rider this year, and nearly 129 times what struggling meal delivery service Blue Apron losses per subscriber, and nearly 753 times the $6.90 per year that popular pet e-tailer Chewy.com ...

10. Googlers circulate petition demanding a moratorium on contracts with US border agencies
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... company not contract with US border agencies to provide any kind of services, on the grounds that US immigration authorities are notorious abusers of human rights. US Customs and Border Protection has ...

11. Scout Indoor Camera review
(English/the-gadgeteer)

REVIEW – Scout has a new Indoor Camera. Why should this interest you? Scout is a DIY alarm system and service that installs in as little as a few minutes. There are no screws and monitoring can be turned ...

12. Microsoft says humans will still transcribe Cortana and Skype audio
(English/engadget)

Just like seemingly every other major tech company with a voice assistant or voice chat service, it emerged that Microsoft contractors were listening to Skype and Cortana recordings. Apple, Google and ...

13. Pandora hopes to pad its podcast lineup with direct uploads
(English/engadget)

Pandora doesn't want to sit by the wayside while Spotify snaps up podcast listeners. The streaming music service has started accepting podcasts for "consideration" to be included in its ...

14. My appearance on the MMT podcast: compelling narratives as a means of advancing complex political and economic ideas
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... is only inflationary if it's bidding against the private sector for goods or services, which means that the government could guarantee every unemployed person a job (say, working on the Green New Deal), ...

15. AT&T and T-Mobile will now verify phone calls between their networks
(English/engadget)

AT&T and T-Mobile have started rolling out cross-network call authentication services for their subscribers. That means the companies will now be able notify their customers if the call they're ...

16. Facebook paid contractors to transcribe audio chats
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... Inc. has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services, according to people with knowledge of the work. The work has rattled the contract employees, ...

17. Audible teams with 'The Walking Dead' creators on audio originals
(English/engadget)

Audible's push into original content now includes a team-up with a company best-known for its comic books and TV shows. The Amazon-owned audiobook service has struck a deal with Skybound, the team ...

18. What are 3-cent microcontrollers good for?
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... parts any good? Hackaday says they're terrible, but Tim finds a role. [it] surely is a question of perspective. They address a specific category of low-cost, high volume, non-serviceable products with ...

19. Getting deplatformed from Apple. “Your account has been permanently disabled. There is nothing else you can do, there is no escalation path.”
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... that read "You cannot login because your account has been locked." He called Apple's customer service and was told that the card he'd used had been stolen but that they understood that Luke was the victim, ...

20. How To Configure systemd to Start a Service Automatically After a Crash in Linux?
(English/Linuxtoday)

2DayGeek: systemd default parameters allow you to start a service automatically after a crash. Read all  ...

21. Snap's Spectacles 3 are made for augmented reality
(English/engadget)

Snap's Spectacles 2 were functionally better, but not a revolution -- and they were still a bit dowdy. Its latest attempt at smart eyewear might fare better, though. The social service has unveiled ...

22. Interoperability and Privacy: Squaring the Circle
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Last summer, we published a comprehensive look at the ways that Facebook could and should open up its data so that users could control their experience on the service, and to make it easier for competing ...

23. Podcast: Interoperability and Privacy: Squaring the Circle
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... that no competitor should be allowed to make incursions upon, on pain of a lawsuit for violating terms of service or infringing a patent or reverse-engineering a copyright lock or even more nebulous claims ...

24. Google faces (yet another) antitrust complaint, this time over job search
(English/engadget)

... to promote its own job search service. Read all  ...

25. WordPress owners buy Tumblr
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... focused on blogging. Tumblr was the blogging service of choice for millions of young people, but floundered after being sold to AOL and subsequently cleansed of smut and other advertiser-unfriendly material ...