TechTime with Nathan Mumm

222: Safeguarding Teens, Digital History, Amazon's Office Mandate, Employee Wellbeing and Whiskey: A Dive into Tech and Mental Health | Air Date: 9/15 - 9/21/24

Nathan Mumm Season 6 Episode 222

Can Instagram's new "teen accounts" truly safeguard our youth's mental health? Join us as our expert psychologist, Mike, weighs in on the effectiveness of these changes and reveals the real challenges teens face online. We'll also take a nostalgic journey back to a notable Apple article and share some of the most bizarre and humorous emails we've received this week. Plus, get practical tips on spotting digital scams and protecting yourself from phishing attempts.

Get ready to explore the cutting-edge world of emojis with Apple's latest feature, Genmoji. We'll discuss how this innovative tool lets you create personalized emojis through text descriptions and speculate on its future potential. Then, we shift gears to tackle Amazon's controversial decision to mandate a five-day office return, scrutinizing its impact on employee satisfaction and comparing it to other companies' flexible approaches.

As we address the addictive nature of social media, we'll highlight its impact on both teenagers and adults, uncovering the mental health challenges it presents. Plus, don’t miss our segment on the first commercial hard drive and its historical significance. We'll also commemorate Constitution Day and discuss the recent $30 million settlement by 23andMe following a significant data breach. Finally, end your listening experience with our whiskey tasting review of "The Senator" whiskey, as we rate it with zero, one, or two thumbs up. Tune in for a blend of insightful tech news and engaging discussions!

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Speaker 1:

Broadcasting across the nation, from the East Coast to the West, keeping you up to date on technology while enjoying a little whiskey on the side, with leading edge topics, along with special guests to navigate technology in a segmented, stylized radio program. The information that will make you go mmmm. Pull up a seat, raise a glass with our hosts as we spend the next hour talking about technology for the common person. Welcome to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm.

Nathan Mumm:

Welcome to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm. The show that makes you go technology news of the week. The show for the everyday person talking about technology, broadcasting across the nation with insightful segments on subjects.

Nathan Mumm:

Weeks ahead of the mainstream media insightful segments on subjects weeks ahead of the mainstream media. We welcome our radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news. I'm nathan mumm, your host and technologist, with over 30 years of technology expertise. Our co-host, mike rade, is in studio today. He's an award-winning author and a human behavior expert. Today's show is going to have lots of human behavior elements to talk about. Yeah, of course.

Nathan Mumm:

Now we're live streaming during our show on four of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv, facebook and LinkedIn. We are no longer on X, we are actually moving all of our stuff to Blue Sky. So if you're an X listener and been following us through there, you may want to move over to Blue Sky with us also. And we do encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradiocom and become a Patreon supporter at patreoncom. Forward slash techtimeradio. We are friends from different backgrounds, but bring the best technology show possible weekly for our family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have Odi, our producer, at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show. Odr producer at the control panel today. Welcome everyone.

Speaker 1:

Let's start today's show. Now on today's show.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, today on Tech Time with Nathan Mumm, buckle up as we dive into the technology news and stories, and here's what we have coming up on the show today. Now, today's show is packed with the latest tech news and some intriguing discussion. First off, we're going to dive into Instagram's latest move to introduce teen accounts. As criticism mounts over social media's impact on teen mental health, instagram is stepping up with new protections and features designed to specifically target younger users. But is it enough? Then we explore a two-year-old Tech Time Radio article from Apple. Then we move our segment onto our feature segment letters.

Nathan Mumm:

Prepare for a funny yet informative reading of the most bizarre emails I received this week, from scams to phishing attempts and outright mistruths disguised as legitimate emails. We break them down, laugh a little bit and learn how to spot these digital traps. We'll also discuss a crucial area, an issue regarding our digital history, on the Nathan Nugget. Now Amazon has ordered its employees to return to the office days during the week. This move comes with warnings of potential corporate restructuring. What does this mean for the future of remote work at one of the largest companies? And finally, we introduce you to Genmoji's, apple's latest feature. Now, of course, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment, our technology fail of the week and a possible Nathan nugget and, of course, our pick of the day whiskey tastings, to see if our selected whiskey pick gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show.

Speaker 1:

Now, though, it's time for the latest headlines in the world of technology. Here are our top technology stories of the week.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, instagram debuts teen accounts as criticism for the impact on team mental health grows, let's go to Corinne Westland for more on this story.

Speaker 3:

Instagram parent, meta, announced a series of features for the social network today that it says are designed to protect teen users from interacting with inappropriate accounts and content. It will automatically begin putting teen users under 16 into Instagram teen accounts. The feature puts limits on who teens can message, who can tag them and what they see in the app. Meta points out that it will take more than app changes to prevent teens from skirting app rules, saying it's important for companies and governments to work together to find a solution. Back to you in the studio.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. So this is teen accounts. So what it does is it puts the user account into private mode by default, meaning that teens will need to accept new followers and people who don't follow them can't see their content. So you can't bully on somebody immediately if you can't see their account. So it's in private mode. Teens can only message people they follow or are connected with. They follow or are connected with, so you can't randomly DM somebody or do a direct message to somebody. Only if you are a shared connection and liked in the account are you able to do it. Now sensitivity controls are also added. There's a time limit reminder to tell all teens that after they use the app more than 60 minutes in a day that they need to get off of it. It has a sleep mode which will turn on between 10 pm and 7 am, muting notifications and sending automatic replies to the messages. Now teens under 16 will have to get their parents to change any settings and in the future, the company says parents will be able to change app settings without their teens sending a request first. Able to change app settings without their teens sending a request first.

Nathan Mumm:

Almeda's Instagram teen accounts come after 42 state attorney generals called on Congress to allow, essentially, the ability to create labels for social media apps that are better than they currently had. In a note, the attorney general said social media platforms are fueling a mental health crisis among young people and that a surgeongeon General's warning on algorithmic-powered social platforms could help address the matter. So there's a bunch of anxiety. Meta is facing an onslaught of lawsuits related to teen issues. All the way back in 2023, a series of states filed lawsuits against Meta for allegedly designing its platform to be addictive to teens. In February, New York City joined a long list of school districts suing social media companies over what they say are negative effects on their platform. All right, I'm going to go right over to my expert psychologist, Mike. What do you think? Do you think this change from Meta is enough? Do you think that they're doing a good job? How do you feel about coming out with this new team control?

Mike Gorday:

You know I have about the same opinion as I had when we talked about their children controls back six months ago. I think it's nothing but air, all right. It doesn't really address the problem. It's not going to. All right. It doesn't really address the problem. It's not going to address the problem. There's no way that Meta can control how people get onto their site. Okay, and you know as a teen, did you?

Nathan Mumm:

have ways around rules Getting in trouble. No, no, no.

Mike Gorday:

I'm talking about rules. Okay this is basically a rule set.

Nathan Mumm:

I go over to my friend's house, supposedly spend the night at my friend's house, and then we go and do stuff that was in trouble.

Mike Gorday:

Same thing here, I will just get my quote-unquote parent to change my rulings, or I'll just create an account where my birth date is not my birth date.

Nathan Mumm:

You just change it to make it that you're 21 years old when you sign up for a new account, right?

Ody:

Oh, it's 21, not 18.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh well, so 18 is the number you need to have. You can put whatever you down, but most people put down as an average when they sign up for social media accounts. They use 21 as the starting number of how old they are when they normally create the accounts number of how old they are when they normally create the accounts. So let me go to you, odie. So as a teenager, did you have Instagram access? Yeah, okay. So if you didn't, if you had these new regulations where you could only communicate with people directly, I don't okay.

Ody:

I grew up in an immigrant household.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah.

Ody:

Where my parents also don't know technology, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. Okay, so I and anything that you know, the whole need permission for instagram. That would not be on me at all because I would just override it.

Nathan Mumm:

You're just creating an account says you're 18, yeah, yeah see that my my point stands.

Mike Gorday:

I mean, we're talking about a platform, a financial platform, that is based on making people addicted to it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

And when you do that, you can't escape that.

Ody:

I was going to say also that A 60-minute-a-day reminder.

Mike Gorday:

I mean, what are you going to do with that Dismiss? That's not going to happen. What?

Ody:

are you going?

Mike Gorday:

to do with that.

Nathan Mumm:

It's going to come up on your app and you're going to be like dismiss If I want to stay on there. I'm going to be there. It's going to be annoying for one second, and then it won't be there any longer.

Ody:

Well, so there's that, but also I was thinking about the I don't know what you call that the grounding from like 6 pm, from 10 pm, to what 10 pm to 7 am A sleep mode.

Nathan Mumm:

The sleep mode Moody notifications and sending automatic replies.

Ody:

They're going to be losing a whole lot of people there. Do they realize that?

Mike Gorday:

No, I don't think they do.

Speaker 4:

I think, they know that they're not going to.

Mike Gorday:

I think they know that they're not going to lose. They know that everybody's going to create an account that's in favor of her, and they're not going to follow up, but then they can say legally that they have these restrictions.

Nathan Mumm:

And oh, this person lied to us. It's not our fault. The liability is with that person because we thought they were 21.

Ody:

I do think that the nice thing about it is the privacy when it comes to DMs.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah.

Ody:

Because that is very it's ridiculous how simple it is for me to make like a six year old or not a six year old, but like a child's Instagram profile, and how many people will instantly start messaging?

Mike Gorday:

them. But again, if you bypass that system entirely, you won't have that feature available.

Ody:

Oh, of course.

Nathan Mumm:

All it is is a framework of saying look the six, the 20 kids that actually have this set up correctly from their parents, poor kids.

Speaker 4:

I mean they're going to be the only kid at school. That'd be like hey.

Nathan Mumm:

I'm sorry you can't message me at 10 pm. I get my messages and they'd be like what you know.

Mike Gorday:

Nowadays, some kids don't even care about it anymore.

Nathan Mumm:

I mean, I mean you have to have access to your phone you have to have your teenagers. I'm talking about social media otherwise all I got to do is uninstall the app, reinstall it, create a new account on my phone, say I'm 18, and, boom bang, I'm up and running and nobody knows.

Ody:

But I'm also curious because growing up, you know, with the height of facebook, uh, the minimum age with for facebook growing up was 13 and I remember being in elementary and all these kids lying and saying they were way of age and this is just standard. This is just standard right, but one of the things that they would do was friend like upwards of 500 some people. What elementary school kid knows?

Ody:

500 some people it was just all about however many people with that in mind with the whole, like you have to follow the person back or allow them to follow you, is there any age restriction on that? Because personally I know that those kids will not care.

Mike Gorday:

They want the follower count no, there's no age restrictions, I think. I think I think this is more based on them trying to uh, appease, appease, appease the legal god, so that people don't keep bringing lawsuits against them.

Ody:

I'm willing to. I'm front. I'm what do you call that following my brother, who is 14. I'm okay with the idea of not being allowed to follow and interact with him if it means he can't talk to any adult online. That makes sense. I'd prefer that as a solution than just oh, you have to be following or you have to allow the person to follow you before they can message you. That doesn't do anything.

Nathan Mumm:

Alright, let's go on to story number two.

Mike Gorday:

Let's talk about Genmojis.

Nathan Mumm:

What do we got going on in story number two, Odie?

Ody:

Apple's Genmoji, a new feature integrated into its latest software updates as part of its advanced generative AI system, apple Intelligence. This innovative capability allows iPhone, ipad and Mac users to generate personalized emojis tailored to their preferences, offering a fresh level of customization in digital communication. So what is Genmoji?

Ody:

Genmoji stands for Generative Emoji, enables users to create unique emojis by simply describing them in text. For example, users can request an emoji by typing descriptions like, for example, users can request an emoji by typing descriptions like smiley relaxing with cucumbers, or T-Rex riding a skateboard in a tutu. Then the AI then generates multiple design options based on the description, allowing users to select their favorite version. While iOS currently boasts a vast library of standard emojis, genmoji aims to enhance this by providing more personalized and expressive options. The feature is part of Apple's broader Apple Intelligence framework and will only be available on iPhone 15 Pro models and newer recent iPads and Macs equipped with M1 chips or later versions equipped with M1 chips or later versions. Genmoji will roll out with the upcoming iOS 18, ipados 18, and macOS Sequoia updates. I got my Sequoia on my new.

Nathan Mumm:

Mac.

Mike Gorday:

Which was yesterday, so I got that. Did you make a?

Nathan Mumm:

Genmoji. I can make. It so okay, what else do we have? Are you going to go create a Genmoji?

Ody:

Yeah, when I saw the. What is it? A keynote speech.

Nathan Mumm:

Is that?

Mike Gorday:

what they call it.

Ody:

When I saw that, I was really excited.

Speaker 4:

You know it's free for now.

Nathan Mumm:

Yep, it takes a lot of work on their backend because whatever the emoji is, it has to be shared on their chat system. So that means once they create it they have to have that library within their system to share out. If you make an octopus with snicker bars coming out of its head with something, it actually will keep it. So if I text you, I can see that emoji on my platform itself also. So there's a lot of back end work to make that actually work, Whereas their standard emojis they have that design set throughout all their code and if you have their OS, you can get it, and you don't, so this is a creative way of using their operating system and creating an AI-assisted graphic.

Ody:

But I'm excited to see what people do with it?

Mike Gorday:

What are the restrictions on inappropriate emojis?

Ody:

See, that's what I was thinking, because you know there's no longer a gun emoji. What if I wanted a T-Rex?

Nathan Mumm:

that's just guns, a-blazin' and a tutu.

Ody:

That wouldn't be allowed. It'd be a squirt gun.

Nathan Mumm:

Probably they'll give you a warning I haven't done it myself, so I don't know.

Mike Gorday:

They'll probably give you a warning on the guns. An eggplant flying two birds.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, yeah, I bet you some of their stuff. I would expect if Apple's going to do this, they're going to have some that could probably be risque emojis that they'll probably approve, as long as they're not too violent or too over-sexualized. I think they're probably going to have kind of a gray scale. So you can be creative, but not over the top. But you're going to go create your own.

Ody:

Oh yeah, 100%.

Nathan Mumm:

I think I can only use it on my Mac. It's from Mac to Mac or iOS to Mac.

Ody:

No, no, no, but I have.

Nathan Mumm:

Get it on your phone. You can put it on your phone, right it?

Ody:

says here that you need iOS 15. Did you update? Did you?

Nathan Mumm:

update. Last night there was a brand new update.

Ody:

I have not.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, take a look at your phone. You're in the show and I bet you there's an update that's pending for you, and if you get that taken care of, I bet you it'll be good to go See, look at that, you had a pending update. All right, let's go to story number three. Mike you ready for story number three?

Mike Gorday:

Sure, we've already talked about Meta, we've talked about Apple and we have taken a shot at X, so we might as well talk about Amazon.

Nathan Mumm:

Why not right?

Mike Gorday:

Why not?

Nathan Mumm:

If we're going to offend everybody let's just go for the gusto.

Mike Gorday:

So Amazon has ordered all employees to return to the office five days a week.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

And has also warned of corporate restructuring.

Nathan Mumm:

Uh-oh.

Mike Gorday:

Uh-oh.

Nathan Mumm:

So they all in the same message.

Mike Gorday:

It was all in the same message, but it's not necessarily meant for the one group and the other group.

Nathan Mumm:

You don't think, so you don't get it. Well, we all know, if you get a message, email, that says yeah, we all know how this is going to work out in the end. Okay, all right.

Mike Gorday:

Amazon is mandating the corporate workers return to the office five days a week. Ceo Andy Jassy said this in a note on Monday. The return to office mandate is a sharp change from his current hybrid policy, which requires employees to work from the office at least three days a week. Amazon employees will have until January 2nd to switch to the new policy. Ceo Andy Jassy detailed the returned office mandate by saying that Amazon will also be streamlining its corporate structure management positions, in particular, to quote unquotequote remove layers and flatten the organization.

Mike Gorday:

The Seattle Washington-based company rapidly expanded during the pandemic before Jassy took the helm in 2021 and implemented cost-cutting measures and widespread layoffs. As a result of growing the company so quickly, amazon hired a lot of managers and added more layers than they had before. He said those layers clogged up the food chain, creating pre-meetings for meetings and a more convoluted chain of command. In addition to tweaking the company structure, jassy said the main focus of the return to work mandate was making sure employees are set up with the ability to interact. We want to operate like the world's largest startup, which I think is stupid, jassy's head.

Nathan Mumm:

Amazon's a startup. Okay, this is ridiculous. Before we continue on, let's just talk about that. They're the biggest delivery service.

Mike Gorday:

You're not a startup when you're doing no, you can't act like a startup. Prime Video you do the rings of power, million dollars and millions of dollars on a production company or you mess up the rings of power if you're on that side of the fence, if you're watching that side too.

Nathan Mumm:

So somehow they're going to be a startup again.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, this is just a bunch of.

Nathan Mumm:

You know what startups have. Normally, everybody working there has a piece of the company, so they all have something invested in it. That means you're working not 40 hours a week, you're working 90 hours a week.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, you're working a ton of the time. That is your life.

Nathan Mumm:

You've given everything else up to go there and work to make that job be successful. That's what a startup is yeah.

Mike Gorday:

I'm not sure what this guy is thinking, but maybe smoking a little 420 on the Seattle streets heavy-handed and more ridiculous. I think a lot of times we do these measures because we want to think we're in control and by having your employees there five days a week, it's going to give you that feeling of control.

Nathan Mumm:

I just gave one of my employees an extra day to work from home because when he's in the office he gets more distracted and he can't spend his time coding. So he now has an additional day. I say stay the heck away from the office, because if you're at the office. You're getting office politics, you get office questions and answers, which are great to be in, but he can't be as productive, so I told him to take an extra day.

Mike Gorday:

We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion and stuff like this. What we don't really talk about is that the world of work is primarily an extroverted society, and these are people that like other people and they like getting together and talking. And then there's a significant portion of introverts that they can't deal with other people. It's not because they don't like them, it's just that they work better in environments that are quiet and have a little distraction.

Nathan Mumm:

So Amazon's AI on the AI spectrum seems to be coming up and there's some concerns that it may actually get as good as chat GPT. So that's probably from a lot of introverts working from home coming up with concepts of how they can compete. But I'll continue on. I'm sure they have some exceptions right that they're going to allow.

Mike Gorday:

No, he's basically saying we want to go back to pre-pandemic standards and it will be quote unquote understood if an employee has an exceptional circumstance, like a child who is homesick, or a home emergency or time spent on the road meeting with clients or partners.

Nathan Mumm:

So it's basically saying hey we don't like the way the pandemic changed our society.

Mike Gorday:

We're going back to the way it was and you better deal with it. Okay, and I'm going to say that there's probably going to be a lot of people who leave the company, because when you make changes like this, it really creates a lot of stress and a lot of problems.

Nathan Mumm:

So you see, you know Microsoft and again, I'm a Microsoft.

Nathan Mumm:

Yes, we all know, Hero I work there but so they've already had this process where they had everybody come on back already, and they came really strong when they came back with this about six to eight months ago, when they said, okay, we want everybody back in, and then they relaxed it, which is such a smart leader way and how to do something is you kind of come on strong, you say you're going to do this, but I would never attach it to layoffs. So Microsoft's laying off a bunch of people right now in the Xbox game division, all across the company, and they're not making big news because they didn't say hey, come back to the office, and if you don't come back to the office, we're going to fire you.

Mike Gorday:

Is that how you interpret it? Absolutely, that's what I would read absolutely out of Amazon's thing I think a lot of people probably did too.

Nathan Mumm:

I think that was probably strategically decided to send it that way in email communication.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, it's. You know, my opinion of corporate America is very negative.

Nathan Mumm:

It's a little bit on that curve.

Mike Gorday:

Corporate feudalism.

Nathan Mumm:

Story number four I have a follow-up story that we talked about Whoa.

Mike Gorday:

Are you sure? Are you kidding me?

Nathan Mumm:

I got all choked up over that Amazon story. I guess, we have a follow-up story that we talked about two years ago ahead of the mainstream media. Now this story. I guess we have a follow-up story that we talked about two years ago ahead of the mainstream media. Now this is a follow-up to the TechTime radio announcement where we said Apple AirPods were looking at having a possibility of becoming a hearing aid. Do you know what the cost of a standard hearing aid is nowadays? A?

Mike Gorday:

single.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, they're a lot of money $3,500 to $5,000 is the standard cost of a hearing.

Mike Gorday:

And they're not covered by insurance.

Nathan Mumm:

They're not covered by insurance, so you have to get it on yourself. They do have like skin colors that they blend in, so it's not as sticking out as it used to be. But the fda has approved for some apple airpods to be used as hearing aids. What's funny is these apple airpods you can get for 199 3 $499 are actually better acoustic speakers for you to listen in than it would be on most hearing aids. The technology they have built into them are superior than the technology that's built into the hearing aid itself. Now this will only work for the AirPods Pro 2 earbuds and iOS 18 compatible iPhones or iPads, and I think Odie's upgrading to iOS 18 right now as we speak.

Nathan Mumm:

It's attended for adults 18 or older, but more than 30 million American adults have some degree of hearing loss, but only one in six Americans have a hearing impairment. Between the ages of 20 and 69 actually use hearing aids due to the high cost. You just said that Lack of accessibility, poor customer satisfaction, the stigma of having a hearing aid. According to the National Council on Aging, hearing aids may boost longevity Studies find. Researchers show that if left untreated, hearing loss can increase the risk of social isolation, depression, cognitive decline. Meanwhile, other studies suggest using hearing aids may reduce the frequencies of severity for those with health problems and older adults. So, essentially, hearing aids are a good thing to have in society if you need assisted hearing, with the new feature, apple AirPod owners will be able to check their hearing at home through a five-minute test and adjust their sound settings based on their hearing. Your Apple Pods Pro will transform into a personalized hearing aid, boosting the specific sounds you need to hear in real time, like parts of speech or elements within your environment.

Nathan Mumm:

Apple said so. We talked about this two years ago said this would be a good idea. The FDA has approved it. This is going to be huge. You know what? There is not a stigma with having an Apple AirPod in your ear.

Ody:

Well, I was just about to say I am so excited for teens to abuse this. Okay, because a big thing that my cousins are now dealing with. They're all in high school and they don't want to take their AirPods out. They find it ridiculous. Why should I take my AirPod out Now? They have this excuse of oh well, it helps me here. That's what I'm so excited for. You still have to have an app.

Mike Gorday:

You still have to have an app In order to have an accommodation, you have to have something to accommodate.

Ody:

Right, but as a teacher, you're not allowed to. You know, kids nowadays are so protected by their parents Like, oh, why are you going to take away?

Mike Gorday:

my AirPods. There's still procedures you have to follow.

Ody:

Oh, of course, but they're going to. Yeah, there's teacher. You know what, if I?

Nathan Mumm:

was a teacher. If you want to have your AirPods in, have them in.

Mike Gorday:

And if you're not paying attention to what I'm lecturing you on and you don't have the tools to collect the information, then best on you for a test. You know we can't change the system, but this is like people abusing the assisted animal or assisted animal thing Exactly.

Ody:

Thank you, okay. Yeah, it'll be fun.

Mike Gorday:

There are ways around it and there are ways to confront it.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, our four stories went a little longer than normal, but that ends our top technology stories of the week. Moving on, we have our letter segment up next with a fishing attempt, not on a boat, but in real life. That actually almost had me click on the link itself. We're going to take a commercial break. We'll see you after this.

Speaker 7:

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Nathan Mumm:

Well, welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan. Our weekly show covers the top technology subjects without any political agenda. We verify the facts and we do it with a sense of humor, in less than 60 minutes and, of course, with a little whiskey on the side. Today, mark Gregoire, our whiskey connoisseur, is away, so we have our producer, odie, filling in Odie what are we tasting today?

Ody:

We're tasting from Proof and Wood's website the barrel-proof straight rye whiskey aged a minimum of six years in a new charred oak barrels. Bottled at barrel-proof to showcase the bold rye flavors, which are described as a nutty palate with notes of toffee, orange peel, herbs and light tobacco, with chocolate, brownies and blackberry emerging with water I don't know if I get any uh brownies or or blackberries, but I do taste the smoke in there well that's good, you know that's good?

Mike Gorday:

I really don't know where all these other flavors come from, but you know here are the stats the company is proof and wood ventures distillation.

Ody:

Distillation is sourced from mgp in lawrenceburg, indiana. Classification is a straight rye aging of six years with 123.3 proof. Mash bill is 95 rye and five percent malted barley with a price of 80 on the market 80 on the market.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, I know, I know you're not a straight rye fan.

Mike Gorday:

No, this is definitely a straight rye.

Nathan Mumm:

And it has that whole taste to it.

Mike Gorday:

And I totally get rye. I remember why I don't like rye.

Nathan Mumm:

You don't like rye. I have already tasted this pre-show. I'm sorry, I tasted it. You're a pre-taster, we all know I tasted the pre show a couple of days ago and I liked it really a lot, and so it has not changed my taste. I will be interested to see, when I leave it out, if it tastes differently throughout our show itself, because the last time I had it was kind of just a shot and I continued on.

Ody:

So you're going to have to listen to the mumbles for that.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, ok. Well, with our first whiskey tasting completed, let's move on to our feature segment. Today we bring back the funny yet informative reading of emails that I received during the week. This includes scam, phishing emails and all out mistruths disguised as legitimate emails. Back back those letters. Oh, letters, we get letters, and the letters all have fun. All right, I'm going to go first on the letters, then Mike and Odie will end us out.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, I got an email here from David Guest. David Guest's email is not David, though it's Franz at OutboundSolution something number, number, number, number, numberorg. So that always makes me feel a little bit.

Ody:

That's so secure, so secure, you know when you add numbers into your domain nameorg.

Nathan Mumm:

But you know what? I think David's trying to get in touch with me, really, really well, here's the email I got. To make sure I read it exactly as it says here. So, nathan, I've recorded a two-minute for you on how you can attract 60 Poe users. So I don't know who Poe users are, or two, I think it's supposed to be two minutes.

Speaker 4:

That's poor users. What's?

Nathan Mumm:

that Poor, poor users.

Mike Gorday:

Okay.

Nathan Mumm:

That's what we say in the South Poe Okay, in 60 days and you pay, zero Mind if I send it, no Mind I if send it over here.

Mike Gorday:

I'm pretty sure that that would be a very good indicator that this is a phishing email.

Nathan Mumm:

It could. Now, at the very bottom, I guess he tried to get a hold of me because he replied to his message that he tried to get a hold of me the first time, but he didn't include any of the reply stuff. He just decided to cut and paste stuff in there because normally if you have a reply you have a whole subject down there a reply.

Mike Gorday:

So he replied to his email as if you replied to his email.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, and I didn't reply to it. So it was kind of like we had already had a conversation that said that I was very urgent in learning how I could attract 60 new users. So I responded back to him in an email, which I didn't. So, david Guest, best of luck, you need to spend a little bit more time. You can use ChatGPT to help you on your letter.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, let's not give them any hints there, buddy.

Ody:

Do they not know about Grammarly?

Nathan Mumm:

Grammarly, chatgpt, I mean, there's a thousand things out there.

Ody:

nowadays there's no effort done.

Mike Gorday:

I'm going to say something that's going to be very awful.

Ody:

Do it.

Mike Gorday:

Okay that, no matter how bad that is, they still scam people with it.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, of course they do. That's. The worst thing is that it's going to have me. They're offering clients if I just engage with them once I engage with them. Once I engage with them. Who knows what happens there, but they're always. I'm a struggling business.

Mike Gorday:

They're hoping for. I can get 60 new clients for free, and then I've set up a time to talk with them.

Nathan Mumm:

Yep, it's unfortunate but that will actually work.

Mike Gorday:

He would get more if he were better literate. Maybe, If he's targeting an English audience, of course. So there we go.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, Mike, so you have a big winner.

Mike Gorday:

This is this is a big, this is a big email. This is the one, this is the one that almost got you.

Nathan Mumm:

This is the. I actually clicked on this link.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, so this is from e-sign service. E-sign automated voice. E-sign service. E-sign automated voice. Notice a long, long, long string of letters and numbers. Alex at foxtonbudcom.

Nathan Mumm:

I did not click on the email address. I did not see who it was from and the from came on up and it looked like it was a real DocuSign signature that was coming on in.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, this has a DocuSign tag on it. It says view completed document. You said that it looked like they were using the DocuSign logo.

Nathan Mumm:

All the links everything looked pretty darn good and I actually clicked the link here.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, what happened when you clicked?

Nathan Mumm:

the link it sent me to a hijacked Google site, which then replicated my Office 365 login Now. So DocuSign is not Office 365.

Mike Gorday:

No, docusign is its own thing.

Nathan Mumm:

But what it did is it replicated my name, my user login, all the fields in there. It did such a good job that I took back and I said what is it doing? What email did I just click on? I thought it was a DocuSign document that I was looking for. Why is the 360 login there?

Nathan Mumm:

Now, if they would have actually done a 360 thing, you know what they may have got me to actually input a password, and then I would have realized after two or three times of logging in that I had the right password and it didn't come on up. It was that good and I forwarded this to a bunch of other technicians and they've all looked at it and they said okay, Nathan, if you look at the email address, it should have triggered it. But they actually clicked on the links and the links were impressive enough for them that one of them, a cybersecurity individual, says that the time that this company or person put into this was probably directed at myself specifically because it had my username and password in there, that it was probably a good hour to two hours worth of time and effort to have social engineered me to get me to click on that link and almost put in my information.

Mike Gorday:

Well, what happened after that? I know I clicked the link.

Nathan Mumm:

You clicked the link. I sent it to all of you guys who clicked the link. Google it was reported to Google. Google that was the application form that people were using to fill this out pulled it down, told everybody that it was no longer accessible, and so if you click on the link now, it's a dead link, but when it was active it was good enough to get, if you're in a rush, a very good cyber criminal.

Mike Gorday:

Yep, this is how they get you. They're taking advantage of your psychology.

Nathan Mumm:

I was anticipating a document to get signed and the document just so happened to come into my inbox. I'm anticipating a document to get signed and the document just so happened to come into my inbox. I'm like, okay, this must've been the document I talked with somebody else about and I was ready to go.

Mike Gorday:

There you go.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, so be careful. All right, Odie. Last one goes to you. What do we have for your letters?

Ody:

We have um an email from postmaster at mgcryptopiarescuecom on behalf of. American Express.

Nathan Mumm:

Uh-oh.

Ody:

So it says this is a secure, encrypted message with a reference number C-blah blah blah. Dear card member, you have new message from American Express Encryption Technology. View your message a big button Pending credit will be posted after your approval. Regret any convenience you may have experienced. Thank you for the opportunity to assist in this manner.

Nathan Mumm:

Sincerely, american express okay, so on behalf of they have up there on behalf, on behalf. They didn't hide their email address no so chase people do this with chase people do this with Chase People do this with all the banks, Wells Fargo's, everybody that are out there, all the banks they kind of put in on behalf of, and what happens is some of these companies use third-party providers to send out these email notifications Banks there's two banks that are out there that specifically have been used to target this from other individuals. And guess what happens?

Ody:

People click it, people click it and think that it's available.

Nathan Mumm:

Financial items are big concerns and everybody wants to somehow get money. The scams that are out there for people to click on either accounts, the verified transactions get everybody each and every day. So the moral of the story is be careful what you click on. Do not be in a rush. When you click on an email in a rush, you're going to have a lot more time that you need to spend to verify it than if you would have just waited and clicked on it later. Yeah, it's okay to be late on emails. Don't click on them immediately. If someone needs to get a hold of you, they'll figure out a way to get a hold of you.

Mike Gorday:

It's inevitable that you will, all these unfortunately, have an inevitability factor, because all of us have low points where we're not paying enough attention or we have too much other stuff going on, or we're way stressed out and we just don't want to deal with things.

Nathan Mumm:

Or anticipating something.

Mike Gorday:

Or we're looking for it. We're looking for a thing and it just happens to come into our inbox and we were expecting something, so we just go into automatic pilot mode.

Ody:

And all it needs is just the one time, just the one time, yep, just one time, and whatever you do, don't get on the phone conversation with anybody from a support.

Nathan Mumm:

If you ever hear anybody in a support call and you hear a bunch of background noise, if it's a professional company, they will not use a call center that has background noise. They try to isolate their agents in soundproof areas. Even Comcast and these big multi-conglomerates aren't going to have a whole background noise to be there. So all right, there you go. That ends our segment letters. Now let's move on to our Mike's mesmerizing moment. Welcome to Mike's mesmerizing moment. What does Mike have to say today? Mike, is social media good for teenagers at all, or should we limit this to adults only? Mike, is social media good for teenagers at all, or should we limit this to adults only?

Mike Gorday:

Why don't we talk about whether I think that is social media good for anybody?

Nathan Mumm:

Well, is social media good for anybody?

Mike Gorday:

No, I don't think so. I, I, I. We have seen that social media is. The benefits of social media far are far outweighed by the problems that social media has has given us. You know, it's like I need to get from A to B destination quick, so I'm going to wade through the sewer to get there.

Mike Gorday:

OK that's, that's kind of how it how it plays out. I don't think it's good for teenagers, I don't think it's good for children, I don't necessarily think it's good for adults, but because adults are supposed to have more rational skills, we can argue that Okay.

Nathan Mumm:

You don't think it's good for teenagers.

Mike Gorday:

I don't think it's good for anybody. I think this sort of idea that we've got going. Like I said earlier, these systems were built to addict you to them. They were built and whether it was something they figured out right up front or they just started seeing patterns and started looking at the way those patterns were playing out and then kept repeating those systems so that the patterns would repeat, they have created a monster system that will grab your attention and then it will do everything it possibly can to hold it, and we are getting inundated with all kinds of information that we don't need.

Mike Gorday:

And not just teenagers are suffering mentally, mental health wise either.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

Um. So our adults. We just have different ways of coping.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, odie, question for you.

Ody:

Yeah.

Nathan Mumm:

If you didn't have social media as a teenager, would that have been more positive on your life or negative, do you think? Yeah, think about it. We're going to go to the commercial break and you'll need to tell us when we come back. All right, we'll see you in just a few moments. Hey, mike, yeah what's up, hey, so you know what. We need people to start liking our social media page, if you like our show.

Mike Gorday:

If you really like us, we could use your support on Patreoncom. Or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon, Okay Patreoncom. Or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon, Okay Patreon, If you really like us.

Nathan Mumm:

You can like us in.

Mike Gorday:

Patreoncom.

Nathan Mumm:

I butcher the English language. You know, you butcher the English language all the time. It's Patreoncom, patreoncom.

Mike Gorday:

If you really like our show, you can subscribe to Patreoncom and help us out.

Nathan Mumm:

And you can visit us on that Facebook platform. You know the one that Zuckerberg owns, the one that we always bag on. Yeah, we're on Facebook too. Yeah, like us on Facebook. Do you know what our Facebook page is? Tech Time Radio. At Tech Time Radio. You know what? There's a trend here.

Mike Gorday:

It seems to be that there's a trend and that's Tech Time Radio, or you can even Instagram with us, and that's at TechTimeRadio.

Nathan Mumm:

That's at TechTimeRadio. Or you can find us on TikTok, and it's TechTimeRadio. It's at TechTimeRadio.

Mike Gorday:

Like and subscribe to our social media Like us today we need you to like us. Like us and subscribe.

Nathan Mumm:

That's it. That's it, it's that simple.

Speaker 1:

And now let's look back at this week in technology.

Nathan Mumm:

We're going all the way in the way back machine to September 14th 1956. The first commercial hard drive was created. The IBM 350 disk storage unit model one was announced, which was the first commercial storage unit to use a magnetic disk storage the technology behind hard disk drives. About the size of two refrigerators and weighing in at one ton, the 350 could store about four to five megabytes depending on how it was calculated. Now the 350 disk storage unit was designed to replace the punch card tube file system, which was the primary means of storing repeated access data until the creation of the hard drive. That was this week in technology. If you ever wanted to watch some Tech Time history, with over 200 weekly broadcasts spanning five plus years of video, podcasts and blog information, you can visit techtimeradiocom to watch these older shows. We're going to take a commercial break, but when we return we have the Mark Mumble Whiskey Review. See you after this break.

Speaker 4:

Hello, my name is Arthur and my life's work is connecting people with coffee. Story Coffee is a small batch specialty coffee company that uses technology to connect people to each product resource, which allows farmers to unlock their economic freedom. Try our Medium Roast Founder Series Coffee, which is an exotic bourbon variety that is smooth, fresh and elegant. At storycoffeecom that's S-T-O-R-I coffeecom. Today you can get your first bag free when you subscribe at storycoffeecom with code TECHTIME. That's S-T-O-R-I coffeecom.

Speaker 1:

The segment.

Mike Gorday:

We've been waiting all week for Mark's Whiskey Mumble. I'm going to talk about your math skills. Here we go.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. What do we have for us? Odie Mark.

Ody:

Well, real quick. Oh, I like that. Okay, real quick. Do you know what today is?

Nathan Mumm:

I have no clue what today is Well, get ready for this.

Speaker 7:

We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, all right.

Nathan Mumm:

So that sounds like schoolhouse rock. Is it schoolhouse rock day? Is it schoolhouse rock?

Ody:

day. It's Constitution Day. Oh, so that was the preamble, courtesy of schoolhouse rock.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay. Which you know we all loved growing up, I'm just a bill sitting on a hill Anyway.

Ody:

So today honors the document that guarantees Americans their essential rights. Since its ratification in 1787, the Constitution of the United States has served as the basis for all US laws, like your bill has served as the basis for all US laws, like your bill. To prevent the abuses of power they felt subjugated to under the British monarchy, the Founding Fathers framed the Constitution carefully distributing power between three branches of government. One of the branches of the government is the legislative branch, which includes the senators.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, the senators.

Ody:

Today's whiskey, the Senator, is released by proof and wood ventures. They are interesting because they source all their whiskey and age it themselves. Their name comes from the two things they control as a blender and finisher of fine spirits, and the two things that are incredibly important to any spirit's flavor the proof it's bottled at and the wood of the barrel they age it in. What does Mark think of the whiskey?

Nathan Mumm:

I'm sure Mark likes this whiskey. I'm going to take a guess he does. You think he does?

Mike Gorday:

He likes rye.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, I think he likes it.

Mike Gorday:

He's at least okay with it.

Nathan Mumm:

It's not going to be a top shelf, but it's going to be his mid-shelf type of deal.

Ody:

When he first opened it, the neck pour was hot and overly spicy, strong on the ethanol and low on flavor. However, going back to it after it has sat on the shelf for a few weeks, it is a different story. The burn has smoothed out and the baking spices are popping out. With a little mint it has turned into a nice pour, better than a cocktail mixer. But no, nathan, not on his top shelf, yet on his shelf. So you were right.

Nathan Mumm:

That's right, there you go this is a rye lovers sipper there you go. That is exactly correct. Yeah, I like rye. This would be perfect if I'm smoking a cigar outside.

Mike Gorday:

It's making me cough. Was that it's making me cough? It's making you cough?

Nathan Mumm:

I like this. I can already it's got that strong hint. This is the whiskey I like.

Ody:

If I was just to have whiskey, just like this, a nice straight rye, so you liked it. What's that? You liked it? I love this. Wait for the whiskey, I really am not sold on that buddy what's?

Mike Gorday:

that Based on the faces you make with stuff that's similar.

Nathan Mumm:

Well make with stuff that's similar.

Mike Gorday:

He's a proud American. He's a proud American.

Ody:

He's a proud American and he wants to honor the senator Single barrel proof.

Mike Gorday:

There's nothing more American than rye whiskey.

Nathan Mumm:

Odie, thanks for the mumble, as always. Whiskey and technology what a great pairing, just like Apple in a new product launch every year. Are you going to ask her the question? Yeah, we're going to go right here. That was the part to end. So I asked a question that we let into Social media. You were a teenager that grew up on social media. Would you rather have had it now, as you become an adult? So if you got rid of it, would you be better never to have had social media? Or did social media contribute in your life? Do you think in a positive way?

Ody:

oh, I do think that I contributed in a positive way, but it has more negatives than positives.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, in my eyes so if you didn't have it, you would have felt left out and missed out?

Ody:

oh, of course, okay, but do you watch television?

Nathan Mumm:

okay, you do watch.

Ody:

So I did up Not anymore because of streaming, but you know.

Nathan Mumm:

I just didn't know if maybe that's where you got your news as a teenager and found out everything that was going on.

Ody:

I got my news at school.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, see, I don't even have to say anything, she said it for me. What's that? It has some positives, but it has more negatives.

Ody:

I don't know I, but it has more negatives, I don't know. I think of it because I didn't grow up with bullying or anything, but my siblings and cousins did, and it was a big thing for them that they had to have their phone taken away, that they were excluded from friend groups or they were doxxed online. I never went through that, but that only happened because of social media, so All right, yeah.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, you know what?

Ody:

Thank you so much.

Nathan Mumm:

Let's prepare now for our technology fail of the week. We are out of time. Congratulations, you're a failure.

Speaker 3:

Oh.

Speaker 1:

I failed. Did I yes, did I yes Did.

Nathan Mumm:

I yes. All right, somebody just ask a generic question how much is your DNA and privacy worth? Well, according to a company, 23andme, they view every person's DNA and privacy at about $100.

Mike Gorday:

Isn't that how much it takes to do the thing?

Nathan Mumm:

I think it is about the same price. So I guess, however much you pay into it, I guess is how much they value your privacy and DNA data, because 23andMe has agreed to pay $30 million to set a lawsuit over the company's data breach that ensnared 6.4 million users last year.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, yeah, let's do math yeah, $30 million. He's horrible at math. $30 million for 6.4 million users. Yep. Do math yeah, 30 million. He's horrible at math. 30 million for 6.4 million users Yep, all right now. Well, we got some good stuff On Friday, I got the numbers I got.

Nathan Mumm:

the DNA testing company filed a court document supporting a settlement that the company called the settlement was fair, adequate and reasonable and told that it intended to settle all US claims according to last year's breach which exposed customer data on 23andMe to a hacker. The attackers pulled this off by first breaching 14,000 accounts and then exploiting the service's optional DNA relatives feature to access the profiles of millions of other users. The breach became evident after the hacker tried to sell the stolen DNA-related information in a forum at $10,000 for 10,000 user profiles. To break this down, that's simply $1 for your DNA and personal information from 23andMe. Now, according to the court documents, a $30 million settlement doesn't look like it will result in a payment to all affected victims.

Nathan Mumm:

The settlement which needs final court approval a payment to all affected victims. The settlement which needs final court approval proposes offering $10,000 for the funds of users who fell for an extraordinary claim, meaning that they demonstrated what the breach caused them to suffer financial fraud. Meanwhile, at least 25% of the $30 million will go towards paying attorney fees. Other users only entitled to $100 in payment. Those include 23andMe customers based in Alaska, california, illinois or Oregon which have genetic privacy laws with damages provisions built in. So they already have damage provisions built in.

Nathan Mumm:

that the maximum you can believe in it in Alaska, california, illinois or Oregon can get is $100. That's all you get. So if you get compromised, the company only has to pay you $100. All right, so our big technology fail goes to 23andMe, not only for giving the DNA out of everybody that has provided a test, but then deciding that your data is only worth $100. All right, now let's go to our Nathan Nugget. This is your Nugget of the Week, all right? Do you know? We're losing our digital history.

Mike Gorday:

Yes, we've talked about this before. The internet is dying.

Nathan Mumm:

The internet is dying. Chat bots, ai bots, are taking groups of information and deciding to provide information for users, and websites are disappearing.

Nathan Mumm:

Listen to this A quarter of all web pages that existed at some point between 2013 and 2023 now don't A quarter of all web pages have disappeared and, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center, a think-based group in Washington DC, which raised the alarm of our disappearing digital history, digital history Researchers found the problem is more acute that the older web pages is. 38% of web pages that Pew tried to access existed in 2013, no longer function. But it's also more of an issue of recent publications Some 8% of web pages published at some point in 2023 were gone by October of the same year. What's concerning here is that there's no formalized public effort to document the web. The Internet Archive has become a critical piece of digital infrastructure. They have the Wayback Machine and other would take screenshots of information, but none of the subpages, webpages, articles or informations have been stored. So if you want to go and visit a website now, you can visit the Wayback Machine project or you can look at what is being done for our new Internet Archive Project, which is going to go and create records of those that have had web pages in the 21st century. On. Now, a few other organizations, big and small, like the US Library of Congress, for example, preserves government websites, the sites of Congress members and a collection of US news sites, but the Library of Congress isn't able to find out all of the items globally.

Nathan Mumm:

The United States has done a good job according to Keeping Records of Web, but the whole Internet as a whole has not. It's essentially a firehose of information and material, says Hicks. It's essentially a fire hose of information and material, says Hicks. He says it doesn't make sense to try to catch everything up with this fire hose, but we'll see what we can do at a resource standpoint to document the web. Now it's interesting because we don't have people really writing books as much as historians did back in the 18th century, 1800s and the 1900s. Even where you had people writing journals, writing documents, publishing books of information, everything went to the Internet for businesses and personal blogs and information. People haven't kept those.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah. Yes, it's not a good thing. They'd be gone forever. Yeah, it is, there's going to be a gap.

Nathan Mumm:

I guarantee it. All right. Well, now let's do our pick of the day.

Ody:

The Senator's Single Barrel Proof Company is Proof Wooden Venture sourced in Lawrenceburg, indiana, aged six years. What do you guys think?

Nathan Mumm:

Nope.

Ody:

Thumbs up or thumbs down.

Nathan Mumm:

Thumbs down. Okay, gorday's down, I'm doing a thumbs up.

Mike Gorday:

Yours doesn't count twice.

Ody:

You don't? No? Well, no, but he did tell me on the way in that he liked it, I did, I know.

Mike Gorday:

We know Nathan is a pre-tester Right, that's right, I am Anyway.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, we did miss Mark for being in the studio, but Odie did a great job taking care of it. What's funny is that I did kind of figure it would be a middle shelf whiskey.

Ody:

Yeah, I was surprised that you figured that out.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, I kind of got his read down. He kind of likes his buttery. If it's a buttery taste in whiskey, that's his type. If it's a little bit too much, he's not All right. Well, Mike, did you have a good time today? Sure, let's thank all of our listeners. Join us next week where Bites collide, circuits sing and geeks reign supreme, and geeks reign supreme. I'm your host, Nathan Mumm. See you next week. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm moment today. In technology. The fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom and join our fan list for the most important aspect of staying connected and winning some really great monthly prizes. We also have a few other ways to stay connected, including subscribing to our podcast on any podcast service from Apple to Google and everything in between. We're also on YouTube, so check us out on youtubecom. Slash tech time radio. All one word. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did making it for you. From all of us at tech time radio Remember mom's the word. Have a safe and fantastic week.

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