GeekNights Monday - Tech News Roundup April 2015

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, there's more tech news than we have time to talk about, so we focus on age-discrimination claims against Google, the launch of the iWatch, another victory for the Internet with the breakdown of the Comcast/TWC merger, the EU's misguided antitrust suit against Google, enemies of mine enemies fighting one another in the TV/cable network race toward grim death, and a turning point where robots are replacing migrant and seasonal labor in agriculture.

In other news, Rym finally bought a new phone and GeekNights will have one final hiatus next week while he is in Hong Kong before returning to our full regular schedule!

• Ingenious: David Krakauer
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Daikun

MrPeriod said:

launch of the iWatch

Luke Burrage

I like this lettuce harvesting robot:

"Means only half the people to do the same work at twice the speed, and they now work standing up in the shade, not hunched over in the sun. And they get paid 11 dollars an hour not 10 dollars an hour."

"Lettuce cutters rejoice!" Half of them, at least. Turns out they had to start using a robot due to not finding enough people willing to do the normal work for that pay.

SuperPichu

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

Rym

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

SuperPichu

Rym said:

» show previous quotes

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

open_sketchbook

Which is bizarre because when I got invited onto Friday Night Party Line/Acceptable Vices, things went super smooth and worked first try. When we tried this, I didn't even get their emails through gmail until after the stream was over.

Daikun

Just use Skype.

SuperPichu

Daikun said:

Just use Skype.

Skype can't do the on air part.

Rym

SuperPichu said:

» show previous quotes

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

Hangouts? Fuck that. We stream RTMP to a Google Live Event.

SuperPichu

Rym said:

» show previous quotes

SuperPichu said:

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

Hangouts? Fuck that. We stream RTMP to a Google Live Event.

You have everyone in one spot. I don't have that luxury.

Apreche

SuperPichu said:

» show previous quotes

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

Hangouts? Fuck that. We stream RTMP to a Google Live Event.

You have everyone in one spot. I don't have that luxury.

You can have multiple cameras on a live event.

SuperPichu

Apreche said:

» show previous quotes

SuperPichu said:

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

Hangouts? Fuck that. We stream RTMP to a Google Live Event.

You have everyone in one spot. I don't have that luxury.

You can have multiple cameras on a live event.

I may actually look into that then.

sK0pe

open_sketchbook said:

Which is bizarre because when I got invited onto Friday Night Party Line/Acceptable Vices, things went super smooth and worked first try. When we tried this, I didn't even get their emails through gmail until after the stream was over.

User error.

Dazzle369

Daikun said:

» show previous quotes

MrPeriod said:

launch of the iWatch

Apoo-wuch?

Apreche

I find it hilarious in this show that I said Twitter is not a real business.

And lo, I was right again. Confirmation bias proves I'm so smart!

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/28/twitters-earnings-report-leaks-on-twitter-an-hour-early/

George Patches

Apreche said:

I find it hilarious in this show that I said Twitter is not a real business.

And lo, I was right again. Confirmation bias proves I'm so smart!

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/28/twitters-earnings-report-leaks-on-twitter-an-hour-early/

Can someone in finance explain to me how hitting your revenue estimate by 95.5% equals "badly missing revenue estimates"?

Daikun

I raised over $400 million for my company. I'm a horrible business manager!

Rym

George Patches said:

» show previous quotes

Apreche said:

I find it hilarious in this show that I said Twitter is not a real business.

And lo, I was right again. Confirmation bias proves I'm so smart!

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/28/twitters-earnings-report-leaks-on-twitter-an-hour-early/

Can someone in finance explain to me how hitting your revenue estimate by 95.5% equals "badly missing revenue estimates"?

There are stated estimates, and investor expectations. Thus, there are "soft" estimates that feed directly into the stock price.

My industry is fucked up.

Cremlian

Dude our companies ratings were raised and our stock went down.

Hitman Hart

Rym said:

» show previous quotes

George Patches said:

Apreche said:

I find it hilarious in this show that I said Twitter is not a real business.

And lo, I was right again. Confirmation bias proves I'm so smart!

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/28/twitters-earnings-report-leaks-on-twitter-an-hour-early/

Can someone in finance explain to me how hitting your revenue estimate by 95.5% equals "badly missing revenue estimates"?

There are stated estimates, and investor expectations. Thus, there are "soft" estimates that feed directly into the stock price.

My industry is fucked up.

http://slashdot.org/story/275339

Yep!

Victor Frost

Rym said:

» show previous quotes

SuperPichu said:

Rym said:

SuperPichu said:

Laughed my ass off when you said Google's streaming stuff worked well. Eh @open_sketchbook?

What doesn't work well about it? I'm genuinely curious. ;^)

This may be a different system, but we had a hell of a time getting Hangouts On Air to work. I invited someone to an event and they didn't get the invite until about 45 minutes later.

Hangouts? Fuck that. We stream RTMP to a Google Live Event.

You guys have all your hosts in one physical location. If Churba, Nelson, and I were all in one place, I'd be streaming RTMP too. Hangouts is the easiest way for us right now.

Daikun

MrPeriod said:

another victory for the Internet with the breakdown of the Comcast/TWC merger

Now that Comcast is out of the picture, Charter is making another shot at buying TWC.

Apreche

Daikun said:

» show previous quotes

MrPeriod said:

another victory for the Internet with the breakdown of the Comcast/TWC merger

Now that Comcast is out of the picture, Charter is making another shot at buying TWC.

Well, I guess that's less monopoly-ish, but still bad. We need more competition in this market, not less.

Daikun

I'd like to see Google acquire TWC, then they can give TWC customers a boost with Google Fiber. It would also help with Fiber's expansion, which is currently moving at a snail's pace.

Cremlian

Always funny when the third biggest player is being the 2nd biggest player...

Apreche

Daikun said:

I'd like to see Google acquire TWC, then they can give TWC customers a boost with Google Fiber. It would also help with Fiber's expansion, which is currently moving at a snail's pace.

How about nobody buys it? How about we just split up the existing companies so there are more of them competing?

Banta

Apreche said:

» show previous quotes

Daikun said:

I'd like to see Google acquire TWC, then they can give TWC customers a boost with Google Fiber. It would also help with Fiber's expansion, which is currently moving at a snail's pace.

How about nobody buys it? How about we just split up the existing companies so there are more of them competing?

I'd be happy with forcing them to move in on each other's turf as well.

Daikun

It's been a while since we heard about the Google antitrust suit. They're likely to pay over 3 billion Euros for it.

Daikun

It's a done deal. Charter has bought TWC.