hdmi

Since Brad just went through the new-TV-buying-and-setup process (for someone else), we decided it was time for us to look past our classic plasmas and take stock of the modern TV landscape. In this ep we attempt to casually dissect HDMI 2.1 features and HDR standards, and think about why format wars are never going away, which legacy audio connector is getting short shrift these days, why everything is labeled "8K" all of a sudden, when to buy an OLED, and a bunch more.

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

This week in InfoSec (09:55)

With content liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account and further afield

12th January 1996: Apple posts major loss

Apple Computer announces that it will post a US$68 million first quarter loss. It also announces a restructuring plan to reduce the company by a thousand employees. This event leads to the resignation of Apple CEO Michael Spindler, who is replaced by Gil Amelio. Gil Amelio eventually purchases Steve Jobs’ company, NeXT, which leads to the development of Mac OS X as well as the return of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO.

9th January 2007: Apple introduces iPhone

Apple introduces the iPhone at Macworld. The phone wasn’t available for sale until June 29th, prompting one of the most heavily anticipated sales launches in the history of technology. Apple sold 1.4 million iPhones in 2007, steadily increasing each year to sell over 230 million in 2015 alone

Rant of the Week (17:25)

Royal Mail, cops probe 'cyber incident' that's knackered international mail

Royal Mail confirmed a "cyber incident" has disrupted its ability to send letters and packages abroad, and also caused some delays on post coming into the UK.

The postal service, and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre and National Crime Agency, issued similar statements about the IT SNAFU on Wednesday, with Royal Mail advising customers to stop sending international mail until it fixed the problem.

"We're experiencing disruption to our international export services and are temporarily unable to dispatch items to overseas destinations," the organisation tweeted. "We strongly advise customers to hold any export items while we work to resolve the issue." 

Royal Mail added it was "sorry for any disruption this may cause," and would not comment further. This is a developing story; we'll keep you updated as we confirm any other details.

Lockbit Ransomware - It was Russia!

Royal Mail hit by Russia-linked ransomware attack

Billy Big Balls of the Week (27:24)

VALL-E AI can mimic a person’s voice from a three-second snippet

Microsoft researchers are working on a text-to-speech (TTS) model that can mimic a person's voice – complete with emotion and intonation – after a mere three seconds of training.

The technology – called VALL-E and outlined in a 15-page research paper released this month on the arXiv research site – is a significant step forward for Microsoft. TTS is a highly competitive niche that includes other heavyweights such as Google, Amazon, and Meta.

Redmond is already using artificial intelligence for natural language processing (NLP) through its Nuance business – which it bought for $20 billion last year including both speech recognition and TTS technology. And it's aggressively investing in and using technology from startup OpenAI – including its ChatGPT tool – possibly in its Bing search engine and its Office suite of applications.

A demo of VALL-E can be found on GitHub.

Semi-related - Microsoft Will Likely Invest $10 billion for 49 Percent Stake in OpenAI

This after the report by The Information about how Microsoft plans to integrate ChatGPT and GPT-4 into its software bundles like Word, Outlook, Bing and so forth.

Industry News (33:40)

UK Charities Offered Free Cyber Essentials Support

US Supreme Court Allows WhatsApp to Sue NSO Group

Sensitive Files From San Francisco Transit Police Allegedly Leaked

GitHub Adds Features to Automate Vulnerability Code Scanning

New APT Dark Pink Hits Asia-Pacific, Europe With Spear Phishing Tactics

Royal Mail Halts International Deliveries After Cyber-Incident

Twitter: Leak of 200 Million Accounts Not Due to Historic Bug

Google Chrome 'SymStealer' Vulnerability Could Affect 2.5 Billion Users

The Guardian Confirms UK Staff Data Was Accessed in Ransomware Attack

Tweet of the Week (42:50)

https://twitter.com/IanColdwater/status/1613690189246828544

Come on! Like and bloody well subscribe!

Summer may be over, but we're still here and ready to answer the hot questions from you, the listener. This month we field everything from automating household chores to HDMI-CEC woes, that time one of the Mythbusters (guess who!) built a buzzsaw-equipped drone of death, our dream interviews from throughout history, 140-year-old fire safe technology, a preemptive year-end performance review, plus other stuff!

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Many low voltage installers and companies shy away from AV work. They fear it is too complicated or needs a programmer. This week we bring in Kevin Davidson RCDD,  talks about what is AV, why many fear getting into AV, and how to do a design. We finish the episode with questions submitted via TikTok live stream. 

Knowledge is power! Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling . Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com

Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH
#CBRCDD #RCDD

The weather is getting frigid (at least some places), and that means one thing: it's time for us to deliver another cube of cold opens. This time around we tackle everything from long-term Christmas tree planning to VPN strategies, the perils of teaching your child to use a can opener, freeing A Charlie Brown Christmas in the public interest, to haircut or not to haircut, the TSA's extreme aversion to coffee, and making enough egg nog to bathe in.

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

It's been nine years since Will's last big house cleanup, and the time has come once again to discuss... THE PURGE (of all his stuff). In the interest of general decluttering, this ep is a rambling consideration of such topics as: What should you do with all your fancy Lego builds? Is it better to hoard stuff, or data? Can you dig a basement under a house that already exists? How many USB cables does a person need, anyway?

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

If you're looking for our monthly Q&A ep, you've found it! This time around we consider such listener-provided topics as questionable soap-on-soap interactions, discerning frame rate by eye, dot-com-era layoffs, the legacy and contemporary influence of Neuromancer, software broadcast over the radio, and HDMI over, uh, coat hangers?

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Very special guest Vinny Caravella joins us this week for a wide-ranging chat about his years of video production, juggling cameras in the early days of Whiskey Media, a love letter to analog signals, the infamous List of Terminated HDMI Adopters, a consideration of codecs and protocols past and present, and more. From logging tapes to crimping SDI cables, there's a lot in here!

These HDMI adopters have been... terminated: https://www.hdmi.org/adopter/terminated

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Following up on our software unitasker ep from a few weeks ago, we're now moving into the physical realm. This week we run down a few of our favorite devices, trinkets, and doodads that make it just a little bit easier to get things done.

Here's a quick list of the stuff we mentioned on this ep which should be easy to search for:

Brad

Genki Covert Dock by Human Things
Retractable cables (Digital Ant's look pretty good)
Charging station (bamboo or other)
Articulated HDMI extenders (Monoprice is a good bet for these)

Will

Anker Multiport USB Chargers  
MagSafe-like USB cables - Digital Ant Gen-X Micro
A good headlamp - Black Diamond Spot 325
USB-powered lights stuck under the bottom edge of your monitor
USB pantry/closet light Amico Motion Sensor Closet Light
Soldering extra hands - KOTTO Third Hands  
Unipod thingy for webcam/whatever - Dinkum Systems Action Pod Pro
Cable grabbers - Bluelounge CableDrop    
Nano bubble  grip surface

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

WFH? Turn your camera/camcorder into a webcam.

Leo Laporte explains how to wow your friends or coworkers on your next Zoom call, or produce live streaming videos for your favorite social network by using your mirrorless or DSLR camera as your webcam.

Cam Link: https://amzn.to/36gDvP5

Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini: https://amzn.to/2zbVVUW

Find the best Mirrorless Camera for your price range here: https://my.lustre.ai/bqnHk

Host: Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/ask-the-tech-guy

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