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We've got a very important issue to talk about this week. Apple wants to look at your private pictures. They've made such a big deal about privacy for years, so what's changed and why can't we trust them anymore? What have you done Tim Apple?
The Australian government really hasn't liked supporting the games industry, despite years of lobbying and studies into how great the industry is for the economy. Someone's finally got through to them and we'll be getting changes to tax and visas to help encourage AAA development.
Jason Mamoa thinks superheroes are like Greek mythology. Turns out the only reason he's joining the Scorsese comic genre battle is to remind everyone he wants to talk about climate change in his movies. Anyway, we all know his best role will be Duncan Idaho in Dune. It better not get delayed again
Apple’s controversial new child protection features
Australian Games Industry gets a Government Injection
Jason Mamoa’s take on superhero movies
Other topics discussed
Worst Cooks in America (an American reality television series that premiered on January 3, 2010, on Food Network. The show takes 12 to 16 contestants (referred to as "recruits") with very poor cooking skills through a culinary boot camp, to earn a cash prize of $25,000 and a Food Network cooking set.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst_Cooks_in_America
FBI–Apple encryption dispute (The FBI–Apple encryption dispute concerns whether and to what extent courts in the United States can compel manufacturers to assist in unlocking cell phones whose data are cryptographically protected. There is much debate over public access to strong encryption. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wanted Apple to create and electronically sign new software that would enable the FBI to unlock a work-issued iPhone 5C it recovered from one of the shooters who, in a December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, killed 14 people and injured 22.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_dispute
How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work in 2021? The Complete Guide
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-the-youtube-algorithm-works/
Perceptual hashing (the use of an algorithm that produces a snippet or fingerprint of various forms of multimedia. A perceptual hash is a type of locality-sensitive hash, which is analogous if features of the multimedia are similar.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_hashing
reCAPTCHA (a CAPTCHA system that enables web hosts to distinguish between human and automated access to websites. The original version asked users to decipher hard to read text or match images. Version 2 also asked users to decipher text or match images if the analysis of cookies and canvas rendering suggested the page was being downloaded automatically. reCAPTCHA is owned by Google.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA
The Shadow Brokers (a hacker group who first appeared in the summer of 2016. They published several leaks containing hacking tools, including several zero-day exploits, from the "Equation Group" who are widely suspected to be a branch of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Brokers
Electronic Frontier Foundation (The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet civil liberties.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation
WarGames (a 1983 American Cold War science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict and execute nuclear war against the Soviet Union.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
Hackers (a 1995 American crime film directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_(film)
Shodan (Shodan is the world's first search engine for Internet-connected devices. Discover how Internet intelligence can help you make better decisions.)
PhotoDNA (PhotoDNA creates a unique digital signature (known as a “hash”) of an image which is then compared against signatures (hashes) of other photos to find copies of the same image. When matched with a database containing hashes of previously identified illegal images, PhotoDNA is an incredible tool to help detect, disrupt and report the distribution of child exploitation material. PhotoDNA is not facial recognition software and cannot be used to identify a person or object in an image. A PhotoDNA hash is not reversible, and therefore cannot be used to recreate an image.)
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna
The Trauma Floor The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America
Mortal Kombat 11 Developer Was Diagnosed with PTSD Due to Graphic Violence
- https://segmentnext.com/mortal-kombat-11-developer-ptsd/
Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job
Artificial neural network (usually simply called neural networks (NNs), are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected units or nodes called artificial neurons, which loosely model the neurons in a biological brain.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network
Bob’s Burgers – The Snake Song
- https://genius.com/Bobs-burgers-the-snake-song-lyrics
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tvhw7jnYi0
Financial crisis of 2007–2008 (also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a severe worldwide economic crisis. Prior to the COVID-19 recession in 2020, it was considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008
Halfbrick Studios (Australian video game developer based in Brisbane. The company primarily worked on licensed games until 2008. The company released Fruit Ninja (2010) and Jetpack Joyride (2011).)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbrick_Studios
Untitled Goose Game (a 2019 puzzle stealth game developed by House House and published by Panic. Players control a goose who bothers the inhabitants of an English village. The player must use the goose's abilities to manipulate objects and non-player characters to complete objectives. It was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_Goose_Game
Fruit Ninja (a video game developed by Halfbrick. It was released April 21, 2010 for iPod Touch and iPhone devices, July 12, 2010 for the iPad, September 17, 2010 for Android OS devices.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_Ninja
Fiverr (Israeli online marketplace for freelance services. The company provides a platform for freelancers to offer services to customers worldwide.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiverr
Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Alleges Horrific Mistreatment Of Women
YongYea - Scummy Amazon Policy That Steals Employees' Personal Game Projects Dropped After Backlash From Devs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtKfutVFTI
Motion Picture Production Code (a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code
Breaking Bad (an American neo-Western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The show aired on AMC from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013, consisting of five seasons for a total of 62 episodes.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
‘Simpsons’ Episode Featuring Michael Jackson Kept Off Disney+
2012 (a 2009 American science fiction disaster film directed and written by Roland Emmerich. It was produced by Harald Kloser, Mark Gordon, and Larry J. Franco, and written by Kloser and Emmerich. The film stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thandiwe Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_(film)
Geostorm (a 2017 American science fiction disaster film directed, co-written, and co-produced by Dean Devlin (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris, and Andy García. It follows a satellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostorm
Volcano (a 1997 American disaster film directed by Mick Jackson, and produced by Andrew Z. Davis, Neal H. Moritz and Lauren Shuler Donner. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray, and is inspired by the 1943 formation of the Parícutin volcano in Paricutin, Mexico.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano_(1997_film)
Thanos (a genocidal warlord from Titan, whose own main objective was to bring stability to the universe by wiping out half of all life at every level, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe's entire supply of resources and condemn this. To complete this goal, Thanos set about hunting down all the Infinity Stones, being confident that the combined power of the Stones would achieve his goal.)
- https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos
No Man's Sky Gameplay Trailer | E3 2014 | PS4
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtmEjqzg7M
AngryJoeShow - No Man's Sky Angry Review
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTPlqK8AnY&t=1897s
Internet Historian - The Engoodening of No Man's Sky
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5BJVO3PDeQ&t=59s
Agent Orange (a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It is widely known for its use by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand,during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, traces of dioxin (mainly TCDD, the most toxic of its type) found in the mixture have caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed, and their offspring. )
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
The Tramp (also known as The Little Tramp, was British actor, Charlie Chaplin's most memorable on-screen character and an icon in world cinema during the era of silent film. The Tramp is also the title of a silent film starring Chaplin, which Chaplin wrote and directed in 1915.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tramp
Apple – Think Different Commercial
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE
Anti-Monopoly (a board game made by San Francisco State University Professor Ralph Anspach in response to Monopoly. The idea of an anti-monopoly board game dates to 1903 and the original Monopoly created by Lizzie Magie.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Monopoly
Anti-Monopoly, Inc. vs. General Mills Fun Group, Inc. court case 1976–1985 (Starting in 1974, Parker Brothers and its then corporate parent, General Mills, attempted to suppress publication of a game called Anti-Monopoly, designed by San Francisco State University economics professor Ralph Anspach and first published the previous year.)
The Rageaholic - Begun, The Comic Film Crash Has - A Rant
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlk3-NtOFkk
Terror Australis Podcast (TNC podcast)
- https://anchor.fm/terror-australis-podcast
Shout Outs
- 9th August 2021 – 5th Anniversary of No Man’s Sky - https://www.nomanssky.com/2021/08/no-mans-sky-5th-anniversary/
No Man’s Sky is easily one of the most infamous titles in video game history, thanks to its extremely rocky launch and poor state at release. The game lacked many of its core promised features when it launched, resulting in heavy fan backlash. Within two years of its rollout, the tide started turning in No Man's Sky's favor, thanks in large part to updates that transformed the experience. NEXT counted as the first of such changes, ushering in multiplayer gameplay options that Hello Games teased in the lead up to launch. This particular update also overhauled the graphics and introduced refined base-building mechanics. Hello Games' efforts didn't stop there either; as such, the redemption arc for No Man's Sky has been rather impressive to watch unfold. With the game now celebrating its fifth year anniversary, Hello Games has put out a short video looking back at all of the updates we’ve seen so far, along with a tease of what’s coming next.
- 9th August 2021 – 25th anniversary of Escape from L.A. - https://movieweb.com/escape-from-la-25th-anniversary/
Stylized on-screen as John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. A 1996 American post-apocalyptic action film co-written, co-scored, and directed by John Carpenter, co-written and produced by Debra Hill and Kurt Russell, with Russell also starring as Snake Plissken. A sequel to Escape from New York, Escape from L.A. co-stars Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach, Bruce Campbell, and Pam Grier. The film gained a strong cult following. The film was in development for over 10 years. At one point, a script was commissioned in 1987 and was written by screenwriter Coleman Luck, with Dino De Laurentiis's company producing. Carpenter later described the script as "too light, too campy". In time, Carpenter and Kurt Russell got together to write with their long-time collaborator Debra Hill. Carpenter insists that Russell's persistence allowed the film to be made, since "Snake Plissken was a character he loved and wanted to play again." At the beginning of the film, Kurt Russell wears his costume from the original film, which still fits after fifteen years. The film takes place in 2013.
- 10th August 2021 – 60th Anniversary of Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ranch_Hand
Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (Agent Orange) during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called "Operation Trail Dust". Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 20 million U.S. gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. Areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971. The herbicides were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force flying C-123s using the call sign "Hades". The planes were fitted with specially developed spray tanks with a capacity of 1,000 U.S. gallons (4 m3) of herbicides. A plane sprayed a swath of land that was 80 meters wide and 16 kilometers (10 mi) long in about 4½ minutes, at a rate of about 3 U.S. gallons per acre (3 m3/km2). Sorties usually consisted of three to five aircraft flying side by side. 95% of the herbicides and defoliants used in the war were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force as part of Operation Ranch Hand. The remaining 5% were sprayed by the U.S. Chemical Corps, other military branches, and the Republic of Vietnam using hand sprayers, spray trucks, helicopters and boats, primarily around U.S. military installations. The use of herbicides in the Vietnam War was controversial from the beginning, particularly for crop destruction. The scientific community began to protest the use of herbicides in Vietnam as early as 1964, when the Federation of American Scientists objected to the use of defoliants. In 1967, seventeen Nobel laureates and 5,000 other scientists signed a petition asking for the immediate end to the use of herbicides in Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese government, the US program exposed approximately 4.8 million Vietnamese people to Agent Orange, resulted in 400,000 deaths due to a range of cancers and other ailments. The Vietnamese population has suffered a range of ailments with three million Vietnamese people suffering health problems, one million birth defects caused directly by exposure to Agent Orange, and 24% of the area of Vietnam being defoliated.
- 12th August 2021 – 40th birthday of the IBM 5150 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer#Debut
On August 12, 1981, Don Esteridge, who was unknown at the time, announced the release of the new personal computer created by his company. The head of development at IBM Entry Level Systems presented the 5150, or IBM PC, a concept that would revolutionize the computer industry forever. The machine was based on open architecture and a substantial market of third-party peripherals, expansion cards and software grew up rapidly to support it. The PC had a substantial influence on the personal computer market. The specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most popular computer design standards in the world, and the only significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform throughout the 1980s was from the Apple Macintosh product line. The majority of modern personal computers are distant descendants of the IBM PC.Pricing started at $1,565 for a configuration with 16K RAM, Color Graphics Adapter, and no disk drives. The price was designed to compete with comparable machines in the market. For comparison, the Datamaster, announced two weeks earlier as IBM's least expensive computer, cost $10,000. IBM's marketing campaign licensed the likeness of Charlie Chaplin's character "The Little Tramp" for a series of advertisements based on Chaplin's movies, played by Billy Scudder. The PC was IBM's first attempt to sell a computer through retail channels rather than directly to customers. Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with sales estimates from analysts suggesting billions of dollars in sales over the next few years, and the IBM PC immediately became the talk of the entire computing industry. Dealers were overwhelmed with orders, including customers offering pre-payment for machines with no guaranteed delivery date. By the time the machine was shipping, the term "PC" was becoming a household name.
Remembrances
- 10th August 2010 - David L. Wolper - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Wolper
American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as Roots, The Thorn Birds, North and South, L.A. Confidential, and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985 for his work producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the XXIIIrd Olympiad, Los Angeles 1984 as well as helping to bring the games to L.A. His 1971 film (as executive producer) about the study of insects, The Hellstrom Chronicle, won an Academy Award. On March 13, 1974, one of his crews filming a National Geographic history of Australopithecus at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area was killed when their Sierra Pacific Airlines Corvair 440 slammed into the White Mountains shortly after takeoff from Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop, California, killing all 35 on board, including 31 Wolper crew members. The filmed segment was recovered in the wreckage and was broadcast in the television series Primal Man. The cause of the crash remains unsolved. In 1988, Wolper was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. For his work on television, he had received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died from congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 82 in Beverly Hills, California.
Famous Birthdays
- 10th August 1889 – Charles Darrow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darrow
American who modified the design of Lizzie Magie's original invention The Landlord's Game. He became the first millionaire game designer in history, and although Magie patented her invention she received only $500. Parker Brothers falsely credited Darrow as the original inventor. While Darrow eventually sold his version of Monopoly to Parker Brothers, claiming it to be his own invention, modern historians credit Darrow as just one of the game's final developers. Monopoly is a board game which focuses on the acquisition of fictional real estate titles, with the incorporation of elements of chance. After losing his job at a sales company following the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Darrow worked at various odd jobs. Seeing his neighbors and acquaintances play a board game in which the object was to buy and sell property, he decided to publish his own version of the game, with the help of his first son, William, and his wife Esther. Darrow marketed his version of the game under the name Monopoly. In truth, Darrow was just one of many people in the American Midwest and East Coast who had been playing a game of buying and trading property. The game's direct ancestor was The Landlord's Game, created by Elizabeth Magie. The Darrow family initially made their game sets on flexible, round pieces of oilcloth instead of rigid, square carton. Charles drew the designs of the properties with drafting pens, and his son and wife filled in the spaces with colors and made the title deed cards and Chance and Community Chest cards. In 1970, three years after Darrow's death, Atlantic City placed a commemorative plaque in his honor on The Boardwalk, near the corner of Park Place. In 1973 Ralph Anspach, an economics professor at San Francisco State University, produced Anti-Monopoly, a game similar to Monopoly, and for this was sued by Parker Brothers. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Events of Interest
- 10th August 1960 – Dinosaurus! was released - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053768/
On this day in 1960, it was 'Jurassic Park' all over again with the release of Dinosaurus! The feature starred Ward Ramsey and Kristina Hanson, and here's the plot summary: "After undersea explosions near a Caribbean island, prehistoric creatures are unleashed on the unsuspecting population. Freed from his watery tomb, as well, is a very friendly Neanderthal man who proceeds to befriend a local orphan boy. The boy, Neanderthal and irritated dinosaur make for an interesting dramatic climax." The leading role was intended for Steve McQueen, who starred in The Blob two years earlier, also produced by Harris and directed by Yeaworth. McQueen passed on the film to make The Magnificent Seven instead. The dinosaurs were filmed using the technique of stop-motion animation as well as puppets for close-ups. The film promulgates the naïve idea that herbivorous animals (such as the brontosaurus) are not dangerous (a similar claim was made in Spielberg's 'Jurassic Park', 1993). The cape buffalo is one of the most aggressive and dangerous animals in Africa (and only weighs about 5% of what a brontosaurus is estimated to have weighed). Marcel Delgado was given less than half the time originally agreed upon to create the dinosaur models used in the film. The studio initially agreed to give him five to six weeks, as he requested, but two weeks later he was told that they would begin production on Tuesday. When Betty is captured by the neanderthal and taken to his cave, she's wearing a white dress and a pearl necklace. Combined with her red hair, she bears a striking resemblance to Wilma Flintstone, one of the stars of the TV cartoon series "The Flintstones" (1960), which would debut on American television one month after this movies US release (coincidentally, Betty is the name of Wilma's best friend).
- 10th August 1990 – The Magellan space probe reaches Venus. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan_(spacecraft)#Orbital_encounter_of_Venus
On August 10, 1990, the American Magellan probe, named after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, arrived at its orbit around the planet and started a mission of detailed radar mapping at a frequency of 2.38 GHz. It began the orbital insertion maneuver which placed the spacecraft into a three-hour, nine minute, elliptical orbit that brought the spacecraft 295-kilometers from the surface at about 10 degrees North during the periapsis and out to 7762-kilometers during apoapsis. During each orbit, the space probe captured radar data while the spacecraft was closest to the surface, and then transmit it back to Earth as it moved away from Venus. This maneuver required extensive use of the reaction wheels to rotate the spacecraft as it imaged the surface for 37-minutes and as it pointed toward Earth for two hours. The primary mission intended for the spacecraft to return images of at least 70 percent of the surface during one Venusian day, which lasts 243 Earth days as the planet slowly spins. To avoid overly-redundant data at the highest and lowest latitudes, the Magellan probe alternated between a Northern-swath, a region designated as 90 degrees north latitude to 54 degrees south latitude, and a Southern-swath, designated as 76 degrees north latitude to 68 degrees south latitude. However, due to periapsis being 10 degrees north of the equatorial line, imaging the South Pole region was unlikely. The resulting maps were comparable to visible-light photographs of other planets, and are still the most detailed in existence. Magellan greatly improved scientific understanding of the geology of Venus: the probe found no signs of plate tectonics, but the scarcity of impact craters suggested the surface was relatively young, and there were lava channels thousands of kilometers long.
Intro
Artist – Goblins from Mars
Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)
Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ
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