Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 330 – Growing More Nerds

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we-grow-nerds-mainTechnical skills are, without a doubt, some of the most important ones to be gained today and in to the foreseeable future. Accelerating technology developments mean that coding and developer skill-sets will continue to be in high demand for a long time to come.

Mark Hurlburt

Mark Hurlburt

This week’s show covers several key stories in tech but we were especially pleased to have as our guest Mark Hurlburt, President & Cofounder, Prime Digital Academy. We invited Mark to talk about why this spinoff of The Nerdery happened, what they’re trying to accomplish, the programs and curriculum they’re offering, how they compare to a company The New York Times wrote this about, and what Prime Digital Academy means for Minnesota and beyond.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off).
Music: Blues for Bohemia by Sinome Quinteto under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:49 — 36.9MB)

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Story Links
earth-asteroid-hit

Artist rendering of an asteroid about to hit Tim Elliott’s house in Lakeville, MN

Is the World Ending?
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 329 – #IAmMNTech

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iammntech_mainThis week’s show has two bonus guests: our guest host, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, and our guest Nick Roseth. The former has unique perspectives on the tech stories covered and the latter has an exciting new Minnesota-tech-centric documentary called DocuMNtary, an effort which has this Kickstarter to ensure it gets made. Go there, watch the trailer, and support it!

A new hashtag has also emerged, #IamMNTech, which is the perfect way to identify Minnesota’s accelerating technology ecosystem and promote anything tech-centric here in the #North. Use it going forward.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: Blue Funk by Donconscenti under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:56 — 37.3MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Our Guest

nick-rosethNick Roseth (LinkedIn) of SWAT Solutions. With 16 years in digital, Nick has worked with companies big and small to grow business while leveraging available resources. He and a small group of tech enthusiast have launched this Kickstarter campaign to tell the story of the thriving technology community in the Twin Cities.

See more at DocuMNtary and also see this article, which Julio Ojeda-Zapata published right after this podcast recording: St. Paul man planning DocuMNtary.

Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 328 – uBlock Your Content

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ublock_main

When advertisements become more than 50% of the bandwidth you’re using on your mobile phone and tracking where you go, that’s a privacy, and potentially costly, problem.

When you’re using your web browser on your desktop or laptop computer and are tracked, that’s an issue too. But when the ad networks delivering those ads enable javascripts to be used by advertisers and those ads sometimes deliver malware, someone with some clout has to do something about it! Apple has done so by announcing “content blocking” in the upcoming iOS 9 for iPhone and iPad.

Steve’s Security Tip of the Week will give you one tool that will help. Listen to learn more about it and what it means for you.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: BoogieLive by Miles Nottage under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:20 — 39.4MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

UBlock_Origin

When advertisements become more than 50% of the bandwidth you’re using on your mobile phone as well as sometimes delivering malware too, someone with some clout has to do something about it. Apple has by announcing “content blocking” in the upcoming iOS 9 for iPhone and iPad.

That move has created enormous hand-wringing and outcries from any website or app that makes money from advertising…and that’s a pretty sizeable portion of the web. Former Apple executive, Jean Louis Gassée, wrote his weekly ‘Monday Note’ on Apple’s strategy controversy called, “Life After Content Blocking” and it’s well worth a read. In addition, to truly understand this issue, make certain you read a post by Doc Searls called, Apple’s content blocking is chemo for the cancer of adtech.

TIP: Install uBlock Origin in your browser

uBlock Origin’s supported platforms include: Google Chrome; Opera; Firefox; SeaMonkey; Pale Moon) is a fork of uBlock (make sure you add the “Origin” one to your browser). uBlock Origin allows you to control access to your computer from ads, potentially malicious ads with javascripts, trackers and the accelerating volume of cruft coming from ad networks.

Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 327 – Hacking #IoT

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hacking-iot_mainWe cover the top Minnesota and other tech stories this week, but are particularly pleased to have as our guest Justin Grammens to talkabout the upcoming Internet of Things Hackday (IoTHackday). He is an accomplished entrepreneur but also someone who gives back. He’s done so through co-founding several community-centered adventures like Mobile March, IoT Fuse, ArduinoMN. (In no way did Justin know we would use a photo of him that ended up looking fairly creepy. Sorry Justin!).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott is off).
Music: C Minor Jazz-Blues by Pinojazz  under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:06:18 — 38.8MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories

Guest Justin Grammens
  • IoT Hackdayjustin-grammans-tall2 will occur on Oct 17th at Minnetronix.
    • Sponsors, please contact: justin (at) iothackday.mn

Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
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Minnov8 Gang 326 – Minnesota Ranked 21st at Ashley Madison?

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ashleymadison_mainThe recently hacked website, Ashley Madison, was a horrific capture of user data and the posting of it online is perhaps one of the worst breaches of privacy ever. The fallout from its disclosure has only just begun: relationships and lives upended; trust betrayed; divorce proceedings started; and even extortion are already underway.

Also, who knows what will happen locally. Minnesota was #21 on the list of states most likely to cheat since there were so many users of  that site who live in our State.

User data hacking and disclosure seems to be almost routine now, doesn’t it? Listen to this show’s Security Tip of the Week to implement one easy way to ensure you have significant protection against hacks when you use services like Dropbox, Gmail or Outlook.com, Skype, Apple and more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Surf Creature by Jubarte Ataca under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:44 — 28.5MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 325 – The Man In the Arena

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In 1910, former president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (TR), gave an impassioned speech (PDF) at the Sorbonne in Paris. It included a paragraph that has been dubbed “The Man in the Arena,” a phrase which has become an apt metaphor for anyone in a situation that requires courage, skill or tenacity…vs. someone sitting in the stands as a spectator watching.

The sort of spectators who observe startups, entrepreneurs, (or any innovator or disruptor) and are, as TR so aptly put it, those “cold and timid souls” who routinely naysay, give criticism and believe they could have done better.

At the beginning of the show we talk about “Girl Develop It” and women in coding, so this speech snippet by Roosevelt could be looked at as him being somewhat of a misogynist (for his repeated emphasis on “man”). It turns out Roosevelt was an outspoken advocate of women’s suffrage in the early part of the last century. A position certainly not in the mainstream at the time amongst men.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week).
Music: Milestones – Brown Sugar by Rio Pugliese under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:00 — 28.2MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 324 – Beer. It is so much more than a breakfast food!

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We always tease Graeme about his partaking of hospitality at various tech events he, and we, attend. But for good reason!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Yet another Swing brother swing! by DJ Ecklectic Mick under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Gang Mentality
  • Minnesota doesn’t do enough for startups?
    • Pete Kane’s article that started this discussion
    • Tech.mn’s Jeff Pesek responds and so do many others in the comments
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 323 – Stagefright is VERY Scary

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stagefright_mainPerformance anxiety, or fear of being in front of people and especially on-stage, can be crippling. It happens so often it even has a name we all know: stagefright.

If you are one of the 950 million users of older Android-based devices, there is a new exploit for Android called ‘Stagefright’ and you should be filled with anxiety and fear.

Listen and learn what Android ‘Stagefright’ is, how scared you should be, and what you can do.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Tim Elliott (Phil Wilson is off).
Music: Summer Blues by Mr. Gee B under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:29 — 37.9MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

TIP: If you use Tor, and do not want to be surveilled or made non-anonymous (which is the entire point to using Tor in the first place):

a) Be completely aware of other services you’re running on your computer and that you may, in fact, not be anonymous at all!: New attack on Tor can deanonymize hidden services with surprising accuracy

b) If you do want to use Tor—and want to be completely certain you don’t leave any trail of your activity and that you are secure—then use Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System)

c) Whatever you use to stay anonymous and secure, you may also want to change the way you type! How to bust keyboard biometrics, and why you might want to

Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 322 – Seeya at Shakey’s!

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Yes, we often bring up obscure references on the podcast, especially when Steve is sadly teased by his co-hosts about his music choice for the week!

If you remember Shakey’s Pizza from the past (or maybe you still go to one?) then you may have good memories, or chronic indigestion.  😉

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott is off).
Music: Washboard Wiggles by A Steam Jazz Band under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:54 — 27.5MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories

Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 321 – Prime Saves a Dime

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prime-dime-mainAmazon touted the great deals available during Amazon Prime Day this past week and they had good sales but not everyone thought so. Just before the show Phil stuck this funny Buzzfeed article about Amazon’s Prime Day fail into this week’s show notes and we found ourselves laughing out loud at some of the tweets they compiled.

The first tweet posted in the article is why the title of today’s podcast, and is at the core of why so many people didn’t find the deals all that great during Prime Day (see the embedded tweet at the bottom of this post).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: 2am Blues by John Parisella under a Creative Commons License.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:35 — 33.7MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Biggest MN Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

Even though spam is “officially” down (Email Spam Rates Dip Below 50 Percent), many people I talk to seem to agree with my experience: Spam has exploded in the last year—especially quality spam that slips through spam filters—and this week’s tip is about creating, and using, email aliases to keep spammers at bay.

Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events