Dinosaurs being resurrected by pulling DNA from a mosquito fossilized in amber for the Jurassic Park movies has been ruled out by scientists. Even so, we chuckled when Phil immediately went there as we discussed a new WordPress and Drupal plugin from Harvard’s Berkman Center called Amber.
Learn more about Amber, and what’s going on with other top tech stories from Minnesota and globally this past week, in this episode.
Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: Organ Grinder’s Swing by DJ Ecklectic Mick under a Creative Commons License
The Podcast
Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:57 — 27.6MB)
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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
- At Buzzfeed, a week off to do something different
- Average Twin Cities tech salary cracks six figures for first time: survey
- Credit card skimming is an emerging threat in Minnesota
- Minnesota ED Taps Partner To Enhance STEM Ed
Other Top Tech Stories
- Facebook Bans Gun Sales
- Harvard’s Berkman Center releases Amber: A Tool For Blogs & Websites To Keep Linked Content Accessible
- Everything We Know About Tesla’s Secret Model 3…And Model Y
- Apple News
- Why the Internet of Things needs another 10 years
- SmartThings
- Disclaimer: both Steve and Phil are SmartThings users.
- Negative Amazon review and comments
- SmartThings Community, General Discussion thread, numerous unhappy customers
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
TIP: SECURE YOUR BABY MONITOR! Just-plug-‘em-in baby monitors are one super-simple way that hackers can watch your baby—or eavesdrop on you in your home—with video and audio. Most people just buy them (and webcams too) and plugin them in. No password…or a weak one.
There are people that go online and search for, and are finding, those weak password baby monitors and webcams. It’s one thing to have a creep spying on you. It’s quite another that many of these scumbags are breaking in and some are taunting, scaring and basically terrorizing toddlers and kids. There’s a term for them now too: griefers (taken from online video game harassers). Here’s one example story and here’s another one from a local TV news station.
Stay safe….here’s how.
Cool Thing of the Week
- Phil: Speedy-Meter. Not available yet.
- Tim: Sense
- Steve: EKOOR Beacons
Upcoming Events
- The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
- Mobile Twin Cities-Overcoming the Gender Gap in Mobile Tech w/Nancy Lyons. February 2
- DevFest February 6, St. Thomas
- MinneDemo 22, Thursday, February 18th, Depot, Minneapolis 6pm. Tickets TBD)
- IoT Fuse, April 22, Univ of St. Thomas-Minneapolis
- MinneWebCon U of MN McNamara Alumni Ctr April 25-26
Big week with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in full swing with twenty-two Minnesota companies in attendance showing their wares, one of which is a Burnsville company 
It’s our annual predictions show and, while we cover a handful of Minnesota and other top tech stories this past week, we focus on our “hits and misses” from predicting 2015 and then jump in to our 2016 prognostications.
Like you, the Gang had a ‘filling’ Thanksgiving and joked about Dan Akroyd’s famous Saturday Night Live skit, Rovco’s amazing new kitchen tool, the Super Bass-o-Matic ’76, and TV’s WKRP in Cincinnati’s bit, the turkey drop. (Watch the videos at the bottom of this post).
Another round of great stories this week along with Phil’s Cool Thing of the Week: the 
Yes, “virtual” is a thing and it is getting closer to reality, especially with local Minnesota startups like 
We cover many stories this week including the inspiration for this week’s show title: 
No, the zombie apocalypse has not yet happened but eavesdroppers, black-hat hackers, and other miscreants are coming for you. Our Security Tip of the Week reveals a new way you’ll be able to stay safe so don’t be scared. Happy Halloween!
As a former radio guy Phil knows acoustics. This week he was kind enough to podcast from the office bathroom, so he sounded great