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Minnov8 Gang 398 – Can I Go Thru Your Underwear Drawer?

March 18, 2017 By Steve Borsch

This past week a Minnesota judge signed a search warrant for anyone who did a Google search for someone who defrauded an Edina bank. Besides being outrageously broad as a warrant—anybody who searched on this guy’s name for legitimate reasons would be under suspicion and could be brought in for questioning—is likely violating our Constitution’s 4th amendment against unreasonable searches. Even Forbes magazine picked up the story but few other outlets have…yet.

Of course, if this would be allowed we could go through Tim Elliott’s underwear drawer and who knows what we’d find?  😉

We talk about this judge’s warrant, and mostly technology of course, on this week’s podcast.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Rock The Blues Away by Dennis Salli under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20170318_M8_Gang_398.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:12 — 24.6MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Virtual-reality startup targeting real estate raises $1.3M
    • Realvision VR
  • Video-streaming startup Seeka TV gives online indie series a home of their own
    • SeekaTV
  • One of the top iPhone medical devices just got funding from Mayo Clinic (AliveCor & Kardia Band)
  • Big Tech Companies Are on the Verge of Killing Right to Repair Legislation in Minnesota
  • Chuck & Don’s Breaks Into E-Commerce Market With Acquisition Of Fetch
    • Chuck & Don’s and Fetch
  • Two top Best Buy executives are leaving as roles are realigned
  • The Minnesotan left-wing economic miracle continues, while neighboring Republican states slowly collapse
    • Tim mentioned Shadow Stats
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Justice Department: Russia’s security services ‘protected, directed, facilitated, and paid’ hackers behind the massive breach of Yahoo
  • Google
    • Google launches new effort to flag upsetting or offensive content in search 
    • Google Home is playing audio ads for Beauty and the Beast
    • Chrome 57 will throttle background tabs to save energy
  • Amazon puts Alexa inside its main iPhone app
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: Bonobos
  • Tim: Vistabule Teardrop Trailers
  • Steve: Epson FastFoto
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 280+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2017
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
  • Mobile Twin Cities, March 14th, BuzzFeed Offices.
  • Midwest PHP 2017, March 17-18, Radisson Blu Mall of America
  • Minnebar, March 25, Best Buy Headquarters
  • Beta.mn, March 30th, Machine Shop, Minneapolis
  • Enterprise Rising Conference, March 30th
    • Use the code Minnov82017 for 21% off your admission
  • IoTFuse Conference 2017, April 21st, Mpls Conv Ctr
  • Overnight Website Challenge, April 22-23, 2017, CoCo Minneapolis

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Best Buy, Google, MN Entrepreneurs

Minnov8 Gang 393 – Advisor to President Trump

February 11, 2017 By Steve Borsch

Tim and Steve could only imagine what it would be like if Phil Wilson was an advisor to Donald Trump. Would we all have healthcare? Would he build a wall around Lakeville where Tim lives? We can only speculate, but let’s not, and instead go on and talk about technology!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: I Am A Pilgrim by Walker Winn under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20170211_M8_Gang_393.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:09 — 28.3MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Futurists worry the Twin Cities are falling behind on self-driving tech
  • Best Buy To Remove Oculus Rift Demo Stations From 200 Stores
  • SPS Commerce shares fall after revenue forecast signals slower growth
  • Target launches new mini-accelerator for health-related start-ups
  • Minnesota’s ‘right to repair’ bill would upend tech giants’ monopoly on fixing your stuff
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Apple returns to revenue growth in Q1 2017 with $17.8 billion profit
  • What’s Apple to Do with $246 Billion in Cash?
  • Twitter’s stock is tanking after the company warned its revenue growth would continue to ‘lag’ its recent spike in users
    • Mention of movie The Circle
  • Hashtags in Super Bowl ads slip to 30% in 2017, overtaken by URL use in 39%
  • Ignorance is Bliss? An Enormous WordPress Zero-Day has Been Secretly Fixed
    • WordPress powers 27.4% of websites whose content management systems are known
  • Comcast Xfinity App on Roku Will Carry Additional Monthly Fee, Unless It’s Your Primary TV Outlet
  • How Trump Plans To Slow Our Internet To A Crawl
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: Love Turntable
  • Tim: WELT : The World’s First Smart Belt for Wellness
  • Steve: Chrome Digital Signage
    • Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort engages guests with Chrome signage
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 280+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2017
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
  • Girls in STEM, February 11, 2017, WSB University
  • Minnedemo, February 16th, Riverview Theater
  • Midwest PHP 2017, March 17-18, Radisson Blu Mall of America
  • IoTFuse Conference 2017, April 21st, Mpls Conv Ctr

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Apple, Best Buy, MinneDemo, Target

Minnov8 Gang 391 – You ARE Being Watched

January 21, 2017 By Steve Borsch

It is obvious to people who are aware of mass surveillance that we all are being watched. Anything digital is swept up, made Google-like searchable, connected to others and also events, regardless whether those connections are relevant or not.

We talk about our usual Minnesota tech stories but in our other top tech stories was one that caught our attention about Lavabit’s Ladar Levinson launching a new encrypted email service that is better than the original once used by Edward Snowden. Since email is usually core to how and what we communicate, obtain password resets, archive email attachments and much more that we want to keep secure from the government OR from companies that can scan our email (e.g., Google’s Gmail and Yahoo Mail), protecting our private and confidential communications is critical in this time of mass surveillance.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Houkago Stride by JubyPhonic under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20170121_M8_Gang_391.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:37 — 18.9MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Tech company Spok adding 60 Twin Cities jobs
  • Digi International makes another ‘cold chain’ buy
  • Best Buy CEO swats down rumors he’s leaving
  • Target reports weaker than expected holiday sales
  • (Minnesota) Court rules against man who was forced to fingerprint-unlock his phone
  • UPDATE: bar.com domain portfolio auction
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Andy Rubin Nears His Comeback, Complete With an ‘Essential’ Phone
  • Encrypted Email Service Once Used By Edward Snowden Relaunches
    • Mention of Protonmail
  • Trump said to elevate Ajit Pai, a fierce critic of net neutrality, to FCC chairman
  • Samsung will explain the Galaxy Note 7 explosions Sunday night
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: #istandwithrosa
  • Tim: Xiaomi Mi Band 2
  • Steve: Fasetto Link “A game-changing storage and connectivity solution.”
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 280+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2017
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
  • Gamecraft, January 20-22, 2017, U of M
  • MinneHack, January 28-29, 2017
  • DevFestMN 2017 – A Google Developer Group Event, Feb 4th, UST Minneapolis campus
  • Girls in STEM, February 11, 2017, WSB University
  • Midwest PHP 2017, March 17-18, Radisson Blu Mall of America

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: #IoT, Android, Best Buy

Minnov8 Gang 390 – Hackers for Rudy

January 14, 2017 By Steve Borsch

Hackers around the world are undoubtedly cheering the appointment of Rudy Giuliani as an advisor to the president on cyber security for the upcoming Trump administration.

For anyone following this pick by Trump, a sad (but still amusing) story appeared shortly after it was discovered that Trump’s cybersecurity advisor choice, Rudy Giuliani, was running an easily hackable website for his “security” firm Guiliani Partners. (Note: As of late yesterday the website is offline). For more on this embarrassing, public revelation see Rudy Guiliani is an absurd choice to defend the US from hackers as well as this tweet stream about what was found out before the site was taken down.

The pick of Guiliani as head of cybersecurity does make sense, however, when you consider what President-elect Trump said in the last debate about cyber security. Perhaps Trump’s 10 year old son may end up as another one of his “cyber” advisors?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Sometime Ragtime by Nekonohige under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20170114_M8_Gang_390.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 44:20 — 26.6MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Minnesota sees fewest venture capital deals in a dozen years
  • Minneapolis Startup Vibes To Appear On ‘Shark Tank’
  • OneOme Expands Reach To Five More States & OneOme website
  • Target invests in Mpls. start-up that helps retailers monitor supply chains
  • Amazon just poached one of Target’s rising stars to run Prime in important new markets
  • Best Buy Geek Squad Informant Use Has FBI on Defense in Child-Porn Case
    • If a Best Buy technician is a paid FBI informant, are his computer searches legal?
    • Ties between Best Buy’s Geek Squad, FBI probed in porn case
    • Robert Stephens, Geek Squad founder, responds to a tweet
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Cybersecurity & Privacy
    • The NSA can now share unfiltered surveillance data with other intelligence agencies
    • WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
      • Encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp denies “backdoor” claim
      • There is no WhatsApp ‘backdoor’
    • Flashing a peace sign in selfies could lead to identity theft, scientists warn
  • iPhone 10 Year Anniversary: Phil Schiller on iPhone’s Launch, How It Changed Apple, and Why It Will Keep Going for 50 Years
  • Microsoft just bought an AI startup that can outperform Facebook and Google
  • Nintendo’s Switch already gets right what the Wii U got wrong
  • A cautionary tale…Lily Drone is dead despite $34 million in pre-orders
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: ProTech Privacy Webcam cover
  • Tim: Cronovo Smartwatch
  • Steve: The Obamas bid farewell with a VR White House tour
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 280+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2017
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
  • Excited for Change: 2017 Trends for the Modern Marketer, Wednesday, January 19
  • MinneHack, January 28-29, 2017
  • DevFestMN 2017 – A Google Developer Group Event, Feb 4th, UST Minneapolis campus

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Amazon, Apple, Best Buy

Minnov8 Gang 387 – sNOw Emergency

December 17, 2016 By Steve Borsch

This week’s snow emergency turned in to a ‘no’ emergency in our view, but if you live in a place where towing cars is a much-needed winter activity then you should listen to our discussion about Julio Ojeda-Zapata‘s article regarding Apps keep you abreast of snow parking, assuming they’re up to date. You might want to download one of them!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Phil Wilson
Music: Crawdad by Ernie Lewis under a CC by 4.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20161217_M8_Gang_387.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:07 — 28.8MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Best Buy to Confront the Opportunity Gap by Nearly Doubling Its Teen Tech Center Network in Support of Underserved Urban Youth
  • Giving a computer? Local stores have PCs, Macs for peanuts (even free)
    • Mention: 0-days hitting Fedora and Ubuntu open desktops to a world of hurt
  • Sports tech in MN
    • How co-working space The Pitch hopes to make Minneapolis a sports tech hub
    • Pro sports, tech and startups will mix at MinneAnalytics’ SportCon
    • Sportradar Launches ‘Acceleradar,’ Free Program For Sports Tech Startups
  • Amazon’s Minneapolis team building ‘Uber for trucking’ app
  • Seagate lays off 155 employees in Shakopee
  • Now, control a robot with only your thought (view video)
  • Famed Apple Analyst Gene Munster Goes Out With Optimistic Note
  • Apple Could Pay A $35 Dividend In 2017
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Amazon Conducts First Commercial Drone Delivery
  • Google Intros Android Things, Developer Preview Now Available
    • Mention: Swift
  • Apple releases iOS 10.2 w/ new emoji, Messages effects, US-only TV app, wallpapers, more
  • Amazon releases new shopping app on tvOS Apple TV for Prime members, still no Prime Video
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – Black
  • Tim: Star Wars – Rogue One
  • Steve: Washington Post’s Chrome plugin automatically inserts Trump fact-checks into Twitter

Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
    • 32 conferences for Mac and iOS professionals in 2016
  • 1 Million Cups – St. Paul: Weekly at the James J Hill Ctr
  • SportCon Sports Analytics Conference, January 10th, UST Mpls campus
  • Mobile Twin Cities – January 10th
  • MinneHack, January 28-29, 2017
  • DevFestMN 2017 – Google Developer Event, February 4th, UST Mpls campus

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Amazon, Android, Apple, Best Buy, Google

Minnov8 Gang 377 – Don’t Hire Me Bro!

October 1, 2016 By Steve Borsch

dont-hire-me-bro_mainYou may remember the protestor at Secretary John Kerry’s talk at U of Florida and that guy wouldn’t leave so the cops Tased him as he yelled out, “Don’t tase me, bro!!” The video of the guy screaming that out became an internet meme in 2007 and so it was the first thing that came to mind when we discussed one of our first Minnesota tech stories called High-tech Talent Grab. The focus of the story was about Twin Cities companies essentially being raided for their tech talent.

But is that apparent tech-talent-raiding a good thing or a bad one? Is it really happening? Find out what’s really going on in this week’s show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Latin by beatfn under a CC by 3.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20161001_M8_Gang_377.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 51:36 — 31.1MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Minnesota Developers Conference recap
  • Target sets up website to invite pitches from startups
  • Best Buy will highlight products by start-ups in section of store, website
  • Coding school to award 16 Twin Cities programming scholarships
  • SportsEngine Acquires Fundraising Platform RallyMe
  • In St. Paul, Google Trekker goes where Google Street View can’t
    • Walk the Ryder Cup Like the Pros
      • Ryder Cup Explorer
  • 16 Podcasting Tips From 4 Podcasters
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Google
    • Exclusive: Google plans to launch Andromeda on a ‘Nexus’ Huawei tablet, ‘Pixel’ laptop
    • Tracking Google’s 10/4 event: Everything from Google I/O is finally ready
    • How Google Plans to Take Down Amazon’s Echo
  • Facebook At Work is launching next month
  • Plex partners with Amazon to launch a hardware-free media server, Plex Cloud
  • Raspbian Pixel is a much-needed beautification for the Raspberry Pi’s biggest distro
  • Mentions: Memrise app
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: Revolar
  • Tim: Blink wireless security cameras
  • Steve: Signal, the Encrypted Chat App, Is Now Available on the Desktop
    • Chrome extension
    • Signal for Android
    • Signal for iPhone
Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
    • 32 conferences for Mac and iOS professionals in 2016
  • MN Blogger Conference, Saturday, Oct 15th, Concordia U – St Paul
  • U of MN’s Cyber Security Summit 2016, JWMarriott (MOA), October 11-12
  • Minnesota Venture Conference, Oct 13th, Mpls Cnv Ctr
  • Converted 2016 by Leadpages, Oct 18th, Depot Renaissance Hotel, Mpls
  • IoT Hack Day, October 22, Minnetronix
  • Gamer’s Rhapsody 2016, Nov 18th, Bloomington

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Best Buy, Google

Minnov8 Gang 373 – Smooth, Sexy & Social

August 27, 2016 By Steve Borsch

phil-bf-main

Photo credit: Nancy Kuehn for MSPBJ

Our own Phil Wilson has a profile story by Katharine Grayson in this past week’s Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Titled Face Time: BuzzFeed General Manager Phil Wilson, the story requires a subscription to MSPBJ, but Phil gives an overview of what’s in it and it’s a nice introductory piece of Phil in MSPBJ’s “Face Time” series.

Tim and I were a bit disappointed after seeing MSPBJ photographer Nancy Kuehn‘s photo for the story. We both thought that Katharine didn’t title it correctly and it should have been: Face Time: BuzzFeed GM Phil Wilson is Smooth, Sexy & Social. Perhaps a followup story will probe Phil’s smooth, sexy, social persona.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson
Music: Swing Swing Blues by DJ Ecklectic Mick  under a CC by 3.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20160827_M8_Gang_373.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:44 — 21.5MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • Want to help Twin Cities start-ups? Buy something from them
  • TreeHouse Health Lands Partnership With Accenture
  • Best Buy Shares Soar Following Q2 Report
    • A long, winding journey: Best Buy turns 50
  • Startup Week offers free flights to lure talent to Twin Cities
  • Podcasts are platform of choice for Twin Citians who want to get word out
  • Who’s Driving app helps parents coordinate carpools
    • Who’s Driving website
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Apple, Google, AT&T Launch New Anti-Robocalling ‘Strike Force’
  • Google to punish sites that use intrusive pop-over ads
  • This malware sold to governments could help them spy on iPhones, researchers say
    • You should update your iPhone right now! 
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: fenix Chronos, smartwatch from Garmin
  • Tim: Omega2: $5 Linux Computer with Wi-Fi, Made for IoT
  • Steve: Lithium Cycles – Electric Mini Bike Made in America

Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
    • The list as a Google spreadsheet
    • 32 conferences for Mac and iOS professionals in 2016
  • Startup Week, September 19-25
  • MinneDemo24 during TC Startup Week, Sept 21st, Riverview Theater
  • MN Developer’s Conference, Sept 27th, Earle Brown Ctr
  • U of MN’s Cyber Security Summit 2016, JWMarriott (MOA), October 11-12
  • Minnesota Venture Conference, Oct 13th, Mpls Cnv Ctr
  • Converted 2016 by Leadpages, Oct 18th, Depot Renaissance Hotel, Mpls
  • Gamer’s Rhapsody 2016, Nov 18th, Bloomington

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Best Buy, Google, iOS

Minnov8 Gang 361 – More Women in Power

May 7, 2016 By Steve Borsch

women-in-power_mainFor so long women have had the proverbial glass ceiling when it came to moving up the executive ranks into the “C” suite of top chiefs. As you will hear on this week’s show, Best Buy now has more women than men in executive ranks which is a good thing. We talk about this, and much more, on this week’s podcast.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Coldshot by Blues Farm Roma under a CC 3.0 License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20160507_M8_Gang_361.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 44:19 — 26.4MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
  • TechnovationMN recap
  • Researchers say there are serious security problems in Samsung’s SmartThings
    • CEO Alex Hawkinson’s blog post rebuttal
  • At Best Buy, women make up the majority of company’s leadership team
    • Best Buy hires former Accenture exec Trish Walker to lead Geek Squad
  • CoCo to expand to Chicago
    • CoCo blog post: CoCo Expands to the Windy City
  • BetaMN Announces Startups to Be Showcased
  • Gillette launches emoji app for kids with special needs
  • Kickstarter Update: AirJamz
  • Instamic – The Smartest Microphone Ready to Record
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Supreme court grants FBI massive expansion of powers to hack computers
    • IBM Is Now Letting Anyone Play With Its Quantum Computer
  • Former Tor developer created malware for the FBI to hack Tor users
  • If You Use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, You Should Change Your Password Now
  • Apple Music’s new student membership includes a 50 percent discount
  • Cupertino’s mayor says Apple is ‘not willing to pay a dime’ in taxes
    • Wikipedia: Double Irish Arrangement
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: Perch
  • Tim: Quitter for Mac
  • Steve: Estimating Password Cracking Times
Upcoming Events
    • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
      • The list as a Google spreadsheet
      • 32 conferences for Mac and iOS professionals in 2016
    • Mobile Twin CIties: Future App Developers, May 10, BuzzFeed
    • 2016 Minneapolis/St. Paul Mini Maker Faire, May 14, MN State Fairgrounds
    • BetaMN Showcase, May 18, Worrell Design
    • WordCamp Minneapolis, May 21-22 2016, Humphrey Institute, Minneapolis
    • Big Data Tech 2016, Minneanalytics, June 7th, Normandale College
    • Minnesota Digital Government Summit, August 2nd, St. Paul RiverCentre

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Best Buy, MN Entrepreneurs

Minnov8 Gang 344 – Our Tech Predictions for 2016

January 2, 2016 By Steve Borsch

2016-predictions_mainIt’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.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Exploding All Over You by East Village Vampire under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20160102_M8_Gang_344.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:45 — 41.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

 

Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Zoltar

About the Zoltar machine*

  • 2015 JAMF Software Survey: Managing Apple Devices in the Enterprise (download the PDF)
  • Samsung builds SmartThings control into every 2016 smart TV
Other Top Tech Stories
  • Big Data and computational medicine: Who guards the data?
  • NSA Helped British Spies Find Security Holes In Juniper Firewalls
  • The CIA Campaign To Steal Apple’s Secrets
  • Apple TV Brawl results: Apple solidly wins the 4K debate for now – and here’s why
  • CES 2016: our most anticipated products of the show
Discussed During Our Predictions
  • List of mergers and acquisitions by Apple
  • Brian Krebs: 2016 Reality: Lazy Authentication Still the Norm

Listen to the podcast for our 2015 recap as well as our specific 2016 predictions.

*Zoltar is from the movie BIG with Tom Hanks. Disclaimer: None of our predictions were made using Zoltar or any other fortune teller-like technology, though Phil Wilson may have consulted his magic toad.

Upcoming Events
  • The Complete List of 250+ Tech, IT, and DevOps Conferences in 2016
    • Only the list as a Google spreadsheet
  • MinneAnalytics does Marketing Analytics – again! (MAMA2), January 22, Medtronic
  • MinneWebCon U of MN McNamara Alumni Ctr April 25-26

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: #IoT, Apple, Best Buy, Google, Microsoft, MN Entrepreneurs

Minnov8 Gang 339 – Your Cat Will Love It

November 21, 2015 By Steve Borsch

cat-bb8_mainAnother round of great stories this week along with Phil’s Cool Thing of the Week: the BB-8™ Droid by Sphero and yes, cats love it!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off).
Music: OMFG-Hello by Argofox under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20151121_M8_Gang_339.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:23 — 26.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Story Links
Past Week’s Top MN Stories
  • Mobcon review (Phil)
  • Local companies, others win Tekne tech and science prizes
  • Comcast is mystery employer seeking $1.4M in job subsidies
  • Best Buy Joins Chorus Of Weary Retail Outlook For Holiday Season
    • Best Buy dragged down by declining sales of some devices
  • Target Posts Strong Q3 Amid Faltering Retail Market (i.e., online sales)
Other Top Tech Stories
  • The Shady World of Repair Manuals: Copyrighting for Planned Obsolescence  (hat tip to Alex Haar from this tweet)
  • Encrypted Messaging Apps Face New Scrutiny Over Possible Role in Paris Attacks
    • Is Congress Really Gearing Up for an Encryption Battle?
  • Apple News:
    • Tim Cook: Apple won’t create ‘converged’ MacBook and iPad
    • Renderings show spectacular plans for new Frank Lloyd Wright-style Apple Store on the Chicago River
  • Introducing the new Google+
  • Oxford Dictionaries Selects an Emoji as Word of the Year
  • Mentions:
    • Honey – a Chrome browser extension to find coupons
    • Bloomberg West
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

TIP: Use encryption now, even though Congress, Parliament, and other western governmental leaders are rattling their sabers, hoping they can build support for outlawing encryption (or at least putting in a backdoor).

  1. Get a password manager and use STRONG, encrypted passwords
  2. Use a VPN
  3. Don’t enter sensitive information on a website unless it’s https (SSL) and you are connected via a VPN if on public Wifi.
  4. Encrypt your Windows (BitLocker) or OS X (FileVault) hard drive or the open source TrueCrypt. Include external drives you take with you (e.g., thumb, or USB spinning drives) in your encryption regimen
  5. Use Signal app on your iPhone or Android device (encrypted text AND voice calls to other Signal users)
  • Articles about encryption:
    • Bruce Schneier: Why We Encrypt
    • How To Use Encryption In A Small Business
    • After Endless Demonization Of Encryption, Police Find Paris Attackers Coordinated Via Unencrypted SMS
Cool Thing of the Week
  • Phil: BB8 Drone from Sphero
  • Tim: Microsoft Windows turns 30 
  • Steve: The LapPad – Mobile Desk for Laptops, Tablets, and Smartphones = $79
Upcoming Events
  • Mobile Twin Cities event: IoT for the Holidays, Tuesday, Dec. 1st, 6:00pm BuzzFeed Office.
  • MinneAnalytics does Marketing Analytics – again! (MAMA2), January 22, Medtronic Mounds View Campus
  • Star Wars – The Force Awakens opens Friday Dec. 18th

Filed Under: Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Android, Apple, Best Buy, Google, Microsoft

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