Two Things We Get Wrong on the Internet - DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE 01/25/2018 (Patreon)

This is the weekly newsletter companion to Daily Tech News Show at http://dailytechnewsshow.com/ 

You can get this newsletter by backing DTNS for $5 a month or more at http://patreon.com/dtns 

CLOSER LOOK - Yesterday I spent all day at Patreon talking with a few other people who use the platform and the folks from Patreon about the whole Fee thing from December.

Suffice to say they realize they messed up in a big way and don't want that to happen again. But in the course of the day, two universal themes arose that I want to to discuss here.

First, we often criticize companies without understanding how companies are run. The other is companies, especially engineering-run tech companies, often make big mistakes because the only look at the quantitative not the qualitative.

So let's talk a little about what I mean. I'll start with the first one.

It's good to hold companies accountable. We should criticize them and press them to do the right thing. But sometimes the anger gets the better of folks and they begin justifying their criticisms with things they can't know and are unlikely to be true.

And here's the thing. You have them at a disadvantage. If you just want to "win" the argument you always can since companies won't release details that they perceive as putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. 

A simple version of this is any company taking investment money and then doing something you don't like. You can win the argument that one is connected to the other if you just want to win. Because no company will release their minutes with their board members to prove the board members didn't know about the unpopular change. And they won't release their financials to show where they are regarding income and expenses. So great. You win.

But the fact is, lots of companies get a lot of investment money. And even though we always hear the horror stories of investors pressuring companies to do stupid things, we don't hear the stories of investors who are way too busy to get involved and think if the financials look reasonable you can just keep doing what you're doing. And that second situation is the common one

My point isn't to let companies off the hook, but instead take into account what's likely. Think about the places you've worked. When something goes wrong is it usually the result of an evil plan or is it the result of misunderstanding, incompetence or bad timing? In the places I've worked it's more often ignorance or unpreparedness that causes problems.

And if we pressure companies on the things they know they got wrong they're more likely to respond. Pressure them on a thing they know isn't true they tend to stop listening.

On to point two. Companies need to think qualitatively. Privacy and security issues are the most common example of a company looking at numbers. Say a company changes some data from private to public. This is something Facebook has done a couple times. They do it because they've run the numbers and they know it's going to move whatever needles they want to move, whether its engagement or impressions or whatever. But they ignored the psychology for years. They'd make a change, anger their audience and backtrack. And its not just Facebook. This is common.

I feel like companies should hire a behavioral psychologist. Someone who actually knows how these things work, not just anecdotally, should be advising companies how not to make their audience hate them.

There are a few basics though even without getting a scientist. People don't like changes so they have to be done in the right way. People want to feel they had a voice which means not just asking but also listening and acting. And people want to like the companies who make the things they like. We wouldn't have rabid fans of phones otherwise.

So there's my musings for today. Try to understand or ask someone who understands why a company might do something before assuming it's the most evil reason you can think of. And companies, think qualitatively about your decisions and include your customers in your calculations.

What else could help these situations? Let us know in the comments for this post at pateon.com/dtns.

NEWS

Facebook will use information gathered from its ongoing quality surveys to determine which news sources people trust the most. The company also made three posts Monday sharing its findings on how social media affects government, including one by Cass R. Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School, that argues Facebook increases political divisions. https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-latest-fix-for-fake-news-ask-users-what-they-trust/ 

-- https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-admits-social-media-is-bad-for-democracy-sometimes/ 

-- https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/22/16918456/facebook-democracy-civil-society-fake-news-hard-questions 

Amazon Go, a convenience store with no checkout clerks opened for the public on the ground floor of Amazon's 7th avenue building in Seattle Monday. As a shopper you need the Amazon Go app with a QR code you scan to enter the store. From there cameras and a machine learning system will track you and automatically add or subtract items from your bill as you pick up or put back items and then automatically charge you when you walk out. Amazon has no plans to expand the technology outside the test store for now. https://www.recode.net/2018/1/21/16914188/amazon-go-grocery-convenience-store-opening-seattle-dilip-kumar 

-- https://om.co/2018/01/22/some-thoughts-on-amazon-go-retail/ 

Twitter's Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto has resigned to be the CEO at financial technology company Social Finance, AKA SoFi, which he'll join in March. Twitter says Noto's duties will be "assumed by other members of Twitter's leadership team." https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/23/twitter-coo-anthony-noto-resigns-to-become-sofi-ceo/ 

Apple announced its HomePod wireless speaker will arrive in stores February 9, will be available pre-order starting Friday, January 26 in the US, UK, and Australia. The Homepod retails for $349, £319 in UK, A$499 in Australia, and was originally slated for launch in late 2017. http://9to5mac.com/2018/01/23/homepod-will-be-available-to-order-from-friday-in-stores-on-february-9/ 

Intel executive vice president Neil Shenoy advises users to skip its last round of Spectre/Meltdown patches entirely to avoid reboot problems. The issue has been identified for Broadwell and Haswell processors and a new update is on the way for them. Intel says it is actively working on solutions for the rest of its affected processors. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/22/16919426/intel-advises-pause-deployment-of-spectre-patch 

At the Bett education show in London, Microsoft announced new Windows 10 and Windows 10 S devices with the cheapest being Lenovo's $189 100e laptop. Microsoft is also partnering with the BBC, LEGO, NASA, PBS, and publisher Pearson to bring Mixed Reality and video to schools. Microsoft also plans to add a free Chemistry update for Mineraft: Education Edition this spring. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/22/16918460/microsoft-windows-10-laptops-chromebooks-challenge-education-schools-bett 

The European Commission announced a 997 million euro fine against Qualcomm for anti-competitive behaivor. The fine stems from a 2015 investigation into Qualcomm reportedly offering lower licensing payments to Apple in exchange for exclusively use their modem chipsets from 2011 through 2016. The fine repreesnts 4.9 percent of Qualcomm’s 2017 turnover. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-qualcomm/eu-fines-qualcomm-1-2-billion-over-apple-chip-deals-idUSKBN1FC2WP 

DJI announced it's Mavic Air quadcopter will sstart at $799 shipping January 28. It's a mid-range model between the Mavic Spark and Mavic Pro. The Air has a 4K camera and can fly 21 minutes on a charge. https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/23/dji-unveils-the-mavic-air-portable-folding-drone/ 

This year’s Google I/O developer conference is set for May 8th - 10th at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. 

https://events.google.com/io/explore/ 

Samsung sent invitations for an announcement on 12 Eastern February 25th the day before Mobile World Congress begins. The invite reads, "The Camera. Reimagined." with the number 9, presumably a camera-focused Samsung Galaxy S 9. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/samsung-announces-the-galaxy-s9-launch-teases-reimagined-camera/

Chrome 64 launched Wednesday. The pop-up blocker now prevents abusive experiences like transparent overlays or website's disguised as media controls like a play button. It also includes an option to mute audio on websites. https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/24/chrome-64-arrives-with-stronger-pop-up-blocker-and-new-developer-features/ 

Amazon has added voice to its (you know what) Alexa app for Android meaning users can speak to the app to have it do things an Amazon Echo would. The update is rolling out to the Google Play store now and is on its way to the iOS App Store as well. https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/19/amazon-brings-voice-control-to-its-alexa-app-for-android-with-ios-coming-soon/ 

Nintendo announced it will close its Miitomo social app May 9. The app was launched in March 2016 and lets friends learn about each other through questions and answers. https://thenextweb.com/gaming/2018/01/25/nintendo-is-shutting-down-its-miitomo-social-app-in-may/ 

Instagram has a new feature that tells people you've shared private messages with, or people you tag in your Instagram Stories when you were last active on the app, and it's turned on by default. To turn it off, Tap on your profile page, then click on the settings gear underneath to your name, next to "Edit Profile." Inside the settings menu there's a toggle for "Show Activity Status." http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-how-to-turn-off-activity-status-2018-1 

Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order Monday requiring ISPs with state contracts to abide by net neutrality rules, starting July 1st. The US FCC voted to adopt rules that prevent states from creating local laws that supersede federal ones for consumers, though those rules have yet to take effect. And it's not clear that it could be used to stop a state from restricting government contracts. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/22/16920192/montana-governor-net-neutrality-executive-order 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Wednesday preventing the state from contracting with ISPs that do not follow net neutrality principles. ISPs would lose state contracts if they "block, throttle, or prioritize Internet content or applications or require that end users pay different or higher rates to access specific types of content or applications." https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/net-neutrality-will-be-enforced-in-new-york-under-orders-from-governor/ 

AT&T is calling on Congress for a national net neutrality law. The company bought a series of full-page ads Wednesday in major newspapers like the Washington Post and the NY Times,, with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson proposing an “Internet Bill of Rights” that could help guarantee an open Internet, not just with telecom and cable companies, but also tech companies like Google and Facebook. Many states are also moving to pass their own net neutrality rules to replace the federal regulations passed by the FCC in December. 

Critics allege that ATT's push is conveniently silent on paid priotorization and including companies like Facebook and Google is an attempt to muddy the debate by conflating Net Neutrality with online privacy concerns." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/01/24/att-is-pushing-for-a-net-neutrality-law-that-covers-isps-and-tech-companies-too/ 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/24/16927262/att-net-neutrality-isp-tech-companies-facebook-twitter 

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ev53n7/att-internet-bill-of-rights-net-neutrality