Brian Gongol
August 16, 2015
One-paragraph book review: "Dangerous Pursuits: Mergers and acquisitions in the age of Wall Street"
USDA re-estimates crop sizes for the year
And the upward revision was enough to really shake the markets
Iowa barber gives haircuts to children in exchange for them reading stories to him
Knowledge transfer: UK troops help Ukrainian military
...and learn how to face the Russian military in the meantime
Apple puts TV service on hold
Negotiating distribution deals is turning out to be harder than expected
France threatens to open the border at Calais to send migrants to the UK
Using business jets to deliver scheduled flight service
Germany in the EU
The EU, founded more or less to keep Germany from getting belligerent again, now faces the problem of having a highly responsibe Germany that subsidizes bad economic behavior by others (who resent it)
A look inside Amazon.com's brutal workplace
Show notes - Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - August 16, 2015
August 14, 2015
Motorola Mobility to cut 25% of its Chicago workforce
The smartphone maker, spun off from the parent company, then sold to Google, then sold to Lenovo, is cutting 500 jobs in Chicago out of the about 2,000 it employs now. The rest of Lenovo is cutting back, too, and despite the Chicago cuts, the company supposedly wants Motorola to do more of the parent company's smartphone work.
Prankster goes after people angry about Target's gender-neutrality policy in the toy aisle
Samsung introduces new jumbo smartphones
The Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus are both really big -- "phablet"-sized -- and carry huge price tags: $700 and $800, respectively. Especially as cell-phone service providers move away from the long-term-contract model, consumers may start to get more price-sensitive, and $700 is a really big ticket.
Verizon tests 10 Gbps Internet service
Their current FiOS network offerings hit 500 Mbps, which is really fast -- but this is 20 times faster, and the company thinks they could get up to 80 Gbps. Fiber optics make all the difference...now, it just has to become economically feasible for utilities to install that expensive fiber all the way to homes. Densely-populated places will have a huge advantage in getting it first.
Comcast plans a new streaming-video service
Tentatively called "Watchable", it's expected to carry a lot of content from online-only providers and deliver it straight to cable TV subscribers' homes. It reflects the surging demand for content to suit ever-more-specific audiences, and how threatening that is to cable television providers.
August 13, 2015
UK government claims 83% of the country has "super-fast" broadband access
By "super-fast", they mean 24 Mbps. The big challenge in the UK, as it is elsewhere, is delivering high speeds in rural areas.
FCC invites phone companies to workshop on figuring out how to stop telemarketing robocalls
An ambulance drone may be coming
Designed to get things like defibrilators to the scene faster than an ambulance on four wheels
Samsung plans to build the world's biggest hard drive
In the standard 2.5" package, it's supposed to hold 16 terabytes
"Sesame Street" isn't leaving PBS...but it'll air first on HBO
August 12, 2015
International hacking ring stole info from press-release websites to trade on insider information
Hillary Clinton to turn over the infamous server hard drive
Plus a thumb drive containing backups of those disputed emails. A reminder to all of us: If you do serious business by email, you should make sure to deliberately keep a backup someplace safe. Have a strategy for security and backups; don't pull a Clinton.
Smartphones as the "Swiss Army knife" of the Millennial generation
Phones are used to do so many things that they are hard to do without
Kim Kardashian busted for endorsing pharmaceuticals on Instagram
Google's rearrangement as "Alphabet" doesn't make it a real conglomerate
But they are trying to be a digital conglomerate