Computer Talk Radio

07/12/2025

This weeks Computer Talk Radio broadcast has been uploaded at http://computertalkradio.com/podcastCTR/?."name=ctrpodcast-2025-07-12.mp3

07/10/2025

Apple was the first US company to hit $1 Trillion in market capitalization. The first to hit $2 Trillion. The first to hit $3 Trillion. This week, however, the streak was broken. Nvidia poked above the $4 Trillion mark on Wednesday for a short bit, and then continued to lounge around that mark. This is one of the big indicators of AI, for which the big choices for chips come from Nvidia GPUs. There may be hurdles ahead with new export restrictions to China, but many companies are driving this boom. For market capitalization, Microsoft is in second at 3.7, and Apple is a distant 3rd at 3.2. If you’re marking it on your scorecard at home, Amazon sits at 2.4, and Alphabet aka Google at 2.2.

Nvidia’s market cap entered uncharted territory Wednesday, briefly surpassing $4 trillion about a year after passing $3 trillion.

See full story on Nvidia stock reaches new heights: $4 trillion market cap

Found at www.axios.com


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Nvidia stock reaches new heights: $4 trillion market cap

Apple was the first US company to hit $1 Trillion in market capitalization. The first to hit $2 Trillion. The first to hit $3 Trillion. This week, however, ...

07/10/2025

Microsoft laid off 9,000 people last week. One of the executives at Microsoft offered advise that was closer to a pitch for the AI that replaced those workers. Matt Turnbull stated that LLMs like ChatGPT and Copilot could “help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss”. The dystopian message contained no references to relying upon family or friends, but instead, the cold hearted machine that only pretends to be human. The message has since been deleted, but as we have stated in various ways over the years, once post on the Internet, your words can stay with you to haunt you when you least expect it.

Following the news that 9,000 people are being laid off at the company, one Xbox executive offered some questionable words of advice for people on their way out: Find solace in Microsoft Copilot.

See full story on How AI can help you navigate layoffs, according to one executive producer at Xbox

Found at www.engadget.com


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How AI can help you navigate layoffs, according to one executive producer at Xbox

Microsoft laid off 9,000 people last week. One of the executives at Microsoft offered advise that was closer to a pitch for the AI that replaced those worke ...

07/10/2025

This past week, news came out of someone moving a some Bitcoin around. Bitcoin is hovering at $116,000 right now. They put some cash in a few years back, $210,000 in 2011. The amount moved is about 80,000 actual Bitcoins, or translated, somewhere around $9 Billion USD. Due to the anonymity of this, we don’t know who bought it, who sold it, or anything more. Yes, there are others out there with large wallets of this cryptocurrency, but this is something that a lot of people are watching. Note that if someone is cashing out that volume at this point, they may be getting out while gains are good.

An OG Bitcoin investor has moved his stash of 80,000 BTC in an unprecedented transaction worth over $8 billion.

See full story on Bitcoin investor moves $8 billion worth of crypto after 14 years, originally bought for less than $210,000 — 80,000 BTC transferred from dormant Satoshi-era wallet | Tom’s Hardware

Found at www.tomshardware.com


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Bitcoin investor moves $8 billion worth of crypto after 14 years, originally bought for less than $210,000 — 80,000 BTC transferred from dormant Satoshi-era wallet | Tom’s Hardware

This past week, news came out of someone moving a some Bitcoin around. Bitcoin is hovering at $116,000 right now. They put some cash in a few years back, $2 ...

07/10/2025

A term that we should all be learning is Prompt Injection. Research papers from 14 academic institutions in 8 countries contained hidden directives to artificial intelligence to only provide positive information. These were then hidden by white text or small font sizes, but then passed along to AI which interprets all text, regardless of visibility to us. This trick isn’t old, and has been used by spammers, people on job websites, and more. The name itself, is newer, and refers to AI prompts or requests. Clearly, this will be increasingly used more as those with loose morals or scruples find out about it.

TOKYO — Research papers from 14 academic institutions in eight countries — including Japan, South Korea and China — contained hidden prompts direct

See full story on ‘Positive review only’: Researchers hide AI prompts in papers – Nikkei Asia

Found at asia.nikkei.com


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‘Positive review only’: Researchers hide AI prompts in papers – Nikkei Asia

A term that we should all be learning is Prompt Injection. Research papers from 14 academic institutions in 8 countries contained hidden directives to artif ...

07/10/2025

A case moving through courts on farm tractors has implications for all of us. John Deere, known for decades as being against the idea of right-to-repair, just lost ground in their fight against the FTC. In Illinois, the US District Court for Northern Illinois allowed for a permanent inunction against John Deere. The info from the courts clearly states a monopolistic practice, with no options for 3rd party repair. The tech world has long dealt with similar issues, and we’ve been watching and discussing Deere for ages, due to the much larger implications on all of our tech, and our right-to-repair.

In a nutshell, the Justice Department claims Deere is scamming farmers by forcing them to exclusively use Deere dealers to repair their combines and tractors when they stop running. The feds have a case.

See full story on Right-to-repair advocates score a small win at John Deere’s expense – Investigate Midwest

Found at investigatemidwest.org


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Right-to-repair advocates score a small win at John Deere’s expense – Investigate Midwest

A case moving through courts on farm tractors has implications for all of us. John Deere, known for decades as being against the idea of right-to-repair, ju ...

07/10/2025

Back in October, some good news came to us out of the Federal Trade Commission. The click-to-cancel rule was touted, and was due to go into affect right about now. A last minute ruling by the 8th Circuit said that the FTC made a procedural error, and must now jump through hoops to protect us from those that would hold us hostage by burying cancel options. Some companies have proceeded to move towards making it better for consumers, but this may throw a lot of that into question. Our overall hope is that the FTC will pursue whatever hoops they must perform to get this to the next level, and not let anything get in the way of protecting all of us.

A rule which would have required businesses to make it easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions has been blocked by a court days before it was set to go into effect.

See full story on ‘Click-to-cancel’ rule, intended to make canceling subscriptions easier, is blocked | AP News

Found at apnews.com


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‘Click-to-cancel’ rule, intended to make canceling subscriptions easier, is blocked | AP News

Back in October, some good news came to us out of the Federal Trade Commission. The click-to-cancel rule was touted, and was due to go into affect right abo ...