April 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Community colleges, especially Southwestern College in California, are battling a surge of AI-driven bot students who fraudulently enroll in online classes to collect financial aid. Professors are overwhelmed with vetting enrollees, while administrators scramble to respond. Despite some institutional efforts, faculty feel unsupported, and the problem only worsens, threatening education quality and student access. -Thinking … Continue reading Bot Crisis 101: Community Colleges Overrun by AI-Driven Financial Aid Scams #1814
The post Bot Crisis 101: Community Colleges Overrun by AI-Driven Financial Aid Scams #1814 appeared first on Geek News Central.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The lead story from Monday, April 17. Community
colleges, especially Southwestern
College in California,
are battling a surge of AI driven bot
students who enroll in online classes
to fraudulently collect financial aid.
Professors are overwhelmed
with vetting enrollees
(00:21):
while administrators
scramble to respond.
Despite some institution efforts, faculty feels unsupported and
the problem only worsens
threatening education quality and student
access. Welcome to episode 1,814.
Well, wow. This is this is just a
crazy story
(00:41):
And it's all about scamming the government out
of money.
And, what it is is these bots sign
up for classes
and,
you know, on these community colleges
and then apply for financial aid,
they hang out and participate
as a bot long enough in the class
(01:03):
to get their financial aid
approved
and the money coming in.
And,
then they figure out their bot. But by
that time,
the money's gone.
So
it's just showing what is happening in the
world today.
In this example,
(01:23):
two of our
Southwestern College professor Elizabeth
Smith
said two of our online classes were completely
full boasting 32 stone students each
with a
class having a wait list of 20 students.
And, by the end of the first two
weeks of the semester, she had whittled down
(01:45):
the 104
students enrolled in her class,
including those on the wait list to just
15.
The rest, she concluded, were fake students.
It's a surreal experience. It's heartbreaking.
Of course, the bot's goal is to build
state and federal financial aid money by enrolling
classes
(02:06):
and remaining enrolled in them long enough to
for aid disbursements to go out. They often
accomplish this by submitting AI generated work. And
because community college accepts all applicants,
they've been almost
exclusively impacted by the fraud.
So and they're doing this at scale.
(02:27):
So community colleges,
first started being bots as far as, first
started seeing bots
in 2021.
And now
they're just ramping up and they're getting better.
So far, they've,
they've committed enough fraud to get $11,000,000
in state and federal financial aid.
(02:49):
And,
last year, the state chancellor
estimated twenty five
percent of college applicants were bots.
So that's an amazing,
amazing
number,
of fraud that's going on,
within colleges
across the country. You just wonder,
(03:11):
if this is if this goes way, way
beyond just, just California.
Hey. As I said, welcome to episode 1,814.
Of course, I'm your host, Todd Cochran, a
shout out to our incredible sponsor at GoDaddy.
Score exclusive deals and discounts at geekinesscentral.com/GoDaddy.
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(03:31):
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(06:01):
and going
strong.
Hey. Took a few vacation days. Had some
friends in, from Thailand.
So,
it really was it was nice to have
a little bit of break
and, probably drank a little much to
alcohol and fighting a little bit of a
head cold today. So, sorry if I'm a
(06:22):
little bit,
nasal inclined. I guess that's the better word.
We'll think our we will thank our insiders
on the next,
edition of the show.
But let's go ahead and get into
the regular stack of content today.
House investigators
are looking at deep seek and teasing out
(06:45):
funding and,
what really the security realities around the Chinese
AI tool. And what they found out was
this company has been back to the tune
of about a half a billion dollars,
and
there's claimed a $6,000,000
of,
cost to do their training run was just
(07:05):
the the cleanup at the end.
Was not
the total cost to do,
the reasoning model.
But, again,
the result of the investigation,
they say acts as a direct channel for
foreign intelligence gathering on Americans private data.
(07:25):
So I have no doubt
with the way the Chinese are.
So just be aware.
If you're using that tool, I would not
use the website version at all. I'd be
very, very,
very, very cautious for sure.
If you haven't seen an update come in
for your Apple devices, you need to update
immediately. There's a zero day security
(07:48):
flaw, so you need to update to, I
believe it's eighteen point four point one.
Just look for an update, get that update
done to your devices immediately,
save yourself the the chance
of being, being hacked.
Google have lost an online advertising monopoly case.
(08:09):
Google's dominance of the online advertising and ad
tech markets violates US antitrust laws, a federal
court ruled on Thursday.
It's the second major recent antitrust laws for
Google after different courts have ruled
after different court rule last year.
This accounts for about 12% of Apple's overall
business and, they may be forced
(08:31):
to divest.
So this is a second case against them.
We'll see how this proceeds,
but it's definitely not not not a good
look.
And I I say
something needs to happen to get more competition
in the space.
ChatGPD spends tens of millions dollars on pings
and saying please and thank you,
(08:52):
but Sam Altman says it's worth it.
And,
so
I I I've kinda
cussed the AI out at times.
I probably said thank you before.
I think we've all done that to an
extent but is it really needed?
Probably not,
(09:13):
because even if I curse it at times,
it doesn't fix things. So,
who
knows? Brendan Carr is threatening Comcast over coverage
of the Abigail Garcia case. The FCC chair
said Comcast spent days misleading the American public
about the government's decision to deport him
(09:34):
and,
in not putting up all of the data.
Comcast outlet spent days misleading the American public.
Carr wrote in a reply
to poet to a post on x
which criticized the cam the Comcast's own MSNBC
and Warner Brothers Discovery CNN
for not covering,
(09:55):
White House briefings about the deportation of immigrants.
Comcast knows federal law requires its license operations
to serve the public interest. Well,
you know, I I think they have very
limited scope
in what they can actually do.
So
these this is one of those situations where
(10:16):
don't know if there's much more
bite than bark,
in any type of action that they can
take.
Google's blocked over 5,000,000,000 ads in 2024 as
AI powered scams have skyrocketed.
AI is doing heavy lifting in bad ad
detection prevention, quote, unquote.
In 2024
(10:37):
ads safety report, Google outlined how bads have
really how bad ads have really taken off
largely again to,
generative AI being able to create stuff on
the fly.
Nvidia stocks have fell again. Market cap loses
near $270,000,000,000
after new export controls. The stock has just
(10:58):
been all over the market.
It really really has up, down, in between,
and and I think it's gonna continue for
for a while.
Infamous site, four Chan has been taken down
by a hacker from rival community
and it's still down.
On April 14, an Infamous Internet forum is
four Chan was again hit by a major
(11:19):
hacking attack with a lot of stuff revealed
about the community and,
it remains down in offline,
today.
That's a pretty good one if it's off
this long.
Apple's removed yet another popular VPN app from
its App Store.
Nors Labs dVPN
(11:40):
was probably ranked number three among Apple's top
free apps in the country,
but they've removed it from the App Store
at Russia's
request.
So not because
it was doing a good job because Russia
did not peep want people using the VPN.
And Insta three sixty teaser suggest it could
(12:01):
launch the world's best
three sixty camera
and,
people are,
really wanting,
major improvements.
I think it's a pretty good camera,
regardless of wanting improvements.
But, you know, people always want more, more,
more.
(12:24):
NASA has been able to recreate eighty thousand
years of moon exposure to confirm sun can
create water.
Sun? The sun can create water?
How is that? Well,
this NASA led study flips the scripts
And, basically,
(12:44):
they have done a custom lab setup
that mimics the lunar environment,
but
it's a component of solar wind
impacting soil
or
stuff under the surface because the moon is
(13:05):
not protected from
a a magnetic core.
So when solar wind protons, essentially hydrogen nuclei,
slam into the moon's surface, they find no
resistance.
Thus,
those protons
collide with electrons in the moon's regolith forming
hydrogen atoms,
(13:25):
those hydrogen atoms can then combine with oxygen
in minerals like silica
to be to form
hydroxyl
and possibly h two o.
So, obviously, it'll be in very, very
tiny itsy bitsies,
but it's a interesting,
experiment.
(13:46):
Took them a long time to, to get
that accomplished.
Engineers
are working on self repairing buildings
and,
engine you know, con
construction.
The market is really relies on the breakdown
(14:06):
of of concrete. Right? We've all had concrete
go bad in driveways,
on our highways.
So the scientists behind the project
based at Montana State University say the materials
produced at a low temperature relies on living
cells,
make it potentially groundbreaking solution reducing the biome
impact on the construction industry. When cement alone
(14:27):
response for nearly 8% of global c o
two missions, the team believes their innovation could
help pave the way for more
sustainable adapted building systems.
Biomineralized
materials do not have enough strength to replace
concrete and applications,
but we and others are working to improve
their property so they can see greater usage.
(14:49):
So
I guess they've made the ability
that for this
material to be intermixed with concrete to help
it heal.
Sounds pretty wild.
(15:10):
It sounds pretty wild. A link will be
up in the show notes. Sounds too good
to be true. Can you do you drill
it and inject it, or do you do
it in the pouring a pouring of it?
I I don't know.
A fireball lights up Mexico City skies,
and,
I I don't think it was the Blue
Origin,
(15:31):
flight. But,
again,
it happened around 3AM
and, obviously, a meteorite. It was pretty long
lasted and the people made up all kinds
of memes not being the end of the
world, etcetera, etcetera.
Discord is getting sued for allegedly violating child
safety laws. The state in Jersey filed state
(15:51):
against Escord claiming the company engaged in deceptive
and unconscionable business practices
that put children at risk. The suit was
filed
on Thursday and alleges the popular message app
of not doing enough to keep its youngest
users safe from predators and violent content.
So
suit claims
(16:12):
that the existing protections are either inadequate or
easy to circumvent. For example, Discord prohibits users
on the age of 13 for making account,
but it does nothing to verify users are
the age they claim.
So I think this is an ongoing thing
that will continue across many, many platforms.
The first folding e reader is smaller than
(16:34):
a paperback.
It's called the Moon Ink v features an
eight inch folding e ink screen.
It's been tested to survive over 200,000
bends. It looks pretty nice.
A link will be up in the show
notes. They did a nice job on this.
At the same time, Facebook considered ad free
subscriptions after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I think
(16:55):
we've talked about this before,
but this just come out in some new,
at a new hearing.
I guess it was during
a
a court hearing,
FTC versus Meta.
And,
they were thinking truly about a paid monthly
subscription
in The UK.
(17:17):
It's largely because,
of the privacy rights and everything else that's
going on. So would you would you have
paid for Facebook?
Instagram has a new,
feature called blend
that lets you create a custom personalized real
feed for you and your friends.
Blends are invite only and can be created
(17:37):
with a singular friend with a group or
with a group chat.
The custom feeds, again,
are refreshed with new content each day.
So, this doesn't come as surprises with something
that had been kinda talked
about. Apple intelligence is busted on made iOS
apps.
So you may be out of luck if
(17:57):
you've been relying on Apple's AI tools, if
you've actually used them at all. They'll craft
your Facebook posts or generate a custom emoji.
So,
Apple intelligent features are not currently functional on
made to iOS apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp
threads.
And in gadgets confirmed that Apple intelligent isn't
working apps at the time of the writing,
(18:21):
which is right now.
Red Robin. Did you guys do you have
a Red Robin near you? Did you get
one of their $20 burger pass? Well,
the promotion sold out quick,
but it was a great deal for May
to get a whole bunch of free burgers
or, you know, exclusive burgers in May at
a lower price.
(18:42):
The individual that the Trump administration targeted, Chris
Curbs, has resigned from SentinelOne to focus on
fighting the president's executive order. I don't know
how he can fight the executive order,
but he has
basically stepped down.
And, the April 9 ordered direct the justice
(19:04):
department to investigate
him,
and suspended his security clearance
as well as anyone else who holds one
at SentinelOne.
So
they're they're trying to take SentinelOne out of
the spotlight here. So,
we'll see if this does any good.
There's a big, big accusation going on with
(19:26):
Tesla right now.
Tesla odometer uses a predictive
algorithm
to void warranty lawsuit claims.
So
Nyer's Hinton bought a used model y for
less than with less than 37,000
miles on the odometer.
Within six months, it pushed past the 50
(19:47):
k mark,
at which point the car's bumper to bumper
warranty expired.
For this six month period, Hinton says his
model y, a diameter gained 13,000
miles.
By comparison,
average of his three previous vehicles show that
with the same commute,
he was only driving 6,000
miles per six months.
(20:09):
So the following year,
Hinton's commute got longer, but he claims his
car actually recorded 800
fewer
miles per month once it was no longer
under warranty.
Well, there's one way to check this.
You're driving to Tesla and you're on your
highway, look at the mile markers and make
sure that it's racking up miles
correctly. So we'll see what comes of this
(20:30):
lawsuit.
There's a good four k dash cam,
has a unique enhanced trick for license plates
and signs. It's called the VanTrue
e one.
And,
it's not necessarily inexpensive.
It's a hundred and $49.
(20:50):
But,
it really does a good job
of recording license plates.
And that's something you need in hit and
runs and those type of, activities and recording
signs
and so forth. So,
link will be up in the show notes
for you to check that out.
Perplexity is reportedly key to Motorola's next RZR.
(21:11):
Perplexity AI voice assistant reportedly plays significant role
in the upcoming
Motorola RZR expect to be announced on the
twenty fourth.
Rebecca is also working with T Mobile on
a new AI phone with agents that could
handle tasks like looking for flights without needing
the user interact with the apps.
So we will see
(21:32):
what this brings. I think we'll see all
of this
coming to phones in the near future. But
if you got a spare $10,000
laying around,
Audio Technica has a new turntable
that levitates,
yes, levitates
and glows.
It uses magnets,
to reduce vibrations that could affect playback.
(21:58):
The upper section not only floats above the
base using a series of magnet that helps
dampen vibration.
It also glows from within with a color
changing light that responds to sound from record
being played.
They plan to make just a thousand units
priced at $10,000
each.
The shipping isn't inspected until October.
(22:19):
So I wonder if it really
plays that well. It makes you wonder, doesn't
it?
Library Internet access is world changing for millions,
but the money
might be going away.
A good article on CNET
about how libraries are supported federally,
(22:41):
to be able to provide,
stuff online. I thought that that's what my
taxes did.
How my taxes supported the library in order
for them to
provide stuff online.
A lot of our federal money is going
places we we we just never imagined,
stuff that's being dug out by Doge.
(23:03):
If you wanna know what's to do on
Hulu, got that link up in the show
notes. Definitely check it out.
Meanwhile, Archer Archer is outlining its plans to
use air taxis between New York major airports.
It will whisk pass passengers between NYC locations
to airports in five to fifteen minutes
if the FAA approves it.
(23:23):
So,
if you wanna move from, JFK to LaGuardia,
they're gonna have this this flight. They're also
gonna be going to as many as,
three or four other regional airports.
So,
of course, it is a VTOL
electric aircraft. We will see if this actually
(23:44):
launches. There's no date to launch or anything
like that.
There's a new product by Nike. It's called
Hyper
Hyperice.
Nike excuse me. Nike and Hyperice
are gonna release the Hyper Boot
warm up footwear for athletes on May 17.
This is interesting.
(24:07):
Originally introduced in summer twenty twenty four, the
Hyper Boot looks pretty much like a pair
of chunky high top boots,
but
it's called a heat and dynamic air compression
massage tool.
It's equipped with dual air bladders with heating
elements throughout its entire upper
portion. Hyper boot was designed to massage its
wearer's feet with its sequential compression patterns
(24:29):
designed to keep drive heat deep into the
muscles
and tissue in the foot and ankle. Apparently,
this helps outlook athletes feel like they've already
warmed up
before they even start their warm up. It
also helps them recover much
faster. So
very, very interesting.
And if you have more than one person
(24:50):
wearing them, you can sync them across
different hyper boots. What are they gonna cost?
Doesn't say, but I bet it's gonna be
very expensive.
Android 16 brings identity check security features to
more than just the Pixel and Galaxy phones.
So they've added security check to more Android
(25:10):
phones,
which is good. So if you see if
you get an update, you may see, this
you know, if you've got a off brand,
like a Samsung phone or so forth, you
probably see this in the upcoming
Google release.
Eufy, and I I if I pronounce it
wrong, e u f y's new smart lock
(25:32):
reads the vein.
Yeah. Veins in your palm for touchless entry.
So, basically, you just wave your hand above
it, and it reads the veins in your
hands
just as if it was reading a fingerprint
to be able to unlock the door. I'd
like to see this in action and how
effective that is.
(25:52):
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Broadband is expensive, CNET survey finds 63% of
Internet users are paying more than before.
Most of us are paying a hundred $95
on average
more
this year than we were last year or
within the last twelve months.
(26:16):
So that means we've seen it all of
us have seen an increase of between 10
and $20.
That's just insane.
Of course, you know,
I really have no choice. I pay a
hundred and $20 for my
for my Starlink
and two forty when I'm running two of
(26:36):
them.
LG's TV integrated ads get more personal attack
that analyzes your emotions. So now your TV
is gonna be watching you
and sending that data back
and serving you ads based upon your mood
and your emotions.
I I I'm gonna be taping over any
sensors that's that's looking at me from within
(26:57):
the TV.
That is just something that is just too
that's too invasive.
You know? It really, really is.
I wonder how far it will go
in reading emotions
depending what you're doing in your living room,
if you know what I mean.
So
very, very bizarre.
(27:20):
The cosmic car radio.
Well,
that's kind of an interesting
comment.
Researchers
have dealt developed the axion
quasi particle.
Yes.
Quasi
particle
that could become the basis of a cosmic
(27:41):
car radio of sorts,
and this radio should have the ability to
tune
to the freaks
frequency of axions.
Axions are hypothetical
particles that are leading candidates for dark made
matter.
The team behind the idea says if it
were made,
the device would become the most accurate
(28:01):
dark matter detector yet.
I don't think you're gonna get one of
these,
off the shelf, ladies and gentlemen.
But, yes. A cosmic
car
radio.
Are you a fan of Fitbit? Well,
Google is really not helping the matter at
all.
Fitbit continues with Google Assistant,
(28:24):
the latest feature to be act. So Google
Assistant will be removed,
from the Fitbit. So if you've been using
that,
be aware.
Also, over 1,600,000
customers have been hit in the massive insurance
data breach.
Landmark admin affected twice as many people as
originally thought, so went from 800,000
(28:45):
to 1.6.
So,
if you're part of Landmark,
just be aware
that, you are likely included in this breach.
Also, if your Windows 11 PC is crashing
a lot,
Microsoft is mending a bug
and has rushed out a fix. It's called
(29:06):
the,
well, apparently, these crashes have been become more
widespread since April,
and,
they've had a problem.
So they've got a new update
that's available that you should, probably grab if
you've been having,
crashing issues. Now one of the challenges I've
been having here
(29:27):
since I made my switch up, it's always
something.
I find that if I leave my
Elgato
and there's an app here.
The Elgato camera hub, if I forget to
open it,
the camera quits on me. It freezes
when I'm using OBS or anything else.
(29:48):
So I have to run both apps at
the same time
or my camera freezes.
And,
it's quite annoying
Quite annoying indeed,
to the point that it's, you know, gonna
affect,
show output.
I'll just say that.
So,
anyway, probably an audio only show today. Geeknews@Gmail.com.
(30:12):
Geek news at Gmail dot com. At Geek
News on Twitter, thank you for supporting the
sponsor. It's been my pleasure to bring you
the podcast today. Everyone take care. We'll see
you next time. Be safe,
And, thanks for being here. We'll be back
on Monday. Bye bye.
The lead story from Monday, April 17. Community
colleges, especially Southwestern
College in California,
are battling a surge of AI driven bot
students who enroll in online classes
to fraudulently collect financial aid.
Professors are overwhelmed
with vetting enrollees
(00:21):
while administrators
scramble to respond.
Despite some institution efforts, faculty feels unsupported and
the problem only worsens
threatening education quality and student
access. Welcome to episode 1,814.
Well, wow. This is this is just a
crazy story
(00:41):
And it's all about scamming the government out
of money.
And, what it is is these bots sign
up for classes
and,
you know, on these community colleges
and then apply for financial aid,
they hang out and participate
as a bot long enough in the class
(01:03):
to get their financial aid
approved
and the money coming in.
And,
then they figure out their bot. But by
that time,
the money's gone.
So
it's just showing what is happening in the
world today.
In this example,
(01:23):
two of our
Southwestern College professor Elizabeth
Smith
said two of our online classes were completely
full boasting 32 stone students each
with a
class having a wait list of 20 students.
And, by the end of the first two
weeks of the semester, she had whittled down
(01:45):
the 104
students enrolled in her class,
including those on the wait list to just
15.
The rest, she concluded, were fake students.
It's a surreal experience. It's heartbreaking.
Of course, the bot's goal is to build
state and federal financial aid money by enrolling
classes
(02:06):
and remaining enrolled in them long enough to
for aid disbursements to go out. They often
accomplish this by submitting AI generated work. And
because community college accepts all applicants,
they've been almost
exclusively impacted by the fraud.
So and they're doing this at scale.
(02:27):
So community colleges,
first started being bots as far as, first
started seeing bots
in 2021.
And now
they're just ramping up and they're getting better.
So far, they've,
they've committed enough fraud to get $11,000,000
in state and federal financial aid.
(02:49):
And,
last year, the state chancellor
estimated twenty five
percent of college applicants were bots.
So that's an amazing,
amazing
number,
of fraud that's going on,
within colleges
across the country. You just wonder,
(03:11):
if this is if this goes way, way
beyond just, just California.
Hey. As I said, welcome to episode 1,814.
Of course, I'm your host, Todd Cochran, a
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(03:31):
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and going
strong.
Hey. Took a few vacation days. Had some
friends in, from Thailand.
So,
it really was it was nice to have
a little bit of break
and, probably drank a little much to
alcohol and fighting a little bit of a
head cold today. So, sorry if I'm a
(06:22):
little bit,
nasal inclined. I guess that's the better word.
We'll think our we will thank our insiders
on the next,
edition of the show.
But let's go ahead and get into
the regular stack of content today.
House investigators
are looking at deep seek and teasing out
(06:45):
funding and,
what really the security realities around the Chinese
AI tool. And what they found out was
this company has been back to the tune
of about a half a billion dollars,
and
there's claimed a $6,000,000
of,
cost to do their training run was just
(07:05):
the the cleanup at the end.
Was not
the total cost to do,
the reasoning model.
But, again,
the result of the investigation,
they say acts as a direct channel for
foreign intelligence gathering on Americans private data.
(07:25):
So I have no doubt
with the way the Chinese are.
So just be aware.
If you're using that tool, I would not
use the website version at all. I'd be
very, very,
very, very cautious for sure.
If you haven't seen an update come in
for your Apple devices, you need to update
immediately. There's a zero day security
(07:48):
flaw, so you need to update to, I
believe it's eighteen point four point one.
Just look for an update, get that update
done to your devices immediately,
save yourself the the chance
of being, being hacked.
Google have lost an online advertising monopoly case.
(08:09):
Google's dominance of the online advertising and ad
tech markets violates US antitrust laws, a federal
court ruled on Thursday.
It's the second major recent antitrust laws for
Google after different courts have ruled
after different court rule last year.
This accounts for about 12% of Apple's overall
business and, they may be forced
(08:31):
to divest.
So this is a second case against them.
We'll see how this proceeds,
but it's definitely not not not a good
look.
And I I say
something needs to happen to get more competition
in the space.
ChatGPD spends tens of millions dollars on pings
and saying please and thank you,
(08:52):
but Sam Altman says it's worth it.
And,
so
I I I've kinda
cussed the AI out at times.
I probably said thank you before.
I think we've all done that to an
extent but is it really needed?
Probably not,
(09:13):
because even if I curse it at times,
it doesn't fix things. So,
who
knows? Brendan Carr is threatening Comcast over coverage
of the Abigail Garcia case. The FCC chair
said Comcast spent days misleading the American public
about the government's decision to deport him
(09:34):
and,
in not putting up all of the data.
Comcast outlet spent days misleading the American public.
Carr wrote in a reply
to poet to a post on x
which criticized the cam the Comcast's own MSNBC
and Warner Brothers Discovery CNN
for not covering,
(09:55):
White House briefings about the deportation of immigrants.
Comcast knows federal law requires its license operations
to serve the public interest. Well,
you know, I I think they have very
limited scope
in what they can actually do.
So
these this is one of those situations where
(10:16):
don't know if there's much more
bite than bark,
in any type of action that they can
take.
Google's blocked over 5,000,000,000 ads in 2024 as
AI powered scams have skyrocketed.
AI is doing heavy lifting in bad ad
detection prevention, quote, unquote.
In 2024
(10:37):
ads safety report, Google outlined how bads have
really how bad ads have really taken off
largely again to,
generative AI being able to create stuff on
the fly.
Nvidia stocks have fell again. Market cap loses
near $270,000,000,000
after new export controls. The stock has just
(10:58):
been all over the market.
It really really has up, down, in between,
and and I think it's gonna continue for
for a while.
Infamous site, four Chan has been taken down
by a hacker from rival community
and it's still down.
On April 14, an Infamous Internet forum is
four Chan was again hit by a major
(11:19):
hacking attack with a lot of stuff revealed
about the community and,
it remains down in offline,
today.
That's a pretty good one if it's off
this long.
Apple's removed yet another popular VPN app from
its App Store.
Nors Labs dVPN
(11:40):
was probably ranked number three among Apple's top
free apps in the country,
but they've removed it from the App Store
at Russia's
request.
So not because
it was doing a good job because Russia
did not peep want people using the VPN.
And Insta three sixty teaser suggest it could
(12:01):
launch the world's best
three sixty camera
and,
people are,
really wanting,
major improvements.
I think it's a pretty good camera,
regardless of wanting improvements.
But, you know, people always want more, more,
more.
(12:24):
NASA has been able to recreate eighty thousand
years of moon exposure to confirm sun can
create water.
Sun? The sun can create water?
How is that? Well,
this NASA led study flips the scripts
And, basically,
(12:44):
they have done a custom lab setup
that mimics the lunar environment,
but
it's a component of solar wind
impacting soil
or
stuff under the surface because the moon is
(13:05):
not protected from
a a magnetic core.
So when solar wind protons, essentially hydrogen nuclei,
slam into the moon's surface, they find no
resistance.
Thus,
those protons
collide with electrons in the moon's regolith forming
hydrogen atoms,
(13:25):
those hydrogen atoms can then combine with oxygen
in minerals like silica
to be to form
hydroxyl
and possibly h two o.
So, obviously, it'll be in very, very
tiny itsy bitsies,
but it's a interesting,
experiment.
(13:46):
Took them a long time to, to get
that accomplished.
Engineers
are working on self repairing buildings
and,
engine you know, con
construction.
The market is really relies on the breakdown
(14:06):
of of concrete. Right? We've all had concrete
go bad in driveways,
on our highways.
So the scientists behind the project
based at Montana State University say the materials
produced at a low temperature relies on living
cells,
make it potentially groundbreaking solution reducing the biome
impact on the construction industry. When cement alone
(14:27):
response for nearly 8% of global c o
two missions, the team believes their innovation could
help pave the way for more
sustainable adapted building systems.
Biomineralized
materials do not have enough strength to replace
concrete and applications,
but we and others are working to improve
their property so they can see greater usage.
(14:49):
So
I guess they've made the ability
that for this
material to be intermixed with concrete to help
it heal.
Sounds pretty wild.
(15:10):
It sounds pretty wild. A link will be
up in the show notes. Sounds too good
to be true. Can you do you drill
it and inject it, or do you do
it in the pouring a pouring of it?
I I don't know.
A fireball lights up Mexico City skies,
and,
I I don't think it was the Blue
Origin,
(15:31):
flight. But,
again,
it happened around 3AM
and, obviously, a meteorite. It was pretty long
lasted and the people made up all kinds
of memes not being the end of the
world, etcetera, etcetera.
Discord is getting sued for allegedly violating child
safety laws. The state in Jersey filed state
(15:51):
against Escord claiming the company engaged in deceptive
and unconscionable business practices
that put children at risk. The suit was
filed
on Thursday and alleges the popular message app
of not doing enough to keep its youngest
users safe from predators and violent content.
So
suit claims
(16:12):
that the existing protections are either inadequate or
easy to circumvent. For example, Discord prohibits users
on the age of 13 for making account,
but it does nothing to verify users are
the age they claim.
So I think this is an ongoing thing
that will continue across many, many platforms.
The first folding e reader is smaller than
(16:34):
a paperback.
It's called the Moon Ink v features an
eight inch folding e ink screen.
It's been tested to survive over 200,000
bends. It looks pretty nice.
A link will be up in the show
notes. They did a nice job on this.
At the same time, Facebook considered ad free
subscriptions after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I think
(16:55):
we've talked about this before,
but this just come out in some new,
at a new hearing.
I guess it was during
a
a court hearing,
FTC versus Meta.
And,
they were thinking truly about a paid monthly
subscription
in The UK.
(17:17):
It's largely because,
of the privacy rights and everything else that's
going on. So would you would you have
paid for Facebook?
Instagram has a new,
feature called blend
that lets you create a custom personalized real
feed for you and your friends.
Blends are invite only and can be created
(17:37):
with a singular friend with a group or
with a group chat.
The custom feeds, again,
are refreshed with new content each day.
So, this doesn't come as surprises with something
that had been kinda talked
about. Apple intelligence is busted on made iOS
apps.
So you may be out of luck if
(17:57):
you've been relying on Apple's AI tools, if
you've actually used them at all. They'll craft
your Facebook posts or generate a custom emoji.
So,
Apple intelligent features are not currently functional on
made to iOS apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp
threads.
And in gadgets confirmed that Apple intelligent isn't
working apps at the time of the writing,
(18:21):
which is right now.
Red Robin. Did you guys do you have
a Red Robin near you? Did you get
one of their $20 burger pass? Well,
the promotion sold out quick,
but it was a great deal for May
to get a whole bunch of free burgers
or, you know, exclusive burgers in May at
a lower price.
(18:42):
The individual that the Trump administration targeted, Chris
Curbs, has resigned from SentinelOne to focus on
fighting the president's executive order. I don't know
how he can fight the executive order,
but he has
basically stepped down.
And, the April 9 ordered direct the justice
(19:04):
department to investigate
him,
and suspended his security clearance
as well as anyone else who holds one
at SentinelOne.
So
they're they're trying to take SentinelOne out of
the spotlight here. So,
we'll see if this does any good.
There's a big, big accusation going on with
(19:26):
Tesla right now.
Tesla odometer uses a predictive
algorithm
to void warranty lawsuit claims.
So
Nyer's Hinton bought a used model y for
less than with less than 37,000
miles on the odometer.
Within six months, it pushed past the 50
(19:47):
k mark,
at which point the car's bumper to bumper
warranty expired.
For this six month period, Hinton says his
model y, a diameter gained 13,000
miles.
By comparison,
average of his three previous vehicles show that
with the same commute,
he was only driving 6,000
miles per six months.
(20:09):
So the following year,
Hinton's commute got longer, but he claims his
car actually recorded 800
fewer
miles per month once it was no longer
under warranty.
Well, there's one way to check this.
You're driving to Tesla and you're on your
highway, look at the mile markers and make
sure that it's racking up miles
correctly. So we'll see what comes of this
(20:30):
lawsuit.
There's a good four k dash cam,
has a unique enhanced trick for license plates
and signs. It's called the VanTrue
e one.
And,
it's not necessarily inexpensive.
It's a hundred and $49.
(20:50):
But,
it really does a good job
of recording license plates.
And that's something you need in hit and
runs and those type of, activities and recording
signs
and so forth. So,
link will be up in the show notes
for you to check that out.
Perplexity is reportedly key to Motorola's next RZR.
(21:11):
Perplexity AI voice assistant reportedly plays significant role
in the upcoming
Motorola RZR expect to be announced on the
twenty fourth.
Rebecca is also working with T Mobile on
a new AI phone with agents that could
handle tasks like looking for flights without needing
the user interact with the apps.
So we will see
(21:32):
what this brings. I think we'll see all
of this
coming to phones in the near future. But
if you got a spare $10,000
laying around,
Audio Technica has a new turntable
that levitates,
yes, levitates
and glows.
It uses magnets,
to reduce vibrations that could affect playback.
(21:58):
The upper section not only floats above the
base using a series of magnet that helps
dampen vibration.
It also glows from within with a color
changing light that responds to sound from record
being played.
They plan to make just a thousand units
priced at $10,000
each.
The shipping isn't inspected until October.
(22:19):
So I wonder if it really
plays that well. It makes you wonder, doesn't
it?
Library Internet access is world changing for millions,
but the money
might be going away.
A good article on CNET
about how libraries are supported federally,
(22:41):
to be able to provide,
stuff online. I thought that that's what my
taxes did.
How my taxes supported the library in order
for them to
provide stuff online.
A lot of our federal money is going
places we we we just never imagined,
stuff that's being dug out by Doge.
(23:03):
If you wanna know what's to do on
Hulu, got that link up in the show
notes. Definitely check it out.
Meanwhile, Archer Archer is outlining its plans to
use air taxis between New York major airports.
It will whisk pass passengers between NYC locations
to airports in five to fifteen minutes
if the FAA approves it.
(23:23):
So,
if you wanna move from, JFK to LaGuardia,
they're gonna have this this flight. They're also
gonna be going to as many as,
three or four other regional airports.
So,
of course, it is a VTOL
electric aircraft. We will see if this actually
(23:44):
launches. There's no date to launch or anything
like that.
There's a new product by Nike. It's called
Hyper
Hyperice.
Nike excuse me. Nike and Hyperice
are gonna release the Hyper Boot
warm up footwear for athletes on May 17.
This is interesting.
(24:07):
Originally introduced in summer twenty twenty four, the
Hyper Boot looks pretty much like a pair
of chunky high top boots,
but
it's called a heat and dynamic air compression
massage tool.
It's equipped with dual air bladders with heating
elements throughout its entire upper
portion. Hyper boot was designed to massage its
wearer's feet with its sequential compression patterns
(24:29):
designed to keep drive heat deep into the
muscles
and tissue in the foot and ankle. Apparently,
this helps outlook athletes feel like they've already
warmed up
before they even start their warm up. It
also helps them recover much
faster. So
very, very interesting.
And if you have more than one person
(24:50):
wearing them, you can sync them across
different hyper boots. What are they gonna cost?
Doesn't say, but I bet it's gonna be
very expensive.
Android 16 brings identity check security features to
more than just the Pixel and Galaxy phones.
So they've added security check to more Android
(25:10):
phones,
which is good. So if you see if
you get an update, you may see, this
you know, if you've got a off brand,
like a Samsung phone or so forth, you
probably see this in the upcoming
Google release.
Eufy, and I I if I pronounce it
wrong, e u f y's new smart lock
(25:32):
reads the vein.
Yeah. Veins in your palm for touchless entry.
So, basically, you just wave your hand above
it, and it reads the veins in your
hands
just as if it was reading a fingerprint
to be able to unlock the door. I'd
like to see this in action and how
effective that is.
(25:52):
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Broadband is expensive, CNET survey finds 63% of
Internet users are paying more than before.
Most of us are paying a hundred $95
on average
more
this year than we were last year or
within the last twelve months.
(26:16):
So that means we've seen it all of
us have seen an increase of between 10
and $20.
That's just insane.
Of course, you know,
I really have no choice. I pay a
hundred and $20 for my
for my Starlink
and two forty when I'm running two of
(26:36):
them.
LG's TV integrated ads get more personal attack
that analyzes your emotions. So now your TV
is gonna be watching you
and sending that data back
and serving you ads based upon your mood
and your emotions.
I I I'm gonna be taping over any
sensors that's that's looking at me from within
(26:57):
the TV.
That is just something that is just too
that's too invasive.
You know? It really, really is.
I wonder how far it will go
in reading emotions
depending what you're doing in your living room,
if you know what I mean.
So
very, very bizarre.
(27:20):
The cosmic car radio.
Well,
that's kind of an interesting
comment.
Researchers
have dealt developed the axion
quasi particle.
Yes.
Quasi
particle
that could become the basis of a cosmic
(27:41):
car radio of sorts,
and this radio should have the ability to
tune
to the freaks
frequency of axions.
Axions are hypothetical
particles that are leading candidates for dark made
matter.
The team behind the idea says if it
were made,
the device would become the most accurate
(28:01):
dark matter detector yet.
I don't think you're gonna get one of
these,
off the shelf, ladies and gentlemen.
But, yes. A cosmic
car
radio.
Are you a fan of Fitbit? Well,
Google is really not helping the matter at
all.
Fitbit continues with Google Assistant,
(28:24):
the latest feature to be act. So Google
Assistant will be removed,
from the Fitbit. So if you've been using
that,
be aware.
Also, over 1,600,000
customers have been hit in the massive insurance
data breach.
Landmark admin affected twice as many people as
originally thought, so went from 800,000
(28:45):
to 1.6.
So,
if you're part of Landmark,
just be aware
that, you are likely included in this breach.
Also, if your Windows 11 PC is crashing
a lot,
Microsoft is mending a bug
and has rushed out a fix. It's called
(29:06):
the,
well, apparently, these crashes have been become more
widespread since April,
and,
they've had a problem.
So they've got a new update
that's available that you should, probably grab if
you've been having,
crashing issues. Now one of the challenges I've
been having here
(29:27):
since I made my switch up, it's always
something.
I find that if I leave my
Elgato
and there's an app here.
The Elgato camera hub, if I forget to
open it,
the camera quits on me. It freezes
when I'm using OBS or anything else.
(29:48):
So I have to run both apps at
the same time
or my camera freezes.
And,
it's quite annoying
Quite annoying indeed,
to the point that it's, you know, gonna
affect,
show output.
I'll just say that.
So,
anyway, probably an audio only show today. Geeknews@Gmail.com.
(30:12):
Geek news at Gmail dot com. At Geek
News on Twitter, thank you for supporting the
sponsor. It's been my pleasure to bring you
the podcast today. Everyone take care. We'll see
you next time. Be safe,
And, thanks for being here. We'll be back
on Monday. Bye bye.
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