The US Passes the Anti-TikTok Bill

The thing I said probably wouldn't happened did happen -- the US Senate voted in favor of a bill that will force the Chinese company ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok or face a US-wide ban. But how the heck did we get here, and how does a political megadonor play into it?

The Broken Arrow Episode

Officially, the United States has lost nuclear weapons in six incidents in which the nation couldn't retrieve or destroy them. We look at these six incidents and learn how nuclear weapons work.

Tech News: Anti TikTok Bill Inches Closer to Becoming Law

Some tweaks to the bill that would require TikTok parent company to divest itself of the app or face a US-wide ban could be closer to becoming a law. AI takes to the skies in simulated dogfights. And about half of all online traffic comes from bots. Plus lots more!

It's Time to Light the Lights

How do theatrical lighting control systems work? From early attempts to automate lighting through mechanical systems to sleek computer-controlled rigs of today, we look at the evolution of concert lighting.

TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Shreds on the Electric Guitar

While Jonathan works on a new episode about stage lighting systems, take a listen to this classic episode in which he and his old cohost Chris Pollette talk about the history and workings of electric guitars.

Tech News: Crime, Punishment, and Generative AI

Our news stories today include SBF filing an appeal on his recent sentencing, a UK court denies Apple's request to dismiss a huge lawsuit and Microsoft may soon make the Copilot AI feature an auto-launch program in Windows 11. Plus much more!

Smart Talks with IBM - The Power of Collaboration: How IBM Teams Up with Microsoft

Entire industries are being reshaped around the new capabilities of generative AI. In this special bonus episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Tim Harford leads a conversation between two leaders in the field. Srinivasan Venkatarajan is the Director of Global Partner Business at Microsoft, focusing on A…

Faking a DMCA Takedown to Boost Search Rankings

Journalist Ernie Smith got an odd DMCA takedown notice for a picture he included in his tech newsletter. It turns out that the notice was a ploy to try and trick Smith into including a backlink to another site in an effort to boost that site's search rankings. What the what?

The Sad Tale of Virtual Boy

The Nintendo Virtual Boy was one of the company's infamous flops, but why? Why did the system fail so hard that Nintendo killed it off after just one year? 

Tech News: The FCC Will Vote in Favor of Net Neutrality. Again.

Net neutrality goes through another flip in the flip-flop history with the FCC announcing it plans to vote to reinstate some of the rules established during the Obama administration but overturned during the Trump administration. Plus, Google agrees to destroy billions of data records and Ford deci…