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John Martellaro

John Martellaro was born at an early age and began writing about computers soon after that. With degrees in astrophysics (B.S.) and physics (M.S.), he has worked for NASA, White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Apple. At Apple he worked as a Senior Marketing Manager, a Federal Account Executive and a High Performance Computing manager. His interests include chess, science fiction and astronomy. John is the host of the TMO podcast Background Mode.

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Articles by John Martellaro

Podcast

TMO Background Mode Interview with Science Historian Dr. Matthew Stanley

John Martellaro · · 1 Comment

Dr. Matt Stanley is a teacher and researcher in the history and philosophy of science. He holds degrees in astronomy, religion, physics, and the history of science and is interested in the connections between science and the wider culture. His Ph.D. is from Harvard in the history of science, and he is currently a professor at New York University.

We chatted about how Matt came to be immersed in physics as well as the history of science and religion. He found that a proper modern perpective depends on an understanding of how science evolved throughout history. We also briefly touched on how science and religion don’t really contradict each other. Matt told me about a very interesting class he teaches, his podcast “What the If,” and his new book EINSTEIN’S WAR: How Relativity Conquered the World.

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Privacy is a Luxury Item? Think Again

John Martellaro ·

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says privacy shouldn’t be a luxury item.  Responding at Computerworld, Jonny Evans writes:

The crux of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s argument against firms such as (obviously including but never named) Apple is that his company offers convenience in exchange for personal secrets, makes its services available for free, and has a “profound commitment” to protecting user privacy.

Author Evans lays bare the reality of how Google operates and the shallowness of Pichai’s whines.

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Lots of Good Reasons for Apple to Dump the Mac's Intel CPUs

John Martellaro ·

Ed Hardy at Cult of Mac writes:

It’s past time Macs stopped depending on Intel processors. There’s new evidence to show they’ve outlived their usefulness. A switch to Apple-designed chips will make macOS devices better for a variety of reasons …

It’s an opinion piece, but the author’s opinions are, in my parallel view, well-founded.

Podcast

TMO Background Mode Special Edition Chat #6 with Kelly Guimont

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Kelly Guimont is a long-time podcaster, Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer, the host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, a tech support guru, and a Founding Volunteer of App Camp for Girls.

Kelly first appeared here in December, 2015 to tell her career story and has returned several times for interesting technical discussions. In this encore special edition, we chat about our favorite TV shows of late. John: Stargate SG-1 (Amazon), Endeavour (Amazon), Electric Dreams (Amazon). Kelly: Daredevil & The Punisher (Netflix), The Goldbergs (ABC), and Westworld (HBO). Join us as we explore together why we like these shows and how, in some cases, our feelings have changed upon repeat viewing.

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A Phenomenal Storage Breakthrough

John Martellaro ·

The headline is from Gizmodo: “A New Storage Breakthrough Could Squeeze a Library’s Worth of Data Into a Teaspoon of Protein.”

By 2020, researchers estimate that the world’s digital archive will weigh in at around 44 trillion gigabytes. That’s an astounding amount of data that isn’t necessarily being stored in the safest of places. Most storage mediums naturally degrade over time (if they’re not hacked or accidentally destroyed) and even the cloud isn’t as reliable as companies want us to believe. So researchers at Harvard University have turned to some unique chemistry they believe could safely archive the world’s data for millions of years—without requiring any power.

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HomePod 2, HomePod mini — Rumors, Prices

John Martellaro ·

David Price at Macworld UK writes:

We round up all the clues and rumours related to the HomePod 2: its release date, price & tech specs. Find out if Apple could be launching a cheaper HomePod mini.

Author Price notes:

… Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis believes Apple will launch a “cheaper HomePod in 2019,” and that it will have “broader appeal.” He thinks that HomePod sales have been  “underwhelming” with less than 5 million sold so far.

Give me a HomePod mini for $159 – $179 to play with, and I’m in. Along with many others.

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Humans May Emotionally Bond With Robots

John Martellaro ·

Big Think writes:

  • Human-like robots may creep us, at first, but roboticists believe the more like us they appear, the more likely we’ll feel comfortable around them.
  • Some studies suggest that we could develop feelings for robots, despite them not being human.
  • As the loneliness epidemic continues, such robots may fill certain people’s social voids.

This is not so crazy. After all, I heard about a guy who married his iPhone.

Podcast

TMO Background Mode Interview with Cosmologist Dr. Andrew Friedman

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Dr. Andrew Friedman is an astronomer, cosmologist, and data scientist. He’s currently an NSF funded Assistant Research Scientist at the University of California at San Diego Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences. He is also a Research Affiliate in the MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society. He holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard.

We chatted about how science fiction inspired him as a youth to become a cosmologist. Also, how important it is to have a Ph.D. thesis advisor who’s enthusiastically supportive. Then, we got into some cool topics of cosmology: using Type Ia supernovae to measure the rate of expansion of the universe, why infrared observations of those stars are helpful, whether quantum entanglement suggests a substrate on which spacetime resides, the multiverse, and the implications of the Planck length and Higgs field for our very existence.

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Apple Maps Continues to Gain Detailed Terrain Data

John Martellaro ·

MacRumors writes:

As part of its ongoing effort to rebuild Apple Maps, Apple has added detailed terrain features to the U.S. states Arizona and New Mexico as well as the southern portion of Nevada, including the city of Las Vegas.

Previously, Apple published more detailed map data in northern, then southern California as well as Hawaii. The effort has been ongoing since 2015.

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Financial Gain in Modern Tech Dehumanizes Us

John Martellaro ·

Axios writes:

Tristan Harris, the former Googler who helped popularize the notion of “time well spent” laid out the shift he says the tech industry needs to make in order to stop, as he puts it, “downgrading humanity.” … Harris made the case that today’s technology downgrades humanity by creating a vast artificial social system powered by “overwhelming” AI and an “extractive” attention economy.

The problem, as Harris notes, is that the first company to blink loses.

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5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Mac to an SSD

John Martellaro ·

This was written a few months ago, by the awesome Steve Sande by the way, but is worth discussing.

Chances are good that if you have an older Mac, it has an internal hard disk drive. Today, we’ll look at five reasons why you should update that Mac to an SSD.

SSDs are very affordable nowadays. If your Mac isn’t too old and ready to retire, this upgrade is a good move.

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A Thorny Problem: When an AI Composes Music

John Martellaro ·

The Verge writes about legal issues when an AI composes music.

The word “human” does not appear at all in US copyright law, and there’s not much existing litigation around the word’s absence. This has created a giant gray area and left AI’s place in copyright unclear. It also means the law doesn’t account for AI’s unique abilities, like its potential to work endlessly and mimic the sound of a specific artist.

Not to mention the question of  who owns the copyright of this new music. Fascinating discussion here.

Podcast

TMO Background Mode Interview with Author and Artist Michael Benson

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Michael Benson works at the intersection of art and science as both a writer and artist. His new book, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece examines the four year long production of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Michael saw the movie 2001 at age six, and it had a profound influence on his career, especially in his art and science/photography books. We chatted about his book: how Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick met, Kubrick’s view of the best scifi movies of the time, the development of the 2001 script, the depiction of artificial gravity in the legendary centrifuge apparatus, the depiction of aliens, the visual contributions of Douglas Trumbull, and the enduring influence this movie has had on our technology and psyche.

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The Internet's 768K Day Approaches. What is THAT?

John Martellaro ·

ZDNet writes:

The term 768k Day comes from the original mother of all internet outages known as 512k Day.

512k Day happened on August 12, 2014, when hundreds of ISPs from all over the world went down, causing billions of dollars in damages due to lost trade and fees, from a lack of internet connectivity or packet loss

This time we’re much better prepared. However,

There will certainly be some network operators and corporate end-user organizations who will be caught unaware and will experience problems…

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Galaxy Fold is Breaking for Some Users

John Martellaro ·

File this under, “we suspected that might happen.” CNBC writes:

Samsung’s $1,980 Galaxy Fold phone is breaking for some users after a day or two of use. A review unit given to CNBC by Samsung is also completely unusable after just two days of use.

Maybe the customers are holding it wrong. Android Central also has details.

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Another Creepy Facebook Story: Scanning Your Photos For Profit

John Martellaro ·

FastCompany writes:

Facebook has just been awarded a patent for technology that could let the social network scan through your photos, see what products you like, and then send that data to advertisers in the hopes of selling you more of the product.

So every photo a user posts to Facebook may, someday, be used to manipulate that user. But it’s just a patent award, right?

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AT&T Sells its Stake In Hulu to Disney (and Comcast) for $1.43B

John Martellaro ·

The Verge writes:

[It’s a] move that will now give Disney (which already had gained a controlling interest in Hulu through its Fox purchase) even more control going forward….

Disney gaining even more control over Hulu could also mean a radical shift in what Hulu even is.

Now, Disney owns 66 percent of Hulu. The remaining stakeholder is Comcast which, as a result, now owns 33 percent. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, and it might only be a matter of time before Comcast pulls its Hulu content back to its own streaming service. Soon, it appears, each and every studio will have its very own exclusive subscription service.

Podcast

TMO Background Mode Interview with Technical Journalist Lance Ulanoff

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Lance is a technology journalist, on-air expert, consultant, and influencer. He’s been a senior editor at Online Windows Magazine, editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, and Chief Correspondent and Editor-in-chief at Mashable.

Currently, Lance is a Freelance Journalist and contributor to Medium. He’s appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Today Show and Good Morning America.

We chatted about his early interest in journalism, but it didn’t have a technical focus when he got his B.A. Lance describes how he got interested in tech journalism and his path towards becoming the editor-in-chief of PC Magazine for 11 years (2000-2011). Then we turned our attention to the Mac, Apple News+, AirPods, AirPower, and Apple TV+. Lance made a strong argument for how Apple should approach Apple TV+ content.

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Amazon's Alexa is Listening to You - More Than You Might Know

John Martellaro ·

Bloomberg reports:

Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening.

Sometimes, someone is.

The article goes on to explain how Amazon employs thousands of people around the world to  listen, transcribe and annotate conversations with Alexa. All in an effort to improve Alexa’s ability to understand human speech. Of course, Amazon has strict policies and the user identities are anonymized. But still… Seriously?

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Ready? Google Planning Ads in Maps - Think $$

John Martellaro ·

Bloomberg’s Gerrit De Vynck writes:

Service was mostly ad-free for years. That’s changing now.

Company looks beyond ‘utility’ navigation for new ad revenue.

He concludes:

Suddenly charging for something free — or slipping ads into formerly uncluttered services — are rare and risky steps for Google. But parent Alphabet Inc. has shareholders to please and revenue growth targets to hit. Maps is the next, big service the company is leaning on to achieve those goals.

Thank goodness for Apple Maps.