Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Walmart Rolls Out Bitcoin ATMs Across 200 Stores Nationwide   BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, OCT 21, 2021 - 08:50 PM While adoption of cryptocurrencies is accelerating among the investor class, rapidly enabled by this week's launch of the first bictoin (futures) ETF, it appears the even broader adoption of digital currencies into day-to-day life and mom-and-pop may be about to escalate dramatically. Reuters reports  that  Walmart customers at some of its U.S. stores will be able to purchase bitcoin using ATM-like machines  installed by Coinstar. Coinstar, known for its machines that can exchange physical coins for cash, has  partnered with digital currency exchange CoinMe  to let customers buy bitcoin at some of its kiosks. A bitcoin-enabled Coinstar kiosk at a Walmart in Warminster, Pa. (Kevin Reynolds/CoinDesk) “Coinstar, in partnership with Coinme, has launched a pilot that allows its customers to use cash to purchase bitcoin,”  Walmart communications director  Molly Bl

Facebook Hires 10,000 In EU To Build "The Metaverse"   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, OCT 19, 2021 - 05:45 AM   Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't going to let the threat of higher taxes or the growing international backlash against his business stop him from pushing ahead with his hopes that Facebook still manages to dominate 'the metaverse' - the virtual world where headsets will allow people to immerse themselves into a Matrix-like world. Some believe that NFTs and other "virtual" items will be able to be displayed in the metaverse. And according to Reuters, Facebook plans to hire 10K people in the EU to get to work on the Facebook metaverse, in the hopes that Roblox, Microsoft or other "metaverse" companies don't beat Facebook to the punch. Zuck has been talking about the metaverse since July (some have speculated that it has been an attempt to help fix the company's reputation (now Facebook is facing another major scandal via the &

Amazon Developing 'Smart Fridge' To Monitor What You Eat   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, OCT 08, 2021 - 03:40 PM   Amazon is spending $50 million per year developing a new smart refrigerator that uses high-tech sensors to notify users of low-stock items automatically or expiring products and even makes refill orders, according to  Bussiness Insider , citing people familiar with the project.  Amazon's physical store unit, which created the cashless, "just walk out" technology, leads the fridge project, dubbed internally as "Project Pulse."  Insider said the new fridge is "designed to  track your inventory and purchase habits, predict what you want, and have it delivered . The system will automatically notify you if certain repeat-purchase products, like eggs, are close to running out or nearing their expiration dates, these people said. It could also make ordering those products easier through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods." Sources said the

Google Banning Ads With "Inaccurate" Content On Climate Change   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, OCT 08, 2021 - 02:43 PM Authored by Katabella Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,   Google  is banning advertisements featuring content that contradict what it called “inaccurate” content on  climate change , and will no longer allow ad revenue to be made from them,  the company  announced in a blog post  on Oct. 7. The tech giant said the new policy will go into effect in November and  will help “strengthen the integrity” of Google’s advertising ecosystem, and also align with their past work to promote sustainability and “confront climate change.” “In recent years, we’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change,” the company said in Thursday’s blog post announcing the updates. “Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next t

"Keyword Warrants" - Feds Secretly Ordered Google To Identify Anyone Searching Certain Information   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, OCT 06, 2021 - 03:03 PM   An  accidentally unsealed  court document reveals that  the federal government secretly ordered Google to provide data on people searching specific search words or phrases, otherwise known as "keyword warrants,"  according to  Forbes . According to the report, the Justice Department inadvertently unsealed the documents in September (which were promptly re-sealed), which were reviewed by  Forbes . In several instances, law enforcement investigators  asked Google to identify anyone searching for specific keywords .  The first case was in 2019 when federal investigators were on the hunt for men they believed sex-trafficked a minor. According to a search warrant, the minor went missing but reappeared a year later and claimed to have been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Investigators asked Google if anyone h

  Here's what caused the longest Facebook outage last night Written by Chandraveer Mathur   Last updated on Oct 05, 2021, 11:19 am   Here’s why Facebook and its subsidiary services went down last night   Late last night, popular social media platform  Facebook  and all its subsidiaries, including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, suffered a global outage that lasted nearly six hours. In the wake of the outage, alongside the memes, reports have surfaced suggesting it was caused by something known as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing. Here's why it caused the outage.   In this article Outage took down Facebook's internal tools, third-party login services too Initially, DNS issues were found to cause it Later, experts clarified misconfiguration could've caused BGP routing to fail Facebook's statement said data centers couldn't communicate with each other Google didn't miss the opportunity for some tongue-in

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down Worldwide After DNS Records Vanish; Employees Badges Reportedly Not Working   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, OCT 04, 2021 - 12:12 PM   Update (1507ET):  Facebook appears to have more than DNS issues, as NYT's Sheera Frenkel reports: "Was just on phone with someone who works for FB who described employees unable to enter buildings this morning to begin to evaluate extent of outage because their badges weren't working to access doors."  This may suggest Facebook's internal systems are down. DNS issues that affect the website don't hinder employees from entering buildings.  * * *  Update (1448ET):  It's been several hours, and Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook Messenger, are still down. According to internet researchers, Facebook appears to be dealing with a Domain Name System (DNS) issue.  Internet security researcher  Brian Krebs tweeted : Confirmed: The DNS records that tell systems how to find F

  "This Is A Game-Changer" - Merck Releasing "Phenomenal" Test Results For Experimental COVID Pill   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, OCT 01, 2021 - 07:45 AM   Looks like Merck  just beat Pfizer  to the punch. Merck announced Friday that an experimental COVID pill it has developed reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in people recently infected with COVID. The company will soon ask health officials in the US and abroad to authorize use of the drug. The news came as a welcome surprise to the public, although COVID cases are already waning in the US and in hard-hit economies in Asia, the drug could create "a real therapeutic advance" that could dramatically decrease the risk of death from COVID. If approved (and odds are it will be) the drug would be the first treatment for COVID. Some compared it to tamiflu, in that patients should take it within 5 days of COVID infection (like those infected with the flu are instructed to take tamiflu early).