Nov. 29 & 30, 2025 Show Notes
Black Friday / Santa Claus Parade Weekend Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon PT
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm on C-FAX
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
Your crew this weekend:
Kyle Wilson
Colwood-based IT Specialist, Wikipedia Administrator, and a Business Insider contributor
X & BlueSky: @KWilsonMG
The Podcast
Listen now:
SoundCloud
Tech Talk – November 29, 2025 by Tech Talk with Alan Perry
On this week’s Tech Talk, Alan Perry teams up with tech expert Kyle Wilson to guide you through the biggest Black Friday bargains, the scams circulating right now, and answers to your calls and texts. It’s your weekly tech check-in.
Or, you can subscribe to "Tech Talk with Alan Perry" (it's free) on any podcast app including these…
Santa Claus Parades are being held this weekend in Victoria and in Penticton!
In Victoria, the 43rd annual Peninsula Co-Op Santa Claus Parade will be held on Saturday starting at 5:30pm (with a new route this year) …
In Penticton, the 2025 "Magic On Main Street" Santa Claus Parade starts at 4:45pm on Saturday, followed by the big Gyro Park Light-Up at 6pm…
Visit Penticton
Magic on Main Street Downtown Penticton - Visit Penticton
Ho, ho, ho! 🎅 This magical event features dozens of floats taking part in the Santa Claus Parade, cruising down Main Street in Penticton. Families are encouraged to join the procession down to Gyro Park, which will be decked out with family-friendly activities, live music and a mini market, followed by the official Light Up.
Vernon held theirs this past Thursday night, Summerland held their this past Friday night, and Kamloops held theirs last Sunday. Kelowna holds theirs next Saturday, Dec. 6th.
1) Watch out for scam emails advising that your Shaw bill is ready — but showing a much higher amount than you were expecting!
If you're a Rogers/Shaw customer, the email looks very much like the one you get each month, as shown on the screenshot below (shared by astute Tech Talk listener Doug in Langford) — except the total is a lot higher than usual…
The scammers are hoping you'll be so upset by the huge total ($579.61!) that you won't notice where the email came from (or notice the period in the subject, designed to avoid spam filters)…
If you were to click on any of the links in the actual email, you'd be takn to a fake Shaw log-in page hosted on a website run by HubSpot in Ireland, (highlighted in yellow, below)…
…and if you were to overlook that and click on the button to review your bill, you'd be taken to a fake Shaw webmail log-in page hosted on the San Francisco-based Vercel cloud platform…
If you were to type in your Shaw email address and password, because there's no two-factor authentication on Shaw email service to make sure it's you logging-in, the overseas scammers would immediately use that info to log into your email account and start forwarding a copy of all your emails to them, so they could begin triggering password resets for other accounts, stealing first your identity, and then your money.
NEVER click on links in emails like this!
If you want to check your bill amount for this or any account, go directly to your account online, which in this case, would be at Rogers.com/myrogers/shaw.
Because there's no two-factor authentication on Shaw email accounts, if you have one, please get someone to help you migrate off onto another email service.
2) Watch out for Microsoft 365 QRR scam emails
Hackers are using a new tool to target Microsoft 365 users at a massive scale.
Security researchers say a phishing platform called Quantum Route Redirect, or QRR, is behind a growing wave of fake login pages that have been found to be hosted on nearly 1,000 domains.
Look at the graphic above — you thought it said microsoft.com and gmail.com, didn't you?
Look closely: it actually says rnicrosoft.com and grnail.com.
These pages look real enough to fool many users while also slipping past some automated scanners.
QRR runs realistic email lures that mimic DocuSign requests, payment notices, voicemail alerts or QR-code prompts…
What Happens If You Click the Link
Once a user engages with the scam, the attack process begins immediately.
Step 1 - They are taken to a fake Microsoft login page that looks identical to the real thing.
Step 2 - When they enter their email and password, these details are sent straight to the attacker.
Step 3 - The page usually shows an error message such as
"Something went wrong. Please try again later."
The user often closes the window and assumes it was a technical glitch.
Step 4 - Attackers attempt to log into the real Microsoft account using the stolen credentials.
Step 5 - If MFA is enabled, they trigger repeated MFA requests. This tactic, known as MFA fatigue, relies on users approving the request by accident.
Step 6 - if the attacker gains access, they typically:
- Search emails for financial information, invoices and supplier details
- Set up hidden forwarding rules to monitor future messages
- Attempt password changes or privilege escalation
- Access OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint data
- Send further phishing emails from the compromised account
- Prepare ransomware deployment or delete backups
This can happen within minutes of the initial click.
The malware often lives on parked or compromised legitimate domains that add a false sense of safety for anyone who clicks.
Researchers tracked QRR in 90 countries, but more than 90% of attacks are on people in the USA and Canada, and that scale makes QRR one of the largest phishing operations active right now.
ges that look like they came from you. That can create a chain reaction that spreads fast. This is why the steps below all work together to block these threats before they turn into something bigger.
Steps to stay safe from QRR and other Microsoft 365 phishing attacks
Use these simple actions to reduce the risk from fake Microsoft 365 pages and look-alike emails.
- Check the sender before you click. Look closely at who the email is really from. A slight misspelling, an unexpected attachment or wording that feels off is a big clue the message may be fake.
- Hover over links first. Before you open any link, hover your mouse over it to preview the URL. If it does not lead to the official Microsoft login page or looks odd in any way, skip it.
- Turn on multifactor authentication (MFA). MFA adds an extra layer adds an extra layer that makes it much harder for attackers to break in even if they have your password. Use options like app-based codes or hardware keys so phishing kits cannot bypass them.
- Update your browser and apps. Keep everything on your device up to date. Updates seal off security holes that attackers often rely on when building phishing kits like QRR.
- Never click unknown links and use strong anti-malware software. If you need to visit a sensitive site, type the address into your browser instead of tapping a link. Strong anti-malwsare software like Malwarebytes Premium also help by warning you about fake websites and blocking scripts that phishing kits use to steal login details.
4) Text scammers in the UK are making so much off their scams that they don't know how to spend it
The BBC was recently toured around an evidence lockup by UK police, which was "piled high with designer shoes and handbags." The one room they were shown contained between 8,500 and 10,000 items of evidence, which the BBC described as "a treasure trove of top-label kit" they estimated worth "tens of thousands of pounds."
According to the Detective Chief Inspector they spoke with, the criminals "don't keep money, they spend it here and now." In one case, the defendant sent 15,000 text messages in a five day period. That campaign earned them "a hundred thousand pounds a month". They were sentenced to 58 weeks in prison.
Tech Deals This Weekend
Black Friday week brings the lowest tech gear prices of the year — even lower than Boxing Day sales, which used to see the best prices.
Black Friday is the day after US Thanksgiving, so that was Nov. 28 this year.
That's so late in the month, that most stores began offering Black Friday prices last weekend, and as a result, there's no stock left on some of the best deals.
We've updated the best deals remaiing deals in a separate Black Friday 2025 Deals notes page. The link to those Notes is on our Home Page, and also below…
tech-talk.ca
2025 Black Friday sales
Black Friday week brings the lowest tech gear prices of the year — even lower than Boxing Day sales, which used to see the best prices. Black Friday is the day after US Thanksgiving, so that'll be Nov. 28 this year. It's called Black Friday because in years past, that's the date when most stores
Lenovo laptops for $449 and Lenovo Tiny PC's for $549 at Tesseract
Gary and Chris at Tesseract Computers have obtained a quantity of refurbished business-grade Lenovo Windows 11 Pro laptops and Tiny PC's.
They're both powered by 10th-generation Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processors, and come with new 256GB NVMe SSD's, and 16GB of RAM in the laptops and 8GB of RAM in the Tiny PC's.
They come with a one-year warranty.
$449 for the laptops and $549 for the tiny PC's when Tesseract Computers reopens after the weekend on Monday in downtown Victoria.
(check-out the Christmas mural which Gary is having Elise Hardman paint on the windows of his new bigger location on Broughton Street!)
Tech News Of The Week
Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!
Tip: if an item in these Show Notes has the icon on the right in the upper-right corner, you can click/tap on it to make the additional info open in a new tab.
12) Want to confuse ChatGPT? Ask it the time.
ChatGPT cannot tell time. At all. And there's no good fix, either. Time and calendars are two things than confuse and confound the (LLM) Large Language Model that has become ubiquitous with consumer AI since its debut November 30, 2022. While the time problem is no simple task to correct, the reasoning behind it is deceptively simple: it doesn't have access to a clock. One of the reasons why it does not have clock access is that it could confuse the model, according to AI robotics expert Yervant Kulbashian.
Another notable problem? The fact that ChatGPT seems inconsistently aware of this limitation and might very well make up times to tell you it is. This harkens back to the concern that these models can get things wrong — remember when Google's first AI engine thought glue was a pizza ingredient? — and aren't always forthcoming while spinning a yarn. To quote The Verge, "large language models aren’t lying — they’re just predicting, as usual, what you want to hear."
Some other AI engines, like Microsoft Copilot (which runs on ChatGPT) can tell time. That's because Microsoft has added 'guardrails' and additional data-sources to the raw ChatGPT LLM to make the Copilot version better.
13) Telus is now offering a truly unlimited mobile plan, with a catch
It's pricey ($105/month), but Telus is now offering a truly unlimited 5G+ mobile plan for people who use a tonne of data each month, but see if you can spot the catch…
Unlike other 'unlimited' plans offered by Telus and other carriers, this Telus unlimited plan does not throttle your data speeds after a set amount of data is used — unless you're using your phone to share the internet with other people or other devices, and that's the catch.
The plan only allows you to hostpot up to 50GB of data per month before your hotspotting speed is cut to 1/100th of the unthrottled speed.
And hospotting is precisely what people wanting huge amounts of mobile data want it for.
Also, this plan does not include any data-roaming outside Canada, although it does include 2700 minutes of free calling to the USA, Mexico, and 25 other countries.
16) Social media influencers are using AI to add animals to pictures, and to generate entirely fake videos to farm engagement online
It has become a common sight online: posts of raccoons or other animals doing improbable or impossible acts, often with a heartwarming story or overwhelming cuteness factor. There is a strong probability that it is AI generated. People are not walking down the street flanked by tigers and wild bunnies probably aren't jumping on a trampoline for fun.
This sort of content has social media users and content creators worried that it is leading to "a less authentic online experience" that is "drowning out real posts." Others, on the other hand, have embraced the trend.
On a related note, AI generated images depicting a Christmas market at Buckingham Palace currently making the rounds online have left tourists baffled when they arrive to find out it's all make-believe.
CTVNews
Tourists baffled by AI Buckingham Palace Christmas market
Brygida, a Polish woman who recently moved to London, headed to Buckingham Palace on Friday after seeing online posts of a traditional Christmas market outside the gates with wooden stalls and twinkling lights. But when she got there, there was no sign of a market outside the royal residence, and she realized the fake images were generated using artificial intelligence.
17) RAM prices are skyrocketing because of AI demands, and that's going to make tech gear prices jump
In case we didn’t have enough things to thank AI for, we can now add the soaring cost of computer RAM to the list.
The prices of computer components like GPUs have been steadily rising due to things like the crypto boom, then the pandemic, and prices stayed relatively high because GPUs became very useful for AI model creation, training and running at scale.
But now, computer-makers like Dell and HP are warning that AI datacentres are starting to consume large portions of the world's supply, and that's pushing-up prices not just for RAM, but also for solid-state drives as makers shift production to RAM as they can earn a high profit margin.
Counterpoint Research is expecting an average RAM price increase of 50% within a few months, but we’ve even seen some RAM already skyrocket up 110%, and SSD prices are also rising weekly.
If this shortage continues, it'll affect more than gamers who build their own computers. Every tech device uses RAM, meaning this could push up the prices of TVs, phones, and even medical equipment.
Windows Central
Epic CEO: "RAM price increases will be a real problem" — as OpenAI et al. blow up RAM prices, threatening affordability of everything from Xbox to TVs and laptops
The AI fad is destroying the affordability of RAM, as demand from OpenAI, Google, and others blow up prices. Why is this happening?
17) Facebook owner Meta has been lobbying the federal government for age verifications at the app store level
This would shift the burden from individual platforms to the likes of Apple and Google. Under their proposal, the app stores would signal to app developers whether users are older or younger than 18. In a statement, Google called Meta’s proposal part of a consistent pattern of “advancing policy proposals that demonstrate more interest in shifting responsibility than in taking responsibility.”
CTVNews
Meta pitching app store age verification law to Liberal government
Meta has been lobbying the federal government for new rules to implement age verification at the app store level — which would put the burden on companies like Apple and Google, not individual platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
18) Spain is set to investigate Meta for possible privacy law violations on Android devices
The move comes following an investigation uncovering a hidden mechanism designed to track web activity of Android users. Meta has said that it will cooperate with Spanish officials on the issue.
19) AirBus is grounding its A320-series jets until they get a software update to prevent solar radiation from affecting the flight controls
A burst of solar radiation has forced Airbus into an unprecedented software recall, grounding some six thousand A320-series jets worldwide and revealing how even sunlight can shake aviation’s digital foundations.
Airbus has ordered airlines to stop flying its A320-series jets (the A318, A319, A320, and A321 variants) until they patch the flight-control software of each of the planes. This, after investigators linked a JetBlue incident to data corruption triggered by solar radiation.
The sweeping directive, affecting more than half of the world’s A320 series fleet, which is the most widely flown commercial aircraft line in the world, is causing widespread operational disruptions for airlines and passengers alike.
In most cases, AirBus says the software patch can be installed and checked within two hours, but it says in some older jets, some flight control gear may have to be replaced.
The incident that set off alarm bells occurred on October 30 aboard JetBlue flight 1230, an Airbus A320 flying from Cancún to Newark. The aircraft unexpectedly pitched downward without pilot input, injuring at least 15 passengers before diverting to Tampa, Florida, for an emergency landing. Subsequent investigation identified a malfunction in the aircraft’s Thales-built Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC 2), which manages the pitch and roll of the jet. In an advisory, Airbus wrote that “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls,” leading to what it called an “uncommanded and limited pitch-down event.” The autopilot reportedly remained engaged during the episode, but the altitude loss and resulting turbulence were enough to trigger medical responses and regulatory scrutiny.
20) Amazon’s Alexa+ digital assistant now available here in Canada
Alexa+ is an upgrade to the regular Alexa which is free if you have an Amazon Prime Membership, or $28/month if you don't.
If you buy some of the new Amazon hardware, like the new Echo Show 8 or 11, you’ll get access to the new Alexa immediately. However, people with older hardware will need to wait, though Amazon says that tens of thousands of people will gain access each week.
To improve the assistant, Amazon says it has tuned the new AI to sound distinctly Canadian, which includes various stereotypes like mentioning hockey often, mispronouncing Zamboni and saying its favourite Timbit is one that isn’t even sold in Canada anymore.
Alexa+ can also extract info from your emails and photos, including dates and context. But, to do that, you'll have to forward your emails to a custom Alexa+ email address that you'll find in the Alexa app. The new assistant can also remember your preferences, such as what foods you like and don't like.
Amazon says that in the USA, customers are using Alexa+ twice as much as regular Alexa. However, time will tell if that holds up to be true here in Canada. The company says Canada is a huge market for music streaming on Echo hardware, with 50 million hours of music being listened to each month. With Alexa+, you can ask for lyrics or describe a song, and it will do a better job at playing the song you want.
If you already own certain Echo devices, you can sign up to try Alexa+ Early Access by visiting Amazon.ca/newalexa.
21) "Open To Conversation" table signs are now available at some some Victoria coffee shops, to encourage people to put down their phones and chat with a stranger
The "Meet A Stranger" initiative is the brainchild of Carrie Parsons, who started leaving handwritten invitations around town, offering to buy a stranger a cup of coffee in exchange for an hour of conversation.
Halfway through those early chats, she realized the idea wasn’t just working, it was revealing something bigger. "90- to 95- percent of the people who came were introverts,” she said. “They were all saying the exact same thing: I want to connect with strangers. I just feel like I need permission or an invitation to connect.”
Last year, she began organizing monthly "Meet A Stranger" coffee-shop meet-ups, and now, Victoria residents can take advantage of a second pathway to connection through a growing network of local coffee shops. Seven cafés are already on board: Peckish Cafe, Deer & Dough, Ruth & Dean, Breakwater Bistro, Koffi House, North Perk, and Bean Around the World.
Three simple tools make that invitation unmistakable: monthly events, buttons scattered around the region, and table signs in participating cafes. “When you walk into this room, everyone is open to conversation,” Parsons said. “No one’s going to turn to you and be like, ‘Go away, weirdo.’ We’re all on the same page.” The effect, she says, is immediate. “You remove those labels that divide us, sit down as humans, and every single person finds this beautiful silver thread of commonality. It’s the coolest thing.”
Solo customers can request an Open to Conversation sign with their order and set it on their table, a quiet signal that someone is welcome to join them.
24) We've also started compiling a list of our favourite phone apps
The "Our Favourite Apps" list — which will have a lot more added in the coming weeks — is on our home page, and you can also get to it by going to Tech-Talk.ca/apps.
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
And so it goes…