1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: and I love of all things tech. And Okay, I 5 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: think we are now down to the home stretch here, 6 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: So if you've just joined us. Over the past several 7 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 1: long episodes, we've been going through popular acronyms and initialisms 8 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: in tech to explain what they mean and kind of 9 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: give some background on each of them. This is the 10 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: sixth and final episode for all those terms. Keeping in 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: mind that we did skip a couple, but that'll just 12 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: have to wait for a follow up at some point. 13 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: We are currently in the SYS, so let's get right 14 00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: to it and not waste any more time. First is 15 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 1: s EO. This stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it's 16 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: pretty much what it sounds like. SEO covers a suite 17 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: of strategies and best practices that give web page creators 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: a better chance of ranking well in various search engines. 19 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: And really, when we say search engines, we mostly mean Google. 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 1: According to Global Stats, Google accounts for staggering ninety two 21 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:33,319 Speaker 1: point two percent of the search engine market share so really, 22 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: focusing on anything else doesn't make any sense. You're just 23 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: you're targeting such a small audience that should really focus 24 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: on Google. But let's talk a little bit about why 25 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: s EO is such a big deal in the first place. Well, 26 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: according to Statista, a different site that tracks these sorts 27 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,640 Speaker 1: of things, nearly thirty percent of all web traffic is 28 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: funneled through search. That was back in twenty nineteen at least, 29 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: so nearly a third of all traffic on the Internet 30 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 1: is dependent upon search. Search represents a way for people 31 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: to discover web content, but only if you rank well 32 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: enough to be found in a search right. If your 33 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: web page isn't showing up pretty early on in search results, 34 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: you might as well not even be in the listing 35 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,639 Speaker 1: at all. And here's another statistic. This one is according 36 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: to webfx, only twenty of users ever bother to go 37 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: beyond the first page of search results. So that means 38 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: seventy of people using the web will use a search 39 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: result that appears on the first page and they never 40 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: go beyond that first page, which means if your website 41 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: doesn't pop up in that first page for whatever relevant 42 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: search criteria match your sight, then you're not going to 43 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: get very much web traffic through search, and it gets worse. Actually, 44 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,519 Speaker 1: when you look at search results, you really only see 45 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 1: the first few listed before you need to start scrolling 46 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: down the page. We would typically call the search results 47 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: that appear below the screen as being below the fold. 48 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: That's term the dates back to newspapers, and some folks 49 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: won't even go beyond the fold, right, They'll just look 50 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: at the first view and they won't even scroll down. 51 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: So you really need to have your page rank very 52 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: high in search results for whatever the relevant search queries 53 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: are for your web page. Google uses a ranking system 54 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: for search results that has changed several times since it 55 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: first appeared. Now, in the old days, the criteria that 56 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: really determined where a specific result would appear within search 57 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: would include stuff like how old the site was, was 58 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: it had it been around for a while? Uh, how 59 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: many other sites were linking to this page? The idea 60 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: being that if a lot of other sites are linking 61 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: into a specific one, that specific one should be pretty good, right. 62 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,119 Speaker 1: It's kind of like wisdom of the crowd and other 63 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: stuff like that really played a big part. Today it's 64 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: even more complicated, and that's what gave birth to the 65 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 1: idea of search engine optimization. So the goal is to 66 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: give a web page every advantage so that it has 67 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: the best chance of ranking high in search results for 68 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: the irrelevant queries. And a lot of the strategies in 69 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: s c O are individually pretty small, they can seem insignificant, 70 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: but when they're used collectively, they can all make a 71 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,679 Speaker 1: big difference. That is, until Google changes its algorithm again 72 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,320 Speaker 1: and all your strategies no longer work, which is a thing. 73 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 1: The dependence on search engines can become a really limiting 74 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: factor on web based companies. For websites that generate revenue 75 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: through ads and those that depend on search traffic, it 76 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: can be devastating when Google makes a change. A site 77 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: could be doing really well in search one quarter, and 78 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:54,240 Speaker 1: then its performance the following quarter might plummet because of 79 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:57,839 Speaker 1: a change in Google's algorithm, and that means that revenue 80 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 1: will plummet as well. It's tough these days. Search isn't 81 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: the only area that companies need to focus on. Social 82 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,039 Speaker 1: networks are another big source of web traffic, and so 83 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: there are similar strategies meant to encourage people to visit 84 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 1: sites through links on platforms like Twitter, and Facebook. Moving 85 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: on next, we have s m S or Short Message Service, 86 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: which is kind of another way to say text messaging. 87 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,160 Speaker 1: SMS is on top of communication protocols that both determine 88 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: how messages can transmit over telecommunications lines and also places 89 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:36,839 Speaker 1: some limits on those communications. For example, the SMS allows 90 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:39,760 Speaker 1: for transmission of messages of up to one hundred sixty 91 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:43,160 Speaker 1: characters per message. This is why Twitter had a one 92 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,880 Speaker 1: hundred forty character limit for a really long time. Twitter 93 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: was built to work with SMS so that people could 94 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 1: tweet or receive tweets via text on their phones, and 95 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 1: you know, twenty characters were says aside for stuff like 96 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: user handles. A variant of SMS, MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service, 97 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 1: which can send audio, video, and images via cellular communication. 98 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: All right, moving on s little oh big C SO 99 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:15,720 Speaker 1: s o C, and there are actually quite a few 100 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 1: tech related topics that have the acronym s O C. 101 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,719 Speaker 1: If you're actually talking all caps, you might mean Security 102 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: Operations center, which is a centralized department in charge of 103 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: dealing with computer security, typically within a company or other organization. Uh, 104 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 1: you could mean BIGES, little oh big C and talk 105 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: about separation of concerns. That refers to an approach in 106 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,280 Speaker 1: computer programming, but I actually wanted to look at a 107 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:46,279 Speaker 1: different version of s OC, that being system on a chip. 108 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,719 Speaker 1: This is a type of integrated circuit that includes all 109 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: the basic components of a computer all on a single chip. 110 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: So that would include a processor, computer memory, some form 111 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:02,040 Speaker 1: of storage, and in put in output ports. So as 112 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: the name suggests, it's a full computer system all located 113 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: on a single chip. This is all about manaturization and 114 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: building out mobile devices that have lots of features in them, 115 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: so they tend to be pretty power efficient as well. 116 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: And you can find s OC and stuff like smartphones 117 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: or car systems or Internet of Things devices. And that's 118 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: just a start. There are also lots of research facilities 119 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: that use system on a chip design for various scientific projects. 120 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: And they can even be used in laptops and small 121 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 1: PCs because they can be powerful and really efficient when 122 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: it comes to how much power they consume, how much 123 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 1: electricity they need to operate. Okay, burning through it, let's 124 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 1: get to the next one. S q L. This stands 125 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: for structured query language. This language relates to databases and 126 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: think of all the stuff you might do with a database, 127 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: such as you might want to update records in the database, 128 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: you might want to search a database, you might want 129 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:03,400 Speaker 1: to pull U S Pacific record. All of those basic things. Well, 130 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:07,520 Speaker 1: s q L is useful when you're dealing with structured data. 131 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: Some engineers at IBM originally developed s q L in 132 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. Back then it was actually called Sequel. 133 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:17,880 Speaker 1: Some people will still refer to s q L as Sequel, 134 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: but the company that really took the ball and ran 135 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: with it was Oracle, which built an entire industry around 136 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,920 Speaker 1: database construction and management. So if you ever see s 137 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: q L, that's what it's in reference to. It's this 138 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: language that tends to be used regarding databases. Next, we 139 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:41,120 Speaker 1: have S s D solid state drive. Now, in a 140 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: previous episode in this series, we talked about h d 141 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:47,080 Speaker 1: d s, or hard disk drives, and how those storage 142 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 1: devices use physical platters to store data magnetically. A solid 143 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:55,320 Speaker 1: state drive is a different type of data storage system. 144 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: Rather than using spinning platters and magnetic storage, s s 145 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: D s use an integrated circuit to store data. The 146 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:06,559 Speaker 1: most common method is to use what is called flash memory. 147 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: This is a non volatile form of computer storage and 148 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: just as a reminder. That means that the information stored 149 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: in this kind of format will remain intact even if 150 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: the computer were to lose power. You can erase and 151 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:24,480 Speaker 1: right over stuff that's stored in flash memory, so it's 152 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: not like it's set in stone, but otherwise information will 153 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: remain persistent within flash memory. S s d s have 154 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,959 Speaker 1: several advantages over h d ds. For one thing, they 155 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,679 Speaker 1: have no moving parts and so they are silent, and 156 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 1: HDD requires a motor to spin the platters, and depending 157 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: on the make of the hard disk drive, it can 158 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: sometimes be kind allowed when it starts to spin up 159 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,560 Speaker 1: to speed. Uh They s s d s are are 160 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: more resistant to physical damage as well. If you were 161 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: to drop a hard disk drive, you would run the 162 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:01,640 Speaker 1: risk of knocking the platters out of alignment or breaking 163 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: some mechanical component. But ss d s are a bit 164 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 1: more shock resistant than that. They are not damage proof. 165 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: I don't mean to suggest that they're like Superman and invulnerable. 166 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: S s d s are also typically much smaller, I 167 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 1: mean physically smaller than hard disk drives. That's also a 168 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 1: big advantage. It means you can make smaller form factors 169 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: for computers, as well as making lighter computers as well. 170 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: This gets to be pretty important when you're working with 171 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:33,320 Speaker 1: stuff like laptops and portable computers and smartphones and that 172 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:37,040 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Computers can pull information from ss d 173 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:40,800 Speaker 1: s much more quickly than they can from HDDs. For 174 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:44,200 Speaker 1: that reason, solid state drives are the preferred long term 175 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: storage solution for people who need to run very low 176 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 1: latency applications. That includes gamers. A good solid state drive 177 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: means that you have little to know load times when 178 00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:58,920 Speaker 1: you're initiating a program. So let's say you're playing a 179 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: really you know, resource intensive game. Let's say it's something 180 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:08,200 Speaker 1: like a big open world game like an Assassin's Creed game. Well, 181 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:10,559 Speaker 1: with a solid state drive, you might be able to 182 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: run all over the world map in that game and 183 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: never encounter a loading screen. That's a pretty big deal 184 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: for gamers. Generally speaking, solid state drives are much more 185 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:24,720 Speaker 1: expensive than hard disk drives if you're looking at it 186 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:28,719 Speaker 1: on a per gigabyte basis. Also, it's easier and far 187 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:33,120 Speaker 1: less expensive to find really high capacity hard disk drives 188 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:36,680 Speaker 1: compared to solid state drives. When you start looking at 189 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:40,640 Speaker 1: the multi terrabyte range of storage, hard disk drives are 190 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:45,840 Speaker 1: significantly less expensive than solid state drives, so it's not 191 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:48,800 Speaker 1: as easy as saying that solid state drives are outright 192 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: better than hard disk drives. It actually depends on what 193 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,040 Speaker 1: you want to use storage for and how much you 194 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: have to spend on it, like how much money you've got. 195 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: For gamers, solid state drive might be important for holding 196 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:05,000 Speaker 1: whatever games are in current rotation of play, and then 197 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: you might want to supplemental hard disk drive that's standing 198 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:11,199 Speaker 1: by that holds onto other titles that aren't in your 199 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 1: current player rotation. That's just an example. Moving on S 200 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: s i D. This stands for Service set identify Er. 201 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: This is more or less a fancy way of saying 202 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: network name. They can be up to thirty two characters long. 203 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,040 Speaker 1: There's no minimum length, though, and routers typically come with 204 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: a default S s I D, usually something that relates 205 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:38,200 Speaker 1: to whatever company manufactured that router, followed by some letters 206 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:42,360 Speaker 1: or numbers or both. Generally speaking, it's usually a good 207 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: idea to go into the settings of your router. You 208 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:48,080 Speaker 1: can usually find some pretty easy instructions on how to 209 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:52,839 Speaker 1: log into your local router. It's not typically very hard, 210 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,200 Speaker 1: and then you change the default name of your network 211 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,840 Speaker 1: to something else. You can also pretty much name it 212 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: anything you like within those thirty two characters. So, for example, 213 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:06,280 Speaker 1: I can use my phone to serve as a WiFi hotspot, 214 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:10,720 Speaker 1: which I do occasionally whenever I can't access reliable WiFi, 215 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,559 Speaker 1: but you know I do happen to have a strong 216 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,240 Speaker 1: cell signal. I can use it as as sort of 217 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 1: like a WiFi modem. My phone's hot spot name is 218 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:25,200 Speaker 1: totally trustworthy WiFi because I think that's funny, and because 219 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: it's the sort of name that would give other folks 220 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: just a bit of a pause before they would try 221 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:31,920 Speaker 1: to connect to it, because like, but if it's totally 222 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,439 Speaker 1: not trustworthy, I also protect it with a pretty strong password, 223 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: so actually connecting to that network is kind of tough. 224 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:41,559 Speaker 1: But the reason you want to go in and change 225 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:44,679 Speaker 1: the default name and password is because some companies use 226 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: a blanket default password, like using admin as a log 227 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:50,920 Speaker 1: in and the word password as password, and that could 228 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: mean that someone else might get access to your network 229 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,959 Speaker 1: and cause all sorts of mischief, from attempting to snoop 230 00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,840 Speaker 1: on what you're doing, to using your network as part 231 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: of like a bottan net attack on a target Typically, 232 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:06,840 Speaker 1: routers have a sticker somewhere on them that lists the 233 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:09,920 Speaker 1: default S s I D, though obviously if you go 234 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:13,200 Speaker 1: through in settings and you change this, then that default 235 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: is no longer going to apply. You can use settings 236 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,360 Speaker 1: on your computer or smartphone to look at S s 237 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: i D s within range. So if you were to 238 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,760 Speaker 1: come into possession of a router and you discovered it 239 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: along the way that someone had changed the S s 240 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: i D, you could scan the available networks and look 241 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 1: to see if you could find the strongest signals and 242 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: try to identify which one is your actual router. Of course, 243 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 1: if someone also changed the default password, you might be 244 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: kind of stuck. Though. Many of these machines also have 245 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:44,560 Speaker 1: a reset button so that you can reset it to 246 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,720 Speaker 1: the UH the manufacturer default settings and get into it. 247 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,760 Speaker 1: That way. You can also change settings on your router 248 00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: so that it won't broadcast the S s i D 249 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: to nearby devices. That means that in this case, when 250 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: people search for networks, they won't see yours as they're 251 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: scanning the S s i D s. You can only 252 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,720 Speaker 1: connect to such a network if you already know the 253 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: S s I D and you specifically direct your device 254 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:16,200 Speaker 1: to connect with it. That requires manually changing wireless settings 255 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,120 Speaker 1: on your device. Now, this sounds like it's a pretty 256 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: powerful way to protect yourself, but really it's more of 257 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 1: a surface level protection. Hiding your S S I D 258 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: might save you from the nubiast of nubes when it 259 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,920 Speaker 1: comes to you know, bad actors, but folks who know 260 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: what they're doing can still track network traffic with the 261 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: right know how and the right tools. Maybe I'll reach 262 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: out to friend of the show, Shannon Morris to guests 263 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 1: on an episode to talk about the steps you can 264 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,800 Speaker 1: take to best secure your home network. I think that 265 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: would be a valuable conversation to have. Okay, we've got 266 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: some acronyms and initialisms, but we're starting to head into 267 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: the home stretch. We're first going to take a quick break. 268 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: We're back and we're starting with S s L and 269 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,320 Speaker 1: I reference this a little bit with HTTPS. SSL stands 270 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: for Secure Socket Layer. Uh, this is actually an outdated term. 271 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: The more current version is the t l S or 272 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: transport layer security. But in either case, the purpose is 273 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:27,040 Speaker 1: to authenticate and encrypt communication links between networked computers. So 274 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:31,360 Speaker 1: these are protocols that allow for secure and secret communications. Now, 275 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,800 Speaker 1: when I say secret communications, I don't mean that the 276 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:39,000 Speaker 1: fact that communication is happening is a secret. S s 277 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: L and t l s do not hide the fact 278 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: that communication is happening between computers. Instead, they encrypt and 279 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 1: obvious skate the nature of that communication. So it's kind 280 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,000 Speaker 1: of like seeing two of your friends whispering to each other. 281 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 1: You know, you know they're up to no good, but 282 00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: you don't know what they're specifically plotting. You might even 283 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,200 Speaker 1: suspect that they're whispering about you, but you can't be 284 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:05,959 Speaker 1: certain because you're not able to hear what they're saying. 285 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:09,600 Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is, I know you're up to something, 286 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: Lena and Shay, and I don't approve, not one bit. 287 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:17,720 Speaker 1: Knock it off. All right, all right, that got a 288 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,399 Speaker 1: little personal. Let's let's get back on track. S s 289 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:25,280 Speaker 1: L and t l s work by binding websites with 290 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 1: a digital document called an x dot five oh nine certificate, 291 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:33,880 Speaker 1: which assigns pairs of keys to those websites. One key 292 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: is a public key. This is the key that the 293 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: website can share with the world. Anyone communicating with this 294 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,760 Speaker 1: website through a browser does so using the public key, 295 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:47,080 Speaker 1: which encrypts the messages that are sent to that website. 296 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:51,000 Speaker 1: The only way to decrypt those messages to change it 297 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:55,480 Speaker 1: back into meaningful information is to use the private key. 298 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: The website retains the private key for itself, it does 299 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,640 Speaker 1: not share the private key. This way, all communications sent 300 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: to the website can only be decoded by the website alone, 301 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: unless some other entity were just about gain possession of 302 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:12,200 Speaker 1: the private key or use a method like brute force 303 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: to try and replicate the private key. That brute force 304 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: thing is possible, depending upon the nature of the key. However, 305 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 1: it might be so difficult as to be practically impossible. 306 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,879 Speaker 1: So in other words, yeah, you could, in theory be 307 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:27,720 Speaker 1: able to do it, but it might take such a 308 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:31,400 Speaker 1: long time to accomplish that you would be long dead 309 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,320 Speaker 1: by the time of your computer finally managed it. In 310 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: addition to encrypting information, the website can digitally signed documents 311 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: that anyone with the public key can verify as being authentic. 312 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:47,040 Speaker 1: So ss L and t l s help ensure that 313 00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:51,400 Speaker 1: private information like say a credit card number, remains secure 314 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,680 Speaker 1: and that the entity you're sharing that information with is authenticated, 315 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:59,399 Speaker 1: so you know for sure with whom you're sharing that information. 316 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,520 Speaker 1: It's why it's important to look for that HTTPS or 317 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:07,680 Speaker 1: that closed padlock symbol in your browser whenever you're interacting 318 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,520 Speaker 1: with a site and sharing sensitive information. Next up, we 319 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,879 Speaker 1: have TCP i P. Now collectively, these make up the 320 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:21,000 Speaker 1: Internet Protocol Suite. Individually, these refer to the Transmission Control 321 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: Protocol or TCP and the Internet Protocol or i P, 322 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:27,960 Speaker 1: and we nearly always referred to both of them together, 323 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:31,760 Speaker 1: as they represent the set of communication protocols that allow 324 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:35,159 Speaker 1: computers to connect together in a network and you know, 325 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 1: actually do stuff. These days, it seems natural that various 326 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:43,720 Speaker 1: computational devices should be able to link up with each 327 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: other and communicate. It's been that way for decades now. 328 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: But once upon a time this wasn't true. Computers were 329 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 1: self contained silos. They served important purposes, but they did 330 00:19:55,760 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 1: so in isolation. Different computers made from different men factors 331 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:05,159 Speaker 1: had proprietary means of operation, meaning there was no common language, 332 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,360 Speaker 1: if you will, So even if you could connect two 333 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:12,480 Speaker 1: different computers together, they wouldn't necessarily be able to interoperate. 334 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:14,679 Speaker 1: It would be kind of like putting me on the 335 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:18,080 Speaker 1: phone with someone who could only speak and understand Mandarin. 336 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: That person and I would be unable to make any 337 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:25,440 Speaker 1: sort of meaningful conversation. In the nineteen sixties, the Department 338 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,920 Speaker 1: of Defenses Advanced Research Project Agency, then called ARPA these 339 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,199 Speaker 1: days we know it as DARPA set out to create 340 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: the means for computers to connect with one another in networks. 341 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,639 Speaker 1: This would be the underlying foundation for modern computer networks 342 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,000 Speaker 1: in general and the Internet a k a. The Network 343 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:48,880 Speaker 1: of networks in particular. Vitten Surf and Robert Klein, who 344 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,920 Speaker 1: both joined the project in the early nineteen seventies, would 345 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: pioneer the work on the basic set of protocols that 346 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:58,880 Speaker 1: would allow for the network to communications between computers. Now, 347 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: to get them to the nuts and bolts of t 348 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,200 Speaker 1: C P I P would require a full episode, or 349 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: probably more than one, so we're gonna save that for later. 350 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,200 Speaker 1: It's good to know that they represent the basic set 351 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,800 Speaker 1: of rules for computer networking. It's the set of instructions 352 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,320 Speaker 1: that determine how communication between machines happens. Next up, we've 353 00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:22,760 Speaker 1: got UPS, and we are not talking about the delivery 354 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:27,880 Speaker 1: service here. Instead, we're talking about uninterruptable power supplies. That's 355 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:30,840 Speaker 1: what UPS stands for in this context, and as the 356 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,680 Speaker 1: name implies, these are technologies that supply power to other 357 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 1: things even should a normal power source fail. So allow 358 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: me to paint a scenario, as the quister would say, 359 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,840 Speaker 1: this is one that I have maybe personally experienced, possibly 360 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,359 Speaker 1: on numerous occasions. So let us say that you have 361 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: an intrepid writer for a website, and this writer is 362 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,440 Speaker 1: plugging away at an article plug plug plug. And let 363 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:03,360 Speaker 1: us say that this optimist, naive young writer last saved 364 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,359 Speaker 1: the document that they happened to be working on quite 365 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: some time ago. Maybe they've written a couple of pages 366 00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:13,200 Speaker 1: worth of work since the last time they saved the document. 367 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:17,800 Speaker 1: And let us say that an inopportune moment, the power 368 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,320 Speaker 1: goes out inside the office building where this brash, handsome 369 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: young writer is working, and because the writer is working 370 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: on a desktop computer without a battery backup, that machine 371 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,400 Speaker 1: crashes and all the work that was created since that 372 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:39,480 Speaker 1: last save disappears into the ether. And then our unnamed 373 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:45,000 Speaker 1: but presumably dashingly handsome writer as all get out laments 374 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,640 Speaker 1: the fact that they will now have to start over 375 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:50,760 Speaker 1: back at their last save point and recreate all the 376 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,280 Speaker 1: work that they had done in order to write about 377 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,720 Speaker 1: how goose neck trailer hitches work. Mm hmm, Yeah, that 378 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: happened to me, and I could have been spared a 379 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: great deal of frustration if I had had my desktop 380 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: computer plugged into an uninterruptable power supply. So these devices 381 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: typically plug into a power source like a wall outlet, 382 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,320 Speaker 1: and then you plug other devices into the UPS itself, 383 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,919 Speaker 1: so the UPS plugs into the wall. You plug your 384 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: stuff into the UPS kind of like a power strip right. 385 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 1: In fact, some UPS devices look a lot like power strips, 386 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 1: so it's not just a power strip. The UPS also 387 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,160 Speaker 1: contains a battery backup or some other means of storing electricity. 388 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 1: You know, maybe it's a supercapacitor or something, but battery 389 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,920 Speaker 1: backup is pretty common. And if the normal power supply 390 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:49,160 Speaker 1: that is power coming from the wall outlet suffers an outage, 391 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,399 Speaker 1: the backup power supply, the battery or whatever comes on 392 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:58,120 Speaker 1: practically instantaneously, at least fast enough so that it prevents 393 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,760 Speaker 1: an interruption of power to you or devices. So any 394 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:06,120 Speaker 1: devices you have plugged into the UPS continue to receive power. Now, 395 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:11,199 Speaker 1: typically a UPS doesn't have a huge capacity for storing electricity, 396 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,239 Speaker 1: so this isn't meant for you to just keep on 397 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:17,320 Speaker 1: working away while the power is out. The battery life 398 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,359 Speaker 1: might only allow for a few minutes of continued operation, 399 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,280 Speaker 1: but that can be enough for you to be able 400 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 1: to save your progress and then shut down your equipment 401 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: through proper methods. This can help prevent damage to your 402 00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: work and your equipment, and it can give you time 403 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,280 Speaker 1: to get stuff in a safe mode while you wait 404 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: for the power to come back on. Frequently, a UPS 405 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,000 Speaker 1: can also act as a surge protector, so I can 406 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: prevent voltage spikes from damaging equipment. Some UPS gadgets need 407 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 1: to be reset after a power outage. Some of them 408 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: will beep at you a lot. Typically they beat when 409 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,639 Speaker 1: they are running low on battery power, and this is 410 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,840 Speaker 1: a message that you really do need to start shutting 411 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: down all of your plugged in devices if you don't 412 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,359 Speaker 1: want them to suddenly lose power. But they can also 413 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,879 Speaker 1: beep as an indication of capacity overload. In that case, 414 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,080 Speaker 1: you have plugged in devices that have too great a 415 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,439 Speaker 1: demand for power for the UPS to accommodate, and you 416 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 1: need to distribute that load across other devices. Next, we 417 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,680 Speaker 1: have you r L. That stands for Uniform Resource Locator, 418 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,280 Speaker 1: but you could just call it a web address. Essentially, 419 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,239 Speaker 1: this is what tells computers where on a network a 420 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:34,680 Speaker 1: particular resource resides. It's kind of like your physical address, 421 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,600 Speaker 1: so u r L relates to a specific location on 422 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: a specific server within a specific network. When you type 423 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: out a web address and a browser, you're essentially telling 424 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: the browser I want to see the stuff that is 425 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: stored at this location, and the browser sends out a 426 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,640 Speaker 1: request up through your network to the Internet. Then routers 427 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,000 Speaker 1: direct that request to the proper destination, and thanks to 428 00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: that handy dandy u r L that cross references to 429 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:04,600 Speaker 1: that location, your request arrives there at its proper destination. 430 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 1: Or if you miss type the web address, you get 431 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 1: something else, probably an error, but possibly someone's page, especially 432 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: if someone is squatting on commonly made typos. That's still 433 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 1: a thing. Tim berners Lee, the guy who invented the 434 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,600 Speaker 1: Worldwide Web, defined u r L s in an RFC. 435 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,520 Speaker 1: Do you remember RFCs? That stands for Request for Comments. 436 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: I covered it in the last episode. Next, we have USB. 437 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: This stands for Universal Serial Bus and it is a 438 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: standardized connection for all sorts of stuff. And boy, howdy, 439 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: am I thankful for it because it really made things easy. 440 00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,520 Speaker 1: I'm not even being facetious here. USB s are fantastic. 441 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,720 Speaker 1: So in the old old days we would use all 442 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:55,639 Speaker 1: sorts of different types of connection ports to connect stuff 443 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: to other stuff. And really I'm focusing primarily on computers 444 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 1: here because I feel that that's what most of us 445 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,919 Speaker 1: associate with this kind of thing, although I will allow 446 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,639 Speaker 1: that people who are really into home entertainment centers or 447 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:12,600 Speaker 1: or audio setups are also really familiar with the the uh, 448 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,120 Speaker 1: the burdens of having to make lots of different connections 449 00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,639 Speaker 1: using different types of cables and ports. Anyway, back in 450 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: the old days, computers had all sorts of different connection 451 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 1: ports on them, and I'm talking about stuff like parallel ports, 452 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:30,199 Speaker 1: serial ports, more specific stuff like PS two connectors or 453 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,480 Speaker 1: D I N connectors. Some game controllers required a special 454 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:38,399 Speaker 1: game port. Typically you would find those on some of 455 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: the more popular sound cards. Back in the day. Sound 456 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,560 Speaker 1: cards were a thing too, because you didn't have uh 457 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:49,040 Speaker 1: integrated sound chips in computers, so you would have to 458 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,400 Speaker 1: install a sound card in your computer, and on the 459 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,800 Speaker 1: back plate of your PC you would have a new 460 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 1: port there where you could plug in a controller. It 461 00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,919 Speaker 1: was a real mess. Some of these ports required expand 462 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,040 Speaker 1: in cards, and you would have to slot those into 463 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,120 Speaker 1: your motherboard. Just like the sound cards I mentioned, Your 464 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 1: keyboard might need to go into one specific port, your 465 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: mouse in another. And then in the ninety nineties that 466 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,439 Speaker 1: began to change. That's when we saw the introduction of 467 00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,639 Speaker 1: the USB standard. USB allows for the transmission of data 468 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,720 Speaker 1: and power over the same cable, and it did not 469 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: take long for computer accessory manufacturers to start making stuff 470 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 1: like USB keyboards or USB computer mice. Uh. And later 471 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 1: on we saw more stuff like computer printers and docking 472 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:36,720 Speaker 1: stations and stuff like you know, you know, a docking 473 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: station for an MP three player, that kind of thing. 474 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,719 Speaker 1: The USB standard itself also evolved, with more recent versions 475 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:47,160 Speaker 1: capable of carrying far more data per second than older versions. 476 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,880 Speaker 1: And this meant that now suddenly you had a universal 477 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 1: kind of connection port and universal cable system where you 478 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,560 Speaker 1: could connect all your different stuff to any of those 479 00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: available ports on your computer. You didn't have to remember, oh, 480 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: this one is for the printer, this one is for 481 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,600 Speaker 1: an extra display, Like if it was a USB then 482 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: you can plug it into any port that was USB 483 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: on your machine. With the USB three point oh standard, 484 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 1: we're looking at transmission speeds of five gigabits per second 485 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,600 Speaker 1: and beyond. USB three point two generation two by two 486 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: has a top speed of ten gigabits per second across 487 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 1: two lanes of transmission, which gives you a total of 488 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 1: twenty gigabits per second bandwidth. So now we can use 489 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: USBs for stuff far more demanding than just powering a 490 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:38,040 Speaker 1: computer mouse. Now, there's still the issue of various connectors 491 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: even with USB. I mean, there's nothing like mixing up 492 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: USB B many with the USB B micro, with USB 493 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,600 Speaker 1: C connectors and all that kind of stuff. But still 494 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 1: it's leagues better than the old days of the mishmash 495 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:57,600 Speaker 1: of connectors, and it makes managing that stuff way easier. Next, 496 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,920 Speaker 1: we have v g A, the stands for video graphics Array. 497 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: Speaking of connectors, this was one of them, and some 498 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,880 Speaker 1: computer manufacturers continue to support v g A connections, though 499 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,160 Speaker 1: not nearly as many as they used to. These connectors 500 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,400 Speaker 1: support computer video output, and so this is a port 501 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:16,800 Speaker 1: that you would use to connect a computer to a 502 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: compatible display or monitor. The connectors have three rows of 503 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: five holes in them, and those line up with the 504 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 1: fifteen pens that are in the cables. You would use 505 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,680 Speaker 1: to connect your computer to a display. These days, you 506 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:35,480 Speaker 1: typically see this replaced with more recent technologies like hd M. I. Okay, 507 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,160 Speaker 1: we have one last batch of acronyms and initialisms to 508 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: get through. Let's see if I can do this without 509 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:45,120 Speaker 1: running super long. But first, let's take a quick break. 510 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,840 Speaker 1: All right, here we go. VM. This stands for virtual machine, 511 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: which I touched on a little bit in this aries. 512 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: A virtual machine is the emulation of a computer system. 513 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: You might use specialized software, some specialized hardware, or a 514 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: combination of the two in order to make this happen. 515 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: And there are a lot of reasons why you would 516 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,040 Speaker 1: want to run a virtual machine on top of actual 517 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,480 Speaker 1: physical hardware. For example, you might have a really powerful 518 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: computer and you want to run separate processes that should 519 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: not intermingle on a single machine. So rather than buy 520 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: a second machine and then divide up the tasks, you 521 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: create virtual machines on your one physical computer, and each 522 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:39,960 Speaker 1: virtual machine acts like its own standalone computer. They handle 523 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,400 Speaker 1: a specific task, and the two tasks won't come into 524 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: contact with each other. Virtual machines can each have their 525 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: own dedicated computer resources. Or maybe you've got a computer 526 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,240 Speaker 1: like a Mac, but you want to run PC software 527 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:58,320 Speaker 1: on it, so you create a virtual PC machine running 528 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,760 Speaker 1: on top of the MAC system. The virtual machine emulates 529 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,840 Speaker 1: the physical hardware and architecture of a PC and allows 530 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:10,120 Speaker 1: you to run PC software on this virtual platform. Virtualization 531 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,600 Speaker 1: is also really important for stuff like data centers, but 532 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 1: I'll say further discussion for a future episode. Next, we 533 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: have VPN. This stands for virtual private networks. These are 534 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 1: means of creating a private network connection, particularly when you're 535 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: on a public like WiFi network. The purpose of a 536 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: VPN is to encrypt your Internet activities and disguise your 537 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: online identity, something that can be really important if you 538 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 1: happen to be working from say a public WiFi hotspot 539 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: like in a coffee shop or something. The way this 540 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,840 Speaker 1: works is that you connect to a VPN directly. Your 541 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: machine essentially makes a connection with the VPN. Then the 542 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,240 Speaker 1: VPN access kind of like your liaison. When you want 543 00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: to visit a website, for example, your request for goes 544 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: to the VPN and the vp N kind of acts 545 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 1: like a proxy to retrieve the website data, then sends 546 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:09,800 Speaker 1: that data to you and it's all encrypted. To the 547 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 1: website on the other end, it looks like all the 548 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 1: requests are coming from the VPN, not from you, So 549 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,160 Speaker 1: you know, if you were to go to how stuff 550 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: works dot com, how stuff works dot Com would see 551 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 1: the traffic coming from the VPN, but would not see 552 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: that go further back to you. This is handy if 553 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,480 Speaker 1: you want to have some secure connections and not worry 554 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,280 Speaker 1: about someone, whether it's a hacker or an I s 555 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,880 Speaker 1: P or the admin of the hot spot that you're using, 556 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,160 Speaker 1: to know what you're doing. Some companies require employees to 557 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,920 Speaker 1: use a VPN before accessing internal systems to help mitigate 558 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:48,400 Speaker 1: the risk of hacker intrusions. Another way people use VPNs 559 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: is to bypass region locking. So let's say you want 560 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:55,320 Speaker 1: to access a service in another country, but you get 561 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,520 Speaker 1: a message saying that you're not within the regional service 562 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,280 Speaker 1: area for that and this happens a lot with media 563 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:06,040 Speaker 1: based services like streaming video, So you could use a 564 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: VPN to make it appear as though you are in 565 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,640 Speaker 1: that country and while you can access stuff. That is 566 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:18,080 Speaker 1: assuming that the media company hasn't blacklisted the VPN servers 567 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: IP address and said this is a VPN, we don't 568 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: want to allow traffic to it. I don't advocate for 569 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,080 Speaker 1: this approach. I would rather see region locking just kind 570 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:32,799 Speaker 1: of go away, rather than suggest you find ways around it. 571 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 1: But anyway, VPNs are an important component to secure web browsing. 572 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: It's also good to research VPNs before joining one. Some 573 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 1: vBNS keep a record of users that could potentially become 574 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,400 Speaker 1: a problem if some other entity ever got hold of it. 575 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:52,239 Speaker 1: Other VPNs make it a practice to never maintain any 576 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:54,960 Speaker 1: kind of record at all, so your use of the 577 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,799 Speaker 1: service would never become public knowledge, even if, say, law 578 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,280 Speaker 1: enforcement were to go out after it. Next up is VR. 579 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,839 Speaker 1: This one's easy. It's virtual reality basically refers to any 580 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,400 Speaker 1: system in which some, most, or all of your sensory 581 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:13,000 Speaker 1: input is coming courtesy of a computer system. Typically we 582 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:17,080 Speaker 1: associated with systems that include head mounted displays. That means 583 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:19,640 Speaker 1: that everything you see comes from a computer source, and 584 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,800 Speaker 1: it's usually paired with technology that allows for head tracking, 585 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 1: so that when you turn your head, the computer reflects 586 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,880 Speaker 1: this with a change in your perspective. It's a subtype 587 00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:33,160 Speaker 1: of mixed reality, along with a R or augmented reality, 588 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,760 Speaker 1: which we covered way back at the beginning of this series. 589 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:40,319 Speaker 1: Next is W three C. The number three so W 590 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: three C. This stands for the Worldwide Web Consortium, which 591 00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,480 Speaker 1: is a group that develops standards for use on the 592 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:51,239 Speaker 1: Worldwide Web. Tim berners Lee pops up again here, as 593 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:55,760 Speaker 1: he founded and currently leads the organization. The Consortium mainly 594 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,480 Speaker 1: focuses on getting all the various players in the Web 595 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,280 Speaker 1: to work on an agreed upon on set of standards 596 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,239 Speaker 1: so that the experience of accessing the Web remains consistent 597 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 1: no matter what browser or platforms someone happens to be using. 598 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:13,400 Speaker 1: Next up, W A N. This is a wide area network. 599 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,920 Speaker 1: So in a previous episode we talked about l a 600 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:20,120 Speaker 1: N s lands or local area networks. Well, a w 601 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,879 Speaker 1: a N is just a really big network. It's one 602 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,080 Speaker 1: that spans a large geographic region. So we're talking about 603 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: a network that measures at least half a mile across, 604 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 1: but can be much larger. These networks, like lands, can 605 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,520 Speaker 1: be purely self contained. That means you can have a 606 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: w a N that does not connect out to the Internet, 607 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,640 Speaker 1: or they might have interconnections with other types of networks. 608 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,319 Speaker 1: Next up, we've got w e P. This stands for 609 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,480 Speaker 1: Wired Equivalent Privacy. It's a type of security algorithm for 610 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,279 Speaker 1: use with wireless networks. So the idea is that this 611 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:59,719 Speaker 1: security algorithm would provide the same sort of privacy that 612 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 1: you would experience if you had physically connected all the 613 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,320 Speaker 1: computers in your network together with cables. So you're trying 614 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,200 Speaker 1: to prevent the chance for some outside force to snoop 615 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,560 Speaker 1: in on what's going on with the network. And obviously 616 00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: this is something to be concerned about when you're dealing 617 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:20,000 Speaker 1: with wireless networks, right. I mean, all communications are relying 618 00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,319 Speaker 1: on radio waves, which can be intercepted by anyone with 619 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: a compatible tuner and antenna. W EP became a security 620 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:33,600 Speaker 1: standard back in n It uses encryption to protect network communications, 621 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,720 Speaker 1: but w e P has fallen out of favor since 622 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,400 Speaker 1: the mid two thousand's. It's not seen as being particularly secure. 623 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,439 Speaker 1: And our next entry will pick up where w EP 624 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,879 Speaker 1: left off, so let's move on to it. That would 625 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:51,000 Speaker 1: be w p A. This stands for WiFi Protected Access 626 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:54,839 Speaker 1: and this family of security systems are the current recommended 627 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,239 Speaker 1: ones to have in use for Wi Fi networks. There 628 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 1: are three generations of this current LEE. You've got w 629 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:04,360 Speaker 1: P A, w P A two, and w p A three. 630 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,040 Speaker 1: To get into the full details of this will require 631 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,120 Speaker 1: a separate episode because it gets really technical, but it's 632 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: a good thing to remember that if you have options 633 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,480 Speaker 1: to set your network security to either w e P 634 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,400 Speaker 1: or w P A, you should go with w p A. 635 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,840 Speaker 1: More and more devices infect Almost pretty much every device 636 00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:27,759 Speaker 1: made now is going to be w p A compatible. 637 00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: If you're working with really old tech, you might have 638 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,640 Speaker 1: some that aren't, but generally speaking, networks should be w 639 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,399 Speaker 1: p A, preferably w P A three. Next up, we've 640 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:43,640 Speaker 1: got whizzy wig or w y s I w y 641 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,319 Speaker 1: G whizzy wig. It stands for what you see is 642 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,520 Speaker 1: what you get, and it refers to any type of 643 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,239 Speaker 1: editing software in which what you're seeing as you edit 644 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:57,920 Speaker 1: is pretty much what you're going to get with the 645 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,400 Speaker 1: final finished product. This is easier for me to explain 646 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,040 Speaker 1: with an old example. So if you've been listening to 647 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,040 Speaker 1: this series, you heard me talk about when I was 648 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: making my first web pages decades ago, using a text 649 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,400 Speaker 1: editor to write out all the HTML code. The text 650 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,759 Speaker 1: document was a collection of markup language tags and then 651 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,480 Speaker 1: the content, and on casual glance it looked like a 652 00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,280 Speaker 1: real mess. I mean, you could scan through the document 653 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:24,960 Speaker 1: and kind of get an idea of what the web 654 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:27,799 Speaker 1: page was all about. But if you just looked at 655 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,160 Speaker 1: it casually, it looked like a bunch of symbols and 656 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,080 Speaker 1: letters and numbers and didn't have a whole lot of 657 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,000 Speaker 1: meaning to it. Flash forward a few years and companies 658 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,000 Speaker 1: began to develop software that would let people develop a 659 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:44,200 Speaker 1: web page without having to manage the actual HTML code. 660 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,120 Speaker 1: It was more like a word processor. You could view 661 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,440 Speaker 1: the document as if it were a web page in progress, 662 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,960 Speaker 1: long before you ever uploaded it to a server. So 663 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:56,879 Speaker 1: what you see is what you get. The view you 664 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,000 Speaker 1: have of your web page in progress is what it 665 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,279 Speaker 1: would look like if some one were to visit it 666 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:05,040 Speaker 1: through a browser. Now, there tends to be trade offs 667 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,319 Speaker 1: with whizzywig interfaces. You can see right away if something 668 00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,319 Speaker 1: is working or not, but you might have to dig 669 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,360 Speaker 1: a bit deeper in the user interface to get to 670 00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:17,680 Speaker 1: some of the more fine tuning controls. If you're coding 671 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:21,560 Speaker 1: stuff the hard way, you typically have way more precise 672 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:24,200 Speaker 1: control over things if you know what you're doing, but 673 00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 1: it does require a lot more back and forth to 674 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 1: make sure that everything's coming out all right. Man, this 675 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:31,920 Speaker 1: is making me think of the old days when I 676 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:34,359 Speaker 1: would use word perfect to make documents, and I would 677 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,600 Speaker 1: have reveal codes on all the time, just so I 678 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:40,880 Speaker 1: could see where stuff was, like an underlying section, or 679 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,960 Speaker 1: where hard returns were, stuff like that. And those were 680 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,760 Speaker 1: the days, man I miss those. Next XML. I touched 681 00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:50,839 Speaker 1: on this in a previous entry, but it stands for 682 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:55,200 Speaker 1: extensible markup language. This language allows users to create and 683 00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:58,600 Speaker 1: define their own tags, and so this is a meta 684 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:01,960 Speaker 1: textual markup language. Another way to think of it is 685 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:06,160 Speaker 1: that x m L is information that is wrapped in tags, 686 00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:09,280 Speaker 1: and xm L doesn't actually do anything on its own. 687 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,799 Speaker 1: You have to write some form of software to interpret 688 00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:16,600 Speaker 1: and act upon those tags. So, for example, if you 689 00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 1: were to create a document and you wanted to use 690 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,280 Speaker 1: some XML tags, you might create a tag that reads, 691 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,799 Speaker 1: you know, open bracket, subheading clothes bracket. Then you might 692 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:28,920 Speaker 1: type you know a message that you want to have 693 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,759 Speaker 1: as a subheading on your document, and then at the 694 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,640 Speaker 1: end of it you would type open bracket slash subheading, 695 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,839 Speaker 1: close bracket. But that alone doesn't do anything right, that's 696 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,799 Speaker 1: meaningless by itself. But then let's say you create some 697 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:47,120 Speaker 1: software to handle how this document gets viewed, and in 698 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:49,600 Speaker 1: the creation of that software, you lay out the rules 699 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,760 Speaker 1: as to how that subheading tag should be displayed within 700 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,000 Speaker 1: a view of the document. That's what x m L does. 701 00:41:57,320 --> 00:41:59,960 Speaker 1: It creates the opportunity to carry data in a specif 702 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,920 Speaker 1: ific way as determined by the tags and the definition 703 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,400 Speaker 1: of those tags. Now this is in contrast with HTML, 704 00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:13,560 Speaker 1: a different markup language which has predefined tags. And finally 705 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: we have HY two K. This was an abbreviation meant 706 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:23,000 Speaker 1: to indicate a potentially disastrous problem when the calendar switched 707 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:27,719 Speaker 1: from to two thousand. Some of you listening to this 708 00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:30,600 Speaker 1: might have been born after two thousand or he might 709 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,840 Speaker 1: have been too young to know what this was all about. 710 00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:37,320 Speaker 1: And um I remember, and it was crazy. It mostly 711 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: boils down to people being a little lazy and relying 712 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:43,879 Speaker 1: on work that was never meant to stand the test 713 00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,239 Speaker 1: of time. So let's get to it. Way back in 714 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:50,759 Speaker 1: the day, computer programmers were facing some pretty big challenges, 715 00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 1: and one of those was finding ways to limit the 716 00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:56,880 Speaker 1: size of programs, both for the sake of simplicity and 717 00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,880 Speaker 1: to conserve computer storage space, which was in short supply 718 00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:02,719 Speaker 1: early on in the days of programming. To that end, 719 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,120 Speaker 1: when making programs that need to reference what year it 720 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,600 Speaker 1: was a lot of programmers used a shorthand. They only 721 00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,640 Speaker 1: used the last two digits of the year, so for example, 722 00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:17,520 Speaker 1: this year would be twenty one for one. Now, this 723 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:21,080 Speaker 1: started around the nineteen sixties, so let's be fair to 724 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,440 Speaker 1: those programmers. They probably did not anticipate that the code 725 00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:28,160 Speaker 1: they were building was going to be dependent upon nearly 726 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:32,279 Speaker 1: half a century later. I'm sure they assumed understandably so 727 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,680 Speaker 1: that someone somewhere, at some point would make a better 728 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:41,400 Speaker 1: version of the program. And you know, when stuff like 729 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,640 Speaker 1: conserving computer storage space wouldn't be as quite a big concern. 730 00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:48,480 Speaker 1: You could have code with four digits and not have 731 00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:53,600 Speaker 1: to take the shorthand approach. But instead people kept on 732 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:58,040 Speaker 1: perpetuating that particular form of programming shorthand. At least a 733 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,120 Speaker 1: lot of people did, and a lot of systems, particularly 734 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:05,040 Speaker 1: systems that would become legacy systems, ones that companies would 735 00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 1: rely upon because it was just too expensive or too 736 00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,560 Speaker 1: difficult to upgrade everything, so they would just continue to 737 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,000 Speaker 1: rely on this old infrastructure. A lot of that still 738 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:18,440 Speaker 1: relied on that two digit format for the year. And 739 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,239 Speaker 1: that works okay until you cross over the end of 740 00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:28,480 Speaker 1: a millennium. Then you potentially have issues. So when was 741 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:33,200 Speaker 1: to become zero zero, people weren't sure what could happen. 742 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:35,840 Speaker 1: I mean for systems that use the year to calculate 743 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,839 Speaker 1: stuff like, you know, location data for things like airlines 744 00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: or particular financial data. The worry was that the computer 745 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: systems would roll over from zero zero, and that the 746 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,840 Speaker 1: computers would essentially assume the current year would not be 747 00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 1: two thousand, it would instead be nineteen hundred, and that 748 00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:59,640 Speaker 1: could be disastrous. Now, this worry lead to a global 749 00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:03,839 Speaker 1: concer learned bordering on panic. In some instances, there were 750 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:08,200 Speaker 1: fears that technology ranging from computer systems to airplanes to 751 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:13,319 Speaker 1: microwaves might fail because of this oversight. Some companies spent 752 00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:18,160 Speaker 1: millions hundreds of millions of dollars to hire programmers to 753 00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,120 Speaker 1: go in and update code to reflect a four digit year, 754 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:26,160 Speaker 1: and in some cases programmers needed to create complicated software 755 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,160 Speaker 1: to adjust for hardware that was hard coded with this 756 00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:33,120 Speaker 1: two digit year approach. In the end, when the clock 757 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,759 Speaker 1: ticked over, there were very few major problems with Y 758 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,560 Speaker 1: two K, particularly here in the United States. Part of 759 00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,080 Speaker 1: that reason they have been just that a lot of 760 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:46,000 Speaker 1: the most necessary work had already happened. A lot of 761 00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:52,439 Speaker 1: companies had spent much of n addressing the issue. There 762 00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,560 Speaker 1: were a few exceptions, one of which was a particularly 763 00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:59,719 Speaker 1: scary one. A nuclear energy facility in Japan had some 764 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:05,360 Speaker 1: creation containment equipment fail, but fortunately backup systems came online immediately, 765 00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:09,520 Speaker 1: so disaster was averted. Some countries did see more problems 766 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:13,040 Speaker 1: than others. These were typically countries that had not invested 767 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:16,120 Speaker 1: nearly as much money into preventing the Y two K issue, 768 00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: So like South Korea had some issues. I'll probably have 769 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:21,640 Speaker 1: to do a full episode about Y two K and 770 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:25,520 Speaker 1: talk about all those related issues with code, including some 771 00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:30,040 Speaker 1: that are similar and had uh you know, relating issues. 772 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,160 Speaker 1: But that is it. We have finally made our way 773 00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,720 Speaker 1: through the alphabet. It only took six episodes, and honestly, 774 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,000 Speaker 1: I also skipped over some stuff, like I didn't talk 775 00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:43,279 Speaker 1: about good news very much, but we will save that 776 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,120 Speaker 1: for a catch up episode. If you have suggestions for 777 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,840 Speaker 1: topics I should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff 778 00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,759 Speaker 1: alphabetically or otherwise, let me know the best way to 779 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,360 Speaker 1: do that is through Twitter. The handle for the show 780 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:59,080 Speaker 1: is text Stuff hs W, and I'll talk to you 781 00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:09,040 Speaker 1: again really soon. Tex Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 782 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:12,080 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i 783 00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:15,440 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to 784 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:16,400 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.