Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: Tex Stile from how stuff Works dot com. Hello again everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcomes to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette,
Speaker 1: and I am an editor here at how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com. Sitting next to me unlike usual, but we'll
Speaker 1: get any more, and that later is senior writer Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: The sky is blue and all the leaves are green.
Speaker 1: My heart's as full as a baked potato. Alright, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Today is a very special episode of tech Stuff, so
Speaker 1: special that the only word to describe it is spado winkle.
Speaker 1: So the reason that there is a a special is one,
Speaker 1: for the first time ever, we are recording outside the
Speaker 1: confines of our Comfy studio, so we're kind of excited
Speaker 1: and frightened. The second is that we are at dragon Con,
Speaker 1: which is a huge fantasy, science fiction, horror genre fan
Speaker 1: in convention. And third and fourth we have two special
Speaker 1: guests with us today. We have Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont.
Speaker 1: Say Hi, Hi, Hello, you follow direction well? Veronica said, hello,
Speaker 1: I just want to point out you said specifically to
Speaker 1: say Hill right. Okay, sorry, Tom follows direction exceptionally. Well.
Speaker 1: We have we have Tom and Veronica, who collectively our
Speaker 1: Sword and Laser. I have never asked which is which,
Speaker 1: but um, I know that seriously because Veronica does the
Speaker 1: laser sound effect. Pew p. There we go. I was
Speaker 1: hoping I could get it on here. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: specifically ask. I thought if I was obleek enough, I
Speaker 1: could get it. Um. The So you're here doing Sword
Speaker 1: and Laser as well as some of your other projects.
Speaker 1: Why don't you both introduce yourselves and kind of give
Speaker 1: an overview of all the amazing stuff you guys do.
Speaker 1: Me first, okay, Um, I'm Veronica and I currently co
Speaker 1: host Texila on Revision three and also Core on the
Speaker 1: PlayStation network and uh in our free time. We are
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to have Sword and Laser, which is the
Speaker 1: reason we've come to dragon Con for the past two
Speaker 1: years to do live show here and interview authors and
Speaker 1: it's always been a blast. Yeah. My name is Tom right,
Speaker 1: and now, of course I do Sortain Laser with Veronica,
Speaker 1: which is a science fiction fantasy fook club. UH, and
Speaker 1: I also do Tech News Today daily on the Twitter
Speaker 1: network at two thirty Pacific, five thirty Eastern. I do
Speaker 1: Current Geek Weekly with Scott Johnson. I do Forecast with
Speaker 1: Scott Johnson. I do East Meats West, Where We Go
Speaker 1: Chang got like six more with Brian Bridge? Should I
Speaker 1: go on? Keep going? Keep going? Right with Brian brush
Speaker 1: with the SNORB cartoons with Scott Johnson. I think that's it,
Speaker 1: So he thinks all right, and uh so, yeah. We
Speaker 1: we asked Tom and Veronica on the show because we
Speaker 1: were all going to be in the same place at
Speaker 1: the same time, which is unusual, but also because they
Speaker 1: cover Technology Top five on Revision three and Tom will
Speaker 1: just continuously interrupt me for the rest of the show,
Speaker 1: adding in the things that he's forgotten that he does.
Speaker 1: Um No. We we asked them here because they're both
Speaker 1: technology journalists and we wanted to kind of talk about
Speaker 1: what it's like covering technology from a journalism standpoint. Chris
Speaker 1: and I did a video show for a while where
Speaker 1: we covered news, technology, news, and um and so we
Speaker 1: really got kind of a crash course and what it's
Speaker 1: like to cover tech, and that was really a small,
Speaker 1: a tiny show compared to what you guys do, so
Speaker 1: just kind of want to get your thoughts on what
Speaker 1: it's like covering technology. Uh And and if you've had
Speaker 1: experience covering other kinds of topics, what makes it sort
Speaker 1: of unique in that? And from a journalism standpoint, Well,
Speaker 1: it changes so fast. I mean there's new stuff all
Speaker 1: the time, and it can be very difficult to stay
Speaker 1: on top of everything that's happening and changing. And technology
Speaker 1: covers so many different areas as well, whether it's gadgets
Speaker 1: or computers or internet culture and uh, you know, new
Speaker 1: media stuff. It's it's always changing and there's always some
Speaker 1: thing that we have to learn and pay attention to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the technology crowd is the smartest crowd of media
Speaker 1: consumers technology and science. You know, folks, they know what
Speaker 1: they're talking about in their field, and you, as a
Speaker 1: reporter often have to know everything about every field. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you're going to get corrected a lot a lot
Speaker 1: because you can't know everything about every topic. But hopefully
Speaker 1: you can know enough to to be able to pass
Speaker 1: along just the good information, kind of sift good from bad.
Speaker 1: Uh And And one thing that Veronica and I both
Speaker 1: got really good on when we did Buzz Out Loud
Speaker 1: at seen It back in the day is using the
Speaker 1: audience to your advantage. Uh, And I know, John, that's
Speaker 1: actually how I got to know you. Was relying on
Speaker 1: you to kind of contribute some facts and stuff that
Speaker 1: you knew from your research and how stuff works. That
Speaker 1: helped us to pass along emails and voicemails to people
Speaker 1: to kind of further explain stuff that maybe we weren't
Speaker 1: able to fully explain in our coverage of it. I
Speaker 1: actually really missed doing a daily show like tom DA's
Speaker 1: Now and like we used to do it buzz out
Speaker 1: loud because it keeps you really sharp, like when you're
Speaker 1: reading stuff every day and you have to be able
Speaker 1: to follow stories throughout the week. You, um, you definitely
Speaker 1: absorb it a lot better than with me and Patrick
Speaker 1: on Texila. UM. We do a lot of computer health
Speaker 1: problems and gadget questions, and we do news at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, but it's not our main focus.
Speaker 1: So I found myself, you know, getting out of the
Speaker 1: loop a little bit on a lot of the big
Speaker 1: stuff that's going on. And I think I need to
Speaker 1: start listening to tech news today regularly, more regularly, more regularly,
Speaker 1: more like five days a week instead of the four
Speaker 1: I already do. Yeah, Veronica, you just you need to
Speaker 1: listen harder. I know, you have a better job and
Speaker 1: pressing stop five minutes, then emailing and then listening another
Speaker 1: five minutes like that. I know. Um. Actually that that
Speaker 1: bringing the whole audience factor into it. That's one of
Speaker 1: the things I found very interesting getting into knowledgy blogging
Speaker 1: and UH and technology podcasting as well as doing the
Speaker 1: video show. UM. You know, as a writer, occasionally we
Speaker 1: would get readers writing in to to comment on on
Speaker 1: the articles we were writing, but that that interaction rapped
Speaker 1: up significantly once we went to blogging and podcasting, and
Speaker 1: so it is interesting. Why don't you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about what it's like, UH interacting with your audience
Speaker 1: and how I mean to me, that seems like it's
Speaker 1: a really unique thing that podcasters in general and tech
Speaker 1: podcasters specifically get to do that other journalists don't. Necessarily
Speaker 1: they don't experience that well. I think Tom already covered
Speaker 1: it really well and saying that the audience is way
Speaker 1: smarter than we are, and so they're always giving such
Speaker 1: great feedback and such additional information to whatever we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Their indispensable in that way, and correcting us and and
Speaker 1: updating us on stuff that's going on that we may
Speaker 1: have missed. It's it's incredible well and one of the
Speaker 1: things you have to do. And and maybe tech podcasters
Speaker 1: and and bloggers are better at it because they're just
Speaker 1: into technology and they like to to play around with stuff,
Speaker 1: but anybody in any topic can do that, which is
Speaker 1: open up the channels, read some emails on your podcast,
Speaker 1: or respond to someone your bog or uh, you know,
Speaker 1: play some voicemails. So open up a voicemail line or
Speaker 1: just ask for people to record MP three and send
Speaker 1: them as attachments. Once you start including the audience in
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, more audience members will catch on to
Speaker 1: that and say, oh, I want to contribute to and
Speaker 1: you'll you'll get people who don't, in fact, the vast
Speaker 1: majority don't, but you'll start to develop a crowd that
Speaker 1: you can rely on, and you can separate the trolls
Speaker 1: from the from the people who actually contribute. And then
Speaker 1: now you have a stable of not only experts that
Speaker 1: you can you can use to make your content better,
Speaker 1: but also folks who are going to spread the word
Speaker 1: about your show and say like, hey, I really like
Speaker 1: this because I'm invested in it. That's a great point. Um,
Speaker 1: is there anything about technology in general that that you
Speaker 1: are particularly passionate about? I mean, besides, because as you
Speaker 1: were pointing out Monica, Uh, technology is a huge, huge topic,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of sub topics uh in general.
Speaker 1: For instance, from my own perspective, Uh, the stuff I'm
Speaker 1: really interested in is is despite the fact that I
Speaker 1: work for How Stuff Works and I love writing how
Speaker 1: stuff works articles on how tech works, my real interest
Speaker 1: is kind of on the social impact of technology. But
Speaker 1: I'm just curious if there's something similar or something specific
Speaker 1: that you're really passionate about as far as technology is concerned.
Speaker 1: I like memoristers, memoristers for Mr Merritt. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: a constant battle, both with Molly Wood at Buzz out
Speaker 1: Loud and now with Becky Is, who've tried to stop
Speaker 1: me from including these stories that might bore everyone else.
Speaker 1: We've had requests to do that topic on our show
Speaker 1: and we have not done that yet. It's kind of
Speaker 1: daunting um at quantum computing. Anytime there's a quantum story,
Speaker 1: I get I get sucked in all kinds of astronomy stuff,
Speaker 1: anything with planets, planet finding. I like that, I mean
Speaker 1: I am. I'm passionate about all technology and how it
Speaker 1: works and how people use it and what they use
Speaker 1: it for on the less technological side, but more the
Speaker 1: the use of it, the social use side. Anything about
Speaker 1: copyright technology, copyright law, and what you can do in
Speaker 1: this medium just fascinates me because it all seemed very
Speaker 1: clear until the Internet came along and made it really
Speaker 1: easy to copy everything, uh infinitely, and now we're dealing
Speaker 1: with a whole new set of rules about how anything,
Speaker 1: how this, how this stuff works, right, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: there's just a it's a whole different universe. So you
Speaker 1: have this battle of people who are like, no, physical
Speaker 1: CDs can't be copied and given away, you know, because
Speaker 1: that undermines our business. They didn't actually make that that
Speaker 1: distinction as much when you had to actually physically copy
Speaker 1: a CD by going and buying a really expensive burner
Speaker 1: or paying someone to do it, because people wouldn't really
Speaker 1: do it, so if you gave it away, you kind
Speaker 1: of turn a blind eye. Now that it's infinitely copyable,
Speaker 1: everyone's paying attention and it's unstaff poppable, so it's almost
Speaker 1: you know, the horses and the cows and all the
Speaker 1: chickens and everything I've left the barn. In fact, the
Speaker 1: barn burned down and now there's no barn to go
Speaker 1: back to. Mr Barrett, I would like to point out
Speaker 1: that as a Southern boy who grew up on a farm,
Speaker 1: you do not keep the chickens in the barn. But
Speaker 1: that's exactly right, John, What were the chickens doing in
Speaker 1: the barn? I think if we can place, can someone
Speaker 1: answer the chicken and the boy right? Industry needs to
Speaker 1: address that. I'm sure we'll have a listener right in
Speaker 1: and explain to us exactly what those chickens were doing
Speaker 1: in the barn. I'm still grappling with which came first,
Speaker 1: the chicken or the eggs. They figured that out, you guys,
Speaker 1: you work, you should know that. Well, that's science stuff,
Speaker 1: the chicken, anything that we we we have the habit
Speaker 1: of foisting anything that has to do with biology or
Speaker 1: physics over to science. Do you have to go to
Speaker 1: the Foul Stuff podcast? Yes? My answer is a little
Speaker 1: less fancy. Um. I'm really into video games sweet so
Speaker 1: anything video game related I'm instantly drawn to. But also
Speaker 1: on the more esoteric side of that whole culture, which
Speaker 1: is video games, as our video games and how they
Speaker 1: affect society. That's something that I'm really drawn to, How
Speaker 1: how how our society is really changing because of video games,
Speaker 1: and how it's not just the realm of the geeky anymore.
Speaker 1: I mean everyone plays now, from you know, small kids
Speaker 1: to grandparents and you know, middle aged housewives you know
Speaker 1: are playing World of Warcraft and it's totally normal. Alright,
Speaker 1: Desert Island computer or game system? One game? What is it? Well,
Speaker 1: it could it be my gaming PC. It has to
Speaker 1: be one game, one game. Um oh wow, it would
Speaker 1: be World of Warcraft. I'm guessing Mr Merritt would have
Speaker 1: the same answer. Civilization is that because you would miss
Speaker 1: civilization so much and it does violence, that you would
Speaker 1: feel the need to build up some kind of civilizations
Speaker 1: a month. There's no infinite supply of coconuts to sell
Speaker 1: to support very expensive maybe, well, where does the connection
Speaker 1: come from? Exactly? That's text? Oh shoot, all right, just
Speaker 1: a silly question. Since I knew that Veronica was also
Speaker 1: into video games. We actually did two episodes not that
Speaker 1: long ago, in fact, that they published the week coming
Speaker 1: into Dragon Con. Uh, this will publish significantly after Dragon Con,
Speaker 1: but we did two episodes about the rise and fall
Speaker 1: of the Arcade, video game Arcade, and of course the
Speaker 1: video game Crash of three because I was one of
Speaker 1: those fortunate young men to own an Atari twenty and
Speaker 1: a copy of ET. Yeah, so that was that. Um anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that happened. The next question I had was, I
Speaker 1: don't know if if Veronica, if you've ever had to
Speaker 1: do this. I know that Tom's had to do it,
Speaker 1: and I've done it as well, Chris as as well.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether where this is going, but it's
Speaker 1: a it's a the the insumus a mail thing because okay,
Speaker 1: it's the it's the experience. Well, there's the first bleep
Speaker 1: for the podcast. I think we can leave that in.
Speaker 1: It was probably the no. The question is technology predictions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we talked about how technology moves very quickly. Um. A
Speaker 1: lot of us have done technology prediction shows, usually at
Speaker 1: the end of the year, to predict what's going to
Speaker 1: come out the next year. Of Veronica, I don't have
Speaker 1: you have you ever done those? I have? Yeah, we
Speaker 1: used to do them on on BOL all the time
Speaker 1: every year for New Year's So Martel's also done forecast
Speaker 1: with Tom also which is his predictions podcast. So with Johnson,
Speaker 1: the question is are there any predictions you made that
Speaker 1: you feel we're essentially spot on? And were there any
Speaker 1: you made that we're about as big a miss as
Speaker 1: you possibly could get? Cheese? Um? Oh, looking back, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard to remember, Tom, do you remember anything
Speaker 1: I got right? I know there was one. I feel
Speaker 1: like there was a good one. Let's remember. It's hard
Speaker 1: to remember the prediction because if you're because if you're right,
Speaker 1: then you just feel vindicated for a while and then
Speaker 1: you kind of forget, and if you're wrong, then you
Speaker 1: instantly forget it because you don't want to be like
Speaker 1: That's why a lot of people hate doing prediction shows,
Speaker 1: because you're on record saying something like especially way or
Speaker 1: the other, especially if you do the following year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we always do Yeah, so that you can kind of
Speaker 1: tally up how you did. I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: of the biggest one I've gotten wrong this year, which
Speaker 1: was that Apple will come out with a tablet, but
Speaker 1: it's it's not gonna go anywhere. As my editor next
Speaker 1: to me holds up his iPad, I got really close
Speaker 1: on the tablet. I said it was going to be
Speaker 1: eight ninety nine, which was the top out price, right uh.
Speaker 1: And I said it was going to come in the summer,
Speaker 1: and came in the spring, but I got close. I
Speaker 1: also said goodbye Palm bought or fold and they got bought.
Speaker 1: And then two years ago I said Android will out
Speaker 1: sell the iPhone. So it's just a couple of years earlier.
Speaker 1: Every year I say something that like our f I
Speaker 1: DA is going to become like the default, like de
Speaker 1: fact a way to pay for things and turn on
Speaker 1: your lights in your house, like with the r f
Speaker 1: I D chip and planted in your arm. That never happens.
Speaker 1: Just I'm just not ready. Yeah, I go to Japan
Speaker 1: a lot for work, and I'm so frustrated by how
Speaker 1: they've got everything down. You just have one card for everything.
Speaker 1: You pay for everything with this one card. You can
Speaker 1: get on the subway with it, you can buy a
Speaker 1: bag of chips with it. And they're starting to get
Speaker 1: that a little bit here, but or with your cell
Speaker 1: phone even but people are scared of it for some reason,
Speaker 1: and they're really terrified of losing their information and having
Speaker 1: their information being floating around, even though it's so close,
Speaker 1: like you have to be pretty close in order for
Speaker 1: the r F i D to work. They there's that
Speaker 1: fear that people have about this kind of technology that's
Speaker 1: really preventing a lot of it from improving our lives
Speaker 1: in a big way. And I feel like people have
Speaker 1: to kind of get over that hurdle of fear in
Speaker 1: order for their lives to really improve. And we've seen
Speaker 1: that with a lot of technology over the years. And
Speaker 1: then you know, people, once they get over that hump,
Speaker 1: they forget about it. They don't worry about it anymore.
Speaker 1: It's just that initial like, oh, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I don't think I want that in my house. I'll
Speaker 1: let some strange waiter to take my credit card, but
Speaker 1: I don't want an r F i D on the
Speaker 1: internet like constantly have to, you know, think about it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I mean, it's it's just that it's
Speaker 1: really the it's really the fact that they don't know
Speaker 1: how how much their information is already out there just
Speaker 1: using traditional payment methods and other ways of communicating. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I've noticed the same sort of thing. We did
Speaker 1: do an episode about that once several probably more than
Speaker 1: a year ago now, where we talked about the same
Speaker 1: sort of thing. And yeah, years past and we haven't
Speaker 1: seen a huge leap forward since then. So clearly my
Speaker 1: impact as podcast are just I've been waiting to get
Speaker 1: chipped for a really long time. I'm totally I can.
Speaker 1: I can. I can have taught to you over in England.
Speaker 1: I've been talking about it for University of Southampton. Our
Speaker 1: vet does it. I don't know if they would be
Speaker 1: able to help get lost very easily. Does anyone know
Speaker 1: to whom this podcaster belongs? Oh? By the way, I
Speaker 1: didn't mention the one that I got the wrongest of
Speaker 1: all of my predictions, which was the Capple will never
Speaker 1: come out with a phone most wrong. Ever, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I like it that I'm not the only one who's wrong. Um.
Speaker 1: And and here's this is kind of wrapping up the
Speaker 1: tech journalism thing, and it's it's kind of similar in
Speaker 1: a way to the last question. Um, can you think
Speaker 1: of any story in tech anything that you've covered that
Speaker 1: you that just really surprised you? I mean some stuff
Speaker 1: that you know a lot of the stories that we
Speaker 1: cover tend to be uh confirmation of something that we
Speaker 1: had heard about sometimes a year ahead of time, so
Speaker 1: it ends up just being oh, well, we finally got
Speaker 1: confirmation on this thing we heard about a year ago.
Speaker 1: But can you think of anything that just sort of
Speaker 1: came out of nowhere and really surprised you, positive or negative.
Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to mind is the bird
Speaker 1: dropping the bread in the large hatch collider. That really
Speaker 1: surprised me. Yeah, the Slingbox was was one that kind
Speaker 1: of took me by surprise. It's very rare at the
Speaker 1: Consumer Electronics Show, which happens in Vegas every year in January,
Speaker 1: that you see something you didn't already know was coming.
Speaker 1: Every year, it's just kind of an iteration previously. So
Speaker 1: last year the big thing was three D TVs, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't the first time we've seen them, and it
Speaker 1: certainly was the first time we've seen TVs, and we've
Speaker 1: been kind of expecting three D. But when Slingbox came out,
Speaker 1: which was two thousand five cees, it was something that
Speaker 1: nobody expected. It was this little company over in the
Speaker 1: Innovations Platform. They were overwhelmed with folks going, Wow, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. Did broadcast your your television over the internet?
Speaker 1: Is that legal? How do you? How do you get
Speaker 1: away with this and it's just this little box, which
Speaker 1: is kind of ugly but amazing because there's no moving
Speaker 1: parts and it's fairly cheap. It was then actually that
Speaker 1: that first model, if you remember, was really gray and boxing.
Speaker 1: You know, they've they've improved it since, but the box
Speaker 1: is a different set top box that game, that's right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, that was the That's one of the
Speaker 1: ones that I could think of that was certainly nothing
Speaker 1: anyone was prepared to expect, and and and was popular
Speaker 1: and students still is. Yeah. I like I like seeing
Speaker 1: the things that get the big buzz at cs that
Speaker 1: tend to and they tend to fall outside the major
Speaker 1: categories of electronics, because I mean that if you see
Speaker 1: something that's in a major category, you're just oh, this
Speaker 1: is another version of such and such. So I remember
Speaker 1: things like the LG watch phone that wasn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but let people take off the demonstrator's arm, right, there's
Speaker 1: something going on there. For me, it was wireless charging
Speaker 1: like with power Matt. It's such a promising vertical, but
Speaker 1: yet it just doesn't seem to go anywhere. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think what they need to do is just shoot some
Speaker 1: video of my desk and get a shot of all
Speaker 1: the different wires that I have and then say this
Speaker 1: is why you need this. That g It's two eyes
Speaker 1: how they spell it. Charging system was just announced at
Speaker 1: IFA ember Lynn and they've got Energizer on board, and
Speaker 1: I feel like that that could launch it more into
Speaker 1: the mainstream. You know, it's funny because speaking as a
Speaker 1: former Dish Network employee, I had to point that out
Speaker 1: since they inquired Sling. It's, you know, Sling as one
Speaker 1: of those things that I just kept expecting to explode.
Speaker 1: And it's that in TiVo, the TiVo brand itself, and
Speaker 1: it just surprises me. It's like people understand what they are,
Speaker 1: but they don't know the names. They don't even know TiVo. Really,
Speaker 1: I don't agree with that. I think TiVo has become
Speaker 1: kind of the the standard. I think people everyone knows
Speaker 1: what a TiVo is and how it works. I think
Speaker 1: everyone who doesn't have it knows that. You know, people
Speaker 1: who have one don't have to watch the commercials and
Speaker 1: they can record things when they want to. I think
Speaker 1: that's become pretty That brand has definitely spread to the masses. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe I'm biased because I do work in technology.
Speaker 1: So everyone I know knows what it is. But my
Speaker 1: parents know what it is, or they at least know
Speaker 1: how a DVR works, and they've heard of a ti
Speaker 1: Vo because now that Comcast has their own DVR box,
Speaker 1: you know, people get those automatically now and they kind
Speaker 1: of figure it out and they know that ti Vo
Speaker 1: is in that in that realm um. But sling box
Speaker 1: is definitely kind of surprising to me. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of what's prevented it wouldn't it be like the
Speaker 1: sports situations how they've been getting blackouts. They've they've never
Speaker 1: actually been stopped, they've never been some people threatened and
Speaker 1: saber rattled. But I think the thing with sling is
Speaker 1: they're getting acquired by Dish. Slowed them down for a
Speaker 1: while because they had anytime the company gets acquired, it's
Speaker 1: going to go through a lot of bureaucracy and integration
Speaker 1: and people leave and take knowledge with them and all
Speaker 1: of that um and then Dish wants to integrate it
Speaker 1: into their machines, not integrated into other machines. So you're
Speaker 1: not seeing it being put in, uh to a lot
Speaker 1: of different devices. So yeah, you don't. You don't see
Speaker 1: sling as a household verb the way you hear I'm
Speaker 1: going to TiVo that, whether you're using a TiVo DV
Speaker 1: are not, I don't know if you ever will. I
Speaker 1: don't know if if if that can bust out of it,
Speaker 1: because it may be possible that by the time it
Speaker 1: would get to that TiVo level of growth, will just
Speaker 1: be able to stream everything off the internet. Anyway. Well,
Speaker 1: I think um. One of the things too, is that
Speaker 1: you know for sling, you know, they are ingrained now
Speaker 1: in the dish DVRs, but the TiVo brand as a
Speaker 1: DVR is in the minority. Comparatively, It's in fewer homes
Speaker 1: than everybody else, So it seems like everyone else has
Speaker 1: taken the concept and has taken off, yet TiVo is
Speaker 1: struggling year after year to to do it. Although you're
Speaker 1: right it is that you know the name brand to
Speaker 1: consider the xerox when it's usually a good thing. I
Speaker 1: should point out that I actually do hear sling used
Speaker 1: as a verb, but not in that context, but my
Speaker 1: wife uses it quite a few times, like I'm going
Speaker 1: to sling this dog at you. That actually is said,
Speaker 1: what more often than I prefer to no no Jack
Speaker 1: resal terrier. Um, So we're gonna kind of transition now
Speaker 1: over to the the whole technology uh sci fi fantasy
Speaker 1: genre fan then diagram, which is almost a circle. Um.
Speaker 1: So you guys are here in part to to talk
Speaker 1: to do an episode of Sword and Laser. So you're
Speaker 1: both a big fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask a really silly question, why do you
Speaker 1: think there is that big crossover between people who are
Speaker 1: really enthusiastic about technology and people who are really big
Speaker 1: fans of science fiction and fantasy. Now, granted it's not
Speaker 1: like a one to one thing, but it does seem
Speaker 1: to be the general rule. I think science fiction definitely
Speaker 1: makes sense. I mean just because it's it's future thought.
Speaker 1: It's thinking about science what's possible in the future, Like
Speaker 1: where is our world going? Well, how is the technology
Speaker 1: we used today going to evolve? You know, five hundred
Speaker 1: a thousand, two thousand and years from now? Where where
Speaker 1: is our world going to be? And I think that
Speaker 1: draws a lot of people in and and get some
Speaker 1: excited about the tech that's out today too, because they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's almost just like the thing I read in that book.
Speaker 1: Ten years ago. It's so cool, it's really happening fantasy.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know why would like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I still don't know why they grouped them together. In
Speaker 1: some bookstores. A lot of them have finally stopped that,
Speaker 1: where you've got the fantasy section in the science fiction section.
Speaker 1: But I remember growing up they were always grouped together
Speaker 1: because they were so small there. I mean, there was
Speaker 1: a time when they were very, very niche, and that's
Speaker 1: definitely changing over the years. It's becoming a lot more acceptable.
Speaker 1: I mean, you see things like Firefly and Battlestore Galactica
Speaker 1: and and big sci fi or fantasy shows really exploding
Speaker 1: on TV. Particularly excited about the Game of Thrones, the
Speaker 1: Song of Fire and Ice series coming to HBO, and
Speaker 1: hopefully that will take off in the same way that
Speaker 1: a lot of the other HBO shows have taken off
Speaker 1: in the past. And but I'm not sure why why
Speaker 1: they do get lumped together. It is kind of an
Speaker 1: interesting question. Having been a bookstore employee, I think I
Speaker 1: have a little insight in the classification because it's imaginative fiction.
Speaker 1: You have your romance section, which is not based on reality,
Speaker 1: but it's usually based in some sort of similar to
Speaker 1: reality situation, horror same way, mysteries same way. Historical FICI
Speaker 1: and obviously based on history, but science fiction and fantasy
Speaker 1: and even thinks they get put in there that aren't either,
Speaker 1: Like Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle
Speaker 1: is not science fiction or fantasy, it's alternate history. Uh,
Speaker 1: They're all imaginative fiction. It's like, we're not in our
Speaker 1: world anymore. We're either in the future or we're in
Speaker 1: some alternate world or some totally different reality where you
Speaker 1: know dragon. Maybe maybe it's an escapism thing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. Um, and people who like technology, like
Speaker 1: to think creatively, like like to imagine, they you know,
Speaker 1: people who are into that have that creative aspect to them. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and I don't know why the escapism crosses over necessarily,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's just it's part of that creativity as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I kind of feel like it's arbitrary because people like
Speaker 1: Neil Stevenson I see in the irregular fiction not in
Speaker 1: a genre fiction category, and I'm thinking, are you know
Speaker 1: reading through? And I'm thinking, what are you kidding? There's
Speaker 1: plenty of science fiction in here. There's plenty of fantasy
Speaker 1: in here, just reading anathem right now, and I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, this is kind of strange that you would
Speaker 1: include this and not include some of the other things
Speaker 1: that I've seen, you know, in the fantasy and science
Speaker 1: fiction category. So it just, you know, I think it
Speaker 1: sort of depends on who's organizing it and how Kurt
Speaker 1: Vonnegut go in sci fi fantasy by all rights, but
Speaker 1: he's a real author, he's a he's a he's classic,
Speaker 1: he's literature, And there's a little bit of prejudice there
Speaker 1: that sci fi and fantasy, you know, is frivolous, even
Speaker 1: though there's great works of literature in sci fi and fantasy,
Speaker 1: they have to sort of elevate it out of that,
Speaker 1: like Thomas Pinchin for instance. Yeah, I do find that
Speaker 1: I've seen that happen too. I remember taking creative writing
Speaker 1: course and my teacher, my father is a science fiction author,
Speaker 1: but he also teaches at a college, and uh so
Speaker 1: this teacher was a colleague of my father's. Um I
Speaker 1: never took one of my father's classes, but this the teacher,
Speaker 1: knowing my father, who writes science fiction, came to me
Speaker 1: and in this creative writing class, and now Jonathan, I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that when you have a writing assignment,
Speaker 1: you write a real story. And I won't repeat what
Speaker 1: I thought. I think you should know. I can't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to make Tyler have to bleep something out later.
Speaker 1: But it was yeah, I I I thought that's really
Speaker 1: unusual because you think of some of the great writers,
Speaker 1: especially some who were like like orwell, if you think
Speaker 1: of I mean now, granted, yeah, you can draw so
Speaker 1: many parallels to things that have actually happened to stuff
Speaker 1: that was in that book, and or you know, Brave
Speaker 1: New World World, yeah, or Our Fair Knight for one.
Speaker 1: I'm naming all the dystopian novels called Orange and Maids Tale, um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, these are all these are all books that
Speaker 1: you can't you could never argue are not literature. I
Speaker 1: mean they're they're they've definitely shaped thought and opinion, and
Speaker 1: they've moved people in ways that that any book that
Speaker 1: is specifically designated literature has done before. So well, yeah,
Speaker 1: especially when you're reading something like I I just finished
Speaker 1: Rics and Creek for example, market at Wood, and it's
Speaker 1: it's great because you it actually makes you think, like
Speaker 1: where is our society going? Like what are we doing wrong?
Speaker 1: What's what are the potential disasters that could have occur,
Speaker 1: you know, based on our use of technology and our
Speaker 1: use of um, you know, medicine and changing the world
Speaker 1: and in very you know, specific ways, and it makes
Speaker 1: you think, It makes you wonder, like like, how we
Speaker 1: could you know, potentially affect things going forward. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit of an overlap whether you're playing a video game,
Speaker 1: whether you're hacking some code, whether you're troubleshooting your your computer,
Speaker 1: of where is this owing? Like you were saying, how
Speaker 1: do I how do I make it to the castle
Speaker 1: and save the princess? How do I? How do I
Speaker 1: track down that that short that's making this happen? How
Speaker 1: do I get around this firewall? And when you're reading
Speaker 1: science fiction and fantasy, you're engaging that same part of
Speaker 1: your brain, like how do I work around this thing
Speaker 1: that is different from reality? And you make the same
Speaker 1: argument for mystery novels as well, but it's more challenging
Speaker 1: and more outside of the box. Yeah, more outside of
Speaker 1: your normal experience in a science fiction or fantasy novel.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's sort of why there's that overlap. I
Speaker 1: hate it when people ask me like why don't you
Speaker 1: read a real fiction book, you know, can you just
Speaker 1: not read like a sci fire fantasy book for once,
Speaker 1: like George orwell oh wait, like yeah right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It definitely hits close to home for me. But that's
Speaker 1: probably because, you know, since my dad's still still writing
Speaker 1: science fiction, although now he's right to get under different pseudonyms,
Speaker 1: which is interesting. Yeah, I'll just say that if you
Speaker 1: if you happen across a young adult no vole for
Speaker 1: he wrote Twilight, didn't he wanted? I want? I wanted
Speaker 1: to explain the body glitter. Okay, we're just gonna drop
Speaker 1: that UM Club show dot com, So so really quickly,
Speaker 1: can you name some of your your favorite authors or
Speaker 1: favorite novels that that you think are something that you
Speaker 1: would go to again and again, or even if you
Speaker 1: would never read it again, something that you thought was
Speaker 1: particularly well written that you think every fan should should
Speaker 1: read at some point. Um, this is a little maybe
Speaker 1: a little outside genre, I'm not sure, but um, Watership
Speaker 1: Down is probably one of the first books that really
Speaker 1: drew me into the world of you know, it's fantasy
Speaker 1: in a way, just because it's you know, that really
Speaker 1: changed that book really changed my life and and probably
Speaker 1: also anything by Tad Williams. I read the Dragon Bone
Speaker 1: Chair trilogy was the first real fantasy series I ever read,
Speaker 1: and I was hooked after that. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is a big book and there's three of them,
Speaker 1: and I just read this for the entire summer and
Speaker 1: it was fantastic, excellent. Yeah. Uh yeah. The Bedrock novels
Speaker 1: uh form for me, and probably most people have read
Speaker 1: these if they're self respecting geeks or nerds. But Hitchhiker's
Speaker 1: Guide to the Galaxy. I actually remember where I was
Speaker 1: when I bought it for the first time and and
Speaker 1: reading it as I was reading it as we were
Speaker 1: taking my sister up to college in the car. It
Speaker 1: was the book I had bought for the long car ride. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I just read it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: After that was a long car ride, that long of
Speaker 1: a book I read. Um. Yeah, and then uh, the
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings trilogy. Definitely, what were you laughing about?
Speaker 1: Look at you? Yeah, I just revealed some thing that
Speaker 1: I'm not going to explain to the fans. But if
Speaker 1: you throw his shoulder fire, you can read it a
Speaker 1: picture of Gollum on his arm. It's amazing. Actually, no,
Speaker 1: it's true story, true story my my parents when they
Speaker 1: were cleaning out my room and long after I had left,
Speaker 1: had come across a drawing I made at age four
Speaker 1: because it said so on the drawing of Gollum and
Speaker 1: the Ring age four. Cute. Yeah, you were doing from
Speaker 1: the start. I was doing start And then I keep
Speaker 1: reading Dune, the Dune series, again and again and again,
Speaker 1: so I don't know I'll stop. Oh yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: some of my favor authors. I'm still a big Tad
Speaker 1: Williams fan. I read pretty much everything he comes out with.
Speaker 1: I love Robin Hobb and her like the Farst Year
Speaker 1: trilogy and The Assassin's Apprentice. Um, let's see who else,
Speaker 1: there's so many. I'm really into Patrick Rothfus right now.
Speaker 1: And the Name of the Wind is one of my
Speaker 1: written new books that's come out from an author in
Speaker 1: a long time. It was his first full novel and
Speaker 1: it's just incredible. And the second book is coming out
Speaker 1: next year. And there's just so many good authors out
Speaker 1: right now, Like you know, it's it's hard to pick
Speaker 1: and it's hard to read everything, and and I'm on
Speaker 1: good Reads and I just keep adding books to my
Speaker 1: to read list and just kind of never ends. I'd
Speaker 1: be remiss if I didn't mention that I love every mad, crazy,
Speaker 1: insane word of Philip K. Dick that he ever wrote down.
Speaker 1: We can kind of see how Tom and I are are.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely more on the stored side of things, like
Speaker 1: fantasy is definitely my what's really closest to my heart.
Speaker 1: But that's what's great about doing the show with Ernic
Speaker 1: because I get exposed to these books that I would
Speaker 1: never have bothered to pick up before, like George rr.
Speaker 1: Martin My life less rich if she had not made
Speaker 1: me read that, and I just tore through everything he
Speaker 1: wrote and wouldn't mind if he put out the next book. Yes,
Speaker 1: please put out the next book, George. Although he's not
Speaker 1: my please put out You're not r B boy. If
Speaker 1: I could tell you all the listener mail we get
Speaker 1: from George rr Martin, Can I ask a quick yes,
Speaker 1: how is the audience different for Sword and Laser versus
Speaker 1: the tech journalism that you've done, Because I would imagine
Speaker 1: that the audience would be completely different in the way
Speaker 1: they react to you and interact with you. Um, not
Speaker 1: not so much. We do actually have a lot of
Speaker 1: overlap between listeners of viewers of Texila and people who
Speaker 1: watched Sword and Laser, but through good Reads we also
Speaker 1: get a lot of really hardcore sci fi fantasy fans
Speaker 1: and just coming to conventions like this where we meet
Speaker 1: people for the first time and tell them about the show.
Speaker 1: In the book club, um, you know, they get brought
Speaker 1: in they don't know or other works sometimes and they're
Speaker 1: very very passionate about the authors that they follow, and
Speaker 1: you can kind of feel that when they're talking about
Speaker 1: them in the forums and you're like, Wow, you guys
Speaker 1: know stuff about this that you're You're finding things in
Speaker 1: these books that we're reading that I would have never noticed,
Speaker 1: and it just makes the reading experience so much more
Speaker 1: rich to have that input from everyone. I think what's
Speaker 1: interesting about Sort and Laser two is that there is
Speaker 1: a lot more talking to each other in the audience
Speaker 1: than there is in a lot of our other shows
Speaker 1: that are a lot of the other shows that I do,
Speaker 1: where it's the audience will talk to each other, but
Speaker 1: they will also talk mostly to the show, not necessarily
Speaker 1: to me, but you know, to what's been said on
Speaker 1: the show. We're almost peripheral. Yeah, with sworton Laser. The
Speaker 1: podcast is just one voice amongst the huge discussion going on. Interesting. Thanks,
Speaker 1: that's great. Um, well, we're over time, so we're going
Speaker 1: to wrap this up. I want to thank both Tom
Speaker 1: and Veronica for joining us. That was wonderful, especially considering
Speaker 1: that you're both on West Coast time and we're recording
Speaker 1: this at nine in the morning, so it feels like
Speaker 1: six am and we have coffee. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the coffee. So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Why don't you close out by telling us where where
Speaker 1: people can find you if they are not aware of
Speaker 1: the stuff you're doing already. Okay, my blog is at
Speaker 1: Veronica Balmont dot com. You can follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Veronica and um texta law on Revision three Texila
Speaker 1: dot com, Core on the PlayStation Network, and Sword and
Speaker 1: Laser is at Sword and Laser dot com and all
Speaker 1: my stuff is at tom Merritt dot com. To our
Speaker 1: two teeth excellent. Well, thanks again, guys, and thank you
Speaker 1: to all your listeners out there, and we will talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. If you're a tech stuff
Speaker 1: and be sure to check us out on Twitter, text stuff,
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