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Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from hastuffs dot Com. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer at How Stuff Works, and I

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Speaker 1: love technology, and you know what I also love. I

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Speaker 1: love consumer electronics. And this year was a little bit

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Speaker 1: of an odd one already. I mean we're just in

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Speaker 1: the very beginning of it as the recording of this podcast,

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Speaker 1: and it's already an odd year because for the first

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Speaker 1: time since two thousand eight I stayed home during the

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Speaker 1: annual ce S event in Las Vegas. I had been

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Speaker 1: every single year since two thousand and eight, and two

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Speaker 1: thousand eighteen was the first time that I did not go.

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Speaker 1: So for those who do not follow tech news and

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Speaker 1: may not know what c e S is, it's a

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Speaker 1: big trade show and it used to be known as

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Speaker 1: the Consumer Electronics Show, but the organizers have slowly kind

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Speaker 1: of moved away from that name. They felt that it

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Speaker 1: might be a little restrictive. It doesn't really encompass everything

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Speaker 1: that goes on at the show, but it is an

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Speaker 1: enormous trade show that takes over not only the Las

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Speaker 1: Vegas Convention Centers three point two million square feet of space,

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Speaker 1: but also other places like the Sands Expo Center or

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Speaker 1: numerous suites and various hotels up and down the Las

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Speaker 1: Vegas Strip, as well as several tents and temporary buildings

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Speaker 1: on the outskirts of these locations. So at this show,

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Speaker 1: companies display products. Some of them are already available in stores,

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Speaker 1: so you might see things that you are already familiar with.

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Speaker 1: Some of them are things that are scheduled to debut

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Speaker 1: in the near future, so it might be the newest

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Speaker 1: television that's gonna hit store shelves in the spring of

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Speaker 1: that year. Some of them are prototypes or concepts that

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Speaker 1: don't represent a specific future product, as in, you're never

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Speaker 1: gonna see that specific thing on say I, but rather

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Speaker 1: they have potential future implementations for certain types of technology

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Speaker 1: incorporated into them. So in other words, you might see

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Speaker 1: a concept car and you're never going to see a

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Speaker 1: car that looks like that on a lot of a

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Speaker 1: of a dealership, but you might see elements that are

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Speaker 1: incorporated into the car worked into various car lines in

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Speaker 1: the future. It's like that, but with all different types

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Speaker 1: of technology, not just vehicles. Typically there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of cool things you can see on the showroom floor,

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Speaker 1: but there are also tons of more mundane products, So

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Speaker 1: you might see some really cool robots or three D

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Speaker 1: printers or things like that, but you're also going to

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Speaker 1: see a lot of stuff that you know it has

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Speaker 1: a place, but it's just not as sexy or exciting,

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Speaker 1: like cell phone cases or television wall mounting frames. The

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Speaker 1: purpose of the trade show primarily is to connect manufacturers

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Speaker 1: or companies with retailers, and then to a less or extent,

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Speaker 1: connecting the press to this big event. But primarily it's

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Speaker 1: about the people who make stuff and the people who

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Speaker 1: sell stuff getting together and saying, yes, that stuff you make,

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Speaker 1: I want to sell it in my store. That's the

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Speaker 1: main purpose of it. And when I say that, that's

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Speaker 1: a very simplistic way of of talking about deals that

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Speaker 1: are enormous. We're talking about enormous chains that are have

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Speaker 1: global presence, talking to big manufacturers that also have a

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Speaker 1: global presence. So we're talking big, big business, and a

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Speaker 1: very tiny bit of that happens to be the press

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Speaker 1: who are there to cover everything. I say this because

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Speaker 1: as a member of the press, I am aware that

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Speaker 1: we are pretty prone to forgetting that we're a small

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Speaker 1: part of this equation, and we often start to think

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Speaker 1: of c e S as our own playground, or that

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Speaker 1: it's meant for the press to get the word out.

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Speaker 1: In a reality, that's just one tiny element of it.

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Speaker 1: That's more of just a gentle prodding at some of

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Speaker 1: my peers in the tech space who get a little

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Speaker 1: huffy about the UH the way that press can be

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Speaker 1: treated at these events. Though to be fair, sometimes the

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Speaker 1: press can be treated pretty badly. It all just depends

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Speaker 1: upon the situation at the time. Now, the way ce

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Speaker 1: S tends to work is that there are a couple

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Speaker 1: of days reserved for press events and news conferences, and

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Speaker 1: these days happen early on. On those days, the show

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Speaker 1: floor remains closed except for special events, so you can't

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Speaker 1: go in and look at all the different booths at

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Speaker 1: that time because those teams are all out at various

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Speaker 1: press conferences to give announcements of what they're going to

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Speaker 1: be showing that week. The press also tend to be

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Speaker 1: at those announcements, looking at the different UH products that

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Speaker 1: will be on display and kind of planning out where

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Speaker 1: they're going to go. While the show floor is actually open,

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Speaker 1: the focus will shift to numerous conference rooms in ballrooms,

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Speaker 1: in various Las Vegas conference centers, like the one in

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Speaker 1: Mandalaid Bay. Mandalaid Bay, as I recall, is the current

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Speaker 1: location for all the press events. In previous years, it's

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Speaker 1: been at the Venetian and other places, but right now

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Speaker 1: it's at Mandalais Bay. Now, these events give companies the

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Speaker 1: chance to address large groups of tech press before the

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Speaker 1: madness of the show itself begins. And there are also

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Speaker 1: a few smaller preview events. Uh there's one called c

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Speaker 1: e S Unveiled, and there are others as well. These

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Speaker 1: little events give the press a chance to see some

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Speaker 1: of the products that will be on display, but in

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Speaker 1: a smaller setting than the showroom floor. So that gives

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Speaker 1: the press the chance to see some of these products

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Speaker 1: before things just get super chaotic, and it might mean

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Speaker 1: that you see something that you would otherwise overlook because

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Speaker 1: it would just get lost in a sea of technology

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Speaker 1: and people. Now, for most people going to see e S,

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Speaker 1: the event doesn't really begin until the showroom floor itself opens,

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Speaker 1: which is typically a day or two after the first

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Speaker 1: press events. This year, the showroom floor opened on Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: January nine. Now, as I said, I did not go

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Speaker 1: to the show this year, but there has been a

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Speaker 1: ton of coverage about things that were on display, so

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Speaker 1: I thought today we'd go over some of the trends,

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Speaker 1: the products, and weirdness that was because trust me, every

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Speaker 1: single year, weird stuff happens at that show, and I

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Speaker 1: thought started off with something that was from that third category,

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Speaker 1: the weird category, We're gonna talk about rain and electricity.

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Speaker 1: So on that first day, Tuesday the ninth, Las Vegas

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Speaker 1: was the site of a rainstorm, which doesn't sound like

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Speaker 1: a big deal except it had not rained in Las

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Speaker 1: Vegas for one hundred sixteen days up to that point,

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Speaker 1: and the rains caused a flash flood in the city,

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Speaker 1: and there were reported leaks in the convention center, which

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Speaker 1: you do not want if you happen to have millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars worth of electronics stored in there. There was

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Speaker 1: a pavilion that Google had set up outside that had

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Speaker 1: to be closed down early due to the weather, and

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Speaker 1: from what I understand, getting around Las Vegas was even

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Speaker 1: more of a headache during that rain storm than it

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Speaker 1: is during a normal c S, which trust me, is

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Speaker 1: pretty darn bad. It is not easy to get from

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Speaker 1: one spot to another in Las Vegas during c e s.

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Speaker 1: All the different arteries are clogged with traffic. The rain

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Speaker 1: messed stuff up a bit on that first day, but

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Speaker 1: the show must go on, and so everything continued, though

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Speaker 1: I'm sure more than a few booths were struggling to

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Speaker 1: have everything in place in time for the first visitors

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Speaker 1: walking through the convention center, just because it took longer

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Speaker 1: to get to the Convention Center than it normally would. Then,

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Speaker 1: on Wednesday, January, the show hit a more frustrating snag.

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Speaker 1: For a couple of hours, the South Hall of the

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Speaker 1: Las Vegas Convention Center lost power. The Central Hall also

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Speaker 1: lost power, but for a shorter amount of time, and

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Speaker 1: this is where a little geografi lesson comes in handy.

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Speaker 1: The Las Vegas Convention Center has three main halls. There's

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Speaker 1: a North Hall, a Central Hall, and then the South Halls. Technically,

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Speaker 1: because it's two floors, the North Hall is where you're

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Speaker 1: gonna find most of the automotive tech on display, and

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Speaker 1: there's some related technologies like vehicle sound systems and other

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Speaker 1: aftermarket products and a few other things, but that's typically

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Speaker 1: what you find in the North Hall. The Central Hall

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Speaker 1: is where most of the big, big brand names have

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Speaker 1: their booths. This includes companies like Sony, Panasonic, Intel, and LG.

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Speaker 1: Some of those booths are truly gigantic, taking up as

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Speaker 1: much space as a dozen or so smaller booths would.

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Speaker 1: The South Hall, like I said, has two floors, so

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Speaker 1: it's a bottom floor and the top floor, and has

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Speaker 1: more big names in it, as well as some medium

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Speaker 1: and smaller sized companies, and depending upon the year, the

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Speaker 1: South Hall can also host some of the zones at

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Speaker 1: c E s now zones represent general categories of technology.

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Speaker 1: In recent years, cs has moved some of those zones

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Speaker 1: to a different convention center called the Sands Expo Center,

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Speaker 1: but the South Hall is still packed with tons of booths.

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Speaker 1: So when the Central and South Hall's lost power, that

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Speaker 1: was a really big deal. Now, many of these booths

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Speaker 1: have monitors, computers, televisions, and other gear plugged into the

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Speaker 1: building's electrical system, and there are tens of thousands of

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Speaker 1: people in the Las Vegas Convention Center. I didn't given

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Speaker 1: time during the open showroom floor hours. The power shut

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Speaker 1: off at approximately eleven fifteen am local time, just as

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Speaker 1: the show was supposed to be getting going. Like it

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Speaker 1: was it was, the show floor had opened, things were

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Speaker 1: starting to move. There was some hustle and bustle, and

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Speaker 1: then the power goes out. The Convention Center was able

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Speaker 1: to restore power to the South Hall after a few minutes,

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Speaker 1: but the Central Hall presented more of a challenge, and

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Speaker 1: the power outage lasted a couple of hours. So I

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Speaker 1: think actually misspoke earlier where I said the South Hall

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Speaker 1: came back or after a couple of hours in the

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Speaker 1: Central Hall and after a couple of minutes. It's really

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Speaker 1: the other way around. Uh, this is what happens when

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Speaker 1: I don't go to c e S. I mix up

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Speaker 1: the halls. But the Central Hall out of power, and

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Speaker 1: that was a big deal. Now, a lot of those

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Speaker 1: booths also had their own generators, so they were able

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Speaker 1: to have like little islands of light in a sea

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Speaker 1: of darkness. But you might wonder what was the cause

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Speaker 1: of the power alleges in the first place. Why did

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Speaker 1: the power go out? What was all that darn rain

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Speaker 1: from the day before. According to an official statement, the

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Speaker 1: rain caused condensation to form on a transformer for the

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Speaker 1: convention Center, eventually causing what is called a flashover. Flashover

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Speaker 1: is also known as an arc flash, and this gives

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Speaker 1: us the opportunity to learn about arc flashes before we

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Speaker 1: jump into news about robots and TVs and stuff. So

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Speaker 1: what is an arc flash? Well, first, an electrical arc

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Speaker 1: is the phenomenon of a luminous bridge of electricity formed

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Speaker 1: between two electrodes, and arc flash happens when a fault

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Speaker 1: or short circuit passes through the arc gap, or to

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Speaker 1: put it another way, and arc flash is when an

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Speaker 1: electric current diverts from its intended path to leap from

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Speaker 1: one conductor to another, or it can also happen from

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Speaker 1: a conductor to the ground and it goes through the

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Speaker 1: air in a really powerful electrical discharge. The term short

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Speaker 1: circuit refers to a case where there's an unwanted connection

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Speaker 1: between a circuit or within a circuit rather that allows

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Speaker 1: current to pass through that unwanted connection. It's kind of like, well,

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Speaker 1: it's like a short cut. That's why it's called a

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Speaker 1: short circuit. You're having a pathway that you didn't intend

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Speaker 1: electrons to pass through, and suddenly the electrons can and

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Speaker 1: will go through it. Generally speaking, electronics work by directing

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Speaker 1: electricity through specific pathways and that provides power to various elements.

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Speaker 1: And that's how the electronics work, so if you create

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Speaker 1: conductive connections between those pathways, suddenly electricity can travel a

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Speaker 1: different way than what you had intended, and typically short

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Speaker 1: circuits can damage circuits, They can lead to overheating, they

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Speaker 1: can get hot enough to start a fire, or even

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Speaker 1: with a powerful enough electric discharge, they can cause an explosion.

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Speaker 1: Arc flashes can often be on the serious side of

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Speaker 1: that spectrum. Typically it only happens if the voltage is

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Speaker 1: above volts, and during an arc flash, an intense amount

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Speaker 1: of energy can be released, and arc flash can produce

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Speaker 1: heat of up to thirty five thousand degrees fahrenheit and

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Speaker 1: produce a concussive force called an arc blast that, depending

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Speaker 1: on the situation, can be strong enough to rupture your

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Speaker 1: ear drums or even cause your lung to collapse. So

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Speaker 1: it's an incredibly dangerous situation. So this arc flash shorted

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Speaker 1: out part of the electrical system to the convention center,

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Speaker 1: and that necessitated a repair job. To the credit of

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Speaker 1: everyone involved, the system was back online within a couple

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Speaker 1: of hours, but two hours lost during a massive trade

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Speaker 1: show is no small problem. Companies spend a significant amount

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Speaker 1: of money to secure show flow or space for c

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Speaker 1: e s every hour representatives are trying to make connections

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Speaker 1: with potential customers, and with the press going offline for

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Speaker 1: two hours just at the start of things, wasn't a

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Speaker 1: great way to begin the show. Now, that's not to

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Speaker 1: say c E S was a show of doom and gloom.

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Speaker 1: There there were some setbacks, but most of the reports

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Speaker 1: I read seemed to suggest people took it in stride

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Speaker 1: for the most part, and once the power came back on,

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Speaker 1: everyone was back in business, or at least they were

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Speaker 1: once they could get their tech up and running again

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Speaker 1: after the unplanned power cycle. A few trends became evident

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Speaker 1: during this year's c e S, and one of those

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Speaker 1: was incorporating fingerprint scanners into technology. Several products at the

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Speaker 1: show sported fingerprint scanners. One of them was a smartphone

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Speaker 1: from Vivo, which actually went a step further. It's fingerprint

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Speaker 1: scanner is built into the screen of the phone itself,

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Speaker 1: so there's not a dedicated sensor area that's either on

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Speaker 1: the front or the back of the phone or anything

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Speaker 1: like that. You just put your finger on the proper

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Speaker 1: spot on the screen, and assuming your fingerprint matches the

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Speaker 1: one in the phone's memory, you access the device. So

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Speaker 1: how does that work? How can you access just through

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Speaker 1: a screen? Well, there's a sensor underneath the screen and

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Speaker 1: it was created by a company called Synaptics. It's just

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Speaker 1: below the display itself. So if you think of the

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Speaker 1: phone as a stack, with the screen, the glass on

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Speaker 1: the front on the top being the very top layer.

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Speaker 1: Below that you have the display. Below that, you would

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Speaker 1: have the sensor from Synaptics, and it could actually scan

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Speaker 1: a fingerprint through the gaps presented between the O LED dots.

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Speaker 1: Those are the elements that actually generate the pixels on

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Speaker 1: a screen. So the spots between the little elements that

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Speaker 1: would generate the light that creates the image on your phone,

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Speaker 1: that was the scanner, the sensor, and it can scan

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Speaker 1: your fingerprint. And according to a report from The Verge,

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Speaker 1: the sensor may find its way into several smartphones throughout

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Speaker 1: the course of and beyond, giving designers the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: make owns and not have to set aside space for

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Speaker 1: a dedicated fingerprint scanner on the front or back of

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Speaker 1: the handset. So it freeze up design a little bit. Now,

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Speaker 1: when I went to c S in Seen, I couldn't

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Speaker 1: help but notice that Alexa was everywhere, and I apologize

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Speaker 1: if I'm setting off your Alexa. I won't give it

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Speaker 1: really bad commands. Don't worry, But lots of companies were

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Speaker 1: incorporating Amazon's Assistant into their products. In this year, the

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Speaker 1: story was more about Google and the Google Assistant. Google

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Speaker 1: typically doesn't have a booth at c e S. Instead,

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Speaker 1: people from Google will attend the show in order to

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Speaker 1: network with various executives from other companies or to appear

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Speaker 1: side by side with other companies that have a joint

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Speaker 1: project with Google. And this year Google sponsored that large

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Speaker 1: outdoor pavilion, the one I talked about earlier that had

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Speaker 1: to be shut down early during the rain. Well, that

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Speaker 1: pavilion's focus was all on the Google Assistant feature that's

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Speaker 1: found in Android phones and Google Home devices. It also

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Speaker 1: looked like it was a lot of fun. It had

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Speaker 1: a big twist t slide on it, and so I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of sad I missed it. Both Alexa and Google

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Speaker 1: Assistant can be found in numerous devices. Sometimes both of

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Speaker 1: them can be found in the same devices, including television's speakers, headphones,

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Speaker 1: and light switches. So if you can't control your favorite

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Speaker 1: gadgets with a vocal command, yet that could change in

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Speaker 1: a couple of iterations of those products. There were a

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Speaker 1: lot of other trends at ce SEN, ranging from another

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Speaker 1: fleet of smart cars, some of which are autonomous two

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Speaker 1: robots designed to do everything from guard your house to

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Speaker 1: comforting a sick child. We'll look at some of those

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Speaker 1: specific items in this episode, but before we dive into

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Speaker 1: more detail on what went down at c E S,

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Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. And

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Speaker 1: we're back. And now I'm joined by a good friend

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Speaker 1: of the show, Shannon Morrise of Hack five fame, who,

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Speaker 1: unlike yours truly actually went to c E S tween. Shannon,

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to tech Stuff, Hi, Jonathan, thank you for

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Speaker 1: having me on. Yeah, thank you for joining. Even though,

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Speaker 1: just in full disclosure, Shannon might sound a teeny bit

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Speaker 1: congested because she's fighting off the last remaining remnants of

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Speaker 1: what we call con crude. Yeah, just that basic respiratory

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Speaker 1: cold that people tend to come down with when you

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Speaker 1: have I don't know, like a hundred thousand people in

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Speaker 1: an enclosed space for several days at the time it happens. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was. It was a hundred and seventy five thousand

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Speaker 1: people at least that's the estimate I was told while

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Speaker 1: I was at the convention. But yes, I came down

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Speaker 1: on the very last day with the concrud, woke up

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Speaker 1: the day after and I was just like, Oh, I

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Speaker 1: am not going into work today, that's definitely not happening. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And you know, you're based out of the Bay Area

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Speaker 1: over in California, so so there's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: travel you know, travel time for you as well between

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Speaker 1: Vegas and there, and then of course you also had

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Speaker 1: the additional issues that happened this year. Were you there

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Speaker 1: when the great deluge the rain storm was coming down, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was. It was crazy. Um, nobody knew how to

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Speaker 1: drive in the rain, even though it was only like

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Speaker 1: one or two inches of rain. No one knew really

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Speaker 1: knew how to drive in it in Vegas because they

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Speaker 1: never get rain. And one of the roads turned into

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Speaker 1: a river, and the Las Vegas Convention Center started leaking,

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Speaker 1: so they had to close some of the walkways inside

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Speaker 1: the convention center so that people wouldn't walk around in

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Speaker 1: like slushy carpet. It was terrible. And then the next

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Speaker 1: day the lights went out. Yeah. Well I talked about

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Speaker 1: that earlier in the episode about how it appears that

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Speaker 1: a uh some condensation formed on the inside of a

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Speaker 1: transformer at the Las Vegas Convention Center and caused and

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Speaker 1: what is called a flash out where you haven't essentially

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Speaker 1: a short circuit in an arc. Yeah, really ended up

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Speaker 1: being a physics lesson for all of my listeners because

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Speaker 1: I was like, well, I can't talk about CES because

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Speaker 1: it wasn't there, but I can talk about what happened

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Speaker 1: at the made the lights go out. So I was

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the convention center. Ironically, I was

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Speaker 1: in a meeting with Panasonic about their low light camera

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Speaker 1: when the power went out, so I was able to

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Speaker 1: test the camera in the low light setting since no

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Speaker 1: lights were on, and it worked quite well. That's a

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Speaker 1: heck of a demo right there. You know, I know

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Speaker 1: everyone who cares if it tends to you know, put

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Speaker 1: everyone else out. I mean, come on, this is you know,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about important products here. Crazily enough, one of

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Speaker 1: the people I overheard while I was listening to my

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Speaker 1: b role much later on, I was just walking around

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Speaker 1: the convention hall in one of the vendors was talking

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Speaker 1: to one of his co workers and said that they

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Speaker 1: lost out on about a million dollars of revenue, one

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Speaker 1: million dollars for just the two hours that the power

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Speaker 1: was out. So that gives you an estimation of how

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Speaker 1: much the big boost cost. I you know that some

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Speaker 1: of the smaller boosts costs eighty thou dollars. So the

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Speaker 1: it's crazy how much these people pay to have a

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Speaker 1: booth on the show floor and to have the power

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Speaker 1: out for two hours. Yeah, that's definitely going to be

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Speaker 1: a deterrence for the revenue that you're bringing in just

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Speaker 1: from all the free advertisement that you're getting. Well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then I mentioned earlier in the episode about how

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Speaker 1: the whole purpose really I mean, we we, you and

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Speaker 1: I Shannon, we often think of it as well, here's

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Speaker 1: my job as media as to go in, find the

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Speaker 1: cool stuff, bring it forward, talk about it, analyze it,

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Speaker 1: give my take, that kind of thing. But really, when

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Speaker 1: you get down to it, the real purpose of the

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Speaker 1: show is essentially connecting the companies what makes stuff with

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Speaker 1: the companies what sells stuff. And when you when you

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Speaker 1: can't connect with anybody for a couple of hours and

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Speaker 1: you've spent that much money to have a presence there,

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Speaker 1: that is not a good thing to have on your

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Speaker 1: little Excel spreadsheet at the end of the year, where

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Speaker 1: you're saying, yeah, so here's how much we spent, and uh,

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Speaker 1: that two hours of downtime cost us this x amount

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Speaker 1: effectively because we weren't able to have those sort of

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Speaker 1: meetings and those sort of conversations that we normally would

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Speaker 1: have had during that time. Right. Yeah, it's not great,

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Speaker 1: I mean, but but I want to concentrate on things

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Speaker 1: that actually did happen as opposed to all the meetings

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Speaker 1: that could not happen during those two hours. So first

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Speaker 1: thing I'm gonna ask you is did you see anything

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Speaker 1: at c S I. I typically will notice some themes

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Speaker 1: popping up year over year, whether it's a type of

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Speaker 1: technology that's starting to get some traction, like you know,

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Speaker 1: smart TVs, that and three D TVs those were big

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Speaker 1: themes for many years ago. Now, uh, was there anything

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Speaker 1: like that this year, Whether it was a specific kind

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Speaker 1: of technology or some sort of implementation that you noticed

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Speaker 1: while you were there, All right, yes, there absolutely was.

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Speaker 1: This year. We saw a um, mind boggling amount of

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Speaker 1: people promoting items that had voice assistance technology built in,

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Speaker 1: whether you needed it or not. So so I'm sure

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Speaker 1: there were some incidents where you're thinking, okay, that makes sense,

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Speaker 1: but where there were there anywhere you're just thinking this

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Speaker 1: is clearly a gimmick. It just doesn't. I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: no demonstrable value added to the product by having voice

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Speaker 1: activation in here, right exactly. UM. So, for example, Anchor

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Speaker 1: came out with this really cool little car plug. It

405
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Speaker 1: plugs into the little cigarette lighter in your car and

406
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Speaker 1: it offers you ALEXA implementation through your car speakers. And

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Speaker 1: I thought that was really cool because it gives you

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Speaker 1: that ability uh in your car, even if you have

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Speaker 1: a very old car that still doesn't have like Bluetooth

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Speaker 1: built in or something like that. Plus you get ALEXA

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Speaker 1: so you can just ask at things like hey, calm

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Speaker 1: or whatever, um, which I thought was really nice. And

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Speaker 1: then you have on the other side of the spectrum,

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Speaker 1: things like LGS refrigerator, which has built in voice assistance,

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Speaker 1: so you can stand in front of your fridge and

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Speaker 1: ask it, am I out of milk, and it'll tell

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Speaker 1: you whether or not you have milk in your fridge.

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Speaker 1: And to me, that seems so pointless because you if

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Speaker 1: you're already standing in front of your fridge you could

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Speaker 1: open your fridge and find out if you have milk inside.

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Speaker 1: Not to mention, the screen on the front of the

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Speaker 1: l G refrigerator is transparent, so you can make it

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Speaker 1: go transparent and you can actually look inside without even

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Speaker 1: opening the fridge. So what's the point of having the

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Speaker 1: voice technology? Like, why why can't you just look in

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Speaker 1: the fridge without having to ask it to look in

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Speaker 1: the fridge for you? I think the only the only

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Speaker 1: use case I can come up with off the top

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Speaker 1: of my head is if it's an accessibility issues. So

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Speaker 1: for example, if I are visually impaired, then maybe then

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Speaker 1: I could argue that, oh, it saves me the trouble.

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Speaker 1: But then you're talking about something that pertains to a

433
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: very narrow slice of the overall market. You're talking about

434
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: a market for people who are in the market for

435
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,359
Speaker 1: a refrigerator. They want to buy the best of the

436
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,440
Speaker 1: best that's out now, and they have have some sort

437
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:07,200
Speaker 1: of uh impairment from with their vision. And then you're thinking, well,

438
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: if you start adding all those up, obviously that doesn't

439
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:14,439
Speaker 1: make sense from a business standpoint to incorporate the the

440
00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: voice activation into your product. So I agree with you, Yes,

441
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:21,440
Speaker 1: it seems like an additional expense that most people will

442
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 1: probably just think of, like, oh, well, I have to

443
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 1: pay for this if I want this other cool feature

444
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: that will actually use. Like that's what happened to me

445
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 1: when I bought my last car. I didn't want the

446
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: leather seats, but I got them because I wanted the

447
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: car to park itself. I mean, that's that's what ended

448
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: up happening to me. Is that, to me, is the

449
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 1: argument about three D television's right? Like, there were so

450
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 1: many people who said, I don't want three D three

451
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 1: D television, I'm never going to use that, But this

452
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: television has the resolution I want, or the you know,

453
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 1: the refresh rate I want, whatever it might be, and

454
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: it's at the price that I need. Uh. You know,

455
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: now we're not seeing three D TV pushed nearly as

456
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: hard as we were five six years ago. But I

457
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: had heard that voice activation was a big deal, and

458
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 1: it's good to hear confirmation that that wasn't just some

459
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 1: sort of, you know, one person's experience at ce S.

460
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:13,640
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was pretty much everywhere. I did

461
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: hear that Google had its own pavilion set up and

462
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,880
Speaker 1: that they did there heavily promoting Google Assistant. Yes they were.

463
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: I I got very very short, limited time over there

464
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: where I was able to walk through the Voice Assistance room,

465
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: and they had a whole bunch of different devices set

466
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: up and modeled just to show like all the different

467
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: types of devices that you can currently get voice assistance

468
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: technology in. They included a fridge out there, They included

469
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: a bunch of different speakers, some things with screens built in.

470
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,159
Speaker 1: Lenovo built a thing that has a screen built into it,

471
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: which is interesting, but I have no use for lots

472
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:52,119
Speaker 1: of phones, lots of different technology like that, which was

473
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: very cool. You can tell that Google is really really

474
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: trying to catch up with Amazon right now. But and

475
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: you would think just from all the advertisement from CS

476
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: this year that Google took over everything, But when you

477
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: step inside the Las Vegas Convention Center or the Sands

478
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: Venetian Convention Center, everything still has Alexa belt in. So

479
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: I think Google, even though they spent all this money

480
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: on this awesome pavilion and they do have a lot

481
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: of really cool technologies being implemented in a bunch of

482
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: different devices, they still have a ways to go to

483
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 1: catch up with Amazon, which is interesting because Google takes

484
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 1: over pretty much everything in the world other than this

485
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: voice assistance technology, so they're still catching up. Yeah, and

486
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: I've noticed that Google, They're implementations of certain technologies tend

487
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: to really follow that kind of engineering mindset. So people

488
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 1: who kind of have that that way of thinking, it

489
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,639
Speaker 1: clicks with them and it really resonates with them. But

490
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 1: for anyone else it can seem daunting or it can

491
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 1: seem unnecessarily complicated. Because I look at I look at

492
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: some of the products that Google's come out with over

493
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: the years that didn't go very far, Like Google Glass

494
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 1: ultimately didn't go very far, excepted now it's being incorporated

495
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 1: into uh the industrial world and it's like like in

496
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: manufacturing and stuff like that, and there it's doing quite well.

497
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: But as a as a consumer product that never quite

498
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: caught on, or things like Google Wave, which I still

499
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: miss even though I was maybe one of three people

500
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 1: who found a way to use it, Uh, you know

501
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I look at that and I

502
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: think they come up with great ideas. Uh, they have this,

503
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: they have this habit of coming up with great ideas

504
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 1: that other companies are able to capitalize on. Right, So,

505
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: but there's still a huge powerhouse. There's still incredibly influential

506
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 1: and UH, and I do think the Google Assistant obviously

507
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: is going to find its way into more stuff, and

508
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: it may very well be one of those things where

509
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 1: it finds itself side by side with Alexa. I heard

510
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:51,679
Speaker 1: that there were a lot more products out there that

511
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: had both, like, had interoperability with both. Uh. Panasonic is

512
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: a great example again during their res conference, they were

513
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 1: talking about adding not just Google Assistance technology, but Amazon's

514
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: Echo technology as well, both voice assistants through car manufacturers.

515
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 1: So Panasonic is working with both of them to bring

516
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: that ability to all sorts of different manufacturers at the

517
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: same time. So we're not really while they are competition

518
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,640
Speaker 1: with each other, we're not seeing a lot of other

519
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: brands associating with just one or the other. Well that's nice.

520
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,959
Speaker 1: I like that we're not seeing sort of an exclusivity

521
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: kind of thing, because then the more times times you

522
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: see that exclusivity issue, the more you get channeled into

523
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: this idea that you have to buy into a specific infrastructure,

524
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: and the thus all of your buying decisions get based

525
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 1: upon whatever it was you bought into first, right, like,

526
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: which is exactly in my household. That's how me and

527
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: my wife are. Becca. She uses an iPhone, So Apple

528
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,959
Speaker 1: is makes way more sense for because everything works properly

529
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: with it. I am an Android user, and so I

530
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 1: avoid all the Apple stuff because it just doesn't play

531
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: well very well my my things, and it's it's not

532
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: like one. I don't think one is inherently better or

533
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: worse than the other. But once you buy in, it's

534
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: really hard to convince yourself to go somewhere else because

535
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: it's just so much work to get everything to to

536
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 1: work together properly, like whether you're pouring information over or

537
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 1: you just have to learn a new way of interacting

538
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: with your technology. Uh, that can actually be a pretty

539
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 1: high barrier to entry. So seeing companies say, you know what,

540
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: we're gonna We're not gonna worry about that mess, We're

541
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: not gonna worry about these exclusivity issues. We're going to

542
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: incorporate both and then whichever platform ends up winning out

543
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: in the long run. We were okay because we supported

544
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 1: both of them. We're not gonna go obsolete because we

545
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: backed the wrong horse. We don't want to see an

546
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 1: HD DVD versus Blu Ray kind of situation, you know, Um,

547
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: before I move off of Google Assistant, I do have

548
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: one other question for you that is extremely relevant for this. Okay,

549
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: did you did you go down the slide? No? I didn't,

550
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: you know, I think I didn't see anybody else going

551
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 1: down it when I was in that area, So I'm

552
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: wondering if it was only open to like invitees or

553
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: something like that, because none of the attendees I saw,

554
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: including myself, were going down it. Yeah. The picture picture

555
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: I saw it look like it was the one way

556
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: to get down from the top platform. But I didn't

557
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: see any ways of getting up the top platform, so

558
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: you may well there was another way. There were stairs

559
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: on the back of it. That's good because otherwise you

560
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: have to be extremely determined to make your way up

561
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: to the top, a lot of a lot of positioning

562
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: and wedging yourself and chimneying up. Yeah. So yeah, for

563
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: those who don't know, you should definitely go and do

564
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: an image search for the Google pavilion. At c E

565
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: S they had a big, like a twisty slide that

566
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: went from the top of their pavilion down to the bottom.

567
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 1: It looked like it was about maybe two and a

568
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: half three stories to its pretty big. Just about Yeah,

569
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 1: it was pretty big. So was there anything there that

570
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 1: you saw at c E S that got you really excited? Uh,

571
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 1: this is a tough question to ask people who cover

572
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: c e S as media because we can quickly become

573
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: jaded because we see so much of the same stuff

574
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: and we often see things at c e S that

575
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: are never going to happen, Like you see prototypes that

576
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: are just like, oh, look what we can do, but

577
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: we're never going to do this because we won't get

578
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: funding to do it. So it's always tough to say like, oh,

579
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 1: this is the thing I'm really excited about. But one

580
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: thing I actually saw that is coming to market I

581
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: believe in February, but don't quote me on that is

582
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: um the HTC Vive Pro. And it's like my number

583
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: one device from the show because I've been really getting

584
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: into virtual reality lately and I've been able to test

585
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different headsets, so the Vibe Pro

586
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: is like my number one at the moment for video gaming.

587
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: I got to play role data on it and the

588
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: resolution truly truly is like seventy percent better than the

589
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 1: old one, as they quote, and it was so so

590
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: pretty Wow. Yeah, I've had only a little bit of experience,

591
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 1: you know, working experience with VR, because it requires a

592
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 1: pretty hefty investment on the part of the consumer and

593
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: that you need to have a decent computer and a

594
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: obviously you need to have a space set aside for it.

595
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 1: But the experiences and the equipment that have been coming

596
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: out of the past maybe eighteen months or so has

597
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: been really really impressive, and to know that they're continuing

598
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: to invest in that and improve on the experience is encouraging.

599
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 1: I often ask myself the question at the beginning of

600
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: every year. Now it's kind of my standard question. They're

601
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: they're too really. The first question is is this the

602
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 1: mic or break year for VR slash a R right.

603
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,960
Speaker 1: Is this the year where where we finally say yes,

604
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: this is a consumer technology or no, this is just

605
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 1: going to be an experiential thing that you go somewhere

606
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 1: and then you get to put on the headset and

607
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 1: everything and you play, but then you leave. Or the

608
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: question number two is is Moore's Law finally ending this year?

609
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: Those are the two that asking myself every year, and so, uh,

610
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: it's good to hear that this was a positive experience. Now,

611
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: is this a tethered headset or is this one untethered?

612
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: So this one is tethered as well. But they also

613
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: introduced a wireless adapter, an accessory that you can use

614
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: with both the old HTC Vibe as well as the

615
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: new Vibe Pro. So if you plug that in, you

616
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: can go untethered and you don't have to worry about

617
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: a cable hanging down your back and accidentally getting stepped

618
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: on or anything like that. Now, I didn't get to

619
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 1: test the wireless adapter. They didn't have that plugged in

620
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: when I got to play with it, but I did

621
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: just get to play with the y the Vive Pro

622
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: while it was tethered to a computer, And of course

623
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: the computer that I was playing on had like the

624
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: best GPU on the market, so it looked beautiful and

625
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: it was really smooth and buttery and everything like that.

626
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: But it also sounded good and the gameplay was easy,

627
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: especially when you have that nice resolution, so it makes

628
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: it look more realistic to you and you're not paying

629
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 1: as much attention to the pixels, which you can still

630
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: see they're still there right in front of your face.

631
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: But since it is more comfortable, since it was more

632
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 1: engaging experience, because of that higher resolution, you don't pay

633
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: attention to it as much. And um VIA or HTC

634
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: is doing something really good here, like they're making a

635
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 1: really nice, noticeable increase in performance from the old one,

636
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 1: and I think they were listening to a lot of

637
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: the complaints from previous users. I just hope that this

638
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: new one doesn't cost a lot, and that's that's something

639
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,359
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about, because they haven't announced the price at all,

640
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: and the old one, I believe, with all the components,

641
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,399
Speaker 1: was like six hundred bucks. The new one could be

642
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars just the headset alone because of all

643
00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:00,480
Speaker 1: the upgrades. So hopefully it's not that expensive. Is nobody's

644
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 1: going to buy it just by itself. I hope it

645
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: would be something like five or less so that it

646
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,840
Speaker 1: would be easy to upgrade sell the old five headset

647
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:10,399
Speaker 1: if you have an old one, and then you could

648
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: just keep all of your old components. Yeah, yeah, that

649
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: is to me, that's probably the the largest barrier to

650
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: entry is that price point, because again, when you combine

651
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: combine it with the computer that you need to to

652
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 1: run it, assuming you don't already have one, if you've

653
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:28,479
Speaker 1: already got a really good gaming rig then you're set.

654
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna you've got If you've got a

655
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: VR ready PC, then that part is you've already made

656
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,840
Speaker 1: that investment. For someone who's just getting into it from scratch,

657
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 1: you're talking about almost two thousand dollars in order to

658
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 1: have both. That's a lot to ask, but it sounds

659
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 1: like the experience was really compelling. So if the if,

660
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,439
Speaker 1: if more people can get a chance to try it out,

661
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:57,320
Speaker 1: they might be able to make that argument for themselves

662
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: that it's it's worth that kind of cost to get

663
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:03,520
Speaker 1: into the world of VR. It's also I mean, this

664
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 1: is a really tricky thing. It's again going back to

665
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,840
Speaker 1: three D television's until you experience it. It's how do

666
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 1: you sell it right? Because you can't just show video

667
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 1: to people because the whole, the whole uh appealed to

668
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: this is the actual experience of being inside a virtual

669
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:24,319
Speaker 1: environment and getting to do stuff, and we're all used

670
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: to watching video. I mean, that's not to us, that's

671
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:29,959
Speaker 1: not that special. So it's it's it's a tough sell,

672
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: like you really have to get people out there and

673
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 1: trying it and have that little lightbulb click on like,

674
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 1: oh this is why it's a big deal. Uh yeah,

675
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: I agree with you. That's tough, but it sounds like

676
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: it's I like that you're optimistic about it, though, because

677
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: I want to CVR succeed. I've wanted to CEVR succeed

678
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 1: since the nineties when it had its initial crash. Oh yeah, no,

679
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: it still hurts. It still hurts. I I tell this

680
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 1: story all the time on tech stuff. But there used

681
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 1: to be a little kind of like an arcade. It

682
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 1: was a game experience thing at a local mall here

683
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta area, and my family would go down

684
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:15,879
Speaker 1: to this mall and I would just take like ten

685
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 1: bucks and go to this place, and it was a

686
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 1: VR gaming center and you would go and stand in line,

687
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:24,799
Speaker 1: and then you would get on this little pedestal thing.

688
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,800
Speaker 1: They would lower an incredibly bulky helmet suspended by cables

689
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 1: from the ceiling because it was too heavy to just

690
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 1: put on your teeth, and then you would play the

691
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,759
Speaker 1: Dactyl Nightmare game, which was about as primitive as you

692
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: can get with graphics and still and still have like

693
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 1: solid polygons. It wasn't like just empty vector graphics or something,

694
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: but just that experience, even though as primitive as it was,

695
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: it was so cool and to finally see a world

696
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: where we can maybe get like really compelling gaming experiences

697
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:58,799
Speaker 1: and our homes not even have to go out for

698
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 1: it is really encouraging to me. So did you get

699
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: a chance to see the augmented reality stuff while you

700
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: were there? I didn't not this year. There was some

701
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: a r there, but I didn't get to attest any

702
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,279
Speaker 1: of it myself. Unfortunately. One of the fun parts of

703
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,800
Speaker 1: going to see SUH just on your own, like tag

704
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:20,640
Speaker 1: teaming it as a podcaster, is having to do all

705
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 1: the b roll, all the stand up shots, all the

706
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:26,320
Speaker 1: hosting and editing and writing all yourself, and then trying

707
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: to find a place to upload everything from the show floor.

708
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 1: So it's very tough to see everything. Um Plus, this year,

709
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: I believe not only did it encompass like the forty

710
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 1: football fields that is the Las Vegas Convention Center, but

711
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 1: they also had these stands of Venetian Convention Center area

712
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: as well, and they had a bunch of suites that

713
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: were at other hotels, And it takes like an hour

714
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,399
Speaker 1: to get to anything at c e S. So while

715
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,399
Speaker 1: there was a lot that I did get to see,

716
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,640
Speaker 1: if I made sure to put in a interview request

717
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 1: and scheduled a meeting with a company that was a

718
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: lot that I did not get to see just because

719
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:05,440
Speaker 1: I was so busy. Yeah, No, doing doing CS with

720
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: a small crew is incredibly challenging. It's it's it's almost

721
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 1: to the point where there's so much to cover. If

722
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 1: you haven't done your homework beforehand and hasn't planned out

723
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 1: your attack beforehand, you could be paralyzed by choice. As

724
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,279
Speaker 1: soon as you're like looking at your immediately in view

725
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: or twenty booths and you know there are a hundred

726
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: and twenty more booths directly behind the twenty you can see,

727
00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:33,280
Speaker 1: and they all have stuff beeping and worrying and making

728
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 1: noise and moving and flashing, and sometimes there are people

729
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: who are also beeping and moving and if you're not lucky,

730
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:43,320
Speaker 1: flashing in the area, and you just it's it becomes

731
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,800
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult to figure out where to go first. Um,

732
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,319
Speaker 1: And as you were saying, like uploading, uploading material at

733
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 1: CES is no easy task either. Just on its own,

734
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: finding a signal strong enough for you to be able

735
00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: to get anything out can be a bit of a

736
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:04,320
Speaker 1: cha leunge, just because everything is so connected. Now everything's

737
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 1: got a connection to the Internet, either through some dedicated

738
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 1: WiFi hotspot or through the cellular networks, and so everything

739
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: gets overloaded very very quickly. Yeah, that's true. Now, the

740
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: VR sounds like it was pretty awesome. That was there

741
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 1: anything else that that particularly struck you while you were

742
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 1: walking around c S anything else that was really interesting

743
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 1: to you. There were lots of robots. That's that's cool.

744
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: I mean, we're well, let me ask you this were

745
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,720
Speaker 1: they Were they interesting robots or because I've seen both,

746
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 1: I've seen robots, they were interesting. Um. I saw one robot.

747
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 1: It was a piece of luggage that could follow you

748
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: around an airport. The unfortunate part, though, was that it

749
00:40:56,040 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: doesn't work on carpet, and it would disconnect from its

750
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,120
Speaker 1: users bracelet. You connect to a via a bracelet that

751
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 1: you wear, and that's how it knows where you are

752
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,160
Speaker 1: and who it needs to follow through an airport, and

753
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 1: a lot of times it would just disconnect and then

754
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 1: it would lose track of where you are, and then

755
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 1: when it reconnects, it tries to hurry up and get

756
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 1: to you, and then it runs into your legs. So

757
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 1: it didn't work so well. But I think that things

758
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 1: like that, if they figure out those connectability issues, then

759
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 1: it could be an awesome product. But unfortunately with a

760
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 1: lot of robots, even LG l G had an issue

761
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: during their press event where their robot its name is Chloe.

762
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,319
Speaker 1: It's also a voice assistance technology to uh that one

763
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:43,120
Speaker 1: just did not answer the CEO when he was asking

764
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: it a question on stage. So there were there were

765
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: a lot of those little issues at c e S,

766
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,440
Speaker 1: which most likely had to do with the fact that

767
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,359
Speaker 1: it's such a such a huge area with a lot

768
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,399
Speaker 1: of Wi Fi technology happening at the same time, so

769
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,360
Speaker 1: it's inundated by a lot of frequencies happening at the

770
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 1: same time. But hopefully it's not a problem when it

771
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,600
Speaker 1: gets to consumers well. And we also have to be

772
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:10,520
Speaker 1: aware that technology, I mean, we know it because we

773
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: deal with it all the time. Technology sometimes doesn't work properly.

774
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 1: It sometimes just fails because of whatever reason, you know,

775
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 1: and maybe something very minor that is easy to fix.

776
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,800
Speaker 1: And the frustrating thing is that can happen when all

777
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 1: eyes are on you at c e S because you're

778
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: you're there on the stage. Cameras literally cameras from all

779
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,799
Speaker 1: over the world are on you at that moment, and

780
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: you just have to hope that your technology works that

781
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 1: one time, even if it's something where you're like, yeah,

782
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:40,880
Speaker 1: the time, it works every now and then there's a

783
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:42,759
Speaker 1: little bit of a bug that we haven't quite worked out.

784
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:45,879
Speaker 1: But uh, that one percent can still happen while you're

785
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: on stage, and that it doesn't. It doesn't have to

786
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 1: be anything other than just bad luck, bad timing, and

787
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate because it can. It can then be the

788
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 1: dominant part of any conversation moving forward for that particular technology,

789
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 1: even though it's not really representative of how it works.

790
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 1: And of course you you probably also I don't know

791
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:08,839
Speaker 1: if you were at CS that year. Were you there

792
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 1: the year the infamous year where I wasn't at Gizmoto

793
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,720
Speaker 1: where the people had had the universal remotes to turn

794
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 1: off televisions during someone's ce s. That's a terrible thing

795
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:25,120
Speaker 1: to do. I mean, yeah, I just I well, I

796
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 1: put myself in the place of the presenters, right, I think,

797
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,920
Speaker 1: what if I were up on stage and I'm just

798
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,280
Speaker 1: about to unveil this thing that teams have been working

799
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 1: on for for countless hours to get it ready. In

800
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:39,719
Speaker 1: time from my presentation, and this is my part where

801
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,880
Speaker 1: I gotta be up there for forty minutes and really

802
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:47,400
Speaker 1: sell this amazing technology, and then it's just not working.

803
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:49,920
Speaker 1: And I don't know that it's not working because someone

804
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:54,840
Speaker 1: is actively sabotaging me, and I'm like that, what a

805
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,840
Speaker 1: horrible thing. To this day, I get mad about it.

806
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: But but I think I have empathy for presenters, so

807
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: I would never do that to somebody. I just think

808
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,960
Speaker 1: it's cruel. Yeah, I think if you were, if you're

809
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,359
Speaker 1: doing it too. I don't know that there's any justifiable

810
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: time to do it unless you're like at a buddy's

811
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 1: house and you're really just messing with them, and afterwards

812
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,240
Speaker 1: you're like, you know what, you were a good sport.

813
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 1: I'm buying you pizza and beer. Then that's okay because

814
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: you're you're making restitution for your horrible prank. But when

815
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 1: you're out in the public, well not even a public

816
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: venue because it's not really public venue, but a publicly

817
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: viewable conference, that's just wrong. I mean, it's it's like

818
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,479
Speaker 1: bringing rotten tomatoes and cabbage is to like an Apple event.

819
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: You really just shouldn't do that. It's there's a time

820
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:45,840
Speaker 1: and a place. Um, So, do you any other robots

821
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:49,440
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about? I've seen lots of different ones,

822
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:53,840
Speaker 1: ranging from the really complicated looking ones too very simple

823
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 1: ones that obviously are more like toys. Did you happen

824
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,399
Speaker 1: to see the Afflac one the duck? Yes? I did.

825
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:01,399
Speaker 1: I did see the a flack one. So they were

826
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,359
Speaker 1: promoting a really cute little duck that you that they

827
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,600
Speaker 1: can bring to hospitals and the like to help, um,

828
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:13,320
Speaker 1: help kids deal with emotional troubles and and the problems

829
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 1: that go along with health issues, and it's supposed to

830
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:19,400
Speaker 1: be something that helps calm them. And it was really cute.

831
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: It would respond to your touch, so like if you

832
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: pet it or something like that, and it was fluffy

833
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:26,160
Speaker 1: so that you can like squish it or hug it

834
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: or whatever you want. It would respond to that and

835
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:30,480
Speaker 1: it would move its neck and things like that, and

836
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:33,959
Speaker 1: it was really really sweet. Um. I also so saw

837
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 1: Sony's I want to call it the eyebow. Yeah. So

838
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,120
Speaker 1: they had a new dog and this one has brand

839
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:43,960
Speaker 1: new eyes. I believe they were led or o l

840
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: e ed eyeballs and they would blink and they would

841
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:48,919
Speaker 1: look at you and it would respond to your touch

842
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,520
Speaker 1: as well, and it would walk around. It was so cute.

843
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:56,319
Speaker 1: So there was some really really cute robotic technologies at

844
00:45:56,360 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 1: work at the convention center as well. I love seeing those.

845
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been covering that kind of stuff, like

846
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,560
Speaker 1: some of the some of the companion robots that are

847
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 1: meant to help either children or sometimes it's the elderly

848
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 1: be able to deal with emotional issues psychological issues, uh,

849
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: and create some companionship, create an outlet for emotional expression.

850
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 1: I love that aspect because it's something that I don't

851
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 1: frequently think about when I think of the term robot.

852
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 1: You know, I'm often thinking one of two eventualities. I'm

853
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: either thinking the practical application of robots and automation, which

854
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:38,799
Speaker 1: ultimately results in human beings being displaced from certain types

855
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,359
Speaker 1: of jobs, or I'm thinking terminator. Those are usually the two.

856
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:46,000
Speaker 1: But thinking about nice robots that are there that that

857
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:52,920
Speaker 1: help people deal with really tough situations, it's it's quite inspiring.

858
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:57,280
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, let me ask you. You mentioned the

859
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: the odd, the somewhat odd uh incre ration of voice

860
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: activation in certain products. Did you see anything else that

861
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:09,840
Speaker 1: was just weird or or you thought unnecessary or you know,

862
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,279
Speaker 1: just one of those things where you look at and

863
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:16,760
Speaker 1: you think you think they're trying way too hard. Um,

864
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:21,320
Speaker 1: there was there was some interesting technology coming out of France.

865
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:24,640
Speaker 1: There were a lot of French prototypes that were brought

866
00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:27,360
Speaker 1: in for some of the press events that weren't necessarily

867
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: on the shelf floor that, but they did show up

868
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 1: at these press events that the press of media can

869
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,919
Speaker 1: go to h during the nighttime, during the evening. One

870
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 1: of them was this it was a wine fridge or

871
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:44,760
Speaker 1: a wine cabinet, and it's it's a smart connected wine

872
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:49,280
Speaker 1: cabinet that can alert you whenever your wine cabinet is empty,

873
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 1: or you can scan wine bottles that are in your

874
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:56,400
Speaker 1: wine cabinet so you can find out other similar wines

875
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: that you might be interested in. It was very like

876
00:47:59,719 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 1: naw esque, like you have to be somebody who has

877
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 1: like forty different bottles of wine in this wine cabinet

878
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: to really appreciate how useful it is. And I was

879
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,280
Speaker 1: just like, I'm not that rich, you know, I can't.

880
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:17,240
Speaker 1: I have like one bottle of wine from Trader Joe's

881
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:19,759
Speaker 1: in my kitchen right now, and I think it was

882
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 1: a two dollar one two buck Chuck, I believe it is.

883
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:26,440
Speaker 1: So I'm pretty sure this wine cabinet is not something

884
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:28,319
Speaker 1: that I would ever buy. And it was a little

885
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: bit ridiculous at the same time, but I was like,

886
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 1: maybe maybe somebody out there once it connected wine cabinet

887
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:39,240
Speaker 1: for some reason. Well, did you happen to see? And

888
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 1: if not, I'll be sure to explain to the audience

889
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:46,320
Speaker 1: what exactly I'm talking about. The weird booth that Netflix

890
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:48,600
Speaker 1: had set up that was a viral marketing booth for

891
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:54,360
Speaker 1: altered carbon what's no, Oh my gosh, so on the

892
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:57,320
Speaker 1: show floor and I don't have the information we're in

893
00:48:57,360 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: front of me, so I can't tell you which haul

894
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,440
Speaker 1: it was in. They created a booth that was from

895
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,960
Speaker 1: a supposed biotech company that was working on human cloning,

896
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 1: and they had these giant tubes set up with with

897
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: essentially mannequins but designed to look very very realistic at

898
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 1: least from a distance of people floating in these tubes. Uh.

899
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,759
Speaker 1: And it was supposed to all be about transmitting your

900
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 1: consciousness into another form, and they even had representatives doing

901
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:31,720
Speaker 1: sort of a technobabble speech about the technology around. It

902
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:36,480
Speaker 1: turns out it was all a marketing ploy for a series.

903
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:39,359
Speaker 1: It's based off a cyberpunk novel called Altered Carbon. It's

904
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 1: coming out on Netflix. And so when I was looking

905
00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:45,040
Speaker 1: for weird things that were happening at C E S,

906
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:47,960
Speaker 1: this popped up and I thought, what the heck is

907
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,879
Speaker 1: going on here? Like this is the strangest thing I've

908
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:54,840
Speaker 1: ever seen, and um, particularly for C E S because

909
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,319
Speaker 1: that's just not it's not it's a train show, it's

910
00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:59,279
Speaker 1: not a it's not a fan show. It's not a

911
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:02,600
Speaker 1: genre convention. Right, It's not like a comic con or

912
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,680
Speaker 1: a dragon con or anything like that. So to see

913
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 1: some company come out with promoting a a series, a

914
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 1: web series or a you know, a television series at

915
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 1: C E S is is pretty unusual. You don't typically

916
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:21,279
Speaker 1: see that there. I'm sad, I'm said, you didn't get

917
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:23,280
Speaker 1: to see it. But The Verge has a great rundown

918
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:24,600
Speaker 1: on it. So you'll have to go to the Virgin

919
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:26,920
Speaker 1: and check it out, because once you see what it

920
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,359
Speaker 1: looks like, you're gonna think, man, I wish I had

921
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 1: known that was there while I was there. I hate

922
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,960
Speaker 1: to give you that after you've come back, but it's

923
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 1: definitely something you should check out. Everyone listening to this

924
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:42,000
Speaker 1: should look at it because it is. It's a head

925
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:46,640
Speaker 1: scratcher for me, because yeah, it's just one of those

926
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 1: things where you see it and you think, this is

927
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: this is clearly not the purpose of what c E S.

928
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,759
Speaker 1: You know what CS is all about. It's you know,

929
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 1: it's it's so weird to see a promotion for a

930
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:02,319
Speaker 1: fictional work at a trade show. It just is not

931
00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: the It doesn't it's a square peg in a round hole.

932
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:12,160
Speaker 1: It's so weird. But was there anything that you noticed missing?

933
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 1: As in other words, were there any technologies that had

934
00:51:15,440 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 1: in previous years had a lot of representation at C

935
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:21,000
Speaker 1: E S. Maybe you just didn't really see as much

936
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:24,440
Speaker 1: of this year. Um. There were two that stood out

937
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: to me. One was three D t v s, which

938
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,800
Speaker 1: I saw none of. They were nowhere to be found

939
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:33,399
Speaker 1: at all. Everyone's given up on three D televisions, which

940
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 1: is fine by me. And uh. I also noticed that

941
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:40,800
Speaker 1: there wasn't that much as far as security and privacy, um,

942
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is there were still

943
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: companies that were promoting these like little boxes that you

944
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:49,080
Speaker 1: can plug into your router and they're supposed to be

945
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:52,879
Speaker 1: a physical firewall for your entire house. There's there's still

946
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:55,080
Speaker 1: things like that, but there were still a lot of

947
00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:58,400
Speaker 1: companies that just don't care about security or privacy. Like

948
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: I would go up to a booth and be like, cool,

949
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:04,800
Speaker 1: this looks neat. What kind of encryption protocols are you

950
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:06,800
Speaker 1: are you using? And they would not be able to

951
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,880
Speaker 1: answer me at all. And then I'd be like, okay,

952
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,720
Speaker 1: well is your CTO here? And they'd be like, oh,

953
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,960
Speaker 1: well no, And I'd just be like, well, you need

954
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,120
Speaker 1: to learn these questions because I'm going to ask him

955
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:19,520
Speaker 1: every single year and eventually y'all need to answer. I

956
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:22,600
Speaker 1: won't promote your your technology. I won't even want to

957
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: touch it unless it's secures my devices. Um, there was

958
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,440
Speaker 1: a little bit of and of course it's Las Vegas,

959
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:31,920
Speaker 1: so you're going to see a little bit of it.

960
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 1: There were some adult toys that were connected at the

961
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:40,240
Speaker 1: convention center as well, and those basically, unless it's listed

962
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:43,319
Speaker 1: on Internet of Dogs dot com, which is a definite thing.

963
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:47,440
Speaker 1: My my friend runs that website. He's an information security

964
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,720
Speaker 1: professional and he runs this website for for adult toys.

965
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,840
Speaker 1: Unless it's listed on that site as being secure, I

966
00:52:56,080 --> 00:53:00,359
Speaker 1: wouldn't even consider something like that, because those those divices

967
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,839
Speaker 1: need to be secure because they run such a huge

968
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,080
Speaker 1: risk of being intercepted and being used for something that

969
00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:10,279
Speaker 1: you definitely don't want them to be used for. So

970
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:13,240
Speaker 1: there's there's still a lot of concern when it comes

971
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:18,319
Speaker 1: to security and privacy from technology, especially emerging technology and

972
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 1: emerging companies. And I'm still not getting the answers that

973
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 1: I want as somebody who is such a proponent for

974
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 1: security and privacy myself that I would need for me

975
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:32,239
Speaker 1: to actually start reviewing these products on my show. Well,

976
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:36,760
Speaker 1: and we were talking earlier about voice activation. Clearly there's

977
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:42,879
Speaker 1: been ongoing conversations literally about security with voice any sort

978
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 1: of voice activation, particularly ones that become active very very quickly.

979
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:52,200
Speaker 1: You know, there's no physical pushing a button to activate

980
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:57,480
Speaker 1: the device. You just use a call phrase, which tells you, well,

981
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:00,319
Speaker 1: there's clearly an active microphone. Otherwise there's no a way

982
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,720
Speaker 1: for it to react when you say the call phrase.

983
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:05,399
Speaker 1: And then that brings up the questions of all, right, well,

984
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 1: what's happening passively in the background, when I'm not actively

985
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,839
Speaker 1: calling out and giving a command. What is happening How

986
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:18,439
Speaker 1: much of my conversation is getting picked up, Is any

987
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 1: of that going anywhere? Is it being analyzed? If so,

988
00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:24,600
Speaker 1: for what purpose? Uh? Is that laid out in the

989
00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:27,240
Speaker 1: terms of service that no one reads and everyone agrees

990
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 1: to and then they just it happens and then the

991
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:32,279
Speaker 1: excuse the company has, Well, it's in the terms of

992
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,479
Speaker 1: service and you agreed to it. So it's tough. Uh.

993
00:54:35,560 --> 00:54:38,439
Speaker 1: And I mean to me like that, I knew that

994
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 1: that was gonna be something you would look into because

995
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:44,200
Speaker 1: that's that's your focus, and you are really passionate about

996
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 1: information security, and I agree with you. Like when I've

997
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 1: gone year over year over year, Uh, the emphasis always

998
00:54:52,520 --> 00:54:54,640
Speaker 1: is on we found out this cool way where we

999
00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:58,319
Speaker 1: can do X, and it's usually three years later like, oh,

1000
00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:01,640
Speaker 1: we found a secure way where we can you X.

1001
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:04,279
Speaker 1: But we've totally not been secure for the last three

1002
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,479
Speaker 1: years that we've been doing it. So Uh, yeah, that

1003
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 1: that is something. And and considering the high profile nature

1004
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: of various information security breaches that we've seen over the

1005
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 1: last couple of years, you would think that there'd be

1006
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 1: more of a focus on that. Even even when you

1007
00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 1: think it, you know, the life cycle of developing a

1008
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:28,920
Speaker 1: product can be a year or longer. You would expect

1009
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,399
Speaker 1: to at least start seeing that stuff get rolled out

1010
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: from the get go, and yet we're still seeing companies

1011
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:38,480
Speaker 1: really dragging their feet on it, possibly because maybe the

1012
00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: maybe the the attitude is until something catastrophic happens, it's

1013
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:47,360
Speaker 1: not our problem, right exactly. And unfortunately, a lot of

1014
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 1: the companies that I would speak to, not all of them,

1015
00:55:50,239 --> 00:55:52,720
Speaker 1: but a lot of them, uh, they would get somewhat

1016
00:55:52,719 --> 00:55:56,160
Speaker 1: defensive when I would ask them about if they do

1017
00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:59,839
Speaker 1: third party auditing, or if they have an info sec

1018
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 1: uh genre like for their for their company, if they

1019
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:07,920
Speaker 1: have something that you know, somebody that checks their their

1020
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 1: privacy every single day, or checks their network to make

1021
00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:14,560
Speaker 1: sure there's no vulnerabilities in it every day, something like that. Uh.

1022
00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:18,319
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, when a company gets defensive about those kind

1023
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:21,400
Speaker 1: of questions, which they should be very open about, they

1024
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:25,359
Speaker 1: should be very transparent about their security and privacy protocols

1025
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, then I just don't I don't trust them.

1026
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:32,280
Speaker 1: So it's it's unfortunate that this is still an issue,

1027
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:34,840
Speaker 1: and I wish that it wasn't, but it still is.

1028
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,319
Speaker 1: And that kind of leads me into one final thing

1029
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:40,000
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about this is not a fun

1030
00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:42,160
Speaker 1: thing to talk about, but I think it's an important one,

1031
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:46,520
Speaker 1: and that is uh so over the last couple of

1032
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:50,520
Speaker 1: years in particular, but definitely it's been an ongoing issue.

1033
00:56:51,239 --> 00:56:54,319
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot more discussion about things like a

1034
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:58,239
Speaker 1: code of conduct at various gatherings conventions, More and more

1035
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: of them are incorporating codes of con duct to explain

1036
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:05,719
Speaker 1: exactly what sorts of behavior will absolutely not be tolerated

1037
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:12,200
Speaker 1: by the entity throwing that convention or event, uh and saying,

1038
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 1: you know, we expect if you're attending that you are

1039
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,760
Speaker 1: going to behave according to this code of conduct, and

1040
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,120
Speaker 1: if you don't, then you're going to be kicked out.

1041
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:23,360
Speaker 1: It's just the way it works, because we want this

1042
00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:26,920
Speaker 1: to be a safe environment. Uh. Leading into c e S.

1043
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:31,880
Speaker 1: One of the notable stories, unfortunately, was that the the

1044
00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: c e A, the group that puts it on, still

1045
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 1: not formed any kind of code of conduct. That there

1046
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:42,000
Speaker 1: was nothing from an organizational standpoint to support that kind

1047
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:48,040
Speaker 1: of thing, which seems particularly negligent in an era where

1048
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:51,000
Speaker 1: this sort of conversation is taking more and more of

1049
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:55,320
Speaker 1: the spotlight. It does. It's it was very concerning because

1050
00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 1: I saw some articles being posted after I had gotten

1051
00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 1: to Vegas that were like, hey, there's still no code

1052
00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:06,120
Speaker 1: of conduct at c S whatsoever. And there is also

1053
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:10,960
Speaker 1: there were no female keynote speakers whatsoever either for any

1054
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,960
Speaker 1: of the main stages. There were female speakers for some

1055
00:58:14,040 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 1: of the smaller stages, some of the niche audiences, but

1056
00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:19,840
Speaker 1: there weren't any for their main stages. And that's a

1057
00:58:19,960 --> 00:58:23,800
Speaker 1: huge drawback when it comes to such a huge convention,

1058
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:29,720
Speaker 1: especially since we've been working so hard it's myself included

1059
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:34,600
Speaker 1: in the past year for more gender equality. Um. Women

1060
00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:39,160
Speaker 1: have never had such a huge foothold in technology as

1061
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:42,160
Speaker 1: men have, and it's unfortunate, you know. Ever since I

1062
00:58:42,200 --> 00:58:45,440
Speaker 1: was a little kid, UM, when I went to Defcon

1063
00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:48,400
Speaker 1: this year, that same week, I decided to post a

1064
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:51,480
Speaker 1: YouTube video on my personal channel that was talking about

1065
00:58:51,520 --> 00:58:55,640
Speaker 1: how I was groped at a hacker convention three years ago.

1066
00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:58,000
Speaker 1: And it took me three years to finally go public

1067
00:58:58,040 --> 00:58:59,920
Speaker 1: about it and be like, hey, this is what happened.

1068
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:02,600
Speaker 1: And the convention it happened at did not have a

1069
00:59:02,600 --> 00:59:05,320
Speaker 1: code of conduct in place. So when I went to

1070
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:08,040
Speaker 1: that convention about this information, which I wasn't going to

1071
00:59:08,080 --> 00:59:09,880
Speaker 1: report it in the first place, because I was so

1072
00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,200
Speaker 1: shocked at it happening, because the person that did it

1073
00:59:13,280 --> 00:59:16,200
Speaker 1: was an acquaintance. Um. The only reason I did is

1074
00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:18,400
Speaker 1: because my one of my lady friends was like, yeah,

1075
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:20,360
Speaker 1: you should report that because that's messed up, and I

1076
00:59:20,400 --> 00:59:23,320
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'll talk to somebody about it. So

1077
00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:24,960
Speaker 1: I reported it, but they didn't know what to do,

1078
00:59:25,120 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 1: so the guy didn't get banned until the next year,

1079
00:59:29,080 --> 00:59:31,160
Speaker 1: and the only reason he got banned so he he

1080
00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:34,920
Speaker 1: ended up coming back, which made me extremely uncomfortable, especially

1081
00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:37,240
Speaker 1: since the company I was working with was giving them

1082
00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:41,240
Speaker 1: money as a sponsorship, which was really messed up. But

1083
00:59:41,800 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 1: since he was allowed back, it made me feel so

1084
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,560
Speaker 1: much more uncomfortable to go back there because I felt

1085
00:59:48,600 --> 00:59:53,200
Speaker 1: vulnerable and I did not like being made to feel

1086
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:57,920
Speaker 1: vulnerable in in a place that is not my normal place.

1087
00:59:58,040 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't my house, it once in my

1088
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:03,680
Speaker 1: off the space. It was a hotel in Vegas where

1089
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:08,160
Speaker 1: most of the attendees are males and are not people

1090
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:13,040
Speaker 1: that I know personally. So having eventually, that convention did

1091
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:16,480
Speaker 1: place a code of conduct in place for their convention,

1092
01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:19,520
Speaker 1: and the person who did this was banned along for

1093
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:23,240
Speaker 1: a number of other reasons. So now I feel safe

1094
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:25,400
Speaker 1: going back there because I know that I have a

1095
01:00:25,440 --> 01:00:27,720
Speaker 1: way to report things, and I know if I do

1096
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 1: report them, they'll actually be taken care of. And that's

1097
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:33,720
Speaker 1: the reason why when I went to c e S

1098
01:00:34,200 --> 01:00:36,480
Speaker 1: and I saw they didn't have a code of conduct,

1099
01:00:36,720 --> 01:00:40,960
Speaker 1: I felt so taken aback. It's such a huge convention,

1100
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:46,040
Speaker 1: it's such a huge association with so much money behind them,

1101
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:50,760
Speaker 1: so many attendees going, and having so many attendees go

1102
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:55,680
Speaker 1: that are mostly male. It's a male dominated industry. Obviously, Uh,

1103
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,200
Speaker 1: we need to have some kind of foothold in the

1104
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 1: industry for for women and minorities so that we do

1105
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:06,600
Speaker 1: feel safe. Now. While I understand code of conducts are

1106
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:09,360
Speaker 1: not going to keep people from doing things, it does

1107
01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:13,080
Speaker 1: allow us as people who might end up being victimized

1108
01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 1: in some way, even though we don't want to be victims.

1109
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:18,480
Speaker 1: It gives us a way to report things. It allows

1110
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:21,960
Speaker 1: us to understand exactly what we can do and know

1111
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:26,080
Speaker 1: that if we say something that then something will be

1112
01:01:26,200 --> 01:01:29,080
Speaker 1: acted upon, Like something will actually get done if we

1113
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:32,520
Speaker 1: say something. It sends the message that you matter, right,

1114
01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 1: I mean, like like without it, it seems you know,

1115
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:39,800
Speaker 1: without it. To me, it seems like it's almost sending

1116
01:01:39,800 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 1: the message that they're complicit in any behavior that would

1117
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:47,800
Speaker 1: otherwise violate such a code of conduct, because there it's

1118
01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:51,440
Speaker 1: it's almost a look the other way kind of of mentality,

1119
01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: which is incredibly dangerous for anyone who's attending such an event.

1120
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:04,000
Speaker 1: I it gets me really upset because I have seen

1121
01:02:04,440 --> 01:02:10,160
Speaker 1: incidents at various types of different UH conventions and events

1122
01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:13,000
Speaker 1: and parties that kind of thing that absolutely should not

1123
01:02:13,040 --> 01:02:15,560
Speaker 1: have happened, and once they did happen, should absolutely be

1124
01:02:15,640 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 1: handled swiftly and UH decisively, And to see CEES kind

1125
01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:26,120
Speaker 1: of dragging its feet on this issue is more than

1126
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:28,600
Speaker 1: a little problematic. I remember years ago, when I first

1127
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:33,040
Speaker 1: started going UH, some of the the some of my

1128
01:02:34,080 --> 01:02:36,640
Speaker 1: peers over at c NET, some of the women working

1129
01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:39,800
Speaker 1: for s net were chatting and they were saying, Uh,

1130
01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 1: you know, one of the few benefits of being at

1131
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:45,800
Speaker 1: c E S and being a woman was that she

1132
01:02:45,920 --> 01:02:48,120
Speaker 1: never had to worry about a line in the restroom.

1133
01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:50,240
Speaker 1: And she was being very sardonic about it because she

1134
01:02:50,320 --> 01:02:52,600
Speaker 1: was like this, this is literally the one good thing.

1135
01:02:54,880 --> 01:02:59,040
Speaker 1: And whereas as as a man UH and I convention

1136
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 1: center filled with literally a hundred thousand other men. Uh,

1137
01:03:03,480 --> 01:03:05,960
Speaker 1: the same cannot be said of the men's room. But

1138
01:03:06,560 --> 01:03:10,240
Speaker 1: at the same time, I'm also not in a group

1139
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:13,360
Speaker 1: that tends to be singled out for victimization. I mean,

1140
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:17,200
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's a very frustrating thing to see.

1141
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:20,520
Speaker 1: I keep hoping that they will address this and and

1142
01:03:20,600 --> 01:03:23,480
Speaker 1: make it clear that it's supposed to be a safe

1143
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:27,200
Speaker 1: place and that they've got your back if something does happen. Um.

1144
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:29,560
Speaker 1: You know, CS is also one of those places where

1145
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 1: it kind of fostered that male dominant mentality for a

1146
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:35,920
Speaker 1: really long time. I don't know how it was this

1147
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:39,560
Speaker 1: past year, but I remember when I started going, the

1148
01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:44,600
Speaker 1: whole booth babe. Uh situation was really kind of out

1149
01:03:44,640 --> 01:03:46,800
Speaker 1: of control while I was there, and that booth babes.

1150
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 1: By this, I mean that different groups had gone out

1151
01:03:50,160 --> 01:03:54,840
Speaker 1: and ordered or had gone out and hired people women

1152
01:03:54,880 --> 01:04:00,120
Speaker 1: to dress and scanty outfits and then um try and

1153
01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:04,400
Speaker 1: entice people into the booths. And it wasn't it was

1154
01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:07,760
Speaker 1: done in such a way as to sexualized products that

1155
01:04:07,800 --> 01:04:13,560
Speaker 1: were not overtly meant for that purpose. And uh, it

1156
01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 1: created kind of a CD atmosphere. I would say in

1157
01:04:16,280 --> 01:04:19,080
Speaker 1: certain areas of the floor, I've seen less of that

1158
01:04:19,240 --> 01:04:21,760
Speaker 1: the last few times I've gone. Occasionally you'll find a

1159
01:04:21,760 --> 01:04:24,040
Speaker 1: booth or whatever that's still kind of engages in this,

1160
01:04:24,440 --> 01:04:27,040
Speaker 1: but for the most part, it's it's definitely toned down

1161
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:31,200
Speaker 1: some which I think is a good a good trend,

1162
01:04:31,720 --> 01:04:34,040
Speaker 1: But it does seem like CES is one of those

1163
01:04:34,080 --> 01:04:42,000
Speaker 1: places where that that uh more primitive idea of this

1164
01:04:42,040 --> 01:04:44,760
Speaker 1: is technology, this is this falls within the realm, and

1165
01:04:44,840 --> 01:04:49,920
Speaker 1: masculinity still seems to have a few anchor points and that's, uh,

1166
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:54,040
Speaker 1: that's problematic. But yeah, it's it's definitely still a thing.

1167
01:04:54,120 --> 01:04:58,040
Speaker 1: Like I saw some of the quote unquote booth babe

1168
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:01,640
Speaker 1: attire happening the year as well. I even saw it

1169
01:05:01,640 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: at one of the press events I went to, which

1170
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: somebody else wrote about, Uh, the fact that there were

1171
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:10,560
Speaker 1: some women who were hired to simply be there and

1172
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:13,800
Speaker 1: hand out tote bags and they were dressed as cheerleaders.

1173
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:19,240
Speaker 1: So they had is because it's every year. Yep, it's

1174
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:22,120
Speaker 1: the same exact one every single year. The only year

1175
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 1: I went and I really enjoyed it was when they

1176
01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: did the Wizard of Oz theme and then they had

1177
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:29,440
Speaker 1: people dressed up like there was a guy dressed up

1178
01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:31,120
Speaker 1: as the tin Man, and there was a girl dressed

1179
01:05:31,160 --> 01:05:33,120
Speaker 1: up as the Wicked Witch. And then it was like

1180
01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:35,720
Speaker 1: it was like being in a cosplay experience, which is

1181
01:05:35,880 --> 01:05:40,320
Speaker 1: very different from dressing up strictly women in cheerleader uniforms,

1182
01:05:40,480 --> 01:05:44,200
Speaker 1: because you're doing a football thing, which is for men.

1183
01:05:45,640 --> 01:05:48,840
Speaker 1: Now I do like football, but why aren't why there

1184
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:52,320
Speaker 1: were no men? They're dressed up as quarterbacks? Like what

1185
01:05:53,080 --> 01:05:56,600
Speaker 1: I'm missing out? I mean, I'm on your side on

1186
01:05:56,640 --> 01:06:00,160
Speaker 1: this one, Shannon, totally. I agree. I remember to the

1187
01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:01,880
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz event. I also remember they did a

1188
01:06:01,880 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 1: weird zoo one one year where people were dressed up

1189
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 1: like animals, but that might have been a different I

1190
01:06:08,040 --> 01:06:09,600
Speaker 1: want to say it was the same one we're talking

1191
01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:13,640
Speaker 1: about one. Yeah, i'll send you I'll send your links.

1192
01:06:14,120 --> 01:06:16,200
Speaker 1: But it was another weird one. But the Wizard of

1193
01:06:16,240 --> 01:06:18,440
Speaker 1: Oz I remember because I got a tin of mints

1194
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 1: for my friend Mandy because she's that's her favorite film

1195
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,840
Speaker 1: of all time. Well, I mean, here's hoping that we

1196
01:06:24,880 --> 01:06:28,680
Speaker 1: can see c e S catch up and and create

1197
01:06:28,840 --> 01:06:32,360
Speaker 1: a formal code of conduct. I hope that the pressure

1198
01:06:32,400 --> 01:06:35,480
Speaker 1: will continue to be on the organization to do so

1199
01:06:35,480 --> 01:06:38,080
Speaker 1: so that they can send out that message that this

1200
01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:41,760
Speaker 1: is in fact a space where we wanted to be

1201
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:46,840
Speaker 1: safe for everybody. It's it's a a very business oriented

1202
01:06:46,880 --> 01:06:50,640
Speaker 1: trade event, and therefore there's no place for this kind,

1203
01:06:50,760 --> 01:06:54,640
Speaker 1: you know, any kind of of harassment or policy where

1204
01:06:54,640 --> 01:06:59,200
Speaker 1: we look the other way. Shannon, thank you so much

1205
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:02,080
Speaker 1: for joining the Please tell everyone where they can find

1206
01:07:02,160 --> 01:07:06,400
Speaker 1: all your wonderful work. Thank you. I really appreciate um

1207
01:07:06,440 --> 01:07:09,040
Speaker 1: you inviting me on to be on your show. To Jonathan,

1208
01:07:09,240 --> 01:07:11,240
Speaker 1: it was awesome. It's always awesome to talk to you,

1209
01:07:11,360 --> 01:07:13,800
Speaker 1: especially since we're on other coasts. You can find all

1210
01:07:13,800 --> 01:07:16,560
Speaker 1: of my infro over on Twitter. I'm at snubs S

1211
01:07:16,640 --> 01:07:19,080
Speaker 1: and u b S. Or you can follow all of

1212
01:07:19,080 --> 01:07:22,440
Speaker 1: my tech stuff that I am doing over on tech thing.

1213
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:26,080
Speaker 1: It's t e K thing dot com. Shannon, thanks again,

1214
01:07:26,280 --> 01:07:30,439
Speaker 1: and you take care of yourself. Get better, Okay, thank you.

1215
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:33,160
Speaker 1: I want to thank Shannon for coming on the show.

1216
01:07:33,360 --> 01:07:37,439
Speaker 1: She's always a joy to talk to and I really

1217
01:07:37,440 --> 01:07:41,720
Speaker 1: appreciate her input on what she saw at c E S. Obviously,

1218
01:07:41,760 --> 01:07:44,800
Speaker 1: there's a ton of other things that were on display

1219
01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:48,720
Speaker 1: at the show. Lots of technology from automotive technology to

1220
01:07:49,240 --> 01:07:54,040
Speaker 1: audio to virtual and augmented reality too. Things that are

1221
01:07:54,160 --> 01:07:57,800
Speaker 1: pretty mundane, you know, light switches, things like that, but

1222
01:07:58,000 --> 01:08:01,720
Speaker 1: still important. And while I didn't go this past year,

1223
01:08:02,160 --> 01:08:05,800
Speaker 1: it's okay, I'm not sweating it, but I do hope

1224
01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:08,480
Speaker 1: I can go back sometime in the future see what

1225
01:08:08,560 --> 01:08:12,000
Speaker 1: else is coming out. It's always an interesting energy that's

1226
01:08:12,000 --> 01:08:16,080
Speaker 1: at the show, and I'm sure that as unfolds, I'll

1227
01:08:16,120 --> 01:08:18,680
Speaker 1: cover more of the technologies that were on display at

1228
01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:23,160
Speaker 1: CESEN in greater detail. For example, there was this amazing

1229
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:28,839
Speaker 1: modular Samsung television called the Wall apparently, and that sounds

1230
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:31,439
Speaker 1: crazy to me, so I should look into that. But

1231
01:08:31,479 --> 01:08:33,360
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for things I should

1232
01:08:33,400 --> 01:08:35,920
Speaker 1: cover in future episodes, maybe it's technology that was on

1233
01:08:35,960 --> 01:08:38,680
Speaker 1: display at ce S, or maybe it's something totally unrelated,

1234
01:08:39,200 --> 01:08:41,920
Speaker 1: but still, you know, in the world of tech, let's

1235
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:44,160
Speaker 1: not go crazy. Send me a message let me know

1236
01:08:44,200 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 1: what I should talk about. Or if there's someone you

1237
01:08:46,120 --> 01:08:49,200
Speaker 1: want me to interview or a guest host you would

1238
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:51,320
Speaker 1: like to have on the show, let me know about

1239
01:08:51,320 --> 01:08:53,840
Speaker 1: that as well. My email address for the show is

1240
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:57,120
Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you

1241
01:08:57,120 --> 01:08:59,240
Speaker 1: can draw me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The

1242
01:08:59,320 --> 01:09:01,600
Speaker 1: handle at both of those is tech Stuff hs W.

1243
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:05,439
Speaker 1: You can also check us out on Instagram. Our our

1244
01:09:05,560 --> 01:09:10,040
Speaker 1: our marketing and social guru, Crystal is killing it over there.

1245
01:09:10,479 --> 01:09:12,599
Speaker 1: She's doing a great job, So go check out our

1246
01:09:12,640 --> 01:09:17,000
Speaker 1: Instagram account. And remember, you can listen to me record

1247
01:09:17,080 --> 01:09:20,000
Speaker 1: these episodes live, and you can watch me, and you

1248
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:23,280
Speaker 1: can you can insult me. Please don't insult me, but

1249
01:09:23,360 --> 01:09:25,800
Speaker 1: you can participate in the chat room live with me

1250
01:09:26,240 --> 01:09:29,880
Speaker 1: every Wednesday and Friday. Just go to twitch dot tv

1251
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:33,320
Speaker 1: slash tech Stuff. You'll see the schedule there. And uh,

1252
01:09:33,439 --> 01:09:35,840
Speaker 1: I love chatting with you guys. I hope more of

1253
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:38,200
Speaker 1: you show up in the future and I will talk

1254
01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:47,559
Speaker 1: to you again really soon for more on this and

1255
01:09:47,640 --> 01:09:50,200
Speaker 1: bathands of other topics. Because it has staff works dot

1256
01:09:50,200 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 1: com