WEBVTT - Listener Mail Jubilee 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.960 Get in touch with technology with tex stuff from dot com. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.400 Hey there, and welcome to text stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.759 and today we're gonna have a listener mail. Do you 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.760 believe because I've been receiving lots of mail from you guys, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.480 and I wanted to thank you for that, first of all, 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.600 because I love hearing from my listeners and it gives 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.480 me some direction about where to go. Sometimes you guys 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.400 are asking for stuff that we've covered on previous episodes, 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.200 but that always gives me the chance to update those episodes. 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.000 And sometimes you ask for stuff that I honestly never 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.960 would have thought about on my own, and it really 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.240 helps when I'm putting the show together. Now, in this case, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.960 we've got a few different listener mail messages, none of 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.600 which really warrant a full length episode all by themselves. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.480 Some can be answered more quickly than others, so I 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.120 thought I would group them together as another listener male 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.840 grab bag and address them and thank the people who 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.640 wrote in. So first we have Chris I said this 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.080 was all about three D printing, and when they talked 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:15.280 about the possibility of of stores having three D printers 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.200 to produce on demand as opposed to having warehouses full 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.200 of inventory. Chris says there's a store that opened up 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.280 in my area that the guy wants to be the 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.600 first Kinko's like storefront for three D printing. He doesn't 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:29.679 plan on this being the primary role of the business 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.479 to start out, because the demand is not there right yet, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.199 but he wants to work with inventors, designers, and mostly 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.119 work with people in schools to teach people about the technology. Now, 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.320 Chris did not mention, uh, the name of this particular business, 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.200 but I'm going to take a wild guess, and I 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.280 could be wrong. Chris, please right in and tell me 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:57.720 if I'm completely off track here, But I'm guessing that 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.920 it might be Things Smiths and in Arbor, Michigan, and 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.440 thinks Smith's is a pretty cool organization. I looked into 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.000 it online. I'm also hoping to to at some point 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.960 interview someone from Things Smith's to talk more about what 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.560 they do and how they conduct business, because I think 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.160 it'd be really interesting to look at something that is 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.760 often referred to as an incredibly disruptive technology, disruptive to 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.760 the manufacturing industry in particular. So Thinks Smith's is a 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.560 shop that offers up three D printing to customers for 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.600 a set price per cubic centimeter, And it depends upon 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.960 what type of material and which process you want to use. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.720 So your choices are a bs P L, a p 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:47.079 ET nylon or UH and those are all using fused 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:53.520 deposition modeling or methacry late plastic through stereolithography. All right, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.000 So now you're like, well, I don't know what that 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:00.560 means necessarily, so fused deposition modeling is what a typical 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.320 three D printer on the market does. So if you've 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.080 ever seen one of these, you you're pretty familiar. But 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.600 just in case you haven't, once you have is an 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:15.080 extruder which ends up heating up some sort of material, uh, 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.840 typically some kind of plastic to a level where it 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.639 is moldible and and you can actually extrude it. It's 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:28.240 there are extruders that print out tiny, thin layers of 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.560 this stuff, almost like a glue gun. If you've ever 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.440 used a glue gun, it's kind of like that, but 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.560 much smaller and more precise. Um. The level of precision 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.280 depends upon the type of three D printer you're using, 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.920 and what it does is it lays down layer after 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:48.360 layer of this stuff fusing each new layer to the 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.640 layers below it. And often there's some sort of chemical 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:57.520 within the plastic itself that allows you to do this fusing. Um. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.040 Typically you want it to cool down so that it 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.160 really solidifies in the final shape that you had intended 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.400 and uh it you know, it's very important for this 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:13.640 fusing and hardening process to go smoothly, or else the material, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.040 the object would collapse in on itself and you just 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.320 end up with a lumpy, gooey mess. Now, we've used 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:21.880 three D printers here at the office and they used 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.920 this particular method, the fust deposition modeling, and it's pretty 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:28.719 interesting stuff. I mean, you have to be a little 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.240 you know, depending on the model, you have to be 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.480 a little tricksy with it. We've had somewhere the plastic 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.880 was sticking to the platform, the printing platform, and that 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.800 was a problem because instead of it uh, flowing properly 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.320 when it would get to a point, it would start 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.280 to peel off for slide instead of sticking the right way, uh, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.960 and you would end up with a deformed plastic monstrosity 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.159 as opposed to that nice whistle you we wanted to 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.640 print out. But that's one method. The other one, stereolithography, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.320 is entirely print and it's super awesome. It's still additive 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.359 manufacturing additive meaning that you are building this thing piece 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.599 by piece, as opposed to carving away stuff to get 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.400 at what you want. That would be subtractive. So in 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.800 other words, sculpting is subtractive, but this is additive, where 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.800 you're you're adding material until you have built the thing 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.440 you want. Uh. Stereo lithography builds in a layer by 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.320 layer basis that uses a laser to change the nature 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.040 of material to make it hardened. So you have a 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.360 liquid material, some sort of liquid plastic for example, and 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:37.680 imagine that you've got it in a vat. So you've 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:42.040 got this vat of liquid material. Uh, you have submerged 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:47.360 just under the surface of this liquid plastic a porous 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.680 um platform. So I think of it like a like 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.680 a grill almost. It's it's like that, but very narrow 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.760 gaps between the bars and allows the plastic to come 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.680 up through the bars and it's just submerged just under 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.040 the surface of that liquid plastic. On top of this vat, 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.200 you have a device that is able to direct a 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:15.000 laser an ultra violet laser. Let's say, at this liquid 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.880 material which has this photoreactive nature to it, so that 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:23.040 when it's hit by this ultra violet laser, the liquid 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:29.279 plastic hardens into a solid. So by tracing the shape 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.080 that you want to print on this liquid plastic that's 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:37.000 on top of this platform, it turns that liquid into solid, 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.000 and you have your first layer of whatever it is 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:46.239 you're playing on. Building to build again, the platform goes 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.560 down just a little bit so that the hardened surface 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.960 is now submerged just under the surface of that liquid plastic, 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.560 and you do it again. The laser traces and the 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.320 liquid plastic on top of the hard plastic hardens and 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.520 fuses together with the layer below it, and you do 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.360 this over and over again, so that platform very slowly 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:14.400 descends as the laser traces and hardens this liquid plastic, 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.560 and it allows for much greater precision than the fuse 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:24.280 deposition modeling. You can get to um pretty decent resolution. 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.160 Now resolution and three D printers is will really what 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.880 we talk about when you want to avoid those jagged edges. 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.520 So it's pretty awesome and thinks Smith's uses both methods, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.480 and depending upon which method you want the price is 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:44.080 gonna vary also depending on again which material you're using. Uh, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:49.160 and it's price per cubic centimeter. So uh, that is 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.200 I think pretty awesome. The company also offers three D 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:57.320 scanning and design services, so you could bring something in 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.320 to scan and have them print a cop be of 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.760 that thing. Theoretically you could scan yourself and have a 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.680 figurine of yourself printed up. Or if you had an 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.239 idea for something but you didn't have anything to scan 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.560 and you didn't have the capability of designing it yourself, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.440 you can hire them to do that for you, which 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.760 is pretty awesome. Now, Chris, why don't you write me 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.880 back let me know if I have the the same 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.160 business that you had in mind, or if there was 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.280 something else. Remember that address tech Stuff at how stuff 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.120 works dot com. I'd love to hear from you either way. 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.360 I really hope I can speak with someone from Things 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.280 Smith's in a future episode, just to kind of talk 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.240 more about the business model and and really what the 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.280 future is for three D printing in this kind of way. Alright, 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.760 our next message comes from Felonious. Now, Felonious says, dear 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.280 Mr Strickland, so formal, I have been a listener to 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.560 tech stuff and forward thinking for many years. I recently 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.960 downloaded an iPod full of back episode of those casts 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.840 to listen to an extended bus trip. But about the 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.040 fourth or fifth day something struck me that I want 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.880 to ask you about. Does it always have to be 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.760 a form factor and not just a form? And did 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.400 the word shape do something nasty to you as a 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:23.280 small child, just wondering felonious to shape? Felonious? Um, why 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.360 do I use the term form factor so much instead 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.160 of just form or shape. Well, for one thing, form 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.840 factor and computers means a little bit more than just 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.360 the physical form or shape. There's a little bit extra 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:43.199 implied with that particular term. Form factor refers to how 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.959 these things are shaped, plus how the shape effects and 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.360 are affected by the use of that device. So, in 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.240 other words, the form factor of a desktop is different 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.080 from a laptop, and the use of those two things 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.160 changes as a result. The form factor of a smartphone 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.280 is such that you have to build that in to 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.720 your design of apps for that smartphone. You know that 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.679 you have a limited amount of screen space that you 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.920 can use. You know that the inputs are limited, You 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.800 know that the battery life is limited because of the 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.160 form factor, the the all the things that go into 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:24.640 making that particular type of device work the way it does. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.360 So it's a little bit more than just form or shape, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.440 and it's an industry standard. That being said, I probably 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.240 could vary my vocabulary a little bit and not make 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.160 you guys go crazy and create the text stuff drinking 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:44.400 game where words like convergence and form factor and disruptive 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.240 all become means to you know, take a another shot 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:52.960 of your favorite frosty beverage um At any rate, thank 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.640 you very much. The loneous but yes, form factor is 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.640 a little more specific than either form or shape in 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.679 the in the text of computers and electronics, which is 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:13.000 why I use it so frequently. Let's take a quick 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.160 break to thank our sponsor. You know, if you have 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.120 a lot of mailing and shipping needs, it can be 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.960 a huge hassle to go through the normal channels, right, 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.319 I mean, like going to the post office. You could 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.920 end up standing in line for what seems like an eternity. 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.640 And if you lease a postage meter, well that might 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.680 save you time, but it's not gonna save you money. 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.280 They're expensive. You have to enter a multi year commitment, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.600 and then there are all these hidden fees that always 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.280 seem to pop up. But there is a better way, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.920 and that is stamps dot Com. With stamps dot com, 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.880 you can buy and print official US postage for any 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.120 letter or package right from your desk, using your own 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.400 computer and your own printer. You can even get special 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.959 postage discounts you can't mind at the post office. Plus, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.240 stamps dot Com is more powerful than a postage meter, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.360 and it's just a fraction of the cost you can 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.079 save up compared to a postage meter, and you'll avoid 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.840 those long lines at the post office. I use stamps 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.800 dot Com all the time in order to send off 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:23.280 packages and letters and other types of mail. It's incredibly simple, 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:25.360 and I have a digital scale that I can just 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.240 plug into my computer. It tells me exactly how much 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.679 postage I need to use, so I don't have to 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.600 use any guesswork or put too much postage or not 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.400 enough postage on anything. I always know exactly what I need. 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.840 It's fantastic. Right now, you can use my promo code 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.000 text stuff for this special offer. It is a no 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.720 risk trial. You get a hundred and ten dollars in 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.680 bonuses that includes a digital scale like the one I 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.720 was talking about, and up to fifty dollars free postage. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.559 Don't wait, go to stamps dot com and before you 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.160 do anything else, click on the microphone at the top 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:12.760 of the home page and type in tech stuff. Alright. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:18.280 Our next one comes from Chase from Washington State, who says, Hello, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.760 I was listening to your episode recently with listener mail. Hey, 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.680 it's another one of those I haven't listened to the 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.840 most recent episodes, so forgive me if you've already addressed this. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.680 You were talking about the programming of a car as 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.800 to how it would choose to act in either going 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:38.120 on a sidewalk or bracing for impact. This is the 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.320 trolley problem we were talking about. If cars are able 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.960 to communicate with each other, wouldn't it be possible for 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.240 your car to basically warn other cars that it was 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.600 going to have to slam on its brakes and also 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.560 allow them to do the same as to avoid either 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.880 a hard impact or a crash altogether. Just a thought 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.360 I had and figured I would pose that idea to 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.199 the problem. Thanks for all the amazing episodes you guys 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.320 really make my long nights at work. More bearable. Well, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:10.559 thank you, Chase. So what Chase proposes here is fantastic. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.400 I mean, it is kind of a solution to the 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.679 trolley problem. In all but the most extreme cases, this 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:21.760 sort of communication would very often prevent these accidents from 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.960 ever happening. In fact, we might prevent them to the 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.560 point where you wouldn't even be aware that such an 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.800 accident was even possible. That's the ideal that, however, is 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.320 a few years away. In the meantime, we have a 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.000 world in which we've got a lot of manually driven cars. 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.400 In fact, nearly all of them are manually driven. There 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.360 are very few autonomous cars out there. But we have 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.080 all these manually driven cars, and many of them are different. 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.400 You know, We've got all these different years and models 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.360 and makes out there on the road. Some of them 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.320 predate all the cool systems that have been hitting you know, 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.880 standard ours for the last few years. So stuff that 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.960 you might find standard today, like things like lane assist 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.000 or or even um, you know, parking assists. That kind 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.280 of stuff that's starting to become more and more common 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.360 in cars just a few years ago was completely unheard 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:21.479 of or was only found in the most high luxury 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.200 vehicles out there. So with that in mind, we get 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.320 to a point where we have this autonomous car that 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.920 is going to encounter an oncoming car. That the scenario, 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.320 in case you forgot, was that, let's say you've got 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.520 an autonomous car. You are sitting in an autonomous car, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.560 and there's an oncoming car that's veering into your lane, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.160 and the autonomous car really only has two options. One 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.360 option will result in the autonomous car getting into an 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.240 accident where you could potentially be hurt, you the passenger. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.560 The other option has the autonomous car behaving in such 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.040 a way that somebody else is going to be put 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.000 into danger, they're going to be injured. And those are 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.160 the only two options. What what do you or what 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.640 does the the designer of the autonomous car, what do 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.920 they build into the car to make that decision knowing 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.000 that one of the two options has to happen, there's 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.720 no third option, and that that's the philosophical problem that's 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.320 still going to be a problem for a while, simply 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.560 because we're not going to reach a point where spontaneously 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:29.040 everyone has a vehicle capable of communicating with other vehicles. 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.480 One day, hopefully we will reach that, whether the car 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.840 is autonomously controlled or manually controlled, so that there is 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.360 a better understanding on an electronic level of what is 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.200 going on, so that we can have safety features built 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.920 in to prevent these kind of accidents from happening. And 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.360 while this is all kind of a thought exercise in 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.720 the short term, it does have actual real world implications. 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.760 There are real world engineers working on this kind of 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.120 problem and trying to determine and what's the best way 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.800 to cause the least amount of harm in these extreme circumstances, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.960 knowing that under regular operating and conditions, an autonomous car 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.600 is likely always going to be more safe than a 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.120 manually driven car. Keeping in mind things like the Google 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.199 car story about how uh, in the entire history of 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.480 the autonomous cars that Google has been running, there have 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:27.560 only been a couple of accidents, and they've all been 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.160 due to human drivers, not the autonomous driver. So maybe 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.679 Chase in the future will get to a point where cars, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.960 whether they're autonomously controlled or manually controlled, are communicating with 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.119 one another well in advance, so that these kinds of 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:48.760 situations can be headed off before they become dangerous. That 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.359 would be wonderful. I hope that that's the future that 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.760 we see. I expect that we will get there. I 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.120 just don't know what the timeline is yet, but I'm 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.000 hoping sooner rather than later. And of course it will 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.560 all depend upon the rate at which older cars are 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.120 removed from the roads and newer cars are replacing them. 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.639 Even if that never reaches a point where you know, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.600 we don't have a mandate. Let's say, let's say that 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.560 we never pass a law that says you have to 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.280 have a car from X year or later, or you 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.879 have to convert your vehicle to have these systems in it, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.120 or else you can't drive it. Let's say that never happens. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:28.840 Even if that never happens, we just have to have 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.800 enough cars with these systems to really make a huge 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:38.639 difference in in passenger and pedestrian safety. We've seen some 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:42.880 studies have suggested that as few as twenty of vehicles 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.280 would need these in order to make massive changes to 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.600 everything from traffic jams to again passenger of pedestrian safety. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.959 So that's really encouraging to know that we don't have 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.600 to have a world where everybody's in one of these vehicles. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.600 We just have to have enough of them to make 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.959 it different. It's moving on. This next request came from Twitter. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.440 This is from Jerry who says, uh podcast episode Idea 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.600 was wondering if you could explain what goes on during 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:15.560 the sound of a dial up modem. Yes, that well, Jerry. 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.720 Just in case our younger listeners have not experienced this 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.199 or have heard it and not known what it is. 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:35.560 Let's first hear the sound of a dial up modem connecting. Beautiful, 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.080 isn't It Just really brings a tear to your eye. 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.480 So that sound, if you are not familiar with it, 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.760 it probably sounds horrific. But for most of us that 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.159 was the sound. Not for most of us, for the 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:50.639 older set of us, that was the sound of connecting 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.359 to the Internet specifically, not even just the Internet. That 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.000 was the sound of one computer connecting to another computer 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.679 using dial up modems. So dial up modems use the 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.520 tele own lines in order to make data connections. So 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.960 we were making we were making use of the existing 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:10.480 infrastructure to do something new. Instead of it being voice communication, 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.239 now it's specifically computer data communication. And that sound is 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.680 essentially a handshake. It's just not the type you would 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.360 do with your hands. It's a modem handshake between two modems, 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.280 and that's what facilitated the communication between one computer and 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.280 another computer. So here's what's going on. If you listen 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.280 to that noise, you're going to hear a series of sounds. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.120 And this is the order of those sounds and what 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.280 they mean. So the first early tones, once you get 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.120 past the dial tone and the dialing, which is typical 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:47.480 for any telephone call, not just dial up modems. Uh, 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.879 the earliest tones established the modem speeds of the two 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:55.359 modems in question. So modems come at different speeds. Um, 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.320 dial up modems come at different speeds, and you can 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.040 only really transmit data as quickly as the slowest modem. 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.520 You can't go any faster than the slowest one. Kind 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.919 of like, uh, if you've got a slow car moving 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.600 down a one lane road, it doesn't matter how fast 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.000 the vehicle is behind it, it's limited by the car 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.120 that's in front of it. So let's say that you're 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.960 using a you know, you're you're you're a bleeding edge 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.000 adopter back in the day, and you've got a nice 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.160 six D BOWD modem and most folks are still using 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.000 BOD modem. You would be stuck at a slower speed. 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:32.639 Whenever acting, you know, communicating with a slower modem. By 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.080 the way, in case you're wondering, modem would transmit a 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.480 blistering two point four a kilobits per second would be 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:44.040 nine point six kilobits per second. So that's uh, that's 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:49.920 incredibly low data transfer speeds compared to what we see today. 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.080 That's why whenever you hear people talk about the old 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:54.919 dial up modem days, you would, you know, try and 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.480 view a picture that someone had pasted online, and you 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:03.080 would just start that the process of getting the picture, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.520 and then you would walk away from your computer for 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.520 like forty five minutes and come back to see if 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:11.600 it was done yet. It's because we're talking about super 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.800 slow data transmission speeds or data rate transfers. I guess 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.919 you should I should say. Now, the next series of 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.600 tones you would hear represents the sin act handshake, which 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.760 sets up other parameters that guide the interaction, like parody. 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.480 So parody is meant to make sure that communication is 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:34.679 proceeding without errors. This parity P A R I T 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:40.960 Y not parody, which is hilarious. So essentially parody helps 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.959 modems guarantee that they are actually sending and receiving the 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.520 information properly. It's it's a means of making certain that 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:52.639 communication is not being dropped in any way, because otherwise 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.080 you would just be getting lots of corrupt files and 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.879 errors and problems like that. The next series of sounds 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.400 you would hear is when the modems would go through 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.080 what was called rate negotiation, which is the actual speed 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.479 of communication that will take place, as opposed to whatever 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.159 the maximum possible speed is between the two modems. This 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:15.280 would be the actual communication speed. The next series of 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.560 sounds is a point in which the modems are preparing 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.720 for simultaneous communication with each other, so we're finally getting 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:25.560 to the point where they can really have this exchange 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:28.960 of information going on at the same time. After that, 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.120 the sound indicates that there is a connection that has 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.080 been accepted and the two modems are in communication. And 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.199 the final little noise that you hear before the modem 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:43.240 goes to silent represents data actually moving between those two modems. 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:48.560 So there you go. There's the demystification of that modem 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:51.359 dial up sound. It's really just the establishment of a 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:56.080 connection and the you know, making sure that everything is 0:23:56.080 --> 0:24:00.119 working properly before you start trying to send files or 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:03.560 or uh ask for files or any other kind of 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:08.600 computer computer communication through a dial up access point. So 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:11.760 there you go. I hope that that answers your question. 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:14.520 It was fun to look at, and that wraps up 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:18.399 our listener mail Jubilee. I want to thank all the 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:21.880 listeners who sent in listener mail. There's tons more where 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:23.879 that came from, so I'm sure I will do more 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:27.200