WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks Back at 2013 Part Two 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:10.640 Get in text with technology with text stuff from dot com. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.120 Hey everyone, and welcome to tex Stuff. I am Jonathan 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.400 Strickland and I'm Lauren voc Obam. And you know what, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.040 I'm so sorry guys in our last episode we left 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.120 you halfway through two thousand thirteen, But don't worry. We're 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.040 back and we're here to pick you up and carry 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:27.960 you the rest of the way, because otherwise, how would 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:29.680 you ever know what would have happened in the past 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.840 six months of your life? Right? I mean clearly you 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.360 were sitting on the edge of your seat. How is 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.720 two thousand thir taking It turned out? Well, June follow me, 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.000 Yes it did, So we're picking up in June two thirteen. Uh, 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.159 this is the first story we have is one that 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.440 amused me because I was very curious to see how 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.880 it would play out. And I'm still perplexed. Um, and 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.640 we're talking about the my Space relaunch. So my Space 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.880 obviously a huge social media platform back in the day. Yeah, 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.560 I think as of what would that have been like 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:07.240 two thousand Yeah, Like you know, there was a time 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.440 where everyone was on my Space. Facebook had just started 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.200 as yeah, and and Facebook was just for college students 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.320 when it first started, I couldn't. By that time, I 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.360 was out of college, so I was not I was 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.759 not admitted into Facebook. I didn't fit that that criterionographic. Yeah, 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:26.959 so I was, but I was on my Space, and 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.240 I remember seeing Facebook opening up to the public and 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.559 thinking this upstart social platforms. Never, why are they even trying? 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.080 My Space already dominates the space. But then over time, 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.760 you know, I got a little tired of everyone turning 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.280 their profile pages into sparkly unicorns that play music at 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.679 you no matter what you try to do. That was 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.040 the best part of my Space. Yeah, when it became 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:53.560 Geo City's part two. So anyway, long story short, they 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.640 decided to uh, new owners came in and bought up 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.400 the company. They rebranded, they relaunched, They had a twenty 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.640 million all our ad campaign. Yeah, and it's really more 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:04.880 about I mean, it was always a big place for 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.800 music discovery, but now that's almost all it's about. And 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:10.800 it's just about music discovery. But I don't know that 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:12.600 that many people care about it. I think it was 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.440 a little it was too little, too late. You had 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.120 already lost a great deal of your audience, and the 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.080 ones who remain are are die hards, but you're not really. 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.160 I don't think that my space is attracting new audience 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.480 the way they need to. I think that I think 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.680 that young bands are probably going to something like Tumbler 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.000 or SoundCloud or making their own um, their own blog 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.640 to launch that where you can get all that stuff 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.000 and or or a little bit on Facebook. Still. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.680 so that's a that was a tough one. Also, in June, 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.400 that's when we first learned about Google's Project Loon. We 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.760 talked about, right, those are those um kind of internet 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:56.800 weather balloons. Yeah, balloons that provide WiFi to remote locations 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.480 and they float in the stratsphere to do it. Yeah. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.239 We did a whole episode on that on November twenty 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:03.959 called The Louns at Google. If you would like to 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.000 go check that out. Yeah. My favorite part of that 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.120 story is the Australian couple who were one of the 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.840 early early alpha testers, who were approached by the Google 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.880 men in black. Can we put this on your house? 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:17.360 We can't tell you what it is or what it 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.160 does or how long it will be there, And they said, okay, 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.960 apparently it's very laid back on the outback. So uh, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.120 then we've got another big story. This is really we 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.079 joked last last in the last episode about the biggest 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:33.400 story of the year being Gift or Jeff. This I 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.920 think is truly the biggest story of the year. Would 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.920 be hard to say it's not. Absolutely. The ramifications of 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.119 this one are are huge. We are, of course, talking 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.640 about the story that was first broken by The Guardian 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.000 and the Washington Post that coordinated together to reveal that 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.760 the n s A was having a surveillance program that 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.000 stretched across the Internet and was incredibly deep, to the 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.040 point where it was it was farming out information from 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.640 major providers like Google. It was you know, essentially tapping 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.040 into that stream and seeing all the stuff that was 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.560 going through UM in an attempt, at least from the 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:15.720 NSA's point of view, to stop foreign threats against the 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.240 United States. The idea of being that this was really 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.800 only supposed to apply to communications between agents of foreign nations, 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.839 whether that is a citizen who's working on the United 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.039 States is and working on behalf of a foreign nation, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.839 or some person of uh, you know, some somewhat a 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.880 foreigner who was working on behalf of a nation. UM. However, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.719 because of the way the Internet works and the way 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.360 that data centers work. We it's really a quite widespread 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.320 surveillance program. And not only that, but they have a 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.839 very low threshold of certainty that they felt they needed 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.320 to hit in order for them to identify someone as 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.760 a foreign agent. In other words, you know, like if 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.280 they felt fift sure that someone was a foreign agent, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.640 they would go ahead of start, which yeah, they they 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.560 instructed their their operators to go a little more than 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.480 a coin flip. And on top of that, there were 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.360 some stories about n s A employees abusing the system, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.839 people who are using it to spy on like ex 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.440 girlfriends or ex boyfriends, or people who were using it 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.000 for other means, where you know, clearly this is not 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:24.119 a foreign agent. This is people being people. And even 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.520 this is a good example of how even if your 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.640 system was designed to do a specific thing really well, 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.080 it's really only as good as the people who are 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.839 using it. So even if we were to take the 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 n s A at their word that everything was on 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.279 the up and up and everything is legal, and that's 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.720 questionable to according to your point of view. I mean, 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.279 the whole thing was approved by a secret court whose 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.240 findings are under under a court order, so that you 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.000 can't see them, you know, we we aren't allowed to 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.359 actually look in on the process, but we're told that 0:05:55.400 --> 0:06:00.920 the process works. It's a complicated and frankly terrified ing story, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.240 and it's one that's played out over the entire year 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.240 since then. Yeah, and and especially I mean, you know, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.520 it's the fact that we learned about all of this 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.159 from a former n s A contractor, Edward Snowden, kind 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.360 of proves the point of of the system is only 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.440 as good its operators. Yes, because Snowdon was not like 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.520 an n Essay spy. Snowdon was someone who worked on 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.040 the system side of it, saw stuff that he felt 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.000 the public need to. Yeah, he's he was like, this 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.159 is not right, and I don't know how to act 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.719 on this other than to hand this information over to 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.679 the press. And so that's what Snowton did. And of course, 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:36.919 depending upon how you view Snowden, you may think that 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:38.960 he's a trader or you may think he's a hero. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.360 He's currently living in temporary asylum in Russia because he's 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.280 essentially in exile. If he were to come back to 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.000 the United States, he would immediately be arrested. So, yeah, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.280 complicated story, that's still playing out, and it's it's got 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.240 a lot of ramifications outside of just this story. It's 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.719 it's raised awareness about everything from online privacy to what 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.359 is our expectation for uh for our government looking in 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.240 on not just US, but other countries, other countries of 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.720 course looking at the United States saying even if all 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.160 of your citizens are cool with this, we're totally not 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.960 cool with this. Yeah, and especially since you know they're 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.960 they're they're monitoring so much information from so many people 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.120 that that use services that either porth to America are 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.560 owned by American companies that that normal citizens in many 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.720 other countries are being affected by this as well. So, yeah, big, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.040 big story. Yeah, we we did. We did a two 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.960 part about prison, which is that that main program that 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.320 the n s A is running. Those episodes ran on 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.920 July first. Excellent, so go check those out if you 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.920 want to hear more about this story. Next, we have 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.480 a little more lighthearted story. That was when the Uyah 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.600 console launched on Amazon for it sold out basically immediately. 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.520 Uh So, this was the console that had a Kickstarter 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:01.040 campaign in two thousand twelve and was overwhell mainly successful. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.280 This was one of those stories like the Pebbles smartwatch 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.360 that just you know, it just skyrocket and it really 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:11.400 hit a nerve. However, from the at least the initial 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.760 reviews of the system, a lot of people felt that um, 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.160 it had a lot of potential but didn't live up 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:18.680 to it yet it was a little bit half banked. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.720 So it may it may turn out that in the 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.840 long run it turns into a console that people but 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.680 are consider one of the beloved consoles. But right now, 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.760 I mean a lot of those earlier reviews were pretty harsh. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.280 I remember even seeing an unboxing video where a person 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.800 unboxed and showed it off to the camera and then 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.520 immediately put it in a garbage can. Yeah, which I 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.120 thought was you know that, come on, stay classy. But 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.240 still you get the wa wait, we're on the internet. 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:52.200 I do you know how the internet works? What's the 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.400 what's the internet? I'm still on the arpanet and no 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:00.600 one talks to me. I think I've isolated your problem. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.040 Let's move on to July, shall we. Yes? Um that's 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.640 when the director of Microsoft's Xbox program, Don Matric, left 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.600 the company to become the new CEO of Zenga. Yeah, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.679 which was one of those things that caused a lot 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.680 of analysts to say, wait what because because because Xbox, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.160 you know, one like arguably at that point in the year, 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.679 the largest gaming company. Yeah, I mean Xbox had been 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.840 selling like crazy. Some people would argue that the Xbox 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.880 division was the one division in Microsoft that really was 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.240 doing a great job. And then Matric leaves that to 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.920 go help Zinga, which had was a company that was 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.440 known to be in a kind of weird spiral continual 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:42.840 weird state of flux and Zinca of course, being that 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.640 mobile gaming app company, um, that that has done things 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.760 like Farmville and Words Friends, Yeah, stuff that is on 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.480 mobile platforms and also on on social media platforms. And uh, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.400 I mean Zinga's old CEO actually essentially fired himself and 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.760 then hired Metric, So that was an interesting story. And 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.840 then uh, you know Xbox got a new director. Yeah, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.199 that would be Julie Larson Green. She is officially the 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.040 executive vice President of Devices and Studios, which means that 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.280 she's in charge of all Xbox hardware, devices, games, music, 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.679 and entertainment. Um. This was scene is a pretty good 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.600 choice by most people because she, I mean she she 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.040 got her start at Microsoft overseeing the development of Visual 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.680 c plus plus. She helped create the ribbon for Office 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.240 two thousands. She's the previous co leader of Windows. She 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.800 led the planning on Windows seven. Um, so she had 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.360 some chops, some serious chops. Let me guess what the 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.960 problem was. She was a she. She was a she 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.520 and some really sexist gamers and she, I mean, she 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.240 happens to be like more or less like symmetrical in 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:46.920 her face, and so therefore a lot of really sexist 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.120 gamers were like that pretty lady can't possibly be a 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.640 gamer or know enough about games to do stuff and things. 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.120 And to be fair, she's she's self professed like not 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.600 huge into gaming. But I don't think we're not talking 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.600 about the business side of things. It's it's not like 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.520 the president of the Xbox division is the person who 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.319 decides which games get made and which ones don't. This 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.600 is someone who's got a vision for the overall consoles direction. 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.640 And also, I would like to posit that if in 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.080 fact we chose Xbox is president by like the person 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.920 who got the best gamer score. Uh yeah, it would 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.280 be terrible. These would be these companies would be in shambles. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.840 So come on, guys, all right, at any rate. So 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.160 Also in July, Google unveiled Chrome Cast, which is a 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.000 cute little dongle that can connect to a television's h 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.280 d M I port and over WiFi. It can pick 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.880 up signals from your laptop or mobile device and stream 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.760 from the content on your computer or a mobile device 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.600 to the television. So, in other words, if you don't 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.280 have something like a game console or some other set 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.880 top box that brings in web content, or you've got 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.440 one but it's really limited, like it only brings in 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.559 web con tip from very specific sources, this would give 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.400 you more flexibility. I actually own one of these, and uh, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.520 and I've got a lot of different options when it 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.600 comes to getting web content on my TV because I'm 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.640 I don't know if you know this. I like technology, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.240 so but I got one of these, and it turns 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.040 out that I love this because if you want to 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.040 look for something specific on let's say YouTube, Let's say, 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:27.280 as you want to you want to look at a 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.800 YouTube video on your large screen, UM, this would be 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.200 a way of being able to do a search very quickly, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.840 whereas a lot of the different consoles and set top 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.880 boxes out there have very clunky search features. If you're 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.160 not using something that has voice command where you can say, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.120 look for that funny video where the cat falls asleep, 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.360 then you're gonna have some trouble. But if you're able 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.160 to go to your laptop and just do a quick 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.160 search by typing out a few keywords and then casting it, 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.520 you know, streaming it from your computer to the TV, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.360 it makes it much simpler. And it's also a super 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.440 relatively speaking, a super cheap device. Yeah, it retails for 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.880 like thirty five bucks. I think thirty five bucks. I 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:10.560 was on a waiting list because by the time I 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:12.840 ordered it, it it already I had been announced and then 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.840 initially sold out. But even on the waiting list, I 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.559 think I had to wait maybe two weeks and then 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.719 I got mine and that was when it first came out. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.920 So speaking of waiting lists, though, hey, oh yeah, this 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.120 is a story that fills me with joy. And this 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.960 one was not perhaps one of the largest stories of 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.240 the year, but but it is very, very close to 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.120 Jonathan's heart if you've listened to that. I can't remember 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.679 what episode it was where I totally lost it on 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.320 this particular story. I do remember doing that, and whether 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.760 we edited most of that out or not. But but 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.520 in in July, best Buy began stalking Pebble smart watches, 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:52.160 um uh, slightly before all of the Kickstarter backers of 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:55.880 of the Pedal Project had received their own right, I 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.360 was not a Kickstarter project backer, so I was not 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.400 expecting pre order. Yeah I was. I was a pre order, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.600 But yeah, I I like to think that when you 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.199 pre order, I'm gonna have the same brand. I'm not 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:08.920 gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. You pre 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.040 ordered a special color and they had not manufactured that 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.880 color yet, that the ones available best Buy were only 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:16.720 the black. That's true. And I got the I got 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.800 the very style. Only that on the back of it 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.280 it says Kickstarter Edition. And I was not a Kickstarter backer, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.120 and yet I got a Kickstarter edition watch, so I 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:32.320 cannot really complain. Also, I love that watch. I'm not 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.760 wearing it right now. I accidentally left it at home. 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.720 I had that he usually is I usually do wear it. Um. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.480 I love it. It is one of my favorite gadgets 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:43.360 that I've picked up in the last couple of years. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.080 And it's you know, people say, well, the Pebble smart 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:47.840 watch is kind of limited what it can do, which 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.120 is true. But what it does do, it does really 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.960 well and I like the things that it does do. So, um, 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.520 I've really had If you ever watch any of my 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.400 forward thinking videos, anyone I shot after the I got 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.680 that watch, you'll see that watch on my wrist. So 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.320 but yes, there was a moment where I was I 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.640 was curssing pebble. Uh. Next, we have a story that 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.600 developed and we also covered this in an episode of 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.240 tech Stuff. This was a special episode of tech Stuff 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.560 that Lauren you you you weren't there. Yeah, I was 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.320 out at one of my two best friends got married 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.280 two weekends in a row in October, So I missed 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.680 a little bit of things due to insanity and travel plans. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.160 And Ben Bolan was kind enough to step in and 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.040 do this episode with Jonathan about Elon Musk's hyper loop yep, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.920 and Elon Musk, of course, founder of Tesla Motors, founder 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.360 of SpaceX. Everyone has acknowledged that this dude is really 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.600 smart and really good at the business, and so he 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.440 had been teasing for a while that he had this 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.920 this cool idea for a new kind of transportation system, 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.280 and eventually he leaked that it was going to be 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.240 called the hyper loop, or that His concept was called 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.200 hyper loop, right, not that it was going to be 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.440 called because we're not really positive that this is going 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.120 to come to fruition ever. Yeah, no one has any 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.400 plans of actually building this. In fact, even Musk was 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.480 saying like it would be great if someone took this on, 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.920 suggesting that he himself was not going to be that person. 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.760 And to be fair, Musk has a lot on his plate. 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.720 So anyway, little bit busy with you know, to Tesla 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.840 motors and space. Little things like getting people into space 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.640 and getting electric super fast cars on the road does 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.480 take a lot of time. What what would not take 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.720 a lot of time if Hyperlooper built would be a 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.120 trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles, which would be 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.680 only thirty five minutes in duration. Right, Uh, yeah, these 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.920 this is a electromagnetic train kind of thing. And yeah, 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.400 each each car is its own little capsule. It would 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.200 float on a cushion of air. Those electromagnetic motors would 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.880 provide the push that would allow it to go around 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.400 this loop track between San Francisco and l A and 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.000 um and supposedly you would travel at at a top 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.600 be that would be faster than what most commercial jets 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.280 travel at Uh. You know, it remains to be seeing 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.160 whether this is even feasible because no one has an 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.720 actual example of this to show that it truly would 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.879 work efficiently. If you listen to the hyper loop episode 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.320 we did, you will, Yeah, that one, that one published 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.240 on NOVEM. You're looking for it, so just go back 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.800 and check that one out. Let's move on to August. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:27.720 Big story. We only have one story for August, but 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.840 it's a big one. Yeah. That was when Microsoft CEO 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.280 Steve Balmber announced that he was going to step down. Yeah, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.040 which you know, some people had been calling for for 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.800 Balmer to step down for a couple of years. Developers, developers, developers. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.080 I think the developers liked them, but I'm not sure 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.880 that anyone else did. Um No, I'm not. That's being unfair, 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.639 but there were there have been people who have said 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.680 that Microsoft suffers from a lack of true leadership. I 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:58.640 was never one of those people. I thought that Balmber 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:03.400 certainly was a powerful leader, but I didn't I wasn't 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.919 always sure that his vision of Microsoft was something that 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.480 aligned with what a lot of us the rank and file, 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.200 would consider, you know, really to be memorable or or relevant. 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.600 Now he was trying to to to straddle that line 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.199 between enterprise and consumers, and that's tough to do. That 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.159 is very tough to do. I also think that he 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.000 just has some a little bit of like charisma within 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.080 the press issues going on, where he kind of frequently 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:37.199 doesn't come off I think as well as he wants to, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.960 or he could. He certainly comes off as enthusiastic, yes, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:46.920 but perhaps not as a suave or like Steve Jobs 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.800 could come out and in just a super cool kind 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.119 of way for for geeks, super cool for geeks. Okay, 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.080 we're talking about a niche audience here, but in a 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.000 super cool kind of way, really drum up your excitement 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.760 for something. Uh, and Balmer could come out and you'd 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.640 be afraid he'd throw a chair at you. But but 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:06.679 you know, to be fair to Balmer, I mean, he 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:15.040 really obviously loves Yeah, so he um and his responses 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.560 in the wake of the announcement, it seemed to me 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.600 that it didn't sound like it was entirely his decision 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.000 to step down. It seemed to be like he was 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.359 someone who, you know, was really passionate about this company 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.840 and doesn't necessarily have a vision for what comes next. 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.439 For him UM, and the question of who will be 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.199 Microsoft's next CEO remains unanswered as of the recording of 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.560 this podcast. We are recording on December twelve, so it 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.000 is possible that before the end of the year that 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.640 that decision has been made. But right now they're looking 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.960 at a couple of different candidates, Um, some of whom 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.959 are people who are known to be great leaders but 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.440 have no experience in the computer or software industries. Yeah, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.359 we're going to talk a little bit about that, I 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:05.080 think and predictions episode. Yeah. So, anyway, that was that 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.960 was a big story for August and we have gotten 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:12.840 through a Q three, so we want to hit SHU four. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.520 But before we do that, let's take a quick break 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.679 to thank our sponsor. You know, try to remember the 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.280 kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow. 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.760 We're talking September. I'm quoting from the Fantastics. If you 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:32.520 recognize that, you are awesome. So September, that's traditionally when 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.800 a company that rhymes with schmapple comes out and uh 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.920 and and whips the crowd into a rabid fervor of 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.400 joy and consumption. Right. Yeah, and they did tuberculosis consumption. 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.320 They certainly. I hope not. I've forgotten that from my iPhone. 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.120 There's no app for that. I no, No, that's that's 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.280 when they unveiled the iPhone five C and five S. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.440 And it's funny because one of your predictions was all 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.439 about the US and you were and one of my 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.800 predictions was kind of about this. I think either way, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.000 one of us predicted this and we were around the money. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.399 I think I think that was you. I want to 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:09.600 I want to say that you said that there was 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:11.399 going to be a new iPhone and that you were 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.320 the one who called it iPhone five. Say it was 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.760 a tag team victory. Excellent. Now now it all comes 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:21.760 back to me, high fives. Um. So the five S 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:26.520 was the slightly more hardware update update. Yeah, faster processor, 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:31.840 better screen, biometric fingerprints, scanner, some all a little cool 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.760 bells and whistles were added to that one. The five 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.359 C was basically just a cheaper version of the of 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.840