WEBVTT - Why is President Obama's Blackberry such a big deal?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>Hey there, everybody, Welcome to the podcast. My name is

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<v Speaker 1>Chris Polette. I'm an editor at How Stuff Works, and

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<v Speaker 1>sitting next to me has always his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey there, Yeah, did you uh did you get that

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<v Speaker 1>message I sent you? Uh? You know, Um, I would

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<v Speaker 1>have received it, but my smartphone was confiscated. I'm not

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<v Speaker 1>allowed to have it anymore. Yeah, that was almost true

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<v Speaker 1>of somebody else that Actually, everybody knows what we're talking about. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>this cute segue stuff doesn't work well for us, does it.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're talking about our newly elected president in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States, Barack Obama, who, as you may know, is

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<v Speaker 1>something of a BlackBerry fan. Yeah. Okay. Admittedly, critics of

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<v Speaker 1>President Obama and have talked about his celebrity status and

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<v Speaker 1>how the media spends a lot of attention to it.

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<v Speaker 1>And I admit I'm a little surprised by how many

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<v Speaker 1>BlackBerry stories there have banned about whether or not he

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<v Speaker 1>will be able to uh to keep the little machine

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<v Speaker 1>that he has fallen so obsessively in love with, apparently

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<v Speaker 1>that he cannot leave it alone. Um but and and

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<v Speaker 1>so when I was talking to Jonathan about what we

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to do for the podcast, I thought, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>we should talk about why this is actually a big deal,

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<v Speaker 1>and you know why it matters whether or not he's

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<v Speaker 1>allowed to keep the BlackBerry, right, you know, the times

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<v Speaker 1>they are a changing. So we're talking right now about

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<v Speaker 1>a president who was growing up around the whole technological revolution,

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<v Speaker 1>to the point where you know, a lot of these

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<v Speaker 1>things are are things that he's very familiar with. That's

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<v Speaker 1>that's new to us. You know, the presidents we've had

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<v Speaker 1>in the past, you know, of course they were aware

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<v Speaker 1>of the technology, but they didn't depend upon it while

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<v Speaker 1>they were you know, rising up the ranks in the

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<v Speaker 1>political system, so it wasn't so relevant to them personally. Obama,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a different story. So we're starting to see, we're

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<v Speaker 1>already starting to see some clashes between Obama's new administration

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<v Speaker 1>and the way things are traditionally run in d C.

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<v Speaker 1>And the BlackBerry is a good example of that. So

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<v Speaker 1>why would Obama have a problem keeping his BlackBerry as president? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>this one actually is a lot less uh, technologically related

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<v Speaker 1>as you might think. Um, it's actually more of a

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<v Speaker 1>national security matter. Yeah. And and when you think about it,

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<v Speaker 1>if you know anything about how email works, um, you

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<v Speaker 1>know that in general most of us send, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>plain unencrypted emails from place to place, and they go

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<v Speaker 1>from machine to machine, and anybody can get hold of

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<v Speaker 1>him technically. I mean, if you're really trying to it's

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<v Speaker 1>it's not easy to get hold of it. But if

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<v Speaker 1>you know what you're doing it, you can do it. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>So the you know, the government agents are concerned that

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<v Speaker 1>for in for an espionage experts might be able to

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<v Speaker 1>get their hands on unencrypted emails until type scenario, and

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<v Speaker 1>we'd have to call on Jack Bauer and he's definitely

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<v Speaker 1>not the liberal type. And then there's that whole oh man,

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<v Speaker 1>I just hit reply to all. Yeah, that would not

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<v Speaker 1>be good if you're president of the United States and

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<v Speaker 1>you're replying to you know, you don't. You don't want

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<v Speaker 1>something like that going out to everyone. But but even

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<v Speaker 1>beyond that, there's an actual act that we have to

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<v Speaker 1>keep in mind, which is the Presidential Records Act of nine. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>this act says that that correspondence, official correspondence uh from

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<v Speaker 1>the president that has to do with government matters is

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<v Speaker 1>public record. You you know, anything you send out as

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<v Speaker 1>president that involves the policy or government, that's public record,

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<v Speaker 1>and it has to be uh. You know, the public

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<v Speaker 1>has to have access to it. The Freedom of Information

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<v Speaker 1>Act also plays into this. So with that in mind,

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<v Speaker 1>you can't you know, having an email if you send

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<v Speaker 1>out a sensitive email to someone, you know, where's the

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<v Speaker 1>line between the personal email and the this is in

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<v Speaker 1>your capacity as president of the United States. Does this

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<v Speaker 1>mean that someone has to read over every single email

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<v Speaker 1>message you send and receive to determine whether or not

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<v Speaker 1>this is a matter of public record. Um. The answer

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<v Speaker 1>to that, by the way, is yes, someone does have

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<v Speaker 1>to look that over. Um and uh. And it's interesting

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<v Speaker 1>because that was that was one of the reasons why

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<v Speaker 1>actually that was the main reason why our our previous

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<v Speaker 1>president w why he gave up email. In fact, it

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<v Speaker 1>was actually and made the news that he gave up email.

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<v Speaker 1>He sent an email message out to his friends and

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<v Speaker 1>said that essentially I'm paraphrasing here, but that he enjoyed

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<v Speaker 1>having these uh conversations in cyberspace with everyone, but out

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<v Speaker 1>of concern for this act, the Presidential Records Act, he

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<v Speaker 1>had to quit using email because he didn't want anything

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<v Speaker 1>to come to light that might be embarrassing for someone.

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<v Speaker 1>Because he felt that the media were kind of uh

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<v Speaker 1>scrutinizing him to a level where that would just be

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<v Speaker 1>a matter of time. It would just take you know,

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<v Speaker 1>sooner or later there's gonna be some email message that

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<v Speaker 1>would be shown to everyone in the world, and you

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<v Speaker 1>know it could potentially be embarrassing, whether it was intentional

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<v Speaker 1>or not. So uh, he famously gave up email. Now

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<v Speaker 1>Obama seems to be of a different mind. He he

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<v Speaker 1>really has embraced um cyberspace in a way that no

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<v Speaker 1>other president has. That's true. Um, there was a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of online marketing as far as his campaign strategy was concerned.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, he used Twitter or his campaign I should say.

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<v Speaker 1>Obviously he was a little busy, Uh, I needed a

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<v Speaker 1>little help with all these different media. But he had

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter and email and all kinds of SMS, phone apps exactly. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>so that that was sort of unprecedented to using uh

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<v Speaker 1>new media to reach out to so many people during

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<v Speaker 1>a campaign. And I think we'll probably see that from

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<v Speaker 1>virtually every campaign at virtually every level going forward. Um

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<v Speaker 1>and at least in the next few years, and maybe

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<v Speaker 1>not immediately. But and of course he he depends on

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<v Speaker 1>his BlackBerry for more than just email. He uses it

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<v Speaker 1>to stay connected to the outside world through things like

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<v Speaker 1>reading up news articles and getting news in an unfiltered way. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>I've heard it said that, you know, he he uses

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<v Speaker 1>it so that he prevents himself from being caught in

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<v Speaker 1>above where you know, information that gets to him just

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<v Speaker 1>you know, it's just the information people want to get

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<v Speaker 1>to him. This way, he has a more direct connection

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<v Speaker 1>to the outside world to to maintain that kind of

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<v Speaker 1>uh perspective. And that that was interesting to me. So

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<v Speaker 1>here we are, what's the status now, Well, it's kind

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<v Speaker 1>of influx. We According to Robert Gibbs, who's the Press secretary,

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<v Speaker 1>he says that Obama will get to keep his BlackBerry.

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<v Speaker 1>Well maybe not his BlackBerry actually from what I from

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<v Speaker 1>what I have read that it seems like there may

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<v Speaker 1>be a possibility that he'll get to this is true.

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<v Speaker 1>There is his personal BlackBerry, which he uses basically to

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<v Speaker 1>keep in touch with his friends and many senior staffers.

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<v Speaker 1>UM and UH, you know that would probably be his BlackBerry.

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<v Speaker 1>And then there's another machine that he mights to communicate

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<v Speaker 1>more sensitive matters. But this can't be a standard BlackBerry,

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<v Speaker 1>and there's a couple of reasons for that. Um. UH.

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<v Speaker 1>The company that makes the BlackBerry Research in motion UH

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<v Speaker 1>is located in Canada, which goes back to the national

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<v Speaker 1>security thing. A lot of their their servers, a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of the messages go through their servers. Actually, I think

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<v Speaker 1>all their messages go through the service, and that means

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<v Speaker 1>if it's leaving the United States borders, um, that's a

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<v Speaker 1>matter of some concern. But they don't know when those

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<v Speaker 1>Canadians could have made but they do. They do offer

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<v Speaker 1>a two fifty six bit encryption model some of their

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<v Speaker 1>their their machines, and UM, I think there it's possible

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<v Speaker 1>that they may be creating a custom UH encryption scheme

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<v Speaker 1>just for the president. However, there is another option too

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<v Speaker 1>that he might get. Yes, actually there's a couple, but

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<v Speaker 1>the one that the one that most people are I

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<v Speaker 1>think more people have heard of than the other is

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<v Speaker 1>the Sectara Edge from General from General Dynamics, and they

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<v Speaker 1>make a lot of stuff on government contracts and really

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<v Speaker 1>high tech you know technology stuff from from a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of different kinds of environments, not just you know handheld

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<v Speaker 1>technology times. But the Sectara Edge is one of those

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<v Speaker 1>that has been rated as being acceptable for top secret

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<v Speaker 1>voice communications and uh SO and secret email and web browsing.

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<v Speaker 1>So that would be very important from a national security standpoint. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>it's if you've never seen a picture of this thing.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not the sleekest handheld device you've ever seen. It's

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<v Speaker 1>actually kind of chunky looking. Um not. The the aesthetics

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<v Speaker 1>are not We're not as important as the how it worked.

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<v Speaker 1>I guess, well, you know, it doesn't have to be

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<v Speaker 1>as long as it's secure, that's the word. But I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>come on, have you seen Obama. The man has style.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying, all right, I'm just saying now, granted, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>that limo little chunky, well true, but it's also an

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<v Speaker 1>armored truck underneath there. You have a fair point. Um

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<v Speaker 1>whatever machine ends up being the official handheld communication device

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<v Speaker 1>that the President uses, Um, it's going to have to

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<v Speaker 1>Anybody who receives an email from it is going to

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<v Speaker 1>have to have some kind of compatible encryption technology. And

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<v Speaker 1>UH by that I mean, um, if you've read our

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<v Speaker 1>article how encryption works. Uh, there will be a public

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<v Speaker 1>key and a private key involved. So whoever uh President

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<v Speaker 1>Obama sends a message to, he'll have to have the

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<v Speaker 1>appropriate encryption key to send to them. Otherwise it's going

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<v Speaker 1>to show up as gibberish on whatever device they used

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<v Speaker 1>to read it. Um, So it's going to be very

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<v Speaker 1>thoroughly encrypted, and they will have to be the UM

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<v Speaker 1>appropriate software installed on the receiving end in order to

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<v Speaker 1>receive and decrypt it properly. Yeah, this is another good point. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the concerns people might have about any kind

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<v Speaker 1>of portable device that connects to the Internet is that

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<v Speaker 1>theoretically you could set it down and someone else could

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<v Speaker 1>pick it up, and then they have access to everything

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<v Speaker 1>you've sent and everything that was sent to you. Now

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<v Speaker 1>with the President, that's not as big a concern because

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<v Speaker 1>he happens to have all these big burly secret service

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<v Speaker 1>guys around him all the time, and they don't tend

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<v Speaker 1>to let that happen, and he probably wouldn't, you know, say,

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<v Speaker 1>leave it on the bus or it would not be likely,

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<v Speaker 1>especially with the way he's treated his BlackBerry so far.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you've seen pictures, that thing seems to

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<v Speaker 1>be in his hands pretty often. But beyond that, so yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>he he wouldn't. You wouldn't have to worry about him

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<v Speaker 1>setting it down. But what about the people he sends

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<v Speaker 1>messages to? So if he emails, you know, Joe Bob,

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<v Speaker 1>and Joe Bob happens to put his phone down for

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<v Speaker 1>five minutes, then turn around and it's gone. Well, now

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<v Speaker 1>you've got a whole new issue on your hands. You

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<v Speaker 1>can't put secret service agents around every single person that

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<v Speaker 1>Obama may or may not send email messages to. That

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<v Speaker 1>was one of the big, big barriers to the whole

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<v Speaker 1>BlackBerry issue in the first place. That's true, but um,

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<v Speaker 1>you know that could that could go for virtually anyone else.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean any other White House staffer or uh C

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<v Speaker 1>i A or FBI agent you know there, or even

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<v Speaker 1>someone who carries around a briefcase. I mean, we've had

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<v Speaker 1>issues where uh government information has been taken the Los

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<v Speaker 1>Alamos National Laboratory a few years ago when they had

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<v Speaker 1>that laptop computer go missing. Um, you know, any anything

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<v Speaker 1>like that, any form of information that can be actually

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<v Speaker 1>recorded in some way. Yeah, that's actually taken out of

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<v Speaker 1>the building. That's a good into into what another thing

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<v Speaker 1>I just wanted to touch on briefly, which was the

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<v Speaker 1>state of technology in the White House when the Obama administration.

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<v Speaker 1>That's right, that's right, because that was that also made

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<v Speaker 1>the news again Obama's administration that the campaigners and everyone

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<v Speaker 1>involved were used to this sort of high tech kind

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<v Speaker 1>of approach to making contact with the public and keeping

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<v Speaker 1>in touch with each other. And so they come to

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<v Speaker 1>the White House and then they find out there hardly

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<v Speaker 1>any laptops in the White House. And again part of

0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.640
<v Speaker 1>that is because it's easy too or fairly easy to

0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.680
<v Speaker 1>abscond with a laptop, at least it's easier than a desktop.

0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.640
<v Speaker 1>So hardly any laptops, No, Max Boy, that got a

0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:28.120
<v Speaker 1>big response. Yeah, Apparently the the Obama campaign used Macintosh computers.

0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.680
<v Speaker 1>And then they ended up you're trying to perpetuate that,

0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.960
<v Speaker 1>aren't kinda um? And uh, they ended up on what

0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.360
<v Speaker 1>was it, Windows two thousand machines. They said that the

0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.920
<v Speaker 1>Windows machines everything was running software that was at least

0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.480
<v Speaker 1>six years out of date. One aid said that it

0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.640
<v Speaker 1>was like going from an Xbox to an Atari. Well,

0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.280
<v Speaker 1>you know, in their defense, I understand a little bit

0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.200
<v Speaker 1>about where that's coming from, because, um, I worked for

0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.040
<v Speaker 1>a very large company before I came to the house

0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.240
<v Speaker 1>Stuff works, and we were using Even years after XP

0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.360
<v Speaker 1>came out, we were still using Windows two thousand. And

0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.000
<v Speaker 1>the reason they were doing that was because everybody in

0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.520
<v Speaker 1>this very large company was using Windows two thousand. It

0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.240
<v Speaker 1>was running smoothly, They had the package exactly the way

0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.440
<v Speaker 1>they wanted it, and there weren't any big hang ups

0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.240
<v Speaker 1>with it. And I would imagine, especially in an environment

0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.280
<v Speaker 1>where security is an issue and you have everything pretty

0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.560
<v Speaker 1>much stabilized the way you like it, you know, kind

0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.080
<v Speaker 1>of loath to change the technology. You know, it totally

0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.920
<v Speaker 1>makes sense because again, think about it this way. Hard

0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.680
<v Speaker 1>copy information can be stolen, can be copied, all that

0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.880
<v Speaker 1>kind of stuff, but you have to get into the

0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.080
<v Speaker 1>physical location where that stuff is in order to do that. Right,

0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:44.400
<v Speaker 1>So with electric communication you don't have to do that.

0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:46.640
<v Speaker 1>You know, you can be you could be on the

0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.880
<v Speaker 1>other side of the world and find a way into

0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:54.600
<v Speaker 1>an electronics system and intercept messages and things of that nature. So,

0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:57.480
<v Speaker 1>you know, on the one hand, you're like, how can

0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.120
<v Speaker 1>the United States of America, argue, would be the one

0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.920
<v Speaker 1>of the most advanced countries on the face of the planet,

0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.520
<v Speaker 1>how can it run its government using this old, out

0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.200
<v Speaker 1>of date software. But on the other hand, you think, well,

0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.120
<v Speaker 1>how safe would it be if they were using you know,

0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.040
<v Speaker 1>brand new technology, would it? Would it really be prudent

0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.560
<v Speaker 1>to use that? Uh, considering that there are people out

0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.040
<v Speaker 1>there who might be a little interested to know what's

0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.080
<v Speaker 1>going on in the White House at any given time.

0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.880
<v Speaker 1>But I do understand that they had, you know, all

0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.360
<v Speaker 1>the ws on the keyboards, but they did have eight

0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.560
<v Speaker 1>years to replace them after the Clinton White House staff

0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.600
<v Speaker 1>removed all the WS when w got into the office. Yeah,

0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:44.440
<v Speaker 1>wacky politicians. So yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see.

0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.080
<v Speaker 1>I'm kind of curious to see what the White House

0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.840
<v Speaker 1>looks like from a technological point of view at the

0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.800
<v Speaker 1>end of Obama's administration. I mean, will we see major

0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:58.160
<v Speaker 1>updates to the software and the hardware, or will they

0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.359
<v Speaker 1>choose to keep these what some people would call antiquated systems.

0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:07.080
<v Speaker 1>Because there's a measure of security involved just by using those. Um,

0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.240
<v Speaker 1>I don't, honestly, I don't know the answer to that.

0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.360
<v Speaker 1>I would I would expect there'd be some kind of,

0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:17.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, area in between. I would imagine that, given

0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:21.480
<v Speaker 1>what we've read about about the administration and the needs

0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.440
<v Speaker 1>of the White House going forward, I would imagine that

0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.280
<v Speaker 1>if you were are a security and electronic security expert

0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.400
<v Speaker 1>at the n s A, your job is pretty safe. Probably. Yeah.

0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.000
<v Speaker 1>I also don't think we'll be seeing Microsoft surfaces on

0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.000
<v Speaker 1>all the tables or anything like that anytime soon. So

0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.640
<v Speaker 1>it's not heavily unless they're heavily encrypted, right, Yeah, So

0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.520
<v Speaker 1>that you know, essentially you're just looking at blocks and

0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.640
<v Speaker 1>you're like, I don't know what any of this is. Um, yeah,

0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.040
<v Speaker 1>it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting. So, but it's a

0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.560
<v Speaker 1>brand new world. I mean, we've got a president who,

0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.760
<v Speaker 1>for the moment at least appears to to have the

0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.200
<v Speaker 1>go ahead to use an electronic device to send email. Um,

0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.840
<v Speaker 1>that's new. We'll have to see how that plays out. Uh.

0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.440
<v Speaker 1>You know, it might help Obama in the long run,

0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.199
<v Speaker 1>because he'll be seen as someone who is very responsive

0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.680
<v Speaker 1>and can stay in touch with the outside world and

0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.720
<v Speaker 1>is not just kind of sequestered away, or it could

0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.399
<v Speaker 1>come back to haunt all of us if the worst

0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.200
<v Speaker 1>should happen. So time we'll have to tell. But uh,

0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.359
<v Speaker 1>you know what, I've got something else we can talk about.

0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.800
<v Speaker 1>I've got some listener mail. Really before we go into it,

0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:30.960
<v Speaker 1>I think we should thank our sponsor. Our sponsor that

0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.639
<v Speaker 1>would be Audible, Yes, it would be so www dot

0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.880
<v Speaker 1>audible podcast dot com slash tech stuff. If you sign

0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.720
<v Speaker 1>up there, you get a free download. They have thousands

0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.679
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of audio books in their in their library,

0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:45.760
<v Speaker 1>and uh, there's some great stuff in there. So we

0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.040
<v Speaker 1>thought we would recommend a couple of books. Chris, why

0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.480
<v Speaker 1>don't you recommend one that's true? Um, you know, no

0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.359
<v Speaker 1>telling whether or not President Obama will be listening to

0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.280
<v Speaker 1>audio books on his uh N S, a security enabled portable.

0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.919
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure it's kind of the acronym, right, Um, But

0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.520
<v Speaker 1>if you were going to use your free download and

0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.800
<v Speaker 1>you were interested in finding out what makes President Obama tick,

0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.160
<v Speaker 1>you might check out Dreams from My Father, a story

0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.119
<v Speaker 1>of race and inheritance. You know, it's it tells a

0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.359
<v Speaker 1>lot about him growing up, and it's narrated by the

0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.639
<v Speaker 1>President of the United States, so that that would be

0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.440
<v Speaker 1>a good choice if you're interested in learning more about

0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.840
<v Speaker 1>the person using the black period. Excellent, And I have

0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:33.720
<v Speaker 1>a recommendation for what could go Seriously Seriously wrong with Technology? Okay, um, okay.

0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.280
<v Speaker 1>So it's a horror novel. It's not real, but it's

0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:41.200
<v Speaker 1>sell by Stephen Keing narrated by Campbell Scott. So Cell

0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.920
<v Speaker 1>is a story about a computer virus that people UH

0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.280
<v Speaker 1>encounter on their cell phones that then causes them to

0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:53.160
<v Speaker 1>go bunkers and start chopping each other up into tiny bits. So, um, hey,

0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.359
<v Speaker 1>you know there's a there's a worst case scenario for

0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.280
<v Speaker 1>you that would be interesting if that happened to the

0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.760
<v Speaker 1>com Yeah. Well, you could get either of these or

0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.959
<v Speaker 1>one of fifty thousand more books for free by signing

0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:08.159
<v Speaker 1>up at www dot Audible, podcast dot com, slash tech Stuff,

0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:17.639
<v Speaker 1>and now listener mail. So this listener mail comes to

0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.720
<v Speaker 1>us from Benjamin ivy Uh. In the interest of full disclosure,

0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.359
<v Speaker 1>he and I have a Facebook past. Benjamin writes to

0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.320
<v Speaker 1>us and says, last Christmas, I bought my brother several

0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.960
<v Speaker 1>small gifts, a T shirt, used sci fi books, and

0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.640
<v Speaker 1>his favorite snacks, rather than simply placing these items under

0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.440
<v Speaker 1>the tree. I took his GPS device and hid them

0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.000
<v Speaker 1>all around our town. I gave him the coordinates to

0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.159
<v Speaker 1>find the first gift. Each gift was placed in a

0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.560
<v Speaker 1>bag along with the coordinates to find the next gift.

0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.480
<v Speaker 1>It was super fun and made for a very memorable Christmas.

0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.720
<v Speaker 1>To do this, I would recommend hiding them in not

0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.440
<v Speaker 1>too public places yet still accessible from a car. Also,

0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:55.360
<v Speaker 1>to keep track of the coordinates, you have to hide

0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.720
<v Speaker 1>the last gift first and work backwards as you cash them. Um,

0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.000
<v Speaker 1>that's a great idea. It's very fun, very entertaining a

0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.840
<v Speaker 1>couple of just tiny reminders. Um, if you're hiding them

0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:08.960
<v Speaker 1>in a city, make sure you're not gonna put it

0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:10.760
<v Speaker 1>someplace where people are going to freak out and think

0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.000
<v Speaker 1>that you're putting a bomb there. Uh. You may need

0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.160
<v Speaker 1>to get permission from someone to hide something someplace, And

0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.679
<v Speaker 1>as he points out, don't put it into public a

0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.239
<v Speaker 1>place or anyone could come by and pick it up.

0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.040
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know what happened at make a pixel

0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.880
<v Speaker 1>digital camera back in the trash can over there. Yeah,

0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:28.919
<v Speaker 1>you know it's funny because of scorn they picked up

0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:33.359
<v Speaker 1>trash on Thursdays you have Wednesdays. Yeah, but thank you

0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:35.680
<v Speaker 1>very much Benjamin for the email and for the suggestion.

0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.280
<v Speaker 1>That's a great idea. I love the whole scavenger hunt thing.

0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.760
<v Speaker 1>Very cool. Yeah, so if you guys want to write

0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.040
<v Speaker 1>into us, you should definitely give it a give it

0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.480
<v Speaker 1>a go. We love getting that email. It's a podcast

0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.679
<v Speaker 1>at how stuff works dot com And if you want

0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:51.239
<v Speaker 1>to learn more about anything we've talked about, you can

0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.040
<v Speaker 1>check out how stuff works dot com and we will

0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:59.639
<v Speaker 1>talk to you again really soon. For more on this

0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.680
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.919
<v Speaker 1>Let us know what you think. Send an email to

0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:13.439
<v Speaker 1>podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you

0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.840
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0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:17.040
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