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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot Com. Hello everybody,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff, coming live to you from

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Speaker 1: Studios seven seven b X. My name is Chris paul Ott.

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Speaker 1: I'm an editor here at how stuff Works dot Com.

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Speaker 1: And sitting next to me as usual, making funny faces

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Speaker 1: and laughing under the table is senior writer Jonathan Stricklin. Hey, there,

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Speaker 1: guess what what Today marks are one hundredth episode who

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Speaker 1: and we have something special for you guys today, something

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Speaker 1: that one of our listeners sent in. Hit it. Tyler, Congratulations,

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Speaker 1: Tech Stuff. You've made it to a hundred episodes. You

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Speaker 1: never thought it would get this fubb Man didn't we hope.

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Speaker 1: So what's gonna be funny about listen to text stuff

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Speaker 1: in a hundred years. It's all the problems that we

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Speaker 1: had and we tried to solve it with thy phones

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Speaker 1: and text stuff showed us how to access my Tude store,

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Speaker 1: showed me how to run inti virus, stuffware in bit,

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Speaker 1: toured many more. That's why it's important to listen to

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Speaker 1: every text of episode and think John and Chris for

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Speaker 1: making it so it's a hundred APIs so a hundred episode? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Thank you? Wow, that was really cool, wasn't it. That's

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Speaker 1: pretty awesome. So that was from James Meyer, host of

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Speaker 1: The Rare Podcast, who wrote that song just for us

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Speaker 1: for this hundredth episode. Awesome. Yeah, fantast We've been immortalized

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Speaker 1: in song. That's a little scary. Yeah, it's a little

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Speaker 1: frightening and it So Chris and I were debating what

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Speaker 1: did we want to do for the hundredth episode, you know,

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Speaker 1: what would really be special to do the hundredth episode

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Speaker 1: of Tech Stuff, And ultimately we came to the conclusion

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Speaker 1: that what would be really special is to do an

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Speaker 1: episode that didn't require us to do any research whatsoever,

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Speaker 1: and that what you're getting. So we wanted to talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about kind of kind of ourselves, our

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Speaker 1: stories about how we got interested in tech Now, it

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Speaker 1: may surprise you to know that that neither Chris nor

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Speaker 1: myself really joined How Stuff Works with the intention of

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Speaker 1: being technical writers. Correct, Yeah, that's that's true. At the

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Speaker 1: time that what we came on board, Um, we didn't

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Speaker 1: really specialize in anything in particular. We wrote about anything

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Speaker 1: and everything, which was cool and that was that was

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Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But as we started to grow,

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Speaker 1: it became apparent that it would really behoove us too

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Speaker 1: to specialize in various categories on and we're talking across

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Speaker 1: the board, all the different writers and to that way

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Speaker 1: kind of build our expertise in these different subjects. And

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Speaker 1: it turned out that Chris and I were the two

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Speaker 1: who were not afraid of technology speak for yourself, but

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Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck scared to death of her. You should.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Josh he quivers when he turns his power

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Speaker 1: button on on his computer. I mean, it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's a site to behold. But no, seriously, we we

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Speaker 1: actually both love technology, and so it was it was

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Speaker 1: a pretty good fit. I mean, it was again one

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Speaker 1: of those things where for a second, it was intimidating

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Speaker 1: because there's a whole lot of tech. Yeah, there's an

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Speaker 1: awful lot of tech and it changes all the time. Yep, yep,

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Speaker 1: just switched on us. So so we were both a

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Speaker 1: little uh, you know, we we were excited and a

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Speaker 1: little anxious, and it turned out to be a great

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Speaker 1: fit actually, because that led to the Tech Stuff podcast,

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Speaker 1: which also led to the tech stuff blogs, and here

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Speaker 1: we sit getting to talk about some of the coolest

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Speaker 1: stuff on the face of the planet as far as

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Speaker 1: I'm concerned. All right, so we're gonna talk about some

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Speaker 1: of our favorite tech and some stories that about how

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Speaker 1: we got involved in technology and and led up to

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Speaker 1: our careers. I suppose. Alright, then, so you want to start, Um, sure, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, my dad was a mechanical engineer, and UM,

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Speaker 1: you know he was. He's always been a real gadget nut.

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Speaker 1: And UM, I think that's sort of carried over, you know,

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Speaker 1: osmosis if you will. Um. And uh. I actually got

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Speaker 1: my first computer when I was in junior high school,

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Speaker 1: which in the school system I was in was ninth grade,

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Speaker 1: was in junior high school, and it was unsurprisingly an

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Speaker 1: Amiga Amiga one thousand, which was the very first Um.

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Speaker 1: And well, you know I would have if I had

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Speaker 1: gotten a PC, I would have been using Doss so seriously. UM,

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Speaker 1: but we Uh, instead of going with the at R

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Speaker 1: E S T or the Mac, we actually went with

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Speaker 1: the Amiga. And I was an Amiga user for many years. Um.

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Speaker 1: That's the basics on my my tech background. And of course,

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Speaker 1: you know, there were many many gadgets and gizmos and

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Speaker 1: do flag. I'm sure. I'm sure we'll hit some of

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Speaker 1: them as we talk. So that was your sort of

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Speaker 1: the genesis for you. Yeah, it was my first computer,

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Speaker 1: all right. Well for me, my parents are authors. Um,

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Speaker 1: my father has been a published author for many many

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Speaker 1: years and has written several science fiction novels. So science, gadgets, technology,

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Speaker 1: all of that sort of thing held you know, he

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Speaker 1: had had a fascination with all of that as well.

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Speaker 1: So in our family, we decided that we needed a computer,

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Speaker 1: mainly so that my father could write and uh not

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Speaker 1: have to type everything out on on paper and you know,

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Speaker 1: curse every time there was a a mistake, and and

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Speaker 1: you know I had to go and retype an entire

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Speaker 1: page as opposed to you know, just hitting a little

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Speaker 1: backspace but in a couple of times and typing in

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Speaker 1: another key. So our first computer technically was a Texas

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Speaker 1: instrument computer. Wow. Yeah, I used to hunt the wumpus.

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Speaker 1: But um, the first computer where we actually had what

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Speaker 1: I would call a computer computer. And this is not

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Speaker 1: to offend you Texas instrument fans out there, please don't

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Speaker 1: write to me, was the Apple to E and the

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Speaker 1: Apple to Apple two E was really meant for my

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Speaker 1: dad to uh to be able to write his books,

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Speaker 1: you know. But we also managed to get a few games,

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Speaker 1: and that pretty much sold it for me. Once I

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Speaker 1: found out that this machine also let you play stuff,

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Speaker 1: I was hooked. And so the Apple two E was

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Speaker 1: kind of my introduction. Yeah, Jonathan, the the anti Mac guy.

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Speaker 1: My first computer was the Apple two e UM and

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Speaker 1: I'm not really anti Mac. I We always go on

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Speaker 1: about this because a reader once said that I had

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Speaker 1: an anti Mac bias, and so I find it very

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Speaker 1: funny and I like to bring it up. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was my intro, was the Apple t E. And uh,

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Speaker 1: I'll be talking a little bit more about that as well,

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Speaker 1: I guess to this conversation. So we're just gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about some other kind of tech things, stuff we like,

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Speaker 1: stuff that kind of shaped us. So you got anything

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Speaker 1: else you want to add before I jump into another

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Speaker 1: one of my stories, No, go ahead? Oh you want

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Speaker 1: me to go ahead? All right? Okay, Well here we go.

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Speaker 1: One of the first games that I got for the

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Speaker 1: Apple to E was the was Ultimate too, all right.

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Speaker 1: I never had the first Ultimate Game or a Calabath.

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Speaker 1: I've never had either of those until much, much, much later.

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Speaker 1: But Ultimate Too was an interesting game. First of all,

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Speaker 1: I was interested in role playing, so the old Dungeons

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Speaker 1: and Dragons games and stuff like that, because I was

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Speaker 1: a complete geek even back then. And uh and Ultimate

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Speaker 1: two was of course a a computer role playing game.

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Speaker 1: It was a single player game, and you went through

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Speaker 1: the game as an adventurer trying to kill the bad guy. Um.

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Speaker 1: Because my dad writes science fiction, I got to go

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Speaker 1: to a convention where Richard Garriott, a k a. Lord British,

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Speaker 1: the guy who invented the Ultimate series, was there, and

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Speaker 1: we were invited to go to a party. Helped this

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Speaker 1: name dropping city right here. We went to a party

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Speaker 1: held by Gary Gygax, the founder of one of the

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Speaker 1: co creators of Dungeons and Dragons. Richard Garriott was also

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Speaker 1: at this party. I talked to him briefly and said,

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Speaker 1: I really like this game, Ultimate Too. I had played

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Speaker 1: Ultimate four because a friend of mine had it, but

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Speaker 1: I only had the second one. Richard Garriot said, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: I have a copy of the the first build of

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Speaker 1: Ultimate five. It's not ready to go to market yet,

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Speaker 1: but if you want to play test that you can,

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Speaker 1: and that was what sealed the deal, right there, was

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Speaker 1: getting to the the idea of getting to play something

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Speaker 1: before anyone else. You know, that really appealed to my

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Speaker 1: sense of ego. So I really enjoyed that, and uh

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Speaker 1: I became an Ultimate fan ever since. So I was

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Speaker 1: a big, big Ultimate fanboy. Um. So yeah, I would

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Speaker 1: say that the Ultimate Series, especially the way that he

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Speaker 1: incorporated the sense of morality in those games, which was

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Speaker 1: very different from any games that came before it, where

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Speaker 1: where you really were just a hack and slash kind

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Speaker 1: of you know, killing machine. Really in those early adventure games,

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Speaker 1: the Ultimate Series, where you became the avatar, you actually

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Speaker 1: had to make moral choices and if you made the

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Speaker 1: wrong ones, you weren't gonna win the game. So it

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Speaker 1: was pretty cool, you know. I I admit I've never

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Speaker 1: actually played in the Ultimate Series. O you poor deluded food.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing that you've gotten through life this this way.

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Speaker 1: But I did play Leather Goddesses of Phobos. Oh okay,

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Speaker 1: well then all right you a moral fool. Um. Well

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Speaker 1: that's awesome, awesome text based adventure yep, yep, so I

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Speaker 1: I you know, I remember playing some of those games

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Speaker 1: back in the day too. I remember playing Zurich and

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Speaker 1: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, those great tech spased games. Yeah, yep, yep.

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Speaker 1: But you know, there have been other tech things over

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Speaker 1: the course of the years that sort of fell in

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Speaker 1: love with. It's us thinking about something a little more recent. Um,

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Speaker 1: the hand Spring Visor. Wow. Yeah, actually was one of

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Speaker 1: the few Handspring owners. For you, those of you who

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Speaker 1: don't have any idea what I'm talking about, that these

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Speaker 1: things called p d A s they came out before smartphones.

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Speaker 1: I know, it's hard to believe. Um. The the Palm Group,

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Speaker 1: actually some of the people who founded it broke off

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Speaker 1: because they wanted to do their own thing again. Um.

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Speaker 1: They created a company called Handspring and they licensed the

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Speaker 1: Palm operating system and the very first one they came

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Speaker 1: out with was the Visor UM and it had an

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Speaker 1: expansion slot where you could plug in cartridges and other

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Speaker 1: uh neat expansions that would help your visor do other things. UM.

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Speaker 1: I didn't really have any of that, but it was

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Speaker 1: my first p d A and found out how useful

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Speaker 1: it is to organize your calendar where you could just

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Speaker 1: write stuff down and you know, you got it at home.

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Speaker 1: You've got it at work, you can sink your computers.

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Speaker 1: Very useful. And then later on they went on to

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Speaker 1: build these you know, earliest smartphones called the Trio, and

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Speaker 1: then they got gobbled back up by Palm, so that's

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Speaker 1: where they are now. But it was my my first

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Speaker 1: introduction to the smartphone p D a world uh it

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Speaker 1: minded nemophone. But you know the technology to this in

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Speaker 1: smartphones now, Chris, I gotta ask you, okay, did you

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Speaker 1: before the Worldwide Web? Were you one of the folks

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Speaker 1: who would log into bolton boards and things like that. No,

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Speaker 1: you know, I didn't use bulletin boards, which probably surprises

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Speaker 1: you a little bit. It does surprise me a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But when I was in college, I did. Uh. I

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Speaker 1: did dial into the VAX on our on our college campus.

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Speaker 1: So I was logging into the main frame direct. For

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Speaker 1: those of you, again who don't know what I'm talking about, UM,

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Speaker 1: this was a very large mainframe computer um that digital

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Speaker 1: equipment made before they were gobbled up by you know,

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Speaker 1: Compact and then HP. UM. You know, I had where

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Speaker 1: I used to go to the computer lab. I didn't

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Speaker 1: go to the mac lab. I actually went to the

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Speaker 1: VAX lab. So you know, basically giant dumb terminals with

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Speaker 1: the green light on the black screen. So the time

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Speaker 1: sharing model. Yeah, nice, nice. Yeah. I used to log

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Speaker 1: into bolden boards to do to play games and things

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Speaker 1: like that, various again, mostly role playing games of some sort.

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Speaker 1: I remember there's a science fiction based one that I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed quite a bit. Uh. Do you remember the first

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Speaker 1: time you you discovered the world Wide Web? Um? I

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Speaker 1: don't remember the very first time for me. What's easy

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Speaker 1: because it was freshman year of college. So see when

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Speaker 1: I when I started using the the Internet, I wasn't

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Speaker 1: really using the web. I was using mostly chat and email, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was. I was using tel Net quite a bit too,

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Speaker 1: to log into chat rooms and things like that. But then, UM,

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Speaker 1: I remember being in the computer lab at my college

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Speaker 1: and looking over and seeing someone looking at something on

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Speaker 1: the computer that had graphics on it, and I was

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Speaker 1: wondering what it was, and he said, this is a

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Speaker 1: worldwide Web And I said, what's that? Because, of course

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Speaker 1: this is back before that was really gotten around quite

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Speaker 1: a bit, and uh was pretty young, and and uh,

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Speaker 1: I did build a web page. And back in those days,

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Speaker 1: of course, the way you built a web page was

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Speaker 1: that you had a an editor where you were essentially

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Speaker 1: editing things in uh in in text, and then you

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Speaker 1: would save it um to wherever the host was, and

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Speaker 1: you would then open up your browser and check it

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Speaker 1: out and see how it looked, and then realize that

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Speaker 1: everything was wrong and quit all of your browser. Open

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Speaker 1: your editor again, go back and tweak a few things,

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Speaker 1: save it, upload, go back, open up the browser. You

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Speaker 1: did this over and over and over again until it

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Speaker 1: looked right. And of course, when I say looked right, folks,

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Speaker 1: these pages look horrible, all right. You gotta imagine, Okay,

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Speaker 1: some some really really crappy tiled background image, some clip

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Speaker 1: art type uh images along there a MIDI file playing

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Speaker 1: and a loop in the background. The blink tag. Now,

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Speaker 1: the blink tag. I think I had a blink tag.

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Speaker 1: I did have a minifile playing rule Britan Tanya over

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Speaker 1: and over and over again. Yeah. I was one of

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Speaker 1: those lame people who made a really really bad web page.

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Speaker 1: I think I've seen that web page. You probably have,

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Speaker 1: or it was one of the Essentially, if you look

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Speaker 1: at any web page that any college student made in

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Speaker 1: that's a pretty good indicator of what I built. It

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Speaker 1: was hideous. But you know what, it was so interesting

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Speaker 1: to be able to create something where not only were

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Speaker 1: you able to to publish your work, but essentially millions

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Speaker 1: and millions of people had access to it. And suddenly

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Speaker 1: that was when I realized, this is an amazing tool

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Speaker 1: where a single person can reach a huge audience. When before,

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Speaker 1: you know, you had to have a monster kind of

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Speaker 1: organization backing you to be able to do that. You

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Speaker 1: had to be able to to become a published writer

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Speaker 1: or a journalist of some sort in order for that

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Speaker 1: many people to get a look at what you had

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Speaker 1: to say. The Web suddenly made it possible for everyone

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Speaker 1: to be that. Yeah. Now, of course that means that

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Speaker 1: you get some incredible writer who otherwise would never be discovered,

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Speaker 1: and you also get the crazies who you wish you

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Speaker 1: had never discovered. It's you know, catch all. Really, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's funny because I was I was just out of college,

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Speaker 1: and um, they I signed up for a local internet

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Speaker 1: service provider and they asked me if I wanted my

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Speaker 1: own domain name, and I really didn't understand what that meant. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, because I'd been on a dot etu and

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Speaker 1: I figured out while I'm on a dot net now,

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Speaker 1: and it doesn't you know, I don't why would I

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Speaker 1: want my own domain name? Now, I'm thinking back to

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Speaker 1: all of the domain names I could have squatted on. Wow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: nobody knew what what was going on, and no one,

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Speaker 1: no one had any There were very few people who

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Speaker 1: were able to jump on that very quickly and and say,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is gonna be huge. I'm guessing that

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Speaker 1: a bunch of companies are gonna get involved in this,

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Speaker 1: and therefore I should make sure I get Coca Cola

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Speaker 1: dot com. Ye, except at that point, they weren't eight

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Speaker 1: for a dot com. They were I don't even know,

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Speaker 1: probably hunt of dollars for a domain registration. They would

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Speaker 1: have taken six weeks to process in all sorts of

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Speaker 1: stem right right, And there's no guarantee that you would

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Speaker 1: actually be able to squat on and sell it, you know,

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Speaker 1: because some some companies were strong enough to be able

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Speaker 1: to muscle them away. So but still, you know, I

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Speaker 1: was thinking about I was going to ask you what

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Speaker 1: your first video game console was. My first video game console, Well,

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Speaker 1: if you don't count the the Pong game that we

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Speaker 1: had where it had the you know, eight different versions

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Speaker 1: of the same pong game. Uh, you would it would

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Speaker 1: have to be the a yeah, yeah, which not counting

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Speaker 1: my Calico Telstar, which had uh, handball, tennis and I

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Speaker 1: think hockey on it. It's very very subtle variations of Pong. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was essentially the same thing I had, and I

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Speaker 1: just don't remember what the brand was anymore. Yeah, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: and yes, yes, we have joked about in the past.

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Speaker 1: I really did own et. Yeah, and it was terrible.

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Speaker 1: I still have all my games. Mine were given away

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Speaker 1: to a younger cousin. Ah, I see, and then of course, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I actually skipped awhile, I skipped the whole

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Speaker 1: Nintendo thing and then went, you know, we got the

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Speaker 1: Sega Genesis. It's funny I owned, now that I think

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Speaker 1: about it, more consoles as an adult, you know, the

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Speaker 1: GameCube and the Wii and the PlayStation two. I still

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Speaker 1: like to get a PlayStation three in an Xbox three sixty.

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Speaker 1: So let's see, I'll go through mine. I had the

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Speaker 1: Attar twenty s after it was already dead. I got

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Speaker 1: the Intellivision. Like the Intellivision works, but there were no

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Speaker 1: more games coming out. Yeah, I got a big collection

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Speaker 1: of games when I got the Intellivision and a big

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Speaker 1: collection of the little plastic inserts that you would put

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Speaker 1: in the controller. Um, the two did not necessarily match.

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Speaker 1: There was some overlap, but there were. It was so

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Speaker 1: frustrating because there were I had games where I didn't

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Speaker 1: have the insert and I wasn't really sure what buttons

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Speaker 1: did what until lots of trial and error, and then

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Speaker 1: I had inserts that like they were for a really

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Speaker 1: awesome game, but I didn't have the game. So I

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Speaker 1: had the twice six hundred, the in television and then

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Speaker 1: again skipping quite a bit because I skipped the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: era as well. Uh then let's see, Oh, I got

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Speaker 1: a PlayStation one, and then I got a Nintendo sixty four,

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Speaker 1: and then a GameCube, and then the Xbox and then

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Speaker 1: the PS two and then the Dreamcast. I got late,

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Speaker 1: but it was awesome and uh, LOUI, So I think

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Speaker 1: that's all of them. I don't think I missed any Um,

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Speaker 1: I left out the game Boy Boy, had a game

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Speaker 1: Boy Advance, and now we have a DS, which very

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00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:42,680
Speaker 1: well fancy schmancy. Yeah no, I don't have a d

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Speaker 1: s um. Yeah, I know what happened for me was

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Speaker 1: that I went from the Atari and essentially in television later,

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Speaker 1: which I kind of inherited from another cousin my family.

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Speaker 1: We give give technology to our younger cousins, I guess, um.

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Speaker 1: But I went from the Atari to computer games, and

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Speaker 1: then I became a computer game snob because I just

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Speaker 1: thought that the games on the computers were so much

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00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,520
Speaker 1: more sophisticated than the console games at the time that

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Speaker 1: I did not want to go back to consoles. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't until we reached the point where in order to

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Speaker 1: play video games you had to upgrade your video card

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Speaker 1: every six months or else you couldn't play them anymore.

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Speaker 1: That's when I was like, you know what, I'm going

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Speaker 1: back to consoles because you don't have to do that

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Speaker 1: with them. Yeah that's true. Yeah, that's true because they

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Speaker 1: you know, uh forces them to stay stick to the

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Speaker 1: the specs. They don't have a choice. Right. Um. Let's see,

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Speaker 1: so any particular software he did, because I was I

359
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:42,800
Speaker 1: was thinking about the different tools that we've used. I

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00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:46,200
Speaker 1: mean there's stuff like Microsoft Office, which you know, other

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Speaker 1: than maybe power Point, I don't really have a problem with,

362
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,359
Speaker 1: but it's not exciting, and you know, stuff that I

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00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:54,879
Speaker 1: really like see a lot of the software that I

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00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,160
Speaker 1: like right now or we're talking are like cloud applications

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Speaker 1: like Google Docs. I love Google old docs because as

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Speaker 1: a writer, I also write outside of my job here.

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Speaker 1: I write fiction occasionally, and Google Docs lets me upload

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Speaker 1: things and that way I can access it wherever I

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily have take my computer with me. If if

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Speaker 1: there's going to be a computer wherever I go, I

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Speaker 1: can access it. And it also allows me to collaborate

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Speaker 1: with other writers, which and in a much easier way

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Speaker 1: than than the traditional way where you would write and

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Speaker 1: write and write and then email it to someone and

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Speaker 1: then they would make changes and then email it back,

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Speaker 1: and then you don't have to make sure that you

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Speaker 1: had the most recent version of the documents so that

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Speaker 1: you didn't accidentally change something from an older version and

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Speaker 1: skip out on all the changes that have been made

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Speaker 1: since then. And Google Docs made it so much easier. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, writing is one of those funny things because

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Speaker 1: really all you need is a pen and paper or

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00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:50,800
Speaker 1: you know, you could use it. You know, it's your

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00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,359
Speaker 1: simple text program to do that, you know, the one

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Speaker 1: that comes to your computer or word or Open office

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00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: or something like that. UM. I like Scrivener for mac

387
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,360
Speaker 1: us ten um for those of you who are interested

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Speaker 1: in doing fiction writing, because it actually comes with a

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00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:10,119
Speaker 1: corkboard kind of thing we can actually make uh you know,

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00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 1: I guess virtual note cards and sort of plan out

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00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:16,440
Speaker 1: what you're doing with It's kind of neat. Um. It's

392
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,000
Speaker 1: from a small company called Literature and Latte, which is

393
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:24,919
Speaker 1: um pretty interesting. UM. Let's see, and you know, I

394
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:27,399
Speaker 1: sort of picked on Office just a minute ago. But

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Speaker 1: there is one segment of the you know, Microsoft productivity

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00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 1: software that I really like, um, and that's one note

397
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,960
Speaker 1: because it is a really neat notebook program that lets you,

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00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 1: you know, keep notes and things. And the reason I

399
00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:44,040
Speaker 1: like that, uh compared to other systems is you know,

400
00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:45,720
Speaker 1: you can search stuff in your notes and it's also

401
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 1: got sort of a tabbed notebook thing. Uh. You can

402
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,760
Speaker 1: put check check boxes next to things if you're taking

403
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: notes in a in a meeting and check stuff off

404
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 1: as you go through. It's kind of handy to have,

405
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: and um, you know it's it's not an expensive addition.

406
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I think it now comes

407
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 1: with Office. I'll I haven't bought a copy of Office

408
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: and quite some time. Um well, I was going to

409
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: also mention um a gadget that I simply could not

410
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:13,119
Speaker 1: live without my iPod. Oh yeah, definitely talking about Apple

411
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,800
Speaker 1: lovers all right now. My iPod is not my first

412
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 1: MP three player. I used to have a creative zen

413
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Speaker 1: and I had an old one which was felt like

414
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: it was made out of cast iron because it was

415
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 1: a heavy, heavy lift device, held a lot of songs

416
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:29,520
Speaker 1: and it was great. Did not have video capability, just

417
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 1: had a simple, you know, monochromatic screen. But I loved

418
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:36,600
Speaker 1: it in that I suddenly had the ability to carry

419
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,159
Speaker 1: thousands of songs with me. And then I got an

420
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Speaker 1: iPod Classic with the eighty gig drive, and um yeah,

421
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,919
Speaker 1: it's awesome. Yeah, I will never I can't imagine filling

422
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,120
Speaker 1: it up. I mean I have a pretty big music collection,

423
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:50,960
Speaker 1: not as big as I mean. There are people who

424
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Speaker 1: was there like, yeah, I've got twenty five thousand songs

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00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 1: on this No, no, I've got a fraction of that.

426
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Speaker 1: But the fact that I can carry the entire Ramons

427
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: discography with me is awesome. And also because it's the Ramonest,

428
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:04,600
Speaker 1: you can listen to their entire discolo graphy in about

429
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: twenty seven minutes three four. But yeah, that I couldn't

430
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: live without it. Actually, uh, it wasn't so long ago. Well,

431
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: actually it's approaching a year now, and I think about it.

432
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:22,440
Speaker 1: UM upgraded my twenty gig four g iPod too, an

433
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 1: iPod touch first g Um, you know, the one without

434
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 1: the physical volume nob anyway, the one before the one

435
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: my wife got right, right, But I still love it,

436
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: um because you can run applications on it too. But

437
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 1: you know, of course, I had several portable cassette players,

438
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 1: of one of which my brother ran over with a lawnmower. Um,

439
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 1: and brothers are wanting to do exactly and uh, disc

440
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: mand or Discmand's I don't know. But my transition to

441
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: the MP three world was not an MP three player

442
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,680
Speaker 1: per se. It was the Sonic Blue Rio Bolt, which

443
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,000
Speaker 1: was a CD player that you could use with regular

444
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: CDs or it would read data CDs with m P

445
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,479
Speaker 1: three's on. So I had my music collection on MP

446
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,239
Speaker 1: three's burned onto c d s, which is actually kind

447
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: of nice because then you didn't have to have you know,

448
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: your whole library with you could you know, boil it

449
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: down to six or eight c s and you know,

450
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: it's not nearly as much. Of course, that actually got

451
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: upgraded when somebody broke into my house and stole it

452
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,439
Speaker 1: from me, so I didn't have to worry about you know.

453
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: And then I had to go, well, you know, and

454
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,440
Speaker 1: I need something so well. You know. What was interesting

455
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,479
Speaker 1: was that before I got an iPod, I was not

456
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,439
Speaker 1: the biggest fan of iTunes. I found it difficult to use.

457
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: And then I got an iPod and I said, oh no,

458
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 1: I get it because it works so well with this hardware.

459
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,680
Speaker 1: And I love iTunes now because I use iPod and

460
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: um and it works pretty well. Uh So I enjoyed

461
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: that quite a bit. And I love to be able

462
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: to listen to other podcasts, um besides you know our

463
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 1: own example, for example, all the other house stuff works

464
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: dot com podcasts, Yes, those are excellent stuff of genius.

465
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: Is you know what it's the stuff of genius? YEA

466
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:12,439
Speaker 1: A great one. And it's and it's one of the

467
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: newer ones. Yes it is HTCG one. Okay, get that out.

468
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: That's the other device I couldn't live without, he blurted,

469
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: my HTC G one Android phone, which I love, oh

470
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,360
Speaker 1: so dearly, very nice. Oh it's a fantastic phone. I mean,

471
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: I know there are people who do not like the

472
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: form factor because they think it's a little clunky, it's

473
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: a little too thick, um and that the screen is

474
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: not quite as big as the iPhone screen. And I

475
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: can understand that, I I but for my own part,

476
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't really look for sexy sleek in

477
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: my electronics. I look for function first, and if the

478
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: function is there and it's really strong, I can overlook

479
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: a little clunkiness or or you know, make think it

480
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: doesn't matter that's so thick and um. And I also

481
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: love the physical keyboard word. And I've heard that with

482
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 1: the I the iPhone, that the touchscreen keyboard that a

483
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: lot of people pick up on it eventually, like you

484
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,199
Speaker 1: you hit a plateau for a while, um, as you

485
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 1: are learning to type on it and get faster and faster,

486
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it's like the light

487
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 1: comes down from heaven and you are suddenly able to

488
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,639
Speaker 1: type at at full speed. Um. But the nice thing

489
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: about the HDCG one is I was able to type

490
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: poole speed when I opened it. Well that's yeah, that's

491
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: a positive. Yes. So, um, are there any gadgets that

492
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,159
Speaker 1: you wish you could get the Palm Pre Okay, I

493
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 1: would like the Palm Pre just to get a look

494
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 1: at the darn thing and get my hands on and

495
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: play around with it. Palm PREA would love to get

496
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: my hands on that. I would love to get my

497
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,960
Speaker 1: hands on the on live game system. Um. I want

498
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: to try that out and see if if this cloud

499
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 1: gaming model really is all that it's cracked out to be.

500
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,680
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like it's gonna be awesome. I

501
00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: mean it sounds like the idea of other computers handing

502
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 1: all the processing powers of mind doesn't have to I

503
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: love that idea. I still think it's gonna have some

504
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 1: latency issues. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. Two. So

505
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: I really want to try that out. Um, what else?

506
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: Kindle too? Oh yeah, I would love to have a

507
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:18,160
Speaker 1: Kindle too. I'm actually kind of interested in the larger,

508
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 1: the Kindle d X. Yeah, I think that might be

509
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: a little well. I mean, the Kindle d X looks

510
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,959
Speaker 1: like could be interesting as well, but uh, for my

511
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,160
Speaker 1: my own purposes, I really just Kindled too would be fine.

512
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: You know. So if if if a listener is just

513
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: thinking this poor guy doesn't have a Kindle too. I

514
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:36,880
Speaker 1: gotta get him a kindle too. You know what, that's

515
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: very sweet of you. The address is I guess I

516
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:46,160
Speaker 1: shouldn't do that, right, Um? Yeah, I actually my wish

517
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 1: list of stuff I'd just like to get my hands on,

518
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: sadly and includes some an HDTV and surrounds him since

519
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: I still don't have the home theater. I have that,

520
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: but I no longer have cable, and I don't have

521
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: and I don't have a GPS of any kind. Oh wow, gosh,

522
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,360
Speaker 1: so they don't have an iPhone. I've got an iPod Touch.

523
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 1: Also for those listening, Plette has not seen some very

524
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: important movie all right that has nothing to do with tech.

525
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: But he needs those movies to watch on his HDTV

526
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,199
Speaker 1: and surround sound once he gets them, because otherwise I

527
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 1: make jokes from young Frankenstein and he stares at me

528
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: and wonders what I just said. You think I'm just saying.

529
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: I also would like to get my hands on an

530
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: electronic set of D drums or being a percussionist. Um,

531
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to mess around with a set of

532
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: electronic drums. Um. Yeah, they actually do that, they do um,

533
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: and I just have not alesis also now that you

534
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: mention it. UM just do not have the wherewithal actually

535
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: the the available mad money available to do that. Um.

536
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: And there's there's other stuff I'd love to fool around with,

537
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: some software like that, like Mathematica, you know, just to

538
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: plug stuff in and see what happens, but it's kind

539
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: of a pricey, you know, Illustrator pro tools, just to

540
00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: you know, fool around with it. But you know when

541
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: you're doing that. Oh, there is a freeware version of

542
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: something called Inkscape, which works cross platform including Mac and Lennox,

543
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: um end Windows. UM that is very like Illustrator, you know,

544
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 1: so every once in a while getting there and play around.

545
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: I'm not much of a designer, but I like to

546
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: play one on uh my own version of TV which

547
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: involves no one watching. Uh. TiVo is something else that

548
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,800
Speaker 1: I thought was really cool. And uh XM radio. Those

549
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 1: are totally gadgety gizmoe things that you know, it's hard

550
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: to live without. Once Pandora, Pandora, Pandora Love Pandora. Yep, ye,

551
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: I'm I'm petering out here. Yep, I'm running out of

552
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 1: stuff I love. And generally when you say that, it

553
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: means that it's time for listener made you know for

554
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 1: a second I was going to start making up more

555
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: tech stuff just to avoid hearing that sound. Wow, deja do.

556
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: Today's listen email comes from Humble Floyd, who's a truck

557
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: driver and wanted to comment on our CB Radio podcast.

558
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: Do you remember our CB Radio podcast? Chris? I do

559
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 1: remember our CB Radio podcast. It was a great podcast

560
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: about CB radios, wasn't it. It was? Yeah. The funny

561
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: thing was, we got a lot of comments about this

562
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: particular podcast, which surprised me because it was sort of

563
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,320
Speaker 1: old tech. Yeah. Actually quite a few people wrote in

564
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 1: and uh, we are planning on doing a podcast about

565
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: HAM Radio in the future because a lot of people

566
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: said that they were interested in him. Are you thinking

567
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: about it? All right? You know, lunch time was you know,

568
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 1: a couple of hours ago, Chris, So stick with me here, alright, alright,

569
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: we're through the home stretch. So Humble Floyd had a

570
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: few things to say about our CB Radio podcast, and

571
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 1: he was very positive and very thankful for it. So

572
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: thank you, Humble Floyd. I love the email. It's a

573
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 1: long one, so we're just gonna mention a couple of

574
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: points here for one thing. He said that it is

575
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: legal to build your own CB radio or any HAM

576
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: radio to FCCS specifications, So it does have to be

577
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 1: an UH certificate FCC transmitter according to the FCC. But

578
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: other than that, apparently you can build one. Okay, I

579
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: guess we sit corrected. But um he points out that's

580
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: cheaper to actually buy one, because they range from about

581
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: thirty bucks to three bucks. That that sort of isn't

582
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: unusual I think in the world of tech. And he

583
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: also mentions that that you aren't supposed to boost it,

584
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 1: but most people end up boosting it too, so that

585
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: the signals go ten to twenty five miles because the

586
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: FCC doesn't actually enforce it, so it is still technically illegal,

587
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: but people do it anyway. And then ums, not unusual

588
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: on the world er tech, Right, Yeah, if you're not

589
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: getting caught for it, people are doing it. So then

590
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: he pointed out a couple of other things about the antenna.

591
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: You mentioned also that um a license was required at

592
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: one time, but no longer. And then he had this

593
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 1: lovely little message that I wish to share with everyone.

594
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 1: Break one nine westbound you out a full grown and

595
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,480
Speaker 1: a plain brown wrapper taking pictures from the middle of

596
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: the yardstick too oh one, gator on the zipper on

597
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: the on the chicken coop is locked up, and take

598
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: a look at the seat cover and the white chow.

599
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: You at your front door, Come on, hey, what do

600
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,959
Speaker 1: you leave behind you? I probably put the wrong pauses

601
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: in there and everything. Here's what that means. A break

602
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: is breaking into the transmission. Breaker is only used in

603
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: the movies. As I sit corrected myself. A State trooper

604
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 1: or d O T cop in an unmarked car is

605
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:31,239
Speaker 1: in the median with a radar or laser gun at

606
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: mile post two oh one. There's a tire tread on

607
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 1: the white line at the one nine eight. The State

608
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: scale way station is closed, and there's a woman worth

609
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 1: looking at just in front of you. Please come back

610
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 1: with info on the road in front of me. That

611
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 1: would be a very useful message to receive. Indeed, lovely scenery.

612
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Humble Floyd. That was That was

613
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: fantastic email and we greatly appreciate it. And guys, just

614
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 1: keep the email coming because it's um. It's really helping

615
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: us out with knowing what you want to hear, and

616
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: we love to hear from our listeners. You can write

617
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: us tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, and

618
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: you can learn all about technical things and gadgets, electronics

619
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: and computers and stuff that Chris and I like at

620
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. We will talk to you

621
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: again another hundred times really soon. For more on this

622
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot

623
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 1: com and be sure to check out the new tech

624
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: stuff blog now on the how stuff Works homepage. Brought

625
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

626
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: are you