Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. This is ancient time. I'm an editor in
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. With me, I've got agent a god
Speaker 1: grows number. It's one of my writers. Nice. Okay, maybe
Speaker 1: they don't get alright. You threw me off like a
Speaker 1: a godrows numbers constant. Oh, well, you know I am.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. We've lost everyone but the hardcore science geeks. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. My name is Chris Poulett. I'm an
Speaker 1: editor here, and with me is Jonathan Strickling. Hey there.
Speaker 1: And the reason I was doing the spy thing was
Speaker 1: because we were talking about when we were coming up
Speaker 1: with podcast ideas, this brand new thing that the US
Speaker 1: government has called a space. It's a it's a network
Speaker 1: for spies, not just not just a network and online network,
Speaker 1: and not just an online network and online social network. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a classified classified That's why
Speaker 1: it was in the news, right, classified social network for spies.
Speaker 1: Not you know, it shouldn't laugh. We're you know, we
Speaker 1: couldn't get on it. You know because we're not spies.
Speaker 1: Do you know that the lead Seriously, you're making some
Speaker 1: big SIPs right now, I could right now be repelling
Speaker 1: into somebody's office. But yeah, this is this is a
Speaker 1: US government project and they're supposed to it's supposed to
Speaker 1: enable sharing of information between different agencies, so different spies
Speaker 1: within those agencies, right, so you're going to be able
Speaker 1: to connect and share what what the latest information is.
Speaker 1: And this is actually a huge deal if if it's real.
Speaker 1: I should say, we have a little bit of a
Speaker 1: a small dose of skepticism here at how stuff works
Speaker 1: about this, but it is kind of a huge deal
Speaker 1: in the sense that traditionally a lot of these agencies
Speaker 1: UM don't have a lot of interdepartmental uh communication between them.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're they're actually some pretty uh interesting things
Speaker 1: you can read in history, like the history of the
Speaker 1: FBI or the history of the CIA, where you find
Speaker 1: out that had one agency had the information another agency had,
Speaker 1: than certain things could have been prevented or avoided or
Speaker 1: um or perpetrators could have been caught faster. So it's
Speaker 1: communications a big deal. I mean, how do you facilitate
Speaker 1: communication between different agencies UM that by their very nature,
Speaker 1: are not communicative because it's it's if you're a spy
Speaker 1: and you talk a lot, you're not a very good spy,
Speaker 1: are you. Well, they're they're spending five million dollars according
Speaker 1: to the AP article I read about it, and a
Speaker 1: pilot version is supposed to be going online this December,
Speaker 1: and they're going to be adding more features over the
Speaker 1: coming year. There's no word on whether Scrabulous will be
Speaker 1: part of that, right or your favorite tune playing in
Speaker 1: the background of your profile page, that's true. I bet
Speaker 1: the James Bond theme is really popular. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 1: and the man from Uncle Um. But yeah, that you
Speaker 1: you bring up a good point. I mean, James Bond
Speaker 1: is sort of not a good example because you know
Speaker 1: he's out there, you know, some very smartly dressed uh,
Speaker 1: you know, ordering martinis in a way that no one
Speaker 1: else does. Uh. You know, he really stands in here,
Speaker 1: and the bad guys always go, hey, you're James Bond.
Speaker 1: I mean that just doesn't seem to to help you
Speaker 1: stay anonymous. He's not Clandestine's sure, no, not so much.
Speaker 1: That's good to tux though, you know that's true, But
Speaker 1: so it'll be I guess we'll probably never know if
Speaker 1: this is successful or not. At least if you know,
Speaker 1: if it works, we won't know if it doesn't work. Everybody,
Speaker 1: m it's it's. Some people have been kind of describing
Speaker 1: this as sort of MySpace or Facebook for spies. Um.
Speaker 1: Others say that, you know, that's that's probably going a
Speaker 1: little too far. It's more like some sort of spy
Speaker 1: wiki where people can share information and keep each other informed. Um.
Speaker 1: I've got a concern about this particular endeavor. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: turns out that stuff online isn't always safe. I hate that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, stop it, sit down and hold onto your hats. Um, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: There are these folks out there called hackers, and there
Speaker 1: are a subset of them called crackers. And crackers like
Speaker 1: to crack security. They like to find ways into places
Speaker 1: they're not supposed to get into. Some of them just
Speaker 1: go in to look around see how things work, and
Speaker 1: you know, they're satisfied once their curiosity is has met,
Speaker 1: and then they leave. U ER's are much more likely
Speaker 1: to mess around once they get in there. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll start looking into secure files and learning information,
Speaker 1: and some of them will even either use that kind
Speaker 1: of ability to sabotage and endeavor or they'll decide to
Speaker 1: steal information sell it to the highest bidder. I mean,
Speaker 1: even if you're an independent cracker, that can happen. But
Speaker 1: then think about it, the United States has got a
Speaker 1: few countries that are not that um happy with us.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just true that their their countries out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and even your friends often want to know what you're
Speaker 1: really up to. So even someone who might be an
Speaker 1: ally might say, you know, we really would like to
Speaker 1: know what they know. So making an online social network
Speaker 1: for spies, don't you think that would be a huge
Speaker 1: incentive for these people to to try and zero in
Speaker 1: target it and and infiltrate it. Yes, if it's if
Speaker 1: it's real, right, then then it would be a very
Speaker 1: desirable target. Yeah. And if it's not real, it would
Speaker 1: be a very desirable target. Right. So here's uh, here's
Speaker 1: Poulett's pet theory, which you know what sounds better and
Speaker 1: better to me every day. Let's let's go into it.
Speaker 1: I'll let you set it up. It's since you you
Speaker 1: were the first one to talk to me about and
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, that makes so much sense. I
Speaker 1: can't believe that it didn't occur to me. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in this case, a space might be more
Speaker 1: aptly named bait space. Right, it's the online honey pot Yep,
Speaker 1: it's the cheese on the mouse trap. Can we get
Speaker 1: some more analogies? Thank you, I'm sure we could. But
Speaker 1: if you get what we're saying, uh, it's it may
Speaker 1: be a ruse to try to lure in uh enemies
Speaker 1: of the state, to get them to to break in
Speaker 1: and identify themselves in some way. It's a trap, right, exactly,
Speaker 1: the old admiral at bar it's a trap. Yes, just
Speaker 1: trade sit back to the origin and the and then
Speaker 1: you've got the You've got your enemy of the state.
Speaker 1: Right there you go. It's Um, that's a good theory.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know that that's the case. It
Speaker 1: may very well be this is all on the up
Speaker 1: and up in a clandestine way, but the way sounds yeah,
Speaker 1: because right, And I'm not going to hack into it,
Speaker 1: no I have. I have no desire to get on
Speaker 1: another government list. I hate that, I said another government list.
Speaker 1: We'll let it that out. So, Okay. The interesting thing
Speaker 1: about a space is that it's it's not going to
Speaker 1: appeal to everyone. Even if you could get in, not
Speaker 1: everyone would want to get in. And that's because it
Speaker 1: is one of a growing number of social networks that
Speaker 1: we think of as niche networks right, that cater to
Speaker 1: a very specific audience, like catster, for example, or dogster. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's please tell me about catster and dogster. Cat owners
Speaker 1: and dog dog owners or you know a lot of
Speaker 1: them portray themselves. I'm not sure if are playing some
Speaker 1: elaborate cat and mouse game with your computer, but you
Speaker 1: know you got fluffy online, you know, saying well, you know,
Speaker 1: I like chasing mice and spending long mornings sleeping in
Speaker 1: the sunlight, eating smelly fish yep, and licking my pause. Good, good, safe.
Speaker 1: But yeah, not everybody's a cat or dog owner, so
Speaker 1: you're not gonna And there are those of us who
Speaker 1: are cat owners and dog owners who go, yeah, I
Speaker 1: really don't need to create a profile from right. Do
Speaker 1: you think do you think that catster has trolls that
Speaker 1: are dogs entirely possible or or rodents you know, or
Speaker 1: I don't know, But there are all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: It's not just for you know. You might think, well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of cute, and a little silly, but there
Speaker 1: are all kinds of other things that that are you know,
Speaker 1: a little more serious. Yeah, I actually I have one
Speaker 1: that's kind of a There a lot that that's been
Speaker 1: off from hobbies. It makes sense, you know, because you
Speaker 1: have things like Facebook and my Space. They often have
Speaker 1: groups where people can form a group and people who
Speaker 1: are interested in the same thing can all kind of
Speaker 1: connect to each other, sort of like the old used
Speaker 1: net groups were back in the days of text, right.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, since it's since it's not geared
Speaker 1: specifically for that hobby, it you have just a sort
Speaker 1: of a limited amount of things that you can do
Speaker 1: on those sites. It just wasn't intended for that. So
Speaker 1: that's why people go out and they'll they'll build a
Speaker 1: niche site. Um one that I thought was really interesting,
Speaker 1: you know what. It's so bizarre that I think this
Speaker 1: is interesting because it's it's a hobby that I don't do.
Speaker 1: I've got many friends who do this hobby, but I
Speaker 1: never thought about picking it up myself. But it just
Speaker 1: it's interesting to me that there's a social network for it.
Speaker 1: It's Ravelry now ravelry that's spelled r A V E
Speaker 1: L r y is an online social network dedicated to knitting,
Speaker 1: really knitting. I was I was convinced it was going
Speaker 1: to be about Maurice Ravel. No, sad, I'm sad to
Speaker 1: to disappoint you there, No, but it's it's knitting. And
Speaker 1: I've got some of friends who knit. We have a
Speaker 1: couple of people here in the office who are fantastic knitters.
Speaker 1: Um and uh nice because I'm just gonna let me
Speaker 1: weave my tail. So but this is a very popular
Speaker 1: social networking site. And only is it popular, they're very
Speaker 1: very careful about who they let in. They want to
Speaker 1: make sure it's people who are really who really are
Speaker 1: enjoy the hobby and will commit, will contribute to the community.
Speaker 1: I don't really want trolls making fun of your hobby,
Speaker 1: and you don't you don't want someone just joining and
Speaker 1: then just quitting because they're they're doing things like trading tips,
Speaker 1: they're trading patterns, they're talking about their projects. So there's
Speaker 1: a waiting list to get on this and and it's
Speaker 1: a long waiting list. It's not and you can you
Speaker 1: can actually submit your emails so that you can find
Speaker 1: out occasionally where you are on the waiting list. Um,
Speaker 1: it's uh, they take it very seriously, and you know
Speaker 1: that might sound silly to someone who's who's not into
Speaker 1: the hobby, but when you think about it, it really
Speaker 1: means that you've built a solid community under you. So
Speaker 1: I actually think that's quite admirable. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm honestly not making light of ravelry idea. Well,
Speaker 1: they're they're all kinds of different social networks out there,
Speaker 1: and you'll you'll find uh, almost anything, you know, based
Speaker 1: on what your interest is. If you uh, if you
Speaker 1: look around, you'll find something that's related to it. It
Speaker 1: might be a niche group on an existing network like
Speaker 1: high five or work it, or you know, some of
Speaker 1: the others trying to mix in some others besides my
Speaker 1: space and right for our friends and other countries who
Speaker 1: don't use that them so much, um, but you know
Speaker 1: you can. There's even a a news site called mashable
Speaker 1: dot com that really focuses on social networking and social
Speaker 1: networking issues and new kinds of sites and new technologies
Speaker 1: behind it. A lot of sites are are WICKI centric,
Speaker 1: you know, they're not. They're a little less social like
Speaker 1: adding friends, but you do contribute to the greater body
Speaker 1: of knowledge. Um, you know, Wikia dot com has all
Speaker 1: kinds of different wikis that are created by fans of
Speaker 1: TV shows and movies and different uh cultural phenomena that
Speaker 1: that that people like to share bits and pieces of
Speaker 1: trivia with one another and sort of build up something
Speaker 1: because you know, there there may not be an existing
Speaker 1: encyclopedia of knowledge about your favorite TV show, but you know,
Speaker 1: people start going, oh wait, wait remember an episode six,
Speaker 1: And so the fans can really get together and share
Speaker 1: that information with one another, which is which is pretty
Speaker 1: awesome because sometimes uh, you know, you may not have
Speaker 1: your friends at work, or that the people you hang
Speaker 1: out with, um normally may not be into the same
Speaker 1: exact show or the exact same hobby as you. So
Speaker 1: this is this is a good outlet. Yeah. And and
Speaker 1: you can see social networking things popping up from other
Speaker 1: sites that were not originally a social network site, like
Speaker 1: the Internet Movie Database or chud is Cinematic Happenings under Development.
Speaker 1: These are both you know, film sites, um, that have
Speaker 1: had a community grow up around them and um, they've
Speaker 1: really kind of embraced that whole social networking. Uh. Then
Speaker 1: there are other niche sites Chris Parrello just recently launched
Speaker 1: He's a He's a blogger in a television show host.
Speaker 1: He recently launched geeks, which is for people who are
Speaker 1: passionate about certain things, um like mostly tech and things
Speaker 1: like that, but other subjects as well. And uh, my
Speaker 1: favorite new one that I learned about is um Actually
Speaker 1: the network isn't new, it's just new to me. Is
Speaker 1: a small world dot net? Have you heard about this? Okay,
Speaker 1: a small world dot net is for really affluent people.
Speaker 1: It's invitation only. There are three thousand members are so,
Speaker 1: uh to give you an idea of what kind of
Speaker 1: site this is, They're one of their major advertisers that
Speaker 1: puts ads on that site. Cartier. Really yeah, when I'm
Speaker 1: saying affluent, I'm talking big Bucks. So we're talking the
Speaker 1: American Express card holder, right, we we would be considered
Speaker 1: in oka d which is not our kind, dear, that
Speaker 1: would be where we fall in that. I don't think
Speaker 1: I'll be invited into a Small World dot net at all.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say anytime soon, but let's just be
Speaker 1: honest here. Well, I was reading just the other day
Speaker 1: that IBM is actually supporting social networking. It's created a
Speaker 1: center called the IBM Center for Social Software. It's sort
Speaker 1: of a I don't know, an incubator if you will,
Speaker 1: for for social networks and social uh software. And that
Speaker 1: just goes to show you how serious this is becoming.
Speaker 1: And of course you have Google supporting open Social, which
Speaker 1: is the whole idea about having one place to have
Speaker 1: all your your information so that you can lug into
Speaker 1: these different niche social networks without having to create a
Speaker 1: profile every single time, because you might have three or
Speaker 1: four different really strong interests and you want to belong
Speaker 1: to these these different networks. But it does get a
Speaker 1: little frustrating to create a profile all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. Well, I guess uh,
Speaker 1: we could talk about these all day. There are literally
Speaker 1: thousands of social networking sites on there. Definitely some of
Speaker 1: them are are fully fledged like MySpace and Facebook, and
Speaker 1: others are just sites that happen to have a message
Speaker 1: board or forum or chat room or something like that. Um,
Speaker 1: so rest assured if you have an interest someone out
Speaker 1: there as a social network for you. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty safe to say. And and although boredom sometimes forces
Speaker 1: us into you know, searching out social networks as we're
Speaker 1: trying to find something to do with our time. Boredom
Speaker 1: can do other things as well. Boredom can cause us
Speaker 1: to search out things like social networking sites and games
Speaker 1: and things like that. But it might actually cause you
Speaker 1: to do something else. Um, I'm sorry, I was not
Speaker 1: paying at Yeah, just kind of dripping off there. Well,
Speaker 1: you might want to You might want to look into
Speaker 1: that because we have a great article on the site
Speaker 1: called Can You Die of Ordom? Written by Kristen Conger,
Speaker 1: one of our colleagues here, and uh, I highly suggest
Speaker 1: you read it because you know your life may depend
Speaker 1: on it. It's nothing if if nothing else, it's something
Speaker 1: you can do when you're bored. That's right. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're bored, read that. That'll make you feel better. There
Speaker 1: you go. Awesome. That's live right now on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
Speaker 1: an email to podcasts at how stuff works dot com.
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