S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: February the 13th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Virgin Australia Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There
S1: is also the podcast. All you need to do is
S1: search for those two words talking tech and down can
S1: come the program usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after
S1: it's been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri
S1: device or smart speaker to play Virgin Australia Radio talking
S1: tech podcast, Virgin Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast with me,
S1: someone who can explain all this tech stuff really well.
S1: Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge David,
S1: we've been talking a lot about AI, artificial intelligence, augmented
S1: reality or virtual reality. Uh, perhaps it's time, as you suggest,
S1: to step back a bit and look at other developments
S1: that are going to be happening over the coming period
S1: of time, 6 to 12 months or so. And certainly
S1: they're all well on the way. But before that, even
S1: why don't we have another in that series of product minutes?
S1: We've got something else from the vision store to tell
S1: us about.
S2: Yes, indeed. So this one is called the All Terrain Cone.
S2: So as the name implies, it's a white cane for
S2: mobility and orientation. And in this case, the all terrain
S2: bit comes into the fact that you can go quite
S2: bush with it. So you can go and have a
S2: walk in a forest, a park, or anywhere else you
S2: might do, because it's actually designed to not only be
S2: a cane, uh, with a rollerball type tip. Uh, it's
S2: also designed to work as a walking stuff. And what
S2: that means is that if you're going down a very
S2: steep trail and you need to, you know, balance a
S2: bit more, you can actually extend the cane out at
S2: the top of it up to in all measurements, round
S2: about six feet. And it's got a proper grip so
S2: you can put your hand around the grip. So normally
S2: on a cane you've got like a golf club style handle.
S2: This one's also got a round part on it where
S2: you can grip it like a normal walking stick. Uh,
S2: so you can have it both for balance and stability.
S2: And then you can put it back into, if you like,
S2: your normal size length and use it as a white cane.
S2: It's really good when you're out and about because it's
S2: made of titanium and the ball is fairly heavy. I
S2: probably wouldn't suggest it for urban use. So every day
S2: traveling to and from work and school and so on.
S2: But that's a bit of a bush basher. It's great
S2: for getting around in those areas where you need a
S2: bit of extra strength on your cane for normal cane use,
S2: but like I also said, almost use it as a
S2: walking staff as well.
S1: More expensive than the standard canes it is.
S2: Yeah, I think remember it's round about $180 ish. But
S2: then again, some of the kinds that are coming at
S2: these days, um, like the no jab cane is also
S2: fairly pricey, but it's because it's built so sturdily, and
S2: the fact it's almost like a two canes in one,
S2: as in a walking staff in a in a white
S2: cane for mobility. I guess that's why it's a bit
S2: more pricey.
S1: Where are they made?
S2: They're actually made in the United States. Um, I think
S2: specifically it's from Utah, but I know it's definitely developed
S2: in the United States.
S1: Terrific. There you go. So that's the all terrain cane
S1: available from the vision store at Vision Australia. Shop Dot
S1: Vision Australia. Org shop dot Vision australia.org. Now let's get
S1: into some of these areas of computing. The 5G network
S1: has been out around Australia for quite some time, growing
S1: over recent years. You're anticipating a lot more expansion and adoption.
S2: Particularly when you come down to it's all about how
S2: all the internet stuff gets connected. So the first one
S2: I've got on my list is about 5G. And when
S2: you think about 5G is you want fast connectivity between
S2: a device and the rest of the internet or smart
S2: city infrastructure. And then guess where that comes up? Important
S2: is when you start talking about autonomous cars. And I
S2: don't mean fully self-driving ones, although that may be thinking
S2: maybe a decade, but even just general autonomous things like
S2: autonomous trains and all that sort of stuff, they need
S2: that type of connectivity to keep working correctly. So that's
S2: a development that needs to still keep happening and better connectivity.
S2: So you don't want black spots or anything else.
S1: What do you what would you really mean by smart cities.
S1: How do you describe that?
S2: Smart cities are things where things are all tied together.
S2: So you've got, um, so smart cities also contain, uh,
S2: self-driving cars. They also contain. Um, information kiosks. They public transport. Um,
S2: it's just a way of looking at the way that
S2: cities are developing and seeing how giving your own personal device,
S2: like your smart device, as in your phone or your watch,
S2: can interact with the the city type scape around you.
S2: Even things like indoor navigation, for example.
S1: Tell us about edge computing and how that could impact
S1: on our society.
S2: So edge computing is one of those things we talk
S2: with these days about most things being on the cloud,
S2: and it's easy to access and so on and so on.
S2: Edge computing is where you've got local type sensors. And
S2: what I mean by that is that this is the
S2: internet of things. So, uh, you might have sensors that
S2: are particularly monitoring things, um, in a business or at home. Um,
S2: and it needs to, you know, connect quite quickly because
S2: we always talk about latency, how long it takes for
S2: a device to sort of go and connect to something
S2: and then get an answer back and vice versa. So
S2: that's actually really important because if you got a sensor,
S2: for example, that's an alarm system. Um, maybe you don't
S2: want it to take 10s to alert people to an alarm.
S2: You want it to be very instant. So the other
S2: type of things that are constantly being worked on to
S2: make sure that when sensors get activated, um, that there's
S2: not a long delay in the response if required from,
S2: you know, emergency services and that sort of stuff.
S1: Cyber security has become very much front of mind over
S1: the last year or two, with a couple of really
S1: bad mishaps in Australia.
S2: That's right. And look, I'm not going to go in
S2: this too much because this is like I we've we've
S2: been this has been shoved down our throats for the
S2: last 6 to 12 months. But uh, for me personally,
S2: it's always a good idea to keep reminding yourself that
S2: as soon as you get on the internet superhighway, you're
S2: fair game for fairly nasty people. And it's always really
S2: important to, um, secure your own data and that of
S2: your families and so on. Uh, so it's just to
S2: be aware of all the hazards you can get involved in, uh,
S2: as soon as you, you know, swim in the, the
S2: deep internet somewhere.
S1: Planners and designers are being a bit smarter now, and, uh,
S1: very much in focus is sustainable technology solutions.
S2: And the reason why I bought this one up is because.
S2: And Apple goes on about this quite a lot, which
S2: is their environmental impact. They're trying to reduce it to
S2: what they call carbon zero. And the reason why I
S2: was thinking about this, because I didn't realize that data
S2: centers can go between 500,000, up to 1,000,000ft² of space.
S2: If you can imagine a ten storey building that's got
S2: 100,000ft² per floor, or the other adage, which I know
S2: we don't like sometimes, David, is if you can imagine, uh,
S2: a 1 million square space data center which does exist,
S2: by the way, um, taking up 17 football fields, or
S2: for my way of thinking, my local shopping center is
S2: about the same size as a data center. Now, when
S2: you think about data centers, they've got servers and control systems,
S2: backup systems, air conditioning, water supply, all that sort of stuff.
S2: The better you can make that greener, the better off
S2: the whole planet is. So that's why I was thinking
S2: more about sustainability is because these things are really chewing up, um,
S2: and using power. And we have to have some way
S2: of offsetting all that stuff that's using, plus all the
S2: carbon stuff. It might be shifting into the atmosphere as well.
S1: Now, what about in the area of health care technology?
S1: There's massive changes going to happen there over the coming years,
S1: isn't there?
S2: That's right. We've already seen it now with, um, telehealth.
S2: You've mentioned that to me before we start the program. Um, scripts,
S2: I can get electronic scripts. And the other part, important
S2: part about health is all the research behind the scenes
S2: that goes into health. And I'm thinking in particular genetics,
S2: whether it's genetics to do with some sort of genetic
S2: type disease, if you want to put it that way, um,
S2: or you might have a disability that's got a particular
S2: gene that's caused it, and there's currently therapy research going
S2: on to reduce that genes impact and so on. Then
S2: that becomes extremely important. And for some people, you know,
S2: if I mentioned, well, if you had a choice between,
S2: you know, health slash genetics and let's say, uh, edge computing,
S2: I know which one some people would actually taken that
S2: would be healthy all the time.
S1: Hmm. Now, we touched on this one a little earlier
S1: when we were talking about cyber security. But the whole
S1: issue of data privacy is really important, isn't it?
S2: That's right. So I tend to sort of see cyber
S2: security as in, um, you know, the big picture. One,
S2: privacy to me is particularly on you, I guess, these
S2: days on your smartphone and your smart speakers. It's what information.
S2: Motion do you want developers and companies to have? Do
S2: they need all your information about your date of birth
S2: and who your parents were and where you lived, and
S2: all that sort of stuff? So I don't think we
S2: need to be more and more aware these days that
S2: sometimes people or companies don't need all the information. So again,
S2: it's a really good idea to sit back and have
S2: a bit of a think before you start giving out
S2: your your life story, if you like.
S1: Fittingly, you found an article is tech bad or am
S1: I getting into grumpy old man status?
S2: Yeah that's right. So this was down my alley. This
S2: journalist is apparently only 36 years old, and he was
S2: complaining about the fact that, you know, when he gets
S2: his Bluetooth headset out, it doesn't always connect when he
S2: goes to play a streaming service on his smart speaker,
S2: which sometimes doesn't connect properly. And then he said, what
S2: about the good old days where you could just grab
S2: an old record player out and, you know, put the
S2: needle on the record and have it played to you
S2: and that sort of stuff. And I thought, you know what?
S2: He's got a bit of a point, because I remember
S2: the old days that I used to put in this
S2: game way back. Now just put a tape in a
S2: tape recorder and play some music or a bit more
S2: further down the track, uh, you know, CD and a
S2: CD player and play some music, a whole album, rather
S2: than mucking about with playlists. Um, you know, the oven
S2: where you don't have to control it via your smart app,
S2: all that sort of stuff. And I really do think
S2: sometimes taking the smart home stuff or the internet of things,
S2: we can go a little bit too far, and I
S2: just sometimes think it's nice to have a good old
S2: manual backup, which I, I think on and off. We've
S2: talked for the years anyway.
S1: Tell us about blue Sky. Uh, maybe. Are we seeing
S1: the latter days of Twitter or X?
S2: No, I don't think so. So this is an alternative
S2: to the Twitter platform. And originally I think it was
S2: last year they had this by invitation only. Uh, there
S2: is an app for it. I'm pretty sure there must
S2: be one for Android. I checked it out on my iPhone.
S2: It looks very much like an app that's wrapped around
S2: a web interface, and it's very messy to go through
S2: because you've got like, like and reply and everything else. Um,
S2: per post in blue Sky, it's a bit messy to navigate,
S2: so unless I knew there was some specific media organizations
S2: or other people using it, um, I don't think I'm
S2: going to be too bothered with it because I tend
S2: to use minor and Twitter slash X all the time.
S2: So unless blue sky improves dramatically, not, you know, from
S2: both things to the content and how easy it is
S2: to navigate. I don't think I'll be interested, but I
S2: just thought at least I'll let people know that it's
S2: now available and you don't need to wait for an invite.
S2: You can go in there and and sign up and
S2: start using it if you wish.
S1: Tell us what bad is bad.
S2: So bad was the. If you like the the original
S2: I like ChatGPT except Bob was from Google where now
S2: Google has transformed Bard into Gemini, and apparently the way
S2: you get access to it, at least on iOS, uh,
S2: is that you run your Google app and then apparently
S2: right at the top of the app. And we don't
S2: have this in Australia because I just checked today, you'll
S2: have two tabs Search and Gemini. So search is your
S2: normal Google search Gemini. Whereas you know you can ask
S2: it questions and that sort of stuff like a ChatGPT
S2: or a copilot type session. So it's really offering you
S2: both Google search and the chat GPT functionality as well.
S2: So as soon as we get in Australia, I'll let
S2: people know. But just let you know that if you
S2: hear people talking about Gemini, it's the new, improved version
S2: of the original Google.
S1: But what platforms will that be on?
S2: It'll be on everything.
S1: Well, now, just before we go, a reminder of where
S1: people can find details of what we've been talking about
S1: in this and previous editions of the program.
S2: You can check out my blog site, which is David.
S2: Would it be dot podbean podbean.com David.
S1: Would be podbean podbean. Com to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Dawg this has been
S1: talking Ted with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor
S1: on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.