Movie Draft Update, Better Call Saul (109), The Walking Dead (516), The Shield (504)
02:05 – Movie Draft Update
10:01 – Better Call Saul (109)
15:44 – The Walking Dead (516)
23:21 – The Shield (504)
DTNS 2466 – Charge and Not Catch Fire
Patrick Beja talks with us about Connecticut’s ‘pole neutrality’ plan for gigabit fiber, and how John Oliver may have pointed the way towards explaining other tech and security topics.
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja
Headlines:
Tech Crunch reports that HBO Now is available from Apple and Cablevision. The new service, announced back in March, provides access to HBO’s entire streaming content library, as well as new shows as they air for $14.99/month. If you sign up now you get one free month. Unlike HBO Go, the service doesn’t require a user to subscribe via their cable or satellite TV provider.
Business Insider has a screenshot of what appears to be a memo from Apple’s SVP of Retail and Online Sales that reads, “The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers.” It asks employees to encourage customers to order the Apple Watch and new MacBook pro online. The source who leaked the memo says UK shoppers will ONLY be able to order the Watch online.
The Next Web brings us the news that Twitter is expanding the “Quote Tweet” button. Once the update rolls your way, the RT button will now embed the tweet instead of just quoting it as text, leaving you 116 characters with which to comment. The new Quote Tweet button is rolling out to iPhone and Web users now and Android users in the near future. And according to TNW, there are plans for Twitter’s API to support the updated feature.
TechCrunch reports Xiaomi is changing its ways in India.
The company will allow Amazon India and SnapDeal to sell Mi products online. Flipkart already does so. Physical stores from Airtel and The Mobile Store will carry Mi products as well.
The Telegraph reports that an Australian court ordered local ISPs to turn over details of thousands of customers who’s IP addresses are associated with Torrents of the film Dallas Buyers Club. The ISPs argued it would be “Economically pointless” for the producers to try recover the value of each copy of the movie valued at less than $10 Australian, and that a single sliver of the film was shared from each IP address meaning copyright infringement was minor.The judge disagreed and felt deterring piracy was important enough to issue the order but limited what the plaintiffs could do with the information. Peter Wells wrote us about this and pointed out that ” any letters sent to customers will need to be court approved – so no one gets a terrifying email.”
Susan Crawford has an interesting post on BackChannel describing how the US state of Connecticut plans to roll out gigabit fiber to its citizens. The key was requiring owners of poles to obey a Single Pole Administrator to open up pole access. Participating cities then proposed ways they could aid fiber rollout like expedited permitting and now are considering responses. The New England Cable Television Association claims Connecticut already has adequate capacity and the plan would cost taxpayers.
News From You:
The Corley sent us story from Rdmag.com thatStandford professor, Hongjie Dai and his colleagues have developed rechargeable aluminum batteries that use graphene foam for the cathode to make a safer alternative to lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. The new aluminum battery prototype has shown “unprecedented charging times” of down to a minute and charge-discharge cycles of more than 7500 times. A lithium-ion battery lasts for around 1000 cycles. The capacity per weight is no betetr than lead acid which is significantly lower than lithium ion.
KAPT_Kipper shared an ArsTechnica story that newly elected board member of the Bitcoin Foundation, Oliver Janssens, declared the group effectively bankrupt in a blog post. He wrote: “Members have a right to know that the current board failed to tell them the truth, and that their way of running the organization resulted in it going bankrupt.” The non-profit’s 2013 tax filings showed it ended that year with more than $4.7 million in total assets. No 2014 financial details have been released.
GeekCitizen sent us this Engadget update. This Friday the Star Wars movies will be available as digital downloads through iTunes, Google Play, Xbox, Playstation, Vudu and others. Extras will include featurettes for each film and interviews with key contributors. The complete set is listed on Vudu for preorder at $90, and Google Play lists each movie for $20 each. And yeah, they’re the special editions.
Dmmacs sent the Android Central writeup of the news that Amazon finally supports Android tablets for Amazon Prime Instant Video in the UK. Amazon Prime came to tablets in the US last week. Users have to get the app from the Amazon App store which has to be installed by allowing non-Google Play store apps.
Discussion Section Links:
| http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/06/john-oliver-snowden-interview/?a_dgi=aolshare_reddit |
| http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/24/people-ignore-security-warnings-browsing-web |
Pick of the day:
Mike from lovely (and very, very dry) Fremont, CA here.
For a very well done “parody” Twitter account, I suggest that everyone check out @SwiftOnSecurity. She hits all the major nerd buttons: Info Sec information that rivals HAK5 (a tall order) with a lot more snark; pithy warnings about the rise of the machines and their inevitable dominion over us clueless humans; and some great links. I look forward to her tweets every day.
Please keep up the great work and thanks.
Mike
Messages
Katie: I have probably missed the moment, but I wanted to share with you some thoughts about the Amazon Dash button. I am a Mom of three who has bought all my diapers through Amazon Subscribe and Save for years. I have tried several times to subscribe to other household items, but every time I find I am horrible at predicting how often I actually need to buy new stuff. I usually end up just canceling the subscription. With the Dash button I don’t have to figure it out – I can just push a button when I need more. If they can tie this in with some kind of discount/reward system like the subscription discounts I am all in.
Greg from the finally getting warmer Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois: “I am a Systems Analyst for a good size school district and have been following the Chrome on a stick development. With PCs doing the same, it is really going to help with keeping computers updated within schools. Now as long as we purchase decent monitors that include an HDMI port we can update computers more often.”
LWATCDR:
1. Signage. How many places use an HD tv as a sign today? With a built in PC you can update them over wifi.
2. Schools, office, government, kiosks all could use them in a managed environment.
3. A home PC. My monitor has a USB Hub on it. Plug the stick into the USB port on the monitor and the then plug in the monitor and you have an all in one PC that do a lot of basic tasks.
Rich from Lovely Cleveland: “I don’t think the idea of Apple putting a fanless Core M CPU and a couple of USB-C connectors in a tiny aluminum slab is completely outlandish, although …Apple loves a dramatic reveal of a refreshed product design, and they could follow in the iPod tradition and call it the Mac Nano. Just a thought.”
Frank in Indy is a program manager at an Ed Tech software company and they use accessibility testing firms all the time for their products. He writes: “Deque (“Deck-Q”) and (a href=”http://www.ssbbartgroup.com”> SSB Bart Group are 2 that I’m familiar with. They will test for color blindness, sight, and hearing impaired access and navigation for your website or application. There are also certifications available like those at http://www.section508.gov/, referred to as “section 508 compliance”.
Chris from surprisingly spring like Amesbury (a mile from Stonehenge) emails about the discussion on checking for accessibility:
For someone interested in this there are two sites I’d reccomend.
http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ gives a good list of easy, intermediate and hard changes that you can make to make your game or app accessible to a wider audience.”
And then he has a site he co-runs: “At ergohacks.com one of the things we do is take products and apply that checklist mentality to it. We do a conventional review then look at it from the perspective of someone with visual problem, hearing,control or mobility problems, ease of use and trigger warnings and whatever else will be relevent.
=====
Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson!
Cordkillers 65 – Spoiler Alert: Susie Dies in this Episode
Netflix sort of brings back Mr. Show, Sling TV beefs up and apologizes, and Roku gets a big upgrade.
CordKillers: Ep. 65 – Spoiler Alert: Susie Dies in this Episode
Recorded: April 6, 2015
Guest: Andrew Zarian
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Netflix says House of Cards season four is coming in 2016
- Netflix may be reviving Full House as… Fuller House
- Netflix orders sketch comedy series from Bob Odenkirk and David Cross
– Netflix confirmed Season 4 of House of Cards will come in 2016.
– Netflix also ordered a supernatural drama called Montauk, set in the ’80s and involving a boy’s disappearance and secret government experiments
– TV Line, Hollywood Reporter AND The Wrap all say Netflix is considering a 13-episode Full House Spinoff called Fuller House, starring a grown-up Candace Cmeron Bure as DJ Tanner And Andrea Barber as Kimmy. Apparently Bob Saget, John Stamos and Dave Coulier would all make guest appearances.
-Bob Odenkirk and David Cross have begun production on a sketch comedy show called “With Bob and David” that wil include four half-hour episodes and an hour-long making of special. Tim & Eric are listed as EPs.
Signal Intelligence
- Sling TV Says It Misjudged Demand on Final Four Livestreaming
- Sling TV goes international by rebranding its DishWorld service under the Sling name
- HBO is coming to Sling TV this month
- Sling TV Subscriber Cap Revealed
–Saturday during the NCAA basketball semi-finals Sling TV buckled under the load.
– Sling Twitter: ““We’re sorry some basketball fans saw errors tonight due to extreme sign-ups and streaming. Engineers rebalanced load across network partners.”
– Roger Lynch (CEO Sling) told Recorde around 1,000 users were affected.
– AdAge reports Sling’s reported subscriber cap is 2 million. Last estimate was that Sling TV had 100,000 subs last month.
–Dish’s deal with Turner includes the right to sell HBO for $15 as part of Sling TV. Linear channel and on Demand.
– Dish can also sell HBO now.
– DishWorld is rebranding under Sling TV. Sling International has 200 channels across 18 languages starting $15 a month
Gear Up
- Roku 3 refreshed with voice search, but the new Roku 2 is an even better buy
-Roku 3 has a new remote with voice-search ($99)
-Roku 2 has identical hardware but no voice button on remote ($69)
– New software adds Roku Feed.
– You can enter name of a movie and the feed will let you know when it becomes available on a streaming service.
– Roku smartphone app gets voice search
Front Lines
- George R.R. Martin is working on a new HBO series
–George R. R. Martin is developing a second HBO series called Captain Cosmos, which will tell the story of a visionary sci-fi writer in 1949. Given that George R.R. Martin is not your bitch, how excited are you for this? - HBO is tweeting at all the people who wanted HBO Now years ago
–HBO’s Twitter account began replying to tweets from people who said they would pay for an Internet-only HBO subscription and often used the hashtag HBoTakeMyMoney. Some of the tweets are as old as 2012. Is this an effective use of the HBO social media manager’s time? - Apple Asks TV Programmers to Supply Their Own Streams for Apple’s TV Service
–Some industry executive are telling ReCode that Apple is asking TV networks to handle the streaming responsibilities to become part of a rumored Apple TV streaming service. Is this Apple letting the experts do the streaming, a way to stop ISPs from blocking services both or neither? - YouTube star Michelle Phan has officially outgrown YouTube
–YouTube fashion celeb Michelle Phan has launched her own network called ICON which means in addition to YouTube, videos will appear on DailyMotion and Roku as well as social media, apps and the Web. Is THIS the future of video networks? - The Twin Peaks Revival Is Happening Without David Lynch
–Well Twin Peaks may still come back to Showtime but it looks like it will be without David Lynch. He tweeted Sunday, “After 1 year and 4 months of negotiations, I left because not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done.” Is anyone here besides Tom sad?
Under Surveillance
- New Episode VII Trailer Debuting With Obscure Indie Flick Age Of Ultron
–A new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will run before Avengers Age of Ultron. It will really premiere April 16-19 at Star Wars Celebration then International Ultron is April 22 and US release is May 1. - You can watch a free episode of HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’ on Twitch
–This Wednesday April 8 at 12 PM Pacific, the cast of HBO’s Silicon Valley will stream a Q&A on Twitch with clip from season two followed by the pilot episode from season 1. I assume mods will shut it down for lacking gaming content. - YouTube celeb Brian Brushwood has series arriving in the UK on April 27th
- Brian: Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead finale, Netflix Inspector Gadget, first ever episode of Price is Right with Bob Barker
- Tom: Last Man on Earth, Better Call Saul, Once Upon a Time, Agents of SHIELD, Flash, Arrow, The Shield (504), Mad Men
- Andrew: The Source Family , Rich Hill
Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys, love the show and I’m really looking forward to tonight’s episode but I do have a request;
When talking about The Walking Dead or other shows based on comics or books, can you please not talk about the original source material. For instance I have purposely been lagging behind on The Walking Dead comics so that the story in the TV show doesn’t get spoiled for me (it’s fun not knowing what’s coming). But when talking about things that happened in the comics that haven’t happened in the show yet it gets dicey because the show will probably use the story or character, just in a slightly different way.
Anyway, keep up the great work!
David from hot then cold then hot then cold then hot then cold St. Paul
Just one of the Bosses (we are legion).
Nathan wrote in how he used his phone in 3G mode in a hotel hoping it would limit bandwidth usage but still be watchable for Game of Thrones. Here’s what he says: “For the first two episodes we used 800 Megabytes of data. The next night we watched two more episodes and I left my phone on LTE, for the 3rd and 4th episodes, we used over 2 Gigabytes of data! I have only done this once so I don’t know if this will continue to work or not. While the hotspot was on “3G only” it did buffer a couple of times, but it was still watchable. I did not observe a difference in picture quality either. So this worked great, it does require two devices, but if you travel with a tablet or a spouse you would have that anyway.
Thanks from Salt Lake City!
Nathan
Scott in London uses his Chromecast mostly for music and says “For me, the biggest problem I’ve found with using the Chromecast in hotels is the lack of a HDMI port on the TV. Maybe it’s different in America or maybe it’s saying something about the hotels I usually stay in, but I’d say about 60 – 70% of the hotel TVs I’ve come across in the last few years didn’t have a HDMI port. “
Scott
Message: Hey, Tom, when you said, “Hey, Alexa, add oil to my shopping list”, my Echo added it! But I don’t mind because I’ve been meaning to get sewing machine oil for my electric razor. Can you repeat that, but for Diet Coke this time? 🙂
Bob
You guys are sure hard on SmartTVs. I love my 50 inch Vizio SmartTV. Having 1 remote rules. It has Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Instant, and Huluplus and the Cast button on the apps on my phone launch the apps on my TV just like on a Chromecast. It will also play any MP4 and AVI files off a flash drive if I plug in to the USB port. One remote, and only one thing to have plugged in FTW!
Kevin from Cali
I never expected to tune in for Walking Dead spoilage and hear from a trio of people who find the subject of Scientology as fascinating as I do. Alex Gibney and HBO did a fantastic job. I’ve also been working on a documentary that I plan to have finished later this year. It’s called Knowledge Report: Scientology’s Spies, Lies and the Eternity Prize.
My film’s going to take a closer look at how people get into Scientology and the control issues that keep them in what I consider to be a skillfully designed mind-control factory. There’s a bunch of clips on the movie website:
http://www.knowledgereport-themovie.com/
I cut the cord about 5 years ago and have never looked back. And thank you for mentioning Movie Pass again several months ago in passing. You guys weren’t sure it was worth it but I checked it out and love it. I routinely see more than ten movies a months and AMC gives me full ticket price credit on my loyalty card which gives me back $10 so I am essentially paying $20 a month for all the movies I can see. I wouldn’t have done it without you guys.
All my best,
Mark
Wise Beard Man
My cousin’s wife, Astra, had to escape in the dead of night, a harrowing ordeal. She helped set up the website Ex-Scientology Kids ( http://exscientologykids.com/) to help others transition out of the organization.
Mark
2015 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv
- GFQ: $147,187,040
- Night Attack: $0
- DTNS: $0
- Frogpants: $0
- Amtrekker: $0
- Cordkillers: $0
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box
DTNS 2465 – PC Pick-up Sticks
Todd Whitehead is on the show today to talk about the Intel Compute Stick, Chromebit, and the future of PCs on a stick.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s Guest: Todd Whitehead, head geek of Alpha Geek Radio
Headlines
Reuters reports Twitter complied with Turkey’s request to remove photographs of a hostage taking by left-wing militants in Istanbul last week, causing a block on the site to be lifted. YouTube is among several sites that remained blocked. An Istanbul judge ordered access blocked to social media sites showing photographs of the slain prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz. Presidential spokesman said a prosecutor had demanded the block because of concerns the images could be used to spread terrorist propaganda. Twitter says Turkey filed more than five times as many content-removal requests than any other country in the second half of 2014.
DTNS 2464 – Headlines Only
Since Len and Darren both had conflicts, and it’s the Good Friday holiday in some parts of the world, Tom just talks about the main headlines and reads a few extra emails.
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
DTNS 2463 – Fastlanta
Justin Young is in to talk about Comcast’s 2Gbps Internet in Atlanta and why it took them so long. Are finally seeing competition in the US?
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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s Guests: Justin Robert Young, DTNS contributor and co-host of Night Attack, Weird Things and the JuRYmore podcast
Headlines
Reuters reports Google and Mozilla will no longer trust new domain certificates issued by the China Internet Network Information Center, which allocates and certifies IP addresses and domain names. The actions come after CNNIC issued an unrestricted intermediary certificate to Egypt’s MCS Holdings. Through human error the certificate was installed in a firewall device and generated certificates for domain names owned by Google, making man in the middle attacks possible. Google has removed CNNIC root certificates from Chrome though it is whitelisting existing certificates for a limited time. Ars Technica reports Mozilla will no longer trust certificates with a notBefore date on or after April 1st. Both companies said CNNIC can reapply for full inclusion. CNNIC called the Google decision “unacceptable and unintelligible.”
Reuters reports that Microsoft’s popular mobile scanning app Office Lens is coming to iOS and Android. The app uses the camera to take a photo of an item, crops the image and stores it in Microsoft’s One Note or OneDrive cloud storage app, or can save the image as a word file, Powerpoint presentation or PDF. It uses OCR for searchable text, and it’s FREE.
It’s time to check in on which Silicon Valley company Europe is regulating today! WSJ says the European Commission asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some information in advance filing charges in the five-year-old antitrust investigation.
I got one! Marketwatch says government privacy regulators from France, Spain and Italy have joined the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium investigating Facebook handles personal information. At issue is combining information from multiple services like Instagram and WhatsApp for adsales purposes, and using like buttons to track browsing.
And for the hat trick. Don’t think you’re getting away clean Apple. Reuters says antitrust regulators are investigating Beats deals with record labels to see if they unfairly limit access to music for rival services. The EU sent out questionnaires about licensing terms and wants answers by April 17.
Just a heads up that David Pierce over at Wired has an excellent in-depth piece on the Apple Watch called “Iphone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch.” Through interviews with Apple’s Kevin Lynch And Alan Dye, he tells how the watch evolved from a modified iPhone strapped to a wrist to a device with taptic feedback and finely-tuned interface.
The “App Runtime for Chrome” is a beta program that enables Android apps to run on Chrome OS. Ars Technica reports that Google will now allow any developer to run their app on ARC and allow ARC to officially run on Windows Mac and Linux versions of the Chrome browser through the Chrome App ARC Welder. So yeah Android apps can now run anywhere but iOS.
Kotaku reports the latest PS4 firmware update added a feature called Zoom which helps visually impaired players see things like text better. When in an interface or when the game is paused a button combo can zoom in on the screen and the zoomed area can be moved around with the directional pad.The firmware also allows customization of controller layouts.
Engadget reports Samsung announced its latest set of 4K TVs. The JS9500 coming later this month starts at $6500, with a curved screen, nanocrystal technology, full array local dimming backlight and PurColor. You can get it in 65-inch or 88-inch sizes. The most inexpensive of the bunch is the JU6700 series, which starts at $949.99 for the 40-inch sometime this spring.
News From You
h82or8 sent us the Lifehacker post on the results of an independent Security Audit of TrueCrypt. The results? There was no evidence of backdoors or serious flaws. Researchers did uncover a few issues regarding the random number generator and the possibility of “cache timing” attacks but these were considered a minimal threat. Bottom line TrueCrypt is still secure for most usage scenarios despite the project being halted indefinitely last year. The bigger problem is the piling up of bugs and the legal limitations of the license that prevent forks even now that the project is abandoned. Lifehacker recommends using its open-source successor, VeraCrypt.
starfuryzeta shared an ArsTechnica story that Firefox 37 has opportunistic encryption turned on by default. Opportunistic encryption, or OE, is a bridge between plaintext HTTP connections and HTTPS connections. Essentially it encrypts data to all servers configured for OE. A company might choose to do OE instead of HTTPS because it has a bunch of legacy content that will be really expensive to migrate. Critics say that’s the problem. OE could encourage delay of HTTPS implementation. Also OE can’t cryptographically validate that the server is who it says it is. Opportunistic Encryption is not as secure as HTTPS but for the end user, it’s better than nothing.
Racer_Rick submitted the Verge article about Comcast announcing 2 Gbps symmetrical fiber to the home service coming to 1.5 million residents in Atlanta starting next month. Customers must live in close proximity to Comcast’s existing fiber and accept installation of “professional-grade” equipment. No word on cost. Comcast also said it intends to expand 2gb service to 18 million homes by the end of 2015 and at least gigabit service to almost all customers in its footprint by the end of 2016.
Discussion Links:
Pick of the Day: This Week in Science
Andrew from strangely sunny Portland Oregon here and I would like to suggest the show This Week In Science with Dr. Kiki. I know that you (Tom) are aware of TWIS but I think a lot of the DTNS audience would really enjoy it. Thank you for being my daily news source for the last couple of years and I hope there are many more to come.
Message of the Day
Anonymous writes:
I just thought I could add some more context to your great accessibility discussion yesterday. I’ve been a Program Manager in Windows since Windows 7 so I’m fairly well versed in how accessibility works internally.
I was sad to hear Allison’s examples, I didn’t realize those crashes existed. I know from firsthand experience that every feature owner on every team absolutely needs to review accessibility as a core tenet before it’s approved to ship in any release. It’s right up there with privacy and security as a non-optional tenet, and will be considered a ship blocker if accessibility is not reviewed and accounted for. This has been true since long before Windows 7, well over a decade.
The way Windows works sounds very similar to iOS and Mac OS. If you use native controls, everything should be automatic from the developer’s perspective. The problems arise when developers create their own custom controls, which is often the case for many legitimate reasons.
One note, the “start button” example Allison pointed out was simply the solution for accessible users since when Windows 8 shipped, launching start required hovering the mouse in the lower left corner. For keyboard navigation there was a fake “start button” there, which also launched the start screen for screen reader users. Doesn’t sound like a bug, just a misunderstanding 
========
Tomorrow: Headlines only show
S&L Podcast – #212 – Do You Have the Right to Delete Swear Words?
We give our last thoughts on The Goblin Emperor, kick of our April pick, Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett and discuss why some author names are bigger than their titles. But what really gets this episode going is the debate about whether a reader has the right to “clean up” an author’s language.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Suntory Hakushu 12 Year Old
Veronica: Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt 12yr
QUICK BURNS
Rob: James Marsters fans rejoice! They are releasing a new audio version of Ghost Story read by Marsters.
David (LA, CA) Steven Spielberg to Direct Ready Player One.
Mark: Clean Reader, a profanity-free ereader, best explained by Chuck Wendig
Yento: This wasn’t unexpected but HBO confirmed they will finish Game of Thrones first.
Trike: Game Of Thrones May Circle Back To Characters And Plots That Were Skipped
Carl Poppa
BARE YOUR SWORD
Is it still about the author or is it about the title?
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Kick off Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Wrap up The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Oh you poor villains…
In the end I liked this book
ADDENDUMS
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons at patreon.com/swordandlaser Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks
DTNS 2462 – When in Roaming
Allison Sheridan joins us to talk about the world’s connectivity divide and how Microsoft’s doing making software accessible.
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
It’s Spoilerin’ Time Episode 64
Better Call Saul (108), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (to 109), The Walking Dead (13-15), Going Clear
00:58 – Better Call Saul (108)
07:18 – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (to 109)
10:26 – The Walking Dead (13-15)
17:07 – Going Clear
DTNS 2461 – Press Button, Receive Bacon
Patrick Beja is on today and we’ll talk about whether Amazon’s new Dash Button is bringing retail to far into your home.
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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja
Headlines:
Microsoft unveiled the Surface 3 (not the Pro, the regular one) and it has an Atom x7 propcessor in place of the ARM-designed Tegra, according to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley. The tablet starts at $499 has a 10.8” 1920×1280 ClearType HD Display, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. 128GB storage and 4GB of RAM costs $599. Ports include USB 3, Mini DisplayPort, microSD card reader, and Micro USB charging port and will ship with a free one year subscription to Office 365 Personal. The keyboard is sold separately for $130 and the stylus is also separate for $50. You can preorder the Wifi versions from Microsoft today. You can slo get LTE versions sold through T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless stores in the US later this year.
CNET reports Google announced new Chrome OS devices Tuesday.
The Asus Chromebit is an HDMI stick with WiFi and Bluetooth that will sell for less than $100 this summer. The all-metal Chromebook Flip is a tablet with a keyboard for $249. And two new $149 laptops meant for the education market were introduced. You can preorder the Haier laptop on Amazon and the Hisense laptop on Walmart.
Google intends to release about 10 new Chromebooks in the next few months.
Twitter has publicly launched Curator, a real-time search and filtering tool designed for media outlets. Tech Crunch reports the free service lets users create complex queries to find specific content or current trends. Filters include keywords, usernames, location, language, time zone, follower count, number of re-tweets or favorites, verified users, and can be combined for complex queries. Curator can also natively search through Periscope and Vine videos.
The Verge reports that Android users can now make voice calls on WhatsApp as part of an update that rolls out today. Click the brand new Calls tab and select a contact to start talking. Voice calling for the app will come to iOS later.
TechCrunch reports Tidal turns out not to just be owned by Jay-Z but 17 other artist and Softbank as well according to the NY Post. The music service will be partnering with Softbank-owned Sprint. Tidal plans to offer limited time exclusives of new releases from artists at around a week in advance of other services. Engadget passes along a Billboard report that Apple-owned Beats’ Jimmy Iovine has already been trying to steal artists from Tidal.
The Wall Street Journal reports Raptr raised $14 million to support the launch of Plays.tv. The new service lets players record, edit and share key gameplay moments. CEO of Raptr, Dennis Fong equated it to the “Share” button on the PS4 for PC gamers. Raptr will be targeting amateur gamers.
The Next Web reports India has begun its national net neutrality discussion. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a 118-page long consultation paper March 27. Citizens can voice their opinion on 20 questions about on the licensing of internet services in India by emailing [email protected] before April 24. Interesting ly the Cellular Operators Association of India is lobbying against against net neutrality and counts Google and Facebook as members.
IBM will invest $3 billion over the next four years in a new “Internet of Things” unit according to Reuters. Services will leverage data from building sensors, smartphones, and home appliances.As an example, the first major partnership will let customers of Weather Co do things like advise customers of safe places to park in advance of a hailstorm. Great for insurance companies. IBM expects $40 billion in a annual revenue from cloud, big data, security and other areas by 2018.
News From You:
Starfuryzeta sent us the Engadget report that on Monday the US Supreme court clarified and affirmed that if the government puts a GPS tracker on you, your car, or your personal effects it counts as a search and is subject to the 4th amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The clarification came in a unanimous ruling on Torrey Dale Grady v. North Carolina. Grady, a twice-convicted sex offender was made to wear a GPS monitor at all times. Grady sued the state claiming this qualified as an unreasonable search. The case now returns to the lower court, and all lower courts will now need to address the 4th amendment in monitoring cases.
Sunbun noticed Amazon has launched a new program called Dash Button. The program gives you a plastic wifi-enabled button you can associate with a limited number of regularly used products like paper towels or razor blades. Push the button and the product is re-ordered from Amazon. Amazon is encouraging manufacturers to build the system into products like coffee machines that reorder beans or water filters that reorder filtration cartridges. The program is invite only for Amazon Prime members.
Starfuryzeta submitted the Guardian report that the Belgian study determined Facebook tracks web browsing at its site even if a user does not have a Facebook account or has opted out of tracking. EU law requires prior consent before issuing a cookie or performing tracking. A Facebook spokesperson said the report contains factual inaccuracies and the authors never contacted Facebook. The studies authors said they would be happy to hear from Facebook.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the day:
Hey Tom, Jenny & Guest,
Came across this cool iphone 6/6 Plus case today and wanted to make it my pick. It’s the ALM mCAMLITE Stabilizer Mount with Video Lens & Mic for iPhone 6/6 Plus.
This all aluminum iphone case turns your stock iphone camera into a wide angle or macro lens, and includes a mic for recording better audio.
I saw an unboxing video/review for this product and it looks really solid. And for $123 on amazon, it’s not a bad price either!
Thanks for a great show as always!
Your boss from BC,
Jamie
Messages
I loved your talk with Molly regarding streaming service. Especially mentioning the Pono service and apathy towards quality of the music. I have to add that regardless of the 24 bit 96/192 KHz lossless files many of the tracks available are just high bitrate versions of blown out and dynamically compressed masters. Something audiophiles snub their noses at. It is a matter of garbage-in-garbage-out. Love the show.
Alisdair in snow covered Moncton (I almost used an expletive instead of snow covered)
Mike in Sunny Beirut:
I personally use Google Music, which offers streaming like Spotify, but also includes my own library to suppliment songs google doesn’t offer. Amazon Prime members have access to a similar service, although with less free storage.
John in lovely Billings, MT :
My service of choice is Google Play Music for one very important reason – you can upload your own music to seamlessly augment the streaming catalog. This came in handy when Taylor Swift pulled her singles when the new album released. You can buy it directly from Google or anywhere else that gives you the MP3s and boom, problem solved.
Rich from Lovely Cleveland:
You briefly touched on this with Molly yesterday, but I think it’s a major point: the fact that albums are becoming a thing again is a testament to the success of Spotify. It’s a major milestone that streaming music has become so ubiquitous that artists now see the benefit of effectively “pre-releasing” their albums ahead of streaming to capitalize on sales, knowing that between Spotify and YouTube they’ll have a consistent revenue stream going forward after the release. This isn’t the death of piracy, but this emphasis on album releases is the validation of the streaming model. Its actually a very exciting precedent.
Sean, on his way to lovely Cleveland:
Re: the Apple Watch. How hard would it have been to use recycled aluminum? Maybe they are, but I don’t recall seeing it mentioned. If an 80’s K-car can become paperclips why can’t old beer cans become an apple watch. Apple uses so much metal that does not need to bear a large load. Maybe they are using recycled material but I have not seen anything to say that they are.
Garin (as in “guarantee”) from Los Angeles:
My “brother” (who is actually my friend *wink*) I have added as one of my family members on my Prime account contacted Amazon Customer service when he had a package that missed the estimated 2 day delivery. The CS agent went ahead and credited MY Prime account with a free month, without any hesitation. Though this might not help the potential “congestion” of Amazon Prime, I thought Molly and other listeners might find this tip may ease their frustrations caused by a missed delivery estimate. Thanks for the show!
Randy writes:
As a follow-up to Molly’s problem with late Prime shipments, I just wanted to let you guys know that if your package is late, be it the fault of Amazon or UPS, they will extend your Prime membership one month, no questions asked.
In total, since I’ve been a Prime member, I’ve gotten six months free. Just contact them via chat support and getting it extended takes 2 minutes.
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Wednesday’s guests: Allison Sheridan!