We run through the surprising events, the annoyances and the tropes of thie first 1-3 episodes and a smidge about episode 4.
S&L Podcast – #163 – Hugh Howey Hullabaloo
Hugh Howey caused quite a stir with his findings about independent authors, but what does it mean for us readers? We also talk about the Wizard of Earthsea feminism implications and have an exciting election for the March book pick! There is a gavel involved.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale
Veronica: Vina Robles Red Blend
VIDEO SHOW COMING THURSDAY OMG!!!!!
QUICK BURNS
Self-published ebooks: the surprising data from Amazon
Most Amazon bestselling authors aren’t making minimum wage
WH Auden told JRR Tolkien to cut the love story from Lord of the Rings
Daemon And Influx Author Daniel Suarez On Why Innovation Has Stalled
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Read Them Now, Watch Them Later: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Adaptation Watch
More on the Redshirts TV Series
What was cut to make the “unfilmable” book Winter’s Tale into a movie
BOOK CHECK-IN
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin
BARE YOUR SWORD
Looking for more firearms in “High” Fantasy
Hi Tom & Veronica,
Listening to Gregory A Wilson talk about his daughter’s name made me think of my own family. I was named after Jessica Atreides (Dune), putting me in the odd position of being named for a sci-fi character AND having one of the most common girls names of my generation.
I passed the nerd legacy onto my own children as well – my son’s middle name is Zaphod (as in Beeblebrox) and my daughter is named Aeryn (after Aeryn Sun from Farscape). Hopefully she won’t resent me for it the millionth time she has to spell it out loud for someone.
Love the show,
Jessica
DTNS 2173 – Candy Crushin’ It
Lamarr Wilson joins as we ponder the wonders of an IPO based on Candy Crush, and watch our audience debate a la carte cable TV.
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
New details on Samsung’s high-end smart phone: Bloomberg reports Samsung’s forthcoming high-end smartphone will have a 5.2-inch screen with improved resolution. Marketing will focus on improved security, an upgraded camera and integration with wearable devices. It also may be sold for less than the Samsung Galaxy S4. The phone is expected to be released at the same time as an update Galaxy Gear smart watch. Samsung has an event scheduled for Monday 2/24.
New Snowden docs show debates in NSA about treatment of WikiLeaks: Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept revealed details from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, showing debates in the NSA about how to treat organizations like WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay as well as general Internet users. The debates centered on when it was required to filter out data on US users, when monitoring visitors to a site like Wikileaks. One document argued Wikileaks particularly should be dubbed a “malicious foreign actor” so that no filtering would be required. ON a side note, The Verge reports AT&T issued their first transparency report, indicating the company received 301,816 total requests for phone records and subscriber information in 2013.
News From You
AllanAv called our attention to this Verge article about BitCoin ATMs coming to Seattle and Austin this month. Robocoin will install similar machines to the one it set up at Waves coffee in Vancouver last year. Robocoin also plans to bring its machines to Asia in a few weeks. The Vancouver ATM processed more than $900,000 in transactions in its first month.
Maurice emailed us a Daily Mail story about an organization called the Media Development Investment Fund that wants to create wifi access beamed from hundreds of cubesat satellites launched into orbit by 2015. The company calls the project the Outernet. Each satellite would receive data from a network of ground stations and use UDP to send data to users. The folks at Lightsquared will likely be very interested to see if this is allowed.
gigitrix posted this GameSpot article about the weekend craze of up to 7,000 people at a time playing a game of Pokemon on Twitch. An emulator allowed viewers to input text commands like A, B, Start and Select in chat which controlled the game. As of yesterday the game had four badges under its belt, and more than 80,000 people watching. You can watch and play at: http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon
KAPT_Kipper pointed us to the Verge article about Gabe Newell’s blog post where he explains why Valve’s Anti-Cheat software was looking at users DNS data. What VAC does look for is DNS that matches the DRM used by cheat software. Details on matching DNS entries are sent, checked again and if matched to known cheat software, the client is marked for a future ban.
and pete_c submitted the Ars Technica article about hackers taking advantage of a known critical vulnerability in Asus routers to place text files on drives connected to the routers. Asus reportedly patched the vulnerability late last week. Readers are advised to lock down their routers by installing any available firmware updates, changing any default passwords, and ensuring that remote administration, Cloud, and FTP options are set to off if they’re not needed.
More links from the show
AT&T files first transparency report
Candy Crush maker King files for IPO
Irrational Games, creator of BioShock Infinite to close
Today in Tech History – Feb. 18, 2014
In 1838 – In the small town of Chirlitz of the Austrian Empire Ernst Mach was born. His work in aerodynamics and supersonic speeds, led to the unit of measurement that bears his name. He would die one day after his birthday in 1916.
In 1908 -Dr Lee de Forest received a patent for “Space Telegraphy” which described a three-element vacuum tube later called the triode, which could amplify feeble electric currents, and proved especially useful for radio reception. Sorry it was not about Moon telegrams.
In 1977 – The Enterprise space shuttle orbiter prototype made the first of five “captive-inactive” flight tests, testing structural integrity and performance handling, while attached to the top of a 747 jumbo jet.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers Ep. 7 – Who Throttles the Throttlers?
Why Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable might not be a bad thing. And then right into what’s slowing down Netflix, which shows why consolidation surely isn’t helping. Also all ‘y’all have connected TVs these days.
CordKillers: Ep. 7 – Who Throttles the Throttlers?
Recorded: February 17 2014
Guest: Deric A. Hughes
Intro Video:
Primary Target
- Comcast: No promise that prices “will go down or even increase less rapidly”
- Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable to reshape U.S. pay TV
- Comcast lists all the ways a merger with Time Warner is “pro-consumer”
- $45.2 billion, just less than 30% of US, around 30 million households
Thursday : Comcast Executive VP David Cohen
“The impact on customer bills is always hard to quantify. We’re certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or even increase less rapidly.”
– Open Internet Order applies to Comcast and will to TWC after merger (until 2018)
– Comcast and TWC service areas do not overlap
Secondary Target
- Netflix performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for months
- Netflix Says Verizon Isn’t Slowing Down Its Streams
- Netflix slow on Verizon or Comcast? A VPN might speed up that video
- Comcast and Verizon’s Netflix speed dropped 4 straight months. Charter dropped too.
-Cox, Cablesvision and Google Fiber improved
– Netflix demands go up, do Comcast and Verizon add peering interconnects?
– VZ and Comcast not part of “Open Connect” where Netflix houses servers in ISP to improve service.
– Ars Technica: “Verizon’s broadband Internet access services deliver a pristine user experience to our customers at any time of day on every day of the week.
– J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth, who says he has been talking to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells, and they told him they don’t think cable and telco companies are hampering the company’s video streams.
– Using VPN or third-party DNS may improve Netflix service
– Sand vine Cofounder Don Bowman. If a VPN consistently behaves better, it’s proof that there is something along the path that doesn’t have enough capacity.”
Signals Intelligence
- Netflix To Premiere Final Season Of Clone Wars Animated Star Wars Show March 7
- Orange Is the New, New Black: Netflix’s Next Big Show Is Out June 6
Gear Up
- 3 out of 5 broadband households now have a connected TV
- Americans Are Hungry for Digital Content
- 63 percent of all U.S. broadband households now have a TV connected to the internet, according to a new report from the Diffusion Group (SmartTV or TV with a Roku-type device) (last year 53%)
– Nielsen – now own four digital devices, on average, and spend roughly 60 hours per week consuming content across multiple screens.
– HDTVs, the most popular digital devices, are now present in 83 percent of American households, up from 67 percent in 2011. In addition, 80 percent of homes have a PC with Internet and 65 percent have at least one smartphone, up from 79 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
– A near-majority of U.S. households also now own digital video recorders (49 percent) and gaming consoles (46 percent).
Under surveillance
Front Lines
- Supreme Court to hear broadcasters’ arguments against Aereo on April 22nd
- Apple is reportedly planning a new set-top-box with content from Time Warner Cable
- No Olympics for you: Comcast locks value customers out of Sochi streams
- Video Game High School levels up to Indiegogo to fund its third season
- HBO lands David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s ‘Utopia’ series
- Amazon leak suggests Xbox One Media Remote to land in March
On Screen
-
Brian: House of cards (4 episodes), Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne
-
Deric A. Hughes: House of Cards, True Detective
Dispatches from the Front
- I found this while working on another project today and thought it would be an interesting tool for all of the cord killers out there. It lets you use your existing coax for all sorts of other things. I think MSRP is about 60 bux, but you need a pair of them to get started.
- The story we did on cord cutting is now posted on our website. http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/24698708/no-cable-not-satellite-no-problem
On a personal note, my DirecTV bill went up this month so I called and complained. I ended up lowering my package, getting an additional $10/mo off my bill and getting a free DVR upgrade to the Genie with GenieGO.
Jay Schell
- Hi guys! Love your show! Glad you found a way to continue onward! Now to an omission that’s been bugging me for some time. You guys have discussed the wonders of streaming via Chromecast and Airplay as separate choices for the chord cutter, however I found a way to do both on one piece of hardware. I have a Vizio Co-Star running an app called “AirTight”. The Co-Star has recently been updated to support Chromecast-like streaming (casting?) and AirTight provides old-style AirPlay connectivity (no mirroring). So for under $100 you can have both without having to switch inputs! Plus, the Co-Star has lots of other capabilities (Netflix, MGO, VUDU, and WEB SURFING!) Anyhow, I love my Co-Star and thought I should at least mention it as an alternative.
Alex K.
- Monster post. feel free to pick the most relevant bits and let me know if there’s a forum or something i should post to or follow up on. this is fun and exhausting to think about alone!
Baratunde Thurston
Links
DTNS 2172 – Happy Presidents Day
Just a quick glance at the headlines. No guest today as it’s a holiday in the US.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit
Today in Tech History – Feb. 17, 2014
In 1965 – The Ranger 8 probe launched on its mission to photograph the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. The photos paved the way to select the area as the site of the first manned Moon landing.
In 1996 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated Deep Blue in game 6 winning the match 4-2. He would lose the next match.
In 2000 – Microsoft released Windows 2000, the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and the final Windows release to display the “Windows NT” designation.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – Feb. 16, 2014
In 1880 – 30 engineers from eight states met in the New York editorial offices of the American Machinist to found the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
In 1968 – The first-ever 911 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite from Haleyville City Hall to US Rep. Tom Bevill at the city’s police station.
In 1978 – After a particularly harsh January gave them plenty of time for programming, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess completed the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in Chicago. It was the first BBS.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – Feb. 15, 2014
In 1897 – Ferdinand Braun published a paper in the journal Annalen der Physik und Chemie describing his “Braun tube”, the first cathode-ray oscilloscope, which paved the way for the modern CRT.
In 1946 – A few days after its first public demonstration, the first practical all-digital computer, ENIAC was formally dedicated.
In 1995 – The FBI arrested Kevin Mitnick on charges of wire fraud and breaking into the computer systems of several major corporations.
Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2171 – Funk Da Crunk in the Elephant’s Trunk
Brian Ibbott is on the show and we’ll talk about the PS4 doubling Xbox One sales, Pandora guessing your political party, and what tech Coverville’s Mayor uses for music. Plus Len Peralta draws the show!
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes