The Walking Dead misses a step, Saul calls the past, The Shield spells doom for the Captain and Hacking the System faces off against a rattlesnake.
Walking Dead – 01:26
Better Call Saul – 14:43
The Shield – 20:42
Hacking the System – 23:40
Today in Tech History – Feb. 25, 2015
In 1837 – The US Patent Office approved Thomas Davenport’s application for a patent on an “Improvement in Propelling Machinery by Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism.” We’d call it an electric motor.
In 1928 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC became the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
In 1930 – A US patent for a photographing apparatus was issued to George Lewis McCarthy, who called it a Checkograph. It was the first bank check photographing device.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
S&L Podcast – #207 – Crowdfunding an Abomination with Gary Whitta!
Gary Whitta is an award-winning screenwriter who wrote The Book of Eli and worked on the first Star Wars standalone film. So when he had an idea for a dark historical fantasy story he wrote a book. Why? We ask him that, about successfully crowdfunding his novel, and much more on this episode!
Oh, and yes. We ask him about Star Wars too.
DTNS 2436 – Stop– Pebble Time
Patrick Beja is in today, to marvel over the Pebble Time and its record-breaking Kickstarter. Is the Pebble bigger and/or better than the Apple and Android watches?
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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
FEATURED REVIEW: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb
Welcome to our Featured Reviews! In this series, we’ll be highlighting book reviews by the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica
Review by Emily Carlson
The Low-Down:
Robin Hobb is back, my friends. And for devotees of her epic fantasy series, Realm of the Elderlings, this is a very good thing. Fool’s Assassin is the much-anticipated continuation of the story of Fitz and the Fool, a pair of outcasts who struggle to save their beloved Six Duchies from near disaster.
Fool’s Assassin opens while Fitz is enjoying his well-earned retirement. Things are finally peaceful and although he cherishes the quiet contentment of his life, Fitz struggles to accept that the need for violence is completely over. He still sequesters himself away from his loved ones, still keeps secrets like a compulsion, still can’t seem to let go of the intrigue – no matter how much he might like to.
But when some suspicious coincidences start hinting of danger lurking outside Fitz’s rural, idyllic life, it seems it might be a good thing that Fitz has had trouble letting go of his past, because it certainly hasn’t let go of him.
Key Themes
Country life, paranoia, fatherhood, A MURDER MOST FOUL, prophesy, creepy-crawlies, class, secret passageways, THE ULTIMATE DRAMA QUEEN
What’s Good
Hobb is a master storyteller. Over the course of the last nine books, Hobb has honed her characters into realistically flawed, frustrating, and oh-so-lovable men and women. Though the over ten-year gap between Fool’s Fate and Fool’s Assassin gnawed at many fans, the gap was deliberate. With such beloved characters and intricate plot, Hobb has been careful not to exploit them. That is the true triumph of this novel. Nothing here feels forced, nothing feels like Hobb simply wanted to capitalize off of her most recognized and well-loved series. Instead, Hobb has crafted a story that leaves you thinking, Of course! How could I have thought Fitz would fade into quiet retirement??
Hobb’s strength has always been her ability to make us care about her characters, and Fool’s Assassin fits right in with her previous books. Some of them have us tearing our hair and shaking the book in frustration, some have us cheering into the pages, but all of them feel fully realized.
Furthermore, in a marked departure from her previous books staring Fitz, we are finally privy to more than one first-person narrator! Though I won’t reveal who this narrator is, I will say that it was a refreshing and exciting change that is probably going to prove necessary in her next novels. Hobb also builds on our feelings of dramatic irony in this book (everyone remember those high school English classes??) – the characters are intentionally a few steps behind the reader, creating delicious tension to put us all on the edge of our seats.
As another tasty tidbit, it seems that we may finally get a glimpse into the mysterious southern country The Fool hails from!
What’s Less Than Good
Though Hobb springs into action with hints of doom left and right, make no mistake – Fool’s Assassin falls victim to first-volume-in-a-trilogy-syndrome. Odd ends from the previous series and wrapped up. We build a detailed picture of Fitz’s current life. New threads of intrigue are introduced. But, just when the action is starting to get really exciting, we break for the new book. Fool’s Assassin is crucial to move the plot along, and that’s not all that it does, but it can feel frustrating to have so many questions by the end of the book.
Furthermore, though Hobb always strives to have her novels and trilogies as self-contained as possible, readers with no experience in Realm of the Elderlings will be shortchanged by starting with this novel. Tearful reunions will make no sense, bittersweet partings won’t have their full effect. But that doesn’t mean this series isn’t worth it, it means those readers should look forward to this book at the end of finishing the previous nine books – because it is totally worth it.
The Final Verdict
Hobb had a lot of expectations to live up to when she decided to continue the story of Fitz and the Fool. Such a beloved series is both a blessing and a curse to an author. However, Hobb rises to the challenge admirably. Although only time will tell if this series can capture the grandeur of her previous novels, Fool’s Assassin has all the hallmarks of a great new series.
More than anything, Fool’s Assassin promises to capture our attention for her next novel in the series, and leaves us all slobbering for more.
Fool’s Assassin: Book One of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy
$17.71
Today in Tech History – Feb. 24, 2015
In 1949 – A modified German V-2 ballistic missile launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, reaching an altitude of 244 miles, and putting it well above the Kármán line. It was the first US rocket to reach “outer space.”
In 1955 – A boy was born to University of Wisconsin graduate students Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali. He was given up for adoption and taken in by a machinist and his wife in Mountain View, California. They named him Steve Jobs.
In 2011 – The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral on its final mission.
In 2014 – Samsung announced the Galaxy S5 with a heart rate sensor and water and dust proofing.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers 59 – Critically Acclaimed
Amazon green lights all our favorite pilots, why we don’t need a universal remote, and how cable can actually be for Cordkillers.
CordKillers: Ep. 59 – Critically Acclaimed
Recorded: February, 23 2015
Guest: None
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Amazon green-lights The Man in the High Castle TV series, also Mad Dogs
–Amazon Green Lights 5 out of 13 pilots
– Later this year and in 2016
-Man in the High Castle (Most watched so far)
-Mad Dogs
-The New Yorker Presents
-Young adult shows
-Just Add Magic (based on book by Cindy Callaghan)
-The Stinky & Dirty Show (Based on I Stink series by Jate & Jim McMullan)
-Woody Allen produced show not in pilot slate
-Alpha House and Trasnparent returning for new series.
Signal Intelligence
- Google launches YouTube Kids on Android and iOS
– Family-friendly version of YouTube for iOS and Android 9coming soon to Kurio and nabi)
– Simpler bigger brighter interface
– Curated to select videos “appropriate for the whole family”
– 4 categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore
– Supports voice searchParental Controls:
– A Timer
– Sound settings (turn off bg music and sfx)
– Turn off search
-Feedback section for parental opinions
Gear Up
- Touchscreen Remote Control Ray Aims to Change Your TV Experience
–Ray Enterprises – new universal remote called “Ray Super Remote”
– Showed at Code/Media summit last week
– Controlled via apps. Not every devices has an app. Deal with Dish but not all cablecos. (Can still work standalone)
– $199
– 4.8-inch touchscreen
– Mute, volume, sleep physical buttons. All else touchscreen
– Works w/ Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee
– Switches inputs when app for device is tapped
– Get to know what shows you like and suggest them
– 10 hours on a charge w/cradle
Front Lines
- Hulu Replaces Its Queue With “Watchlist,” A Smarter, More Personalized View Of Your Favorite Shows
–Hulu has a couple notes to tell you about. A new feature called Watchlist replaces the Queue, favorites, and shows you watch sections. Now when you click the plus button on a show (or add to watchlist) it gets added to the watchlist. Shows are ordered based on viewing behavior. Also Hulu got exclusive streaming rights to all 15 seasons of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. If you’re into that. - DirecTV Subscribers Edge Up in 2014, but Growth Rate Slows
–For 2014 DirecTV ended with 20.35 million subscribers up 5% from 2013. That’s an addition of 99,000 subscribers which is smaller than the 169,000 the company added in 2013. However Q4 saw an increase of 149,000 subs up from 93,000 in Q4 2013. And just in time to take an advantage away from SlingTV. DirecTV announced its customers now have access to Disney streaming apps, including Watch ESPN, WatchDisney and Watch ABC. - Comcast’s live TV app has doubled its channel count in a year
–Comcast also announced it has doubled the number of channels available on the Xfinity Go app since it launched last year. It now has 70 channels. Some of those channels allow for on demand viewing of shows and even downloading for offline viewing. - Nearly A Third Of Canadian Netflix Users Pretend To Be American
–A study from Media Technology Monitor found that 29% of respondents admitted to using a US IP address to access Netflix. 40 percent said they were spoofing their IP to access other, non-Netflix U.S. media content online.
Under Surveillance
- Kill me Three Times stars Simon Pegg as a hitman. Comes to iTunes 3/26 and Theaters 4/10
- New ‘House of Cards’ trailer released Sunday– trouble between Frank and Claire? Debuts Friday!
- Netflix acquired Jadotville, which recreates a UN battallion’s fight against Congolese forces. It stars 50 shades’ Jamie Dornan and is directed by music video stalwart Richie Smyth. It becomes available in 2016.
- Brian: Better Call Saul, Hacking the System, WWE Fastlane, The Walking Dead
- Tom: Better Call Saul (Ep. 3), Hacking the System, The Flash, Agent Carter, Saturday Night Live, Bob’s Burgers, Kingsman, Graham Norton Show, The Shield (411), The Walking Dead, The Academy Awards
Dispatches from the Front
Hey Brian and Tom,
Thanks for splitting up the show into two feeds. I picked the Cordkillers only Audio Feed. as you guys spoil shows I haven’t seen yet.
anyway,
Thanks for doing that.
Tim, Minneapolis, MN Patreon member.
As a Cordkillers fan from day zero (Frame Rate days), I always find it interesting that Brian sometimes feels guilty for having cable, even for the duration of his Hacking the System show. I have no intention of getting rid of my cable at this time or in the near future. In fact, I’ve just upgraded my FiOS bundle with a 2 year contract. I’ve gotten so used to the combination of having so many channels at my fingertips to adapt to my variable viewing tastes throughout the year and the time-shifting convenience of the DVR service. Then there’s not having to worry about what service has the show I want. There’s no shame in paying for what you want, albeit on only some of the devices you want (no Amazon Fire TV FiOS app just yet).
Here are the details of my service:
I have FiOS TV Quantum service, which has a new cable box with 1TB of storage and records 6 shows at once (no more DVR conflicts on those heavy primetime evenings). The service includes the highest tier of TV packages (Ultimate HD). It’s particularly useful because it includes the sports channels like (beIN, Universal Sports, etc.). They’ve also given me a 3 year price guarantee (no price hikes) and 2 years of all premium channels free.
The bundle includes the FiOS 75/75 Internet service, which almost always gives me the total bandwidth whenever I need it. I can even downgrade that back to the 50/50, if needed, to save another $5/mo without breaking the bundle.
My bill comes out to about $158 after taxes and government fees, which is about as much as I was paying before the upgrade, and that price is guaranteed (minus the free programming expiring) for 3 years, even after my contract expires.
Hope that wasn’t too long-winded for you, but I thought I’d share my service info in response to the email you guys read on episode 58.
One of your many bosses,
Curtis from MD
Man guys,
It sounds to me like you guys spend a ton of dough on TV/Entertainment. This is my set up, I’m using a knockoff leaf antenna I got on Amazon for $39. That gets me all the broadcast networks. I have TWC internet access 50mps down that I get for $29.99 plus tax (I recently got them to get me another 12 months promotional rate by calling them up and telling them I wanted to cancel my service. I told them Earthlink was gonna get me 30mps for $29.99 then the TWC rep was all like well we can get you 50mps for $29.99.) Anyways then I pay $7.99 a month for Hulu, I basically use Hulu as my catch up service. Instead of paying the cable company $10 to record a bunch of stuff, I can watch whatever I want and don’t have to worry about setting up a recording. I watch The Walking Dead for $1.99 an episode on Vudu though that expense is going to be getting wrapped into one of my new favorite services. Finally I now pay $20 a month for Sling TV and every few months I sub to Netflix when House of Cards comes back and now Marco Polo. So anyways all in all I spend about $60 a month to watch exactly want I wanna watch when I wanna watch it. I feel like I’m doing pretty good after hearing you guys are spending hundreds of bucks a month.
One of your 2000 bosses,
Ken
First: thank you for making a Cordkillers only feed.
Secondly: we don’t pay anything for TV, apart from the mandatory £12.12 per month ($18.61 aprox.) for the TV License as I watch live TV *
For Internet/Phone calls, our bills come to about £30 ($46.06 aprox.) but I did a little chicken challenge a couple of times with Virgin Media, and have managed to get a £10 discount and a secondary £5 discount, so we are actually only paying about £15 per month ($23.03 aprox.) at the moment for UP TO 50Mpbs down** and a standard landline with free weekend calls.
So in total, we pay about £27.12 / $41.65 per month for decent quality internet and the chance to watch live TV.
Anonymous
Thought I would share what I pay for Internet and TV.
I live in Northwest Indiana 20 miles away from Chicago. I pay 29.99 a month for 25mbps down 5mbps up from Comcast. Have an OTA antenna with a channel master + dvr. I also have Prime and Netflix. If there is a cable show that I want, I get a season pass on Amazon.
Basically less than $50 a month for TV and Internet.
Jeff
Links
2014 Nebula nominees announced!
Congrats to all the nominees! Lots of Sword & Laser reads and authors in the list, which is always exciting. The winners will be announced during Nebula Awards Weekend June 4th-7th, 2015 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Illinois.
Novel
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor)
Trial by Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu ( ), translated by Ken Liu (Tor)
Coming Home, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals; Fourth Estate; HarperCollins Canada)
Novella
We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Regular,” Ken Liu (Upgraded)
“The Mothers of Voorhisville,” Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion)
“Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)
Novelette
“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
“The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
“We Are the Cloud,” Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
“The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)
Short Story
“The Breath of War,” Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/6/14)
“When It Ends, He Catches Her,” Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction 9/26/14)
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family,” Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide,” Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14)
“Jackalope Wives,” Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/7/14)
“The Fisher Queen,” Alyssa Wong (F&SF 5/14)
Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Edge of Tomorrow, Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Interstellar, Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures)
The Lego Movie, Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
Salvage, Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Dirty Wings, Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion)
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton (Candlewick)
DTNS 2435 – You’ve sunk my USS Net Neutrality
Peter Wells joins the show and we’ll talk about how the Lenovo Superfish issue is affecting dozens of other apps as well. Should you be worried?
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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 guest: Peter Wells of Reckoner, Australia
Headlines:
ReCode reports Google is buying some of the tech intellectual property behind mobile payments system Softcard, formerly ISIS, the system created by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile USA. Google also inked a distribution deal for Google Wallet with the the three US carriers. All three carriers will pre-install Google Wallet on their Android phones, starting later this year.
Today Google started accepting requests to use Inbox for Work according to Tech Crunch. “Google Inbox” has been available since late last year by invite, but didn’t integrate with “Google Apps for Work”. Google’s Director of Project Management, Alex Gawley, said the Inbox for Work experience will be indistinguishable from the consumer version. Google Apps for Work sys admins can request an invite by emailing inboxforwork@google.com. Invites should start arriving next month.
Ars Technica reports two US FCC commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael O’Reilly have requested the commission delay its vote on Open Internet Rules for 30 days and make the entire proposal available for public review. The FCC usually does not release final drafts of rules publicly to reduce lobbying. Exceptions have been made in the past such as in the case of a change in rules on media ownership in 2003. The FCC is scheduled to vote on the new rules Thursday and DTNS is preparing a special roundtable discussion for Friday’s show.
Paul Thurrot on his still fresh and new thurrot.com reports Microsoft is delivering the first major update to the Microsoft Band fitness wearable and Microsoft Health online service. The updates includes new health and fitness insights, support for cycling, and a web app that allows you to view your data in a more detailed dashboard on any Web browser. Still no word on when more Microsoft Bands will be available for those who didn’t get in on the initial ‘measured launch’.
9 to 5 macfound an image on Pebble’s servers of a smartwatch with a color e-ink display, a larger bezel, and smaller buttons. Pebble quickly removed the image. 9 to 5 adds the image bears out what their sources say about latest pebble, which also includes a revamped OS, a battery life that compares to the first gen Pebble and no touchscreen.
After reports that the NSA and GCHQ had stolen its SIM keys, Gemalto said it would look into the matter. CNET reports Gemalto’s first statement says “Initial conclusions already indicate that Gemalto SIM products are secure.” Gemalto plans to release the full results of its investigation this Wednesday Feb 25th at a press conference in Paris at 10:30am.
News From You:
habichuelacondulce submitted the PC World article that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Lenovo in the US District Court for the Southern District. of California. Plaintiff Jessica Bennett, on behalf of the class, complained her laptop was damaged, her privacy invaed, her computer performance degraded and her bandwidth used by Superfish. Lenovo issued a fix to remove Superfish and its compromised certificate from all browsers on affected Lenovo computers. Meanwhile the Komodia software used by Superfish to intercept HTTPS traffic has been disovered in several other programs.
MacBytes wanted to let us know about another announcement from last week’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose. The BBC reports on a project to scan the Amazon Forest in Brazil, using a drone equipped with LIDAR or Laser Illuminated Detection And Ranging– to peer through the thick forest canopy. The project hopes to locate geoglyphs or large geometric patterns in the ground. More than 450 geoglyphs have been found in places where the forest has been cut down. The project could help answer questions about the size and complexity of Amazonian civilization prior to european contact.
Discussion Section Links: Superfish
Pick of the Day: Hindenburg via Anders
My good friend and former coworker, Nick Dunkerley, has developed an excellent audio editing tool specifically for radio and podcast work. It’s called Hindenburg, and I use it almost every day – It has filtering and compression and that sort of thing, it can record Skype conversations (in separate tracks), etc. has lots of keyboard shortcuts and can be picked up in a few minutes
Anyway, as mentioned in full disclosure, I know Nick and the others behind the company, I was the first alpha tester and have remained in frequent touch with them for feedback, input and feature requests.
The name, I should say, comes of course from the (in-)famous radio piece from the airship disaster – I’ve always thought it was slightly morbid, but hey…
Cheers, and keep up the good work,
Anders
And Simplenote via Peter Wells
and a very quick pick from me, you mentioned iftt’s new Do Camera last week on the show, and it has already made it to my home screen. Why? Well I’m very frustrated with Evernote, I much prefer the speed and simplicity of Simplenote- but I always wanted a way to take quick picks of serial numbers, receipts, etc for work, without those photos clogging up my camera roll. Do Camera allows me to do just that! You can turn off “Save to Camera Roll” in settings, then take those little “important for a few minutes” photos on your phone, and know they’ll immediately be uploaded to Dropbox or your preferred cloud service.
Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja, DTNS contributor and independent podcaster.
Today in Tech History – Feb. 23, 2015
In 1893 – Germany’s Imperial Patent Office granted Rudolph Diesel Patent No. 67207 for “a new efficient thermal engine”. We just call it, the Diesel engine.
In 1927 – US President Calvin Coolidge signed Public Law no. 632 establishing the Federal Radio Commission which was later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission.
In 1927 – German physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote a letter to Wolfgang Pauli, describing the uncertainty principle for the first time. He submitted a paper on the principle for publication the following March.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.