We kick around a variety of things.
Get the episode here.
Links
Everlane.com
It’s A Thing- s04e04 – Introverts are in
“We have known for centuries about the transformative power of solitude; it’s only recently that we have begun to forget it.” – Susan Cain.
Get the episode here.
Links
“Quiet Quiz: Are You an Introvert or an Extrovert? – By Susan Cain”
“The Open-Office Trap – The New Yorker”
“Susan Cain: The power of introverts | Talk Video | TED.com”
DTNS 2383 – No One Expects the Dragon Age Inquisition!
Eric Franklin joins us to talk about why you need to put your phone out of sight and whether video game makers should stop publishing broken games.
Using a Screen Reader? click here
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 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 48 – Walking Dead (505, 506), Black Mirror (Season 1), The Shield (401)
Why season five has become season 1 for Brian, The brilliance that is Black Mirror and why Tom enjoyed this episode of The Shield the most yet.
01:10 – The Walking Dead
12:50 – Black Mirror (Season 1)
37:10 – The Shield (Season 4, Episode 1)
null
Today in Tech History – Dec. 10, 2014
In 1815 – Ada Byron was born in London, England to the poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabelle Milbanke. She would later marry William King and take on his title as Lady Lovelace. But she is best remembered as Charles Babbage’s friend, and writer of the first program for his Difference Engine. She is considered by many to be the first computer programmer.
In 1942 – Germany conducted the first powered test flight of a V-1 Rocket, launched from beneath an Fw-200.
In 1944 – Paul Otlet died. His theories presciently described a global interlinked “web” of documents, presaging the World Wide Web almost 50 years before its invention.
In 1993 – John Carmack and friends at iD Software released the video game Doom. It would launch a million mods and make the first person shooter the dominant form of video game for decades.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
S&L Podcast – #198 – The Most Hated Phrases in SciFi
This week we’re busy. We congratulate the winners of several year-end awards. We kick off our December book pick, The Night Circus, a beautiful novel by Erin Morgenstern. And we dive into some of the most wretched and hated terms and phrases in the professions of authorship. Mary Sue is under siege!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Red Trolley Ale
Veronica: Red Branch Hard Apple & Honey Cider
Casey: What are YOU drinking?
QUICK BURNS
Tamahome: The Goodreads choice awards are in
Sky: Audible’s best of 2014 released. Sanderson managed to win out over UF/Paranormal 🙂
Dara: SyFy has cast the leads for The Magicians series. Jason Ralph will play Quentin Coldwater and Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon) will play Alice.
Nick pointed out the successful test flight of the unmanned Orion space capsule.
Nick: Christopher Nolan rumored to be offered Ready Player One to direct
Fiona: The BBC adapted Good Omens as a 6 part audioplay. First part will air on Radio 4 on Monday 22nd December. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have cameo appearances!
Tamahome: What James Cameron says you’ll do when you see the Avatar sequels. NSFW.http://boingboing.net/2014/11/26/james-cameron-on-avatar-sequel.html
PICKS
Andrew picked: The City and the City by China Mieville
BARE YOUR SWORD
Louie: Terms authors are tired of hearing: “Infodump,” “Mary Sue,” “Hard SF,” “Dystopian.”
What are some terms that you are tired of hearing/reading?
Marion: What Is The Strangest or Most Unique SF/Fantasy Novel That You Have Ever Read?
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Kick off: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Erin Morgenstern on The Night Circus – YouTube
the night circus | erin morgenstern
Erin Morgenstern – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ADDENDUMS
Support our show on Patreon
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find upcoming and past new releases at swordandlaser.com/calendar
null
It’s A Thing- s04e03 – Men with scarves
If you are a man and wear a scarf you may be a designer. Or European. Or both.
Get the episode here.
Links
Pinterest post of fashionable man wearing scarf.
DTNS 2382 – Can You Spare a Plaintiff?
Patrick Beja is on to look at the top YouTube videos of the year and discuss why rivals like Vessel are trying to hire the YouTube Creators away. Shouldn’t they be going after the dog spiders?
Using a Screen Reader? click here
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 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: Patrick Beja, DTNS contributor and independent podcaster
Headlines
ReCode reports YouTube has updated its Apple TV app after a long period without any change. The app now looks more like the versions available on other platforms like Xbox. While that means ads will now play that also means videos like music videos will be allowed on Apple TV. Apple also added apps from Conde Nast, Fusion, Daily Motion and a $10 a month UFC.TV Fight Pass.
The Verge reports password manager Dashlane has added a function to change all your passwords at once. It will only work with 75 major websites at launch, but it will work with two factor authentication. Dashlane is available for Mac and Windows. It is free on one device or $40 a year to sync between multiple devices.
The Verge reports Amazon announced 4K Ultra HD streaming is now available in the US, for customers with the Amazon instant video app on compatible TVs. Videos are encoded with h.265 meaning the TV has to have an HEVC decoding chip inside. Offerings are limited but include some of Amazon’s own shows like Transparent as well as non-Amazon shows like BBC America’s Orphan Black (4K clone club!), as well as a selection of movies from Sony Pictures. The purchase price for an Ultra HD movie it will start at $19.99
9 to 5 mac obtained internal hiring documents that suggest Apple is recruiting retail employees with a fashion or luxury background. The article also describes possible changes to the Apple Store footprint to accommodate all the different Apple Watch options. It also describes security enhancements for that 18 Karat Rose Gold option– rumored to cost thousands of dollars.
If you tried to visit the Pirate Bay today you may have noticed it’s offline. The Next Web reports Swedish Police have raided a server room in greater Stockholm containing The Pirate Bay’s servers. Torrent Freak says Sweden’s police national coordinator for IP enforcement said the raid is being done, “in connection with violations of copyright law.” The site reappeared a few hours after the raid at a new domain name.
GigaOm reports the latest locations fighting Uber. Both Thailand and Spain banned Uber Tuesday. The city of Rio de Janeiro’s transport department filed a police complaint against Uber AND the City of Portland is suing the company for operating without permission there.
Reuters reports Joe Demarest, assistant director with the US FBI’s cyber division spoke on the Sony Pictures Entertainment attacks and said, “There is no attribution to North Korea at this point.” Demarest also said that there has been no confirmation of government involvement to date. Demarest was speaking on a panel at a cybersecurity conference sponsored by Bloomberg Government. FBI representatives plan to meet with Sony employees Wednesday to train them in cybersecurity practices.
The Next Web passes along Intel’s announcement that it is launching its own Internet of things platform. The Intel IoT platform and reference design is meant to help companies deploy products faster. It also promises to improve security. Intel is partnering with Accenture, SAP, Dell, Wipro and others on the platform.
The Guardian reports Blackphone is launching an app store in January for apps that help protect privacy and security. While Blackphones run Android, they do not have access to the Google Play store. Blackphone is also launching new software called “Spaces” which splits work and private life into two containers on the phone. The large bulk of sales of Blackphone are expected to be enterprise users.
Fortune reports a leaked memo says HBO will use technology from MLB Advanced to run its standalone streaming service in the US. HBO had been building its streaming service in house. The memo also indicates HBO plans to launch the service in April along with the season premiere of Game of Thrones.
Engadget reports the FIDO alliance has published its 1.0 draft standards for password-free authentication, both Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) and Universal 2nd Factor (U2F). The alliance, made up of of Google, Microsoft, Paypal and others relies on alternatives to passwords like fingerprint readers and USB dongles. The identity standards do not yet support Bluetooth- or NFC-based authentication thought they hope to add those as extensions to the standard. Apple’s TouchID also doesn’t work with FIDO except for one implementation by Nok Nok Labs.
News From You
metalfreak and starfuryzeta submitted the Ars Technica article about a trojan for Linux that is the missing piece of an Advance persistent threat disclosed in August called Turla. Researchers detected the malware. It cannot be detected using the common netstat command. It is able to run arbitrary commands even without elevated system privileges. Administrators can check for it by watching outgoing traffic to command and control connections and detecting strings.
habichuelacondulce sent us the Ars Technica report that CBS and Dish reached an agreement this weekend to end all pending litigation between the two companies. The deal follows a 12-hour blackout of CBS on Dish including (gasp) NFL games. The deal will also limit some of the Dish Hopper DVR’s ad-skipping ability. During a seven-day window following the airing of a CBS show, AutoHop will be disabled.
starfuryzeta passed along the San Jose Mercury News article that the Apple iPod trial will continue despite having no plaintiff. On Monday Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected the lone plaintiff representing the class of customers who had their rights harmed by what lawyers allege was an illegal monopoly to limit iPod downloads to the iTunes store. Lawyers for the Class have until today to present another person who can represent the 8 million iPod owners. “We don’t anticipate any problems,” said plaintiff’s lawyer Bonny Sweeney.
Discussion Links: YouTube 2014
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2014/12/youtube-rewind-2014.html
http://adage.com/article/media/jason-kilar-s-vessel-plans-youtube/295857/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-offering-its-stars-bonuses-1417994309
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/08/youtube-star-bonuses-vessel/
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/youtube-reopens-checkbook-for-original-content-1201308922/
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/3/7326375/zoella-girl-online-best-selling-debut-novel-of-all-time
Pick of the Day: Untappd via Norm Fazekas
Hey Tom & Jennie,
hope all is well and I wish you both a wonderful holiday season. I’m glad things are working well for you guys and look forward to another year of DTNS.
I know most of your apps are technologically based but I have a penchant for drinking beer and had a great app to share. I have used the Untappd app the past couple of years to find, track, rate brews and see what my friends are drinking. Plus it has a gamification element to earn badges for types of beers and/or places to drink. The Untappd folks keep making updates and adding new badges to keep things interesting and find it an integral tool to finding my next cold one. Obviously this isn’t for everyone but I love seeing what my friends recommend and trying to stay ahead of said friends in tallying badges.
Wednesday’s guest: Eric Franklin of cnet.com
Cordkillers 48 – Look a Cake! A Cake!
Why Nielsen numbers may show the death of TV and the streaming sticks are winning the streaming wars.
Today in Tech History – Dec. 9, 2014
In 1906 – Grace Hopper was born. She would rise to the rank of Rear Admiral but be best remembered for popularizing the term “debugging” for hunting down computer errors. She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL.
In 1968 – Computer scientist Douglas Engelbart gave a legendary product demonstration of NLS that would become known as “the mother of all demos.” Among other things it introduced the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, object addressing and dynamic file linking, bootstrapping, and a collaborative real-time editor.
In 1987 – Microsoft released Windows 2.0 which among other improvements could run the first Windows versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.