We love the alternate world of Man in the High Castle. Agent Carter is awesome, Tom forgot he watched Marco Polo and Vic Mackie goes to war.
00:40 – The Man In The High Castle
17:00 – Agent Carter
22:52 – Marco Polo
26:10 – The Shield
Today in Tech History – Jan. 21, 2015
In 1957 – NBC taped and broadcast President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second inauguration address, further popularizing the taping of video.
In 1981 – The first DeLorean DMC-12 sports car rolled off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. This one made no use of gigawatts in any way.
In 2004 – The Mars Rover Spirit abruptly stopped transmitting. Apparently too many files had been written to the flash memory and it went into fault mode.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
S&L Podcast – #202 – Ready Player Two
We wrap up The Sparrow. We loved it and it made us sad. We’re also blown away at the quality of books being made into TV shows. Well, only a pilot and a trailer but so far so good. But should you risk reading a book and seeing a movie or TV show too? Maybe not!
Download direct here!
Watch the Google Hangout!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Jameson’s Select Reserve Black Barrel
Veronica: Hendricks Gin
QUICK BURNS
Yento: New trailer for The Expanse. I’m trying so hard not to get too excited about it because syfy but this looks like it could be pretty good.
Louie: First look at The Man in the High Castle adaptation. (Israel also alerted us)
Dara: SyFy is really into adapting books. Now they’re turning Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin into a miniseries.
Warren: Screenwriter Zak Penn, who’s written the Ready Player One adaptation, has revealed that Ernest Cline is currently working on a second novel.
David: “Gollancz have acquired the English translation and publication rights to three further Witcher books by Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski.” via The Wertzone
BARE YOUR SWORD
Steve: How to dislodge the movie from the book?
Jonathon: Big, Long Series to Fill Gap Left By WoT
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Next month’s pick: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (We’ll formally kick off next episode)
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
TS: Disappointed With The Ending (full spoilers)
ADDENDUMS
We have a new producer! Hi Jacob!
East Meets West 330 – Optim-east meets Pessi-west
The State of the Union, feeling grown up, the state of journalism, why bad people aren’t always recognized, selective law enforcement, how can success be measured, are we good at being a big society, will a robot brain turn against us? How do we decided what we’re suited for, and why we’ll soon have jobs growing organs for people in our bodies.
Download the episode at this link.
DTNS 2411 – You Won’t Believe What We Learned about Clickbait!
Patrick Beja and Justin Young are both in to talk about Facebook and Gabe Rivera’s wars on misleading news. We’ll discuss why both are necessary to the fight and why there’s a fight at all.
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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 and Justin Robert Young, DTNS Contributors
Headlines
Facebook announced it will be using user feedback to cut down the prevalence of news feed items that are hoaxes or misleading news. The news feed algorithm will downgrade Stories that are deleted by their posters in large numbers or identified in comments as hoaxes or with links to hoax-busting sites like snopes. A new option to report a story as false has also been added. Facebook does not believe this will adversely affect sites like The Onion. Area man agrees.
Microsoft will hold Windows 10 day tomorrow starting with a keynote presentation at 12 Noon. Expect to hear about unified apps on the unified OneCore, Cortana everywhere, the new Spartan browser, touch-first version of Office, PC gaming, new perceptive pixel large touchscreen, and possibly a phone-laptop hybrid and a VR Helmet code-named Project B. Mary Jo Foley writes that some of the mobile announcements will be held for later, possibly for Mobile World Congress, including the Windows 10 preview for phones. Microsoft will live stream the announcement at http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/
GigaOm reports Ubuntu has a minimal version of Linux for the Internet of Things. “Snappy” Ubuntu Core already has the Open Source Robits Foundation, drone-maker Erle Robotics and connected hub maker NinjaBlocks on board. Core keeps each part of the OS isolated making it perfect for containerized apps like Docker. It will also have an app store.
Wired has an excellent long read about a telecommunications nonprofit called Rhizomatica, which is trying to bring cellular service to small towns in Mexico that have been passed over by the country’s dominant telecom Telmex. Founder Peter Bloom uses Open BSC, an open source cell network developed by a German developer named Harald Welte. Here’s how it works: Communities pay 120,000 pesos (about $8,000 USD) for equipment and installation. Subscribers pay 30 pesos (about $2) a month for local calls and texts, and the town keeps any profit left over after paying for electricity and maintenance. Rhizomatica can also hook up the town’s network to a voice-over-IP connection, which allows users to make very cheap long-distance calls to Mexico City and even the US. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s a great article. Go read it!
PC World reports on HP’s announcement of several new tablets for professionals. The ProSlate 12 is a 12.-3 inch display, the new Concore Gorilla Glass and the Duet Pen that can digitize notes on paper as well as take them on the tablet. Prices start at $569. HP also announced the Pro Slate 8 a 7.9-inch tablet with a 2048 x 1536 screen and support for the Duet Pen for $449. The Pro Slate 10 EE has a 10.1-inch screen, and a micro-HDMI port, targeted at educational uses for $279. There was also the 10.1-inch ElitePad 1000 G2 Rugged Tablet, which starts at $1,599.
“Flashing” or “sinpa” is the practice of calling and hanging up as a way to indicate a message. Sort of like the app Yo. This practice in some parts of the world has become so prevalant that companies like ZipDial have started making money by sending texts and accepting hang-ups as responses. This makes for low-cost or no cost business communications. ZipDial has used it for things like Cricket Scores, political campaigns, market research and more. GigaOM reports Twitter is acquiring Zipdial for what Bloomberg estimates is around US$30 million.
News From You:
Quantum memory is hard since any interaction with the environment can erase the data. Cottage reports Ars Technica has a story on research conceived by Matthew J Sellars from The Australian National University and Jevin J. Longdell at the University of Otago in New Zealand. they along with several colleagues published a paper in Nature describing a nuclear spin that can be written to with radiofrequency radiation and insulated well enough to store quantum states for as along as six hours. To get your 6 hours of memory though, you’ll need an intense magnetic field at 2 Kelvin. So not so much the desktop memory yet.
Habichuelacondulce posted the USA Today report that at least 50 US law enforcement agencies have deployed radar device called a RANGE-R that uses radio waves to detect motion, even breathing and and can tell if individuals are within a house. The device costs about $6,000. The use of the device came to light in December during a case in Federal Appeals Court in Denver. It’s use was not material to the decision. U.S. Supreme Court has said officers generally cannot use high-tech sensors to tell them about the inside of a person’s house without first obtaining a search warrant.
Sunbun passed along a Verge report that Nintendo will close its customer loyalty program Club Nintendo. US and Canadian members will have until the end of March to collect “coins” and until the end of June to redeem them. Nintendo will also add extra merchandise to help people spend their coins. The rewards program never caught on in the US or Europe, although it was apparently successful in Japan. Nintendo of America will relaunch a new rewards program in the future.
iSting sent along a report from Tech Hive that Marriott is testing in-room access to Netflix, Hulu and Pandora, as well as other online streaming services. It’s unclear whether the service would allow users to access their own Netflix account or whether they would pay for it as part of a larger “premium internet package”. Bloomberg reports that several other hotel chains are looking at whether to make Neflix available in-room as well.
Discussion Section Links:
http://digiday.com/publishers/techmemes-gabe-rivera-tech-media-lot-intellectual-dishonesty/
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/01/news-feed-fyi-showing-fewer-hoaxes/
http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/01/20/financing-round
Pick of the Day: Bitcoin Billionaire via Sachin Bahal in Toronto
Hello Tom & the DTNS Crew,
Tap … Tap… Tap… That is all you have to do in the game, Bitcoin Billionaire.
The premise of the game is that you are are a Bitcoin miner (but you aren’t not mining actual Bitcoins). It is a very simple to play game and yes the game does have in-app purchases to buy “gems” but you earn them ever so often that you won’t need to buy some. The game came out on iOS a few months ago and most recently came to Android. Caution this game can be highly addictive.
Below are the links to the game on the App Store and Google Play.
Tomorrow’s guest: Lamarr Wilson
Today in Tech History – Jan. 20, 2015
In 1929 -The movie In Old Arizona was released. It was the first full-length talking motion picture in the US to be filmed outdoors.
In 1934 – Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd., the photographic and electronics company known today as Fujifilm, was founded in Tokyo, Japan.
In 1981 – The inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan is the world’s first broadcast to feature live teletext subtitles for the hearing impaired.
In 2009 – The inauguration of US President Barack Obama became the most widely-streamed Presidential inauguration to that time. According to Akamai’s Net Usage Index, web traffic peaked at 5.4 million requests per minute — and two terabits per second.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers 54 – How Can I watch Judge Judy?
Amazon wants to make movies but hires Woody Allen to make TV shows. Daily Motion takes on TWiTCH and GoPro goes live.
CordKillers: Ep. 54 – How Can I watch Judge Judy?
Recorded: January 19, 2015
Guest: Kristi Kates
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Amazon announces plans to make movies for theaters, Prime streaming
–Amazon Original Movies.
– 12 movies a year
– In theaters then on Prime 4-8 weeks later
– Coming later this year - Amazon got Woody Allen to do a TV show for Prime
–Amazon signed Woody Allen to write/direct a 30 min. comedy series. Coming 2016 - Amazon’s First Pilot Season of 2015,
–Featuring Slate of 13 Original Comedy, Drama, Documentaries and Kids Offerings, is Now Available on Amazon Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany - Amazon Pilots
Signal Intelligence
- Dailymotion launches live-streaming gaming platform to compete with Twitch
–DailyMotion announced DailyMotion Games, highlighting game streaming.
– Gaming already generates 180 million video views every month and draws 11 million unique visitors every month
– Partners at the time of the launch include Eclypsia, Millenium, joinDOTA, OnGameNet, IGN, JeuxVideo.com, Gamespot or Gamekult.
– DailyMotion Games App for iOS, Android and PS4. - Amazon’s Twitch Gaming Unit to Allow Streaming Music
–Twitch meanwhile will allow users to stream a limited library of music on game streams. (about 500 songs)
– Broadcast original music and host music shows
Gear Up
- GoPro Taps Vislink To Offer Live HD Broadcasting
-GoPro partnering with VisLink for live streaming
– Transmitter that can attach to GoPro Hero4
– More to be announced this spring.
-TWiTCH for outdoorsy folks?
Front Lines
- Discovery Channel Founder Jumps Into Video Stream
–Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks (who is no longer on Discovery’s board btw) is going to launch a subscription-only video on demand service called CuriosityStream this March. Shows will be about nature, history, science and technology. The price will run from $2.99 to $9.99 a month depending on the resolution. - Maker Studios has agreed to provide content to Vimeo with an exclusive time window.
-No word on what kind of content or for how long the exclusivity window will be. - Pay-TV Tech Company Synacor Buys Web-TV Startup NimbleTV
–NimbleTV, the startup that promised to let you watch your cable subscription online went dark this week and has now been sold to Synacor, a company that provides service to the pay TV industry. Synacor says NimbleTV’s consumer business is discontinued. - The ZTE Spro 2 is a WiFi hotspot that runs Android Kit Kat with a customized interface and has a built-in projector that can do 1080p video up to 120-inches.
Under Surveillance
- Yahoo’s revival of ‘Community’ to premiere March 17
- Will Arnett’s new show will premiere on Netflix in 2016.
-Flaked, a series about “a self-appointed guru who falls for the object of his best friend’s fascination,” with writer Mark Chappell - Brian: Man the in High Castle, Marco Polo episode 6,
- Tom: Agent Carter, The Man in the High Castle, Marco Polo (ep. 6) The Shield (407), Birdman, Whiplash, Selma
- Kristi: Agent Carter, Man the in High Castle, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Interstellar, Top Gear Patagonia
2014 Winter Movie Draft
http://draft.diamondclub.tv/
- Brett: $483,237,219
- Brian: $439,826,000
- Scott: $431,592,000
- Tom: $368,966,269
- John: $238,862,841
- Justin: $227,389,000
Dispatches from the Front
I am a cordkiller. But I used to love Aereo. I know you guys talk a lot about cable shows and prime time.
How can I watch Judge Judy? Or other day time shows?
Thurman
Student and sometimes your boss
Brian,
Please tell the National Geographic Channel how DVRs work. I tried to setup a program to record all the episodes of your upcoming series, “Hacking the System.” However, instead of each episode being called Hacking the system and then in the metadata there being an episode name each show has the name Hacking the System with a subtitle such as Hacking the System: Personal Security. As a result a series recording program only records one episode. So I have to setup an individual recording for each episode. (In your best mobster voice) I hope I don’t have an unfortunately accident and forget to record one of your episodes. That would be a shame.
Bill near Athens, Georgia
Suddenlink is my only choice for real broadband internet and cable TV and I bet they only serve markets with no competition. I live in an apartment and can’t get local channels with an indoor antenna and satellite installation is impractical. Last fall, Suddenlink dropped 24 Viacom channels including Comedy Central. I’ve been watching The Daily Show and others on free Hulu since then. Today I wanted to watch the season 2 premiere of Broad City on Comedy Central but Hulu only has season 1 so I went to Comedy Central’s web site to watch it. Viacom is blocking Suddenlink broadband customers in retaliation to Suddenlink not carrying their channels any longer. So, my only choice if I want to watch Broad City legitimately is to pay $1.99 per episode.
Municipal broadband needs to happen for real in markets with only one real broadband provider.
Joe
Not sure if you remember me. I was the guy who let you know that making the animated “Turbo FAST” for Netflix tales a long time! Well, we have another cool new show for you to check out on Amazon this time! Free of course!
It’s part of the new set of pilots. We did it in true Ultra-HD. 3048x2160p. First as far as I know for any 2D animation production. Maybe Brian will want to watch it with his kids?
Steve
You boss here – I think you need to do an entire show special on just Plex and the 101 use cases for it. Not a deep dive into setup but maybe a few viewers who are large uses of it walk through their setup and where it was the answer to a problem they had. I don’t think I go a day without saying Plex to someone. I use the HELL out of it for multiple things (Also dedicated storage array & 2 Mac Mini’s to run it all) – central media, live TV (HDHomeRun & Cable Card – I know I am a cord shaver not cutter), photo library, offline syncing, word wide accessible, usable at grandma house. The best part is wife approved and 3 & 4 year old usable. I feel people see Plex and get the basics but not understand the real power it has and how it works. In my option I think Plex / a good media manager is KEY to cord cutting.
Harrison
I have to grudgingly echo what Brian said about AT&T. I rage quit Cox a year ago, and braced myself for a new round of headaches with AT&T. But the installer showed up on time and was a total pro. Great guy, eager to talk about how everything worked, and about the future of the industry. I did have some early internet issues, but a different AT&T work crew showed up THE NEXT DAY and fixed a bad connection out at the street level. I am now paying $70 less than I was with Cox, with a far more dependable connection and better DVRs.
I’m glad somebody at ONE of these cable companies finally got a clue.
Kyle
I don’t remember this being addressed on the show or if it’s new, but UltraViolet lets you share your library with up to five other users. It’s accessed not through the UltraViolet site, but through MGo, TargetTicket, Nook, or VUDU.
I couldn’t figure out how to do it at MGo or TargetTicket (I don’t have a Nook account), but VUDU made it incredibly easy. You go to your account menu click on UltraViolet and it’s right there.
Not being able to share with family members has been one of the most frustrating things about my transition to going all digital. I think this is going to push me over the edge.
You’ve talked before about how people don’t seem to know what UltraViolet is and, seeing how this has been implemented, I’m starting to think that they’re wanting it to only be a tag.. a label or something like that. Maybe sort of like all of those logos on the back of your ATM card. I don’t know if my bank is a part of the “Star Network” or “Pulse Network” but all I care is that I stick my card in and get money. Different ATMs will give me different features (balances, transfers, etc) just like different retailers will let me do different things with my movies, but its UltraViolet providing the back end.
Maybe our problem is that we’re here at the beginning and we’re too aware of what’s going on. In a couple of years, UltraViolet might work just like our ATM cards do.
Andrew
Links
DTNS 2410 – Headline Edition
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US, so Tom gives his contributors the day off and hits the headliens regarding US infiltration into North Korea’s nets, Amazon making movies for theaters and Elon Musk’s plans for space Internet.
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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
Today in Tech History – Jan. 19, 2015
In 1883 -The first electric lighting system using overhead wires went into service in Roselle, New Jersey.
In 1983 – Apple released the Lisa, the second commercial computer with a graphical user interface (after the Xerox Star). It only cost $9,995 too!
In 1986 – Brain became the first computer virus released into the wild. It was a boot sector virus transmitted by floppy disks. The Farooq Alvi Brothers of Lahore, Pakistan created the virus.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – Jan. 18, 2015
In 1902 – Nikola Tesla filed a patent application for wireless energy transmission. The patent was granted 12 years later. We’re still waiting for the kinks to get worked out.
In 1903 – The first two-way transatlantic communication, and first wireless telegram was sent between North America and Europe. US President Teddy Roosevelt and King Edward VII. They wrote to each other how awesome the wireless telegraph was.
In 2012 – Many websites, led by Reddit, Wikipedia and others, conducted an Internet “blackout” to protest the US SOPA/PIPA bills.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.