DTNS 2193 – Wear IT

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDon Reisinger joins me to chat about Android Wear, the new line of clothing from– wait– nope just another smart watch platform. Does this one catch your eye or wrist?

MP3

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

Today’s Guest: Don Reisinger

Headlines: 

Wear IT: GigaOM reports Google’s SVP for Android Sundar Pichai took to the Google Blog to announce Android Wear, an implementation of the mobile operating system for wearables. Of course the wearables demonstrated were watches. The system uses Google Now to surface information the wearer needs, responds to voice commands triggered by the “OK Google” phrase and also does fitness tracking. A preview SDK is up at developer.android.com/wear. Expect more on the SDK at Google I/O in June. Lots of partners were announced but LG went ahead and said it’s G Watch will arrive next quarter and Motorola’s Moto 360 should come this summer. Plus it’s actually round. Like a watch.

MYSTIC Leakza: The Verge posted about the Washington Post’s latest Snowden leak story about an NSA tool called MYSTIC. The tool can record 100% of a country’s phone calls and play back any individual call for up to 30 days. It’s like the DISH hopper but for private conversations! The system launched in 2009 and became fully operational in 2011 and is deployed in at least one country, with at least six others others up for consideration.

Peace in our time!  Ars Technica reports Google and Viacom have settled the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright case. In fact they seem to be buddies now since the joint statement said they look forward to working more closely together. Vicaom filed the suit against Google in 2007, alleging YouTube operated outside the parameters of safe harbor. Most judges along the way didn’t agree. The seven years of fighting the suit can be indirectly held responsible for the amazing google robot that helps takedown potentially infringing content like news reports, public domain photos, and garage band music loops.

The Next Web reports on Mozilla and Unity announcing plans to bring Unity games to the Web without needing to install plugins or extensions

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft has scheduled a March 27th press briefing in San Francisco at 10 AM Pacific with news, “focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing.” CEO Satya Nadella will kick off the briefing, which will be WebCast. Foley, and the rest of the Internet, speculate Microsoft Office for the iPad could be the centerpiece of the briefing. Sources tell her that the iPad version of Office will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, be downloadable from Apple’s app store, and require an Office 365 subscription.

Also TechCrunch reported this happened today. In Gregory Ferenstein’s words: “Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin hung out with whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was attending the TED conference via a telepresence robot.” TED will post an interview with Snowden soon.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building modules that will allow the military to capture solar power in orbit and project it back down to Earth, potentially capturing more energy than ground-based solar collectors. The power would be beamed back to the ground using high-energy radio waves. In other news, Australian researchers want to beam lasers into space to clean up space junk. This is all good as long as the scientists, remember not to cross the streams.

News From You: 

MikePKennedy pointed us to our daily Amazon set-top box/dongle rumor, this time from the Verge passing along WSJ sources. Amazon will begin selling its mythical dongle in early April on its own site as well as in Best Buy and Staples.

tekkyn00b submitted the 9to5 Google post where they explain they’ve heard Google’s going to get rid of Google Voice and incorporate most of its functionality into Google + hangouts. The hangouts app already allows voice calls over the app, but if Voice was folded in, the hangouts app could be able to make and receive VoiP calls to and from traditional phone numbers. Google has already rolled in it’s messaging and Android SMS functions into the hangouts app.

KAPT_Kipper posted the CNNMoney story of the curious case of a Turkish developer named Ibrahim Balic, who was testing a vulnerability in the Google Play store and it worked. WAY too well. IN fact it crashed the Google Developer Console which is used to submit new apps and app updates. Balic told CNNMoney he did not have malicious aims, he just wanted to be sure about the vulnerability. He has contacted Google about the issue he discovered. Balic previously claimed to be behind the attempted hack of Apple’s Developer Center last summer.

BullioMarf, submitted the gog.com announcement that the game website will support Linux. Initital evidence of the support will be in GOG.com website support for Ubuntu and Mint. They hope to come with 100 Linux games ready for people to play this autumn. Games the website sells that already have Linux clients will be the easy ones to include but they also promise a variety of classics as well.

Discussion Links: Google Wearables

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/sharing-whats-up-our-sleeve-android.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57620495-94/lg-to-launch-g-watch-with-android-wear/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/the-moto-360-is-the-first-android-wear-device-has-a-round-display/

http://recode.net/2014/03/18/google-announces-android-wear-its-plan-for-the-smart-watch-and-beyond/

http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html

Pick of the Day:  Pocketcasts

Hey Tom, I wasn’t planning on sending another one of these for a while but yesterday, what I consider the best podcasting app on Android, Pocket Casts. Pocketcasts got updated with Chromecast support (iOS update coming soon). But the real reason I am recommending it is that the Daily Tech News Show is one of the featured podcast on the Chromecast standby image that you see on the television between podcasts. For that alone it gets my tip of the hat. Love the show, Marlon

&

Hi Tom and Jennie!

I have a suggestion for a pick, one that seems very appropriate for DTNS. Pocketcasts is one of the best podcast apps on Android and iOS (I’m listening to a DTNS episode with it as I type this).

It’s been around for a while and offers sync between devices, great for if you have a phone and tablet that you both use for podcasts, supports audio, video, playlists, everything you would expect.

I mention it because it was just recently updated to add chromecast support, which is a pretty nice add for it, especially on video podcasts.

It is how I’ve been consuming content created by Tom for years, and I imagine that many of the listeners use some kind of podcast app, and this one is absolutely worth checking out.

Tomorrow’s guest: Nicole Spagnuolo!

Cordkillers Ep. 11 – Breki-ing the law

Veronica Mars proves piracy still beats following the rules for now, and Popcorn Time makes it easy.

Watch on YouTube

Download VIDEO

Download AUDIO

CordKillers: Ep. 11 – Breki-ing the law
Recorded: March 17 2014
GuestBreki Tomasson

Intro Video: 

Primary Target

Secondary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • Here’s why Amazon Prime can afford to raise prices
  • Amazon Prime US raised price from $79 a year to $99. Amazon was barely breaking even, or even losing money, on shipping costs for customers who ordered 20 packages year. That’s not counting the $40 per person it costs Amazon to license streaming media that Prime accounts get for free.

Gear Up

Under surveillance

Front Lines

On Our Radar

On Screen

Dispatches from the Front

  • There’s no clear consistency here in the UK about when broadcasters show US shows. Back in ye olden days, programmes like ER and Friends would be held back until January so that the UK broadcasters would get a clear run of 20-26 weekly episodes without having to take a break. However these days with torrents and spoilers and hype crossing borders, broadcasters don’t really know what to do – do they follow the US schedule (Fox show The Walking Dead in the UK the day after the US broadcast) or do they hold back (More4 are only a few episodes into the latest season of The Good Wife). Or do they go for a half-hearted mixture (Channel 4 started showing Agents of SHIELD in the same week as the US, but it’s only just returned from it’s Christmas break)? My question is this – will there ever come a time when the money gained from advertisers isn’t enough to dictate the schedules for the US broadcasters, and they gain more from subscriptions, overseas sales and re-selling to services like Netflix, and therefore the US broadcasters drop their ridiculous scheduling of showing a 20 week season in drips?

    John

 

 

  • Hi guys, love the show, just became a Patreon tonight. My wife and I (and two four year old twin girls) cut the cord a few weeks ago (cut the phone landline and cable tv, leaving only internet).
    I bought the Leaf for HD broadcast local channels, do you have any recommendations on a PVR to plug it into? My Tivo is old and doesn’t do DTV. Or is there a better way to get streaming broadcast show’s (like Big Bang Theory)… in Canada?

    Thanks, keep up the good work

    Lee.

 

 

  • I have been watching the various incarnations of this show for a very long time, and one of the recurring themes was how Netflix releases shows all at once, for a la carte binge viewing. The two of you have even argued the merits of binge vs. weekly releases. Imagine my surprise, when I got an email from Netflix announcing their new show, “”From Dusk Till Dawn””, and that they were releasing one episode per week! If this is not cord killing news, I don’t know what is!

     

Links

www.patreon.com/cordkillers

www.doghousesystems.com

DTNS 2192 – ICANN Haz Independence

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comTim Stevens joins the show to talk about the future of the Internet as the US gives up the last of its control over how it’s run.

MP3

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

Today’s guest:  Tim Stevens, CNET.com, editor at large

Headlines:

Ars Technica reports Dorian Nakamoto issued a statement today saying “”I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report.” Nakamoto also said he has retained legal counsel and this will be his last public statement on the matter. Newsweek said it has not received any statement from Mr. Nakamoto yet.

Engadget reports on leaked documents from O2 Germany saying Apple is looking to launch an 8GB version of the iPhone 5C that would retail for 60 Euros less than the current 16GB model. An Engadget reader also sent in a photo purporting to be of the 8GB iPhone 5C.

Microsoft’s OneNote organizing software has been made available for free along with the launch of a version that runs on Mac OS X

TechCrunch reports Japan’s LINE messaging app launched a flat-rate voice calling service called LINE call. Android users in Columbia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Phillipines, Spain, Thailand and the US can now call phone numbers in addition to other LINE users. Landline calls start at 2 cents a minute and mobile phone calls start at 4 cents a minute. users can either pre-pay or choose a plan that includes a certain number of minutes per month.

What’sApp’s Jan Koum posted to the company’s blog today reassuring customers that WhatsApp data would remain private even after his company is acquired by Facebook. Koum talked about his time growing up in the Soviet Union. He then mentioned that WahtsApp does not collect data like email addresses, birthdays, home address, GPS location etc. and added “None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that.”

TechCrunch reports multiple sources tell it that Amazon is readying a gaming/TV device produced by Lab 126 with a dongle form factor similar to the Google Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick. One source claimed the product will stream full PC game titles at 30fps. The device is allegedly still in testing.

The Next Web reports Google announced improvements to Google Play Games at the Game Developers Conference. New features include game gifts, multiplayer invites, and cross-platform multiplayer with support expanded to include iOS. The Google Play Store will also get 18 new game categories to help sort through all those titles out there. All the new features will roll out gradually, starting March 18.

News From You

Kylde submitted the Ars Technica story about GitHub’s reaction to engineer Julie Ann Horvath’s public revelations over the weekend that she left GitHub because of toxic office culture and the interference of the wife of one of the co-founders. GitHub CEO and cofounder Chris Wanstrath issued a statement apologizing and stating the company has put one engineer and one of the co-founders on leave, and has begun an investigation.

andrewboudreau posted an Ars Technica report about the US Department of Commerce announcing late Friday that it has asked ICANN, the non-profit organization that oversees the Domain Name System on the Web, to come up with a plan to transition out of US control. ICANN has a contract with the Commerce Department to oversee the Internet’s numbering system. That contract ends September 30, 2015 and the DoC would like itself replaced a new system of multiple non-government stakeholders to ICANN after that. The Domain Name system transferred to private control in 1997,and the contract with Commerce was the last vestige of governmental connection.

And nickgiulioni sent us the cityam.com post about Twitter user @savethemhood sending 14 million DogeCoin to the Doge4Water campaign which aims to provide safe access to water for Kenya. That’s more than $10,000 worth of Dogecoin. Demonstrating one big advantage of cryptocurrency, the donation was made instantaneously across borders with almost no cost. Similar transactions in traditional currency would have taken days and incurred fees.

Discussion Section Links: ICANN, Can You? 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57620386-93/us-government-begins-loosening-decades-old-grip-on-the-internet/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-to-relinquish-remaining-control-over-the-internet/2014/03/14/0c7472d0-abb5-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.html

https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-11jan14-en.htm

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions

http://www.nro.net/news/internet-technical-leaders-welcome-iana-globalization-progress

http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/mou-jpa/icann-mou-25nov98-en.htm

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/6_5_98dns.pdf

Pick of the Day:  www.whenisgood.net

HI Tom,
Loving the show. Would just like to draw your attention to a neat little website, www.whenisgood.net It is a simple service which allows you to find the best time for an event. I am a regular user of shared calendars in Outlook (mostly in a professional context) and events on Facebook (mostly in a personal one), but I am using When Is Good more and more in the first instance these days because it allows me to propose several times up front and let attendees dictate the best one rather than proposing a single time and rescheduling if it doesn’t work out. It is also really useful because it is its own platform and it doesn’t require users to sign up: I am a part-time University student and I like the fact that I can invite classmates to a group project meeting without being Facebook friends with them and know that they won’t need to jump through hoops to deal with it (we do have a shared calendar but no one uses it). Wonder whether this could be a candidate for a pick of the day.
All the best, Matthew, Coventry England

Tuesday’s  Guest: Don Reisinger

DTNS 2191 – Drones > Pi

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is back for Pi Day and a discussion of what freedoms we should preserve for flying drones. Also Len Peralta is in to draw the show!

MP3

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

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen & Len Peralta

Headlines:

XBox One and OnLive sittin’ in a tree … :The Verge has a post about images found by Zatz Not Funny showing a purported Amazon game controller. The pictured controller looks like the Xbox One and OnLive had a baby and pasted Android back, home, and menu buttons across its face. Oh look, it has its momma’s media control buttons and its dad’s offset analog sticks! It’s so cute! So expect an Amazon set-top box game controller called the Kindle Fire At Aliens or something soon.

Settings > General > Software Update: iOS 8 is probably Apple’s worst-kept secret yet. It’s almost as badly kept as a Samsung secret. 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple plans to simplify the notification center, more data-sharing options between apps, better voice memo access, eliminating the GameCenter app, and CarPlay support over WiFi. Also it’ll be faster. And betterer. And Jonny Ive-ier.

Just kidding, suckas: Remember the Asus Transformer Duet shown off at CES that dual-booted Windows and Android? Well, I’m sorry I brought it up because you can forget about it. GigaOm reports the WSJ sources say Asus is scrapping the touch screen laptop at the behest of both Microsoft and Google. One big loser will be Intel, which used the device to show off its versatility in supporting desktop and mobile on its chips.

Engadget reports Samsung introduced three new accessories designed to help disabled or visually impaired users.

UberX, Lyft changes: Ars Technica reports UberX has expanded its insurance coverage to include drivers waiting for a fare, not just drivers with passengers in the car. Lyft has also made a similar change to its insurance. Two months ago, a six-year-old girl was killed in an accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco who was not carrying passengers at the time.

Everyone do the IPO! Bloomberg reports Chinese tech giant Alibaba is preparing to file for an IPO of stock in the U.S. as soon as April. Yahoo owns a 24 percent stake in Alibaba. A U.S. share sale by Alibaba would be a blow to Hong Kong, which hasn’t hosted an IPO of more than $4 billion since October 2010. In other IPO news, the WSJ says GoDaddy is finally about to interview underwriters for its IPO.

GigaOm reports Nokia’s Android-powered Nokia X has received one million pre-orders in just four days.

Oh, Russia: Reuters reports Russia has blocked access to the websites of government critic Alexi Navalny and chessmaster Gary Kasparov as part of a new law that cracks down on extremists or those who call for illegal activity. The state regulator said Navalny’s blog violated conditions of his house arrest, and Kasparov and two other sites called for “participation in mass events conducted in violation of the established order.”

Rdio nom noms Dhingana: MediaNama reports music streaming service Rdio acquired India’s defunct streaming website Dhingana which shut down last month after music label T-Series decided not renew its music license. Dhingana founders Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde will be joining the Rdio team responsible for expansion efforts in India.

News From You

metalfreak pointed us to the eWeek article about the pwn2Own event taking place at CanSecWest in Vancouver. Security researchers at the Pwn2Own security challenge found new zero-day flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader technologies. $400,000 in prize money has been awarded. VUPEN security is dominating again, earning $300,000 of that prize money by successfully exploiting Firefox for $50,000, IE for $100,000, Adobe Reader for $75,000 and Adobe Flash for $75,000.

robstak posted the Gizmodo article about GE’s method of cooling a refrigerator with water-based fluid and magnets. The magnets agitate particle in the patented water-based mixture to bring down its temp and the circulate it to cool the fridge. GE thinks the system could be more than 20% more efficient than the current electric compressor and chemical coolants we use now. GE thinks they could have one ready for sale in five years, and could even show up in other cooling appliances like air-conditioners.

habichuelacondulce posted The Guardian column about Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, making a call to U.S. President Barack Obama to complain about all the spying. Leaks from Edward Snowden yesterday showed the NSA has been spoofing Facebook in order to implant malware. Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook that the government should be a champion for the Internet, not a threat and be more transparent about what it’s doing. His call left him with the impression that it will take a very long time for true full reform. Somewhat echoing Tim Berners-Lee’s webwewant.org, Zuckerberg wrote “it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want.” Dan Gillmore of The Guardian says he’ll join if Zuck will promise a Facebook option that doesn’t track or store data about its users.

Discussion Section Links: Here a drone, there a drone/Hacking the hackers

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/drone-flight-over-harlem-disaster-shows-messy-state-of-faa-rules/

http://mashable.com/2014/03/13/drone-east-harlem-explosion/

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/so-you-want-to-fly-drones-heres-what-the-law-says/

http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=76381

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-20/faa-finds-drone-flights-hard-to-police

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/03/nsa-botnet/

Pick of the Day:

Super passionate Patron, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad,” recommends Interviewly.com, which basically makes reddit AMAs beautiful and easy to read.

Monday’s  Guest: Tim Stevens of CNET

FEATURED REVIEW: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Welcome to another Featured Review! In this series, we’ highlight book reviews from the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Tom



The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

By Stephen King

Review by David Goransson 

What do you get when you mix the epicness of Tolkien, exalt in the cool of “The Good The Bad and The Ugly,” are partial to Arthurian legend, and possibly (some have suggested) have overindulged in too much weed? You get “The Gunslinger” the first book in Stephen King’s Magnum Opus “The Dark Tower Series.”

This will be the third time I’ve read “The Gunslinger,” and each time I read it the more I appreciate it. Not for its plot structure, which is often times as broken as Roland–but more for its “vibe.” A certain coolness that exudes from a character who is chillingly relentless and unapologetically single-minded in his quest to the point of obsession.
Plus he has a massive pair of .45 calibre six shooters. 

For those who have finished the series, there is a lot to appreciate in rereading the beginning. There are people and characters and places and events mentioned, sometimes only in passing, that will have veterans nodding their head. But for the first timer–a lot of it will be just gibberish. And a lot of first timers will hate the ending, or “non” ending, and possibly curse the day King was born. That’s why I often suggest that virgin Tower Knights skip this book altogether. There’s nothing in the plot you actually need to start the journey. Because as a beginning this book is hopeless to the point where many will despair of the quest before its begun. But as a prequel this book is fantastic. It will be like returning to an old lover and discovering something deeper about their soul.

Do yourself a favour cully and wait a book or two till you are ready. There is no rush for this one. Else by the time you can appreciate this story you will have forgotten it. “Time’s the thief of memory” as Vannay says. So will you cry off maggot and turn aside? No? It’s too bad. It will be sad to see you broken and set upon a blind path. But if you are so determined to pull leather, then take your stance with legs set wide and I will do what I can, not to convince you to read this book, but rather to continue with the next, should you stumble on the way.

****

So come, let us have our Palaver, do it please ya.

Firstly I’d advise getting a copy of the 2003 edition or later. It has been edited and revised to fit better with the following books and possibly make a bit more sense for first timers. I would also recommend having a squiz at Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” which inspired this book. It’s about 34 Stanza’s long and tells the story of a knight on an elusive quest for the Dark Tower, driven by duty and obsession

The Setting 
Somewhere beyond In-World, but not Mid-World. The world is broken. 

‘The world has moved on,’ we say . . . we’ve always said. But it’s moving on faster now. Something has happened to time. It’s softening’

Clocks can’t be trusted and people measure time by other means, like Jake who counts one to two weeks as “3 poops.” Distance and direction is also adrift. 

The landscape of the story looks pretty much like any barren wilderness in any Western. In fact, at the start, one could be forgiven for mistaking this book for a Western. But its not long before the reader will get the unnerving feeling that things are off kilter. Walk into Tull for example. It’s your typical Western shanty complete with stables for your horse and a good old saloon come whorehouse. Except there’s a honky-tonk piano’s playing a rendition of “Hey Jude.” What the..? And pretty early on we get a random glimpse of a Taheen. Do you ken “Taheen?” Cry your pardon, but how could you, unless you had already read further into the series. Say sorry. Man’s body, raven’s head–this one anyway. There are old machines long disused, that were powered by electricity or atomics. There are slow mutants and threaded stock (non-mutated men and animals) are getting rarer. Ah, an alternate Universe? Or rather, a parallel Universe. Do you say so? One of many. “… there were many remnants of the gone world, just as there were demons.”

The Good 

Jake 

The boy who didn’t come from this place but vaguely remembers dying in a vaguely remembered other world. A world where the buildings are so tall they scrape the sky and people drink Coca Cola and watch teevee, and there is a Ka-tet of musicians who call themselves “Kiss.” Do you ken it? He loves the gunslinger, even though the gunslinger doesn’t deserve his love any more than his neglectful ma and da did–possibly less.

The Bad 

The Man in Black 

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

In Browning’s poem he is referred to as a “hoary cripple,” a liar, a kind of devil who is all too happy to take deals to point out the road to obsession. In this story he is the sort of villain who resurrects a devil weed addict and embues him with eternal life–not because he wants him to be well, but because he wants the addict to suffer in his addiction forever. He offers a barren woman a child. A child king. Just kill the unkillable interloper first. Not because he wants his enemy dead, but because he wants his enemy damned. He gives his enemy a boy to love, but …. “While you travel with the boy, the man in black travels with your soul in his pocket.”

“This bad man . . . this Marten . . . he was a wizard. Like Merlin. Do they ken Merlin where you come from?”
“Merlin and Arthur and the knights of the Round Table,” Jake said dreamily.
The gunslinger felt a nasty jolt go through him. “Yes,” he said. “Arthur Eld, you say true, I say thank ya…”

The Ugly 

The Gunslinger 

What is a “gunslinger” in this world? Well its not a cowboy with a pistol. Roland Deschain comes from the heart of In-World. From Gilead in New Canaan. A city of castles.

Yar!” He paused. “When I was your age, I lived in a walled city, did I tell you that?”

The castles are ruled by knights called “Gunslingers.” So called because of the “Irons” that are the mark of their office. Roland’s father Steven Deschain was a direct descendant of Arthur Eld and Lord of his version of Camelot.

My father had by then taken control of his ka-tet, you must ken—the Tet of the Gun—and was on the verge of becoming Dinh of Gilead, if not all In-World

But the world has moved on. And Roland is the last gunslinger and he is on a mission to fix the Universe. To find the Dark Tower. Everything else, love, family, humanity, his very soul is expendable in the light of the greater good. See it well. See it very well indeed.

****

So have I convinced you yet to carry on to book 2? I hope so. Because I’ve seen the end of that journey and would have you set upon the path. Not because I am wise or good. Perhaps I just play the hoary cripple–I say true. I say thank ya.

Long days and pleasant nights