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Cordkillers 229 – So Darn Comfortable Con

Hot new SDCC trailers, Shonda Rhimes on Netflix, and broadcasting alerts on Spotify? All this and more on Cordkillers! 

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CordKillers: Ep. 229 – So Darn Comfortable Con
Recorded: July 23 2018
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

How to Watch

  • DC’s streaming service will be a one-stop shop for its TV shows, movies, and comics
    – DC announced at San Diego Comic-Con, DC that its streaming service DC Universe will launch this fall as a hub for all things DC, with content, comics, an encyclopedia, and a social platform for fans. DC Universe will cost $7.99 a month or $74.99 for an annual subscription. Subscribers who preorder will get an additional three months for free. DC will bring five original shows to the platform in conjunction with Warner Brothers, in addition to existing live-action and animated works.

What to Watch

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Getting Rebooted, With an Emphasis on Diversity
    – Joss Whedon to executive producer a reboot of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer with a new young diverse cast.
    Monica Owusu-Breen, whose previous writing credits include Alias, Charmed, and Agents of SHIELD will write.
  • Netflix and Shonda Rhimes reveal eight exclusive series in the works
    – Netflix announced 8 shows in development with Shonda Rhimes.
    – Alleged con artist Anna Delvey
    – Adaptation of the 2010 book The Warmth of Other Suns detailing the flight of African-Americans north from 1916-1970
    – Adaptation of Kleiner Perkins’ Ellen Pao’s memoir Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
    – Based on Julia Quinn’s Regency England feminist romance series.
    – Pick & Sepulveda set in Mexican California in the 1840as.
    – Adaptation of The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House.
    – Sunshine Scouts – half hour comedy series about teenage girls at a sleepaway camp who survive the apocalypse.
    – Hot Chocolate Nutcracker documentary of Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning reimagining of the classic ballet.
  • Netflix announces its first Mark Millar titles
    – Netflix announced the first titles from Millarworld:
    Jupiter’s Legacy:
    An original series about Golden Age superheroes having kids…and those kids becoming angsty millennials.
    Empress:
    An original film about a space Empress on the run.
    Huck:
    This movie wonders if the greatest super power is just all the friends we made along the way.
    Sharkey:
    Adapted from an upcoming comic, a film about a bounty hunter. In space. Named Sharkey.
    American Jesus:
    A comic-turned-Spanish-language TV show about a boy who may or may not be the second coming of Jesus.
  • Amazon Orders Sci-Fi Series ‘Tales From the Loop’
    – Amazon has given a series order to “Tales From the Loop,” a science fiction drama from “Legion” writer Nathaniel Halpern, based on the art of Simon Stålenhag, whose paintings blend elements of futuristic science fiction with images of rural life in the Sweden.
  • Hulu’s Mars drama ‘The First’ debuts September 14th
    – Hulu’s “The First” starring Natascha McElhone and Sean Penn and developed by Beau Willimon, premiers September 14. It follows the first human Mars mission.
  • The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Comic-Con Footage Was Absolutely Amazing
    – Sony showed but didn’t release a trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which hits theaters December 18. (Features Miles Morales, Gwent Stacy, Peter Parker AND more sipdeys from other universes like Spider-Ham (voiced by John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), and Spider-Man Noir)

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Disney fires ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn over ‘indefensible’ old tweets
    – Disney cut ties with James Gunn and he will not be directing Guardians of the Galaxy 3. A series of old tweets from Gunn referencing pedophilia and rape resurfaced online this week. Others tweets, which have since been deleted, included satire about 9/11, AIDS and the Holocaust. Thursday Gunn wrote, “Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.”
  • Senate wants emergency alerts to go out through Netflix, Spotify, etc
    – Senators in Hawaii and South Dakota introduced a bill (the “Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement,” or READI, act) that would “explore” broadcasting alerts to “online streaming services, such as Netflix and Spotify.”
  • Survey: 5.4 Million Americans Will Cut The Cable TV Cord In 2018
    – Management Consulting firm cg42 is the latest to put put a study that says cord-cutting is on the rise. cg42 projects 5.4 million more people will cut the cord in 2018 in the US for a total of 18.8 million cord-cutters. The study surveyed customers and cites frustrations with lack of reasonable rates, getting nickled and dimed with fees and new customers getting better deals than existing ones.
  • Comcast concedes to Disney in bidding war for Fox assets
    – Comcast withdrew its offer to purchase most of 21st Century Fox, leaving Disney in position to acquire everything except the broadcasting network, Fox News, Fox Businss, FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten Network which will be spun off into their own company. Disney also previously agreed with regulators to sell off the Fox Sports Regional Networks it will acquire as part of the deal. Meanwhile Comcast will focus on acquiring Sky which is 39% owned by Fox.
  • Netflix redesigns its TV interface with new navigation, full-screen trailers
    – Netflix is rolling out a redesign to its TV-based apps over the next few months. A ribbon menu on the left side will now contain Search, My List, and separate sections for Movies and Series as well as a section called New.
  • Walmart is reportedly building a video streaming service to take on Netflix
    – Sources tell The Information that Walmart is considering offering a streaming video service for $8 a month matching Netflix’s cheapest plan and less than Prime Video’s standalone amount. Walmart currently offers free streaming video with ads through it’s Vudu service.

Dispatches from the Front
Hola gents (and lady guest?),
I’d like to thank you guys for a number of show alerts, mostly courtesy of Bryce. Not everything in his wheelhouse is my flavor, but he seems to find serials early that we haven’t seen and enjoy.
If you guys haven’t talked about Letterkenny yet, you should go watch it. The first two short seasons are available on Hulu. It’s Canadian dry humor full of puns and stereotype characters. It doesn’t waste time with backstory we don’t care about and just rapid-fires the funny.
Give it a shot and see what you think.
Keep cutting them cords, fellas,
Dan and Emily

 

 

 

Hello to all – one thing I’ve been thinking a lot is a way to watch shows without having to have a month to month membership with the different services considering that most services allow you to watch their whole catalog. For example I would pay Netflix in Jan and catch up on all the shows during that month, then cancel it. Feb I pay for Hulu and watch the first two seasons of Handsmaid, catcha few othe shows them cancel it. HBO on March, cbs all access in april, etc.
Or what about an AI like you guys tak about that just gives you the algorithm (ala traveling salesman) that computes the best course to take to hit the most shows you want to watch while paying the least per month.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Arturo

 

 

 

Hey Tom, Brian, and guest,

It seems like everyone compares Netflix and HBO to each other, but I don’t think that’s the right approach anymore. It seems that Netflix no longer wants to be HBO; they want to be your entire cable package. They now have original programming that target so many niches they cover most of the major basic cable channels. Because of this, I don’t think Netflix cares about people criticizing their garbage programming – it’s essentially just a channel you’d never tune in to!

Keep killing those cords,
Andy

 

 

 

 

About the listener who wrote in last week about wanting to have in-progress, “themed streams” – I think he is on to something. For horror fans, the streaming service Shudder broadcasts a constant stream of its content on rotation dubbed “Shudder TV“. In fact, you don’t even have to be a subscriber to access it. If you do subscribe however, you can switch between several sub-genre “channels” of Shudder’s content. Because it comes up as soon as you start the app, I’ve found myself getting interested in movies that I haven’t seen which I may not have otherwise chosen. I can always pull up the on-demand version in the app to get the beginning later. Its an easy way to discover new content without searching through titles, summaries and trailers.

Love the show – keep up the great work.
Tim

 

 

 

What I think Netflix (and perhaps other streaming services) needs is an “I feel lucky” button that will just “pick something” that its algorithm “knows” you’ll like based on your watching history, etc. Don’t like what it picks? Hit next and it could pick something else for you.

Or at least that what *I* would want! I’m not keen on dropping in, in the middle of a movie, TV show, etc. That’s one reason I watch everything via streaming, DVR’d, etc.

Later!
Michael

 

 

 

I subscribe to some movie trailer channels on YouTube. I frequently see movies I would LIKE to watch later, but I am not aware of a service that’ll let me “tag” movies that haven’t even hit theaters yet that I’d like to see whenever they’re available (especially on streaming). Do you know of such a service?

Thanks!
Michael
 

Links

2018 Summer Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

Today in Tech History – October 25, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1955 – Tappan introduced the first microwave oven for home use. It sold for $1,295. Raytheon developed the Radarrange after engineer Percy LeBaron Spencer was working on an active radar set and accidentally melted a candy bar in his pocket.

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4399387/1st-domestic-microwave-is-sold–October-25–1955

1977 – VAX/VMS was born. At a shareholder meeting, DEC, the Digital Equipment Corporation, released VMS v1.0 the first version of what we later would call OpenVMS, along with the VAX 11/780 architecture which increased the PDP-11 address space.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/30th/t_past_text.html

2001 – Microsoft Windows XP hit retail shelves for the first time.
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/10/25/xp.london.launch/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – October 23, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flew an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France. Some argue he should be credited with the first flight at all. But that’s a long controversy.
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/impacto/graphic/aviation/alberto.html

1995 – A federal judge for the first time authorized a wiretap of a computer network, leading to hacking charges against a young Argentinean for breaking into sensitive US government networks.

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1023first-computer-wiretap/

2001 – Apple announced their new music player, the iPod. Apple used PortalPlayer’s reference platform and hired Pixo to design and implement the user interface. The iPod became the first massively successful digital music player.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/10/23Apple-Presents-iPod.html

2012 – Apple announced the iPad Mini at 7.9 inches.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/23/apple-announces-ipad-mini-for-329-fourth-generation-ipad/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – October 21, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1879 – Thomas Edison finished up 14 months of testing with an incandescent electric light bulb that lasted 13½ hours. It improved on 50-year-old technology to make light bulbs safe and economical by using lower electricity, a carbon filament and an improved vacuum.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/oct-21-1879-thomas-edison-lights-the-lamp/

1949 – An Wang filed a patent for a magnetic ferrite core memory, that he called pulse transfer controlling devices. Two years later he formed Wang computers.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=JSNjAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

1983 – The seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures ruled the meter would be defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. This actually simplified it from the previous definition of 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in a vacuum.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0810.3512.pdf

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Daily Tech Headlines – October 10, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500YouTube bans some gun mod videos, USPS going autonomous, and Facebook’s AI is just okay at StarCraft.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

DTNS 3129 – Did You order the Code Shred?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMicrosoft partners with Samsung on VR, What Uber’s Levandowski knew and when he knew it and/or shredded it, how you can contribute Google Street View images.
With Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, Patrick Beja and Rob Reid.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

 

Daily Tech Headlines – October 3, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Revelations from Uber v Waymo, Google lets anyone upload images to Street View and Messenger Lite launches in more countries.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – July 29, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1947 – ENIAC was switched on after being transferred to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. It operated continuously until October 2 1955.

http://www.maximumpc.com/12-things-you-didnt-know-about-eniac/

1951 – A recording was made of Beethoven’s 9th by EMI that eventually became used to justify the diameter of the CD.

http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.111060&catNum=8111060&filetype=About+this+Recording&language=English

1958 – President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/whyweexplore/Why_We_29.html

2015 – Microsoft launched Windows 10 as a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-systems/23119/windows-10-release-date-and-specs-76

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Daily Tech Headlines – October 31, 2016

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500CenturyLink buys Level3, Former Vine cofounders deliver HYPE and Singles Day projects to get even bigger in China.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Weekly Tech Views: The Tech, No Logic Blog – Oct 29, 2016

Untitled drawing (1)

Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.

With Halloween right around the corner, we welcome you to the tech news version of a haunted house. You know something weird–possibly demented–is around every corner, but you can handle it by reminding yourself that it’s all fake.

 (As this is the Halloween season, the first story this week takes a bit of a slasher film turn. If horror movies aren’t your thing, maybe skip to the next story where the most disturbing aspect is my refusal to stop making Galaxy Note 7 jokes)

For the week of October 24 – 28, 2016…

 
Facebook… Live?
Because nobody had stolen an idea from Snapchat in the last 24 hours, Facebook stepped up to add selfie lenses called Masks. The initial batch includes Halloween themes like skeletons and pumpkins, available when a user starts a live video. The main benefit to this, of course, is that 75% of Hollywood horror movies for the next five years now have their opening scene:

“Have you seen Trevor’s cool Facebook Live videos this week? Dude misses three days of school but he’s going non-stop with these freaky Halloween vids. Hacking away with a rusty axe at that ketchup-filled scarecrow.”

“Oh, here–check out this one! Where he’s wearing the skeleton Mask…”

“Yeah! Watch watch watch!… Ohhhhhhh!–THA-WHACK! Look at that spray! Want fries with that?!”

“Um, guys? That’s not Trevor.”

“Uh, yeah it is. Open your eyes. It’s his account. That’s his letter jacket, his cap, his–”

“His scar?”

“What scar?”

“The scar… that’s been on his neck since he ran into a open locker door in fifth grade. That he’s had for six years? Where is it? Where’s the scar? WHERE’S THE SCAR?! It’s not–OH MY GOD THE SCARECROW HAS THE SCAR AND I DON’T THINK THAT’S KETCHUP!”

Hey Fate, Want To Borrow My Hanky? I Think Samsung Just Spit In Your Face
Despite being torched with negative publicity over the exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung surprised many industry analysts by defiantly refusing to abandon the Note brand, indicating there will indeed be a Note 8 next year. In fact, the company is expected to go all in on the device, with the only color choice being Smoke Gray, and introducing it at a launch party aboard the brand new Hindenburg II.

Meanwhile, Coors Crosses Arms Over Chest And Glares
Otto–an Uber-owned self-driving truck company–had a truck complete a 100-mile trip to deliver a shipment of Budweiser from Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs with no human intervention. A driver remained on board as a precaution, but did not need to do anything.

“Of course I didn’t,” said the driver. “My bosses were like, ‘it’s gonna be fine, nothing to worry about at all.’ But that sure changed when I agreed and showed them the cool bottle opener I was gonna bring.”

And By The Way, Now It’s Game Of Phones
AT&T is acquiring Time Warner for $85.4 billion, giving AT&T content providers like HBO, CNN, and TNT. They also get Warner Bros films, actually bringing the price down by a billion because AT&T was forced to take ownership of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

I Was Only Looking At The Blinking Marquee Font
Google has purchased Eyefluence, a company whose software can tell whether you are bored or interested in what you’re looking at, turning your eye movements into virtual mouse clicks.

“Oh, come on!” said users who, sure, spent a lot of time ogling the model on that “Wanna meet hot singles?” ad but knew damned well if they clicked to see more it would start showing up on every website they visited and their spouse would be sure to notice and never let them hear the end of it.

Those Guys Make Everything Classier
Link, maker of public WiFi kiosks, is following up their New York City installations by bringing them to London. While they will offer USB charging, maps, and free calls to UK phones, they will not have a web browser, a feature removed from the New York kiosks after reports of rampant public pornography viewing. “Thanks for ruining it, America,” said London. “Where are your manners? You couldn’t hold up an open umbrella to privately watch your porn like a gentleman?”

Fluber
In portions of the U.S. on Tuesday, Uber was offering free flu shots. A “Health” option appeared in their app between 11am and 3pm allowing users to request delivery of a “Flu-fighting” package. Now Uber is thinking about expanding the program, having a “Regret” option appear in the app between 2am and 5am on weekends allowing users to request delivery of “Crud-fighting” package of antibiotic shots to help counteract the possible effects of some questionable decision-making earlier in the evening.

Maybe We Should DM Them To See If They Like Us Or “Like” Like Us
It’s being reported that Disney has renewed interest in acquiring Twitter. The change of heart comes after brainstorming the idea of Twitter Town, which would, like the Magic Kingdom, have its own Hall of Presidents, where visitors can delight in watching a remarkable animatronic timeline of a nation’s leaders frown, cringe, and sometimes even cry as members of the audience, embracing their hard-won freedom of speech, tweet opposing-party hatred at them.

Did You Get The Pic Of The Whole Company Wearing Mouse Ears? 
Twitter will cut 9% of its workforce in an attempt to become profitable. Said a Twitter spokesperson, “See, Disney? See? Hunh? How about now? We’re doing good, right?”

Not To Be Confused With The Creator’s Update, With Noah And The Ark And Everything
Microsoft’s Windows 10 Creators Update includes a new version of Windows Paint capable of creating 3D designs, which may sound like an impressive advancement, but I’m guessing a lot of resources went toward that while we still seem to be sitting here without a virtual reality Minesweeper.

Guess We Didn’t Need To Order The Danish Tray
After last week’s denial of service attacks, The Department of Homeland Security held a conference call with eighteen communication service providers to discuss strategic principles regarding the security of Internet of Things devices. We were able to get our hands on a copy of the call’s transcript:

Service Provider: “So how is everybody do–”

Homeland Security: “Get your s*** together.”

(click)

 

 Tech, Please!
In keeping with the scariness of the season, I’m getting ready to take the harrowing step of launching a Kickstarter for the year-end Weekly Tech Views book, this time titled Tech, Please!

Last year I put out The Internet is Like a Snowblower, covering the final six months of 2015, as an ebook . This time around I’m looking to make this collection of hilariously (humorously? amusingly? come on, give me amusingly, okay?) inaccurate tech “analysis” available in paperback as well. It will have another awesome Len Peralta-drawn cover (this time I’m taking full advantage of Len’s talents and cranking the ambition meter to 10), possibly some cool art inside, and a full year’s worth of nonsensical tech stories!

So if you’d like to support the Weekly Tech Views, this Kickstarter is the way to do it. I’m not saying I wouldn’t try something like Patreon some day, but for now the year-end book is the only financial support for the weekly blog foolishness.

If you are interested, it would be great if you checked out the Kickstarter on its opening day, Wednesday, November 16. Early interest increases the chance that, not only will my friends be less inclined to whisper “poor sap” behind my back just loud enough for me to hear, but that Kickstarter could help promote the campaign.

Even if kicking in for a book isn’t your thing, letting others that might be interested know about it would be amazingly helpful. Many experts say promoting this Tech, Please! Kickstarter is actually why Twitter and Facebook were created.*

If nothing else, you can watch me try to not make a fool of myself in a video.

* Where “many” = “one” and “experts” = “members of my family.”

————————————————————————————-

All this tech news the week before Halloween, but inexplicably, still nothing about a candy bowl that can accurately launch fun-sized Kit-Kats across the room to your couch after syncing with your universal remote.

So that’s it until next week, when, if you’re good, I’ll probably mention the Kickstarter again.

Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike

 

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Weekly Tech Views: The Tech, No Logic Blog by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.