Peter Orullian wears many hats. He is an author, musician, and has worked for many years at Microsoft on the XBox team. Today we talk about his series The Vault of Heaven, get the scoop on his all-time favorite music, and hear why Peter believes there is no such thing as writer’s block.
Scott Johnson joins Tom to talk with Dr. Lixia Zhang from UCLA about Named Data Networking (NDN) and how it could possibly solve many Internet problems, like security and net neutrality concerns.
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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 guests: Scott Johnson and Lixia Zhang
Headlines:
The Electronic Privacy Information Center honored Apple CEO Tim Cook at an event Monday. Cook gave a speech and a half. TechCrunch reports Cook said Apple rejects the idea that “customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security,” saying morality demands it. He took a swipe at companies that are “gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it,” saying “We think that’s wrong” But saved his strongest rhetoric for the US government saying “weakening encryption, or taking it away, harms good people that are using it for the right reasons. And ultimately, I believe it has a chilling effect on our First Amendment rights and undermines our country’s founding principles.” He even quoted Abraham Lincoln saying “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Venturebeat reports that Skype has fixed a flaw that crashed Skype when you received the characters “http://:” In fact once you GOT that message Skype crashed any time you tried to sign in. The bug appeared on Windows, Android and iOS, but apparently not Skype for Mac or for the Windows tiled interface. In less than 24 hours though Skype fixed the bug so make sure to head to skype.com/download or your mobile phone’s app store and update to the latest version.
TechCrunch reports Cisco and IBM have both acquired OpenStack companies. OpenStack is an open source project that enables users to create their own cloud services, often used in what is called the private cloud. Cisco announced it has purchased private cloud company Piston Cloud Computing. IBM has acquired private cloud service provider Blue Box.
ReCode reports Apple’s Beats has voluntarily recalled the Beats Pill XL speakers after 8 reports of overheating. Beats has sold more than 200,000 of the speakers since November 2013. The speakers can be identified by a lowercase b on the speaker grill and the words beats pill XL on the handle. Apple urges owners to go to apple.com/support/beats-pillxl-recall/ for details on how to return the speakers and get $325.
PCMag.com reports that AMD announced its 6th generation Processors codenamed Carizzo in A8, A10, and FX-Series models. The A8 and A10 APUs feature 10 compute cores (four CPU cores plus six GPU cores) and the FX-Series APUs feature a total of 12 compute cores (four CPU and four GPU).The chip’s use Heterogeneous System Architecture (or HSA) design shares workloads and system memory between the CPU and GPU rather than have the CPU direct everything. The A8 and A10 processors get R6 graphics, and the FX-Series R7. When paired with a discrete graphics card the R6 or R7 APUs will work in conjunction with the discrete GPU to boost graphics performance. Look for laptops with A-Series APUs this month.
News From You:
metalfreak sent us this story from Ars Technica. At long last Microsoft is bringing SSH aka Secure Shell to Windows and PowerShell. Until now Windows lacked any native SSH client/server, however the Windows PowerShell Team has announced that Microsoft will work with and contribute to OpenSSH, the standard for SSH implantation in Unix, to add that functionality to Windows. This will let Unix/Linux and Windows machines securely access each other. The Linux-Windows war is over.
starfuryzeta submitted the Engadget article that the US State of Virginia has marked 70 miles of highway in the northern part of the state as the “Virginia Automated Corridors.” This allows companies who have received approval for their cars to do public road testing of self-driving cars. Nokia’s HERE mapping division will develop 3D maps for the test roads.
doorsrio submitted the TechCrunch report that augmented reality device Magic Leap has launched a development platform. Chief Creative Officer Graeme Devine announced it on stage at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference. A developer’s section of the website has been launched where folks can sign up for the SDK, which is coming soon. CEO Rony Abovitz also said the company is out of the R&D phase and transitioning to a real product. Oh and they had author Neal Stephenson on stage to help convince you this is the real world arrival of the Metaverse.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Devulu, genius from the west:
Here is another one for you, and today it’s a Chrome extension.
If you’re like me and use Google chrome with many extensions – each for a different purpose – and want to manage them easily, then SimpleExtManager is here to the rescue.
Features include:
– basic function to enable/disable, access options and uninstall extensions via popup
– customize the popup
– ability to create extension groups
– enable/disable extension groups via popup and right-click menu
Nothing much, but sure saves a lot of time, and is way better than the Chrome extensions page.
Messages:
mikem.exe+yt writes in:
Hey Tom. Finally getting around to episode 2497 (Run, Spotify, Run) where you had a conversation with Lamarr Wislon about how YouTube would rather you watch videos from their recommended list instead of subscribing to a creator and binge-watching all of their uploads in order.
They make it pretty difficult to binge-watch a single creator. I find myself manually adding videos to the Watch Later list, then moving them from there into a new playlist, then playing that playlist.
Well, after enough of that every day (I watch a lot of youtube), I decided to write a little script that does all that for me. You can specify a user and it will automatically add any new videos as they’re released to the end of the associated playlist in your account.
If there’s anyone in your audience who would benefit from this, have them send me an email and I’ll get them set up. mikem.exe+yt at gmail.com
David says Hello from hot and rainy Florida:
The New Broadwell cpus are an interesting shift for Intel. They are for most part uninteresting for workstations and high end gaming. The CPU performance is lower than the current Haswell CPUs because they run at a lower clock speed. For other users they are very important because they offer very good graphics performance and much better OpenCL performance than the Haswell CPUs.
As more of programs make use of OpenCL I expect to see more computing power shifting to the GPU and OpenCL from your traditional CPU. Of course when Silverlake comes out and we get a die shrink the clock speed should come up.
=====
Thursday’s guest: Justin Robert Young
Movie Draft Update, Kung Fury, Game of Thrones (508), Tomorrowland, Mr. Robot (Pilot), The Shield (601)
00:39 – Movie Draft Update
06:33 – Kung Fury
11:12 – Game of Thrones (508)
18:33 – Tomorrowland
25:02 – Mr. Robot (Pilot)
33:50 – The Shield (601)
In 1889 – The first long-distance transmission of electricity took place, sending power from a hydroelectric generator at Willamette Falls 14 miles to 55 street lights at 4th and Main in Portland, Oregon.
In 1948 – Ed Brown Jr., a former Navy pilot, opened a fly-in movie theater near Wall Township, New Jersey. You could also drive in. The theater had space for 500 cars and 25 small planes could land in a nearby airfield and taxi over to the theater.
In 1965 – Gemini 4 launched on the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performed the first US spacewalk.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
As you may have heard on the podcast, we launched a contest on Inkshares last month to find the debut novel for the Sword & Laser Collection. This novel would be published by Inkshares with the S&L imprint, the author would get an interview on the show, as well as writing advice from Gary Whitta!
Well, the time has come, and the news is out!
Congrats to both of our winners, JF Dubeau and G. Derek Adams! You can pre-order and follow their books, and stay tuned for their interviews on the show!
Of course, a huge congrats to ALL of the top six finalists, who will also have their books published.
Patrick Beja discusses the theft of ThinkGeek by GameStop, Nintendo’s staunch denial of Android and Apple’s new curated games lists in the app store.
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
In 1883 – Thomas Edison and Stephen D. Field built the world’s first elevated electric railway. It was a narrow-gauge 3-foot-wide track in the gallery around the edge of the main exhibition building of the Chicago Railway Exhibition. It ran nine miles per hour.
In 1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applied for British Patent number 12039 regarding a system of telegraphy using Hertzian waves. We’d call it radio.
In 2003 – The European Space Agency launched the Mars Express probe from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. It was the fastest planetary probe to be built.
In 2014 – Apple announced OS X Yosemite and iOS8 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Among the features were the ability to answer phone calls on your OS X computer, the ability for iOS apps to talk directly to each other, third=party keyboards for iOS, and a new programming language called Swift.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Hello and welcome to season 5 of FSL. My name is Mitzula, I am the Earth’s Ambassador for Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsbook and Cantina.Last year everyone over at Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsboook & Cantina had a blast being the exclusive betting hub of the FSL and we’re pleased to announce that we have once again secured the rights for season 5.
I have been given the opening lines for not only weeks 1 & 2 but also the lines for the overall champion of FSL Season 5. This year I’m hoping to be able to offer some insight into my picks as I too am a big fan of all things FSL. So without any more rambling here are the FSL Season 5 Lines.
Lines are now open, so head to your local Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsbook and Cantina and get your bets in for this highly anticipated season.
Hello and welcome to season 5 of FSL. My name is Mitzula, I am the Earth’s Ambassador for Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsbook and Cantina.Last year everyone over at Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsboook & Cantina had a blast being the exclusive betting hub of the FSL and we’re pleased to announce that we have once again secured the rights for season 5.
I have been given the opening lines for not only weeks 1 & 2 but also the lines for the overall champion of FSL Season 5. This year I’m hoping to be able to offer some insight into my picks as I too am a big fan of all things FSL. So without any more rambling here are the FSL Season 5 Lines.
Lines are now open, so head to your local Shecky Green’s Intergalactic Sportsbook and Cantina and get your bets in for this highly anticipated season.
HBO Now is really popular but too expensive, AT&T wants to let people pay for your data, and what made Mad Max so good.
CordKillers: Ep. 73 – I Like No Ads
Recorded: June 1, 2015
Guest: Roberto Villegas
Intro Video
Primary Target
Signal Intelligence
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
I can personally attest that you absolutely can continue with the chicken challenge threat seemingly indefinitely, at least with Comcast. I have both bluffed as well as legitimately threatened to cancel service and have always been given a good enough deal to keep me on board. I have had free HBO for almost 4 years, occasionally call up and get free Showtime, and constantly keep my package rates around $100 for their fastest internet plus basic cable. I do the math every 6-12 months and it is still not financially worth cancelling cable, at least as long as they keep bribing me. Granted it is a pain to sit through the torture of Comcast customer service, but I have accepted that until we have more competition in the market.
Regarding re-opening movie rental stores and the inability to rent movies that may are only available for purchase on Amazon, Vudu, etc, I have an exciting new service for you: Netflix. If you want to watch new movies before streaming is available they are very often available through the Netflix DVD service (yes I am one of those few who still have this service). This applies even more to older movies which may be difficult to find streaming – Netflix’s DVD rental service has pretty much any older movie or TV show you can possibly think of available.
– Klye
Dear killers of cords,
Last week’s program contained a message from a listener/viewer who sang the praises of the Acorn channel. Please permit me to share a different view of Acorn.
My dear, sweet, gray-haired, cord-slashing mother was the recipient of a Roku box from yours truly for Christmas in 2009. She almost immediately switched to streaming-based content and hasn’t looked back.
As a fan of PBS and British programming, she also became one of Acorn’s early subscribers. At the end of last year, though, she concluded that most of the Acorn content she wanted was also available to her through Netflix and Amazon Prime — so she canceled the account.” Suffice to say Joseph then details how the charges kept coming depite her efforts to cancel. So his point is be vigilant about charges when you cancel a service.
– Joseph
What it do Killers,
I’m definitely interested in an expanded Spolierin’ Time show with picks, recommendations, maybe even Spolierin Time specific guests (love to see some Film Sack or Auto Pilot crossover bits). I’d also appreciate more technical and how to stuff.
– Kenneth
One thing you might consider is separating the funding for Spoilering Time from the regular Cordkillers. I do not mind getting billed for both, but some people may not want to pay for Spoilering Time. You should give your Patreons the option to fund one or the other or both. I do know if Patreon can handle that kind of separation or if a separate Patreon page would have to be set up for Spoilering Time. It might be a gauge to measure support for spoiling.
– Mike
On keeping with shows, like them or not. Personally I think you are doing it right. Be clear why you are loving a show, or clear on why you are dumping it. Watching you make that decision, discussing it, and creating conversations with the community about it, is where the value is. Don’t throw good time after bad.
–Todd
Hi guys,
I’m listening to you talk right now. Here are a few thoughts from a Patreon supporter:
I like what you’re doing with the timer, but I think shouting “extension” is dumb. Just extend it. As Brian pointed out, sports TV does this. When they do, they *actually* just blow the countdown clock all the time. Watch an episode of Pardon the Interruption sometime with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on ESPN as an example. It’s great.
Thanks for a great show.
–Dave
2015 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv
Links