Daily Tech Headlines – July 12, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Apple opens data center in China, Overwatch announces its esports franchises, MIT develops glasses-free 3D tech.

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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 12, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1854 – George Eastman was born to Maria Kilbourn and George Washington Eastman in Waterville, New York. He went on to found the Eastman Kodak Company and invented the roll of film.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eastman

1949 – At an IBM sales meeting, Thomas J. Watson Jr. predicted that within 10 years, electronics would replace moving parts in machines. His vision launched IBM into dominating the computer industry.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/July/12/

2004 – Apple announced the iTunes Music Store sold its 100,000,000th downloaded song. “Somersault (Dangermouse remix)” by Zero 7 was purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/07/12iTunes-Music-Store-Downloads-Top-100-Million-Songs.html

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

DTNS 3070a – Rent Umbrellas, Buy Software

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comWhen is it better to own software vs. subscribing? Plus Microsoft goes rural, Audi goes self-driving and umbrellas have a hard-time in the sharing economy.

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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 – July 11, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Microsoft wants to connect rural areas, Twitter adds mute options and a Google Smart radio is alleged to have done something.

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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 11, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1976 – K&E produced its last slide rule, which it presented to the Smithsonian Institution. While slide rules continue to be made, especially for marine and aviation uses, K&E had been the dominant manufacturer, and this signaled the end of an era, and the rise of the electronic calculator.

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4390151/Last-slide-rule-manufactured–July-11–1976

1979 – The US space station Skylab returned to Earth scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/skylab/

2008 – Apple’s second phone, the iPhone 3G went on sale, featuring 3G data connectivity.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/07/10iPhone-3G-on-Sale-Tomorrow.html

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

Cordkillers 178 – Tom Merritt: Clickbait King

10 stories where Tom hypes PlayStation Vue price rises and charts Amazon Prime’s  popularity. Number 8 will shock you! With special guest Justin Robert Young.

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CordKillers: Ep. 178 – Tom Merritt: Clickbait King
Recorded: July 10 2017
Guest: Justin Robert Young

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Amazon Prime More Popular than cable!
    – Research company Morningstar estimates Amazon Prime reaches 79 million US households. S&P Global Market Intelligence recently projected 90 million US households will pay for cable or satellite TV this year.
    – It’s SLIGHTLY apples and oranges since Prime isn’t just for TV but it shows that Amazon is on its way to being in as many homes as cable.
    – Netflix reported 50.85 mm US subs in Q1)

How to Watch

  • PlayStation Vue hikes prices across the US
    – Sony has removed its “Slim” packages from regions that didn’t have local live TV available. Those packages did not include broadcast networks and charged $10 less than the normal versioon of the package
    – The standard Access package ($40 a month) is the cheapest one in all markets now.
    – Customers on the Slim package can keep it for three months after which they must cancel or be upgraded to the $40 plan
    -Sony told Dedline: “The transition to standard pricing for all markets was always part of our roadmap since we launched PlayStation Vue nationwide and began rolling out local broadcast affiliates in markets with Slim plans.”

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front

I feel like I just hit the “Whammy” on this Cordkillers game of Press Your Luck…

Thanks in large part to your show, my wife and I dumped cable and picked up Playstation Vue when it launched. Aside from the Roku UI, we have been very happy with Vue. The Core Slim package provides the perfect mix of Scripps/Turner/Sports networks we want. I couldn’t replicate the ~7 channels we watch on any other providers for the cost. Most importantly, I had ability to watch every English Premier League match and the Extra Time Goal Zone when multiple games were happening at the same time. (Goal Zone was the EPL equivalent of the Red Zone Channel for the NFL.) Now, I feel like my cost savings was smashed. My Vue package is going to increase by $10/month and $50 paywall for Premier League Pass, which I had access to last season for no additional cost. It hurts more when it’s taken away. I also have Netflix, Prime and will be purchasing HBO Now for the season Game of Thrones. It’s possible I’m just a unique case, but it seems to be getting cable-level expensive again for the content I want.

I’m not sure there is any way to improve my situation with the current offerings, but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Will these cost increases and paywalls lead to a next “level” of cord cutting/shaving options?

(Feel free to edit for length and/or grammar if you want to use my message on the show. I can provide additional clarity if you’d like.)

Thank you for all you do.

Tyler

 

 

 

As someone who has dabbled and at times been really into quality scene releases over the years I have learned quite a lot about what popular opinion and standard formatting of this has been around the internet.
.. I decided to go with the flow and started following the largely considered correct way to name individual episodes. I haven’t had any issues with metadata since. THIS is the preferred way to name individual episodes for TV. If you wanted to name season 1 episode 12 it would be typed as S01E12 with S indicating season number and E indicating episode number.

 

 

 

As someone who works professionally at a post production facility, typing up labels and naming files for assets of episodic shows is a very frequent task. At the facility I currently work at, as well as places I’ve worked in the past, the general convention is to label any given episode in a series with:

1. The name of the series
2. Season number
3. Episode (or production*) number
4. Episode title (if one exists)

It’s also pretty common that a season number and episode number will be consolidated into one single identifier. For example, I might use “”307″” to refer to season 3, episode 7. Regardless, I could not help but laugh out loud that there are people with that much OCD that they are motivated to write an e-mail asking you to change the way you guys identify episodes on Spoilerin’Time. Keep up the good work, guys!

Robert

 

 

Hi there, Brian, Tom and Bryce!

Just wanted to say that last night’s show was great and the explanation you made about the Televisa/Cablevisión vs Roku deal was the best I have seen or read so far.

Here in Mexico, Televisa has kind of a bad rep, since they are sort of the official spokes-channel of the Government and they pretty much own most over the air TV channels. The court case agains Roku was seen as a last ditch effort for Televisa, since they have been struggling to capture young audiences with their digital content offerings, however that’s just a reflection of the general dislike with them, since Blim (their version of Netflix) actually owns about 17% of the online streaming services, which is actually quite good if we compare with TV Streaming services from other TV Channels even in the US.

So far, the “banning” of Roku is limited. Only Office Depot and Radio Shack (yes, we still have those around) stopped selling Roku Devices. You can still get it pretty much everywhere else, from Amazon to Bestbuy to Mercado Libre to the corner electronics store. The court case continues and the focus is in stopping piracy, not the device, and as you mentioned, that content is available on the test channels.

Once again, great job on the show, and I was particularly glad to see this topic correctly commented by an impartial observer. Makes me proud of being a patreon. Way to go!

Best regards! Keep up the awesome work!

– Dan

 

 

 

Hey guys, I watched last week’s episode and I completely disagree with you about NBC’s launch of their soccer product that charges $50 per season to watch the games that aren’t on TV.

The way I see it, it’s a move by NBC Sports to try to stem the flow of people to cord cutting than it is their offering of a new product.

In order to have access to all of the games from the Premier League, NBC’s new paid product now forces soccer fans to continue to pay for a TV subscription plus paying $50 for the streaming service to watch the games not on TV.

There were two alternatives last season for cord cutters where you could stream every single Premier League game in the US with a subscription to PlayStation Vue or DIRECTV NOW. But with the launch of NBC’s new product, that access to all of the games has been taken away for next season. Cord cutters can still stream the games that are on TV, but they have to pay the $50 extra to NBC to get the games that aren’t televised.

NBC Sports screwed up on the launch of this service. Many soccer fans would have gladly paid to be able to access all of the matches without requiring a TV subscription. As it is now, NBC has delivered a new product that doesn’t satisfy the cord cutters nor the TV subscribers.

Keep up the great work on the show!

Cheers,
Christopher

Links

2017 Summer Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

Action News
 

DTNS 3069 – Do or DIFM

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAn AI that can outperform cardiologists, Alphabet loses a patent to another balloon Internet company and why DIFM is the new hot market over DIY.

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!

Today in Tech History – July 10, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1856 – Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Lika, Croatia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother an inventor of household appliances.

http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

1962 – The world’s first communication satellite, Telstar, was launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral on a Delta rocket.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol42-1963/articles/bstj42-4-1449.pdf

1990 – The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formally founded, immediately coming to the aid of Steve Jackson Games, who’s BBS had been seized by the Secret Service.

http://w2.eff.org/legal/cases/SJG/?f=eff_creation.html

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

Daily Tech Headlines – July 10, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500The News Media Alliance seeks collective bargaining with Google and Facebook, W3C approves DRM web standard, and Stripe partners with Alipay and WeChat.

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!