We chat with J-F Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered, first book in the Sword and Laser Inkshares collection. Find out whether the thousand year old robots in the book had any real life inspirations and whether they have sex. We’re guessing you’re slightly more interested in one of those questions than the other.
DTNS 2706 – The Sixth Estate
Tech companies like Google and Facebook make more money than most countries, have user bases bigger than China, and can often affect your daily life more than your government. Patrick Beja and Tom Merritt discuss whether we should treat these companies like countries.
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, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Cordkillers 111 – Technology Make Things Fast (w/ Andrew Mayne)
Netflix is 50% killing television, Facebook might get NFL games, and Roku won’t take the FCC’s side. With special guest Andrew Mayne.
CordKillers: Cordkillers 111 – Technology Make Things Fast
Recorded: March 7 2016
Guest: Andrew Mayne
Intro Video
Primary Target
- News flash, Netflix not killing television
- Netflix Caused 50% of U.S. TV Viewing Drop in 2015
– MoffettNathanson report
– Netflix equivalent to mid-size cable network
– ~6% of traditional TV hours
– Cause of ~half of decline in TV hours
– HH w/ young people raise TV hours when subscribed to Netflix (watch more ESPN and Adult Swim)
Signal Intelligence
- Facebook Wants to Pay for NFL Streaming Rights but Apple Doesn’t
– NFL selling digital rights (owners meeting March 20)
– Stream 18 regular season games
– Peter Kafka ReCode says these are the interested parties
– Facebook
– Amazon (looking for streaming sports exec too)
– Verizon (has mobile rights)
– Yahoo (submitted preliminary paperwork)
Gear Up
- Afraid Of Upsetting The Cable Industry, Roku Won’t Support FCC Quest For Increased Set Top Box Competition
– Roku’s spokeswoman Tricia Misfud to IBD: “We have not been advocating for a rule making in this area at this time. While we are known for selling streaming players, it is only one area of our business. Customers also access our platform through smart TVs and streaming players that operators deploy.”
– Roku partners w/ TWC and Charter on skinny bundles over Internet, Telstra and Sky license hardware for co-branded streamers
– Working on a hybrid streaming/cable box (sky etc.)
– Investment by Viacom, 21st Century Fox, and UK cable operator Sky might be shaping Roku’s thinking as well
– Essentially Roku thinks it wins either way
– No FCC rule, first in line for slower cableco adoption (the TiVo route)
– FCC rule, Roku probably gets a big chunk of the market.
Front Lines
- $25 ‘skinny’ TV packages called a ‘ripoff’ as industry ‘stares down’ CRTC
– Starting March 1st Canadians could purchase basic TV packages for $25 plus add small bundles of favorite channels. But the new packages end up being almost as expensive as the old when you count in fees or lack of discounts for triple play and such. - AT&T to launch three DIRECTV video streaming options
– AT&T said it will launch three online-only TV services by the end of the year. DirecTV Now will offer content from its current packages including live and on-demand video. DirecTV Mobile will be for phones only. And DirecTV Preview will be a free service centered around the Audience network channel. - Sony reduced its three PlayStation Vue packages by $10 to 40, 45 and 55 a month. And the ABC channels have been added including local channels and ESPN.
- Your favorite YouTube stars are heading to the Emmys
– The Emmy Awards are adding new and updated categories for short-form content in reality, variety and comedy categories under 15 minutes. Each episode must have more than six episodes to qualify. There are also now awards for the best actor and actress in a short comedy or drama. The awards will be presented as part of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which happens a week ahead of the main event. - Entertainment Weekly says HBO programming president Michael Lombardo confirmed that, for the first time will not be sent out for review.
- In its latest quarter, TiVo added 337,000 subscriptions bringing its total number of subscribers to 6.8 million, up from 5.5 million a year earlier.
Under Surveillance
- New Ghostbusters trailer hit last week, coming July 15
- Google’s ‘Moon Shot’ web series profiles Lunar Xprize hopefuls
– JJ Abrams is producing and Orlando von Einsiedel is directing a documentary series about Google’s Lunar X Prize,called Moon Shot, debuting March 15 on Google Play and on YouTube March 17. - Star Wars: The Force Awakens is coming on digital April 1st and Blu-Ray April 5.
- K Troop is a movie about the rise of the KKK coming from Amazon produced by and possibly starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Still in early development. No screenwriter.
- Netflix’s Fuller House got renewed for a second season despite being panned by critics.
- Stephen King confirms Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey will star in The Dark Tower coming January 13, 2017
- Actor Ian McShane will play the central role of Mr. Wednesday in ‘American Gods’ on Starz
- Brian: Better Call Saul 203, House of Cards (thru 7), Justified 108, 11.22.63 (104), Great Minds episode 2
- Tom: Better Call Saul (203) The Walking Dead, Vinyl, House of Cards (Season 4), Justified (108), 11.22.63 (104)
- Andrew: Vinyl, Creed, The Tripods
- On the Lookout: Bates Motel
Dispatches from the Front
Great work guys I was just listening to your latest podcast and I have to tell you that I am cancelling my Sling TV service. The concept is great but it is the only application that doesn’t seem to take take full advantage of my 150mbps connection at home. It constantly pauses, stops and otherwise finds ways to make me unhappy of my TCL Roku TV, my windows 2in1, my iPad AND my MacBook Pro. The connection is not the problem. Either the app or the infrastructure is. Too bad. But I can’t continue to pay for something with promise that continues to not work.
Oh, and little to no problems with any other similar app.
– Jay
Hey Tom and Brian,
Long time listener and fan of the shows. You guys have talked about the X-ray feature on Amazon Prime and needing to pause and such like that. I wanted to mention I have the Amazon Prime app on a Nintendo Wii U. I love the Wii U as a streaming device for a variety of reasons, but that’s for another time. The Wii U, if you recall, has a tablet screen as part of the main controller. In Amazon Prime, while you’re playing a show on your TV screen, the controller tablet screen lets you do things like show cast members, the synopsis, as well as a live version of Prime’s X-ray. So as characters come on/off screen and scenes change, I can see who’s playing those people as well as get more info. I can prop up the controller and sneak a peak at this 2nd Screen or pause and do the same. I think this feature works similar on the Nintendo 3DS, but I don’t have experience there. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.
Your fan,
– Stuart
P.S. Tom, Citadel 32 is next on my list.
Dear Tom and Brian,
I thoroughly enjoyed your discussion about HBO NOW and wanted to chime in on a few points.
First, I wholeheartedly agree that $15/month is too much to pay for the service when you compare the available content with other services. The best direct comparison IMO is Showtime Anytime. For $12/month (same as Hulu ad-free) I get access to a lot of quality programs (though a rather poor movie catalog). Better yet, I can save $3/month by subscribing through Hulu, Amazon or PS Vue. Likewise, I can subscribe to Starz via Amazon for $9/month and get access to some movies before they’re available on HBO.
The other point I wanted to hit upon is the quality of HBO’s programs. Throughout your discussion, Tom echoed that HBO hasn’t produced a major hit since Game of Thrones. I would propose that HBO has produced some fine programs since then that have celebrated various levels of success, but just not on the same level as GoT (I would include Veep, Girls, The Newsroom, True Detective and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the latter two Tom mentioned). Each of these programs has done well to very well in terms of Golden Globe and Emmy wins and nominations (I’ve included a breakdown below, along with GoT’s stats for comparison), and while awards aren’t exactly the best measure of success (I’m looking at you Arrested Development) they can at least indicate a high-level of quality.
Call me crazy, but I would compare GoT to the iPhone, in that they’re both a once in a lifetime blockbuster product that people are fanatic for around the globe. Apple has since released popular products like the iPad, AppleTV, Apple Watch and new iterations of the Mac lineup, all of which have done so well that they would be a very good businesses all on their own, but are nowhere at the iPhone’s level. I suspect it will be a long time that we’ll see HBO (or most other content providers) release a mega-hit GoT that has captured the world’s imagination like GoT has.
Love the show!
– Jesse (a.k.a. hometownrival)
Indianapolis, IN
Tom and Brian,
I enjoyed your lively discussion regarding HBO on the last episode. I have to agree with Tom about the lack of high-quality content coming from HBO at the moment. The only show I gravitate to HBO for right now is Game of Thrones.
Take a direct competitor, Showtime, for instance. Showtime introduced Showtime Anytime, which I can add to my Amazon Prime subscription for $8.99 month. I understand that on other platforms, the price is different, but still cheaper than HBO Now.
Showtime has been killing it, in my opinion, with original shows recently:
Homeland
Masters of Sex
Billions (*new)
Ray Donovan
The Affair
Shameless
The Tudors
Penny Dreadful
I would much rather pay for Showtime than HBO right now. Game of Thrones is still the best show on TV and one that I will always find a way to watch HBO for – but once it’s done, they better get some more quality content to get viewers coming back.
AMC and FX are two other networks that are doing a great job with original content, but don’t yet have stand-alone streaming services. If they did and the price was reasonable, I would much rather pay for them than HBO. Hopefully HBO can get back to attracting amazing shows, because people will follow the content.
– Sean
Links
Today in Tech History – March 8, 2016
In 1955 – Doug Ross demonstrated the Director tape for MIT’s Whirlwind machine, the first digital computer with real-time text and graphics. The idea of the Director Tape was to allow multiple problems to be read by the computer in one session without humans having to intervene and change tapes. In other words, an operating system.
In 1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, was transmitted on BBC Radio 4. Some credit Adams with accidentally predicting the PDA and smartphone.
In 1979 – Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called “Philips Introduces Compact Disc.”
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
It’s Spoilerin’ Time 111
Better Call Saul (203), House of Cards (401-407), 11.22.63 (104), Justified (108)
01:08 – Better Call Saul (203)
08:05 – House of Cards (401-407)
16:55 – 11.22.63 (104)
21:53 – Justified (108)
DTNS 2705 – Email Is Where It’s @
With the passing of email developer Ray Tomlinson, the man who elevated the @ sign to the status it holds today, Tom Merritt and Lamarr Wilson discuss why email is still around and what we ned it for.
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, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Today in Tech History – March 7, 2016
In 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a US patent for an “Improvement in Telegraphy” (No.174,465) which established the principle of bidirectional signals that made the telephone possible.
In 1926 – The first successful Transatlantic telephone call was placed between New York City and London. Transatlantic service began the following year at $75 a minute.
In 1994 – The Supreme Court found that 2 Live Crew’s parody of Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman” was fair use, and not a violation of copyright, thus ensuring the future of The Onion.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Headed to SXSWi in Austin
Hey folks I’ll be in town for a couple days during the SXSW Interactive festival.
I’ll be doing one panel and of course heading to the <> Night Attack party. Here’s the details
PANEL
Friday March 11 3:45 PM (CST) (UPDATE Time delayed to 3:45!)
Hilton Austin Downtown Salon F
Podcasts Grown Up: Community and Monetization
with: Jamie Tardy, Eventual Millionaire, Kerri Hoffman PRX, hosted by Ryan Williams, Influencer Economy.
PARTY
Saturday March 12, 2-5PM (CST)
<> Live Night Attack w/ Possum Posse
The Brew Exhcange
706 W. 6th Street
Austin, TX
Today in Tech History – March 6, 2016
In 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Yaroslavl region of Russia. She would grow up to become the first woman in space and only woman ever to fly solo in space.
In 1992 – The first media-hyped computer virus reached fever pitch as the Michelangelo boot sector virus began to affect computers. Worldwide catastrophe did not follow.
In 2009 – NASA launched the Kepler space observatory, with a mission to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.
In 2012 – Google consolidated its various online stores, Android Market, Google Books, Google Music, and Google video, into one store called Google Play.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Weekly Tech Views – March 5, 2016
Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.
Welcome to this Mike’s-on-vacation version of the Weekly Tech Views. Twenty-five percent shorter means twenty-five percent fewer inaccuracies!
For the week of February 29 – March 4, 2016
Live For Speed? Ewww.
Razer announced the first games for its Open Source VR Steam-compatible development kit. They are Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Elite: Dangerous, Spermination, and Live for Speed. I will leave it to you to decide which title sounds like the absolute worst idea ever for a virtual reality experience.
How’s Progress On The Robot Eagle Coming?
The new Phantom 4 drone can see and avoid obstacles thanks to four cameras and two ultrasonic sensors. Also, the top speed has increased from 35 to 65mph. This is exciting news for drone enthusiasts, but less so for those eagles in Norway being trained to take down rogue drones. They just got a lot less cocky.
Release The Digital Assistants!
The makers of music app SoundHound have released Hound, a voice-powered digital assistant app that is reportedly faster and smarter than similar assistants. Asked, “Siri, how do you measure up to Hound?” Siri did not make a compelling case by pausing five seconds before answering, “Playing Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog.”
Watch Out, Brazilian Police–You’ve Got An Angry-Face Reaction Emoji Coming
Facebook’s vice president for Latin America–who, incidentally, does not oversee WhatsApp–was arrested in Brazil because Facebook-owned WhatsApp allegedly disobeyed a court order to assist investigators in a drug case involving a WhatsApp user. Finally, the precedent I’ve been waiting for to have Apple CEO Tim Cook put away because the guy at the Genius Bar deleted my Flappy Bird app.
[Update: the Facebook VP was ordered released because his imprisonment was deemed “an extreme and disproportionate measure.” You win this time, Cook.]
Are These Anything Like Those Beer Goggles I’ve Been Hearing About?
Fourteen McDonald’s restaurants in Sweden are selling Happy Goggles, a Happy Meal in which the box converts into VR goggles, and works with a skiing game for your phone. This is in conjunction with the country’s Sportlov holiday, which encourages families to participate in sports, usually skiing. Obviously, McDonald’s hope is that kids will find the VR experience to be so much fun that they will eschew actual skiing and avoid the life-affirming feeling of robust health that might make them rethink the advisability of eating at McDonald’s.
If It Makes You More Comfortable, We Can Still Come Over And Drill Some Holes In Your Wall
AT&T and DirecTV will offer DirecTV over the internet later this year, with no contracts or satellite dish required. Though no prices or content offerings have been announced, it does sound promising, and makes one ask the obvious question, is there a category on ebay for selling the push broom that I duct taped to the end of two other broom handles to clean the snow off my roof-mounted dish?
Dude…
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced the creation of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board, to be headed by Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google parent company Alphabet. Carter said the board would provide advice to the Department of Defense on becoming more innovative in developing technology, but cut short his remarks when reporters insisted on asking if he keeps in touch with the rest of the gang from That ’70s Show.
That’s Fairly Decent Replay Value
Hello Games will be releasing the game No Man’s Sky this June, three years after it was first announced. It is an open-world space exploration game featuring 18 quintillion worlds. That’s 18 with eighteen zeroes after it. To put the number in perspective, it would take 5 billion years to visit each planet, if you checked out one planet per second. Put another way, it nearly equals the number of tears cried on any given episode of The Bachelor.
Why Settle For Just One Source Of Nausea?
Six Flags amusement parks will be providing Samsung Gear VR headsets to riders of some of their roller coasters. Some will find themselves co-piloting jet fighters trying to shoot down invading aliens, while riders of the Superman-themed coasters will encounter the resultant chaos of Lex Luthor’s anti-gravity gun, dodging floating cars and buses. Six Flags is celebrating with their new slogan, The Most Fun You Can Have With The Sweat Of Hundreds Of Previous Riders On Your Face.
There we go. That’s all. But a somewhat-reduced Weekly Tech Views is better than none.* Now it’s back to the vacation home stretch, which looks a lot like the rest of the week–slouched on the couch with a plate of mini pizza bagels and bingeing whatever Netflix can throw at us. You should see our vacation photo albums.
* This statement has yet to be verified by independent analysis.
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.