FR 153: The Final Frame

Frame Rate

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Brian Brushwood.

NimbleTV brings TV everywhere to New York, big plans for Chromecast in 2014, Breaking Bad spinoff coming to Netflix, and the final frame is rated.

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/fr.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Please take the TWiT Audience Survey at http://twit.tv/showsurvey. It only takes a few minutes and we’d love to know what you think.

Running time: 1:05:22

TNT 903: Not Everybody is a Beyoncé

Tech News Today

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar, and Jason Howell

Google buys big robots, Beyonce bucks big music, Twitter senses you are near, and more.

Guest: Ken Denmead

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

Check out the full show notes for today’s episode.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend the wiki entry for this episode at wiki.twit.tv.

Please take the TWiT Audience Survey at http://twit.tv/showsurvey. It only takes a few minutes and we’d love to know what you think.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 46:19

Tech History Today – Dec. 16, 2013

In 1935 – A Time magazine article described the use of the pattern of capillaries in the retina as a means of identification called eye prints. Hello biometrics!

In 1947 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain applied two closely-spaced gold contacts held in place by a plastic wedge to the surface of a small slab of high-purity germanium. It was the next step in the development of the Transistor.

In 2002 – Creative Commons formally launched, unveiling Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses and a revamped website.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

San Francisco Meet-Up, Jan 20th at Borderlands!

BorderlandsBooks1.jpg

Hey everyone!

If you’re in the Bay Area, please come join me and Tom at Borderlands Books on January 20th at 5pm. We’ll be reading selections from the Anthology, discussing the current book pick (TBD), and then heading across the street for adult libations afterwards!

The event is free, but we’ll have plenty of copies of the February book pick on hand to purchase. Plus, Borderlands is awesome, and you won’t be able to leave the store empty-handed! 

If you plan on attending, please RSVP on the Goodreads event page! Hope to see you there!

 

State of 2014 Shows

Hey all. For the last couple weeks I’ve been in non-stop planning mode, trying to wrap my head around all the options in front of me, figure out what I *want* to do, and gather all the incredibly generous offers to help. I have not forgotten a single one of your offers, trust me. But I have to make a bunch of decisions, many of which depend on other people’s decisions, before I know what you can help me with.

But I think it’s only fair to let you know where I stand so far, at least as much as I can tell you for sure. So here’s an update

Daily Tech News Show – I’ve got a very BASIC page up at dailytechnewsshow.com. This isn’t meant to be the show name (though who knows) it’s just a placeholder. Sort of my “This is My Next”. So go subscribe to make sure you don’t miss the announcements when they come. This is the one I have to get right, so it’s the one I can say the least about. All the options are on the table. At the very least on January 2 I’ll give you the news the way you’ve come to expect and discuss it’s implications with smart people. Possibly you’ll get more. Did I mention subscribe? Go subscribe.

Sword and Laser – We’re wrapping up the backer rewards thanks to the amazing help of David Michael at Frogpants. we also had a meeting with Pixel Corps and have tentative dates to shoot the video show in late January! We’re just waiting to make sure all the staff we want can make those dates before we make it official. In the meantime we’re definitely going to have a meetup at Borderlands in San Francisco on January 20th so please come by if you’re int he area.

Current Geek – Scott Johnson and I are deep in the planning of our weekly show covering all things geek with the amazing hosts of the Frogpants network of shows. Next up for us there is the brainstorming hangout this Tuesday, *tentatively* for 2 PM Pacific, but keep an eye on Scott’s feed for confirmation.

A cord-cutting show to be named later – Brian Brushwood and I have one last Frame Rate show to do tomorrow, Monday December 16th. But don’t worry. I said stop worrying. Just go watch what you want when you want where you want an any device you want to pass this time. We’ll be back.

Other –  All my other shows are short season. I plan for Autopilot, FSL Tonight and It’s A Thing to return in the coming year, but need to nail down the above first. East Meets West happens whenever it wants. 

How can you help?
Hang in there. if you’ve offered to pitch in, I will gratefully accept as soon as I have things that can be done. If you want to support any of these shows check out the Current Geek backer packs or you can pick up any of my books, t-shirts, or even the same equipment I use, in my store.

<>

Tom

Tech History Today – Dec. 15, 2013

In 1953 – Dudley Buck entered the idea for the Cryotron into his MIT notebook. The cryotron is a four-terminal superconductive computer component.

In 1965 – Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.

1994 – Netscape shipped version 1.0 of the Netscape Navigator Web browser.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

YouTube: 7 Questions with Tom Merritt

I took a little time to make a quick casual video answering a few questions left over from the brainstorm hangout last week. You can watch the video or read the answers or both. Thanks!

Q: Will you continue doing a Frame Rate show? -Multiple people

A: Yes. Some kind of show about the ability to watch what youw ant, where you want and how you want it on any device you please is in the works.

Q: How are we paying for all of this? I really dislike the host endorsement style of ads on a number of podcast these days. Are there viable alternatives? – @rosscbrown

A: Good question. Host read ads have a weakness, especially when the host isn’t directly plugged into the sales process. But it has so far proven to be the most reliable way. However, I’ve had some good success cord funding smaller shows, and lately a bigger show like Sword and Laser. There’s also something like patron, and of course merchandise where you actually get something solid for your money besides the programming. So yeah, looking at all of those.

Q: Can we crowdfund a new background / studio for you in the new year? A break from the twit mise-en-scène might be nice. – anonymous

A: Maybe? I love the fireplace. Maybe change the shot a bit though so it isn’t exactly the same. All options open there. Now that I’m allowed, I’d like a second camera too for guests and such.

Q: Are you looking to do anything outside of the podcast / webcast realm? Like public speaking gigs, etc. ? – @Xanthus

A: Yes, a little. I want to keep writing and self-publishing my silly little books. Maybe someday I’ll get good enough to send one off to a real publisher. And I’ve talked to a guy about booking speaking gigs at colleges and conferences. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve done a little of that before, so I’d like to see what’s available, what works, and what I seems valuable to do.

Q: Long form interview show? – @jccalhoun

A: Possibly! It kind of depends on what I do with the daily tech news show, but it definitely could be an element of that. We used to that as supplemental episodes of Buzz Out Loud.

Q: Is Leo still on your Christmas Card list? – @millgroup

A: Ha ha. If I ever get it together enough to have a Christmas card list, Leo will be on it.

Q: How many webcast / podcast shows would you be interested in doing at any one time? – @Xanthus

A: Honestly no more than I have. TNT and Frame Rate together, the way I did them, were a full time job. Then I do Sword sand Laser every other week, although that’s been becoming weekly. Plus Current Geek will be a weekly. The other shows I do are all seasonal. If anything I need to cut down and focus on fewer.