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News
Quick Primer Into Live Streaming TV
I take a look into the top six options you can look for when thinking about cutting the cord. Five out of the six are paid options but with the sixth being completely free. Hulu LiveTV - https://www.hulu.com/live-tv YouTube TV - https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/begin/ Sling TV - https://www.sling.com/#dyn-grid-plan-... DirectTV Now - https://www.directvnow.com/ Playstation Vue - https://www.playstation.com/en-us/net... Free option with, Pluto TV - https://pluto.tv/tv/channel-lineup
Xbox's Adaptive Controller
As we talked about on the latest Geek 2.0 Podcast episode, Microsoft has pushed in a big way for all inclusive gaming for people with disabilities. Many if not all gaming controllers are designed for people that have two hands (even though some of us still have trouble figuring them out). There is a large population that are either born with or become disabled that find these controllers are extremely difficult to use and therefore are severally put at an disadvantage. Thanks to the folks at Microsoft, there is now a way for these capable people to enjoy and be part of the gaming community. Of course with the large financial resources behind Microsoft and a dedicated team, these kids and adults can now go on to slay their opponents to their hearts content. Including the promo ad that was shown during this years Super Bowl, enjoy.
Phasing Out Dead Dinosaurs
We're already seeing changes to how we view our vehicular transportation. More and more electric and hybrid cars and trucks are joining the ranks of those that run on dead dinosaurs across the country. Americans are slowly looking towards alternative fuel when out car shopping. Within the past decade we've seen gas prices skyrocket to extremely high levels. Causing many to rethink owning large SUV's and climb into small, more fuel efficient vehicles. Unfortunately this mindset didn't last long, as gas prices fell back down to a more reasonable level. Those very same people went back to their prized land barges. Many electric vehicles were seen as nothing more than a concept. Even when Elon Musk and his automotive company released the first Tesla. It was priced so far out of the range of the upper middle class. It was many years later that the next version would climb under the $100,000.00 mark. Even then it was seen as a wealthy play toy but, Elon made it known that each model helped subsidized the next Tesla model. Eventually with the release of the Model 3, pricing had fallen enough to make other car manufactures take notice. Toyota was one such manufacture that had dabbled in the electric car niche with the Prius. Adoption of the car wasn't the best and with its fish like appearance when first released, customers were few and far between. Eventually with the highly fluctuating gas pricing and vast improvements on the range and garnering a more what could be called, customer friendly look. The Prius became an almost status symbol to environmentally focused customers. As more and more vehicle manufactures come on board, the overwhelming problem of how one would be to go about their daily life on a single charge came about. Tesla began a build of its Quick Charge network around major cities and across the US. As with all new technologies, the infrastructure was just not fully in place. With only a range of around 350 miles or so, many people had to rethink long distance trips in which they wouldn't be left out in the middle of nowhere with a dead vehicle. Lately Shell Oil has acquired Greenlots, a Los Angeles based electric vehicle charging developer. The age of filling up your car with gasoline is going to be slowly a thing of the past. Technology is going to make the experience of pulling into a recharge station quick and painless as it is now. Only you won't run the risk of spilling gasoline everywhere and smelling like a refinery. This future is more than likely a decade away but as with any emerging tech, things begin to quickly ramp up when the general public have a wide adoption rate to it. Expect to see the next generation flying around on lowered Tesla sports cars when the reboot of The Fast and the Furious comes out, each car will be powered by energy generated by the sun, the wind or even from algae farms.
3D Printing Houses
In episode eighteen of Geek 2.0, we touched on the improvements made in regards to 3D printing technology. A lot of what we saw was how the various designers and developers improved on their printers, to make them more efficient. One such startup, ICON and housing nonprofit New Story has designed a way to print a home that is 650 square feet. Consisting of a living room, kitche, bedroom, bathroom and a shaded porch for only around $10,000 here in the US. Able to scale the process out in developing countries and the house is priced around $4,000. We all know in one shape or form the amount of time it will take in order to complete construction of a home. ICON and New Story are able to go from start to finish of a single home in just under 24 hours. We discussed how this could revolutionize housing needs within many of our communities. We could provide housing for those in need, the homeless, disabled veterans who are unable to work, shelters for displaced individuals. The list goes on. Looking forward to even a decade, we can see how processes such as ICON and others can improve and even completely overtake conventional home construction. Other avenues that are just scratching the surface would be in commercial construction, high rises and quite possibly our road and bridge infrastructure. 3D printing is relatively new technology and as such, the limits are ever increasing as engineers and designers set their sights on increasing safety and strength of the construction market. New Story Charity - https://newstorycharity.org/3d-home/
Keybase And You
If the thought of how to make your online experience just a little more secure went through your mind, perhaps Keybase might help you in that regard. Advertised as "Crypto for everyone" Keybase offers several avenues of encrypting emails, chat, and your files under one umbrella. A key directory mapping your social media id's to your encryption keys all within a publicly auditable way. Imagine a way for others to verify you are who you say you are by your verified encrypted links via your Keybase profile. People would know that your Twitter profile is actually yours and not an imposter. The same for any websites you may own. You could safely start a chat via the Keybase app knowing your conversations are securely encrypted. Even messages that you want deleted after say, 30 seconds, will disappear from the record. Never to be seen again on your end as well as the recipients. Email can be sent encrypted with your publicly available PGP key that you can give to others. The app and is completely free to use and open source. Offering apps on both iOS and Android as well as being available on Windows, macOS and Linux. Even if you feel you have no need to have encrypted chats and email, it's at least good to know that using it you have that much more privacy to work with. I'm currently using it and if you wish to join me on this adventure, you can find me at the following link https://keybase.io/phuturism
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Podcasts
Can't Keep A Good Gamer Down
Joined by Cliff as we talk about Microsoft's latest adaptive controller built for the Xbox. We go into a bit in how people with disablities have another door opened to them, to join with their firends and family in playing video games. Music Credits: Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game by Captive Portal Utopia (instrumental) by YACHT
Ogling CES Tech
The mad rush of tech journalists and reporters have picked over the remains of CES. Of course there's plenty left to look at and that's exactly what we do.
<p>Music Credits:</p>
<p>Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game <span class="subh1">by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Captive_Portal/">Captive Portal</a></span></p>
<p>Utopia (instrumental) <span class="subh1">by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/YACHT/">YACHT</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
2018 In Review
We take a look back at some of the interesting things that took place during the year 2018. Music Credits: Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game by Captive Portal Utopia (instrumental) by YACHT
The Ever Evolving STEM
Does having a STEM based education in our kids school cause issues when they're older, or does it help them in this constantly evolving world of technology and science? We're joined by our guest Tommy to go over this topic and how it affected us and possibly future generations.
Music Credits: Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game by Captive Portal Utopia (instrumental) by YACHT
Family In Focus
Joined by the lovely Suzy as we talk about how movie theaters have changes over the years and the role of a good camera means to you and your family. Music Credits: Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game by Captive Portal Utopia (instrumental) by YACHT
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Reviews
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Posts
Quick Primer Into Live Streaming TV
I take a look into the top six options you can look for when thinking about cutting the cord. Five out of the six are paid options but with the sixth being completely free. Hulu LiveTV - https://www.hulu.com/live-tv YouTube TV - https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/begin/ Sling TV - https://www.sling.com/#dyn-grid-plan-... DirectTV Now - https://www.directvnow.com/ Playstation Vue - https://www.playstation.com/en-us/net... Free option with, Pluto TV - https://pluto.tv/tv/channel-lineup
View full news
Xbox's Adaptive Controller
As we talked about on the latest Geek 2.0 Podcast episode, Microsoft has pushed in a big way for all inclusive gaming for people with disabilities. Many if not all gaming controllers are designed for people that have two hands (even though some of us still have trouble figuring them out). There is a large population that are either born with or become disabled that find these controllers are extremely difficult to use and therefore are severally put at an disadvantage. Thanks to the folks at Microsoft, there is now a way for these capable people to enjoy and be part of the gaming community. Of course with the large financial resources behind Microsoft and a dedicated team, these kids and adults can now go on to slay their opponents to their hearts content. Including the promo ad that was shown during this years Super Bowl, enjoy.
View full news
Can't Keep A Good Gamer Down
Joined by Cliff as we talk about Microsoft's latest adaptive controller built for the Xbox. We go into a bit in how people with disablities have another door opened to them, to join with their firends and family in playing video games. Music Credits: Intro For A Nonexisting Video Game by Captive Portal Utopia (instrumental) by YACHT
View full podcast
Phasing Out Dead Dinosaurs
We're already seeing changes to how we view our vehicular transportation. More and more electric and hybrid cars and trucks are joining the ranks of those that run on dead dinosaurs across the country. Americans are slowly looking towards alternative fuel when out car shopping. Within the past decade we've seen gas prices skyrocket to extremely high levels. Causing many to rethink owning large SUV's and climb into small, more fuel efficient vehicles. Unfortunately this mindset didn't last long, as gas prices fell back down to a more reasonable level. Those very same people went back to their prized land barges. Many electric vehicles were seen as nothing more than a concept. Even when Elon Musk and his automotive company released the first Tesla. It was priced so far out of the range of the upper middle class. It was many years later that the next version would climb under the $100,000.00 mark. Even then it was seen as a wealthy play toy but, Elon made it known that each model helped subsidized the next Tesla model. Eventually with the release of the Model 3, pricing had fallen enough to make other car manufactures take notice. Toyota was one such manufacture that had dabbled in the electric car niche with the Prius. Adoption of the car wasn't the best and with its fish like appearance when first released, customers were few and far between. Eventually with the highly fluctuating gas pricing and vast improvements on the range and garnering a more what could be called, customer friendly look. The Prius became an almost status symbol to environmentally focused customers. As more and more vehicle manufactures come on board, the overwhelming problem of how one would be to go about their daily life on a single charge came about. Tesla began a build of its Quick Charge network around major cities and across the US. As with all new technologies, the infrastructure was just not fully in place. With only a range of around 350 miles or so, many people had to rethink long distance trips in which they wouldn't be left out in the middle of nowhere with a dead vehicle. Lately Shell Oil has acquired Greenlots, a Los Angeles based electric vehicle charging developer. The age of filling up your car with gasoline is going to be slowly a thing of the past. Technology is going to make the experience of pulling into a recharge station quick and painless as it is now. Only you won't run the risk of spilling gasoline everywhere and smelling like a refinery. This future is more than likely a decade away but as with any emerging tech, things begin to quickly ramp up when the general public have a wide adoption rate to it. Expect to see the next generation flying around on lowered Tesla sports cars when the reboot of The Fast and the Furious comes out, each car will be powered by energy generated by the sun, the wind or even from algae farms.
View full news
3D Printing Houses
In episode eighteen of Geek 2.0, we touched on the improvements made in regards to 3D printing technology. A lot of what we saw was how the various designers and developers improved on their printers, to make them more efficient. One such startup, ICON and housing nonprofit New Story has designed a way to print a home that is 650 square feet. Consisting of a living room, kitche, bedroom, bathroom and a shaded porch for only around $10,000 here in the US. Able to scale the process out in developing countries and the house is priced around $4,000. We all know in one shape or form the amount of time it will take in order to complete construction of a home. ICON and New Story are able to go from start to finish of a single home in just under 24 hours. We discussed how this could revolutionize housing needs within many of our communities. We could provide housing for those in need, the homeless, disabled veterans who are unable to work, shelters for displaced individuals. The list goes on. Looking forward to even a decade, we can see how processes such as ICON and others can improve and even completely overtake conventional home construction. Other avenues that are just scratching the surface would be in commercial construction, high rises and quite possibly our road and bridge infrastructure. 3D printing is relatively new technology and as such, the limits are ever increasing as engineers and designers set their sights on increasing safety and strength of the construction market. New Story Charity - https://newstorycharity.org/3d-home/
View full news
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Blog Entries
Our Roblox Journey
We've been living with an eight year old that has been increasing her consumption of Roblox. Getting to the point in which we're stuck in the point of keeping her from sitting around all day playing the game and building up her independence. Recently we made the decision to go ahead and get her a Chromebook for Christmas. I know, I can already hear some of you yelling that we shouldn't let an eight year old have her own whatever device. Well, it's 2018, going into 2019 and this is the world we live in. Come Christmas and she's beyond excited. This went from excitement to disappointment. Come to find out after I did my research and looking through various websites and forums, the latest Chromebooks are able to run Android apps which Roblox has one. Unfortunately the hardware with even 4gb's of RAM wasn't able to render any of the games. Frustration became even more so as I use a much older HP Chromebook and I can do my tasks on it with no problem. So fast forward a week or two and we decided the better course of action was to return the Chromebook and in its place, a desktop was to be born. With a look through Newegg and several days later our daughter has on her desk a HP Compaq 6300 Pro SFF. Now she can play Roblox to her hearts content.
DIY Your Families Network Part 1
We've all been there one point or another. You've either moved into a new house or you've finally decided in cleaning up what the installer put in. Looking at how everything is handled these day, the number of boxes needed to communicate with the outside world has grown. A typical household will have a cable box for the main T.V. located conveniently where the family gathers to catch up on their programming. Sometimes this box will also house a DVR which stores many of your families TV shows. Now add in a gaming console like an XBOX, Playstation, Nintendo Switch or any other kind of console. Next is the main gateway to the internet, the modem. This box is usually put in a place out of the way as it doesn't see much use from us mere mortals. We normally tell the installer to just put it in a closet or behind the TV. Now normally this would be fine but in most cases the modem is connect to yet another box, the router. This device takes the connection from the modem and splits it to be used by everyone in your household either via a wireless connection and/or a direct cable connection. In some cases the modem and router live within the same box but tend to be installed in a place where you can easily get to it but, the device has the appearance of a post modern dystopian look to it. In this short series I'll be tackling the job of cleaning up, improving and expanding our families network to be easily up-gradable and future proof it. Be sure to keep an eye out for when I post up new updates along with pictures.
Episode 9: AR All The Things
This episode we get deep, I mean really deep. We take your reality and augment it right into your eyeballs. OK, maybe not really but we do talk about some of the awesome things about AR and VR so much so that we pretty much dedicated this episode to it. Quick CES rundown on a few items like Samsung's wall Micro LED TV dubbed "The Wall" https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/samsungs-the-wall-tv-is-a-modular-146-inch-monster-that-uses-microled/ NVIDIA announcing a 60" gaming monitor for your extra large gaming needs. https://www.anandtech.com/show/12242/nvidia-announces-new-big-format-gaming-displays-65in-4k120-hdr-gsync-and-more AMD lowers their Ryzen CPU pricing just in time for their new APU line to arrive sometime this year. https://www.anandtech.com/show/12238/amd-updates-ryzen-sku-pricing-to-counter-intel Wanted to feel like you're right there in the thick of it then the Teslasuit is something you'll be getting. https://teslasuit.io/ https://www.blubrry.com/geek2_0/31342560/episode-9-ar-all-the-things/