It's time once again for the programme that has no music, no
jingles, no commercials, no direction, no agenda, and of
course, no talent in the United Kingdom, I'm Adam curry.
I'm John C. Dvorak up here in northern California.
Hey, John, how you doing today?
Good. It's a nice sunny day.
Yeah, we had a beautiful we had a beautiful day here as well in
in the UK. So nice in fact that I went flying. Where'd you go? I
went down to the south coast, which would be towards the Isle
of Wight and then hung a left basically eastwards and went all
along the coastline up to lid. Are you familiar with lid?
No. Okay,
so lid is just, I don't know, it's, it's that piece that
sticks out on the on the right hand side of the island. It's on
the south coast there. But what's really nice there this
programme is BBC show called coast. I don't know if I don't
know if you can get that over there on BBC America. But
essentially, it's a series about the coastline of the UK, which
of course being an island is there's a lot of coastline. And
it consists of it's like almost like a documentary. But there's
a lot of aerial photography really, really beautifully done.
And I have to say, the coast of the UK is spectacular. If you
just fly along at you know, like 1000 or 1500 feet. It's just it
changes every every 1020 miles. It's just beautiful. So
can you take photos out of your plane? Yeah, of course.
I took Well, I did it with my cell phone camera. So you know,
she kind of sucks ass. And by the way when I'm by myself it's
there's a lot going on. So you know to really yelling
Jake me up for a ride. I'll take pictures. You get your ass
over here. We'll take some pictures. Absolutely. It'll be
fun.
It'll be raining
when you get here Yeah, probably. So nice. They're in
California. You were in Vegas, John.
Yeah, I went to lost wages in Nevada. And yeah, did
you lose any?
No actually I won I only budget i know I don't know I don't like
to gamble. I think it's just a stupid I'm not a gambler either.
But I do you know play video poker machines because I I know
that there are certain machines if you if you look at all the
odds, it's the funniest thing. video poker machines have a
variety of odds for the exact same game from machine to
machine to machine. And I don't know You know, I mean I guess
nobody ever looks at these odds because there are some machines
that essentially just take your money and there was published
right
and so it says right there you will lose at least 4% On every
every dime you put it that's what
though that's casino wide. But there are some machines that are
pretty close to break even on video poker. And if you know
what to look for, and this is you know the because they ended
up right on the screen. And people just ignore it but you
don't
have to go to Vegas for that you could go to your local 711 and
play video poker Ganesha.
Yeah, you could, okay. It's just a game I liked because I had
this. There's this computer programme called years ago
called video poker tutor. And
what that run on the Commodore 64 or something
close to it anyway, they would just keep beating you down until
you figured out how to you know what the strategy was because
the video poker is not poker. It's a you know, it's a
different game altogether. And there are and there's strategies
involved with what you hold and what you get rid of, if you want
to approach this breakeven point and then if you get lucky you
can you know walk away with some money and I tend to always walk
away with some money although I can't say I've made a fortune I
was going
to total earnings five bucks right on you know, I've been to
Vegas quite a bit I'm not a gambler. I just I really don't
care. I just doesn't interest me at all.
Well, there's a lot of interesting games I know it
doesn't interest me to any extent but I mean I was a few
years maybe 15 years ago used to play a lot of Craps and craps is
an interesting game because it again if you play it right
you're at a break you can pretty much breakeven at it and you can
maybe even make out in the deal in some casinos where they give
you a lot of free cognac you know to try to make it so you
just do they try to get your drinking so you screw up
well they also in any in Vegas, they have they have tonnes of of
courses you can take I did a couple documentaries in 90. I'm
gonna say 91 or 92 in Las Vegas. I did one No, I did three died.
They're all on YouTube. By the way. If you just search Adam
curry, you'll find that one is about the pawnshops. One is
about craps and roulette. So they actually you know, I went
to one of those courses where they teach you how to play and
the third one was the Las Vegas bike patrol. I went along and
rode with the bike patrol for a day which was pretty
interesting. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, you should take a look at
those I mean they're Dutch log them yeah blood there you go
baby. You can look at Adams really really big hair.
So anyway, the yeah They have a lot of courses and they're
actually pretty good. They try to teach you how to do things,
right, but they just assume that nobody really cares. Right? And
I think it's also some rationale when people when the gaming
licences come up to say, No, we try to teach the public the
exact, you know, aspects of the all the aspects of the game that
will help.
It's all to their benefit, you know, the I found the course
really good, they really gave you a lot of tips and tricks and
you know, really they try to help you win knowing full well
that the odds are stacked against you can win so I don't
know if it has anything to do with a gaming licence or
anything. I think they really just want to help you to get you
to go to the table spend money.
Yes, but But the one thing I find interesting about craps is
unlike all the other games in the casino, it's a social game,
where people win and lose as a group. Yeah, true. And it's a
it's really a different game because of that and it's
actually kind of interesting. But you know, again, it's when
you look at it, you know, even any of these things, even if you
can, you know, make a little money it's a time killer. I
mean, you take your hours to you know, get anywhere unless you're
throwing your massive amounts of money down. Yeah, that's
not for me, not for me. I see you there for CES I heard a
couple of your reports on tech five with a flat flat panel LCD
screens. I heard those reports what else what else did you do
at CES just kind of roam around and
say I didn't see them but me ces to me has always been a show
years ago when they had Comdex and computer guys would go there
that was different I mean, Comdex was was a whole different
vibe wasn't
it wasn't that different, but it was slightly different because
there wasn't as much junk. CES has a lot of junk, a lot of
weird stuff that is just like what is the what are these
people doing here? I mean, things for little. These little
mom and pop stores you find in urban areas where you you know
turn a corner and there's an Indian guy running this place
and he sells everything from toaster repair to skins for the
cell phone to cigarettes, punching, you know, lottery
tickets, you name it,
does that really pay for those guys to buy a booth at CES for
basically stuff that you buy in the mall?
I don't know they're there.
And they do they do the same thing that they do this by the
way, this is something I wanted to mention. It there is a new it
seems like a ship you know, you know these stalls in the mall.
They're everywhere. They're here in the UK, but in the States,
you know, there's little carts that kind of sit in the middle
of the walkway, right. And they sell everything from covers for
your cell phone to you know, the embroidered hats. exactly that
kind of stuff. But what has happened, I've noticed is that
when you now are walking through the mall, the vendors now come
up to you. And they say Excuse me, sir crash your question. And
you know, and it's usually women who are doing this and they
solicit you and it's really pissing me off. It's really
ruining my mall experience. Have you noticed that this is how you
know maybe you don't go to malls but it
was out obviously don't go as much as you do. But I go to
malls I have seen these things I usually go to when I travel. I
have never seen that in an American Mall. What you're
describing,
oh, I've been in two malls on my my most recent trips. It's like
a new thing that they use that just have this cute little. In
August, I went to the Rose Roosevelt field mall, I think is
what it's called. It's a huge, massive Mega Mall in where
that's upstate New York. Okay, sorry, not Well, yeah. Upstate,
not upstate, kind of upstate. And then the what's the one in
San Francisco? On market?
On market? Yeah, yeah, there's that one word Nordstroms is the
gallery
or whatever? Yeah, that's it. The gallery I think is what it's
called. Same thing. And you're just walking along, looking at
the shops left or right. And then the vendors like, Excuse
me, sir, can I ask you a question? It's like, no, fuck
off. Because I've said yes, of course, once. And then you know,
they drag you into this demonstration of some stupid
pride to just it's like, you know, trying to sell you
something, but it's a fence. I
don't think that I don't think that's allowed. Well, they're
doing it, man. I think it's, I think it's a plague. And I think
it's taken over. And
I mean, you might as well just have a bunch of guys in front of
all the stores, you know, like they do when Columbus Avenue in
the old days went to camera shop San Francisco. Yay, buddy.
Well, I don't like it. I will not freak out places that allow
that behaviour. Anyway, yeah, I
haven't seen it, but I can understand why it would be
annoying. But yeah, there's these carts I think tell the
people these carts are interesting. They become a
phenomenon all the malls have obviously there those are
released spaces. Yeah. And I guess they button up the card at
night. And it's kind of just a cheap, usually a cheap
operation. Yes.
And Patricia, she loves those guys. Because she'll be walking
through the mall, and the the should go to like the sunglasses
cart. And she now knows, she knows these. These vendors and
she knows that if you want the fake Gucci sunglasses, you gotta
like, you know, wink wink nudge nudge and then outcomes, the
special little draw that you can take a look at. So there are the
other hand, there's selling all kinds of contraband and shit
goods kidding me? Oh, man, absolutely. Patricia loves that.
She loves sunglasses,
take her to New York and take her down to Canal Street.
Oh, no, it will she dude can do of course, Canal Street just
changed now. Because, you know, they really cracked down on all
the fake handbags and everything. And so now you, what
they'll do is they'll come up to you and say, hey, you know, you
see this? Well, they've got some bedding, basically, you follow?
That's kind of creepy, because you follow them into as like
down an alleyway, turn left down three stairs, and then they've
got all the great stuff. And I am convinced, by the way 100%
That these are actual products. These are not knock offs. These
are the real deal that just you know, they're they're
abnormalities or, or just pumped out a different door the factory
I think it's exactly the same stuff as the as the $5,000
items.
But ya know, we've talked about this before, I think that I
think some of the items are indeed the same thing. I know
you get pretty much the kind of the over production stuff when
you're in Korea. There's a street in Korea that sells all
kinds of stuff. And it's and you look at it and you cannot see
you can't see the difference. Yeah, you can see the
difference.
I mean, maybe a little bit there's a stitching that's off
or something but you know, Patricia has made quite a study
of this because she really hates paying a lot of she used to be
married to a guy who was in clothing and all kinds of other
stuff like that. And she says you know it costs shit. You
know, she she says any of these you see a sweater a jack wills
or whatever, or Eddie Bauer and it's you know, $500 It costs
five fucking dollars to make she just can't bring herself to pay
you know to overpay for products like that. So she loves getting
knockoffs and she's also convinced that they are in fact
the real deal maybe just a small irregularity but undetectable.
It's all about how you wear it, you know?
Yeah, no, I think a lot of the fake stuff i i have a whole
bunch of of knockoff watches because during the heyday of
Canal Street, I was working, still wearing a PC Magazine, but
I used to go to New York a lot and so I collected a huge I have
a huge collection of some pretty cool ones. But what was the most
fascinating watch I collected, which I still use. They there
was a period of time where they were making perfect mulatos They
were generally speaking the knockoff guys and these
obviously were not really Movado says we're too thick. Yeah. But
the they would put a second hand on the watch.
Or you'd have you know, a fine, fine Swiss watch. And you could
see this sweeping quartz driven secondhand. Yeah, I was like,
Yeah, click click click. But anyway, somebody did. Movado
they did a search Movado is without the sweep second hand
they look just like mobiles. They had the right hands and
everything else are perfect. But then one one day I went there
and there was a silver on silver one, which was a Silver Case
silver background in silver hands with the Movado logo and
look like a Movado but the Movado is typically a gold and
black. Right not silver, silver and silver and so I bought that
thing and it looked and it's just and Movado has never made
this watch that looks like this. They just haven't done it. But
they should because it's really gorgeous. So you were so I would
wear that watch typically even though I don't wear a tuxedo all
the time it's a great tuxedo watch and it would be it would
always catch somebody's eye.
Do you do you wear different watches? I mean I have I have
probably I must have a collection of about 20 Different
watches but I keep wearing the same one. I don't like a
different thing around my wrist. I like the comfort of the one
that I'm used to you really change around a lot.
I don't wear I actually I stopped wearing watches maybe 10
years ago and I just use the cell phone like everybody else
for the time. But yeah, I would I would wear different watches I
had I would take some Rolexes for example and you fake Rolexes
especially the good ones with expensive sweet secondhand and
you match them up with some you if you were ever in Arizona or
someplace you match them up with some of these Indian bands and
you get some pretty good looking matches and you get a pretty
cool watch it people you know wonder where you got it?
Well I've worn the same watch basically for 20 years.
Guys that to watch that you do the one to cloth band that
you're wearing with the Velcro that one
yeah, right. That's the one that's the one John No, Patricia
gave me a gold Rolex about a year after we'd been together
which of course was a complete incentive for me to keep her
around and and I haven't taken it off. I mean, in fact, it's
really dirty. It should. It really should. It's it's
completely black on the on the inside of the band. And of
course, you know, the real Rolexes don't actually keep time
very well. You know that?
Yeah, that's the irony of it, I guess. Yeah, it is.
So what else happened in Vegas that saying well, that stay in
Vegas, as usual,
stayed at the MGM Grand. And I by the way, anyone go into the
Vegas when you're at these new hotels, which are all they have
a centrally located elevator shaft. Typically in the middle
of a star configuration. You when you check in always say
look, I want a room near the elevators. Because you won't get
a room. And you won't be able to find the elevators if you don't
ask for a room near it.
Know that you will find it because there's really just like
one long aisle that's a mile long toward the elevator shaft
which is in the middle. So it's a spoken hub kind of layout,
typically with these hotels, and the MGM Grand is the worst
because it's one of the biggest hotels in the world and you can
get a room it takes you five minutes to walk to the
elevators. So you get the old you know, you walk to the
elevator going, Oh, I forgot my you know, something, you gotta
go back up. And it's a mile long walk to the room and then a mile
long walk back,
I forgot the hooker I left in the room shit, and I gotta go
back.
So I mean, it's, so always ask for a room near the elevator
shaft and you know, they'll give you a room close in. And it's
really makes a huge difference because you can just, you know,
you step out of the room, you take five steps, you go to the
elevator shaft and you're down. But anyway, so I stayed there
and it's not a hotel I particularly like, but it's
okay. And they have a lot of nice restaurants. They turn
their restaurants over they have now Joel Robuchon has a
restaurant in there.
Now two of them. I'm actually not familiar with Joel.
Oh, yeah. He's one of the maybe the greatest chef in France. I
mean, there's three great chefs. There's the Aruba, Shan and
Savoie and Alan do Kos, who else has a place in New York, and
they all three of them now have restaurants in Las Vegas? Do
courses in Aruba, Shawn's being the best of the two and there's
a but you can't get in? You know, it's just impossible. So I
didn't get to eat there. So I was very disappointed.
Oh, that's a shame. Speaking of French just for a second. I
think. I think I made a comment about the French on the last
show. Yeah. And got a about them being lazy. I think which by the
way, a lot of people emailed me said you're being racist. And I
think I have to. Exactly people are very confused about what
racist is particularly in the UK, by the way. Mike Pinero,
who's in the UK says I work for a French firm and a factory.
Over here we get one hour for lunch, which for a factory is
generous. Our French counterparts who also work in a
factory get one and a half hours. They pop along to one of
the many places to eat nearby quaff a few glasses of vino
within a meal. 35 hour work week, all of August off. No
Yorkshire tea, no real beer. And now they can't smoke inside.
So he's complaining about what?
Well, he I think what he's saying is that it's true that
the French are just they got it easy man. As culturally,
culturally, they're lazy. Well, I
don't know. It's laziness or smart, dude. I mean, how about
sorry,
sir cosy. How about him dating Carla Bruni?
I'm telling you, as I said smart to
you know, this is this is about leveraging
the position in a public office
to vote he is so he's tapping that ass and it's a good thing
she was willing to. She was Didn't you have a child with
Mick Jagger? I mean, this is like this is like a serious babe
that's been passed around.
She must have some some particular skill that we're
familiar with. I can only imagine whatever the case I
mean, you know, yeah, I you know, I'm not gonna accuse the
front. I mean, the French were have a different way of working.
But the ones Yeah, less. Well, maybe quite less
doesn't really work is that we never hear about France. Is the
economy working? I mean, the only thing we hear about this is
more
striking. I fighting.
Their economy is always in the tank. Are you kidding me? Okay,
mom. No, no, I'm just asking. I really have no idea. I mean, you
just don't really hear about it.
You only if you went to Google right now and typed in fret
France and recession it would come up with a million hits.
Okay, let me try France in Google News and regular Google
just regular Google Okay, let's I think they're perpetually in a
recession.
Well, there's something to be said for that as well. I guess
when you're on the floor, yet does not did not fall to near
France escapes recession top hit from the BBC News. Sorry. Sorry,
they achieved a slight growth. Oh, I'm gonna get this. This is
the top hit on the new Google indexing system, by the way,
which indexes Oh, okay, this is May 20 2003. Hey, that new
algorithms really working?
Works great. The French
economy managed to grow slightly by 0.3% in the first three
months of the year that's made
2003 2003. All right, that's that's the one note of good news
for the French economy right there. You know, four years ago,
five years ago,
doesn't doesn't it? Let me see if there's something under news
that might be? Let's see, here comes the earnings recession.
Nothing about France. I'm telling you, you just don't read
a lot about it. Ah, yeah, they don't care
either. You know, the thing is, they don't listen to us. You can
be assured we have like, you know, the even with the like, I
do the twit thing with Leo, we have a big audience and I can
solicit anything I want around the world. And there'll be some
two or three guys will chime in, you know, I need to know the
best restaurant in Hamburg. And I get six emails with very
German guys who live in Hamburg. Right? Of course. You can do
anything you want about France and there's no French listening.
No,
that's not true. Because there's at least I have at least two
French listeners who yell consistently
on your on your daily source code. Yeah, and there's a
there's also doing it for 10 years.
It's the same two guys so that's all right. No, I did I like it.
I look. I actually really liked the French. I have no problem
with them. I'm just always amazed at you know, at how they
make the shit work over there.
They do it by having long lunches. I guess. They're trying
to kill off the long lunch and frankly, I think they're French
resists pretty well.
Well, this is what's our cosy is all about right he didn't he say
to the nation, look, we've got to we got to work harder. We got
to do more if we want to keep in stride isn't that more or less
his whole mess? That's what
he says but the talk is cheap. And then he runs off at the
bimbo?
Bimbo. John, it's I think she's she's got she's got you right
she's got talent. She she's got real talent.
So anyway, so stark codes. He's like, Yeah, big talker.
But just imagine, you know that they seem to be making a minor
deal. Oh, that's what it was. That's what I read. His ex wife
has published a book I think that came out yesterday. And and
she of course, you know, raked him over the coals for what
being a womaniser basically being French?
Yeah. He's more French than the French. Yeah. He's actually a
Hungarian or something. It
could be sir. Cosy. Yeah. Sounds right. Toe. Yeah. Tell me about
the the pinball Museum.
Yeah, we went to the pinball museum. So I'm coming into
Vegas, and I'm reading the South, I'm coming in on
Southwest. And I'm reading the magazine in there. And the the
flight was light, which is interesting and the course so
there's no middle seats. And so a big fat person sits in the
middle. It's always cracks me up. Divorce time I was on it,
when not to go into diversion here about fat people. But I'm,
you know, I'm not fat, but I'm a big guy. And I sort of one day I
was on one of these flights where you pick your own seat in
there, I saw a big fat guy sitting by the window and the
IOC was there. And so I decided to sit there and just you know,
kind of spread my shoulders and try to feel spread out and look
as big as I could. Trying to dissuade anyone from sitting
between two big guys.
Exactly. Please stay away. So
I thought that the the idea was good, and I swear to God,
probably the fattest woman I've ever seen on an aeroplane.
Hey, there's my people. My peeps are here. I gotta go sit in
between them.
That's the only logic because she pops himself down between
the two of us. He slammed up against the window. His face is
kind of against the thing. smooshed up against and I'm like
halfway in the attic. People keep banging in and walking
because we could barely sit there. And
of course, she took both armrests, right.
Yeah, but not with their arms. Oh, God, I got a visual. All
right. So this is always risky. So so we went down and so I'm
reading the magazine it talks about the
just museum this pinball museum on the address is 33303 3330
East Tropicana. For anybody in Vegas who wants to go check it
out. And it's this guy's had been collecting pinball machines
for I guess his whole life and he's got 800 of them in his
collection. 200 of them are in the pinball Museum at any given
time. And they're all you can play them all that the original
25 cent price for five balls or whatever. And even it has a one
off of them really wild machine that they produce that barley
prototype to have. And only one ever worked and he has it should
worth about 100,000 bucks, he thinks. And it's a wild machine.
It's like dimensional. It's got all kinds of playing fields.
It's ridiculous. He's got anyway, he's got all these
machines in there a lot of classes from the
30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s and 90s. And, and all the money that he
makes at the place after he pays for his overhead goes to
charity. It's all in many ways retired. And he just wants
everybody so he can't afford to advertise anything. So he's
getting a lot of publicity, but the pleasures he has, he's had
about 10 or 20 people in there playing away like crazy. It's
it's a great place to be like pinball machines him
Arnold that's his name right? Tim Arnold? Yeah. Tim Arnold.
Yeah, I'm looking at the website, which is pinball
museum.org That's pretty great.
Pinball museum.org. And we interviewed him for cranky geeks
and he you know, he's, he's in pinball nut. And he said the
enemy got a lot of complaints that like, you know, people join
when pinball maker left because nobody puts pinball machines in
gas stations or anyplace else anymore, because everything's
one by chains. And they won't you know, they don't like
pinball because of its CD history. They don't want loiter
in then they don't want anyone loitering right. There you go.
And so he knew he has a real interesting lament.
That's really quite sad, because it certainly when I was a kid,
both in the states and and in Europe as well. It was quite a
thing. You know, you'd go down to the, to the drugstore, or
whatever. And, you know, I think that I was kind of in between
the pinball and Pac Man. You know, that's when it kind of
went to video games. But you're right, you don't see him anymore
because they don't want loitering. But that was kind of
where you grew up. And we you know, you got your first smoke.
No, Emile that's
how you got started. So they use them in bowling alleys and
everyplace else I mean, then you'd play him there was always
fun and you know, it was anyway so he says the problem now is
maintaining them because the mechanics nobody makes the part
so you have to machine the part so you have to scavenge things
from other you know, other systems and he's been buying
apparently, motors from old blenders seems to work in
certain machines. And so anyway, but it's a labour of love and I
you know, recommend anyone that go past through Las Vegas is one
of the more interesting places in the country to visit.
Oh, check this 01010808 John C. Dvorak. Cranky. geeks.com takes
a timeout from 2000 CES show in Las Vegas to visit the pinball
Hall of Fame. It's episode number 98. You're on motion?
Yeah, you're on their news page dude. Fantastic.
cross promotion the name of the game and even better
than that, it's it says on first of January spirit magazine,
which is what you read Southwest Airlines article about Las Vegas
pinball Hall of Fame. article titled shear play to mean
pinball. God the net is cool.
So yeah, that's why we like it.
That internet thing is that rocks guy
so anyway, anyone out there who's visited Vegas I you know
get off the beaten path get a car get a cab or go out to you
know 33 Three East Tropicana and check it out. On the way back I
took a came back in a private aeroplane. And oh, what who
drivers? Yeah, horse cool.
What does he what kind of plane
Well, it's the you know, he's part of you know, he's it's like
it's like a like a net jets thing. Yeah, it's like good.
This one was a hawker 800
Oh, it's a nice plane man.
That is a nice plane. Although you know be I've been in the
beach jets and the beach jets are really nice. Even though
they're small they are there's just a features inside the plane
are just really cool.
Well, the Hawker is you can stand up straight in the Hawker
Can't you?
Yeah, you can get pre I bumped my head. I think it's under six
foot. It's not like a challenge or anything where you can
wander around so the 800 Ryan right at the Challenger that's
that's an amazing or the I've been in a G five god. Yeah, the
G five is the class act.
Although, although I'd rather honestly just all things being
equal. I'd rather have a challenger than than a G five.
You know, you're on your way out if you can afford one. It's the
part that most most of these Yeah, but see, most of these
people don't realise you know, these private jets are mostly
now all shared. Yeah. I mean, there's a few guys left that
have their own. I mean, the Google boys have a couple of
jets had dedicated to them and
as some of the bay Pay Pal guys have jets to
right pad that Paul Allen's got a jet 757 Raylene
has a G five, cool Ray lane. So does he. He's got a G five and I
rode with him. I went, we took his G five when they launched
the Tesla. That electric sports car Hey, they
had it okay to change the topic, they had a Tesla to show that
identifier I got to look at one up close and personal. It's a
little loaded. Battery. Yeah.
With the fucking DISA No, this is what's so funny, because so
it was me it was Ron and Marta, Ron's wife, and Ray and we took
his G five down to LA. And what was really funny on the landing
because he I was sitting in the I went upside with the pilots on
the jump seat. Of course, you know, one that was cool, you
don't sit in the cockpit. And they were in the back drinkin.
And when they landed, one of the breaks jammed. So they landed
actually we like think like the right or maybe even both rear
brakes, essentially engaged to the nosewheel slammed down. I
mean, it was I was strapped in with a five point harness and I
was thrown like the whole chair really moved forward. That's how
how heavy it was. And Ray Lane who was in the back of course,
you know, Mr. Big VC, I'm not going to buckle my seatbelt. He
he flew out of his seat across the seat into martyrs lap on
this landing. Yeah, it was very fucked up. And but you know, for
pilots, it's like, that was like really embarrassing. You know,
yeah. When, when, you know, when you've got a pilot as a guest on
board, and you know, of course, you're jet jockey. So you're,
you're showing off, right? And you really fuck it up. Anyway,
so the launch was at, at the airport, it was, I think it was
he was Burbank. And so they rented out of a hangar. And
essentially, they had a little circuit and then you know, you
saw you in the middle of the hangar was the party. And then
they had a circuit around this party. And that went outside and
then back into the hangar. So it was it was kind of cool. You
know, it was like, like your own Matchbox set or hot wheels that
you had set up on the really big. And you could buy one right
then and there. And they had a big screen up and it would show
you know the names of people who had pre ordered one. So of
course, you know, you look at Larry, Sergey. And then there's
a pop Ray lane. And to date, no one has still has has received
well, this is 2006 they Yeah, they can't deliver these fucking
Well, you know, when I see these kinds of promotions, and I see
all the Silicon Valley gets for some unusual actually, they all
get on the same bandwagon because the weight is down
there. Because it's like something's either cool about
it. You know, it's electric. And it's really fast. And you know,
there's all these different kinds of things that make it so
great.
Yeah, but it's still in Lotus with a de sel. Looking at this,
I'm looking because I I think I saw one on the road like a
couple of years ago that was being test driven down in
Southern California. And I couldn't figure it out. But I do
remember the logo. So when I saw the logo later, I said, Oh, I
saw one of these these things. These Tesla's a tee. Anyway, so
I was looking at this thing, it's really cramped inside. In
fact, somebody was telling me that one of their friends was
six, six bought one, there's no way he's ever gonna weigh in no
way. And but everybody in the valley is on the waiting list.
And it's a big deal to have, you know, to be on the waiting list
of this thing. And I'm thinking these guys have got way too much
money, they can just throw it around, and to get a get what I
consider to be a gimmick vehicle. And yeah, it'd be cool
if it works and if they ever ship it for a while until
somebody gets rammed by someone else. Or the car flips I mean, I
just the whole thing is just to get a Lexus for God's sake. So
it is it is indeed it is a lotus body. I mean it literally you
know that I don't know if they take the emblem off but it's a
lotus body and it is fast. I think it does zero to 60 in
under four seconds just didn't you that amazing torque that it
has. But the problem motor but the problem they're having is
the battery. And I heard I'm sure you've heard of or seen the
movie Who Killed the Electric car
you know, I don't know if I have maybe
you will look a look it up on Google Video. I'm sure they I'm
sure someone's illegally uploaded it. Thank goodness. But
it's about that. There was an electric car that they handed
out to celebrities in the car I want to say 80s 90 Something
like that. General Motors car. Yeah, that's the one exactly.
And but no one has a cool looking car by the way. Yeah,
but no one was allowed to buy it. You couldn't actually buy
the car and then they took them out that destroyed them all.
Yeah, they took them all out. I cannot what I've understood is
that I guess GM or some some, some company owns a patent to
the battery technology that is necessary that actually would
make this all work. And that they are for obvious reasons and
reasons. I've purposely not allowed anyone to do anything
with that patent. But that that's really the problem.
Everyone's struggling trying to work around this patent to come
up with a better battery technology. Do you know anything
about this?
It sounds like a crock.
I don't know. I mean, batteries, General Motors is gonna bring
out another electric car. It's my understanding. They put all
this I mean, I think there's too much emphasis on the hydrogen
cars, for example. And I think that that's the real issue and
what's and if they're going to be promoting all these other
sort of alternative systems, there's no reason for him to
like, kill the electric car for some unknown reason. Well, not
now.
I think now, now, now, now, people are interested, there's a
market for it. And we know, everyone knows they have to
change, you know, but 2010, you know, 1015 20 years ago, they
had every reason to not want people to get into electric. And
I think that now they will get into it. And what do you mean,
about the hydrogen, you don't think that's going to work? So
there's
no, it's just a joke. You know, somebody should talk to, you
know, I got to read the riot act by some guys from an office
Eriko, or one of these gas companies, you know, these
companies that sell gas, you know, in canisters, and they
said this, you can't get enough energy out of hydrogen to make
it worthwhile. And you'd have to compress so much of it right now
they got the tanks up to and I kept up with this, by the way I
go to the General Motors that they have sessions are all over
the country where they have all these hydrogen cars, I've driven
a bunch of them. And besides the fact that they make a screeching
sound when you accelerate drive you crazy. But anyway, I mean,
because of the the sound of the hydrogen going through the
membrane, the technologies from this from the 60s or earlier,
because that membrane is it, they can't seem to make a
breakthrough on that. They can't get enough energy out of the
gas, because the gas is low energy, actually, believe it or
not. And so you have to compress a tonne of it there. Now they've
gotten to tanks to get last time I looked, they had the tanks, so
they were 10,000 pounds per square inch tanks, which I can
imagine one of those things breaking open. And they still
can't get the things to go more than 300 miles or so. And they
know that there's a there's a magic number I forgot. I think
it's 350. Or there's some number they and I think there's the
same problem with the electric car, the car manufacturers and
by the way that Tesla has this problem. The car manufacturers
that have a magic number, if the car cannot go this far on one
tank, then it's not commercially viable because people won't put
up with it. And there's a minimum number of miles you can
go and they can't get to that mileage with the hydrogen car.
And even if they did, the car is going to be extremely expensive
because that entire mechanism that they use to propel the car
is just expensive, but everybody is on this bandwagon. So I've
driven the Honda's, I've driven the hot I've been in a Honda
hydrogen, Toyota has got one I've been in that had been in
the forage general where everybody's got one. And there's
a couple of trucks and there I think there's a bus or two out
there and I haven't driven the bus. But I've driven these
things around and they're they have a funny kind of a
performance curve. I don't think they're I don't think they have
any appeal.
There's a couple of people sent me a link earlier this week to
something called the air car. Which looks a little bit like a
like a an even cheaper looking smart car. More plastic more
plastic looking by the way I love some I love smart cars one
but it has a compressed air and and so it's a hybrid so it uses
fossil fuel to kind of like an electric hybrid, but they
compress air and then use that
interesting Hey, that car blows
what a slogan
Yeah, so you know the problem and if you talk to these guys
who are honest about it, and people don't realise that
gasoline there isn't gasoline there's gasoline cars out there
know why they're so popular is gasoline per pound has more
energy in it just built into the molecular structure than any
other substance we can come up with. And so it's it's a very
it's already a kind of a compressed form of energy. And
that's why gasoline cars you know, are what they are right.
Well so anyway, so I obviously you know, sound like an old
fuddy duddy here, but you know, and I do like VAT. What can I
say? I remember my
back and I'm caring about cars. I just don't give a shit
anymore.
Yeah, well, you're in England. Why would you? So?
Well, this is the land of motoring. Mind you? The lay of
the land of Top Gear. I mean, I really enjoy watching Top Gear.
But you know, so I'll see them do a review of like the new Audi
I've always been kind of an Audi guy. And you know that new AR
eight or whatever it is. Sports sports car,
I guess Yeah, everything's supposed to be a rocket
it borders on supercar status, I believe. And then it's quite
it's quite affordable actually as supercars go. But yeah, so
they had one at the airport, and I go take a look at it and I
just like I really don't give a shit. I don't actually want to
sit in the car going anywhere. You know, it'll this will look
nice.
But your views on to the point where you you need to be
chauffeured.
Yeah. And as long as it's comfortable in the back, it's
fine. In fact, I'm the guy that when in fact have to go with
Patricia and like, a couple minutes after we're done. You
gotta go shopping. Because she can't really do anything she can
only command me is what to do. But normally I'd say will you
please drive? I don't even want to let my wife drive. I really
don't care.
Yeah, well, you know, that's what happens when you get to a
certain point.
I told everyone in the source code about Patricia's
appendectomy, by the way, so
yeah, she's okay, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're about it?
Well, I'm very irked about it, because, you know, she was
essentially misdiagnosed by multiple doctors, multiple
hospitals, multiple tests. And, you know, because I guess, you
know, by not diagnosing appendicitis. That's a
misdiagnosis. I would think. And I I'm sure that there's no
recourse. I'm sure they wouldn't be in this country. Really.
But that you know, I'm against that I'm really look, first of
all, when, you know, so people make mistakes, people fuck up.
Now, that's possible. But I'd like to know about it. And I'd
like someone to cop to it. You know, I'm really against that
culture of, you know, something bad happened, someone died.
Let's sue for millions. It just, I don't I don't agree with it.
It doesn't really solve
the way we operate. It doesn't solve anything, but it it makes
it it keeps cash flow. Would you do it? Yeah, probably. I tend to
be I tend to be slightly litigious,
really, is the only things I've sued for have been. I
countersued MTV when they sued me for for mtv.com. And I sued
the Dutch tabloid when they stole my picture off of Flickr,
under the Creative Commons licence. And, and both times it
was kind of a trivial that's a kind of an interesting lawsuit.
You're saying you're not as sued happy?
Well, but that was, that was a principal. But that was a real
principal issue there. Because I had my I had pictured private
pictures on Flickr. And I had the permissions of the Creative
Commons copyright licence set, you know, to no derivatives, and
non commercial use or whatever. And attribution, something like
that, but certainly no commercial use. And they, you
know, took those pictures. Printing did like a six page
spread, including part of the cover. And then they said, Well,
we have every right you put them up there on that site, and, and
it even had a download button. And that was an argument like, I
got to take these guys to court, I just have to, and now that
that case is actually is used as jurisprudence now for the
Creative Commons copyright, I'm quite proud of that one.
Good, because I would have done the same thing. I just wouldn't
have said what you said earlier. Now, let's go back to that suit.
What did you get out of it?
Well, what I sued him for. When I sue him for I think it was
like, you have to take every single copy off the shelves and
pay me 20,000. Now while we evaluate, like outrageous
claims, obviously, you know, as as one does, and what the so the
judge? Because yeah, there's no there's no jury system in the
Netherlands, it's professional judges. And so basically, they
call the shots, which is really fucked up. You know, and this
woman clearly did not have an in depth understanding of Creative
Commons, she who was the judge. So this would have the the, the
outcome of the trial was I got no damages. However, the
magazine had operated illegally, they're not allowed to do that.
And the next time they do it, they would have to pay a 2000
euro fine for each picture. They stole basically setting a price
to break the law. But at least, you know, they they upheld the
Creative Commons copyright.
You didn't get any money. 00 That stinks.
In fact, I had to pay my own court costs, obviously. And
I did the public service, but you know, somebody goes,
Hey, but I remember with mtv.com when they sued me for the domain
name, I contacted. In fact, that was around the same time that I
met you the first time John, when CNET was seen that
television was just starting All right. And John Perry Barlow,
and I spoke to him and I said, dude, here's what's going on you
can eff helped me. And he said, No. And I was so disappointed.
I've always hated the EFF since then. Absolutely no desire to
help me whatsoever. But this is a fundamental issue. You know,
they gave me permission to use this. And now they're suing me
to take it away. You know, that's fundamental. This is a
big deal. This domain name stuff, I think there's something
to it. And they just fucking flatly turned me down.
Well, they, you know, turned down a lot of their cases. I
never could figure it out. Why, why I never could figure out
what the selection process is with those guys.
Exactly. So that cost me a lot of money. But the outcome at the
end was good. What was it? The lawsuit between MTV Networks and
Mr. Curry has been settled out of court. Neither party has any
further comment.
So you got some cash from him, then? Good. Luck. Yeah, guess.
Right.
It's been settled out of court. Neither party has any further
comment.
Is it in there that if you said something, you'd have to give
him the money back?
I could look at it. But that that, you know, the whole, no
disparaging, and we literally negotiated that. That's why I
know the line.
Yeah, that's what that's the way it always works. Yeah, we
negotiate as part of the deal. Yeah, that means they pay too
much money. And the part of the deal is you can start bad
mouthing them.
The lawsuit between MTV Networks and Adam Korean settled out of
court, Neither party has any further comment. No, it was. The
whole thing was the only reason if they had just fucking asked
me if they asked me, if they just said, Hey, you know what,
man? You left, and you're starting your own company and
everything, you know, can we just have the domain name back?
And you know, and I would have said, Could I please keep
adam@mtv.com? That's the only thing I would have asked for.
And, of course, I tried to negotiate that into the
settlement but wasn't able to get it. But they asked me that
that would be the only thing man is there was so nobody
ever does that. They just you know, they get they make
demands. It's weird. Yeah. The funny thing is nowadays, if it
was today that this whole thing happened, you would wouldn't
even have had a hearing the icon people or somebody would have
just taken the domain away from me.
That's right. Yeah, just shut shut me down right there.
Exactly. Exactly. And that is kind of weird.
The system is now set up. So copyright holders and people
with brand names have actually have rights to anybody like you
who happen to be have one of their brand names as a domain
name when you don't really own the brand.
I'm still waiting for someone to eventually come up and say that
curry.com We need to take that away from you. I fully expect
someone to try that.
Yeah, some curried guy from India. Well, no, you have
curries here, the Bombay go to company, we need your domain
name.
We're gonna do Indian accents. Now, John, when we have a
lecture today, it will be much better.
Don't get me started on my Indian accent. You know, I've
always said that that's going to be the prime that is probably
the most popular accent in the world. And people don't do so.
Well. You You're ridiculing the Indians with that accent and no,
I'm not. I'm, I'm giving their their I mean, they're the ones
who have the probably, for all the English speaking peoples.
There's more people that speak like that. Yeah. And by
the way, I'm honouring and by the way, it's totally cool to do
a white guy or, or like a typical American, and, you know,
our southern guy talks like this, you know, redneck guy, you
know, that's okay.
You know, can we all do this thing your big brother started
over here, it started up again, and but it's all messed up. Now
they have a different host. And it's a for some reason, that
just not positioning it the way they used to. And they've
changed it. So that's the you know, you have celebrities who
are playing big brother, and I just can't get into it. And so
but there was a lot of controversy in the previous Big
Brother series, particularly one of the celebrity ones because of
racist remarks. And but I mean, like, really, you know, in this,
this went all the way to Parliament. And, and it's crazy,
John, it's, it's like, people just can't call each other a
name anymore. You know, the way people do because this is the
whole point of Big Brother is particularly with, you know,
people just lose track of the fact that they're being watched
the whole time, and they become themselves and they speak the
way they speak when you're not hearing them speak in public.
And shit slips out amongst each other, you know, and it was a
Pakistani girl, and I think, oh, no, she was Indian. But I don't
remember it was so stupid. I don't remember what it was. But
it was the equivalent of saying, you know, you Paki bitch or
something like that is irrelevant. It was just like,
you know, they were yelling at each other and they were saying
nasty shit back and forth. And this whole racist thing is just
the political correctness that has gone away a bit is still
really lurking pretty heavily See what you can call people you
know, it's like, get take a, you know, take a chill pill,
you can always call them you know, just the old generic
things like, asshole. Now, let's get back to this, you just
brought up something that's interesting to me. When did the
you know these these reality shows which by the way, even
Mark Burnett who's the guy who essentially invented the genre
likes to call them unscripted drama.
I disagree. I think animals start really, really was the
first one.
He's the one who popularised it with survivor that in the United
States anyway, ya know, the English will probably did it
first. No, no, but he's gonna want to talk to a new level. And
his new level was a dis unscripted drama, which means
that you put a bunch of people in a room and then you actually,
you don't have writers, but yet you do. But you have, you have
scenarios and you say, Hey, here's what I want you to do. I
want you to throw a wine, a glass of wine in the guy's face,
and then leave him and you know, get ready, shoot, you know, and
then they do a bunch of ad libs. You know, essentially, the
people on the show are writing the show. And then they said,
Let's try something else. It's dropping an atom. And then you
know, the whole thing is a is a fake show. They have the and
everything's pre pre done. I mean, there's no reality here.
It's just a bunch of amateur actors. And,
and just, just to be honest, a lot of those shows, it's still
the editing that really, really makes it work. Because if you if
you literally did it the way you just said it would be
unwatchable. So watch out.
Right, you have to do a lot of post production. So all the
money goes into that now. Now, let's go back to this question
that came to mind when you were discussing this other thing.
When did the reality show because originally, the reality
shows I remember the first I think was the bachelor. And they
had in it after the whole show was over, you found out that the
guy was an actor and a woman that one was an actress Adele
was not successful and and at some point, they switched gears
and they decided why do we why are we getting these amateurs?
Why don't we get real celebrities and put them in
awkward situations. In other words, that's fine. Some major
has bends, or wannabes that are slightly on the edge of, you
know, success, you know, Guy skating stars, and people like
that, and put them in our in our house. And we'll shoot it and
and the heck with just to having, you know, members of the
public audition for this sort of thing. Let's just go with the
celebrity thing and see if people are fascinated by it.
When did that change? And when did that happen? Have you been
fine? Because I know you did one of these shows, and you're kind
of like a celebrity.
So you're absolutely right. And, you know, it used to be game
shows, and you'd have the same typing like panelbase game
shows, you'd have the same type of, I call them D liberties. So
you know, a rung lower than a celebrity. And you know, and
they'd sit on panels and sometimes it you know, some
something could break out. But I think it really just carried
over into this new format. The big secret about show business,
which I think by now or certainly the television
business, we've all kind of figured out everyone I mean, I
come from this industry so I know that really there's very
few people making a lot of money outside of the corporations you
know, people who present the news you know, the anchor with
varying degrees obviously when you look at like the top
networks bought but that's only like three or four jobs that
really pay a lot of money of all the people you see on
television, and most of them are really just fucking struggling
to get by because you just get paid shit money and it's like
MTV people work their non union for absolute total fucking crap
money. Almost you on the below the the starvation line for New
York City, just because you wanted to be a part of it. And
you and everyone in those industries is taken advantage of
in that way. Unless you know you've you've been able to get
get basically on that rung, right. The and by the way, being
a VJ is pretty much the lowest rung of the showbiz ladder, you
just hold on by your fingernails. Before you actually
get anywhere and everyone is there, everyone's looking to
climb up. And this is why there's so manipulable first of
all, that's you know, that's why it's so easy for news
organisations to beat the output to be controlled by just putting
some sprinkling something at the top, because everyone is a
subordinate to someone else, and they just will do anything,
including sucking someone's dick to get one level higher because
it is literally power control and money. And that's what
everyone is doing. So you have show business and you're right.
Because there's so much access so many channels for people to
appear on. People are becoming famous just for being on the
television, even if they don't actually do anything. Or they
did one outrageous thing like they did a sex tape and then and
they're an heiress, you know and you can build an entire career
and brand out of that. So you It's an industry that you can
play. And it's, it's it's the entry. So you rarely will ever
see a top top notch celebrity. But in your mind, you may think
that the people who are appearing on some of these shows
are wow, you know, why would that guy be doing that? You
know, does he need the money? Well, the answer is, yes, they
need the fucking money. They need the exposure, because
that's how the entire system works. Now, but to say that it
really started with one thing. You know, I did my own media
hacking after I saw what happened with the Osborne's, you
know, and that's been going on for a while. That was 2003 I
think. Something like 2002 Actually, when they did that guy
who, who produced the Osborne's reality show, was an associate
producer on the headbangers ball, Greg Johnson. I knew the
guy really well. And it was like, What a brilliant idea
because he basically knew Ozzy you know, and Ozzy was all
fucked up and, and it was, it was a great, you know, you he
was struggling need something needed to happen. And, you know,
basically, they didn't MTV just took advantage of a strong out,
you know, drunk Rockstar in his 50s. And their family because
it's cheap as programming. I mean, this it really is the
there's no brilliance to it. itself. What is the longest
running show in American history at this moment? Do you know what
that is? What America's Funniest Home Videos, it's the same
fucking thing. We love watching that. It's the same thing. Hey,
don't even pay for those videos. It's weird.
No, no the day and they become their property even, you know,
it's like, it's not even yours anymore. So when when I when
they asked me to do a reality show about my family unlike?
Yeah, absolutely. This will be great, because I did the whole
thing on Final Cut Pro and FireWire drives. I had one
cameraman I did second camera. And I had a girl who was you
know, edit, really putting the show together, she had all the
posts, you know, and she was so good that, you know, I could
basically just give all the material to her and she'd put it
together and then I'd take a look at it and I know it would
work and I even did the subtitle translations myself. And it was
it was a fantastic project. And although everything you saw
happened and it wasn't acted, you know, we really made it into
a fun show to watch you know, just really well post produced
and your great soundtrack, you know, so we turned it into it
you know, something really a cool fucking edit, you know, but
it really happened. It's just the show was really all the
other bits that pulled it together was just a product so
so can you stop the tape for one second?
The tape? Yes. All right. Okay, no problem. quick phone call.
Anyway, so I got my thank you for well making Maggie wait on
the phone while I did my rant there. He's still there. Yeah,
can you hear me? Hello? Hello. Hello. Do you hear me?
Yeah. When you call
a go. They went into hibernation or something? Yeah, went
into hibernation screen blank sad. did by the way, this isn't
worth discussing. It's always fascinated me. So we have these
Windows machines and you're doing something like a download
or you're doing something like the Skype that we're doing and
then the machine goes to sleep goes to sleep because you're not
touching the keyboard. Yeah. Doesn't it know that there's
activity and the ports going in and out and maybe you know it
shouldn't be just shutting itself off? I'm
you know, I'm sure that that there's an API in in Windows
that the application probably has to speak to to say you know
paying I'm still alive don't shut down and it's probably just
developers who just
know you're probably right but nobody puts it in. Well, you
know, the headphones I use for this show and all my other
shows. No, which are just barely falling apart. There are some
Pan Am headphones from an aeroplane in the 60s. Made by T
Q trade Ltd.
Take a picture man you got a blog a picture of them.
They sound great. My daughter gives me nothing but grief about
it. Which is why he isn't those cheap aeroplane headphones. You
know why? So because they're from Pan Am. You know, and they
have like a metal thing. They're not like the plastic junk ones
that we have today.
I don't have junk ones, dude. Oh, you mean on the aeroplane
headphones?
Yeah, the free ones. The free ones that you you would you
know, Virgin Atlantic has great headphones. Well, I've
seen it been on a couple planes that have great headphones, but
it's pretty rare and noise cancelling everything. Really on
Virgin? Really? Yeah, they gotta like electronically noise
cancelling. You can turn the noise cancelling on or off now I
use the sony MDR V six hundreds. I've used them for a long time.
Yeah, those are okay. I use a couple of courses usually
and As you know, we used to back in back in the days of the radio
everybody, come on clamp up on money, Johnny, I'll tell you the
story. We used Clark helicopter headsets. Well, Dick Clark
helicopter headsets and so you take off the the mouthpiece but
you basically put a new sound guys didn't put in, put new
elements in, you know, the different speakers, you could
just use the ones that were that it came with, because they
really close around your ear. So you wouldn't get any feedback
through the mic. When you were listening to your because you
know, you had the mixed signal on your head, right? You hear
yourself right,
you could modulate it was for Module people for modulating
your voice. Yeah,
like that. And then and then I have another pair, this is a one
of these another EKGs. And when you take the EKGs off, they cut
off, which is pretty cool. So you don't have to turn them down
if you if you have a pair laying around. That could be there
could produce feedback. So the minute you take them off your
head, then they just cut off, which is nice.
But the most interesting ones I have is I have a pair of costs
electro stats. Yep. Nice. That came out in the 70s or 80s. It's
like two electrostatic elements inside extremely high resolution
that very nice ribbon right? Is no electrostatic is not red
ribbons, I think a different technology electrostatics or
these, these these plates that sit on top of each other and
somehow produce sound I'm not sure
I thought that was what because I know a guy who had two of
those huge ribbon speakers that really flat and they've you
know, strips of ribbon down the front of like a ribbon.
We need a speaker expert to send us a note explaining the history
in river ribbon and electrostatic
and don't think by the way that a million people have already
sent us the link.
Right? The probably one guy will do it thinking that somebody
else did it. So you have more stuff on by and large.
I just forwarded you the email I didn't take a look at I'm I'm
already not caring anymore. Sorry.
I like themes. I like things.
That's why I sent you the email. You gotta go you should be
prepared. You come to the show without any notes.
It pretty much
I got I got a question for you. We gotta wrap this up. It's an
hour people get fucking bored. I promise comic strip blogger by
the way. Did you hear the yo agenda show?
Yeah, it's two guys. I mean, the two guys just talking to each
other, you can barely understand them. They're both from, you
know, east, or
Dutch and he lives in Finland and comic strip. Boger is Polish
and lives in Germany.
Well, whatever. They both sound like they live someplace, you
know, in a garbage dump. Whatever the case, the day, they
have, like, their contribution as well. You know, these two
guys are talking and, you know, they don't have much to say and
I think this show needs to get needs work. Yeah. That's what
I'm like, you know, they think that we just aren't really that
good.
They think we suck. And they think that I'm just kissing your
ass because you're the boss of this company pod show.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah. When I'm kissing ass, it's pretty obvious. And this ain't
it.
So I've always wondered about your name? Dvorak? Yeah.
Devorah. Yeah. DeVore at the origin. And and obviously, is
there any relevance to the Devora? Keyboard?
Well, none that I know of I one time I said that there was a you
know that the Vortech was August Dvorak, as a matter of fact, the
University of Washington did the keyboard in the mid 30s. You
know, based on theory, and I don't think there's any
relationship there. Most of the divorce acts came from a bunch
of checks that moved to the country, including the famous
divorce jock, the composer who lived in the US for a while, and
I guess he sired a lot of people. And
you're part of his demon seed. You're an officer. Well,
I have a I have a one octave plus one key range on my hand,
if that means anything. No, I can hit like it. I finally got a
big, you know, some, some really stretch, right? Okay. Yeah, I
can get the guy can do over the over an octave. And on a piano.
And, guys, I like to say that, yeah, I'd like to say yeah,
there's some relationship because it's good for the
reputation, but they have no documentation to
prove it. Have you ever tried to Devorah keyboard?
Yeah, they stink. That's the GI have I looked at I mean, I mean,
it's an interesting idea. But if you're going to dedicate
yourself to Dvorak keyboard, you can't do what I do, which is
roam around and, you know, can I use your machine, you know, and
then you try, you know, I'm like a slow typer anyway, because I
kind of plod along, and especially I get on a European
keyboard. It's like you got to just almost stop because there's
just enough keys change,
like this Zed and The queue, and there's
a candidate some blood, all the punctuation marks are moved
around places. Yep,
punctuation moves from the number, like three or two key to
somewhere above the the apostrophe is pretty much so
you look like a complete Americans. European keyword, you
look like you don't even know how to type. Go, what the hell
is it? Yeah, exactly. Then that's the way I feel when I'm
on a Devora keyboard. I mean, just not usable. Yeah.
But there's got to be a better way. There's got to be better
inputs, someone's gonna
be able to just say what we want, and it should type.
Where's the automatic typewriter? They had one in a
Star Trek show back in the turn. 60.
It turns out that it's pretty complicated.
too complicated to do. Yeah. Yeah. Promises, Promises,
promises. We've been promised all these things with these
computers, and they don't deliver much except
spreadsheets, which,
which leads me to believe that, you know, there is someone's
going to come up with something, there's going to be some new way
to do it. You know, someone's going to figure it out. There's
got to be an alternative path. This one is dead. There's just
no way.
Yeah, well, although you have to say, you know, like, my son is a
good example. I think my daughter is going to end up this
way too. And my son's one of those. I don't know what he's
hitting. But it's like 160 words a minute or something. And you
see these kids do that. humbling. It's like, ripping,
ripping through this stuff. And then two or three backspace is,
of course, the
daughter's the same way.
And then it just another screaming laughs
Yeah, I know. It's unbelievable. And it's all on Facebook. That's
all. That's pretty amazing. I have gotten my daughter to take
off her address and her phone number. And I've warned her
about a couple things as it you know, you know, these kids they,
they believe it right? They totally she's, you know,
Facebook is safe, man. Because you can set your settings. Look,
I'll show is it not? I know, but how about fucking Facebook? What
are those guys doing?
And and you don't want to put any real details on it. You lie?
No. And well, you know, she's like, you know, Facebook is so
smart. Because, you know, she works part time, you know, like,
after school job and on the weekends at at a clothing store
to real hot, you know, one of those Jack wills, which is real
high end shit. And of course, they just have beautiful kids
roaming around helping people buy stuff, and it's a great
concept. And she's, you know, our manager, put together a
Facebook group for so that, you know, we all know our times when
we have to be there. And yeah, it really is. It's a you know,
it's kind of like the new AOL for them or the, you know, the
new whatever. Yeah, it's all the same stuff. It's all it's all a
new version of what's always existed.
Yeah, pretty much,
you know, just like AOL, you know, and then that became the
internet. And now this is this, and it'll become the internet
again, and it'll open up and
ya know, I think there's a lot of kids that, you know, that
aren't security conscious. Oh, no,
no idea. No, absolutely not. And they give each other their own
their passwords all the time. That's a big cultural thing, you
know?
Yeah. And the worst part about the problem with passwords, or
why don't like given a mouse, even when I'm alone. One is that
I have multiple uses. I have about six passwords. Yeah. And I
use them over and over again, in different venues, like almost
all my ecommerce stuff, if I'm like, doing anything that has to
do with the blog, I use the same password for all of it.
You know, just just you saying that right now, is already a
security risk.
Yeah, I shouldn't even mention, although I think anyone who's
really into like hacking people know that this goes on. In fact,
I've always believed that I'm no and I worry about this things
that I would consider to be honey pots. In other words, I
set up a site I said, once you know, join the site, and I have
to offer him something like give you a free something or other.
And then you say in yours, set your name. What do you want to
call yourself? Give yourself a password, that password I bet
that person uses more than there and if I was like running the
site, I could I could harvest those passwords. And then you
know, kind of find the IP address of the person you got to
who they are, use their password and crack half their accounts.
Yep. That's right.
So I usually I mean, my most secure of the secure I do have
an extremely secure password that I use occasionally. But I
only rarely use it and it's only for stuff that I would really
worry about. But generally speaking, you
know, you're in as it's
a long it's complicated. You know, it's not a password that I
don't like use it because it's just just, it's tedious.
Right? I really liked the I have two different bank, online banks
or banks I can access online and I really love the challenge
stirring thing you know, you get a little reader and you punch in
your code and then it gives you a challenge string and the field
ID and I like that. I wish all sides did it like that. Why
don't you tell you about a CAPTCHA? No, no,
no, it's a physical device. And you have to insert your bank
card into the device. Oh, and then so in order to log into
your bank account, and basically, you know, you're in
need transferring money, then so you have to enter your PIN code.
And then it gives you some, you'll have to enter a code from
the site. And then it gives you a challenge string back and some
a, you know, based on some other whatever, but it essentially, it
pretty much is assures that you're the one that's doing it,
you know, and it's nothing to remember. It's just Oh, the only
thing I remember is my PIN code. Cool. Yeah, I you know, I wish
everyone did it that way. That would be just the way to do it.
I think.
Well, there's you know, there's there's a lot to be desired with
the security in these systems. But yeah. So I guess that's it
for this week.
It should be an hour and 10 minutes, I wonder.
I'm sure you can pull 10 minutes out of it. I'm not gonna pull
anything out of it. You crazy. You're gonna pull it okay. Oh,
that's you want to be that way? What's the faster this down to a
fantastic 10 minute show?
The numbers are still going up, though.
John. Are they? What is their numbers?
I think we do like them. We'd like 10,000 An episode.
Really? That's not bad. No, not at all. In a real in a real
sense. That shouldn't be worth $10,000.
No, it would be 10 CPMs. A CPM being about 25 bucks.
Yeah, that's a that's a CPM for one ad, but in an hour and 10
minutes show, you should be able to do multiple CPM inserts, you
know, intelligent television, television for people out there
want to know what how they budget these shows, in broadcast
television, and what our show is worth $1 ahead in terms of what
they should be able to recoup. So a one hour show that has 10
million viewers should have a budget of $10 million for
everything.
Yeah, right. That's about it varies between 800,000 and
million, but that's about right.
Yeah. And that, of course, it depends on the time and the you
all there's a lot of there are variables if it's primetime,
real primetime stuff. Yeah, but that's good money. Yeah, well,
yeah, we
could we could do a couple ads.
Yeah, we'll do them when we need to.
Share really, I burned up a lot today in the air. That's what my
first my first instructor said. You know, just one thing you
realise you're actually burning money in the air, don't you?
Yeah, well, it's like when you go shooting with somebody. You
always hope somebody invites you because those
bullets are expensive. Two bucks a pop or something like that.
Some of these bullets are even more than that, especially those
big weird ones.
It's crazy. All right. Let's wrap it up. All right. Okay,
coming to you from the United Kingdom in the curry manner. I'm
Adam curry.
And I'm John C. Dvorak in Northern California.
And we'll talk to you next week on no agenda.
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