1 00:00:09,776 --> 00:00:10,443 Welcome to 2 00:00:10,443 --> 00:00:14,047 User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens, 3 00:00:14,180 --> 00:00:17,150 Technology architect. 4 00:00:22,022 --> 00:00:25,125 And this is User Friendly 2.0 I am your host Bill Sikkens 5 00:00:25,125 --> 00:00:27,794 Welcome Gretchen. Bill to this week's show. 6 00:00:27,794 --> 00:00:29,796 Hello there. Hello. 7 00:00:29,796 --> 00:00:33,033 So we're going to be doing something a little different this week I am out. 8 00:00:33,566 --> 00:00:36,302 As you're listening to this doing jet suit training. 9 00:00:36,302 --> 00:00:39,672 And I will tell everybody about how that goes when when I get back. 10 00:00:39,873 --> 00:00:42,442 But in line with that, we're going to be recording a little bit ahead. 11 00:00:42,442 --> 00:00:44,677 And one of the things we thought we would talk about 12 00:00:44,677 --> 00:00:48,481 is this weekend, as you're listening to this actually is the Rose city Comic-Con. 13 00:00:48,481 --> 00:00:51,785 And this is an event that we go to every year in Portland. 14 00:00:51,818 --> 00:00:55,922 It's a great event, one that we have a lot of fun at, and 15 00:00:56,956 --> 00:00:58,458 it's going to be interesting to see what's new 16 00:00:58,458 --> 00:01:01,461 and exciting this year, and we will be covering that. 17 00:01:01,461 --> 00:01:05,498 But being that we've been doing this show since 2013 and have gone 18 00:01:05,498 --> 00:01:09,235 to a lot of conventions over the years, it might be kind of just talk about this 19 00:01:09,235 --> 00:01:11,604 a little bit, what's new, what's old and that type of thing. 20 00:01:11,604 --> 00:01:13,339 And I think what I'd like to do 21 00:01:13,339 --> 00:01:15,542 is open this with last week we talked a little bit, Bill, 22 00:01:15,542 --> 00:01:18,678 about your taking on the challenges of being a professional Dungeon 23 00:01:18,678 --> 00:01:21,681 master game master and some of what's going on with that. 24 00:01:21,714 --> 00:01:22,882 And you were talking about that. 25 00:01:22,882 --> 00:01:26,486 There's a convention where you can actually pay and go, and 26 00:01:26,719 --> 00:01:30,590 the whole thing is just about gaming, and there's obviously a cost for doing that. 27 00:01:30,590 --> 00:01:32,325 Tell us a little bit about that. 28 00:01:32,325 --> 00:01:34,761 Well, I mean, there's a lot of gaming conventions nowadays. 29 00:01:35,862 --> 00:01:36,563 Like there's Rage 30 00:01:36,563 --> 00:01:41,534 con here in Reno, but, you know, we were talking about Green Dragon Fest, 31 00:01:41,534 --> 00:01:46,372 which is based in a wonderful 40 acre, 32 00:01:47,540 --> 00:01:50,510 fantasy themed resort. 33 00:01:51,578 --> 00:01:51,811 Yeah. 34 00:01:51,811 --> 00:01:53,279 You showed the pictures to us. 35 00:01:53,279 --> 00:01:54,280 That was kind of cool. 36 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,117 You're going to have to describe this. 37 00:01:57,117 --> 00:01:58,751 It's like. 38 00:01:58,751 --> 00:02:01,754 Yeah. 39 00:02:02,622 --> 00:02:04,524 The Shire. 40 00:02:04,524 --> 00:02:06,359 That's cool. 41 00:02:06,359 --> 00:02:07,927 So this is don't. 42 00:02:07,927 --> 00:02:12,432 And you just, you pay your entrance fee and you just game for days, right? 43 00:02:13,099 --> 00:02:14,634 Yeah. It's like a three day event. 44 00:02:14,634 --> 00:02:20,273 And you set up so that you can, kind of rank which DM you'd like to play under. 45 00:02:20,273 --> 00:02:24,477 And whatever game they're fronting, you use what you run under. And, 46 00:02:26,212 --> 00:02:29,215 I know tickets are pricey for this one, but, 47 00:02:29,816 --> 00:02:31,885 people do it, so. 48 00:02:31,885 --> 00:02:34,888 No, I mean, that seems like something that certainly could be a lot of fun and 49 00:02:35,255 --> 00:02:35,889 events like this. 50 00:02:35,889 --> 00:02:37,123 I know this would obviously 51 00:02:37,123 --> 00:02:40,126 be different at different conventions, but it's not all just 52 00:02:40,393 --> 00:02:41,494 Wizards of the coast, right? 53 00:02:41,494 --> 00:02:44,497 I mean, they do have other systems and things. 54 00:02:44,564 --> 00:02:46,499 Oh, yeah. Coleco. Lou. 55 00:02:46,499 --> 00:02:49,202 Shadow. Dark. Dagger. Heart? 56 00:02:50,570 --> 00:02:51,371 Yeah. 57 00:02:51,371 --> 00:02:52,572 Shadowrun. 58 00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:53,640 I mean, there's 59 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:57,110 a lot of different cyberpunk games, so maybe I'll have to check into 60 00:02:57,177 --> 00:03:00,113 something like that because, you know. Yeah. 61 00:03:00,113 --> 00:03:04,284 So I would think if, if you're paying somebody like, a lot of money 62 00:03:04,284 --> 00:03:08,288 to play games, these, these game masters must be amazing. 63 00:03:08,288 --> 00:03:11,291 So do they have like a vetting process 64 00:03:11,324 --> 00:03:14,894 or do they just let anybody come off the street and do it. 65 00:03:15,562 --> 00:03:19,199 Oh I'm sure there's a vetting process, especially for DragonCon. 66 00:03:19,966 --> 00:03:22,969 I know there's a vetting process for Rage Con two, 67 00:03:23,203 --> 00:03:26,206 to see if you know what you're doing. 68 00:03:27,941 --> 00:03:30,843 General, it's a different process. 69 00:03:30,843 --> 00:03:33,846 Is this a vetting process for the players or for the Dungeon Master? 70 00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:36,983 The Dungeon Masters? Okay. 71 00:03:37,350 --> 00:03:38,084 So yeah. 72 00:03:38,084 --> 00:03:41,521 So and, you know, and that's a question that comes up every so often is 73 00:03:41,554 --> 00:03:44,757 if you have somebody like, we're doing a game here every week, 74 00:03:44,757 --> 00:03:47,994 and some of our players are brand new to tabletop role playing. 75 00:03:47,994 --> 00:03:49,896 So, you know, there's been a bit of a learning curve. 76 00:03:49,896 --> 00:03:54,234 They're doing really well, but it would seem like people are going to be 77 00:03:54,901 --> 00:03:57,237 concerned, you know, if they've never done this before. 78 00:03:57,237 --> 00:04:00,206 Is it okay to go to something like that or should they try to get involved in 79 00:04:00,206 --> 00:04:00,940 some other way? 80 00:04:02,675 --> 00:04:04,677 I would say make sure you want to, 81 00:04:04,677 --> 00:04:07,780 because it's like the cost is going to be your biggest thing. 82 00:04:09,048 --> 00:04:10,850 Maybe a local scenario, 83 00:04:10,850 --> 00:04:15,154 a local game, online game on rule 20 or foundry or something, 84 00:04:15,655 --> 00:04:19,892 or even pay for a one shot on start playing games. 85 00:04:20,159 --> 00:04:21,194 So pay thing. 86 00:04:21,194 --> 00:04:24,197 That's where I work now, right 87 00:04:24,330 --> 00:04:27,333 along with here with the radio show. 88 00:04:27,834 --> 00:04:33,239 But, get to know that it's something you want to be doing 89 00:04:33,539 --> 00:04:36,442 before you go to a convention like that, because again, 90 00:04:36,442 --> 00:04:40,179 you're looking at some cons or going to be 40 bucks for a day. 91 00:04:40,413 --> 00:04:43,449 Some cons, like Green Dragon Fest, I believe was running 92 00:04:43,483 --> 00:04:46,552 like 200 bucks a day, right? Wow. 93 00:04:46,686 --> 00:04:50,456 So there's a definitely a difference in the, you know, in the pocket book on 94 00:04:50,456 --> 00:04:51,524 those type of things. Now, 95 00:04:52,859 --> 00:04:55,962 the group you're working with just just playing games. 96 00:04:55,962 --> 00:04:58,531 What was that again? I'm sorry. Bill. Start playing games. 97 00:04:58,531 --> 00:04:59,699 Start playing games. Yes. 98 00:04:59,699 --> 00:05:03,136 Okay, so, that seems like that'd be pretty straightforward. 99 00:05:03,136 --> 00:05:05,838 You sign up, you, you know, do what you're doing. 100 00:05:05,838 --> 00:05:08,841 But something like rule 20 in foundry. 101 00:05:08,875 --> 00:05:11,711 Now, my experience with those platforms has been kind of 102 00:05:11,711 --> 00:05:13,246 you're hosting a game for your friends. 103 00:05:13,246 --> 00:05:16,249 So there's a way to go on there and just find a game. 104 00:05:16,382 --> 00:05:18,918 Oh, I know for sure there is. On rule 20. 105 00:05:18,918 --> 00:05:22,021 There is a looking for group or looking for game scenario. 106 00:05:24,257 --> 00:05:27,260 That's how I found the group that I'm with currently. 107 00:05:27,260 --> 00:05:29,395 On my personal games. Right. 108 00:05:29,395 --> 00:05:32,198 Was just random chance that one of them posted a game 109 00:05:32,198 --> 00:05:34,534 and I was like, yeah, I'm interested, and this is my character. 110 00:05:34,534 --> 00:05:36,135 And they were like, okay, come join me. 111 00:05:37,637 --> 00:05:40,273 Some of the stores run things like this. 112 00:05:40,273 --> 00:05:43,276 Or either it was like a club or a store. 113 00:05:45,078 --> 00:05:47,613 In we went to a, 114 00:05:47,613 --> 00:05:51,484 I think it was a, you know, you know, a vegetable fest. 115 00:05:51,484 --> 00:05:53,052 I can't think of what that's called. 116 00:05:53,052 --> 00:05:54,120 Armor's market. 117 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,123 Farmer's markets are vegetable, 118 00:05:57,724 --> 00:06:00,727 vegetable fest. 119 00:06:01,728 --> 00:06:02,261 You know, 120 00:06:02,261 --> 00:06:05,832 I struggle for those words until I get the description. 121 00:06:05,898 --> 00:06:06,999 Getting a lot of images 122 00:06:06,999 --> 00:06:11,471 that would have been kind of interesting to see, but veggie fast. 123 00:06:11,471 --> 00:06:13,673 Invite your vegetarian friends. 124 00:06:13,673 --> 00:06:16,676 Go vegan. Okay. Yeah. 125 00:06:17,176 --> 00:06:20,480 And then then all the meat people show up and they have a battle. 126 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:22,281 This sounds like LARPing. 127 00:06:22,281 --> 00:06:25,485 You know, this should be this could be a very different version of it. 128 00:06:25,485 --> 00:06:27,553 All right, so the farmer's market. 129 00:06:27,553 --> 00:06:31,057 So we ran into some people who had like a, 130 00:06:31,557 --> 00:06:35,661 a pavilion or a tent, and they were a gamers group. 131 00:06:35,661 --> 00:06:40,566 So I guess you can find groups like this and play in person. 132 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,003 Yes. I a snafu con 133 00:06:44,003 --> 00:06:47,974 and Belle FC, which are two conventions I go to every year. 134 00:06:48,374 --> 00:06:52,478 They have game rooms where you can go and just play a game, 135 00:06:53,413 --> 00:06:56,315 either okay, depending what the DMs are running or whatever. 136 00:06:57,483 --> 00:07:00,420 Usually D and D or Pathfinder. 137 00:07:00,420 --> 00:07:01,354 Okay. 138 00:07:01,354 --> 00:07:04,457 So so okay then this this whole LARPing thing 139 00:07:04,457 --> 00:07:07,460 in the game thing brought up a question. 140 00:07:07,660 --> 00:07:11,130 LARPs are people who put costumes on and go running around. 141 00:07:11,164 --> 00:07:14,534 Do they have a dungeon master that tells them what to do? 142 00:07:14,934 --> 00:07:18,271 Oh, to my understanding, I have never myself, 143 00:07:18,471 --> 00:07:22,875 but I have seen enough stuff about it that there is usually a master game 144 00:07:22,875 --> 00:07:26,045 storyteller that is like telling the overall thing. 145 00:07:26,212 --> 00:07:31,117 And then there's smaller Dungeon Master's or game masters that follow around groups 146 00:07:31,317 --> 00:07:34,854 as they do their things and do their little battles or their little quests. 147 00:07:35,955 --> 00:07:39,992 So do they roll dice when they play, or do you know? 148 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:42,895 I don't know, but I don't think they do. 149 00:07:42,895 --> 00:07:43,930 Oh, okay. 150 00:07:43,930 --> 00:07:45,131 That's an interesting question. 151 00:07:45,131 --> 00:07:48,701 Something for anybody that doesn't know LARPing is live action role playing, 152 00:07:48,901 --> 00:07:51,270 and it's basically a version of role playing 153 00:07:51,270 --> 00:07:54,540 where usually you get into a costume for your character and that type of thing. 154 00:07:54,540 --> 00:07:56,843 And a lot of people really get into that, 155 00:07:56,843 --> 00:07:58,878 and I could see where that would be a lot of fun. 156 00:07:58,878 --> 00:08:00,313 But yeah, I, you know, be curious 157 00:08:00,313 --> 00:08:03,316 to find out how that actually works because I don't know. 158 00:08:03,583 --> 00:08:03,850 Yeah. 159 00:08:03,850 --> 00:08:08,020 Because it's like, well, wouldn't everybody want to win, you know. And 160 00:08:09,622 --> 00:08:10,490 yeah, I mean, 161 00:08:10,490 --> 00:08:14,060 so it's like, how does it not turn into a real battle 162 00:08:14,260 --> 00:08:18,097 with people beating on each other with sticks and swords and stuff, you know. 163 00:08:18,164 --> 00:08:21,200 Well, that's more like SCA, but you know, who's to say it doesn't, 164 00:08:21,234 --> 00:08:25,371 right. No. 165 00:08:25,371 --> 00:08:29,575 But you know, the whole cosplay thing, it really is a lot of fun. 166 00:08:29,575 --> 00:08:33,379 And we're talking about the top that Rose city is this weekend. 167 00:08:33,379 --> 00:08:35,314 And we've all done this type of thing. 168 00:08:35,314 --> 00:08:38,818 And Gretchen, you have and Jeremy, of course, kind of made 169 00:08:38,818 --> 00:08:41,821 a lot of the costumes that we used. 170 00:08:41,854 --> 00:08:44,857 And let's talk about that a little bit. 171 00:08:44,857 --> 00:08:47,360 Oh, it was a lot of fun. 172 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:51,931 It started out with, I would have to say, my love for Halloween. 173 00:08:52,565 --> 00:08:56,836 I liked Halloween, and it was fun to get into a costume 174 00:08:56,836 --> 00:09:00,573 and go running around the neighborhood, you know, getting people to give you 175 00:09:00,606 --> 00:09:01,040 candy. 176 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,143 And, you know, that was fun, but you only got to do it once a year. 177 00:09:04,810 --> 00:09:10,316 And so when I met Jeremy, it was like, hey, there's a Star Trek convention. 178 00:09:10,316 --> 00:09:11,918 We can wear a costume. Oh, 179 00:09:12,919 --> 00:09:13,553 I get to 180 00:09:13,553 --> 00:09:16,556 wear a costume on a day other than Halloween. 181 00:09:16,756 --> 00:09:19,325 Okay. That's fun. So. 182 00:09:19,325 --> 00:09:23,462 So I think it kind of started with the old, Star Trek conventions. 183 00:09:24,063 --> 00:09:26,632 What were what was that brand name? 184 00:09:26,632 --> 00:09:28,234 Wow. Creation. 185 00:09:28,234 --> 00:09:30,536 Creation? Yeah. 186 00:09:30,536 --> 00:09:33,406 And supposedly you actually saw Jeremy 187 00:09:33,406 --> 00:09:37,677 and I go up on the stage in our Star Trek costume. 188 00:09:37,810 --> 00:09:40,112 Yes, I did, that was a year before we met, but. 189 00:09:40,112 --> 00:09:43,115 Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. 190 00:09:43,583 --> 00:09:45,051 This was back when all the stuff in Star 191 00:09:45,051 --> 00:09:48,054 Trek was still science fiction. And. 192 00:09:48,688 --> 00:09:50,489 Oh, yes, that's true. 193 00:09:50,489 --> 00:09:53,292 Everything's life has changed a lot. 194 00:09:53,292 --> 00:09:55,728 Oh no question. 195 00:09:55,728 --> 00:09:58,731 And then we got into other things. 196 00:09:59,231 --> 00:10:02,835 We got we were also in fencing, Olympic style fencing, 197 00:10:03,369 --> 00:10:06,272 my husband and I, and that was a lot of fun. 198 00:10:06,272 --> 00:10:11,777 And this woman shows up at our our fencing practice and says, 199 00:10:11,777 --> 00:10:16,282 I want to put on a fair and I'm hoping you guys will show up. 200 00:10:16,415 --> 00:10:17,416 Oh, okay. 201 00:10:17,416 --> 00:10:20,419 Well, I guess we could do demos. So. 202 00:10:20,753 --> 00:10:24,357 So she talked these Olympic style fencers to wear, 203 00:10:26,192 --> 00:10:27,994 strange costumes. 204 00:10:27,994 --> 00:10:30,997 And trust me, those were not great costumes. 205 00:10:31,297 --> 00:10:36,702 They were not historically accurate to go off and and show people basic fencing. 206 00:10:37,036 --> 00:10:39,805 And that's how we sort of got into 207 00:10:39,805 --> 00:10:42,808 doing more and more of the detailed costumes. 208 00:10:44,010 --> 00:10:45,845 Jeremy and I did a lot of research. 209 00:10:45,845 --> 00:10:49,015 I have a huge library of books 210 00:10:49,515 --> 00:10:52,852 of the different time periods and the histories, 211 00:10:53,486 --> 00:10:56,722 and then when we kind of got burned out on the ran 212 00:10:56,756 --> 00:11:00,760 fair stuff, because there was all lots of strange politics that wasn't fun. 213 00:11:01,327 --> 00:11:03,596 And so we were like, well, what do we do now? 214 00:11:03,596 --> 00:11:07,933 And kind of goes back to Jeremy's love of comic books. 215 00:11:08,300 --> 00:11:13,272 And he brought me to a he brought me to the Emerald City Comic-Con. 216 00:11:14,140 --> 00:11:17,176 Oh, she's like 20 or so years ago. 217 00:11:17,677 --> 00:11:22,515 And there was just the room that we went to, pretty much only had comic books 218 00:11:22,782 --> 00:11:26,218 and some artists, and he wanted to get the signature 219 00:11:26,218 --> 00:11:29,555 of one of his favorite artists or comic book creators. 220 00:11:29,555 --> 00:11:31,557 I don't remember which. 221 00:11:31,557 --> 00:11:36,696 And so then we just started thinking about, hey, that would be fun to 222 00:11:36,729 --> 00:11:41,400 do, dress up like characters from things like Star Wars and stuff like that. 223 00:11:41,801 --> 00:11:45,271 And we talked you into it by making you a Wookie costume. 224 00:11:46,806 --> 00:11:48,007 Yeah, like you twist my arm. 225 00:11:48,007 --> 00:11:49,542 Wasn't that hard to talk me into it, 226 00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:53,379 but yeah, it was the the one thing I like about the Comic Con. 227 00:11:53,379 --> 00:11:56,649 I enjoyed doing the Renaissance Renaissance Faire stuff, but you are 228 00:11:56,649 --> 00:12:00,486 locked into very specific things, and there's a lot more room for expression 229 00:12:00,486 --> 00:12:04,056 with the comic book and Comic-Con type costumes. 230 00:12:04,356 --> 00:12:05,191 I mean, you know, 231 00:12:05,191 --> 00:12:06,959 looking at some of the things people come up with, 232 00:12:06,959 --> 00:12:09,795 they've got full on microcontrollers in them and everything 233 00:12:09,795 --> 00:12:13,766 for lighting and movement and all this stuff and oh yeah, 234 00:12:14,700 --> 00:12:18,337 yeah, if you're totally into technology, you could. 235 00:12:18,471 --> 00:12:21,574 There was a guy who had a really nice Iron Man costume, 236 00:12:21,574 --> 00:12:25,511 and I'm not talking about Richard that showed up with the jet suit. 237 00:12:25,511 --> 00:12:28,180 I'm talking about just a guy in a costume. 238 00:12:28,180 --> 00:12:28,781 But it looks. 239 00:12:28,781 --> 00:12:31,751 I remember that. Yeah, it was really good. 240 00:12:32,084 --> 00:12:32,551 Yeah. And 241 00:12:34,019 --> 00:12:37,089 I remember motorized and it went up and it was like talking to Tony Stark. 242 00:12:37,089 --> 00:12:38,390 He even looked like Tony Stark. 243 00:12:38,390 --> 00:12:40,359 I mean, it was really something. 244 00:12:40,359 --> 00:12:41,527 Yeah, that was great. 245 00:12:41,527 --> 00:12:45,164 And there was another guy, guy or gal, I don't remember. 246 00:12:45,197 --> 00:12:49,235 They were dressed as Groot and this was down in California 247 00:12:49,235 --> 00:12:54,340 and they had taken, I think, twisted paper, twisted brown paper 248 00:12:54,774 --> 00:12:57,777 to make the wood grain of Groot. 249 00:12:58,077 --> 00:13:01,480 And I thought that was an amazing costume. 250 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:04,683 What a creative, clever idea to come up with. 251 00:13:05,284 --> 00:13:07,653 So yeah, 252 00:13:07,653 --> 00:13:10,656 and I know I could handle that line. 253 00:13:12,858 --> 00:13:14,460 Well, I think it's been taken by. 254 00:13:14,460 --> 00:13:14,960 What is it? 255 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,963 Is it Vin Diesel or who who does that? 256 00:13:18,030 --> 00:13:20,833 I am Groot, I, I don't know who does it, but it's, 257 00:13:25,070 --> 00:13:25,771 I know 258 00:13:25,771 --> 00:13:30,643 anybody has been following a build of a power armor from fallout. 259 00:13:31,110 --> 00:13:34,113 It's going to be really nice when they finally get that one rolling. 260 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:36,682 Wow. Yeah. There's so much, so much to do. 261 00:13:36,682 --> 00:13:40,452 You know, I, I ask about this because I need to do I want to do a new cosplay. 262 00:13:40,452 --> 00:13:42,421 I don't know what yet though. 263 00:13:42,421 --> 00:13:45,391 And I've been thinking about some different things and, 264 00:13:45,858 --> 00:13:47,927 we, you know, because right now I, 265 00:13:47,927 --> 00:13:50,963 I have gotten myself to be a little bit healthier 266 00:13:50,963 --> 00:13:52,565 and have lost a lot of weight in recent years. 267 00:13:52,565 --> 00:13:55,968 But the problem that that's created, not that it's a bad thing, but it has created 268 00:13:55,968 --> 00:13:58,971 a situation where none of my costumes fit anymore properly. 269 00:13:59,438 --> 00:14:02,942 You need to bring me the Wookie suit so I can make and shrink it. 270 00:14:03,008 --> 00:14:05,444 Yeah. In fact, that might happen tomorrow. 271 00:14:05,444 --> 00:14:08,881 But the the thing of it is, with all of that is it 272 00:14:08,881 --> 00:14:11,884 would be kind of fun to do something new. 273 00:14:11,951 --> 00:14:15,120 And I have a lot more access to electronics, 274 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:19,124 and I even have a little C and C machine now and the 3D printer and stuff. 275 00:14:19,458 --> 00:14:22,161 So it might be kind of fun to try to do something different. 276 00:14:22,161 --> 00:14:25,331 First of all, would give me a reason to learn how all this equipment works, 277 00:14:25,798 --> 00:14:28,634 which would be a good thing, but also, 278 00:14:29,602 --> 00:14:31,170 would be kind of fun to see, you know, 279 00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:32,972 where we could actually go with all of that. 280 00:14:32,972 --> 00:14:35,975 And I don't know, you know, I don't know what I want to do yet, but, 281 00:14:36,675 --> 00:14:38,777 it would be kind of fun 282 00:14:38,777 --> 00:14:41,780 to figure out something that was different than what we've done in the past. 283 00:14:42,214 --> 00:14:45,050 Yeah. Maybe you should go as Mr. Freeze. 284 00:14:45,050 --> 00:14:47,920 Well, that might be an option. 285 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:48,721 Could definitely do that. 286 00:14:48,721 --> 00:14:51,190 I need to get a glass bowl for my head. 287 00:14:51,190 --> 00:14:51,790 The the. 288 00:14:51,790 --> 00:14:53,926 Yeah, that I think would be the toughest part. 289 00:14:53,926 --> 00:14:54,860 The dome. 290 00:14:54,860 --> 00:14:57,596 You know, the things that you 291 00:14:57,596 --> 00:15:00,032 warm to plastic probably wouldn't be too hard. 292 00:15:00,032 --> 00:15:01,934 Yeah. Really? 293 00:15:01,934 --> 00:15:04,837 There's this whole idea informed. 294 00:15:04,837 --> 00:15:05,938 That's how you have to do it. 295 00:15:05,938 --> 00:15:06,739 I mean, you know, 296 00:15:06,739 --> 00:15:10,743 but you need a fan or something to keep you from getting all sweaty. 297 00:15:10,876 --> 00:15:13,445 Having to breathe would be something I'd want to work into this. 298 00:15:13,445 --> 00:15:16,715 Either that or get my cybernetics to a point where I don't have to breathe. 299 00:15:16,715 --> 00:15:19,418 I'm open to either one of those solutions. So you know. 300 00:15:20,886 --> 00:15:22,121 But see, that's all of the 301 00:15:22,121 --> 00:15:26,125 fun, I think of doing cosplay and building costumes. 302 00:15:26,158 --> 00:15:28,994 Okay, we just talked about the helmet. 303 00:15:28,994 --> 00:15:32,598 Okay, you're going to get sweaty and hot, or you might not even be able 304 00:15:32,598 --> 00:15:35,601 to breathe it all in there after ten minutes. 305 00:15:35,734 --> 00:15:38,137 So you need some kind of ventilation. 306 00:15:38,137 --> 00:15:38,404 Yeah. 307 00:15:38,404 --> 00:15:42,374 This is this is like good creative thinking. 308 00:15:42,474 --> 00:15:46,712 And I, I kind of think that we should be encouraging our kids 309 00:15:47,012 --> 00:15:51,850 to think this way, solving problems, coming up with creative ideas 310 00:15:51,850 --> 00:15:55,487 that they really want to do and seeing if they can make it happen. 311 00:15:56,155 --> 00:15:57,256 You know, let's do that anymore. 312 00:15:57,256 --> 00:16:00,259 You have AI, just let it think for you. 313 00:16:00,326 --> 00:16:03,329 It's not going to build the costume for you. 314 00:16:04,196 --> 00:16:05,731 It might tell you how, 315 00:16:05,731 --> 00:16:08,734 I don't know, but you're going to have to do it yourself. 316 00:16:08,934 --> 00:16:09,735 Yeah. 317 00:16:09,735 --> 00:16:12,404 And you know, I say that sarcastically because I know this is 318 00:16:12,404 --> 00:16:15,407 something that comes up a lot, and certainly for some design help. 319 00:16:15,441 --> 00:16:17,409 But yeah, it's something you would have to think through 320 00:16:17,409 --> 00:16:19,979 and do on your own and figure out what you want to do. 321 00:16:19,979 --> 00:16:22,247 And, and, you know, figure out some other things. 322 00:16:22,247 --> 00:16:23,916 One of the other issues you could have with a mr. 323 00:16:23,916 --> 00:16:26,919 freeze type costume is the helmet would fog up. 324 00:16:27,252 --> 00:16:29,288 I could see what I was talking about. 325 00:16:29,288 --> 00:16:31,223 Yeah, yeah, that was what I was getting at. 326 00:16:31,223 --> 00:16:34,193 Not just the air, but it's going to fog up. 327 00:16:34,460 --> 00:16:36,695 But if you put a fan in front 328 00:16:36,695 --> 00:16:40,632 of your mouth and a fan on the back, it'll keep the airflow going. 329 00:16:40,966 --> 00:16:42,501 Yeah. And that would be a solution. 330 00:16:42,501 --> 00:16:46,071 You know, it's just, and you sometimes have to get creative. 331 00:16:46,071 --> 00:16:50,209 I know in my, my first suit or my Wookie suit, which is a fur suit, it, 332 00:16:50,776 --> 00:16:53,779 has a situation where it is very, very hot. 333 00:16:53,879 --> 00:16:57,850 And, I found this stuff where you have ice packs that goes in this vest, 334 00:16:57,850 --> 00:17:00,052 that goes under your suit, and that actually helps. 335 00:17:00,052 --> 00:17:02,621 It's not perfect, makes it tolerable. 336 00:17:02,621 --> 00:17:03,088 Yeah. 337 00:17:03,088 --> 00:17:07,459 But you also have to realize that if you were a professional costumer, 338 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,397 you would have never have used female clay 339 00:17:11,730 --> 00:17:14,967 to create the structure of the head, right, like I did. 340 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,137 And so he has like so for our listeners, 341 00:17:18,370 --> 00:17:21,774 his mask is really heavy because I, 342 00:17:22,808 --> 00:17:23,575 I had to have 343 00:17:23,575 --> 00:17:27,980 like the shape of a, like a skeleton to put the, the clay 344 00:17:27,980 --> 00:17:32,418 and build up the, the Wookie base so that it would look like a Wookie. 345 00:17:32,418 --> 00:17:38,457 And so I didn't know about all of the foam and some of the other amazing tools 346 00:17:38,457 --> 00:17:43,162 that are available to cause players and people that go to these 347 00:17:43,162 --> 00:17:47,032 comic con, you know, comic book conventions, right? 348 00:17:47,699 --> 00:17:49,168 Yeah. 349 00:17:49,168 --> 00:17:51,136 And that's, you know, it's an interesting point. 350 00:17:51,136 --> 00:17:54,139 It kind of touched on this earlier about Comic-Con and this type of thing. 351 00:17:54,139 --> 00:17:57,676 When you went and saw the artist with Jeremy and the comic books. 352 00:17:57,676 --> 00:18:00,679 But there's a lot going on, and it's not just comic books. 353 00:18:00,679 --> 00:18:04,583 I mean, I've been to conventions that are comic cons that don't have comic books, 354 00:18:04,883 --> 00:18:09,121 so you run into a huge variety of different things to cosplay, 355 00:18:09,121 --> 00:18:10,756 which is obviously a part that we enjoy. 356 00:18:10,756 --> 00:18:13,358 So that's a focus we have. But there's other things. 357 00:18:13,358 --> 00:18:15,160 I've even found some of the retro video 358 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:18,163 game carts and stuff like that at Comic-Con. 359 00:18:18,430 --> 00:18:20,732 You know, for systems I like that go back into the 80s. 360 00:18:20,732 --> 00:18:24,970 So you have that whole area of things and, and, and the artists are amazing. 361 00:18:24,970 --> 00:18:28,273 You see stuff that you would not see anywhere else in a positive way, 362 00:18:28,807 --> 00:18:32,044 where there are some people that are just the amount of creativity 363 00:18:32,044 --> 00:18:36,515 they have is absolutely amazing and not alone worth seeing, you know, 364 00:18:37,316 --> 00:18:40,319 I know hopefully they'll be back at Rose city again this year. 365 00:18:40,552 --> 00:18:45,591 People that have old, old arcade games, you know, the early stuff. 366 00:18:45,591 --> 00:18:48,594 Remember that from things that they actually brought in. 367 00:18:48,861 --> 00:18:50,729 I think it was a 25 inch console 368 00:18:50,729 --> 00:18:53,132 television that must have been made in the late 60s, 369 00:18:53,132 --> 00:18:56,902 early 70s, I think might have been vacuum tubes and managed to get it working 370 00:18:56,902 --> 00:18:58,937 or running an old Nintendo on it, you know. 371 00:18:58,937 --> 00:19:01,673 So that's something you see at these type of events. 372 00:19:01,673 --> 00:19:05,878 Panels are another thing with topics that just go all over the all over the board, 373 00:19:05,911 --> 00:19:08,780 you know, it's amazing. It really is. 374 00:19:08,780 --> 00:19:12,017 There have been a couple of times we've been asked to do panels. 375 00:19:12,117 --> 00:19:13,252 Yeah. 376 00:19:13,252 --> 00:19:16,221 I'm not really sure whether somebody would want to sit 377 00:19:16,221 --> 00:19:19,691 half an hour listening to us yammer about whatever. 378 00:19:20,859 --> 00:19:22,060 There's been a lot of requests for it. 379 00:19:22,060 --> 00:19:24,930 The only reason we haven't done it is because one of the things is, 380 00:19:24,930 --> 00:19:28,400 is that the comic Con component of it, and it's something you got to think about 381 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:30,002 with anything you do in life 382 00:19:30,002 --> 00:19:32,171 is something we've always done, mainly because we enjoy it. 383 00:19:32,171 --> 00:19:35,174 We cover it for the show, and it definitely is a work component of that. 384 00:19:35,207 --> 00:19:38,177 But when you start having stuff scheduled and those type of things, it 385 00:19:38,177 --> 00:19:41,914 definitely changes the feeling of what it is that you're doing, you know? 386 00:19:42,014 --> 00:19:42,814 And Bill, I think 387 00:19:42,814 --> 00:19:45,417 you're going to probably experience that getting into paid, 388 00:19:45,417 --> 00:19:46,151 doing that, there's 389 00:19:46,151 --> 00:19:48,453 probably going to be a difference, I would think, between that 390 00:19:48,453 --> 00:19:51,356 and when you just do a do a game for your friends, you know. 391 00:19:51,356 --> 00:19:51,790 Oh yeah. 392 00:19:51,790 --> 00:19:55,527 No, it's it's definitely a professionalism step up. 393 00:19:55,594 --> 00:19:58,964 I mean I, I throw the best in I can for my friends, but 394 00:19:59,531 --> 00:20:00,432 people who are paying 395 00:20:00,432 --> 00:20:02,234 I'm not suggesting otherwise, but I'm just saying 396 00:20:02,234 --> 00:20:04,703 that there is a difference between those two things. 397 00:20:04,703 --> 00:20:07,839 And, and it would be the same thing with this kind of stuff. 398 00:20:07,839 --> 00:20:09,575 And I'm not saying that we're never going to do a panel. 399 00:20:09,575 --> 00:20:12,211 We will eventually, probably. But, 400 00:20:13,378 --> 00:20:13,679 you know, 401 00:20:13,679 --> 00:20:16,682 that's a big part of why we actually haven't to this point. 402 00:20:17,282 --> 00:20:18,250 Yeah. 403 00:20:18,250 --> 00:20:23,055 When when it came to the costumes, people had often asked Jeremy and I, 404 00:20:23,055 --> 00:20:26,058 why don't you guys make costumes and sell them? 405 00:20:26,158 --> 00:20:28,093 Because it wouldn't be fun anymore. 406 00:20:28,093 --> 00:20:29,328 Yeah, yeah. 407 00:20:29,328 --> 00:20:34,499 You know, that's what we we wanted to maintain the joy 408 00:20:34,566 --> 00:20:39,004 of making the costumes, and it was more enjoyable to help 409 00:20:39,004 --> 00:20:44,142 somebody build their own costumes than get paid to build it for them. 410 00:20:45,177 --> 00:20:45,844 Yeah, yeah. 411 00:20:45,844 --> 00:20:48,814 And not saying it's a bad thing to do it, but it definitely changes 412 00:20:48,814 --> 00:20:49,982 what you're dealing with to. 413 00:20:49,982 --> 00:20:53,151 And the other thing too, it's like I get asked this to on the retro 414 00:20:53,151 --> 00:20:56,521 electronics, can I pay you to change all the capacitors on my board? 415 00:20:56,521 --> 00:20:57,289 Or, you know, something 416 00:20:57,289 --> 00:21:00,292 that's a request that comes in all the time, but stuff like that. 417 00:21:00,325 --> 00:21:03,195 And I usually so far I've always said no. 418 00:21:03,195 --> 00:21:04,329 And it's for two reasons. 419 00:21:04,329 --> 00:21:08,233 Number one, when I do stuff like that, I do it because I like to do it. 420 00:21:08,233 --> 00:21:11,770 And number two, I don't want to risk damaging somebody else's stuff. 421 00:21:11,803 --> 00:21:13,672 You know, they're expecting a professional outcome, 422 00:21:13,672 --> 00:21:14,973 which would be the case. 423 00:21:14,973 --> 00:21:18,977 But there's so many variants on these type of things and electronics 424 00:21:19,011 --> 00:21:19,511 being one of them. 425 00:21:19,511 --> 00:21:21,246 But I, Gretchen, and maybe you can speak to this, 426 00:21:21,246 --> 00:21:24,016 I would think costumes would have the same kind of idea. 427 00:21:24,016 --> 00:21:26,451 Oh yeah. If you screw up a 428 00:21:27,419 --> 00:21:27,819 the minute 429 00:21:27,819 --> 00:21:30,822 you're labeling yourself as a professional, 430 00:21:30,822 --> 00:21:34,726 that that zipper better be laying perfect. 431 00:21:34,993 --> 00:21:37,663 That same better be perfect. 432 00:21:37,663 --> 00:21:40,832 And, yeah. 433 00:21:41,333 --> 00:21:44,336 And then they're going to get all picky. And, 434 00:21:44,636 --> 00:21:47,739 I don't know if I can use that word on on the radio. 435 00:21:47,939 --> 00:21:50,942 We know what you mean. Yeah. 436 00:21:51,043 --> 00:21:55,414 Extra grumpy about things not being perfect because they're paying you. 437 00:21:55,714 --> 00:21:56,081 Right. 438 00:21:56,081 --> 00:21:59,618 And and I've actually found that when people 439 00:22:00,052 --> 00:22:03,355 made their own costume, they appreciated it more. 440 00:22:03,755 --> 00:22:07,259 It's just when I lent somebody a costume of mine to where 441 00:22:07,259 --> 00:22:11,797 I would find it laying on the floor, on the ground, in the tent. 442 00:22:11,930 --> 00:22:14,399 And I was mad because it was like, why didn't you throw 443 00:22:14,399 --> 00:22:16,335 my costume on the floor like that? 444 00:22:16,335 --> 00:22:17,602 Yes, I know it. 445 00:22:17,602 --> 00:22:19,137 You know it. 446 00:22:19,137 --> 00:22:19,538 Yeah. 447 00:22:19,538 --> 00:22:22,140 It's like now and some of us find out that they're totally inept. 448 00:22:22,140 --> 00:22:25,110 I mean, when I first got into this, you had me make my shirt. 449 00:22:25,410 --> 00:22:29,448 Yeah, but, you know, it stayed together about an hour. 450 00:22:29,915 --> 00:22:32,918 Yeah, but it had a very authentic look to it. 451 00:22:33,085 --> 00:22:34,953 Looked like you'd been in battle. 452 00:22:34,953 --> 00:22:38,690 Yeah, I think I was in battle making that thing, but anyway. 453 00:22:41,193 --> 00:22:44,129 And I figured out that sewing is not something that I have 454 00:22:44,129 --> 00:22:45,897 DNA for, but others do. 455 00:22:45,897 --> 00:22:48,300 But the thing of it is, is that it was, you know, it was interesting. 456 00:22:48,300 --> 00:22:49,401 I'm glad I did it. 457 00:22:49,401 --> 00:22:54,840 I did appreciate having the experience to see what that process was like, 458 00:22:55,140 --> 00:22:58,143 and to learn that I would never be doing it again. So. 459 00:23:01,113 --> 00:23:03,849 No, but it's you know, it's interesting to see where all this goes. 460 00:23:03,849 --> 00:23:05,016 So it's it's a lot of fun. 461 00:23:05,016 --> 00:23:05,884 I want to start 462 00:23:05,884 --> 00:23:07,953 seeing some comic cons again the last few years, 463 00:23:07,953 --> 00:23:11,123 just since Covid and life and some of the changes have been going 464 00:23:11,123 --> 00:23:12,858 on, we've been primarily doing stuff locally. 465 00:23:12,858 --> 00:23:13,592 I'd like to get 466 00:23:13,592 --> 00:23:16,595 maybe see some of the stuff that's going on in a little wider birth. 467 00:23:16,928 --> 00:23:19,631 I also wouldn't mind getting to some of the other conventions, like 468 00:23:19,631 --> 00:23:23,902 I have never, never actually personally attended a role playing convention. 469 00:23:24,436 --> 00:23:27,339 And, you know, so I think that would be something 470 00:23:27,339 --> 00:23:30,876 that would be really kind of cool to see how that actually plays out 471 00:23:30,876 --> 00:23:34,079 and jump into some games and see what, you know, what the life of that is. 472 00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:36,581 So let us know about your conventions. User friendly dot show. 473 00:23:36,581 --> 00:23:37,616 Have you gone to these? 474 00:23:37,616 --> 00:23:40,352 What do you think? Do you like them? Do you dislike them? Let us know. 475 00:23:40,352 --> 00:23:42,888 This is user friendly 2.0. We'll be back after the break. 476 00:23:44,322 --> 00:23:46,324 He's from the future. 477 00:23:46,324 --> 00:23:49,394 He's got a really big computer 478 00:23:49,961 --> 00:23:52,964 and he uses it uses it every day. 479 00:23:53,532 --> 00:23:54,800 And he uses it. 480 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,935 Uses it in every way. 481 00:23:56,935 --> 00:23:58,537 What to use it for? 482 00:23:58,537 --> 00:24:03,408 You know, I'm not that show because he's just he's just walking back. 483 00:24:03,408 --> 00:24:06,178 This is user friendly 2.0. Send us your questions. 484 00:24:06,178 --> 00:24:07,045 Send us your comments. 485 00:24:07,045 --> 00:24:10,682 That user friendly dot show it is your one stop for letting us know what you think, 486 00:24:10,849 --> 00:24:15,086 what you'd like to have us cover, and the ability to play back old episodes. 487 00:24:15,287 --> 00:24:17,355 One note on this is we've been having some issues 488 00:24:17,355 --> 00:24:18,723 that if you go to your smart speaker 489 00:24:18,723 --> 00:24:21,460 and ask to play user friendly, you might get the wrong one. 490 00:24:21,460 --> 00:24:25,497 So make sure it's user friendly 2.0 the real one, and be sure you get it. 491 00:24:25,564 --> 00:24:28,567 You can go to our website user friendly dot show. 492 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:29,234 All right. 493 00:24:29,234 --> 00:24:32,437 Well, as we talked about in the beginning, today is the day that we answer 494 00:24:32,437 --> 00:24:33,538 your questions. 495 00:24:34,940 --> 00:24:37,943 So I guess we need some questions. 496 00:24:38,210 --> 00:24:40,111 What is crowdfunding. 497 00:24:40,111 --> 00:24:40,412 All right. 498 00:24:40,412 --> 00:24:43,381 So if this sounds familiar because you listen to our previous 499 00:24:43,381 --> 00:24:46,618 Q&A, it is this is the next question we actually talked about there. 500 00:24:46,751 --> 00:24:49,688 But we've had a lot of additional questions coming in on this. 501 00:24:49,688 --> 00:24:52,691 And I think it's because of some of the things that are going on. 502 00:24:53,658 --> 00:24:58,296 And the answer to the question of what is crowdfunding is basically 503 00:24:58,763 --> 00:25:00,932 these are platforms, and there are different ones 504 00:25:00,932 --> 00:25:05,036 of varying degrees of suitability to where you can have 505 00:25:05,036 --> 00:25:08,940 something like a project, or you're trying to raise money for an event, or even 506 00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:11,910 some people are trying to raise money for their next vacation. 507 00:25:11,910 --> 00:25:15,514 These different type of things go out there and you can put up a project, 508 00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:19,484 and you hope that people will support your project. 509 00:25:19,484 --> 00:25:24,623 So in the ones that are dealing with manufacturing some new kind of product 510 00:25:24,623 --> 00:25:28,360 or service or that type of thing, these ones are 511 00:25:29,895 --> 00:25:32,931 interesting because most of the time they work out pretty well, 512 00:25:33,331 --> 00:25:35,500 but we can all tell stories, which we will in a minute 513 00:25:35,500 --> 00:25:36,735 here of sometimes where they don't. 514 00:25:36,735 --> 00:25:39,938 So when you put up money for a given reward, it's important to know 515 00:25:40,171 --> 00:25:43,875 that is not guaranteed by doing the stock market. 516 00:25:44,943 --> 00:25:45,510 Yeah. 517 00:25:45,510 --> 00:25:47,913 Kind of. I guess that would be an interesting comparison 518 00:25:47,913 --> 00:25:50,649 because you could lose your money. Yeah, yeah. 519 00:25:50,649 --> 00:25:53,652 Well what happens a lot of the times is I have this great project, 520 00:25:53,752 --> 00:25:56,488 things like I'm going to make a movie or I'm going to make a triple 521 00:25:56,488 --> 00:25:59,324 A video game for $50,000, that kind of stuff. 522 00:25:59,324 --> 00:26:01,393 So when looking at these things, you want to check it out 523 00:26:01,393 --> 00:26:02,894 to make sure that you don't get scammed. 524 00:26:02,894 --> 00:26:06,364 And there's been a lot of times where has gone out. 525 00:26:06,398 --> 00:26:09,367 They've raised money and then they don't provide the award. 526 00:26:09,367 --> 00:26:11,803 Now, fortunately, this is not the majority. 527 00:26:11,803 --> 00:26:15,840 Most of the crowdfunding stuff on reputable platforms funds into 528 00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:19,244 independent developers and things like that that wouldn't 529 00:26:19,244 --> 00:26:21,479 otherwise be able to get their product to market. 530 00:26:21,479 --> 00:26:23,782 And I've seen some really cool things with that. 531 00:26:23,782 --> 00:26:26,217 But that's basically what this is. 532 00:26:26,217 --> 00:26:28,286 And what crowdfunding is. 533 00:26:30,021 --> 00:26:30,522 Is there a 534 00:26:30,522 --> 00:26:33,525 difference between crowdfunding sites? 535 00:26:33,858 --> 00:26:36,861 The short answer is yes. 536 00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:41,099 And a big, big yes on that. 537 00:26:41,099 --> 00:26:44,169 So the biggest one probably is Kickstarter. 538 00:26:45,103 --> 00:26:48,607 It's the oldest one that is operating that's considered reputable. 539 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:53,044 And they're a site that actually, as far as these things go, is pretty good. 540 00:26:53,044 --> 00:26:56,247 It's still possible to not get what you're supposed to get, 541 00:26:56,247 --> 00:27:00,719 but they do disclose right on top of it if you're not guaranteed anything. 542 00:27:00,719 --> 00:27:02,354 And the other thing they do is tend to 543 00:27:02,354 --> 00:27:06,157 watch for scams and take them down and are pretty good about that. 544 00:27:06,157 --> 00:27:12,964 I think the next one would begin to go go, which is a little less in that context. 545 00:27:12,964 --> 00:27:15,367 They do watch for scams and take them down, 546 00:27:15,367 --> 00:27:16,635 but they have a unique thing 547 00:27:16,635 --> 00:27:19,638 called flex funding that does not exist on Kickstarter. 548 00:27:19,771 --> 00:27:22,941 So basically on most platforms you set a goal. 549 00:27:22,941 --> 00:27:26,111 I want to raise $50,000 for doing whatever project. 550 00:27:26,378 --> 00:27:28,079 If you raise the money, you get it. 551 00:27:28,079 --> 00:27:29,781 If you don't raise the money, you don't get it 552 00:27:29,781 --> 00:27:31,416 because you wouldn't have been funded. 553 00:27:31,416 --> 00:27:34,419 So what flex funding is, is whatever amount of money 554 00:27:34,419 --> 00:27:37,956 they happen to raise, they still get it whether or not they hit their goal. 555 00:27:38,456 --> 00:27:40,091 And you could see where that could be problematic, 556 00:27:40,091 --> 00:27:43,261 because if you don't have enough to do your project, well, you know, 557 00:27:43,294 --> 00:27:44,863 so you want to watch for that. 558 00:27:44,863 --> 00:27:48,933 Then there's a number of other sites out there, some good, some not so good. 559 00:27:48,933 --> 00:27:52,837 And I've even seen ones where a company has decided that they want to raise money 560 00:27:52,837 --> 00:27:56,641 for something they're not allowed, for whatever reason, on the bigger platform. 561 00:27:56,641 --> 00:28:00,445 So they create their own crowdsourcing site that looks like it. 562 00:28:00,445 --> 00:28:01,613 But you want to check those out, 563 00:28:01,613 --> 00:28:04,916 because if that's the only project on that site, that's probably a red flag. 564 00:28:06,084 --> 00:28:06,918 Yeah, I think 565 00:28:06,918 --> 00:28:09,921 Kickstarter and Backer kit are the two that I really appreciate. 566 00:28:10,822 --> 00:28:11,523 Yeah. 567 00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:14,359 What was the second one factor, kid? 568 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,461 Okay, that's not what I've used, but yeah okay. 569 00:28:16,461 --> 00:28:17,128 Yeah. 570 00:28:17,128 --> 00:28:18,463 And you can get a list of these 571 00:28:18,463 --> 00:28:21,433 and ratings like anything else just by searching for them. 572 00:28:21,766 --> 00:28:25,437 But check it out and do a little bit of research and do research on the project. 573 00:28:25,437 --> 00:28:28,440 So one of the other things you can look at to is 574 00:28:28,807 --> 00:28:31,976 is the person that's got the project up. 575 00:28:32,110 --> 00:28:35,080 Have they ever successfully had a funding project? 576 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:36,915 Have they backed anything else? 577 00:28:36,915 --> 00:28:40,485 Check out social media, look at if a website is provided. 578 00:28:40,485 --> 00:28:43,054 Is all of the images on their AI generated? 579 00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:43,755 That's a red flag. 580 00:28:43,755 --> 00:28:46,991 You know, you want to just make sure that it feels like they're actually trying 581 00:28:46,991 --> 00:28:50,528 to accomplish something and not just walk away with your money. 582 00:28:52,764 --> 00:28:56,634 How to stop chat for ruining how you think. 583 00:28:56,801 --> 00:28:58,570 Yeah, so we talked about this a little bit earlier. 584 00:28:58,570 --> 00:29:00,605 Yeah, we talked a little bit about this segment. 585 00:29:00,605 --> 00:29:02,607 And that's not formed as a question. 586 00:29:02,607 --> 00:29:04,476 So that wouldn't have worked on jeopardy. 587 00:29:04,476 --> 00:29:06,678 But you know 588 00:29:06,678 --> 00:29:09,981 deep diving is like we said before, you got to think of it like a tool. 589 00:29:10,381 --> 00:29:13,151 And like anything else, you 590 00:29:13,151 --> 00:29:16,154 trust it to the extent of what it's supposed to do. 591 00:29:16,221 --> 00:29:19,157 But you are the person in charge. 592 00:29:19,157 --> 00:29:22,460 You drive the project, you ask it for what you want it to do, 593 00:29:23,061 --> 00:29:25,830 but you don't ask it to do it for you. 594 00:29:25,830 --> 00:29:27,031 And these are two different things. 595 00:29:27,031 --> 00:29:27,966 And like we were talking about 596 00:29:27,966 --> 00:29:31,136 in the first segment, this is something that's becoming a problem because AI 597 00:29:32,003 --> 00:29:34,572 is something that it's the first real technology 598 00:29:34,572 --> 00:29:37,575 that's gone mainstream that can actually do enough 599 00:29:37,575 --> 00:29:40,578 to work and replace your need to think about things. 600 00:29:40,612 --> 00:29:43,848 And we told some of the stories in the first segment on what we've run into this. 601 00:29:43,982 --> 00:29:45,083 But just, you know, to kind of 602 00:29:45,083 --> 00:29:49,120 sum it up again, because we get a lot of questions on this is 603 00:29:50,688 --> 00:29:52,056 ask AI what you want to do. 604 00:29:52,056 --> 00:29:53,124 It's an amazing tool. 605 00:29:53,124 --> 00:29:55,059 See what answers it gives you. Check the answers. 606 00:29:55,059 --> 00:29:56,795 Make sure the information is correct. 607 00:29:56,795 --> 00:29:59,597 They do hallucinate sometimes, and don't 608 00:29:59,597 --> 00:30:03,334 expect it to be able to do your project for you and have it be successful. 609 00:30:03,601 --> 00:30:07,438 And as far as things like artwork generation, that type of stuff goes. 610 00:30:07,739 --> 00:30:10,542 I use it to generate a picture of my role playing character. 611 00:30:10,542 --> 00:30:11,342 I have no problem with that. 612 00:30:11,342 --> 00:30:14,312 I do not use it to generate something I'm going to publish. 613 00:30:14,879 --> 00:30:17,615 For one thing, having human designers 614 00:30:17,615 --> 00:30:19,717 do that, you're going to get a better product, 615 00:30:19,717 --> 00:30:21,553 you're going to be able to work with it better. 616 00:30:21,553 --> 00:30:24,923 And the other part of it is, is it's not fake, you know? 617 00:30:26,324 --> 00:30:27,692 All right. 618 00:30:27,692 --> 00:30:31,162 I have an old arcade game called gyrus. 619 00:30:31,663 --> 00:30:32,997 Should I fix it? 620 00:30:32,997 --> 00:30:37,635 There is no video or turn it into a multi game machine 621 00:30:38,770 --> 00:30:39,137 okay. 622 00:30:39,137 --> 00:30:40,071 So in my opinion 623 00:30:40,071 --> 00:30:43,641 if you convert that to anything else, the arcade God's will come and smite you 624 00:30:44,809 --> 00:30:47,512 is one of the best in my opinion 625 00:30:47,512 --> 00:30:51,049 and most beautiful early arcade games. 626 00:30:51,115 --> 00:30:52,217 It uses chiptune. 627 00:30:52,217 --> 00:30:56,955 It's been considered one of the best ones for the music that goes along with it. 628 00:30:57,121 --> 00:31:02,660 I would love to find a gyrus myself, or a little bit difficult to come up with. 629 00:31:03,161 --> 00:31:06,164 And this type of a cabinet you would want to fix. 630 00:31:06,331 --> 00:31:11,436 So 10,000ft answer to this is basically there are some games out there 631 00:31:11,502 --> 00:31:15,006 that are not collectible and you know, they break down, 632 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:16,674 you convert them into something else, 633 00:31:16,674 --> 00:31:19,978 and you can put a Raspberry Pi or something like that in it 634 00:31:20,211 --> 00:31:23,781 and be able to run ROMs and have it be a lot of different games, 635 00:31:23,781 --> 00:31:26,751 and there are appropriate times to use something like that, 636 00:31:27,118 --> 00:31:29,888 but you would want to check out what the original game is 637 00:31:29,888 --> 00:31:33,358 and also what's wrong with it if there's no video and it's playing headless 638 00:31:33,691 --> 00:31:36,461 so you can hear the audio and everything else seems to be working, 639 00:31:36,461 --> 00:31:37,695 that means your game board is good 640 00:31:37,695 --> 00:31:41,933 and there's something wrong with the monitor in this type of a game. 641 00:31:42,033 --> 00:31:44,936 And I don't like to do this unless I have to, but 642 00:31:44,936 --> 00:31:49,073 a lot of the crease are dying on us now, and this is a very common problem to have. 643 00:31:49,474 --> 00:31:52,644 So maybe look at going ahead and replacing that part of it 644 00:31:52,644 --> 00:31:56,581 with something modern, like a LCD LED screen. 645 00:31:57,215 --> 00:32:00,318 You can get these for a couple hundred bucks and they drop right in 646 00:32:00,318 --> 00:32:02,720 and makes the cabinet lighter and that type of a thing. 647 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,290 But the other thing to consider is if you really do want to keep it 648 00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:08,159 original, is do at least diagnose what's wrong with it. 649 00:32:08,159 --> 00:32:10,762 Because really, even with CRT, 650 00:32:10,762 --> 00:32:13,331 as long as the tube and the flyback are still good, 651 00:32:13,331 --> 00:32:16,701 you can probably repair it and have it still work as the way it originally was. 652 00:32:16,701 --> 00:32:19,771 So it's just depending on the condition and what you're dealing with at the time. 653 00:32:20,238 --> 00:32:24,275 But this is one where you would drastically limit the value of what it is 654 00:32:24,676 --> 00:32:25,677 if you were to convert it. 655 00:32:25,677 --> 00:32:28,913 It's like the same thing with a lot of the original classics. 656 00:32:28,913 --> 00:32:32,050 Let's say you got a Wizard of War, and if you converted that, 657 00:32:32,083 --> 00:32:35,420 you probably need to not do anything with video games ever again. 658 00:32:36,020 --> 00:32:36,921 In my opinion, 659 00:32:38,022 --> 00:32:39,557 that's an extremely valuable one. 660 00:32:39,557 --> 00:32:43,394 Again, that is worth a lot more as the game 661 00:32:43,895 --> 00:32:47,298 than what it is is if you were to try to convert it over. 662 00:32:49,567 --> 00:32:52,603 Now, this is a callback to a news article 663 00:32:52,603 --> 00:32:56,341 we had before you talked about X-Box laying off thousands of employees. 664 00:32:56,407 --> 00:32:58,977 Is Xbox being phased out? 665 00:32:58,977 --> 00:32:59,844 Yeah. Good question. 666 00:32:59,844 --> 00:33:02,814 We've had a lot of different variations of this that have come in. 667 00:33:02,814 --> 00:33:04,649 This kind of summing it all up. 668 00:33:04,649 --> 00:33:07,885 Is X-Box in trouble or, you know, is it going down? 669 00:33:07,885 --> 00:33:09,721 Is Microsoft going to drop the project? 670 00:33:09,721 --> 00:33:13,558 All of these type of things, they are definitely changing what they're doing. 671 00:33:13,958 --> 00:33:15,059 But in my opinion, 672 00:33:15,059 --> 00:33:18,129 from everything I've seen on this, I don't think it's a bad thing. 673 00:33:18,496 --> 00:33:20,565 They're consolidating some stuff. 674 00:33:20,565 --> 00:33:24,002 Back in the last ten years, they bought a lot of independent game studios 675 00:33:24,402 --> 00:33:28,006 and tried to make them work together, which is not something 676 00:33:28,006 --> 00:33:31,409 that's easy to do without changing the concept of how the studio worked. 677 00:33:31,809 --> 00:33:34,045 And if you try to do that, then why buy the studio? 678 00:33:34,045 --> 00:33:37,048 Just set up what you want under your own umbrella. 679 00:33:37,115 --> 00:33:41,252 Blizzard Activision is one of the bigger ones that was purchased by Microsoft. 680 00:33:41,252 --> 00:33:44,722 There are a number of other ones out there that they are starting to spin off 681 00:33:44,722 --> 00:33:47,792 back in the independent studios again, because this hasn't worked very well 682 00:33:47,859 --> 00:33:50,128 or shut them down or whatever the case may be. 683 00:33:50,128 --> 00:33:52,897 But in the case of Microsoft, it seems like they are selling that IP 684 00:33:52,897 --> 00:33:56,134 and not just trashing it, which is, in my opinion, a good thing. 685 00:33:56,834 --> 00:33:59,370 But at the end of the day, I think what's going to happen 686 00:33:59,370 --> 00:34:04,242 here is we're seeing the consoles and regular computers now getting to a point 687 00:34:04,242 --> 00:34:07,645 where they are pretty much equivalent in what they can do. 688 00:34:08,012 --> 00:34:12,483 Game consoles are unique in the standpoint that you develop software 689 00:34:12,483 --> 00:34:14,919 specifically for them. You know it runs on that platform. 690 00:34:14,919 --> 00:34:17,922 You don't have to worry about making it compatible with other things. 691 00:34:17,955 --> 00:34:20,958 So there are still advantages in that area. 692 00:34:21,159 --> 00:34:25,730 But on the flip side of it, you now have your computers plugged into HDMI. 693 00:34:25,763 --> 00:34:28,599 They can do the same video output, that kind of thing. 694 00:34:28,599 --> 00:34:29,700 But the second part of it 695 00:34:29,700 --> 00:34:33,171 that I think still makes consoles relevant is also the price 696 00:34:34,205 --> 00:34:36,040 to get a good gaming machine. 697 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:37,642 It's going to cost you a bill. 698 00:34:37,642 --> 00:34:39,110 Correct me if I'm wrong on this. 699 00:34:39,110 --> 00:34:45,917 At least $3,000 more and 1500 at least 1500 would be minimal though, 700 00:34:45,917 --> 00:34:51,255 because you know your video card alone, if for a good one, could be that much. 701 00:34:51,756 --> 00:34:52,090 Yeah, 702 00:34:52,090 --> 00:34:56,160 and your video game consoles are you know, they've gotten more expensive roughly. 703 00:34:56,194 --> 00:35:00,198 I don't know what, around about $500 now, give or take, depending on what it is. 704 00:35:01,032 --> 00:35:03,835 Projections have them going up to 1000 for the next gen. 705 00:35:03,835 --> 00:35:05,203 But I've seen that. 706 00:35:05,203 --> 00:35:05,870 Yeah, yeah. 707 00:35:05,870 --> 00:35:06,671 Who knows. 708 00:35:06,671 --> 00:35:09,574 So that even starts to put it closer to a full computer. 709 00:35:09,574 --> 00:35:11,409 But there still is a bit of a difference. 710 00:35:11,409 --> 00:35:14,479 And I think there's also something to be said that you turn the console on, 711 00:35:14,479 --> 00:35:15,613 it does what it's supposed to do, 712 00:35:15,613 --> 00:35:17,381 and you don't have the problems that can be associated 713 00:35:17,381 --> 00:35:21,219 with running a PC and trying to get it, you know, to work with different things. 714 00:35:21,219 --> 00:35:23,721 So our console is still relevant? Yes. 715 00:35:24,755 --> 00:35:28,192 If something happens that we will be talking about in depth 716 00:35:28,192 --> 00:35:32,363 at a later time, like Sony really did do away with all of their physical media 717 00:35:32,396 --> 00:35:33,631 now built this. Okay. 718 00:35:33,631 --> 00:35:35,600 So for anybody that hasn't heard, there was an announcement 719 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:39,370 made in the news by Sony that they're going to doing physical media 720 00:35:39,370 --> 00:35:43,207 of any kind by 2028, that would mean 721 00:35:43,207 --> 00:35:46,177 that the next generation of PlayStation would not have a media drive. 722 00:35:46,177 --> 00:35:48,446 Right now. You have that choice. You wouldn't have it anymore. 723 00:35:48,446 --> 00:35:50,815 But, Bill, you said there's been a lot of pushback on that. 724 00:35:50,815 --> 00:35:54,051 I think, yes, a lot of people were boycotting 725 00:35:54,051 --> 00:35:57,555 and dropping their PlayStation plus ships. 726 00:35:57,555 --> 00:36:01,259 And so Sony's walking back a little bit. 727 00:36:01,292 --> 00:36:02,460 But I don't know. 728 00:36:02,460 --> 00:36:05,696 It's it's a complicated thing about physical media. 729 00:36:05,730 --> 00:36:08,132 I think we have another question later on about that. 730 00:36:08,132 --> 00:36:09,967 Yeah, yeah, we'll get into that in some more depth. 731 00:36:09,967 --> 00:36:13,237 But and I've done a 180 on my belief in that too. 732 00:36:13,271 --> 00:36:17,408 So anyway, but I don't think Xbox is going away. 733 00:36:17,408 --> 00:36:20,411 I think what they're doing is actually going to make it more streamlined. 734 00:36:20,411 --> 00:36:24,282 I think we're going to see focusing them able to focus on specific games 735 00:36:24,282 --> 00:36:26,851 and make them better, instead of being all over the place, 736 00:36:26,851 --> 00:36:29,921 and let the independent studios also produce for the platform 737 00:36:29,921 --> 00:36:32,089 and focus on what they're good at. 738 00:36:32,089 --> 00:36:35,660 So I do see this kind of down the road probably being a good thing. 739 00:36:37,261 --> 00:36:37,962 All right. 740 00:36:37,962 --> 00:36:42,800 Is Ukraine really using video games to train drone operators? 741 00:36:42,934 --> 00:36:43,100 Yeah. 742 00:36:43,100 --> 00:36:43,701 So we did a 743 00:36:43,701 --> 00:36:47,004 we did a story on this recently and we've had a lot of questions come in. 744 00:36:47,004 --> 00:36:50,007 And the question answer to that is basically yes. 745 00:36:50,441 --> 00:36:52,810 Now there's two different things going on here. 746 00:36:52,810 --> 00:36:56,681 There is software that's being used to actually train the drone operators. 747 00:36:56,914 --> 00:36:59,917 And then there's a game you can get from steam 748 00:37:00,084 --> 00:37:04,355 called the Ukraine Flight Drone Simulator, about 30 bucks. 749 00:37:04,555 --> 00:37:08,559 And you can learn how to fly a drone and what it's like to do it 750 00:37:08,559 --> 00:37:10,861 with real video footage and some other things. 751 00:37:10,861 --> 00:37:13,397 I would imagine that some of the more 752 00:37:13,397 --> 00:37:15,900 clandestine things that they use are taken out of the software. 753 00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:17,902 At least I sure hope it is, 754 00:37:17,902 --> 00:37:21,072 because you can imagine the enemy is probably going to play this game to. 755 00:37:21,205 --> 00:37:24,942 Oh yeah, so far, Russia hasn't been able to fly drones pretty well. 756 00:37:24,942 --> 00:37:27,845 So, you know, hopefully they won't learn too well from this. 757 00:37:27,845 --> 00:37:28,579 But anyway, 758 00:37:30,381 --> 00:37:33,351 you know, if I was Ukraine, I'd put a few things in the simulator 759 00:37:33,451 --> 00:37:38,122 that if you flew a real drone that way it would create bad things happening. 760 00:37:38,122 --> 00:37:41,058 So, you know, hopefully that's where that went with that. 761 00:37:41,058 --> 00:37:43,261 But in any event, that's just an opinion of mine. 762 00:37:43,261 --> 00:37:45,329 The game itself, I've tried it is really good. 763 00:37:45,329 --> 00:37:48,332 It is a lot of fun. It's very realistic. 764 00:37:48,966 --> 00:37:50,968 You know, along the lines of like Call of Duty and things, 765 00:37:50,968 --> 00:37:53,971 because there's actual video from real drone missions in it, 766 00:37:53,971 --> 00:37:57,008 and the way that it operates is basically the same way. 767 00:37:57,008 --> 00:38:00,411 I'm going to see if I can interface the controller for my drone 768 00:38:00,411 --> 00:38:04,015 into the computer over Bluetooth, because then I'd have the actual controls. 769 00:38:04,015 --> 00:38:04,982 I don't know if that's going to work. 770 00:38:04,982 --> 00:38:06,484 I will let you know if it does, 771 00:38:06,484 --> 00:38:09,420 but I do recommend the game if you're into this kind of thing. 772 00:38:09,420 --> 00:38:10,688 It's actually a lot of fun. 773 00:38:11,822 --> 00:38:13,391 Well, don't they run a lot of like, 774 00:38:13,391 --> 00:38:17,762 simulators for things like, aircraft pilots now? And. 775 00:38:17,995 --> 00:38:22,433 Oh, yeah, my eldest stepson did it for his driving tests or something. 776 00:38:23,100 --> 00:38:25,636 Hopefully he didn't learn on pole position, but anyway. 777 00:38:25,636 --> 00:38:28,639 No, the. 778 00:38:28,673 --> 00:38:31,175 No simulators because of the fact 779 00:38:31,175 --> 00:38:35,379 that virtual reality and even computers are like real reality. 780 00:38:35,413 --> 00:38:37,982 Now to a point, flight sims have been out there. 781 00:38:37,982 --> 00:38:41,519 I mean, you can get Microsoft Flight Simulator for your Atari 130 XY. 782 00:38:41,552 --> 00:38:43,087 That's nothing new. 783 00:38:43,087 --> 00:38:45,222 And these things have been used all over the place. 784 00:38:45,222 --> 00:38:48,959 The military even uses some of the, like, Call of Duty type games 785 00:38:49,260 --> 00:38:50,895 for training their soldiers. 786 00:38:50,895 --> 00:38:53,564 So the idea that this is a new idea. 787 00:38:53,564 --> 00:38:57,201 No, but I have not seen another drone simulator. 788 00:38:57,201 --> 00:38:58,836 I think it is a first for that. 789 00:39:02,073 --> 00:39:03,574 Is it possible to turn off 790 00:39:03,574 --> 00:39:07,645 the monitor that is sending information to my vehicles manufacturer? 791 00:39:08,045 --> 00:39:10,614 Yeah, again, a lot of questions came in from this story, 792 00:39:10,614 --> 00:39:13,617 which was a few weeks back, maybe a few months back now. 793 00:39:13,818 --> 00:39:19,557 But so the kind of starting point of this, 794 00:39:19,557 --> 00:39:22,660 if you're not aware of it, is pretty much all. 795 00:39:22,660 --> 00:39:25,196 I'm not going to say all because there's probably a holdout somewhere. 796 00:39:25,196 --> 00:39:28,999 But pretty much all new vehicles have something called telematics 797 00:39:28,999 --> 00:39:30,735 or a variation of that. 798 00:39:30,735 --> 00:39:34,572 And basically what that is, is there's a cellular module in the car 799 00:39:34,572 --> 00:39:37,742 somewhere that's sending information back to the manufacturer 800 00:39:37,742 --> 00:39:40,878 on how you drive, where you go, all of these different type of things. 801 00:39:41,245 --> 00:39:44,782 That information in turn, by a lot of manufacturers is being resold 802 00:39:44,782 --> 00:39:46,150 to third parties. 803 00:39:46,150 --> 00:39:49,019 And this has created some controversy and some problems. 804 00:39:49,019 --> 00:39:52,056 As you can imagine, one of the big ones is, is when your insurance goes up. 805 00:39:52,089 --> 00:39:53,958 Well, I haven't had an accident. 806 00:39:53,958 --> 00:39:56,961 I haven't had any kind of tickets. 807 00:39:56,994 --> 00:39:59,063 Yeah, but the information your car told us on 808 00:39:59,063 --> 00:40:01,165 how you were driving makes us think you're a higher risk. 809 00:40:01,165 --> 00:40:04,235 And that's exactly what's going to hurt your car into a narc. 810 00:40:04,602 --> 00:40:05,836 It turns it into an arc. 811 00:40:05,836 --> 00:40:09,673 And the other part of it, too, is if the manufacturer is selling 812 00:40:09,673 --> 00:40:13,577 my information, I should be paid for that or have the opportunity to opt out. 813 00:40:13,611 --> 00:40:14,879 You don't. 814 00:40:14,879 --> 00:40:15,479 You? You know, 815 00:40:15,479 --> 00:40:17,681 there's no way to go into the software and turn it off. 816 00:40:17,681 --> 00:40:20,684 And I frankly, in my opinion, even if that was a thing, I don't think 817 00:40:20,684 --> 00:40:22,052 I trust it. 818 00:40:22,052 --> 00:40:26,190 So well, I would also question some of these these 819 00:40:27,525 --> 00:40:28,359 telematics. 820 00:40:28,359 --> 00:40:30,661 Is that what you were calling them? 821 00:40:30,661 --> 00:40:33,831 The thing is, is what if you are driving in an area 822 00:40:34,131 --> 00:40:39,003 where you have to be aggressive to protect yourself and your car, 823 00:40:39,670 --> 00:40:44,608 and since they're not there, they're not going to understand 824 00:40:44,642 --> 00:40:48,112 maybe an acceleration, a d acceleration 825 00:40:48,112 --> 00:40:51,982 that was quick or, or, or a shift left or right. 826 00:40:52,249 --> 00:40:53,918 They don't know what's going on. 827 00:40:53,918 --> 00:40:57,354 So they're making assumptions that might be unfair. 828 00:40:57,822 --> 00:40:59,657 And that's a very big thing. 829 00:40:59,657 --> 00:41:01,959 Just a real quick aside on that for our commercial vehicles 830 00:41:01,959 --> 00:41:04,128 we have progressive insurance and we use snapshot. 831 00:41:04,128 --> 00:41:07,198 It gives you quite a bit of a discount, but it's the same idea. 832 00:41:07,631 --> 00:41:08,966 It monitors how you drive. 833 00:41:08,966 --> 00:41:10,901 Now the big difference here is this is optional. 834 00:41:10,901 --> 00:41:12,803 I can pay more money and not use snapshots. 835 00:41:12,803 --> 00:41:14,538 So it does make a difference. 836 00:41:14,538 --> 00:41:17,541 But yeah, if you have a say where you're hard braking 837 00:41:17,675 --> 00:41:20,511 because the guy in front of you came to a dead stop, well, yeah. 838 00:41:20,511 --> 00:41:21,178 Heartbreaking. 839 00:41:21,178 --> 00:41:23,814 Something that would create an issue with this. 840 00:41:23,814 --> 00:41:26,617 But if you didn't do it would have gone into the back of the car. 841 00:41:26,617 --> 00:41:27,251 Yeah. 842 00:41:27,251 --> 00:41:31,822 There are times where now I will say progressive also has built into the system 843 00:41:31,856 --> 00:41:34,725 a certain amount of these things that they consider to be real world. 844 00:41:34,725 --> 00:41:37,161 It's going to happen and it doesn't count against you. 845 00:41:37,161 --> 00:41:39,763 Now, if you did it a lot, then you might start to have a problem. 846 00:41:39,763 --> 00:41:42,766 So there is a kind of a variant for that. 847 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:46,537 But in answer to this question and again this show is for entertainment 848 00:41:46,537 --> 00:41:47,238 purposes only. 849 00:41:47,238 --> 00:41:51,242 I am not recommending you do this, but you can go online and find instructions 850 00:41:51,242 --> 00:41:54,912 on how to physically disconnect the box from your car in most cases. 851 00:41:55,446 --> 00:41:58,482 But if you damage your vehicle and it can cause warranty problems 852 00:41:58,482 --> 00:42:00,050 and that kind of stuff, 853 00:42:00,050 --> 00:42:03,954 that is an issue now on vehicles like four and a few others, it's very easy. 854 00:42:03,954 --> 00:42:07,124 It's just a matter of disconnecting a few wires and you can go online. 855 00:42:07,391 --> 00:42:09,693 Toyota as an example, has made this more difficult, 856 00:42:09,693 --> 00:42:12,530 but if you disconnect the box, it also takes out this. 857 00:42:12,530 --> 00:42:17,101 I think it's the right front speaker and the window on the right front door. 858 00:42:17,501 --> 00:42:19,670 So you would have to know how to put a bypass circuit. 859 00:42:19,670 --> 00:42:22,339 Now there's instructions on how to do that on line two. 860 00:42:22,339 --> 00:42:24,174 What about the Teslas? 861 00:42:24,174 --> 00:42:25,442 Does the car just die? 862 00:42:26,477 --> 00:42:30,814 I am not going to comment on that because I think if you tried to bypass. 863 00:42:30,848 --> 00:42:31,615 Yeah, I'm not. 864 00:42:31,615 --> 00:42:34,351 I have a funny feeling that Tesla police would show up 865 00:42:34,351 --> 00:42:37,688 while you're starting to do that and you're messing with the computer. 866 00:42:37,688 --> 00:42:40,991 This is now, you know, I don't know, but, yeah, I, I, 867 00:42:41,325 --> 00:42:43,761 I have not seen a way to do that on a Tesla. 868 00:42:43,761 --> 00:42:46,130 And, Gretchen, I think you're right. I don't think it would run. 869 00:42:46,130 --> 00:42:47,598 Yeah. 870 00:42:47,598 --> 00:42:49,099 Just die. 871 00:42:49,099 --> 00:42:51,335 Oh. Okay. 872 00:42:51,335 --> 00:42:52,570 Here's our next question. 873 00:42:52,570 --> 00:42:55,205 What is happening with physical media? 874 00:42:55,205 --> 00:42:55,439 Yeah. 875 00:42:55,439 --> 00:42:58,075 So we started to talk about this when we were talking about X-Box 876 00:42:58,075 --> 00:43:01,211 a little bit, and we're going to deep dive into this further. 877 00:43:01,512 --> 00:43:05,015 So again, we started to comment on the idea that Sony had come up 878 00:43:05,015 --> 00:43:10,220 with a statement that they're going to discontinue all physical media by 2028. 879 00:43:10,220 --> 00:43:11,155 And Bill, like you said earlier, 880 00:43:11,155 --> 00:43:14,058 there's been such a pushback that they may not do that now. 881 00:43:14,058 --> 00:43:17,127 But the thing of it is with this 882 00:43:17,194 --> 00:43:20,497 is I like digital content 883 00:43:21,031 --> 00:43:25,769 because I can use it anywhere I go, so I don't have to bring the CD with me. 884 00:43:25,769 --> 00:43:27,071 I don't, you know, that kind of a thing. 885 00:43:27,071 --> 00:43:29,607 If I'm watching a movie, I can switch the televisions it's on. 886 00:43:29,607 --> 00:43:31,642 But where I have really changed my opinion on 887 00:43:31,642 --> 00:43:35,045 this is because of the fact that in recent years, number one, 888 00:43:35,813 --> 00:43:38,382 a lot of the platforms that were writing this have gone away. 889 00:43:38,382 --> 00:43:43,087 And what you paid for, you no longer have access to think Redbox as a, for example. 890 00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:44,888 And there are other. 891 00:43:44,888 --> 00:43:47,891 The second part of it too is with modern equipment, 892 00:43:47,958 --> 00:43:51,195 you can get a physical copy of something, 893 00:43:51,962 --> 00:43:54,498 rip it or copy it off, or whatever the case may be. 894 00:43:54,498 --> 00:43:57,167 I am not speaking to the legality on that, but I'm just speaking 895 00:43:57,167 --> 00:43:59,336 to the technical possibility of it. 896 00:43:59,336 --> 00:44:03,040 But on a central server, I use a Plex server that runs on a device 897 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,076 I have here, and I can still have the best of both worlds. 898 00:44:06,076 --> 00:44:10,581 But the thing of it is, is the physical disc or cartridge 899 00:44:10,581 --> 00:44:13,951 or whatever it is, is something that you can hold in your hand. 900 00:44:14,284 --> 00:44:16,353 You can resell it if you want to. 901 00:44:16,353 --> 00:44:19,356 You can hang it from your rearview mirror or in your car if you want to. 902 00:44:19,356 --> 00:44:23,360 The point of it is that something physical that you have that is, 903 00:44:23,727 --> 00:44:26,563 I don't know, quantifiable digital content. 904 00:44:26,563 --> 00:44:28,499 And again comment 905 00:44:28,499 --> 00:44:31,502 if there's our are exceptions to this I haven't been able to find any. 906 00:44:31,969 --> 00:44:35,139 And Bill you might be able to talk about this a little bit more than I can. 907 00:44:35,406 --> 00:44:38,542 But my understanding is once you download digital content, you can't resell it. 908 00:44:38,542 --> 00:44:40,210 Is that accurate? 909 00:44:40,210 --> 00:44:41,812 Right? Okay. 910 00:44:41,812 --> 00:44:43,714 So you buy a game 911 00:44:43,714 --> 00:44:45,716 if you get it on physical media, which by the way, 912 00:44:45,716 --> 00:44:47,818 it costs about the same amount as digital content. 913 00:44:47,818 --> 00:44:49,520 Now to I've noticed that. 914 00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,890 And you play it and you don't like it or you're bored with it. 915 00:44:52,890 --> 00:44:54,358 You can throw it on eBay, whatever. 916 00:44:54,358 --> 00:44:56,994 Take it to GameStop or whatever you want to do with it. 917 00:44:56,994 --> 00:45:01,565 But the digital one that costs the same amount you can't do anything with. 918 00:45:01,899 --> 00:45:03,367 And Bill, again, maybe you can speak to this. 919 00:45:03,367 --> 00:45:05,335 What happens if your console breaks down? 920 00:45:05,335 --> 00:45:08,038 Are you able to sign in to the account and redownload it, or is it 921 00:45:08,038 --> 00:45:09,339 even locked out from that 922 00:45:10,407 --> 00:45:11,041 in the game? 923 00:45:11,041 --> 00:45:15,012 In gaming systems, yes, you can usually redownload it because it's countdown. 924 00:45:15,479 --> 00:45:19,183 Okay, but if I wanted to take my game to your house and play it, I couldn't. 925 00:45:20,851 --> 00:45:22,619 I mean, if 926 00:45:22,619 --> 00:45:25,622 if you signed in your account, I believe you can. 927 00:45:26,156 --> 00:45:26,390 Okay. 928 00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:30,327 And would that be a challenge on a or or the consoles designed to do that? 929 00:45:31,495 --> 00:45:34,498 PlayStation is I don't know about the others. 930 00:45:35,132 --> 00:45:37,701 No. But even so, you're still locked into it. 931 00:45:37,701 --> 00:45:40,671 And it is definitely, 932 00:45:41,371 --> 00:45:43,607 I don't know, I like having the physical discs. 933 00:45:43,607 --> 00:45:46,176 They take up space and all the rest of it. But I agree with you. 934 00:45:46,176 --> 00:45:50,781 I, I have DVDs and CDs and I don't want to make them go away. 935 00:45:51,381 --> 00:45:55,152 And I've made a USB drive that I put in the car with the songs I like. 936 00:45:55,152 --> 00:45:58,655 And I also subscribe to Amazon Music, so I do stream it. 937 00:45:59,356 --> 00:46:02,526 It's not that I'm against digital platforms, 938 00:46:02,793 --> 00:46:05,963 but it is becoming something where it gives, it takes away 939 00:46:05,963 --> 00:46:10,134 your control of things that you're paying for, and to me, that's a problem. 940 00:46:10,968 --> 00:46:16,273 I think it depends on the media is CDs and music and movies. 941 00:46:16,273 --> 00:46:19,376 I think physical media is very important 942 00:46:19,977 --> 00:46:24,214 because these streaming services and stuff will just take it away and it's gone. 943 00:46:24,248 --> 00:46:24,815 Right. 944 00:46:28,085 --> 00:46:29,286 In those medias, though, 945 00:46:29,286 --> 00:46:32,289 you are allowed to make digital copies. 946 00:46:33,524 --> 00:46:35,959 If I'm not mistaken, by American law. 947 00:46:35,959 --> 00:46:36,960 Yeah, right. 948 00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:38,061 Other countries into the law. 949 00:46:38,061 --> 00:46:42,399 But I think you are right from a layman's perspective, you have some right. 950 00:46:42,399 --> 00:46:45,636 Under the Millennium Digital Copyright Act, make a backup copy. 951 00:46:45,636 --> 00:46:48,639 Essentially. Correct. 952 00:46:49,339 --> 00:46:52,810 Video games I have a different opinion on 953 00:46:52,976 --> 00:46:55,979 because the. 954 00:46:57,481 --> 00:46:59,750 Registrations and stuff like, 955 00:46:59,750 --> 00:47:02,753 basically, even if you have a physical copy, 956 00:47:03,220 --> 00:47:08,525 they could take away your ability to upgrade it or update it. 957 00:47:08,592 --> 00:47:12,729 And you're an actual rights, your digital rights media 958 00:47:12,763 --> 00:47:15,766 or DRM. 959 00:47:15,833 --> 00:47:19,703 It's a it has happened where there are physical discs 960 00:47:19,703 --> 00:47:23,841 of a game that you cannot play because they've just taken away for it. 961 00:47:23,874 --> 00:47:26,877 Right. So it doesn't matter. 962 00:47:27,177 --> 00:47:30,113 It doesn't matter that you have a physical copy of it. 963 00:47:30,113 --> 00:47:32,583 And, you know, I think I think the lady's changed for that. 964 00:47:32,583 --> 00:47:35,619 But yeah, I think the point to speak to on that too 965 00:47:35,652 --> 00:47:39,656 is if you have a online game, eventually the servers are going to go away. 966 00:47:39,656 --> 00:47:41,491 It's not an if it's a win. Yeah. 967 00:47:41,491 --> 00:47:42,793 And then it will disable the game. 968 00:47:42,793 --> 00:47:47,364 But I know James, who does the vault had purchased the game to review. 969 00:47:47,364 --> 00:47:51,935 It was terrible, but we couldn't resell it because it was a digital game, you know? 970 00:47:52,302 --> 00:47:55,239 And in that case, having the disc would have been a good thing. 971 00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,609 But a lot of software, you have the situation. 972 00:47:58,609 --> 00:48:00,410 This has always been the thing where you activate it 973 00:48:00,410 --> 00:48:03,113 and you might not be able to activate it again, that kind of thing. 974 00:48:03,113 --> 00:48:04,882 And you know all of that. 975 00:48:04,882 --> 00:48:08,418 So like you say, Bill, digital rights management plays into it. 976 00:48:08,418 --> 00:48:10,954 And the other thing of it is, is I've noticed a lot of games where you do 977 00:48:10,954 --> 00:48:12,022 get the disc, 978 00:48:12,022 --> 00:48:16,493 all the disc does is create an entry point to download the software online anyway. 979 00:48:16,526 --> 00:48:18,562 Yeah. You know, so, 980 00:48:19,930 --> 00:48:22,165 which is another whole topic and another whole story. 981 00:48:22,165 --> 00:48:24,568 We should dive into that one of these days. So anyway. 982 00:48:24,568 --> 00:48:25,002 All right. 983 00:48:25,002 --> 00:48:28,005 Well, we're out of time for our questions, believe it or not. 984 00:48:28,372 --> 00:48:31,942 So I will leave you with this user friendly dot show. 985 00:48:31,975 --> 00:48:34,478 Like we said at the top is the place to send in your questions. 986 00:48:34,478 --> 00:48:35,279 We'd love to get them. 987 00:48:35,279 --> 00:48:38,515 We love to answer them because this is a big part of how 988 00:48:38,515 --> 00:48:43,453 we do our programing, and we love to see what you like us to cover. 989 00:48:43,754 --> 00:48:46,757 Let us know what we should dig into more and let us know! 990 00:48:46,790 --> 00:48:48,926 You know what you're not too worried about. 991 00:48:48,926 --> 00:48:52,863 So until next week, this is User Friendly 2.0, keeping you safe on the cutting edge. 992 00:48:53,497 --> 00:48:55,032 User Friendly 2.0. 993 00:48:55,032 --> 00:48:58,201 Copyright 2013 to 2026 994 00:48:58,335 --> 00:49:01,638 by User Friendly Media Group incorporated. 995 00:49:02,005 --> 00:49:03,640 All rights reserved. 996 00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:07,110 The content is the opinion of the show's participants 997 00:49:07,377 --> 00:49:11,415 and does not necessarily reflect this station or platform. 998 00:49:12,015 --> 00:49:15,953 Requests for material use, interviews, disclosures, 999 00:49:16,086 --> 00:49:19,089 and other correspondence may be viewed 1000 00:49:19,089 --> 00:49:22,159 and submitted at UserFriendly.Show