184: Google's $700 Million Settlement and Apple's Race Against the Ban: Dissecting Tech Giants' Legal Battles and Cybersecurity Insights with Laura Bell. TomTom and Microsoft are redefining vehicle navigation | Air Date: 12/17 - 12/23/23

Get ready to unravel the complexities of Google's recent antitrust woes and their hefty $700 million settlement with us. As tech giants clash with regulators, we dissect the fallout and its potential ripple effects throughout the industry. Meanwhile, Apple races to outmaneuver a US ban on their latest smartwatches, and we're on the pulse, analyzing their strategy to modify crucial technology under the wire. Laura Bell of SafeStack Academy graces our discussion, imparting wisdom on cybersecurity practices that empower you to safeguard your digital life with finesse and ease.

The balance between personal liberties and societal safety takes center stage as we debate the merits and drawbacks of AI-driven initiatives to curb drunk driving.  Our conversation then shifts gears, diving into the intricacies of Apple's legal entanglements and the bold steps they're taking in their standoff with Massimo Corp, all while keeping an eye on the evolving partnership between TomTom and Microsoft that's redefining vehicle navigation.

As we wrap up, you'll get an unfiltered glimpse into the rollercoaster of tech support experiences, from the triumphs to the tribulations. We share a toast with our whiskey of choice, marking the occasion of our TechTime Crappy Sweater Day with a blend of humor and cheer.

Thank you for tuning in to Techtime Radio with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go "Hmmm" Technology news of the week for December 17th – 23rd, 2023

Episode 184: Starts at 1:48

--- [Now on Today's Show]: Starts at 3:32
--- [Top Stories in Technology]: Starts at 5:45

• Google is paying a $700 million fine, and you’re getting some of it - https://tinyurl.com/kr744wnh
• Apple is scrambling to tweak its watches before the looming U.S. Ban - https://tinyurl.com/bdh26s29
• Technology to stop drunk drivers could be coming to every new car in the nation - https://tinyurl.com/mwwtj2uh
• Get ready for a ‘fully integrated’ conversational driving assistant from TomTom - https://tinyurl.com/3dsz53wy

--- [Pick of the Day - Whiskey Tasting Reveal]: Starts at 25:44
Four Roses Single Barrel Strength OBSK | 111.62 Proof | $100.00 MSRP
 
--- [Technology Insider]: Starts at 29:35
Laura Bell Main the founder and CEO of SafeStack Academy, aims to make cybersecurity accessible for everyone and any organization.

--- [This Week in Technology]: Starts at 41:47
This Week in Technology: December 22, 1882, The First Electric Christmas Tree Lights 

--- [Marc's Whiskey Mumble]: Starts at 44:30
Marc Gregoire's review of this week's whiskey

--- [Technology Fail of the Week]: Starts at 48:49
This week’s “Technology Fail” comes to us from Xfinity

--- [Nathan Nugget]: Starts at
None - Ran out of Time
 
--- [Pick of the Day Whiskey Review]: Starts at 54:45
Four Roses Single Barrel Strength OBSK | 111.62 Proof | $100.00 MSRP
Mike: Thumbs Up
Nathan: Thumbs Up

Transcript

Nathan Mumm: 0:00

Hey, mike.

Mike Gorday: 0:00

Yo, what's up.

Nathan Mumm: 0:01

Hey, so you know what. We need people to start liking our social media pages.

Mike Gorday: 0:05

As far as YouTube is concerned, we would like you to like it and subscribe to our podcast.

Nathan Mumm: 0:11

Yes, you know how you can find our YouTube page, how you go to YouTube and just type in tech time rating. That's it. That's it. That's that simple. Like, like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. You need to visit us online, also at Twitch. You know what our Twitch page is? I imagine it's at tech time radio. That's correct. So if you just go to any Twitchtv and you look for tech time radio, we come on up as tech time radio. So visit us on Twitch, subscribe there, because you can see the live feeds themselves. And guess what, what? We also have a page on X.

Mike Gorday: 0:40

Okay, so what is that?

Nathan Mumm: 0:42

That's tech time radio, that's at tech time radio or hashtag.

Mike Gorday: 0:45

Hashtag tech time radio. The point is, if you like our show, like and subscribe to our social media. Okay, so I think that's pretty much covers it. Like and subscribe to our social media.

Nathan Mumm: 1:01

Like us today. We need you to like us.

Mike Gorday: 1:03

Anything doesn't get liked a lot at home, so who's begging for everybody? Please like us. Please like us. That's right, okay.

Nathan Mumm: 1:09

Thank you guys, remember techtimeradiocom.

Mike Gorday: 1:13

Techtimeradiocom. All right, like us.

Nathan Mumm: 1:15

And subscribe or subscribe, and like us.

Speaker 3: 1:18

Broadcasting across the nation, from the East Coast to the West, keeping you up to date on technology while enjoying a little whiskey on the side, with leading edge topics, along with special guests to navigate technology in a segmented, stylized radio program. The information that will make you go, hmmm. Pull up a seat, raise a glass with our hosts as we spend the next hour talking about technology for the common person. Welcome to tech time radio with Nathan Mum.

Nathan Mumm: 1:50

Welcome to tech time with Nathan Mum, the show that makes you go hmmm. Technology news of the week to show for the everyday person, talking about technology broadcasting across the nation with insightful segments on subjects weeks ahead of the mainstream media. We welcome our radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news each week. Our show covers the weekly top technology subjects without a political agenda. We verify the facts and we do it with a sense of humor, in less than 60 minutes and, of course, with a little whiskey on the side. We are live streaming to your North show and five of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitch TV, twitter, facebook, twitter, slash X sorry Facebook and LinkedIn. We encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradiocom and become a Patreon supporter at patreoncom forward slash tech time radio. I'm Nathan Mum, your host, a technologist with over 30 years of technology expertise working for Fortune 500 companies across the country. Today in the studio we have co host Mike Reday and Mark Gregoire. Our whiskey time taster Well, whiskey time taster.

Mike Gorday: 2:48

What happened there?

Nathan Mumm: 2:49

A little bit of whiskey before the show. Mike's an award winning author originally from Arizona. Mike's a human behavior expert living in the Seattle area with a master's degree in forensic psychology. Mike is here to keep me from geeking out while providing insight into human behavior and how it interacts with technology. Mark Gregoire is here, glad to be back in the studio, our whiskey connoisseur and senior technical executive with a 30 year record of establishing technology solutions. He's a skilled whiskey drinker in our go to pick of the day whiskey expert. We are friends from different backgrounds but bring the best technology show possible every week for our family, friends and fans to enjoy, with, of course, our producer, odie, running the board. Let's start today's show.

Speaker 3: 3:34

Now on today's show.

Nathan Mumm: 3:39

I was my coffin a little bit. Are you feeling OK, ok All right.

Nathan Mumm: 3:44

Today on Tech Time, google 700 million dollar fine was going to be talking about, and everyone's getting a slice of the pie. We dissect the details and how it ripples through the tech universe. Apples like a sprinter, racing around the clock. Why? Because US ban is looming and they're tweaking their watches like mad scientists. But is it enough? Then we have our guest today on the show, laura Bell. Main is the brains behind a safe stack Academy, and it's a mission to democratize cybersecurity. Get ready for insights, inspiration and a sprinkler of digital magic. The holidays are here and drinking is on the rise. But what if you could eliminate drunk driving? Isn't that kind of a whiskey tasting show? And then we're going to be talking about eliminating drunk driving, but we don't drink and drive drunk. So I guess it's OK, but I just find it that's kind of a little funny parallel. So we'll have Mike get to talk about that, since he'll be our expert in that.

Mike Gorday: 4:42

You're only, it's only funny, because never mind OK.

Nathan Mumm: 4:46

All right, buckle up. My friends were exploring a game changing technology that could put on the brakes for drunk driving. Finally, imagine a new car having a built in system to keep us safe, all by AI. Tom Tom and Microsoft are tag teaming to do this. What does it mean? More on the complete navigation, personalization recommendations and a dash of future flare. Ready for the ride, with the new Microsoft Tom Tom AI to guide you All right. In addition, of course, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment. Our technology failed the week and the possible Nathan negative time allows regarding AI and Geese.

Mike Gorday: 5:23

Are you?

Nathan Mumm: 5:23

serious, so sit back. What's?

Mike Gorday: 5:24

that.

Nathan Mumm: 5:25

Trying to do the geese. I am, I am. So sit back, raise a glass and welcome to Tech Time Radio. As always, we have our Pick of the Day whiskey tasting during the commercials to see if our selected whiskey pick gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show. So sit back, raise a glass and welcome to Tech Time with Nathan Mum. Now it's time for the latest headlines in the world of technology.

Speaker 3: 5:46

Here are our top technology stories of the week.

Nathan Mumm: 5:50

All right. So everyone Google is paying a seven hundred million dollar. Fine, and guess what? You, as a consumer, are going to be getting some of it if you have an Android phone.

Mike Gorday: 6:00

So you have an Android phone, right? I have an.

Nathan Mumm: 6:01

Android. Ok, mark, you have an Android phone, right. All right. So guess what? You are going to be getting some money back on this. You're going to like this. Well, I'm going to get what? Four cents.

Mike Gorday: 6:10

Well, maybe, even maybe a little bit more than that.

Nathan Mumm: 6:12

We have our we have our reporter in the LA area, tom Geichen, with more on the story.

Speaker 6: 6:18

Google parent, alphabet, agrees to pay seven hundred million dollars and make changes to its app store, settling one of several antitrust challenges to the search engine company. The settlement resolves claims by a group of states that Google operated its app store, google Play, as an illegal monopoly. According to a court approved plan, alphabet will contribute six hundred and thirty million dollars to a settlement fund distributed to benefit consumers and pay seventy million dollars into a fund used by the states. Last week, the company also lost a case brought by video game maker Epic Games, alleging that alphabet had squeezed excess profit from app developers. I wish you guys in the studio happy holidays. Odie, back to you.

Nathan Mumm: 7:04

All right, so let's talk about this. So this is like breaking news that happened this morning. So this is so think if you're Tuesdays off, what if you're just Google, who's confirmed that they are going to be paying seven hundred million as a part of a settlement regarding the antitrust concerns around Google Play Store. The Google Play Store itself essentially, in July of two thousand and twenty one we talked about it over thirty states plus Washington DC DC followed a lawsuit following Google over its business practices related to the Google Play Store on Android. Specifically, the lawsuit targeted fees.

Nathan Mumm: 7:41

Google charge developers for use of the Play Store, so essentially some companies like the Apple environment you can do development on there and you don't pay until your application goes live in itself. But essentially Google charges developers just to use the Play Store and have it up and going to test it out for their development processes and alleged the lack of competition in the Play Stores has been allowed. Google settled the lawsuit this past September and now Google has announced the details of the settlement. Out of the total of the seven hundred million for the settlement, six hundred and thirty million will be distributed for the benefit of consumers. In other words, google is paying that money directly to people who have used the Play Store. Have you used the Google Play Store in the last since August 16th, two thousand and sixteen to?

Mike Gorday: 8:31

download even a free app. I have downloaded several apps from the Play Store, so so you're going to be eligible and you're going to receive, at minimum, two dollars back from Google.

Nathan Mumm: 8:44

Where are they going to send it? Well, they're going to send it to your Google account, so it's going to be credit on there, so you have to use it in the Google Play Store, but they're going to give you two dollars back. It's currently unclear when these payments will start going out, but you should automatically be notified when it happens. A couple of dollars in your pocket may not be significant amount of money, but still two dollars is better than he had before. The remaining 70 million is going to go to a fund that's used by the states. That details what the money will be used for aren't mentioned. So essentially, seven million dollars is going to all these states, split between each of those, and each of those are going to have the ability to draw on that 70 million dollar fund. So that's pretty big news Google got in its settlement in itself.

Mike Gorday: 9:28

I think people in Google are probably sitting around going so.

Nathan Mumm: 9:32

Well, yeah.

Mike Gorday: 9:33

So again.

Nathan Mumm: 9:34

Well, I would say it's probably more of the again syndrome, right? So I mean they get they. They just lost to Epic. So essentially, google is kind of in trouble right now for some of their business practices.

Mike Gorday: 9:45

Not as bad as what met in Facebook has done, and yet they keep getting in trouble.

Nathan Mumm: 9:50

Well, that's because the fines are pretty insignificant.

Mike Gorday: 9:52

Yeah, when you look at, when you look at the billions of dollars, you make per month yeah.

Nathan Mumm: 9:57

A million dollar. Fine, isn't going to really hurt you too much. But guess what consumers we always talk about what happens to the consumer money? You, as a Google Play Store owner, are going to get two bucks back. So I can do an.

Mike Gorday: 10:07

You know, I've never bought anything off of the Google Store.

Marc Gregoire: 10:10

Oh really.

Mike Gorday: 10:11

No, I only use the free apps.

Nathan Mumm: 10:12

OK, ok.

Mike Gorday: 10:14

I've bought a couple apps that I never buy anything off of, so I'm going to get a free two bucks. I get free two bucks.

Nathan Mumm: 10:19

That I have to spend. Sometimes you've used your Google Store. Sometimes you've used your, your Google phone to load an app that you ended up paying forty dollars for, but you just don't pay.

Mike Gorday: 10:29

that wasn't good. That wasn't from the Google Store, that's right. That's right.

Nathan Mumm: 10:32

All right, I think you have story number two right.

Mike Gorday: 10:35

Yeah, we're going to talk about technology that is supposed to stop drunk drivers, which might be coming to every car in the nation. Ok, federal automobile regulators say they've taken the first step toward making technology that prevents drunk and impaired driving standard in new cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Tuesday that such technology could help end the problem that kills thousands of people in the US each year.

Mike Gorday: 11:03

Impaired driving crashes are 100 percent preventable, and there is simply no use or reason to drive impaired or by alcohol or drugs. This is the administrator, ann Carlson, said in a statement. According to NHTSA, it will allow regulators to collect information about the current state of technology used to detect and prevent impaired driving, figure out if it could be implemented nationwide. Some technologies in development include breath and touch sensors to detect whether somebody drank alcohol, as well as cameras that can monitor a person's eye movements to tell if they're inhibited. Mothers against drunk driving applauded the announcement that it would push for the implementation of the technology as soon as possible.

Mike Gorday: 11:47

Everyone involved in this rulemaking process at NHTSA and everyone designing impaired driving prevention technologies at car companies need to understand that this is about saving human beings from the horror that they've experienced, from the injuries and deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. This comes from mad national president Tess Rowland, who was hit head on by a drunk driver in 2021. We must get this done, liza at stake. She added. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents automakers, said in a statement that I was reviewing the announcement. According to NHTSA, 13,384 people were killed in drunk driving accidents in 2021, making it one of the top causes of death on the road. Death, injuries and property damage also amount to some $280 billion in lost wages, medical costs and more. The bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 compels NHTSA to develop a federal standard requiring new passenger vehicles to include technology that can prevent drunk and impaired driving, as long as it is reasonable and practicable and can reduce crashes and deaths.

Nathan Mumm: 13:05

All right, so let's talk about this right. So they already have the blowing go right. So that's essentially a device that you have to blow in before you can start your vehicle. When I was looking at the technology this is what they're coming up with is essentially some sensors that you would blow in to see what your alcohol level is before you're able to start your vehicle.

Mike Gorday: 13:24

Here's where they're going to run into problems. Okay, do you want that in your car?

Nathan Mumm: 13:28

I have no problem with it in my car.

Mike Gorday: 13:31

A lot of people are not going to like that being in their car, correct, because that infringes upon their rights.

Nathan Mumm: 13:38

Is it? But is it the right to drive a vehicle well impaired? No, Okay.

Mike Gorday: 13:46

It's intrusive and if I have to get into a car and blow into it and I don't drink, that's going to be a problem for me. Why is that? Because it's the assumption is that I am a drinker and that I will make the choice to drive my car.

Nathan Mumm: 14:04

So it looks like the device that they're. I did a bunch of research on this. It looks like the device is like a key fob that will be a part of your key type of deal, so you won't have to actually like go on over and lean over into and a key fob is essentially your device that you have on your key chain that allows you to remotely get into your vehicle.

Nathan Mumm: 14:22

So this one's going to take your, your so this is going to take your alcohol level, either through a blowing mechanism. And you know what? My wife bought one of these for me about 10 years ago at like Costco. It was a little black little thing.

Mike Gorday: 14:33

Yeah, A lot of people, a lot of people. I've seen those in in truck stores and truck stops and things like that.

Nathan Mumm: 14:38

So you, can have, so you can have that, but essentially, what they're going to do is now put it into before you have the auto start of your vehicle, and this is for newer vehicles, not older vehicles. You could go buy an older vehicle if you want to do this, but I actually I applaud the efforts. I actually think it's a great idea I'm okay with actually there's different things.

Mike Gorday: 14:55

How are you okay with that? How about that? Because that takes away a piece of control that you already have. So you, you can go downstairs right now and get in your car and drive away. Yeah, but this is. This is basically putting another step that you have to go through in order to be allowed to drive your car to work or to home.

Nathan Mumm: 15:17

Well, if I have a drinking problem, then I'm going to drive an older vehicle.

Mike Gorday: 15:23

This is how this becomes a very complicated problem, because not everybody drinks and drives, not everybody drinks. So there, this is like. This is like saying everybody is guilty before being proven innocent.

Nathan Mumm: 15:42

Well, there's still idiot drivers on the road.

Mike Gorday: 15:45

So you can't, you can't, you can't stop that. This technology is not going to stop that.

Nathan Mumm: 15:48

But this will stop people that are impaired getting in there.

Speaker 4: 15:53

So I get you know what.

Nathan Mumm: 15:53

I think it's going to be like a 50-50 split, but I like the idea.

Mike Gorday: 15:57

I think this is problematic because they're going to hit a lot of legal hurdles that we didn't discuss in this thing. But if you're already, signing your life away.

Nathan Mumm: 16:05

We talked about this. You buy a new, brand new car. Now you get a user acceptance agreement, which means they can videotape you and do everything that they want.

Mike Gorday: 16:12

So essentially, you have no privacy in your vehicle. Anyways, I think a lot of people are going to, you know, be up in arms about this.

Nathan Mumm: 16:19

So I use. Here's what we should do, mike. We should create a company that only buys 2000 in 2012. We need two vehicles that has none of this type of stuff, and then we can just be a distributor, because then we'll have all these people.

Mike Gorday: 16:32

Well, yeah, that's one of your many thousand business plans. There you go. All right, let's move on, let's move on.

Nathan Mumm: 16:38

All right, apple is scrambling that we get watches before the Looming US ban. Let's go to Corinne Westlend for more on the story.

Speaker 8: 16:49

Apple is pulling the super popular Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra II from its website this Thursday At precisely 3 pm Eastern Standard Time. The Apple Watch ban stems from a drawn out patent dispute over the blood oxygen sensor found in most Apple Watch models, beginning with the Series 6. The company is racing to change algorithms on the device that measure a user's blood oxygen level, a feature that Massimo Corp claims infringes on its patents. Apple is working on various legal and technical options. Already, it's begun preparing stores for the change. It sent new signs to its retail outlets that promote the Apple Watch without showing photos of the Series 9 and Ultra II, the two models targeted by the ban. However, not all is lost, as the lower end of Seawatch will still be available, as it lacks the blood oxygen features.

Nathan Mumm: 17:42

Alright.

Nathan Mumm: 17:42

So we got Massimo Corporation, who essentially has a patent on the hardware, not necessarily the software. We're going to talk about this. Unless the White House vetoes a last-minute survival for Apple, the ban will be imposed by the International Trade Commission. Takes effect on December 25th. Apple could settle with Massimo through the route of its typical options, whether they're paying a huge fine for that technology or what they're actually trying to do is they're hoping to focus and win favor with regulators on how its technology is being sent Now. Apple stock was down 1% on Monday and the shares essentially from Massimo shares gained 3.2% on Monday. Massimo does absolutely have a patent for the technology that Apple is using Now. Massimo says it doesn't make any difference in the demonstration here. Even the world's most powerful company must abide by the laws.

Nathan Mumm: 18:42

Working with an Apple suggests the company believes software changes. Rather, the more complicated hardware overhauls will be enough to bring the devices back to store shelves. However, the patent at the heart of the dispute is most likely related to the hardware including how light is emitted into the skin to measure the amount of oxygen in a person's blood. An Apple spokesman said the company is working to submit a workaround to the US customs agency, which is in charge of approving changes to get a product back on the market. Massimo said that the software fix will be insufficient remedy. The hardware needs to be changed. The maker of the medical devices said experts say that the plans of the software fix will not succeed and so Apple will be considered to pay a huge fine or look to purchase the company. But I said Wednesday at the end of the end, encryption would be a part of its transfer of information for the regulating items. So this is really interesting to talk about.

Nathan Mumm: 19:37

Here's a hardware device inside the new Apple watches Well, actually the six series, but they're already in the nine series. So six, seven, eight, nine series, I'll have this feature. But the hardware inside, the way that it was used, massimo had a couple of employees. That the kind of the backstory is. A couple of employees left Massimo and essentially went to work for Apple. They were in charge of their hardware schematics and then all of a sudden they use the same technology that this company was using. Massimo is a large medical company. You know the life alerts that you get. I've fallen and I can't get up.

Mike Gorday: 20:15

Yeah, I got called from them. I got a call from them yesterday.

Nathan Mumm: 20:18

Oh, did you really?

Mike Gorday: 20:19

Yeah, I wanted to sell me a life alert.

Nathan Mumm: 20:21

Okay, well, well, so Massimo was the very first company that came out with it. There's a lot of knockoffs now that are out there, but they came up with that, so they create essentially, these technology devices can be based on consumers and they have the patent. So it's going to be interesting to see what actually happens to this.

Mike Gorday: 20:37

Well, Apple will just end up buying them.

Nathan Mumm: 20:39

So they actually say that in the story it's all about. Apple has two choices to pay the huge, huge penalty, which is going to be more than if they just bought out the company itself.

Mike Gorday: 20:50

I feel like that's not the case. I feel like if they get a huge fine, it's going to be like Google getting a huge fine and I'm going I don't know, because every single watch they have to stop the watch production, so they're pulling them off.

Nathan Mumm: 21:03

Right now this is the hottest item. You want to go to eBay and sell one of these watches right now. It's kind of like when you know, the new consoles come out for Xbox or PlayStation.

Mike Gorday: 21:10

That has nothing to do with supply and demand Right. So now everybody wants to get scarcity and opportunism.

Nathan Mumm: 21:16

They're going to come out with a software patch for your watch that they're going to want you update to, and that software patch will remove the software on how it does it. So no one will do the software upgrade patch until.

Mike Gorday: 21:26

I think Apple would just buy them out of spite. Yeah, They'd be like yeah, okay, All right.

Nathan Mumm: 21:30

Last thing here, story number four get ready for a fully integrated conversational driving assistant. Tom Tom and Microsoft team up to bring generative AI to automobile. Tom Tom still around. I didn't know about him until until.

Mike Gorday: 21:43

I saw this.

Nathan Mumm: 21:44

Yeah, they're still around. Tom Tom just announced a fully integrated AI powered conversational automated assistance, which could start popping up in dashboard infotainment platforms in the nearest future. The company says it's issued bold claims for the AI, saying that it offers more sophisticated voice interactions and allows users to reverse naturally to navigate, fine stops along the route, control onboard systems, open windows and just about anything else you find yourself doing while driving. The company that's known for GPS platforms Partnered with Microsoft to develop this AI assistant. The technology leverages open AI's large language models in addition to Microsoft products. Back in June, mercedes announced a three month beta program that incorporated chat, gpt models and select vehicles. This tool also leveraged Microsoft Azure's open AI service. Tom Tom is showing off the AI at CES in January, so we'll make sure we follow this as we do our best of CES show.

Mike Gorday: 22:42

That's right.

Nathan Mumm: 22:43

So what is the supposed to do? There's a little demo of this. It's essentially like this year you're a lonely person and you want to have an argument or you want to have a conversation.

Mike Gorday: 22:51

You know what I envision. I envision somebody having this AI, like a New York cab driver or something, and it yells at you. It starts to swear right now.

Nathan Mumm: 23:01

It starts cussing. I like that Like the all state guy when the little little, little, little little information where the GPS wasn't working or whatever, yeah, or it just starts yelling or cusses at you All of a sudden. It just randomly says did you go and bring Melcombe or something like that? He'd be like, oh dang it, I forgot yeah.

Mike Gorday: 23:17

You can program it to be different things. I remember Waze, right? Yeah, I remember Waze used to have voices I don't know if they do anymore, since I don't you but I downloaded C3PO and that became annoying so fast that I quit using Waze, did you really? Yeah?

Nathan Mumm: 23:34

Okay, you weren't a big Anthony Daniels fan, or you just didn't like this C3PO, it was just how many voice prompts those things have.

Mike Gorday: 23:41

It's just incredibly irritating. I got you I don't like something, so here this is my take right.

Marc Gregoire: 23:48

Yeah.

Mike Gorday: 23:48

I don't want something chattering at me while I'm trying to drive, so this is not going to work for me.

Nathan Mumm: 23:54

This would be so awesome. I would be yelling my head off. Just think of you had like your driving directions and all of a sudden you missed and he didn't turn left.

Speaker 6: 24:01

I would be like shut the f up.

Nathan Mumm: 24:02

Yeah, this AI comes on. You idiot. You missed the turn again. Why can't you just stop for directions?

Mike Gorday: 24:07

He'd be like oh, yeah, yeah this, maybe I'll do that, just so I have something to do when I'm driving.

Nathan Mumm: 24:14

All right. Well, that ends our top technology stories of the week. Moving on, we have our technology insider segment with Laura Bell-Main, after the commercial break. You will not want to miss this segment. You're listening to Tech Time with Nathan Mum. See you in a bit. This is.

Speaker 5: 24:28

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Nathan Mumm: 25:32

Oh, he's going to town there with the music we like that. All right, Welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan Mum. Tech Time's a weekly hour technology show that talks about current technology in a simple format Without having to geek out, brought to you by myself, Nathan Mum and Michael Day. We just had our first whiskey tasting during the break and now we got Mark in studio to tell us what we are sipping in our pick of the day.

Marc Gregoire: 25:52

It's good to be back.

Nathan Mumm: 25:53

Oh, we love having you back.

Marc Gregoire: 25:54

So since I missed last week, I thought we would do the blockhead again.

Nathan Mumm: 25:59

No, not the blockhead. The blockhead was not. It wasn't very good.

Mike Gorday: 26:07

I don't recall, you don't recall. I wasn't the one the bottom.

Nathan Mumm: 26:10

I was not the one to bottom. I would have never bought that low type of Did.

Mike Gorday: 26:13

I give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. It was a thumbs down. Okay, I don't remember that.

Marc Gregoire: 26:17

I think your thumb was so far down, it was.

Mike Gorday: 26:21

Oh well you know, after last week, where we had the gross stuff that I picked up?

Nathan Mumm: 26:26

Yeah, that's what we're talking about.

Mike Gorday: 26:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what we're talking about Never mind, so you should have said the crap you had last week and I'd be like, oh, yeah, okay.

Marc Gregoire: 26:36

All right. So this week I brought in the Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength and it is the Formula OBSK. So it's from the Kiran Buring Brewing Company. It's Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg Kentucky. It's Strait Bourbon. This one is nine years, nine months. It's 111.62 proof. The mash bill is 60% corn, 30% rye, five-mite malted barley and it goes for roughly around $100.

Nathan Mumm: 27:04

All right, I thought so far it's a pretty good. I can't.

Mike Gorday: 27:07

I can't. I'm gonna give you a PSA and don't have a Hall's Mental Liptus cough drop before you taste it.

Marc Gregoire: 27:13

Well then, let me tell you a little bit what Four Roses says about it, then, mike, and that might help you out. Okay, so, from their website, obsk is a favorite of bourbon lovers who like intense, spicy flavors. It's smooth and mellow, like all our bourbons, but the mash bill and yeast strain combine to create our spiciest recipe. Here's the OBSK flavor profile as it's been described by their master distiller, brent Elliott the rich rye tones dominate the palate at first sip, before seamlessly transitioning into flavors of allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon. As this recipe ages, the robust, bright flavors mellow into deeper and richer tones as the oak, caramel and vanilla flavors increase. However, despite the spice up front and mid-palate, obsk has a generally soft and very mellow finish.

Marc Gregoire: 28:01

Oh yeah, it does have a mellow finish, though, so yeah, I can't tell you can't get through that menthol, and then by the time you get to our next, I still can't tell. Let people know the menthol is not coming from the whiskey, please. No, that's it, it's coming from a cough drop that Mike is eating.

Mike Gorday: 28:14

It's coming from a cough. Yeah, that's what I said. Don't, don't don't don't eat a cough drop before you sip the whiskey, because it kind of completely obliterates.

Nathan Mumm: 28:21

I kind of like the hamburger patty in between sick man here and sick man here a little bit. So I'm the well man I hope. So we'll see what happens.

Mike Gorday: 28:29

Well, I'm not contagious, I just have smoke damage to my lungs.

Marc Gregoire: 28:33

Okay, that's true.

Nathan Mumm: 28:34

That's true, all right, all right. Well, with our first whiskey tasting completed, do you have anything else, mark? Nope, that's good, I did look for today I look for today's special thing, and I'm sure I'm not going to get it at all, so I could not find anything all day.

Mike Gorday: 28:49

So there we go Well. National crappy sweater day.

Nathan Mumm: 28:52

So we are all dressed up. You know I love seeing that bullseye target on you, mike. You know we are all dressed in our festive.

Mike Gorday: 28:59

There used to be this program on on on TV. Yeah just shoot me, just shoot me, just shoot you. Was that the name of the show? It was the name of the show. Yeah, really, just shoot me.

Nathan Mumm: 29:09

Wow. Okay, there you are, all right. Well, with our first whiskey tasting completed, let's move on to our feature segment. Today we have Laura Bellmain. Laura is the founder and CEO of Safe Stack Academy, an online education platform offering flexible, high quality and people focused security skills. Safe Stack is on a mission to make cyber security accessible for everyone and any organization. Let's welcome Laura to the Comcast video stream and start the segment.

Speaker 3: 29:35

Welcome to Technology Insider. We get the information directly from the source.

Nathan Mumm: 29:42

All right, laura. Welcome to the show today.

Laura Bell Main: 29:45

Thank you so much for having me. How are you doing?

Nathan Mumm: 29:47

Pretty good. Now, where are you coming from? So let's tell everybody where you're coming from, because they're a little bit of a Well. Actually we've had people from South Africa on our show, We've had lots of people all across the world, but where are you coming from today?

Laura Bell Main: 29:59

I am in a very small town in the very far north of New Zealand, so you lot are all dressed up in sweaters and enjoying the cold, cuddly Christmas, and we're getting our surf gear on and enjoying 30 degrees, so 90 plus degree heat, and, yeah, it's a lovely time of year.

Nathan Mumm: 30:17

Actually we need to go there.

Mike Gorday: 30:18

Right now it's already cold here, it's just soggy.

Nathan Mumm: 30:20

It's just soggy and wet, it's just always. It's the temperature and weather climate that happens. From November until about March. Everything is gray.

Mike Gorday: 30:29

And then you look out, I'm going to go to New Zealand. We're at summertime, yeah that would be fun.

Nathan Mumm: 30:32

New Zealand, that's the Lord of the Rings area, isn't that New Zealand?

Mike Gorday: 30:35

Yeah, yeah.

Nathan Mumm: 30:37

That's how you remember stuff, that's right. I remember them all based upon my movies, right?

Mike Gorday: 30:40

My movies.

Nathan Mumm: 30:41

Laura, explain a little bit about what your company is.

Laura Bell Main: 30:45

Awesome. So we're on a bit of a weird mission. So you know all that software that you use every single day to get the job done, whatever that job is, we want everyone who builds software, everyone who's using, to be safe while they're doing it. So we're trying to get everyone to do just one little hour of security every two weeks. So just changing our behavior slightly so that we can all be a bit safer online, by changing our behaviors a little bit, but in tiny ways, not in ways that are going to distract us from what we actually want to spend our time doing.

Nathan Mumm: 31:16

All right, so Mike's going to be here. Mike's going to be the biggest critic here. He's got lots of ideas about the extra security passwords and logins right when you have to use security stuff.

Mike Gorday: 31:26

It drives me up the wall.

Nathan Mumm: 31:27

That's right, I was going to say okay all right, but now let's get right out of the gate. We were talking about this, lauren, in our pre-interview. Why are our brains dumb?

Mike Gorday: 31:36

That was kind of the segment we wanted. Is that genetic? Well, I don't know. We're genetically programmed to be dumb.

Nathan Mumm: 31:43

It's not that we are dumb, but essentially our brains do things that it should not.

Mike Gorday: 31:46

Your brain doesn't know what's real and what's not real. It doesn't.

Nathan Mumm: 31:50

So are we all in living in a matrix university, mike?

Mike Gorday: 31:52

so you're yeah, if you want to, Okay, all right. Your brain relies on your own consciousness to determine whether something's real or not, so that's a new.

Nathan Mumm: 32:00

So my matrix life. I still have micro-day in there.

Mike Gorday: 32:03

Okay, All right there you go.

Nathan Mumm: 32:04

All right, so I'll say all right. Why are our brains dumb, Laura? Let's explain this.

Laura Bell Main: 32:08

So I can use an example from your tech news you just covered, because I think that's a really good example. Let's go back to those Apple Watches, right, yep, and you talked about people going crazy for them on eBay, and you'll be able to sell lots of them right now, and quite rightly, you mentioned that that was opportunistic. You know it's supply and demand, but what your brain is doing is something quite interesting. Your brain responds to different circumstances with dopamine and it encourages you to do things, to take action. Now, dopamine hangs out in fun challenges, in problems like, hey, there's only one of these left in the world and I can have it. That's a fun challenge that you're breaking a call. I should totally get one of those things. So the idea of scarcity can get you to act. So you'll see scammers, for example, say, hey, there's only 10 minutes to do this, there's only one of these available. We also have things like reciprocity. So your brain, when somebody says, hey, here's a shiny thing, I'm going to give you a gift, your brain is going to instinctively go cool, I should do something nice for you too. And so if you're a scammer, being kind to somebody, giving them even a small gift just as small as you know, a sticker with your name and address on can increase the chance of you complying with an attack or a scammer hugely by about 35%, and they estimate.

Laura Bell Main: 33:23

So what we have to be mindful of in security is less about those kind of technical controls. We're all familiar with passwords and things all very important but the thing that gets most in the way of us doing things securely is how we respond to whether a puzzle is interesting enough or challenging enough for us to want to spend time on it and whether we get dopamine. So most of us, if I'm honest, we have a password somewhere in our lives that is old enough to start school. So it's, you know, five years old or more, and if you do, I'm not going to judge, not here to do that it's Christmas. But the reason that you're not interested in fixing that is because it's not an interesting challenge. It's not going to get that dopamine flowing. You're not going to get that. Yeah, I did a thing. So we need to kind of to get our security up. We need to trick our brain into thinking all of these things are exciting and getting them something that you want to do each day, or just one hour every two weeks.

Nathan Mumm: 34:18

All right, okay, so let's talk about. You're a co-author of a book called Security for Everyone, right? So how can I secure myself at home? So we've already had people on. They always come in and talk about businesses, right, because everybody likes to do business to business. We get that, totally get that. But if I'm listening during the holiday break here and I was like how can I secure my home better during this holiday time to start the New Year's resolution out with a safer environment for my family while I'm using technology?

Laura Bell Main: 34:47

Well, I'm fundamentally very lazy, so this is like the lazy person's approach to getting secure without actually having to do much. So bear with me, if you're like me and you're like I want to do this once and then forget about it. This is the path for you. So, first things first. The less apps and things you have on your devices, on your phones, the less you have to worry about. So this is a great time of year for you to go through the things on your phone and go, hey, I actually don't use this anymore. Just get rid of it. We don't have to worry about updates and vulnerabilities if we're not using it. Make sure your main device so your phone, your tablet, your laptop that they're set to auto update, but also remember to let them turn themselves off every now and again, because sometimes we can just sit there with these devices and they've done the updates but they're waiting just a power cycle just to apply that last little bit. So maybe just once a week, give it a spa night, give your device a little TLC and say, hey, yeah, you can turn off for five minutes right now, and just you know that's going to make sure those things apply.

Laura Bell Main: 35:45

The other thing I want you to kind of think about. If I was to give you you know four things, this is number three is your passwords. Now, if you've got a site that you actually don't care about the security of, you're probably likely to not want to spend a lot of effort on a password. So if you are signing up something rather than reusing a password you use elsewhere and I'm not judging, we're humans this is what we do don't try and remember the password at all. Go, change the password and literally mash the keyboard type random strings into that box, copy and paste it into both things and use the forgotten password to log in. It's much easier to do that than it is to then either have one password that you're using to rule all things and compromising more sensitive accounts with these junkier accounts you don't care about. Finally, okay, so I like that one. Hang on before you go to the other finally.

Nathan Mumm: 36:35

I like that. I have never in all my technology conversations ever heard that instead of using.

Mike Gorday: 36:42

That's because you're a technologist.

Nathan Mumm: 36:43

Well, okay, but that's a good aspect.

Mike Gorday: 36:46

So if I'm on a site, people like me do.

Nathan Mumm: 36:48

Okay, so you see, go to a site that you don't use very often. You type in your password, you just go crazy on your keyboard and then it allows you in and then essentially, you're not there a lot. What you do is the next time you want to log in, you have to go to the remind me password. You put your email address in and then you reset it to another password. I like that's phenomenal. Okay, go to the final one. That's my negative day right there. There we go.

Laura Bell Main: 37:11

So and that one there. Just you know, if you do like that one remember, then all roads lead to your inbox. So the most important password for most of us to remember and there's a few exceptions, but let's not bore ourselves today is your email account. So make sure that one has a really great password. Now for me. I'm terrible at karaoke.

Laura Bell Main: 37:28

Think about song lyrics that you've misremembered. They're really really long You're going to remember them. They're going to make you smile and then turn on two-factor authentication at the end. So my finally is it is that season where you're going to spend a lot of time with family members, good or bad, you know that's fine. Remember, some of the people in your family need a bit of extra help with technology If they're visually impaired, if they've got old fingers and their fingerprint scanners on phones don't recognize them as well. So one of the things you could give as a gift as this Christmas is go help somebody who is a bit less technical than you or might be a little bit older to set up their things so that they don't have to worry about security in 2024.

Nathan Mumm: 38:05

That's a great idea. All right, so we got help out your relatives. We got smash the keyboard. Laura, I'm liking this a lot. All right, now you have a podcast, right, so you are a podcaster for lots of stuff. I want to let people kind of know what your podcast is about, how to get in touch with you and to find out more regarding what your company does each and every day. Awesome.

Laura Bell Main: 38:32

So I am a nerd and I'm a collector of stories, so I grew up reading sci-fi, watching movies, and these bright new future worlds were emerging in these stories.

Laura Bell Main: 38:42

I loved it, and now I feel like in the tech space we're actually building a whole bunch of the technologies that as a kid I thought were like these super future systems, and so I collect the stories of those people who are building those technologies now so I get them on the show. We talk about everything from eSports and gaming to crazy technologies they're building in fashion, to having a conversation yesterday with somebody who is doing some cool AI stuff that is helping protect power poles, which doesn't sound interesting but actually involves drones and heat sensitive cameras and was way more fun from a non-technical perspective than I ever imagined. So it's called Build Amazing Things Securely. So if you want to understand where the future of software is going and where security might fit, feel free to like and subscribe and all those wonderful things, and if you can suggest a guest, please get in touch, because we're always looking for new stories to share of exciting technology that's being built Perfect.

Nathan Mumm: 39:37

Now, laura, hopefully this is the beginning of a long relationship. Hopefully we can have you come back and talk about us more and more stuff. I know this may not be the ideal time, but I think you said it's in the middle of your day now, is that right? It is, it's almost 1 pm in the afternoon.

Laura Bell Main: 39:50

Okay, so see, that's not that bad.

Nathan Mumm: 39:52

It's just that's what happens when you go everything.

Mike Gorday: 39:56

She's two hours behind, two hours behind us tomorrow Tomorrow.

Nathan Mumm: 39:59

That's right. Okay, that's right, all right. Well, so it's a pleasure to have you on the show again, find and like you Again. If you just go and take a look, we'll share out that information on our show links. You can also tag her or she'll be tagged in this week's episode information and you can find her on LinkedIn too. Laura, thank you so much for being a part of the show.

Laura Bell Main: 40:21

Thank you for having me and happy holidays everyone.

Mike Gorday: 40:23

Thank you.

Nathan Mumm: 40:25

Alright, what a pleasure, laura, to have on the show. That ends our segment Technology Insider. Up. Next we have this week in technology, so now would be a great time to enjoy a little whiskey on the side, as we will be doing so during the break. You're listening to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm. See you in a few minutes. Hey, mike, yo, what's up? Hey, so you know what. We need people to start liking our social media pages, if you like our show, if you really like us we could use your support on patreoncom.

Mike Gorday: 40:52

Is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, Patreon, if you really like us, you can like us in patreoncom, I butcher the English language. You know, you butcher the English language all the time.

Nathan Mumm: 41:03

It's patreoncom.

Mike Gorday: 41:06

Patreoncom. If you really like our show, you can subscribe to patreoncom and help us out, Alright, and?

Nathan Mumm: 41:11

you can visit us on that Facebook platform. You know that one that Zuckerberg owns, the one that we always bag on. Yeah, we're on Facebook too, yeah like us on. Facebook. You know what our Facebook page is. Tech Time Radio. Tech Time Radio. You know what? There's a trend here.

Mike Gorday: 41:26

It seems to be that there's a trend and that's Tech Time Radio, or you can even Instagram with us, and that's at Tech Time Radio.

Nathan Mumm: 41:33

That's at Tech Time Radio. Or you can find us on TikTok, and it's Tech Time Radio. It's at Tech Time Radio. Like and subscribe to our social media.

Mike Gorday: 41:40

Like us today. We need you to like us. Like us and subscribe.

Nathan Mumm: 41:44

That's it, that's it. That's that simple.

Speaker 3: 41:47

And now let's look back at this Week in Technology.

Nathan Mumm: 41:54

Alright, in the way back machine, we're going all the way to December 22, 1882, the first electric Christmas tree lights. Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, has walnut-sized bulbs made specifically for him to wire his Christmas tree with electric lights. Before this, people would use a tradition of decorating their trees with wax candles. Unfortunately, the combination of tall candles, flimsy tin and drooping branches lack the stability. Leaning in the candles often dripped wax onto ornaments or the floor and would have many fires during this time.

Mike Gorday: 42:32

That kind of makes sense. I don't think the light bulb really helped out, because we still have fires.

Nathan Mumm: 42:37

We still have fires. Do you actually think of having a live candle on your tree?

Mike Gorday: 42:43

Sure, Really, yeah, back in the day you had candles all over the place.

Nathan Mumm: 42:48

Well, edward, Johnson decided to get 80 red, white and blue bulbs. He was patriotic, I guess, and he formed the first set of electric Christmas tree lights and histories and within a few years became the standard for holiday trees.

Mike Gorday: 43:01

Alright, that was this Week in Technology, if you ever wanted to see some tech time history you said were Johnson for all the money I paid to light up my Christmas tree.

Nathan Mumm: 43:09

Well, actually, nowadays, aren't they a pre-built? My newest Christmas? Tree has LED lights.

Mike Gorday: 43:15

You know, I don't even know anymore. I've stopped decorating.

Nathan Mumm: 43:19

Oh yeah. Oh, we're going to have to figure that out.

Mike Gorday: 43:23

I think it's wrong that Mark took a sweater off, and I'm still in mind.

Nathan Mumm: 43:28

Oh, you can have it. Protesters, are you going?

Mike Gorday: 43:29

to say I'm protesting more.

Nathan Mumm: 43:30

Okay, well, that was this Week in Technology. If you ever wanted to watch some tech time history, with 180 weekly broadcasts spanning 30 plus years of video, podcast blog information where you can visit tech time radio to watch our older shows or join the tech timer Facebook groups, we're going to head out to a commercial break. When we return, we have Mark's mumble whiskey reveal and our technology fail of the week. I can't wait to hear about our technology fail of the week in Comcast. We'll see you after the break.

Speaker 4: 43:55

Hello, my name is Arthur and my life's work is connecting people with coffee. Story Coffee is a small batch specialty coffee company that uses technology to connect people to each product resource, which allows farmers to unlock their economic freedom. Try our medium-roof founder series coffee, which is an exotic bourbon variety that is smooth, fresh and elegant. At storycoffeecom, that's S-T-O-R-I coffeecom. Today you can get your first bag free when you subscribe at storycoffeecom with code tech time, that's.

Speaker 3: 44:31

S-T-O-R-I coffeecom, the segment we've been waiting all week for Mark's Whiskey Mumble.

Marc Gregoire: 44:43

Well, mike was complaining because I took off my Christmas sweater, but there was a reason for it.

Nathan Mumm: 44:49

Oh, okay, well, let's find out. Oh yeah, he was getting all over it.

Marc Gregoire: 44:52

I'm still in costume, okay, so what's today?

Nathan Mumm: 44:56

Today would be the 19th of December.

Mike Gorday: 44:58

National. Takeoff your sweater during the radio show today.

Marc Gregoire: 45:01

No, it's National Emo Day Emo.

Speaker 4: 45:06

Day.

Marc Gregoire: 45:06

Yeah, seriously. So Odie knows about this. For many people, the word emo describes a sad teenager who dresses in a very deliberate way, but the emo subculture has a long and storied history that reaches back to the 1980s and continues to resonate today. On National Emo Day, we recognize the rich complexities of the emo movement and gain a greater appreciation for its place in popular music. So let's all go put on some rites of spring, right.

Mike Gorday: 45:34

I would know what's rites of spring Is that?

Marc Gregoire: 45:37

one of the classic bands for emo, okay, emo.

Nathan Mumm: 45:42

Band. Okay, I'm still in the Guns N' Roses in the 80s bands, but okay, all right, they were from the 80s also.

Marc Gregoire: 45:48

Really, really.

Nathan Mumm: 45:49

Yeah.

Marc Gregoire: 45:52

Well, let's move on then.

Mike Gorday: 45:53

Okay, let's do that. Before we move on, I just want to say that let's honor Mike for always being an emo, every single day, just not complying with the image of it.

Speaker 4: 46:03

Really yes.

Mike Gorday: 46:04

Bahambug247. That's not emo, that's just being a stooge, oh wow, wow, wow, wow.

Marc Gregoire: 46:11

Don't degrade emos, that's right. Oh, there's a rich subculture there. Are you seriously?

Mike Gorday: 46:15

Wow, wow, wow. Everybody's ganging it up on Mike today. Yeah, tell us about that. Well it's to talk about emails.

Marc Gregoire: 46:25

One of their main symbols that they use is a rose in many pictures. So today we're talking about four roses bourbon. Okay, so the story starts with the distilleries founder Paul Jones Jr and his love interest. Oh, in a rather enchanting tale, he sent a heartfelt proposal to her. So instead of just giving him a simple yes, she made it a little bit more complex. She said, if she agreed to the proposal, that she would wear a corsage to the coming up grand ball.

Nathan Mumm: 46:52

Wow, that's so much complication in that I would have been by at that time.

Mike Gorday: 46:56

But okay, you want to tell me more.

Nathan Mumm: 46:58

That sounds very good, okay.

Mike Gorday: 46:59

No, that really confused you. It did why.

Nathan Mumm: 47:03

So she's going to. She likes this guy. Oh my God, she's proving that she likes it. Oh, okay, okay, so tell me more.

Marc Gregoire: 47:08

Anyway, it's a little suspense.

Nathan Mumm: 47:10

All right, okay, suspense, okay, yeah. So she shows up at the bar, at the bar, at the bar.

Marc Gregoire: 47:19

And of course, she was wearing a beautiful corsage of four red roses.

Mike Gorday: 47:24

Oh, Now you would think it's very romantic.

Marc Gregoire: 47:26

It is, and that inspired the name of this famous bourbon and gives it a story that be the envy of many of its rivals, unfortunate though it has, like a Mike, twist to it, uh-oh.

Nathan Mumm: 47:36

What's that?

Marc Gregoire: 47:37

She dies like a month later. Well, we have a sad twist of fate. Oh, the proposal never resulted in marriage. Oh, paul Jones Jr passed away suddenly from Bright's disease in 1896. Mm-hmm.

Mike Gorday: 47:50

What a bummer, mm-hmm. He probably sucks.

Nathan Mumm: 47:53

See, life sucks, wow, okay All right, let's talk about the bourbon system.

Marc Gregoire: 47:59

Unlike, regular four roses single barrel, which only has one formula. The barrel strength version which we're drinking actually has 10 different variations of it, between two different mash bills and five different yeasts. Now it's fun to try and collect all 10 and actually compare how they slightly differ. Now, regardless of the difference, I do enjoy all the versions very much. I would highly recommend going out and finding a bottle of this whiskey Now. Don't worry about the specific formula. If you're not a whiskey nerd, no problem, just grab one. They're all pretty good. Save that for later as you gain more experience.

Nathan Mumm: 48:31

All right, okay, does he get all that.

Speaker 3: 48:34

All right, sure, all right Wow.

Nathan Mumm: 48:37

Let's you know what? Whiskey and technology. What a great pairing. It's just like the pairing of ugly sweaters and gift exchanges.

Mike Gorday: 48:44

You should have said emo and Mike.

Nathan Mumm: 48:46

Let's get ready for our technology fail the week. We are out of time. Congratulations, you're a failure.

Speaker 8: 48:54

Oh, I failed.

Marc Gregoire: 48:56

Did I yes, did I yes, did I yes Did.

Nathan Mumm: 49:02

I? Yes, all right. This week's technology fails comes to us from Micorday and Comcast. Mike, it seems you've had some issues and, man, you were livid about this yesterday in the production meeting, so please explain to the listeners your customer support service from the company called Comcast.

Mike Gorday: 49:19

You mean the company that starts with an X and ends with Finity?

Nathan Mumm: 49:22

Okay, or X Finity.

Mike Gorday: 49:23

Okay, yeah, oh man, you know how it is. I don't know if you know how. You know how it is to call them right. I know.

Nathan Mumm: 49:29

Have you tried calling them? Yes, you have.

Mike Gorday: 49:32

I've called them sometimes, yeah, and it takes you how long to get through there Well.

Nathan Mumm: 49:36

so I always call them after hours. So I immediately go over to the India support crew immediately, so I don't call them here in work hours.

Mike Gorday: 49:45

I hate trying to call them Okay, I hate it Okay Because of their 1-800-COMCAST Because of their auto phone. I hate auto select.

Nathan Mumm: 49:55

When you're doing stuff, though, don't you hear the fake typing in the background? That drives me yeah.

Mike Gorday: 50:00

The fake typing really bothers me right. So if I have to do anything, I like to go to the X Finity store. Now, those guys are great. Okay, so I recently changed my address, yep, which means I have to go get my cable switched over. Okay, so I Went to the X Finity store.

Mike Gorday: 50:19

Well, I put my modem in. Okay, right, so I had a modem that I got replaced from the fire. Yeah, I put it in, and then I went to the X Finity store to have my address changed. Okay, no problem At the store.

Speaker 4: 50:37

Yeah.

Mike Gorday: 50:37

I made sure I got my little peacock box, okay. I made sure that the service was correct, okay, and I requested a technician because I have a wall outlet that needs to be repaired, so your wall outlet does not work. The wall outlet is like this really old thing where it's got the coaxial cable like just comes out of the wall, okay.

Nathan Mumm: 51:02

So I want them to put a standard.

Mike Gorday: 51:04

A box in there yeah, standard outlet, so I requested a technician.

Speaker 4: 51:09

Service call.

Mike Gorday: 51:09

Yep, no problem. So as soon as I get my service switched over, I start heading back to my apartment to activate my modem.

Nathan Mumm: 51:20

Yep.

Mike Gorday: 51:21

And I get a call from X Finity customer support. Advanced technical support. Okay, All right, which I'm like hi, why are you calling? They said, well, we had to escalate this, okay, and we see that your modem is hooked up but it's not activated yet. We can do that for you. I'm like, okay, why are you calling? Okay, because that's what I'm going to do, yep.

Nathan Mumm: 51:57

At any rate, keep on going. This will be just part of Mike's mesmerizing moment for that, we're good, okay.

Mike Gorday: 52:05

So this woman is like not listening to me at all. I'm telling her she said you requested a technician. We're going to fix that for you right now. And I'm telling her no, I requested a technician to fix an outlet.

Marc Gregoire: 52:19

Yep.

Mike Gorday: 52:20

But she's refusing to listen to this. She's trying to get me to activate my modem and I'm like okay, if you want to activate my modem, go right ahead. Now I'm driving back to my apartment, okay. So she's like okay, just tell me if the modem is blinking. I'm like I'm driving. I just told you I'm driving. Oh well, we'll wait till you get home. Okay, so I get home and I go through this and I've told her three times already that I need a technician to come and fix a wall outlet.

Nathan Mumm: 52:53

Okay.

Mike Gorday: 52:54

But she's insisting on this whole activation.

Nathan Mumm: 52:56

Is it from the United States support line or do you think it's overseas?

Mike Gorday: 52:59

No, it's overseas Okay. All right, and so I go through this whole rigmarole of activating my modem, and it probably worked because the cable, even though it's wonky, it still works. I didn't need. There are two outlets. One outlet is working and the other outlet's not. I know how to activate the thing, but we go through this thing. We activate my modem and at the very end she says okay, now we can cancel that technician.

Nathan Mumm: 53:33

Coming on out right.

Mike Gorday: 53:34

Yeah and I'm like no, that is not why I asked for the technician. So I'm yelling at this woman at this point because she has refused to hear me four different times, now that the technician is for a completely separate issue than me activating my Wi-Fi.

Nathan Mumm: 53:54

Did she try to get you free Peacock services? Absolutely not. She's like she's like trying to she's like.

Mike Gorday: 54:01

Well, your Wi-Fi is active now. So thank you for calling Xfinity. I didn't call. When I call, I'm already mad by the time I get to you.

Nathan Mumm: 54:13

So you had a real pleasant experience.

Mike Gorday: 54:15

Yeah, they called me.

Nathan Mumm: 54:17

They called you.

Mike Gorday: 54:17

They called me and then they did it again today. They did it today For the same thing, before we started the show, before we started the show and you were pretty much lit up like a red light bulb or a Rudolph's nose. I can't get through these people when I need something, but they'll call me twice to try and get rid of a technician.

Nathan Mumm: 54:34

Yeah, there you go, all right. Well, that's also. Services are mesmerizing moment.

Mike Gorday: 54:38

Now we're going to move to our, not a mesmerizing moment. That's me complaining.

Nathan Mumm: 54:41

All right, we're going to move to our pick of the day whiskey tasting.

Speaker 3: 54:46

And now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings. Let's see what bubbles to the top.

Marc Gregoire: 54:53

We don't have time for the Nathan negative.

Nathan Mumm: 54:55

We ran out of time we ran out of time.

Speaker 6: 54:59

We're going to cut my story again. All right, we'll tell me about the pick of the day.

Marc Gregoire: 55:03

Four roses single barrel barrel strength formula OBSK.

Nathan Mumm: 55:07

All right, I'm going to give it absolutely a thumbs up.

Mike Gorday: 55:10

Perfect tasting, fantastic what are you going to give it, Mike?

Nathan Mumm: 55:13

I give it a thumbs up. Okay, thumbs up, all right, is it on your shelf?

Marc Gregoire: 55:17

Mark, as soon as I take my bottle back from you. Yes, all right, perfect yeah.

Nathan Mumm: 55:24

Well, thank you so much for listening. Remember, the technology of tomorrow starts with the technology today.

Speaker 3: 55:29

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