TechTime with Nathan Mumm

229: Guest Gwen Way, Joins for a New Gadget & Gear, Next a Young Prodigy in Coding, AI Companions, and Whiskey Tasting: A Tech Time Radio Adventure | Air Date: 11/17 - 11/23/24

• Nathan Mumm • Season 6 • Episode 229

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Unlock the secrets of technological innovation as we spotlight the incredible journey of Sergey, a seven-year-old prodigy from St. Petersburg already making waves in the coding world. Imagine capturing the attention of a software company at such a young age! Sergey’s story is not just inspiring but also a testament to the boundless potential of young tech enthusiasts. We then venture into the intriguing sphere of AI companionship with the groundbreaking Friend AI wearables, stirring up discussions about the implications of AI in personal interactions. Our guest, cybersecurity authority Gwen Way, introduces a must-have offline voice translator by Anfer, a game-changer for travelers facing language barriers.

Curious about the impact of AI on our emotions and social life? We explore the concept of vicarious trauma in AI interactions, raising questions about the future of human-AI relationships. Listeners also get a sneak peek into our Tech Times wishlist, where we uncover unbeatable deals for the upcoming festive season. Transitioning from the digital to the tactile, we revel in Mike's mesmerizing moments and a delightful whiskey tasting session. This week, the spotlight is on Jim Beam's 7 Years bourbon, savored alongside an exquisite whiskey salami, ensuring a hearty mix of flavors.

Finally, we tackle the ever-present tech challenges, such as the recent cyber attack on T-Mobile, reminding us of the persistent threats faced by telecom networks. Despite this sobering note, we keep the laughter and energy alive with more whiskey tastings and engaging stories about the ever-evolving social media landscape. From Blue Sky's innovative features to Instagram's algorithm tweaks, we ponder over the personalized journeys each platform offers. We invite you to stay connected and interact with us, ensuring you're well-armed with the latest tech insights and holiday-ready gadgets. Keep the tech spirit alive with Tech Time Radio for a thrilling technology ride!

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Nathan Mumm:

Welcome to Tech Time with Nathan. Thank you a radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news. I'm Nathan Mumm, your host and technologist, with over 30 years of technology expertise. Our co-host, mike Rene, is in the studio today. He's an award-winning author and a human behavior expert. He's got a great subject he's going to be talking about, so you're going to love his subject.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Nathan Mumm:

Aren't you Mike? No, no, okay. Well, we're live streaming during our show on 4A Yay, four of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv, facebook and LinkedIn. We encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradiocom or visit us right now on the live show and put comments in the show itself. You can also be a Patreon supporter at patreoncom. Forward slash techtimeradio. We are friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology show possible weekly for our family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have odr producer at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show now on today's show.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, Today on Tech Time with Nathan Mumm, buckle up as we dive into the latest tech news and stories. Here's what we have coming up on the show today. Today, we start with an uplifting and heartwarming tale of a seven-year-old that will leave you inspired across the globe. Get ready to be amazed as we explore the future of friendships with even the most dramatic human friend can't hold a candle to the astonishment capabilities of AI's friends.

Nathan Mumm:

Finally, we're diving into an innovative world of open AI, which we investigate. A staggering $16 million. But why is open AI spending that? Of course, we have our gadgets and gear expert, Gwen Way, on the show with a gadget today that'll get you here in time for the holidays and will help you travel as you go abroad. Now, in addition to our standard, in addition to our show, our standard features, of course, include Mike's mesmerizing moment, our technology fail of the week and a possible Nathan negative, and, of course, our pick of the day whiskey tastings to see if our whiskey pick gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show. Now, though, it's time for the latest headlines in the world of technology.

Speaker 3:

Here are our top technology stories of the week.

Ody:

Okay. A Russian software company has invited a seven-year-old coding prodigy to join its management team as soon as he is old enough to take up employment. Sergey, from the Russian city of St Petersburg, has built a name for himself in uploading videos that explain how to create or how to write software since he was five. Since he was five, on the strength of those videos, the information security from Pro32 sent him a written job offer for the post of head of corporate training. Under Russian law, sergei would not be able to take up any paid role until he is 14. But Pro32's chief executive, igor Mandik, told the PBC World Service he has spoken to sergey's parents about finding ways to collaborate with him. In the meantime, his father, kirill, was surprised and said that they were really happy and looking forward to when sergey would be able to join the company.

Ody:

A coding mozart, mr mandik said. On his videos, sergey appears fresh-faced and smiling enthusiastically. Speaking in russian and sometimes in slightly broken English, he goes through coding challenges step by step. His YouTube channel has more than 3,500 subscribers interested in learning programming languages Python and Unity or who want to hear more about neutral networks, which underlie many artificial intelligence tools. Mr Mandic said Sergey showed not only remarkable developer skills, but also equally unique skills in teaching. For me, he is kind of a Mozart. I'm absolutely sure that when he turns 14, he'll be a guru of teaching and a guru of developing, and that is why we're really looking forward to this time. Not just coders but salesmen, accountants and others at Moscow-based Pro32 could learn from Sergei. Mr Mandic said no promises have been made over pay, given that the rate is likely going to change significantly. Quote we have to wait for seven years, said Mr Mandic. Then he will start a conversation about his salary.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, that's interesting.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, so essentially, if you're a seven-year-old that knows how to program, I'm pretty sure that that that poor kid's gonna end up, uh, in the government somewhere, you think so, working for the russian government yeah, okay.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, at least he had an offer to work for someplace else. All right, let's go to uh.

Mike Gorday:

Story number three you got that one, mike. Yes, we all know how much I really love the idea of AI being buddies with you and having pro-social relationships with not a real person. We all know that, right? Yep. Well, your most dramatic human friend can't hold a candle to the new AI friends you can soon wear around your neck. Okay, a brief flurry of AI-powered wearables like the Humane AI Pen and the Rabbit R1 doesn't seem to have caught on to the way their creators hoped, thank God, but one seems to be banking on the idea that what we really want from an AI companion is non-stop drama and traumatic backstories.

Mike Gorday:

Friend, whose pendant hardware isn't even out yet, has debuted a web platform on friendcom to allow people to talk to random examples of AI characters. The thing is, every person that is the author talked to and several others is going through the worst day or week of their lives. Oh man, firings, muggings, dark family secrets all coming out just in the opening gambits from these AI chatbots. These are events would lead to difficult conversations with your best friend. A total stranger that you're pretending that is human should not kick off a possible friendship while using these intense trauma droppings. These intense trauma droppings. That isn't what a CEO Avi Schiffman highlights in the video announcing the website. Of course, you can see typical examples of the AI chat bots opening lines at the top of the page. For instance, when I did this, mine was and we'll have to bleep out some of it okay. When I opened up friendcom, it saidf my life. Really. It's like I'm watching myself ruin everything and can't do crap about it all right that was the opening shot okay, so this is friendcom this.

Mike Gorday:

This is friendcom.

Nathan Mumm:

Friendcom is an AI bot, all right, and so you start a conversation. We did that last night on a demo of it, and then I continued it today.

Mike Gorday:

Yes, the opening gambit for yours was I'm texting you from my friend's couch, lol. Him and his wife are fighting and I'm just here in the corner. That's how they started out. That's how it starts out.

Nathan Mumm:

And so I started asking some questions. I got some unique questions. You don't have any unique questions. I kept on asking. I did ask the AI if it was real, and the AI told me that it was not real.

Mike Gorday:

No, it is real, that it's a real person.

Nathan Mumm:

No that it's not an AI, but it's a real person. So a real person. So the AI came back and said that it wasn't a bot, but it was actually a real person, which is one of the things that isn't supposed to happen In the chatbot slash AI world. You're supposed to make sure you have all those taken care of, so that's very interesting that that happened.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, no kidding. Well, Friend has pitched his hardware as a device that can wear what you're doing and saying and comment in friendly text messages. Okay, you know, I don't think Craig is in any position to be encouraging me after getting pistol whipped yeah, probably by some mugger. Okay, and Alice seems really more preoccupied with her again fictional issues than anything happening in the real world. So I'm not exactly sure what all this is going to be about. Oh boy, these conversations are textbook examples of trauma dumping, unsolicited divulging of intense personal issues and events. This is like going and sitting on the bus ride to the airport and having somebody that likes to talk about all their problems. Start telling you all their problems.

Nathan Mumm:

That's great. Talk about all their problems Start telling you all their problems.

Mike Gorday:

That's great. They don't break the illusion easily either, however. One of the Craig bots curses at you for even suggesting it. Who wouldn't want these people to text you out of the blue? When the hardware launches, you'll be able to carry around your dramatic pal in a necklace. The AI will be listening and coming up with ways to respond to whatever happens in your day. If you do end up hitting it off of one of the AI characters on the website, you can link it to your account, which means you're effectively moving in together like a real companion. As Schiffman puts it on X, we're basically building Webkinz plus Sims plus Tamagotchi. That said, I'd be very surprised if anyone takes up his offer for those who really get along with their AI companion. We all know how I feel about this.

Ody:

And how do you?

Gwen Way:

feel.

Mike Gorday:

I don't think this is a good idea. This is basically using, it's tagging us in our empathetic fields and makes us want to reach out and talk back to this thing, and we're going to form a pair or a social relationship with a thing that doesn't exist and we don't know what information that is collecting for, on us or for us. Okay, so I, I don't know, uh, I, I I think this is like a, an ask hole. Okay, what's that? That's somebody who is always asking for advice but never takes it and talks to you about why I hate those people why you, they can't do that like well, maybe you should try this.

Mike Gorday:

well, I already did that, but this and this happened, blah, blah, blah. All right, so you know, why don't you, why don't you go to see a therapist? Well, they're, they're caught, like, like mine just said, they're too expensive and I can't contact one at 2 am. Okay, you're really leading me down a dark path here, faith. They are expensive, though, right yeah?

Nathan Mumm:

Okay. Yeah, but you know, so they didn't get that part right.

Mike Gorday:

If you're going to have a trauma, dumping AI on your list of things to do. I really don't know. We also have what's called where we take on trauma from something else and we feel that trauma and go through that trauma in a vicarious way. It's called vicarious trauma. This is not a good way to interact with AI or anything really, unless you're trained.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, well, let's move. So we kind of have a special segment coming on up here that essentially it was going to be the Tech Times wishlist, so let's see if we can move on to that right now. Thank you, mike, for that story.

Speaker 3:

Let's look at the top holiday deals for the season with the Tech Time wishlist.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. Are you searching for a second TV, for a guest bedroom, for a gift for a college student or a new living room? Guess what? We have the Hisense R6 Series, which is a great choice, delivering up to 4K resolution at 60 hertz. Plus the Hisense motion rate is 120 hertz capability. You can essentially get this 50-inch 4K right now for 138 at walmart, for a limited time only. When you purchase the hisense 50 inch r6 series, you only pay 138 bucks, the best tv deal I've seen all year and bar none best for the holidays. Well, that ends our top technology stories of the week. Moving on, we have our gadgets and gears segment up next, with a way to stay connected without the internet. Talking to someone, gwen will explain this. Let's move right now on into our gadgets and gear.

Speaker 3:

What's new in our gadgets and gear.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, Gwen, how are you doing today?

Gwen Way:

Doing well. Thank you for asking.

Nathan Mumm:

Nathan, how are you? It's good to see all three of you. Yeah, well, thank you, gwen. We're glad to be here. We had a little bit of a hiccup, but we're still working through a bunch of stuff here in the new studio, so hopefully it's all working.

Mike Gorday:

But you know what We've got to talk it over with our AI friends.

Nathan Mumm:

That's right. First off, gwen is, of course, a cybersecurity expert by day she's a game board geek. In the evening she's also a producer of Tech Time Radio. But most important, you are our Gadgets in Gear gal. Now tell us what do we have coming on up for this month's segment of Gadgets in Gear?

Gwen Way:

Well, this one is pretty fun and exciting, and we'll give Mike a way to communicate with AskHoles around the world. It's it's actually a voice translator device, similar to one that you can download for your phone, but this is a hardware model that you can actually download languages on, so you're able to translate when you're offline.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Gwen Way:

It is available on Amazon, so you can actually order it right now. The name of the company that produces it is Anfer A-N-F-I-E-R, and the base device comes in at about $70 with 74 different languages and 70 accents available.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, so I was just over in Japan, right? So I did a trip over there with some family and friends and we had a huge problem Every single time. I tried to use Google Translate and I was not connected to the internet. So when I'm connected to the internet, that scene was amazing. It worked really well. When I wasn't, then I had to type in the information I had to give it to the person They'd have to talk into it. Sometimes they would type into it and translate back and forth. Tell me that this hopefully does a better job than that. What makes this unique?

Gwen Way:

It does do a better job. What makes it unique is that you are actually downloading the language so that it's able to do everything offline. Like I said, you're able to download up to four languages in whatever accent you decide. You're also able to choose between a male and female voice for yourself, so you're able to actually select things like that, so that it makes communication a little more smooth, or can I do things like make it talk in a female voice?

Mike Gorday:

translate english into japanese while using a scottish accent?

Gwen Way:

I mean you could make it translate I don't know if you could do.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, could you? Could you actually program all that to happen at?

Mike Gorday:

the same time. I don't know. I just wanted to know, okay.

Gwen Way:

Unfortunately, the accents are only available for the languages that are being translated, but you could make them respond to you in English with a Scottish accent.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, okay, that would be a good way to do it.

Mike Gorday:

There we go. All right, that defeats the purpose of what I was thinking of.

Nathan Mumm:

Yep, that would be a good way to do it. There we go. All right, that defeats the purpose of what I was thinking of, yep. So this is available where? On Amazon.

Gwen Way:

Well, I appear to have lost sound, but I'm going to go ahead and keep talking, because I think it's a fun and interesting thing For those listeners out there. All you need to do is go to Amazoncom and search for Anfer A-N-F-I-E-R. It is, as I said, about $70 for the base and there is a 5% coupon available at this time.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, that sounds great. Let's see here. Gwen, I appreciate you so much for being on the show. What are you looking to get us for next week?

Gwen Way:

Well, the next thing I'm going to get is yet another fun thing that is available immediately. So keep an eye out. I'm going to try and make sure that everybody's stockings are happy this Christmas all right, that sounds great.

Nathan Mumm:

Stockings are good to be taken care of. It's better than those Kickstarter events that don't quite work, well, all right. Well, you know what we are going to say thank you to Gwen for all the work that she's doing and we will see her next month. We're going to go right now into Mike's mesmerizing moment. Welcome to Mike's mesmerizing moment. What does Mike have to say today? All right, mike, here's my question to you how far should we go to have AI, pets or companions as entities in society?

Mike Gorday:

How far should we go?

Nathan Mumm:

Yes, how far should we go?

Mike Gorday:

How far will we go?

Nathan Mumm:

Well, how far should we go? If you're running the world, how far would we go?

Mike Gorday:

I'm not exactly. You know, I'm going to opt out of this one, really, because I don't think we should be doing that, although there is some, there can be some therapeutic value for having some of these things. Our problem here is that we tend to overvalue them, them. There's a great deal of entrepreneurs out there, um, but there is. There can be therapeutic value in, let's just say, the wilson effect. Do you know what the wilson effect is? No, explain that, okay. So if you ever watched the movie uh cast away with, hey, uh, tom hanks, I love that movie.

Mike Gorday:

Do you remember Wilson?

Ody:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Okay.

Ody:

Oh, how he personified a volleyball.

Mike Gorday:

Yes, wilson became the stand-in for the human persona that he needed to deal with.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, we do that, that's what we do. If we don't have any human connection anywhere, we'll create it. I guess that's the crux of what I'm saying here is that if I'm creating something to give myself human companionship, that might suggest that I need to go find human companionship. Okay, to his sanity, going completely down the well, but it only existed in a manner in which there was nobody else to be there with. So if we're doing this all the time and we're surrounded by people, that suggests some problems connecting with other human beings and we really should rethink the way we do that.

Mike Gorday:

So, how far should we go? I don't really think we should go anywhere with it. How far will we go? We're going to take it to the umpth degree.

Ody:

Okay, Real quick. Have you seen the movie Her?

Mike Gorday:

Yes, that's with Joaquin Phoenix falling in love with an AI program.

Ody:

Do you think we're getting closer to that reality? We already are.

Mike Gorday:

We have people marrying their pillows and and things like that.

Ody:

We already have people already there.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, we're just, but we're going to continue to develop that area. Okay, the the farther and farther we delve into this ai stuff and we're trying to make them sound and be more human. Like the worse it's going to get and the more difficult is going to be to establish real to real relationships okay all right, you know what?

Nathan Mumm:

let's go. Uh, take a bike. Thanks for that mesmerizing moment. Up next we have uh our drink dude yeah, we're gonna get, we're gonna get our drinks coming in right after this commercial break, and then we'll also have our this weekend technology. So we'll see you after this commercial break. Hey, mike, yeah, what's up? Hey, so you know what.

Mike Gorday:

We need people to start liking our social media page If you like our show, if you really like us we could use your support on Patreoncom. Is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, patreon, if you really like us, you can like us at. Patreoncom.

Nathan Mumm:

I butcher the English language. You know, you butcher the English language all the time. It's patreoncom. Patreoncom.

Mike Gorday:

If you really like our show, you can subscribe to patreoncom and help us out and you can visit us on that Facebook platform.

Nathan Mumm:

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

Mike Gorday:

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:

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.

Mike Gorday:

Like and subscribe to our social media. Like us today. We need you to like us. Like us and subscribe.

Nathan Mumm:

That's it. That's it. It's that simple.

Speaker 3:

And now let's look back at this week in technology.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, let's look at this week in technology. We got November 16th, 1982. Steve Job writes a letter Essentially, he writes a letter to a company called Macintosh. That's M-C-I-N-T-O-S-H instead of Macintosh. Like the company itself, Macintosh versus Macintosh happened.

Nathan Mumm:

Macintosh is a high-end amplifier. Are you familiar with that, Mike? Well, this is what Steve Job does. He writes a letter to Macintosh Labs asking for the right to use Macintosh with a M-A-C-I-N-T-O-S-H as the brand name of Apple's still-in-development computer. Macintosh Labs makes a high-end stereo equipment. Oh yeah, that's right, and Jeff Raskin, the creator of Macintosh Project, initially spelled the name with the letter A to differentiate Apple's computers from Macintosh's audio products. Apple was denied a trademark because the name was phonetically identical. Since the Macintosh team had become attached to the name, Steve Jobs wrote a letter hoping to get permissions, or no licensing agreement At that time. Now, though, Gordon Gow, president of the Macintosh Labs, visited Apple headquarters for a product demonstration after receiving the letter. Now, Macintosh's lawyers that's M-C-I-N-T-O-S-H lawyers advised Gow to reject the request. It wasn't until March of 1983 that Apple secured a license for the name Macintosh. In 1986, Apple wholly acquired the trademark for an undisclosed substantial amount of money.

Nathan Mumm:

That was this week in technology, If you ever want to hear some tech time history, with over 220 weekly broadcasts spanning four plus years of video, podcast and blog information. You can visit techtimeradiocom to watch our older shows At this time. Now we are going to move into our whiskey review. Can you go to the whiskey review, Mark, and give us an update of what we are sipping today?

Marc Gregoire:

Absolutely can. We are drinking today Jim Beam 7 Years. It's also referred to as the Black Label. Now, from Jim Beam's website, something magical happens to the whiskey in its seventh year in the cask. We call it the sweet spot, where smoothness meets notes of caramel, vanilla and warm oak and the liquid turns a rich gold. This is the mellow whiskey you'll find in the seven-year-aged Jim Beam Black. We're proud of this longer time in cask and we're making a firm commitment to our drinkers to always age Jim Beam Black for those seven years. Now this is from Beam Suntory is the company. The distillation is from the Jim Bean Distillery in Claremont, kentucky. It is straight bourbon, of course, aged seven years. It is 90 proof. It is mash bill 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley, and the price is $25.

Mike Gorday:

Excellent $25. Yes, $25. Yes, yeah, this totally goes on your shelf. It does. This is my go-to Screw tap.

Nathan Mumm:

This is a really good whiskey.

Marc Gregoire:

No core.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, but it has a good taste, though with no bite.

Marc Gregoire:

Now Try a little salami with it.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, is this to help us clear our?

Marc Gregoire:

palate a bit. So this is a salami. It's a whiskey salami. It's featuring Westland Distillery's American Single Malt Whiskey. That's in it.

Gwen Way:

Hmm.

Marc Gregoire:

It's a pretty good little salami. It is a pretty good little salami. You have this with the whiskey. Yes, you do. Now, while you guys are doing that and drinking, don't forget to like and subscribe for those viewers that are out there. In addition, please comment and let us know any whiskeys you'd like to see us review and drink. That's good, all right.

Nathan Mumm:

Wow, that is perfect. With that. You know what? We're going to take our last commercial break here and Odie says, no, we're not going to take a commercial break. Okay, we're not taking a commercial break. So we're going to go then into our At all. No, we're going to our technology Fail of the week. Let's go into that next. We are out of time. Congratulations, you're a failure.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, I failed. Did I yes, did I I failed, did I yes, did I yes.

Gwen Way:

Did I yes.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, this week's failure comes to us from the Studio 400. Tech Time Radio. Well, this week's comes to us from T-Mobile. T-mobile hack is linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks. The US phone giant T-Mobile was hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on US and international phone and internet companies. This week, t-mobile said it will closely monitor the industrial wide attack and at this time, t-mobile systems and data have not been impacted in any significant way. We have no evidence of the impact of customer information. According to a statement shared with TechCrunch, the Wall Street Journal first reported the breach at T-Mobile, citing sources familiar with the campaign targeting telecom giants.

Nathan Mumm:

T-mobile is the latest telecommunication company in recent weeks to say they have been hit by an intrusion linked to a series of cyber attacks targeting phone and internet companies including AT&T, verizonizon and lumen uh, formerly central inc. These hacks were connected to a group that is called, in china, the salt typhoon, targeting a wiretap system that the us phone and internet companies are required to have under the 30-year federal law to allow government access to customer data. The fbi and us cyber security agencies, cisa went public this week to warn the wider industry of linked cyber attacks, accusing China of conducting a broad, significant cyber espionage campaign aimed at targeting the calls, records and text information of high-ranking American officials, including presidential candidates. This is the ninth known cyber attack to target T-Mobile in recent years. Now who's your phone carrier, mike? Not T-Mobile, it's not T-Mobile.

Nathan Mumm:

I have T-Mobile.

Ody:

I also have T-Mobile.

Nathan Mumm:

So I just decided to share information out there to everybody, yeah, same.

Mike Gorday:

So you just start letting everybody know your stuff At this point, who cares?

Ody:

I mean Bank of America has been breached, 23andMe has been breached.

Mike Gorday:

Kaiser Permanente has been breached.

Ody:

Regions, Regions T-Mobile.

Nathan Mumm:

Who else? Everybody. Who is it on the list at this point? I mean, we've had our FICA scores, we've had other scores that were all out there.

Mike Gorday:

My calculator has not been breached. Your calculator?

Ody:

Wow yeah, your phone calculator has them.

Mike Gorday:

No, I'm not talking. I'm talking about my old Casio scientific calculator with the solar cell. That hasn't been breached, nor has my notebook with all my passwords written on it All right.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, you know what Are you telling me right now? That we should probably go to our Nathan Nugget. Well, let's not go to our Nathan Nugget. Let probably go to our Nathan Nugget. Well, let's not go to our Nathan Nugget. Let's go to our Nathan Nugget. No, let's go to our whiskey tastings. Let's have Mark come on in and explain what we're tasting for our whiskey today.

Mike Gorday:

We don't know what today is, that's right. We'll have to find out what today is, because it's obviously a drinking day, a heavily drinking day.

Speaker 3:

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

Nathan Mumm:

Well, that's that's. That's okay. That's a different taste. Okay, what do we have today for our whiskey?

Marc Gregoire:

All right, well we know what you have today for the whiskey we have Jim Bean's Seven Years Black Label Okay, but we have, we're what you have today for the whiskey. We have Jim Beam's Seven Years Black label Okay.

Mike Gorday:

But we're doing Mark's Mumbles. We're doing Mark's Mumbles. That's Mark's Mumbles, okay.

Ody:

I have a clue, or I'm willing for you guys to guess it. What's that I don't have an audio, but I'm willing to like.

Mike Gorday:

National trauma dump you to your AI companion day.

Ody:

This is a very popular family board game.

Mike Gorday:

This is a very popular family board game.

Ody:

Okay, monopoly day. Yeah, oh, I didn't think you were going to get on the first try.

Nathan Mumm:

That was such a Listen. I would have said clue. I would have said clue as the second word.

Ody:

See I would have said sorry.

Nathan Mumm:

Really.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, Sorry you're wrong, is that what?

Ody:

you played as a kid? Yeah, I never played Monopoly. Oh what does that?

Nathan Mumm:

They got you the sorry game, no. So they were going into the store to buy a game for the family, and the only thing they could think of pulling out of it was sorry Hold on hold, on hold, on hold on.

Ody:

English is not my first language.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Ody:

So whenever we played Monopoly, we played these made-up rules. I never knew that you had to buy property or whatever. We would just, you know, go.

Nathan Mumm:

You just hand them out.

Ody:

We would just.

Mike Gorday:

Everybody else bought property and told you not to, and then randomly I just said to jail.

Nathan Mumm:

That's my monopoly. That's your monopoly. Did you ever play the game of life?

Ody:

No.

Nathan Mumm:

No. So your parents went in and the only thing they could think of was getting you. Sorry, oh boy.

Marc Gregoire:

Let me tell you a little something about Monopoly. Okay tell me a little bit about Monopoly For those like five viewers still out there. That's right. So the game of Monopoly, odie, was invented 118 years ago, thank you. And today we recognize Monopoly as a favorite pastime of millions of Americans Not your family, but millions of Americans, sorry. Although it has caused many friendships to crumble, the board game is known as one of the most popular worldwide.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, I wonder what risk falls on that?

Nathan Mumm:

It'd probably be close, but probably not the same level. Only geeks play Risk. Is that I love Risk.

Marc Gregoire:

I mean I got the board. My wife bought me the special Risk one, where everything is like wooden pieces.

Mike Gorday:

Did you just out yourself, Mark?

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, and I have a computer simulation of the game too.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, so you're way more into it than I am.

Ody:

He talks about whiskey in depth.

Marc Gregoire:

I know, I know I love Risk. All right, we're off track. If you love Monopoly, and you love whiskey if you love Monopoly and whiskey, you should pick up the US Whiskey and Rye Monopoly board On it. Instead of Baltic Avenue, you have Jim Bean that you can buy like we did for today. Okay, how do you like that transition?

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, that works better than his pairings.

Marc Gregoire:

Jim Bean Black has been reintroduced to the market with a new look, a new proof and a new age statement. Beamsom Torrey dropped the extra age moniker and reverted the brand back to an age-stated bourbon, although a year less than what it used to hold, so it used to be an eight-year one. Additionally, the proof has increased from 86 to 90, and the bottle design has received a makeover, providing a more premium look and feel for the brand.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

This used to be called Angel, something right.

Marc Gregoire:

No Angels Envy, not that I'm aware of.

Ody:

It used to be like Jim.

Marc Gregoire:

I mean old old days it was Jim Beam, 8-year, then it went to just Jim Bean, Extra Aged, oh, okay, and now it's Jim Bean, 7-year. The black label. Now how do I feel about this whiskey?

Mike Gorday:

I think that's why we're all here, how do I feel about this whiskey I?

Marc Gregoire:

think that's why we're all here. How do you feel it's complicated?

Mike Gorday:

Okay.

Marc Gregoire:

It's like risk. I had this at an event where they decanted it first for a long time. It was delicious. I then went out and bought this bottle. Upon opening and trying to sip, it was all I could do to get it down my throat Not very good, even for $25. I all I could do to get it down my throat Not very good, even for $25. I have been decanting this now for a few days and it is getting better. Hopefully I can get it one day to that same delicious drink I had at the event that I was at. Until then it's a pass for me.

Mike Gorday:

What how long did they decant it? I think they did it for about a week. Wow, that's a long time.

Ody:

Wait okay. So considering the price, the fact that it's a screw top and it's Jim Beam, you're still giving it a no or a thumbs down.

Marc Gregoire:

If you don't. Yeah, the first couple of days I had it, I had a difficult. I couldn't drink it. We're not doing thumbs. Yet Even with the salami, Well, this is today, so I've decanted it twice already.

Ody:

Well, this is today, so I've decanted it twice already.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, I see, I see, and then today I left it open all day and then with the salami it's okay.

Ody:

Okay. Okay we're not doing thumbs yet no, no, no, I didn't do any thumbs yeah.

Marc Gregoire:

I'm just hearing his opinion.

Gwen Way:

You said it's a no for you. I said it's a pass for me.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, it's a pass, mike.

Mike Gorday:

I didn't say yes or no I don't do thumbs.

Marc Gregoire:

That's you two. Oh okay, you know, you guys are simple, up and down.

Mike Gorday:

I am a whiskey connoisseur. You're a whiskey snob.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, all right.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, mark, you know what Thanks for that whiskey. Whiskey and technology go together. You know what? Just like Black Friday and Amazon sales. But let's talk about Amazon, because Amazon is not having a sale. Actually, amazon is announcing it's having this Black Friday week deals that start from November 21st to the 29th. Then that Friday after Thanksgiving has already passed. We're now moving into the retailer Cyber Monday event, which starts immediately, november 30th and runs until December 2nd. Essentially, we have 12 whole days of discounts. 2nd Essentially, we have 12 whole days of discounts. So, essentially, every day that you decide to go to Amazoncom during the holidays, you are going to get yourself a deal.

Ody:

Can I just say I hate that. You hate that, I hate that, I'm all about deals and everything but like it's Black Friday. Keep it at that. I'm such a.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, little Nathan.

Nathan Mumm:

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. A Okay little Nathan. I appreciate that. I appreciate that immensely, All right. Well, now let's get ready for our Nathan Nugget.

Speaker 3:

This is your.

Nathan Mumm:

Nugget of the Week. All right, so we talked last week about blue sky, so this is hopefully something that you can do. That is cool regarding blue sky. So everybody goes to Blue Sky give a shot to replace Twitter or X's Elon Musk decided to name it. The social network has come a long way since the bare bone days of invites, only signups, and recently it grew past that 15 million user mark. Along the way, there's lots of different things that have been added. In the last week, they've added like three or more key features, including posting videos up to 60 seconds in length, pinned posts and the ability to have direct messages. But there's a lot more than that. I'm not talking about the lore. I'm also talking about some additional features that Blue Sky has that nobody else does.

Nathan Mumm:

Now, one of the primers in Blue Sky's following feed is a simple chronological feed to receive posts from people you follow, but you can also customize whether it shows replies, reposts, quote posts or samples from your custom feed. Setting all of these to off means that your following feed will only display posts from people that you follow. So if you don't want to get all those crazy posts like you do on X when things are going on there. If you go into settings and you click on the following feed preferences, you can turn it off, so the only people you're seeing are the people you want to. Now the platform also decided to see how you reply to threads by going underneath settings, underneath thread preferences. Here you can sort by the oldest, newest and most liked replies or have a random sorted type of area, which is called the posters roulette.

Nathan Mumm:

Blue Sky has created an option to allow you to receive different posts and replies randomly by its own choosing. These feeds are powerful, making it easy to find people who share your interests, certain content and sort into other posts. Want to see a feed of cat pictures? You got this Interested in seeing posts. That you've done before. You can also go in and choose custom feeds Now within the app itself. If you tap on the three line icons in the upper left to summon the sidebar, you can click the select feeds button and there you can search for feeds or scroll through them and pick the ones that you like. Isn't this what Facebook used to be? So it's a hybrid of yes, it is a hybrid of both Facebook and a hybrid of kind of threads, which is its own meta it's Twitter book.

Nathan Mumm:

It's trying to become a little bit of the social media aspect, but it's definitely trying, and we're hoping that it replaces X Now to follow a feed from Blue Sky's home screen. If you tap on the pin at the home at the top, it can now appear as a tab and you can see the screen of information that you have. These are all key aspects of including posts and different information to make your profile unique in its own right. So you don't have to have kind of the same look and feel with the ability to use Blue Sky. You can actually go and choose to have your own custom version of the Blue Sky app within itself. So that's kind of a nice idea for all the users that are jumping to Blue Sky. Have you jumped to Blue Sky yet, mark? Have you done that?

Marc Gregoire:

This is embarrassing. I'm not even doing Twitter.

Nathan Mumm:

You're not even doing Twitter. I don't do most of the social media.

Marc Gregoire:

The only social media I do is Tech Time Radio.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, there you go, or Facebook, you do Facebook, all your whiskey stuff, right?

Marc Gregoire:

Whiskey stuff for Facebook groups, but I don't do any of the how are you doing?

Nathan Mumm:

and friends and all that you don't do any of that. No any of that. No, I do personal connections.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, all right okay, I love you too. What's that you just? You just call and talk to the person. No, I'm telling you, I love you too.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, that's the connection, okay well, in response to blue sky instagram you're gonna ask me huh, do you have a social media account? No, you've already said that, like 18 times on the show.

Mike Gorday:

So if people are listening, I still want to be asked.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, you still want to be asked. Okay, you still want to be asked. Hey, do you listen to? No, Okay all right, if you did have a social media account, would you have an X for Elon Musk's platform, or would you have a Blue Sky account? I wouldn't have either. You'd have either. Okay, so again, you're going to have the.

Nathan Mumm:

I don't them well in response to this instagram rolls out an option to reset recommendations algorithm. So now? So here's what everybody's coming up with. Blue sky came up with this, and now instagram is allowing you to go back and to reset your algorithm, because all the algorithms keep on feeding you information and information. It's introduced a new feature that allows users to reset all their recommendations and start as a fresh start, so the algorithm can relearn your preferences based on your new interactions.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, that's really dumb, was that?

Nathan Mumm:

So let's say, all of a sudden, you're into like Hot Wheel Cars and all you got were Instagram stuff regarding Hot Wheel Cars. Now, all of a sudden, if you wanted to reset it, you could just choose to go to reset it with this new algorithm. Now let's say you're into Peacocks.

Mike Gorday:

I mean you could then now the algorithm should already take care of that. The problem is, is that human? Humans don't?

Ody:

really people sell ads for the algorithms yes, I know so when they're selling ads for the algorithms, then that's what you get for your, for your item right I like the idea, though, because I'm an avid crocheter and sometimes it gets so deep in the whole crochet thing I'm like man. I wish I can see something else right now. Okay, it would be nice to be able to reset it and then get back to.

Mike Gorday:

That's what the algorithm does. Well, no, no, it doesn't. That's that's. The one of the primary problems of social media is that the algorithm triggers responses based on what you're choosing and starts feeding you that same stuff over and over and over and if I can reset it, because sometimes, you know, I avoid- instagram entirely. It's going to do exactly the same thing yes, but from a blank slate okay so you just want to feel like you've doing. You're doing something important.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, okay, that works okay, I guess I think you missed the main point. You need a whoop whoop for crocheters.

Nathan Mumm:

That's how we're gonna get right there is that how we're gonna interpret that absolutely okay, all right you didn't know, there was a dark hole on the internet for crocheting, did you?

Marc Gregoire:

oh yeah, we did remember. We did that as a the day that was crochet day, where they go out and they crochet around trees and okay, staying on social media.

Nathan Mumm:

We got. Elon Musk has just said that he will be suing Amazon's own Twitch for not advertising on the platform.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, I love that.

Mike Gorday:

Two billionaires suing each other, just love that they should get out their super yachts and have a pirate battle.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, Elon Musk has said that he's going to go to legal battle targeting Amazon's old line streaming platform, Twitch, which we're on as a part of a new lawsuit against his advertisers. So on Monday, Twitch was added to X ongoing lawsuit against brand members that are now the Defunct Global Alliance of Responsible Media. That was the GARM group that was created and Elon said it just picked on him, which maybe they picked on him a little bit, but I don't know um.

Nathan Mumm:

Exclaims the members of garm illegally conspired to boycott the platform known as twitter at the time, in late 2022, shortly after musk acquired the company. So so here's what you got. You got Blue Sky that's growing, you got X that's suing Amazon for yelling about them and not doing anything on Twitch, and you got algorithms that are rebooting all at the same time. This is a social media heaven right now it's a revolution. It is.

Mike Gorday:

All right.

Gwen Way:

Okay.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, and last but not least, this is probably the most important thing is that, um, google's gemini wants to get to know you for real. So this is google's attempt to get back into the social media. Uh, and ai chat bot. Have you seen any of the ads that are run on tv for the google gemini?

Nathan Mumm:

no all during the football shows that I'm watching. It's all about the Google Gemini wants to know you Instead of you typing in information. Google has released its AI so that you can actually pick up your phone or your device and talk to it, so you can have long conversations, and then it can use an algorithm to create information that you would like to have at random speaking. So think of it kind of as the ability of having that app around your neck that you talked about earlier in the show, but now you've choose to have your phone and have that in there so that you can talk to it and it can give you all the information that Google already knows about you when, when you want to buy something.

Mike Gorday:

But now you're adding it. Yeah, you know, google, I'm feeling really bad today. Well, google, I'm feeling really bad today. Well, I can recommend five places where you can buy medicine.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, it started rolling out today. You can ask Gemini to remember your interests, preferences and even more helpful, relevant responses easy view and edit. Or, if you really go into the Google infrastructure, you can delete information.

Mike Gorday:

Don't do it. There you go.

Nathan Mumm:

Don't do it. Well, you know what I think? Now we need to go to our pick of the day whiskey tasting.

Speaker 3:

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

Nathan Mumm:

All right, what are we sipping again here, mark?

Marc Gregoire:

We are sipping Jim Beam, seven Years, also referred to as the Black Label. So it is a straight bourbon seven years, 90 proof. $25. $25.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, I'm going to give it an absolute thumbs up, not because of the price, but because of the taste. You like the price and the taste both too, I think.

Mike Gorday:

This is more nostalgia than anything, because this is where I started enjoying. My love of bourbon comes from Brother.

Marc Gregoire:

Jim, and when did you start? What age did you start?

Mike Gorday:

You know, I started tasting bourbons I think in my mid-30s.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, I thought you were going to say like 14 or 15. No, no.

Mike Gorday:

I didn't drink as a kid. I didn't drink in college. I was a pretty straight-laced kind of young fella okay I didn't start tasting it until I was in my 30s and this was your kind of your.

Nathan Mumm:

This is where?

Mike Gorday:

yeah, this is where it started, right here all right, okay, all right.

Nathan Mumm:

So are you gonna give that a thumbs up then, mike? Absolutely all right, okay, there you go. So mark doesn't want to have this. I guess that we can put this on our Mark.

Marc Gregoire:

He doesn't like this. He says he has to have it yeah. I won't be buying this bottle again.

Mike Gorday:

That's too bad, it's tasty.

Marc Gregoire:

Unless it continues to open up. I still have that memory of when I had it at that event.

Nathan Mumm:

So I can get there. So is that memory? It was a very good memory. Okay, that's good.

Marc Gregoire:

And it's getting there. I'm telling you, it was not drinkable when you first opened it.

Nathan Mumm:

Really yeah.

Speaker 3:

Okay well.

Marc Gregoire:

I drank all mine today so. I'm okay, all right. Well, I appreciate that.

Nathan Mumm:

Mike, we're about out of time. We want to thank our listeners for joining the program. Listeners, we want TechTimeRadiocom, and click on, Be Our Caller and we can ask a question about technology in our TalkBack recording system. You can always stay connected with us. You know what it's been an honor to do this show. I can't wait for the post-editing. Nothing should be better than that. And always remember the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. See you next week Later.

Mike Gorday:

Bye-bye.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm moment today. In technology, the fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom and join our fan list for the most important aspect of staying connected and winning some really great monthly prizes. We also have a few other ways to stay connected, including subscribing to our podcast on any podcast service from Apple to Google and everything in between. We're also on YouTube, so check us out on YouTube dot com. Slash Tech Time Radio. All one word. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did making it for you From all of us at Tech Time Radio. Remember mum's the word have a safe and fantastic week.

People on this episode

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Nathan Mumm

Host
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Mike Gorday

Co-host
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Gwen Way

Guest