Your questions, our answers!

Hosts: William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens.

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Technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0,

I am your host Bill.

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Welcome to this week's show.

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Believe it or not,

it's time for our summer Q&A.

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Which means we're about halfway

through the year, I guess.

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Bill? Gretchen. You're here.

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Where are we?

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It's about halfway through the year.

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We are halfway through.

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There's 52 weeks usually.

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Right. And it's amazing.

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Some of the statistics we talk about that

people will argue with you on

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in the comments,

but it is still 52 weeks in the year

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as far as I know,

at least in most countries.

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And week 30 would mean

that we're past the halfway point.

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We've been in the seventh month.

Yeah, yeah.

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So we are halfway

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12 months in a year or two.

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It's just amazing

that we're already there.

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So that being said,

it is time for our Q&A.

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Now, what we do to put these together

is we take the questions

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that you've sent over

the last usually quarter,

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maybe a little bit longer,

depending on what's going on in

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just the time, because we don't do these,

you know, based on a clock, it's

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just usually spring, summer and fall

or give or take.

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So this will be actually the last about

four months of questions that have come

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in. And then we go through them

and create the questions that we answer

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based on the general content and quantity

of the questions that you have sent in,

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or if it's unique, or if the three of us

decided we want to cover it.

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That's a very subjective criteria there.

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But hey, it works, right?

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Especially that last part.

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I'm still thinking

about the previous thing.

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We could use the solstice and and as the

as the middle point of the year.

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Well, I'm in the mood to it

that way. Right.

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So yeah.

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Used to be.

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Yeah. Probably back in June you know.

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So yeah.

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Anyway,

so we'll be doing that in a second.

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Second half

we're going to be talking about game bill.

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What is a game of rewards.

Yeah. The knees.

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Yeah. The Eddie

something that I never heard of.

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And being that I've done role

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playing since longer than I've been alive

I probably should have.

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But I'll learn about this

along with everybody else today.

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So anyway, what do we have in the news?

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Let's go ahead and just jump right

in. All right.

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This sounds like something out of a James

Bond movie.

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FCC approves

giant mirror satellite designed

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to beam sunlight to the Earth after dark.

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Yes, in the name of the satellite has,

like, dots

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over letters and hyphens and things.

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So I'll do my best on pronouncing it,

but it's reflective.

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Orbital is the company

and the satellite or the program

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is like A-1.

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Somebody that speaks

whatever language that's in

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can correct me on that,

because I know I'm not saying it right.

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And yeah, you're thinking about

like a Montgomery Burns thing

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out of the Simpson

super villain Ariel here.

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And there is a part of this that it is

definitely, let's just say controversial.

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Now, a couple of things that came to mind

when I saw this when it came out

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was, number one, the FCC doesn't

usually approve satellites,

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so there was a little bit of a

of a conflict there.

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And the other thing of it

is, is the way this was being

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described is actually much bigger

than what

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they're trying to do here,

at least for the moment.

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So the approval is for one demonstration

satellite, not a constellation.

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The FCC approval covers

the spacecraft's communication systems.

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The rest of it is outside

of their authority.

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So that's basically what's going on here.

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So what we're dealing with is an 18

by 18 meter, 59 by 59ft reflective film.

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It's launched and unfolds

once it's in the orbit.

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And basically what the idea is, is

it will reflect

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sunlight back at night to a solar farm.

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So the illuminated area

would be about three miles wide.

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Okay. As it moves. Right.

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So that makes a lot more sense.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Think of it like less like

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a laser pointer and more like steering

a moving patch of daylight at night.

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So it does definitely have that sci

fi feel to it, but it's not.

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We're illuminating the night

all of the time.

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So okay, one of the things

that's happening is we need more energy.

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And by the day that goes

on, we need more energy.

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And a lot of the technologies that

we're starting to use are reliant on this.

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But what's happening with the solar farms,

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which is a very good way to produce energy

during the day, right?

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At night, they don't work

because of the nature of what it is.

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So they either become unstable

going into the grid

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or you have to have battery storage,

which is the way they're doing it now,

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to where it will balance out

that type of a thing.

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But doing this would allow

for the solar farms to work at night.

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So some of the things

that this could be used for,

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being that the beam is controllable,

is that or other things like

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say there's an earthquake.

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And right now the emergency responders

bring in all kinds of floodlights

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and stuff like that.

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You can use this to illuminate

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the area that need a rescue or that kind

of a thing, you know, that kind of stuff.

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So there is definitely, conceptually

at least

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an idea of this

that would be somewhat beneficial.

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Now, I remember a number of years ago

there was a proposal

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that was rightfully defeated in Congress,

and in fact, some individuals

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offered to take these out of the sky

if they were actually launched.

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Was the idea of putting up big, reflective

things

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that would be like a McDonald's logo

that you would see at night.

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Yeah, and this is not for that.

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I think it's important to put that out.

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And plus, as far as renewable energy goes,

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you would be producing light

without creating, you know, pollution.

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So the astronomers are against this

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because additional stuff in orbit,

especially additional reflective stuff,

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makes it even more difficult than it is

now to see the sky at night.

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You know, we're already having this

with Starlink and some of the other

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satellite constellations

that are out there that are reflective.

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Now, what they're doing with a lot of

those satellites is painting them

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or creating the housing on them in a way

that they don't reflect, which does help.

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But the nature of how something like this

would work as it has to be reflective.

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So concern artificial nighttime

light can affect wildlife.

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You know,

there's a lot of things like that.

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But again, you're

talking about a small area that is focused

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on not like the entire part of the earth

that should be dark.

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So that does make it a little bit

different on that type of a thing.

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And there's a lot of things

that go on here about, you know,

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some of the bad things that could happen

if we had sunlight all night.

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But then again,

this is not sunlight all night.

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And this is the part where I think

I get a little bit of a concern

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trying it out as a proof of concept

with one reflective satellite,

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you know, okay, that's not a big deal,

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but what they're talking about

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What?

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Yeah, that's not enough space up there.

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You know, it's not wise whether it's

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technically or even economically

achievable remains to be seen.

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But, you know,

so it's an interesting thing

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and I think that, you know,

like we've talked about global mirrors

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from science fiction before

we were recording James Bond Villains.

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I know somebody brought that idea,

you know.

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But again, this isn't that.

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But we want to be careful

what we're doing, because I think

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this falls under the question of

just because we can should we?

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Now, if it's a system that is usable

and doesn't create a lot of problems

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and can eliminate the need for,

you know, carbon fuel at night

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and that kind of thing,

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then there might be a good location

for it, 50,000 of them.

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Yeah, I don't think so.

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How to stop

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ChatGPT from ruining how you think?

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Yeah.

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So I asked ChatGPT

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to summarize this for me, and I was told

that not to worry about this.

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So, you know, I guess

we don't have to worry about it, right?

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So this is something we've talked about,

this give or take in the past.

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And AI is something that's a little bit

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different than a lot of the technology

we've brought into place in the past,

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because it actually can do so much more

that well.

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It's amazing what it's capable of.

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It can create problems.

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And the thing of it is here

is that you have to

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look at this is a tool,

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but you don't want to allow it

to replace your thinking.

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Right.

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So it's either we all become cyborgs,

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get AI built in

and then that would solve the problem, or

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we have to keep ourselves

able to think independently. So

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look at it from this standpoint,

and I think this is a good comparison

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for it is the idea that,

you know, a long time ago.

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Like what, 15 years ago or before,

if you wanted to get somewhere,

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you would have a map

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and you would unroll the map

and you would figure out where to go.

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And today a lot of people would not know

how to use a map because of GPS.

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Okay, so this is something

that is kind of a comparison.

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And when you ask your question,

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well, does that mean that we shouldn't

use global positioning technology?

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Well, no, of course not.

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But when you go to cognitive surrender,

in other words,

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you're letting the computer take over

something that you should know how to do.

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That's a problem. So,

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you know, from that

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kind of a standpoint, I think

we're looking at the same thing with AI.

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I think anytime people allow something

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or someone to do the thinking for them,

you're going to have trouble.

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Yeah.

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And that's exactly

that's exactly what's happening here.

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And because AI is

one of the first technologies we have

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that's actually able to do that, in a way

it is creating that kind of a problem.

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Now, I was thinking about this,

and I use AI, I'm a programmer

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and as we've talked about

obviously we do our show.

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But I don't ever say let's say a,

for example,

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we're going to produce

next week's episode of User Friendly

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and go to an AI and say,

give me my script.

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And that's

kind of what people are concerned about.

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Is that kind of a switch?

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Now, what I will do with it is once

we've determined topics

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and various types of things like that,

I might go into AI and hey,

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can you give me some points

on this given topic?

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And then it does.

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And then you check those points

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to make sure they're valid

because AI is do hallucinate.

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Sometimes that's not a problem.

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I don't think I'm still driving,

but I also have had an example.

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I've talked about this on the show

before with a company that I work with,

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that we got a function

for some computer software we were doing

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back up from a developmental team

that we had an interim doing the work on.

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Great code look good, ran well,

and we need to have him

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replace some things in the layout,

make some stuff bold

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and that type of thing, and realized

very quickly

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he had no idea how to do it

because AI had built the entire function.

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And this is a problem because

you have an intern or an apprentice

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that is supposed to be learning

how to do the technology on their own,

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and they're not, because they're doing it

this way.

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Now, the company that I work with,

the person that runs it, tries

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to have a little different approach

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and not think of the employees

as copy machines, which a lot of them do.

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Ended up sending this guy

to a programing bootcamp, came back

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and actually now is really contributing

in a very positive way.

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Still uses AI.

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I use AI when I code,

but I don't use AI to write my code.

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I use it to, you know, do certain things

within it to make it faster.

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I am not a good UI

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developer, user interface developer

and the look and feel of

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software is very important.

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So that's the place where I will write

all the functionality, have at work,

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have some sort of a

UI and maybe run it by AI.

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Got our acronyms today.

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User interface

running by artificial intelligence.

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Can you take a look at this.

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And number one catch

anything that might be wrong in the code.

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You know we're like a hacker

could get in or something.

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It happens.

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So it's a security thing

good tool for that.

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And it'll go through and make it look like

I actually know have some kind of an art

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gene in my system,

which I don't know, these are.

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But I'm not saying I write the software.

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You know, this also goes into like

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education or and writing you.

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Well, when I was in high school,

we had write papers.

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When I was in college,

I had to write papers

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and I could easily see

there are some softwares

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that are really good at proofreading

your your work.

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And I'm terrible at punctuation.

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And the

AI software that I've been using is great,

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but sometimes it'll make suggestions

and I'll read through it

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and it like it'll change the meaning

of what I'm trying to say, right?

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So if you're using an

AI software to edit or correct

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your papers, don't just sit there

and think that everything

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it suggests is good,

because it may change the actual meaning

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of what you're trying to say or what

you're trying to prove in the paper.

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You have to take control, and

you have to read through it very carefully

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and decide whether those suggested

changes are a good idea or not.

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Okay, so it's just one of those things.

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You're still on the driver's seat,

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you're still offering the content,

and again, you're using it.

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That's like a spell checker or something.

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You know,

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it is more complicated or more capable,

but it's definitely the same thing.

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And yeah, that's exactly the situation.

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But you have the other side

of the coin here.

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And this is where it's becoming a problem,

where there are entire books

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that are written

and have illustrations and stuff,

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and the whole thing is done by AI,

and then people are told, no,

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I wrote this and you can still tell,

you know, that's one thing.

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You're not able to hide it completely,

but now you've just taken

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the human completely out of that.

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If I'm not going to buy your book,

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if I want to know something in that way,

I'll just go online and ask Gemini

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to summarize it for me

and get the same response.

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And I know it's being generated by an AI.

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There's no, you know, cloak and dagger

there.

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Here's another point.

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Then the AI should have gotten the credit

for the book as the authorship,

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not the human.

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You know, it's like you're stealing

artwork and ideas from another entity.

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I guess you would call it.

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It's still it's a win.

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Not enough that AI passes the

what is it, a territory chest?

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Am I saying that right

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and is sentient?

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Then you're going to have a whole

nother situation there

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because you really are stealing

from another author's work.

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It's a whole different kind of

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concept, very sci fi,

but we're heading in that direction.

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All right, here's some more space stuff.

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NASA's dragonfly clears key tests

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as Titan rotorcraft takes shape.

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Well, that sounds very interesting.

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Yeah. All right.

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So kind of think about it

from this standpoint.

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And I'm trying to summarize these

a little better

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because some of these stories

are really cool.

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But you can't talk about them

in five minutes.

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So think of it this way.

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NASA is building a helicopter to fly

on a new nearby, but a million miles away.

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I don't know how that's nearby.

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Far away in my book,

where it's -290 degrees.

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Gasoline falls from the sky is rain,

and there are lakes,

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rivers and seas made up of liquid methane

instead of water.

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Not a vacation spot.

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I'm planning to go to anytime soon.

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And what this is, is Titan the moon.

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Titan dragonfly is a mission

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to tighten, to be able to kind of

do like what we're doing with Mars.

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The biggest difference here

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is, instead of being a rover

that goes around on the dirt, it flies.

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That's

where the helicopter analogy comes from.

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And being able to do that,

you're using physics in your favor,

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except instead of using them against you

like you do with the ground,

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where you have all kinds of friction

and stuff like this.

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Lying through the air

allows you to be able

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to do a lot of things

a lot easier, a lot less fuel is used.

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You can get from location to location

faster.

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There's a lot of things that are about

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just making this workable

where it wouldn't be the other way around.

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So think of it this way.

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Eight eight rotor idea.

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Like kind of like a drone,

but about the size of a compact car.

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And on that you have instruments

that can do chemistry, weather

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and all that kind of stuff.

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So that's what this is about.

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The milestone that we've gotten to

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here is something

that's really kind of cool, that

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a big component of this has been finished

and is being brought to the physics lab,

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and that'll be the next step

in getting that

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put into the structure

and being able to start testing that out.

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So this is science fact,

not science fiction.

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I think I refer to it as science

fiction, unfortunately.

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Yep. Yeah.

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All right.

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Bye. Las Vegas speaks on threat of 764

terror network in Nevada.

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Well, criminals are going high tech.

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And this is getting a little bit scary.

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And when you look at the different things

that are happening here,

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it is definitely something to be concerned

about.

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Eight News

Now reported on this in Las Vegas.

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It's regarding a terror network called 764

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that's been identified as a terror

organization that's operating in Nevada.

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And what's happening here

that really has come out from

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this is recruitment

into the criminal organization.

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In the past,

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when these type of things happen,

there had to be a physical connection.

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Now a teenager can be recruited

from their bedroom.

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And what's happening

here is groups like this are using social

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media, gaming platforms

and so on to locate

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isolated or vulnerable

and young people who might not get out

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and socialize otherwise, and often

without ever meeting them in person.

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And there's a lot of victims and offenders

that are being generated from this.

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The internet has basically removed

geography from criminal recruiting.

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So platforms that are being used

or things like discord, telegram,

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TikTok, Instagram and not that these

platforms are somehow criminal platforms.

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They're not.

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Millions of people use them every day

safely.

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It's just

they're being manipulated in a way

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to get to people that they wouldn't

otherwise be able to get to.

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And then they're using social engineering,

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where the idea is that

the hackers break into people.

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I mean, that's

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kind of an interesting way to look at it,

but that's what's happening here.

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That's nothing new,

but they're getting a lot better of it.

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Instead of stealing passwords,

they're stealing trust.

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Interesting thing about it.

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Some of these topics we've talked about

here is AI is not really involved in this.

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This is just more psychology at least.

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Yet AI is not involved in this.

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So definitely something to be aware of.

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And parents, do you need to know

what their kids are doing online.

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And sometimes it's hard to do.

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It's technically to be able to do it,

but it is definitely important

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as something to be concerned

about with keeping your kids safe.

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And now for something a little less scary.

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Register for robotically manipulated

payload challenge.

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What's that about?

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All right, so first of all, NASA

376

is the place

377

online to go

get the detailed information about this.

378

And what this is, is a program from NASA

that is inviting you to participate.

379

So that's kind of cool.

380

Yeah.

381

So what's happening here is right now

there's a problem more than one in space.

382

But there's a problem in that.

383

You shoot up a satellite, it does it Slane

for a limited period of time.

384

And then it basically dies.

385

And when that happens, it either

386

falls back to Earth or it becomes space

junk and is put out in a parking orbit.

387

And the problem with this is creating

is it's a lot of debris

388

and a lot of cost wasted,

because you can't upgrade

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or repair anything while it's in orbit,

and this program hopes to change that.

390

So comparison here would be something like

if you had your car

391

by a new car and you drive it

in, the brakes need to be replaced.

392

Instead of doing a great job,

you throw it away and buy another one.

393

But that's what's happening in space.

394

So the challenge is to come up with ways

395

here to be able to create robotics,

to be able to manipulate things in space,

396

to do stuff like upgrade a camera

397

or repair something that's gone wrong

or even change a battery.

398

So that's what we got going on here.

399

And it's something

that if you're interested

400

in, go ahead and again

check it out at NASA.

401

Or and the red deadline is July 29th.

402

Yes. Gretchen. Thank you.

This is a timely thing.

403

You got to apply by July 29th.

404

All right.

405

Now it's time for something

completely different.

406

You know,

they should put that on TV series.

407

Someday we're going to talk about

something called the Ennis.

408

Bill. Take it away. What are the Ines?

409

To quote the website,

the any awards are an annual fan base

410

celebration of excellence in tabletop

role playing gaming.

411

It is a fan of People's

412

Choice Award for tabletop gaming.

413

It goes on every year

and currently voting is open.

414

So if you have a favorite tabletop RPG

that came out

415

third party,

usually you can go and vote for it.

416

Cool. That sounds.

I mean, I had never heard of this.

417

No, me neither.

But it sounds like this has been.

418

This isn't the first year, right?

419

No. Yeah.

420

It's been going on for quite a while.

421

I can't remember how many years,

and I probably could look it up here, but

422

it just shows how on top of that,

I was. But anyway.

423

No, it's a cool thing though.

424

It's a neat idea

425

because there's a lot of third party

companies to develop role

426

playing games, modules for role playing

games, all this kind of stuff

427

that sometimes

428

do a much better job, in my opinion,

than some of the mainstream stuff.

429

And they have a hard time

getting their stuff out there.

430

So this seems like

it would be a very good way

431

that if you run into something

and you like it, you can go vote for it.

432

And, you know, let the other people know

that it's a good idea to test it out.

433

Oh yeah, right now

you can go vote for Legends of Antis,

434

cooker, Moon or Dagger Heart.

435

If you're fans of those systems

and resources,

436

along with a lot of other stuff

that's out there.

437

Do you have any favorites?

438

Cricket moon

439

yeah, I wouldn't I can't say

440

I'm shocked to hear that, but.

441

No, it's it's really cool.

442

Okay. So again, where do you vote?

443

Any Dash awards?

444

Ian Innis

445

and I dash awards

446

okay, so no s e n n I.

447

All right, we'll get it out there.

448

So yeah,

check it out and go to User Friendly Show.

449

Let us know who you voted for,

which system you voted for.

450

In this case.

451

We'd love to hear about this

because I love it where you have this

452

grassroots type stuff

associated with stuff that's big business,

453

to allow the Indies to be able

to get out there and show their stuff.

454

And some of the things developed

by independent creators, role playing

455

games, video games

and other things is absolutely amazing.

456

And I'll just close up with this comment

that in the retro computer community,

457

Commodore 64,

Atari, all this kind of stuff,

458

the games that we have today

that are developed homebrew by independent

459

developers are actually better

than the commercial software ever was.

460

This is user friendly.

2.0 will be back after the break.

461

He's from the future.

462

He's got a really big computer

463

and he uses it uses it every day.

464

And he uses it uses it in every way.

465

What she uses for you know, I'm

not that sure because it means it's easy.

466

Welcome back.

467

This is user friendly 2.0.

Send us your question.

468

Send us your comments at User Friendly Dot

show.

469

It is your one stop for letting us know

what you think, what you'd like

470

to have us cover,

and the ability to play back old episodes.

471

One note on

this is we've been having some issues

472

that if you go to your smart speaker

473

and ask to play user friendly,

you might get the wrong one.

474

So make sure it's user friendly 2.0

the real one, and be sure you get it.

475

You can go to our website user friendly

dot show.

476

All right.

477

Well, as we talked about in the beginning,

today is the day that we answer

478

your questions.

479

So I guess we need some questions.

480

What is crowdfunding.

481

All right.

482

So if this sounds familiar because you

listen to our previous Q&A, it is this.

483

And the next question

we'd actually talked about there.

484

But we've had a lot

of additional questions coming in on this.

485

And I think it's because of

some of the things that are going on.

486

And the answer to the question

of what is crowdfunding is basically

487

these are platforms,

and there are different ones of varying

488

degrees of suitability

489

to where you can have

something like a project,

490

or you're trying to raise money

for an event, or even some people

491

are trying to raise money

for their next vacation.

492

These different type of things

go out there and you can put up a project,

493

and you hope that people

will support your project.

494

So in the ones that are dealing with

manufacturing some new kind of product

495

or service

or that type of thing, these ones are

496

interesting because most of the time

they work out

497

pretty well, but we can all tell stories,

which we will in a minute

498

here of sometimes where they don't.

499

So when you put up money

500

for a given reward, it's important to know

that is not guaranteed.

501

It's like doing the stock market.

502

Yeah.

503

Kind of.

I guess that would be an interesting

504

comparison

because you could lose your money.

505

Yeah, yeah.

506

Well what happens a lot of the times is

I have this great project,

507

things like I'm going to make a movie

or I'm going to make a triple

508

A video game for $50,000,

that kind of stuff.

509

So when looking at these things,

you want to check it out

510

to make sure that you don't get scammed.

511

And there's been a lot of times

where has gone out,

512

they've raised money

and then they don't provide the award.

513

Now, fortunately,

this is not the majority.

514

Most of the crowdfunding stuff's

on reputable platforms, funds

515

in the dependent developers

and things like that

516

that wouldn't otherwise

be able to get their product to market.

517

And I've seen some really cool things

with that.

518

But that's basically what this

is and what crowdfunding is.

519

Is there a

520

difference between crowdfunding sites?

521

Short answer is yes.

522

And a big, big yes on that.

523

So the biggest one probably is

Kickstarter.

524

It's the oldest one that is operating

that's considered reputable,

525

and they're a site that actually,

as far as these things go, is pretty good.

526

It's still possible

to not get what you're supposed to get,

527

but they do disclose right on top of it

if you're not guaranteed anything.

528

And the other thing they do is tend to

529

watch for scams and take them down

and are pretty good about that.

530

I think the next one would be Indigo Go,

which is a little less in that context.

531

They do watch for scams

and take them down, but they have

532

a unique thing called flex funding

that does not exist on Kickstarter.

533

So basically on most platforms

you set a goal.

534

I want to raise $50,000

for doing whatever project.

535

If you raise the money, you get it.

536

If you don't raise the money,

you don't get it

537

because you wouldn't have been funded.

538

So what flex funding is,

is whatever amount of money

539

they happen to raise, they still get it

whether or not they hit their goal.

540

Okay.

541

You can see where that can be problematic

because if you don't have enough

542

to do your project, well, you know,

so you want to watch for that.

543

Then there's a number of other sites

out there, some good, some not so good.

544

And I've even seen ones where a company

has decided that they want to raise money

545

for something they're not allowed, for

whatever reason, on the bigger platform.

546

So they create their own

crowdsourcing site that looks like it.

547

But you want to check those out,

548

because if that's the only project on that

site, that's probably a red flag.

549

Yeah, I think

550

Kickstarter and Backer are the two

that I really appreciate.

551

Yeah. What was the second one?

552

Backer kid.

553

Okay,

that's not what I've used, but okay. Yeah.

554

And you can get a list of these

555

and ratings like anything else

just by searching for them.

556

But check it out and do a little bit of

research and do research on the project.

557

So one of the other things you can

look at to is

558

is the person that's got the project up.

559

Have they ever successfully

had a funding project?

560

Have they backed anything else?

561

Check out social media.

562

Look if a websites provided

563

is all of the images on their

AI generated, that's a red flag.

564

You know, you want to just make sure

that it feels like they're actually

565

trying to accomplish something

and not just walk away with your money.

566

How to

stop chat for ruining how you think.

567

Yeah, so we talked a little bit early.

568

Yeah, we talked a little bit about this

in the segment

569

that's not formed as a question.

570

So that wouldn't have worked on jeopardy.

571

But you know deep diving

is like we said before,

572

you got to think of it like a tool.

573

And like anything else, you

574

trust it

to the extent of what it's supposed to do.

575

But you are the person in charge.

576

You drive the project,

577

you ask it for what you want it to do,

but you don't ask it to do it for you.

578

And these are two different things.

579

And like we were talking about

580

in the first segment, this is something

that's becoming a problem because AI

581

is something

that it's the first real technology

582

that's gone mainstream that can actually

583

do enough to work and replace

your need to think about things.

584

And we told some of the stories in the

first segment on what we've run into this.

585

But just, you know,

586

to kind of sum it up again, because we get

a lot of questions on this is

587

ask AI what you want to do.

588

It's an amazing tool.

589

See what answers

it gives you. Check the answers.

590

Make sure the information is correct.

591

They do hallucinate sometimes, and don't

592

expect it to be able to do your project

for you and have it be successful.

593

And as far as things like artwork

generation, that type of stuff goes.

594

I use it to generate a picture of my role

playing character.

595

I have no problem with that.

596

I do not use it to generate something

I'm going to publish.

597

For one thing,

598

having human designers do that,

you're going to get a better product,

599

you're going to be able to work with it

better.

600

And the other part of it

is, is it's not fake, you know?

601

All right.

602

I have an old arcade game called gyrus.

603

Should I fix it?

604

There is no video

or turn it into a multi game machine okay.

605

So in my opinion

606

if you convert that to anything else,

the arcade God's will come and smite you

607

is one of the best in my opinion

608

and most beautiful early arcade games.

609

It uses chiptune.

610

It's been considered one of the best ones

for the music that goes along with it.

611

I would love to find a gyrus myself.

612

They're a little bit difficult

to come up with,

613

and this type of a cabinet

you would want to fix.

614

So 10,000ft answer to this is basically

615

there are some games out there

that are not collectible.

616

And you know, they break down,

you convert them into something else,

617

and you can put a Raspberry

Pi or something like that in it and be

618

able to run ROMs

and have it be a lot of different games,

619

and there are appropriate times to use

something like that, but you would want

620

to check out what the original game is

and also what's wrong with it

621

if there's no video

and it's playing headless

622

so you can hear the audio

and everything else seems to be working,

623

that means your game board is good

624

and there's something wrong

with the monitor in this type of a game.

625

And I don't like to do this

unless I have to.

626

But a lot of the

627

crowds are dying on us now,

and this is a very common problem to have.

628

So maybe look at going ahead

and replacing that part of it

629

with something modern,

like a LCD LED screen.

630

You can get these

for a couple hundred bucks

631

and they drop right in

and makes the cabinet lighter

632

and that type of a thing.

633

But the other thing to consider is

if you really do want to keep it

634

original, is do at least diagnose

what's wrong with it.

635

Because really, even with CRT,

636

as long as the tube

and the flyback are still good,

637

you can probably repair it and have it

still work as the way it originally was.

638

So it's just depending on the condition

and what you're dealing with at the time.

639

But this is one where you would

drastically limit the value of what it is

640

if you were to convert it.

641

It's like the same thing

with a lot of the original classic.

642

Let's say you got a Wizard of War,

and if you converted that,

643

you probably need to not do anything

with video games ever again.

644

In my opinion,

that's an extremely valuable one.

645

Again,

that is worth a lot more as the game

646

than what it is

is if you were to try to convert it over.

647

Now, this is a callback to a news article

648

we had before you talked about X-Box

laying off thousands of employees.

649

Is X-Box being phased out?

650

Yeah. Good question.

651

We've had a lot of different

variations of this that have come in.

652

This kind of summing it all up.

653

Is X-Box in trouble or, you know,

is it going down?

654

Is Microsoft going to drop the project?

655

All of these type of things, they are

definitely changing what they're doing.

656

But in my opinion,

657

from everything I've seen on this,

I don't think it's a bad thing.

658

They're consolidating some stuff.

659

Back in the last ten years, they bought

a lot of independent game studios

660

and tried to make them work together,

which is not something

661

that's easy to do without changing

the concept of how the studio worked.

662

And if you try to do that,

then why buy the studio?

663

Just set up what you want

under your own umbrella.

664

Blizzard Activision is one of the bigger

ones that was purchased by Microsoft.

665

There are a number of other ones out there

that they are starting to spin off

666

back in the independent studios again,

because this hasn't worked very well

667

or shut them down or whatever

the case may be.

668

But in the case of Microsoft,

it seems like they are selling that IP

669

and not just trashing it,

which is, in my opinion, a good thing.

670

But at the end of the day,

I think what's going to happen

671

here is we're seeing the consoles and

regular computers now getting to a point

672

where they are pretty much equivalent

in what they can do.

673

Game consoles are unique

in the standpoint

674

that you develop software

specifically for them.

675

You know it runs on that platform.

676

You don't have to worry about

making it compatible with other things.

677

So there are still advantages

in that area.

678

But on the flip side of it, you now

have your computers plug into HDMI.

679

They can do the same video output,

that kind of a thing.

680

But the second part of it

that I think still makes consoles relevant

681

is also the price

to get a good gaming machine.

682

It's going to cost you a bill.

683

Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

684

At least $3,000 more

685

1500 at least

686

because you know your video card alone,

if we're a good one, could be that much.

687

Yeah,

688

and your video game consoles are you know,

they've gotten more expensive, roughly.

689

I don't know what, around about $500 now,

give or take, depending on what it is.

690

Projections have them going up

to a thousand for the next gen.

691

But I've seen that. Yeah, yeah.

692

Who knows.

693

So that even starts

to put it closer to a full computer.

694

But there still is a bit of a difference.

695

And I think there's also something

to be said that you turn the console on,

696

it does what it's supposed to do,

697

and you don't have the problems

that can be associated

698

with running a PC and trying to get it,

you know, to work with different things.

699

So our console still relevant? Yes.

700

If something happens

that we will be talking about in depth

701

at a later time, like Sony really did

do away with all of their physical media.

702

Now built this.

703

Okay, so for anybody that hasn't heard,

there was an announcement

704

made in the news by Sony

that they're going to switch

705

with doing physical media of any kind

706

by 2028, that would mean that

the next generation of PlayStation

707

would not have a media drive. Right now.

You have that choice.

708

You wouldn't have it anymore.

709

But Bill, you said

there's been a lot of pushback on that.

710

I think, yes,

a lot of people were boycotting

711

and dropping their PlayStation

plus survivor ships.

712

And so Sony's walking back a little bit.

713

But I don't know.

714

It's it's

a complicated thing about physical media.

715

I think we have another question later

on about that.

716

Yeah, yeah,

we'll get into that in some more depth.

717

But and I've done a 180 on my belief

in that too.

718

So anyway,

but I don't think X-Box is going away.

719

I think what they're doing is actually

going to make it more streamlined.

720

I think we're going to see focusing them

able to focus on specific games

721

and make them better,

722

instead of being all over the place,

and let the independent studios

723

also produce for the platform

and focus on what they're good at.

724

So I do see this kind of down the road

probably being a good thing.

725

All right.

726

Is Ukraine really using video

games to train drone operators?

727

Yeah.

728

So we did a

729

we did a story on this recently

and we've had a lot of questions come in.

730

And the question answer to

that is basically yes.

731

Now there's two different things

going on here.

732

There is software that's being used

to actually train the drone operators.

733

And then there's a game

you can get from steam

734

called the Ukraine Flight Drone

Simulator, about 30 bucks.

735

And you can learn how to fly a drone

and what it's like to do it

736

with real video footage

and some other things.

737

I would imagine that some of the more

clandestine things that they use

738

are taken out of the software.

739

At least.

740

I sure hope it is,

741

because you can imagine the enemy

is probably going to play this game too.

742

Oh yeah, Russia hasn't been able to fly

drones pretty well.

743

So, you know, hopefully

they won't learn too well from this.

744

But anyway,

745

you know, if I was Ukraine,

I'd put a few things in the simulator

746

that if you flew a real drone that way

it would create bad things happening.

747

So, you know, hopefully

that's where that went with that.

748

But in any event,

that's just an opinion of mine.

749

The game itself, I've tried

it is really good.

750

It is a lot of fun.

751

It's very realistic,

752

you know, along the lines

of like Call of Duty and things,

753

because there's actual video

from real drone missions in it,

754

and the way that it operates

is basically the same way.

755

I'm going to see if I can interface

the controller for my drone

756

into the computer over Bluetooth,

because then I'd have the actual controls.

757

I don't know if that's going to work.

758

I will let you know if it does,

759

but I do recommend the game

if you're into this kind of thing.

760

It's actually a lot of fun.

761

Well, don't they run a lot of

762

like simulators

for things like aircraft pilots now?

763

And oh yeah, my eldest stepson

did it for his driving tests or something.

764

Hopefully he didn't win on pole position.

765

But anyway, no.

766

No simulators

767

because of the fact that virtual reality

and even computers are like real reality.

768

Now to a point, flight

sims have been out there.

769

I mean, you can get Microsoft Flight

Simulator for your Atari 130 X, that's

770

nothing new.

771

And these things

have been used all over the place.

772

The military even uses some of the, like,

Call of Duty type games

773

for training their soldiers.

774

So the idea that this is a new idea.

775

No, but I have not seen another drone

simulator.

776

I think it is a first for that.

777

Is it possible to turn off

778

the monitor that is sending information

to my vehicles manufacturer?

779

Yeah, again,

780

a lot of questions

came in from this story,

781

which was a few weeks back,

maybe a few months back now.

782

But so the kind of

783

starting point of this,

if you're not aware of it,

784

is pretty much all, I'm not going to say

all because there's probably

785

a hold out somewhere,

but pretty much all new vehicles

786

have something called telematics

or a variation of that.

787

And basically what that is, is

there's a cellular module in the car

788

somewhere that's sending information

back to the manufacturer

789

on how you drive, where you go,

all of these different type of things.

790

That information in turn, by

791

a lot of manufacturers

is being resold to third parties.

792

And this has created some controversy

and some problems.

793

As you can imagine, one of the big ones

is, is when your insurance goes up.

794

Well, I haven't had an accident.

795

I haven't had any kind of tickets.

796

Yeah,

but the information your car told us on

797

how you were driving

makes us think you're a higher risk.

798

And that's exactly what.

799

Your car into a narc.

800

It turns it into an arc.

801

And the other part of it, too, is

if the manufacturer is selling

802

my information, I should be paid for that

or have the opportunity to opt out.

803

You know, you know, there's no way

to go into the software and turn it off.

804

And I frankly, in my opinion,

805

even if that was a thing,

I don't think I'd trust it. So.

806

Well,

I would also question some of these these

807

telematics.

808

Is that what you were calling them?

809

The thing is, is

what if you are driving in an area

810

where you have to be aggressive

to protect yourself and your car,

811

and since they're not there,

812

they're not going to understand

maybe an acceleration,

813

a declaration that was quick

or or a shift left or right.

814

They don't know what's going on.

815

So they're making assumptions

that might be unfair.

816

And that's a very big thing.

817

Just a real quick

aside on that for our commercial vehicles,

818

we have progressive insurance

and we use snapshot.

819

It gives you quite a bit of a discount,

but it's the same idea.

820

It monitors how you drive.

821

Now the big difference here is

this is optional.

822

I can pay more money and not use snapshot.

823

So it does make a difference.

824

But yeah, if you have a say

where you're hard braking

825

because the guy in front of

you came to a dead stop, well, yeah.

826

Heartbreaking.

827

Something that would

create an issue with this.

828

But if you didn't do it,

you've gone into the back of the car.

829

Yeah.

830

There are times where now I will say

progressive also has built into the system

831

a certain amount of these things

that they consider to be real world.

832

It's going to happen

and it doesn't count against you.

833

Now, if you did it a lot,

then you might start to have a problem.

834

So there is a kind of a variant for that.

835

But in answer to this question and again

this show is for entertainment

836

purposes only.

837

I am not recommending you do this, but

you can go online and find instructions

838

on how to physically disconnect the box

from your car in most cases.

839

But if you damage your vehicle

and it can cause warranty problems

840

and that kind of stuff,

841

that is an issue now on vehicles like for

and a few others, it's very easy.

842

It's just a matter of disconnecting

a few wires and you can go online.

843

Toyota as an example,

has made this more difficult

844

that if you disconnect the box,

it also takes out this.

845

I think it's the right front speaker

and the window on the right front door.

846

So you would have to know

how to put a bypass circuit.

847

Now there's instructions on

how to do that on line two.

848

What about the Teslas?

849

Does the car just die?

850

I am not going to comment on that

because I think if you tried to bypass.

851

Yeah, I'm not.

852

I have a funny feeling

that Tesla police would show up

853

while you're starting to do that

and you're messing with the computer.

854

This is now, you know,

I don't know, but yeah, I,

855

I have not seen a way to do that

on a Tesla.

856

And, Gretchen, I think you're right.

857

I don't think it would run.

858

Yeah, I would just die.

859

Oh, okay.

860

Here's our next question.

861

What is happening with physical media?

862

Yeah.

863

So we started to talk about this when

we were talking about X-Box a little bit.

864

And we're going to deep dive

into this further.

865

So again,

866

we started to comment on the idea

that Sony had come up with a statement

867

that they're going to discontinue

868

And Bill, like you said earlier,

there's been such a pushback

869

that they may not do that now.

870

But the thing of it is with this is

871

I like digital content

872

because I can use it anywhere I go,

so I don't have to bring the CD with me.

873

I don't, you know, that kind of a thing.

874

If I'm watching a movie,

I can switch the televisions it's on.

875

But where I have really changed

my opinion on

876

this is because of the fact

that in recent years, number one,

877

a lot of the platforms that we're writing

this have gone away.

878

And what you paid for, you no longer have

access to think Redbox is a, for example.

879

And there are other.

880

The second part of

it too is with modern equipment,

881

you can get a physical copy of something,

882

rip it or copy it off, or whatever

the case may be.

883

I am not speaking to the legality on that,

884

but I'm just speaking

to the technical possibility of it.

885

But on a central server,

I use a Plex server that runs on a device

886

I have here, and I can still have

the best of both worlds.

887

But the thing of it

is, is the physical disk or cartridge

888

or whatever it is, is something

that you can hold in your hand.

889

You can resell it if you want to.

890

You can hang it from your rearview mirror

in your car if you want to.

891

The point of it is it's something

physical that you have that is,

892

I don't know,

quantifiable digital content.

893

And again,

894

comment if there's are exceptions to this,

I haven't been able to find any.

895

And Bill, you might be able to talk about

this a little bit more than I can.

896

But my understanding is once you download

digital content, you can't resell it.

897

Is that accurate?

898

Correct. Okay.

899

So you buy a game

900

if you get it on physical media,

which by the way,

901

it costs about the same amount

as digital content.

902

Now to I've noticed that.

903

And you play it and you don't like it

or you're bored with it.

904

You can throw it on eBay,

905

whatever ticket, the GameStop or whatever

you want to do with it.

906

But the digital one that costs the same

amount you can't do anything with.

907

And Bill, again,

maybe you can speak to this.

908

What happens if your console breaks down?

909

Are you able to sign in

910

to the account and redownload it, or is it

even locked out from that in the game?

911

In gaming systems, yes, you can usually

redownload it because it's countdown.

912

Okay, but if I wanted to take my game

to your house and play it, I couldn't.

913

I mean, if

914

if you signed in your account,

I believe you can.

915

Okay.

916

And would that be a challenge on a

or the consoles designed to do that?

917

PlayStation is

I don't know about the others, no.

918

But even so you're still locked into it.

919

And it is definitely

920

I don't know,

I like having the physical discs.

921

They take up space and all the rest of it.

922

I agree with you.

923

I have DVD and CDs

and I don't want to make them go away.

924

And I've made a USB drive that I put

in the car with the songs I like,

925

and I also subscribe to Amazon Music,

so I do stream it.

926

It's not that I'm

against digital platforms,

927

but it is becoming something

where it gives, it takes away

928

your control of things that you're paying

for, and to me, that's a problem.

929

I think it depends on

the media is CDs and music and movies.

930

I think physical media is very important

because the streaming

931

services and stuff will just take it

away and it's gone, right?

932

It's those medias though.

933

You are allowed to make digital copies.

934

If I'm not mistaken, by American law.

935

Yeah, right.

936

In other countries, making the law.

937

But I think you are right from a

layman's perspective, you have some right.

938

Under the Millennium

Digital Copyright Act, make a backup copy.

939

Essentially correct video games

940

I have a different opinion on because the.

941

Registrations and stuff

942

like basically,

even if you have a physical copy,

943

they could take away your ability

to upgrade it or update it.

944

And you're an actual rights,

945

your digital rights media or DRM.

946

It's it has happened

where there are physical discs of a game

947

that you cannot play because they've just

taken away DRM for it.

948

Right? So it doesn't matter.

949

It doesn't matter

that you have a physical copy of it.

950

And, you know, I think

I think the lady's changed for that.

951

But yeah,

I think the point to speak to on that too

952

is if you have a online game, eventually

the servers are going to go away.

953

It's not an if it's a win. Yeah.

954

And then it will disable the game.

955

But I know James, who does

the vault, had purchased a game to review.

956

It was terrible, but we couldn't resell it

because it was a digital game, you know?

957

And in that case, having the disc

would have been a good thing.

958

But a lot of software,

you have the situation.

959

This has always been a thing

where you activate it

960

and you might not be able to activate it

again, that kind of thing.

961

And you know all of that.

962

So like you say, Bill,

digital rights management plays into it.

963

And the other thing of it is, is

I've noticed a lot of games where you do

964

get the disc,

965

all the disc does is create an entry point

to download the software online anyway.

966

Yeah.

967

You know, so which is another whole topic

and another whole story.

968

We should dive into that

one of these days. So anyway. All right.

969

Well, we're out of time for our questions,

believe it or not.

970

So I will leave you with this user

friendly show.

971

Like we said, at the top

is the place to send in your questions.

972

We love to get them.

973

We love to answer them

because this is a big part of how

974

we do our programing, and we love to see

what you like us to cover.

975

Let us know what we should dig into more

and let us know!

976

You know what

you're not too worried about.

977

So until next week, this is User Friendly

2.0 keeping you safe on the cutting edge.

978

User Friendly 2.0.

979

Copyright 2013 to 2026

980

by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.

981

All rights reserved.

982

The content is the opinion

of the show's participants and does

983

not necessarily reflect this station

or platform.

984

Requests for material use, interviews,

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985

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986

and submitted at userfriendly.show