This week an intensive Question and Answer session.

Hosts: William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to We Are Technology’s

User Friendly.

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2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0.

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I am your host Bill Sikkens.

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Joining me Bill and Gretchen,

welcome to this week's show.

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Oh hello there.

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So believe it or not,

we are already to this time of year.

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And that time of year

is the annual season of giving.

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And this year, user friendly is

the charity that we're going to support,

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and we are privileged to be able

to support William Temple House.

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They're doing a program for this fall

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to make some money

for covering what they offer.

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And basically what this is,

is an organization that has been around

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for 60 years there in downtown Portland,

which is our home city,

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and it's the only place in Portland

where someone can get low cost counseling,

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whether or not they have insurance, shop

for free groceries,

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and get connected to other resources.

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And with the food insecurity stuff

that's going on right now,

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these kind of things

are extremely important.

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So we will be interviewing

some of the people from this

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great charity next week

and some more details on it.

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And for more information, check out

our website at User Friendly Dot.

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Show.

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All right,

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before we get into the news, I also just

wanted to touch one other thing here.

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We've got a slight scheduling change.

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In the topics.

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This week was going to be our gift

episode.

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We're going to be moving that up

two weeks.

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So if you heard it in the TS, during

the week, you weren't hallucinating.

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There's sometimes things get swapped

around.

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So, we're going to be doing our Q&A

this week,

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and then we'll be doing that in two.

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So all right, that being said,

what do we have in the news?

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All right.

37

Peloton issues recall for 833

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bikes over faulty seatpost.

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Well you know

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peloton is not having their best year

lately these last few years.

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And it was only 833.

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It wouldn't be a big deal,

but it is actually 833,000.

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Yeah. Of their bike.

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Did I say it wrong?

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Eight you said 833

I wish I was that small of them.

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Number.

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Oh man.

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But what we've got going on

here is a situation

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that could be fairly unpleasant.

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And what they're having is the seatpost

are breaking in, detaching during use.

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So while you're riding your bike,

your seat breaks and you fall off.

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There have been reports

of these breakages to reports

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of injuries, resulting from the falls.

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These were the bikes sold.

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All the bike

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and were manufactured

57

So take a look at what you have

and check with peloton

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to make sure

that you don't have a recalled model.

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And if you do, you've let them know

and they're sending out

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a free redesigned seatpost replacements

that owners can install themselves.

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So it is fixable.

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But you do want to check this out so that

you don't have a bad day or something.

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Didn't Senator Reed, fall off

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a bike like this and hurt himself

some years ago?

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You know something?

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I, Senator Reed, was the, state senator

for Nevada.

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For anybody that doesn't know

and was in for a long time, you know,

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and I believe

there was something like that.

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I vaguely remember that. So, yeah.

You do want to be careful.

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Usually this stuff is pretty rock solid.

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And, you know, this is an exception,

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not the rule on these things,

but it's still it can happen.

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So, you know, so in this case

definitely if you have one of these bikes

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you get the parts.

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So you just don't want to play with that.

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Always impressed by how

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some parts that have been around for

hundreds of years can be screwed up.

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Yeah okay.

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Experts issue warning of harmful side

effects of windows shut down.

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Here's what's happening.

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Speaking of which.

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Yeah.

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So this is something

that's really starting to ramp up.

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And it's an interesting topic you've seen

and a lot of questions about this, and

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we wanted to hear on some of the numbers

here.

86

So in October Windows 10

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was phased out Microsoft started

it was obsolete neighbor of Windows 11.

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And we've been talking

about how you'll lose support

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unless you, you know, stand on your head

and do a dance around

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a fire to get it for another year.

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Or in the alternative, just pay 30 bucks.

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But what's happening here

is they're starting

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to realize the amount of e-waste

that this is creating.

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So what's happened is there's a lot of

computers, laptops, desktops, and so on

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out there that are perfectly capable

of running Windows 11.

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From a speed and memory standpoint.

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But the new operating system

has specific requirements

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for the components

that are in the computer.

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For technical term, that's TPM 2.0.

100

What that's about is it

helps with securing the computer

101

and some other things like that,

which is a laughable goal.

102

But at the end of the day,

this change has created a situation

103

where a lot of equipment's

going to go in the landfill prematurely.

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And, here are some of the numbers.

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There's a significant amount

of salvageable metal and this stuff $2.1

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billion, 1.6 billion pounds worth of gold,

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almost 100 million worth of copper,

33 million of silver.

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So you're looking at 1.8

billion pounds or $2.4

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billion in stuff

that's just going to be thrown out.

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All that is needed

is a way to extract the metal

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through recycling,

which does not exist in a lot of places.

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This is an incredible amount of e-waste,

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and it's creating a situation

where people are quite upset

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looking at this and figuring out, well,

how can we go longer?

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Well,

you can extend your security updates.

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That type of thing is an option,

but you do have to pay an annual fee

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for that, which starts,

I think it's 30 bucks or something

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this year that increases exponentially,

but you can get it up for up to ten years.

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You can tell them you're a business

and get the business version,

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which includes the updates

for the next ten years.

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A little

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side thing there, although it will cost

money initially to do that.

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Or you can use another operating system

like Linux or something of that nature.

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So there are some things that you can do

with the older machines.

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But for most people

that just want to turn their laptop on

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and have it boot up

and they do what they need to do without,

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you know, having to worry about these

things, it is creating a problem here.

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Now, there are some ways to be able

to deal with this e-waste.

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If you have that in your area for

recycling these things is a good option.

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The other side of it is what I'm doing

is use them for something else.

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Windows 10 doesn't stop working,

it just stops getting updates.

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So there's still a lot of stuff that

you can do with a computer at that point.

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And one of the things

that I've been hearing from a lot of you

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is giving it to your young kid

to learn how to work the computer,

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take it offline,

you know, so you don't have that issue.

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But it is something where

if they damage it, well,

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it was going to be thrown out anyway. So

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that's just an option of getting creative,

you know, and that kind of thing.

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But I do think it's important,

this being something that kind of has

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call this out, that when things change

and technology does change very quickly,

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but when you do something like this

you can actually create

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a huge negative environmental impact.

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And that seems

to be what's happening here.

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All right.

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Farewell to the International Space

Station.

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NASA confirms

that it will fall into the sea

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and that they still don't know

who will be its replacement

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or what will be its replacement,

or maybe who is doing the replacing.

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Yeah, yeah,

I think all of the above there.

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Well, this is a huge amount of e-waste

on our previous topic.

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Oh yeah.

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So yeah, they're orbiting in 2013

so that it's coming right up.

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It's 2025 now. So five years now.

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A lot can change in five years.

So don't know what's going on.

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But right now, today

that's the decision that's been made.

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And it's like saying don't throw your old

shoes away before you get a new pair.

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You know, you can still use them,

but right now there are no plans,

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no budget or anything like that

to replace the space station.

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So you know, we'll see what actually

happens and where this actually goes.

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Right now.

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That is the plan is by by space station.

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Stem is becoming

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as important as knowing how to read.

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Yeah. And I have to agree with that.

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That headline,

this is something that has been important

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to us, your user-friendly and with my

we are a technology company

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that we've supported openly over the years

and do things

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like working with, local schools

and that type of thing.

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Science, technology, engineering and math

is what that acronym stands for Stem.

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And in today's world,

we are in a situation where

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if you don't know how to use technology,

you're just not going to get very far.

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And this isn't,

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you know, ten,

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15 years ago or so,

can you be a computer programmer

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working in a data center

or something like that?

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You need to understand that.

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But for other things you might not.

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It's pretty much not 100%.

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Pretty much every occupation

now depends on technology for something,

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and even if it isn't the primary thing

you still need to use a computer.

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You still need to know the basics of it.

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You still probably

will need to troubleshoot it.

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Now that's one part of it.

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The other part of it is some numbers

that I thought were very interesting.

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So 24% of the US labor force, that's 36.8

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million workers, works

in some kind of a Stem occupation.

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And that number is projected

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So this is, this is,

you know, a big deal from that standpoint.

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The other one that's interesting here

is if you look at the average wage,

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so the average wage,

when this survey was done,

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which was last year,

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The average wage for Stem

occupations is 103,580.

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And I can tell you it does go much higher

in certain situations.

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So this is something

that's definitely worth looking into,

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but also something

that really needs to be offered

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at, I think, the elementary school level.

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So there's a lot of ocular things

going on in occupations

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that we're just talking about.

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But, different organizations

that hire in these ways,

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they're just starting to get together

and put forth only two ads in education

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where it doesn't exist right now

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and improve upon it

where it needs to be improved upon.

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There's something going forward

that's going to be important always.

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If you are unable to read,

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if you're illiterate,

that makes it much harder to find a job.

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And we're looking

at the same kind of differential.

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If you don't know how to use technology.

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All right.

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Shield AI has unveiled exFAT,

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the world's first AI piloted fighter jet.

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So tell us about that.

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I can't do that day.

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Okay. Day.

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How that was.

215

Yeah. Hell, yeah. Hell yeah.

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I was going to say it's not here, but,

you know, that doesn't work.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So actually, this is kind of cool.

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I just it's a plane run by I.

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It's a fighter jet is the what you said.

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And vertical takeoff and landing.

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And one of the things that I've seen,

there is a feeling that airplanes

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that require runways

and that kind of stuff

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are going to be becoming more and more

a thing of the past.

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So we'll be calling those airplanes.

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A lot of the new technology

that we're seeing

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does have vertical takeoff and landing.

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So it requires less space.

And there's a lot of advantages to that.

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I don't think we're going to be seeing

that on the 730 sevens any time soon.

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But a lot of things you see that out

there, like jet suits, are the same way

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that you just can take off and land.

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So in addition to being able to launch

without runways,

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it's controlled by a system

called Shield Eyes Hivemind Software.

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That's the name.

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It can fly, navigate and coordinate

missions without human input.

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Even when

GPS or communications are jammed.

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The aircraft's

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stealth design includes internal weapon

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and a service ceiling of above 50,000ft,

so it's pretty formidable.

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Wow.

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Three giant solar outbursts

explode towards

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Earth, prompting aurora forecasts

across the US.

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Yeah, right.

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I've been told this so many times

we're going to have an aurora

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an hour, but,

I'll believe it when I see it.

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Right. It's.

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Yeah.

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This is, solar storms.

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They caused the aurora borealis,

geomagnetic storms

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and the three eruptions,

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will converge on our planet

almost simultaneously.

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And this will cause the aurora to reach

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lower latitudes

than where they normally are.

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So we should be able to see them up here

in the Oregon area.

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And they're forecasting this

in a lot of different places.

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And these are pretty to look at.

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But they do screw off electronics.

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And it can cause things like radio signals

and other embedded microcontrollers

259

and that type of thing to act weird

and malfunction and that kind of thing.

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So if you get to a point

and we saw this last month,

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you were now you're using your computer

or doing whatever you're doing,

262

and it feels like the internet is sluggish

or something weird's going on.

263

It's just not quite right. It's there,

but it's not.

264

Or if you're using if you use

one of the people who still do things

265

like ham radio and stuff,

it can interfere with that.

266

And having three of them at the same time

could be interesting.

267

I don't know,

they're saying there's going to be severe.

268

And with that classification,

I think we just

269

should be prepared for some interruptions.

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All right.

So that's it for the news this week.

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Next segment

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we're going to be going into the Q&A

and answering some of your questions

273

that you have sent.

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And we haven't done one of these

in a while.

275

So this is going to be a lot of fun.

So stay tuned for that.

276

In the meantime, let's talk pop culture.

277

Gretchen, you have a couple of television.

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Well, once a television show

and once a movie, I think. Yeah.

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I can binge watching just stuff

280

and I, I used to like Westerns as a kid,

you know, you you know, you.

281

I'm a generation X kid,

and we saw Westerns, a lot of them.

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So we kind of grew up on them.

283

So I came across

this series called Wild West Chronicles,

284

and it was from 2020 to 2024.

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So it was four seasons.

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And the star of this was a fellow

named Jack Elliott.

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And he is Bat Masterson.

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Okay,

so I'd heard of Bat Masterson as a kid

289

when they used to advertise those,

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life, Wild West books,

you know, the life series,

291

they would do all kinds of different

topics.

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And I believe it was life

that had a Wild West series.

293

And they would talk about all these

different, you know, famous individuals.

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Quite a well-known one, too. Oh, yeah.

295

And, well, anyways, Bat Masterson.

Oh, okay.

296

I'll, I'll check it out.

297

And I really enjoyed these.

298

I think these stories, it says

when I looked it up,

299

for the most part,

they are based on reality.

300

And, these are recreated using,

301

something they called a dramatic docu

drama style.

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So it makes sure that it's entertaining,

you know?

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But it seems like these,

for the most part, are fairly realistic

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and following probably the articles

that he used to write and the actor

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who presents it did a really nice job

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of playing the character of Bat Masterson

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and all of the other

supporting characters and writers.

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Nice, nice settings.

309

It's worth if you like Westerns

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and you want to hear something

that's a little more based in reality.

311

These were really fun.

312

So you get four for four seasons of it,

and it's in color,

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and it looks like it's

probably been filmed

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in California, maybe Arizona.

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You know, a few places like that,

because I do recognize

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some of the landscape,

and it's just good fun.

317

Yeah.

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And so you get to hear about characters

like wild Bill Cody,

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Calamity Jane

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and some other unknown ones,

such as some of the black cowboys.

321

And there was a black, I think

Texas Ranger, which I had no idea about.

322

That was a complete shock.

323

So it was like,

kind of cool to hear the stories.

324

So then.

325

All right.

326

And I'm just going to throw this comment

out here at you because,

327

you know, with Western stuff,

we see a lot of things

328

that are very sensationalized

and not a period that really needs that.

329

No, in my opinion,

you know, no, a lot of things that,

330

you know, that you can go into

and it's very fascinating.

331

A lot of unsung heroes.

332

I mean,

333

now think about really who made the stuff

around, like the engineers of the period.

334

Now time

and all of this existed like it does now.

335

But all the stories are about,

you know, gunfights

336

with cowboys and all this stuff,

and it's not really what it was about.

337

That kind of stuff happened.

338

But that wasn't certainly that was the

339

you know their other stuff happened

that was a lot more often.

340

Yeah.

341

And so I had watched, started binge

watching Death

342

Valley Days which is on a similar vein,

343

but from what I, read about,

it sounded like their stuff,

344

even though it has a very,

authentic feel to it.

345

They did kind of dramatize some things,

you know, so it's not as realistic

346

as this set with the Bat Masterson.

347

So, so where do you find

it is streaming on?

348

Oh, it's streaming on Amazon.

349

Yeah, Amazon is Amazon Prime.

350

So and then okay, so then we switch up to

I'm feeling like watching something else.

351

And I come across the, Fantastic

Four movie and that's on Disney Plus.

352

And I kind of both dad

watching the Fantastic Four,

353

because it just seemed like in years past,

354

whenever I came across these characters,

355

there was always this stereotype,

the big guy

356

who kind of turns into this kind of rock

type, type creature.

357

He's always angry, and the fire guy

is always doing stupid stuff.

358

The brother.

359

And it just got so repetitive and boring

360

and I'm like, okay, do I want to do

I want to watch this?

361

And it's like, okay, I've paid for Disney

Plus, let's watch the movie.

362

And I was kind of pleasantly surprised.

363

They they took some direction

that I wasn't really expecting.

364

And, I, I'd love to hear what our friend

365

Michael from read the freaking comic,

what he says about this.

366

Because I know there's lots of,

politics and drama

367

concerning different versions

of characters like the Silver

368

Surfer was a girl this time,

and I know the silver Surfer

369

is supposed to be a guy, but

she was a really fascinating character.

370

And I'm wondering,

did she stay true to the original one?

371

I have no idea.

372

I'm not a comic book person, so I'd love

to hear what Michael's take is on it.

373

Do either of you guys know anything

about the Fantastic Four?

374

I wasn't a fan.

375

Oh, okay.

376

I think there's four people in it.

377

Oh. One of the things was, is

they kind of kept

378

that 50s retro feel,

which I thought was cool,

379

though the whole movie is kind of set

in this cool 50s retro.

380

It's kind of like a George Jetson feel,

so I thought that was clever.

381

I liked that.

382

So Bill, did you?

383

Actually, I haven't seen it.

384

I haven't seen it yet myself.

So it's interesting to hear this.

385

I think I would like to now,

I wasn't quite as, optimistic,

386

but it sounds like they actually maybe

did a nice job. Yeah.

387

And it wasn't so heavy

based on all of the punching and shooting

388

and blowing things up,

there was an actual story

389

with some feelings going on in there,

and it's like, oh, and and they didn't,

390

you know, shove the angry guy,

you know, the angry guy who got,

391

you know, changed into a pile of rocks

or the stupid brother story.

392

And they kept at it.

393

They kept that like reasonable

394

and more realistic,

at least in my opinion.

395

So, I don't know.

396

I'd love to just hear

what other people have to say because

397

I'm not really a fantastic Four person.

398

So, let's hear from our our listeners.

399

Michael is going to be back

400

with us in a couple of weeks anyway,

401

so I'll make sure

that this question gets posed

402

because, like you said,

he would be the one to answer.

403

I would know more about this.

404

But now I do have to say one thing,

405

and I've been someone that knows

that much about this franchise.

406

But if I got turned into a pile of rocks,

I think I'd be angry.

407

Yeah.

408

And but he still has a special abilities

409

and people still like him.

410

Yeah, yeah.

411

I'm not saying they don't. I'm

just kidding. But. Yeah.

412

Okay. Yeah.

413

You can see where

that one would come from.

414

So anyway, so speaking of,

415

the science fiction,

all that give us an update on Cyber Hawk.

416

She's in process.

417

Oh, my gosh.

418

She's in process with Amazon.

419

And this has been a never ending battle

of weird little things going wrong

420

and trying to find this person

and get that straightened out.

421

And, all of the authors we've had before

who have,

422

expressed, less than happy

423

thoughts about the editing process

and the publishing process.

424

Well, they're right.

425

They're absolutely right.

426

Oh. And for the proofs that came back,

it looks like getting closer.

427

But just some of the specifics,

the cover was backwards.

428

Oh, yeah.

429

And for some reason,

the page numbers disappeared.

430

So we're looking through this

and kind of figuring out

431

because everything's off one line,

Through the whole book, when it starts

432

adding up because, you know, you wrote

page two has three lines, right? So.

433

But that was the Night School Journal,

not cyber.

434

So we're dealing with two.

435

I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We you a few different books.

436

Yeah. I called

thank you for that because. Yeah.

437

Night School

Journal and Cyber Hawks Rise of Heroes.

438

Those are two separate books

that are coming out at the same time here.

439

And everything goes right in about a week

will be available to purchase.

440

But yeah,

it's like finalizing these things.

441

It looks great.

442

The rest of it came out well,

so that's all good.

443

But weird little headings and

you got to pay attention to the details.

444

You know,

although the cover being backwards

445

was more than a detail

that was kind of slap in the face.

446

Hey, I'm backwards, like,

447

No, but like I say, these

448

are we're finally getting to that point

and they're going to be available.

449

Obviously, we'll announce it

here. Where to?

450

And help plug.

451

But at the end of the day,

it's been a journey.

452

And, you don't really understand

until you've gone.

453

It's a learning experience for authors.

454

Yeah.

455

Yeah, it really is.

456

You know, when it comes down

to looking at these different things.

457

And I know that you're working on

another one

458

that's under wraps right now

that will be out next year.

459

So, you know,

maybe things will go a little bit smoother

460

now that we've been through the process

461

a couple of times

and know what to look for already.

462

This is user friendly. 2.0.

463

We'll be back with your questions

after the break.

464

You see him? He's from the future.

465

He's got a really big computer

466

and he uses it every day.

467

And he uses it in every way

you want to use it for.

468

You know, I'm

not that sure because he uses does.

469

Welcome back. This is user friendly 2.0.

470

Check out our website.

471

That's where everything user

472

friendly said user friendly

dot show is the page to go to.

473

You can find links to our YouTube videos.

474

We are starting to have those now.

475

You can find links

to all of our past shows,

476

and you can find links to submit

your questions and your comments.

477

And you can also find the links

for Tech Wednesday and instructions

478

on how to include them in your flash

briefing on your smart speaker.

479

I will leave it smart speaker

480

so we don't activate everybody's

smart speaker saying,

481

but we have these things available.

482

Check them out

and we want to hear your feedback.

483

It's the best thing is how we do

our programing.

484

A user friendly dot show.

485

So we used to do these

a little more often.

486

I don't know why we kind of not.

487

And I think there's

there are a lot of fun to do.

488

And that's the Q and A's.

489

And a lot of the questions you send

and what we do is we go through them

490

and kind of vet everything

and then take the top ones

491

in a given time period

and then come up with the question.

492

So the questions that we're asking

493

might not be a direct question,

but they will summarize

494

a set of direct questions that we're asked

that are of the same topic.

495

And that's the way that, that we do it.

496

Now, one of the things that's changed on

this is back when we first started,

497

and we had some trouble

getting ten questions today.

498

We do have to tone them down

or this would be a ten hour show. So

499

which is a

good thing I'm happy to have that problem.

500

So with no further

ado, let's jump into our questions.

501

What do we have?

502

What are software languages.

503

Yeah.

504

And this one

what I'm looking at like what you know,

505

what are we actually talking about here?

506

Until I got some context

that there are people that are out there,

507

and I guess this actually wouldn't be

that unusual if you're not in technology.

508

But software languages

509

and spoken

languages are two different things.

510

So software languages like COBOL or BHP

or C sharp or Rust or something like that,

511

these are the languages that you use

that are basically a way to interface

512

with the computer in human language

and have it convert to computer code

513

versus spoken languages like English,

Spanish, German, that kind of thing.

514

So it's interesting

because this has come up and something

515

that I think is important

516

to put out there, because the context

does make a huge difference.

517

And it's just important to know

that if you're looking into something

518

that you're probably going

to be programing in English

519

as far as a spoken language goes,

if you're in an English speaking country,

520

your notes and function calls and all that

type of thing, it'll be there.

521

But the language itself

is whatever the language is,

522

which is not in any way related

to the spoken language that you're using.

523

What is a Nixie tube?

524

Yeah, this questions

come in a couple of times

525

because we've talked about some of this

this year.

526

And I have a thing for Nixie tubes.

I don't know why.

527

I just think they're cool and kind of

industrial looking mid-century.

528

But basically what it is, is the story on

529

these goes something like this,

at least from what I've been told,

530

is that during the Cold War,

531

we came up with segmented LED displays,

and for a while the,

532

USSR couldn't replicate them

or didn't for whatever reason.

533

So they came up with a design for it's

basically a vacuum

534

tube, or valve, depending on

where you are is what you call them.

535

And what a vacuum tube did for anybody

that doesn't know is prior

536

to modern Solid-State circuitry,

you had tubes in your radio, television,

537

that kind of a thing.

538

They would warm up and perform

different functions

539

like the solid state transistors

and stuff. You now.

540

So what the Russians did is

they took this a step further.

541

And I think these were created in Ukraine.

542

If we want to go to the detail on that.

543

Yeah.

544

What what they what they did

is they created a vacuum tube.

545

It lights up

just like any other vacuum tube.

546

It instead of being a transistor

or something of that nature,

547

there's a metal wire in it or each number

one, 0 or 9.

548

And depending on how you send voltage

and what contacts

549

you engage on, it depends

on which wire set lights up.

550

So basically it's a counter

like what we would use.

551

Now they do display four.

552

And there's a lot of what they would call

new old stock of the stuff out there.

553

I don't believe they're made anymore

anywhere.

554

They were sold

in the United States in the early 80s.

555

I know that because I have a box,

RadioShack that has a few of them

556

in in the original wrapping,

but the new old stock is quite wonderful.

557

So they're making clocks

and other things out of it.

558

Now that you can go buy a new clock,

that's Nikita.

559

I even have a watch that uses Nixie tubes.

560

It's really cool because these are.

561

Yeah, it's cool, you know,

and it just looks almost steampunk.

562

Kind of. It looks very steampunk.

563

Yeah, yeah,

maybe that's why I like it, but, but,

564

yeah, on billboards,

I have a, meter, voltage meter.

565

That, of all things,

use Nixie tubes in the display.

566

It was made as a Heath jet in the late

70s, so didn't work when I got it.

567

Needless to say, we fixed it up

because I needed to, you know, meter.

568

I have no idea how accurate this line is,

but it has Nixie tubes, so that's

569

all that matters, right? But,

570

but at the end of the day, it's

something to check out.

571

If you go search

you can see pictures of them.

572

There's different styles, different sizes

and just something that the esthetic

573

is something

that I've always really liked.

574

Is Windows 11 free?

575

Yeah.

576

So this is a comment that I think I made,

and I sort of remember

577

when along these lines that was

interpreted is Windows 11 is free. And

578

we got, you know, a lot of you writing in

remind me that that is not true.

579

So I wanted to give

580

a little bit of a context of this,

because it actually does make sense

581

to know how to deal with this.

582

We talked in the first segment

about Windows 10

583

and replacing that kind of a thing.

584

Windows 11 is not great.

585

If you were putting together

a new computer

586

and you wanted to run Windows 11

and you would buy a license for it

587

was, I think 99 bucks for the home

edition, a little bit more for Pro,

588

but what Microsoft has been doing

589

is basically,

if you have a valid windows license,

590

I know it goes back to at least Windows 7,

if not before that.

591

That's considered an upgrade path

to a free upgrade to windows 11.

592

So it's not free exactly, but

593

it is very close to it in most situations.

594

And that's where that kind of an idea

came from.

595

And also this is something to because

I build a few machines where I've needed,

596

official,

you know, license going forward.

597

And if you buy it now, there's

a lot of places you can get it back.

598

You can get, you know, some good prices,

599

some places like eBay

for legitimate copies.

600

Just make sure you're

getting a legitimate copy.

601

But it actually comes with a card

602

with your serial number on it

and a flash drive.

603

And that's you have this little tiny box

with those two things in it,

604

and that's one way to get it.

605

Or of course, you can go to Microsoft's

606

website and download

a tool that will make a flash drive.

607

You can install Windows 11

without a license key as well.

608

There's a button on there that says,

I don't have one right now,

609

and if you're running it unlicensed,

at least from what I've seen, there's

610

no depth to it.

611

It just nags you.

612

There's a thing

613

in the bottom of the screen that says,

this is not a license copy of Windows 11,

614

you know, or something to that effect,

but it doesn't stop operating.

615

But, but just to kind of clarify

that point a little bit, it's not free

616

in the sense of like Linux

or something of that nature,

617

but Microsoft is just let's say it made it

very easy to have a legal copy of it.

618

And part of the reason for that,

I think, is going forward is the desktop

619

operating systems is not,

you know, the cash cow that it once was.

620

It's a lot of things

are changing these days.

621

A lot of users use tablets.

622

There's competitors,

you know, Macintosh which has been there,

623

but also things like Chromebook

and Linux has kind of come into its own

624

that you can use one of those systems,

and most computer users

625

will be just fine

if you're doing what most of us do.

626

And that's browse the web and watch videos

and, you know, write a document,

627

those kind of things.

628

If you get into some specialty stuff like,

say you're working with the Adobe

629

product suite,

then you would need Windows or Mac.

630

You don't have that for Linux

or anything else.

631

So it depends on what you're doing.

632

But that is a much smaller market share.

633

And even ten years ago, where

everybody had a desktop and a laptop,

634

and unless it was Apple,

it pretty much ran on windows.

635

So the other thing

that's coming from this too,

636

and I'm going to go ahead and just give

a little bit of a soapbox here.

637

So I apologize for this in advance.

638

I'm starting to see commercials being

pushed into the windows Start button.

639

And while there are ways to get in there

and more or less shut that down, you're

640

it's like you try on your computer

and you have an ad, you know, in it.

641

I consider that to be a little bit

invasive in my opinion, or annoying.

642

Annoying would be another

another word for it.

643

Yeah.

644

I can think of some others,

but we need to be radio friendly here. So.

645

But that being said,

646

free is not free.

647

It just depends on how you pay for it.

648

So if you don't give money,

you're paying for it through watching ads

649

or providing personal information

or data or, you know, that kind of thing.

650

So at the end of the day,

that's kind of what's going on here.

651

Now, at one time,

Microsoft talked about making windows

652

a monthly subscription,

which was not accepted very well.

653

So right now, I don't know,

I think on some of the commercial stuff,

654

I'd have to look this up

because I've heard of this bits and pieces

655

and that there may be some

licensing models where they did do that,

656

but then I couldn't

find anyone to look for them

657

until you download it, you do that.

658

So it seems like what they're doing is

659

they're making it easy

to get to the operating system,

660

making it easy to install and then sending

some commercials and stuff.

661

And if you don't have a previous license

and you'd get to pay for it too.

662

And that's,

you know, kind of where that's going out.

663

But again, just to confirm,

Windows 11 is not free,

664

but it's very easy to get a legal copy

in a lot of circumstances

665

where you're not going to

have to pay more to have it.

666

All right.

667

What is a TPM three letters.

668

Yeah. And means absolutely nothing to me.

669

So I'm assuming that

you know what that is.

670

Yeah, I just I'm just kidding here.

671

But yeah three letters.

672

No, this is the thing

the acronym for what has been

673

causing a lot of the grief of Windows 10.

674

Oh, well, you've worked in this stuff

a little bit.

675

I'm just to give a definition that,

as I said, platform module,

676

this is an item in the computer

that handles, encryption.

677

And I'm going to ask you,

678

because I know you've worked with this

a little bit doing your gaming machine.

679

What is the have you found

this has been a problem for you,

680

or is it something that kind of

is in the background?

681

I had to turn it on so I could download

Windows 11.

682

That's what the real problem is, is the,

TPM is required for Windows 11 installs

683

for the most part.

684

Yeah, I guess there's a way around it.

685

But out of the yeah,

that's a, not that we talk about hacking.

686

You know, we all love British Telecom,

but, at the end of the day, it is.

687

There are ways, you know, that you can do

that.

688

It's not recommended.

689

And I have a funny feeling Microsoft's

going to lock that down eventually anyway.

690

But but yeah, it's so basically

what's going on

691

is the platform modules

part of your hardware.

692

And there's different versions of it.

693

So your computer can have a TPM

694

and still not support Windows 11,

which requires version 2.0.

695

So if you have a laptop

that's 4 or 5 years old

696

or maybe a little bit older,

it might be on one point something.

697

And that won't work with Windows

11 officially, as it doesn't have

698

the graphic capability that they are

wanting in the operating system. And

699

there.

700

This isn't all bad.

701

I know this has taken a lot of hits

702

just because of the situations

created with Windows 10,

703

but there is also, I would argue,

a good reason for it to be there,

704

and it has to do with helping

to stop hacking and things like viruses.

705

So it manages keys, private keys

706

used for encryption, dismal

digital signatures, that kind of thing.

707

Records the state of the system

during the boot process.

708

And this is one thing that it does do

pretty well.

709

A lot of viruses

710

back in the day would come in

and get into your boot startup sequence.

711

So when you booted the computer,

it would load the virus.

712

And the TPM running properly

will effectively stop that.

713

Because what it does

is it knows what the digital signature

714

fingerprint of your operating system

is supposed to be.

715

And if your computer

716

starts and it's changed in some way,

it will either fix it or stop it

717

saying that you know something's

wrong here and you need to, check it out.

718

It can

719

also be used to create things

like virtual smartcards,

720

things like multifactor authentication

methods, fingerprint reading,

721

all those kind of things.

So there is a place for it.

722

And it's not a bad thing

because it comes off this way.

723

I know being that

724

because it's causing the problem

with requiring a newer version of it

725

that windows is doing.

726

But I would argue that, like with

everything else, it would have been better

727

to phase out the old version

and give a little bit more time,

728

for people to be able to upgrade

even another year or two would have made

729

a huge difference to, you know,

have this balance out a little bit more.

730

But when you hear that acronym, that's

what they are talking about is a actual

731

physical piece of hardware that exists

in your desktop or laptop computer.

732

It has to be of a certain revision level

to be able to run Windows 11.

733

So you build you want to throw

anything else in on that?

734

I mean, well,

I know that Intel has an Intel Boards chip

735

that's actually on there

and an AMD it's actually part of the CPU.

736

Yeah, yeah.

737

So and actually that's a good question

that I'm

738

sure is asked

is can you upgrade an older TPM.

739

So theoretically yes.

740

But I would argue that that probably

wouldn't be a value consideration,

741

because by the time

you would figure out how to do it

742

and swap the hardware,

if that's even possible on what you have,

743

you're probably going to spend

just as much as replacing the computer.

744

And that's that's what they're looking at

from that standpoint.

745

Now, if you have a something

like a desktop and you know how to do it,

746

you could potentially swap the motherboard

and keep the rest of the components.

747

And the motherboard supports

the new version.

748

That would work,

you know, and save the rest of the unit.

749

So there's some stuff like that

that you can do.

750

But one of the things to hear is

751

the cost of computers has come down

so much in recent years.

752

I mean, we just upgraded my mom's laptop.

753

The new one was under $100 for a Windows

11 machine.

754

Oh, so yeah, you know,

at the end of the day, it's kind of like,

755

well, do I spend $100

and get a whole new computer

756

or do I mess around with an old one

that's a couple of years old?

757

And that's, I think, what Microsoft

is trying to, to at least play off

758

of in their, you know, justification

for doing this as early as they did.

759

What would you

760

consider

761

So we've been talking retro games

and stuff here a lot.

762

And this is one question

763

that does keep popping up,

which I thought was kind of interesting.

764

Obviously, this is a subjective answer,

765

and we talked about this a little bit

before we started recording.

766

So I'm going to

just throw the ball to you guys and like

767

tell us what you think

is the strangest game of the 80s.

768

And then I'll give you my opinion.

769

Bill, do you want to start?

770

Sure, I'll go with it.

771

Which didn't really make it to market,

772

but it was a very strange game

for what it was it.

773

Okay, so E.T.

774

is a big story of the era happened

775

game crash, and it was, in my opinion,

a terrible game.

776

Now, it actually did make it out

777

You could buy it at the store

for a while, but.

778

Well, Bill, you know this.

779

Why is the game not like the movie?

780

According to the story that

781

I heard is that the producers

didn't even watch the movie,

782

and they just created a game,

pretty much over a weekend or something

783

to get it out.

784

It sounds like the way they wrote

Star Wars nine, but,

785

you know, that is the story I've heard.

786

There's a lot of kind of war

that goes along with this, too.

787

But, you basically

788

and again, Atari

789

so the graphics are already blocky

and all this kind of stuff.

790

But the game was basically different

screens with different color backgrounds

791

where you moved your E.T around

and did something.

792

And the something is what a lot of people

to this day can't answer.

793

You know what is actually the goal?

794

It did come with instructions

and had some of that stuff documented, but

795

it's like one thing in there

you do make a phone call, E.T.

796

phone's home, but it's not E.T.

797

making the phone call, and I didn't know

that's

798

what it even was until I read about it

later.

799

So, you know, that's, definitely one.

800

And just kind of a footnote

to that of anybody

801

that's in the retro games

probably knows this, but it was so bad

802

after the fact that Atari dumped

the unsold copies.

803

This in a landfill

and poured from concrete on top of them.

804

And I don't know,

this is also something that's in the lore,

805

but it is claimed that they actually,

for whatever reason, manufactured

806

more copies of the game than there were

Atari consoles in existence at the time.

807

So you know what?

808

People are going to want two copies,

you know, back up the frame on the wall

809

or something.

810

Yeah.

811

But, but.

812

Yeah. Okay.

813

Gretchen,

what would you have to pick? Okay.

814

I really had to give this some thought

because I, I don't really recall

815

any video games or board games

that were really weird,

816

but I do remember a game

817

that, usually it was males.

818

Not not

the girls would be playing this game.

819

The guys would,

820

make a strange it's

a particular hand gesture,

821

and they would,

put the put the hand gesture

822

in a place

where they would try and get their friends

823

to, like, turn

and look down or see the hand gesture.

824

If you looked at the hand gesture,

825

the guy gets to punch you.

826

This was a game that the guys would play

and I think it was weird.

827

I don't really understand

why they were playing it, but they did.

828

So it was this weird take off.

829

I know it's a weird punching game,

and I saw like, a couple of years ago,

830

somebody was saying,

oh no, that's a racial thing.

831

No, it's not a racial gesture at all.

832

It's the punching game.

833

You know, the guy's making this gesture.

834

And if you look at the at the gesture,

he gets to punch you.

835

So don't ask me.

836

I don't understand it. Kind of. Well,

I missed that one.

837

And then like I was saying, that sounds

like a tick tock their video or something.

838

I guess it would have been to talk,

but that's idea.

839

Wow. Okay.

840

Yeah, that I think you might have

just taken the cake on the weirdest game.

841

Mine's weird, but not that weird.

842

So I'm going to circle back on mine

to the, video game

843

era, and I'm going to talk about a game

called bubbles.

844

Okay, that sounds strangely familiar.

845

Yeah, it was in the arcades.

846

I don't know

if this ever came out on consoles or not.

847

It might.

848

If the premise of the game is

you were cleaning things in a sink.

849

Oh, you were cleaning things in the sink

and you would go through.

850

And when you got enough stuff cleaned out,

if I remember correctly,

851

you went down the drain

and that took you to the next level.

852

I think it's been about 15 years

since I've seen this.

853

I couldn't even find it on, online.

854

I'm sure there's some gameplay

footage, but, it was just

855

a very strange concept, in my opinion.

856

For a video game.

857

Yeah.

858

You know, so they trying to encourage

859

house cleaning or the Tidy Bowl Manor?

860

Well, that's,

you know, that's, Well, you know what?

861

I would,

862

I don't know, it's,

863

there's a scene in The Simpsons

where they're trying to get Bart to go out

864

and mow the lawn, and he has a a Game Boy

or that kind of a system.

865

And he's playing virtual gardening

on the Gameboy where he's mowing the lawn.

866

You know,

that's what this made me think of.

867

But it is a real game.

868

And if you look out, you can find it.

869

Over time. Arcade,

I know you did a piece on it on YouTube.

870

There's a YouTube channel that covers

871

some of the stuff and,

it's just a weird thing,

872

but I think the punching game takes

take in my opinion here today.

873

I'm still to this day wondering,

why were they playing that?

874

You know, I wouldn't want to play that.

875

And I'm not volunteering to play it.

876

So don't hit me like, right.

877

Oh my goodness.

878

Oh my goodness. Okay.

So it looks like I'm next.

879

So what happened to calm decks

is the next question.

880

And I feel the same way about this.

881

Yeah.

882

Decks is a computer show

or was a computer show that was like

883

the place to be to feature

new computer equipment.

884

Yeah, it was a big deal.

It was in Vegas, wasn't it?

885

It was in Vegas.

886

It was a big deal.

887

It was before it

cost $1 million to go to Las Vegas.

888

You know, you can go to the show and,

you know, hang out and see the stuff.

889

You were supposed

890

to get all kinds of cool swag

when you went to these and you did it.

891

I was to a couple of those and,

it was a cool show.

892

The last, it was produced was 2003,

893

and basically two things happened.

894

One of them

895

and these are

the claims that are made, by the way,

896

I have not interviewed anyone on this

because I couldn't find anyone

897

to interview.

898

This still seems to exist

or will admit to it.

899

Yeah.

900

So the claims that have been out there

generally accepted reasons is, number one,

901

bad management. Things got screwed up.

902

But the other part of it

too, is we still have another show

903

that was kind of the opposite

904

of the Consumer Electronics Show

or CBS still going very strong.

905

But when we got into the early 2000,

906

computers

really started to become a commodity.

907

So you weren't showing off as much anymore

or the latest periphery or the latest

908

board or, you know, the new memory upgrade

or whatever the case may be.

909

It was a lot of what Palm Decks was.

910

So in some ways

it just kind of became obsolete.

911

They canceled the 2004, originally

with the idea of bringing it back

912

next year, and then it was eventually

913

This is a question that comes up a lot,

because I know a lot of people,

914

especially that worked during that era,

remember it because it's what you went to.

915

If you were in computers at all,

you went to Comdex

916

and it was a lot of fun.

917

And Gretchen, like you said,

918

you got a lot of swag in that

kind of thing, but that's where it went.

919

Is it possible to print from your phone?

920

So I think to

921

what does this phone tablet,

that kind of a thing.

922

And the answer to

this is yes, actually they do support it

923

depending on the version of your phone

iPhone, Android and then what version

924

of Android, the way that you would set up

and do this may vary a little bit.

925

So I will tell you how I did it online.

926

I have a Samsung, Android phone

927

and I got I have an HP printer

and I was able to get an app that just

928

went in there and basically set up

what I would call a printer driver.

929

It works over the network.

930

You're not plugging into the printer,

anything.

931

So you have to have a printer

that worked on a network for this work.

932

But, I set it up that way.

933

And yeah, I could just print off my phone

just like I would.

934

My computer was actually very easy to do.

935

I would recommend

936

if you want to set this up,

look at the manufacturer of your printer,

937

because they're most likely going to have

the software for it, because I found

938

there was a ton of third party

apps that claimed to do this.

939

And they're a little bit,

sketchy in some cases.

940

I'm sure there's some good ones,

but if you

941

get one that's from your brand of printer

like HP or canon or whatever,

942

it's a little bit safer way to go.

943

All right.

944

Do we really

have to put everything on the cloud?

945

What does this make me think of?

946

Valley girl from the 80s?

947

I don't know how many people even

we get that right now.

948

Like, oh my God, do we really have

to put everything on the cloud?

949

Yeah. Is that better?

950

Yeah. That's a that's better.

You know? Okay.

951

Just thinking

when we, when, when we were in Bakersfield

952

doing the last round of a jet pack,

we drove by that mall, Valley Fair.

953

I think it's all or something. Yeah. Yes.

954

And how are you

now? North. So, you know. Yeah.

955

As long as it didn't turn in the fires,

it's still there.

956

As far as I know, it's still there.

957

I leave in the comments

if it's not or if I have that, or

958

that would be the Galleria. Right?

959

It was a gallery.

960

I might have the name wrong,

but I know we drove by it and and.

961

Yeah.

962

So, but anyway,

to get back to the topic here,

963

this came up

because the last couple of weeks

964

we've had some pretty substantial internet

outages.

965

And one of them, there's a YouTube channel

where he has a teleprompter

966

that wouldn't work

because the internet was down.

967

Question why do we need to have

a teleprompter that works on the cloud?

968

But the answer to this is no, you don't.

969

But most stuff is going that way

because it's more cost

970

effective for businesses

developing these platforms.

971

I just hope

972

that they figure out how to do backup

a little bit better than this last time.

973

So we don't see the problem

that we have. Yep.

974

Well that's it for this week.

Until next week.

975

This is user friendly 2.0 keeping you safe

on the cutting edge, user friendly 2.0.

976

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977

by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.

978

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979

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980

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981

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982

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983

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984

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985

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986

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987

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