Another fun look back at pop culture and technology topics.

Willian Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to where technology becomes

user friendly.

2

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.

5

Bill Sikkens.

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Bill, Gretchen. Welcome welcome. Hello.

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Well to you and everybody that celebrates

that.

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Happy Halloween is coming right up here.

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I can't believe

we're already to this point.

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And, I'll let you know afterwards

how the arcade party went.

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That's going to be interesting.

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So we're going to have

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our last look back episode for the season,

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and we're looking back at robots

as they were about a year ago.

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Some other things in there too, some

great interviews and that type of a thing.

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But the robots are

what we're going to be focusing on.

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And the idea here is next month

we're going to be covering what

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these different technologies

this weeks and the last couple of weeks

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that we've done this for

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have done where they've evolved or haven't

and what direction

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they've gone in or haven't,

you know, whatever the case may be.

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So with that,

and with no further ado, let's

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set our time machines back

approximately one year.

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So we've got a really cool

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guest interview coming up again

this week in the second segment,

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getting a lot of different perspective

from authors.

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And this has been really kind of cool

and a little bit unexpected.

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And it's kind of neat

to see the different direction

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that different people take for their art,

you know, or

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as I think he calls it today, the Craft.

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I always thought that was doing movies, but I guess that's also writing books. And,

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But, you

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know, different directions

and a lot of really good stuff.

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And, you know, I'm going to

want to sit down

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and actually read through some of

these times, but it does take some doing.

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The one of the other interviews

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that we're going to have in

a couple of weeks is an author that's

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actually he was going to write a book,

and he's written five.

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And from what I've seen,

but they're actually really good. It's

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so I haven't seen any bummers yet,

which is kind of cool.

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Another set that's going to be coming up

in a few weeks as a cyberpunk fantasy,

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but where the world gets good,

and I try to explain to them,

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there's no way that's cyberpunk.

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But,

at least not with that conclusion that,

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but, we shall see, I suppose.

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Well, I mean, okay, here's the question.

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Has cyberpunk become a genre?

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Yeah, it's been on Earth for a while.

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Right.

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So then, you know, it can go either way.

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It doesn't have to be, it can,

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and I don't disagree with you on that,

but part of what cyberpunk

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is, is kind of this post-apocalyptic,

everything's horrible idea.

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I think if you tried to make it good,

it wouldn't really be cyberpunk.

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However, I will say that

from what I understand, the way they've

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put this together, it kind of keeps its,

you know, that intact.

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So we'll see.

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Again, be interesting

to see where that goes.

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And then for that particular one,

since we're talking about it, there are

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books are set 100 years

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So I don't know,

maybe good things happen in 100 years.

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We shall see.

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Already on that cherry note.

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What do we have in the news

this week? Okay.

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Oh my God, this term is just, like,

really freaking me out.

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It's kind of kind of intense

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pig butchering scams increasing

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what exactly is this?

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Okay, first of all, just for everybody,

don't worry about it.

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From a standpoint, this is not literally

what the headline says.

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This has nothing to do with pigs

or animals or anything like that.

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It's just a term that they're using.

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But what it is, is it's a scam

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that has cost over 75 billion in loss

over the past four years

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and is something that's quite,

quite intense.

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You know,

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so what this basically comes down to

is it's a long term situation.

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So it's people that are kind of,

trying to scam for the long term.

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So you get an unsolicited call

or email or whatever, you respond to it,

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and you talk to

somebody who gets into your confidence

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and they'll talk to you.

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They'll send personal messages

throughout the day,

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and then later they invite you

to join them in a cryptocurrency trade.

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Okay. What could go wrong here?

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Yeah.

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And, they discuss openly with you

personal finances,

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purchases and vacations.

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And then finally, your new online

friend asks you to send money.

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So if this is going on or you

get an unsolicited anything, don't do it.

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Because there's a lot of different

techniques out there for these people

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to tell you and your money

and have you apart from each other

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and or seeing a lot of different

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approaches, this just being another one.

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And at the end of the day,

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you're not going to make money off

cryptocurrency doing this.

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I'm still of the opinion

that unless you're very lucky,

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you're not going to make money off

cryptocurrency, period.

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But this is one

where you almost certainly

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you're going to lose anything you put it.

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So in other words,

the victim becomes the pig.

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Yeah.

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And that's where that term comes from.

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On same note, hackers

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infest users of antivirus service

that deliver updates over Http.

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Yeah.

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So from a technical perspective,

the first thing I had to ask is,

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it seems like delivering

or doing your antivirus over your browser

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or getting the updates,

which is what this would be.

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I could see there being a lot of problems

with that.

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I mean, you download updates,

but it's usually done by the antivirus

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software that you're running,

not through this type of an interface.

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So what's been going on here?

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And they think the hackers

are tied to North Korea.

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So this is a government thing

that's been going on with it.

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And they're using something

called a man in the middle attack.

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And basically what that means

is they're interfering

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with the data transfer,

but not on the end of the company.

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You're getting it from a not on your end.

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So the antivirus company sends

the correct information.

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They replace it with a malicious file.

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Wallet's in transit.

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And then what you receive

is the malicious file.

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So that's how that works.

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Yeah.

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And these type of things

it takes a lot to pull off.

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And it's very complicated

and the way that they do this.

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But this is just to kind of

sum it up a big reason why

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you want the Https on your browser.

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And I still wouldn't download

antivirus updates in this way,

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but that at least tells you

the website is communicating with you.

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And as far as I know,

and they have hacked this before.

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But the current standard of this does

lock it down.

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So if you, you know,

or at least you should know and hopefully

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that the website you're dealing with

is really what it purports to be.

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So these kind of attacks, they're not new,

but this methodology of doing

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it is new or however

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Apparently

the company by the way, is called E scan.

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So if you're using E scan I would suggest

getting different antivirus software.

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This has been going on

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since 2019, which is five years

that they didn't seem to notice.

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Wow. You know, so

I, I have a hard time with stuff like that

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because it's, you know, it's one thing,

okay, they hack in

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and they get in a way that you didn't

expect that you deal with it and move on.

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But a five year

breach like this is a little weird.

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But in any event,

if you're using E scan at this point, just

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it would be time to upgrade your antivirus

software, or just simply use

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the one that comes with windows.

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If you're running Windows 11 or Windows 10

is it works well too.

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It's going to certainly work better

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than something you get through

the web like that.

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Definitely. Okay.

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Why vector databases are having a moment

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as the AI hype cycle peaks.

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What exactly is a vector?

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Okay, so vector, why don't you

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I was going to say to get started

with this, maybe you could explain

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the difference between SQL, NoSQL,

vector databases and things like that.

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I could make something. I wouldn't yeah.

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I mean in most cases

I don't think anybody would know

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the difference unless you work within it.

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This is a very, very, analytical topic.

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But what's going on here

is they're talking about

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different styles of databases.

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So when you use the internet

or many other things for that matter,

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you're probably interacting

with a database.

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You might not directly know that you are,

but most interactive technology

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that sends you information of some kind

has to pull it from somewhere.

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And usually that's a database.

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And there's many different ways

to set that up on the back end

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to be able to provide this information.

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One of the most common ones

is something called SQL, SQL.

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It stands for Structured Query Language,

and it's basically a database

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that holds information

that's in the structure of some kind.

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So you want the name, address,

phone number or email address to be saved.

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That's structure.

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And then you have

whatever records go along with it.

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This is the very similar system

to some of the old softwares

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we used to have, like dBASE and others

that, FileMaker Pro I think was like this.

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Anyway, that keep, Microsoft

Access is another big one.

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Sorry. I'm just trying to think.

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And it's, I mean,

to get the rust off the brain to go back.

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But in any event that modern systems

use these kind of databases

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in a newer way than Microsoft Access,

etc., to be able to store information,

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and they work pretty

well if you have a structure.

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Problem is just not

everything works that way.

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So if you're storing videos or images

or something that doesn't know here

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to a predefined data model, SQL doesn't

work that well for dealing with it.

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So that is where you get things

that are commonly called NoSQL.

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And vector databases are something

that would fall into that category

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and really where they're, coming into

this is generative AI

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as they're trained to use

this kind of a database

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a lot better than SQL and some of

the other things that are out there.

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And one of the things I've been finding

is that using this kind of a back end

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allows AIS to reduce

what they call hallucinations,

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and what that is, is where the AI gives

you completely fictitious information,

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or something of that nature,

a lot of hallucination.

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And one of the reasons for that is because

depending on how the AI is developed

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and what it actually is, it's

pulling from a massive database,

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but it's not necessarily

going to know in certain situations

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whether the information it has

is real or not.

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Some do, some don't.

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So at the end of the day,

that's where you have had problems

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and probably seen in the news

where there was a lawyer that did this

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and some other examples

that they wrote or stuff using an AI

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that didn't have this differentiation

capability.

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And the information was written well,

but it was completely false.

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Three you know, because it

it doesn't know if it's

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pulling it from reality or from, you know,

the Harry Potter book or something.

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It's that kind of thing.

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So in any event, so what's happening is

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AI is starting

to really get into everything.

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The systems that run

it are becoming more and more popular,

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and vector databases,

which is probably not something

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most of us have even heard about before,

are coming to the forefront.

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So to try and keep this from

being really deep technical,

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it just simply means that

when you interact with an AI,

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you might not be interacting

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with the same kind of database

you have on other things,

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and whether that is relevant to you

is you're in to figure out.

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Noncompete are dead

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and tech workers are free to roam.

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So this came in,

this is from wired magazine.

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And what this is talking about

is the Federal Trade Commission

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is putting a new rule

and it invalidates non-compete agreements.

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So there's two sides of thought on this.

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I know in my career I've dealt with this.

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Basically what it comes down to

is I go work for company A, and company

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A has me signed an agreement

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that I can't go work for company

B, which would be their competitor.

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You're doing the same thing

for three years.

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Two years,

whatever the term of the non-compete is.

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The problem with that is,

is when you leave company

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A, you're not allowed to practice

your expertise in certain situations.

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So this type of thing

has been controversial to say the least.

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And at the end of the day, it's taken,

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the Federal Trade Commission

to step in here and deal with this.

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They're saying that it's going to create

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annually, not jobs, but actual businesses.

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An average annual

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pay increase of $524

for each worker, lower health costs,

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and as many as 29,000 more patents

each year.

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Over the next decade.

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Now, the one thing

that I do have to footnote

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on this from Wired's article is

the non-compete are not dead yet.

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There's about a four month process

that this has to go through with the FTC,

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and there are some powerful people

objecting

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to this new rule, saying that

it's an overreach and that kind of thing.

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But it may actually end up

in front of the Supreme Court.

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However, if it does get to that point,

we might still see the legislation change.

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It's just not going to be tomorrow.

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And it's just important to note

that this isn't in effect yet.

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All right, TSMC says

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A16 Chipmaking Tech

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IV in 2026 setting up showdown with Intel.

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That was what a lot.

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I'm assuming one of you is a company

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and the other one is a product.

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Yeah.

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Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Corporation, by the way,

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is what that stands for.

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And the other part

that was all letters in there,

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A16 is a model of a microprocessor.

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So that's

what all that kind of breaks down too.

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So, you know, there's

a number of different companies that make

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the central processing units

that are used in a lot of our lines

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and the Intel, AMD

or some of the most common ones.

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But there are other companies out there

that put these things together,

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and this is setting itself up

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to be a direct competitor to Intel

and AMD, which would be interesting

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because you might have a third

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kind of computer processor

that you would get someday.

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Now, this isn't that unusual, like Apple

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uses their own thing and a lot of others

do, but for the most part,

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you're probably if you're not using a mac,

you're

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probably have a computer

that has either Intel and AMD.

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It's not 100%,

but it is the most common thing out there.

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And that's why this could be a big deal.

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And it could actually help

to bring down prices

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and that type of thing

to have more options out there.

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So it'll be interesting

to see where this ends up.

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But if it does come out

and if it is successful,

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it, you know,

certainly we'll give a third class.

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Now, the one thing

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not to worry about

is that doesn't mean you're going

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to have a third operating system

or anything like that.

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The idea is this would run

what is on the market now, today,

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it just be a different method or a

different brand, if you will, of doing it.

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So whether you have an RCA television or a

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LG television, you can watch the same

television signal, same idea.

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Deadpool and Wolverine trailer released.

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Yeah.

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So it's in post-production.

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This has been talked about for a while

and kind of our next movie like this,

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and I, you know,

I have to say Wolverine, Deadpool,

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or some of the two most violent,

characters out there.

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So this could be very interesting

to see where this ends up.

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And if it's something

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we're going to be saying

after you finished watching the movie,

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it's expected release

date is July 26th in post-production now,

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so we'll see if they meet that or not,

which usually they do at this point,

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but you never know what happens.

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So, you know,

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we'll have to check this one out

because this is a kind of movie that is,

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you have to understand,

like Deadpool and Wolverine,

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these are two individuals

that are extremely hard to kill

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by nature of their superpowers.

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Just try. Ever. You want to call it.

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These are two people who have a hard time

dying.

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So, if they were to get in a fight

with each other,

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it's probably going to go on

for a long time.

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Now, that would be interesting.

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I think maybe that's the movie

we don't know.

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Instead of Deadpool,

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maybe we could have Deadpool versus

Wolverine back,

315

I don't know, someone called The Who

and what franchise is this Marvel,

316

I think yeah, someone call a franchise

and let them know

317

that they want to fight each other

and then becomes a note.

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Yeah, I don't know what the storyline is.

319

There isn't been a lot of talk

about that yet, but, like you say.

320

And the other thing is, is

the characters are very different.

321

I mean, Wolverine is kind of almost,

he's he's strange.

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I don't know, I think seriously,

but I want to be

323

on the other hand, it's like, yeah,

we're going to the camera and wave to you,

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you know that,

325

like a lot of it's nothing serious

like is a fourth barrier or what is that?

326

Yes, exactly.

327

Fourth wall.

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Fourth wall.

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Fourth wall.

330

So anyway, the other thing

that's interesting,

331

I know some of the characters in here

or the actors rather are people.

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Patrick Stewart's going to be back

as professor X really understand

333

a array Park is going to be in the movie,

so that'll be interesting.

334

I don't think he'll be read, but,

he'll be there.

335

So we'll see where this ends up going.

336

This has the potential to be really good

or really bad, I don't know.

337

And sometimes it's.

338

In build to limit car speeds.

339

Tell us about that.

340

Yeah.

341

So in a shocking revelation,

the state of California

342

wanted to create a role that by 2029,

343

all new vehicles sold in the state

had a governor installed, it would know

344

the speed limit of where you were

and would not allow you to exceed it.

345

I think there was a ten mile per hour

variance in there

346

and that kind of a thing.

347

And believe it or not, there were

a few people that had a problem with that.

348

And I can't understand why.

349

I mean, you know, what's the speed limits?

350

And for safety or something, you do need

to be able to speed up a little bit.

351

You wouldn't be able to do that.

352

And the other side of it

is this technology does fail sometimes.

353

What if it has the wrong element

for where you are?

354

Yeah.

355

You know, so.

356

They have changed this.

357

Now for anybody that is concerned,

358

I say that tongue in cheek, because this

is just such a weird thing to think about,

359

that an outside influence would be able

to have that on your private vehicle.

360

I know governors and things

like that exist on commercial vehicles

361

and some other things, but that's a still

a little bit different than my Nissan.

362

You know?

363

And from that standpoint,

that's where a lot of people are like,

364

you know, objecting to this.

365

So it's been modified

now that the requirement is still there

366

to have a thing that will advise you

if you exceed the speed limit

367

in the same capacity or 50% in 2029

and so on.

368

But it just has a wild thing or something.

369

Is it going to keep your car from

370

fitting other cars,

or are they grandfathered in?

371

That's good.

372

No, there doesn't seem to be any kind of

like a backward requirement.

373

So if you have an older vehicle,

you know that doesn't

374

have this or right now, any vehicle.

375

And you know, once again, you're going

to be prohibited from using it.

376

Just anything.

377

Now people are not going to want in

other states.

378

Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

379

But yeah,

the adoption of these type of things,

380

this is a lot like electric vehicles.

381

There's no rule that you can't have

a gasoline powered car,

382

except that all cars sold I think by 2030,

383

have to meet such stringent pollution

requirements

384

that they could only be an electric car,

you know, so.

385

But you're, you know, my 1970, whatever

386

it is, a 66 Volkswagen

bug is still legal to drive

387

even after these rules go into effect,

without having to change it in some way.

388

Yeah.

389

Voyager one is talking again.

390

Yes. And this has been

an interesting thing

391

for especially space enthusiasts,

which seems to be everybody at NASA.

392

Imagine that.

393

So what happened is,

394

for anybody that doesn't know, Voyager

one and Voyager two

395

are the only human made objects

that are in interstellar space.

396

In other words,

have left our solar system,

397

and they're still both in communication

with us.

398

But about six months ago,

it was last fall, sometime

399

there was a problem where Voyager one

was sending back information,

400

but the information was gobbledygook.

401

It wasn't able to be used in any way.

402

And something was scrambling it.

403

So they were trying to figure it out.

404

Well,

you know, when you're updating software

405

that is a project debugging,

that is its own beast sometimes.

406

But in this case, everything they did,

it's 22.5 hours for their radio signal

407

to reach Voyager, make the change,

and then another 22.5 hours if it worked.

408

See if you get different information back.

409

So, and then on top of that,

410

you're dealing with technology

that was built in the 70s,

411

and there aren't a lot of people around

that can support that anymore, either.

412

You know, it's,

413

outside of pinball machines.

414

We seem to be able to fix them. Okay.

415

But no, in all seriousness,

what they ended up doing

416

is they figured out that

417

what was causing the problem is a chip in

the system had failed.

418

Now, again, these missions

were supposed to be five years.

419

So the fact that they're even

420

still running, I can't fault it for that

after all this time.

421

But what they ended up doing is

they were able to move the code

422

and the other parts

of the system's memory.

423

It was too big to fit in any of the other

pieces themselves, so they broke it up.

424

I mean, whoever programed

this really knew what they were doing,

425

and then they tested it out

and they've been able to do that

426

in such a way that they've been able

to completely bypass the memory chip.

427

It went out

and they're now getting data back.

428

That is what they need it to be,

which is kind of really cool

429

to think that, you know, I think it's a do

430

you think that qualifies as the farthest

away service call ever performed?

431

Yeah. It's not out

432

now. I

think it's cool they were able to fix it.

433

And I think a lot of people

kind of had figured,

434

you know, that was kind of the end of it.

435

And it wouldn't have really been

that negative of the thing.

436

Because again, you're dealing with systems

that were not meant

437

to do what they're doing in any capacity.

438

You know, I mean, when the Voyagers went

up, the Atari system was just brand new.

439

You got to think about it.

That's where we are.

440

I don't even think we had VCRs

and stuff like that yet.

441

And if we did, it was in a very,

very early phases of them.

442

You know, you listened to music off

a record or they did have eight tracks.

443

So there was at least that. But, you know,

444

and this thing still works.

445

And they were not only that,

when there was a malfunction,

446

they were actually able to bring it back.

So that's pretty cool.

447

You know, I don't know, I am

in the space stuff I always have been.

448

So it's kind of fun to see

some of the things that come out here.

449

One other thing that came too,

from one of the Mars orbiter is just

450

this kind of a topic is

they found spiders on Mars.

451

I'm sure. Gretchen, you would love that.

452

Yeah. Not really.

453

Not at least in what you would think.

454

What they found on

Mars, though, is something that

455

atmosphere looks like spiders.

456

But what it is, is actually

a geological process that causes

457

carbon dioxide to bring darker

458

material up to the surface, to what

they would consider in their spring.

459

But when you look at it from orbit, it

looks like there's all these spiders. And

460

you not

461

something I

think that I'd really want to experience.

462

Although I do understand

the job was to go to Mars,

463

maybe would race to brokers

go to any sites?

464

I guess that's important

to find the spiders.

465

Yeah, evidently.

466

And, Yeah. Grog.

467

I think,

468

I don't know that.

469

Gretchen, you got to understand,

that was a long, long time ago.

470

Somewhere far, far away.

471

And on that very bad joke.

472

We are going to take a break.

473

Yeah, we will be back with an interview.

474

They don't see him.

475

He's from the future.

476

He's got a really big computer,

477

and he uses it every day.

478

And he uses it in every way.

479

Oh, I see you sure.

480

You know, I'm not sure because you.

481

Welcome back.

482

This is user friendly 2.0.

483

Check out our website for everything.

484

User friendly user friendly.

485

Dot show is the one stop shop

for all of that.

486

You can play our back episodes,

see what's up and coming.

487

Submit your questions.

Give us your comments.

488

We'd love to hear from you.

489

You can even read our Tech Wednesday

articles.

490

Hey, we might need to write run

pretty soon again, but you can read them.

491

They're there, okay, among other things.

492

So let us know what you think.

493

It's how we do our programing

and we love to hear from everybody.

494

So interesting thing last week

we were at the Career day,

495

at Sherwood High School.

496

We had that on the show and,

and our guests and everything,

497

which was really

cool, was a really neat event

498

and I'm glad we were able to go to it.

499

But one of the things that I have put

together, it's really for another purpose

500

was able to have there was a little robot

501

and people seem to kind of like it.

502

The thing looks like a replicator out

of, Stargate a little bit.

503

And, it's a six leg, hexapod.

504

And, we're using it as a proof of concept

for something the client's doing.

505

But it was kind of cool to be able

to have it,

506

and we've gotten it working,

and he died five minutes before me.

507

So. So my question is, is, did you get it

fixed?

508

Yeah, I've gotten them fixed.

509

And what had happened was

and this is part of prototyping

510

is a, there's a logic board in there

that controls things.

511

And there's a component called a diode,

which causes electricity

512

to only go one way.

513

And the reason for

514

that is because the Raspberry Pi circuit

that I'm using to build this thing on

515

has some functions

that we won't need in the final product.

516

And one of them is

it tries to recharge the batteries.

517

But I'm not using rechargeable batteries.

518

So if you do that

it can be extremely problematic.

519

So the purpose of a diode is

520

to make sure the power comes

one way and doesn't go back.

521

Well, it was actually the evening before

522

I was finalizing some stuff

and he just stopped working.

523

And it was because this ten cent

diode popped

524

and there's no way to really replace it.

525

I couldn't there's no more RadioShack.

526

I couldn't go buy a diode.

527

I didn't have one here.

528

So unfortunately,

these type of things happen.

529

But yeah, we got him up and running

and he's actually a neat little guy.

530

He's got a bunch of sensors on them

and different things like that.

531

He can tell distance,

he can walk properly,

532

which is kind of cool, self-leveling,

all of that type of thing.

533

And he has a camera.

I don't have any sound

534

system set up on him,

although he does have a buzzer.

535

So buzzer what's the buzzer for?

536

Yeah.

537

To tell us if there's a problem.

538

And, I don't think that'll be

on the final version either, but,

539

it was something that was there,

540

but they know

videos as you're looking at complexity

541

and any more circuitry you have,

especially circuitry you don't need,

542

takes more battery

and has more that can possibly go wrong.

543

And a sound card

is something that draws a lot of power.

544

They have any kind of ability to reproduce

that.

545

You have to have an amplifier circuit

in addition to the digital card, a digital

546

analog converter, and then whatever

sound you're going to use, plus a speaker.

547

So there was just no reason to do that

because we didn't need it.

548

And it's what that's going to be used

for doesn't require sound.

549

But you know, that's just part of it.

550

You could have it if you wanted it.

551

And the Raspberry Pi prototyping boards

do support that kind of thing.

552

So it's a matter of really adding in the

appropriate circuitry and turning it on.

553

But again, in this case

didn't have that. Don't need it.

554

The other stuff that's in

there is kind of cool.

555

It also has a seismic sensor.

556

One of the things

that we're looking at doing with

557

it is when you have something

like an earthquake,

558

having the sensor array on it,

and the final version being a lot smaller,

559

you can put them around

560

and if a building has collapsed

or something of that nature,

561

a little robot can pick up vibrations

and stuff that you couldn't

562

otherwise hear,

563

and you can send them into places

that you wouldn't want to send the human.

564

Because if the robot gets stuck

or squished or something,

565

you build another robot.

566

It's not that easy to do with a human,

as humans are bigger.

567

Yeah.

568

So yeah, you know, from that standpoint,

that is,

569

one of the uses of this kind of a thing,

but it's been a lot of fun.

570

The engineering behind

it took some time to put together

571

and get everything to work.

And there's two sides of these things.

572

There's the hardware side, which are

all of the things that make it move.

573

It's articulated.

574

So there's three different joints

in each leg, which means 618

575

servo motors,

plus two more on the nexus of 20 servos

576

and all the transistors and data lines

and all the stuff to control all that.

577

And then on the software side of it,

you have to program it.

578

When these type of circuits

are usually done in either Python or Rust,

579

this one's done in Python

because it's running on a Raspberry Pi.

580

And so you have that to set up.

581

So you're looking at a lot of different

things, getting the parts built.

582

You have somebody that actually takes

the models that I drew up

583

and puts them in and gets the actual

physical stuff cut out.

584

It was done on a really high quality

585

3D printer, and the laser printer

that's how they got the parts.

586

And, you know, just kind of cool.

587

But a lot went into it. But yes,

he is alive again. He is working.

588

And it was definitely a fun

project, was to put a picture of him

589

up in our social media

if we haven't done so already.

590

All right. Well, listen,

we got a great interview.

591

I talked about this

a little bit in the first segment.

592

This is an author

593

I am not going to give you

any kind of spoilers here

594

because the interview

is worth listening to.

595

So with no further ado, let's go.

596

Joining me now, guests, Pedram on

did I say your name right? Yes.

597

Yeah.

It only took nine tries. That's right.

598

Hey, you know what? We're making progress.

599

So tell us a little bit about yourself

and what you're doing.

600

That.

601

Well, I, background, I guess

I got my degree in music education.

602

Then I went and I joined the Marine Corps.

603

Played clarinet

for them for several years.

604

And I went into cyberspace

for the Marine Corps.

605

And then I got out

after 12 years on active duty.

606

And now I am working

on, working on I'm an author.

607

Like, I've, I've published a book.

608

If you're watching this video,

you can see it behind me, but,

609

yeah, I, I write epic fantasy,

and my first book is out.

610

I'm shooting for book two to be out later

this year, and at the end of August.

611

All right.

612

Well, first of all, on behalf of user

Friendly, thank you for your service and

613

I yeah, that's a wonderful thing

to be able to do.

614

Before we get into the book, I'm gonna

I just need to ask the question,

615

what does it mean

to go into military cyberspace?

616

Because I've got several ideas there.

617

Probably not right.

618

Well,

619

So the, let me try to make this short.

620

The military uses computers.

621

They're very useful for

for communications.

622

They run weapons systems.

623

And those systems are hackable.

624

And so somebody needs to defend them.

625

And so my, my second job field,

626

my first one was in the band

and not secondary, but I switched

627

my primary job field from music

to, being in cyberspace warfare.

628

And cyberspace

629

warfare goes both defense and offense.

630

Just the, the

the billets that I happens to fill

631

where I got stationed

were only in defense, but.

632

Yeah. Okay.

633

And this thing is so important,

634

and,

it's specifically for cyber defense and

635

in the military, there's a difference

between cyber security and cyber defense.

636

Where cyber security is, is basically

637

best practices and making sure

everything's configured right.

638

And, making sure it's,

things are updated and, like I said,

639

configured right so that it's hard

to hack into cyber defense

640

is where you are monitoring systems

and hunting

641

for signs of malicious action.

642

And, out in the civilian realm,

643

that's all just cyber security.

644

Okay. All right. Now that's interesting.

645

That's actually a good topic,

I think, for another time.

646

But, I'm glad I asked the question

because I wouldn't have known

647

really kind of where that went. All right.

648

So let's circle

back to what we're here for.

649

And let's about your book.

650

And,

where did you get the idea to write it?

651

And, just let us know a little bit

about where this came from, okay.

652

Yeah. So,

653

this is

not the first book that I wanted to write.

654

In fact, the first one I wanted to write

was when I was,

655

I don't know.

656

I remember there was one

that I started writing when I was ten,

657

actually, there were two that

I started writing when I was 10 or 12.

658

But in my adult life,

659

when I really wanted to write a book,

the first one was was not this.

660

And I started that 1 in 2010.

661

And that one I'm calling The Grand Hill

Chronicles.

662

And, you know, and

663

in order to run things as,

664

to, to try to make income as an author,

665

my wife and I registered a company, and,

I have a,

666

a brand name or what's the word?

667

An imprint that is Grand Hill Media.

668

And in fact,

I it's on the book here, like,

669

that's

670

Grand Hill Media is the the imprint under

which this book is published.

671

But I care too much about the Grand Hill

672

Chronicles,

and I needed to get something out.

673

I needed to, to have something

that I could finish,

674

in some kind of reasonable fashion.

675

So I'm like, okay, some other idea,

what's different?

676

What hasn't been done that I know of?

677

How about, a dark unicorn?

678

What does that mean?

679

You know, and and

680

and so I just the, the basis of the idea

was just take something

681

that is familiar

and add my own twist to it.

682

And, yeah.

683

So I started playing with the idea,

like Dark Unicorn.

684

Is he, like, outright evil

685

or is he just sinister or,

or just very somber?

686

So I had to figure those things out

and like, what other details might be fun

687

to add here,

I, I played with the idea of there

688

just being one male unicorn, and,

689

then he, like, carries a banner

for a few thousand years or something,

690

and then he, passes it on

to the next male and, you know, so

691

these were some raw ideas

that I, I played with all this, developing

692

that, so

693

the way it, it

694

is, the way it came out is,

695

in this world, everybody knows unicorns.

696

There's no secret that they exist.

697

Everybody's seen one.

698

Everybody knows what they're like.

699

They're they're like,

they have a bright disposition,

700

kind of flighty,

and they're intelligent enough.

701

They they have the ability to speak.

702

They're not going to carry

on a conversation with you and me

703

because there's they're too flighty and,

maybe they don't care about us.

704

I don't know,

but they have the ability to heal

705

once in a blue moon,

somebody will be healed by a unicorn.

706

Also, unicorn isn't the proper word.

707

It's like calling us two lakes.

708

It's an accurate description,

but it doesn't do us justice.

709

Right. And it.

710

And unicorn doesn't do them justice.

711

So in this book,

the proper word is the Maud.

712

And if you say unicorn,

it's it's just not very polite.

713

Yeah.

714

So I actually

have, I'll read the little excerpt

715

from the on the back of the,

the dust jacket

716

says, no, this sounds great.

717

And, just a quick insert here for anybody

718

listening on the radio

where we obviously don't have video.

719

We're going to go ahead and post pictures

of what you've been referring to

720

on our social media in this there.

721

So so you didn't miss out.

722

All right. Let's go for it.

723

That evil

now comes near to overflowing its bounds.

724

Then the more it said overflow its bounds.

725

A larva repeated.

726

Perhaps you saw the sky split open

last night.

727

Those are cracks in the prison.

728

A lover's face went pale.

729

If those were only cracks,

what happens when it breaks?

730

When the prison

731

bursts, all the world will feel it.

732

So that's kind of,

733

let you know that

there's there's going to be a big problem

734

that we have to solve,

because it's epic fantasy.

735

So in a nutshell,

736

everybody knows what unicorns are like.

737

Also, everybody knows that

they're always pure white

738

and they're all female, except they're all

the legends of the nightshade unicorn.

739

And maybe there's this drawing, this dark

unicorn on the cover of the book.

740

But all the legends

741

about the dark unicorn,

the nightshade unicorn

742

say he

and some of the stories are preposterous.

743

Like, is, 30 hands high at the shoulder

744

and, you know, obviously, ridiculous.

745

And but everybody also knows,

since unicorns are always white

746

and all female, obviously false.

747

Right.

748

Except we meet him in the prolog,

so we know that he does exist

749

right off the bat.

750

Yeah.

751

And so the main character, a Lamphere,

752

and she's, almost 17.

753

In a fantasy world, time is different.

754

Like if you've ever read,

the Wheel of Time series

755

by Robert

Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson.

756

In that world, a year is 500 days.

757

Okay, so anyway, so

758

she's almost 17,

but she comes of age like she goes her her

759

she has her village coming of age ceremony

that she participates in.

760

So she, she is an adult in her society,

761

but, so she comes of age.

762

And then there's this Nimrod

763

that shows up on the doorstep

in the middle of the night,

764

and it's a male Nimrod, like,

what's with that?

765

And he's like,

766

yeah, there's a problem.

767

The world has a problem, and we need help

fixing it, and you're the help.

768

So let's go.

769

And also, we're in a hurry,

so come on, like, let's leave now.

770

So there's there's a journey and yeah.

771

So yeah, the

the excerpt here on the back of the dust

772

jacket is from that conversation.

773

Okay.

774

Well I'm already enthused

and I'm a huge fan of fantasy anyway.

775

So this is right up my, my alley.

776

How long did it take you

to write the book?

777

I had the idea about two years ago.

778

And then,

779

when I, like, actually had

780

time to sit down

and give time to writing it.

781

It was about two months.

782

And then there was editing and

783

and getting reader feedback and,

you know, so

784

the, the whole cycle,

785

starting from what I was able

to dedicate time to reading it to,

786

to writing it,

until publishing was about six months,

787

which is okay. Now.

788

I would consider that to be pretty fast.

789

I mean, you must have been really

working on it to get it done that quickly.

790

I was I had sleepless nights to be sure,

and I can only imagine.

791

Yeah.

792

So listener question that comes in a lot.

793

On the writing and publishing

process is dealing with things

794

like illustrations and you kind of touched

on editing and all of that.

795

What did you have to deal with?

796

Did you actually bring in outside

people to do it?

797

Did you do it yourself? I

how does that work?

798

I hired, I hired an artist for the

for the cover art.

799

I think she did a great job.

800

And that came from vivid covers.com.

801

I'll give her credit.

802

Because she did a great job,

and she deserves that credit

803

and more business, you know, and,

you know, you want your book covers done,

804

but,

805

Yeah.

806

Now I during the,

I actually ran a Kickstarter

807

campaign in January, and

I didn't have the cover art for it yet.

808

And so the images that I use for that

were I generated,

809

I know there's a lot of hissing

and booing about I image generation.

810

But it was it,

it helped me in, in that it

811

I was able to have illustrative images

812

or my Kickstarter campaign. Right.

813

And then once, once I got the cover art

814

that I hired an artist for and,

and was able to pay for,

815

I am absolutely glad and proud to use,

human generated art.

816

It's just it feels more natural,

817

and I guess I art will will get there

and look just as good soon enough. But,

818

Yeah, yeah.

819

You know, it's interesting

you touch upon that topic and we've talked

820

about this in the past on the show,

and it seems like people's concern is more

821

when one uses AI generated art and

then tells you it's human generated art.

822

That's I think a lot of the controversy.

823

And like you're saying, I'm seeing

a lot of stuff and it's getting better

824

and it's a lot more realistic

that there still isn't the human touch.

825

If you will,

826

that you see when something's done

and actually somebody is putting in time

827

and care and all of that.

828

So I do agree

completely with what you're saying. There.

829

Yeah. Right. But yeah.

830

All right.

831

Now your book is published.

832

It's going to be published.

833

It is published. And it's published.

834

How would you find it?

835

Is it where do you order it?

836

You can find it on Amazon.

837

You can find it

on a lot of different places.

838

If your go to is Amazon

and just search for nightshade unicorn.

839

If your go to is anywhere else,

go to Pedro Montcalm

840

and you can find links there.

841

If you really want to help me out

then go to Grand Hill Dot media.

842

That's, that's my direct store. But

843

Pedro Montcalm has links to

844

to Amazon, to Apple to Kobo to Google.

845

So no that's great. Okay.

846

Well we'll get that also out in our

social media so everybody can find it.

847

All right.

848

Well is there anything else

you want to tell us?

849

Yeah.

850

I was a lot of fun to write, and,

it was a lot of work,

851

but it was a lot of fun and

852

I'm looking forward

to pushing our book to my.

853

My daughter was the first reader

for this one.

854

And although it's,

855

you know, I, I it's yeah,

856

it's, it's a young adult,

kind of geared toward that.

857

It is clean.

858

It's it's

859

not something you should be worried about

putting in front of younger children.

860

My 12 year old daughter

was the first person to read it,

861

and she came back and ordered me

to hurry up and write the second book.

862

Okay, that's a

that's the best response you can get.

863

Yeah.

864

You know, yeah, I, I love that and I wish

I could have finished it already.

865

But it's just so much work and,

and I, I did publish it

866

myself, like under,

under my own brand, Grant Hill Media.

867

Right.

868

And so, like,

869

I hired out the, the cover art.

870

I did not hire an editor.

871

I was going to,

but the editor that I was going to hire

872

got booked for the, for the time frame,

and I already had a publication date

873

go, and,

874

but I, I used a tool called Pro

Writing Aid.

875

That's pretty good

about catching a lot of things.

876

It's also pretty good

about missing a lot of things.

877

And I'm not to toot my own horn,

878

but I'm pretty good myself with spelling,

grammar, punctuation.

879

I'm not perfect.

880

That's why I use pro writing aid.

881

And I.

882

I'm not advertising for them.

883

It was a it was a helpful tool.

884

I did not accept all the

885

because it it's an AI based tool

886

and it it suggests some rewording

if the, if it thinks that,

887

maybe your sentence is too long

or it catches

888

or sentences in a row

that you started with the same word.

889

Those are good catches, but,

890

I also feel like it's,

891

it could be a voice eraser.

892

I know that author Martin Shoemaker

893

has has called it that,

and I, I concur with that.

894

Like, if you just go through and accept

all the recordings,

895

you're going to sound kind of manila

vanilla and.

896

Oh yeah.

897

And it also wouldn't

898

necessarily be your book, like you say,

it's, you know, changing changing a lot.

899

All right.

900

So you mentioned that you're

working on a second book.

901

So tell us a little bit

902

about where this is going to go

and where you would like to see it end up.

903

Well it's a sequel.

904

So this book

the series title is Nightshade Unicorn.

905

The the title for book one is forerunner.

906

But obviously for search terms

you use Nightshade unicorn,

907

because if you search for for one,

are you going to find a Toyota SUV?

908

But yeah, book two is going to be called

Guardian.

909

And it's

910

going to be at least a three book series.

911

I, I have been very frustrated

with, with life getting in the way.

912

I've had so many things getting in my way

and and not letting me

913

crank out book two yet.

914

I'm it's I'm I'm almost there.

915

I have started it, you know,

916

but, what was I going to say?

917

It's.

918

Oh, yeah.

919

So there's, I know where it's going to go.

920

And I know, like,

there's this big evil that they need to,

921

stop when it breaks out of its prison.

922

There is a certain thing

that's going to happen.

923

I'm going to be.

924

I'm going to be vague.

You'll have to wait and find out.

925

Absolutely no spoilers here. Right.

926

Here's there is a certain thing

that's going to happen.

927

And it won't be the end.

928

There will have to be another book

after that.

929

So bare minimum,

even if I like really compress events.

930

Book two cannot be the end of the series.

931

It it it it has to have at least one more.

932

And honestly, I and could

933

easily see it being five books or beyond.

934

I'm kind of new at this, you know,

this is my first book, and so book one

935

has basically one POV character

throughout the whole book.

936

I say basically because

it's not completely one purely character.

937

The prolog and the epilog

are from one other characters POV.

938

So there are two

POV characters in this book.

939

The next book is going to have more,

940

and if you've read epic fantasy, if you've

941

read Robert Jordan.

942

Then you know that things can get.

943

Things can start

to, fill the pages pretty well.

944

When you look at this character's

perspective

945

and that characters perspective,

and then they split apart

946

and go different ways,

and then they come back together. And

947

along the way you follow this character

and then you follow that character.

948

So yeah, book two

will definitely be longer than this one.

949

This one is 94,000 words.

950

For reference,

Harry Potter book one was 80,000 words.

951

Okay.

952

So it's a little bit longer than Harry

Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

953

But, yeah, it could.

954

It could easily stretch nine, ten books.

955

I, I don't know yet

because I'm new at this and,

956

I know you're going to have

957

to keep us up to date

as far as how this goes and what happens.

958

And, I can't wait to see it.

959

And again,

960

we're going

to get all of your ordered links

961

and that kind of thing

out on our social media,

962

which is a user friendly show.

963

So if you're driving right

now, don't crash.

964

Just go to the website later

and you can get it from there.

965

And I think I'm going to share

your direct link first.

966

And the reason for that, it's

nothing against Amazon,

967

but for any small business,

Amazon takes a little chunk of the order.

968

That's how they make their money.

So which is fine.

969

But if you can go directly

it helps everybody out.

970

So, we'll,

971

we'll go ahead and share that out first

and have the Amazon link as well.

972

Yeah.

973

And I guess something else

that users, users,

974

people should know, listeners should know,

is I have a newsletter,

975

so maybe you don't want to buy it

right away, but you want to.

976

You want me to let you know

977

when book two comes out

or when whenever I run promotions.

978

So you can go to go to Pedro Mi.com.

979

There's a link for the newsletter.

980

You can sign up for the newsletter.

981

It's absolutely free.

982

And then I'll let you know when when I'm

983

running a promotion or when,

984

when book two comes out, you know?

985

Okay, that sounds great. All right.

986

And again, we got all this posted

so you can check it out.

987

And if you have any questions

on today's interview,

988

go ahead and send them in

also at the website. User friendly.

989

Not sure.

We'd love to hear from you. And listen.

990

Thank you so much for joining us today

and the best of luck.

991

Thank you.

992

So speaking of books, Gretchen, where

are you with this cyber hack origin story?

993

Well, we're in the process of getting

the website ready and the book is ready.

994

So we're looking at a couple of days.

995

Yeah, it's almost there.

996

It's amazing how much stuff goes into

writing a book more than writing a book.

997

Well, anyway,

thank you for being with us this week.

998

Until next week, this is user friendly

2.0 keeping you safe on the cutting edge.

999

User friendly 2.0 is.

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00:50:03,433 --> 00:50:05,002

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00:50:05,002 --> 00:50:08,071

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