Listen to our extensive news segment, our thoughts about the new He-Man movie, and Bill Snodgrass's experience with the Mythic Game System.

Hosts: William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to User Friendly 2.0

2

with host Bill Sikkens, Technology

architect.

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Welcome, welcome.

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I am your host, Bill Sikkens.

This is User Friendly 2.0.

5

Thank you for joining us this week.

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Bill.

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Gretchen welcome to this week's show.

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So we're going to have

some interesting things to talk about.

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Bill you're covering a game.

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What's name of the game you're covering.

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Mythic game master emulator.

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That's going to be cool.

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That's coming up in the second segment.

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And we also got to see Masters

of the universe.

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So we're going to be giving you

our opinion on that after the news.

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All right.

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So with no further ado, let's

go ahead and get this show started.

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What's in the news this week?

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All right.

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The big screw the gas pump scam

you probably haven't heard about.

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So tell us about this. Don. Don.

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Yeah.

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And I hadn't heard about it

either, but this happened to me. So?

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So what's going on?

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Criminals are inserting a screw, old

coin, zip tie, or other object

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into the fuel pump

handle mechanism to keep the fuel flowing

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even after a customer is finished

pumping and driven away.

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So when you go to the gas pump, run your

credit card, it unlocks the pump, right?

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And then when you put the handle back

in, it tells the pump it's the end of the

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fielding process, and then it turns it off

and charges the card.

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So what they're doing is causing

the switch not to go in all the way,

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usually with a screw or related object.

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So when the person goes through

and hangs up the handle,

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they're not necessarily

going to think to look at it.

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And they just go out and drive off.

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And then the bad guy comes through

and starts

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filling up gas cans or their car

or something on your dime.

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So the reason I caught it

is because I have to turn in my receipts

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for when I fuel up, and I was trying

to get the thing to print a receipt.

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It wouldn't. And then it's like, well,

it hasn't turned off.

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So I start messing with the handle

to get it to do that.

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And a screw fell out and then it turned.

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I ask, where did you find this?

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It was at a gas station in Sherwood,

Oregon.

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Oh, okay. It wasn't our normal.

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It was our.

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I'm not going to mention the station

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because it wasn't their fault,

but it was the one.

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We've been there before. Okay.

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Anyway, I went in and told them about it

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and they reacted actually very

I was impressed.

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They shut the whole station down and sent

one someone through to inspect each pump.

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And I think more so this is a thing that

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I don't think it was just that station

that had been targeted either.

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No, I mean, if somebody is doing this,

that means there's more people.

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So I think all of the gas station

people need a heads up.

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That means like Costco, Fred Meyer,

Safeway.

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Who do those, you know.

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So anybody that you know,

the thing of it is it's any gas station

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that takes credit cards at the pump, which

pretty much today is any gas station.

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It's a situation where you

you want to watch what you're doing.

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And with gasping, as expensive

as it is now, this is why,

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we're seeing this because people

are coming up with creative ways.

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And, you know,

I was thinking about it too.

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I have a five gallon gas can.

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I've had it for many years.

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And to that end, I will go and fill it

up, and I use it

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for running the generator

and that kind of thing.

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And I fill it up with a non ethanol fuel

because it's bad on the carburetors

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and small engines.

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It's not too great on the carburetors

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or fuel injectors on big engines either,

but they're more designed for it.

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And so it's a choice of either pay

a little bit more for the gas,

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or take a Saturday

to clean out the carburetor

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on my small engine,

which I don't really want to do.

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So, you know, I was thinking about this.

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I went last week and filled that up.

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It's a special place I've got to go to

that even sells clear gas.

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And for the five gallon gas, can it,

you know, came to whatever over $30.

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You know, math is hard,

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but five gallons times

whatever it was per gallon, right? And

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yeah,

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people are going to start stealing gas

a lot more.

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And it's one of these crimes

that's kind of like stealing a catalytic

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converter, or the amount of damage

that's done to do it in a lot of cases,

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greatly exceeds

what the bad guy gets for the part.

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I get a few bucks for the spare material

and the catalytic converter,

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and it costs $1,000 to fix it.

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A lot of what they're doing now

not directly associated with this is,

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but they're going out

and cutting gas lines in people's cars.

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And a lot of times that requires replacing

the entire tank and other things to fix.

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And, you know, that's not cheap.

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It really isn't.

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But it's really, really

yeah, it's really happening.

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And it's a it's a big deal.

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So the idea this is actually

one of the least destructive ways

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that I'm aware of, of stealing gas,

but still it's going to cost money.

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And how would you ever prove

to your credit card company

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that you didn't actually buy the gas?

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Because it's not a separate sale, it's

just the all on one one receipt, you know?

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So it would you'd have to be able

to prove that you had a

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what if you had a really small car and,

you know,

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you could probably prove it that way,

that you couldn't hold all that fuel.

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But if you had a big pickup truck,

they're not going to believe you.

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Yeah.

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And who are you going to prove it

to even getting a human?

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Most companies these days is difficult.

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Yeah, in any capacity,

you know, much less something like that.

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And yeah,

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you could explain it,

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but I can assure you

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that even if you get through

somebody at your bank

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or your credit card to go about this,

they're not going to, you know,

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this is going to be,

what, a couple hundred dollars

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maybe if they got a lot of gas,

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the credit card company

is not going to take the time to get.

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What kind of car do you have?

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What is the amount the tank contain?

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Are you sure you didn't have a gas

can with you two that you filled up?

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Are we going to get security cameras

from the gas?

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All this stuff's possible. Hopefully,

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if a credit card from a customer service

standpoint would take it off.

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But that's not guaranteed, you know?

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Yeah, yeah. No

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password that wouldn't die.

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Have a 2022 credential caused a 2026 data

breach was a god.

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Was that the password?

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Well, yeah.

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You never know. Right.

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And password is still

the most used password

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for passwords on systems

that don't have requirements these days.

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Yeah.

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The second most used password is password

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Because usually that gets around

the password requirements

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that are in these things these days.

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So anyway

this story comes from TechCrunch.

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Zach Whittaker wrote this.

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And basically what happened is kind of

like the headline says there was a pilot

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program in 2022, and a hacker got into it

and stole the credentials.

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And the breach affected

multiple customers,

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including cybersecurity companies,

and attackers reportedly gained access

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to Salesforce related customer data

through compromised tokens.

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Okay, so that's a mouthful.

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And yes,

I did read that from the press release.

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Basically,

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they did a pilot program with users on it.

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The users in this program

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were not like people,

but they were other companies with logins.

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The database compromised.

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Passwords were never changed.

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So now here in 2026, they're able to

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hack into the cybersecurity

and other companies using the credentials

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that were stolen in 2022

through the administrative accounts.

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So they need to change their passwords

a little more often.

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Well, yeah, that's the obvious thing.

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You know,

why was it still active four years later?

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Right.

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So that's a between the person

and the keyboard.

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Yeah.

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Well exactly.

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And it's also a thing

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that now you have a group of people

probably using this account.

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So it isn't one person,

any good company, cyber security company

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or otherwise is going to have password

retention policies for their organization.

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But this is a password

that would be on a third party system.

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So it doesn't necessarily fall

under that password policy.

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Right. So basically what is this.

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They're attacking the supply chain

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target the vendor

you know and get in that way.

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Some of the things we've seen in the past

SolarWinds move at

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these are some examples.

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Salesforce

of course has been in the news with that.

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And this can really get you

nobody's immune.

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So this is the reason

why I don't want to use what is it, DHS or

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what is the name of that thing

where they grab the money

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right out of your bank account?

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And they were trying to push people

to do it instead of using credit card

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that's replacing credit cards.

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Yeah. What is that? ACH, ach.

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Thank you. Yeah.

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H h. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this.

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I can't think of it right now

because I need to, but I think it's. ACH.

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Yeah, and you're right,

because what happens

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there is when you have a credit card,

you kind of have a firewall in between.

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If someone gets your information,

they can run up the card, but that's it.

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If you're doing ACH and someone

gets your information, they can account.

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Yeah, without any problem.

There's no. Yeah.

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It's it's not a good idea. Yeah.

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And not only in those type of things

is it harder to get your money back.

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But even if you do you're still a couple

of months not being able to pay the bills.

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And I can tell you from experience,

our company is not going to accept

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I got hacked

and I'll pay you in three months.

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You know, their answer to that is great.

You'll have lights in three months.

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You know, it just

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it is a little aside to this,

but it's one of these type of things.

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And we're going to be talking

about cybersecurity

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in the next segment

and going into a little more detail

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on some of the things that you can do to

help.

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Now, this isn't something an end

user could have really prevented,

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but it is something that

if you have a company

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you do need to think about

in your policies.

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How do you handle access to third

party systems?

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We've talked about this

in a lot more detail in the past.

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I'm not going to go into depth right now

because we wouldn't have time.

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But the bottom line of it

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you don't write your own code

for everything.

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You use libraries and stuff

from other sources,

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and it wouldn't really be possible

or cost effective to use your own code.

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There's nothing wrong with that.

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As long as you're licensing the code

or have the right to do that right.

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But at the end of the day,

if they get where you're getting your code

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from, gets hacked,

or has malware or something,

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it can make it into your software

without you knowing about it.

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So having as part of your integration

and cybersecurity policy,

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a method to be able to deal with

these type of things is very important.

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All right,

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a geomagnetic storm

so minor it barely rated dimension.

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So why are we talking about it now.

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Well and this happened in 2022.

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So that's the same year of the hack

in the previous story.

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Right. So. Oh, right.

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We're not going back and covering

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That's not the idea today.

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But I have come to the opinion

that I do not like geomagnetic storms.

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They do seem to directly affect

electronics.

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And with the more sophisticated

electronics that we have

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now, the more we're seeing this causing

problems.

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And, Gretchen, I know one of the things

when you did the research

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on this story, you'd put in

your comments to me, is this true?

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Good question. You know, yeah, it's true.

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And it is absolutely something

that happened.

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So what happened?

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February 3rd, 2022.

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Falcon nine lifted

49 Starlink satellites into a low

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parking orbit about 210km above Earth.

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So they were launching a bunch of these

satellites for this type of communication.

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Satellite internet

is becoming a big thing,

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and the more constellations

you have, the more you can cover areas.

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You know, like anything else.

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And the number is a disputed a little bit,

but it's somewhere between 38

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and 42 of these satellites

fell back to Earth within a month

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because of a geomagnetic storm,

and one that was,

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as the headline puts it, very, very minor.

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So we're seeing these type of things,

and this is certainly not

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the only time this has happened,

but it is one that's interesting

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to look at because number one

is still affecting things for years later.

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In number two, we've had a lot

more severe storms since then

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and they've caused these kind of problems,

you know, and I don't know about you.

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The satellites, according to Space

and Starlink, are designed to burn up

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when they come back into the atmosphere.

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I have not heard of these satellites

hitting anybody on the head,

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but I really don't want that to happen,

but just wouldn't be fun.

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You know,

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I could just see that, you know,

welcome to the future.

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Now we'll have to wear hard hats

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in case something falls out of space

and hits us on the head.

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I really don't want to go there.

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TV network Bringing back.

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CBS spin off series

featuring beloved 60s characters.

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So this is being reported by AL.com,

not a network

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for an outlet I've used before,

but basically what's going on here.

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Heather Garner wrote this.

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I apologize

if I mispronounced that last name.

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And what's going on here is

this is related to

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some of the cartoons

that a lot of us grew up with.

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Like I wanted to say, The Simpsons,

no way.

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The Flintstones, The Flintstones,

yeah, and The Jetsons.

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And that type of an area of stuff

primarily focusing on The Flintstones and

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the network MeTV is doing this.

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They're going to premiere

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eastern.

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So it'll fall into what used to be

the Saturday morning cartoon block,

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which is on the plane anymore either.

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But yeah, definitely was. When?

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Certainly when we were growing up,

I kind of missed this.

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I used to look forward to that every week.

Yeah.

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So it's going to be interesting to see

how they do this though, because a lot of

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what was done in the cartoons

in that era would cut it anymore.

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No, I mean, the, you know, there was

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that whole I'm the man of the house,

and the woman has to stay home.

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You know, there's some cultural things

that I'm not sure people could

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or the kids

now could understand where it was,

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where they're coming from,

you know what I mean?

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And some of it didn't.

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Well, yeah.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a big part of it.

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And if you don't understand

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that life was different

and people's attitudes were different,

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you might get some strange reactions

and things like,

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you know,

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like you said to

some of the popular cultures

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different these days

and people's attitudes

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different these days,

and in some ways for the better.

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I think some of what was aired

was probably inappropriate.

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But I'm not one to sit down

and censor everything,

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but I do think it takes looking at it

from a standpoint

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of what should and shouldn't be in there,

and the mine are part of it.

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That really shouldn't have been in there.

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You could still do a good series

and not go there.

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It's not needed. Right.

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So the question then becomes,

are they going to be able to do this well,

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or are they not going to keep

to the original idea of these things?

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In which case, I don't know if this would

be terribly successful or not.

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Yeah.

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You know, because the characters are time

tested.

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You know,

they get a break in, time tested.

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You're dealing with stuff

where if you change things too much,

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you know, people aren't going to

and it's yeah, then it's not the thing.

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They should just come up

with something new.

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Yeah.

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On the flip side, if they do pull it off,

well, it could be very successful too.

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There's people that would enjoy it.

Retro is a big thing.

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So, you know, I'll check it out.

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Be interesting to see where this goes.

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And if you have watched this

or we'll be watching it let us know.

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Go to User Friendly Dot show and let us

know in the comments or ask us a question.

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We'd love to cover this and see what

the real world reaction to this is.

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All right.

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Three Eye Atlas

is now believed by astronomers at Oxford

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to be roughly 7 billion years old.

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Well, that's older than I am.

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Yeah, that's a bit old.

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Well, I still, in my opinion,

think this was an alien spaceship

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full of super sentient eyes

that were looking for a new home.

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But I will tell you.

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Yeah.

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You know, but I will tell you,

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the rest of the space community

does not seem to agree with me on that.

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So anyway, so three I atlas the third

interstellar object that we're aware of

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that came into our solar system

that was supposedly hosting aliens.

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People were worried about that

at the time.

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Didn't turn out to be the case.

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At least they it either

didn't have aliens or it did, and they saw

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what was going on here and put it

in reverse as quickly as they could.

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Well, it's me that I don't know.

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We don't want to go to a stupid place.

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So what this is, is it's a comet. And

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they're

finding out now that based on the reaction

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that it had to heating

up, coming into our sun

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and some of the makeup

and the chemicals into it

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are very different from what would have

been expected and tends to date.

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This thing is being very, very old.

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One of them is nitrogen.

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And nitrogen is usually something

that doesn't naturally occur

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in this way, in this amount,

in something like a comet.

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But it did here.

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And as soon as it started heating up to

where the nitrogen wasn't frozen anymore.

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That's

what caused a lot of the jets and various

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other things that were seen and observed

as this was flying

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through the solar system.

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So definitely something that has changed

the way that we look at the universe

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a little bit or a lot, depending

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on which circle you're in, and something

that we've learned a lot from.

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Testing a pair

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of AI glasses made a reviewer

uncomfortable.

356

Yeah. Create a blog reporting on this one.

357

And I got to tell you something.

358

My reaction to this, and I'm sure I'm

going to get some comments on it would be,

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you know, grow up

360

again.

361

Technology is how you use it.

362

And people that are doing creepy things

with stuff, yeah, that's a problem.

363

But what he's talking about here

is he got a pair of AI glasses

364

and actually that are less obvious

365

in a lot of ways than some of the ones

we see on the market now.

366

And he's essentially afraid to go outside

because people

367

will think bad things about him.

368

Now I use AI glasses.

369

I have used them for a long time

since the original meta Ray-Bans came out.

370

Those had cameras.

371

The newer ones don't tend to as much.

372

And yeah, being able to secretly record

stuff, there's a whole network of problems

373

that can go along with that, but

you don't need glasses to do it either.

374

So what the idea here

is, is some of the technology

375

that these things do offer

is absolutely amazing.

376

Things like you can be listening

to a conversation,

377

it will translate in real time

into your language.

378

What other people are saying,

that's kind of cool.

379

It would be cool,

especially if you're on a trip.

380

Yeah, yeah.

381

You know,

382

and I don't know how that would invade

someone else's privacy,

383

but that's one of the things that

the reporter here was complaining about.

384

So again, it's how you use the technology

really that comes down to it.

385

I think that these kind of things,

we're going to see them more and more

386

and used in the right way,

which is 99% of how they're being used.

387

They add where one of the big things

they're breaking down

388

is the language barrier.

389

And like with the internet,

that is one of the best ways to be able

390

to get over prejudices

in these type of things.

391

So I think there is a huge positive

potential impact of using this technology.

392

And the guy or gal

393

that's using them to secretly record

something they shouldn't

394

should be prosecuted for that.

395

But I'll tell you one thing right now

if the glasses didn't exist,

396

they'd have a camera in their pocket

or something.

397

You know,

there's a million ways to do that,

398

and it's not related to any one device.

399

I think I'm looking forward to the

AI parks like

400

they have in Japan, not AI AR

401

ai parks.

402

We already have.

403

We are AR. I've met every hour.

404

Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

405

So give us some real quick explanation

on what that is.

406

Well, if you're wearing AR systems

or having a user on a phone to,

407

you can go to these places in Japan

where they'll have trees and

408

AR or augmented

409

reality parks and building

shopping areas

410

and stuff like that, where you get to see

extra stuff and advertisements.

411

And I think that sounds amazing.

412

The Japanese people,

as a trend, tend to adopt technology

413

earlier

than a lot of other parts of the world.

414

I know,

and from that kind of a standpoint,

415

I could see where

something that uniques going.

416

I'd love to try it out

and and see what that is.

417

Now that just sounds really, really cool.

418

All right, well, let's go off

world for a few minutes.

419

Gretchen, you and I got to see Masters

of the universe yesterday. Yes.

420

And I was going into this, so

I was a huge He-Man fan when I was young,

421

like, seven,

and I wasn't because I'm older than you.

422

Yeah, but it was a thing when I grew up.

423

And one of the unique things

about He-Man, good, bad or otherwise, was

424

it was the first cartoon

425

that was made specifically

for the purpose of selling toys.

426

So there wasn't a previous storyline.

427

They wanted to come up with these action

figures

428

and the cartoon allowed them to sell them.

429

And I have to say,

going back in my opinion,

430

and seeing some of the early He-Man

episodes from that era, let's

431

just say they did not have the same effect

that they did when I was seven.

432

So going into a movie like this,

it was either going to be it was good

433

or it was terrible.

There wasn't going to be an in-between.

434

And I don't know, Gretchen,

you weren't any He-Man.

435

I'll give my opinion next.

But what did you think?

436

Actually,

I was surprised that it was kind of fun.

437

Yeah, yeah, they they

they really worked with

438

trying to not

439

take themselves seriously,

but they provided

440

some really neat effects,

some strange humor.

441

So if you like some strange humor,

there's lots of innuendo.

442

Yeah. My goodness. Yeah.

443

And I really liked the dialog

they gave Skeletor.

444

And I don't remember Skeletor

being that clever. Yep.

445

No it is.

446

It was cool to see

they actually had all the characters,

447

most of the characters

from the original He-Man.

448

A few new ones in there did it quite well.

449

You know, from that standpoint.

450

Now, I've heard, Bill,

451

you were saying that they had trouble

pronouncing the names of the characters.

452

I think I just

what I've watched from review was that

453

they wouldn't say the characters names

and came to the end, say he man.

454

And yeah, that that

455

there was a lot of complaints

to see the movie to see see why.

456

So basically what it is,

we haven't seen it yet.

457

A little bit of spoiler alert here

458

warning, but starts out

that Prince Adam, who is He-Man,

459

they have some problems.

460

They're attacked by Skeletor, and

to keep him safe, he sent back to Earth.

461

And the way they did

that was really kind of amusing.

462

He ends up working in an HR department,

463

and you can kind of guess what

that would go.

464

It was it was funny.

465

And he lost a sword

and he finds it on like eBay or something.

466

It buys it back

and then is able to get back home

467

to where home

is really having a hard time.

468

He did not buy it on eBay.

469

Somebody called him.

470

Somebody called him.

471

It was $300. Yeah. Anyway,

I won't go into.

472

I don't want to spoil the movie that much,

but it was funny how they handled it.

473

Yeah.

474

So they get back and he comes home

and the story is basically about how

475

he figures out what he is and presents it

to where, you know, he's victorious.

476

That's not a spoiler alert. It's He-Man.

477

He'd have to be Skeletor or one

that would be a very different movie.

478

Yeah.

479

You know, and one thing

I will say from the cameo, in the end,

480

I think we're probably going

to get a Shiro movie.

481

At least it felt like that's

what they were introducing.

482

So that was cool.

483

But definitely, you know, the people in

the audience were not old children either.

484

If there were children there,

485

of course it's a children's thing,

but the adults seem to enjoy it too.

486

And, you know, from that standpoint,

I don't know.

487

I think it's worth seeing.

488

I think it's something good for the kids,

I enjoyed it.

489

It wasn't terrible.

490

It was actually kind of fun

to be able to see.

491

All right.

492

We're going to take a break

in our next segment. We're going to be

493

talking about a game system

and then some more about security.

494

This is user friendly 2.0.

We'll be back after the break.

495

He's from the future.

496

He's got a really big computer

497

and he uses it uses it every day.

498

And he uses it uses it in every way.

499

What do you do for you know,

I'm not sure because he's just he's just.

500

Welcome back.

501

This is user friendly 2.0.

502

Your one stop for everything.

503

User friendly is user friendly show.

504

You can live stream our show

on any of the radio stations we're on, and

505

you can get to our podcast at our website

and most major podcast platforms.

506

Be sure you request user friendly 2.0

to get the authentic show,

507

because there's a few others

that have similar names

508

and we get questions

and going all the time.

509

This didn't sound like you that week.

510

Well, no it wasn't.

511

It was somebody else.

512

So the friendly show is your one stop.

513

Send us your questions, your comments,

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514

from a spot that you know

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515

All right.

516

We're going to be covering two things

in this segment.

517

One of them is going to be

the game mythic.

518

And then after that

we're going to be talking about

519

cybersecurity tips and answering

some of your questions that have come in.

520

So let's go ahead and start with mythic.

521

Well, what happened

522

about a month ago is

I was bored one afternoon

523

and none of my friends were online and

I didn't really have anything else to do.

524

And I was like, well,

I've heard about this method.

525

And you play tabletop RPG solo.

526

Okay, so play in Dungeon Dragon solo

or other things.

527

And I looked into it and I came across

this thing called the Mythic Game

528

Master Emulator

and its accompanying book,

529

The Adventure Crafter by the same author,

Tana Pigeon.

530

Hoping I'm saying that correctly.

531

And it was really kind of

532

an interesting thing to use when I got it

mythic itself.

533

What it does is it emulates a game master

by giving you tables and rolls

534

and things like that to emulate having

somebody telling you the information.

535

So there's like a roll table

536

for probability of yes or no

or maybe things like that.

537

If you're asking a question

now, is this like AI

538

or is it like a set of statistics

that roll up statistics?

539

It's a book. Okay, okay. Oh, okay.

540

And then there's other tables

for like designing out

541

NPCs or situations or dungeons

or because it's really system agnostic.

542

You can use it in a myriad of them.

543

I was using it for Dungeons and Dragons

as well as Fabula Ultima,

544

and was really having a lot of fun

doing it, but they like give examples for

545

just coming up with games or like

they use a lot of a zombie apocalypse game

546

that they have just in the system

kind of to go with.

547

And it's for people who are

maybe can't get groups

548

or don't want to have groups,

but still want to try playing RPGs.

549

Like,

I really enjoy it because I can use it for

550

I've been using it

to actually write a story, especially

551

The Adventure Crafter,

because it helps give ideas of story arcs.

552

By rolling on these tables,

you get different things like,

553

oh, this event is going

554

to happen,

or this kind of event is happening,

555

or this is what

the purpose of this arc is,

556

okay?

557

And it's really helped me to help

flesh out where I'm writing and stuff,

558

because the book is

559

kind of that I'm working on is kind of

just an extension of this role playing.

560

Right.

561

And so they're kind of going

in conjunction.

562

A lot of people do

what's called journaling

563

when they play these games

where they're writing down what happens

564

so they don't lose, you know, information,

different NPCs, things like that.

565

This these systems really help

with different sheets.

566

Like they have one that is just

for tracking NPCs and their information.

567

So you don't forget like,

oh, I met this NPC three months ago and

568

I, you know, I have that.

569

I have that problem

all the time when we play.

570

I just don't remember the characters

and and I don't play terribly often.

571

You know, we play like once every two

weeks or even longer sometimes in between.

572

And and that doesn't work.

573

But I could even see where a system like

574

this bill would be useful

if you were running a game

575

to have this information,

you know, so it's.

576

Yeah.

577

And that's actually been actually

something

578

that's helped me in my last campaign,

especially the Adventure Crafter.

579

One is

I was trying to figure out the last arc,

580

and so I rolled on the tables

and came up with a different set of

581

about 3 or 4 different scenarios

that I liked, and finally

582

got it down to where it's like,

583

yes, this is what's going to happen

in this last arc.

584

And it really helped.

585

So they can be used for groups as well.

586

Primarily, of course,

587

the Mythic Gamemaster emulator is designed

for solo play primarily.

588

Right.

The Venture Crafter is separate book.

589

That is, you can use with various things.

590

And it

they're both by the same author again.

591

And I really just found them both to be

kind of helpful in the long run of things.

592

And I got them to review

and I was impressed by them.

593

And that's why we're here today.

594

No, I mean, I think that sounds amazing.

595

And the idea of being able to do

that would be fun because now

596

tabletop role playing,

it's a fun thing to be able

597

to get together with your friends

and all that kind of stuff.

598

I know a lot of it's moved online

since Covid,

599

but there would still be times

where it'd be might

600

be fun to just sit down

and do your own game.

601

I wouldn't have thought of that.

602

I love the idea.

603

Well, it's also for people who maybe,

604

you know, they have a group,

but they want to play something

605

a little different

or different themes or things like that.

606

They want to add into their own games

that they don't get to play with groups

607

because, you know, I mean, not everybody

wants to have the same things or,

608

you know, maybe they want to explore

different things with different characters

609

and all that, and it really comes out

to what somebody would like to do with it.

610

If you were testing out a new character

to, you could use it for that

611

to see if it works or what doesn't,

and that kind of thing.

612

Yeah, yeah, I love it.

613

All right.

614

So you told us the name of two of them.

615

Where do people find these?

616

And go ahead and give us the actual

names again and how you get to them.

617

First book the big book is Mythic Game

Master Emulator, second edition.

618

Okay, I found it on Amazon.

619

You can buy it, of course,

from the site directly from the company,

620

as well as the second book,

The Adventure Crafter,

621

and they are both by Tana Pigeon.

622

A weird name, I don't know,

I guess it's a pen name maybe.

623

I don't think. Tom. Thanks. So no,

624

I don't know.

625

I, I haven't talked to them.

626

Myself yet, but yeah, I found them

both on Amazon for a pretty good price.

627

You can find them, of course,

at their own site and I believe on

628

dive through RPG.

629

Okay. All right. Cool.

630

I think it sounds right.

631

I think it's something

I'm going to try out.

632

I'm going to start a campaign.

633

I haven't run for a while,

634

so I'm going to be doing one next month

and we'll see how that goes.

635

But I could see where this really.

636

I think the first thing that comes to mind

is for testing my my NPCs,

637

because will they react properly now?

638

And I don't know how other Dungeon

Masters do this, but I have a tendency

639

to change things on the fly if I need to.

640

If something's

obviously not going to work out

641

and then just not tell

my players about it.

642

But you're really not supposed to do that.

643

And because you're taking the,

you know, randomness out of it.

644

And I understand that.

645

But the other part of it is,

is if you're going

646

to have some part of your game

that's not going to function

647

because I forgot to do something

or forgot to check something,

648

then it's a, you know, a way

that you have to deal with it.

649

But this is almost like being able

650

to test all that out, and it would pretty

much eliminate that problem.

651

Cool.

652

All right, all right.

653

I think this sounds great.

654

All right.

So I have to give it a try for our game.

655

And we'll report back to you on on

how this worked out for us.

656

All right.

657

So cybersecurity topic

we have never covered on this show before.

658

Sorry.

659

Yeah.

660

But is also the second

661

most asked about thing

from our user comments and feedback.

662

The first most asked about thing

by the way is how to hack, which is not

663

something I can cover on this show

if we still want to have this show.

664

So we'll go with the second

most commonly asked about

665

one is how you deal with that.

666

And you know,

there's a list of points here.

667

And what I wanted to do

was kind of go through and compile this

668

and then do a reality check on how

you can actually implement these things.

669

So 10,000ft view is cybersecurity

in general

670

and hacking and all that

kind of stuff is misconception out there

671

that cyber criminals only target wealthy

people, celebrities or large companies.

672

And this, from our own feedback

673

as well as some general research,

seems to be the case.

674

And the reality is,

675

is that most cyber attacks

are actually not someone in a dark cloak

676

with their face covered in a back room

somewhere with 15 monitors around them.

677

Most of these attacks are automated,

so what they do is they have bots

678

that go out and search for

and look for anyone who is vulnerable.

679

And then it reports that back.

680

And that's how the hackers decide,

you know, what they're going to deal with.

681

So there's a whole system

in place on this.

682

So they use bots for scouts basically.

683

Basically I think of it

684

less like a bank robbery

and more like someone

685

walking down the street checking

which doors are unlocked.

686

That's kind of the a good analogy.

687

Is any on that?

688

I mean, I've heard if they're using

AI to go through that data and, you know,

689

data that's been bought off the dark web

and using that to determine targets.

690

Yeah, absolutely.

691

In fact, on the dark web,

not only can you buy the data,

692

which has always been out there,

but there are UI

693

driven sites

where you can tell it what you want

694

and it'll go out and get in real time,

get you that information.

695

So this show is not sponsored

by the dark web, by the way.

696

Anyway,

697

we're on the light side.

698

Yes, very much

so when it comes to this kind of stuff.

699

So the one thing, if you were to just go

online and say, okay, how can I protect

700

myself is use a unique password

for every account talked about this

701

before the average person,

depending on when you ask and who you ask.

702

So somewhere between 90 and 100

703

different accounts online

or some people it's much higher.

704

So you want to use a unique password

for every account.

705

Yeah that would be the best way to do.

706

One way

would be to get a check for a lock,

707

which is usually a USB stick, where

you're able to actually go through that.

708

You don't see the password, it

creates a hard password.

709

And then when you go in to access

the site,

710

you plug in your USB flash drive

and it does it for you.

711

One big problem with

that is if you lose it, I've you've got.

712

So I think the next best way

is a little bit more up front.

713

But it's got a brain control

interface installed.

714

And get a piano installed in your hand

so you can scan it and then save the

715

passwords in your cybernetic brain,

and then you won't lose it.

716

Now, of course, if you get hacked,

that might be a problem.

717

But you know, yeah, that would be bad.

718

Then you'd be going

beep beep beep beep boop, you know,

719

you know.

720

Anyway, so the reason why

this is suggesting it's

721

a good one is the idea that

722

you have a situation here,

especially what we've seen real recent

723

in the last ten years or so is one website

will get hacked, have a data breach.

724

And if you've used the same username

725

and password elsewhere

or can try it on other accounts.

726

So your username and password

on whatever web application,

727

which really isn't that important.

728

If it's the same one that you're

729

using on your email accounts,

banking, website, social media, so on,

730

the bad guys will know to go in and try

these and all of these different places.

731

And if the password is the same,

we'll be able to compromise that.

732

So what I actually recommend with this,

because it's more of a real world

733

way of dealing with this than actually

maintaining 100 different passwords,

734

which is going to have its own problems

because you're either writing them down.

735

What was that?

736

You know, I'm the crazy person

who will keep all the hundred passwords.

737

Okay.

738

Yeah,

I got a phone up here that you wouldn't

739

see on the air, but,

yeah, you keep them in a notebook.

740

I know, but again, it wouldn't happen

if you lost your notebook.

741

Some of them I actually have memorized.

742

Yeah, not all of them.

743

What would happen, though,

if you lost your notebook right now?

744

Yeah.

745

I can't say that word.

746

I'd be blank, out of luck. Yeah.

747

Even though you have some memorized,

right?

748

Yeah.

749

And trying to recover this stuff

isn't that terribly easy either.

750

Which it shouldn't be,

751

because you want to make it so

the bad guys can't recover your password.

752

So the recommendation I make on

this is real world is do use

753

unique passwords on things

like your financial websites,

754

your social media and your email accounts.

755

Reason being,

if someone hacks your email account, then

756

they can probably start resetting stuff

or that account is the backup, right?

757

Yeah. Banking

websites, the reasons obvious.

758

You want it to be unique.

759

Social media is another one

760

where it can do a lot of damage,

and then stuff that's less important.

761

Okay, you might have to reuse passwords

or use some combination of it.

762

There are some ways

where you can make the password

763

where most of it's the same, but a portion

of its unique based on some criteria.

764

That's easier

to remember things like that, but

765

having it separate and specific

for the ones that really matter,

766

like your money, your email, medical data,

those kind of things.

767

That's where you really do

want to use separate passwords.

768

Using a password manager

like the flash drive

769

that we were just talking about

is a good idea.

770

This can be done with most web

browsers will allow for that to happen.

771

But of course, if you don't have access

to your account on your web browser,

772

you need to get into something

that can be a limitation.

773

Although with modern stuff,

it's a lot easier now to be able

774

to synchronize that information

securely to another computer.

775

Log in to your,

776

say, your Gmail account or whatever,

and then be able to get to it that way.

777

So they are trying to make it easier

from that kind of a standpoint.

778

So you know, again, yeah, perfect world.

779

You would have a different password

for every website.

780

And really, in a perfect world, we would

deprecate the whole idea of a password

781

and use a better way of authentication,

which is a direction this is headed.

782

But it's going to take some time

to get there.

783

Second thing is to turn on multi-factor

authentication.

784

And yes, this has been targeted, but

785

it still gives a second line of defense.

786

And one of the biggest complaints

I hear about this

787

is, well, now I have to do whatever

every time I log in.

788

So let's say your text,

you get a text message with a code.

789

That's a very common

way of doing these type of things.

790

Well yeah, but it isn't quite that bad

because generally speaking, when you do

791

multi-factor

authentication and authenticate a device,

792

when you go back on that device, you don't

have to do the authentication step again

793

if they're your password again, probably,

but you don't have to do the multi-factor

794

authentication MFA.

795

Now, sometimes

these time out on a basis of days

796

or weeks or something where you do

have to do it again, but it isn't.

797

Every time you log in,

798

you're going to have to have your phone

or whatever in play to be able to do that.

799

One of the ways that I do it,

and it is something

800

where you do have to have a little bit

of a technical understanding to be able

801

to set things up this way,

but it's get an authenticator app.

802

And what these are is

it has a rotating number

803

that when you log in to the site,

804

it's a different six digit code,

but you don't have it send it to you.

805

You have it from your own application.

806

Downside to this is you

have to have access to that application.

807

They do back up to where you can keep

a key file somewhere offline,

808

like on a flash drive or something,

809

so that if you lose access to it,

you can recover.

810

So that's a good thing.

811

And the other thing of it is,

is in my case, I have the authenticator

812

app installed on my phone, on my desktop,

on my laptop, and on my tablet.

813

So the likelihood of losing all four

of those connection points is very slim.

814

Not that it can't happen, but it could.

815

And if it does,

then I have it securely stored offline

816

or off site rather

so that I could get to it.

817

So let's say my house burnt down

and I lost all of those devices.

818

It still gives me a backup

to be able to get back into it.

819

Hopefully.

820

I hope that never happens to anybody,

because the kind of damage that can create

821

goes long past just losing your passwords.

822

But you do want to think about that

from that kind of a standpoint,

823

you know,

so phone numbers can be hijacked.

824

So the text message thing

isn't the most secure but differently

825

giving you that separate line of security,

you know.

826

Now the other thing

is the psychology of hacking.

827

And one of the most common thing

that scammers do is to create an urgency.

828

You know, your Social Security number

has been compromised,

829

and if you don't get it straightened down

right now, you're going to be arrested.

830

Very common thing.

831

But a lot of people

and there's a lot of people out there

832

that won't know that's a scam. Just.

833

And it's not that you're stupid

or something if you don't, it's just that

834

the hackers know how to do this

properly and rehearse it and build it up.

835

Right? Yeah.

836

We had someone that we knew

837

that was a very smart person,

and I got a phone call

838

from this individual going,

I need some help.

839

I'm buying

green cards at the grocery store,

840

and I can't figure out

how to get the numbers to this person.

841

And I'm like, oh boy.

842

Yeah, well,

I can't stop if I, you know, do this.

843

And they had actually gotten this person

ramped up to a point where

844

I had to talk him down

and they had already purchased the cards.

845

Fortunately,

they hadn't given the information out,

846

but they had let the hacker,

under the guise of trying to help,

847

got remote access to their desktop PC,

which is bad

848

obviously for a lot of reasons.

849

So your account will be closed today.

850

A media action is required

or you'll be arrested, or bad

851

things will happen of some kind,

or you've won a prize.

852

But you have to claim it right now,

any time these things prize is worth

853

the pain of of of having that problem.

Yeah.

854

Especially if it's a prize for a contest

you've never entered.

855

That's the other thing.

856

They do know how to ramp you up

and legitimately do this.

857

It's idea is to create

an emotional reaction before they,

858

you know, before you can think logically

about it.

859

Exactly.

860

And what you want to do is, number one,

think about the fact

861

if it's an email or something,

that idea take a breath.

862

Because even if it somehow truly

was something urgent, which it isn't.

863

But even if it was taking five seconds

to take a look at it,

864

it's going to save you

a lot of grief in the long run.

865

If it's somebody calling you on the phone,

866

well, let me get your name

and phone number and I'll call you back.

867

Well,

you can't do that. It's urgent right now.

868

If it's legitimate,

they'll let you call them back.

869

And number two, don't call them back

at the information they give you.

870

You would want to go to whatever

organization they're claiming to be,

871

get the phone number, which would be like

on the back of your credit card

872

if it was a credit card or the website

from the company, or if it's the police.

873

Yeah.

874

You know, take down the number,

but then look up

875

the actual police department's number,

876

you know, and call them and ask them, hey,

did you call me?

877

Yeah.

878

You know, and

879

and you will find that the answer is no

because those things don't work like that.

880

The bottom line of it is.

881

And the.

882

Gretchen, I know your mom got this from

this to I'm your daughter, and I'm in jail

883

and need money.

884

You know, that kind of a thing

or granddaughter or something?

885

It was an attack.

886

It was nine

specifically to target seniors. Yep.

887

Which is a more vulnerable group

when it comes to technology.

888

And the hackers know that, right?

889

So again, take a breath.

890

If something urgent is

going on, it's not going to work that way.

891

If you're concerned that it may be real,

892

get the information

from a legitimate source.

893

Do not call back a number

that the person calling gives you.

894

Do not call

you mail or the link in the email.

895

Yeah, all of that is compromised.

896

And even if your caller ID

says that it's legitimately the bank

897

or whatever, you can't trust that either,

because caller ID can also be exact.

898

I just want to say, if they're asking you

899

to pay in cards,

900

prepaid cards, it's a scam.

901

Yeah, yeah.

902

Yep. 100% on Facebook for buying cars.

903

I've seen it on, you know, the government

one where it's the IRS

904

saying you need to pay it or the police

if it is being paid by a prepaid card,

905

it's a scam. Yeah, exactly.

906

And I very rarely talk in absolutes

because there's almost always an exception

907

every rule.

908

But in this case,

a legitimate company will never take

909

payment in gift cards

that you have to urgently get.

910

It wouldn't even make sense

because the company, if it was legitimate,

911

it's not going to be able to get the money

that's on the gift card.

912

Yeah. It just that does not work.

913

So if that comes up, you stop immediately

hang up, do not respond to the email.

914

However they got in contact with you.

915

It's very important.

916

And then the next part of this is to guard

your email first

917

and your social media accounts second,

because that's where

918

when it's compromised, somebody can reset

your passwords and has enough

919

information, maybe to be able

to get into a much more likely situation.

920

And on modern email platforms

like Gmail and Outlook and stuff

921

they have, where you can set up rules

so they can actually get into your email,

922

set up a rule

so that if a message comes in

923

from somebody else,

they're trying to hack.

924

Using your email as a legitimate source,

you never see the message.

925

The emails are always put into

another folder that you don't look at.

926

The auto responder is only for that

email address.

927

You know, this kind of a thing.

928

So there's a lot of stuff they can do

where it will feel like everything's

929

just fine, but they've gotten in.

930

So email accounts are definitely something

you want a unique password on.

931

And you want to set up MFA and make it

as rock solid as you absolutely can.

932

Social media being a second one,

we almost fell for that.

933

And I use this as an example

because we know cybersecurity.

934

I mean, it's an expertise

935

that not only is commentators

we have, but in our daily lives.

936

And it was one that came in that your user

friendly account

937

has violated a Facebook rule,

and you need to file an appeal.

938

And if you don't, your account

will be deleted in seven days.

939

And the person that was handling

it got onto that and went to the site

940

thinking this was a legitimate and it was

very well done, it looked very authentic.

941

Even the URL was very close.

942

It was a Facebook bouquet,

943

not something you would necessarily notice

right off the bat.

944

In the domain name go in, you file

the appeal, then it comes up okay.

945

What's your account username.

What's your account password.

946

They did this and I start

getting all these text messages

947

from the multi-factor authentication.

948

This is your code.

This is your code. Real life.

949

What had happened?

950

If we had not had MFA set up,

we would have had a major problem.

951

Exactly.

952

You know, and again,

if they can sometimes trip up the experts,

953

somebody who technology is not their daily

life, it's just something they work with

954

because they have to it's

something to understand

955

that it's not your a bad person,

or you did something unintelligent,

956

and you need to think about it

from the standpoint

957

that they have 24 hours,

seven days a week to work up their stick.

958

You have a few hours a day

to be able to work with it.

959

And even the cyber security professionals,

it's like eight hours a day, right?

960

So dealing with this kind of a thing, the

best thing to do, and they rely on that.

961

A lot of people are going

to be embarrassed and don't report it.

962

Don't be embarrassed.

Know that it can happen to anybody.

963

That's not you being, you know,

not knowing or doing the wrong thing.

964

Because if you stand up,

you're going to help somebody else.

965

Yeah, yeah.

966

And if you do find that you got tripped up

immediately, go to your bank

967

or whatever provider it is that

they got into and get help right away,

968

because there are limited amount of time

and stuff that you can file complaints.

969

Usually this is to get your money

970

or your medical records

or something of that nature.

971

And at the end of the day,

you want to act on it immediately.

972

Again, please don't be embarrassed.

973

And the people at the bank know that

these kind of things happen all the time.

974

You go there and get with them

immediately.

975

Go to your branch if you can.

976

And again,

do not try to call a phone number

977

or something that has been compromised

or could be because you really don't know.

978

So these are the top three.

979

There are some other things

that we can cover.

980

Go to user friendly show.

981

If as long as you go to our website

with that name, it is legitimate.

982

And send us your questions

and your comments.

983

And if you get from User Friendly

that we need you to send us gift cards.

984

It's not us.

985

And untill next week,

986

this is User Friendly 2.0 keeping

you safe on the cutting edge.

987

User Friendly 2.0.

988

Copyright 2013 to 2026

989

by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.

990

All rights reserved.

991

The content is the opinion

of the show's participants and does

992

not necessarily reflect this station

or platform.

993

Requests for material use, interviews,

disclosures,

994

and other correspondence may be viewed

995

and submitted at userfriendly.show.