"My robot had an accident on the carpet!"

Join us this week as we discuss the newest installment in Call of Cthulhu, "Dust and Blood".

Then, we discuss robots! And if you want to know about what happened with the accident (and yes, it did!) - check out this week's show!

Bill Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0, as always

I am your host Bill Sikkens.

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Joining me my co-host Gretchen.

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Bill, welcome to this week's show.

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Hello there.

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Hello. So what's new and exciting?

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Gretchen, I understand you just started

hating the new Star Wars episode.

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Oh, really?

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Are you on something?

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I was traveling to an alternate quantum

universe that that was the case,

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so, you know.

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Oh, I wasn't watching acolyte, okay?

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I was watching all this amazing.

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Yeah, I'm not sure

there is a quantum universe where I had.

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Never mind.

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I better not say that

we will get some call. That

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the wall continues to be good and, it

definitely

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is something that, I've actually turned

Disney back on right now so I can see it.

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And we'll have to talk about it again

in a couple weeks.

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But, you're up the next two episodes,

so it is worth out there.

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And, Bill, I hear you have something

you're going to be telling us about today.

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Yep. Some Call of Cthulhu dropped

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recently, and I got, to review it. Cool.

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And for the listeners

that sent in questions

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on the last interview with that, I have

them and I will, take the hint for this.

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I forgot to give them to Bill,

but I'll compile them from this one,

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and then we can go ahead and go through

that a few weeks down the road.

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But we have I just,

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well, anyway, moving

right on playing with robots. Yes.

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I haven't played robots.

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And, we're going to be talking about that

in the next segment.

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We're doing a Stem presentation

or just get a Stem presentation

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here in Oregon

and wanted to get these robots up

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and running, which are actually prototypes

from something I was doing in the past,

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and we got it.

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But boy, it was fighting us

at every step of the way.

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So we'll be anyway.

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We'll be talking about that

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in the next segment,

because it's kind of an interesting story.

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All right.

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Well, before all of that,

let's go ahead and jump in.

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And what do we have in the news this week.

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All right.

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The blue light from your phone

isn't ruining your sleep.

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So I've heard of the blue screen of death.

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But now we have the blue light of death.

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Don't remember that years ago. Is it?

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So? Don't.

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Yeah.

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I have your phone before you go to bed.

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I was being sarcastic.

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I was trying to put two different things

together there.

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That is the blue screen of death

from windows.

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Never. Mike.

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So anyway, as Gretchen just mentioned,

it was covered,

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a few years ago now

I think it would be like 3 or 4, probably.

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I'm no longer than that.

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Yeah, yeah, it's.

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Jeremy was alive and actually the

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when we did that interview we were back

is still in the studio.

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So that would have been pre-COVID

actually. So yeah. Okay.

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So like six years ago.

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Anyway,

this idea that the blue light coming from

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your phone was why you aren't

going to sleep at night when you sit

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and use your phone or tablet

before you go to bed.

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And they came out with apps

that turned off the blue light.

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And we're doing all these different things

and study has come out now

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that that might not be all

that's going on.

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In fact,

that might not be what's going on at all.

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Reporting from the BBC on this.

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There have been more studies done on it.

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And the idea is that

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you might be dealing with something

where when you do stuff on your phone,

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it's causing all kinds of other reasons

why you wouldn't fall asleep.

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And it has nothing to do

with the frequency of the light.

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Now, blue light when you are outside

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is something that does trigger system

to say, hey, it's time to be awake now.

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So there is some truth to that.

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It's why when you go outside and,

it's a bright, sunny day,

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you feel like a, it's a bright, sunny day

and I can do that.

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But the amount of blue light

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being contributed by the phone

is very, very minimal, for one thing.

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So they've been looking into some of

the other things and are now seeing that.

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Well, you know, first of all,

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if you're doing something on the phone

that's going to keep you awake,

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you're playing a game or chatting

with somebody or whatever you're thinking,

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thinking, yeah, yeah, that's a little bit

different than reading a book

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or something of that nature.

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And one of the other things

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that was outlined here

is that if you're on a Kindle or a nook

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or some other kind of an e-reader

or even your phone or tablet,

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and just reading a book

that doesn't seem to have the same effect

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on causing you

not to be able to go to sleep.

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Now, I didn't see in the study

if they've actually compared Kindle, etc.

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to a book and to see

if there's an actual difference,

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they are off to do some research,

and I'm sure somebody has done that,

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but it's more having to deal

with the fact that it wakes you up

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when you're looking at something

and there's some headline

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that you're thinking about or upset about,

or you're trying to figure out

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how to play a game and, you know, that

kind of thing takes some concentration

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or chatting with somebody.

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And, you know, we're seeing a lot of

effects from these type of things.

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Social media,

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we've talked about this in the past

is now illegal for children in Australia.

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There's other countries

that are looking at this

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and probably following suit

because it's having some positive signs,

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some problems too.

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But you know, that kind of a thing.

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But all of this kind of stuff

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is not

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conducive to trying to relax

and go to sleep.

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So the blue light of death probably not.

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And there's

a lot of other things involved.

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And I'd say if you're really interested

into a deep dive in this,

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check out the BBC

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article that goes into a lot more detail

than what we could cover here,

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and is written by people to understand

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the psychology of these things,

which is not me. So.

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But at the end of the day, it is

interesting to see where this is going.

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I will give you the 10,000ft view

collusion in this, conclusion in this.

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And it's just this idea

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if you want to go to sleep and

not have a problem, don't use your phone

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within about two hours

of when you want to go to sleep.

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Even watching television,

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which is something

that is not recommended, is still better

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than some of the stuff

that would be on the phone.

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Unless you're reading

and that's all you're doing.

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If you have the discipline to do that.

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My problem is, if I'm on a device

and reading and a message

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pops up or something, I'm

probably going to look at it, you know?

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Yeah.

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Which is one of the nice things about the

Kindle or the nook is it doesn't do that.

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So, you know, you know,

those paper books don't do that either.

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Yeah, they don't do that either.

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And I still to this day, I like reading

an actual book, a paper book.

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But there are certain things,

if I'm traveling or whatnot,

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that having the Kindle or related is nice.

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You're not having to carry a book.

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But yeah, I don't know.

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There's still I still find that

I like that better usually.

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Unfortunately, being a little bit lazy,

there are times that I want to read

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something or hey, the new books out

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not want to wait for it to be delivered

because, you know,

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Amazon would take like two hours

to get it to me.

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So, then you have to download it

immediately to the Kindle,

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which is one of the other problems

in the modern world is we don't shut off.

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You know, the idea of something like that

is, we need it now.

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That instant gratification behavior and.

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Yeah, and it all contributes.

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So question

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if they're

saying the blue light is minimal,

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does that mean that it's not affecting us

with those people who go out there

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and buy the fancy, glasses

that, are yellow lenses?

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You know, reduce

fatigue is what they call fatigue.

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Yahtzee.

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And this is the thing

the BBC article did touch upon that.

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And I actually have a pair

of those glasses

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from back when this was a, you know,

something that was really going out.

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So what they do is basically,

use yellow phosphor

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and it's screens out the color

and that and it seems to be

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what they're talking about here

is there's a difference in fatigue

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versus something that's happening

to keep you from falling asleep.

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And that might sound a little bit weird,

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but it's kind of like the idea of I'm

so tired, I can't fall asleep.

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So there is still some science

behind the idea that using the yellow

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glasses will reduce strain on your eyes,

which is a good thing to do.

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I, I at least I would think.

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But as far as it being effective

is blocking

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blue light before going to sleep

and making it easier to fall asleep.

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No, there doesn't seem to be a correlation

there, so there's still a use for them.

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It's just not in the original use case.

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Yeah,

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well, Adobe fixes

an actively exploited Acrobat Reader flaw.

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You know, we're hearing about this stuff

a lot more.

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Chrome browser had this recently.

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And again

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what happens with these kind of flaws

is it creates an opening that a hacker,

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if they know about it, can run code

on your computer, which is a bad thing

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because they can get to your data

and stuff

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without you knowing about it, or introduce

viruses, or on business machines

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that are just malware or ransomware,

you know, all that kind of stuff.

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And,

the tracking number for this, for those

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that want to know, is CVE 2026 34621.

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And basically what you want to do here

is make sure that you have updated

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your Adobe Acrobat,

both the free and the paid versions.

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That affects the ones for the platforms,

for both Windows and Mac OS and all three

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cases, Acrobat DC, Acrobat Reader DC,

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So if you're on a Google or Google,

if you're on a, cloud subscription,

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for Creative Cloud with Adobe,

it should have auto updated.

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Now, I will tell you one thing

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that I have found that

that doesn't always happen immediately.

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So for something like this,

it would be worth logging

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into your Creative Cloud account

or your Adobe account.

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And there's a thing

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where you can get to the updates

and manually push the update through.

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Because again,

you're looking at something here

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that exploited, you wouldn't know what's

going on or that this is even happening.

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And let's face it,

a lot of us use Acrobat is kind of the go

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to standard for documents,

so it's not something that's unusual.

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All right.

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Artemis two trip around

the moon was a huge success.

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Now what?

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Well, you know, and I was reading the,

the thing on this is,

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everything went kind of according to plan.

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They didn't land on the moon.

Of course, on this.

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It was just more of a testing mission.

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But they did

get out the farthest that you need.

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Humans, supposedly have been out.

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Now, if you watch the original Star Trek,

you know, there's some humans that

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are beaming around and stuff in the 1960s,

but I don't think this includes that.

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So basically what happened

is they launched,

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the flight went pretty much

without things.

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They went around to the back of the moon,

had lunch with aliens.

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I hear artichokes was on the list.

Okay. Maybe not.

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I don't want to text.

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I like learned jokes.

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Yeah, I like artichokes, too.

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That wasn't the part that week.

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Maybe not the maybe the eight

hour jokes left to ask, but,

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and and then came back around

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and, got back

and there splashed down without a lot.

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So what's next on this?

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Well, Artemis three

and this mission will most likely

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include landing once again on the moon.

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And right now

there are bidding on the contract.

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Space X, as well as what is a blue,

not blue moon.

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I don't think it's what he called

the origin of blue origin.

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Thank you.

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I know it is blue Moon. Bezos. Okay.

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Interesting name, I guess. Blue horizon.

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So that does make sense.

And anything blue is better anyway.

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So, at the end of the day, these are the

two companies, among some others

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that are bidding on this because a lot of

this is being privatized now.

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But at the end of the day, what's going

to happen here is they are going to start

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doing some test flights

and get them ready to actually land again.

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And this time there are some ideas

of looking at actually doing a lunar base

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and what the requirements

would be for something like that,

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and it would be first colony off

Earth, you know, just

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where would they put it,

do you think on the on the lighted side

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or the dark side

of the dark side of the moon?

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I believe that was a Pink Floyd album

anyway.

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Yeah, but but the thing is, I thought

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there was problems,

like with Solar radiation.

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And actually the question is valid.

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And if you think back

to a couple of weeks ago

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we talked about this,

that they were finding areas on the moon

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that are on the light side

that seem to be blocking the Earth's

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magnetic field and some other things

from as much radiation.

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So in a perfect situation,

you would want solar light.

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You know,

because it can power things and whatnot,

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but you don't want to become radioactive

as a part of it.

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And unfortunately, you will not turn out

like Radioactive Man on The Simpsons.

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It doesn't work that way.

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So, you know, so

they're looking at some different things.

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I don't believe they've come up and said,

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this is where

we're going to build the base yet.

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But I think

all things are being considered.

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The other thing about the back

side of the moon, too, is communication.

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You would have to put

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in some kind of a communication

relay and all kinds of stuff.

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So there's more to do.

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If you were going to use something

like that, but it would effectively,

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I don't know if it stopped completely,

but certainly minimize

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the radiation problem.

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So we'll of course, be keeping on top of

this because it's an interesting thing.

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And it's kind of cool to be back

out there again, you know?

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Yeah, it feels better.

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There's something about the

the whole exploration of space

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in our area around us.

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I think we need to learn more. Yeah.

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Several dozen high value

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corporations hit by a new extortion

crew in help desk Michigan spree.

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So the Register's reporting on this.

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And what is going on is the bad guys

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have figured out this isn't even really

a hack in the classic sense.

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It's social engineering.

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Check out war games.

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You can see what that is.

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But a nutshell description of it

is it's the idea

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that you call somebody and you're able

to get information from them.

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So a modern phishing attack

would be an example of social engineering.

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You get a text from somebody

and you click on it.

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And that is now, you know, getting

private data in that kind of a thing.

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So you're kind of doing this in reverse

and trying to get information from

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the help desk.

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And it seems to be working.

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So the live chats and some of these other

type of things are causing companies

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like Google and others to sit down

and become more aware of it.

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Now, one of the things

that is an issue here

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is that for the most part, I won't say

everybody because I don't know,

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but for the most part, help desks

and call centers and stuff are outsourced.

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A lot of big companies do that,

and it might be

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that you're actually talking to somebody

on the other side of the planet.

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When you talk to the help desk.

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So being able to lock down on these

types of things

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can become more of an issue

in those type of environments,

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because a lot of this stuff

works by the person on the help.

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This is given a script

when you ask a question,

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especially if it's like tech support

or something, they go through the script,

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but there isn't really

a lot of training done on

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other things.

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So if you have someone savvy, call

and start doing these type of things,

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whether it's through phishing,

through some electronic thing,

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or even just the call itself or the chat

or whatever, it can be problematic.

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So it's going to be interesting

to see how this gets resolved.

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And it's just another thing to think of

if you think about a helpdesk

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and you're a customer or whatever

of the company that you're talking to,

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your information is available

to the helpdesk operator.

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So it is a valid source

to be able to get information like that.

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All right.

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Mono cab in Europe helps isolated

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places get transport.

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So kind of an interesting concept.

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This is being prototyped in Germany.

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And like here in Europe

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there are a lot of underused

or even disused railroad lines.

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And there's a lot of enthusiasts

just go on to YouTube

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and type in abandoned rail lines

and you'll find just tons of information,

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a lot of it's fun to watch too, you know,

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because you go places people haven't seen

and all that kind of thing.

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Well, but they've come up here

with is a kind of car.

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The monarch cab is called that

because it uses one rail.

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So this would work on regular lines.

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Just use lines, narrow gauge lines,

all that kind of stuff.

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And basically what it does

is it allows you to use these

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existing tracks to put product or people

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or whatever would be needed, to areas

that wouldn't be efficiently

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served by having a full railroad

going out to them,

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and especially in Europe,

a lot more than the United States.

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Trains are used a lot,

but like anywhere else,

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you have a situation

where it has to make financial sense.

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Unless you're Portland with Trump,

never mind.

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It has to make financial sense

to run your rail line.

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You know, and, at the end of the day,

something like

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this is a lot more efficient

because for one thing, you could use

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one set of rails for

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traffic going in both directions

because only use the one on the right.

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So that's kind of cool.

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The efficiency is much better

because they're lighter,

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you know, and that type of thing.

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So your fuel and all of

that is a lot less than what's used.

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And then you can also

have flexible scheduling.

345

So unlike a classic train

where you're taking the train somewhere,

346

this little tiny car could be set to leave

and come back as needed.

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But kind of an on demand train in a sense.

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Yeah,

that's what I got. The impression of.

349

When I saw it, I was like, oh,

350

so it's, you know, it's

kind of an interesting thing.

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They're not really deployed yet.

352

It is being tested out right now.

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The other thing

is, is getting integration with,

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train lines that are still used so

you don't have an accident or something,

355

you know, that kind of a thing.

356

But these autonomous rail pods could

really be something that could be used.

357

And even, on this side of the pond

in the United States,

358

I could see having passenger rail service

available to places that it hasn't been

359

just because it wasn't

360

cost effective to do it for so long

using conventional trains.

361

So, you know, it is really something

that is kind of cool.

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All right.

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We've got two other topics we're going to

get into in this segment at least.

364

But before I want

365

we do that I want to mention that,

Cyber hawk Rights of Heroes is out.

366

And Gretchen, I have just got word back

from the publishers

367

that your book is now on.

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All of your books are now available

for purchase on Amazon.

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Barnes and Noble, Walmart's

now carrying them, and pretty all right.

370

Yeah, yeah.

371

Go to walmart.com

and type in the name of your book.

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It's right there. Ready to order.

373

So what what at what point do I

374

it can I walk into a store and see them?

375

Well,

you know that that's another question.

376

I think the first place

you're probably going to see that is

377

Barnes and Noble, but,

Oh, I got some information on that.

378

But the kind of broader question

that you're asking there is, yes,

379

there is a point

where that will be a thing

380

where you can just buy it off the shelf.

381

So, at least that's the direction

we're going.

382

So, Gretchen,

congratulations to you on that.

383

Oh, thank you.

384

All right.

385

Couple of questions that have come in

that are interesting and

386

kind of a little bit weird

when you start thinking about them

387

is the first one airline ticket pricing.

388

Now we get asked about this all the time.

389

And one of the rumors

that was coming up with this idea

390

that the device you're using

will set the price of the tickets.

391

In fact, we talked about this

a few weeks ago, and I decided

392

to deep dive into this

and figure out what's actually going on.

393

And I got to tell you,

I couldn't find any confirmation

394

that when I was using an iPhone

or an Android phone

395

or my ten year old tablet,

that that changed the price.

396

But I'll tell you one thing

that did your location.

397

If I went on and got ticket prices

sitting here in Oregon

398

and I went on the VPN

and connected to a foreign country

399

or something, in that case,

there was a huge difference in the prices.

400

Same flight.

401

And yes, you can book the tickets

either way, but where you are does seem to

402

be the case where, the one of the places

I tried was a city in Mexico,

403

and I found that

the same trip was about $80 less.

404

Oh, I was in there.

405

So then I vpn into a server that was just

outside of Beverly Hills, right?

406

So it's more than Oregon.

407

And this is all at the same time of day

and all of that.

408

So, you know, it's

at least a controllable thing.

409

So there is some truth to being,

410

you know, vigilant about this.

411

Because again, when you buy and now

where you buy from does make a difference.

412

So do a little research and figure out

what time of day is the best.

413

And maybe investing in a VPN on

some of the stuff, especially

414

if you're doing a more expensive flight

and with flights going up.

415

So much now, it is worth checking out.

416

You know?

417

So the second question that we get asked

a lot is on state government

418

selling records, and this isn't the kind

you play on your phonograph either.

419

And there's a debate

that's been going on on this because it

420

is making money for governments,

which is why they're doing this.

421

And it's the idea

422

that and this isn't the only department,

but I'm going to pick on it

423

just because it's

the one that seems to do it

424

the most is that, third

party can buy DMV records.

425

And what can they get from the DMV?

426

Well, your driver's license number,

your picture, your Social Security number,

427

your home address,

you know, and all of the rest of that.

428

The expiration date of the ID.

429

Now, what could a bad

guy do with that information?

430

You know,

431

when you think

of selling our Social Security numbers.

432

What a bunch of idiots. Yeah, well, they.

433

And that and that is certainly one

side of the argument.

434

And I think a very good side.

435

Now to

436

put this in a little bit of context,

there is a thing called the Driver's

437

Privacy Protection

Act. It's a federal law.

438

I'm not an attorney.

439

There are others that can explain that

440

better than I could,

but it does set down a framework for this.

441

But it doesn't ban users.

442

So what it says is permissible uses

can include sales to insurance companies,

443

auto manufacturers,

private investigators, law enforcements,

444

and then in some states, data brokers

and marketers.

445

I'm not sure what the limit would be

if that last one is on your list.

446

Is it would.

447

But you know, come up with that.

448

So your information isn't public.

449

Exactly.

450

It's just for sale

under specific conditions to the public.

451

Anyway, well, look, I mean,

452

any idiot can go and register

a name of a business

453

that has the word insurance in it

and pretend to be an insurance person.

454

If, well, or just not even do that.

455

Just get your personal information

and use it for other reasons.

456

I mean, you know,

but I see what you're saying, Gretchen.

457

It's like, you know,

there was a problem a while back when,

458

they were looking into things where,

you want to order a controlled substance,

459

not like a drug, but like mercury or

something, you know, that type of thing.

460

Or, viral samples.

461

This started

coming to light in the Covid era.

462

Hey, dummy up some lever

head that says, you know,

463

bills lab and send a credit card number.

464

And in a lot of cases,

465

the next day that sample was on its way

to you and nobody checked anything.

466

So I have there's also something

I came across personally

467

where,

in order to get, a death certificate,

468

you had to go through some extra agency

and they would charge you this fee,

469

and then they would force you

to use a certain shipping.

470

And and if you didn't do that,

then they, would charge you nothing.

471

But there was no guarantee that you would

actually get the the document you needed.

472

And that's the thing

about a lot of government agencies

473

and stuff related to that,

because you don't have the same level

474

and it's a monopoly

and that type of a thing.

475

So yeah, you'll run

into right into stuff like that.

476

And then this kind of goes

around the other day.

477

So arguments in favor of it.

478

Well by the government's revenue stream,

obviously

479

fees are charged to record vault data

access or subscription subscriptions.

480

That's nicely or always updated

on people's private information.

481

And the other argument is,

is that, obviously data

482

being sold to marketing firms that could

conceivably sell it to a third party

483

beyond that, you know,

and they say that they won't,

484

but you know,

who knows what's actually going on?

485

Yeah, I guarantee theft and stalking.

486

And there's real world

examples of that kind of a thing.

487

So anyway, that's what's out there.

488

This is user friendly 2.0.

489

We'll be back after the break

I you see him.

490

He's from the future.

491

He's got a really big computer

492

and he uses it every day.

493

And usually uses it in every way

you want to use it for.

494

You know, I'm not sure because he uses he.

495

Welcome back.

496

This is user friendly 2.0.

497

Check out our website user friendly

God show.

498

It is your one

stop to find everything user friendly.

499

And that includes Cyber Hawk cyber Hawk,

heroes.com is the website for that.

500

Or as we were saying in the first segment,

check it out at Walmart, Amazon,

501

Barnes and Noble

and anywhere else books are sold.

502

All right.

503

So let's dive right in here.

504

Bill, you have a review

505

on a book call of something.

506

You better follow through live.

507

Yeah,

I got, chaos zoom sent me over there.

508

Latest, which is, call it Kathy Lou.

509

Dust and Blood.

510

It's, book containing two scenarios

that take place in Victorian London.

511

The first one is about a group of people

512

in a, dust yard, aka, trashy.

513

If you don't know where the dust yard is

on this

514

garbage dump.

515

Yeah.

516

And the second one,

517

which is labeled

signs written Scarlet is a murder mystery

518

which, ritualistic murders.

519

Okay.

520

Well, these sound like they would be fun

games to play.

521

Tell us about you. What I mean

when these are actually playing.

522

Bill, I know sometimes you do run

some of these campaigns.

523

Currently,

I don't have the time to run this one.

524

Of course, I just read through it.

525

I found, the first one, Ashes to Ashes,

to be very good.

526

It's, an introductory, as they put it.

527

Even so, it's very simple,

very straightforward.

528

Gets you involved

into how the mechanics of the game work.

529

If you're a new player, or new lore

530

Keeper, which is a dungeon master

for those who don't know,

531

the second

one definitely jumps up the difficulty

532

by becoming much more open

ended, much more complex.

533

Really

makes you think about what's going on,

534

makes you feel like an investigator

into a series of inside.

535

Oh, cool.

536

I feel like Sherlock Holmes a little bit.

537

Me and the storylines

are actually really good.

538

I don't know these new ones.

539

I haven't seen them yet,

but I know in the past,

540

I think they actually do a pretty

nice job.

541

There's depth to it, you know?

542

And, yeah, I think most people

like games like that that are better,

543

you know, there's more going on,

especially in the sense of what that is.

544

So this isn't just like this open world

and you make everything out.

545

There's actually a,

you know, a framework to it.

546

And within that framework,

a lot can happen.

547

And there's a lot that's been thought out

548

in advance and disagree with me

if you feel the opposite on this bill,

549

but it seems like been thought through

550

so that when you're dealing

with a given situation,

551

it's not like you're

having to just dream it up.

552

Yeah.

553

The setting that costume has created

for their Call of Cthulhu books

554

and, series, really does

bring in that, that H.P.

555

Lovecraft and other eldritch,

you know, and existential horror

556

and other kinds of things

really brings that into life in game.

557

So do you feel like you're pulled

into that era,

558

that time here, that late 1800s?

559

Yes. There.

560

The especially in this one.

561

Dustin blood.

562

Uses a lot of verbiage and words that,

563

you know, really

bring you into it and very,

564

Yeah, it just really does,

immerse you with it.

565

Cool.

566

So a question that came in,

and so I'm just thinking of it now,

567

so I might throw this out at you.

568

Is that series done like D&D beyond?

569

Is it electronic?

Do you buy physical books? Is it both?

570

You can buy physical and PDFs.

571

I believe there's a couple of sites

that are similar

572

to D&D beyond,

in that you can build characters.

573

But I don't believe they're like

574

D&D beyond where you have to buy the books

and stuff for it and things like that.

575

You have to have that ahead of time.

576

Right? Right. Okay.

577

I just it's a curiosity

that we tend to get asked a lot.

578

And I think what it is is gamers

go into two camps.

579

Some, like the electronics

580

and some like the,

you know, doing it with a physical book.

581

And it seems like a lot of the different

publishers address that in different ways,

582

which is why I figured

I'd ask you on this one, because.

583

So it sounds like you can get it

electronically, but you would still be

584

playing a game with a character sheet

and that type of thing.

585

Yeah, it's designed for in-person

play more than online.

586

I haven't done it online. That's

the only way I've been able to do it.

587

And, sites like Roll20

handle it very, very well.

588

Okay.

589

And that's inset,

590

character sheets and stuff like that

that are set up.

591

You do have to have, you know, the

592

at least the starter set, worth of rules,

which is free.

593

But I also like that

594

what they do is if I buy a physical book,

595

even though I can't

get the exact PDF of it,

596

I can get all of the, handouts, character

sheets, pre generated characters.

597

I can get all those digitally

so I can print those out for people.

598

Okay.

599

All right.

600

So it's that reference type thing there

and that's it.

601

If somebody wanted to look for a game

online another question that's coming in.

602

How do they do it? A

you mentioned roll 20.

603

Roll 20 has a looking for group, system

where you go through

604

and you look at games and that are posted

by people looking for players or DMs.

605

There are a number of other sites

that do the same thing.

606

Other Reddits.

607

I've heard some horror stories

about the Reddits

608

and, let's just say that in general.

609

I mean, oh, really?

610

Yeah.

611

So they can be kind of harsh

on that social media.

612

Yeah. So like,

613

oh, I've just

I've just heard a lot of stories

614

that sometimes it's, it's quite a,

615

get a show to get a good group.

616

But when you do, you land one.

617

I did

618

I have been with this group for over

five years.

619

We met on Roll20.

620

They had an amazing friends,

621

I believe anybody can do it.

622

It just might take some time.

I had some bad luck.

623

I had a group that I thought was

really good.

624

Ended up being,

pretty bad situation for me.

625

Wasn't for me.

626

After I left that again,

I found another group,

627

and it was just a matter of trying and

628

definitely sticking up for yourself.

629

You'll like something's off.

630

Talk to your DM about it.

631

Or other players I have. Yeah.

632

If it's all about,

you know, D and D is better.

633

Yeah. No, daddy is better than bad D.

634

Yeah, it's very true.

635

I know I ran into that when I was first

looking for a cyberpunk campaign,

636

and I want the characters to be cyberpunk,

not the players.

637

And that is exactly what I ran

into the first time.

638

It's like,

okay, this is just not going to work.

639

And, you know, but the thing of it is,

it wasn't like, don't do it this way.

640

You just need to find something

that you're going to fit better.

641

And there's a lot of options out there.

642

So yeah.

643

So you have to find the right chemistry

with the right personalities.

644

Yeah.

645

Oh, yeah.

646

And, so but you would recommend these.

647

I would

give them a shot if they worked for me.

648

They worked for a lot of other players.

649

Again,

there are going to be bad situations.

650

So, you know, look out for yourself.

651

And, again,

no, daddy is better than bad DP.

652

Yeah, agreed. 100%.

653

All right. Cool.

654

Well, if you've played this campaign

or others, let us know.

655

User friendly? Not sure.

656

We'd love to hear back from you

657

and what your experience has been

and any ideas or advice.

658

Please feel free to comment.

659

All right,

so he has promised in the opening robots

660

now, this has been an experience.

661

And there's two parts of this

that we're going to cover.

662

The first one is actually a story

that's out right now

663

with Major League Baseball.

664

And kind of an interesting connection

here, because the stuff

665

that's been circulating is they are

replacing the umpires with robots.

666

Okay. And like a lot of,

667

you know, rumors and

668

different things like that that get out

there, this is partially true.

669

There will still be human umpires,

but what they are experimenting with

670

is using a

AI robot to call balls and strikes.

671

And one of the areas

672

where there's a lot of controversy

and can make the difference in a game.

673

Who wins and loses, is that so?

674

Basically, what they're looking at doing

this year is putting together

675

a system where the,

and this is, this isn't like brand new.

676

You've probably heard of this

because it's been done

677

in some other places in the past.

678

But what it is, is the teams

get two challenges,

679

and if they make a challenge,

then they go to the AI.

680

If the team wins the challenge.

681

So they still have two challenges.

682

If they lose it,

then they only have one left and so on.

683

So the idea.

684

So they can't keep stopping

every five seconds or anything like that.

685

But on the same token,

if there's been a bad call made,

686

they have the ability to go back

and see what the AI

687

robot says it should be,

and then that's what it would be.

688

So, you know, one of the areas I noticed

this kind of thing was in the Olympics,

689

this last set of Olympics,

there was a lot more use of this type

690

of technology and different things.

691

And even just watching it,

you could see it.

692

Different camera angles.

693

You could get the close ups, you could,

you know, see the flash, what does it

694

photo finish as they used to call it,

all these different type of things.

695

So it is a lot more immersive.

696

And it seems like because just when

humans are involved, mistakes can be made.

697

And if a bad call is made, it cost

you the game and you really did it right.

698

I could see where

people would want to have a check on that.

699

Yeah.

700

Now the question is, is

do they eventually go to a full,

701

system

where the machine calls every pitch

702

or there are certainly arguments for

and against that.

703

And I can understand

both sides of the coin.

704

But the interesting thing about it

is, and unlike a lot of new technologies

705

where they've used this in the past,

it does seem to be accurate.

706

In fact, in the research

I was doing on this topic,

707

I didn't one down anything was blatantly

what it called it wrong.

708

And here's the example.

709

I mean, maybe that exists

710

and I just didn't see it,

but it didn't seem like a problem.

711

So, you know, it's professional sports.

712

There's a lot of money involved,

713

and therefore there's a lot of ability

to invest in different things.

714

And who wins and loses

is a big part of that.

715

So you do want it to be accurate.

716

So I'm not a huge baseball person.

717

And I would love to hear from

some of our listeners that are because

718

is this a good thing or a bad thing?

719

And the other thing

is, is some of the rules.

720

They're coming up with this

try to speed up the game.

721

And it makes me think a little bit of Star

Trek Deep Space Nine.

722

They were constantly talking

about how well baseball was too slow,

723

so it went away,

you know, in the 24th century.

724

But some people were trying to bring it

back.

725

So, you know, is that really a thing?

726

And does it make it better

727

versus from a standpoint of a fan

to be able to watch a game

728

if you don't have things like extra

innings or,

729

you know, some of the other things

that would slow down the process,

730

just curiosity, question

a throw out there.

731

So that's the official robot story.

732

Now here's the unofficial

personal experience robot story.

733

So we just did a Stem presentation and we

do these with the high schools and stuff.

734

To promote the idea of the fact

that we need engineers

735

if we're going to continue

living in the modern world,

736

having people that understand

how that works is a good thing.

737

Plus, it's an area where you can make

a very good living and that type of thing.

738

You have to be someone that's

739

willing to constantly update your skills

as things change, that kind of stuff.

740

But at the end of the day,

741

there's a lot of places to plug into this

and a lot of ones that are kind of fun,

742

you know?

743

And for my own standpoint,

I am a programmer

744

and I actually do enjoy that.

745

But I like the other stuff, too,

that I've been able to work with lately

746

that have involved things

like exoskeletons

747

that, you know, allow you to run fast

and all that kind of stuff,

748

and the whole being able to fly

like Iron Man experience.

749

It's been a positive.

750

I haven't come up

751

with a bad side of that at all yet,

and I don't think I ever will.

752

But these are all things that come from

the idea of Stem.

753

So within that we have two robots

that were originally prototypes

754

for another project.

755

We were working on that

we wanted to show off and

756

this was

757

And after we were done with them,

they went on a shelf and sat behind me.

758

In fact, behind

where I am in my studio here.

759

If you see the video version of this on

anything,

760

you'll have probably seen them in

some of those views.

761

So this year it's like,

okay, we're going to get them up

762

and running, finalize them.

763

And that should be no problem.

764

Started about a month ago on this link

and I had plenty of time.

765

Was working on this

until the night before our presentation

766

because it's like they fought me

the whole way.

767

You know, it was it was just an odd thing,

768

you know, got them both back out

and dusted them off, literally.

769

And then I thought, okay, I'm going to

770

go ahead and fire

these guys up and see if they work.

771

The software is probably out of date.

772

There's a was actually a new version

of Python, which is what these run on.

773

So there certainly were going to be

some things I needed to deal with.

774

Right.

775

And I talked about this

in a previous show,

776

but the first thing that happened

is the batteries blew up.

777

And what had happened was is one of the

778

robots has six legs and it was running it

779

and it hadn't been recalibrated yet

or anything been sitting on the shelf.

780

So one part of one of the legs

got caught on the top of the frame

781

and started pushing down.

782

And normally what would happen

is it's more and more of a current draw.

783

So you want some safety stuff in there

784

so it doesn't burn out the motor,

for one thing.

785

And usually that's in your power system

where the battery will turn off.

786

That's part of the safety that's supposed

to be in lithium ion batteries.

787

Right.

788

Well, the batteries

I got turned out to be fakes.

789

I mean, they were real batteries, but

they were not what they purported to be

790

and had none of these systems in it.

791

So the thing starts smoking

and and kind of blows up

792

and it melts part of the frame

and all that kind of stuff.

793

And being in the world where we are right

now, where there's no more RadioShack

794

or equivalent to be able to go get parts,

it means you have to order everything in

795

and then the other part of it

796

that was kind of interesting is

I had a very hard time

797

finding if the batteries

I was going to replace them were for real.

798

So I decided, okay, I want to get a name

brand like Samsung or something.

799

You know, that we know produces batteries.

800

And you know,

Samsung has had a pretty good record.

801

They've just blown up

planes, washing machines and other stuff.

802

But outside of that

it's good battery, right?

803

But in all

seriousness, you get something like that

804

and I pick on them a little bit

805

because you know these things,

but it is a quality product.

806

And a company like that's going to sell

something that purports to be what it is.

807

Couldn't find them on Amazon at all.

808

In fact, I had to do some digging

and find a third party retailer.

809

Couldn't get them locally

because I would do that first anyway.

810

You know, nothing available

for the special batteries that I need.

811

And these aren't

just like a flashlight battery.

812

You need them so that they have

the ability to run all the motors.

813

That kind of a thing.

814

So high draw lithium, you know, of a

certain rating and all that kind of stuff.

815

So I finally did find them a week

and a half to get the new batteries in,

816

but also the parts to rebuild the frame,

the battery container itself,

817

and it melted. Okay.

818

So finally

819

all of this comes in

and I put it all together.

820

You have to power it up

for the first time,

821

and the control board burns out

822

Raspberry Pi, which is what's running it

again, smoking and all that kind of stuff.

823

And needless to say,

the stress is building

824

and building is really fine,

you know? Yeah.

825

Oh, it's like,

okay, you know what's going on now.

826

So, idea that came from

just putting my head together

827

with some other engineers,

is that probably when the battery blew up

828

and burned out something in the pie

and you didn't notice it?

829

Because when we did the soft power test,

it worked.

830

But as soon as I put it under load,

it started having problems, you know?

831

And that is the difference.

832

Sometimes components will test

good on the meter,

833

but still be bad

when you actually run power through them.

834

So that is a thing.

835

So it's like okay,

what are new Raspberry Pi now?

836

Fortunately those aren't

that terribly hard to come by.

837

It was like three days.

And I got that in here.

838

And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking,

okay, I'm

839

I'm putting fuzes on the battery packs

like actual fuzes in addition.

840

So that's it.

841

Got a backup safety thing.

842

So if that happens blow the fuze.

843

And also went in

and put some diodes and stuff

844

in to make sure it doesn't back bead.

845

You know just general stuff. Now again,

these were prototypes.

846

This stuff was done

in the final version of the prototype,

847

but it never made it into my prototypes

848

just because we didn't

get that far with this stuff.

849

So I'm testing the meter out and find,

you know, the grounds common.

850

But on the positive voltage rails,

there's a dead short coming from the

851

solenoid voltage into the power line

that goes into the Raspberry Pi.

852

Okay, what's causing this?

853

Look at the board.

854

And here there was something they call

carbon tracking.

855

And what had happened,

I think when the battery shorted out,

856

it caused the board to heat up.

857

So two of the traces on the board

had melted together basically.

858

And they were the power leads.

859

So if I put the new Raspberry Pi on it,

it would have gone boom.

860

Two, you know, and it was just kind of

by chance I even caught this.

861

So the next thing is

I can't get the PCB replaced in time.

862

So I'm cutting traces and bodge

and stuff together and then making sure,

863

you know, everything's working correctly

and all that kind of stuff.

864

And finally,

865

just this last weekend, got the thing

to boot up again and get the test small.

866

Now I still have ahead of me

all of the programing,

867

you know, and the different things

868

that need to go along with that

to actually make it work.

869

Getting the calibration done,

870

which is all the stuff that I should have

been doing three weeks ago, you know.

871

But I've decided I'm

not going to let this thing defeat me.

872

And so we're going to we're going to get

get there if at all possible.

873

And then I thought,

you know, it'd be kind of cool,

874

especially since this is a demonstration

for high school students

875

to have something like a PlayStation

controller to run the robot.

876

Right.

877

And we all can't find my PS4 hardware.

878

It's gone away.

879

It's probably in some storage somewhere.

880

So I'm going to go get another controller

look to get a either a PS5, controller.

881

That's all that's out right now

or an Xbox One.

882

Well, those are so complicated

now that they don't really work too

883

well out of the box for an application

like this.

884

I ended up using my Atari 7800

plus controller.

885

Very, very simple joystick.

886

It's got the directional pad

and two buttons and it worked.

887

But this is like the night before the demo

that I'm just getting the stuff

888

up and running, you know?

889

So yeah.

890

And this

all started because of a cruddy battery.

891

It all started because of a fake battery.

And yeah.

892

And, you know, we're

893

I brought you the solar lights

that were busted.

894

And wasn't that a situation

where there was ready batteries

895

once again, you know, and the end of it

is, is the quality control.

896

But I think more so than that,

these things are intentional.

897

Like with that, your, corrosion.

898

The circuit was corroded with the battery.

899

And, you know, when we looked inside it

and it's because the metal in the battery

900

and the type of metal in the wiring

are too, that don't get along.

901

That's why would they do that.

902

That's usually usually

903

you put the battery in a battery holder

and it doesn't do that.

904

But to save $0.02 they soldered the wires

directly to the posts on the battery.

905

And this is not a battery

that's designed to be installed that way.

906

It's, you know, positive negative

like a double A battery, you know,

907

a rechargeable version of it,

but they actually physically soldered.

908

So the solder is one kind of metal.

909

The battery is made out of a different

kind of metal, and the wiring is a third.

910

And it causes a reaction

that will cause corrosion like that.

911

So, what are we doing to repair them?

912

Well, we're battery holders

913

and we're replacing the batteries,

you know, that kind of a thing.

914

But one of the worries that I have about

this is there's a lot of Stem projects

915

out there where you can go on a site

like Amazon or whatever.

916

Barnes and Noble

917

sell some of this stuff in other places,

and you get to build a robot

918

and I'm looking at this,

and the fake batteries

919

look like they're the ones

that are included with some of the kits.

920

Yeah.

921

So it's like you get a situation either.

922

Can you imagine being a student?

923

This is your first time you're going

to try to build your own robot

924

and it doesn't work right

925

either because it catches fire

or there's some other thing going on

926

that's got a fake component,

so it doesn't do what it's supposed to do,

927

and the kids are not going to know it.

928

It's like, yeah,

it's going to be extremely frustrating

929

or even potentially very dangerous

and demoralizing,

930

and it might make them give up on

doing the whole thing in general.

931

So one of the things I've been thinking

about doing with this is,

932

and again,

Stem is something that I very much support

933

and I think it's very important

to have this out here in a way

934

that it's accessible is on these robots

and some of the other ones

935

I'm finding as well

post, page the user friendly website here

936

in the next couple of months

talking about some of the details on it.

937

I think what I'm going to do is order

the kits, just all of them,

938

you know,

or at least a cross section of them,

939

put them together and video

that when I put the videos up

940

and just go over what we run into and,

941

go through a process that we'll set up

to be able to test and see.

942

Number one of the components are real.

943

And the other thing that I've been hearing

rumors about,

944

I haven't experienced this yet myself,

but I'm probably will,

945

is that apparently some of the foreign

made boards and that type of thing

946

say that they have components

which don't actually exist.

947

And these would be things

like directional diodes,

948

prevent back feeding

and that kind of thing.

949

So the unit will work

if everything's fine,

950

but if something goes wrong

it doesn't have that safety things.

951

There should be fuzes,

you know, and some other stuff there.

952

Just very basic circuit protection things.

953

That number one, you don't blow up

what usually is a $200 or more product

954

to begin with if something goes wrong.

955

And number two, so you don't do something

like burn your house down. Lithium

956

fires are very difficult to put out,

and I almost had that situation here.

957

You know, but,

you did drop some stuff out.

958

And I guess I do have

the very unique thing that I can actually

959

tell everybody that my robot spider

had an accident on my carpet.

960

Quite literally.

961

Yeah. It did.

962

Didn't you have one of the eyes in your

in your office space?

963

Go, quick, call the emergency people.

964

Another part of it, too.

965

So, you know that work with AI

and I work with

966

I do check everything and use it

as a tool, not a replacement for me.

967

Although I think sometimes you wonder

if it could do that, but,

968

that kind of a thing.

969

I have a camera on, and you could actually

do that and feed the camera into an AI,

970

and it's monitoring what you're doing.

971

And I was actually doing this

for calibrating the legs,

972

because it's able to tell better

than I can from an overhead shot

973

what's right and what's not.

And then I did this and yeah.

974

Oh yeah. Freaked out.

975

Oh yeah. Oh that call 911.

976

You know evacuate the house.

Get off the planet.

977

You know,

it's like okay. Everything's good.

978

Oh yeah.

979

It it hadn't gone far enough

that it was an actual fire.

980

So I was able to deal with it

981

by getting it up off the carpet

onto a solid surface.

982

And then I had to go calm down my eye,

which is a little bit of a wrinkle.

983

I don't think we would

have had a few years ago.

984

And,

but, you know, at the end of the day,

985

and this is one of the things

about generative AI is

986

I think a lot of people would work and use

AI for building these projects.

987

It makes total sense to do it.

988

And there are some things there

that the AI can do, like the calibrations

989

and stuff.

990

Well, part of the learning process

for an AI

991

is now the

AI would know that this happened

992

and when it sees a picture

going forward of these and this is not

993

bad or is fake, it would actually be able

to point that out.

994

So there are some benefits,

you know, to doing things that way.

995

And we talk a lot about the,

996

you know, the kind of the downside

of all this stuff and that,

997

you know, it's stealing jobs of artists

and other things.

998

And it is doing that.

999

And it's something that we've discussed

the ethics and stuff in the past,

00:48:19,029 --> 00:48:23,667

but used properly as a tool,

it is absolutely amazing.

00:48:24,101 --> 00:48:27,137

But you have to still be involved

and you have to be

00:48:27,137 --> 00:48:30,140

the person that's actually

doing what you wanted to do.

00:48:30,173 --> 00:48:33,443

Not here, write a book for me or here,

write the software.

00:48:33,677 --> 00:48:37,381

But something like analyze this function

and see if there's any problems with,

00:48:37,648 --> 00:48:39,449

you know, security or something like that.

00:48:39,449 --> 00:48:42,452

You know, whatever the case may be,

or grammar check or whatever,

00:48:42,552 --> 00:48:45,555

those are two very different applications.

00:48:45,622 --> 00:48:48,625

And in some ways it's like the idea of

I have my skills.

00:48:48,625 --> 00:48:51,995

So would you want an autonomous table saw

just cutting your stuff out for you?

00:48:52,062 --> 00:48:53,430

Are you going to control it?

00:48:53,430 --> 00:48:57,301

Even if it's smart

and can fix the same idea anyway?

00:48:57,301 --> 00:48:58,135

So there you are.

00:48:58,135 --> 00:49:01,772

And on that topic,

this is user friendly 2.0 as always,

00:49:01,772 --> 00:49:05,676

keeping you safe on the cutting edge

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00:49:14,384 --> 00:49:17,754

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