Latest / TechtalkRadio / Episode 475 - "Grok Gone Wrong, Japan Tech Deals, Camera Gear Secrets & A Tablet for Seniors”

Transcript

Episode 475 - "Grok Gone Wrong, Japan Tech Deals, Camera Gear Secrets & A Tablet for Seniors” · TechtalkRadio

0:00
Speaker 1: The following program is produced by the Tech Talk Radio Network.
0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of tech Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor,
0:10
Speaker 1: I'm Sean Dea Weird, and I'm justin Lemmy. Well come back.
0:14
Speaker 1: Just I feel like I've been gone for a long time.
0:18
Speaker 2: I mean a teenager now.
0:22
Speaker 1: Eric just graduated high school. He's going on to college.
0:27
Speaker 1: It's been about a month since we talked to you.
0:29
Speaker 1: We're sorry about the loss and your family, and I
0:30
Speaker 1: know that taking care of all that, getting back into
0:34
Speaker 1: the work thing that can be that could be a
0:36
Speaker 1: lot to take on. So yeah, I can imagine.
0:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been it's been a busy couple of weeks,
0:42
Speaker 3: but we're back. We're back in the swing of things.
0:44
Speaker 3: So yeah, we got a lot of talk about today.
0:47
Speaker 3: First off, did you all celebrate World Backup Day? What
0:51
Speaker 3: past week?
0:53
Speaker 1: Oh? Darn, I forgot? Is that why a.
0:56
Speaker 2: Chronus kept pushing me messages saying you're eligible for a
0:59
Speaker 2: free upgrade?
1:01
Speaker 1: You got the proms, I got the Carbonite ones. I like,
1:04
Speaker 1: look at Carbonite just to see what do they charge
1:07
Speaker 1: for doing their cloud backups? And it was like then
1:10
Speaker 1: every day I've been getting an email from them, come
1:12
Speaker 1: on board. Save three months, like, so we'll back to
1:16
Speaker 1: date this just soap those listening in case now. I
1:19
Speaker 1: did a TV segment on it as well. It's to
1:22
Speaker 1: just promote the idea of backing up, which you can't
1:24
Speaker 1: do just once a year. Don't just do it once
1:27
Speaker 1: a year. You want to get into a regular swing
1:29
Speaker 1: of things. Can I just like say, like an unpopular opinion,
1:32
Speaker 1: maybe go ahead, go ahead? Do we do we really.
1:36
Speaker 3: Honestly need backups anymore? I mean everything is in the cloud,
1:41
Speaker 3: you know, one drive, right, stuff Like I mean, what
1:44
Speaker 3: what what what exact? I guess if you're not using
1:48
Speaker 3: one drive and you're not doing any of that stuff, yeah, okay,
1:51
Speaker 3: I guess. Yeah, I could see backups. But for like
1:54
Speaker 3: the normal user, most of your stuff that you're doing
1:58
Speaker 3: is connected to the cloud.
2:00
Speaker 2: I would agree with I would agree with Justin on that.
2:04
Speaker 2: I think the major, the all, honestly the majority of
2:08
Speaker 2: my digital backup that I have that I'm backing up
2:11
Speaker 2: is old stuff, right. And I think I start to
2:15
Speaker 2: see a trend from like twenty sixteen on where I
2:20
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of stuff that goes on my backup,
2:23
Speaker 2: like my NASS because I can just go to iCloud.
2:27
Speaker 2: That's where all my photos are. They're all backed up
2:29
Speaker 2: to iCloud and then also backed up to Google Photos.
2:32
Speaker 2: So I don't I good, good question. I need it
2:37
Speaker 2: because I have a lot of media from all the
2:40
Speaker 2: way back to high school until now. Right, But if
2:43
Speaker 2: I'm just a normal user that just does photos and
2:48
Speaker 2: videos on my phone, I don't think I need Kayle
2:51
Speaker 2: doesn't do a backup.
2:52
Speaker 1: I see your point, John, A lot of us are
2:54
Speaker 1: using the cloud. We're using, you know, iCloud, Google Photos.
2:57
Speaker 1: That's true. But like in my for me, you know,
3:01
Speaker 1: I run the servers at work and justin you do
3:05
Speaker 1: the same thing. Oh yeah, we got tons of servers.
3:07
Speaker 1: I have a drive that is a complete backup of
3:12
Speaker 1: that system. So if that system were to fail, I
3:16
Speaker 1: can plug this other drive in and have very little downtime.
3:21
Speaker 1: But instead of having to rebuild all of that, reinstall
3:24
Speaker 1: the programs, doing all that can be a real pain
3:26
Speaker 1: in the butt.
3:27
Speaker 2: Is that cost right for you?
3:31
Speaker 4: Right?
3:31
Speaker 2: That's okay a little bit of your time. But if
3:33
Speaker 2: you're managing a lot of systems, like I think of
3:36
Speaker 2: our some of our engineering computers at work, where okay,
3:39
Speaker 2: i'd have to read software and reconfigure a couple of
3:41
Speaker 2: IP addresses, a couple of v lays and stuff. But
3:44
Speaker 2: there's nothing real important on those drives that doesn't live
3:47
Speaker 2: in the cloud.
3:48
Speaker 1: You have to wonder too, with the costs of the
3:49
Speaker 1: hard drives now, I mean, let's face it, it's gone.
3:52
Speaker 1: It's gone crazy that we thought RAM was bad. Hard
3:55
Speaker 1: drive storage also is at a minimum. Western Digital has
3:58
Speaker 1: said that they're not going to be putting out any
4:00
Speaker 1: new storage devices, you know, through the year. I mean,
4:03
Speaker 1: we're only what in April. It's it because of the
4:07
Speaker 1: demand that AI has caused on that and some of
4:10
Speaker 1: the data centers. Some are going back from SSDs and
4:15
Speaker 1: and VRAM to traditional spinny hard drives. World backup day.
4:18
Speaker 1: It does if it reminds you just to make sure
4:22
Speaker 1: you have a cloud backup. If that's the case, I'm
4:24
Speaker 1: probably starting a backup right now, just in case. Akranus
4:29
Speaker 1: is one of those that I've really liked. There's other
4:32
Speaker 1: ones that are out there in the market. I've never
4:34
Speaker 1: personally used carbonite, and people say that's good, but do
4:38
Speaker 1: they deliver a solution that if your drive dies you
4:42
Speaker 1: could just do a restore from carbonite, like like a bit,
4:46
Speaker 1: a bit by bit type of restore.
4:49
Speaker 2: I know that I know that black uh black plays
4:53
Speaker 2: back plazes. M hm, Well, you can do a bit
4:58
Speaker 2: for bit upload of your drive and then they will
5:01
Speaker 2: ship you a drive if you if you if your
5:03
Speaker 2: drive fails in your machine, they will dump it to
5:05
Speaker 2: a hard drive and mail you a drive that you
5:08
Speaker 2: can put it in.
5:08
Speaker 1: Too much time, it's gonna take two days.
5:11
Speaker 3: Is it worth sean getting an ass I mean you
5:14
Speaker 3: you have the I have achology.
5:16
Speaker 2: You yeah, I mean I thought, yeah, I bought this
5:19
Speaker 2: analogy just for peace of mind for myself.
5:23
Speaker 1: Right, I was getting to a.
5:24
Speaker 2: Point where my hard drives were beginning to age. Right,
5:28
Speaker 2: I had, I have drive I have still have the drives,
5:31
Speaker 2: but there drives that I'd bought in two thousand and five,
5:34
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, right, and
5:36
Speaker 2: I've had media on those drives that I have from
5:39
Speaker 2: from high school and college and my you know, my
5:41
Speaker 2: first jobs out of college that I wanted to get
5:44
Speaker 2: off of that and to protect instead of just dumping
5:46
Speaker 2: it into you know, a two terror By drive or
5:49
Speaker 2: a you know a couple one terror By drives. And
5:51
Speaker 2: so I ended up buying you know, I think I
5:54
Speaker 2: bought it, and we talked about it on the show.
5:56
Speaker 2: There's four years ago I bought it probably and I
6:00
Speaker 2: ended up getting a four base analogy and bought four
6:03
Speaker 2: Western Digital terabyte four terabyte reds. So my total RAID
6:08
Speaker 2: storage is twelve terabytes with a single dry failure, so
6:13
Speaker 2: I can do a single drive failure, so for a yeah,
6:15
Speaker 2: four to twelve yeah, head you a little mathem my
6:18
Speaker 2: head there, So sixteen gig sixteen terabyte total capacity if
6:24
Speaker 2: I went RAID zero. But I'm running RAID one, which
6:28
Speaker 2: means I can lose a single drive and have redundancy.
6:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's what I'm running right now. We so
6:34
Speaker 1: we got we got an email actually from Maria and
6:38
Speaker 1: Tucson that actually fits with this. I said, with all
6:41
Speaker 1: the talk about backing up data and files during World
6:43
Speaker 1: Backup Day, can you guys recommend a backup cloud service
6:48
Speaker 1: so I know my data is safe in the cloud.
6:50
Speaker 1: What are the downsides of cloud backups? And that's for Maria,
6:55
Speaker 1: I can tell you.
6:56
Speaker 3: One of the downsides of it is that a lot
6:59
Speaker 3: of your data is going to be scraped for either
7:03
Speaker 3: training AI models or it's going to be sold to
7:07
Speaker 3: third parties for advertising purposes.
7:10
Speaker 2: Oh wow, and yeah, that's that's one of it. That's
7:15
Speaker 2: why it's so cheap. The other downside is trans file
7:20
Speaker 2: transfer speeds. Right, So let's say you've got eight hundred
7:25
Speaker 2: gigs of stuff that you want to back up. Well,
7:28
Speaker 2: how good your internet?
7:30
Speaker 1: Right?
7:31
Speaker 2: If you want if you if you want it up there,
7:33
Speaker 2: you either got to commit a lot of time at
7:35
Speaker 2: bandwidth and then how fast do you want it back?
7:39
Speaker 2: Say you lose your hard drive and you need an
7:42
Speaker 2: important thing off of it immediately, and you go to
7:47
Speaker 2: your cloud backup and you know it's like all right
7:49
Speaker 2: here you need that six gigabyte file. I mean today
7:53
Speaker 2: in these days, it's not that bad. But if you
7:55
Speaker 2: need it all of the data, depending on how much
7:57
Speaker 2: data you have, you're limited to your internet bandwidth. Right,
8:00
Speaker 2: So I think that's a downside. The upsides right are
8:06
Speaker 2: successful anywhere of Internet. You can share files from it
8:12
Speaker 2: if it's a if it's an actual file share backup
8:15
Speaker 2: versus just like a bit for a bit backup. I
8:19
Speaker 2: I know that I use Google Photos and Google Drive.
8:23
Speaker 1: Yeah same here.
8:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, have you heard about this new thing about they're
8:28
Speaker 3: talking about with the what is a d Google d Google.
8:33
Speaker 3: That's it's a whole it's a whole subreddit thing, and
8:36
Speaker 3: it's a it's kind of becoming a movement. Actually, well
8:41
Speaker 3: it's it's not even necessarily just about Google. It's it's
8:44
Speaker 3: about these big tech companies in general. But they call
8:47
Speaker 3: it do Google, and it's talking about ways of getting
8:52
Speaker 3: rid of the big tech companies. Starting with first off,
8:56
Speaker 3: you know obviously don't use Facebook, Instagram, anything Meta, don't
9:01
Speaker 3: use don't use any of that, right, don't get a.
9:07
Speaker 1: What do they call it?
9:08
Speaker 3: The pixel the pixel phones that I have. You know
9:11
Speaker 3: that one too, because because Google is tracking every single
9:15
Speaker 3: thing you do. It doesn't really matter though, because if
9:18
Speaker 3: you even if you're on Samsung or whatever, even if
9:21
Speaker 3: you're on Apple. I'll get to Apple in a second.
9:23
Speaker 3: People are talking about ways of self hosting things and
9:28
Speaker 3: people have especially like Google Photos. We were just talking
9:31
Speaker 3: about Sonology. Sonology has an amazing photo storage application on
9:39
Speaker 3: it where you, yeah, where you can host your own photos.
9:43
Speaker 3: You can instead of your photos being uploaded directly to
9:47
Speaker 3: Google Photos, they get uploaded to your Sonology. So therefore
9:53
Speaker 3: you don't have to worry about Google scraping your photos
9:56
Speaker 3: and knowing everything about you or whatever you ever. Have
10:01
Speaker 3: you ever gone to Google Photos and there's like a
10:04
Speaker 3: there's a category in the menu called people, and if
10:08
Speaker 3: you click on people, it will show you headshots of
10:13
Speaker 3: every single person in any one of your photos. You
10:17
Speaker 3: can click on that person and it will show you
10:20
Speaker 3: every single photo that contains that person.
10:24
Speaker 1: Now they say they do it, they're doing it to
10:26
Speaker 1: make it easy. Here, here's a picture of Gloria, or
10:31
Speaker 1: here's a picture of you know, your grandkid or whatever.
10:33
Speaker 1: And it said, I want to see all the pictures
10:35
Speaker 1: of my grandkids, boom, and then they come up.
10:37
Speaker 2: For my grandma's ninetieth birthday, I was able to use
10:41
Speaker 2: Google Photos because I have all of my grandparents stuff
10:45
Speaker 2: scanned in from the fifties forward. It was able to
10:50
Speaker 2: categorize my grandma's face throughout all the pictures I had
10:54
Speaker 2: scanned in and put it into one album, even back
10:57
Speaker 2: to like my eyes, Well, I'd put them all yeah,
11:00
Speaker 2: so shooks fairly similar. So but it was able to
11:03
Speaker 2: identify her. And then you could add multiple people. So
11:07
Speaker 2: if it didn't really find her in some of the
11:08
Speaker 2: older pictures, I could then target an older picture and
11:11
Speaker 2: say this is also Carol Hoke put these photos in
11:15
Speaker 2: here also, and it didn't I mean, it was able
11:18
Speaker 2: to sort through it in a matter of it actually
11:20
Speaker 2: took quite a while, but it was able to sort
11:22
Speaker 2: through and give me an album with just my grandpa,
11:26
Speaker 2: my Grada's pictures that I can then put them together
11:28
Speaker 2: in a slideshow, download them whatever.
11:30
Speaker 3: So Google Google Photos does do that, and they do
11:32
Speaker 3: a good job, and and and and again. I'm not
11:34
Speaker 3: even getting to Apple yet. And I'm actually gonna talk
11:37
Speaker 3: positive about Apple for once, so stay tuned for that,
11:40
Speaker 3: because that's never happened.
11:43
Speaker 1: But Sonology does the same thing. They'll they'll do that.
11:46
Speaker 1: I mean, all right, there there.
11:48
Speaker 3: Is there is AI aspects built into the Sonology aspect
11:51
Speaker 3: of it, where it will you know, okay, hey, I'm
11:54
Speaker 3: looking for a photo of this person, and you give
11:57
Speaker 3: it the photo and then it will say, okay, I'm
12:00
Speaker 3: gonna search all your photos for this facial structure, right,
12:04
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna find these photos. But the same thing
12:08
Speaker 3: goes Google Apple Photos is the same thing. They are
12:11
Speaker 3: really good about finding photos of a particular person. But
12:17
Speaker 3: again it's all AI and everything you upload. I'm gonna
12:22
Speaker 3: I'm gonna just I'm gonna stop talking here. I'm gonna
12:24
Speaker 3: say one last thing. If you are not paying for
12:27
Speaker 3: the product, you are the product.
12:30
Speaker 1: True, that's true.
12:32
Speaker 2: That's been the same statement we've been saying for two
12:36
Speaker 2: decades now.
12:37
Speaker 1: We've seen okay, so we've seen security cameras coming out.
12:40
Speaker 1: I mean, let's talk about it. Why is is doing it?
12:43
Speaker 1: All of the you know, uh Google, Google nests, I
12:46
Speaker 1: mean they're all doing it. Ring where it can identify
12:51
Speaker 1: somebody that's walking up your driveway it's oh, that's that's Bill,
12:54
Speaker 1: you know, or you can have it set to identify
12:57
Speaker 1: I mean, you have the opportunity to opt out on that,
13:00
Speaker 1: but you and it uses AI to just basically point
13:03
Speaker 1: point point point finds all the points and then can
13:05
Speaker 1: determine who that person is.
13:07
Speaker 3: This might be opening up a can of worms. Well
13:09
Speaker 3: we're talking about the same thing that's going on right
13:11
Speaker 3: now with these flock cameras.
13:13
Speaker 1: Correct, Oh boy, that everywhere talk about that, because no,
13:17
Speaker 1: I don't. We've not talked about that. And it popped
13:19
Speaker 1: up and everybody who was like, wait a minute, what
13:22
Speaker 1: is this flock thing? And this guy that created was
13:24
Speaker 1: talking about it, and he was being interviewed he's like, yeah,
13:27
Speaker 1: you know, we just put him out.
13:28
Speaker 3: And the Flock thing is is very interesting because it's
13:33
Speaker 3: it's backed by Pallenteer, which is that that data research
13:38
Speaker 3: firm that the CIA uses, the FBI uses, all these
13:43
Speaker 3: big government agencies use Pallenteer. Now, Pallenteer didn't create Flock,
13:49
Speaker 3: they backed it. They're they're kind of like a data
13:52
Speaker 3: science company. But these Flock cameras have been doing some
13:57
Speaker 3: amazingly good things and some also some amazingly is that
14:05
Speaker 3: legal type of things? Yeah, you know, like they've been
14:08
Speaker 3: able to find there's been there have been some news
14:11
Speaker 3: stories talking about how a child has gone missing and
14:16
Speaker 3: they're like, hey, it was last scene with the father
14:21
Speaker 3: driving a white Mazda with the license plate blah blah blah,
14:25
Speaker 3: and the flot camera found it within ten seconds and
14:28
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, it's on the corner of a Colfax
14:30
Speaker 3: and blah blah blah. Not every city has them. I
14:33
Speaker 3: mean more and more cities are adopting them. If you
14:36
Speaker 3: follow the news, more and more of these cities are
14:38
Speaker 3: actually denying these things because they're like, hey, this is surveillance.
14:43
Speaker 3: This is like a surveillance state. We didn't we didn't
14:46
Speaker 3: sign up for this, we don't want this. So then
14:50
Speaker 3: these other cities are like, now, okay, now we just
14:52
Speaker 3: spent a million dollars of your tax payer money to
14:54
Speaker 3: put these systems in, and we're just going to remove
14:57
Speaker 3: them with no refund to you. A lot of companies,
15:00
Speaker 3: if you think about it, a lot of people were
15:02
Speaker 3: upset when companies were putting in the traffic cameras, you know,
15:05
Speaker 3: putting in the red light runners, uh speak care of those, yeah,
15:09
Speaker 3: speed cameras, yeah.
15:10
Speaker 2: Which some states have also determined those are constitusly illegal also, so.
15:15
Speaker 1: Depending out a state. Living Yeah, it's a lot of
15:18
Speaker 1: people have to think or you're always on You walk
15:21
Speaker 1: into a store and they've got the monitor up there
15:23
Speaker 1: showing that's you. You know, you're up there on the
15:26
Speaker 1: monitor and you are being recorded. Smile, you're on camera.
15:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to you have to remembers everywhere now,
15:35
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just a part of life at this point. Yeah,
15:38
Speaker 3: if it's not if it's not a fixed camera, a
15:42
Speaker 3: fixed security camera, there's always somebody on the street recording something. Yeah,
15:48
Speaker 3: and whether or not they're just recording themselves, like, hey guys,
15:52
Speaker 3: I'm here outside of Tiffany's in New York City.
15:55
Speaker 1: Love your I'm about to go buy something special.
15:59
Speaker 3: All those people in the background are being recorded, and
16:04
Speaker 3: that video has been then being uploaded to either Google Photos, Twitch,
16:13
Speaker 3: Got everywhere wherever, and all of that Snapchat, Facebook, what
16:18
Speaker 3: a Instagram. All of that stuff is being scraped by
16:22
Speaker 3: not only AI, but I can almost guarantee you the FBI,
16:28
Speaker 3: CIA and all that stuff are also scraping that stuff.
16:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to think we we kind of understand
16:34
Speaker 1: now with today's technology that okay, there's a chance, you know,
16:38
Speaker 1: we're gonna be out and about and and whatnot. There
16:40
Speaker 1: are companies out there that can provide geo fencing services
16:45
Speaker 1: so that if you wanted to know how many people
16:48
Speaker 1: showed up at at an event, they don't have to
16:51
Speaker 1: have somebody out in front with a clicker anymore. They
16:54
Speaker 1: actually look at all those cell phones that are coming
16:56
Speaker 1: into that area. They can get number a general number
17:02
Speaker 1: of how many people are coming into an event. And
17:05
Speaker 1: again that's all because our information is being bounced back
17:09
Speaker 1: and they're able to use that. So, you know, we
17:12
Speaker 1: don't want to we're gonna scare everybody, But the fact
17:15
Speaker 1: is that technology is there right, we're already scaring people. Yeah,
17:20
Speaker 1: just get off the internet and everybody. We already know
17:22
Speaker 1: who you are.
17:23
Speaker 3: We already know our listeners, we know your names, we
17:26
Speaker 3: know your addresses.
17:28
Speaker 1: If somebody wants to ask me, is it possible? And
17:31
Speaker 1: they asked me the question, and I thought, of you, Sean,
17:33
Speaker 1: is it possible not to be on Facebook? And I said, yes,
17:39
Speaker 1: you don't have to be on Facebook. My interactions with
17:42
Speaker 1: Facebook have gone pretty pretty weight down.
17:46
Speaker 5: You know.
17:46
Speaker 1: Actually it's funny.
17:47
Speaker 5: I don't use.
17:48
Speaker 3: Facebook anymore, hardly at all. And I've noticed I just
17:52
Speaker 3: actually recently made a post on Facebook.
17:55
Speaker 1: I posted on Facebook. I saw photo and I got
17:59
Speaker 1: like nine likes.
18:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, but normally I would get fifty or sixty because
18:05
Speaker 3: I've have a ton of people that I know. Yeah,
18:08
Speaker 3: it's because the algorithm has abandoned me.
18:11
Speaker 1: Yep. I talked to somebody the other day that said
18:14
Speaker 1: they were on Facebook and you know, they have a
18:16
Speaker 1: business that they made sixteen hundred bucks and forty five days.
18:20
Speaker 1: I said, wait, doing what and just doing his videos?
18:24
Speaker 1: Because that content, if it's driving people to check the
18:27
Speaker 1: content Facebook's made, it wants to pay. You know, I've
18:32
Speaker 1: made a cent, but He's making sixteen hundred bucks for
18:34
Speaker 1: forty five days just doing videos. And that's the whole thing.
18:37
Speaker 1: Engage the people, keep them watching. Oh, we'll pop an
18:40
Speaker 1: ad in the middle of your video. And that's how
18:43
Speaker 1: it works. I know how.
18:45
Speaker 3: I know why you're only making a couple cents, Andy,
18:48
Speaker 3: I'm not even making a couple cents, Okay, it's because
18:52
Speaker 3: people have to look at you.
18:54
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much. They need to look at
18:56
Speaker 1: like a hot like twenty year old model. You know that.
18:59
Speaker 1: Then then we're gonna start making some money. Maybe I
19:02
Speaker 1: could just AI myself, you know it that way just work,
19:05
Speaker 1: work that way around, all right. We One of the
19:09
Speaker 1: things that I wanted to talk about too, is something
19:11
Speaker 1: about a PS server that you had mentioned justin what
19:14
Speaker 1: is a PS server all about? We talked about synology
19:18
Speaker 1: and NAS. What is that?
19:20
Speaker 3: Well, it has to do with my sonology. I talked
19:23
Speaker 3: about this. It's actually a video game. I talked about
19:27
Speaker 3: this video game long time ago, Project Zomboid.
19:31
Speaker 1: Oh, Project Zomboid Server. All right, here you go, that's
19:33
Speaker 1: what it is.
19:34
Speaker 3: Well, so, yeah, so I have played this game, and
19:38
Speaker 3: i'd come to learn that Project Zomboid, the game itself
19:43
Speaker 3: I knew it looked somewhat like the SIMS, like the
19:46
Speaker 3: original SIMS.
19:47
Speaker 1: I just I knew it.
19:50
Speaker 3: Come to find out, the actual game was originally designed
19:54
Speaker 3: as a mod for.
19:56
Speaker 1: The SIMS A Zombies Sims. Yes, it's me selectly.
20:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so that's why the game looks like the SIMS.
20:05
Speaker 3: But the game Projects on Boyd was released back at
20:08
Speaker 3: I think it was twenty eleven or twenty thirteen, something
20:10
Speaker 3: like that. So it was designed as a mod for
20:14
Speaker 3: the SIMS. But then the SIMS said or ea, excuse me.
20:17
Speaker 3: He said, absolutely not. We're not going to allow this.
20:20
Speaker 3: So the guy was like, fine, I'll make my own game.
20:22
Speaker 3: But anyway, the game has been out for a long time,
20:25
Speaker 3: over thirteen, yeah, fifteen years.
20:27
Speaker 1: Something like that.
20:30
Speaker 3: I decided I wanted to host my own server because
20:33
Speaker 3: I wanted to be able to play with friends, but
20:37
Speaker 3: I can't because the game wasn't ready for that.
20:40
Speaker 1: But now it is. So you've got a server, now
20:43
Speaker 1: a project's on Boyd server.
20:45
Speaker 3: Yes and no, all right. I originally tried to set
20:49
Speaker 3: it up on my Sonology. Now Sonology does have the
20:52
Speaker 3: ability to use Docker. Docker is kind of like a
20:56
Speaker 3: virtual machine, like you can create a virtual machine set
21:00
Speaker 3: up a docor container for project Zomboid.
21:04
Speaker 1: Now, I had no idea how to do this.
21:07
Speaker 3: I had no idea how to use docer.
21:10
Speaker 1: I'm an it guy.
21:11
Speaker 3: I don't know docer. But what I do know is
21:14
Speaker 3: how to use AI. So I turned to Groc and
21:17
Speaker 3: I said, look, hey, Groc, I have a sonology. I
21:22
Speaker 3: want to set up a project zomboid server. Here's the
21:26
Speaker 3: get hub for it. Tell me step by step, like
21:30
Speaker 3: I'm five years old, how to set up this project
21:33
Speaker 3: zomboid server. The first line that Groc responded with, Okay,
21:39
Speaker 3: they're little buddy, We're gonna get started. And I'm like, okay, okay,
21:45
Speaker 3: let me let me rephrase that. Tell me like I'm
21:47
Speaker 3: fifteen years old, not five, like me, like I.
21:52
Speaker 1: Was a child.
21:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, I was like, okay, they're little buddy, We're
21:56
Speaker 3: gonna set up a server. Do you know what a
21:59
Speaker 3: server is? Like a So AI walked you through the
22:04
Speaker 3: process of getting started. I walk me through the process.
22:08
Speaker 3: But here's the thing. I kept getting errors. Every time
22:11
Speaker 3: I would try to start the server, something would fail
22:14
Speaker 3: on the synology and I'm like, hey, it's not happening.
22:17
Speaker 3: And I would send Rocks screenshots and I'm like, what
22:20
Speaker 3: are these errors? What do these errors mean? And it
22:23
Speaker 3: was like, okay, try this, and I would try it
22:26
Speaker 3: boom error, Okay, try this, boom error. I got to
22:31
Speaker 3: the point where I got almost I almost got it started,
22:35
Speaker 3: like the server was like showing signs of life, and
22:39
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, I'm almost there. But there's
22:40
Speaker 3: this other error that I need to figure out. And
22:44
Speaker 3: I went to Groc and I'm like, okay, I've got
22:46
Speaker 3: it running. Now there's this little error.
22:49
Speaker 1: What do I do?
22:50
Speaker 3: And I hit enter right Grock's response, Sorry, you've released
22:55
Speaker 3: You've reached your limit. Please wait twelve hours forty four minutes,
23:01
Speaker 3: or subscribe to Supergroc for thirty dollars for three months.
23:06
Speaker 3: Do I pay thirty dollars and I get super Grock
23:10
Speaker 3: for three months.
23:11
Speaker 1: They're giving me sixty six percent off.
23:14
Speaker 3: Like you know, I'm like, I'm trying to weigh my options,
23:16
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I really want to get this server running. Okay, fine,
23:21
Speaker 3: So I paid the money, got super Grock hit the
23:25
Speaker 3: air and is like, oh that air. Oh yeah, Project
23:30
Speaker 3: zah Boyd can't run on sonology.
23:32
Speaker 6: Oh it couldn't have told me. It couldn't have told
23:41
Speaker 6: you that four hours before?
23:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, four hours, No more than four hours, like six
23:46
Speaker 3: seven hours of work. And it was like, yeah, project
23:49
Speaker 3: zah Boy does not really designed for sonology.
23:51
Speaker 1: I'm like, you.
23:53
Speaker 3: Couldn't bleep and tell me this four hours ago. I
23:57
Speaker 3: was like, let me talk to your manager. I literally
23:59
Speaker 3: said that, let me talk to your manager, and Groc responded, okay,
24:03
Speaker 3: hold on, please dot dot dot dot dot.
24:06
Speaker 1: Hello, this is Groc's manager. How can I help you?
24:11
Speaker 1: It seems like Groc has a like attitude.
24:14
Speaker 3: It totally does. It was trolling me. It was totally
24:17
Speaker 3: trolling me. He's like, hello, this is Grock's manager. How
24:19
Speaker 3: can I help you?
24:20
Speaker 1: That's so funny. Sorry, what are you gonna do?
24:22
Speaker 5: Now?
24:22
Speaker 1: Are you gonna put it on something else?
24:24
Speaker 3: I went ahead, I bit the bullet and I just
24:26
Speaker 3: rented a server. It's six bucks a month really for
24:31
Speaker 3: four people. It's it's I don't have I don't have
24:35
Speaker 3: a lot of friends, Andy, Yeah, but I have a couple.
24:39
Speaker 2: I notice we didn't get invited to this.
24:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.
24:42
Speaker 1: I just thought about that. Well, I just set it
24:45
Speaker 1: up today. Geez, chill out.
24:48
Speaker 3: I will invite you, but no, I I I literally
24:51
Speaker 3: just set it up today and.
24:53
Speaker 1: Guess what, it took fifteen minutes to set up. That's
24:57
Speaker 1: cool and it's working. Oh wow, crazy stuff. All Right,
25:00
Speaker 1: we got to take a break. Come back. Listener questions
25:04
Speaker 1: updates on technology. We'll have that and more with tech
25:08
Speaker 1: Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor, I'm Sean de Weird, and
25:10
Speaker 1: I'm Justin.
25:11
Speaker 3: Let me find us on the web at tech talk
25:13
Speaker 3: radio dot com.
25:14
Speaker 1: We'll be right back and now fac to tech talk Radio.
25:19
Speaker 3: All right, we have a listener question from Richard in Suarita. Sita,
25:25
Speaker 3: It's okay, whatever, dude, I don't live there anymore. There
25:31
Speaker 3: you go, it says hi, guys, I love listening to
25:34
Speaker 3: the show on KGVY. However, I'm changing jobs and moving
25:37
Speaker 3: to Dallas. Oh man, sorry, I'm wanting to set up
25:43
Speaker 3: internet service with Spectrum. However, it seems like fiber is
25:46
Speaker 3: also available, and it seems a bit cheaper than cable internet.
25:49
Speaker 3: Is fiber worth it over the cable companies? I will
25:52
Speaker 3: still listen to your shows online after I move from Sarita.
25:58
Speaker 3: Good job, that would Yeah, that's Richard.
26:02
Speaker 1: You have fiber, don't you.
26:03
Speaker 3: I do have fiber, and I swear to God, fiber
26:07
Speaker 3: is miles above cable. Now, one main, one main reason
26:12
Speaker 3: when you have fiber, more often than not, and I
26:16
Speaker 3: can't say guaranteed, but more often than not, your fiber
26:20
Speaker 3: circuit is a dedicated circuit to you, yes, which means
26:25
Speaker 3: you are guaranteed not now they they don't guarantee ever,
26:30
Speaker 3: but you're more often than not guaranteed a particular set
26:34
Speaker 3: of services, whether it be you know, download and upload.
26:36
Speaker 3: So let's say, for example, you subscribe to the one
26:41
Speaker 3: gig Internet service, which means you're gonna get one gig
26:43
Speaker 3: download one gig upload.
26:46
Speaker 1: All right.
26:47
Speaker 3: With cable, they'll tell you, oh, yeah, we offer one gig.
26:52
Speaker 3: They don't specify one gig up or one gig down
26:55
Speaker 3: because more often than not you'll get better download and
26:59
Speaker 3: you'll get really crummy upload because and also with cable
27:04
Speaker 3: you're sharing that circuit with everybody in your neighborhood. Now,
27:08
Speaker 3: I think part of the problem with a lot of
27:11
Speaker 3: people when it comes to the cable company. You know,
27:13
Speaker 3: they'll get the Internet and then they'll get the cable,
27:17
Speaker 3: so they get the services like you know, a box,
27:19
Speaker 3: and then they pay, but they pay extra for that
27:21
Speaker 3: to watch you know, the watch content, whether it be
27:24
Speaker 3: History or Discovery or tail c or Hallmark whatever. Dude,
27:29
Speaker 3: not everybody watches the same stuff you do. But I
27:32
Speaker 3: mean they get they get that with it.
27:34
Speaker 1: If they're getting fiber, they don't get that, they can
27:37
Speaker 1: then get a Roku, they can then get you know,
27:40
Speaker 1: whatever services.
27:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, the cable companies are kind of a dying breed,
27:44
Speaker 3: don't you agree, Sean. I mean it's cable companies are
27:47
Speaker 3: becoming an isp Yeah.
27:49
Speaker 2: I mean realistically, in this day and age, most people
27:54
Speaker 2: are streaming their content. They're not doing a dedicated hit tabletop,
28:00
Speaker 2: you know, over the air box or over the air.
28:02
Speaker 2: They're watching it on their phone while they're on the go,
28:05
Speaker 2: or they're sitting at their computer. I mean more often
28:09
Speaker 2: than not. It's I would say seventy to eighty percent
28:12
Speaker 2: of content now is consumed on phones or iPads, right, So,
28:18
Speaker 2: and what do you do with that when you're at home?
28:20
Speaker 2: It's just on the Wi Fi or using data?
28:22
Speaker 1: Right.
28:22
Speaker 2: So it's like at Fiber, it's just like we have
28:25
Speaker 2: we share a YouTube TV account and that's how we
28:29
Speaker 2: get our TV.
28:30
Speaker 1: So generally you've found it's generally faster, But what about
28:33
Speaker 1: the cost, Like Richard's wanting to know, you know, he said,
28:36
Speaker 1: it seems a bit cheaper. I mean, is that a
28:38
Speaker 1: well a good solution if you're a streamer.
28:41
Speaker 3: It's well, it's cheaper for Fiber because they're not they're
28:45
Speaker 3: not trying to bundle extra services like like Infinity now
28:49
Speaker 3: Infinity Back in the day, they would try to bundle
28:52
Speaker 3: your home phone. Right, nobody uses a home phone anymore,
28:56
Speaker 3: so now they're trying to bundle Exfinity Mobile to make
28:59
Speaker 3: you have your mobile carrier as well as your internet carrier.
29:05
Speaker 3: But honestly, Fiber is literally just straight Internet, Like they
29:10
Speaker 3: don't care, like we're just going to provide you Internet.
29:13
Speaker 3: We don't care if you have a home phone, we
29:15
Speaker 3: don't care if you have television. We're providing Internet.
29:18
Speaker 1: That's it. So that's why they're a lot cheaper. Sean
29:22
Speaker 1: is running his speed test right now and he's on Fiber.
29:25
Speaker 1: What kind of results are you getting? Seven eight down
29:29
Speaker 1: and nine two up? And this is while you're recording.
29:34
Speaker 2: While I'm recording, Yes, and I paid just over one
29:37
Speaker 2: hundred bucks a month for one game, and I could
29:40
Speaker 2: bump that up. They offer to who's your prevent well
29:44
Speaker 2: Metronet got bought by T Mobile, So technically T Mobile
29:47
Speaker 2: was metro Net, but it's technically T Mobile now.
29:50
Speaker 1: But I've got century Link, which then turned into Quantum Fiber,
29:55
Speaker 1: which then just got bought by AT and T. So
29:58
Speaker 1: I technically I'm on AT and T because they bought it.
30:01
Speaker 1: But with Quantum Fiber, I'm paying sixty bucks a month
30:05
Speaker 1: per gig. Wow. Yeah, it's also in a major metroc
30:09
Speaker 1: I was gonna.
30:10
Speaker 2: Say, you're in a major metro area, right, I mean
30:12
Speaker 2: South South Bends not a major metro area.
30:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's gonna be a little bit more. Yeah,
30:16
Speaker 3: you're gonna pay for a little bit more.
30:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Do you have to use their equipment sean
30:21
Speaker 1: or can you use your own?
30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to use their their bulkhead piece. I
30:27
Speaker 2: don't remember exactly what it's called, your od M or
30:29
Speaker 2: whatever it's called. Uh yeah, but they bring in a
30:33
Speaker 2: single strand of fiber with an s M with an
30:36
Speaker 2: s ours is sc squid square click click it right
30:41
Speaker 2: in and then you get it eternet out.
30:43
Speaker 3: Right, and you don't necessarily have to use anything. I mean,
30:47
Speaker 3: you have to use their modem I believe usually, but
30:51
Speaker 3: beyond that, like they'll try to be like, oh, our
30:53
Speaker 3: modem also acts as a router, No, thank you, I
30:56
Speaker 3: got my own. Like, you can use your own router,
30:59
Speaker 3: and whether it be like a Lynxis router or an
31:01
Speaker 3: a SEUs rog router, or even if you want to
31:04
Speaker 3: use like a homebrew solution like PF Sense, you can
31:10
Speaker 3: set up one of those and use it.
31:12
Speaker 1: So for Richard, if he could go with fiber and he's.
31:16
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely all right, that's that's absolutely Now you mentioned routers.
31:22
Speaker 3: I think it's important to note that some news came
31:24
Speaker 3: out just this last week that the new rule from
31:29
Speaker 3: the FCC is no more sales of routers that are
31:33
Speaker 3: made outside of the US. And now this will not
31:38
Speaker 3: affect the current routers that that are on the shelves
31:41
Speaker 3: from Lynxis, uh you know, Netgear, a SEUs whatever.
31:47
Speaker 1: They'll still be available to be sold. However, if they
31:51
Speaker 1: want to bring in any more, they have to be
31:54
Speaker 1: made in the US. There's only one company in the
31:57
Speaker 1: US that makes their own type of router. That's Starlink.
32:01
Speaker 1: That's it.
32:01
Speaker 3: Well, I gotta say this, this this rule or this
32:06
Speaker 3: law or whatever they're trying to make it into. This
32:08
Speaker 3: is this virtue signaling Okay, okay, we're gonna start with routers. Okay, fine,
32:14
Speaker 3: how about motherboards on computers made in China. How about
32:18
Speaker 3: your refrigerator made in China. How about your dishwasher made
32:23
Speaker 3: in China. How about your microwave likely made in China.
32:27
Speaker 3: How about your television absolutely made in China?
32:31
Speaker 1: Like, where what are we? When are we going to
32:33
Speaker 1: stop this?
32:33
Speaker 3: We don't have we don't have the infrastructure in place
32:37
Speaker 3: to replace all of these devices that are made in China.
32:42
Speaker 1: Belkon I know. Step Forward said this is a great idea.
32:45
Speaker 1: They applauded the FEC decision. The thing is they are
32:48
Speaker 1: based in the United States. However their product is made
32:52
Speaker 1: in China. So what a lot of these companies will
32:55
Speaker 1: have to do is they can actually ask for I
32:57
Speaker 1: don't want to call it a waiver, but they get
33:00
Speaker 1: actually have the information presented so that we don't have
33:04
Speaker 1: to think that we're not going to get you know,
33:06
Speaker 1: Wi Fi eight or Wi Fi seven or whatnot. They
33:08
Speaker 1: can actually ask for an exclusion and present their technology
33:13
Speaker 1: and hopefully get an exclusion. They said that Netgear more
33:16
Speaker 1: than likely would be get able to get that exclusion
33:19
Speaker 1: since they have offices that are based in the US
33:23
Speaker 1: link Systs, which makes some great routers. They're part of
33:27
Speaker 1: fox Con, which of course is a foreign based company,
33:30
Speaker 1: so we'll have to see how that ends up playing out.
33:33
Speaker 1: But apparently, you know, they're telling people, well, you know,
33:36
Speaker 1: don't worry, there's still going to be something them on
33:39
Speaker 1: the shelves. But that is causing people to go out
33:41
Speaker 1: and buy, which means we're going to see the price
33:43
Speaker 1: going up of routers. And you know that type of
33:47
Speaker 1: that type of hardware doesn't affect switches, it affects routers. Also,
33:50
Speaker 1: I want to share this before we go to break
33:53
Speaker 1: Speed Racer. Not the original cartoons which I liked, but
33:57
Speaker 1: the movie is getting a re release in a on
34:00
Speaker 1: April no May nineteenth, with a four K coming out
34:05
Speaker 1: and a re release of the movie in theaters this month,
34:09
Speaker 1: so actually sounds pretty cool.
34:10
Speaker 3: Speaking of releases coming out, as of the recording of
34:14
Speaker 3: the show, we got the new Mario movie coming out,
34:17
Speaker 3: Mario Galaxy.
34:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, comes out this well by the time this show, no,
34:21
Speaker 1: it comes out Tuesday, that's right, yeah, Tuesday.
34:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm gonna take my kid to it. Yeah,
34:26
Speaker 3: but that should be a good show, I think I
34:28
Speaker 3: was not a big fan. I mean honestly, when I
34:30
Speaker 3: went into the original Mario movie, I was like, I
34:33
Speaker 3: did not have high hopes because of the past Mario movies.
34:37
Speaker 3: But that was actually a really, really good and it
34:40
Speaker 3: broke so many records. I'm excited to see what they
34:44
Speaker 3: do with Super Mario Galaxy.
34:45
Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, it's going good. All right, come back. Actually,
34:49
Speaker 1: we're going to talk with the CEO of a company
34:52
Speaker 1: called grand Pad. They make a tablet that is geared
34:56
Speaker 1: at seniors. I thought this is important. We talked with
34:59
Speaker 1: Scott Lean, the original amazing founder, co founder and former
35:05
Speaker 1: CEO of the company some years ago, back in twenty twenty,
35:08
Speaker 1: and they've come a long way. They've got some new
35:10
Speaker 1: added features to it and of course some different structures.
35:14
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk with the CEO of grandpat
35:16
Speaker 1: about what they can deliver to you if you're looking
35:19
Speaker 1: for an easier way to use online services, play some games,
35:23
Speaker 1: and do it all on a tablet. We'll be back
35:25
Speaker 1: with more of tech Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor, I'm
35:28
Speaker 1: Sean de Weird, and I'm justin. Let me send us
35:31
Speaker 1: an X at tech talk Radio. We'll be right back
35:34
Speaker 1: now back to tief talk Radio. Well, not that long ago.
35:38
Speaker 1: I was talking with a good friend of mine who
35:40
Speaker 1: lives here in Green Valley. It was telling me that
35:43
Speaker 1: his computer had died and he was looking for an
35:47
Speaker 1: alternate source. And he said that his son was thinking
35:50
Speaker 1: about getting them a tablet, and I said, right away,
35:53
Speaker 1: I said, why doesn't your son get your grandpat And
35:55
Speaker 1: this gentleman is in his mid eighties and he asked
35:59
Speaker 1: me what's Grandpad. I said, Grandpad is a gateway to
36:03
Speaker 1: making technology easier for you. And he's not too tech savvy,
36:07
Speaker 1: so I thought this would be great. And I remembered
36:10
Speaker 1: that about six years ago we talked with the CEO
36:14
Speaker 1: at the time for Grandpad about, you know, what they
36:16
Speaker 1: were doing and how they were changing the market. And
36:19
Speaker 1: they've come a long way in six years. And we're
36:23
Speaker 1: happy to have with us on the line, the acting
36:25
Speaker 1: CEO of Grandpad, Julie. I meant Grant, who was with us, Julie,
36:29
Speaker 1: it's great to see you. Thanks for coming on.
36:31
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, Andy, it's so great to be with
36:33
Speaker 4: you today. Thanks for inviting us.
36:35
Speaker 3: Grandpad has come a long way from its original idea,
36:38
Speaker 3: which I believe was what went back in twenty fourteen.
36:41
Speaker 1: But what is Grandpad.
36:42
Speaker 4: Well, it's a safe and secure tablet. And I think
36:45
Speaker 4: many times people look at and say, oh, gosh, oh,
36:48
Speaker 4: it's like an iPad, right, and and certainly it is
36:51
Speaker 4: a tablet, but really it goes one step further. It
36:54
Speaker 4: was really designed with old adults in mind. And so
36:59
Speaker 4: while it is a tablet and it's easy to use,
37:03
Speaker 4: it really thought about, you know, how would someone that
37:06
Speaker 4: maybe hasn't had much experience with technology, how would they
37:10
Speaker 4: think about using a piece of technology.
37:14
Speaker 5: How would it enhance their life?
37:15
Speaker 4: I think so many times technology is designed for technology's sake,
37:20
Speaker 4: and in this case, it was really designed to enhance
37:23
Speaker 4: the self esteem of someone and really connect them with
37:26
Speaker 4: their loved ones. And so it's safe and secure, easy
37:31
Speaker 4: to use, and it's very very intuitive. In fact, before
37:36
Speaker 4: we release anything on the grand Pad, we put it
37:38
Speaker 4: in front of our Grand Advisors. This is a group
37:41
Speaker 4: of individuals that I think our youngest is seventy eight
37:45
Speaker 4: years old and our oldest was one hundred and six,
37:48
Speaker 4: and we put new features in front of them, and
37:51
Speaker 4: what they do is they tell us how they would
37:54
Speaker 4: use the feature. And so, as an example, when you
37:57
Speaker 4: scroll through the Grandpad. It's goals left to right like
38:01
Speaker 4: you would read a book, and many of our devices
38:03
Speaker 4: scroll vertically, and so they you know, they said, you
38:07
Speaker 4: don't read a book that way, Why would you scroll
38:10
Speaker 4: that way? And so the beauty of putting in front
38:12
Speaker 4: of individuals that actually use it is they give you
38:14
Speaker 4: real feedback. You'll hear businesses say it all the time.
38:17
Speaker 4: You got to listen to your customer, and we truly do.
38:20
Speaker 4: It's one of the core principles of our company.
38:22
Speaker 1: When you go and buy tablet in the marketplace, a
38:24
Speaker 1: regular tablet, whether it be an iPad or you know,
38:28
Speaker 1: the Samsung device, you have to start weading through stuff
38:31
Speaker 1: and find Okay, I gotta find this. How to do
38:33
Speaker 1: this with Grandpad. Set up is super easy. Getting to
38:37
Speaker 1: know what's available on the Grandpad is super easy. But
38:41
Speaker 1: it also it doesn't just say here's games and here's
38:45
Speaker 1: a way to look at photos. It has a way
38:47
Speaker 1: to communicate with your loved ones as well. I mean,
38:49
Speaker 1: it really kind of sets the Grandpad sets it apart
38:53
Speaker 1: from the others because of its ease of use, is it?
38:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a great point. Andy.
38:58
Speaker 4: I think one of the additional design principles was that
39:02
Speaker 4: a ninety year old could open the box and there's
39:05
Speaker 4: a couple of key features there. I mean there aren't
39:08
Speaker 4: there isn't tape on the box, there aren't the twist ties,
39:11
Speaker 4: and that was all intentional by design. I mean, as
39:14
Speaker 4: people aged, dexterity becomes a challenge and we didn't want
39:18
Speaker 4: older adults to have to try to cut something and
39:21
Speaker 4: potentially hurt themselves. So really the intent is a ninety
39:24
Speaker 4: year old could open the box and use the product
39:27
Speaker 4: in ninety seconds. It comes ready to use out of
39:30
Speaker 4: the box. It is Wi Fi enabled, so you open
39:33
Speaker 4: it up and the features are all there. It's already
39:36
Speaker 4: set up. And again that's all done behind the scenes,
39:38
Speaker 4: so when it ships to the end user, it's set
39:41
Speaker 4: up and it's set up with that safe and secure network.
39:45
Speaker 4: So we typically try to get the family involved beforehand,
39:49
Speaker 4: so there might be you know, family images there because
39:54
Speaker 4: sometimes the old adults is intimidated by that piece of technology.
39:57
Speaker 4: But if you make it easy and meet them where
39:59
Speaker 4: they're and I think again that was one of the
40:01
Speaker 4: things that was really important to us is we want
40:04
Speaker 4: this technology to be less about technology and the ability,
40:08
Speaker 4: just like we are andy communicating and more about the
40:11
Speaker 4: conversation and the connection. And so there are many features
40:14
Speaker 4: on the Grandpad, and but that can be customized to
40:18
Speaker 4: the individual. So, you know, I remember one day, we've
40:21
Speaker 4: got an internal testimonial channel where our agents can post
40:26
Speaker 4: things that people say, and there was this wonderful testimonial
40:31
Speaker 4: from the actual user. She was ninety seven years old
40:35
Speaker 4: in the Boston area and she wanted to get the
40:39
Speaker 4: newspaper on her grandpad and her family thought that maybe
40:42
Speaker 4: she wouldn't be able to do it. Well, after much
40:45
Speaker 4: you know, sort of back and forth, they put and
40:47
Speaker 4: I think it was the Boston Globe, don't quote me
40:49
Speaker 4: on that, but they put it on her grandpad that
40:51
Speaker 4: she could you know, they got a subscription and locked
40:53
Speaker 4: in and she was so delighted that she could read
40:56
Speaker 4: the newspaper on her grandpad. And intuitive you might think,
41:01
Speaker 4: could a ninety seven year old do that? And it
41:03
Speaker 4: really wasn't about age in this case, right, it was
41:06
Speaker 4: about her ability. Likewise, you might have someone unfortunately that
41:11
Speaker 4: maybe has early onset dementia at a young age of
41:15
Speaker 4: sixty four that needs something safe and simple to be
41:20
Speaker 4: able to use. So the Grandpad all the features on
41:22
Speaker 4: the Grandpad have the ability to customize to that individual's
41:27
Speaker 4: use level and really meet them where they're at.
41:30
Speaker 1: You know, Julia, I read a lot of the comments.
41:32
Speaker 1: I was checking it out and to see some of
41:35
Speaker 1: these comments where people were dealing with a medical condition
41:39
Speaker 1: that made it a little more difficult to use an
41:42
Speaker 1: actual tablet or a computer for that matter, or laptop.
41:47
Speaker 1: This kind of had everything in front. Everything is larger,
41:51
Speaker 1: it's easier to read, easier to access, and of course
41:53
Speaker 1: I love this. You know, you get the grand Patch stylists,
41:57
Speaker 1: so that can make it actually a little easier in
41:59
Speaker 1: you knowing your hand to the tablet and using it.
42:02
Speaker 1: But you also made it easy, let's face it, at
42:04
Speaker 1: the end of the night or the end of the day,
42:06
Speaker 1: you know you want to charge it up. You got
42:08
Speaker 1: to plug it in and do all this stuff. You
42:11
Speaker 1: don't with the Grandpad. You just put it right on
42:14
Speaker 1: the dot which comes with it, and you're good to go.
42:17
Speaker 4: A couple things that you bring up is, you know,
42:19
Speaker 4: the stylist and as people age there's less moisture in
42:23
Speaker 4: their fingertips, and so again, really by sitting in with
42:28
Speaker 4: our users and finding that out that the ability to
42:31
Speaker 4: touch the screen. The lack of moisture in your fingers
42:35
Speaker 4: sometimes makes it difficult, and some people just felt more
42:38
Speaker 4: comfortable with having that stylust or something that felt like
42:42
Speaker 4: a pencil or a pen So I'm glad that you.
42:44
Speaker 5: Bring that up.
42:45
Speaker 4: And the charger serves so many purposes. When the case
42:49
Speaker 4: is open on that charger, it does move to kind
42:52
Speaker 4: of a photoshare mode. In our healthcare side of it,
42:54
Speaker 4: We've got many people that you know, have the grandpad
42:57
Speaker 4: on that charging or docking station and we'll also do
43:01
Speaker 4: a video call.
43:02
Speaker 1: You know.
43:02
Speaker 5: Again, you can do it with family.
43:03
Speaker 4: But also it serves that purpose for telehealth. We have
43:07
Speaker 4: many people in our healthcare space and or even with
43:11
Speaker 4: our B two C side of it, where they're using
43:13
Speaker 4: it to connect with a physician or nurse to conduct
43:18
Speaker 4: a you know, a telehealth visit. So this is a
43:20
Speaker 4: great option for people that need that as well.
43:24
Speaker 1: You just kind of touch upon something, and I want
43:26
Speaker 1: to mention that so family members can when you have
43:30
Speaker 1: a it's kind of like you have this device, family
43:34
Speaker 1: members can also connect to interact with that person on
43:37
Speaker 1: the device. So say if I go out and take
43:40
Speaker 1: photo with the kids, and I upload them to you know,
43:43
Speaker 1: my grand my grandpad. Then it's gonna allowed the family
43:48
Speaker 1: to see those photos.
43:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, great point. So we have a free companion app
43:52
Speaker 4: that the family gets connected and so again it's very
43:56
Speaker 4: safe and secure. Uh, there's a family administrator for or
44:00
Speaker 4: each account, and in some cases the older adult can
44:04
Speaker 4: be their own family administrator if they want, depending upon
44:06
Speaker 4: the situation. But they then control who can be in
44:11
Speaker 4: the network, and that does a couple of things. One,
44:13
Speaker 4: as you just described, they can invite others in via
44:17
Speaker 4: the app, and so then those individuals can share photos,
44:22
Speaker 4: they can make and take phone calls as well as
44:26
Speaker 4: video calls. They also can play games with the individuals.
44:30
Speaker 4: We have multiplayer games, so we can play checkers, we
44:34
Speaker 4: can you know, have family tournaments that way, which is
44:37
Speaker 4: very funny. And we also have multi way video calling
44:40
Speaker 4: through the app itself or you can also use zoom.
44:43
Speaker 1: We're constantly warnedly about, you know, the internet and the
44:47
Speaker 1: dangers of connecting to this, and again you mentioned something
44:51
Speaker 1: very important, the kind of the ability to have and
44:54
Speaker 1: be within that private network that you don't really have
44:56
Speaker 1: to worry too much about, you know, these outsiders getting
45:00
Speaker 1: into your system.
45:01
Speaker 4: Because the Grandpad is a safe and secure network, meaning
45:04
Speaker 4: that the family administrator decides who can call that Grandpad.
45:09
Speaker 4: You do not receive any calls from anybody outside of
45:12
Speaker 4: the network. And you know, I can't stress that enough.
45:15
Speaker 4: I'm fortunate enough to have both my parents and my
45:18
Speaker 4: in laws still living, and every time I talk to
45:21
Speaker 4: them with their regular i'll say landline phone, they are
45:24
Speaker 4: receiving multiple calls a day from you know, different entities
45:30
Speaker 4: claiming to be something. And as much as you you know,
45:35
Speaker 4: warn parents and loved ones to say, you know, don't
45:38
Speaker 4: take that call, they're becoming more and more sophisticated. We're
45:41
Speaker 4: so proud of the Grandpad network for really thinking about
45:45
Speaker 4: those loved ones that you know, hey, this is a
45:47
Speaker 4: way to keep them safe and secure in a protected network.
45:50
Speaker 1: Now, one of the newer features that I saw in
45:52
Speaker 1: there and I thought this is kind of cool is
45:54
Speaker 1: Grandi chat tell us about this.
45:57
Speaker 4: Grandi Chat is does have AI behind it, but very
46:00
Speaker 4: very carefully and thoughtfully designed and so there are guardrails
46:05
Speaker 4: around it. So it is intended to you know, be
46:08
Speaker 4: a tool to use with old adults that can be conversational,
46:12
Speaker 4: but again has those guardrails. It was our take on
46:15
Speaker 4: how do we bring AI into this space, but in
46:19
Speaker 4: a way that makes old adults feel comfortable, and they converbally,
46:23
Speaker 4: you know, use it, and so they use their voice.
46:25
Speaker 4: They can certainly type as well, but we find that
46:27
Speaker 4: people like to be able to ask grandy, you know, hey,
46:31
Speaker 4: tell me what the weather is. So often what we
46:34
Speaker 4: do is our member experience agents. So our customer service,
46:38
Speaker 4: which we call member experience is not only inbound calls
46:42
Speaker 4: but outbound calls. And so we share with people how
46:45
Speaker 4: they can use it, and we let them like, hey,
46:48
Speaker 4: ask them what the weather is, or ask them what
46:50
Speaker 4: the score of the baseball game was yesterday, And so
46:52
Speaker 4: we kind of ease them into it because you know,
46:55
Speaker 4: sometimes people are.
46:56
Speaker 5: A little like, I don't know how to use that.
46:59
Speaker 4: But it's really been a wonderful tool. And I was
47:04
Speaker 4: visiting one of our healthcare partners in Florida a couple
47:06
Speaker 4: of weeks ago, and we had a gentleman and he's like, well,
47:09
Speaker 4: I don't know how I would use it.
47:10
Speaker 5: Well, he was.
47:10
Speaker 4: Really into World War two airplanes, and so we asked
47:14
Speaker 4: a question about a World War two airplane, and oh,
47:18
Speaker 4: my gosh, to see the joy on his face about
47:22
Speaker 4: that particular answer, and then he kind of ignored us
47:26
Speaker 4: and sat down and just started asking him more questions,
47:28
Speaker 4: which was absolutely wonderful. Right, that's what you want, And
47:33
Speaker 4: so we were delighted by that because that was the intent.
47:38
Speaker 1: I will say, Jillie, the best packaging ever. I'm not
47:44
Speaker 1: kidding you. As I went through this the current Grandpad,
47:48
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, this is the best presentation ever.
47:51
Speaker 1: And I know this isn't just you know, for me
47:53
Speaker 1: and the media taking a look at this. You know,
47:56
Speaker 1: a good welcoming, the email address that can be issued
48:01
Speaker 1: for a user to be able to interact, and you know,
48:04
Speaker 1: easily laid out graphics to show this is what your
48:08
Speaker 1: experience can be. Like, I've got to applaud you on that,
48:12
Speaker 1: because again, as a consumer and an older consumer, customer,
48:17
Speaker 1: service is one is number one, and I think a
48:20
Speaker 1: lot of us older adults we appreciate that. And that's
48:24
Speaker 1: exactly what Grandpad does. It didn't just say here's a
48:27
Speaker 1: tablet inter wrapper, open it up, plug it in and go.
48:30
Speaker 1: This is something a little more of a personal experience,
48:33
Speaker 1: and I really do like that. I'm hoping if they
48:35
Speaker 1: haven't checked it out yet, they check it out if
48:36
Speaker 1: they think it's something for, you know, a loved one,
48:38
Speaker 1: a senior adult. This is really a phenomenal piece of technology,
48:42
Speaker 1: and you've done some great stuff with it. It's always great
48:44
Speaker 1: to have a product like this and know that you're
48:47
Speaker 1: making a difference. Julie, have you got a story that
48:49
Speaker 1: you could share with us about that?
48:51
Speaker 4: A colleague I had this story. I'll probably get a
48:54
Speaker 4: little choked up on a colleague I had. His mother
48:58
Speaker 4: had Alzheimer's and one day he was out and about
49:02
Speaker 4: and he gets a call and it's from his mother
49:06
Speaker 4: through the Grandpad. And he assumed his sister was with
49:10
Speaker 4: his mother. She was in a nursing facility, and so
49:13
Speaker 4: he answered and it was actually his mother and and
49:16
Speaker 4: he was like, Mom, are you okay? And she said, yeah, Mark,
49:21
Speaker 4: I'm okay. And he said, how did you call me?
49:26
Speaker 4: And she said, well, I was on the Grandpad and
49:30
Speaker 4: I saw your picture here on the call feature, and
49:34
Speaker 4: I thought I would just press it and I wanted
49:37
Speaker 4: to talk to you. And he tells the story and
49:40
Speaker 4: she hadn't been able to call him for ten years,
49:43
Speaker 4: and it was shortly before she passed away. And when
49:46
Speaker 4: he tells me the story. He's like, I like, again,
49:50
Speaker 4: I get emotional because it's you know, he's like, I'm
49:52
Speaker 4: forever thankful for the ability for her to have this
49:57
Speaker 4: technology that allowed her to have the independence. And he's
50:02
Speaker 4: like the fact that she had this memory and saw
50:04
Speaker 4: my picture and she could connect with me, He's like,
50:07
Speaker 4: I will hold that forever.
50:08
Speaker 1: Great story. Julie, thank you so much for coming on
50:11
Speaker 1: tech Talk Radio and telling us about Grandpad.
50:13
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having us. I have absolutely
50:16
Speaker 4: enjoyed our time together.
50:17
Speaker 1: Now for our listeners want to get more information, where
50:20
Speaker 1: should they.
50:20
Speaker 4: Go, Julie, grandpad dot net is our website and there's
50:24
Speaker 4: wonderful information there. We also have you know, our phone
50:28
Speaker 4: number on our website. We've got agents always on that
50:30
Speaker 4: are happy to talk about our product as well. So
50:34
Speaker 4: I'm visitors at grandpad dot net again.
50:36
Speaker 1: Grandpad dot net. Once again, thanks for coming on. We'll
50:39
Speaker 1: be back with more of tech Talk Radio standing by
50:43
Speaker 1: and now fact to tech Talk Radio.
50:46
Speaker 3: So you guys know that I film this show with
50:50
Speaker 3: this three thousand dollars.
50:52
Speaker 1: Camera, three thousand dollars camera.
50:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, I gotta say, I gotta say.
50:56
Speaker 3: I mean, everybody says oh, I watch your videos and
50:59
Speaker 3: Justin's looks so much better than everybody else. Yes, I
51:04
Speaker 3: do have a very expensive camera. However, I don't have
51:07
Speaker 3: an expensive lens. I have the most basic lens, five
51:11
Speaker 3: dollars lens.
51:12
Speaker 1: Well, whatever comes, whatever comes with them. They call them
51:16
Speaker 1: kit lenses.
51:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I slap a couple like sheets of like aluminum
51:20
Speaker 3: foil and a piece of glass on it and call
51:22
Speaker 3: it a lens.
51:24
Speaker 1: Anyway, I'm going to Japan.
51:27
Speaker 3: In May, Okay, and there is an obviously, Sony is
51:31
Speaker 3: a Japanese company, right, and so is Tamarn.
51:35
Speaker 1: Tamarn makes a lot of lenses. Cameron makes great lenses.
51:39
Speaker 3: They make some great lenses, and if you don't want
51:41
Speaker 3: to pay the extra money to get an official Sony lens,
51:45
Speaker 3: you can buy Tamarn lenses. And there's other companies that
51:48
Speaker 3: make lenses. They're called emount lenses. And that's what fits
51:52
Speaker 3: my camera. My point being is that right now, at
51:56
Speaker 3: this moment, and it's not going to improve anytime soon,
51:59
Speaker 3: the Japan is super weak to the American dollar, all right,
52:06
Speaker 3: So when I go to Japan in May, I am
52:09
Speaker 3: looking to buy a Tamarn thirty five to one fifty
52:13
Speaker 3: because I talked to a couple professional photographers in my
52:17
Speaker 3: neighborhood and I said, look, I just want one lens
52:21
Speaker 3: that can do all around stuff, Like I don't need
52:25
Speaker 3: a super long lens, a super macro lens for upclothes,
52:29
Speaker 3: a medium lens for this, like I'm not a professional.
52:32
Speaker 3: I want an every day, all in one, great lens
52:36
Speaker 3: for everything. And every single person I talked to said
52:39
Speaker 3: the Tamarn thirty five millimeter to one fifty milimeter wow,
52:44
Speaker 3: And so I say, okay. So I looked it up
52:47
Speaker 3: on a Japanese website. It's a it's a major company.
52:50
Speaker 3: It's kind of like best Buy of Japan. It's called
52:52
Speaker 3: Yoda Ba Yodabashi Camera, and they are selling the Tamarn
52:58
Speaker 3: thirty five to one fifty for approximately nine and fifty
53:04
Speaker 3: dollars US. That's pretty which if you were to buy
53:07
Speaker 3: that same lens in America, it'd be about nineteen hundred dollars.
53:11
Speaker 1: Oh wow wow? Uh can you borrow one so you
53:15
Speaker 1: can get a look and feel for it? Takes at Rantham.
53:18
Speaker 3: I've actually asked my neighbors who are professional photographers, and
53:22
Speaker 3: I said, hey, you have one of these, right, And
53:24
Speaker 3: they're like, yeah, because like, can I borrow it? They're like,
53:26
Speaker 3: not over my dead body, So yeah, I know. If
53:31
Speaker 3: they're not willing to give it up for a day
53:33
Speaker 3: for me to try it, I know it's got to
53:35
Speaker 3: be a good lens.
53:36
Speaker 2: The benefit of this lens specifically is that its aperture
53:39
Speaker 2: will drop to an F two, so the aperture will
53:43
Speaker 2: open up very very wide to let it in a
53:45
Speaker 2: ton of light. And at that thirty five milimeter, what
53:48
Speaker 2: that's going to give you is just a really really
53:51
Speaker 2: good range of depth of field, right, it's going to
53:53
Speaker 2: give you boka. It's just like if you're looking at
53:56
Speaker 2: Justine's picture, like his backgrounds out of focus a little bit.
53:58
Speaker 2: That's called boca, which is just a fantastic thing in photography.
54:02
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
54:03
Speaker 2: The benefit again with this lines is that it drops
54:05
Speaker 2: to the F two at waffle wide. A lot of
54:10
Speaker 2: lenses don't have the range of focal length at full zoom,
54:15
Speaker 2: meaning if you zoom out to one to fifteen millimeter,
54:20
Speaker 2: and a lot of other cheaper lenses or other models,
54:23
Speaker 2: the aperture closes. Because of the length of the lenses,
54:26
Speaker 2: the aperture physically isn't open as wide because of just
54:29
Speaker 2: the way the physics works, this allows it to stay
54:32
Speaker 2: open at one hundred and fifty millimeters at f two
54:36
Speaker 2: point eight, Oh my god, meaning you will be able
54:39
Speaker 2: to get that really really crushed depth of field all
54:43
Speaker 2: the way at one hundred and fifty millimeters. So you're
54:46
Speaker 2: looking at just a lot of creative opportunities for just great,
54:51
Speaker 2: great opportunity for our to make ours.
54:54
Speaker 1: That sounds great. Are you gonna have to send us pictures? Will?
54:57
Speaker 1: That's it for this week's TEK Talk Radio. In the meantime,
55:00
Speaker 1: that meets Justin's gonna be out again in May.
55:04
Speaker 3: Are you doing the show? I'll see you sometime in
55:06
Speaker 3: twenty twenty eight. I'm you're gonna do the show. From there,
55:08
Speaker 3: we can say you're you know, international, It'll be like
55:10
Speaker 3: two am your time.
55:12
Speaker 1: Oh that's funny. All right, that's it for this week's
55:16
Speaker 1: TEK Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor, I'm Shon Weird, and
55:19
Speaker 1: I'm Justin. Lemme ho do he got though? Because I'm
55:22
Speaker 1: us