The Tech Guy Episode 1953 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

Leo Laporte (00:00:02):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT.

(00:00:11):
Hi, this is Leo Laporte and this is my Tech Guy podcast. This show originally aired on the Premier Radio Networks on Saturday, December 17th, 2022, episode 1953. Enjoy this episode of The Tech Guy Show is brought to you by noom. Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom weight's psychology based approach, and check out Noom s first ever book available for pre-order the Noom mindset. A deep dive into the psychology of behavior change. Sign up for your trial noom.com/twit. Thanks for listening to this show. As an ad supported network, we are always looking for new partners with products and services that will benefit our qualified audience. Are you ready to grow your business? Reach out to advertise at quit tv and launch your campaign now. Well, hey, hey, hey. How are you today? Leo LaPorte Here. Mikah Sargent two. It's time for the tech guy to Hey, Mikah.

(00:01:14):
Hello, Leo Mikah? Yes. Is this the show where we talk about computers, the internet, home theater, digital photography, smartphone, smart watches, augmented reality, virtual reality, real reality? I just checked the document and it appears it is <laugh> last Saturday before the holiday days. Mm. And next Saturday, Christmas Eve, in fact, we are we're gonna be not here ever again. <Laugh> <laugh>. We are gonna, we're gonna take the holidays off as we tsta. And then Rich Tomorrow takes over this very show starting January 7th of twen of 2023. How do we get there? Wow. 2 0 23, the new year. New host, new tech guy. He's gonna call it Rich on Tech because that's what he calls his K T L A TV show on his podcast. And I think that's great. You and I'll keep doing, ask the tech guys on Sunday on the internet only.

(00:02:07):
That's the sad, you know, that's what happens to radio people when they, when they leave radio, they end up on that sad little place called the Internet <laugh>. They go, oh, podcasts. I heard of those podcasts. It's so sad. He used to, he used to be a radio guy. He used to have a career. Now he's just podcasting. I think here I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna pro propose, I'm gonna propose a toast, all right? To Twitter. Goodbye. It's over. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Farewell. So long. Really good piece from Peter Kafka writing at Vox saying look, <laugh>, he owns it. This is what he wants to do with it. He concludes his article. I think we're better off if we face reality on reality's terms, one of the richest men in the history, but something many of us use. And like, because he could.

(00:03:03):
And now he's gonna run it based on his whims because he can. And that's that. If you like it, stay. If you don't, you, you can go. I think it's a little whiny of journalists to act like, you know, they have some right to be on Twitter. That's kind of silly. In fact, it's really scary that the EU is thinking of going after Elon for banning journalists. It's a private company. See, they don't have the First Amendment in the eu. It's a private company. Right. He does own it. Right. It's a very bad precedent for government to tell a private company who and what they can do with it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Right? Unless, you know, he's ca, you know, inciting violence or hurting his employees. But if he, if, you know, if he wants to ban some people from Twitter, that's his right.

(00:03:55):
That's completely his. Right. And and even if it's for some dumb reason, like they, like, they did a link to a Twitter account. Elon didn't. Like there's a guy. This all started cuz a guy named Jack Sweeney is a college student in Florida, realized that there is a database of flight records. It's a public database, because guess what? Flight is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. You're in public and your tail numbers, it's like driving on the highway. There's no privacy on the highway. The tail numbers are, are clearly visible. And then recorded in the in the database. What is it? It's called a D B S or something. Anyway it's, it's public. So he wrote a cute little bot we call him that takes the flight data and and tweets it. And he does it for a number of jets.

(00:04:50):
Jeff Bezos's, jet a d s dash B, home of the flight tracking enthusiast. He did it for Elon's Jet. He does it for many celebrity jets. In fact, there's a whole Twitter account that does it for sports teams. So you can know when you're, you know, your St. Louis whatever your team is, Cardinal, you don't know. They're not there. You don't know anymore. They're, yeah, they're Cardinals aren't there? They're gone. They are Really? Yeah. They moved to more else. They're not in Anhauser, Bosch Stadium. Well, that's sad. Anyway, wrong. No, I don't remember <laugh>. No one knows somebody left. <Laugh>. He's not a sport ball fan. No. As you might, as you might have guessed. So this kid was tweeting these things. Elon for a long time, didn't like it before you owned Twitter. He, he complained about it.

(00:05:41):
He said that's he calls them assassination coordinates. Okay? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, fine. Yeah. Okay. Elon <laugh>. And he says, oh, yeah, they're doc. He calls it doxing. You know, doxing is when you give out somebody's name, address, phone number, it happens all the time on Twitter, unfortunately for a variety of reasons. It's always a bad thing. But let's face it, you know your, your information is public record in many cases. It is. Certainly if you have a private jet flying around. So finally, he, you know, he got so sick and tired of that. He made up an incident where his, his kid was

Mikah Sargent (00:06:21):
Okay. You or you say you're,

Leo Laporte (00:06:23):
I think he made it up. Okay. Yeah. But anyway, he made it because he's a picture of a guy wearing a black hoodies as a Antifa guy jumped on my, the hood of my car. And he, Elon wasn't in it, but his kid was. And, you know, that's scary for sure if that happened. His kid. X X, yeah. He calls him. But the LAPD has no record of any complaint about that. Or, you know, he'd never filed a police report, man. Maybe he just, maybe he just, you know, didn't file a police report. He just kicked the kid off Twitter. That was, it wasn't anywhere near the airport. This thing happened. So it's not really related, but it was a good excuse. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So he kicked Jack Sweeney off Twitter. Fine, he can do that. It's

Mikah Sargent (00:07:00):
His company.

Leo Laporte (00:07:00):
Now, this is a little weird cuz Jack Sweeney then went to Mastodon, which is a little Twitter competitor that's not owned and can't be owned by anybody. And a set up shop there. Also, Instagram, Facebook, Elon known any of that. Made Elon mad when a bunch of journalists reported this on CNN and N B NBC and CBS B and New York Times and Voice of America Radio. Boy, those guys, they're crazy. They're crazy journalists. Anyway, so he decided to just kind of start banning those guys right and left for quote, doxy. Of course, they didn't, they told, they, they, they said the story. But what Elon didn't like is they, they maybe mentioned where Jack Sweeney had ended up uhhuh, so other people could still follow it. Neon can't control that. Anyway. Anyway, it's fine. And then they, the journalists, apparently some of 'em are coming back. I don't know. I, if I were a journalist, I would just say, fine, you have it. Take it. It's a dumpster fire. Agreed. I left a long time ago. I gotta go somewhere else. It's terrible. It's, who cares? It's a shame. I mean, Twitter was kind of fun in the, in, back in the day, but it's Elon's now, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, if you buy a house and you paint it bright pink, sure the neighbors aren't gonna like it, but what are they gonna do about it?

Mikah Sargent (00:08:12):
You know, that Yeah. For the most part, that works. I guess if you have homeowners association nonsense that

Leo Laporte (00:08:18):
Well, if you have an H hoa, which is another kind of petty bureaucracy that is <laugh> very annoying. Anyway. Fine. So fine. So we're I, I'm done. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, in other words. Okay, good. We're done. We're not gonna talk about anymore

Mikah Sargent (00:08:32):
No more Twitter, Elon.

Leo Laporte (00:08:33):
No talk. The story is he bought it. He, he gets to do whatever he wants with it. We don't have to play that game. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I like MAs Dun. That's where I live. I don't have to, I don't have to play that game. So that's over. And I think that's fine. And I think it's a little whiny of journalists. No, just forget it. Hey, there was, remember a long time, time for a whole year. Now we've been talking about Apple negotiating with the National Football League. Now here's something people care about, about the NFL Sunday ticket, which is currently on Direct tv. That's where you can watch all the games from on Sunday, the big games on Sunday. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and Apple was apparently trying to buy it. The NFL had, you know, one of the things, apparently Apple proposed, we, you know, these are all private discussions, but these are leaks.

(00:09:19):
One of the things Apple proposed was that they would give it away free to Apple TV subscribers. N F NFL said, no way. You're not doing that. Anyway. Apple has, according to a guy who writes on a website called Puck, okay. <Laugh>, you might say, well, come on, really? But Dylan Byers is very well connected. He says on in his puck column that Apple has withdrawn and it's over. They back out of the rights to the Sunday ticket. It won't be on Apple tv. However, Amazon and Google are still in there. They ain't got the money cost Direct TV, a billion and a half dollars a year for the rights to do that. Wow. They lost a lot of money. They lost a ton of money. Wow. So I don't know where the NFL's gonna end up next season, but it ain't gonna be on Apple, apparently.

(00:10:07):
Oh, I, I did, there's one other Yon story. He's going out asking people to invest in Twitter, <laugh>. Oh no. Why no. At 54 20 ish year, which is what he paid for. Oh boy. And finally the great Tom Lair. Do you know who Tom Lair is? You probably to I do not. He wrote, I'll tell you what, when we come back, I'll play a song or two because he he's professor of math at U C S C in Santa Cruz. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. But he wrote and been writing since the fifties, the best parody songs ever long before Wheel at Weird Al including the very, very famous song about the periodic table of elements in which he names, oh, I gotta play this now <laugh>, because you're not gonna believe me when I say this, but he names all, it's a song with the lyrics being all of the elements on the table.

(00:10:53):
Wow. And he, and he does 'em all. And and the song still works. And the song still wor Oh, it's a very good song. Anyway, he's decided, he's in his eighties to give away all his songs, put 'em in the public domain. No way. Yeah. So go, go to tom laer songs.com. L E H R E R Tom LAIs songs.com. Oh, sorry about that noise that's coming out of the computer, which it just turned on so I could play you. Well, there's the Vatican Rag that's very famous. Quite a few songs. Where is the the table of elements now? I don't know. There's so many songs. I wonder what it's called. Yeah, I could play a Christmas Carol. It is that kind of, that time of that time of year. I could play. Anyway, you can download these for free. He says, I don't know how long it's gonna stay here.

... (00:11:44):
Type of song is the Christmas Carol. Although it is perhaps a bit out of season at this time. However, I'm informed by my disc jockey friends of whom I have none.

... 2 (00:11:53):
That

... (00:11:54):
In order to get a song popular by Christmas time, you have to start plugging it well in advance. So here go. It's always seemed to me. After all.

Leo Laporte (00:12:02):
I'll tell you what, I'll just play the song, get right to the song. This, this will get you in the mood.

... 2 (00:12:09):
Christmas time is here, by golly disapproval. I would be folley deck the halls with hunks of Holly. Fill theup. And don't say When, when. Kill the turkeys ducks

Leo Laporte (00:12:20):
In <laugh>. Okay. That's enough. I found the elements. You found the elements. Yeah. It is the elements. Yeah. It's found. Yes. Good. Here it is. You ready? I'm ready. All the elements at this time, I don't think there were 118 or whatever. I think there were fewer. It's to the tunes of I heard this song. Modern major in general. Yeah. Gilbert Sullivan. I think my biology teacher Get

... 2 (00:12:42):
Ready. There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium and hydrogen, and oxygen and hydrogen and Rainium and Nico. Dium, neptunium, germanium and Iron. Americium, ruthenium, uranium, Zicon, roic.

Leo Laporte (00:12:52):
It goes on. I don't wanna play the whole thing cause everybody will tune out. I'm getting goosebumps. But the nice thing is I don't have to pay royalties to play that. That's true. Yeah. He just put it in the public domain play. Thank you. Tom Lair, one of the great song Par of, he was bigger probably in the, in the fifties and the sixties. But yeah, your, your professor remembered him. Nice story. Anyway. 88. 88. Ask Leo our holiday edition. The tech Guys means you could ask questions about what to buy for your friends and family, the geek in your life, or just, you know, get your printer fixed. That's what we're here for. <Laugh> 88. 88. Ask Leo your calls next.

Laura (00:13:32):
And I was just gonna play his Hanukkah in Santa

Leo Laporte (00:13:36):
Monica. It's Hanukkah in Santa Monica, so you know his stuff. That's nice. Young people. I'm spending Hanukkah, ladies and gentlemen, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schaffer Kimmy don't take no Schaffer. Kind of nice to play the original Kim Schaffer theme from way back when

Kim Schaffer (00:14:04):
The original for the last weekend.

Leo Laporte (00:14:06):
Yeah. Are you the rumor was that you might perhaps be continuing on with a program.

Kim Schaffer (00:14:11):
Yeah. It is a rumor. <Laugh>

Leo Laporte (00:14:13):
A rumor as yet unconfirmed by the power subpoena.

Kim Schaffer (00:14:16):
I do believe that is the

Leo Laporte (00:14:17):
Plan. Have you received a call from Elon Musk yet?

Kim Schaffer (00:14:19):
No, I'm not from Elon, but from somebody else. Okay. And we had a conversation, so it looks like I may be continuing on with Rich.

Leo Laporte (00:14:26):
Oh, that's amazing. Good. Amazing. I hope that that is, I hope that, so you will want to keep calling, which is show begins. Debuts premieres January 7th, and I'm so happy to hear it now. I don't think it'll be 88 88 Alio. No, it might be 8 8 8 8 2 7 5 5 3 6. However,

Kim Schaffer (00:14:42):
<Laugh> just,

Leo Laporte (00:14:44):
Which is same number. Yeah, yeah. It's not, he just has to get the number. Don't you know. No, don't think that that's the same number. <Laugh>. It's Ask Ken. Okay. We just wanna get that straight.

Kim Schaffer (00:14:55):
Or Kim, which is like,

Leo Laporte (00:14:57):
Or Kim. Oh, like Kim Could be Kim. Oh yeah. I guess it could be. Couldn't it could be Lynn <laugh> Ask. Could be. Yeah. Anyway. Kim. Hello, Kim. Hello. Hello. You have a fluffy little puppy.

Kim Schaffer (00:15:12):
I know. It's my last Saturday with Lily, Leo and Mikah.

Leo Laporte (00:15:17):
And guess who? She's gonna miss more, not us, Lily.

Kim Schaffer (00:15:21):
I can hold her. And she's fluffy

Leo Laporte (00:15:23):
<Laugh>. She's really a sweet puppy. But

Kim Schaffer (00:15:24):
No, I will totally

Leo Laporte (00:15:25):
Miss you. That, that's Burke's that's Burke's Pup Burke's puppy. So cute. Best behaved dog ever. I know.

Kim Schaffer (00:15:30):
Well, she wants to be in Burke's arms right now. She's,

Leo Laporte (00:15:33):
She, she doesn't look bad. Unhappy.

Kim Schaffer (00:15:34):
She's, she's shaking like a chihuahua.

Leo Laporte (00:15:35):
<Laugh>. Oh, she don't like to be on the radio. That must be what it is. The whole time. She's actually shaking. We just can't tell cuz of the fluff. Yeah. <laugh>. Aww. Aw. Look at the She loves you. So who should we start this show? Well,

Kim Schaffer (00:15:47):
Appropriately, Lee, enough. We've got Lee in Santa Claus, Indiana. So

Leo Laporte (00:15:51):
<Laugh>. Oh, oh. Questions was joking. But <laugh>, let's go. There's, there's a real place. Claus, Indiana. Thank you, Kim. Hello Lee in Santa Claus, Indiana. That's cool.

Caller 1 (00:16:01):
Hey,

Leo Laporte (00:16:02):
Leo. Yeah. I

Caller 1 (00:16:03):
Really Ms. Kim on your show. Yeah,

Leo Laporte (00:16:06):
We won't. Yeah, we were, we're, so Mike and I are gonna do a show, but we're going to answer the calls ourselves, which is gonna be a recipe for a nightmare and disaster <laugh>. But that's how we're, how we're gonna try anyway. We're gonna have people zoom in and we're just gonna put 'em on the air. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> because it's the internet. So what could possibly go on, what could possibly go wrong? I'm hoping Elon will call in for the first. What can we what can we do for you, Lee?

Caller 1 (00:16:32):
Well, I have one main question, but if we have time afterwards, I'd like to know if you can help me with my problem with concerning a bag of Doritos <laugh>, since you said you could help anything with a chip in it. <Laugh>,

Leo Laporte (00:16:48):
That's not, that I think is the first time anybody used a, you gotta laugh in that box that you want <laugh>. Probably do. Yeah. I have a, I have an appropriate sound. It's called a clown horn. Oh. But it's not, oh, there it is. Yep. So what, what else can we do for you, <laugh>?

Caller 1 (00:17:06):
Okay. The, the main thing is now the, the whole idea is, is it better to use wine or a virtual box to run Windows programs in

Leo Laporte (00:17:15):
Lennox? Oh, that's a great question. And

Caller 1 (00:17:17):
Yeah. And the reason why I'm asking is like, for instance, QuickBooks really does not have a wine version. Right. Or a Lennox version. And I'm, what I'm trying to do is protect my computer and from hackers, you know the virus or the web.

Leo Laporte (00:17:33):
So let me explain what wine is. First of all, wine, which stands for wine, is not an emulator, <laugh> so it is in fact not an emulator. So if you were to use VMware or something like that, that is an emulator that basically makes that program think it's running in Windows. And in order to do that, you have to install Windows into the emulator. And all of that wine doesn't require that. What it does is it simulates the Windows API calls, which is actually good news for you, because malware is not gonna have the same impact on a Linux box, even if you run a malware program under wine. Exactly. Yeah. The wine, wine is kind of is, and in fact, before you even try, I would go to the wine website. It's an open source program, it's free, and see if you can run QuickBooks under wine.

(00:18:23):
If you've already checked that, then I would say, go ahead. Wine grades programs in its application database as to compatibility. So QuickBooks 2021 is silver, but QuickBooks, I'm sorry, QuickBooks 2001 is silver, but QuickBooks 2002 is Garbage <laugh>, which I think is the lowest, I'm guessing the lowest rating. But if we go to version six, that's platinum, which means it's fully compatible and problem free. So you have to look at the version that you want to use. Some of them work, some of them don't. The wi the Linux emulation world has gotten so much better. You can now play a great many games thanks to Steam on Linux that were designed for Windows using proton and other things. So it's a, it's changed a lot. Leo and Mikah, your tech guys, Scott Wilkinson coming up. Yeah. Yeah. If you go <laugh>, it's funny, if you go to that database that many of them are garbage and many not, which version of QuickBooks are you looking to run?

Caller 1 (00:19:28):
I have not purchased

Leo Laporte (00:19:30):
The Oh, okay. Yet. Okay. So that premium, you would think the older ones would run better, but that's not necessarily the case. 2019 Release garbage, 2016 Garbage <laugh> <laugh> the best one is version 6.0. I don't know what year that came out, but that's the one. And you may get, be able to get some of these for free, because gosh, nos, that one might be kind of old.

Caller 1 (00:19:57):
Right, right. That does seem pretty old.

Leo Laporte (00:19:59):
Yeah. Yeah. So you know, it's, it, it's just, it's not a reflection on either QuickBooks or on wine. It's just a in the way QuickBooks is written, it just doesn't seem to work well with y Okay. Yeah. I would say the best one is 6.0 or version 2004 <laugh>.

Caller 1 (00:20:24):
Now, now would it be, I, I really don't like to run the web versions, but would it be, or would it be better to run it through the browser?

Leo Laporte (00:20:36):
Yeah, we use QBO QuickBooks online. And that's how, frankly, quick Quicken wants you to do it. So I would, I would say that's probably better. You're better off just, and, and then you don't have to worry at all about compatibility. Although I rem I remember Lisa complaining that it didn't, that for a while it wanted Internet Explorer. Oh, yes. So

Mikah Sargent (00:20:58):
I think someone called in about that too.

Leo Laporte (00:20:59):
Yeah. I think now it's probably compatible with CH Chrome at least or chromium at least. So yeah, I would, you know, you could try it for free. I'm sure there's a, you know, just download it and try it for free. Okay. But who knows, Intuit is so greedy. Should we say that they may not. Yeah. <laugh>. But yeah, you, the other thing it'd be, do a search on quick QuickBooks and Linux and they'll be a lot of people with experience one way or the other. Okay. There's also open source programs that do much the same thing. It depends on, you know, I mean, QuickBooks is kind of the standard of business is what we use. We use qbo, right?

Caller 1 (00:21:36):
Yeah, exactly. And that's what Santa runs. Oh. I mean, another guy that I know, are

Leo Laporte (00:21:40):
You really in Santa Claus, Indiana? Is that really a name of a town?

Caller 1 (00:21:43):
Yes, I am. There's a Holiday world, which is a Augustine Park in the United States. Wow. Yep. If you ever look it up and if you're ever traveling through, it's really nice nice place to visit.

Leo Laporte (00:21:59):
Nice. Well, next time I'm out your way, I will stop by Lee.

Caller 1 (00:22:03):
Okay.

Leo Laporte (00:22:04):
And I hope you get those Doritos in shape.

Caller 1 (00:22:07):
Well, can I ask you the question really quick?

Mikah Sargent (00:22:10):
Sure. I would love to hear it. <Laugh>,

Caller 1 (00:22:12):
Is it, is it better to open or to munch on the bag? Opening it from the bottom or from the top?

Leo Laporte (00:22:19):
Oh, well, that's that's one for Mr. Mikah, Sargent Ah, <laugh>. So, or Dorito's expert. No, you don't even, I bet you don't do I

Mikah Sargent (00:22:26):
Do Doritos.

Leo Laporte (00:22:27):
He's, he's very clean.

Mikah Sargent (00:22:28):
My thought would be that opening them from the top of the bag, if they've been stored with the bottom down, is probably the best way. Yes. Because you're left with, with all the bottom crumbs at the bottom. Yeah. If you open it from the bottom, then you're gonna get crumbs and stuff all over your fingers is you're just trying to have those delightful,

Leo Laporte (00:22:43):
Shameful admissions, shameful admission. But when I get to that crumb, when I get the crumb layer I always just throw that out. I don't Good for you. Try to drink the crumb.

Mikah Sargent (00:22:54):
That's where there's so much salt. So that's

Leo Laporte (00:22:56):
Actually a good thing. I like salt.

Mikah Sargent (00:22:57):
That's the best part. But see, no, that,

Leo Laporte (00:22:58):
Yeah, John and our our studio manager, who is an expert in this, apparently says don't open from the bottom, then all the chips fall out. <Laugh>,

Mikah Sargent (00:23:06):
You know, why didn't I say that?

Caller 1 (00:23:09):
That solved my problem. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (00:23:11):
Never, never. And I do have my Dorito chopsticks right here. So if you if you wanna borrow those, you can just pluck those right out of there without getting your fingers. So you can continue to type with your Dorito chopsticks on. You need to pair though. If you're gonna do it right, then you can type Dorito, type Dorito, <laugh>. Hey, a pleasure talking to you. Thanks for calling Lee.

Mikah Sargent (00:23:37):
Thanks so much.

Caller 1 (00:23:38):
Thank you,

Leo Laporte (00:23:39):
Leo. All righty,

Caller 1 (00:23:40):
Mikah.

Leo Laporte (00:23:41):
Take care. What is hip? Tell me, tell me. I think I know. It's this cat right here, Mr. Scott Wilkinson, home Theater Geek Scott, I love this picture. You said we've showed it before, but since it's the radio, everybody forgot already. Hello, Scott. Exactly.

Scott Wilkinson (00:23:59):
<Laugh>. Hello Leo. How you doing?

Leo Laporte (00:24:00):
I am great. This is Scott was on, I'm gonna say the third tech guy show, is that right?

Scott Wilkinson (00:24:09):
I, I think it was the,

Leo Laporte (00:24:11):
Because we went the first show, the first weekend we were, I was in LA at kfi. And then I said, I asked Robin Bertucci, the great program director, you know the big was it CS or convicts? I can't even remember. Was it cs? I think it was the Big Cs Trade show is coming up in Vegas. Do you think I could do the show from there? And she was very kind. Sent me John Paoli, the great engineer at the time, the chief engineer at K ffi. And then, and then I was walking down the hall and and I saw you, Scott. Wow. Wow. And I said, Hey, you wanna be on the show,

Scott Wilkinson (00:24:55):
<Laugh>? Yep. I, I, I saw you walking down the hall. I'd been a fan from your tech TV days. And I just stuck out my hand and said, Hey, Leo Laporte, I'm Scott Wilkinson, I'm covering the show on audio video stuff. And you said, Hey, you wanna be on the show,

Leo Laporte (00:25:09):
<Laugh>? I was, I was probably desperate to fill those three hours. I see. They're my Franklin planner, my ancient Wow. Look at that phone. And and I was wearing a real watch <laugh>, so you could tell this was, this is the two thousands. Yes. Only one we watch. But you look the same, Scott, I gotta say, you look great.

Scott Wilkinson (00:25:30):
Well, I got a little more hair then than I do now, and my beard had a little bit of red still in it. <Laugh>. Yeah. I don't know. There's no tuba in this photo

Leo Laporte (00:25:38):
Though. Are we sure That's Scott. Yeah. I don't know. Oh,

Scott Wilkinson (00:25:40):
Yeah, I know. I, I didn't bring my tuba to ces, but

Leo Laporte (00:25:43):
I, I kinda wish I had a, a John Paoli in the engineer in that shop. John passed some years later and was a great guy. I really liked him. And he really worked hard to get that all working on the air from Las Vegas. You

Scott Wilkinson (00:25:57):
Had a whole, you had a whole studio on the, in the middle of the show

Leo Laporte (00:26:00):
Floor. Yeah. It's kind of amazing. Yeah. And there's a banner and everything. I think K Ffi made me a banner that says, ah, the tech guy <laugh>. Yeah, I know. I wonder where that banner went. <Laugh>, what's up in the world of home theater, Mr. Wilkinson?

Scott Wilkinson (00:26:15):
Well, you know, it's coming to the end of the year and I've been thinking about what is what were the most important stories of the year, for example. Yeah. in terms of video, it's very clear to me that it's the quantum o

Leo Laporte (00:26:33):
You, it's so funny cuz this time a year ago you said, I can't tell you what it is, but something's gonna appear at CES that is going to be a big new television technology. Yep. And that was it. QD oed.

Scott Wilkinson (00:26:46):
Right, exactly. Which is the first really new video display technology in a very long time. Yeah. And it's, it's based on oed, which we know, and it's, we, it's my, certainly my favorite TV display technology. But instead of using color filters to get the green and the red part parts of the picture it uses what are called quantum dots, which actually emit green and red when stimulated by the blue backlight. O L E D backlight on these TVs. Much simpler, much more efficient, much brighter much greater color gamut. It's it's really a big step forward in display technologies.

Leo Laporte (00:27:34):
So are, are all the companies making qd displays now?

Scott Wilkinson (00:27:38):
No. No. Samsung Display, which is their raw panel manufacturer, is making the displays. And the only companies as of now that are selling them are Samsung Electronics and Sony. Mm-Hmm.

Leo Laporte (00:27:52):
<Affirmative>. All

Scott Wilkinson (00:27:53):
Right. But I expect at CES there will be others. We will see others being introduced. And probably larger sizes too. Right now, the only sizes that are available from either company are 55 and 65 inch. Yeah. And 65 inch, you might say, well, that's plenty big enough. Well, yeah, but we've got also plenty of 70, 75, 85 inch TVs now that are reasonably priced. Those are the L C D technology, which has never been as good as oled. But I suspect, you know, like anything digital, once you start making it in volume, you can ramp up the size. You can bring down the cost. And so I bet you we're gonna see some announcements with Q D O led

Leo Laporte (00:28:45):
Here it is nine 19 years after we first did that show at ces. And CES is coming up again. Are you going this year?

Scott Wilkinson (00:28:53):
I am not. Yeah, I, I, I thought about it and I, I almost decided to go, but I actually, I became very ill with a respiratory infection a few weeks ago, and not covid, but still RSV probably.

Leo Laporte (00:29:08):
That's what everybody's getting some mishmosh of illnesses and it's just terrible. Yeah. I don't blame you.

Scott Wilkinson (00:29:16):
So I said, you know what, I'm gonna be, the discretion's gonna be the better part of AOR for me. I just was sick. I don't want to get sick again. It's an international Petri dish. Yeah,

Leo Laporte (00:29:25):
<Laugh>. Good way to put it here. Yeah.

Scott Wilkinson (00:29:27):
Yeah. And I said, I'm, I'm not gonna go. I, I had some invitations to some really cool things. And

Leo Laporte (00:29:33):
What do you think we'll see, will there be a, an announcement as big this year at c e s as that announcement last year or I, this year, next year, you know what I'm saying? Next

Scott Wilkinson (00:29:44):
Year. Yeah, right, right. In a couple of weeks is really what it is.

Leo Laporte (00:29:47):
<Laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. maybe Rich Durrow will cover it, and I hope you'll get you on. I I'm sending him all the information about all of our people.

Scott Wilkinson (00:29:55):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do hope to, I do hope to to join him once in a while on the show. And I'm, I'm so sad to to be saying goodbye to this,

Leo Laporte (00:30:06):
Just to me not, and and you're not saying goodbye to me either, cuz We'll also have you on the podcast, we going to be having you on the podcast for sure. So it isn't really goodbye except it's through a different means medium. There are a different medium. But, but you No, we will, we will absolutely continue to talk because how would I know what's going on in the, in the TV

Scott Wilkinson (00:30:28):
<Laugh>?

Leo Laporte (00:30:29):
So was that the, is that the one and only big development in 2022 is QD Olab?

Scott Wilkinson (00:30:34):
Well, it was the biggest one, certainly. We, we had, we saw refinements and other things. I was trying to think of an audio, what would be the biggest audio development in 2022. And I honestly can't think of a big one.

Leo Laporte (00:30:49):
I mean, I would vote for new Bluetooth codex that sound a lot better.

Scott Wilkinson (00:30:56):
Okay. I agree. Yeah, that's absolutely true.

Leo Laporte (00:30:58):
Yeah. now unfortunately, most people aren't experiencing them because in order for you to experience 'em, both the device playing the music and the device, the headphones receiving the music have to support them. The, the one that's been out for a while, that is the best most people can get is AP to X, but Correct. There are other blue new Bluetooth codex. Right. That sound quite good. There're still Kylie compressed, but they've gotten good at the technology, I think, and

Scott Wilkinson (00:31:25):
Yeah, they sure have. They sure have compression. You're right. Compression, both video and audio has gotten better at data reduction without losing quality. Yeah. So that's, that is an, an important thing. True. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. I, I saw a, I saw a quick a product that I thought was really cool from ifi, remember ifi?

Leo Laporte (00:31:48):
Yeah. In fact Mikah has the IFI deck, as do I mm-hmm. <Affirmative>

Scott Wilkinson (00:31:53):
You Anyway, for all those, all those devices that don't have a headphone output Yeah. Anymore. IFI now has a 59 60 $9 thing that you can plug into the power port and gives you a headphone output with high resolution audio. Nice. So I'm looking forward to trying that. Nice.

Leo Laporte (00:32:11):
Yeah. There, there, there, there are some exciting movements there. And since nobody has a headphone jack anymore, we need it Scott Wilkinson, follow him on YouTube, youtube.com/avs forum in his articles@theavsforum.com. Thank you, Scott. It's been a pleasure working with you, Leo and Mikah, your tech guys more after this. Bye-Bye.

(00:32:39):
Hello, Tom Lair. I love that. I'm thinking we should just in the news show, since we don't have the Ascat BMA rights for music, we're just played nonstop. Tom Laer. Yes. For all <laugh> sold <laugh>. I love his voice. I love parody music. So I'm sold. We've got it all figured out. Hanukkah and Santa Monica <laugh>. Hanukkah starts tomorrow night. Happy Hanukkah to all and sundry back to the phones we go with Rusty on the line from San Diego. Hi, rusty. Did I press the button? I did. Have I turned on the sound? I have. Hello, rusty. Hello, rusty. All right. I, I hear sound, so that usually means it's not muted, but I don't know what's going on, so. That's all right. It's a very quiet, we'll move on to Peter in Al Amesbury Bass. Hi Peter.

Caller 2 (00:33:31):
Hi. Hey, Leo. How are you

Leo Laporte (00:33:33):
Today? I am well. How are you?

Caller 2 (00:33:36):
I am living the dream. I talked to you a couple of weeks ago about a network problem with Min Mobile.

Leo Laporte (00:33:43):
Yes.

Caller 2 (00:33:44):
And will, you pushed me in the right direction and just a word should you need to help someone else for somebody else listening. The network that they have set on their webpage has what you should use Yes. Needs adjusting.

Leo Laporte (00:34:00):
Oh, interesting. It's not correct. Yes. Wow.

Caller 2 (00:34:04):
So I had a hard time getting it on, and when I finally did get it on, there was one thing that they manually told me that I should be able to change, that I couldn't which was the M N C they had oh, on the websites that at two 60 and they told me two 40 worked better. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that to work. Meaning the minute I put that in, it wouldn't save it, it would only save all the other corrections with the two 60 in there.

Leo Laporte (00:34:35):
That's bizarre.

Caller 2 (00:34:36):
Was working perfectly. And it worked perfectly on the new network.

Leo Laporte (00:34:42):
So, so they gave you the new APN settings, but the APN settings are wrong. <Laugh> on the website

Caller 2 (00:34:49):
Wrong. I'm wrong again. So what happened was they ended up killing my sim because they tried to send me a Oh no, I told them

Leo Laporte (00:34:57):
Don't do

Caller 2 (00:34:58):
That. Need the physical. Yeah. So they sent me a new one and what it did was it downloaded a whole bunch of those, meaning let's say 10 of the same settings. Yeah, yeah. Plus my old ones. That's fine. I went on to a wifi network, put it on, restarted the phone. Now the phone was working fine. Day one, everything was, this was yesterday. Yeah. Everything worked perfectly. Yeah. Today I got up, we're back to the same problems. Oh. Now, now when I say the same problems, it's getting better. Cause at the height of the bad settings, the network, the internet was getting fuzzy. Right now, the internet works fine. The phone, I couldn't make or receive a phone call. So I'm talking to you. So

Leo Laporte (00:35:47):
That's, it's obviously fixed,

Caller 2 (00:35:49):
Outbound is going, but it still acts funny in the sense that like when I'm calling you say on your 800 number. Yeah. It just says calling. It doesn't usually you hear like a it connecting and then you hear ringing, and then I either get Kim or I get a busy signal.

Leo Laporte (00:36:06):
Well, that is not necessarily mince problem. That just means there's a lot of people trying to call the same number. Well,

Caller 2 (00:36:13):
Well, I I've had the same issue calling other places. Oh, other places I don't

Leo Laporte (00:36:17):
Have, you don't hear already. So the NC MNC is the mobile network code, and that contains your mobile country code, your cc, that's three digits, and then there's a three digit m c and you gotta have that. Right. Or, you know,

Caller 2 (00:36:32):
We, we now have, we have now have that All right. According to what they say. Good. The main issue here now is I can't text Oh no. And I can receive a text. And what it does is, like, I was trying, I sent one out earlier this morning. This

Leo Laporte (00:36:48):
Is a, this is a phone you brought to Mint, not one you bought at Mint. Right. We should mention Mint is a, a sponsor. So I, I do want to give you a little extra Plus I really like Ryan Reynolds and he owns it, so we gotta be nice. Right. <laugh>? Well,

Caller 2 (00:37:01):
No, I, I'm, I'm being were

Leo Laporte (00:37:03):
You happy with the support? Were, did they seem very helpful or not Well,

Caller 2 (00:37:07):
Right. With all support you get.

Leo Laporte (00:37:10):
Yeah. It depends on the person. They

Caller 2 (00:37:11):
Make their best effort. Yeah, I'll put it that way. Yeah. And like at one point they sent me to Samsung. Okay, well, okay,

Leo Laporte (00:37:19):
Because it's a Samsung phone. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes these mobile network codes are actually built into the phone. The country code might well be built into the phone. So you can't mess with that.

Caller 2 (00:37:28):
Well, it, it's at two 40 now. Yeah. so, but the second time I got, you know, when I got to settings with network, with network settings at Samsung, they're like, oh, well we can't type those. Huh. So when Mint told me to go there again, I just hung up

Leo Laporte (00:37:45):
And do the country code. Yeah. You found another guy. That's a good, by the way, that's a good little tip when you're getting support is the, the quality of support really is tied to the person you're talking to and hang up and getting another, not be nice, say, okay, thank you and hang up and then go to another person, call again. You probably get a new person. Cuz there's, you know, they're big call centers. Often you'll get a better, you know, you might get a worse person, but you just keep doing it to you. Somebody sounds like they know what they're doing. Yeah. And usually a more senior personal

Caller 2 (00:38:12):
Exasperating when Yeah. Like right now I thought I had everything fixed. So what the text is doing is, like I said, I was lucky. I got one out this morning and then I was trying to write one and I'm in, say I was at where you have what you call your conversations. So I open up the one I wanted to type to. So I start typing

Leo Laporte (00:38:34):
Was this just a, I'm gonna, I have to run cuz we, we got a lot of people in line, but I, I I think this was probably partly because it was an older Samsung that probably wouldn't have happened if you got a newer phone. That was why the Eason thing didn't work. But anyway, I'm glad you got it working, Peter. I appreciate it. Let's try Rusty one more time just to see. Ah, there he is. Hi Rusty.

Caller 3 (00:38:57):
Hello Leo. How are you?

Leo Laporte (00:38:59):
I am well from San Diego. What's going on

Caller 3 (00:39:03):
Leo? If it's possible, I wanted to ask a few questions and then just get the answers in the show notes so I don't tie up airtime.

Leo Laporte (00:39:11):
Okay, good. Cuz Yeah, we only have a few minutes here. So what, what are the questions?

Caller 3 (00:39:17):
We, my wife and I wanna start from scratch with a home theater in our, in our house. <Laugh>.

Leo Laporte (00:39:24):
Well, that won't take too long. <Laugh>, what's your, like, gimme your budget first. What, what do you wanna spend? Because, you know, Scott has sometimes those home theater the month things that are 30, 40, $50,000. I'm thinking you don't wanna spend that much.

Caller 3 (00:39:39):
No. Not even close.

Leo Laporte (00:39:41):
How much would you like to spend?

Caller 3 (00:39:44):
We hadn't thought of that. Cause we thought we had all this time. When we're ready next summer, we'll just get ahold of Leo

Leo Laporte (00:39:50):
<Laugh>. Oh, well you know what, rich is good on this and we are just so you know, Mikah and I are gonna continue to take questions, but we're just gonna do it over the internet on Sundays. Same time, same same internet station, which is tech guy labs.com. We'll be doing it live streaming audio and video. We'll also make a podcast out of it. The biggest difference is, oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest difference is we're gonna ask you to zoom in mm-hmm. <Affirmative> so we can see you. But we'll ever have, we'll have everybody do it on their phone. Just we'll give you a, a a zoom link and we'll do it on the phone. And that way you know, we can talk on the phone and still see you, which I kind of like. So, so yeah, you have time for this summer.

(00:40:29):
Don't worry, don't, don't freak out. We'll be, we'll still be here. I'll still have the army of tech guys ready and willing, including Scott, William. Yeah, I was gonna say Scott and we will be able to help with that one too. Yeah. So start thinking about your budget, cuz that's gonna be the first question always is how much you wanna spend. And sometimes people when they're doing the budget, they're, they say, well, oh, you got 3000 to spend on a tv and forget that. It does, it doesn't end with the tv. Right. In fact, really home theater implies the sound and there's a, you know, you could spend anywhere from a couple hundred bucks to thousands of dollars. Good sound is really important. You might want an AV receiver, you want streaming devices. You might be wanting a Roku or an Apple tv or a Fire tv.

(00:41:11):
So all of these things kind of go, one goes with the other. So you and now don't spend a lot on cables. So you can take, you know, just give a hundred bucks for cables. But yeah, for your budget, I think the TV is probably only about maybe 60 or 70% of your budget. The rest, depending on how much sound you want, if you have a big room to fill, sometimes it's nice in some ways, getting a home theater. Good home theater audio system doubles as your music system, right as well. Yeah. So you might want to spend a little more money for better speakers and a bigger amplifier just so you can have a party, have a dance party. That's, you know, and then you'll get the benefit not only when you're listening to music, but when you're watching TV and Tom Cruise flies overhead with his F 15 Phantom <laugh>. It'll scare the neighbors. And that's what you want. 88. 88. Ask Leo the phone number, your tech guys, Mikah and Leo continue on right after this.

(00:42:19):
We're gonna get back to the Tech Guy show final Saturday episode in just a bit. But I wanna thank Noom our sponsor. You know me, I'm a loving and noom. Noom is the way to lose weight. And both Lisa and I have done it and love it when we decide to lose weight. It, it's not about the number on the scale. I mean, I mean, it can be, but there are many reasons you wanna make a change to be more healthy, to be more athletic or, you know, more active just to look better. Right? And whatever your reason, even just to change the number on the scale, Noom weights is ready to help. One of the things that's great about Newman here, this is the Noom app. The, the Noom Noom app. Updated Noom map is beautiful. One of the great things about Noom is it, it's not a diet.

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It's, it's really not. It's about, it's about psychology. It's about why you eat and how you eat so that you understand. Do you eat cuz you're bored? Do you pass up? Can't pass up food cuz it's there. That's for me. That's a good one. I also do something called fog eating. And and that means I'm just ch chowing down without even thinking about it. These are the Noom lessons. And now I'm, I'm kind of far along here. I'm in Noom 3 0 2. But when you first start, it gives you lots of information about why you're eating. There's quizzes, there's writing times that you spend. It's just a really great way to kind of delve into your reasons for eating. And once you understand your reasons for eating and your reasons for wanting to change how you eat, Noom weight will help you break the cycle and change your habits for good.

(00:44:03):
Again, not a diet. There are no forbidden foods. There's nothing you can't eat. It isn't, it doesn't work that way, in fact, which is a good thing cuz most, I've been on a lot of diets. Most diets you kind of rebel against eventually and go, no, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna eat what I want. With Noom, it's not about that at all. You can eat whatever you want. You even get off days if you want. If you lose track, Noom will get you back on track. There's no punishment. But what Noom does do is help you understand what's the mechanism, right? Why you're doing that? Why you say, no, no, you, you, you can't tell me not to eat. Captain Crunch <laugh>, what's going on there? The, the, the Noom program is fantastic. You get a coach, you get a support group, you can log your meals, but most importantly, you get these great lessons, which are designed for you and your goals.

(00:44:51):
They're unique to you. That's why they say losing weight starts up here, starts with your brain. It uses psychology to help you understand your eating habits, to learn how to make healthier choices every day. The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices, those cravings you have. It helps you understand what's going on. And I'll tell you what, it's so much better. Instead of saying, no, no, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not, no, no, no, to go, oh yeah, I know why I feel that way right now. Or, you know, catch yourself. And this happens to me all the time now, eating without paying attention. Now, I'm a big fog eater, as I said watching tv, looking at the laptop, looking at the phone, or just standing there staring into space, eating potato chips. Now I've broken the cycle when I'm doing that.

(00:45:40):
I go, oh, look at that fog eating. Or I can even look at, well, what was my day like? Why am I doing this? It really is valuable. Noom weight to date. Get this has helped more than 4.6 million people lose weight. Help me, help my wife. I know many numerous Brianna Woo lost a hundred pounds on Noom. One of our regular club members, good friend lost 60 pounds on, in fact, <laugh>. I couldn't believe it when I saw him. Hadn't seen him in a few months. Saw him and it was like, what? I didn't recognize him. He loved it. And you will too. Everybody's journey's different though. So your daily lessons, they're personalized to you, to your goals. It's using scientific principles like cognitive behavioral therapy. Maybe you've heard of C B T. It's really about understanding your relationship with food, why you eat what you eat, and to help kind of get the, the scales off your eyes about what you're doing.

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(00:47:17):
Oh, I like that. So every day they've got like a, something you could share on your, on your Insta. A lot of times they have cartoons. Oh, that's funny. I I thought it was a cartoon every day, but it's now, it's a tip of the day. So it changes all the time. I'm, I just love noom. I'm really, really happy with it, and I know you will be too. It's grounded in science. It's not a fad diet. It's not a fad. Anything. AV active, numerous lose an average of 15 pounds and 16 weeks. I lost 20, Lisa lost 20, or maybe she lost 15. She didn't have as much to lose as me. That's the other thing. You know, Lisa is in great shape. She's fit. She had a few pounds she wanted to lose. Those last ones are hard, right? Worked so well for her.

(00:47:58):
She's now lower than she's been in years and is maintaining it. She's in maintenance mode. 95% of customers say Noom weight is a good long-term solution. I am one of them 30 peer reviewed scientific articles that they've published so far that let users and practitioners and scientists and the public understand their methods and effectiveness. They've got this new book coming out, the first ever, the new mindset that will, I'm pre-ordering that. That'll be so interesting. Look, stay focused on what's important to you with noom weight psychology based approach. Sign up for your trial today, noom.com/twit noom.com/twit . Sign up for your trial and check out Noom's first ever book. The Noom Mindset, which is a deep dive into the psychology of behavior change. They have learned a lot with 4.6 million people using noom. They've really learned what works and what doesn't work. In fact, in a way, you know, I, I started Noom very early on more than a year ago. Now, if you're starting now, you're getting like the, the benefit of all all of these people and what worked for them and what didn't. It's great. They're always adjusting available for pre-order. If you want to get that book, the Noom Mindset, it's on Amazon or your favorite bookstore, the Noom mindset, and I really want you to go to noom.com/twit noom.com/twi. Now back to the Tech Guy Show.

(00:49:25):
Well, hey, hey, hey. How are you today? Leo LaPorte here. Mikah Sargent, there it is. Your tech I two on the Radi rdu, ready to answer your calls, your questions, your comments, your suggestions. Let's talk high tech, you and us. 88. 88 Ask Leo is the phone number if you prefer eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo and Mikah. That will work. You could try it. Your fingers might get sore. <Laugh> but it will work. 88 8 8 2 7 5 5 3 6 7 4 3 9 2 1. Wow. No, I made that up.

Mikah Sargent (00:49:56):
Oh, I was gonna say you remember, remember at the,

Leo Laporte (00:49:59):
You've got a brace on your left hand.

Mikah Sargent (00:50:01):
Oh, I'm fine.

Leo Laporte (00:50:02):
Is that a carpal tunnel

Mikah Sargent (00:50:03):
Injury? It's a cubital tunnel injury. Yeesh the lesser known of the tunnel syndrome.

Leo Laporte (00:50:09):
You too much

Mikah Sargent (00:50:10):
Typing. No. So that's actually, I just got asked that question. No, it's a compression in the elbow. That's where the cubital tunnel exists. It presses on the ler nerve and it makes your finger, your pinky finger and your ring finger go numb. So I can't really use either of those fingers right

Leo Laporte (00:50:24):
Now. I'm not gonna ask

Mikah Sargent (00:50:25):
Candid. So

Leo Laporte (00:50:26):
It's a pain. I'm not gonna, not gonna ask you how you got it, but it's just from leaning too much on this elbow. Leaning on your elbow. Truly leaning. I do you want to get on that side and lean on the other elbow change so it's not Yeah, just anytime I sit in a chair, I was always leaning on this elbow. This just encourages that the way we've got you in the little corner there. But I don't, I don't do it Now. I've, I've, I'm very careful because it's basically an, it's a long process Back to recovery. Well, now I know we're gonna put you on the new ACETech Guy show. We're gonna put you on the, the left. Yeah, there we go. So that you don't lean on your, I don't know, I don't know how that works. We'll, we'll figure it out. 80, 88. Ask Leo. Back to the phones. We go and, oh, it's Mikah and Maine. Mikah. Hi Mikah. Say hi to Mikah. Hello, Leo. Hello, Mikah. Hello, Mikah.

Caller 4 (00:51:10):
Nice, nice, nice to get you on the last show. Congratulations. And it's not the last show. I know that. And I'm looking forward to hearing the new

Leo Laporte (00:51:17):
Show. It's the penultimate show, which if I said that people go, well what does that mean? And is there a shot for it?

Caller 4 (00:51:24):
It's not someone like me. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (00:51:26):
So what's up in the in the world of the okay, let me see if I can get this right. The Airplane Geek podcast.

Caller 4 (00:51:33):
Oh, you got it. That's great.

Leo Laporte (00:51:34):
Finally, <laugh>. Finally, it only took me 19 years. Ladies and gentlemen. Mikah is a co-host of the Airplane Geek Podcast, which is great@airplanegeeks.com. If you're into airplanes, you know, you've heard Mikah call in to talk. Th this was the week the last 7 47 was rolled off the assembly line, isn't it?

Caller 4 (00:51:58):
Yeah. And it's a, it's the freighter version and it's going to Atlas Air and they're not gonna be building anymore. Now they'll be in the air for a very, very long time. But but none because at Flying Freight. But the passenger versions are getting less and less. In fact, I can't run, I don't know offhand if there are any more. Passenger 7 47

Leo Laporte (00:52:17):
Might be a couple used. That's the one that had <laugh> when it first came out, a cocktail lounge upstairs. Most airlines converted that upstairs into more seating. But I've flown Qantas's 7 47 s SAS had a lovely 7 47. I loved that. That plane. Why are they discontinuing it?

Caller 4 (00:52:38):
Four engines over two engines, you have to use a lot more fuel.

Leo Laporte (00:52:41):
Ah, okay. So the triple 77, it's I guess replacement from Boeing is only a two engine jet.

Caller 4 (00:52:49):
Right. Everything else that's being made right now is only two engines. Even

Leo Laporte (00:52:53):
The eight, the giant Airbus A three 80 is only two engines.

Caller 4 (00:52:56):
The A three 80 is no longer being made either.

Leo Laporte (00:52:59):
Oh, cuz it's too big. <Laugh>.

Caller 4 (00:53:01):
It's four engines. Yeah. And it's too big. And, and it was designed and came out I guess way after its time, it's be, we didn't have direct flights and there was hub and spoken, and that's what it was designed for. Right. It's hubbing hub and spoke flights, where now with the 7 87 and the 7 77, you can go directly from one place to another. You can fly direct nonstop from Boston to China. Now.

Leo Laporte (00:53:25):
It's amazing, isn't it? And that's what people want. Nobody wants to stop. Yeah.

Caller 4 (00:53:30):
No changing planes. What a pain in the neck, you know? Yeah. Nobody wants to do that.

Leo Laporte (00:53:33):
Yep. So you are because you're with the airplane geeks you know all about this A D S B database. Tell me, tell me about this. This is the database that the flight tracker was using that Elon got so upset about. Somebody told me, actually, this is the first question I have for you, Mikah. Somebody told me you can take your, you can take your air your tail number off of the database. Is that true?

Caller 4 (00:54:02):
Not exactly. It's not a database. A DSB stands for automatic Dependent Surveillance and broadcast. And every aircraft must by law broadcast it's a DSB so that it can be seen by other aircraft. You must have an a dsb out,

Leo Laporte (00:54:21):
A transponder in effect to identify you.

Caller 4 (00:54:24):
Exactly. Yeah. It's an identify thing, and it's being broadcast all over. So there's not a database, but there are some groups. And if you want to, you can get a raspberry pie and you can take part of it, and you can live track any aircraft ah, in

Leo Laporte (00:54:39):
The world. So this, this, this ad ad s comes a d sb comes from people watching the skies and saying, oh, I just saw tail number 73 94 fly overhead.

Caller 4 (00:54:54):
Exactly. And you can try, and I, I, there's apps called like Flight Radar 24 is one that many people

Leo Laporte (00:55:00):
Know, and I've used Flight Aware for years. Is that how these work? Right? Yeah,

Caller 4 (00:55:04):
Exactly. And not only that, Elon took out Flight Radar 20 fours account. It's gone. So it's Flight Awares account. And the big one, the important one is A D S B exchange. You see, Elon was paying Flight Radar 24 and Flight Aware, and any many big corporations pay them. Not the broadcast, a SB

Leo Laporte (00:55:25):
Signal. He was buying an unlisted number in effect,

Caller 4 (00:55:29):
Pretty much. Yeah. But a d SB exchange, which is owned by a guy named Dan Strife, says, we're not taking any money. It's available to anybody with a military aircraft at broadcast. A d sb Yeah. Any aircraft in the world, they, you can join it by having your raspberry pie, plugging it into your computer, connecting to a, to ad SB exchange or Flight Radar 24 or whatever, and you can monitor it. So it's something that every aircraft has, and yes, you can pay to have it blocked, and Elon does, but through AD SB Exchange, they don't accept the payment to have it blocked. It's over. There's nothing you can do. Oh, interesting. So if you wanna hide, if you wanna hide, the only way to do that is to fly not your own personal corporate jet, but do a rental, you know, fly net jet. Yeah. Something like that. Then you don't know who's flying.

Leo Laporte (00:56:20):
Right. But he has his own plane, and so we know what that tail number is associated with, just as Jeff Bezos does in many others. And Jack Sweeney, the guy who runs those accounts no longer on Twitter is, is just wrote a bot that, that scrapes the A D E S B database and puts that information on Twitter, or was on Twitter now on Instagram and Facebook and mask It on, which just shows Elon, you can't shut <laugh>, you can't shut something like this. Yeah. Down. And it's, how about the President's plane? How about Air Force One? Doesn't this also give out? Absolutely.

Caller 4 (00:56:52):
You can. There, there's, there was an Air Force one tracker that was a bot that was on that, I'm sure that Elon has taken off, but it's available. You can track that all the time.

Leo Laporte (00:57:00):
So Elon's more afraid than the President of the United States. That's interesting.

Caller 4 (00:57:04):
Exactly. Exactly. All because some guy, they, I, I don't even like the word docs. I'm not even sure what it means, but some guy came up to his car wearing a mask and frightened him. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (00:57:16):
Well, and and I think honestly, that's, even that story is somewhat suspect. The problem with Elon at this point is he lies and we know he lies. And so we don't, we just don't know what's going on. And it's too bad. 

Caller 4 (00:57:27):
Exactly. There are tweets of him. He was in touch with Jack. Yeah. Jack's a 20 year old college kid. He's a great guy. I've spoken with him. Yeah. And he was in touch with him and, and said, and he even tweeted, no problem. We'll let him on free speech. It's fine. And then all of a sudden he's gone. Yeah. But not just him. Anybody that reports on him, all the flight trackers out there, everyone is absolutely gone.

Leo Laporte (00:57:49):
The most comical thing. And we weren't gonna talk about Elon, but I, it's hard not to. The most comical thing Elon did is he also banned any mention. In fact, if you, if you put a link to Mastodon, which is this kind of non-commercial version of Twitter, we have our own Mastin on a twit social. If you put a link to twi.social on Twitter, it says, this is a malicious site. We, you can't, you can't go to this site, which is hysterical. It's like he doesn't want to just ban free speech on Twitter, which is his absolute Right. He wants to really block any mention of any other place Jack has an account on Mastin on. Yeah. And I guess that's why he is blocking it.

Caller 4 (00:58:25):
So do I. And mine's with Twit social. Thank

Leo Laporte (00:58:28):
You. Thank you, Mikah. I appreciate it.

Caller 4 (00:58:31):
But yeah, but what's crazy is that he's blocking it on Twitter, but all you have to do is log into Flight Radar 24 or a B exchange, and you

Leo Laporte (00:58:40):
Can't stop it. Yeah.

Caller 4 (00:58:41):
It's all public information. Yeah. And why would you block public information? Well, that's

Leo Laporte (00:58:46):
The crazy, he can do it on Twitter and honestly you know, more power to him. Go ahead, block it on Twitter all you want. And then it's sad because Twitter used to be a very nice, useful thing. But it's not anymore. And that, that happens sometimes in the world. And it's his now, he can do whatever he wants with it. I mean, that's just the fact. He certainly can. Yeah.

Caller 4 (00:59:10):
But let's end this on something very happy. Yes. I think we should end it up, please. Very happy. Something happy. It's a wonderful day for you. Today is the 119th anniversary of the first flight ever. If it weren't for the Wright Brothers 119 years ago today, we would not be talking, traveling.

Leo Laporte (00:59:27):
Oh my goodness. Wow. What a great anniversary. And really only 119 years ago, really. Right. Exactly. Isn't that amazing that it, a very good book that I read that I, I would recommend that I love David McCullough wrote a book about the Wright Brothers called The Wright Brothers. It's a wonderful book, the history of the Wright Brothers, and a great story. It is two fellas who just didn't give up and and, and, and brought us flight, which everybody thought was impossible.

Caller 4 (01:00:01):
50 years after that we were on the moon.

Leo Laporte (01:00:03):
Amazing. That's what's most amazing, isn't it? Well, I tip of the hat to everybody at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to the Wright Brothers, if you wanna read a great book about the Wright Brothers, that David McCullough book is fantastic. Thank you, Mikah. Oh, has been such a pleasure knowing you all these years. When did you first call the tech guy? Do you remember?

Caller 4 (01:00:23):
Then four or five years ago. I've been listening forever and ever and ever. But four or five years ago I've been calling. And, you know, I try, try not to call in too often. And I'm very happy you were able to let me in this time. And hopefully I can be a somewhat regular with you and list.

Leo Laporte (01:00:37):
I would love that. I would

Caller 4 (01:00:38):
Love that when you're when you're there on Zoom

Leo Laporte (01:00:40):
And Elon's Jet just left San Jose, just in case anybody <laugh>, anybody cares because it is on the public. ADB exchange.com. Thank you, Mikah. Thank you, <laugh>. Happy holidays. Let's see if, let's see if Elon can ban the radio station <laugh> that you're signing. Off note. Yeah. Tail sign, 6 28 Ts. Just in case you want to know. 88. 88. Ask Leo, Mikah and Leo getting in trouble with the old with the old Elon Musk. Oh, buddy. Who cares? More of your calls coming up. I promise. No more. Elon, why are we both wearing Clippy sweaters acquiring mines? Want to know, because we both spend money on Foolish Things, is why Microsoft got our $82 Yes. For these fine acrylic, ugly Christmas sweaters. Yes. But, you know, Clippy deserves, I think, to be celebrated. I agree. Yeah. In fact, I had to run into Target the other day and I was wearing this sweater, and someone who I didn't know was like, I love that sweater.

(01:01:41):
That's such a cool sweater. People know Clipy. They do. And it's funny because Clipy was hated when Clippy was around. Yeah. Now that Clipy is not around. If you had to be subjected to Clippy Yeah, no. Good. But if you're just celebrating him on your sweater. So this this is this, Microsoft does an ugly Christmas sweater every year. This year celebrates Clippy the little assistant long lost assistant from Microsoft Office. There's a picture of Clippy with his googly eyes, and he's saying, happy holidays. And there's an okay button, boop. But you can click boop. <Laugh> might be a little too personal. If you click, click that, but yeah. Yeah. Just click your own okays your own Okay. Button, don't click others. Victor is on the line from Vista, California. Our next call. Hi, Victor.

Caller 5 (01:02:26):
Oh, oh yeah. Oh,

Leo Laporte (01:02:28):
Oh. Hold on there. Hey, Leo, you're on the radio. Hello

Caller 5 (01:02:31):
On. Okay. <laugh> Leo, I wish you many happy brunches and I'll be listening to your podcast. My

Leo Laporte (01:02:38):
Wife has said we are gonna have brunch every Saturday from now

Caller 5 (01:02:41):
On. Absolutely. And I don't know if I want, like, the idea of going on your, your zoom thing. Well,

Leo Laporte (01:02:50):
I know, I realize some people won't wanna be on camera, huh?

Caller 5 (01:02:53):
Yeah. But we have an email where we can email questions and stuff.

Leo Laporte (01:02:56):
Yes. Ask the tech guy. Ask the techGuy@twit.tv.

Caller 5 (01:03:01):
Good. Okay.

Leo Laporte (01:03:02):
And we will do some emails as well, because you know that that's one way you can get in. Yeah. And I, in a way that's good, because then we can take our time with it and Great.

Caller 5 (01:03:10):
Yeah. One reason I like your show many reasons, but I like, I like it that you also talk about the big picture stuff like Twitter and cryptocurrency, not just the nerdy, geeky stuff. And Yeah.

Leo Laporte (01:03:21):
And that's kind of, I prefer to talk about that. Cause I think that's what people need to know, right?

Caller 5 (01:03:25):
Yeah. And hopefully the new people will continue.

Leo Laporte (01:03:28):
Oh, rich is wonderful, rich and I, I'll say it again, rich On Tech is taking over Rich Demarro from K T L A. He's great. He's good. He's filled in for me many times, and he really knows the show. He knows the people, and he knows this stuff. Great.

Caller 5 (01:03:39):
Yeah. And hopefully they'll let you, when they go on vacation, they'll let you fill in once or twice a year, you know?

Leo Laporte (01:03:45):
Oh, that would be funny. I never even thought of that. Yeah. <laugh>, I have the equipment. <Laugh> good.

Caller 5 (01:03:51):
Okay. well, I have one before I get to my question on secure the best computer for secure banking and so forth. Let me make one more brief comment on crypto. I just thought of an analogy that cryptocurrency is like the paper money issued by the Wildcat Banks. Yes. In the that's right. 19Th century. It, nothing backing it, it's just total Ponzi. And the banks would, you know, open up and have nothing, no reserves or anything unregulated. They'd go, go for a few months or years and then fail. And people were left with wallpaper money that they couldn't do anything with.

Leo Laporte (01:04:29):
So, that's a very good point. Yeah. I remember the Battle cry savior, Confederate dollars boys, the South will rise again.

Caller 5 (01:04:37):
And Exactly. But there's a great article on Wikipedia, on Wildcat Banking, and I, I wish people would look

Leo Laporte (01:04:42):
At that. Oh, that's really good. Oh, that's very good. I'm linking it in the show notes. Yeah. Oh, that's really interesting. Thank you for telling us about that.

Caller 5 (01:04:49):
Now, in terms of secure computers that are affordable, like a I prefer a iPad. Ipad or a Chrome.

Leo Laporte (01:04:56):
Well, iPad's very secure. Yeah. Chrome os I wouldn't recommend an Android tablet, but there are Chrome OS tablets, like Google makes one Uhhuh <affirmative> that are as secure. The Chrome OS was designed specifically for this idea of how do you make a computer that is, is impossible to hack. Now, nothing's impossible to hack, but as long as somebody doesn't get a hold of your computer, as long as you don't install a a Chrome extension called I steal password, it's okay. <Laugh>, you're probably good because it has software on it that detects a change, for instance, to the operating system. And it'll, it won't boot if the operating system isn't pure iPad's very similar. I would say the iPad is absolutely secure. I wouldn't use an Android tablet. Android is problematic.

Caller 5 (01:05:44):
Now, when you buy a Chromebook now there's very secure, but what are you giving up when you get a Chromebook? Are you losing anything that

Leo Laporte (01:05:51):
You would get? Yeah. You're, you're losing a lot. <Laugh>. You're losing all the things that make a Windows machine insecure, which is that it's a general operating system that can run programs, any program you choose. Right. Right. And so a Chromebook is just the Chrome browser. No, no. Programs are running on there. Actually, Google has added the capability of running Android apps. I wouldn't do that. Mm-Hmm. Hmm. <Affirmative>, that's a bad idea. But you don't need it for your banking, cuz you're banking, you're just going on a browser right. To the bank.

Caller 5 (01:06:21):
Yeah. So I could buy a Chrome pad or a, a tablet or something or something mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and then just use it for banking brokerage and things like

Leo Laporte (01:06:28):
That. I think that's a very, very good idea. We had one of the most famous security guys out there, Alex Stamos on one of our shows a few weeks ago. Yeah. And he said he bought his entire family, you know, his parents, his grandparents, Chromebooks. He says, best thing I ever did. Now here's a guy who really knows security and has seen a lot of break-ins. And he, he agrees with me, which is actually was kind of encouraging. <Laugh>. Yes. Yes. <laugh>.

Caller 5 (01:06:54):
But I'll, I'll let you go now. But it's been a, a pleasure to talk to you several times and I hope you get today or tomorrow to the to the cryptocurrency scandals that have

Leo Laporte (01:07:05):
Happened. We've talked about it. We'll talk about it some more. Yeah. Yeah. Stay away. Basically.

Caller 5 (01:07:10):
Enjoy your brunches, Leo. Thank

Leo Laporte (01:07:12):
You, Leo and Mikah, your tech guys more to come right after this. Yeah, Google makes the, what is it, the Chrome go or what do they call there? Yeah, I'm not sure. It's a little detach. It has a keyboard, but it's detachable. And actually they may have stopped selling that. I, yeah. Know, I'm not, I see them linking to a lot of third parties, other people's stuff. Right. Yeah. ASR as hp. But yeah, there's, there's tablets. You don't need a it's nice to have a little detachable keyboard for, for the times you wanna you know, type stuff. That's the only negative on tablets is typing on glass is no fun, I think. But I agree. Yeah.

(01:07:55):
Johnny Jet's coming up. Hey, Mr. Jj. Hey. I'm back. He's back. He's back. He's back. He didn't go nowhere did you? Nope. My wife has sinusitis. Oh God. For a girl. Geez. So she can't go on an airplane because the, the pressure. Yes. Yeah. So we just can't, I'm just getting my trip alert right now from TripIt saying that my flight's delayed. I was supposed to be in Chicago airport right now. Oh yeah, sure. Connecting to white Plains. Never fly through Chicago in the winter or the summer. Well, that is one of my tips, but I actually purposely did it because I wanted to get some good pictures of the airport at Christmas time, cuz it's a great airport at Christmas. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (01:08:42):
Yeah. Oh, I thought you were gonna say, because I tell everybody else not to fly through Chicago. I

Leo Laporte (01:08:45):
I thought it'd be safe. I

Mikah Sargent (01:08:46):
Did. I'd be good to go. Nobody would be there. <Laugh>. Yeah. This whole time, it's just been about making those airports easier. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (01:08:53):
Yeah. We shut our studio down. We don't have guests come in anymore. Lisa and I are wearing masks everywhere. We just everybody's sick. Uhhuh

Mikah Sargent (01:09:05):
<Affirmative>. And this is one that lingers.

Leo Laporte (01:09:06):
It's Oh, it goes on. Yeah. We have friends who've had it for weeks now. My my wife's been sick for over a month. Yikes. November 15th. She's been sick. Holy hell. I'm so sorry. So is she uncomfortable? Well, she got covid after I got covid a couple weeks ago. Oh boy. And she was tested for everything that she did not So she got sinusitis from Covid? No, I'm not sure. Oh. She's had a nasty cough since November 15th. Oh geez. Fortunately the cough is getting better. I'm so sorry, Johnny. But you know, what can you do? I got two little kids. Yeah. They're gonna bring home every and wait till they get into school. We're keeping our daughter away from preschool this month. Yeah. Well first of all, she was sick, so we had to, right then I was like, I'm not bringing her, I'm not bringing her back to school next week. Yeah. Now that we're home, that's not worth it. I'm literally paying the school to keep her home.

Mikah Sargent (01:10:00):
Right, right, right. That makes sense. Yeah.

Leo Laporte / Johnny Jet (01:10:03):
I'm sorry John. Crazy stinks. So, but anyway, I'm back. I'm back chat room is, it has been asking about the Gizz fizz, which is moving to Wednesdays after this week in Google. Yes. We will be broad. We will be streaming that. So the chat room will be able to see it. It will not be club only. We've kind of gone back and forth on that, but John's pointed out that without the chat room there really so much of a gizz fizz. So we will, we will stream that so that you can watch chat room. That'll be Wednesdays after this week in Google. And you know, part of this was conditional on John being willing to work late cuz he, he will actually have to stick around for it. And he says he, he wants to. So Owen's asking me about flight apps.

(01:10:55):
I like Maverick's 56. I like flighty we talked about before. Oh yeah, yeah. Flighty. Yeah. But that, and that does cost money. Actually I'm updating it right now cuz I just went into it and it says I haven't updated it in a while. How are your kids, by the way, submitting the chat room Wants to know if your kids are doing okay? They're all right. My daughter, she's not a hundred percent. So. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I see, I see that Australia, although I thought Australia was having some problems with flu, even though it's not their season. But I, I was like, listen, I would take my kids outta school and just go down to Australia for the season. Hmm. I love it down there. That's a good idea. Yeah. Let's go to summer in in the Southern Hemisphere. But I'm all about summer, the endless summer.

(01:11:41):
Oh yes. He's been everywhere. He's traveled all around the world. 43 and a third times. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our travel guru Mr. Johnny Jet. Hello, John. Hello. Ain't going anywhere right now. <Laugh>? No. I was supposed to be boarding a plane right now in Chicago. Well, we're glad you're here. Planes. I'm dressed for Chicago, as you can see. <Laugh>. I'm wearing the official planes, trains in automobile. I, I I love it. <Laugh>. And please tell me Steve Martin didn't give that to you. He did not. I wish he, I wish he had, you know, but I doubt Steve has a whole bunch of these lying around the house. I, I did, you know, Willie Nelson did give me a bottle of old Whiskey River and a bandana, so, oh, wow. That's that going for me. So <laugh> what's all in the lounge? Once Yeah, airport.

(01:12:31):
Airport lounge was, it was a quite a great guy. We was still is got to visit his tour bus. I remember the door. That's awesome. Opening on the bus and all this smoke coming out. Scam, pour. Yeah. Pouring out it. I don't know what's going on. Spicoli. Yeah. In fast times. So what's up with you, Johnny? What's latest in travel? I mean, there's, so what's going on? I mean, where do you want to start? You know, United placed a huge order this week, order of this week, over 200 planes. So that's exciting. So they're bullish about the future of flight, I guess. And so is Delta. Delta c e o came out this week and he said they're expecting to make more money next year than any time. It seems a little risky bet to be honest with you, because it's very possible that people will hunker down.

(01:13:15):
I mean, they're not right now, but I mean, knock on wood, let's hope nothing else. You don't think there'll be another plague in in the, I mean, I hope not. It's, you know, it's supposed to happen every hundred years, but no, they're all bullish. And the president of Delta, sorry, not the c e o the president came out this week saying that ch the change fees are not coming back. They're, they're, they're done with that. Okay. And they're making so much money, even without the change fees. So that's great news for consumers because if Delta sticks to that, then the other major carriers will as well. And that is, you know, one of the reasons why I'm able to cancel my flight today with no problems at all. I just keep changing it and I can. That's really, really cool. Make another one using that credit.

(01:13:56):
So it's, it's a huge difference, especially for people who are sick. Otherwise they would've made, may possibly made my wife travel who's not feeling well. You don't want do that. Do that. You don't wanna force people on the plane if they're not feeling well. Definitely not. No. It's, it's good for everybody. And they have so many people who are at standby. I mean, it it is, it is a win-win. So we, we are going on a flight after Christmas five hour flight. And there's only middle seats left. What's your advice? <Laugh>. Okay, so I had a lot of advice for this. So, so go to seat expert.com. Okay. Sorry, not seat expert.com. Seat guru expert flyer.com. Expert flyer expert. So, so you have to sign up for, they actually give you one seat assignment, but you don't want that. Just, just spend the 4 99 I think it is, or 9 99 a month.

(01:14:40):
Deal. Deal. And go to seat maps. Put in your, your, your flight. Yeah. And then it'll ask you if you wanna set an alert. So then go in, click specific seats and then whichever seats you want. So I would do, like, I just, now, I was supposed to be flying to Philadelphia on another flight on a 7 87. And because I have elite status, I can get into the premium cabin, which is, you know, like domestic first class, but for free. Hmm. Anyway, I selected every single seat in there to see if anything opened up. And then I would get an email immediately once they opened up. And then I can just go right in instead of keep checking every 10 minutes. See, this is why I thought, well, I'm not gonna bother. They told us there were only middle seats. But you're saying that's not necessarily gonna stay that way.

(01:15:26):
People can't, it's it's not, it's not going to track it. Because you know why? Cuz a lot of the freaking flyers, they have the best seats. They get the exit row, the bulkhead. Well, I it's on you. I have a lot of miles with United, I I could probably, yeah, but it doesn't matter cuz you could have booked the last minute. But anyway. Right. They're gonna start upgrading people five days out and then they're definitely gonna start upgrading them 24 hours out. And then even within a few hours, people pumping them up trips into the top part of the plane. And those of us at the bottom of the plane, like the, the, the, you know, the little crumbs in your Doritos bag, we can rearrange and find seats. I always do that. Listen, I do not want to get stuck in a middle seat and I have before.

(01:16:07):
And actually there's some that don't mind like an a three 19 in the, the bulkhead, but just follow that advice. Keep checking. But use a seat expert or expert flyer. They're, they're a tracker. And also get to the gate, bring a box of chocolates or a bag of chocolates, give 'em to the flight attendants and say, oh, none of the flight attendants engage and say, Hey listen, I know you have a difficult job. I was thinking if you upgrade any freaking flyers, can you gimme their good seat? I was thinking instead of chocolates, hard boiled eggs, could I bring those instead? That won't work. <Laugh>. Okay. I brought some eggs. Put you on the toilet <laugh>. Okay. Okay. Don't do that. Yeah. Expert flyer.com. Yep. you want, you say do the pro I could try pro for five days. That's probably all I need. That's all you need.

(01:16:51):
So to sign up for that sign up. Sign it up. Okay. And then hit the seat maps on the left. Yeah. And then put in your flight info. They're gonna ask you to departure airport, your arrival, the flight number, the airline, and then what class of service? Cuz you can check all three or four classes and then just, you can do all, you can do all exit rows or all aisles, all windows. But I just do specific seats because I'm, you know, I want, I wish it would say, how did you hear about us Johnny Jet? But I see a friend, the Points guy, lonely Planet Flyer talk. Well, the points guy owns it. They're, they're, oh, this is his thing. They're a company owns it. Red Ventures. Okay. What should I say? I I'm gonna say other and then see if I can put in Johnny Jet.

(01:17:30):
No. Oh, well, but doesn't matter. Well, I'll put radio on it. It's a, it's a great site. I mean, he was smart to get it. Yeah. Really. I think I might pay for it just cuz Well, I don't know how much. It's also good to use when you're trying to use your miles Yeah. For tickets and they're not open. So you can actually put in the flights you want and they'll actually notify you if there's any mileage tickets. Nice. That open up. Expert flyer.com. I'd never heard of this. Well, you've probably told me, but I I, I've heard of all the other, I've mentioned it before, guru, and you know, all that. But this is good. This one actually secret is good just to see what seats are available. Yeah. They're not available. What they're like, what they're, yeah. Where don't sit near the bathroom or, yeah, exactly.

(01:18:09):
So this is, this is gonna help me get seats together with my wife instead of us sitting aisles. And they will, they will move the seats. People cancel, people change their flights, they miss connections or they upgrade people. So that's why just keep checking and this will help, but also be kind to the gate agent and just tell 'em, say, Hey, can you get, can you get me on there? Yep. And bring hard boiled eggs. Right? No. Yeah. Bring salamis. They'll love that. Be kind. All you gotta do is be kind, be funny, smile. Bring salamis. And yeah. And also, this is kind on a related note. Someone asked me in the chat room about talking about booking specific aircrafts. So when I fly, let's say I'm going LA to Miami. American Airlines fly as the 7 87. They fly the H 3 21.

(01:18:54):
I try to avoid the single aisle planes. I try to get the wide body. So before I even book my ticket, I look and see which aircraft is a they're, they're flying and which time. And I'm happy to change my time to get that good aircraft because you can get a better seat. You can get upgraded. Well, I have a wide bodies, so I like the wide bodies, frankly. A little more room. Yeah. Some of these wide bodies are seats are tight on the new ones. I want s Scot Moore room. Yeah. Well okay, good. All right. I just told my wife to sign up for this <laugh> mm-hmm. <Laugh>. All right, good. And sign up to my newsletter. Make sure she signs up to my newsletter. But we're always signed up to your newsletter, Johnny Jet. Good. Of course we are. That's a Johnny jet.com/newsletter.

(01:19:38):
And I'm not bribing gate agents, by the way. I see people in the chat room talking. No, no, no. You're being nice to them. You being kind to them. There's no charge for kindness. Just be nice, that's all. Yeah. And sometimes karma comes around, sometimes it doesn't. They're not gonna upgrade you, but you know, if they have time, you can, they, they can work wonders. Unfortunately, these guys are so stressed. There used to be two agents a lot of times. There's only one now and they're just trying to get the plane out on time. And there's so much. I know. But, and then, you know, there's always some guy in line's jaw, and I'm Jawboning and stuff. Just give him the candy and go. Don't spend a lot of time there. Just say, remember my name, Johnny Jet, here's some candy. And go.

(01:20:18):
And maybe they'll, maybe they'll upgrade you. Maybe not. They won't upgrade you. They, it's almost impossibly get upgraded these days. Unless you're a legitimate freaking flyer, you, you're paying for it. But I'll ask, ask if they're, am I move the seat a little bit? How much it will cost. Say how much it'll cost. I used to be on the radio. I used to be somebody <laugh>. Now I'm just a regular schmuck going down the road. Sorry. Sorry. Ask. You should asked me last week. Johnny's been such a pleasure with you and your family. Have a wonderful holiday for us and, and a happy New Year. And we'll see you in the new year. Stay safe. Hope stay well, you will. I promise. <Laugh>. Goodbye Johnny. Jack, Johnny Jet. Take care. See you, Mike. Sleeping on the jet plane. Goodbye,

Leo Laporte (01:20:55):
Johnny. Goodbye. Run down the plane. I'm running down the train station track. Johnny, come back. Johnny

(01:21:07):
<laugh>,

(01:21:08):
Come back. Johnny.

(01:21:12):
Ha No, we're gonna get you on the on the new show too. You know, I just, the only thing I tell people is there's only one show and there's six regulars on the hey, on the radio show. Hey, no worries. From time to time, like at least once a month for sure. I'm happy to mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And it's Sundays. It's Sundays, which makes it better, right? Oh yeah. You know what? I'm pretty flexible. Yeah, no, we'll de we'll definitely do that, sir. Thank you, my friend. All right, well, you guys have a great, all right. Love holiday. Love to be my, your poor sinusitis infected wife. I'm sorry. She's, she's in pain. But you know what, she's, you know what I didn't mention, but I, by the way, I wanted to mention to people mention, mention if, if cost was a problem for flying this holiday check again, because I was actually looking at tickets for later this week.

(01:21:58):
Just in case she gets better. The prices have gone down, including for using your miles. Yeah. So, yeah. Doug m is asking, he's taking headphones on takeoff and landing a new thing. It's Europe, it's International Airlines. He was on a flight in Vietnam. The I, I noticed that on international flights, they will, they want you to pay attention, hear what's going on when they crash, also keep, also keep the, also keep the window open. Open, yes. So you see if there's flames. But the American airlines don't do that, do they? Just the They don't, it's, it's, it's bizarre. Yeah. I think Hawaiian might. Yeah. I can't remember. But I think they don't also depends on some flight attendants. They don't wanna telegram, telegraph that, you know, we could be going down. So just pay attention just in case. No, it's a safety thing.

(01:22:43):
Every on take off landing, the shades should be up. Yeah. And your headphones should be off and you should be paying attention. I agree. I agree. But that's international flights, I've, I've had them mask us to do that, but never on a us And you ever notice on an international carrier? Warren does do that. Says it says Laura, so that's good. Okay. After six minutes of takeoff. Yeah. After six, six minutes after takeoff, they tear the seatbelt sign off, boom, boom, boom. And us carriers, it's like 45 minutes. No, they leave it on. Cuz they don't know. They don't know. No, I, I think that, I just think they want the flight attendants to be able to do their service. I think you're right. I think you're right. And not bother people in the aisle. But anyway, I think you're exactly right.

(01:23:19):
Anyway, have a great one, Johnny. I love you man. And love you too. Miss you. I love seeing you every Saturday. But we will see you. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna leave you in the lurch. I'm not gonna ghost you, my friend. I will not ghost. I'm, I'm glad to hear that. <Laugh>, unlike my, my high school girlfriend. Oh, man. Well, I can't say that. I haven't ghosted some girls in my time. No. Well, I got ghosted, but anyway. Yeah, I know. That's terrible. Take care. She's, she's pining now, she says. Oh, totally, man. He ended up being Johnny Jet. Oh man. It was a Leo Laporte show. Oh man. I'm pining Now, did you go to high school in the southern California? No. Connecticut. Connecticut, south Norwalk, Connecticut. Well, those Norwalk girls, they're snooty <laugh>. They're, they're a snooty bunch. Well known, well known to be snooty. Okay, John, see you later. See you later. Bye. Offsite producer. Goodbye, Johnny. Goodbye. There he goes. His tail number is N 6 3 7 4 2. He's flying away on a big old jet airliner. Leo Laporte Mikah, Sargent, your tech guys. 88. 88. Ask Leo R phone number. Alan is on the line from North Hollywood, California. Hello, Alan.

Caller 6 (01:24:40):
Hello. How are you doing?

Leo Laporte (01:24:41):
We're great. How are you?

Caller 6 (01:24:44):
Well, pretty much fine. I have a question regarding a it's a Cannon l i d e scanner the two 20. I've, I've had scanners before this, but this thing has, its sort of its own mind <laugh>.

Leo Laporte (01:25:11):
So the L I D E scanners are some, I don't know what this L i d, the L I D E, what does that stand for? It sounds like it's some sort of special treat, special capability. Is it, does it designed to do something specific?

Caller 6 (01:25:29):
I don't know. I don't know. I purchased,

Leo Laporte (01:25:32):
It's just a flatbed scanner.

Caller 6 (01:25:34):
Yeah. From fries. So it's been a while. Well,

Leo Laporte (01:25:39):
Oh wow. It has been a while. So what is, what is it doing that's weird?

Caller 6 (01:25:44):
Well what it does is if you put in a picture, it will intelligently center it and start it at the top and all that. And it adjusts the scan and takes a a

Leo Laporte (01:26:01):
That's, it's a auto scan feature that they, that they tout. Yeah.

Caller 6 (01:26:07):
Yeah. And the problem is, is if you put in two let's say two rectangular pictures, either next to each other or one above and one below, it decides that it's only gonna take first one.

Leo Laporte (01:26:24):
Well, that's no fun. <Laugh>.

Caller 6 (01:26:26):
Well, that's the thing.

Leo Laporte (01:26:28):
I would look in the settings. I have I've used many, many scanners. In some cases the scanners are smart enough to say there's multiple items. Do you want me to, in fact, my scanner which is a brother all in one, but it will, it, it has a setting in the setup that says, do you want me to separate the individual items as separate scans? So the first place is to really dig through the setting. Sometimes you don't get all the details on the settings because your operating system will just show you a kind of a truncated version. So if it gives you a button that says, show the scanner, full scanner settings, do that. And you'll be amazed at, at what's in there. So that's the first thing I would do, is make sure that that's not a capability. That it doesn't have that capability. I, it might, many scanners do separate multiple images on a single scanning pad.

Caller 6 (01:27:23):
Yeah. It doesn't that that's the problem. I haven't found anything that allows a choice. It would be the equivalent of having some sort of self-driving car where you're saying quick to the nearest, it's

Leo Laporte (01:27:40):
Too much. It's doing too much. You're

Caller 6 (01:27:42):
Going to Disneyland.

Mikah Sargent (01:27:44):
Is this connected to a Windows PC or a Mac?

Caller 6 (01:27:46):
Windows.

Mikah Sargent (01:27:47):
Okay. So yeah. I what Leo, you might have more information about the built in scanning software that comes with Windows, because it, it's possible that he could use that scanning technology. Yeah. It's built in and have it just do a straight up flatbed scan of the whole image.

Leo Laporte (01:28:04):
Well, you certainly could do that. And I think you, I think you probably know that. You can say don't, don't hone in on that one image. I want the whole page. Right. You can do that, can't you, Helen?

Caller 6 (01:28:14):
No, no.

Leo Laporte (01:28:15):
That's the problem. Oh, well that's ridiculous. So it's always saying, oh, well I know you only want this image. So here's what I would suggest. That's scanner like most supports Twain mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, which is a standard scanner interface. Somebody, some WAG once said, Twain is a technology without an in is interesting name is what the Twain acronym stands for. I don't really know what it stands for. But there is a guy named Hamrick who is a great programmer who has for years Ed Hamrick made third party scanning software that works with all Twain scanners and gives you often better capability than the software that comes. Many scanners don't have great software. So I would go to H A M R I C k.com and look at his program view scan. It is, it is up to date. The most recent version came out December 1st, the first of this month.

(01:29:11):
So he's been doing this since the nineties, and I've been recommending it as long as I've been doing this show. It is a really good alternative software to replace your Cannon drivers that will give you more capabilities. So that's one thing I would try. If you've, if you've opened the Cannon drivers directly, not, not, not let Windows get in the way, but open the Cannon drivers directly and you can't find a place to scan the whole bed instead of zero in on the image, then try this view scan. I I I I find it hard to believe that, that the cannon is, is too dumb. Yeah. To say, well, wait a minute. There's two items there. So I would definitely, let's see. In the scan, in the, in the cannon manuals, which somebody has put online in the chat room for us, scanning multiple items at one time, not using auto scan, set paper size.

(01:30:08):
Oh. So in the, when you go to paper size in the settings, you can say whether it will or will not use auto scan. These are much more elaborate settings. I bet you you're not saying the full thing. Start the Canon says start the IJ scan utility. And I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even know you had this <laugh> if you installed the full Cannon drivers. Apparently you do. There are settings in there. We'll put a link Yep. In the show notes to the manual onto this manual page to you scan. You can scan two or more photos placed on the plate and at one time and save each image individually. You know, that's what my scanner will do. Yeah. so I, it's, I, first thing I do is dig through the settings and make sure you using this, the IJ scan utility.

(01:30:52):
Cause I have a feeling you're just using that generic Windows interface, which isn't giving you many choices. And then if it doesn't work for you, it it's worth trying. View Scan is is is free to download and try. You can, you can buy it if it, if it does what you want it to do. The basic edition's, 25 bucks. There's a pro edition for a hundred bucks, which gives you a lot more capability. But I would try before you buy and views scan this guy, ed Hamrick has been doing this for a long time and he's actually, he's actually kind of amazing that this views scanner V scan software's been out for so long. V U E S C A N. And that's all because Twain is a standard that most scanners use. Yeah, that's not good. Now did we figure out what l i D stands for? There's a lithium it that, a battery in it. So it's a battery backup. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> their battery. It's a portable scanner. Interesting. Interesting. Huh? Like a laptop. I forgot. It looks like a laptop, doesn't it? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Slim Performance Scanner. Huh? Not expensive either. About 80 bucks. Scanners have gotten so much less expensive. Most of us, I think use are all in ones. Do you have an all-in-one at home where it prints, scans, faxes, Xeroxes does all those

Mikah Sargent (01:32:08):
Things. All the things. Yeah. All the things. Exactly. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (01:32:10):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Most people I think end up doing that.

Mikah Sargent (01:32:13):
I've, I've tucked that away because I now, I use a laser printer for printing stuff and I've got just a little portable

Leo Laporte (01:32:20):
Sticker. I have a laser all in one. There you go from brother. It does all of that Nice. With a laser. 88. 88. Ask Leo is the phone number. Mikah, Sargent Leo Laporte. We're taking your calls. Somebody pointed out, that's kind of sad. This is your last radio show. Yeah. Ever.

Mikah Sargent (01:32:37):
Well, I, unless,

Leo Laporte (01:32:38):
Unless you know, someday Yeah. You get on the radio knows. Do you ever want to be on the radio? No. You're a young

Mikah Sargent (01:32:44):
Guy. I, I actually, now that I think about it, I I might go back on that one. Show the bill something Bill handle. Bill handle him. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (01:32:51):
I won't tell Bill. You forgot his

Mikah Sargent (01:32:53):
Name. Yes, thank you. I've been asked to on

Leo Laporte (01:32:56):
The Great Cafe. Yeah, you should be on Bill with every time. Get Pills. Bill's a great guy. He kind of helped me when I first started doing this show in 2004. Oh, nice. Bill took me to lunch, took me under his wing. He said, you got potential kid. Someday you'll be as successful as I am. <Laugh>. That never happened. 80 <laugh>. 88. 88. Ask Leo all the stuff we just talked about, including the View scan software will be on our show notes. That's at tech guy labs.com. And it's free to go to, Hey everybody, it's Leo LaPorte, the founder and host of many of the TWIT podcasts. I don't normally talk to you about advertising, but I want to take a moment to do that right now. Our statement at twit, we're dedicated to building a highly engaged community of tech enthusiasts. That's our audience.

(01:33:48):
And you, I guess, since you're listening, by offering them the knowledge they need to understand and use technology in today's world to do that, we also create partnerships with trusted brands and make important introductions between them and our audience. It's how we finance our podcasts, but it's also, and our audience tells us this all the time. A part of the service we offer, it's a valued bit of information for our audience members. They wanna know about great brands like yours. So can we help you by introducing you to our highly qualified audience? And boy, you get a lot with advertising on the TWIT podcasts. Partnering with TWIT means you're gonna get, if I may say so humbly the gold standard in podcast advertising. And we throw in a lot of valuable services. You get a full service continuity team supporting everything from copywriting to graphic design.

(01:34:43):
I don't think anybody else does this or does this as well as we do. You get ads that are embedded in our content that are unique every time I read them, our hosts read them. We always over-deliver on impressions. And frankly, we are here to talk about your product. So we really give our listeners a great introduction to what you offer. We've got onboarding services, ad tech with pod sites that's free for direct clients. We give you a lot of reporting so you know who saw your advertisement. You'll even know how many responded by going to your website. We'll also give you courtesy commercials that you can share across social media and landing pages. We think these are really valuable people like me and our other hosts talking about your product sincerely and informationally. Those are incredibly valuable. You also get other free goodies mentions in our weekly newsletter that's sent out to thousands of fans.

(01:35:37):
We give bonus ads to people who buy a significant amount of advertising. You'll get social media promotion to. But let me tell you, we are looking for an advertising partner that's gonna be with us long term. Visit Twitter tv slash advertis. Check out our partner testimonials. Tim Broom, founder of it Pro tv. They started it Pro TV in 2013, immediately started advertising with us and grew that company to a, a really amazing success. Hundreds of thousands of ongoing customers. They've been on our network for more than 10 years. And they say, and I'll quote Tim, we would not be where we are today without the twit network. That's just one example. Mark McCreary, who's the c e o of Authentic he was actually one of the first people to buy ads on our network. He's been with us for 16 years. He said, and I'm quoting, the feedback from many advertisers over those 16 years across a range of product categories is that if ads in podcasts are gonna work for a brand, they're gonna work on Twitch shows.

(01:36:41):
I'm proud to say that the ads we do over-deliver. They work really well because they're honest. They have integrity. Our audience trusts us and we say this is a great product. They believe it, they listen. Our listeners are highly intelligent. They're heavily engaged, they're tech savvy. They're dedicated to our network. And that's partly because we only work with high integrity partners that we have thoroughly and personally vetted. I approve every single advertiser on the network. If you're ready to elevate your brand and you've got a great product, I want you to reach out to us, advertise@twit.tv. So I want you to break out of the advertising norm. Grow your brand with host Red authentic Ads on twit.tv. Visit twit tv slash advertise for more details, or email us advertise@twit.tv if you're ready to launch your campaign now. Well, hey, hey, hey. How are you today?

(01:37:41):
Leo LaPorte, Mikah Sargent, hear your Tech guys episode 1953 of the Tech Guys show. There will be one more and then it's gonna be the Wonderful Rich Tomorrow and Rich on Tech starting January 7th. We're gonna take, I think obviously Christmas Eve, new Year's Eve off. Those will be best of shows. Lori, I guess you have to work, don't you? Christmas even New Year's Eve and Christmas Day in New Year's Day, probably. Oh, no. Yeah. Sorry, what? What's Radio Man? It's called Radio and I've done it for 19 years and now, you know, <laugh>. So now you know the rest of the story. But do, do you know what, when you, when you are enjoying the family and friends on a holiday evening, whether it's Hanukkah this Sunday or or Christmas a week from Sunday, think about the people who are working. Cause there are a lot of them in hospitals and emergency rooms and stores. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (01:38:34):
If you go to a store, yeah, it's nice to

Leo Laporte (01:38:36):
Say. Yeah, it's hard. Our son works at a big grocery store and chances are good, he'll be working at least on Christmas Eve, if not Christmas Day. And so yeah, think about those people who, who aren't getting to be with their family at that time. But I'm glad we get to be with you on our last couple of radio shows. As I mentioned before, Mikah and I will continue answering questions, but we'll be doing it on the internet. That thing called the internet. It's not as big as radio or tv, but it's, you know, it's there and it's, it's available. <Laugh> and tech guy labs.com will continue to be the place to go. You will see audio and video from our new show there. If you subscribe to the podcast already via our podcast network twit tv, you'll continue to get a podcast.

(01:39:19):
Just be one a week instead of two. And it will be asked the tech guy. And as I told Mikah in Maine, you can call mm-hmm. <Affirmative> the new show. But we're gonna do it a little differently because there is video with it. Actually there's video with this show, but we thought it'd be kind of fun to do it on Zoom. So now somebody said, well, if, if I call you on Zoom, I don't want you to see my face. Can I be a cat? I think mashed potato wanted to know that. Yes, you could be a cat, you could be mashed potatoes if you figure out how to do it. Yeah,

Mikah Sargent (01:39:44):
Exactly. <Laugh>

Leo Laporte (01:39:46):
Talking to mashed potatoes might be interesting. I agree. I think,

Mikah Sargent (01:39:49):
Yeah, as long as it doesn't, you know, obscure your, our ability to hear what you're saying. That's, that's all that matters. I our

Leo Laporte (01:39:57):
Ferro don't be peanut butter. Whatever you do. Dan is on the line from New Jersey. Hello, Dan, Leo and Mikah, your tech guys.

Caller 7 (01:40:04):
Hello, Leo and Mikah.

Mikah Sargent (01:40:06):
Hello Dan.

Leo Laporte (01:40:07):
Hello Dan.

Mikah Sargent (01:40:07):
Call,

Leo Laporte (01:40:08):
Thanks for calling. What can we

Mikah Sargent (01:40:10):
Do for you?

Caller 7 (01:40:11):
I called last week and you suggested that I get my dad and Amazon, Amazon Echo echoed help to make phone calls.

Leo Laporte (01:40:18):
Oh boy. Oh no. And then you heard Dr. Mom last week say they're gonna discontinue that.

Caller 7 (01:40:24):
That's right.

Leo Laporte (01:40:26):
In fact, I even mentioned you. I said, oh, that's bad news. <Laugh>, you're, I

Caller 7 (01:40:32):
Know you did. You did.

Leo Laporte (01:40:33):
I did your 96 year old father. What a great idea. I mean, the ability to say, call my son or call nine 11 or whatever. So yeah, thank you Amazon. Oh,

Mikah Sargent (01:40:45):
Now I'm looking for this.

Leo Laporte (01:40:47):
Yeah, I don't know. They haven't set a date. I don't know when this is gonna happen because

Mikah Sargent (01:40:54):
At and t still listed on their side how to set it up and use it.

Leo Laporte (01:40:59):
Yeah, well of course we learned that Amazon was losing 10 billion a year on their Echo service because people, they, they set it up, you know, it's expensive and they don't charge, they don't make a profit on the hardware. So and they thought people would use it to buy stuff, but nobody's using to buy stuff. Right. So I, you know, Dr. Mom is pretty wired into the mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, the echo sphere as it were. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (01:41:25):
Dr. Mom, if you've got some links, that'd be great. Cuz I didn't see this fly by.

Leo Laporte (01:41:29):
Yeah, I didn't either

Mikah Sargent (01:41:30):
And I'm still seeing all the

Leo Laporte (01:41:32):
Support. Have you set it up already, Dan?

Caller 7 (01:41:36):
Well, I got an Echo and I am in the process of setting it up and 

Leo Laporte (01:41:41):
It will do. So here's the thing. It will continue to do echo to echo calls. So while he won't be able to call phone numbers via at t and, and again, who knows when this will happen, it might be way off. He could call you if you have an Echo.

Caller 7 (01:42:01):
Oh, well that's not, you know what I wanted Right. But I, the, however, I did notice that they have an option to link calls to your like Verizon account mm-hmm. <Affirmative>

Leo Laporte (01:42:16):
Now. Yeah. I mean that's how it worked. This is a so-called bridge between the Echo service and a cell service. At and t

Mikah Sargent (01:42:23):
Att calls it number sync. I'm not sure what Verizon's version of that is. Now what? See, I don't see anything online suggesting that number sync is going away. 

Caller 7 (01:42:34):
I couldn't find anything either.

Leo Laporte (01:42:37):
Well, maybe they, you know, maybe and and we do, we, it they, they did specifically mention at and t so maybe Verizon will continue doing it. I don't know. Cuz it, it might be unilateral on at and t's part. I just don't know. You're you're wondering if you should go ahead with it.

Caller 7 (01:42:55):
Yeah, well I already got it and I started setting it up and I thought that maybe if, if you set it up with your Verizon account or your at and t account, maybe it, it wouldn't be really costing them anything, you know

Mikah Sargent (01:43:08):
Right. To keep it going, you mean?

Caller 7 (01:43:11):
Right, right. Like maybe they would limit it to people because it seemed like you for a while. I was still able once upon a time when I had an Amazon in the past before I even set it up to link with my, my phone company, I was able to make phone calls and I couldn't figure out how that worked, but maybe, you know, but the thing is, anyway, that's what Dr. Monk and that threw me off. Well,

Leo Laporte (01:43:34):
Well I have an article from Geek Wire that says <laugh> a company spokesperson confirmed the plan. Here's the quote. We regularly review our features to ensure we're investing in services that will delight customers and have decided to suspend support, support for this feature. So <laugh>, it is officially ending the so-called Echo built-in phones as of March 31st of next year. So you have a few months of it. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, they it might be that Google and an, I don't know, I don't know what's going on. It says Amazon is continuing to invest in the Echo experience within the Echo app to provide customers of the seamless way to access their favorite features and experiences.

Mikah Sargent (01:44:18):
This is not the same thing. This is, so this is what's confusing. That's the, this is specifically talking about how on Android devices you can basically use A L X A instead of like a Google, Google

Leo Laporte (01:44:29):
System or something else. Oh no, I'm looking at the wrong one then. Okay.

Mikah Sargent (01:44:31):
So I still am not seeing, so here's what I would say for you Dan, there's no harm in setting this up right now,

Leo Laporte (01:44:39):
Especially since you already bought

Mikah Sargent (01:44:40):
It. Since you bought it, you can use it and yeah. So this, now I'm getting confirmation. It is not ECHO devices. Those are still going, it's whenever people were using it with smartphones. So I think, and I'm not seeing anything that suggests otherwise that people will still continue to do this. We'll have to see if that changes, obviously, in the future. But for now, yeah, there's no harm in setting it up since you've already got it. 

Leo Laporte (01:45:01):
We just, and we don't, and there is, as far as I know, no end date. Just that they're gonna stop doing it. So here's a long link. Well, maybe

Caller 7 (01:45:09):
I could use a, a HomePod or something in the future or something like, yeah, I think they might do it. I'm not sure.

Leo Laporte (01:45:16):
Yeah.

Caller 7 (01:45:17):
But,

Leo Laporte (01:45:18):
We'll, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think right now this is the best way to do it. What else could he do? So he wants, so his dad's obviously got some mobility and, and agility issues. Yeah. Wants to be able to make phone calls without having to, you know, dial a number on a phone. Is there anything he can voice, activate a phone call with?

Mikah Sargent (01:45:37):
So yes, you could connect it with Skype or with Zoom or with one of those platforms and then do that. But the problem with all of those, Dan, is that then there's more thinking and steps involved that your dad would've to do so. He would've to remember to say, Hey, you know, who ask Skype to call this number. As opposed to just saying, call this number. Those are two, you know, that, that's much simpler to be able to do. So I can't think of anything that is as simple as having that set up where it's connected to the phone number.

Leo Laporte (01:46:08):
I almost made it outta here before Dan called back. <Laugh> was that close? Let's keep listening. Maybe we'll come up with something. And it was such a, it was such a perfect answer. I feel bad because thank you. Amazon. And this is one of the problems, frankly, with the tech industry, is they, they abandoned stuff. I guess this is true of any company. If they are abandoning this, I mean, four didn't keep making the ed sold no matter how much you liked it, right? I don't, I just don't know. Something he can talk to some phones you can talk to. Certainly. you know, you can, you could take an iPhone and talk to

Mikah Sargent (01:46:45):
Him. Yeah, you could. Exactly. You could say, Hey, S I r I call this number. Yeah. Right, right.

Leo Laporte (01:46:51):
But the E Echo was perfect cause it has a built-in speaker. It was loud it had a built-in microphone. So he, he almost didn't need,

Mikah Sargent (01:46:59):
And I can't stress this enough. I have no confirmation that it's going anywhere.

Leo Laporte (01:47:03):
We can't find that article. Yeah. So

Mikah Sargent (01:47:05):
Why not just use what is available? And you know what? Keep watching on Sundays, this show. I

Leo Laporte (01:47:12):
Will keep an eye out. We'll, we'll keep an eye out. We're gonna try to find out, okay. What's going on there. Yeah, thanks a lot. It was such a good solution. Dan. I'm sorry. <Laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (01:47:19):
<Laugh>. Okay.

Leo Laporte (01:47:21):
<Laugh> Poor Dan. I feel terrible. Does Google do the same thing with its input Google Voice? I don't know. Can you call what we're looking for, just so you can visualize this, you know, the way the Echo works is you can say, Hey, echo call, you could say, call 4 2 3 8 6 7 5 3 0 9 if you want, <laugh>. Or you could say, call my son. You know, and if it's in the phone book, there's a phone book in the in the Echo app on your phone. If it's in that phone book, they'll call that number like a phone. And then you can talk to it like you're on a phone call. So it becomes a speaker phone. I mean, certainly you could do that by pairing that echo to an actual phone. Having, can you, you can't use, can you use a home pod to make phone calls with an iPhone, for instance, with S I R I? Yes, you can.

Mikah Sargent (01:48:15):
Yes. As long. So that's what he use iPhones in the home.

Leo Laporte (01:48:17):
So that's what he was saying. So you get him an iPhone, put it in a drawer, Uhhuh <affirmative> pair it, pair the home pods to it. Yeah. And then he could say, Hey, Schlomo.

Mikah Sargent (01:48:25):
Yeah. Let's say

Leo Laporte (01:48:26):
Phone. Make, make a phone call. Link it. So you, you Yeah. See Apple's unlikely to take that away

Mikah Sargent (01:48:32):
Because essentially all it's doing is just voice,

Leo Laporte (01:48:35):
It's using the phone voice,

Mikah Sargent (01:48:36):
Voice from the phone.

Leo Laporte (01:48:37):
Yeah. I mean, I, you know, one of the nice things about an iPhone right now, I want, if you have a Mac or an iPad, when my phone rings, I can answer it on any Apple device. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> in fact, I have frequently app be sitting on my laptop and I'll answer it on the laptop and have a conversation with the laptop. Yep. Just like I'm on the phone.

Mikah Sargent (01:48:53):
It even has some different commands. So again, we're linking this in the show notes. By the way, I also linked to at and t's page to set up the A L X A device with number sync and Verizon's page to set up the number share is what they call it with a L X A. But in going back to the HomePod, you can say, of course, Hey, you know, who call, and the example they give is Anri, my dog's name. And then you can also say, Hey, you know, who Redialed the last number? Hey, you know who, who is calling right now? That's cool. Or answer the phone. And then of course you can say, Hey, s i r i hang up. So all of those can be done with the HomePod.

Leo Laporte (01:49:29):
Apple is very much likely to keep that going with an iPhone because it sells simple, simpler. Yeah. And they make money on that. It's just having they call it continuity, having the capabilities of the iPhone on all your other Apple devices. So yes, that would probably be a good alternative way to do it. 88. 88. Ask Leo. Of course, you can call with a question, but you can also call with a suggestion and with an answer. So if you've got a way to do it, looks like you can make carrier calls on your Google Nester, Google Home speakers in this place. So Google has that support. We'll put that link in the show notes too. Tech guy labs.com. Rich tomorrow, the author of 101 Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone, and soon to be your rich on tech guy on the radio. Hi Rich. Hey Leo. You get excited. How are you guys doing your last Saturday?

Rich DeMuro (01:50:21):
I'm excited, but I'm also sad. I'm, I've been watching the show and I just, you know, you said goodbye to Johnny Jet, like you're never gonna see him again. <Laugh>. I mean, I don't what's going on here.

Leo Laporte (01:50:29):
I wanna send you, and I don't know if you're interested, but I'd like to send you all the guys who have been on the radio show. You could pick and choose, obviously. Yeah. And if any of them you would like to have on from time to time, I'm sure they would love to join you. And I know the audience would love to hear from 'em. So I'll send that along. Absolutely. I wanted to ask you though, what are, what are you, tell me about the show. You're gonna start January 7th will be your first episode. Obviously we're not gonna make him work Christmas Eve, new Year's Eve,

Rich DeMuro (01:50:53):
Thankfully. Yeah. yeah, so, so January 7th it's a good week to start because it's the Saturday following CES in Las Vegas. That's the big

Leo Laporte (01:51:01):
Consumer. And you're going this

Rich DeMuro (01:51:02):
Year, right? And I'm going I've gone for, I, I think it's been, they, they actually had one year where they put a little tag on your badge that said how many years you've been going. Yeah. And everyone was like saying, I think this is wrong. Like, cuz mine was like 10 years. I was like, I'm pretty sure it's been 11. But you know, their system's only, you know, if you register under different emails or whatever. Anyway, long story short, it's been a while. And so the first show should be pretty easy because there's gonna be so much to

Leo Laporte (01:51:28):
About, to talk about, about, yeah. It's, in fact, when I started doing this show 19 years ago, that's exactly what we did. We went to Vegas for episode three of the tech guy, I think it was. Oh wow. Yeah, you can actually it's still online audio only at twit TV slash ttg. Three, I think is the Wow. Is the u r l tt T t G three. And that was from the 2004 c e s. Do you remember? 2004

Rich DeMuro (01:52:00):
<Laugh>? I remember the year, but I don't, I was not at ces.

Leo Laporte (01:52:03):
How, how old old were you in 2004?

Rich DeMuro (01:52:06):
Oh

Leo Laporte (01:52:06):
My gosh. Don't tell me. I don't want to even know. I don't even wanna know. So, so you, a couple of questions. You're gonna be doing the show from the, the luxurious Sherman Oaks studios of the Premier Radio networks.

Rich DeMuro (01:52:20):
Yeah. So the show's gonna be live. A lot of people are asking if we're gonna do video we're not gonna do video off the top you know, at least at the beginning. It may come later, but it's gonna be live. It's gonna be Saturdays 11 to two. And we are gonna take live callers. We're gonna answer questions, we're gonna talk about tech news, we're gonna talk about gadgets. And also, you know, I'm on K T L A in Los Angeles, so I'm gonna kind of take a lot of stuff that I do there and bring it to the radio as well. So if I'm talking about a gadget review that week on tv, I'll obviously go into a little bit of a deeper dive on the radio. Nice and nice callers, you know, and, and also like you said, guests, I mean, you've had the same guests. We're gonna do a little bit more of a rotating cast of guests and try that out and see how it

Leo Laporte (01:53:05):
Works. Oh, good. That'll be fun. Now, I'm sure you're gonna answer tech questions though, right? You gotta answer the phones.

Rich DeMuro (01:53:11):
Yes. And we do have a, a phone number, Leo. We did get a, a new phone number. Ooh. I don't know if I'm at Liberty to release it just yet, but we, it does have what is it? 

Leo Laporte (01:53:21):
Is there a name?

Rich DeMuro (01:53:23):
I think Rich is in the name I think. Yay. It is in there. So I think we're gonna use more sound effects, though. You didn't use enough sound effects in my tape. Like, we're going to old school radio, like, you know, you whoop,

Leo Laporte (01:53:34):
I I have a few, I have a few sound effects. I could, I could play. Oh.

Rich DeMuro (01:53:37):
Oh, there

Leo Laporte (01:53:39):
You go. Oh, my rides here. I gotta, I gotta go. I gotta go. Here's one that I don't get to use very often. Correct?

Rich DeMuro (01:53:46):
Yes. I love it. Yeah, we're gonna, it's gonna be like the olds like Johnny Carson show <laugh>, you know, just like That's right. That's

Leo Laporte (01:53:52):
Right. Sock. You need an Ed McMahon for you for, for to laugh and stuff. I am pulling up on our website, the very first tech guy show 0 0 1 from January 3rd, 2004. And in fact, the subtitle is, think I'll ever do more than 9,999 shows. Cause I started with four Digits. No, smart. Only got to 1953. I'm sorry to say, but I think Wow. Because the next show is a month later, tech Guy 10. Oh, I think there are nine or eight episode missing episodes. Ooh. Oh wow. Including the CES episodes.

Rich DeMuro (01:54:30):
That sounds like a, a bonus, like something that people, you know, subscribe for.

Leo Laporte (01:54:34):
Yeah. If you look for the number two, you found my, you find My Salad, but you don't find, which has been missing since 2004, I believe. So don't eat it. Whate, <laugh>, whatever you do. Okay. So no video, it will be live. You will have a special number.

Rich DeMuro (01:54:48):
Yes. There will be a podcast. People are asking can they listen to the podcast? Like what if I'm, you know, doing gardening or something.

Leo Laporte (01:54:54):
You're already doing The Rich On Tech Podcast. Same place for that.

Rich DeMuro (01:54:57):
We'll f we'll figure that one out. Okay. Not

Leo Laporte (01:54:59):
Sure. Listen to the show. January 7th, all will be revealed. Rich. here's the keys. Enjoy.

Rich DeMuro (01:55:06):
Thank

Leo Laporte (01:55:07):
You Leo, for Mikah Sargent more to come right after this. Hey, I got the keys to the show right here. You can just take over and

Rich DeMuro (01:55:17):
Just, yeah, let's like, leave them right there. I'll

Leo Laporte (01:55:19):
Leave 'em here. I, I

Rich DeMuro (01:55:20):
Don't think

Leo Laporte (01:55:21):
The tank is infill, but <laugh>.

Rich DeMuro (01:55:23):
Well, I always return it with a full tank. I was taught well, very

Leo Laporte (01:55:27):
Well taught. Good,

Rich DeMuro (01:55:28):
Good. Yes. You don't, you don't return the car, you know, like one mile to go

Leo Laporte (01:55:31):
Empty tank return

Rich DeMuro (01:55:32):
To No, well actually during like the last six months, I'd probably leave it the way it was cuz the gas prices were so high. Yeah. Yeah. If it's was at three quarters of a tank, you'd leave it at three quarters of a tank. Yeah. <laugh>. No. The best is when you, when you return the, the rental car and you, you're like, do I fill it up now like 20 minutes before I drive to the airport? And then it, like, you're, you're just looking at the little thing to make sure it's not going. I

Leo Laporte (01:55:51):
Always buy the tank of gas just so I don't have to worry about Do

Rich DeMuro (01:55:54):
You? Yeah, I had to do that a couple times. It's so

Leo Laporte (01:55:57):
Expensive. It's expensive. I know, but it's, there's just,

Rich DeMuro (01:55:59):
There's, there's no reason for it. It's like, why, why should it be that expensive? Herz? Come on.

Leo Laporte (01:56:03):
Come on Hertz. Come on, man.

Rich DeMuro (01:56:06):
Not cool.

Leo Laporte (01:56:07):
So oh, I wanna know what the number is. I guess I'll just listen. <Laugh>.

Rich DeMuro (01:56:11):
Oh, come on. You're,

Leo Laporte (01:56:12):
It's a good number. It's

Rich DeMuro (01:56:14):
A, we, we know Leo, you will not be listening day one. You're gonna be like sleeping in. Oh,

Leo Laporte (01:56:17):
I'll be in a brunch. Are you kidding? Is it 88? 88? What's the tollfree prefix? Is it? I

Rich DeMuro (01:56:23):
Believe it's eight. It's 8 88. I think so. Yeah. I think they're adding, I mean, I haven't gotten, I haven't gotten confirmation that that's the number, but that's the one I liked.

Leo Laporte (01:56:29):
Oh, I'm so glad you got, I'm so glad you got it down. Did you

Rich DeMuro (01:56:32):
Give him my rundown?

Leo Laporte (01:56:34):
Did I yes. I texted you the rundown. Sweet. I have to email you the app. App. Do you want Windows or Mac or I'll just send you both. You

Rich DeMuro (01:56:42):
Got your juice? Yeah. Send me both. Yeah. Don't, and someone actually a viewer or a listener I guess sent me an app. They wrote <laugh>, which

Leo Laporte (01:56:50):
That's actually a good app, but it's a little complicated. It's a web-based app, which is nice. Yeah, yeah. But as you could see, it's a lot to <laugh>. You just want, what you want is a big number so that you can look at it like Yeah. And say, say, oh, I got two minutes, 45 seconds left. That's what you want. You don't want a lot of buttons. The only issue with this will be Uhoh if they change the clock. Mm. I don't, I'm sure, sure. They, Laura, are they gonna change the clock? No, the clock will be the same. Okay.

Rich DeMuro (01:57:22):
If someone like e you know, people, they find your, your listeners are crafty. They find a lot of stuff online. Oh God. Yeah. They like, they sent me the log. They're like, here's your show log. I'm like, how do you have this

Leo Laporte (01:57:33):
<Laugh>? I don't even know. This Premier publishes it.

Rich DeMuro (01:57:39):
Yeah. Okay.

Leo Laporte (01:57:40):
So and

Rich DeMuro (01:57:41):
By the way, we were supposed to practice the show for two weeks now, and both weeks I was sick. So this is a really good indication of how this show is gonna go

Leo Laporte (01:57:50):
Practice. You practice. Why do you practice what you've done it already many times.

Rich DeMuro (01:57:54):
We gotta, we gotta practice the first show so that we, you know, we'll just record it and put that out as live.

Leo Laporte (01:58:00):
No, I'm just

Rich DeMuro (01:58:01):
Kidding. Oh, you're gonna use

Leo Laporte (01:58:05):
Practice. Laura gonna practice with Rich. Yeah. Well I'll send you the clock, but if you, if the clock changes, just I can rewrite it. It's easy to fix it. Yeah, please. It's hard coded into that thing, but that's cuz you, you don't need a lot of buttons changing it and stuff. I guess I could rewrite it with buttons, but I, you just tell me and I will, I'll send you one. It it takes three seconds to rebuild it with New Times.

Rich DeMuro (01:58:29):
All right. Well thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Bless you, rich. It's been great. It's been great. And good luck on the, you know, semi-retirement. It's not really the internet, radio, retirement, I

Leo Laporte (01:58:39):
Don't know. I don't know if this internet thing's gonna go anywhere, but what the hell? I'll try it. Happy Holidays, rich. This is how, how Howard Stern felt when Happy Holiday left guys radio for satellite. He's like, ah, I don't know. <Laugh>. Take care, rich. Be with your family. Nice to work out. All guys. Take care. Bye-Bye. Aw, thank you Professor Laura. Leo LaPorte, Mikah's, Sargent Mikah's last radio show. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. We're, we're kind of sad about that. 88. 88. Ask Leo is the phone number. It'll be my last radio show tomorrow. Retiring after 19 years as your tech guy. 46 years Wow. In radio. I love radio. I really do. But you know, there comes a time. I don't want to be one of those, you know, I don't wanna be a Tom Brady, you know, greatest of all time. And then he says, you know, one more season, <laugh>.

(01:59:29):
I don't want to be that guy. Yeah. You know? Plus my wife said she'd leave me if I did. So I think we'll just, we'll just call it quits tomorrow. One last show. Then Mikah and I are gonna just, you know, we're gonna mosey in on Sundays. There you go. Relaxedly In our jammies, we'll have a cup of cocoa. We'll sit down and little pipes. Yeah. Yeah. We'll just, it'll just be the two of us kind of in a more casual environment because there won't be anybody like Laura with a stop watching her hand telling us to wrap it up, boys. And we will continue to take calls and so forth. The number 88 88 Asle will be retired. I am told they're gonna put it up on the radio station wall. They're gonna retire that number forever. Rich is getting a new one, which I'm glad to hear. Yeah. Because it's really be tacky if they kept using 88, 88 asle. But the number continues and the calls due too. Steve is on the line from Corona, California. Hi Steve.

Caller 8 (02:00:28):
Hi Leo. I'm trying to help my grandmother use her Android phone. And I was looking for like a a launcher application that would help simplify things. Just, oh yeah, she's just looking. The texts and larger buttons, stuff like that.

Leo Laporte (02:00:40):
The first thing to look at is what, what kind of phone does she have?

Caller 8 (02:00:45):
I don't know the particular

Leo Laporte (02:00:46):
Mall. So Samsung has a simple interface. If she's got a Samsung that's easily the most popular Android phone, so the chances are pretty good. She might have a Samsung. So ask her about that. And in the settings, there is a choice of simple. Other manufacturers may do something like that. I, I don't know. Google does not, unfortunately. But there are some really good third party launchers too. In fact, that's one of the great reasons to use Android with Apple. You, you can only, it's Apple's Way or the highway. But with Android phones and very happy for you to install a third party launcher, probably the simplest is called Simple Launcher. It's free, it's designed for older folks. Older users. You should go into it because you can with the settings. Are, are you gonna be visiting grandma or is she doing this by remote control?

Caller 8 (02:01:43):
Oh no, I'll have to go visit. Yeah, they <inaudible> Arizona. So it's a drive.

Leo Laporte (02:01:46):
Yeah, it's probably worth doing that though, because it's a hard thing for her to figure this all out. But when you put Simple Launcher on there your first thing you're gonna do is go into the apps and the default apps section and say, I want this to be my launcher. So that it'll always launch for her. The second thing to do is actually go into the settings and set it as large as she needs it to be. You can increase the size of the fonts, you can increase the Zoom. The default has a total of nine icons on the screen. Maybe that's not big enough for her. So there's certainly things you can do. One of the things you'll see in Simple Launcher is there is a section in the settings for SOS settings. I think that's okay. That's really great for older folks.

(02:02:31):
So there's some good, good things in that simple launcher. There is actually one that's even bigger. I think it's pretty ugly, but it is designed for people with eyesight problems. So, you know, ugly to me is probably beautiful to them. It's called Big Launcher. It's big <laugh> <laugh>. It's big. And it has, it is not free. Because they have their own calling program and their own texting program. The whole, it redesigns the whole phone but certainly worth taking a look at. Not expensive. It's, it's free to try. And then they have in-app purchases and, and like that. And then finally well actually not finally, I would definitely, if she's on a Samsung, look at the easy mode that's in the Samsung settings. It's not as easy as some of these other ones. There is something called senior safety phone. I've never tried this one. It has ads on it. So it's ads supported. But you

Mikah Sargent (02:03:27):
Seeing one called Elder Launcher. And what I like about it is, is I scroll through the reviews. The developer seems very good about listening. And so they've been some updates made to improve upon it Nice. From people actually using it.

Leo Laporte (02:03:40):
That's kind of critical. You want somebody's responsive. Well, it's easy to write a launcher. Relatively easy if you've written Android apps before. So a lot of people try 'em. But you want to get one that the developer didn't write it and then leave. Leave, yeah. Walk out the I'm done. Oh, job done. You want somebody who's gonna really be responsive. So this, what was the name of that again? Elder. Elder,

Mikah Sargent (02:04:00):
Okay. Yeah.

Leo Laporte (02:04:01):
Elder Launchers. I will also put a link in the show notes to an article@makeuseof.com. Best simple Android launchers for parents and grandparents. This is certainly a category that Android excels in. I wish Apple did something along these lines, but really Apple, it's the, it's the way that the way that it is, is the way they want you to use it. They don't really give you many, many choices. That's kind of Apple's way to do it, so, yeah. Yeah. And if, and if, by the way, if, if she has kind of an older phone, did she buy it? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>? 

Caller 8 (02:04:34):
I, I don't know.

Leo Laporte (02:04:35):
Yeah. It might be worse a trip to her phone store. Because often especially if it's a much older phone, they want to get you off of it. So for instance, Verizon's turning off its 3G Towers at the end of this month in a few days. So they may offer you a free or very inexpensive upgrade to a Samsung phone in often an Aeries phone that might be worth it. You want a bigger screen, right. And so older phones have smaller screens, so the bigger screen will help her an awful lot.

Caller 8 (02:05:07):
Well, thank you very much Leo. And thank you for adding to my em radio addiction for many years.

Leo Laporte (02:05:14):
<Laugh>. Thank you Steve. Thanks for helping your grandma. That's a really nice thing to do. That's great.

Caller 8 (02:05:19):
Well, you gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend.

Leo Laporte (02:05:20):
Have a happy holiday, Steve. See you later. Anne in Fullerton. California's next. Hi Anne.

Caller 9 (02:05:26):
Hi Leo. First of all, I, I have a real quick question, but first of all, I just wanted to wish you and Mikah Oh, a fantastic future. Thank

Leo Laporte (02:05:35):
You. Well, thank you. Mike has got a great future. I'm pretty much at, at the end. Oh. Oh, stop

Caller 9 (02:05:41):
<Laugh>. Oh, no, no. Don't,

Leo Laporte (02:05:42):
Don't say that. <Laugh>

Caller 9 (02:05:44):
Leo. I was listening to some of these business programs and they were saying that all of the new electric vehicles will not have the ability to get a am FM radio anymore. Yeah. And I was

Leo Laporte (02:05:59):
Like, they do have, most of 'em have FM Teslas don't have am and the reason is the way AM works, the car is the antenna and it's making so much noise on those frequencies. The AM doesn't work very well. Oddly, my, my Mustang does have am So some electric cars do have am but yeah, I think the business guys are right that that is probably not gonna continue. I feel like

Mikah Sargent (02:06:23):
SAT every time someone is playing a satellite radio and it goes out about five to six times. Yeah. I don't, someone's driving along. I think it's

Leo Laporte (02:06:30):
Terrible. I think mostly now these days people just play stuff off their their devices phone. And your phone has AM radio and you can listen to AM radio. It's just streaming over the internet instead of passing through the airwaves. Lots of people listen to this show, for instance, on their phones.

Caller 9 (02:06:43):
Well, one of the other comments that was made was that they, they do have the ability to put some kind of a filter, but the manufacturers don't wanna do that. And I was

Leo Laporte (02:06:53):
Yeah, that must be the case. Cuz I do know some electric vehicles that have AM radios. I think the Chevy Bolt does. It just may be that, you know, be honest here I am on AM radio and I've been doing AM radio since I was you know, 20 years old. Yeah. I think people just, the car manufacturers are, are kind of saying, yeah, nobody really cares about AM radio. So we

Caller 9 (02:07:18):
Yeah. But it's a lot of us that do.

Leo Laporte / Dick DeBartolo (02:07:20):
I know indeed. Thank you <laugh> on behalf of AM Radio broadcasters everywhere and I include myself in that. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing you'll be able to do. I guess you could take a radio with you <laugh>, <laugh> or like you said, your phone can can do that right now. Yeah. But I think that's really what's going on. And more and more you're gonna see that is the phone is more than just an accessory for these modern vehicles in many cases. They're using the phone's capabilities for maps, for music, for everything. And I think that probably is the, is the way of the future. But the good news is most AM stations, including all of ours are, are on your phone on iHeart or TuneIn or one of the other iPhone apps. So or Andrew Android apps. So you'll be able to listen.

(02:08:07):
Leo LaPorte, Mikah Sargent, the GIZ Fizz coming up the, oh, it's a party in here. The last visit from the GWiz, Dick DeBartolo to the tech guy show Dick DeBartolo at Gizz Whizz Biz is our tech dru, our gizzard wizard. And he joins us every week with a crappy gadget or something that you might wanna buy for somebody. You don't care too much about it. <Laugh>. Well, and this is gonna be big Leo. I have AM radio <laugh>. Wow. It's got a future <laugh>. It's got a future cuz it has a built-in l e d light at the very top that makes it real. Actually, I, first of all, I gotta say I love your hat. Santa's legs are, it's a chimney and Santa's legs are sticking out the top. Yeah. And I guess he's diving into your brain. God knows what he's gonna find it.

(02:09:00):
That that is it. Yeah. And he's finding nothing there and he's going, well, that's nothing, there's nothing to see here. There's kind of an echo in here. <Laugh>. So gwiz.business, Dick's website. G I Z w I z dot b i z. That's where you can go and continue to go, by the way, to find unique gadgets and games and fun stuff. Okay. So I found something I really like. There's square flashlights. Okay. Why square dick? Why, why? Well, you know what very interesting is that they have a little stand in the back so you can make them, you can stand them off if you're doing tasks. Oh, nice. They're incredibly bright. 500 lumens. What a, what a revolution. Leds have been for flashes. Oh my. They're unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a little clip, so it goes on a key chain. It also, you were the first guy who told me about flash LEDs.

(02:09:54):
I mean, you love LEDs, right? Well, wait a minute. I might might've, I might've come up with some l e d gadgets. But you and I'll never forget this <laugh> sea crane. Oh yeah, you sea crane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You showed the first l e d bowl. I know. It was a hundred dollars. Yes, it was $120. Bob Crane pulled me aside. We were at a dinner and he said, Leo, I gotta show you this. We're gonna be making l e d light bulbs. I said, no, you're not. He said, yes, someday all your light bulbs will be LEDs, they'll never burn out. And he was right. And the price of course absolutely dropped down to nothing. Oh yeah. And also the first weigh about nine pounds. Oh yeah. I had had heat sink in it because they would get so hot. Yeah. Yeah. They've, they've improved on them. Every time I put a light bulb in, now I, I go to the wife, I say, honey, it's the last light bulb you'll ever have to put in here. This is gonna outlash us. I do that too. And she says, I'm younger than you, Leo. Just shut up. <Laugh>, <laugh>.

(02:10:58):
I say that. Yeah, they're gonna last a lot. It's, we used to be this light bulb. I'm gonna have to change this in a year. Now. It's like, well, I don't know when for a long time saving so much money too. That's right. That's right. So show us these. Especially if you have light bulbs way up where you need a huge ladder. I don't wanna climb up there. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Malaysia. So these are, these have a little stand, they're square. You, they, you could also hang 'em. Right. You can also hang 'em also, you know, I, I like on Amazon says, well you bought that. How about buying this? So there's another version, which is really ridiculous. They have added screwdrivers. Now why you need screwdrivers on your key chain? But they have added warm white, which I really like also, it's incredibly bright.

(02:11:45):
They're saying a thousand lumens. Looks like there's a bottle opener. There's, there is a bottle open. There's, there's all sorts of stuff on this thing. There are four little, there's two slot and two Phillips, instead of just a red green light to tell you the battery, there are four LEDs on the bigger guy to tell you, you know, whether you're 25. Well, why would you buy just a flashlight when you could get a flashlight screwdriver, bottle opener, <laugh> is my question. Well, maybe money. Maybe money. How much? And, and, and the funny thing is, right before the show, I always check the price. The little guy, the little square guys dropped like six bucks. Yeah. Since I bought them a couple days ago. They, they're two for 12 bucks. Oh, they're nothing. Okay. Two for 12. Yeah. And the guy with the, the soft light and the emergency flashing red light, it, it, it's one for 12 bucks.

(02:12:39):
Okay. But would you carry that in your pocket? It seems like it's too big to put in your pocket. You know what, I'll tell you what's wrong with this. They think it's very clever. They, there's a way on the top to break safety glass, but there's no protection over it. It's too big. It's just a big spike coming out of the top. It's a spike glove. So you, so you, this, you put in your car. This is for your car? Yeah. This is for your glove compartment. Yeah, that's exactly. Does it have a seatbelt slicer as well built in? No, it does not. Okay. It does not. Okay. Because I have the device you talked about years ago in my car. Yes. That has a flashing light and that has everything, everything. My teeth. I didn't know I needed a special. If you get stuck underwater, you can cut yourself out of the car. You can call for help. You can, and it's got the window smashing point and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And then if you, if you've been listening since day one, you can have on, on your key chain, that little balloon that knows you're underwater and it will inflate and float your keys to the top. Oh. So after you save yourself, you'll look over and you'll say, oh, oh, my keys are floating. Thank you, <laugh>.

(02:13:46):
I wish my car came with it. But you Yeah, yeah. You know what you could put, put floating on your car would just float right back. You buy like Absolutely. Or a thousand of these things. Yeah. I just, I'm looking at your video. You, if you go to gwiz.biz and click the button that says the GIZ is the tech guy, you'll, he's made a video. And this is the one with the screwdriver. The Oh, I see. It fits into the sign. Yes, yes. No, I mean, because it looked just like it was a head thought. It had the bits and it's like, you know. Exactly. Screwdriver not included. Yeah. No, this, this is stupid. And then I thought, wait a minute. What's that little how heavy is, is that $12 one? You know what the little guy was, I think three ounces and the big one, maybe just four ounces.

(02:14:27):
It's not terribly heavy. I think it's aluminum. It's probably couldn't go through the TSA airport checkpoint with it. Maybe you could. It's a little, it's a little threatening. It's a little scary looking. Yeah. Yeah. It might be. Yeah. The the little square one you'd be no problem. Yeah. But the one with the the and also on the box, I, I think that the, the, if you hold the power button in Yeah. It jumps to super high bright. Ooh. And I have a feeling that, and and I tried it on the one with the screwdrivers and it has that feature too, but I think they didn't realize it when they made it. So now the box a sticker, the 70, it's x and now's a sticker over the number of, oops. We didn't realize when we sourced to this part that is had this cheesiest thing I've ever seen.

(02:15:15):
Yeah. They just should have left it the way it was. Yeah. Nobody would've noticed. Wait a minute, I counted it. There's six, not there's seven, not six. I want my money back. I feel bad for the person who had to go through and put all those sevens on there. He's got a yes. Got a job anyway, you know. Wow. Yeah, he does. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Okay. So here's the best way to find this. I could give you the link, but why don't you just get the link from Dick's site, giz whizz.biz G zw z dot b I z By the way, when you are there, you wanna explore around a little bit. There's a lot more to do on this site, including, so that was the giz whizz Vizz is the tech guy button. There's also button that says Gadgets I showed on World News.

(02:15:54):
Now he does that every month on the ABC's Overnight News Show. And there's also the, what the heck is it contest wrapping up at the end of the month? What is that? What is that thing? I don't I don't know. Have you got, has anybody guessed it yet, Dick? Is it, you know what I looked through maybe the first 30 and no one has it. Oh, good. So, well, yeah, there are up to 18 autograph copies of Mad Magazine up to six for the right answer. 12 for the funniest, silly answer. And you're playing for, we just got our soup to nuts. Soup to nuts. The February, 2023 Mad Magazine autographed by this guy, Dick de Bartolo. It's Scott, how did he get those eight great tomatoes in that little bitty cam? I remember that ad Dick. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah.

(02:16:42):
And I, I, I have three articles in that issue, so Oh, nice. Really? Yeah. Nice Dick, it's always a pleasure. I same. Oh, oh my God. I can't believe this is, I'm miss seeing you every Saturday, but we're gonna see plenty more of Dick Dick as a show on our network. He's gonna keep doing the GIZ fizz. I will. Perfect. I will see you on Wednesdays starting in 2023. Excellent. Thank you for when you got really great gadgets. Send him my way so we can talk about among I will. Yeah, I will. Thank you Dickie t goodbye. Goodbye. So long. Not goodbye. Just see you later. See you later. Now you goodbye. Because Mikah is his career and radio just ended. <Laugh> goodbye to you all. Reg, we'll see you all January 8th for the brand new Ask the Tech Guys show. I'll be back tomorrow for a final tech guy, Leo and Mikah. Have a great geek week. Bye-Bye bye.

(02:17:39):
Well, that's it for the Tech Guys Show for today. Thank you so much for being here. And don't forget twit, T W I t. It stands for this week at Tech and you find it@twit.tv, including the podcast for this show. We talk about Windows and Windows Weekly, Macintosh, a Mac Break, weekly iPads, iPhones, apple watches on iOS today, security and Security Now, I mean, I can go on and on. And of course, the big show every Sunday afternoon this week in tech. You'll find it all at twit.tv and I'll be back next week with another great tech guys show. Thanks for joining me. We'll see you next time.