Altered Geek

Technology That Still Blows Our Minds

October 4, 2013 1:15:38 EXPLICIT
Altered Geek Technology That Still Blows Our Minds
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About this Episode

Michael, Steve, and Art discuss listener feedback on fall TV shows, share their ultimate geek dream goals, and dive into a deeper question: what modern technology do you take for granted but still amazes you when you actually think about it? GPS, fitness tracking, the internet, and smartphones become the focus of a wide-ranging conversation about how far technology has come.

Hello and welcome to alter geek unlimited episode

10 I am your host for this episode Michael powers.

I am joined by Steve Megatron Phillips Hello

and for the first time ever we have I For the

first time ever we have a third chair we have

art Danner from off the cuff joining us look

I'm a surprise I asked on Twitter if anybody

wanted us to spoil who the third guest was going

to be and nobody really seemed to care. Because

nobody cared. And they would have especially

cared - I think people would have slept this

week. Yeah, I think especially if they would

have found out who the guest was, they would

have cared even less. So - That's a lie. They

would have cared less if it was Sean. Yeah, yeah.

Unfortunately - They would have asked if he was

dead yet. And still live, Sean Z. Brown. Yeah.

So. Yeah, so we've got some listener feedback

from episode. Sorry, I almost said 29 because

that was off the cuff. We have some listener

feedback from episode nine. And then I have feedback

from the future. Yeah. I have some. Wow, I just

got derailed. I have a topic that I would like

to discuss that I've been thinking about for

a little while and then Steve has some news for

us so Without further ado We asked last week

We asked three questions. We asked what was your

favorite new fall TV show? And Steve threw in

there what your ultimate geek dream was going

to be dream goal. I'm sorry And then we threw

in the have you snuck in something for yourself

under the guise of a family gift. I'm just going

to start with that with the last one really quick.

It's unethical. Well, no one shared one. I did.

I totally shared one. I did. What was it? I didn't

see it. Disney Infinity. Totally claimed that

it was for the kids. Totally claimed that it

was for the family, when in actuality, completely

for me. Right. Forgot about that. So it seems

like the three of us are the only ones that were

manipulative enough to try and sneak something

by our family members. No, no. We're the only

ones that are willing to admit it. But we did

give people ideas in there. We did. I mean, there

were other people in the post that were saying

that they hadn't thought of it yet and they were

like, oh, that's a good idea. yeah dan dan did

say that uh he's tried that with his wife but

his wife always figures it out um so he's never

been able to he's smarter than him maybe uh so

he's never been able to get away with it um but

you guys did have a lot to say about uh tv shows

um we've got uh king of cons said that his favorite

new show so far this season has been uh the hostages

Which I think out of the three of us that's I'm

the only one that's seen that so far Just didn't

look interesting to me it We talked about it

on the GCRN TV spotlight and the The threat that

is being used against a member of the family

is the most implausible part of that whole show

It just kind of falls apart Spoilers, when the

president's life is on the line, the fact that

your husband cheated on you shouldn't really

be blackmail over whether or not your wife does

or does not murder the president. It just doesn't

seem to hold up. But I'll keep watching it. I

tuned in because it was Dylan McDermott and I

really enjoyed him on American Horror Story.

Kind of bummed that he's on the hostages because

it means he might not be in season three. But

he could always show up. So. Also got several

shout outs for the Michael J. Fox show. I have

all those recorded right now, I just have not

gotten to them on my DVR yet. Not a bad show.

I was going to say, Parkinson jokes are always

funny. So I can imagine it'll be around for a

long time. I don't know that. Well, it was actually

kind of funny where he's sitting there trying

to open the jar and then they they everybody

else is just having, you know, conversation and

then eventually somebody takes the jar away from

him. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there are jokes made

at the expense of like Parkinson's and whatnot,

but I don't feel like it relies solely on Parkinson

jokes. No. Dan says the only new shows I caught

were the Michael J. Fox show and the crazy ones,

but he did not realize the Michael J. Fox show

was going to be a mockumentary approach. You

know what? I've seen the second episode. I don't

know if that carries over, does it? Is that only

like the first episode? I'm probably the only

one that's watched both episodes, aren't I? Probably.

I can't even remember. Probably. And I haven't

seen the crazy ones. I've seen the first episode

yeah, and I started watching the first episode

and I fell asleep halfway through That's a ringing

endorsement. It's funny. Yeah, isn't it? Dan

said he's also been watching the new Ricky Gervais

show on Netflix Derek yeah, I haven't I haven't

watched that yet, but I'm not a Ricky Gervais

fan. It's in my queue He's also been watching.

I don't like the guy. He's also been watching

Hello Ladies, which also, I guess, started this

last week on HBO starring Stephen Merchant. I'll

check it out because I have HBO Go, not to mention

other means of checking it out. And it's Stephen

Merchant. What else has he been in? Because that

name sounds familiar. He was Wheatley in Portal

2. Oh, OK. OK. He's been in many many other things,

but I knew that would be something you wouldn't

recognize him from Okay Dan are you said that

you watch dads and you thought it was okay? It's

okay. It's not great I mean, it's I didn't even

notice until after the first episode that it

was a Seth MacFarlane show Yeah, I was no idea.

Well, does it do the I was wondering if it does

the like we talked about on the TV episode of

GCRN. The Bitch in Apartment 23, I call it like

a live action cartoon where they would do the

family guy thing where they would call out a

joke and then they would switch to a scene where

they show the joke play out. It is not like,

like to... Is it more traditional? It's more

traditional where like if I had to compare it

to Seth one another Seth MacFarlane show It's

more American Dad than it is Family Guy where

Family Guy goes off on a tangent all 22 minutes

where American Dad actually has a storyline.

Okay, where it does, you know tend to go off

on a few tangents, but there's a Mini a beginning

and middle in an ad to all those episodes so

it more resembles American Dad to me than Family

Guy And I think I thought somebody said it in

The comment boards, but I could be wrong or I

saw it on Twitter that somebody mentioned that

it just seems like it'd be Better suited as a

Comedy Central show That is a Foxit cam and it

does kind of have that I Almost think it would

do better on Comedy Central. It just I don't

know. It seems it's OK. It's not great. I don't

really if it gets canceled, I'm not going to

be sad about it. I like the people that are in

it, but it's it's just me. Is it that broadcast

versus network TV kind of debate that goes on

where the the the content in the show? It seems

like it'd be able to accomplish more as a network

thing rather than having to. by by standards

kind of like because they did an entire episode

the second episode was all about Them inadvertently

getting their dad's high Okay with pot brownies

where if it was on Comedy Central they would

have foregone all The fact that it was in a brownie

Portion of it. I think and they could have gone

further with it It was I don't know it was It's

just so middle -of -the -road, okay? It doesn't

really I don't know the only thing that kind

of jumps out to me is Giovanni Robisi's really

good and and Shot Seth Green is good, but everybody

else is kind of mmm. They're just there all right

The walking dread who showed up for the first

time this past week Oh, yeah. We actually almost

got two wishes, Steve, which was the first wish

came true, which was the commenters to intermingle

with each other. And then I think we brought

it up. Well, yeah. But we also brought up the

fact that it would be interesting if we actually

had to possibly like moderate people. I don't

know if you caught what happened over on off

the cuff, but it was kind of it got text wise.

It got like it looked a little heated. um because

the walking dread called uh another guy a fanboy

and um set off uh set off the other guy and i

i was kind of i i looked at it and uh they kind

of resolved it themselves um i was like oh we

almost got two of our wishes nothing's worse

than when a nintendo fanboy gets called a nintendo

fanboy and he can't handle it um But yeah, he

says his favorite new show of the fall so far

has been Brooklyn nine nine with Andy Samberg

I To agree. I mean, I don't know that's the it's

my favorite show of the fall, but I haven't seen

a new show this fall that I haven't Liked in

some way And I did find Brooklyn nine nine isn't

that show Isn't that show kind of like scrubs

but instead of Doctors it's cops. You know what?

Yeah. Yeah it Yeah, I can see that analogy It's

not a Bill Lawrence show because that's the first

thing that I kind of thought about it I mean,

I didn't watch a lot of that either but I mean,

it's that's the only thing I can kind of equate

it to you Yeah, no, I can get behind that description

now that I know that's been put in front of me

But Plato's lament follows it up with that. He's

debating on that show saying that there's something

about it that it would likely get cancelled early

and I think that's because it's a Fox show. I

think any new Fox show automatically gets that

scent. It doesn't get that scent until they bump

it over to Friday for absolutely no reason mid

-season. Or the fact that it's Fox and they kill

things usually within five to ten episodes. Although

in their defense, they kept Fringe around for

five seasons. Well, it's because they've I think

they're they're learning a little bit more about

uh, you know Not trying to 86 things too soon

ie firefly, right? family guy So you think I

think they're still getting burned by um Firefly.

Oh my god. I almost bought a bring fire by fly

back t -shirt on think geek the other day I Got

I got a look I gotta let it go. I really do You

want to take over a little bit Steve I was gonna

say some people like superfilmfan98 and Connor

Murphy have both said that they they like the

blacklist Yes, I did like it as well which it's

almost like a Silence of the Lambs type of comparison

only The the guy that's captured by the FBI or

that he kind of lets himself be captured Doesn't

eat people Yeah, and they're almost hinting the

fact that pretty much everybody's almost figured

out that that's more than likely his daughter

Yeah Which will explain his entire infatuation

and knowing everything about her You're gonna

say something dinner I was, because thanks Steve,

I haven't watched it yet. It's not a spoiler.

It's still confusing as all hell. From what I've

said, people that have watched it, I've heard

from numerous accounts that they make it blatantly

obvious. Without coming around and saying, this

is my daughter. It's kind of tiptoed around without

really saying it. If it's not his daughter, then

he's just really creepy Which I could get behind

that too because that would be the same as Hannibal

and the Clarice kind of Relationship, but that

would almost be a too much of a copy of that.

So But I agree I really like the show as well

I keep seeing people saying that Like super super

film fan 98 says he believes the shield was decent

And hopes it gets better it's in and I'm sure

Mike's gonna say the exact same thing or close

to it, which it's It's a it's a weed -in show.

I don't really start I don't expect it to get

better until the third or the fourth episode

for it to really Pick up and hit that stride.

I mean There's still They're still in the process

of introducing and giving you backstory on everybody

and I usually once We didn't in Jedweed and get

those introductions done That's usually when

the ball gets going and things start developing

and the good stuff starts happening So I say

that it will probably start picking up between

around either the next episode or the episode

after that Wasn't it you that told me that Whedon

had like the six episode thing where it's like

his shows don't really get good until the sixth

episode? Pretty much because he spends a lot

of time laying a lot of groundwork. I remember

having a similar discussion when Dollhouse aired.

Yeah, and I was kind of like I don't really care

for I don't really care for and you're like,

you know Just give it six episodes. That's usually

where it gets good And I mean the the one you

pointed out to me is firefly because the sixth

episode of firefly is out of gas Yeah, which

is arguably one of the best episodes of that

series as short as it is And I do think that

dollhouse turned around after the sixth episode

too, I don't think it got really good, but I

got a lot better Yeah, I think once they they

get all the establishment and they get all the

characters in everybody's roles and you kind

of get who everybody's roles are with a Joss

Whedon series that's when that's when the magic

happens I I did get a lot of just I haven't seen

the second episode yet so I don't know if this

is like becomes like a running thread but I did

get a lot of a lot of firefly vibe off of the

pilot It really hit me in the face when they

introduced you to their mobile command center

and they show them like driving up in the back

of the plane and I was like, whoa, it's Serenity.

Yeah, that's the same vibe I got. Yeah, I got

that. And then for some reason, Coulson, when

Coulson and I can't even remember the other guy's

name, are interrogating Sky, I got like the Blue

Hand guy's vibe. Yeah. Off of them. And I was

like, oh, well, at least he gets to carry on

his Firefly stories. So. But that's not that's

not making a comparison to Firefly is not a bad

thing. Have you heard and I haven't seen the

second episode yet either, but I've seen all

the news popping around the web that the ratings

kind of dipped quite a bit for the second episode,

but also that they had a kind of significant

special guest for about a minute and a half.

They did. And. I think, yeah, the ratings did

dip a little bit from what I heard. Well, but

nobody knew that this person was in it either.

They teased it online. But still, not a lot of

people knew about it ahead of time or ratings

probably would have been higher. I don't know,

but I don't know if they would have been higher

because you have to think how many people just

goosenecked the first episode like. I'm just

going to look in and see what this is. And then

how many people were like, oh, this isn't what

I want. And then they just didn't come back.

Like, regardless of whatever ABC decided to throw

in there to maintain the ratings, maybe they

just didn't tune back in. I was not expecting

the show to regularly get what, 12 million people,

20 million people. Yeah, something like that.

I was not expecting them to get 20 million people

every Tuesday. That's just dumb if someone expects

to get that many people every Tuesday night.

So and then they again, I've seen like five minutes

of it, but they they dropped something again

mentioning the Tahiti thing and the you know,

getting stabbed through the heart by an Asgardian.

So. Which I think they're going to beat that

with a stick. Yeah. Well, there's been exclusive

previews now for Thor both weeks now during the

show. So they're going to beat the crap out of

pushing that until Thor comes out. Other than

that, a lot of people had stuff to say about

Breaking Bad. Just that it was a great show and

I just had to see it go. I have two and a quarter

episodes left to go. Oh, man. I'm getting there.

And kind of a mini conversation sprung up around

that because, you know, it was a great being

that it's a great show and and stuff. And, you

know, super film fan agreed with Freddie Savage

saying that it's it's an awesome show that he's

jumping on the bandwagon now. Walking Dread also

said that, you know, he really he liked it as

well. But then Plato's lament jumped in there

saying that while he likes it He's he also enjoys

other TV shows like older stuff like gun smoke

and get smart and dragnet I and I threw in my

two cents about the Avatar series on Nickelodeon

and Friday Night Lights Being two series that

I actually enjoyed more than Breaking Bad, but

I did enjoy that's not taking anything away from

Breaking Bad Would you say that Avatar is your

favorite series? I mean, it's really, it's hard

because I put Friday Night Lights and Avatar

at the number one spot on my list. It's just,

I don't know that I could actually choose one

over the other, especially since one is still

going and I can still get into it on a regular

basis. Well, okay. I would say Legend of Korra,

I see, is more of a separate... Well, that's

what I mean by series. That to do, but, okay.

That's what I mean. I get what you're saying.

Because I applaud them for what they were able

to do with Legend of Korra, which is make it

a sequel without completely destroying what was

set down before it. Which a lot of things can

do. And they're just exploring more things, and

it's obviously like 70 years after the original,

so they have different... technology and stuff

like that and you get to see different things

with nice little throwbacks to the original series.

We did have the geek goal. Yes, which did pop

up quite frequently throughout the comments page.

I did like yours, Danner. I liked mine, too.

I did, too. Yes, you said own a movie theater.

Yep. And have a comic book store. Yes. It's that

that would be my ultimate like I and I got to

be specific about the movie theater. It's got

to be like an Alamo draft house style type of

a movie theater where it's like full service

bar, tons of beer on tap. Full service kind of

like kitchen along with, you know, nice theaters

and then yeah play some new stuff but like marathons

of like Ghostbusters on the weekend or showing

the gremlins movies back -to -back oh I mean

just stuff like that just cool nichey shit like

that that it would be my ultimate goal for a

movie theater and then slap a comic book store

on the side of it oh I would never leave the

place Well, you saw that there's a, you saw my

reply to you, didn't you? Yeah. About the theater

in Manistee. No, that's because I just have money

to drop on buying a movie theater in Manistee.

Hey, I don't know how much it is. Well, you know,

there is a dead movie theater by us. There's

one by us. There's actually two of them. There's

one literally around the corner from my house.

Showcased East and Cinema Ten are both garbage.

So, yes, no, they're both garbage. West is the

only is is the best theater in the area and then

there's Trillium I Disagree but I I dislike showcase

Well, you can or rave or I can you can just you

can dislike the company that doesn't change the

fact that their theater is awesome But as impressive

when you you go up to it or walk in especially

with gunshots aplenty Well, I happen to think

the Trillium Theater is a horrible design for

a movie theater. Oh, I'm not going to, you know,

debate that that issue of it. But the presentation

is a hell of a lot nicer. Sure, I guess. I mean,

I don't know. I've never had the issues when

I've gone to West and I actually worked there

for like a year and never had an issue with it.

And I've seen both sides of it, like first of

all their booth is immaculate i've never seen

a projection booth look like theirs does but

and you know no one normal moviegoers don't get

to see that but it was it was nice to see that

they had the attention to detail or the build

quality to do both halves of their building instead

of just what the customers see they actually

finished the entire thing and funny fun fun little

thing of note if there's ever a zombie apocalypse

that's the building i'm going to I'm going to

River Town. I'm going to West because they filled

in the cinder blocks are completely filled in

with concrete between them. So the building will

not move at all. It'll sink before it'll move.

But we all know zombie apocalypses aren't real.

We just hope no there's certain Canadians that

think they are and they buy, you know samurai

swords and Revival kits Yeah, but I had a guy

that I went to school with that actually Works

for a company that sells zombie apocalypse survival

kits and I'm like you got to be But if you think

about it though You could go and buy a zombie

survival kit and it could eventually end up being

useful for something, right? I mean a survival

kit is essentially a survival kit for surviving

true but it depends on what you're trying to

survive I mean maybe if you still have food and

rations and like some type of shelter all that

really matters is I'm guessing in a zombie survival

kit you don't get a gun you get like a pickaxe

or you know something quiet to kill zombies because

using a gun is silly in a zombie apocalypse yes

well it can be Let's see what else do we have

here? We had a guest that wasn't logged in that

said my ultimate geek goal would be to own a

dragon Good luck with that one I'm sorry. I didn't

mean to sound like such a dick. They could get

a Komodo dragon That's true. Good that see semi

obtainable just not I'm sure exactly what he

meant, but... You could take little wings to

it. You could obtain one from Chinatown. Yeah.

One of those ones with people underneath it.

But do you go to Chinatown and do you buy a dragon

or do you buy a mogwai? Because I mean, seriously,

much rather have a mogwai. Mogwai. Yeah, but

I have a feeling that a mogwai could cause more

problems than a dragon. Hey, only if you feed

it after midnight or get it wet. Right. So more

problems than a dragon. That's what she said.

Oh, sorry. Good placement. Connor Murphy says

ultimate geek goal? Well, brain about to explode

with the amount of possible ideas flowing through

my head. He says that. It's just being able to

be a geek for his entire life. But he wants to

maintain some inner geek childhood Which don't

we all that's why we sit here and Converse about

it. Yeah, but I think what he's talking about

is he wants to be able to Look back on it fondly

rather than look back on it and like with hate

with hate pants Okay, so so like when When I

look back at transformers the original one I

dislike it because I'm older now and I'm like,

yeah I still I don't like it even though I did

back then whereas he wants to be able to look

back and say I think that's still great Well,

okay, but you can say but I think that I think

he's trying to say like he wants like the best

of both worlds, right? So even though right now

like he might not think that transformers like

the early like the first version of transformers

is great He still would like to look back on

it fondly because it was when You know, he doesn't

hate it because it's not good now. He still likes

it because it was good then, you know, kind of

thing. Rather than just becoming very angry about

it. And I think that's where I kind of I kind

of I try to sit there because I like I keep saying

I have no geek nostalgia. So it's kind of like,

yeah, that stuff was great. And some people have

nerd rage. Yeah, there's a lot of nerd rage on

the Internet. Which what does that look like?

I don't. Dot, dot, dot. Yeah. Um, but that's

one thing that Freddy Savage has said that he

actually likes about our network is that we're

not angry all the time. Um, he does say that

he likes the positivity and the lack of flame

wars. Apparently he doesn't listen to off the

cuff. Yeah. I was going to say, because he just

has to listen to me speak for five minutes on

there and, uh, I, I radiate. Positivity right

at my ass. It's amazing. Yes But you bend over

in in multicolored rainbows come out. Oh, yeah

Filled with razor blades shooting at Sean's face.

I Knew that was coming. Oh, man I've listened

to every episode taste the rainbow. So yes, um

Sean alteria says his goal is to Collect all

the x -men related comics right now. He's working

on finishing up the uncanny run And once the

uncanny is done his focus will be to the original

x -men That is a lofty lofty goal. And if he

accomplishes that goal, I applaud him because

ooh giant size x -men number one and The original

x -men like the first five issues of that thing

super expensive Very hard to find good rated

versions of it, too. Yeah, I'm curious. Sean

Altaria, can you like maybe I don't know if it'll

fit in a comment or if you can email it to us.

But could you like tell us how far along you

are with with your collection? I would be curious

to to know. I don't even know how many that consists

of too many. I'm so unfamiliar with Marvel. More

than 400. I know that. I was going to say I.

I'm going to get excited if I ever complete my

run of Uncanny X -Men from the five years I wasn't

collecting, which I'm close, but I'm not quite

there yet. Didn't it stop at 500? No, no. OK,

because I just remember the Uncanny, the last

Uncanny slice that I can remember right now off

the top of my head is when X -23 jumped in there

for two issues and was like 460. I think it was

like 460. I thought it was higher up than that.

I could be wrong, but I know it was obviously

over 400. No, there was definitely an X -Men

500. I remember that issue. There was another

one, which we all kind of did. SuperFilmFan98

said, Doesn't really have a geek dream goal that

he could think of but owning a Batmobile or the

DeLorean would be all he could really imagine

To which Many of us had stated yes owning a Batmobile

would be awesome. Yeah, it's kind of interesting

and it depends on which one Yeah, everyone skipped

over the DeLorean part Everyone just kind of

latched on to the Batmobile Only because I I

think that I wouldn't want to own a DeLorean

because it wouldn't be the DeLorean Which would

just kind of bum me out Yeah, if there's no flux

yeah capacitor. No go man. Mr. Fusion. I'll even

so instead of settle for just a mr. Fusion I

Want it to float? Yeah, I just wanted to shoot

sparks out of it when he hit 88 It doesn't have

to time travel just has to shoot sparks. I think

that could be easily done I probably with any

normal DeLorean that's possible. You could just

let metal drag on the bottom of it. Let's see.

Superfilm fan followed up the Batman post with

saying that he would like, he's a big fan of

the Batman Forever or the 66 Batmobile. I said

that I was a fan of the 66 Batmobile, but that

I can't stand the Batman Returns or the Batman

Forever Batmobiles. I want the animated series

Batmobile. I thought you were saying Batman and

Robin. Oh, no, no, no, no. The Batman Returns

is actually... I'm sorry. It was. I did mean

to say that. It's Batman and Robin or the Batman

Forever Batmobiles, because technically Batman

Returns and Batman are the same. That will be

all it's just Batman returns it splits into the

bat pod and has the lift underneath it which

makes no sense whatsoever The bat pogo stick

go go gadget pogo like I mean of that You know

the better returns batmobile the one like I can

almost forgive the bat pod because of the way

the car is designed I can't forgive the lift.

I don't That just doesn't make any sense to me

What what batmobiles are your favorite Daner?

I like the animated series Batmobile the best.

Which one? The original. From the first animated

series. Oh my god, I'm blanking. You mean the

92 one? Yeah. With Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill?

Yeah, Kevin Conroy. Yes, that one. That is the

Batmobile that I like. That is my favorite Batmobile.

Yes. I would have to agree. I really like the

animated Batmobile. a lot I also like my second

one I think would be Arkham's the Arkham Asylum

one and I was about to say that as well yeah

can't remember the Arkham Asylum one very well

because you don't actually see it that much you

see it in the very beginning it's well no you

get to see it in the middle of the asylum oh

yeah that's where he gets the explosive gel and

Yeah, I didn't spend a lot of time you have all

the thugs beating on it. I didn't spend a lot

of time looking at it I did but So is there anything

I was like, that's one awesome. Is there anything

you think we missed in the reader comments? No,

I think that's it. All right Do we so do we want

to answer the questions we asked? Yeah, sure.

Um the ones that Well, I I don't The problem

is I watched a lot of TV shows and I wasn't disappointed

by anything that I've seen so far this fall.

Dads I still have yet to check out because I

didn't know it was a Seth MacFarlane show and

now that I know it I'm going to show it to Ali

because she likes Seth MacFarlane. So I'll probably

end up watching that one. Not saying that I'll

only watch it if she watches it. I mean it could

be good and I might end up watching it myself.

But like, of the new stuff, I do like the Michael

J. Fox show. I am happy with, so far I've been

happy with The Return of Revolution, which we

can talk about at another time. My ultimate geek

dream goal? Man, I don't know. The movie theater

is a great idea because, I mean, technically

you could... You can make it like a haven for

all things geek, right? Like even if I said like

an arcade, like you could put an arcade in a

movie theater. It could technically be an amalgamation

and just a geek mecca. Which was, you know, what

Steve said in the forum too, about taking one

over and just having a garage sale in one room,

arcade in another, actually play retro movies

in two other ones, play new movies in two other

ones. Radio headquarters in one for live shows.

Yeah Have you snuck in something for yourself

under the guise of a family gift? Well, that

was my question last week and Got the cable modem,

you know the high -speed broadband internet.

I snuck that past my parents The only other thing

I can think of that I did was I got them to buy

like a PlayStation 3 but I had already had one

I mean But I got them to buy it for themselves

because they were looking at a Blu -ray player.

And I got them to buy a Wii. My parents really

liked the Wii. But and there's the kitty. Yep.

And we're still looking at Danner's wall. Oh,

it's a dancing cat. Boy, it's a good thing this

isn't being recorded and going up on YouTube.

It is. Is it? It's not. I don't know. No, it

has to be a live Google Hangout for that. So,

yeah, I kind of like, you know, Danner's idea

of, you know, the movie theater. I guess another

kind of like a realistic geek dream, because

right now it kind of is a dream, would be to

have, you know, we kind of share it with Steve,

which is have Geekcast Radio actually take off.

Which, I mean, it hasn't it hasn't like taken

off, but I don't know. Steve's the one that looks

at all the stats, but there's definitely been

an increase in commenting since in the last 10

episodes of Altered Geek, and I hope that you

guys are enjoying the rest of the site and the

content. Yes. Steve, what are your answers? For

me, my favorite new fall TV show is kind of difficult

for me. The ones that I did watch, I did like.

So it's been kind of a tough decision to kind

of narrow it down. Agents of S .H .I .E .L .D.

I'm still kind of leery about just because I

really don't care for a lot of Joss Whedon stuff

with the exception of the Avengers movie. But

I'm optimistic about it. Plus, ABC is not going

to kill it anyway because they're funding it.

They own everything associated with it. you know,

the title, the characters, Marvel, ABC. So I

mean, it's just. Milwaukee commercial. But. I

almost like I like the blacklist, even though

some of it's a little predictable and at the

same time, it's kind of reminds me too much of

Hannibal Lecter and, you know, Silence of the

Lambs, so it's kind of. Kind of stuck there.

I think I would say like the crazy ones only

for the fact that It's something different and

it kind of puts Robin Williams in his element

Okay, so I mean that doesn't count my returning

shows because some of them haven't returned yet

But I too was impressed with revolution on its

return It was actually a really good episode

yeah, and I noticed a lot of Supernatural tight

tones in it Just the more it gets writing or

gets gets written that way from the new writer,

right? so but a ultimate dream goal Would be

to see geek cast radio go completely mainstream

where we could all sit there and do this Or not

only fun, but a living I would love to do this

all day every day. I don't know about that, but

yes. Well, I don't mean like sitting like exactly

podcast, like every hour of the day, like the

tech, the the Twitter network, but be able to

go to events and have content and that kind of

stuff and kind of keep everything going. But

The other thing is I kind of like the movie theater

idea just because of the same reasons But I would

like to have a batmobile. I Just that's that's

always one of those things in if in because of

the batmobile costing so much I would like a

Actual Batman costume It's it's weird, but it's

funny all right Would wear it to scare people

and then those and then go to jail Because you

would be arrested jump across rooftops and I'd

get arrested they'd be like Batman goes to jail

I'd be like you can't stop me. I wear hockey

pads and they tase you Because I'd I'd wear hockey

pads All right, so yeah All right, so let's see

um do you want to share your news and then we

can move on to my topic yes um i don't know if

you noticed this earlier today but uh there was

a press release of the return of reboot i don't

know if you're familiar with the show i love

that show Well, let me rephrase that. I loved

it when it was on originally. I've tried to go

back and watch it since it's been on Netflix.

Doesn't really hold it up as well as I hoped

it would. I have the complete series DVD set

that I actually got for review. And the box set's

great. Don't get me wrong. The show is horribly

dated. Yes, very much. It's it's the the first

CG Animated cartoon before Beast Wars before

all that and the company that made it was mainframe

entertainment and They got bought out in the

mid -2000s by Rainmaker Entertainment Which that's

all stuff that nobody really cares about but

They have been teasing about doing reboot movies

over the last five years and then just kind of

never decided to do it and then There was I think

it was two years ago. Maybe three years ago they

had some kind of a test footage that kind of

floated around and it says now loading guardian

version 2 .0 or something like that and it it

was very reboot esque and design I ripped the

video before it disappeared. So they've been

kind of subtly hinting at it over the last year

or two. But the funny thing about it is now they're

actually bringing back... Under their TV division

they call it Mainframe Entertainment again. They

renamed it to that so it's got the original name

and then they're bringing back Reboot. Don't

know if it's a continuation. I don't know if

it's like a reboot reboot It's kind of funny

the only thing that would suck if they've continued

it is I know they have other voice actors that

can duplicate people But Tony J they get played

megabyte is dead So I don't know how they would

go about doing that but anyways now it's got

people what's that maybe they'll have a new villain

maybe Or they could just get me to do it. Sometimes

I can. They'll call him gigabyte. They'll call

him gigabyte. They actually had him in Merchants

of Hell become gigabyte. Yeah, terabyte sounds

a lot. Yeah, they call him terabyte. They could

call him terr -byte. Terr -byte, that's cool.

See? See? I'm writing it for him already. Yeah,

we don't even have megabytes. Oh, jeez. Yeah,

we don't even worry about megabytes anymore.

You're so the 90s. but yet yeah it's so badly

dated like they have all the first entry into

the web and all this yeah and the incoming game

of the games looked like crap just like you know

the series kind of did but but yeah now it's

got people clamoring for Beast Wars revival now

so which that will never happen because Ezra

owns Beast Wars so But yeah, I just I thought

that I was kind of a neat interesting thing and

Deserve to be brought up No, I I would like to

see I mean I'll I mean I'd give it a shot I mean

like Daner said I liked it when I was a kid and

I'll watch again because I I don't have any special

place in my heart for it because I have no nostalgia

for that stuff So I'm sure if it showed up somewhere

I'd end up watching it a couple episodes probably

the whole thing as a train wreck show I'm sure

it'll be fine because I mean the the original

did really well really well for them right that's

what launched their entire CG network and honestly

there's not really much going for them now so

the fact that they're having to go back to the

mainframe entertainment name and revive reboot

and that kind of speaks volumes about their company

right but yeah that's that's kind of uh that

news the the other kind of thing is not really

even related to anything other than if you see

our end is uh we are syndicated oh yes you did

this yes what did you do steve i set this up

last week we did a cross show syndication between

two different networks uh It's another local

podcast network to us and He's from Flint, Michigan

area The Tigger Prince entertainment podcast

network Has a podcast called agents of shield

Where they discuss them after every episode airs

So We're syndicating their show on our network

and they're syndicating Altered Geek over there.

Very cool. So be sure to check that out and kind

of see how they feel about SHIELD and all the

things as it comes along. Right. And the theories

and everything else. But I think that's it on

that front. So let's go to your topic. Alright,

I there's a lot of times the easiest way to Pose

this question and I guess this would be my listener

question for the episode which is Technology

has evolved so fast Kind of at least in my opinion.

It's involved a lot faster in the last seven

years or so than it has at any point in my lifetime

or at least it feels like it has and I'm wondering

if there's any technology that you take for granted

that when you actually sit down and you think

about what it is or what it's doing that it still

kind of blows your mind like one example I have

is GPS GPS blows my mind and I know that makes

me sound really old but I love maps. I like looking

at maps and all this stuff and I sometimes I'll

just turn the the GPS map function on my phone

just so I can see that something else can see

where I am and like how accurate it is to where

I actually am. Not because I'm lost and I'm using

it for that but it's just I'm so fascinated that

we live in a world where three satellites orbiting

miles above our head can tell me where I am down

to like three feet. And like just, you know,

I'll go like months, you know, oh, I need to

know where this is, or I need to know where that

is. And I need to know how to get there. And

then, but when I stopped and think about it,

I was like, dang, I can't even believe I can

do this. Not to mention I can't believe I can

do this, but I can't believe I can do it on a

device that fits in my pocket. Yeah. So I'm wondering,

is there anything like that for you guys where?

You know, you take it for granted, but when you

actually think about it, it's kind of amazed.

You're kind of amazed that you actually have

this. Don't all jump in at once. Well, I was

going to say for me, I. You told me about this

like a week ago, and I could not think of something

like GPS. Yes, to me, amazing because of the

whole I grew up in the map quest stage of the.

Well, I got to go somewhere, so I'm going to

jump online. I'm going to print off directions.

then driving driving driving oh shit there's

construction here oh no these oh no my directions

are useless now oh god I don't know where I am

and now I'm in downtown Detroit and I'm lost

so it's to me like GPS is amazing and the fact

that it just takes the stress out of every single

trip I go on now which is great so And I knew

you were going to talk about GPS, so I didn't

really want to harp on GPS. But yesterday, my

Fitbit charge completely died on me. And I ran

around work so much that I've been like, man,

if my Fitbit was on, I would have like 20 ,000

steps today easily. And just like how bothered

I was. that I feel like I wasted all the energy

of walking around because I didn't have a way

to track it. So it makes me feel like it didn't

happen and it didn't count for anything. And

it's all that I saw your Twitter like it was

like you've only walked like 500 steps like steps.

What did Daner do? It's called Daner woke up

in the morning and got to work and didn't realize

that the Fitbit was dead and had no way to charge

it and I had the busiest day I've had probably

in three months and I didn't stop moving for

nine hours straight and just like Was it was

I was fine that it was a busy day. I was fine

that I was getting shit out by customers I was

fine with it What I was pissed about was the

fact that I had nothing to show for it on my

Fitbit Because I didn't have the ability to track

where I was going or how many steps I took during

the day like it's pretty much ruined my entire

week because of the fact that I couldn't track

my steps and it's just gotten to the point where

I And it's all Mike's fault. Cause he gave me

a Fitbit and got me going on this and I'm just

like, I really liked the fact that I could see

how much stuff I'm doing and I could track all

this stuff. And then I went out and bought the

flex. So now I can. track my sleep and I can

track how much water I drink per day and then

it partners with my fitness app and now I can

track my calories and then it adds the calories

of from however much walking I've done today

to my other food in my fitness app and it's just

between my iPhone and my Fitbit I just can track

all my movement and everything I do in a freaking

day and when I stop and think about it It's quite

amazing to the fact that I would just shovel

shit in, walk, do whatever, but now I can track

it. And then better yet, I can compete with friends

online and be like, I walked more than you did.

And it just comes down to the whole like. To

me, they're playing off of the whole thing that

I loved about Xbox Live, which is the achievement

points and just having a bigger achievement score

than anybody. And now it's the exact same thing,

but it's actually far more beneficial to me to

track my movement than to sit on my ass on my

couch and get achievements on Xbox Live. So I

just, just, I I really like the Fitbit way too

much, to the point where it's literally, it's

healthy, but it's unhealthy at the same time.

I'm not entirely sure that we just need to get

a 10 minute ad from Fitbit. I know. If you want

to send me free bands, Fitbit, you could get

ahold of me at Art Danner on Twitter. We've talked

before when I had service problems. You know

where I'm at. All right, Steve, your turn. I

would almost kind of say like Skype for instance

because it kind of amazes me sometimes how Because

it's such a touchy program Anyway, how that it

functions at all between I mean I know it's an

instant messenger But how it does like the the

voice thing and how you can turn it into essentially

a cell phone, right? And to think about it that

Ten years ago this kind of setup wouldn't really

even be possible Yeah You pretty much had to

have a microphone and be in the same room Whereas

the dawn of all the instant messengers coming

out eventually added vocal ability to them, but

it was not Really working all that great until

Skype came along, right? So I mean I would say

that in an instance but also One of the one of

the things is listening to music or Files of

music I remember in high school carrying around

a portable CD player which Compared to an mp3

player is not all that portable. Yeah. No, I

remember those things. Holy cow. I And and mine

was probably the size. I don't know the size

of a DVD Like Box set of a TV show. Yeah, it

was like pretty thick and a couple inches thick

and I used to like shove it my coat and i was

like oh i'm cool i got a portable cd player you

know burn 20 songs to a cd and you know nowadays

you can burn files to your car yeah plug in an

mp3 player or your phone i mean you're able to

carry so much more data than back then and and

just how it's how it's changed in size over the

years it's just kind of One of those things that

I find interesting. Yeah, I mean, I have I have

two more that maybe you guys can can can chime

in on and feel this. Maybe you'll share the same

sentiments. One is just the way the Internet

like and this goes back to your Skype thing,

the way the Internet is just like. Driven itself

into. The lives of people within the last seven

years. I don't even know if it's been, it's actually

been more like five or six. Like, I feel like

the internet has just come on with the evolution

of the smartphone. Internet has finally become

like this thing that's just, it's there. Like,

I don't know that I can, you know, I often, you

know, there's often like the joke of, I don't,

I bet you can't go a day without your smartphone.

I bet you can't go a day, you know, without checking

something. It's like, I get kind of antsy when

I can't even go like an hour. without checking

something like it's got like just checking in

somewhere. And I like having the access to Internet

or the Internet whenever I need it. Like, oh,

I need to know the answer to something. I'll

just look it up right now on my phone. I mean,

I know I know the the iPhone because it's the

smartphone I'm most familiar with, like that

completely changed. uh work uh working at the

movie theater for me because before the iphone

i just had a dumb phone um and tuesdays and saturdays

when i would go to work for my 15 17 hour shifts

like those days did not exist to me i would go

into work And I wouldn't be able to like instant

message anybody. I'd be able to text a couple

of friends here and there, but I wouldn't be

able to instant message my larger circle of friends.

I wouldn't be able to read any websites, any

news, nothing. I wouldn't know anything happened

on a Tuesday or a Saturday. I would suck. Until

I got out of work at like midnight or 2 a .m.

But after I got the iPhone and it had an actual

browser built into it with actual internet, all

of a sudden I could go to my friends forums and

comment and read text stories and interact with

the outside world like all of a sudden I felt

connected like this little pin of light came

down from the sky and went bing! you're on! and

it just that um you know the the internet just

being everywhere I mean we take it for granted

but when you think when you sit back and think

about like five years ago You probably didn't

have the internet in your pocket I didn't until

two years ago, right? I'm just saying like in

general I don't think the large population of

the people had the internet in their pocket before

five years ago And now it's just everything It's

it's like that's the thing and I and but at the

same time the flip side of it is there are people

that don't have them like our friend Joe He doesn't

have one but That's to me that's commendable

in this day and age when everyone's got a smartphone

and like he he doesn't want one because he understands

like The time sync that they can become You know

just check it in while you're significant others

sitting on the couch or whatever. I'm guilty

of it But you know, he doesn't you know, he doesn't

want that though, you know, he wants to to be

there and more more power to him See, I like

having it because it's the ultimate queller of

all arguments The moment two friends get into

an argument about no, it's this. No, it's that

it's just like, okay This is over jump on Google

figure it out and be like, okay, you're wrong

You're right Shut up. You're wronger Yeah, or

yeah, or you're wrong and you're also wrong and

you're both dumbasses. I mean I just To me, it

saves a lot of time of having to listen to asinine

arguments. That's why I enjoy it. What do you

think about that, Steve? The internet is being

everywhere. I mean... Do you like it? Do you

hate it? I mean... Well, I mean, I've had...

I mean, I've been fortunate enough. I've had

internet since 96. But... Back then it was funny.

Now... I mean, it's kind of interesting to see

how it's progressed over the years. Just because

I remember having a simplistic as all hell website

back in 98. Was it GeoCities? Funny you should

say that I had one that was on the internet ramp

when they had like, oh, you could have 15 megabytes

of web space. It was kind of funny Used to be

a internet dial -up internet provider in the

Flynn area. I think I remember that The internet

ramp. Yeah, they lasted a while Then they got

bought out by Earthling But I used to play multiplayer

Beast Wars the MSN gaming zone Okay, and I used

to sit there so long that I dominated everybody.

I got real good at the game. And I would be hopped

up on caffeine and adrenaline because I'm sitting

there playing for like 12 hours straight. To

the point I can't see straight. And I'd freak

out when the dial -up connection would die. I'd

be like, damn it, no! And then... They actually

had to pry me away from the computer a few times

because I just I wouldn't you know just sit there

and play But I mean just the difference between

that and sitting there and playing games or communicating

with people now is It's somewhat similar, but

it's so more advanced and easier to do yeah,

I Mean you have you have cable internet speeds

which you know I couldn't imagine being on dial

up now. I think I'd have to shoot myself waiting

And you can play people on Not just the PC, but

you can play online on your consoles. You can

play on your phone You can play I mean you're

just the the fact that the internet's advanced

to the point where we're constantly connected

is Kind of mind -boggling in itself. Yeah the

the proliferation of the internet over the last

decade even the last five years is just crazy

well i mean it's gotten so bad though to the

same degree just for the fact that people don't

know how to communicate without it yeah that's

kind of unfortunate i mean obviously there are

downsides to the whole thing but i don't want

to get into like a really in -depth discussion

on the merits you know the the positives and

negatives of the internet At the moment we could

save it for a future discussion Radio episode

we could be here for days The last thing that

I want to bring up is kind of a spin -off of

the whole internet just being in your pocket

is the smartphone Like it's still Every year

I upgrade to the the newest iPhone and I find

out what's what's in them and whatnot and I think

it was the 3gs trumped my first macbook ever

like in terms of like power like i had i got

i bought my first macbook in 2004 and it was

an 800 megahertz uh power pc with like i think

it was i had something weird it was like 768

megs of ram in it instead of like 512 or one

gigabyte of ram and i think it actually might

have only been 384 if i'm being completely honest

it was some weird number and the iPhone 3GS had

like either was the same speed or was like a

900 megahertz processor in it and it had 512

megs of RAM in it and it was kind of like wow

this thing in my pocket has more power in it

than the first Apple notebook that I ever bought

and the 5S is It's not I mean, it's still a ways

off from trumping the current computer that I'm

using right now, but it's catching up And that

to me that just blows my mind that I've got this

big -ass and that's not like a big -ass computer

But I've got this big notebook sitting here in

front of me that I'm using to record and edit

on and then I have this tiny little thing that

fits in my pocket and the battery lasts for about

12 hours on a charge if longer if I'm not using

it all the time and It's like just blows my mind

that this stuff happens. And yeah, I mean, I'll

pick it up and I don't like marvel at it every

time and I'll just use it the way it's supposed

to be used. But like if I stop and think. It

just it's like, wow, I cannot believe this stuff

is in my pocket. So but maybe I'm just easily

wowed by some of this text stuff. Well, I mean,

if I had a dumb phone about a year and a half

ago, so I mean. It was a huge jump for me to

go to a phone that's constantly connected, although

anybody that, and this can be a future conversation

on another podcast, but I have beef with the

company that I have because, you know, it's poor

customer service. So don't ever go through Sprint.

I'm just warning people. They are terrible. Their

customer service sucks their phones suck and

they don't care about you. They'll pretty much

tell you that on the phone Sounds like Comcast

Comcast cares though. They do. Oh shit Ours don't

like my Comcast over here doesn't give me crap.

They're terrible You're gonna know how to talk

to them and you're gonna know what channels to

use Twitter. I'm pretty good Twitter gets the

best results. Yeah, Twitter doesn't get the best

results with Comcast I figured that out. I have

a funny story real quick about Comcast because

it just happened this week because I have cable

and TV service. I have internet and TV through

Comcast right now. Like a crazy good deal right

now. Like I'm getting 50 meg internet and like

TV with DVR for like $39 a month for 12 months.

And what? Yep. So go me. So I'm I but I have

Ali and I haven't watched the TV because we don't

watch TV. We don't care about the TV. That's

one of the reasons I wanted the Superfast Internet

is because everything in my house runs off the

Internet. We've got, you know, three game consoles

on. We've got two iPhones, two iPads, two computers

constantly, you know, doing stuff on the Internet.

And but she wanted to watch Glee. or she wanted

to be able to watch actual TV. And she's like,

you know, since we have it, can we try and use

it? And I was like, well, I've tried to just

the HDMI cable or the HDMI port on the back of

the cable box doesn't talk to the TV the right

way. So I get using the HDMI connection, I get

sound and I get the guide, but I don't get picture.

I get a black screen. So I called up Comcast

a couple weeks ago and they said, well, we'll

boost the signal for you and we'll send a reset

and that should fix it. I was like, OK, whatever.

And so I was fussing with it again this past

week, Monday, actually, and the guy I called

again, I said, because I hooked it up just just

for S &G's. I hooked up the cable box to my TV

using a traditional coaxial cable and I got picture

and I got sound and I got the guide. So it was

something with their HDMI connection. So I called

up Comcast and I said, listen, this is what's

going on. When I hook it up with an HDMI cable,

I get the guide, sound, and no picture. And when

I use a traditional coaxial cable, I get picture,

sound, and the guide. And the guide literally

goes, are you sure you have it on the right input?

And I was like, sir, I have. when I hook it up

with an HDMI cable on the right input I get sound

and I can see your guide I cannot see your picture

and he goes oh well here I'm gonna send you I'm

gonna send you a stronger signal but I was like

well that's what they did last time sir he goes

no no I'm looking at your account right now last

time they just sent a reset thing this time I'm

gonna send a much stronger signal and I guarantee

you that it's going to work in about 45 minutes

I said Okay, can I have your name and some kind

of reference number so when I call back tomorrow

because I still don't have a picture? He goes,

yep. And he gave it to me in full confidence.

I still don't have picture. Like, I just, I was

like, oh my gosh, you guys are so dumb. Do you

still don't to this day? No, I don't have picture.

I mean, I do if I use the coaxial cable, but

not over an HDMI connection. But who wants to

use coax? Yeah, well, and I actually kind of

turned Ali off on it because she saw the picture

with the coaxial cable and it does it looks like

crap. And I said, we don't have HD service. So

even with an HDMI cable, this is as good as it's

going to look. She's like, really? And I'm like,

yeah, she was no. And I was like, I was spoiled.

You haven't. I'm like, yes. She's like, yes,

you have. So because we very rarely look at very

rarely will we look at stuff that's not HD on

the TVs in the house. So. But yeah, the Comcast

Horror stuff and service providers, we can talk

about that on a future thing. Well, I remember

years ago I talked about Comcast Horrors on Headshot.

That was just so much fun. The sprint thing,

that's my latest beef, but I think I'll start

covering that kind of stuff again on Headshot

and revive it so that I have an avenue to complain.

that I Wish the seven seas of hell upon print

but All right, that's a tale for another day.

Did you write down my question when I said it?

No, great. I can't remember what it was. Oh Boy,

okay. Well, I'm about ready to wrap this up you

guys ready to wrap this up good is there I guess

you know since we jumped into the conversation

without listener feedback maybe the listeners

can provide some feedback you know is there anything

any technology that you take for granted that

when you stop to think about it actually still

you know wows you you can go ahead and share

some of your thoughts or opinions or on that

with us and we can share those on episode 11

also uh let us know what you thought of the third

chair um did it get was dan a good third chair

uh was uh three voices too much um you know let

us was his chair empty yeah uh we just want to

know that way on the video should that chair

be empty all the time um but yeah this is our

for obviously anyone that's been listening for

the last uh 10 episodes will know this is the

first third you know first three person alter

deep that there's been so curious to see what

you guys think. So Steve, how can they get a

hold of us to let us know how they feel? Well,

they can visit the website on geekcastradio .com

where you can comment on the episode post and

all of our different podcasts. You can rate our

show on iTunes. Please be sure to leave us feedback

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people will notice under the Altered Geek posts

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future episodes of this show and other shows.

There is a image bar in place of the subscribe

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with that, we want to thank... Art Danner for

joining us. Hopefully you had a good time. Thanks

for having me. I had a blast. Alright. Until

next week. Something. I hate doing sign -offs.

You're so good at it though. Bazinga.

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