Kids Tech Habits, Netflix Secrets, David S Pumpkins, and Amazon Home Delivery

On this episode of Altered Geek, we'll talk what's

geeky to you, SNL's hit short, Amazon's open

door delivery system, the good, bad, and the

ugly of the internet, and a lesson that you can

learn from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for your

kids. All this and more on Altered Geek. Altered

Geek is brought to you by Gamefly .com. Sign

up today for a premium free 30 day trial with

one game out at a time by going to Gameflyoffer

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right place to be So turn up the volume cause

you're an Altered Geek Altered Geek Get Altered

Geek Geek Geek Altered Geek From Star Wars to

Star Trek Comics to Tech Altered Geek Hello and

welcome to Altered Geek, the show where pop culture,

living in the modern era, collide and no topic

is considered off limits. If it's something you're

into and interested in, then I want to know so

we can geek out together. I'm your host, Stephen

C. Phillips, and as always, thank you for tuning

in. So if you're looking to interact with the

show, you can find everything at AlteredGeek

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What's Geeky to You, with which you've been geeking

out with this week. I've been geeking out with

a little bit of new information just kind of

been playing around with stuff with WordPress

learning some new podcasting skills and Haven't

really been doing too much gaming. I've been

spending more time Watching my shows that have

just come back from break I've been talking on

a variety of podcasts from the the newly re I

don't know re -amped top 100 countdown of the

villains of forever. That first episode will

be out shortly after this one. A little bit of

an interesting twist there. We have that coming

out. We've got the new Legends of the Brave and

the Bold, which is the retitled Legends of the

Dark Knight podcast. So we can talk superheroes

as well, as Batman on that feed. And then we've

got Future Imperfect and All Things Transformers.

So if you want to hear my thoughts on Transformers,

Star Trek, or superheroes, go to those podcasts.

This one's more of a geek and kind of entertainment

and kind of pop culture, just kind of everything

without getting all the specifics. So, getting

into what's geekety you, I have a couple things

from Tim Silvers First of which is the the first

that he was geeking out was the the Star Wars

the last Jedi New York Comic -Con experience

of where they they kind of locked everybody in

a room and Had stormtroopers and they had them

trying to fish out the rebels and then Kylo Ren

comes in and You know the rebels are trying to

get these certain people out. So it was it was

kind of an interesting thing to watch I've never

been directly involved in one of those things,

but I think they're really cool. So there's that.

There's also the topic that I found, which I'll

get into later. I don't want to spoil it too

soon. So yeah, I'm out of work for the weekend.

I'm kind of excited because we're going as a

family to this church family... camp thing for

the weekend and We it's called family first and

I'm looking forward to it because I get to spend

time with my kids and my wife Try and get Calm

down from the technology and a little reacquainted

and having fun and worship stuff going on so

Yeah, just kind of excited for it gonna be away

for a couple of days and I'm I'm just kind of

looking forward to Being away for a little bit.

It's it's been a while So yeah, other than that

not really else going on so I'm gonna jump right

into the content for the website of the week

and this week, I'm bringing you a website called

getaudiograms .com. Some of you may not be familiar

with this, but it's a service that when you submit

your podcast to it, I forgot I'd even signed

up for this a long time ago. The interesting

part is they just launched their website, and

I tried it back in January. Thank goodness for

email and conversation gathering where it splices

everything together by conversation because I

would have never remembered the last time I talked

to these great folks over there. They offered

to just to kind of get stats on it and see kind

of what would happen. They were going around

to various podcasters asking them to try their

service and to kind of beta test it and they

did that for about six months. Well, they've

come full circle. Now their website's launched.

They're going to start doing it a little bit

different way. And they contacted me. And I've

actually been looking at doing this for some

time now. Which is funny because when I first

heard of it, I was like, eh, I don't know how

well this is going to go over. And then after

a while of... noticing that other people were

doing it and other sites were doing it and how

interesting it is because you're not staring

at a media player, you're not... It has a nice

picture with it that you get to kind of embed

and you get to see the waveforms move, which

I think is kind of interesting, even though it's

a way to videoize it without having it look like

blank screen, still image. So anyways, I like

it. But... It's a tool to help with social sharing

and boosting marketing on your podcasts. And

a lot of services are starting to do this now.

SoundCloud, Omni, a few other ones like that

are doing it. So, I'm gonna try that out with

some segments from the show. Gonna try and put

together a little small segment, bookend them

with this, and then... Kind of see how it goes

and you guys just let me know what you think

on on future episodes of The podcast what you

think I'm kind of curious, but if you decide

that you want to sign up for this and you are

a podcaster Do me the favor of going altered

geek comm slash go slash Get audiograms if you

do this it it will allow me to earn credits Which

when you earn credits? There are a couple ways

of doing this at this point right now There's

an ability to pay for a certain amount of credits

of 25 credits You can refer a podcaster who would

be interested in using audiogram And get 20 credits

you can earn 100 credits by sharing your referral

link and earning 10 credits per referral up to

a maximum of 100 credits Not really sure where

it's gonna go from there, but I know that they

create an audio gram for every credit that You

have so you can you can custom put this together

and kind of have like a little Gallery of your

Your audiograms, so I I'm gonna try this out

and kind of see how it goes But I thought it

was kind of a note in interest for those of you

that are podcasters that would like to try and

Kind of take a best of of your show for that

week And there is kind of another thing that

I'm gonna do that's With the segments and I'm

gonna I'm gonna divulge that in the geek cast

radio year in review podcast So Stay tuned for

that in December. I've got some plans So we'll

see how well that turns out because that's another

little side project for me to do So yeah, that's

that's in a nutshell what that that's going to

be so Really, going from that, I found this interesting

tidbit on this week in Geek History, because

on Wednesday, October 25th, 2001, we saw the

arrival of Windows XP, which, had I not been

subscribed to these emails, there's no way I

would have remembered this. Windows XP is the

farthest thing from my mind at this point. I

remember the succession in the the progression

of Windows over the years and I've had all the

various iterations and it was the most popular

up to Windows 7 and then after 7 everybody kind

of jumped on board with 10 but I thought it was

kind of funny because it was the successor to

Windows 2000 and Millennium and 98 second edition

and kind of designed to unify the Windows NT

line and the Windows 95 line or 9x line of operating

systems. And it's funny because it kind of sat

around for six years until it was replaced by

Vista, which you really can't call a replacement

until Windows 7 kind of came out. But yeah, I...

I think it's funny that the thing lasted 11 years

before it was kind of phased out. It was the

world's most popular operating system until August

2012. And just going back and seeing the history

of Windows like that is kind of interesting for

me. But yeah. I'm going to try out a new little

segment here, and just bear with me because I'm

not really sure how it's going to go. I have

some tweaking to do, but I figured this was better

than doing the 10 minute blitz thing that blew

over a stack of bricks landing on a Ford truck

in the middle of a tornado. you'll hear the clip

for right now. So here we are on the good, the

bad, and the ugly. So starting off with the good,

there's a secret Netflix code to unlock hidden

show categories. Had I known this? The entire

time I had Netflix, this would have been awesome.

But it didn't. Because apparently there's secret

codes to unlock the shows and movies you never

knew were hiding in the Netflix library. Which

I think is kind of blasphemous that it's just

now something that's known. I mean, you knew

they had these number codes, but the fact that

somebody actually figured these out is an entirely

different process. It's because like I always

had a hard time finding stuff on Netflix that

was new or stuff that I wanted to watch But the

fact that if you're looking for something very

specific or you have no idea what you want to

binge watch or or whatnot It's kind of interesting

the the other shows and films that are together

by their genres or themes that are not shown

So like you can sort by you know horror TV, you

know TV comedy There are thousands upon thousands

of hidden categories which don't come up in the

listing, which, again, I think is kind of wrong.

But then again, like I said, there are hidden

ones. You can kind of discover these new ones.

Viewers have worked out how they can get to these

secret theme groups which offer some seriously

specific choices. these codes, which you plug

into the web address to access, obviously, because

there's nowhere else to do it unless you do it

in the top. Each code refers to a specific category,

many of which are far more niche than the basic

categories anyone can see on the main Netflix

homepage. So, if you want to know what the codes

are, you can go to netflixcodes .me. to find

the code for your genre that you fancy. So like

if you want, you know, for example, spy action

and adventure, there's code 10702. So you would

do netflix .com slash browse slash genre slash

and then this code and then you copy and paste

that into your URL and then it loads them up.

The fact that there's so many codes. So there's

action comedies, action sci -fi and fantasy,

action thrillers, alien sci -fi, an obscene amount

of anime, there's B -horror, there's Belgian,

campy, there's classics of everything from movies,

comedies, dramas, foreign movies, musicals, romantic

movies, thrillers, sci -fi, TV. The list goes

on and on and on. Then it goes through various

Italian movies, Japanese movies, Korean movies,

Latin movies, military movies, monster movies,

movies for ages 0 to 2, 2 to 4, 8 to 10, 11 to

12, 5 to 7. You've got all these different categories

of movies which I would have never known. And

this website, netflixcodes .me, actually updates

all of these codes. And they have these little

red buttons that, if you click them on this website,

it will actually load directly to that Netflix

category, which I think is kind of cool. So if

you don't want to bookmark Netflix itself and

you want to watch one of these specific categories,

it'll pop up with these and that in and of itself

is kind of awesome really but I thought that

that was a really good thing to kind of start

this out with because if you're watching there's

sometimes where you're overwhelmed and just don't

know what you're gonna watch next so I'm gonna

go into the bad with Amazon Amazon .com Amazon

Key is bigger than package delivery. Yes, that

was a title from Gizmodo. Doesn't matter what

site you go to, but they're having a new service

that lets couriers unlock your front door. So

you'll need a smart lock and Amazon's new cloud

cam. Yeah, I feel so totally comfortable letting

someone randomly walk into my house. So... As

we've noticed, Amazon is putting lockers in nearby

convenience stores and building lobbies and whatnot,

and then showing off drones that could drop off

your package to your backyard. Well, the next

step is dropping it off at your front door and

putting your package safely inside your home.

Nevertheless, there's going to be something that

goes wrong with this. I For as technical as I

am I don't want one of those wireless Bluetooth

Locking systems for my door. I want the old -fashioned

padlock, you know decked up to the nines like

I don't want anything technological because one

if the grid goes out you're kind of screwed to

I There's still a need for keys Because the other

stuff's more hackable Not saying somebody couldn't

just bash your door in for an unhonest person,

but still, I don't know how I feel about putting

technology on my entryway and letting somebody

just walk into my house. So anyways, the Amazon

Key relies on Amazon's new cloud cam and compatible

smart lock. The camera is in the hub, connected

to the internet via home Wi -Fi. The camera talks

to the lock over ZigBee, a wireless protocol

utilized by many smart home devices. When the

courier arrives with a package for in -home delivery,

the scan the barcode, sending a request to Amazon's

cloud. If everything checks out, the cloud grants

permission by sending a message back to the camera,

which starts recording. The courier then gets

a prompt on their app, swipes the screen, and

voila, they're in your house. They drop off the

package, relock the door with another swipe,

and are on their way. The customer will get a

notification that the delivery has arrived. Along

with a short video showing the drop -off to confirm

everything was done properly So yeah, the system

works with locks from Yale and quick set okay,

so quick set I've I've used them before for My

door system, so that's kind of good the other

piece is that the connected camera is made by

Amazon which means that they're just pushing

to get further in your house between Alexa and

which I believe you can integrate with this for

voice commands. So, yeah, they're planning on

selling bundles and offering subscription service

for customers who want to video archives and

advance home monitoring, which kind of cuts into

Google's Alphabet Nest brand and others in the

smart home space like Ring and Logitech. So it's

going to become available November 8th. Prime

customers can pre -order the camera today, however,

and... Yeah, I don't know if I would trust Amazon

with entry into my home. With the amount of stuff

that could go wrong with this, like, I am not...

I am not in favor of somebody. Like, this is

just... I don't know. I... I like technology

to an extent, but I think that there's a point

where there's a laziness and overreach, and I

just much prefer to have... You know, like I

trust my mail person. I'm not concerned with

that, but that's just another thing that doesn't

really need to be done. I can go pick it up from

my mailbox out in the front of my house. And

99 % of the time, I'm home. I work from home.

I live at my home. Like, I will never find a

use for this. My wife... She comes and goes periodically

through the day and, you know, with the kids

and I'm literally the only one home at 90 % of

the time. Which I'm completely fine with. I'm

working so it doesn't really bother me because

I have nowhere else I'm going to be leaving to.

So like if I hear somebody knock on the door

I can run upstairs, bring my package in and then

just go right back to work. Down in my office.

Which is awesome. So Amazon's set is going to

have this bundle which includes the smart lock,

the connected camera, and free installation for

$249 .99. Once you have the system in place,

in -home delivery will begin to appear as an

option every time you order something on Amazon.

There's no additional charge and Amazon says

the in -home delivery will be available on over

10 million items. Anything that isn't too big

and bulky. The one caveat is that, for now, Amazon

only trusts its own delivery team to handle this

work, so your mail people will not count. Eventually,

they may have third -party delivery companies

to handle this process. I know my mail person.

I'm not concerned about her. I don't know how

I feel about Amazon dropping stuff off at my

house. If you want to find out more, you can

go to amazon .com slash key. The cameras themselves

cost $120 individually. They may be cheaper if

you buy in bulk, obviously, if you're doing it

for business purposes or whatnot. That's kind

of my bad. The Ugly. I actually have two of these.

Not sure if I want to touch one today. I think

one would be more fun when I have Birdman Dot

on. So I might save that one. I'm pretty sure

I'm going to save that one because I know that

that would be right up his alley. The ugly would

be clickbait online. What I mean by that is there

are geek websites out there right now which purposely

are publishing things. I'm not saying that titles

shouldn't be invoking of making people want to

click them. However, when you get a geek site

where, let's say for instance, they're covering

the gifted each episode of the series as it progresses,

And they title it, and if you type this in, you

will find out what website it came from, so I'm

not saying anything directly derogatory about

this website because I've used them in the past

for information. However, I think that this is

kind of a crappy and misleading way to go. They're

titling every episode. They change the number,

but they leave every episode titled, Is Wolverine

in the blank episode of, quote, the gifted, quote,

question mark? I do not, like, I add questions

and I add the title information and I don't anymore

put the type, you know, the name of the show

or the podcast number or any of that in the titles

of the shows, but I do that because, one, I'm

wasting precious space on telling you what you're

gonna be listening to, and two, I don't want

to be misleading about it. Like, yeah, I'm gonna

come up with some witty title like I used to

saying, you know, Oh, the Redox Refandom, blah

blah blah. Like, no, I'm just gonna tell you

what's in the episode for the most part. You

know, leaving some to the imagination. But, again,

I think this is just kind of crappy titling.

I never understood why... websites have had to

have clickbait titles and It's supposed to be

a thought -provoking title that makes the person

interested and invested in clicking not Click

baiting them with basically a false expectation

and hope to Read your entire article to get the

ad monetization and then be kinda left empty

handed by the end of the review. Like, if you're

having to resort to that to do a review of an

episode, you know, something's kinda off there.

And I don't mean to put the website under the

bus that did this, because each geek website

has its own niche and has its own way of doing

things, and each one has its own things wrong

and right, that they do better or worse than

the other, but at the same time, I don't see

the... The merit in doing an editorial piece

in this manner. I see it as misleading and just

garbage so But anyways, I'm gonna take a quick

break and after I come back. I'm gonna cut into

some Information on Beetlejuice. Yes, you heard

that right and some altered geek TV and the SNL

skit Netflix and the Nielsen ratings and some

awesome tech before I get to the topic of the

day All this and more on Altered Geek. And we're

back! So, getting into the altered film, we have

Beetlejuice 2, which apparently is not dead after

all. So you may or may not care, depending on

who you are. But yeah, Beetlejuice 2 is in the

rewriting booth. it's been in the works for quite

some time mostly just like some other films like

Bill and Ted and Beverly Hills Cop Four and things

like that so Tim Burton and Michael Keaton which

are kind of reuniting for Dumbo haven't been

signed on yet to Beetlejuice 2 although they

don't have high hopes that it will come out or

be put together but nevertheless Warner Brothers

wants to return to the land of Beetlejuice to

try and get another bite of that 80s, 90s apple

there. So what do you guys think about that?

I would be down with seeing it just to kind of

find out what they're going to do with it. But

I'm kind of holding my breath. Well, not holding

my breath because I'd be dead. Not holding my

breath on this because I don't know... whether

this is going to be something that pans out or

not, or it gets another rewrite, or it just never

happens, or somebody dies before it comes out.

Time will tell. I would love to see the people

reunite for this film, but again, we just don't

know what's going to happen. And if you're a

fan of David S. Pumpkins, you are in luck. I

never knew that after they came out with the

initial skit last year of David S. Pumpkins,

and then they had another one of David S. Pimpkins.

for this rap video thing that they did in SNL

in May, just to be funny. They're coming out

with, they've dropped a teaser for another David

S. Pumpkins Halloween special, which is coming

out, funny enough, on October 28th. And they're

gonna air it right before... Saturday Night Live.

So if you're a fan of Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins,

and you kind of want to know what's going to

go happen in this, it's going to be Tom Hanks

reprising his role as the popular character in

an animated form when it airs. And it's going

to feature Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage

as a guest voice. Hanks is one of SNL's, you

know, obviously prolific hosts. So yeah, they're

going to revisit this bizarre sketch and... give

him his own episode. It will also include the

voices of Bobby Moyahan and Mikey Day, who were

the skeletons dancing next to him in the original

sketch, as well as the new one. The fans of Pumpkin's

inexplicable weirdness can get a taste of his

return in the new video. I... Yeah, I'm definitely

looking forward to this just because it looks

cheesy. It's got that TV funhouse look to it.

So I'm kind of just looking forward to seeing

this, just because I enjoyed the skit so much

last year when it came out, that everybody, including

myself, went out and bought different David S.

Pumpkins domain names. There's one that's actually,

it literally comes up first in the search engine,

like David Pumpkins or davidspumpkins .com, and

then mine is imdavidpumpkins .com, which... I

tried to get the other one, it was already taken,

unfortunately. So, when this comes out, probably

sometimes Sunday, I will redirect that domain

from AlteredGeek .com to a clip of it. So, I'm

linked to a post on AlteredGeek. So, yeah, I'm

kind of a fan of the clip. Besides that, so I'm

going to play a quick clip of the trailer bit

right here and then kind of come back on the

other side with tech. And we're back. So... Yeah,

gonna get into some altered tech here, man. I'm

kind of looking forward to this. Yes, I realize

I skipped over the Netflix ratings of the Nielsen

thing, but they more or less said that Nielsen

ratings for streaming show exactly and mean nothing.

That's kind of Netflix's thoughts. I don't think

anybody really honestly cares about the the ratings

from Nielsen anymore other than Other than the

the whole thing with Advertisers, I don't think

that that streaming or like because they're trying

to get their hands in podcasting streaming video

streaming of anything really I I think that there

needs to be some kind of a new industry standard.

I don't think that that necessarily plays well

into all of the different mediums there is now.

But I saw this kind of cool tech gadget thing

from Gizmodo where they said there's a different

way to get smart lights. Replace your switches,

not your light bulbs. They've said that smart

homes have finally improved enough that having

a home that responds to your every wish and command

is almost within reach. They kind of show this

option where you can have smart bulbs ranging

from Ikea's $20 option to the $50 a pop for some

Philips Hue expensive colored bulbs, not to mention

anything else that's magically there. But this

company called Noon wants to come in and instead

of replacing your bulbs, Noon hopes, Home hopes

to improve your lighting by replacing the switches

on your walls with smarter Wi -Fi connected alternatives.

So for $400, the Noon Smart Lighting Starter

Kit includes a master room director switch and

two extension switches. may seem a little pricey.

I'm not somebody that would jump on stuff immediately

when it comes out, but the thought counts. But

it involves ripping out your existing switches,

faceplates, and electrical boxes and installing

new ones. Which is a little bit more commitment

than screwing in light bulbs, but you can kind

of do it yourself. And so you... It's supposed

to be this pretty easy to do thing, but they're

partnering with InstallerNet, a service that

connects installers with customers for a fee

to connect these to their homes. They're saying

once it happens, Newton claims its bulb discovery

tech can automatically detect the type of bulbs

you are using so that they can use the mobile

app to group various fixtures together, create

different lighting scenes, and adjust their brightness.

all while minimizing the flickering and popping

you get from old dumb light bulbs. So no more

dimmers or trying to remember if your new bulbs

are the same wattage as your old ones. Noon does

it for you. Which I'm kind of in favor of because

there's a lot of time I have no idea what is

in my walls and I have no idea what bulbs are

in certain outlets because like everything in

this house that I live in is cobbled together.

Everything. I have a light switch in front of

my desk I cannot plug my computer into because

it's not on the ceiling and the electrical outlet

that is in front of my desk is hooked up to the

light switch which is hooked up to the light

as well so if I shut the light off the power

switch goes off and the electrical outlet I have

yet to figure out why it does that or what I

needed to fix it but I also have three sets of

wires that's right I have three Three ground

wires, I have three black wires and three red

wires. Why every outlet in my house has that,

I have no idea, but only, you know, certain ones

are hooked up. And they're all like modern electrical

wiring, so I'm not sure why that is. So I have

to have an extension cord plugged into my computer

across the room. So there's literally a cord

that's been across my floor for the last three

years. Well, not three years, about a year and

a half. Because I moved my desk around I built

the desk into the wall, but I've had to do it

that way because every time I shut the light

off when I leave the room For whatever reason

it shuts everything off, and then I'm like so

yeah But I'm kind of I'm kind of down with the

the smart switches But they're saying that it's

gonna be available online for major retailers

like Best Buy Home Depot They'll have individual

room directors and extension switches available

separately for $200 and $100 respectively. So

I'm kind of looking forward to seeing where this

stuff goes. If I ever get the money to do something

like this, that would be kind of the way to go.

eBay, speaking of modernization, has launched

visual search tools from your phone that let

you shop using photos from your phone or the

web. which I kind of like because often times

you can find a picture of what you're looking

for and can't remember the name of it. I have

run into that so many times where I'm looking

for something specific on eBay and I can't find

it because... I don't know what it's called.

That's mostly my problem. So if you can do an

image search and figure out what it's called

by looking for it and it matches it up with other

devices on eBay, that's actually kind of an inventive

updating to the service because I haven't used

eBay in years, mostly because I don't have the

spare cash to throw at it anymore, but it's also

because half the time if I want something, I

just go to Amazon, I buy it, and then I'm done.

But there are times where I can't remember what

I'm looking for, like the name of it. I can describe

it all day long, but I can't tell you what it's

called. So that's actually kind of a new, inventive

feature that I think is helpful. And then Microsoft's

got a site called Sonar, which lets you check

your website for performance and security issues,

which I have independent ones that I use for

that too, but that's kind of an interesting concept.

And then, yeah. We have WordPress getting ready

to come out with 4 .9. They're in beta four right

now. They tried, which I didn't even know this

was a thing, but they're adding a new default

editor, which is almost kind of like moviepilot

.com editor. It's very bare bones. It's not,

if you're used to WordPress the way it is, you're

not gonna like this update. because they're talking

about adding in this Gutenberg 1 .5 which adds

support for meta boxes and it makes Gutenberg

the default editor. It also, what it does is

like I said, it makes it get this new editor

look like movie pilots for creating your posts

which I'm not sure if it's gonna make it more

simple or more of a pain in the rear to learn

how to do. But there's a new call to action that

you can do, try Gutenberg call to action where

you can uncheck it and remove it. There's also

a plugin that you can get that's a classic editor

which gives you the option to use either one,

one or the other or both. So if you're kind of

on the fence of trying that out and you're a

WordPress blogger or you have a geek site that's

hooked up to WordPress. That's kind of an interesting

way to go. It kind of takes a lot of the extra

features out. Which can be helpful if you've

got too much crap in there, but if you're somebody

like myself, I like things the way they are,

they're functional. If it's not broke, why fix

it? So it's kind of that boat for me. So I'm

gonna come back in a second with my topic which

started out the what's geeky to you. So we'll

be back after this. And we're back. So, there's

a couple of things that kind of tie into this.

One of them is, there was a thing done at one

of the local television stations by me called,

Are We Addicted to Our Technology? And I kind

of have to agree that yes, we are. And there's

also another article that's from entrepreneur

.com, which kind of leads into what Tim Silvers

was going to mention. But this thing was called

the profit report. Are we addicted to our technology?

It's saying that it's not just our kids who love

their gadgets. Adults are rarely seen without

a smartphone nearby. That is so true. More than

80 % of smartphone owners say they never or rarely

turn their phones off. I never turn mine off,

but that's because I never know if I need it.

It doesn't mean that it's not plugged in, but

again, I digress. So yeah, there's... There's

apparently a significant overlap, but significant

differences in the brain regions that are activated

when somebody is excessively using social media

compared to someone who has a gambling problem

or a drug addict. They're doing studies on this,

but they're saying smartphones are definitely

harmful for some people. Their problematic smartphone

user has a number of negative effects such as

decreasing work performance, stress, anxiety,

depression, interrupted sleep. The only time

I get anxiety and... Stress from social medias

when I'm in an argument with somebody and I have

to be right Usually if I open my mouth I for

the most part am There are instances where I'm

full of crap and I have somebody call me out

on it so They're saying that there's a few solutions

for those people that you can put your phone

in a different room while you work can't do that

because if I do I Need it for my job. So It says,

you can turn off notifications so they're not

always wanting to respond immediately. I do that

because I just have issues with the numbers showing

up more so than anything else. They're saying

that technology and kids should consider balancing

tech time with real socialization. I think it's

important to limit the number of time they're

on social media or devices so they get face -to

-face interaction. So they're skilled in that

area. I completely agree with that. It says,

if you can't... It says, if you're one of those

people that can't help but check your phone while

behind the wheel, it may be time to take action,

which, yeah. What Tim said is essentially, the

article is called Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Raise

Their Kids Tech Free, and it should have been

a red flag. He says, interesting. Not to mention,

he also mentioned how... He's looking forward

to hearing the thoughts and, no, I'm already

doing this with my son and monitoring his media,

TV in general. Mostly why I'm monitoring my kids

is, or this was Toon Master Tim, sorry. Not Tim

Silver's. So he had the Star Wars bit. Toon Master

Tim had the bit on the entrepreneur part with

the kids, so. My bad, I called that wrong. I

like to keep my kids away from technology, and

there's a number of reasons for it. One, I am

so highly addicted to my technology, it's obsessive.

I am into all forms of media, so I don't really

put my device down. If I have a bored moment,

I pick it back up. Not necessarily the right

thing to do, but that's what happens and I had

a problem with technology as a kid And Despite

my parents better efforts Being my parents were

divorced my mom limited our time. My dad did

not and so When we were over we would hang out

and then at night I would literally be on the

computer from 6 o 'clock in the evening until

2, 3 in the morning. Not that much different

than now except the fact I get on at 10 at night

and I go until 2, 30 in the morning and then

I'm on during the day because I work from a computer

so I don't mess with any of my garbage during

the day because I have to be able to focus and

it helps by setting those boundaries. So I keep

my kids away from tech unless it's like very

limited in its real life instances such as I

have videos of animals or people teaching or

educational programming because my kids were

getting too caught up in the animation part of

it as well as the bad language. My kids picked

up on Disney's constantly saying shut up and

so my kids were running around the house saying

that to literally everybody in and out of the

house. So we stopped Disney movies and the word

disappeared We stopped letting them watch other

shows too because they were picking up on other

bad habits And trying to to bite and trying to

do all this other stuff so it just goes to show

a lot of the stuff that they see does translate

and So I I'm kind of trying to keep my kids away

from it as much as possible It doesn't necessarily

mean I want to be like that, but at the same

time, even with our biblical beliefs on what's

going on now, I don't necessarily feel that it's

a bad thing to keep my kids away from it, especially

with how... ingrained in the society the the

content has gotten so I don't want to have my

kids involved in it anyways back to the article

they're saying psychologists are quickly learning

how dangerous smartphones can be for teenage

brains which I didn't have a smartphone as a

kid I did have a cell phone and I did start texting

at that age but I was on my computer a lot or

the computers at school so It says that research

has found that eighth graders risk for depression

jumps 27 % when they frequently use social media.

Kids who use their phones for at least three

hours a day are much more likely to be suicidal

because you're not getting real interaction with

people or daylight. Vitamin D. They're saying

a recent research has found that teen suicide

rate in the U .S. now eclipses the homicide rate

with smartphones as the driving force, but the

writing about smartphones. Risk may have been

on the wall for roughly a decade, according to

educators Joe Clement and Matt Miles, who came

out with a book called Screen School. Two veteran

teachers exposed how technology overuse is making

our kids dumber, which it is making everyone

dumber. Look at spell check. Look how much we

all depend on the magical spell check. Nothing

has to be typed correctly. It gives us the red

squiggly line. We can fix it. Or it suggests

it to us when we text or type on the phone. And

I kind of agree, I've relearned how to spell

words because of my spell check. There are words

that I've completely forgotten and erased from

my memory that were gone because I just didn't

remember how to spell them anymore. Because I

don't physically write anything, I type. So I

can kind of agree with that. So they said that,

should be telling that... Two of the biggest

tech figures in recent history, Bill Gates and

Steve Jobs, seldom let their kids play with the

very products they helped create. What is it

these wealthy tech executives know about their

own products that consumers don't? The growing

body of evidence is that addictive power of digital

technology. We limit how much our technology

our kids use at home. Gates. The former CEO obviously

implemented a cap on screen time when his daughters

started developing an unhealthy attachment to

a video game. He also didn't let his kids get

cell phones until they turned 14, which the average

age is 10. My kids will not have a cell phone

until they're in their teenage years, unless

it's absolutely mandatory and they're gonna have

dumb phones, if possible. I'm not... Yeah, they

don't need it. Like we have... laptop in the

house I have my computer I have my wife and I

have a smartphone and then we have a Kindle fire

which I use if I have to work on the go like

if I'm out of the house and it's after work hours

it's just easier if I carry it because then I

don't have to lug around a computer I can just

work from that or if I need to fix something

really quickly it's it's just easier than doing

it on my phone. So they're kind of saying that

Gates wouldn't allow his children to have cell

phones until they turn 14 because the effects

of too much screen time. I think it's also why

we all have bad eyes now and attention spans

is because we're so used to the instant gratification

of social media and technology and the fast pace

of video games and then the fact we stare at

screens all day, which is why we have to have

special glasses or most of us are starting to

wear glasses. Yeah, I... The fact that these

parents make a living by creating and investing

in technology and then they don't let their kids

have it. It's funny that modern schools that

require devices like iPads, like Steve Jobs kids

would be some of the only kids opted out. Things

like that just make it even more reason why I'm

kind of glad that I don't Let my kids do this

stuff. We use pencil and paper for learning stuff

for the kids at home. We do crafts, we do writing,

we do penmanship. There are some instances where

visually learning information is better through

video, but there are instances where you're better

off with the chalkboard, marker board, number

two pencil. Being taught skills like cooperation

and respect things like that. I don't know I

There there's instances where technology is better,

but I think that Taking this approach of Of learning

in this method of kind of doing it the old -school

way is probably how you're gonna get the most

well -balanced individuals So I I'm kind of on

board with their their mentality with it, honestly

And then of course Forbes has this article that

says people who work from home really get more

done And It's you know, it's about boundaries

that's more so what it is. It's you don't have

people to talk to you You don't have the commute.

You don't have the you know BS talk throughout

the day That you normally would have or you know

as they call water cooler talk I And I think

that you're also happier to some degree just

because you're not physically going somewhere.

Although, you know, there are instances where

they can backfire on you too. Like you don't

have the social interaction. You don't have the

camaraderie with your coworkers. You don't have

the ability to just walk in an office and say

what you need done and check on stuff. Whereas

if you're remote, you're not getting that. So

it's, yeah. It's a lot of work to do it either

way but it's about setting boundaries mostly.

That's a lot of it. I was terrified of working

remotely and working from home when I started

and I actually love it now and it allows me to

see my family and not have to drive. I enjoy

both aspects. And then if I need to fix something,

if I'm already at home, it's not a big deal.

I can just walk in my office, do it, and get

out. But yeah, that about rounds out this episode.

I hope that you guys had some fun, learned some

things, and just kind of have kind of a well

-rounded show this time. We did have listener

feedback last episode, which came from Brad Mull,

who says, about the Jared Leto information. Please

don't reboot Tron 3 with Leto. Headland and Wild

have said before they'd return, but Kosinski

and Daft Punk need to be in charge of it. I agree.

And then I talked about Audible. He says, I've

had Audible account for a few years now. I don't

have time to sit down and read a novel anymore,

so I buy them digitally. I often buy the novels

on my favorite films, but can't afford the continued

monthly fee. I'm just glad everything is on Netflix

in Australia and that several different streaming

services because it's too expensive to sign up

to everything. Oh, I feel you right there. I

hate that everything is a different service here.

And then he says, the dual screen phone would

be interesting to have, but without a tough case,

I destroy the screens. I did find out it's about

$725. I am still interested in this, regardless.

My wife told me I better start saving my pennies

if I want to get it. So we'll see what happens.

I'm not entirely sure, so. Yeah, like I said,

that about rounds it out this episode. If you

want to interact with the episode next time,

go hashtag what's geeky to you. Just let me know

what's been geeky to you this week, what you're

looking forward to, what you enjoyed about this

episode, what you want different. If you've got

a topic idea, drop it my way. I'm looking forward

to it. Till next time. Get altered, get geeky,

with the Altered Geeks.