Dual-Screen Phones, Wi-Fi Security, Podcast Analytics, and Star Wars Speculation

Do you start your day, deciding which video game

you're gonna play? You fight with your family,

go for which is better, Marvel or DC? The geek

of all, you be friends, cause you know what Batman

beats Superman. This is the right place to be,

so turn up the volume, cause you're an altered

geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steven C. Phillips. And you're joining

the show where pop culture and living in the

modern era collide. And no topic is considered

off -limits, especially if it's in geekdom and

it affects the family. If it's something you're

interested in that I want to know so we can talk

about it and geek out together. So, as always,

thank you for tuning in. And if you want to interact

with the show, you can use the hashtag on Twitter,

What'sGeekEDU? And comment on the Facebook fan

page, Facebook .com slash AlteredGeek. or at

AlteredGeek on Twitter. So yeah, it's been kind

of a little bit of an eventful week between the

multiple podcasts I put out and some of the kind

of geeky news between TV shows and some kind

of interesting tech that I've seen this week.

So... How has your week been? How have you guys

been geeking out this week? Just be sure to drop

me a line on the hashtag what's geeky to you

or on the Facebook fan page. So... Last episode

that I put out on Wednesday, I made some commentary

on the crazy fan who bought schwanzon sauce at

McDonald's. So Brad Mull says, you don't get

the special sauce craziness when that type of

sauce is available in a wide range of products.

Interesting you bring up vegans again, because

yeah, we primarily eat vegan in my household.

It's kind of a necessity more so than a pure

want, aside from kind of the way that the Bible

teaches on it. and whatnot. I more so changed

what I ate because I don't cook the food. It's

actually not that bad. A lot of it had to do

with the fact my son cannot digest dairy, soy,

we thought he had a gluten intolerance but apparently

not. He's been tested for all that. So he's back

on the glutens. Yeah, so and he also can't eat

eggs now, which is just all of it's just stinking

awesome I'm saying that sarcastically So he says

it's something I was meant to bring up a few

episodes ago in regards to the meatless burger

Yeah, I really enjoy the Beyond Burger. I still

want to try the impossible burger I have to go

to a restaurant that actually serves it which

is about 45 minutes to an hour away from me,

so it's not really gonna happen anytime soon,

but when it does, I will talk about it. The Beyond

Burger, though, they do sell at Kroger stores

as far as they go, and they sell them in the

meat aisle, and it has more so to do with the

fact that they're not necessarily marketing it

towards vegans, they're marketing it towards

meat eaters because... it takes about it takes

a small fraction of the amount of land to produce

these and Water and doesn't produce the methane

gases that animals do so all the way around it's

more equitable for them to create these over

all of the Product that they have to go through

and all the problems they have to go through

with animals and that's why they're doing it,

not necessarily marketing towards vegans. But

if you are a vegan, it's a great alternative.

He says, when someone says vegan, I've always

thought it was someone that no longer wants to

eat meat or dairy because they dislike animal

treatment or something along these lines. I will

preface this with saying I've seen all those

documentaries. While I think it's horrible, when

I'm eating, I don't necessarily care. And that's

kind of wrong to say. I don't eat bacon and pork,

but that's because that's what our beliefs are,

and it's an unclean meat from the Bible, so that

is why I don't eat bacon or pork anymore, although

turkey bacon is a great alternative if you're

into that. He says, I've always thought that

being vegan because you don't want to consume

the processing chemicals is a whole new concept

to me. That's mostly why none of us in the house

eat meat. Is because the chemicals and the hormones

they pump into the food, which I don't want getting

into my kid. No, I mean, think about it. The

amount of hormones and chemicals they pump into

us, that's why I'm assuming that kids today have

so many food allergies and mature at such a early

age and have so many... Confusion and mental

issues is because they aren't developing at a

natural rate Is and I think that's because a

lot of what they put in our food and it's not

just meat It's anything you get like just about

anything you you could get unless you physically

do the work yourself you're gonna have some kind

of a chemical or or byproduct or some kind of

a hormone pumped into it to accelerate growth

and Get it to fruition quicker So it's just meat

happens to be the most problematic region at

the moment. So he says, yeah, that's a whole

new concept to him because he's always had the

question, if you don't want to eat bacon, why

keep trying to invent other food that tastes

like it? Same goes for meatless burgers or hot

dogs. I will say meatless hot dogs, I do not

like. They don't taste really anything like a

hot dog. So I still eat chicken hot dogs. I don't

eat beef hot dogs or pork hot dogs. I eat chicken

hot dogs, which they're like Kogel's brand. They're

actually pretty good quality and taste pretty

good. So I eat those. He said, I would love if

they had a vegan bacon that was just like regular

bacon, but turkey bacon is pretty close as long

as it's fresh. gets reheated, it's like rubber.

But wanting a bacon tasting product because you

don't want the hormones, et cetera of real pork

makes sense to me. Now I wonder how many people

are vegan because of that and not animal rights.

Now I will say that there's probably three different

regions for this whole not eating meat concept

and being vegan. There's the people that truthfully

want to eat what's best for them, which would

be like us in our situation because we've discovered

that eating The vegan lifestyle not only is biblically

that way, depending on your beliefs, some people

argue that you can still eat meat. They didn't

say that there was anything against it, just

pork particularly and unclean meats, but we've

chosen to go the rest of the route because the

kids are so allergic to so many different foods

and so many different things and rather than...

have to pump them through medication to counteract

what they're eating. It's just easier to control

what's being put in in the first place. And because

my oldest had behavioral issues and health issues

because of what he was eating. And when we eliminated

those, he toned down to a normal toddler. So,

you know, that's part of it. And then, you know,

you get the people that are animal rights activists.

I love animals, I really do. I love them when

I see them. I love cats, I love dogs, I love

any kind of household pet. The ones that you

have to turn into meat, I have an affinity for

them to an extent, but I still eat them if I

go out to eat. I still enjoy them. I wouldn't

be on the peto board or anything, because I still

like to eat meat. That's the one side. And then

there's your vegans that are doing it for a fad

type of thing. I'm more so on the boat of doing

it because it's a health issue. Yeah, that's

about all I got on that situation. I would like

to thank our sponsor of the show, Gamefly. Gameflyoffer

.com slash altergeek. You can sign up today for

a free 30 day trial and one game out at a time.

And if you don't like just having plain old games,

well... You can get other stuff, too. You don't

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have DVDs as well, so Be sure to check out Gamefly

and let them know that the the altered geek sent

you I I Like being able to rent stuff especially

when the video stories are going by the wayside

and You can kind of you know Keep stuff a little

bit longer and there's there's a bigger range

than what you could get at a video store So I

don't have any game systems currently. I do have

a PC though But I do like being able to rent

DVDs and blu -rays. So there's that So gonna

take a quick break and come back after the other

side with some kind of interesting tech So some

kind of interesting things that I Came across

this week We're in the tech realm and I always

love talking tech especially when it's it's something

new so you know how drones are this this big

thing and that everybody's just having fun flying

them and and you know before there was really

no kind of commercial legislation on them well

the government's decided to hand out the first

FAA waiver allowing drone flights over crowds,

and that is to CNN. So yeah, it basically allows

them to fly over people to cover news events

and get a kind of greater use of the remote control

devices for everything from insurance inspections

to covering news. So yeah, it's kind of a big

milestone. for the the unmanned aerial systems,

so I I'm Thinking it's kind of a big thing just

because it's the first not only company, but

media company to largely being able to to have

these and You're only gonna see more of it kind

of go as time progresses just because these suckers

are expensive and they're also Easy to reestablish

should they they crash because you know, they're

designed to They're they're using the the snap

drone which is a small device Has internal rotors

kind of designed to break apart in the event

of a crash to prevent injuries Because Time Warner's

CNN advantage robotics built it they say that

they spent two years designing and testing this

particular drone And it's designed in the ability

to crash and reduce the chance of injury to people

and itself. Which I think is actually kind of

an interesting thing just because they've kind

of thought of everything in that regard. Plus

it only weighs about a pound, a little over.

I'm not sure how I feel about them, you know,

flying around just randomly, but you know, news

events or some kind of a thing like that where

they can't get close, I can kind of see it until

they start having a barrage of, you know, the

only problem I could see is you have, you know,

how you have this usually a crowd of people covering

an event. Can you imagine having 20 drones flying

overhead, shooting the same event at different

angles, and they're all just kind of swarming

in one spot like a cloud. I don't know how I

feel about that particularly, but it's kind of

an interesting concept to think about. The new

dual -screen smartphones which are coming It's

kind of strange Because Apple Samsung and others

have the actual bendable phones coming to market

within the next few years but before that There's

the the dual -screen ZTE Axon M Which is which

is out. I'm not sure exactly What company this

is? Coming out for it does have Android on it.

It's it's definitely an Android phone and It

features a 5 .2 inch full HD screen on both its

front and back Because it folds up and you've

got the front back. So when you open it you have

like a double size screen So it's basically like

a phone that turns to a tablet Which kind of

makes me interested because not only do you get

to do that, but you can open it up partially

and it's got You can stand it up like it's a

kickstand so you can watch one screen The only

thing I'm concerned about is the fact that it

could get scratched really easy by having both

sides covered which means you'd have to have

some kind of a Special case made for this that

that could withstand that It's a bit thick, obviously,

because of the dual screens. It's like having

two phones stacked on top of each other rather

than one. But it has one 20 -megapixel camera.

It's got super -high resolution. It's got the

Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB

of storage and microSD card expandability. I

kind of wish that they had more RAM in them,

but... That's more so because these stupid phones,

the longer they come out and the more updates

they get, the more it uses all of the system

memory up. It got some help from Google to add

Android -wide support for its dual -screen mode,

much like the Note 8 and Pixel 2 XL. You can

do screen mirror, watch videos. It's kind of

an interesting innovation. Or you can just open

it both up and have half a screen. You can double

your width of your videos or you can do multiple

tasks at once like they show on the video. It

looks like it's AT &T too. It's kind of awesome.

If I get a new phone, I think I know what I'm

getting now. Depending on battery life, that

is. So they have Google Maps up on one side and

the calendar on the other side. They have YouTube

on one screen and they have their regular home

screen with the time and stuff on the other.

You can be watching a video and texting at the

bottom. See, I can see this being kind of beneficial

in those ways because you could be... You could

you could be live streaming even on one screen

and be texting on the other or communicating

back and forth on the other or I just see a lot

of benefits to this this phone or you can have

a website loaded up on one screen and be accessing

apps on the other I Don't know. I really like

this this phone and there's a button where you

can activate both sides I'm going to have to

do some more research on this because I'm really

intrigued with this at this point. I think that

most of the problem is going to be the glass

and if it gets scratched or messed up. It looks

like it's going to be an AT &T exclusive which

is awesome because I'm an AT &T customer. For

not only my home internet, but my my cell phone

service But it's supposed to be available around

this fall for around six hundred dollars Which

is about standard with about any other phone

you get now if you're gonna pay full price so

I Wonder what the the pricing of this thing?

Or not the price indeed the battery life is gonna

be that's that's my main concern with this this

phone Overall, I really wonder if this foldable

phone is going to be kind of a new quasi -trend.

I'm going to do a little bit more digging into

that. I really want to know about that. I don't

know how you guys feel about it. It kind of reminds

me in a sense of back in the day where everybody

had the Razer phone just because they were cool.

I loved that flip phone when I had it. I honestly

would not mind going back to a flip phone again

and just having my current smartphone as just

a tablet just because I would not want to sit

there and have to Don't know I'm kind of getting

over this this phase of having to have the latest

greatest tech and I'm liking the the ability

to Kind of go in the the realm of kind of laying

back a little bit In my tech experience, and

I think it's because we've had so much time That

we waste of our life staring at these devices

Which is why it's another reason why I'm keeping

my son away from this stuff and it seems like

it seems like blasphemy and in the sense that

I I'm this Very tech centric geeky pop culture

oriented person and that I'm like keeping my

son away from all of it But I think it's because

I want them to be more well -rounded and I feel

like it's taken me It's taken me years to get

to where I'm a normal functional human being

and that's kind of where I see myself is almost

like the Big Bang Theory kind of joke that You

know really don't know what I'm doing with my

life. I really don't know blah blah blah and

then it's taken me years to get to this point

where I'm comfortable with with things and I

am I'm one of those people that I can talk on

my podcast. I can talk with other people on my

podcast I am terrified of using the telephone

and it's more so because I'm a introspective

person I don't like talking on the phone like

if it's a one -on -one conversation or if I have

something to add it's one thing but if I'm I

Won't just blatantly call somebody up I would

rather they contacted me and then I have I'm

forced to talk to them at that point or like

when I meet people in person, I am a horrible

guest, at least initially. That's why it's very

beneficial to have my wife around, because she's

this outgoing, talkative person, and through

her, I'll find my end of the conversation, and

then I can promptly leave it when I'm done with

what I have to say, and then... The conversation

still goes because she's running it. So it's

kind of it's really weird for me I'm I know I

mentioned this periodically on the show and that's

why I Don't do convention experiences very much

if at all because I just I don't know how to

function I I need to tag along if I'm gonna go

to a convention just because I am NOT functional

at one of my own I am like terrified to be Because

I've never gone anywhere on my own like of a

long distance. I am terrified literally of going

to TFU and Mike's wedding because I have to go

on the airplane by myself and then I have to

take an uber to his house by myself and Then

I'm gonna be good after that and then I have

to fly home after all said and done So like all

the way around I'm not I'm not gonna be at ease

very very much and it's it's kind of That's just

how my personality works. Anyways, I did find

a little bit of information on the ZTE Axum M.

The two identical 5 .2 -inch Gorilla Glass Generation

5 screens are 1080p FHD resolution. The battery

life comes with a smarter battery management

with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3 .0, with a battery

size of 31... 3180mAH, which I'm not exactly

sure what that's going to warrant on the battery

itself. I'm kind of in the dark a little bit

there because I don't know what What we're gonna

end up with as far as the battery It's just kind

of hard to say I mean I know it's a good battery

but It's still like I mean I have a pretty decent

one of my my Samsung Galaxy s5 and it kind of

sucks even my replacement sucks so So it'll have

a quick charge with the 3 .0 USB plug which I

need to get from my phone speaking of which So

you have the front -facing 20 megapixel camera

as well. It's only gonna have one camera which

is gonna be in the front, so you'll have to use

the other screen to see what you're doing, which

is a little bit interesting. It's gonna have

Hi -Fi audio with Dolby Atmos through its speaker

and headphone jack, which is kind of cool. Fingerprint

power button, integrated power button and fingerprint

sensor. And then I'm excited that you can put

up to 256 gigabytes of memory in it Which I would

basically be able to carry around Geekcast radio

in my pocket, which is awesome So I I'm thinking

I'm gonna have to do some some serious research

on this but I think I might be getting this phone

It's kind of sick to say that so I'm kind of

wondering as far as podcasters are concerned

Apple's been kind of showing this off since June,

and there's been really no update of it since.

Apple's going to let podcast creators and advertisers

see what listeners actually like with their basic

analytics, which is supposedly finally coming

to Apple's podcast app in an upcoming refresh.

I don't know how that's going to work for Android

users. With the Apple's podcast app I hope you

can find it all through the the website But it's

gonna provide no data on the listening That up

until now they have had no data on listening

behavior and they're supposed to have that added

I'm kind of wondering what they're gonna do with

with this and when they're gonna actually come

out with it because this is kind of a little

bit Irritating with it with the way their analytics

work right now and their analytics blow. I finally,

I'm finally starting to, I got my employers like

all straightened out now, their iTunes stuff,

and now I'm trying to get GeekCast radios all

straightened out because I didn't know it was

a thing to get them all under one account and

just, you know, you submit them and forget it.

I didn't know that that was a thing and so now

I'm having to go back and fix my mistakes for

the provider page. So, I don't know if anybody's

heard about this particular problem, but Wi -Fi

has been hacked. There was some encryption algorithm

compromise in the WPA2, which is the world's

most popular Wi -Fi encryption and almost everyone

is vulnerable to it. But most companies are starting

to patch this with because the scripts to exploit

devices are not in the wild and devices have

already received updates, but Yeah, it's it's

called the crack attack like KRACK Which the

exploit affects the Wi -Fi standard itself and

allows an unauthenticated attacker to steal data

from your network It's not an easy hack apparently,

but it's one that's caused a lot of concern because

this is supposed to be the There's nowhere to

go from WPA2 like when everybody had WEP and

everybody ran away. They showed that this crack

attack bypassed WPA2 against Android and Linux,

which kind of sucks that I have one of those

two. There's also another way to kind of deal

with it because a lot of places are already coming

up with fixes. Apple's fixed all the flaws in

their Mac OS, iOS, TV OS, and Watch OS. So many

OSs. You can do the HTTPS everywhere in Chrome

and Firefox and Opera and Android. Firefox, Android,

I mean. It allows you to encrypt your communication

with many major websites making your browser

even more secure So you encrypt the web using

HTTPS everywhere. It's a it's an add -on that

you can you can get So I've I've actually installed

this just because it's just better to be safer

than sorry and It if it if there's no encrypted

version or ability to do this on a site, it'll

just go back to the unencrypted site, but if

there is one available, it goes to the encrypted

site. So that's actually kind of cool. How many

people listen to audiobooks? I know for a few

years we were kind of promoting Audible, and

I tried that for a little bit, and I didn't have

time to listen was most of the problem, and it's

not... Terribly expensive either to to have an

account on audible or something like that. But

Another thing that Amazon owns besides IMDB But

audible customers, you know, they they download

over 2 billion worth hours worth of audiobook

program programming in 2016 which is twice as

much as 2014 and I'm just curious who actually

listens to audiobooks as opposed to podcasts

or video shows. I watch some YouTube, but I primarily

don't watch a lot of YouTube anymore like I used

to. I just don't have time for it. Apparently,

the Nielsen's track audiobooks as well, as they're

trying to get into the podcasting realm and they're

actually going to start, funny enough, they're

actually going to start looking into tracking

streaming services like it does broadcast TV.

So like your Netflix's, your Hulu's, your Amazon,

although Netflix does not want to be an active

participant in Nielsen's tracking and thinks

that it's getting the numbers completely wrong.

Netflix believes that... The data that Nielsen

is reporting is not accurate, not even close,

and does not reflect the viewing of these shows

on Netflix. So Netflix famously doesn't release

its own ratings or viewings trends, even on successful

shows. So either they're just lying, or they

just don't want anybody to know what goes on

behind enemy lines. But Nielsen is going to be

tracking Hulu's live TV service and YouTube TV

in July, or they began doing it in July, and

they're going to start doing Facebook, Hulu,

and YouTube viewing habits, or they did do that

as well. But Netflix is very hostile to the idea,

so Nielsen is tracking them independently. and

not as a part of this agreement, but I don't

know. I don't put much thought into the whole

Nielsen thing because I don't think that it accurately

portrays it at all. And honestly, some of the

metrics mean something, but really numbers don't

mean squat, except for the fact that it's an

advertiser's world. And that's kind of why. so

I mean don't get me wrong ads are what pay the

bills but at the same time like I don't know

how accurate the Nielsen thing is because it

doesn't really encompass everything and at the

same time like that's there's really no other

game in town to manage it so You can have X amount

of downloads, but it doesn't mean anything if

you're not keeping the subscribers or if you

don't have the subscribers. And I think that

what's actually relevant are the consistent subscribers

to whatever show it is or whatever it is that

they're viewing week after week after week if

you have the same metric for that same count

of people. because if you just have somebody

randomly downloading, you know, going through

your backlog, watching all the old stuff, it's

over -inflating the numbers, and it's not an

accurate portrayal, necessarily. So, I kind of

see it as, you know, kind of a double -edged

sword. Anyways, kind of rounding back to the

audiobook thing before I got into the tangent

with Nielsen, you know, do you think that audiobooks

are the new Netflix? Do you think that people

are starting to kind of pay attention to this

more or less or just what? I've not personally

put any attention into it and that's not because

I don't care. It's just because, again, don't

have time. There's other stuff that I would rather

put my time into. So I think I'm gonna take another

quick break right here. and come back with some

stuff about the top 100 villains countdown or

face -off and some movie stuff. So we'll be back

after this. For you the listeners of AlteredGeek,

try Lootcrate .com slash AlteredGeek to save

10 % on any new subscription and enter promo

code BRIDGETEN for 10 % savings. You're tuned

in to Steve Megatron on AlteredGeek. And we're

back. So, getting into the top 100 villains face

-off or countdown. We've been posting on geekcastradio

.com for the better part of three days, or four

now at this point, matchups of two villains.

I did not put these together, I just did the

graphics, so don't hate the messenger. At the

time of this recording, there's Norman Bates

against John Doe from... Seven or something.

I don't know. I've seen Norman Bates like in

in film and and I don't Particularly care for

any of the villains for the most part that have

shown up thus far aside from Voldemort verse

Darth Vader I don't I Don't care for the rest

of the ones that have shown up so I have no opinion

whatsoever But it's fun watching everybody debate

it, regardless. And it's going to be fun to record

these episodes, which we're going to start doing

next week. So stay tuned to the Geekcast Radio

Network to see those. I'm kind of intrigued to

see what goes on as well. Also stay tuned for

Future Imperfect and All Things Transformers.

I'll have those coming out next week. I will

not have a second Altered Geek next week. I'll

just have the Friday show because I'm going to

be recording. with the other guys for the top

100. Just FYI there. Getting into the little

bit of movie stuff that I do have, I almost don't

want to touch on some of this, but I know that

I probably should save people some time. Kind

of want to know about a little bit of them Netflix

kind of getting back on that boat wants to release

80 original films next year which Could be done

Could be done Because they've Already lost like

half their content since half their their streaming

library because half of its original content

and I Don't know how that's gonna kind of turn

out for them, but that's their hope to do 80

original so I Don't know how many people put

stock in in Netflix's Content I don't really

watch most of it. I actually cancelled it. I

cancelled my Netflix, and I don't feel bad about

it whatsoever so I didn't really find anything

at this point worth watching, so I don't feel

bad on getting rid of it. Jared Leto, I'm so

sick of this guy. He's like this, the last few

years and this year's and next year's probably

and the year after's... Benedict Cumberbatch

because you notice Benedict hasn't really been

a big Hasn't been this big of a oh my gosh. He's

saying everything Benedict Cumberbatch this Benedict

Cumberbatch that he's in Lord of the Rings to

hobbit In Star Trek in the darkness. He's into

this and is that you know and whatever So Leto

is the current trend But apparently a third Tron

film is not officially in the cards yet. But

Jared Leto is willing to make it happen. Like

he has all the power, right? He was asked about

the upcoming project, which he was first tied

to back in March, and the actor said that the

project is definitely a priority for him. Yeah,

he'll do it if they let him, but like, it's...

That's one thing that's irritating is like the...

I would rather get a Tron universe keep going

than the Blade Runner. I don't know. It's been

bouncing around that the new one's gonna be Tron

Ascension. I mean, we got in 82 with the original,

2010 we had Tron Legacy. It's hard to believe

it's been seven years since the last one came

out. It's hard to say if the other people would

even reprise the roles at this point so I And

I don't want to reboot I just wanted to continue

and I wish that they would come out with them

every couple of years rather than what they're

doing Because I really want to know what happened

in the story. It didn't really time I mean it

tied stuff up, but I didn't tie stuff up, so

I'm kind of wanting to know What's gonna happen

there Man it's been 2010 I remember covering

that when that came out. That's insane. So the

director of Drive wants to debut a free streaming

service for Forgotten Films, where it will offer

curated and restored movies from Hollywood's

obscured past, which I think is kind of a cool...

Concept it's launching in February of 2018 and

they the right now they have beta registration

to sign up and You can kind of be a part of that

whole thought on it so it's going to be They're

calling it an unadultered expressway for the

arts which Not sure what that's supposed to mean

but Regardless, each month we'll feature a different

restored movie, thanks in part to Harvard Film

Archive, and fits into a theme that will change

every quarter. When it launches in February,

the theme will be regional renegades, exploitation

gems from the southern USA, and the second will

be restored and rediscovered classics of American

independent cinema. So I'm kind of game to see

what they do with it. I'm gonna check it out.

I'm on the mailing list, so we'll see what happens

on the news towards it. Unfortunately, Lego Movie

2 will be a big music or a space action. I didn't

like the first movie. It's funny, this Shanlian

on Batman podcast dropped the, or had an interview

with Chris McKay and it looks like it was back

in February How they discussed how the Lego movie

to is delayed in order for you know Because of

you know, the the Lego Batman movie was coming

out so What's funny about that podcast is they

actually originate from Flint Michigan, which

is literally like 15 minutes for me So yeah,

they dropped that. I don't really care for the

LEGO films. I used to play the video games back

when they first started, like the LEGO Island.

I don't know if anybody remembers that. And I

remember my computer. I should try and find that

game just to see if I can play it on my modern

computer. The graphics on it were horrible. But

it was a Lego -themed action -adventure video

game developed by Mindscape, who I don't think

even exists anymore. But it came out in September

of... or October of 97. It was the first entry

in the Lego Island series, which I didn't know

there were more. It was an interesting game.

I tried to play it, because you were fighting

against the Brickster. who would try and take

apart the town, and you played as the protagonist,

Pepperoni, and his caretakers were, because you

could play as five different characters. Pepperoni

and, you know, police officers, you had police

officers Laura and Nick, and you could play as

Mama and Papa Bricolini. It sounds really cheesy,

but it's actually not that much different if

you really think about it than the Lego movie,

but just in the cheesiness alone, but the game

was kind of fun. You could rebuild the helicopter

and you had to find the brickster and he would

disassemble like the pizzeria and you have to

skip to that part and rebuild the helicopter,

rebuild this, you know, he broke out of jail

and escapes and, you know, he got the power brick,

which is basically like the... The the master

builder type thing that they had in Lego movie.

So it's essentially they stole a lot of the same

kind of concept from themselves but yeah, I remember

playing that game and it was very difficult to

play because graphics at the time just kind of

sucked and my computer was at the time a 486

DX4 100 with 16 mega gram and This game was just

physically impossible for that computer to run

very fast and it was on CD so And then there's

there's apparently a detective Pikachu movie

which was dropped by this thing called hashtag

show which is the most ridiculous name of a show

in the world I I hate I yeah It's it's almost

bad I'm just gonna leave that one. I'm gonna

be a dick about it. So I'm just not gonna say

it And then of course Jim Carrey is in a new

movie Jim and Andy the great beyond where he

you know, it's a documentary about him and Andy

Kaufman and his journey to playing that and There

was a really weird character, but if anybody

could pull that off I guess it's him So kind

of going into other realms here we have And I

didn't even know this was a thing, but Levar

Burton recently got cleared for the being sued

back in August. I didn't even know he was being

sued. He got sued because of his old Reading

Rainbow catchphrase of, but you don't have to

take my word for it, which he used on his podcast,

Levar Burton Reads. Apparently the PBS station

WNED owns the rights to Reading Rainbow. but

never did anything with the TV side and he was

allowed to do whatever he wanted with the other

side so he launched a successful Kickstarter

campaign to pay for digital revival of the classic

PBS show and his podcast widely perceived as

reading rainbow for adults. They got nervous

that the intellectual property was being stolen

by Burton and his reading rainbow kids company

which is now which had secured the rights to

make the digital reading rainbow revival. It's

since been changed to LeVar Burton kids instead

of that, but he's got some pretty cool stuff.

I mean, he's got some, and I'm gonna experiment

with that a little bit because I've got kids,

and they like to read and they like, they remember

things better if they're being read to to some

extent, and also being shown stuff, but he also

has some kind of like old Mr. Rogers type stuff.

When I say old Mr. Rogers, I mean where he would

go with Mr. McFeely to the plant to how they

make macaroni, or how they make crayons, or just

things like that. On his page, he has how to...

well, like how money is made or exploring the

Grand Canyon or how trash is recycled and It's

it's really interesting. He's got like these

little video adventures on his site. So like

he has subscriptions that You know, it's it's

like five bucks a month for the month to month

or it's it's like 40 bucks a year for an annual

subscription He has worlds of adventure where

children pilot their own hot air balloon in online

games, which a variety of curated books and video

adventures. Then there's video field trips, interactive

animation, story time options, hundreds of books,

digital books that you can download on your Android

or iPad or iPhone, Kindle, whatnot. A parent

dashboard to kind of track the kid. So I mean

it's a really interesting thing and I think I'm

going to try this out with my kids and see how

this works because with homeschooling it's going

to be a little bit of a challenge to get him

interested in doing things. So I'm going to definitely

try this out with my son and see how it works

and if it works great then kind of continue with

it. So, among all of that, I wanted to do a little

bit of Star Wars stuff. And I know I could do

this on Future Imperfect, but I've kind of relegated

that straightly to Star Trek. The Star Wars spinoff

movie has finally gotten a name for Han Solo's

film, and it's called Solo A Star Wars Story.

which is lame because that was like the the You

know the production title for it like it was

kind of I don't know it was kind of just sad

Like they could have called it, you know Like

the Millennium Falcon or like the the Kessel

run or something, you know a Han Solo Star Wars

movie or something I don't know there was a lot

of It's I don't know solo is just kind of a really

weird a Really weird title. I mean you're gonna

see like Jabba the Hutt you're gonna see Chewie

and you're gonna see the Falcon and see Lando

and and Han and so I mean it's gonna be interesting,

but I don't know I don't know We'll see when

it happens you press see a nice polished Millennium

Falcon at that time Watch it be the ghost Wouldn't

that be hilarious? I'm predicting that right

now, that it's the ghost modified into a freighter

that they use. A Corellian freighter. I'm betting

that it's going to be the case. And then of course

we've got Luke with his villainous turn in The

Last Jedi. Which is kind of funny because I've

never noticed it before, but he kind of aforementioned

that the villain is always in the back, the very

back of the posters. And you don't see Snoke

in either poster, but Luke's in the back of this

one, of the recent Star Wars poster. So I'm wondering

if we see some dark Luke in this. I guess only

time will tell, but I hope not. There's also

speculation that we could end up with a dark

Rey. which would be kind of flip -flapping things

a bit, and I forget where... That's right. I

got an email from Scanner51. He says, And he

says if they did this, I will praise them to

the high heavens for thinking outside the box,

but sadly I really don't think they will. Fact

is, Disney has spent millions upon millions of

dollars in selling Rey. They are selling this

strong female character to millions of little

girls. There's a cartoon centered on the females

of Star Wars now. There's a new line of toys

aimed at my four -year -old daughter. Rey is

now at Disney World as a meet and greet character.

To turn Rey evil would be bad for business. I

would go as far as saying dumb. Again, I hope

I'm wrong. I hope you and my friend are right.

Turn her evil, shake things up, crush the dreams

of little girls all over the world. Not going

to happen. Disney also knows their top competitor

makes billions of dollars with their superhero

girls line. My kid loves the dolls in the cartoon.

I think there's too much riding on her to be

bad. But again, I hope they see past that and

look at story. I really do. Great show. Keep

up the great work. P .S. Mike was right. My wife

said move all my stuff to the garage. Also had

to do some work on the garage so the stuff came

down. I put it back up but rearranged some things.

This is a never -ending battle. I'll get to that

part in a minute. But kind of doing the Rey thing.

I think that they could make Kylo redeemable.

They could make Rey go dark with Snoke. If not

in this film in the next one, but at the same

time redeem herself in the next film I see possibly

her getting captured mid mid level in this film

or two -thirds of the way through getting turned

dark and then You know, that's it like she's

dark for this film and then Kylo kind of Hesitating

I don't think he's gonna kill Leia which would

explain how she's supposed to be in episode 9.

Supposedly. They may kill her off -screen, but

I don't think she died in episode 8. I don't.

I think that Kylo hesitated, and I think he couldn't

bear himself to do it. Han was one thing, he

was kind of a dick, but I think that Leia will

turn him back. So, we'll see, we'll see. But

I think that that's the route they may go. I

don't think they'll keep Rey evil, but I think

they may turn her evil temporarily, and I don't

think we'll see, like, Anakin evil. I think we'll

see, like, kind of, in a sense, like Luke. Now

mind you, look at... Usually when you see a Sith,

and somebody that's really a Sith, or using the

power of it, their eyes usually have that yellow

ring to them. or that really weird glow to it.

Anakin had it in episode three. And I mean, granted,

Dooku didn't really have it. Lord Sidious did

after he changed and used the Sith power. But

I'm wondering because I don't think Kylo's actually

using Sith power at the moment. I think he's

using Jedi power despite his wanting to be emo

evil. I hope that they knock him out of that

emo stuff and they just either go outright evil

with him or make him good. But I guess we'll

see. We'll see what happens. I think that we

may see Rey actually get the colored eyes and

turn fully and then get redeemed in the next

one. So who knows? Who knows? We'll see. but

the the bit about the garage and moving the stuff

yeah I I had my entire office I had my walls

lined with posters with signed photos with toys

all the way around my office there is not a thing

on the wall Because about a third of the office

is my wife's For her sewing stuff and about a

third of its mine and the other third is like

storage or the cats So it's Some of it I got

rid of a lot of the stuff and then some of it

I just I kind of am I'm a little sad some of

it's not on the wall and when I say sad, I mean

like a few of the things but Same time like I

don't know I like the clean grayish wall that's

in front of me now at this point I Just kind

of wish I had a green screen behind me so that

I could actually do video stuff not have it look

like garbage But yeah that about rounds that

out and then I think I'm gonna do a little bit

of Tech history here we had IMDB launched In

October 17, 1990, by Colin Needham, an English

movie fan, he launches the Rec Arts Movies Movie

Database, which would later be known as IMDB.

He was an engineer working for HP at the time.

He quit his job to work on IMDB full -time, and

it's one of the most visited sites on the internet,

and was bought by Amazon in 1998, which I didn't

realize Amazon's owned it as long as I've used

it. But I guess he's still the general manager

of IMDB to this day, which is kind of awesome.

So that's kind of interesting. And then October

18th, 1985, the NES hits America. And in October

18th, 1958, the world's first video game came

to America. It was a tennis simulator game called

Tennis for Two. That's just... Sad. So, I think

that about rounds it out for this episode. I

wanted to talk a little bit of superheroes, but

I think, I think this might force me, I'm not

entirely sure, but it might force me to do a

Legends of the Brave and the Bold next week and

do some superhero news so I can kind of purge

my palette there of the various things. Because

I have some theories and some thoughts on the

the crossover and some of the stuff that's happened

so far Especially the I think the only thing

I'll bring up on this show is the Oliver Queen

name -dropping Bruce Wayne into the new arrow

clip clip Because he was seen with a photo by

the press as the green arrow with no hood So

which looked like it was from season 3 or four

when he fought Rach on the bridge so he says

you know I'm what I'm mayor by day, hero by night

he says you don't see Bruce Wayne's head you

know stamped on a hero's body I said he says

I don't think he's left Gotham lately has he?

And it just kind of leaves it there in saying

that he's not the Green Arrow and I thought there

was kind of a brilliant name drop. Although people

are like, oh it just cements that the Dark Knight

is in this universe. Well, kind of was before

this and that was in The Flash when they had

the newspaper articles that they used to reference

in the beginning and I really want to know how

Gideon from Legends of Tomorrow ends up in The

Flash's use. Honestly, I'd love to know how Gideon

is there instead of on the Waverider, but I don't

think we'll ever see that. But they reference

that Queen Consolidated, which that timeline's

changed since then because it became Palmer Tech

and then Smoke Industries. But they said that

Wayne Industries acquired Queen Consolidated.

or took over Queen Consolidated. So it kind of

already cemented that, and they've already kind

of cemented the fact that Green Arrow, or not

Green Arrow, Green Lanterns in this timeline

too, they just haven't actually shown him because

they had the air base referenced and then they

had a dude with a jacket next to Amanda Waller

in a flashback clip with Stephen Amell, Oliver

Queen. So I think that at this point that I'm

really getting tired of them teasing Batman in

both Supergirl as you know the Dark Knight you

know my cousin worked with the vigilante once

he was You know very dark and brooding, but he

got the job done kind of thing you know it I

Wish that they would just go ahead and show him

at this point in in Earth Earth one and in have

Batman show up and my vote for this is because

since CW likes to recycle actors between their

shows I would love to see Jensen Ackles come

over to over to Arrow as Bruce Wayne because

he could play that swaggered Bruce Wayne and

kind of he could play that fighting Batman kind

of thing and I think that he would be kind of

a logical choice being that we have Ben Affleck

as like the old Batman Bruce Wayne in the movies

and they're very similar builds. It would be

nice to kind of see maybe like the new 52 outfit

on him just as a thought but I don't know I think

it would be cool to see Batman show up. I don't

know if it'll ever happen. I really doubt it

because we got Superman for like five episodes

of Supergirl, so I kind of miss him being back

too, but I guess time will tell. Time will tell.

So without further ado, I'm gonna get going.

And so until next time geeks, get a hold of me.

Hashtag what's geeky to you. Get a hold of me

on Facebook at AlteredGeek. We're on the Twitters

at AlterGeek or at SCP -21. So until next time,

I've been Stephen C. Phillips. Get altered. Get

geeky with the AlterGeeks. We also give top three

lists. OK, yeah. Thanks again, Brendan. Additionally,

you can hear us talk other movie news, trailers,

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verbally beat JD like a Cherokee drum. No, no,

no, no, no. That's not how this works, sir.