PC Building, Deepfake Tech, and Moving Updates

You're tuned in to Altered Geek Hello and welcome

to Altered Geek, I'm your host Steve Phillips.

So anyways Welcome back. It's been a few weeks

This is actually the last episode I'll be recording

before we move. That's right, it's being recorded

on Wednesday, June 19th, the day after my birthday.

And so what does this mean exactly? Well, aside

from the fact that I haven't had an episode in

probably two, three weeks, as it were, There's

a lot going on One we've we've managed to have

our house sell Well, at least it's pending it's

had all of its inspections we fixed everything

we're in the process of packing This is being

recorded and edited and scheduled Prior to me

packing up my computer, which is the very next

thing I'll be doing after all of this So yeah,

we we've sold one of our cars my brother bought

it long story short he inquired about it and

prior to that He got t -boned and then he needed

the same car so It luckily he wasn't hurt, but

it it did work out in the grand scheme of things

And so we're we're going to be driving from Flushing,

Michigan Which is close to Flint for anyone inquiring

on that to Loveland, Colorado and We're guesstimating

because we're gonna pretty much we're gonna pack

the truck on Friday Actually prior to this episode

releasing Although if you're on like Apple podcasts

or any of the streaming platforms other than

the websites that it gets published to You'll

hear it Probably before that but anyways That

being said we're going to be packing the truck

some friends from church and Everything will

be helping us pack it up. We've got a good portion

of the house pre -packed already in the garage

the upstairs living room and our Michigan sunroom

and We're going to be tearing apart furniture

today and tomorrow, which is Wednesday and Thursday,

and going from there to moving it down into the

lower rooms. So basically, everything will be

in three rooms, and that's how the truck will

get loaded. Gonna be driving a 26 -foot Penske.

And... When you say Penske, people are like,

don't you mean like a U -Haul? Well, the difference

between a Penske and a U -Haul, and I really

wasn't sure prior, but not only is it cheaper

for a Penske, but Penskes are a diesel truck,

whereas U -Haul is a unleaded gas, which it's

kind of a wash because depending on what gas

station it is, depends on which one is higher.

price -wise on fuel. So that's not a big difference.

What the difference is, is U -Haul gives you

a 26 foot truck, but what they don't tell you

is three feet of it is not fully usable. Because

three feet of it are over the front of the cab.

And what that means is, is you lose about five

feet. of storage space below that area that could

be utilized for furniture, for boxes, for a majority

of other things. Now again, it's for supposedly

your things that are breakable and things you

don't want sloshed around. My gripe with it though

is that not only is it difficult to get on top

of, but Unless you have things tall enough to

prevent those from flying out while you're driving,

those things are going to move and get damaged.

So I would much rather have everything sub -compacted

together evenly across the bottom of the floor

with the same amount of space used. And then

the other grape I have with U -Haul is they have

wheel wells in the back. Penske's do not. So

again, it's just more space and more flat space

that you get in a Penske. And so that's the reason

why we chose that. I'm hoping there's like an

auxiliary port in the radio for the drive because

my wife will be driving one of our kids and one

or two of the animals in our Equinox and they

have a USB port with preloaded flash drives for

the car. for listening and I am hoping there's

a Auxiliary port in the vehicle because if not

It's going to be a long drive because I have

my iPod loaded up with podcasts and episodes

of like the program that I'll be working on is

discovery mountain which is a children's audio

program with Christian values and everything

and It's very well done, very well orchestrated.

It's an audio play. It's like listening to old

time radio. You get all the sound effects. You

get the music. Everything is choreographed with

a composer for music. And it's really great.

I got to voice a small five liner in the season

nine. Mini episode that we recorded while I was

in studio visiting The the location in Loveland,

Colorado and So I got to voice the the gas station

attendant which was pretty much just my voice

here like it really wasn't anything special Although

it was funny because a couple of the inflections

in it it He asked me to add some, like kind of

ad -lib a little bit, and as most of you know,

some of my ad -libbing is a little bit left to

be desired. So what happened is, he asked me

to slow it down because I was trying to say Blue

Birdie, which is the name of their de Havilland

Beaver airplane, and I couldn't say it, I kept

saying Beu Blurdy, and it was coming out horribly

wrong. So what I did is I Slowed way down so

I could say blue birdie and now granted. I'm

not in front of the microphone there So it's

a little bit easier for me to say now Plus I

botched it something terrible While I was there

to the point I was getting the other actors mixed

up But it was pretty much a three -person scene

throughout that That shot between me and two

other people So it's a lot of fun being in a

recording booth with other people as opposed

to recording some lines in front of my computer

on my desk and Emailing them and Not knowing

how it's going to sound in terms of the other

actors So it very much allows you to play off

of other people which I think is a bonus that

you get to collaborate and it just makes for

a more natural read. So a lot of their recording

process for this is if they have a scene with

certain people, they will coordinate scheduling

for a week or two block and Get all of these

people that have to record lines together So

they can get multiple takes of these lines and

then just kind of fish for the good stuff between

all of it So it's really well done. I'm really

blown away by how well It comes out and my boys

listen to it as sharply as they do television

Now granted they're thinking instead of blindly

staring which is a good thing and So I'm very

much excited they've kind of insinuated That

I might be getting anywhere from like two to

three or more new character roles and upcoming

seasons so I'm very very excited and and hoping

that I I do get to do that. It's a lot of fun

So, in other news, we've had a couple weeks to

use our Google Pixel 3a phones, and I have to

say I'm pretty blown away by how well these work.

Now granted, there are some features I miss from

my Galaxy S5. Some of those being, and I'm not

exactly sure how to do this yet, I'm still kind

of learning it, or if there's different app variations.

The Galaxy S5 allows you to schedule text messages,

which I have yet to figure out how to do on my

Pixel. They say you can do it through the calendar.

But to be honest, I don't really want to mess

with that if it's not in the text software. I

don't really care I do like that when you turn

off it allows you to disable notifications instead

of having to hack the programs in the settings

It there's a settings a notifications bar that

pops up when you get notifications and you can

go in or you can even go into the settings and

There's a absent notifications page and it'll

say you recently opened apps. You can go to the

notifications part and you can turn off the notification

dots that show whether you have things. You can

go to the app notifications area in there and

turn off. The only ones you can't turn off are

your messages, your text messages in your phone.

So like if I don't want let's say PayPal Facebook

Messenger LinkedIn which obviously I don't really

need much anymore Netflix or Just really any

of those type apps To pop up you can turn them

off with just a tap and then they're gone there's

no like there's no oh delay it for 18 hours or

24 hours and get bombarded again they they go

away which i love that you can do that another

thing that that i like is there's a feature That

that when you slide over you get like your Google

News updates so basically anything that you would

typically search for is going to show up there

so So for me it was like cell phones There's

you know different things with streaming services

there's tech updates there's You know just other

technology news and show news and everything

else. So it's really cool what they have now

in there. That being said, there's a couple things

that are pretty interesting that I'm not fond

of, like how you make folders on this thing.

There's sometimes where they don't want to pair

with a folder and it will make the icons run

around the screen And then eventually you'll

get it in there Which I found to be a little

bit irritating when I was going to dump a bunch

of icons now granted I don't have nearly as many

as I did on my old phone And it also allows you

to shrink your your text in your view down smaller

which For someone that needs glasses to see you

probably have a hard time because compared to

my galaxy s5 like everything's bigger on the

s5 On the screen whereas my pixel everything

smaller, but I preferred it that way The other

another nice thing is when you're taking photos

On the pixel because they allow you to have them

They allow you to condense the file size and

store them on Google Photos. So it essentially

backs up your phone constantly when you plug

it in. I do love that feature. Plus, there were

instances where, because this is my first introduction

to USB -C, which is the reversible plug that

you can use any which way you feel like, I'd

never dealt with that before. And so trying to

transfer those from one phone to the other was

a royal pain. Although I didn't know you could

turn on NFC and do that. So I'm learning new

things with my technology as I go. But I did

love something else. There was an adapter that

came on them that allowed you to plug in your

old phone to your new phone when you're setting

it up. And it will copy all your settings, your

apps, your Wi -Fi locations, your browser. everything,

your photos, and your text messages. And you

can select what you don't want to go over to

the new device. And I selected pretty much everything

because the intent was to get off the old phone.

I'm still using the old phone for basic tablet

purposes around my house. And until I get certain

apps acclimated on the new phone because I haven't

used them yet. Sometimes it's easier just to

go to the other one when I need it right that

moment and then I eventually add it to the new

one So it's been really really cool messing with

that technology So I noticed something the other

day and I was going on Twitter and I because

I hang out on there My wife's kind of jumped

on board the Twitter bandwagon doesn't really

understand it. So she's trying to figure it out

and Yeah, it's It's it's kind of fun trying to

teach her, but at the same time it's not because

she doesn't really understand any of it. And

she doesn't get that it's more of a conversation

piece because it's not really like Facebook and

she's been a Facebook user and I'm not. I either

use Facebook, I don't like Facebook. It's kind

of like Apple Podcasts or iTunes. I use it because

I have to, but I don't like it. like my iPod,

if there was another way I could dump files on

it and not have to deal with iTunes, not connecting

half the time, I would use that. And I don't

like Apple's plethora of podcasting -oriented

hardware, software, devices. I don't mind their

computers so much because they're usable and

they, other than a small difference in interface

compared between Windows 10 and OS X it's not

really that much different to get acclimated

especially anymore like back in the day when

you used Windows 95 or 3 .11 or 98 XP you know

7 there were major differences but with 10 it's

not that much different I mean it is still Windows

but it's still different but very similar I know

it's very contradicting But yeah one of my friends

on on Twitter for some reason He got his account

suspended and I'm I do he's got like 5 ,200 followers.

He's a little bit higher than me I'm at 3 ,800

kind of borderline there trying to get above

it, but he For whatever reason they Blocked his

account or suspended it no rhyme or reason as

far as I know he doesn't post politically so

I don't I mean I I don't know, but I know that

that can trigger some people and they can cause

you to get banned or whatever and Twitter is

of course useless when you need to get a hold

of them. It won't let you follow it. It's got

him removed. It's got no followers like it's

just yeah, I I don't understand Twitter, you

know and it doing that Because they don't explain

how or why it happened or how to fix it And he's

filed appeals to get it redone and they don't

respond And yeah, so it's really weird how they

play that game with things. Especially when some

people have their accounts built up and they've

got so much content tied to it and then you can't

use it anymore. Looks like people have still

been tagging him for weeks but he's not been

able to log in. Twitter's kind of a weird beast

in that sense. It's like when you work in the

media and you should be verified and they don't.

But they'll, you know, and you could have more

followers than somebody else and it's, again,

it's really strange. So another bit of technology

that kind of piqued my interest is there is a

new AI that Adobe concocted that can detect and

reverse manipulated images. So like they were

showing for instance like a face or in a photo

or video that you're looking at and they want

to know if it's real or fake and the creators

of Photoshop are coming out with tools that can

help you spot an altered face. So letting you

see what the original image likely looked like

and it says researchers with Adobe and University

of California Berkeley. recently developed an

AI program that recognizes when Photoshop's face

-aware Liquify tool is used, a tool that can

be used to alter facial expressions. Now, I wonder

if that works when you're using something that's

not Adobe -centric. So, it'll be interesting

to see how that pans out. But it says, again,

that they may soon have this technology. It says

the team train a... convolutional neural network,

CNN, which I would think that would be a copyright

issue right there, a form of AI by feeding the

computer sets of images, one original and one

altered, using the data the researchers trained

the software to recognize when the faces in the

photographer were manipulated. The software looks

for several different cues from warping artifacts

to the layout of the face. While the untrained

person could spot the fake 53 % of the time,

The software reaches rates as high as 99 % accurate

and picking out the fake photo. But the software

could also go one step further and make a rough

estimate of what the original image looked like

likely. Reverse engineering the image based on

the different artifacts and signals that manipulation

was used in the first place. Adobe says that

the researchers were surprised at how accurately

the software could estimate what the original

image looked like. Now the funny thing about

this is It's basing it on the Adobe software.

It doesn't account for the fact that, for instance,

if I were to, say, copy the picture, like flatten

all the layers, copy the picture to a new file,

and save it. another file format, say for instance

if this was a PNG or a PSD you saved it as a

JPEG, it doesn't say if that will make a difference

or not, because it shouldn't tell the difference

if it's translated in a different way. So for

instance if you photo -manipulated something,

printed it, scanned it, and then Used it you

couldn't tell that it was manipulated in the

first place so I'm wondering if this works with

digital versions so like if you're taking it

from one program to another and flattening and

putting it in a new file or Printing it as a

PDF and then doing a screenshot of it If you

would be able to you know as far as images are

concerned video It would be able to pick out

much easier because there's only really three

games in that and that's like Final Cut Adobe

and avid So I don't know that that could be an

interesting topic of whether because I watched

a a Bill Hader video Where he's talking on one

of the like Jimmy Kimmel or some other late show

and the only reason I watched it was because

they showed as he does his impressions of Arnold

Schwarzenegger the this guy had manipulated the

video using AI to morph Arnold's face on Bill

Hader's body while he's doing the Arnold impression.

So whenever he goes back to Bill Hader, his face

changes back to him, but when he goes to Arnold,

it morphs slowly into, like transitionally into

Arnold, and then it just looks like Arnold on

his skinny body. It was really creepy looking,

to be honest, and I was kind of a little weirded

out watching it, but at the same time it was

really cool watching the impression change as

it went along. Again, it was that deep fake,

I saw it on Amber Mac's Twitter, it was very

creepy, but it's a warning basically that if

somebody can do your voice or take it and they

can Make you pretty much say anything You know

they they have It's you know, it's like ten seconds

into the video and his face changes and it was

so subtle that you didn't really notice, you

know until it happened and Yeah, I mean it was

it was just really weird So again, it's kind

of this weird issue of having to deal with this

in the future of watching more fake content come

out and kind of defending against it because

people can manipulate, mislead on just about

anything in this day and age, especially with

impressionists. You know, somebody taking something

out of context and creating a new... You know

fake video and and samsung's even got new ai

software makes, you know generating fake videos

and things so I i'm thinking that They'll eventually

make it so you cannot do that because I know

like Somebody was using snapchat. I think it

was john bailey was using snapchat to Overlay

his face with another face like for instance

if he did the voice of the joker or his impression

of the Joker, and he would put the Joker's face

over top of his, it would look like the Joker's

saying these things. Granted, it wasn't very

fluid or smooth as the Bill Hader AI video, but

they did remove that feature from Snapchat, as

far as I know, because he said he couldn't use

it anymore and he was looking for alternatives.

But I think that it's kind of an interesting

thing that they're they're kind of going in that

direction and they're trying to kind of Kind

of prevent it from happening and it's really

weird so anyways Yeah, that's that's some of

the stuff. I've been kind of checking out lately

I I've been looking at that. You know there's

there's new I'm looking at building a new computer.

So I've been using this website called PC part

picker Which allows you to see Compatibilities

or issues and you can kind of build your your

system and it tells you where you can get the

part the cheapest from where and so like if it's

you know Like a Intel core i5 9600 K 3 .7 gigahertz

6 core processor You can get a free shipping

from Walmart or you can get like a thermal take

CPU cooler from Amazon, that's my cat throwing

up in the background. Come here, kitty. She's

13, she's old. Oh, go get her a drink of water,

stop drag -heaving. That sounds awesome on the

podcast. So anyways, then they have like a G

.Skill 16 gigabyte DDR4 2666 memory. It says

free shipping, new egg. So like you can kind

of, and it shows you like your total and you

can kind of price it out. Another thing I was

trying to do is go on new egg and get it through

there and kind of price it out. Still trying

to figure out motherboards and something that

I want that's gonna be kind of future -proofed,

but it's gonna have all the features I want.

I'm kind of a, I'm kind of a, one of those people

that, more USB ports, but I don't want like a

ton of USB 2 .0 because everything's going 3

.0 and 3 .1 and 3 .2 and USB -C. So I want my

new one to have the USB -C plug in the back or

a jumper in the front. Now granted, my case is

just as old as my processor and hardware, which

is about seven years old now. Still runs great

for the most part, but I've noticed as things

have gotten a little bit more processor intensive,

it's made it difficult to use certain parts.

It takes a while to load some things up, and

I've got a solid state hard drive and 12 gigs

of RAM, it's just the processor's not keeping

up anymore. Which is really sad because I think

it started happening around the time Chrome...

Windows 10 updated so culturally within the same

like two -week span and my computer started running

like garbage afterward So I'm pretty sure it

happened around then kind of a forced, you know

Hey, you're gonna get new hardware because your

computer sucks It runs fine once it's up and

usually I put it to sleep so I don't have to

deal with that But it's it's been like I said

an issue and so I'm looking at getting a new

motherboard a new processor new RAM I'll still

be able to use my old video card which funny

enough although It's old and it doesn't have

like the VR technology and some of the 3d technology

built into it It's still a 2 gigabyte card and

if you were gonna buy it new it's still $140

and it's probably like four or five years old

so It's still a good card and I'm not planning

on upgrading it. I have hard drives, I have a

Blu -ray burner, I have an SD card reader. So

a lot of it I'll be able to cobble back together

into my new machine. You know, I have two monitors.

So I'm kind of trying to build into the new one

the ability to have a third monitor if I need

one. Because I have one Asus widescreen... IPS

monitor, and I have a Sony squared off monitor.

Now the ASUS is a 27 inch widescreen. My Sony

is a 21 inch squared monitor, which I use primarily

for like when I'm recording or I'm editing photos.

I use that monitor for that. Or if I have to

have notes up somewhere, I'll use it. I use my

main screen for when I'm in a program that's

intensive or I'm in something that I needed to

be color accurate. Now granted, my Sony is color

accurate too, but there's a slight difference.

I use it for video editing. I use it for some

of the larger images I have to deal with. So

again, I use it. I love having two monitors.

I would not mind having a third one at all. but

it just kind of depends. So, yeah, the plan is

I would be able to cobble together a brand new

system and I'm trying to do it for under $500,

which is very difficult when you want a Core

i5 6 -core processor and a motherboard, because

between those two, you're almost there. And the

memory, I don't have to get a high -end, I'm

probably going to get a G -skill or crucial.

Branded ones of those and then Kind of go from

there I'm planning on getting another like hard

drive Like maybe a Seagate like two or four gigabytes

or Western Digital Somewhere in there. I'm trying

to spend under like 80 bucks for another hard

drive because again the the motherboard processor

and and RAM are going to eat up the majority

of the cash that I'm planning on setting aside

for this. And the other thing I kind of wonder

about, and I'll have to inquire to this to some

people that do this often, is I'm wondering if

I'm going to have to reinstall Windows or if

it will auto -detect plugging it into the new

hardware. Because Windows has got more plug and

play and not as stingy on the hardware, I'm wondering

if it'll take a minute and it'll just reconfigure.

or if it's gonna pose a problem, I'm gonna have

to reinstall. So in that boat, I would have to

get like another, I would probably get another

SSD hard drive first and then kind of work my

way and reinstall that way. I know very, very

tech jargony in this episode and kind of a lot

of different things, but yeah. So you'll notice

I'm not talking. Pop culture anymore, and there's

there's a couple of reasons for that one I Honestly,

just don't care all that much anymore And that's

kind of another thing of where this is an altered

geek moment altering my geekdom I'm getting more

into like the production side of things so it's

a little bit interesting doing that because I've

always been interested in getting more involved

with it aside from what I've already done in

the past and So I've always been tech -oriented.

I'm going to be taking up the reins, writing

again for commando .com, and then I should be

starting writing for lifewire .com as well for

consumer electronics. So that'll be a little

bit nice padding for anything extra that comes

our way or for saving for a new house since...

Housing is exorbitantly more high -priced out

in Colorado as opposed to Michigan because Michigan

is so poor We can't afford any of it so Like

I said, it's gonna be an interesting experience.

So I'm gonna be probably streaming at certain

points or It not while I'm driving of course

because I'm gonna be driving a 26 foot truck

with one of my children So I may have a dashcam

recording Conversation or You know something

and then we'll have like some kind of a video

put together I'll probably post them late at

night every day while we're we're doing anything

to do with the drive So yeah So anyways, I think

that's about it on this episode of Altered Geeks,

so I hope you guys enjoyed this update. Sorry,

it's a little shorter. Granted, it's not quite

that short. We're at 36 minutes, roughly. But

yeah, I'm very excited for all the changes and

kind of showing what's going on. We're gonna

be renting a duplex, three -bedroom, full basement.

Gonna have it upstairs, so. Connected but via

garage not by house to house so that'll be nice.

I'm gonna figure out how I'm gonna record with

The new setup and having to set up my computer

and build a new desk or something Little sad

to see the house go, but it's it's gonna be a

new adventurous journey for sure Yeah, and we're

looking forward to it so until next time Get

altered get geeky with the alternate geeks. See

you next time!