Star Trek Online, Human Microchipping, and Google Chrome Ads

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host,

Steve Megatron Phillips, and in this episode

of the podcast, I am back. So you might be asking

why there hasn't been an episode in the last

week and a half, maybe two weeks. It's because

I've been infatuated with this game that in my

free time, I've spent the majority of my time

playing... whenever I get the chance, Star Trek

Online. I just recently got back into this game,

and it's kind of amazing. I've managed to, pretty

much any time I get off work, and I'm not with

my family, and I'm sitting by myself, I sit here

and I play this game, and I've been doing that

for the last, oh, I don't know, it's... the 20th

now when I'm recording this. I've been playing

it since the beginning of the month. If you're

hearing the thunder, there's a thunderstorm going

on while I'm doing this. So anyways, I've been

playing this game and it's... Yeah. It's been...

It's been interesting. I've managed to level

myself up to level 57. I'm currently in the process

of trying to get to level 58 so that I can continue

with the missions. For those that don't know,

there's like a Klingon War, like the Wasteland

of the Galaxy, Romulan Mystery, Cardassian Struggle,

Breen Invasion, Borg Advance, New Romulus, Solani,

Dyson Sphere. Because you're dealing with the

Iconians and the Dyson technology. Yesterday's

War, which is a lot of time travel. Delta Quadrant.

I'm currently in the Iconian War. There's a lot

of Star Trek Voyager interaction and TNG and

DS9. So it's been kind of fun. I'm about... I'd

say about a third of the way through the Iconian

War. And then there's two more missions. Future

Proof, which is all time travel stuff. And then

New Frontiers. And then a new expansion is unlocking

on the 25th of this month. And currently I've

gone through the process of a multitude of ships.

I've gotten the Reliant. I've gotten the original

Enterprise, Enterprise A. Like a Stargazer based...

set up for another ship uh enterprise c d e uh

pretty much after that you have to buy them it

gives you like these these as you upgrade uh

in skill um the ability to um kind of upgrade

your ships uh you get an option you get to customize

that your character um so there's there's a plethora

of things to do uh In the game. And so... Anyways,

once you start getting up there, the battles

get harder. I've blown this ship up more times

than I can count. Learning to play the game has

been possibly the most difficult thing in the

world. And... Yeah. So... Yeah, I've been playing

the crap out of this game. So if you want other

information, Star Trek and Star Trek Discovery

and whatnot, be sure to go check out Future Imperfect

over on This Week in Geek and Altered Geek. I

have it posted both places. So, yeah, there's

been some stuff. For one, the Star Wars trailer

dropped. I'm not quite sure what to make of it

yet, to be honest. And it's interesting. You

have Luke, and he basically talks about the fact

that the Jedi need to die or go away, which is

a little bit surprising. But not at the same

time because think about how screwed up the Star

Wars universe is because of the Sith and the

Jedi. Whereas if they would have just harnessed

the balance in between the two, then there would

be no need for Sith or Jedi in general. But the

trailer is about two minutes long. Two minutes

and twelve seconds. You get a little bit of Rey

leaning on the rock, training, breathing heavily.

Luke's telling her to breathe. And it shows like

a panning of the mountain on Ahch -To. And he's

just calmly telling her to breathe. Basically

kind of the Yoda -ish scenario. Tells her to

reach out. She's making the rocks lift up off

the ground. And he asks her what she sees. And

she sees there's Kylo looking at a star map.

There's Vader's smashed helmet somehow. You hear

Obi -Wan saying dark side. And then she says

darkness. And then there's something else that's

like Yoda's symbol from the Rebels. And she says

the light. And she says the balance. And then

Luke says it's so much bigger. And you see them

training with lightsabers. And these new land

speeder things, which are pretty cool with red

smoke coming out. You get to see Finn in a stasis

pod. You get to see lightsabers. You get to see

the burning scenario from the last movie from

Rey's vision. And Luke says there is one truth.

And he says it's time for the Jedi to end. And

then it goes on from there to say Star Wars,

The Last Jedi. So I'm betting that they won't

focus on Sith and Jedi after this movie, or at

least they're going to try not to. And go back

to like the, you know, they're just force users

or casual force users and everybody's kind of

very, very, I don't know, balanced with it. I'm

really not sure what they're going for, but yeah.

If Luke's bringing balance to the Force, this

is kind of an interesting thing. Yeah, it looks

pretty sweet. I can't wait to see this. I'm going

to end up seeing it. Probably not the week it

comes out because, again, it always falls on

my wife's birthday, which generally that's when

Star Trek fell back when it used to come out

around those times. It's definitely looking like

it's going to be a pretty fun ride on that. So

getting into something that I learned about when

I was in class the other day. My teacher does

this thing called News of the Day. And he...

You know, he asks you what the big stories are,

what the big news, you know, all of that. And

so you just kind of come up with stuff. And what

happens is, you know, he picks one out after

you've already dumped your information on him.

And there's apparently microchips are being implanted

in humans and they're asking if it's practical

or perilous. And there's some workers in Sweden

already volunteering to have chips injected into

their hands. And what they're doing is they're

putting them in that kind of piece of skin between

your pointer finger and your thumb. And it's

a little chip that they just inject in with...

It looks like a syringe injection type thing.

So they're having this injected so they can make

it easier on tax and reduce the amount of personal

items employees need to carry, which I could

kind of get. But at the same time, I don't like

the idea of having a chip in my hand or in my

body for that matter. And there's a couple of

reasons for that. And I'll get into that in a

minute. I would rather have it as like a wristband

or a bracelet type thing that everything's programmed

into that maybe you had to enter a code to get

it off your hand or something. I don't know.

But it's a controversial trend that could put

your privacy at risk. They state on this CBS

News article. And I can't even say this guy's

name, but he says, I use this many times a day.

For example, I use it to unlock my smartphone,

to open the door to my office. He calls himself

a biohacker. It's S. Joe Blad or something. That's

the guy's name. He's from Sweden, so I can't

pronounce it. He says, we think the human body

is a good start, but there's certainly room for

improvement. So the microchip is about the size

of a grain of rice under the skin. And so, like,

they can use your hand to tell the printer that

it's an authorized user to print or, you know,

because it has the radio frequency ID tags in

it. Same tech in key cards and that they use

in animals for identifying a lost pet, which

I'm fine with it in the pet thing. I don't like

it in the human because there's too much that

goes on with humans and security and privacy.

To have all that information embedded in the

same spot or in your body just makes it easier

for someone to want to, if they're that type

of person, to just cut it out of you. So this

company called, this tech startup called Dangerous

Things has sold tens of thousands of implant

kits for humans and some to tech companies in

Europe. And I guess they organize implant parties,

which... Is strange. So they did it so that car

doors can be tweaked to open. But I still think

it's a big security issue. And it's kind of funny

because they referenced the Manchurian Candidate,

which suggested a future where humans are chipped

and controlled. There's a lot of movies that

do stuff like this. I mean, you can almost go

like Demolition Man with the chips. With the

eyeballs and the, you know, you can almost go

like Total Recall in a sense. You can almost

go Kingsman where they've got the chip in their

neck and controlled. So, I mean, there's a lot

of weird stuff. I just, I don't, I don't know.

Continuum, they have people with microchips built

in or enhancements. Stuff like this just kind

of freaks me out a little bit. For a techno person,

I don't like the idea, even if it's a convenience

to carry less stuff, I would rather have a universal

smart watch that does all this for me than have

a device implanted in my body. It just, I don't

know, it kind of creeps me out a little bit.

What are you guys' thoughts on that? That's kind

of one of those things that, it's kind of touchy.

So a little bit into gaming besides the Star

Trek Online. Apparently Nintendo is working on

a SNES Classic Edition, which will launch by

Christmas. So those not familiar, Nintendo released

last year a Nintendo Entertainment System that

had a plethora of games on it and new built -in

abilities to... New standards, I should say.

So you could do HDMI and you could hook it up,

USB and some other stuff. But it was very much

a very compact Nintendo. And so apparently they're

working on an SNES Classic Edition, which will

launch by Christmas. So I'm kind of actually

looking forward to this more so. than the NES

because I grew up in the age of like the Sega

Genesis and the Super Nintendo so not a lot of

the uh not a lot of the the the the classic Nintendo

resonates with me um I I grew up very much on

this stuff so like it's it's it's something I

would I would look forward to now This particular

website, www .divisionofcomicbook .com, they

have like a mini hype gallery. I don't know if

it's actually legit from Nintendo or not. But

they have shown on this image like Super Mario

World, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Bomberman,

Dragon Warrior, Street Fighter 2, Super Star

Wars, Turtles, something. Maybe it's in time.

Turtles in Time. Aladdin. Contra, Star Fox, Donkey

Kong, Super Mario Kart, Zelda, Mega Man X. Just

some of those games I listed alone are enough

to get me to want to buy it. So I'm thinking

that that might be something interesting to purchase

at that point in time. Getting into a little

bit of TV while all the other shows are out on

break, Prison Break came back. And with being

three episodes in, they're already setting up

a very strong scenario out of this nine -episode

arc. I'm looking forward to seeing how this thing

concludes, but so far it's been really good.

I was kind of surprised for picking up the ball

five years, seven years after the show ended.

Something like that. And they've done it really

well with this setup. But it works out very fun.

And the way that they've approached it... The

only thing I kind of wonder is how they made

Michael Schofield live in the show. But beyond

the way that they... quote -unquote killed him

off on the end of the last season or the tv movie

but i guess we'll find that out so jumping into

something not so entertaining michael bay says

there are going to be 14 more transformers films

in development uh but uh yeah this I don't understand

why they want to slate it out that far. But...

And I guess Bay, like, says that he's leaving

after the last night, but he might do a solo

film, which is just code for I'm not leaving.

But... Yeah, I don't... I... I don't even know

what to think about that, so I'm going to leave

that right there. So with that, I'll be right

back after this break and come back with some

more awesome. Do you want to interact with the

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you can find the show on the following locations.

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Stitcher, and on TuneIn, Blog Talk Radio, as

well as alteredgeek .com. And now, back to the

show. And we're back. So, on the last episode

that was released, well, there were some comments.

And I believe the last one I released was the

Geek News TV Revival Superheroes Return to Gaming

with the big plastered image of my second starship

from Star Trek Online. I made some comments about

Star Trek Discovery and the fact that there's

still no tentative release date for it, which

I find to be a little irritating. I mean, I realize

they're not on a time constraint because it's

going to be going on their app, their digital

platform, and not on television, so they're not

on a strict scale, as it were, of when it has

to be out. But Eric Hutchinson says, I want Star

Trek Discovery to be good, but with the news

today that is getting delayed even further, I

have no hope it is ever coming out. There's zero

buzz for the series, which I don't understand.

A new Trek show has been demanded for so long.

Why does no one seem to care? Yeah, I have a

feeling we're going to end up with another Enterprise

-esque series that nobody just cares about. If

you want more detail on that, be sure to check

out the Future Imperfect episode I did with Mike

Dodd from This Week in Geek, which we kind of

cover all the bases of Discovery and then go

into Star Trek Online. This past week, I made

a comment on Twitter because I've been slowly

replacing light bulbs, specifically in my office,

with LED light bulbs. And the reason I did that

is because, one, the compact fluorescents are

no longer being made. So my office, being that

I sit here... From dawn till dusk, most days,

including the days that I podcast or I'm online

playing games later in the evening. I mentioned

that I'm slowly changing out light bulbs for

LED. While my office, it had those bulbs in here

which were agitating my eyes. And since it's

switching to LED, which is like daytime light,

I don't seem to have that problem. I can sit

here for a lot longer and not realize how much

time has gone by. So I said I'm slowly replacing

them, and then Tim Silvers replied that he did

that last year as well, buying a lot of in -ceiling

lights, able to buy them through electric co

-op at a discount. Optimus Solo, Kevin Thompson's

been doing the same thing. Mike Powers. Uh, he

says, I started buying them for my first home

and I've taken them with me to each new home,

uh, way cheaper than buying them all over again,

which is, is actually quite humorous. Uh, but

it's, it still stands to reason that it's worth

doing. So, uh, yeah, so that's, that, that covers

that little bit there. Um, getting into a little

bit of, uh, the science behind the LED lights

though. He also linked me to this article called

LED lights are ruining laundry detergents white

brightening trick, which I found to be kind of

humorous because the method behind the fluorescent

whitening agents that they put in detergents,

it absorbs ultraviolet light and re -emits it

as a visible blue wavelength. So this slightly

bluish tinge helps overpower the yellowish hue

of, say, a well -worn undershirt, making it look

radiant and white. But unfortunately, because

of LED lighting, it dims the ultraviolet trick

laundry detergents use to make white clothes

whiter. So it makes your clothes look like how

they actually are. So... If you're hoping to

have something look halfway decent, don't use

an LED light if you're using old clothes. But

if you're using them, yeah, it's not going to

show up and look like, oh, it's just the most

magnificent, like it's brand new. Because it's,

again, a trick that they put in it, another chemical

to make it look a certain way. But I do have

to say, though, I do like the LED lights overall.

I'm wondering how long they're going to last.

I've started as my compact fluorescent and my

old school lights start burning out. I'm going

to start replacing them with LEDs all over the

house. The other thing I like is that they're

instant on, whereas some of the compact fluorescents...

May not actually kick on right away or brighten

up all the way. It takes a while. So this is

one of those things that I kind of look for.

So good news to people that don't like ads. Apparently

Google's planning to build ad blocking into Google

Chrome. I stumbled upon this earlier today. It

says, according to the Wall Street Journal, Google

is well aware of this and is planning to add

built -in ad blocker to the Chrome browser. If

it's handled correctly, it could force sites

to give everyone a better experience if it actually

works. So it's the stop to the autoplay videos

or audio pop -ups, pop -unders, inline ads, clickbait.

Which could very well be bad for websites that

need that to earn a living. However, I never

feel like the autoplay of video or audio should

ever be turned on by default. I find that to

be very tacky. Because sometimes I may not want

to actually hear it or see it pop up. Like ComicBook

.com is notorious for that. When you go to their

website, their videos automatically play. And

it could be on something that's not even in the

post. It'll be a video that plays, and the post

will be something totally different. And they'll

still have the video autoplay. And it's annoying

as all get up when I'm trying to read the article

itself. So I actually have a disable thing built

in, an extension, because I'm so sick of seeing

that happen. And then there's a bunch of ads

all over the place on stuff, and so I have that

disabled as well, so I no longer see it on anything.

So it frees up that bandwidth and frees up my

screen space. So apparently the plan, though,

is that for both mobile and desktop versions,

the ad blocking system would be turned on by

default, but it wouldn't filter out all ads,

only the ones that don't comply with the Coalition

for Better Ads list of standards. For instance,

like I said, auto -playing video ads with sound

and large sticky ads would be out. So like those

annoying ones, too, that just play on their own

constantly, even though you never clicked on

them even once, that hide themselves further

in the page. So it says the company is reportedly

still deciding whether or not to block individual

ads or all advertising on any site that doesn't

meet the threshold of consumer acceptability.

But it says they don't want people downloading

ad blockers anymore. uh, that they don't have

control over. So the concept is they're going

to not let you do that. And kind of like the,

uh, the YouTube downloader video, uh, extensions

that used to be able to be put in, uh, and then

Chrome's like, nah, you can't download from YouTube,

but you can go to Firefox and do it, uh, or a

website. So, uh, So they're saying that as many

as 26 % of desktop users have some sort of software

to hide advertisements, and it doesn't want that

number getting any larger. So they're going to

preemptively go in and get rid of the ads themselves.

Because apparently they don't like Adblock Plus

or certain things like that. It doesn't detract

from any of the links, like text links that are

advertisements or anything like that. It just

cuts out all those bulky graphics or videos that

play on their own all over the place. And then

I have the disabled HTML5 autoplay installed

so that I don't have to see any of audio or video

play on its own. So actually, I'm kind of enthused

to see what they do with this. I just hope that

it's not total garbage. I end up having to go

back to Firefox full -time because I rather like

Chrome now that I've gotten used to it. Yeah,

with that being said, I have a bit more of stuff

that I'd like to cover, but I'm probably going

to save that. I actually do plan on getting back

to... more consistent content. I plan on doing

possibly a little bit shorter shows. This is

going to be a little bit shorter than normal.

I'm just trying to get back into the wagon of

stuff. I do plan on getting back on some guest

hosts. I know I keep rattling on, prattling on

some of that, but I do. There's going to be another

episode in the future where myself and Movie

Revolt Dan talk about raising geeky children.

So that'll be a segment or a piece on one of

the shows in the near future, I hope. And yeah,

so with the TV series ending for the season,

I'll definitely be covering that as soon as that

comes up. And I guess just to kind of round it

about here before I go, five studios are trying

to win the distribution rights to James Bond.

Because apparently in 2006, Sony Pictures Entertainment

has had the distribution rights exclusively since

that point. And they've collected $3 .5 billion

at a world -wide box office. But apparently,

Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, 20th Century

Fox, Annapurna? I've never heard of it. Upstart

Finance, led by the Oracle, Eris, Megan Ellison.

Not competing for the business are Paramount

and Walt Disney, which neither one won it. So

this is MGM and Eon, which stands for Everything

or Nothing, are only offering a one -film contract.

The expired Sony deal was for four movies. MGM,

which is owned by private equity firms, including

Anchorage Capital. Partners probably wants to

keep its options open as it considers a sale

or public offering. Hmm. Could be interesting.

It should be noted that the franchise has been

around forever, so whoever ends up with it is

going to start making bank. But that's all for

now. That's all I'm going to cover tonight. And

so until next time, get Altered Geeky with the

Altered Geeks.