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Hasbro suing DC Comics over the Bumblebee name,

and some interesting information from podcast

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geek geek geek Altered geek Pull up a chair cause

you're an altered geek Hello and welcome to Altered

Geek. I'm Stephen C. Phillips and yeah, I planned

on having a Wednesday episode the last two weeks

and unfortunately this week I got sick and last

week I just was busy. I don't think the Wednesday

episodes are gonna work for right now. I might

have to wait until later in the year. I suspect

next month and the month after I'm gonna be very

busy, so... I guess we'll just kind of see how

it goes because we have GCR and wars coming up

and We actually recorded the first episode and

it was released yesterday. So if you haven't

Seen that episode yet. Be sure to check that

out on geekcastradio .com This is the the first

breakdown of the brackets and For for those of

you that have managed to traverse your way over

there already The villains are our 90s. Yeah.

And they're fighting each other in this one.

So you get some Captain Simeon, Space Monkeys,

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century, Iron Man,

Incredible Hulk, X -Men, New Adventures of He

-Man, Spider -Man Unlimited, Street Sharks, Darkwing

Duck, Tail Spin, Swat Cats, Mighty Ducks, Mighty

Max, Hercules, Mummy's Alive. Aladdin, Biker

Mice from Mars, The Pirates of Dark Water, another

X -Men villain, and Power Rangers. So yeah. You'll

just have to kind of guess which villains from

each of those shows. Or you can go over to geekcastradio

.com and check out the newly redesigned website.

I just moved around the main page, everything

else pretty much works around the same, but yeah,

it was in sore need of a revival. It was poorly

organized, a lot of the stuff was doubled up

content. So new content will show up in the featured

banner and podcasts will of course still show

up in there. There's a player on the right hand

side that people can launch to an external window

that you can play the most recent 10 podcasts

on the website. Yeah, there's a little bit of

a different breakdown, but I think it'll be easier

on the eyes and kind of helps discern what you're

looking at. But there is a GCN Wars section down

there, so be sure to check that out and listen

to the most recent episode. It's just myself

and movie revolt Dan. We kind of went down the

list and some of it was agreed and some of it

wasn't. Hopefully the next episode we have a

special guest to join us or two. Just work schedules

with everyone weren't lining up with the the

day we were trying to record and So yeah, I'm

I'm pretty geeked for a part two because a lot

of Very sinister and well -known villains are

gonna be in that that roundup, too So I'm gonna

enjoy the fact that three 80s villains have new

renditions in the 90s and they're back So we'll

see how they fare in this this 90s edition because

there's a lot of more Sinister villains to deal

with than the the 80s crew. So that's why I doubled

the the output of villains and there's gonna

be a nice little mix -up when we get towards

the end and I can't wait to see how that plays

out because again, you're dealing with villains

so mixed a little bit of the aspect of the 80s

villains and the video game icons content and

I actually made this list in 2013 after we did

the 80s villains so we'll see how this goes so

yeah in other news podcast movement was last

week and Yeah, some interesting things transpired

one of them being that blog talk radio and speaker

merged So what does that mean for us because

we're hosted on blog talk it means absolutely

nothing What it basically is is a marriage of

Two podcasting forces to one big podcasting force

The combined entity is comprised of more than

50 ,000 podcasts, millions of listeners globally,

and a proprietary suite of creation and monetization

technologies that enable podcasters to manage

each step of creation, distribution, and commercialization

process with an easy -to -use, all -in -one solution.

The CEO of Spreaker, Frank Bashiri, or co -founder

and CEO of Spreaker, will serve as president

of the combined company. So yeah, they're gonna

take speakers mobile and web content management

system and creation tools where everything is

in the same dashboard and Blocktalk radio's first

-to -market monetization platform and merge the

two together and then you get Probably the most

unique Setup so definitely excited for when this

whole thing transpires because I like a lot of

what Spreaker has to offer, but I also like Blonk

Talk Radio. So, it's a very good scenario for

us in the best part there. So, in other things,

yeah, it's end of August. It's beginning of September.

The year's flying by. I actually went to go visit

my old job this week. which was pretty fun because

Yeah, I Had to get a recall done in my car so

It was it was entertaining to go back and see

the environment that I left and that not much.

It really changed it was a lot of fun sitting

there reminiscing with salespeople and getting

to have a couple of new laughs and new jokes

and So yeah, that was that was a lot of fun going

to do that was get my recall done. So But yeah,

so my wife earlier this week dropped me a link

on Facebook to Something done by college humor

And I'm going to actually insert that clip right

here for commentary. Well, there's a way to get

the perfect picture without looking like a narcissistic

loner. It's called a friend. Take pictures confidently

and comfortably, knowing that you don't look

like the world's saddest wizard. In fact, you'll

look more socially adjusted than ever before.

Many concert venues and museums have banned selfie

sticks, but a friend can always get through the

door. And a friend is the only selfie stick that

can hold a conversation about your experiences.

While you may even find with a friend, you're

more interest - in enjoying your surroundings

instead of documenting them for strangers on

the internet. But that's not all. Friend is the

only selfie stick with the ability to automatically

adjust framing, focus, and picture quality in

an instant. Other selfie sticks can only expand

up to a few feet, but Friend can extend as far

as you want it to. One foot, five, eight hundred?

Friend can do it in a snap and also do things

like drive you to the airport or tell you when

you're taking too many pictures. And friend works

with other friends. Want to take a picture of

your friend? Just get a second friend. Or a third

to take a picture of the first two. There's literally

no limit to the number of friends you can have.

Get nine friends and play a game of football.

You won't even have to take pictures because

all your friends are there, experiencing it with

you. Friends are available absolutely everywhere.

You can even make your own using nothing but

a common stranger and a little effort. But that's

not all. Other selfie sticks can cost up to $20.

But Friend is 100 % free. Friend only free in

concept. Friendly incur costs related to beer

and birthdays. Do not refer to Friend as selfie

stick or Friend will get upset. Order today.

So yeah, I really enjoy that clip that my wife

sent me of the new and improved selfie stick

of aka getting a friend because I have hated

that word selfie almost venomously since it came

out and then everybody doing that stupid duck

face and doing all these weird poses with this

pole that holds the phone for them and whenever

I've had to take a self -photo per se with my

wife or just myself I have long enough arms I

can stick it out in front of me and press the

button manually and then I used the front -facing

camera anyway, which is also on this. I don't

know. I completely agree with the video, but

it almost reminds me of the other video where

they're talking about the oligopoly of the cable

companies, which I won't play on this one, but

it's pretty funny too. You'll have to search

it out. It's the... Oligopoly cable company video.

I forget. Yeah, it's called the first honest

cable company. Totally love that video. It does

swear a bit, so that's definitely not safe for

work. But it's done by, I think College Humor

as well. But it could be wrong. Extremely Decent

has it on YouTube. I think it's a lot of fun

to watch. I used to spend a lot of time watching

YouTube before I had a real job. Occasionally

I still get to watch it later at night when I'm

on off hours. Getting to relax in the evenings

and at night and whatnot But I don't really watch

a lot of it anymore I sit and watch a lot of

my my streaming and a lot of my Netflix or Just

I game a lot so yeah, it's Kind of not something

I do anymore, which I feel like it's made me

more intelligent for not having sitting watching

a multitude of YouTube videos like I used to.

I don't know, I almost felt more unintelligent

sitting there watching the various garbage that's

pumped out on YouTube, which is kind of unfortunate.

But something I do enjoy is geeky stuff. So I

know people love getting geeky gear. That's something

I like to do when I have the money. So anyways,

if you love getting geeky gear, for the listeners

of Altered Geek, Lootcrate is offering an opportunity

to save 10 % on any new subscription at lootcrate

.com. You can enter the promo code BRIDGETEN

for 10 % savings. What do you get for your crate?

Less than $20 a month. You get 6 -8 items that

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you have until the 19th at 9pm pacific to subscribe

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today at trylootcrate .com slash altered geek

and enter promo code BRIDGETEN to save 10 % on

any new subscription That's tryloopcrate .com

slash AlteredGeek. You're listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network, a podcast. And we're back with

AlteredGeek. So this week in geek history, I

have a little bit of it this week. I'm going

to go a little bit shorter from now on. I felt

like I went overkill on the last episode. So

the week of August 25th, 1991. Linux was born.

Linus Torvalds posted a message to the internet

news group cop .os .minix with the subject line,

what would you like to see most in Minix? This

is the first announcement that he's working on

in OS that will one day become Linux. The birth

of open source, as it were. So in August 26th

of 1938, the very first tape recorder was used.

The radio station WQXR in New York City broadcast

a program using a tape recorder for the first

time. The tape recorder used was the Phillips

Miller recording system, also known as Miller

Tape, invented by James Arthur Miller. Man, it's

crazy that that was invented way back then. I

should have remembered that from my media history

class, but it somehow, I think it escaped me.

I don't know if it was one of the days I got

there a little bit late, but... Yeah, that's

kind of interesting to know considering I took

advantage of a tape deck when I was a kid and

used to record myself pretending I was on the

radio and what am I doing 20 some odd years later

at the age of 31? I'm sitting here in my office

recording onto a computer through an actual microphone

into an mp3 file that will be on the internet

broadcast on podcasting internet radio. So it

kind of comes full circle. In August 27, 2003,

the world's largest battery backup. Yes, the

city of Fairbanks, Alaska connected to what was

at the time the world's largest battery backup

designed to help prevent serious blackouts that

plague the city every two to three years. The

batteries could provide power to the city for

a few minutes, even though enough time to start

up the city's backup diesel generators. The battery

contained 13 ,760 cells covering more than 10

,000 square feet as one massive battery It was

reported that in the first two years operation

the battery system prevented at least 81 power

failures That's actually really awesome. I hope

that it was cost -effective, but more than likely

it probably wasn't Technology at that time was

not as cheap as it is now To do something like

that and then in gaming history. We had Batman

Arkham Asylum the Debut for the PS3 and the Xbox

360 as it was released in North America in 2009

Hard to believe it came out that long ago. I

remember playing that and Did pretty well and

I really enjoyed it and that's what prompted

me to buy an Xbox 360 with Arkham City And then

I played Arkham Origins and then when they came

out with Arkham Knight That was the only one

of the franchise that didn't play because he

had to buy the new console, the Xbox One, and

I was like, nope, done. The PC version waited

like two years to come out, and it was plagued

with issues. I just decided to skip it and watch

the YouTube playthroughs. And then in 1997, GoldenEye

007 for the N64 was released in North America,

so I remember playing that as well. It was a

pretty big game on the N64 for multiplayer. A

lot of the N64 was pretty good about multiplayer.

GoldenEye and Super Smash Bros. Yeah, the original

Super Smash Bros. Man, it's been a long time.

So, yeah, that's... Man, that's crazy. I think

I'm gonna jump into some film news. Remember

a few weeks ago when I was talking about Super

Troopers 2? Yeah, they finally drop the trailer.

I was pretty stoked to see this, although the

trailer is very not safe for work. There's some

swearing in it. There's them trying to shave

rabbit's nutsack. Kind of paralleling Mac being

shot with a bulletproof cup in you -know -where.

So it's supposed to take place. They're continuing

the formula. It's 16 years later since the previous

film. But it looks like it's going to be fun

and very familiar. All the characters remain

consistent with the people that were at the beginning.

Still have Ramathorn, still have Mac, still have

Rabbit, still have Farva. Still have the Captain.

And then they even have Jim Gaffigan getting

pulled over again. And the one that they did,

the meow. Meow, what is so dang funny? Yeah,

so there'll be plenty of callbacks. And he says,

hey, didn't you guys pull me over so many years

ago? And why are you meow -nties now? Yeah, you'll

have to watch the trailer. It's pretty entertaining.

It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

So yeah, they're going to, and Rob Lowe's in

it, among other people, so. I was beginning to

wonder when that's going to come out, but it's

going to come out on a 4 -20, 2018, ha ha ha,

pot day. But yeah, I probably won't watch the

debut when it comes out, but I will end up wanting

to see that just because I liked the first film

so much. And then Blade Runner 24 -9 is coming

out with a series of three short films that reveal

what happens in 2036 as Jared Leto's character

reveals a new replicant. or a new model of them

per se that he can control with thought and voice

and they they can feel and They're very much

like people So it'll be nice to have that little

little gap bridged I still have to watch the

first film to kind of get the gist of what's

going on But like I said, I'm gonna watch that

before 2049 comes out And then of course Taryn

Killiam from SNL is coming out with a movie called

Killing Gunther. It's a group of hitmen who are

out to assassinate Arnold Schwarzenegger in this

trailer. And it looks like Arnold's having a

lot of fun with it. It looks very much like one

of his 80s comedies that he would do, action

comedies, so it's very true to form. I'm kind

of looking forward to seeing a not -so -serious

Arnold kicking some butt, so I've always been

a fan of Arnold when he shows up in various content.

And then of course another sequel or that sequel

but reboot and they're having Bruce Willis playing

in Death Wish which I believe used to have Charles

Bronson in it in the the 80s so that it's kind

of a interesting twist and take to it almost

got a little bit of the M Night Shyamalan Bruce

Willis Mixed in there so kind of a little bit

of interesting interesting history there And

we had the change of Kermit the Frog they they

debuted Kermit's new voice Which I should probably

play that here just so you can kind of get a

little bit of a Idea of what this sounds like

I can't really Believe per se that they're That

they're they're changing it this much. It's a

guy that's been doing a lot of other Muppet characters

and They they have him doing the voice But it

sounds like he's stretched too thin and well

anyways, I'll let you hear the clip right here,

and then I'll respond afterward Dreams are how

we figure out where we want to go life is how

we get there I'm headed this way My mistake,

it's this way. So yeah, it sounds a little off

To be honest, I'm I'm not a huge fan of it Kind

of waiting to see what they do But they kind

of quietly revealed him in this little piece

of social media and they had Matt Vogel doing

the new voice publicly for the first time And

it's the first time we've gotten to hear Kermit

since the firing of Steve Whitmire. So if you

know Vogel, you can hear the difference. It's

not spot on. It's not what we've been used to

for the last 30 years. It's still Kermit -y until

he starts to end his sentences. It sounds a little

weird. Our friend of the show, TV's Mr. Neil.

Did his own rendition of it. I was going to do

it, but unfortunately because we were gonna have

a battle of the Kermits Because usually when

we get in a podcast and somehow muppets comes

up. We both do our Kerman impression He's got

more of the classic Jim Henson style. I've got

more of the Steve Whitmer and So he redubbed

it I was going to do the same thing, but unfortunately

it came down with a cold So I couldn't even hit

the lower tones if I wanted to my voice is so

much deeper this week, which is weird I can't

even talk quieter if I wanted to. It's very guttural

on my tone. So like, I can do the... I can do

my golem, or I can do... So yeah, I can do my

Megatron voice there too, so it's... The deeper

voices are very... in tone, so... It's almost

impossible for me to get down to the Kermit level

right now, despite my wanting to. But yeah, there's

a lot of stuff going on in the tech world. NASA's

planning a probe concept that looks kind of like

something from a Tim Burton creation. Like a

little spidery leg type thing with a fan on it

and and gets dropped off by like a spy plane

And they're planning on taking it to Venus Yeah,

we haven't heard much going on with that bits.

It's gonna be called the automation Rover for

extreme environments that Ari and it's gonna

it's supposed to be able to Survive Venus's atmosphere

With the density in the the 864 degree Fahrenheit

Temperatures that they estimate So it almost

like it's kind of like a wall -e type thing without

the head and the arms It's very clear. They got

the track and the little arm in the front of

it. So we'll we'll see how it goes I'm always

a fan of watching NASA try to go to other planets

Just for the sheer possibility of just watching

it happen Whether they learn anything or get

anything out of it or not. It's just it's still

interesting to see Although the point of going

there is almost kind of unnecessary because there's

no way that anything could live there with the

heat so I Don't know how well that that was thought

out. I would be more in favor of like the moon

or Mars I'm surprised they haven't honestly made

it back to Mars at this or not Mars the moon

at this point But I hope that they try in the

future. So another techie news, we have Skype

has a new interviews feature that lets you test

candidates using a real time code editor. And

Skype recently introduced this feature designed

to cement its place among business users who

aren't interested in things like emoji reactions

or stories. as it now supports conducting technical

interviews via its service through a new Skype

interviews feature. So it's from a dedicated

website. Interviews can test candidates in seven

programming languages over Skype using a real

-time code editor. Kind of interesting. Definitely

could be something that I could see coming into

play with... people being remote working and

having to know code, and you could test them

in real time on this interface. So I think it's

kind of a neat innovation. I don't know how to

code anything other than website data, but still,

it's still an interesting feature. And speaking

of features, YouTube. has kind of thrown off

the internet this week, they've decided to freshen

up their look. They have a new desktop design

that puts videos and creators in front of the

center with a cleaner, simpler layout that lets

content shine. They also, the key prominent thing

is they moved the red play button, which used

to be over the word tube, and slid it over next

to you. So now it's play button YouTube on black.

So it's a little funky to look at, at least initially

because you're not used to it. And they kind

of cleaned up the design a little bit, but I

love the fact that they have the ability to activate

a dark theme from the new account menu to cut

down on glare. And it's supposed to give you

truer colors on the videos when you watch them.

I'm in a favor of the the dark theme anyway,

but that's because I like dark websites I think

it's easier on the eyes. I think it's more gritty.

I think it's It shows the other colors more prominently

and it doesn't get as It doesn't look as busy

as a white background website where you have

all these colors jumping out at you all over

the place This kind of keeps it Locked into those

spaces so you can focus on what you're trying

to look at So, I think that it's a really interesting

design for their webpage. And it's supposed to

be built on a faster framework, newer features,

and they're working on a plethora of other items

to come in the near future. I need to actually

get my butt back on YouTube and try and actually

publish some stuff for a while and see how well

this whole thing works. I like how they blew

up the menu just clicking on it on the side menu.

They hide it off the The the front and you have

to click the little three lines and it pops up

has the YouTube logo And then it says home trending

subscriptions and then you get your library of

stuff and then your subscription So, I don't

know. I think it's really a really innovative

Fix for YouTube. I don't know if it's gonna fix

their other issues But they do have another drop

down on there, which has YouTube TV, YouTube

Gaming, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, Creator

Academy, and YouTube for Artists. I will say

that it's nice to have the Creator Academy actually

up front. It was kind of hard to get to before,

because I've taken a number of the courses on

the Creator Academy to try and up my YouTube

game, but... Just haven't had time to record

or the proper backdrop to do my video version

of this show and kind of have it a little bit

faster paced and cover more of the news and opinions

in it. And then I used to do YouTube gaming back

when I had the 75 megabyte download on Comcast.

And it was a lot of fun to do, even though there

was a small payoff for it. And then... Kind of

got bored with doing and then plus once I got

downgraded in speeds the 25 megabyte It was just

not really worth trying anymore I may try and

do some streaming again on some games and maybe

Star Trek online or maybe some Some battlefield

one. I don't know. I'll I'll play that by ear

Sad to say I at least not yet. I haven't gotten

access to the alpha of the the new 5v5 battles

that they have, which makes me a little bit sad

because I got in on the alpha, the beta, and

the pre -release, and then the release of the

full game, so I feel a little left out here.

I guess I should be fine with it. I get to play

the game before everybody else, so it's kind

of fun. YouTube is just... it's this monstrosity,

but they've also got this other issue. They were

recently involved in some demonetization conundrums,

and it's been kind of floating around because

YouTube is, I wouldn't say targeting specific

people per se, but I think that it's kind of

flagging everybody. And I'll say this. Delicately

because I don't want to offend or irritate anybody

or have a Argument in the comment section. I

Don't necessarily think it's all politically

based. I do think some of it may be politically

based, but I also think that They are Censoring

what they want and pushing other agendas in front

of people and I say that meaning that you may

have one person that likes one thing and then

another person likes another thing but because

so -and -so is more popular they're going to

take the top seat compared to the lower bracket

and that doesn't matter who it is it's just kind

of you know you could watch somebody that's a

singer and they may try and push Katy Perry on

you for instance and if you don't like that and

you don't want to see it then yeah so they've

also been kind of allegedly dropping views on

certain people and then fixing it and stuff with

with subscriber counts, but the one I was actually

going to to jump into is because I've seen this

happen to a number of my friends on the the gaming

community and fellow geeks One of my friends

from this week in geek or formerly of this week

in geek Posted well consider me not advertiser

friendly even a 10 -second video can be flagged

He said I've checked in it's not because the

length of a video is not one of the items You

can be flagged for being not advertiser friendly.

It would have been flagged as not eligible for

advertising if that was the case He said if I'm

mad if this keeps up my video will lose any chance

of proper SEO because YouTube will prioritize

other content above not advertiser friendly Ones

which could hurt my growth sure money would be

great, but this is much bigger implications than

just not being able to make money, it could severely

limit my chances of having more people discovering

my videos, which I do think that that's the key

problem here, is that their algorithm or lack

thereof or blacklist of the fact that it's just,

it's squeezing out the up and comer and trying

to more or less, I saw it posted a little bit

differently by another one of our friends at

the show. And funny enough, he says that he's

kind of on the fence as to how he should address

the YouTube ad apocalypse. He says on the one

hand, I think a lot of what YouTube is doing

is absolute BS. He says I see a lot of channels

being unfairly targeted or demonetized and no,

there's no consistency to it YouTube is clearly

just playing favorites Which I again, I think

it's it's a popularity battle if you're not one

of the top tier You're kind of like yeah, we're

you're not advertiser friendly enough for us

You're not a safe bet yet. We don't we don't

we don't know if we want to have you And then

he says on the other hand some people are just

downright whining about losing ma ma ma Tana's

monetization Like they didn't see this coming

And he says we all knew this gravy train was

going to crash and spill all over suddenly There's

this panic as careers are put in jeopardy I don't

call YouTubing or any of this stuff a career

if you managed to squeeze monetization out of

it And the fact that it was a new platform and

everybody was trying it and you were one of the

lucky ones to succeed kudos to you for riding

that gravy train but like all good things it

must come to an end and evolve and so yeah you

can you can move on to patreon where everybody

and their their cousin is posting you know go

fund me videos of yes please hand me money to

do what I was going to do anyway but give me

the money to do so and I'll give you this kind

intent Almost feel like you're cheating your

listeners in your content in that regard And

that's just me personally. I've I've thought

about doing the patreon. I've set my own up.

I've never actively promoted it because I see

the scenarios of everyone out there hurting and

Everybody is throwing their money at these people

that they're essentially idolizing and handing

money to entertain them on the internet. And

yes, you have to be fast and strike while the

iron's hot, but you have to be better than everyone

else, and with everybody jumping on the same

ships, it's gonna dry up too. I just don't know.

I think that it's eventually gonna be a giant

recipe for disaster, and we'll just have to see

how it turns out. But yeah, people are thinking

about quitting college to pursue YouTube stardom.

And it's like, why are you going to college?

Like, I went to college for media. I enjoy media.

I love media. I'm on it all the time. I record

this. I was doing this before my college degree,

and I'm really doing it well after it. I work

in media. I've always known that I wanted to

do media. even from holding that tape recorder

as a kid, I've always wanted to do media. And

I've always known that. There was a great period

in the early 2000s that I didn't really know.

But yeah, I kind of agree with this person, though.

He said, if you have a shot at a better career

than being a YouTuber, I would strongly suggest

not being a YouTuber. Because there's no chance

it's going to be a full -time gig. No one's gonna

be big like Philip DeFranco or some of these

other big YouTubers because you may not always

have that option You know if it's a hobby and

you make money at it you get money for advertising

you get money from listeners great but I also

agree with this listener that What YouTube is

doing is kind of crap but you know What good's

complaining about it? All you can do is try and

better yourself and try and Try other methods

I mean don't Don't stick to the norm. I mean

you don't have to reinvent the wheel but Do something

of substance give people a reason to want to

Don't you know I feel like some people do it

just because it's the popular thing to do I do

it for fun. I do it for you know the occasional

if I have something to say If I don't just don't

do it So gonna move on from this gravy train

As I've used that word numerous times I had fun

calling this part of the shoot for the wallet.

I might turn that into a segment of just things

that Use the hashtag I'd be really interested

to hear what people have to say, but you can

get it interact with the show You know use the

hashtag What's geeky to you of what you're geeking

out to this week? And if you feel like complaining

about something that's just eating at your wallet

Like just seriously eating at your wallet So

have you ever thought that you would stop going

to a store just for For tech gadgets with with

the internet being what it is today well Best

buy will come to you Starting this fall you can

actually call a Best Buy salesperson to your

house where they'll try and sell you Best Buy

products at no extra cost Apparently Best Buy's

Chief executive decided this new program will

allow them to unlock Latent demand whatever that's

supposed to mean, but they're finding people

in the home and that tend to spend more because

They they address a bigger need for them compared

to what they spend in the store well for one

in the store I Mean I kind of like the idea,

but at the same time. I don't really If I want

something I kind of know what I want Yeah, he

basically just said that nobody's shopping in

the stores But part of the problem is you have

and I'm not saying this is always the case But

you always have these inexperienced people, but

I think that also you run the case that I've

been in there shopping before and passed them

up because If you don't look like somebody's

gonna spend money They just pass by you. They

don't even say hi. You have to like hunt one

down One of the salespeople which is annoying

because we were gonna buy a TV years ago and

we ended up going to another retailer because

it upset us to the point that we were just like

no not doing it and we made sure we let the manager

know before we left but We stood there for about

45 minutes because they were busy and Then when

a bunch of them got freed up We had to go hunt

one down and then the guy went to go find something

out and then never came back that and the aspect

that they broke everything down into mini stores

like you have the Samsung booth you have the

Apple booth you have the Microsoft booth you

have the the Sony booth like if I want to go

into a store that has technology I don't really

care about the brand I just want to I want all

the cameras in one spot I want all the the computers

in one spot all of the you know just all of the

products to that type and they started kind of

breaking them out into mini stores years ago

and I don't think that I've shopped at a Best

Buy since because it was too jarring trying to

find what I wanted. But I see them despite their

trying to not become the dead circuit city. I

still see them eventually going by the wayside

because places like Amazon and all these other

services are outdoing them because people can

buy stuff cheaper and usually they they're well

researched so there's really not a need to go

into these stores. I mean I feel bad for everybody

that works at them because it's still jobs but

honestly like I don't I don't see the need to

actually go into a Best Buy anymore Now I thought

that this this would be kind of interesting because

Elon Musk is always in the news anymore between

Tesla and other tech innovations that he's coming

out with but a few of these I thought were kind

of interesting enough to actually devote time

to and He's developed a SpaceX spacesuit Which

funny enough isn't very bulky, but it looks very

star trek in very trekkie look up and They said

that it actually works. It's not a mock -up.

It's it's been tested to double vacuum pressure

and was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics

with function. He came out with it on Instagram

on August 23rd. It looks like he's developed

this very light, aesthetically pleasing spacesuit

that's not as bulked up as the previous ones

we've seen NASA come up with. So if if this is

actually true It's it's really interesting and

they're saying that the The the full -body suits

the advanced versions of the little masks that

drop down in airplanes when they get rough so

Yeah, it's it looks kind of interesting But he's

also He's also developed or he's working on a

new startup Neuralink, which it's a brain interface

Which kind of goes with that that tech in the

hand thing like I don't know if I would do this

And while while I support The The technology

perhaps of being able to figure stuff out he

says he wants to cope connect your brain directly

to a computer and Yeah, it's still It's not raising

any cash or anything, but it's which some of

the sites were reporting on but I find the technology

more Kind of awe -inspiring but at the same time

disturbing Because On the one hand it could lead

to better memory processing in terms of you could

essentially use a computer to implant, in a sense,

something that could help you retain more of

your memory. But at the same time, I don't know

if it's like, it kind of gets into that kind

of law of questionable behavior. with kind of

digging into the brain with technology, so I'm

not really sure how I feel about that. I mean,

how long before they can program your job, your

employment, and all your school information into

a computer and then just send you into the workforce?

You know, I mean, it's kind of interesting, but

at the same time, it's disturbing. So he said

that the brain and machine interface would allow

the human mind to keep up with the fast -improving

artificial intelligence. So because all that

computing power won't be as useful if we can

only connect with it via traditional screens

and input types, or we could just do like Star

Trek and have the artificial intelligence in

the sense that we still control it but we can

speak to it and get it to do what we want or

touch the commands. I kind of like the Star Trek

method of it better, but we'll see. They're saying

that Neuralink could help potentially overcome

chronic conditions like epilepsy, which that

would be awesome They're saying that they could

do like this is scary because I see the Borg

in this But they're saying that it could allow

people to communicate brain to brain instead

of having to compress ideas into words Yeah,

I don't I don't want a shared consciousness.

Thank you. No Borg for me Mean I like the the

innovation that goes into a lot of this technology

that mosque is is involved with but at the same

time I don't know a lot of it's necessary like

the space stuff. I think saw some they they've

been Looking for a new method of space travel

and and stuff related to that for years. So that's

That's awesome this Can get kind of troublesome

and edgy, so I'm not really sure where it's gonna

go Then the last bit of tech stuff I have that

I thought was kind of cool is Sandisk has a 400

gigabyte micro SD card I Don't really want to

know the price on this Oh, it's $250 not as Surprisingly

bad as I thought it would be But yeah, it's saying

that you can connect it into your phone and I

think that that alone Would be good for For for

recording film because a lot of them use like

micro SD cards or SD cards, so I Don't know.

I kind of like that it it comes with a 10 -year

limited manufacturers warranty and will be available

soon from Sandisk I think it's partially because

it's a collaboration because Western Digital

bought out Sandisk earlier in the year And so

you have that nice melding of technology there

So I Don't know I would be down for that because

then I could store Literally everything. Can

you imagine the podcast the movies the video

the TV shows? The home videos you could save

on your phone with a 400 gigabyte hard drive

It's just insane to think about because you could

literally have everything you need right there

And get like Bluetooth keyboard mouse and Yeah,

like a projection screen with your and do everything

with your phone. You wouldn't even need a laptop

That's that's just awesome right there I I can't

even imagine Having that much storage on my phone.

I mean, I have a 32 gig in my phone right now

and it's not nearly enough so Yeah, that's that's

some pretty awesome stuff coming down the pipe

so gonna take a quick break and Come back with

the listener feedback from last week And we're

back so King of Kongs commented and says with

Disney leaving Netflix and CBS and other networks

pushing their own streaming to services Do you

think Netflix is on its way out? It's already

in such debt and their library is shrinking and

even passing by the day and then TFG one Mike

says I Understand you want Steve's opinion here,

but I think that Netflix is not on its way out

They have a full library of original content.

They add stuff all the time My thing is I think

that yeah, they have a lot of stuff there And

they're constantly losing stuff to other other

stations like Disney CBS and whatnot In some

of the stations like CW. I still see sticking

around for a while At least until WB does their

own their app and then I see that leaving too

But I think Netflix is in trouble because they've

monopolized this for so long and Because that

they're doing their own content. That's why they're

all leaving So, they kind of shot themselves

in the foot there, but they also taught all these

companies that, hey, look, we can produce content

of our own and we can have our own apps and our

own services that is exclusively ours. Plus,

it saves them on, because nobody's really buying

DVDs anymore. Nobody's really buying movies.

Everybody wants to stream it. Everybody wants

it at their fingertips. It's convenient for me

to watch stuff on my phone. Sometimes I lay in

bed and I'm trying to go to sleep and so I'll

plug in headphones and I'll watch Netflix or

Star Trek or something so I Think Netflix might

be in trouble In the sense that a lot of their

content isn't quality content. It's a lot of

its filler and garbage and because they're trying

to push the envelope on a lot of Almost mature

rated stuff It's It's nothing I'm gonna let my

kids watch and a majority of their content I

know they have some kids content on there too,

but a lot of it's inundated with today's Junk

as opposed to the stuff we had in the 90s, which

yeah I'm not saying the 90s stuff wasn't bad

either because going back to it as an adult.

There's a lot wrong with it, but It's also the

fact that I just I don't like the direction that

a lot of stuff's gone, so I'm kind of shying

away from it. And to be honest, I'm not really

letting my kids watch too much of the modern

cartoons or kids' television just because a lot

of it's, like I said, just filler garbage. There's

not really much substance to any of it anymore.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm not... I think Netflix

is gonna be hurting, and I think that... You

can only rely on so many Adam Sandler films and

junk shows. I don't even hear any of the pop

culture buzz about half their shows that they

have anymore. I mean, I hear Marvel stuff when

Disney does their thing. I think eventually you're

gonna see shows like Defenders and Daredevil

and all those go over to the Disney service.

I mean, they may keep them at Netflix. At least

initially but At the end of the day, it's still

Disney's call because it's their content so We'll

see we'll see it's it's another of that hashtag

shoot for the wallet That's that's my new go

-to so And the last bit of stuff I want to cover

is Hasbro is suing DC Comics over the Bumblebee

name. I couldn't help but do a meme of this the

other day, having a real -life Bumblebee, the

DC Bumblebee, and Bumblebee from Transformers

all in it. I said, what's Hasbro going to do

next, sue nature? Because we know nature had

the Bumblebee first. And besides that... If you're

pitting the two companies against each other,

Hasbro and DC. DC had it first. DC had a female

character called Bumblebee in the Titans in the

70s. It was created before 1983. It was 1978

that they came up with it, or 1977, one of the

two, and... Bumblebee for the Transformers wasn't

created until Bob Budiansky in 1983 Coined that

character for the the toys in the comic line

Yeah, 1977 for the Teen Titans Bumblebee name

so DC first used it so regardless It shouldn't

Yeah, it it shouldn't matter and At the time

when Budianski did it, he was a part of Marvel's

licensing deal to develop and publish the original

1980s Transformers. But Hasbro has trademarked

Bumblebee, the name, in December of 2015, which...

Even if you want to talk that, which I think

there's total crap that they can do that, but...

They... DC came up with their DC superhero girls

thing in 2013 So, yeah, I this whole thing is

just humorous and stupid but they're they're

claiming that The bumblebee name The hands was

blocking or seeks to block the sale of Bumblebee

toys from DC's Super Hero Girls line, which it

contends will interfere with the sales of its

Bumblebee Transformers line, because Bumblebee

is going to have his first spin -off film in

2018, which is going to bomb just like the last

few films of Transformers. That's so stupid.

One's a robot. One's an African American female

girl superhero. Like, how are you going to get

the two mixed up? Yeah, if your kid says I want

a bumblebee toy well obviously you're gonna know

what they're into so you're not gonna be that

stupid to where you're not gonna be able to put

this This name with the correct toy I Don't know

it just seems like a grab for money like Hasbro.

It just wants to Bumbastically attack for no

reason So I'm gonna call it a day Everyone, have

a safe and happy Labor Day weekend, and we'll

catch you next week. I will have an episode on

Wednesday and on Friday next week. I have some

things planned for both. And until next time,

get altered, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.