 Coming up on DTNS it's our listener co-host episode our favorite co-hosts we find out what our grandmasters think about DTNS This is the Daily Tech news show for Tuesday, December 28, 2021 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio Redwood I'm Sarah Lane and I'm Roger Chang the show's producer Welcome to our end-of-year listener co-host show our annual episode where we invite a few of our supporters to appear alongside Us on the show this year. We invited the patreon grandmasters on board Not all of them were able to make it of course But we are very lucky to get it project manager norm physicus. Welcome norm And it professional and photographer steve. I had a roller welcome back Steve Hello, I say back because we say both your names a lot on the show But yeah, this is actually the first time you've been on the show, right? Actually my second probably about three years ago is on one of the calling shows So oh so that that was instinctual of me remembering that I see perfect. I shouldn't have said anything just rolled with it It's great to have you both We love we love having listeners on the show and we're so happy that the schedules worked out that you could talk to us Sarah we were so appreciative of these two fine folks and everybody who supports our show Yeah, we really are um, so norm. Let's start with you frequent Contributor to feedback on the show which we so so appreciate but let's Learn a little bit more about you and what you do and how technology affects your life Sure. Well, I'm currently an IT project manager. I say currently it's been like almost all my life I've been drawn to technology from my as a youth I start off programming on our napple to e and then besides playing games and then All I do it all and then we're off to college and got pulled back in the programming and did a lot of comm consulting and That's pretty much it So what what what do we talk about on the show that resonates with you the most? Well, I think it's the way you guys talk to The everyone this is that you don't dumb down You don't you assume that we're educated already. We know if there's a new subject. You'll let us know about it But at the same time you don't need to do a long Intro to each of the subjects which I really really enjoy but what really I enjoy is the Comparatory between the whole team. That's really my favorite part of it all you guys get along so much so well And then GDI is like I look forward to it every day hearing you guys talk about Everything you know between the food and the Sports and everything is really good. It's really kind of a you know fills in my day. So I really appreciate it I think that's one of the hardest things to just to describe to people sometimes when when they're unfamiliar They're like will you have a 30 minute like pretty button-down technology discussion show And then you have this other thing around it where you talk about you know cannibalism and etymology and you know We talked about cannibalism one day So so I I think a lot of people are like well, I don't know if I'd like that were you like did you at first think like I don't know about this GDI thing and and then just kind of was it at a quiet taste. I guess is what I'm asking Yeah, kind of human flesh. It was yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I And I can't remember how I actually happened. I think I didn't sign up for it initially But I started listening to it and that is was like it filled in my day because For the longest time I was actually not working in an office so having this kind of water cooler talk was it was Really needed in my life and then and plus it's not like you guys steer off into, you know controversial topic. It's like, you know pies and You know food and things like that but anyway, I can relate to yeah the pie talk can get fairly controversial if we let it Long as you're not putting cheese on anything And norm not that you know, you you can talk about it as much as you want to or or as little as you want to but What what is your day-to-day, you know, what what's your IT life for anybody who's like, what is he doing all day? Well, I do a lot of This is support by T so just kind of project management will tell people what to do So right now I do a lot of work with radio towers or building trying to build us radio towers here in the Central Valley try to help coordinate that work and also I'm actually had relatively new to local governments to try and get the ins and outs of that I came to the private sector before I worked for a large telecom company so kind of like getting to know the ins and outs of local governments and a little bit different I Think one of the one of the things I hope for DTNS is that it is somewhat of a crossroads Where we're we're at the intersection of lots of stuff and we know a little about everything So if you don't know about central bank digital currencies or or or NFTs or something We can we can kind of give you enough to to know whether you're interested in or not or understand it a little better But I know every single person in our audience has A higher expertise in their thing than we'll ever have And so I love that that everybody's willing to share that Is there a thing that that you think about sometimes and are like, you know, I I know this And I wish more people understood it Well, I know a lot about uh space um and space x rockets things like that But you guys don't talk about all the time, but if you you did then I'd probably you know Be on the show like all the time I'm a big fan of that so I try to go see you know rocket launches and whatever I Now they're doing them on and on the central coast. I can go take a look at those But not really. I mean you guys give such a broad view of things. It's it's really helpful and My stuff is pretty rudimentary. It's it's all back end stuff typically Besides these radio towers are just you know pretty front end, but uh, I really appreciate just the wide Wide pattern of the topics you guys cover Cool, cool. When you're saying radio towers, is is it like for for cellular connections or what kind of radio? emergency services Ah, gotcha. Okay. Oh, that's that that's yeah, that's super important stuff to make sure you're right Comes up often in fact All over the world. Yeah, certainly in california where I live Is there is there anything norm that um You thought would be I don't know a uh You know a hot Topic on dtns that you didn't hear or something, you know that we talked about that surprised you Well, I think it's actually the opposite is there's stuff I'll hear about like like I know if email talk about this like The Theranos trial like it's like you guys just don't take like what again being the educated Consumers that you guys are speaking to you guys don't uh, we don't need to hear about that You guys you guys find things that I haven't heard about and Make it approachable and then make you want to dig into it more So I that's that's that's fantastic about it. Ah, stop. Tell me what I want to hear I know I know and it's everything right Well, that's what it's I don't it's I wish I could give you guys some like you know negative feedback I mean you guys do you guys learn how to pronounce my last name you have Yeah, you you take questions for people named nick and norm um, and uh, you guys have just great camaraderie and get along well You have all those guys from Ohio that helped the team out, which I I don't know if I can You'll be a little too close to michigan for you. Yeah a little bit too close I know we've got some rivalry going on in our audience. I'm trying to get someone from the upper peninsula to come on But he's a busy guy. So it's kind of been hard to get him Yeah, so I know several of those people, but they're kind of letter into tech that if we hold up Yeah Well, uh, before we move on and chat with steve, uh, do you have any questions for us norm? Well, I think it was a I want to know if it was anything you guys thought maybe in the past year or the past Several years of your careers that you thought wasn't become like a bigger topic than it became Like for me like back in 2001, uh, the build up for the the announcement for the segway I thought was I thought it was like it was going to be a huge thing and then it came up And I was like what the heck is this thing it turned out be you know, nothing after not nearly as big as they thought It's going to revolutionize cities. Is there anything like that for me that you guys that Tom you want to start? Sure. Sure. I'll go first. Uh I've been beaten down so many times in it with expectations over the years that I've learned never to expect anything It's going to be all that big The the early thing that I the last thing I remember being truly excited about and then turned into nothing was ultra mobile PCs Do you remember those the umpcs? background 2004 or so they were they were You know modified. I don't know if they were quite embedded, but they were modified versions of like windows running on small handheld devices that were like all all of the things you can do on a on a regular pc in a in a mobile format and at the time I was just fascinated with it But I think it was fascinated in the way you're fascinated when you see a small thing Uh a small version, you know, like dollhouse size versions of things. You're like, oh, that's so weird and cute Uh, it didn't end up being usable for anything Uh, because it was it was bigger than what were the pda's at the time Uh, but it was it was not Powerful enough to actually do what Ultralight laptops eventually came to be I think Fablets became what I thought ultra multiple PCs would become eventually So maybe we did get them But that was the last one that that I got really disappointed that it just fell flat Uh, there you know, there's things like vr where I've thought well, this might this might go. Uh, there's there's there's things, uh Trying to think if there's anything even more recently Uh, the but none I could think of that that really fell flat that just didn't didn't go anywhere at all Sarah, what about you? Um, well, you know, you mentioned vr. I'm I'm so bullish on vr. I I it's my favorite thing I just couldn't tell you that I was going to feel that way two years ago But I do what I think that I am I'm disappointed in and it's not because the technology isn't still moving forward because it is But drone delivery The idea that drones will fly through the sky Possibly carrying humans or goods either one all as well And getting us off the streets and into the sky To give people the things that they need burritos In my case, it would be a burrito absolutely I I just We've been talking about this for years and it is so in the early days still and sure There there was no way that you know You would be able to say like oh drone can just like land in someone's backyard It's like totally depends on where you live and there's so many issues there But I thought we'd be farther along by now. I was I was really kind of looking forward to like the robots on the sky Batteries is another one battery tech. I thought by 2021 if you had asked me in 2006 I'd say oh, yeah by 2021 we won't be using lithium ion batteries anymore. Well, we'll have figured something cool out by then That that one has definitely disappointed that was a slow Burning disappointment and literally burning in some cases so Well, you know, they just recharge them As long as they're they're not toast All right, steve. You've been patiently waiting. Thank you I I promise that I didn't make you go second because you're wearing a Bruins hat That is just the way roger made the lineup before we ever saw We we leave our our sports partisanship at the door on the show But tell us what you do in tech. How does technology play a role in your life? So my full-time job I manage a data center and the information security operations for a small to mid-sized Farm-suitable company just outside of boston um my day-to-day is Far and wide pretty much everything about the infrastructure. I like to tell people I'm The mechanic who greases the wheel so people can get their internet and you know email and everything in between uh throughout the whole stack to to be able to Have all the the systems on the internet and all of our employees Work so that encompasses not only the the servers the day center network Wireless and You know in in my type of organization. We're still smaller even though we're about a 200 person organization Everybody is still a service desk employee So when folks have a problem, it doesn't matter who you are You're part of it so fix this so so that's pretty much what I do on a day-to-day basis most recently um, I've been in the process of building out a 800 I'm sorry 80 000 square foot new facility so everything that's involved with Getting that up and running from it av and all sorts Along with continuing to do my day-to-day stuff Do you think that the technology literacy that we've seen increase You know as more people get on the internet more people use smartphones. Do you think it is permeated into? I the it world the it support world in other words Do people have a better understanding of what you do or is it still like I don't know what's wrong just fix it That's a good question. I I think it's about 50 50 there one of the things that i'm definitely seeing is the uh digital natives who are Who've grown up with you know computers and and technology? They tend to grasp things a lot quicker than some of the older generation that are still in the workforce um but there are plenty of younger employees who Don't have any idea about anything technology related You know we can have folks who just graduated college and they don't even know how to you know work their cell phone or log into a computer and Most of those folks have all grown up using um either ipads or tablets so for them it's actually A challenge sometimes to use in the enterprise corporate system like Outlook or you know something like that share point nobody really understands but you know it is what it is I mean you you mentioned you at your uh managing a smaller company and that you know 200 employees Certainly there are larger uh companies Seems like a pretty big company though What what do you find not to call anybody out? But what do you find is that is the thing that you have to Quote fix the most um honestly, I think it's mostly around security issues and uh education of the workforce that you know just because you Get a spam email Or a phishing email that looks like it's from amazon or You know docusign or some other corporate company Doesn't mean you have to click on everything so it's a constant battle with educating the workforce and continuing to Keep all those security issues at bay and and just patching in general Across a workforce that's for the last two years is basically even mobile You know prior to the pandemic. We were all in one building and we didn't have as many issues But now Everybody's mobile. So how do you get those devices? Up and patched and maintain them when we have folks who haven't been in the office in two years So it's it's those remote management issues that are challenging There's kind of no perimeter really right now There's not we've been fortunate that prior to the pandemic we set up our organization to anticipate something like this and we everybody basically had a laptop and We had everybody being able to connect remotely to do their jobs However in our industry because we have labs and lab space We still have a significant portion of folks who had to come in to the office, but You know, we were fortunate. We were kind of a little bit ahead of the game when the pandemic hit So we just had to do a quick pivot and we got up and running A lot quicker than a lot of these other companies who never anticipated anything like this or we're still This type of company that was on site punching o'clock every day They don't have remote access Well, we're curious. We're very thankful that you're a listener and a supporter of daily tech news show But but tell us a little bit about how you got into the show I kind of the show probably I think I started following You at the tail end of the buzz out loud days and followed you over to twit tv really enjoyed that format and When you brought this on I think I was right there I don't think right at the beginning I signed up for the patreon, but I was definitely You know watching and listening and trying to contribute where I could With the reddit and all that stuff And I decided to finally become a patreon because I felt as though The format helped not only myself In my day-to-day job, but I felt that it added value to Um the industry and and it was just a great great show No, thanks Lovely to hear I i'm curious if you also listen to gdi the good day internet or just dts I do no wrong answers. No, I I I pretty much listen to it all as much as I can Um, do you like pie? I I do I do okay I'm more of a chocolate cream pie person, but blueberry is good and apple is you know the old standby So as far as gdi goes, yes, I listen to it. Um, and it's actually You know, I'm sure you've probably heard this before but I've been supporting you for years and you've become basically part of my daily routine and I listen to gdi and You know, it's silly. I I know that we're we're not really friends outside of this, but I feel like you're all my friends, you know Falling along listening And it feels like it's a part of the show even though I'm not so It is it's a big part and it's fun and interesting Conversations are great. First of all, you are a part of the show You're very much a part of the show outside of today Because we couldn't we couldn't do it without your feedback But it is nice it is nice to know that sometimes on our wildest gdi days people are Having fun, you know, it's and we're all in it together Absolutely, that's what makes it enjoyable to the the different conversations and they go all these different places and you know as Tom said the topics are far and wide. Yeah, we also have no perimeter Gdi All right, well we asked norm this too. So so steve, do you have any questions that you wanted to ask us? Yeah, it's a little bit similar to norms, but slight twist. Um I was interested to see what current or emerging technologies You're you're both most passionate or excited about And what your hopes are for where that technology may lead us in the future And you know, I know sarah's already mentioned it. She's all about the vr and you know talking about her vr experiences on gdi You know Things like blockchain nfts autonomous vehicles drone delivery Those are kind of where my mind was was going but i'm i'm curious I don't think we get to hear all that often from from you folks What excites you about technology you report on it every day, but what gets you going? well, uh, you mentioned vr and I I sound like a broken record. I know but I mean vr has been You know getting a quest the regular the first quest not the quest to the original quest As one of my live with it segments where I live with it for three months take a bunch of notes let everybody know about it was By far the best thing I ever did And I wouldn't have done it otherwise. I just wouldn't I would have been like, uh, I don't I don't need to play games in vr um, there is so much more to it to me and I do a lot of exercising apps not as of late, but you know in in a in a perfect world. That's actually a daily fun thing that I but that I I never want to not do but um, I say the quest because I feel like the quest is sort of the only consumer Uh player out there, um on any level and that's going to change That is going to change and I hope it changes soon and I hope it makes the whole the whole space A lot different and I know that it isn't going to appeal to everybody, but uh, it is Truly, you know speak about the pandemic. Let's be honest. There's been some escapism. That's been really nice for me But uh, yeah, I'm uh, I'm I'm stoked on vr in the future You're you're trying not to say metaverse. Sorry. Aren't you? It's the quest tom The meta I don't No, I actually hate that term to be honest with you. No, it's the worst. It's it's just so stupid. I'm not going to say metaverse Mostly because yes, I kind of hate all the the the fud around it Uh, also, I don't want to like I want to say something different than what you just said But but I think the part of what people mean when they say a metaverse the very small part where they're talking about Virtual worlds and escapism and all that I'm I'm with you. I'm a hundred percent with you Like that's just going to get better and there's just going to be more Uh opportunities to do it. So yeah Yeah, yeah, I mean the whole idea of like well, you can you know play a shooter game or Fly through the worlds, you know, it's like You know what that those are cool. Those things are cool But there's going to be more of a like real life, especially both you and norm You Steve and norm Talking about working remotely and managing folks how this is actually going to just be a solution in the future I don't totally see it yet, but I think I think that's where we're headed. Yeah, there might be a way My mind actually ties a little bit into that I I think I'm excited There's lots of things I can say like well, this is going to be big next year And this is something to keep an eye on and you hear that as part of every daily tech news show But one of the things I probably don't talk as much about Is how how I think intelligent assistance is going to get a lot better We hear a lot about AI Not enough about machine learning but a lot about AI But even then we hear a lot about machine learning and we hear a lot about the promise and we hear a lot of a lot of like Ah, this is what it can do. This is what it will do, which maybe it will never do We hear a lot about the fears about what it might do that's unintended and we hear about The thing that it can't do in your current amazon echo or google home or syria or or whatever I think The big revelation is going to be The machine learning uh hitting hitting that hockey stick of improvement We we haven't quite come around the curve on that but I I think Even with the restrictions on data that are properly applied To these they're going to keep getting trained and keep getting feedback and keep getting better as as they're used And I think there's going to be a moment when we're suddenly all going to say Man these these intelligent assistants They're good and they're easy to use and now I can just speak to them normally And I think that's going to get better and better and lead into ambient computing Where where you aren't always thinking of computing as or as being the thing that you're picking up As the device but just being around you Uh, whether that knowing your home and and turning the lights on because it's learned your pattern Uh, or you just being able to say where did I put the oil and the assistant can say it's in cabinet To your left because it knows where you are. I think that's the kind of thing that we're headed toward that I'm I'm really really excited about Just making basically what I'm saying is anything that's going to make my life easier Oh, truly. Yeah, I actually have a uh a smart bulb that's making my life very much not easier because it now just Because it's not living in that wonderful future that I'm imagining yet. No It's got a life of its own, but I don't know. It's it's Something to tinker with over the weekend kind of thing. Yeah, that can be fun It can and it and it hopefully will be Do you uh, we didn't prepare you for this but norm or steve. Do you have any questions for each other? Uh, that that you would want to ask uh before we we wind this up You've probably heard of one another having been part of the show for some time Um, seems seems like you live in somewhat parallel universes Yeah, Steve seems like a lot more fun than mine. Um, Steve actually had a comment We had some people that with the pandemic bringing back the devices from like they had like windows 98 and windows mt on it Like they pulled them out of the closet thought they'd just start putting back on it's like Um, I don't have any experience with that because it's uh the it folks on my side were not really happy with that So do you have any weird things come out of the closet with the with people going shut down? That should have been on the network I haven't yet. Um, we're still mostly remote And most of all the uh equipment we issue is on the latest, you know windows 10 type versions So i'm i'm hopeful We don't run into anything like that Well, good luck, you know fingers crossed. Thank you. Thank you. And then likewise steve anything back at norm I I don't uh norm. Sorry. I wasn't prepared for that. But um, you know, we we we weren't trying to We weren't trying to got you a shade on the red wings or something. I don't know No, no, no. Hey, i'm a huge hockey fan You know, I I root for the brillians because it's the home team But I follow four or five different teams So it's all about hockey and the red wings aren't one of them. That's a shame for you They're an original six. I always try and go to the red wings games when they play in boston Okay, i'll give you that I was saying have a night I have to say both steve and norm It's always nice to see uh someone's personal setup and we all have the remote setups now Um, well not all of us, but many do steve. I am very into your cabinets Oh, well those are beautiful I love them. They're great and norm. I can't see some of the art behind you But it looks like you're in a pretty fun room Yeah, it's a bunch of uh speak of hockey. There's a hockey picture right there's a basketball one and Barry sander's frame thing And then uh, I've got a A great ants uh rocking chair behind me that's been reupholstered Aw, cool there Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, yeah, that's gorgeous. Very nice I don't use it too much but i'm working If my bosses are here even, you know, it's there if you want it. It's decorative. Yeah, it's to inspire you Well, thank you, sir You're welcome. Um, well, yeah, thank you to you both. Um, norm We'll start with you if you'd liked folks to know where they can keep up with What you do outside of being part of dts and gdi and and the family here I I know that uh, you use untapped So so so is that the best place for folks to connect with you? It really is I don't do social media I gave up facebook like 10 years ago Um No offense. They would use facebook just not no respect to you and then um twitter I think I have an account, but I don't use it. I just drink beer and And uh, enjoy it I'm not chasing after my children. Yeah It's one of the great social networks because people are just like talking about beer to each other, you know Yeah, keep it simple. Yeah Right, so uh, your untapped username is n physicus. Uh, if anybody also likes beer and wants to connect with norm Um, but uh, but yeah kudos to susane. I don't like social media Not everybody does And turns out, uh, you can you can definitely be part of the conversation and not be part of all platforms And I think that's pretty pretty cool Thank you I get to click on a tiktok link. So I feel pretty special about that I have to click on way fewer tiktok links. I know I offset you sarah Way fewer. Thank you. Yes, good tiktok offsets. Thank you for bringing me down Down from the clouds. Uh, steve. Ia d'arolla also, uh, such a pleasure to have you on the show Let folks know where they can uh, they can connect with you Yeah, the easiest place is probably twitter. Uh, I'm at steve. I I was an early adopter and was able to get a Short name. So, uh, that's probably the best spot and I, um If anyone's interested in some of the photography, uh, that I do you can probably find that off of my about.me Slash stevi Excellent. Thank you for being here. It was a pleasure Uh, Steve norm, thank you both, uh for for supporting us at such a strong level It it it humbles us, uh to to have you give that vote of confidence to us that That goes for you and every other person Uh on patreon as well. So so special direct thanks to both of you, uh for that It it's it's all combining to to make it possible for us to do this and and we're super lucky that we're headed into our eighth year of daily, uh tech news show, uh because of you So so thank you, uh for that if you would like to join steve and norm, uh in that effort daily tech news show dot com Slash patreon, uh daily tech news show dot com slash support either one they go to the same place Uh, we'll get you to our patreon and don't forget, uh, you don't have to spend new year's eve alone every year ritual misery presents the diamond club new year's eve stream A thought 27 hours of raising money for sick kids through extra life dot org and sarah and i are coming back We did it last year. We're doing it again this year doing it again Yeah, join us on new year's eve at 23 30 utc That's 15 30 pacific For good year internet, uh, we'll be part of the new year's eve streamathon You can find all the details for that at ritual misery dot com slash streamathon Just a reminder that our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com And we love your feedback. Please do keep it coming You you make the show what it is We're also live monday through friday regularly at 4 30 p.m. Eastern 21 30 utc You can find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live We'll see you tomorrow with our best of 2021 gdi This show is part of the frog pants network get more at frog pants dot com Diamond club hopes you have enjoyed this program