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Show of 12-23-2017

Tech Talk Radio
December 23, 2017

Best of Tech Talk Edition

  • Segments replayed from previous shows

Email and Forum Questions

  • Email from Alfred: Hello Andrew, I enjoyed chatting with you Saturday morning during the Tech Talk radio show. I mentioned that, like Dr. Shurtz, I am also a physicist and that I had a Christmas ditty for physicists that he might enjoy.
  • Many years ago when I was a college Physics major in the Bronx, the students and faculty had a tradition of occasionally doing an after-hours beer and pizza party. At one such event held in December, and probably after more than a few pitchers of beer, the following Christmas ditty was composed -sung to the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:
      • God rest ye merry Physicists
      • Let nothing you dismay
      • Remember Isaac Newton
      • Was born on Christmas Day
      • To save us from philosophers
      • When we have gone astray
      • O tidings of comfort and joy
      • Comfort and joy
  • We never got past the first stanza but it sort of became a class song. Even today, decades later, whenever I hear that Christmas carol it brings back fond memories of that time of learning and camaraderie with budding physicists. Best wishes to Tech Talk radio for another year of interesting and informative radio! Al
  • Tech Talk Responds: Thanks for sharing. Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Using the “old” Julien calendar, Newton’s birth date is sometimes displayed as December 25, 1642.
  • Email from Arnie in Colorado Springs: Hi Dr. Shurtz, I downloaded Authy for two factor authorization, which I still haven’t used or know how to use. Twilio bought Authy. Since then I get invitations to view Twilio webmars. I’ve looked up Twilio, but I’m still not sure what this company does other than help Net developers in some way. Are you familiar with Twilio? Is it something anyone can use or is it esoteric to IT community? Great show! Thanks for all the info in Tech Talk. Arnie in Colorado Springs, CO
  • Tech Talk Responds: Strong passwords are not enough anymore. Two-factor authentication is necessary for important sites. That means using an app that generates authentication codes on your phone or a physical hardware token. Authy is a great app with great reviews. It is compatible with all sites that use Google Authenticator, but is more powerful and convenient. It can be used across multiple devices and has a cloud backup. It generates the token after viewing a QR code on the site. That way the actual authentication code is not sent via SMS and is more secure. Sites that support Google Authenticator (and Authy) include Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Evernote.
  • Twilio is a company that has services that can be embedded into applications using the public API. Services include embedded calling, embedded SMS, embedded VoIP, embedded chat, embedded video. It is designed to help app developers get started quickly.
  • Email from Carl Tyler: Dear Dr. Shurtz: Please explain what “Background App Refresh” is and should I have this turned on in my iPhone. I have read a few conflicting articles that says I should have it turned on and others say keep it turned off especially to prolong battery life. Could you do a “Profiles in IT” on Christopher White. He is a Principal Researcher and Partner at Microsoft. Popular Science calls him “The Man Who Lit Up The Dark Web”. I think he would be a worthy candidate to my favorite part of my favorite podcast. Please tell Mr. Big Voice I love the “Moved to Canada because of Trump” jokes. P.S. I haven’t heard Mrs. Big Voice on lately. Has she taken off with the e mailer who was always giving her compliments? Carl Tyler
  • Tech Talk Responds: Christopher White is a great suggestion for a future Profiles in IT. Background App Refresh allows your apps to check for new information in the background in an intelligent and controlled manner. Because of Background App Refresh, apps do not get a blank check to run in the background, but instead are only able to refresh at certain times, locations, and battery levels. BAR does not give any app a blank check to run whenever it wants. It actually adds a layer of intelligence to the way your phone handles apps in the background.
  • Apps can continue to run for a short period of time and are then set to a suspended state so they are not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. They will instantly launch when you return to them. Certain tasks or services can continue to run in the background. To lessen the effect on battery life, normal app background refreshing is scheduled for efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used. When Background App Refresh is on, apps that take advantage of this feature can refresh themselves in the background.
  • Background App Refresh is a great feature of iOS 7. BTW, BAR is automatically turned off when your phone goes into power saving mode at 20% charge.
  • When you enable Background App Refresh, you can select which applications are included. If you check the app often enough that it is critical to have the app up to date, then turn it on. BTW, one of the biggest drains is caused by display brightness. I always keep my brightness less than 50% unless I am trying to use the phone in direct sunlight.

Profiles in IT: William Henry Gates III

  • Position while at Microsoft: CEO, Chief Software and Chief Software Architect
  • Holds 8% of common stock with a net worth of $56 billion
  • Gates founded Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.
  • Early Years
    • Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest.
    • He and other students sought time on other systems, including DEC PDP minicomputers. PDP-10 was owned by Computer Center Corporation.
    • Computer Center Corporation which banned the Lakeside students for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.
    • Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well.
    • At age 14, Gates also formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. That first year he made $20,000; however, when his age was discovered, business slowed.
    • He enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree, but did not have a definite study plan.
  • Beginning of Microsoft
    • After reading in Popular Electronics (Jan 1975) about the Altair 8800, Gates contacted MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter.
    • Over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter.
    • The demonstration, held at MITS’s offices, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC.
    • Paul Allen hired into MITS, and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS, dubbing their partnership “Micro-soft” in November 1975.
    • The hyphen was dropped the next year in the trademark filing.
  • Microsoft’s big break and expansion
    • In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for the IBM PC.
    • After Digital Research failed to negotiate with IBM for the CP/M OS, Gates proposed QDOS (Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products).
    • MS signed a deal with SCP to be the exclusive agent, and later full owner.
    • After adapting the OS for the PC, MS delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS for a one-time fee, without transferring the ownership of the source code.
    • MS was quick to license DOS to other clone manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS.
    • In the early 1980s Microsoft introduced its own version of the graphical user interface (GUI), called Windows. (Based on ideas pioneered by the Xerox, not Apple).
    • Windows 3.0 (released in 1990) sold around 10 million copies in the first two years.
    • Finally the 32-bit operating systems arrived (Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista)
    • Gates served as the CEO of the company until 2000, when Steve Ballmer took the position.

Website of the Week: NoradSanta.org

  • Web Address: http://www.noradsanta.org/
  • North Pole games for the kids
  • Santa tracking on Christmas by NORAD
  • NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) is part of the US Air Force

Dumb Idea of the Week: Underwear for your smartphone

  • For just 200 yen you can buy an underwear-shaped rubber band (‘Smartpants’) designed to fit over the bottom of your device. And yes, they’re sold from vending machines.
  • The strange idea was picked up recently by the blog Japan Smart Culture.
  • Many designs are available, including ‘male’ versions (complete with a bulge placed over your iPhone’s home button) and ‘female’ versions.
  • “The purpose of the smart pants is partly to protect the home button of your smart phone from being accidentally pushed.”
  • “People wear pants to protect their most sensitive spot. Well, on the Android phones, that’s the home button and the same with the iPhone. It just feels right to cover it up.”

Food Science: Champagne Bubbles

  • A team of scientists at the University of Reims have revealed the secrets behind the bubbles in Champagne, and why your glass might leave the wine as flat as a pancake or fizzing furiously.
  • A single bottle of Champagne contains 10 million bubbles. As the bubbles reach the surface of the wine they explode.
  • It explodes, making a tiny crater on the surface. The crater closes up and then ejects a thread of liquid, which then breaks up in droplets that can fly up to 10 centimeters.
  • They also figured out why strings of bubbles, known as the bead, rise from certain points in glass. It happens when microscopic fibers left by a kitchen towel or often just an airborne particle stick to the side of the glass, allowing molecules of dissolved carbon dioxide to coalesce and form bubbles.
  • The finding is important for Champagne lovers and for the restaurant industry.
  • Glasses that are retrieved from a dishwasher, where they have been washed and blown dry upside down, could be so ultra-clean that few bubbles form.
  • Top-end glass manufacturers now use lasers to etch a tiny crown of spots at the bottom of the glass, creating flaws to make bubbles form and rise in a pretty ring.
  • Should you drink Champagne from a tall, long-stemmed glass or a shallow cup?
  • The shallow cup loses CO2 one-third faster than a flute, so the flute is preferred.
  • Drinking Champagne from a plastic cup can be a drab experience because the sides are hydrophobic, or liquid repelling. The bubbles adhere to the sides through capillary action and inflate into the size of tiny balls.
  • The easiest way to produce finer bubbles is to reduce the quantity of CO2 which is dissolved in the Champagne, and this is linked to the amount of sugar.
  • The tradition was to add 24 grams of sugar per liter of Champagne along with yeast to induce the second fermentation, but the trend now is 18 grams of sugar.
  • Although its carbon dioxide that dissolves in both wine and mineral water under pressure, the label on the bottle actually says contains carbonic acid.
  • The reason for this is the chemical process that causes carbon dioxide molecules to combine with water molecules under high pressure to produce carbonic acid.
  • Because carbonic acid is a very unstable molecule, it quickly disintegrates again when the bottle is opened and the pressure drops, and then bubbles up as carbon dioxide.
  • Scientists have named their new branch of science blaseology the science of bubbles.

Live Champagne Bubble Demonstration

  • Demonstration Props
    • Bottle of Champagne (Brut)
    • Two crystal Champagne Flutes with etched bubble ring in bottom
    • Two Plastic Glasses
  • Observations
    • Bubbles originate from etched ring rough area in flutes
    • Bubbles stick to the sides of the plastic glasses
  • On air question: To drink or not to drink.

Gifts ForTechies

  • Smart Home Gifts (Google vs Apple vs Amazon ecosystem).
    • Amazon Echo ($79), Amazon Echo Dot ($49), Amazon Echo Plus ($149)
    • Google Home ($129), Google Home Mini ($49)
    • TP-Link Smart Plug, Wi-Fi, Control your Devices from Anywhere, Works with Alexa and Google Assistant ($19 on Amazon)
  • Apple Watch Finally (LTE made it a winner)
    • Existing Series 1 (base price $249)
    • GPS-only Series 3 (based price $329)
    • GPS + Cellular Series 3 (base price $399) – the clear winner
  • Drones at Still Fun (DJI is still the best, $500 to $1,500)
    • DJI Spark ($399) is a fund portable mini drone with 720p video.
    • DJI Phantom 3 ($499) is the best budget drone with 720p video.
    • DJI Phantom 4 ($899) is the best pro drone with 1080p video.
    • DJI Phantom 4 Pro ($1399) for the pro with no budget with 4K video.
  • OTA TV Gifts (Tablo, Mohu Airwave)
    • Tablo 4 Tuner ($299)
    • ClearStreamTV ($129)
    • Mohu Airwave ($149)
  • Streaming Devices (Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra, Amazon Fire TV)
    • Apple TV 4K (64GB) — $199
    • Roku Ultra 4K UHD — $79
    • Amazon Fire TV4K UHD – $55
    • Google Chromecast 4K UHD — $69
  • Chromebooks
    • Acer Chromebook 14 ($299) Best overall
    • ASUS Chromebook C202 ($229) Best price overall
  • WonderTech Omnisight VR Headset for iPhone Android Windows Smartphones with Built-in Headphones and Gaming Bluetooth Remote Controller ($29 on Amazon)
  • Sensor Bag Light. Reach in your bag and this turns on when it senses your hand. No touch needed. $29.95 from Thegrommet.com.
  • Epica Digital Emergency Solar Hand Crank AM/FM/NOAA Radio, Flashlight, Smartphone Charger with NOAA Certified Weather Alert & Cable. What do you do if you forget to charge your backup charger. $39.95 from Amazon.com.