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Show of 12-30-2017

Tech Talk Radio
December 30, 2017

Best of Tech Talk Edition

  • Segments replayed from previous shows

Email and Forum Questions

  • Email from Youel Sarkis in San Diego: Dear Dr Richard. Hello and how are you? Love the show and I have been listening for few years religiously. You have a lot of great information that one can learn.
  • I have two questions. First, my church would like to broad cast/stream live our mass every Sunday live. I do not have time to sit there and start up the recording. Then up load it to YouTube or Facebook. Is there an ip camera that we can purchase that can do this automatically on a given time without anyone baby sitting it.  Mount it and set the program to stream. And on my second question. 
  • I have Google Wi-Fi at my home and love it. The only problem that I have is that it is a different network and I like it to have the same as my wired network. Anything on Google Wi-Fi network, I cannot see through the router on my computer. I cannot stream video to my TV. And so on.  Can I combine them as one network.  Where everything is together and can see each other. Thank you for taking my question looking forward on your answers.  Again, Youel have a great show and keep up the great work every week. Thank you again. Youel Sarkis, San Diego, CA
  • Tech Talk Responds: Let’s talk about your Wi-Fi. You can cascading two routers systems. You have plugged your wired network in the Cable Router and the Google Wi-Fi connected to the same Ethernet switch in the Cable Router. So you have tow different DHCP servers and two different networks. You can merget them to one network by plugging the wired network into the Google Wi-Fi. Then both your wired network and your wireless cascade through two firewalls and two NAT servers. That should solve you problem, although the piggybacked NAT servers could slow down your gaming. If that is a problem you can convert you Cable router to a bridge and only use the NAT server in the Google Wi-Fi system.
  • As for your charge, the easiest way to video is to use Periscope or Facebook Live. It is quick and dirty. You need to be mindful that most church music is copyrighted that that broadcasting it is outside of the fair use carve out. This gives a simple single angle view of the event. You should employ a wireless mike for anyone who speaks. Good sound is more important than good video. Plug the wireless mike directly into the camera. We simply use an iPad for the video streaming of the radio show on Periscope.
  • A good turnkey streaming service for Churches is DaCast. DaCast offers a well-rounded and comprehensive service at a competitive price. Smaller churches will gravitate to the Starter Plan, but will receive the same great features as larger churches on the Premium Plan. DaCast is easy to set up and get started, making it attractive for first time broadcaster. For pros, DaCast offers but also comes with sophisticated features and capabilities
    • Starter Plan $19/month (includes 100 GB of bandwidth & 20 GB of storage)
    • Pro Plan $165/month (includes 2,000 GB of bandwidth & 125 GB of storage)
    • Premium Plan $390/month (includes 5,000 GB of bandwidth & 250 GB of storage)
  • You get a lot more than just live streaming with DaCast. While most will enjoy the service being streamed live, some will not be able to watch it. With DaCast, you can create video on demand playlists so that your viewers can go back and watch any service they missed. You also can instantly embed any video content straight to your website or social media. Because DaCast is offered as a white label service, you can customize your content to display the logo or insignia of your church.
  • I would also suggest that you create a podcast. They are easier to manage. You can concentrate on getting great sound with a sound mixer. A reasonable service to work with is Podpoint.com (https://podpoint.com/). The simplest solution is to use a computer running software like Audacity (free) or GarageBand (free for Macs). You will just run a cable from your mixer into your computer, spend some time optimizing the audio, and you’re ready to go. This is the recommended route since it removes the step of transferring the file to your computer.
  • Email from Arnie in Colorado Springs: Hi Dr. Shurtz, Verizon Wants the FCC to Overturn State Internet Privacy Laws. The telecom giant filed a white paper with the FCC commission last week arguing that it had the authority to overrule recent state-level laws. It turns out getting national privacy laws dismantled was not enough for Big Telecom. Now, at least one wireless giant is lobbying to have state-level laws overturned as well. Fort Collins, CO, Pinetops, NC & a County/city in Michigan have taken advantage of the loophole that permits local municipal broadband. Do you have any inside info about this? Really enjoy your show. Thanks, Arnie, Colorado Springs, CO
  • Tech Talk Responds: I can see where privacy laws might want to be based nationally rather than state-by-state. However, as far as cable access in the cities, the cable companies should not have a monopoly. Fort Collin is a prime example. Voters in Fort Collins, Colorado, approved a ballot question that authorizes the city to build a broadband network, rejecting a cable and telecom industry campaign against the initiative. The vote doesn’t require the city to build a broadband network, but it gives the city council the permission it needs to move forward on the plan if it chooses to do so. The anti-municipal broadband group, called “Priorities First Fort Collins,” spent $451,000 campaigning against the broadband network ballot question. Priorities First Fort Collins received nearly all of its funding from the Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association and a group run by the city’s chamber of commerce. The pro-municipal broadband group in Fort Collins, the Fort Collins Citizens Broadband Committee, spent less than $10,000 in the campaign.
  • The anti-municipal broadband campaign had funded ads warning that a publicly funded network in Fort Collins would take money away from other infrastructure initiatives. The network would be funded by bonds, and supporters say it will be self-sustainable because of subscriber fees. Colorado has a state law requiring municipalities to hold referendums before they can provide cable, telecom, or broadband service.
  • Email from Harry in Chantilly: Hi there, I’ve really been enjoying your segments on your cord-cutting journey! In January of this year I officially cut the cord, and I couldn’t be happier.  It took about two years of research, planning, and waiting for the right elements to come together, though.  The first problem was dealing with Verizon.  Three years ago I tried to bargain down my bundle to just internet and phone and they threatened to jack up the price on the internet so that there would be little to no savings.  This past year, though, I was able to bargain them down to about $70 for the internet/phone bundle, saving me about $50 dollars a month. I already had Roku set up for my Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon accounts, and they continue to add lots and lots of free channels.  I gave up on over-the-air stations.  I do have a digital antenna but it seems that wherever I put it in my apartment I only ever got a handful of stations, most of them in foreign languages.  I really don’t miss OTA, though. My biggest concerns were getting local news and my PBS station, but Roku offered apps that solved both of those problems.  News On is an app that automatically tunes to your local news stations last broadcast, and of course PBS developed their own app. Next, I needed to get SlingTV.  They have been a work-in-progress for sure, but they continue to make the experience better by leaps and bounds.  For instance, earlier this year they offered Cloud DVR service and I signed up for it right away.  After about a week of recording, the whole system crashed and wiped out all my recordings.  It hasn’t happened again since, though, so I am thinking they have worked out the bugs. So when I add up all the services I pay for, it comes to about the same as I used to pay to Verizon for television service.  But I feel like I have much more freedom and choice in how, where, and when I watch and the channels I can get.  I look forward to the experience continuing to improve.  I hope your journey is equally as satisfying.  I look forward to hearing about it.  I’ll be listening! Harry in Chantilly, VA
  • Tech Talk Responds: BTW, you get the best price by quitting the cable company with an end date and then negotiating with the recovery specialist. You do not need to get the phone bundle. I switched to VoIP years ago and pay about $20 per year for my phone connection. I use Ooma ($200) and ported my landline number to it. My phone system plugs into Ooma. I can tell no difference, except that the blacklist system that Ooma uses has blocked all my spam calls. I can also have my cell phone ring when the home number rings and voicemails are emailed to me. Getting stations is all about the antenna and the direction it points. I would download a phone app like WatchFreeHD or Antenna Point to figure out the direction of the TV towers. I put a ClearStream 4MAX ($149) in my attics and get both DC and Baltimore stations, plus many others (55 stations in all, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, FoxPlus, WETA, Channel 20, Ion TV, meTV, Redbull TV, plus much more). Until I positioned the antenna correctly, I didn’t get much.
  • As far as content, Hulu with LiveTV will give you local content, so will YouTubeTV (local TV and sports is its sweet spot). YouTubeTV has the best DVR capability. My favorite layout is PlayStationVue. More about this later in the show.
  • Email from Azra in Fredericksburg: Dear Doc and Jim. I recently bought an iPhone X and love it. However, I do not like the notch at the top of the screen. Is there a way that I can hide this notch so it is not so annoying? Love the show. Azra in Fredericksburg.
  • Tech Talk Responds: You are not alone. Many users have grown to hate the notch. Fortunately there are two applications that create wallpaper with a black band at the top. This band is the same width as the notch and makes it seemingly disappear. The first is Notch Remover. It cost 99 cents and is quite easy to use. The second is Notcho. It is free. However, the wallpaper that it creates has a Notcho watermark. Wallpaper without a watermark costs $1.99. I have played around with both and prefer Notch Remover.

Profiles in IT: Steven Paul Jobs

  • Steven Paul Jobs was co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
  • Steve Jobs was born February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, CA.
  • He was adopted by Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, CA. Even though they had not attended college, they promised to send Steve to college.
  • Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, CA.
  • He frequented after-school lectures at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, CA, and was later hired there, working with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee.
  • Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland,
  • Although he dropped out after only one semester, he continued auditing classes.
  • Jobs later said, “If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”
  • In 1974, Jobs joined the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak in CA.
  • He took a job as a technician at Atari to save money for a trip to India.
  • Jobs traveled to India with a Reed College friend in search of spiritual enlightenment.
  • He came back a Buddhist with head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing.
  • In 1976, Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple, when Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer and selling it.
  • In 1983, Jobs hired John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple’s CEO.
  • The following year, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled “1984”.
  • On January 24, 1984, Jobs introduced the Mac, based on Alto (Xerox PARC in 1973).
  • Sculley fired Jobs in 1985, with board support, amid falling computer sales.
  • Jobs founded NeXT Computer in 1985 with $7 million. Ross Perot invested more.
  • NeXT workstations were first released in 1990, priced at $9,999.
  • He then released the NeXTCube. NeXT ultimately sold only 50,000 computers
  • In 1993, NeXT transitioned to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP.
  • In 1996, NeXT. released WebObjects, for web application development.
  • In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for $429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996, bringing Jobs back to Apple. Jobs became interim CEO.
  • He immediately ended the Mac cloning program and focused on innovation.
  • Sales increased with the introduction of the iMac and other new products.
  • With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company entered music distribution.
  • WebObjects was used to build and run the Apple Store, MobileMe services, and the iTunes Store. NeXTSTEP morphed in Mac OS X.
  • In 2007, Apple entered the cell phone business with the introduction of the iPhone.
  • In 1986, he The Graphics Group (renamed Pixar) from Lucas Films for $10M.
  • After years of unprofitability hardware, Pixar contracted with Disney to produce computer-animated features starting with Toy Story (1995).
  • On January 24, 2006, Disney purchased Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4B.
  • In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple and died October 5, 2011.
  • Jobs is listed on 338 US patents or patent applications.
  • Forbes estimated his net wealth at $8.3 billion in 2010. Wikipedia list $7B in today.

Science of Snowflakes- Is Every Snowflake Unique?

  • Can you ever be sure that no two are alike?
  • The short answer to the question is yes, since it is indeed extremely unlikely that two complex snowflakes will look exactly alike. Notice I said complex snowflake.
  • Variations caused by isotopes
    • If we restrict ourselves to water molecules which contain two ordinary hydrogen atoms and one ordinary oxygen atom, then again physics tells us that all such water molecules are exactly alike
    • However about one molecule out of every 5000 naturally occurring water molecules will contain an atom of deuterium in place of one of the hydrogens.
    • One in 500 will contain an atom of O (with an atomic weight of 18) instead of the more common oxygen (with an atomic weight of 16).
    • Since a typical small snow crystal might contain 1018 water molecules, we see that about 1015 of these molecules will be different from the rest.
    • The probability that two snow crystals would have exactly the same layout of these molecules is very, very, very small.
    • Even with 1024 crystals per year, the odds of it happening within the lifetime of the Universe is indistinguishable from zero.
    • However, if we consider a crystals of only 10 molecules, here’s a reasonable probability that two would be exactly alike.
  • Variations caused by stacking faults
    • When a crystal grows, the molecules do not stack together with perfect regularity, so a typical snow crystal contains a huge number of crystal dislocations, which again are scattered throughout the crystal in a random fashion.
    • One can then argue, like with the isotopes, that the probability of two crystals growing with exactly the same pattern of dislocations is vanishingly small.
    • Again one has the exception of few-molecule crystals, which can easily be free of dislocations.
  • Variations caused by variable growth dynamics
    • The number of possible ways of making a complex snowflake is staggeringly large. Now when you look at a complex snow crystal, you can often pick out a hundred separate features if you look closely.
    • Since all those features could have grown differently, or ended up in slightly different places, the math is similar to that with the books.
  • Thus the number of ways to make a complex snow crystal is absolutely huge.

Driving on Slippery Roads Speed- Speed is Your Enemy on Slippery Roads.

  • Kinetic energy is increases as velocity squared. Doubling the speed increases kinetic energy by four. This makes stopping distance four times longer.
  • Stopping Distance – In slippery conditions, the coefficient of friction is as much as eight times lower than it is for dry conditions. This means that stopping distance, compared to dry conditions, is eight times longer.
  • Recovering from Skidding – If the care skids to the one side, steer the car in that direction until you get some traction. Then gradually steer the car back on track.
  • ABS — Maximum traction between the road and the tire is the point just before the tire begins to slip. The Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) keeps near that point by releasing the brake as soon as the wheel locks and then immediately reapplies it. It is the electronic equivalent of “pumping” the brakes. If you have ABS brakes, apply constant pressure. You will feel vibration when they are active.
  • Positraction Differential – The differential divides the power between the left and right wheels. If one wheel begins to slip, the positraction differential immediately transfers all power to the other wheel. If the positraction light comes one, slightly ease off on the gas petal to maintain traction with both wheels.

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, and this phenomenon known as “the Worthington Jet” has been captured by the scientists on a 5000-frames-per-second camera.
  • 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 horribly 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.