Welcome to the show that needs no introduction, because we have
absolutely no agenda coming to you from the United Kingdom in
the curry manner. I'm Adam curry.
And I'm John C. Dvorak from actually sunny and warm
California.
Oh, nice to hear. Nice to hear. So we just hit record, I
probably should have started two minutes ago, as usual. Because
Patricia came upstairs the minute I hit record, and then I
stopped it like a fucking fool. Because there's a I was reading
the Financial Times. And there were like, two stories on one
page that I thought was just funny. And I want to read them
to you. And I was looking for it. And she, of course, had
already taken the paper and the cat was pooping on it. But and
they said, Yeah, don't worry about it. And so I remember was
going to talk about, but then
hey, wait a minute, you know, doesn't the cat normally poop on
the on on on the on the Times of London?
The Daily Mail, the Daily Mail, Daily Mail, that's it. I love
the finance, the Financial Times weekend is I look forward to
that it's a real time. Maybe in my mind, it's an old fashioned
guy that I look forward to that. It's almost like school
as well. It's really an outstanding paper. I like it.
I agree. You want me to just tell you these two stories that
were on the same page, I thought was interesting. Yeah, sure.
Okay. So the first one is and and I don't know if you've been
following this, but Gordon Brown has basically gone over to
China, Gordon Brown being the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom. And he's basically said, Hey, all these sovereign
wealth funds, you guys have set up, you know, why don't you
start investing that over here, and we'll open up all kinds of
trade routes and everything can can be copacetic. And oh, by the
way, we have Northern Rock, we wouldn't mind if you maybe
bought some bonds that were, you know, turning that into soy. And
then we'll let you sell products here. And essentially, he's
saying the UK in return for all this money and Chinese products
that will be coming in the UK will reciprocate with it was
kind of it was interesting the way the Financial Times wrote it
with Britain's luxury goods, like Rolls Royce, financial
services and the English language. So that's the chart
that Chinese money is flowing in now saving, you know, saving the
city, the financial city. And on the same page, there's this new
tax law they want to implement. And I don't know if you care
anything about tax law, but this is a very, there's two things
that are very interesting. One is that if you are like me, if
you're if you live here, and at least partially work here, but
you have income from overseas, you, you'll have to pay 30,000
pounds annually, to be taxed only on what you bring into the
UK, or be taxed worldwide. And between taxes and there's always
credit. So you know, if you pay taxes in one country, then you
get a credit and you don't have to pay the tax on the same money
in the country where you may be living or where the money was
made. But there's one specific citizenship that is a little
different when it comes to capital gains, and that's
American citizenship. You are taxable on your capital capital
gains, no matter where in the world, it took place, and you
have to report and you have to pay your taxes over it. But now
the UK is going to do the same thing for capital gains of
people who are living in the UK. So if, let's say I sold some
stock in the US or if I sold the company in the US and I made
money on it, I would pay presumably 18 or 19% in the US
and another 18 or 19% if I ever wanted to use any piece of that
money in the UK. So the message that I just read on this
Financial Times was Americans fuck off Chinese come on in
boys. That's really what it looked like.
That's what it was.
It is it's it's it's messed up. And I'll probably have to leave.
Well, you know, if I were you, you're an artist, you can go to
Ireland. Like what's the benefit of Ireland? Well, they had some
deal there. If you're an artist or a writer or some paternity to
do with the arts. You can get Irish citizenship in some way
shape or form. I think it's still valid I could be wrong. I
mean, it's could have ended but I know it existed for a long
time and the Irish are bitching about it. You can get Irish
citizenship and then with no income tax, they just say no,
you don't have to pay any taxes.
I kind of like that. So so you know this I'm an artist right
doing this as artistry.
You're an artist. Yeah. Cool. You're recording artists, your
performance artists,
international performance artist, surely. Adam curry
mystique.
And I think the hair dude, just get you you'd be grandfathered
in.
I'd love to go to Australia but in Australia you have to have I
think you have to do you have to be like a rocket scientist.
Otherwise too far. What is too far man and for what? It's too
far, but I wouldn't mind moving away from everybody.
Once you move to Perth.
That's far. It is beautiful there.
I'm told but nobody's ever going to. I'm never going to know.
I've been to Perth. You have Yeah, I did a documentary of we
went from arrived in Sydney, but really the documentary started
in Melbourne, and then went clear across the country,
including the the South Pacific line, which is the the includes
the longest piece of completely straight railroad anywhere in
the world through this Oh, right, right. Yeah, the desert
that's been nuked, whether you see the nuclear testing, and
it's like a 24 hour train ride and that goes all the way to
Perth. And that train ride. Let me tell you, John, is not
fucking worth it.
I wouldn't think so. 24 hours on a train in the middle of
nowhere. It may not be that great.
It was kind of an old fashioned Orient Express type of vibe. But
that was no good night. That's some fun. I stayed in the
outback for like three or four days. It's a cruise a pretty
crazy time. Very interesting. I liked the country a lot. I would
not mind living there, actually.
So we got some fan mail. Well, I don't know about that. But we
got some family. You know, we still Skype the show. We got
some fan mail, by the way over the last week or two and one
came in from Sean Kendall who was complimenting us for our
stream of consciousness style of podcasts which he thought it was
compelling listening, I suppose. And I realised that because I
pulled out a notebook because over the weeks, we keep trying
to talk about stuff that we write down.
And then we never talk about No, of course not. But so I
found a notebook with my notes and I realised that that we
don't we don't we're not stream of consciousness at all. We're
just completely disorganised. And there's actually, it's
interesting to think that you could pass it off as stream of
consciousness when in fact, you're just all screwed up. Now,
that said, I found a notebook with some of these notes in it.
And I realised now that the problem that I have and the
reason I'm not as rich as you and some other people, is
because and you know, you can blame it on disorganisation, you
can blame it on all kinds of different things. Laziness
sloth, that I think I worked pretty hard, but then I realised
what it really is. The whole thing boils down to one thing,
it's very simple penmanship.
You can't read your handwriting.
I can't read these notes. Let me guy up. So I pulled some of
these notes down that I think would be interesting to try to
decipher. Yeah,
well, let me just say, I can't read my own handwriting either.
Now, and I you know, what I've been using, I've been using
Google notebook, it has a mobile version. And so no matter what
device I'm on, whether it's the N 800, or if it's my cell phone,
or front of the computer, you know, the the mobile notebook is
just like I pull it out, boom, click, I type in whatever I want
to type in. It's, it's gotten pretty quick.
Well, I should do that. Because these know the weather, but
there's still even so I even like, because I used to take
notes on the computer and that there's still a couple of issues
I have. One is that I have a tendency to write down phone
numbers. And but and I say to myself, put the guy's name down,
put the guy's name down, because you're never gonna
remember I'll remember by the way I wrote the eight who it
was.
I remember and you do remember for about 15 minutes, and then
you see this phone number later go Whose number is this and you
can't call the person saying, hey, you know, I'm just, you
know, it's a damned
John C. Dvorak shooter. You've heard of me, I
and, and then the other problem I have, which is really probably
more annoying and more dangerous, at least for me as a
writer, is I write down kind of thoughts and sometimes
observations, and sometimes quotes or phrases I want to use
because I think this is pretty funny. Unfortunately, I also
write down notes of somebody else saying something
and then you attribute those to your own brilliance.
No, I always do I always look at it if I'm not absolutely sure
that I dreamed it up, but which is hard to do, because I dream
up a lot of stuff. So I draw a lot of stuff away out of fear.
But I've got one right here. Okay, this is a piece of notepad
paper it says and it says, nyc 11am. Recorder, cancelled TV.
That's the top of the note. So I don't know what that means. So
that
was part of the New York City trip, right? This is
from months ago. Oh, maybe all right. And I don't cancel them.
Anyway, it was last time I cancelled TV was when I had
DirecTV and people out there if you have DirecTV or the Dish
Network and you can go on vacation, you can cut the
service off for like a month or 90 days and you won't get beyond
the pay. And then put it right back on. You can actually give
them the date you want it off in the date you want it on and they
do it automatically. It's great.
Oh, they should ever waited on the website. That's even better.
It would be good
now. So here's the quote. So I had them in a dozen different
pen. It says when it comes to politics The Internet is like
cocaine. Now, I don't know whether I said that if it's my
comment or somebody else said it and I thought it was clever.
When it
comes to politics, the internet is like cocaine.
Yeah. So I don't know. Is that mine? I'm not sure that somebody
said I can't tell.
I know I didn't say
Who else we got to get a good phrase. Who's Skyping? You man?
I
can hear it in the background. Here. Let
me just tell them to stop. Yeah.
Say Excuse me.
Stop doing stop doing that. Now Sorry. All right. Let's see
another thing let's see what else we got here. Some other
nodes. Trojans worms and spyware fortune of malicious future of
malicious code. Michael, up slow. Did some guy write that?
Is it a book I should read? I'm not sure YouTube and it says
Elsevier which indicates a publisher
it's a Dutch publisher or formerly publisher.
Well they're all over the place now this is PC fighting spyware
magazine magazine. PC fighting spyware magazine ad editor heist
No it's just insane maybe editor Neil Rubin King TOC table of
contents and I know what that's all about O'Reilly PC structure
species species taxonomy and these are kind of this is this
is so useless. It's unbelievable.
I you know, I'm pretty sure you You did right the the cocaine
quote because all of this stuff is totally done when you're
high. There's no doubt about it.
I'm not high. That's the joke of it. I mean, if I was in college,
and I was doing this, I would think well yeah, this is
typical. You know, your college college is you know, your you
know imbibing and the next thing you know, you're writing down
stupid things. I have not high I don't use drugs at all. I
usually don't take notes if I'm drinking. It's just ridiculous
because that could account for the bad handwriting. And
anticlimactic leopard.
Oh, go ahead. Cat of the what?
Cat of the bag.
So clearly something about apples leopard. anticlimactic.
And then you're kind of thinking of some some anxious cat
out of the bag. I'm not sure. But then the next line is
Neanderthals, redheads. Apparently, Neanderthals were
redheads. interested, you wonder,
you know that? In the UK. The gingers as they call them here
are actually discriminated against and people are always
making jokes about people who are ginger. And, and they treat
them almost like you know, well, you know, everything's great
about you. But man, you're ginger. And I was thinking maybe
that does date back to Neanderthal days.
Well, I think in England, it's just because there's so many
redheaded Irish and Scottish Scottish women, that they just
had hatred of the Irish and the Scots seems to be more likely in
that case. I mean, the British are extremely bigoted towards
all kinds of people. The French, of course, at the top of the
list. Oh,
wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop right there. Listen to this.
Hey,
this is no, the lady Frenchman. No, actually, I'm not the other
French caller. I'm the Silicon Valley frog. podcaster. And
although I haven't kept in Milwaukee, anyone was listening
to you know what I'm calling about? Come on, you know what
I'm calling about? I was listening to and John C. Dvorak
and no agenda. And I know you don't mean any harm when you
call the friendship. Levy. Although, I think in that
department, you know, there are a few others who might have
beaten they're just to get back on the French economy. It's true
that the French economy you know, it has its ups and downs.
Right now. If you compare it with the US economy, I guess
it's pretty much a tie.
Yeah, he's boring me now. That's our new.
Yeah, that was he could have you got to tighten those up. Yeah.
There's a good programme out there for everybody called
Audacity.
What I'm lacking is something called time.
Well, I don't blame you there. Let's go back to the 70s notes.
You can come up with anything. Domino's Pizza. X, X pimp. We're
not going to use it tomorrow.
Oh, I know what that was from. That's when you were trying to
get hookers to audition for textra?
I don't think so. Okay.
Do you deny it Getting workers to audition for texture. Are you
denying this?
We're looking for strippers. I'm sorry, not hookers. There's a
big difference.
No, you're right. There's a big difference. Big difference.
And you know, the strippers are the ones with the harder golden
hookers are not necessarily. All right.
You're the only wife you're reliably informed.
I'm just guessing. Philly Wi Fi, talk to a blonde. Some Yahoo for
15 de de L U S. 140. Watching weekly 140. Weekly.
Okay, so that was that's about something some show ya who's
doing?
Maybe Oh, yeah. It could be Clint claims, the profits, the
handful. The hand something where they hand off newspapers
in the digital age. I don't. I think it was a book title. I do
write down book titles. Because I'm always doing it. There's a
book I should do. And then once I write the book title down,
then I don't have to do the book.
What do you mean, you don't have to do the book?
Well, because I've already come up with the title. So I figured
out the book, the work is all done. I mean, I just it just
it's
books gone. Is there any money? And
I actually I make money off the books. I need to do I need to
finish some books nowadays is my problem getting?
What is it worth the
it's a it's a good exercise. Most of the most books are not
worth the effort, I would say and I try not to do those types
of books. depicts juggernaut shut down button breakthrough
triggering mechanism of thought it's pretty good one. I think
that's one of my little quotes. I wanted to say about some self
communication, self in quotes, and I wrote this down. I don't
know what this means, in quotes self, then that's the end of the
coaches towards self self communication of blogs. What
does that mean? I mean, it's me you're talking to yourself when
you're blogging, I guess,
or maybe that blog or the actual technical infrastructure talks
to other blogs, something like that.
And I got blog as evidence against you. Well, sure, which I
think is that's pretty obvious. Now. Here's one of these quotes
again, but this time, I'm absolutely sure. I didn't say
it. I think some Admiral did and I wrote it down for some reason.
I don't know why bother writing it down. What am I going to do
with it? I will not allow a network computerised system on
this ship while I'm in command.
Wow, that was probably the story about the 7787. I think the
Dreamliner and that there was a question whether passengers
using the Wi Fi network would be able to hack into the plains
computer system.
Oh, yeah. You know, there's a really yeah, maybe
it isn't a good game. I ended this. This is pretty cool.
Yeah, no, that's a good one. Okay, this one, you'll never get
anything out of it. I don't get it myself. What am I doing?
primers that we ask ourselves all the time.
Just a list of words, primers, Sarah with an H Dallas lash show
team s k, three arrows coming from those words, and two of
them going nowhere, one going to a blank line, and one pointing
to 1976. Then to it says to a word I can't read it says clus
en for Korean, then a box to word like I'm in Hollywood says
gamer with an arrow pointing to M F A B and then under that is
the letters and M A F VP circled. And then at the very
bottom of the same pages, team sport cost network.
How often do you and your wife have sex?
Apparently not enough. Just seems to me I might just read
maybe we're having sex while I'm writing these notes and cents at
all.
That's pretty sad. Because I bet you did some good shit in there.
You know, there's lots of guys who did promise I produced too
much material.
Well, so that's really what the I mean, clearly, we have a lot
of horsepower and processing on these laptops, I mean, that
that's really, somehow we should be able to create an interface
that you can use, the way you're using that, that notepad and
then it can actually help you retrieve the information. Or the
you can link to us, I don't know, it just feels like there's
got to be a different type of type of in this way.
I have, you know, the reason I write so many columns I try to
do so much work is because I gotta get these things out of my
system, otherwise they clog you up. And I actually, you know,
believe that now, so I'm writing down stuff all the time. But
then the I used at one time I tried using one of those
recorders, you know, note to sell. And it's like, you know,
that's annoying. I mean, everybody thinks you're an
asshole for doing that. So I don't do it. I have
to do lists everywhere too that never get done.
Right now I would just want to I don't want to do this for the
whole show. I'm gonna do one more. One more list. And this is
not much on this one page, but it's the same thing. It says
security. And then there's the word Roger. It looks like Roger.
And then the word then and that's underlined. And then next
there's another underlined two words Microsoft and then there's
like just a scribble. But I think it says Page or maybe this
is all pager security page, or Microsoft pager, Cisco pager.
All those are underlined, and then the word Oracle not
underlined. And then the words download new camera, and that's
boxed. Hmm.
Downloads Oh, camera.
Yeah, it's got a nice sound to it. I don't think it's possible.
Anyway, that's the budget this is this is what you know, it's
being taken for a stream of consciousness is just nuts.
Anyway, driving, so I run into these notebooks if they're not
fresh, and they're these old ones. It's just like, Why did I
even bother writing anything down, you
know, when I'm going to the supermarket. And you know, they
have that stationary section. I have a hard time passing by
without picking up a notebook. You know what I mean? Like a
nice fresh thing, you know, crackly white notebook that I
can write stuff in? And I fill it up? And you know, I've got
them somewhere. I don't know if I do anything with them?
Well, I mean, they may be actionable, you know, if you
become more famous, but you know, generally speaking, I rip
the pages out of these things and throw them out and and I
just shake my head thinking I probably lost a lot of good
material. I mean, I could there's material here that just
disappearing left and right. And what I don't get and I think you
know it, maybe I should get seek counselling. But what I don't
get why? Well, I can't talk myself into doing the extra
detail, taking the extra step and writing the person's name
down next to that phone number that I write down, or writing of
in more detail. Well, you're trying to be I'm sorry. Yeah,
we're trying to be neat. So you can read your own writing?
Well, that's a blog. That's a blog in itself. That's, that's a
mental block. And we can get you counselling for that. I know
exactly. Who can help you.
Oh, good. So it would be useful because it's like it'd be It's
getting on my nerves. But you know, this has been going on
forever. You're
doing it yourself. I mean, that's the easy thing. You can
change that. You just do it. But you clearly it's a it's a self
importance thing. You think you're too important.
Hi, Joe, important for my own information. Exactly. It's
exactly. Occasional. Anyway, so that's kind of my complaint. But
that's the that's a
real stream of consciousness has nothing to do with this
programme. Well,
true. Well, or does did
you hear about our crash here at Heathrow?
Yeah, no, that's been in the news here quite extensively
against some, some wire broke or a cable who didn't curse some
didn't communicate and the guy couldn't get it when he had to,
I think, isn't that a fly by wire? Newer? 747? Or what was
it? It's a triple seven. I talked a little bit about the
preliminary, you know, it was so infuriating John to sit here.
And, you know, finally, I hate to say it, but finally something
on the news. I really know something about, I really know
about flying. I know about Heathrow. I know, all of these
different things. I have not flown a triple seven, but
there's a lot of stuff that I do know, the first 48 hours was so
frustrating to see them just rolling out, you know, bozo
after Bozo. You know, I witnesses who of course, you
know, I haven't had very limited useful information, you know,
just consistent constant live shots and like, please get some
fucking experts on. And now they have and now I have to say the
coverage is is excellent. And part of that is because the AI
be the aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. They will
they promised a preliminary report in 25 days, which is
quite fast, certainly, if you compare it to the NTSB, but they
also released a kind of like a pre report, which was really
quite quite good and quite helpful. Because the first
question you didn't there's really only two things, pilots a
real simple, there's only two things that can get can cause
this to happen. pilot error or maintenance. I mean, those are
the two things, right? Because because this is, you know, or
some catastrophic, wrong part. But even that is attributable to
maintenance because maintenance should have caught it. That's
essentially the way it works. So you can't say whether know than
the pilot is pilot error, he should not have been flying. You
know, that's and that's how the reports are written to. So you
know, what the news is doing is, you know, everyone's, you know,
lauding the crew and how fantastic and I'll get to that
in a second. But what they're, what they're not really
reporting on is, excuse me, this is a triple seven it only has
Two engines, if you've ever flown on one of these, Jon's
these, these engines are massive, they're like five times
the size of,
of what I've been in numerous times, right? It is indeed,
as far as I know, the only aircraft of this size that does
fly by wire, meaning, you're not actually when you pull back on
the control. On the yoke, you're not actually mechanically
connected with the ailerons.
I think the I think the big Airbus 340 is also
right, it's also fly by wire correct, that has the joystick
on the side. Right. So everything is issuing a command
to basically servos and so to the throttle. And that's
connected to something called the fade EQ, which is the fully
authorised digital engine controller. So essentially, when
you're moving the throttle controls, the fade EQ is doing
all it's probably compensating and doing all kinds of work and,
and making most efficient use of, of the command on the
engines. So on final approach, they're two miles out at 600
feet. And they're on autopilot. So it's an autopilot landing,
which is quite normal, and probably around 300 feet that
still disengage and landed by hand, even though on this plane,
I believe it can completely land itself without completely on
autopilot. So it also has auto throttle engaged, obviously. And
the copilot is actually doing the landing, which is quite
normal, you know, these guys, they switch off, they're coming
in from Beijing. So it was just this guy's turn the land. And
the there's nothing, there's not a lot of wind, and the plane,
you know, when and when you're coming down, essentially, you're
using pitch. So your nose up or down, is for your speed. It's
kind of reverse when you think about it, and you're using the
throttle for height, because you're configured completely
different. You know, if you ever seen a big plane coming, you see
the nose is actually up. It's not down. Right?
Yeah, except for a B 52. But I'm gonna go ahead.
And, and so, you know, go ahead. So the so the plane starts to
dip a little bit glide below the glide path. And then the auto
throttle tries to read the engines up a little bit engines
are actually almost at idle when you're landing. A lot of people
don't depending on the conditions, but they can almost
be off in some circumstances. And so the throttle levers will
also automatically move forward. But there's, the engines don't
respond. And so from what I read in the report, then they tried
manually to ram the throttle levers forward, still no
response from the engines at this point, they're below the
glide path. And indeed, where he landed is very consistent where
it will, where the first impact is very consistent with losing
power on final approach. And I think the only thing just
looking at it is he, he might have done a better job with
actually having the wheels break off might not have necessarily
have to have happened. But again, pilots are real simple.
So there's only two types of landing you've got a good
landing if everyone walks away and if the aircraft is reusable,
that's a great landing so and right now I would not step into
a triple seven at all. They have not issued any kind of warning
but I'm telling you something's fucked up with that aeroplane.
Well, I wouldn't get into until they fix that whatever the
problem is, but you know, they usually ground them in the US
when something weird like that happens which
is the story and no one's reporting on that all they're
talking about is the crew you know it's like excuse me Don't
let people fly you know not on these planes right now you they
should ground the fleet I think
this is interesting. I just got a memo so disappear
disappearance, you know, we have our Natalie seems to just like
to get her. Her Manasa my stepson just sent me this from
Valleywag quote. Also John Dvorak told me that the same age
on texture because I was getting too close to 30 I don't have a
complex about turning 30 And we're not about to let that
cranky geek give me one I'll be 30 and eight months, John So
there
I told you she didn't like you. You didn't believe me? Did you?
I didn't care whether she was turning 30 I didn't get that.
Why did
she Why does she do that? That's so that's so lame.
And she has a I don't know she's gonna get of course now
unfortunately. She should know better as a writer because
writers are you know, you know when you're when you when you
slam someone who's a writer
Yeah, you know, you're gonna get it back it could be years later
you're
gonna get it back usually you know in spades and you have any
had to be able to put up with the return fire. Because I've
done it numerous times and I've gotten blasts at night you know,
sometimes you wait like a year or two and then something all of
a sudden you get this you get it Eight by seven you know exactly.
Because you've been waiting. Why? It's why you're getting
this this slam.
Yeah, you guys like elephants.
So I guess I'll have to now jeez. So now I guess I have to
do something.
Where did he? I'm looking at Valleywag. I don't see that.
Here. Let me just send you this link. It just apparently just
came out. That's funny. But
how did you how did Valleywag know about Becky?
No, I didn't tell him.
So how did they know that? How did they know that at all?
There's probably about five people who knew? I don't know. I
have no idea. I didn't even know they do. I mean, you just I just
found out but there was right now. You
know, they had a posting. Maybe. It was a weird time. It was like
around, maybe it was a couple of weeks ago. So I was still fresh
in the new year. A lot of other shit going on. And they posted
you know, Becky Warli to be the new host of textra.
I have no idea. Okay, I'm not sure I could track it. Well,
don't
don't tell him. Whatever you have.
But, you know, there's a couple crew guys there. They could have
overheard. I mean, you know, I don't know. Who knows he was you
know, they were shooting her. So, I mean, somebody could have
and
they were shooting it in South Park no less.
Right, where there's all the.com. Anybody?
Oh, this is a good one. John. Wow. The they gave
her a big write up. We'll put a link on the curry.com site to
this particular post. I
don't think so. You can go put that on. dvorak.org/blog. Yeah,
okay, I'll put it I'm not given this one they love. Bubba can
accept that. This is actually quite funny. I mean, I know what
she's thinking. She's talking about her her appearance. I
mean, it's a whole thing about her appearance. So it's kind of
carried away. Editor's Note, Natalie and I are at mooses. For
her going away party. Join us. When was this? Just an old
poster? Since Friday, January 18. Must have been this Friday,
which we missed. Anyway,
she wants to talk What's the title of the post?
So Long and Thanks for All the fashion advice.
Oh, yeah, I got it.
And then she's like, just a straight sec. She posted this.
Blah, blah, blah, blah. Men don't take me seriously because
I'm pretty.
That's so much bullshit.
I can't imagine a more boring segment. I will say this since
transitioning from print to video. She hasn't transitioned
really. I do receive just as many viewer emails about my hair
and makeup and clothes as I do about tech news. Quote, The
lipstick he wore in Episode 104 was not your colour. Okay, so
what John Dvorak said not to blood. I don't take comments
about my parents too seriously. But I do find them amusing. I've
thought about the right tech community has such strong
opinions about what it should look like. And I don't think so.
I accept all this, but I'm going to wear red lipstick from time
to time. Blah, blah, blah. doesn't go anywhere. I'm heading
to New York. I mean, it's like a Twitter thing. I mean, what is
this? You should just have a Twitter account. But as I'm
heading to New York on my I'm sure
she does Twitter. I'm sure she has a Twitter. I look at her.
She has a I'm subscribed to her weblog, and she also has a
Flickr stream which is very entertaining. I think she
forgets that people can subscribe to it. Now pretty
interesting. Let me see if I find and follow. Do you have a
Twitter John?
No, I cannot have you talking to me? Oh, you said yourself I
haven't got time to do this stuff.
I don't either. But I don't I have I have a Twitter account.
Once in a while. Yeah,
but what so you can subscribe to other people's feeds not for
your you're not twittering?
Well I use it kind of sometimes. It's just it's a way to get
something out. I will use it maybe once every two or three
weeks. Sure. And I got a couple 1000 followers. I have followers
come to me. So put on your I share to put on your earplugs
know where to put the cork. My name is Tommy. And I'm so glad
that you're here. I'm sorry.
You should be so what is not my stepson sending me more weird
stuff. Valleywag apparently there is something about sex
columnist though. This is the sex columnist who touched Steve
Jobs.
This violet blue story.
Yeah, but you know, I guess I guess a million guys have taped
it. Don't you know it shot it up there. Little recorders that
don't
even don't even sell me with this story. This is a stupid
Yeah, I think so. Too stupid. I've
requested i Oh, you can't Just following Natalie, you have to
request it.
I have requests for her Twitter. Yeah.
I didn't know that. Oh, you guys,
raunchy just requested. I did. Did Of course I requested it.
I'm not not she probably doesn't do that much posting I don't get
the impression that she's that much of an active Twitter or
blog or kind of thing. I mean, you there are people you run
into and you find out that they have a Twitter and their Twitter
and everything. And I went here, I did this, I did that I went to
the store, I went to the guy in the car, I drove around the
block, I got pulled over by a cop and I did bla bla bla bla
bla and just goes on and on and on. It's like GE, I mean, how
much? I think it's a lot of nervous energy going into these
things.
Well, I do like that there is something reverse about it that
I like. So it's kind of like a chat room. Except instead of
muting people. You can turn people on. It's a new one. I
mean, it's a little rough.
You're right. It's exact, exact, exact chat room, a style of chit
chat.
Yeah, but no, the control is different the way the way you
access the information? Well, first of all, that's
fundamentally different. Because you know, you can get it through
SMS and through, you know, im and a whole bunch of different
ways. So in that way, it's kind of ubiquitous, like email. I
kind of like that. But
yeah, it is interesting. I'll follow up. But it's not as
interactive as it should. It's not as interactive as a chat
room.
Well, you can do you can do if you use the Add sign, then you
can send a message to someone and it shows up specifically at
that on that person's doorstep. Oh, yeah, there are some tricks
in there. You should look into a John, because I think you might
be surprised that there is something there that is, I
think, a basis of something. It's not what it is now, but
there's a concept that I'm like, and I have to admit I do like
it. Don't just brush it off. Well, it's not just a chat room.
It's not I mean,
I'm okay. Okay. I'll tell Jamie, I don't you know, I know that
the guy who did it ever had, and the, you know, the people who
are backing it, there seem to be a lot of guys who have a lot.
They are forward thinkers. And I mean, even Dave Weiner, your
pal, they've loved me that he loves it. He loves it. Yeah. And
he seems to you know, he's a cutting edge guy,
for sure. Yeah. And he's been posting about it a lot recently.
And I don't just brush that off. You know, it is freaky right
now. I mean, I'm sure it's 20,000 people who are just
freaky like that, you know, Jason Calacanis is one of those
guys, you know, like having dim sum, you know, thinking up by
about buying a Tesla. Mahalo rules, flying back to LA now.
You know, that's literally
what I'm also reminded of, there's something I've never
really warmed up to. And I see a lot of people that do this, you
know, they have their, you know, you're talking about my note
taking in a sense of self importance. But I'm not one of
those guys who puts down my schedule, on the blog, of
course, not do that much, generally speaking, but, but I
know a lot of people that said, Hey, here's what I'm doing for
the next six months. I'm speaking here, and I'm at a big
conference over here. I'm going here and I'm going there. And
I'm going to disappoint an event that important.
Well, you know, who else does that very effectively on their
on their weblogs? escorts they always have, what town they're
visiting and the dates and where they're going to be? And I think
it's a really good thing.
Why? Yeah,
yeah. So you can coordinate What are you talking about? Why? You
know, it's just a different line of business. What's the
difference between an escort and Jason Calacanis?
Well, I don't think that's a good example. Okay. I will. But
the, there might not be a difference between those two.
The not that I'm, anyway, so
I'll be I'll be brave and have an opinion. John bibra. I
don't see why I why anybody? I just when I see one of these
things, I know people that do this, and I see them. Here's my
schedule. And here's what I'm doing. It's always a bunch of
crap anyway. And who's reading these blogs? I mean, they have a
few people that aren't you know, if you're going to be in Basel,
Switzerland, you know how many people would read my blog that
are that would be in Basel, Switzerland, Switzerland for
anything. Well,
Basel. What's the name of the Brit from Basel? He listens to
my show. He actually lives from Basel Basel. Yeah. The Britain
Basel.
The Brit in Basel. Yeah. Do you want to come on up to you?
Hello, Adam, I might well, but you know what, so can you give
me three names of people who do that? Give me three names.
I'll give you I remember off the top of my head and Esther Dyson
does It, Larry, our friend Larry at the Creative Commons. I don't
know why can't think of Larry Lessig, Leslie Lessig, Larry
Lessig. Destro Dyson does it and I think John Perry Barlow does
it. Okay, so
So let me let me just say, let me just say, Esther Dyson, I
subscribe to her. She has a couple of feeds, and she also
has a Flickr feed. And I gotta tell you, I enjoy it. I think
it's, it's, it helps me keep up with what Esther Dyson is doing.
And invariably, our paths will cross one day and it'll be for a
reason, but I'm sure this will have something to do with it.
And I do find what she does is quite interesting. You know, she
has one day she's was he had a whole stream of pictures. He was
investing in some very light jet companies, of course, that
interests me, she has an obsession for swimming pool. So
every hotel she stays at, she takes a picture of the swimming
pool. I just gotta say, I like that coming from her. And I
think it actually adds to her business relevance.
Just give her a call.
She wants to came on to me at what's the PC forum? I think it
was. I just started my company. So this was 95 I think it's
9596. Maybe I was still at MTV. Somewhere really smack in the
middle of the 90s. And she invited me come out to PC form
that's in where the hell is John? Arizona? Oh,
she moves the Jews in Arizona. Yeah,
yeah, I was in Arizona. And and I came in a little bit later on
in the evenings. He may be around nine o'clock. And they
and they always have like a big welcoming party. This was kind
of enlightened, you know, the ramp up to the to the.com
Everyone was joyous. There were VCs everywhere. And I had never
really witnessed anything like this. And she was a little
inebriated. And she was really coming on to me it was kind of
weird.
She just hoping it and you know, she's gonna fall over. She had
someone to grab.
Well the reason why is I was like, I was kind of getting
turned on by her. That was the kind of the weird part about it.
No, maybe she sensed it. Could be I don't know. I've known
Esther for years. And you know, she's fine person. I get why one
time I accidentally will
you do my eulogy? John, please. I can't. That would be
fantastic. I've known Adam for years and he's a fine person.
Cakes over on the right coffee on the left.
So I ran into her sit whenever it's I don't know how many kids
are you actually met her dad who's really charming guy.
famous physicist.
Oh, that's Ryan. Yeah, he's super famous Freeman. Freeman.
Nice guy. Funny sense of humour is a character and very small
man. And then one time I met, I don't know how many other she's
got brothers and sisters. I never kept up. You know, I'm
like one of those. You know, my wife's always saying, Did you
ask, ask her about the baby? Did you see you know, he's not I
don't you know, I don't pry. I don't, you know, basically, self
centeredness about the end of it. We all know that. So I met.
So I met her, one of her sisters or a sister who's a nurse. And
she's actually just so different than for the rest of everybody
else. There was a bunch of intellectuals in the family.
She's it's like perky blonde. It was like that. Yeah, it's
totally off the wall. And she hot. If I remember, right, she's
quite attractive. She may be the best looking person in the
family.
Wow, what's her name?
I don't remember. I mean, I can't even
remember. Maybe Google can remember John. Let's see Esther.
Actually Wikipedia
probably has it in there maybe? Or is it so it might have I'm
not
gonna go too. Nice. And Sister, Esther.
Esther Dyson sister, it probably be in there. You know, like the
Wikipedia.
Whenever there's stuff that I know something about, it's
usually not right. But I do. The third thing I'll go
I find that kind of inaccuracy with the History Channel. You
know, I have a degree in history. And I'm still an
amateur historian and I read a lot of you know, stuff. Yeah.
And the History Channel is often reflect that we're where did
they get this? Yeah.
Well, this is this is what I'm saying. It's like, whatever.
There's something on television about Amsterdam. Yeah, it's
like, Okay, that wasn't really a representation of what Amsterdam
is like. And it's like, whenever there's something he knows
something about. It turns out that the magic box is wrong. So
it must be wrong about the other stuff to
do. So you have to assume you got to sister.
I said my sister can't find it.
Now she's, you know, not well publicised I suppose maybe I
should try Esther Dyson's on Esther. II s th er Esther
Dyson's hot sister. Maybe that'll be Let me see if I get
any better results from
getting a note from Esther tomorrow.
She doesn't listen to the show.
I'm sure she doesn't. Fact. I don't think anybody who's
important actually listens to this show mostly people who are
bored.
I think you're right. But there's more of them. That's the
good news.
Yeah, I know, there's a lot of them. And there is occasional
winners out there. I mean, all the notes we get from people
seem to be important. Yeah. Vice Presidents of finance and all
kinds of other characters. Who was that the Vice President of
Finance, Vice President of Finance, some guy really missed
that.
I got some of the voice comments, but now I'm afraid to
play them because they're probably too long. And I don't
know, I don't know. I don't know if we should play him. I don't
know. You know?
Well, I know if there you have you get one that's a real
winner, make a note. And then
I have this note with like, squiggle, squiggle, line arrow.
I can't figure out which one is good anymore. But there's this.
You know, I find that the what I like the Washington Post, I
become really choosy because of the, you know, all the stuff
that we're talking about. I know, I don't just read
something from the BBC. If I have a choice, like on Google
News, if I see that there's a story that the Washington Post
is covering it, I'll select them first. They feel a lot more real
to me. What would you say about them? John?
I like the Washington Post. Yeah, they do a really good job.
They're credible. They don't have you know, they're not. So I
mean, I think that people The New York Times are under a lot
of pressure from all the you know, scammers that have worked
there. And the kind of orientation now toward more soft
stories and, you know, features and boring things. And the
Washington Post seems to still be kind of hardline, and I think
they do a lot of good material there.
You know, what's happening with me is now that and I know it's,
it's just coming with age, and just more years under my belt,
but I'm kind of a kid in between generations, in between today's
generation and your generation, if I can just put it kind of
that way. And so, you know, I, I grew up with newspapers, but
then it quickly changed to something else. And I kind of,
you know, rode along on the transition, but I'm really
valuing now, understanding how full of shit and most of the
news is, and I'm really going out of my way, and this is only
something from the past couple of years, I'm really going out
of my way. It's like, you know, I'm not going to pick up any
paper, it's going to be the Financial Times, or, you know,
it's gonna, I'm going to look at the Washington Post. And it's
really become important to me, and and I hope other people turn
on to this, because, for me, of course, it's too late. And you
know, I can't change my
mind more. Yeah, and I, you know, I can't disagree with any
of that. But you should also mentioned the economist, I think
that's an outstanding publication that seems to get it
together.
I'll have to pick that up. Because I have honestly, I just
haven't read that what I like about the Financial Times, you
know, they have the I guess it's the what do you call that
section that that no one that there's no byline? It's usually
but it's from the editor or from the paper from the publisher.
What do you call that part?
The Op Ed page, it's
not op ed. It just like editorials? I don't know.
Anyway, so it has the Financial Times logo, if it doesn't
matter, but here's their slogan, without fear and without favour.
I like that. Like, fuck yeah. And that's how they write
without fear. Without favour. I like it.
You should read the economist then because I think you'd enjoy
it.
I shall. Anyway. So this is from the Washington Post. It's a
story about how hackers, and this is just from today, how
hackers have gained access to the power grids of several
countries, and have extorted money. And in fact, in several
instances have actually turned off the power in the entire
country. And this came out at a, like a security conference for
utility companies. And a CIA analyst told the story and it
turns out that most people didn't know about this. And this
is going to be big. I think it's a huge story.
Yeah, I know what it's breaking. Now. I'm familiar with this
story. And it's I'd like to get a little deeper into it. Because
I'd like to find out what exactly are these power
companies doing that leaves themselves vulnerable? You know,
I'm thinking we can certainly trace which countries and I have
a feeling that the Netherlands might be one of them. So I'm on
it. I'm, I'm gonna see if there's anything to that because
we might be able to get in a deeper but this is just, man,
this is just the I think the tip of the iceberg of of security of
systems. It's just happening all over the place. Of course, not
just with utilities.
Well, you know, that seems to be when you get when I see these
kinds of stories out of the blue. And I know hackers do a
lot of stuff. But every once in a while when I'm starting to see
it's focused, focused attention on something that's a security
issue. I'm always thinking there's some security company
behind it saying look, we got some software, we got some
encryption stuff. nobody's using it. We can make a lot of money.
There. shut down, you know some Podunk country in Africa, just
shut them down from a distance. And then you know, six, store
them if we can, but whatever the case is bring it to the
attention of everybody so we can sell some more products.
So your theory here, which I like and, of course, you know
him all over is not very unlike my theory about the drug
companies releasing viruses into the air to sell cold medicine.
Yeah, it's the same sick thinking.
So is it just sick thinking or is it a reality? Well, you can
buy the book in the foyer, as Adam and John explain all the
secrets of the grand conspiracy.
A book of great conspiracies. I mean, there's a lot of them. I
think there's enough of material on the net that you could
probably put together an interesting book, but you'd have
to do it. And the problem with these kinds of steroids are you
can't over you can't overhype them because you sound like a
complete maniac. If you know everything you do every time you
turn around. There's somebody's you know, trying to do something
sneaky, but the fact of the matter is business in general,
does a lot of sneaky stuff. I mean, just to be in business,
you have to do some sneaky things once in a while. And I
mean, you have today's In fact, it was like the Joker's of
Gizmodo that were turning off monitors and see Yes, right. Or
some years ago when the IBM had its work out. And this is Crash
proof. Steve Ballmer, like the one of the executives at
Microsoft had a disk and he would go into the IBM booth and
crunch and put the disk and crash these machines. I mean,
this is kind of like low, you know, like a, like, low level
thing seems to me, I have a word, there's a word I'm trying
to come up with that explain how
petty, childish infantile was actually
it was effective. He got a lot of publicity. It was actually
but it was a sneaky thing. It was not a what I would call
legitimate business practice, and neither would be shutting
down one of these power grids. And I could see somebody doing
it.
Yeah, I'd have to agree. But that's not the I don't think
that's a very interesting book to write. I'm sure we could
write something more interesting.
Well, I got my notepad out. To come up with the title.
If because if we have the title, then we don't have to write it
is that the the process
seems that seems to be the current process. I'm working
with excellent. triggering mechanism of thought.
That's a that's deep man and maybe a bit too deep for me.
I don't even get it. That's how deep it is.
I think my wife is downloading porn again. The Skype connection
is getting a little crunchy.
So we got anything else for this week to regale our fan base
with?
I don't know, man, I you know, I think we kind of covered it. In
fact, I think most people probably dropped off after I
told him I got turned on by Esther Dyson. So thanks. Think
we're
maybe I think you know, I would correct I think a lot of you may
have perked up. Odd. Always good talking with you, John. It's
always a pleasure.
And with that, we wrap it up and we'll talk to you again next
week, presumably from the same locations, but you never know.
In the United Kingdom. I'm Adam curry.
And in sunny Northern California on a very warm day. I'm John C.
Dvorak.
And we'll talk again next week on no agenda.