It's time once again for the programme that we look forward
to every week. Will it come Friday? Will it come Saturday?
Will it come Sunday? Well, it has no release date. Nor does it
have music commercials, jingles or anything planned because we
have no agenda coming to you from a very dark Saturday
evening in the United Kingdom. I'm Adam curry.
And I'm John C. Dvorak coming to you from a very sunny Northern
California could not
be more opposite today. I'm sure we have really crap weather.
Well, what's weird you know, you had that snow recently and up in
Washington. I have a place in Port Angeles. And it snowed two
inches in yesterday. And look at the date
is April 19. No snow here, but we do have missed it's been
Misty all day. I had like one kilometre visibility. So I
actually was gonna go flying today. Not happening.
No, I wouldn't think so.
I can hear heartbreak all over the world. Hey, John, we haven't
actually talked this week. Have we at all? I don't think during
all you've been busy. I've been very heads down. Yeah, it's been
it's been pretty crazy. I've had a it's been working with, with
the UK production folks on lots of video assets that we're
building. And I've also I've been tinkering all week, as you
know, because I actually suggested when was it maybe to
Monday or Tuesday I suggested that we try out sip the SI P SIP
protocol for these calls.
Yeah. And stands for Session Initiation Protocol. I think
it really I didn't even know what it stood for. I thought it
would be something sexier than that.
No, it's really boring.
And then shall I just do you mind if I if I read everybody
your response?
Well, actually, let me summarise it mainly because the guy who
does gizmo is a friend of mine. And I don't want to sound like
I'm saying horrible things. So you
did What are you talking about? I have the email right here in
front of me.
Yeah, I didn't like gizmo.
But I'm not talking about I did recommend gizmo is an easy way
to get to, to the SIP system, if you will.
A lot of people you know talk about you know, I there's a lot
of people in the telecom business SIP was highly touted.
Some years ago, actually, in the late 90s. When I was writing for
Forbes. There I when I first kind of really started chatting
it for, you know, in detail with with Jeff Pulver right? There
was a big belief in the industry that all telephone calls would
be free. And that SIP itself would be the hot ticket that
would really make everything work together. And it was it was
the hottest thing going from telecom. And as it evolved, it
would be the be all end all and a lot of people still use it for
stocks. In fact, there's a lot of products out there that are
SIP based because it is a standard and you can make SIP
programmes. The problem is it doesn't work. Of course, a bunch
of people are gonna say, oh, it works. It works fine. Yeah, it
works under some circumstances, but doesn't work for what we're
doing. Because Leo has tried it. When we did twit some years ago,
we started trying some of these other alternatives. And they
Yeah, they work for a fact that I when I was in Germany a couple
years ago, I use the SIP or to talk to my wife from the hotel.
She's in, you know, the United States. I'm in Germany, and it
was great. And it works great under no circumstances but it
when it hiccups, it really has some issues that make it day
worse than Skype.
Okay, well, I haven't I obviously haven't tried it out
long enough. I know I've tinkered with it, I think it was
maybe remember that that software x 10, or something was
called or the x x lite or I can remember it well they've pretty
much improved that they've got all kinds of software and gizmo
is one software package you can use the tests that I've done
were fantastic.
You know it, it has a fantastic quality when you know when it's
running right and that's you know, not what the problem is.
The problem is when it when it craps out, it's a disaster. And
the thing I didn't like about gizmo which made it even more
problematic is gizmo is really was poorly thought out in its
implementation. It goes into the machine it auto boots it, it
chews up all kinds of cycles when you can't get it off the
machine it it goes into the registry, it has all these
things. I mean, I had it on one machine and it would every time
we reboot the machines this thing would take over the
machine it was like it was doing it was worse than a virus. Yeah,
it's when it when it starts the XMPP or whatever it takes, like,
you know, four or five minutes if you have a big address book
and it does it does kind of freeze up stuff I agree on
starting once it's running, it seems to be okay.
Well, this new dad but who needs the aggravation? So anyway, the
I just thought it was aggravating the product was
aggravating.
How long ago was this that you tried it with Lea?
Couple years ago?
Have there been any improvements? I just don't
understand if it's an open protocol, and they have all
these awesome codecs, what is what is Skype doing that these
guys wouldn't be able to? I mean, it seems like a clearly a
great advantage, a great alternative to Skype. And when
it's working, as you said, it works great, it sounds fine. So
it was, it seems like there's like a reconnection is different
than Skype or Skype will just degrade severely and kind of
hang in there. I mean, I mean,
that we'd have to talk to the Skype guy. But the, there's
something about they're doing something tricky with Skype,
that keeps it ahead of the curve on every, you know, compared to
whatever these other guys are doing. And the knock against
Skype is simple, you know, it's not open, nobody knows what's
going on. It's almost like mysterious. It is. It's work
and, and it's not standard, you know, you can't, you know, you
could SIP you can have like a dozen different programmes that
can all interact with each other all done, you know, separately.
So there's, you know, so that issue is profound. But fact of
the matter is, it still works better. And it has critical mass
and all the rest of it. Now that said, By the way, there's a new
new god, there was a couple of new articles saying that eBay
wants to dump Skype day.
Like we didn't know that Han, didn't we just last week on this
very programme say that we we saw the polishing up taking
place.
Absolutely.
Anyway, so when you basically shot me down on because I wanted
to do a test with John, on on Thursday, and, okay, well,
obviously, don't want me to read the email, I understand. But it
was kind of like what you just said. Kinda.
Email always sounds more terse. That's the reason I don't, you
know, like to read it. So,
anyways, I had all this creative energy left. And I wound up
doing some other tinkering, which is just kind of cool to
mention. You know, I have an iPod Touch now. Which I have to
save as a browsing experience. It's just fantastic. It Nothing
beats it that I've ever had my hands for a handheld browser,
great experience. All the other stuff. Yeah. Okay. And I just
had a standard, I hadn't jailbroken it or anything. And
I'm kind of gearing up and getting ready to do a screen
video cast. So part screencast part, show Intel of my entire
setup, because people actually, you know, John, people have gone
out and bought MacBook Pros waiting for me to tell them how
to string it all together. So I'm severely amiss behind on
this. And let's,
let's put it together in some sort of a paper and then publish
it on all the websites we run.
Yeah, well, what I what I thought was, I probably I'm
never going to be any good at putting together like a Visio
chart or whatever. But I can certainly explain all the
connections and show it in the screencast. And also hold up
because there's external devices as well. I can't, yeah.
Well, I can assure the listening audience who intends on watching
this with high hopes that they are going to implement what you
did that they haven't got a prayer, if that's the way you're
going to do it?
No, but if I do that part, then I can easily write down every
single piece and document it or someone else can maybe that's
my hope. Well, you know, my stepson wants to do that for
you. Okay, so why don't
I make the video and then I'll send it to him. And then if he
doesn't get it, then we'll have to go to the next phase. Yeah.
Anyway, let me just tell you what the last cool thing I did.
So I already have this external midi controller this thing made
by it's a German outfit. It's called fader Fox. And it's a
little MIDI controller. It has six sliders on it. And with
that, I can control the software which I'm running, which is
Ableton Live. So if I, if I lower my mic here on the on the
slider, then obviously it lowers the volume in the software,
okay, and that's just controlling, controlled through
MIDI. But I'd seen somewhere these guys who would had tricked
out some software from at some Asian guy because I looked at
his website and he has like kanji stuff on it, I presume we
some Asian guy. And he's built something called aka remote. And
they built some software that you put onto your Mac that you
can then tie into MIDI Long story short, I can now fire
jingles and songs and also control the faders right from
my, from my iPod Touch wirelessly through the land.
It's really, really awesome.
Wow. Yeah. So you're gonna bring that rig over? Yeah. Coming back
to the United States again, right? Yeah,
I think Monday or Tuesday. I'll be over.
Well, then since you're coming back. I think it's time for a
new test.
Shit. Wait a minute. You're of course John was referring to
We're the Customs and Border Protection Agency when I enter
the United States, I'm on the secondary search match list,
whatever it is, last time, I joked and laughed and said I
should speak. I should speak to a TL a team leader. Right when I
got to the first customs guy, so what would the test for this
week be for this trip?
Okay, so this last time you I thought you went one iteration
in before you asked for the team leader?
No member, right? No, no, that's that. Okay. Right. Right. When
you get to that passport guy, that first guy was sitting in
the blue booth, where you're lined up with your bag, and he
grabs your passport. That's the guy you asked for the team
leader right there at the
beginning. That's what I did last time. Yeah.
Okay, this time, let's not ask him. But let's ask the next guy
down the line. Now, let's record it this time? Well, I don't
think they're gonna put up with that.
It will not if the end if they catch me, they won't. But why
would they know?
Wow, that's an interesting point. I mean, what I was
thinking I guarantee have only that could do that. Do you have
like a little?
Here's what I was thinking, you know, that little flip camera,
the white one that I show you that? No, these are really cool.
They're the you buy them at like at Walmart. You can just buy
them right off the rack. It's a little digital camera all it
does all those things. And it has a flip up USB connector.
Right. Right, right. So I could put that in my breast pocket of
my jacket. And I'm thinking if I made a little paint, I made a
little hole so that the lens could kind of peek through it
just to work,
you're gonna get thrown in the slammer?
Well, it's either that or I can record the audio. That would be
timely, I
think safer.
Yeah, cuz I could probably just drop an eye River into my breast
pocket and just hit record, and it will probably pick up enough
that it'll be legible. If I'm wearing wearing mics is not
going to be a good idea.
No, no, they don't even want to use in cell phones when you're
in that part of the terminal. But yeah, and I river would do
it. You know, I mean, you could use an h four h two or something
like that. But it's too bulky. No, no, I heard you and
I have the IFP the 799. The right so
and everyone uses Yeah. Okay, sure. So seven, eight. So you
haven't said that's going to work and it has a built in mic
or you're going to stick a little Sony on air or something?
No, it's got a built in mic. It's pretty good. You can set
the dynamics. I'll test it. I'll test it before I go.
Okay, yeah, that'll work. Okay. That's almost I don't take the
Steven remotely hard to do. So usually it goes through the
exact same process again. Oh, this is beat makes it like a
double blind study. Because you're doing the exact same
thing twice to see if it's actually valid that the way you
did okay, that's fine.
I'll ask for the team leader again. And see if I get you have
any code words that if you get to make the one phone call that
you can say that would indicate that they're going to kill you
or something like that. If what what are you talking? Oh,
nevermind. I'm sorry. I shouldn't even brought that up.
Rose, but I so anyway, and then, and then my wife's MacBook
today, which is why we're recording a little bit later
than normal. It's 10 minutes to nine in the evening. What kind
of a computer was it? It's a 15 inch iMac, one of the first kind
of like the white ones. Makes it and it's it's the PowerPC
version. So it's not it's not an Intel? It's it's an old dog.
Yeah, it's before even before the 17 inch PowerPC iMac came
out.
Okay. All right, so it's an old clunker she's probably over the
hill How old is that thing?
So I was just thinking about that it and as you know, our
computers are on 24/7 We never turn them off. So that thing has
been running for four years.
And 24/7 So you just burn it up you don't care about the
environment or green or anything then
the screen the screen goes to sleep and you know that in the
drive shut down so it's of course it's still using energy
but yeah, I'm a believer and leave it on and turn off. And so
and it was it was clearly a hardware problem. I think
something with the graphics card. It's just you know, it's
melted away. I guess that four years that seems about
reasonable for for something made in China. It's kind
of like it you know, it's like you don't want an Datsun or
something in your car for years.
Kabu man, I bought my daughter a Renault Twingo. Am I familiar
with this car?
I've seen the pictures of it. Let me see cute little cars
yellow card is a cute little European car that would probably
be really cute to have in Europe, or let me
tell you it's it's a really comfortable drive. You can't
it's kind of like sitting in, in like lawn furniture. And it's
kind of feels like a But you're sitting up a little bit high and
it's because it's so light, you know, it only has a 1.2 litre
engine. It's still real zippy, you know, five speed. And yeah,
I was like, wow, this is not bad.
I can see you driving around one of those things.
Well, I had a I had a smart car in Amsterdam, which I loved. I
mean, that was frickin perfect.
I can't imagine you in that though. Oh, you're too tall. No,
you can fit into a smart smart car.
Yeah, I had the one. I had the convertible smart car. So your
head was sticking out? No, they're they're quite sizable.
Not a problem at all. That was nice. Also, very, very decent of
eight to kind of expensive for the actual amount of physical
stuff that they give you.
The other prime make money on it.
Isn't that? Isn't it launched in the states now? Aren't people
buying them now? They've heard that they were I haven't seen
her name. I think I don't think they're calling it the Smart
car. I think they're calling it something else.
But a dumb car.
It's not dumb man.
In these in the states it is. Because, you know, in Europe,
for example, they let you park those things head first.
Although the I've never actually seen anyone park it that way.
I've seen it in France a couple of times, especially in Paris.
Okay. Possible. You see some gauges, rams are right in the
head first between two cars. And that's the sits there and nobody
cares. Because it's you know, not just not bothering anybody
doesn't stick out. But if you did that here, they'd probably
throw you in jail. send you to get Mo.
I have to say though, you know, just driving around with this
thing. And I went down to the gas station, you know, and she
doesn't have her licence yet. So I'm driving it. And I'm really
sitting there going like, Wow, just comparing it to, you know,
to the Jaguar. I'm like, There's no advantage. In fact, this car
is kind of cool. Because you can plug your iPod into the I told
you about they can plug your iPod right into the, into the
stereo system. And right, yeah, another thing that happened,
that was just personally interesting. Our fridge went out
last Sunday, it just died and having
you having electronics failures in and around the house left and
right thing.
Interesting. I wonder what's next. So it's a special size, so
it had to be ordered. So it didn't actually come until
yesterday. So we were without a recruit. Well, actually, I had
a, I have a small drinks cooler that I have up to here in the
office, which actually will get quite cold it will function as a
perfect refrigerator. But it's small, you know, it's only meant
for a couple cans of Coke or whatever. But it has kind of the
form of a refrigerator, it has one or two shelves in it. And it
was it was kind of intriguing to see how how little food and how
little crap we actually needed in the refrigerator. And we
didn't go hungry. You know what I mean? And I and I couldn't
compare this because we just got back from grocery shopping. Man.
We now we have to fill up the new fridge. It's like this is
stupid. It's like we're buying all this stuff. It didn't make
any difference. I didn't miss any of it for a whole week.
You have to re re you have to. There's something there's a good
gag in there. But you have to reevaluate everything you're
doing. You downsize, that's the key. Maybe that's a refrigerator
full of crap. Every once in a while. I say okay, I'm going to
clean out the refrigerator, I take everything out and decide
and I take the harsh approach, throw out the stuff that I
probably never going to use or it's old. And I you know, clean
everything and then I put it back in everything's got nothing
in it. Exactly. That's my point. It's just a month bunch of stuff
that just accumulates and you use it for storage
store so it just but it's just shit we buy that I don't think
we really need
no. So I had it. I got a whole I was shopping the other day and I
got a hold of it. I don't remember seeing one of these
before, but I knew they came out with him because they've been
you know, making these these new builds here in the United
States. And they first they did the 100 with a big giant
Franklin head and they made put colour on it. And then they did
a 50 and then they did a 20 and then he did a tan which is
really clownish is really crazy. But then I finally got a hold of
a five. So the new five is got big giant link be head Lincoln.
If you look at the old bills that were done in the 1910s and
1920s. Those things are gorgeous. They're hot. They're
just beautiful. These things are look like play money. They're
just stupid. But anyway, so they got but the weirdest thing about
this five, you got to just keep looking at it. On the backside.
They have the number five in the lower right hand corner. huge,
big giant fives that somebody doesn't get confused. And it's
in lavender. It's like lavender. I'm thinking what Devin who
chose this colour? Maybe it's even more of a pink. But it's
just a horrible like, I don't know. Well, that's
a good question. Who does who doesn't make those decisions?
It seems that Richard Simmons is the one
Okay. Seems like a pretty important thing.
I just I just was baffled.
I've had the new 20s I haven't even had a new tenant. My hands
are, honestly,
to tanzer weirder than the 20s. And the fives are the weirdest.
So I'm waiting for the ones that are those are going to be
something to see.
So how does that work? When they put money into circulation? Do
they take an equal amount out at the same time?
Well, they're always taking money out of circulation
constantly. And they have to feed new money into circulation,
because the bills are only good for a few years. And they just
swap them out and put new entities take old out and grind
them up. And we're making the bedding for the poor. So that's,
that isn't
isn't that a great process to leak a little bit of extra money
into the economy.
There's always suspicions that people do that. But anyway, the
show so that all they do is during the natural turnover of
the money, they just bring in the new bills, and then they
hope the other ones don't disappear eventually, even
though I still have a 50 with a little head and without the
stripe in it, you know, some some old bill that ended up in a
drawer somewhere. And you some of those you have to take to the
bank to even get rid of them. Actually in England I was last
time it was there. I guess it was a couple of times ago, I had
gone in before they had done some deal with the euro. And
they put that little E on the bills. That means it's part of
the European Union. And I walk into the country with a bunch of
and I always keep the old money keep the money from the last
trip. So I loaded up with all my British pounds. And none of them
were any nobody would take them. And I said what's the deal she's
on now you got to turn those into the bank. Those are no
good. It looks just exactly the same, right? Except there's a
little E on the new bills, because it was the same bill
same picture the green it was the same thing. I don't
understand why they couldn't just take that let him go out of
circulation naturally. But that's not the way they do
things
now though. It's the same it was the same in in the Netherlands.
And in Belgium, actually. So Belgium had the franc before the
Euro came and the Netherlands had the Gilder and there was an
absolute cut off date. And then I think up to two years after
the day, you could still exchange your old Dutch guilders
for euros so I mean, I guess I do have to just set a date and
say after this date and no more now we're cutting over to
whatever it is but when it Yeah, it was an EU thing man. It was
total European Union bullshit.
So anyway, so I have all these bills that you know have to turn
in and I got a bunch of old French francs I found the other
day and I totally missed those. Absolutely. Got it pretty
though.
I found them always to be a little bit coppery, you know, I
mean, like I'm almost green.
The French francs Yeah, don't
think no noms not the bills. I'm talking about the money the
actual colour.
No, the coins? Yeah, yeah, the coins are kind of funky. But the
bills I thought were always very attractive if the bills are
small. Now they're all different sizes. They get the small one.
It's like the dominant denomination the bill and the
sin the Franks. Did they get bigger? I think I know there's a
small bill and is bigger. I know there's some countries. I think
from I thought France was one of them, but their son in fact the
England has a little bill or they used to have
the five pound notice. You're right. It's all different sizes
five pound a shrunken Yeah. Speaking of money, do you see
our prime minister in the United States hanging out with
everybody?
No, I didn't know he came to your kids. I'm not kidding,
because every bola news is about the Pope. Everything's Pope
Pope. Pope Pope Pope.
Yeah, well, but they're so after the pope buoyed out of DC. In
came Gordon Brown and he met with Bush and he met with McCain
and with Clinton and with Obama.
Here let me look at this. I'm just bringing up Google News.
Top Stories swept up in Pope fever a busy day as first vote
in six weeks draws near North Korea Trade top Bush talks with
North Korean leader those are the three stories are running.
And then on the right the little ones there's nothing about this.
Nothing zip nothing about Gordon Brown. Now let me look in a
world Zimbabwe. Human Rights Iraqi. Nope.
Maybe it didn't maybe didn't happen. Maybe they just made it
up like like the people on the moon video.
Could be Gordon Brown don't actually go here. Here big news.
Sandra Bullock and husband hit by drunk driver. Oh, she okay.
Yeah, then nothing really happens. Not even news it seems.
No does nothing here should that Chinese urge anti West boycott
over Tibet
stance? No, it was kind of we know was kind of crowd is
not anywhere on this page.
Crazy 10 Downing Street, which of course is the British White
House. They have a Twitter account, and they were
twittering the whole time. It'd be like, you know, the Pm is now
being announced by Senator Kennedy and he's going to do his
speech and then you know, it was like we're having doughnuts and
now we're off to you know, you know, just whatever the next
appointment is, it was Pretty cool to follow along. It was,
Oh, that is cool. I would if I had known that I would have
subscribed, you know, I'm a Twitter user now.
So last week I did one tweet. I knew you'd already signed up.
Yeah. And in fact, you had, like, 150 people when I looked,
and it was after we had was it after we had dinner. Was it
after we did the last show?
No, it was actually before we had dinner because you told me
that. I think it told me then.
Oh, that's right. It was Yeah. Anyway, so I did. I didn't want
to tweet like in the middle of the night, you know, kind of
referring anyone at sign the real Dvorak and and then I could
just see the number just going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, and it ticked up. And what do you want? Now you like at
5000 followers or something? At least
I'm at about 57 hit, you're heading towards 5800.
Fantastic. But yeah, the
big jump took Leo, give it a shot. Give me a plug. It just
jumped 2000 instantly. Yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it. So
I need to get a plug from you a plug from Calacanis, who
promised but he's never He doesn't even answer his email.
He's worse than Leo, you say. And then VERONICA BELMONT big.
But she's got like 20,000 or something like that. So I could
score a few extras. I want to try to get to, I didn't, my goal
was actually to get to three or 4000. But now that I'm over
five, I figured, well, maybe my goal and shut too low. I should
be shooting for 10. Do
you see what you need to do? So here's the trick to Twitter, you
have to get the of the right people following you. So having
a Calacanis follow you, but also, if you if you I mean, I
use it for notification to get the word out, I want you to look
at something you know, that's usually what I'm doing. So if
you can write and this is where the creative writing part comes
into play, if you can write something that will catch
someone's eye like Calacanis, then Hill's Twitter about it.
Right? So you automatically get his 15,000 or whatever, you get
those in as well. For your for your message. And it'll probably
be to appropriate people. So it's kind of like the gaming for
me is not in how many people are following me, but I want to have
the right people following me, because I know that they'll
replicate they'll, they'll become a repeater for me.
Ya know, I can understand that. And I think that thing is
actually quite interesting. I mean, I was always sceptical by
my scepticism periods, by the way, and I mentioned this on
cranky geeks, I've shrunk it, instead of, instead of you
milking it, like I used to where I could do that with the blogs.
I mean, I could write negative stuff and get my numbers wet,
because everybody kept coming in and, you know, to condemn me.
But now I've decided that there's not enough hours in the
day and I got other things to talk about that I don't want to
like milk, these negative approaches, which are actually
exploratory. I mean, I use a lot of my negative commentary to
explore issues and get to, you know, all the different
perspectives. Because if you really slam something, from an
honest perspective, I'm not being a phoney about it. I mean,
I really feel I have these concerns. And so I used to
express them in probably in a probably a vitriolic way that
would detract attention. And so people come in and say, No,
you're wrong. And here's why. I mean, I get I get that and I
also get you suck, but did you suck stuff doesn't do me any
good. But people, there's a lot of people out there that will
try to explain to you where you're wrong. And actually, I
learned a lot from that.
So do you feel that this time is short now by weeks?
Well, I can almost say by years, but
thank you for pointing that out? No, I think mankind thanks you
in general that you've shortened this, John. It was about time.
Well, I'm trying to think of when I first ran into Twitter,
which was I think pretty much on the Twitter show Leo sting
because we years ago. It was it was that long, I don't think has
been it. I think it's been around for about a year and a
half. Okay. So I think I'm so I normally would have probably
kept complaining for another year, half a year, maybe in
another six months to nine months. I probably should have
brought it home six months earlier, but you know, I'm still
I don't you don't jump on everything. Just raise but in
this case, you actually believed there was worthless. I did.
Yeah. I did. But I realise now that Calacanis actually is the
one on one of the shows that kind of talked me out of that
way of thinking. I also when I was in South Carolina recently
talking to a bunch of real estate people who had a tech guy
there, he had this really long explanation for me why he uses
it and why I should use it and what good it is. And he uses it
for like, you know, he uses a kind of as a little way to
because everyone has it hooked to it through their phones. He
has it. He has a team of people that work for him around him or
in the same company. And when he needs to send out a message to
all of them. He says through Twitter. Yeah, he just Twitter's
in his best broadcast message. And then more recently, that kid
in Egypt who got arrested, he managed to Twitter that he was
getting arrested just before they handcuffed him. I guess and
brought the attention to himself to the Twitter, his little
twittering group and they got him out of jail. Yeah. I thought
that was pretty interesting.
What you got to do now is now you got to get into all the the
ancillary stuff like Twitter mail. Do you have that Twitter
mail? No. So Twitter mail.com. You give it your Twitter
details. And then whenever there's new messages that are
directed at you, you get an email with a nice little
summary.
I'm getting mail already. via Twitter. Oh, really? Yeah.
There's a there's a private messaging system within Twitter.
That not the one where you go at, you know, Adam in a hurry,
but the one where you go to you go to a, you go to a look up
maybe a little mailing thing, and you got a few you send these
little short mail memos. And they get emailed to you too. I
don't have that. What are you using? I'm just using the
website. Oh, really? Yeah, people were complaining to me
about that, too. already. I is using the website. There's too
many good tools out there. Why are you using the website? The
website stinks.
I think the tools are good, man. That's true.
Yeah, well, I mean, I was so many hours in the day. I'm you
know, I've got I mean, I post I'll try to get to these tools.
Now. But I'm telling you, I'm giving you some ideas here. So
if you give
me Twitter mail, but what's the other five?
Okay, then you have what the hell is not conversely? Perhaps
the one where you can see everything in threaded form?
Ah, shit. Alright. Yeah. If somebody's told me about that
already, and I just can't remember the name of it. I don't
know that. I want that. But okay.
No, it's kind of cool. Because you may be replying to someone.
That's a part of some some other thread. It's interesting.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, it could be valuable.
But anyway, so now they're gonna start to suck because I
understand they're gonna start putting ads into the feeds. That
tell me bad that may sorry.
So, anyway, so that I know, I enjoy it, I think it's good.
It's a good way to just like it is microblogging. There's some
times you can draw attention to the blog if you have something
specifically good or I you know, have asked for certain things,
some help on some things and people are more than happy to
have it's a very, you know, kind of utopian, volunteer oriented
group of well wishers type you know, it's not a lot a lot of
negative stuff that goes on there. I may get the one you
know, you suck. You know, it comes through, but it's very
recent,
but you can ask those people have you blocked him yet? That's
that's really I don't
mind it at all. Who cares? So anyway, the so I like it. I
think it's a really cool thing. But now add on now on the other
side, I promised that I'm not going to talk about it that
much. Because it's boring. Yeah. So we're stopping that
conversation immediately. I was just asking. Anyway, but, but
before we stop it, it's the real divorce because
you're horrible
you know, what's, what's the point? So probably pick up
another 50 people. So and the thing is, you know, people say,
Well, you know, we got to do a big argument. We're gonna cranky
geeks with Sebastian Ripley and he's just an ego stroking says
no, it's not you you have this little group cadre of people and
it's not for your ego it's for you know, it's for efficiency
and so really all it is I mean, I don't need my ego stroked I
just want the point is I got plenty of things they can do
that and besides that I have a bunch of kids that told me I'm
I'm crummy so you know they got a bad dad because I didn't buy
something so I mean, you know you get dumb not worried about
it.
Wait a minute. What am I hearing now? You were bad dad because
you didn't buy the latest Xbox
they have actually they don't have the latest that there's
that one What was that fancy one they came out with I know
nothing about gaming console right some new X some new fancy
X box out and I've been trying to get it and I have them and
you know and it's like picking up grief I make a buy one but
it's like you know I don't think
it's stupid. I mean why buy one when you can review one?
Well I'd like to see it I didn't know I was visiting you know
talking about you know, you get a lot of comps and review units
and evals depending when you're doing when you're writing and
trade magazines are doing this kind of stuff. Yeah, and you
know, I always thought that I could I could get I can't get
everything I can get a lot of stuff to look at or and people
are offering stuff all the time I refuse for the public out
there to once a no I refuse to see most of the stuff I could
actually get because it's just piles up and as I feel bad about
it you know if I'm gonna look get some I want to actually put
it into use
you had a pretty good appearance on now a new Kobudo show.
Oh, you see it?
Yeah, I can't I somewhere maybe I saw it on your blog. I can't
remember where. But yeah, it looks alright. It was it was
pretty decent.
Yeah, I get I gotta get my hair cut.
She wants to deal with it you have a bet with someone or is
that just a joke?
Just a joke. Then you need a haircut or my hair guys cut my
hair the last time he says I'm going to cut it so it can grow
out grow long. See what happens. So I said okay, and so I've been
growing along and it go went through one phase where it's it
was just looking crummy, but then it got really longer like
it's pretty long now for me because at some point when I was
younger, I used to I had my hair grow out real long, but the
problem is that I have very thin hair and again, it gets split
ends. So when you have thin kind of hair, then it gets really
long and it gets split into the hair. When it touches your skin.
It makes it itch, because it's just like little
it's too thin. What do you maybe you need to change your shampoo?
Yeah, my hair is still too thin. What
shampoo do you use? What
do you use? I'm using different shampoos. I can get the bulkier
shampoos as anyway, the point is, is that I can only put up
with my hair being so long before it gets on my nerves. And
I think it's getting pretty close. You know, I only have
like two big quaffed hair people don't know you've ever seen you
in person don't realise that and then the picture that we're
running on the cage match of you are like from when you're in
high school.
That's a horrible picture. I like to
picture maybe bubble change it but by
the way, Bubba does the most excellent shownotes make sure
you catch him on the cage match.
Two board.org/cage Match anyway. But if anyone's ever seen you in
person you have you look like kind of a you got this huge when
it's done right? You have this huge head of hair and on you're
already when it's done right. When it's done right. You're
already enormous head.
My head is quite small. Thank you. I have a rather high
forehead,
whatever. So you got this huge head of hair. And and it's like
you know when somebody sees it coming down the street I've seen
it people actually jump they jump out if I don't know that
it's something I've never seen before they recognise I don't
know what it is. All job.
You're full of shit. Yeah, thanks. You know what? In your
case, it's a little different. But in most cases, people who
make fun of my hair usually don't have any.
Yeah, well that. Yeah, I know. It's always good to have a
little hair left. I'm I'm not very
well known, but you should be you should thank your lucky
stars, man. I mean, how many guys your age? And I emphasise
that our bar? Yeah, I mean, fine. That's what Patricia
always says. I'll call her up. I can't do my fucking hair.
Because this is the problem is like she made me grow my hair
long. You know the penis picture penis had picture. That's me.
I'm like, easy, right? This thing up in the morning. Get up,
take a shower, get your hair wet. You can't do that with long
hair. So to get all these like frickin rituals and shit. Like,
you know, not wash it every day. And then you know, I have to
every morning I have to use a hairdryer and a bra. It's just
it's a pain in the ass. He's He's taught me he's conned me
into this. And
now it's now it's unfortunate. It's your trademark. Well, I'm
Adam Curry's trademark is this hair. Yeah, well, it's
always been my trademark. Yeah, no, but
this it really well. And blonder than I remember when you were
younger.
Yeah, with ages I mean it's not coloured or anything. So yeah,
no, I have grey hair on my on my temples. But no, no, it's not
not coloured or bleached or anything No not at all. But
anyway, I can never do it right when she does my hair it's great
and then I can walk you know I can walk around for a full 24
hours you know wear headsets well whatever and the hair is
just it it's in it's permanently fixed it's perfect but when I do
it is like this you know it gets destroyed does anyone give a
shit? It's like
you're not I was just brought it up because I thought people
would be interested in if they ever saw you that maybe they
wouldn't you know have that that jump thing that everyone else
was here jump because you know I'm six foot four that you know
most people to most people I'm a giant you know this or they see
this dashing handsome young man could be
it maybe that's why they're jumping you know maybe it's you
know, they're having some sort of a surge. I think
people jump when they see you too if you want to you know
really get into it. Because you know you're not like a small
guy. You're there's a big man with this wavy kind of white
hair and, and you're always you kind of walk with
Oh, my hair is not white. Yeah, it is. Not it's not what do you
call it was white. It would be white.
It's it is white. It's like once you call it blonde.
Yeah, we call it blonde, blonde and white and it's white. Like
old guy white, you know? Really old good old guy White is
usually a salt and pepper look that no not dashing old
guy. I mean, like old old guy. Hey man, again, let's just let's
just take a moment and praise the hair gods that we still have
hair.
Yeah, most of my friends don't have any hair. Exactly. You
know, they all bitched about it, of course
they do. So we need to shut up and just be really happy.
And you know, what you're not supposed to do is when you see
haven't seen one of your old buddies for a long time, you
don't go up to him and the first thing you say is cripes, you're
getting bald.
No, that's not a great conversation starter after a
couple of years. So I have had that though, man. You know, you
see someone after like maybe even four or five years and
they've grown so drastically old in just that short amount of
time that you're bald and bald and your mouth just like his
fucking drops open and you know that they've realised it that
they can see it in your eyes. Have you had that happen? It's
it's the most horrible feeling you like, you want to say you
look great, but you're like, you look like fucking shit. Dude,
you look horrible what happened? I literally that was like two or
three years ago I had that happen. I met up with a buddy in
New York who I hadn't seen for like five years. And it just
freaked me out. You've never had that come on. You must see that
have that happen?
I think more people do that when they see me so exactly. Okay, so
what else do we have anything to talk about this weekend? I took
no notes so I don't have any of these and I got
I got a couple of things I wrote a life you I found out and maybe
this is common knowledge but you know this surge they did in Iraq
where I guess we put in 30,000 extra troops and that was the so
called surge and then they're going to pull that back What
about it I'm reading that that it was 30,000 US servicemen but
that they that we hired like 70,000 militias and I'm looking
oh and I'm looking like at the footage and I'm seeing you know
like you know the Iraqi army right and it's they even have
different uniforms they've got like the almost like the US
style camo camouflage you know kind of like grey and grey and
black instead of the kind of the oil drab Iraqi Army stuff and
and they just dislike like a whole totally different kind of
kind of dudes and I'm hearing all kinds of reports about you
know how good or not good this is Have you heard anything about
this?
Now you know that comes and goes in and out of the news but did
probably you know we have been using a lot of mercenaries and
those are the guys who take no prisoners as it were
that's a lot What do you think a lot is
but how much do you mean a lot of people are a lot of times
I've heard about this
know a lot of people so if we hire a lot You mean do you say
we do that as a country in general a lot or are we have a
lot
I think it's been our policy for I think it's been recently as of
late. Our new Demi's writing the Roman Empire did something
similar you know it's where do we take our cues from to have
these mercenaries do the dirty work they get paid really well
which it you know in the meanwhile ours own soldiers get
screwed and are and have to go by the military code. These
other guys don't? And I don't know the whole thing is sketchy.
And I you know, said there's there'll be a good book about it
eventually. I do want to mention something
that is so cold dude. The whole Iraq War. There'll be a good
book about it eventually, someday. It'll make for a while
reading crap. I'm sorry. What
can you do? I mean, you can't do anything. So but dynamite the
camouflage, you know, realise that they've come up with these
computerised camouflage outfits, right? You know about this? Oh,
no. Oh, yeah. Well, they have these and you see him once
around the centre in the Bay Area, some soldiers would be
around to be wearing them that they don't do any good in a Bay
Area, but they they've developed these new computerised models
and they and they custom make these camouflage outfits and
makes you literally disappear into a background. And somebody
was telling me about the one that looks like it's just a
really weird pattern. I've seen it a couple of times on some
people, and it is really cool look, and it's mostly like looks
pixelated, it's little dot you know, squares and stuff all over
the outfit. And there's one that makes you look like you can't
see a person if they're walking in the desert. Now, that was a
little sceptical about this, but I was watching tennis my stepson
Eric that was telling me about this initially, and then I think
I was watching something with him on on. It was it was like
some interview somebody doing in Baghdad or out by in some
places, but there was a desert behind them. And he pointed out
To me that in the background, you could see people walking.
And all you saw were their heads. I swear to God, you could
see nothing now. So
when you say computerised, it's not actually changing based on
its surroundings. It's just a computer is designed this this
particular pattern.
Yeah, but computers design the pattern cool. And I swear to
God, you see, you'd look back there because it was renewal
just it was way in the back. But you all you saw with these
little black hat little these little black dots that would
last your heads, but you clearly they were heads, and you'd see
them moving around, but they were not hooked to anything.
I must have said you realise it must have something to do with
the way your eye you know, with the way the brain parses the
information or something.
Yeah, no, I think so. But it's really a remarkable new
technology. And it it hasn't really gotten a lot of play, but
I think it would have some other kinds of uses. I mean, like
hunters and maybes. If you want to walk down to the, you know,
some street in San Francisco, and you don't want to be seen.
How about when I'm hanging out in the park at night, and I
don't want to be seen.
Yeah, it probably probably worked great.
I only wanted to see the heads. That's all.
Anyway, that's my story. Yeah. Now I got nothing on the Iraq
War.
I did enjoy. In fact, I played one of his bits. Not the one you
sent me. The kid from Brooklyn.
Right, the members name
the big man. It's the kid from brooklyn.com.
Oh, the kid from Brooklyn. Touchdown, but those DVDs I gave
you No, no, I haven't. I haven't even had time to look at those.
I apologise. I'll watch them on the way over. Yeah. Yeah. The
kid from Brooklyn. Right. Well, the thing. That's awesome. That
guy is people have to go see I was gonna blog it but it was so
offensive
here. But he has he has other ones. He has other really funny
ones. Yeah, he does have a couple that are incredibly
offensive. But you know.
So it's called the kid from brooklyn.com? Or is he just a
kid from Brooklyn? YouTube's the
Brit the kid from brooklyn.com. And he actually charges for
that, John, he's making money on that.
Really? Well. I
don't know if he's making money. He's charging as like, we need
to make money to two bucks a month or something like that.
Yeah, well, that's
not a bad deal.
I signed up. I'm like, This guy's just too funny. I have to
see his shit is just too fucking funny.
Yeah, he is funny. He's good. So I guess he's running for
president. No, no,
he's withdrawn now. Oh, he's endorsing Obama. You should have
heard his riff on Cheney, though. He was so good. I'll say
I'll send a couple to you.
So yeah, he was funny. I thought he was a good contrast to that,
that that kind of erudite British character who
had Rando or whatever it is Pat Kondo Connell. Anna was
named upon ago. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard him a few times.
He reminds me exactly of a television producer. I know. It
really freaks me out whenever I see him like, Oh, no. It can't
be that guy.
So let's see what else is in the news. Anything that's of
interest internationally. Sup the weather?
Well, I don't want to bore you with finance stuff.
Oh, what's the finance stuff? I had a finance thought the other
day. Do you go? When I was thinking that you know what? I
think you would the dollar sinking. Here's the there's
anomaly going on one
foot 158. Five at the time at present.
I think they're gonna push it down was two, and then they're
gonna pull the plug on it. And then it's gonna go into reverse
so fast that you won't know what the hell happened. You made up?
Yeah, the dollar. And here's what the deal is. They're trying
to screw China, I'm convinced to this. China will not budge on
linking their money to the dollar. So we decide to screw
the dollar up so much that the Chinese have to unlink and hook
because now there's talk about the Chinese I
want you to want to Europe. Yeah. And they want to dump all
of their like a trillion dollars back into the marketplace. Let
them okay, and then what and how exactly do you take the value of
the dollar up again? What what is the economic How about
this for an idea that economics of the situation as it now
exists is untenable. I mean, you can't be me the the exports of
Europe are falling like a rock. Americans are short of actually
producing enough stuff to actually start exporting mostly
to Europe, obviously not to China. And you know, we have a
tourist trade over here. Now this is astonishing, even though
there's a pain in the butt to get through to the immigration
and it's just a matter of, you know, what is something worth?
And why is why could somebody from here's a good question that
you have to ask yourself, why does somebody come sam I'm in
Paris right now go into a Paris wine store. And there's a bottle
of wine selling 35 euros and I go the United States and that
exact same bottle of wine is selling for the UK. equivalent
of 20 euros and it's a French wine. Does anybody see that?
This is like something wrong with this picture or is it just
me
but that that obviously
untenable that's the point I'm trying to make. It's kind of
tangible the whole thing is rigged to screw the Chinese. So
let's see what happens.
Okay, so screwing the Chinese how because
so that here's how here's how you screw them they won't unlink
from our dollar so okay fine let's run the dollar down to $2
a Euro just make the dollar like why do we want them to unlink?
Because if they linked to something, Mel because they're
low balling us on everything, they're selling stuff for next
to nothing, and it's ridiculous. I mean, you can't compete with
them they've taken over 75% of the world's manufacturing man is
basic because it's all subsidised and you and it's
because and if we tried to say well you know the typical way
you would balance your you know your exports and imports is that
you devalue your money a little bit to make you know to get
things kind of on an even keel but wherever time you you keep
lowering the value of the dollar in any way shape or form the
Chinese is linked to it Yeah, we're still what cheap too
and so you said that just like him too we cheap too.
So they take him go into the you know the toilet with us but at
some point somebody says this is ridiculous this dollar is going
to be useless that's linked to the euro so they linked to the
euro let's say it's at to two to two to one mark once they d link
from the dollar now we can start running the dollar value back up
and leave those guys in the dust and all of a sudden there they
will they will naturally have revenge valued their money.
Okay, bye but but John
Wait a minute, if the dollar continues to fall when we have
some kind of domino effect where everyone starts dumping their
dollars to get into the Euro won't won't that just really
accelerated and could ruin it would make
why would it ruin it? And I think I'd make it better. I'd
love to hear why it makes our goods cheaper on the on the open
market worldwide so what's wrong with that? What goods? Well, we
do produce automobiles and heavy machinery and jets and
multimillion dollar aircraft that sells for like a lot of
money and it competes with the European stuff that we do Airbus
is losing their ass because of the fact that the dollar is so
cheap and we can sell Boeing jet so much cheaper is killing
people. Yeah, now for the most part, we're still buying too
much junk from China. But that's the only thing that has been
ruining us is that you know, the Chinese have kind of taken over
our manufacturing of the of the lesser Good.
Well, this is really complete really interesting. This is
really interesting, because this is something I've been talking
about. So if consumers would have just stopped buying goods
from China, would that also solve the problem?
Well, it's impossible actually. But let's just say that's never
gonna happen. It's an impractical concept. I mean, if
we stopped the globalisation Yeah, maybe or if China falls
apart, you know, that's that probably would do the trick too.
But you know, which is going to happen the way they're going.
But the I mean, it's good for me they're coming apart at the
seams it seems to me this dual Olympics thing is becoming a
problem. Yeah.
Where's that gonna end? I wonder wonder the Olympics start
actually,
I think in about four years come on, Milan, says the next
Olympics. I guess it's this October or something like that?
I think it's coming up. I'm gonna see ioc.org I pursue or
basically yeah, look at No, no, no, it must be this summer
because it has to be a Summer Olympics. So it's got to be like
in July. And I want to be in Beijing running around a track
in July in China with all that off the air there is horrible.
How the hell do they get the stewardship
is all corrupt. You know, if you look at paintings from China,
it's really interesting to compare paintings from China and
paintings from Vietnam for example of Vietnam and the
Chinese both paint Western art now. And and the Vietnamese if
you want to have stuff made by you know, one of these job shops
down there. You go to Vietnam, because they disguise in Vietnam
are gorgeous. I've always wanted to wait until I went I didn't
realise it. But I knew that the Vietnamese painted clouds better
than probably any other people. And so if you have a picture
with that you want to copy it has a lot of clouds in it, the
Vietnamese will not get out. And the reason is because they have
all these beautiful clouds in the sky all the time. You look
at the Chinese art that's actually made in China. I have a
bunch of original pieces done by some Chinese artists. The skies
are always white. There's I don't think I think there's
parts of China where they've never seen blue. It's always
white. It's just a white mass. You don't see any clouds. You
don't see the blue sky. It's just as white. It's like being
in Los Angeles back in the 70s. It's horrible.
Eighth of August opening date.
Hopefully, as they enter the monsoon season, it could be good
for a laugh Oh, that's in Beijing. I don't think they have
monsoons there.
I have no idea. Have you ever been to Beijing?
Oh yeah, a couple of times.
What city is, What city is it most like the youth
used to be most pretty singular Beijing ish. But then now it's
starting to look like Shanghai. And so it's not, you know, as
cool as it once was. But it's the it doesn't really, it
doesn't resemble anything in Europe, it's pretty. China in in
itself has got a singular quality that is
they got a whole different world over there, don't they, John?
It's a different country.
But that was really, really different. I mean, it's, it's
really, really amazingly different. And how little do we
actually know their culture?
Well, there's a lot of Chinese around, they'd love to tell you
about their culture, they just it's not hard to uncover. It's
not, you know, they don't have a complex culture like the
Japanese where they have, you know, the two faces and the, and
they act to act a certain way and all that other stuff there.
It's not really so complicated that you can deal with it. I'll
tell you this, you know, I was sitting I think I may have
mentioned this on an Early Show. So I'm sitting at lunch with
some Chinese in Palo Alto that were showing me some stuff from
Acer out of Taiwan. And I was they were talking because
conversation turned to China because I you know, like going
there. It's kind of cool. And And the woman was moaning about
some issues, I guess a Taiwanese or maybe an American, she was
complaining. And so I always have a great time. They always
have a great time. She's Yeah, it's because you're white.
I don't think you've told me that one.
Yeah. And she says just because you're white. So she says if
you're especially an American, and you're in like Shanghai, or
Beijing, they fall all over themselves, because they want to
improve their American English. I think America is great. You
know, they have all these crazy things, you know, they just felt
they kiss your ass. And so you always have a pretty good time
if you're white. And she said, but if you're like Chinese, you
know, from especially if you're not a Chinese giant from China,
they just give you a bit make your life miserable. She says, I
don't know.
Okay, so So what you're saying is that the in general, the
typical Chinese person really aspires to have a life like us
in the West.
I think there's an element to that. I mean, the first time I
went to China, which was they said, Come on in
Boys, come check it out. You'll have a grand old time.
First time went to China, which was, I don't know, 15 years ago
or so. And I was with a group and I had to listen to the
lectures. And, and the Chinese were very adamant about copying
our aspects of American capitalism and lifestyle. I
mean, they just announced it.
Interesting. Well,
and what's the real hang about it? There's evidence.
I'm sorry, you dropped out there. And John, would you say?
I'm, I'm saying I don't think they were lying about it. I do
think that their their interpretations a little
different than what we would actually do. Yeah, maybe?
Perhaps it's what they see on television.
I think there's that element. And they have a lot of Chinese
over here. I mean, again, they go back and forth. And so it's
not like
it's the Chinese are everywhere. Yeah, they're taking
over Africa. That's actually the news that needs to be followed.
Hmm, South Africa, North Africa,
all of Africa.
What are they doing?
Well, the fact that right?
Now, we have it that's our natural resources. We're, we're
the ones supposed to be fucking that up. How come they get to
jump in?
And they've they're there, because they don't have the
political correctness gene that we do. So they do a lot of dirty
deals. To screw the natives. And I first heard about this, if
this was about not to
generalise or anything, John.
I'm generalising from what I've been told. Okay. I don't know
because I haven't met balayage. I talked to a lot of guys who go
back and forth Africa Latin, and nobody's denied this. But I
first heard about this, I think it was maybe three or four years
ago, first time, I was up in Windsor, Canada, giving a talk
to of all people. It's kind of the the remnants of the OS two
community. And there was a bunch of hot shots there, including
the one of the mainstays of PHP and then there was a bunch of
there was a couple of Germans and that one guy from Germany
was telling me about how the Germans had been kind of pushed
out of China by the I'm sorry, pushed out of Africa by the
Chinese, who come in with the sweet deals. And then they bring
all their own people in and they build their own cities. And then
the next thing you know, they're pushing all that what they do,
he claimed, and I was denied this either. They do the
following. They do they open up a big contract to build a dam.
Yeah. And then they bypass it and then then because they need
all this dis dis equipment, like from computers to everything in
the world to build the dam. They bring all that stuff in Duty
Free into their into this country. And then they start
selling it on the grey market. Hey, so do you
think what GAVI has anything to do? The whole Magog was
situation has anything to do with the Chinese? Do you think
that a deal with him,
I'll have to go to this unknown fact. Anyway so so they bring
this stuff it goes like this the way the thing works the way the
German guy explained it to me, he says you have a legitimate
company coming in from Germany selling for example, power
supplies or and computers, they go through the channels, they
have to pay the duties, they gotta do all these things that
computer comes out at Red a bunch of it costs a fortune. The
Chinese come into the back door with all this gear they bring in
because they're doing this big dam or they're building some
Civic Centre or something. And they bring all this crap in and
they lowball the Germans and put them out of business goes rat
bastards. And nobody does anything about it. And he says
and this is the worst part about is the crap they're bringing in
is garbage. So it's blowing up all the time and the power
supplies are no good. So
that's something we got to watch out for. I agree, man because it
does seem like this seems to be a lot of issues with products
manufactured in China.
Yeah, there is now he says the kicker is the way they end he
says it would make it really work for him is they never
officially finished the projects. There's always
something and so they keep bringing this stuff in through
the back door and then they didn't dump it into the system
into the economy as opposed to using the dam and the next thing
you know they've taken over the place because they're all a
little businesses either local or from Germany United States or
wherever it's placed out there all our business they can't
compete with these Chinese so what they do,
I guess they do it must be Chinese government then or is it
is it it can't be big commercial. You know? Who are
these? I mean, so who's doing the deal with who obviously with
guys like Mugabe so you have how many presidency have in Africa
maybe 18
I don't know that it is happening everywhere they just I
just watching it on BBC they were talking about how they're
taking over like what another Mozambique or something? Now,
here's the thing is who is doing? This is an interesting
question, because you don't know if it's the you know what level
this is being instigated a large part of it, it's coming from the
US as a group of Chinese you know, and this is another
discussion you can get into with Chinese I'm gonna get you know,
some email wow, you know, you're generalising. I may be
generalising but I'm not generalising from not having at
least checked it out. John, John, John,
you have credibility, my friend? No worries, I got your back.
So anyway, so here's the here's the way it shakes out the chat.
There's a bunch of of cultural things going on in China as to
how the Chinese are going to do business in the world of
business, the global world. And initially, everybody believed
that what was going to happen is that all of these because the
Taiwanese had developed all these great connections all over
the world, and are kind of, you know, fairly honest businessmen.
By some standards, they're, you know, there may not be
completely but they're pretty good. They have because we work
with them all the time. I mean,
for decades, America for a long time for a long, good
relationship.
And they were going to influence how China does business. But
there's another group of Chinese businessman of the Malaysian
Chinese, who are the guys who are the real cut.
The minute you said cut throat, Skype cut out easy doesn't man,
they're listening in
cutthroat characters. Anyway, they are nasty. I mean, they
really are the capitalists and they are seem to be getting more
and more influenced because they do bigger deals, they have
better profits, they do all kinds of stuff that just makes
these you know, the Taiwanese are wimps by comparison in terms
of the world, world class, you know, cutthroat business deals.
And the Malaysian Chinese seemed to have something to do with
this African deal, I think now, and the Malaysian Chinese are
short draft customers. I mean, they're the ones who you know,
they're probably a lot of the triad meant they had they have
to be kind of rough customers to party there. And they're always
being you know, the government's always threatening to kick the
Chinese out of Malaysia. And you know, it's kind of otherwise
it'd be a Muslim country like Indonesia, but the Chinese have
so own Malaysia in terms of the fact that wouldn't operate on
this level it's at you wouldn't have those twin towers, the
Petronas Towers or anything going on without these Chinese
there and I've met more than a few of them and they are
what kind of business are they in typically John, is it all
manufacturing? Is it all their
newspapers manufacturing, import, export, everything,
nothing is beyond them.
You know it all Well sounds like one of those science fiction
movies, you know, kind of like Schwarzenegger deal where you've
got all these really shady characters lurking in bars all
different, like ethnic looks and stuff. You know what I mean?
Yeah, I know what you mean. But they they tend to be in a hot
first class hotels Rolls Royces, Mercedes Rolls Royces and that
type of thing. They're very showy. And then there's the
other group, which is the Hong Kong Chinese. But I think
they've been marginalised. And essentially, Hong Kong has been
turned to Switzerland is essentially a banking community.
And the the action for international trade has been
shifted up to Shanghai, from Hong Kong and Hong Kong. If you
go there now, it's very expensive. When I was a kid, you
could go to Hong Kong and buy cheap cameras. I mean,
everything was inexpensive. And then all of a sudden, were like
going there.
So the last part again
uncle's expensive. I mean, it's like really expensive. Yeah. I'm
sorry. Yeah, so our connection crapped out.
Yeah, I was just listening. I was really tuning into what you
were saying. And it crapped out once or twice, but it's okay. I
mean, it was it was easily followable.
Ya know, anyway, the point is, if you're gonna, if somebody
wants to go visit China, I always tell him just get on a
plane, what's so good.
But all these things you're telling me? And I'm really I'm
just kind of, you know, reflecting and thought here.
This seems to be a problem.
Oh, it's huge.
So huge problem. No, but but we seem to be like, everyone is
sucking up because the Chinese you know, we're taking their
sovereign wealth funds where we continue to have an insatiable
appetite for products made in China. I don't know. I just it
feels like, that's kind of weird. No, you don't not a lot
of people talk about it that way.
It's really too bad. They didn't, the people talked about
it more, I think it would help resolve some of the problems.
You know, the thing is, like, I keep telling her just go to
China will Yeah. I mean, the problem we have in this country
is a media gives us a skewed perspective of China. Some
people, including Dan Rather, himself, still call it Red
China, as if it was, you know, as if everyone's wearing mild
costumes. You know, when some years ago, I went to Beijing, I
think the first time I went to Beijing is with PC computing, or
some we'll go a little group of us. And what we wanted to do,
and this was a while ago, this is like 9697 96 What we wanted
to do, because you never been there before, or to Beijing. I
think it's my first trip to Beijing. I had been to Hong Kong
and Taiwan a million times. And we wanted to get him out outfit.
You know, like so one of those mouth thinks it'd be kind
of cool, great. And that you look kind of like a heavier
version of the of the mastering grasshopper. Time to snatch the
pebbles from my hands. You'd look fantastic. You should wear
that to work. So anyway,
you can't find them anywhere. And I'm thinking, well, there's
a tourist, they don't take advantage of the tourist
opportunities here. There. They haven't worn those things.
Apparently, we're told, you know, for what, 20 years, and
they were there everyone looked at us like we're crazy even one
when these things have all been shipped to the you know, they've
all been sent out to the middle of nowhere for farmers to use if
they can't find any closers for free so when your level of high
high souvenir level like you know, now jacket, they didn't
you couldn't get it and I think is probably still true today. In
fact, we ended up finding someone who knew someone who
knew someone who had access to some mouse they doing posters,
some classics, and big picture that big portrait the one that's
that's a copy of the one in Tiananmen Square. Yeah, sure.
And they gave us a big roll of them for free that they took
from the library or someplace that you know, somebody, they
were going to throw them out or whatever, because they weren't
selling those either. And so we took we everyone got one of
these, you know, posters and took them home and framed them.
They're actually quite funny, that's probably worth something.
And baffled by the whole thing they didn't know they didn't
know how to deal with you know, any of this. It was like it was
baffling to the Chinese that anyone would want this.
So they didn't get the whole you know what tourists are? I don't
know where I was going with that story. But
that's alright. That's really interesting. And now I got a
feeling I gotta go to China.
Now and that's what I was saying. The story was about I
keep telling people just go to China. Don't watch the news
reports. The news reports are all inaccurate. Just get on a
plane and a good flight, by the way is Vancouver to Shanghai.
Great flight short, it's like sometimes like six hours or so
it's really short. which is usually filled with a bunch of
Chinese businessmen. But it's a great flight to Vancouver to
Shanghai, because they're both up high on the line. How
long does it take to get from San Francisco to Vancouver? Like
three hours? For now? It's gotta be more than that's a two hour
it's
about a two hour limit. So
you can get to Shanghai in eight hours.
Um, you know, I might be a little shorter that but yeah, I
think so I think get to Shanghai pretty quick. Okay. If you get
up to Vancouver,
from London, it's like, oh, Landry day,
actually London going over the top and maybe not be as far as
you think Shanghai is, is up there.
As true as true, yeah. Oh, so look at that. All right, I
could I bet you could get there in 10 hours.
Well, that's like the same from here to San Francisco.
Yeah, you go to Shanghai instead.
That sounds like a good time.
I mean, I'll tell you the places unbelievable, people just need
to go. It's cheap. It's dirt cheap. And my one of my
favourite anecdotes is okay. And I just did my comparison, I use
this, this is the difference between, you know, the Western
NYSED world, and China, you can go to Hong Kong go to the
airport, and a Hong Kong Airport, which is all Western
prices, and it's a big expensive play. And you buy a Coca Cola at
any of the stalls there stands. By the way, it's a beautiful
airport. And it's a buck 50 At least it was the last time I
went there, I don't like going there. So then if you've then I
bought a coke is Buck 50. Same coke did made from the same
factory, you go into the mainland, you go to some
wherever you land, I don't care where it is. You go into the
airport area, and you buy a Coca Cola and the mainland, same
Coke, same factory, same everything. 18 cents. So you
have a buck 50, which is what you'd normally be paying
anyplace else in the world. You go to China, it's 18 cents the
you know, in China, and that's the way all the prices are
there. You can buy anything you want, you can stay in the best
hotels, I mean, it's a dirt cheap experience. And I keep
telling people to because they need to see China while they can
you know China is always shutting down. You got to go
there go to just take a flight from Vancouver to Shanghai,
that's your absolute best bar at best entertainment value. And,
you know, go for a weekend. I mean, you know, people go to
Paris for the weekend. But nobody ever thinks of going to
Shanghai for a guy
got it. John, all of a sudden it hit me. I know how we're going
to be rich doing this show. We've got to package tours. Go
to Shanghai and we'll give you stuff you load up on your phone
with your GPS. You know, you can hear the story about a
particular restaurant will give you all the directions of course
we'll have discount coupons. Hookers are us for 20% off if
you use my GoDaddy code, and this could really be a good
business.
Well, Ty, there's a lot to do. And in Shanghai, that's for
sure. And the restaurants are fantastic. Everything's
inexpensive places polluted, of course. But this is beautiful.
It's absolutely beautiful. I mean, the architecture is first
class, you know, all done by the best firms? And how
about the people? Are you? Are you a guy who hangs out with the
people? Are you hanging out with the Shanghai PC magazine editor?
I would hang out with the Shanghai PC magazine editor,
what am I gonna do what I wanted to do? What do I have in common
with the people
who don't you have to learn about the people and talk to
them? That's what I like doing. You just want to go to the fancy
restaurants?
Yeah, well, you know, it'd be honest about it. Yes. Yeah, you
know, you tell you just in an ancillary way, there's no way
you can avoid the people because the whole place is crowded with
you know, I mean, it's all people as those 20 people or so
you end up learning quite a bit. And they're very helpful by the
way. Now, yeah, more or less, it will save some of my more
amusing Chinese and my, my, some of my more favourite, you get a
lot of stories out of going to China, I can tell you that much.
I'll tell you I enjoyed listening to it. And and it's
really put China in a whole new light for me, particularly this
Africa thing. I think one thing we should look into that a
little bit because, you know, if we don't tell people who will
apparently nobody, you didn't even know Gordon Brown was in
the US. And it's the rare media
is I mean, what can I say? I mean, it's really gotten
pathetic. And then you know, the thing that's interesting is the
media knows this. They they sit around and and fret about it,
but they don't seem to be able to do anything about it because
it's like one of those things is like good taste. If you don't
have it, you don't miss it. So for for all practical purposes,
they don't they know that there's this is going on the
media people, but they don't know what to do about because
they can't do anything about because they don't have any.
Yeah. But John J schools. No, no.
Do you have the solution? Do you Do you know what we need to do
to fix this? Yeah, blogging. Really, really? You think that's
gonna do it? No, it's not gonna do anything. So is there a
solution? Is there a fix it?
No, I don't think there is a Fix I think the we have to reset the
whole system, which I think is going to happen in a couple
years whenever we have a depression.
So we talk about that next time, the depression and fixing it.
Yeah, maybe we can try. Maybe somebody can send us some
suggestions. All you know, the suggestion is always going to be
the same, which is like, you know,
talk about Twitter more. Yeah. Less or less? No, no, that was
this was an important. You know, this is an important step.
Although I am a little bit saddened that you didn't give me
any credit for actually getting you on to Twitter. I do think I
was the guy that pushed you over the edge eventually.
You think so? Yes, of course. All right. Well, I'll give you
the credit industry. Thanks to you. Then I'm on Twitter. The
real divorce hack is the name doesn't feel
the same anymore. So okay,
well, we're forgetting. I'm sorry. I know you're
oversensitive. People don't realise that about you.
All right, John. Hey, hola. We should see if we can hook up for
dinner. Maybe Thursday night, maybe?
Thursday night would probably be good.
Okay. Then I've been in town for a couple days, so I won't be so
knackered. Okay, all right. Okay, and for all the rest of
you. I'm Adam curry here in the United Kingdom in the curry
Manor.
I'm John C. Dvorak catch me dvorak.org/blog. I thought I'd
throw that in. And I'm up here in sunny Northern California.
I'm gonna go shopping at the farmers market.
And we'll talk to you again next week right here on no agenda.