What We Are Thankful For in IT

Dave Hodgdonand Steve Ripper talk about Thanksgiving and what they are thankful for in tech, from the Apple Watch and GPS, to email, smart TVs, and even digital basketballs.

Mike:We arepowered today by Portsmouth Computer Group. That’s because it’s Tech Tuesday my friends. PCG IT, for world-class IT service and customer support. Go to PCGIT.com. They’ve got convenient locations in Portsmouth and Dover here on the sea coast and now open in Manchester and Portland, Maine. And with that,the introduction is Dave and Steve here on Tech Tuesday.

Dave Hodgdon:Tech Tuesday.

Steve Ripper:Morning, Mike.

Mike:So, it’s Thanksgiving. And we’re all thankful for something. I don’t know if you guys go around the table on Thanksgiving Day and say what you’re thankful for.

Dave:We do.

Steve:We do.

Mike:That’s a nice thing, isn’t it?

Steve:Yeah.

Dave:Yeah. It’s a nice tradition.

Steve:So we were thinking about that for this, Mike. When Dave and I were talking about what we would talk about. Because we talk about, Mike, we talk about so much stuff that’s bad. Malware, phishing, servers going down, things blowing up.

Dave:Cyber crashes.

Steve:So Dave and are talking about it and was like, “Well, what are we thankful for in IT?” The technical stuff.

Dave:Yeah.

Mike:Well, let’s talk about that as we get into the Thanksgiving season here. What are we thankful for when it comes to IT and technical stuff?

Steve:Dave’s thankful for his watch.

Dave:New watch.

Mike:What kind of watch you got?

Dave:I got the new Apple watch.Mike:The new Apple watch? What’s the newest Apple watch?

Dave:It’s the 5. But I prefer the old style watch, but Ihad some health issues, so I was really just looking for some of the key apps that were on it.But, from this little phone and this thing, so I’ve got my EKG, I’ve got my heart rate, I’ve got my health stuff, my phone rings to it, my email, my calendar.

Mike:So you can actually speak into your watch?

Steve:I can send him texts, Mike, and turn himinto Dick Tracy, remember Dick Tracy?

Mike:Yeah.

Dave:When you look at, when you look at the 37 applications, it’s too much.

Steve:This is radio, you can’t see it, but it’s got all these apps on the little screen.

Mike:No, it’s cool though. Very cool.I’ve thought about an Apple watch, but I don’t know. I think the screen is so small, right?

Dave:I got the bigger screen. I was quite surprised. And then there’s the old man view that you change the font size to be bigger, and I can see okay.

Mike:The old man view. So what else are we thankful for?

Steve:Yeah, we started making a list. We banged out a list. Dave and I, we talked about it. Less paper. We’re thankful for just not having to crank trees through stupid machines in the corner there.

Mike:Well that’s a good environmental thing.

Steve:So I was thinking about this. I was going through all the things in my house, because I’m moving soon, and I had all these maps just in a drawer. And I was like, “Who uses maps anymore?” Now we just pull out thephone.

Mike:Oh my Gosh.

Steve:Wherever we go. We go to Houston, and you just have a map and it just tells you where to go.

Dave:Where to go.

Steve:Everywhere you go. Right in your pocket.

Mike:So you personally, Steve, are going to put Rand McNally out of business.

Steve:I am. I am. No, no. Not only are we not making paper anymore, we’re going to put the map makers… Right? But don’t you just have the map right on your phone?

Mike:I love it. I always like to know where I’m going, how many miles I’mgoing.

Dave:I think it’s so cool, everything I’ve done as far as my documents, whether that’s medical, business, financial, all those documents are scanned as PDFs. And you’re not looking through these multiple folders. And I’m doing some work with my mom right now. And it’s just nice to have all those documents readily available to you.

Mike:Well, I got to tell you, in the radio business, when we make commercials and put things together with special effects of music, back in the old days, we had these big reel to reel tape machines, and we had a splicing block and a single edge razor where we’d have to splice… That’s where we would splice the sound. And those were the days. So if you heard a very creative 30 second or 60 second commercial, it could take somebody in the studio a couple of hours to do that. Now of course, we have digital software…

Dave:All computer.

Mike:… which is amazing. I see all the sound waves and everything, and I embrace the technology. Some people don’t embrace the technology. They’re intimidated by it. Right, Dave?

Dave:Yeah. Kind of like, I have my old typewriters. Wouldn’t that be cool to… And then you look at some of the old technology that I’ve seen inthe 30, 40 years of IT, like my first computer weighed 30 pounds, it was like a suit case.

Mike:What was your first computer? Do you remember your first computer?

Dave:It was an IBM. It had two floppy drives. Had the green screen.

Mike:DOS?

Dave:DOS. It was using the Lotus 1-2-3.

Mike:Oh, Lotus 1-2-3.

Steve:We have this laptop, it looks like a giant cinder block. It’s just big and gray and huge buttons, and small screen. And everytime we hire a new guy or girl…

Dave:“This is what you’ll be working on.”

Steve:… we put that on their desk. We put that on their desk. And they come in and go, “Oh, my God.”

Mike:Well, it’s like the old…a transmitter board that we have in the back room here, where the old studios used to be. For people who’ve never been to the old studios where WTSN was, in the back of the roomwe have this old board, which actually still works, butnow we have the more slide pots instead of the big round pots, and stuff like that.

Dave:Me and Steve were out on a trip right there, the Uber. He didn’tknow about that application. I took a ride to the hotel, and then just put the next address to take him to the next hotel.

Steve:Because we flew on the same plane, but we went to Orlando, we weregoing to two different locations. He was going one place, andI was going to the other. And the Uber just took me, he was like, “Yeah, just add him on.” Didn’t have to do that stupid fumbling for cash in the pocket. He just shook my hand, drove me around. Because we spend so much time hating on the technology and we take for granted the stuff that does actually make our lives easier. It just makes it easier.

Mike:Well, the whole thing is we can access all of our information from anywhere in the world.

Dave:Anywhere.

Mike:Which never used to be that way.

Dave:Right.

Mike:If you had a home computer back in the early days, that’s the only place you could access email, messages…

Dave:Wasn’t even email back in the 80s, early 90s.

Mike:That’s right. When did emails start, actually?

Dave:AOL really started big around ’91, ’92.

Steve:Yeah. Early 90s.

Dave:But I think it really came to the forefront around ’96. That just transformed everything. It was like the faxing was everything. All of a sudden you saw faxing was… That was all eighties, and all of a sudden faxes started to diminish after email. One ofthe other cool things, I think, is the smart home or the smart office, that you have your phone ability to control your HVAC, your security…

Mike:Turn your lights on.

Steve:Turn your lights on.

Dave:That’s pretty cool. So from an energy efficient way, you’re able to… Bad weather, or you’re not going to be in the office for a few days, like Thanksgiving, why would I run my heat? So,I just hit my phone and turn offthe heat for the day.

Mike:And how about the whole idea of television viewing. Smart televisions, what they can do. It’s just amazing what they do.

Steve:Disney Plus.

Dave:Heand I both have Disney Plus.

Steve:It’s not even me. It’s not even me. Every parent that I know, if I even bring the subject up they’re like, “We signed up for Disney Plus day one.” Because…

Mike:That’s why their server went down, didn’t it?

Steve:Yeah, I know.

Dave:Yeah, because so many people signed up.

Steve:Because, for their kids, all the Disney catalog, just instantly.It’s a no brainer.

Steve:Well, Disney owns the world.

Mike:Disney owns the world.

Steve:They do. They have several of their own cities.

Dave:It was just cool to put your TV… I had a smart TV, but I’d never actually turned on the wireless. But that’s how the Disney works. You had toturn on the wireless on the TV at the application.

Steve:Did you call one of us?

Dave:No.

Steve:You did it all yourself?

Dave:I thought about it, but I didn’t. And all of a sudden, just thousands of Disney stuff. So my son and I love to watch the Star Wars. So we watched the Mandalorian. And we’ve already been through the first three shows. We know next Friday. So it’s a good bonding time, but Steve and I both had the Disney Plus on there. That’s cool stuff.

Mike:Oh man. Really nice. You know what I love? I love the wireless printers. I love the fact that I could actually have my laptop and hook it up to a printer.

Dave:Or your phone.

Mike:Or your phone. Yeah.

Dave:That’s cool stuff.

Dave:I was telling Steve about…my son has this smart basketball. So it has a built in wireless and Bluetooth to it.

Mike:Are you kidding?

Dave:It’s unbelievable, Mike. So when he shoots, it tells if it goes in, it makes a noise. It gets him fired up. So you program it that, within a minute, how many shots can you take?

Mike:What? Oh, my gosh.

Dave:And it knows if you’re doing a three pointer.

Mike:Really?

Dave:So it knows by the distance.

Steve:Does the basketball have a USB jack on the side of it?

Dave:Not at all.

Steve:How do you charge it?

Dave:I don’t know.

Mike:But it’s a regular basketball?

Dave:It’s magic. It’s a basketball with the built in Bluetooth and wireless.

Mike:Oh, I’ve never seen that.

Dave:Paid extra money for it, but…

Mike:Does Amazon have that?

Dave:You can get that anywhere. I got mine at a Dick’s, right there. But the first time we went out there, he just loved it because it made the noise. It makes the cheers and “atta-boy”.

Mike:Oh my God.

Dave:Oh, that was cool stuff.

Mike:That is so cool. What else on the list? We’ve got about a minute left to go here. Smartphones, turning on and off lights. That’s cool.

Steve:Yeah. Things we’re looking forward to. I don’t know if anybody… Have you been seeing these commercials for the Facebook Portal?

Mike:Now, what is the Facebook Portal?

Steve:So I’m kind of excited for this, and I’m not even a huge Facebook fan. I don’t mind Facebook but… So Portal… And they have the Muppets on the commercial… But Portal is a device that goes in front of your TV,and it’s got a camera and you can do video calling to anyone else who has one of these things. So, it’s been tried many, many times before. Right? I’m not describing anything that… Skype does video conferencing, right?

Mike:But is that on Facebook only?

Steve:No, no. Facebook is doing it. Facebook is making the device.

Mike:Oh, okay.

Steve:So here’s the thing, so we’ve been talking about when do we video with our family and friends since Star Trek. Remember Star Trek, Captain Kirk would sit in his office and Uhura would call him up, and they’d send the picture down and he’d talk. Well, they were faking it. They had two cameras on either end. They weren’t actually seeing each other, right? But we’ve been talking about when that’s going to happen. We can do it. The technology is here, Mike. And actually people do it in FaceTime, right? You FaceTime on your iPhone.

Mike:That’s your video phone.

Steve:So if you see where I’m going with this, it’s not the technology that’s the problem. One company has to do it that everyone is willing to agree on. Everyone’s agreed on iPhones doFaceTime, we even call it FaceTime. It’s like Q-tips are like cotton buds, right? FaceTime is the thing you use on your phone to do it when you want to see the other person. So I’mhoping, and I think this is going to happen, Portal will be the thing… Because what’s the point of buying it, if no one else has it? That’s the problem, right? You can buy one of these things, but if none of your family has it…

Mike:You won’t be able to do anything with it.

Steve:But if everybody buys it, then you can just sit in front of your TV and call your mom, and she’s on the other side of the screen, and you can just talk to each other.

Mike:That is pretty cool.

Steve:It’d be really cool. It looks… So, what I’m hoping is, and I think it’ll work, Facebook will be… Because Facebook is the thing, whether you like it or not, everyone knows who they are. They’re huge.

Dave:Well, it’s part of our world. It’s part of our culture.

Steve:Exactly. So, they’re so a part of what we do, that people will be like, “Oh, I’ll just buy that.” And then, if enough people have it, we’ll all just video conference on our TV sets.

Dave:Well, the first video phones were in the Jetson’s. Remember the Jetson’s?

Dave:It’s true. We love that.

Steve:And I think VR is going to continue to be huge. I think VR is going to be huge. I don’t know if you guys saw this –talking about basketball, right –In last year’s NCAA tournament, they put cameras in certain seats, like one of the seats right court side and they had a couple in other spots, and you could go online and pay a fee if you had VR goggles…

Dave:Right. Oh, that’s cool.

Steve:… and be at the game.

Mike:To see that view of the game.

Dave:That’s incredible.

Steve:And it works for them. And you’re going to see the NBA started doing this in this year’s playoffs. Because they’re basically doing pay per view for the seats. They can get millions of people signing up, and pay them for that seat.

Dave:Good point.

Steve:They put a camera with the eight cameras around it, and then you put your goggles on and you are literally-

Dave:At the game.

Steve:…court side watching the game.

Dave:That’s cool. Wow. I like that one.

Mike:All right guys. We’re going to let you go, because I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and have a nice, wonderful day with your friends and family and enjoy the day. We’ll see the next Tuesday.

Dave:It’s always good to be here.

Steve:Thank you, Mike.

Dave:By all means give PCG a call. We’re giving out some free Thanksgiving network assessments.

Mike:Sounds good. PCGIT.com. Thanks to Dave and Steve being a part of Tech Tuesday as always, my friends. And you can check them out. They’ve got offices in Portsmouth and Dover here on the sea coast, and now in Manchester and Portland, Maine.