SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
So, John, has it been a year?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:29]
Technically, no. It's probably been a year since we recorded the first episode.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:34]
But as far as air dates go,
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:36]
negative.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:37]
Okay. So we're we're still technically season one is what you're telling me. Correct.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:43]
Alright. Well,
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:46]
I will I've had it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:48]
I've had it. I it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:50]
Had a great idea for our anniversary episode.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:53]
Go on. So have you seen, like, some of those early Joss Whedon
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:58]
series, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:00]
Nope. No? Well, I've there used to be, like, a musical episode somewhere in their run, and I was thinking our anniversary episode could be a musical episode where we just sing the whole thing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:12]
But I think we would need to get missus Lemon on board.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:15]
Okay. You know that I can't sing. Right, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:19]
Hasn't stopped you before.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:22]
Yeah. But if we put it on a recording,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:26]
it will haunt me forever, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:28]
Remember that one parody of oh, what the heck was the song? Dynamite?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:34]
Yeah. That you did. Yeah. That you still have. Is it my ringtone when I call you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:38]
No. That'd be great, though. And actually so, John, you should insert a clip of that right here. Right here? I don't know if I have it on this computer. Oh, I've got it. Dropbox either.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:48]
Don't you worry. I've got it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:51]
I believe that missus Lemon's comment after that was
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:54]
John Colmire
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:56]
is
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:57]
one expensive haircut and pair of skinny jeans away from being a Lutheran Justin Bieber.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:02]
Something like that. Yeah. I think she was overly generous just to be clear because
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:08]
yeah. Was this Justin Bieber or what?
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:11]
Just the whole thing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:16]
Good times. That didn't make an appearance at my wedding surprisingly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:21]
Oh, man. That's a missed opportunity if ever there was one. I will say, I'm not entirely sure that your DJ could have pulled that off.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:28]
I could. I would bet against it. But it could have made an appearance at my thirtieth birthday party, and it also did not. Oh, yeah. That's true too.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:37]
So I if I might have been able to pull it off with your
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:41]
DJ if I had uploaded it to YouTube. To YouTube, believe played all of the music from,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:50]
you know, the first red flag was when he started talking about of how good he was at this.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:56]
And yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:58]
Yeah. If you have to if you have to convince yourself when you're selling it to me, it's a bad sign.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:03]
Hey. Food was good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:06]
The
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:08]
party was good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:09]
DJ was terrible.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:11]
You got married. A DJ. So there's that. It all ended well.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:16]
Alright, John. So last week, we talked about the the touch bar as part of our Mac update, and we were,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:22]
I I guess, kind of speculating
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:24]
on what the accessibility
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:26]
of the touch bar would be. And lo and behold, you did some homework, man. You looked into this. I did. And we were
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:34]
not as generous to Apple as we should have been.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:37]
Yeah. So we I think we postulated, right, that this was not an accessible
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:42]
feature of the Mac because there was no tactile sensation to it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:46]
And and I I was truly stumped at how this would even work,
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:50]
but you're gonna explain it because you looked it up. Yeah. So I found this support article, which I'll link in the show notes. And, basically, they connect it with VoiceOver,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:00]
with the touch bar.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:02]
There's a
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:04]
quick access key to turn VoiceOver on or off by holding the command key and triple pressing the touch ID button,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:11]
which is also the power button, I guess.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:16]
So you can turn that on or off. I imagine you can access it through settings as well and kinda default to that on if needed.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:23]
And once voice over is on, you can actually move your finger over the touch bar,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:29]
and it will tell you
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:31]
the element that you're hovering over. Or yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:36]
So I am familiar with voice over. I've I've, like, fiddled around with it just to get a taste of it. As soon as I saw that voice over was how they made the touch bar accessible,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:47]
I was like, oh, that makes sense. And furthermore,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:50]
Apple has done a really awesome job with voice over. I mean, voice over is is absolutely fantastic.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:56]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:57]
I I recant everything I said. I'm I'm fairly confident. I didn't try this out, but I'm fairly confident of what this article describes and and the fact that they're leveraging voice over. The touch bar is probably
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:09]
exceptionally,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:11]
accessible, probably more so than the old function key.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:14]
Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:15]
There's some other things. So you can basically do a touch bar zoom,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:20]
and you can zoom in on those things.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:25]
I don't know what switch control is. Do you know what switch control is?
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:29]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:31]
You can use switch control to display touch bar on your Macbros
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:36]
screen.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:37]
This lets you touch bar elements with the standard pointer control. So okay. Maybe if you have limited mobility
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:43]
with
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:45]
your digits,
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:46]
then have a special mouse or something that would make it able to actually click things.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:52]
Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:55]
So I'm I'm looking at settings here. Switch control allows the computer to be controlled using one or more switches.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:00]
These can be mouse, keyboard, gamepad buttons, or dedicated devices.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:04]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:06]
I've I feel like this is probably,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:08]
like, tabbing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:10]
maybe.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:13]
So I was You know mean? Picturing more like
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:17]
on screen keyboard or something like that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:20]
Well, let's just look it up, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:25]
I feel like there's gotta be an example.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:31]
Yeah. It looks like there is a
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:35]
an an actual,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:37]
like, HUD display. Are you familiar with HUD?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:41]
Yeah. HUD? Heads
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:43]
up display. Heads up or
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:45]
I kinda picture of those. I don't know. These were popular in cars for a while where they would, like, pop up your speed limit as a reflection in your windshield or something like that. Did you ever see that?
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:56]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:58]
What's interesting is I'm looking at some HUD displays here, so they'll actually superimpose the whole keyboard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:03]
They'll superimpose
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:05]
it looks like this allows you to choose
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:08]
the mouse or the dock. There's a whole bunch of options.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:11]
This would be worth playing around with just to be more familiar with because I honestly have not tried this. I so,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:17]
you know, it's fascinating to me. Apple has really, as far as I can tell, taken the accessibility features of the Mac up to the next level. And I am the the few folks I know with with various,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:30]
accessibility needs
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:31]
all rave about it. So I, I don't know what what Windows has comparatively,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:37]
but,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:38]
yeah. I guess bottom line is the touch bar is accessible, and it looks like they've they've quite frankly put a lot of thought into
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:45]
Yeah. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:47]
Accessibility really came to the front of my mind,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:51]
in web development,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:53]
especially when we deal with
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:55]
building sites in the health care field or things like that where the compliance factor needs to be that much higher.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:02]
So it's really been on my mind for
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:05]
probably a little over a year now.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:08]
And I know there's a big push for accessibility in WordPress and things like that as they're continue to
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:14]
evolve and improve WordPress.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:16]
Yeah. The web the web's getting better at accessibility. We think about a lot at work too. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:20]
I mean, I don't I I think it's one of those things that doesn't require a lot of additional effort to do it
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:27]
decently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:29]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:30]
if it's just one of those things. If you haven't actually, like, turned on voice over or used a screen reader or something, you you really take for granted. So Right. I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:39]
don't know. This is this is cool. This is pretty encouraging all around.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:43]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:44]
So that was our follow-up from last week. Anything else on accessibility
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:49]
or
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:50]
tech and accessibility,
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:51]
Stanley?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:52]
No. I don't think so. I think, we need to shift into the week's big news, John. The week's big news?
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:58]
Yeah. Did you participate in the week's big news?
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:01]
I did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:03]
Oh,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:04]
okay. So just to be clear, we're talking about
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:06]
Prime Day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:08]
Prime Day. Yeah. So this is the big Amazon
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:12]
selling event where they discount a bunch of stuff,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:15]
or at least they make it look like they're discounting it quite a bit,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:19]
and they attempt to get you to buy more stuff. In previous years, this was a one day event. This year, it was a two day event.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:27]
So it's more like Two is not a prime number.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:30]
I know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:31]
But it's like prime days. I don't know. This is this is weird. So but,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:37]
you know, the marketing gimmicks aside,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:40]
tell me, John, how did you partake of Prime Day?
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:43]
So I ended up ordering two things
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:47]
that cost me
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:49]
a decent amount of money, but less than if I were to buy them any other day of the year.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:54]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:55]
first,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:56]
I bought something for my wife.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:59]
Good good job, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:01]
So she has had a weighted blanket on her wish list for a while,
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:06]
and it was, like, 50 off yesterday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:08]
And those things are not cheap.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:11]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:12]
yeah. Wait. Hold on. I'm sorry. I've never heard of this. A weighted blanket?
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:16]
Yes. Here. I'll send you the link to the one that I ordered.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:20]
Just describe this for me. Are you like, it's got lead in it or something or what?
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:25]
Something that makes it 15 pounds.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:28]
Woah. The blanket is 15 pounds? The blanket is 15 pounds. Holy Moses.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:34]
So yeah. I mean, I've heard people swear by these things. It's basically like getting hugged by a blanket, they say.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:44]
If that's what missus Kolmeyer is going for, you should hug her more, John. I guess so.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:50]
I've I've never heard of this. This is fascinating.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:52]
I cannot imagine wanting to put a blanket on myself
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:56]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:57]
weighs 15 pounds,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:59]
but to each his own.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:01]
I wanna you need to try this out. I mean, after missus Kolmeier tries it. Oh, wow. You can get a 20 pound version too. You can get a 20 pound version too. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:09]
yeah. Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:12]
So you you bought a weighted blanket. I bought a weighted blanket, and as you can see, list price for that was
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:19]
a $150,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:20]
which I was not going to pay for a blanket.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:23]
That is an expensive blanket, my friend. Did you clip the coupon when you bought it? Yes. I did. Okay. Good man. Good man.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:31]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:32]
I also
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:34]
am on my way to my home becoming smarter,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:38]
and I purchased an ecobee four
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:41]
smart thermostat.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:43]
Now the ecobee four has Alexa built in. Right? Correct.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:47]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:48]
And you gonna hook this up are you gonna hook this up yourself?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:51]
I'm planning on it. We'll see if it goes the way of the doorbell.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:55]
I think this will be easier than the doorbell. Did you happen to cross reference your particular
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:00]
thermostat
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:01]
to make sure that it was compatible for being swapped out? I did not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:06]
But since this is definitely not the standard thermostat that the house was built with and it's this programmable one, I'm kinda taking a bet here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:15]
Alright. Well, good luck, John. You'll let me know how that goes. I had in the house we had in Seymour,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:20]
the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:22]
thermostat was all specialized and didn't have standard hookups, so I was never able to to do that. Well, good thing that Amazon takes returns.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:31]
Yeah. Well, I I'm sure you won't have that problem, John. Everything is normal in your house. Right. Everything. We couldn't even get a doorbell hooked up. Okay. So Amazon got you with two things. Was that it? That is it so far. Apparently, there's five hours and forty five minutes left.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:47]
Have you have you been using anything to check up on what the deals are or anything like that besides Amazon's website?
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:53]
I have not. No. Okay. So the
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:56]
on Twitter, some of the Apple sites I follow have periodically
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:01]
posted updates focused on Apple products or,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:04]
you know, Apple certified products, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:07]
a lot of stuff from Anchor was, discounted, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:12]
plugs and
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:14]
chargers and things of that sort.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:16]
So I've seen quite a bit of that, but then also, you know, that I'm a big fan of the wire cutter, Yep. Which to to me is like the modern day consumer reports.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:25]
And, because consumer reports is all, like, they've sold out. They're it's it's not good anymore.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:31]
But Wirecutter
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:34]
was doing a set of emails. I think I think it had to be, like, twice a day or something. I don't know. Because I got several of them with just information on what was available.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:42]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:44]
Wirecutter and the the Twitter verse both hit me up at the exact same time
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:49]
with
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:50]
a,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:51]
like, alert basically that there was an iPad that was heavily discounted. Yep. So it was the base model iPad,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:58]
a 128 gig worth of storage,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:01]
and it was marked down basically a $130.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:04]
And that's, like, as far as everybody
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:06]
was saying this is the cheapest that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:09]
they've they've seen this particular iPad.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:11]
And I thought, you know what? Missus Lemon could use an iPad,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:15]
and then I don't have to share. This is a reasonable price to do it with. So I went and I bought a new iPad. And I think I told you that I have not used my Apple Pencil very much. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:26]
So this this base iPad supports the Apple Pencil,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:31]
and missus Lemon is just excited to use that. So she's Nice. Hopefully gonna get some,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:36]
some
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:37]
use out of that, and it won't be in my bag anymore, I guess. But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:42]
yeah, I was pretty pretty pleased with that. That actually wasn't the first thing that I picked up. I also bought
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:47]
this thing's called relays. Have you seen these for kids?
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:51]
I don't think so. Okay. So Is this a good Christmas gift for my nieces and nephews who may or may not listen to those podcasts?
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:59]
I unless you're planning on planning on paying a monthly subscription, I doubt it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:04]
let me let me find a link here, John. But the Relay is like a
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:09]
screenless phone,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:10]
and it's intended for kids.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:12]
And so the the idea here Wait. Wait. Wait. Can we can we unpack that? A screenless phone, and you say that like it's some novelty item.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:22]
We'll we'll take a look at it. Right? So it's a little square.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:26]
It's a little square. It it hangs on a receiver. You pick it up, and you have to press buttons to call someone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:32]
Yeah. There's there's just a single button,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:35]
and it's it actually is not it's not a like, there's no phone number attached to it. All of the data transmission happens over
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:43]
the data connection
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:45]
on
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:46]
over a cellular network.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:48]
And what what it reminds me of is the old Nextel
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:50]
push to talk Yep. Kinda like the the walkie talkie app on the Apple
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:55]
Watch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:56]
And the idea is that you control who the child can talk to. You get GPS.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:01]
It was marked down to $25.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:03]
Now there is a $10 a month subscription for each device, which I'm not crazy about. But you know what?
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:09]
Things aren't free in life. And we debated about this for a while. We actually looked at this at the beginning of the summer because my kids are all over the neighborhood, all of all the time. They're just everywhere. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:20]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:21]
I'm not I don't know. I'm not, like, worried, but at the same time, like, we live in a crazy world and we have had a couple parents who've reacted like, oh, you just let your parents or your kids go wherever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:31]
And usually, I'm like, yeah, I'm not I'm not a helicopter parent. Like, that's just not my style. Right? Like, I I trust them to do the right thing. They gotta check-in
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:39]
at certain times when they don't check-in, they lose the privilege of being out. But at the same time, I was like, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:44]
it would be really nice sometimes to just be able to, like, page them and say, hey, you need to come home now, you know, early. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:52]
So you weren't running around for twenty minutes trying to find them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:56]
Yeah. And that has happened a couple times. That is very frustrating. It also
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:00]
it starts off where you're frustrated and then you shift into panic mode,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:04]
and then you find them, and then you're just angry. And so, like, you know, 10 a month and not have to go through that experience, that seems pretty reasonable to me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:13]
But we're it's it's a noncommittal thing, so we're gonna try it out. We got two devices. We gotta get different SIM cards because I I don't know what network they sent us, but it doesn't cover have coverage in our our neighborhood. So we're gonna we're gonna try different different ones and see how it goes. But this is another half off kind of thing. Couldn't resist it. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:33]
And then there's one other thing, John, and I'm a little ashamed.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:38]
New microphone? No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:40]
No. No. No. I you don't like my microphone, John? Your microphone sounds beautiful.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:45]
So do you remember
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:47]
when I had the fancy bona vita,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:51]
coffee maker? I do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:53]
Yeah. The German made one, and I spent an arm and a leg for that thing. Yep. And I loved it. It was great. But we had really hard water in Seymour, and it was really hard on our coffee maker.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:06]
Yep. And, we cleaned it one time, and it just never recovered.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:10]
I don't like where this is going, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:12]
Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:13]
Well, I wasn't gonna buy a bona vita again because I just I felt like I I think it only lasted, like, a year and change or whatever,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:21]
and that doesn't really endear me to a product
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:24]
when it has such a short lifespan. Granted, I make a lot of coffee, so it wasn't like it didn't get some use out of it. But Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:31]
That wire cutter email came through,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:34]
and the coffee maker that they recommend, the number one is an OXO,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:38]
a barista brain.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:40]
And the the bona vita that I used to have or a related bona vita model was, number two. And so I thought, okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:49]
It was heavily marked down. I thought I'm a go for it because
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:53]
today,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:53]
you know, what we do is we pour it in a chemex, and it's fine. Like, I I love that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:59]
I don't have to use a gooseneck,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:02]
tea kettle
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:03]
in order to brew coffee.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:06]
Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:07]
What I don't want the reason that coffee makers are such a pain point for me is I don't want them sitting on a,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:14]
I don't even know what you call it, like a little hot pad. Right? Yep. And then burning the coffee after it's brewed. It drives me absolutely insane.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:23]
Fair.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:24]
So this doesn't have that. This also has a timer that would require me to grind the beans the night before. I don't see myself doing that, but it's just another feature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:33]
So I'm gonna try it out, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:35]
The chemics may be going into storage. We'll see. We'll see. I'll wait. Love through with the chemics.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:41]
But yeah. Okay. There's there's several problems with this. The first is Go ahead, John. Your your oldest daughter
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:48]
knows how to make coffee now. And last I knew, actually enjoyed making coffee for you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:55]
So, John,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:57]
if you don't have children yet, but one of the
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:00]
one of the things about them is they get really excited when they learn how to do something new,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:05]
and then they quickly lose interest in it. And so my child who made both coffee and bacon in the morning now sleeps in. Aw. And that could be a summer problem. I'm not sure. I have offered to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:17]
you know, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:18]
her financially,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:20]
and I I can't seem to motivate this child to get up and make coffee.
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:24]
So last There's there's always a second who will be excited that he learns,
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:30]
and then he will be motivated by money.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:33]
So the second, you're you're referring to Henry, is interesting because we have different things they can do around the house to get, like, a nickel at a, you know, a pop. Right? So you feed the dog, you get a nickel, that kind of thing, and we we pay it out every couple weeks.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:45]
And he has figured out that there are certain tasks he doesn't mind doing, and there are certain tasks that he does mind doing. And so he will do the ones that he doesn't mind in bulk and so that his sisters can't get to it first and leave only the unpleasant ones
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:02]
for them. He also
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:04]
will determine that there's nothing he really wants this week, so he'll just sit it out. Oh, bad call. Right. You gotta teach him, man.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:12]
Oh, well, let me tell you. There there have been words.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:16]
But again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:17]
he's he's conniving. He's calculating. You know, he's a clever little guy. He's doing his thing. There's part of me that is annoyed. There's part of me that respects it. But subsequently,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:26]
I'm fairly certain he has no desire
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:29]
to make coffee largely because there is no way for him to optimize the time that it takes. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:36]
Like, it's it's a fixed task Unless All the other things you buy a new coffee maker.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:40]
Well
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:41]
yeah. But then I'm not gonna pay him to load up the coffee maker. That's just crazy talk.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:48]
Oh, well, Stan. You'll have to let us know how it goes. I do see that the Buena Vida digital variable temperature gooseneck kettle
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:55]
is on sale for under $45,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:58]
which is amazing. A good kettle. That's a that's a really good kettle.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:02]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:03]
mine's got a lot of use out of it. I highly recommend it. It is infinitely better
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:08]
than anything I've had on the stovetop. Now granted, I I should qualify that because
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:14]
I have actually not had a stovetop kettle since we went back to having a gas stovetop,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:19]
and that
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:21]
probably is better. So I think if and when the bona vita gooseneck kettle ever dies,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:27]
I might
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:28]
might
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:30]
try a stovetop one.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:31]
But I don't know. I was tempted by a lot of stuff. Prime Day is is a
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:36]
Fingers. Manatee. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:39]
It it like, there are just a couple things that I would really love to have and have no reason buying.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:45]
But, you know, I get tempted. I get tempted. What was your biggest temptation that you passed on?
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:52]
I was looking at new routers. You had me looking at iPads,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:56]
which I really didn't need.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:58]
Otherwise,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:00]
I don't know. I'm kinda in the mood where I don't wanna buy anything.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:05]
I didn't look at, like, new golf clubs or anything like that. So I I envy you. So there were several things that I passed on. A Roomba. I wanted a Roomba with the actual, like, Wi Fi setup so I can navigate the house. Have a robotic vacuum cleaner that you aren't happy with. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:21]
No. No. I'm it's it's fine. It's fine. I got a low end one. It's not fancy. Got it. I was gonna buy a fancier one, but I I talked myself out of it. So that was good. That was good. Have you seen those robot lawn mowers?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:35]
I have. I have. Do those interest you at all?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:39]
They're the ones I've seen are pretty expensive, so I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:44]
I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:46]
find mowing the lawn a little cathartic. So Right. I could I could get behind it. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:51]
at the same time, I would miss that opportunity then. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:56]
Other things I looked at, John, were TVs because Prime Day is notoriously good for TVs.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:01]
Right. I was thinking about replacing the TV on the landing. I only have two TVs in the house for for listeners that are like, do you really need another TV? One's in my main living area and the one other one's upstairs. And that one's older. It's not great. It's like just 07:20 p. I think it's something that actually had ten eighty p, if not four k,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:22]
but passed on that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:23]
And then the other thing I really debated, John, was a Kindle
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:27]
Paperwhite,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:28]
a new one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:30]
And, Prime Day is not over. That's the one that's got the the biggest legs, I think, at this point.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:36]
You're looking at this. Looks like it's down to $85.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:39]
Yeah. Yeah. That they just throw right at the top because, you know, it's an Amazon product, so they can Yep. And you get a $5 ebook credit with the purchase of a Kindle Paperwhite, John. Which doesn't even buy most books anymore.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:53]
It depends on the books, my friend. Depends on the books.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:56]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:57]
I have I have two paper whites in the house right now.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:01]
And Henry's actually started reading a book on a paper white because we were able to get it digitally faster than we could get it through
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:09]
the light, like, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:11]
physical hard copy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:13]
And I I don't know, man. I just love my paperweight. I really do. I love the Kindle as a whole, and this one is, like, thinner, and it's waterproof.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:22]
There's, I don't know, it's just it's really appealing to me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:26]
Is it faster if I make Kindle to be slow, like, when I'm trying to start it up?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:32]
Which which
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:33]
Kindle do you have, John? I have the
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:37]
Paperwhite
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:39]
second gen maybe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:41]
I mean, I don't like, I never think that my current Paperwhite
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:46]
is
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:47]
slow. Like, that's not even something that So, you know, how you, like, slide to open? Does yours just open, or does it take two seconds?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:56]
It does not take two seconds. I mean, there's a pause, but it's not it's pretty instant, I think. Interesting. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:02]
you,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:03]
I have a third generation or first generation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:06]
The first generation is slow as molasses. There's no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:10]
The,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:11]
the first gen or excuse me, the third gen rather, I I don't have an issue with. So this one
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:17]
and this is this is what gives me hesitation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:20]
Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:21]
it's not any different resolution,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:24]
you know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:25]
And that's, like, I don't know. It's probably what makes me not buy something.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:30]
The
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:31]
the the flush front design though seems pretty cool. But again, do I need it? I don't know. Probably not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:39]
Alright. So I dug up my order history, and it says it's the fifth generation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:44]
I ordered Paperwhite or Kindle?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:47]
It is a Paperwhite. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, six inch Wi Fi with special offers, previous generation fifth.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:54]
Really?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:55]
I ordered on 01/01/2018.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:59]
Oof. That wasn't that long ago. I wonder when I ordered mine.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:02]
I I'm I don't know, John. Maybe do you have too much on your device?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:07]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:08]
Definitely not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:11]
I wonder if I can, like, do a reset or something and see if
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:15]
interesting. You should try it. So I got my
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:18]
third gen in 2016.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:21]
So, actually, almost three years ago to the date.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:25]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:27]
I I mean, it's it's a good device. I'm I've been really, really happy with it. But Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:33]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:36]
Alright. Well, prime day. It's kinda like
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:39]
I don't know. There's a lot of coveting going on. That's for sure. Did you watch the Elizabeth Warren video that I sent you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:45]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:46]
When did you send that? Last night.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:50]
It's probably too late. Tell me about it, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:53]
Listen. Warren really trips your trigger, doesn't she?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:56]
I don't know what you mean by that. I think that she's intelligent and can formulate a logical response to questions even if I don't necessarily agree with her,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:06]
which is a nice change of pace from politicians.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:11]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:14]
Oh, this was the video on why she wants to break up big tech companies, which has been in the news. Yep. There's been a lot of chatter. Actually, it's it's funny you mentioned this because
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:22]
I find
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:23]
the whole going after Amazon and Google to be fascinating because they have allies in each other. Right? They're both ad based.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:31]
But but they have I mean, give me the gist. So Yeah. So this was at some town hall or something she was doing, and they asked kind of about Amazon and big tech and her response. She actually groups Apple in at the beginning of her answer, but then doesn't bring in any answers there. So I would disagree with her on the grouping Apple in with us.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:52]
But using Amazon specifically
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:54]
as the platform,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:56]
she basically
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:00]
was against Amazon
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:03]
utilizing
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:04]
their platform,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:05]
which she is pro their platform, their powerful platform,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:08]
thinks that they should continue to focus on that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:11]
But when they combine it with gathering all the data from their users
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:16]
and
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:17]
kinda curating that and seeing that, oh,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:20]
this new thing is gaining a lot of traction. There's lots of money putting their own product out there and undercutting the prices and stuff like that and always displaying that to the user first and things of that nature, kind of monopolizing
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:37]
these certain
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:39]
products or other things of that nature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:42]
So this is an interesting argument. Right? I I think you you have to make a decision on can a company control too much of a single marketplace.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:50]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:52]
you know, wherever you're at politically, you're gonna have a different answer there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:56]
One of the things that I find fascinating about the argument about breaking up Amazon is I think that most politicians, and I would include Warren in this, get the angle wrong. So the the case that that you just articulated
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:07]
and and I haven't watched this video, so Right. Maybe I misrepresenting her, but I I heard her make this wrong, but Well, I've heard I've heard her make this pitch before. Right? Basically, it's a it's a play to Amazon basics in a nutshell. Right? So Yeah. You know, Energizer batteries were selling really great. Now Amazon sells batteries. And quite frankly, I buy the Amazon batteries because they're cheaper. Yep. You know? I, I go to buy a t shirt, and Amazon basics has one, and I go to buy it because it's a little cheaper, that kind of thing. And Amazon now is getting into a bunch of these different product lines
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:36]
and and selling their own, like, home branded. It is absolutely
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:40]
no different
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:41]
than Walmart selling their great value products. Right? Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:46]
So And I I stand by that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:49]
So she was she used Walmart as an example. So Walmart basically gets, like, 9% of the retail store share.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:57]
When you move online,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:58]
Amazon has somewhere, like, 47
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:01]
of market share there in these online,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:04]
retailer spaces,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:06]
which is where the difference that she would articulate it would be. I think that
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:11]
her
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:14]
kind of philosophy around this is probably
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:17]
much wider than the two minutes she had to answer this question,
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:20]
because I have a lot of questions that kind of follow-up on this. Like, does that necessarily
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:26]
outweigh
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:27]
all of these small businesses that are basically powered by Amazon that wouldn't exist if Amazon
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:33]
went away or wasn't able to make money or things of that nature?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:37]
And I I think that's a valid point. I think the market share is an interesting argument. I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:41]
again, I think there are better reasons to break up Amazon. And so now I'm gonna go into my diatribe, John Alright. Which is this. So Amazon is not just an online marketplace.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:51]
Right? They have a number a number of different lines of business, and you could take, say, the purchase of Whole Foods and consider that as an expanded line of business that they could potentially monopolize. But that like, whole not everybody goes to Whole Foods. Right? Yep. What concerns me is that their
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:08]
AWS business or Amazon Web Services business literally powers the Internet. It is the backbone for just about any other competitive retail site out there. Now some people have gone over to to Google's compute and Microsoft's compute, but they have a really tiny fraction
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:25]
of the basically, I'm a call it the Internet hosting business, and and that's a terrible way to term it. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:31]
Amazon owns most of that. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:34]
And they also own then the primary retailer. And so if I want to start a business to compete with Amazon, my options are I could go use the less developed products at Google or Microsoft,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:47]
right, which are not always competitive price wise either.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:50]
I could build out a physical data center and run all my own own hardware,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:55]
which is gonna require a huge amount of capital.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:59]
And, like Then take up more Iowa land.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:02]
There you go. And resources, like that's a tall order. Right? Or I'm gonna set it up on Amazon's own platform. But whereas Amazon
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:11]
is probably not paying the same price that I am for Amazon services, because I'm pretty sure they've gotta do cross billing or whatever inside,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:17]
that, like, it's just hard for me to compete there. So when I think about breaking up a tech company like Amazon,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:24]
I am less interested in the fact that they have, you know, what did you say, 47% market share,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:29]
or they have,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:32]
you know, the Amazon Basics line or any of that. I'm I'm concerned about the fact that they literally run the Internet as well as the Internet's primary retailer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:39]
and you you can't compete with them as a retailer
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:43]
when you have
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:45]
when you basically have to pay them in order to do their business. Right? Yep. So that's that's that's the angle that I wish that Yeah. Politicians That's that are talking about this would take, but I haven't heard anybody make that argument. No. I I didn't even that didn't even come to mind, and I, like, use all these Amazon products in some way or shape or form.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:04]
But, yeah, that is very interesting,
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:07]
and you should run for office, Dan, and get all the futurists to vote for you. Never, John. Never.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:13]
No. So, you know, I I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:16]
there are there are different arguments for each of these companies.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:19]
Right? I think it is
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:21]
arguably dangerous
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:23]
when you have a business
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:26]
of of the size of these that can leverage their knowledge from one product line in another,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:33]
alright, unfairly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:35]
And and so I think, like, again, Amazon being able to basically, like, run the web and sell everything on the web
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:43]
is is an example of that. I think another thing that concerns me, right, is Facebook has had legitimate competitors in the messaging space. Because I don't know if you remember this, but you rewind
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:55]
before the WhatsApp or Instagram acquisitions
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:57]
Mhmm. Facebook Messenger was terrible.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:00]
Yep. I mean, it was bad.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:02]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:03]
they now have acquired two very large
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:07]
competitors, right, that were in that space. They were in the photo sharing space. They were in the messaging space,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:13]
and that market lacks alternatives. And Facebook has seriously questionable,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:19]
I don't know, scruples with privacy. Like, you choose your term. That the the Cambridge Analytica, I think, is a
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:26]
small sliver of the overarching privacy concerns that one has with using Facebook. Now, yes, you opt in to Facebook. Sure.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:35]
But when it is so ubiquitous,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:37]
I think you lose your ability to opt out or your ability to opt out gets hard like limited and and your your hands get tied.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:45]
What stinks to me about
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:47]
Facebook in particular is is the WhatsApp acquisition
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:51]
was a really great way to communicate with people on Android for iPhone users. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:56]
And and that that's just like not I can't talk to an Android user other than unencrypted
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:01]
plain old boring SMS
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:04]
without using a Facebook product. And that just that just stinks, Now, you
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:08]
I'm not trying to knock Facebook. I I I I've got
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:12]
qualms. I've got quips. Right? But
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:14]
there's a there's a valid place for it, and I think that a lot of people get a lot of benefit out of Facebook.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:20]
But I I just am not sure that them buying up
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:24]
competitors
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:24]
and absorbing them, and then also, like, they're in this arms race right now to consolidate their technology so those things can never be split out. And they're not I don't think they're doing that because they're trying to be leaner.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:35]
I think they're trying to do that to avoid getting it broken up. Is that's that's my suspicion, but who knows? Yeah. That makes sense. Now you come at this from an interesting angle too, and you can feel free to
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:46]
provide no comment or whatever or only comment as far as you can because I'm gonna ask you directly about the product you work on at work.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:53]
Pardot,
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:55]
basically,
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:56]
the value there is
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:58]
gathering data on people so that you can deliver targeted
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:04]
marketing messaging, more or less.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:06]
That's simplified, I know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:11]
So I'm not a public representative of my company, and I cannot comment.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:15]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:17]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:19]
The the Internet is
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:22]
it provides opportunities for data gathering like we've not seen. And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:26]
you know, one of the reasons I don't use Gmail is because I get a lot of personal stuff
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:31]
in Gmail or in my email rather,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:34]
and I don't want those cross referenced against my searches. Right. One of the reasons I don't log in to YouTube is because I don't want my email cross referenced against,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:41]
you know, videos I wanna watch. I don't want suggestions of videos based upon something that you sent me earlier in the day. Right. Those are the things that make me uncomfortable. I like the products.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:51]
I I don't like some of the suggestive nature of them. So now this is interesting because
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:57]
going back to the Amazon use case,
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:59]
my Amazon
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:01]
experience is made a whole lot better by them showing me things that I might be interested in than if they were showing me
SPEAKER_1 [00:38:09]
kid kids books or women's clothing or things of that nature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:14]
Yeah. So I'm sure you've you've searched for something and then messed up your Amazon results for a while thereafter. Right? Your suggestions on the main page. Right? So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:24]
you know, like like, type in
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:26]
adult depends, and you're gonna be seeing adult and geriatric
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:30]
needs for for the next month.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:33]
Amazon
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:34]
does not do
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:36]
cookie tracking like Google does. Right? So they're not dropping a cookie
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:40]
onto your computer and then using that to crawl pages that you access across the Internet. This is one of the areas where I think Google Analytics is really dangerous.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:50]
Right? So Google Analytics
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:52]
provides Google a way to track the web
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:56]
across sites. Now I don't know what they use that data for. I think they're capable of doing a lot of things they probably aren't. I think they're probably doing things that would make me uncomfortable with Google Analytics.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:07]
Amazon's not in that game. Right? Their advertising game is focused in on
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:12]
their particular platform.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:13]
So they use your order history to suggest things to you. They use your search history to suggest products to you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:21]
They
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:22]
allow
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:23]
their
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:25]
retailers
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:26]
to buy ad space that might match a term that you you look for or might relate to a similar order. But I think what's fundamentally different about Amazon is it's all contained within their platform. Right? So it's all contained within the retail buying experience of Amazon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:43]
I don't have it, like, seeping in and out from these different places in the web. Now I might be I might be missing something on a technical detail somewhere, but I to me,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:53]
that's something different because, again, like, I can easily opt out of that and walk away. The problem with Google is, like, you really can't opt out of Google. You can try.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:03]
Right? You can say I'm not gonna do Gmail today. You can say I'm not gonna use YouTube.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:07]
But, you know, I guarantee you probably, like, 75%
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:11]
of the websites that you're view they excuse me, viewing on the Internet are using Google Analytics.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:16]
Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:17]
And you're probably searching using Google because most people do that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:22]
And so, you know, your your iPhone, right, came pre wired with Google as the default search engine. You probably downloaded Chrome where the default search engine was Google. Heck, on an Apple
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:35]
laptop, your Safari defaulted to Google. Firefox,
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:38]
right, gets paid money by Google to default to Google. So it just becomes a lot harder to opt out. And and to me, that's that's the difference between Amazon and Google.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:50]
That's a fair point.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:52]
So there's kind of
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:55]
there's this line that I don't think we can draw
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:59]
about
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:00]
at what point
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:02]
does it turn from providing
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:04]
the user
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:05]
a
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:06]
great,
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:07]
wonderful experience
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:09]
versus when you either abuse the user's trust
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:13]
or
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:14]
literally abuse the user's data and use it in morally gray at best ways?
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:21]
Yeah. There's there's a spectrum of manipulation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:23]
Right? And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:25]
I I would say when encouragement
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:27]
crosses the boundary to being pure manipulation, that's where it gets dangerous. And I'll give you an example. Right? If I
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:33]
search for
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:36]
the presidents of war, it's a book I just recently bought.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:40]
I am
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:41]
not
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:42]
turned off at the thought of Amazon encouraging me to buy
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:47]
a book on the war of eighteen twelve thereafter.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:50]
That doesn't that doesn't trouble me. That's a related product. Like, that actually,
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:56]
is the kind of thing I want them to do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:58]
Reading an email from you talking about
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:02]
ecobee,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:03]
and then
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:04]
navigating over to Google and searching for thermostat problems,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:08]
and Google recommending that I buy their product Nest, which is a competitive ecobee,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:13]
that bothers me. That's that's manipulative. That's suggestive in a way that I'm not content with. And that is exactly what it's the kind of thing
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:21]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:22]
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:24]
has done, can do, whether or they explicitly do it with Gmail today, that's debatable.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:29]
But the fact of the matter is
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:32]
no matter who listens to this podcast on Thursday,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:35]
no one can tell me well, except for maybe somebody that works at Google, but I I don't know if they listen to this podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:41]
No one can tell me, like, what how all my data is used. Right? And, yeah, there's a bunch of legalese in the in the web and and all of this. It's complicated. Like, there's
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:51]
also just not a good clean track record there, you know, for for being honest and open. Yeah. And
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:57]
I would venture to say that even a Google employee, if they were to listen, wouldn't be able to tell you everything.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:05]
There's too many different product lines. There is a
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:08]
Google service called Google Takeout, I think, where you can basically download
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:15]
all the information that they have on you. I put all in quotes, but, like, what you've added to your Google plus profile that doesn't exist anymore and things of that nature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:28]
Yeah. And and, again, like, that
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:31]
is only
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:32]
valid because we trust it to be valid.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:35]
And some of us will trust it. Some of us will not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:38]
I I think the the bottom line is,
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:42]
you know, there just been a number of things that have happened recently that that give us pause
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:47]
as to whether or not this is a 100% honest company.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:51]
And I think, you know, to
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:54]
Elizabeth Warren's point, and and,
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:56]
like, I disagree with her on a lot of stuff, but I I think there is a valid argument to be said where these companies get so big that they lose their accountability to their customers.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:06]
Yep. Right? And the problem with a monopoly
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:09]
or a a company that's so ubiquitous
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:12]
is they become
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:14]
capable
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:15]
of of just not being accountable. Right? They can they can do whatever they want with and there's nothing that us as customers can do
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:23]
to to stop them. Right. Right? Because you're you're literally not gonna turn Google off for the world.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:28]
Like, you can't you can't rally a campaign. You may be able to storm Area 51 with a Facebook campaign, but you're not gonna be able to stop people from using Google.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:37]
Nice.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:38]
Cultural
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:39]
reference there, Stan.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:41]
Alright. So that probably went a little different than we were planning when we started talking about Prime Day. But I I I think I was I talking did not
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:51]
did not see us talking about
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:54]
democratic presidential candidates today.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:57]
So let me let me ask you, John. Does this constitute talking about politics on the podcast? Because that's kinda one of the faux pas that we avoid. I don't believe that we actually talked about anything political here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:06]
I mean, we said that people look at things different ways politically,
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:11]
but I don't think we actually talked and argued politics
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:15]
on this point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:17]
Alright. Alright. Well, I'll we'll we'll see what the listeners think.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:20]
Hey. They can tell us on Facebook, facebook.com/twistoflemonpod,
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:26]
Twitter at twistoflemonpod.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:30]
On our website, you could send us something through the contact form, twistoflemonpod.com.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:35]
Or if you're feeling really adventurous,
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:37]
you can leave us a five star review on iTunes
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:40]
Life with Twisted Lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:43]
And if you don't wanna leave a five star review, head over to our Reddit
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:46]
subreddit. Reddit subreddit.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:49]
Yeah. Whatever. I don't know. How do you say I don't even know what you're supposed to say. Anyhow, just look for us on Reddit. If you find us, you can leave that, you know, three and a half star review that you've been jonesing to to do. By the way, John, are you sure we have a contact form on our site? I I am sure. I know that you haven't been getting It seems like a terrible idea. Getting spam recently
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:05]
because I added a
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:07]
super robot proof
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:09]
trick here. You have to answer a math question in order to submit
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:15]
the contact form.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:17]
Is that a Google integration? No. This is not. This is straight up
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:21]
what's one plus eight or something like that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:24]
So we're we're past the part where we're talking about things that make me uncomfortable in the tech world, but I will say the fact that most of the Internet security is aided by Google
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:33]
also bothers
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:35]
Alright, John. Until next time. Later, Stan.