Ep. 1264: Where we try and stay Glassy

-It's Monday May 6th, 2013. Thanks for tuning in to the 404 Show. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Ty Pendelbury. -I'm Scott Stein. -I'm Ariel Nunez. -Welcome to the program. Justin Yu is not here today, as you might have just heard, with some unforeseen element that has rendered him completely useless on Monday morning. -Tennis Elbow. -Tennis Elbow? That would require some sort of athletic ability. Yeah, I don't know-- so I can't say that we're in any better shape than he is on a Monday morning because, let's be honest, Mondays are just filled with nothing-- -Yeah. -But to help fill that void Ty Pendelbury. -Good day. -Scott Stein. -Hey. -Gonna be here-- -With Google Glass. -With Google Glass. Scott is wearing it now because that's a thing. -Yeah. -It's a thing to do this month. -Now it is like-- now I just like to do it. -Yeah, I understand that. -That's how I live my life. -Yeah. -How I go about my day. -Okay. We'll get into more that real quick. I wanna talk about some house cleanings, some-- we'll call it spring cleaning. I wanna sort of-- take a little inventory here and talk to the listeners about last week. You should definitely go back and listen to some of the shows that we had. The great Marc Maron was on the show. We had Caroline McCarthy. Remember Caroline McCarthy? -Oh, yeah. She was here? -She was here on Friday. You just missed her. -That's awesome. -I think you just missed-- -You never say hi, nobody ever says hi? -No one ever says hi to Scott anymore. Yeah. -Maybe it's the Glasses man. -Makes me scaring people away. -It's very possible. -I know, I expect it-- no one say hi. -So the reason I want to bring out the guest that we had last week is because-- you know, it took a really long time to get Marc Maron just because there's a lot, you know, it was very DIY and we just sort of set it up and now I wanna talk and I wanna maybe get the power of crowds-- the power of our listening crew, our legion, if you will. I don't wanna talk about like new guests to inspire to. Like, okay, we had people like Danny DeVito. We had Mar Maron. We had all these great people. And now I wanna jump forward and I wanna let people know like who were actively pursuing. We haven't done this before, you know, to me-- 'cause always just like, "hey, we've got him now. How about that?" So my next guy-- the next guy we wanna get. I wanna get Chris Hardaway. -That would be great. -That's the next one. So that's something-- you know who that is? -No, no idea. -You don't know how that is? -No. Is he a hockey player? -No. -Nerdist? -Oh, that's it. Great. -I was gonna say he's-- -Anyway-- -And a great hockey player. -I was gonna say-- I was gonna say he's the host of Singled Out but, you're Australian so it wouldn't have resonated with you. -You know, can I tell him my crazy Chris Hardwick story? -You freaking absolutely can. -Can I believe this to be absolutely true? -Yeah. -It is like no one in fact checking my memories but-- -You believe this to be true but it happened? -No. It happened. But-- this so long ago, it's like a hallucination. -Okay. -I like-- met him for like a lunch at a friend's house way before nerdist. It was when-- I think it was during the Singled Out days. -So that you're going back to like the mid 90's. -Like 1999-2000. -Yeah. -It's when I first moved to LA. -Okay. -And my friend who is out there as a play-write, my friend Padraic, he was over at his Dad's house and they knew each other from-- I don't know, so connected worlds of TV -Yeah. -And I've never, he was like, "Oh, yeah. This is Chris", and I met him, we were just like, I don't know, had like a casual lunch or something-- we're just hanging out. And they were talking about something and, you know, I was like, "You're a cool person." And then like, you know, years later. Long enough, and it's like, you know, through the fog of years. -Right. -He's doing all then nerdist stuff and everything else, and I'm like, "That's-- -It's amazing. -That was the guy. -Yeah. -That was him. -His path is remarkable. -No, it was like fat tricking because-- like I went back and asked my friend Padraic, I was like, "So we-- we had, we were over at your house with that guy." That was the guy. -Looks like 'cause he didn't remember everything. He was like, -He might-- -He's like, yeah. And I was like, this would happen, right? This really happens. -Right. -I think-- I believe this to be true. If you-- if he will not remember this. -Well, I mean, if any-- -No one never does but me 'cause I'm not important. -No. I don't think-- that's not what it is. I mean, when you have a career that pulls you in 4 million different directions-- -Yeah, you do a lot of things you don't remember. -Your memory takes toll. It has a toll on your-- -I don't remember meeting people. -It takes a toll on your memory. -Yeah. -So, you know, people like, you know, like that question always comes up with like bands. It's like, "you think they'll remember me when I-- when we locked eyes on stage?" -Right. It's not-- -We started [unk] that time. -You know, I don't know but it's worth asking. -That's my silly stalker-ish. -'Cause we will figure this out. He will be here. -Right. -If you will it, there's a way. Right? -If I bring this up to him, he'll either be like, "Oh, yeah" or he will just be like, "Yeah". Great to end the conversation. -It will just be like, get this guy with the glasses off. -Dude, you guys are deal breaker. -This Google Glasses is freaking me out. Security. -Well, I'm getting from that anecdote is that you said hi and he said hi and that was it. -That was pretty much it. That's all I can say. -Do you meant it when I said, hi to you 13 years ago-- -I chased her down in the street ones, so-- Joanne I knew from school and I thought it would be nice to say hi and it was the creepiest experience ever 'cause I started-- I almost cornered them and they were like-- I just wanna say hi 'cause if-- and my wife-- -Who says who? -Someone who [unk] mortified. I was like, someone went to college with me and-- -Okay, so you thought them like a celebrity or-- -No, I went to high school with my wife. -Yeah. -And, you know, I just want to say hi. -Yeah. -And by the time I finally tracked her down, it looked like-- I was like chasing someone randomly. And then I was like, I just want to say hi. And then she was like, okay. -Yeah. -Oh, yeah. Okay, great. -Yeah. -And I realized how horrifying this moment was and I don't wanna ever know anyone again. It's like-- -You're trying to push those having memory. -That's why you're wearing the glasses so you don't have to meet anyone ever again. -So I can hide. Because it's the worst thing you say like, "Oh, I remember I have an anecdote about you-- -Yeah. -and you're that weird person" -Right. Well, all right. I'm glad we went down that rabbit hole. -Sorry. Anyway-- -But I wanna say that starting today, we're actively pursuing that. I'm curious 'cause I like having this transparency 'cause people are-- were like, how do you, you know, how do [unk]. Well, this is how it works. There's no bells and whistles. It's painfully, you know, low budge. -When are you getting jumps to it? That's the odd one. -That freaking, you know, Jimmy Fallon can't get John Stewart. Conor O'Brian can't get John Stewart. That would be-- -Steven Cole barely lives in Montclair. -Does he? -Yes, he does. -Plot thickens. -That doesn't help much. -Doesn't help much. -I could-- no, I couldn't pull some strings. -I know people who know people. -Pull those strings man. -You're welcome to call Mayor -You should get some of the cool science fiction writers-- -Yeah. -That sound very nerdy but like-- -Like who? Who would you want? -Well, obviously like William Gibson will be unbelievable. -He would be but I feel like that guy is so off the grid. -What about like Warren Ellis? If he's ever in town. -Yeah, another kinda off-the-grid indeed though. -Off-grid. You know who's really nuts but awesome-- is Rudy Rucker. -Not familiar with that. -He's a math professor out of-- I think he's in UC Sta. Cruz. -Yeah. -Who's written awesome and weird trippy sci-fi books. He has a very strange view of the world. -Brook with a great suggestion in the chat room. Neil Degrasse Tyson. -That would be amazing. -That would be sick. -That would be incredible. -Is it Degrasse or Degrass? -You know, I keep thinking of Degrassi Junior High and it goes me off-- -That Canadian TV Show. -Yeah. I don't know. I tried to not-- -He's brilliant. -But-- yeah, he's amazing. -Yeah. So anyway-- and that's the other one that I wanna start the thing. I wanna get Kevin Smith too. -Oh, that would be great. -What about some guys from that comic book man? -Great. That show. -Some of those guys on that show, Brian-- what's his last name. I can't remember. He's amazing. -Yeah. -He would be cool -We're gonna try. We're gonna start the wheel to turn and see what happens. -Watch Comic Book Man and see him Thursdays. I don't know what days- -And then Chris Hardwick shows on air too. So we could do that. -And you ever get your-- motto ever on the show? -Or I would need a translator. -I know-- -I would need that Bill Trennen dude. -That would be amazing. -It would be a bit confusing, it would take a while. -That would be worth watching every second. -Yeah, that would be fine. -Or David Lynch if you can get David Lynch. Think about this. He is promoting transcendental meditation right now. -Yeah. -Maybe if you're coming on that angle. -We'll see. -'Cause you just got his-- -You know what this is-- -His foundation too. -Yeah. -So maybe you could talk about that and then talk to Bill-- -[unk]. -Well, I'm sure-- see the thing is like, these guys do junk, that's right. -Right. -And they're coming to town. And it's just another stop on the tour. And I really think that, you know, with the news with Hardwick, I was getting this on-- you heard about it, the news that came out last week. He's gonna be like the late night comedy central host guy-- comedy central show host guy. -Really? -He's already too big for you guys. -No. -He's not. -What is the late night comedy central most guy-- -He's having his own show that's being put together by Thomas Lennon and-- -It'll be a live show like a late night-- -Yeah. It's gonna be on after Colbert. -But he is also-- everything with BBC and like [unk]. -Dude, he's freaking hot right now. -He's controlling 30 percent of reality at this point. -He is everywhere. -He's totally everywhere and he's got a great probably guests too. So-- -And I met him once in 1999-2000. -You met him on-- yeah. -That's to put on the resume that one. -Yeah. -So we're gonna try in-- -To memory-- -to use only the-- I want your input too, Ariel. What do you think? Who would you-- -Who what I want? -Yeah, who would you want? -I don't know people I want, probably won't fit on this show. -Yeah. -Whiz Khalifa. -Well, that would be cool. -Kanye West. -You want Kanye West on the show? -Yeah, why not? -Yeah. I thought you didn't like him. -I don't. But that's why-- if we pulled him or have him on here. -Billy Joel. -Billy Joel? Come on. -I mean, that's just really obscure. I mean, we've made people who probably don't belong work on the program for not sure I can make Billy Joel. -If you could talk to Billy Joel by tech and what he thinks about. That will be the most amazing show. -Yeah. -Everyone would wanna watch that. -I mean, it would-- -To me, I would wanna watch that. -Thing with something like that is just like, you just-- he just transcends everything. -Yeah. -So he would just work regardless-- -He would play a song or something on the show. -The one person I've always wanted to meet is being Michael Stipe. I actually saw him 2 blocks from here walking out of, one of those new hip stores-- -Yeah. -"Kids and Abe" whatever that's called. And I was walking alongside him and, you know, is that him? I don't know. -He's pretty unique looking. -He's about my height. I thought he's really short but-- -Yeah. He's the lead singer of REM [unk]. -Yeah. Him and Dustin Hoffman would be my only two celebrity sightings. -Yeah. -But Michael Stipe, I always misled with Michael Jackson. Michael Stipe is the only person I had ever wanted to meet. -All right, well-- -I'm sure there's other dudes but-- -Oh, and in that same note, they might be giants. They're now in Flansburgh. -You could get them on. -You could get them on. -That's probably doable. -They would-- they're more-- they're as popular as ever and they have a lot of tech stuff. They have all the dial songs and they're fascinating. -They're in Australia right now. -Yeah. -A friend of mine just saw them. -And you get two people at once. Unless, you wanted just to have one. -All right. -Well, the-- -And you probably wouldn't be a lot to do. -There's a lot of them I thought. -John Bennett, well-- just this John Bennett and John Flansburgh and then the rest of the gang. -Yeah. The rest of the gang, but it's really the two Johns. -Charem has a lot of good suggestions. Some people from Sons of Anarchy, some people from like Conan O'Brien. That would be-- I mean, come on. Peter Dinklage. -Peter Dinklage. Yes. -That might work, I think. -If you're not familiar with him. -I don't know. -He's awesome. -We'll see what our chance are but-- -You know, -We'll let you guys know as it goes on. -Also on the magic side-- Angela. -Oh, come on. I would love that. -Ricky Jay. -I would love that. -I've met [unk] three times. You know, these are real ones. -Yeah? -I interviewed him from Maxim way back. -All right. -And he actually saw me acting a play. -No way. -Yeah. And I threw up as a kid watching his show because I had indigestion. -Did he-- -And then I saw her in an event one time. -return the favor? -Okay. -So, it's four times. -Look, 'cause she's always out in Vegas. -Yeah, it was like 4 really weird-- those are all very different stories. -Yeah. -But he's amazing. Ricky Jay is the most fascinating person but it's like. He's highly intellectual and very mysterious. All right, well, I think we got enough to fill up the dream bank of guests. -Yeah. -So, I'm glad about that. -Hope you're taking notes on this one. -Oh, no. Don't worry. Every show is recorded. -What? -Got backups. -He likes me. -All right. I wanna shift gears and talk a bit about Google Glass just because I wanna-- I don't really wanna talk about it specifically as you're enjoying it/ not enjoying it. But I wanna talk about what is quickly, quickly happening with the public perception of this thing. Not just the white people wearing Google Glass, which Scott is actually on. -Yes, he is. -Yeah, that was a-- that was a dubious achievement of the year. -It's a-- yeah. -I'll slowly bring that up while we talk about it. But I feel like the public perception has become-- that it is just, this really nerdy, very uncool thing. And I think all of that was sort of highlighted the culmination of the theory came together on this week's Saturday Night Live. We'll play a little this right here where Fred Armisen played a tech reporter on weekend update talking. -And play him like every tech reporter. -Yeah, talking about-- -He got us all. -So let's check this out. -This is the highly-anticipated Google Glass began shipping recently to tech bloggers. Here's to give us his take on the new product, our weekend update tech correspondent Randall Meeks. Thank you so much for coming. So, tell us what are your early thoughts? -They are amazing. You know, I just spent so much time of my life looking down at my phone. And now, thanks to Google Glass, the phone is up here. And I could use it without being rude or distracting. And it's simply-- you just-- you have to toggle through the menu like this and you have to activate it, kinda just-- little-- yeah, we're almost there. -Yeah, that's pretty cool. -It's great because no one knows you're doing it. -Oh, I'm sure because they told you now. There we go. It's on. Okay. Now, to give it a command all you can do is just say, "Okay Glass". Okay? Now, what's your Wi-Fi password? -Oh, at NBC it's peacock. -Okay. Peacock. Peacock. Password peacock. Peacock. Peacock. Peacock-- -All right. -Password-- password peacock. -So, that's what they were doing on. So, that's what they've done in this sort of, you know, the entertainment sort of skew on that thing. -Yes. -And I know you've been through some stuff already with it. -I said peacock at least 80 times this weekend. It's true. I couldn't get-- you can't even say your password. But, you now, that's even the point. Yeah, it's like Siri all over again. This is like Siri but with a sign on your face, which makes it even worst. -But don't you think this is kind of Google's worst nightmare? -You know, I think they got actually a lot of exactly-- maybe what they were looking for. -Yeah. -There's a lot of exposure because, this is not ready for consumption. -Right. -So it's not-- -But there's no wonder. There's no-- and wonder, which is what-- -Is that true? -Yeah, I think that-- I just feel like people are seeing and they're just like-- it's for nerd. It's nerdy. It's not accessible. -Well, that's true but yet, over the weekend and whenever I'm wearing these things which I always do feel embarrassed and people go why-- -See? And that's a big part of it. -Yeah, and I go-- someone said, even at the train station. There's older couple like my grandparents were like, "So-- I saw that on TV." What-- you move through for information. You move through information. And I was like, "I do", and they go, "What's that for?" and I was like, "I-- I don't know." -Yeah. -I don't know what it's for. -But what do you pay for it? You know, something-- -Yeah. -Or everyone said-- -You're right. -A thousand dollars, $1,500 and I was like-- -Oh, yeah. -Not like no. And I said, no. I didn't-- why did you buy it? I didn't buy it. -Right. -I mean, we did but this is-- I'm doing it for the purposes of CNET and not-- this is an experiment. -Right. -The other guy was like, "Oh, yeah. I know what happens when you-- someone takes pictures with Google Glass, you take them, then you crush them." And I was like-- I was-- he's like, "I'm just kidding." And he's like, "but you know what I'm saying?" I know, I'm just-- this is just-- it really gets in people's face. But then, I went to a birthday party Inwood. -Yeah. -And it sort like a little bit of a Brooklyn-type vibe. And all the geeky dads like me-- -Right. -Would come out of the wood work and they come drifting over and be like, "hey, that's Google Glass." -Let me see that. -Like, "yeah, can I see that?" Everyone wants a ride. -Sure. -It's like a VR headsets in the arcades in 1991. -Right. -You know, it's like, you wanna fight the third act. You know-- I wanna try the ride. It doesn't mean you wanna buy it or you like some weird guy with the jetpack. You know, it's like-- -You just wanna say you did it. -Right. So, I think that there's curiosity about that but, you know, this boiled down-- there's no used case for this right now, I don't think. There's no real reason to use it. So maybe it'll like-- -Just like that conversations in Jersey. -Yeah, [unk] starts conversations in Montclair train station at Bay Street or you with the guy you're serving coffee you're talking. But, I think it's also like-- Google wants to be seen as like a Willy Wonka and, you know, he is our weird thing and they're always kinda nerdy. So, like maybe this is-- that's fine but, yeah this is-- I mean, right now it is backfiring as far as people would go, "Oh, I never wanna buy this", but-- -The PR, right. -You can't buy it, so-- -Right. You can't but you can-- -Yeah, if it was like a product on sale right now, this would be-- -It wouldn't be doing well. -Very bad. -Right. -This would be-- -And that's what I'm saying. -Yeah. -And I understand. And I think people also maybe don't understand that. -Right. -And that's probably partly our fault but it is not something that you can just go to Best Buy and pick up. This is something that is seemingly exclusive-- -You bet to say to win the right via putting your name into an early list or Google I/O-- -Via tech blogger. -Or via tech blogger. -Yeah. -Basically, winning through a hash tag. But you can even, the channels are not even that simple to say like, I'm in the press and I buy one. You had to have signed up via the system. -And you still have to pay for it through and no actual review the-- -And then you have to-- then you have to pay. And you're part of the developer program. -Yeah. -And then they're very open in front about that saying like, this is, you know, we don't know yet. We're developing this, which could annoy you from the tech side or you say, "so, it's like part of-- it's like being part of something like MIT Media Experiment." -Yeah. -You know, it's like, I'm a [unk]. You're right. It's so nerdy and I cannot justify. There are people who have said they're wearing this for two weeks and said I'm gonna wear this for the rest of my life, you know. -Who are those people? -Like Scoble. You know, or like-- -Yeah. -People who have just said, you know, this is to transform me. I don't like-- got contact lenses the same day that I got this and you could argue the contact lenses were more transformative than Google Glass because my world got more expensive and everything seem larger and I feel like I was on LST staring at my hands with contacts. Google Glasses' screen that hovers up here and it's not even-- I mean, you're trying to talk those bridge but like-- I think it should be like fully overlay. So at least you can be like-- -Right. -If I'm going nerd, give me full weird nerd like-- -Yeah. -I'm in virtual reality or semi-virtual reality-- everything is weird. This is like half-way. -There you go. -Oh, my God-- -So here you are on-- -And it's flattering I guess on-- -Oh, you-- it's a good photo, you look good. -Grimaces. -You do look good. You actually look better than every other dude. -You do. -It is, dude. -Yeah. -On that blog. -A make up team. -My problem with this product is that, Google are very [unk]. You know, if they don't like a product or they don't think it's going to be perceive or the reason being perceived, they'll just cut it off. -Right. -And this could definitely happen with this product. Look for example with the Nexus Q, which came out about-- -Exactly. -Six months ago. -Yeah. -Similar process. There's a pre-order. You could buy it for-- -It's a good point. -$400 to $500 and they decided that, okay, we're gonna take it off. They've actually removed it from their site completely. -Yeah. -And I never see this again. -So-- -This could happen with the Google Plus. -But what or how-- but let's be honest. How much more money went to the Glass they want to develop in that? -Oh, yeah. I mean, that was it. The Nexus Q was a strange product. That's how box-- -It was a box-- -It wasn't even as good as the Google TV. -Right. -And had an amp output, you know. You plug speakers into it for some reason. -Yeah. -But here's the flip side, like-- 'cause I wanna make fun of this, believe me, I do. -Oh, no-- and you do? -Yeah, and I do. And there was a lot that's completely ridiculous about this. But then, when you think about it, Google is kind of like-- it's like exoskeleton of tech like they wanna wear their labs on the outside. Most teams would like to put this on the inside and not release it until it was totally ready like an Apple style. I think Google likes the beta test. So, you say, they put the services at you and you start putting your whole life on it and then they're like. "Yeah, disconnect that". And you like, you know. But what the hell? But then I think that the idea here is that. I think they're developing and researching. I don't even know if this is gonna be the thing. -It's not gonna look like that. -Of course not. -I think 20 years-- 10 years down the line they're gonna come up with ways like kinect. I think it's like kinect for your face almost. -Yeah. -They're sort of coming up with the same types of touch or menus of things but you're all-- we're all in on the research and development of this basically. -Well-- and-- -And so it was not inside. And so, you get all of the negatives of like, in a layout, maybe a team would test this like before the iPod iPad that you never saw-- -Right. -Whereas, Google is like, yeah, you can see it 'cause we're probably not gonna do this one. -In fact, if you look at it that way, it's brilliant. -Right. -Because they are essentially having everyone do their work for them and do there are [unk]. -Yeah. -And do the QA and all that. So, if you look at it in that vein, I think it's a slice of brilliance but like you said, I agree, and I don't know what you guys think but I agree-- the first public iteration that is available in stores will I think look very different than what Scott's got on his face right now. -And probably will be an overlay. -Yeah. -You can print over [unk] that are see-through. -Right. -And so, it will basically be like a television screen in one of your eyes. I like that. -You just throw a try? -Yes. -Yeah, I'm gonna try this on. I'm gonna look at-- -You got it, you-- -And Scott also has the clear lens attachment on the-- -Which snap off-- -Yeah. -And it makes me look like I'm in the-- I guess Swedish 1978. -Yeah. -I don't know-- -Or like Ariel said, you're getting ready for your rocket ball game. -Yes. -Right. -Or just mixed fluids. -So there you go. -There it is. -I feel like-- -Yeah. -You look like a-- you feel the way you look. -You have a Buno type look to you.. You look a little Buno. -Oh, yeah you kinda-- you do look like the lead singer of U2, right now. -You look like-- you kinda look like Buno. -It's a beautiful day. -I must have vote in. -Now, when I was talking to Scott. -Yeah. -The first time he put them on, he was looking at me through this thing. -Sure. -And I don't know if you've ever had a conversation with someone when they're looking at you just the time put you off. -It's upsetting. -It's really upsetting. -And that's a big thing with this because like I said when Bridget had it last week, when you do look at the screen, your-- both your eyes need to look at it and it almost looks like you're either like stroking out or you're just thinking like you're in deep thought. And it's a little upsetting. -Okay, Glass, take a picture. -There you go. Nothing. -Nothing. It's not-- okay. -You need the Australian one. -How was your accent? -Yeah, it's your dialect. -Take a picture. See, that always give me the nerve-- -Can I stroke your face? -No. -I like it, I like it. -You'd say Glass, take a picture. -Now, it just said, "what's wrong with you?" -Oh, it took a picture. -Nice. -That's amazing. -So, yeah-- -I have this thing. -You already hates it. -Now, what do you think about the picture quality? -The picture quality? -The picture quality. -I-- what is the resolution of that actual screen? It's very small. -720p and I'll tell you, they said that it was like having a 25-inch display 8 feet far away from you. -No. That's kinda right. I think it's right. -That's a long way away. -Right. -Very small. -It is-- right. It's far. But, you look-- -That's the odd glasses that came out. -Yeah. -That's expensive going in. That was a 70-inch screen. They had all the distances work. And then I was trying to think-- oh, okay. Well, that's 80-inch by 140. -Right. -You know, doing all the matriculation. But-- -Yeah. -Nothing is being very exciting, you know. Look at the Oculus Rift for example. -Sure. -Right. -You know, you look like you're wearing some sort of box on your face. -Great, but that's-- -Face box. -But the thing is though, as you're sitting in your living room-- -Yeah, you're not on the train. -You're not on the train trying to get along with the common people, you know, as if you're-- -But it will happen, you know, VR glasses will be wearable in public very soon. -Yeah. Is it gonna-- I mean, you know, this guy just put on the moment the actual tinted shades on there now. -They just need to use your [unk] and the music goes-- -Like a CSI. -See now-- now you look like you're in 80's movie about the future as what you look like. Now you look like you're-- -[unk] -Yeah. You're one accent away from Arnold right here. -He is more man now than [unk] -Yeah, exactly. -He is man "borigin" -Yeah, it's pretty good. -Block him in. Jack him in to the matrix. -Have you try to-- -Deck him in to the jack. -Have you tried to go out in public with that? -This is what I wear to work today. -Wow. -That's what people talk to me-- look like this. -Yeah. -And I recorded clips of myself talking in front of store-front glass so I could do like ongoing commentary. -Yeah. -And people were just like at the Newark Bus Station. -Oh, my God. -'Cause they were just like-- I'm surprised you didn't-- I'm surprised you have not been stabbed yet to be totally honest. -I am trying-- -Trying hardly. -I think it's a-- you know, actually, speaking of video games. I thought, this start of reminding me a lot of like an Xbox accessory. -Yeah. -Just take it off, please. -Between me and-- He can't deal with the shades. -At least take off the shades because I can't talk to you. -Yeah and take the band on. Man, that is-- it just comes off very gracefully. I'm nervous. -Yeah. -Boy, it heads me to things. But, yeah-- I think that the-- if you have like a quasi-virtual interface like what is your game-- -Yeah. -That you're playing? This not what it's meant for. What if you're playing game-- -Right. -And then like the Oculus rift, you then turn to the side and see enemies on this side but a semi-transparent. -Yeah. -Almost like that projected room, the illumi room thing that there saying for the Xbox. -Uh-huh. -So you could look around but have a headset on. -Right. -And just looking on the TV. -Augmented reality they tried, you know, 12 months ago, but where do they go? No one uses that. And I'm surprised that doesn't have any augmented-- -Sony-- I think Sony loves that augmented reality with the touchpads or whatever they have in the wonder book. -Yeah. No one wants it. -The conversation, and you're right. -Well, that's-- I mean, you're just. That's like tumbleweeds right there. -But that's exactly it. It's like, you know, how do people feel about a wonder book? How do people feel about-- this stuff is too weird for anyone to really embrace and use. -Well, at least we can be happy that it's not just bigger screens and more resolution. It's at least, at the end of the day it's different. -Yes. -Right? And it's stuff that we've never seen before, because for a while-- and I feel like it was maybe when I started that CNET up until like a year ago, it was just crap that it was not impressing me anymore. -Yeah. -I'm not impressed by 4K TV. -I'm not either. -I'm not impressed by-- I'm not impressed by 3D. I think it's stupid and I think the rest of the world thinks it's stupid-- -4K is the next 3D. -All right. It's just stuff that, at least we're going down a different road with junk like this. -Yeah. -And it'll be fun to see where it ends up whether or not it's a dead end we'll see. But at least we're going off and we're thinking the outside of the box again. -And you're right. And people wanna see it. They think of it as-- it's the first thing since virtual reality, I think. -Right. -Since like the idea of the internet that people are thinking, "Could this be another world that I'm looking into?" -Right. -And then you have to break it to people that like, that dream is not here right now. -Just yet. -Just yet. -But this could be the start. -But it's totally connected, so there's no reason why it can't. -Right. -It's almost like Google doesn't wanna fully allow it to go that way yet because of privacy and other things. There's a lot of talk of like restrictions on contacts and I even brought up the question of, you know, what if you're looking at someone's phase and it like-- here's the person. Here's when you last met them. -Yeah, right. -And they were like, "Well, we're very sensitive to privacy issues." -Right. -But that's what they want. -That's why we've loaded a camera on the front of your face. -Exactly. -But then, you want that. I want-- you know, who does and does not? There's both sides but there's a fantasy. -Of course. -You know, and if you wanna go down that road-- -Yeah, 'cause we've all been watching sci-fi movies for 30 years. -Right. And it's exactly that. -Yeah, that's what it is. All right. I wanna change gears 'cause, you know, the Google Glass is-- it's just the thing that we just have to take in moderation. -Yeah. -Here's another sort of thing that is starting to become a reality that I never thought would get off the ground but it sorta is. And it's basically the idea of online gaming but for money. Okay. Have you heard about stuff like this? -Well, like gambling you mean? Like the online gambling-- -Kinda like gambling a little bit. In that vein, there's one website that I was exposed to recently called willpwn4food.com, okay? Here's what the website looks like. It's basically a game that you can play and win money by being the best at it in so many words. So, you know, I wanna hear-- -Does it cost you money to play? -I think at some point it does. I was sent some literature on it and-- -So you can get upgrades and that sort of-- -I'll look that up now here. But it's-- basically, you're given a chance to play games for money. There's 3D games that you play in your browser window for cash and prizes, all right? The guys that are doing this are based at Canada and apparently, your-- every night there's a tournament, right? So, from 7 to 10, there's a tournament where they split a hundred bucks between the top 10 players. And for that tournament, there's no entry fee. So it's like, you know, I guess they must be like feeding and there's something to sort of, you know, help pay for the whole thing. They've said they already given out 1,500 bucks and it-- which is just, I don't know. -And how long? -I don't know. That is so far. The gain that they are using combines mechanics from unreal tournament and games like Bomberman. So, it's a very early stage. I don't-- I mean, is this something that you think can take off that can have legs? People thinking they can make a lot of money online or do you think it's sort of a different, you know, business model. -I think it could if you look at like poker. -Right. -And there been things like that before where you had-- -It has to be addictive. It has to be compelling. -Right. -And-- but I think the thing with poker-- there's the notion of skill. -Uh-hmm. -Here-- and I think that translate with the game. I think people are convinced that they are better or they are the best that this game and they will play you at this game so they can make money. -Yeah. -So that's where I think-- -There's no real odds to this sort of game. -Right. -Either you can play it or you can't. -Right. -Any time money comes in the equation, there's the opportunity for hacking or cheating or anything. -Sure. -That's the only thing I keep wondering about. So, it's like-- is this something where-- are you taking money away from other players or is it more like, ever-- you know, are they getting money from ads and then like you're paying in like a little bit of the subscription fee. -Yeah. -And then everyone's got a chance to win the jackpot. And it's like-- how do you-- yeah game bounce, it's like a casino. I mean, it become so important because, you know, that's the whole idea of like fair sports competitions or anything else where money involved. Otherwise, how do we know that this game is really something that you can't exploit in some ways? -Right. That's-- I think, that's a legitimate concern for things like this. -Yeah, that sort of the thing. I mean, it's not-- you know, it's just the series questions. It's like, if I'm putting money in-- if I'm putting for free and then it's ad-supported and then it's a chance to like-- 'cause even Xbox or other place have tournaments whether it will be like, you know, the best player win prizes and stuff. -Yeah. -It doesn't really cost you anything. Then, you're like, "Okay, well, you know, that's fine. We all get a chance." But, yeah-- I don't know. -I mean, there are all gaming leagues already. -Of course. -You know-- but do they penetrate the consciousness? Not really. -Yeah. -I mean, unless you're a gamer and even if you're a gamer, you don't really hear about it much? I mean, obviously, if you're into Gamespot they do [unk] has a lot of the actual tournaments and stuff like that. -Right. -But to actually watch someone playing FPS for me is really frustrating. You know,-- -I hate it. -I wanna control the-- -Right. -I wanna actually play it myself. -To me, that's one thing that-- but you know what though man? There are people doing it. Twitch TV is huge. People watch games. People watch people playing games. Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe us three were too old for something-- we just don't-- I'm serious that we just don't get-- -I definitely-- -I don't know. I just-- to me, I would so much rather be watching real life sports than-- don't get me wrong. Well, I watch like a highlight clip if you can dance the whole thing and showed me a series of events that are really impressive within that game world, yeah, I'll check that out. And I'll be impressed about an amazing snipe from, you know, across the map or stuff like that. -All of random stuff. -Right. -Nearly have the wise-- -Just cut that up and I'll watch it. But I'm not sitting there watching-- I don't get it. And the next generation of consoles starting to get a little bit of a taste that's maybe what they're kinda going for or at least will include in their next evolution. I don't know. It's gonna be a dangerous weirdo trip. And of all the gaming for money sites that I have seen. This the willpwn4food does seem-- kinda the most legitimate because they have a very dedicated sort of group of developers and it's not just sort of like a one trick pony thing. I don't know. We'll see where it goes. I remember a while back, I was pitching something called the world gaming. And I think I even get a piece on it and they were taking the existing results from Xbox live matches. -Yup. I remember this. -Bill sniffing that out off the servers because all of the results of these games were public information. And then basically, being like escrow. You know, they're working like escrow and then awarding people the money after match is completed. -What? -Yeah. So, you know, this stuff-- it's there. It's out there. But we'll see where it goes. -It's almost inevitable that we will go down this path-- -Right. -Reality shows. -Of course. -Where gaming will equate to money and then we'll have these things yet. -It has to. -And it may come from the top of the network or the publishers, you know, like if you win like a survivor thing in video games, you know, where you get a prize. -Right. -But, yeah. I think it's gonna happen but it's just so many-- and also, if you go to those tournaments. -Yeah. -They are standardizing, right? Aren't they playing the same room? -Yeah. -Will take a land-- so there's a lot of efforts being made to normalize the territory. -That's true. -That's the whole thing about online poker. You just have one decision. -Yeah. -Bet or not bet. But if you're dealing with like speed and stuff like that-- -Latency is a huge issue-- -Yeah. -You know, how do you make that and even playing field? -Yeah. And how people can like, again, take advantage of that. I just think it's-- if you can't see it and you're not in the room with it, you gotta wonder like what's going on. -Yeah. Before we say goodbye for the day, I want to talk about piracy a little bit. It's like-- always a hot button topic. We always love to bring it up on the show because it's a big deal and, you know, there's this-- if anything we like to watch the cat and mouse chase. We like to see, you know, how both sides are just always and is always like the one side that's always light years ahead of the other and it's never ending, you know, wild goose chase. But [unk], I don't know if you guys remember. There was a massive bust recently, all right, with that group. Imagine, you guys know about this? The torrent group Imagine. They were a huge group that was dismantled back in September of 2011 when a bunch of its US-based members were rounded up and arrested. They were just basically a release group that, you know, brought rip-- blu-rays or whatever it was and put them online. Since then, piracy has sky-rocketed. -Really? -Yeah. -That were actually holding piracy, but-- -Well, I mean they thought that's what they wanted and they thought this would, you know, impact it and compromise the underground network of pirates that make these things available. But since then, and there's a chart we can pull up right here that basically talks about how many movies have been available with English Audio sources, right, because those were the US-based bust. It went down in September when it happened. But the next month was equally as big as it's ever been. So there's really no definite-- I mean, this is-- the proof's right here. You know, these huge bust didn't really do anything to-- -So this is mainly movie piracy that we're-- -Yeah, this is mainly piracy we're talking about. 'Cause I mean, all I haven't, you know, back in the early days. People would watch a cam job that a friend downloaded. -Sure. -And I would never watch those again 'cause it's terrible. -Right. -You know, I think that-- from what I can tell is that the quality of the pirated stuff on the net-- a lot more sophisticated than it used to be. -Oh, for sure. -Maybe 10 years ago. -Oh, for sure. -But, I mean it's about, you know, and they keep saying this time and time again. You know, you're not gonna stop piracy. -Right. -The way to get people to pay for content is to make it cheap and easily available. -Right. -You know-- and they're talking now about-- for example HBO Go, you know, letting that be available overseas because, I mean, there's only what-- 300 million people in the US. Across the globe, it's like 2 billion people without American-- English speakers. So, if you can capture that market. They can make a lot more money out of it. -Of course. -Australia, I'm very proud to say or a bit embarrassed to say is probably the biggest part of Game of Thrones in the world. -Right. -Because we don't get it until months later. -Yeah. -So-- -It's all right-- -There are some US Senator who actually thanked us-- -Yeah. -For being the highest part of-- -Really? -Of the Game of Thrones. -Why do they think that? -I don't know. I think it's being [unk]. But they call him his Highness in Australia. -It's a weird sort of situation that they have going on right now and HBO is specifically I think is right on the cost of doing something great with it. And it'll be interesting to see where they go but-- -You know, when this data comes out and it shows that busting up a piracy group is almost completely ineffective to-- -Just like showing to go after anonymous really. Isn't it-- who do you go after? -Yeah. It's like, what do you-- where do you go from there and what will happen now? You know, because the money that spent, I'm sure was not cheap to, you know, pick all these guys up to wrangle them all up. I don't know. I don't know where you go from here. But we'll see. You know, it's an interesting path, I'm sure. -I think you just have to make it so easy. -Yeah. -And so-- -But look what's hap-- -Fun. -But it's not gonna be easy. -The services-- -They're not getting that message and you can tell because how Warner Bros. just pulled out the NetFlix. -I know. -They're not getting them that-- -But it was crappy [unk]. -Exactly. -It was all the Bond movies and stuff. -Was it? -Yeah. -I've been seen the comprehensive list but it was all 60's movies. -But still they just don't get it. I understand where they're coming from. Where their shareholders are coming from and they have that mentality, it's like, we have to make these, you know, guys. Feel good about the whole thing. And we have a-- we configure out now how to match a distribution platform like NetFlix. Hey, why are we even letting our stuff on there, you know. Why not just do it ourselves? I get them until-- but it's just going to be the same thing all over again. And this vicious cycle will continue and it just sucks. Right? -It does suck. And the easier it gets, you really-- you just speed-- download speeds and that works. It's only gonna get faster and faster download that same file. -Yeah. I mean, you can download a part of blu-ray in less than an hour, I'm sure. -Right. I mean, look at what happen with music and look what happen with, you know, with books and other things and it's like, you know, the best-- it's an impossible path. -Yeah. -The best path is to, I think head it off and say-- provide reasons for people to be excited about the content and obviously, this is discouraging on the other side like discouragement you can do. -Uh-hmm. -But it's like after the fact stuff. You know, it's like-- -They're competing with free. -Yeah. -The thing that they will have in on is that-- if they made it easier, right? There's people-- it's been. I think it's been proven with people's, you know, the way they vote with their money, that if you give someone a super easy way to do things, all the iTunes which is so immature they're getting more complicated or Steam. People will pay. So that's the thing. It's crossing that hurdle. -I mean, you almost wonder like why not give it away for free? There's a side that-- -Right. -Like the Crackle side of the ad-driven stuff. There's a part where you say like maybe the destiny of this-- it's like most of Google software is free. -Right. -You know-- or almost all of it, you know. So, that maybe the road they have to go in. Just like, you know what, make certain back catalog content free. Understand that then drive people in, give them ads. It's the way television was built. -Yeah. -It's like, I think that's what has to happen and that's maybe why it's so difficult because everyone is looking at like, "Oh, we're gonna sell these movies again" and do all that. -Sure. -And it's like, nobody wants to do that. -What are we-- -And so, what you're gonna do? -What I [unk] I should do is. What I really love is amazon's order rip feature. Like if you buy a CD, they'll actually send you the-- -Right. -the mp3s. -Like they would with vinyl now too, right? -Yeah. It's a great feature. What term they should be doing is, like if you buy a movie ticket, you get to download that movie once it's available. I mean-- -It's not a $10 movie ticket anymore though, right? -No, it's $20 movie ticket. -Yeah. -But it would be kinda cool if at the moment of purchasing a movie, it's kind of like an advanced gamble. You're gonna even see the movie like one-time offer. You can buy-- -Or maybe on your-- or maybe on your way out. -me a digital download [unk]. Or your underwear would be nice. -Like, oh, you really like-- -But just get it. You know, they give you a little voucher and when-- and you just log in to Amazon or whichever. -Right. -And you get that movie. -You've got to be able to apply, in some way, apply your movie ticket towards the feature purchase of that thing. I just like that day has to come because the movie ticket prices going up. It's like-- you know, that I actually find these got 2 kids. So, I'd like totally left the building on going to movie theaters but I'm a digital rental person now. And so like, I'm not a $15 movie ticket person. I'm like a $6 movie rental person. -Right. -Or like maybe the incentive going to movie is like back at supplied to that thing. -There you go. -Someone's gonna steal that idea today. -Oh, I hate to doing this. -It's good. Just write down. -All right. The conversation will continue. Hit us up, 866-404-CNET, that's the phone number to call. You can e-mail us to 404@cnet.com. Big thanks to Ty Pendelbury. -Thank you very much. -New father-- congratulations on that, sir. -Thank you. -Excellent. And not as a new of a father-- Scott Stein who seems to be pushing the lenses off a [unk]. -[unk] now, this first class glass. -All right. Let us know how that goes after wood shop class. -Thank you. -I did wanna throw something at him for the whole show. -Yeah, you should have. -So many people have wanted to punch me-- have hated me for doing this. -You need to fix the skin. -Yeah. -It ain't an easy job. It's not as glamorous as Saturday Night Live and plus-- -I know. Just get it on camera. -That's good, seriously. That'll do it for us. We're back here tomorrow. Hopefully, Justin will be too if he's feeling better. We'll see. Back in tomorrow, I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Ty Pendelbury. -I'm Scott Stein. -I'm Ariel Nunez. -Thanks for tuning in to the 404 Show, high tech low [unk]. See you tomorrow.