Capacity Cast

In this episode Scott asks for feedback about the podcast as well as giving the abridged version of our podcast journey thus far. If you want us to continue, let us know through the main site, email, facebook, or twitter. Thanks for listening!

In this episode I talk with guest host Chris Warkocki all about Nintendo. Wii were both Nintendo kids growing up... starting with the NES and then moving on to the SNES. I ended my serious console time for the most part after the SNES, but Chris went on with the N64 being his most loved system. He also had a Gamecube and Wii, but didn't get a Wii U. We talk about many Nintendo fans that went into hiatus until the Switch showed up. The portable nature of the Switch brought him back into the Nintendo console ecosystem. Through each system we discuss, we bring up a handful of memorable titles. There is a lot of Nintendo retro nostalgia going on! Chris Warkocki's photography website: http://www.simplyphotostudio.com/  

In this episode Scott talks with guest host Chris Warkocki about 3D printing in a lot more detail than we have in past episodes. He as been intensely tinkering with 3D printing and currently has 4 printers. We talk about prusa machines such as the original, i3 MK2S, and I3MK3. The biggest advancement these days comes in the form of reliability. The I3MK3, for example, has a magnetic flexible steel bed, 256 micro-stepping Trinamic drivers, and the ability to sense if filament is almost out. Technology is advancing rapidly thanks to the global reprap community of tinkers that share knowledge. Chris has been printing figures and terrain for D&D campaigns as well as various other printing projects. He does a lot of modding and adjustment to his printers to get the best quality possible such as using modified Ikea Lack coffee tables as 3d printer housings. This episode is a 3D printing extravaganza of information! A picture of the 3D printers mentioned: http://traffic.libsyn.com/capacitycast/chris-3d-printers.jpg Chris Warkocki's photography website: http://www.simplyphotostudio.com/ Peter Goral's killer Bootlegs: http://www.killerbootlegs.com/ http://killerbootlegs.storenvy.com/ Drew Murray and Stephen Davies making children's prosthetics: http://www.teamunlimbited.org/ https://www.facebook.com/teamunlimbited Mentions: https://www.prusa3d.com/ http://reprap.org https://www.heroforge.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMakersMuse

We discuss our experiences with the Amazon Associates affiliate marketing program as residents of Illinois. Back in 2010, Illinois lawmakers decided that they wanted a piece of the affiliate pie, but all they ended up doing was to destroy almost every business in our area supported by the program. Companies like Fatwallet moved to Wisconsin to save their business. Two years later the Illinois supreme court removed the related laws, which allowed websites that offer similar programs to begin offering it again. Scott recently re-signed up to be an affiliate, which has started well.

Are you someone that loves gaming, but doesn't actually do any gaming? We are more and more these days... The desire is there but we just can't do it. Responsibilities, priorities, general lack of time, cost, lack of totally new genres, and making content instead of consuming it are just the tip of the iceberg. The reasons stack up to the point that there just isn't any room. Is it the end of our gaming lives, or will we be able to return?

What are the benefits and drawbacks to caffeine? We go over our personal experiences in the land of this brain altering substance. Are there ways to deal with the morning grogginess? We discuss a few ways we deal with it, both with and without caffeine. Does business truly run on caffeine? What would happen if it didn't exist?

Why is a similar house 75 miles away four times the price? We discuss the difference in cost of living between areas in the United States. For example a similar house in Rockford Illinois prices $150,000 would probably be around $450,000 in Niles Illinois. Even worse is in silicon valley where that house might be near a million dollars. What are some of the causes of these extreme differences, and what can you do to get ahead, if even just in little steps?

Where will table top gaming go from a technological standpoint? We discuss some of the current technologies such as 3d printing of miniatures or even terrain. The advent of gaming tables with large screens. Augmenting games with RFID and NFC data transmission tools that allow a vibrant mixture of the physical and digital realms. There are also apps and websites like Tabletop simulator and Roll 20 that help players join up for a similar experience online when they can't meet up in person. Technology has also helped quite a bit with sites such as meetup.com that join together people of similar interests that would have likely never met up and played a campaign of D&D together otherwise. Maybe in the future, deep learning and other artificial intelligence based systems will help us enjoy rounds of tabletop games without the immersion killing aspects we currently fight with. What would be your ideal gaming room?

We talk about how Scott re-branded his cosplay photography by extracting it from the technique focused "Photography Banzai" brand to "Cosplay Banzai" instead. The "white noise" of different genres of photography together along with that technical focus of the "Photography Banzai" name was a huge hindrance to connecting with people who enjoy cosplay photography. Not mentioned in this episode were semi-personal Instagram and twitter accounts with mostly cellphone food photos and tiny handful of cosplay photos, not a good combination to gain visibility, Haha! There was also a change in editing style of private photoshoots to focus on artistic quality instead of quantity. Time is limited, and fully separating the cosplay photos into their own social media box was a good thing from almost every aspect. The negative is that some photos might never see the light of day, but anything that does get out will receive more care and probably also receive more positive feedback. Moving forward, most if not all photos will go through that public "Cosplay Banzai" social media instead of any past method such as giving cosplayers a ton of half-edited photos privately (while still spending days editing). With websites such as Facebook almost completely killing natural organic reach, it is necessary to look out into other options for added visibility of your works. All of the changes appear to be working well, and it is more fun too! Simply put, pull that art out of the white noise and into its own social media universe!

In this episode we talk about various artificial sweeteners such as maltitol, splenda sucralose, stevia and aspartame. It all came about when we were ready to start recording and I noticed Michael's brightly colored Powerade Zero on the table. It's challenging to avoid them, especially for diabetics such as Michael that rely on alternatives to sucrose and fructose. Are they safe or unsafe? There are a multitude of conflicting studies on the most well known ones such as aspartame. Other newer sweeteners are less studied, but still have data out there to look at. Maybe moderation is key, but being completely artificial sweetener free is also a solid goal.

We discuss the ideas of cybernetic enhancements from current day devices to speculation on how humanity might turn into a cyborg society. We also mention various uses of cybernetics in pop culture such as the classic Robocop movie, Ghost in the Shell, and others. Would you want to be enhanced by technology even though you didn't need the upgrade due to an accident, birth defect or illness? Questions like that and more are raised in this discussion!

Are camera companies slacking? Do they lack innovation? Are they slow on the uptake with advancements in transmission standards like WIFI? Is the new Nikon D850 the perfect camera? Was the Nikon D7500 a failure due to artificial market segmentation? There are a lot of questions that we discuss in this episode. This episode was recorded on 09/28/2017. Article mentioned in the video: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15345455 http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/dumb-things-the-camera.html As it turns out, we agree with a lot of what the dslrbodies.com author said, but the delivery is what is off-putting to us. Sure, camera companies do miss the mark (the Nikon D7500 for example with its single card slot), but they are always improving with that kaizen approach. The D850 is proof that camera manufacturers can innovate and not hold back technology when they want to. Let's hope camera manufacturers start finding alternatives to artificial market segmentation. Here is an example of a "video pan head" that would require a simple hole in the camera forward of the tripod screw to work: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Video_Pan_Head.JPG It basically has a spring loaded pin forward of the tripod screw to keep the attached device aligned. I'm not sure why this isn't a thing in DSLRs.

If you don't already make backups of your data... you should start now! Unless you really don't care about the data, you might find out after it is gone that you needed it or really wanted it. It's easy to start such as simply buying an external drive or using online backup solutions. We discuss what backup plans we have used in the past and use currently. We also go over a number of options of various price ranges to get started. Various styles of backup are talked about such as RAID arrays, simple external disk drives, and online backup solutions.

Did Fatwallet ever stand a chance after being sold to Ebates? Did they have a chance if they had not been sold? It's all debatable. After Fatwallet Cash Back ended in 2016, did you join the "ebaters" club? We talk all about the shuttering of this community based web 1.0 startup! It's a loss for us because it's one of few local Internet based startups to the Rockford Illinois metro area. Or at least it was until Illinois decided to institute affiliate tax laws that would have ended the company right then and there. Join us for the discussion! This is our first podcast with a companion videocast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4la9NkT1Z8 It has a lot less editing, so if you enjoy something a bit edgier, this will be your thing! The phat wallet community site mentioned: https://phatwalletforums.com/ For the record, Fatwallet cash back ended on May 10th 2016.

We discuss some of the next viable frontiers for humans in the Solar System. Although the cold war space race is long over, we have transitioned into an age of private companies pushing forward to achieve what was once accomplished as well into new accomplishments. Some of the companies are SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, and Stratolaunch Systems. There is progress being made in practical inflatable space structures, reusable rockets, space tourism, and a multitude of other areas. It's hard to say if this will be the golden age of humanity in space, but there are hints that we just might reach the moon again as well as Mars in the foreseeable future. Ideas range from simply traveling to constructing bases on the Moon and Mars, or even deep space. We hope that things progress quickly, but the lack of focus from Governments cause continuous stumbling blocks to our necessary expansion into outer space. China plans to land humans on the moon: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/07/china-prepares-moon-landing/ Bigelow Aerospace: http://bigelowaerospace.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Expandable_Activity_Module https://www.nasa.gov/content/bigelow-expandable-activity-module Moon as a jumping off point: http://theconversation.com/mining-the-moon-for-rocket-fuel-to-get-us-to-mars-76123 https://www.space.com/14518-nasa-moon-deep-space-station-astronauts.html Paul Allen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratolaunch_Systems Blue Origin Jeff Bezos: https://www.blueorigin.com/ Let us know your thoughts on the subject! I know we missed a lot of current projects happening. Let us know of ones you are tracking so we can add them to a future episode.

We talk about a comical Dungeons and Dragons related posting on the Workplace StackExchange.com website. The gist is that a new employee finds D&D colleagues and subsequently dispatches them in-game while they shun him in real life. Don't be that chaotic evil dude! A new employee met people with similar interests after 4 months and started playing D&D with them. At the first session of an ongoing game, the original poster decided to kill off his party after they were severely hurt in a team battle against monsters. After the session, this person is completely shunned in real life by the entire D&D group. Commenters attempt to help the poster understand what a bad idea it was to do that and suggested that he apologize among other things. We discuss this goofy story and provide some our own D&D experiences to the conversation. The Workplace Stack Exchange posting: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/84746/ive-killed-my-colleagues-characters-during-rpg-session-now-they-wont-talk-to

We discuss the various new products mentioned recently such as the series 3 watch, the 4k Apple tv, and the two tiers of new phones (8 and X). A cellular connection on the watch is an expected, but useful jump. The Apple TV also saw what looks like an incremental improvement in performance, which might signal Apple's intent for enhanced gaming with their device to go along with the cheaper 4K videos they have pushed publishers to now provide (like what they did with music in iTunes). This time they skipped the "S" version of their 7 phone and went to version 8 (plus) instead. The more surprising offering is iPhone X which has a corner to corner OLED screen with enhanced sensors (black cut-out on the top of the camera). There is a lot to talk about here! Join us for the conversation in this current news special episode. The Gaming Historian's video mentioned: "Before Apple: Steve Jobs at Atari | Gaming Historian" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5IaCTJdVuM

It's story time! We talk in this special episode about our mutual entrepreneurship attempts. Expect some crazy situations full of laughs, intrigue, shocking twists, and even a big mystery that still feels unsolved. We discuss two large startups we attempted along with a third that didn't get very far at all. What did we learn along the way? Well... a lot, but you will have to join us to find out! Expect us to touch on odd topics such as virtual slot machines, geographic information systems, and even root beer. Let's start a knowledge process to synergize our mutual goals moving forward by enjoying this podcast episode, certainly a win-win situation for all in the formation of best practices!

Digital Assistants... what are they, what are the benefits, what are the drawbacks, and where are they going? The big elephant in the room is privacy, which we talk in detail about. The issue includes the case where Samsung TVs were recording audio even when the feature was disabled. We also discuss positives such as hands free driving directions, automatic AI infused assistance with Google Now, and being able to easily manage music vocally with the Amazon Echo. We talk about future expectations for digital assistants and if they will replace other forms of interfacing with electronic devices such as the keyboard.

Will desktop computers survive as they are? With the advent of tablets and powerful smartphones, the classic desktop computer has seen losses in sales for many years now. Laptops have continued to scale in performance while also slimming down, especially with the recent Nvidia GTX 1000 series GPUs (1080, 1070, 1060). Our preference is that desktops survive and thrive, but there are many challenges moving forward. We go into detail about reasons that they will stick around, but also reasons they could be replaced. The basic idea is that advanced users will probably always want levels of performance that requires a large desktop sized footprint, but things could change. Join us for the discussion!

We talk about outer space based science fiction shows produced in Canada, along with a few others that are not so spacey but still in the realm of science fiction. A large amount of time is spent talking about one called Dark Matter that just finished their third season on Syfy channel (also on Netflix). They are up for renewal, so we wanted to get the word out to tweet with the hashtag #RenewDarkMatter to help the cause. Edit 10/30/2017: Dark Matter was canceled and the social media campaign was unsuccessful. "All good things" as they say... Science fiction shows produced in Canada (Wikipedia) Other shows mentioned are Sliders (1995), Space Cases (1996), Earth: Final Conflict (1997), Lexx (1997), Stargate SG-1 (1997), Andromeda (2000), Battlestar Galactica (2004), Stargate Atlantis (2004), Orphan Black (2013), Killjoys (2015), The Expanse (2015)... who knew all these great shows were produced in Canada? There was a lot to talk about with only a little bit of time. We might go into more Canadian produced science fiction in the future. Did we miss one of your favorites or have something to add to our talk? Let us know in the comments!

Are we in a virtual world... oh wait, no, where is virtual reality now and where is it going in the future? We talk about our personal experiences with current VR technologies such as trying the HTC Vive at a restaurant trade show, the first Playstation VR games, the cheap and easy to use Google Cardboard, and others. We discuss if think VR will expand to become a household product just as consoles did in the 1990s, or if it will be more of a communal service like laser tag. The chance for fully immersive VR not reaching homes is mostly due to the need for large open spaces needed for natural locomotion, not the current hardware cost that we expect to go down. Games are a large use case, but they are not the sole draw for VR. Content creation and immersive natural user interfaces have large potential in VR moving forward.

We discuss the idea that "millennials" are the reason that various businesses and industries are dying out. This includes diamonds, various restaurants including "Breastaurants", napkins, bar soap, cereal, golf, home ownership, home improvement stores, motorcycles, yogurt, designer bags, fabric softener, and banks to name a few. It's hard to tell exactly what age range "millennials" refers to exactly, but 1980 - 2004 and 1976 to 1994 are two of the more popular ranges, though the common idea is that 1980 is the usual starting point. We discuss ideas such as school debt and the length of "baby boomer" careers as potential factors to the supposed situation. Based on the dying industries, we are thinking that this group has started to take saving money, efficiency, and support of responsible manufacturing/sourcing of goods seriously. Maybe these people accusing millennials of intentionally damaging businesses/industries are off base because it is for the better? These types of shifts away from extravagance are a reflection of the recent global downturns. This talk is short, but packed with ideas about this goofy and crazy topic!Here is the Business Week article we refer to in this episode: http://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list-2017-8 Here is the meme site we refer to: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/millennials-are-killing

We discuss the positives and negatives of native and cross-platform software development tools. Our experience spans native Apple iOS development as well as native Android programming (Eclipse IDE & Android Studio). Along with some cross-platform development in the form of React Native and Phone Gap. The challenge with cross-platform is that it never seems to be fully mature, but the problem is partly due to native tools constantly changing. Will cross-platform take over, and should it?

In this episode we talk about humanity's desire to continuously automate work for better or worse. It's happened throughout human history from farming to the creation of robot supported manufacturing lines. We talk about software automation and what future it will have soon in industries such as trucking and the passenger car market. Even industries such as law and computer programming are prime for deep learning AI assisted automation in the not too distant future. Will recent advancements in the flexibility of software based automation have never-before-seen repercussions for society and the concept of jobs? It's possible that the concept of guaranteed income will be something explored in the future due to the expected speed of progress to automate.

In this episode we discuss a handful of technology sites we currently use to stay up to date on tech such as ArsTechnica, TechSpecs, HardOCP, Hacker News, and others. We also talk about how to stay current as conveniently and easily as possible. Even though RSS readers became unpopular years ago, there are a few options that still exist. What technology related websites do you read? Let us know in the comments section of this episode on capacitycast.com!

In this episode we talk about the constant failures of retail stores, and why we think they keep going out of business. We talk about what value local retail stores have over online, but are those positives enough to keep that brick and mortar store around? Online has started to lose a little bit of appeal, but still has many advantages that local stores have a tough time dealing with. Getting what you want right now is appealing, but often local stores have limited or unappealing inventory partly due to the shift to online stores (eg. programming books available locally in 2005 vs 2017 is a huge difference in our area). We joke about "revenge that costs you less" as a response to poor local store policies. It's sadly par for the course, though some local stores have decent membership options to offset some of the price issues or have smooth online-to-store systems.