Tangential Convergence

It's been a year since Putin started his illegal invasion of Ukraine.We here at TC are staunchly pro democracy and pro Ukraine.I wonder how people feel about this in Russia?We could ask Russian.  So we did.Daniil also told us the story of his leaving Russia in March of 22.Give to the Red Cross.Give to the UNHRC.mp3 download

It's Canadian National Day of Podcasting!It's also me and Ken.Hey, remember the occupation of Ottawa?  Remember the Emergencies Act?  Well  the EA requires a commission be struck to look into the use of the EA, and well, that was our jumping off point.We talked Ottawa, the October Crisis, the Conscription Crises, Jan 6 and democracies voting themselves out of existence.We also talked DS9 and Babylon 5.Enjoy episode 59

We're back.Well, Ken was for a bit, then there was a LIBRARY EMERGENCY!!Gee, what'll we talk about?  How about Putin's war of choice in Ukraine?Putin knows little of the operational. art.Deception is key.This got us thinking about a lot of things, Babylon 5, DS9, Operation Mincemeat, Romans, Barbarians, the Gulf War, General Patton etc.Oh right, it was a Russia episode, so Daniil joined us again, thanks man!Please give to the Red Cross or the UNHCR to help the people of Ukraine.mp3 download

It's been a heck of a few days.The Queen died.The Russians are rushin' away (sorry...)But a couple of weeks ago Mikhail Gorbachev died.Hey wait, now that's TC material. You know what else?  I KNOW AN ACTUAL RUSSIAN!!  His name is Daniil, and he escaped Putin's totalitarian nightmare with his family six months ago.  He now lives in Vancouver.  So why not get an actual Russian on here to talk about Goby?  OK, so we did.Give to the UNHCR.  Give to the Red Cross.mp3 download

It's another in our ongoing coverage of Putin's war in Ukraine.Lots of weapons are coming in.Lots of war crimes are happening.We talked a bit about the history of war crimes.How can you get someone to do something evil?I talked a little Asch Line Experiment.Ken has lots of books.These show notes are getting lame.We stand for democracy, we stand with Ukraine.mp3 download

This one is all about propaganda.Of course we've been both thinking about the topic ever since Russia invaded Ukraine.Does Putin actually believe his own propaganda?Are we swayed by propaganda (of course we are).I've. got a lot of problems with Noam Chomsky.Oh yeah, this one was recorded live and in person.mp3 download

Hey it's us!Gee, what's been in the news?  Maybe the Soviet Russian invasion of Ukraine?Is this a reboot of 1918 or 1938?  (With credit to @docpinko).  We think it's more like 1918.What is Russia's end game?  We don't know, what the hell do we know about anything?Will this lead to the end for Putin?  We can only hope.Putin has put his nukes on alert, it might be the only thing he has.The Russians are the Cardassians, not the Romulans.The book of Boba Fett makes an appearance, as does the Flu Trux Klan.mp3 download

We recorded this one at around 7pm EST.  Some polls are closed, some are open, some people are still in line.  I conducted a completely (scientifically) useless twitter poll.  Many of our US friends voted in advance.  Many of them didn't have lines.  That said, my twitter following probably skews kinda white.  Still, it was nice of people to respond.The lineups are a sign of a fragile democracy.  That said, a lot of people voted by mail. or in advance some other way.This got us talking about democratic norms, transfers of power and all that.  Everything from the Algiers Putsch to President Clark in Babylon 5.  Don't screw this up America.mp3 download

Originally Ken and I were going to hop on Skype and talk about reopening economies.Then, the murder of George Floyd happened.So, we couldn't not talk about that.  So we did.  Though, really, we agree that white people ought to be doing a lot more listening and a lot less talking right now.  We of course both agree that Black Lives Matter.This of course is all happening during the COVID-19 pandemic.So, is this 1968?  Canada is doing something like a UBI that people thought about a lot back then.  There are people in the streets who are (justifiably) angry.  There are even launches of spacecraft.Of course our usual smattering of Star Trek, The Expanse and other sci fi was in there as well.  No tech really this time.Stay safe, stay healthy, and, if you didn't hear us the first time BLACK LIVES MATTER. mp3 download

Actual t shirt that I'm wearing as I type thisWe're back, and better than ever.  Oh and there's a plague and we're all working from home.Also, Ken is now in entirely different city, so we're doing this over Skype for the first time.So of course we're talking COVID, we're talking bubonic plague and other stuff.  Other stuff being the 1918 Influenza epidemic for example, and AIDS in the 1980s.Babylon 5 is full of plagues.  Star Trek, every Star Trek series, is really chock full of plagues.Hey wait, that's not a bad title, chock full of plagues, I think I might use that.I don't think anyone is playing The Division currently.mp3 download

Live from MMPR 2019, it's Tangential Convergence!Yeah, so I'm typing this up on the Sunday before we all meetup for the goodbye breakfast of MMPR. It was good fun.It was Ken's first TC, and Tom's as well. We talked about the history of military parades, what with the oddness of the recent July 4 parade.The audio is ok, there was some music playing in the background, and it was a little loud.  Apparently also the audience couldn't hear us.....We hope you enjoy the episode. mp3 download

Hey look, it's us!Also, we streamed this one live.  Sorta cool right?  Of course we peaked at three listeners, still...Evil Bond villain Elon Musk launched a bunch of satellites.  It's pretty crazy.SpaceX is like the British East India Company, or the Company of a Hundred Associates.Elon Musk may be odd, but, he never ran the Congo or anything.Oh these satellites might change our night sky. mp3 download

OK, we're back after a long hiatus.Ken has merged with a new kidney, and he's doing much better thank you.We started out by talking about the SNC Lavalin affair here in Canada at the request of friend of the show, Tom Merritt.  We gave our impressions on the affair.This got us to talking about fake news, and the recent BuzzFeed News Article about how the olds share more fake news.Then we got to Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. mp3 download

Hey, we're back!If anything gets us back to talking it is overreach by a company with a bit of copyright!I'm using too many exclamation points!So, a guy who had bought a movie from Apple went to re download his purchase, and it turns out, he didn't really buy the movie.  He bought a license to download it, depending on its availability in the iTunes store.Plus, the EU is going all crazy again.....We talked Dr. Johnson, dystopias, the future of newspapers and the Peninsular Wars.Enjoy. mp3 download

Yup, we're back.  Don't worry, we just took a little break.So, today is Isabelle's birthday, so there's that.Our topic though, is not birthdays, but, the recent fine the European Union has slapped on Google.  The deal here is, that if you make an Android phone, and you want to use the google play store, you can't fork Android.  I mean, you CAN, but then you don't get the play store.  The EU doesn't like this much.This brought me in mind of the unequal treaties imposed on China, Japan and Korea (by Japan no less).Mercantilism, Autarky, and even the future!Oh yeah, the singularity is silly.mp3 download

Everyone sing along.  It's Tom Merritt's birthday.Today, or tonight really, we're tackling a topic we've spoken of before, cloud computing.  Yeah, that was back in episode 12, that file is long gone....Today at work there was a presentation about G Suite for education.  Hey the university gets google tools for free!  Also, no ads, and no data collected.  So that's cool, and that's why we're talking about this tonight.What's the deal on those things that Picard signs?  Is he accepting TOSs?  Hey, wait, in TOS Kirk was always signing things! We like the cloud stuff, and we're pretty excited about the whole thing coming to the university.  We also talked a bit about Luba Goy and Billy Van.Hey, Isabelle took pictures of us!mp3 download

Look, another episode!Look, another episode about copyrights!Look, the EU is being silly again!  Is it censorship?  I dunno.  I'm sure Ken will know much more about this than I, because of his librarianosity.What if you could make copies of people's consciousness?  Would you?  What about renting out someone's 'soul' to be used as, oh say, a university administrator.Oh, Ken's daughter graduated from grade 8, congrats to her.We hope you enjoy our ramblings. mp3 download

Do you have it?Can you feel it?Election fever has gripped Ontario!  OK, look, I'm not so sure I have election fever, it might just be some bad clams.  As I write this it looks like it'll be four years of bad clams.Oh for the first time we had voting machines!  The company that made them is Canadian and has no ties to Russia, that we know of....However, elections are a great podcast topic.  So, that's what we did.  Ancient Greece, Rome, the Polish monarchy, the Galactic Senate, me quitting as AU Senate speaker, the Federation, the Klingon High Council, all great stuff.  OK, when I quit as senate speaker it might not have been my finest hour. mp3 download

Another week, another episode of The Expanse, and, another TC.Oh remember, you heard it here first that the Expanse was going to be picked up by Amazon.Speaking of Amazon, this article on Engadget caught our eyes.  FAKES!  Apparently there's a lot of stuff on Amazon that is fake.  I remember eBay dealing with that a lot when I was a seller back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I promised my Russian friend Dan that I'd mention him, and The Warlock in Spite of Himself series.  I have now fulfilled my contractual obligation.I bet we talk about Altered Carbon.  It's just a guess, but I bet we do.Visit Elne France, those poor people.The theme is too loud this week, sorry about that.... mp3 download

I just announced on twitter that I'm currently writing this post, so I guess I ought to get to it.So, how about that Trump/Kim summit?  Yeah, no, that's not happening.  I don't know about you, but it strikes me that this was Kim's plan all along.  Try for ridiculous concessions (US troops out of South Korea) then when that doesn't happen, embarrass Trump!  Who knew a reality TV star could get pwned by a guy who, while evil, has been training for this role his whole life?This lead us into some fine discussions about summits in general.  Klingons and the Federation for example.  Oh you've got your 'peace in our time' summit too, that one worked out well.  Of course, B5 came up.Also, North Korea, it's got a vaguely 1984 feeling.  By vaguely, I mean EXACTLY LIKE 1984. mp3 download

Hey we've hit 40!  Now the podcast will buy a Corvette and think about a career change or something.  At this rate we'll hit 100 before the next Olympics!Ken and I got into it tonight about the recent tests (that failed in Quebec, and maybe got a C- in Ontario) of the Alert Ready system.  As a very rough rule, it seems that people on Rogers and Shaw or MVNOs of theirs got the alerts whereas people on Bell and Telus did not.  (It isn't quite that simple, but hey, who reads these things anyway?)  Now, it must be said that later in the week, maybe Monday of this week, there was an Amber Alert sent out via Alert Ready and it worked.aThis led us (I think, look, I'm writing this before Ken comes over, hell, maybe we won't record tonight, or maybe he won't even come over, you just never know, it is a crap shoot really, but I like to live on the edge) to talk about warning for things like Pearl Harbour, and apocraphyl stories about 9/11 and Coventry.Really, warning signals are a big thing, we talked the DEW line, The Battle of Britain and eventually got to my dentist.Enjoy! mp3 download

Follow us again dear listener as we converge tangentially.Well, we're going to watch last night's Expanse, and before it, who knows, we might record a thing! First off I'd like to thank both @acedtect and @alkebob for posting a picture of the two of them from Vegas where there was a meet up.  Great pic, which they entitled 'two thirds of the Tangential Convergence audience'.So, Tesla has an idea for an electric transport truck.  Cool.  Then Nicola Motors (yeah we get it) has decided to sue Tesla for two billion dollars.  Seems legit.  This seems to me to be as sensible as, oh, say TWIT suing Twitter.  (That's happening by the way).  Damn, I should be careful, maybe I'll get sued for mentioning all of this stuff.This got us all into lots of stuff, look, I'm a shitty writer and that's what I've got.  I'm a shitty writer, but, the library at the university has to pay for y shitty writing.....Oh yeah, two things, I forgot to use Tom Merritt's excellent line about how Edison Motors should sue Tesla, and, Go Hounds Go! mp3 download

As I do with Broken Area, I'm writing these show notes before we actually do a show.  Who knows if we are tonight.  That said, I do know that Baron von Hernden is coming over tonight to watch the Expanse.  I honestly have no idea why I just called him Baron von Hernden.  He's really more of a Lord.  The Lord of the Library.So, money, cash specifically.  Are we heading towards a cashless society?  This article from CNet makes the case.  Canada is the most cashless country out there according to this report.  We beat our Sweden, the USA and Russia on that list.  So it is sort of like hockey.  Well I mean we beat out everyone, but Sweden was second, so I guess that's where this hockey angle is coming from.Star Trek, B5, The Expanse, what's the deal on their money?  We don't get how it works in Star Trek. Nobody does. Enjoy

As I do over at Broken Area, I'm typing this before even recording.  Hell, I'm not even sure we're recording tonight.  Anyway, it is another Thursday, another Expanse night, and another week of work.Hey!  We did record, we talked about the twitter shitstorm after Barbara Bush's death.This lead to a discussion of tenure, of yellow journalism, of social media, of Star Trek, of Babylon 5 and post scarcity economies.mp3 download

Welcome to our Expanse pre show.Well not really, but we will be watching last night's premiere after talking about Cambridge Analytica!  I don't know why that exclamation point is there.  Maybe they could use data mining to tell me.  Oh, as an aside, some yim yam friend of mine used 'This is Your Digital Life' and some of my info was shared with these weenies as you can see from the accompanying screenshot.I'm typing most of this out before Ken even comes over, but I just thought I'd drop in that I got back from MAGA land last week.  Reports are true, it's great again.....We talked propaganda, we talked Operation Mincemeat, we even talked a bit of Star Trek The Animated Series.Enjoy. mp3 download

Yup, two times in a one week span. Tonight, before Altered Carbon we talked a bit about the story of how Alexa is maniacally laughing at users.  As an aside, they've got a fix out.  As an aside aside, the New York Times talked about the whole thing, 21 years ago.This got us in to talking about AI, Siri, Hal, and even Kay Summersby.FDR, Steve Jobs, Harry Hopkins et al also came up.What would you do if your digital assistant actually had a real personality?(n.b. there's a weird audio artefact in this recording, sounds like RF interference of some sort, will investigate) mp3 download

HOLY SHIT WE'RE RECORDING.You know, Ken has been coming over to my place every Thursday for a few years now, we talk a lot then we watch a show.  Man in the High Castle, the Expanse, Manhattan, and now, Altered Carbon.  The thing is before every show we talk about politics and technology and history.  Sound familiar?So, we recorded tonight.It was inspired by Putin's lovely speech today where he decided to show a cool video of Florida being nuked.This got us into the Korean War, Trump, anarchists, false flag operations and of course that led into the mirror universe and our impressions of ST:Disco (A Disco. Control. Panel.)We ended talking a bit about a strange thing that happened on wikipedia a few years back.  This reminded Ken of a thing archivists do.  Who knew?  Now you do.We hope you like episode 34

We're back!You demanded it (I mean like one guy) and we made it happen.  Yup, we decided to do an episode about the recent Canadian election.We talked about why the election turned out the way it did, when it turned out the way it did, and of course how it relates to the election of Clement Atlee.Oh, Robin's book is out!  Do you want to review it, he'll send you  a free one.  Just contact him on twitter or Facebook.We know we say this all of the time, but we really are going to do more of these, we promise. mp3 download

No, really, we're back. Tonight we decided to talk bitcoin, Bitcoins, Quatloos, beanie babies, tulip bulbs and such. We also talked some about the crisis in the Crimea. I promised to mention Robin's blog, you should read it. You can follow Ken on twitter and me too.Listen here, and enjoy.

OK, I know we had a good title in there, but I forgot it and frankly, I don't feel like going through the whole thing to find it.... Four years ago we three got together (for the first time) on episode 8 to talk politics and technology. We also, happily, had a visit from the ever popular Isabelle. We talked about the influence of social media and tech on elections and campaigns, and the current problems in the mid East that seem to have been brought on by a mix of a hateful 'movie' and a bunch of twits who don't understand that in the West the government does not really own the media..... For a bit of historical perspective, Robin suggested you check out an article in the New Yorker. In the end we all predict an Obama victory. Let's see if we are right.... We hope you enjoy episode 30.

Well, the US election has come and gone, and I for one will miss it. I won't miss the partisan attack ads, I won't miss the superPAC ads, but, I will miss reading fiverthirtyeight.com every day. In episode 31 we tackle the US election, the future of US elections and the unwillingness of some (we're looking at you pundits, and you FOX news) to accept reality. We don't mean on political opinions. We mean you know, like how polls can be accurate and Nate Silver can figure out results, or say climate change, or evolution, well, you get the idea. We bring in some history of course (Dewey Defeats Truman!) as well as our usual dash of science fiction. We hope you enjoy episode 31

Yes, really, we all still exist. Seriously. So much has happened since we got together a little over a year ago. Several countries have new leaders, and Steve Jobs, on of the icons of tech, died. What do these things have in common? Leadership. So yeah, that was our topic. Robin is writing a book on leadership, so he told us about his ideas, they include the notion that leadership is different from managerial ability, and a lot of what we think of as leadership is just being a good manager. We talked Steve Jobs, Jim Kirk, Jean Luc Picard, and of course Gordon Ramsay... We hope you enjoy episode 29.

Oddly, this episode had nothing to do with Jesus or the Flash, but, you will get the reference once you listen in.In fact, we got together for the first backyardcast of the season and talked about Google +. We love the 'circles' idea and figure this might be the thing that puts G+ over the top vs. facebook. We are also all pretty sure both are evil....Politically this reminded us of the quick rise of parties such as Labour in the UK or the Bloc Quebecois here in Canada. The question is, is G+ the next Labour Party or the next Bull Moose Party?Sci Fi wise the idea that some are plugged in and others not, the whole digital divide thing, is a real concern, This can be seen in films like the Matrix and in an episode I remembered of Sliders...Oh yeah Robin and I have blogs, Ken does not, yet.... We hope you like episode 28.

We three sat down to enjoy a lovely beverage, and discuss the playstation outage, the end of term and the exciting recent Canadian election. Robin blames China, Ken blames the Russian mafia, and, I kept silent on this, so don't bug me... Robin has been burnt by the cloud, but will not give any details. Amazon went down too, which is, frankly most of the cloud. When it went down the whole damned cloud, or much of it, went down. The problem is that there are many services, but they often rely on Amazon.We then rambled about the Canadian election that just happened. It surprised us, and some odd candidates got elected, but we wish them luck (though that did not stop us from mocking them....)If anyone has a blog post idea for Robin, email him, and you can get a free Algoma University hoodie! Oh and Robin is now on twitter, run for your lives...Enjoy episode 27.