Deep Space and Dragons

Episode 72: Nostalgia, Karl's Tech Troubles, and Richard Pondering Life's Path

• Richard • Season 2 • Episode 72

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Ever attempted to create a drinking game from a childhood cartoon? Buckle up as we reminisce about "Jackie Chan Adventures" and much more. Imagine the nostalgia hitting you square in the face as I, Karl, recount my epic saga against the dreaded bloatware beast – a tale as timeless as any Gundam showdown. From tech troubles to the absurdity of Windows 11 setup, our latest episode is a rollercoaster through the highs and lows of our digital lives, complete with a side-eye to the simplicity of yesterday's tech. It's a laugh-out-loud journey with a hint of exasperation that'll have you nodding in solidarity.

Passwords, phishing, and the paradox of career choices – we've got it all covered. As I spill the beans on password leak pandemonium and the fortress of two-factor authentication, we'll also ponder the paths less travelled, from the kitchen's heat to the hallowed halls of law school. Is there more to life than meets the eye? We'll muse over fate and ambition, all while dissecting the ever-evolving enigma that is personal cybersecurity. And if you've ever considered a career pivot, join us as we explore the what-ifs and maybes that could redefine your professional journey.

Finally, let's talk about the real value of technology and the stories that stick with us. We dissect the digital delights and limitations of the Nintendo Switch, comparing the storage woes of yesteryear to the terabyte terrors of today. Take a seat as we discuss the narrative nuances of "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" and what makes a game truly priceless. And as we wrap up, we'll leave you with a chuckle and a healthy reminder: No matter the cursed pottery life throws your way, always make room for self-actualization... and maybe a vegetable or two.

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Richard:

and deep space.

Karl:

I am Karl and dragons Like not even just one dragon. I'm like an amalgamation of dragons.

Richard:

I mean to be fair, like industrial numbers of Shendus would be excellent.

Karl:

Ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha. Good old Shendu.

Richard:

I mean tragically, jackie Chan Adventures is not this week's episode, but please comment with more Jackie Chan Adventures and we will absolutely do another episode on that.

Karl:

I do love Jackie Chan Adventures, although the most recent time I've watched it was that it made it a drinking game where every time Uncle says one more thing, every time Jackie says Jade, any time anybody says Jackie.

Richard:

For the record record. One more thing is such a good line for that, though, because, yeah, you drink one more weirdly. That like makes sense, like the logistics. I can get behind on that. But before we go into hypothetical drinking games, what's new with the world of Karl? And then our audience has probably invented their hypothetical drinking games. What's new with the world of Karl? And then our audience has probably invented their own drinking games.

Karl:

Like whenever we mentioned the tattoos, take a shot hopefully, our audience has invented their own drinking games, that's how I get through our show okay, okay. So what's new with me? I'm gonna have to take you on two quick flashbacks so are we on two quick flashbacks?

Richard:

So are we talking a quick flashback, like last time on X-Men, which is actually a quick flashback? Are we talking that we need to go through Naruto's life story, including Jiraiya dying, and then the nestled flashback of Kid Naruto sharing an ice cream cone? Then nestle that flashback into an episode of Boruto to an episode of Boruto.

Karl:

Well, I mean, I'm hoping they'll be quick because you know, like you said, we unfortunately have limited bandwidth for how long our episodes can be and consistently be posted, so we got to rein it in again.

Richard:

Don't give them the game. The moment they realize that our episodes aren't deliberately like that they might expect, something Like now they can have an opinion whether our episodes should be shorter or longer when before we just episode it at them at random. Don't let them have choices. Okay, okay, okay. We have an infinite budget so they're aware, but please support us Continue.

Karl:

Okay. So flashback number one I needed a desktop computer. This is probably close to a decade ago. I needed a desktop computer and is probably close to a decade ago. I needed a desktop computer and I didn't want to wait for shipping and I didn't want to go through the hassle of building my own computer. Plus, my budget was too low, like if you're buying a computer for less than $1,000,. A store-bought computer will be cheaper and more effective.

Richard:

Disclaimer we are not. Tech pros will be cheaper and more effective.

Karl:

Disclaimer we are not tech pros. Well, I mean that's PC enthusiasts would say, build your own computer. And I'd say, yeah, but that's really only worthwhile if you're willing to drop like $1,000 or more. If you're under $1,000, a pre-built computer will just get you more bang for your buck.

Richard:

Oh, can I give a little segue quickly?

Karl:

Mm-hmm.

Richard:

Also, if you ask me to fix your computer and you're using a Mac, please, please, ask what kind of computer someone has before you ask them if they can fix your computer. Just a public service announcement If you have an Apple, find a hipster in a coffee shop somewhere. If you have a real computer, I'll be willing to help you.

Karl:

Anyways.

Karl:

So I go to best buy and I buy a 600 computer I got entered in a draw to win a 500 best buy gift card today, but please continue but so I buy my computer, I bring it home, I boot it up and there's a whole bunch of bloatware. This is like all sorts of programs on there. I do not want this. So I uninstall them all and then I get an error screen that suggests that my hard drive is failing. I'm like, well, that's not possible. I literally just bought this. So I do a system restore. You know what System restore brings back all of the bloatware that I just deleted.

Richard:

Does this end with a knife through a computer?

Karl:

No, I go through, I delete it all again and I get the same error message. It's like okay, well, that's stupid. So I go back to Best Buy. I'm like, hey, this is what happened with my computer. Can you guys get rid of this bloatware?

Richard:

for me. So just for the sake of eternal consistency, and what shade of sepia tone? When did this happen again, like 10 years ago? Oh, yeah, probably. Okay, please continue.

Karl:

Anyways, I go to my spy. I'm like, hey, I don't want all this bloatware. But when I uninstalled it, it gives me this error that my hard drive is failing and I don't think it is. Can you guys help me? And they, and it gives me this error that my hard drive is failing and I don't think it is. Can you guys help me? And they're like, yeah, we would just do a factory reset and that bloatware would just be back again. And I was like, oh, all, right, so I've got to figure out my own solution. And so then I found the media creation tool from Windows, which you install onto a USB drive and then you basically reinstall Windows from the USB drive and that'll clean, wipe everything. And once you know it, that computer continued to work for probably eight or nine years until I accidentally knocked it over with my shin, which really hurt my shin and apparently killed the computer.

Richard:

Ironically, the exact fate of Shin from Gundam Sea Destiny Please continue.

Karl:

But so, given that bloatware seems to have some sort of code to make it seem like you need that bloatware for your computer to function, when you clearly don't Pause, Let function when you clearly don't, because let's call it what it is.

Richard:

Let's call it what it is. It is cursed. They have hexed it. Please continue anyway.

Karl:

so when this curseware, um obviously is not essential for the computer, despite them trying to make it seem like I actually do need it Whenever I get a new computer, my first instinct is to go onto the Microsoft website, download the media creation tool and then just do a clean install of Windows to make sure that there's no residual bloatware from the factory.

Richard:

AA, aka a modern day exorcism.

Karl:

All right, all right, so that was flashback number one.

Richard:

Okay, so far, so good.

Karl:

Did not give me any extra chakra reserves, but fair, okay. Flashback number two as I'm sure our viewers are aware, I work at a pizzeria and I have worked at this pizzeria Probably, I think.

Richard:

I got the computer. Oh, you just broke our immersion.

Karl:

I think I got the computer after I started working at the pizza place.

Richard:

They're listeners, not viewers. We're a radio show.

Karl:

Oh yeah, well, I mean, some people view us on YouTube, presumably, maybe in the background, I don't know.

Richard:

I have a little monologue about Xbox that has to do with that, but please continue.

Karl:

Anyways. So I work at a pizzeria. I've worked there for a long time and my uncle he was driving through town for whatever reason, was driving through town for whatever reason and he made a point of stopping by my house to take me out for breakfast and tell me to get a better job.

Richard:

I remember this, I remember this conversation. Oh, wow, yeah.

Karl:

It resulted in me going back to school. That's pretty funny for me. Um I, uh. I found it very condescending, uh, but I did think that you know it came from a place of concern, uh, that I was spending my youth working for a pizza store, with no, uh, foreseeable long-term gain.

Richard:

Oh man, can I stop and give you a motivational monologue, the kind of monologue I'd give off-stream. So the other day, me and my brother are hanging around and, like we normally do, we are making fun of Karl. We just do that casually when you're off-screen.

Karl:

I mean Panda does sometimes make fun of you.

Richard:

Correct. So we're chatting and it's like you know I'm like I wouldn't lose to Karl's Like Karl's winning. Right now he's on his way to visit you. If it was the other way around, you'd be winning. So, quite frankly, like to like give a little context here. You chose the pizzeria route. I don't think anyone's paying for me to go to hotels. Or do I have an electronics expense for me to go to hotels? Or do I have an electronics expense? Like I don't know? This route seems to be panning out pretty good. You're objectively beating me at life at the moment. I'm going to have to go be a lawyer to counterspell you.

Karl:

Well, that was the point of flashback. Number two was to bring it back around to modern day, where I was on a work trip recently. If you want to find out when, just go back and watch our previous episodes Smooth.

Richard:

Six out of ten Great segue.

Karl:

But while I was on my work trip, I had broken my personal laptop, which is what I was normally using for these work trips.

Richard:

That's the flower grinder right the flower grinder.

Karl:

Yeah, it was noisy. So I asked the franchise development guy. He's like hey, do you think I might be able to expense a laptop? He's like okay, ask the owner of the franchise as a whole. So I asked him. He's like okay, ask the other owner. So I asked the other owner. He's like okay, ask the owner of the franchise as a whole. So I asked him. He's like okay, ask the other owner. So I asked the other owner. He's like well, how much? I'm like, well, the one I'm looking at is about $300. He's like oh, that sounds pretty cheap. Are you sure you don't want a more expensive one? I was like no, no, no, no, I don't need a more expensive one, because case scenario is emails, word processing and occasionally light image editing. And so I bought this cheap laptop and, uh, I take it back to the hotel and I boot it up for the first time and it's like okay, let's get you connected to wi-fi and every other operating system I've used thus far. You can skip that step.

Karl:

Windows 11 has decided that you can't skip that step. I don't know if it's like a verification thing, like the old school genuine Windows, where if you didn't activate your Windows with a certain time period. It would turn your background to black and stop certain functions from working. I don't know, but probably some sort of authentication thing. But I was at a hotel and I needed to connect to Wi-Fi, which would then open a web browser that I need to click a link to log into the Wi-Fi. And I just cannot do that on the first boot up because it's like you can't open the web browser while you're starting up Windows for the first time. So I was immediately frustrated by Windows 11 because I had to use my phone's hotspot to be able to boot up Windows for the first time. That is deeply tragic time.

Karl:

That is deeply tragic. Yeah, and I ended up using up all my high-speed data for the month doing that too. It was like, ah, dang it, like it's funny.

Richard:

Like a while back we had a power outage well, an internet outage and we went to watch some of our Transformers DVDs, like you do, and we learned something that modern Xboxes, even if they have a disk drive, have to download a separate DVD player to play a DVD. So none of our devices could actually play a DVD anymore, which was sort of deeply defeating. It's kind of like how the Switch. You're like, oh, if you want to play Super Mario Bros, you need an internet connection, and I'm like, oh well, you did it with every other device you've ever made, but okay uh um, no one owns nothing anymore, is my old man rant well, I mean, I can't.

Karl:

I'm kind of starting to feel the same way. It's like I understand the subscription model is, uh, financially sustainable, but it's annoying. But more to the point is like okay, so I get my, my laptop set up and then, as mentioned in the preview, in the flashback, there I go to windows, the windowscom or microsoftcom, download the media creation tool and I go to run it to make my, to make my usb drive, and it's like yeah, no, you, you can't run this program.

Richard:

I'm like well, why not Excuse you in your entire race? Quote Frieza.

Karl:

And it's like well, your computer is in Windows S mode, so you can only run apps that come from the Windows store. I'm like I literally download this from the Microsoft website. It is to install Windows and it's not verified because it's a program instead of an app. I mean, technically they're the same thing but like Apparently not Apparently, technically they're not.

Karl:

Technically they're not, programs are not considered apps. And so then I'm like super frustrated. I'm like, oh okay, well, it turns out you can opt out of S mode and it's like a one-time thing. You can never go back to S mode if you opt out. I don't know why it's one way but you never can. I don't know why it's one way but you never can. So I opt out and I run the file, and then I realize I didn't download the media creation tool. I downloaded a different tool by accident. Oh, so then I have to download the actual media creation tool and I start running it and then I'm there for like three hours while it's like painfully slowly like downloading my like. I kind of connected to the hotel wi-fi at this point, so it's painfully slowly downloading all the all the necessary stuff. Those listeners not familiar with the struggle.

Richard:

Saskatchewan internet speeds are kind of not great. There was once a time where I lived in the middle of nowhere. Our address was Longitude and Latitude and we were watching Naruto Shippuden and the video would take one minute to buffer 10 seconds. So me and my brother would play video game rounds between our 10 seconds buffer to watch chunks of an episode. Just imagine not waiting 10 seconds for your video to load.

Karl:

Waiting five minutes to watch 10 seconds.

Richard:

That is all you may resume.

Karl:

Well, the saddest part of it all is that my the program didn't even actually fully execute. It like failed and like the last, like it was like 90, 90% done and then I was like, oh yeah, failure, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but isn't that the exact plot of Orato?

Richard:

Like unironically? That's exactly how the whole karma thing works.

Karl:

So then, in order to prepare my USB drive for this, uh, to become my, my media creation, my media tool, I guess um, I had moved like two gigabytes worth of photos off of it onto my desktop. And so now I'm frustrated that my, that the and I go to check my email and my email says your Microsoft OneDrive is full and you won't be able to receive emails because your Microsoft OneDrive is full. And I'm like full of what? And it turns out that by default, your desktop is automatically backed up to OneDrive. The free OneDrive is only five gigabytes and shares data with your email.

Karl:

If you go through Outlook and so just putting files on my desktop had filled up my OneDrive and I'm not going to pay a subscription for a service I never use. So I go through my OneDrive and I delete everything off of OneDrive. And I'm a little bit surprised to find that when I delete the stuff off my desktop version of OneDrive, it also deleted the stuff off my computer desktop. I'm like, okay, now, that's weird, terrifying. And then I go to click on the start menu and it's like, oh, we can't find your desktop because it got deleted. But I'm on my computer, my desktop is right there.

Richard:

Oh, no, it's because the old fogies don't understand technology. It happened. They warned us it would happen and it did.

Karl:

Well, ok. So I mean then, windows 11 did have a few updates to make and I believe that they fixed most of my grievances, because now the computer seems to be working fine and it was surprisingly light on bloatware. So I'm actually satisfied with Windows as shipped. I mean there were a few programs I had to delete. Overall, probably one of the better pre-assembled computers that I've purchased and set up. That is a fun plot twist at the end, yeah, but so then my desktop, which I bought recently. It was pretty, it was super cheap. We made a comment on one of our episodes about how the processor on my desktop and the processor in the Nintendo Switch are roughly the same age, which means that it predates 2018.

Richard:

Yeah.

Karl:

Now, this is significant because in 2018, there was a public announcement of some sort about vulnerability in processors that it would essentially it's called Spectre or Meltdown can read memory from your cache out of sequence without administrative permissions and then, using this workaround, can slowly, very slowly like 64 gigabit bytes, I think it said, takes like 5 hours to decode, but it can slowly rebuild all the memory on your computer and get all of your personal information so I was going to make a quip that it sounded like a Bond villain, and it does.

Karl:

And so when I ran the check to see if my desktop would be able to run Windows 11, so that both my devices are running the same operating system to ensure they run smoothly together, this is like, yeah, no, I mean, you have everything. Devices are running the same operating system to ensure they run smoothly together. This is like, yeah, no, I mean, you have everything you need, except your processor is too old. Well, that sucks. And so, then again, maybe I am just getting old and technologically inept, but I'm having a hard time seeing how an attack like this time, seeing how, uh, an attack like this works like I want to attack, like this looks to the end user and I'm a little bit like I don't know, um, how dangerous it actually is, like how likely I am to actually have my information skimmed like can I just open a website and suddenly it's decoding all of my memory and getting all my passwords? I assume the other site has to be open for several hours to do that.

Richard:

What's crazy, though, about cybersecurity and anonymity on the internet and I come from this, from a place of knowing tons of people who are like, oh, I need to use a pen name and have to be secretive on the internet, while taking photos in front of their house of their face, at what time they work, as they just got off my shift, lol, and putting it on Instagram, right, right, and the thing is that's just kind of attached to what people are trying to steal.

Richard:

So, for example, I had like a password leak a while back where I had to change all my passwords for the gaming company I was a part of, and now I have literally everything set up to a two-factor where someone would have to break into my house and steal my phone to get to my passwords. So the thing is for your work computer. You actually would have some valuable things on it. But quite frankly, most scams that I find recently really involve more social engineering than hardware scamming, Because it's like they kind of have to know you exist to even bother trying to steal your data from you.

Karl:

So it's like I wouldn't be too worried. The flip side of that is that it costs them nothing to send out the program. However it gets onto my computer, it gets infected, but it costs them nothing to send out the program. However it gets onto my computer, it gets infected, but it costs them nothing to just send it out and then hopefully get something back.

Richard:

I mean, my takeaway is set up two factors on things, because that would solve most of your problems, because the thing is most important, stuff isn't actually on people's computers anymore, like you mentioned. It's on their OneDrives and things.

Karl:

Right, right, because if they steal your computer, they're going to learn about spies.

Richard:

They're going to learn about ranches and they're going to learn about grid wrapping.

Karl:

But like a good two factor is like just brick walls. Whatever people's endeavors are, In any event, apparently according to the Verge, which is surprisingly mainstream media, and not a sponsor Yet.

Karl:

Well, they have an article and apparently it's super easy to change your Windows registry. I do not recommend. You could very easily brick your computer by doing something like this, but in this case you can set your computer to be able to upgrade on an unsupported CPU and since my computer meets all the other requirements, if I just add one line to my registry I could install Windows 11.

Richard:

This will be fun next week to learn about your brick you know what's really funny about bricking things. So the first time I heard the term brick something was for modding a nintendo wii, so I could put custom make, custom skins for smash bros characters right so I always think, yeah, it makes your wii a brick, because the wii was already brick shaped. So it's funny to me for non-brick shaped things to be bricked, because they're like cell phones getting bricks and I'm like they're not very brick like so are they?

Karl:

The Wii was very brick. Like Right, like the Wii being bricked makes perfect sense.

Richard:

You could, like stack and mortar those together to make a wall.

Karl:

Well, I mean, it'd be a very thin bricks if you did with cell phones.

Richard:

And very frail, like a Nintendo Wii wall, would hold up up against entire invading hordes of White Walkers.

Karl:

But anyway. So the entire point of what's new with me is that, a to bring back to the other flashback about my uncle, and you've already kind of touched on this getting a work computer expensed by the company makes me feel like I'm proving specifically my uncle wrong and it's like, yeah, I'm glad I'm proving his condescension to be misplaced, but just in general it's like it makes me feel like I am in fact on a good work path, a good career path, despite not having much social status gained from it. I don't know what kind of job gains you more social status, but like pizza place, food service in general, unless you're actually like the head chef, just doesn't really come with much social status.

Richard:

And the thing is I have a full rant about the culinary industry ready to go at any moment, because I worked in a relatively respectable four-star restaurant for a while that shall stay nameless and we had some of our employees be like I got out of culinary school and I'm working here and my instinct is you went to school for this To use laminated sheets of paper to pre-make recipes, to then be told you didn't weigh the chicken correctly.

Richard:

You went to school for this so I honestly think like culinary is just a lie, right, because it's like, no, you actually want to go to business school and open a restaurant. So it's like you're getting business training, not restaurant training. You stopped being a cook a long time ago. You open franchises. Now your resume shouldn't actually say line cook on it, right? It should be saying open 13 successful franchise. Helped open 13 successful franchises across whatever like Like you program POS systems.

Karl:

So much of life is branding. That's definitely true, but I mean that was actually a little bit longer than I hoped it would be because I had more to say about computers. But what's new with you there, Richard?

Richard:

So I'm on my two-week break between semesters and my brother pointed something out that haunts me and will torment me. So it turns out, with my degree I'm qualified to take the LSATs and go into law school if I want, and I'm like well, that seems like a lot of effort and I spent my entire life being made a fun of, so I don't feel super confident. I could be a lawyer and they take a mock test. I'm like oh, apparently I could just be a lawyer. Right, I'm actually smart. I'm just used to being bullied, so it hasn't clicked in yet that I'm objectively, I'm actually would be good at this, huh, so like what?

Karl:

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't know if you would actually be good at it.

Richard:

You just know that you can pass the test but that's the entire career is read a a thing, memorize it, write it down and then bullshit about it.

Karl:

Fair enough, fair enough.

Richard:

Because I was going to go for a master's program anyway. So now I can go for a master's of English and law, which is somehow a combined master's, and each additional thing I'm qualified to apply for increases my odds that I get into something. So there's no reason to not write this test odds that I get into something.

Karl:

So there's no reason to not write this test. I mean lawyers do come with a strange social status where everyone kind of hates on them but at the same time everybody knows that they're wealthy and successful.

Richard:

Karl, listen, Karl, Karl, listen, Listen to me for a moment. Just imagine you will. You're picturing my business card, right? Richard Arthur John Kevis, Wizards of the Coast rules lawyer. So funny.

Richard:

And the thing is you don't have to be a lawyer to be employable. By being trained in the law and having passed the LSATs and having your JD. It's like, no matter what I do, it wouldn't hurt to have that on there. It's not like I'm planning to go into courtrooms and planning to be like, hey, bethesda, can I do something in your office buildings? I'm a writer and a lawyer. I'm sure that can't hurt my employment possibilities. So I've been just kind of studying for the LSAT to take it, because if I fail it I might not be a lawyer if I do well on it, hey but you were able to pass a mock test though with relative ease did they give you a grade like how close are you to being a lawyer in terms of percentage, based on that mock test?

Richard:

It's this whole freaking thing. So law is specific language. That's obtuse for no reason. So the test literally gives you a score based on the other people who take the test, and it's like a weighted score. So the practice test is like hey, according to this practice test you're really good, but the actual test is like a quantum state, convoluted nonsense beast that I cannot accurately do justice to explain.

Karl:

Yeah, okay.

Richard:

Because it's like different every year. They basically grade you against the people who take it and about like the top 10% actually get into the law program, 10% actually get into the law program. So I just have to be smarter than like. I just have to do better on a logic test than I think it worked out to like 70% of people and I'll be looking pretty good. So instead of the question being can I be a straight-A student, yada, yada and all that other stuff it's, can I be smarter than people who think they want to be lawyers? Yes, and I don't know.

Richard:

I'm feeling pretty good, like the idea that someone went to business school for three years and now is trying to go to law school, and it's a series of questions based solely on logic and reasoning. I'm feeling pretty good. It's like when I beat Tyler at Magic, where it's like I'm not good at Magic, I'm just used to oh wait, I guess I am good at Magic because I'm used to losing to good players. Oh wait, I guess I am good at magic because I'm used to losing to good players. So it's like if someone tells me are you the best at something? No, Am I better than the average person? I worked customer service for 10 years. I know the average person.

Karl:

Yeah, it's true. I mean, we're talking about my uncle being condescending. I don't want to being condescending, I don't want to be condescending, but I do find that there's some truth to the idea that optimists are actually less happy than pessimists because they're disappointed more often by the general public.

Richard:

I disagree with the statement, but I appreciate the sentiment. So my thing is if you're disappointed by the population, you're not a legitimate optimist. So let's look at Goku.

Karl:

No, what I mean to say not necessarily disappointed by the population you don't want to hear the Goku TED talk Fine. I do, I do. But let's say you're disappointed by the population, and more. That again, I don't want to sound condescending, but you have to assume that everybody is dumber than you so that you're not disappointed. You're pleasantly surprised when they turn out to be as smart or smarter than you when they turn out to be as smart or smarter than you. So for me to give my.

Richard:

Goku versus Vegeta versus Quirrell in quality of life analysis. Goku doesn't care what other people think or do. Goku is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He's just living his life. That's why he's quote-unquote, pure-hearted. Vegeta is a pessimist, but also stop being miserable when it's like okay, people just disappoint me, I'll just live my life. And I don't know where I was going with this rant. But to loop back to your original point about if you think that people are dumb, you're more willing to give them free passes on things.

Richard:

But I'm more like I focus more that people don't genuinely don't care, because a lot of the time and I mean that in the nicest way I like to assume that people don't actually think about me when I leave the room and I'm not that impactful on their day-to-day lives, because that's just such a better mindset than thinking it does matter severely. So when someone cuts me off while driving, I don't think oh this idiot. I think their brain isn't even on this task in any way, shape or form.

Karl:

Like people are living their own lives.

Richard:

So when it comes to something like oh, can I score higher on this law test than people? It's not that I think I'm smarter than these people taking the tests. I just acknowledge that a certain percentage are people who are pressured into this field, people who don't want to be in this field, people who, for whatever reason, are being told you need to be a lawyer. So either their anxiety is really high, they haven't had as much life experience.

Richard:

It's literally their parents are telling them they need to do this thing, whatever millions of reasons, I just need a certain percentage of them to want it less than I do.

Karl:

Fair enough.

Richard:

Or be in a situation where they're not optimized for this specific task of read words, analyze words, answer words. The skill I've gained mostly from speed reading One Piece, because my ability to remember pointless crap is borderline legendary when I can read the new chapter for. All Trigger after three months and know who everyone is still.

Karl:

Well, I mean, there weren't that many characters in this chapter and it was just people getting walloped by Asumu's awesome strategy.

Richard:

It's such a waste man. So like the idea of using Trion soldiers in battle and borders playing around with them and they're doing Trion soldier battles could have been introduced into something interesting instead of Phase 4 of the bottle test. Like it's a good idea for a plot arc to have been used in the main show somewhere right they're using in the most boring possible context and there's no way this arc can even well.

Karl:

I mean, maybe they could actually animate some of the battles instead of just skipping over them like the manga is.

Richard:

But like I don't even know if it'd be worth the effort.

Karl:

And why wouldn't they have just done regular Rank Wars instead of doing Chibi Wars?

Richard:

Indeed. But to wrap around, the what's New With Me I'm on break between semesters, doing a bunch of reading, watching some anime, reading some manga, applying for grants and bursaries, sending stories off to journals, living my best life and binge-watching Knuckles. And at this point our episode, I think, will still continue on the topic of technology failures. So to loop back around a bit, why is it that the Nintendo Switch is the only system you can't actually buy old console games on and have them be on your console proper? Actually, a phrase has a question how much would you pay for a cartridge that just had every first-party Nintendo Super NES game on it? Would you pay $80 for that?

Karl:

Hmm, yeah, see, that is the interesting thing, because it's like emulators even officially licensed emulators are ultimately just emulators and ROMs, and the older games just take up so much less space, right? So when I was younger, my dad got a computer and it had a 500 megabyte hard drive and I was thinking to myself man, that's so massive, you'd never be able to use all that space. And now you need like eight gigabytes just to be able to download and install a new operating system. It's just to be able to download and install a new operating system. And so it's like the sheer amount of space that we actually have compared to the amount of space that older technology actually needs. It's just crazy that you could fit every single Super Nintendo ROM onto a single cartridge that you'd be able to put into your Switch, but that's not profitable because subscription systems are the way to maintain income.

Richard:

And I've been having some struggles with what constitutes a fair video game price lately. So over reading week I downloaded a game called 13 Sentinels, Aegis Rim.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

I paid full price for this video game because hashtag tax returns.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

And the game is a science fiction game where you follow 13 characters through and then there's like an RTS, mech battles that happen. But the game is very clearly divided into its two sides the story to side in the mech battle side and you walk around in like 2.5d and you just talk and find clues, like it's like if a visual novel was presented with the game in the style of dungeon fighter, not the gameplay, the style of yeah, they're very pretty hand-drawn sprites, but half the game is literally just text and picking up clues and then talking to people about the right clues.

Richard:

This game had one of the best stories I've ever read. There was 13 characters. You know how I'm pretty good at predicting plot twists.

Karl:

Right.

Richard:

They had cascading, folding plot twists where, like the talking cat convincing people to shoot them with the magic gun, was installing a code to summon gundams which was actually being used to spread a virus to defeat a counter virus. So that way the character wouldn't grow up to then resurrect his android girlfriend because this was a scam to make him fall in love with someone else on this loop, because they're in a series of loop, cloning loops Like it was just built on itself fantastically. So I play this game pretty relentlessly for a solid two weeks Well, a solid week about and I've completed this game 100% at this point. Modern game design mythos would be like 80 bucks should give you infinite quests, infinite dungeons and your game better, have a large enough map that you need a jot pack to get across it. But this game, with its relatively simple presentation and its most expensive part being the voice work, was one of the best things I played in a long time. It had a lot of really innovative ideas and it was basically narrative driven. But it was very fascinating.

Richard:

Like you follow one character and you expect their plots going to be awesome because they're from world before world war one and then they get warped to the future and they're a soldier, and it was literally about them scrounging for change to get snacks from the convenience store and trying to explain to their girlfriend, who turned out to be a boyfriend, that it's not that they're lying about the gender that made them not like them, it's that they're a lying sack of crap and if they can get over that, they can be together. So it's like this guy was such a himbo. It was amazing. He's just like no, listen. It's like what does it bug you? When it's for 100 people, he's like yes, also alien stuff. Do we care? No, okay, fine, I'm gonna get a sandwich, and it was a very majestic story, but I'd have a hard time telling someone it was worth $80. However, it was better than I don't know. To me, better than the Fallout 4, probably, which, objectively, would be worth that much money.

Karl:

That does sound like it was better than Metroid Dread.

Richard:

And Metroid Dread also was absolutely in one sense, not worth $80, but I beat it in its entirety where the Metroid Prime Collection, which should be worth more. But I beat it in its entirety where the Metroid Prime collection, which should be worth more. I have not beaten in its entirety. So that's kind of my question to you on our tech topic is how much value is something actually worth Like Minecraft was paid $20 once ever and put billions of hours into it, but also we had to set up and run a server which we just kind of lost that power at this point.

Karl:

Yeah.

Richard:

And to loop back to emulation, I just went through a full contract class about why theft will kill me as a writer and creator and it's like no, no, the laws that help, like Nintendo, help you because you create media content. You putz was pretty much what my prof was screaming at us the whole term. If you guys just steal your music and your art and your pornography and no one gets paid for these, that's bad. You make these things idiots, oh, speaking of scams and hacking and things. I saw one of the funniest scams.

Karl:

So the scam is.

Richard:

they send you an email that says your email was used to sign up for this porn site. Reply to this thing to unsubscribe. If you reply to that thing and log in to unsubscribe, they have your account information. That scheme is so good because it plays incredibly on insecure spouses and partners who are like oh no, it says on our family email that I'm on an adult site, so I'm going to panic, unsubscribe and fall for the scam.

Karl:

Well, I mean that comes back around to what I was talking about with this the meltdown or specter vulnerability, in that if you happen to send an email at the right time, like, say, someone ordered a package off Amazon or something, and then they get a text message that says that their package is being held at some warehouse or held up at the border, and because they had the package on the way, they decide to click through because they're like, oh, this could actually be my Amazon package.

Karl:

It doesn't cost them anything to just spam out these messages and hope that they get that one person who might accidentally be in the right mindset to fall for the scam. Technology scams in particular are the right mindset to fall for the scam. So, like technology scams in particular are just about volume and not even necessarily about quality, like the Nigerian Prince scam, it's like sure most people are like this is stupid. Some people are like, oh, I'm going to troll this guy back because this is stupid. But then some people like I had a roommate who fell for a similar scam send their rent money because they think they're going to get a million dollars worth of gold in return.

Richard:

And when you're desperate enough.

Karl:

Well, when you're desperate enough, or when you're just uneducated on cybersecurity, which I mean I feel woefully uneducated on cybersecurity. Which I mean I feel woefully uneducated on cybersecurity because, like I say, I don't even really understand what these types of viruses and attacks look like as an end user, which is kind of the most important part, like the technical part, knowing that, like the Spectre vulnerability reads the cache out of sequence without administrative permissions, and, like I, the technical part is like that makes sense kind of, but like what do I even need to do to stop myself from potentially accidentally clicking a link that would initiate this kind of attack?

Richard:

you know, that's fair and like. It's kind of funny because neither of us are tech specialists, and it's amusing because I usually end up as the work tech specialist, because we're from a weird time period of tech where people who come just 10 years after us everything's now automated so they would never think to download software onto a flash drive to remove bloatware.

Richard:

But you go a generation ahead of us and they actually had to know the code behind things piecing it together. I just think it's interesting because I remember doing things that were pretty tech-impressive in my youth, like making a website running a Minecraft server, and it's like part of my knowledge is backslid and pivoted but other parts are just randomly stick through, like I'll be making a website on a website maker and then I'll see the html button be able to manually fix the thing that's bugging me right or it's like I just like remember we're like, oh yeah, how tech savvy we sounded modding a nintendo nintendo wii when it was just following an internet guide.

Richard:

Hypothetically off the record. This is a comedy show. Nothing I say is admissible in court to Nintendo.

Karl:

I do wonder if you could get in trouble for that nowadays.

Richard:

Oh, for sure.

Karl:

They tried really hard to make it difficult to be able to put your own software onto their product. The big thing that will get us now is that we didn't have.

Richard:

So it's like eula license agreements. I consent to this before I use this machine. So like things like a nintendo 64 and a normal nintendo basically say you void the warranty, modern stuff says we'll send pinkertons to your house to reclaim it. And with that shall we pivot into the random question of the day. Sure, Pick any band to play at your funeral.

Karl:

Pick any band to play at my funeral the Zombies, nice. The zombies.

Richard:

Nice, just no notes Nailed it.

Karl:

I mean ironically, I don't, actually even I don't know that the zombies are actually currently producing music. Some of them might even be dead.

Richard:

Magic might be involved in this specific hypothetical.

Karl:

Just for the novelty might even be dead. Magic might be involved in this specific hypothetical Just for the novelty it would be amazing.

Richard:

Ironically, I'd love to have Dragonforce playing, because it's just like at a funeral. I'm just picturing my family with some of their fakeness being like oh, we knew him so well and we missed him. And then just extreme guitar playing at them would be like who was this person? Like exactly? How dare you, how dare you think you can predict my nonsense vengeance?

Karl:

I have a random question for you there, richard, and I don't know if we have any live viewers. We do If we do, if anyone wants to answer. Would you buy pottery from a haunted house?

Richard:

Yes.

Karl:

You're not worried at all about getting cursed or anything.

Richard:

So I think it was in one of the Tuaru no Index novels. So a character got cursed that everything they did would fail.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

So they came up with some super elaborate plan that ascended them to godhood, because that was the only way they could fail at. Their objective was to break the curse.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

And the theory is that if I have some cursed object, either I'm unlucky which, oh no, richard, unlucky what would that be like? Or I now have scientific evidence of magic.

Richard:

So, either this pottery is just nice pottery or I can like figure out its property. Like I think it was an episode of Rick and Morty where they like removed the double edged part of cursed objects. Be like yes, these cursed shoes that make you an excellent runner but force you to run until you die. I put them here on a puppet and put that on a wheel and now you have free energy. So, like the cursed pottery, like, say, the curse was something like I don't know, your loved one will die in 72 hours if you water this fern.

Karl:

oh man could I make some money on craigslist. Huh, you have to water the fern or you don't have to water the fern if you do water the fern, in 72 hours someone you know dies uh see, I was thinking maybe the curse would be more dramatic if you forget to water your fern.

Richard:

Their healthiness is linked to the healthiness of the plant yeah, but what I do with that is I sell it to someone awful and tell them that they don't water this fern. Their loved one dies, and to somebody that's a blessing fair enough and I make some of that cash money.

Karl:

I mean I would also buy pottery from a haunted house, but mostly just for an excuse to see what's up with this haunted house and see how far they're willing to. Let me explore.

Richard:

Well, yeah, like zero hesitation. I'm from the rough streets of Saskatoon. You think a ghost scares me.

Karl:

So did anyone in chat chime in?

Richard:

Unfortunately no chime ins for chat on this one, but thank you for giving them the opportunity. None of them have answered would you buy a cursed pot from a haunted house? But with that, thank you for tuning into this episode's deep space and dragons where explore the sci-fi concept that is Karl loading software on his computer.

Karl:

And also objectively winning at life. Indeed, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm winning.

Richard:

And tune in next week where we self-actualize some random concept into existence.

Karl:

All right, I love self-actualization.

Richard:

Indeed, we could talk about anything next week. We really really could.

Karl:

Could even be a boat. Indeed, you could talk about anything next week. We really, really could. Could even be a boat.

Richard:

Indeed, you know, actually, Richard and Karl Get a Boat is so good that it wouldn't be our podcast. That'd be our like first Prime series and our last due to boat-related mishaps.

Karl:

Ah yeah, neither of us have a boating license.

Richard:

Neither of us should be trusted with a boat.

Karl:

Thanks for listening. Self-care Yada yada.

Richard:

Indeed and eat a vegetable. Bye, bye.