Start Using Canteens

00:01 Hello, everybody once again it is time for the program that has no commercials. No jingles no music well Certainly no agenda coming to you from the curry manor in the United Kingdom I'm Adam Curry and I'm out here in sunny California. I'm John C Dvorak John good afternoon Let me launch right into it. I finally fixed it so that you can hear audio when I play it back Yeah, they know do you know how long how long I worked on this oh? You apparently worked on it all day yesterday or otherwise we would have done the show. Yeah, not just yes I've been thinking about this for It's been like at least three weeks and what I couldn't figure out was well you know what? I wanted to do is I want to be able to send you a mix minus signal And so I couldn't send my voice fine and I could send

00:52 Music over but if I wanted to send something for my handy little cart rack It was it was driving me nuts because you know, you do this on the Mac. I don't have you ever done this You can do virtual audio routing Have you ever heard of this? You're doing this on the Mac. Yeah, you can do um... Well this isn't going to do me any good! Yes it will because you're gonna get a laptop eventually and new one that'll be a mac you know it will no it won't cuz I my end I'll say this again as much as I think the max is great machine I like using laptops that are two pounds

01:27 Absolutely the smallest, the lightest you can get with a full-size screen and big keyboard. And that's the Toshiba and that's the R series. Now the new one, the R500 is like 2.2 pounds total and it has got a DVD player in it! Yeah but what are you trying to say? When I travel with a laptop...I'm not going to go to a Mac they're too big and heavy. Okay so honestly how often do you do Tech 5 on the road versus at home I'd rarely do it. I've done it a couple of times, but I prefer to do evergreen shows instead. Right okay so my point exactly So makes a lot of sense To set you up for once and for all with the fans. This is the beauty I have been searching for

02:16 For it's uh, it's been five years now has a bit funny at 2000 2004 when I started doing this stuff. I've been looking for the all-in-one solution where you can do everything right on one computer and the Mac finally is there you have this thing called aggregate devices where you can stack on multiple in and output devices, virtual or real. You can stack them into one because most programs can only talk to one device at a time so now I can finally do all of that complex routing that is really needed to put together a kick-ass studio And anyway, to make a long story short what was screwing me up is I was trying to route the audio from Skype into the virtual mixer through one of these virtual interfaces. And whenever I did it you know because you have one coming in and going back and the output signal of course is all this stuff that I want you to be able to hear

03:10 And every single time I made the connection, it would create a loop and then it would just feed back. And I couldn't figure out until I finally discovered of course after weeks trying to figure this out that I was treating Skype as if it had a stereo signal coming out so I was using two channels whereas it only has one So effectively by placing two connections between Skype and my mixer I was creating a loop just by making those two connections Does that make any sense? Yeah, it does to me but let's back up a couple seconds. One... You know one you probably could have asked for help from the audience And you would have gotten it like the next day so that's wasting three or four weeks working this out. No no no I Have been on this quest and the audience has been involved a guy who's come to close ever bring us up on your other show hold On one more time, I don't believe for a second that there's not a PC user out there That listens to this show or whatever other shows that can't do the same thing on a PC more effectively

04:12 Wow, throwing down the gauntlet man. I love it! You know what actually? I'll bet you're right. I don't know if it can be done more effectively but I do know that Ableton Live which is the program I'm using also runs on Windows so I guess if someone could figure out how to do virtual audio routing then they could make it happen and of course you need it and then we'll set up a nice Windows version for you How does that sound? Been drinking beer again in the evening I apologize. There's a story going around we had, I don't know if you blogged it or not but something that was thinking actually my stepson sent it to me there is this farting thing going on in some American schools where the boys are into noisy public flatulence as a gag and they just do it constantly I guess in class and its becoming something of a problem Oh really?

05:07 Yeah, and this is a new story. This is yeah It's a news stories if there was some you know they don't these schools You know they don't have corporal punishment or anything anymore So they don't know what to do about stuff like this and the boys can say look it's a normal Bodily function There's nothing I can do about it If I fart and so and so they but that what they do of course Is that they amplify him by? You know I guess you know your force it to make I guess somebody Can you even fart the alphabet But it's becoming kind of a problem. So, but this is a nationwide problem or is this? I think it's localized now but it could go nationwide Okay... I've been trying to rile up the Brits on The Daily Source Code you know trying to open their eyes to these Snoop Dogg Nation that we all live in here

05:57 Now that they found out that 800 different organizations can order a wire or internet tap on anyone including Any senior manager at the Department of Agriculture? Really oh yeah, oh this is huge news you didn't know about this no tell me. Oh so what happened was the Minister of Parliament I forget what his name was. He was having a conversation with one of his constituents who happened to be in jail, so it's kind of unimportant what the conversation was about but other ministers of parliament had him wiretapped or eavesdropped on that conversation and

06:36 At first what started out as a story about ministers of parliament needing to have the right to be able to speak to their constituents in complete confidentiality turned into all this information like, duh. You know just look around and look at the four million cameras in this country it turns out that there's 800 different organizations within the United Kingdom who can ask for what they call an intercept so that's either phone conversation phone records Apparently, websites you visit which I guess can only really work if they have some kind of echelon type derivative working. And the level of as i just said the level of seniority of someone who can order this wiretap is basically a senior manager Which it's crazy! I betcha this country is rampant with wiretaps and other intercepts John are you still there? Hello? Ah there he goes

07:40 Okay, what point did you do? Did you miss it well that was the you know You have to probably keep this on the on the show because as soon as you said the word echelon you got disconnected Well I don't know how they do it unless they have some sort of echelon click Well, I'm still recording because I basically finished my story unaware that you had dropped off and then you called back. Yeah after the word echelon You said well i don't know how they can do that unless they have some sort of echelon type and that was it Right So I'll just recap briefly as it turns out There's 800 organizations and this list has now been published which includes obscure departments like Department of Agriculture or the council. The people who run the local council! A senior manager can request an intercept. Wow, that's cool. It's fucking nuts!

08:34 So anyway, to bring that back to the flatulence. You know... so then I start to dive into it and I'm like you guys really should protest and by the way I want a protest too because it's pretty messed up It turns out protesting ain't that easy in the United Kingdom did you know that? Well, you can send a nasty letter to the Times I believe. Yeah you can do that but if you actually want to take it to the streets and there's this...I blogged it on curry dot com There is an excellent documentary called Taking Liberties which is a channel 4 maybe even BBC documentary that shows you exactly what happens to people who protest. Basically, you try to protest it just ain't gonna happen You're just going to get picked up arrested harassed and removed from the streets Can't you go to Hyde Park and do it? Uh...You can do it I think you could do well thats not a protest you can go to Speakers Corner but in fact is illegal to protest within one kilometer of Parliament. You may not protest at all within one kilometer of Parliament

09:37 Huh, now I know where we're getting these ideas. Yep! Exactly so... So i'm like well then we should do some kind of ummm.... Some other kind of civil disobedience you know maybe flash mobs and that always works because it always shows up in the newspapers but maybe could all just start farting? Now was wondering how your gonna get to that end There ya go! It took me a while. That was a long road Hey let's test this thing out John hold on a second Let's test the uh the audio out, okay? Sure. Alright here we go. Hey Adam and John I was listening to No Agenda 13 and you mentioned that you were trying to find strippers or hookers audition for Textra

10:25 I know this was a joke, but some people probably won't take it as a joke. And it'll probably get forwarded over to Natalie Del Conte that she thinks she's a stripper and or a hooker... ...and I don't think you really want that kind of image coming from you. I mean, I'm sure there is something with the fact- Yeah alright By the way if you wanna interrupt something you can just yell loudly at any point in time I think that guy needs to just... Who was that? What time did he do this, at three in the morning? Whenever he was listening to our show. By the way, never had any intention of hiring hookers for anything Well, at least for this show Anyway, the point is you know there's where i could use the rim shot Ah! I don't have one Anyway okay we'll work on getting one You can use it judiciously

11:21 But strippers I thought would be a good idea for hostess. Seems to me. Okay It was... you can just report back that the whole idea was nixed by the CEO Oh yeah, oh yeah it'll-I think it had a shelf life of about three nanoseconds No, it was longer than that. It was until he found out about it Exactly Have you seen Natalie's new show? Yeah I know you have actually. I know you saw at least one episode. I'm surprised Honestly surprises are pretty much the same show she was doing before yeah except with shitty lighting and a virtual ugly set in the background Yeah, I thought it was gonna be a little little more than that honestly And and also you know I don't like the way. It's edited or put together But that's just some technical stuff but as you said I would just Actually didn't surprise me too much. I think it's okay so

12:18 Anyway back to the some of these news stories that aren't relating to tech since you've got off You know we're not supposed to be talking about it necessarily right I was just looking at my own blog and one other guys blog the fact that they're trying to close down The red light district, and they may be on their way in Amsterdam. Yeah all about yeah It's true well. It's this is what happens. You know there's a couple things going on its You know, there's a Christian Democrat... Christian Democratic majority in government. This is of course also bringing quote the country up to EU standards and the same is happening with the coffee shops where you infamously can go- EU standards? I mean, I thought that for example they were like instituting these kinds of red light districts and countries like Germany to compete for what they call the sex tourist

13:11 In Europe, so how is this I mean it sounds like a counter trend to me No, I think there's a difference between some new regulation and I can't speak about Europe But I can speak about the Netherlands where they made brothels legal But the actual red light district where girls are standing in windows They want to get rid of that. So the concept of having a brothel and I think even escort services are outlawed or maybe maybe they hmm I think those are actually probably still allowed but the real in-the-window with your wares, that's what is being taken away. Which of course is exactly... Sorry? Well as someone who has visited Amsterdam more than a few times and by the way have not actually done anything with anybody in Amsterdam to be just for people out there who want to know not like anyone cares but I just wanna say that as a tourist

14:02 I have walked around with a bunch of guys and whatever through that area, there's actually two or three little alleys and stuff where there are hundreds of these girls. And it has different layers of quality if you want to be objective about it And I think it's kind of amusing and I think it's kind of an interesting little thing people do. They walk around, I don't see that much business going on if I suppose they're not there at the right time but the fact is that adds a complex charm to this city uh...that seems uh...it has been going on apparently since the fifteenth century It seems weird to me that all of a sudden

14:42 during this era when the Muslims are the ones behind wanting to shut stuff like this down, that the Netherlands being irked by the murder of Van Gogh, the filmmaker would essentially go along with the program which is what it looks like they're doing. Well, so I'll respond by saying you're absolutely right. This completely ruins what used to be a really good vibe just in that core center of Amsterdam but over the past decade it's gone down even past 15 years probably It used to be all Dutch girls which was part of the appeal and now i do not think you will find one single dutch born girl in the red light district

15:28 They're all either from East Block countries basically. So that kind of cozy, hanging out the window type vibe is gone and of course it's become a center for lots of hard drug trafficking and usage in general because it's an old part of the city. It's difficult to police because there are all kinds of alleyways and nooks and crannies so I understand where they're coming from And I don't think that if you talk to the Amsterdammer who lives there, there's probably not a lot of love lost because it just wasn't fun to go there anyway. You know since some cultural immigration like changes had taken place. Well that's one way of putting it so um One time I was in Holland and as I was leaving to go to the air...I forget where I was taking a cab. I was taking a cab somewhere

16:20 which doesn't make a lot of sense now that I think about it. Um, I guess it was to the airport Not because I would normally take, there's a train to the airport. I don't know why he didn't do that but anyway, I was taking this cab and I was talking somehow it came up in the conversation that this cabbie who lot of cabbies are talkative said you know that red light district is big phony for the locals anyway nobody goes there. He says they go too and he pointed out some areas in some other part of town where the locals go and its not even anywhere near their. And then I watched something special. It sounds as though the town has two or three At least separate little districts and this one that's the tourist trap which is entertaining Is the one that nobody uses. Yeah, there's also been some other problems in that area with the famous Casa Rosso I'm sure you saw it when you were there if

17:11 Have you ever heard of that Casa Rosso? Yeah, I've heard of it. But now that you mention it...I don't recall what it is Well its quite famous for two reasons One, It's probably the original live sex show club Oh right yeah Right or really theater I should call it because You walk in and have a little drink at the foyer And there are maybe 100 seats and then watch some kind of live show on stage Those kinds of shows in San Francisco, right? So this is now Let's see about about ten years ago They became very famous to be the first ones to be actually streaming people having sex live for a fee and all of the all of the porn sites all the porn servers in the In the mid 90s were all pretty much located in Amsterdam if not operated by Casa Rosso. I

18:03 So they were really on the... In fact, there's a story. When we were taking our previous company public, we did what is called a roadshow. So this was 1996 and the Road Show means you go around in our case to not just two different investors in the United States But then you also do a European Road Show and you basically want everyone to sign up and say yeah You know I'll buy into 20% That's what it is twenty percent twenty percent you want everyone to take twenty percent so of course then you become over subscribed that's kind of The way that works So we had Switzerland, the United Kingdom. We had a number of places on the map but we decided to start in Holland because I knew that there were a couple investors who collectively they might actually take 15 or 20%. So one of those days and our investors of course were…or the underwriters were along with us on the road

18:56 for this roadshow and we're in Amsterdam you know so these are all like real Wall Street banker types and like hey man what are we gonna do? We gotta go to the red light district, we gotta go. So okay... And then here's a work so walking down the red light district and the guy from Casa Rosso who of course was just doing this internet stuff basically the guy who was outside who is supposed to pull people in He starts yelling at me, Hey Adam Curry! Hey man. Yeah. You're on the internet? We're on the internet and I'm like okay so yeah come in you know I'll comp you guys come on in for free So of course with our underwriters it's a real macho type deal like okay...so we go in and the show starts and uh were sitting pretty close up to the front And of course its audience participation time and the girl comes over to me

19:44 And I'm like, oh man. I am so not into this and you know then of course these guys are hooting and hollering like okay So i get up on stage Well wait a minute before you go on can you also mention the fact that during this era especially in 96? You were extremely famous Yeah In Amsterdam yeah But people that don't realize it, I mean we're not talking about a little famous. Yeah yeah very famous. Okay anyway continue but that really didn't matter i don't think most of the people who were in there knew me except for the guy at the front door. That's possible. It's very possible so you know and the so then yes, she does kind of funny stuff She grabs you in the crotch and then you know And then at a certain point it's really meant to humiliate the guy she picks out of the audience right? So there was certain points he lays down her on her back and Then she grabs my head and then she brings me down to my knees and we off course I was just standing in front of her previously and she brings her head down towards her crotch and at the same time

20:44 A fucking guy in a monkey suit with a strap on dildo walks out behind me and starts boning me from behind. So there was uh... And-a good evening had by all, in the Casaroso. Well I'd like to have that on tape! No pictures unfortunately You weren't naked or anything? No, no. I was fully clothed. You didn't get much done with that thing on you? Well but it was quite a surprise because she's bringing my head down between her crotch and then I'm basically kneeling with my butt in the air and this guy dressed in monkey suit comes out from stage left with a big strap-on dildo

21:22 So, you know it was totally I would say that the whole act is designed to humiliate the patron. Yeah exactly Exactly what do they expect to accomplish with this kind of stuff hilarity ensued my friend? Hey anything for a good laugh oh man i tell ya so anyway so i just found that there's quite interesting That they would have such a cultural change uh but i guess if you're You're right because i noticed that this most of them The most of the girls were you know they weren't even that interesting to be honest about it No, they really are and there's these this is show called Amsterdam nights or something that I'm sure runs somewhere in the states But basically runs on sky late at night And they have these documentaries about that very area and about these These shows and it's all pretty pathetic when you really know when you look behind the scenes of what's happening. It's pretty sad

22:18 So you know on Thursday I went to Las Vegas, and had to give a speech at the convention of all things orthodontists. Orthodontist? Yeah, I heard you talking about that on Tech 5. In the process...I was only going to be there for one night and then gave this speech by way i have a new speech for anyone out there who's booking speeches. This speech is stunner! Tell us about the speech, John. I've only done it twice so far. Give me a summary what are you talking about? Essentially what I do is talk about... It's got various titles but it's like marketing in the age of the internet and it talks about how.. And then gives people exact details on how to like you know do vanity searches, how to check out your competition

23:00 how to set up various kinds of websites, blogs whatever what the value is. And it talks about things like are you running a business? You're an orthodontist and somebody yelped you. Do you know what Yelp is and how does it work? All that kind of thing. How do use Craigslist? There's just a lot of intense information on everything interacts. Do you do this with PowerPoint slides or just stand-up talk? Yeah no you have to use PowerPoint slides And in today's day and age, if you don't use PowerPoint slides you can't keep an audience anymore. It's weird. Really? You just use pretty pictures or words? I've been giving speeches for decades. And I've gone through everything from using multimedia to just stand alone where you're up there lecturing. Then I don't read speeches of course. I think that's lame. That is bullshit too. I always get the biggest kick out of watching somebody go up on a podium and start reading his speeches. They say why didn't you send me the damn thing on email

23:57 You know if that's what you're gonna do so your slides consist of just pictures or do you have words up there as well? It depends. There are some words some sometimes it just shows sites, and then I discuss them but anyway the whole thing is a But what's weird they were where I discovered is that The vast majority of people out there who actually work for a living, they don't know about half of this stuff. I mean they don't know what Twitter is, they don't know what Yelp is, very few of them know about Craigslist unless you're like in the San Francisco Bay Area or some high tech zone generally speaking this stuff has still got low penetration. Sounds like it's time for new book John! Yeah we may do a book around it too How bout High Penetration Marketing Initiatives?

24:40 HPMI. HPMI, baby! This has an HPMI factor of 9 and a half? We could come up with the HPMI Factor I like that. So anyway what I wanted to actually talk about though is not brag about this great new speech but so I was there on Thursday so I decided to go to Joel Rubichon's atelier to have the tasting menu Okay, I sat right next to it. Right? All right Yeah, you know 130 bucks plus whatever they can nick you for the wine cake The whole thing came to about weight is very expensive and I'm sitting there was like around it the room is beautiful and It's in the MGM and it's just a really nice little restaurant or little as a big restaurants and

25:31 But I just thought that, you know. And I was thinking about it and noticed that I was sitting next to a guy who is a Mater D at the Tribune which is a restaurant in Calgary and you know he was actually drinking the bottled water but lot of people were... You know this water thing is like a big deal nobody wants to... The idea now is don't drink bottled water in a restaurant because it's just too good We actually have an audio comment about that remind me I'll play for ya Have it queued up when your ready Okay. Um, but what was interesting to me I've come to, I kind of got to the conclusion because I didn't really feel satisfied with this meal it was you know all the little bitty plates which normally would go for me and get a real better deal if people are interested in this kind of eating you can go to San Sebastian Spain and

26:15 It's astonishing. I mean, it had one-fourth the price and twice the quality but anyway...I just thought the whole thing was an unrewarding experience. And I had yelped it before I went there and looked at the various comments and everyone said oh, that was the best meal I've ever had in my life! Some people with a lot of experience were really downplaying it saying this is very disappointing. Would I didn't falling into that category? I don't think it was that. I don't think it was worth it And what do you attribute this disappointment to? Well, the fact that the guy who you know Joel Rubishon's not there. He comes in once every couple months and this is like I'm reminded most of these Vegas restaurants are that way. I mean Bradley Ogden opened a place there and he claimed he was going to move into Vegas and stay there. I've called that restaurant every time I go to Vegas because I know Bradley and he's never there. And none of these guys are. I mean Uber Keller from San Francisco's Florida Lee seems to be in Vegas

27:14 Well, he seems to be in Vegas more than he's in San Francisco. He seems to be in Vegas a lot but he wasn't there either and he wasn't the last couple of times I went there so these restaurants are very reminiscent of the kind of French restaurants you find in the Middle East In many of the big cities Like if you go to Dubai, for example. They have all these French restaurants that are exact copies of the places in Paris and I guess they fly these chefs in once in a while to make sure that everyone's doing everything right but for the most part They're not there and with this quality when you're dealing with super high-end quality The chef has to be there or the qualities just deteriorates because there's no taskmaster Isn't this also what happened?

27:58 What's his name Gordon with his New York restaurants Gordon Ramsay? Yeah, didn't it did those closed down basically because he wasn't there enough I would think that would be the reason yeah But so I asked so anyway they have a French guy running the thing and I asked the guy Who seemed like a nice enough guy but I asked him. I said when does Rubish on coming in apparently He's coming in next week which will bend the time to go He says he comes in once every couple of months for like a week, which seems like actually more than most of these guys will do. And I asked the guy, is he an A-hole to work for? Is he a prick is what I said. I asked him, guy. The French guy looks at me with kind of bug eyed and one of the assistants over sous chef or whatever on this set said yeah!

28:48 He's a real cocksucker. The guy says he's totally, you know... And the French guy, the guy running the thing says I didn't say that and then walks off! And I'm thinking that's what you have to have in these restaurants You have to have a taskmaster who is probably not necessarily adored for his meanness but so that's what I kind of attribute it too Well, of course that is a problem. You know if you run your place You know like an asshole which allow these guys apparently in the workplace seem to need to be just an observation You know if when you're gone then everything's gonna slip

29:32 Yeah, I've noticed this. If you ever get to a place one of the Wolfgang Puck's places... Yeah, I've been to his place in LA! He had a place Post Trio still does in San Francisco. I went there once when he was there and it's like night and day. It is amazing That's the problem with these all these guys that are at that level now some people. I think probably can set up a System where they don't have to be working so much, but I think for the most part They can't do it the third guy his wife can stay in one place though. I think that makes a difference too and

30:14 Well, a little bit. But I think at the very high end, the super high end... Alan Dukas seems to get away with it. He's the only one I've run into where you can go his restaurants not that anybody I'm recommending would spend... Now this guy is expensive but you can go to his restaurants without him being there and be assured that you're gonna get a killer meal. I think he must be able to hire people the right way, but not in that business so I don't know how it works. Let's listen to that bottled water comment. Hey Adam, this is Doug in Illinois calling with a little call out about your show last week where you had mentioned some sort of quote about if Coca-Cola came free out of your tap would just still go to the store and buy it? And that point was no you wouldn't. Well you got to think about water that does come out our taps and how big is the bottled water industry

31:13 and I don't, we consumers are idiots. You know? Especially where I live you know we've got this great Lake Michigan water and I still go out and buy bottle waters now. What is that why do we do that who started that yeah i think it was started with the chi-shi use of uh... the sparkling bottle wash from Perrier years ago in the seventies that became a big deal. I mean, there was only the one or two you could get and then somewhere along the line, I think what happened there was this one moment it was maybe in the late 80's where some of these health nuts came out with it You have to drink so much water all day! You should be drinking eight glasses of water a day It was like a big deal just to drink water all day And it was about the carrying of water too. He had to carry it around

32:02 Well, that became kind of a yuppie thing. And I think it became an image like a cigarette. People would once they stopped smoking they didn't have anything to do with their hands so they moved gravitate towards water. Just carry around the dildo man! That's the easiest thing So anyway, they carried around water and it became like the thing. And you see people pull out the water bottle and they unscrew it and take a swig and then they screw it in place. I mean this is just something to do- It's like a canteen isn't? We used to have canteens as kids remember? You had that green canteen on your belt we should reintroduce that just fucking military canteens! Actually that's a great idea instead of these

32:40 bottle, have a canteen. Have an old military canteen with camouflage on it? Yeah! With one of those chains so you don't lose the top right? Right exactly. Chain rattles around that's a pretty good idea because I've stopped ordering bottled water and I don't buy it in general anyway but in restaurants they all ask specifically for tap water because as far as I'm concerned its certainly regulated, probably better for you It's probably safer to drink and it's free. That's even better paying eight to sixteen dollars on top of your regular dinner bill because they charge like six bucks to eight dollars for a bottle of water man And I hate it when they bring it to your table and the top is already off and you just know that They filled it up in the back with regular top tap water by the way That's why I always tell people only get sparkling bottled water cuz that's the only thing so anyone can tell its real Half assured that they did some work

33:38 Let's see if this guy is anything else you refill those and try to stretch the dollar a little bit But man what a consumerist idiot I am and most of us are that go out and buy bottled water So, I'm not sure if the coca-cola coming out of the tap analogy is quite appropriate for the music industry Okay, sometimes while ago. You know the market drives all right that was from a while yeah Yeah, so There's an interesting piece of news that is going under the radar here, that I want to bring up for this show. After i got my mention of the Latelier which now gives me a tax write-off by the way. Latelier? What does it... Qu'est ce que c'est? That's the River Sean place where I was disappointed in. Oh okay! Gotcha

34:20 So, MS... there was a reporter that was just casually talking on MSNBC. One of their anchors or one of their part-timers who used the term said don't you think they're pimping out Chelsea? Oh yeah! This has become this huge scandal They put the guy on probation For saying that?! Yeah for using the term and apparently what it had The cascade effect began when Hillary heard that he used the term pimped out and she decided that she's gonna pull out of the MSNBC version of these never-ending debates they're having over here. Every two weeks or every week there is a debate. And MSNBC, she was going to say I'm not gonna do the MSNBC debates and so like a good journalistic organization that they are

35:11 put the guy on notice, essentially firing him and said whatever you want Hillary. We'll do whatever you want this is like a bad signal it seems to me that these spineless jerks that are at MSNBC would do this because one of their guys casually used the term pimped out when it was very appropriate It made actual sense in any sort of grammatical or linguistic way They would fire the guy over this because Hillary didn't like it's unbelievable does Hilary understand the the modern cultural reference that That actually refers to does she understand that or is she thinking? Is she still in the days of huggy bear with a big fedora hat being her being Chelsea's pimp I would think that she would the latter would probably be the situation. I mean where she doesn't know understand what the phrase means, or anything in between but

36:05 I mean that would be my guess but even if she did or didn't it's... You know, I mean if that's the case then MSNBC should have explained it to her. Yeah! I don't really even care if she wants to throw a weight around because you can throw your weight around as a politician and tell the news media what to do... What to do and how to speak. Do it! Yeah true. Knock yourself out show you know but these guys are the spineless worms that they apparently are that they can't stand up to the powers. They always say what is truth to power? one of these democrat uh... liberal phrases that's going around. If they can't even do that as a functioning media company, I mean it's hopeless. Hey, I was just galled by this but what really got me is that nobody in the media has jumped up and down in disgust over this. They're just oh yeah well here's what happened let's report it as a news item and blah blah blah on to the next story because it was handled like straight news and I'm thinking how can you like let this slide?

37:08 You know, well we've talked about the state of journalism before. In fact I'm looking this up now there was a... you know Camden Market? Yeah I'm sure you've heard of Camden Market John. Yeah burnt to the ground! Burnt to the ground last night and i was reading the story on the BBC website hold on just gonna find it for second because I just could not believe that they had done this uh hold on camden Gotta love the BBC though. They do have a lot of cool stuff. Uh... Scram, where is it? Okay. Sure tax dollars at work Yes exactly major fire at Camden okay here we go I hope oh crap I didn't want that okay I can't find it but anyway they were able to turn the story in Camden into an entertainment piece unbelievable but because The Pub and that's why I was looking for the

38:07 For the article, I'll find it. There's a pub that also burned to the ground which was frequented by many celebrities including the now in rehab Amy Winehouse! I was blown away they could actually turn... They had to throw an Amy Winehouse plug. They could actually-I mean that was just unbelievable. That is unbelievable. That is pathetic It is but you know this is what its become Just looking at the news, the BBC News. Madeline McCann is still... One of the most important little areas in London burns to the ground and somehow they work in Amy Winehouse which has got nothing to do with this story. Exactly Except she went there once I mean you could probably say almost everybody wants it throw anybody's name in why Amy Winehouse?

38:53 And because you know they've reported on her getting smashed in that bar. I mean it's just it's nuts It's completely nuts is like we can't live without the distraction of entertainment news... ...in everything It's, I don't know. That's terrible! I mean, I find it to be disgusting and the thing is you can rant about it all you want but the public eats this stuff up. Everybody... You can say anything you want to but you could add that little entertainment angle and then next thing you know, the numbers go up There's no sense of responsibility by the media which there should be where they yeah okay we can do that but were not going just do that

39:34 But you know what, obviously it has to be because that's what we as the public want. I mean there is no doubt about it. It's supply and demand We desperately want more stuff that includes news of preferably fucked up celebrities Yeah yes to make you feel better about yourself I guess Is that it? So we're that unhappy, that we have to... Oh, that poor girl. She's got so much talent and look at her she's all screwed up and she's got tattoos all over her. She's just a wreck! But how come- That is so interesting to us. It makes me feel so much better And three million displaced Iraqis you know We don't give a shit about Why is that? Because they're not Amy Winehouse They can't sing That's true

40:23 They can't sing if you can sing I'll care about you bitch That's funny look at the talented little Iraqi kid ah now. I care about him He could dance he could tap dance and saying that would help it's So I noticed this, but I saw the interesting thing they're doing on CBS and they did during it locally to you know This green thing is really it's coming on so strong. It says I think it's gonna burn itself out because it's a little too much. Now they, our local news they have thing called the Green Beat and when they go in there is always some lame story about somebody saving energy or recycling or making up compost pile. And it's just before the weather when they always have the green beat. It's filler John, its when we have no news. Yeah but what weird now that they go to the Green Beat the logo for the station changes just for the Green Beat to green!

41:21 It's unbelievable. It's not gonna burn out dude This is a this is already at ten billion dollar industry the green is here for two for a long time I'm not happy about it Here comes the hate mail So what so anyway, what was their report? They're green report so last week we didn't talk about this until after the show which was and I think it's still worth bringing up because they made a note that Although you know there's a spontaneity is kind of shot when I make notes, but I'm still gonna do this Which is you have an Amex black? Oh right right we did talk about this. I remember yeah, I don't have one but Yes $5,000 a year just to have this card right. This is the black card from American Express which at one point in the

42:13 I'd have to say late 80s, you know it was quite the status symbol to have and i guess it still is although...I can't imagine why. Don't know I've only seen it two of them ever The guy who runs the register John lettuce has one yeah, and he's also did one of the owners and And a friend of mine bill Losey has won now This is how I found the website. What was it black dash amex calm or AmEx? Yeah, you'll have some website that people should check out because it's quite funny Let me see amex. I think was amex dash black comm let me just check yeah

42:52 Yeah They have a pen. This is great they have a picture of all kinds of hip-hop artists like A very exclusive club you definitely want to be associated with there's all kinds of pictures on this weblog Of people holding up their black card inside their Bentley showing their statements Look, I had $45,000 I had to pay him a black card and then what was the one you found? Was it Lindsay Lohan? She's not at the bottom There was a there was a thing maybe I got off No, no. It's still here it's still here still there yeah, it's a picture of Lindsay Lohan the driver's license Yeah And and if her American Express black card with a little right in America express black But what was I do? I was fascinated with that she is like so photogenic that she looks great on her driver's license photo She looks awesome, and she looks a lot better than she does now. I think this is from 2006 This uh this picture no wait a minute

43:50 Yeah, 2006. Yes it is. So anyway, so my only reason for bringing this up is I wanted to make a public complaint. Not about the black card, I don't care and I think you know somebody wants to spend it have one that's okay but the uh... i was told by one of these guys said its great if you travel internationally a lot they're handy but the uh... is in fact an amex came over with blue card which has a smart chip in it which i thought would be a smart card that would be like the ones they have in europe and if anybody travels In France, for example. There's always these complaints about how the service is so bad and the waiters are rude and all the rest of it but the fact that matters you go there and nowadays when you want your check they come out with a slumber J handheld device They grab your smart card stick it on there It sucks the money right out of the car do you sign right on the spot? You never have to you're out of there It's actually much faster than what we do Yeah

44:47 So I figure well, this is cool cuz amyx has got but wait a minute. Wait a minute John now There's there's two different systems. There's the the chip The chip card which actually stores the money on? the chip itself Right and then there's just the regular Chip that has identifying information right instead of the stripe But it's not actually loaded onto the card it just it just checks your balance Right, but the point is is that when they stick this thing in this little slumber J machine Which is wireless to it does that? It does the authorization everything right exactly exactly or it sucks it out of that other type of car which is the That's pretty common over here all restaurants have the wireless swipers well anyway The point I was making was that

45:35 So, I figure Amex is getting on the bad way because the smart card which card with the chip on it has been slow to evolve in the United States because our infrastructure and for what other reasons. And one of them somebody pointed out to me once is that one of the main reasons is that this patents on those cards as held by some French guy until the patents run out. The Americans aren't going to use these cards. Of course. Because we don't want to pay the two cents for this guy's patent Anyway, but the irony to the Amex card is I fear they're doing something smart here. It's not compatible with all the systems in Europe That's amazing. What's the point? I don't understand what incompatibilities there can be though because

46:15 All my European cards work in the US so it just ain't all different machines and ATMs I'm just told that you can't you know the way you can use those cards over there Where they got waiter comes out and just give it to him, and he boom right yeah But it doesn't work with this blue card. Are you sure that if you didn't just get declined? I didn't have one. I'm just telling you what somebody was giving me the lecture about when i was bragging about this card to some smartcard expert he says, you know it's an incompatible system they have to go through the old way, the old mechanism which is that they swipe and send it to some computer... It's not like you can just give them the card walk away like you can with European cards

46:56 Okay, so we don't have any I'm wrong. Maybe someone can correct me But that's what I'm told just gonna say you ever taken off we nobody uses the MX blue We don't have uh...We don't have first-hand experience That's because the cards i think is a dud Now let me ask you this John which of the stories and topics we've discussed today will you be highlighting on twit? Fucker Probably, I haven't been on Twitter for a while. But it's but it's not about this weekend. I wonder what you're talking about here with the twit thing I once on some twit, I think no one's every single episode every single episode You're bringing up great stories about food and travel and I'm jealous I'm like the fucking bitch over here, you know And John's on all these shows and on Twitter have anything to do with that gorilla does it? Just talking about that story got me all worked up

48:05 so But now man use like you're all your best material is going to tech shows Stop it stop it already about tech on the Tech show. Yeah, you don't that's a problem though Once three months ago, you're right I brought something up about cars or something and no you know It was the fig trees and there was all kinds of interesting stuff What about the fig trees? I think it was you were talking about fig trees and how there's one root and that they branch out for acres. I don't know what it was No, no, that's the cashew of the cashew. I'm sorry Yeah, the cashew tree in Brazil is one now. Don't go repeating it go talk to your tech friends about that Story no screw it. I want to hear it anymore. Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah yeah this is mature

48:57 Hey Adam, this message is in response or in regards to rather no agenda. I just wanted to let you guys know that your show is what I imagined podcasting would be when I first started listening to podcasts Oh, two or three years ago. I started out with the DSC to be quite honest You guys are really interesting and i'm really digging the fact that there really is no agenda And that it's whatever is on your guys minds Is what you guys talk about and it? It's kind of weird but i'm uh, I seem to be in agreement

49:33 I feel funny between my legs when i listen to it. Yeah, alright. Oh man this is what podcasting is all about John! It's the unedited voice of the people Well, you know he makes an interesting point about what he expects from podcasts. And I'm kind of in agreement one of the things that should make podcasting a little different is the fact that it's not based on the models that have evolved in radio which are slicker and more produced- Also time driven by an absolute start and finish. Totally time driven with a clock. Yeah yeah yeah

50:19 In fact, you have people don't realize this and they say well I know what I'm listening to. I hate the radio because there's a commercial on every station that has got a commercial at the same time. Do you know when I worked at Z100 in New York? I did The Morning Show for couple months but also did Weekend Swing Shifts They had number of lights in the studio because you have that quarter hour actually your supposed to back into... Back to the music! at 47 minutes past the hour, which always is of course a big power rotation song because when someone hits it like oh yeah that's my favorite song I'm going to listen to it. But we had lights in the studio and you could see exactly when each individual competing station was in commercials

51:04 And it would stay on while they were in commercials. And what you wanted to do was finish everything up before your own commercial break, To be back into music before the lights went off from the other stations That's how competitive radio is or was at least in the 90s Yeah I don't think that's done as much anymore...I think they don't care But uh- There is some general apathy there in Radioland isn't there? Don't ya think? Yeah Because its all owned by Clear Channel Is your phone ready? Hold on, I got somebody ringing the phone. Hang on Alright, I'm gonna play something then while you're doing that Let me see...

51:44 Hello Adam, or I should say hello Adam and John because I intend this message for no agenda. It's uh, Savant Steve in San Francisco Don't ask John And... Uh, I had a comment about the Sarbanes-Oxley stuff now professionally I end up dealing with a lot of socks crap so I don't know if you're listening to me Are you listening to this? Or are you...? Yeah, no, I'm hearing it Oh, you're back! You want me to finish it now? well i want to hear what he said about sarbanes-oxley something about it jones point was quote why did we need a new law uh... because of our city where right a proponent of socks which a yacht but before you get an executive could go well i just didn't know what's going on uh... do you realize what happened sorry and millions of people are out of their pensions at the pitch yes i don't know if there is a point john

52:38 Apparently not Yes, you have to get to the point with it. You know within like 15 seconds This is 44 seconds and get a clue about how to do these clips They got to come in they gotta say I've hit it hard and then get out of there yeah ladies and gentlemen yep, and In or now that way because I hate sorry Baines oxy I think it's ruining It's ruining every single business, it's horrible Well, it's really bad for the tech business. And the thing other people... The other thing that people have to realize is that during this little period where we don't have a lot of public offerings because they're just too hard to do because of Sarbanes-Oxley you just can't get your numbers right and there's too much work and nobody wants to be a director of a public corporation cause of it Is that these giant consortiums of moneyed investment firms are privatizing companies left and right

53:32 And they're doing it to an extreme. That's why all these buyouts, you know, privatize this and privatize that. And they're getting a huge portfolio of companies. So what do you think they're going to do with these companies? The first thing they are going to is clean up their numbers because they don't lose money on the Sarbanes-Oxley things since these are not public corporations. Yes, so strip everything out. They cut everything away, cut into bits if its worth more in individual pieces Right, and they keep, so they fine tune these things that ruin many of them. And then when things loosen up which is gonna happen eventually with the repeal or the modification of Sarbanes-Oxley, the first thing that's gonna happen is these privatized companies are gonna be thrown into the market as individual IPOs. They're going to swamp the market because there are gonna be so many of em' that the little tech companies that actually need the money

54:25 are going to be able to even get the money then. So I mean, right? It's just getting worse by the day as long as this continues to drag on. Well, I think there is a lot more wrong with Wall Street and the whole system. It goes beyond that. I mean, we had this so-called subprime crisis which of course is really a much bigger crisis as now the banks don't trust each other and now the bond rating companies... it's messed up! And i think there's a lot more news to come before we can even look at some kind of healthy IPO market, I think Well probably but As far as I'm concerned its all because of Sarbanes Oxley

55:11 Okay, I'm not gonna fight. It's just a bad idea. I mean and the thing is why would the Republican administration? Be the one that institutes it what are they trying to prove well can your boy John McCain change it since he'll be the next president I don't know what McCain's position is on that. I don't know what his position is on most things and By the way here's the last story. I want to bring up now that you mentioned politics There's a huge thing going on here that is just hilarious. In California, or actually in the Democrat party this year they have a thing called superdelegates and there are 40% of the votes going to the convention are these superdelegates and it seems as though they've already picked Hillary no matter how the public votes. The superdelegates have?

55:58 Yeah, the superdelegates are all on Hillary's side. So that Hillary is going to get this nomination by hook or crook Could you just explain a super delegate? Do they have more power do they have more than yeah No They can they their super delegate unlike two regular delegates when they if they're assigned an area Whatever the public decides doesn't they can do whatever they want in other words They can say okay well you voted for Hillary and but I'm gonna go with Obama Now, locally this has actually happened already in Marin County. The hippy-dippy county over here in the San Francisco Bay Area which voted heavily for Obama and there's a congresswoman from the district who has been given super delegate status to represent Marin and she says I don't care what you voted, I'm voting for Hillary! And so now everybody is up in arms about this. It's actually quite funny to watch. Interesting.

56:51 So, what's the whole point then? Yeah exactly. What is the point of all these primaries if 40% are superdelegates? That's what I hear yeah And how do you get this super delegate status? the democratic national committee when they were put together the program for picking their candidate pre convention yeah i think they dream this thing up i think maybe they've existed before but i think this time and spend design specifically really forked a benefit one candidate and and what's going to happen if this is all you know where i'm ssss perceiving it is that obama could actually be uh... viable but

57:34 Screwed by the system. Yeah, but there's either rigged by the rigged system absolutely the rig system and what that'll do is that'll Burke the black community to such an extreme because they're just gonna see them you know This is another yeah holding a man down you got it And so they're going to not vote. So unless Hillary says, well you know the kids keep the blacks because they did come out in great numbers to vote for Obama. He'll be vice president and that's the as you call it unelectable ticket. It's an unelected ticket. Why again? Why is it unelectable?

58:13 I think there's too many negative votes, people that would just vote against Hillary because they don't like her. And I think a lot of them are women and I think there is just a lot of people who won't vote for a black guy. It is just inherent racism in any system because he is the first one. I mean I do not think that he can win. In fact as long shot as president I think you could actually get the job and I think he might be the President 2012 But out of the shoot, we don't know anything about this guy. He just showed up I mean i didn't hear about him four years ago he's uh you know he's basically a newbie um... A noob! He's a newbie and Hillary is kind of a sleazeball and his combinations not electable Let me ask you though did you think Chelsea had gotten hotter after they pimped her out? I thought she looked a little hotter

59:03 I don't know. She's, you know... she seems like a nice enough person but you know i don't see the stink or...I'm sure she would have thought it was funny to ask her what she thought about being pimped out? Yeah really that's who we need to hear from is from Chelsea. That would be good for her to stand up and say yeah fuck you MSNBC uh the Republican Party do they also have super delegates No, the Republicans did something different though. I don't think so. I don't know but you know that we were publicans have gone with the You know letting people vote for them But they pulled a couple of interesting stunts and one of them cracks me up in California again So I'm registered independent And and I've been a Democrat and I've been a Republican now. I'm an independent so I've you know Looking at things from all sorts. You can do whatever you want

59:55 So I, yeah that's what I thought. So when I went to go vote which I did at almost the last minute because I figured well you know I should at least throw some votes out because actually there was a local measure I wanted to vote for so I went in there and they said are listed as an independent? And I said yes then you can use the Democrat or the Independent ballot which one do you want? What?! And I'm thinking what about the Republican? I wanted to use that ballot And they said no, the Republican Party this year in California... Oh I did know about this. Yeah because there was a big drive for Ron Paul supporters to you know that they had to know that they absolutely had to register as a Republican if they wanted to make sure their vote would be permitted and or counted

1:00:44 Right, so the Republicans have essentially cut off these you know these freelance independents from sticking their nose into their business and I was kind of surprised by it. So I took this boy took the Democrat ballot and voted for Obama oh man So do you mind me asking who you were gonna vote for if you had been allowed to vote for clearly a Republican candidate? Well, I was either going to vote for Ron Paul or I was really feeling a strong sense of throwing a wrench into the works and voting for Huckabee. No! Yeah, Ron Paul all... Because Huckabee is the funniest guy. He is funny. If there were an open mic competition with all these candidates, Huckabee would kick everybody's butt. True. He's hilarious.

1:01:34 Ron Paul kind of sent a concession notice out. I'd say kind of because he's not pulling out the race and he'll continue all the way through but obviously they're scaling back their campaign and he also has a gubernatorial race, I guess? No not gubernatorial... congressional So it was kinda like well we're gonna pull back a little bit but he is going to go all the way to the convention Yeah, well he has 40 or 50 delegates. It's about the message John it is not about the man. Well the message is not going anywhere apparently. Unfortunately...well that's not true there are people who voted for him so there are people who heard and there are people who were clued in and we'll stay awake you know no matter who becomes president will pay attention will make noise and its really more about an idea

1:00:44 Right, so the Republicans have essentially cut off these you know these freelance independents from sticking their nose into their business and I was kind of surprised by it. So I took this boy took the Democrat ballot and voted for Obama oh man So do you mind me asking who you were gonna vote for if you had been allowed to vote for clearly a Republican candidate? Well, I was either going to vote for Ron Paul or I was really feeling a strong sense of throwing a wrench into the works and voting for Huckabee. No! Yeah, Ron Paul all... Because Huckabee is the funniest guy. He is funny. If there were an open mic competition with all these candidates, Huckabee would kick everybody's butt. True. He's hilarious.

1:01:34 Ron Paul kind of sent a concession notice out. I'd say kind of because he's not pulling out the race and he'll continue all the way through but obviously they're scaling back their campaign and he also has a gubernatorial race, I guess? No not gubernatorial... congressional So it was kinda like well we're gonna pull back a little bit but he is going to go all the way to the convention Yeah, well he has 40 or 50 delegates. It's about the message John it is not about the man. Well the message is not going anywhere apparently. Unfortunately...well that's not true there are people who voted for him so there are people who heard and there are people who were clued in and we'll stay awake you know no matter who becomes president will pay attention will make noise and its really more about an idea

1:02:33 Well, I'll tell you the one thing that's going on here since you're in London. You're not privy to it necessarily unless you listen to some of these guys on the internet but the right-wing talk show guys are just there's some deal that wasn't done or somebody didn't get bought off for this something screwy about the fact that they hate McCain really Well, this is of course where all the sentiment comes from that the Republicans you know that they don't agree with McCain but it's not really the party. It's the right-wing talk guys Right so right the right wing the super conservatives They call them you know they speak for the conservatives Rush Limbaugh I'm not sure if that's true But whatever the case is rush limbaugh is the one leading the way leading to charge and but all the other guys pretty much fall in line

1:03:20 And, uh, it's pretty interesting to listen to it because I can't figure out and you know, you'd think that well maybe it's because of this immigration bill that McCain tried to push to get amnesty. The rest of it, that's what George Bush was for that they voted for him but doesn't count. They think he's a liberal in sheep's clothing or he talks to Democrats too much or he's, you know, he's too friendly to, um, Democrats, I guess. He's a Democrat underneath it all they claim but he's not and I don't see it And um...I don't know. I think the whole thing is somewhat baffling You immediately assume someone hadn't been paid off. That's kind of interesting as a statement I mean there's some way that doesn't have to be nothing about money I'm being like, you know somebody having a meeting or somebody got stiffed or you know Somebody said can I have an appointment with any wish we can chat about what your policies are now? Come on my show man come on my show and talk who'd talk on my show

1:04:12 Yeah, stuff like that. I mean it doesn't take much to get somebody in broadcasting who's been... Pissed off Who is huge with millions of listeners to get kind of full of themselves. Yeah! Kinda like me. You're a perfect example. Yeah, I'm a great example of that. The Adam Curry ego catch. I don't think anybody in broadcasting gets that way Alright John, I think we've had it for this week. Do you got anything else? No, I went through the whole list and except Oh this was an actual list from notes you took From last week, yeah. I put them underneath the printer here so I wouldn't lose them because that's typically what happens and so I have a list there was a couple of things on here like green public relations...I don't understand what that means you know it's just typical I don't know what i'm doing here. Dororak notes? Interesting benefits for the Amex black uh-huh um I don't know

1:05:09 All right, and that literally wraps up another episode of No Agenda coming to you from the United Kingdom in the Curry Manor. I'm Adam Curry. And I'm John C. Dvorak in Northern California. Another Pod Show Podcast!