This is a download from the FM 89.9, the Business Station. It's fun Friday, my name is Jaffsan Du, last week, Collegepop's man Amatage was happy. It was the first week of the year and his mints, pie, sugar rush had sustained him into the new year. Good stuff though, we should have more of that.
This week he wants to get serious and he tells the tech industry what we expect of it in 2018. So it's time to Matt's plane. Any connections between today's show and CES in Las Vegas? Hey Jaff, good morning.
Yes and no. I'm not going to talk about CES because we're going to talk about it more in Geeks. I'm not going to spoil that. But I do have some important things to say to Silicon Valley.
Today's show is a manifesto. It's a clarion call. It may be the most important broadcast that you will hear this year. I want to invite the technology industry to rise to our challenge and show off its best side.
It's time for the world's best and brightest to use their brains and their ingenuity to solve problems in our lives that have persisted for millennia. They may have to halt their pursuit of deep space and deep ocean or cast aside their bezels and their artificial intelligence to give us the solutions we truly deserve. Today, I want to talk to you about the things that technology forgot to fix. The things that got left behind.
The things that no one thought we needed. To Silicon Valley, the billionaires, the visionaries, I ask you, help us make 2018 a trivial year. Well that was Eddy climax, Matt. Well don't think of it as an anti-climax.
Think of it as getting the details right. You know, going back and fixing the things that we missed. Technology is a wonderful thing, but we tend to leap ahead in these great big jumps. And you have to wonder who is left behind to fix the things that get overlooked.
You know, the things that won't make the headlines. I can give you an example. One of the failed or not yet realized crowd funding campaigns I invested in was for magnetic shoes because shoes haven't really changed a lot in hundreds of years. Yes, rebot brought in a NASA scientist to look at energy returning shoes, but you have to wonder if that was for the headlines as much as it was for the usefulness.
But does it matter? Well, no, and that's kind of my point. By and large, our shoes are still an upper a sole and some laces, and they've been like that for a really, really, really long time. Yes, science has played with the materials we used to make them.
Souls are no longer made of leather and they're not hammered in with nails anymore. Thank God. Because even when I was a kid, adults would complain that the nails had come through and were hurting their feet. So, you know, it's really not that long ago.
So when I invested in the magnetic shoes, which are essentially an upper that floats above the sole on a cushion of magnetically charged air, I was interested because they offered a truly different way of looking at shoes and maybe a different way of walking. I wanted to see if this would be, you know, their evolution or whether it was just going to be a gimmick. Turns out, it was actually basically just a pipe dream for a group of developers who really didn't understand what they were getting into because they still don't exist. So who made you king of all that is trivial?
Good question, of course, nobody, which is why I crowdsourced today's show to find out what real and actual people would like science to solve. Now, to say, I was pretty pleased with the results, although I did have to explain the idea a bit more fully to a couple of people who wanted intergalactic whiz bangs. Gray, your teleportation device, that means you. Yes, we all want a teleporter, but the small matter of matter has to be resolved first.
So where do we start? Well, it turns out that for the 80 or so years that we've had nuclear weapons, they've mostly been too large. This request comes not from my own Facebook, but from a Mr. DJ Trump.
He has decided that the world needs a more usable nuclear weapon. And as he has access to his own military development labs, he's jolly well going to make them. Of course, during the communist era, the USSR was supposed to have developed suitcase bombs. These were basically mini nukes that could be hand-carried and easily deployed behind enemy line in cities.
Some were also rumored to have disappeared after the fall of the USSR, but I'm sure they're being well cared for somewhere or other. And DJT? Well, it turns out that the US is nuclear arsenal as well as being very old is also extremely powerful. So you can't set one of their nukes off without causing some kind of extinction level event, which is a problem if you want to subject a few thousand people to nuclear fallout, but not absolutely everyone.
So the strategic idea is that it would counter the potential that an adversary like Russia might use strategic or tactical nuclear devices of its own in a European war, based on the assumption that the US would not retaliate with its own much larger nuclear devices, which would cause too much devastation. Of course, whether or not you would want DJT to have access to usable nuclear weapons, depends on where you sit on the political and insanity spectrum. Anyone else offer you useful suggestions? Yes, I'm not convinced about the usefulness of all of them, but lots of suggestions.
So Chris suggested some kind of smart mix of taps to predetermine the temperature of the water coming out. Well, it turns out Chris that that technology already exists. In fact, a bunch of companies were showing off this kind of tech at CES this year. They've even taken it a step further into the world of voice technology so that you can ask Alexa to turn on the water and it will be at the exact temperature that you request.
Something that you can buy now is a swish and stylish device called Nomos by a company called Fima-Kala-Fratini, which does exactly that. It has a little display pattern, you key in the desired temperature and the tap makes this hot and cold water to that effect. I am surprised that these haven't become a lot more common, to be perfectly honest, but maybe it's voice control and singing to your shower that's going to be the killer feature. Yeah, let's stick with the body, shall we?
Well, yes, sort of. Anyway, Ronnie wants an app that automatically opens closed eyes in photos. Ah! Right, exactly.
We've all been there, especially anybody that tries to take photo of me. You know, you take the group photo and there's always one person who's mid-blink or they've got their eyes screwed shut in case you're going to use the flash. If you're lucky, you check the photo while you're there, you see the mistake and you retake it, but most often it's really only later on. It's when you want to upload it to somewhere and you realise that George and Georgina have ruined your photo for the umpteenth time with their stupid, squinty eyes.
Now, there is a fix in software like Adobe Photoshop that can analyse previous photos where, for example, you've jammed Georgie's eyes open with your fingers and AI will match the data to the damaged photo and repair it. But that's not really a quick fix. That's a fix that you can do if you're an art director, creating the cover for Italian Vogue. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any apps that do this yet, although Google has filed a patent that would allow its photos to be something very similar.
But I don't think that's actually with us yet. So come on Google, make Ronnie Happy and stop us unfriending George and Georgina and their squinty squinty eyes. Well, we've got time for one more before we hit the break. OK, the thing about asking people for specific fixes for trivial things is that you get trivial things.
You know, most of us are not Elon Musk. Our lives are very much trivial. But these trivial, these little things are what makes life bearable. And for Wenshen, it's actually something that should be really easy to fix.
You're really building the anticipation with this one here. I'm trying. OK. Cast your mind back to the past when life was sepia-tinged and no one had heard of photo filters.
Remember a time when TV shows were weekly when you had to wait 167 mind-numbing hours to find out what was going to happen to a certain stack house? Yeah, I know. Well, back in those days when our streets were full of gunfighting cowboys and orphaned seeds, it made sense to have a little recap of the previous episodes and a nice long intro sequence to your favorite show. In the world of in the Age of Netflix, rather, not so much.
You've plumped up the cushions on the sofa, you've filled a cooler with sodas and potato chips. If that cushion hit a commode, you wouldn't be moving for the next 10 hours. So why do you have to sit through an intro sequence and or a recap as one episode spills into the next? Yes, you can scroll it, but for example, the only way to speed through anything on my Apple TV remote is to actually sit on it, which activates some function that only my butt cheeks seem to be able to get to.
Netflix already cuts the full credits in the end sequence until the final episodes, so why not just do the same with the intro? Come on, Netflix, make one shed happy. It's such a tiny little fix. Actually, I thought they already did the intro.
You could actually skip the entire intro of the TV series. For Stranger Things, I had the option for Nagos, I had the option as well. Really, maybe it's just on Netflix. I think it's on the original.
Yeah, it shows. It's on the original production of Netflix. You can skip the intro. Yeah, do it for all of it.
I got a love head relationship with that, because for Stranger Things and Nagos, I leave it on, because the intro... You don't need to see it. I don't need to see it. I enjoy the music in it.
I think that's my emotional connection with this intro. Pause it and play it. We'll go for a short break and we'll return in just a moment. 89.9.
Be firmly motivated. Be a fan. 89.9. We're back.
My name is Jaz Sandu. Before the break, Matt got truly trivial, requesting fixes for Netflix intros for all kinds of shows that's on Netflix. The addicted mixer taps and smaller and more usable nuclear weapons. That's the scale we're talking about here.
Yeah, it's a broad range. Very, very, very broad. They haven't mentioned it in the same sentence before. How about a nuclear weapon with mixer taps?
It could be too. Or you could have a mixer tap that mixes... Yeah, we're getting somewhere. You mentioned about heavy bags and power consumption.
Those come up on your tip sheets. Batteries, batteries, batteries. When I ask people to contribute to today, I got a lot of batteries. But the first person to claim ownership of the batteries was Herman so we continued to load up with things that are very hungry for power Maybe this one isn't so trivial.
Maybe this is you know a bit more kind of essential Yeah, we are making some incredible devices, but we're consistently let down by the things that power them I know there isn't a quick and easy solution for this one I know we're already pushing the limits of the battery technologies that we already have You know we talk about how amazing it is that bezels are falling off the screens of our phones But it's less cool when you have an umbilical cord dangling in front of your groin because your five thousand dollar smartphone Can't live without being tethered to an ally on brick in your other pocket So this year I want all of the phone and computer and electric car designers to stop what they're doing and sort out batteries Yeah, I don't care how you do it ultra efficient solar panels saltwater conversion You can run them directly from our hearts if you want it doesn't matter do what it takes and get it sorted otherwise You know we're just buying fancy paperweights, so I implore you do it for me do it for a man do it for the world It's a week of really great speeches. I mean you fed my from Oprah and Okay, I mean I've put myself in Oprah's lead to begin with Shoe Laces Matt yes, Tana and Kay would like to have their shoe laces sorted I mentioned shoes at the start with the magnetic shoes laces work pretty well They have done for I don't know probably hundreds of years maybe even longer than that But are they the best solution like belts on your trousers not really? There are other options velcro which of course look like a child Zips come on it's a shoe and it's barely work for trousers and breasts is they are nobody's idea of the go-to solution Slip ons yes, they have their uses but you know, they're not really elegant So come on engineer people, you know you can send spaceships to Mars think about it picture the future Elon Musk exits his shuttle He takes his first steps on the red planet There's no way he's gonna ruin that moment by bending down and trying to fumble through his spacesuit with the laces on his boot Even worse he might not notice he trips and he flies off in orbit towards the Sun. Come on science Are you trying to ruin Elon's dream sort it out, please fixing a lot of these examples seems quite obvious What about the things that have been overlooked?
I'm back to one Shen for this one and I have to admit I really do like this one He wonders why aircon can't be more targeted so for example He wants one that will cool one side of the bed more than the other Okay Or if you're face deep in nachos watching the crown an aircon that can leave one side of the sofa toasty and the other frigid You know it might sound silly But in how many homes is that a constant source of friction one partner says oh, it's too hard the other says it's too cold I know it happens in my house all the time I even have a little portable AC unit by the side of my bed that gives me a little frost boost So that I can keep the overall temperature warmer for my other half So I think we'll probably be doing a bit of a special on cooling tech in the next few months So aircon makers you've still got time to make us happy and help us to create these micro climates We haven't heard anything about social media so far. Does anyone have any fixes for the communicators? This one's from Ian. He wants to know what on earth is going through the minds of Facebook and Google's user experience developers And yeah, exactly.
I have to agree with him. It does what's going on? It feels like we're going backwards You know the early versions of these services they were not very user friendly We know that you had to search around to find stuff and there really was quite a steep learning curve But now because all these services are adding so much functionality that bloat is killing the user experiences For example, I'm the administrator for my company's Google Suite stuff I have to Google how to find and use stuff in Google's admin panel. I'm okay I've never figured out how to get all the mobile permissions synced That just seems to be impossible or Instagram Why can I only see direct mail items in Instagram from the feed page when it make more sense for it to be on my home page Where all of my pictures are stored why when I'm looking at somebody else's pictures doesn't make a lot of sense Nobody knows how to use that chat.
No, I don't know exactly Twitter seems to be the only one jogging the trend although why we need longer tweets is Anybody's guess but even the humble Facebook making a Facebook post is more post doc these days You know have you seen all the options now if you want to tell someone you've been reading or watching something you have to jog past Half a million emojis in tabs to actually find this stuff. So come on less time spent on scraping our browser history more usability, please So what are you gonna round off today with then? I've got a couple of real do'sies to finish off today As Simon wants to see washing machines that self-adjust according to how heavy the load is that could reduce the wash time the spin cycle It would use less water and detergent all that can stuff so use less power washing machines are great But they're not really what you call intuitive to use you still have to pour in all those liquids and powders Obviously, it's a lot better than the old way of doing everything by hand But I don't think washing machines have really kept pace with technology They you know they're not really looking to the future and I'm not a spin cycle engineer But I don't think that analyzing the weight and adjusting programs automatically would really be that big and ask so go on hot point Love us up. I have no idea where we're hitting after watching machines Well, I'm gonna end today with an ask from BFM alumnus Joe and then yes So he kindly posted it Joe and I had a bit of a back and forth on this one because I think our visions of how it might work Are slightly different Joe is tired of stamps being so stampy and you know I have to agree with him I think about how easy it is to track people even when we don't like to be tracked all kinds of our devices give off location signals via GPS or Wi-Fi or RFID and all kinds of other types of signal But when you post a letter or send a parcel it enters this kind of black hole of semi-existence the second you drop it through the slot But why you know even when you send something via a courier or by registered post it only flashes up Intimitantly when somebody physically scans a barco.
So you think that's a better way Well, it does have to be a better way. Um, that's the way we've been sending posts since postal services were invented And like I said, Joe and I have different opinions on how to go about this Joe thinks we should replace or enhance stamps with some kind of GPS device So that way every package would switch on at frequent intervals to update its status I'm not sure that's possible given the power requirements for the the GPS transmitters I don't think we really want to think about battery powered stamps at this point Especially, you know for the price of a 60 cents stamp GPS transmitter might not quite work But as most postal infrastructure is actually fixed I wondered if some form of RFID sensor on the package would be possible then numerous points throughout the postal change and all the way up to delivery There would be RFID scanners logging the packages and those scanners would then upload the data back to the tracking site So you'd get almost real-time updates on where your parcel is I'm sure that somebody has got to have something like this in development If you do know something like this drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter at BFM radio because I really would like to know more about stamps How much hope is there that anyone is actually listening? No very little as I said, these things are very trivial Life functions pretty well without most of these things being improved or solved But it's that danger of moving too far forward with a lot of things that are only half done It's that well, I think it's good enough philosophy So many of our other technologies are so far beyond good enough that it's really hard to accept that good enough Kind of mantra anymore. It's almost as though somebody is saying well It's good enough for you It might not be for me, but it's good enough for you and it isn't if I or our listeners can dream it better Then it isn't good enough and I know these are first-world problems that said I would love to see some of the solutions to these being presented at CES next year I'm a teacher talking about how technology can solve the trivial stuff the stuff that we've forgotten back in the Early days, I guess the early days of a bad day It's actually still very new But that's the point we move so far away from these things so quickly and people forget to go back and kind of fine-tune the Details or maybe there is a reason to forget some of those stuff Thank you for listening to this podcast to find more great interviews go to bfm.my or find us on iTunes BFM 89.9 the business station