Hollywood writers are now officially on strike after negotiations for streaming pay fell short. KFI's Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro is back for 'Tech Tuesday'! Apple's first "rapid response" software update has hit the iPhone, Amazon is discontinuing a product they had high hopes for, and the Oneplus Pad is actually a decent alternative to the iPad, but you should wait to buy it. And Dean Sharp returns from his vacation for Handel and The House Whisperer. Dean gives tips on why "design matters most," getting on the same page with your partner and the importance of time when preparing for a big project.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You're listening to kf I AM sixforty the Bill Handles show on demand on
the iHeartRadio app kf I AM sixforty Handle here. Tuesday morning, May
second, the all of the Hollywoodwriters strike is on and tonight you'll see
the first of it on the latenight shows, late night talk shows.
(00:21):
And the strike is going to happen. Last time there was a strike one
hundred days. For that one hundredand twenty six days, so be prepared
for a fairly long strike. There'sa lot of issues going on too that
we've never had before. You know, Welcome to AI, Welcome to streaming.
And I'll talk more about that atseven thirty. Also, Gordon Lightfoot
is dead. Yeah. I wasa huge fan of Gordon Lightfoot. I
(00:45):
still am Canadian. Just really goodstuff. I thought, very unique singer.
Now I want to do a storythat just broke and is this is
La Times, And what helpful anylegislators are preparing to do is pass a
law providing victims of childhood secondly sexualabuse a new window to file lawsuits.
(01:08):
And of course who's resisting it?Oh, I don't know. School districts,
colleges, youth athletic groups, insurancecompanies who write checks, they're going
hold on not so quick. Now, three years after a law went into
effect, La County, and we'retalking about facilities that were to protect,
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rehabilitate the region's ute. What endedup happening was these court filings have grown
so large that these facilities, itlooks like, are one of the biggest
institutional offenders that have ever been.Two weeks ago, the budget was given
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and county official delivered to the supervisorsfigures that even stunned the California sex abuse
attorneys that ask for the moon andthe county. It's predicted the county is
going to be forced to spend betweenone point six billion and three billion dollars
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to resolve about three thousand claims thatit legedly took place in foster homes,
children's centers, probation camps, probationhalls dating back in the nineteen fifties.
So the county is gearing up tolitigate these cases, bringing on eleven law
firms to work on these claims.And here is the wrinkled here. A
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lot of these claims can't even bedefended by the county. And why is
that? Because they can't investigate theseclaims. Why is that because they know
no longer have the relevant records.So you have a sex abuse victim who
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is up and testifying as to whathappened to him or her, and there
really isn't much of a defense.Who goes up Officer Smith is accused of
the it is accused of the abuse. Well, either Officer Smith is dead.
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Because a lot of it happened inthe fifties Austin. Officer Smith said,
I wasn't even there, and Iwas actually working in a different department.
I was working in a different facility. I was working in a different
area. There's no records because thisgoes back to the fifties. We're talking
sixty seventy years. We're talking aboutforty years, and how is that possible?
(03:47):
Isn't there a statute of limitations outthere? There was? But let
me explain, And I think whenit comes to child abuse, especially by
the authorities or the boy Scouts orthe church, it's a different animal.
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And when you look at opening upthe Statute of limitations, it makes a
lot of sense. None of thecounty facilities, the county is thrilled with
this, and they're defending county hashired eleven big name law firms. How
do you think how much those guyscost seven eight hundred dollars an hour?
And they're not shy about putting lotsof lawyers on it. There's the reason
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you go to law school, andthat is I remember the first day of
law school. I remember contracts,guys, here's what we're going to study.
And usually you have the first tenantof contract law. And my professor
said money in huge letters across theblackboard. I go, yes, that's
(04:57):
why we do that in any case. So the county is looking at all
this going back to the fifties andyou go, wait a minute, a
statute of limitation aren't how do yousue for abuse that happened or any kind
of tort that happened forty fifty yearsago. Well, because it is recognized
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now that victims of sexual abuse thisis one of those crimes. But these
are settlements because the statute of limitationstill goes on for the criminal aspect of
it. But the civil trial,the case, the civil case for the
damage mental physical damage. They've openedup the statute. The Child's Victims Act
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went into effect and it permanently allowsvictims of childhood and sexual assault to sue
up to the age of forty.Now for a three year period, they
could sue only until they were twentysix. That was previously that three year
window was open for victims older thanforty to sue. You could be eighty
and sue during that three week window. So that's passed. But you know
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what attorneys are doing. They're stillfiling claims. You know why, because
they're arguing during the pandemic everything wasshut down. Therefore, for that year
and a half at everything was shutdown. That extends the statute of limitations
that has not been decided yet,that has not been lidicated. So here
(06:30):
is a story and one of thelawyers, Doug Roshan, it represents more
than five hundred people alleging they wereabused at county probation camps and juvenile halls.
And he's got a lot of clientsclearly, and he said there's a
common thread that he picked up thatchildren and this one is not so much
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the abuse, which of course happened, but they were threatened with punishment if
they told higher ups about the abuse, much like what happened in the Catholic
church, much like what happened inthe Boy Scouts, and we're rewarded with
commissary items or McDonald's for staying quiet. Kids were groped in the bathrooms and
(07:14):
showers, and of course outside ofcamera angles because those people knew where the
cameras were. So one of theseconsistent themes turning the blind eye. And
this is where I think these organizationsare I think particularly at fault. Now,
why is it that these the church, the juvenile halls, the Boy
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Scouts and other organizations, why arethey apt to have so many child molesters
there? It's because not because they'reat fault. It's not because they're a
place that people do this. Asa matter of course, it's a perfect
place for a child molester to be. People who do this will gravitate to
(08:01):
these jobs because they're trusted, becausesociety tended to believe them. Now,
a guy standing on the three corneroutside and talking to kids right there there
suspicion. A priest not so much, a probation officer, someone who works
(08:26):
in the juvenile hall, a socialwork in that area not so much.
A Boy Scout leader not so much. So they tend to gravitate and I'll
tell you where the real crime is. The real crime as the organization is
covering it up, knowing that ithappens, and covering it up to protect
(08:48):
the organization, to protect the bureaucracy. And this happened across the board,
and particularly in the Catholic Church,which I have to say it stopped today.
I think if a pret is accusedof child molestation, being a predator,
the system immediately clamps down on it. Investigations happen, but that's fairly
(09:09):
recent and the real crime was goingup the ladder, and frankly, I
think that would resonate with an attorneyso much not allowing it to happen,
because you know, you've got cockroachesout there. What you have is you
have these predators who are very smart. They're put in positions of trust.
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You've got a five year old kid. You've got someone that's come back forty
years later and said, look whathappened to me. There's no records and
all you have is a memory thatyou're gonna put a psychiatrist or a psychologist
on the sand. Yeah, repressedmemories sort of up in the air.
But the protection part that I wouldnail that organization for how dare you protect
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these people knowing this was going on, or even if you didn't know,
not investigating that was going on.Let's call the kid a liar. Let's
believe our employee. One of Roshan'sclients was a teenager at Perdina's juvenile hall.
It's been since closed down, andin two two thousand and four,
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he reports an officer for molestation fourtimes. Every time he filled out a
slip detailing the alleged abuse, hedidn't hear back four times. I mean,
it is beyond offensive. Now,what's going to happen is you're not
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going to hear hundreds of cases thatare going to be heard by hundreds of
judges. What does happen in thesecases is that cases with similar allegations are
all combined and heard by the samejudge. So probation facilities are in one
juvenile holes are in another court,and you're going to see basically one trial,
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one big, big trial. Exceptyou're not going to see trials.
You're gonna see settlements. You aregoing to see settlements. If the county
county ends up spending three billion dollarson these settlements, which seems to be
what's going to happen. Attorneys sayit would dwarf the payouts of any sex
abuse case they've ever heard of.The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a
(11:30):
poultry six hundred and sixty million dollarssettlement. Sc paid a not so paltry
but a smaller amount than this settlementone point one billion dollars USA Gymnastics three
hundred and eighty million dollars LA County. It looks like it's going to be
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close to three billion dollars. Isn'tthat special? Yep, welcome to Although
we've gotten better. We have gottenbetter, I must say. And the
way you get better is you slapthese organizations with huge settlements, finds jury
awards to the point where he gota bunch of ours diocese that just went
(12:13):
bankrupt straight out, boy Scouts ofAmerica just went bankrupt, straight out,
but they still have to pay.It goes in front of a bankruptcy judge,
and the judges doesn't just say,oh, you're gonna be okay.
The judges say, let's figure outwhat you pay now. The other big
story and boyds that resonate here insouthern California is the writers strike, the
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Writers Guild, they started striking.You'll see them today probably picket lines across
LA New York other cities. Theunion and the producers organization unable to reach
that last minute deal. They couldn'tdo it, so the three year contract
expired. And here there's what theGrids Guild says. The company's behavior has
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created a gig economy inside a unionworkforce, and the way that writers work,
the way the entertainment industry works visaof either writers was never anticipated.
No such deal could ever be contemplatedby this membership. So in a statement,
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the Alliance of Motion Picture and TelevisionProducers, this is a group of
like three hundred and fifty production companies, big and small, they're all together
representing the production side, said thatoffered a generous increases in compensation as well
as improvements in streaming residuals. Okay, I think that can be worked out,
(13:48):
and I think the Writers Guild isprobably going to prevail. It does
pretty well with these strikes, therehave been three of them. Problem is
they last awhile and the Alliance saidit was prepared to improve the offer,
but they can't go past the magnitudeof the other proposals that are still on
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the table. It's not just improvingworking conditions and pay. It's the big
stuff. And what is the bigstuff? Well, first of all,
writers want a larger just a largerslice of the streaming pie. Streaming has
totally transformed television completely. The walkoutwe're working for weeks or months probably gonna
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halt, probably is gonna halt.So much TV and film production across the
country, affected most here in southernCalifornia because not only do you have the
shows, you have the prop houses, you have the caters, you have
all of these various companies and theancillary businesses surrounding it. You shut down
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across the street, right just downthe street, all of We've got Warner
Brothers, You've got dis here,You've got Burbank Studios. How about the
restaurants around there? How are theygoing to do? And so the big
issue is the number of people thatare in a writing room that has been
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reduced traumatically longer hours. And they'refiguring it all that out. But I'll
tell you what a big issue is, and I don't know how they're going
to figure this out, is whatdo they do with AI. What are
you going to do with AI whenscripts can be written by an artificial intelligence
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program? Because you throw in aprogram saying I want a crime drama in
which the victims are a family,and it just takes something from the news,
you know what we did yesterday,and all of a sudden you throw
that into a program and outcomes thescript, and comes a good script because
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every script that has ever been writtenaround that genre has been already done,
and AI knows all about it,has read everyone no end can connect the
number of people who watched it andhow long it was either on the TV
screen or in the movies. Andthis is a successful formula. This is
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what we've done. These are thepeople that were stars in it. This
was the production designer, Here wasa director putting all of that together,
and you've got brilliant How do youdeal with that? And they are everybody's
trying to figure it out. Also, the Writer's Guild of America says that
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all of these practices have simply erodedtheir pay. The mini rooms where small
groups of writers, I said onshort order series are hired to craft an
arc of a show. Because nowgood television shows have an arc. You
have to watch all of them.Used to be episodic TV. Everyone was
individual. If you miss one,no big deal for the next one,
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Well, that doesn't happen anymore.You like arcs, I do to be
a season of twelve episodes that gofor an hour is a twelve hour movie.
And man, that really is characterdevelopment when you have a good written
script. So they don't do atraditional production of pilots anymore. It's a
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whole different world. And we're seeinggoing to happen at seeing what's gonna happen.
And then as the last one Isaid earlier to show you the difference
in what happens today and what happenslast time there was a strike fifteen years
ago, Netflix one of the majormajor players sitting down on the side of
the producers negotiating contracts. Last timethere was a strike, it was a
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mail order CD movie company. Theyjust rented you a movie on the CD,
sent it by mail, you sentit back. And today it's one
of the biggest players in the worldalso with this strike, and who's going
to score big as Netflix? AndI'll tell you why. A huge number
of neck Flix production is overseas,South Korea, Thailand, I mean all
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over the place. You go toNetflix and there are films from you know,
all subtitled of course, from allover the world. Netflix is going
to do just great. I juststarted El Chapo on Netflix. Yeah,
I mean all of it. Yeah. If you're a fan of Narcos,
you can do this. Yeah,I love a good one. Now I
want to get to uh something thatwe're going to talk about a whole lot
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that's going to literally affect our lives, every one of us in a major,
major way. So let me startwith a what sorry sorry, sorry,
got it. Let me start witha character, if you will,
or an individual who is actually knownas the godfather of a His name is
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Jeffrey Hinton, and he is anartificial intelligence pioneer. So in twenty twelve,
I'm talking what thirteen years ago,Hinting and two of his graduate students
at the University of Toronto created technologythat became the foundation of the AI system.
Everybody said, Ah, you're kindof crazy, this is so hypothetical.
(19:21):
Yeah you think so. So yesterdayhe joined a growing chorus of critics
that say, this is very dangerous. Stop now, keep in mind he
basically created it, and he saidcompanies are racing toward danger, serious world
danger with the aggressive campaign to createproducts based on AI, and we know
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what that is at this point.Chat GPT, for example, one of
the chatbots. He was at Googlefor ten years where he was developing this,
became one of the most respected voicesin this entire field, and he
quit so he can talk about therisks of AI, and he is saying
now, which he can because he'sfree to talk. He's no longer with
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a Google and he regrets his life'swork. And industry leaders as well as
academics and people in politics who areactually looking into this believe that these new
AI systems could be as important andI believe this completely as the introduction of
the web browser in the early nineteennineties, where computers creates and you can
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get every bit of information that hasever existed on the planet, and it's
all there on the Internet. Now, the difference is you go on the
Internet and you put someone's name inthere and up pops Wikipedia or up pops
of biography or photos. You canjust get any of that. This generative
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AI can do it instantly and createcan create books and records. We know
about that with Drake, create songs, fake your voice so no one can
tell. Now Open ai, thefolks that do chat GPT more than a
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thousand technology leaders researchers. Open aireleased and signed an open letter calling for
a six month moratorium on the developmentof new systems. They didn't sign it,
but they released the information because AIquote the AI technologies post profound risk
to society and humanity. Bottom lineis, scientists who know this stuff are
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absolutely scared to death. And whenchat GP came aboard, so many people
us for a moratorium. Hang on, we need at least six months just
to begin to figure out where thisgoes and can we put some limitations on
it. Google's chief scientists said,we remain committed to a responsible approach to
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AI and we're continuing continually learning tounderstand emerging risks while innovating boldly. That
is the phrase we have to lookat, innovating boldly. And why is
that? Because you have a coupleof companies that are now moving forward.
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You've got Google, You've got othercompanies that are developing this, and because
it's competitive, because it's America,because you want to be the first out,
you want to be able. Anycompany wants to get some kind of
a foothold, and quickly they're goingballs to the wall. Forget about responsible
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use and development of AI. That'sgone, And what you're seeing now is
they're doing everything they can as quicklyas they can to develop AI, and
no one has any idea what theuses they're going to be and how far
it's going to go. The onlything I will tell you is there are
very responsible scientists out there, academics, social scientists, computer people that are
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looking at this and are scared todeath at what it can do. It
is I heard one saying that thisis transform transfermatative right right, and it's
just going to change everything we do. It's going to change the world.
So you're going to have let's goback in history, we had a little
thing called fire that changed the wayhumanity worked. Then you had you had
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the wheel, Then you had theprinting press, and then the pending on
where you put these on a scale. The computer, the web certainly changed
everything. And now probably the mostprofound change that we're going to see is
AI. And this is not smallsteps, This is instantaneous, and so
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people are frightened. And when Ihave my head on straight, I'm frightened
too. And when I'm just enjoyingtechnology and going, oh wow, look
what we can do, I'm okaywith it mainly. No, it is
time for tech Tuesday with Rich allthe latest gun gadgets and stuff with k
(24:41):
Vice resident handsome nerd. It's TechTuesday with Rich, jamiro and Rich has
heard every Saturday here on KFI elevento two, his social address Instagram on
our at Rich on tech Morning.Rich. Hey, good morning too,
Bill. You always sounds so chipperand happy. It's getting very it's getting
(25:04):
very tiring. I have to tellyou, well, you know what,
next time, I'll just say bahhumbug. Yeah, I feel better.
I'd feel better because you have tobe part of the show. This morning,
Anne is our new producer, andthis morning I finally started getting the
feeling that she was fitting in becauseshe has hit a level of depravity that
(25:26):
is part and parcel of the show, particularly during the breaks. All right,
we've got a lot to talk about. One of the topics is Apple
and Google are working together on anindustry standard for tracking tags and I want
to go beyond that, but explainthat first. Yeah, this is pretty
wild and kind of surprising to seethe Apple and Google logo together on their
(25:52):
website saying, look, we realizethere's a major problem with these air tags.
There's a major disconnect, and we'regoing to work together and make sure
that no one can use these tagsto stalk people, and not that they're
not going to, but make ita little bit tougher for them. So
here's what they're gonna do. Weknow about these air tags. We know
they're very popular. They are iOSonly, which means you can link them
(26:14):
up to your iPhone and if there'sa tag that's around you, that's following
you, your iPhone is going tonotify you. But if you use an
Android phone, there's a major disconnect. That tag could be on you for
hours, days, whatever, trackingyou, and you'd never know it's there
because your phone is not going totell you. So there's been some third
party apps, but they're very manual. You have to scan every hour to
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see if there's a tag around you. Now Apple and Google say, okay,
we're gonna come together. We're gonnado an industry wide standard. We're
gonna build the technology into both iOSand Android. So no matter which brand
tracker that you use, whether it'sSamsung, whether it's Apple, whether it's
Tile, They're all going to worktogether, cross platform to do the same
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thing. And the interesting part here, Bill is that Google has not announced
its own tracker, which a lotof people have wondered if they're going to
come out with their own next weekat their big event, and it sure
sounds like they will. Yeah,a couple of things about that. It
has a few times where the entireindustry has gotten together. I think cassettes
were one of those industries where everybodyagreed that that was going to be the
(27:19):
format. I can't think of anythingelse really, I mean, certainly records
that were the LPs, the thirtythree LPs. Well, yeah, I
mean typically in the past there's alwaystwo competing formats. So when we saw
now I don't remember the cassette situation, but when you think about DVDs,
there were two big formats. Thereis Blu ray and there's HD DVD.
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When TiVo came out, there wasTiVo and there was a company called Replay
TV, and so those were youknow, which one was going to be
the standard. With televisions, thingswere pretty much standardized. The main thing
was really like plasma versus LCD whenthat came out. Of course, with
you know, smartphones, it's allabout Android versus iOS. And in the
early days we had something Windows gosh, Windows Mobile is what it was called,
(28:10):
and of course that fell out.And now, you know, I
think that these tech companies realize,especially as this tech gets gets better,
you got to work together in certainways on these standards because it's better for
everyone. And so of course Appleknows more people are going to buy air
tags because of this, and morepeople will feel more comfortable adopting this technology
because it works with everything. Arewe ever gonna see charging chords, you
(28:33):
know, the ends of charging chordsactually being universal or companies like Apple,
I'm gonna say, oh no,no, we make way too much money
on that stuff, so we'll neverallow a platform that everybody uses. That's
a great question, because Apple hasbeen the soul holdout out of the entire
world when it comes to what's calledUSBC. So every other company in the
(28:57):
world uses USBC, still uses Lightning. But good question, Bill. It's
Europe is requiring them to put USBCon the iPhone, and so we don't
think that Apple is going to makea separate version of the iPhone just for
Europe. So we're thinking that thisyear in October, when the new iPhone
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comes out, it'll be the firstone that will be standardized with the new
charging cable, which means for somepeople they're going to have to buy new
cables. But on almost every oneof Apple's other products at this point they
have used USBC except for the iPhone. Like one hundred times faster too,
isn't it in terms of charging?Its Yeah, it's fat Well, it's
faster data transfer and it depends onthe charging what Apple decides to do.
(29:41):
They could they could still keep thecharging situation the same. They could still
be Apple iPhones charge at some ofthe slowest speeds out of any of the
main phones at this point. Um. But if they're upgrading the port,
I assume they'll upgrade the charging speeds. But we'll see. That's that's to
be determined. The one plus pad, I have not heard of that yet,
(30:02):
So tell us about that. Yeah, you may be hearing about it
soon. This is a company that'sknown for its smartphones. This is their
first tablet and the reason why it'sgetting a lot of publicity is because it
actually looks and feels a lot likean iPad, but it runs Android software.
So for many, many years,iPad has been the top tablet,
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and yes, that's still my toprecommendation for a tablet if you're purchasing one.
But sometimes people don't want Apple,they don't want iOS, they don't
want to be a part of that. They want an Android. And so
this is now kind of the firstAndroid tablet that we've seen in a long
time that's really good. It's gota great design, it's got good specs,
the screen is pretty decent, it'sfast, it runs the programs you
(30:45):
need it to run. It's gotall the things you need, like a
stylist and a keyboard. But here'sthe thing. People like me like it
as reviewers, but you've got tohold off if you're thinking of purchasing this
thing, if you hear about itin the next couple of weeks, because
again, I mean, Google ishaving an event next week and they are
set to launch their tablet for thefirst time in many many years. Google
(31:07):
has not had a tablet is sincethe days of you know, maybe five
seven, eight years ago, andso you've got to compare what they're doing
against this tablet. But The goodnews is there's choices now because of the
question I have regarding Apple, andthis one is always a sort of I
was fascinated by this. You haveApple, which is substantially more expensive than
(31:33):
any other product out there that doesthe same thing, and yet people still
gravitate to it, even though you'vegot the Android products that are far cheaper
and do virtually the same thing.There's is the value worth it? I
mean, do you get that muchmore for four hundred dollars more? And
Apple still seems to be by farthe number one manufacturer on the planet.
(32:00):
Yeah, and there's there's many reasonsfor that. Look and number one,
this tablet. One of the thingsI wrote about my review is that it's
actually quite expensive. It's four hundredand seventy nine dollars. Now, if
you're thinking Android tablet, they shouldhave priced this thing at you know,
three ninety nine, two ninety nine, just to really get people to say,
oh, why would I buy thetap the iPad when I can get
this for so much cheaper? Sothis one is not much cheaper, which
(32:22):
I think makes it a little bitcomplicated because the iPad is still better in
a lot of ways, but withall of that said, here's the deal
bill. You know, you goanywhere and there's an Apple store. You
go to Paris, France, andyour iPhone drops on the ground, on
the cobblestone and it shatters. Youcan walk into an Apple store the next
morning and get a replacement and beon your way and they'll help you transfer
(32:45):
your data and all that good stuff. You need a case for your phone,
you can order a thousand cases online. You can go to a seven
eleven and find a case. Theaccessories are so pervasive everywhere, anywhere you
go, you can get the helpyou want. There's a lot of people
that do help tutorials. I wrotea book about the tips for the iPhone.
(33:06):
I mean, there's such a networkof help and support and accessories.
When it comes to Apple products,people see them as a premium. They
all work together, and Apple knowsthis and they actively kind of play to
that because people know, you getan iPhone, it's going to work for
a really long time. And bythe way, when you're done with it,
you can hand it down to afamily member and it's still going to
(33:27):
work really well. Yeah, noneof those things I ever thought of,
I travel or whatever. I don'tthink in those terms, you know,
for me, And I don't knowhow how relevant this is. I just
don't want to learn another system.I'm just too lazy. I got used
to it and I'm done, aspeople do with Max. I have a
friend of mine that use PCs foreverand finally ended up having a Mac and
(33:51):
said, like many Mac users use, I don't know why I ever used
anything else, but well, amI allowed to ask you what you use
when not reviewing? What's your goto? When Rich de Moreau is not
Rich the Moreau on the air?Yeah, sure, I will tell you.
So I use, I mean,look for computer, my MacBook.
(34:13):
I call it the Moneymaker because it'sliterally by my side every day, day
in day out. I just gotthe new one. And I did switch
from from PC to Mac a longtime ago. And I was one of
those people that always thought max wereweird and this and that, and when
I switched for content creation it isa really really good thing. But also
it's personal preference, So I'm notyou know, believe me. I get
(34:36):
a lot of calls on the showon the weekend. I would say,
Bill, a majority of the peopleactually use PC's and so I need to
get better on the PC because alot of people that call in are having
trouble with Windows and this and thatand Microsoft. So I will start using
that more because of that. Whenit comes to phones, I'll be honest,
I'm using the iPhone most of thetime, but I always carrying Android
(34:57):
because Ay, I love Androids.I think they're really different and unique from
iPhone, And of course I alwayswant to know how to use them because
people call about problems with them too. And by the way, when you
go outside of Los Angeles, theuse of Apple products falls off a cliff.
In Los Angeles, everyone has anApple Watch, everyone has an iPhone,
everyone has a Mac. You goto any other city in America and
(35:19):
it's not that way. Specifically,There's a lot of people that are using
Android. There's a lot of peoplethat are using PC and other products out
there. So LA is A isa very different place when it comes to
the adoption of these things because ofthe content creation community businesses. When I
see businesses, when I go,for example, to an insurance company,
and I see computers in these pits, whenever I have a business, they're
(35:45):
all PCs. I never see aMac at major businesses. Why is that,
Well, because MAX are more expensive, number one, and they also
do stuff that these businesses don't need. I mean, at this point,
nine percent of businesses can be runthrough a web browser, and that's what
the PC does best. The PChas the infrastructure for updating software from a
(36:09):
central location. It's much more businesscentric, whereas the Mac. You know,
there are definitely schools and some businessesthat will use MAX, But the
PC has always been the stronghold ofthe workplace and I don't see that changing,
although I think workplaces are becoming moreflexible in the devices that people can
(36:30):
use to accomplish their jobs because it'sso decentralized. You know, it used
to be you had to run Windowsbecause you're there are specific programs and applications
that you needed to do your job. And now ninety percent of the applications
have moved to the Internet and theirsoftware web based, and so you can
do your job from pretty much anyweb browser at this point. So if
(36:51):
you're putting in fifteen or twenty workstations, there is a substantial difference in price.
Also, I'm assuming, oh absolutely, I mean the you know,
because these workstations don't need to havethe best processors. They don't need the
best memory. You know, youcan get an independent screen or monitor,
you can use one that you hadfrom before. So most of the I
(37:13):
mean, I would say probably almostevery workplace that I've been into, you
pretty much see PCs and there wecall them light pecs. You know,
they're not even really heavy listing computers. They're just pretty much a browser and
that's it. I mean, allright, anybody does graphics, of course
immediately goes to an Apple product,I would guess, yeah, but you'd
(37:35):
be surprised some of the high endWindows computers, you know, for some
of these animation programs. I mean, Adobe is very popular on the Windows
side, so it's not there's notone size fits all, but in you
know, there are pros and consof each for sure. But yeah,
all right now, rich thank you. We'll catch you on Saturday eleven to
two here on KFI and your addressis at rich On Tech. You have
(37:59):
a good one catching over the weekend. Thanks Bill. Usually Ardine Sharp Segment
Handle in the House Whisper happens onWednesday, but instead it is today Dean
Sharp, who has heard every Saturdaysix to eight am Sunday's nine am to
noon, and his social address isat home with Dean Morning Dean, Good
(38:22):
morning, Bill. Yeah, you'rea happy camper. Just got back from
vacation. Good for you. Yes, yes, yeah. One of the
world's most favorite places where it's justnorth of Pacoima and it really is a
terrific place to visit. What Iwant to talk about today is remodeling and
(38:43):
five major tips I'm going to add. I'm gonna put all those five after
number one and my tip and I'mgoing to add my tip to it is
you will never have enough money tofinish your remodel. That's not true.
That's not true. All Yeah,this is experience talking. I've done several
(39:07):
remodels and as far as I'm concerned, there was never enough money to finish
this remodel. So yeah, yeah, some people, some people embrace kind
of the movie making concept of remodeling. I heard the director Peter Jackson one
say, when it comes to makinga movie, you never finish it.
(39:29):
You just either run out of timeor money to finish it. And so
yeah, there's some people, youknow, but that's the idea. We're
giving tips for doing the remodel,right and there's actually some really important things
that you can do if you getserious and honest with the way a remodel
should work, that will actually getyou through the project without blowing the budget.
(39:50):
Okay, so let's talk about someof them, because a lot of
people are about to doing thinking ofdoing in the future, and frankly,
I gotta tell you it's pretty scarywhen you're looking at a remodel. I
mean, that's short of building ahouse. This is one of the biggest
things you can do, and it'speople are not comfortable with it. They
want it, but you know,what do you do with it exactly right?
(40:14):
I mean I would say generally speakingthat most established homeowners have one big
remodel in them and that's one ofthe reasons why it's so important to get
it right right. I mean,you just need to be able to do
it right. So step one wouldbe figuring out what my model for the
(40:35):
show design matters most, really means. What do you think it means to
you workability, Things that make sensein terms of flow, things that make
sense in terms of being attractive.I mean, there are a lot of
moving parts here, and I thinkif you miss one of them, you've
(40:57):
missed the boat. I mean,it all has to be combined. Am
I right on? I think youare right on that. I'm going to
break it down into two simple halves. Though. For it to design something
is really to create a plan witha purpose in mind. All right.
Designs for homes fail for usually oneof two reasons. Number one, we
don't really know what the purpose is, or two, we don't have the
(41:21):
creativity to make that purpose a reality. So number one here, the need
for creativity is why you should probablyhire a designer. Okay, that's simply
something that for the last six anda half years we've been on the station
here promoting to the mainstream because stillto this day, it's not a mainstream
(41:43):
idea. You think that's just somethingfor the rich and famous. You know,
they hire designers and architects, andI'm just remodeling my house. So
we're gonna talk to the contractor abouthis best ideas not a good idea.
The second thing, though, hangon a second, We're gonna take a
break out. But before we do, real quickly, what are we looking
at the cost of a designer?Is it tens of thousands of dollars?
(42:06):
Several thousand dollars. Well, youknow what, It depends on the size
of the project. But these days, yeah, good guideline would be maybe
five percent of cost of construction.You know what you want, and then
get a creative involved who can getyou there. And you, now that's
a creative Also figure out how youdo it at the lowest possible price.
(42:27):
You get the biggest bang for yourbuck. Or is that the contractor no,
no, no, I think thatshould really that really falls on the
designer to put together a design thatfits within your budget. And you know,
I always say this, here's thething. Great ideas, that's what
you're paying a designer for. Andthen the execution of that, the execution
(42:47):
of the right idea of your home. We can do it in platinum,
we can do it in gold,we can do it in bronze, we
can do it in plastic or paper. But the right idea is still the
game changer. Then we just fitit to your budget, all right.
And of course I was going toask you about a budget, but that's
impossible to ascertain at this point becauseif you're adding a room to your house,
(43:08):
you're taking out a you know,for example, taking out a wall,
and if it's a bearing wall yougot to put in. Obviously supports
poor new foundations. I mean,you're building a mini house and that is
a bucket of money, isn't it. It's going to cost you money.
But here's the thing. Okay,the most important resource, and this is
(43:29):
jumping ahead to number three, butthat's cool. Time. Time I beg
our clients and our listeners to slowdown on the remodel process. Time,
not money, is your biggest resource. There's a thing called the iron triangle
in the construction industry. A picturea triangle. Three sides on this triangle.
(43:52):
Here are the three sides. Costis one side, time is the
second side. Quality is the thirdside. So there you go. You
can just draw it out for yourself. Now here's here's the bit. You
get to pick two of those sides, any two sides you want, and
you're gonna pay for it with thethird side. So, for instance,
(44:14):
if you want it done really fasttime wise, time fast, and you
want it done as cheaply as possible, no problem. All you have to
sacrifice is quality because getting it donereally fast and as cheap as possible means
the quality is gonna not be there. If you want it done fast and
(44:34):
you want quality, then get readyto write a big check. So most
people don't fall in those two categories. Most people want the best possible value
cost and the best possible quality.And guess what is required to get that.
You got to take your time.You got to take time. I'm
(44:57):
going to come back at you becauseI have done models. Now, obviously
my experience is nothing like yours becauseI've done it on the consumer side and
you've done everything else. But asfar as time is concerned, is there
ever a possibility, a sliver ofhope that it's going to be it's going
to be done on time, whichmeans that the subcontractors show up on time,
(45:24):
that equipment or materials delivered on time. Not only is it I have
never had a project that come inon time. I've never heard of anybody
having a project that has come inon time. Yeah well okay, so
yeah, yeah, you're absolutely rightabout that. However, I'm going to
tell you this again. Time.You know what is on time? Time
(45:46):
is this relative thing. If yougo into a project saying, listen,
this thing has got to get startednext week and it has to take four
and a half months, the end, you are going to be sadly,
sadly disappoint pointed. But if youtake your time to plan out this job,
if you take your time to reallylearn and find not only the deals,
(46:10):
but the contractors and the processes,if you take the time to order
your materials, your long term materialslike cabinetry and windows and doors ahead of
time, you're going to set yourselfup for the most fluid project possible.
And also part of that time thatyou take planning is acknowledging. All right,
(46:32):
in a perfect world, this wouldbe a four month project. But
yes, there are going to bedelays unforesee that have By the way,
you have the best contractor on theplanet. There's nothing they can do about
the fact that if they are onanother project waiting for something to happen,
and they promised you I'm going toget there on Monday, and some other
contractor or a subcontractor failed to performso that they could get done what they
(46:57):
needed to do on another project,Yeah they're gonna be delays. But you
can accommodate those delays in your schedule. You can say, listen, in
a perfect world, this could takefour months. We're gonna give it six
and guess what, We constantly,constantly when we set the proper margins of
time, bring projects in quote unquoteon time m and then very quickly because
(47:22):
we have about a minute Shannon comingin. Okay, I believe she's coming
into cross with me. Is theover budget stuff not only does inherently goes
over budget just as a matter ofgravity, a matter of law, but
man, the change orders that peoplemake. We see what you have.
(47:42):
Oh, no, we have tochange something, and that just busts the
budget. Yeah. The biggest causeof mid project budget increasers is you.
You, the homeowner. Yes,there are always some unexpected expenses in a
remodel. Oh we found this thingthat has to be changed. We didn't
know it is behind the wall.Okay, blah blah blah blah blah.
Those really are not very big forqualified contractors to handle. But the biggest
(48:06):
reason for going over budget in mostprojects are homeowners wanting to increase quality.
After the project has begun. Theyplanned on putting in tile. Now they're
looking at their bathroom as it startscoming together, They're like, well,
maybe we should do marble countertops.Chutching. It happens. Nine out of
ten times. It's not the contractor, it's not the designer. It is
(48:28):
the owner who's putting their foot onthe gas, taking their foot off the
brake, and is usually the causeof their own over budget issues. And
when it comes to contractors, Iknow they're coming in and getting the lowest
possible bid they can come in withwithin reason, they're still making money.
But it's those change orders that startthe cash register ringing asn't it. Yeah,
(48:50):
And that's the reason why usually it'snot a great idea to take the
lowest bid on a project, becauseyou actually want a contractor who's got a
comfortable enough margin, you know,and they're not getting rich on you,
but they've got a comfortable enough marginso that when a little thing changes or
a little thing doesn't go according toplan, they don't immediately hand you a
changeover. You've got a contractor who'sso narrow in their margin that anything that
(49:15):
goes awry from the plan, you'regoing to get hit with a change order.
So Dean, we'll catch you thisweekend at eight o'clock on Saturday,
nine o'clock on Sunday. You havea good one. Thank you, Bill,
all right, coming up, Garyand Shannon. Quick reminder that I'm
taking questions handle on the law marginallegal advice off the air just as Gary
(49:36):
and Shannon show up, So ifyeah have a question or two, I'll
be more happy to marginalize that question. Gary and Shannon up next. Kf
I am six forty live everywhere onthe iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to
the Bill Handles Show. Catch myshow Monday through Friday, six am to
nine am, and anytime on demandon the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to kf I AM sixforty the Bill Handles show on demand on
the iHeartRadio app kf I AM sixforty Handle here. Tuesday morning, May
second, the all of the Hollywoodwriters strike is on and tonight you'll see
the first of it on the latenight shows, late night talk shows.
(00:21):
And the strike is going to happen. Last time there was a strike one
hundred days. For that one hundredand twenty six days, so be prepared
for a fairly long strike. There'sa lot of issues going on too that
we've never had before. You know, Welcome to AI, Welcome to streaming.
And I'll talk more about that atseven thirty. Also, Gordon Lightfoot
is dead. Yeah. I wasa huge fan of Gordon Lightfoot. I
(00:45):
still am Canadian. Just really goodstuff. I thought, very unique singer.
Now I want to do a storythat just broke and is this is
La Times, And what helpful anylegislators are preparing to do is pass a
law providing victims of childhood secondly sexualabuse a new window to file lawsuits.
(01:08):
And of course who's resisting it?Oh, I don't know. School districts,
colleges, youth athletic groups, insurancecompanies who write checks, they're going
hold on not so quick. Now, three years after a law went into
effect, La County, and we'retalking about facilities that were to protect,
(01:29):
rehabilitate the region's ute. What endedup happening was these court filings have grown
so large that these facilities, itlooks like, are one of the biggest
institutional offenders that have ever been.Two weeks ago, the budget was given
(01:52):
and county official delivered to the supervisorsfigures that even stunned the California sex abuse
attorneys that ask for the moon andthe county. It's predicted the county is
going to be forced to spend betweenone point six billion and three billion dollars
(02:13):
to resolve about three thousand claims thatit legedly took place in foster homes,
children's centers, probation camps, probationhalls dating back in the nineteen fifties.
So the county is gearing up tolitigate these cases, bringing on eleven law
firms to work on these claims.And here is the wrinkled here. A
(02:40):
lot of these claims can't even bedefended by the county. And why is
that? Because they can't investigate theseclaims. Why is that because they know
no longer have the relevant records.So you have a sex abuse victim who
(03:01):
is up and testifying as to whathappened to him or her, and there
really isn't much of a defense.Who goes up Officer Smith is accused of
the it is accused of the abuse. Well, either Officer Smith is dead.
(03:24):
Because a lot of it happened inthe fifties Austin. Officer Smith said,
I wasn't even there, and Iwas actually working in a different department.
I was working in a different facility. I was working in a different
area. There's no records because thisgoes back to the fifties. We're talking
sixty seventy years. We're talking aboutforty years, and how is that possible?
(03:47):
Isn't there a statute of limitations outthere? There was? But let
me explain, And I think whenit comes to child abuse, especially by
the authorities or the boy Scouts orthe church, it's a different animal.
(04:10):
And when you look at opening upthe Statute of limitations, it makes a
lot of sense. None of thecounty facilities, the county is thrilled with
this, and they're defending county hashired eleven big name law firms. How
do you think how much those guyscost seven eight hundred dollars an hour?
And they're not shy about putting lotsof lawyers on it. There's the reason
(04:35):
you go to law school, andthat is I remember the first day of
law school. I remember contracts,guys, here's what we're going to study.
And usually you have the first tenantof contract law. And my professor
said money in huge letters across theblackboard. I go, yes, that's
(04:57):
why we do that in any case. So the county is looking at all
this going back to the fifties andyou go, wait a minute, a
statute of limitation aren't how do yousue for abuse that happened or any kind
of tort that happened forty fifty yearsago. Well, because it is recognized
(05:17):
now that victims of sexual abuse thisis one of those crimes. But these
are settlements because the statute of limitationstill goes on for the criminal aspect of
it. But the civil trial,the case, the civil case for the
damage mental physical damage. They've openedup the statute. The Child's Victims Act
(05:43):
went into effect and it permanently allowsvictims of childhood and sexual assault to sue
up to the age of forty.Now for a three year period, they
could sue only until they were twentysix. That was previously that three year
window was open for victims older thanforty to sue. You could be eighty
and sue during that three week window. So that's passed. But you know
(06:06):
what attorneys are doing. They're stillfiling claims. You know why, because
they're arguing during the pandemic everything wasshut down. Therefore, for that year
and a half at everything was shutdown. That extends the statute of limitations
that has not been decided yet,that has not been lidicated. So here
(06:30):
is a story and one of thelawyers, Doug Roshan, it represents more
than five hundred people alleging they wereabused at county probation camps and juvenile halls.
And he's got a lot of clientsclearly, and he said there's a
common thread that he picked up thatchildren and this one is not so much
(06:53):
the abuse, which of course happened, but they were threatened with punishment if
they told higher ups about the abuse, much like what happened in the Catholic
church, much like what happened inthe Boy Scouts, and we're rewarded with
commissary items or McDonald's for staying quiet. Kids were groped in the bathrooms and
(07:14):
showers, and of course outside ofcamera angles because those people knew where the
cameras were. So one of theseconsistent themes turning the blind eye. And
this is where I think these organizationsare I think particularly at fault. Now,
why is it that these the church, the juvenile halls, the Boy
(07:39):
Scouts and other organizations, why arethey apt to have so many child molesters
there? It's because not because they'reat fault. It's not because they're a
place that people do this. Asa matter of course, it's a perfect
place for a child molester to be. People who do this will gravitate to
(08:01):
these jobs because they're trusted, becausesociety tended to believe them. Now,
a guy standing on the three corneroutside and talking to kids right there there
suspicion. A priest not so much, a probation officer, someone who works
(08:26):
in the juvenile hall, a socialwork in that area not so much.
A Boy Scout leader not so much. So they tend to gravitate and I'll
tell you where the real crime is. The real crime as the organization is
covering it up, knowing that ithappens, and covering it up to protect
(08:48):
the organization, to protect the bureaucracy. And this happened across the board,
and particularly in the Catholic Church,which I have to say it stopped today.
I think if a pret is accusedof child molestation, being a predator,
the system immediately clamps down on it. Investigations happen, but that's fairly
(09:09):
recent and the real crime was goingup the ladder, and frankly, I
think that would resonate with an attorneyso much not allowing it to happen,
because you know, you've got cockroachesout there. What you have is you
have these predators who are very smart. They're put in positions of trust.
(09:33):
You've got a five year old kid. You've got someone that's come back forty
years later and said, look whathappened to me. There's no records and
all you have is a memory thatyou're gonna put a psychiatrist or a psychologist
on the sand. Yeah, repressedmemories sort of up in the air.
But the protection part that I wouldnail that organization for how dare you protect
(09:56):
these people knowing this was going on, or even if you didn't know,
not investigating that was going on.Let's call the kid a liar. Let's
believe our employee. One of Roshan'sclients was a teenager at Perdina's juvenile hall.
It's been since closed down, andin two two thousand and four,
(10:18):
he reports an officer for molestation fourtimes. Every time he filled out a
slip detailing the alleged abuse, hedidn't hear back four times. I mean,
it is beyond offensive. Now,what's going to happen is you're not
(10:43):
going to hear hundreds of cases thatare going to be heard by hundreds of
judges. What does happen in thesecases is that cases with similar allegations are
all combined and heard by the samejudge. So probation facilities are in one
juvenile holes are in another court,and you're going to see basically one trial,
(11:07):
one big, big trial. Exceptyou're not going to see trials.
You're gonna see settlements. You aregoing to see settlements. If the county
county ends up spending three billion dollarson these settlements, which seems to be
what's going to happen. Attorneys sayit would dwarf the payouts of any sex
abuse case they've ever heard of.The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a
(11:30):
poultry six hundred and sixty million dollarssettlement. Sc paid a not so paltry
but a smaller amount than this settlementone point one billion dollars USA Gymnastics three
hundred and eighty million dollars LA County. It looks like it's going to be
(11:52):
close to three billion dollars. Isn'tthat special? Yep, welcome to Although
we've gotten better. We have gottenbetter, I must say. And the
way you get better is you slapthese organizations with huge settlements, finds jury
awards to the point where he gota bunch of ours diocese that just went
(12:13):
bankrupt straight out, boy Scouts ofAmerica just went bankrupt, straight out,
but they still have to pay.It goes in front of a bankruptcy judge,
and the judges doesn't just say,oh, you're gonna be okay.
The judges say, let's figure outwhat you pay now. The other big
story and boyds that resonate here insouthern California is the writers strike, the
(12:37):
Writers Guild, they started striking.You'll see them today probably picket lines across
LA New York other cities. Theunion and the producers organization unable to reach
that last minute deal. They couldn'tdo it, so the three year contract
expired. And here there's what theGrids Guild says. The company's behavior has
(13:03):
created a gig economy inside a unionworkforce, and the way that writers work,
the way the entertainment industry works visaof either writers was never anticipated.
No such deal could ever be contemplatedby this membership. So in a statement,
(13:24):
the Alliance of Motion Picture and TelevisionProducers, this is a group of
like three hundred and fifty production companies, big and small, they're all together
representing the production side, said thatoffered a generous increases in compensation as well
as improvements in streaming residuals. Okay, I think that can be worked out,
(13:48):
and I think the Writers Guild isprobably going to prevail. It does
pretty well with these strikes, therehave been three of them. Problem is
they last awhile and the Alliance saidit was prepared to improve the offer,
but they can't go past the magnitudeof the other proposals that are still on
(14:09):
the table. It's not just improvingworking conditions and pay. It's the big
stuff. And what is the bigstuff? Well, first of all,
writers want a larger just a largerslice of the streaming pie. Streaming has
totally transformed television completely. The walkoutwe're working for weeks or months probably gonna
(14:31):
halt, probably is gonna halt.So much TV and film production across the
country, affected most here in southernCalifornia because not only do you have the
shows, you have the prop houses, you have the caters, you have
all of these various companies and theancillary businesses surrounding it. You shut down
(14:52):
across the street, right just downthe street, all of We've got Warner
Brothers, You've got dis here,You've got Burbank Studios. How about the
restaurants around there? How are theygoing to do? And so the big
issue is the number of people thatare in a writing room that has been
(15:15):
reduced traumatically longer hours. And they'refiguring it all that out. But I'll
tell you what a big issue is, and I don't know how they're going
to figure this out, is whatdo they do with AI. What are
you going to do with AI whenscripts can be written by an artificial intelligence
(15:37):
program? Because you throw in aprogram saying I want a crime drama in
which the victims are a family,and it just takes something from the news,
you know what we did yesterday,and all of a sudden you throw
that into a program and outcomes thescript, and comes a good script because
(16:02):
every script that has ever been writtenaround that genre has been already done,
and AI knows all about it,has read everyone no end can connect the
number of people who watched it andhow long it was either on the TV
screen or in the movies. Andthis is a successful formula. This is
(16:23):
what we've done. These are thepeople that were stars in it. This
was the production designer, Here wasa director putting all of that together,
and you've got brilliant How do youdeal with that? And they are everybody's
trying to figure it out. Also, the Writer's Guild of America says that
(16:44):
all of these practices have simply erodedtheir pay. The mini rooms where small
groups of writers, I said onshort order series are hired to craft an
arc of a show. Because nowgood television shows have an arc. You
have to watch all of them.Used to be episodic TV. Everyone was
individual. If you miss one,no big deal for the next one,
(17:06):
Well, that doesn't happen anymore.You like arcs, I do to be
a season of twelve episodes that gofor an hour is a twelve hour movie.
And man, that really is characterdevelopment when you have a good written
script. So they don't do atraditional production of pilots anymore. It's a
(17:27):
whole different world. And we're seeinggoing to happen at seeing what's gonna happen.
And then as the last one Isaid earlier to show you the difference
in what happens today and what happenslast time there was a strike fifteen years
ago, Netflix one of the majormajor players sitting down on the side of
the producers negotiating contracts. Last timethere was a strike, it was a
(17:49):
mail order CD movie company. Theyjust rented you a movie on the CD,
sent it by mail, you sentit back. And today it's one
of the biggest players in the worldalso with this strike, and who's going
to score big as Netflix? AndI'll tell you why. A huge number
of neck Flix production is overseas,South Korea, Thailand, I mean all
(18:17):
over the place. You go toNetflix and there are films from you know,
all subtitled of course, from allover the world. Netflix is going
to do just great. I juststarted El Chapo on Netflix. Yeah,
I mean all of it. Yeah. If you're a fan of Narcos,
you can do this. Yeah,I love a good one. Now I
want to get to uh something thatwe're going to talk about a whole lot
(18:40):
that's going to literally affect our lives, every one of us in a major,
major way. So let me startwith a what sorry sorry, sorry,
got it. Let me start witha character, if you will,
or an individual who is actually knownas the godfather of a His name is
(19:00):
Jeffrey Hinton, and he is anartificial intelligence pioneer. So in twenty twelve,
I'm talking what thirteen years ago,Hinting and two of his graduate students
at the University of Toronto created technologythat became the foundation of the AI system.
Everybody said, Ah, you're kindof crazy, this is so hypothetical.
(19:21):
Yeah you think so. So yesterdayhe joined a growing chorus of critics
that say, this is very dangerous. Stop now, keep in mind he
basically created it, and he saidcompanies are racing toward danger, serious world
danger with the aggressive campaign to createproducts based on AI, and we know
(19:47):
what that is at this point.Chat GPT, for example, one of
the chatbots. He was at Googlefor ten years where he was developing this,
became one of the most respected voicesin this entire field, and he
quit so he can talk about therisks of AI, and he is saying
now, which he can because he'sfree to talk. He's no longer with
(20:10):
a Google and he regrets his life'swork. And industry leaders as well as
academics and people in politics who areactually looking into this believe that these new
AI systems could be as important andI believe this completely as the introduction of
the web browser in the early nineteennineties, where computers creates and you can
(20:36):
get every bit of information that hasever existed on the planet, and it's
all there on the Internet. Now, the difference is you go on the
Internet and you put someone's name inthere and up pops Wikipedia or up pops
of biography or photos. You canjust get any of that. This generative
(20:57):
AI can do it instantly and createcan create books and records. We know
about that with Drake, create songs, fake your voice so no one can
tell. Now Open ai, thefolks that do chat GPT more than a
(21:23):
thousand technology leaders researchers. Open aireleased and signed an open letter calling for
a six month moratorium on the developmentof new systems. They didn't sign it,
but they released the information because AIquote the AI technologies post profound risk
to society and humanity. Bottom lineis, scientists who know this stuff are
(21:48):
absolutely scared to death. And whenchat GP came aboard, so many people
us for a moratorium. Hang on, we need at least six months just
to begin to figure out where thisgoes and can we put some limitations on
it. Google's chief scientists said,we remain committed to a responsible approach to
(22:15):
AI and we're continuing continually learning tounderstand emerging risks while innovating boldly. That
is the phrase we have to lookat, innovating boldly. And why is
that? Because you have a coupleof companies that are now moving forward.
(22:37):
You've got Google, You've got othercompanies that are developing this, and because
it's competitive, because it's America,because you want to be the first out,
you want to be able. Anycompany wants to get some kind of
a foothold, and quickly they're goingballs to the wall. Forget about responsible
(22:59):
use and development of AI. That'sgone, And what you're seeing now is
they're doing everything they can as quicklyas they can to develop AI, and
no one has any idea what theuses they're going to be and how far
it's going to go. The onlything I will tell you is there are
very responsible scientists out there, academics, social scientists, computer people that are
(23:29):
looking at this and are scared todeath at what it can do. It
is I heard one saying that thisis transform transfermatative right right, and it's
just going to change everything we do. It's going to change the world.
So you're going to have let's goback in history, we had a little
thing called fire that changed the wayhumanity worked. Then you had you had
(23:52):
the wheel, Then you had theprinting press, and then the pending on
where you put these on a scale. The computer, the web certainly changed
everything. And now probably the mostprofound change that we're going to see is
AI. And this is not smallsteps, This is instantaneous, and so
(24:19):
people are frightened. And when Ihave my head on straight, I'm frightened
too. And when I'm just enjoyingtechnology and going, oh wow, look
what we can do, I'm okaywith it mainly. No, it is
time for tech Tuesday with Rich allthe latest gun gadgets and stuff with k
(24:41):
Vice resident handsome nerd. It's TechTuesday with Rich, jamiro and Rich has
heard every Saturday here on KFI elevento two, his social address Instagram on
our at Rich on tech Morning.Rich. Hey, good morning too,
Bill. You always sounds so chipperand happy. It's getting very it's getting
(25:04):
very tiring. I have to tellyou, well, you know what,
next time, I'll just say bahhumbug. Yeah, I feel better.
I'd feel better because you have tobe part of the show. This morning,
Anne is our new producer, andthis morning I finally started getting the
feeling that she was fitting in becauseshe has hit a level of depravity that
(25:26):
is part and parcel of the show, particularly during the breaks. All right,
we've got a lot to talk about. One of the topics is Apple
and Google are working together on anindustry standard for tracking tags and I want
to go beyond that, but explainthat first. Yeah, this is pretty
wild and kind of surprising to seethe Apple and Google logo together on their
(25:52):
website saying, look, we realizethere's a major problem with these air tags.
There's a major disconnect, and we'regoing to work together and make sure
that no one can use these tagsto stalk people, and not that they're
not going to, but make ita little bit tougher for them. So
here's what they're gonna do. Weknow about these air tags. We know
they're very popular. They are iOSonly, which means you can link them
(26:14):
up to your iPhone and if there'sa tag that's around you, that's following
you, your iPhone is going tonotify you. But if you use an
Android phone, there's a major disconnect. That tag could be on you for
hours, days, whatever, trackingyou, and you'd never know it's there
because your phone is not going totell you. So there's been some third
party apps, but they're very manual. You have to scan every hour to
(26:36):
see if there's a tag around you. Now Apple and Google say, okay,
we're gonna come together. We're gonnado an industry wide standard. We're
gonna build the technology into both iOSand Android. So no matter which brand
tracker that you use, whether it'sSamsung, whether it's Apple, whether it's
Tile, They're all going to worktogether, cross platform to do the same
(26:56):
thing. And the interesting part here, Bill is that Google has not announced
its own tracker, which a lotof people have wondered if they're going to
come out with their own next weekat their big event, and it sure
sounds like they will. Yeah,a couple of things about that. It
has a few times where the entireindustry has gotten together. I think cassettes
were one of those industries where everybodyagreed that that was going to be the
(27:19):
format. I can't think of anythingelse really, I mean, certainly records
that were the LPs, the thirtythree LPs. Well, yeah, I
mean typically in the past there's alwaystwo competing formats. So when we saw
now I don't remember the cassette situation, but when you think about DVDs,
there were two big formats. Thereis Blu ray and there's HD DVD.
(27:44):
When TiVo came out, there wasTiVo and there was a company called Replay
TV, and so those were youknow, which one was going to be
the standard. With televisions, thingswere pretty much standardized. The main thing
was really like plasma versus LCD whenthat came out. Of course, with
you know, smartphones, it's allabout Android versus iOS. And in the
early days we had something Windows gosh, Windows Mobile is what it was called,
(28:10):
and of course that fell out.And now, you know, I
think that these tech companies realize,especially as this tech gets gets better,
you got to work together in certainways on these standards because it's better for
everyone. And so of course Appleknows more people are going to buy air
tags because of this, and morepeople will feel more comfortable adopting this technology
because it works with everything. Arewe ever gonna see charging chords, you
(28:33):
know, the ends of charging chordsactually being universal or companies like Apple,
I'm gonna say, oh no,no, we make way too much money
on that stuff, so we'll neverallow a platform that everybody uses. That's
a great question, because Apple hasbeen the soul holdout out of the entire
world when it comes to what's calledUSBC. So every other company in the
(28:57):
world uses USBC, still uses Lightning. But good question, Bill. It's
Europe is requiring them to put USBCon the iPhone, and so we don't
think that Apple is going to makea separate version of the iPhone just for
Europe. So we're thinking that thisyear in October, when the new iPhone
(29:18):
comes out, it'll be the firstone that will be standardized with the new
charging cable, which means for somepeople they're going to have to buy new
cables. But on almost every oneof Apple's other products at this point they
have used USBC except for the iPhone. Like one hundred times faster too,
isn't it in terms of charging?Its Yeah, it's fat Well, it's
faster data transfer and it depends onthe charging what Apple decides to do.
(29:41):
They could they could still keep thecharging situation the same. They could still
be Apple iPhones charge at some ofthe slowest speeds out of any of the
main phones at this point. Um. But if they're upgrading the port,
I assume they'll upgrade the charging speeds. But we'll see. That's that's to
be determined. The one plus pad, I have not heard of that yet,
(30:02):
So tell us about that. Yeah, you may be hearing about it
soon. This is a company that'sknown for its smartphones. This is their
first tablet and the reason why it'sgetting a lot of publicity is because it
actually looks and feels a lot likean iPad, but it runs Android software.
So for many, many years,iPad has been the top tablet,
(30:22):
and yes, that's still my toprecommendation for a tablet if you're purchasing one.
But sometimes people don't want Apple,they don't want iOS, they don't
want to be a part of that. They want an Android. And so
this is now kind of the firstAndroid tablet that we've seen in a long
time that's really good. It's gota great design, it's got good specs,
the screen is pretty decent, it'sfast, it runs the programs you
(30:45):
need it to run. It's gotall the things you need, like a
stylist and a keyboard. But here'sthe thing. People like me like it
as reviewers, but you've got tohold off if you're thinking of purchasing this
thing, if you hear about itin the next couple of weeks, because
again, I mean, Google ishaving an event next week and they are
set to launch their tablet for thefirst time in many many years. Google
(31:07):
has not had a tablet is sincethe days of you know, maybe five
seven, eight years ago, andso you've got to compare what they're doing
against this tablet. But The goodnews is there's choices now because of the
question I have regarding Apple, andthis one is always a sort of I
was fascinated by this. You haveApple, which is substantially more expensive than
(31:33):
any other product out there that doesthe same thing, and yet people still
gravitate to it, even though you'vegot the Android products that are far cheaper
and do virtually the same thing.There's is the value worth it? I
mean, do you get that muchmore for four hundred dollars more? And
Apple still seems to be by farthe number one manufacturer on the planet.
(32:00):
Yeah, and there's there's many reasonsfor that. Look and number one,
this tablet. One of the thingsI wrote about my review is that it's
actually quite expensive. It's four hundredand seventy nine dollars. Now, if
you're thinking Android tablet, they shouldhave priced this thing at you know,
three ninety nine, two ninety nine, just to really get people to say,
oh, why would I buy thetap the iPad when I can get
this for so much cheaper? Sothis one is not much cheaper, which
(32:22):
I think makes it a little bitcomplicated because the iPad is still better in
a lot of ways, but withall of that said, here's the deal
bill. You know, you goanywhere and there's an Apple store. You
go to Paris, France, andyour iPhone drops on the ground, on
the cobblestone and it shatters. Youcan walk into an Apple store the next
morning and get a replacement and beon your way and they'll help you transfer
(32:45):
your data and all that good stuff. You need a case for your phone,
you can order a thousand cases online. You can go to a seven
eleven and find a case. Theaccessories are so pervasive everywhere, anywhere you
go, you can get the helpyou want. There's a lot of people
that do help tutorials. I wrotea book about the tips for the iPhone.
(33:06):
I mean, there's such a networkof help and support and accessories.
When it comes to Apple products,people see them as a premium. They
all work together, and Apple knowsthis and they actively kind of play to
that because people know, you getan iPhone, it's going to work for
a really long time. And bythe way, when you're done with it,
you can hand it down to afamily member and it's still going to
(33:27):
work really well. Yeah, noneof those things I ever thought of,
I travel or whatever. I don'tthink in those terms, you know,
for me, And I don't knowhow how relevant this is. I just
don't want to learn another system.I'm just too lazy. I got used
to it and I'm done, aspeople do with Max. I have a
friend of mine that use PCs foreverand finally ended up having a Mac and
(33:51):
said, like many Mac users use, I don't know why I ever used
anything else, but well, amI allowed to ask you what you use
when not reviewing? What's your goto? When Rich de Moreau is not
Rich the Moreau on the air?Yeah, sure, I will tell you.
So I use, I mean,look for computer, my MacBook.
(34:13):
I call it the Moneymaker because it'sliterally by my side every day, day
in day out. I just gotthe new one. And I did switch
from from PC to Mac a longtime ago. And I was one of
those people that always thought max wereweird and this and that, and when
I switched for content creation it isa really really good thing. But also
it's personal preference, So I'm notyou know, believe me. I get
(34:36):
a lot of calls on the showon the weekend. I would say,
Bill, a majority of the peopleactually use PC's and so I need to
get better on the PC because alot of people that call in are having
trouble with Windows and this and thatand Microsoft. So I will start using
that more because of that. Whenit comes to phones, I'll be honest,
I'm using the iPhone most of thetime, but I always carrying Android
(34:57):
because Ay, I love Androids.I think they're really different and unique from
iPhone, And of course I alwayswant to know how to use them because
people call about problems with them too. And by the way, when you
go outside of Los Angeles, theuse of Apple products falls off a cliff.
In Los Angeles, everyone has anApple Watch, everyone has an iPhone,
everyone has a Mac. You goto any other city in America and
(35:19):
it's not that way. Specifically,There's a lot of people that are using
Android. There's a lot of peoplethat are using PC and other products out
there. So LA is A isa very different place when it comes to
the adoption of these things because ofthe content creation community businesses. When I
see businesses, when I go,for example, to an insurance company,
and I see computers in these pits, whenever I have a business, they're
(35:45):
all PCs. I never see aMac at major businesses. Why is that,
Well, because MAX are more expensive, number one, and they also
do stuff that these businesses don't need. I mean, at this point,
nine percent of businesses can be runthrough a web browser, and that's what
the PC does best. The PChas the infrastructure for updating software from a
(36:09):
central location. It's much more businesscentric, whereas the Mac. You know,
there are definitely schools and some businessesthat will use MAX, But the
PC has always been the stronghold ofthe workplace and I don't see that changing,
although I think workplaces are becoming moreflexible in the devices that people can
(36:30):
use to accomplish their jobs because it'sso decentralized. You know, it used
to be you had to run Windowsbecause you're there are specific programs and applications
that you needed to do your job. And now ninety percent of the applications
have moved to the Internet and theirsoftware web based, and so you can
do your job from pretty much anyweb browser at this point. So if
(36:51):
you're putting in fifteen or twenty workstations, there is a substantial difference in price.
Also, I'm assuming, oh absolutely, I mean the you know,
because these workstations don't need to havethe best processors. They don't need the
best memory. You know, youcan get an independent screen or monitor,
you can use one that you hadfrom before. So most of the I
(37:13):
mean, I would say probably almostevery workplace that I've been into, you
pretty much see PCs and there wecall them light pecs. You know,
they're not even really heavy listing computers. They're just pretty much a browser and
that's it. I mean, allright, anybody does graphics, of course
immediately goes to an Apple product,I would guess, yeah, but you'd
(37:35):
be surprised some of the high endWindows computers, you know, for some
of these animation programs. I mean, Adobe is very popular on the Windows
side, so it's not there's notone size fits all, but in you
know, there are pros and consof each for sure. But yeah,
all right now, rich thank you. We'll catch you on Saturday eleven to
two here on KFI and your addressis at rich On Tech. You have
(37:59):
a good one catching over the weekend. Thanks Bill. Usually Ardine Sharp Segment
Handle in the House Whisper happens onWednesday, but instead it is today Dean
Sharp, who has heard every Saturdaysix to eight am Sunday's nine am to
noon, and his social address isat home with Dean Morning Dean, Good
(38:22):
morning, Bill. Yeah, you'rea happy camper. Just got back from
vacation. Good for you. Yes, yes, yeah. One of the
world's most favorite places where it's justnorth of Pacoima and it really is a
terrific place to visit. What Iwant to talk about today is remodeling and
(38:43):
five major tips I'm going to add. I'm gonna put all those five after
number one and my tip and I'mgoing to add my tip to it is
you will never have enough money tofinish your remodel. That's not true.
That's not true. All Yeah,this is experience talking. I've done several
(39:07):
remodels and as far as I'm concerned, there was never enough money to finish
this remodel. So yeah, yeah, some people, some people embrace kind
of the movie making concept of remodeling. I heard the director Peter Jackson one
say, when it comes to makinga movie, you never finish it.
(39:29):
You just either run out of timeor money to finish it. And so
yeah, there's some people, youknow, but that's the idea. We're
giving tips for doing the remodel,right and there's actually some really important things
that you can do if you getserious and honest with the way a remodel
should work, that will actually getyou through the project without blowing the budget.
(39:50):
Okay, so let's talk about someof them, because a lot of
people are about to doing thinking ofdoing in the future, and frankly,
I gotta tell you it's pretty scarywhen you're looking at a remodel. I
mean, that's short of building ahouse. This is one of the biggest
things you can do, and it'speople are not comfortable with it. They
want it, but you know,what do you do with it exactly right?
(40:14):
I mean I would say generally speakingthat most established homeowners have one big
remodel in them and that's one ofthe reasons why it's so important to get
it right right. I mean,you just need to be able to do
it right. So step one wouldbe figuring out what my model for the
(40:35):
show design matters most, really means. What do you think it means to
you workability, Things that make sensein terms of flow, things that make
sense in terms of being attractive.I mean, there are a lot of
moving parts here, and I thinkif you miss one of them, you've
(40:57):
missed the boat. I mean,it all has to be combined. Am
I right on? I think youare right on that. I'm going to
break it down into two simple halves. Though. For it to design something
is really to create a plan witha purpose in mind. All right.
Designs for homes fail for usually oneof two reasons. Number one, we
don't really know what the purpose is, or two, we don't have the
(41:21):
creativity to make that purpose a reality. So number one here, the need
for creativity is why you should probablyhire a designer. Okay, that's simply
something that for the last six anda half years we've been on the station
here promoting to the mainstream because stillto this day, it's not a mainstream
(41:43):
idea. You think that's just somethingfor the rich and famous. You know,
they hire designers and architects, andI'm just remodeling my house. So
we're gonna talk to the contractor abouthis best ideas not a good idea.
The second thing, though, hangon a second, We're gonna take a
break out. But before we do, real quickly, what are we looking
at the cost of a designer?Is it tens of thousands of dollars?
(42:06):
Several thousand dollars. Well, youknow what, It depends on the size
of the project. But these days, yeah, good guideline would be maybe
five percent of cost of construction.You know what you want, and then
get a creative involved who can getyou there. And you, now that's
a creative Also figure out how youdo it at the lowest possible price.
(42:27):
You get the biggest bang for yourbuck. Or is that the contractor no,
no, no, I think thatshould really that really falls on the
designer to put together a design thatfits within your budget. And you know,
I always say this, here's thething. Great ideas, that's what
you're paying a designer for. Andthen the execution of that, the execution
(42:47):
of the right idea of your home. We can do it in platinum,
we can do it in gold,we can do it in bronze, we
can do it in plastic or paper. But the right idea is still the
game changer. Then we just fitit to your budget, all right.
And of course I was going toask you about a budget, but that's
impossible to ascertain at this point becauseif you're adding a room to your house,
(43:08):
you're taking out a you know,for example, taking out a wall,
and if it's a bearing wall yougot to put in. Obviously supports
poor new foundations. I mean,you're building a mini house and that is
a bucket of money, isn't it. It's going to cost you money.
But here's the thing. Okay,the most important resource, and this is
(43:29):
jumping ahead to number three, butthat's cool. Time. Time I beg
our clients and our listeners to slowdown on the remodel process. Time,
not money, is your biggest resource. There's a thing called the iron triangle
in the construction industry. A picturea triangle. Three sides on this triangle.
(43:52):
Here are the three sides. Costis one side, time is the
second side. Quality is the thirdside. So there you go. You
can just draw it out for yourself. Now here's here's the bit. You
get to pick two of those sides, any two sides you want, and
you're gonna pay for it with thethird side. So, for instance,
(44:14):
if you want it done really fasttime wise, time fast, and you
want it done as cheaply as possible, no problem. All you have to
sacrifice is quality because getting it donereally fast and as cheap as possible means
the quality is gonna not be there. If you want it done fast and
(44:34):
you want quality, then get readyto write a big check. So most
people don't fall in those two categories. Most people want the best possible value
cost and the best possible quality.And guess what is required to get that.
You got to take your time.You got to take time. I'm
(44:57):
going to come back at you becauseI have done models. Now, obviously
my experience is nothing like yours becauseI've done it on the consumer side and
you've done everything else. But asfar as time is concerned, is there
ever a possibility, a sliver ofhope that it's going to be it's going
to be done on time, whichmeans that the subcontractors show up on time,
(45:24):
that equipment or materials delivered on time. Not only is it I have
never had a project that come inon time. I've never heard of anybody
having a project that has come inon time. Yeah well okay, so
yeah, yeah, you're absolutely rightabout that. However, I'm going to
tell you this again. Time.You know what is on time? Time
(45:46):
is this relative thing. If yougo into a project saying, listen,
this thing has got to get startednext week and it has to take four
and a half months, the end, you are going to be sadly,
sadly disappoint pointed. But if youtake your time to plan out this job,
if you take your time to reallylearn and find not only the deals,
(46:10):
but the contractors and the processes,if you take the time to order
your materials, your long term materialslike cabinetry and windows and doors ahead of
time, you're going to set yourselfup for the most fluid project possible.
And also part of that time thatyou take planning is acknowledging. All right,
(46:32):
in a perfect world, this wouldbe a four month project. But
yes, there are going to bedelays unforesee that have By the way,
you have the best contractor on theplanet. There's nothing they can do about
the fact that if they are onanother project waiting for something to happen,
and they promised you I'm going toget there on Monday, and some other
contractor or a subcontractor failed to performso that they could get done what they
(46:57):
needed to do on another project,Yeah they're gonna be delays. But you
can accommodate those delays in your schedule. You can say, listen, in
a perfect world, this could takefour months. We're gonna give it six
and guess what, We constantly,constantly when we set the proper margins of
time, bring projects in quote unquoteon time m and then very quickly because
(47:22):
we have about a minute Shannon comingin. Okay, I believe she's coming
into cross with me. Is theover budget stuff not only does inherently goes
over budget just as a matter ofgravity, a matter of law, but
man, the change orders that peoplemake. We see what you have.
(47:42):
Oh, no, we have tochange something, and that just busts the
budget. Yeah. The biggest causeof mid project budget increasers is you.
You, the homeowner. Yes,there are always some unexpected expenses in a
remodel. Oh we found this thingthat has to be changed. We didn't
know it is behind the wall.Okay, blah blah blah blah blah.
Those really are not very big forqualified contractors to handle. But the biggest
(48:06):
reason for going over budget in mostprojects are homeowners wanting to increase quality.
After the project has begun. Theyplanned on putting in tile. Now they're
looking at their bathroom as it startscoming together, They're like, well,
maybe we should do marble countertops.Chutching. It happens. Nine out of
ten times. It's not the contractor, it's not the designer. It is
(48:28):
the owner who's putting their foot onthe gas, taking their foot off the
brake, and is usually the causeof their own over budget issues. And
when it comes to contractors, Iknow they're coming in and getting the lowest
possible bid they can come in withwithin reason, they're still making money.
But it's those change orders that startthe cash register ringing asn't it. Yeah,
(48:50):
And that's the reason why usually it'snot a great idea to take the
lowest bid on a project, becauseyou actually want a contractor who's got a
comfortable enough margin, you know,and they're not getting rich on you,
but they've got a comfortable enough marginso that when a little thing changes or
a little thing doesn't go according toplan, they don't immediately hand you a
changeover. You've got a contractor who'sso narrow in their margin that anything that
(49:15):
goes awry from the plan, you'regoing to get hit with a change order.
So Dean, we'll catch you thisweekend at eight o'clock on Saturday,
nine o'clock on Sunday. You havea good one. Thank you, Bill,
all right, coming up, Garyand Shannon. Quick reminder that I'm
taking questions handle on the law marginallegal advice off the air just as Gary
(49:36):
and Shannon show up, So ifyeah have a question or two, I'll
be more happy to marginalize that question. Gary and Shannon up next. Kf
I am six forty live everywhere onthe iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to
the Bill Handles Show. Catch myshow Monday through Friday, six am to
nine am, and anytime on demandon the iHeartRadio app.
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