You're listenings KFI AM six forty The Bill Handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM six forty Handle here. All my computers all screwed up. We're having all kinds of problems with Zoom and so it's I just thought i'd share that with you, not that it has anything to do with anything. All Right, it is time for Tech Tuesday with Rich de Burrow, our tech guy.
He's also on KTLA every day, rich on Tech every Saturday, right here on KFI eleven Am to two, Instagram at rich on Tech website, rich on tech dot TV.
Good morning, Rich, Good morning to Bill. Okay, we have a few things to talk about.
Microsoft is making a push to go password lists. How then do you have the kind of security that you need if there's no password there?
Well, I'll be honest. Passwords are actually the worst security in the world. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but they really are easy to crack, they're easy to steal, they're easy to trick humans into handing them over. And that's why Microsoft is really moving past passwords. And if you look at a lot of the startups that I'm seeing, when you and if you've signed up for a new product or service. Lately, you might have noticed when you go to the website, it says put your email address,
and you put your email in. The next thing does not say create a password. It says, we just emailed you a code. Pop that code in or click what's called a magic link, and that magic link, you go to your email, you click it, and next thing you know, you're logged into that website. So this is definitely a trend we're seeing. Passwords are not going away overnight. But Microsoft is a big company that is really trying to push people to stop using them. So what do you use instead?
Is that your question face recognition?
Yeah, so it be your face, it could be your fingerprint or even a pin. And you know, they say these are eight times faster than logging in. And really this is all part of something called past keys. So Bill, let me paint you the picture of what happens in the future. Let's say you get rid of your Microsoft password, which they're actually telling people, log onto your account and literally delete it. And so once you do that, the next time you log in, it'll say, hey, we just
pushed a notification to your phone. Go to your phone and do your typical authentication, whether that's your face, your fingerprint, or your pin and the website will log you in.
Huh, one of the things I And maybe I'm off track here because I'm you know, not your tech maven.
That's why you're on the show.
But whenever I get a code for my bank or whatever for authentication, and I use my phone, I don't use computers. Maybe that's my problem because my phone is my computer, so it gives me the code and I have to memorize that number because I'm switching over to the program itself. Am I doing something wrong?
Well, there is an option on the iPhone to automatically have that code populate into the keyboard. So you should see a little option where that code coming from Messages should like appear right in the keyboard, like above the keyboard list. And that's pretty common for a lot of these apps to do. That is to basically, your Messages app is reading that you got a one time code and it's putting that there. So look for that next
time bill because that does help. Otherwise, Yeah, you're right, you have to swipe to the other app, copy the code, put it back in, especially when you're on an email situation where they email you the code you got to go to your email. But I'm telling you there's a reason for all of this. It's because and Microsoft said, by the way, they are dealing with seven thousand password attacks per second right now, which is double last year's rate.
These new systems are much more resistant to phishing because let's just say you set up a pass key on your on your Microsoft account, you go to a fake Microsoft account that's trying to log you know, get you to log in. It's not going to trigger that little activation to your phone or to your computer to say, hey, you know, log in with your password or your face, your fingerprint, because it can't. It's a fake website. It doesn't have that connection. So this is going to be
a slow process. I know it's it's kind of confusing, but at the end of the day, we're very used to opening up our phone with our face or our fingerprint or a passcode. That's going to be kind of the new way to authenticate all of these apps that we're logging into as well, and websites and things like that.
Okay, moving over something that I actually know something about and use all the time, and that's Roku. And this is and I'm switching over from Roku just to my smart TV because I find Roku a pain in the ass.
We're going to do I.
Yeah, yeah, I do.
I don't know why smart TV running, what kind of operating system?
How the hell do I know?
Well, you know it's let me tell you, it's my wife, who's the tech mave. And I don't even know how phones work without a wire to the wall, for God's sake. Uh So that's where I'm at. But here is the issue. Roku users are starting to see ads when they pause content.
And I pause all the time.
I've got to go get I've got a pe I've got to deal with the.
Dogs, and so I pause it and then move on. Big problem. Huh is this what Roku is really gonna do?
Yeah, this is what they're gonna do. And uh so this is a new feature called pause ads. So when you pause your movie or TV show, a static AD will show up on the screen. And typically it's an AD along with a QR code for something. If it works properly, it's something that's related to maybe your search history, or they somehow have built a profile of the things that you might be interested based on your age or
where you live, things like that. And this is appearing across multiple apps on the Roku, and people are starting to see this and yeah, this is a feature that we're seeing, or I guess a trend we're seeing across lots of streaming apps, especially when you're on you know, the ad supported apps like a Hulu or a YouTube or an HBO Max. This happened to me the other day. I was on Peacock watching a movie and I paused the movie, came back to the room, and.
I was surprised. I was like, oh, there's the pause ad.
So the first time you see it you're a little surprised, But I think bill at the end of the day, you know, these marketing companies are looking for ways of grabbing our attention, and they have a very small window at this point because of you know, just how everything is. We're all always kind of switching between different things and how we watch and our tension span, and if you're paused on the screen, you're going to notice it for sure.
You know, I even Instagram, which I use because people will send me Instagram stuff all the time.
You have the ad that appears for before you start.
Anything, but it's like five seconds and then you go skip this ad, which that's livable. Are we talking five seconds, fifteen seconds, thirty seconds?
Well, the ad itself is the Typically the ones that I've seen are static, so they are just on your screen while you're paused the entire time. So if you're pausing the show for a minute, you know, you might see that ad for a minute. But the idea is that these ads are just there in between, and so you know, and the ones I've seen, it just kind of works because otherwise, what do you see on the screen as your TV show paused right or your movie paused?
But yes, it is a shift in the way that we think about entertainment because here you are, you know, watching an action movie or something and you pause and it's like an ad for Dominos. And those are the kind of ads that I've seen, and they're smart and savvy. And again I think that unless I think the delineation here will be if we start to see them on
content that we have paid to be ad free. So for instance, Netflix, right like they have you know, their top of the line subscriptions don't have ads, but they do have subscriptions that are ads supported. So does Peacock, so does YouTube. So I understand if you're if you're getting your your subscription for Less because it's ads supported, if you see ads during pause, I mean that's kind of all fair game. I'd say, all.
Right, fair enough, Rich.
We were talking about the ads and Roku is now going to have ads, static ads when you put whatever show on pause. And this is one of the things that is really bothering me that we're moving in the direction where we're going to have ads no matter what or where unless you're willing to pay insane amounts of money. When TV first came out, it was a minute top and bottom for ads, and then we went to cable
and you would pay to not have ads. And I still think in terms of paying anybody to not put ads in, and it's moving the other way, and it is Is there any possibility that you know, unless you're willing to pay twenty five to thirty dollars a month maybe more, that you're going to have ads in everything you see on television?
Oh? Absolutely, I mean it. Look and here's the thing. The fastest growing area of television. We've talked about this before, is these free ads supported streaming services. So people are actually looking to cut costs with their cable bill, with their streaming bill, with their cell phone bill, and they don't mind having the ads, and so it's not that
big of a deal. And the options for having no ads remain, but they're getting more and more expensive, like you said, and so people will pay to get rid of ads if they want to. But there are many many people out there who don't really mind the ads. They see it as a natural break. They see it as you know, this is the way TV was in the past. This is free content, so why not why not just get it for free? And it powers a
lot of businesses. So I think that no matter what there will be, there will always be a level that is ads supported. I think it's interesting that some of these ads supported plans cost money. Like Netflix, you know their ad supported plan, You're still paying for it. So it's interesting versus something like a two B or a Pluto TV, where you don't pay anything and you get all the content for free because of the ads.
Yeah, that's where I think my gripe is.
And it could because I'm dated, because I'm used to starting non paid TV subscription TV, which wouldn't even dream of having an AD, And now you're paying, paying to have ads.
And the only.
Place that I ever remember having ads where it was not appropriate was in the movie theaters and you'd have La times run.
And this was way back in the day.
And I come from a generation of people who came into watching at that point cable TV, and I didn't pay for it.
But I think you're right.
Uh, if you have someone who has only recently started watching TV, I'm talking about the last decade or two, just getting involved with their kids, you know what, It's just part of doing business.
And hold on Bill, even taking it a step further, half the content nowadays is ads. So when you're flipping through Instagram or you know, Instagram reels or TikTok, a lot of that content is sponsored itself. So the content that you're watching, like if it's a review of a toaster, oven or something like that, like a lot of times the company has paid that influencer to make that video. And so now it's like this merging of like hold on what's true, what's real, and what's not sponsored in
any way. And I think that part of it is also really tricky moving forward.
And for some reason. Well, you know, that seems to work.
I mean, that doesn't really bother me, because I'm pretending that I'm seeing content. The influencer is pretending that there's content there, and everybody's happy. For example, we have a success from Scratch which we just brought back, and it is a sponsored segment and it is literally sponsored by, and the rest of it is truly content. Now, if I were do a sponsored by and I would do the content on that ad or on that business every week, it's a different story. So I guess it's just a
question of levels. And by the way, on the sponsored stuff, I stopped. I stopped really caring when I saw an eleven year old kid getting twenty million dollars a year for opening birthday presents.
I mean that did it to me.
Yeah, And I think he has a line of toys at Target now, and I think he's actually uh, I think he just turned forty seven.
Yeah, I mean, it's just, uh, it's like the cars for causes kids. I won't even tell you what happened to them, right, you know most of them are dead of old age now.
And you're right, my gosh, okay, I know nothing saturd than when I watch movies and I look up the actor and I'm like, oh, please, don't some of that person's dead? Oh yep, they're dead.
Or how about when they're alive and they don't look so good?
Well, no comment there that has some people.
Some people don't age.
Well, no, no, we can't. We can't figure that out. You know what I mean, Like, you can't you can't make that happen. I think on the flip side, when you go to further, you know, when you're really changing your look. So many times it's like, wait, who's this person now? You don't even recognize them?
Yeah, okay, Rich, we're out of time.
I wish we had gone some a little bit more time because there's a bunch of stuff we'll probably do next week. Then Rich demurow r Tech Guy KTLA every day, Channel five every.
Saturday, eleven in the morning at two pm.
Right here on KFI, Instagram, at rich on Tech website, rich on tech dot TV. See this, I'm pitching you and people pretend we pretend this is not sponsored stuff.
When I give the.
Pitch, it's not sponsored. You're no, it's not sponsored.
Come on, I'm accusing you of paying for that.
Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game, you gots no, let's start that rumor.
Okay, all right, Rich, take care, catch you over the weekend. Bye. The Dodgers are taking on the Marlins in Miami today with the first pitch at three forty.
Listen to all Dodger games on AM five seventy LA Sports. Stream all Dodgers games in HD on the iHeartRadio app keyword AM five seventy LA Sports. Zen she handcrafted sushi made fresh daily at Ralph's near the deli counter. And it's only Japanese people that make that sushi. I have no idea if that's true or not, so I'll talk to the folks at zen She now, and Neil, you can join me on this one, okay, Because this has to do with something we love and we trust so much,
and that is snacking. Chips and munchies. Sales are dropping precipitously. We Americans are just snacking less. And why worries about money? And by the way, the cost of snacks are ridiculous now, I mean just crazy. We want to eat healthier. Well, I don't reduce artificial dies. I don't care.
Uh.
The increased use of prescription drugs, you know with Govi and ozembic that make you not want to eat snacks between meals, and so you've got well the brain name brand name, snack companies Dorito's Ding Dogs, ding Dongs sales have been going south south south. So neil uh, let's let's first of all, let's talk about why it's so
damn expensive. You go, we go to that machine down the hall, you know, our many on the seven to eleven on the honor system, except they have videos and I you look at a pack of chips over the last year, year and a half, it had to have doubled.
Oh well, they're definitely on the rise. And in addition to being on the rise, we even heard this with the last administration when by was going after shrinkflation. So in addition to them either staying the same or going up a little bit, they were reducing the cost or changing the cost per ounce, and that was raising because they were putting less chips in the bag, or they had modified the packaging to put less you know, beverage in whatever it might be. So that was turning people
off as well because values not there. But I think it's a handful of things, like you pointed out, I think it's the Wagovis and the Ozempics. I think it's the people looking towards other snack type things and just the sheer cost of them.
Yeah, that's the crazy part because when you look at that. For me, that's the crazy part because when you look at a bag of potato chips with an ounce less of potato chips, which is not a lot of potato chips.
So let's say it's eight chips.
Less in a bag, in a small bag, how much can eight chips cost freeedo lay versus the cost of distribution, the cost of marketing, the cost of packaging.
The chips themselves have to.
Be virtually nothing, and yet you know they I have price fatigue, and it was going to happen at some point and we've reached critical mass.
Yeah, but those chips you're you're thinking in in the smaller the package sense, pennies add up with these larger companies that are making massive amounts of these things. I mean, they end up saving a ton more money than you might expect just because it's pennies.
No, I understand, but my point is, and I guess they they're obviously a lot smarter than I am. Weighing the costs of raising the price versus reducing the amount of product inside.
It used to be where you would get.
Now forty four ounces more or now two ounces more for the same price.
It used to be the reverse.
And instantly they don't say on the label two ounces less for the same price. Have you noticed that it's always when it's two ounces more they blasted on the package.
Yeah, or they'll they'll. This is one of my favorites. They will advertise new packaging like that's a you know, new package, which is less product. Yeah, less product. They don't say, yeah, it's a smaller package. And sometimes those snacks are not as you know, fulfilling. Twinkies are smaller. Ding Dongs are smaller ding dongs. You remember ding dongs used to come and foil. They don't needmore. They come in just a little place. Plastic wrap foyle was more expensive.
Okay, so let's talk about do you snack because you're pretty hefty? Uh oh, I've had no wait till I get to Will. I'm you know, right when I finished to you wait with you, Wait wait till I get to Will on this one.
Uh Oh, I'm bigger than Will, but I don't know.
It's close. I gotta tell you it's close.
Not even close now.
But he's shorter than me.
How tall are you? Will?
Six feet?
Are you both? Six feet?
Okay?
And you'll better leave your.
Numbers numbers I have. By the way, I have a I have a question. Hither I wasn't gonna go there. Let me quickly ask a question for all of you before we bail.
Are you a snacker?
Neil? Yes, Will, emotional snacker?
Snacker? What the whatever that means?
Snack when I'm happy, snack when I'm a will?
Are you a snacker food? Yes?
Okay, uh so two out of two? Kno snacker alright, Heather snacker?
Yeah, I do like a boredom snacker when I'm bored all snack on pop corners, oh.
So throughout the whole show. And snacker, Yes, I prefer snacks to meals. Yeah, and I'm a snacker too. Hey, hey, hey, all right, I just thought i'd point that out. I don't know what that tells us. We need to buy more? Yes, yeah, yeah, we need to buy more.
And then you know the big chips, even a Costco, a big bag of chips is ridiculous. I said, do you ever try the shrimp chips at Costco?
They are they're shrimp flavored.
Yeah, they're I know, they're made with the real shrimp. They're Oriental of some kind.
I don't know. They're Japanese, Korean.
I like them.
I like them, and they they the whole house smells of shrimp.
It's just it really works.
Okay, there's a place in the mall and then the name is just gaving me. I'll look it up. But they have Korean chips and it is the craziest flavors. But they are so good. It's like spaghetti and meatball flavored chips or like you know, garlic cheese bread chips.
And it sounds great.
There's ket chip chip. Yes, ketchup chips are great.
Yeah. Yeah, smoke mackerel.
That sounds Canadian. I don't know why.
I feel like that's Canadian.
Moose flavored chips. Why not? All right, guys, we're done. We're done with that.
I have a Mosquiteoh, b it's just really badly.
Here's the mosquiteo cream that's better than you dead. Oh that's cute.
By the way, it's sort of fun and uplifting and you're gonna die of dangy fever.
But that is beside the point.
So if it turns out that you are looking at your property tax bill and there is your assessment, your property taxes x percent one percent of the value in the assessed value of your home, and then you go through the added fees, and some of them makes sense.
For example, the.
Water district is on there, and if the city provides trash, the trash pickup is on your property tax bill. You will see something called the mosquito abatement district and you go, okay, these are added fees and it's not very much money. And there is a world to mosquito abatement. There are actually whole divisions. There are districts of mosquito abatement.
And why is that Because mosquitos aren't fun.
They bite you, they transmit some horrific diseases and you die or you get malaria, and you got new and more fun diseases coming in. So there's been a recent surge of denay fever in southern California, and I've talked to doctor Jim Keney about this. You do not want dan gay fever and it came from Africa, but everything comes from every place now. And you have two vector
controlled districts, that is mosquito abatement districts. And these are local agencies that are tasked with controlling mosquitoes and other organisms, but mainly mosquitoes. And here is how they deal with mosquitoes. How do you kill mosquitoes? Do they have these giant mosquito traps out there?
How about those.
Little uh, those little what do you call it blue?
You know what kind of light do they produce? I'm trying to think.
And when the mosquitos appers, and it's great fun when the mosquitoes come zapping.
Ah, got another one, when you hear a zapp.
No, there aren't many of those that the city produces or the county producers.
What do they do?
They release sterile mosquitoes, sterile male mosquitoes, because when sterile male mosquitoes stoop female mosquitoes, there is no offspring. And if you release enough of them, the population declines. Now, releasing and I mean millions of them out there, theoretically the population of mosquitos declines because they're not going.
To be born.
It works, It actually works. And what you're I'll tell you what they do. Also is I don't know if you've seen this, and this has to be with is it mosquitos.
Where you see these trucks roll.
By and they spray the entire neighborhood on the street.
I remember seeing those.
It's almost like street cleaners going past, except their spraying, you know, in the air.
You see this sort of missed this miasthma.
I don't know if they do that anymore, because I remember seeing that when we had all kinds of issues coming in when there was you know, when infection was going up, and they could say, okay, this area is particularly vulnerable. But what you're going to see is a lot more of mosquito news because there are a couple of mosquitos that have just come in and they are not fun. They don't fly very far. That's the Egypty mosquitoes egypt Egyptian mosquitoes.
Nile fever also came in because.
Of them because the nile and they don't fly very far, but they can lay eggs in virtually a tea spoonful of water that is outside, and all of a sudden they multiply like crazy because they lay zillions of eggs, and I'm going to talk to Jim probably about dingay fever tomorrow because it's one of those things where it's really going to affect you and your family. And the more something does, you know, the more I like it. Are we done? Yes, we are done. Gary and Shannon
are up next. Also, we're back again tomorrow. Heather Brooker is here. She's filling in for Amy this week, and I think Monday also, right Heather, that's right, okay, And Will of course is here every day. So tomorrow morning it's wake up call with Heather and Will, Neil and I come aboard. And of course a very big but marginal part of this show is Kono and Ann yep, catch you tomorrow, everybody.
This is KFI.
Oh in the phone numbers, Oh oh oh, I forgot all right, handle on the law. I'm taking phone calls. It's one of those warnings where my memory is going. If you would like to ask me a marginal legal question off the air, and I'm going to start in just a moment answering your questions, and I go through them very quickly because we have no brakes or any of that. The number is eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
And we're going to start in just a few moments, and it's all.
About me humiliating you and me making fun of you and answering marginal legal questions with marginal legal advice. Eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty. This is KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show, Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.