Favoriting Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from December 25, 2023 Favoriting

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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

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Favoriting December 25, 2023: Your favorite tech gifts

Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

Today: Your favorite tech gifts

Thanks to the listeners who sent in emails describing their favorite tech gift from holidays past!

The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music, maintained by Thom Holmes, includes Merry Moog 2023, Merry Moog 2022, etc. Thanks to Webhamster Henry for the pointer.

Myst for the Atari 2600 (Mastodon post, Dec 11, 2023) . . . or play it in-browser

Coleco Electronic Quarterback Game on Wikipedia (similar to the Mattel Football and Football 2).

The worst tech of 2023 (an anti-gift guide) (Brian Merchant in the LA Times, Dec 7, 2023): Don’t buy Amazon Ring.

Annual Reminder: 23andMe Is a Dangerous Christmas Gift That Could Have Unforeseen Impacts on Your Entire Family, Your Children, Etc. (by Jason Koebler in 404 Media, Dec 6, 2023): “The ever-worsening 23andMe hack shows the inherent vulnerability of genetic databases designed to show connections between people.”

Koebler writes: “23andMe’s current privacy practices, security practices and policies, business models, advertising models, research practices, big Pharma data sharing agreements, and everything else are not guaranteed to stay as they are forever. Consider, for example, that 23andMe suddenly changed its terms of service in the aftermath of the hack to include a mandatory arbitration provision to prevent class action lawsuits. 23andMe has already been subject to a SPAC, while Ancestry was purchased by Blackstone, a gigantic private equity firm. We have no idea what 23andMe will be doing in one, 10, or 100 years, who will own it, what will happen to its databases, and who will have direct or indirect access to your DNA. Business models change, companies are sold, strategies change, promises can be broken, privacy policies can be updated. These things are impermanent. But your DNA is forever.”

23andMe admits hackers accessed 6.9 million users’ DNA Relatives data (The Verge, Dec 4, 2023): “The data revealed includes things like display names, predicted relationships with others, the amount of DNA users share with matches, ancestry reports, self-reported locations, ancestor birth locations, family names, profile pictures, and more.”

    --> As John Overholt posted on Mastodon (Dec 4, 2023), “23andMe was hacked, so if your information was compromised, make sure to change your genetic code ASAP.”

• Good news: The Hyperloop is dead (Futurism, Dec 22, 2023)

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Artist Track Album Images Approx. start time
  Christmas 2023: Your favorite tech gifts
Tomaš Dvořák  Game Boy Tune   Favoriting  
Favoriting
 
  Your favorite tech gifts    
Favoriting
 
Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews  O Holy Night   Favoriting Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip 
Favoriting
0:53:12 (MP3 | Pop-up)


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Listener comments!

Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:00pm
ultradamno:

Mark! Techtantas and Techeindeers!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:00pm
Handy Haversack:

Mark! Techyon Particles!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
Bas NL:

Hi Mark & assorted Techtonic tree lights!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
Spikey BXL:

Electromagnetic Christmas Pulse to you all
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
chresti:

Ho ho ho Mark and techtonicians!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Mark! Our Techtoclaus! 🧑‍🎄
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:03pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

Oh heyyy!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:05pm
Will thee Sound Guy:

Ho Mark Hurst and all!!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:06pm
ultradamno:

They were great! They recommended this site you tube!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:06pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

Ack! I'm glad you're all healed up from COVID, Mark.
  6:06pm
Listener Robert:

Yay, Covid recovery!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
dale:

i've been looking at new tv's as the colorboard in our old one is kerput. curious what mark hurst thinks about smart tv's, and they ALL seem to be smart tv's today.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:09pm
DjLorraine:

Too Good To Go actually works in my area.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:11pm
Handy Haversack:

K8 and I wanted to write in and tell you about the time her parents gave her a Fitbit, but life has just been a little too much these past couple of weeks, Mark. Glad you got some responses!
  6:12pm
mark/denver:

I got an 8 track player for my car few months back..was wonderful. before that we just sang songs acapella...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:13pm
Handy Haversack:

↳ dale @6:08
I had to get a "smart" TV when our CRT died, but I didn't hook it up to any network -- just OTA broadcast. I still feel weird about it.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:13pm
Jim the Poet:

My favorite tech gift is the old ass nokia phone I gave myself
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:13pm
StringOFperils:

↳ Jim the Poet @6:13
Those made great hand warmers.
Avatar 🤖 6:16pm
herb.nyc:

“We go down to the river…”,🎶 Bruce Springsteen
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:16pm
Handy Haversack:

As seen in an episode of Atlanta!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
Spikey BXL:

Had no idea Asahi was something besides beer.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
dale:

↳ Handy Haversack @6:13
so many good free channels to watch though - internet archive, tubi, freevee, on and on. but the stations are making it harder and probably want more people to watch it over cable or some streaming app.

in the new york market 7, 11, 13 and 21 went to atsc 3.0. can still get the 1.0 transmissions if you have a vhf antenna as those channels are broadcasting around channel 7 now.
  6:19pm
Boozy Swoozie Kurtz:

I’m listening to this broadcast on an old school boombox so these gifts make sense
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
StringOFperils:

The One Laptop project employed 'mesh' computing. The units need to swarm. I got one at a yard sale for $2. If there isn't another one nearby, it can't fulfill its purpose, which was to provide a communal earning experience for children so remote that they're off the grid. It is cool though. If i were that kind of geek, I'd get it to do something. I used to think that about my Sinclair too though, ha ha.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
ultradamno:

I don't necessarily mind those free channels have to have commercial interruptions (I get that's how it's free), but that they seem so randomly placed
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
StringOFperils:

**communal LEARNING. Earning is a little more difficult.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
ultradamno:

I did get an Amazon gift card...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

Here's a mixed response: my favorite tech gift was from last year. My mom very generously bought me a MacBook so I could have a second laptop. Why did I need that laptop, and why is it my favorite gift? Because that second laptop allowed me to connect to the Give the Drummer Radio stream and begin airing my show. And being on the radio is one of the best things in my life.
That said, the quality of MacBooks has severely declined, and is inferior to my old one from 2010 that died two years ago.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
Handy Haversack:

↳ StringOFperils @6:21
Easier to foresee the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
StringOFperils:

↳ Handy Haversack @6:21
Yes, I think I can see it's warm glow just over the Earth's rim.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Handy Haversack:

↳ ultradamno @6:21
I think the only embarrassing thing I did at the office holiday party this year was explain out loud why I didn't want the Amazon gift card they were giving everyone. I *think*.
  6:23pm
mark/denver:

got an oculus 3 gift today, already implanted chips in me, tracks me 24/7/365..already sold my internal and external data...long live meta/Facebook, big tech...wonderful comrades!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:23pm
dale:

my wife bought me a radio shack police scanner once. that gift rocked!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:26pm
Cooh John:

I was saying it with you.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

I downloaded the Duckduckgo browser to my Windows/11 laptop recently. Seems to work OK, but when I try to make a comment on a WFMU comments board, it shows a window "Sorry, you didn't provide a comment!" so I still use the previous Windows Edge browser for WFMU. What's the procedure to report such bugs to the IT team?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:28pm
ultradamno:

I miss having a system that can play my Residents CD-Roms (Freakshow and Bad Day On The Midway)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:29pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

↳ Ken From Hyde Park @6:27
KenFHP, I think if you look at the bottom of the playlist page and click on "Ken Garson," that will work.
Avatar 6:29pm
Jeff Moore:

Oops, I meant to share this with you back when you asked!

The most best thing was: my hp 25c programmable calculator I got as a young high school student in the 1970s.

It combined that absolutely impeccable Hewlett-Packard hardware of the day – every key or switch felt exactly perfect, the keys had the glyphs molded into them in inset different colored plastic so they couldn't possibly wear off... and it was PROGRAMMABLE!

This was the first of multiple times over the years that I'd find myself programming in a stack-based language.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
dale:

↳ ultradamno @6:28
my 1999 imac graphite still works and would play those.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
dale:

like frank black sang, whatever happened to pong?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
Spikey BXL:

Leisure Suit Larry would probably get a shout
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:32pm
Handy Haversack:

↳ Spikey BXL @6:31
Oh, yeah. In the Land of the Lounge Lizards.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:32pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

Favorite computer game: Tetris, for sure.

Non-computer favorite game: many, many pinball machines, especially Cyclone and Funhouse.
Avatar 🤖 6:32pm
herb.nyc:

Computer games- I never played them. But am reading a book mark recommended a long time ago.”ready player one”- the game in this 2011 book are EXTREMELY intrusive. A good read. (Mark said the movie was so so)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:33pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

↳ Wendy del Formaggio @6:29
Thanks, Wendy. That sounds logical. I'll do that later so as not to bother him on a Monday night.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
Spikey BXL:

↳ Ken From Hyde Park @6:33
No issues commenting with Brave browser. In case you use that as well.
Avatar 6:34pm
HyperDose:

Blake Stone and flight simulators
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:36pm
Cooh John:

My first screen was an Etch-a-Sketch.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:37pm
ultradamno:

I think I've said it before, but my favorite tech gift was this Sony Walkman mastodon.social...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

↳ Spikey BXL @6:34
That's good. I may check that out.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
cosmic matrix:

oh no lost track of time! oooops! did anybody mention a realistic (radio shack) FM microphone? that may be my favorite tech gift. i was probably 8 or 9 years old.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:38pm
ultradamno:

I had one of those Panasonic dynamite 8-track players in yellow...it was OK, but it made you manually change tracks, which was the gimmick, but got tiresome.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:39pm
dale:

i found a JVC RC-550 on the side of the road with a FREE sign on it. it's also known as 'el diablo' because of it's size and is worth a small fortune. has shortwave too. i need to recap it because it doesn't get much sound out of it. but it is massively cool, circa 1979.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
Handy Haversack:

For YEARS the bathroom boombox could pick up 91.1 with varying levels of static -- now it can't get 91.1 at all, but 91.9 comes in pretty strong, whereas it never used to come in at all. Nothing physical has changed. No clue.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
cosmic matrix:

radio shack also had those radios that were built into stuffed animals. i think i had one of those.
Avatar 🤖 6:42pm
MarciB:

Bummer my submission wasn't read but I love my electric toothbrush! And also my beloved Tivoli radios that allow me to listen to WFMY easily :)
  6:42pm
DalesWife:

Listener Dale bought me a Turntable that converts LPs to mp3s. I loved it so much I bought the one for cassettes.
Is it surveiling me? I hope not. Is being able to listen to Frankie Goes to Hollywood on my way to work worth it? Oh hells yeah.
Avatar 🤖 6:42pm
MarciB:

WFMU !
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
dale:

↳ cosmic matrix @6:40
plush pets! also the flavoradio, the fuity colors. and bicycle radios that mounted on the handlebar with a built in headlight.
Avatar 🤖 6:43pm
MarciB:

↳ MarciB @6:42
very cool!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:43pm
Bart:

Homer gave me a Superstar Celebrity Microphone for my birthday. I put it down a well for a prank and got into trouble because my name was on it and I got stuck down there.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:43pm
Cooh John:

I remember playing that game.:)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:43pm
dale:

↳ dale @6:42
...fruity....
Avatar 🤖 6:44pm
herb.nyc:

Oh yeah. The PASS button on that little game. I forgot about that. Me and college suitemates played that game a lot
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:44pm
dale:

electric football. good times.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:44pm
cosmic matrix:

↳ dale @6:42
OMG the fruity colors! i remember them having a scent too! am i making that up? yeah plush pets...wow...
Avatar 🤖 6:45pm
MarciB:

↳ Handy Haversack @6:40
it's odd how the station ebbs and flows. I'm in Queens and can sometime get the station loud + clear - and sometimes not (so I use the app on my iPad).
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Spikey BXL:

Here's Merlin, I remember having one as a kid: en.wikipedia.org...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
ultradamno:

Was it me? I had one of those...I also had a Wildfire pinball
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Spikey BXL:

oh crap, didn't mean to scoop your pic
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:46pm
ultradamno:

↳ ultradamno @6:45
(referring to Merlin)
  6:47pm
Firepitmama:

Merlin felt very tech to me as a kid when it came out.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Jim the Poet:

Also I don't know if this Dracula Pin Ball game here at the station was specifically a gift to me but it has brought me a tremendous amount of joy and frustration
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
dale:

↳ cosmic matrix @6:44
don't remember a scent. but i never had one. i think apple got the idea for the blueberry, raspberry etc imac from radio shack.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
cosmic matrix:

too bad i missed most of those show. i will be FUTURE ARCHIVE LISTENER like you saaaay
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
Handy Haversack:

We're in NW Brooklyn. And it doesn't come in at ALL in the front room! Just the bathroom boombox.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
Spikey BXL:

Around same time as Merlin, I remember getting a Big Trak programmable toy vehicle.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
Jim the Poet:

↳ Handy Haversack @6:48
We should have a transmitter on the roof of your building
Avatar 🤖 6:49pm
MarciB:

↳ Handy Haversack @6:48
so weird and random!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
Handy Haversack:

↳ Jim the Poet @6:49
I mean, I keep pledging ...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:50pm
Handy Haversack:

Gotta go start chopping for taco night. Thanks, Mark! All gifts are bad -- except the gift of WFMU.
Avatar 🤖 6:50pm
herb.nyc:

Aside- as mark mentioned Lower East Side Ecology Center, I’ll be working the food scraps part of it this Wednesday, Dec 27. Union Square gmkt, 8-5pm. Come say hi (some rain that day?). an Ewaste happens next month, again, union square. lesecologycenter.org

Great show tonight, as usual. Thx, mark. (“We go down to the metaphorical river…”🎶, Bruce, kinda)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Jim the Poet:

Alexa is always testifying against me in court. She is worse than those elves on the shelves. Quit snitching, Alexa
Avatar 6:52pm
Juli:

Hope everyone is having a nice dayyyyyy:::::}
  6:57pm
?:

Yeah, yeah sure but what is your favorite app?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
StringOFperils:

Hail the new flesh! Thanks, Mark! Turn off. Tune in. Drop out.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Bas NL:

This 23andMe story says everything.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
Wendy del Formaggio:

Thank you, Mark. As I have said before, and I shall repeat again: You and your show are a mitzvah.
Avatar 6:58pm
HyperDose:

Mark Hurst strikes back! (against AI)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
cosmic matrix:

↳ cosmic matrix @6:47
23 skidoo
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
lanky:

ANyone rifling through your trash or following you when you toss your vente caramel machiado can get your dna...
Avatar 6:58pm
Troy:

Thanks!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Spikey BXL:

Cheers Mark
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
cosmic matrix:

thank you mark. you are fighting the good fight.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Bas NL:

Thanks Mark!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
lanky:

Just thought I'd mention that having just said "alexa, play wfmu" to my alexa and tuning in..
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:00pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Thanks, Mark. See you next year!
Avatar 7:00pm
sensisio:

Feliz Navidad everyone
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:00pm
DjLorraine:

Replace ring
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:01pm
chresti:

Thanks Mark!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 7:02pm
Mark Hurst:

Thanks, everyone!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 8:03pm
Webhamster Henry:

↳ Firepitmama @6:47
I actually hacked my Merlin because it had a little sequencer in it!
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