Up Periscope
Do you Periscope? If so, you may wish to experience the debate tomorrow night, as I intend to. I will watch it on TV, while simultaneously enjoying Scott Adams’ (Dilbert) running commentary on my iPad tuned to his Periscope channel, “@ScottAdamsSays.” It will be similar to someone “Live Blogging” a political event, except Periscope is an actual streaming audio/visual experience. Speaking of visual, his very hot neighbor will be co-hosting the “Scope” with him. 😉
If you are unfamiliar with Periscope, don’t feel too old. Since I eschew most social media, I didn’t even know what it was a week ago; but I easily became addicted to the technology, once I tried it. It all started when YouTube recommended a replay of one of his daily morning “Coffee with Scott Adams” Periscope episodes, which one of his many followers, using the handle, “CyberDurden,” now converts and uploads to his own YouTube channel. E.g. here is yesterday’s episode:
You may not wish to invest the time to watch the whole episode; but if you are unfamiliar with Periscope, watching a few minutes will give you a feel for how Scott uses the platform very effectively, to communicate with his “Persuasion” oriented fans, now that he has disabled commenting on his exceeding popular blog posts.
After watching them on CyberDurden‘s channel for a few days, I became interested enough to do a bit of research, into what exactly Periscope was. I recalled encountering it mentioned a few times lately, including that Mike Cernovich also employs the platform. It turns out that both he and Adams regularly get 10K real-time viewers, whenever they broadcast an episode from their iPhones or iPads. I usually find both authors’ sessions rather interesting, even when I don’t catch them in real-time.
It turns out that the free app, available for IOS or Android, will immediately “Notify” a subscriber (if enabled) anytime a favorite starts a live session. In my case, my Apple Watch actually taps me on the wrist, beeps, and gives me a text message about it! Then, upon tuning in, I see the same thing on a mobile device as shown on the YouTube clip above, except at the bottom of the screen is a “chat” style input box, where I can inject a comment or question into the stream scrolling up the screen. Fortunately, I have a Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, if I am interested in participating. Otherwise, I can continue surfing on my Windows machine, while listening to the host’s commentary in my Bluetooth headphones.
One can even swipe the comments stream completely off the screen, if they are interfering with something worth watching, which I find is often the case. The number and diversity of previously recorded and actual live events, happening 24/7 all over the world, is remarkable! These can be found by a real-time updated world map, with red dots for live broadcasts and blue dots for recently recorded ones. A search function for categories, like #news, is also available. Surfing the Periscope world is a brand new hobby for me; but I must caution that it can be a serious time sink. At least, most of that time is spent on things other than politics, which is certainly a welcome change.
Just in the past few days, without participating in any of the chats, I have watched a Blue Angels air show, several fascinating drone videos of famous spots in the world, a remarkable annotated walk through Central Park, some cleaver tourist scams, a couple of nifty science experiments, live raw video of the riots in Charlotte, and other breaking news events. Out of sheer curiosity, I have briefly dipped into live concerts, musicians practicing, comedy show routines, bar crawls, after parties, drug and/or alcohol fueled idiocy, and even lonely hearts just seeking others to commiserate with. All said, there are some really screwed up people in our modern world, which I would venture to say many of us old folks really have no idea about. A real eye-opener, regarding what ails our society, can be had anytime one wishes via Periscope. 😉
Some interesting demographics I have noticed: Most individual streamers are men. Group sessions are predominantly female. Females are nearly always inundated by salivating perverts, begging them to disrobe or at least flash. Fortunately, these miscreants can be easily blocked, with a single screen touch on the offending comment. I have no idea why; but by far, most users in America are black. Unattractive tattoos and piercings, are ubiquitous everywhere among our youth, many worthy of a Maori tribesman. Finally, a surprising number of users in America are using Arabic script. This is probably a very useful tool for radical Islam. 🙁 â—„Daveâ–º
I never would have figured you for an Apple watch user, â—„Daveâ–º. It must be the result of a misspent youth watching Dick Tracy.
I may have to check into Periscope again. I’ve been relieved to see all the live video products popping up. The internet is at its best when it is able to stay a step ahead of the corporate and bureaucratic regime. With things like the Olympics and Political debates disappearing behind network paywalls, lawyers posting takedown notices everywhere, and the news cycle just a front for powerful interests, it’s nice to be able to just connect the populace together live and direct.
I like nifty gadgets, and bought one as soon as it became available. I have never regretted doing so. My justification at the time, was all the health & fitness apps. I’ll admit that it is amusing to boggle the minds of the kids in McDonald’s, by paying for a cup of coffee with it, by just waving it in front of their merchant terminal. 😀
Agreed on the live video stuff. I was distressed a few years ago, at some jurisdictions trying to pass laws criminalizing the video recording of police activities by the public. Now, the paradigm has shifted to where the police themselves are being required to record their own activities! I like the trend. 😉 â—„Daveâ–º
I watched this video of Scott. He is an interesting guy. I have to say I like his common sense down to earth thought process.
I was a little surprised to hear his take on abortion as I have never heard another man say anything close to that. I must say I have always said men need to “shut up” about abortion and keep their pants zipped. 😉
Let’s compromise. I will be more than happy to shut up about abortion, if I don’t have to keep my pants zipped. 😉 â—„Daveâ–º
Keeping my pants zipped these days is a lot more a function of memory than having anything to do with abortion. When I’m not paying for it nary a peep will be heard.
Of course that goes for a nearly unending list of other things government feels compelled to throw the peoples money at where they have no business.
I pretty much agree with your abortion article. My objection the decision belongs ONLY TO THE WOMAN if she is single.
Sorry guys.
That being said … she gets one thing from baby daddy. The price of the abortion … no child support from daddy or the government.
If she is married then it is a family decision.
I take your point, CT; but have a minor objection. Recognizing that our culture now largely views sex as recreation, it still takes a conscious effort on the part of one or both participants, to avoid it turning into procreation. It is thus probably inadvisable to engage in the sport, with anyone one would not be willing to raise a child with. One presumes that this would be one of the major considerations, in the decision to marry somebody, and you do acknowledge that for those married, it is a family decision.
Yet, I regard marriage as either a religious sacrament, or merely a legal contract and government license. As a cynical godless anarchist, I have no need for either; yet I have experienced a couple of many-years-long loving relationships, where I would have most certainly expected to have a say, in any decision to abort an accidental pregnancy.
If a female becomes pregnant, and her (willing) partner wants to create a family and raise the child, (which arguably is half his), I reckon that this should weigh heavily on any decision she might make to abort it. Agreed however, that in the end, it is her body and nobody (including a legal husband) should be able to force her to birth it, if she decides she has good reasons not to do so. â—„Daveâ–º