On this episode of Deemable Tech, Ray and Tom talk to Adam Daveline, the founder of DiscoveringShakespeare.com, a Kickstarter project to build a database of fully produced monologues, scenes, and masterclasses of Shakespeare’s work available to anyone on the Internet.
Then, after the break, Ray and Tom help Ric find a phone to use in Costa Rica, help Maliery decide if she should buy from Purchasing Power, and help Zoe get new games for her Kindle Fire.
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#46 Ray and Tom Discover Shakespeare
DRAFT TRANSCRIPT
RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,
TOM: I’m Tom Braun,
RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.
TOM: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.
RAY: And, by audible.com. Hey did you know, you, just because you are listening to Deemable Tech, you can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable
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Ender’s Game, the Sci-Fi classic by Orson Scott Card that is coming out as to theaters in November starring Harrison Ford. If you’re like Tom and you like to reread the book right before the movie comes out so you can gripe about the movie, check out Ender’s Game on Audible. The Special 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is now digitally remastered with a full cast production. It also contains an exclusive bonus: an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!
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RAY: So, as you probably already know know that we are in the middle of a contest. If we reach 200 subscribers on YouTube and 500 subscribers on iTunes by the end of August we are going to give away a $50 Amazon Gift Card. To be eligible, Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes. Then, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email to giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it
To make it easy for you, we have a big $50 Amazon Card and the instructions on the top right of our website.
So, go subscribe, like and follow us, and get your emails in so you can win that $50 gift card.
TOM: And don’t forget, we are still in the running for Hottest Local Celebrity in Folio Weekly’s 2013 Best of Jax contest. Make sure to vote for us at folioweekly.com/bestofjax
RAY: All right, well before we jump into your questions, we have a guest on the phone.
We have Adam Daveline on the phone from New York City. Adam is the founder of DiscoveringShakespeare.com, an exciting Kickstarter project that is currently underway right now. Thanks for coming on the show Adam!
So, what are you doing up in New York?
Explain to us what Discovering Shakespeare is.
What gave you the inspiration for Discovering Shakespeare?
Are you doing this all by yourself or do you have a team working with you?
How will you build the site? Are you planning on using an open source platform like WordPress or are you building the site from the ground up?
How will you fund DS to keep it running?
What are some technical challenges you’ve faced in creating DS?
You are trying to raise $18,031. When I first saw that amount I was racking my brain trying to figure out the significance. I thought there was some reference I was forgetting. But you’ve got it figured out exactly what you need to make DS get off the ground. Give us a quick explanation, what is the money going to pay for?
How can people get involved?
Ric writes, I need a simple phone for use in Costa Rica. I know very little about cell phones. The NY Times recommended the Nokia 2700 unlocked GSM quad band world phone, which I found at Myworldphone.com for $79. What else do I need and how can I make sure this phone will work before my trip?
$79 is not bad, but I would wait until you get to Costa Rica and buy a phone there. Generally, you can get a feature phone much cheaper in countries outside of the US than you can in the US.
If you’ve already bought the Nokia 2700, you are good it will work in Costa Rica.
You definitely want to buy a SIM card in Costa Rica though. International roaming is much more expensive than buying a prepaid plan once you get there.
Now, whatever you do, don’t buy a phone at the airport. That is the place where they will be the most expensive. If you’re planning on staying for a while, what I would do is once you hit the ground, find the closest reputable hostel. They’ll be able to direct you to tell you the best place to go. If you’re staying at a hotel, the concierge will do the same.
Maliery asks Would you advise friends to avoid purchasing laptops from the Purchasing Power website?
So, Purchasing Power is a site where you can buy things through payroll deduction. Instead of having to go down to the store to make your payment, your payment comes right out of your paycheck before you even see it. In order to buy from Purchasing Power, your company has to participate and offer the benefit.
From what I could tell, Purchasing Power seems to have brand name laptops. I would assume, if they’re anything like most home shopping network channels and rent to own places, they are probably low powered machines, that are overpriced. Now, I am only guessing because I wasn’t able to see the actual products without registering, and I didn’t want to register. But, that’s most likely what you’ll find there. When a company doesn’t get all of the money from a purchase up front, they have to make up the difference somewhere. If you buy it on credit, you pay the difference in interest. When you buy things on rent to own, they usually overcharge you. With computers, the way they stay competitive with the rest of the retail industry is that they will have the same computer at the same price as Best Buy, TigerDirect, etc, but they will have the model with the lower specs. It’s like two car dealers selling two Ford Mustangs for the same price, but one has an supercharged V8 and the other has a 4 cylinder.
I am not an advocate of going into debt for electronics. I’m not a devout Dave Ramsey follower, but I do believe that most things are not worth going into debt for, and gadgets are definitely not worth it.
Now, this isn’t exactly “debt” it’s more like a rent to own program. It is definitely less risky for the company than offering credit cards because it’s not like you can miss a payment, as long as you are working.
However, I don’t know what happens if you lose your job. Do you have to return the computer? Do you have to pay the balance in full? I couldn’t find that information. And that worries me. If they can’t share that on the website in plain view, it’s probably not in your best interest.
So, in answer to your question Maliery, I wouldn’t do it.
Zoe left a voicemail
First thing is you have to make sure that you have your parent’s permission before you call someone.
Second, you need to make sure that you parent’s permission to download apps. If you do, you can download games from the Amazon App Store.
Now, parent’s you’ll really like this. There’s something really awesome on the Kindle Fire called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. For $4.99 a month or 2.99 if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get access for your child to over a 1,000 app in the Amazon App Store that are age appropriate for your child. The best part is that you can control how long they can use the Kindle for apps, videos, books, games, etc.
So, for instance, Zoe can only play games and videos for a total of two hours a day. But she can read books on her Kindle as long as she wants.
So, to answer your question, Zoe, if you want to have more time to play games on your Kindle, I would suggest that you make sure to be on your best behavior, make sure to get your schoolwork done, and ask mommy very nicely and she might give you a little bit more time to play games.
OUTRO
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Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.