[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of the Local click, we welcome Ms. JC and Ms. Marcia from the Adams Memorial Library to tell us all the exciting things going on there over the summer as well as we welcome our new DTC CEO, Mr. Casey Krueger. He'll be here to tell us all the great things going on here at dtc. Of course, Justin is back with us with all of his great tech news and tech tips. And we may even talk vacationing a little bit. So stay tuned, learn more about fun.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown thrown in for good measure. The Local clique starts now.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Welcome everybody to the Local Click. The Local Click is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology and local people.
And with me again this month, Justin Mauldin. Hello, Justin. How are you doing today?
[00:00:57] Speaker C: I am doing wonderful, Nick. How are you?
[00:00:59] Speaker A: I'm doing better than I deserve.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: If we were honest about it, I think most of us could have that answer.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: I would agree with that. I would agree with that. We are blessed people for sure. It's almost that time of year where people start thinking, where do I want to go on vacation? Are you and your family already having those discussions for the vacation season this summer?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Listen, as of the time of this recording, we are eight days away from starting our vacation.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Not that I'm counting or anything.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Not that you're excited about that.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: No, no, no, no. Not that I'm ready.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: I know you love work so much and it's going to. You're prob. When you leave us for a few days, but somehow you'll make it.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just. It's going to bother me so much, you know? You know, I'm thinking about work the entire time. You know, probably won't be able to get it off my mind while. While I'm relaxing, you know. Yeah, probably. Yeah. It's actually what I need. That's. That's actually my meditation and relaxation is thinking about work.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: I understand. Yeah. And you never lie either, right? Yeah. Speaking of vacation though, I wanted to kind of share some interesting safety tips maybe for those getting ready to go on vacation. I got this online from nationwide.com, the insurance company 7 Essential Travel Safety tips. The first one, it says, do your research.
All right? So get to know your destination in depth before you go. So you kind of know where the safest neighborhoods are in whatever town or city that you're going to.
Maybe places to avoid. You Know, from a crime statistics standpoint, you know, you'd be surprised. You go to a different city, and it doesn't take but one or two city blocks to really change some of your safety perspectives.
[00:02:44] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, it's 20, 25, so there's an abundance of information at your fingertips, literally most of the time in your pocket. So you don't have it. You don't have an excuse not to be able to utilize the information there for you to plan. Plan a multitude of things.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:02] Speaker C: But also from a safety standpoint. Absolutely. You know, recently for dtc, I went on a work trip. And, you know, that's one of the things that I did before. Before we went to this particular location. Yeah. You always have to do it. That's not the first time that I've been to that city. But you still want to make sure that you're up to date.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Right. Number two, it says don't draw attention. So people who look like they're from out of town or especially vulnerable to crime, so kind of try to blend in as much as you can. So I think that's a good one.
Number three, make copies of important documents. I really like this one because you never know when you'll need another copy of driver's license or passport or some form of ID in case you lose your wallet. Have you ever had that unfortunate time where you've lost a wallet on a trip?
[00:03:51] Speaker C: I have not. I have not been in that situation before, but I do know of others that have been. And the problem, typically when you go on vacation, if you lose your wallet, what's contained within that?
Your driver's license, your debit cards, your credit card. Yeah. Your payment cards of any sort, your insurance, health insurance information, and those kind of things. And that can put you in. In a dire situation. If, you know, cash, whatever it may be, that can put you in a very dire situation.
And when you're in that situation, if that's all the cash that you have on you and that's all the payment cards you have on you, you know, so, you know, thinking about making copies of documents, you also need to have a backup plan, you know, potentially. Yeah. Or, you know, if there's a way for somebody. Because again, you think about this, but, oh, well, I'll just get somebody to, you know, transfer me some money using a, you know, Western Union or a Moneygram or whatever it may be. We don't have an id, so how are you going to receive. Receive those funds? You know, so there's some things you got to think about from time to time.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's a good point, too.
Number four that they have on here is keep your friends and family updated. And I always do this. I think this is a really important thing. Always let everyone back home kind of know where you're going to be, where you expected to be, where you're at, so they can kind of make sure that you're okay. I think that's a good one. Here's one that kind of ties in with what we talk about from time to time. Number five, be wary of public WI fi. Right. Don't just connect to anything you find.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: I don't want you to steal any of my thunder, but everybody needs to stay tuned because a little bit later on in the show, we're going to talk about something that has to do with connecting to public WI fi in our tech tip segment.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Interesting. So stay tuned. Sounds like that was good timing on our information, right?
[00:05:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Number six is safeguard your hotel room. I think that's a really big one. It says lock and deadbolt the door and keep your window shut. And I can't tell you how many times I've gone to stay at different places. And you just go check the window and it's unlocked.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, this is one. And I think social media trends have brought more attention to this specific one more recently.
Don't rely on. Specifically on that deadbolt, too. That's in.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's how.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Because sometimes those are not the most secure. And I know there's individuals who will travel, you know, with little, you know, doorstop alarms and stuff like that, which.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Is not a bad idea.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, and there's, you know, there's, you know, there has been incidents. You know, people can get in who shouldn't be in your room.
There's also been incidents of, you know, I hate peepholes. On.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: On hotel rooms. I cannot stand peoples. And that's one thing I'll tell you. When I travel, I will typically cover it up just because I. I don't like the. The ability that somebody from the outside, again, with cameras and stuff, can stick small cameras and, you know, have access to what's going on inside of your room.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Never be too careful on this.
[00:06:47] Speaker C: No, no, no, no.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: And to wrap it up, as far as essential travel safety tips on this list, number seven, be aware of your surroundings. Surroundings. So don't get so caught up getting that perfect selfie with some big landmark behind you to realize, you know, there may be some unscrupulous People around you trying to grab your wallet or your camera or something like that, or your phone or something like that. Just kind of always be kind of aware of your surroundings and know when is a good time to maybe take that special picture.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you got to be aware of others. You got to be aware of the environment, too. You don't want to accidentally walk into a koi pond or something.
That would be bad and, you know, have, you know, ruin your trip in ways like that or hurt yourself, too.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Or in traffic, too. I've seen that a lot of times, people traveling and. And not really paying attention, and they'll accidentally walk in the path of a moving vehicle or close to it. So you just kind of got to watch those things.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: So, yeah, some very good tips. I like these. Very timely.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: I just thought it was, you know, everybody's getting ready to go somewhere for vacation, so maybe some of these tips will help you out there just a little bit and help you have fun, but stay safe at the same time. So coming up, later in the show, far as interviews for this month, we'll have Mr. Casey Krueger, our new CEO at DTC Communications. And we're very excited to introduce him to you, and we know that you're really going to enjoy that. But first, we're going to speak with Ms. J.C. willis and Marcia Petty from Adams Memorial Library here in Woodbury.
We're very lucky to have Ms. Marsha Petty and Ms. J.C. willis with Adams Memorial Library here in Woodbury. Thanks so much for being on the program.
[00:08:28] Speaker D: Thank you for having us.
[00:08:29] Speaker E: Yeah, thank you so much for having us.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: It's going to be a lot of fun. I was so lucky to get to speak with Ms. JC the other day in preparation for this interview and walk around the library. Got the guided tour, and I was blown away. I was blown away. And I think other people that haven't been there yet will also equally be blown away when they step foot in there. So we'll talk about all the great things going there at the library as we go through the interview. But I don't want to give it all away at the beginning. Gotta give people a reason to stick around. So. But before we get started, let's let the public kind of get to know you both a little bit personally. Kind of a little bit. Marcia, do you want to kick us off?
[00:09:04] Speaker E: I'm Marcia Petty.
My parents lived here for a while. They were margin Art Petty. They had the cloth shop down on the square for a while.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:16] Speaker E: And when they hit 90 years old kind of was asked to come and stay with them. So I moved here to Woodbury at that time and shortly after I started working at the library.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Great.
[00:09:28] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: What about you, Ms. J.C. well, I'm.
[00:09:30] Speaker D: Originally from Florida, but we moved up to be closer to family. When I was going to school, I did a lot of children literature classes. I used the children's room in the library quite a bit.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. And so that's how you kind of got introduced to the library.
[00:09:44] Speaker D: It was always nice and warm, inviting.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: What's your primary role there, really?
[00:09:49] Speaker D: My role is more in tune with a children's librarian. I. I focus on the programming. So we, we do a lot of programming.
We have our. Currently we're having our summer reading program.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:02] Speaker D: And we're offering a lot of fun, different activities and we're hoping to keep the momentum from last year. Last year we had 17 programs and we had 1094 participants. So we're hoping to continue that this year. We have.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: That's a lot.
[00:10:19] Speaker D: We have 13 programs going on.
Yesterday we had Mr. Bond and the science guys come in and we had 80 people join us for that. So that was really encouraging for the rest of the summer.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: What about you, Ms. Marcia?
[00:10:32] Speaker E: Well, @ this point, I'm mostly administration.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:35] Speaker E: You know, we have.
We keep a lot of statistics and, you know, on staffing, so I just tend to do that. JC is great at programming and so I can just pretty much turn that over to her.
And of course, the buying the books takes many, many jobs, and so I kind of do the catch all.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: I was going to say, do you affectionately do the other duties as assigned roles? Sometimes, yeah. Describe how the library got started.
[00:11:07] Speaker D: It started when Dr. Adams passed away. His friends got together and they wanted to do something in his memory that, you know, because he did so much for the community, they wanted to continue his legacy that way and they decided to start a library.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: And when was that?
[00:11:24] Speaker D: 1965.
[00:11:25] Speaker E: Yeah. Dr. Adams, I believe, died in 64.
And then it took a year to build the library.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: It's a wonderful building, by the way.
[00:11:33] Speaker E: It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. This group of men did just an awesome job. They formed an association. So they're a non profit and their whole soap purpose is to keep that building for the county, for a library. And they just do a wonderful job. It's beautiful.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Talk about some of the other things that you guys offer that people may not be aware of.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: We have DVDs that we offer.
We have a computer lab with 24 computers. We have a copier where they can make color copies.
We have. We do faxes, which a lot of the community doesn't realize we do. So we get a lot of people.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: You know, that's actually really hard to find a place anymore to send a fax. That's actually a big deal. So that's convenient.
[00:12:16] Speaker D: Chromebooks that are available for checkout. We have our catalog system, so we're a part of the ILL system. They use the whole state of Tennessee.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: And they kind of work with the other libraries in that regards. Okay.
[00:12:32] Speaker D: So they let us borrow books from other libraries. And so we can offer. If we don't have something here, we can offer.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Okay, I didn't know that.
[00:12:43] Speaker E: Yeah. ILL stands for interlibrary loans.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Okay.
Well, that really takes your collection of books and just expands it dramatically.
[00:12:52] Speaker E: Yes. If we have one or two books out of a series, then we don't need to complete the series. We can just borrow it from another library.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:00] Speaker E: And so there's a database. The state has a database and we're all tapped into it. So we can actually see what books other libraries have in real time. Yes.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:13:11] Speaker E: You can stand right there and we can tell you, yes, that book is at another library. Now, whether that library will lend it. Lend it to us, that takes a couple days to find out.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: That's pretty handy, though. So if there was a book that you were looking for, maybe you wouldn't have to drive a great distance to check one out. You could just request to see if you could get it and have it there locally. Talk about some of the great programs this summer.
[00:13:37] Speaker D: Next week we'll have Bob Tarter with the animals. He'll come in and he brings in animals and he educates everyone on the different.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: So he brings the animals inside the building.
[00:13:46] Speaker D: Oh, he does.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Oh, wow, that's great.
[00:13:48] Speaker D: We never know really what he's going to bring. One year he brought a baby kangaroo.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: He brought hedgehogs. And he brings a different array of animals.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: I bet the kids love that.
[00:14:00] Speaker D: They do.
They really do. And so that will be Tuesday, June 3, and he'll be here at 2. And then Friday we're having the Runaway Theater puppet show. So they'll be here and they're going to do a retake on Red Riding Hood. So it's called Once Upon a Color Palette. So it'll be fun.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: That'd be great.
[00:14:22] Speaker D: June 10th, we'll have the Nashville Zoo come in and they'll bring in animals. Usually they bring in like three or four Last year, they brought a possum named Cash, and he was.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Because a possum, obviously would be named Cash, right?
[00:14:35] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: I wonder why they come up with these names sometimes. I love that.
[00:14:39] Speaker D: It's really exciting to see what they'll bring.
And then we'll have the.
On the 17th, we'll have Terry Hedges, and he'll do illusions and he'll tell jokes, and so we're really excited about him as well.
And then for the later half, we're going to have our stuffy days, and that's where kids bring in their stuffed animals and we'll do different activities.
So we have.
We have the. This year, we're going to try something new. Bring your stuffed animal to the library for a slumber party. So the children are gonna chop off their stuffed animals, and then the stuffed animals will have fun all throughout the library during the night. And then the next day, they're gonna pick up their stuffed animals, and then there'll be a slideshow to show what adventures their animals went on.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Do you think their stuffed animals sleep good that next day when they go home after being so wild and crazy at nighttime? Yeah.
[00:15:32] Speaker D: And then we'll have a pet show. So the next time they come in, it'll be July 8th. They'll have different activities where they can get their stuffies ready for the pet show. And then we'll do a pet show with a stuffed animal judging panel.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Oh, that's fun, too.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: And then we'll have art classes. So we're going to have color pencil techniques. So we'll do different classes for each technique.
We're going to learn how to make bubbles with colored pencils. So the illusion of bubbles on a paper.
We're going to do a blending technique. So we'll teach how to do different blending techniques. And then we're going to have a tissue paper class with illustrations. They'll make them pick a.
We might have kids books set up where they can pick an illustration. They can kind of copy that illustration with tissue paper.
And then we're going to have a printmaking class.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Oh, that sounds interesting.
[00:16:32] Speaker D: That one's really popular.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: So describe that. What is that?
[00:16:35] Speaker D: So we. We have foam that they can carve an image into with a.
Like a little plastic stylus. And they get to put paint on that foam piece and then print it on a piece of paper so it can be their own design. Last year we had someone make a Pikachu, and then we had Bluey. And they made all kinds of different images, but it could be their Very own. At the end of July, we'll have an acrylic class. So Mr. Wade McMackins, he's going to come in and teach the class and he usually teaches at the senior center.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:14] Speaker D: He will. He's going to teach them how to do acrylics in free landscape.
So we're really excited about that for the.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Have a lot going.
[00:17:22] Speaker E: We do.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Well, I feel like I want to go back and be a kid again and just hang out.
[00:17:26] Speaker E: Well, yeah, I think. I think some of the art classes are older kids and adults.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:33] Speaker E: The colored pencil, the blending techniques. Yes. For adults. And the.
And then also the bubble technique. Right.
[00:17:41] Speaker D: The color pencil.
[00:17:41] Speaker E: But the tissue paper and the printmaking kids can come to. And then the July art classes are adults.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:50] Speaker E: And older children.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Wow. You guys are very active. You'll have a lot going.
[00:17:54] Speaker E: We have classes throughout the year. We'll have technology classes and her sister is an artist and she has art classes throughout. So we, we try to stay community active.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about the genealogy room and resources that you have there.
[00:18:09] Speaker D: We do have a lot of books on different families in the county. We have a microfish film reader that they can use to.
We have courier older courier editions on there so they can go on there and search as long as they'd like.
We have deeds and there are land grants and wills on there as well that they can search through.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Okay. You guys also offer Internet access there or WI fi for those that need it?
[00:18:40] Speaker D: We do. We have an extender on our WI fi.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:43] Speaker D: So it can reach the parking lot and the street.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Speaking of computers, let's talk a little bit about maybe how you guys use computers or technology in your day to day operations of your facility there. I know there's got to be some things you guys do that makes everything run a little bit easier and smoother, probably.
[00:18:59] Speaker D: So our card catalog system is online and we are switching over to an app. So we'll get an app soon that will really renew our system.
And you'll be able to use your phone.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: So I can download the library app that'll be, I guess, synced up with your resources there. And I'll be able to tell what's available and that sort of thing.
[00:19:24] Speaker E: Right.
The new book system we're going to actually exceeds what we have right now in that if you search for a book, it also will tell you the other books in the series and it will tell you if the library has that book or if it doesn't, then it also Links up to Libby so you can click a tab and see if Libby has that book.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:47] Speaker E: And so it's going to be just a, you know, a couple clicks and you'll know everything you need to know and to checking out a book. Yeah.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome. You guys are really staying on top of this technology, right? I mean, that's a big deal.
[00:20:01] Speaker E: We're so fortunate. Yes. And so that's not going to be available till this fall.
We have to switch over systems and it takes a good three or four months.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: So in case there's someone around here that doesn't know where you're at or how to get in touch with you. Can you describe your location and your phone number and maybe your web address?
[00:20:19] Speaker E: We're at 212 College Street. The phone number is 615-563-5861.
And the hours were open Monday through Friday, 8:30.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:33] Speaker E: And we close by at 4:10. Except for Tuesdays, we are open till 7:00pm oh, okay. Yeah. Tuesdays we're open to 7:00pm Saturday is 9 to 4.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: And do you have a website also?
[00:20:44] Speaker E: We do. You can basically just search, you know, library Woodbury or come right up in Google.
[00:20:52] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:20:52] Speaker E: Or Cannon County Library or Adams Memorial.
Any of those will bring us up.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome.
Well, don't be surprised if you see an old kid show up for some of the animal shows. I think I would enjoy those.
[00:21:05] Speaker D: Please do.
[00:21:06] Speaker E: No, we have adults coming.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Do you? Okay. Okay.
[00:21:11] Speaker E: They actually have a program so they're teaching, they're instructing and it's interesting.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it does. It sounds neat.
[00:21:18] Speaker E: So there's adults that come and they enjoy it.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Well, there you go. See?
[00:21:23] Speaker E: No, it's just something out of it.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
Well, Marcia, jc, I really appreciate you guys being with me and good luck on everything that you have going and just keep up the good work.
[00:21:35] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:21:36] Speaker E: Yeah, thank you. And thank DTC for supporting the library.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:21:39] Speaker E: We appreciate that.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: It's our pleasure.
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[00:22:49] Speaker A: It's time now to hand the microphone over over to Mr. Justin for his segment that we like to do each month called Justin's Tech Tips. Justin, it is all yours.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: Well, Nick, you know, we have already opened the show by talking about some travel safety tips that we had earlier. And, and you in one of those talked about connecting to public WI fi and being careful. And you know, you think about it, we connect to public WI fi quite often and I know especially in the post Covid world, free WI FI access points became prevalent and there are a lot more of them offered, you know, including, you know, DTC Communications offers them at each of our offices. So if you ever, you know, you need Internet access and you don't have it popping in and we have community WI Fi, you know, available and there's lots of, I mean restaurants offer it.
We're talking about the, the public library and Adams Memorial Library specifically here in Canning county offers it. The other public libraries in our area, they also offer it. So you have a lot of options. Also oftentimes when you're traveling, you're going to connect to that public WI fi. You know, maybe it may be traveling locally and you go to the coffee shop, maybe you're traveling on a trip and you're connecting to that hotel WI fi or if you're doing what, what I'll be doing and I'll have some international travel and there's hotspots quite often available there as well. And those are very convenient.
But they are also very, very, very, very scary if you know what other people may be trying to do on those networks because it leaves you quite vulnerable. May not realize it, but it does.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: It could be risky.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: Yes, it could be very risky. I mean the ability for somebody on an open WI FI network to be able to do what's called a man in the middle attack.
And basically to, to summarize that down, to be able to get in between your connection and see your, your pages that you're visiting or maybe even, you know, seeing the keystrokes that you're entering is really not that difficult in, in, in this day and age. And it really, it's not difficult to do it on older secure WI FI networks because their encryption is not that strong and it can be broken.
So on a public WI FI network it is really, really easy for somebody to be snooping and dropping in on what you're doing. And so with that being said, something that is an alternative that you can use that some people use, and you've probably heard an ad for it before, is a virtual private network or a VPN is. Sure, it's probably what most of us know it as, a vpn. And what that is, you know, to, to make it as simple as possible is it is a service that you utilize that allows you to have a secure connection or secure tunnel for all your Internet traffic.
Now you may utilize this and you may have. Well, I use a VPN for work. That's a form of a vpn. That's a VPN that allows you to have a secure connection, you know, if you're working remotely between wherever you're at and your work environment.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: And so that's why they offer it to you, because it provides that secure connection.
Now, commercially available VPNs are not that type of VPN. They are, they host their own servers and so whatever traffic you have routes through their servers. And so that's why you have to be careful with the provider needs to be one that you trust.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: A reputable vpn.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it needs to be reputable. And I would always encourage, as I'm a huge privacy advocate, make sure you understand their privacy policy and what they're doing with your data because you are trusting them with your data where you're going on the Internet, what kind of privacy policy they have? There are, are several VPN providers that have strong policies with no logging and things like that. But there's a lot of free providers that log everything you do. And then not only do they log it, they sell it. So you've got to be careful about that. So not all VPN providers are the same.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: So it's free for a reason.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: Yes, it is free for a reason. Yes, there, there is a reason that they do it. But you know the best thing to utilize this for, There's a few cases it is to disguise your traffic when you're on public WI fi. And the way that's able to do that is because of that secure connection. So somebody else can't do that man in the middle attack, because your data that's going through that network, it is encrypted, which means it's scrambled, which means even if somebody was able to, they can't, they don't know, they can't decipher it, they can't understand it.
And so that is very, very convenient. But another common use is not so much prevalent here in the United States is, is it's a way to get around censorship.
Luckily, we are in a country that is very free.
We have the ability to access the World Wide Web is at our disposal and we can access whatever we want to.
But other individuals in particular locations don't have that benefit. So there are certain things in certain countries where they'll say, you know what, we don't want you to see this or access this or know this information, so we're not going to allow you to do it. So while that may not be something that we have to deal with, it is something that is an option, you know, it is a geo spoofing trick. So to say where you can pretend because you route your traffic through a server that's in a different location, it goes through it.
And so it makes you appear that.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: You'Re in a different place.
[00:28:24] Speaker C: It makes you appear that you're in a different place. So you can get around censorship. Now with, with that being said also, it does also allow you to get around region blocked stuff as well.
And so that is something that's there. Again, I've already mentioned I would avoid free VPN providers just from that security standpoint. You want to make sure that whoever has your data, you're trusting them with it. But there's a few neat features with VPNs and some things you don't have to route all your traffic through a vpn. Most VPN providers today have what's called split tunneling.
And what that is is that means you can take and say, hey, I don't want all of my traffic to go through this VPN. When I talked about work VPNs, they're very similar.
Not all your traffic goes to your work vpn. It's only the stuff that they want to go through it that needs to go through it. And other things like maybe your personal Internet browser and things like that still go through your regular traffic.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:24] Speaker C: And so that's what split tunneling is. It allows you to say, hey, I want this app to be on a VPN or this app to be on a vpn, but not this other stuff. So maybe from, maybe from a reliability standpoint, you're sitting there going, I don't care if somebody sees the, the TV show that I'm streaming right now. So I don't want that to go through the vpn. But when I'm checking my email or I'm checking my banking on public WI Fi, those things I do want to.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Those would be really good times to use one.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know, so it gives you the ability to do, to do if you, a few different things but they're a little bit more flexible. So it doesn't mean that they're stringent. Everything has to go through it. But they're, they're a great tool to be able to utilize when appropriate. For me right now my phone is connected to a VPN because that's just the way that I, I route everything that I do from up because I choose to try to be a very private person and I don't, I don't want all of my stuff to be tracked by my phone carrier or anything like that.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:26] Speaker C: You know, so to each their own on what you want to do. You know, if you're a more private person, maybe that's what you want to do. If you're just looking to be secure, you know, then only use it when app, you know, when absolutely necessary. But please, if you're on public WI fi, consider using it. And if you're not going to use it, I would say I wouldn't do very many things on public WI fi that you don't want somebody else to see.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: That's some very good information. Good tips on that.
And with us for this segment of the Local Click, we're going to do something a little different. We're very lucky to have the new CEO of DTC Communications with us today, Mr. Casey Krueger. Casey, thanks for being on the program.
[00:31:06] Speaker F: Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I'm glad to be here.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I just thought it'd be great to have you on the show and kind of introduce you to everyone in DTC land and the local Click land and kind of get to know you. Tell us about yourself and your family.
[00:31:21] Speaker F: Sure. So I come to DTC from Kansas, so things are a little bit different here.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: But is there a common route to go from Kansas to Tennessee or is it an airplane? An airplane, yeah. There you go.
[00:31:32] Speaker F: It's about a 16 hour drive from where we live, so it's doable but, but it's a stretch so we haven't drove it yet. But when we get moved out here, we'll, we'll have to get our vehicles here and make the drive.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:43] Speaker F: But no, I have a wonderful wife, Michelle. We just celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary. So excited about that. And we have two children. We have Arrow who's 11, she's gonna be going into sixth grade. And then we have Hayes who's seven and he's gonna be going into second grade.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Okay.
So you guys are always busy with family things. I'M sure with children.
[00:32:03] Speaker F: Very busy chasing kids is what we do.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: So what do you guys like to do in your spare time, if there is such a thing? When you have children, that's having spare time. But what do you like to do? Sure.
[00:32:11] Speaker F: So a lot of times my. My kids play a lot of sports, so most of our time is spent in a gym on a field somewhere. I really enjoy coaching the kids, you know, developing the. Developing our future youth, teaching them work ethic, you know, teaching them how to play whatever. Whatever sport they're playing the right way.
But other than that, we like to go camping. We like to do a lot of stuff outside. We like to go camping, go to the lake.
You know, I like to hunt, I like to fish, like to play golf, so.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Well, you'll definitely like Tennessee. There's plenty of hunting and fishing here.
[00:32:42] Speaker F: Yeah, we like to spend our. Spend a lot of our time outside. And then other than that, I really enjoy DIY projects as well.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:49] Speaker F: So I've remodeled a few houses that we've lived in, and I don't know that I want to do another one.
I think I've had my feel of that, but, you know, just trying to tackle a DIY project and then at the end of it, you know, trying to figure that out and the challenge of trying to figure it out and then just seeing the satisfaction of a job well done when it's complete, it's pretty. Pretty satisfactory to me.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: You got to be careful with what skills, you know, and you know, because the honey do list can.
[00:33:12] Speaker F: Honey do list. Or you'll get roped into helping friends and neighbors.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Kind of goes both ways, doesn't it?
Kind of have a little fun time here. As far as guilty pleasure time, I like to call it that. Just kind of get to know you and your personality and that sort of thing, because you can tell a lot about people about some of these questions here I'm going to bring up, so. Okay, you ready?
[00:33:28] Speaker F: Sure.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: Favorite movie?
[00:33:31] Speaker F: Favorite movie. I'm gonna say Remember the Titans.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:33:35] Speaker F: So that's going back a few years. But, you know, I think there's a lot of good life lessons to be about history, but also just life lessons to be learned out of that.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good movie.
[00:33:43] Speaker F: Yep. Yep.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: What about a favorite musical Artist? Now, this one definitely tells something about it.
[00:33:48] Speaker F: Favorite musical I'm gonna go back to. And I may offend some people, but I'm gonna say when country was Real.
I'm gonna go back to like, mid to late 90s country. So you got your Garth Brooks, your George Strait, Alan Jackson, that kind of genre. Y favorite type of music.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Yeah, nothing wrong with that.
[00:34:04] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: You have to go to the Opry soon if you haven't been yet.
[00:34:06] Speaker F: 100%.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Yeah, you'll like that.
What about favorite food?
[00:34:12] Speaker F: Favorite food? I'm going to go with Mexican food. Okay. You know, is my favorite. But over the last several years, my wife has got me eating quite a bit of sushi as well.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: So.
[00:34:21] Speaker F: Two complete opposites there.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't hear those in the same sentence too often.
[00:34:25] Speaker F: Enjoy Mexican food and enjoy sushi.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: What do you think about similarities between Tennessee and Kansas? Are you seeing any differences as well? Do you see any of those?
[00:34:34] Speaker F: So the landscape is not the same where I come from. Very flat, very dry. You know, you can see down the road 10 miles, see a town 10 miles away. So the landscape is not the same. But what I've really recognized is the people are the same.
[00:34:46] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:47] Speaker F: So, you know, rural America is rural America.
So the people are just so nice, so genuine, so kind. The people are so nice. And it just.
It really feels like home here.
You know, it's. It's the back. People in rural America are the backbone of America, you know, farming, ranching, rodeos, fairs, all that good stuff, you know, so it feels very similar, which kind of surprised me when we. When we first moved here, that thought things would be a little more different than they were, but feels good, kind.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Of shifting into some of the DTC things and things that led you here. Kind of talk about your education background, maybe your work background and what led you here to be with us at dtc.
[00:35:28] Speaker F: Sure. So I grew up in western Kansas and attended a community college, a small community college out there in western Kansas. And I would highly recommend to anybody to attend a community college. When I came out of school, out of high school, I wanted to be an engineer. And once I went to community college and started taking some of the classes, I really figured out that I enjoyed business. So I got a business degree, an associate's of business from a community college. Went. Went on to attend Kansas State University and received a bachelor's degree in management and a bachelor's degree in marketing from Kansas State University and then got out into the workforce. And while I was in the workforce, I attended night classes at Kansas Wesleyan University, which is a small school in middle Kansas, and got a MBA from there.
So jumped into the workforce out of college, and I worked for a large group of hardware stores, one of the largest true Value chains in the nation. And I was their advertising manager from there. Worked there several years and then moved back out to western Kansas and worked for Pioneer Communications, which is a large telephone and telecommunications company in western Kansas.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: There.
[00:36:32] Speaker F: Started out as a director of marketing. Did that for five or six years. Was promoted to chief customer officer, so started taking on a lot more of our customer operations. And then for the past several years I've been the assistant CEO at Pioneer Communications.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:46] Speaker F: So was doing that. Really enjoyed my job, but my wife and I were just looking, you know, our kids are getting older and we said, hey, if we're gonna do something and make the jump to CEO, now's the time. So applied for DTC and the rest is history.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Oh, there you go.
[00:37:00] Speaker F: Yep.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Now, when you were younger, did you have any idea that you would be involved in business at all? Because I know you said you were originally kind of looking at engineering. Did you ever have any thought that that might, you know, career path?
[00:37:10] Speaker F: I thought business may be a career path in telecommunications.
I don't think so.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:14] Speaker F: You know, never thought about that. But, you know, got into telecommunications and just loved it. Telecommunications is always changing. There's always a challenge on the horizon and that's really makes your job fun.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah. What about the cooperative business model? What are your thoughts on that? I know coming from a cooperative in Kansas and then you're cooperative here. So what are your thoughts on that?
[00:37:34] Speaker F: Yeah, you know, I've, I've, since I came out of college, I've always worked for a cooperative and really enjoy working for cooperatives. You know, cooperatives truly care about their communities.
So as a cooperative, you know, do we have to make money to still be here? Yes. And to continue to operate? Yes. But you know, cooperatives aren't owned by shareholders. We don't report to Wall Street. And that's really important to me that we do. We, we strive to do what's in the best interest of our members.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:03] Speaker F: Not what's in the best interest of Wall Street.
So it's really important we always do what's best and strive to do what's best for our members. And I think that makes a big difference.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: I think it feels different too. I don't know if you can put it into words, so to speak, as an employee from the inside looking out, but there's just a different feel for purpose. Maybe when you're doing your job every day, from a day to day aspect, it just means, it means a different kind of level of support and help that you want to Help your friends and your neighbors succeed and have a great life. So.
[00:38:33] Speaker F: And we care about our communities. You know, we want true here at dtc. We want Middle Tennessee to thrive and survive and keep growing.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:40] Speaker F: You know, that's important to us where for maybe a large national company if, if a town in Middle Tennessee starts to, starts to decline or something like that doesn't matter to them.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:50] Speaker F: But that matters to us. And we want to do everything we can to help our communities in Middle Tennessee thrive.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Right. What about, what about the current state of dtc? I know you haven't been here for a very, very long time, but I'm sure you've got a pretty good lay of the land, so to speak. So what about the current state of dtc, including the fiber build out? Because that's probably one of the biggest projects that DTC has been involved with in many, many years.
[00:39:11] Speaker F: Sure. So the current state of DTC is we're growing. You know, we, we. Our fiber build, I'm going to call it 100% done. We did add on a couple extra, extra areas here in the last several years that are finishing it up this year, but our fiber build is 100% done.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:39:25] Speaker F: Which is super exciting. You know, that was a large project that's been spanning over multiple years, maybe even a decade.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:32] Speaker F: So just to hear that. And I think we need to have a celebration of some sort on that. So maybe later this year or next year we can do a celebration.
But the fiber build is 100% done.
We've surpassed over 18,000 Internet subscribers. So, you know, those are some good numbers. And our Internet growth is really growing because of the fiber.
So it's exciting. It's a really exciting place to be.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: I think the fiber really sets us up for success. No matter where technology starts to change and lean towards it does.
[00:39:59] Speaker F: It does. And as you know, once the fiber is laid, that's the hard part and that's the important part.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:05] Speaker F: The rest of it is just changing electronics on the end and continuing to find and provide other services that ride over that fiber. But getting the fiber placed in the ground and on the poles and is really the hard part. But that fiber will be here for the next 30 to 50 years.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:23] Speaker F: It's just changing what services you provide over it and changing the electronics on the end.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: And speaking of future, I mean, where do you see the future of DTC going? Do you have any, any thoughts on that or any plans? You've already kind of started rolling around in your Mind?
[00:40:36] Speaker F: Sure, sure. You know, so like I said, you know, once the fiber's placed, we can kind of continue to innovate. So really excited about that. I think we're going to have some big things in store later this year and earlier next year.
You know, don't want to spill any beans or anything, but there's some things in the works that I think our members will really enjoy and some services that we want to provide that, that'll be really valuable to our members.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: So everyone stay tuned. That's what I do, Stay tuned.
[00:41:01] Speaker F: Yeah, it'll be a little while, but, but we're working on, we're working on providing some additional services, some big announcements.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Where do you see new technologies going? Is there anything new out there that you just find interesting?
[00:41:12] Speaker F: Personally, I think the one that hasn't, we haven't even tipped the iceberg yet, but is artificial intelligence or AI?
[00:41:19] Speaker A: Yeah, we talk about that a lot here on this program.
[00:41:21] Speaker F: Yeah, AI is going to be so robust and so I'll call it life changing. I don't even think we know how it's going to change our lives. Whether that be your lives at home or your lives in the business world.
Artificial intelligence can be extremely powerful. And how do you harness that? How do you harness it in a safe way where the data is accurate way? But AI is a big one and it's going to, over the next five years, maybe even two to three years, it will change our lives.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Are you a big reader? Do you like to read a lot?
[00:41:50] Speaker F: I am a big reader. I used to read a lot.
Now I audible. So driving or mowing the yard or whatever, I listen to a lot of audible books.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: Well, do you have any business books that you've listened to or read recently that you could recommend that were kind of almost life changing on your perspective to business?
[00:42:07] Speaker F: Sure. I would say the one that, that really kind of changed perspective for me is starts with why with Simon Sinek. I don't know if you. Have you ever heard of that?
[00:42:18] Speaker A: I have not. I have not.
[00:42:18] Speaker F: So basically it's the premise that in your life or in business, you have to find what your why is. So why do you come to work every day? Why does your business operate? It's not how or how much or when or what. It's why. So here at dtc, you know, our why is we're acquiring cooperative owned by our members and here we're here to serve them. So it's not, hey, we offer five gig speeds, hey, we offer really reliable service. It's none of that. It's we're here for grandparents to FaceTime grandkids. We're here for you to run your business and do business with the world.
We're here for you to do online schooling. We're here for you to have telehealth. And we're here for you to accomplish your dreams. And you can do that over a strong DTC Internet connection. That's our why of why we're here. It's not so much the what and the how and the when, it's our why is so you can accomplish your dreams.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: It's an open ended, thought provoking question too, isn't it?
[00:43:16] Speaker F: Very much so, yeah.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Well, we'll wrap things up here. I know you are a very busy man and there's no telling what you've got to go do as soon as you leave this interview today. So I don't want to keep here all day, which I easily could. There's plenty to talk about. But in your opinion, what separates DTC from others in a similar business as us?
[00:43:34] Speaker F: Sure. And it's kind of going back to our why. Right.
You know, you hear a lot of our competitors talk about price and speed and, but really, you know, and we can talk about that. I think we compete well on reliability and speed and price. But really it comes down to a couple of our taglines are making meaningful connections and a people first connection company. You know that those, those are really deep and I think those feel really good. And I think we truly embody those practices every day at work.
I think our customer service is top notch. I really do. You know, when you call DTC or you have a technician come out, those folks are top notch. And you're going to talk to somebody local, you're going to talk to a friend, you're going to talk to a neighbor, you're going to see all of us at church, you're going to see us in the grocery store, you're going to see us supporting our teams in the stands, you know, so you're talking to somebody local and we truly care about our communities and I think that means a lot.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: If you have a repair at your house, you usually know the person that's stopping by a lot of times or at least know of them, you know, and that sort of thing. And when you call in, it's like, oh yeah, I remember you. Didn't I see you last month at a, at a gathering in, in town or whatever.
[00:44:41] Speaker F: So yeah, and just talking about our communities, you know, obviously we want to see Them thrive from an economic development standpoint. But we're big supporters of nonprofit organizations. You know, little league games and the fairs and all the events. You know, we're big supporters of that and that makes a difference as well. So, you know, just talking about making meaningful connections and we just care about the future of our communities, care about our members and you know, that's just, there's a, there's a difference in being a cooperative and caring over, you know, not just caring about the almighty dollar.
[00:45:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Casey, thank you so much for being here with us on the Local Click today and I know you'll do great. We're very excited to have you and can't wait to see what the future holds here.
[00:45:22] Speaker F: Yeah, thank you for having me. And I look forward to interacting with all of our members as as I get get rooted here.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: Well, thanks Casey, I appreciate it. Everyone stay tuned. We got more of the program coming up in just a moment.
[00:45:34] Speaker G: Great communities attract talented people to live, work and raise their families.
We've deployed a high speed network that helps the best and the brightest enjoy better lives in our smart rural community.
Great small businesses provide jobs that help workers earn a good living and provide for their families while strengthening local economies.
We deploy fiber Internet that helps those businesses succeed.
Great doctor and patient relationships create bonds that lead to healthier lives.
We deliver deliver secure connections so every home and rural healthcare provider can connect to the best healthcare options.
Great schools help knowledge hungry students learn, think creatively and follow their passions.
We've built a network that helps their dreams take off.
Great farmers provide the food that sustains and nourishes our nation and the world.
We keep those farmers connected to the technology that ensures their crops can thrive.
We've planned, engineered and constructed a cutting edge communications network.
We're committed to delivering future proof broadband so our friends, families and neighbors can live rich lives in smart rural communities across the America.
Your community is our community.
We're your rural broadband partners.
You do great things. We make great things possible.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: And welcome back to the final segment of this month's episode of the Local Click. And with that stated, I'm going to give the mic over to Justin once more for today where he will tell us all the things going on in technology land and his segment Tech News Roundup.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: There's been a lot that has been going on in the past month, a lot of it related to the one field we talk about a lot and I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it. I'm going to try to Breach so that we can look at other things. But in artificial intelligence, listen, there's been a lot of stuff this past month.
Google, you know, announced their new version of Gemini, Gemini 2.5 Pro.
They announced Google Beam, which is aimed more toward businesses and enterprise use of artificial intelligence. And even Google Meet, which is a real time translation AI service to be able to communicate in real time through work meetings and things of that nature. So they're hammering hard on AI cross search and just all kinds of things. Nvidia has launched a new chip that is an AI chip.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Imagine that.
[00:48:30] Speaker C: Yes. Now the thing about this is it is a chip that was announced specifically for the Chinese market really which is interesting because Nvidia is a US market and you know, Nvidia is having a harder time competing in the Chinese market, is going to continue to have a harder time because of some other competitors and we'll talk about those a little bit later. But it's interesting that they've targeted a chip for that market. They have lost market share there. So I guess it makes sense. But it's not a domestic production.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:49:03] Speaker C: Something we're seeing, and this is something early on with AI that I think people were worried about is we're starting to see some more entry level tech jobs be taken over by artificial intelligence. There are some cuts across the tech industry. We, we talk about AI all the time, but Meta and, and some other companies are actually cutting their workforce and it is being attributed to artificial intelligence.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: I think this is just the beginning, don't you? As the AI algorithms get better, they'll be able to do more and more things that previously were only capable of being done by a human.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Yeah, so, yeah, so you know that, that, you know, that's in the tech sector. You know, one thing I know, you know there's some outlooks on the financial sector even with financial analysis, using AI tools for financial analysis. And you know, if those things come to fruition, you may see that the, that market take a hit as well and see a reduction in the workforce.
So that, that's, that is something that, that could be coming.
Microsoft is again, they've announced more AI enhancements to their ecosystem. They just held build 2025 and so they talked about again more Copilot is their AI. So Jim and I mentioned earlier is Google. So they talked about some enhancements for Copilot, but they've also talked about Azure, which is their cloud based system, again business enterprise ecosystem. And so they're aiming for the enterprise market as well. And so you were Starting to see the consumer market is great, but we're seeing this heavy emphasis on enterprise integration. Well, what did I just talk about? Job loss? Well, we're integrating AI at the enterprise level and within multiple industries. Then again, what does that potentially say for the US Job market and international job market?
[00:50:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:58] Speaker C: You know, I mentioned Nvidia's chip for China earlier. A couple manufacturers in China and Chinese owned corporations. And so Huawei is a company that was during Trump's first administration that was placed under restriction and those restrictions have been maintained.
Yeah. So the United States is very strong on this security stance that that specific company is a security risk. But Huawei's had a difficult time because all of their technology was based around Google and Android and the Android operating system. Well, they're, they're, you know, finally coming out of that. It did not prohibit Huawei from using Android so Google couldn't sell them any new licenses. So they were using old technology.
Well, they have finally come out with their first own operating system that is Android free.
Now that's significant because Android, unlike Microsoft and Apple products, Android had a more of an open licensing model where you could get access to the code and customize it, do some other things with it.
Well, they've had to get completely away from Android now. Now they've got their own operating system. And so it's going to be interesting to see how, how, how that helps them, you know, and whether, you know, at some point in the future, if these things deviate enough from the security restrictions, if they can jump back in, into the US market and utilize that here.
But also there is another company that is on the forefront of hardware manufacturing and this one was very, very interesting.
It is a company called Shami and they have produced a 3 nanometer chip, silicon chip system on a system on a chip.
And that's very, very interesting because it's the first high performance chip design is 3nm being manufactured by a Chinese manufacturer.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:00] Speaker C: So outside of one of, because intel and Nvidia and Apple are all US based companies now, those chips are generally made overseas.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: But the designs and everything are done in house by American companies. So this is now a major milestone for Chinese semi semiconductor innovation that now they have a chip. And when I say 3nm for most people I don't, I don't know what that means. What that is is the chips over time have gotten smaller and so that's the size of the dye on the chip and the smaller that you get, the more transistors and the more circuitry and the more information that you can.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Pass more power in a smaller package, right?
[00:53:46] Speaker C: Yes. So you can pack a lot more into it. And in over the past few years it's been harder to shrink things down. There used to be a thing called more Moore's Law where they said every two years these, these chip sizes would half. Well, in the past decade we've realized, yeah, you can only go so small before technology has to, has to innovate. So this is a big, yeah, this is a big, big, big deal. And then I'm going to introduce, introduce one thing that is kind of tech news related but does enter the political space a little bit. And I'm not getting in, into the politics at all. But, but it does look like that Elon Musk is going to go back to focusing on his companies and get out of working with the current presidential administration with the Department of Government Efficiency or doge. And so he is reducing his role with that so that he's not going to focus as much time with that. And a lot of that is due to he needs to focus on his business empire. And also his Eliz and his investors and his stockholders are saying, hey, I know you, you're passionate about these other things, but you've got these companies that, that you, that, that you rely on, right? You know, so we need you to focus on the innovation here. Listen, we're talking about AI all over the place and of course, you know, Elon Musk owns X, you know, formerly known as Twitter. And recently there was a, a buyout of X by xai, which was an offshoot, it was a different company that is Elon Musk artificial intelligence company that now wholly owns X.
So there's people saying, hey, you need to be focusing on these things. Right? Prioritize and focus on these things. And so again, we've got all these other announcements going on for other things. And how much innovation and announcements have you heard lately from, from his companies? And I think that's what some people are saying because Elon Musk, I mean just from a straight standpoint, is a pioneer in technology and artificial intelligence. And so it looks like he's going to get back in that driver's seat.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: A little bit more so to speak.
[00:56:01] Speaker C: To focus on those things. So yeah, that's what we've got going on this past month. So I'm sure there's some things that I missed that I'm not able to talk about for time's sake or I may not know about. So there's anything that, that, hey, that's on your mind. You're like, hey, you need to know about this. Listen, drop a comment for us and let us know some interesting tech stories that you've heard that you'd like us to know about.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: Sounds good. Now we're going to go to the part of the show we like to call what's up dtc. This is all the exciting news about all the places that DTC will be for this month. And we're going to start off with the DeKalb Summer Reading Program, which will be held on June 5th at the DeKalb Community Complex. Next, we'll go over to Wilson county for The Wilson County 4H Day Camp, which will be on June 10th at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. Then we move over to a fun event, especially if you like ice cream, called Scoops and Savings Event. That's the Scoops and Savings Event, which will be held at the Canning County Fairgrounds, which will be on June 12th and 13th from 10 in the morning till 7 at night and on the 14th from 8 in the morning till 5. And so definitely come and check us out. And we're just going to have fun. We have some ice cream around. We're going to talk about ways you might save a little money on your Internet and phone service and those sorts of things. So we hope you can come see us and introduce yourselves to us there.
Then we'll talk all about fair time. That's right. It's that time of the year. All the county fairs are going on. DeKalb County Fair will be June 23rd through the 28th, including the DTC Fun Night at the fair. That's something we've been doing for a few, few years now, and we really enjoy that. That'll be on Friday, June 27. Registration for that is from 6 to 7pm with lots of fun kids games going on beginning at 7pm so bring your kids over to sign up for the DTC Fun Night of the fair on Friday, June 27th at the DeKalb County Fairgrounds. Then the Smith County Library Reading Program, which will be on June 26th at the event center in Carthage. And we'll wrap up with the Smith County Fair. That's right. Smith county will be having their fair on June 30 through July 5. So lots of things to do this time of year. I think that's a wrap for this month. Justin, thanks again for everything that you do for the show. You do a great job and we look forward to seeing you again next month.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: Always a pleasure to be here and enjoy hearing from our local guest. And really enjoyed the interview with our new CEO, Mr. Casey Krueger.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Yes, we appreciate his time very much, as well as everyone from the Adams Memorial Library. A lot of fun things going on there as well. If you haven't been by, you need to take a moment out of your day and just stop by for a few minutes. I think you'll be impressed. So, but on that note, we're going to wrap it up and we're going to say we hope you have a wonderful month and we will see you next month.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Learn more about the show by visiting us
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