Here at the tail end of 2022, are we nuts enough to attempt to rank every piece of software ever written? OK, not quite, but we're going to do our best to assemble a list and put it in an order... eventually. If you've ever wanted to hear someone debate the relative merits of the LAMP stack versus the Video Toaster versus Super Mario 64, you've come to the right podcast. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other...
Dec 25, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 164
Our friend Kishore Hari becomes our first three-time guest by joining us this week to run down some of our favorite science and tech stories of 2022, including the latest developments in nuclear fusion, some ML-driven mid-podcast protein prediction, the latest addition to the dark energy debate, extremely American asteroid deflection strategies, one of the more exciting Antarctic discoveries in recent memory, and more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our boo...
Dec 18, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 163
Will's recent clean-slate PC build and newfound abundance of extremely fast storage got us thinking about all things storage. So this week we had a top-to-bottom chat about our current storage strategies, including the ways we are and aren't still using local drives, our fondness for portable apps, how many cloud storage services is too many, the promise of something like rclone to manage all of your offsite storage, dumping long-term data into S3 Glacier, and more. Here's Will's recent PC build...
Dec 11, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 162
Brrr, is it cold in here? It's time to deliver our semi-annual Cube of Cold Opens: Holiday Edition, with short and pithy conversations about cramming your Fortnite homework, that loud phone life, running your laptop off of your PC, reckless Thanksgiving leftovers, game console quality modes, the etiquette of (not) asking for your controller back, the unrivaled glory of a working dishwasher, and more. Enjoy, and stay warm! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our ...
Dec 04, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 161
We're thankful for the copious bounty of questions sent in by you this month, which got us talking about all kinds of stuff. Stuff like our love of treehouses (and mushroom soup), mouse pad technology, advanced s'more techniques, people who hold their phone in the toast position, more on setting up your own blog, the iPad apps Apple doesn't want you to have, Will's love of model railroads, and more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your n...
Nov 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 160
Techsgiving is here again, as we wax thankful about some of the stuff we love in our own specific nerdy spheres. Join us for some chill discussion of everything from defying gravity (under the desk) to the simple joy of playing guitar into your computer, wearable tech, wireless charging, intergalactic space inside your drinking bottle, good old simple human communication, and more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits...
Nov 20, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 159
Elon Musk's Twitter disaster has been impossible to look away from, and since we probably owe some amount of our careers to everyone's favorite social media platform, we had to spend this ep running down and trying to make sense of a series of events that's almost impossible to believe. We also dig into some of the feasible alternatives to Twitter, like Mastodon, Cohost, and the Bluesky project with its AT protocol. #twitastrophe SHOW NOTES Stories and reporters referenced in this episode includ...
Nov 13, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 158
This week we decided to do something radically different and "record" a "podcast" to answer some of your "questions." In the course of doing so we revealed shocking details about breakfast cereal, ran down our three-day weekend preferences, discussed the latest in sleep and robe technology, talked about spooky names, considered future Steam Decks, checked our interest in Linux laptops, and more. It's a Q&A! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord...
Nov 06, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 157
Brad is feeling under the weather this week, so we weren't able to turn Qs into As, but we did manage to find a classic Halloween episode of the Patron cast deep in the Tech Pod Vault. Brad and Will turn Qs into As and talk about the true horrors of the technological world, self-closing doors. Enjoy! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: h...
Oct 30, 2022•1 hr 2 min
It's been too long since PC World's hardware expert Gordon Mah Ung dropped by, and what better occasion than the big launch of new CPUs from both AMD and Intel? Gordon runs down all his recent experience with the Ryzen 7000 and 13th gen Core parts, sits through a lightning round of hardware vendor Qs, considers whether undervolting is just overclocking for old people, and a bunch more in this loose, wide ranging chat about our first and most enduring love, PC hardware. Support the Pod! Contribut...
Oct 23, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 156
The sizable slab of silicon known as the Geforce 4090 has landed in Will's computer, so this week we did a deep dive on his experiences with it so far, ranging from basic performance to impressions of how DLSS 3 impacts micro-stutter and game feel, installing the massive three-slot card and dealing with its new power connector, some speculation about what drove the unusual branding decisions around the 40-series, a hodgepodge of info we picked up at Nvidia's recent editor's day, and more. Nvidia...
Oct 16, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 155
Will and family just did the Southern California theme-park circuit, so this week we had a casual chat about some of the more technical aspects of visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios in 2022. How well do the old animatronics hold up? What's up with all that new Star Wars stuff? Just how much do you need your phone, really? What goes on in the Disneyland nerve center? (We can only speculate about that one... for now.) Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our...
Oct 09, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 154
This week, we're checking back in with the FOSS Pod--now that we're several months (and more than a dozen episodes) into its run--by presenting our recent chat with Gina Häußge, founder and maintainer of OctoPrint, along with a new intro and outro by us. Gina covers topics like the work that goes into supporting endless printer models, transitioning from being the sole contributor on a project to managing contributors, doing open source work in Europe, why you shouldn't run your Raspberry Pi on ...
Oct 02, 2022•2 hr 30 min
Summer may be over, but we're still here and ready to answer the hot questions from you, the listener. This month we field everything from automating household chores to HDMI-CEC woes, that time one of the Mythbusters (guess who!) built a buzzsaw-equipped drone of death, our dream interviews from throughout history, 140-year-old fire safe technology, a preemptive year-end performance review, plus other stuff! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Disco...
Sep 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 153
This past Friday EVGA made the shocking and abrupt announcement that it's exiting the GPU market after two decades of making Nvidia cards. We drew on Will's many years of reviewing PC hardware to look back on that span of time, ponder the circumstances around the decision, and consider what's next for all involved. Plus, we dig into the slightly less shocking reveal that the PlayStation VR2 will lack backwards compatibility with games from the previous headset. What a topical show! Here's the Ga...
Sep 18, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 152
The annual Apple event has come and gone, and we're here to run down the goings on with the latest iPhones, Watches, and AirPods. Learn more about satellite SOS and crash detection, privacy concerns around body temperature sensors, camping out overnight at the Apple Store, the Apple Watch as status symbol, Will's secret history as a diver (!), Brad's shocking thoughts on the latest notch, and more! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your na...
Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 151
We're thinking a lot about the ways you receive and watch TV this week, with a look back at the last 20-ish years of set-top boxes beginning with the venerable TiVo. Remember paying a monthly fee for TV listings, or hacking your old Xbox to run an open-source media player? How frustrating is it that content has become so balkanized, just when all the apps are finally available everywhere? Are built-in TV apps ever going to be good enough to replace the boxes entirely? We consider these and a bun...
Sep 04, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 150
We're doing some navel-gazing on this month's Q&A with a bevy of questions that came in about this very podcast: the business of hosting and advertising, research and production work, how we choose topics, and more. Plus: creating your own Wikipedia page (or not), Will's other life as an ageless and all-powerful being, too much discussion about software version numbering, and destroying hard drives with the power of pop music. SHOW NOTES Perfect Bid, the Price is Right documentary we mentioned: ...
Aug 28, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 149
Hey, did you know Will ran a VR animation company before we did this podcast? By popular request, this week we talk through the history of Foo VR start to finish, touching on all kinds of topics like leaving behind a steady paycheck to bet on an emerging technology, the overwhelming shininess of venture capitalist offices, the meaning of "bad signal," how rapidly three months can turn into a year, and more. SHOW NOTES The Foo Show: https://store.steampowered.com/app/411820/The_FOO_Show_featuring...
Aug 21, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 148
Together, Matter and Thread are the new software and networking standards that promise to make all of your home automation and IoT gear work together, regardless of manufacturer. After Home Assistant's Paulus Schoutsen piqued our interest on the FOSS Pod, we decided to do a deep dive this week to demystify exactly what the two standards are and how they relate to one another, how they'll (hopefully) make things better, what they mean for your existing smart home equipment, and more. NOTES Our FO...
Aug 14, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 147
A grab bag, a smorgasbord, a potpourri -- whatever you call it, we've assembled another batch of micro-topics to wend our way through. This time around, precision German podcasting plugins, Will's new green screen-free life (and growing array of tiny pixel art screens), a bit of desk efficiency chat, graphite pads versus thermal paste, and the sheer arrogance of putting an AWE64 in a Windows 3.1 machine. Links for this episode! 86Box: https://86box.net/ WinWorldPC's old operating system archive:...
Aug 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 146
Look, it's getting harder to think of intro text for a Q&A episode -- but it's ever easier to record one with so many great Qs! This month we tackle our fantasy space missions, a bidet breakdown, dirty dishes on the desktop, the future collectability of current tech, WFH survival strats, filling drives to the brim, the origin of "software," cloud-connected router provisioning, and one intrepid listener's nuclear aspirations. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to o...
Jul 31, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 145
Brad's birthday has come and gone, which gives him the privilege of choosing our next tech year in review. This time, the banner year of 1997, which saw everything from Dolly the cloned sheep to IBM's chess-playing Deep Blue, the nuclear-powered Cassini probe to Saturn (and protests to match), the American launch of DVD, Steve Jobs' return to Apple, the anything-goes brutality of Ultima Online, and a bunch more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Di...
Jul 24, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 144
With the James Webb telescope in the news and Will convalescing from COVID-19, we're bringing back one of our favorite patron-exclusive eps this week: the first appearance of our friend Doug Ellison from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, in which he regales us with stories about taking photos not of Mars but on it, data throughput from another planet, what it's like to work at JPL, and a whole lot more. Enjoy! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, yo...
Jul 17, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Will and family have made their annual month-long pilgrimage to the desert once again, so this week we ended up having a free-wheeling conversation about portable tech and working on the road. Topics include tech-savvy AirBnb hosts, optimizing your electric car, dealing with Xbox development away from home, the moment that USB-C finally happened, the value of just getting TSA pre-check already, and more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, y...
Jul 10, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 143
Will's longtime home server Flanders has finally given up the ghost, and now he's streamlined his life by moving to an integrated Synology box. After significant hands-on time, we get into the ins and outs of what it's like running network storage in this sort of turnkey, integrated box, including ease of setup, hardware specs and limitations, Will's possibly controversial feelings about Docker, Brad's slow descent into madness on the extreme other end of the NAS hardware spectrum, and more. Sup...
Jul 03, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 142
It means being bad at researching how to use a spout. Oh, right, this is a Q&A episode! This month we discuss the potential of open smartphones, Fermi's paradox, French toast supremacy, electronics in the bathroom (yea or nay), Brad's dwindling sardine hoard, a bunch of barbecue-related subjects, mispronouncing tech, and more. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at:...
Jun 26, 2022•58 min•Ep. 141
Will got his hands on his very own Steam Deck and he's bursting at the seams to talk about it, so we're back with a follow-up to our first Deck ep with an updated trip report. How has compatibility, performance, and system software shaped up in the months since the device first started shipping? What are some of the fun third-party apps you can install for emulation, game management and so forth these days? Did Will dabble with the forbidden emulation fruit? The answers lie within. SHOW NOTES So...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 140
As summer heats up, we're cooling things down with another (now-semi-annual?) cube of cold opens. Thrill! to the long and sordid tale of Will's Stripe fraud saga. Chill! at the campsite mishap that demolished someone's data plan. Spill! your drink everywhere when you realize that the innocent Roblox scammers of today may become the business leaders of tomorrow. Uh, fill? your ears with all the other bite-size topics that weren't long enough to consume a whole episode! Support the Pod! Contribute...
Jun 12, 2022•52 min•Ep. 139
We've been mulling the idea of donning our game dev hats and attempting to make our own little Playdate game as an educational exercise, and this week we commit ourselves to this task publicly with a consideration of the hardware and controls at our disposal, followed by a bunch of brainstorming different game ideas. Plus, a few interludes about the coming dominance of 40Hz games, Will's shocking ignorance of gorilla.bas, and some other fun stuff! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patr...
Jun 05, 2022•56 min•Ep. 138
