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DISCUSSED: Top o' the Morling!; praise for the home release of Spider-Verse ; Dan and Merlin offer some more TV recommendations; Merlin endorses an excellent "turns out" podcast; a deep dive on slow-rise squishes and related stress toys; Merlin wears his childhood privilege on his sleeve. Finally, the guys answer an excellent listener question about the complex work of maintaining a household with...

DISCUSSED: Merlin is trying some new things and probably needs to adjust his DIP switches; audio equipment is discussed; remembering Hal Blaine; German words; fish dropsy; dining at Alamo Draft House; kids and crafts; follow-up on Power Puttering; recommending a Siracusa anecdote; recommending a philosophy podcast; recommending several cool products; some strong (if muddled) thoughts on the Michae...

DISCUSSED: Merlin is living the Domino lifestyle; R.I.P. Two Cats Comics; praise for iA Writer; Merlin needs help with his sudden Gmail spam; a meditation on comics as some awesome fun and an ugly damned business; nostalgia for hobby shops and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks ; and finally Merlin reintroduces the concept of "Power Puttering." Links for this episode: Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #25 — Mer...

DISCUSSED: Dan has an awesome new video ; Spider-Verse is out!; Merlin's dorky Segway is discussed; app recommendations for a clean new Gmail and an even-smarter Dark Sky; Dan spills the beans on his new sound bar setup; TV selection and purchase is a known thistle; idiot trolls hassle poor Carol Danvers; Dan has an important new egg technology; and, finally, the boys fret about Apple's new 2FA re...

Mostly one big topic: screen time . Links for this episode: How to Fix “Cellular Update Failed” on iPhone with iOS 12.1.2 SMS, LTE, Cellular Data Issues 16 Surprisingly Funny Palindromes | Grammarly Blog Pessimists Archive Podcast Moral panic - Wikipedia Amazon.com: Super Stretchy Banana Assorted and Bouncy Ball Bundle by JA-RU | Stretches Long & Shrink Slow. Smells Good 3340 (Banana): Gateway...

DISCUSSED: It's the optimistic day, but Merlin really screwed up an edit; there's some Inside Baseball about how podcasts get made; it's nice to have someone notice the shaving cream on your jowl; movie ratings are explored; why all the bosoms in 80s movies?; Dan wonders if he should have approached a celebrity; Merlin introduces further thought technologies for not being a creep with a famous per...

DISCUSSED: Gong Hei Fat Choy! ; follow-up on the FaceTime bug and the complexity of getting bug and security reports from normals; the weirdness of bug-finders demanding a bounty; Merlin is fascinated to learn about "combinatorial explosion" and how it helps to explain why power-cycling fixes stuff; why you should always blow the dust out of the plug; recent examples of how restarting just fixes s...

DISCUSSED: Dan's fighting his computer and explores font corruption; Merlin hates pebbles in his shoe; Dan has an anecdote about massages; Merlin has an anecdote about the FaceTime exploit; this leads to discussion about how big companies deal with huge-scale, unexpected problems; some thoughts on The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect; the problem with journalism about stuff we actually know about; remembe...

DISCUSSED: dreams and whether people like hearing them; turns out: Merlin recommends a podcast episode about mental stuff; practice vs. rehearsal; visualization as a rehearsal thing; follow-up on science fair projects; our new, post-search-engine habits; Math is hard; Merlin didn't get Anna's emails; cool screen-grabbing mojo; and Dan reviews excellent listener book recommendations. Links for this...

DISCUSSED: moisture; kids and watches; some recent media consumption; encouraging kids to have good taste; memories of watching VHS movies in school; follow-up on Dan's new keyboard experiment; Drobo concerns; thinking about modern backup and, gosh, how that's evolved; frustrating typos; Dan and Merlin have iOS concerns; Dan has further thoughts on Bandersnatch . Links for this episode: Becket (19...

DISCUSSED: Optimistic Tuesdays; office cleanup; a grave bleach mishap; follow-up on Wirecutter ; a listener suggestion on, of all things, acupressure; Dan loves his cool new keyboard, but has a big caveat; Merlin is working with magnets; on "Hardware Disease"; request for Riordan-style book recommendations; exciting follow-up on the Burger Decay Project; plus, some closing thoughts on Apple's rece...

DISCUSSED: "Rabbit Rabbit!"; partial shutdown and the toilet problems it creates; updates on options for Bluetooth keyboards; some extremely random and anecdotal reckoning about the recent Big Apple News; your hosts' beef with Wirecutter ; some odds and sods recommendations and cool life hacks. Links for this episode: Logitech Backlit Wireless Keyboard for Apple Mac, iPad, iPhone & TV Logitech...

It's the most wonderful time of the year, so the boys answer listener mail and get a little silly. Happy Holidays, jackals. Links for this episode: Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules for Good Writing - Gotham Writers Workshop How Many Exclamation Points Do Great Writers Use?! - The Atlantic Apple says some 2018 iPad Pros might ship with a bent chassis, but claims it's not a defect - 9to5Mac They Might Be Gi...

Discussed: the harsh mistress of holidays, Hanukah presents, Cash's cool gift, the joys of good UX, some excellent very good recommendations, an exciting Science experiment involving hamburgers, kids are terrible at writing things down, things that changed Merlin's game, and some excellent follow-up on how we recognize number patterns. Happy Holidays, you jackals. Links for this episode: Disney•Pi...

Discussed: Merlin worries that Dan is getting ground down; web sites are getting very thirsty; Dan thinks it's like pads in football; Dan has updates and more thoughts about doing development work on an iPad; Merlin thinks we should talk more about which devices we choose for doing which things; the boys also have some recommendations. Links for this episode: Amazon.com: Clever Coffee Dripper, Lar...

Discussed: Why Tuesday is the optimistic day; pourover coffee for Dan's wife; confirm shaming; updates on iPad keyboards and covers; approximately annual history of "Bawk Bawk!"; some thoughts on Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart; kids and learning Programming; the things that are difficult to teach anyone . Links for this episode: Jay Little on Twitter: "@danbenjamin if you're still looking for a...

Discussed: Thanksgiving; spatchcock chicken; kids and their stupid eating; Dan's concern about how we talk to each other; Merlin encourages people to try not to be terrible. Also, some odds and sods on iPad Pro updates, and thanks to our nice listeners. Links for this episode: Foobot - it's all about Indoor Air Quality Monitoring Foobot Indoor Air Quality Monitor for Homeowners Renters & HVAC...

Discussed this week: Dan's MOSH setup on iPad; Dan's new NEW iPad; ease of setup on iOS; some iOS photo editing app recommendations; two things Merlin learned this week; and a little rant about how everybody apparently already knows everything. Links for this episode: welcome home : vim online Krissy Brierre-Davis on Twitter: "How come you guys never told me this iPhone trick? I feel duped.… " How...

Dan and Merlin talk about their first week using the new iPad Pro. Links for this episode: The Talk Show: Ep. 234, With Special Guest Merlin Mann Special guest Merlin Mann returns to the show. Topics include the new iPad Pro and the state of iOS as a work platform, the mid-term election results, and holiday parties of yore. 234: ‘Welcome to Dongletropolis’, With Special Guest Merlin Mann — The Tal...

Discussed this week: coffee water, voting, inertia, new iPads on the way, difficult buying decisions, returning merchandise (as a thing), some TV suggestions, Dan's new ODROID, 80s video game nostalgia, asking for your iPad-at-work input, plus seeking suggestions for apps for new joggers. Links for this episode: Building A Better Ballot Box — To the Best of Our Knowledge — Overcast Brydge - Award...

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about Apple's Fall event in Brooklyn today. They liked the event. Brought to you by: Molekule (Visit Molekule.com and use the code BACKTOWORK at checkout for $75 off your first purchase). GreenChef (For $50 off your first box of Green Chef, go to GreenChef.us/backtowork ). Care/of (For 25% off your first month of personalized Care/of vitamins, visit TakeCareOf.com an...

Discussed: nailing it, the optimistic valence of Tuesdays, difficulties finding replacement parts on Amazon, headphone preferences, Alexa's service outage and new whisper mode, Austin's big water crisis and what it says about epistemology, reason, and society, plus 20 years of The Big Lebowski . Links for this episode: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman And Steve Buscemi Talk ‘The Big Lebowski’ In Extende...

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about the FitBit Charge 3 and where it fits into their worlds—as well its place in the larger tracker and smart watch ecosystems. Excursions also include: BroBot, weather stations, weather apps, some TV and movie talk, some space talk, plus children's failures to understand how time basically works. Links for this episode: Dew point - Wikipedia Amazon.com: AcuRite 01...

Discussed: the tyranny of earliness, the benefits of timeliness, an interesting horology episode about Apple Watch, more watch talk, a blog recommendation, a quick look at Merlin's new FitBit, an update on home WiFi options, Merlin raps a little, Dan gets wired for Ethernet, what we'd like so see in an updated Mac Mini, some listener followup on Bear export and (deliberately) slow interfaces, cons...

This week: some TV and movie stuff, Dark Mode and accessibility, OS stability and beta temptation, Merlin has an anecdote, the powers and frustrations of Siri via Apple Watch, updates to the Fitbit family, tech that does enough , Dan tried Bear, updates on the Chrome login thing, and an intriguing listener comment about Apple's ASP/inch 3 . Links for this episode: Shop Fitbit Charge 3™ Advanced Fi...