Chit Chat Across the Pond

Jeff Gamet of Smile joins us to talk about the life of an Evangelist for TextExpander. We talk about some of the cool things you can do with TextExpander that you may not know about, how TextExpander works on Windows now, how awesome Jean MacDonald was when she was in this job and even funny snippet abbreviations. If you'd like to learn more about TextExpander you can go to textexander.com and you...

This week our guest is Bart Busschots but this is not Programming By Stealth. This week we're talking about Bart's recent post about the different types of free that are available for online services. We talk about his four categories: Free, Freemium, Free-for-now & Freepi (rhymes with creepy). It's a thoughtful discussion about understanding what we're getting for free and how we're paying for it...

Dave Hamilton of the Mac Geek Gab and The Mac Observer joins us to talk routers, and mesh routers in particular. He explains the difference between a range extender with a traditional router vs. a modern mesh router system. He explains why some IoT devices demand a dedicated 2.4GHz network (or at least they used to). He explains what the marketing numbers mean on routers, like AC2600 and in fact h...

After a hiatus that was far too long, we're joined this week on Chit Chat Across the Pond by Donald Burr. Even if you don't think you'd ever want a 3D printer, I guarantee that you'll enjoy hearing Donald explain the different models of 3D printers, how you can actually buy one now for far less than you think, and how you can actually build one from a kit. In his wonderfully humorous way, he teach...

This week we have recurring guest Shai Yammanee back, but this time not to talk about photography, videography or performing as he has in the past. Shai recently decided to remove Facebook from his phone (he still accesses it from his computer) and I wanted to have him on to find out why and also to explore this whole movement of people getting out of social media. We talk about the repercussions...

This week I'm joined by Darren Carr, host of the Mac Quadcast. Darren is an Apple blogger and podcaster and he's also paralyzed from the neck down. We spend a bit of time talking about how on earth he does all of this. Just learning how he types 20-30 words per minute using only his eyes (not to mention editing audio and video) was fascinating. After he explained the accessibility tools he uses, w...

This week we have returning guest, Dr. Maryanne Garry from the University of Waikato but this time it will not be an intellectual, deep learning experience about the mysteries of human memory. This time we're going to talk about our grammar pet peeves. As Maryanne would say, we're both quite pedantic on this topic. Sit back and enjoy our silliness, and please add _your_ grammar pet peeves as comme...

Nica Montfort, co-host of the snobOS Podcast (along with Terrance Gaines) answers my questions about her education (two STEM degrees, about to be a third), her mentors growing up, how it was getting an education as the only woman or the only black person in her classes. She then tells us why she and Terrance felt it was important for them to create their Apple-centric podcast and why they add the...

Dave Ginsburg, host of the In Touch with iOS podcast at intouchwithios.com joins us to teach us his top favorite iOS 12 tips. Dave is a master at iOS and I learned a lot so I think you will too. You can find Dave on Twitter @DaveG65 .

This is a rather unusual Chit Chat Across the Pond where I interview Joe Dugandzic as he walks us around his tiny, smart home. Joe's home is 395 square feet and he produces his Smarter Home Life Youtube series all in that space. The interview is a combination of learning about how to create lighting that is intentional to what you're doing, how he's automated certain functions of his lighting and...

I get a lot of PR emails trying to get me to interview people. I’ve never responded to one until just now. I was asked if I wanted to interview a former NASA Space Shuttle Engineer turned science fiction author. How could I possibly refuse? Darren’s stories were fascinating as he described being one of the last people tramping around in the cargo bay of the Shuttle before the astronauts got into i...

We're joined by Nuris Coronado and Dan Eckmeier this week as they talk about their experiences as blind users upgrading from iPhone 7 to iPhone XS. How is the transition from a home button to Face ID if you can't see? What about the form factor for women vs. men? I learned a few things about iPhone XS that I didn't know along the way.

I met Matthias Keller on Patrick Beja's Phileas Club when we were both guests on episode 114 entitled "The Social Media Sickness". Matthias mentioned how he's on Mastadon, which is a new-ish social network. I've tried to figure Mastadon out, and hadn't cracked the code, so I asked Matthias if he could come on Chit Chat Across the Pond and explain to us how it works and why he thinks it's useful an...

I know I say this every week, but I had the best time recording this week with Dr. Michael Kramer, a digital historian from Middlebury College in Vermont. Michael talks about the impact of digital technology on history and culture and the humanities. We talk about the impact of women actually being the computers in the 1960s. We talk about what he hopes his students will do differently in their ca...

Rob Dunewood of the SMR Podcast joins us to talk about how Epic Games has decided to support their insanely popular app Fortnite on Android but will not offer it through the Google Play Store. This may have significant security implications for users so I asked Rob to come on the show to walk me through what all of this means.

In this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond I talk to Sal Soghoian and Ray Robertson. Sal was the Product Manager of Automation Technologies at Apple from 1997 to 2016. During his tenure, he was pretty much responsible for all of the automation in the Mac operating system and even the Terminal. Ray Robertson is a seasoned instructor of AppleScript who has spent most of his career teaching beginne...

This week Tom Merritt, host of the Daily Tech News Show, (and co-host of Cordkillers, Sword & Laser and Current Geek) joins us to talk about the importance of the community to his podcast. We’ll explore how he created such a thriving and participative community, what it means to him, what it would be like without it and even the downsides of having a community. It’s probably one of my favorite dis...

Dr. Maryanne Garry returns to Chit Chat Across the Pond, this time to talk about how and why persuasion with facts and data simply doesn't work. If you haven't heard her before, she's a professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand where she's a scientific researcher into memory, memory distortions, fans memories, the myth of repression and its overlap with the laws. She's also really funn...

Steve Harris, developer of Feeder and Keep It from Reinvented Software joins us to talk about how much the Mac App Store has improved for developers and also about the work that will go into making apps work in Dark Mode on macOS Mojave.

This week our guest is Bart Busschots but this is not an episode of Programming By Stealth. Bart is here to talk about the tech tools he uses to prepare his shownotes for his podcast Let's Talk Apple and for his Security Bits segment for the NosillaCast.

Lupita Salazar talks to us about how she learned to read at 6 years old (just like everyone else) through Braille. She was highly influenced by my awesome friend Lore Schindler, who taught Tech and Braille to her and the other students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He explains why Braille is so important to literacy when many believe audio is a substitute for being able to read. Lupi...

This week we had David Sparks, AKA MacSparky himself on the show to talk about iBooks Author, writing his famous Video Field Guides, how he traded in his saxophones for children, how he believes in "cooking ideas" and his love of mind maps. If you haven't learned from David Sparks, you haven't lived.

In another Lite version of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Bart agreed to come on and explain the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. This is a regulation that will take effect across the European Union starting on 25 May 2018. Bart first gives us an overview, outlining the main objectives, the 7 core principles, and explains how a regulation differs from a directive. From there he defines the...

In this "Lite" version of Chit Chat Across the Pond (within a NosillaCastaway's definition of Lite), Bart teaches us about DNS Resolvers and helps give us the information to choose the right one for us. To get us there he starts by explaining the background technologies. He explains DNS and how there's two kinds of servers, he explains DNS Name resolution and why caching is important, and the secu...

Joe Dugandzic of smarterhomelife.com joins us again, this time in a crossover episode. We start by him asking me to describe my progression in Home Automation from my first smart lightbulb to the more advanced capabilities Steve and I enjoy today. But then we turn the table around and I ask Joe a series of questions submitted by NosillaCastaways. If you'd like to see the video version of the show,...