
Chit Chat Across the Pond
Chit Chat Across the Pond is a weekly interview show talking technology. It was originally part of the NosillaCast podcast (for the first 406 shows!)
Latest episodes

Mar 23, 2025 • 49min
CCATP #811 — Adam Engst on Measuring AI Transcription Accuracy
This week, Adam Engst joins us to talk about some work he did to try to measure the accuracy of several different AI models in creating audio transcriptions. He let me help him with some of the transcriptions so I was invested in his findings. We'll learn about ways to measure accuracy, including Word Error Rate aka WER. You can read Adam's article where he describes in detail the process he followed and the rather unsatisfying results at [tidbits.com/...](https://tidbits.com/2025/02/28/comparing-audio-transcription-in-notes-audio-hijack-and-macwhisper/).
Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2025_03_23

Mar 4, 2025 • 52min
CCATP #810 — Steve Mallard on Evolution of Music Tech
You know I’m not a music person, but I’ve invited Steve Mallard onto the show to talk about a topic he’s quite passionate about - the evolution of music tech. He is not an expert in this field, he just finds the history fascinating. Steve will take us back to the first acoustic guitars, and explain why electric guitars needed to be invented. He'll talk a little bit about the early effects that could be added with vacuum tube amps and how the invention of the transistor revolutionized the music industry. Things accelerate after that up to where digital signal processing began allowing new music effects and replication of tone became possible. At the end, we get into a bit of a debate on whether this democratization of music creation has ruined music.
Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2025_03_04
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Feb 11, 2025 • 58min
CCATP #809 — Adam Engst on Writing with an Editor and Grammarly
This week, the delightful Adam Engst of TidBITS joins us to talk about how he learned to write so well, what it's like having an editor, and then moves into how he uses the AI tool Grammarly to improve his writing. It's great fun as always and convinced me to pay for one month of Grammarly to see if it will make me as awesome of a writer as Adam.
You can read all the details of his use of Grammarly in his article entitled ["Why Grammarly Beats Apple’s Writing Tools for Serious Writers" on tidbits.com](https://tidbits.com/2025/01/30/why-grammarly-beats-apples-writing-tools-for-serious-writers/)
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Feb 6, 2025 • 55min
CCATP #808 — Jason Snell on The Magic Behind the Six Colors Charts
If you’ve been on the Internet before, and you’ve heard of a little fruit company called Apple, then you’ve probably seen Jason Snell's famous Six Colors charts on Apple earnings. In this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, we don't talk about earnings, we talk about the magic behind how he creates his famous charts. It's full of nerdy fun like how he decides when to use a serape chart vs. a bar chart, how he calculates a rolling average, how he gets the data for the charts, and how he gets the charts from Apple Numbers into his website. His joy at finding people who want to talk about the nerd side of this is evident in his enthusiasm.
* Apple Q1 Earnings charts on Six Colors including video of Jason Snell and Dan Moren discussing what the numbers mean.
* How Jason automated creating the blog posts from Numbers: Chart Party at sixcolors.com.
* Jason's podcasts: The Incomparable, Upgrade, and other appearances
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Jan 14, 2025 • 56min
CCATP #807 — Adam Engst on Bootable Backups Bug in macOS Sequoia
Adam Engst of TidBITS joins us to talk about a bug in macOS Sequoia 15.2 that affected a low-level system tool called Apple System Restore or ASR. This tool is the path for developers of backup tools to create true bootable backups, and the bug makes it now impossible to create bootable backups. We talk about the different viewpoints of the developers of Superduper!, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Chronosyc regarding the future of bootable backups. Then Adam talks about whether we really _need_ bootable backups anymore. We then segue into a survey Adam conducted on backup strategies with TidBITS readers and he discusses the relative merits of the different strategies.
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Jan 11, 2025 • 53min
CCATP #806 — Andrea Jones-Rooy on Being a Data Scientist
Andrea Jones-Rooy is a data scientist, a standup comedian, _and_ a circus performer. Andrea delves into the realms of data science, its significance, and how it is often misunderstood in mainstream narratives. Andrea begins by reflecting on their journey to becoming a data scientist.
Andrea was a professor of data science at NYU Center for Data Science and they taught an undergraduate course called "Data Science for Everyone". The cool thing is you can watch Andrea teach the same material for free in a video series of the same name: Data Science for Everyone on YouTube.
I watched all 20 episodes, and I have to tell you it was fascinating. I may have gushed just a little bit about how awesome it was.
Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2025_01_10
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Dec 29, 2024 • 37min
CCATP #805 – Bart Busschots On What Does a Cybersecurity Specialist Do?
In this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Bart talks about his job as a cybersecurity specialist. We get a bit silly in our early part of the chat, the reasons for which will become obvious when you listen to the beginning but he successfully gives a flavor of what "a day in the life" is like for him.
Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2024_12_29
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Dec 22, 2024 • 25min
CCATP #804 — Pat Dengler on an Elaborate Scam Involving "Amazon", the "FBI", "Lawyers", and More
Certified Apple Consultant Pat Dengler joins me to tell the harrowing story of how her neighbor was seconds away from being scammed out of $30,000. In an elaborate web of lies with multiple people involved, she was connected supposedly to Amazon, the FBI, lawyers, and more, and every single person gave their IDs and return phone numbers. Pat saved her literally in the nick of time.
This story aired as part of the NosillaCast on December 1st, 2024 but I made it a standalone episode so folks can point directly to it to help raise awareness.
If you need a Certified Apple Consultant, Pat can be contacted at pat@denglerconsulting.com.
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Dec 10, 2024 • 50min
CCATP #803 Adam Engst on Obituary Scams Triggering iPhone Security Warnings
Adam Engst of TidBITS back again to talk about an unusual and clever scam experienced by one of his TidBITS readers. It involved fake obituaries triggering iPhone security warnings triggering App Store downloads. You can find Adam's written article on the topic at [tidbits.com/...](https://tidbits.com/2024/12/06/beware-obituary-scam-sites-and-fake-iphone-security-warnings/).
Join the Conversation:
allison@podfeet.com
podfeet.com/slack
Support the Show:
Patreon Donation
Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation
PayPal one-time donation
Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle
Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts
Referral Links:
Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me
Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me
Backblaze - One free month for me and you
Setapp - One free month for me and you
Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you.
PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us
CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

Nov 14, 2024 • 52min
CCATP #802 – Adam Engst on Invasive Location Tracking and Tips On How to Manage
Adam Engst, a writer for TidBITS and privacy advocate, dives deep into the alarming world of smartphone location tracking. He reveals how even anonymized data can pinpoint your exact whereabouts and discusses disturbing examples of privacy invasions. Engst shares valuable tips for managing location tracking, including utilizing Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature and adjusting app permissions. He emphasizes the importance of user awareness in safeguarding personal data, especially against invasive tracking tactics used by law enforcement and data brokers.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.