Chit Chat Across the Pond

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 for "normal" people but also we learn about how important Instagram is for employment for performers. We talk about how social media makes us feel and what we would lose if we left. You can follow Shai on Instagram at shai_yammanee and shai_yammanee_photography. You can follow him on Twitter @shaiyammanee.

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, we switched gears. I shamelessly stole the format he uses on his show to interview Apple-centric guests to interview him. We talk about his favorite Mac of all time, his favorite iPhone, what album and movie he'd put into a digital time capsule so people would know what geeks liked 500 years from now, and the most enjoyable question, what would you do if you could control Tim Cook with Siri for a day.

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 comments on podfeet.com, in our Slack group at podfeet.com/slack or in our Facebook group at podfeet.com/facebook. I bet you have your own grammar pet peeves, add them in the comments!

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 cultural flavor to the show. I think you will to be enchanted by Nica, at least I was! Partway through you'll hear us incorrectly quote the percentage of Facebook users that are African American. We come back after the end of the show and correct ourselves. Here's the article to which we were referring: Facebook is failing its black employees and its black users.

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 television and security, and how he's done the Master Class by programming on his Mac through the Indigo software using AppleScript and Python. Steve has also recorded it on video and the video version should be up soon.

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 it to go to space. Crazy dream job! We then shifted gears into his science fiction books. He’s got two books out in The Anghazi Series, book one called “Casimir Bridge” and book two was just released, called “Pathogen Protocol”. I’m sure you’ll enjoy listening to Darren’s stories as much as I did.

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 and fun. Matthias explains what federated instances are, how the local timeline works and how you can follow people who aren't in your instance. If you'd like to connect with Matthias on Mastadon you can find him at: @matzkult@chaos.social. I'm not sure I've figured it out yet, but you can find me on Mastadon at @podfeet@mastadon.social

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 careers as a result of what they learn in his class. We talk about the insane number of books he makes his students read (but they look really fascinating!