Chit Chat Across the Pond

This week our guest on Chit Chat Across the Pond is Nic of Nic’s HomePod Repair. You might remember the article about Steve’s amazing experience with Nic repairing our big-girl HomePod a month or so ago. It wasn’t just that some guy repaired our HomePod, it was how he did it and how he broadcast live video of the repair as it was happening that made it even more interesting. I wanted to know more about how Nic got into doing this and how he creates his videos so I asked him to come on to talk about it. I expected to have a fun, nerdy conversation, and that definitely happened, but what I didn't expect was to find a very kind, thoughtful person who exudes good karma. Whether you care about HomePod repairs or not, I'm sure you'll find this a delightful conversation. View an unedited transcript of this podcast auto-generated by Auphonic Speech Recognition Engine using Whisper by OpenAI (Beta): CCATP_2022_12_04

WiFi GenerationsIn this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite, I asked Dave Hamilton of the Mac Geek Gab to come on to talk to us about mesh routers and why we might care about WiFi 6E. In order to get to that though, I asked him to lay out some groundwork. Remember when we used to talk about 802.11a then b then g then n and ac. All of us geeks memorized the speed of those different IEEE standards. And then one day the numbering scheme changed completely. I asked Dave to explain what happened and what the new numbers mean. From there Dave refreshed our memory on how mesh routers work, and how backhaul is the communication between the mesh access points. It took some work keeping the numbers and terminology straight but by the time we were done he had explained why WiFi 6E on the backhaul matters, even though we very likely don't have any WiFi 6E devices. You can find Dave Hamilton on Twitter @davehamilton and @macgeekgab and on Mastodon at @davehamilton@podcastindex.social.

This week our guest on Chit Chat Across the Pond is Bart Busschots with a talk that's part Security Bits, part Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite. Bart has been asked to speak at a Mac User's Group on the subject of security and he worked up a presentation on the subject. His goal in the presentation is to provide listeners with a better understanding of the types of threats that are out there and what the motivations of the threat actors are. There's a call to action in this talk by Bart. He wants to know if _you_ think the information he presents will be valuable to a Mac User Group. I (mostly) kept my opinions to myself because we want to hear from you. The best way to provide this feedback is to use our Podfeet Slack at podfeet.com/slack, or you can Tweet Bart at @bbusschots, or you can make a comment on the blog post for this episode. The slide deck presentation for Bart's talk can be viewed at [busschotsh-my.sharepoint.com/...](https://busschotsh-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/bart_busschots_ie/ESJOmYQKiORBiox-54y7NdEB660FYB3N54nrnBcBKl8yIA?e=TaBXcK)

This week I'm pleased to introduce you to Darcy Hegarty on Chit Chat Across the Pond. Darcy is a fellow screencaster for Don McAllister's ScreenCastsOnline and I'm really impressed with the videos he creates. They're tight, they tell a coherent story, and he even starts with the problem to be solved! I started chatting with him about his process and discovered that he's only been doing this for a short while. I also found out that he has a far different process for creating his screencasts than I do, so I asked him on the show so he could teach me how he does it and you get to learn along with me. You can find connect with Darcy by emailing him at darcyh@oceanfire.studio and follow him on Twitter at @sensible_of

This week our guest is Dan Moren (https://dmoren.com/). Dan is the author of the Galactic Cold War series of sci-fi espionage capers, a former senior editor at Macworld, a writer for Six Colors and TidBITS amongst other publications, and a prolific podcaster as co-host of Clockwise and The Rebound. But I did not have him on the show to talk about any of that. Dan is a very recent father and I wanted to talk about the latest and greatest in baby tech. You can find everything you need to know about Dan Moren at [dmoren.com/...](https://dmoren.com/) including links to the Galactic Cold War Series. You can follow him online @dmoren. If you want to buy his books at an independent bookstore, he suggests [indiebound.org](https://indiebound.org) to find them.

Antonio Rosario bills himself as a full-time unemployed photographer, part-time semi-employed videographer and photography instructor, and a volunteer bimonthly podcaster. He sent out a tweet in which he said, "Dear podcasters: Will someone PLEASE interview me about the #iPhone 14 ProMax?!" I expected that Antonio wanted to come on and have a discussion about the new phone's specs and a pixel-peeping level of detail about the resulting images from this new device. But that's not at all what he really wanted to talk about. Whether you consider yourself a "real" photographer or just someone who likes to take pictures, I think you'll find this introspective discussion heartfelt and memorable. You can find Antonio online in the following places: * Follow Antonio’s work at [amrosario.com](http://amrosario.com/) * Podcast - Street Shots Photography Podcast [streetshots.photography/...](http://streetshots.photography/) * Vero: amrosario - [vero.co/amrosario](https://vero.co/amrosario) * Twitter [@amrosario](https://twitter.com/amrosario) * [iPhone 14 Pro Max RAW images by Antonio](https://adobe.ly/3CBp75P) * [Images shot using Fococ app (using portrait mode)](https://adobe.ly/3fLIRuA) Antonio talked about a video on the Three Blind Men and an Elephant channel

In this "Lite" episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Bart Busschots teaches us about a relatively new concept in IT security called Zero Trust. He explains how the old ways of simply securing the perimeter of your organization are no longer enough. You simply can't trust that inside your network you're safe from bad actors. The solution has three principles that guide organizations in developing the rules of who and which devices and networks are allowed to have access to what data and for how long. That part sounds like the heavy lifting to me! Bart then explains how the fun part is then using the rules that have been developed to implement these rules using technology. Bart's explanation of how the technology works is a bit specific to Microsoft's products but the concepts he explains are definitely applicable to any vendor's solution. Detailed shownotes are available at [www.podfeet.com/...](https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2022/10/ccatp-745)

Rogue Amoeba is celebrating 20 years in Mac software development this month and in honor of that accomplishment, I asked CEO Paul Kafasis to come on Chit Chat Across the Pond to take us on a walk down memory lane. We start by talking about Audio Hijack 1.0, and talk about the 266MHz PowerPC they used to develop the product. We talk about the problems that Rogue Amoeba's software solves, including SoundSource which is probably their application with the broadest appeal to people. We talk through design decisions including both making Audio Hijack completely accessible to visually-impaired users, and making it easier for all of us to understand. Audio Hijack 1.0 InterfaceI ask Paul the burning question on everyone's mind, where the heck did the name Rogue Amoeba come from? This is not an ad for Rogue Amoeba, but I'm afraid I _do_ gush quite a bit because I'm such a giant fan of everything they do. I spend time talking about how amazing their support staff is (I bother them a _lot_) which prompts Paul to explain the structure of the company and why it works so well. We talking about their pricing model in contrast with the companies that are adopting subscription pricing. And finally, I ask Paul when they are going to make the multi-track editor of my dreams. We had a blast recording together and swapping stories. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did. A very rare 20% off sale is going on right now for all Rogue Amoeba products, so check it out at [macaudio.com/...](https://macaudio.com/)

Tom Merritt of the Daily Tech News Show joins me on Chit Chat Across the Pond to talk about a recent study published by Sweden’s biggest car magazine, ViBilägare. The study timed drivers in how long it took them to perform a set of proscribed functions in a variety of cars with touchscreens and one vehicle without any touchscreen at all. While Tom and I agree that the study is flawed in a lot of ways, we differ on how it is flawed, which makes for a lively discussion. We talk about the merits and demerits of touchscreens and even throw CarPlay under the bus while praising its virtues. If you want to find all of Tom's work, you can go to [tommerritt.com/...](https://tommerritt.com/). He also encourages you to check out his newest podcast called A Word with Tom Merritt where he talks with people about how they think using one word as the start of the conversation.

This is another crossover episode - it's an interview Bart Busschots did with me for his Let's Talk Photography podcast at [lets-talk.ie/...](https://lets-talk.ie/) about the conversion I made ages ago to a mirrorless camera. He asked me on because it looks like DSLRs are winding down and he's contemplating making the jump soon. It's a fun conversation where I also confess that I've lost the touch of editing RAW photos but I'm still very glad I brought my Olympus E-M5 Mark III to Iceland.