Chit Chat Across the Pond

In late October, Facebook announced that The Facebook Company was name to Meta. A little bit later, Mark Zuckerberg published a video where he described his vision of the future metaverse. I haven't been following this too closely but it seems to be turning into something I might want to understand. I asked Tom Merritt, host of Daily Tech News Show and many other fine shows, to come on Chit Chat to try to make sense of these two things for us. We talk about what the name change for Facebook really means and what it probably doesn't mean (is it just like Google becoming part of Alphabet?) Then Tom explains the vision of what the metaverse is expected to be. I thought it was a fascinating explanation and I learned a lot from talking to Tom. During the conversation, Tom references his show Know a Little More where he explains complex technical topics in a short form, deep dive format. He talks in Chit Chat about NFTs and Blockchain, but suggests listening to his episodes on those topics if you want to, well, know a little more. If you'd like all to find of Tom's podcasts, and the books he's written, you can find all of his work at tommerritt.com.

This week I'm pleased to have Chris Ashley and Rod Simmons on the Chit Chat Across the Pond. You may know them from the SMR Podcast they do with Robb Dunewood, or you may remember them from their frequent appearances on Chit Chat Across the Pond to talk tech. They're joining me today to talk about their brand new podcast, BBQ and Tech. I've also asked Steve (the husband) to join us because he's really enjoying what the guys are teaching, while I'm just the beneficiary in the eating part. This episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond hits on a lot of the high points of what Chris and Rod are teaching in BBQ and Tech. The difference between grilling and barbecuing (also known as smoking), some of the different options for getting started in barbecue, and how the tech angle comes into the show. Chris and Rod have been friends since they were 5 years old and they've been barbecuing together for a very long time. This friendship makes listening to them talk about barbecue a real joy. During the show we talked about the Meater 4-probe Bluetooth to WiFi range extension thermometers, so here's a BBQ and Tech Amazon Affiliate link so you can put it on your holiday wish list: amazon.com/...

Doc Rock joins me for a fantastic discussion on Chit Chat Across the Pond. I asked Doc on the show originally to come on and explain ProRes video to me, but Apple delighted us by dropping the new M1 Max Macs and M1 Pro Macs the same day we were scheduled to record. We do spend a little bit of time talking about ProRes video where Doc explains what all those number people have been bandying about, like 4-4-4-4 and XQ. I really understood when he was done explaining to a video muggle like me. Then we take the least linear path through the MacBook Pro announcements you can imagine. It was positively delightful as we dug into specific specs and what they mean and who should care all the time bouncing around between the different options. I loved every single minute of tis conversation. You can find Doc Rock everywhere on the Internets @DocRock, especially his YouTube channel where he helps people learn to live stream like a boss. He'd also love it if you checked out his new audio podcast called Creator 50 where he encourage people of a more mature age learn to share their stories. You can find it at the link in the shownotes, or just search for Creator 50 in your podcatcher of choice.

CCATP #697 for August 23, 2021, and I'm your host, Allison Sheridan. This week our guest is Bodie Grimm. Along with being a podcaster who specializes in the news about electric vehicles on his show the Kilowatt Podcast, Bodie is a firefighter and engineer on a ladder truck. He is in a unique position to answer some of my questions about fires in internal combustion vehicles. We also talked about the new investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) into 11 reported accidents where Teslas ran into emergency vehicles. Bodie is super knowledgeable and has a lot of experience that's relevant to our conversation, and he's an awful lot of fun. You can find Bodie's Kilowatt podcast in your podcatcher of choice, and you can follow him on Twitter @918digital and you can email him at bodie@918digital.com. During our conversation he mentioned the Emergency Field Guide available for download here: catalog.nfpa.org/...

This week our guest is Dr. Niki Ackermans. Dr. Ackermans is a Postdoctoral fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. Her current work focuses on the anatomy and neuroscience of traumatic brain injury in head butting animals. She is also the science correspondent for the Daily Tech News Show, and hosted the Seniors in Tech series on DTNS, including interviewing NosillaCastaway Sandy Foster and me. She’s also the host of the podcast Stories Your Granny Never Told. Niki tells us about her research doing MRIs on ox and sheep brains and studying CT scans of their skulls to determine the effect of head butting on their brains and whether they suffer the same kinds of concussions as humans. The hope is to try to help humans who suffer concussions, including football players and people in the service. This sounds like a creepy topic but Niki is absolutely delightful as she describes her delight in her work and how much fun it is. She's entertaining and funny and brilliant. I learned so much and I smiled the whole time. You can find her on Twitter at @ackermansnicole

In this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Melissa Davis, aka TheMacMommy joins me to give us her tips for setting up an iPhone for a "Vintage User", in a dignified way. If you've ever heard Melissa on the Geekiest Show Ever podcast she does with Elisa Pacelli, you know she's a fantastic resource to the community. Her gentle voice and compassionate personality can help guide us in helping our vintage friends and family. She's got concrete, specific suggestions for how to configure the phone and how to listen to the person you're helping so you can ensure that the phone will bring them joy when you're done. Mellisa actually wrote up all of these tips as a reference guide for after you listen, and the notes include even more suggestions that we didn't get to in the episode. Even if you don't need to help anyone with their phone right now, I am sure you'll enjoy listening to Melissa describe how she helps others.

This week we have a very different episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite. On the awesome Kilowatt podcast (a show all about electric vehicles), host Bodie Grimm asked me and my husband Steve to be his guests on the show. You really shouldn't be listening to it here, you should go subscribe to the Kilowatt podcast instead and listen to it there, but he _insisted_ that we should share the love and he let me broadcast it for you here as well. The Kilowatt Podcast is _not_ just about Teslas, it's about electric vehicles in general. You'll learn about all kinds of EVs from all different manufacturers. You'll get the latest news and breakthroughs in technologies in the EV space. I highly recommend subscribing to the Kilowatt Podcast if you're at all interested in electric vehicles. Bodie asked us to come on the Kilowatt Podcast to talk about what we _don't_ like about our Teslas, the fiddly bits if you will. You know we love our Model 3 and Model Y but there are definitely things we wish were different. I know a lot of you out there are big fans of Steve so this is a rare opportunity to hear him in front of a microphone. Steve and I had a blast recording with Bodie and we hope you'll enjoy it as well.

In this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Mikah Sargent joins us to explain why he's so excited about what the new technology called Thread is going to bring to the Internet of Things, or IoT. You may know Mikah from the awesome show Clockwise with Dan Moren, or perhaps iOS Today with Rosemary Orchard or Smart Tech Today with Matthew Cassinelli on the TWiT network. Mikah starts with the problem to be solved – slow Bluetooth devices vs. heavy WiFi devices and troublesome network connectivity. He explains how Thread will solve these problems, both at an overarching vision level as well as getting down into the nerdy bits of how Thread does its magic. We'll learn about sleepy Thread devices, Thread Border routers, and what it means when you see "Works with Matter." If you want to follow Mikah online, you can go to chihuahua.coffee and find him on all social media @mikahsargent.

This week's guest is Christophe Zajek-Denek. Christophe worked as a TV producer while touring in a rock band, he’s a drummer, an actor and stuntman, a surfer, a journalist, a podcaster, and public speaker. He's also 4’4” tall and has a rare form of dwarfism. Christophe hosts an amazing podcast entitled "I'm Kind of a Big Deal" in which he interviews amazing little people doing really cool things. From actors to professional surfboarders, he learns about their lives, their professions and has a good laugh with every one. He's also done several shows describing the surgeries he's had to endure and how grateful he is to his parents for having them done. We talked about how to stand when talking to little people, how people stare at little people, his surgeries, little people in acting, and pedal extenders so he can drive. We laughed a lot but the conversation gets deep and introspective as well. I had a blast and I think Christophe did too. You can follow Christophe on Twitter @BigDealPod and Instagram @BigDealPod

This week's guest is Doc Rock to talk about the Apple Spring Loaded Event. Doc's background in all things Apple as well as high end live video makes him the perfect person to talk about this event. He explains to me how this color calibration of our TVs using our iPhones and an Apple TV will work, we talk about whether the cool colors of the iMacs might be a distraction to photographers, how the coolest thing that got nearly zero air time was having Ethernet over a MagSafe connector, how much we'll all want the new keyboard with Touch ID but how it will only work with M1 Macs, and Doc tries to convince me that I need a 1TB 12.9" iPad Pro. The discussion is not a linear walk through the event, but more of a meandering talk about what interested us and to tell stories to each other. I had an absolute blast, and I can prove Doc had fun too because he suggested we get together after the next two Apple events this year. I think you'll get a big kick out of this conversation. Everything good starts with docrock.live! * YouTube: docrock.live/YouTube * Facebook: docrock.live/group * LinkedIn: docrock.live/linkedin * Instagram: docrock.live/insta * Twitter: docrock.live/twt During the conversation when we talked about the Mini LEDs of the new iPad Pro, I said I'd put a link in the shownotes to Tom Merritt's Know a Little More episode about Mini LEDs.