Chit Chat Across the Pond

In 2017 on Taming the Terminal installment 37 of n, Bart taught us about SSH agents and the advantages of using a passphrase to further protect your SSH keys. In the intervening four years, things have changed a bit in macOS, so we decided to do a supplemental update to installment 37. We review a bit about what SSH Keys are (from installment 30) and then discuss how much easier and cleaner things are on macOS with the clean integration of your identity, passphrase and Apple's Keychain. You can find the replaced show notes for TTT 37 at ttt.bartificer.net/... If you've downloaded the Taming the Terminal book, please go to podfeet.com/tttbook to get a fresh version.

This week the tables are turned and you'll actually hear me being interviewed. I was asked to be on the Magic Mac Show, which is on the American Council of the Blind's streaming radio channel. Hosts Tyson Ernst, Katie Frederick and Jason Castonguay asked me on so they could learn about how I got interested in accessibility and what it's helped me do. During the latter part of the show, they do something terrifying - they allow live audience listeners to call in and ask questions! I've always been afraid of that, but Debbie Hazelton, managing director for ACB Radio does a great job of moderating the callers. You can learn more about ACB radio at [www.acbradio.org/...](http://www.acbradio.org/community) and more about the American Council of the Blind at ACB.org. With that, here's the interview, at the permission of ACB Radio.CCATP #671 – Allison Sheridan on American Council of the Blind Radio

This week our guest on Chit Chat Across the Pond is Ken Ray, host of the macOS Ken Podcast, hosted at[ macosken.com](http://macosken.com). You may have been wondering why Ken had never been on Chit Chat Across the Pond before, but I just wanted to make sure he was going to stick with it. Since he just hit his 15 year anniversary of doing macOS Ken, I decided it was probably safe to have him on the show. I asked Ken to come on the show to walk us through Apple's record-breaking quarterly earnings call and what the big numbers mean. How big IS $110B? What drove Mac sales up 21%? What drove the services numbers so high? You can find Ken Ray on Twitter @macosken [https://macosken.com](https://macosken.com)

This week our guest for Chit Chat Across the Pond is Mike Price, also known as @Grumpy in the podfeet slack and our live show chat room. During the live NosillaCast, I have to perform a super repetitive set of tasks to add chapter marks as I'm recording the show. If you enjoy there _being_ chapter marks, you should give partial thanks to Mike, because he figured out how to automate the process for me using Keyboard Maestro from keyboardmaestro.com/... The thing that fascinated me was that he didn't know Keyboard Maestro before creating this automation for me. In this conversation he explains what Keyboard Maestro is, how he learned it, and what you can do with it. I asked him to break down each panel of the software for me methodically and explain the interface, because while I've done some super simple automations with Keyboard Maestro, the interface continues to confuse me. David Sparks has one of his famous Field Guides on Keyboard Maestro, which are really mini-video tutorials. Mike watched David's Field Guide to learn the tool, so I've included my affiliate link in case you want to learn from the great MacSparky yourself: learn.macsparky.com/... Mike is funny, articulate, and a brilliant developer. We used a Google Doc to collaborate on an outline, and Mike added enough detail that I think it could be really valuable for you as a reference guid for our discussion so I've included it in the shownotes: CCATP notes with Mike at docs.google.com/... Mike also promised to provide the Keyboard Maestro macros that he talked about during the show: DoNotifications, Grumpy's Hindy Chapter Marks, and possibly the most useful, his XKPasswd Macros to connect to Bart's awesome password creation tool. Here's a link to a zip file of his macros - remember to be cautious when downloading macros from the Internet so check them carefully before enabling them!

This week's guest is Tom Merritt, prolific podcaster, author, and lover of dogs. I asked Tom to come on the show to explain how on earth he does as much as he does. We walk through all of his podcasts, what he has to do to prepare for them, and how he makes the time to get all of them done. He talks about the research required for each of them and even how some require him to watch TV. On top of podcasting, he's an author, he walks his dogs, he exercises, and even spends time with his wife, Eileen. You can find links to all of Tom's shows at tommerritt.com/... and his books at tommerrittbooks.com/.... You can follow Tom on Twitter @acedtect allison@podfeet.com Tesla Affiliate Link podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/paypal

This week Rod Simmons of the SMR Podcast smrpodcast.com/... joins me to talk about our tips and tricks for doing effective screen casting. We started by going through some more strategic ideas on how to get your message across with a screencast, and then we dug into some of the techniques and tools we use to edit our screencasts.

It wouldn’t be an Apple announcement week without Lory Gil joining us, managing editor of iMore. We start the conversation by talking about what all of the new M1 Macs have in common, which is much more than we're used to seeing. Then we talk about what System on a Chip (SoC) actually means and why it's so important to us. There is a very subtle, but possibly important difference between the 256GB and 512GB storage models of the MacBook Air, which makes it even more interesting to decide between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Air that were just announced. We explore why Apple never said the word "gigahertz" and how that makes the nerds crazy because we can't compare the models to the previous Intel-based Macs. We explore the future just a bit and start dreaming of the next models Apple will release. You can follow the wonderful Lory Gil at @appaholik and even email her at lory@imore.com. She has really enjoyed hearing from those of you who have written to her.

Lory Gil, managing editor from iMore is back to talk about the new toys announced by Apple this week. In a show where we do NOT talk about 5G we instead talk about how cool it is that Apple brought so many features to the entire product line of iPhones, and then we go deep into a couple of the differences between the models. We talk about magnetometers, nano ceramic crystals and more nerdy terms. Lory speculates on what fun things we'll get out of the MagSafe connector - like maybe we can stick our phones to our refrigerators. I nerd out a bit on size and weight specs (did you know the 12 is 12% thinner than the 11, and the 12 Pro is 9.4% thinner than the 11 Pro? In any case, we had a blast together as we always do, and she promised to come back when Apple announces the new Silicon-based Macs, which John Prosser's rumor says will be on November 17th. If you'd like to interact with Lory, you can follow her on Twitter @appaholik, you can email her at lory@imore.com and of course you can read her work at imore.com. allison@podfeet.com Tesla Affiliate Link podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/paypal

This week our guest is Jill McKinley of the Start with Small Steps Podcast at smallstepspod.com. Those of you who listen to the NosillaCast may already know her from her many fantastic tech reviews for the show as Jill from the North Woods. I'm a fan of the Start With Small Steps podcast thought it would be fun to have Jill to come on to talk about what it's like to start a podcast in 2020. All of my experience and knowledge about starting is 15 years old so I was curious what it's like now. We talked about why she wanted to do a podcast in the first place, what kind of hardware and software she's using for her recordings, and how she makes her podcast feed. We get into style of reading vs. bullet points and even into editing a little bit. We talked about community engagement and whether to obsess on download statistics. We learn from Jill how important it is to her to always give attribution to her sources. Jill mentioned that she uses her iPad with an app as a teleprompter. It's called PromptSmart .Pro and is available in the App Store for $20. There's also a lite version of PromptSmart in the App Store. allison@podfeet.com Tesla Affiliate Link podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/paypal

With the new announcements of Apple Watches, iPads and services like Fitness+ and Apple One, the best person to talk to is Lory Gil, managing editor of iMore. In this episode we talk about whether the new Apple Watch Series 6 processor matters, or is it the new colors that excite us. Is Apple doing a good job bringing out lower-priced products for those with less disposable income or are they doing it wrong? Family setup allows a child or an elderly parent have an Apple Watch that makes phone calls but they don't need an iPhone. Is this a solution for your family? The new Apple One service bundle appears to be exactly what we've been asking for and there may be a bundle combination that works for you. The new iPad and iPad Air are really awesome offerings, but what is the market for the iPad Pro now? All these questions will be answered! If you'd like to interact with Lory, you can follow her on Twitter @appaholik, you can email her at lory@imore.com and of course you can read her work at imore.com.