175: Short Analog, Long Digital

00:00SPEAKER- I've gotten to do something new at work lately.

00:03SPEAKER- That's always fun.

00:04SPEAKER- Yeah, they let me put Unreal on my computer,

00:09SPEAKERUnreal out on my computer,

00:10SPEAKERand I'm working on a game mode for the Anacrusis.

00:16SPEAKER- What do you mean they let you?

00:18SPEAKERI thought anybody can just download,

00:20SPEAKERthat's your computer, right?

00:21SPEAKERAnybody can just download that thing and install it.

00:23SPEAKER- Well, yeah, but like I, okay, so when I was at FU,

00:26SPEAKERwe had a problem where I made a submission,

00:29SPEAKER'cause I used to get in Unity

00:30SPEAKERand do a little hacking and stuff there.

00:32SPEAKERJust know enough to be dangerous.

00:34SPEAKERAnd let's say I caused a Git problem

00:38SPEAKERthat made us lose a couple of days or maybe more work,

00:41SPEAKERwhich felt real bad.

00:43SPEAKER- Oh. - Yeah.

00:45SPEAKER- Could you illuminate what the problem was that you caused?

00:48SPEAKER- I submitted some shit

00:49SPEAKERthat corrupted a whole big mess of stuff.

00:51SPEAKERAnd then when I reverted,

00:54SPEAKERI reverted the whole thing instead of just my parts.

00:57SPEAKERAnd look, mistakes were made.

00:59SPEAKERLet's just say that. - Okay, okay.

01:01SPEAKER- I think the problem was it caused,

01:03SPEAKERI took over some checkouts that other people had,

01:06SPEAKERand then they weren't able to submit their work.

01:09SPEAKERBut anyway, it doesn't, there was a sequence of events

01:11SPEAKERthat ended up with somebody losing a couple of days of work

01:13SPEAKERand I felt really bad.

01:14SPEAKERAnd I was like, I'm gonna stay out of source control

01:15SPEAKERat this point, because my people should not be here.

01:18SPEAKERI'm a generalist.

01:19SPEAKER- There's a reason that multiple websites exist

01:21SPEAKERto make Git easier to deal with.

01:24SPEAKER- Yeah, so anyway, I was like,

01:27SPEAKERhey, I have an idea for a thing.

01:28SPEAKERAnd people were like, that sounds like a cool idea

01:31SPEAKERfor a new kind of holdout map in the anacrusis.

01:37SPEAKER'Cause right now, our holdout maps

01:38SPEAKERare very much like left for dead holdout maps,

01:40SPEAKERwhere you have a central area that you kind of defend,

01:43SPEAKERand then maybe you have to go capture some points

01:45SPEAKERor something on the edges of that area

01:47SPEAKERto force you to move around a little bit.

01:48SPEAKERBut you don't really, you don't traverse a map per se.

01:51SPEAKERYou're basically staying in one combat arena.

01:54SPEAKERAnd I was like, what if, what if instead of doing that,

01:57SPEAKERyou had to traverse a map

01:58SPEAKERwhile you're capturing these points,

01:59SPEAKERand then at the end, something exciting happens?

02:02SPEAKERThey were like, that's a good idea.

02:03SPEAKERYou should build that.

02:04SPEAKERAnd I was like, oh, well, I shouldn't do that.

02:05SPEAKERThat's a bad idea.

02:06SPEAKERAnd then they were like, no, just go download.

02:08SPEAKERHere's the Wiki page that tells you

02:11SPEAKERhow to download the repo and set up Unreal,

02:16SPEAKERour version of Unreal Ed, and let it rip.

02:19SPEAKERHave fun.

02:20SPEAKER- Give a game designer a fish, he'll design for a day.

02:23SPEAKERTeach a game designer to fish, he'll design for a lifetime.

02:26SPEAKER- Well, and also at the same time,

02:28SPEAKERwe're doing more, we have a lot of people building mods

02:34SPEAKERright now and our documentation needs help.

02:35SPEAKERAnd like, I don't understand enough about how Unreal works

02:38SPEAKERto help with the documentation.

02:40SPEAKERSo this is, it's like two birds with one stone.

02:41SPEAKERI have to do something fun.

02:42SPEAKERAnd then now I can help with the documentation as well.

02:45SPEAKER- Are you writing any code or script in this process?

02:48SPEAKEROr is it all like visual?

02:49SPEAKERLike, I don't know exactly.

02:51SPEAKERI mean, I know the Unreal Engine tools are quite robust,

02:53SPEAKERbut I don't know if it's all like visual scripting for stuff

02:56SPEAKERlike this at this point,

02:57SPEAKERor like how are you interfacing with all this?

02:59SPEAKER- The answer is it's complicated.

03:02SPEAKERThe version of the, so we're on Unreal 4.27.

03:09SPEAKERWe haven't moved Anacrusis to 5.1 or whatever.

03:11SPEAKERI don't, that may or may not happen

03:13SPEAKERat some point in the future.

03:15SPEAKERThe, there's like multiple tiers of code.

03:18SPEAKERAnd some of this stuff is specific to our game

03:20SPEAKERand some of it's engine specific.

03:22SPEAKERLike in the engine, there's the idea that you can write code

03:25SPEAKERin like chunks of code, like functions,

03:27SPEAKERjust like in C++, right?

03:29SPEAKERBut then there's also these things called blueprints,

03:31SPEAKERwhich can kind of serve as API interfaces

03:34SPEAKERbetween a more visual scripting language

03:37SPEAKERand, or between chunks of code.

03:39SPEAKERSo you can like pass variables

03:40SPEAKERfrom one piece of code to another.

03:41SPEAKERAnd like, you can make things do things,

03:44SPEAKERbut somebody has to have written the underlying code

03:47SPEAKERfor those things to happen.

03:48SPEAKERSo, so that visual thing is called blueprints.

03:51SPEAKERAnd basically like the rules of our game

03:54SPEAKERall run in a big blueprint that is, that says, okay,

03:58SPEAKERthe game starts with four players

04:00SPEAKERon these types of spawn points.

04:02SPEAKERAnd then they have to, you know,

04:04SPEAKERthey have to go from here to there

04:07SPEAKERand the game ends on that spawn point.

04:09SPEAKERAnd along the way, this, these series of functions

04:12SPEAKERwill be running in the background.

04:14SPEAKERAnd the blueprints can be a mixture of things

04:15SPEAKERthat are other blueprints or C++ code,

04:19SPEAKERor maybe some other stuff that I don't know about,

04:22SPEAKER'cause I haven't gotten too far.

04:23SPEAKERI mostly work in blueprints right now, just because,

04:26SPEAKERand honestly, I mostly work in not,

04:28SPEAKERI mostly work one layer up in the,

04:30SPEAKERabove the blueprints in like a map logic layer,

04:33SPEAKERwhich is a thing that one of our designers kind of built,

04:40SPEAKERlike in the style of Quake, modern Quake engine

04:43SPEAKERor idtech engine map scripting stuff.

04:46SPEAKERSo like the stuff that I'm working on

04:47SPEAKERis actually map entities that have triggers attached to them.

04:52SPEAKERAnd those triggers are pulled from blueprints

04:55SPEAKERand the blueprints then run C++ code if they need it,

04:59SPEAKER'cause there's API end points

05:01SPEAKERthat let the blueprints connect to the C++ code.

05:04SPEAKERBut also this is a really mature project.

05:06SPEAKERThis is the thing that we've been working on

05:07SPEAKERfor three years now.

05:08SPEAKERAnd like two dozen people have touched it,

05:12SPEAKERthree dozen people have touched it

05:13SPEAKERprobably over that three year period almost.

05:16SPEAKERAnd it's, there's a lot of like kind of,

05:19SPEAKERoh yeah, no, this is the way it works here,

05:20SPEAKERbut this isn't stuff that's in every game

05:23SPEAKERand probably not the way we would design it

05:24SPEAKERif we were starting from scratch today.

05:26SPEAKERBut like, so the upshot is for the map logic.

05:30SPEAKERSo an example of the thing I can do with map logic is

05:32SPEAKERI have a series of triggers

05:35SPEAKERand one of the triggers starts the holdout, right?

05:38SPEAKERWhen somebody presses a button, it starts the whole,

05:40SPEAKERone of the triggers changes the level context

05:44SPEAKERfrom, hey, this is a campaign level

05:45SPEAKERto this is a holdout level,

05:46SPEAKERor this is holdout level to a campaign level

05:48SPEAKERby just destroying a bunch of campaign entities.

05:51SPEAKERSo like switches that you only use in campaign mode,

05:53SPEAKERstuff like that.

05:54SPEAKERThe next one starts the holdout part of the thing,

05:57SPEAKERwhich includes spawning enemies

05:59SPEAKERand setting up the capture points and all that stuff.

06:02SPEAKERAnd there's some like randomization triggers in there

06:05SPEAKERthat make it a little bit different every time

06:06SPEAKERand stuff like that.

06:08SPEAKERSo like you can do a ton without touching any code

06:11SPEAKERis the takeaway.

06:13SPEAKERAnd if you can get into the blueprints,

06:14SPEAKERthen you can do a lot more,

06:16SPEAKERincluding like change the way the mode works entirely

06:19SPEAKERand stuff like that.

06:20SPEAKERSo yeah, it's been weird and fun.

06:22SPEAKER- Just make sure you don't pull out any load bearing entities.

06:25SPEAKER- I am, look, I have been,

06:27SPEAKERI was asked very nicely not to submit any changes

06:29SPEAKERto blueprints that are referenced across the entire project.

06:32SPEAKER'Cause that's the problem.

06:33SPEAKERLike that's like the matter compiler,

06:35SPEAKERthe thing that gives out perks

06:36SPEAKERis used in every level of the game.

06:38SPEAKERSo if I make a change to that,

06:40SPEAKERthere is some big downstream consequences.

06:42SPEAKERNow I can make an instance of that

06:43SPEAKERand do whatever I want to it in my instance

06:45SPEAKERthat lives in my level.

06:46SPEAKERBut I shouldn't, I don't touch the parent classes.

06:49SPEAKER- Always play in the sandbox.

06:51SPEAKER- Love this, look, they saw what I was doing.

06:53SPEAKER'Cause initially they were like,

06:54SPEAKERhey, you can just edit it on the layer in the level.

06:57SPEAKER'Cause there's also level layers in Unreal.

07:00SPEAKERSo like in each level of the map,

07:03SPEAKERthere's a lighting level and there's a geo level

07:05SPEAKERand there's a gameplay level and there's a sound level

07:08SPEAKERand there's a voice level and all this stuff.

07:10SPEAKERAnd they were like, we'll just make you a holdout level

07:12SPEAKERand you could just edit in there

07:13SPEAKERand just tag stuff appropriately.

07:15SPEAKERAnd then they saw what I did the first day

07:17SPEAKERand they were like, we're gonna make you a copy of the level

07:20SPEAKERand we're gonna revert,

07:22SPEAKERthen copy your stuff over to the new copy of the level.

07:24SPEAKERAnd then we're gonna revert your changes to the main level.

07:27SPEAKERI was like, that's probably best.

07:28SPEAKER- They didn't pat your head while they did that, did they?

07:30SPEAKER- No, they were very nice about it.

07:32SPEAKERBut I did break the event that happens

07:36SPEAKERat the end of the level, not in a permanent way,

07:38SPEAKERbut like in a way that I would have had to go back

07:41SPEAKERand do a little bit, anyway.

07:42SPEAKERBut the option is now I can change the geo of the level

07:44SPEAKERand that's really fun 'cause I'm like changing

07:45SPEAKERwhere paths are and stuff like that.

07:47SPEAKERSo yeah, it's been neat.

07:48SPEAKERIt's been neat to learn.

07:49SPEAKERIt's like this week, it's that sweet spot for new learning

07:53SPEAKERwhere you're like, hey, on day one,

07:56SPEAKERI don't even know what the thing is that I need,

07:58SPEAKERthe name of the thing.

07:59SPEAKERI don't even know the name of the thing that I need to know

08:01SPEAKERso I can search for a thing to figure out

08:03SPEAKERwhat I should be doing.

08:05SPEAKERAnd now I feel pretty like dangerously proficient

08:08SPEAKERis what I would say at this point.

08:09SPEAKERDave, when you go from not knowing,

08:11SPEAKERwhen you don't know what you don't know

08:14SPEAKERand you end up at least you know what you don't know.

08:17SPEAKERYeah, that's progress.

08:18SPEAKERI'm right in the Dunning-Kruger sweet spot right now, man.

08:21SPEAKER(upbeat music)

08:39SPEAKER(upbeat music continues)

08:49SPEAKERWelcome to Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod, I'm Will.

08:52SPEAKERI'm Brad.

08:53SPEAKERThat was a really fast time, Brad.

08:55SPEAKERWas it?

08:56SPEAKERI've been working on it.

08:56SPEAKERYeah, you've been workshopping it?

08:58SPEAKERYou like do this in the shower?

08:59SPEAKERWell, when I edit it every week,

09:00SPEAKERthere's always a pause there that I frequently cut out

09:03SPEAKER'cause I don't know, like maybe it's just a latency thing.

09:07SPEAKERIt's never as snappy as I think it is when I say it.

09:10SPEAKERIt felt pretty snappy today.

09:11SPEAKERIt's like you were, it's like you used the force

09:13SPEAKERto anticipate the welcome.

09:14SPEAKERWell, fingers crossed.

09:15SPEAKERThere's no silence there to cut out.

09:17SPEAKERFinger, yeah, exactly.

09:18SPEAKERBrad, this week we have a,

09:21SPEAKERI was trying to get a pun, but I got nothing.

09:24SPEAKERI was gonna say novel, but it's not a book.

09:25SPEAKERIt's, the topic this week is right in front of us.

09:30SPEAKERIt's- It's right.

09:32SPEAKERYeah, it's-

09:33SPEAKERIt's hands-on, I've got my hands on it right now.

09:36SPEAKERYeah, we were sitting here and we were like,

09:38SPEAKERwhat's the oldest thing?

09:40SPEAKERI think this is probably also an episode,

09:42SPEAKERbut like what's the oldest piece of technology you use

09:45SPEAKERon the day-to-day?

09:45SPEAKERDon't answer that, that's for later.

09:47SPEAKEROkay.

09:47SPEAKERThat's a future question.

09:50SPEAKERBut in doing that, I was sitting here

09:53SPEAKERlooking around my desk and I was like, wait,

09:54SPEAKERI have a bunch of interesting stuff on my desk

09:56SPEAKERand I'm about to go through and rewire everything

09:58SPEAKERafter about a year.

09:59SPEAKERAnd I wanna talk about what has,

10:01SPEAKERwe wanna talk about what is on our desks.

10:03SPEAKERYeah.

10:04SPEAKERAnd what is working and what isn't

10:06SPEAKERin terms of like the wiring.

10:07SPEAKERYeah, actually in my case, I'm excited to talk about

10:10SPEAKERwhat's not on my desk, which is cords.

10:13SPEAKERThat sounds nice.

10:14SPEAKERI just very recently, like a month ago,

10:17SPEAKERreached cord zero, like not a single wire

10:20SPEAKERrunning across my desk.

10:20SPEAKERSo that's, that is part of the impetus for this.

10:23SPEAKERWell, I'm, yeah, I don't have that kind of discipline,

10:27SPEAKERI don't think.

10:27SPEAKERI'm a, my desk is a chaos engine and I'm okay with that.

10:31SPEAKERI've, I'm not, look, I don't need to live your minimalist

10:34SPEAKERlifestyle to feel fulfilled.

10:36SPEAKERIt's so good.

10:38SPEAKERBut I do, I do enjoy having my desk wire situation solved

10:45SPEAKERand like going, like going through and evaluating,

10:47SPEAKERgoing through and evaluating this,

10:49SPEAKERthere's some stuff that works really, really well.

10:50SPEAKERLike I love the, the reusable zip ties,

10:54SPEAKERswitching from Velcro ties or single use zip ties

10:57SPEAKERto the reusable ones with little push button

10:59SPEAKERhas been- What?

11:00SPEAKERYeah, have you ever- Oh my God.

11:02SPEAKERYeah, so they have a- Oh my God.

11:04SPEAKERThe clicky part has a little push down.

11:06SPEAKERNo.

11:07SPEAKERAnd then when you need to get a cable out,

11:08SPEAKERyou just push the thing down, unzip the zip tie

11:10SPEAKERa little bit. Oh man.

11:11SPEAKERAnd then I'll, yeah.

11:13SPEAKERI bought like 300 of the classic zip ties

11:16SPEAKERfrom Monoprice a few years ago,

11:17SPEAKERand I've still got like 250 left.

11:19SPEAKERSo it's going to be a while before I get to the-

11:20SPEAKERJust donate them to needy children, Brad.

11:22SPEAKERYes, you're right. It's fine.

11:23SPEAKERYeah, put it, it's a life-changing thing.

11:27SPEAKERFive minutes into this episode

11:28SPEAKERand I've already learned something actionable.

11:29SPEAKERI mean, I've got a decent number of the Velcro zip ties,

11:32SPEAKERwhich are also reusable, but.

11:34SPEAKERThey get, so the problem with the Velcro ones for me

11:36SPEAKERis that they collect dust over a period of time

11:40SPEAKERin a way that is icky.

11:42SPEAKERSure.

11:43SPEAKERSo I'm not a huge fan of those.

11:44SPEAKERAnd also they're not, they don't have the strength

11:47SPEAKERthat I need for the size, scope and scale of cables.

11:50SPEAKERI have- Fair, fair.

11:52SPEAKERAnyway, I thought what we should do,

11:54SPEAKERsee, you're in a pretty,

11:56SPEAKERyou're happy with your situation now-ish.

11:58SPEAKERI, let's say, hmm, within my means,

12:03SPEAKERI'm living within my means, let's say.

12:05SPEAKEROkay, I like that.

12:07SPEAKERWith the space that I've got

12:08SPEAKERand the desk that I've got and et cetera, et cetera,

12:11SPEAKERI've kind of hammered it into a shape I can live with.

12:15SPEAKERYeah.

12:15SPEAKERIf I had a bigger space and got a new desk though,

12:17SPEAKERI would definitely make some changes, but anyways.

12:19SPEAKERWell, so yeah, and I have a sit stand

12:21SPEAKERthat I go up and down on pretty much every day.

12:24SPEAKERLike physically, you mean not in terms of your opinion?

12:27SPEAKERNo, no, no, yeah, I love the desk.

12:29SPEAKERI literally, I sit here and when I get tired of sitting

12:32SPEAKERthat I stand up and my back is better for it

12:34SPEAKERand generally healthier.

12:36SPEAKEROkay, that could have been interpreted

12:38SPEAKERas you like it sometimes and not so much others.

12:40SPEAKERNo, I absolutely love it, it's my favorite.

12:43SPEAKERSo like it said, but it presents a unique challenge

12:46SPEAKERin terms of the stuff that's coming from the top

12:50SPEAKERhas to go to the bottom somehow and yeah.

12:53SPEAKERThat's always, I mean, granted,

12:55SPEAKERI'm like an obsessive cable router.

12:58SPEAKERThat's actually, you know what?

12:58SPEAKERI have zero cords touching the top of the desk

13:00SPEAKERor the floor underneath, but because of that,

13:04SPEAKERthat's been always the thing that worried me the most

13:06SPEAKERabout a standing desk or a sit stand in particular.

13:09SPEAKERIf it was just a standing desk, it would not be a problem,

13:11SPEAKERbut having to accommodate for two heights

13:14SPEAKERwhile wanting to mount and like route every cable.

13:16SPEAKERYeah, there's a lot of like cable slack issues

13:19SPEAKERthat you'd have to worry about there.

13:20SPEAKERThe solution I have for that is works,

13:23SPEAKERbut it is not like, I don't love it.

13:25SPEAKERSo should I ask now or should we get to it in line?

13:28SPEAKERWell, why don't we do, let's do yours first.

13:29SPEAKER'Cause I think yours is like you like,

13:33SPEAKERI like my reusable zip ties,

13:35SPEAKERbut I think yours is the success story here.

13:37SPEAKERReally?

13:38SPEAKERYour desk is really, like my desk is,

13:40SPEAKERI'm gonna go and tell you,

13:41SPEAKERif you looked at my desk, it would give you hives, right?

13:44SPEAKERAnd you're gonna ask me to take a picture of it

13:46SPEAKERand I'm gonna be real and tell you that what I'm gonna do

13:48SPEAKERwhen you ask me to do that is I'm gonna spend

13:50SPEAKERabout an hour cleaning it off

13:52SPEAKERand leave it a little bit messy still.

13:54SPEAKER- You have to capture it in the moment.

13:55SPEAKER- No, I'm not, look, there's a Lumia 910 on my desk.

13:58SPEAKERI've made choices with my life that I'm not happy with.

14:01SPEAKER- Everything, I need a photo in situ

14:04SPEAKERof what you got going on.

14:05SPEAKERAlso, you showed me that 920 right before this

14:07SPEAKERand I got kind of excited.

14:09SPEAKERIt's not the yellow one.

14:10SPEAKERIt's not the canonical Lumia 920, but still.

14:13SPEAKER- The blue one's the good one.

14:14SPEAKER- Yeah, you think so?

14:16SPEAKER- Yeah, the yellow, I don't like a, I like a darker.

14:18SPEAKERAnyway.

14:19SPEAKER- I don't remember which of my many discords

14:21SPEAKERcame up on recently that somebody was posting photos

14:24SPEAKERof their Lumia 920 and now you've got yours out

14:26SPEAKERand it reminded me, man, I wish I had gotten a Lumia 920

14:29SPEAKERback in the day.

14:30SPEAKER- I couldn't get it to charge, which kind of bums me out

14:34SPEAKER'cause I think it's probably completely unopenable.

14:36SPEAKER- Man, that's a bummer.

14:39SPEAKERHave I said this before?

14:39SPEAKERI'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before.

14:41SPEAKERMy Windows phone and my one Android phone,

14:45SPEAKERboth are on their last attempt to put the security code in

14:48SPEAKERbefore they lock themselves out forever.

14:50SPEAKER- How did you, do you not,

14:51SPEAKERI always use the same security code.

14:53SPEAKER- Well, let's see.

14:54SPEAKERSo on the Android, I was using the pattern-based one,

14:56SPEAKERthe shape, not the number.

14:57SPEAKER- Oh God, yeah, that's a disaster.

14:58SPEAKER- And I don't really, I mean,

15:00SPEAKERthe Windows phone was so long, it was like 10 years ago.

15:02SPEAKERI was definitely using a different code at that point.

15:06SPEAKER- I just wanted to play hexic.

15:08SPEAKER- I mean, I can't blame you for that.

15:09SPEAKERI mean, there's nothing like truly replaceable on there.

15:13SPEAKERI would like, you know, I wouldn't mind seeing

15:14SPEAKERwhat photos are on there and stuff like that,

15:16SPEAKERbut I mean, it's not gonna kill me if I never get it back.

15:18SPEAKER- I wonder if you could just break the encryption on them

15:20SPEAKERat this point.

15:21SPEAKER- I don't know about that.

15:22SPEAKER- I have a 4090, give me the image, I can just let it rip.

15:27SPEAKER- I did crack a password protected zip a couple of years ago

15:31SPEAKERthat I've had for like 20 years, anyway.

15:33SPEAKER- So yeah, Brad, what's on your desk?

15:35SPEAKER- Okay, so should we just take inventory here?

15:38SPEAKER- Yeah, let's take stock of the situation first.

15:40SPEAKER- Okay, yeah, there's like a million different angles

15:42SPEAKERto go from with this, 'cause like I've been looking

15:44SPEAKERon mechanical keyboards a little bit again lately,

15:46SPEAKERso we could talk briefly about that.

15:48SPEAKER- Well, yeah, I mean--

15:49SPEAKER- As we go down the line.

15:51SPEAKER- Kind of the impetus for this episode is,

15:53SPEAKERI saw a lot of talk in the Discord this week,

15:55SPEAKERand also on Mastodon, people were posting,

15:58SPEAKERthere's a couple of really good videos that came out

16:00SPEAKERthis week about how people have managed zero cable

16:02SPEAKERor cable light clean desks with like,

16:06SPEAKERbut most of them are people using a MacBook Pro

16:10SPEAKERas their main computer and like they put it

16:12SPEAKERinto a docking station and then it hooks up

16:15SPEAKERto one or two monitors and it's really like,

16:19SPEAKERI don't wanna say it, but it's kind of easy mode.

16:21SPEAKER- Huh, okay.

16:23SPEAKER- Like you wanna impress me, get like three or four monitors,

16:26SPEAKERa couple of desktops, you know, some lights,

16:31SPEAKERsome three cameras, the whole thing.

16:33SPEAKER- I prefer a non-judgmental discussion

16:35SPEAKERof desk organization techniques, but--

16:38SPEAKER- I'm not, look, I was like, okay, it's cool

16:42SPEAKERthat you made custom right-angle XLR mounts

16:45SPEAKERfor your speakers, that is actually really neat,

16:48SPEAKERbut also, yeah, your problems are,

16:54SPEAKERthe magnitude of your challenge is low

16:56SPEAKERcompared to a gamer desktop, anyway.

16:58SPEAKER- Fair, fair, okay, all right.

17:01SPEAKERYeah, I will say when we did the PSVR2 streaming

17:05SPEAKERtwo, three weeks ago, you know, when you occasionally,

17:08SPEAKERyou will see what that headset sees, right,

17:10SPEAKERfrom when it would drop to that inside out view,

17:13SPEAKERpeople were seeing what I see when I sit at this desk,

17:15SPEAKERalthough, you know, it was a black and white

17:17SPEAKERkind of weird digitalized version a little bit.

17:20SPEAKER- Wait, it doesn't, the PlayStation

17:22SPEAKERdoesn't stop you from exporting that?

17:24SPEAKER- Oh no, it just shows it in the,

17:26SPEAKERwhat do they call it, in like everything,

17:28SPEAKERthey have a name for it, it's like the companion view

17:30SPEAKERor whatever that goes to the TV.

17:31SPEAKER- Wow, that's a trip because it like--

17:33SPEAKER- It outputs it to the TV.

17:34SPEAKER- Like when I was playing God of War the other day,

17:37SPEAKERthey, they, they HDCP or don't stream out the,

17:41SPEAKERthe, the, like the Sony logo that pops up

17:45SPEAKERbefore the game starts, the video there just doesn't play

17:48SPEAKERon the Chiaki stream, anyway.

17:50SPEAKER- But yeah, the view of your room,

17:52SPEAKERthey are happy to let anybody--

17:53SPEAKER- Thanks, Sony.

17:54SPEAKER- Anyway, everybody on the stream got to see what I see

17:57SPEAKERfrom my desk and the first comments I saw were just like,

17:59SPEAKER"Wow, that's a clean desk," and I felt very good.

18:02SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, look, I'm gonna go and tell you,

18:03SPEAKERI've seen your desk, I've stopped by your house unexpectedly

18:06SPEAKERbefore your desk has always been shockingly clean.

18:08SPEAKER- It takes some effort.

18:10SPEAKERYou're not wrong when you say that it's some work.

18:12SPEAKER- Mine lasted about a month when I did that last time.

18:16SPEAKER- I actually, like we talked about last week,

18:17SPEAKERlike when I'm, when I'm in one of these, like,

18:19SPEAKERPC fixing explosions, my desk was a mess.

18:23SPEAKERLike a huge mess, there were like 30 different things

18:26SPEAKERall over it at that point,

18:27SPEAKERbut that's not the preferred state of affairs.

18:29SPEAKEROkay, let's get started here.

18:30SPEAKER- Yeah, let's get, let's get into it.

18:31SPEAKER- Okay, so I, yeah, like I said, I, I,

18:34SPEAKERas of buying this wireless mouse a few weeks ago,

18:37SPEAKERwhich has vastly exceeded my expectations.

18:40SPEAKERThat was about, that was the last holdout

18:41SPEAKERof cords on my desk.

18:42SPEAKERSo I'm using an Apple magic aluminum Bluetooth keyboard

18:48SPEAKERwith windows.

18:48SPEAKER- Best keyboard ever made is my understanding.

18:50SPEAKER- It's, look, it's very quiet.

18:52SPEAKER- Yeah, it is very quiet.

18:53SPEAKER- I've been thinking about it.

18:54SPEAKERI've been, again, looking at wireless mechanicals,

18:57SPEAKERthinking like, yeah, maybe I should.

19:00SPEAKERBut when you're on an open mic, as much as I am,

19:02SPEAKERhaving this extremely quiet keyboard is pretty nice.

19:07SPEAKERCannot recommend using this keyboard with windows,

19:09SPEAKEReven though I do it, it's not especially compatible.

19:14SPEAKERI guess I'm saying it works.

19:15SPEAKER- You don't get a lot of like,

19:17SPEAKERthe bells and whistles aren't there, right?

19:20SPEAKER- If by bells and whistles,

19:21SPEAKERyou mean a battery readout, then yes.

19:23SPEAKER- How long does the battery last though?

19:25SPEAKER- Like a month.

19:26SPEAKER- And it's like a AA, right?

19:27SPEAKER- No, no, no, it's rechargeable.

19:29SPEAKER- Oh, you have the rechargeable one?

19:30SPEAKER- Yes, this keyboard has a lightening port on it.

19:33SPEAKER- Ew, wait, did you plug it in like a phone?

19:38SPEAKER- Well, it's lightening into anything like a USB-A

19:40SPEAKERor whatever.

19:41SPEAKER- But is it, okay, is the lightening port someplace stupid

19:45SPEAKERwhere you can't use the keyboard where it's plugged in?

19:47SPEAKER- No, it's right here on the-

19:49SPEAKER- Oh, on the back.

19:50SPEAKER- It's right there on the back.

19:50SPEAKER- Okay, so you know, it's funny,

19:52SPEAKERyou've said that you have this keyboard.

19:53SPEAKERI assumed you were talking about the one with the roll

19:56SPEAKERon the back, the one before that that had two AAs.

19:59SPEAKER- No, this one is like wafer thin.

20:01SPEAKERI mean, how thin is this thing?

20:02SPEAKERLike probably a centimeter.

20:05SPEAKER- It doesn't look ergonomically sound.

20:06SPEAKERIt's a centimeter and a half on the back probably.

20:09SPEAKER- At its thickest point.

20:11SPEAKERYeah, Windows cannot pull the battery life on this thing.

20:14SPEAKER- Of course not.

20:14SPEAKERWhy would you use the standard USB way to do that?

20:17SPEAKERThere's a proprietary way that won't work with any other OS.

20:20SPEAKER- So I just have to guess at the battery level,

20:22SPEAKERbut otherwise it works.

20:25SPEAKERI got this Logitech G502X light speed,

20:28SPEAKERwhich we talked about on the patron episode a little bit

20:29SPEAKERand a couple of weeks ago, I love this thing.

20:32SPEAKER- It sounds like they've changed the light speed tech

20:34SPEAKERso that it doesn't eat battery anymore too.

20:36SPEAKER- Dude, it's crazy.

20:37SPEAKERI can, hold on, let me pull up the onboard memory manager

20:39SPEAKERright now and tell you, I am at 75% right now.

20:46SPEAKERI charge it about 20 minutes a week.

20:50SPEAKER- Jesus, really? - And that's about it.

20:51SPEAKERYes, so far.

20:53SPEAKERSo from 100% at the end of the week,

20:56SPEAKERit'll be down to like 85%, maybe 82, something like that.

21:01SPEAKERAnd that's like pretty heavy daily use.

21:04SPEAKERAnd then 20, 30 minutes plugged in.

21:06SPEAKERSo also having this mouse and the battery

21:08SPEAKERnot being easily replaceable,

21:10SPEAKERmeaning I want the battery longevity

21:11SPEAKERto be as good as possible,

21:13SPEAKERhas prompted me to finally go out.

21:14SPEAKERI know we've talked about this before,

21:15SPEAKERbut I need to refresh my memory.

21:17SPEAKERLike, hey, what are the best battery charging practices

21:19SPEAKERto extend the life of the battery?

21:21SPEAKER- Yeah, don't fill it all the way up.

21:22SPEAKERDon't run it all the way down.

21:24SPEAKER- The thing I settled on was kind of try to keep it

21:26SPEAKERbetween basically like 60 and 80%,

21:28SPEAKER60 to 85, something like that.

21:30SPEAKERAnd so that's why I've been charging it

21:32SPEAKERlike 20 minutes a week, basically.

21:35SPEAKERI don't charge it all the way back to full.

21:36SPEAKER- I don't wanna, I'm not gonna yuck your yums here,

21:39SPEAKERbut it's really easy to replace the battery in those mice.

21:43SPEAKER- Well, no, that's great.

21:44SPEAKERI mean, that makes me happy then,

21:45SPEAKER'cause the longer I can use this mouse, the better,

21:47SPEAKER'cause I love everything about it.

21:48SPEAKER- So the trick on that is that you have to,

21:51SPEAKERthe screws are all hidden under the skates on the bottom.

21:54SPEAKERSo you'll have to get a replacement set of skates.

21:56SPEAKERBut then you just unscrew it and you, huh?

21:58SPEAKER- Do you ruin the skates getting them off?

22:00SPEAKER- They're not gonna be as good as they are now.

22:02SPEAKERAnd also, the skates wear out over time.

22:05SPEAKERLike even when you're using a soft pad,

22:06SPEAKERI replace the skates every couple of years at the outside.

22:08SPEAKER- Oh, interesting, okay.

22:11SPEAKER- And if you're using a hard pad, they go faster.

22:12SPEAKER- Yeah.

22:15SPEAKER- But then the battery is just,

22:16SPEAKERyou can order the batteries on Amazon

22:18SPEAKERand swap a replacement part in really easily.

22:22SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, I just, everything from the button feel,

22:25SPEAKERthey moved to mechanical optical switches

22:26SPEAKERon this new version of the-

22:27SPEAKER- Yeah, this is awesome.

22:28SPEAKER- The X is a refresh of the longstanding 502

22:31SPEAKERthat just came out like six months ago.

22:33SPEAKER- Which is like newest sensor and new switches and stuff.

22:37SPEAKER- Yeah, new switches, like ton of buttons.

22:39SPEAKERThese little rubberized grips on the side are great.

22:42SPEAKERLike it glides like a dream.

22:43SPEAKERThe battery life is amazing.

22:44SPEAKERLike I just could not be happier.

22:45SPEAKERIt's a very expensive mouse, but worth every penny.

22:49SPEAKERSpeaking of the mousing surface,

22:50SPEAKERI've got a very old funk pad here still.

22:55SPEAKERAs a mousing surface.

22:57SPEAKER- Ooh, I found one of those

22:58SPEAKERwhen I was cleaning out the garage the other day.

23:00SPEAKER- It's still good.

23:01SPEAKER- I am.

23:02SPEAKER- For like 15 years,

23:03SPEAKERit still looks like it did when I got it.

23:05SPEAKER- It's funny, I switched to a soft pad during the PUBG days.

23:08SPEAKER- Huh.

23:09SPEAKER- 'Cause I was trying to reduce all friction

23:13SPEAKERas much as possible.

23:14SPEAKER- Interesting, maybe soft pads aren't what they used to be.

23:16SPEAKERLike my memory of soft mouse pads

23:18SPEAKERis basically from the nineties.

23:19SPEAKERYou know, that kind of weird,

23:20SPEAKERlike that felt on rubber sort of thing.

23:23SPEAKERI don't know what people are doing these days.

23:24SPEAKER- Yeah, it's like a slippery,

23:26SPEAKERit's like a slippery, super slippery neoprene

23:28SPEAKERon the Logitech one I have now.

23:30SPEAKER- Maybe I should look into new mousing surfaces.

23:32SPEAKER- You're, you're, oh, you didn't get the,

23:34SPEAKERyou didn't get the light speed charger pad, right?

23:36SPEAKER- No, I did not, 'cause that was a cord.

23:38SPEAKER- I was gonna say, it comes with both.

23:39SPEAKERIt comes with a hard and a soft pad,

23:42SPEAKERwhich is one of the reasons it's so fricking expensive.

23:44SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, that would have just been replacing

23:45SPEAKERthe mouse cord with a pad cord, like a pad cord.

23:49SPEAKER- Well, yeah, like in my head,

23:51SPEAKERI think maybe I should put the pad off on a side table

23:54SPEAKERor something someplace and just put the mouse there

23:56SPEAKERwhen I walk away at the end of the night

23:57SPEAKERand let it charge overnight.

23:59SPEAKER- Yeah.

24:00SPEAKER- But also I don't care that much, it turns out.

24:02SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah.

24:02SPEAKERSo yeah, I mean, that was kind of what I thought

24:04SPEAKERI would end up doing with the corded charging on the mouse,

24:07SPEAKERbut instead it's like I said,

24:08SPEAKERit's like I basically go eat lunch on Saturday

24:11SPEAKERwhile it's plugged in and I come back

24:13SPEAKERand it's fine for the week.

24:14SPEAKERIt's kind of amazing.

24:16SPEAKERLet's see here.

24:17SPEAKERAll right, I've got the,

24:19SPEAKERI've got the classic Cambridge Soundworks PowerCube speakers

24:22SPEAKERthat we've talked about before.

24:24SPEAKER- Yeah.

24:25SPEAKER- Along the back I have a Macbook.

24:25SPEAKER- Just to be clear, those are '90s era

24:27SPEAKERor early 2000s era computer speakers,

24:30SPEAKERanalog computer speakers.

24:31SPEAKER- I was in the dorm.

24:32SPEAKERI was playing a lot of Quake III when I bought these.

24:34SPEAKER- Yeah, they are really good.

24:35SPEAKERThat subwoofer was good for Quake.

24:37SPEAKER- Those things, yes.

24:38SPEAKERGood speakers are good speakers, they last.

24:40SPEAKER- Do you use speakers a lot

24:41SPEAKERor are you mostly headphones these days?

24:42SPEAKER- I only use speakers for like just casually listening

24:45SPEAKERto music while I'm dinking around with the NAS

24:48SPEAKERor something like that.

24:48SPEAKERLike anything, especially any kind of production recording,

24:52SPEAKERstreaming stuff is headphones,

24:54SPEAKERbut even playing games is headphones at this point.

24:56SPEAKERThey're purely for just like listening to whatever.

24:58SPEAKER- I have to imagine the pigs would be a little traumatized

25:01SPEAKERif you like fired up some Call of Duty

25:03SPEAKERand like had loud thumps.

25:05SPEAKER- Yes, for sure.

25:07SPEAKERSo along the back I've got my Macbook Pro USB-C charger.

25:11SPEAKERI've got an Anker wireless phone charging stand.

25:15SPEAKERI've got my Panic Playdate, which I use as a desk clock

25:18SPEAKER'cause it stays on all the time.

25:20SPEAKER- Do you see they put the,

25:21SPEAKERthey rolled out their catalog this week?

25:23SPEAKER- Yes, I want to try those games.

25:24SPEAKER- Crank to buy.

25:26SPEAKER- Wait, really?

25:27SPEAKER- Yeah.

25:28SPEAKER- Oh, I hadn't tried the store yet.

25:29SPEAKERIs that a free series? - It's fucking great.

25:31SPEAKERYeah.

25:31SPEAKER- Are you like filling up a meter?

25:33SPEAKER- You crank the meter to confirm the purchase.

25:35SPEAKER- That's, oh, they listened to our episode.

25:37SPEAKER- It's very good.

25:39SPEAKER- Let's see here.

25:40SPEAKERThat's kind of, I mean,

25:41SPEAKERI've got like a vase with some bamboo growing out of it.

25:43SPEAKERWe don't need to get into the desk decorations.

25:46SPEAKER- I need some green in here.

25:48SPEAKER- I highly recommend to plan on your desk

25:50SPEAKERif you can find space for it.

25:52SPEAKERAnd if you have light.

25:55SPEAKERI'm sorry.

25:56SPEAKER- Oh no, I was going to say,

25:57SPEAKERand then do like, what's your monitor such these days?

25:59SPEAKER- Yeah, so I've got two 27 inch 1440p monitors

26:01SPEAKERon a single two monitor arm.

26:04SPEAKER- So do you have them like centered in front of you

26:06SPEAKERor do you have one centered and one off to the side?

26:08SPEAKER- Oh, I cannot.

26:09SPEAKERI believe, no offense to people who like it this way.

26:11SPEAKERBut when the people who have two monitors

26:13SPEAKERand they sit kind of with their face

26:15SPEAKERstaring directly at the seam in between them,

26:18SPEAKERlike I just don't understand.

26:21SPEAKERBut yeah, I do basically sort of main monitor,

26:23SPEAKERside monitor.

26:24SPEAKERLike I have, I have left monitor

26:25SPEAKERis just front on perpendicular to my face,

26:28SPEAKERto my sight line.

26:30SPEAKERAnd then I've got another one kind of cocked

26:31SPEAKERoff to the right 45 degrees ish for discord

26:34SPEAKERand stuff like that.

26:35SPEAKER- I was gonna say, this is a little off topic,

26:36SPEAKERbut do you do like, I used to do when I was side by side,

26:38SPEAKERI would do like communications monitor

26:40SPEAKERor maybe reference monitor and then like work monitor.

26:43SPEAKER- That's exactly what it is.

26:44SPEAKERThe side monitor is for discord, for my email clients,

26:47SPEAKERfor like, if I'm working in a terminal window

26:51SPEAKERand I've got some instructions for something up,

26:52SPEAKERthen that goes on the side monitor, stuff like that.

26:55SPEAKERThat's exactly, exactly it, yeah.

26:58SPEAKERAnd then the last thing is my camera setup,

27:00SPEAKERwhich is not on the desk at all times.

27:02SPEAKERI've got an Elgato key light.

27:06SPEAKER- You take the light and the camera and everything off?

27:08SPEAKER- I have to, so we haven't gotten to what's under the desk,

27:10SPEAKERbut I've got two Ikea Signum.

27:13SPEAKERYou can tell we did the homework

27:14SPEAKERand we looked up all the product names

27:16SPEAKERfor all the stuff we use.

27:18SPEAKERI've got two Ikea cable racks.

27:19SPEAKERIt's the Signum is the product name.

27:22SPEAKER- Oh man, yeah, that's nice.

27:24SPEAKERThat's better, they're like center pole

27:27SPEAKERwith a basket that hangs on either side.

27:29SPEAKER- Yeah, like I guess the only downside,

27:31SPEAKERif you can call it that, is they screw in,

27:33SPEAKERlike they're pretty heavy and you have to kind of,

27:34SPEAKERyou have to screw into the desk to mount them.

27:37SPEAKER- Screwing in is a good thing.

27:39SPEAKER- But they're mounted right on the back underhang

27:42SPEAKERof the desk and so the desk mount clamp thing

27:45SPEAKERthat came with the key light wouldn't fit because they're,

27:48SPEAKERI actually tried bending a couple of those,

27:49SPEAKERyou see the little like metal loops on them?

27:51SPEAKERI actually tried bending a couple of those down

27:53SPEAKERto try to make room for the mount for the key light,

27:55SPEAKERbut it just wouldn't, I couldn't get it in there.

27:57SPEAKER- How deep is your desk?

27:58SPEAKERIs it only 24 inches?

28:00SPEAKER- No, actually. - Or is it 30?

28:03SPEAKER- Probably about 30 if I had to guess.

28:05SPEAKERMaybe more actually, it's a pretty big desk.

28:07SPEAKERIt's from, this desk is from the CRT days,

28:09SPEAKERso it's got depth to it.

28:11SPEAKERAnyway, so I bought the Elgato weighted stand.

28:16SPEAKERIt's basically just a base replacement.

28:18SPEAKERYou take the little desk clamp off

28:19SPEAKERand it's just a big 10 pound metal disc instead.

28:23SPEAKERSo I basically just have to set the camera on the desk

28:26SPEAKERwhen I'm using it and take it away when I'm not.

28:29SPEAKER- So it's funny 'cause I've been looking at the,

28:32SPEAKERI have the Elgato key light stands too

28:33SPEAKERand I've been thinking about doing,

28:37SPEAKERI wish I could do just a mount, a flat mount.

28:41SPEAKER- What does that mean?

28:42SPEAKER- Like through the, like could drill a hole

28:44SPEAKERand mount through the desk rather than,

28:49SPEAKERlike rather than use the edge clamps.

28:51SPEAKER- Sure, yeah, I can see that.

28:53SPEAKER- Yeah, 'cause like the monitor,

28:54SPEAKERthe mic stands often will have like a thing

28:56SPEAKERwhere you drill a quarter inch hole or whatever and yeah.

28:59SPEAKER- Yes.

29:02SPEAKER- Oh, actually, you know what else I have thought

29:04SPEAKERabout doing, so my camera is on a friction arm.

29:08SPEAKER- Yeah.

29:08SPEAKER- Like, you know what those are,

29:09SPEAKERit's basically a jointed metal contraption.

29:11SPEAKER- Yeah, they're fantastic.

29:12SPEAKER- Tighten the joints and it'll kind of bend

29:13SPEAKERinto whatever configuration.

29:14SPEAKER- Is it universal where you have one lever

29:18SPEAKERhandles all the joints?

29:19SPEAKER- There's one release that kind of makes

29:21SPEAKERthe whole thing go slack.

29:22SPEAKER- That's awesome.

29:23SPEAKER- It can be hard to like level the camera

29:24SPEAKER'cause as soon as you release the tension on the arm,

29:26SPEAKEReverything just falls apart.

29:28SPEAKER- Well, do you not have a knobbly guy on the end of the arm?

29:31SPEAKERLike a ball joint, a ball mount?

29:33SPEAKER- Yes, yes.

29:34SPEAKER- Okay.

29:35SPEAKER- Yes, what I've thought about doing

29:37SPEAKERis actually just bolting that friction arm

29:40SPEAKERdirectly to the monitor stand

29:42SPEAKERand maybe getting a little like ring light

29:44SPEAKERto go around the camera that could fit

29:45SPEAKERmaybe on the camera mount

29:47SPEAKERand just removing this key light entirely from the equation.

29:50SPEAKER- So the ring, so you have a space,

29:53SPEAKERyeah, that's interesting.

29:54SPEAKER- I don't know how, I don't know if that might be too heavy

29:56SPEAKERfor these monitor arms though, I'm not sure.

29:58SPEAKER- The monitor arm should be fine.

30:00SPEAKERThe question is, can you get the friction mount

30:02SPEAKERfor the Elgato thing around the tube for the monitor arm?

30:05SPEAKER- Yeah.

30:06SPEAKER- 'Cause my monitor tubes are long,

30:07SPEAKERare too big for the Elgato friction mounts.

30:11SPEAKER'Cause I bought one of them thinking I could do that

30:13SPEAKERand then it didn't work 'cause I read the docs, it turns out.

30:15SPEAKER- Yeah, anyway, I was kind of forced into this modular

30:18SPEAKERlike mobile camera setup 'cause I couldn't mount it

30:22SPEAKERbut now that I have it, I kind of actually prefer it

30:24SPEAKER'cause I just put the camera back in the corner of the room

30:26SPEAKERwhen I'm done with it

30:27SPEAKERand then there isn't a camera staring at me 24/7.

30:29SPEAKER- Well, it's, I mean, you just put the lens cap

30:32SPEAKERon the camera too.

30:33SPEAKER- Well, yeah, but it's just less clutter, you know,

30:35SPEAKERit's just, now I've got a bunch of nice framed pictures

30:37SPEAKERup here and now I can see them.

30:39SPEAKER- And less clutter above the monitor,

30:41SPEAKERthat's an interesting idea, anyway.

30:43SPEAKER- Yes, yes, I don't wanna belabor my entire like

30:46SPEAKERunder the desk setup 'cause we'll be here all day.

30:50SPEAKER- But you've mounted a bunch of stuff up under the desk.

30:53SPEAKER- Yeah, so I've got a bunch of stuff mounted under the desk.

30:54SPEAKERLike I said, I've got those Ikea cable racks

30:56SPEAKERmounted in the back with like, dude, dozens

31:00SPEAKERof cables running through them.

31:02SPEAKERCould not even tell you how many cables are back there.

31:04SPEAKER'Cause like I said, there are no cables touching the floor.

31:08SPEAKERSo every manner of HDMI and USB and audio cable

31:12SPEAKERand you name it, network cables,

31:14SPEAKERlike it's just endless cables back there,

31:19SPEAKERbut it makes it very easy to vacuum under the desk.

31:21SPEAKER- And did you like get right length cables

31:27SPEAKERfor that or did you just kind of bundle up extras

31:28SPEAKERin that signum?

31:29SPEAKER- I usually buy longer than I might need

31:33SPEAKERand then just coil stuff as needed.

31:35SPEAKER- Yeah.

31:36SPEAKER- I use a lot of zip ties or twist ties and stuff like that.

31:38SPEAKER'Cause you never know when you might need extra slack.

31:41SPEAKER- How often do you need extra slack though

31:42SPEAKERis the question I'm asking myself now.

31:45SPEAKER- Yeah, it depends, but also it's not a big deal

31:46SPEAKERto just loop something a few times

31:48SPEAKERto deal with the extra length.

31:50SPEAKER- That's true.

31:52SPEAKER- Let's see, so I've got my router network switch

31:56SPEAKERand two power strips are also mounted

31:57SPEAKERto the back of the desk.

31:58SPEAKER- Ooh, you put the router under there too.

32:00SPEAKER- Yes, yes, I like invisible technology.

32:03SPEAKERI like not seeing things.

32:04SPEAKER- I mean, I guess my router's in the garage,

32:06SPEAKERso it's a little different situation.

32:08SPEAKER- That's the dream is to just put it in a different room,

32:10SPEAKERbut let's see, I've got like three raspberry pies

32:13SPEAKERin that signum area.

32:15SPEAKER- Okay.

32:18SPEAKERThey're mounted underneath too?

32:20SPEAKER- Not mounted, those are just sitting in the--

32:21SPEAKER- Oh, they're just sitting in the trays.

32:23SPEAKER- Signum forms like kind of a basket sort of shape.

32:25SPEAKER- Yeah.

32:26SPEAKER- So there's pies in there doing different stuff.

32:29SPEAKERThere's an HDMI switcher in there.

32:31SPEAKERIt's a lot of stuff.

32:32SPEAKERIt is a lot of stuff behind, mounted behind

32:35SPEAKERand in that cable rack under the desk.

32:37SPEAKER- Which, do you have an HDMI switcher

32:38SPEAKERthat is like stripping HDCP or is it just for,

32:41SPEAKERjust so you have like five cables for your console

32:43SPEAKERso you can stream?

32:44SPEAKER- Yeah, it's just for different, it's for outputs.

32:46SPEAKERIt's like, it's so I could output straight to these monitors

32:49SPEAKERbefore I go into the capture card.

32:50SPEAKER- Got it, okay. - Stuff like that.

32:51SPEAKERI had one, my old one stripped HDCP,

32:53SPEAKERbut those are harder to find these days.

32:55SPEAKER- Yeah, it turns out it's getting one

32:57SPEAKERthat's a newer HDMI spec that strips HDCP is challenging.

33:01SPEAKER- Yeah, the consortium started cracking down on that stuff

33:04SPEAKERfrom what I understand.

33:05SPEAKER- Weird. - Yeah.

33:09SPEAKER- Okay, so your setup is kind of similar to mine.

33:14SPEAKERI've got a couple of stream decks on the desktop,

33:17SPEAKERone for each PC.

33:19SPEAKER- Okay.

33:21SPEAKER- So I have two PCs.

33:21SPEAKERThis is where we should start.

33:22SPEAKERI have two PCs 'cause there's one PC

33:24SPEAKERthat does just the video stuff for me,

33:26SPEAKERwhich is kind of at this point, a legacy of the,

33:32SPEAKERof the PUBG days when like, when I was playing a game

33:36SPEAKERthat would take every amount of horsepower you had

33:39SPEAKERand like you were barely holding 70 frames a second.

33:42SPEAKERI just took an old PC and moved OBS over to that

33:45SPEAKERand now I'm kind of, this is the life I live now.

33:50SPEAKERSo, but it complicates things, right?

33:53SPEAKERSo there's two audio interface, there's a mixer

33:55SPEAKERthat takes in a bunch of audio that's not on my desk.

33:58SPEAKERIt's on top of a, says some filing cabinets off to the side.

34:04SPEAKERSo it means that like, if I want to sit here

34:05SPEAKERand do something with my daughter or something,

34:07SPEAKERthen we can have three microphones and it's no problem.

34:09SPEAKERBut it also means that there's a lot more wires.

34:13SPEAKERSo I've got the two stream decks.

34:15SPEAKERI've got three monitors, two are on one stand in a up down.

34:19SPEAKERSo I have like the 1080p gaming monitor,

34:21SPEAKERlow and then a 4K kind of reference in email

34:25SPEAKERand everything else monitor up high.

34:26SPEAKERI use fancy zones a lot.

34:28SPEAKER- Oh, fancy zones is great.

34:29SPEAKERI've just started using it in the last couple of weeks.

34:31SPEAKER- It's really good.

34:32SPEAKER- I don't know why, I've had power toys,

34:34SPEAKERthe modern power toy, remember old power toys?

34:37SPEAKER- Yeah.

34:38SPEAKER- Remember Windows 95 power toys?

34:39SPEAKER- I remember what I was felt like,

34:41SPEAKERso I felt like I was so special

34:42SPEAKER'cause I knew about power toys.

34:43SPEAKER- It straight up felt like Wizard of Oz

34:46SPEAKERpulling the curtain back and seeing the machinery type stuff.

34:49SPEAKERI don't know why I have neglected modern current power toys

34:52SPEAKERfor so long,

34:54SPEAKERbut there's some really good stuff in there.

34:55SPEAKERFancy zones is right at the top.

34:58SPEAKER- Yeah, fancy zones is the one that I,

35:01SPEAKERlike fancy zones is the one that got me to install it

35:03SPEAKERbefore I switched to Windows 11.

35:05SPEAKER- So does Windows 11 have essentially

35:07SPEAKERthat same functionality built in at the base level?

35:09SPEAKER- Yeah, like if you hover over the maximize button,

35:12SPEAKERyou get a quad of six potential window configurations.

35:17SPEAKER- But can you define those though?

35:19SPEAKER'Cause that's the thing about fancy,

35:20SPEAKERfor people who don't know fancy zones.

35:21SPEAKER- Yeah, fancy zones lets you,

35:23SPEAKERlike the default ones are pretty good.

35:25SPEAKERIt's like half vertical, you have 50, 50 vertical,

35:29SPEAKER20, 66, 20, 33 vertical, 33, 33, 33 vertical.

35:35SPEAKERAnd then there's like a 25, 50, 25 vertical split

35:39SPEAKERand a quad and a half and two quarters.

35:43SPEAKERSo like, it's like it gets about 90% of the way there

35:47SPEAKERjust with the defaults, I would say.

35:48SPEAKER- Yeah, just to be clear, fancy zones

35:50SPEAKERand what you're talking about are just ways

35:51SPEAKERto snap windows to existing kind of templates,

35:54SPEAKERto existing layouts.

35:55SPEAKER- Frames inside your monitor resolution.

35:59SPEAKER- Yeah, the thing about fancy zones and power toys

36:01SPEAKERis you can create your layouts

36:03SPEAKERand they're like surprisingly powerful.

36:06SPEAKERYou can even do overlapping layouts.

36:09SPEAKER- Yeah, and I think you can even lock,

36:12SPEAKERit may be a different tool that lets you do this,

36:14SPEAKERbut you can lock specific things to,

36:17SPEAKERlike you can say, always keep Discord in this zone.

36:20SPEAKER- Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

36:22SPEAKERAnyway, so do you have to crane your neck

36:26SPEAKERto look up at the 4K monitor?

36:28SPEAKER- No, so my desk is set up so that the top

36:33SPEAKERof the 1080p monitor is my eye line,

36:37SPEAKERis like even with my eye line when I'm sitting up straight.

36:39SPEAKERAnd then I kind of just, I kind of rock back in the chair

36:42SPEAKERa little bit when I look at the top one

36:43SPEAKERfor an extended period of time.

36:44SPEAKER- That's not so bad.

36:46SPEAKER- So when I originally set up the over under,

36:48SPEAKERI have it set so that you can rotate the whole thing,

36:50SPEAKERlike just invert it, and I set up a shortcut

36:55SPEAKERthat would let me basically flip the orientation

36:58SPEAKERand flip the two monitors in windows.

37:00SPEAKERAnd then I used it twice and it was a huge pain in the ass

37:02SPEAKER'cause of the cables and I never did it again.

37:04SPEAKER'Cause I initially thought, oh, well, while I'm working,

37:06SPEAKERI'll do the 4K on the bottom and when I'm not working,

37:08SPEAKERbut then cameras, so the other thing is my cameras

37:12SPEAKERare between the two monitors so that when I'm looking

37:15SPEAKERat things, it looks like I'm looking,

37:16SPEAKERwhen I'm looking at the monitors,

37:17SPEAKERit looks like I'm looking at the camera.

37:18SPEAKER- Oh, interesting.

37:20SPEAKER- So I get that over camera position rather than

37:24SPEAKERhaving to look, being off to the side or whatever.

37:27SPEAKER- Sure.

37:30SPEAKER- So there's one camera, this is again,

37:33SPEAKERthe problem with having two computers.

37:35SPEAKERThere's one camera for the streaming computer

37:37SPEAKERand then there's one camera for when I'm on zooms at work

37:39SPEAKERduring the day and they're both like three inches apart

37:42SPEAKERfrom each other and it feels really stupid to have both.

37:46SPEAKERThere's the Elgato, I have an Elgato charging stand,

37:51SPEAKERa MagSafe one with like a little keypad on the bottom

37:54SPEAKERso that I can charge like AirPods or Kindle or whatever

37:57SPEAKERon the bottom and smack my phone on the charging mount

38:00SPEAKERwhile I'm sitting here.

38:02SPEAKERI have an 18 by 24 inch cutting mat,

38:05SPEAKERwhich I keep down for when I'm using glue

38:08SPEAKERor cutting something or soldering or something like that

38:11SPEAKERwhere I don't wanna get stuff on the desk surface.

38:13SPEAKER- Sure, that's smart.

38:16SPEAKER- I also, when I put this desk together, I was like,

38:19SPEAKERright, this is just, I live now in a world

38:22SPEAKERwhere I can just replace the desk surface

38:23SPEAKERwhen it gets grody for not too much money.

38:27SPEAKERI have a road, I think I have the same road mic arm

38:29SPEAKERas you do.

38:30SPEAKER- Yes, PSA one.

38:32SPEAKER- Yeah, PSA one.

38:33SPEAKERI don't, I kinda don't like it 'cause it goes up

38:36SPEAKERand then comes down.

38:37SPEAKER- Yeah, I've had similar issues with mine.

38:41SPEAKERIt's not bad, it seems like the build quality

38:43SPEAKERmay not be what it used to be.

38:45SPEAKER- I mean, mine's 15 years old probably at this point

38:48SPEAKERand I've lubed it a couple of times

38:51SPEAKERand I have to tighten it up occasionally

38:52SPEAKERbut other than that, it's pretty fine.

38:54SPEAKER- I mean, it gets the job done.

38:56SPEAKER- It would be nice to have something

38:57SPEAKERthat just comes in below my sight line,

38:59SPEAKERI think is where I'm at with that

39:01SPEAKERand then pops the mic up.

39:03SPEAKER- Yeah, that's kinda what I've got.

39:04SPEAKERI mean, this isn't gonna play on an audio podcast

39:05SPEAKERbut I'll show you that that's kinda how I've got my mod.

39:09SPEAKER- Did you upside down it?

39:11SPEAKER- Yes, not the mic arm.

39:13SPEAKERThis is super not quiet.

39:15SPEAKER- Oh, so you just have it super straight.

39:17SPEAKERYour, yours is further away.

39:18SPEAKERThe problem, you have yours far enough away

39:21SPEAKERthat it can be straight.

39:22SPEAKERMine is not that far away unfortunately.

39:24SPEAKER- I forgot to mention my mic arm.

39:25SPEAKERYes, I mount the mic arm basically as far away

39:28SPEAKERas it possibly can be at the corner of the,

39:30SPEAKERfar corner of the desk.

39:31SPEAKER- Yeah, see, I could put mine on the far corner of the desk

39:34SPEAKERbut if I did that, I would have to run the XLR cable

39:38SPEAKERacross every single data and power cable

39:41SPEAKERthat comes into my desktop and that seemed like a bad idea.

39:44SPEAKER- So I moved the audio interface close to the mic.

39:47SPEAKER- Ah, there you go.

39:49SPEAKER- Short analog run, long digital run.

39:51SPEAKER- Yeah, it makes sense.

39:54SPEAKERBecause the mixer is so big,

39:56SPEAKERI don't have that option really,

39:57SPEAKERis the downside of my setup.

40:01SPEAKERThe monitors are all on Ergotron mounts,

40:03SPEAKERwhich are those big sturdy ones that like hospitals use.

40:06SPEAKER- Oh, wow.

40:07SPEAKER- They're really, really nice in that they don't wobble

40:11SPEAKERand stuff like that.

40:12SPEAKERLike when the desk moves, they move a little bit,

40:14SPEAKERbut they're pretty sturdy and they just stay in place

40:16SPEAKERand there's no sag or anything like that ever.

40:18SPEAKER- That's good.

40:19SPEAKERThese EchoGear or this EchoGear one

40:20SPEAKERis also a relatively tight, like monitors that bounce

40:23SPEAKERwhen you type or whatever would drive me completely insane.

40:25SPEAKER- Yeah, they don't, I can type as hard as I want.

40:28SPEAKERIf I bump the table, they move.

40:30SPEAKER- These Ergotrons look pretty, they look like robot arms.

40:34SPEAKERThey look like something that Boston Dynamics produced.

40:36SPEAKER- They're pretty beefy.

40:38SPEAKERWell, so the thing is with the 4K and the 1080p

40:40SPEAKERon the same one, so the monitors are 4K and 1080p

40:43SPEAKERand then there's also a 34 inch ultra wide

40:45SPEAKERon the mounted vertically, of course, on the other one.

40:49SPEAKERAnd in order to manage those weights,

40:52SPEAKERit had to be a pretty beefy arm.

40:54SPEAKER- These are not cheap monitor arms.

40:57SPEAKER- I was very strategic when I was getting monitor arms

41:01SPEAKERand bought them when they do a sale every year

41:04SPEAKERaround the end of the year.

41:05SPEAKER- Okay, this triple monitor on,

41:08SPEAKERgranted it's just one of the ones on their site, $700.

41:12SPEAKER- So I got all of these for in the 150ish range.

41:15SPEAKER- That's reasonable, that's much more in line

41:18SPEAKERwith what most of the other brands are that I've seen.

41:20SPEAKER- Yeah, like if you watch,

41:21SPEAKERyou can get them for the same price.

41:23SPEAKERNow the problem with them is that they're designed

41:25SPEAKERfor like commercial and enterprise settings

41:27SPEAKERand they're not, they don't necessarily have

41:30SPEAKERthe cable channels required for a consumer,

41:34SPEAKERlike I'm gonna go and tell you,

41:37SPEAKERI'm gonna pull all of the USB cables out of my monitors,

41:39SPEAKER'cause I don't ever use the USB hubs

41:41SPEAKERthat are built into the monitors.

41:42SPEAKERAnd it just clogs up the cable channels

41:45SPEAKERso that they're like, it's too tight.

41:48SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't even use the USB hubs in my monitors.

41:51SPEAKERWhat do people, what's the use case for those these days?

41:53SPEAKERLike I could maybe see previously

41:56SPEAKERyou might've plugged your mouse and keyboard into them

41:57SPEAKERor something along those lines.

41:59SPEAKERBut like, first of all, they're not even exposed enough

42:01SPEAKERto be convenient to use.

42:03SPEAKERAnd second of all, I don't know what I would put in there

42:04SPEAKEReven if they were.

42:05SPEAKER- So I used to plug my webcam into them,

42:07SPEAKERbut then I got these USB-C, like 3.1 webcams

42:11SPEAKERthat like the monitor hub is not,

42:15SPEAKERyou don't wanna plug them into a hub basically.

42:18SPEAKERThe other thing is like when I was doing food stuff,

42:25SPEAKERI had an eye tracker plugged into one of them

42:26SPEAKER'cause that was useful in minimized cables.

42:29SPEAKERThe other thing that I did have on the ultra wide

42:32SPEAKERfor a long time that I really loved

42:33SPEAKERand I probably should bring back

42:35SPEAKERwas like just a cheap USB LED light

42:38SPEAKERthat was like a strip light

42:39SPEAKERthat you glued up on the bottom edge of the monitor

42:41SPEAKERand you could toggle it on and off

42:43SPEAKERand it just pulled USB power.

42:44SPEAKERSo you could like downlight the back of your desk,

42:47SPEAKERwhich was really convenient.

42:49SPEAKER- Seems cool.

42:50SPEAKERI've got an RGB kind of home kit,

42:54SPEAKERyou know, home automation addressable RGB strip

42:57SPEAKERon the back of my desk pointed at the wall.

43:00SPEAKERSo I guess I get some kind of nice like backlighting

43:04SPEAKERunder, not under the monitors,

43:05SPEAKERbut against the wall behind everything.

43:08SPEAKER- That's fancy.

43:09SPEAKER- Yeah, it's nice.

43:10SPEAKER- Okay, so I have that,

43:12SPEAKERI have the cable manager on those Ergotron arms,

43:15SPEAKERlike I said, not the best.

43:16SPEAKERIt doesn't let you hide stuff all the way,

43:18SPEAKERit just lets you get it kind of close.

43:20SPEAKERI have too many key lights,

43:21SPEAKERthe Elgato ones on stands clamped to the edge of the table

43:23SPEAKERjust to front light me

43:25SPEAKERwhen I'm doing something that needs good lights.

43:28SPEAKERI use a drop control keyboard these days

43:30SPEAKERwith a wrist rest.

43:31SPEAKERI've been working on switching to the keyboardio model 100,

43:35SPEAKERbut it's hard to take the time to be bad at typing

43:39SPEAKERto learn how to use the new keyboard, it turns out.

43:42SPEAKER- It's kind of reminds me of getting used to VIM.

43:45SPEAKERIt's like disrupting your typing workflow

43:48SPEAKERis pretty difficult.

43:49SPEAKER- Yeah, it turns out typing,

43:51SPEAKERlike me not having to think about typing

43:52SPEAKERis really important to the work that I do all the time.

43:57SPEAKERI have a switch for, so I have a USB switch

44:00SPEAKERthat's not a KVM, it's just like a dumb USB switch

44:03SPEAKERthat just physically switches the connection

44:06SPEAKERfor the keyboard and mouse between the two PCs

44:09SPEAKERfor those rare moments when input director fails

44:12SPEAKERand I can't get the mouse and keyboard

44:14SPEAKERover to the second PC.

44:17SPEAKERThere's a Google, so that switch I'm actually gonna move

44:20SPEAKERto the bottom of the desk.

44:21SPEAKERSo I'm gonna tape it up underneath

44:22SPEAKERand have like a secret press button for when I need to,

44:26SPEAKERthe rare times I need to use it

44:27SPEAKER'cause I use it like once a month probably.

44:30SPEAKERI have a Google Nest Hub Mini that's like,

44:32SPEAKERit's essentially a digital photo frame

44:33SPEAKERthat I can control music on the speaker in my office with.

44:39SPEAKERAnd then my mister and the consoles kind of come in and out

44:44SPEAKERon the back of the desk.

44:47SPEAKER- Sure.

44:49SPEAKER- So under, I have a 12-port power strip that Anker makes.

44:53SPEAKERI have a cheap AmazonBasics like 10-port USB 3.1 hub

44:59SPEAKERthat also provides a fair amount of USB power

45:01SPEAKERfor things like those Anker key lights are USB power now.

45:06SPEAKER- Oh, wow. - So the mini ones.

45:07SPEAKERSo they just plug into that.

45:13SPEAKERI think I'm gonna switch my cable trays

45:15SPEAKERwith the ones you have 'cause they look better.

45:17SPEAKERBut I have these, they're like baskets

45:20SPEAKERand they open only on one side.

45:21SPEAKERSo it's like a wire, it's like a U-shape basically.

45:24SPEAKERAnd you screw one end of the U into the wood

45:26SPEAKERand then the other end of the U is the bottom.

45:28SPEAKERAnd it means that you can either get to them

45:30SPEAKERfrom the person side of the desk

45:33SPEAKERor the backside of the desk, but not both.

45:35SPEAKER- Oh, okay.

45:36SPEAKER- Which is a little challenging.

45:37SPEAKER- Yeah, these signums are open,

45:39SPEAKERcompletely open on both sides.

45:40SPEAKER- Yeah, that seems really nice.

45:44SPEAKER- My desk has a back panel though,

45:45SPEAKERso I can't get to the closer open side.

45:48SPEAKERBut theoretically, if your desk was open underneath,

45:51SPEAKERthat would be very convenient.

45:53SPEAKER- Yeah, so my desk is open underneath,

45:54SPEAKERwhich means that you can see all the crimes

45:56SPEAKERwhen you're walking on the backside of the desk.

45:59SPEAKERBut also I just decided I don't care about that.

46:01SPEAKER- Yeah, you just gotta get over that.

46:03SPEAKERI mean, the upside of having that vertical back panel

46:05SPEAKERon the desk is that's what the router and switch

46:07SPEAKERand power strips are mounted to.

46:09SPEAKERI would not have that if I didn't have a button,

46:11SPEAKERbut the downside is I can't get to the cable rack

46:12SPEAKERvery conveniently at all.

46:13SPEAKER- I wondered where you got the space.

46:14SPEAKERWell, the nice thing about the sit-stand

46:16SPEAKERis that when I wanna work under there,

46:17SPEAKERI just raise it up enough that I can sit up straight.

46:20SPEAKERAnd I don't have to lay on my back

46:22SPEAKERand reach my arms up the whole time.

46:24SPEAKERI also use a lot of short extension cords.

46:27SPEAKERSo like those little, they're like three inch to six inch.

46:30SPEAKER- Yes, I also have a bundle of those in the drawer.

46:32SPEAKER- Yeah, and those are really good

46:34SPEAKERfor not having a wall wart hanging off

46:37SPEAKERof the power strip that's under there

46:38SPEAKER'cause they tend to fall out in my experience.

46:41SPEAKER- Also some of them are just big.

46:44SPEAKERSome of them take up too much space

46:45SPEAKERand block one or both of the outlets next to them.

46:48SPEAKER- Yeah, and it's worth saying like,

46:51SPEAKERI think I screwed the power strip in,

46:53SPEAKERbut I believe that the USB hub,

46:57SPEAKERthe USB switcher is under there too,

46:58SPEAKERthe box that does the actual switching.

47:01SPEAKERAnd then there's a couple other small things.

47:03SPEAKERI just double-sided tape.

47:04SPEAKERI double-sided foam taped them up under there

47:07SPEAKERand like no regrets.

47:11SPEAKER- Sounds good.

47:12SPEAKER- I can scrape it off with a putty knife if I need to.

47:14SPEAKER- Sure.

47:15SPEAKER- And then the other, so then the other,

47:18SPEAKERthe two other things.

47:18SPEAKERWell, there's a headphone hook

47:20SPEAKERthat has both my like production headphones

47:23SPEAKERand my gaming headphones.

47:26SPEAKERI have the vertebra cable channel thing,

47:29SPEAKERwhich is designed for sit-stand desks.

47:31SPEAKERSo it's like a series of joints

47:33SPEAKERand there's four cable channels

47:35SPEAKERand then you put the cables in.

47:36SPEAKERI don't love that thing.

47:37SPEAKERSo if people have better suggestions

47:38SPEAKERfor how to manage the cables that need to go up and down

47:43SPEAKERwhen the desk goes up and down,

47:44SPEAKERI would love to hear them.

47:46SPEAKERIt's fine, but it kind of flaps around

47:49SPEAKERand it isn't as movie, it isn't as easy moving

47:53SPEAKERas I was hoping given that there's like three monitor cables

47:56SPEAKERand a couple of power cables and all the USB cables

47:59SPEAKERthat go from the desktop to the other computer

48:02SPEAKERand stuff like that.

48:05SPEAKERAnd then the last thing is I got those cable locks

48:09SPEAKERon the edges.

48:11SPEAKERSo those let me hold the case.

48:13SPEAKERSo I have a bunch of things that do have cables

48:15SPEAKERbut I have them all running straight back

48:18SPEAKERand the cable locks on the edges

48:20SPEAKERlet me anchor the backside of the desk,

48:23SPEAKERrun of the cable and like lock it in place

48:25SPEAKERso there's no slack and there's no wiggle

48:28SPEAKERand then the rest of it just goes in the tray up underneath.

48:32SPEAKERBut then the cable locks, if you don't know,

48:33SPEAKERare these little, they're like,

48:35SPEAKERit's like a plastic thing with like,

48:36SPEAKERthey look like little mushrooms

48:38SPEAKERthat are all close enough together.

48:39SPEAKERThey'll hold, they bend and you can snap the cables in place

48:42SPEAKERand then, yeah, they go from there.

48:46SPEAKER- C-A-B-L-O-X if you want to.

48:49SPEAKER- Yes, yeah, I just got a variety pack

48:53SPEAKERand kind of got hooked on them.

48:56SPEAKERBut like my, so the things that are working really well

49:00SPEAKERare the lights and the monitor stand.

49:03SPEAKERThe cameras are kind of always a pain in the ass

49:05SPEAKER'cause they always require adjustment.

49:08SPEAKERLike either I change how I sit in the chair

49:11SPEAKERor the lights change or like it gets tilted or whatever.

49:15SPEAKERI don't know what causes that,

49:17SPEAKERbut I think I need to build a custom solution for that.

49:20SPEAKER- So that's one of the nice things

49:21SPEAKERabout having my camera mounted to that key light

49:23SPEAKERis they just always point in the same direction.

49:26SPEAKERSo I got a, so the camera's on that friction arm,

49:31SPEAKERlike I said, and once you get that thing level,

49:35SPEAKERyou kind of don't ever want to touch it again

49:36SPEAKER'cause getting it level again is a kind of a nightmare.

49:39SPEAKERBut I bought a little quick release mount

49:41SPEAKERto go between the friction arm and the camera.

49:43SPEAKERSo you just snap a little lever

49:45SPEAKERand the camera itself comes right off.

49:47SPEAKER- Oh, that's nice.

49:48SPEAKERSo then it's not always on the arm

49:49SPEAKERwhen you're not using it?

49:50SPEAKER- Not that, well, I leave it on there when I'm not using it,

49:53SPEAKERbut if you ever, not that I rarely ever use this camera

49:56SPEAKERas a camera and not for streaming,

49:58SPEAKERbut if you ever do need to take it off,

49:59SPEAKERyou can, it'll pop right off the mount

50:01SPEAKERso you don't have to mess with your arm.

50:02SPEAKER- Oh, 'cause you use a DSLR still.

50:04SPEAKER- Yeah, it's mirrorless, yeah.

50:05SPEAKER- Mirrorless, okay.

50:07SPEAKER- And the other nice thing is that

50:09SPEAKERthat quick release mount has levels in it, so.

50:12SPEAKER- Oh, that's nice.

50:13SPEAKER- You can get your camera quite level

50:14SPEAKERwithout having to like look at the output

50:17SPEAKERif you do need to level it.

50:18SPEAKER- Yeah, that's one of the things that's frustrating to me

50:20SPEAKERabout my current setup is that when I'm leveling,

50:24SPEAKERI have to be behind the desk

50:25SPEAKERwhere I can't see the thing that's in the front of the desk.

50:27SPEAKERSo I like have to get my daughter or my wife

50:29SPEAKERor somebody sitting here and be like,

50:30SPEAKER"Hey, is that, look at the picture frames, is it level?"

50:33SPEAKER- That's exactly.

50:34SPEAKERSo that was the thing I left out when I was saying before,

50:36SPEAKERif you, when you loosen the friction arm, it just collapses.

50:39SPEAKERLike all the tension goes out of it

50:40SPEAKERand your expensive camera just fucking slams into the desk

50:44SPEAKERif you're not holding it up.

50:45SPEAKERSo that's what I mean is you have to be holding that thing

50:47SPEAKERall the time while it's loosened.

50:49SPEAKER- Yeah.

50:49SPEAKER- So you're basically like craning your arm over the monitor

50:52SPEAKERto try to hold the camera in place

50:53SPEAKERwhile you're like trying to peer down at the monitor

50:55SPEAKERto see if you're level or not.

50:57SPEAKERSo yeah, getting those levels was key.

50:59SPEAKER- Yeah, the other stuff is like the Elgato camera.

51:02SPEAKERSo I use those face cams.

51:04SPEAKERThis sounds like an Elgato shill podcast,

51:06SPEAKERbut they don't pay us or anything

51:07SPEAKERor they don't give us hardware.

51:10SPEAKERThose face cams are pretty good webcams,

51:12SPEAKERespecially the 1080p ones for the money.

51:15SPEAKERLike it looks indistinguishable.

51:17SPEAKERLike they have good sensors

51:19SPEAKERand they work in all sorts of light conditions

51:21SPEAKERand I've been quite happy with them.

51:22SPEAKERExcept like once every month or every other month,

51:27SPEAKERyou have to unplug and replug it.

51:29SPEAKERAnd that is kind of an annoyance.

51:32SPEAKER- So those are just straight USB?

51:34SPEAKER- They're straight USB, yeah.

51:35SPEAKERWell, they're USB-C, they have to be 3.0 or 3.0.

51:39SPEAKERThey have a specific USB requirement to get the full,

51:43SPEAKER'cause they send higher,

51:45SPEAKERthey don't send compressed back to the computer.

51:47SPEAKERSo it's not like, they're a little weird.

51:51SPEAKERAlso, I think that,

51:52SPEAKERI wanna say they have Linux support problems,

51:53SPEAKERbut I can't remember.

51:55SPEAKERI think they're host-based, so.

51:57SPEAKER- Yeah, Jonathan on the Debian FOSS pod

51:59SPEAKERtalked about modern webcams being a real pain

52:02SPEAKERto support in Linux, actually.

52:03SPEAKER- I did not realize that there was a webcam problem

52:06SPEAKERin Linux these days, yeah.

52:07SPEAKER- 'Cause things have gotten very closed

52:09SPEAKERand proprietary there.

52:10SPEAKERAnyway, which stream,

52:12SPEAKERdo you just have normal, the Stream Deck regular?

52:15SPEAKER- So I have an XL hooked up to the Stream PC,

52:18SPEAKERwhich has all the like OBS and audio.

52:21SPEAKERLike I have buttons for all of the audio inputs,

52:23SPEAKERso I can turn them on and off.

52:25SPEAKERI got, when they announced that one with the knobs,

52:28SPEAKERI bought the one with the knobs for the main PC,

52:33SPEAKERthinking it would be nice to have a way to control volumes.

52:36SPEAKERAnd then it turns out nobody's written the software

52:38SPEAKERto let me interface with my mixer yet.

52:40SPEAKERSo either I have to set up like a,

52:46SPEAKERbecause the mixer is hooked up to the Stream PC,

52:49SPEAKERI can't connect to it over USB.

52:51SPEAKERAnd it's a little fraught.

52:55SPEAKERAs I'm saying this now,

52:56SPEAKERI'm thinking maybe I should switch the mixer

52:58SPEAKERto hook up to the main PC

53:00SPEAKERand then just pipe the signal

53:06SPEAKERfrom the mixer into the DAC on the Stream PC.

53:11SPEAKER- Over what?

53:12SPEAKER- Over an analog, like it's just an analog out

53:16SPEAKERfrom the mixer into the DAC on the main PC,

53:19SPEAKERwhich is what I do now.

53:20SPEAKER- That would work.

53:21SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know, we'll see.

53:23SPEAKERThe whole thing seems fraught.

53:25SPEAKER- Yeah. - More cables.

53:26SPEAKER- Yes, for sure, speaking of more cables.

53:28SPEAKERSo this is another place where length comes in

53:30SPEAKERon those cables that I'm running behind.

53:33SPEAKERSo I've got a Stream Deck XL

53:34SPEAKERthat I've just been sitting in a box for some time

53:37SPEAKERthat I swear I'm gonna start using soon.

53:39SPEAKER- It's surprisingly convenient.

53:41SPEAKER- Seems way too useful not to be.

53:43SPEAKERThere are so many things.

53:45SPEAKERLike when I think about it, it's less like OBS functions,

53:47SPEAKERalthough some of that would be nice,

53:48SPEAKERbut it's more like putting all my monitor inputs

53:51SPEAKERon Stream Deck buttons.

53:52SPEAKER- Yep.

53:53SPEAKER- So I just switch between monitor inputs

53:54SPEAKERon that control surface.

53:55SPEAKER- You mean you want to control your monitor?

53:59SPEAKERYeah, okay.

54:00SPEAKER- Like I keep thinking of and then forgetting other stuff

54:03SPEAKERI would put on a Stream Deck,

54:04SPEAKERbut there's a ton of stuff.

54:05SPEAKERWell, like audio inputs and outputs,

54:08SPEAKERlike active recording and output device in Windows

54:12SPEAKERand stuff like that.

54:13SPEAKER- I've been doing, I have like Photoshop and Premiere

54:17SPEAKERand like, yeah, there are a bunch of like productivity

54:24SPEAKERshortcut implementations that you hook in

54:27SPEAKERthat will let you control, like there's one for resolve.

54:33SPEAKERYeah, anyway.

54:34SPEAKER- Okay, so trying to stick to cord zero

54:37SPEAKERand use something like a Stream Deck can be challenging.

54:40SPEAKERSo that's the other place where having extra long cords

54:43SPEAKERis nice because in a lot of cases,

54:44SPEAKERI'll kind of hook the top of a cord

54:46SPEAKERthat I don't, something I don't plug in all the time,

54:48SPEAKERlike my camera, for example, the power for the camera

54:51SPEAKERand for the key light are separate.

54:54SPEAKER- So you just have a dangler?

54:55SPEAKER- So they kind of, yeah, but like,

54:57SPEAKERbecause of the way things are, you can't see,

54:59SPEAKERyou can't really see the loop hanging down,

55:01SPEAKERbut there's enough slack that whenever I,

55:03SPEAKERand the Stream Deck is another one

55:04SPEAKERwhere I would probably just have it sitting

55:06SPEAKERat the back of the desk at all times

55:08SPEAKERwith enough slack on that cord down through the cable rack,

55:11SPEAKERbut I can pull it forward right up to where I need to use it

55:14SPEAKERand then just kind of pull it in and out

55:15SPEAKERand have the cable just sort of slide through the rack

55:18SPEAKERso that it kind of, you know, still stays tidy

55:20SPEAKERand doesn't, you know, pile up on the floor

55:23SPEAKERthat has enough slack to be kind of movable.

55:25SPEAKER- Well, that's what I use the cable locks for, right?

55:27SPEAKER- Okay, oh, do they actually like thread through there?

55:31SPEAKERLike can they move through there?

55:32SPEAKERI thought they were being like gripped tightly in between.

55:35SPEAKER- No, they move, so like, well, you can do it either way.

55:40SPEAKERSo if you just put them straight through,

55:42SPEAKERthen they'll just fall down and you'll,

55:45SPEAKERjust the stump will poke up

55:46SPEAKERand you can pull up the slack, right?

55:48SPEAKERBut if you do like a little S through there,

55:51SPEAKERthen it basically locks them in place and the slack will,

55:54SPEAKERso like that's how I maintain the straight lines

55:56SPEAKERfrom the Stream Deck.

55:57SPEAKERThe other nice thing about the Stream Deck XL,

55:59SPEAKERat least the one I have, is it has a USB-C port on the back.

56:02SPEAKERSo you can use your own cable for it if you want.

56:04SPEAKERSo if you want to get one that matches your desk color

56:06SPEAKERor something like that, you can do that.

56:10SPEAKERBut yeah, I think, I don't know, if I'm looking at this,

56:15SPEAKERif I'm looking at what I've done here,

56:16SPEAKERI think the next thing for me, I'm probably going to get

56:18SPEAKERa USB hub and see how much stuff I can plug in to a USB hub

56:23SPEAKERso that I only run one USB cable into a Stream PC.

56:27SPEAKER- Interesting, so that's the exact opposite direction

56:29SPEAKERthat I feel I have gone in recent years

56:31SPEAKERwhere I'm trying to run everything

56:33SPEAKERinto its own discrete USB port.

56:35SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, it's one of the, it's like a,

56:38SPEAKERit's a trade-off, right?

56:40SPEAKER'Cause I feel like I definitely get less reliable.

56:44SPEAKER- I get occasional weirdness when you have too much stuff

56:46SPEAKERplugged into one USB root port.

56:47SPEAKER- Yeah, that's what I'm worried about.

56:49SPEAKER- But also like the Stream PC only has mouse, keyboard,

56:52SPEAKERaudio interface, and camera, I think,

56:54SPEAKERis all that's plugged into it.

56:55SPEAKER- Yeah, that's not that big a deal.

56:58SPEAKERAs I've been motherboard shopping,

57:00SPEAKERnumber of USB ports has been a high priority.

57:02SPEAKER- Get a lot of ports.

57:03SPEAKERWell, also how they're wired in is important.

57:06SPEAKER- Yeah, that information is always

57:08SPEAKERlike extremely well-documented, isn't it?

57:10SPEAKER- Nope, never, absolutely never.

57:14SPEAKERThe, yeah, so I would, I would look at the cable locks.

57:17SPEAKERLike I think you'll like them a lot

57:19SPEAKERand they're not expensive.

57:20SPEAKERIt's like 10 bucks for a combo pack or something.

57:23SPEAKER- So like my, okay, from the outside,

57:25SPEAKERmy desk looks incredibly tidy.

57:27SPEAKERThat wiring job in the back is,

57:29SPEAKERit's, I'm not gonna say it's a huge mess of spaghetti,

57:31SPEAKERbut it's like, it's the same thing you said last week

57:34SPEAKERabout PCs, right?

57:35SPEAKERLike the more, the more work you do to tidy things up

57:39SPEAKERand make them like compact and integrated

57:41SPEAKERand like out of the way, like the bigger a pain in the ass

57:44SPEAKERit's gonna be next time you have to get in there

57:45SPEAKERand do anything with it.

57:46SPEAKERSo like pulling this desk out

57:49SPEAKERand getting through these cables

57:50SPEAKERand like running something new through there

57:51SPEAKERis an absolute ordeal, but when I'm done,

57:55SPEAKEReverything is nice and out of the way

57:56SPEAKERand I can't see it and it's great.

57:57SPEAKER- So this is the thing, this is the part that I like.

58:00SPEAKERSo about a year ago, I rotated my desk.

58:02SPEAKERWhen I came back from Palm Desert, actually last summer,

58:04SPEAKERI rotated my desk 'cause my desk had been up against the wall

58:07SPEAKERfor 10 years and I was like,

58:09SPEAKERI want to have a wall behind me in my shot.

58:11SPEAKERSo I can have like, 'cause I have a bunch of cool art

58:13SPEAKERand I have pictures and I have the game frame

58:14SPEAKERand all this stuff up there.

58:16SPEAKERI rotated the desk 90 degrees.

58:17SPEAKERSo now it floats in the middle of the room

58:19SPEAKERand it's sticking out from the wall, like a L.

58:23SPEAKERAnd it means that I can get to the back of it

58:25SPEAKERwithout having to lay on the ground

58:27SPEAKERor pull the desk out or anything like that.

58:29SPEAKERAnd like the only downside is I have to walk by the back

58:32SPEAKERof the monitors and see all the arms and all that shit

58:34SPEAKERevery time I come in.

58:36SPEAKERBut other than that, it's great.

58:38SPEAKERLike, 'cause it makes it really easy to fix stuff

58:40SPEAKERand it means that when I want to change something,

58:42SPEAKERit's not easier to just let it be, to just half-ass it.

58:49SPEAKERIt's easier to fix it and clean it up.

58:52SPEAKERAnd then I need to like re-put the cable back in

58:55SPEAKERwhatever was holding it in place

58:56SPEAKERor else I'll snag it on the way by

58:57SPEAKERand yank something loose and it'd be a disaster, so.

59:00SPEAKER- Now for you to change something,

59:02SPEAKERall you have to do is walk around the desk.

59:04SPEAKER- Yeah, I lift the desk up a little bit

59:05SPEAKERand I walk around it and I lay down.

59:07SPEAKERI have got a good foot rest so I can use that as a pillow

59:09SPEAKERwhen I'm down there.

59:10SPEAKER- Wow. - Yeah.

59:11SPEAKER- Whereas in my case, like, hey, you know how I've been

59:14SPEAKERrunning this laptop off of wifi for a while?

59:16SPEAKER- Yeah.

59:17SPEAKER- That's mostly because of what an absolute nightmare

59:19SPEAKERit would be to run more networking behind this desk.

59:22SPEAKER- Well, so the one place I do have a problem,

59:25SPEAKERa bad problem actually, is coming out of the vertebra.

59:29SPEAKERAlso, you should get wired to that laptop.

59:32SPEAKER- I know, I know.

59:33SPEAKERThat's the thing, I would have to get back there

59:36SPEAKERand put another switch in, put them out of ports

59:38SPEAKERand it's gonna be so much work.

59:39SPEAKER- Well, so this is the place I wonder if I could use

59:43SPEAKERa docking station on a desktop

59:45SPEAKERto solve some of these problems.

59:47SPEAKER'Cause a docking station with the right USB-C cable

59:50SPEAKERshould give me actual USB root hubs at the docking station.

59:56SPEAKERAnd let me plug in the cameras to the desk

1:00:03SPEAKERrather than have to run them all the way back to the PCs.

1:00:06SPEAKER'Cause the place that I have a nightmare is there's a,

1:00:08SPEAKERto the right of the desk along the wall,

1:00:11SPEAKERthere's all the cables that run back to the streaming PC,

1:00:15SPEAKERwhich is like five feet behind, three feet behind me.

1:00:17SPEAKERIt's five feet from the end of the cable vertebra.

1:00:20SPEAKERAnd that is a, it's a nightmare.

1:00:24SPEAKERIt's really dusty and gross.

1:00:26SPEAKERI can't get in there to clean it easily.

1:00:28SPEAKERLike I need to, probably what I should do

1:00:29SPEAKERis just build a box that lives on top of that

1:00:33SPEAKERand has a little U on one end to,

1:00:35SPEAKERmaybe it's box building time.

1:00:37SPEAKERI don't know, I don't know what the solve for that is.

1:00:38SPEAKERI wish there was something I could just buy honestly,

1:00:40SPEAKER'cause I wouldn't have to fool with it, but.

1:00:42SPEAKER- I haven't looked at like USB-C docking stations

1:00:44SPEAKERand kind of all-in-one hubs in a while, a couple of years,

1:00:47SPEAKERbut even then they were getting pretty damn elaborate.

1:00:49SPEAKERI have to imagine those are like pretty great

1:00:51SPEAKERat this point, right?

1:00:52SPEAKERIn terms of power delivery, ethernet, maybe even display,

1:00:55SPEAKERlike let alone a bunch of USB ports.

1:00:57SPEAKERLike it seems like the kind of all-in-one one thing

1:01:00SPEAKERthat you plug everything into market

1:01:02SPEAKERhas gotten pretty good.

1:01:03SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, I would hope so, I don't know.

1:01:06SPEAKERI'd be curious what people think about that.

1:01:08SPEAKERThat's a place where I don't know what the best,

1:01:10SPEAKERwhat the right answer is really.

1:01:12SPEAKER- Yeah, desks.

1:01:14SPEAKER- Yeah, desks.

1:01:15SPEAKERWhat's on our desks?

1:01:16SPEAKER- They're ever-revolving, it turns out.

1:01:19SPEAKER- So the things that I learned that I didn't know about

1:01:22SPEAKERfrom watching cable management videos are that,

1:01:25SPEAKERespecially if you do custom audio stuff,

1:01:26SPEAKERthere are a bunch of places.

1:01:28SPEAKERWell, A, it's not too hard to make like custom XLR cables.

1:01:31SPEAKERIf you want one with like a weird right angle

1:01:33SPEAKERor something like that, you can buy the ends,

1:01:35SPEAKERbuy the raw cables.

1:01:37SPEAKERAnd if you're halfway decent at soldering,

1:01:38SPEAKERthey're pretty easy to put together.

1:01:39SPEAKERWe used to make a bunch of XLR cables

1:01:41SPEAKERin the Whiskey Media days.

1:01:44SPEAKERBut you can also get customers made by people

1:01:46SPEAKERwho are actually good at it instead of talented dilettantes

1:01:50SPEAKERlike we would probably be if we don't do that every day.

1:01:54SPEAKERThe reusable zip ties are an absolute game changer.

1:02:00SPEAKERI can't overemphasize that enough.

1:02:02SPEAKERThe other thing is I was thinking about

1:02:04SPEAKERputting a mouse mat on my desk

1:02:05SPEAKERand with this light speed pad, that's a little challenging

1:02:07SPEAKER'cause then there's a hump.

1:02:09SPEAKERAnd I think C music on the discord

1:02:11SPEAKERpointed out a few months ago

1:02:13SPEAKERthat you can just buy a piece of cork

1:02:15SPEAKERthat's the same thickness as the light speed pad

1:02:19SPEAKERand place that, like make a cutout

1:02:22SPEAKERfor the light speed pad in the cork,

1:02:24SPEAKERset the light speed pad in the cork

1:02:25SPEAKERand then put the mouse mat on top of that.

1:02:27SPEAKER- Oh, will it charge through a mouse mat?

1:02:30SPEAKER- Yeah, it charges through the mouse mat.

1:02:31SPEAKERLike it charges through the,

1:02:32SPEAKERlike it'll charge through a pad

1:02:33SPEAKERas long as it's not too, too thick.

1:02:35SPEAKER- Ooh, that's not a bad idea.

1:02:36SPEAKER- And then I get the benefit of the,

1:02:38SPEAKER'cause like the nice thing about the mouse mat

1:02:39SPEAKERis it makes the keyboard a little quieter too.

1:02:41SPEAKER- Sure.

1:02:44SPEAKEROh, I didn't even talk about keyboards.

1:02:45SPEAKERI'm gonna just throw this out.

1:02:46SPEAKER- Oh yeah, 'cause you're thinking about

1:02:47SPEAKERgoing mechanical finally.

1:02:48SPEAKER- Probably, I mean, this thing's fine.

1:02:50SPEAKERIt's working fine.

1:02:51SPEAKERI don't need a new keyboard,

1:02:52SPEAKERbut it would be nice to type on something that felt better.

1:02:54SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:02:55SPEAKER- Here's a question for you in the audience.

1:02:58SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:02:59SPEAKER- Are there Bluetooth mechanical keyboards

1:03:02SPEAKERwith a fingerprint sensor in them?

1:03:04SPEAKERI have not been able to find any.

1:03:05SPEAKER- I think a finger,

1:03:06SPEAKERso I also have been looking at fingerprint sensors lately

1:03:09SPEAKERfor Windows Hello purposes.

1:03:11SPEAKER- Yes.

1:03:12SPEAKERAlso, I don't want an external,

1:03:13SPEAKERI don't want a separate, freestanding fingerprint sensor.

1:03:15SPEAKER- So I'm gonna tell you what I'm doing

1:03:16SPEAKERwith my fingerprint sensor when it gets here.

1:03:19SPEAKERI'm gonna double stick tape it up under the desk.

1:03:21SPEAKER- I was about to, like that hit me as you said,

1:03:24SPEAKERI'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do with it.

1:03:26SPEAKERI was like, oh, right.

1:03:27SPEAKERI mean.

1:03:28SPEAKER- You have a whole surface under there.

1:03:29SPEAKER- You'd have to crane your, you know,

1:03:30SPEAKERto make sure you can reach it

1:03:32SPEAKERand rotate your hand properly, but that's probably fine.

1:03:34SPEAKER- You just put, well, so all of the stuff

1:03:36SPEAKERthat's loose on my desk is stuck down with nanotape.

1:03:38SPEAKERSo like the mouse pad, the light speed charger,

1:03:42SPEAKERthe wrist rests, the keyboard,

1:03:44SPEAKERall that stuff is nanotaped to the surface.

1:03:47SPEAKERSo, you know, just put it, so like you can use,

1:03:51SPEAKERso my thought is I'm gonna use the mouse wrist rest

1:03:56SPEAKERas the reference point and just tape it up underneath

1:04:00SPEAKERwhere my finger goes when I put my thumb on the mouse pad

1:04:04SPEAKERand the mouse wrist rest in a specific spot,

1:04:06SPEAKERsince that doesn't move and then go from there.

1:04:08SPEAKERI'll let you know how that goes.

1:04:09SPEAKER- Ooh, that sounds good.

1:04:10SPEAKERI assume that like standalone fingerprint sensors

1:04:13SPEAKERare a dime a dozen these days.

1:04:15SPEAKER- They're like, it's, they're surprisingly expensive still.

1:04:18SPEAKERThey're like, it's like 50 bucks for a good one.

1:04:21SPEAKER- Well, that's not terrible.

1:04:22SPEAKER- I mean, it's, how many times can I type a six letter,

1:04:26SPEAKERsix number passcode in for 50 bucks?

1:04:28SPEAKERIt's a lot, but also I miss having the thing,

1:04:31SPEAKERlike I used to have a camera webcam that saw my face

1:04:34SPEAKERand was like, hey man, I know you.

1:04:35SPEAKERAnd then I'll unlock my computer for me.

1:04:37SPEAKERAnd that also was really nice.

1:04:38SPEAKERSo I don't know, it's complicated.

1:04:42SPEAKER- I get it.

1:04:42SPEAKER- Is the answer.

1:04:43SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:04:44SPEAKER- I haven't ordered anything yet,

1:04:45SPEAKERbut I have looked at it and thought about it a lot, so.

1:04:47SPEAKER- Actually, you know, for front of the matter,

1:04:51SPEAKERhow should I even put this, like for our complex,

1:04:54SPEAKERI guess the word mechanical keyboards can be not complex,

1:04:57SPEAKERbut you know, like you're changing switches out.

1:04:58SPEAKERYou might change things out on a keyboard.

1:05:00SPEAKERIt's probably better not to have something

1:05:01SPEAKERlike a biometric scanner built into the keyboard itself.

1:05:05SPEAKERMaybe it's actually better to keep that discreet.

1:05:07SPEAKER- I think, I mean, it's really nice on the MacBooks.

1:05:10SPEAKER- Oh yeah, no, I use it all the time.

1:05:11SPEAKERLike that's exactly why I want it in Windows too.

1:05:14SPEAKER- The thing I'll say is the biometric Hello stuff

1:05:17SPEAKERis not as useful in Windows as it is in OS X

1:05:19SPEAKER'cause it's not as tightly integrated across the board.

1:05:23SPEAKERThe thing I want on the keyboard,

1:05:26SPEAKERmy drop doesn't have it,

1:05:27SPEAKERbut the key crowns often will do a dial, a knob, a knob.

1:05:32SPEAKER- Interesting.

1:05:33SPEAKER- A good knob feels real good.

1:05:35SPEAKER- It's true.

1:05:36SPEAKER- Who doesn't want a knob?

1:05:37SPEAKER- Need a good knob glide.

1:05:39SPEAKER- Exactly.

1:05:39SPEAKER- Need a good glide on your knob.

1:05:40SPEAKER- Yeah, you just want to roll your finger

1:05:43SPEAKERaround the edge of the top and watch it spin.

1:05:45SPEAKERI miss my old, what was the Mac knob that they used to sell?

1:05:52SPEAKERGriffin made a knob for the Macs.

1:05:56SPEAKERI can't remember what it was called.

1:05:57SPEAKER- What is that reading?

1:05:58SPEAKERLike what kind of input is that taking?

1:06:00SPEAKER- It's just an analog, just one axis analog.

1:06:03SPEAKERSo you can do like the Griffin one, you could map to zoom.

1:06:06SPEAKERLike it was, it had a click and you could map like zoom

1:06:10SPEAKERor like I used to use it in Photoshop

1:06:12SPEAKERand linear editors, nonlinear editors

1:06:16SPEAKERto scroll the timeline, which was awesome.

1:06:19SPEAKERBut you could click it and change the function.

1:06:20SPEAKERAnd that was, it was pretty dope.

1:06:25SPEAKERYeah, Griffin, what was the Griffin, Griffin knob?

1:06:28SPEAKERI can't, this is going to bug me.

1:06:31SPEAKERIt was called the Griffin Power Mate.

1:06:33SPEAKER- Aha.

1:06:34SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:06:35SPEAKER- I believe you can still get them.

1:06:37SPEAKER- Yeah, they still sell them.

1:06:38SPEAKER- Oh, that's a nice looking knob.

1:06:39SPEAKER- It's a good, it's like a cool aluminum knob.

1:06:42SPEAKERIt was really, really awesome.

1:06:43SPEAKERI probably have it in the garage still actually.

1:06:45SPEAKER- Microsoft has a Microsoft surface dial

1:06:48SPEAKERthat also looks quite stylish.

1:06:49SPEAKER- That only works on surfaces though, I believe.

1:06:51SPEAKER- Oh no.

1:06:52SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:06:53SPEAKER- That's unfortunate.

1:06:55SPEAKER- Sorry, everyone else.

1:06:56SPEAKER- That's highly unfortunate.

1:06:59SPEAKER- I think that's-

1:07:00SPEAKER- Oh, what?

1:07:01SPEAKER- What?

1:07:02SPEAKER- Is this a thing?

1:07:03SPEAKER- What?

1:07:04SPEAKER- I'm only looking at the Amazon listing for this.

1:07:05SPEAKERWe could just sit here and talk about

1:07:06SPEAKERdisc doohickeys all day long.

1:07:08SPEAKERAccording to this photo,

1:07:09SPEAKERit looks like you can place the dial on the screen

1:07:11SPEAKERand it will have UI pop up around the dial or the knob.

1:07:15SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:07:16SPEAKER- Well, that's cool.

1:07:17SPEAKER- Yep.

1:07:17SPEAKER- That's cool.

1:07:18SPEAKER- I don't think it works on a whole lot of stuff though.

1:07:19SPEAKER- I bet that is very tightly integrated

1:07:22SPEAKERwith the surface experience.

1:07:23SPEAKER- I think it works on Adobe as the demo I've always seen.

1:07:26SPEAKER- Okay.

1:07:27SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:07:28SPEAKER- That's neat.

1:07:29SPEAKER- I also think that's only for the big surface,

1:07:30SPEAKERbut I could be wrong.

1:07:31SPEAKERIt might work on the little ones too.

1:07:33SPEAKER- I see.

1:07:34SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:07:34SPEAKERI'm a real sucker for that kind of weird future UI stuff.

1:07:40SPEAKER- Sure.

1:07:41SPEAKER- Adobe did a stylus plus a ruler for iPads

1:07:48SPEAKERfor a long time until the pencil came out,

1:07:50SPEAKERbut the ruler would work.

1:07:52SPEAKERIt was basically a flat thing that was little

1:07:54SPEAKERand you put it on the screen

1:07:57SPEAKERand it would make an offset line

1:08:00SPEAKERthat was like a few pixels away from it.

1:08:03SPEAKERThen it would lock your drawing on the stylus too.

1:08:05SPEAKER- Wow.

1:08:06SPEAKER- It was really neat.

1:08:07SPEAKER- That's cool.

1:08:08SPEAKER- It made drawing perspective lines really easy.

1:08:09SPEAKERSo yeah, I guess that's it for today.

1:08:11SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:08:12SPEAKER- This is, yeah, I don't know, is this a topic?

1:08:18SPEAKERI feel like I learned something today.

1:08:20SPEAKER- Yeah, sure.

1:08:21SPEAKER- I'm envious of your desk though, Brad.

1:08:23SPEAKER- I know, look, it doesn't come easy.

1:08:25SPEAKER- Just to be clear, I'm not so envious

1:08:27SPEAKERthat I'm gonna spend any effort at all

1:08:29SPEAKERmaking my desk have that level of,

1:08:36SPEAKERI'm not disciplined enough to maintain your desk.

1:08:39SPEAKER- Discipline is literally the word I was about to use.

1:08:41SPEAKERIt takes work for sure.

1:08:43SPEAKERIt adds about like 10 minutes of setup before every stream.

1:08:47SPEAKERI'll say that.

1:08:48SPEAKER- Yeah, I like people to walk in and hit a button and go.

1:08:51SPEAKERLike I can turn on the stream PC and I'm ready to go.

1:08:54SPEAKER- I get it, but working out of your house,

1:08:56SPEAKERlike you need some separation, frankly.

1:08:58SPEAKERLike I need this to not look like a work desk all the time.

1:09:00SPEAKERLike sometimes when I'm not working,

1:09:02SPEAKERI just need this to look nice and tidy.

1:09:04SPEAKER- See, what if you had no separation?

1:09:06SPEAKERYou just worked all the time.

1:09:07SPEAKERThat's the other, that's the American way.

1:09:09SPEAKER- No.

1:09:10SPEAKER- No, is that bad?

1:09:11SPEAKER- You gotta push back against that.

1:09:13SPEAKER- Oh.

1:09:14SPEAKER- You got to invest in yourself.

1:09:15SPEAKER- Look, if you love your job,

1:09:16SPEAKERthen it doesn't feel like a job is what I always say.

1:09:20SPEAKERAnyway, this is a bad example.

1:09:22SPEAKERI'm a bad influence here.

1:09:23SPEAKERDon't listen to me.

1:09:24SPEAKERThis is the part of the show where we thank our Patrons.

1:09:26SPEAKER- Yeah, thank you, Patrons.

1:09:27SPEAKERI was going to say, as we transitioned to saying,

1:09:30SPEAKERthank you to our Patrons.

1:09:31SPEAKER- Thank you, Patrons.

1:09:32SPEAKER- There is the Desks and Pets channel on the Discord.

1:09:35SPEAKERIf anybody wants to, I mean,

1:09:37SPEAKERpeople will post pictures of their desks

1:09:38SPEAKERin there on the regular, but.

1:09:39SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:09:40SPEAKER- If people want to extra talk about desk strategies

1:09:44SPEAKERand techniques of all kinds,

1:09:46SPEAKERthat's a good place to do it.

1:09:47SPEAKER- I will definitely be lurking in there

1:09:49SPEAKERwith the added bonus of occasionally seeing a dog or a cat.

1:09:52SPEAKER- Why do I not hang out in Desks and Pets more?

1:09:54SPEAKERIt's like, you name that channel,

1:09:55SPEAKERI have to say it is like the best name

1:09:57SPEAKERfor a Discord channel industry-wide.

1:10:00SPEAKER- 'Cause I didn't want to have a channel

1:10:02SPEAKERthat was exclusive for people who didn't have pets, right?

1:10:05SPEAKER- Well, sure.

1:10:06SPEAKER- I'm pet-less right now.

1:10:08SPEAKER- I mean, yeah, that's fair.

1:10:09SPEAKERI mean, to me, though, what are the two types of photos

1:10:11SPEAKERthat everyone loves both posting

1:10:13SPEAKERand looking at other people's of?

1:10:15SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:10:16SPEAKERDesks and Pets.

1:10:17SPEAKERI will always look at people's desks or pets.

1:10:20SPEAKER- People have good solutions, especially,

1:10:22SPEAKERI especially, (laughs)

1:10:24SPEAKERNorm the Bulldog gets posted fairly regularly

1:10:27SPEAKERand his big flappy jowls are funny

1:10:29SPEAKERevery time when he's shaking, so.

1:10:31SPEAKER- Norm the Bulldog is an all-star.

1:10:34SPEAKER- A lot of pets right now, not a lot of desks.

1:10:37SPEAKERSo maybe I'll clean up my desk and post a good picture.

1:10:41SPEAKER- Oh man, Siridar gave his dog a straight up steak

1:10:44SPEAKERfor his birth, his or her birthday.

1:10:46SPEAKER- Wow, happy birthday.

1:10:47SPEAKER- Man, seriously. - I'm gonna stay

1:10:48SPEAKERfor my birthday.

1:10:50SPEAKERAnyway, yeah, thank you, patrons.

1:10:52SPEAKERIf you would like to support The Tech Pod,

1:10:54SPEAKERif you enjoy this show and you would like us

1:10:56SPEAKERto keep doing it, please consider joining the Patreon

1:10:59SPEAKERand joining the Discord and signing up for the Mastodon.

1:11:01SPEAKERWe have all sorts of stuff now.

1:11:03SPEAKERYou can go to patreon.com/techpod.

1:11:05SPEAKERAgain, it's patreon.com/techpod.

1:11:07SPEAKERAnd for five bucks a month, you get access to The Discord,

1:11:10SPEAKERa fabulous monthly patron-exclusive episode.

1:11:14SPEAKERYou can hang out in desks and pets as much as you want.

1:11:18SPEAKERYou can post your pets and/or your desks.

1:11:21SPEAKERYes, hello. - Oh my God.

1:11:23SPEAKERRibs posted both a desk and two pets

1:11:26SPEAKERin the exact same post.

1:11:27SPEAKER- In the same picture? - Amazing.

1:11:28SPEAKER- That's nuts.

1:11:30SPEAKERYeah, I'm just generally, I enjoy this channel a lot.

1:11:34SPEAKERI like it when people post their dogs, cats, and other.

1:11:39SPEAKER- Yeah, it's great.

1:11:40SPEAKERLet me mention real quick,

1:11:41SPEAKERif we can just pivot back to the topic for 30 seconds.

1:11:44SPEAKER- Yeah, of course.

1:11:45SPEAKER- They have an ultrawide.

1:11:46SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:11:47SPEAKER- I was gonna mention, 'cause we're both using,

1:11:49SPEAKERI'm straight up using two monitors in the kind of layout

1:11:53SPEAKERor aspect that one ultrawide would cover, right?

1:11:56SPEAKER- You're a candidate for an ultrawide, I think.

1:11:58SPEAKER- So the thing I was gonna ask about ultrawides,

1:12:00SPEAKERor the thing I like about this

1:12:02SPEAKERis that I can play a game on one monitor

1:12:03SPEAKERand not have to worry about the other monitor

1:12:05SPEAKERswitching video modes or making the Discord window obscure.

1:12:09SPEAKERHow do people handle that on ultrawides?

1:12:10SPEAKERLike, do they just go borderless window

1:12:12SPEAKERin the middle of the screen

1:12:13SPEAKERand do they still get these sides usable for other windows?

1:12:16SPEAKER- Well, no, usually it fills the whole monitor.

1:12:18SPEAKER- So that's the thing,

1:12:19SPEAKERthat I kind of always want to be able to look at a Discord

1:12:22SPEAKERor something.

1:12:23SPEAKER- Well, my ultrawide is one of the early,

1:12:25SPEAKERearly, early ultrawides,

1:12:27SPEAKERbut it let you set it up also

1:12:28SPEAKERas two independent half-res monitors.

1:12:31SPEAKER- Okay, so that's the thing I was wondering

1:12:32SPEAKERis if you could do something like that.

1:12:34SPEAKERI mean, obviously you can play a game

1:12:35SPEAKERacross the whole ultrawide if you want,

1:12:37SPEAKERbut I just, I could see all these situations

1:12:38SPEAKERwhere I would just want to do standard 16 by nine

1:12:41SPEAKERfor the game so I could see something else at the same time.

1:12:43SPEAKER- Well, and you're streaming a lot of times, too.

1:12:45SPEAKER- Yeah, there's that.

1:12:46SPEAKER- Which changes, which complicates things

1:12:47SPEAKER'cause like, ultrawide streaming is bad.

1:12:49SPEAKERYou shouldn't do that.

1:12:50SPEAKER- But, yeah, yes.

1:12:53SPEAKERBut there's even stuff like,

1:12:54SPEAKERlike I was playing Marauders.

1:12:55SPEAKERHave you played Marauders with some friends the other night?

1:12:57SPEAKER- I've watched a bunch of Marauders being played.

1:12:59SPEAKER- Man, Marauders is brutal.

1:13:01SPEAKER- Dude, I would love to play Marauders sometime.

1:13:02SPEAKERI am super, like I-

1:13:04SPEAKER- Yeah, we should play it.

1:13:05SPEAKERIt's fun.

1:13:06SPEAKER- One of my friends that I was playing with

1:13:07SPEAKERplays a lot of Tarkov, though,

1:13:09SPEAKERand he described Marauders as like arcade-style Tarkov.

1:13:12SPEAKER- That sounds perfect.

1:13:12SPEAKER- 'Cause streamlined Tarkov.

1:13:15SPEAKERAnyway, Marauders has no spectator mode.

1:13:18SPEAKERIt's in early access.

1:13:19SPEAKERMaybe they're gonna add that,

1:13:20SPEAKERbut when you die and wipe

1:13:21SPEAKERand somebody else on your team is still in,

1:13:22SPEAKERyou're just sitting at the menu doing nothing.

1:13:24SPEAKER- Well, you can like manage your inventory and stuff, right?

1:13:26SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, but you can't see what they're doing.

1:13:28SPEAKERLike, it'd be nice to watch whoever's left in your squad

1:13:30SPEAKERfinish out the round.

1:13:32SPEAKER- Yeah, that's a choice.

1:13:33SPEAKER- And so that was like, that was a situation

1:13:35SPEAKERwhere like my friend was streaming on Discord

1:13:36SPEAKERso we could see, 'cause he tended, what a surprise,

1:13:39SPEAKERthe Tarkov player tended to be the last one standing.

1:13:42SPEAKER- Weird.

1:13:43SPEAKER- But he was streaming to Discord

1:13:43SPEAKERso we could see what he was doing in the game.

1:13:46SPEAKERSo like it's useful for multiple reasons

1:13:48SPEAKERto have non-game real estate on your desk.

1:13:51SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, I often, even at work,

1:13:53SPEAKERlike when we're, either like somebody's helping me

1:13:56SPEAKERtroubleshoot something on Unreal Ed

1:13:57SPEAKERor like we're replicating a bug,

1:14:00SPEAKERwe'll often stream to Discord or teams or whatever

1:14:04SPEAKERso that people can, we have multiple eyes on the problem.

1:14:06SPEAKERIt's useful.

1:14:08SPEAKER- Anyway, that's why I tend to stick

1:14:10SPEAKERwith two discrete monitors instead of one big ultrawide.

1:14:12SPEAKER- I mean, you could just go with the vertical ultrawide.

1:14:16SPEAKERThat's my solution to this problem.

1:14:19SPEAKERGet a tall boy.

1:14:20SPEAKER- One of those three by three D&D alignment images

1:14:24SPEAKERwas going around this week except for monitor configuration

1:14:27SPEAKERon your desktop.

1:14:28SPEAKERI don't know that they had the vertical ultrawide on there.

1:14:31SPEAKERThat's--

1:14:32SPEAKER- That's chaotic evil.