00:00SPEAKER- Hey, remember that period of a few weeks earlier this year
00:02SPEAKERwhen I got way into computer security?
00:05SPEAKER- You mean, I like to think it was your secure boot phase.
00:08SPEAKER- I went real deep on signing EFI boot loaders
00:12SPEAKERand the Linux kernel and stuff like that
00:14SPEAKERto work with secure boot,
00:16SPEAKERbecause I felt I insisted that secure boot be on
00:19SPEAKERon all my computers.
00:20SPEAKER- And I remember saying, man, nobody uses secure boot.
00:23SPEAKERIt's fine, just turn it off
00:24SPEAKERand then make installing Linux easy.
00:26SPEAKER- I'm making that hand motion, you know,
00:28SPEAKERwhere you kind of polish your hand on your shirt.
00:30SPEAKER- Oh, oh, that's what that is, okay.
00:32SPEAKER- Somebody was ahead of the curve.
00:33SPEAKER- Yeah, okay, so there's some things that happened
00:36SPEAKERin the last like 15 years of computers
00:39SPEAKERand they're kind of black boxes
00:41SPEAKERand secure boot is one of those for me, right?
00:44SPEAKERLike I understand theoretically what's happening,
00:46SPEAKERbut I don't understand the impacts of how it works
00:48SPEAKERand all the BIOSes, sorry, UEFIs,
00:52SPEAKERhave different descriptions in there
00:54SPEAKERof what the settings are.
00:56SPEAKERAnd the one time I've screwed it up,
00:59SPEAKERit ended up with me reinstalling Windows
01:00SPEAKER'cause I couldn't recover the Windows install
01:04SPEAKERwith the keys that I had or something.
01:06SPEAKER- Now that part I don't get.
01:07SPEAKERA lot of the fear mongering I've been seeing,
01:08SPEAKERhang on, we should back up, point of order.
01:10SPEAKERThe reason we're even talking about secure boot
01:11SPEAKERis that the Battlefield 6 Beta is running this weekend
01:14SPEAKERand on PCs. - Which owns,
01:15SPEAKERjust for the record, it's a good one.
01:17SPEAKER- I should check that out.
01:18SPEAKER- Yeah.
01:19SPEAKER- But on PC, it requires you,
01:20SPEAKERit's level of anti-cheat requires you
01:23SPEAKERto have secure boot enabled on your PC.
01:25SPEAKERIn order to run it.
01:26SPEAKER- This is part of the new anti-cheat.
01:29SPEAKERThe next Cod, Cod Blob 7,
01:31SPEAKERis gonna have a secure boot required anti-cheat as well.
01:34SPEAKER- Same thing.
01:34SPEAKER- And I think part of the theory is
01:37SPEAKERthey want to make sure that you're not running A in a VM.
01:40SPEAKERThey wanna make sure you're not running Windows in a VM
01:42SPEAKERso then you can monkey with the state of the VM
01:44SPEAKERfrom outside the VM.
01:46SPEAKERB, that's the only thing I can think of
01:49SPEAKER'cause I don't think anybody's running
01:51SPEAKERboot level cheating programs.
01:53SPEAKER- Probably not.
01:55SPEAKERI think there's also the enabling secure boot
01:58SPEAKERalso flips onto the flag that requires signed drivers,
02:01SPEAKERwhich means that hardware hacking devices
02:04SPEAKERthat people use that are like,
02:06SPEAKERI think PCI express cards that interface with software
02:08SPEAKERand then can communicate across the system bus or something.
02:11SPEAKER- Wait, hang on, I need to stop you.
02:13SPEAKERAre you suggesting there is cheating hardware out there?
02:15SPEAKER- My understanding, there was a,
02:17SPEAKERI spent some time in the Steam forums this weekend, Brad.
02:20SPEAKER- Okay, I need to know about this.
02:22SPEAKERNot that I want to cheat,
02:24SPEAKERbut conceptually, that sounds absolutely bizarre.
02:26SPEAKER- So there was a thread,
02:29SPEAKERand I'm gonna see if I can find it,
02:31SPEAKERwhere Battlefield 6 said,
02:33SPEAKER"Hey, we wanted to share an update
02:35SPEAKERfrom our anti-cheat team on secure boot and cheats."
02:37SPEAKERAnd then they explained why they did that
02:39SPEAKERand how many people they banned, yada, yada, yada.
02:41SPEAKERAnd then the third guy responding
02:44SPEAKERis a guy named Smoke with a dollar sign as the S,
02:47SPEAKERand he has like a weird font for the M-O-K-E,
02:51SPEAKERsaid, "Again, secure boot does nothing to deal with cheats.
02:54SPEAKERAll it takes is a hundred dollar side tower
02:57SPEAKERto spoof a kernel level handshake on that rig."
02:59SPEAKER- Side tower? - Which I assume means
03:01SPEAKERyou're plugging in a DM,
03:04SPEAKERit says a cheater can buy a DMA card fuser in KM box
03:07SPEAKERfor less than a hundred bucks,
03:08SPEAKERwhich when I did some Googling
03:09SPEAKERare things you plug into another computer
03:11SPEAKERthat you plug into your gaming computer
03:13SPEAKERand let you manipulate the state of memory in the game.
03:17SPEAKER- Interesting. - Anyway.
03:19SPEAKER- Yeah, on the secure boot requires signed drivers,
03:23SPEAKERI think that might be at the discretion
03:24SPEAKERof the operating system kernel or policy.
03:27SPEAKER- I mean, I'm talking about in Windows specifically.
03:29SPEAKER- Yeah, in Windows, I'm sure that's the case.
03:31SPEAKERI think it's definitely the case in Linux
03:33SPEAKERthat if you're running secure boots,
03:34SPEAKERthen the kernel requires kernel modules to be signed as well.
03:38SPEAKER- Yeah, that makes sense.
03:39SPEAKER- Secure boot, since you asked or you said,
03:41SPEAKERyou know, it's one of those things that's like out there
03:43SPEAKERand people have heard of it
03:44SPEAKERbut don't necessarily know exactly,
03:45SPEAKERit's just a way of making sure
03:47SPEAKERthat nothing in the chain of executables
03:49SPEAKERthat have to boot when you turn a computer on
03:51SPEAKERuntil you get to an operating system login screen
03:53SPEAKERhave been tampered with.
03:54SPEAKER- Yeah.
03:55SPEAKER- So, and they do that simply by enrolling
03:57SPEAKERa set of private keys in your UEFI.
04:00SPEAKERAlso, I'm gonna take a pause here.
04:01SPEAKERThere was a point like a year or two ago
04:03SPEAKERwhere I insisted that I would never use the term UEFI,
04:06SPEAKERthat it would always be BIOS.
04:08SPEAKER- Yeah, here we are, huh?
04:09SPEAKER- Well, then I actually look into what UEFI is and does.
04:13SPEAKERAnd now it's actually, I hate saying it,
04:15SPEAKERit's a terrible acronym,
04:16SPEAKERbut I think it's like, it is so much more robust
04:19SPEAKERand it does so many more things than the old BIOS
04:21SPEAKERthat I feel like making the distinction
04:22SPEAKERwas actually useful, anyway.
04:23SPEAKER- Well, the other one was basic and now it's universal.
04:25SPEAKER- Yes, I guess it's the, but it's just hard to say.
04:28SPEAKER- UEFI, that's what we say at PC World.
04:30SPEAKER- I thought that really, I just, mm, UEFI, UEFI.
04:32SPEAKER- You could say UEFI, I guess.
04:34SPEAKER- Wait, UEFI, like Final Fantasy VII, UEFI?
04:36SPEAKER- I don't know about that.
04:37SPEAKER- Okay, if I make that connection,
04:38SPEAKERmaybe that makes sense in my brain.
04:40SPEAKER- I played, I only played the first part of Final Fantasy VII.
04:43SPEAKERI don't think there's a UEFI in that one.
04:45SPEAKER- She's the ninja character, she's an optional character.
04:47SPEAKERActually, I believe you don't have to recruit her.
04:48SPEAKERI think she is optional to get.
04:50SPEAKER- I've only gotten to the end of the first one,
04:52SPEAKERnot the second one.
04:54SPEAKER- Yeah, the real Final Fantasy VII.
04:56SPEAKER- She is very prominently the new character in Rebirth,
04:59SPEAKERalthough she actually, they introduced her in a DLC
05:01SPEAKERfor remake, but then, anyway.
05:03SPEAKER- Okay, anyway.
05:04SPEAKER- Moving on. - The point is.
05:05SPEAKER- The point is, yes, like you have keys,
05:08SPEAKERyou have private keys enrolled in your UEFI
05:10SPEAKERand then everything from the UEFI bootloader,
05:13SPEAKERthe UEFI launches that then launches the OS kernel,
05:16SPEAKERlike all of those binaries
05:18SPEAKERhave to be signed with public keys.
05:20SPEAKERSorry, other way around.
05:21SPEAKER- Private keys.
05:22SPEAKER- I'm sorry, it's other way around.
05:23SPEAKERYou have to sign them with the private key
05:25SPEAKERand then they're checked against the public key.
05:27SPEAKERYou are not wrong that secure boot implementations
05:29SPEAKERin UEFI's can be terrible.
05:31SPEAKER- Wild.
05:32SPEAKER- Can be terrible.
05:33SPEAKER- Well.
05:34SPEAKER- There are a bunch of different ways to do it.
05:35SPEAKERIn Windows, whatever, you just turn secure boot on
05:38SPEAKERin the BIOS because Windows is signed with,
05:40SPEAKERMicrosoft is a certificate authority,
05:42SPEAKERor in fact, the certificate authority.
05:44SPEAKER- Must be nice.
05:44SPEAKER- For valid secure boot keys.
05:46SPEAKERSo like every motherboard on the planet
05:48SPEAKERis going to work with Windows and secure boot.
05:49SPEAKERIn fact, I had saw people,
05:51SPEAKERa lot of the idiot fear mongering that has sprung up
05:53SPEAKERin the wake of this requirement is just like,
05:56SPEAKERI can't even wrap my head around it.
05:57SPEAKERThere's people out there go,
05:58SPEAKERoh, it hurts your performance
05:59SPEAKERor oh, you'll break your motherboard.
06:01SPEAKERLike those things are impossible.
06:02SPEAKERThat's ridiculous.
06:03SPEAKERBut turning it on in the BIOS
06:04SPEAKERis definitely can be more complicated than it should be.
06:07SPEAKERLike my motherboard, which is a nice motherboard.
06:09SPEAKERSometimes this setting doesn't stick
06:11SPEAKERfor two or three reboots.
06:12SPEAKER- That's great.
06:13SPEAKER- You just have to keep doing it over and over.
06:15SPEAKERAt one point it unenrolled,
06:17SPEAKERit cleared my custom key that I had enrolled in there
06:19SPEAKERand then it wouldn't boot either until I,
06:21SPEAKERwhen really, anyway.
06:22SPEAKER- It's Microsoft with a dollar sign
06:24SPEAKERdoing their dirty business is the way it looks like to me.
06:26SPEAKER- No, well, that one's on a series, but anyway.
06:28SPEAKER- So yeah, the problem I had when I nuked the machine,
06:32SPEAKERWindows install, I had, it's an older machine.
06:35SPEAKERIt's the 9900K machine.
06:39SPEAKERSo it was early-ish for secure boot.
06:42SPEAKERAnd I think that I nuked the keys that it was using.
06:45SPEAKERI think it was using a separate set of keys.
06:47SPEAKERI had enrolled a separate key at some point for Windows 10
06:50SPEAKERand I switched to Windows 11 and it didn't translate
06:53SPEAKERor what, I didn't change it over or something.
06:55SPEAKERAnyway, the upshot was it failed to boot
06:57SPEAKERwith a secure boot error over and over and over again
06:59SPEAKERuntil I was just like, it's just gonna be easier
07:00SPEAKERto reinstall Windows on this machine and fix this problem.
07:02SPEAKER- Wait, so you couldn't just turn secure boot off?
07:05SPEAKER- Uh-uh.
07:05SPEAKER- You should have been able to.
07:06SPEAKER- Nope, didn't work.
07:09SPEAKER- Like I said, I've had mine stick where I had to just keep
07:12SPEAKERturning it off and rebooting like two or three times
07:15SPEAKERbefore it would actually do it.
07:16SPEAKER- It's possible I had that.
07:17SPEAKERThat was a, that's a gigabyte board, I think.
07:19SPEAKERBut I, look, I spent about 20 minutes on it
07:24SPEAKERand I reached the point where I was like,
07:25SPEAKERthis is a simple machine.
07:26SPEAKERI have everything backed up.
07:27SPEAKERIt'll take me like 20 minutes to reinstall it.
07:28SPEAKERSo I'll just do that.
07:29SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:30SPEAKERThe interaction between UEFI and operating systems
07:33SPEAKERis fascinating to me.
07:34SPEAKERLike, did you know that Windows updates
07:36SPEAKERwill modify secure boot keys in your UEFI?
07:39SPEAKER- Yeah, I'm aware of that too.
07:40SPEAKERThat's how I nuked my cache to install the other day.
07:43SPEAKER- There's, there's the DB and the DBX.
07:45SPEAKERThe DB is like the good keys.
07:47SPEAKERThe DBX is the list of banned keys.
07:49SPEAKER- Whoa.
07:50SPEAKER- That is put out by like security professionals.
07:53SPEAKER- How did you get your key banned?
07:55SPEAKER- Certain keys become compromised over time.
07:58SPEAKER- Oh.
07:59SPEAKER- Like if the private key gets out there,
08:00SPEAKERthen it's useless at that point.
08:02SPEAKERLike earlier or whatever, I'm not a cryptographer,
08:05SPEAKERbut whatever, whatever part of that chain of.
08:07SPEAKER- Yeah, if your private key is no longer private,
08:09SPEAKERthen it becomes useless for cryptography, yes.
08:11SPEAKER- Or it's maybe it's like the certificate signing key
08:14SPEAKERor something, some key gets out there
08:15SPEAKERand then those keys are useless from a security standpoint.
08:17SPEAKERSo they have to be revoked.
08:19SPEAKERAnyway, like if you watch your UEFI after a Windows update,
08:22SPEAKERsometimes you'll see the number on the DBX tick up
08:24SPEAKERbecause, because Microsoft has stealth banned
08:27SPEAKERa few more secure boot keys in your UEFI.
08:29SPEAKER- Great.
08:30SPEAKER- Computing is fascinating, I find.
08:33SPEAKER- I mean, it's infinitely complex.
08:35SPEAKER- And infinitely diverse.
08:39SPEAKERSo I guess, good job.
08:41SPEAKER- Mm-hmm, good job.
08:42SPEAKER(upbeat music)
09:05SPEAKER(upbeat music)
09:10SPEAKER- Welcome to "Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod."
09:13SPEAKERI'm Will.
09:14SPEAKER- I'm Brad.
09:15SPEAKER- Hey, "Battlefield 6" though, pretty good.
09:17SPEAKERThe tanks, I laid on the back of a tank and healed a guy,
09:20SPEAKERhealed the tank while other people were shooting at me
09:22SPEAKERuntil somebody sniped me off the back of the tank
09:24SPEAKERand I was like, "Yeah, I deserve that."
09:25SPEAKER- How's it look?
09:26SPEAKER- It looks like a single player game, Brad.
09:29SPEAKERLike it's almost too much visual noise
09:31SPEAKERfor a multiplayer game.
09:32SPEAKER- Okay.
09:33SPEAKER- Like they do a thing where they put little diamonds
09:36SPEAKERon top of everybody.
09:38SPEAKERSo you can see the enemies in the field
09:42SPEAKERwhen they've been pinged by somebody on your team better
09:44SPEAKER'cause like it's noisy.
09:46SPEAKER- Interesting, like the PC version, I assume?
09:48SPEAKER- Yeah, well, I mean, it's "Battlefield."
09:51SPEAKER- Yeah, okay.
09:52SPEAKER- It's a mouse keyboard game, Brad.
09:53SPEAKER- Fair, fair.
09:54SPEAKER- I'm excited 'cause they're taking another step,
09:56SPEAKERthe old battle royale.
09:57SPEAKERAnd you know how I feel about a battle royale.
09:59SPEAKER- Wait, has "Battlefield" ever done that before?
10:01SPEAKER- They did "Firebreak" with "Battlefield 5," I think.
10:06SPEAKER- Okay.
10:06SPEAKER- Which was bad.
10:09SPEAKERAll the destructible buildings and stuff made it
10:12SPEAKERso there was no cover.
10:13SPEAKERSo that it meant whoever had a tank won the game,
10:15SPEAKERwhich, you know, like real talk, tanks win wars.
10:19SPEAKERBut battle royales, it wanted to be a little more,
10:22SPEAKERyou know, infantry-based than that, I think.
10:24SPEAKERAnyway.
10:25SPEAKER- This is 100% like modern military, real world,
10:27SPEAKERlike serious tone, like no personality at all.
10:30SPEAKER- I think it's very serious.
10:34SPEAKERJay and Silent Bob aren't there.
10:36SPEAKER- Yeah.
10:36SPEAKER- They had a King of the Hill mode,
10:37SPEAKERbut it does not feature Hank and Bobby Hill
10:39SPEAKERin their new rebooted Hulu Plus series.
10:42SPEAKER- I didn't even mean that so much as like, you know,
10:44SPEAKERat least 2142 had a little bit of a futuristic angle.
10:46SPEAKERLike the ones that are just here's present day
10:49SPEAKERmilitary technology and modern uniforms
10:52SPEAKERand it's just real life or I kinda was over that
10:57SPEAKER10 plus years ago.
11:00SPEAKER- So the weapons are all fake versions of real weapons.
11:06SPEAKERThey do have stuff, like they do have future tech
11:09SPEAKERin the like skill trees, right?
11:12SPEAKERSo like, I don't know.
11:16SPEAKERBut basically the missiles are fire and forget, aim it,
11:19SPEAKERyou have to deal with drop or lock on to air targets
11:22SPEAKERand then they can fire flares.
11:24SPEAKERThere's no like space laser or anything like that,
11:28SPEAKERif that's what you're asking.
11:29SPEAKER- I would describe this as a classic mainline battlefield.
11:32SPEAKER- Okay, all right, sure.
11:34SPEAKER- I don't know if they're using real countries.
11:35SPEAKERI haven't sussed that out yet on the,
11:38SPEAKERI keep meaning to check the load screens
11:39SPEAKERto see if they have place names
11:41SPEAKERor if they're making up fake countries in the Middle East
11:43SPEAKERso that, you know.
11:46SPEAKERBut it looks like PMC versus military is the battle,
11:49SPEAKERwhich seems ripped from the headlines.
11:51SPEAKER- It sure does.
11:52SPEAKER- Yeah, you know what else is ripped from the headlines?
11:55SPEAKER- What's that?
11:56SPEAKER- Buy-in appliances.
11:58SPEAKER- Sure.
11:59SPEAKER- I guess we have a two for a day.
12:00SPEAKER- Everybody's doing it.
12:01SPEAKERYes, this is, we're reporting a little late this week.
12:03SPEAKERWe have a two for things have been going on.
12:05SPEAKER- Yeah, I went to Super Nintendo World.
12:07SPEAKERWe're gonna talk about that and the tech that is there
12:10SPEAKER'cause they did some neat stuff and I wanna,
12:12SPEAKERI would like to compare and contrast that
12:14SPEAKERwith the Star Wars land of Batuu in Disneyland.
12:17SPEAKER- All right, that sounds fun.
12:19SPEAKER- But yeah, I wanna hear about your
12:22SPEAKERyour appliance buying adventures first.
12:26SPEAKER- I bought an appliance for the first time in my life.
12:28SPEAKERI've just never, I've rented since I became an adult.
12:31SPEAKER- You never bought a microwave oven?
12:33SPEAKER- Yeah, but I don't think I count that.
12:35SPEAKER- Okay, major appliance.
12:37SPEAKER- Anything that could be like delivered normally from Amazon
12:39SPEAKERI feel like is not in the scope here.
12:43SPEAKERI'm talking something that's too big for one person to carry.
12:46SPEAKER- Okay, that makes sense.
12:47SPEAKER- And something that you're potentially gonna have
12:48SPEAKERfor a very long time.
12:49SPEAKERAlthough, I mean, again, it's not my fridge.
12:51SPEAKERWe just rent, but our fridge randomly crapped out last week.
12:55SPEAKER- What happened to it?
12:56SPEAKER- And I didn't bother to deduce.
13:00SPEAKER- Did the freezer stay cold and the top stay?
13:02SPEAKER- Freezer stayed cold, but not cold enough.
13:06SPEAKERThe inside, okay, I'll just walk you
13:08SPEAKERthrough the whole thing.
13:09SPEAKER- Yeah, paint us a word picture, Brad.
13:11SPEAKER- The, at some point it was definitely,
13:13SPEAKERI knew it to be an older fridge.
13:15SPEAKERI'd never bothered to try to figure out how old
13:16SPEAKERuntil all this went down.
13:18SPEAKERBut the compressor like Tuesday-ish
13:21SPEAKERstarted making some noises, let's say.
13:24SPEAKER- Oh, bad noises.
13:25SPEAKER- It was making like a clicking, grinding kind of sound.
13:27SPEAKER- Yep, that'll happen.
13:29SPEAKER- Getting increasingly angrier sounding.
13:33SPEAKERAnd I just ignored it.
13:35SPEAKER- Yeah, that's what it does.
13:35SPEAKER- I was like, that's probably not great, but like.
13:38SPEAKER- This is the benefit of renting, Brad.
13:40SPEAKERIs it like, you hear a noise like that?
13:41SPEAKERI hear a noise like that, panic sets into my heart.
13:45SPEAKER'Cause I'm like, I'm about to spend a lot of money.
13:46SPEAKERYou hear a noise like that,
13:47SPEAKERyou're like, that's somebody else's problem.
13:49SPEAKER- Well, but yes, but it's both the benefit
13:51SPEAKERand the curse of renting though,
13:52SPEAKERbecause the thing I don't like is that
13:55SPEAKERthere's overhead involved.
13:56SPEAKERThere are other people in the chain
13:57SPEAKERof decision-making involved, like.
13:59SPEAKER- Oh yeah.
14:00SPEAKER- The advantage you have as a homeowner
14:01SPEAKERis that when it dies,
14:02SPEAKERyou don't have to wait for anybody else to sign off
14:04SPEAKERor wait for them to get a refrigerator ordered
14:06SPEAKERor you know what I mean?
14:07SPEAKER- Yeah, the downside is that I have to write a check.
14:09SPEAKERIt's not like I can call the bank and be like,
14:11SPEAKERhey, can I knock off two grand for a new refrigerator
14:14SPEAKERfor my mortgage payment this month?
14:16SPEAKER- Well, okay, we'll get to it.
14:17SPEAKERBut let's say the budget for our new fridge
14:19SPEAKERwas far, far lower than two grand.
14:23SPEAKER- I mean, the entry point for new fridges
14:26SPEAKERis like $1,200, $1,300 it seems like now.
14:29SPEAKER- Nope, nope, not even close.
14:30SPEAKER- Oh, okay, nevermind.
14:31SPEAKER- Not even half that.
14:32SPEAKER- Oh, you've got a hose then.
14:33SPEAKER- Oh, whatever, it's perfectly suitable for the space.
14:37SPEAKERBut it was making a bad noise.
14:41SPEAKERAnd I was like, it'll probably be fine.
14:42SPEAKERI don't want to have to deal with
14:44SPEAKERcontacting somebody about this.
14:46SPEAKER- Yeah.
14:46SPEAKER- It'll probably be fine.
14:48SPEAKERBy Wednesday night though,
14:49SPEAKERthe noise had gotten loud enough that it occurred to me.
14:51SPEAKERAnd also I had some yogurt and I was like,
14:54SPEAKERthis doesn't seem quite as cold as it used to be.
14:57SPEAKER- Uh-oh.
14:58SPEAKER- And decided to put a thermometer in there,
15:02SPEAKER55 degrees Fahrenheit.
15:03SPEAKER- That's too warm for a fridge.
15:05SPEAKER- It sure is.
15:06SPEAKER- You want your fridge to be 40-ish.
15:07SPEAKER- Yeah, so we've talked,
15:09SPEAKERwe've kind of talked weirdly a lot about food safety
15:12SPEAKERand spoilage and bacterial growth on this podcast,
15:15SPEAKERbut it's always been in a bit of a flippant manner I found.
15:18SPEAKER- Look, I have long said that every single human being
15:22SPEAKERshould have to take some aspect of microbiology
15:25SPEAKERas it pertains to food safety,
15:27SPEAKERbecause most people make some real weird assumptions
15:31SPEAKERabout what makes food go bad.
15:33SPEAKERAnd it would be really helpful
15:34SPEAKERif everybody understood the actual mechanism.
15:37SPEAKERSo then they're much less likely to poison themselves
15:39SPEAKERby leaving an egg out overnight and then eating it.
15:42SPEAKER- Yeah, oh God, I had to research how eggs are handled
15:45SPEAKERin this country and whether, anyway, we'll get to that.
15:47SPEAKERWe're stupid with eggs here just 'cause we don't like poop.
15:50SPEAKER- Yes, but now it is time to talk frankly
15:52SPEAKERand seriously about the guidance here,
15:53SPEAKERbecause I've had to do a crash course and all that stuff.
15:57SPEAKERMy assumptions were not too far off the mark,
15:59SPEAKERbut I was definitely a little bit looser
16:01SPEAKERthan the recommendations, which are,
16:05SPEAKERit needs to be below 40 Fahrenheit
16:06SPEAKERin there kind of all the time.
16:08SPEAKERThere's really not much of a grace period at all.
16:10SPEAKER- You actually want it to be,
16:12SPEAKERyou want it to be a little bit lower
16:14SPEAKERso that when you open the door and close it,
16:15SPEAKERthe recovery period takes you back to 40, not above 40.
16:19SPEAKER- Or below 40, right, like a 38 it seems like
16:22SPEAKERis what I saw is the general recommendation.
16:26SPEAKER- It depends on the fridge.
16:27SPEAKERLike our fridge, if we have it 38
16:29SPEAKERat the bottom in the front,
16:30SPEAKERthe top where the air comes out of the freezer
16:33SPEAKERwill freeze whatever's up there solid, so anyway.
16:37SPEAKER- And zero degrees Fahrenheit in the freezer,
16:40SPEAKERwhich surprised me 'cause I would think that like
16:42SPEAKERkind of anything south of the freezing point
16:44SPEAKERwould be adequate, but.
16:45SPEAKER- Again, it's about the recovery period.
16:48SPEAKERYou don't want stuff to thaw and freeze
16:49SPEAKERand thaw and freeze.
16:50SPEAKERYou want it to be cold enough that when you open the door
16:51SPEAKERand look in there for a minute, it doesn't thaw everything.
16:54SPEAKER- Yeah, so the freezer in the shitty fridge
16:57SPEAKERwas actually holding about 10.
16:59SPEAKER- Okay, so that stuff's probably fine.
17:01SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, so that's the, we'll get to it.
17:03SPEAKERThat's the only food we did not lose.
17:04SPEAKER- Okay, you probably have some mustard in there
17:07SPEAKERthat's okay, maybe pickles.
17:09SPEAKER- We saved some ketchup.
17:10SPEAKER- Okay.
17:11SPEAKER- That's about it, but whatever.
17:13SPEAKERIt's still a non-starter with the main fridge compartment
17:16SPEAKERat 55.
17:17SPEAKER- Yeah, no.
17:19SPEAKER- So long story short, I contacted the landlord
17:23SPEAKERand you tell me if this was a good move or not.
17:26SPEAKERI volunteered to handle the acquisition
17:29SPEAKERand selection of the new fridge.
17:31SPEAKER- Well, so I thought that was a good idea
17:33SPEAKERuntil a few minutes ago when you were describing
17:36SPEAKERyour budget range, which gave me pause
17:38SPEAKERbecause yeah, you're in contractor territory
17:42SPEAKERwhen you're south of two grand in San Francisco these days.
17:44SPEAKER- They were looking to come in around $600
17:47SPEAKERbefore any taxes and delivery fees.
17:51SPEAKER- Do they even sell fridges for $600?
17:53SPEAKER- Oh yeah, oh yeah.
17:54SPEAKER- Does it have an ice maker or anything?
17:56SPEAKER- No, no, this is the most zero frills price range
18:01SPEAKERcategory of refrigerator product you can imagine.
18:03SPEAKER- Did you have an ice maker before?
18:05SPEAKER- No, we didn't have any of that stuff.
18:06SPEAKER- Okay.
18:07SPEAKER- It was a very basic, I mean, it's an apartment
18:09SPEAKERand also it's a pretty small space.
18:10SPEAKERThere's a cabinet overhang that is 65 inches,
18:14SPEAKERwhich it turns out there are not a lot of upright fridges
18:16SPEAKERthat fit in that space anyway.
18:18SPEAKER- How big is this?
18:19SPEAKERIs this like an 18 cubic foot fridge?
18:21SPEAKER- It was 17.5, which is, but our old one was 15.8.
18:24SPEAKERSo this is still in that space, yeah.
18:27SPEAKER- Do you pay for electricity in your unit
18:28SPEAKERor does he pay for electricity?
18:29SPEAKER- Yes, yes, we do.
18:30SPEAKER- Did you get one that is okay?
18:32SPEAKER- It's Energy Star, we'll get to the one we got.
18:34SPEAKER- Okay, okay.
18:35SPEAKER- But I think it's a net gain overall,
18:37SPEAKERbut I went into the fridge after all this was going down.
18:41SPEAKERIt was bought in 2003.
18:43SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, fridges last a long time.
18:45SPEAKER- But yes, so like at first 2003 struck me as like,
18:48SPEAKERman, this thing is probably ready to go.
18:50SPEAKERBut then my parents' fridge, nice like upstairs fridge
18:53SPEAKERis like 25 years old.
18:55SPEAKER- So our fridge-
18:56SPEAKER- And my grandma's old fridge is in the basement,
18:59SPEAKERwhich is from well over 40 years, I think.
19:02SPEAKER- Well, so there's a time on appliances,
19:06SPEAKERespecially now as we've gotten better at making stuff
19:08SPEAKERand stuff gets a little bit more efficient,
19:11SPEAKERright up until the point at which we killed
19:12SPEAKERthe Energy Star program and the ability
19:14SPEAKERto track that stuff a few months ago,
19:17SPEAKERwhere keeping old appliances that run on electricity
19:21SPEAKERis probably costing you more than you would say,
19:23SPEAKERthan you would save.
19:25SPEAKER- That's probably true.
19:26SPEAKER- Keeping an 80s refrigerator at this point,
19:28SPEAKERA, is not gonna be,
19:29SPEAKERunless you've replaced the seals and everything,
19:31SPEAKERit's gonna be leaky, so that means it's gonna run
19:33SPEAKERall the time, it means it's gonna use a ton of electricity.
19:37SPEAKERBut, okay, so first off, I wanna share,
19:40SPEAKERI wanna like, I've been looking for a refrigerator
19:43SPEAKERfor a long time.
19:44SPEAKER- Oh.
19:45SPEAKER- The space that they made in the custom cabinetry
19:48SPEAKERin our cabinets fits like four models of refrigerator.
19:52SPEAKER- Yeah, that's kind of where we were at.
19:54SPEAKER- Yeah, it's like, damn the people to hell
19:58SPEAKERwho decided to do this.
19:59SPEAKERAnd also because our fridge is right up against the wall,
20:02SPEAKERit has to have a specific kind of hinge
20:04SPEAKERor else you won't be able to open the left side at all,
20:08SPEAKERbecause it hits the, like, if the hinge pokes out
20:11SPEAKERpast the edge of the thing,
20:12SPEAKERlike what if it was hanging out with cabinets
20:14SPEAKERon either side, it would be no problem.
20:16SPEAKERBut with the wall there, if the door opens the wrong way,
20:20SPEAKERthen the door will only open like 30 degrees
20:23SPEAKERand that is obviously bad, so.
20:25SPEAKER- Yeah.
20:26SPEAKER- Anyway.
20:27SPEAKER- Yeah, this experience, we've also got some stuff
20:28SPEAKERin the floor that limits the range of door motion here.
20:31SPEAKERThis whole experience, if and when I ever own a home,
20:34SPEAKERI think I'm sold on the, like,
20:36SPEAKERas freestanding a refrigerator as possible concept.
20:39SPEAKER- Yeah, just put it in the middle of the room.
20:40SPEAKER- Yep, that's right.
20:41SPEAKER- Just worship it.
20:44SPEAKER- All right, so this brings us to Friday
20:48SPEAKERwhen the temperature in the fridge had been above 50 degrees
20:51SPEAKERfor over two days.
20:53SPEAKER- Also, I gotta say, I'm shocked
20:55SPEAKERthat there are $600 fridges in A, I know what you pay
20:59SPEAKERfor rent and it's a little offensive
21:01SPEAKERthat he's gonna hit you for, yeah, get a $600 fridge
21:04SPEAKERwith no ice maker, water, any of that nonsense.
21:07SPEAKER- I'm of two minds on that stuff
21:09SPEAKERbecause every single person, I mean, like,
21:11SPEAKERI think almost every refrigerator I have come across ever
21:13SPEAKERthat has water and ice dispensers in it,
21:16SPEAKERone of those things is broken.
21:18SPEAKER- Like, I've had those for the last 30 years, Brad,
21:20SPEAKERand I've never had a problem with them.
21:22SPEAKER- I mean, that's a data point of one.
21:24SPEAKER- Okay.
21:25SPEAKER- Like, I am telling you, I have run
21:26SPEAKERinto so many broken ice makers in refrigerators.
21:29SPEAKERLike, I'm kind of, it's the old TV/VCR combo problem.
21:34SPEAKERLike, I don't like combining a lot of functionality
21:37SPEAKERinto one unit because the more things it can break on there,
21:40SPEAKERthe harder it gets to maintain.
21:41SPEAKER- I mean, okay, so in fairness,
21:43SPEAKERI have replaced an ice maker before,
21:45SPEAKERbut it was like a $70 part that took 15 minutes to swap out.
21:49SPEAKERSo it's not like it was a hard-
21:51SPEAKER- That's fine, but whatever, I can fill up an ice tray.
21:53SPEAKERI'm not worried about that.
21:54SPEAKER- Wow.
21:55SPEAKER- But we gotta talk about throwing out the food.
21:58SPEAKER- Yeah.
21:59SPEAKER- 'Cause it very, like I said, it very quickly became clear
22:02SPEAKERwe were not keeping anything
22:03SPEAKERthat had not been in the freezer.
22:05SPEAKER- You just put on Too Good To Go and call it a day?
22:08SPEAKER- Sure.
22:09SPEAKER- No, do you have a compost bin?
22:12SPEAKER- Yeah, there is a bin downstairs.
22:13SPEAKERIt was a scene, man.
22:16SPEAKERWe are not that far removed from our last Costco run.
22:20SPEAKER- Oh no.
22:21SPEAKER- So there were like, there were jumbo economy-sized
22:24SPEAKERcontainers of, let's see, there was a big thing of kimchi
22:28SPEAKERthat had just opened and it had like one serving from.
22:31SPEAKER- Kimchi's probably okay, actually.
22:32SPEAKER- Everything said refrigerate
22:34SPEAKERafter opening, refrigerate, refrigerate.
22:36SPEAKERLike we just decided to, we decided to go zero tolerance,
22:41SPEAKERclean slate, let's not risk it.
22:43SPEAKER- I mean, I will say having had bad food poisoning,
22:49SPEAKERit's like, yeah, also your landlord should pay
22:51SPEAKERfor replacing the food.
22:53SPEAKER- Yeah, well, we'll see how that goes.
22:55SPEAKER- Yeah.
22:57SPEAKER- Anyway, there was one point though,
23:00SPEAKERit was like a giant thing of sauerkraut,
23:01SPEAKERa giant thing of kimchi.
23:04SPEAKERGod, I'm trying to think what else.
23:05SPEAKER- A lot of fermented cabbage in your life these days,
23:06SPEAKERhuh, Brad?
23:07SPEAKER- Pickles, there was a whole thing of pickles
23:09SPEAKERthat we had barely gotten into.
23:10SPEAKER- I think pickles are probably,
23:11SPEAKERI would have kept the pickles.
23:13SPEAKER- I considered that for all of the fermented stuff,
23:15SPEAKERbut they all, the wording on all the labels
23:17SPEAKERwas direct enough that I just decided it was not worth,
23:21SPEAKERit was not worth saving the 15 to 20 bucks on that stuff.
23:24SPEAKERBut my girlfriend was handling a lot of that disposal.
23:28SPEAKERAnd at one point she just dumped all that stuff
23:30SPEAKERinto the sink.
23:31SPEAKER- Yeah.
23:32SPEAKER- And I had to take a picture of it
23:33SPEAKER'cause it looked like weirdly artistic.
23:35SPEAKER- Well, that's show art.
23:35SPEAKER- There was something weirdly artsy
23:39SPEAKERabout the look of like this giant bed of kimchi
23:42SPEAKERand then this layer of sauerkraut
23:44SPEAKERand this pile of pickles.
23:45SPEAKER- There's probably somebody on TikTok
23:47SPEAKERwho makes like portraits of people
23:49SPEAKERusing fermented cabbage dishes.
23:52SPEAKERI bet that smelled good.
23:54SPEAKER- It was pungent.
23:55SPEAKER- It was pungent from all the way down
23:57SPEAKERthe other end of the house.
23:59SPEAKER- Yeah.
24:00SPEAKER- Anyway, the food disposal was a whole thing,
24:02SPEAKERbut again, we just decided to treat it
24:03SPEAKERas kind of a clean slate.
24:04SPEAKERLet's just start over, buy all new stuff.
24:07SPEAKERSo here we are.
24:08SPEAKER- Yeah.
24:09SPEAKER- Anyway, on the fridge selection.
24:11SPEAKER- Yeah, so I was gonna say,
24:12SPEAKERlike if you had like a real budget to do this,
24:14SPEAKERI can imagine that the fridge selection
24:16SPEAKERis fraught and difficult.
24:18SPEAKERAt the budget he gave you,
24:19SPEAKERI imagine there's like three choices
24:21SPEAKERand they're all kind of crappy.
24:22SPEAKER- There were actually quite a few choices.
24:24SPEAKERAgain, it was the cabinet overhang overhead
24:26SPEAKERbeing so low that it was the actual heating factor.
24:28SPEAKER- Yep, that always sucks.
24:29SPEAKER- It was not the price
24:30SPEAKERbecause there were quite a few models
24:31SPEAKERand they were fuzzy.
24:33SPEAKERThey sent me one suggestion that was 650
24:37SPEAKERand I think they would have wiggled a little bit
24:40SPEAKERon a better model.
24:41SPEAKERBut again, what I ended up doing
24:43SPEAKERwas just filtering by height
24:45SPEAKERand that got it down to not very many models, it turned out.
24:49SPEAKER'Cause there were like so many models
24:51SPEAKERthat were like two inches too tall.
24:53SPEAKERLike it was such a small margin, but anyway.
24:55SPEAKER- A little bit dremel.
24:56SPEAKER(laughs)
24:57SPEAKER- I did look at the bottom of that overhang
24:59SPEAKERand I was like,
25:00SPEAKERI bet you can take a couple inches off that beam.
25:01SPEAKER- Yeah, it's hard to do.
25:02SPEAKERIt turns out without it looking real janky.
25:06SPEAKER- I talked to Vinny and Alex at Nexlander
25:08SPEAKERabout it a little bit
25:09SPEAKER'cause they're both homeowners
25:10SPEAKERand I got a couple of recommendations
25:12SPEAKERthat they have gotten in the past
25:14SPEAKERthat they passed along that I thought were interesting.
25:15SPEAKER- Okay.
25:16SPEAKER- The one Alex had been told
25:19SPEAKERwas focus on brands that just make appliances
25:23SPEAKERversus brands that make everything.
25:26SPEAKER- That used to be true.
25:27SPEAKERI don't know that I necessarily agree with that anymore.
25:29SPEAKER- So the brands that just make appliances
25:31SPEAKERare like Whirlpool and Maytag.
25:33SPEAKER- It's Western brands versus Eastern brands typically
25:35SPEAKER'cause the Eastern brands
25:37SPEAKERare generally vertically integrated
25:38SPEAKERacross a wide variety of industries.
25:40SPEAKER- Right, and the other category
25:41SPEAKERis stuff like Samsung and LG that makes TVs and everything.
25:45SPEAKER- So the thing about Whirlpool and Maytag
25:49SPEAKERare all owned by one company now.
25:51SPEAKER- Oh, I didn't know that.
25:52SPEAKER- So yeah, I learned this when I bought a hot water heater.
25:54SPEAKERThere was a Maytag hot water heater
25:56SPEAKERthat I thought was a nice expensive one
25:57SPEAKERand it turns out it's just a world shitty janky one
26:00SPEAKERwith the same badge on it.
26:02SPEAKER- Good to know.
26:07SPEAKER- The thing I would say is generally speaking,
26:09SPEAKERespecially if you're spending your own money,
26:10SPEAKERgo to someplace that actually sells those appliances
26:13SPEAKERlike that specializes in appliances, not Best Buy.
26:17SPEAKERAnd then I like to ask the repair guys.
26:21SPEAKERSo for example, when our fridge conked out,
26:24SPEAKERI asked the repair guy who came to fix the fridge
26:26SPEAKERwhat his favorite brand of fridge was,
26:28SPEAKERwhich ones he doesn't see.
26:30SPEAKERAnd he's like, oh, here are the ones that I like for that.
26:32SPEAKER- Kind of like which one would you buy for yourself?
26:34SPEAKER- Yeah, which one do you have?
26:35SPEAKER- Although if he recommends you one
26:37SPEAKERthat doesn't need a lot of repairs,
26:38SPEAKERthat's less repair work for him.
26:40SPEAKER- I mean, true, true.
26:43SPEAKERBut it's worked really well on the hot water heater front.
26:46SPEAKERThe hot water heater guys were like,
26:47SPEAKERyeah, don't buy these brands.
26:49SPEAKERThey're all the same thing.
26:50SPEAKERThey're just rebadged and when they have a problem,
26:51SPEAKERthey all have the same problem.
26:53SPEAKER- Yeah, we ended up with an LG
26:54SPEAKERbecause it's what fits the space.
26:58SPEAKERIt was the biggest internal capacity we could get
27:00SPEAKERthat would fit in that small height.
27:02SPEAKER- Yeah.
27:03SPEAKER- But the thing that Vinnie said he has heard
27:06SPEAKERis that these days it's the very, very cheap fridges
27:11SPEAKERand the very, very expensive ones that last forever.
27:14SPEAKERIt's the mid range.
27:15SPEAKER- I think that's probably right.
27:16SPEAKER- It's the mid range that are not too expensive
27:19SPEAKERbut have a ton of features crammed into them
27:21SPEAKERor the ones that are constantly breaking down.
27:23SPEAKER- It's the Terry Pratchett work boot theory, right?
27:26SPEAKERIf you can afford the,
27:27SPEAKERyou either buy the cheap one 50 times,
27:30SPEAKERbut I think that these days the cheap one
27:32SPEAKERis actually made for people like you who have,
27:34SPEAKERlike people who rent apartments and stuff like that
27:37SPEAKERand don't want to be hassled.
27:40SPEAKERWhereas the mid range stuff is aspirationally upgraded,
27:44SPEAKERbut kind of crappy.
27:45SPEAKERAnd the prices on that is low enough
27:47SPEAKERand I don't know what the margin is,
27:48SPEAKERbut like the number of features they pack in there,
27:50SPEAKERbut keep the price down probably means
27:52SPEAKERthat the quality of the product is lower, right?
27:55SPEAKER- Well, or so for example,
27:58SPEAKERour stove had a issue out of the gate
28:01SPEAKERwhen we bought it a few years ago
28:02SPEAKERand the repair guy came out and was like,
28:03SPEAKERyeah, I've seen a lot of these.
28:04SPEAKERThey just did, they just had cold solders on the line,
28:07SPEAKERwhich our Sony receivers had cold solders on the screens.
28:12SPEAKERAnd is that an intentional choice
28:13SPEAKERdesigned to make it last a limited period of time
28:15SPEAKERbefore you have to upgrade it?
28:16SPEAKEROr is that just somebody fucked up on the line
28:19SPEAKERand there's no way to know, right?
28:21SPEAKER- That's the old incompetence versus malice.
28:23SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, except for Sony has a real reputation
28:27SPEAKERfor doing cold solders.
28:28SPEAKERSo, you know, maybe a little from column A,
28:31SPEAKERa little from column B.
28:32SPEAKER- Yeah, sure.
28:35SPEAKER- I like this theory a lot.
28:36SPEAKERI think this one reads to me.
28:40SPEAKER- Yeah, and one thing Vinny said
28:41SPEAKERis that those super, super high end ones
28:43SPEAKERare also just fridges.
28:44SPEAKERLike those really, you know,
28:46SPEAKERwe're talking the like $7,000 fridges
28:48SPEAKERfor the wealthy or whatever,
28:49SPEAKERbut like the high end. - Sub-zeros
28:51SPEAKERand all that stuff, yeah.
28:52SPEAKER- At the high end, a lot of them
28:53SPEAKERare also just basic fridges with a bunch of frills
28:55SPEAKERbecause you just want a thing that is quality
28:57SPEAKERand does its job well.
28:58SPEAKER- So honestly, this is what's kept us
29:00SPEAKERfrom upgrading our fridge.
29:02SPEAKER'Cause like when the ice maker conked out,
29:05SPEAKERI looked at it, I was like,
29:06SPEAKERam I gonna spend 70 bucks on a new ice maker
29:07SPEAKERor am I just gonna spend 1200 on a new fridge?
29:11SPEAKERAnd then I looked at what the new fridge is,
29:13SPEAKERwhat the like 1200 to $2,000,
29:15SPEAKERI mean, what was 1200 then and now is probably two grand,
29:18SPEAKERwhat those fridges, what those fridges,
29:21SPEAKERwhat you get in those.
29:23SPEAKERAnd it's in a invariably like high complexity.
29:26SPEAKERSo we like an ice maker
29:27SPEAKERand we like water in the fridge with a filter.
29:32SPEAKERAnd getting, they moved the ice makers out of the freezers
29:37SPEAKER'cause they're less convenient.
29:38SPEAKER'Cause people wanted ice in the door.
29:42SPEAKERAnd as a result,
29:43SPEAKERyou have these really complicated ice makers
29:44SPEAKERthat either shuttle ice up from the freezer
29:47SPEAKERdown to the front,
29:49SPEAKERor it takes up all of one door with an ice maker
29:53SPEAKERthat is less efficient and prone to clogging
29:57SPEAKERand all this stuff that just sucks.
30:00SPEAKERSo-
30:00SPEAKER- Yeah, I am, like I said,
30:02SPEAKERthis is my first appliance purchase or selection process.
30:04SPEAKERI'm getting a taste of what I will be like as a homeowner.
30:07SPEAKERIt's going to be minimalism and modularity all the way.
30:11SPEAKERLike it's just going to be everything.
30:13SPEAKERIt's going to be the Unix philosophy applied to a house.
30:16SPEAKERLike every tool has one job and it needs to do it well.
30:19SPEAKER- Well, so I think you can get,
30:21SPEAKERI mean, I think there are still good appliances
30:23SPEAKERin these categories.
30:24SPEAKERI think the problem is you're not gonna find them at Best Buy.
30:27SPEAKERYou're not gonna find them at Lowe's and Home Depot,
30:29SPEAKERreally in my experience.
30:31SPEAKERSo like washing machines and dryers are fine
30:33SPEAKERto get at Home Depot and Lowe's.
30:36SPEAKERLike I think actually we bought ours at Best Buy
30:37SPEAKER'cause they had a deal and they price matched.
30:42SPEAKERI like buying something like a fridge
30:44SPEAKERthat's gonna stick with me for 20 years,
30:47SPEAKERsomeplace that will swap it out for a different one
30:49SPEAKERif I don't like it when I get there.
30:51SPEAKER'Cause the other big problem with a lot of this stuff
30:53SPEAKERis that the user interface choices,
30:55SPEAKERand I don't mean software,
30:56SPEAKERI mean like how you interact with the device,
30:59SPEAKERyou're not going to realize, annoy the shit out of you
31:01SPEAKERuntil it's too late if you buy it at Best Buy.
31:04SPEAKER- There's already like three things about this one
31:06SPEAKERthat are like slightly more annoying than the old one,
31:07SPEAKERbut there are enough upsides to it that I'm calling it.
31:11SPEAKERAt least a breakeven if not a net gain.
31:14SPEAKER- Well, more space is good, yeah.
31:16SPEAKER- It's got more space,
31:17SPEAKERbut like the top shelf is weirdly limited
31:19SPEAKERand can't be adjusted.
31:20SPEAKERSo our big, like you said,
31:21SPEAKERwe also like to keep a big water filter
31:23SPEAKERpitcher thing in there.
31:25SPEAKERThat thing no longer fits on the top shelf,
31:27SPEAKERwhich is a real bummer.
31:28SPEAKER- Yeah, if you've got a fridge with water in it,
31:30SPEAKERyou'd not have this problem.
31:31SPEAKER- I suppose that's the case maybe.
31:33SPEAKER- So before people write in and tell me
31:36SPEAKERthat the water pipe to their fridge burst
31:39SPEAKERand it caused them to flood their house,
31:40SPEAKERI know it happens, I'm fine taking that risk.
31:44SPEAKER- Yes, the biggest net gain, I'll just say it now,
31:48SPEAKERjust got a few more points to get through here,
31:49SPEAKERbut it is so much quieter than the old one.
31:52SPEAKERAnd I think you've been in our apartment before, right?
31:55SPEAKERLike our kitchen and our living room are directly adjacent
31:58SPEAKERand there's not a door, it's like they had cut the wall out,
32:00SPEAKERit's just completely open.
32:02SPEAKERSo the fridge is open air 15 feet away from me
32:05SPEAKERwhen we're watching TV, playing games, whatever.
32:09SPEAKERAnd even before the old fridge started getting very angry,
32:12SPEAKERit was pretty loud when the compressor kicked on.
32:14SPEAKER- Maybe that was a warning sign in retrospect.
32:16SPEAKER- Maybe, cannot even hear this thing from the couch.
32:19SPEAKERI literally, when it's running, cannot even hear it.
32:20SPEAKERLike that alone is, yeah, that's a huge gain.
32:25SPEAKERAnyway, I'll get to the last bit
32:29SPEAKERof the selection stuff here.
32:31SPEAKERIt is an energy star and so that helps I'm sure
32:35SPEAKERwith the efficiency and the noise and stuff like that.
32:37SPEAKERI got really excited though, once I was granted some agency
32:40SPEAKERto pick this thing out myself within a budget.
32:42SPEAKER- Okay.
32:43SPEAKER- Because I've been kind of fascinated with the phenomenon
32:45SPEAKERof the bottom freezer drawer.
32:47SPEAKER- So we have a bottom freezer drawer
32:49SPEAKERand I have mixed feelings about it, but go on.
32:51SPEAKER- Yeah, so that's what I found
32:52SPEAKERwhen I started looking into them.
32:54SPEAKERI mean, first of all, I found that there were zero models
32:57SPEAKERavailable that fit within our tight budget.
32:59SPEAKER- Yeah, that's an upgrade feature at this point.
33:01SPEAKER- Yes, that clearly was, I've quickly realized
33:04SPEAKERthat has been positioned as a luxury add-on.
33:07SPEAKER- It also has more parts because the freezer on top
33:10SPEAKERhas, there has to be an impeller in the bottom ones
33:15SPEAKERto get cold air from the freezer to the fridge.
33:17SPEAKER- So this goes back to my minimalism
33:19SPEAKERis that now that I've actually read about this,
33:20SPEAKERI think that my dreams of bottom freezer
33:24SPEAKERhave been dashed for all time.
33:26SPEAKERBecause there are, I mean, it literally is less efficient.
33:29SPEAKERLike you're gonna use more electricity.
33:30SPEAKERThe top freezer is common for a reason,
33:35SPEAKERnot just 'cause it's cheaper to make.
33:36SPEAKERLike it's actually more efficient to operate the fridge.
33:40SPEAKERI looked it up, the Department of Energy says
33:42SPEAKERthat classic top freezer models are 10 to 25%
33:45SPEAKERmore energy efficient than bottom freezer.
33:48SPEAKER- That's crazy.
33:49SPEAKER- Which is kind of a lot.
33:51SPEAKERI wasn't, I couldn't find definitively the reason for that.
33:54SPEAKERI found a couple of suggestions.
33:56SPEAKEROne suggestion I found is that there is a more natural
33:59SPEAKERconvection cycle of warm and cold air flowing
34:02SPEAKERin the top freezer.
34:03SPEAKERBut I think those compartments are air tight.
34:06SPEAKERSo like-
34:07SPEAKER- No, no, no.
34:08SPEAKERThe air moves from the freezer-
34:10SPEAKER- Are the freezer and fridge connected?
34:11SPEAKER- The way the fridge is cooled is there's a fan that moves
34:14SPEAKERor there's a system that moves air from the cold freezer
34:17SPEAKERto the refrigerator.
34:21SPEAKERAnd it maintains the temperature by cycling the amount
34:23SPEAKERof air that's allowed in and out.
34:25SPEAKERBut on the, because cold, because heat rises-
34:28SPEAKER- Yeah, 'cause cold air, the cold air from the freezer
34:30SPEAKERsinks into the fridge compartment.
34:31SPEAKER- Naturally sinks.
34:32SPEAKER- Yeah, the problem is on the downhill ones,
34:34SPEAKERyou have to have some sort of mechanism that brings air
34:36SPEAKERfrom the cold bottom to the top.
34:38SPEAKER- Yep, and that's just another thing to break.
34:39SPEAKERSo I guess I'll never have one.
34:41SPEAKER- I will tell you on our fridge that did break
34:43SPEAKERabout 10 years after we bought the house.
34:45SPEAKERAnd it cost, it was a classic $25 part hour of labor,
34:51SPEAKER$400 worth of food that was ruined
34:54SPEAKERbecause the fridge got warm and we didn't realize it
34:56SPEAKERuntil we had a similar warm yogurt moment.
34:59SPEAKER- No, thank you.
35:01SPEAKERI also, I read elsewhere that it may also have to do
35:03SPEAKERwith the placement of the compressor
35:05SPEAKERthat on the top freezer models, the compressor is farther
35:07SPEAKERaway from the refrigerated compartments.
35:10SPEAKER- Oh, that makes sense.
35:11SPEAKERAnd on these it's below where it's gonna heat up probably.
35:14SPEAKER- Right, because compressors generate heat, right?
35:17SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:18SPEAKER- So anyway, no more, no more, no more bottom freezer.
35:22SPEAKER- So what I will say having had one of these bottom freezers
35:26SPEAKERfor like 10 years, we were side by side people
35:27SPEAKERfor years and years, which I quite like.
35:29SPEAKER- Yeah, that's what my parents have.
35:31SPEAKER- The bottom freezer lets you hold a lot more stuff
35:35SPEAKERin your freezer and make it more accessible
35:37SPEAKERif you're like, for example, when we make a soup
35:41SPEAKERor something and freeze it, we put it into freezer bags
35:44SPEAKERand lay them out flat so they freeze like hanging files.
35:48SPEAKER- Sure.
35:49SPEAKER- And then they go in there.
35:50SPEAKERIt's an enormous pain in the ass
35:51SPEAKERif you have a lot of frozen vegetables.
35:53SPEAKERSo like we have frozen peas and stuff like that in there
35:55SPEAKERor like smoothie frozen stuff and those bags just
36:00SPEAKERlike become amorphous blobs in the basket at the bottom.
36:06SPEAKERI would much rather have this side by side
36:08SPEAKERif I were doing it again.
36:09SPEAKERThis is one of the reasons, like I keep waiting.
36:11SPEAKEROne of the problems we have is because of where the wall is,
36:15SPEAKERthe side by side absolutely will not work
36:18SPEAKERbecause of the hinges hitting the doors
36:20SPEAKERand then the wall and all that stuff.
36:22SPEAKERSo anyway, I keep hoping somebody's gonna make a better
36:25SPEAKERside by side hinge, but yeah, I like the fridge on top.
36:31SPEAKERThe fridge on top is incredibly convenient
36:33SPEAKERwhen you're in there looking for stuff
36:35SPEAKERwhen you're pulling stuff out.
36:38SPEAKERIt's funny 'cause our fridges from the time
36:40SPEAKERbefore they started adding all the electronic crap
36:42SPEAKERto the fridges, so like the bonus features for us
36:46SPEAKERare like pull out drawers, pull out shelves.
36:51SPEAKERSo like you can grab the shelf and pull it out.
36:56SPEAKERIt's not, I don't know, it's weird.
37:00SPEAKERThe newer ones are much weirder, I think.
37:02SPEAKER- Yeah, I could see that.
37:03SPEAKER- And then you get like all this weird electronic crap
37:04SPEAKERthat you really don't need.
37:06SPEAKER- I don't know that there are any circuit boards
37:07SPEAKERin this one.
37:08SPEAKERI mean, there's probably something-
37:09SPEAKER- There are, yeah.
37:09SPEAKER- There's probably something very basic, but very basic.
37:11SPEAKER- Probably no IC.
37:13SPEAKER- Okay, a couple other things real quick.
37:15SPEAKERI mean, this is common to anybody who buys things online,
37:19SPEAKERI guess these days, but appliances I feel like
37:20SPEAKERare an extreme example.
37:22SPEAKERSifting through reviews for this was a complete mess.
37:25SPEAKER- Well, part of the problem, the big problem
37:27SPEAKERis there's no skews.
37:28SPEAKERSo we looked at this when we started testing.
37:31SPEAKERLike Maytag and Whirlpool make separate skews
37:33SPEAKERof the exact same refrigerator-
37:35SPEAKER- For different retailers.
37:36SPEAKER- With slightly different fascia on it.
37:37SPEAKEROr Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart,
37:41SPEAKERall the places you can buy fridges.
37:42SPEAKER- Yep.
37:44SPEAKER- And it means that it's really, really hard to do reviews
37:47SPEAKERbecause you can't often tell that they're the same part.
37:50SPEAKER- And it's so that Home Depot can say,
37:54SPEAKERoh yeah, we price match everything.
37:56SPEAKERAnd then there's nothing to price match against
37:57SPEAKER'cause it's all different skews.
37:59SPEAKER- Good stuff.
38:00SPEAKER- Great.
38:01SPEAKER- I went to Consumer Reports.
38:03SPEAKERThey wanted a subscription to show the review
38:05SPEAKERfor this refrigerator, but it was very unclear to me
38:08SPEAKERbased on the way they blurred the page out,
38:09SPEAKERwhether a human had even done a test on this refrigerator.
38:13SPEAKERIt kind of looked like what was being blurred out
38:15SPEAKERwas really not much more than the manufacturer's specs.
38:19SPEAKER- So my experience when I buy,
38:21SPEAKERI don't actually know how well
38:23SPEAKERthey cover this part of the market.
38:26SPEAKERI know that when you're buying,
38:28SPEAKERif you're spending 2,000,
38:29SPEAKERlike when I bought hot water heaters and stuff like that,
38:31SPEAKERwhen I've had to spend a couple of grand on an appliance,
38:33SPEAKERI usually shell out for a month or two of Consumer Reports
38:37SPEAKERbecause they're generally pretty good.
38:38SPEAKERAnd even if they don't have a review of a particular model,
38:41SPEAKERthey'll have reviews of other models from that vendor,
38:43SPEAKERwhich kind of gives me a read on the situation.
38:48SPEAKER- I will say, I think Consumer Reports is really good
38:50SPEAKERat the kind of speeds and feeds side of reviewing,
38:55SPEAKERlike how energy efficient is it?
38:56SPEAKERHow much space does it have?
38:57SPEAKERDoes it have like convenient features,
39:00SPEAKERlike the pullout shelves or adjustable shelves
39:02SPEAKERor stuff like that?
39:03SPEAKERI don't think they're particularly good
39:04SPEAKERat user experience stuff.
39:06SPEAKERSo like, for example, we bought a toaster oven one time,
39:09SPEAKERI looked at the Consumer Reports review of it
39:11SPEAKERand they were like, oh yeah, we absolutely love this.
39:13SPEAKERAnd then I got it and it was the user interface
39:16SPEAKERfor the thing was unintelligible to humans.
39:19SPEAKERAnd I was like, did you guys try to make a piece of toast
39:21SPEAKERin this thing?
39:22SPEAKER'Cause I'm a reasonably smart person
39:24SPEAKERand I can't figure it out.
39:25SPEAKERSo we took that one back and got a different one.
39:27SPEAKER- All right.
39:28SPEAKERYeah, if it had been my fridge and my house,
39:30SPEAKERI probably would have shelled out for the sub.
39:32SPEAKERBut also again, it didn't look like they had done a review.
39:34SPEAKERAnd I think, like you said,
39:36SPEAKERthey probably are not covering this segment
39:38SPEAKERof the market very intensively.
39:41SPEAKER- I don't know, like I kind of wonder,
39:42SPEAKER'cause I feel like this is like the contractor side
39:45SPEAKERof the market, right?
39:46SPEAKERAnd I feel like those people do a lot of volume
39:51SPEAKERand maybe, like, I don't know.
39:52SPEAKERI'd be curious to find out.
39:55SPEAKERLike I said, I don't really look at this.
39:57SPEAKERI think of this as like a garage fridge, right?
40:00SPEAKER- So we're getting to that, this thing is absolutely,
40:02SPEAKERthis is literally labeled as a garage ready fridge,
40:05SPEAKERwhich I think might have some implications
40:06SPEAKERon the thermodynamics of it.
40:08SPEAKERAnd looking at user reviews,
40:10SPEAKERabsolutely the majority of people I think I saw
40:13SPEAKERwere using it as a garage fridge.
40:14SPEAKER- Guys, let's put the beer.
40:16SPEAKER- Yeah, that's right.
40:17SPEAKERBut, man, having a garage and hanging out in your garage
40:21SPEAKERand drinking a beer in your garage sounds pretty good.
40:25SPEAKERAnyway.
40:25SPEAKER- Yeah, most of the guys I know that do that
40:26SPEAKERin my neighborhood don't seem particularly happy though.
40:28SPEAKERSo maybe, you know.
40:30SPEAKER- Fair, maybe not something to aspire to.
40:34SPEAKERI went through a lot of user reviews on Lowe's
40:36SPEAKERand Home Depot and that's by places that had them
40:39SPEAKERand on LG sites, like the phenomenon of-
40:41SPEAKER- Oh, I love that.
40:42SPEAKER- Phenomenon of user reviews on the site made by the company
40:47SPEAKERthat makes the product is just often weird.
40:49SPEAKERThey're all five stars.
40:50SPEAKER- Is that a, oh really?
40:53SPEAKERI guess if you like a fridge enough to go
40:56SPEAKERto the manufacturer's website and leave a review,
40:58SPEAKERyou either really love it or really hate it.
41:00SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know.
41:01SPEAKERI guess they're legitimate.
41:03SPEAKERBut I can't remember which one of those retailers it was.
41:06SPEAKERIt might've been Home Depot.
41:08SPEAKERA lot of the reviews were marked as influencer reviews
41:11SPEAKERor part of some like pilot.
41:13SPEAKERI can't remember how they phrased it.
41:15SPEAKERIt was part of some like pilot promotional influencer
41:17SPEAKERtype of program or something.
41:18SPEAKERI mean, to their credit, I think all three of those sites
41:22SPEAKERdid mark legitimate purchases, verified purchases.
41:24SPEAKERSo you could filter by. - That's good.
41:26SPEAKER- You could see who had actually just paid for the thing
41:28SPEAKERand reviewed it.
41:29SPEAKER- Who's doing influencer reviews of garage fridges?
41:32SPEAKER- I can't remember exactly what the wording was on that,
41:34SPEAKERbut it was enough to make me think those reviews were maybe,
41:37SPEAKERyou know, it's kind of like the Amazon reviews
41:40SPEAKERor even the Steam user reviews that are marked like,
41:43SPEAKERoh, received as promotional product or whatever.
41:45SPEAKER- Yeah, Amazon has been seeding reviews
41:48SPEAKERwith some like prime reviewers for years and years now.
41:52SPEAKER- Yeah, and one of those retailers had the same user reviews
41:56SPEAKERfrom the LG site and mixed in.
41:57SPEAKERAnd at least again, they were labeled as
42:00SPEAKERfrom the manufacturer's site,
42:01SPEAKERbut I thought that was another weird way to muddy up.
42:04SPEAKER- Look, man, the home warehouse business is wild.
42:07SPEAKER- Really, that's the impression I was getting.
42:09SPEAKERAnyway, we'll wrap this up.
42:10SPEAKERBut yeah, so that LG we got is labeled as garage ready,
42:14SPEAKERwhich I got the sense means it's rated to perform
42:18SPEAKERin higher ambient temperature.
42:20SPEAKER- It could be that it works
42:22SPEAKERwithin a wider range of temperatures.
42:24SPEAKERIt could be that it's noisier.
42:25SPEAKERIt could be that it doesn't work well
42:27SPEAKERin a cabinet in an enclosed space.
42:30SPEAKERI think it's probably just marketing though,
42:32SPEAKERthat they're saying, hey, this is a fridge
42:33SPEAKERyou can put in your garage 'cause it's cheap.
42:35SPEAKER- Well, part of that description said it's rated to work
42:38SPEAKERin an ambient temperature up to a hundred Fahrenheit.
42:40SPEAKER- I think that's probably normal fridge though, Joe.
42:42SPEAKER- Some of the reviews, some of the user reviews
42:44SPEAKERmaybe disagree with that part a little bit, but I-
42:47SPEAKER- It's been a hundred degrees in my house
42:48SPEAKERwhen we've had a bad heat wave before.
42:50SPEAKER- Yeah, and then last thing, this is,
42:54SPEAKERI'm sure old hat for anybody who's ever bought a fridge.
42:55SPEAKERI was surprised that it takes,
42:57SPEAKERthey said it takes 24 hours for it to be fully cold.
43:00SPEAKER- Yeah.
43:01SPEAKER- Because I have a thermometer in there
43:02SPEAKERand like literally this thing seems very powerful.
43:04SPEAKERThat for like two hours, the freezer was reading minus 10.
43:08SPEAKER- Well, yeah, but they-
43:09SPEAKER- But there's nothing in there.
43:10SPEAKER- The other stuff has to cool down and then, yeah.
43:13SPEAKER- So is that, I was wondering,
43:14SPEAKERis that that the actual like structure of the fridge
43:17SPEAKERhas to get cold as well?
43:18SPEAKER- I think you're probably the first person
43:19SPEAKERwho's ever read those instructions, Brad.
43:21SPEAKER- Well, the delivery guys also like stressed
43:23SPEAKERon the way out the door.
43:24SPEAKERThey're like, hey, it's 24 hours
43:25SPEAKERbefore it'll be all the way cold.
43:27SPEAKER- Oh, there you go.
43:28SPEAKERThere's mass, it has mass.
43:30SPEAKER- Right, like it's not that I'm worried about it.
43:31SPEAKERI'm just curious what the physics of that are.
43:33SPEAKERLike, I just like knowing how things work
43:35SPEAKERand why they are the way they are.
43:36SPEAKERI wondered if that meant that like parts
43:38SPEAKERof the actual structure of the fridge
43:40SPEAKERhad to reach equilibrium.
43:42SPEAKER- Is your thermometer metal?
43:43SPEAKER- It is metal.
43:44SPEAKER- Yeah, so the inside of the fridge is plastic, right?
43:48SPEAKER- Yes.
43:49SPEAKER- So metal conducts heat.
43:50SPEAKERSo the air to metal interface is gonna be way better
43:53SPEAKERthan the air to plastic interface is my guess.
43:55SPEAKER- Of course, okay.
43:56SPEAKER- Yeah.
43:57SPEAKER- Good to know, all right.
43:58SPEAKER- But you need a steel refrigerator
44:00SPEAKERso then it cools down real fast.
44:02SPEAKERAnd if you lick it, you'll stick to it.
44:03SPEAKER- Okay, anyway.
44:06SPEAKER- Yeah.
44:07SPEAKER- I'm excited to have a refrigerator again.
44:08SPEAKEREating out for every meal actually
44:09SPEAKERis not all it's cracked up to be.
44:11SPEAKER- No, it sucks.
44:12SPEAKER- Yeah.
44:13SPEAKER- It's bad for you.
44:14SPEAKER- I bet you ate out a lot at Super Nintendo World.
44:17SPEAKER- So yeah, we went to Universal Hollywood,
44:21SPEAKERwhich is like a small theme park
44:24SPEAKERon the side of the North Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.
44:27SPEAKERWe were down in Los Angeles for something else
44:29SPEAKERand had an extra day and we were like,
44:31SPEAKERhey, I wanna see Super Nintendo World,
44:33SPEAKERwhich is the new addition to Universal's host
44:36SPEAKERof theme parks, I guess.
44:40SPEAKERThat's the place where they have the Harry Potter world.
44:42SPEAKERThey have some Simpsons stuff.
44:45SPEAKERThey have Jurassic Park rides.
44:48SPEAKERIt's where Back to the Future used to be
44:50SPEAKERbefore they got rid of that rip.
44:53SPEAKERAnd the famous The Waterworld,
44:55SPEAKERfamously The Waterworld show is there
44:56SPEAKERwith the jet skis and the fire.
44:58SPEAKERYeah, I still haven't been.
44:59SPEAKER- Nobody else in my family has any interest
45:02SPEAKERin going to see The Waterworld show.
45:03SPEAKERSo I get hosed out of going every time.
45:05SPEAKER- Did I hear, I should look this up.
45:07SPEAKERAfter we did Waterworld for the Next Lander WatchCast
45:10SPEAKERlast fall, I will always remember it
45:13SPEAKERbecause it was the night of the election.
45:15SPEAKER- Oh God, that's grim.
45:16SPEAKER- Which anyway, I thought I might've read
45:19SPEAKERafter we did that WatchCast and I was googling around
45:22SPEAKERthat that Waterworld attraction is like insanely popular.
45:25SPEAKER- It fills up every time.
45:26SPEAKER- Yeah.
45:27SPEAKER- Yeah, you have to get in line for it.
45:28SPEAKERFor all of the iffy reputation of the movie
45:31SPEAKERthat that attraction is like actually one
45:33SPEAKERof their most successful things.
45:34SPEAKER- All I know is every time I've been there,
45:36SPEAKERoccasionally you see a big flare go up,
45:39SPEAKERwhich I assume is the smokers seeing the swimmer.
45:44SPEAKER- Are they doing like smokers and makeup and everything?
45:46SPEAKER- I assume that they have Dennis Hopper's
45:48SPEAKERanimated corpse there.
45:50SPEAKER- Man.
45:51SPEAKER- But yeah, they jumped jet skis through rings of fire
45:54SPEAKERin a giant tank, Brad.
45:55SPEAKERWhy would I not want to see that?
45:56SPEAKERI might have to put that on my list anyway.
45:58SPEAKER- If you want to go sometime,
45:59SPEAKERlet me know, I'll totally go down with you.
46:00SPEAKERSo.
46:01SPEAKER- I'm having a word trip in the Ionic.
46:03SPEAKERI'm gonna see if that thing goes on a, okay, anyway.
46:05SPEAKER- Okay, so hold on, side note.
46:07SPEAKERWe drove, this is the first time we've done a long,
46:09SPEAKERlike more than one charge drive with the Ionic.
46:11SPEAKER- Oh, I thought you had done LA trips.
46:14SPEAKER- I haven't been to LA since we got that car really.
46:16SPEAKERNo, I've been down to the Valley a few times,
46:19SPEAKERwe went to Tahoe, but we charged, we left full,
46:25SPEAKERcharged at Harris Ranch, which is basically
46:27SPEAKERthe halfway point, and we got all the way to Santa Clarita
46:30SPEAKERand had enough charge to get there with like 10%
46:33SPEAKERto the hotel with 10% left.
46:36SPEAKER- Okay, now.
46:36SPEAKER- And then I had to pee, so we stopped at Walmart
46:38SPEAKERand charged and peed for like five minutes,
46:40SPEAKERbut that was it.
46:41SPEAKER- Was that getting white knuckle on the charge?
46:43SPEAKER- No.
46:44SPEAKER- When you were approaching 10%?
46:45SPEAKER- No.
46:45SPEAKER- That's a calculation of are we going to really
46:47SPEAKERscrew ourselves if we try to push this?
46:49SPEAKER- 10% is 30 miles.
46:50SPEAKERSo I did, I called the hotel to make sure they had chargers
46:54SPEAKERbecause if they didn't have like L2 chargers there,
46:56SPEAKERI would have stopped and put more juice in it,
46:59SPEAKERso I didn't have to fool with it the next day,
47:01SPEAKERbut yeah, no, it was good.
47:03SPEAKER- How long did you have to charge at Harris Ranch?
47:05SPEAKER- We charged for 25 minutes, I think.
47:08SPEAKERLike we had stopped and picked up some food,
47:11SPEAKERthe kiddo went and sat and ate at a picnic bench,
47:13SPEAKERI went to the barbecue place across the street,
47:15SPEAKERgrabbed a barbecue sandwich, ate half of that,
47:17SPEAKERand we were ready to go.
47:18SPEAKER- All right.
47:19SPEAKER- Yeah, it was good.
47:20SPEAKER- Sounds okay.
47:21SPEAKER- It was good.
47:23SPEAKER- Okay, so Universal Studios.
47:26SPEAKERIt's also worth mentioning, they have the studio tour there,
47:29SPEAKERwhich is where you get on the studio tour bus,
47:31SPEAKERlike you're going to drive around the back lots
47:32SPEAKERand they drive around the back lots a little bit
47:34SPEAKERand then it turns out to be a fucking awesome ride.
47:36SPEAKER- I like the thing from the wizard.
47:38SPEAKER- I don't know, I've never seen the wizard.
47:40SPEAKER- You're probably good, actually.
47:42SPEAKERWe did that for the watch cast as well,
47:44SPEAKERand man, talk about movies that don't hold up.
47:46SPEAKER- Is that the Fred Savage Nintendo one?
47:47SPEAKER- Yes, that's the Fred Savage road trip across the country
47:50SPEAKERto the Nintendo World Championship movie.
47:52SPEAKER- Oh man.
47:53SPEAKER- It's bad.
47:54SPEAKER- Oh, that sucks.
47:55SPEAKERBut yeah, so you ride the cart and you see young
47:59SPEAKERPeter Jackson talking about King Kong and also,
48:01SPEAKERanyway, it's good, it's a good ride.
48:05SPEAKERSo Super Nintendo World, you walk into,
48:08SPEAKERit's down in the lower lot, down near the sound stages,
48:12SPEAKERand you kind of walk around a corner and you see
48:16SPEAKERa tunnel, a pipe, and like Mario Brothers Hills,
48:20SPEAKERand you walk through the pipe and there's a bunch
48:22SPEAKERof lights and stuff, and then later in the day
48:23SPEAKERwhen it's really hot and people are looking for shade,
48:25SPEAKERthere's a bunch of people sitting around the edges of it,
48:28SPEAKERkind of just enjoying shade and stale air in there
48:30SPEAKERwith everybody else, and then you turn a corner
48:33SPEAKERand there's like Mario 64 pictures that you could,
48:39SPEAKERI mean, they look like you could jump into.
48:41SPEAKERWhen you try and jump into them, it doesn't work,
48:44SPEAKERbut they change and they have the pictures of the ba-bam,
48:48SPEAKERbig ba-bam on the hill and all this other stuff,
48:51SPEAKERand then you turn another corner and it's like
48:53SPEAKERyou're in a Super Mario Brothers game.
48:57SPEAKERLike how thoroughly, like how extensive
48:59SPEAKERare the decorations?
49:01SPEAKERYou can't see any, there's a couple places
49:04SPEAKERwhen you're in there that you can see a couple
49:06SPEAKERof high-rise skyscrapers poking out,
49:08SPEAKERbut the rest of it, you can't see anything.
49:11SPEAKERSo you see a hill that looks like a vertical
49:16SPEAKERSuper Mario Brothers 3 level with piranha plants
49:19SPEAKERand cactus guys and koopas and all,
49:24SPEAKERthere's keys all over the place.
49:27SPEAKERI guess those are Super Mario Brothers 3 keys, I guess.
49:30SPEAKER- Keys.
49:31SPEAKER- The circle with the key in it.
49:33SPEAKER- Circle with the key in it?
49:35SPEAKER- Yeah, it's like a pickup you get sometimes.
49:36SPEAKERYou usually have to collect multiples to do something.
49:39SPEAKER- I was thinking about the Mario 2 keys,
49:40SPEAKERbut that doesn't sound like-- - It's not the Mario 2 key,
49:42SPEAKERno, no. - Yeah, okay.
49:43SPEAKER- There's Mario 2 representation at all here.
49:45SPEAKER- Yeah, I know, that theme.
49:47SPEAKER- I didn't see any Shy Guys.
49:48SPEAKERThat game does not get its due.
49:50SPEAKER- Birdo, Birdo erasure will not stand.
49:52SPEAKER- Is it possible to color asphalt,
49:55SPEAKERor I don't know if that's what they're putting down there,
49:58SPEAKERbut it seems like-- - You can paint it,
49:59SPEAKERbut this is like a treated floor surface.
50:01SPEAKERIt looks like bricks and stuff.
50:03SPEAKER- Oh, so they do make it.
50:04SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah.
50:05SPEAKEROh yeah, it is incredibly well done.
50:10SPEAKERThere's much like the shade things are mushrooms,
50:13SPEAKERlike toadstool mushrooms.
50:17SPEAKERThere's mini games throughout,
50:19SPEAKERso I guess we have to start out
50:22SPEAKERby saying the first thing they do
50:23SPEAKERwhen you're going to Nintendo World,
50:25SPEAKERthey don't really hit you over the head with it,
50:26SPEAKERbut if you do your homework,
50:27SPEAKERyou're like, "You should get amiibo wristbands."
50:30SPEAKER- Oh, is that optional?
50:31SPEAKER- You don't have to get 'em,
50:33SPEAKERbut they're 50, 45 bucks a pop pop, I think,
50:36SPEAKERand they're slap bracelets with amiibos in 'em,
50:38SPEAKERand you can get 'em in Mario.
50:41SPEAKERThere's two Mario flavors.
50:42SPEAKERThere's a red Mario and then a gold Mario.
50:45SPEAKERThere's a Daisy, a Peach, and a Yoshi, maybe a Luigi,
50:50SPEAKERbut no Waluigi, no,
50:52SPEAKERlike Daisy is the farthest off character you get access to.
50:56SPEAKER- This is just a Mario-ass theme park, it sounds like.
50:58SPEAKERI mean, it's called Super Nintendo World, right?
51:01SPEAKERNot Super Mario World.
51:02SPEAKER- Well, so in other parks in Universal Japan
51:05SPEAKERand Universal Florida, Orlando, I guess,
51:09SPEAKERthey have a Donkey Kong bonanza ride now too.
51:12SPEAKERSo they may not be bonanza,
51:14SPEAKERbut they have a Donkey Kong ride.
51:15SPEAKER- Like a Zelda version of this
51:17SPEAKERwould be very appealing to me.
51:19SPEAKER- I want a Zelda version.
51:20SPEAKERI want a Luigi's Mansion ride real bad.
51:23SPEAKERI think that would be rad.
51:24SPEAKERBut anyway, so-
51:25SPEAKER- Amiibo wristbands.
51:26SPEAKER- So amiibo wristbands, there's blocks and question blocks.
51:29SPEAKERThere's like brick blocks
51:29SPEAKERand question blocks all over the place.
51:30SPEAKERYou can punch them.
51:32SPEAKER- Wow.
51:33SPEAKER- When you punch them, if you use your amiibo hand,
51:36SPEAKERit registers your punch,
51:37SPEAKERand it tracks every punch that you do in the park
51:40SPEAKER'cause you scan a QR code in the back of the amiibo wristband
51:43SPEAKERwith your phone,
51:45SPEAKERand then it hooks you up to a leaderboard, right?
51:47SPEAKERSo you can kind of, there's multiple aspects.
51:52SPEAKERThere's a scavenger hunt
51:53SPEAKERwhere you have to tap all the blocks.
51:55SPEAKERThere's things you can bump it up against,
51:58SPEAKERand that will light up an 8-bit Mario or Peach or Bowser
52:04SPEAKERor whatever in the world around you.
52:06SPEAKER- And we assume this is just NFC standard stuff?
52:09SPEAKER- Just standard S.
52:10SPEAKERYou can tap it on your Switch when you get home,
52:12SPEAKERand it shows up as a Mario amiibo.
52:15SPEAKER- Oh, it actually works as an amiibo in the ecosystem?
52:17SPEAKER- Regular ass amiibo.
52:19SPEAKER- But not a special one.
52:20SPEAKERIt's not classed as its own like Super Nintendo World one.
52:23SPEAKERIt's just rings up as one of the retail ones.
52:24SPEAKER- They work the other place that Mario amiibos work.
52:28SPEAKERI think technically they're in a special group in the thing.
52:32SPEAKERLike they don't, I haven't,
52:35SPEAKERI don't think I've played a Mario game since then,
52:37SPEAKERbut I'll tap it and see, yeah.
52:40SPEAKER- Not a huge deal.
52:41SPEAKERI mean, I was thinking what I was,
52:42SPEAKERthe reason I was asking if they are classed
52:44SPEAKERas their own specific amiibo is they could block
52:46SPEAKERspecific unique rewards up behind them in games and stuff.
52:48SPEAKERI don't know if they'll do that or not.
52:49SPEAKER- I would hope so.
52:50SPEAKERFor 47 bucks, I would like some special rewards.
52:52SPEAKER- Well, but also, I mean, we'll get into it here,
52:54SPEAKERbut I've looked a little bit into the world
52:56SPEAKERof spoofing amiibos.
52:59SPEAKER- Oh, I've done the hell out of it.
53:00SPEAKERWhen we were deep in Animal Crossing,
53:01SPEAKERI bought a bunch of those discs.
53:03SPEAKERI haven't bought an amiibo in five years.
53:05SPEAKER- Yeah, so it is wildly doable.
53:07SPEAKER- There's an app called Ally on your phone
53:09SPEAKERthat you put it into dark mode or something,
53:12SPEAKERand then you can just download a spreadsheet
53:15SPEAKERfull of amiibo codes, and look, I'm just saying,
53:18SPEAKERgetting the Zelda costumes in Tears of the Kingdom
53:20SPEAKERwas pretty easy.
53:21SPEAKERAnyway, okay, so there's the scavenger hunt aspect.
53:26SPEAKERThere's also a series of mini games throughout the park.
53:29SPEAKERSo mini games are like, they're themed for different ages,
53:33SPEAKERmostly accessible to pretty young kids,
53:36SPEAKERand some of them are run around and punch some alarm clocks
53:39SPEAKERwhen the lights turn red, right?
53:41SPEAKERAnd when you successfully complete a mini game challenge,
53:44SPEAKERthen you get a gold key that if you tap your wristband,
53:48SPEAKERit also shows up in the app.
53:50SPEAKERWhen you collect multiples, three of those gold keys,
53:52SPEAKERyou unlock a Bowser Jr. fight, which was fucking rad.
53:57SPEAKERSo you go into this room where there's no line,
53:59SPEAKER'cause nobody knows that they should be doing this,
54:01SPEAKERand hardly anybody's actually doing this,
54:03SPEAKER'cause it didn't look like very many people
54:04SPEAKERbought the wristbands.
54:06SPEAKERBut you stand in front of a big screen
54:08SPEAKERwith like five or six other people,
54:09SPEAKERand you see your silhouette on that screen,
54:13SPEAKERand it's like a fiery kind of background,
54:15SPEAKERlike a Bowser fight in a modern Mario game background.
54:20SPEAKERAnd it gives you a countdown, three, two, one, go,
54:21SPEAKERand it tells you what to do.
54:23SPEAKERAnd you punch Bob-ombs and Koopa shells as they come down.
54:27SPEAKERYou have to duck under bullet bills
54:30SPEAKERthat cross the screen at different times.
54:32SPEAKERYou have to punch power-ups,
54:34SPEAKERand it looks like your silhouette is a shadow
54:37SPEAKERfrom the projection behind you,
54:38SPEAKERbut then when you hit a mushroom, the silhouette gets big.
54:43SPEAKERAnd when you jump, your guy jumps way, way, way up
54:46SPEAKERin the air, like 10, 15 feet up in the air.
54:49SPEAKERIt's like five minutes.
54:50SPEAKERIt's really stupid.
54:51SPEAKERIt was really good.
54:52SPEAKERIt made me wish that there was more stuff like that
54:56SPEAKERtied to the amiibo wristbands.
54:58SPEAKER- I bet the people who build modern theme park attractions
55:00SPEAKERlike this have some of the most fun doing their jobs
55:03SPEAKERof anybody on the planet.
55:04SPEAKER- I think it's gotta be a fun job, yeah.
55:06SPEAKER'Cause like just the nexus of like user experience
55:09SPEAKERand modern technology and creativity and the whole thing,
55:13SPEAKERyou know, it's just like, you can,
55:15SPEAKERthere's so many ideas and probably near unlimited budget
55:18SPEAKERor, you know, like pretty hefty budget.
55:20SPEAKERLike you can, the range of like crazy ideas you can have
55:23SPEAKERand then just execute in that space must be really fun.
55:25SPEAKER- Well, I mean, like this was gamier than most of these
55:29SPEAKERthat I've seen have been, right?
55:30SPEAKERWhich like, I wanna say in the wizarding world
55:34SPEAKERof Harry Potter, there's, they have like stations
55:37SPEAKERas you're walking around the shops area
55:40SPEAKERwhere you can buy a wand for 80 or 100 bucks, I'm sure,
55:44SPEAKERand you wave it in front of some cameras
55:46SPEAKERand then it makes some prop that's in a shop window
55:49SPEAKERdo something like lift up off the ground
55:51SPEAKERor shake or something.
55:52SPEAKERAnd this stuff felt more impactful for this,
55:56SPEAKERA, because everybody can engage with like,
55:57SPEAKERall the kids were up there punching blocks
55:59SPEAKERwhen they had wristbands or not
56:00SPEAKER'cause punching the blocks makes a good sound
56:02SPEAKERand it like lit up and it was fun, right?
56:04SPEAKER- Oh, wait, so you could get in there without a wristband or?
56:07SPEAKER- Yes.
56:08SPEAKER- In fact, I was gonna ask earlier how they gate access
56:10SPEAKERto this thing if you have to.
56:11SPEAKER- It's just, you walk in,
56:13SPEAKERit's just a normal part of the park.
56:14SPEAKERThere's no gate.
56:16SPEAKERI think they do a first hour,
56:17SPEAKERyou have to have a reservation.
56:19SPEAKER- Oh, I'm sorry, maybe it's the way the notes were worded.
56:22SPEAKERI thought you had to do something with the wristbands
56:24SPEAKERto like unlock access to this thing, that's not the case?
56:26SPEAKER- The Bowser Jr. thing you can only do
56:28SPEAKERif you've completed the scavenger hunt.
56:31SPEAKER- Okay, that's what I was asking.
56:32SPEAKER- The rest of Super Nintendo World,
56:34SPEAKERyou can just walk into.
56:35SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:36SPEAKERBut that's what I meant though.
56:37SPEAKERHow do they limit access to Bowser Jr.
56:39SPEAKERwith the wrist?
56:40SPEAKERDo you have to swipe the wristband to open the door
56:41SPEAKERor something?
56:42SPEAKER- So yeah, you walk up and hit a wristband on a thing
56:44SPEAKERand it's like turns one color if you're approved
56:46SPEAKERand another if you're not.
56:48SPEAKER- Got it.
56:49SPEAKER- Only one person in your party had to be approved.
56:51SPEAKERSo if you're going with your kid
56:53SPEAKERand you don't wanna spend $300 on wristbands,
56:55SPEAKERyou can just get one and make one kid do all the work
56:57SPEAKERand then everybody can benefit.
57:00SPEAKER- They had some other stuff.
57:02SPEAKEROddly, the other Nintendo brand
57:07SPEAKERthat was represented here that wasn't Mario was Pikmin.
57:12SPEAKERThere were little Pikmin all through the park,
57:14SPEAKERkind of hidden all over the place.
57:15SPEAKERAnd some of the scavenger hunt things were like,
57:19SPEAKERlook at Pikmin.
57:20SPEAKERYou know the binoculars, the big green binoculars
57:22SPEAKERfrom the 3D Mario games?
57:24SPEAKERThey had those up on a kind of out of the way edge
57:27SPEAKERof the park that you didn't go to
57:28SPEAKERif you weren't doing the scavenger hunt stuff.
57:31SPEAKERAnd it had a digital,
57:34SPEAKERlike it was basically like a camera with a screen
57:37SPEAKERand you could aim it and zoom in and out
57:41SPEAKERat different parts of the park
57:42SPEAKERand see like Pikmin hiding up on the top
57:46SPEAKERof the far side of the thing
57:47SPEAKERwhere you'd never be able to see it otherwise.
57:50SPEAKERIt was weird and like oddly half-assed.
57:55SPEAKERLike it felt like there should be more stuff there.
57:58SPEAKERLike I simultaneously really enjoyed the Bowser Jr. thing.
58:02SPEAKERI thought the scavenger hunt was kind of okay,
58:04SPEAKERbut like the right amount of tedious,
58:06SPEAKERlike you only had to get three of the keys,
58:09SPEAKERwhich was like you kind of could do incidentally
58:12SPEAKERif you were just whacking blocks when you walked by them.
58:17SPEAKERI wish that there was more stuff like the Bowser thing
58:19SPEAKER'cause it felt like that was really fun.
58:21SPEAKERIt was really clever.
58:22SPEAKERIt felt like a game which feels appropriate
58:24SPEAKERfor Super Nintendo World.
58:27SPEAKERAnd overall it was pretty good.
58:28SPEAKERThe other thing I want to say is
58:30SPEAKERin the Star Wars land in Disney,
58:32SPEAKERthey have the same kind of stuff, right?
58:33SPEAKERSo there's areas that you can interact with as a guest
58:39SPEAKERthat like sometimes make things happen.
58:42SPEAKERLike Kylo Ren's spaceship will shoot smoke
58:44SPEAKERif you've done enough things for the empire
58:47SPEAKERor for the resistance when you're going through that park.
58:51SPEAKERAnd the way that works is you have an app on your phone
58:55SPEAKERand you interact with the app directly.
58:57SPEAKERAnd if you do that enough, eventually like cast members
58:59SPEAKERwill come in and pull you into things sometimes
59:02SPEAKERor like you'll be able to do interactions
59:04SPEAKERwith the big props.
59:05SPEAKERYou'll be able to open a door that normally doesn't open
59:07SPEAKERand go see something secret and stuff like that.
59:10SPEAKERBut the downside of that is that if you're there
59:13SPEAKERwith the kids who are too young to have,
59:14SPEAKERA, everybody's walking around with their fucking phone out
59:17SPEAKERthe whole time, which sucks.
59:19SPEAKERB, if you're there with kids that are too young
59:22SPEAKERto have phones, you end up in the,
59:25SPEAKERhey dad, can I use your phone?
59:27SPEAKEROr hey mom, can I use your phone?
59:29SPEAKERSo then you're paying hundreds of dollars
59:31SPEAKERto go to Disneyland and be outside
59:32SPEAKERand spend fun family time together
59:34SPEAKERso that all of your kids can be glued to their phone
59:36SPEAKERdoing the bullshit.
59:37SPEAKEROr worse, you're a parent and you wanna do the bullshit
59:41SPEAKERand then you're on your phone neglecting the fun family.
59:46SPEAKERLike it's just having your phone,
59:47SPEAKERlike I actually, my initial reaction on,
59:51SPEAKERhey, we have to spend 50 bucks
59:52SPEAKERon these stupid fucking wristbands was bad.
59:55SPEAKERAnd then once I realized that I was walking
59:57SPEAKERaround Super Nintendo Land and nobody had their phones out,
1:00:00SPEAKERI was like, oh, this is actually pretty good.
1:00:01SPEAKER- Yeah, I was gonna say like that's probably the one upside
1:00:04SPEAKERof the Disney strategy is it's maybe not free,
1:00:07SPEAKERbut at least cheaper to use a phone app
1:00:09SPEAKERinstead of this wristband training.
1:00:10SPEAKER- Yeah, so the phone app's free.
1:00:12SPEAKER- Oh, it is free.
1:00:12SPEAKER- Yeah, like it's just a subset of the Disney park.
1:00:15SPEAKERSo if you go to a modern park, you download the app
1:00:18SPEAKER'cause it has the maps and the wait times
1:00:20SPEAKERand all that stuff on it.
1:00:22SPEAKERYou also, depending on which park you're at,
1:00:26SPEAKERI think the Disney FastPass stuff
1:00:27SPEAKERall works through the app now too.
1:00:29SPEAKERSo you can say, hey, I wanna FastPass for Haunted Mansion
1:00:34SPEAKERif you're not in Haunted Mansion,
1:00:35SPEAKERand then it tells you what time to show up
1:00:37SPEAKERand you skip the line.
1:00:38SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, $45 per person
1:00:40SPEAKERfor even a modest size family is not nothing.
1:00:43SPEAKERLike that's a pretty substantial cost,
1:00:44SPEAKERbut also once you're at a modern theme park,
1:00:46SPEAKERI guess, and for a penny and for a pound
1:00:47SPEAKERat that point anyway.
1:00:49SPEAKERThey're gonna turn you upside down and shake
1:00:50SPEAKERthe money out of you.
1:00:51SPEAKER- But that sounds like a massively better,
1:00:53SPEAKERlike I have started developing some derision
1:00:58SPEAKERfor the amount of noses buried in phones
1:01:00SPEAKERin modern society these days.
1:01:02SPEAKERAnd so like an experience that explicitly keeps people
1:01:05SPEAKERoff their phones and doing a thing
1:01:06SPEAKERand looking at a thing seems pretty good.
1:01:08SPEAKER- It was nice.
1:01:09SPEAKERAnd some of the mini games were really fun.
1:01:10SPEAKERLike one of them, you had to control a Koopa shell.
1:01:13SPEAKERLike you had to punch a Koopa shell
1:01:16SPEAKERthat was going back and forth across,
1:01:17SPEAKERjust stuck bouncing for eternity.
1:01:20SPEAKERAnd if you punched at the right time,
1:01:21SPEAKERit would go up and hit a power block
1:01:22SPEAKERand then some stuff would happen.
1:01:23SPEAKERAnd that was kind of fun.
1:01:26SPEAKERLike overall styling was really good.
1:01:29SPEAKERThere's also a ride,
1:01:30SPEAKERobviously the Mario Kart ride is there.
1:01:32SPEAKERBowser's Fury or Bowser's Revenge or something.
1:01:34SPEAKERI can't remember what it's actually called.
1:01:36SPEAKERBut it's a combo kart.
1:01:39SPEAKERLike you ride a kart with three other people.
1:01:42SPEAKERAnd then you also put on this AR headset.
1:01:47SPEAKERThey do it, they give you a Halo kind of headband
1:01:50SPEAKERthat you put on, like the PSVR ones.
1:01:54SPEAKERAnd then when you sit down in the kart,
1:01:55SPEAKERthere's a wired in pair of goggles
1:01:58SPEAKERthat just snap onto that headband that you're wearing.
1:02:03SPEAKERAnd you tap your Meebo onto the steering wheel
1:02:05SPEAKERto let the car know that you're you.
1:02:08SPEAKERAnd then there's a game kind of like
1:02:10SPEAKERthe Buzz Lightyear adventure at Disneyland,
1:02:12SPEAKERthe old one that you drive around and shoot stuff.
1:02:13SPEAKERBut it's all, the kart, the car ride is riding around
1:02:18SPEAKERin this really lovely stylized area.
1:02:21SPEAKERAnd then the game is shooting Koopalings
1:02:25SPEAKERthat shoot in front of you with shells.
1:02:27SPEAKERCollecting shells and shooting Koopalings
1:02:29SPEAKERand shooting extra stuff in the environment.
1:02:31SPEAKER- So it's all PVE.
1:02:32SPEAKER- It's all PVE.
1:02:34SPEAKEROne person can control the steering
1:02:35SPEAKERor maybe multiple people control.
1:02:37SPEAKERIt seems like one person controlled the steering
1:02:39SPEAKERin the karts that we were in.
1:02:41SPEAKER- The big issue I have with this ride in general
1:02:44SPEAKERis that you didn't need the ride for the game to work.
1:02:48SPEAKERAnd the way the AR headset is set up,
1:02:50SPEAKERit's really, really bright.
1:02:51SPEAKERSo you're not really,
1:02:53SPEAKERlike you're seeing overlays on the world
1:02:55SPEAKERthat are three-dimensional and tracked,
1:02:57SPEAKERbut not like the brightness of the world
1:03:00SPEAKERversus the brightness of the things
1:03:02SPEAKERthat are being projected on the AR screen as such.
1:03:04SPEAKERYou can't really see the world, which is a bummer
1:03:07SPEAKERbecause the world design is awesome.
1:03:10SPEAKER- How, what's the word I'm looking for?
1:03:12SPEAKERHow pervasive are the images?
1:03:13SPEAKERThey are images.
1:03:14SPEAKERIs it like a ton of your view is constantly obscured?
1:03:18SPEAKER- It's not a ton of your view, but it's-
1:03:19SPEAKER- It's not rendering landscape or anything.
1:03:21SPEAKERIt's just entities.
1:03:22SPEAKER- Just the Koopalings.
1:03:23SPEAKER- Okay.
1:03:24SPEAKER- Yeah, so, and it does, it's funny
1:03:25SPEAKER'cause it does an interesting thing at the start
1:03:27SPEAKERwhere the tutorial section is 2D 16-bit era Koopalings.
1:03:33SPEAKERAnd then once you transition out of there,
1:03:35SPEAKERit becomes the modern Mario Kart 8 Koopaling 3D renders.
1:03:39SPEAKER- That's neat.
1:03:40SPEAKER- But yeah, the fundamental problem is that you,
1:03:44SPEAKERthe game is so pervasive that you don't focus on the,
1:03:49SPEAKERit's hard to focus on the ride.
1:03:50SPEAKER- Sure.
1:03:51SPEAKER- I think the ride maybe is a little underwhelming actually
1:03:53SPEAKERis probably why it's like that.
1:03:55SPEAKERBut, and so you shoot the Koopalings
1:03:57SPEAKERby aiming with your head.
1:03:58SPEAKERSo you aim with your head and you have two trigger buttons
1:04:00SPEAKERon your steering wheel and you shoot shells,
1:04:04SPEAKERwhatever power up you have by aiming and shooting.
1:04:06SPEAKER- Sure.
1:04:07SPEAKER- And then they give you your car, a score at the end
1:04:10SPEAKERand let you know how you stacked up against the people
1:04:12SPEAKERin the other lane, as well as everybody else
1:04:15SPEAKERwho rode that week, which is weird.
1:04:18SPEAKERI don't know how they're tracking this.
1:04:19SPEAKERThat's the other interesting thing
1:04:22SPEAKERis it seemed to be motion tracked.
1:04:24SPEAKERI don't know if they're keeping everybody in sync
1:04:26SPEAKERwith everybody else, but like the Koopalings
1:04:28SPEAKERrode down the track when they were riding away from you.
1:04:31SPEAKERThey didn't just fly off into space or whatever.
1:04:33SPEAKER- Interesting.
1:04:34SPEAKER- So like they're doing some aspect of 6DOF tracking
1:04:38SPEAKERwith it and it felt pretty good.
1:04:42SPEAKERI mean, AR is a little more forgiving than VR
1:04:44SPEAKERin terms of like motion sickness and stuff,
1:04:46SPEAKERbut none of the people we were with
1:04:48SPEAKERwho sometimes have motion sickness issues have any problems.
1:04:50SPEAKER- All right.
1:04:51SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:04:52SPEAKER- I assume this part is so Mario centric to synergize
1:04:56SPEAKERwith the success of the movie or put it another way,
1:04:58SPEAKERI would guess maybe any planned Zelda attractions
1:05:02SPEAKERmight be something they're saving for that movie
1:05:05SPEAKERto come out and be huge.
1:05:06SPEAKER- I don't think they've announced any Zelda movies.
1:05:09SPEAKERNone of this was movie.
1:05:10SPEAKER- No, there is a movie.
1:05:11SPEAKER- I'm sorry, Zelda rides.
1:05:12SPEAKER- Oh, rides, yeah.
1:05:13SPEAKER- None of this was movie focused.
1:05:16SPEAKER- Well, yeah, but what I just mean that Mario is like,
1:05:18SPEAKERI mean, Mario is always bigger than anything else
1:05:20SPEAKERNintendo has, but like Mario is extra, extra huge
1:05:23SPEAKERin the wake of that movie.
1:05:24SPEAKER- I mean, I guess that's why they did
1:05:26SPEAKERthe Donkey Kong thing next probably.
1:05:28SPEAKER- Maybe.
1:05:28SPEAKER- It's weird 'cause like, so like the cues,
1:05:32SPEAKERone of the things that Universal does really well
1:05:33SPEAKERis their cue styling is really good.
1:05:35SPEAKERSo when you're waiting in line,
1:05:36SPEAKERthere's a ton of interesting stuff to look at.
1:05:38SPEAKERAnd it like, the cue is walking through Bowser's castle.
1:05:41SPEAKER- Okay.
1:05:42SPEAKER- So you're like, there's a huge picture of Bowser.
1:05:43SPEAKERThere's like, but it's all Mario Kart eight styling.
1:05:47SPEAKERSo like the track, like the circuits are all there's,
1:05:52SPEAKERthere's badges for the circuits on the walls everywhere.
1:05:54SPEAKERThey're all the Mario Kart eight ones.
1:05:56SPEAKERThe trophies are all the Mario Kart eight ones.
1:05:58SPEAKER- So you're saying they have old Donkey Kong?
1:06:00SPEAKER- I'm saying they have old Donkey Kong, classic DK.
1:06:03SPEAKER- They have obsolete Donkey Kong.
1:06:04SPEAKER- I don't know if Donkey Kong actually shows up in there.
1:06:07SPEAKERThey have bananas, but I don't know if I saw Donkey Kong
1:06:09SPEAKERin this way.
1:06:10SPEAKERI mean, Donkey Kong's in Florida, not in,
1:06:12SPEAKERhe's a Florida man, not in.
1:06:13SPEAKER- Yes.
1:06:13SPEAKER(laughing)
1:06:15SPEAKER- Welcome, welcome to your Florida Kong.
1:06:17SPEAKER(laughing)
1:06:21SPEAKERI mean, I'm not wrong.
1:06:23SPEAKER- I think you're probably exactly right.
1:06:25SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:06:27SPEAKERSo, so yeah, it's like, it's really,
1:06:31SPEAKERI love walking through the queues.
1:06:34SPEAKERThe lines weren't too bad.
1:06:35SPEAKERIt was like a 50 minute wait,
1:06:37SPEAKERmost of the time we were there.
1:06:40SPEAKERAnd then they do like a whole tutorial video
1:06:42SPEAKERwhere they show you how to put on the helmet
1:06:43SPEAKERand how to play the game.
1:06:44SPEAKERThey show you how to play the game like three times,
1:06:46SPEAKERwhich I thought was interesting.
1:06:48SPEAKERAnd yeah, that like, that's pretty much,
1:06:51SPEAKERthat's pretty much it.
1:06:53SPEAKERWe had lunch at the Toadstool Cafe,
1:06:56SPEAKERwhich I'd been recommended to get a reservation for.
1:07:02SPEAKERIt was park, pretty good.
1:07:05SPEAKERI would say good to very good for park food.
1:07:08SPEAKER- I'm looking for a menu.
1:07:09SPEAKER- Yeah, we had, I had a Mario burger.
1:07:12SPEAKEREverything has mushrooms on it.
1:07:14SPEAKER- Oh, wow.
1:07:15SPEAKER- 'Cause it's in a mushroom kingdom.
1:07:17SPEAKER- I love mushrooms, but some people certainly do not.
1:07:19SPEAKER- Well, so most of our party does not like mushrooms.
1:07:23SPEAKEROne of the things that I think they did
1:07:24SPEAKERa kind of crap job on is all of the food
1:07:26SPEAKERthat you order at a sit-down place at Universal,
1:07:29SPEAKERyou can get them to customize
1:07:30SPEAKER'cause they make it all to order.
1:07:32SPEAKERSo it's not like typical theme parks
1:07:33SPEAKERwhere there's 50 million corn dogs back there
1:07:35SPEAKERand you just get the corn dog that they make for everybody.
1:07:37SPEAKERSo we got all of our stuff without mushrooms
1:07:39SPEAKERand like the fries came without truffle oil
1:07:41SPEAKERand all that stuff, but they don't really make that clear
1:07:45SPEAKERuntil you're talking to a person ordering food,
1:07:47SPEAKERwhich like was a source of stress.
1:07:50SPEAKER- I finally found the menu.
1:07:52SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:07:53SPEAKER- Mozzarella cheese fettuccine Alfredo.
1:07:55SPEAKER- Yeah, it was a real plate of pasta.
1:07:57SPEAKERI saw somebody get that at the table next to us.
1:07:59SPEAKERSomebody got this enormous Bowser's dynamite meatball,
1:08:02SPEAKERI think.
1:08:03SPEAKER- Bowser's fireball challenge.
1:08:05SPEAKER- There you go.
1:08:06SPEAKERIt was the biggest meatball I've ever seen, Brad.
1:08:08SPEAKER- It's a one pound meatball topped with mozzarella cheese
1:08:11SPEAKERserved with mushroom marinara sauce.
1:08:12SPEAKER- It looked like the size of my head.
1:08:15SPEAKER- Bowser puff pastry.
1:08:16SPEAKER- We didn't get those, but they look pretty good.
1:08:19SPEAKER- They have both a Mario burger and a Luigi burger.
1:08:21SPEAKER- The Luigi burger is chicken, which I feel like is,
1:08:26SPEAKERI feel like Luigi will not stand for this slight.
1:08:28SPEAKERDo we not remember the year of Luigi people?
1:08:31SPEAKERThat's all I'm saying.
1:08:34SPEAKERWe got peach cupcakes.
1:08:36SPEAKERIf I had known that the peach cupcakes
1:08:37SPEAKERwere as big as they were,
1:08:38SPEAKERwe could have split one of them for the three of us,
1:08:41SPEAKERbut we took one home.
1:08:42SPEAKER- So there's something funny about reading peach cupcake,
1:08:46SPEAKERraspberry filled cupcake.
1:08:47SPEAKERIt's like, it's a peach cupcake filled with raspberry.
1:08:50SPEAKER- I know what's her name, I'm not a fruit.
1:08:53SPEAKER- Peach contains multitudes.
1:08:55SPEAKERShe loves both peach, but her favorite color is pink.
1:08:58SPEAKERSo everything in there was pink.
1:09:00SPEAKERAnd yeah, I will say the food there was better
1:09:03SPEAKERthan the crusty burger,
1:09:04SPEAKERwhich is where we ate dinner that night.
1:09:06SPEAKER- Oh man, that's a lot of themed food for one day.
1:09:09SPEAKER- It was a lot of themed food, Brad.
1:09:12SPEAKERSo yeah, Mario Kart, okay.
1:09:15SPEAKERMario, Super Nintendo World, awesome.
1:09:18SPEAKERMaybe figure out how to do a bootleg band
1:09:20SPEAKERrather than pay the 57 bucks if you're,
1:09:23SPEAKERI don't know how you would register
1:09:24SPEAKERyour bootleg amiibo band to their app is the thing.
1:09:27SPEAKERAnd without the app,
1:09:28SPEAKERI think it would be a little bit less fun.
1:09:31SPEAKERYeah.
1:09:33SPEAKER- Interesting, all right.
1:09:34SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:09:35SPEAKER- Oh, I found a picture.
1:09:35SPEAKERI finally found a picture of these wristbands.
1:09:37SPEAKERThose look awesome.
1:09:38SPEAKER- They're very cool.
1:09:39SPEAKER- To be fair, those look really cool actually.
1:09:42SPEAKER- Like A, slap bracelets, still awesome
1:09:45SPEAKERafter all these years.
1:09:47SPEAKERB, I got the gold Mario one, so I turned it upside down.
1:09:50SPEAKERSo it looked like a Wario one.
1:09:51SPEAKERI thought that was pretty good.
1:09:53SPEAKERC, pretty uncomfortable over the length of the day.
1:09:56SPEAKERI'm gonna say.
1:09:57SPEAKER- I can see it better, they're quite big.
1:09:59SPEAKER- Well, but also the bend on the slap bracelet
1:10:02SPEAKERis not such that it is a size for an adult wrist.
1:10:07SPEAKERI wish they had more character representation
1:10:09SPEAKERin the wristband choices.
1:10:10SPEAKER- Sure, all right.
1:10:13SPEAKER- Yeah, so Super Nintendo World, I would go back.
1:10:15SPEAKERI don't know if I'm gonna go to a Florida one,
1:10:17SPEAKERbut maybe I'll go to the one in Japan.
1:10:18SPEAKERThat looks cool.
1:10:19SPEAKERAnd yeah, give me a Luigi's Mansion game.
1:10:22SPEAKERThat's all I want.
1:10:23SPEAKERIt's never gonna happen, is it?
1:10:25SPEAKER- Game or attraction?
1:10:26SPEAKER- Attraction.
1:10:27SPEAKER- I'm gonna say no to both.
1:10:29SPEAKER- I mean, look, there's a Luigi's Mansion arcade game
1:10:32SPEAKERthat's pretty dope.
1:10:32SPEAKER- Oh, okay.
1:10:33SPEAKER- Have you ever seen that?
1:10:34SPEAKER- No, I have not.
1:10:35SPEAKERI mean, they just did three, not that many years ago, but.
1:10:37SPEAKER- Yeah, those make money.
1:10:39SPEAKERThe arcade game has a big giant ghost,
1:10:43SPEAKERI can't remember the name of the vacuum cleaner,
1:10:45SPEAKERbut it's the ghost vacuum.
1:10:46SPEAKER- Okay.
1:10:47SPEAKER- And you get to hold it in the booth.
1:10:48SPEAKER- Succotron 5000, I don't remember.
1:10:51SPEAKER- Yeah, it's Gus, isn't it Gus something?
1:10:53SPEAKER- Oh, yes.
1:10:54SPEAKERNow I need to know, before we end this podcast,
1:10:56SPEAKERI'm going to look that up.
1:10:58SPEAKER- This is why we do this podcast,
1:10:59SPEAKER'cause I was getting ready to go look to it.
1:11:00SPEAKER- Poltergust 3000.
1:11:01SPEAKER- Poltergust, that's a good name.
1:11:03SPEAKER- It's pretty good.
1:11:03SPEAKER- That deserves a ride, man.
1:11:04SPEAKERThat's all I'm saying.
1:11:05SPEAKER- Sure.
1:11:07SPEAKER- That'll do it for us this week.
1:11:08SPEAKERThanks, everybody, for listening.
1:11:10SPEAKERBrad, I'm glad you had a voyage of discovery.
1:11:12SPEAKER- Uh-huh, personal growth.
1:11:14SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:11:15SPEAKER- We are, let's see, about six hours out
1:11:18SPEAKERfrom the 24 hour mark.
1:11:20SPEAKER- Gonna go grocery shopping?
1:11:21SPEAKER- I think we should probably go buy some groceries.
1:11:23SPEAKER- Seems nice, yeah, seems like you could get some ham.
1:11:25SPEAKER- Need to do a Costco run, though.
1:11:27SPEAKER- I mean, rent a car, head down to Costco.
1:11:30SPEAKER- Yep, yep.
1:11:32SPEAKER- As always, "Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod"
1:11:34SPEAKERis a listener-supported show.
1:11:35SPEAKERThat means we would not be here without you, the listeners.
1:11:38SPEAKERWe appreciate each and every one of you.
1:11:40SPEAKERIf you would like to find out how to support the show,
1:11:42SPEAKERyou can go to patreon.com/techpod.
1:11:45SPEAKERAgain, that's patreon.com/techpod,
1:11:49SPEAKERwhere for five bucks a month,
1:11:50SPEAKERyou get access to the fabulous Tech Pod Discord,
1:11:52SPEAKERwhich is full of nerds who will talk about
1:11:55SPEAKERall sorts of interesting things.
1:11:56SPEAKERI had a conversation in there the other day,
1:11:57SPEAKERand I'm completely blanking on what it was right now,
1:12:00SPEAKERbut it was incredibly helpful.
1:12:03SPEAKERDamn, what was it?
1:12:04SPEAKERWas it when my monitor died?
1:12:05SPEAKERNo.
1:12:06SPEAKER- Maybe.
1:12:08SPEAKER- What were we talking about?
1:12:09SPEAKERIt was in the PC hardware channel.
1:12:11SPEAKER- From colon Will, actually, what is your username?
1:12:14SPEAKERIt's not Will.
1:12:15SPEAKER- Will.
1:12:16SPEAKERMy username on Discord is Will, it was a bad choice.
1:12:19SPEAKER- Oh, that's why it's coming up.
1:12:21SPEAKER- I said, surely, surely I'm not gonna be able to get
1:12:24SPEAKERjust Will as a username.
1:12:27SPEAKER- I can't get it to come up in search.
1:12:28SPEAKERDiscord search is bad.
1:12:32SPEAKER- Discord search is bad.
1:12:34SPEAKERI couldn't get it either.
1:12:35SPEAKERAnyway, you get access to the Discord.
1:12:37SPEAKERYou get the monthly Patreon exclusive episode
1:12:39SPEAKERwhere we talk about projects that are going on
1:12:41SPEAKERand things that we find interesting, but not so interesting.
1:12:44SPEAKERWe're gonna do a full episode about,
1:12:47SPEAKERand other stuff, just things and stuff.
1:12:50SPEAKERSometimes we have an interview with people.
1:12:52SPEAKERWe might do some more interviews there,
1:12:54SPEAKER'cause I liked doing those interviews and it was fun.
1:12:57SPEAKERBut that'll do it for us this month.
1:12:58SPEAKERThanks everybody for listening.
1:13:00SPEAKEROh, wait, executive producer tier patrons.
1:13:02SPEAKERWe especially appreciate our executive producer tier patrons,
1:13:05SPEAKERincluding Jason Lee, Andrew Slosky, Jordan Lippitt,
1:13:09SPEAKERBunny Fiend, Twinkle Twinkie, David Allen,
1:13:12SPEAKERJames Kamik, and Pantheon,
1:13:14SPEAKERmakers of the HS3 high-speed 3D printer.
1:13:17SPEAKERThank you all so, so much.
1:13:18SPEAKER- Yes, thank you.
1:13:20SPEAKER- And that'll do it for us this month.
1:13:22SPEAKERWe will be back this week.
1:13:25SPEAKERFeels like it's been a month already.
1:13:26SPEAKERIt's already mid-August.
1:13:27SPEAKERWhat's happening, man?
1:13:29SPEAKER- We've been over this.
1:13:30SPEAKER- Yeah, time was fungible, I understand.
1:13:33SPEAKER- You know what's happening.
1:13:34SPEAKER- Your fudgehogs is getting older every day,
1:13:37SPEAKERso it's getting gray back there.
1:13:39SPEAKER- Fudgehog is eternal.
1:13:41SPEAKER- Okay, fudgehog, fudgehog will never...
1:13:43SPEAKERLook, we need a fudgehog land is what we need.
1:13:45SPEAKERWhere's the Viva Pinata land?
1:13:46SPEAKER- You don't even say the...
1:13:48SPEAKER- Can you imagine?
1:13:50SPEAKERBrad, I did get my picture taken with Toad.
1:13:52SPEAKER- Okay.
1:13:53SPEAKER- I didn't wait in the Mario and Luigi line
1:13:54SPEAKER'cause they were too long.
1:13:55SPEAKER- Toad deserves love too.
1:13:57SPEAKER- Yeah, Toad was super stoked.
1:13:58SPEAKERI got my picture taken with Toad
1:14:00SPEAKERand a fake Krusty the Clown, so.
1:14:02SPEAKER- Toad picks things up the fastest.
1:14:04SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:14:05SPEAKER- Arguably the best character.
1:14:06SPEAKER- Fastest jump too.
1:14:08SPEAKER- Yeah, true.
1:14:08SPEAKEREasily in the bad Mario game, Toad is the best.
1:14:14SPEAKERBut yeah, we'll be back next week
1:14:15SPEAKERwith another edition of the Tech Pod.
1:14:16SPEAKERThanks for listening, everybody, every, ah-ha.
1:14:19SPEAKERThanks for listening, everybody.
1:14:20SPEAKERI can't say everybody today, Brad.
1:14:22SPEAKER- I'm not cutting any of this out.
1:14:23SPEAKER- Goddammit, no, you gotta cut this out.
1:14:25SPEAKER- Nope, nope, try again.
1:14:26SPEAKER- Thanks for listening, everyone,
1:14:28SPEAKERand we will be back next week
1:14:29SPEAKERwith another edition of the Tech Pod.
1:14:30SPEAKERAs always, please consider the environment
1:14:33SPEAKERbefore printing this podcast.
1:14:34SPEAKER(upbeat music)
1:14:38SPEAKER[BLANK_AUDIO]