00:00SPEAKERBrad?
00:00SPEAKER- Yes?
00:02SPEAKER- Something wonderful has happened in my neighborhood
00:04SPEAKERall summer long.
00:05SPEAKER- God, I didn't know that wonderful things
00:07SPEAKERcould still happen, period.
00:09SPEAKERSo how lucky for your neighborhood, what's up?
00:11SPEAKER- Every Tuesday and every Thursday,
00:14SPEAKERMr. Softy comes to town.
00:16SPEAKER- What?
00:17SPEAKER- Yes, he's out, he's about, he rolls around,
00:20SPEAKERhe wears a mask and gloves now,
00:22SPEAKERand you have to stay socially distant
00:23SPEAKERwhen you're waiting in line,
00:24SPEAKERbut you can get a soft serve cone dipped in chocolate,
00:27SPEAKERmaybe rolled in Oreos or some sprinkles
00:29SPEAKERor some nonsense like that.
00:30SPEAKERIt's delicious.
00:31SPEAKER- Yeah, what does he play?
00:32SPEAKERWhat's his, how does he foretell his coming?
00:35SPEAKERDid you record it?
00:37SPEAKER- No, no, there's an app, hold on.
00:39SPEAKER- I saw you reach for your phone,
00:40SPEAKERI was like, of course,
00:41SPEAKERwe'll record the ice cream truck jingle.
00:42SPEAKER(phone ringing)
00:43SPEAKERWow, that's classic.
00:46SPEAKER- Yeah, it's good.
00:46SPEAKER- I mean, I wouldn't know,
00:47SPEAKERI lived just a bit too much in the boonies
00:50SPEAKERto ever experience an ice cream truck myself
00:52SPEAKERback in the day, but.
00:53SPEAKER- Dude, this is the first time
00:54SPEAKERI've ever seen an ice cream truck.
00:56SPEAKER- God, like actually. - 'Cause I lived
00:56SPEAKERin the country too.
00:57SPEAKER- Yeah, like could you guys get pizza delivery?
00:59SPEAKERLike that was also, like having pizza delivered
01:02SPEAKERwas like my mind blowing experience
01:03SPEAKERwhen I moved to an urban area
01:05SPEAKER'cause it was impossible back then.
01:07SPEAKER- When I went to college and I,
01:10SPEAKERlike they had, Papa John's put a stack of $5.99,
01:14SPEAKERunnumbered coupons on the, like the check-in board
01:19SPEAKERand my roommate stole the entire stack of them.
01:22SPEAKERAnd then he took them to the print shop
01:24SPEAKERand had them copied because there was no like code on them.
01:27SPEAKER- Wow.
01:28SPEAKER- So I ate $5.99 large one topping pizzas
01:31SPEAKERfrom Papa John's for a really long time.
01:33SPEAKERBut the important thing about the story
01:35SPEAKERisn't the fantastic deal or the terrible pizza.
01:38SPEAKERIt's that when I ordered the pizza the first time
01:41SPEAKERand they said, "Do you want pickup or delivery?"
01:43SPEAKERI said, "Pickup," because it never even occurred to me
01:45SPEAKERthat they would deliver to my dorm.
01:47SPEAKER- The word delivery just went in one ear and out the other.
01:49SPEAKER- What does delivery mean?
01:51SPEAKERThat's impossible.
01:52SPEAKERNo one would possibly bring a pizza to your house.
01:54SPEAKERThat's bad. - Something they do
01:55SPEAKERin the land of gumdrops and rainbows.
01:57SPEAKER- Yeah, we had to drive to the little La Petite Cesar
02:00SPEAKERif we wanted a pizza when I was a child.
02:02SPEAKERThat was the nearest pizza joint.
02:04SPEAKER- That doesn't sound Italian.
02:05SPEAKER- It was the Little Caesars.
02:07SPEAKER(upbeat music)
02:27SPEAKER(upbeat music continues)
02:39SPEAKER- Welcome to Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod.
02:42SPEAKERI'm Will.
02:43SPEAKER- I'm Brad. Thanks for having me.
02:43SPEAKEROh, wait a minute.
02:44SPEAKER- Hey, it's good to have you here, Brad.
02:45SPEAKERHow's everything going with you?
02:46SPEAKER- I haven't used that one in a while.
02:48SPEAKERThat's fine. It's getting hot.
02:50SPEAKER- Yeah.
02:51SPEAKER- So you know that I'm really here and ready to talk
02:53SPEAKERwhen the topic at hand is the weather.
02:56SPEAKERLook, on the other podcast I do,
02:57SPEAKERthe lead topic is usually how fucking cold it is
03:00SPEAKERin the shop.
03:01SPEAKERSo this is nice.
03:02SPEAKERThis is a nice change.
03:03SPEAKER- I mean, you know, we like to dig deep
03:05SPEAKERon this podcast, right?
03:06SPEAKERAnd I think I've mentioned in the past
03:08SPEAKERthat the cognitive effects, the effects on mood
03:13SPEAKERof being both trapped in the house for weeks
03:16SPEAKERand also utterly without sunshine
03:20SPEAKERfor a period of, let's say, six to eight weeks.
03:23SPEAKER- 150 days.
03:24SPEAKER- Those effects have been profound.
03:26SPEAKERLike, I don't know.
03:27SPEAKERI mean, I think it might be as bad or worse where you are,
03:29SPEAKERright? We've talked about it pretty recently,
03:30SPEAKERbut like literal days, days and days of nothing but fog,
03:35SPEAKERnothing but just an endless white fugue out the window.
03:39SPEAKER- My floors have been clammy, yes.
03:41SPEAKERNow it's hot and humid here,
03:43SPEAKERwhich is a refreshing change from cold and humid.
03:46SPEAKER- I woke up this morning and there was sun
03:48SPEAKERcoming through the windows and I almost fell to my knees.
03:50SPEAKERI was so excited.
03:52SPEAKER- So I went out last night.
03:53SPEAKERWe're recording this on Thursday, I think.
03:55SPEAKERAnd the Perseid meteor showers are going.
03:58SPEAKERThey'll still be going, I think, by the time people hear this
04:00SPEAKERbut they'll be fading by then
04:02SPEAKERand the moon will be up at a weird time.
04:03SPEAKERBut I walked out at like midnight
04:05SPEAKERas I was getting ready to go to bed and I was like,
04:06SPEAKER"Oh shit, it's clear for the first time since this started.
04:09SPEAKER"I gotta go wake up the kid
04:10SPEAKER"and we gotta go out in the backyard
04:12SPEAKER"and bundle up and, you know, watch some meteor showers."
04:15SPEAKERSo we did, it was really nice.
04:16SPEAKER- It was a good time.
04:17SPEAKER- Yeah, it was great.
04:17SPEAKER- What was the term Perseid refer to?
04:19SPEAKERIs that the specific cluster of celestial objects
04:22SPEAKERthat are passing by? - Oh, I'm glad you asked.
04:25SPEAKERI looked this up yesterday in case a seven-year-old asked
04:27SPEAKERand she never did.
04:27SPEAKERSo here you are.
04:29SPEAKER- I am here, I am always, as always,
04:31SPEAKERhere to fill the role of a seven-year-old.
04:34SPEAKER- Look, if you can't ask questions,
04:36SPEAKERthen what is the point of even doing a podcast
04:39SPEAKERfor either of us?
04:42SPEAKERThe Perseid refers to the constellation
04:44SPEAKERfrom whence the meteors appear to originate in the sky.
04:49SPEAKERSo they streak across the whole sky in many cases.
04:52SPEAKERWe saw a couple of really bright ones last night.
04:54SPEAKERIt was really good.
04:54SPEAKER- I'm not trying to nitpick.
04:55SPEAKERI'm just trying to get my terminology straight,
04:57SPEAKERbut are they, they're not meteors
04:58SPEAKERuntil they enter the atmosphere, correct?
05:00SPEAKER- I think they're meteors until they enter the atmosphere
05:02SPEAKERand then they're meteorites
05:03SPEAKERonce they enter the atmosphere.
05:05SPEAKER- Is that right?
05:06SPEAKER- Maybe it's meteorites when they hit the ground.
05:07SPEAKERI don't know. - That's what I thought.
05:09SPEAKER- But all I know is the stalagmite,
05:10SPEAKER'cause it has the humps and the M is the bottom one
05:13SPEAKERand the stalactite comes down from the ceiling.
05:15SPEAKER- Is that your mnemonic for that one?
05:16SPEAKER- That's my mnemonic for that one, yeah.
05:18SPEAKER- Mine is that stalactites have to cling very tightly
05:21SPEAKERto the ceiling to not fall.
05:23SPEAKER- Oh, I think the humps are better.
05:25SPEAKERThey bring all the stalactites to the yard.
05:27SPEAKER- Let's just agree to disagree on this one.
05:30SPEAKERWhatever remembers it for you.
05:34SPEAKER- Brad, what are we talking about this week?
05:36SPEAKER- Stuff and things, hardware.
05:39SPEAKER- Hardware.
05:40SPEAKER- We're here to talk about hardware.
05:41SPEAKERWell, more specifically, that's a pretty broad category.
05:44SPEAKER- Yeah, a few weeks ago,
05:46SPEAKERwe did a bunch of software unitaskers,
05:47SPEAKERlike the one-off programs that we find really useful
05:50SPEAKERand got a ton, ton of good suggestions from the audience.
05:54SPEAKER- I was trying to avoid using the word unitasker,
05:56SPEAKERbut I couldn't come up with anything else.
05:57SPEAKER- I know, sometimes you have to use the shorthand.
06:00SPEAKER- Yes.
06:00SPEAKER- It's a venerable term that we all should,
06:04SPEAKERI can't remember the other word
06:05SPEAKERthat we're never allowed to use in reviews.
06:06SPEAKERAnyway.
06:07SPEAKER- Mixed bag.
06:08SPEAKER- Yeah, it's a mixed bag.
06:10SPEAKERWe're gonna talk about the kind of single-use,
06:13SPEAKERone-off tools that are hardware
06:15SPEAKERthat we find useful in our day-to-day life.
06:17SPEAKERAnd we would love to hear what yours are
06:19SPEAKERafter you hear ours.
06:19SPEAKERSo get your emailing fingers ready, I guess.
06:23SPEAKER- Totally.
06:24SPEAKERYeah, honestly, I think the most gratifying thing
06:27SPEAKERcoming out of that episode
06:28SPEAKERwas seeing people get super excited
06:30SPEAKERabout stuff that we had suggested
06:33SPEAKERand talking about how it had made their lives better.
06:35SPEAKER- There's a list on our Wiki of things that we suggested
06:37SPEAKERand then the other things that people suggested as well.
06:40SPEAKERAlso, we have a Wiki now.
06:41SPEAKER- Yes, we do.
06:42SPEAKERI don't know why, but for some reason,
06:44SPEAKERwhen I brought my list of that episode,
06:45SPEAKERI was like, ah, this is what I came up with,
06:47SPEAKERbut I'm sure everybody knows about all of these,
06:48SPEAKERbut it turned out to totally not be the case.
06:50SPEAKER- No, nobody knows about any of this stuff
06:52SPEAKER'cause you just use it and you don't ever think about it.
06:54SPEAKERAnd it turns out if you share the knowledge, it'll be good.
06:56SPEAKER- Special shout out to Nursoft coming out of that episode.
07:00SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:01SPEAKER- Nur has become like a superstar of the TechPod Discord.
07:04SPEAKER- Oh, is he in there?
07:05SPEAKER- No, no, no, no.
07:06SPEAKERGod, I wish.
07:07SPEAKERIn fact, shout out to Nur.
07:09SPEAKERAfter the probably fifth or sixth time this happened,
07:11SPEAKERI thought, you know what?
07:12SPEAKERWe should just reach out to him and get him on this Discord.
07:14SPEAKERAnd then I was like, you know what?
07:15SPEAKERWe should reach out to him and get him on this podcast.
07:18SPEAKER- Yes.
07:19SPEAKER- Which I should probably,
07:20SPEAKERwe should probably run by him before I mentioned it in public
07:21SPEAKERbut people just keep finding utilities that he's written
07:25SPEAKERbecause there are literally dozens of them.
07:27SPEAKERLike, I feel like every other time somebody asks
07:29SPEAKERhow to do something on that server at this point,
07:32SPEAKERsomebody pops up with a Nursoft utility, including me.
07:35SPEAKERLike I was trying to,
07:36SPEAKERI was trying to dump the EDID from my monitor.
07:39SPEAKERIt's the thing that negotiates HDMI hand shaking.
07:41SPEAKER- Oh yeah.
07:43SPEAKERAnd I've used that tool before.
07:45SPEAKER- Well, so he actually has two.
07:47SPEAKER- Oh, I didn't know that.
07:48SPEAKER- There's two different utilities
07:49SPEAKERthat can both dump EDIDs for monitors.
07:52SPEAKER- Wow, I always call those EDIDs.
07:53SPEAKER- Okay, let's see.
07:54SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:55SPEAKER- Sounds like a species of seasonal insect.
07:58SPEAKER- It's like some sort of aphid.
07:59SPEAKER- Oh yeah, the EDIDs.
08:00SPEAKER- Small aphid-like thing.
08:01SPEAKER- Oh yeah, some of the EDIDs are out.
08:02SPEAKERThis is the EDIDs.
08:03SPEAKER- I just wiped out my cherry trees this year.
08:04SPEAKERIt's real bad.
08:05SPEAKER- Yeah, anyway.
08:06SPEAKER- I like those EDIDs.
08:07SPEAKERAnyway, yeah, yeah.
08:08SPEAKERSo you want to dig into your, dig in first?
08:11SPEAKER- Sure, yeah.
08:12SPEAKER- What do you got?
08:13SPEAKER- The first thing that came to mind
08:14SPEAKERis something I have actually been testing.
08:16SPEAKERCan I use that term here?
08:18SPEAKEREvaluating.
08:19SPEAKER- No, it's a patent pending test.
08:20SPEAKERWe emailed it to ourselves like 10, 12 years ago.
08:22SPEAKER- Copyrighted word.
08:24SPEAKERI've been evaluating something called
08:26SPEAKERthe Genki Covert Dock,
08:28SPEAKERwhich full disclosure was sent to me
08:30SPEAKERby the people who make it.
08:31SPEAKER- Is that some spy stuff?
08:33SPEAKER- Not really, it's pretty friendly actually.
08:36SPEAKERIt's got pretty colorful, friendly-looking packaging.
08:40SPEAKER- Oh, is this that little Switch HDMI duper
08:43SPEAKERthat's all in one?
08:44SPEAKER- Yes, I guess this is a bonafide duper.
08:46SPEAKERI never thought about that.
08:47SPEAKER- I want to, yeah.
08:48SPEAKERLike I saw this and I was like,
08:49SPEAKERthis is too good to be true.
08:50SPEAKER'Cause I bought an extra $80 Switch dock
08:53SPEAKERso I could capture my Switch easily.
08:55SPEAKER- Wait, like the Nintendo brand?
08:56SPEAKER- Yeah, and also plug into the TV.
08:58SPEAKER- Let me check.
09:00SPEAKERYes, I too have had my eye on this thing forever
09:03SPEAKERbecause they kick-started it.
09:05SPEAKERThis Kickstarter.
09:06SPEAKER- It was like two years ago, wasn't it?
09:07SPEAKER- Put dates on their campaigns.
09:11SPEAKER- Look for the first post update and you'll get right here.
09:14SPEAKERAm I going to have to scroll backwards to figure this out?
09:17SPEAKERProbably.
09:18SPEAKERIt's been at least a year, year and a half,
09:20SPEAKERmaybe two years, something like that.
09:23SPEAKER- Oh, that's awesome.
09:25SPEAKERWell, 'cause like, 'cause the challenge with the Switch-
09:28SPEAKER- God, maybe it hasn't been as long as I thought.
09:30SPEAKERI guess it was last, it was about a year ago actually.
09:32SPEAKERAnyway.
09:33SPEAKER- Time is ineffable, Brad.
09:36SPEAKER- So yeah, it was kick-started
09:37SPEAKERand I guess it's been going out to Kickstarter backers
09:39SPEAKERfor the last handful of months.
09:40SPEAKERAlthough obviously the pandemic has complicated that
09:42SPEAKERquite a bit, but it just started shipping to like retail
09:45SPEAKERfor everybody so you can just buy it.
09:48SPEAKER- Nice.
09:49SPEAKER- But yeah, so it's a little pricey, it's $74.99,
09:51SPEAKERbut it basically looks like, you know,
09:54SPEAKERit's roughly the size of like an iPad charger,
09:55SPEAKERmaybe a little bit bigger.
09:56SPEAKER- Wow.
09:57SPEAKERYeah, it's like a big power brick.
09:59SPEAKER- Same fold-out plug as like an iPad charger,
10:02SPEAKERexcept it has a USB-C power delivery port,
10:06SPEAKERa USB-A 3.1 port and an HDMI port.
10:09SPEAKER- Well, hold on.
10:10SPEAKERSo where did the Switch plugs into the USB-C port?
10:12SPEAKER- Yes.
10:13SPEAKERCause you know, if you look at the bottom of your Switch,
10:14SPEAKERthat's just a USB-C port.
10:15SPEAKER- Yeah, so you get a double-ended USB-C.
10:18SPEAKERDoes it have to be a special USB-C cable or does anyone?
10:20SPEAKER- Wow, see, this is why I do this podcast with you
10:22SPEAKERbecause you know all of the relevant nitty gritty
10:25SPEAKERto ask about.
10:26SPEAKERYes, it has to be a, this is the current thought on Reddit
10:32SPEAKERand then like Nintendo communities.
10:33SPEAKERThey say it has to be a USB 3.1 cable.
10:38SPEAKER- Yeah, that makes sense.
10:39SPEAKER- But what I've, and this is somewhat apocryphal,
10:41SPEAKERbut what I've been seeing on Reddit
10:42SPEAKERis that it specifically has to be a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 cable.
10:48SPEAKER- Oh, okay.
10:49SPEAKER- Because there are reports of people buying Gen 2 cables
10:51SPEAKERand saying that they don't work.
10:52SPEAKERAnd it sounds like that may be the fault of the Switch
10:54SPEAKERand not the dock, not the COVID docking.
10:56SPEAKER- It's shocking that Nintendo would jack up
10:58SPEAKERthe USB implementation.
10:59SPEAKER- You think?
11:00SPEAKER- This is my surprised face.
11:02SPEAKER- Yeah, like, you know,
11:02SPEAKERthat's putting the cart before the horse a little bit,
11:04SPEAKERbut the Inky People, Human Things is the name of the company
11:08SPEAKERthat makes this thing.
11:10SPEAKERLike they themselves say like,
11:11SPEAKERhey, please use the cable that it comes with
11:13SPEAKERif at all possible.
11:14SPEAKERAnd if you have to buy another USB-C cable,
11:16SPEAKERplease don't buy a cheap one.
11:18SPEAKER- Yeah.
11:19SPEAKER- 'Cause like the whole pitch for this thing off the bat was,
11:22SPEAKERyou remember when the third-party docks
11:24SPEAKERfirst started coming out for the Switch?
11:26SPEAKERLike what?
11:26SPEAKER- Yeah, they bricked a bunch of Switches.
11:28SPEAKER- Yeah, there were like Nyko and some other companies
11:30SPEAKERwere making third-party docks
11:31SPEAKERthat were straight up frying Switches.
11:33SPEAKERAnd it seems like, like you said,
11:35SPEAKERNintendo does a bunch of non-standard power stuff
11:37SPEAKERwith the Switch.
11:38SPEAKERLike it's, people didn't figure out
11:41SPEAKERwhat weird out of spec stuff the Switch was looking for.
11:44SPEAKERAnd they just kind of made assumptions and that was bad.
11:47SPEAKERAnyway, these people will put out a bunch of information
11:49SPEAKERabout all the engineering they did
11:50SPEAKERto kind of reverse engineer what the Switch wants
11:53SPEAKERand make sure that they're matching that.
11:55SPEAKER- They just took apart a bunch of docks
11:56SPEAKERand then jammed them into this little thing.
11:58SPEAKER- That's exactly right.
11:59SPEAKER- Yeah.
12:00SPEAKER- That has to be what they did.
12:00SPEAKER- They didn't actually do that.
12:01SPEAKER- No, this thing is quite small.
12:05SPEAKERBut it works as expected, basically, so far.
12:09SPEAKERI tried it, oh, go ahead.
12:11SPEAKER- Oh, does it do all the,
12:12SPEAKERlike it does all the mode switching and stuff
12:14SPEAKERthat the Switch does?
12:15SPEAKER- Yeah, so-
12:15SPEAKER- So you're running at 1080p with that thing plugged in?
12:18SPEAKER- Yeah, so if you just plug the USB-C in,
12:21SPEAKERit will just charge.
12:23SPEAKERWhen you plug an HDMI in,
12:24SPEAKERit detects that there's now video present
12:26SPEAKERand then it starts spitting out video.
12:27SPEAKERSo you can use it. - That's awesome.
12:28SPEAKER- So you can use it as a USB-C charger for the Switch
12:30SPEAKERand also for video out at the same time.
12:34SPEAKER- And I suppose you plug stuff into the USB-A port
12:37SPEAKERfor like, if you want a controller hard-wired in,
12:39SPEAKERsomething like that?
12:40SPEAKER- Yeah, so you use controller.
12:41SPEAKERI actually just, right before this podcast I tested,
12:43SPEAKERyou can use a USB-A ethernet adapter.
12:46SPEAKER- Oh, okay.
12:47SPEAKER- So I had video coming out of this thing
12:49SPEAKERand a wired internet connection into the Switch
12:51SPEAKERthrough the dock.
12:52SPEAKER- Bananas.
12:53SPEAKERI suppose you can plug a hub in if you want to do like-
12:55SPEAKER- Yes, yeah, they do say you could use a hub
12:57SPEAKERto get more USB connections if you wanted to.
13:00SPEAKERIt also does, it'll handle video for anything
13:02SPEAKERthat does display port over USB-C.
13:03SPEAKERSo I just- - Oh, so you do your laptop,
13:06SPEAKERpresumably. - I need to test the laptop.
13:07SPEAKERI have not done that yet,
13:08SPEAKERbut I did plug my girlfriend's iPad Pro into this thing
13:12SPEAKERand it spits right out to the TV, just like a Switch would.
13:15SPEAKER- Did you know, do you know if it does,
13:18SPEAKERdoes it support power profiles that the Switch doesn't,
13:20SPEAKERor does it only support the weird 29-watt one?
13:24SPEAKER- That's a good question.
13:26SPEAKERThey probably, they may have that information
13:27SPEAKERon their website.
13:28SPEAKERThey do go into some pretty decent detail about this stuff.
13:31SPEAKER- That's like a weird deep cut.
13:33SPEAKERI wouldn't expect- - Can you give an example
13:34SPEAKERof something else they would be looking for?
13:35SPEAKER- Well, so like the iPad supports
13:37SPEAKERa bazillion different profiles.
13:38SPEAKERLike the Switch is weird in that it only supports
13:40SPEAKERone USB 3.1 power profile.
13:45SPEAKER- Okay.
13:45SPEAKER- Remember, so like there's 16-watts, 29-watts,
13:49SPEAKER40s, 65-watts, all the way up to, you know,
13:52SPEAKERlike what would be, like your laptop,
13:55SPEAKERif you have a MacBook that is powered by USB-C,
13:57SPEAKERit's a 65-watt power source probably, so.
14:01SPEAKER- I haven't seen any specific language
14:03SPEAKERabout other power profiles, but it's possible.
14:05SPEAKERI mean, it will charge those devices.
14:06SPEAKERLike maybe just, I guess what you're saying is,
14:09SPEAKERif it doesn't support those profiles,
14:10SPEAKERit may not charge optimally.
14:12SPEAKERIs that the situation?
14:13SPEAKER- Yeah, so the way that the three stuff works is it,
14:17SPEAKERremember it negotiates,
14:18SPEAKERwe talked about this in the USB power episode, I think,
14:20SPEAKERbut it negotiates the highest rate that they both support.
14:23SPEAKERAnd if it doesn't find one,
14:24SPEAKERthen it'll fall back on the USB 2, you know,
14:27SPEAKERthe old school power charging.
14:29SPEAKER- I am embarrassed to admit that my retention rate
14:31SPEAKERfor the stuff we talked about that in that USB power episode
14:34SPEAKERis pretty low. - I feel like that was
14:35SPEAKERin like April.
14:36SPEAKER- It's pretty low.
14:37SPEAKER- It might as well has been a hundred years ago.
14:38SPEAKER- Yeah.
14:40SPEAKER- So. - It sounds awesome.
14:41SPEAKER- It is awesome.
14:42SPEAKERLike I have, and we'll get to this
14:43SPEAKERin some other stuff I want to talk about.
14:44SPEAKERI have a minor obsession with consolidating
14:48SPEAKERthe types of electronics that you carry around with you.
14:50SPEAKER- Yeah, you're an EDC guy.
14:53SPEAKER- Wait, what is that?
14:54SPEAKER- Everyday carry.
14:54SPEAKER- Is that a good thing?
14:55SPEAKEROh God, really?
14:56SPEAKER- Yeah, you're one of those guys.
14:57SPEAKER- Oh boy.
14:58SPEAKER- If you have an obsession
14:59SPEAKERwith consolidating the gear you carry around.
15:01SPEAKER- Am I going to have to go sign up for a subreddit
15:03SPEAKERbecause of this?
15:03SPEAKER- Do you have a weird wallet?
15:04SPEAKERLike is your wallet made of Kevlar
15:05SPEAKERand does it fold in weird ways or something?
15:07SPEAKER- Oh, we should not get into my wallet.
15:08SPEAKER- Wait, do you have a Castanza wallet?
15:10SPEAKERDo you have a soup wallet?
15:11SPEAKER- Not exactly.
15:12SPEAKER- Brad, tell me you don't have a soup wallet.
15:13SPEAKER- Well, what is the technical definition of a soup wallet?
15:16SPEAKER- Do you remember Kessler's wallet?
15:17SPEAKER- Oh, absolutely.
15:18SPEAKERBut I don't remember what exactly defined it as a soup wallet.
15:21SPEAKER- Bulging, nondescript and amorphous.
15:25SPEAKER- No, it's like wallet shaped.
15:26SPEAKERLike it is, let's say that it's retained its shape
15:29SPEAKERpretty well over the last 24 years that I've been using it.
15:32SPEAKER- Holy shit, you have a 24 year old wallet?
15:35SPEAKER- I've been using the same wallet
15:36SPEAKERsince junior year of high school.
15:38SPEAKER(laughing)
15:39SPEAKER- Is it Velcro?
15:40SPEAKER- No, it's leather.
15:41SPEAKERIt's like, it's hell of a-
15:42SPEAKER- How have I never seen good cotton?
15:44SPEAKER- Do you want me to go get it?
15:45SPEAKER- Yes.
15:46SPEAKER- Do you want to see it?
15:47SPEAKERI guess I have to go get it now, right?
15:48SPEAKER- This is going to be the episode picture now.
15:49SPEAKERCongratulations.
15:50SPEAKER- Talk amongst yourself.
15:52SPEAKER(upbeat music)
15:56SPEAKERIt's a bit ragged.
15:58SPEAKER- It's time, dude.
15:59SPEAKER- I know.
16:00SPEAKER- That is a soup wallet.
16:01SPEAKER- Well, so you can, you can subtract,
16:02SPEAKERlet's say the last five to seven years
16:04SPEAKERthat I have been telling myself I needed a new wallet
16:07SPEAKERand been putting it off.
16:09SPEAKER- Wow.
16:09SPEAKER- I mean, it's fun.
16:10SPEAKER- You want to see what my wallet looks like?
16:12SPEAKER- It's fine.
16:13SPEAKER- This is my wallet.
16:14SPEAKER- No, I know.
16:15SPEAKERYes, I, yes, trust me.
16:15SPEAKERI would-
16:16SPEAKER- Carry the little folding guy.
16:17SPEAKER- I would like to have a slimmer.
16:18SPEAKERI'd like to have a slimmer wallet, but I mean, you know, it's.
16:20SPEAKER- Wow.
16:22SPEAKERIt's the fraying edges that really sell in 24 years.
16:25SPEAKER- I know, but how many people are looking at my wallet?
16:28SPEAKER- Look on this rate, at this rate,
16:29SPEAKERyou're only likely to have maybe two more wallets
16:31SPEAKERfor your entire life, maybe three if you're really lucky.
16:33SPEAKER- You thought, you thought the 15 year old monitor situation
16:37SPEAKERwas dire or the 17 year old office chair
16:40SPEAKERthat I need to get replaced as well.
16:43SPEAKERI mean, I think we talked about that with these,
16:45SPEAKERwith these Cambridge sound work speakers, right?
16:46SPEAKEROr did we discuss that?
16:47SPEAKER- Those are good.
16:48SPEAKERI'm on board with you.
16:49SPEAKERLike I have a pair of 15 year old headphones there
16:51SPEAKERthat I use all the time.
16:52SPEAKERI love them.
16:53SPEAKER- Did we actually talk about that though?
16:54SPEAKERNot only are they good.
16:55SPEAKER- You and I have talked about it.
16:56SPEAKERI don't know if we've talked about it on a podcast.
16:57SPEAKER- Not only are they good
16:58SPEAKERand like I've fixed a bunch of stuff on these,
17:00SPEAKERlike I had to solder some of the wires back together
17:02SPEAKERafter they were chewed through by small rodents, so forth.
17:05SPEAKERBut last time I was at home,
17:07SPEAKERI realized that my sister had also had a set of these
17:10SPEAKERin college, but that she barely ever used them.
17:13SPEAKERLike they were practically new.
17:15SPEAKER- Wow.
17:16SPEAKER- And so I requisitioned that extra set of these,
17:19SPEAKERwhich, you know, obviously these haven't been
17:20SPEAKERout of production for.
17:21SPEAKER- 20 years.
17:22SPEAKER- 15 years, yeah.
17:23SPEAKERYears at least.
17:26SPEAKERSo you're obviously not gonna get any more of them,
17:27SPEAKERbut I found this whole extra set
17:29SPEAKERthat is practically brand new.
17:31SPEAKERConsidering that I have had these speakers for 20 years,
17:34SPEAKERthey have been on, like the subwoofer has been powered on
17:37SPEAKERfor basically the entirety of that 20 years
17:40SPEAKERand they're still going strong.
17:41SPEAKERAnd I have a brand new backup set for when things fail.
17:46SPEAKERIt is entirely possible these are the only computer speakers
17:49SPEAKERI will ever own for my entire natural life.
17:51SPEAKER- Look, A, on that I salute you
17:54SPEAKERbecause those are some awesome fucking speakers.
17:56SPEAKER- Hell yeah.
17:57SPEAKERWhen I left Maximum PC,
17:58SPEAKERI had a set of those Cambridge town works
17:59SPEAKERon my test bed in the lab and they were like,
18:02SPEAKER"Hey, are you gonna take these speakers?"
18:04SPEAKER'Cause I was the only one who wanted them and I didn't.
18:06SPEAKERAnd I remained sad about that.
18:07SPEAKER- Man.
18:08SPEAKER- B, you're thinking about this the wrong way.
18:11SPEAKERInstead of trying to stretch those out
18:12SPEAKERand use two 2.1 speakers for the rest of your life,
18:15SPEAKERwhat you need to do is get that other pair of speakers
18:17SPEAKERand put the two on the back wall behind you.
18:19SPEAKERYou have 4.2 speakers, which is perfect for apartment life.
18:24SPEAKER- Probably should do that.
18:25SPEAKER- Yeah.
18:26SPEAKER- Probably should do that.
18:27SPEAKER- Two subwoofers.
18:29SPEAKER- Anyway, anyway, it's time for a new wallet.
18:31SPEAKERIt's time for a new chair.
18:32SPEAKERIt is not time for new speakers.
18:34SPEAKER- Not time for new switch adapter either, sounds like.
18:38SPEAKERThat thing sounds dope.
18:39SPEAKER- It is super cool.
18:41SPEAKERIt's been, so I've tried it on directly
18:43SPEAKERinto my PC monitor, worked fine.
18:45SPEAKERDirectly into my Elgato capture card, also worked fine.
18:48SPEAKERDirectly into my TV, worked fine.
18:50SPEAKER- Perfect.
18:51SPEAKER- Through my AV receiver,
18:52SPEAKERit's had some pretty weird handshaking issues.
18:55SPEAKER- Like no video or no audio?
18:57SPEAKER- It just wouldn't put out video.
18:58SPEAKERIt just charged and kept charging
19:01SPEAKERand kept displaying on the small screen
19:02SPEAKERas if there was nothing connected.
19:04SPEAKER- Weird.
19:05SPEAKER- I finally got it to work right before this
19:07SPEAKERby plugging the iPad in first
19:10SPEAKERand the iPad spit out through the receiver fine.
19:12SPEAKERAnd then I pulled that and plugged it into the switch
19:15SPEAKERand then the switch worked through the receiver fine.
19:16SPEAKERSo I don't know if, I don't know.
19:19SPEAKER- It's funny, you and I have both,
19:21SPEAKERwe've both had weird problems with that receiver
19:23SPEAKERand HDMI issues. - Do you have one of those too?
19:25SPEAKER- 'Cause I have the same,
19:26SPEAKERI think we have the same Sony one
19:27SPEAKERthat Wirecutter used to recommend.
19:28SPEAKER- Okay.
19:30SPEAKER- And it's--
19:31SPEAKER- It is, yes, it is a Sony.
19:33SPEAKER- Yeah, and I had the HDMI CC problems with the MiSTer.
19:37SPEAKER- I ran it by the people that make the dock
19:41SPEAKERand they actually looked up the model and said,
19:44SPEAKER"Hey, it's probably a handshaking issue."
19:45SPEAKERAnd then sure enough, like I said,
19:46SPEAKERI tried plugging and unplugging some stuff for a while
19:49SPEAKERand it finally worked.
19:50SPEAKERSo I think it's something weird there,
19:52SPEAKERbut everything else I've tried it on,
19:56SPEAKERit works exactly as expected.
19:59SPEAKERAnd it seems pretty awesome.
20:01SPEAKER- How much is it, Brad?
20:01SPEAKER- It's 75 bucks, which is kind of a lot.
20:04SPEAKER- That's expensive.
20:05SPEAKER- But it does a lot.
20:06SPEAKERIt's funny though.
20:07SPEAKERIt's funny though, 'cause I started using it
20:08SPEAKERand it was funny how rapidly my expectations went from,
20:13SPEAKER"Wow, this thing does everything,"
20:14SPEAKERto, "Oh, but what if it also did this?"
20:16SPEAKERBecause it does so much and I have a USB-C MacBook now,
20:20SPEAKERI was like, "Oh man, what if this was also a 65 watt charger
20:23SPEAKERand it could run my MacBook Pro?"
20:25SPEAKER- It would be a lot bigger, I think.
20:26SPEAKER- But yes, I think that's the key difference, right?
20:28SPEAKERIs this thing is not much bigger than an iPad charger.
20:31SPEAKER- Yeah, that's a pretty good size for that.
20:34SPEAKERI mean, in fairness, it would have been much more useful
20:36SPEAKERbefore you stayed at home all the time
20:37SPEAKERand never left your Switch dock, so.
20:39SPEAKER- That's the other thing is that the coolness,
20:41SPEAKERthe usefulness, the utility of this thing
20:43SPEAKERis kind of purely hypothetical right now,
20:46SPEAKERbecause I have all my big permanent Switch equipment here
20:49SPEAKERall the time and I'm never going anywhere, but...
20:51SPEAKER- Well, but just conceptually, I'd much rather buy that
20:55SPEAKERand have something that is, like, it irks me
20:58SPEAKERthat the way I capture Switch games
21:00SPEAKERis that I have a dock on my desk
21:02SPEAKERthat I dropped the Switch into.
21:04SPEAKERIt still feels weird, so.
21:06SPEAKER- Yeah, I'm gonna start using this for video capture
21:07SPEAKERfor the Switch, just 'cause it's more convenient.
21:10SPEAKER- The Switch screen still turns off
21:12SPEAKERwhen it detects the dock, right?
21:13SPEAKER- Yes. - Okay.
21:15SPEAKERSo you can't handheld and capture it at the same time
21:17SPEAKERand still see what's on your screen.
21:18SPEAKER- I don't know, that is a problem.
21:20SPEAKERBut yeah, I've traveled with a real Switch dock
21:25SPEAKERbefore I've traveled with some of the smaller,
21:26SPEAKERreduced-sized docks, like this is by far.
21:29SPEAKER'Cause you're gonna bring a charger with you anyway.
21:32SPEAKERMight as well bring one that can also
21:34SPEAKERmake the Switch work on a TV.
21:35SPEAKER- Well, it's funny, when I travel with the Switch,
21:37SPEAKERI often just bring a big battery backup
21:40SPEAKERand charge the battery back up
21:41SPEAKERand then plug that into the Switch
21:44SPEAKERrather than carry another power,
21:46SPEAKERbut I also always carry one of those multi-port USB power
21:48SPEAKERbricks when I travel, so. - Sure.
21:52SPEAKER- Which I guess leads to my first thing,
21:55SPEAKERmulti-port USB chargers. - Oh, yeah.
21:59SPEAKER- I have filled my house with these things now
22:01SPEAKER'cause I'm a dumb ass, but also I like having chargers
22:04SPEAKEReverywhere I go, and I've started, I did a new thing,
22:07SPEAKER'cause we've reached a point in the house
22:09SPEAKERwhere we have too many, both, we have too many devices
22:12SPEAKERthat charge on USB and we also have too many different
22:14SPEAKERstandards of USB to plug in.
22:17SPEAKERSo we have a lot of Lightning devices,
22:19SPEAKERwe have a few USB-C devices in the Switch
22:22SPEAKERand Switch controllers, we have micro USB devices
22:27SPEAKERin battery backups and PlayStation controllers,
22:31SPEAKERand we have a few mini USB devices
22:36SPEAKERin Switch Pro controllers.
22:41SPEAKERI feel like there's one more that I'm missing,
22:42SPEAKERbut maybe that's it.
22:44SPEAKEROh, and the, no, that's it.
22:46SPEAKERAnd then, so I have multi-port USB chargers on my desk
22:53SPEAKERbehind the bed that wire up to the nightstands,
22:56SPEAKERand then one in the living room, one in the living room,
23:00SPEAKERone in the kitchen for working, when you're sitting
23:04SPEAKERin the couch and you need to plug in
23:06SPEAKERor when you're in the kitchen.
23:07SPEAKER- The goal is just to never have to stand up, right?
23:10SPEAKER- The goal is to never have to do anything,
23:12SPEAKERjust to always have a cable there,
23:13SPEAKERso you never need to use the battery, that's the dream.
23:16SPEAKERBut I got these, they're called, let's see,
23:22SPEAKERDigital Ant GenX Micros, and there's a bunch
23:24SPEAKERof different companies that make these,
23:25SPEAKERbut these are the ones that I bought
23:26SPEAKER'cause the reviews were pretty good on iTunes.
23:28SPEAKER- Did you say Digital Ant?
23:29SPEAKER- Digital Ant, not A-U-N-T, but A-N-T.
23:33SPEAKERThey've all been stolen by my child,
23:35SPEAKERso I don't know where, I don't have one here.
23:37SPEAKER- She's old enough to steal, huh?
23:39SPEAKER- Look. - Wait a minute.
23:40SPEAKER- What? - No fucking way.
23:42SPEAKER- What?
23:43SPEAKER- Oh man, I just ended up on their Amazon store page.
23:46SPEAKER- Is it good?
23:47SPEAKER- They make the thing that I want to talk about next
23:49SPEAKERthat I have not had a good vendor for in quite some time.
23:52SPEAKERSo this is quite fortuitous, but we'll get to that.
23:55SPEAKER- So, okay, so here's the way it works.
23:57SPEAKERYou got a normal cable, normal big USB-A cable on one end,
24:01SPEAKERand then the other end, you have a little MagSafe dealy
24:05SPEAKERthat you can peel the tip off of, and it just snaps on.
24:08SPEAKERSo basically, you take the stump
24:11SPEAKERof whatever connector you want, jam it in the device,
24:14SPEAKERand then magnet it off,
24:16SPEAKERjust like an old Apple MagSafe connector.
24:18SPEAKER- Oh wow, that's crazy.
24:20SPEAKER- It's fantastic for shit like controllers,
24:23SPEAKER'cause I don't want to have to fiddle with plugging that in.
24:25SPEAKERI just want to just get it close enough
24:26SPEAKERand have it click into place.
24:28SPEAKERAnd B, when my daughter is trying to charge her iPad
24:31SPEAKERor a Switch, I'm sitting there watching her flail around
24:33SPEAKERand jam the cable against her stomach and stuff like that.
24:35SPEAKERI'm like, oh God, I'm gonna end up pulling this thing out
24:37SPEAKERwith a bare needle-nose pliers.
24:39SPEAKERBut with the MagSafe on there, if she torques it
24:41SPEAKERthe wrong way, it just disconnects,
24:43SPEAKERand there's no risk of fucking up the connector,
24:47SPEAKER'cause there's not a lot of traffic on the connector,
24:49SPEAKERand we don't bend or break the connectors off in the device.
24:53SPEAKER- So this is just for the cables that they make,
24:56SPEAKERyou're saying?
24:56SPEAKER- These are just for the cables they make.
24:58SPEAKER- They don't make chargers, is what you're saying.
24:59SPEAKER- They don't make chargers.
25:00SPEAKERSo I'm plugging these into my normal Anker
25:03SPEAKERmulti-port USB chargers, and I have like-
25:05SPEAKER- Holy shit.
25:06SPEAKER- I'm looking at one of these USB-C, micro-USB-A,
25:10SPEAKERand Lightning for like six bucks.
25:12SPEAKER- So the one that I got was a three-pack for like $18
25:16SPEAKERthat had three cables that were pretty long.
25:19SPEAKERThey're like one and a half or two meter cables.
25:22SPEAKERAnd then there's nine tips, I think, in each one.
25:26SPEAKER- Hang on, I have to stop you for a second.
25:27SPEAKERAre we going metric on this podcast?
25:30SPEAKER- Look, sometimes-
25:31SPEAKER- Like I'm not necessarily complaining.
25:33SPEAKER- Sometimes metric, look, I think-
25:35SPEAKER- I knew I would need to make the transition sooner or later.
25:37SPEAKER- I think in metric, look, if we're going to move
25:39SPEAKERto New Zealand, you're going to have to learn metric, Brad.
25:42SPEAKER- I'm quite ready to do it in front of an audience,
25:44SPEAKERbut I'll give it a shot.
25:45SPEAKER- Look, okay, so 1.5 meters-
25:47SPEAKER- No, no, I know a meter and a half feet.
25:49SPEAKERIt's roughly more like a yard, give or take, right?
25:52SPEAKER- Four and a half feet, sorry.
25:53SPEAKER- Is it really?
25:54SPEAKER- Yeah, 2.54 centimeters in an inch.
25:56SPEAKER- I thought a meter was closer to three feet.
25:59SPEAKER- So if the meter is three feet,
26:02SPEAKERbut four and a half feet is a meter and a half.
26:04SPEAKER- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, yes, yes.
26:07SPEAKER- Anyway, yeah, so I like these things a lot.
26:10SPEAKERThey're not much more expensive than a normal ass cable
26:13SPEAKERand they have a cool like braided outside edge.
26:15SPEAKER- Yeah, they look appealing, they look nicely made.
26:18SPEAKERAre they nicely made?
26:19SPEAKER'Cause there's a lot of stuff that looks nicely made
26:20SPEAKERon Amazon these days that is decidedly not.
26:23SPEAKER- I've been using these for like two months now
26:25SPEAKERand I haven't been disappointed.
26:26SPEAKERAnd like, because the magnet is the weak spot
26:29SPEAKERon the connector, like if even if you wrench the cable
26:32SPEAKERand it doesn't, like there's no stretch.
26:35SPEAKERYou have to really mess up to jack up the ends
26:37SPEAKERof these cables, I think.
26:38SPEAKER- Sure, that's exciting, man.
26:40SPEAKERI started to ask, like I assumed these were charging only,
26:43SPEAKERbut this says charging and data.
26:44SPEAKER- It's charging and data.
26:46SPEAKERMy assumption is that like the data throughput's
26:48SPEAKERnot gonna be great on them.
26:49SPEAKERI'm exclusively using them for charging.
26:51SPEAKERSo your mileage, at some point, I guess I'll update
26:54SPEAKERthe firmware on my index controllers
26:56SPEAKERand I'll let you know how that goes, so.
26:58SPEAKER- Okay, I had one more question
27:01SPEAKERand I'm struggling to, oh, last question,
27:04SPEAKERwhich I assume you must've figured out
27:05SPEAKER'cause you have a small child.
27:07SPEAKER- Yes.
27:07SPEAKER- How do you keep up with the tips
27:08SPEAKERthat are not currently connected?
27:09SPEAKERDo they have any kind of provision for,
27:11SPEAKERlike do they magnet onto anything else or?
27:14SPEAKER- I have a giant wad of them magneted onto each other
27:17SPEAKERand this is on my desk.
27:18SPEAKER- Just a horrible amalgam.
27:20SPEAKER- It's like a homunculus of USB ends.
27:24SPEAKER- Yes, it's like the thing from the end of "Inside"
27:26SPEAKERexcept USB connectors.
27:28SPEAKER- All tips, it's like micro USB.
27:30SPEAKER- You know, the one thing that they don't have
27:31SPEAKERis they don't have mini USB, which is kind of a bummer,
27:33SPEAKERbut since the only thing that we have that uses that still
27:35SPEAKERis the Switch Pro Controller, the Wii U Pro Controller.
27:39SPEAKER- Yeah, that still would have been nice though.
27:40SPEAKERThat stuff does, like I've got a PlayStation Move
27:42SPEAKERthat uses that.
27:44SPEAKER- Yeah.
27:45SPEAKER- That stuff does hang around, but that's fine.
27:46SPEAKER- I have a dock for my Move controllers
27:48SPEAKER'cause I use the PSVR stuff so frequently.
27:52SPEAKERAnd then on the Anker multi-port charger front,
27:54SPEAKERwe've talked about these before,
27:55SPEAKERbut they come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.
27:59SPEAKERIf you want like USB 2.0A chargers,
28:02SPEAKERyou can get ones that have like 10 ports
28:03SPEAKERfor 50 bucks or something, which seems like overkill,
28:06SPEAKERbut I guess there's people out there with five kids
28:08SPEAKERin their family and like those phones
28:09SPEAKERhave to get charged somewhere.
28:11SPEAKER- Sure.
28:14SPEAKER- The ones that I use most,
28:16SPEAKERI have one that's a four port with one USB-C port,
28:20SPEAKERso five total ports that does fast USB-C charging
28:24SPEAKERup to like 40 watts, that's really good.
28:26SPEAKERAnd then I have a six port one into the bed
28:28SPEAKERfor Gina's and my watches, phones, and Kindles, I think.
28:34SPEAKER- Quick question about that stuff.
28:35SPEAKERI'm in the market for a new USB hub for behind my PC,
28:38SPEAKERjust to plug input devices and so forth into.
28:41SPEAKERI'm coming across a decent number of USB three hubs
28:44SPEAKERthat have a certain number of ports
28:45SPEAKERsectioned off for charge only.
28:47SPEAKER- Yeah.
28:48SPEAKER- What is the advantage there?
28:49SPEAKERIs that that they can deliver more current
28:51SPEAKERwhen you don't also have to worry about data
28:52SPEAKERin the same port or what's the deal?
28:54SPEAKER- I think it's just that a lot of people only need,
28:56SPEAKERlike I don't, like if I'm plugging my phone into my,
28:59SPEAKERI don't want to plug my phone into the computer
29:01SPEAKER'cause it pops up a bunch of crap that I don't need.
29:03SPEAKER- Okay.
29:04SPEAKER- Right, so it's like sometimes you just want to charge.
29:06SPEAKER- I guess that's why, yeah, maybe to ask the question
29:08SPEAKERin the reverse direction, you know,
29:10SPEAKERwhy aren't they all just proper USB data ports,
29:12SPEAKERbut maybe that's why, I mean,
29:14SPEAKERI would assume it's also probably cheaper to,
29:16SPEAKERyou know, you need a less complicated controller
29:18SPEAKERfor fewer data ports and stuff, cheaper to make.
29:22SPEAKER- Well, and also the more,
29:23SPEAKERso USB 3 has a lower limitation on the total number
29:28SPEAKERof devices on the chain than USB 2 did.
29:30SPEAKER- Interesting.
29:31SPEAKER- I think you can only do,
29:32SPEAKERand that may have changed with the later USB 3 specs,
29:34SPEAKERbut at least in the beginning it was only 128 total devices.
29:38SPEAKERSo like when you consider that a lot of devices,
29:43SPEAKERlike let's say a VR headset shows up as like 12 devices,
29:48SPEAKERyou can quickly run out of the endpoints on USB 3.
29:53SPEAKERSo like you don't really want a USB 3 hub
29:56SPEAKERwith like 20 ports on it, or even 10 ports.
29:59SPEAKERIt's probably not a great idea.
30:00SPEAKER- Interesting, actually on the same topic,
30:03SPEAKERone of the hubs I was looking at had like mostly USB 3 ports,
30:06SPEAKERbut also two or three USB 2.
30:09SPEAKER- That's weird.
30:10SPEAKER- Yeah, okay, so I was wondering if you had
30:12SPEAKERan explanation for that. - That might be a power?
30:13SPEAKERThat could be a power thing.
30:14SPEAKER- I think so, I want to say it had an AC adapter.
30:17SPEAKERI could be wrong about that.
30:19SPEAKERSometimes, I actually have no idea why they would do that.
30:24SPEAKERThat's ridiculous.
30:25SPEAKER- I also thought that was kind of strange.
30:27SPEAKERAlthough actually it just occurred to me,
30:29SPEAKERthere are maybe some very weird edge cases
30:32SPEAKERwhere that's useful, like the...
30:34SPEAKER- Like audio interfaces,
30:35SPEAKERyou probably want to plug into USB 2 only.
30:37SPEAKER- Like the Bluetooth dongle that I have
30:39SPEAKERcan only be plugged into USB 2,
30:41SPEAKER'cause I guess the polling rate of USB 3
30:42SPEAKERis enough to throw it off somehow.
30:44SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, so there you go.
30:46SPEAKER- Yeah.
30:47SPEAKER- I guess that's why the USB 3 audio interfaces
30:50SPEAKERare USB 2 only.
30:51SPEAKER- Yeah, that's probably weird.
30:53SPEAKERDo you know how that stuff works?
30:54SPEAKERIf you've got a, I know we're just talking about USB,
30:57SPEAKERI'm sorry.
30:57SPEAKER- It's like I said, USB episodes.
31:00SPEAKER- I'm in the market, so.
31:02SPEAKER- If you have, well, I'm sorry,
31:03SPEAKERif you just, if you have a hub,
31:05SPEAKERbefore I forget the question,
31:06SPEAKERif you have a hub and it's got one USB 3 connection
31:08SPEAKERout to the PC, and then you plug USB 2 devices
31:12SPEAKERinto some of those ports, are you...
31:15SPEAKER- I don't believe that it brings the whole hub
31:17SPEAKERdown to USB 2.
31:18SPEAKER- Okay, or even anything along those lines.
31:20SPEAKERI wouldn't have thought that the whole connection
31:21SPEAKERwould go down to,
31:22SPEAKERI fall back like that, but.
31:24SPEAKER- It probably depends on the hub,
31:26SPEAKERbut it shouldn't if it's a good one.
31:27SPEAKER- Okay. - How's that?
31:28SPEAKER- Okay.
31:30SPEAKERThat's quite good.
31:32SPEAKER- Yeah, you got some cables here.
31:34SPEAKER- Yeah, so. - What's your cable stitch?
31:35SPEAKER- I just wanna say I'm clicking around here.
31:37SPEAKERI mean, I'm discovering this in real time.
31:39SPEAKERDigital Ant might be my new favorite company.
31:41SPEAKEROoh, not least of all, because their logo is an ant.
31:47SPEAKER- It's pretty great. - Your ant and able.
31:48SPEAKER- It's pretty great.
31:49SPEAKERNo, no, no, it's like the, it's a tiny insect,
31:51SPEAKERbut it's like, it's kind of cartoonish and cutesy,
31:55SPEAKERbut not too overly so.
31:56SPEAKER- Oh yeah, that's a charming little guy.
31:58SPEAKER- Is it weird to make their logo the show art this week?
32:02SPEAKER- No, the logo has to be your soup wallet, dude.
32:04SPEAKER- Free advertising for Digital Ant.
32:06SPEAKER- You're not getting out of the soup wallet situation.
32:09SPEAKER- Fine.
32:10SPEAKERActually, you know what?
32:12SPEAKERI should have mentioned this before.
32:13SPEAKERThis is a whole other like tech topic.
32:15SPEAKERMy girlfriend bought me a new wallet this past Christmas.
32:18SPEAKER- Ooh.
32:19SPEAKER- But it was one of the RFID blocking wallets,
32:22SPEAKERwhich a lot of them seem to be these days.
32:24SPEAKER- You are definitely into EDC territory here.
32:27SPEAKER- Well, so I couldn't use it on the bus,
32:30SPEAKERso I ended up sending it back.
32:32SPEAKER- Oh, you couldn't use it on the bus
32:33SPEAKER'cause it blocked the card, you had to take the card out?
32:35SPEAKER- I don't wanna have to fish my Muni card out of my wallet
32:37SPEAKERevery time I get on the bus,
32:38SPEAKERso I decided that was a deal breaker,
32:41SPEAKERbut I almost had a new wallet is the point.
32:43SPEAKER- Wait, are you a Muni card guy, not a Clipper card?
32:45SPEAKER- Well, no, it is a Clipper card.
32:47SPEAKER- Okay, I didn't know it was a different thing.
32:49SPEAKER- I imagine anybody who doesn't live in the Bay Area
32:51SPEAKERdoesn't know what a Clipper card is.
32:54SPEAKER- It's funny, so even putting the Clipper
32:56SPEAKERon the outside edge of my wallet, it never works.
32:59SPEAKER- Fuck that, you know what?
33:00SPEAKERI'm just gonna lean entirely into my persona here.
33:03SPEAKER- Okay.
33:05SPEAKER- It's not a Clipper card, it's a TransLink card.
33:08SPEAKER- Whoa, what the hell is a TransLink card?
33:10SPEAKER- How long has it been since you've seen one of these?
33:12SPEAKER- I have never seen one of those.
33:13SPEAKER- TransLink is what Clipper used to be.
33:18SPEAKERI don't know why they rebranded
33:19SPEAKERat some point in the last decade.
33:21SPEAKER- Wow, is that what it looks like?
33:22SPEAKERI wondered if that's what you had to have
33:23SPEAKERto get to Sausalito when we were over there.
33:25SPEAKER- This is the one I bought in 2008
33:27SPEAKERto get to the Sausalito office.
33:28SPEAKER- Wow, it has a smart chip card on it.
33:30SPEAKER- Back when it was still TransLink.
33:32SPEAKERWell, I assume that some version of that chip
33:34SPEAKERis still in the current cards, right?
33:35SPEAKERYou just can't see it anymore.
33:36SPEAKER- Yeah, that's probably true.
33:37SPEAKER- But yeah, when they rebranded to Clipper,
33:39SPEAKERthey were like, "Ah, you got a TransLink card, it'll work."
33:42SPEAKER- That's really funny, I had no idea.
33:43SPEAKER- A little deep cut for Bay Area residents.
33:45SPEAKERBut anyway, the other reason that Digital Ant
33:49SPEAKERmight be my new favorite company is that,
33:52SPEAKERand this ties right back into my apparent
33:54SPEAKEReveryday carry obsession,
33:56SPEAKERwhen we were making the list for this episode,
33:58SPEAKERone of the things I wanted to put on here
34:00SPEAKERwas retractable cables.
34:02SPEAKER- Oh, I thought it was gonna be
34:03SPEAKERthe Bluetooth garage door opener.
34:04SPEAKER- No, no, no, well, that's the one with the ant on it.
34:06SPEAKERThat's, yeah, I'm pretty excited about that too.
34:07SPEAKERBut I fucking love retractable cables.
34:11SPEAKEREver since I went to Japan for the first time
34:12SPEAKERin like 2003, 2004, and found a retractable USB,
34:18SPEAKERmini USB cable over there,
34:19SPEAKERback when such a thing was unheard of in the States.
34:22SPEAKERI have loved, in fact, that is basically the origin
34:25SPEAKERof my appreciation for consolidating electronics.
34:29SPEAKERBut the problem, and I was literally lamenting this
34:31SPEAKERas I was making the list for this episode.
34:33SPEAKERI was thinking to myself, man,
34:35SPEAKERI've still got that same original retractable
34:37SPEAKERmini USB cable I got in Japan from 16 years ago
34:40SPEAKERor whatever, but because it's still, it's fine.
34:44SPEAKERIt works, it's still fine.
34:45SPEAKERAlso, I mean, how often do you use mini USB these days?
34:48SPEAKER- Okay, fair.
34:49SPEAKERWell, it's fair, fair, fair.
34:49SPEAKER- Let me get to the point here.
34:51SPEAKERThat cable's still fine.
34:53SPEAKERAll of the more recent retractable cables
34:55SPEAKERthat I've bought in the last like three to five years
34:57SPEAKERhave all gone to shit.
34:59SPEAKER- I, so we tested a bunch of retractable cables
35:01SPEAKERat Maximum PC in like the mid 2000s.
35:03SPEAKERAnd they were almost all bad.
35:05SPEAKER- Right.
35:06SPEAKER- But I think we were looking at like ethernet and stuff too.
35:08SPEAKERSo it's like, it's hard to say.
35:09SPEAKER- Maybe I just got lucky, but I've just,
35:11SPEAKERI've had the spring, the retraction mechanism
35:13SPEAKERjust fall to pieces on a bunch of the ones I've bought.
35:17SPEAKER- Huh.
35:18SPEAKER- But I clicked, like I said,
35:19SPEAKERI clicked through the Digital Ant store
35:21SPEAKERand right here at the top of their page,
35:22SPEAKERthey've got a whole line of nice looking retractable cables.
35:25SPEAKERAnd since you vouch for them.
35:28SPEAKER- I have no idea how the data works,
35:30SPEAKERbut for charging they're great.
35:31SPEAKER- I might have to stock up.
35:33SPEAKERThey've got a whole bunch.
35:33SPEAKERThey've got, they've got retractable cables
35:35SPEAKERthat have like all those tips on them.
35:37SPEAKER- Yeah. - HPC, lightning.
35:39SPEAKERGod, look at all this.
35:40SPEAKER- Can you plug multiple things at once
35:42SPEAKERinto those multi head cables?
35:43SPEAKERThat's the thing I don't know.
35:45SPEAKERWe should get some of these in and test them out.
35:47SPEAKER- I doubt that.
35:47SPEAKERThat seems, that seems dodgy.
35:49SPEAKERI think I would be, you know what?
35:51SPEAKERI would be a little concerned for my device, I think,
35:53SPEAKERif I were to do something like that.
35:54SPEAKER- This is like the time that I got the PCI Express extender
35:58SPEAKERto make my video card vertically mounted in the case
36:02SPEAKERand blew up the motherboard because it was $5.
36:04SPEAKERAnd that was a dumb ass for paying $5
36:06SPEAKERfor something that I plug a thousand dollar video card into.
36:09SPEAKER- Yeah, sometimes you got to go for it.
36:10SPEAKER- I was glad I blew up the video card,
36:12SPEAKERthe motherboard and not the video card.
36:13SPEAKER- Yes. - To be honest.
36:14SPEAKER- Yes.
36:16SPEAKERAnyway, yeah, like I love retractable cables
36:18SPEAKERand I have stopped buying them in recent years
36:20SPEAKERbecause they've all been so bad.
36:22SPEAKERAnd now I'm pretty hopeful looking at the stuff here that's,
36:26SPEAKERI mean, these are 11 bucks.
36:29SPEAKERThis one is, how long is this?
36:33SPEAKER- That's a perfectly reasonable price for a USB cable,
36:36SPEAKERI think.
36:37SPEAKER- Especially one that has three different types
36:39SPEAKERof connections.
36:40SPEAKERWow, five adjustable links.
36:43SPEAKER- I wonder if that means it like ratchets out to,
36:45SPEAKERyou need to get these and let me know how they are.
36:46SPEAKER- I'm gonna have to, well, maybe I'll wait
36:49SPEAKERuntil I actually have to travel again.
36:51SPEAKERMaybe it's fair.
36:52SPEAKER- So what do you do for cable management
36:53SPEAKERif you don't have retractable cables?
36:55SPEAKER- So I do still have a decent number that have not died yet.
36:58SPEAKERLike I was just kind of stubbornly re-buying the ones
37:00SPEAKERthat broke for a while.
37:01SPEAKERSo I've got a bunch.
37:04SPEAKERBut I don't know, man, cable wrapping
37:07SPEAKERis a very personal subject.
37:08SPEAKERI don't know if you want to get into that on here.
37:10SPEAKER- Well, so I was gonna say,
37:11SPEAKERI don't know if you guys use these in the shop,
37:13SPEAKERbut I ditched, I used to use these Velcro ties
37:16SPEAKERthat were great, except for they get really munged up
37:18SPEAKERand horrible.
37:20SPEAKERAnd I switched to these things called bongo ties,
37:23SPEAKERwhich are the...
37:29SPEAKER- Yeah, hold on.
37:30SPEAKER- I couldn't tell.
37:30SPEAKEROh, you, okay.
37:31SPEAKERSo I was grabbing a cable, sorry.
37:33SPEAKER- Yeah, so the bongo tie is like a rubber band
37:36SPEAKERwith a little, it's like a, I don't know.
37:40SPEAKEROh, that's a good coil.
37:42SPEAKERIt's like a rubber band with a little thing on it.
37:44SPEAKERLike it's like an hourglass shape.
37:46SPEAKERAnd the rubber band is looped around that and pulled through
37:49SPEAKERand then you just wrap that around the cables,
37:50SPEAKERthe whole thing, and hook the toggle
37:52SPEAKERon that one through the rubber band.
37:55SPEAKER- I think my girlfriend might have a few of those actually.
37:57SPEAKER- Yeah, they're fantastic.
37:58SPEAKERBut the rubber bands break down over time.
37:59SPEAKERSo that's just better for storing cables.
38:02SPEAKER- Yeah, just for bundling up cables.
38:04SPEAKER- Here is my method.
38:05SPEAKER- You do the clean coil.
38:06SPEAKER- I very gently, 'cause you don't want to,
38:08SPEAKERyou never want to stress connectors too much.
38:10SPEAKER- No.
38:11SPEAKER- I learned that from the old, the original, the MacBook.
38:14SPEAKERRemember the old school Mac safe?
38:16SPEAKER- Yeah, we did a video about that.
38:17SPEAKER- Do you remember how many people had to have the cable fray
38:21SPEAKERright there at the edge of the brick?
38:22SPEAKER- Yep, there's a company that makes this gluey epoxy stuff,
38:26SPEAKERlike putty epoxy stuff called Sugru,
38:30SPEAKERthat a large portion of their business
38:32SPEAKERwas people fixing the joint on their MacBook power bricks,
38:36SPEAKERbecause it broke every time.
38:37SPEAKER- Just don't put pressure on that thing.
38:39SPEAKER- Yeah, I know.
38:40SPEAKERWe did a video.
38:40SPEAKER- In the first place. - It was really funny.
38:41SPEAKERIt was like a '40s style, a '40s style PSA.
38:46SPEAKER- They didn't have MacBooks in the '40s.
38:48SPEAKER- No, but I did it in like 2011
38:50SPEAKERin the basement of the whiskey office.
38:52SPEAKER- That's the joke.
38:53SPEAKER- Yeah. - Okay.
38:54SPEAKERThis is gonna play amazingly well on an audio.
38:56SPEAKER- This is great audio. - Podcast.
38:57SPEAKERBut I just, I just.
38:59SPEAKER- If you keep doing this,
38:59SPEAKERwe're gonna have to start doing video now.
39:01SPEAKER- Gently wrap the cable around my hand,
39:03SPEAKERaround my kind of four fingers, basically.
39:05SPEAKER- Yeah.
39:06SPEAKER- Just take the ends and just kind of wrap them
39:08SPEAKERaround the inside of the coil.
39:09SPEAKER- Well, I mean, yeah, you could do that too.
39:11SPEAKER- And it just, you know, no stress on the cable.
39:14SPEAKERIt's pretty much lays flat.
39:17SPEAKERSo that's my method.
39:18SPEAKER- The braided cables don't have enough heft.
39:21SPEAKERThey don't have enough torsion in there for that to work.
39:24SPEAKER- Yeah, I can see that.
39:24SPEAKERIf you've got a stiff cable, my method's maybe
39:26SPEAKERnot gonna work too well, but.
39:27SPEAKER- Well, stiff cable works better.
39:28SPEAKERYou don't want a flaccid cable, I guess.
39:32SPEAKER- Nobody wants that.
39:34SPEAKERAll right.
39:35SPEAKERYeah, I mean, there's not much to say
39:36SPEAKERabout retractable cables other than
39:37SPEAKERthat I think they're great.
39:39SPEAKERAnd I wish. - They sound good.
39:40SPEAKER- I wish they were better.
39:41SPEAKERYou know, I wish they were manufactured to a higher quality.
39:44SPEAKERAnd now that you've turned me out to digital land,
39:46SPEAKERI'm hopeful that these are pretty good.
39:49SPEAKERThey've got four and a half stars, five stars, five stars.
39:53SPEAKERYeah, these.
39:54SPEAKER- Yeah, they rated highly.
39:55SPEAKERI looked at all the different MagSafe USB cable companies
39:58SPEAKERand they were the ones that seemed to be the most legit.
40:00SPEAKER- I don't see anybody complaining
40:02SPEAKERabout broken retraction mechanisms on here.
40:04SPEAKERSo there you go, might have to grab a couple of these
40:06SPEAKERnext time I have to fly somewhere.
40:09SPEAKER- You know, one of the things that I've done
40:12SPEAKERover the last year that has improved my life dramatically
40:15SPEAKERis maybe two years now is I've started adding lights.
40:19SPEAKERLike LED lights can, it turns out, run on batteries
40:22SPEAKERfor a really long time, or you can power them
40:25SPEAKERoff of something goofy like USB.
40:27SPEAKERSo I started by getting just a cheap,
40:30SPEAKERlike $5 USB strip light that had a USB plug for power.
40:35SPEAKERAnd I plugged that into the USB port on my monitor
40:37SPEAKERand then glued it underneath the monitor
40:38SPEAKERwith a double-sided foam tape.
40:41SPEAKERSo that I have like down lighting on the back of the monitor
40:44SPEAKERfor when I'm working on my desk.
40:45SPEAKER- Okay, smart, do you leave it on all the time?
40:49SPEAKER- No, it has a switch on the side
40:50SPEAKERso I can turn it on and off, it's hardly ever on.
40:51SPEAKERBut when I need it, it's there.
40:53SPEAKER- Ah, that'd sound useful.
40:54SPEAKER- Yeah, but like the king of all lights
40:58SPEAKERin my house is a good headlamp.
41:00SPEAKER- Cool.
41:02SPEAKER- I have a bunch of them 'cause we have, you know,
41:05SPEAKERthree people in the family, we need them.
41:06SPEAKERThey're nice when you're walking the dog and stuff,
41:07SPEAKERbut they're also awesome when you're working on computers,
41:09SPEAKERwhen you're like under the desk, digging around,
41:11SPEAKERdoing cable work or something like that.
41:13SPEAKERSo I put on the Black Diamond Spot 325,
41:16SPEAKERwhich is the wire cutter recommended headlamp right now.
41:18SPEAKERAnd somebody gave me one for Christmas last year.
41:20SPEAKER- Okay, I wasn't gonna ask.
41:22SPEAKER- Yes, hello.
41:23SPEAKER- But I'm just gonna ask.
41:25SPEAKERTo clarify, we are talking the type of headlamp
41:27SPEAKERlike one might wear caving, is that correct?
41:30SPEAKER- I mean, I assume miners wear headlamps, yes.
41:32SPEAKER- Miners wear headlamps, okay.
41:33SPEAKERIt is in fact a lamp on your head.
41:35SPEAKER- This one does not burn whale oil or anything like that.
41:37SPEAKERIt has a couple of batteries and an LED light
41:39SPEAKERand has red lights.
41:41SPEAKER- Have you ever worn a fuel burning type of headlamp?
41:44SPEAKER- No, that seems like it'd be a really good way
41:46SPEAKERto burn your hair off.
41:47SPEAKER- I have, it's pretty weird.
41:48SPEAKER- What, really?
41:49SPEAKER- I went caving one time when I was like 14.
41:52SPEAKER- Did they not have electricity then?
41:54SPEAKER- They had to do the cavers kiss if your light went out
41:57SPEAKERand you have to kind of kiss your headlamps.
42:00SPEAKERYeah, together to kind of reignite yours.
42:03SPEAKER- When I went caving and I was 14,
42:04SPEAKERwe carried mag lights, like, you know.
42:06SPEAKER- This was, I don't know, maybe they were trying
42:08SPEAKERto give us a nice retro experience, I'm not sure.
42:11SPEAKER- Where did, was this in North Carolina someplace?
42:13SPEAKER- Yeah, God, where was this?
42:14SPEAKERThis was up around Boone, I wanna say,
42:16SPEAKERsomewhere in that area.
42:17SPEAKERI forget, it's been a long time.
42:19SPEAKER- Wow, okay.
42:20SPEAKERI know, when I went, when I did my overnight caving trips,
42:23SPEAKERwe always used electricity.
42:25SPEAKER- Not overnight, this was like for an hour,
42:27SPEAKERcouple hours or something.
42:28SPEAKER- Oh, we, I went, let's see, we went camping in Lost Sea,
42:30SPEAKERwhich is like near Chattanooga, and we went to a multi,
42:36SPEAKERI wanna say it was a two-day caving excursion
42:39SPEAKERat this place in Greenville, the science camp.
42:41SPEAKER- That's intense.
42:42SPEAKER- With seventh grade, it was cool.
42:44SPEAKER- Was it like the super, super claustrophobic,
42:46SPEAKERlike you're inching your way through like 10 inch gaps
42:49SPEAKERor whatever? - It was hinky.
42:50SPEAKERYeah, it wasn't, like there was a place
42:52SPEAKERthat they were like, if the water's too high,
42:54SPEAKERwe won't be able to go back any further from here on,
42:56SPEAKERbecause, you know, yeah, it was the kind of thing
42:59SPEAKERthat Elon would design a submarine
43:00SPEAKERthat no sane person would get in to get through probably.
43:03SPEAKER- Yes, makes me grateful in retrospect
43:06SPEAKERthat there's not a lot of seismic activity
43:07SPEAKERin that part of the world.
43:08SPEAKER- My mom had an earthquake the other day.
43:10SPEAKERI was going to North Carolina.
43:11SPEAKER- I heard, I heard about that.
43:12SPEAKER- Yeah.
43:14SPEAKER- Then I saw the film, "The Descent,"
43:15SPEAKERand I will never go in a cave again.
43:17SPEAKER- It's funny, I was, I never remember being scared
43:20SPEAKERin the caves.
43:21SPEAKERNow it is absolutely terrifying to me.
43:23SPEAKER- You could not get me in another one of those things
43:25SPEAKERat this point.
43:26SPEAKER- Yeah, but yeah, so the headlamp,
43:29SPEAKERI've had a bunch of headlamps over the years.
43:31SPEAKERThe one I have now is really nice.
43:33SPEAKERIt doesn't have, it's just one band.
43:34SPEAKERIt's not like a head strap across the middle
43:36SPEAKERor anything like that.
43:37SPEAKERIt's really, really light.
43:38SPEAKERIt's bright.
43:39SPEAKERThe batteries, like using edeloops,
43:42SPEAKERthe batteries last for 14 or 15 hours.
43:44SPEAKER- Wow, damn.
43:45SPEAKER- So like it's, it's like literally multiple weeks
43:48SPEAKERof taking the dog out or, you know,
43:51SPEAKERmonths if I'm just using it to work on the PC.
43:53SPEAKER- Sure, I have to, I should totally get one of those.
43:56SPEAKERAre they relatively inexpensive?
43:58SPEAKER- It's like 20 bucks.
43:59SPEAKER- Oh wow, yeah.
44:00SPEAKER- You could get a really nice one for 25.
44:02SPEAKERYeah, everybody should have one of these.
44:03SPEAKERThat's the thing.
44:04SPEAKER- Every time I work on the computer,
44:05SPEAKERI either have to drag it into a room
44:06SPEAKERwith a bunch of natural light or contort some lamp
44:09SPEAKERon the floor to like prop it up on a milk crate.
44:12SPEAKERTry to get some light in that, wow, man.
44:14SPEAKERWhere have I been all this time?
44:15SPEAKER- That's for chumps.
44:15SPEAKER- Yeah, seriously.
44:16SPEAKER- You just put the light on your head,
44:17SPEAKERthen you're good to go.
44:18SPEAKERThere's light everywhere you're looking.
44:19SPEAKER- Dude, you're, I am literally assembling a wishlist
44:22SPEAKERoff of this episode.
44:23SPEAKERThis is good stuff.
44:24SPEAKER- Well, and so the neat thing is,
44:26SPEAKERlike when I was outside last night
44:27SPEAKERand we were trying to see the meteors
44:29SPEAKERand I didn't want to blow out my night vision,
44:30SPEAKERbut I needed a light
44:31SPEAKER'cause my daughter wanted something from inside,
44:33SPEAKERI switched over to red light mode.
44:35SPEAKER- Oh wow.
44:36SPEAKER- And it has like a relatively dim,
44:38SPEAKERbut like when your night adjusted eyes are okay,
44:40SPEAKERyou can see whatever you need to see.
44:41SPEAKERAnd that works too.
44:43SPEAKER- That's super cool.
44:45SPEAKER- I think it also has an annoying flashy mode,
44:47SPEAKERbut I suppose that's if you're in trouble
44:50SPEAKERor something, need help, I don't know.
44:52SPEAKERAnd then the last thing I talked about a few weeks ago
44:54SPEAKERwhen we did the other episode,
44:55SPEAKERbut it's the Amico motion sensor closet light.
44:58SPEAKERAnd it's a USB battery.
45:01SPEAKERLike it's a battery about the size of like, I don't know,
45:03SPEAKERit's like three inches long, maybe an inch and a half wide.
45:06SPEAKERAnd it has a USB-A port.
45:08SPEAKERSo you can plug it into any kind of charger device
45:10SPEAKERand it'll charge.
45:11SPEAKERAnd the battery is long enough
45:13SPEAKERthat it runs a motion activated light in the closet,
45:16SPEAKERmotion and light activated light in the closet,
45:18SPEAKERwhich doesn't have any natural lighting and is really deep
45:21SPEAKERand is like usually involved getting a flashlight
45:22SPEAKERto get like cans of soup out of the back.
45:25SPEAKERAnd now whenever you open the pantry door,
45:27SPEAKERthe light turns on and it's fabulous.
45:30SPEAKERSo like the upshot here is that there are a lot of weird,
45:36SPEAKERlike you can buy,
45:37SPEAKERnow you can buy battery powered USB strip lights.
45:40SPEAKERSo if you want to put under counter lighting
45:42SPEAKERor something like that, under shelf lighting someplace,
45:45SPEAKERyou can do it in a non-permanent way
45:47SPEAKERthat doesn't require permanent wiring and stuff like that.
45:49SPEAKERAnd like the hassle is,
45:52SPEAKERoh, I have to plug this in every three weeks or a month
45:55SPEAKERor something like that, which isn't that bad.
45:56SPEAKER- Yeah, that's super cool.
45:58SPEAKER- And that was like 15, 20 bucks too, so.
46:01SPEAKER- Cool, so my turn.
46:05SPEAKER- I mean, yeah, I feel like I'm done.
46:07SPEAKER- I'm half of this podcast.
46:09SPEAKER- Yeah, I guess I can decide that it's my turn.
46:13SPEAKERFor whatever reason, a lot of my stuff is charging related.
46:15SPEAKERBefore we move on to the next actual thing,
46:17SPEAKERone thing I forgot to mention with the Genki,
46:19SPEAKERthe Covert dock is that they,
46:21SPEAKERand they kind of make a big deal out of this
46:22SPEAKERin the marketing that it's gallium nitride based.
46:25SPEAKERDo you know anything about that?
46:25SPEAKERLike they really kind of play it up as like,
46:28SPEAKERah, it's next gen charging technology.
46:30SPEAKERAnd I have not really looked into the kind of material
46:33SPEAKERscience of why that is.
46:34SPEAKER- I know that gallium is a very soft metal
46:36SPEAKERand that nitride is nitrogen minus some stuff.
46:39SPEAKER- Okay. - That's what I remember.
46:40SPEAKER- Okay, I don't know what the previous types of chargers
46:44SPEAKERare even based on, silicon carbide.
46:47SPEAKER- Does that mean it's more efficient?
46:49SPEAKERIs that the TLDR? - Maybe for going around.
46:51SPEAKERLet's see, scholarly articles for gallium nitride
46:54SPEAKERversus silicon carbide.
46:56SPEAKERThis might take some time to look into.
46:58SPEAKERAnyway.
46:59SPEAKER- Yeah, this sounds like an episode actually.
46:59SPEAKER- I just brought it up 'cause I was curious
47:01SPEAKERif you knew off the top of the head.
47:03SPEAKER- Never heard of that one.
47:04SPEAKERIt may be a conflict mineral thing,
47:05SPEAKERbut silicon carbide doesn't sound particularly conflicty.
47:08SPEAKER- I would guess it's an efficiency thing.
47:11SPEAKERIf I had to guess. - Yeah, that makes sense.
47:12SPEAKER- Maybe just like how you can pump more watts
47:13SPEAKERout of the same size charger or something like that.
47:16SPEAKER- Speaking of efficiency though.
47:17SPEAKER- Yeah, so I threw wireless phone chargers on here,
47:19SPEAKERwhich are pretty old hat at this point.
47:21SPEAKERLike everybody knows what those are,
47:22SPEAKERbut I guess the main reason I wanted to talk about them
47:27SPEAKERis this, so this was on Boing Boing.
47:29SPEAKERThis link was going around on our Discord.
47:32SPEAKER- Yeah, that's why I put it on there.
47:33SPEAKER- I don't know where the actual,
47:34SPEAKERoh yeah, that's right, you are the one that posted this.
47:36SPEAKERI don't know where the actual research came from
47:38SPEAKERthat this story is based on, but the headline is report,
47:41SPEAKERwireless phone charging is an ecological disaster
47:43SPEAKERwaiting to happen.
47:45SPEAKER- Probably is already happening, yeah.
47:46SPEAKER- Shit.
47:47SPEAKER- Yeah, I really like my wireless charger.
47:49SPEAKER- So do I.
47:50SPEAKERI mean, the upshot of this is that wireless charging,
47:54SPEAKERespecially if you don't align your device very well
47:56SPEAKERwith the charging coils in the charger
47:57SPEAKERis insanely inefficient and that you are wasting
48:00SPEAKERa massive amount of energy for the same result
48:04SPEAKERas you would be with a wired charger.
48:07SPEAKERSo that's the next step.
48:10SPEAKER- Yep, so there's a couple of caveats for this.
48:16SPEAKEROne is that if you have a charger that makes it hard
48:21SPEAKERfor you to line up the coil on the phone
48:23SPEAKERwith the coil on the transmitter, you lose efficiency a lot.
48:26SPEAKERSo if your phone gets warm when it's charging on the pad,
48:30SPEAKERyou're probably not lining it up right
48:32SPEAKERso you're wasting a lot of energy.
48:34SPEAKER- Because a lot of the extra energy
48:35SPEAKERis dispersed as heat, right?
48:37SPEAKER- It turns into heat, yeah.
48:39SPEAKERThe other part of it is, so also at the same time,
48:45SPEAKERif you have like a stand charger,
48:47SPEAKERlike these Anker ones that you and I use,
48:49SPEAKERthey probably put the phone,
48:50SPEAKERthey put the thing in the right spot
48:51SPEAKER'cause I notice on the stand when it never gets warm
48:53SPEAKERunless I have it like cattywampus on the charger.
48:57SPEAKER- You have it what?
48:58SPEAKER- Cattywampus.
48:59SPEAKER- Cattywampus?
49:00SPEAKER- Do you not say cattywampus?
49:01SPEAKER- It must be an extremely regional term.
49:04SPEAKER- It might be English.
49:05SPEAKER- I'm practically from the same region as you
49:06SPEAKERand yet I have not heard.
49:08SPEAKER- Well, it's a thing my mom says.
49:09SPEAKERSo the source was one zero and basically they just,
49:13SPEAKERwhich is one zero dot medium dot com.
49:18SPEAKERAnd they basically put up a watt meter,
49:20SPEAKERput a watt meter on charging pads and wired chargers,
49:26SPEAKERtimed how long it took to charge
49:28SPEAKERand like measured how much energy
49:30SPEAKERthe watt meter was saying went in
49:31SPEAKERto figure out how much we were wasting.
49:33SPEAKER- Yeah.
49:34SPEAKER- It's one of those things, it's like the vampire,
49:36SPEAKERyou know, the vampire power bricks.
49:38SPEAKEROn the surface it doesn't seem like
49:39SPEAKERit's actually that much energy waste,
49:42SPEAKERbut then when you multiply that
49:43SPEAKERby a few billion phones around the world,
49:46SPEAKERit's a kind of a disaster.
49:47SPEAKER- It's pretty substantial, yeah.
49:48SPEAKER- Yeah.
49:49SPEAKER- So, I mean, I don't know that we're quite gonna go
49:51SPEAKERas far as to say never wirelessly charge again,
49:53SPEAKERbut maybe try to at least get like
49:55SPEAKERsome of these stand type form factor ones
49:57SPEAKERthat make it easier to line the device up properly.
49:59SPEAKER- Well, and like one of the other things is
50:01SPEAKERI know there's a rumor going around right now
50:02SPEAKERthat Apple is doing a charger for the next series of phones
50:06SPEAKERthat has like magnetic locking.
50:08SPEAKERSo when you put your phone down,
50:10SPEAKERit locks it like the magnets move it
50:11SPEAKERinto the exact right position.
50:13SPEAKERSo you get better efficiency.
50:14SPEAKER- That's cool, that seems smart.
50:17SPEAKER- Yeah, we'll see.
50:18SPEAKER- A lot harder to do for a universal charger
50:20SPEAKERthat works with anything though, of course.
50:22SPEAKER- I like not having physical connectors
50:24SPEAKER'cause I feel like physical connectors
50:25SPEAKERare a thing that wears down over time.
50:28SPEAKER- Hey, well, guess what, Will?
50:30SPEAKER- What, Brad?
50:31SPEAKER- What if you are so ecologically conscious
50:33SPEAKERthat you want to cut wireless charging
50:34SPEAKERout of your life entirely?
50:36SPEAKER- Okay.
50:37SPEAKER- And get back to some good sturdy, reliable wires.
50:41SPEAKER- Okay.
50:42SPEAKER- We have a charging station.
50:45SPEAKER- Ooh, like one of those blue lounge jobbers?
50:46SPEAKER- Made out of bamboo.
50:48SPEAKER- Ooh, fancy.
50:49SPEAKER- What is a blue lounge, what are you?
50:51SPEAKER- Blue lounge is a brand, they used to make charging stations
50:53SPEAKERlike wooden sides and velvet bottoms that look fancy,
50:56SPEAKERlike something you're putting your jewelry on.
50:58SPEAKER- Kinda looks like that.
51:00SPEAKER- I have one in my bedroom, I use it.
51:02SPEAKERI love it, I'm a fan.
51:03SPEAKER- Okay.
51:04SPEAKERYeah, these things are all over Amazon
51:05SPEAKERif you just kind of search for,
51:06SPEAKERthey don't have to be made out of bamboo,
51:08SPEAKERthat's just the one that we have
51:09SPEAKERand apparently for whatever reason, a lot of them are.
51:12SPEAKER- Bamboo is an ecologically friendly material.
51:14SPEAKER- Okay.
51:16SPEAKEROh, I just found the actual,
51:17SPEAKERthis looks pretty much like exactly the one we have.
51:20SPEAKER- There you go.
51:21SPEAKER- It's just a little slotted wooden device.
51:24SPEAKERIt's got, ours has magnets in it,
51:26SPEAKERso the top part, it's like a breakaway top.
51:28SPEAKERIt's got slots that basically like a phone,
51:30SPEAKERlike some phones will fit into the slots in the front
51:32SPEAKERand then there are bigger slots as you go back,
51:34SPEAKERlike the next one back is like an iPad mini size one
51:37SPEAKERand the one behind that is like a full-size iPad slot.
51:39SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah.
51:40SPEAKER- And that top breakaway with all the stands on it
51:43SPEAKERopens up to reveal just an empty chamber inside
51:45SPEAKERwith kind of runs for cables.
51:48SPEAKERYou basically run cables through the back, out the sides,
51:50SPEAKERso they come out right where the port
51:52SPEAKERon the relevant vice would be.
51:54SPEAKER- Oh, interesting, and then you just drop it in the slot
51:56SPEAKERand plug it in?
51:57SPEAKER- It's just a little corral, yeah.
51:58SPEAKERIt's just, well, yeah,
51:59SPEAKERyou still have to manually plug the cable in.
52:00SPEAKERIt's not like it doesn't secure the cable
52:02SPEAKERso it lines up with the port or anything like that.
52:04SPEAKERIt's nothing nearly that fancy,
52:05SPEAKERbut it is just a nice tasteful looking little corral
52:09SPEAKERfor a bunch of different charging cables to kind of,
52:12SPEAKERit eliminates the spaghetti mess
52:14SPEAKERand it just is like one nice little central location
52:16SPEAKERfor all of your stuff to charge.
52:18SPEAKER- And is it one power cord that comes from the wall
52:20SPEAKERinto that box?
52:21SPEAKER- No, no, no, there are no electronics.
52:22SPEAKERIt is purely just a wooden thing.
52:23SPEAKERYou still, yeah, like I said, not that fancy.
52:26SPEAKER- Okay.
52:27SPEAKER- You still have to, you know,
52:28SPEAKERwe just ran everything to a surge protector
52:30SPEAKERunderneath the console table that it's on.
52:32SPEAKER- That sounds really, I mean,
52:33SPEAKERthat sounds pretty good though.
52:34SPEAKERLike that, like if you put one of those multi USB chargers
52:36SPEAKERunder there and got some like one foot long USB cables,
52:39SPEAKERyou'd be in business.
52:40SPEAKER- So it's really just a way to kind of obfuscate
52:42SPEAKERthe cable mess coming out of those multi chargers.
52:44SPEAKER- Yeah, hydrocrimes.
52:45SPEAKER- Make it, yes, exactly, make it look nice.
52:47SPEAKERAnd it's, I'm not gonna go as far as to say
52:50SPEAKERit's like a nice display piece for your mobile devices
52:52SPEAKERor anything, but like it is kind of handy
52:53SPEAKERto have your phone like standing up on a stand
52:56SPEAKERwhile it's charging like that.
52:56SPEAKERSo if you get a text message,
52:58SPEAKERyou can just kind of walk by and read it.
52:59SPEAKER- Well, and it's nice not to like,
53:00SPEAKERif the problem we have, I mean,
53:03SPEAKERwith three people in the house now with devices is if like,
53:08SPEAKERlike it is iPad minis and switches and phones and iPads
53:12SPEAKERand laptops and all the things, the detritus,
53:14SPEAKERthe electronic detritus of our lives
53:16SPEAKERtakes up a lot of space.
53:18SPEAKER- Totally.
53:18SPEAKER- Like if you just lay it flat too.
53:20SPEAKERSo I can see that.
53:21SPEAKER- Yeah, totally, this stands everything up vertically.
53:23SPEAKERIt just kind of just gets it all out of the way
53:24SPEAKERwhile it's charging.
53:25SPEAKERIt's nice for kindles and stuff like that as well.
53:27SPEAKERLike just about anything that'll fit in one of these slots.
53:31SPEAKER- I like it.
53:32SPEAKERSo my last couple of life, I have three more things.
53:37SPEAKERTwo of them are kind of the same.
53:38SPEAKERSo there's, I don't know if you've ever used
53:40SPEAKERsoldering extra hands, like the things that are like,
53:43SPEAKERthey have like the little articulated ball joints
53:46SPEAKERwith wing nuts that you can tighten up and tighten down
53:48SPEAKERto like make them tighter.
53:49SPEAKERNot, and they have alligator clips on the end.
53:51SPEAKERSo you can hold, like if you need to solder two wires
53:53SPEAKERtogether, then you can clamp the two wires in there,
53:55SPEAKERget them lined up exactly, get them all tinned up
53:57SPEAKERand soldering iron.
53:59SPEAKER- I've never used those, but I've never done
54:01SPEAKERa soldering project, you know, complicated enough
54:04SPEAKERto need that sort of thing.
54:05SPEAKERBut if I had that stuff, maybe I would.
54:07SPEAKER- Well, so the trick is the ones that everybody has
54:10SPEAKERthat you got at Radio Shack like 20 years ago, suck ass.
54:14SPEAKERBecause they have a little like cast metal, cast iron base
54:17SPEAKERthat theoretically is heavy enough to balance it.
54:20SPEAKERBut in reality, if you have any kind of weight
54:21SPEAKERon those cables, then it's going to tip over
54:23SPEAKERjust at the moment that you're trying to touch it
54:25SPEAKERwith the hot soldering iron.
54:26SPEAKERAnd then the whole thing gets out of alignment
54:27SPEAKERand you have to do it all over again.
54:30SPEAKERI got, a few years ago, I got a really nice,
54:33SPEAKERa friend of mine gave me a really nice set of jewelers
54:35SPEAKERhelping hands that are like those.
54:37SPEAKERBut instead of being on the little tiny cast iron base,
54:41SPEAKERthey have a great big, huge base with a big stone
54:44SPEAKERto absorb the extra heat.
54:46SPEAKERWhich is great if you're a jeweler,
54:47SPEAKERnot so great for soldering electronics,
54:49SPEAKERbut the arms are really heavy duty
54:51SPEAKERand articulated really well.
54:52SPEAKERAnd you kind of like set the tension on the grabbers
54:55SPEAKERand all that, so you don't munch up delicate stuff.
54:58SPEAKERBut they were like 150 bucks.
54:59SPEAKERThey were really expensive.
55:00SPEAKER- I was just about to say something with this fine level
55:03SPEAKERof control sounds pretty pricey.
55:05SPEAKER- Well, so the thing that's happened in the last few years
55:08SPEAKERis that a couple of companies are making,
55:11SPEAKERthese things are called third hands usually,
55:14SPEAKERmaking these that have like the gorilla pod style,
55:19SPEAKERknobby, like snake arms.
55:21SPEAKERSo like the gorilla pod is like the plastic ball
55:23SPEAKERand socket joints that are just segmented
55:26SPEAKERand you can put them wherever.
55:27SPEAKERSo you have like four of those arms on a nice big wide base
55:31SPEAKERand they're like 20 bucks 'cause they're made of plastic.
55:33SPEAKER- Wow.
55:34SPEAKER- So Kato is the one that I've recommended
55:36SPEAKERto a bunch of people and have had really good feedback on.
55:39SPEAKER- K-O-T-T-O.
55:40SPEAKER- K-O-T-T-O, I'm not replacing my fancy jewelers third hands
55:47SPEAKERbut this is what I've been recommending
55:48SPEAKERto anybody who needs them and they're great.
55:50SPEAKERYou can get them with like a little magnifier
55:52SPEAKERand an LED, battery powered LED light if you want,
55:55SPEAKERif you need that.
55:56SPEAKERAnd if you don't, you can get one that has an extra arm
55:58SPEAKERin place of that.
55:59SPEAKER- That's cool.
56:00SPEAKER- They seem really, really dope.
56:02SPEAKER- That's cool, a soldering station is not at the top
56:05SPEAKERof my list of things I would have if I owned a house
56:07SPEAKERbut it is definitely in the top five, let's say.
56:11SPEAKER- I'm gonna tell you, you have more than enough space
56:14SPEAKERto have like a--
56:15SPEAKER- I know it doesn't take that much space.
56:16SPEAKER- Yeah, a nice soldering station.
56:18SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know.
56:19SPEAKER- You gotta get little plastic bins that that stuff goes in
56:22SPEAKERand then it goes in the top of your closet
56:23SPEAKERand you pull out the soldering bin when you need to solder.
56:25SPEAKER- You know, I want a permanent workbench, you know.
56:28SPEAKER- Well, that's a whole different,
56:29SPEAKERthat's a different set of circumstances.
56:30SPEAKERYeah, anyway.
56:33SPEAKERAnd then the other thing that uses that same kind of ball
56:35SPEAKERand socket joint is this Dinkum Systems ActionPod Pro.
56:38SPEAKERAnd this is the thing I learned about from the tested crew
56:40SPEAKER'cause they use them to mount GoPros and like small cameras
56:44SPEAKERwhen they're doing shoots to get like high angles
56:46SPEAKERand weird angles and stuff like that.
56:48SPEAKERAnd it's basically just a single arm
56:50SPEAKERwith a great big plastic spring-loaded clamp
56:54SPEAKERon the other end.
56:55SPEAKERSo you can hook that clamp onto like the side
56:57SPEAKERof a bookshelf or a tree branch or like a car door
57:01SPEAKERor whatever you happen to have around.
57:02SPEAKERAnd then the other end is a normal quarter inch camera mount
57:06SPEAKERthat you can just screw whatever your camera is on there,
57:08SPEAKERwhether it's a phone camera holder
57:11SPEAKERor your small mirrorless or GoPro or whatever it happens,
57:16SPEAKERwebcam even, I used it for webcam for years.
57:19SPEAKERAnd it's nice 'cause you, because it's articulated,
57:22SPEAKERthe arm is articulated, you get more control.
57:25SPEAKERYou can place the camera exactly where you want it
57:28SPEAKERreally easily, which is powerful.
57:30SPEAKER- That's cool.
57:32SPEAKER- Yeah.
57:32SPEAKER- Mounting.
57:33SPEAKERGosh, I just bought a bunch of mounting hardware
57:36SPEAKERfor a very nice camera that I'm getting.
57:38SPEAKER- Ooh, what are you getting?
57:40SPEAKER- Well, this is work stuff we're paid for.
57:42SPEAKERIt's not expected. - That still counts?
57:45SPEAKEROkay, okay.
57:46SPEAKER- I bought, I put in for a piece of Manfrotto gear.
57:49SPEAKERLet's say that, I'll go that far.
57:52SPEAKER- That is a fancy tripod.
57:53SPEAKER- Yeah.
57:54SPEAKER- Is it carbon fiber or aluminum brand?
57:56SPEAKER- It might be carbon fiber, I'd have to check.
57:59SPEAKER- It's gonna be so light.
58:01SPEAKER- Let me see.
58:04SPEAKERIt's the Manfrotto 244 mini friction arm.
58:07SPEAKER- Oh yeah, I like a friction arm.
58:10SPEAKER- Which is, oh, it's aluminum.
58:13SPEAKER- Okay.
58:13SPEAKER- So maybe not that.
58:14SPEAKER- The carbon fiber is usually like a 4X price difference
58:16SPEAKERon the Manfrotto stuff.
58:17SPEAKER- Yes, I mean, you know, it is company money,
58:19SPEAKERbut we still have to be somewhat price conscious.
58:21SPEAKERAnyway.
58:22SPEAKER- That's awesome, dude.
58:23SPEAKER- Maybe I'll talk more about that stuff once I,
58:24SPEAKERit's for a mirrorless camera with my webcam game
58:28SPEAKERis about to get up significantly.
58:30SPEAKER- Getting some depth of field there,
58:31SPEAKERyou're getting a little bokeh.
58:33SPEAKER- Yes, hopefully.
58:34SPEAKER- That's my next upgraded at the home stream,
58:37SPEAKERI think is the mirrorless and yeah.
58:40SPEAKER- It's a nice look, but excuse me,
58:42SPEAKERthe last thing I've got here is,
58:44SPEAKERI bought these things so long ago, I don't even know.
58:47SPEAKERI think I got mine from Monoprice,
58:48SPEAKERbut I've got a whole pile
58:49SPEAKERof little articulated HDMI extenders.
58:52SPEAKER- What do you mean by articulated?
58:54SPEAKER- So some of them are hinged.
58:56SPEAKER- Ooh.
58:57SPEAKER- One of them, one of the ones I have is hinged
58:59SPEAKERand rotates, if you can envision that it's on a hinge.
59:02SPEAKERAnd then also one of the sides on one side of the hinge
59:06SPEAKERalso can rotate perpendicular to the hinge.
59:09SPEAKER- Is this in the service
59:10SPEAKERof an extraordinary long HDMI cable run?
59:12SPEAKER- That may have been the genesis of this purchase originally,
59:16SPEAKERbut they come in handy in all kinds of situations.
59:17SPEAKERAnd I should say, if you just have a TV
59:20SPEAKERwith consoles hooked up to it and they never move around
59:23SPEAKERand you don't need to like hook
59:24SPEAKERand unhook video connections all the time,
59:26SPEAKERyou don't need this stuff.
59:26SPEAKERLike this is for people who are doing lunatic things
59:29SPEAKERwith game consoles all the time.
59:32SPEAKER- That sounds awesome.
59:33SPEAKER- But they are super handy for,
59:35SPEAKERif you're running long cables
59:36SPEAKERor running cables at weird angles,
59:37SPEAKERlike that's kind of what they are originally,
59:39SPEAKERI think are for, they're like port savers.
59:42SPEAKERThey allow your HDMI connection to flex basically.
59:44SPEAKER- Yeah, and the problem with like a lot of,
59:46SPEAKERlike I used to have a long HDMI cable
59:47SPEAKERthat I used to go into the living room
59:48SPEAKERthrough a hole in the wall.
59:50SPEAKERAnd that thing was so, it was like 15 feet
59:53SPEAKERand it was so thick that it just didn't bend.
59:56SPEAKER- Yes, so that's why I originally got this stuff
59:59SPEAKERis that I've got this 30 foot cable
1:00:01SPEAKERthat I don't use it that much these days, honestly.
1:00:05SPEAKERI mostly play PC games on the PC at this point,
1:00:07SPEAKERbut once in a while it's useful.
1:00:08SPEAKERBut it's like a, it's a very heavy gauge.
1:00:12SPEAKERI forget what it is, but it's a, like you said,
1:00:14SPEAKERit is a heavy, you need a thick ass cable
1:00:16SPEAKERto make the signal go that far, right?
1:00:18SPEAKER- Yeah, that's just science.
1:00:20SPEAKERThe thicker the cable, the farther the signal.
1:00:21SPEAKER- Basically I was worried about the port,
1:00:23SPEAKERthe HDMI port in my video card,
1:00:24SPEAKERhaving this thick cable coming out of it
1:00:27SPEAKERthat would then get pulled down the hall.
1:00:28SPEAKERIf anybody tripped over that cable,
1:00:29SPEAKERit might rip the port right out of the card, right?
1:00:31SPEAKER- Yeah, that seems very expensive.
1:00:33SPEAKERThis is a similar concern I have
1:00:35SPEAKERand there's no MagSafe HDMI cables that I'm aware of.
1:00:37SPEAKER- Actually, let me just grab the end of it real fast
1:00:39SPEAKERand show it to you while I talk very loudly
1:00:41SPEAKERso you can still hear me.
1:00:43SPEAKER- We can't hear you.
1:00:45SPEAKERWe couldn't hear him.
1:00:47SPEAKERWait, do you have wireless headphones?
1:00:48SPEAKERCan you hear me through the wireless headphones right now?
1:00:50SPEAKER- No, it's just a very long microphone cable.
1:00:53SPEAKER- Okay, okay.
1:00:55SPEAKER- Actually, we're all over the place this week.
1:00:57SPEAKER- Expecting to have a guest on this podcast,
1:00:59SPEAKERbut I guess the wallet already showed up,
1:01:01SPEAKERso why stop there, right?
1:01:03SPEAKERHere is the HDMI cable in question.
1:01:07SPEAKERIt is, I think it's like 24 gauge cable or something.
1:01:09SPEAKERIt's very thick.
1:01:10SPEAKER- Yeah, that's a chunky cable.
1:01:12SPEAKER- I've got like a little six inch extender
1:01:14SPEAKERthat's just male to female.
1:01:15SPEAKERSo, and this is like a much lighter gauge.
1:01:18SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:01:18SPEAKER- So there's a lot of flex on the cable
1:01:20SPEAKERgoing up to the video card.
1:01:22SPEAKER- So the heavy part of the cable is supported by the,
1:01:24SPEAKERyeah, that makes a ton of sense.
1:01:25SPEAKERThat's really smart.
1:01:26SPEAKER- And so then I've got,
1:01:27SPEAKERhere's the actual extender thing that I was talking about,
1:01:29SPEAKERwhich is, it's male to female.
1:01:32SPEAKERIt's got a hinge and then it also rotates.
1:01:35SPEAKER- Do those work with the newer versions of HDMI?
1:01:38SPEAKER- This, I would guess, I bought this in like 2012
1:01:40SPEAKERor something, I would guess this does not,
1:01:43SPEAKERbut I would assume they've probably got
1:01:45SPEAKERupgraded versions at this point.
1:01:46SPEAKER- Well, if you're just doing 1080p, it's probably fine,
1:01:47SPEAKERbut when you get beyond that, it won't work, I bet.
1:01:49SPEAKER- Right, but like you can envision,
1:01:51SPEAKERlike this thing is plugged at a 90 degree angle
1:01:54SPEAKERinto the video card.
1:01:56SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:01:57SPEAKER- And so it can go up and down
1:01:58SPEAKERand then when it gets pulled down the hall,
1:01:59SPEAKERit can also rotate out the door.
1:02:01SPEAKER- Like that's fabulous, yeah.
1:02:02SPEAKER- This is hard to get across in an audio only form,
1:02:06SPEAKERbut if you're running long cables
1:02:08SPEAKERor doing weird stuff with video cables,
1:02:10SPEAKERthese things can be a lifesaver and also a port saver.
1:02:15SPEAKER- Well, so we have a handful,
1:02:17SPEAKERthere's enough things that we want to,
1:02:18SPEAKERI think we should do pictures of, I'll post,
1:02:20SPEAKERwe'll post a link in the show notes to a get book page
1:02:23SPEAKERthat has lists of all of this stuff
1:02:25SPEAKERso that people can find it with links to Amazon
1:02:27SPEAKERand the whole deal.
1:02:28SPEAKER- Yeah, that's a good idea.
1:02:30SPEAKER- My last thing, also cable related.
1:02:33SPEAKERI forgot about these, but they're these little,
1:02:36SPEAKERthey're called cable grabbers.
1:02:38SPEAKERBunch of people make them,
1:02:39SPEAKERbut I think Blue Lounge is the one who started making them.
1:02:41SPEAKERThey come in a bunch of different sizes,
1:02:43SPEAKERbut basically they're like these little plastic doohickeys
1:02:47SPEAKERwith like a groove, a cable sized hole on the top.
1:02:50SPEAKER- More of a doohickey than a doober, huh?
1:02:52SPEAKER- This is more of a doohickey, I think, yeah.
1:02:54SPEAKERAnd like, you can kind of pinch them open
1:02:56SPEAKERto drop a cable in there,
1:02:57SPEAKERbut they'll grip it just enough that it,
1:02:59SPEAKERlike the end won't fall through.
1:03:01SPEAKERAnd I use them for cable runs that I don't want to have
1:03:05SPEAKERlike a dedicated cable management thing on,
1:03:08SPEAKERbut it lets me, like it,
1:03:10SPEAKERI have all the cables that come off
1:03:12SPEAKERof the back of my desk now,
1:03:13SPEAKERrun to those so that they don't wobble from side to side.
1:03:16SPEAKERIf I move something around or something like that.
1:03:18SPEAKERAnd they, some of them,
1:03:21SPEAKERmost of them come with like a foam tape,
1:03:23SPEAKERtwo-sided tape on them.
1:03:25SPEAKERI've been pulling all of that off
1:03:26SPEAKERand putting the nano bubble stuff
1:03:28SPEAKERthat we talked about a couple of weeks ago on,
1:03:30SPEAKERand it works a charm.
1:03:32SPEAKER- I think a bunch of people on the Discord
1:03:33SPEAKERgot very excited about that stuff after you talked about it.
1:03:36SPEAKERI haven't tried it yet.
1:03:37SPEAKER- I'll put the nano bubble on the list too,
1:03:40SPEAKER'cause people didn't ask about it.
1:03:40SPEAKER- Just to refresh people's memory,
1:03:41SPEAKERthat's just kind of a very highly grippy surface, right?
1:03:44SPEAKER- Without any actual adhesive involved?
1:03:46SPEAKERIs that correct? - Yeah, so it's a foam,
1:03:47SPEAKERit's a foam tape, it's an adhesive on one side,
1:03:51SPEAKERalthough you can get it with double bubble side now.
1:03:54SPEAKERAnd the other side is- - Ooh, the double bubble.
1:03:55SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, exactly.
1:03:56SPEAKERThe other side is a bunch of like half bubbles.
1:03:58SPEAKERSo it's like mini microscopically small suction cups
1:04:02SPEAKERthat when you push down on the surface, it locks in place.
1:04:05SPEAKER- Okay.
1:04:06SPEAKER- And you can, like you can peel it back
1:04:09SPEAKERjust like you would a suction cup or something like that.
1:04:11SPEAKEROnce you break the suction, it comes off easily,
1:04:13SPEAKERbut there's no adhesive.
1:04:14SPEAKERSo there's no residue and it can go on anything
1:04:16SPEAKERthat is a relatively smooth surface.
1:04:17SPEAKER- I was just about to ask, here is a question.
1:04:20SPEAKERHave you found surfaces that will not adhere to that stuff?
1:04:23SPEAKER- So like an unfinished wood won't work.
1:04:25SPEAKER- Oh, okay.
1:04:26SPEAKER- Because, but like a poly-coated-
1:04:28SPEAKER- Not enough surface area 'cause it's too grainy.
1:04:30SPEAKER- Yeah, there's the,
1:04:32SPEAKERsomething that's stuff that's dusty doesn't work either.
1:04:35SPEAKER- Okay.
1:04:36SPEAKER- But like my desk is a finished wood
1:04:38SPEAKERand that it sticks great to that.
1:04:41SPEAKERCabinets, countertops, anything metal or stone
1:04:46SPEAKERthat's like smooth surface stone works.
1:04:48SPEAKERThe back of an iPad works.
1:04:49SPEAKER- Interesting.
1:04:51SPEAKER- Yeah, there's a lot of options.
1:04:53SPEAKERIt turns out in our electronic world,
1:04:56SPEAKERthere's a lot of stuff that fits the bill for this.
1:04:57SPEAKER- Yes, I'm sure.
1:04:58SPEAKER- Grip and adhesive are such a strange category
1:05:01SPEAKERof materials and interactions.
1:05:04SPEAKER- We're working our way closer to that glue episode.
1:05:06SPEAKER- I was gonna say, even the people who make it don't know.
1:05:08SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:05:09SPEAKER- I asked that question 'cause do you remember,
1:05:11SPEAKERthis must've been like two plus years ago at this point,
1:05:14SPEAKERI was briefly talking to you about three,
1:05:16SPEAKERyou having you 3D print me a mount for an Astro mix amp.
1:05:21SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:05:22SPEAKER- And then I abruptly stopped asking you about it.
1:05:23SPEAKER- Yeah, I was gonna cut a laser cut one for you, I think.
1:05:28SPEAKER- You had some ideas about how to make
1:05:29SPEAKERsome kind of mounting bracket for one of those things.
1:05:30SPEAKER- I made prototypes, yeah.
1:05:32SPEAKER- And then I just gave up asking you.
1:05:34SPEAKERThe whole reason was the model I had had a silica,
1:05:39SPEAKERI think it must've been a silicone base.
1:05:40SPEAKERI don't know for sure,
1:05:41SPEAKERbut I'm pretty sure that's what that material was.
1:05:43SPEAKERIt's like a rubberish kind of rubberized material,
1:05:46SPEAKERbut incredibly slick to the touch.
1:05:48SPEAKER- And then it gets really tacky over time.
1:05:50SPEAKER- Well, I've never used it long enough
1:05:51SPEAKER'cause I took it straight brand new out of the package,
1:05:54SPEAKERintending to mount it to the bottom of my desk.
1:05:56SPEAKERAnd I stuck the 3M command strip,
1:05:59SPEAKERlike nice grippy, you know,
1:06:01SPEAKERnew age Velcro type stuff on there.
1:06:03SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:06:04SPEAKER- Stuck it to the bottom of that thing, like felt right off.
1:06:06SPEAKERLike the adhesive would not adhere to that silicone surface
1:06:10SPEAKERat all, like not in the slightest.
1:06:13SPEAKERIt was like the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
1:06:15SPEAKER- Wow.
1:06:16SPEAKER- Because you expect that kind of heavy duty,
1:06:18SPEAKERlike industrial adhesive to stick to anything, right?
1:06:20SPEAKERIt just like, it literally made,
1:06:23SPEAKERlike it didn't bind in the slightest.
1:06:25SPEAKERIt was crazy.
1:06:26SPEAKER- Van der Waals forces are fickle, Brad.
1:06:28SPEAKER- I guess so, right?
1:06:29SPEAKERYeah, so anyway, what I ended up doing was realizing
1:06:33SPEAKERI could just rip that silicone base off and...
1:06:35SPEAKER- Oh, yeah.
1:06:36SPEAKER- Stick the command strips directly on the plastic, so.
1:06:38SPEAKER- I often will do, like I get Velcro tape
1:06:44SPEAKERand we'll just make loops and dangle it in the loops
1:06:46SPEAKERand put a little piece of like a Velcro dot on there
1:06:48SPEAKERto hold it in place.
1:06:50SPEAKER- Hang on.
1:06:53SPEAKERI just thought of one more thing
1:06:55SPEAKERsince we're talking about it.
1:06:56SPEAKER- Wait, is there something that's glued under my chair?
1:06:59SPEAKER- Maybe, if you look under your chair,
1:07:01SPEAKERyou're all gonna find out.
1:07:03SPEAKERI just found this stuff recently.
1:07:05SPEAKERDo you use command strips?
1:07:06SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:07:07SPEAKER- You know what I'm talking about?
1:07:07SPEAKER- Yeah, so command strips are usually one side.
1:07:11SPEAKERActually, both sides usually are the post-it note basically.
1:07:15SPEAKER- Yes, well, it's similar in concept to Velcro
1:07:18SPEAKERexcept instead of a loops on one side,
1:07:20SPEAKERhooks on the other type of deal,
1:07:22SPEAKERthey're both the same kind of weird plastic teeth
1:07:26SPEAKERon both sides.
1:07:27SPEAKER- So no, that stuff's different.
1:07:28SPEAKERCommand strips are different than that.
1:07:29SPEAKERCommand strips are the ones that have the pull tab
1:07:31SPEAKERon the end that breaks the seal when you pull the thing.
1:07:35SPEAKER- I should have clarified
1:07:35SPEAKERbecause there are multiple types of products
1:07:37SPEAKERmarketed under the command strip name.
1:07:39SPEAKERI forgot, I totally forgot about the kitchen hook variety.
1:07:42SPEAKERYou're talking about the ones
1:07:43SPEAKERthat's just adhesive and a hook, right?
1:07:45SPEAKER- Well, I mean, they sell just the adhesive too.
1:07:46SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:07:47SPEAKERSo I should have clarified
1:07:49SPEAKERit's the picture hanging kit command strip
1:07:51SPEAKERis what I'm talking about.
1:07:52SPEAKERDo you know what I'm talking about?
1:07:53SPEAKERHave you seen those?
1:07:54SPEAKER- No, I haven't seen that.
1:07:55SPEAKER- So they're the ones that use
1:07:56SPEAKERthis kind of plastic Velcro analog.
1:08:00SPEAKERAnyway, the whole reason I brought it up on here
1:08:02SPEAKERis that I found a cheaper source of it.
1:08:04SPEAKERIt's still made by 3M, they're all made by 3M,
1:08:07SPEAKERexcept they sell this stuff under the name dual lock,
1:08:11SPEAKER3M dual lock, and they sell it by the foot
1:08:13SPEAKERinstead of like, because the command strip,
1:08:14SPEAKERthe picture hanging stuff is very expensive.
1:08:17SPEAKERIt's like 12, 15 bucks for like
1:08:19SPEAKERa half dozen small little strips.
1:08:22SPEAKER- And that stuff will hold what, like 20 pounds?
1:08:24SPEAKER- This stuff is like 15 bucks for four feet of it.
1:08:27SPEAKER- Oh, that's awesome.
1:08:28SPEAKER- The lock is incredibly tight.
1:08:30SPEAKER- Do you need, and both sides are the same for that.
1:08:33SPEAKERIt's not like Velcro, right?
1:08:34SPEAKER- That's what I was saying.
1:08:35SPEAKERYeah, they all use the same kind of like
1:08:37SPEAKERvery rigid plastic teeth that lock together.
1:08:39SPEAKERAnd yeah, I've got multiple things mounted under my desk
1:08:41SPEAKERwith the stuff and it's incredibly strong.
1:08:43SPEAKER- Oh, that's a good call.
1:08:44SPEAKER- It is, yeah, 3M dual lock is what you're looking for.
1:08:47SPEAKERYou can just buy it by the roll.
1:08:49SPEAKER- That's awesome.
1:08:50SPEAKER- It has been pretty great for mounting stuff
1:08:52SPEAKERunderneath stuff, right up until it falls off.
1:08:55SPEAKER- I like to put my stuff under my other stuff.
1:08:57SPEAKER- It's been a couple of years since I've been mounting stuff
1:09:00SPEAKERunder stuff with this stuff and nothing has fallen yet.
1:09:02SPEAKERSo I think I'm okay, but.
1:09:05SPEAKER- So somebody on my stream the other night
1:09:06SPEAKERsuggested getting the stuff that,
1:09:09SPEAKERI have a foot rest under my desk that I love,
1:09:12SPEAKERbut like it moves around because I have hardwood.
1:09:15SPEAKERAnd somebody was like, why don't you just get the stuff
1:09:16SPEAKERthat makes your furniture and your rugs not move
1:09:19SPEAKERand put that on the bottom?
1:09:19SPEAKERAnd I was like, that is an absolute brain genius idea.
1:09:22SPEAKERSo I did that.
1:09:23SPEAKER- Sure.
1:09:24SPEAKER- And now it doesn't move.
1:09:24SPEAKERIt's perfect. - That sounds great.
1:09:25SPEAKERThat sounds pretty good.
1:09:26SPEAKER- Highly recommended.
1:09:27SPEAKER- Grip is good.
1:09:28SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:09:29SPEAKER- I would say.
1:09:31SPEAKER- Grip is good.
1:09:32SPEAKERIt is perfect.
1:09:32SPEAKER- Yes.
1:09:34SPEAKERI guess that's it.
1:09:36SPEAKERI had one other thing off the top of the head
1:09:38SPEAKERand I totally forgot what it was.
1:09:40SPEAKERMaybe I should just leave it.
1:09:41SPEAKER- I feel like I hope we'll get some good feedback
1:09:44SPEAKERfrom listeners.
1:09:46SPEAKER- Yes.
1:09:47SPEAKER- Of the things like this that fit their category.
1:09:49SPEAKER- Yes.
1:09:51SPEAKER- Please send emails.
1:09:52SPEAKERI know we usually talk about the Discord
1:09:54SPEAKERbeing the right place to talk to us about stuff like this,
1:09:57SPEAKERbut in this case, the Discord is real good
1:10:01SPEAKERbecause it lets us know.
1:10:03SPEAKERI mean, the email is really good
1:10:04SPEAKER'cause it lets us collect everything in an easy place.
1:10:06SPEAKER- Yes, yes.
1:10:07SPEAKER- So if you have suggestions, send them to email
1:10:08SPEAKERand put like, let's make the subject lines hardware,
1:10:14SPEAKERhardware tools, maybe?
1:10:15SPEAKER- Hardware unitasker.
1:10:17SPEAKER- Hardware unitasker.
1:10:18SPEAKERYeah, I was trying to avoid that, but okay.
1:10:22SPEAKERAnd yeah, that'll, we'll collect all of these,
1:10:25SPEAKERmaybe in the email episode this month,
1:10:27SPEAKERthe best ones and share the learnings.
1:10:29SPEAKERI'm sure there'll be a big discussion
1:10:30SPEAKERin the Patreon Discord.
1:10:32SPEAKER- Yes, totally.
1:10:34SPEAKER- Which you can find out more about
1:10:35SPEAKERby going to patreon.com/techpod.
1:10:39SPEAKERAs always, thank you so much to all of our patrons,
1:10:43SPEAKERbut especially our executive producer level patrons,
1:10:46SPEAKERAndrew Cott and David Allen and Jacob Chappell, sorry.
1:10:51SPEAKERAnd yeah, if you wanna find out more,
1:10:53SPEAKERBrad, I noticed you made another new channel,
1:10:55SPEAKERI thought we were on a channel moratorium, man.
1:10:57SPEAKER- Were we?
1:10:58SPEAKERI don't remember that being a formal rule necessarily.
1:11:01SPEAKER- It wasn't formal, but I felt like we were slowing down.
1:11:04SPEAKERI like the new channel, I'm a fan.
1:11:05SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:11:06SPEAKER- I like the work you've done there.
1:11:07SPEAKER- The PC builds and hardware?
1:11:09SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:11:10SPEAKER- That's the one you're talking about?
1:11:12SPEAKER- Yeah, the PC builds and hardware
1:11:14SPEAKERis the one I was thinking about.
1:11:14SPEAKERI feel like Zander maybe had the best name suggestion
1:11:20SPEAKERI've seen for that one.
1:11:21SPEAKER- 'Cause you know, we've had old ass computers for a long
1:11:23SPEAKERtime.
1:11:24SPEAKER- Yes, yes, there was some demand for new ass computers.
1:11:26SPEAKER- New ass computers is the obvious choice.
1:11:29SPEAKER- Yes, but you know how Discord inserts hyphens
1:11:32SPEAKERfor spaces in all channel names?
1:11:34SPEAKER- Yes.
1:11:35SPEAKER- That has proved to be a bit confusing for some people
1:11:38SPEAKERbecause they don't necessarily immediately realize
1:11:42SPEAKERwhere the actual hyphen is.
1:11:43SPEAKER- They think it's ass computers and not old ass.
1:11:47SPEAKER- Have come in talking about old ass computers.
1:11:50SPEAKER- What's an ass computer, Brad?
1:11:52SPEAKER- You know, I've been pondering that question myself
1:11:54SPEAKERfor some weeks.
1:11:55SPEAKER- I mean, I had a wang, but I don't think you would consider
1:11:57SPEAKERthat an ass computer.
1:11:58SPEAKER- Have not come to any conclusions just yet.
1:12:01SPEAKERGod, this is killing me.
1:12:03SPEAKERWe're probably just gonna have to end this episode.
1:12:05SPEAKERI'm racking my brain trying to think of the one last item
1:12:09SPEAKERthat I was going to bring up.
1:12:12SPEAKER- Oh, hello, yes.
1:12:14SPEAKER- I just thought of it.
1:12:15SPEAKERI posed this question on the Discord.
1:12:17SPEAKERPeople heavily discouraged me, I think, including you.
1:12:21SPEAKERLike I said, in addition to the 24 year old wallet
1:12:25SPEAKERand the 15 year old monitors, which by the way,
1:12:26SPEAKERare going to go any day now.
1:12:29SPEAKERIf anybody in the Bay Area wants to own the monitors
1:12:31SPEAKERthat started it all.
1:12:32SPEAKER- Own a piece of history.
1:12:33SPEAKER- That's right.
1:12:34SPEAKER- Don't do this.
1:12:35SPEAKER- Oh no, you know what?
1:12:36SPEAKERWe should call it Fitz.
1:12:37SPEAKERWe should ship these monitors to Fitz.
1:12:39SPEAKER- Fitz doesn't, nobody wants these monitors, Brad.
1:12:41SPEAKER- He'll put them in his museum, right?
1:12:42SPEAKERThese are a piece of history.
1:12:44SPEAKER- These are garbage.
1:12:45SPEAKERThese should be gone to the electronic recycling places
1:12:47SPEAKERas soon as possible.
1:12:48SPEAKER- They still work, God damn it.
1:12:51SPEAKERIn addition to the 15 year old monitors
1:12:52SPEAKERand the 24 year old wallet, as I mentioned,
1:12:54SPEAKERI have this 17 year old desk chair
1:12:57SPEAKERthat is slowly sinking finally.
1:12:59SPEAKER- Yes, yes.
1:13:00SPEAKER- And I was looking at replacement gas cylinders on Amazon.
1:13:04SPEAKER- Don't do that.
1:13:04SPEAKER- They're like 40 bucks.
1:13:06SPEAKER- How much are your teeth worth, Brad?
1:13:09SPEAKER- Probably more than 40 bucks.
1:13:11SPEAKER- Yeah, so the thing about replacing the gas cylinder
1:13:14SPEAKERin an office chair is that you have to be prepared
1:13:16SPEAKERfor a fairly substantial explosion
1:13:19SPEAKERwhen you take those things off and put them on
1:13:21SPEAKER'cause it's going to rocket out.
1:13:26SPEAKERHonestly, it's a 17 year old chair.
1:13:28SPEAKERIt's probably not gonna be that scary,
1:13:30SPEAKERbut also it's like manual espresso machines
1:13:34SPEAKERwhere you have a big spring loaded lever
1:13:35SPEAKERyou have to pull down.
1:13:37SPEAKERLike those things are really cool.
1:13:38SPEAKERAnd when you go to a cafe that has those,
1:13:40SPEAKERyou should turn around and walk out
1:13:42SPEAKERbecause it's inhumane to the baristas
1:13:44SPEAKERbecause it's literally only a matter of time
1:13:46SPEAKERbefore somebody catches that bar with their chin
1:13:48SPEAKERand shatters their jaw.
1:13:50SPEAKERSo yeah, be careful of hydraulic cylinders.
1:13:53SPEAKERThey're scary.
1:13:54SPEAKER- Okay, okay.
1:13:55SPEAKER- Well, hydraulics kill.
1:13:56SPEAKER- Yeah, also people made it sound like it's just
1:13:59SPEAKERa way bigger pain in the ass to replace than you think.
1:14:01SPEAKERAnd that probably scared me off of it.
1:14:03SPEAKER- Plus everything else about your chair
1:14:05SPEAKERis blown out at this point.
1:14:06SPEAKERIf the cylinder is no good, the rest of the chair.
1:14:09SPEAKER- Surprisingly good shape for its age,
1:14:10SPEAKERbut you're probably right.
1:14:12SPEAKERI should probably get a new chair.
1:14:13SPEAKER- You should give that chair the Viking funeral
1:14:15SPEAKERthat it deserves.
1:14:17SPEAKER- Should I pile the two monitors in the chair,
1:14:21SPEAKERstick the wallet in there somewhere,
1:14:23SPEAKERtake it down to Ocean Beach, shove it out into the water.
1:14:28SPEAKER- No, no, no.
1:14:29SPEAKERYou take it up to Moraga, the top of the Moraga Hill.
1:14:32SPEAKERWhen you put it on one of those streets,
1:14:33SPEAKERit's a straight shot down the side of the mountain
1:14:34SPEAKERwith the monitors and the wallet.
1:14:36SPEAKERAnd then you light it on fire
1:14:38SPEAKERand push it down the hill and run.
1:14:41SPEAKER- I'm sure that'll go just fine.
1:14:42SPEAKER- The 5-0 loves that stuff.
1:14:43SPEAKER- Yes, I bet they do.
1:14:44SPEAKERI do want to, there's a last thing I'll mention
1:14:46SPEAKERwe can go.
1:14:47SPEAKER- You can ride it down the hill.
1:14:48SPEAKERThey do a, you know, they do an office chair race
1:14:50SPEAKERdown Folsom Street.
1:14:52SPEAKER- I should enter old Bessie in that one.
1:14:55SPEAKER- Yeah, if you want to get really, really badly injured
1:14:57SPEAKERwhile destroying a chair, perfect.
1:14:59SPEAKERDo I have the event for you?
1:15:01SPEAKER- Last thing I was gonna say,
1:15:02SPEAKERwhether I get a new chair or not,
1:15:04SPEAKERI kind of, I've been eyeing those roller blade wheels
1:15:07SPEAKERfor office chairs.
1:15:07SPEAKERHave you seen those?
1:15:08SPEAKER- I've kind of thought about that for mine.
1:15:10SPEAKERYeah, they look really dumb.
1:15:11SPEAKER- Well, I'm sure, yes, they do look dumb,
1:15:13SPEAKERbut they sound useful.
1:15:14SPEAKERLike they say that they are basically silent
1:15:16SPEAKERor very, very quiet compared to crappy,
1:15:18SPEAKERnormal office chair wheels.
1:15:20SPEAKERAnd apparently they glide quite a bit more smoothly.
1:15:24SPEAKER- So I have hardwood wheels on my gesture and I love them.
1:15:30SPEAKERI wish I had a way to like chalk it in place and lock them
1:15:33SPEAKER'cause they don't lock.
1:15:35SPEAKERUsually it is not a problem,
1:15:36SPEAKERbut sometimes if I'm playing a game and I'm like, you know,
1:15:39SPEAKERVR-ing or whatever in the chair,
1:15:40SPEAKERthen I rock it side to side and it gets to be a bit much.
1:15:43SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:15:44SPEAKERLet me ask you this, Brad.
1:15:45SPEAKERWhen you replace that chair,
1:15:46SPEAKERhave you ever thought about getting a subwoofer
1:15:48SPEAKERfor the chair?
1:15:49SPEAKER- What?
1:15:50SPEAKER- Like a butt kicker.
1:15:51SPEAKERDo you know about this?
1:15:52SPEAKERDo you remember this?
1:15:52SPEAKER- Like an in-home D-box?
1:15:53SPEAKERIs that what we're talking about?
1:15:55SPEAKER- Do they still make these?
1:15:56SPEAKERThis was a thing that came out in like 2006 and I saw it
1:16:00SPEAKERand I was like, that's kind of silly, but okay, I'm into it.
1:16:03SPEAKER- Is it built into the chair or is that the one
1:16:04SPEAKERthat like lays on top of your chair?
1:16:06SPEAKER- Used to be bolted onto the chair somehow.
1:16:08SPEAKER- Yes.
1:16:09SPEAKER- Yeah, it's an add on.
1:16:11SPEAKERI think you should get a butt kicker when you get the chair.
1:16:12SPEAKERThat's the takeaway.
1:16:14SPEAKER- That's just forced feedback for your rump.
1:16:17SPEAKER- Feel the game, feel the game.
1:16:18SPEAKER- Yes, I can't wait.
1:16:21SPEAKER- So I guess that'll do it for us this week.
1:16:23SPEAKERThanks everybody for listening.
1:16:24SPEAKERAs always, we really appreciate support of the Patreon.
1:16:29SPEAKERThe URL for that again is patreon.com/techpod.
1:16:34SPEAKER- Yes, thank you so much.
1:16:35SPEAKER- We're coming up on another email episode
1:16:37SPEAKERand we haven't gotten a ton of emails yet.
1:16:39SPEAKERSo if you have questions about either episodes
1:16:41SPEAKERor just general tech stuff,
1:16:43SPEAKERyou can email us at techpod@content.town.
1:16:47SPEAKERAnd--
1:16:48SPEAKER- Or you know, or hardware doohickeys or doodads
1:16:51SPEAKERor clump waddles, what was the term you used?
1:16:55SPEAKER- Cattywampus, cattywampus means it's crooked.
1:16:57SPEAKERIt's not, it's off center.
1:16:58SPEAKER- I'm sorry, I just made something up.
1:17:01SPEAKER- Clump waddles, good God, man.
1:17:03SPEAKER- Thanks for listening everybody.
1:17:04SPEAKER(upbeat music)
1:17:11SPEAKER(upbeat music)