00:00SPEAKER- What does one do with five old routers
00:02SPEAKERstacked in a pile, Will?
00:04SPEAKERActually, hang on.
00:06SPEAKEROne, two, three, four old routers and one old switch.
00:11SPEAKER- Maybe recycle them?
00:12SPEAKER- I can't. - I'd keep the switch.
00:13SPEAKER- I can't, it is a 100 megabit switch.
00:17SPEAKERIt is a 10 base T switch.
00:18SPEAKER- I would just put that on the curb
00:20SPEAKERwith it posted this as free on it
00:21SPEAKERand let nature take its course.
00:23SPEAKER- It's so small, I don't think anybody would see it.
00:26SPEAKER- Well, put a big post-it on it.
00:28SPEAKERIt's not big for being such an old switch.
00:30SPEAKERIt's a tiny switch.
00:31SPEAKER- What, why do you have four old routers
00:33SPEAKERand one switch piled up in your hallway right now, Brad?
00:36SPEAKER- 'Cause you buy routers over the years
00:38SPEAKERthat as standards evolve, you say,
00:41SPEAKER"Man, I need faster wifi."
00:43SPEAKER- Yeah.
00:44SPEAKER- I'm gonna buy a new router.
00:45SPEAKER- But then that's when the old router leaves the house.
00:48SPEAKER- Oh, that's when the old router goes into storage?
00:51SPEAKERBy storage, I mean a stack in the hall.
00:54SPEAKERWell, I've been going through, let me be clear.
00:56SPEAKERI have not had a stack of routers in my hallway
00:58SPEAKERfor the last 15 years.
01:00SPEAKER- Look, that's some hoarder business.
01:01SPEAKERIt's on brand for me, but you have a reputation to uphold.
01:05SPEAKER- They have been in storage,
01:06SPEAKERbut I've been cleaning out and reorganizing storage,
01:08SPEAKERwhich is why they are currently homeless
01:10SPEAKERbecause I don't know where to put them
01:11SPEAKERbecause one of them is a Linksys WRT54G.
01:16SPEAKERIs that the model?
01:17SPEAKER- That belongs in a museum.
01:18SPEAKER- Let me see if I've got that right.
01:19SPEAKERWRT54G is the blue and gray classic.
01:23SPEAKER- That is absolutely the model number.
01:24SPEAKERYes, that is the classic.
01:26SPEAKERYeah, the original tomato router.
01:28SPEAKER- Like I think in that South Park episode
01:30SPEAKERwhere there was a giant router,
01:32SPEAKERI believe it looked like one of those.
01:33SPEAKERThat's how iconic that router is.
01:34SPEAKER- Yeah, you know where it belongs?
01:36SPEAKER- Where?
01:37SPEAKER- Either in a museum or the electronics recycling bin
01:40SPEAKERat your local recycler.
01:43SPEAKER- What if I think of a use for it?
01:44SPEAKER- You'll buy another one for $5
01:46SPEAKERat a flea market someplace?
01:47SPEAKER- What if I think of something I could have done with it
01:49SPEAKERand I no longer have it?
01:50SPEAKER- Well, then you'll be sad for like four minutes,
01:53SPEAKERbut think of the joy that having that empty space
01:55SPEAKERwhere that thing that you don't use anymore used to be.
01:58SPEAKERI can't believe you have twisted me around
02:00SPEAKERuntil I'm on the side of getting...
02:03SPEAKERLook, Brad, we cleaned out our kitchen this weekend.
02:05SPEAKER- Yeah.
02:06SPEAKER- We took everything out of the cabinets.
02:08SPEAKERYou know the cabinets that you have in the kitchen
02:10SPEAKERthat are like where all the crap goes
02:11SPEAKERthat you use like once a year maybe?
02:13SPEAKER- Yeah.
02:14SPEAKER- Yeah, so we took all that stuff out
02:15SPEAKERand we put it out on the dining room table
02:17SPEAKERand on the kitchen table and on the floor
02:18SPEAKERaround the kitchen table and then we looked at it.
02:21SPEAKER- It's like having your own yard sale.
02:23SPEAKER- Well.
02:24SPEAKER- An internal, a recursive yard sale.
02:26SPEAKER- Yeah, we had some real hard conversations
02:27SPEAKERabout how many unslotted metal spoons we need.
02:31SPEAKER- Hmm, how many do you need?
02:31SPEAKER- Turns out Gina and I have very different ideas about this.
02:34SPEAKER(laughing)
02:35SPEAKER- I get it, I get it.
02:37SPEAKER- I was like, we have four burners,
02:38SPEAKERfive burners on the stove.
02:39SPEAKERSo that means we could conceivably have five pots at once.
02:42SPEAKERWe need five metal spoons
02:43SPEAKERin case that's the spoon we need for that project.
02:46SPEAKER- That's just math.
02:47SPEAKER- And she was like, look,
02:48SPEAKERthe most things we ever have on the stove at once
02:50SPEAKERis Thanksgiving.
02:51SPEAKERAnd we don't ever have more than four things
02:57SPEAKERgoing at once on Thanksgiving.
02:58SPEAKERAnd most of them are wooden spoon things
03:00SPEAKERof which we have plenty.
03:01SPEAKERSo now we have two metal spoons that are not slotted
03:03SPEAKERand one slotted metal spoon and I'm very sad.
03:06SPEAKER- I started to ask who won the argument,
03:08SPEAKERbut I guess I don't need to ask.
03:09SPEAKER- Look, the compromise, we made some tough cuts.
03:14SPEAKERThe food processor that goes on the front
03:16SPEAKERof the KitchenAid is gone.
03:18SPEAKERWe're giving that to a friend.
03:21SPEAKERBut I kept the meat grinder that we've used twice
03:23SPEAKERin the last 13 years.
03:25SPEAKERAnd I put a sticky on it, a little dot on it.
03:29SPEAKERThat's the indicator.
03:30SPEAKERIf by the next time we do this,
03:32SPEAKERthat dot has not been removed
03:33SPEAKER'cause it has been used at least once,
03:35SPEAKERmy veto power on the meat grinder is gone.
03:38SPEAKER- Wow, that's a pretty interesting system that you have.
03:42SPEAKER- Look, Gina has dealt with my bullshit
03:44SPEAKERfor a long time and she knows how this works.
03:45SPEAKER- That is tangible accountability.
03:47SPEAKER- Yeah, well, I mean, don't you do the coat hanger thing
03:51SPEAKERwhen you flip your clothes around?
03:52SPEAKER- No.
03:53SPEAKER- Like every once in a while,
03:54SPEAKERI just take all the clothes out of my closet
03:54SPEAKERand I hang the coat hangers on backwards.
03:57SPEAKERAnd then if the clothes have not been,
04:00SPEAKERif those hangers are not turned around
04:02SPEAKERthe next time I go clean out the closet,
04:04SPEAKERobviously I haven't worn that stuff
04:05SPEAKERin whatever period of time
04:07SPEAKERsince the last time I cleaned out the closet.
04:09SPEAKER- Considering I've put on long pants
04:10SPEAKERexactly one time in the last seven to eight months,
04:13SPEAKERI think that system might be in need of suspension right now.
04:17SPEAKER- Okay, I mean, fair.
04:18SPEAKERThe Rona has caused some lifestyle changes.
04:22SPEAKERI'm just getting rid of all my jeans.
04:23SPEAKERThat's the takeaway here.
04:24SPEAKERI have one pair of jeans now.
04:26SPEAKER- That's okay.
04:27SPEAKER- Athletes, you're 24/7 sweatpants, baby.
04:30SPEAKER- Toss the jeans, keep the routers.
04:31SPEAKERIs that what I'm hearing?
04:32SPEAKER- No, toss everything.
04:33SPEAKERGet rid of it all.
04:34SPEAKER- Toss the routers.
04:35SPEAKER- The things that you own end up owning you.
04:37SPEAKERThe things that, don't let the things,
04:40SPEAKERlook, there's something that Chuck Palahniuk said
04:42SPEAKERin that book about fighting people in banks
04:44SPEAKERand it was right.
04:45SPEAKERYou should get rid of the crap 'cause you don't need it.
04:47SPEAKER- Yeah, well, Tyler Durden never had five routers.
04:49SPEAKERSo what does he know?
04:51SPEAKER(upbeat music)
05:17SPEAKER(upbeat music)
05:19SPEAKER- Welcome to Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod.
05:22SPEAKERI'm Will.
05:23SPEAKER- I'm Brad.
05:23SPEAKER- I was on a show last night and I, yeah,
05:25SPEAKERand they introduced me as the host of Brad and Will
05:28SPEAKERMake a Tech Pod and I had to actually,
05:31SPEAKERthen I was like, actually it's past tense.
05:32SPEAKERAnd they're like, oh, you're done with the show.
05:33SPEAKERI was like, no, it's ongoing.
05:35SPEAKERAnd it like, there was a whole conversation.
05:37SPEAKERIt was awkward.
05:38SPEAKER- Did you throw a, did you have a gigantic fit of peak?
05:42SPEAKER- No, I was very cordial.
05:44SPEAKER- You expect me to be a guest on your show
05:46SPEAKERand you can't even get the tense of my show, right?
05:48SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, it is fair.
05:49SPEAKERThat is a fair critique, but no, it was a very cordial.
05:53SPEAKER- I'm joking.
05:54SPEAKER- Yeah, no.
05:55SPEAKER- We can't even keep it straight half the time around here.
05:57SPEAKER- Look, it is, it is in,
06:00SPEAKERI'm sure there's a discord log of the conversation
06:03SPEAKERthat led to the naming of the podcast.
06:06SPEAKER- I don't remember it even being that formal.
06:11SPEAKER- I think it was, I put something in the field.
06:15SPEAKERWhat do you think? And you were like, yeah, that's okay.
06:17SPEAKERWe'll just, that's a good placeholder.
06:18SPEAKER- I think that's exactly what happened.
06:19SPEAKERSomebody got to the point where somebody couldn't hit save
06:22SPEAKERon something until there was a name in there
06:23SPEAKERand somebody just typed it in.
06:25SPEAKER- Yup, yeah.
06:27SPEAKER- Here we go with another public discussion
06:29SPEAKERabout renaming this podcast.
06:30SPEAKER- Look, it's, it's, it's, it's Thanksgiving week.
06:34SPEAKER- Sweat pants tech pod is just right there.
06:37SPEAKER- Look, if I had known that I was going to spend
06:40SPEAKERmost of 2020 wearing sweat pants,
06:42SPEAKERI would have been 100% on board with sweat pants tech pod.
06:44SPEAKER- God, we were so forward thinking.
06:46SPEAKER(sighs)
06:47SPEAKER- Oh well.
06:48SPEAKER- Oh well.
06:49SPEAKER- Yeah.
06:50SPEAKER- Yeah.
06:51SPEAKER- There's always next year.
06:51SPEAKER- When we watch the sweat pants comedy pod next year,
06:54SPEAKERwe'll be, we'll be ahead of the game.
06:55SPEAKERSo, let's talk about stuff.
07:00SPEAKERYou know, it's a questions episode.
07:01SPEAKERFirst off, it's been a little bit since we've done one.
07:03SPEAKER- Yes.
07:04SPEAKER- Next week's Thanksgiving.
07:05SPEAKER- Every fourth week.
07:06SPEAKER- Yeah, we'll do something that I don't know
07:08SPEAKERwhat we'll do with, but we're going to do something there.
07:10SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:12SPEAKER- And it's, it's, it's a time to be thankful
07:14SPEAKERand it's a time to reflect upon the, the podcast past
07:19SPEAKERand the questions that we have from, from listeners,
07:22SPEAKERfrom the audience.
07:23SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:24SPEAKERAlthough I want just real quick,
07:25SPEAKERa little point of order on next week's episode.
07:29SPEAKER- Yes, hello.
07:30SPEAKER- By the time it posts, we will be past Thanksgiving.
07:33SPEAKER- Yeah.
07:34SPEAKER- Meaning, I think we'll have a Christmas tree up.
07:38SPEAKER- Yeah, we gotta get our Christmas,
07:39SPEAKERour holiday podcast lights on.
07:41SPEAKER- Which is insane to think about.
07:43SPEAKER- This is the Thanksgiving episode, as far as things go.
07:46SPEAKER- Yeah, this is as close to a Thanksgiving episode
07:48SPEAKERas you're going to get this year.
07:48SPEAKER- I feel like our lives are just like slowly
07:51SPEAKERtrickling down the tree.
07:53SPEAKERLike what is, what is time?
07:54SPEAKERIt's still in the back of my head,
07:56SPEAKERit's still March somewhere.
07:58SPEAKER- It's, it's, it's funny.
08:01SPEAKERJean and I were talking about this the other night
08:02SPEAKERand like, I'm fine.
08:06SPEAKERMost of the time I'm sitting here,
08:07SPEAKERI'm like, I'm really coping pretty well
08:08SPEAKERwith the fact that I haven't essentially left the house
08:11SPEAKERin nine months, eight and a half months now, right?
08:14SPEAKERAnd then every once in a while, I'm just like,
08:15SPEAKERyou know what, this is some fucking horseshit.
08:17SPEAKERI have lost an entire year of my life
08:20SPEAKERand I'm really going to be alternately mad and angry
08:24SPEAKERand sad about this, this, this whole thing.
08:27SPEAKERCause it was mostly avoidable.
08:29SPEAKER- Yeah, as you, as you should be.
08:32SPEAKER- And, and then like, I have the benefit
08:34SPEAKERof having my kid here, which like is a positive.
08:40SPEAKERI know some people, maybe if you don't like your kids,
08:41SPEAKERit would maybe not be as much of a positive, but like.
08:43SPEAKER- Not going to open that can of worms.
08:45SPEAKER- Like I like my kid and I've gotten to spend
08:47SPEAKERan incredible amount of time at her,
08:49SPEAKERwith her at an age that I normally wouldn't have.
08:52SPEAKERSo like, I feel bad that she's had this year stolen
08:55SPEAKERfrom her, but like at the, at the same time,
08:58SPEAKERI'm kind of grateful that I got to spend a lot of it
09:00SPEAKERwith her that I wouldn't have otherwise, so.
09:02SPEAKER- That's actually, that's a good point.
09:03SPEAKERI feel way worse for people, young people, let's say,
09:06SPEAKERbetween like child age to, I don't know, college-ish
09:09SPEAKERthan I do for working adults.
09:11SPEAKER- Yeah, and like, it's lucky because she was seven
09:15SPEAKERwhen this started and like, that's like, if you have,
09:18SPEAKERI have some friends who have like, I mean,
09:19SPEAKERwe have friends who have three and four year olds
09:21SPEAKERand all they know, they don't know why they can't go
09:24SPEAKERto the playgrounds, why they can't go to daycare
09:25SPEAKERand see their friends, they just know that like,
09:27SPEAKERthey haven't been to a playground in a year,
09:29SPEAKERbut they remember what it was like before, and.
09:31SPEAKER- 'Cause those are formative years for people
09:33SPEAKERin that age range, you know, like once you're crusty
09:35SPEAKERand old and past your prime, like, it's just like,
09:38SPEAKERone year's just like the next.
09:41SPEAKER- Yeah, one more candle on the cake.
09:42SPEAKER- That's right.
09:45SPEAKER- But yeah, so I think we should turn some cues into A's,
09:48SPEAKERBrad, the email address, as always,
09:50SPEAKERis techpod@content.town.
09:52SPEAKERThat's techpod@content.town.
09:55SPEAKER- That's a good email address.
09:57SPEAKER- It's the number one domain, look.
09:59SPEAKER- You're listening, you should use that email address.
10:01SPEAKER- They said that I was a much better guest than PJ
10:04SPEAKERfrom "Reply All" yesterday on that show,
10:05SPEAKERso I was very excited about that.
10:07SPEAKER- I don't know who that is, but I'll, congratulations.
10:10SPEAKER- "Reply All" is a really good podcast.
10:12SPEAKER- Oh, wow.
10:12SPEAKER- Yeah, don't tell anybody.
10:15SPEAKER- I won't, surely no one will hear you say that.
10:20SPEAKEROh boy, okay, should we get in some emails?
10:22SPEAKER- Yeah, sure.
10:23SPEAKER- Here's an email, I feel a little hesitant here,
10:26SPEAKERfeel a little self-conscious.
10:29SPEAKERThis person is from Finland and has a Finnish name,
10:31SPEAKERas they point out, and I'm not sure how to pronounce it.
10:34SPEAKER- You mean to do it?
10:35SPEAKER- Yes.
10:37SPEAKER- Is it the question about future proofing?
10:38SPEAKER- Yes, that is the one.
10:40SPEAKER- You, so, you, holla.
10:41SPEAKER- Yeah, so that's my question,
10:43SPEAKERI don't know how Js are pronounced in Finnish.
10:45SPEAKER- Yeah.
10:46SPEAKER- Is that, yeah?
10:47SPEAKER- Yeah, but that's how Js are pronounced in Swedish,
10:49SPEAKERbut they're close to each other, so I'm gonna assume.
10:51SPEAKER- I'll buy that, okay.
10:53SPEAKER- Yeah.
10:53SPEAKER- Okay, thank you.
10:54SPEAKER- I'm a noted pronunciation expert, as we all know.
10:57SPEAKER- Oh, of course, yes, I'll let you handle
10:58SPEAKERall the Finnish emails from now on.
11:00SPEAKER- Yeah, please.
11:02SPEAKER- I'll read the body, though.
11:05SPEAKERLet's see, how much future proofing should one do?
11:09SPEAKERI'm planning to build a house in a year or two
11:11SPEAKERand was wondering where I should go overkill
11:12SPEAKERand where anything decent will be fine.
11:14SPEAKERFor example, I'm going to want ethernet ports
11:16SPEAKERin every room, and if I don't say anything,
11:18SPEAKERthere will most likely be CAT 5E cables
11:21SPEAKERrunning in the walls.
11:23SPEAKERBut is CAT 6 good enough for years to come,
11:25SPEAKERor should I look into running fiber in the house instead?
11:28SPEAKERAnother example that comes to mind is USB power outlets,
11:30SPEAKERbut with those, I remember them being five volt,
11:32SPEAKERone amp, just six years ago,
11:35SPEAKERwhich would feel pretty insufficient today.
11:38SPEAKERSo would that kind of thing be worth installing
11:40SPEAKERif you have to upgrade it every five years
11:41SPEAKERto keep up with new tech?
11:43SPEAKERAssuming it's possible to do that
11:45SPEAKERwithout tearing the walls open every time.
11:47SPEAKERThere's probably a ton more stuff like this,
11:49SPEAKEREV charging, smart home integration,
11:51SPEAKERserver rooms, et cetera, that one could or should consider.
11:55SPEAKER- Okay, this is a good question.
11:57SPEAKER- Yes, I don't have a ton of good answers
11:59SPEAKERother than the network cabling,
12:00SPEAKERbut yes, it is a very good question
12:02SPEAKERthat I would love to hear people's opinions on.
12:04SPEAKERI double checked, CAT 6 is good for up to 10 gigabits.
12:09SPEAKERSo if you want to run copper,
12:10SPEAKERthat should be fine for quite some time for networking.
12:13SPEAKER- I would assume for the rest of your life, probably,
12:16SPEAKERfor what normal people do at home.
12:18SPEAKER- You think?
12:18SPEAKER- I don't think-
12:19SPEAKER- I don't know about the rest of your,
12:20SPEAKERwell, like what are we kind of,
12:21SPEAKERare we talking another 40?
12:23SPEAKER- I'm almost 50, I'm halfway to 50 at this point.
12:25SPEAKERSo I can't have that much time left.
12:27SPEAKER- This podcast is getting really dark,
12:28SPEAKERbut what kind of time span are we talking about
12:31SPEAKERwhen you say the rest of your life?
12:32SPEAKER30 to 40 years?
12:33SPEAKER- 30 years.
12:34SPEAKER- Okay.
12:35SPEAKER- You know.
12:36SPEAKER- I can see it.
12:37SPEAKERWell, where were we 30 years ago?
12:39SPEAKER- Look, 30 years ago is,
12:41SPEAKERwe were on the part of the curve
12:43SPEAKERthat was flat 30 years ago.
12:44SPEAKERAnd then all of a sudden, like 15 years ago,
12:45SPEAKERit started going up and then now it's in the vertical part.
12:48SPEAKER- I'm trying to-
12:49SPEAKER- But I think we're plateau for network bandwidth.
12:51SPEAKERI don't think you need that that much really.
12:53SPEAKER- We'll see.
12:54SPEAKER- 10 gigs, pretty good.
12:55SPEAKER- Yeah, I guess you're right.
12:57SPEAKER- So I would say put CAT 6,
12:59SPEAKERwhat I was gonna say is the cost of putting CAT 6 in now
13:03SPEAKERversus the cost of pulling all the CAT 5e out
13:05SPEAKERand putting CAT 5 in is probably justified,
13:08SPEAKEReven though it's gonna cost you like double for the wire.
13:11SPEAKER- Is it really?
13:12SPEAKER- It's more expensive,
13:13SPEAKERbut especially 'cause you want plenum
13:15SPEAKERthat's not gonna make toxic smoke if that was catches on fire.
13:17SPEAKER- Sure.
13:19SPEAKERYeah, I would definitely go CAT 6 minimum.
13:20SPEAKERThe fiber question is maybe a bigger concern though,
13:24SPEAKERbecause you are starting to see a lot more fiber-based
13:27SPEAKERhome networking stuff.
13:28SPEAKER- I think you can make an argument
13:31SPEAKERthat it's worth putting dark fiber in your walls
13:33SPEAKER'cause it won't cost very much.
13:35SPEAKERLike the same argument, right?
13:37SPEAKERIt doesn't cost that much to put it in the walls
13:38SPEAKERwhen the walls are open.
13:39SPEAKERIf you put it in after, it's gonna be really expensive.
13:43SPEAKERBut you wanna be tactical about where you put it.
13:46SPEAKERLike you wanna put it into where you think
13:47SPEAKERyour entertainment center is gonna go.
13:49SPEAKER- 'Cause you probably don't need fiber
13:50SPEAKERto every single room, right?
13:51SPEAKER- Yeah, no, you want it where your PC is gonna be
13:54SPEAKERand you want like a run to like the garage
13:56SPEAKERor wherever your network,
13:58SPEAKERthink about where your network cabinet's gonna go
14:00SPEAKERand put power and ventilation
14:02SPEAKERand star all your network stuff into there
14:06SPEAKERand go out from there.
14:09SPEAKERThe USB power plugs are an interesting question
14:12SPEAKERbecause like, I don't like those.
14:15SPEAKERI think they're bad.
14:17SPEAKERA, because those power standards are changing dramatically
14:20SPEAKERon the year to year.
14:22SPEAKERAnd B, like I don't use them when I'm out in public
14:25SPEAKERbecause I think they're a security problem.
14:27SPEAKER- Sure.
14:28SPEAKER- Like if you wanted to root somebody's phone real easily,
14:30SPEAKERyou'd replace one of those power outlets
14:32SPEAKERand like Nathan's at the Las Vegas Convention Center
14:35SPEAKERthat people use while they're eating a hot dog
14:36SPEAKERand charging their phone at lunchtime.
14:38SPEAKERAnd yeah.
14:39SPEAKER- I mean, obviously you're not gonna have security concerns
14:41SPEAKERabout your own wall USB ports.
14:44SPEAKER- You trust Home Depot?
14:46SPEAKER- Man, how deep does this conspiracy go?
14:48SPEAKER- Look, all the way down, Brad.
14:51SPEAKER- Yes, that's fair.
14:51SPEAKERYou can't be too careful.
14:53SPEAKERI would add to that.
14:54SPEAKERI mean, you said the power standards are changing there,
14:56SPEAKERbut the form factor standards are also changing.
14:58SPEAKERLike it seems like we're finally getting to the point
15:02SPEAKERwhere USB-C is becoming the standard.
15:04SPEAKER- We heard about USB-Ds.
15:06SPEAKER- What?
15:06SPEAKERDoes that actually exist?
15:07SPEAKER- No, Ds nuts.
15:09SPEAKER- I'm, oh.
15:12SPEAKER- I'm sorry.
15:13SPEAKER- Okay, okay.
15:13SPEAKER- I'm sorry.
15:14SPEAKER- Wait. - I'm sorry.
15:15SPEAKER- This says there is a USB type D connector.
15:18SPEAKER- Oh no.
15:19SPEAKER- No, wait a minute.
15:21SPEAKERNevermind.
15:22SPEAKER- Is it just a page that says Ds nuts
15:24SPEAKERand then points to the USB connector?
15:25SPEAKER- That's not actually real.
15:27SPEAKER- Oh, it was the first thing that came up,
15:30SPEAKERsays USB D connector unveiled,
15:32SPEAKERand then I clicked through and it was April Fool's joke.
15:35SPEAKER- Whew, thank goodness.
15:37SPEAKER- But I'm trying to think the last
15:40SPEAKERfour or five consumer electronics things I've bought
15:42SPEAKERthat have involved USB have all been USB-C.
15:45SPEAKERThe controllers on both of these consoles.
15:48SPEAKER- Yeah.
15:49SPEAKER- The pair of headphones I just got,
15:51SPEAKERwhich we'll actually probably talk about in a minute
15:53SPEAKERon another email.
15:54SPEAKERUse USB-C for charging.
15:57SPEAKERTrying to think one or two other things I got recently.
16:00SPEAKEROh, the stream deck.
16:02SPEAKERThey all got to a stream deck that I got.
16:04SPEAKER- Oh, it uses USB-C?
16:05SPEAKER- Yeah.
16:06SPEAKER- Oh, mine's only A.
16:10SPEAKERThe iPhone ships with a USB-C to lightning cable
16:15SPEAKERand no power brick.
16:16SPEAKER- I guess that's progress.
16:17SPEAKER- Fantastic, I guess.
16:18SPEAKERI don't know.
16:19SPEAKER- It's not quite getting the USB-C straight into the phone,
16:21SPEAKERbut that's something.
16:22SPEAKER- Yeah, we're getting there.
16:24SPEAKER- I saw like a fair amount of people upset
16:26SPEAKERthat the 12 doesn't actually just use USB-C,
16:29SPEAKERwhich I don't really, I'm not sure I entirely understand.
16:33SPEAKERWhat is the use case?
16:35SPEAKERDo people just want to consolidate cables?
16:36SPEAKERIs that what it is?
16:37SPEAKERThey just don't want to keep carrying lightning cables
16:39SPEAKERaround?
16:39SPEAKER- It would be nice not to carry lightning cables.
16:42SPEAKERLightning cables have a shockingly short lifespan
16:44SPEAKERin my experience.
16:45SPEAKER- Really?
16:46SPEAKER- Yeah.
16:46SPEAKER- I don't think I've ever had one die before.
16:48SPEAKER- Well, so it may be moister where we are,
16:51SPEAKERbut there's one pin that always corrodes on them
16:53SPEAKERin our cars.
16:54SPEAKER- Interesting.
16:55SPEAKER- And it may be because of like outside humidity,
16:57SPEAKER'cause it is wet here.
16:58SPEAKERBut anyway, let's see other stuff.
17:02SPEAKERSo the car charging the solar,
17:04SPEAKERI think the smart home integration makes sense
17:07SPEAKER'cause if you're going to do smart switches,
17:09SPEAKERget the electrician to put them in
17:11SPEAKERwhen you're building the house.
17:12SPEAKERSo strongly encourage you to get all the same kind of switch
17:17SPEAKERand whether it's something that uses a proprietary hub,
17:19SPEAKERlike the Leviton Caseta stuff or, sorry,
17:23SPEAKERLutron Caseta or the Leviton Z-Wave and Zigbee
17:28SPEAKERor whatever, you know, think about that.
17:31SPEAKERPut your hub where you want it to be.
17:34SPEAKERThe thing I would say is that you can't,
17:36SPEAKERwell, you're in Finland, so you know this,
17:37SPEAKERbut if you're building in America,
17:39SPEAKERthey will let you put way less insulation in your house
17:41SPEAKERthan you should when you build it.
17:42SPEAKERAnd you should insulate the holy living shit
17:44SPEAKERout of everything, windows.
17:46SPEAKERBefore those drywall walls are on,
17:48SPEAKERgo through and take loose insulation
17:50SPEAKERand spray it in the cracks around your window frames,
17:53SPEAKERbecause most contractors in the US at least don't do that
17:56SPEAKERand it'll make your house drafty as hell.
17:59SPEAKERAnd it's really hard to fix that once the drywall's on
18:02SPEAKER'cause then you have to, it's just a pain in the ass.
18:07SPEAKERWhat else?
18:11SPEAKERI mean, I think solar makes a ton of sense
18:13SPEAKERdepending on your latitude.
18:15SPEAKERWhere we are in the North half of the US,
18:19SPEAKERit makes a ton of sense.
18:23SPEAKEREspecially if your local power company subsidizes
18:26SPEAKERor buys based on demand.
18:28SPEAKERSo like in California, if you have solar panels on,
18:31SPEAKERyou sell during the day at the time that the rate
18:34SPEAKERis the highest in the afternoon
18:35SPEAKERwhen manufacturing is running and everything,
18:37SPEAKERand you buy back at night when it's dark
18:39SPEAKERand it's way cheaper and it's a good thing.
18:42SPEAKERAnd if you pair that with the EV charging rates,
18:44SPEAKERthen you can get incredible deals on electricity
18:47SPEAKERif you put panels on your roof.
18:48SPEAKER- Do you have any sense of whether the panel efficiency
18:50SPEAKERis there at this point for the average person?
18:54SPEAKER- I mean, the third gen and on panels are real good.
18:58SPEAKER- Okay.
18:58SPEAKER- Like if you most, unless you have really exceptional
19:02SPEAKERelectricity needs or you do something goofy,
19:03SPEAKERlike have an electric dryer or something like that,
19:06SPEAKERyou should be break even in California at least.
19:10SPEAKER- Do you think, I assume local storage solutions
19:13SPEAKERare probably modular enough that as those improve,
19:15SPEAKERyou can kind of bolt those on after the fact?
19:18SPEAKER- Yeah, they're pretty expensive.
19:19SPEAKERLike I don't know that the local storage
19:21SPEAKERmakes as much sense because the batteries
19:23SPEAKERare expensive still.
19:24SPEAKER- Like say five, 10 years from now,
19:25SPEAKER'cause assuming you're probably gonna be in this house
19:27SPEAKERfor quite some time, like let's say 10 years from now,
19:29SPEAKERsomething like a power wall just makes sense for everybody.
19:32SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know if I would call that modular.
19:36SPEAKERIt's not like a USB thing that you plug in.
19:38SPEAKERLike you have to, if you wanna use those
19:39SPEAKERand have them be live when the grid is off,
19:41SPEAKERyou have to have a cutoff for your,
19:45SPEAKERon your end of the network that turns off power
19:47SPEAKERgoing out of your house into the network
19:50SPEAKERso that like if the power's out
19:51SPEAKERand the electric linemen are out there,
19:54SPEAKERline people are out working on down lines or whatever,
19:58SPEAKERthere's not current coming back into the lines
20:00SPEAKERfrom your house that could hurt them.
20:01SPEAKER- Do you know if that's something
20:02SPEAKERthey would toggle themselves
20:03SPEAKERif they were out there doing maintenance
20:04SPEAKERor do you have to be around to make sure
20:07SPEAKERthat that stuff's enabled?
20:09SPEAKER- It should be automatic.
20:10SPEAKER- Okay.
20:11SPEAKER- Like it works in the same way that like a failover generator,
20:13SPEAKERlike if you have a, if you are someplace
20:15SPEAKERwhere the power goes on, you have like a gas generator,
20:17SPEAKERa natural gas generator that fails over
20:20SPEAKERwhen the power goes out, you're supposed to have
20:22SPEAKERthat same kind of circuit on it.
20:23SPEAKERIt should be automatic when the generator comes on.
20:25SPEAKER- Do we have a sense that the lines are dead
20:26SPEAKERand just stop sending current out?
20:28SPEAKER- Yeah, it basically toggles a switch that flips
20:31SPEAKERwhen the power, and when the power comes back on,
20:33SPEAKERit switches back on and then the generator turns off.
20:35SPEAKER- Okay.
20:38SPEAKER- I think like if I were doing my house again,
20:41SPEAKERI would find a place to put a small server rack
20:43SPEAKERand do- - Yes, absolutely.
20:45SPEAKERNetwork closet, if not network basement.
20:48SPEAKER- Yeah, like router switches, probably not Wi-Fi,
20:53SPEAKER'cause Wi-Fi makes sense to put in places
20:56SPEAKERthat are more central than maybe you would wanna put this.
20:59SPEAKER- Yes, that is the ideal use case
21:01SPEAKERfor having your router separated from your access points
21:03SPEAKERso you can put those where they need to be.
21:04SPEAKER- Absolutely, and I would, when I'm,
21:08SPEAKERso when I placed the ethernet in my house,
21:11SPEAKERwhen I did it 13 years ago,
21:14SPEAKERI did it based on where I thought PCs
21:16SPEAKERand streaming devices like Sonos and stuff would be,
21:19SPEAKERI wish I had been if for sightful enough
21:22SPEAKERto put a couple of power over ethernet lines
21:24SPEAKERin places that Wi-Fi mesh nodes would make sense to live,
21:28SPEAKERlike maybe even up in the attic
21:29SPEAKERwhere they're inaccessible for the most part
21:31SPEAKERor hanging off the ceiling or something like that.
21:34SPEAKER- Yeah, POE is crucial for Wi-Fi access points
21:37SPEAKERif you don't wanna have to run external power
21:39SPEAKERto those things, which is a real pain in the ass
21:41SPEAKERif they're on the ceiling.
21:42SPEAKER- Well, but that said,
21:43SPEAKERif you're doing the wiring for the house,
21:45SPEAKERit costs practically nothing to have the electrician
21:47SPEAKERadd a couple more power outlets in weird places.
21:49SPEAKERSo for example, I have a power outlet in the crawl space
21:53SPEAKERthat the switch that lives under the center of the house
21:56SPEAKERcan go in, there's a Wi-Fi access point on that as well.
21:59SPEAKERYou can do that in the attic as well,
22:01SPEAKERlike just put it by the attic door,
22:03SPEAKERmake it easy to get to
22:04SPEAKERif your attic's not normally accessible.
22:06SPEAKER- Yeah, and I think any old modern ethernet cable
22:09SPEAKERcan do POE, right, and you don't need specific.
22:11SPEAKER- Any four, ethernet four or five or something,
22:14SPEAKERI can't remember what it is, but it's real low,
22:16SPEAKERit's low power, and you can buy adapters
22:19SPEAKERthat plug in on either side.
22:20SPEAKER- Yes, so that's actually what I've got
22:23SPEAKERfor my Ubiquiti access point
22:25SPEAKER'cause I don't have a POE router,
22:27SPEAKERso it comes with it,
22:28SPEAKERand it came with it actually in the box just a little bit.
22:31SPEAKER- DC adapter plus pass-through ethernet.
22:33SPEAKER- So you just have to make sure that the DC end
22:35SPEAKERon the downwind side of the POE
22:38SPEAKERis the right DC for whatever device you're plugging in.
22:41SPEAKER- Yeah, and future home building is a lot.
22:44SPEAKER- Man, I am--
22:45SPEAKER- I wonder if there, do you think there are
22:47SPEAKERlike general contractors out there now
22:49SPEAKERthat are starting to sub-specialize
22:51SPEAKERin this kind of like smart home, future home type stuff, or?
22:55SPEAKER- Yeah, there's a whole spec,
22:56SPEAKERI did a story about untested years ago
23:00SPEAKERabout like super green homes
23:02SPEAKERthat are insulated appropriately and like don't,
23:06SPEAKERthere's specs for like how drafty they can be,
23:10SPEAKERhow you handle things like radon buildup
23:11SPEAKERin a house that's completely sealed,
23:13SPEAKER'cause like normal houses are leaky enough
23:14SPEAKERthat radon's not a problem, stuff like that
23:18SPEAKERthat was absolutely fascinating,
23:19SPEAKERand it's very popular in, especially Northern Europe,
23:22SPEAKERbut most of Western Europe, including Germany and France,
23:26SPEAKERand then in the US there's like 12 houses.
23:29SPEAKERThe time in 2010 or 11 when I wrote the story,
23:33SPEAKERthere were I think 12 houses in the US
23:34SPEAKERthat had been built to that spec,
23:36SPEAKERand it's the normal American stupidity
23:41SPEAKERwhere it costs like 10% more upfront,
23:44SPEAKERbut it saves you 30% or 40% in utility cost
23:49SPEAKERevery single year that the house exists.
23:51SPEAKERSo over the 50 year lifespan of the house,
23:53SPEAKERit will save an unbelievable amount of money,
23:55SPEAKERbut you know, 10% more upfront, eh, I don't know.
23:58SPEAKER- Yeah, also the, you know what,
23:59SPEAKERthe value of being able to say,
24:00SPEAKERyou can't tell me what to do, it's priceless.
24:02SPEAKER- Yeah, yes, thanks, thanks American exceptionalism.
24:05SPEAKER- Yes, all right, let's move on.
24:08SPEAKERQuestion from Matthew.
24:11SPEAKERI finished my hardware upgrades for the year
24:13SPEAKERand was lucky enough to secure both new consoles,
24:15SPEAKERa 3080 and two LG B9s.
24:18SPEAKER- Damn.
24:19SPEAKER- That's quite a haul.
24:21SPEAKERThey all work great, excusing some driver issues,
24:23SPEAKERbut my capture card and receiver are all HDMI 2.0 or earlier.
24:28SPEAKERDo you know when we can expect AV receivers,
24:30SPEAKERHDMI splitters, and capture cards
24:32SPEAKERto catch up to the new 2.1 standard?
24:34SPEAKERI don't have a good answer for this.
24:36SPEAKERI hope that you might have some insight,
24:38SPEAKERbut like I just kind of have more questions around this
24:41SPEAKERbecause it feels like from what I've seen so far,
24:44SPEAKERthe answer is a giant question mark.
24:46SPEAKER- It's a problem.
24:48SPEAKERMy guess is we'll see HDMI 2.1 stuff at CES in January
24:52SPEAKERor whatever CES in January is.
24:56SPEAKERI don't expect like that stuff will roll out
24:59SPEAKERover the six months after that probably.
25:01SPEAKERSo it'll be announced in January.
25:03SPEAKERIt'll roll out of the first half of the year.
25:05SPEAKERMy guess is that we'll see like Elgato and Blackmagic
25:09SPEAKERand kind of the big, the high-end capture companies
25:14SPEAKERroll out HDMI 2.1 parts early on.
25:18SPEAKERAnd then we'll see the kind of fast follow,
25:23SPEAKERChinese electronics vendor or market vendors
25:26SPEAKERfollow shortly after that.
25:29SPEAKERI don't, I mean, I think the secret is,
25:35SPEAKERif you're using one of these new consoles,
25:36SPEAKERyou probably want to plug straight into the TV
25:38SPEAKERand let the ARC and the CEC stuff
25:41SPEAKERbring the audio signal back to your receiver.
25:43SPEAKERAnd then it doesn't matter what it is,
25:46SPEAKERassuming that the audio spec that your receiver supports
25:50SPEAKERis the audio spec that the console's outputting
25:52SPEAKERand is on the media that you're using.
25:55SPEAKERIt gets, this stuff gets really complicated.
25:57SPEAKER- Yes, certainly does. - It's the bad news.
26:00SPEAKER- Yeah, the capture cards on this list,
26:02SPEAKERthat's the category I'm the least concerned about
26:04SPEAKERbecause I cannot imagine a time
26:06SPEAKERwhen you're gonna really need to be capturing 4K 120,
26:09SPEAKERwhich is really, that's the only benefit
26:11SPEAKERof having 2.1 in a capture card.
26:13SPEAKERAnd when is any major streaming service
26:15SPEAKERgonna carry 4K 120 content?
26:17SPEAKER- Well, you could put it on YouTube,
26:18SPEAKERbut you'd have to- - Can you?
26:19SPEAKER- Well, you have to, you can do 4K 60, I know,
26:21SPEAKERI don't think you can do 4K 120.
26:23SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't think they take 120
26:24SPEAKERof any resolution, do they?
26:27SPEAKER- I don't know.
26:28SPEAKERI'm really curious when Twitch is gonna up to 4K or 1440p.
26:36SPEAKER- I am too, but I mean, I think the bigger question there
26:39SPEAKERis when they're going to start letting you,
26:40SPEAKERor when are they gonna start allowing ingest
26:42SPEAKERof more modern codecs?
26:44SPEAKERBecause- - That is a whole other thing.
26:46SPEAKERYeah, if we could do H.265 on Twitch,
26:48SPEAKERthe image quality would immediately go up
26:49SPEAKERat the same bit rates. - Or like VP9, AV1,
26:53SPEAKERname all these modern codecs,
26:54SPEAKERbut there's a lot higher efficiency codecs
26:56SPEAKERthat like H.264 is not gonna cut it
26:58SPEAKERif we're gonna move past 1080 60.
27:01SPEAKER- Yeah, I think the solution though, in the short term,
27:05SPEAKERis to plug everything into your TV
27:07SPEAKERand hope you have enough HDMI 2.1 ports on the TV.
27:10SPEAKER- Yeah, that's probably the right answer,
27:12SPEAKERalthough that makes me mad
27:13SPEAKER'cause I like having like six consoles hooked up at one time.
27:16SPEAKERIt gets, that gets messy.
27:18SPEAKER- It's really funny, I dug out the,
27:20SPEAKERI hooked up the Xbox One
27:22SPEAKER'cause my daughter started playing "Human Fall Flat"
27:23SPEAKERwith a couple of her friends,
27:25SPEAKERand I forgot that the first gen Xbox
27:30SPEAKERdoesn't support any of the EAC stuff,
27:35SPEAKERany of the CEC, HDMI CEC stuff.
27:38SPEAKERIt changed channels by using the Kinect IR emitter.
27:41SPEAKER- Yeah, the IR blaster.
27:42SPEAKER- Oh God, so I've had to teach her how to use a remote.
27:45SPEAKERIt's a disaster.
27:46SPEAKER- The One X actually also did that
27:48SPEAKERstraight out of the front of the console.
27:49SPEAKER- So stupid.
27:50SPEAKER- It continued to IR blast for years later
27:54SPEAKERafter the Kinect went away,
27:55SPEAKERbut- - So stupid.
27:56SPEAKER- All that stuff's gone.
27:57SPEAKERAll the Series X removed everything.
27:59SPEAKERNo One Guide, which was the app that you used
28:02SPEAKERto handle TV channel management.
28:05SPEAKERNo support for those USB over the air tuners
28:08SPEAKERthat you used to be able to plug in
28:09SPEAKERthat I'd used for a long time.
28:12SPEAKERThat stuff's just 100% gone, so.
28:13SPEAKER- Real loss.
28:14SPEAKER- End of an era.
28:15SPEAKER- Yeah.
28:17SPEAKER- Yeah, I guess, yeah, stay tuned to CES for this, I hope.
28:21SPEAKER- I would be shocked if Sony and Ankyo
28:24SPEAKERand kind of Denon and all the big AV manufacturers
28:27SPEAKERdon't have HDMI 2.1, 4K, 120 Hertz receivers
28:32SPEAKERannounced and out by like March.
28:34SPEAKER- Okay, that's encouraging.
28:36SPEAKERThat's encouraging because, yeah,
28:36SPEAKERthey have like, they're basically none
28:38SPEAKERon the market right now,
28:39SPEAKERand it really made me concerned,
28:40SPEAKERlike, are AV receivers just going away?
28:42SPEAKERLike, is the market-
28:43SPEAKER- No, remember, HDMI 2.1 just got ratified.
28:45SPEAKERLike, it was recent.
28:48SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, TV's heavily had it in some form
28:51SPEAKERfor the last year or two, couple of years.
28:53SPEAKER- And they were shipping with pre-release hardware,
28:55SPEAKERlike final hardware with pre-release software,
28:58SPEAKERprobably pre-release specs, so.
29:00SPEAKER- Some of those first TV's that had the ports
29:01SPEAKERdidn't even support all the features.
29:03SPEAKER- Yeah, I think one of the things I saw
29:05SPEAKERover the last couple of weeks
29:06SPEAKERwas that people were having to do firmware updates
29:08SPEAKERon their TV's to support the Xbox One X and, sorry,
29:12SPEAKERXbox Series X and the PS5.
29:14SPEAKER- That is the biggest reason I have still held off on TV's
29:16SPEAKERis that the support is just finalizing now, it seems like.
29:20SPEAKER- I'm with you on that one.
29:21SPEAKER- Yeah, we'll get there.
29:23SPEAKERUm, Dylan in Ottawa.
29:28SPEAKERI recently spent a week meticulously comparing
29:30SPEAKERand pricing out a bunch of PC components
29:32SPEAKERfor my first new bill since 2007.
29:34SPEAKERHowever, on the day I was about to order everything,
29:36SPEAKERDell suddenly had a crazy discount on their Alienwares,
29:39SPEAKERwhich meant I could get a machine with a 3080 in it
29:42SPEAKERfor around $1,000 off.
29:43SPEAKERThat's a pretty big discount.
29:46SPEAKERI jumped on- - That is a lot of cheddar.
29:47SPEAKER- Yeah, I jumped on the opportunity,
29:49SPEAKERbut now I can't help feeling buyer's remorse.
29:52SPEAKEROn paper, the Alienware is much faster
29:53SPEAKERthan the PC I would have built myself,
29:56SPEAKERbut I can't shake the feeling
29:57SPEAKERI've made a mistake getting a Dell.
29:59SPEAKERAny thoughts about Alienware
30:01SPEAKERand whether or not I made a bad choice?
30:03SPEAKERI haven't actually received the computer yet.
30:05SPEAKERHe doesn't really go into a lot of detail
30:06SPEAKERabout why he's wary of the Dell or Alienware brands, but-
30:10SPEAKER- I mean, it's a big brand.
30:12SPEAKER- Yeah, I guess you could probably expand this question out
30:15SPEAKERto just say, like, did I make a mistake
30:17SPEAKERgetting a pre-built machine versus a,
30:19SPEAKERespecially a highly integrated pre-built machine
30:21SPEAKERover building my own?
30:22SPEAKERBecause some of the, you name one,
30:25SPEAKERI can't think from off the top of my head,
30:26SPEAKERbut a lot of the pre-built vendors out there
30:28SPEAKERwill just build with off-the-shelf parts, right?
30:30SPEAKERBut I think, like, Alienware is probably in that category
30:34SPEAKERwhere everything is built to their spec,
30:36SPEAKERso it's very tightly integrated
30:37SPEAKERand you can't necessarily just, like,
30:39SPEAKERput a bunch of new drives.
30:40SPEAKERLike, the case may not accommodate a bunch of extra drives
30:42SPEAKERor, like, you know, stuff like that.
30:44SPEAKER- So I haven't tested off-the-shelf computers
30:48SPEAKERin more than 10 years,
30:49SPEAKERso I don't know that I'm conversant on what's going on
30:54SPEAKERin the, like, the big market,
30:57SPEAKERlike the Dells and the Alienwares.
31:00SPEAKERIn the olden times, Alienware machines
31:04SPEAKERwere more off-the-shelf than Dells,
31:07SPEAKERso Dells would have, like, custom motherboards
31:09SPEAKERwith weird shapes and holes in the wrong places
31:11SPEAKERand all sorts of nonsense,
31:13SPEAKERso you couldn't really work on those machines too much.
31:15SPEAKERThe Alienwares were just, you know,
31:20SPEAKERnormal computers with, you know, fancy plastic cases.
31:24SPEAKERI don't think there's anything wrong
31:26SPEAKERwith building a machine.
31:27SPEAKERLike, I actually know a couple of people who have,
31:30SPEAKERwith the Ryzen shortages and the 3080 shortages,
31:33SPEAKERwho have gone out and built an off-the-shelf computer
31:35SPEAKERjust to harvest the CPU motherboard
31:37SPEAKERand video card out of them.
31:39SPEAKER- I've seen a number of people say
31:40SPEAKERthat they bought pre-built machines
31:41SPEAKERjust 'cause that was the only way to get those things.
31:44SPEAKER- I do, like, often recommend,
31:47SPEAKERso there's kind of two scales of PC vendors.
31:49SPEAKERThere's people that have, like, giant factories,
31:52SPEAKERand I think Dell/Alienware fits in that category, right?
31:55SPEAKERLike, it's a big operation.
31:56SPEAKERThey sell tens of thousands of computers a month,
31:58SPEAKERand, like, they do things at massive scale.
32:02SPEAKERI think there's also a pretty strong argument
32:05SPEAKERfor buying one of what we called the boutique vendors
32:07SPEAKERat Maximum PC, so places like Falcon Northwest
32:09SPEAKERand Origin and Main Gear and places like that
32:16SPEAKERwhere they're relatively small.
32:18SPEAKERThey're bigger than, like, your local screwdriver shop
32:20SPEAKERwhere some guy is just, like, ordering cases from Amazon
32:23SPEAKERor Newegg or whatever and putting stuff together.
32:26SPEAKERSo they have a lot of,
32:27SPEAKERand they specialize usually in high-end hardware.
32:30SPEAKERSo, like, you know, Origin, I recommend Origin a lot,
32:33SPEAKERso I'm familiar with what they do.
32:35SPEAKERThey have a couple of, like, off-the-shelf SKUs
32:37SPEAKERthat are basically, like, a pretty good all-around PC,
32:41SPEAKERlike a 3070 with a mid-range octa-core CPU
32:46SPEAKERand 32 gigs of RAM and a one-terabyte SSD,
32:50SPEAKERand it's all gonna jam into a nice ITX case,
32:54SPEAKERand it'll be quiet and small, and it has a good warranty.
32:56SPEAKERAnd the thing that you get with those small boutiques
32:59SPEAKERthat you don't necessarily get with Dell or Alienware
33:01SPEAKERis actual hands-on support if you need it.
33:04SPEAKERSo, like, when I have friends who are maybe not gonna,
33:08SPEAKERlike, be comfortable swapping out a motherboard
33:10SPEAKERif they need to replace hardware at some point in the future,
33:12SPEAKERI usually push them toward, you know, Origin or Falcon
33:15SPEAKERor one of those places,
33:17SPEAKERbecause they'll get the help that they need,
33:18SPEAKERand then I don't end up doing support for them.
33:20SPEAKER- Sure, that's a good reason to do that.
33:23SPEAKER- Yeah.
33:24SPEAKER- My preference has always been, and I mean,
33:25SPEAKERI am just picky to the point of obsessiveness
33:28SPEAKERabout the nature of every single part in the machine,
33:32SPEAKERdown to what kind of RAM it is,
33:33SPEAKERlike the brand and the specs of the power supply,
33:35SPEAKERlike everything, you know?
33:37SPEAKERAnd I just want to know and have control
33:38SPEAKERover all of those details, and, you know,
33:41SPEAKERyou're probably gonna get a perfectly fine machine
33:43SPEAKERfrom most of the pre-built vendors,
33:45SPEAKERbut you can't necessarily guarantee, like, you know,
33:47SPEAKERa lot of the, like, spec lists you'll look at
33:49SPEAKERwill just say, like, 750-watt gold-rated power supply,
33:52SPEAKERbut it won't say what kind, for example.
33:54SPEAKERStuff like that.
33:55SPEAKER- One terabyte NVMe SSD.
33:57SPEAKER- Right, right.
33:58SPEAKER- It's gonna be fast, but is it gonna be the fastest thing
34:00SPEAKERthat you could buy for that money?
34:01SPEAKERProbably not.
34:02SPEAKEROr especially, like, with SSDs,
34:04SPEAKERis it gonna be one of the ones that lasts the longest,
34:05SPEAKERyou know, like, there are details there to consider
34:07SPEAKERthat you can't always account for with that stuff.
34:09SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, but at the same time, you also trade,
34:12SPEAKERyou know, if you're buying an Alienware or Dell,
34:15SPEAKERyou're trading the ability to make those decisions
34:17SPEAKERfor when something breaks, you just call them
34:19SPEAKERand they send you a new one, you send the old one back,
34:21SPEAKERand then the problem is solved, right?
34:23SPEAKER- So it's, you know, it saves you hours and hours
34:24SPEAKERof hardware research that you have to do
34:26SPEAKERto make all those choices yourself,
34:28SPEAKERwhich, you know, I long ago came to terms
34:32SPEAKERwith the fact that I enjoy a lot of things
34:34SPEAKERthat most people find very boring.
34:36SPEAKERSo I'm fine with that, but you know.
34:38SPEAKER- Well, yeah, like, I don't think, I don't,
34:40SPEAKERI really don't, like, my preference is
34:44SPEAKERto build my own computers.
34:46SPEAKER- Yeah.
34:47SPEAKER- If I was in a dramatically different financial situation,
34:51SPEAKERI might change my mind on that, but I don't think so.
34:54SPEAKERI kind of enjoy the, like, I enjoy the process
34:56SPEAKERand I like knowing how everything goes together
34:58SPEAKERand I like doing that still.
34:59SPEAKER- Totally.
35:01SPEAKER- But, I mean, there is an argument,
35:02SPEAKERthere is something nice about calling Origin
35:04SPEAKERand being like, yeah, I want something
35:05SPEAKERthat is like a screaming fast Corvette
35:07SPEAKERand is gonna have the living shit overclocked out of it,
35:10SPEAKERit's gonna have a dope water cooling rig,
35:12SPEAKERbecause like, you know, doing that stuff yourself is scary
35:15SPEAKERand you can mess up and you cost yourself a lot of money
35:17SPEAKERif you end up dunking your video card or something, so.
35:20SPEAKER- And like you said, those come with enough warranty
35:21SPEAKERand support that you have peace of mind
35:23SPEAKERabout the longevity and stability of the thing,
35:26SPEAKERso that's fine.
35:27SPEAKER- I mean, to the point even that, like,
35:28SPEAKERif you decide a year or two later
35:30SPEAKERthat you want a new video card,
35:31SPEAKERyou can, like, they'll let you send the system back to them
35:34SPEAKERand they'll put the video card in for you
35:35SPEAKERif you don't wanna do that stuff, so.
35:37SPEAKER- Right.
35:38SPEAKER- Yeah, like, you're building a relationship
35:39SPEAKERand I don't think there's anything wrong either.
35:41SPEAKER- No, no, that's, yeah, that's fine.
35:43SPEAKERI have started thinking about a Ryzen build enough
35:45SPEAKERto start going down the apparently very deep rabbit hole
35:48SPEAKERof memory spec for Ryzen systems.
35:51SPEAKER- So the thing Gerson said is that it's not as,
35:54SPEAKEReverybody's fear is that the Ryzen memory situation--
35:57SPEAKER- I'm not talking about status stability
35:59SPEAKERand compatibility and stuff like that.
36:00SPEAKER- Oh, yeah.
36:01SPEAKER- It's more about peak performance.
36:02SPEAKERIt's the, what it actually is is that, like,
36:05SPEAKERRAM speed never mattered that much with Intel, you know?
36:07SPEAKERIt's like, ah, you might see a percent difference
36:09SPEAKERor something like that.
36:10SPEAKER- Yeah.
36:11SPEAKER- There are much bigger performance deltas
36:13SPEAKERdepending on dialing in the right speed of memory
36:14SPEAKERwith Ryzen than I expected.
36:17SPEAKER- And latency, it's not just speed,
36:18SPEAKERit's also latency for Ryzen.
36:20SPEAKER- And the crazy thing I've come to find out,
36:22SPEAKER'cause again, this is a lot, is there's a fall off
36:25SPEAKERif you go too high, because the memory,
36:27SPEAKERwhat is it, the infinity fabric, I believe,
36:29SPEAKERis the controller right on the package that--
36:31SPEAKER- Yeah, something like that.
36:32SPEAKER- Handles all the talking between core complexes, right?
36:36SPEAKERYou want to one-to-one match your speed of memory
36:39SPEAKERwith the speed of that thing,
36:40SPEAKERand if you go too far past what that thing can do,
36:42SPEAKERyou're actually gonna see performance drop
36:44SPEAKERbecause the memory, it's out of sync
36:46SPEAKERwith the controller on the chip, basically.
36:48SPEAKERSo there's a sweet spot, there's a curve,
36:51SPEAKERthere's like a bell curve where if your memory's too fast,
36:54SPEAKERyou're actually gonna be worse off.
36:55SPEAKERSo that's a lot of research. - Everything's spectrum, yeah.
36:58SPEAKER- A lot of research.
37:00SPEAKER- The Unreal Engine games, a lot of Unreal Engine games
37:02SPEAKERare real memory bandwidth, depending on Intel.
37:04SPEAKERSo like PUBG, if you crank up your memory bandwidth,
37:07SPEAKERyou see almost a one-to-one increase in performance.
37:10SPEAKER- That's wild.
37:11SPEAKERThat was never the conventional wisdom in past years,
37:13SPEAKERbut how things have changed.
37:17SPEAKER- Let's see, got maybe one more email
37:21SPEAKERbefore we get into the thankful--
37:24SPEAKER- Yeah, that sounds good.
37:24SPEAKER- The thankful segment of the podcast.
37:28SPEAKERMartin in Dubai.
37:31SPEAKERCurrently, I have my 3080 that was very hard to find,
37:34SPEAKERconnected to, I'll skip all the model numbers and stuff here,
37:39SPEAKERbut an LG monitor that runs at 1440p at 144 Hertz
37:42SPEAKERthrough a DisplayPort cable,
37:44SPEAKERand an LG C6 OLED that runs at 4K in 60 Hertz
37:48SPEAKERthrough an HDMI cable.
37:50SPEAKERMy question, is it possible to set up a macro key
37:52SPEAKERor install software that will allow me to press one button
37:55SPEAKERon my keyboard and turn one display off
37:58SPEAKERand change the windows display settings
38:00SPEAKERto match the max settings of the other display?
38:02SPEAKERCurrently, I have to turn off one of the displays,
38:04SPEAKERthen use the display settings options in windows.
38:07SPEAKERDoing this multiple times a day
38:08SPEAKERis going to drive me crazy soon.
38:11SPEAKERMy use for this is to play more story-driven games
38:13SPEAKERat 4K on the TV with a controller
38:14SPEAKERand play more frame rate-dependent games
38:16SPEAKERon my fast refresh rate monitor.
38:18SPEAKER- I just went through this the other day.
38:20SPEAKER- Oh, what was your solution, if you have one?
38:22SPEAKER- So I have a 4K panel up top and a 1080p,
38:26SPEAKER4K 60 panel up top and a 1080p 360 panel down below.
38:32SPEAKERSo there's a Windows hotkey that's really useful.
38:35SPEAKERThis is Windows plus P.
38:37SPEAKERP is for projector, I think.
38:39SPEAKERAnd that lets you choose between main display, duplicating
38:43SPEAKERmain display, extending the main display
38:46SPEAKERand secondary display only.
38:50SPEAKERIf you, now the trick is it cycles
38:54SPEAKERbetween the last mode used for each of those.
38:57SPEAKERSo, and also I have a capture card set up
39:00SPEAKERthat duplicates the 1080p display onto the stream machine
39:05SPEAKERso that I can capture 1080p 60 for streaming.
39:09SPEAKER- Okay.
39:12SPEAKER- If you, you need to use the Nvidia control panel
39:14SPEAKERto do the cloning is the trick.
39:17SPEAKERAnd you need to, the order in which you click
39:20SPEAKERthe monitors matters.
39:21SPEAKER- Oh my God.
39:22SPEAKER- If you clone the secondary monitor, the 60 Hertz monitor
39:25SPEAKERonto the 144 Hertz monitor, then it's not gonna work right.
39:30SPEAKERYou're gonna get everything running at 60 Hertz.
39:33SPEAKERBut if you clone the 144 Hertz monitor
39:35SPEAKERonto the 60 Hertz monitor, it just works.
39:38SPEAKER- Okay.
39:39SPEAKER- So order of operations matters.
39:43SPEAKER- Jeez, man.
39:44SPEAKER- It's stupid.
39:45SPEAKERIt's like.
39:46SPEAKER- PEMDAS for monitors here.
39:48SPEAKER- I literally was complaining about this to a friend of mine
39:50SPEAKERwho also streams.
39:51SPEAKERHe's like, oh, you just did them in the wrong order, dude.
39:53SPEAKERYou just need to click the good monitor first
39:55SPEAKERand then click the second, the crappy monitor.
39:56SPEAKERI was like, you've gotta be fucking kidding me.
39:58SPEAKER- That's terrible because I've known about Windows P
40:01SPEAKERfor years, but I've never been able to figure out the logic
40:03SPEAKERof what exactly what you're describing right now,
40:05SPEAKERwhich is how it decides what it does
40:06SPEAKERwhen you make one of those choices.
40:08SPEAKERBecause it seems so random
40:10SPEAKERand this sheds a lot of light on why.
40:12SPEAKER- Yeah, it's.
40:13SPEAKER- That's good to know and also terrible.
40:16SPEAKER- It's.
40:17SPEAKER- Bad interface design.
40:18SPEAKER- I mean, you gotta think about it in terms of like
40:20SPEAKERhow Windows, like this is made for people
40:23SPEAKERwho are plugging a laptop in probably.
40:25SPEAKER- You're totally right.
40:26SPEAKERAnd this actually plays right into the problems
40:27SPEAKERI've been having with these monitors I got
40:28SPEAKERthat have the display port hot plug on and off stuff.
40:32SPEAKER- Yeah.
40:32SPEAKER- Which is that, yeah, it's exactly what you said.
40:35SPEAKERIt wants to assume that the person using Windows
40:37SPEAKERhas no idea what's gonna happen when they turn a monitor
40:39SPEAKERon or off.
40:39SPEAKER- Yeah.
40:40SPEAKER- Whereas like, I don't want it to mess with my windows
40:42SPEAKERwhen the monitor's off,
40:43SPEAKEReven though it thinks the display is missing,
40:44SPEAKERbut a normal person does not want windows
40:47SPEAKERon a monitor that's no longer there, right?
40:49SPEAKER- Well.
40:50SPEAKER- So they always, I guess what the point I'm making
40:51SPEAKERis they always lean toward like the,
40:55SPEAKERtrying to think how to describe it,
40:56SPEAKERlike the most simplistic use case, I guess I would say,
40:58SPEAKERor the most like straightforward one
41:00SPEAKERfor somebody who's not a lunatic like us.
41:02SPEAKER- Well, and the other good one is that Windows
41:04SPEAKERalways treats the origin as the top left corner
41:07SPEAKERon the first monitor they use, the primary monitor.
41:10SPEAKERSo if you have, let's see, is it,
41:13SPEAKERif you have monitor windows on the left of that
41:15SPEAKERand they disconnect and reconnect,
41:17SPEAKERthen it shifts all your windows around
41:18SPEAKERand Jimmy jams them all over the place.
41:20SPEAKERIf all of your secondary monitors
41:22SPEAKERare right of that primary monitor, everything just works.
41:25SPEAKER- Okay.
41:26SPEAKER- Or above, or above or below.
41:28SPEAKERBut if they're left, it's bad.
41:29SPEAKERDon't put secondary monitors to the left.
41:31SPEAKERThe left most monitor should always be your primary monitor.
41:33SPEAKER- Always be the primary?
41:34SPEAKEROkay.
41:35SPEAKER- Always be the primary.
41:36SPEAKER- Interesting.
41:37SPEAKER- The, okay, so what have we learned?
41:42SPEAKERSo my setup, I have duplicating the primary monitor
41:45SPEAKERonto the capture card.
41:47SPEAKERAnd then the 4k monitor is a secondary above.
41:49SPEAKERHitting Windows P from,
41:53SPEAKERwell, let's see what it says right now.
41:55SPEAKERRight now it says duplicate.
41:56SPEAKERSo it's duplicating one and the capture card
42:00SPEAKERand two is extended.
42:01SPEAKERIf I change it to extend only, the capture card
42:03SPEAKERwill unduplicate.
42:04SPEAKERIf I change it to projector only,
42:06SPEAKERthe 4k monitor up top will be the only thing on.
42:09SPEAKERIf I put it on primarily, the 1080P will only be on.
42:11SPEAKERIf I put it back on duplicate, I think it'll just work.
42:14SPEAKERThe TLDR is I just don't change it anymore.
42:15SPEAKERIt's too scary.
42:16SPEAKER- My eyes are starting to cross a little bit here.
42:18SPEAKERJust play around with it a little bit.
42:20SPEAKERIt sounds like if you set up the house of cards just right,
42:22SPEAKERyou might get it where you want it.
42:24SPEAKERSo you can just hit window P and be happy.
42:27SPEAKER- The secret is getting the extend and the duplicate right
42:29SPEAKERand then just using Windows P to switch between those two.
42:31SPEAKER- And then never touch it again.
42:32SPEAKER- And then never touch it again.
42:33SPEAKER- Okay.
42:34SPEAKER- And always click on the good monitor
42:36SPEAKERwhen you're doing the duplicate, not the crappy monitor.
42:39SPEAKER- Yes.
42:40SPEAKERThe other suggestion I was gonna make
42:41SPEAKERis our wonderful friend nurse off to the rescue.
42:44SPEAKER- Oh yeah.
42:45SPEAKER- I use a tool called multi-monitor tool.
42:47SPEAKERIt's the thing I use for automatically switching
42:49SPEAKERwhich desktop is the primary, but it does a ton of stuff
42:52SPEAKERand it's got a pretty decent command line interface
42:54SPEAKERthat you could probably script to do multiple things
42:56SPEAKERin one like batch file or something like that.
42:58SPEAKER- Put that on an elgato button too.
43:00SPEAKER- Like yes, you probably could do that.
43:02SPEAKERI'm sitting here looking at some of the stuff you can do.
43:05SPEAKEREnable and disable specified monitors,
43:08SPEAKERswitch specified monitors, set the primary and secondary.
43:15SPEAKEROh, you can save a current, oh wow.
43:17SPEAKERYou can save a config in a .cfg and just load that config.
43:21SPEAKERSo you could actually set up a pretty extensive configuration
43:24SPEAKERand just load that, I guess.
43:28SPEAKER- Bunch of stuff for switching primary secondary monitors.
43:31SPEAKERI don't know if you can set refresh rate with this though.
43:33SPEAKERThat might be a problem.
43:35SPEAKER- I got to the point that I was looking at that
43:38SPEAKERwhen my friend told me about the duplicating
43:41SPEAKERin the right order thing.
43:42SPEAKERAnd then I was like, okay, I don't have to fool with this
43:43SPEAKER'cause I can make what I want work
43:45SPEAKERwithin the confines of Windows.
43:46SPEAKER- Yes, sometimes you can just bend it to your will,
43:48SPEAKERbut it's become a little bit of an inside joke
43:51SPEAKERon the town that our discord that you kind of can't think
43:55SPEAKERof an esoteric tech problem in Windows
43:57SPEAKERwithout there being a nurse off tool to address it.
43:59SPEAKER- Always a nurse off solution for every problem.
44:02SPEAKER- When I was first wrestling with these monitors,
44:04SPEAKERtrying to make them do what I wanted,
44:05SPEAKERpeople pointed me at the, he actually made,
44:08SPEAKERI needed the EDID of the monitor.
44:10SPEAKER- Oh yeah, I've used his EDID finder before.
44:12SPEAKER- So he actually has two.
44:13SPEAKERThere he has two separate utilities
44:16SPEAKERthat can both dump that information from the monitor.
44:20SPEAKERIt's ridiculous.
44:21SPEAKER- I broke-
44:22SPEAKER- The man thinks of everything.
44:23SPEAKER- I broke a Dell 30 inch monitor, no, what was it?
44:26SPEAKER- There was a video card incompatibility
44:28SPEAKERwith the Dell 30 inch dual DVI monitors at one point.
44:31SPEAKERAnd I had to rewrite the EDID, which was real exciting.
44:36SPEAKERAnd I used a nurse off tool to do that, I believe,
44:39SPEAKERor at least to find the right one
44:40SPEAKERand then write the correct one back.
44:42SPEAKERAnyway.
44:44SPEAKER- He is an upstanding member of society.
44:48SPEAKER- Wonderful human beings.
44:49SPEAKER- Doing a lot of public good.
44:51SPEAKERAll right, let's get into some emails from people
44:55SPEAKERtalking about things they are thankful for.
44:58SPEAKERI'm gonna read this one first.
45:00SPEAKER- I'm thankful for emails, Brad.
45:01SPEAKER- Yeah, yes.
45:02SPEAKERThank you everyone for sending them
45:03SPEAKERso we could do this episode.
45:06SPEAKERThis is from Tom, Apple crumble on our discord.
45:09SPEAKERThis kind of ties right into that nurse off stuff.
45:13SPEAKERI'm thankful for open source.
45:15SPEAKERI'm thankful for everyone who puts their spare time
45:16SPEAKERinto working on open source applications,
45:18SPEAKERoften with little thanks and rarely any compensation.
45:22SPEAKERWhat open source tools and applications
45:23SPEAKERcouldn't you live without?
45:25SPEAKER- Wow, I mean, we're using Audacity right now.
45:28SPEAKER- Yes, yes, we use Audacity all the time
45:30SPEAKERfor both this podcast and my day job.
45:33SPEAKER- I use a voice meter a lot,
45:34SPEAKERwhich is an incredibly useful audio routing tool.
45:37SPEAKERI don't know that it's, I can't remember if it's open source
45:39SPEAKERor if it's just like shareware or freeware.
45:44SPEAKER- I'd have to check.
45:45SPEAKERI don't know that that one's open source.
45:46SPEAKERI'm not sure.
45:48SPEAKERI've come to rely on FFmpeg very heavily
45:51SPEAKERover the last six months.
45:52SPEAKER- It's an incredibly useful.
45:54SPEAKER- It's crazy how capable that thing is.
45:56SPEAKERLike there's a reason they call it
45:57SPEAKERthe Swiss army knife of audio and video.
46:00SPEAKER- Voice meter is donation where not.
46:02SPEAKER- Okay, okay.
46:03SPEAKER- But I gave him 50 bucks 'cause I use it all the time.
46:05SPEAKER- Yeah.
46:07SPEAKERI've really gotten into using open source software
46:10SPEAKERfor a variety of reasons.
46:11SPEAKERLike it's always a bigger pain to set up on the front end.
46:15SPEAKER- Not always, but often.
46:16SPEAKER- Not always, but often I would say.
46:19SPEAKERIt's maybe not the absolutist about it,
46:20SPEAKERbut quite frequently it's a lot of work to learn
46:23SPEAKERand figure out how to configure the way you want it.
46:25SPEAKER- Yeah.
46:25SPEAKER- But it almost always gives you so much more control
46:28SPEAKERover what it is you're trying to do
46:29SPEAKERthan off the shelf commercial software.
46:32SPEAKER- Yeah, if you want to do something really ridiculous
46:34SPEAKERthat no sane human being would ever want to do.
46:36SPEAKER- Yes.
46:37SPEAKER- There's an open source program for that probably.
46:38SPEAKER- Absolutely.
46:39SPEAKERThat's my favorite thing about it.
46:41SPEAKER- I feel like FreeNAS is kind of waning
46:45SPEAKERin my regard right now,
46:46SPEAKERbut like stuff like Home Assistant and the Mr. Project,
46:50SPEAKERlike these, like the Mr. is a perfect example
46:53SPEAKERof a thing that wouldn't exist
46:55SPEAKERif it weren't for this large community of people
46:57SPEAKERwho were interested in archiving and preserving
47:00SPEAKERlike the ways to play these games on original hardware.
47:03SPEAKER- In fact, we have a great,
47:05SPEAKERwe have a great counter example to that,
47:07SPEAKERwhich is the analog stuff.
47:08SPEAKER- Yeah.
47:09SPEAKER- Because the analog stuff is how a commercial company
47:11SPEAKERis handling that exact same goal.
47:13SPEAKERExcept in their case,
47:14SPEAKERthey are producing a different $200 box
47:16SPEAKERfor every single console under the sun.
47:18SPEAKER- Yeah, that doesn't seem great for me.
47:20SPEAKERI'm much more interested to buy one.
47:22SPEAKER- Yeah, whereas yes, you can build a Mr.
47:24SPEAKERfor probably less than that at this point
47:26SPEAKERor right around that.
47:28SPEAKERAnd it plays every console under the sun.
47:32SPEAKERSo yeah, Home Assistant is another great example.
47:36SPEAKERLike that Home Assistant is working,
47:38SPEAKERagain, it took a while to set up,
47:39SPEAKERit is working so much better for me
47:41SPEAKERthan the Apple home stuff ever
47:42SPEAKEReven came close to thinking about.
47:44SPEAKER- Yeah, well, and like once I realized
47:47SPEAKERyou can turn automations on and off
47:49SPEAKERfrom inside other automations,
47:51SPEAKERthen like it's opened up a whole world
47:55SPEAKERof ridiculous like simplicity so that.
47:58SPEAKER- That sounds great.
47:59SPEAKER- Yeah, it's very good.
48:00SPEAKER- That's pretty good.
48:02SPEAKER- I'm scrolling down my list of applications
48:04SPEAKERthat I use on the day to day
48:06SPEAKERand like VLC is another one that I use all the time,
48:08SPEAKERit's incredible. - Oh, VLC is huge, yes, yes.
48:10SPEAKERI use VLC as a capture card viewer.
48:13SPEAKERLike that's another example of a-
48:14SPEAKER- Oh, I didn't know you could do that.
48:15SPEAKER- So it's kind of just right there in plain view
48:18SPEAKERand I just never noticed it for a long time,
48:19SPEAKERbut if you go under media and then open capture device,
48:24SPEAKERit'll- - Holy crap.
48:25SPEAKER- So it'll let you open any direct show device
48:27SPEAKERor I think a lot of the UVC ones as well,
48:29SPEAKERI don't know if you're familiar with that distinction.
48:31SPEAKER- Wow.
48:32SPEAKER- UVC is like a webcam.
48:33SPEAKERIt's what makes webcams show up in Google Meet
48:35SPEAKERand stuff like that or Jitsi,
48:37SPEAKERwhereas direct show is what a capture card
48:40SPEAKERgenerally comes in as.
48:41SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, I had no idea.
48:43SPEAKER- It's pretty fiddly,
48:44SPEAKERI won't get into all the details here,
48:45SPEAKERbut I ended up having to set up a command line
48:47SPEAKERto make VLC open my capture card properly
48:49SPEAKERbecause the UI that they have for it
48:52SPEAKERis not great for doing that, right?
48:54SPEAKER- Of course.
48:55SPEAKER- It's a little bit half-baked, but again,
48:58SPEAKERyou can make it do exactly what you want
48:59SPEAKERand it's like a perfect little preview window
49:02SPEAKERfor what's coming into your capture card.
49:04SPEAKER- And also shout out to Firefox,
49:07SPEAKERwhich is probably the most used open source piece of software
49:10SPEAKERon my computer right now.
49:12SPEAKER- Yeah.
49:14SPEAKER- It is nice to use a browser that I'm pretty confident
49:16SPEAKERis not selling my business.
49:18SPEAKER- They unfortunately cut a bunch of jobs a few weeks ago.
49:21SPEAKER- Yeah, I saw that.
49:22SPEAKER- If you saw that, which is not encouraging, unfortunately,
49:25SPEAKERbut hopefully that stuff bounces back.
49:31SPEAKERLet's see here, how about, got so many of these.
49:41SPEAKERBoy, this is a somewhat dark one, but scoot
49:45SPEAKERfrom the discord right in.
49:47SPEAKERI've got a tech thing that I'm thankful for,
49:49SPEAKERbut it comes attached to a painful story.
49:52SPEAKEREarlier this year, I was deployed
49:54SPEAKERon a six month naval operation where while I was able
49:56SPEAKERto have some truly life-changing experiences,
49:58SPEAKERtragedy also struck.
50:01SPEAKERDuring a routine flight in April, 2020,
50:02SPEAKERour ship's helicopter crashed at sea
50:05SPEAKERand all six souls on board, people that we worked with
50:08SPEAKERand ate meals with and spoke to every day were killed.
50:11SPEAKERThe initial recovery operations were unsuccessful
50:14SPEAKERand it was determined that the remains of the helicopter
50:16SPEAKERand our crew were at a depth of 3,000 meters,
50:19SPEAKERabsolutely unrecoverable by divers.
50:23SPEAKERBut with the help from multiple countries
50:24SPEAKERand deploying special underwater drones,
50:27SPEAKERthe complete recovery of the remains of the aircraft,
50:29SPEAKERas well as our friends inside was made possible
50:32SPEAKERand their families and friends were able
50:33SPEAKERto properly put them to rest.
50:36SPEAKERThis is something that I feel would have been unachievable
50:38SPEAKERor unfeasible with the technology of a previous era,
50:43SPEAKERperhaps even 10 years ago.
50:45SPEAKERAnd for all of us on board,
50:47SPEAKERit was something that brought a lot of peace of mind.
50:50SPEAKERIt's something that I felt thankful for this year
50:52SPEAKERand I'm glad I could share.
50:53SPEAKER- Wow, that's incredible.
50:55SPEAKER- Yeah, that's wild.
50:56SPEAKERI hadn't really thought a lot about undersea drones.
50:59SPEAKERLike you hear the word drone
51:00SPEAKERand you just think aerial drone these days,
51:02SPEAKERbut I wonder if similar technology, I assume,
51:06SPEAKERis making its way into nautical stuff, underwater stuff.
51:10SPEAKER- Well, there's all sorts of stuff,
51:12SPEAKERboth on commercial and amateur level.
51:15SPEAKERYou can buy for under a grand and open ROV kit,
51:19SPEAKERor at least I haven't looked at the newer models.
51:23SPEAKERFor a long time, you were able to buy for under $1,000
51:25SPEAKERa tethered open ROV kit that they designed
51:29SPEAKERto make underwater ROVs accessible.
51:32SPEAKERAnd I don't want to say disposable
51:35SPEAKER'cause $1,000 isn't disposable,
51:37SPEAKERbut more disposable than the traditional
51:40SPEAKERquarter of a million dollar underwater drones
51:42SPEAKERthat they were using prior to this.
51:44SPEAKERAnd it was basically a home,
51:47SPEAKERit was a plexiglass box that was sealed
51:51SPEAKERwith motors and buoyancy control.
51:54SPEAKERAnd people used it to explore cenotes in Mexico
51:57SPEAKERand cave systems and all sorts of places
52:00SPEAKERthat you wouldn't want to send a normal human.
52:02SPEAKERAnd you also wouldn't want to send something
52:03SPEAKERthat costs a quarter of a million dollars
52:05SPEAKER'cause if you lost it, it would be gone forever.
52:06SPEAKERAnd if you lose the $1,000 thing, who cares?
52:10SPEAKERThis is amazing.
52:11SPEAKERI did not know this story
52:12SPEAKERand I really appreciate Scoot sharing it.
52:14SPEAKER- Yeah, that's sort of uplifting at the same time
52:18SPEAKERas being quite sad, but it's cool
52:21SPEAKERthat they can do stuff like that.
52:22SPEAKERI guess, are most of them,
52:24SPEAKERthe underwater ones still tethered?
52:25SPEAKERI guess that would make more sense, obviously.
52:28SPEAKER- Radial doesn't work great underwater.
52:30SPEAKER- Yeah, right.
52:30SPEAKERAnd a tether is much more feasible
52:32SPEAKERthan with an aerial drone, of course.
52:34SPEAKER- Well, yeah, and the tether also gives you a recovery chance
52:36SPEAKERif something, 'cause it turns out the ocean is unforgiving.
52:39SPEAKER- So I've heard, yeah.
52:43SPEAKER- I mean, there are, the Navy I know experimented,
52:47SPEAKERI don't know if they're actually using them,
52:48SPEAKERbut they experimented with like hydrofoil style drones
52:52SPEAKERthat do forward propulsion with buoyancy changes.
52:56SPEAKERSo they kind of like do this wave motion up and down
53:00SPEAKERand they're riding up and down
53:01SPEAKERand they can go incredible distances.
53:04SPEAKERThey come to the surface to charge with solar power
53:08SPEAKERand they use them to like,
53:11SPEAKERthey use them for all sorts of stuff.
53:13SPEAKERI also, I believe that we also use those
53:15SPEAKERto track fisheries, but I'm not sure.
53:20SPEAKERDrones are cool, that's the TL;DR.
53:22SPEAKER- Usually, yeah, until they all develop
53:26SPEAKERa collective consciousness.
53:28SPEAKER- I'm not so much a fan of the kid
53:29SPEAKERwho has one down the street that flies it over the house
53:31SPEAKERall the time, too low, but whatever.
53:33SPEAKER- They can be used for ill as well as good, but you know.
53:37SPEAKER- Yeah, they need that technology, yes.
53:40SPEAKER- Travis in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
53:42SPEAKERIt's hard to imagine this being used for anything but good.
53:46SPEAKERFor me, I'm thankful for wireless thermometers,
53:49SPEAKERespecially this time of year
53:50SPEAKERwhen smoking a turkey for the holidays,
53:52SPEAKERnot having to go out into the cold
53:54SPEAKERto monitor temperatures is a major plus.
53:56SPEAKERI hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
53:58SPEAKERHas the range gotten pretty good on those?
54:00SPEAKERI guess it must have at this point.
54:01SPEAKERYou could put one out in the backyard
54:04SPEAKERand just hang out on the couch with a beer
54:06SPEAKERand keep an eye on it.
54:07SPEAKER- I mean, look, even if it doesn't go that far,
54:11SPEAKERyou can put the thing in the room near the smoker
54:14SPEAKERand just get up and walk to the smoker room
54:16SPEAKERrather than the, yeah, that's wireless things.
54:24SPEAKERI was explaining this to my daughter the other day,
54:26SPEAKERthat the phone used to be a thing
54:27SPEAKERthat plugged into the wall
54:28SPEAKERand you had to stand next to it
54:29SPEAKERif you wanted to talk to somebody
54:30SPEAKERand she thought I was joking.
54:33SPEAKERThe fact that unlicensed spectrum is available and easy
54:35SPEAKERis definitely a thing to be thankful for.
54:37SPEAKER- Yeah, for sure.
54:39SPEAKER- And definitely we're not using it for bad things.
54:41SPEAKERIt's only for good, it turns out.
54:42SPEAKER- Of course, yes.
54:43SPEAKERWell, smoking turkeys is 100% positive.
54:47SPEAKER- Turkeys won't smoke themselves.
54:48SPEAKER- That's true.
54:49SPEAKERApparently I read the other day,
54:51SPEAKERthe pandemic, this is pretty common sense,
54:53SPEAKERbut apparently the pandemic is hitting turkey demand
54:55SPEAKERpretty hard for this Thanksgiving.
54:57SPEAKER- Really?
54:58SPEAKERI would say it would be up.
54:59SPEAKER- Specifically larger turkeys is what I read.
55:00SPEAKERLike the demand for smaller turkeys,
55:02SPEAKER'cause the gatherings are just generally
55:04SPEAKERso much smaller this year.
55:05SPEAKERFor people that are getting together,
55:06SPEAKERit's a lot more like four people, six people,
55:08SPEAKERstuff like that.
55:09SPEAKERSo, I mean.
55:10SPEAKER- But yeah, we usually do a 21 pounder
55:12SPEAKERand we ordered a 13, I think, so.
55:14SPEAKER- That's exactly what I saw,
55:16SPEAKERthis demand for the turkeys in the 20 pound range or so
55:19SPEAKERis what it's been.
55:21SPEAKER- Those big fat turkeys get to live another year.
55:24SPEAKER- Well, it's not great for farmers though
55:26SPEAKERthat specialize in that kind of stuff.
55:27SPEAKER- Well, that does seem bad.
55:28SPEAKERI mean, I guess we could do our part
55:30SPEAKERand order a 21 pound turkey
55:31SPEAKERand then just eat turkey for 10 days.
55:32SPEAKER- That's kind of what I was getting at.
55:34SPEAKER- I mean, look, if you want to come down-
55:36SPEAKER- I will do my part.
55:37SPEAKER- If you want to come down and pick up a thing,
55:39SPEAKERI will put out a container with food for you
55:42SPEAKERon Thanksgiving morning, Brad.
55:43SPEAKER- I will do my part for America's farmers.
55:45SPEAKER- Yeah.
55:46SPEAKER- Eat two weeks worth of turkey.
55:48SPEAKER- Look, I have a picture of you
55:49SPEAKERgnawing on a turkey leg from at least two years, so.
55:54SPEAKER- I always went one turkey leg too far.
55:57SPEAKER- Look, there's no such thing as too many turkey legs.
55:59SPEAKER- Oh boy.
56:00SPEAKERWhat's your, what is your ideal turkey sandwich?
56:02SPEAKERDo you have a go-to?
56:03SPEAKER- Yeah, I like, look, I like white bread,
56:05SPEAKERmayonnaise, pepper, lettuce, turkey, cranberry sauce,
56:09SPEAKERmore mayonnaise, a little bit of pepper,
56:11SPEAKERand then close it up.
56:13SPEAKER- That's serious.
56:14SPEAKER- Yeah.
56:15SPEAKER- I'm not so sure about the cranberry sauce.
56:17SPEAKERThe rest sounds pretty good.
56:17SPEAKER- Oh, the cranberry sauce adds a tartness to it
56:19SPEAKERthat's delicious.
56:20SPEAKER- Eh, good to see you.
56:21SPEAKER- You just do it, it's just a tiny,
56:22SPEAKERit's like you don't have the cranberries in there.
56:24SPEAKERYou just take the jammy part and just kind of
56:26SPEAKERchew it on there.
56:27SPEAKER- I was just about to ask, it depends on,
56:28SPEAKERare you using the canned stuff that comes out
56:31SPEAKERin the shape of the can?
56:32SPEAKER- Have you ever had the canned stuff
56:33SPEAKERwhen you were at my house at Thanksgiving, Brad?
56:35SPEAKER- I don't know that I've ever had cranberry sauce
56:37SPEAKERin general, period.
56:39SPEAKER- Look, we put the cranberries on the stove
56:41SPEAKERwith a cup of sugar and a cup of water.
56:42SPEAKERThey cook for about an hour until the cranberries all pop.
56:46SPEAKERAnd then you cover it and you let it come down
56:48SPEAKERto room temperature and put it in the fridge.
56:50SPEAKERIt's delicious.
56:50SPEAKER- Maybe I've been missing out then.
56:52SPEAKER- You've, also a little bit of orange peel.
56:54SPEAKERA little orange zest.
56:56SPEAKER- All we ever had was the canned stuff.
56:57SPEAKERSo I think you can understand why I...
57:00SPEAKER- We, I grew up on the canned stuff too.
57:01SPEAKERLook, here's the secret.
57:02SPEAKERIf somebody asks you what you want to bring,
57:04SPEAKERdon't, okay, A, don't go to people's houses
57:06SPEAKERfor Thanksgiving this year,
57:07SPEAKER'cause it's a terrible idea if you're in the United States.
57:09SPEAKERWell, if you're in the, if you're not in the United States,
57:11SPEAKERyou're probably not gonna celebrate Thanksgiving.
57:12SPEAKERIf you are in the United States,
57:13SPEAKERdon't go to people's houses for Thanksgiving.
57:14SPEAKER- Unless you're in Canada, in which case
57:15SPEAKERI hope you didn't go somewhere on Thanksgiving.
57:19SPEAKER- If, if somebody asks you what you want to bring
57:22SPEAKERfor future Thanksgivings, volunteer to do cranberry sauce,
57:25SPEAKER'cause it's the easiest thing in the world to make.
57:27SPEAKER- That does sound pretty easy.
57:28SPEAKER- You buy a bag of cranberries.
57:29SPEAKERYou make sure there's no rocks in the cranberry bag,
57:31SPEAKER'cause that is a thing that happens.
57:33SPEAKERYou take out any of the soft, squishy cranberries.
57:35SPEAKERYou only want the hard ones.
57:37SPEAKERAnd then you put them in a pot
57:39SPEAKERwith like a cup or two of water, a cup or two of sugar,
57:42SPEAKERsome, literally scrape a little bit of orange zest off.
57:45SPEAKERYou can just put a peel orange in if you want.
57:46SPEAKERIt doesn't matter.
57:47SPEAKERChuck it in there, cook it.
57:49SPEAKERWhen all the cranberries pop, you're done.
57:51SPEAKERChill it and take it.
57:52SPEAKERIt's easier than anything.
57:54SPEAKER- Talking like low, medium heat?
57:57SPEAKER- Like you want it to simmer.
57:58SPEAKER- Okay.
57:59SPEAKER- Yeah.
57:59SPEAKER- I'm getting hungry.
58:00SPEAKER- Yeah.
58:01SPEAKER- Why does that always happen on this podcast?
58:02SPEAKER- Look, we, I don't,
58:04SPEAKERbut when you don't leave the house,
58:05SPEAKERmuch food is what you have to look forward to.
58:07SPEAKER- My go-to was just leftover turkey,
58:10SPEAKERsliced tomato, and mayonnaise.
58:11SPEAKERThat's it, just wham.
58:13SPEAKER- Oh, see, no tomato,
58:14SPEAKERno tomato on a Thanksgiving turkey sandwich.
58:15SPEAKER- Oh, man.
58:16SPEAKERWham, bam.
58:17SPEAKER- It's not a healthy turkey sandwich.
58:18SPEAKER- I'll also do a,
58:19SPEAKERI'll also do a open face with some gravy,
58:22SPEAKERlike white bread.
58:24SPEAKERLike, I'm not talking about like fancy white bread.
58:26SPEAKERI want like Wonder Bread, right?
58:27SPEAKERLike the squishy-
58:28SPEAKER- Yes, for sure.
58:29SPEAKERJust plain old, yes.
58:30SPEAKER- A thin layer of stuffing.
58:33SPEAKERSome thigh, like some carved thigh meat.
58:35SPEAKERIf I do the roulade, then I'll do that on there.
58:38SPEAKERAnd then gravy, just poured over the top.
58:41SPEAKERJust slathered.
58:42SPEAKER- Good Lord, man.
58:44SPEAKER- It's not a healthy sandwich.
58:45SPEAKER- No, no it is not.
58:47SPEAKERLet's see here.
58:49SPEAKERTravis says, "I have to say the tech I'm most thankful for
58:53SPEAKERis gaming this year.
58:55SPEAKERThe lockdown, natural disasters,
58:57SPEAKERand political situation in the U.S.
58:58SPEAKERhave been much more bearable with releases
59:00SPEAKERlike Half-Life Alyx letting me escape from reality
59:03SPEAKERand do maternal and getting some angst out.
59:06SPEAKERVideo games still feel normal,
59:08SPEAKEReven though not much else does."
59:11SPEAKERI still need to play Half-Life Alyx.
59:14SPEAKER- Oh, God.
59:15SPEAKER- Now that I've got this 3080,
59:16SPEAKERI was kind of waiting on getting a better GPU
59:18SPEAKERso I can play it full everything.
59:22SPEAKER- It's pretty good.
59:23SPEAKER- I should probably do that.
59:23SPEAKER- You should play that.
59:24SPEAKERYou should play it.
59:25SPEAKERIt's a good game.
59:26SPEAKER- I'm gonna do that.
59:28SPEAKERAlso, I fired up Doom Eternal the other day
59:29SPEAKERon this 3080 for the first time and holy shit.
59:33SPEAKER- Yeah, right?
59:34SPEAKER- Everything as cranked as it could possibly get,
59:36SPEAKERI did not see it drop below 250 frames a second.
59:39SPEAKER- No, it works out.
59:42SPEAKER- It's intense.
59:43SPEAKER- The one thing, I said this during Extra Life,
59:47SPEAKERbut it was, honestly,
59:53SPEAKERone of the things that helped me keep my mental state
59:55SPEAKERover the last four years
59:56SPEAKERas we watched American democracy crumble
1:00:00SPEAKERwas that I was able to hang out with my friends every night
1:00:03SPEAKERand play PUBG and just play a game
1:00:08SPEAKERthat required full focus all the time and was engaging.
1:00:13SPEAKERAnd yeah, it kept me from Doom scrolling at night.
1:00:16SPEAKERAnd for that, I am grateful.
1:00:18SPEAKER- Yes, there is absolutely something to be said
1:00:19SPEAKERfor diverting your attention for a little bit.
1:00:22SPEAKER- If you have that luxury, it is okay to do.
1:00:26SPEAKER- Yes.
1:00:28SPEAKERCole from Montreal.
1:00:30SPEAKERI'm thankful for many pieces of tech in my life this year,
1:00:32SPEAKERbut two things have really stood out to me.
1:00:34SPEAKERA good pair of wireless headphones for my PC.
1:00:37SPEAKERI'm using the SteelSeries Arctis 7, for example.
1:00:41SPEAKERThis is especially nice if you work from home
1:00:42SPEAKERand are a frequent participant of long meetings.
1:00:46SPEAKERI just got my hands on some Astro A20s.
1:00:49SPEAKER- Oh yeah.
1:00:50SPEAKER- Which is like their budget.
1:00:51SPEAKERTheir budget.
1:00:53SPEAKER- Are they earbuds or are they headphones?
1:00:54SPEAKER- No, no, no, they're full.
1:00:56SPEAKERReach over and grab them here.
1:00:57SPEAKERBasically the full Astro Shape headset,
1:01:01SPEAKERbut it's not, I guess the A50s are their nice ones.
1:01:03SPEAKERThese are a little bit on the lower end.
1:01:05SPEAKERThey feel that maybe the build quality
1:01:07SPEAKERis not quite as robust as the plug-in ones,
1:01:11SPEAKERbut I'm kind of shocked at the latency
1:01:13SPEAKERand the quality are like right there.
1:01:16SPEAKERHonestly, I was pretty surprised.
1:01:18SPEAKER- Are you using them for consoles
1:01:19SPEAKERlike in the living room or something?
1:01:20SPEAKER- I have not yet.
1:01:21SPEAKERI got the, it comes with a transmitter, a USB transmitter.
1:01:26SPEAKER- Okay.
1:01:27SPEAKER- And you have to make a console choice.
1:01:29SPEAKER- Got it.
1:01:30SPEAKER- I got the PS5 ones.
1:01:31SPEAKERSo I think buying the transmitter
1:01:33SPEAKERfor the other type of console is like an extra 20 bucks.
1:01:35SPEAKERI haven't gotten my hands on that for the Xbox yet,
1:01:37SPEAKERbut I've just used them on the PC so far,
1:01:39SPEAKERbut I was just like, I just didn't,
1:01:41SPEAKERI guess I was always a little skeptical of wireless audio,
1:01:44SPEAKERbut it's pretty good.
1:01:46SPEAKER- So I don't like it for PC stuff
1:01:50SPEAKERbecause when I'm sitting here,
1:01:51SPEAKERI want to have the good headphones
1:01:52SPEAKERwith the good mic on them for streaming stuff most often.
1:01:55SPEAKER- Yes, you want to plug in for if you're streaming
1:01:57SPEAKERor something like that,
1:01:58SPEAKERbut this is just for like listening to music
1:01:59SPEAKERor YouTube videos or whatever, it's totally fine.
1:02:02SPEAKER- Well, I mean, we used to have,
1:02:04SPEAKERlike when we lived in the apartment
1:02:05SPEAKERand I lived in a loft for a long time
1:02:08SPEAKERand our bedroom was in the loft area.
1:02:09SPEAKERSo like if I wanted to play games on the big TV
1:02:12SPEAKERand Gina was asleep 'cause she had to get up early
1:02:13SPEAKER'cause she had a grownup job,
1:02:16SPEAKERI would, I had some like 900 megahertz wireless headphones.
1:02:20SPEAKERAnd it was really nice to be able to just lounge
1:02:23SPEAKERin the living room with headphones on
1:02:24SPEAKERand not bother everybody else in the house
1:02:26SPEAKERwith whatever loud, stupid movie I was watching
1:02:30SPEAKERor loud, stupid game I was playing.
1:02:31SPEAKERSo yeah, I'm into it.
1:02:33SPEAKER- I really appreciated the,
1:02:34SPEAKERon the last generation of consoles,
1:02:35SPEAKERadding the eighth inch headphone jack to the controllers.
1:02:40SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:02:41SPEAKER- Like I use that all the time.
1:02:43SPEAKER- The 360 did that too, didn't it?
1:02:44SPEAKERYou got to buy an adapter I think.
1:02:46SPEAKER- Well, maybe there might've been an adapter.
1:02:48SPEAKERIt was definitely not in the controller.
1:02:50SPEAKER- Oh no, it's the PS3 you could do wireless.
1:02:54SPEAKER- That sounds right, yes. - You could do Bluetooth.
1:02:55SPEAKER- Yes, yes.
1:02:56SPEAKERPS3 has had external or separate wireless headphones
1:02:58SPEAKERfor a while, but just having every controller
1:03:00SPEAKERessentially also be kind of a wireless pair of headphones,
1:03:04SPEAKERnot quite.
1:03:05SPEAKERIt's tethered to the controller, but.
1:03:07SPEAKER- It's very convenient.
1:03:08SPEAKER- Yes, it certainly is.
1:03:10SPEAKERCole says, secondly, my rock solid local and wifi network.
1:03:14SPEAKERI've been using a Ubiquiti Edge router
1:03:16SPEAKERand some wireless access points in mesh mode.
1:03:18SPEAKERTeam Brad for network here.
1:03:21SPEAKER- I'm increasingly on Team Brad when it comes to this.
1:03:26SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:03:26SPEAKER- I haven't made the move yet.
1:03:28SPEAKERI haven't made the move yet, but I'm,
1:03:32SPEAKERthe number of problems that come from having this stupid
1:03:36SPEAKERAT&T router that sucks, I think the next time
1:03:41SPEAKERthere's a problem, it's going to be like,
1:03:43SPEAKERtime to hit the old Ubiquiti store.
1:03:45SPEAKER- That's, yeah, that'll do it.
1:03:47SPEAKERI don't know how I feel about Ubiquiti these days.
1:03:51SPEAKERThey feel, it seems like, I'm sorry,
1:03:55SPEAKERyou're taking your glasses off now.
1:03:56SPEAKERI must've said the wrong thing.
1:03:57SPEAKER- Oh crap.
1:03:59SPEAKER- I mean, they're really pushing into the consumer space
1:04:01SPEAKERand it seems like the stuff they're doing there
1:04:02SPEAKERis really good for that.
1:04:05SPEAKERBut the Edge router line is kind of languishing
1:04:08SPEAKERfrom what I've seen.
1:04:09SPEAKERAnd I don't know, some of the like-
1:04:11SPEAKER- How often do you need to update router?
1:04:13SPEAKERLike it's not, if it can do Gigabit, who cares?
1:04:15SPEAKERThat's all anybody has, right?
1:04:16SPEAKER- If you're only on Gigabit, you're probably fine.
1:04:19SPEAKERLet's say that internet connections were going to get faster
1:04:22SPEAKERthan Gigabit someday.
1:04:23SPEAKERYou might think about-
1:04:25SPEAKER- Upgrading your router when Gigabit connections
1:04:27SPEAKERare faster than Gigabit someday.
1:04:29SPEAKER- Yeah, we'll talk about it later.
1:04:30SPEAKER- Okay, oh no.
1:04:32SPEAKERBut I don't know, whatever that is,
1:04:34SPEAKERthat is potentially for way down the line.
1:04:36SPEAKERBut I almost at this point, if I had it to do over again,
1:04:42SPEAKERlike I don't obviously,
1:04:43SPEAKERbut I think I would probably go the West Fenland route
1:04:46SPEAKERand build a nice little PF sense or open sense box.
1:04:50SPEAKERBecause I mean-
1:04:51SPEAKER- Don't tell me this, don't tell me this.
1:04:53SPEAKER- I'm all about modularity these days.
1:04:54SPEAKERJust like pulling the wifi out of the router
1:04:57SPEAKERand making it an external access point is nice
1:04:58SPEAKER'cause you can swap those out whenever you want.
1:05:01SPEAKERWhat if you had a PF sense box
1:05:04SPEAKERand you could just swap the network card out on that?
1:05:06SPEAKERLet's say if you had a need for something,
1:05:08SPEAKERlet's say you went to fiber instead of copper in your house
1:05:10SPEAKERor something like that.
1:05:11SPEAKERLike maybe you could put like relatively cheap
1:05:16SPEAKER10 gig fiber network cards are getting pretty ubiquitous
1:05:19SPEAKERat this point.
1:05:20SPEAKERSo like having things be upgradable
1:05:22SPEAKERis the way to go from here.
1:05:24SPEAKER- You're thinking about this the wrong way.
1:05:26SPEAKERIt's what, 200 bucks for a Ubiquiti Edge router
1:05:28SPEAKERthat'll do a Gigabit to people's house.
1:05:30SPEAKER- I got mine on sale for 150.
1:05:33SPEAKERThey can be had pretty cheap.
1:05:35SPEAKER- Yeah, the resell market for that is gonna be real good.
1:05:38SPEAKERSo your opportunity costs to have that
1:05:40SPEAKERand not have to fool with the other stuff
1:05:41SPEAKERfor the next N years until you actually get 10 Gigabit
1:05:45SPEAKERin the house and two Gigabit to the curb
1:05:48SPEAKERis 40 bucks probably.
1:05:50SPEAKER- Yes, probably right.
1:05:53SPEAKER- Yeah, you'll spend more than that on power
1:05:56SPEAKERon your PF sense box.
1:05:58SPEAKER- You're right.
1:05:58SPEAKER- Unless you are really careful.
1:06:01SPEAKER- Fine.
1:06:03SPEAKER- Don't do it, Brad.
1:06:04SPEAKERDon't make it more complicated than it needs to be.
1:06:06SPEAKERIt's already complicated enough.
1:06:07SPEAKER- It's kind of rain on my parade.
1:06:09SPEAKER- Dang it.
1:06:11SPEAKER- Let's see here.
1:06:12SPEAKERLet's do one or two more.
1:06:15SPEAKEROh, here's actually, this is an interesting question
1:06:16SPEAKERthat's kind of ties into the holidays from Jacob.
1:06:21SPEAKERI'd love to know what you and other listeners are doing
1:06:23SPEAKERto make some sort of normal quote,
1:06:25SPEAKERhome for the holidays experience work digitally.
1:06:28SPEAKERI'm especially thinking about how to do a more easy
1:06:30SPEAKERto use wide field video presence,
1:06:32SPEAKERlike you're on either end of a table from one another.
1:06:36SPEAKERI know in my case, I've bought a bunch
1:06:37SPEAKERof ridiculous streaming equipment
1:06:38SPEAKERto improve my digital presence,
1:06:40SPEAKERbut I don't expect that my family or friends
1:06:42SPEAKERwould have the same or know how to set up
1:06:44SPEAKERa more complex video rig.
1:06:46SPEAKERUltimately, I'm wondering if things like Facebook portal,
1:06:49SPEAKERwhich I'm against because I may know Facebook account holder
1:06:52SPEAKERGoogle nest hubs, echo shows, et cetera, are the right way.
1:06:56SPEAKEROr if there are other simple consumer friendly solutions
1:06:59SPEAKERthat anyone has tried out.
1:07:01SPEAKERMy current plan for Christmas is to have everyone join
1:07:03SPEAKERa Skype call and I'm going to live switch videos
1:07:07SPEAKERfrom multiple households to create a produced style video.
1:07:10SPEAKERThat's ambitious.
1:07:11SPEAKER- I like that, yeah.
1:07:13SPEAKER- I'm impressed at the amount of thought going into this.
1:07:15SPEAKERThat's pretty good, but also I admire the commitment
1:07:18SPEAKERto like trying to have togetherness,
1:07:20SPEAKERbut not actually going just straight up going
1:07:21SPEAKERto somebody's house because again,
1:07:23SPEAKERyou should not be going to somebody's house.
1:07:25SPEAKER- Don't get, don't go to somebody's house.
1:07:27SPEAKER- We're in deep shit right now.
1:07:34SPEAKER- On the video front,
1:07:36SPEAKERlike the best home video conferencing experience
1:07:38SPEAKERI think I ever had was using Skype
1:07:40SPEAKERand a connect to on an Xbox one.
1:07:42SPEAKER- Wow.
1:07:44SPEAKER- Like consistent, if you had those on both ends,
1:07:47SPEAKERit was really good.
1:07:48SPEAKERIt kind of face tracked a little bit.
1:07:50SPEAKERSo we zoom in on the person that was talking or whatever.
1:07:54SPEAKER- We do a lot of like setting up a Mac book
1:07:56SPEAKERor an iPad on a stand and putting that in front of the TV
1:08:00SPEAKERand then air playing the FaceTime call to the TV.
1:08:04SPEAKERAnd like, it's not a great experience.
1:08:07SPEAKERYou get a lot of like audio feedback from the TVs
1:08:09SPEAKERand like people are like, I can't hear you
1:08:12SPEAKER'cause you're too far away from the microphone.
1:08:13SPEAKER- Yeah, we also do a lot of like targeted FaceTiming
1:08:18SPEAKERfor that exact reason, which is it's not,
1:08:21SPEAKERit's not the most enjoyable way to communicate
1:08:23SPEAKERfor long periods of time.
1:08:24SPEAKERSo we just kind of get in and out.
1:08:26SPEAKER- We're, we focus like on Christmas morning with the kiddo,
1:08:30SPEAKERwe do like, we save the grandma and grandpa presents to open
1:08:35SPEAKERuntil they're on FaceTime and we do FaceTime with them
1:08:38SPEAKERto open that stuff.
1:08:39SPEAKERAnd we did the same thing for all the aunts and uncles.
1:08:41SPEAKERAnd like, it's, but it's a lot.
1:08:45SPEAKERI like personally,
1:08:48SPEAKERI wouldn't want to do the streaming setup
1:08:50SPEAKERbecause I don't want to have to,
1:08:52SPEAKERlike I would be able to pay attention and not have to manage
1:08:53SPEAKERthat.
1:08:54SPEAKERBut if somebody in the family wanted to do that,
1:08:56SPEAKERit'd be all for it.
1:08:57SPEAKER- Yes.
1:08:59SPEAKERYeah, I have to reason I wanted to read this email
1:09:01SPEAKERis I'm curious if anybody is doing like an extended
1:09:04SPEAKEReverybody at the table kind of session for stuff like this?
1:09:07SPEAKER- So we're going to do that for Thanksgiving.
1:09:08SPEAKERYou're more than welcome to join.
1:09:09SPEAKERIt'll be the sister-in-laws and all that.
1:09:11SPEAKERIt might be-
1:09:12SPEAKER- You're actually going to like sit down
1:09:13SPEAKERand have a whole meal while on the thing?
1:09:15SPEAKER- That's the intent.
1:09:17SPEAKERI don't know how long it'll last.
1:09:18SPEAKER- What if you get jealous of somebody else's food
1:09:20SPEAKER'cause everybody's going to be eating a different meal?
1:09:22SPEAKERThat's an interesting way to like remove part
1:09:26SPEAKERof the shared experience,
1:09:27SPEAKERwhich is that like what if somebody just like shows up
1:09:30SPEAKERand orders a pizza is like, I didn't feel like cooking.
1:09:32SPEAKERI'm just gonna eat pizza over here.
1:09:33SPEAKER- What if our turkey's on fire
1:09:34SPEAKERand everybody else's is really nice and moist and succulent.
1:09:37SPEAKERAnd like, yeah, I don't know.
1:09:40SPEAKERThey're like the Facebook portal.
1:09:42SPEAKERI saw, I haven't had, I mean, have you used,
1:09:44SPEAKERyou don't use any of the voice activated stuff, right?
1:09:46SPEAKER- No.
1:09:47SPEAKER- Yeah, so I don't have one of the,
1:09:49SPEAKERI've not used one of the Nest Hubs or the Facebook portal
1:09:52SPEAKERfor similar reasons to Jacob.
1:09:56SPEAKERSame thing for the Echo Show.
1:09:58SPEAKERI ordered a Nest Hub for Gina.
1:10:02SPEAKER- What is a Nest Hub?
1:10:03SPEAKER- It's like one of those Google mini speakers
1:10:05SPEAKERwith a screen on it.
1:10:07SPEAKERBecause she spends a lot of time watching like news
1:10:10SPEAKERand stuff in the kitchen when she's doing other stuff.
1:10:13SPEAKERSo I did that as like, instead of getting a TV for in there.
1:10:17SPEAKER- How big is the screen?
1:10:18SPEAKERIs it like kind of-
1:10:19SPEAKER- Five inches, it's like smaller than an iPad.
1:10:21SPEAKER- We're in.
1:10:24SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know.
1:10:25SPEAKERI know that the Facebook portal,
1:10:27SPEAKERI have seen demos of it and it seemed pretty good.
1:10:31SPEAKERYou solved the,
1:10:32SPEAKERhey, does everybody have a Skype account problem
1:10:34SPEAKERwith Facebook by doing that thing?
1:10:38SPEAKERBut like, I don't wanna have that in my house.
1:10:41SPEAKER- Yeah, I agree with you.
1:10:43SPEAKER- So I don't know.
1:10:45SPEAKER- Yes.
1:10:45SPEAKER- This is kind of tangential to this topic,
1:10:48SPEAKERbut that was, it's kind of fascinating to me.
1:10:51SPEAKERHave you seen any of the AI driven video conferencing stuff
1:10:53SPEAKERthat Nvidia is working on?
1:10:56SPEAKER- Yeah, we did the demo in that briefing
1:10:58SPEAKERwe did a few months ago.
1:10:59SPEAKER- I don't think they had that in there.
1:11:01SPEAKERThis is specifically video chat.
1:11:02SPEAKERLike just like we're doing right now,
1:11:04SPEAKERjust over a call people talking to each other with webcam.
1:11:06SPEAKER- It's the thing where they-
1:11:09SPEAKER- Maybe they did touch on it.
1:11:10SPEAKER- Do face analysis and measure your, yeah.
1:11:12SPEAKER- So like a normal video chat,
1:11:14SPEAKERyou're sending just a static video feed, right?
1:11:16SPEAKERIt's just frame data, right?
1:11:18SPEAKERWhich is like what, megabits per second of data?
1:11:20SPEAKER- Yeah, something like that.
1:11:21SPEAKER- They were saying this is down to like
1:11:23SPEAKERhundreds of kilobits.
1:11:24SPEAKER- Yeah, 'cause they're sending blend shapes, I think, right?
1:11:26SPEAKER- Right, right.
1:11:27SPEAKERSo like the way it was described is that
1:11:28SPEAKERthey are essentially just sending a deep fake of your face
1:11:31SPEAKERor they're manipulating a deep fake of your face locally
1:11:34SPEAKERon the other person's computer,
1:11:35SPEAKERwhich is just kind of creepy.
1:11:37SPEAKERBut they can do things like diverting your eye line
1:11:40SPEAKERto make it look like you're looking into the camera
1:11:43SPEAKERso that most people-
1:11:44SPEAKER- FaceTime does that now, I think.
1:11:45SPEAKER- Really?
1:11:46SPEAKER- I'm pretty sure, like it looks like
1:11:49SPEAKERif you're looking down at the screen,
1:11:50SPEAKERit looks like you're looking up at the camera
1:11:51SPEAKERup at 10 degrees or whatever.
1:11:53SPEAKER- I wonder if that's probably only on the newer models.
1:11:55SPEAKER- It might only be on the newer phones.
1:11:56SPEAKER- Facial and facial analysis stuff, right?
1:11:59SPEAKER- Yeah, maybe.
1:11:59SPEAKER- That is-
1:12:00SPEAKER- That's such a trip.
1:12:01SPEAKER- Yeah, like it.
1:12:02SPEAKER- I don't know if I like it.
1:12:03SPEAKER- Yes, totally, it's fascinating that they can do it
1:12:06SPEAKERand also I'm not sure if they should.
1:12:08SPEAKER- I mean, it fits in the DLSS category of
1:12:11SPEAKERthis is really magic and it seems good, but I'm not sure.
1:12:13SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:12:14SPEAKER- Right, I mean, we talked about it with Gordon
1:12:15SPEAKERa little bit a couple weeks ago,
1:12:17SPEAKERbut I don't know how like,
1:12:22SPEAKERI can't imagine you're gonna run 4K stuff
1:12:24SPEAKERor even 1440p stuff with ray tracing on
1:12:26SPEAKEReven on the new cards without having DLSS on.
1:12:30SPEAKER- You're probably right.
1:12:31SPEAKER- But are those benchmarks true?
1:12:32SPEAKER'Cause they're just making stuff up at this point.
1:12:34SPEAKER- Right.
1:12:35SPEAKER- Like in Philly, yeah, I don't know, it's complicated.
1:12:38SPEAKER- Yeah, I'm really, I mean, I wanna play Cyberpunk,
1:12:41SPEAKERbut I'm also really excited to get my hands on Cyberpunk
1:12:43SPEAKERas a test case for that stuff.
1:12:44SPEAKER- Yeah.
1:12:45SPEAKER- 'Cause that seems like the big one of like,
1:12:47SPEAKERyou know, big open world,
1:12:47SPEAKERa lot of effects stacked on top of each other.
1:12:49SPEAKERLike what's that ray tracing performance gonna be?
1:12:52SPEAKERLike how is DLSS gonna work there?
1:12:54SPEAKER- Yeah, Watch Dogs Legion is a pretty good test case.
1:12:58SPEAKER- That one, for everything I've read,
1:12:59SPEAKERlike the CPU demands of that thing are so extreme like it.
1:13:03SPEAKER- That is true.
1:13:05SPEAKER- My 7700K was not remotely up to snuff for that thing.
1:13:09SPEAKER- The one thing I will say for people who are thinking about
1:13:11SPEAKERdoing this for the first time for Christmas or Thanksgiving,
1:13:14SPEAKERas like the first couple of years,
1:13:16SPEAKERmy daughter was around when we were doing Christmas,
1:13:19SPEAKERwe would just have the FaceTime thing going all day.
1:13:21SPEAKERAnd it ended up being a real low value kind of interaction
1:13:24SPEAKERwith the grandparents and the aunts and uncles
1:13:26SPEAKERand stuff like that.
1:13:26SPEAKERBecause like it just ended up being annoying for everyone.
1:13:30SPEAKER- I can see that, I can see that.
1:13:30SPEAKER- So it's better to do like a focused, limited time
1:13:34SPEAKERwhere you're actually paying attention to
1:13:36SPEAKERand enjoying each other's company than I think,
1:13:39SPEAKERfor me at least, than it is to try to do it all day,
1:13:42SPEAKERlike you were actually in the same room.
1:13:44SPEAKER- Agreed.
1:13:45SPEAKER- Like we don't need the drunk uncle yelling about how,
1:13:49SPEAKERyou know, Q or whatever nonsense this year will be about.
1:13:53SPEAKER- It's just not, yeah, let's just not,
1:13:56SPEAKERinstead let's call an end to the emails.
1:13:59SPEAKER- You know, if you wanted to send an email
1:14:00SPEAKERto the next email episode,
1:14:02SPEAKERyou would do that by emailing techpod@content.town.
1:14:06SPEAKER- Do it.
1:14:07SPEAKER- And if you wanted to have more conversations like this
1:14:09SPEAKERon the day to day, it turns out there is a fabulous Discord,
1:14:12SPEAKERwhich is one of the things I am, like,
1:14:14SPEAKERI said this on a different show the other day,
1:14:16SPEAKERbut like the last year,
1:14:19SPEAKERI don't know how I would have coped with the last year
1:14:22SPEAKERif it hadn't been for the communities that have sprung up
1:14:24SPEAKERaround this podcast and my Twitch stream.
1:14:29SPEAKERThe thing that amazes me about Twitch and Discord
1:14:33SPEAKERand how those two things work with each other
1:14:37SPEAKERis that, I mean, we both had incredible communities
1:14:42SPEAKERat other properties and other sites and stuff like that.
1:14:44SPEAKERAnd the density of fabulous conversations
1:14:50SPEAKERand interesting people and at the same time,
1:14:54SPEAKERlike very little need for moderation or any kind of like,
1:14:57SPEAKERlike people who are able to just be responsible and grown up
1:14:59SPEAKERand have nice chats on the internet is something
1:15:01SPEAKERthat I hadn't expected to get in 2020.
1:15:04SPEAKER- Yes, just an invaluable little extra boost
1:15:07SPEAKERof social contact, camaraderie, for sure.
1:15:11SPEAKERAlso, we just get so many fascinating people
1:15:15SPEAKERin that Discord.
1:15:16SPEAKERI don't know if you saw one of our Discord members
1:15:19SPEAKERworked for Embark Studios that we talked about last week.
1:15:23SPEAKER- I was shocked.
1:15:23SPEAKER- Is working on a lot of that future tech.
1:15:25SPEAKERSo that was like super awesome to see.
1:15:27SPEAKER- I'm very, I had a conversation with one of the folks there
1:15:31SPEAKERabout how they do that stuff and like the results that they,
1:15:34SPEAKERthere's more blog posts than we talked about last week.
1:15:36SPEAKERBut yeah, like it's opened a lot
1:15:39SPEAKERof really interesting doors for me personally.
1:15:41SPEAKERI think everybody is enjoying being part
1:15:45SPEAKERof that conversation, it seems like.
1:15:46SPEAKERAnd you can find out how to do that
1:15:48SPEAKERby going to patreon.com/techpod,
1:15:50SPEAKERwhich sounds like the shilliest thing I've ever said.
1:15:52SPEAKER- Yeah, it is true.
1:15:55SPEAKER- I mean, A, we charge basically the minimum you can charge
1:15:58SPEAKERon Patreon and still like make a little bit of money
1:16:02SPEAKERto get into the Discord.
1:16:05SPEAKERSo it's two bucks a month.
1:16:08SPEAKERI feel like I would pay that.
1:16:12SPEAKERBet you don't have to, obviously.
1:16:14SPEAKERBut we really appreciate everybody who supports the pod.
1:16:18SPEAKER- Absolutely.
1:16:19SPEAKER- And contributes to the Discord, talks to us on Twitter.
1:16:23SPEAKERWe've talked about starting a subreddit
1:16:25SPEAKERwith a couple of folks now, if people are into that.
1:16:28SPEAKERI want to make sure we thank Julian,
1:16:30SPEAKERwho has done transcripts for all of our recent podcasts,
1:16:33SPEAKERstarting with like episode 52, I think, 51.
1:16:37SPEAKERAnd so if you have friends who are deaf or hard of hearing
1:16:40SPEAKERwho just don't want to listen to us talk for an hour
1:16:41SPEAKERand a half, they can read the transcripts
1:16:42SPEAKERthat Julian's doing.
1:16:45SPEAKERAnd yeah, thanks to everybody who supports the show.
1:16:48SPEAKERLike I said, whether it's on the Patreon
1:16:49SPEAKERor by telling other people about it,
1:16:51SPEAKERthe thing that helps us more than anything else
1:16:53SPEAKERis letting other people know about the show.
1:16:54SPEAKERAnd we really appreciate it.
1:16:58SPEAKERAnd I'm thankful that you all choose
1:17:00SPEAKERto spend your time with us.
1:17:01SPEAKERThat is a real treat.
1:17:03SPEAKER- Endlessly gratifying.
1:17:05SPEAKER- And I'm especially thankful
1:17:06SPEAKERfor our executive producer level patrons
1:17:08SPEAKERwho we thank every week.
1:17:09SPEAKERJacob Chappell, Andrew Cotton, and David Allen,
1:17:12SPEAKERas well as the other, hold on, let's see.
1:17:15SPEAKERThere are 1,294 patrons on the tech pod right now.
1:17:22SPEAKERSo yeah, thank you all.
1:17:25SPEAKERIf you wanted to subscribe
1:17:26SPEAKERand you didn't want to do monthly subs,
1:17:28SPEAKERwe have an annual option now
1:17:29SPEAKERwith a little bit of a discount attached to that.
1:17:31SPEAKERAnd I guess we'll see you all next week
1:17:37SPEAKERon another edition of Brad and Will Made A Tech.
1:17:41SPEAKER- Go on.
1:17:43SPEAKER- Pod.
1:17:45SPEAKER- Bye.
1:17:48SPEAKER- Everyone.
1:17:56SPEAKER(upbeat music)