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Accidental Tech Podcast

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Three nerds discussing tech, Apple, programming, and loosely related matters.

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Accidental Tech Podcast

60: The Great Odwalla Flavor Change of 2013

02:23:54
Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em while you sunset Dance Jam WWDC How to make a lottery work, like Shmoocon does How to write a live blogging system for keynotes Our winnings and losses in the WWDC Don't-Call-it-a-Lottery Levels of randomness and Apple's discretionary pool...

Accidental Tech Podcast

59: The Little Puck That Could

01:40:43

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Accidental Tech Podcast

58: Always On Vacation In California

02:00:07
Follow-up on discussing sexism in technology, Anil's experiment, empathy, ad hominem tu quoque, and cultural rigidity. Facebook buying Oculus: Outrage from Oculus' Kickstarter backers, including from Minecraft creator Notch, and the expectations that Kickstarter creates ...

Accidental Tech Podcast

57: Smorgasbord of Pronunciation

01:34:04
Follow-up on the complexity of computer science versus other fields: quotes and videos from MIT's SICP class (9:00–10:45). The death of the iPad 2, the use of sapphire in Apple devices, sapphire versus Gorilla Glass, and the flexible LG phone. Haunted Empire, the Jony Ive ...

Accidental Tech Podcast

56: The Woodpecker

02:05:09

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Accidental Tech Podcast

55: Dave, Who Stinks!

02:10:22

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Accidental Tech Podcast

54: goto fail;

01:52:04
Wolfram Language. The "goto fail" SSL bug and the chances that it was nefariously introduced by an NSA effort, possibly as part of their $250 million annual budget for such operations. Apple's warrant canary. Casey's and Marco's hard-to-find bugs and language misfeatures...

Accidental Tech Podcast

53: There’s Gonna Be Some Flapping

02:05:31
Follow-up on why Flappy Bird was successful. Kieran Healy's excellent article with science. John Gruber and Merlin Mann at SXSW '09. Goofball Jones' anonymous criticism of John's "shtick", and John's defense including many links: An explanation of John's "schtick" Some p...

Accidental Tech Podcast

52: Necessary But Not Sufficient

01:47:54
Facebook Paper's gesture usability, in-app tutorial videos, and the design challenge of gestural interface. RootMetrics testing real-world wireless speeds. Despite constant effort to improve usability, what if computers just aren't for everyone? (There's a similar long-sta...

Accidental Tech Podcast

51: Maybe We’re Just Dinosaurs

01:56:40
The FiOS net-neutrality non-story and last summer's YouTube-throttling story. More FU on iPads going pro, giant-tablet-desk ergonomics, trying to understand John's theory again, and a train analogy from Casey. New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Bill Gates' new wildcard role,...

Accidental Tech Podcast

50: Disk Light Observer Effect

01:54:09
Follow-up on why an iPad "Pro" needs to be larger and why iOS is "better for people". Can iOS add more power-user functionality without harming its simplicity or usability? Whether Macs should ship with ARM CPUs, how such a transition would be challenging today, and whether...

Accidental Tech Podcast

49: Roamio and Siracusiet

02:06:07
Follow-up: Genius Bar employee reports of how most people deal with iCloud backups, photo backups, and storage limits, iExplorer for exporting iMessages. iOS' storage model is a leaky abstraction. Google may have wanted Nest for its smart-home project as well as the more ob...

Accidental Tech Podcast

48: Marco Bought Four

01:29:02
Follow-up: whether iMessage problems are widespread, reasons behind flattening the Mac Mini, and HDR TVs. The storage costs of Casey's emoji. Google buying Nest for $3.2 billion. Ben Thompson on Google's business model. Nest has over 200 employees, including many ex-Apple...

Accidental Tech Podcast

47: Better Pixels

01:47:16
Follow-up: IBM AS/400 (aka System i) and single-level store. Marco's Retina theory. PS4 and Xbone sales. Trying to care about CES. Who "needs" the Mac Pro? Justifying toys and improving quality of life with smart purchases. Panasonic’s new LCD TVs compared to great TVs o...

Accidental Tech Podcast

46: A Compromised Machine

02:02:42

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Accidental Tech Podcast

45: Give Up On The Retina Dream

01:38:40

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Accidental Tech Podcast

44: A Plague With Very Minor Effects

01:51:16
What if the new USB connector is too similar to Lightning? (John Gruber on Lightning) Potential for 5120-wide Retina displays to overcome Thunderbolt bandwidth limits by using "dual-input displays"? John's "quick" tips for TV calibration. (THX TV-calibration app) "Rate Th...

Accidental Tech Podcast

43: Brilliance Enhancer

01:53:35
Accidental Fountain Screenplay: The Case of Liss by Joe Steel. (And Bionic.) Desktop 4K/Retina resolutions hitting bandwidth limitations of Thunderbolt 2 and DisplayPort 1.2, and the Sharp/Apple non-news. John's Squarespace-reseller idea already exists. Why aren't iOS App ...

Accidental Tech Podcast

42: The Ultimate Vanity Search

01:43:48
FU on PrimeSense. Apple's acquisition of Topsy and speculation on why. Apple's possible difficulty in getting and keeping enough engineering talent, and how they might make bigger strides in web services. Which group wears the pants in a company? Marco's embarrassing FiOS s...

Accidental Tech Podcast

41: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

02:15:33

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Accidental Tech Podcast

40: The Compliance Shark

01:47:30
Follow-up on Cisco VPNs on Mavericks and [photo backups] to SkyDrive on Windows Mobile Phone Series Metro Not-Metro Phone Windows. Why enterprise software is so hard, and the barriers to entry for small companies targeting the enterprise market. Game-console sales by gener...

Accidental Tech Podcast

39: Desperation Mode

01:22:26

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Accidental Tech Podcast

38: Auto-Update My Parents

01:14:18

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Accidental Tech Podcast

37: A 3,000-Word Digression

01:49:36
Some light Mac Pro waffling and the red one. iOS 7.0.3's new crossfade animations in "Reduce Motion" mode. Little tidbits and windows into the life of John Siracusa buried in his OS X Mavericks review. Noodling John with random questions. Dragon Drop and Cocoapods don't su...

Accidental Tech Podcast

36: A Weird One

01:26:52
  • The John Siracusa Mavericks review is up!
  • Apple's event, the presenters' pacing and enthusiasm, Casey's bag of hearts, and yet another showing of the dots video.
  • The Retina MacBook Pro update.
  • The Mac Pro base price, CPU options, and speculation on SSD pricing.
  • The iPad Air, Retina iPad Mini, iPad 2 (LOL), and iPod Classic.
  • Apple's prod of free software.
  • John's high-level summary of Mavericks and recommendation on upgrading.
  • Listener homework: Read the review before next week's episode.

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Accidental Tech Podcast

35: Sea-Level Executives

01:22:16
  • Ebook-publishing woes and trying to coordinate a specific release date.
  • Apple hiring the CEO of Burberry to head their retail division, and the Louis Vuitton logo.
  • The challenges of retail leadership.
  • Touch ID impressions after a weekend of heavy use, and whether you should keep your phone secure for other people's benefit.
  • How Touch ID could be used in Macs, and whether ARM MacBooks would be worth the transition costs.
  • Speculation on next week's product announcements.
  • Where a potential 12" Retina MacBook Pro could fit in the lineup.

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Accidental Tech Podcast

34: Made The Dot Smaller

01:07:00
  • Siri expectations and unreliability in popular culture.
  • Can Apple ever dramatically improve their web services, and how much pressure do they feel to do so?
  • The sorry state of online payment processing before Stripe, and improving the current sorry state of money transfers (especially in the U.S.) with services such as Dwolla and Square Cash.
  • The Mavericks GM.
  • Drawbacks of a Readability-like model for paying podcast producers in Overcast, and Instacast's 2012 rejection for Flattr integration.
  • Different priorities for podcast playback and management.

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Accidental Tech Podcast

33: A 30-Minute Skip Button

01:12:43
When we expected the Mavericks GM (recorded two hours before this). Apparent new E5-1680 Mac Pro in Geekbench and what CPU tradeoffs to expect in the new Mac Pro. Speculating on the new Mac Pro's fan noise, rotating cable management, and intended desk location. FU on John'...

Accidental Tech Podcast

32: It Doesn’t Bother Me

01:43:15

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Accidental Tech Podcast

31: Swimming In 16 GB Gold

01:21:36

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