Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 37 – That’s What She Said – 11/18/2010

This week Will, Norm, and Gary chat about Windows Phone 7, Boxee, WDTV Live Hub, the new MacBook Air, the TSA, the Chevy Volt, the latest game from John Carmack and a whole lot more. Now, with armchair anthropology!

Comments (24)

24 thoughts on “Episode 37 – That’s What She Said – 11/18/2010

  1. I was laughing through the entire fake outtakes section. I especially love how serious the three of you were being during that discussion. I need to go back and listen to the line that made Gary break out into uncontrollable laughter again, I missed it due to the comment about being thankful followed by the question about offending Christians. I was laughing too hard to catch it.

  2. Now let’s see if I can remember all the requested comments…
    TSA groping: I’ll just go through the scanners. I don’t want anyone touching me. I’m not planning on having any kids, anyway. Technology most thankful for: I would have to say the Internet. I do everything online now, including ordering pizzas. Can’t beat that.  
    I…can’t recall if there were others, but I will say I hope Tested gets a hold of the Volt. I still don’t get the premise of how a gas engine charging the car’s batteries is better than directly powering the wheels like a typical hybrid, but would be great to see my favorite tech site get a hold of that thing. Would be great to see OnLive, too. You guys mentioned the tech lull coming up, but are you going to CES in January?

  3. Just for kicks and the mention of a Norm biopic: 
    (Please forgive my mediocre PS skills)
    The template is uploaded in my images, so feel free to come up with your own more suitable title or quote.
     

  4. I haven’t checked since launch day but here in Vancouver I couldn’t find a Bell Mobility that had a Galaxy Tab in stock. Granted I only checked downtown but of the 3 locations I hit, they were all sold out first thing in the morning. $me->status = ‘confused’.

  5. That Chevy Volt braking system sounds a lot like the KERS from F1. Nice to finally see it being using in road cars.

  6. “What do you do when the neanderthals move in down the street?” 
     
          Stone age racism. Learning so many new things on tested.

  7. I will listen to the podcast next week! Yes I will spend time with my family after all I am cooking the Turkey dinner.

    I keep all my boxes for my expensive purchases as this is the best packaging if you need to move/ship the item for some reason.

    “What do you do when the Neanderthals move in down the street?”    Well actually I think that is possible today. From what I read a while ago (I think it was in Scientific American) is the Neanderthals did not fad away they actually cross bred with the Humans at the time and are amongst us today.

    TSA grouping or scanner: Actually I don’t like either method! Before all this became hot in the news (about 6 months ago) I was flying out of Little Rock and the TSA did a surprise pat down before we boarded the plane. This still bothers me today as the pat down felt like grouping and in the wide open and of course I did not expect this. They did this to every X person as I saw them counting people.   On a side note I used Amtrak a few years back for the first time and found very rewarding. It was strange and compared to the Airlines as I was able to walk right on the train with my bag with no screening at all. At that time it became very obvious to me how strict the security process is for the Airlines.

    The technology things I am most grateful for are: Computers, Internet, and smart phones just to name a few.

    Thanks for another GREAT pod cast!

  8. My first comment just to say say this the best podcast ever based on apropos use of “that’s what she said” and on the outtakes.

  9. It should be noted that I recorded at default settings. I think its some bizarre UK and Irish only setting that makes them record softly.  

  10.   “From what I read a while ago (I think it was in Scientific American) is the Neanderthals did not fad away they actually cross bred with the Humans at the time and are amongst us today.”
     
    That’s one theory, but hardly accepted as fact by most anthropologists. Most would say neanderthals simply died out and there was little, if any, interbreeding with modern humans. 
     
    Note to tested crew… I have a degree in anthropology and am available for podcast consultation at a very reasonable rate. 🙂

  11. Tips from a guy who works in a high-def tv repair shop: Don’t buy DLP’s, no one’s manufacturing them anymore and they’re a nightmare of expensive, short-lived, garbage parts (crappy bulbs, bad light engines, noisy fans, VERY HIGH dust/dirt sensitivity, internal warping problems from temperature issues, etc).  Plasmas have better viewing angles and brighter pictures as a general rule and are MUCH less fragile than LCD’s but suffer more from increased screen glare, temperature issues, brightness loss over the long haul, screen burn-in for people who watch non-high-def tv in the bracketed 4:3 aspect to maintain proportion, and increased weight (more aggravating to move, need more heavy-duty [i.e. expensive] stands or mounting brackets).  If you have kids (and especially if they have a Wii) and you’re not wall-mounting it, just go with plasma because screen impact damage isn’t covered under any manufacturer’s warrantee – unless you bought a fantastic extended warrantee that covers anything, you’ll be paying out-of-pocket for its repair or replacement, and LCD’s are fragile.  And just because I’ve seen it so often, NEVER buy a display model tv if you can help it; they’ve been run for thousands and thousands of hours before you even set eyes on it, lots of times literally all day, every day, for weeks or months.  Think of it as a well-maintained but HEAVILY used set, because that’s exactly what it is.

  12. For those wondering about the whole evolution of cooking thing from the end of the podcast, there is a book “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human” addressing the issue, there is also a podcast discussion of the book. The basic point there is that cooking makes food easier to chew and easier to digest, thus providing more calories then raw food. Maillard reactions and that cooking reduces the chance of food poisoning due to partial sterilization of the food also comes into play. Cooked food will also decay slower. So cavemen that came ended up eating cooked food at plenty of immediate advantages over raw food.

  13. Just a FYI, the Chevy Volt is still a regular hybrid. The gas motor can power the drivetrain. Chevy is not advertising this and has only been saying yes when asked this specific question. They’ve been pretty nefarious about this in my opinion.

    It will plug-in and it will have good batteries so it still has that going for it.

  14. ” Just a FYI, the Chevy Volt is still a regular hybrid. The gas motor can power the drivetrain. Chevy is not advertising this and has only been saying yes when asked this specific question. They’ve been pretty nefarious about this in my opinion. It will plug-in and it will have good batteries so it still has that going for it. “

    It will run as a full on EV, a series hybrid, or a parallel hybrid.  So it’s not just a “regular” hybrid.

  15. Most reasonable breakdown I’ve heard about the apple haters vs the apple lovers in ages. I’ve always compared apple hardware to other high end stuff. A dude I know hates apple because he says it’s just for people who are obsessed with social status and having the “new thing” and whatnot, and he drives around in a BMW 5 series, always one of the newest models. He could buy a toyota for half the price that gets him from A to B just as fast, but he pays twice as much because he likes the quality and comfort and whatnot. Same with me and macs. I like the smoothness of the OS, I like how everything tends to work, especially for music creation, which is really all I use it for, use my win7 pc for most everything else. 
     
    People just have to chill out on the whole apple hating shit and start hating google instead. Pushing crap products yet they seem to be loved by everyone, eventhough their primary source of income is a glorified type of spam. Beyond me why they are so loved.
     
     
    And also, Go will! It’s nice to see people who dare to say what they mean sometimes (talking about the airport scanners thing). Fully agree with you on this. Only way to stop them from keeping this up is to loudly protest while being molested. Getting the same tech in europe as well now, and I’m so glad I hardly ever fly anywhere. Fucking degrading.
     
    Btw, people with hardcore enough christian beliefs to take offense to the outtake are probably not your core audience 😉 Not to generalize, but religious fundamentalists rarely get turned on by microchips and high def goodness.

  16.  That’s something I’ve been wondering for a while, thanks for clarifying. I have no idea why they are hiding that so much. Maybe so people think it’s totally electric? Because until now, that’s how I thought they were playing it.
     
    I’m looking at getting next year’s Plug-in Prius model, if that comes to fruition.

  17. God: Check out these fucking wheels. 
     
    Adam and Eve: Holy fuckin’ shit! 
     
    The be-all, end-all religious discussion on Tested.

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