Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 153 – Happy New Year! – 1/3/2013

On this slow first news week of the year, Will and Norm discuss their holiday breaks, Windows 8 sales, Zipcar sales, the death of netbooks (and the PS2), and Bill Gates’ kids’ Christmas morning. Happy New Year!

Comments (29)

29 thoughts on “Episode 153 – Happy New Year! – 1/3/2013

  1. Welcome back boys. Great to hear you again and thank you for being a GREAT influence on my 7 year old son. We have both learned many great things and look forward to many more visits with Adam, a son favorite. Just know that you are inspiring a young generation through science, Legos and cool shit! Awesome time spent!

    Thanks again,

    bdkeith

  2. The fact that the Gates household refuses to allow Apple products in it shows how petty and stupid both Bill and Melinda are. If I were his kids I’d not own/use a single Microsoft product just to piss them off.

    EDIT: Also, lol at the “white man’s New Year” from Norm.

  3. Norm was pretty spot-fucking-on with netbooks. I fiddled around with it to see how lean I could get Windows…then gave it to my dad and bought myself an iPad.

  4. I’ve been to one murder-mystery party. In the beginning it is extremely awkward, but after warming up to the character, it’s the most rewarding and entertaining game/party I’d ever experienced. I highly suggest attending one whenever possible.

  5. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that neither Bill nor Melinda Gates are stupid.

    Want to bet Steve Jobs didn’t let anyone in his house use Windows? 🙂

  6.   I think they very much are stupid. Restricting your children to using one object because your competitor is kicking your ass in that market is very stupid. It shows close-minded ness, petty childishness,and teaching your children to hate something simply because you didn’t make it. There’s no justifiable reason to restrict that. Same goes for Steve Jobs. I’d call him stupid too. Bill and Melinda do great things, that is and continues to be one of the things they are stupid about. It’s no different than my Dad giving me a bewildered look and a snide “liberal bullshit” comment when I said I quite enjoyed listening to NPR.

  7. Wait, so Windows is going to get a massive redesign after it just got a massive redesign but boring ass iOS won’t be redesigned this year? Yeah, that makes sense…

  8. As someone who is currently slinging consumer electronics as a part-time job (that was close to 40 hrs. a week during the last holiday season) while working on my history thesis I can say that plenty of people come in looking for “Smart” TV’s. They’ve heard the buzzwords, but when they see the price difference between the a comparable dumb TV and a “Smart” one and I let them know they can get the same functionality with a blu-ray player, game console, or roku type device they usually go with the better deal to the detriment to my paycheck, why I’m a nice person I’ll never understand, especially when people are so often shitty to me at my job.

    It is my opinion that if you are going to a store where someone is working on commission and he or she spends more than 15 minutes with you, you should buy something especially if there are people waiting behind you, if you don’t you are taking money away from that person, I’m not saying you have to buy all the add-ons extended warranties etc, just something. If you just sit there eating up their time while they could be helping paying customers you are hurting the salesperson, not the company. Especially if you just buy from that same company online later.

    Also, if you ever fill out one of those customer service surveys it’s 9s and 10s for good service, 8 and lower mean shitty service as far as corporate is concerned. 8’s across the board is the same as 0’s. Don’t ask me why I don’t make up the rules.

    Also I wish Maylong would get out of the tablet business, those things are crap and I hate selling them. Of the 15 or so I’ve sold I’ve had 1 person happy.

    Wish I had display tablets, and good ones to sell.

    TL:DR

    No one looking for 3D

    Smart TVs people ask for but balk at the price

    Too many shitty tablets out there that we carry, got returned by the assload (Maylong, Arnova, other weird brands)

    Wish I got to talk to more people about DSLRs at work but it’s rare that anyone coming in wants to spend more than $100 on a camera.

    Thank your sales person give them 10s if they do a halfway decent job.

    Remember we’re all in this together and I’m pulling for you?

  9. I had a $300 ASUS net book and it ran FL Studio 9 just fine. Granted, I wasn’t running any crazy VSTs and the songs weren’t very complex but that’s still a pretty big accomplishment for such a small and cheap PC at the time. I understand where you guys are coming from, but for their price point they got way more flak than they deserved.

  10. Norm, you live in the Bay Area like me so you know that in 2012 Amazon changed to Ontrac for free shipping. And you know Ontrac is TERRIBLE. It is now less compelling than it was before.

  11. I still use my EEE PC, it worked just fine in windows 7 for most web browsing, and whatever other light tasks. I just upgraded my netbook to 2gb RAM, threw in a 256gb SSD, put Ubuntu on it, and it is much better.

    Recently I moved my old laptop into my entertainment center to hook up to my TV for streaming. So in that room I now use my netbook for web browsing and a computer for when people come over to hop on for whatever.

    So I disagree that Netbooks are shit, because for me it has a place and I only paid $215 for it like 4 years ago so I can’t complain. The cost over life of product is dirt cheap and I will still probably being using it in my living room for 2-3 years as a web broswer, email app, and photo backup/viewer.

  12. Hey Will, the 3DS launched in 2011.

    Also, I’d say Amazon Prime did not get much more compelling in 2012. With every new content deal for Streaming it seems like Netflix one-ups them. Whenever I finally find something I want to watch through the service it feels like Netflix adds it the very next day.

  13. anyone got a link to that space program app that Will mentioned? can’t find anything like what he described, and I would love something like a mobile kerbal space program.

    I think he’s talking about Space Agency

    Yup he was talking about Space Agency. I’ve been playing non stop since I sent him the link on twitter. The physics (or lack of I should say) is really not realistic but the game is still a ton of fun.

  14. I actually hope netbooks make a comeback in some form. I am not interested in tablets, but a small functional laptop would appeal to me. The key word there is functional. Netbooks were not ready to be functional because the operating system was too much for the processors. With more efficient technology I think newer and more functional netbooks could be made. Of course, I am still looking for the sub $300 price range so it may be a few more years.

  15. I actually hope netbooks make a comeback in some form. I am not interested in tablets, but a small functional laptop would appeal to me. The key word there is functional. Netbooks were not ready to be functional because the operating system was too much for the processors. With more efficient technology I think newer and more functional netbooks could be made. Of course, I am still looking for the sub $300 price range so it may be a few more years.

    This one is $330, but runs Windows 7 no problems.

    http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AO722-0473-11-6-Inch-Netbook-Espresso/dp/B005J2E2US/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

  16. You’re right, it is a bit harsh. I think it’s petty and childish though. And yes, I did tell my Dad he’s stupid for thinking that way because I hadn’t even gotten to finish the sentence and tell him their tech and science stuff was what I listened to, he immediately latched on the “liberal” crap and ran with it. I think the Gates’ family should be above petty BS like that and let their children be free to you know, act like adults one day. Sheltering them from inanimate objects isn’t healthy. And like said, she specifically said something in an interview about it, so it’s perfectly okay for me to say the petty and childish way they act is stupid. Parents banning harmful things is okay, banning iPods isn’t. It’s stupid.

  17. The fact that the Gates household refuses to allow Apple products in it shows how petty and stupid both Bill and Melinda are. If I were his kids I’d not own/use a single Microsoft product just to piss them off.

    EDIT: Also, lol at the “white man’s New Year” from Norm.

    Yup, totally ignores all of the good they’ve done. They’re just a bunch of rich assholes!

    You’re a dick in one way or another too. Do you want me to judge you entirely on the fact that you are intolerant of jelly donuts?

  18. Well if I worked for Krispy Kreme and refused to let my family eat anything from Dunkin Donuts, then yeah.

  19. Well if I worked for Krispy Kreme and refused to let my family eat anything from Dunkin Donuts, then yeah.

    Well shit, I guess you’re just a Donut Nazi who deserves a shallow grave, eh?

  20. It’s astounding to me how terriblly both Craigslist and Reddit are designed and look and yet are two of the most popular websites on the internet. Baffling.

  21. Wow, those are some negative predictions! You sound like grumpy old men. Not that I disagree, I’m kind of pessimistic about technology these days too but you guys do this stuff for a living!

    Also, no Gary is bumming me out 🙁

  22. I have netflix and lovefilm. Use them on PS3. It was great. but gradually only use lovefilm, so finally unsubscribed from netfilx

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