Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 161 – Google Reader is Dead – 3/14/2013

Gary joins Will and Norm this week, as they discuss SXSW, the Oculus Rift, the Xi3 Piston, the PlayStation 4, next Xbox rumors, and the triumphant return of fake outtakes.

Comments (34)

34 thoughts on “Episode 161 – Google Reader is Dead – 3/14/2013

  1. BLAH…. i have my phd qualifying exam in the exact amount of time it would take for me to listen to this. actually if i listened to this, id be 10 minutes late to my exam….. WHAT SHOULD I DO??

  2. BLAH…. i have my phd qualifying exam in the exact amount of time it would take for me to listen to this. actually if i listened to this, id be 10 minutes late to my exam….. WHAT SHOULD I DO??

    The podcast will be here after your exam. If you listen to it now, I’ll ban you from the site.

    You tell him, Will. This is a place of learning not of slacking!

  3. Gary, Norm…Will awesome to have you back. Another great show. I just love to hear smart people talk to my uneducated ears. Thanks!

  4. Google killing Reader is literally the only piece of tech news I’ve ever had an emotional response to. It’s a tab that’s always open and the first or last app I check every morning and night. I’d give up Gmail before Reader, and they can kiss my ass if they think I’ll come over to their obnoxious social network.

  5. I do not understand the reasoning behind Google Reader being shut down. Google Reader is probably the most reliable and best designed browser based RSS reader. 80% of my internet browsing is based off of Google Reader because I dislike relying on Twitter or Facebook news feeds which I feel are inconsistent and badly designed.

    I think you are giving Michael Pachter way too much credit saying he is correct half the time. When he is right it is usually because of common sense decisions or insider knowledge and when he is wrong it is big wrongs.

    I do not care much about the smartphone market, but I do not think it is relevant to think about Android activations when Apple still has the majority of market usage. Android spans many more devices than iOS, but the iOS market still makes more money overall.

  6. 7000 series graphics… That is just about as ambiguous as it gets, suppose they could have said “AMD graphics” or “complete with graphics chip” but seriously, 7000 series, that could be anywhere from 7350 to a 7970, the difference in performance is huge…

    On SimCity, who ever thought that would be a good queue system? Have you wait 20 minutes rather than until there is space? Think if a restaurant say “Sorry, we’re full right now, please check back in 20 minutes, we won’t let you in before that even if a table open up” so you talk a 20 minute walk only to find out that 5 couples have left but where replaced by 5 new couples and the restaurant is still full and your again asked to check back in 20 minutes… Yea, that would be smart right?

    Didn’t really have any other issues with the game though…

  7. I’m relatively new to the Tested podcast, what’s the deal with Fake Outtakes? Isn’t it just the podcast just extended a bit? I mean fake outtakes were 20 minutes, but he said they were over too far and would skip questions. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand their point.

  8. it used to be where they would save all their non-tech related conversation, but now it’s just an old relic

  9. BLAH…. i have my phd qualifying exam in the exact amount of time it would take for me to listen to this. actually if i listened to this, id be 10 minutes late to my exam….. WHAT SHOULD I DO??

    How does this story end? did he pass? is he banned? the mystery, the drama!

  10. I really need to try out this Oculus Rift, the 1st thing that popped into my mind when you were talking about it is what a must have accessory it would be for racing games, flight sims and battlefield 3 just imagine being in the cockpit view in 3D, with that 3D glass seen in Avatar (damn that movie did good 3D glass) that got me really excited. Do you think there is any chance this could be the Microsofts trump card with the next Xbox, well atleast a accessory that would make it compatible or do you see this being a PC only thing?

  11. I am pretty glad Will went on about how much he loved The KingKiller Chronicle so much, I thought they were seen as Young Adultish and have kind of been a guilty please, maybe I won’t be as embarrassed to recommend them to a friend.. I was absolutely absorbed in those books, i think I ended up finishing them in 3 days. Was such a refreshing thing to read after reading all of the available A song if Ice and fire books.

  12. Thanks for crossing a book of my to read list. I found The City & The City impenetrable so if Perdido Street Station is even more difficult to get into then I’ll pass.

  13. I have real bad news for you guys. Over 90% of your girl scout cookie purchase just goes to fund the ridiculous monstrous beauracracy that is the Girl Scouts of America. The amount that actually ends up with local girl scouts is 25c per box or less. It’s gotten to the point in my house where we would rather just give the troop $100 and just skip the cookies but the GSA is not big on that.

  14. I find out if I passed this afternoon. my committee decided to meet one more time to discuss. to keep it short. i’ll say the last 4 years of my phd studies have been quite painful but is starting to take off.. we’ll see if my committee thinks its worthwhile to keep me as phd candidate. otherwise ill finish with a master.

  15. After that little book club section at the end, I have ordered Slaughterhouse V and look forward to reading it. I’ve never read Vonnegut, but I can’t wait to start.

  16. I was waaaaaaaaaay into the Thomas the Tank Engine when I was a kid. I probably watched the same ones as Norm.

  17. YAY Gary! So happy.

    I do think science is more interesting than science fiction. Sci-fi is often stupid and exaggerated, I love science fiction but come on. You have to be really cynical to not be amazed by science.

  18. Gary, the Thomas movie is horrible. Complete and utter shit. If you are going to watch it, I recommend copious amounts of mind altering substances.

  19. Yeah, I read In The Name of the Wind a while ago on the recommendation of Will. I thought the first half was excellent, but it turns to crap in the second half. The first half is a huge and awesome build up and then…. nothing happens. That was enough to keep me from reading the second book :/ I dunno maybe I’ll give it a try if I can find it in the local library.

  20. I don’t really appreciate Gary calling reddit misogynistic. And I hope he wasn’t being snide with his Men’s Rights remark. Maybe I just misconstrued it.

    BTW, only wanting to play your games single player is completely valid. Maybe the future is all this “sharing” crap, but I really appreciate sitting down with my single player escapist fantasy, thank you very much.

  21. Don’t really know why. But I find it funny and surprising that Gary is one defending IKEA. The meatballs were always a bad idea.

  22. EA launched a MMO successfully with SWTOR. It had server queues just like any MMO but no server crashes.

  23. When ArmA 2/3 gets oculus rift, nothing will stop me from getting it just for that. It already has the head tracking set perfectly, done right (ie having the view be separate from the gun/body). TrackIR is pretty useful in that game because of that stuff. But having it be up in your face would be so incredible. Even if I have to run at lower resolutions and lower settings and all that. I was beyond myself the first time I flew around in a chopper in first person with head tracking in ArmA 2. I can’t even imagine the same experience with that being my actual view, instead of through a screen. Plus, allowing 1:1 tracking that works is a lot better because it’ll be smoother and less latent. and more immersive.

    And the reason the 3D works better is because it’s actually two separate images timed the same on separate screens for every eye.

  24. you can have both Siri and google voice search. Search for Now Now or Activator in cydia. In that app, choose the triple tap home button option, and assign it to google voice search.

  25. As someone who is active in both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, with kids in each program, I was happy to hear you support them .

    I have real bad news for you guys. Over 90% of your girl scout cookie purchase just goes to fund the ridiculous monstrous beauracracy that is the Girl Scouts of America. The amount that actually ends up with local girl scouts is 25c per box or less. It’s gotten to the point in my house where we would rather just give the troop $100 and just skip the cookies but the GSA is not big on that.

    Our troop is getting 60 cents per box. This helps pay for operating costs for the troop and patches, pins, and prizes for the girls. There is also a portion that goes to the locall council, which benefits our girls too, because they provide programs throughout the year that would be hard for a single troop to pull off. Don’t forget some goes to the baker who makes the cookies too. I think the breakdown is pretty fair for all parties involved.

  26. I used to be addicted to Google reader, but a year ago when it got buggy and unbearably slow (due to all the sharing buttons) I gave up and went to Newsblur instead.Soooo much better! It’s now a permanent pinned tab in all my browsers.

    (although after the Reader shutdown it’s been a bit janky, due to influx of users and some API changes or something.)

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