Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 41 – Sherlock Holmes That Shit – 12/16/2010

Will, Norm, and Gary talk about silly stuff for an hour, plus Google’s Demoslam, the Nexus S, Mac’s App Store gets dated, the new AMD Radeons, and password security, plus fake outtakes and a whole lot more on this week’s episode of This is Only a Test.

Comments (32)

32 thoughts on “Episode 41 – Sherlock Holmes That Shit – 12/16/2010

  1.  While I wouldn’t have $300 professional calibration done on my own TV, as I don’t exactly have money to burn, I definitely don’t think it’s insane, and would most certainly enjoy a Tested segment dealing with/ covering the subject.  
     
    Just make sure Gary at least makes a cameo appearance! 
     
    Btw, Gary’s Goofy imitation is uncanny, absurd, and highly amusing.

  2.  So did you change your passwords after you recorded this? 
     
    I am disappointed at the ratio of TV Quest to Questions and Answers, i.e. too much to none. 🙁 

  3. I will have to admit this wasn’t one of the places I expected to find discussion of Sheperd/Illusive Man slash fic but once again I’m surprised!

  4. More talk about speakers and audio! I need to buy some soon and I want Wilormary to tell me what to do. 
     
    Also: Uncle Will’s fireside chat.

  5.  So did you change your passwords after you recorded this?  I am disappointed at the ratio of TV Quest to Questions and Answers, i.e. too much to none. 🙁  “

    Yeah, what the hey?  There’s been a severe lack of Q&A on the podcast recently.  But don’t get me wrong, I do love all the TV Quest stuff.

  6. I think it’s a waste of money to pay for professional calibration. BUT I am not (recently) educated in this area and I would like to see the results you guys come up with.  

    “Dude Central”. Yes! , I do the same thing you do when my wife is out of town.

    Comcast is way too much money! I don’t even have HBO.

    I already only buy things that are good now as stated.   You never know what is going to happen with the device/tech in the future.

    It’s too bad you actually have to have an App on your smart phone . I think if you use the web for most things it would be best in many cases.

    Great job for figure out Gary’s power issue! 

  7. So what was this famous Darth Vader joke?
     
    Also – buy a $1000 dollar laptop and get them to throw in a free iphone bumper – that is some mad haggling skills 😀

  8. When dealing with comcast, I’ve had a fair amount of success calling them when my promotion is up, asking for an agent, and then asking to cancel. They’ll usually just offer to renew the last promotion you had. In my most recent dealings, after their first offer, I asked if they had anything better. I am now paying $23/month for Limited cable (so just local channels + discovery, and necessary for internet) and internet. I don’t remember the advertised bandwidth for my internet, but I know Steam easily gets 1.6 MB/s which is good enough for me. The price is usually good for only 6 months but there’s no contract, so I just call them up again after 6 months.

  9. Really guys? 
     
    “Sex Sells”? “Tight t-shirts”? “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”? 
     
    I guess according to Tested, remotely attractive women under 25 = “Sex Sells”, normal clothing = “tight t-shirts”, and girl wearing glasses = “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”.

  10. I would definitely be interested in so videos and/or articles on tv calibration. I would never consider having a professional come in to calibrate my tv but that’s because it’s a 3 or 4 year old 32″ lcd that I bought of a friend for $200. However, if I were to spend a couple thousand dollars on a tv then I think it might be worth it.

  11. So I was out on my usual stroll, enjoying a smoke and listening to the Tested podcast, and then they started talking about my beloved Mass Effect. About five minutes in, I had to RACE home to mention a few things.
     
    1) The only bit of information that isn’t being pulled from your first playthrough if you import a save is the question of who you suggested to represent humanity on the Council. This is the thing that they let you choose through the series of questions at the beginning of the game. This is actually because BioWare goofed, and had this decision happen AFTER the final save-state of the game, meaning they couldn’t find a reasonable way to pull that information in. Everything else is pulled in directly from your previous save. 
     
    2) The lesbian encounters that a FemShep can have are either with asari (which are a race that are represented as being sexually attractive to everyone, regardless of their species, gender or particular orientation; even salarians find them attractive, despite not having a sex drive to speak with) or Kelly Chambers, who is omnisexual. It could be even further be contextualized, if you wanted, that while FemShep might be a lesbian, none of her possible partners are. The only one that could possible be would be Jack, who mentions sexual encounters with other women in her dialogue, but her general opinion about sex outside of the romance thread is pretty cynical anyway, IE, she doesn’t much care for romance. Conversely, none of the male romance options even show a hint of homosexual leanings, again making it possible that Shepard is gay but no one else in the universe is. That doesn’t excuse the fact that there are no homosexual options for Male Shepard, when the asari excuse is really a cop-out for hot Lady on Blue Lady action. But just felt the need to clarify because I’m a huge Mass Effect nerd.

  12. I’ve had a PC rigged up in the living room for years now.  It’s basically serving as an part adjustable console, games, netflix, music, movies, ect.  Everything runs at 1080p native and in 3D.  After playing many games in 3D, I think they are on a whole different level when compared to 3D Movies and TV.   I really like the adjustable nature of real-time rendered games in 3D when compared to the lock down nature of film.   In film or TV you shoot once at a set depth and convergence and it’s locked that way, forever.   The benefit games have is since everything is rendered in real time, if you want more depth simply adjust a slider.  Want less or no pop out only depth into the screen, adjust the slider for convergence. 
     
    That said I’m not so sure I agree with Will when he said that next gen consoles will require 3D support.   I’m on the same page, but wouldn’t go as far as saying required.   First off, adding a dedicated “3D chip” so 3D can run without any down rezing isn’t gonna happen (not that I think he was saying that).  The 3DTV install base just isn’t anywhere close for something like that.  3D for now will be a lowering of resolution or assets thing on consoles.    It will be supported and encourage, yes, required I highly doubt.     Another good reason is, not everything needs to be 3D.  Soduku doesn’t need 3D,  fast paces competitive games don’t need 3D, it should be a development decision.   Second, implementing doesn’t seem all that hard, drop the res to a point that the game runs in 3D, set the depth and convergence for cut scenes.  I’m sure it’s more then that but it isn’t like they are building a entirely separate world for 3D, its the same everything except rendering method.   Basically I don’t think they need to go as far as requiring it, the 3D TV purchase rate will be encouragement enough for devs to put in the little bit of work to make 3D work in the games where it matters. 

  13. Norm should be on the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I just thought Gary’s laptop wasn’t plugged in. That light on the MagSafe is always on. It’s either green or amber.  
     
    And I would love to see a professional calibration verses adjusting the settings yourself. It might be a huge hassle lugging over Gary’s TV to Will’s place for a side-by-side comparison, but it’s FOR SCIENCE! And testing those virtual surround sound bars would be great, too. 

  14.  spending money on calibration is the BIGGEST waste of money. Especially if your TV is in a room with natural light. Maybe TVs are more advanced than the one i got back in 2007, but It can’t be worth 100 hours, at ANY cost. In fact, I’m kinda irate that TVs NEED calibration. 
     
    Will, did you mix up acronym with anagram?

  15. ” Jeff Green’s frozen pea bag lives on. “

    I almost lost my shit when I heard them mention that. That was classic.

  16. ” Asari (blue/purple species with the weird hair like tendrils slicked back on their head) are mono-gender and thus gender is irrelevant and meaningless to them. Therefore calling them female is incorrect.  I haven’t played Mass Effect 2 but in Mass Effect 1 it is pretty clear that the female human love interest in there is only interested in men and the male love interest is only interested in women. That is just their characterization. Liara (the Asari) however just finds Shepard interesting as a person regardless of their gender since Liara’s species is mono-gender and is more attracted to the mind and personality of a person and finding out who they are than their physical aspects.    Trying to say that at least in Mass Effect 1 that any alternative than a heterosexual relationship was offered is completely false. “

    All of this is very true within the Mass Effect universe, but the issue is that BioWare clearly physically modeled them after women. There are no masculine-looking genderless aliens to be wooed. Even if it’s not a real homosexual relationship, the move is still clearly pandering to people that find lesbian relations titillating. 
     
    I personally find the concept of the Asari pretty interesting from a science-fiction point of view, and I don’t mind a bit of pandering. However, it would be nice if the pandering was equal opportunity.

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