Chit Chat Across The Pond Lite

Dr. Maryanne Garry of the University of Waikato and I break down the meaning of a research paper published in the journal Nature in which subjects were measured to see whether language aptitude had a high correlation with learning to code. The paper can be found at "Relating Natural Language Aptitude to Individual Differences in Learning Programming Languages". Figures we discuss from the open access journal: Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

This week our guest is Bart Busschots with an installment of something he's calling Programming By Stealth-adjacent. It's not part of the regular series of Programming By Stealth, and yet it's not technically very "light" in terms of the chit chatting. Since neither podcast is the right place for it, I've decided to put it in both podcast feeds to be wrong twice. Bart walks us through how to create Quick Actions with Automator (also known as Services) to do some simple but very useful text manipulations using a smidge of JavaScript. Even if you don't want to write these Quick Actions yourself, you can download his services from his Github repo where he's put them up as open source: https://github.com/bbusschots/macos-quickaction-text. You can see how Bart created this in his blog post at [www.bartbusschots.ie/...](https://www.bartbusschots.ie/s/2020/03/06/macos-quick-actions-for-text/)

This week we're joined by Robin Christopherson. Robin is the host of the Alexa skills podcast Dot to Dot and he’s co-host of the weekly Tech Talk show from the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Robin is also Head of Digital Inclusion and part of the globally-acclaimed accessibility and tech team of AbilityNet and has spoken at numerous events in recent years. Oh yeah, he’s also blind. Robin tells us about how the advancements in technology have made such a huge difference in the lives of people with disabilities. He also explains that in the US at least, people with disabilities refer to TABs, or the Temporarily Able Bodied. He talks about th ework AbilityNet is doing in the UK to try to get accountability for companies that don't comply with the laws around accessibility. He suggested an interesting (and funny in a British uncomfortable comedy kind of way) video about Diversish: https://youtu.be/oOQYFZMglCc He's funny and fun even though we're obviously talking about a subject near and dear to hi

Tom Steven, aka Tom on the Internet from [tomontheinternet.com/...](https://tomontheinternet.com/) joins me to tell the tail of how he went from knowing zero about programming to landing a full-time job as a web developer in two years of self-training. Then he talks about the things that surprised him that he learned as a developer in that first year. In listening to Tom, you'll feel like he's not extraordinary and like maybe you could do this too. That is, if you're willing to put the time and energy into teaching yourself all with a laptop and the Internet. I found Tom delightful and entertaining and inspiring, and I hope you will too.

While we were in Las Vegas for CES, we carved out some time to have dinner with our good friend, JF Brissette, who is also the editor of all of my videos for ScreenCastsOnline. He brought his daughter Lila to dinner and she started talking to me about her journey of discovery into accessibility on Apple devices. I asked her to come on the show to talk about her perspective on accessibility as a young person without any disabilities. She's delightful and intelligent and I really enjoyed seeing these topics through her frame of reference. If you'd like to connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn as Lila Brissette.

Cat Eye Volt400 Duplex cycl.bike/... BPM Core Blood Pressure Monitor Withings Sleep Mat Withings Thermo [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon podfeet.com/paypal

This week we're joined by Eleanor Mazzarella, a musician turned programmer. She gives us her background in music from finding a clarinet on a bookshelf as a child to a career as a classical performer. She then walks us through how and why she decided that programming sounded like more fun. She's a funny, delightful storyteller as she weaves in her love of the arts with her love of everything nerdy.

Adam Engst, veteran author of TidBITS for the last 29 years, inventor of Internet advertising and someone who dresses appropriately for the weather joins us for this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond. Adam explains the fascinating results that IBM has reported since they first decided to give their employees the choice of whether to use a Mac or Windows. I'm afraid this discussion will cement any EVER so slight Apple bias you might have already had, because the statistically-significant correlation between Mac usage and employee success is simply startling. If you'd like to read Adam's article before, after, or during the discussion, you can find it and all of his other fine work at tidbits.com/...

This week I asked Don McAllister, owner of ScreenCastsOnline to come on the show to talk about how he automates the production of his video tutorial podcast business. We start at his humble beginnings as a new convert from Windows with a Mac mini and a monitor, up to and including a global workforce with automated workflows. He's even moved his Mac Pro into MacStadium so it's a resource for his back end production folks. I must do a disclaimer that I do screencasts for Don's show, which means I have a conflict of interest in telling you how awesome it is. We try to stay to the technical parts of the show production but we're both so enthusiastic about the service it's hard to avoid talking about the quality of what Don and his staff creates. You can find ScreenCastsOnline at screencastsonline.com and you can follow Don on Twitter @donmcallister [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

This week's Chit Chat Across the Pond is really special. It's an interview with Ken Case, the CEO of Omnigroup. We don't actually talk much about his current work, but rather start back with how he went to college when he was only 13 years old at the University of Washington. He takes us on the fascinating journey of technology that lead him to work for Steve Jobs's NeXT computer company and how it changed his view of what computing could be. It's a wonderful story filled with super geeky details including bitnet (which I'd never heard of) and how he helped write the precursor to IRC.

This week we're joined by returning guest Ray Robertson, well-known AppleScript guru and general all around automator. Ray joins me to talk about the increased challenges developers faced working with Apple. It's no secret that iOS 13 and iPad OS 13 have been problematic on their own, but the betas and final delivery of macOS Catalina has also produced huge problems for developers. Ray says he's no expert, but he tries to get into some of the details of the modifications Apple has introduced in the interest of security that have made the developer's life much more difficult. You can follow and contact Ray on Twitter @scriptsmatter or email him at [email protected] I mentioned two links during the conversation: How to stop macOS Mojave from nagging you to upgrade to macOS Catalina, and also how to turn it back on: pro-tools-expert.com/... Adam Engst's TidBits article explaining why Dark Mode actually makes it harder to read: tidbits.com/...

Doug Ingram joins us to talk about what he calls Nightscape Photography, which is a combination of astral photography (photographing the stars) and photographing of the surrounding landscape. His photographs of the Milky Way with the landscape are absolutely breathtaking. Doug explains his gear, the settings on his camera and the surprisingly little he does to edit his photos after the shoot. He also talks to how far he's willing to drive in a single night to capture these amazing shots. You can follow Doug's amazing photography at: nightscapades.com, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, 500px, Email

In this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond Bart Busschots joins us to talk about how he arranges his podcast listening, how he categorizes them and then what kinds of shows he likes. Bart listens to around 6 hours of podcasts per _day_ so this is quite a long list. He purposely didn't include the usual suspects that he's talked about often before. That means that you are bound to learn about some shows you've never heard of and might enjoy. There are TONS of links to every show in the show notes. [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

In this "Lite" version of Chit Chat Across the Pond, Bart answered Scott Fairclough's request to explain DoH and DoT. It's super nerdy and really interesting. First Bart gives us a full refresher on exactly what DNS is (and I needed that refresher. Then he explains the problems with DNS from a security and privacy point of view. Then he walks us through how DoH, aka DNS over TLS and DoH, aka DNS over https (which is actually http over TLS) will start protecting us in the future (and in some cases the present.)

In this week's episode, Sandy Foster, aka @MacQuilter joins me to talk about why CarPlay is so awesome and how it influenced her decision to buy the top-of-the-line Prius, called Prius Prime. We also talk about the new tech in the Prius Prime including the fact that it's not just a gas/electric hybrid, it's also a full electric vehicle for short-range driving. You can follow Sandy online at sandymike.net and find her in the NosillaCast Live chat room and the Podfeet Slack @Sandy. [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

Bart Busschots joins us to talk about the technology decisions that go into buying a bike these days. I thought I knew about bikes, but I learned a lot about what's changed just in the last five years. In the blog post, we have a video where Bart walks around his bike and points out each of the things he talked about in the recording: Bart's video showing the bike components [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

This week our guest is Laura Kane, CFA, CPA, Head of Investment Themes Americas for UBS.  Laura specializes in something called Sustainable Investing for UBS. As part of her research she has written several articles about investing through a gender lens. I've asked Laura to come on, not to talk about investing per se, but rather what she has discovered about the impact women have on the success of a company. Here's a link to the research we discuss in the interview: ubs.com/...

Dr. Garry, self-proclaimed Crusher of Dreams, joins us again on Chit Chat Across the Pond, this time to talk about how she thinks science is broken and why. Dr. Garry is a professor of Psychology at the University of Waikato, and also professor of the NZ institute of Security & Crime Science. In this episode, she takes on the topic of how science journals choose which papers should be published, and the flaws she sees in that process that cause the extraordinary claims to be published, rather than those efforts with less flashy premises. She backs up her thoughts with specific research that has been conducted in reviewing how well these claims of amazing success pan out over time. Please follow Dr. Garry on Twitter at @drlambchop. [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

This week we’re joined by Dr. Devon Polaschek. Dr. Polaschek is the Joint Director of the New Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science at the University of Waikato. I will further embarrass her by mentioning that she was recently awarded with a Queen's Birthday honour (as in Queen Elizabeth). Dr. Polaschek has has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to criminal psychology. In this interview, we talk about Devon's work with imprisoned psychopaths and her successful efforts to rehabilitate them. It's a fascinating discussion of the perspective of psychopaths: how they differ from other criminals and the ways in which they are similar. [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon

Interview with Oleksandr Kosovan of MacPaw about SetApp, his work to enhance tech in Ukraine and how he created a Mac museum. MacPaw [email protected] podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon