Pragmatic
Technology
About
Pragmatic is a discussion show contemplating the practical application of technology. Exploring the real world trade offs we look at how great ideas are transformed into products and services that can change our lives. Nothing is as simple as it seems.
Episodes
- 119: Is That Photo Real?
With heavily digitally modified images and fully AI-generated images now being regularly posted as being real, what can we trust? John and Clay tackle the challenges of flagging photo modifications, and propose a potential solution for ens…
- 118: Call Me Anywhere (Just Not Underwater)
After some updates about the past few months, Vic and I touch on the Starlink and SpaceX Direct To Cell technology. How it works and the ways in which it differs from other entrants like Iridium. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. TEN Show…
- 117: Video is Harder
Having recorded and edited over 130 video episodes of various shows, John discusses everything he's learned with Vic, reflecting on gear choices and changes and the tradeoffs between scripting and not and finally editing. All of this to re…
- 116: Whisky Whiskey
Vic joins John to discuss all things Whisky/Whiskey as John launches a new Video Podcast of the same name. Think of Pragmatic...but applied to Whisky...in a video form. We cover everything from Mash Bills to Distilling, Barrel Influence an…
- 115: Use Sparingly Use Wisely
Scott Willsey returns to pull apart the Google AI Overviews feature, the risks of trusting LLMs and Generative AI and the OpenAI Scarlett Johansson saga. Also John's returning to the USA in September and embracing Dumb Watches along with a…
- 114: Monopoly (Not The Game)
Vic and John discuss southbooth cooling progress, the lack of Apple Vision Pro internationally, Johns new Electric Ride on Mower, briefly about cricket and finally the US DoJ Anti-Trust case against Apple. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey.…
- 113: Whack Me In The Face
Vic joins John to go discuss the new iPhone 15 Pro Max Lenses for photos and video, using the Meta Quest 3 and trying out the Fuji Real3D Camera vs iPhone 15 Pro Max Spatial Videos in anticipation of the upcoming Apple Vision Pro. With Vic…
- 112: A Mixed Bag
Vic joins John to go through a mixed bag of topics including the two most recent Apple Events, selling lenses, the new 5x iPhone Pro Max Lens, Johns day job company being potentially bought and split as well as the Soundbooth and some conf…
- 111: Virtually Augmented
Vic joins John to look at the history of Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality as we pre-assess the pros and cons of AR and VR and the upcoming Apple Vision Pro. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. This show is Podcasting 2.0…
- 110: Apple Watch Evolution
With some initial discussion of the Twitter Appocalypse and M2 Mac Mini, John and Vic dive into the Apple Watchs evolution since 2015 to present and discuss whether or the newest Apple Watch design can be thought of as the ultimate Ultra.…
- 109: Soundbite Workshop
Following Johns appearance on Episode 100 of Podcasting 2.0, John is joined by Dave Jones to workshop the soundbites tag enhancements, as well as touch on BitCoin and Crypto strengths and weaknesses in the longer term. With Dave Jones and…
- 108: Not Turning It Into A Flower Pot
Clay joins John to walk through the key moments of the WWDC keynote for 2022 and look at what each means for us and also the broader populace. Whilst John is sad about the Trash Can being Ventura-canned, there were lots of things to smile…
- 107: Tesla Electric
Russell returns to Pragmatic to discuss his experiences with renewable energy, both the Model S and Model 3 and we dive into the finer issues with glanceless controls and other concerns regarding Tesla's User Interface. With Russell Ivanov…
- 106: Wind Farming
Wind Farms are getting bigger and spreading throughout the world both on and off-shore. Vic joins John to talk about Wind Turbines, John's new Tesla and the launch of the new Video podcast/vodcast Pragmatic Electric. With Vic Hudson and Jo…
- 105: Chips Ahoy
Where have all the chips gone? Scott Willsey joins John to look at how the shifting automotive use of ICs, a drought, a pandemic and poor planning amongst other things has led to an unprecedented global chip shortage with no end in sight.…
- 104: Mirrorless Revolution
Watching photography evolve in the past few years had demonstrated with computing power comes the possibility of ditching the SLR entirely and going mirrorless. Clay returns to discuss the mirrorless revolution. And yes, Clay called it fir…
- 103: Lockdown Computing
Lockdowns due to the pandemic of 2020-2021 has shifted a lot of peoples computing needs with working from home on their computer now a real driver for many people. We look at how it's impacted John and take a walk down history lane of Vic…
- 102: Podcast Lightning
A team of podcasters and developers are working on the next evolution of podcasting they call Podcasting 2.0. Dave Jones joins John to talk about their goals, RSS, XML and JSON pieces and how they fit together. To top it all off, we also d…
- 101: AstroPhotography
Ian Norman from Lonely Speck joins John to talk about photographing the MilkyWay with just your DSLR and without spending a fortune. We cover everything from Star-Trackers, Red-light filter removal, Pollution Filters, Focussing techniques,…
- 100: Oh My NAS
Casey returns to join John in an episode where we explore all things NAS - specifically the Synology. How we use it, what we use it for and how we neither of us can ever live without one anymore! With Casey Liss and John Chidgey. Related A…
- 99: StarLink
SpaceX and Elon Musk have been accelerating a project to provide high-speed, low latency broadband internet around the world via Satellites and are calling it StarLink. Radek joins John to deep dive into what StarLink is trying to accompli…
- 98: Docks And Interference
After a brief chat about John's App-in-progress Timeless Day, Ronnie Lutes joins to dissect the problems and pitfalls of poorly shielded or cheap USB 3 devices and how they can create BlueTooth drops out, Trackpad bullet chattering, Mouse…
- 97: Back To The Mac
Myke Hurley returns to the show to follow on with Optimal Interfaces, now looking into application specific advantages of the different user interfaces we have available to us for our specific use cases. We also consider an apocalyptic wor…
- 96: I’ll Do The Procrastination Episode Tomorrow
In an episode that could not be put off any longer, Merlin Mann joins John to unpick the habit of procrastination, how to identify when you're doing it, why you're doing it and how to stop yourself from doing it and get yourself back on tr…
- 95: FOSS Social
Free Open Source Software is at the heart of the Federated Social revolution that's gathering momentum. David Chartier joins John to walk through where we are in that journey so far, the current players, the current challenges and value of…
- 94: Photography
If you want to take the best possible picture, far better than a smartphone will ever be able to, where do you begin? John is joined by Clay Daly to walk through the details of modern digital photography, the pitfalls, the misconceptions a…
- 93: Optimal Interface
With a growing number of device categories and devices within them, it can be hard to pick what devices from what category will meet your needs. Jason Snell joins John to try to determine what the optimal interface is for what use case you…
- 92: Espresso
Following on the Pragmatic Coffee journey, Miha joins to discuss every detail behind the Espresso coffee and how to make the best shot you can. With Miha Rekar and John Chidgey. Previous Episode Links: Pragmatic Episode 30: Coffee Pragmati…
- 91: Zelda
John Siracusa returns to Pragmatic to discuss everything Zelda related, with a focus on Breath of the Wild and how so many established Zelda gameplay rules were thrown out the window with resounding success. With John Siracusa and John Chi…
- 90: Agile
Waterfall development is being overtaken Agile and in only two decades its popularity continues to grow. Casey Liss weighs in on the pros and cons of Agile while we look at where it's best to use it and what can help to make Agile work. Wi…
- 89: The Problem Is Us
Social Media has taken the world by storm but recent history has shown all that glitters isn't gold and has many people wondering if the technology is the problem, or if the problem is us? With Seth Clifford and John Chidgey. Previous Epis…
- 88: Trust, Faith and the Cloud
With Cloud Storage becoming a staple of modern computing, we deep dive into the history of how cloud storage came about, what features it has or should have and ultimately who can you trust? With Rob Griffiths and John Chidgey. Miscellaneo…
- 87: Static vs Dynamic
From the retronymous Web 1.0 through 2.0 and beyond, we look at how web development is coming full circle and when Static, Dynamic or Statically Generated sites make the most sense. With Radek Pietruszewski and John Chidgey. Miscellaneous…
- 84A: Space X Follow-up 1
Follow up (Part A) to Space X where we address the outcome of the first Falcon Heavy launch and Falcon 9 booster relanding outcome, SpaceMan and we don't panic. With Radek Pietruszewski and John Chidgey. Related Links: Falcon Heavy Falcon…
- 86: Segway Evolution
Self-balancing vehicles started with the Segway in 2001, but since then they've evolved, losing their handle bars and even losing a wheel. We look at how they've evolved over time, how safe they are and how potentially crazy John is, since…
- 85: Uncommon Transportation
When you're trying to optimise a daily commute, there are lots of options to choose from. Balancing physical effort, cost, speed, safety, storage and more we deep dive into how the concept of multi-modal transportation can make your commut…
- 84: Space X
Elon Musk is considered by many to be a technological visionary. In this, the third in a series of shows about Elons projects, we look at Space X, its history, its rockets, capsules and Elon's dreams of going to Mars. With Radek Pietruszew…
- 83: Tesla Part Two
Elon Musk is considered by many to be a technological visionary. In this, the third in a series of shows about Elons projects, we look at Tesla, its history, its cars the practicalities of what Elon's trying to achieve. With Caleb Elston a…
- 82: Tesla Part One
Elon Musk is considered by many to be a technological visionary. In this, the second in a series of shows about Elons projects, we look at Tesla, its history, its cars the practicalities of what Elon's trying to achieve. With Caleb Elston…
- 81: Boring Loops
Elon Musk is considered by many to be a technological visionary. In this, the first in a series of shows about Elons projects, we look at Hyperloop and The Boring Company and the practicalities of what Elon's trying to achieve. With Vic Hu…
- 80: Mastodon
GNU Social is gaining momentum recently with Mastodon leading the charge. It's a different way to micro-blog and it's not perfect, but it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Vic joins John to walk through where it stands today. With Vic Hu…
- 79: Diluted My Metric Goodness
The history of measurements has a few surprises. Casey Liss joins John to discuss once and for all Metric and Imperial measurements. With Casey Liss and John Chidgey. Miscellaneous Links: Origin of the Metric System Litre Celsius Fahrenhei…
- 78: Full Term Surface Pro
For 9 months now John has been using a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for work purposes, and Vic's son uses a Pro 3 at College. We go back and forth on the device as both a laptop and a tablet. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. Miscellaneous Link…
- 77: Look Before You Touch
The new MacBook Pros come with a new feature Apple call the Touch Bar. We look at whether blending direct and indirect interactions make sense and try to figure out if the Touch Bar is actually a good idea. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey…
- 76: Banned
Marco and I discuss how the Apple Watch brought us both back to wearing watches and the search for the ideal Watch Band for every use case. With Marco Arment and John Chidgey. Previous Episode Links: Episode 38: Watch This Time And Space E…
- 75: Rollercoasters
A lot of people love Rollercoasters including the hosts of the show. We look at the history, evolution and revolution of these amazing thrill rides. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. Miscellaneous Links: Rollercoaster Kinetic Energy Potent…
- 74: Vics 20
It's all about Vic! He takes us through his history of programming for slightly more than 20 minutes. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. A Maintained List of DevCasts Vic Listens To: DevCasts from Vic Hudson on Twitter Vic Around The Web: v…
- 73: Everything Is Cyclic
Weighing up the cycles of driving vs public transport and Windows to Mac and back again. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. Related Episodes: Pragmatic Episode 8: A Nice Quiet Serene Environment Pragmatic Episode 29: You Can’t Fight P…
- 72: So Much Noise
Noise as a term is widely misused and misunderstood. Carmen joins John to sort out the signal from the noise. With Carmen Parisi and John Chidgey. Related Episodes: Pragmatic Episode 8: A Nice Quiet Serene Environment Pragmatic Episode 16:…
- 71: Off The Rails
Trains and roads look like they have lots in common but the trade-offs in signalling and network design are completely different, and horrendously inconsistent. With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey. Miscellaneous Links: What is a tram? First e…