Shows
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.305: Hardly an Off-the-Shelf KnobWe've been tinkering with a lot of esoteric PC hardware stuff lately, so we're here with a roundup on what we've been up to this week that you'll hopefully find informative. We get into Microsoft's crackdown on the vulnerability in FanControl and other popular monitoring software, attempting to corral fan settings in UEFI as an alternative, and doing battle with the dreaded beat frequencies that can result from adjacent fan placement. Brad also gives a full trip report on his attempt to power a stack of hard drives with an external ATX power supply, with a detour into handy...
2025-09-211h 24
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.301: Will Ruined the InternetSome handy links if you want to start playing with your own virtual Windows 95 machine:https://86box.net/https://winworldpc.com/homehttps://www.vogons.org/
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
2025-08-241h 27
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.274: A Little Bit Less GoodWill is trying on a new hat soon, with a newsletter about the ongoing enshittification of our collective computing experience, and some tips and tricks for... unshittifying it a bit. So this week we're digging into both the subject matter itself, and also the ins and outs of launching a newsletter, the features and policies of some of the bigger publishing platforms, hosting costs, email outreach, the decision-making that goes into monetizing your writing, and more. Plus: tangents on why you should never run your own mail server, Linux kernel scene drama, and a brief look back at some...
2025-02-161h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.264: Will's Congressman's Enormous WangTwo momentous events have recently rocked the computing world: First, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger abruptly stepped down this week, less than four years after taking the company's helm, and before completing the ongoing transition to its next-generation chip fabrication, and second, Microsoft has removed the venerable WordPad from current and future versions of Windows. We convene to try to make sense of both of these unexpected happenings (and talk a lot about word processors along the way).Cling to WordPad for dear life: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2376881/how-to-get-wordpad-back-windows-11-24h2.htmlThe Microsoft Fandom...
2024-12-081h 04
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.263: The Smith Chart Is S-TierThe monthly Q&A commenceth again, with emails and Discord Qs positively pouring in about the origin of the flange effect, why all the electrical outlets are upside down, gaming on an M4 Mac Mini and how Apple's move to a 16GB minimum affects their status as a family recommendation, the value of moving to the Bay Area for a computer science degree, the race to the bottom in electronics parts and accessories, Will's holiday board game recommendations, an impromptu ranking of charts, and more.
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get...
2024-12-011h 18
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.251: That 6GHz Really Tied the Spectrum TogetherThe world is steadily moving on to Wi-Fi 7 (or 802.11be, if you like), so we figured it's about time we sit down and attempt to understand what separates this latest standard from all the wireless fidelity that came before. Where in the world did they get a number like 46Gbps? What are the forward- and backward-compatible implications with existing devices? How does "multi-link operation" work? Is it time to run out and upgrade yet? What's haunting Brad's access point? We do our best to answer all this and more.The article referenced in this episode: https://dongknows...
2024-09-081h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.248: Peace, Love, and Old ComputersOur good friend Steve Lin joins us to run down the trip he and Brad recently took to the Vintage Computer Festival: West Coast Edition, hosted in Mountain View, CA's wonderful Computer History Museum. Did you ever wonder about the strange arrow-key layout of early Soviet computers? Or how to build your own CRT out of a tube you found on the sidewalk? Or what it takes to rebuild the entirety of the early online service Prodigy from scratch? Or about the time Intel shoved a hundred 286s into a single computer? Then this is the episode for you!
2024-08-181h 31
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.239: Calculator on an iPad?!Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference has come and gone again, and frankly there were enough interesting additions to the company's various OSs that we figured an episode was warranted even before we got to "Apple Intelligence." We do our best in this jumbo episode to round up everything from silly corporate stunts to a (finally, maybe) context-aware Siri, an intelligent way to deal with too many notifications, build-your-own emojis, better vitals on the watch, MacOS's long-overdue window-snapping, and too many other features to list.Show notes for this episode: https://tinyurl.com/techpod-239-wwdc-24Watch the...
2024-06-161h 46
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.238: The Dread of Sitting in the Cone ZoneWill just traded in the ol' Chevy Bolt for a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5, so it's time to run down all the pros and cons of this newer and more robust electric vehicle, and also check in on everything that's changed in the world of EVs in the three (!!) years since we did our Bolt episode. Listen on for our thoughts on everything from plug standards to the rapidly expanding charger network, how many driver assists are too many, the seemingly endless absurdities in automotive UX, and a bunch of other stuff.Show notes for this episode: https://tinyurl...
2024-06-091h 43
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.233: My Wife Is a LaserDisc GuyWe're embarking on a two-part rundown of home video formats this week, with part one focusing on analog video up through the mid-1990s and covering biggies like VHS and LaserDisc, plus also-rans like Betamax, Video8, and the truly strange CED. Tune in for plenty of fun trivia, like myths and misconceptions about the first major format war, Sony's ahead-of-its-time analog HD video system, why a video format patterned after a record player isn't a great idea, and a bunch more!(There are some drops in Brad's recording this week due to an infestation of audio gremlins...
2024-05-051h 34
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.225: The Goldblum ConjectureWhat makes a great tech demo? Besides killer tech, do you need theatricality? Stage presence? The risk of everything exploding at the seams at any moment? This week we look back on a ton of notable tech demos big and small, from the largest Apple and Microsoft stages to people in their living rooms, to reminisce about some of the most exciting reveals and try to locate the exact intersection where earnestness and carnival barking meet to create a truly memorable presentation.Show notes and YouTube links for this ep: https://tinyurl.com/techpod-225-famous-tech-demos...
2024-03-101h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.214: David Smith (Hobbyist)This week, Will is joined by Kishore Hari, who takes us on scientific journey through some of the biggest science stories of the year. Topics include advancements in cancer research, a cure for sickle cell anemia, the Nine Boundaries graph, advances in brain science, the cheapest way to land on the Moon, long-standing math problems solve by amateurs, and the year in science woo.
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support t...
2023-12-2455 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.210: TWELVE HUNDRED MEGARAYSWill's been fortunate to spend a chunk of time with the new Steam Deck OLED, and now it's time to talk through both his firsthand impressions and the list of small-yet-significant upgrades Valve has made to just about everything on the device, from screen size to weight to battery life, heat and cooling, memory bandwidth, and even the color of the power button.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show...
2023-11-2659 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.205: More Than a Drip, Less Than a GushThis week we're doing some follow-ups on recent episodes to fill in a few blanks. Spurred on by the PS5's Spider-Man 2, we wanted to talk about the recent advent of gaming at 40Hz, and that led us to finally talk in some more depth about Brad's new television set. Will has also been testing a coffee brewer FROM SPAAAACE!!!! or at least co-designed by an astrophysicist, and has some tips on zero-bypass brewing, wetting your paper filters (eww), and more.Some links from this episode:Hisense U8K: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews...
2023-10-221h 23
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.204: Science Cookies??We've got a pleasantly floral potpourri this week, mainly focused on Will's trip report from this weekend's Bay Area Maker Faire, the first time the DIY science and tech show has been held since 2019. If you want to hear about model-size mag-lev trains, personal undersea robots, the cottage industry of R2-D2 replica builders, and more, this is your podcast. If you also want to hear about Brad's contemplation of a PC water cooling conversion and Will's recent questionable RGB projects, that's in here too!A few links for this week's show:Maker Faire: https...
2023-10-151h 08
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.200: Bump to SquirtSometimes the events are so current we can't help discussing them, and such is the case with this week's act of self-immolation on the part of Unity and its relationship with the many developers who use its engine to make their games. Plus, iOS 17 and friends are imminent and Will has installed every available *OS beta and is here to talk about some of the new features (VPN on AppleTV?!?), the newly announced iPhones and Watches, and some other stuff!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your...
2023-09-171h 28
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.199: MAKE ROMEWill dons the game developer hat again this week for a deep dive into how a game gets built. No, not the coding and design and art and all that -- we mean how a game gets literally built into a package that you can run on your PC or console, with some in-depth chat about everything from build servers to source and version control of both code and binary assets, pre-baked lighting, creating automated nightlies of your game, partying in TeamCity, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to...
2023-09-101h 09
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.198: Insert ASCII Shrug™ HereWe're back this week with another round of hot tips for making your computing life less annoying, including super secret UI settings, methods of bending digital voice assistants to your will, a low-level Windows hotkey not even Will knew about, the latest PowerToys (since the last time we talked about PowerToys), an easy way to trim videos without encoding them again, the fastest video player in the West, and other tips you won't want to miss!The apps we mentioned in this ep include LosslessCut, mpv, Authy, and the ever-growing Power Toys.The Windows hotkeys...
2023-09-031h 13
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.196: HDMI KablammoSince Brad just went through the new-TV-buying-and-setup process (for someone else), we decided it was time for us to look past our classic plasmas and take stock of the modern TV landscape. In this ep we attempt to casually dissect HDMI 2.1 features and HDR standards, and think about why format wars are never going away, which legacy audio connector is getting short shrift these days, why everything is labeled "8K" all of a sudden, when to buy an OLED, and a bunch more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our...
2023-08-201h 15
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.194: All I Want Is Simple Determinism!We're back this week with the mythical three-peat of updates on topics we've discussed either recently or in the distant past. First, following up on last month's patron episode, we dig into our recent experiences with Wireguard and discuss why it's pretty much the only home VPN game in town. Next we dissect the lessons Will learned about operating an electric vehicle in extreme heat on this year's just-concluded sojourn to Palm Desert. Lastly, Brad does a quick update on cold brewing coffee after a couple weeks of experimenting with liquid ratios and excess caffeine. It's like three podcasts...
2023-08-061h 10
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.192: Straight Out the BunnWill gets to dispense his considerable knowledge of coffee this week as Brad gets into cold brew and consuming way too much caffeine, with a medium-bodied discussion covering the cherry-esque fruit that houses the sacred bean, ratios for brewing a world class cup, some of the flashier and more modern brewing methods out there these days, and a bunch of other details that will hopefully prove informative to even the most refined coffee connoisseur.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other...
2023-07-231h 34
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.191: WINNER: NONEWe're dusting off the ol' projector this week for a discussion about the 1983 nuclear-warfare classic WarGames (which Brad had never seen!). Did you know the original movie had nothing to do with hacking or nukes? What exactly was inside WOPR, anyway? Is the movie somehow more relevant now than it was then? How much did all that gear in Matthew Broderick's bedroom cost? Listen to this podcast and answer these questions!Sources for this episode:https://www.wired.com/2008/07/ff-wargames/https://gizmodo.com/the-computer-simulation-that-almost-started-world-war-i-1686123550https://www.cio.com/article/220297/the-technology-of-wargames.html
2023-07-161h 04
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.184: Not the Out-of-Box ExperienceNow that we're both on new PCs in the last six months, it's time for us to run through some of our experiences and offer a few (hopefully new) tips for anyone else building a machine. Join us as we talk shop this week about recent BIOS trends, our love of portable apps, unconventional cloud storage strategies, much handwringing about motherboard vendor drivers, Windows package managers, some hefty praise for WSL2 (plus a dangerous digression into the varied feelings about systemd), and more.Some of the less common software mentioned in this episode, which is all easy...
2023-05-211h 27
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.180: Chowder 'n CookiesSpring is in the air, flowers are blooming, and the potpourri is back. In our latest floral pouch of podcast topics, we get into the IP camera setup Will is using for his bird cam, Stream Deck alternatives like Bitfocus Companion and Loupedeck, reliable old laser printers, the return of GPU space heaters, replacing filthy Windows installs, and the end of girl scout cookie season.Bitfocus Companion: https://bitfocus.io/companionLoupedeck: https://loupedeck.com/us/Amcrest IP cameras: https://amcrest.com/Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon...
2023-04-231h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.179: The World’s Largest Graphics CardYes, Brad built a new PC. Seriously! For this momentous occasion, we got together to talk all things PC-building, starting with some early impressions of the new build and then heading off into tangents on ludicrous ray tracing performance, the ongoing mystery of PCIe lanes, working with the executive motherboard, the terror of the land grid array, and more.Download Fan Control here: https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.ReleasesSupport the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits...
2023-04-171h 06
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.178: Windows on Top of WindowsIt's been several months since Will needed a laptop and bought an M2 iPad Pro, keyboard, and pencil instead, so we figured enough time has passed to decide if that was the right move or not. In this ep we dig into the ups and downs of replacing a laptop with a tablet, what the workflow looks like, screen protectors that feel like paper, iPad OS multitasking, what you might use this sort of setup for in a serious film or media production setting, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get...
2023-04-021h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.176: Phone Blasters in DOS LandTech news is getting a little too surreal for us lately, so we're taking a brief trip back to a simpler time. This week we go through the very first issue of Boot (later Maximum PC) from 1996, which has everything from Jean-Louis Gassée on the launch of the BeBox to Bill Gates on the x86 PC's murder of SGI, the very first cable modem service, a motorized (?) Panasonic laptop, some shocking secrets about the first Dream Machine and the letters section, the Will Smith byline that almost was, and a bunch more.Read along at home w...
2023-03-191h 10
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.175: Short Analog, Long DigitalOur desks have evolved since the last time we talked about our personal workspaces (Brad has even achieved the elusive Cord Zero), so we're doing an updated check-in to talk about the current gear we're working with, aspirational cable-routing, portable camera setups, gaming on ultra-wide monitors, custom corkboard cutouts, and a bunch of other related topics.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod...
2023-03-121h 16
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.174: Weaponized SmurfingRemember when pop-up ads looked like they were part of Windows XP? Dark patterns are all around us, even when we don't realize it, and this week we cover a wide range of these insidious methods of manipulating our online behavior, touching on everything from tricks to make you play games longer than you want to subtly enticing you to rope in your friends, succumb to sunk cost fallacy, and more. Editor's note: Brad played Clash Royale for three hours after recording this episode.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to...
2023-03-051h 17
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.173: Splinter Cell in a KayakBrad spent a whole bunch of time in the PlayStation VR 2 this past week, and given Will's previous life as the proprietor of a VR-related business, we're pairing hands-on (or maybe face-on) experience with institutional knowledge this week to dissect the ins and outs of the new headset, comparing it to the current PC fare, speculating about its potential to become a PC headset itself, musing about the use of SLAM tracking in robot vacuums, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the...
2023-02-261h 06
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.170: The Robots (Hopefully) Aren't ComingArtificial intelligence, machine learning--whatever we're calling it, it sure is in the news a lot all of a sudden. Everything about the use of AI feels uncanny enough lately that we sat down and had a free-wheeling conversation about the subject, from some basic (fuzzy) terms and definitions to Will's use of machine learning at Foo, the endless ethical dilemmas about the use of the technology, and some loose speculation about where AI will be used going forward and how long it'll take someone to unironically name their startup Skynet.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech...
2023-02-051h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.168: It's Cool to Be CoolIt was a pretty heavy week for a variety of reasons, so we decided to discuss a variety of shorter topics this week to try to take it in, starting by touching on the mass layoffs sweeping the tech industry and elsewhere. Then we make a... Musk sandwich, first by covering the New York Times Magazine's extensive article on Tesla's Full Self-Driving issues, then by examining the Orwellian goings-on with Twitter third-party clients. Finally, we go to our happy place with a quick check-in on Will's new Beelink NUC-like and the server stuff he's done with it so far.
2023-01-221h 06
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.167: We Can't Give Them the HeadsWill does the unthinkable this week and PODCASTS WITH HIS BOSS, as Stray Bombay head Chet Faliszek joins us on the one-year anniversary of the release of The Anacrusis to talk all things running a small video game studio. From Steam and Xbox backend tools to current engine tech, the difficulty of getting noticed in today's ultra-crowded market, management and decision-making on a small team, whether launching on Game Pass was worth it, and more, there's a lot to cover in this ep.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our...
2023-01-151h 23
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.165: I Don’t Believe in AdverbsOn our first show in 2023, we rejoin our epic task of ranking all of humanity's software. Will we actually start putting things in order this week? Or will we get sidetracked by our love of dot matrix-printed banners? Or by reminiscing about the excitement of IRC channel takeover wars? Will Brad be flabbergasted that Will has never played Gorilla.bas? Will we ever finish this project? Listen on and find out!This week's show art courtesy of Blake Patterson.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord...
2023-01-011h 08
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.162: Storage WarsWill's recent clean-slate PC build and newfound abundance of extremely fast storage got us thinking about all things storage. So this week we had a top-to-bottom chat about our current storage strategies, including the ways we are and aren't still using local drives, our fondness for portable apps, how many cloud storage services is too many, the promise of something like rclone to manage all of your offsite storage, dumping long-term data into S3 Glacier, and more.Here's Will's recent PC build with Gordon and Adam from PC World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIJBxR_BkRI
2022-12-111h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.160: Gelatinous Soup TubeWe're thankful for the copious bounty of questions sent in by you this month, which got us talking about all kinds of stuff. Stuff like our love of treehouses (and mushroom soup), mouse pad technology, advanced s'more techniques, people who hold their phone in the toast position, more on setting up your own blog, the iPad apps Apple doesn't want you to have, Will's love of model railroads, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can...
2022-11-271h 03
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.158: TwitastropheElon Musk's Twitter disaster has been impossible to look away from, and since we probably owe some amount of our careers to everyone's favorite social media platform, we had to spend this ep running down and trying to make sense of a series of events that's almost impossible to believe. We also dig into some of the feasible alternatives to Twitter, like Mastodon, Cohost, and the Bluesky project with its AT protocol. #twitastropheSHOW NOTESStories and reporters referenced in this episode include:A timeline of the whole mess: https://www.ign.com...
2022-11-131h 20
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.Special Ep: Don't Pull the FrenulumBrad is feeling under the weather this week, so we weren't able to turn Qs into As, but we did manage to find a classic Halloween episode of the Patron cast deep in the Tech Pod Vault. Brad and Will turn Qs into As and talk about the true horrors of the technological world, self-closing doors. Enjoy!
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
2022-10-301h 02
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.155: CyberplunkThe sizable slab of silicon known as the Geforce 4090 has landed in Will's computer, so this week we did a deep dive on his experiences with it so far, ranging from basic performance to impressions of how DLSS 3 impacts micro-stutter and game feel, installing the massive three-slot card and dealing with its new power connector, some speculation about what drove the unusual branding decisions around the 40-series, a hodgepodge of info we picked up at Nvidia's recent editor's day, and more.Nvidia's extremely brief update about "unlaunching" the 12GB 4080: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/12gb-4080...
2022-10-161h 13
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.154: Gas Station Tri-TipWill and family just did the Southern California theme-park circuit, so this week we had a casual chat about some of the more technical aspects of visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios in 2022. How well do the old animatronics hold up? What's up with all that new Star Wars stuff? Just how much do you need your phone, really? What goes on in the Disneyland nerve center? (We can only speculate about that one... for now.)Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and...
2022-10-091h 06
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.152: Three Pfizers to the WindThis past Friday EVGA made the shocking and abrupt announcement that it's exiting the GPU market after two decades of making Nvidia cards. We drew on Will's many years of reviewing PC hardware to look back on that span of time, ponder the circumstances around the decision, and consider what's next for all involved. Plus, we dig into the slightly less shocking reveal that the PlayStation VR2 will lack backwards compatibility with games from the previous headset. What a topical show!Here's the Gamers Nexus video we referenced during the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
2022-09-181h 13
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.151: A Dynamic Island GetawayThe annual Apple event has come and gone, and we're here to run down the goings on with the latest iPhones, Watches, and AirPods. Learn more about satellite SOS and crash detection, privacy concerns around body temperature sensors, camping out overnight at the Apple Store, the Apple Watch as status symbol, Will's secret history as a diver (!), Brad's shocking thoughts on the latest notch, and more!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at...
2022-09-111h 27
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.149: The Rhythm Nation Test SuiteWe're doing some navel-gazing on this month's Q&A with a bevy of questions that came in about this very podcast: the business of hosting and advertising, research and production work, how we choose topics, and more. Plus: creating your own Wikipedia page (or not), Will's other life as an ageless and all-powerful being, too much discussion about software version numbering, and destroying hard drives with the power of pop music.SHOW NOTESPerfect Bid, the Price is Right documentary we mentioned: https://www.netflix.com/title/81092327Support the Pod! Contribute to the...
2022-08-281h 08
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.148: Neither Fish Nor Fowl: The Foo VR StoryHey, did you know Will ran a VR animation company before we did this podcast? By popular request, this week we talk through the history of Foo VR start to finish, touching on all kinds of topics like leaving behind a steady paycheck to bet on an emerging technology, the overwhelming shininess of venture capitalist offices, the meaning of "bad signal," how rapidly three months can turn into a year, and more.SHOW NOTESThe Foo Show: https://store.steampowered.com/app/411820/The_FOO_Show_featuring_Will_Smith/Andre's original demo reel: https...
2022-08-211h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.146: Nothing Beats Parachute DayA grab bag, a smorgasbord, a potpourri -- whatever you call it, we've assembled another batch of micro-topics to wend our way through. This time around, precision German podcasting plugins, Will's new green screen-free life (and growing array of tiny pixel art screens), a bit of desk efficiency chat, graphite pads versus thermal paste, and the sheer arrogance of putting an AWE64 in a Windows 3.1 machine.Links for this episode!86Box: https://86box.net/WinWorldPC's old operating system archive: https://winworldpc.com/homeThe Ultraschall plugin for Reaper: https://ultraschall-fm.translate...
2022-08-071h 01
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.144: The Anamorphic SquinchBrad's birthday has come and gone, which gives him the privilege of choosing our next tech year in review. This time, the banner year of 1997, which saw everything from Dolly the cloned sheep to IBM's chess-playing Deep Blue, the nuclear-powered Cassini probe to Saturn (and protests to match), the American launch of DVD, Steve Jobs' return to Apple, the anything-goes brutality of Ultima Online, and a bunch more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the...
2022-07-241h 26
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.Special Ep: A Flickr Group for Martian PhotographersWith the James Webb telescope in the news and Will convalescing from COVID-19, we're bringing back one of our favorite patron-exclusive eps this week: the first appearance of our friend Doug Ellison from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, in which he regales us with stories about taking photos not of Mars but on it, data throughput from another planet, what it's like to work at JPL, and a whole lot more. Enjoy!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You...
2022-07-171h 18
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.143: The Ol' Dirty Bastard AdapterWill and family have made their annual month-long pilgrimage to the desert once again, so this week we ended up having a free-wheeling conversation about portable tech and working on the road. Topics include tech-savvy AirBnb hosts, optimizing your electric car, dealing with Xbox development away from home, the moment that USB-C finally happened, the value of just getting TSA pre-check already, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon...
2022-07-101h 00
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.142: Flanders Is Dead. Long Live NeddyWill's longtime home server Flanders has finally given up the ghost, and now he's streamlined his life by moving to an integrated Synology box. After significant hands-on time, we get into the ins and outs of what it's like running network storage in this sort of turnkey, integrated box, including ease of setup, hardware specs and limitations, Will's possibly controversial feelings about Docker, Brad's slow descent into madness on the extreme other end of the NAS hardware spectrum, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your...
2022-07-031h 11
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.141: Poor Pour Pore TechniqueIt means being bad at researching how to use a spout. Oh, right, this is a Q&A episode! This month we discuss the potential of open smartphones, Fermi's paradox, French toast supremacy, electronics in the bathroom (yea or nay), Brad's dwindling sardine hoard, a bunch of barbecue-related subjects, mispronouncing tech, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod! Contribute to the...
2022-06-2658 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.140: Wes and Norm Were RightWill got his hands on his very own Steam Deck and he's bursting at the seams to talk about it, so we're back with a follow-up to our first Deck ep with an updated trip report. How has compatibility, performance, and system software shaped up in the months since the device first started shipping? What are some of the fun third-party apps you can install for emulation, game management and so forth these days? Did Will dabble with the forbidden emulation fruit? The answers lie within.SHOW NOTESSome of the third-party programs we mentioned...
2022-06-191h 02
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.139: Grill Drama Is Real DramaAs summer heats up, we're cooling things down with another (now-semi-annual?) cube of cold opens. Thrill! to the long and sordid tale of Will's Stripe fraud saga. Chill! at the campsite mishap that demolished someone's data plan. Spill! your drink everywhere when you realize that the innocent Roblox scammers of today may become the business leaders of tomorrow. Uh, fill? your ears with all the other bite-size topics that weren't long enough to consume a whole episode!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the...
2022-06-1251 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.138: Crank: The Unofficial Game of the MovieWe've been mulling the idea of donning our game dev hats and attempting to make our own little Playdate game as an educational exercise, and this week we commit ourselves to this task publicly with a consideration of the hardware and controls at our disposal, followed by a bunch of brainstorming different game ideas. Plus, a few interludes about the coming dominance of 40Hz games, Will's shocking ignorance of gorilla.bas, and some other fun stuff!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits...
2022-06-0556 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.137: Emails Qs Are Qs TooIt seems like it was only last month that we answered our last batch of questions, and yet here we are with another one. This time we address subjects like getting squashed by an asteroid (or meteorite), who in the world ever used eSATA, the ancient noodle superset, Will's scandalous views on cats, diving into the ol' money bin, coding showcases for kids, Apple's stringent stance on VMs, social Siri engineering, and incendiary devices connected to your smart home.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name...
2022-05-2955 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.135: This Machine Is a Server!!On the occasion of Will's birth we're back for another year in review, this time taking a look at the year he went off to college, 1993 (or at least as much of it as we can fit into one episode). Join us as we gab about everything from NCSA Mosaic and the creation of the World Wide Web at CERN to the founding of Nvidia, the Pentium FDIV bug, the CG-free Jurassic Park that almost was, the inexplicable longevity of the .mp3, and more!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to...
2022-05-151h 04
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.132: The Coldest OpenWith Will briefly trapped in the great frozen north(ern California), we got together for a chilly, scrappy two-fer this week with a couple of short topics. First we chat about Panic's Playdate, with an emphasis on our time spent compiling sample games and otherwise fiddling around with the new handheld's SDK and web-based Pulp game creation tool. Then we get into some home network spring cleaning, from unidentified and forgotten devices to lazy Raspberry Pi update strategies. It's like two short podcasts in one! Actually, it's exactly that!SHOW NOTESThe docs and download...
2022-04-241h 05
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.130: The Last Home Button StandingWell, we're only about *check's Apple Watch* a month late to the most recent Apple event, which we're using as an excuse to talk about a whole range of topics like: the (potential) death of millimeter-wave 5G, whether the Mac Pro line has truly left us or not, Brad's time so far with an M1 MacBook Pro, the weirdness of spatial audio in your ears, the many ways Will's wrist is now controlling his life, and more!SHOW NOTESThe Verge story on 5G and the iPhone SE:https://www.theverge.com/22968066/apple-iphone-se-5...
2022-04-101h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.129: Main Character TerritoryWill sure had a wild, weird week on Twitter following last week's, uh, historic showdown at the Oscars, and now he's here to decompress. What were the first 24 hours like? How close did he get to being on cable news? Have Twitter's tools improved for managing torrents of incoming tweets? What kinds of questionable business offers came in? C'mon, you knew we weren't going to talk about anything else.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support...
2022-04-0350 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.128: An Elevator Named OtisThe monthly questions came in, and now the answers go forth, pertaining to such topics as these: weirdly named folders on our desktops, regrettable usernames, paltry American downstream speeds, Brad's delusions of cross-coastal VPN grandeur, an unprecedented round of answers seeking questions (??), a spirited debate about showering protocols, some shocking stats on streaming service penetration, and a shocking reveal about elevator open and close buttons that you won't see coming!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can...
2022-03-271h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.127: "fear, sex"Will just happened to watch a whole bunch of Star Trek: TNG when he was laid up recently, so we got together this week to decidedly NOT talk about Best of Both Worlds, Measure of a Man, Darmok, or The Inner Light, but instead to run down some of our favorite sleeper eps, genre work, and picks for some of the most under-appreciated gems from one of our favorite TV series ever.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits...
2022-03-131h 15
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.124: The Year of the GridThat pleasantly floral scent you're detecting means it's time for another potpourri ep! This time we dive into the nitty gritty of our podcast workflow and Brad's forthcoming adventures with XLR recording chains, a laparoscopic trip report, the collapse of the Nvidia/ARM deal, Will's mad-scientist experiments in RGB synchronization, the perils of running double-digit hard drives at once, and more!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
2022-02-131h 15
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.121: Notepad Dark Mode?!?Will just successfully shipped his first game, and Brad has spent years asking questions about shipping games, so this week we met in the middle with a freewheeling chat about some of the technical nitty gritty of making and promoting a game. Listen in for topics from build servers to CNAMEs, working with varying storefront CMSs, running playtests on PCs in another state, some thoughts on collaboration from our time working with other startups and small teams, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name...
2022-01-161h 02
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.120: What Comes AfterThis week we avoided traveling to Las Vegas for CES and instead tried to absorb all the news coming out of the show from the comfort of our desks. Listen on for some loose chatter about goggles-shaped VR headsets, Samsung's entry into the OLED market, the travails of dealing with the latest HDMI standard, the latest from AMD and Nvidia, Will's Vegas survival dos and don'ts, and more.Stories discussed in this episode:CES attendance plummets 70%, E3 in-person canceled:https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ces-gadget-show-turnout-falls-more-than-70-25-thanks-to-covid/ar-AASzFiwhttps...
2022-01-0900 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.114: That's One Spicy PillowThis week Apple announced an effort to begin offering service manuals, replacement parts, and other self-repair services to its customers. Who better to discuss this landmark move than iFixit CEO and right-to-repair advocate Kyle Wiens? Kyle joins us to talk about his DIY repair efforts over the years, what opening up your own iPhone will be like, Microsoft's exploratory moves toward repairability, the legal state of affairs that's driving this sea change, where e-waste actually goes when you dispose of it, and a lot more.Thanks again to Kyle for joining us this week. Here's Kyle's Twitter...
2021-11-2155 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.113: Three Prongs Bad, Two Prongs GoodWe've been holding video game controllers for most of our natural lives, and now we're attempting to put them in a qualitative, ordered list; a sort of "ranking," if you will. In this ep, we go decade by decade, from the NES to today, considering the technical innovations, ergonomics, fit and finish, historical influence, and general usability of our favorite (and not-so-favorite) controllers to arrive at the best of the best.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You...
2021-11-141h 54
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.112: Here Comes Manhattanhenge!By the time you hear this ep, Daylight Savings Time will have departed for another year, so DST is naturally what we're chatting about this week. We clear up some myths and history about DST's origins, talk about the axial tilt of the planet a bunch, swap tips about time changes and home automation, look at DST's relative safety and economic effects, debate whether society should keep doing this whole thing or not, and uncover the ancient myth of... Manhattanhenge.Episode Links!A cartographer makes maps to argue for ending DST altogether: https://www.bloomberg...
2021-11-0759 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.111: Flanders Is Running in a Degraded StateIt's the most horrifying Q&A episode we've ever recorded! This month we field Qs about such topics as: how to teach your kids to view Internet content and influencers with a critical eye, our home electronics protocols for going out of town, essential gadgets we just can't bring ourselves to splurge on, listening to podcasts at super speed, and our favorite historical OS transitions. Plus, Will recounts his longtime experience running BartStorage, and Brad reveals his deepest personal secrets... at least as pertains to network hostnames and the contents of his .zshrc file.Support the Pod...
2021-10-311h 29
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.110: The UPC of the BeastWill's daughter recently had her first encounter with a corded telephone, which got us thinking about other technologies that are on the way out or have already vanished from society. In this ep we touch on a wide range of aspects of the old phone system, what things were like before every product had a barcode on it, whether we're trending toward a cashless society or not, how in the heck they processed credit card transactions before the magnetic strip, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming...
2021-10-241h 14
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.109: A House of LiesIt's been nine years since Will's last big house cleanup, and the time has come once again to discuss... THE PURGE (of all his stuff). In the interest of general decluttering, this ep is a rambling consideration of such topics as: What should you do with all your fancy Lego builds? Is it better to hoard stuff, or data? Can you dig a basement under a house that already exists? How many USB cables does a person need, anyway?Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name...
2021-10-1754 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.107: The Kick-Ass Stamp of ApprovalWill Smith, this is your life! Or at least one month of it, specifically November 2009, when you published an issue of Maximum PC that included a review of Windows 7, speculation about ray tracing in video games, a breathless report about absolutely enormous 160GB SSDs, and other historical curiosities. With Windows 11 looming, we thought it would be fun to reach back into the vault and check out some coverage of a previous Windows launch and all the other fun and/or embarrassing stuff that came along with that particular issue.Here's a PDF version of Maximum PC November 2009...
2021-10-031h 11
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.99: You Wanna Be Elite?We recently found a Hackers-sized hole in Brad's filmgoing history, so we're killing two birds with one stone this week by making him watch the movie, and then recording an ep about it! Join us for a chat about this campy cult classic as we consider chunky laptops, cornball effects shots, teen-movie clichés, a star-studded cast, the presentation of the '90s hacker ethos, all the things the movie got right and wrong, and the idea that there might just be a little Zero Cool in all of us. #hacktheplanetSupport the Pod! Contribute to the T...
2021-08-081h 10
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.96: National Ground Beef DayWe enjoyed Will's birth-year episode so much a few weeks ago that we're back with a look at the notable events in tech, science, and culture of 1979 now that it's Brad's turn. Slap this tape in your Walkman and listen to us prattle about CompuServe's origins in the life insurance industry, C++, events in nuclear energy (and weapons), the debut of the compact disc, the founding of Pixar and Sierra On-Line, the first Daytona 500 broadcast, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the rings of Jupiter, and more!NOTESHere's the Vice feature on the fall of...
2021-07-181h 23
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.95: The Pirate Radio of PodcastsThis week we're joined by Will's friend Ben Brown, longtime online software developer, to talk about the Internet old and new. Topics include Ben's grassroots efforts to resurrect the Finger protocol, rooting around in 1977-era Unix source code, why the tech industry keeps reinventing the same features over and over, reading 'zines over Telnet, the never-ending accumulation and corporate consolidation of content, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon...
2021-07-1151 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.91: Professor Will’s Magical SensoriumIt's been a big week around these parts--Will helped reveal a new game at E3, and Brad helped launch a new online media property--so we did a potpourri episode touching on a bunch of the technical details of working on these projects, including: Will's embrace of git, how to positively influence Internet behavior, Microsoft's open-source moves, when we might see shipping Unreal Engine 5 games, a search engine that plants trees, and more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits...
2021-06-131h 01
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.90: CONTROL MY MONITORReinstalling Windows: no one enjoys it, but everyone has to do it eventually. This week, we spend some time chatting about the ways this timeless ritual has gotten better (or worse) over the years, strategies for making the process as painless as possible, some of the unique things we do to customize a fresh install, and a lot more. Also: tune in for a hands-on report on the new GeForce 3080 Ti (and Will's rapid transformation into a '90s industrial vocalist).SHOW NOTES:Find the dates of your Windows install and updates with Powershell: https...
2021-06-061h 22
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.88: It Just Makes the Lithium AngrierSpurred by Will's first month with a Chevy Bolt, we present an episode on electric cars and attempt to answer questions such as: How weird is it to drive without braking? Can you check the car's battery health like it's a phone? What's the public charging situation like these days? How many EVs are out there, anyway? Should your car really have the power to text you?SHOW NOTESThat wild mechanical thumb from the cold open: https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1396003181151272963Science Magazine on the EV battery-recycling problem: https://www.sciencemag.org...
2021-05-231h 25
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.87: With a Name Like Deke...In honor of Will's birthday, this week we traveled back to the heady days of 1975 to see what was big in science and tech in the year of his birth. Our impromptu retrospective features everything from the Altair 8800 to Space Mountain, the Homebrew Computer Club, the Apollo/Soyuz handshake in space, Benoit Mandelbrot, Jaws, Betamax, and a little history-making company from Bill Gates and Paul Allen called... wait, does this say Traf-O-Data?Operating an Altair 8800 is not for the faint of heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_6DtwmQXsSupport the Pod! Contribute to...
2021-05-161h 07
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.85: Hey, They've Got That BaseballSix-ish months since launch, the next-gen consoles are now officially current-gen, so we thought it was time for a check-in on the state of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X platforms. How has the user experience matured so far? What system software issues are still lingering? When will games start shipping at 30Hz? Will they ever be easy to actually buy? These questions and more, discussed!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at...
2021-05-021h 16
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.73: Thirteen Issues a YearWill used to work for a tech magazine. Brad always wanted to. We both read more than our fair share back in the day. So let's talk about magazines! In this ep we look back on those mammoth issues of Computer Shopper, our love of the PC Gamer demo CD, embargoes and print deadlines, Will's years in the magazine mines, what the (bumpy) transition from print to online was like, and lots more.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great...
2021-02-071h 06
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.69: The Gravest DayWe were unable to turn our attention to anything but the week's horrifying events in Washington, D.C., so for this episode we had a freewheeling chat about... well, everything, including some perspective from Will's time working on the Hill, the infosec implications of the Capitol breach, how we attempted to keep up with the onslaught of news on Wednesday, and more. Stay safe, everyone.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https...
2021-01-1053 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.64: That Cheapskate CumulonimbusThe time has come to discuss 5G and the latest cellular data specs (largely because Will got an iPhone 12). We get into his hands-on experience with 5G speeds, the differences between low, medium, and high-band spectra, how 5G compares to LTE, what millimeter wave is exactly, how 5G may or may not interfere with weather forecasts, and 5G's potential to turn you into a lizard person. (One of these topics may be fake.)Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great...
2020-12-061h 02
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.63: Brad and Will Build a Dream HouseWhile we're nursing our meat hangovers, we took a cue from last week's email about future-proofing your home to chat about 21st-century home ownership, including the thermodynamically efficient passive house, strategies for replacing cables in walls, current solar and battery capacity, novel construction materials, hanging furniture, and more! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2020-11-291h 01
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.61: The Bad Kind of ComplexityOn this busy week we threw together a delightful potpourri of different topics, from gadget repair to drilling through PCBs, lust for 4k TVs (or not), making the lightest mouse in history, the huge potential of handheld lidar, and a quick glimpse at what's coming next in big-budget video game development.Support the show and join the Techpod Discord for as little as $2/month at https://patreon.com/techpod.Bearded Bob's YouTube G Pro switch replacement video (the whole channel is good too!): Solder Sucker That Actually Works: https://amzn.to/2UsEGFZWill's Hakko Soldering S...
2020-11-151h 12
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.58: Lil' Doppler RedshiftOn this month's email show we talk about our love of astrophysics, a PC that could last you forever, bad interface design in consumer electronics, why e-ink screens aren't everywhere, Android longevity, the social niceties of Discord, and a bonus segment with Will's thoughts on gaming at THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY HERTZ.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech...
2020-10-251h 23
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.55: Five Altairian Dollars a DayBrad just read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time (and Will reread it for the eleventy-thousandth), and now we're here to discuss the book's cheeky sci-fi Anglicisms and cavalier relationship with reality and metaphysics, its endless influence on pop culture, the career of Douglas Adams, and more. Thanks to all of our supporters who made this episode possible!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
2020-10-0457 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.51: The Man With the SpatulaLast week Brad and Will got to attend a virtual deep dive on Nvidia's new 30-series GPUs, and in this ep we attempt to break down all the new ray-tracing optimizations, DirectStorage capability, whole-system latency reduction, push-pull cooler designs, V-shaped PCBs, and more. Be warned, it's a lot!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get...
2020-09-061h 40
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.48: Grip Is GoodFollowing up on our software unitasker ep from a few weeks ago, we're now moving into the physical realm. This week we run down a few of our favorite devices, trinkets, and doodads that make it just a little bit easier to get things done.Here's a quick list of the stuff we mentioned on this ep which should be easy to search for:BradGenki Covert Dock by Human ThingsRetractable cables (Digital Ant's look pretty good)Charging station (bamboo or other)Articulated HDMI extenders (Monoprice is a good...
2020-08-161h 17
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.46: The Suborbitable CaterpillarEeeeeeeeeeeeeeemails this month address questions like: Where the heck are the color e-ink readers? Can we imagine a world without DNS? What in the world is a sputtering target? Want a quick 'n easy cable-organizing tip that will BLOW YOUR MIND?Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpodHere's the magical hanging cable organizer in all its full-size glory: https://imgur.com/a/r4URJ0G
2020-08-0258 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.44: alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.dieIn these trying times, we thought a nostalgic little walk down memory lane might be nice. Join us as we look back at the '90s Internet, from PPP connections and .plan files to Gopher, IRC, and Will's part in the Eternal September.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpodHere's the microsuction stuff Will mentions in the intro: https://www.amazon.com/Sewell-Direct-AirStick-Microsuction-250mmx300mm/dp...
2020-07-1959 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.39: The Eternal OptimistThings are rough out there, so this week we recorded a free-wheeling episode about tech-ish self-care strategies for things like exercise, meditation, lighting, and so forth. Plus: Will's making his own MiSTer case!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and...
2020-06-1454 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.38: Embrace, Extend, ExtinguishIt's time for infosec episode, the sequel! Will recounts the hackery he's dealt with since our initial podcast about online security a few weeks ago, then we grade the big tech companies on their privacy efforts (or lack thereof) and dig into the what, how, and why of modern data collection -- and how to stop it.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the...
2020-06-0755 min
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.36: The Frankencoder LiiiiiiivesWith everyone trapped indoors, streaming video on the Internet is an especially good way to connect with people right now. This week we did a broad survey of practical streaming tech, from hardware and software setups to codecs and protocols, Brad's latest questionable tech project, and the ever-present danger of streaming Will's inbox live to the world.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the...
2020-05-241h 14
Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.33: Prudiest Common DenominatorBy all accounts, Apple is moving its laptops to ARM sooner than later. What's this transition going to mean for existing MacOS software? How many days straight will your new MacBook run on battery? Can we envision a big old Mac Pro running on an itsy bitsy ARM chip? These questions and more, pondered herein!Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpodHow Windows works on ARMHow Microsoft...
2020-05-031h 02Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.31: Virtuals on Virtuals on VirtualsThis week we reach into our grab bag of homebound projects to chat about the tech stuff we're up to lately, from Will's ray-traced camera obscura and adventures in Behringer mixing to Brad's efforts to bring a FrankenMiSTer to life and get to the bottom of the great shingled hard drive scandal of 2020.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Support the Pod! Contribute to the...
2020-04-191h 05Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.29: Have Laser, Will CutIn this grab bag of an episode, we cover topics ranging from ground loop isolators to the MiSTer, fixing holes in air mattresses, modern uses for 3D printing, an in-depth primer on coronavirus testing, reclaiming that precious blue screen of death, and more stories from our quarantined home life.Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpodSome links from this week's episode:That 3D-printable NAS...
2020-04-051h 19Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.15: Bob Iger Will Eat YouA new decade is nigh, so what better time to look back on the tech trends that defined the twenty-tens... teens... whatever. From smartphones to 3D movies, home laser cutters to endless payments of $10 a month, settle in for a look back at the decade that was! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2019-12-301h 21Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.11: Spatchcock CentralThe annual giving of thanks is almost upon us, so Brad and Will sat down to chew the well-rendered bird fat about a few of the technologies they're thankful for, from noise-canceling headphones to... speedy Windows installs? Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2019-11-2453 minBrad & Will Made a Tech Pod.2: Captain Crunch's Electric CarBatteries power everything from phones and laptops to cars now, but it feels like the technology is lagging behind. Brad and Will talk about different types of batteries and how they work, share some good guidelines for care and maintenance of the lithium batteries that are in most of your mobile devices, and contemplate Will's high-tech high school romantic life. Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2019-09-231h 01Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.1: We're Gonna Need JNCOs For ThatBrad and Will contemplate their own mortality while discussing this week's Apple event. Topics include Apple's newest iPhones, Watches, iPads, and services. There's also at least one banger of a segue. Enjoy! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2019-09-1655 minBrad & Will Made a Tech Pod.0: Sweatpants Tech PodcastOn this inaugural episode, Brad and Will share their technological origin stories and why they've always loved tech. Hear the reason they're making a podcast, the stories of their first PC builds, and their love of Socket 7. Enjoy! Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to
our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits,
and other great benefits! You can support the show at:
https://patreon.com/techpod
2019-09-1247 min