Pragmatic

Erik Hess of Technical Difficulties and Dawn Patrol joins me to talk about the things that motivate and demotivate us, and turning hobbies into jobs and then back into hobbies again.

The next disruption in transportation is coming to a car near you soon. We walk through the history and evolution of personal transportation and look to the future.

My wife joins me as we discuss our recent experiences with being obese and undergoing weight-loss surgery. It's extreme but it works though it's not without serious risks.

Brianna Wu is the CEO of GSX and is one of the women behind Revolution 60. Join us as we talk about gender imbalance in Engineering and Technology, and how we can help bring balance to the force.

Privacy online is becoming a bigger issue with more servers hacked every week our personal data has never been at more risk. Seth Clifford joins me to talk strategies to reduce your exposure on the internet.

The Apple Watch promises to make Apple Pay even easier and safer than traditional credit card transactions. We look at the history of Credit Card data transactions and consider the practicalities. Of course.

There is a growing trend to eliminate the wires and go wireless for data and for power. Can it work? Is it practical? Dive in.

Are electric cars going to save you money? We look at all electric and plugin hybrids, charging habits and being energy independent.

Automation in OSX, iOS and the PC can save lots of time for users prepared to invest some time up-front. We delve into the history on these platforms, where it can be useful and when you should use it.

John Siracusa joins me to discuss RSI in depth, drawing on both of our experiences we look at what works, what doesn't and why you should care. Keyboards, trackpads, trackballs, mice, chairs, we cover it all.

With holiday cheer Vic and John dive into some of the finer details of Christmas and the Holiday season looking at wrapping paper and sticky tape, what to wrap, what you shouldn't and why, and a bit about Santa (warning for young kids POSSIBLE SPOILERS!)

Follow up (Part A) to Prevailing Wind Direction where we address different personality types and how they cope with remote work, safety cultures around the world and recent FIFO suicides.

SCADA User Interface design has many things in common with other graphical design methodologies. We look at how SCADA works, what it does, the limitations of the human eye and colour perception, buttons as buttons, indicators as indicators and more.

Follow up (Part A) to Watch This Time and Space where we address durability of mechanical watches vs quartz watches, accuracy, using the band as a charging point, batteries and cameras and whether a smartwatch without an always-on face is a failure.

We delve into Barcodes and RFID tracing their history and dissecting exactly how they work and where the future of identification technology is headed specifically for shopping experiences.

We delve into energy conversion efficiencies of solar photovoltaics, fuel cells, the Hydrogen Economy, steam and hydro-turbines and ways you can conserve energy in your home.

Managing features and requirements on your project is difficult and scope creep is your constant enemy. John and Seth explore classifying features, dealing with client requests and making it all work to a plan for internal and external projects.

Follow up (Part A) to Hopefully They Don't Burn It where Vic and John touch briefly on DRM, looking at kill switches and when it's right/wrong to use them confirm that Chapters is still open, touch on libraries already lending books via Kindles and more.

Working in retail and in customer facing roles comes with its own set of challenges. We dive into coping mechanisms, closing a sale and identifying when you're being worked over, Apple's Genius Training manual and the effectiveness of tipping.

Follow up (Part A) to Coffee where Marco and John revisit Johns coffee setup, oxalates, different milk warmer/frothers, portafilters, cold-brew coffee, reasons why grounds are left behind when you pop an AeroPress filter off and lots and lots more.