NC #618 Atlantic on Specific Musical Anhedonia, DTNS Women in Tech, Printers are Jerks, D-Link Omna Cam, Second Sight Argus Prosthetic Eye

We’ll have one more NosillaCast before we go off on our grand adventure to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu, and while we’re gone please send in some audio reviews for Allister and Bart (email addresses in the show notes. I brag shamelessly about an article in the Atlantic about me and other people with specific musical anhedonia. I was on the Daily Tech News Show at a href=”http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/dtns-2984-fintech-fish/” target=”_blank” rel=”no opener”>DTNS #2984 entitled “Fintech != fish” talking about what it was like to be a woman in engineering and tech for 35 years. I’ll tell a tale of how Bart and I cracked the code on my jerk of a printer using our knowledge of subnets and such, then I’ll tell you about the first HomeKit compatible indoor security camera, the D-Link OmnaHD. Then we’ll hear about a prosthetic implant that allows people with retinal degradation to see crude shapes, the Argus from Second Sight.

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Hi this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Mac Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh bias. Today is Sunday March 12, 2017 and this is show number 618. It also happens to be Steve and my 34th wedding anniversary. I don’t want to get all mushy here or anything, but I adore this man and I’m very lucky to have him as my husband AND best friend.

Well, this is the penultimate show I’ll be releasing before our big adventure to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu. It’s also the last live show before we get back. The next live show will be on Sunday 9 April. That seems so far away, I’m going to miss the live show audience! Next week I think I’ll publish on Thursday but it’s going to be sad and lonely doing it without them. Remember though, there’s nothing that says I have to be there for you guys to gather in the chatroom at https://podfeet.com/live whenever you want! Heck, you guys don’t listen to me anyway, right?

I mentioned last week that Bart and Allister would both appreciate listener contributions, but I didn’t tell you how to send the audio to them! Allister is doing the first show, which he’ll probably ship out a day or two earlier than I do (he lives in the future in New Zealand you know). His show will be the week ending 26 March, You can send to him by emailing [email protected].

Bart will be hosting the following week, on 2 April, and you can send him audio by emailing him at [email protected]. I really hope you help the guys out, this is a HUGE favor I ask of them to keep the show’s running streak of over 11 years without missing an episode!

Atlantic Interview

I’ve explained many times over the years that I have no interest in music. Two years ago a condition was discovered called specific musical anhedonia, which is an apathy towards music. Anhedonia was known about earlier, which is a condition where nothing gives you joy, but the music-specific kind was a new discovery.

In reading the studies, I saw my own feelings accurately described. It’s not that I don’t like music, it just has very little effect on me, good or bad. I’m telling you all of this because I was actually interviewed by science writer Divya Abhat for an article she wrote in The Atlantic! I thought she’d be talking to a lot of people or she was only gathering background information about the condition, but the first two paragraphs of her article are all about me!

I know this is bragging to tell you about it but it’s kind of cool to see yourself in such a prestigious online magazine. I’ll include a link to the entire article in the Atlantic in the shownotes but if you’ll indulge me just a bit longer, I’d like to read those first two paragraphs to you.

Allison Sheridan couldn’t care less about music. Songs of love and heartbreak don’t bring her to tears, complex classical compositions don’t amaze her, peppy beats don’t make her want to dance. For Sheridan, a retired engineer, now a podcaster, who owns 12 vinyl records and hasn’t programed the radio stations in her car, “music sits in an odd spot halfway between boring and distracting.”

Despite coming from a tremendously musical family, Sheridan is part of the roughly 3 to 5 percent of the world’s population that has an apathy toward music. It’s what’s referred to as specific musical anhedonia—different from general anhedonia, which is the inability to feel any kind of pleasure and which is often associated with depression. In fact, there’s nothing inherently wrong with musical anhedonics; their indifference to music isn’t a source of depression or suffering of any kind, although Sheridan notes, “The only suffering is being mocked by other people, because they don’t understand it. Everybody loves music, right?”

Isn’t that cool?

Daily Tech News Show

This week I also co-hosted Daily Tech News Show with Tom Merritt. Since it was International Women’s Day this week he asked if the discussion topic could be about what it was like spending 35 years as a woman in technology and engineering.

To let you see a little bit behind the curtain, this was actually a really hard topic for me to speak about publicly. Most of my stories about the early 80s in engineering are simply awful. It’s about not getting promotions, about not getting raises, about the men around me having nude posters on the walls facing the doorways and more. It’s an especially depressing topic to me because of the recent article by Susan Fowler describing her very recent experiences working for Uber. It depressed me because it made me feel that we really haven’t made the progress I’d thought we had.

Tom and I worked on the topic ahead of time to bring me out of my sadness and to look at different sides of the problem and what we can do about it. I felt a lot better after we talked on the air (maybe it was therapy for me?) and the feedback on the episode (mostly from men) has been fantastic.

I’d love to have you go over and watch or listen to DTNS #2984 entitled “Fintech != fish” and let me know what you think.

One of the people who said they really enjoyed the discussion was DTNS contributor and Peter Wells of reckoner.com.au from Australia. He linked us to a fascinating talk by Janet Crawford at Webstock 2015, entitled “The Surprising Neuroscience of Gender Inequality”. She has the facts and data from scientific studies and like I said, they’re fascinating. For example, the way a classroom was decorated had an effect on women’s grades in that class. I put a link to it and embedded the video in the shownotes so you could go check it out.

Chit Chat Across the Pond

In this week’s Chit Chat Across the Pond, I had the pleasure of talking to Steve Ewell, executive director of the Consumer Technology Association Foundation. CTA Foundation is a public, national foundation affiliated with the Consumer Technology Association, was launched in 2012 with the mission to link seniors and people with disabilities with technologies to enhance their lives. Get this – Steve is a NosillaCastaway too! It’s one of the lighter Chit Chats.

Blog Posts

Printers are Jerks

Support the Show

I’m always trying to encourage you to use the Amazon Affiliate Links to send a small percentage to help the show, but it’s hard to remember to do that. Ed Tobias in our Facebook group at podfeet.com/facebook wrote up a tip to share with the rest of the NosillaCastaways. He wrote:

I’m always buying on Amazon, but usually using my phone so I forget to use the Podfeet affiliate link. I found a solution. I went to podfeet.com/amazon using safari on my iPhone. I then clicked on the amazon affiliate link which took me to amazon with the Podfeet ID in the URL. Then I clicked on the share icon (the box with the arrow) and selected “home screen”. Easy peezy as some would say!

That is such a cool tip, Ed! I really appreciate you a) doing it and b) giving other people instructions on how to do it. Much appreciated.

On the Patreon front, not only did Steve Ewell agree to be on Chit Chat Across the Pond this week, he also became a Patreon! He went to podfeet.com/patreon and pledged a monthly dollar amount to support the show. As Rose would say, “Good onya Steve!”

First HomeKit-Compatible Security Camera: Omna 180Cam HD from D-Link

CSUN 2017: Second Sight Argus II Prosthetic Eye

That’s going to wind this up for this week. Don’t forget to send in your Dumb Questions, comments and suggestions by emailing me at [email protected], follow me on twitter @podfeet. Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com/. podfeet.com/patreon, podfeet.com/facebook, podfeet.com/googleplus, podfeet.com/amazon! And if you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com/live on Sunday nights at 5pm Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways. Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed.