Hi, this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Apple Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Apple bias. Today is Thursday, December 23, 2021, and this is show number 868.
I hope by hearing this on a Thursday you’ll remember that there’s no live show this Sunday the 26th of December. Instead, you got an early Christmas/Kwanzaa present! Whatever you celebrate, or even if you don’t, I hope you like this early present.
We took a vote during the live show last week and decided that enough people would be around on January 2nd to keep Steve and me company so there WILL be a live show to ring in the new year.
This week we’ve got an Everything is Fiddly segment from Bart, Bodie is back with a review of the service descript and how it helped him study for a test. Then we’ve got Security Bits, with Bart, followed by a holiday tradition: Steve’s annual reading of his version of The Night Before Christmas. This poem is a hat tip from Steve to our dear, departed NosillaCastaway Honda Bob who contributed to the podcast and inspired many over the years. It’s our way of closing out the holiday season before we celebrate the new year.
CCATP #710 – Bart Busschots on PBS 132 of X — Managing JSDoc
Blog Posts
descript to Help Study for a Test – by Bodie Grimm
This is a really inventive use of the tools we have in our arsenal these days, Bodie. I’ve been known to change long-form text into audio myself because I don’t seem to have the patience to just sit and read anymore, but I do find time to listen. There’s one ironic thing about this story. When Bodie recorded his TruPhone story for last week, I imported his audio to otter.ai to create a rough transcript, edited it within the tool, and then made a blog post for it. Bodie thought that was cool, so he used otter.ai to create the transcript of this article about descript. The irony is that descript has as one of its main functions, the ability to create a transcript from an audio or video file! In any case, we have a transcript and that’s great.
Everything is Fiddly with HomeKit – by Bart Busschots
I’m really surprised Bart had this much trouble since my experience was so seamless. I’m wondering whether starting with the Meross app is what messed things up. I simply scanned them into HomeKit and it worked. I think it’s interesting hearing his perspective as this is essentially his first experience with HomeKit. I don’t disagree that this is a very fiddly bit of software that seems to follow no pattern. Either that or it’s just darn confusing trying to keep track of automations vs. scenes and rooms vs. homes and where and how to add devices. Most of us have lived with this less-than-optimal experience for years now and he’s just running into it for the first time. I cautioned him not to have high hopes for near-term fixes to how fiddly it all is, as the rest of us have been waiting ages for a better app.
Remember I said that it was ironic that Bodie did the transcription for descript using otter.ai when descript itself could have done it? I decided to try using descript to make a transcript of Bart’s recording, and I have to say I found it much more difficult and tedious to use than otter.ai. I’m going to try to find time to document my findings before the holidays but time is running short. The one thing I will say is that I think the point of the transcript is to actually edit the audio and video, not to create a transcript. It was interesting in any case, and I was able to create a very rough transcript of Bart’s recording but with a lot more editing than I expected.
Bodie used licensed music in the recording authorized with this code: 3ZA27N43HSEBJSGV.
Support the Show
Did you know you could go to podfeet.com/patreon and pledge financially to support the show? And by financially I mean as low as a dollar? You’re welcome to do more than a dollar of course, but any amount helps. That’s what George Gousha did this week and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his generous pledge. The money helps pay the bills but it also warms my heart to know he finds value in the content we make here and wants to demonstrate the value he finds. Thank you, Charles!
Security Bits — 22 December 2021
The Night Before Christmas
That’s going to wind this up for this week. Did you know you can email me at [email protected] any time you like? If you have a question or a suggestion just send it on over. I’ve left Facebook (at least for now) so Twitter is a good place to follow me online at @podfeet. Better yet, join our Slack community at podfeet.com/slack where you can talk to me and all of the other lovely NosillaCastaways. Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com/. You can support the show at podfeet.com/patreon or with a one-time donation at podfeet.com/paypal. 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.