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 Sunday, June 2, 2024, and this is show number 995.
Bad Audio on Last Week’s Security Bits (no blog post)
Hey everyone, how come Darren Hendley was the only one who told me that Bart’s audio was awful in last week’s Security Bits? Unfortunately, the communication method he used was something I don’t check often so I didn’t see his message for 5 days! Late last night I swapped in my recording of Bart’s voice and reproduced the show. It used up credits on the Auphonic service but I’m hoping I saved some people from having to listen to it.
Bart and I had a heck of a time recording last week because he couldn’t hear anything on Zoom. We resorted to using Skype, but we can’t blame this problem on Skype because it was his local recording that was awful, and mine through Skype was at least passable. On his local recording, the first 5.5 minutes were dandy, then his volume dropped to about 1/4 of what it was. At about 28 minutes in, his voice volume comes back up to normal.
Evidently Skype compensated for that problem he was having locally because I never heard his volume drop. It’s definitely quite hissy during the dropped volume section even on Skype but I’d rate it as “listenable”. When I used his local recording, Auphonic did a great job normalizing the audio so it wasn’t quiet during that period, but it also amplified the hiss on top of his recording.
Bart doesn’t monitor his own voice while recording because he says it makes his head explode so he never heard what was happening. I always sample the audio but I sampled at the beginning and the end. Skype caused a slip of our audio tracks for the 50+ minutes so I spent a lot of time splitting and sliding the audio, but it was only towards the end so I never heard that middle 22 minutes.
The bad news for Bart is that the same thing happened when he recorded his latest episode of Let’s Talk Apple. Halfway through his recording, his volume dropped by 75%. The good news for us was that he figured out what went wrong. In last week’s Security Bits, you may have heard me say that his voice got much quieter, and he realized that in his enthusiasm about security, he had bumped the mic so it was farther away from him. He moved it back and we went on our merry way.
Unbeknownst to both of us, that mic bump dislodged the XLR cable so it was only intermittently connected. After the disaster with recording Let’s Talk Apple, Bart wiggled the XLR cable and heard a distinct “click” as it fully connected. Fingers crossed that this was the root cause — neither of us wants to go through this again!
Now that we’re done with the audio lesson, the main message I wanted to send is, PLEASE tell me immediately if something doesn’t sound right in one of my shows. I always want to know as soon as possible. I may not be able to fix it, but if I can improve it, I’ll at least have the opportunity to give it a go. Many thanks to Darren who may have saved your ears from hearing that awful recording.
Reminder about the 1000th Episode Recordings
We have a public service announcement: Remember that Steve wants you to send in audio recordings of a minute or less for the 1000th NosillaCast show to share your thoughts abut the show. He needs them by June 23rd which is only 3 weeks away if you want them played on the show. Send your thoughts about the show to [email protected].
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Bodie and Bruce on Blended Braking and One-Pedal Driving
Quite a while back, I talked on the NosillaCast about how much I love one-pedal driving in my Tesla. With one-pedal driving, you rarely need to use the brakes because you simply feather the accelerator pedal to speed up and slow down. If you’ve ever driven a golf cart or a go-cart, it’s essentially the same but quite a bit smoother. In my explanation, I said that this is the only way to have regenerative braking. I was frustrated with a friend of mine who turned off one-pedal driving on their Kia because that meant he wasn’t getting the benefits of recycling the energy back into the battery when he was braking.
This comment on the show caused Bruce, aka @UseTheData to gently and with facts and data explain to me how I was wrong when I said one-pedal driving was the only way to get regenerative braking.
While that conversation took place in the Podfeet Slack (podfeet.com/slack), you’re now going to get to hear it explained by Bruce in a podcast recording from the awesome Kilowatt podcast. The lovely Bodie Grimm interviewed Bruce and gave me the recording to play on the show. You should really be subscribed to Kilowatt though, as you would have been able to hear this interview back in February!
=== after audio ===
Wasn’t that great? I loved it because Bruce explains things so clearly, and Bodie is a master class in doing good interviews with clear and prepared questions. I want to add a couple of things to the discussion.
Bruce explained that he disabled one-pedal driving in his car because he didn’t want to get confused when he switched back and forth with his ICE truck. I have been very happily surprised when I rent cars or drive other people’s cars that I do not get confused. I think 56 years of driving ICE vehicles has ingrained the muscle memory well enough that I instinctively reach for the brake if the car doesn’t slow down when I pull off the accelerator.
But I DO get confused when I drive an ICE vehicle about other things. In my Tesla, when I complete a trip, I simply open the car door and walk away. The car automatically goes into park, there’s nothing to turn off, and it locks itself shortly after I close the door and walk away.
This is dangerous in other vehicles because you DO have to put them into park and you DO have to turn them off and you have to remove the car keys and you DO have to manually lock the car! Our fellow Tesla-owning buddy Ron once on a business trip stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee. When he got back to his rental vehicle, it was not only unlocked, it was still running!
In my Tesla, to change from forward, park, and reverse, you use a stalk on the right side of the steering column. When I get into other cars, I’m constantly turning the windshield wipers on and off when I try to change gears! Luckily this just makes me feel silly, but that brake pedal is automatic in my brain.
Bodie asked if there was any advantage of one-pedal over blended braking or vice versa and Bruce gave some good answers. One more I’d like to add in favor of one-pedal driving is that I think it’s safer. If you’re hurtling down the highway at 65 MPH and you need to come to a sudden stop, as soon as you release the accelerator in one-pedal driving, the car slows significantly while you’re moving your foot from the accelerator to the brake. In blended braking mode, the entire time from when you release the accelerator till you get to the brake, the car is coasting at nearly full speed. I know that’s a split second but it could be enough time to save a life or stay out of an accident.
Lastly, I wanted to clarify what Bodie was trying to explain about how if you charge an EV to 100%, you don’t have regenerative braking. The reason for this is that there’s literally no place for the energy from the brakes to go. While that makes sense, it is somewhat disconcerting to get into your car and not have regen. On Teslas at least, the display warns you that regenerative braking is limited until you’ve driven for a while. Bruce said it would be one or two miles, but in Steve and my experience, it’s longer than that. Something in the 3% or so battery drain is our observation.
Thanks again to Bruce for his explanation and to Bodie for giving us this wonderful interview from the Kilowatt Podcast. Now go subscribe … in your podcatcher of choice.
Transcript of NC_2024_06_02
That’s going to wind this up for this week. Don’t forget to send your 1000th episode recordings to Steve by June 23rd by emailing him at [email protected]
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. Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com. You can follow me on Mastodon at podfeet.com/mastodon. If you want to listen to the podcasts on YouTube, you can go to podfeet.com/youtube. If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Slack community at podfeet.com/slack where you can talk to me and all of the other lovely NosillaCastaways. 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 5 PM Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways. Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed.