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 Saturday, December 7, 2019, and this is show number 761.
This week we’ve got Chit Chat Across the Pond with Adam Engst, some bragging about how amazing my video tutorial was for ScreenCastsOnline this month all about draw.io, and another installment of Tesla Tech where I tell you everything that’s NOT in my car. I’ve got an audio surprise for you – wonder if you’ll notice? My buddy Ron joins us to talk about how VueScan saved his scanner, and then I’ll tell you about how you can probably increase the battery life of your laptop using App Tamer.
Chit Chat Across the Pond
Adam Engst, veteran author of TidBITS for the last 29 years, inventor of Internet advertising and someone who dresses appropriately for the weather joins us for this week’s episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond. Adam explains the fascinating results that IBM has reported since they first decided to give their employees the choice of whether to use a Mac or Windows. I’m afraid this discussion will cement any EVER so slight Apple bias you might have already had, because the statistically-significant correlation between Mac usage and employee success is simply startling.
I hung out with Adam a bunch at MacTech and I was instantly comfortable with his sense of humor. We laugh, he shares tips and had a simply wonderful time. Adam actually asked to be on the show, so I definitely plan on having him back. Luckily he writes a lot and I can just pick a topic and let him go on it.
You can find this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite in your podcatcher of choice, or you can listen right over at podfeet.com.
Blog Posts
Learn to use draw.io to Make Diagrams – Video Tutorial on ScreenCastsOnline
Tesla Tech – Parts Electric Vehicles Simply Don’t Have
Support the Show
After Frank’s fabulous pledge break last week, it’s hard to come up with something more clever to say. Instead, I’ll thank Christoph Trusch for his generous donation through PayPal. He has a recurring event in his calendar that reminds him to send me a donation every quarter. He calls it his “Patreon Substitute”. I think it’s a terrific way to help the NosillaCast and all the other shows keep going. If you’d like to make a recurring calendar event called Patreon Substitute, just enter the URL podfeet.com/patreon in the event and you’ll always know how to donate.
Thank you Christoph for your generosity.
Double the Bit Rate
Before we get into the next segment, I wanted to ask you if you noticed anything different about the show this week? Starting with this episode and the Chit Chat Across the Pond with Adam, I’ve doubled the bit rate of the audio from 64kbps to 128kbps. I set it to 64 back in 1959 when I started the show, back when people had severely limited bandwidth. Download speeds and limits have changed a lot since then.
Most of the time I’m working on recording and editing the show, I’m listening to an uncompressed version of the audio, so when I hear the final mp3, it sounds really crunchy. I decided it was finally time to take the leap to 128kbps. Of course I didn’t make this change without polling the live show listeners, and the response was 100% in favor of doubling the bit rate. Maybe in another 14 years or so I’ll double it again. I hope you like the change and your ears are happier. Now let’s get back to the show!
Ron Burch on VueScan (audio only, no blog post)
Ron Burch joins me in a short discussion of how he saved the life of his perfectly-good ScanSnap 1500M with the tool VueScan from hamrick.com. He walks us through how VueScan works and how it compares to the now-abandoned ScanSnap software. I mentioned up front that Ron is the author of the book Resilient Space Systems Design, an I wasn’t actually kidding, you can buy it at Amazon. If you’d like to give Ron on our discussion, you can contact him at [email protected].
Manage Your Apps and Save Battery with App Tamer
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/slack! 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.
VueScan is worth every cent. I purchased my copy in 2001. Not only is it powerful and well-supported, but it supports my Nikon CoolScan V ED 35mm transparency scanner. Ron Burch mentioned 150 scanners but as of today the VueScan website lists 6,094 scanners from 42 manufacturers on Windows, macOS and Linux!
Allison… it’s time for you and VueScan to become acquainted. You can probably use it as a replacement for the Epson software you’re not fond of. And perhaps you could even do a ScreencastsOnline show about VueScan.