Episode 53 – The Passive Roasting of Animals
Peter: Friends With Brews
Scott: Friends With Brews, Rogue Amoeba, you ([censored]). Wait, I need a bottle.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: No, they’re not. They’re one of the best software v-
Peter: Hmm
Scott: … they’re, they’re actually one of the best in terms of customer service around, it’s just I’m frustrated with this problem.
Peter: Hmm. You know, I’ve been frustrated with a problem, and that is 1Password.
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: And I don’t know if it is because of the sheer… So I use it both at my latest engagement and also f- personally. And for work, we’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands of passwords-
Scott: Mm-hmm
Peter: … stored in a vault. And as such, 1Password slows down. So I’ve noticed recently on iOS, if I go to a website and it prompts me for a password, if it is not the default password, like if I go to google.com, right, if, um, if I’ve got an account for google.com, it’ll show me that as an option, and it’ll show me several others, which is fine. But if I go to, say, launch an app, and like, s- let’s pr- say, we’ll, we’ll say American Express, right? So let’s pretend I have an Am- American Express card, and I have a website account, but I also have the app, and the app uses a different URL than the website. So 1Password doesn’t know that they’re the same. So what’ll happen on my phone is it’ll say, “Here’s American Express. Pick a password or pick an account you wanna use.” I open up that list, and there are no accounts shown. I will tap the search box, and it immediately kicks me right back to the app that was requesting a password. So I have to side launch 1Password separately, find the username, copy it, go back to the app, paste it, go back to 1Password, find the password, come back to the app, paste the password in, and then I can move on.
Scott: Okay, there’s plenty of times in iOS where I have to tap the search thing to f- to search in it, a- and it’s never, ever done anything except let me search in 1Password. It doesn’t kick me back to the app or whatever. I don’t know what’s going on, but if I was you, I would delete 1Password from your iOS device and reinstall it.
Peter: Hmm. I might do that, and then of course I have to remember to go back and set it as, like, the default password manager and stuff, which is, it’s, it’s minor. It’s a minor, minor pain, but yeah. I’ll probably have to do that. So there you go. That’s my issue today.
Scott: My only problem with 1Password is very often if you have to unlock 1Password for the first time, so you’re in a web browser. This happens on the Mac more. Does it happen on iOS? No, this actually used to happen on the iPad when I used the iPad a lot. You’re in the browser, you tap the thing, you have to authenticate 1Password, and then you can tap the little 1Password icon next to the text field all you want, and it doesn’t open. It just doesn’t open.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: Now, on the Mac, you can get around that because I’ve got 1Password in Safari extensions.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: So I just click on the Safari extension for 1Password, and it autofills it, and it’s fine. But on iOS or iPadOS, you don’t have that option.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: So when the little 1Password thing just decides it’s not gonna work, you’re just… Then you have to do the, “Okay, fine, whatever.” But usually, at least in iOS, if you tap in the text field, you’ll get the little thing that pops up that says passwords, and then you can do it that way. But it’s, it’s just dumb is all. It’s just really dumb.
Peter: It used to work just fine. It just stopped. I don’t know why. So, and this is, I’m pretty sure this predated the… I don’t know, maybe it was, maybe it started when I was doing iOS 17 beta. I don’t know.
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: So it’s been going on for a while, but it predates iOS 17, that much I know.
Scott: All right. Let’s talk about drink as a-
Peter: Coffee drinker, huh?
Scott: Are you just a coffee guy today?
Peter: Today I am. I am drinking Wegmans Organic Specialty Coffee.
Scott: Ooh.
Peter: The decaffeinated Peruvian whole bean. It is a light roast, which is not my usual, but it’s all right. Nutty with a sweet finish.
Scott: Mm-hmm. Is that-
Peter: The reason I bought it is it’s one of the few, I think there’s only, like, they only carry three whole bean, maybe four whole bean decaf roasts at Wegmans, and this was one of them.
Scott: I think you’ve been described as nutty with a sweet finish or whatever you said. ([laughs])
Peter: I have. I have definitely been described as that. No question.
Scott: Well, today I have two things. I have a coffee, which I’ve had on this podcast before, which is a Cuovo SO Blend, and I’ll go to friendswithbrewst.com and I’ll look it up. Ah, there we go. SO Blend, here we go. Okay, so what it is, is it’s a rich and chocolatey East Africa, Central, and South America coffee.
Peter: Okay.
Scott: And it offers caramel sweetness and chocolate layered with complex fruit notes and crisp acidity. It’s not, really not that acidity. It’s really not that acidic. Anyway, I’ve had… This’ll be the third time I’ve had this coffee on this podcast. And then I also have, Peter, I’m gonna do this today, I think.
Peter: Ooh, an Octoberfest beer.
Scott: Yeah. This is Baerlic Beer, which is B-A-E-R-L-I-C. We’ve had their beers before. One of them I think was the oat m- what was it? The oat stout or something. We had something that we thought sounded great, and then it-
Peter: Yep
Scott: … turned out to be a major disappointment.
Peter: Yeah, if you were desperate.
Scott: However, this is actually a pretty good one.
Peter: All right. Do it up.
Scott: This is called October, A-K-T-O-
Peter: October
Scott: … B-A-E-R, Fest Bier, B-I-E-R.
Peter: October Bier. Yep, I’m not doing a beer today. I was going to, ([dogs barking]) and I just decided not to.
Scott: No, I don’t blame you. I’m not-
Peter: And dear listener, maybe you can hear the, the neighbor’s dogs downstairs. They’re visiting right now, and they are-
Scott: Hmm
Peter: … freaking out downstairs. It’s great. They’re telling somebody, they’re giving someone what for, that much I know.
Scott: What for, though?
Peter: I don’t know what for.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: You’d have to ask the dogs.
Scott: All right. First of all, we don’t have any show notes this time. We recorded an episode 53 before, but due to reasons that are far too mundane to talk about here, that episode-
Peter: Hmm
Scott: … has been lost forever. Let me take a sip of this, by the way.
Peter: Octobear
Scott: It’s pretty good. I’ll give it a thumbs up. I really will.
Peter: All right. Not even Desperate?
Scott: No, actually… Wait, does this one talk about biscuits and crackers? It doesn’t say anything.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: Great. How am I supposed to know what I’m supposed to be tasting? Peter, it’s almost like-
Peter: Mm
Scott: … if they don’t tell me, I won’t know.
Peter: Ah.
Scott: Have you ever noticed that a lot of alcohols that have all these nuanced, complex flavors, I swear that they’re just telling you what you’re supposed to taste, and then you’re like-
Peter: Yeah
Scott: … “Oh, I do taste it.”
Peter: Hey, I taste these. Yeah.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: Power of suggestion, man. Absolutely.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: Absolutely. So yeah, I ate a lot already today, and I didn’t… Today’s not a huge exercise day.
Scott: Uh-huh.
Peter: I did about eight-and-a-half mile trail run yesterday, and five mile be- the day before, so today’s just a rest day.
Scott: It’s fine.
Peter: But I’ve gotta dial in the calories and stuff.
Scott: Wait, this is backwards. You’re justifying to me why you’re not having beer instead of-
Peter: Right
Scott: … me justifying to you why I am having a beer in the middle of the day. That is backwards.
Peter: Sure, if you want, but I often do things backwards. Remember when I moved-
Scott: Mm-hmm
Peter: … to Boston, like, I was the weirdo who-
Scott: You backed into Boston? ([laughs])
Peter: Yeah. Well, no, I, I came down to Boston. You know, like, I, I would go up to Vermont during the week, uh, unlike most people who, like, live down here, and they’re like, “Ooh, weekends in Vermont,” and stuff.
Scott: That’s true.
Peter: And, you know
Scott: Yeah
Peter: So I do, I do a lot of things backwards, so whatever. I don’t care.
Scott: Whatever.
Peter: But the reason I was putting a picture of my AeroPress in there was not just to show that I was making beers. I think I need to replace it. I was doing a little digging, and I have had to replace the plunger, the rubber, you know, gasket thing.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: I’ve had to do that a couple of times, but now I think that the actual cylinder part of the AeroPress has started to wear out.
Scott: I don’t think we’ve ever had to replace the plunger part of it. The cylinder parts tend to develop cracks over time, but-
Peter: Well, that’s… I don’t see any cracks.
Scott: Uh-huh.
Peter: But I think… I can’t tell. This is either my oldest AeroPress or my second oldest, which means I’ve had it for, like, 11 years, which apparently is a good run, but you have to factor in the fact that I own three of them.
Scott: How did you do that?
Peter: I’ve done that by accident today.
Scott: Oh, it thinks you’re saying y- that you’re three years old. Happy birthday, Peter. Are you three years old? Wait, nothing’s happening now.
Peter: No, I did that today on a Teams meeting. Somehow I did bunny rabbit ears, you know, air quotes, and I got-
Scott: Oh. Oh, now you got f- f- fetti, and I’m getting balloons.
Peter: And you got the bananas, yeah.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: So I don’t, I don’t know what’s going on. Anyway, so I think I have a, a dead AeroPress because I have traded the plunger out. You know, I swapped it out from a perfectly good working one and stuff.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And you get about halfway, and it just, like, psh, you can hear the air fizzling out and stuff. So I have to part ways with my original AeroPress perhaps, so it’s a milestone.
Scott: Is it something about the water in Boston? What are you doing to this thing that’s so destructive?
Peter: Like I said, I’ve had it for maybe 11 years, and from what I’ve seen, five to 10 years is a good lifespan for an AeroPress.
Scott: I’m pretty sure Anna and I have had ours for, like, 24 years.
Peter: When did they create the AeroPress?
Scott: ([laughs]) Why do you ask, Peter? Why are you so untrusting? ([laughs])
Peter: Because I doubt your, uh, your, your facts. ([laughs])
Scott: You think that I’m just trying to one-up you.
Peter: Yeah, because it’s only… it was invented in 2005.
Scott: Isn’t that 24 years ago? It’s getting pretty damn close. Okay, fine. That’s only 17 years ago, 16, 18 years ago.
Peter: Math. So anyway, I think it’s time for… that I move on and replace my AeroPress and not hold onto it and try to get any more life out of it.
Scott: Peter, I think it’s time that you move on, too. I know it’s emotionally difficult to move on sometimes, but-
Peter: It’s about time.
Scott: So I think that I taste all the normal Oktoberfest things that you would expect from this beer. I honestly think I taste the toasted crackers. I don’t know what I’m supposed to taste, but you know how some of those other ones say toasted crackers?
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: This tastes like toasted crackers.
Peter: Well, I’m glad you’re tasting toasted crackers. I kinda wish I was, but, um, maybe tomorrow.
Scott: Yeah. I believe in toasted crackers.
Peter: But speaking of exercise, et cetera, I’m pretty sure I will run the Trail Animals Running Club Spring Classic race this April.
Scott: They forgot some words in that title.
Peter: It’s a trail marathon, so 26.2 trail.
Scott: Never would’ve guessed.
Peter: Yes.
Scott: Oh, so it’s a real marathon.
Peter: Yes, and my plan is two weeks before that I will run a half-marathon, and my girlfriend sort of dropped a hint Friday night that maybe she wants to run a half-marathon in the spring.
Scott: Ooh.
Peter: And she’s like, “Maybe it’ll be easier if I run it with you.” And I was like, “Well, I’m gonna just not say anything and let her decide if she wants to do that,” but I think that sounds like a lot of fun.
Scott: Yeah, but if she does wanna do it, you guys have gotta… Either way, you have got to start your, uh, ramp-up.
Peter: Oh, it’s… 16 weeks for a marathon is plenty, so I don’t have to start until January for that.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: But I’ve got a half-marathon coming up in about, uh, three or four weeks also.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: So yeah. So her race, her first race, her first 10K is this weekend on Saturday.
Scott: Nice. Nice.
Peter: Yep.
Scott: I hope that goes well because that may well influence how she feels about this half-marathon.
Peter: I’m feeling pretty confident. I think she’s gonna do fine. My running buddy, Greg, who got me into racing in the first place, uh, he’s signed up for a marathon this Sunday, and, um, our mutual friend and running buddy has, you know… He’s saying, like, “Oh, I’m not ready. I haven’t had time to train,” and so we’re trying to get him drop this marathon and just run the same half-marathon with us at the end of October, and then we can all be a team, you know, a trio like we were meant to be.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: So we’ll, we’ll see. So anyway, so yeah, I found my race. I’ve got one half-marathon, and then I have a Turkey Trot, and then I’m done racing for the year. And then I’ll kick things off again next year.
Scott: Okay, I have a que- you shouldn’t be kicking turkeys. I have a question. You always call these races, and technically they are. However, whenever I’ve been in events, I’ve never thought, “I’m racing.”
Peter: Nope.
Scott: I’ve thought, “I’m slogging through this.”
Peter: Yep.
Scott: “I’m looking forward to death, and hopefully I’ll be better a little bit faster than last time.”
Peter: That is one reason that I, I actually was discussing this with someone yesterday. I call them races because that’s what people expect. That’s what people think. You know, that’s what they’re called. They call them races.
Scott: Sure.
Peter: I call them challenges. Internally, I say-
Scott: Hmm
Peter: … this is my next challenge. And, you know, I put it up there, like it’s up there with like a black belt test or a professional certification-
Scott: Really?
Peter: … exam. Yeah, it’s something like… It’s another step in challenging myself what I know and what I can do. So that’s what I call it.
Scott: I, I would never think of it that way, and here’s why.
Peter: You’re not me. ([laughs])
Scott: No, because as the, one of the running trainers on Apple Fitness says, “Today’s legs are not yesterday’s legs.” When you’re certified in black belt, you are assumed to be of a certain level that you’re gonna pretty much maintain unless you just give up martial arts, and then 20 years later you try and kick a guy in the face again and you find out you can’t do it.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: But with running, sometimes you’re gonna be faster, sometimes you’re gonna be slower. Yeah, you can build up to a certain level. I don’t know. That is a-
Peter: Sometimes you’re gonna block the punch coming to your face, sometimes you’re not. I mean, that happens.
Scott: If you’re running 20.6 miles, you’re never blocking the punch coming to your face. ([laughs])
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: It always lands, Peter.
Peter: ([laughs]) That, this is true. You always feel like you get punched in the face.
Scott: But-
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: … I guess I would never think of it as a… It’s an accomplishment in the fact that you did it once. I don’t know. It’s just, that’s interesting to me. I think of them as events. That’s how I think of them.
Peter: Yeah. Well, that’s a good way to think of it, too, but I felt like, uh, I had definitely accomplished something after my second marathon, too. Don’t get me wrong.
Scott: Oh, no. You had. You absolutely had. It’s just intriguing that you think of it like a certification.
Peter: Yeah. It, it is.
Scott: Like, like on the one hand, you can keep bad guys out of your Microsoft Outlook, and then on the other hand, you’re now qualified to run.
Peter: You can run away from them. ([laughs])
Scott: Yeah, but nobody’s gonna say, “Hey, Peter, we’ve noticed you’ve run two marathons. Here, we’d like to pay you to run another one for us.”
Peter: No, but if I ran like 20, they might.
Scott: Maybe. Depends on your speed.
Peter: Or they might say, “Peter, we need you to run to Athens and tell them that the Persians are invading.” They might choose me.
Scott: Peter, I don’t wanna break your heart, but there’s some Kenyan guys that can go about 40 miles an hour faster than you the entire distance of the marathon. ([laughs])
Peter: Yeah, but are they here? Are they here right now? ([laughs])
Scott: No. I don’t know.
Peter: You know, it’s interesting. So I listen to Mark Lewis and the Above Average podcast and the YouTube channel. He’s one of the few that I pay, I’m a Patreon supporter of.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And about a year ago, his wife joined him and joined, like, the fitness challenges and stuff, and then about three weeks ago she ran her first 100K ultramarathon.
Scott: Wow.
Peter: Which was amazing. And, you know, and it’s like they give each other a lot of crap. He gives a lot more, you know, to her, but then, uh, recently they’ve sort of addressed that and, you know, it’s like-
Scott: Oh, I think you’ve told me about those guys
Peter: … I, I did. I mentioned it, you know, like he was accused of this-
Scott: He must have gotten some feedback from the users because, the listeners.
Peter: He did. You know, and he, and he, he defended himself on it, but, but she’s, she’s definitely, she’s more active in the podcast now, so I think they’re okay. Whatever. I’m not a marriage counselor, though, so not my, not my, uh, you know.
Scott: No, I’m sure they’re absolutely fine. I’m sure she was fine with it, but it never comes across as a good look when you’re the only one dishing it out, and then you’re the only one defending yourself while she stays silent. ([laughs])
Peter: Bingo. ([laughs]) Exactly. Anyway, so, uh, she finished her first 100K recently.
Scott: That’s incredible.
Peter: And it was pretty hilarious ’cause he got to the finish and he said, you know, I, I just, I love his accent and, you know, I love the way he talks, you know. “I, I got there at the end of the race and, uh, and there were some guys cleaning up, and I was like, ‘Oh, you’re just setting up for the race?’ And they’re like, ‘No, we just finished.’” And these guys finished 100K in less time than it took me to do my 50K. ([laughs])
Scott: Wow.
Peter: And it just, it boggle, it makes my boggle my mind, makes my mind boggle. It boggles my mind to think that there are people running twice as fast as I was for twice the distance.
Scott: Now, listen.
Peter: Yeah. ([laughs])
Scott: Some of that, yes, okay, there’s people who do nothing but train their entire lives for this kind of thing.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: They start when they’re young, they train, train, train, they’re professional athletes or whatever. But some of that is you can either do that or you can’t. It doesn’t matter how much time you put into it.
Peter: Yep.
Scott: Most people are never gonna run that fast.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: For that amount of distance.
Peter: Yeah. I was impressed. Like seven hours, 100K, 100K, and I was just like, “Yeesh.”
Scott: Dude, uh, the first time I rode a century bike ride, I think-
Peter: Mm-hmm
Scott: … it took me seven hours to ride 100 miles.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: 100 miles, and that was on a bike.
Peter: Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so that’s, it’s, it’s just interesting. But those are, you know, things when I start reading those stories again, you know, like I was enjoying the half-marathons. You know, I just did one. It was fun. I’ve got another one coming up in a few weeks. I’m gonna have fun with that.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: But, you know, I’m like, there’s something to be said. All the training that goes into the ultra plan, you know, the constant every day this is what you do, it’s, you know, it’s a form of punishment, ([laughs]) but it’s also a form of self-improvement, a dramatic self-improvement. So I’m, I’m looking forward to it. Misogi, you know? Cleansing.
Scott: So let me ask you this. Training for a road marathon must be a lot less onerous for you because you can just, you can just close your front door and start going.
Peter: Yep.
Scott: When you’re training for something like this upcoming whatever the 24 words were that you strung together to describe it, the trail somebody somehow something-
Peter: Trail Animals Running Club Spring Classic 2024.
Scott: Yeah. Okay. There’s some numbers in there, too.
Peter: Trail marathon.
Scott: Apparently. ([laughs]) What do you do? Because you have to go someplace that’s appropriate to train for this type of event.
Peter: Luckily, I live, like, one mile from a trailhead, which is of terrain perfectly appropriate for this.
Scott: Does it have a steep section? Are there hills that you can-
Peter: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And the other thing is I can go back to my folks’ place in Vermont.
Scott: Yeah, but you don’t wanna do that every weekend.
Peter: No, absolutely not. It’s not… Well, I mean, who knows? Maybe in the summer, maybe I will. But no, and the thing is that I was realizing that I generally, my road marathon training often includes a lot of the same stuff as my trail marathon training.
Scott: M&M’s?
Peter: Well, no.
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: But the, the type of training.
Scott: Oh, I see. ([laughs])
Peter: So I include hills as well as speed work and stuff.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: So I do essentially trail marathon training even when I’m doing a road race.
Scott: You ever do like the Formula 1 drivers do and put themselves in the most extreme s- humid or they seek out humidity and all these other punishing conditions?
Peter: Oh, I was running last year and this summer, believe me, yes. ([laughs]) I just had… Ugh. But on that note, I was actually thinking of spending, uh, this year for winter, for a month, I was toying with the idea of maybe a month in Puerto Rico, or now I just started thinking maybe a month in New Orleans.
Scott: Wow. That’s bold.
Peter: And that would be warm and humid.
Scott: Wait. When do they tend to flood down there?
Peter: That’s what I have to check. ([laughs])
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: ’Cause I, I d- ’cause I don’t wanna have to… Well, I mean, I did just put my kayak away for the winter. I could– I suppose I could pack it and bring it down with me.
Scott: You might wind up in the midst of another presidential controversy where they don’t get aid down there fast enough or something.
Peter: That’s a good question. When is flood season in New Zealand? No, New Orleans. Rain is common throughout the year, though the summer months July… Wait. ([laughs]) This is awesome. The summer months of July, July, and August as well as January experience the most rain.
Scott: ([laughs]) Wait. Are you-
Peter: The summer months of July, July-
Scott: Is this a Google search or a ChatGPT answer? ([laughs])
Peter: This is a Google search result.
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: The summer months of July, July, and August as well as January have the most rainfall, with June clocking as the city’s wettest months.
Scott: These are the same people that wrote that text helps. Here’s the URL still in block document-
Peter: Oh, my God
Scott: … which repeated itself 34 times.
Peter: That is awesome. Speaking of podcasts that I listen to, I now subscribe and pay for a handful of podcasts. Accidental Tech Podcast.
Scott: Amen.
Peter: Grumpy Old Geeks, although every episode I swear I, you know, I’m like, “Ugh, should I drop Grumpy Old Geeks?” But I know, they– I’m still grandfathered into, like, the dollar a month plan, and it’s just, it’s-
Scott: Yeah. A dollar a month is worth it. Yeah
Peter: … worth getting rid of the stupid ads. Every time, though, when Brian, the, one of the k- the hosts says, “Et cetera,” I’m like, “Oh, my freaking God.” Anyway.
Scott: Yeah. Well, the thing, the part that bothers me is the part where the one guy goes on and on about his Apple Watch Ultra.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: And then the other guy made fun of him saying-
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: … “Oh, you must be tired from all the running up hills and doing marathons and all that,” and he’s just like, “F you. That’s the best you could come up with?” ([laughs])
Peter: Yeah. This is the guy who had a stroke.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And, like, even, like, you could see it coming as a listener to the show just listening to his-
Scott: You could see it coming. ([laughs])
Peter: You know… You could. I mean, he was talking about all these times like, “Oh, you know, like I, I, I had this problem and they had me to the emergency room and this, and they, like, they say you have to stop drinking alcohol.” And then he said, “So I’m done drinking alcohol.” And three weeks later he’s going on about, “Yeah, White Claw Vodka is the only thing I can drink now.” And I was like, “What the hell happened?” And then suddenly last year or so he has a massive stroke, and I was like, “Did that wake him up?” Maybe. I don’t know. So anyway.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: Um, but among the other podcasts that I subscribe to is The Weekly Planet, and yeah, I’ve sent you some clips. It’s about mostly comics and movie reviews and stuff. So I was a member of their $2 subscriber on Patreon because they have multiple tiers on Patreon, as you and I have discussed.
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: They have $2 tier, which gets you a- early access to the podcast and ad free. They also have the $5 tier, and the description is, “It’s the same,” period. Exactly the same.
Scott: They’re honest.
Peter: And then there’s the $10 tier, and they’re like, “Again, the same, but we like this one because it’s more money.”
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: And then $15, they’re like, “What can we say? You know, we like this one even more.” Well, it turns out these guys also, they do an interesting thing. They also have their own little thing over at bigsandwich.co, and it’s a $9 a month subscription.
Scott: Ooh.
Peter: And that gets you, like, three or four other podcasts from these guys. And they’re just freaking hilarious. They make me laugh every episode. So I’ve started going through their back catalog where they will take classic comic book runs and just critique them, and the first one of that one they did was Batman: Year One, I believe. And then, you know, the, like, see, these are, like, classic, you know, 6 to 12 issue comic book runs. It’s just hilarious getting their perspective, but mostly I listen to them just for the laughs. They also, I think once a month, will do a movie watch along. So I re-watched The Flash listening to their commentary, which actually made the movie watchable. It was definitely better the second time around with their commentary than actually watching the stupid movie on its own. Yeah. Anyway, that’s it. Yeah. So I, I, I pay for podcasts that I appreciate, and those are some of them.
Scott: I like this. On Big Sandwich-
Peter: Mm-hmm
Scott: … if you go look at their, if you say register, and it says membership, and then it says, “Please choose only one of these options,” followed by, “The only option available.”
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: $9 per month, membership never expires. I love that.
Peter: Yes. For the cost of a big sandwich, yeah, they’re like, “Ad free, early stuff, bonus shows for the cost of a big sandwich, but you don’t have to. No pressure.”
Scott: But if you go to bigsandwich.co, they show a grid of different podcast artworks and, but I can’t see any details about them because I’m not a member. So how do I know what they are to get me intrigued to sign up? Like, what is Time Crapsule? What is Taunts? What is Never Go Back? I don’t know what these are.
Peter: Um, I don’t even know. I would say maybe you could look at the FAQ, but it doesn’t really say anything there.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: So but I think there’s a couple of, uh, podcasts there that I’m not yet subscribed to, so I’m gonna have to-
Scott: Yeah
Peter: … I’m gonna have to resume and rescrib- resubscribe.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: That is assuming my 1Password for Safari e- extension ever actually populates the username and password field, which it has not done for many weeks now.
Scott: You know what? If we ever do a membership thing, we need to come up with a giant stein or something like that. I don’t know what we would come up with.
Peter: Bruised Friends.
Scott: Big… Yeah, bruised. ([laughs]) Big bruise. ([laughs])
Peter: Oh, man. Time Crapsule. Yeah, I don’t know that one. I have to add that one.
Scott: I have a question for you. Do you have time and inclination to talk about your recent OS upgrade? Not your-
Peter: Mm-hmm
Scott: … iOS, not your Mac, not your TV.
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: I’m talking about the OS that runs your four wheels.
Peter: Sure. I did touch on this very briefly over on Blurring The Lines, but didn’t go into a lot of detail. But yes, you’re talking about my car OS.
Scott: Yes.
Peter: Yes, because, uh, it as a-
Scott: Elon Musk is no longer the center of your commuting life.
Peter: He is out. And I realize that, you know, he’s not a, um, you know, he’s not in- involved in OpenAI anymore. He might be a minor sh- shareholder or whatever, but I don’t have Starlink, I don’t have SolarCity-
Scott: Mm-hmm
Peter: … and I no longer have a Tesla.
Scott: Have you been involved in any projects where you roast an entire forest full of animals as you launch your rocket off the pad?
Peter: I mean, I use ChatGPT.
Scott: ([laughs])
Peter: ([laughs])
Scott: Yeah, but that’s not actively… That’s more of passively roasting animals. ([laughs])
Peter: Passively roasting. Right. That’s passive roasting, not active roasting. Got it. No, I, I haven’t. But yeah, um, I, uh, I, I traded in the, uh, Tesla and I bought a Kia EV6. There are pros and cons, mostly pros, which is good. Let me start with the cons. Last year, ([laughs]) last year, I voted for the right to repair bill in Massachusetts.
Scott: You liberal commie, or whatever they’re called.
Peter: Yes. So as a result, companies that I would be more of a fan of, not quite as, uh, a fan of, and one of them is Kia ([laughs]) because as a result of the right to repair law, Subaru and then later Kia said part of the law dictates that all of the electronics, uh, telemetry and whatnot coming from the car has to be available in an open platform available to anyone who might wanna fix the car. And their stance is, “Since this platform does not exist, we cannot comply, therefore nobody has access to the telemetry to any Kia or Subaru sold in Massachusetts.”
Scott: I mean, I just wanna throw this out here. I am fully in agreement with the right to repair, and we’ve seen examples, and you cited some of them to Adam about companies doing bad things. John Deere is one of the more m- notorious ones.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible company that they’ve become.
Peter: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott: So I am fully on board with right to repair, but I gotta say, Kia’s response is not unreasonable because it takes time and effort to develop an open API that is secure but that somehow meets all these legislative qualities that need to be addressed.
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: I don’t really blame them.
Peter: So the question is, are they actually working on a fix for it though, or are they just gonna say like-
Scott: Right. Are they just throwing a tantrum and that’s it? Yeah.
Peter: Bingo. And I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t, I haven’t heard anything, so I don’t know if anything’s actually gonna happen or, or what. So-
Scott: Maybe your next car should be the Kia Tantrum.
Peter: ([laughs]) Great. So yeah, that’s a, that’s a little disappointing because, like, for example, if I want to start my car on a cold winter day, I am now back to having to schlep out into the snow and manually-
Scott: Oh, no.
Peter: Yeah. So I’ve taken a serious step backwards as far as a quality of life upgrade.
Scott: I, I really hope that all of our listeners are entitled people who believe that opening your door to start your car is a thing that only, you know, the undignified must do. Uh, otherwise, right now you’re not getting a lot of sympathy. I sympathize with you 100%. I’ve used– I have an automatic car starter. I use it.
Peter: Yep. Yeah. But now, you know, for me to have a g- an automatic car starter, I would have to probably go get some aftermarket thing-
Scott: Right
Peter: … and add it on, whereas it, you know, it’s been built into the car, and it just seems-
Scott: Mm-hmm
Peter: … ludicrous to put in an aftermarket thing to basically do what the car could already do if they would allow it. So.
Scott: Yeah. Right. Yeah, I get it.
Peter: Yeah. Anyway, other than that, I’m really liking the car. It’s all-wheel drive. It’s super fast.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: You know, it doesn’t handle quite as well as the sedan, the Model S did.
Scott: Well, it’s a little higher off the ground, right?
Peter: Exactly. It’s an SUV, so you know, I’m okay with that. But yeah, I’ve got a sunroof back again, which is really nice, and one of the huge selling points, CarPlay. Hello. So I don’t have to have multiple maps apps. ([laughs]) One of the things I don’t like about it though is CarPlay requires the USB connection. I can’t just sit it down on the Qi charging pad and use that. I can, and it’ll do Bluetooth audio. But to get CarPlay, genuine CarPlay integration, I have to physically plug it in.
Scott: That’s intriguing to me that a Honda Accord Hybrid that I have has wireless CarPlay, but the Kia EV6 that you have, which is a newer vehicle, maybe not… Maybe the Kia EV6 was already being made by the time my particular year was made, but I’m pretty sure that… Anyway, my car model and the stereo system that Honda uses-
Peter: Mm-hmm
Scott: … have been around since probably before the Kia EV6.
Peter: Right.
Scott: So it’s intriguing to me that you don’t have wireless CarPlay.
Peter: Yeah. So there you go. Anyway, overall, it’s an upgrade, and I, you know, I financed it for four years, and as a result, my monthly payments went down by, like, 200 bucks.
Scott: Wait, how can that be?
Peter: I got a trade-in, and I- this car was significantly less expensive than the Tesla.
Scott: I- see, I didn’t- I thought Kia EV6s were… Now, there’s not as much gouging going on. Now, uh, of course, let it be said-
Peter: Uh
Scott: … at the time you bought your Tesla, there wasn’t the gouging. It was just normal car prices. This is way, way, way pre-COVID that you bought-
Peter: Yeah
Scott: … your Tesla. And now you’ve bought an EV6 post-COVID, and but I expect that the gouging has gone down quite a bit, yeah?
Peter: Things have gone back to normal. I paid under MSRP, which for the- when I started looking at it a year or so ago, it was over MSRP.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: Yeah, so things are, things are better.
Scott: Yeah, I guess you’re right. The, the Tesla that you bought, the Model S-
Peter: Mm-hmm
Scott: … and especially at the time, that was quite an expensive car.
Peter: ’Twas, even with all the incentives and everything that I got out of it.
Scott: Now, the Kia starting price seems way more reasonable, but I imagine the Kia price can go up rather quickly depending on options that are added.
Peter: It could. My requirements were pretty simple. I wanted a sunroof. I wanted all-wheel drive. That was about it. ([laughs]) So-
Scott: You wanted Elon Musk out of your life.
Peter: Uh, oh yeah, that was, well, that was a given, buying, you know, buying a-
Scott: Yeah, but that was also an extra $10,000 ’cause they can get it, so.
Peter: You’re right. ([laughs]) No, I, I, I got the car. They gave me, you know, what I, I guess, was- I, I felt was a fair trade for my Tesla, and, uh, you know, I paid off the complete loan that I had on the Tesla, and now I’ve got a new car. So, and it, it’s good. We’re good. So yeah, there you go.
Scott: What about your OSes, your actual OSes? Now, so here’s the thing, Peter. The last podcast episode that was released two weeks ago, by the time people listen to this, it’s gonna be a little weird because we were talking about beta OSes after the releases had already come out.
Peter: IRunFar.com just released their Apple Watch Ultra review on September 15th-
Scott: Yeah, that’s fine
Peter: … 2023.
Scott: Oh, for the first Apple Watch.
Peter: For Apple Watch Ultra 1, yes, not the Ultra 2, which came out seven days later.
Scott: You know what, though? Most of my favorite reviews… Now, that is a little extreme. But most of my favorite reviews aren’t the ones that are out first. They’re the ones that think about it more deeply, like your Jason Snells of the world.
Peter: Yeah, but a year-
Scott: I just said-
Peter: … a whole year
Scott: … that was extreme, Peter. I, I, I don’t know what else I could have said.
Peter: It’s extreme. It’s extreme.
Scott: It’s extreme.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: It’s extreme for an extreme watch.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: So okay, I guess we’re done.
Peter: Well, we’ve gotta do things. We should take us out. Push the big red button and, uh, find us at friendswithbruce.com.
Scott: At a certain point, we gotta move on.
Peter: We’ve gotta.
Scott: Yep, find us at friendswithbruce.com.
Peter: S- and I think we’re at that point.
Scott: Yeah, I think so. Peter, what have you got to say about your big red button?
Peter: Push it