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111: I'm a Pencil Guy! · Hemispheric Views

• [Music] Alright, we're back. I'm only going to talk about this briefly, because we haven't really had the same campaign, I suppose, as we have in the past with our beloved Voyager. Andrew, you remember Voyager? I do remember Voyager. Yeah, you know, last year's fantastic Australian entrant for Eurovision. Well, anyway, I don't know if you two guys watched Eurovision this year. It's been a family habit of mine for years. Did either of you check it out? I'm still bitter, so I couldn't bring myself to watch it. I didn't see... I saw nothing in the Discord mentioning any bands that I know that are related to Andrew, so no, I did not pay attention. Okay, right. Well, I mean, by the time this comes out, everyone would have known the winner anyway. But for anyone who does deliberately live under a rock and then watches it a week later through YouTube, I won't ruin it. But I just wanted to put it out there. I thought this was actually one of the best years in terms of song quality. I liked so many songs this year, and it was so much fun and great tongue-in-cheek jokes from Sweden. But I want to do a bit of a shout out to the Australian or for the Australian band that was there, Electric Fields. I'm not huge on Australia being in the competition in general because I think, okay, the novelty is kind of worn off. I was thrilled with how Voyager went, and I think the acts that have been there for Australia have been great. But this year, I mean, they didn't get as far as previous ones, but Electric Fields, it's this Australian synth pop duo. And they did this fantastic song called One Milkali, which means one blood. And it actually had great First Nations references in it. It actually incorporated both lyrics in English, and I'm actually looking here that I pronounce it correctly from Yankunna Djadjara language. Anyway, awesome kind of global stage example of Australian culture. And it's all a message of First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians working together. So if you want to get a great, awesome example of Australian culture through music on stage, check out Eurovision 2024 clips. But also great entrance from Finland. I loved like Austria's 80s through noughties, like synth rave session. What else did they have? It was just an awesome show, and you should check it out on YouTube if you haven't already. Fantastic. Yes. Eurovision is fun. But yeah, I just couldn't do it. I'm still feeling the weight of last year's Voyager situation. Obviously, Danny was involved as sort of Voyager's, Australia's vote deliverer. I guess that would be a fair way to put it, Martin. Danny Estrin. Yeah, you pop up and you have that awkward delay on camera and then they say, "Australia, douze points." And then everyone goes, "Yay!" And then you get someone drunk from some other Eastern European nation. Not stereotyping, but generally there was always someone drunk whenever I've watched. So speaking of music, I just wanted to reference a photography podcast. There's a really enjoyable new podcast I've been listening to. It's called the 3x2 Photocast. I'm not sure if either of you two have heard of it. Tell me more. Well, it features two hosts and they each bring to the table three photos. So two people, three photos, 3x2. Also, nice reference to the cropping ratio that a photo could be 3x2. I think that's the point they're trying to get to. These hosts, they've got a good rapport. And I wanted to mention this podcast in particular because they mentioned Hemispheric Views in their latest episode. Just episode two, they've had episode zero, episode one, episode two. So 3x2 Photocast. I like the way they call it a photocast, not a podcast. I think that's clever too. You might think, "Who are these people and why are they talking about photos on an audio medium?" Well, let me bring it to you. The two hosts are Jason Bourke and Martin Feld, my co-hosts of Hemispheric Views. They do a great job with this one. It's really enjoyable. And you might think looking at photos, talking about photos in a podcast doesn't really work. It actually does because the show notes are excellent. They're direct links to the photos. The way I found enjoying it is actually, there's different ways you could do it. You could wait till they talk about it and then look at the photo as you go. But my preferred method is I look at all the photos first. So I read the show notes, look at the six photos, have a think about it and decide, "How do I feel about these photos?" And then I hit play on the podcast and see what my friends think about it. Really good show. I like it. And listening to episode two on the drive home last night got me sort of feeling an itch. Feeling an itch. Yeah, I used to be into photography in a fairly, not a big way. I was into it. Yeah, actually I was into it because I used to shoot raw and I used to edit and I had a whole Lightroom workflow and I posted things on Flickr and my own website. So yeah, I was a massive nerd. I used to buy magazines. Remember magazines when they had like photography magazines? Oh, magazines. I used to buy them. They still do. I used to buy them every month. And like I just absorbed all the knowledge. But it didn't make me good at photography, but I just knew a lot about it. Anyway, it's gotten me back into it. So this morning I was like, "I've got an old Nikon D7000 sitting around somewhere that I stopped using primarily because it had sensor dust on it." And I was always too scared to clean the sensor for fear of absolutely destroying the camera. But I thought, "I'm getting a sort of a feel for photography again. I want to have a crack at it." The D7000, totally depreciated. Who cares? If I destroy the sensor now trying to clean it, what difference does it make? It's just been sitting in a cupboard. So I've done some Googling. I think I've found some sensor swabs that I can buy. I used to have a little air puffer, but I've lost it. So I'm probably going to get another one of those. But I've got the D7000 out. It's currently rocking its just standard lens. I think the 18-105 Nikon DX lens. It's probably nothing great. I found my 70-300mm. I found my... What have I got here? You've got a whole box over there. I found my 35mm. Are you a photography YouTuber by any chance? This is the vibe I'm getting now. I need some neon lights. I also found while I was looking for things, the Panasonic Lumix, the DMC-GX7. Well then. Now you've picked my interest. And I managed to find all the batteries and chargers, which is something else entirely I was pretty impressed with. They're currently charging because they're all flat. So my challenge now is to clean the sensor of the Nikon. I'm probably going to ask you guys for a lot of help with that process because I'll be crapping myself. And I also need to know, should I be using the Nikon or should I be using this Lumix? None of them are new, but they were new once upon a time. The answer is both. You should try using both. Can I tell you why? No, no, no. I had one last point. I had one last point, but that's okay. You go ahead. Oh, you better finish that. No, no, you finish that before you lose here. So my ambition is to get the cameras back into working condition. Hopefully they do work. And manage to take a photo that is so compelling that it is featured on the 3x2 photo cast. That's my ambition. I'm not going to ask for any special favors. I want the photo to be compelling enough that you guys want to talk about it. So that is my challenge. I think the pressure is more on us than on you at this point. Oh, I love that. Well, no, I want to say, Andrew, thanks for mentioning it. I'm glad you've been enjoying it. And when Jason and I were talking about doing this, because if people haven't listened to it, but they've been listening to this show, we were wrangling with this idea of doing it. Because, you know, we've done like photography and camera corner with you. We love doing this show as a trio. But you've hit on it perfectly. Like it's a really weird concept. It's something that would be weird to shoehorn into a normal, in parentheses, not parentheses, in quotes, normal podcast. Because it's like, do you look at them first? Should it be visual? It's just really kind of strange. So it's kind of this separate thing. And then you can talk about gear and technology here more so. So I'm glad that you found that way of doing it. Because I didn't even think that you would maybe check the show notes first. That's awesome. But it excites me and I'm pleased that you're picking up the cameras again. It's a great idea to use both. Maybe one more so than the other. You'll see what you like. But I found that I've learned way more about photography or just, you know, practicing amateur skills by comparing them. I pick up the old one, which has the bigger sensor. But then I go, I'm not as fast on carrying that one around. So then I favoured the micro four thirds stuff, my OM system thing. And then I pick up the tough TG7, which is like my compact waterproof one. And I go, oh, I can use that for the macro stuff. And I'm really into doing that. But of course, the sensor is smaller. So it's not going to perform in low light as well. You don't get hung up or obsessed about things because I'm not doing it from a professional angle. It's not my living. It's just for fun. But in that comparison of carrying stuff around and seeing how they behave differently, I think it's more fun. And you learn more about the process because you know what works and what doesn't for different photographic situations. So I think you'll get more satisfaction comparing and then maybe settling on the main one depending on what you like to do most. Okay. The one variation I'm going to do, I used to shoot raw and then convert the raw to DNG, the Adobe file format. I've decided this time I'm just going to screw all that. I'm just going JPEG. I can't be bothered. Is that okay? Yeah. I think that's totally fine. Okay. It's like you don't have to look pro, you know, doing raw. I would only say that if it is low light stuff, you will probably be happier with the results if you occasionally do use raw just so you can boost shadows or something. Just if you want to extract that extra data, but you shouldn't become happy. Because I don't have light room and all that anymore. It depends on the camera, but most cameras will shoot both now anyway. So you can shoot a DNG plus JPEG and then just always use the JPEG. But if there's that one photo you're like, "Oh, damn it. I could totally save like one little thing." Just like it's a good backup. Yeah. The important part is that you're not picking up a job. You're picking up something that you want to do for enjoyment. So do whatever makes it enjoyable. That is a good tip. Too many people in like tech fandom or nerddom get way too hung up on things being perfect or needing all the gear or everything to be 100%. Just take it, compare stuff, fiddle around with it, have fun. That's it. Thanks. Good show. Make sure you listen to it. 3x2. We had the iPad event this week and I'm sure that everybody who's interested in these iPads and what Apple tends to release is either watch the keynote, which I didn't do. I watched like a quick, I watched about half of The Verge's, I think I did like a 12-minute supercut of it. I'm grateful that they do that. Yeah. I watched half of that because I saw the last five, 10 minutes of the actual show. And then I watched the first half of the supercut and I was like, yeah, good enough. I get it. So people will have read about it, seen what all the pundits have said. So my take, I don't know if you want me to just lean into a quick takeaway with the iPads or do somebody else have something to say? I mean, I think it's what everybody else has said. Amazing hardware, incredible, incredible hardware design. If you actually appreciate what they are doing, the tolerances that they're dealing with to build these things so precisely and so small and so powerful, it is incredible. Like amazing engineering. So if you just look at it as that alone, man, they're one of the most brilliant companies in the world at manufacturing technology. The problem I've got is that, so what? I mean, there is nothing compelling from a market perspective. If you've got an iPad and it's working, you don't need this. You don't need any of this new stuff unless you just want it, which is something entirely different in itself. But there's nothing that really changes the game. And it's what everybody has said, the software platform is holding this thing back. It doesn't matter how powerful they make it. I never use my iPad and think, gosh, if only this was a little bit quicker. Because everything, every developer develops for the iPads that are in the market, which means they're developing for the lowest spec model. So the state of the art software is so far behind state of the art hardware that nobody needs these new iPads. So good job, Apple. But, eh, which leads me to my next point. And this sort of delves into where Apple is going, the need for just crunching the numbers now, it's just about juicing the revenue. And then are they even still resonating in the market? We've seen that Crush ad, the Crush ad got crushed. My question to you guys is, is it time that Apple starts thinking about the post-Tim Cook era? Has he now done what he can do, done his dash? He's released his Apple Vision Pro. He's continuing to optimize the company to generate services revenue. But I think he's lost the love of the market. Thoughts? Who would you like to answer first? I don't care. [LAUGHTER] He very much cares about the topic, but he doesn't really care what anyone else has to say about it. [LAUGHTER] I would like Martin to go first. All right, Jason. No, I would like Martin to go first. I would like Jason to go first. Oh, boy. OK. Yeah, let me-- actually, let me go, because then Martin can follow up with something, you know, important. Yeah. Wanky. Or wanky. [LAUGHTER] Jason is going to deliver an emotive, impassioned response, and then Martin will provide us with the technical correct answer. Yeah, we'll see. Let's see. I guess new-- you started with the new iPads, so I will continue along your path. I didn't watch the keynote either. I didn't watch anything about it. I just don't care about it at all. So I don't know if that's helpful or not. It's-- the 2018 iPad is the same iPad they've released every year. You could just call it 2018, 2018.2, 2018.3, 2018.4. It's all the same iPad. It doesn't do anything. I mean, there are little tiny things that are remarkably different for incredibly verticalized use cases, right? Like a new pencil with a barrel roll thing. Okay. Like, again, very narrow. Like there's 85 people that are like, "Holy crap, that is the thing that has been holding me back." But I don't know. The iPad has been weird for a long time. Well, really, since the beginning. It's been a big iPhone. It's still a big iPhone. That's kind of it. Like, I think it's great that it works for a lot of people for being a computer. But now that an iPad Pro is like $4,000, is like, why not just grab a MacBook Air? I don't know. I'm the wrong person to ask because it's just not a thing I need. You know, like it's thinner now. Okay, great, I guess. I can fit more of them in the drawer when I'm not using them, I guess, is nice. I'm still not sure what if that, does that mean that it goes underneath or on top of the Vision Pro that you're not using? I'm not really sure how they stack in the drawer. Will it bend? You'll check. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to see all of the screen durability tests and the bend tests. Oh, gosh. Will it bend? Who could possibly know? Yeah, it's, you know, of all the things in the world, that's really what matters right now. Okay, so I'm going to go off of that topic now. I feel like I've beaten that down. As far as your prompt of, what was it? Is the Tim Cook era over? Yeah, or should it be over? I don't think it matters. I think everybody puts too much emphasis on that any particular thing that happens with this quote unquote company who is their best friend is someone's fault. I think it's the market's fault. If anything, the reason we have new iPads every year is because people demand new shit every year, even though the shit they've had for the last five years has been fine. But we have to keep going. We have to make the stock market happy. So, anybody in that position that's not doing what he's doing is going to be perceived as a quote unquote failure because they didn't 10x the revenue year over year or whatever. So, I don't think it's anything to do with him or anyone else. I think it's the market, to be honest, that drives so much of this to be where people get upset because they want new things and then they get new things and then they're upset that they got new things. You can't have it every... There's no way to please everyone. Right? So, I don't think it's him. I don't think it's anybody. I think it's been just when you get into the... There's a black hole that is companies this big and once you hit that accretion disk or whatever it's called and you start getting sucked in, that's just where you're going. You're not getting out of that. Apple is not the company in their garage making Apple Ones by hand. It's just not. And it hasn't been that way since before Tim took over. It has been on this path for a very long time. And I think technology... Tim was chosen by Steve. That's what people have to remember. He was the preferred man. Yeah. And I just think technology has gotten us to a point now to where people are expecting these leaps and bounds, which you're just not going to necessarily get every time. You can't just have a new iPhone every 10 years. It's just not going to happen. So, I don't think I've said anything profound there, but I think Apple is the same Apple they've always been. I feel like people's perspectives have... They've grown. They've aged. They've got new perspectives. When they were younger, they had this kind of dreamy-eyed vision of Apple the company. And as the world has changed around these companies, people have begun to say, "Oh, wait a minute. Actually, maybe all these things are not as rosy and wonderful as we thought they were." It is, after all, about the bottom line. It always has been. It's a company. Like, full stop. So, Martin, if you could pick up where I'm leaving off here and insert some really witty knowledge, that would be great. I think you're selling yourself short there. I agree with everything Jason just said. Everything? Particularly all the stuff about... Yep, everything. Everything you said about the market and people's expectations. I suppose what I'd add to it, if we're talking about the iPad thing first, the iPad's always been a difficult device, right? Because it's catering to so many people as a kind of post-computer, right? We had that whole "What's a computer?" thing and people heaped on that, but there was a clever idea in that because it's not the thing that sits on your desk, but nerds really want it to be. So, all the things that nerds want from it are the very things that both make it more powerful, but also completely compromise it. The things that I get most from the iPad are the human Apple Pencil elements of editing a podcast in a way that I can't do on a Mac, nor do I really want to. The things that I like most about the iPad are the things that are very specific to the iPad. And if the iPad's allowed to be the iPad, then you don't have any of this "Ooooh, should Apple cannibalise its own products and is the Mac under threat because they're kind of converging?" They're only converging because people desperately want more and more features to be added to it to make it like the Mac, but then as it becomes more Mac-like, it becomes less iPad-like, but it's also still too iPad-like because it has to retain the iPad-likeness for the people who don't care about the Mac-ness. Right? So, stop complaining. It's just, get over it. And the thing is, Apple is never really going to want to cannibalise it in the way that they happily did with the iPod using the iPhone, because what generates profits? Having multiple product lines that you have to buy all of. They're not going to get rid of the Mac now because the iPad's there, because they want you to buy a Mac and vice versa. So, I think maybe where Apple has changed slightly is that they're less willing to cannibalise things because they want you to have one of everything. And that's what happens when you have a profit-driven behemoth corporation which is now at the centre of all global culture. Right? So, that's what we're kind of dealing with now. So, I think it's kind of as much Apple's fault as it is the market's, and I'd comment on that before I get to the Tim Cook thing. Do you remember when they had the whole thing about courage, about removing the headphone jack? Yeah. Right? That very controversial, "Ooh, courage!" Right? And then you think about things like Think Different as an ad campaign. What would be seriously courageous and what would give Apple the most unbelievable brand power or resurgence or respect globally would be the very thing that they could never or would never want to do, which is to come out and say, "You know what? We're going to be courageous enough not to release a new iPhone every year, not to release a software update massively for macOS every year. We're going to do it in a way that's sustainable or spaced out or things about supply chain or bugs and refinement actually take the time to refine things and completely break the cycle of wasteful production and crap every year." If they came out and said, "You know what? We're reversing all the stuff we've done." If Apple took the courageous act or decision to actually do the total opposite of everything it does, I bet you the press, I mean, there'd be some whinging nerds out there, but the press would go, "Look, Apple has actually made the biggest global sustainability decision ever and is setting a new trend that everyone will want to follow," because suddenly it will be wasteful and unfashionable to cater to neoliberal capitalist market crap. Right? They have the chance. They own it. They could completely change everything if they wanted to, and Wall Street and stocks and everything would be seen to be as ridiculous as they are. They could do it if they wanted to, but they don't want to. That's my rank on that. On the Tim Cook thing, I think I'm reminded of, I think it was in Steve Jobs' Lost Interview from the '90s. If you haven't watched it, it's fantastic. It's when he was still at Next and he kind of thought that his time was over as an influencer or a big name in tech before he went back to Apple, and he said something, many things really that were insightful, but one thing that was so insightful about what goes wrong at companies and it 100% matches what's happened at Apple today, and he said that once companies identify a product that's a hit or something that's worked for them, they become obsessive about making that procedural or a permanent process, right? And that's what I'm talking about with this every year the same thing. The thing that makes Apple so successful and appealing is the fact that you get this new phone or insert product X every year, but it's also the thing that makes them incredibly predictable and boring and somewhat wasteful even if they do sell sustainability messages because they need to have the new thing every year. They can't dare to think different anymore because that's not what the share market wants. So Apple essentially became the man. It became the very thing that Steve Jobs criticized, mainly naming Microsoft in the '90s. So Apple could be different if it wanted to be, but it probably won't be. It has the power to do that. So basically it's up against laws of nature. There are ways a company can-- It could reset it. It could totally redesign the laws of nature if it wanted to. There's never been a company like it before, but it doesn't want to. So I don't say that as an entirely negative rant. I think we have much to be kind of grateful for in terms of how they've pushed technology, great user experiences, best hardware. I don't say this as a nerd who's like, "Apple's not the same since Steve Jobs left." Tim Cook has been amazing. He's an amazing manager of the corporation. Probably wouldn't have been a better alternative, but with that comes negatives. Was that too much? I think that was quite excellent, my friend. Can I tell you what iPad I ordered now? Is this the right time for that? Did you? Did you really? You could. That's really cool. Yeah, they're great. I think as a first iPad, awesome. If I didn't have one, this would be incredible. But having the whatever I have, that's the-- I don't even know which one I have because they literally have been the same since 2018. I think I have the 6th gen, but that jump is just not-- there's nothing there for me personally that I'd be like, "Oh, I got to have whatever." It's just like an M4. Okay, that's incredible. But what am I doing on there? Nothing. Nothing that requires that. The one thing I will say to Apple's credit is that as much as they encourage people to buy the new stuff, the longevity of their old stuff is incredible. Yeah. So I've got the--I've got basically--I did a big refresh a few years ago. I've got M1 everything, M1 laptop, M1 desktop, M1 iPad. And they are all still brilliant. I look at it and I go, "Yeah, it would be cool to have a new computer, but I don't need anything. M1s are just perfect for me." And I can get another few years out of it. And so I should just--instead of feeling like, "Oh, I should upgrade. I should upgrade because I'm a nerd and I want to and it's fun," I should just go, "That's really cool. Thanks, Apple, for making long-lived equipment that I can continue to use." I think the problem is that collectively everyone thinks of it as you need to get the new thing every year when really the correct way to think about it is that every year, if this is your first year, your first year is going to be amazing. There's never going to be a new customer that comes in for their first experience and has to get something that's three years old. It's not possible, which I think is great. I think it's phenomenal that every year, every new customer has the latest and greatest thing as their initial impression of what could be. That's phenomenal. But we've, as a society, kind of fallen back into this, "No, no, it means we get a new one every year." It's like, "Well, not really." Yes, that happens. But I think if you flip it and think about it in the other way of, again, every year new people coming on board get the latest and greatest thing, that's amazing. Somebody that's going to walk into an Apple store next week or whatever and say, "I don't really know what this is. I use a ThinkPad from 2007 right now. What's this iPad thing all about?" Oh, my God, literally life-changing that's going to be for so many people. That is awesome. But it's that year-over-year thing where for me to go from a 6th gen iPad to this would be like, "No, it's just not a good idea." Yes, and it's like what Andrew was saying about how long his stuff has lasted, mine too. I'm on an M1 Mac Mini here that I frequently use Final Cut Pro on, and it doesn't stutter at all. I'm using high-quality footage here. So sustainability-wise, Apple's definitely walking the talk. But then you kind of look at it and go, "You know what? For most people, they probably could have skipped M2 and M3 and just gone to M4, right? And everyone who would have bought M1 versions in that last couple of years would have been totally fine." I might be making people listen to this scream at the moment going, "How could you say that?" But seriously, you don't even need it. An M4 would have looked even more amazing because it would have been an even more massive jump without those interim steps. And everyone who would have bought a device in that last few years would not have whinged at all. So they actually look better and more sustainable, and there's a greater leap marketing-wise. So I think Apple's kind of trapped itself a bit. They're setting those expectations. Full on, time for a handy transition. [Music] You know how much I love my YNAB? The only way to budget, if you're interested to find out more, just go to Kenyon.blog/save where you'll find a link right to YNAB and a free 34-day trial. If you sign up, I get a free month, you get a free month. Hey, we all win. YNAB. Well, YNAB. You've become quite the pitch man over the last like five episodes. I think ever since we did the episode with the pitch man commercials, like I don't know, was that 107 or something? I forget. You just have this natural like pitch man voice now. Like I don't even think you know you're doing it, but you're just like YNAB. And it's just like, yeah. He's not beach guy anymore. He's pitch guy. So I swear by YNAB. Use it every day. But I want more. Well, you know who didn't want more? In Australia, the National Australia Bank, who some years ago rebranded themselves and just stopped being National Australia Bank and just went to NAB as their name and their brand. NAB. N-A-B. NAB. Right? They took legal action against YNAB in Australia for trademark infringement. Because there was too much. There could have been potential market confusion that YNAB and NAB, they're both in the financial services industry. And so people may be confused that YNAB was an offering of NAB. So therefore, they have reached a settlement. And now there is a special Australia only build of YNAB in the app stores. There's a special Australian website. And all that's changed is that all references to YNAB have been struck from the register. And it is now you need a budget everywhere. So no reference to YNAB. Which is like whatever. Like whatever. Until you load it on, you get the little icon on your iOS device or your iPad. And the name YNAB would fit under the icon. Oh, no, it's got the dots. Now, it is. Get this. You need a bud. Dot, dot, dot. Like a friend or a flower or what's that? A friend, a flower, a toke. Who knows? But you need a bud. That has been a pet peeve since iOS negative one. That if you name your app that it requires dots, you need to come up with a better name. You know what they should do to fix that? They should take what worked so well with iTunes for years and now Apple Music where the name actually scrolls like it does in the play head or the playback window. But it doesn't reach all the way to the end and then flicks back to the beginning so you never see the whole title. Well, my only solution now, and look, for me, it's not the end of the world. I kind of like it. YNAB has now got product place back in the dock because the dock doesn't show file names, doesn't show app names. So YNAB back in the dock where really it should be at all times anyway. I load it that much. That's why people listen. They listen for the app hacks. That's an app hack right there for you. There is another app hack if you really want. You can create a shortcut. Oh, God. And you could rename the shortcut and the shortcut could be a launcher to the app. Oh, boy. I haven't bothered with that. That's just kind of a bother. But that is another way to get around it. But YNAB in Australia, screw you. So they came after the fact and they still get to say, this is like, that seems insane. I feel like I could show up and say, my restaurant's called, you know, whatever, and then say, you need to change your name now. What? That's insane. Well, really, it's all just looping back. We're back where we started. We're back at Hungry Jackson Burger. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Australia's trademark naming laws must be a little bit stricter than what you find in other locales. Do you use that bank, Andrew? NAB? No. I hate that bank. Never used that bank in my life. OK. I'm not going to use a bank called NAB. Sounds stupid. Also, it's in all lowercase. There's no title case. So it's an actual acronym that is all lowercase. Wow. I find that bothersome. Yeah. But anyway. I don't like them. Don't like them at all. This is yet another impressive example of, like, I don't know, audience work. This website that our UK ambassador, Rob, has put together. Yeah. It's important to have a good ambassador across, you know, each locale. And it was an extensive process going through, interviewing, you know, making sure we get the right person for the job in each of the districts. Like, it was a long time consuming thing. And we landed on a couple of finalists for the UK. And, you know, one stood above the rest. And that was Rob 2B's night. A knight of the HV order. Really? That's what he is. Yeah. I would say there's a reason that there's a shield. And he's the sword. Is that metaphor working? I'm not sure. I just want to call him, I just want his nickname now to be 2B's. 2B's. Okay. I'm sure he'll love that. Rob 2B's night. Like the Australian snack that was once made in Poland. Is there a 2B's snack? Like tubes. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know about that snack. I will continue by saying our previous ambassador, Rob, who's no longer with the organization, created a lovely little website or web page, I guess. Website, web page, same thing. For, was it last episode we talked about the Perfect Albums? I think it was the last one. And much like the default apps thing, he made a lovely default apps conglomerate page for that. So he thought, you know what? I want to waste some more time on these guys. Let's make another page for Best Albums. And it is incredible. It looks like an iPod, or not an iPod. It looks like iTunes from, I don't know, Martin, you probably know what version of Mac OS X that is. Mac OS X that came from. It's not brushed metal. We're talking like Leopard era, I reckon, because it was after the, yeah, it's when it just went grey, like around the Leopard era, I think. Leopard, Snow Leopard. It might have been earlier, but yeah. Well, click the link, go look at it, because it's awesome. And the little Open Graph image is an awesome little iPod that shows the show artwork and the title for episode 110. It's just great. It's awesome. It's really good. And the URL, again, for people who aren't looking at the show notes. Albums.rknight.me. And that knight is with a K, as in the glorious sword-wielding knight. Yeah, that's not O-U-R-N-I-G-H-T dot com. It's not that. It's R-K-N-I-G-H-T dot me. Not the pirate R. No, no, no, just a single. Two Bs, one R. With Cover Flow. But it's not, you say the single, but it's not a website about singles. It's a website about albums. Oh, that's true. Oh, so confusing. Well, I suppose a single could be an album. It's just not an LP. Are we getting that nitty gritty? I don't know. Are we getting, is it an EP? EP? LP? An EP? Well, singles are shorter, so they're not really albums. I know what you mean, but it's like, what is an album? I don't know. How long is an album? It's an HVEP. Okay. And the website developed by RK. There. See, HVEP, all these, it just sounds like some sort of sexually transmitted infection. I don't know. It's like, it's always. It's an STD. An HVSTD. Yeah, EP, LP. We need a sticker. So yeah, Rob's website, huh? Pretty, pretty great. I'm just checking the HV, I'm just checking the HV mailbox, actually. We've just received a cease and desist letter from Apple saying, "Pursuant to NAB's trademark claim against YNAB, we are now following the same protocols and requesting that this iTunes ripoff be taken down from the HV empire." Oh, crap. Well, on this musical theme, I just want to add something here because we're talking about albums and libraries and stuff. I don't want to take too long with this, but I'll chug it in at the end of the episode here. Apple Music, right? Been on it since it came out. We were using iTunes for years before that. Do you remember when they first launched Apple Music, the whole appeal, the whole point on stage was, "Why go and use a separate streaming thing somewhere else? Merge it with your library. It all syncs. iTunes match for everyone, blah, blah, blah." And yet, it occurred to me recently. Well, not really recently, but I really had the epiphany about what to do about it. I went, "You know what? I'm paying for Apple Music endlessly. It's great to have all this access, but it has always and continues to stuff up my library." Splitting up albums, we've discussed this before, it ruins it. And you know what? I decided I am no longer syncing my library with Apple Music. I tried it on the Mac a while ago, but recently I did it on the iPhone. Even started using, you don't have to do this, but I thought I'd experiment with it, started using a recommended alternative iOS music player called Canvas. Oh, I have that. And I've actually gotten back into, it's great, right? You don't have to do this. Listeners, don't panic. You can just use music if you wanted to do this. But if you want to resurrect your old library that might just be sitting on a backup drive or you have all these CDs, unbelievable the experience of just, even if you think this sounds like a dinosaur kind of move, plugging your phone into your Mac occasionally, syncing all of the music that you've meticulously put the artwork on, all the metadata is correct, it's all there. And guess what? You have Apple Music access. You can go and search and listen to the albums that aren't on your library without having to add them and corrupt everything. My Apple Music experience has improved since I stopped syncing with Apple Music. So just a positive lesson to throw out there. Keep your library intact. I have no idea what I do in my library anymore. I remember all that syncing thing. I have no idea. I just gave up. I was like, I don't know what it's doing. I have no idea if I'm syncing or I'm not. I don't know. It's just out there. I don't know where it comes from. The final thing that pushed me over was that some of my favourite albums were fragmented with the wrong artwork. And I was like, how does that make any sense? I've had this, like, in my collection since before iPods. And I can't even find it properly because it's fragmented it. Now that issue's gone. So, hot tip. I'm just gonna, I'm just taking a note here quickly. Let's see here. May 11th, 2024. Martin has begun using a non-native application for the first time in his entire life. And I need to create a reminder to check back in on this in one week's time. Yes. Okay. Just wanted to make sure I had that down. Like, that's funny. But actually, the thing that motivated me to try Marvis was that it actually lets you toggle the album view or any view to a list. Because I hate the grid view for albums. I actually find it very hard to navigate because you're kind of like zigzagging your eyes alphabetically down the list, right? So, I'm happy to try non-default apps. But this one is actually, like, motivating. Like, I think it's really good. Does this mean, Andrew, that we can retroactively change the scores for episode 97 and turn this 3 into a 1? Yeah. I think we might have to do that. This is like episode 97 reborn. We are crowning a new champion today. I've got a pencil in my hand. Waving the pencil. We've discussed that before. I have stationary. I have been to office works. I have a point to make. This is a very nice pencil. It looks lovely. You're just not going to tell anybody what it is? I've become a pencil guy. Is this your pitch for the pencil that you use by the beach? Yeah. Recently, I've been pitching the Johnny Decimal System. And I am currently still working through the Johnny Decimal workshops. Highly recommended, as you know. Refer to previous advertisements. Johnny Decimal. Now, I don't know. I feel like this may be, like, is this, like, an issue with separation of church and state? I don't know. Or is this just payment for my advertisement? I'm not sure. Is it all fair and above board? Am I on the take? I don't even know. I don't know what the ethics are. As long as you're disclosing it, this is responsible disclosure right now. That's what this is. Okay, good. I like that. So, I noticed that Johnny was sort of into pencils. And I was like, that's an interesting thing. I don't like pencils. I hardly write at all. But then, I was like, maybe I like pencils. I just haven't ever tried a good pencil. I've just used the crappy Statler HBs from primary school. So, anyway, I found out where Johnny gets his good pencils. And I built a little cart from them. I was all about to click purchase. And I checked in with Johnny. I said, "Johnny, is this a good starter kit for me to get?" And he said, "Don't you worry about that. I've got you sorted." He sent me a pencil care package from Canberra to Western Australia. And inside it were three amazing pencils. Wow. And I just-- And I'm holding-- I've got two of them right here. I've got the Blackwing Pearl. It's a lovely one. I've got the Swiss Wood Caran d'Arche. Smells great. And then I've got the Mitsubishi 5840, I think it is. It's not with me. That's in the other room. That's not a car, though. No, but that is a mighty fine pencil. Could be my favorite. I can't decide whether it's the Mitsubishi or the Blackwing Pearl. But either way, I am now pencil guy. And you can take your pencil-- As you said, Martin, you can take your pencil to the beach. It'll survive because a pencil has no limitations. Pencils. Well, can I just say, I actually-- I'm going to set you a task for an upcoming episode. You've got some research to do, Andrew. You've spoken about Toyota and lean manufacturing for a few years now, but Mitsubishi, you've just actually captured my interest there. We're talking cars. We're talking pencils. We're talking air conditioners. I'm not going to put the pressure on you now, but Mitsubishi, what can we learn from their tech-adjacent manufacturing processes? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure if it's the same Mitsubishi. I think in Japan there might be the ability to have different Mitsubishis. That's part of the lesson. That's what we're going to learn. But I will also say that just last night when I was doing my commentary for NBL One West basketball at the Perth Redbacks, that league, sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors-- Wow. Is it a coincidence? I don't know. But I gave a shout-out to the Mitsubishi Motors NBL One West. Were you writing your stats with your Mitsubishi pencil? I forgot to take it. I used a pen. [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Na na na na na na na na na na na na na ♪