Review Episode

Paul and I reflect on past episodes, review how the podcast is going so far, and I share more about myself - you’ll get to know me better this episode.

  1. Heat index, better known as the “feels like” temperature, is a combination of factors resulting in a human-perceived equivalent temperature.
  2. A marathon is 42.195km. Anything longer is considered an ultramarathon.
  3. Airsoft is much like paintball except the projectiles are softer and sometimes don’t leave a mark. The game depends heavily on an honor system where hit players call themselves out.
  4. Battlegrounds was a 2014 startup in Toronto merging the best of laser tag and video games. They raised $10,000 through their Indiegogo campaign but ultimately failed to start a business.
  5. Correction: this is episode 8 (not episode 7, as I say)
  6. Lots of visual bugs on the website were fixed since recording this episode. If you find any issues with the site, please let us know!
  7. The podcast has since launched on iTunes. I had to: download a windows VM, install iTunes, sign up for an account, confirm the account, and then finally submit my podcast using a web browser (not using the desktop client).
  8. Rockbox is free and open-source firmware for portable media devices. Paul replaced the firmware on his Apple iPod with Rockbox, which let him do more with his device. For example, he could play audio and video formats that Apple doesn’t normally support.
  9. The Zune was Microsoft’s competitor to the iPod. It was discontinued in 2012.
  10. The iPod shuffle was tiny music player with no screen that looked like this (image by Andrew Nesbitt). You could skip to a random track by physically shaking the device.
  11. In Roombo: First Blood you play as a burglar-thwarting vacuum cleaner.
  12. Who’s Your Daddy is a an introduction to the wonders of parenting! This creative masterpiece by Evil Tortilla Games pits two players against each other, one as a baby and one as it’s parent. As the baby you must find ways your own life and as the parent you must protect the baby.
  13. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) contained a mini game depicting crude animated characters having intercourse. The mini game was not accessible through normal gameplay, but a mod let users access the content. This sparked a lot of controversy and lead to the ESRB changing the game’s rating from Mature (M) to Adults Only (AO).
  14. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess contained a bug that allowed people to easily run their own code on an unmodified Nintendo Wii. Here’s a 20second clip.
  15. Known as the “Twilight Hack”, a specially crafted save file contains a name for Link’s horse that is instead a small program. When the game tries to load the horse’s name (used in character dialog) the game instead executes that small program.
  16. WiiBrew is a community of that created and developed unofficial apps and games for the Nintendo Wii.
  17. StillAliveWii is a 2D platform game inspired by Value’s Portal series.
  18. Today, the SwitchBrew community exist in part because of how successful the Wii community was. Development of an open-source Switch firmware is ongoing.
  19. Correction: Through the Epic MegaGrants program, Epic Games pledges $100M to developers “doing amazing things with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community”
  20. The Unreal Engine is “source-available”, which is not quite open-source.
  21. The Battlefield series of games uses the Frostbite engine developed by Digital Illusions CE, better known as DICE. They had an office nearby, in London, Ontario, until EA purchased them and shut it down.
  22. Half-life 3 is coming.
  23. If you do animal motion-capture, or you know how it is done, I’d like to hear from you!
  24. Black Mesa is a fan-made recreation of Half-Life 1 from the ground up. The developers have also pledged to release an extension to the single-player campaign, adding brand new content without rewriting the story of game we know and love.
  25. Half-Life was a revolutionary game released in 1998 by Valve Corporation. Heads up this episode contains spoilers!
  26. ESPN2 first aired DotA’s annual world championship tournament, The International, in 2014.
  27. ESPN is taking it seriously. Here’s a recap & highlights from the 2017 tournament: http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/20343989/super-bowl-nerds-dota-2-fans-globe-lured-spectacle-camaraderie-international-7
  28. Remember TV bunny ears? Modern versions work a lot better, and since the channels are digital the picture is high definition and crystal clear.
  29. “The abbreviation CATV is often used for cable television. It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, from cable television’s origins in 1948.”, (Wikipedia).
  30. The BobRoss Twitch channel.
  31. GOM.tv still exists and so does GOM player. GOM.tv would stream Starcraft tournaments through through the GOM player where North American players, called “foreigners”, would challenge the Korean natives and compete for glory.
  32. Remember what dial-up sounded like? Here’s why it sounded that way
  33. DJ Steve Aoki throws cake into the audience and the audience is totally into it!
  34. Guitar + Atari 2600 = the gAtari 2600. Its creator performed with it live on stage.
  35. The Sega 32X with the Sega CD addon. The Sega 32X (known in North America as the Genesis 32X) was an addon for the Sega Genesis that added two 32-bit CPUs and a 3D graphics processor. Paired with the CD addon, the Genesis became a towering monstrosity that attempted to launch Sega into the era of 32-bit games. Each addon required its own dedicated power adapter making it a nightmare for cable management.
  36. An “ultimate” talk presents highly detailed information (often “everything we know”) about the internal workings of a system. The ultimate Gameboy talk is incredible! Here’s a full list of “ultimate” talks.
  37. R.O.B. (now commonly known from the Super Smash Brothers franchise) is an accessory for the NES that would actually play as Player 2! Pretty cool for 1985.
  38. That 70’s Show scene with the wallpaper moving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz7ElOc6uLQ&t=96
  39. Here’s a timeline of all browsers dating back to 1990s when the web first started.
  40. Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Edge all use the layout engine from Chromium known as Blink.
  41. Chrome vs Chromium: “while Chrome is based on Chromium, Google also adds a number of proprietary features to Chrome like automatic updates and support for additional video formats” -Chris Hoffman. A quick run-down:
    • Non-open standards like MP3 and AAC
    • Automatic updates (most Linux distributions already have a system for updates, so this isn’t needed)
    • Adobe Flash
  42. If you’d like to be part of the Toronto Tech Podcast team, or you’re interested in being a guest on the show, contract us at TorontoTechPodcast@gmail.com
  43. Correction: Paul has clear switches. Cherry MX Clear switches are tactile mechanical keyboard switches with a 65cn actuating force (moderately high). This makes it harder to bottom out the keys and make a loud sound. For a comparison of different Cherry switches
  44. “Roses are red, violets are blue, your software is bad please fix it”
  45. We discuss post-concussion syndrome, and some unusual symptoms I had after a mild concussion.
  46. The NASA pen that can write in space. Unfortunately, according to this article the AG-7 “Anti-Gravity” Space pen was actually the product of a private company, Fisher Pen Company. Initially, NASA did use pencils in space but did eventually use the anti-gravity pen in 1967.
  47. The NASA space cup. A series of experiments on the International Space Station, yielded the invention, and patent, of a zero gravity coffee cup.
  48. We both love the Animal Crossing series of games. A new Animal Crossing game has been announced for the Nintendo Switch.
  49. Fossil is a distributed version control software with some cool features such as a built-in web-interface that can be used for issue tracking as well as a wiki.
  50. OWASP Toronto had a meetup just before I recorded with Paul. See their upcoming events at https://www.meetup.com/OWASP-Toronto/