The (Social) Wild West

[00:00:00] Brett: Hey there, friendly listeners, you are tuned in too. Overtired, this is Brett Terpstra. I am here as always with Christina Warren. Um, Jeff is currently in Africa, so filling in for Jeff. We have Brian Guffy, friend of the show. Long time connection, silky smooth voice. How’s it going, Brian?

[00:00:29] Bryan: That’s for Jeff. I can do it because I’m black.

[00:00:36] Brett: Um, but yeah. Okay. Um,

[00:00:41] Bryan: just popped into my head. Yeah, no, I’m good. Um, it’s, it’s Saturday after the, you know, a week in which the 4th of July is on a Tuesday is one of the weirdest weeks in existence.

[00:00:55] Christina: Yes, I

[00:00:56] Brett: guys have to work Monday?

[00:00:58] Christina: um, I took the whole week off.

[00:00:59] Brett: [00:01:00] Oh wow.

[00:01:00] Bryan: Smart. We got Sonos. Sonos gave everybody Monday off, so that was great. Yeah.

[00:01:07] Brett: I, um, I technically worked Monday, but I didn’t work. Um, nobody scheduled any meetings, so I just kind of like kept Slack, giving me notifications all day, but went hiking instead. Um, I do have, I have a two week vacation coming up.

[00:01:27] Bryan: Ooh,

[00:01:27] Brett: It’s gonna be nice.

[00:01:28] Bryan: where are you going? Are you going somewhere or are you staying at home? Yeah.

[00:01:32] Brett: For me, uh, for me, an ideal vacation is doing nothing.

[00:01:36] Brett: Um, I, I may be headed to Chicago. I might try to make it to the, uh, Midwest barbecue that happens right before Max Stock. Um, I’m not gonna make it to Max stock itself this year, but it would be cool to go see all my, uh, all my podcaster friends that show up there and everything.

[00:01:54] Bryan: Yeah, I need to get out to Chicago cause I, apparently it’s impossible to do [00:02:00] a regular podcast with Alex. Um, uh, but I would like to see them in person.

[00:02:06] Christina: Yeah.

[00:02:07] Brett: Yeah. What

[00:02:08] Bryan: queer is on infinite hiatus,

[00:02:10] Brett: oh, that sucks.

[00:02:11] Bryan: but that’s partially because Alex has had like so many cat issues.

[00:02:17] Brett: Okay.

[00:02:18] Bryan: So it’s just been really hard. Like they just have been like dealing with sick cat and so it’s just been struggling to find a time and then Quinn has had to go back into the office.

[00:02:27] Bryan: Um, and yeah. We’ll, we’ll get there. We haven’t given it up.

[00:02:33] Brett: on our last road trip, uh, l and I binged, um, two-headed girl and it was, it was delightful. I feel like I got to know Alex and Maddie really well.

[00:02:45] Bryan: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:02:48] Mental Health Corner

[00:02:48] Brett: Um, so should we do a little mental health check-in? Are you guys. Prepared to bury your souls for the, the listening public.

[00:02:58] Christina: Sure.

[00:02:59] Bryan: sure. [00:03:00] I’ve already bared my ass for the public, so why not?

[00:03:02] Brett: I’m gonna have a glass of wine while you guys talk for a second. Go ahead.

[00:03:07] Christina: Do, do you wanna start, Brian? Guess first.

[00:03:09] Bryan: Um, sure. Um, my mental health is, Uh, like in that unsure Okay. Space where, so about a, about maybe a month ago, my therapist and I made a realization or I made a realization that a thing that I thought that I had like processed that was a trauma in my life, I had not processed at all and was still like, undergirding so much of like my, um, you know, like instinctual reactions.

[00:03:51] Bryan: And so I’ve been doing a lot of work on like, when I get body snatched back into like trauma land, like regrounding [00:04:00] myself. Um, and it’s going mostly okay, but it’s like, it’s still trying to like, like every, every time I don’t land it effectively, it’s still feels like a big failure.

[00:04:14] Brett: Sure.

[00:04:14] Bryan: Now I’m paying attention to it.

[00:04:16] Bryan: Um, so, you know, it’s in that space of like, uh, I mean I think we’ve got the thing to work on, but also it’s just like really exhausting. And because of course it’s like relational, um, like it’s just even harder. Like it was just a thing for me and myself. I, like, I wouldn’t have to worry about like my impact on other people, but it’s like me in relation to another person when, where the issues come.

[00:04:43] Bryan: So, and then of course

[00:04:45] Brett: So hard.

[00:04:46] Bryan: yeah, and then the other thing is like, we might have to reschedule vacation plans because, um, after I got my job at Sonos last year, I thought I was rich and then was [00:05:00] irresponsible with money. And it turns out that flying to Portugal and Spain is kind of expensive.

[00:05:08] Brett: Yeah.

[00:05:09] Bryan: So, you know, we’re working through things, but like overall, like day to day I feel pretty good.

[00:05:14] Bryan: Um, you know, just it’s, you know, it’s like, it’s like you never know when the wave is gonna hit, so.

[00:05:21] Brett: Yeah. All right. Well, I actually will go next because that, that struck a lot of chords for me. Um, I am, uh, first off, well, okay, let me do this in an order that makes sense. Um, I am going through some stuff in my own relationship right now that is making me examine like every single one of my insecurities.

[00:05:46] Brett: And one thing that has come up hardcore is religious trauma that I have these, like, like intellectually I believe one thing and I believe people should be one way. Uh, but my upbringing [00:06:00] like. Rails against that. So I have what my brain says and what my mouth says to my partner should be true. And then when things become real, like I have these deep seated emotional, uh, like physical reactions to certain situations and, and I’ve been able to trace it back to like things that were instilled in me, uh, like under threat of hell, uh, as a child.

[00:06:28] Brett: And, um, and I discussed some of this with my therapist who was impressed that I had figured out where it came from, but couldn’t do shit to help me. Uh, so I have a, uh, an appointment with a new therapist in three weeks, um, that I’m looking forward to. It’s, it’s a woman. I feel like I’m gonna relate better to a woman than this.

[00:06:51] Brett: Bro, dude that I’ve been seeing, um, uh, I’m looking, I’m looking forward to that. I’m hoping that she will be able to [00:07:00] work with me on some of this because it does, like, it’s not just me. Like I’m really happy. Like I hate that this happened, right? I hate, I hate that this is happening in my relationship. It sucks.

[00:07:11] Brett: It hurts. Like it feels shitty, but also, like, I had no idea I felt this way. I had no idea I would react this way. And, um, the fact that this got brought to the surface, yeah, it sucks, it shitty, but now I can deal with it. Uh, and now it can grow in a way that I didn’t even realize I needed to grow. So, so it’s, you know, it’s a mixed bag.

[00:07:35] Brett: We’ll call it a mixed bag.

[00:07:37] Christina: Well, I mean, I’m, I’m glad to hear that at least. Um, so I’m gonna be the downer. My mental health is pretty shit right now, to be honest. Um, that’s, that’s one of the reasons why I haven’t been that active on social, because this is what I do, um, when my, uh, mental health is bad. Like there’s only so much, like I still have to do my day job and I still have to like, be able to pseudo [00:08:00] function as a human.

[00:08:01] Christina: And there are only so many cycles and things you can do. And like, um, my way of, of masking is, is not, uh, It’s not like, I guess, um, you know, people who are on the spectrum sort of way. It’s a little bit different. It’s more like I have to like mask that I’m not depressed. And, and so, I mean, it’s similar but it’s, it’s, it’s a different type of thing.

[00:08:20] Christina: And so there’s just, there’s only so much energy you can expand with that. So mine has been pretty shit. This the reason I took this past week off, which was really good. Uh, I just, just took the whole week, uh, for mental health reasons because I’m not in a great space and I’m not performing and I’m not doing well and it’s kind of gotta that point.

[00:08:36] Christina: So I’m not doing great, but having the week off was, was really good. And, um, I’m hoping, um, I have a, my next, uh, appointment with my shrink is in I think like a week and a half. And when we talked last time, he mentioned to me, There are some new antidepressants that are similar to, uh, ketamine because [00:09:00] they, they do similar things and it’s like based on, on, um, uh, similar, uh, like pharmacological stuff, but it’s not ketamine, so it’s much easier so you can actually take it orally.

[00:09:11] Christina: And so, uh, there, there’s like one, um, drug, uh, that got approved by the F D A last August. So it’s been on the market for a year now. And, and the, the studies and the papers are all really good. And so I’m gonna talk to him about trying that and seeing if that sort of thing could help. Cause I think I’m at the point now where my, my medication isn’t working and I’ve been in denial about that for a really long time, like a really long time.

[00:09:33] Christina: And it’s gotten to the point where I’m just like, I, I can’t be in denial about this anymore.

[00:09:39] Bryan: Yeah. Well sending you,

[00:09:42] Christina: that’s the upside.

[00:09:44] Bryan: sending you lots of love and hugs. I know this is so hard. Um, and, but I am so proud of you for doing the things that you need to do to take care of yourself.

[00:09:54] Christina: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. No, and it’s hard because I’m, you know, I’m [00:10:00] public and in insofar as like, I obviously do this podcast and I’ve never lied or hidden, you know, like my, my mental health struggles, but it’s not my brand and it’s not the thing that I wanna be known for. And I respect people who do wanna like, make that what they’re known for and really wanna advocate for that.

[00:10:15] Christina: I really respect that, but that’s not me. And so it’s always weird when it, you know, when I feel like I’ve reached a place where I’m like, okay, this is actually impeding my life in a way that I now have to, you know, like, uh, talk about it with people both publicly and then also like my colleagues. Which that honestly sucks more than talking about it with strangers listening to your podcast or with your friends over the internet.

[00:10:42] Christina: Like that’s, that’s the real shit, you know, because it’s, it’s fine when it’s an abstract. And I think a lot of people who you work with are fine with it as an abstract. You really see how people react and how people really feel when it actually like, could potentially impact them or [00:11:00] when how it’s impacting you is something that they have to, you know, grapple with.

[00:11:04] Christina: Like that, that’s, that that’s the real truth, you know? Cause everybody I think thinks, oh yeah, I’m, I’m fine with this sort of thing. And then you’re, maybe you are, and some places really are. And, and some, uh, employers. And employees really, coworkers really are, and some people really aren’t. So that’s, that’s, that’s always the

[00:11:22] Brett: until you’re, until you’re confronted with the reality, you might not even know

[00:11:27] Christina: Yep.

[00:11:27] Brett: how, how you feel about something. So I, I can, I can tie our two together in that way. Um, have you ever heard the Huberman Lab?

[00:11:37] Christina: No.

[00:11:38] Brett: It’s a podcast with this. Guy, I don’t know if he’s like a neuroscientist or, but he does like extensive research into like medications and talks about like, brain science.

[00:11:50] Brett: And the last one is about like eye health, but he, it’s like a solo podcast. It’s just him like sharing research and, and talking. [00:12:00] Uh, occasionally he’ll have guests, but, um, I, I would recommend that, I’m gonna drop that in the show notes. He did a, he did an awesome episode on, uh, ketamine and hallucinogenic treatments, and he did a great one on, um, uh, A D H D medication on like Adderall and Vyvance and, and nons stimulant, uh, treatments and, and how they work and why they work and who they don’t work for.

[00:12:27] Brett: Uh, it was really enlightening. Um, but that’s Huberman lab. Um,

[00:12:33] Bryan: I’m always really impressed by solo podcasters. Cause like that’s just gotta be like to just mainline your own self talking for like an hour.

[00:12:47] Brett: by, what I’m impressed by is successful solo podcasters. People, people, people who are actually as interesting as they think they are when they sit down to record a solo podcast,[00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Bryan: Yeah. I mean,

[00:13:01] Brett: that’s a fine line right there.

[00:13:03] Bryan: It really, really is a fine line. You know that if Elon Musk was a podcaster, he would be

[00:13:08] Brett: my God.

[00:13:09] Bryan: podcaster.

[00:13:09] Brett: Oh,

[00:13:10] Christina: Oh, of course he would. Of course he would because, no, it is always interesting and there are some solo podcasters who can do Okay. Just like radio hosts. But yeah, Ilan would totally be a solo podcaster cuz he doesn’t wanna hear anybody else’s thoughts.

[00:13:23] Brett: Well, can you imagine Joe Rogan, just by himself just talking his shit for an hour at a time?

[00:13:29] Christina: No, no, but, and

[00:13:32] Bryan: the world would’ve been better off if he did that, cuz it would’ve ended

[00:13:35] Christina: I was gonna say, I was gonna say, the unfortunate thing is, is that Joe Rogan is not a dumb person, which is kind of going back to uh, uh, like a thing we were talking about pre-show about certain people. He’s not a dumb person and he’s actually a very good entertainer and a very good like, live performer and understands that for the medium that he’s doing with podcasting, he needs other people.

[00:13:56] Christina: Uh, and, uh, uh, Dave Portnoy, who I also [00:14:00] can’t stand, but also have to kind of respect his skills. He’s the guy from, uh, bar, um, uh, uh, Barstool Schwartz is another thing, like his podcasts are. I, I know why. I completely understand why they’re successful. And he’s also a guy who does solo tos that are compelling.

[00:14:18] Christina: I hate that cuz I, I can’t stand the guy. But he’s, but he’s compelling, but he knows he’s compelling in like 92nd doses. You know,

[00:14:26] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:14:27] Brett: Yeah. Should we take a quick sponsor break?

[00:14:30] It’s Not Really a Sponsor

[00:14:30] Christina: we should, that’s a great segue.

[00:14:32] Bryan: Yeah.

[00:14:32] Brett: This episode is brought to you by none other than Mark Zuckerberg, the confident, evil billionaire. If you’re looking for a winner in the cage match, and a billionaire who would rather waste his money on failed virtual reality ventures than Fallek Spa space exploration vehicles, Zuck is your guy.

[00:14:50] Brett: Head to Zuckerberg for president.com to save 100% on your subscription to Facebook where your data goes farther than any other service. That’s [00:15:00] zuckerberg mma.com for 100% off of your identity. Thanks, mark.

[00:15:06] Bryan: Thanks, mark. We really appreciate it, especially on, you know, this the day three of your new social media project threats.

[00:15:17] The Social Media Landscape

[00:15:17] Brett: the perfect, perfect lead in to, to one of our topics. Should we talk about, should we talk about the threads specifically, but also the, the, the landscape of social media at, in the, in the, in the death rowes of Twitter.

[00:15:35] Christina: yes. Yes, we have to.

[00:15:38] Brett: So, Christina, tell us what threads is.

[00:15:40] Christina: Okay. So Threads is, is Twitter, um, missing a number of features, but it’s, it’s Twitter except you use Instagram as your login. And it turns out that that’s really all you have to do if you wanna get, uh, I th they, they had 70 million users in two days. Um, and, and to be clear, this is not people who, [00:16:00] like, th this is people who had to manually download the app and then opt to log in.

[00:16:04] Christina: So, so this is 70 million signups, like actual things in under two days. They’re gonna hit a hundred million probably within the first week, um, easily. And so it’s one of the most successful, uh, social app launches of all time. But it is essentially Twitter mixing a bunch of features. And again, it’s kind of telling that you can literally do the bare minimum, like all these Twitter clones, Macedon, blue Sky, uh, what’s, what’s the queer one, um, that, that, uh, has been in, in, um, invite only status?

[00:16:34] Bryan: Is that spill?

[00:16:36] Christina: Yes. Spill, uh, a bunch of other ones, like all, all these things that have tried, uh, post, um, there’s, uh, t2, all these things, like they had to like, go out of their way to really be like, oh, look at all these features and look at this and that. And then like, if you have the network effect, you can literally do the minimum viable product that is real minimal and you can get 70 million plus users [00:17:00] in two days.

[00:17:02] Bryan: Yeah, it’s, it’s fascinating. I listened to two podcasts where Adam er was on, um, I think Hard Fork and then

[00:17:16] Christina: It’s the bcast.

[00:17:17] Bryan: the Vergecast. Yeah. And it, it’s fascinating. Um, I It’s very interesting that,

[00:17:24] Christina: Oh, oh. And just for clarification, Atmos runs Instagram, um, at Facebook. Sorry, go on.

[00:17:29] Bryan: Yeah. And Adam Aria is a very interesting man because like Adam Aria is the one who’s like, we’re gonna change everything about Instagram.

[00:17:35] Bryan: And everybody hated him. And then he is like, no, we’re not. Um, um, so he’s used to, he’s used to like getting out there and saying things that people may not like. But this was one, I think what’s really interesting to me is that they’re trying to create Twitter, but not about news.

[00:17:53] Christina: Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s what they say. I, I, I, I wonder how much of that has to do [00:18:00] with a, the EU lawsuit, which is ongoing. So this is interesting. 70 million users, and if you live in Europe, you can’t even sign up unless you use an Apple ID or Google Play account that is not based in the eu. Um, which, look, even if you agree with the EU on this, my personal opinion, this is just the American and me, I think that banning apps from app stores based on their country and whatnot, I think that’s bullshit.

[00:18:22] Christina: I think it’s bullshit when China does it. Uh, if the US tries to ban TikTok, I think it’s bullshit. I think it’s bullshit When the EU does it, like honestly, that’s some draconian, like, like level, just like that’s, that’s fucked. But putting that aside, I wonder if this whole statement about saying, oh, we don’t wanna be about news.

[00:18:40] Christina: It’s not worth a small amount of money for us, is because of the lawsuits they’re in, where they might have to pay publishers and people per post or whatever.

[00:18:48] Bryan: thing too.

[00:18:49] Christina: Yeah, the Canada thing. Exactly. So I wonder if it’s not so much that they care or they wanna discourage it, but if they’re just like, we have to very publicly make it clear, cuz like [00:19:00] Twitter famously changed the way that the app was put in the app store, I think in 2016 to be in news category rather than in the social category.

[00:19:08] Christina: So like Twitter actively went into that direction. Right. So there, there was like a, a meme a while back where people were like, oh, look at how far blue sky is trended in Twitter’s not even the top five. And I was like, that’s not where Twitter is categorized. Um, but like, um, yeah. So I wonder how much of that is like, legitimate and how much of that is based on like the lawsuits and this is just them saying the right things to try to avoid.

[00:19:33] Christina: Uh, the, the, the government’s trying to force them to, to pay for stuff. I don’t know.

[00:19:36] Bryan: Yeah. But it’s also weird because like I, yeah, it is interesting because there also are like applying Instagram’s level of like moderation and filtering to it, which like to me again, since. One of, I mean, one of my primary uses for Twitter is porn. Um, like, I’m just not sure how, I [00:20:00] mean, except that there seem to be all these people signing up, but we’ll see how long they stay around.

[00:20:04] Bryan: Like is there interest? Like can you have a text-based social network that is sustainable? And, uh, I mean, it doesn’t have to be that big in the scheme of Facebook for it to matter or Instagram for it to matter, but that like people will use and doesn’t get boring if you’re not getting into fights about news or looking at porn.

[00:20:25] Christina: Yeah, no, I think that’s a good point, Brett, your thoughts because I I, I, I have many thoughts on this, but I, I don’t wanna dominate this

[00:20:33] Brett: No, no. Please, please continue.

[00:20:35] Christina: okay. So I totally agree with you, and I think this is this interesting thing. And so I’ve been working on this thesis in my mind basically since this launched.

[00:20:42] Christina: And. Even the fact that at like, I’m embarrassed by this, I was like, user like 444,000, which to me is way, way high. Like on any social network, like I feel like I should be way lower on the list. MG Segler who wrote a great post for his, um, blog, um, [00:21:00] 500 words ish, though I think it was more than 500 words.

[00:21:02] Christina: He had a really great analysis that has usually with MG stuff is like everything I’ve been saying in group chats, but didn’t actually take the time to write because that’s why he is great. He actually gets the words out. But he was, you know, he’d been in Europe and so he was like overnight, so he’s like user 1 million or something.

[00:21:19] Christina: And he was mad about that and, and I

[00:21:21] Bryan: 710,000.

[00:21:23] Christina: right, and see we’re early adopters and this is the thing, I kind of had this, the epiphany over the last few days. I don’t think threads is for posters. I think it’s for Normies. And that’s interesting.

[00:21:35] Bryan: for normies? Yeah.

[00:21:36] Christina: I think it is. And, and the thing is, is I, I look as a poster.

[00:21:41] Christina: I don’t like that. And I feel alienated and, and I feel wronged and I feel like this isn’t a place for me. But then I have to look at where the social landscape is today, and I have to ask myself and be very honest to say the moment that allowed. Twitter 1.0 to [00:22:00] exist, has that passed? And, and would you even be able to, if you didn’t have, you know, the monopolies of, of scale and whatnot, and you didn’t have the Elon Musk bullshit and whatnot, could you even create like what, what Twitter 1.0 is now?

[00:22:12] Christina: Like would the, the landscape that exists now except it, and I don’t think it would. And so there’s a part of me that, even though I’m always going to be skeptical about what the long-term interest in these sorts of things is, because I think Twitter’s a great example of this where, you know, like the number of people who logged up, signed up for Twitter accounts in 2011 and then posted a few times, never came back, is massive.

[00:22:36] Christina: Um, I wonder if there is a larger sustainable base of normies and non posters, and if that’s what this is and if this could almost succeed by. Just virtue of, of getting people that would never post to Twitter to begin with. I don’t know. You know what I mean? Like, it’s an interesting thing to think about.

[00:22:57] Christina: It’s not for us though. This is not for posters.

[00:22:59] Bryan: and what’s [00:23:00] interesting is I was an early Twitter signup person, but I did not really start using Twitter until 2019 in like, there was a period in which I caught like back to back to back bands on Facebook for talking about white people. Um, surprise. Um, and so like I Twitter being much more lax about that stuff.

[00:23:31] Bryan: Like I got into Twitter cuz I couldn’t use Facebook, I couldn’t talk to people on Facebook.

[00:23:34] Christina: And that, that, that’s a lot of people’s story. Right. I mean, I think that’s the thing is that Twitter has always had that much more for, and this is the irony, both on the right and the left. It’s for all the people who’ve complained about. Twitter’s censorship policies one way or another. It has honestly, for better or worse, been the least resistant of any of the services.

[00:23:52] Christina: Like their, their terms of service and their content guidelines early on were basically non-existent. They [00:24:00] were like, you can’t have porn in your header or in your profile photo. And that was basically it, like originally. And you know, Facebook is not like that and, um, but most platforms are not like that.

[00:24:11] Christina: But, but, but, but, but there’s, there’s a, a question that I have in my mind, which is, I think that Twitter had an inordinate, and this has always been the case. It had an inordinate amount of influence compared to its relative size and certainly, um, compared to the amount of money that, that it, it made and, and you know, that advertisers were willing to spend on it.

[00:24:28] Christina: And I think that was largely because the posters TM that were on it were, you know, news people, media people. And, and there were some celebrities who would get into high profile feuds, but even most of the celebrities left over the years. Right. And then once it became a Donald Trump and an Elon Musk thing, then that became like a thing that kept it in the news.

[00:24:46] Christina: But like, I. I don’t know. I, I don’t, I feel like Twitter itself has lost a lot of that relevancy and in that aspect, and I don’t think that’s really the case anymore. Um, for, for a variety of reasons. And [00:25:00] so, a, I don’t think you can ever, I don’t know if you can ever recreate like what Twitter was in that sense, that this is like the, the place where highly influential people are talking.

[00:25:09] Christina: I don’t know if you can recreate that and, and have this relatively small service have this outsized amount of attention and influence. But b, I wonder if you were going to do a social posting app. If the normy way as again, like it’s not for us potentially, like if that could actually be successful just because the, the boringness, the sanguineous, the, you know, the brands, the, you know, like Normy, you know, photos, the, the lack of nudes, the lack of, you know, threatening to, to, you know, um, set people on fire, you know, um, would, would be able to, to work because I mean, it works for Instagram, it works for TikTok.

[00:25:50] Christina: You know, YouTube is a little more lax, but you know, those, these are all the platforms that thrive and they’re much more Normy based, so I don’t know.

[00:25:58] Brett: How does Threads [00:26:00] launch without hashtag support? That’s some Twitter

[00:26:03] Bryan: Well, but who? But who? That’s because the normies don’t care about hashtags.

[00:26:07] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they say it’s on the roadmap. Here’s my read. They’ve been working on this for a while. I think that they took advantage of the fact that when, when Twitter last week, for the various reasons, you know, turned off its scraping stuff, which also now based on the, the lawsuit that that Musk is threatening, might be tied to what they thought threads was gonna do.

[00:26:27] Christina: I think that they pushed up the launch.

[00:26:29] Brett: well in the rate limits on Twitter, what, who’s whose brilliant idea was that, I gotta assume, must decided we’re gonna limit how many tweets people can read. That’s just fucking dumb.

[00:26:42] Bryan: I, I read that what I read from somebody, and I’ll see if I can find the link, but they were talking to somebody who used to be a Twitter sre and they were talking about how. If, first of all, it’s unlikely that the cover story, [00:27:00] like the, the, oh, we are getting all our data scrapes, so we’re going to block that is the real reason.

[00:27:06] Bryan: And, and it’s much more that like things were starting to not work well in a way, and that they needed to throttle the system usage and they, and somebody was saying like, that means that like a lot of things are going wrong.

[00:27:21] Christina: Right, right. I, I, I think, I think that’s probably correct. I think part of it was about cover story. I do wonder, especially with how quickly they had the lawsuit, um, threat planned and, and the language that was used there. If they got word that maybe threads was expanding their beta. They started thinking, okay, we know we have a number of former employees working there and we are concerned that threads might be scraping us or some other things.

[00:27:48] Christina: Cuz there were a lot of Twitter scraping sites. Um, but I don’t, I don’t think they impacted, I, I don’t know if they impacted performance or anything else. And if that was, you know, kind of his like impulsive, well we must shut down [00:28:00] this, this potential competitor. And instead all he really did was potentially accelerate.

[00:28:04] Christina: This is again, all my, uh, unfounded speculation. So do not take any of this as, as anything that is for anything more than that. Is, this is completely unfounded. Basically was like, okay, this is backing and, and threads launch. Cause I have a feeling that Threads wasn’t planned to launch the, the week that it launched.

[00:28:24] Christina: I have

[00:28:24] Bryan: No, I think they even literally said that that was the case.

[00:28:27] Christina: Yeah, I mean, I think they took advantage of, of the moment that, that all this is happening. And, um, that’s, if, if you are the, a sensible, you know, on paper CEO of Twitter who is trying to reassure advertisers and sign them back up and then your real boss, um, cuts off the API or throttles how many posts people can see, doesn’t let people view things logged in, all things that advertisers are going to hate.

[00:28:53] Christina: And then the company that literally has the best relationship with advertisers. Advertisers love, [00:29:00] love, love because A, they’ll give you all kinds of data and b, they have just a massive audience and they launched their text thing and they don’t have ads yet, but they’re already talking to brands. Man, wow.

[00:29:11] Christina: That, that would make your job as the on-paper CEO really hard, wouldn’t it? Because

[00:29:15] Brett: Yeah.

[00:29:17] Christina: if you have so much spend to do on, on a text platform, I don’t think you’re gonna spend it on both, you know,

[00:29:23] Bryan: Yeah. And this is what, this is what Facebook or Meta is good at, is like the operational excellence of being able to be like, all right, we’re gonna launch this thing early. We’re gonna make it happen. You know?

[00:29:38] Christina: And it broke a little bit, but it stayed up. Like there were errors, but it was so impressive to see that number of users coming. And yes, there were errors and it was janky, and I was like, I can’t even drag this because this is literally the best I’ve ever seen. Can you even imagine onboarding 70 million users in two days?[00:30:00]

[00:30:00] Christina: Like that’s unreal.

[00:30:02] Bryan: about what happened to Blue Sky right after the rate limits happened. So like, I mean, as we, we can expand our conversation into some of these other social networks. There’s the, the, the, the most buzzies before. Threads was Blue Sky, which is ex Twitter, you know, which is, um, was originally spun out of Twitter.

[00:30:20] Christina: right.

[00:30:20] Bryan: Um, started with money from Jack Dorsey and Twitter I think actually just took a new, uh, 8 million seed round.

[00:30:28] Christina: Yep.

[00:30:29] Bryan: Um,

[00:30:30] Christina: announced the day threads launched. Awful timing. I felt, I felt so bad for them. I felt so bad for them.

[00:30:35] Bryan: um, and the reason probably they announced it that day was the two days before that they were getting hammered left and right because everybody was jumping to Blue Sky because of the, because of the rate limits on Twitter. Um, I think, I mean Blue Sky, I think Blue Sky is very weird.

[00:30:55] Brett: I agree.

[00:30:56] Bryan: It’s like, again, it still feels like Twitter for Normies to some

[00:30:59] Brett: I, [00:31:00] I don’t cotton, I, I don’t cotton to it.

[00:31:02] Bryan: Twitter for shit posters.

[00:31:04] Christina: Yeah. I

[00:31:04] Brett: Jake, Jake Tapin. That’s about the only good thing about Blue.

[00:31:07] Christina: I, I, I was gonna say Blue Sky is for posters, literally Blue Sky. It’s, it’s like, I feel like Blue Sky and Threads are like the, are opposite size of the same coin. Like one is explicitly for posters, one is explicitly for Normies, and I think that this is what’s sort of frustrating is that Twitter was that happy medium and I don’t know if we can ever have that again.

[00:31:27] Bryan: Because like, I like and because Blue Sky really feels like it’s just, there’s a large contingent of people there who are not just posters, but shit posters. Like the, the posters. The joke is the meme. Like, and what I dis for me, I am a, I am an earnest poster, um, al almost to a fault. Um, and

[00:31:48] Christina: does not work there. Which, which, which doesn’t work there.

[00:31:50] Bryan: not at all worked there, but there were like, there was enough of a dilution on Twitter.

[00:31:54] Bryan: On Twitter, you could find everybody.

[00:31:57] Christina: Well that, that, that’s the thing. This is what, this is what I [00:32:00] think like makes me saddest about Twitter as inevitable to demise and decline and whatnot. Even if it continues as an ongoing concern, is that for me, for so many years it was my primary social platform because it was the only place where I could be all parts of myself.

[00:32:15] Christina: I could be the shit poster, I could be like the, the, the earnest person. I could be the tech person, I could be the pop culture stand. I could be like all those things. And I would have different followers for different reasons and I would be discovered by different people in different groups. And I never felt like I had to stick in one box on Blue Sky.

[00:32:33] Christina: I do feel like I have to basically be in shit post mode on Mastodon. I feel like I have to be in more tech earnest mode. I’m still figuring out what I can be on threads. And it’s, it’s weird cuz Instagram has always been more curated, but I’ve never. Invested a ton of time on Instagram. Um, and I mean, I had, I have like 6,000 followers there, which for my standards is like, I know this sounds awful, but, but compared to my other, but compared to my other [00:33:00] accounts, it’s not, but compared to my other accounts, it’s like microscopic.

[00:33:04] Christina: And so, but, but here’s what’s interesting. Two, three days on threads. I already have a thousand followers more than I have on Blue Sky, where I was active and actively posting up until

[00:33:14] Brett: Well, because everyone, everyone who followed you on, on Instagram automatically becomes a follower.

[00:33:21] Christina: Well, not automatically. Like you have to opt in. I I chose

[00:33:24] Bryan: and because there is no follow and because there is no following right now. Cause it’s all algorithm. The graph is all algorithmic, like that timeline, there is no following right now. So, and they say that’s on the roadmap, which is fascinating because they’ve been leaning so hard into the algorithmic thing that I would, and actually I think that that’s one of Twitter’s strengths,

[00:33:45] Christina: I agree.

[00:33:46] Brett: Can I tell my joke? Can I tell my joke? That went really poorly on threads.

[00:33:49] Christina: Yes. I

[00:33:50] Bryan: so ex Yeah, I saw it. It was so good.

[00:33:52] Brett: I, I kicked off my account with a meme that said my friend got mad at me for sniffing his sister’s panties. [00:34:00] I’m not sure if it was because she was still wearing them or because his whole family was present. Either way, it made the rest of the funeral really awkward.

[00:34:09] Bryan: Uh, so good. It’s so good.

[00:34:12] Brett: It got

[00:34:12] Bryan: It’s so good because there,

[00:34:14] Brett: two likes.

[00:34:15] Bryan: it’s, this is the thing though. That’s because, that’s because Twitter is like, or like, because Instagram, like that’s not the Instagram content.

[00:34:23] Christina: no, it’s not. Not even remotely.

[00:34:26] Bryan: Yeah, but that’s so good because

[00:34:28] Brett: I should note that at the bottom of this meme, there’s a picture of Yahweh, God, and he says, Noah, and the next frame, his eyes are lit up and it says, get the boat.

[00:34:39] Bryan: I love that joke because there are three different points where you’re like, holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.

[00:34:51] Brett: I said, I said the whole thing, straight face to someone, as if I were giving them an update on something that really happened to me last night. And it took, it [00:35:00] took a minute, uh, for them to process that this was a joke. And

[00:35:05] Bryan: that’s a tick. That’s a TikTok joke, Brett.

[00:35:08] Brett: I’m not onac.

[00:35:09] Bryan: that’s, that’s a But you could, that’s a cut. That’s a cut. That’s a cut scene. TikTok joke. would work really well. Um, I saw somebody who did a TikTok where like, and, and maybe I saw again because this is how the world works now, and this is the other, this is my other thesis, which is that Twitter is particularly great for a d h ADHD posters,

[00:35:29] Christina: Oh, 100%.

[00:35:31] Bryan: uh, because of that thing where we can dip into all of our different interests so easily.

[00:35:36] Bryan: Um, and this idea that I have to post to five different social networks, no thank you. Like, absolutely not. do not have the focus to post across multiple, multiple social networks.

[00:35:48] Brett: Do you, do you remember? So I have gotten multiple requests, um, on various, uh, networks, mostly on Macedon for, uh, a revival of an [00:36:00] my first app mood blast. Um, I had written, I had written an app, mostly an Apple script actually. I was just getting into Max at the time and I had written an app that would post to.

[00:36:13] Brett: Jaiku and Addium and Skype and Twitter and Facebook all at once. And you could use like different codes and stuff. Uh, it had like a command line syntax when you were posting to like determine what went where and, uh, and you could set your, like your chat status at the same time as you like sent out a, a status update.

[00:36:36] Brett: And it was in its day. It it was, it was good. It was very popular. Um, it’s how I met like Merlin Mann. It’s how I, it’s how I met. It’s how I got my gig at the unofficial Apple

[00:36:49] Christina: I was gonna say, I was gonna say, I’m almost positive that I used mood blaster.

[00:36:53] Brett: David Charty, I wrote about like every single update I ever put out to it, like

[00:36:57] Bryan: Amazing.

[00:36:58] Brett: wrote about it on the blog [00:37:00] and, and people are like, you know, the time the, we’re back to those wild West days

[00:37:05] Christina: are,

[00:37:07] Brett: where you don’t know what’s gonna win, the, what’s gonna win the battle yet, and everything seems new and fresh.

[00:37:13] Christina: yep. Yeah, which is

[00:37:14] Bryan: would be great.

[00:37:15] Christina: Would, I mean, I wish we could do that. I mean, I think it’s, it’s interesting, um, uh, Matthew, um, uh, Casini, the, the shortcuts guy, uh, was, was writing about, you know, that I think about potentially creating shortcuts so you could crosspost things, which actually is a pretty good, um, rudimentary way to get around some of the a p i challenges, you know, for Twitter and whatnot.

[00:37:35] Christina: I will say this is the one aspect of threads that has me sort of excited, and that is that they have said publicly, like their commitment to activity pub, because putting aside the, the drama of all the various instances that won’t federate with it because they’re fucking babies and don’t think about their users and are little bitches, like, I’m sorry, but that’s my opinion.

[00:37:54] Christina: Like, if, if, if, I think that should be a user decision, not a, um, admin decision. But I [00:38:00] also find most, most, not all, but most ma on admins to be on power trips because they are like Reddit admins and Wikipedia editors times 10. But, but like if you think about that, if they adopt Activity pub, that then opens up.

[00:38:14] Christina: Really interesting possibilities for being able to cross post and maybe customize, like you were saying with um, uh, you know, like your mood, like, um, ice Cubes, which is Amadon app, uh, this weekend introduced like the, the first kind of iteration of their using a Blue sky bridge so you can post to Blue Sky from, from Ice cubes, which is awesome.

[00:38:35] Christina: And it doesn’t do everything, but it does a lot of stuff and like, that’s really cool. You know, Manton, who’s been doing micro.blog for like, almost, you know, 10 years now, um, uh, like is, I’m sure that as soon as Instagram or uh, threads, whatever has integration will build that into, you know, micro blog. And I feel like he’s really been on the forefront of the, the, the best options [00:39:00] for all of us of us.

[00:39:00] Christina: We try to determine where to go, but yeah, I think if, if you could bring back mood poster, that would be amazing.

[00:39:06] Brett: I do appreciate that these new services are, um, putting APIs, uh, forefront in their, in their plans. Like Threads is planning to, uh, be at Activity Pub compatible. Blue Sky has its own, um, a p i its own what framework, I guess, um, that that is easy to work with. Like the, the number of, of integrations is already, there are already numerous ways to post to Blue Sky.

[00:39:38] Brett: Um, and that, I mean, that’s what made Twitter in the early

[00:39:42] Christina: No, it’s 100% What made

[00:39:44] Brett: and I hope that they continue. I hope they don’t pull a Twitter and let third party developers make their app big and then. Fuck them over. Um, although I have no reason to believe that won’t be the case. Uh, once, [00:40:00] once you start making money, once you have the, once you have the footing, why wouldn’t you cut those people out?

[00:40:05] Christina: I mean, I think it depends, right? Cuz it’s sort of like, I mean like it took Reddit, you know, 15 years to, to do that. And so you’re right, it might be inevitable, but at the same time, like if you’re using a protocol, unless you wanna rewrite everything you’ve done, which look you could, but that’s a lot of work.

[00:40:20] Christina: Um, so. I, I don’t know. I feel like at Proto, which is what, uh, blue Sky uses and, and if, you know, they really do, if, if, if Threads really does come to Activity Pub, which people were already finding activity pub stuff within it before it even launched. So I think that it’s already kind of there. They just haven’t turned on the, the Federation stuff.

[00:40:39] Christina: I will say this, this was something that was interesting that, uh, our audience is probably gonna be some of the only people who are interested in this, that I discovered in like the first hour of playing with Threads. It has an export function. I’m sure this is for GDPR reasons. However, it is better than like the Instagram, you know, like request all of your data thing.

[00:40:59] Christina: There is a [00:41:00] way for you to export all of your threads from the app. Now it’s weird how it does it, it doesn’t give you a J S O N file. It doesn’t give you whatnot. You have a few different places you can export to, and this is what the weird part is. One is blogger. Okay? Yeah. One is some journal service that I’ve never heard of.

[00:41:22] Christina: One is, um, wordpress.com by a Jetpack, and that’s sort of interesting. And then the third one, the fourth one, and this was the one that I tried because I, I thought that it was gonna do it in a way that was different than it did was Google Docs.

[00:41:35] Brett: Really so.

[00:41:36] Christina: The way that it does it, and I only had like 10 threads at the time, so don’t do this if you have a lot of threads, was that it literally creates a doc for every single post that you’ve made.

[00:41:46] Brett: That’s useless. That’s that’s useless.

[00:41:49] Christina: useless. But, but here, what was interesting, the media that was embedded in those things is also embedded in the Google Doc. And, and I have to say, like, again, janky as all get out [00:42:00] Blogger is weird. It seemed like

[00:42:01] Brett: For sure.

[00:42:02] Christina: like, like, like I, I, I don’t know if they found some sort of other open source thing that they just like reused.

[00:42:07] Christina: Again, this journaling service that I’ve never heard of. It was a weird ass thing, but I was like, okay, this is here day one. So clearly some of the engineers have been playing with this idea of archiving from the get go, and that that’s even better than Mastodon right now, because Mastodon, to get your data out is kind of a pain in the ass.

[00:42:27] Christina: And, and, uh, and, and not a great process at all. And this is like the best of all of them, even though the places you could port it to are weird.

[00:42:37] Bryan: Is Blogger just a call out to

[00:42:39] Christina: I have no idea. I have no idea. Like, I, I, I, I, I, I assume it’s because they still have an API that they could like point things to because Blogger has been in perpetual maintenance mode. I think that’s probably what it was. I think this is probably something that just the, you know, the engineers are playing with, oh, speaking of engineers, they, they hired Jane Wong.

[00:42:57] Christina: Um, that’s [00:43:00] awesome. That’s awesome.

[00:43:02] Brett: Who’s that?

[00:43:02] Christina: So she is the person who reverse engineered both the Twitter and the Facebook apps for like years and would find all the hidden stuff. But she lived in Hong Kong and had been trying to get out for a while because she’d been public about her dislike for like China, you know, and all the bullshit they’re doing and the protests and stuff.

[00:43:18] Christina: And she announced she was moving into the Bay Area a few months ago and we didn’t know why. And then she announced that she was hired to work on um, threads. And I know, I know for a fact Twitter tried to hire her for a long time and I think that it was difficult. I think the Visa issues probably made it really hard.

[00:43:33] Christina: So the fact that that meta did the thing and got her out there, that’s honestly, that was one of the, the few encouraging signs I had. I was like, okay, some of the talent you’ve hired to work on this is at least really understanding of the space and really, really good. Even though I’ll obviously miss her, you know, reverse engineering and dissecting all of their app bundles.

[00:43:54] Brett: So.

[00:43:54] Bryan: Yeah. It’s like I, it’s like I still miss, um, Anand.

[00:43:59] Christina: [00:44:00] Yes. Still.

[00:44:00] Bryan: So much.

[00:44:02] Christina: He was the best. He was the best. And then Brian, too, who like kind of took over him. He, he left like two years later and also was at Apple. But I kind of love that the people, the guy who used to explain, you know, how silicon stuff works to me is l is, you know, assuredly working on apple silicon.

[00:44:19] Christina: That’s kind of an amazing glow up.

[00:44:21] Bryan: Maybe we can get the real Mac Pro one of these days.

[00:44:25] Christina: Oh my God.

[00:44:26] The Bear (or Silver Fox)

[00:44:26] Brett: So can we talk real quick about the bear before we do a gude?

[00:44:31] Bryan: didn’t know you were gonna talk about me, but, okay.

[00:44:34] Christina: Ba bump.

[00:44:35] Brett: but, um, um, what am I, where do I fit into the gay community? not a dolphin. I’m not a twink. I’m not a, I’m kind of a bear, I guess. I guess I’m a,

[00:44:46] Bryan: otter. You’re an

[00:44:47] Christina: for bear.

[00:44:48] Brett: I’m an otter? I’m,

[00:44:50] Bryan: Yeah. I think

[00:44:50] Brett: aren’t I too old to be an otter?

[00:44:52] Bryan: Uh, no otter’s, not necessarily age. Um, you could also be, I mean, [00:45:00] uh, you could maybe be like a wolf.

[00:45:03] Brett: Oh, like a, like a f like a silver fox.

[00:45:07] Bryan: Yeah, yeah, yeah,

[00:45:09] Christina: Oh. Or he could be like, he’d be like a silver daddy is, or what? What’s the

[00:45:12] Bryan: yeah, yeah, yeah. Silver fox. So like, Anderson Cooper is a silver fox, but Anderson Cooper is like a vi, like Anderson Cooper is like, you would be like a silver wolf, I would say, because like Anderson Cooper is too pretty.

[00:45:26] Brett: What do you call a fat fox?

[00:45:31] Bryan: I don’t know.

[00:45:32] Brett: Um, so anyway, uh, the, the latest season of the bear came out on Hulu and I had been anxiously awaiting it cuz it’s honestly some of the best writing. On TV right now, and there is an episode in the middle of the season, uh, that’s a flashback to kind of like, uh, Carmen’s origin story, his family. And like you see like where Mikey, his brother who died, fits into the [00:46:00] family and you meet his mom played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who does a fucking award-winning job of playing a goddamn psycho.

[00:46:10] Brett: Um, it was intense. I almost didn’t wanna watch the next episode because it was so stressful getting through that family episode. Have you guys seen, do you know what I’m talking

[00:46:22] Christina: Um, I haven’t wa I haven’t watched all of season two. I’m, So,

[00:46:25] Christina: I, so I’m not there

[00:46:26] Brett: seen the family episode

[00:46:27] Christina: Not yet. I think, I think I’m like the one before that.

[00:46:29] Brett: be warned. It is stressful. It is. Uh, John Mullaney is in it, uh, which is just outstanding. He plays, he plays this like, There’s a scene where he’s talking to, uh, the FAC brothers and they’re like, if you give us $500, we’re gonna like invest it in, in like trading cards, I think.

[00:46:51] Brett: And, and he’s like, yeah, I’m a, I’m an adult male. I can come up with $500 and you know what? I’m gonna give it to you because I’m entertained to see what you, [00:47:00] what you’re going to do with it. And it’s just like a perfect malaney character. I love it. Um, as we’re talking balloons keep flying up around my head and I don’t know what it is I’m saying that makes that happen.

[00:47:12] Brett: Um, I wish I could, I wish I could figure out how to do this on cue.

[00:47:16] Christina: Yeah. I was gonna say, what, what’s, what’s the deal with that? But I was also kind of like, I, I love it. I

[00:47:22] Brett: It’s happened. It ha it happened to me last episode too. Just like balloons and I don’t fucking great. I think I’d say fucking great. And then balloons

[00:47:31] Christina: I was gonna say, you, you did something in one of your automations like this is, this is, you know, it’s probably attached to your, your, um, stream deck in some way. Like, you, you’ve done something in your automations. I know it.

[00:47:42] Bryan: I love it. I love it so much. Who, yeah, I haven’t watched any of the Bear.

[00:47:48] Brett: What you have to,

[00:47:50] Bryan: I, I, I, I will add it to my list. I was just rewatching all of the Mission Impossible movies. Um,

[00:47:58] Brett: that’s a good time. It’s

[00:47:59] Bryan: I, [00:48:00] yeah. There again, considerably better than they have any right to be.

[00:48:04] Christina: Oh yeah.

[00:48:05] Brett: Sure.

[00:48:06] Christina: They’re like the fast and the Furious movies, but like, good, you know what I mean? Like, like, like actually like good acting and yeah.

[00:48:13] Bryan: I mean, give, listen. The person that I actually think is one of the best actors in the face and furious movies is Tyrese.

[00:48:19] Christina: Oh, you’re not wrong. You’re not wrong. Look, and, and here, here’s the thing. I, I will become a Tyrese, stand for a second. Um, John Singleton. John Singleton, r i p, one of the, our greatest filmmakers. Um, his, uh, 2001 film Baby Boy, which was originally supposed to start Tupac, but, uh, he cast Tyrese instead because Tupac, you know, murdered, um, is, is an amazing film.

[00:48:40] Christina: Uh, Taraji, uh, uh, uh, what’s her face? Um, cookie, obviously. Um, I, I, I’m Henson, uh, it is in it. Ving Rames. I can’t think of who plays, um, his mom. It is a fantastic, fantastic portrait of, uh, kind of like, um, um, you know, uh, black, like youth like coming [00:49:00] of age sort of thing. And Tyrese is exceptional in it.

[00:49:05] Bryan: Also Ving Rames, my God, who’s in all the Mission Impossible movies I,

[00:49:11] Christina: good. He’s so funny.

[00:49:13] Bryan: and also that man is beautiful.

[00:49:16] Christina: is so beautiful. He is so beautiful.

[00:49:19] Bryan: I’m also, I also just started watching Hijack on Apple TV plus, and that’s Idris Alba.

[00:49:27] Brett: Nice.

[00:49:28] Bryan: Another beautiful man. Um, yeah, I love the, I do love that the Fast and Furious movies got ludicrous and Tyse.

[00:49:38] Christina: Same And Ludacris. Also, Ludacris also a good actor. Like, like, like, like, like, you know, like I, I know that like, it’s, it’s a meme cuz it’s a, it’s not a great movie, but it is what it is. But, um, uh, A crash was an Oscar winning film and like Ludacris was fucking in crash. And he was good in it. Yes. And he was good in it.

[00:49:57] Christina: And he was good in it. And, [00:50:00] and, uh, he’s, he’s a, Chris is a good actor, like Georgia State represent

[00:50:06] Brett: So,

[00:50:06] Christina: what.

[00:50:07] Brett: speaking of Tupac, did you guys see Dear Mama,

[00:50:11] Christina: No.

[00:50:11] Bryan: no.

[00:50:12] Brett: a documentary, it’s a Tupac documentary. I think it’s on Hulu. And, uh, it was actually, I think, I think it was like a multi-part mini series. And it goes through like his, his like high school years, his upbringing with like the Black Panthers and like kind of his, uh, ification and like his beliefs and his like multiple, like the multiple times he’d almost been killed before he was killed.

[00:50:43] Brett: And it was, it was enlightening. I, uh, I was a Tupac fan. I, I, I could probably recite. Quite a few Tupac lyrics from memory. Um, but I was just, you know, another one of those white kids who, who dug gangster [00:51:00] rap,

[00:51:00] Christina: I remember, I remember when he was sh I remember when he was shot. Like that was like the biggest news in seventh grade. Like that was like, it was like, it was,

[00:51:09] Brett: Kurt Loder had a lot to say about that.

[00:51:11] Christina: well it was just nuts because we were all watching that fight. And then Tupac, who like, like it seemed like he was gonna be okay, you know, cuz he was in the hospital for a few days.

[00:51:19] Christina: Like we thought he was gonna be okay and then he died. And like, I mean I obviously remember Kurt Cobain and that being like a massive cultural moment, but I think Tupac was like the first one that really hit me because I was finally at an age where I could be like, oh shit, you know,

[00:51:35] Brett: Yeah. Yeah. I, I recommend anyone who, anyone who’s curious. Uh, dear Mama. Yeah. All right, let’s, uh, let’s do some gratitude. Um,

[00:51:47] GrAPPtitude

[00:51:47] Bryan: gratitude.

[00:51:48] Brett: Let’s see who wants to kick it off.

[00:51:51] Christina: Uh, I’ll start. So the one that I picked is an app that came out, um, I think like at the end of June. So I like missed like its first week [00:52:00] out there, so I apologize Anders, but it’s from Anders Borum who created a working copy and, um, the, uh, his, uh, what’s his Shell app? Um, a shellfish or whatever, a shellfish app.

[00:52:11] Christina: So which are, which are two, um, iOS apps that are, are really great. Like Shellfish app is, is a SSH client, but also works with, um, the Files app on, on iOS and working copy is, in my opinion, the best get client, um, available for iOS. Well, he released S3 files, which is, uh, a universal app. It’s $3 a month or it’s $15 as a one-time purchase.

[00:52:36] Christina: And it’s an S3 client, um, that will let you access S3 compatible storage. So things like Amazon s3, um, backblaze, b2, CloudFlare, R two, Oracles, whatever, like anything that that uses the S3 spec, which is most services like DigitalOcean, um, has them. Um, and um, it’ll basically let you integrate that inside the files app, uh, [00:53:00] share sheet.

[00:53:00] Christina: You can use it with shortcuts and it even works with Finder on Mac. And the way that, that, uh, he’s doing this is that he’s making it like an official, um, uh, like, um, file provider on NACO West, which is really, really interesting. And so you can literally have this, you know, um, in, in your finder and have like, uh, one of these drives always mounted.

[00:53:25] Christina: And yes, there have been ways to, to do that for a long time through apps like Transmit and, um, a forklift and others. But this, I think, is actually a really, really smart way. And to my knowledge, I haven’t seen any others that would let you do this as like a file provider in the Files app on, on iOS. Like I’ve always had to use, you know, like a third party kind of things to do that.

[00:53:47] Christina: So, um, I, I’ve only been using this for like less than 12 hours, but I’m really impressed. I think Anders is great stuff, so, um,

[00:53:55] Brett: very cool. Yeah. Um, one of my jobs right now at Oracle is [00:54:00] to figure out, they have a, their object storage has an s3, a p i, uh, like you can, you can just port from Amazon to Oracle.

[00:54:09] Christina: Yeah. And it’s supported. It’s, it, it’s, it’s called out as being

[00:54:11] Brett: oh. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Um, I should, I should definitely write about that for Oracle. They would love that.

[00:54:18] Brett: Um, yeah. Cool, cool, cool. Cool. Cool, cool. Um, uh, Brian, do you wanna, do you wanna do a pick.

[00:54:26] Bryan: Sure. Yeah. Um, I switched my pick as I was thinking. This is, um, I’m gonna call out, uh, an app called SQL Pro Studio.

[00:54:34] Christina: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Great app. Great

[00:54:36] Bryan: part of set up, it’s made by Kyle Hankinson, who has like a sort of suite of SQL apps that he develops, uh, in independently, and then also has a mud client, which I love because it takes me back to the days of like, uh, tech space adventures.

[00:54:57] Bryan: But, um, It’s such a [00:55:00] great, like if you work with databases at all, if you work, um, and like you have to query them, you often get stuck with a lot of like cross-platform Java based apps to manage those databases. And this is a fully featured like straight up, uh, you know, Mac Ask Mac app for SQL database management and I deal with SQL databases all the time at work.

[00:55:29] Bryan: And so it’s really, really wonderful and I really, really love it. I used to use his apps before I got, uh, set up and was really thrilled to see them in set up. And he has iOS apps too, so if you need to manage them on iOS, you can do that as well.

[00:55:42] Christina: That’s awesome.

[00:55:44] Brett: Speaking of setup, they just made their family, they, they, they made some changes to their family plan that actually, for most users, made the family plan cheaper or added more seats to it. Uh, a rare instance of a [00:56:00] company modifying their pricing structure to the benefit of users for once I,

[00:56:06] Bryan: amazing.

[00:56:07] Christina: really great.

[00:56:08] Brett: got, I got one extra seat.

[00:56:09] Brett: And, and I actually, everyone in my family who needs setup already has set up. Uh, but no, I have, I have one seat. I’m gonna offer it to Jeff, see if he, uh, if he needs some, some setup.

[00:56:20] Christina: Oh yeah, that’s a great idea. That’s a great idea.

[00:56:23] Bryan: did you know that Setup has a corporate licensing process set up for teams, um, which is only $10 a user a month?

[00:56:36] Brett: huh?

[00:56:36] Christina: Oh, that’s cool. I wonder if I could get that through our, our provisioning process.

[00:56:40] Bryan: Exactly. That’s what I’m having the conversation at Sonos, because I’m like the number of people who use Max at Sonos, who I know like, and to be able to have all of those apps sort of like, look, we like to rely on set apps verification process instead of having to do all the verification yourself would be great for our security team.

[00:56:59] Bryan: Yeah, I [00:57:00] would think we would really love that.

[00:57:01] Brett: Very cool. Um, I am going to pick hardware this week. I just got the stream deck pedal. I swore I wasn’t gonna, um, I just, all I really wanted was a cough button. Right. Um, I just wanted to like be able to mute my mic with my foot and, uh, I first tried like this $18 u s b pedal, cuz I thought for if I can do it for $18, great.

[00:57:32] Brett: But the, the pedal I bought, you have to, you have to use Windows to configure it. And it has to be set to like one specific keyboard key that it will send. And, and when I plugged it into my powered u s B hub, everything shut down because it took too, it drew too much power. How does a pedal, how does a switch dropped?

[00:57:55] Brett: I don’t know. I don’t, I do not understand, but it’s a piece of shit. So I was like, [00:58:00] fine, I’m gonna get the Stream deck pedal. And it has been great and Better. Touch Tool has great support for it, and you can, it has three switches on it and you can make all kinds of different things happen and you can have application specific profiles and yes, I do have, I have a, a cough button and, and it’s great, but I’ve also been playing around a lot with what I can do with, uh, with better touch tool.

[00:58:26] Brett: Um, if I come up with any great automations, I’ll share them in the future. But for right now, I’m just gonna say it is a solid piece of hardware from El Gado, um, that. That does exactly what it’s advertised as. It costs like 80 bucks, which for a good piece of hardware isn’t terrible. Um, pretty happy.

[00:58:46] Christina: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. I be, I, I was looking at that. I have to say, like, I, um, think that, um, whatchamacallit, um, El Gado stuff. Like I, I buy almost everything they make because [00:59:00] when it comes to the streaming gear stuff, they just, they nail it. They nail it.

[00:59:04] Brett: Yeah. I have, uh, I have two stream decks and a stream deck plus, and the wave XLR and a key light and the pedal. Um, I’m, I’m in, I’m in Delgado Stan.

[00:59:16] Christina: Yeah. Same. I was gonna say, go on.

[00:59:19] Bryan: the only thing I don’t like, I have the wave lp, the low profile mics. It’s the low profile mic stand.

[00:59:26] Brett: Okay.

[00:59:27] Bryan: And it’s a little like, right? Like, like it’s loose. It doesn’t,

[00:59:33] Brett: Uh,

[00:59:34] Bryan: yeah. The low profile max in is the only thing that I’ve ever, yeah.

[00:59:37] Brett: Their stuff’s not perfect, but for the price, it does a great job and they have a great return policy. Um, and repla, their, their customer support is very responsive. So when things do break, I’ve always been able to get a brand new one shipped to me at no charge.

[00:59:52] Christina: I was gonna say, didn’t they like really like hook you up, like when one of your stream decks broke, like didn’t

[00:59:56] Brett: yeah, two of them.

[00:59:57] Christina: two of them? Yeah. Um, I was gonna say, [01:00:00] I’ve been impressed with that cuz I’ve got two key light errors. I have one of their stands, um, uh, that like, uh, that got, I have uh, the green screen, which I haven’t used.

[01:00:09] Christina: I have the, the cam link 4k, I have the HD 60 s plus. This was all from the, you know, um, uh, working from home era. Um,

[01:00:19] Christina: I, I’ve got the cam league is fantastic. Um, I’ve got the, um, you know, way to utilize your thousand dollar camera as a webcam. Uh, really good. I’ve got

[01:00:28] Brett: their H 2 64 stick?

[01:00:30] Christina: yes,

[01:00:31] Brett: Yeah.

[01:00:32] Christina: back in the day. Yeah.

[01:00:34] Brett: we needed to offload our H 2 64 encoding.

[01:00:37] Christina: Yeah. I mean, should I had like a, remember when they used to do like the I T V.

[01:00:42] Brett: No. Oh yeah. I, I still have one of those new inbox. I found it the other

[01:00:47] Bryan: what?

[01:00:47] Christina: me too, actually. And what’s funny is that like obviously they sold that, that that business off or whatnot and, and they got away from their Mac roots, which is fine. Um, and, and of course Sarah’s owned them for a while, but like I will always love Al Gado, like going back to the Mac [01:01:00] days for the, the H 2 64 stick, the I t v, the itd pro, like those things cuz nobody else at that time was making, um, any of these devices that would work on the Mac and um, and to this, and it’s weird because a lot of the stuff that they make still, you can find people who will do commodity versions and will work on Windows.

[01:01:18] Christina: And to your point, like you just n you literally just described it, you know, like with the pedal where people will come up with like a, a cheaper version and if you use Windows or whatever, that’s fine. But if you need that level of polish, there are not any companies that do it. And I was worried when Coursera bought them.

[01:01:33] Christina: But they’ve only expanded. They’ve only gotten better. And I think course has actually been very smart about recognizing we have the kind of premium streaming brand in this space. And by premium I mean like for normal people to buy. Not like getting into the professional, oh my God, Brian is showing us their puppy.

[01:01:52] Christina: And it is the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen.

[01:01:55] Bryan: Yeah, Nathan just opened the door and he didn’t know I was podcasting, and so I just [01:02:00] got like three more of our puppies. This is Dr. Pink.

[01:02:05] Christina: Dr. Pink,

[01:02:06] Bryan: He’s a tricolor.

[01:02:09] Christina: this is so great.

[01:02:10] Bryan: Yeah.

[01:02:11] Brett: yeah, I would, I would also mention that the stream deck pedal comes with a box of, uh, springs and switches, so you can

[01:02:19] Bryan: Oh, nice.

[01:02:20] Brett: tension and the, uh, tactility of the pedal. That’s

[01:02:25] Bryan: brilliant. That’s really nice.

[01:02:27] Christina: really good.

[01:02:29] Brett: All right. Well, I think that wraps up, uh, a good, a good episode. Thanks for being here, Brian.

[01:02:36] Bryan: Always. You know that. Always be here.

[01:02:39] Brett: Thank you too, Christina. It’s always nice to have you.

[01:02:41] Christina: Thank you. Thank you. And Brian? Yes. Thank you for joining us. Um, we love having you and, uh, this is a good talk. I’m, I’m glad that, uh,

[01:02:48] Bryan: It’s always great to

[01:02:49] Christina: got to catch

[01:02:49] Bryan: both of you.

[01:02:51] Brett: All right, you guys get some sleep.

[01:02:53] Christina: Get some sleep.

[01:02:55] Bryan: Get some sleep. That was Dr. Pink.

[01:02:57] Christina: I.[01:03:00]