Posts Tagged ‘#squoose’

Podcast #4: Requiem For A (Flash) Dream

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Last night I joined the incomparable Dylan Wilbanks to record the fourth episode of our epic podcast Squirrel and Moose.

In it we spend nearly thirty minutes beating up Flash for its lunch money, officially stating what everyone knew years ago: Flash is dead.

So I guess we were beating up a corpse. Or maybe a zombie. The former would make us deranged, the latter would make us heroes. So I’ll go with the latter. We’re god-damned heroes. We deserve medals. And like Chewbacca, we’ll go overlooked. It’s a cruel world.

Specifically we start by discussing the decisions involving IE10 not including Flash, then begrudgingly including it but white-listing Flash sites. Somewhere along the way we start making fun of most of the Southern Hemisphere. Because let’s be honest, your toilets flush backwards. Which is a sin against all mankind.

I think this ties in beautifully to our last episode, wherein we discussed tool obsession. Flash is a tool, and that tool’s days are drawing to an end. The sooner people jump ship to newer tools, the better off they’ll be. And hey, Adobe is there to help you. They already know Flash is dead and are building all sorts of crazy new tools to replace it.

All this and Dylan’s sexy post-cold voice. Available exclusively at 3rdaverad.io. You can fill your earholes with the podcast there by listening directly at the site, via RSS, or through iTunes.

Flash. IE10. Got opinions? Of course you do. Share them. Respond via one of the methods below, or tweet @dylanw and @cssquirrel with the hashtag #squoose filled with your mind candy.

 

Podcast Episode #3: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s Squirrel And Moose

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Another Thursday, another awesome Squirrel and Moose podcast featuring the eloquent Dylan Wilbanks and myself.

This week we discuss in detail our thoughts on UX Designers specifically, and anyone in general, who gets more obsessed over their tools than the results or actual user needs. AKA, we have a nice detailed talk about Aarron Walter’s newsletter that I mentioned in Wednesday’s comic post.

Dylan is a UX Designer, so his take on the topic is informative, nuanced, and intelligent.

We also say “bollocks” several times at the episode’s start and use a few more dirty words. Because that’s what happens when you quote Andy Clarke.

So, if you’re British you might want to fortify yourself before listening.

Thanks to some killer support from some friends on Twitter, I was able to nail down my sound problems via Audacity and some compression. Your earbuds should be spared from any wrath while they consume the sound candy that is our lively banter.

As always, the podcast is hosted exclusively through 3rdaverad.io, who make it available via iTunes and RSS (or just listen straight on the site!) If you have the time I’d love it if you took a listen, and if you’ve got thoughts please share them with Dylan and I on Twitter with the hashtag #squoose. We’d love to hear from you.

Podcast Episode #2: Skags Alpha Beta, or The Stephanie Hobson Appreciation Society

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Last night Dylan Wilbanks and I recorded episode 2 of our weekly podcast for people that make websites.

In which we discussed video games.

I swear it connects.

We open up with a new feature where we give corrections for any incorrect statements in the first episode, then dig right in. Our first topic was Borderlands 2. Specifically we discussed the experience of digital downloads versus getting a disc in the mail, consoles versus PCs, and several of the user experience issues that come to light when playing (such as the overwhelming information from the game’s millions of guns that drowns the user in too much data to be useful at times).

Just so we’re clear, I love the game. I’m a big Axton fan. Dylan is all about Salvador. (Janae, my co-pilot in split-screen co-op at home, is enjoying Maya quite a bit but looking forward to the Mechromancer in October). But seriously, it’s hard to tell if a gun is good before you shoot it, and considering how often guns drop, that can get a bit aggravating.

We then transitioned into discussing Anna Debenham’s A List Apart article about testing websites in game consoles (which I previously discussed in a comic and post earlier), and the implications that has for website creators in how we design. It reinforces the issues of needing to test on multiple devices, but the danger of building for specific ones.

We keep it all under the 40 minute mark for Stephanie Hobson’s sake. Because between 20 and 40 is her limit.

Although we have less sound problems than before, there’s some issues with my sound levels jumping around on my microphone. So there’s going to be some spikiness there. I’m looking into getting a new mic and some better recording software (any suggestions out there for either? Please let me know!)

We’d love it if you go listen to us. The podcast is hosted exclusively through 3rdaverad.io, who make it available via iTunes and RSS. If you’ve heard what we said and want to share your opinions, please feel free to tweet at @dylanw and @cssquirrel with the hashtag #squoose.

Podcast Episode #1: It’s An Alpha, or We’ll Do It Live

Friday, September 21st, 2012

Last night Dylan Wilbanks and I sat down at our respective computers in Seattle and Bellingham and made the first episode of our podcast: Squirrel and Moose.

It wasn’t quite a disaster, but it came pretty close at times. My desktop seems to have an allergic reaction to microphones, so my connection cut out several times before swapping to a laptop seems to have fixed up the problem.

Between tech problems (and Dylan’s heroic efforts to fix them) we decide to piss everyone off. Our first topic is to pick fun at the strangely uninspiring iOS6 (especially its new Maps app) and Dylan gets into a monologue about skeumorphism (the worst of all morphs). After that we dive straight into the kind of territory only two white men can possibly do the worst, and discuss the topic of sexism by taking about a tweet by user experience superstar Whitney Hess wherein she takes men to task for calling women girls (and the conversation of tweets that followed).

Dylan kept it professional while I blindly forged through the minefield while describing my own experiences with the terminology.

You can listen to the show via 3rd Avenue Radio, which will make every episode of ours available via RSS and iTunes.

Squirrel and Moose Episode #1: It’s An Alpha, or We’ll Do It Live

When you’re done listening, tell me what you think via any of the response options below! I love feedback (except the loud microphone kind). Feel free to use the hashtag #squoose to discuss it as well.