The end of November brings a fresh crop of your questions, this month addressing subjects like getting lost in a corporation's Kafka-esque support infrastructure, video game voice chatting with Internet celebrities, how often to change your CPU paste, consumer tech that we think has plateaued, trenching Ethernet cable for an intra-yard network, the very cool concept of all-sky cameras, the glory of text expansion, and a bunch of other topics!
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314: We Hope, We Wish, We Ask, We Request
It's a news roundup this week, with a ton of recent goings on to discuss, including the sudden explosion in RAM prices (and a similar looming problem with SSDs), Microsoft announcing plans to shove AI agents directly into the Windows taskbar, Google killing off first-gen Nest thermostats (with some open options for resuscitating them), and ongoing changes in compatibility for third-party Switch 2 docks. Plus, with Thanksgiving coming up in the U.S., we dig into another round of tech we're thankful for.RAM/SSD price news: https://www.pcmag.com/news/ssd-storage-prices-to-climb-as-ai-demand-meets-tight-nand-supplyAgentic Windows impressions: https://www.theverge.com/report/822443/microsoft-windows-copilot-vision-ai-assistant-pc-voice-controls-impressionsNo Longer Evil: https://nolongerevil.com/Sett Thermostat: https://sett.homes/Switch 2 dock news: https://kotaku.com/nintendo-just-blocked-third-party-switch-2-docks-and-it-sucks-2000644081
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
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313: Chan's on the Move
It seems like this week's big salvo of Valve hardware announcements is all anyone's talking about right now, particularly the Steam Machine, and who better to fill in a bunch of hands-on details with that li'l box, plus the new Steam Frame VR headset and refreshed Steam Controller, than our old friend Norm Chan of Tested.com, who went up to Valve to see it all. If you want to hear about everything from the Steam Machine's performance and potential price to the Frame's x86 emulation and foveated remote streaming, plus a ton of stuff in between, listen to this podcast!Tested's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@tested
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
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312: The Original Tree Puncher
Online game design veteran Raph Koster recently posted a new piece about how he thinks about game design, which got us talking about the history of online multiplayer, so then we figured, why not talk about that subject in a (slightly) more comprehensive way on this podcast? So that's what we did this week, dipping into topics like pre-TCP/IP network gaming, the early video game consoles' various half-baked online solutions, how Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies were both way ahead of their time, how much the infrastructure has evolved for facilitating multiplayer -- and how expected it is as a feature these days -- and plenty more.Koster's new piece: https://www.raphkoster.com/2025/11/03/game-design-is-simple-actually/PC Gamer's Everquest history: https://www.pcgamer.com/breaking-the-internet-the-story-of-everquest-the-mmo-that-changed-everything/Dreamcast online functionality and Sega.net history (with links to similar pages for PS2, GameCube etc. at the bottom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast_online_functionality
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
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311: The Fab Floor
PC World's Adam Patrick Murray stops by this week to discuss the trip he and Will recently took to visit Intel's new 18A chip fabrication facility in Arizona. Settle in for a wide-ranging chat about the upcoming Panther Lake architecture, why Intel won't have a new desktop part for a while longer, the future of next-gen chiplet interconnects, the difficulty of scheduling between big and little cores, suiting up to enter the fab, 30mph FOUPs whizzing around overhead, EUV machines the size of multiple school buses, getting served beer by tiny horses (??), and more.
Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, a monthly bonus episode, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod
Each Sunday, Brad Shoemaker and Will Smith discuss a new technology topic. Come for the long-form conversations about virtual reality, space travel, electric cars, refresh rates, and a whole lot more.
Support the pod on Patreon: http://patreon.com/techpod
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