This wide ranging discussion between my son, Benjamin and Jason Burk ranges across a diversity of topics. The conversation touches on the Loch Ness Monster, Scooby Doo, questions as to the intelligence of Hemispheric Views co-host Martin Feld, and ends with a great joke.

In which David and I experiment with a two mic, two headphone studio production. With a guest appearance from Benji.

I’ve trialled a few different podcast player apps over the past few days. This is a short summary of my findings, after trialling Apple Podcasts, Castro, Overcast and Pocket Casts.

I voice my anxiety about the forthcoming US election. I worry about the place the United States of America holds in the world, and what might happen to this in the future. I also have concerns about what might happen within the country, irrespective of the result.

As I’m no longer playing basketball, I’ve gotten fat and sore. Exercise seems to be my only option. In Nerd Corner, I talk about new audio configurations and a trial of Hindenburg Journalist.

A quick update on another podcast project I’ve been working on with two other friends. Hemispheric Views has launched and we are quite proud of it.

I’m excited to have worked with two other great people to put something new out into the world. Working with Jason Burk and Martin Feld, we have released the first episode of a new podcast, Hemispheric Views.

Our topics for this first episode range across condiments, technology and the price of petrol. Over time we anticipate the show will have a technology bias but we are interested to explore how Martin and I as Australians interpret things in comparison to Jason in the USA.

I’m proud of this first episode and I’ve got high hopes for our continuous improvement.

If you can find the time to have a listen, that would be amazing. Ideally, you’ll enjoy it enough that you will subscribe in your favourite podcast player app, and tell a friend about the show.

2020-08-31 Update: No, I have not found the fix.

I mentioned in Episode 15 of Keep Practising that my Logitech mouse was giving me the #$%@s with respect to the amount of judder and unresponsiveness on macOS. This problem exhibited irrespective of whether it was connected to Bluetooth or the Logitech dongle.

Good news. I may have found a solution. Early days yet, but since applying this fix I haven’t experienced the issue again.

I can’t take credit for the fix. That goes to ‘rubytraindriver’ on Reddit/r/MacOS.

The suggestion was to remove, and then re-add, both Logitech Options and Logitech Options Daemon from the Mac’s Accessibility options, within the Security & Privacy preferences pane, Privacy tab.

This simple - but entirely obfuscated and obscure fix - offers another example of how infuriating the Catalina macOS security model is for users.

I’m not on the Big Sur beta, but I hope that it does better at this stuff than Catalina.

Andrew is joined by his brother, Patrick Canion to discuss his work and life, most notably how he has made the transition to living in Switzerland after spending his entire working life in Perth, Western Australia.

Oh boy, it’s happening to me. Some months ago when I made the decision to start doing some podcasting, I did my research and selected the Rode Podcaster microphone as my weapon of choice.

It’s been working fine for me, but at the same time, I’ve never been totally certain that it’s the right mic for me. I’m an amateur and I’m learning as I go but the Podcaster struck me as sounding somewhat ‘thin’. Plus the gain from the mic was really low. Research suggests this makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the end result but it still made me curious about other options.

The Podcaster was not cheap so I’ve been reticent to spend more money on hardware. Yet I could resist it when I saw a good price on the new Audio Technica ATR 2100-X which is a combination USB/XLR microphone. I’m still in the USB world directly connecting to my iMac. I haven’t - and at this stage don’t want to - go down the preamp rabbit hole.

Today the ATR-2100x arrived. I’ve given it a 45 second test to date, so this doesn’t act as a review. What I noticed immediately is that it sounded richer and the gain was definitely higher. However, the dynamic range was therefore more limited compared with the Rode Podcaster. In the test I did, the Podcaster handled it all whereas the ATR-2100x experienced clipping.

I will keep experimenting and will likely record my next episode of Keep Practising with the new Audio Technica.

All this is to say, it appears I may be starting the slippery slide towards becoming an audio gearhead. Send help!

I’ve always noticed a distinct intersection between those who like basketball and those who like wrestling. In this episode I discuss my history of watching wrestling. It used to be WWF/WWE, but these days I am more excited by EPW (Explosive Pro Wrestling) - an indie show that operates out of Perth, Western Australia.

In Nerd Corner I talk about my recent dalliance with the fundraising/supporter platform Ko-fi.

I was bereft not being able to record an NBL Pocket Podcast today. So to assuage my sadness I have brought in my son, David, to provide the hot tip. Who does he think will win the tournament? Tune in and find out!

Be sure also to check out the daily podcast we’ve been recording at the NBL Pocket Podcast. Each day we have broken down the TBT2020 tournament and provided a perspective from the point of view of the Australian NBL.

I welcome a special guest to the show, Graeme Speak of BankVault. BankVault has developed a cybersecurity product that can circumvent security risks such as key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks, by offering passwordless logins.

As well as discussing the BankVault product, Graeme discusses his approach to entrepreneurship. We talk about the differences between business in Perth, Western Australia where BankVault has been founded, and San Francisco, California where he is currently based.

A conversation about the risks and benefits of kitesurfing also ensues.

Graeme Speak on LinkedIn

I consider why I am doing this podcast, and why I gave it the name Keep Practising.

In Nerd Corner, I note my disappointment with how Apple has handled the HEY App Store situation, but note my pride in how my article about replicating the Hey workflow in regular apps has been received.

Brené Brown, Unlocking Us, Episode 1

Today I welcome my son to the show. He wanted to address the issue of racism, which has been on his mind of recent times.

I am joined by special guest Joe, host of the NBL Pocket Podcast. We talk about Joe’s experience making the podcast that is focused on the Australian National Basketball League.

We discuss favourite players and coaches, his best interviews, the NBL product today, and how the league engages with its fan base.

We also consider what makes for a quality NBL TV experience.

Keep Practising: S01, E07 - The Last Dance.

I give my thoughts on “The Last Dance”, and remember the time that I met Phil Jackson and Luc Longley.

I celebrate the big news from the NBL, and specifically the Perth Wildcats.

In Nerd Corner this week, I’ve been improving my webcam setup and installing Windows on my iMac.