"we are going to get so professional on you" Engadget Podcast 128

so, I was totally wrong. I had not seen the back of ces 2009. podcast 128 is another wrap-up episode, this time guest-starring thomas richer, an (ex) engadget senior editor, or lone wolf and self-acclaimed "old man," from the netherlands. he was apparently responsible for this bit of photoshopped handiwork:

image via switched.com

I agree, it's slightly disturbing to see mac guy's face on the little girl body, but the imagery is pretty far from reaching the "block it out" end of my horror-meter. I'm continually editing my impressions of each host persona, as I listen to the podcasts (my impressions of josh and nilay are still somewhat plastic), but I'm becoming fairly sure that my general idea of paul isn't going to change. the man is an innocent. he's sensitive. that isn't to say that he's fragile, or anything like that (I wouldn't know from the podcast, thank goodness), but he's definitely easily disconcerted. he's someone that I would probably have the urge to be extra profane around if I knew him personally. in a fun way, of course!

the very cute feature of this podcast is that everyone is super loving each other. it's like post-show haze love. and you know what? I was right about the snort-level giggling. there is slap-happy commenting going on in this podcast. first to come is thomas richer love: paul describes himself as glowing in the mornings after he gets up and reads thomas' posts. later on comes the group love: thomas richer initiates a conversation about how much everyone loves the opportunity ces gives the engadget staff to hang out with each other.


maybe when they hang out with each other at ces, the engadget staff are like tech-loving care bears.


before the conversation devolves into wackiness, there is some deadly serious discourse about the status of net books, consumer behavior (are there really people who don't know what to do once their desktops are full of icons?), the palm pre, and palm-the-company, and "the childlike joshua topolsky."

I like how the childlike version of josh topolsky is still ready to slam right into curmudgeon mode at the drop of a hat. for example, as everyone chides him, and he agrees that he's beaming (somewhat prematurely) over the promise that the pre holds, he says, "what, I don't deserve to be happy? is that what you're telling me?" or something like that. that quote was actually an approximation.

I was ready to write a whole thing about the [personalization of] and [identification with] one's computer and william gibson and jean baudrillard (I had a crush on some of his books when I was an undergrad), but I'm going to replace that sure-to-be-pedantic paragraph with this:  During a weekend visit, my mother-in-law asked my husband if he would help her with her computer. my jaw nearly hit the floor when she said that she wanted him to help her delete some files. uh, what does that even MEAN????? this is a smart and independent woman. she was a vp of hr when she retired, and she still practices hr on a volunteer basis for her church and the penn foundation. she uses her computer for various work-related tasks, and I assumed she was at least on intimate terms with basic comupter functions. as she was answering my husband's pointed questions (what kind of files do you need help deleting? has your computer's performance slowed recently? & etc.), all I could think was, "hey, if you have too many icons on your desktop, it might be time to get a new computer!" in the end, my husband told my mother-in-law that she needed to figure out how to delete items by herself and to let him know when she was having real issues with her laptop. harsh, right? will I completely forget how to interact with technology when I'm old? is that an automatic response to aging?

everyone tried, but no one succeeded in getting thomas to say the word, "kiosk."