nStuff Podcast Rob Prince and Christen Bouffard

Are these cameras gimmicky or are they something more? Things That Blew Us Away Rob: At the time of recording, the Omicron variant of Coronavirus has an “R” value of 10. We can’t find that video now and what we can find all point to an R value of 2 or 3. Christen: Core 77’s Best of Cool Tools Spotted in 2021 Next time: An autonomous vacuum that has a camera built into it. Clean your house and take your next video call on your vacuum.

Now that we’re into the long-tail adoption of the internet, how does technology influence how we interact with information related to conspiracies? Can AI get better at locating radicalizing content? At what point should speech be censored?



Is there a conspiracy that you believe in, or something you believe in so much that your mind could not be changed no matter how much evidence to the contrary? Is this something we can know about ourselves?



Rob thinks humanity is doomed, but he may be swayed.



Things That Blew Us Away



Rob: Wishcycling is when people try to recycle something that cannot be recycled.









Christen: Nermal (Nims) Purja climbs 14 of the tallest peaks in the world in under six months. Check out the documentary, 14 Peaks, on Netflix.

Our end-of-year episode reflects on podcasts – what has been and what we’ve enjoyed. Rob’s been podcasting since 2016 and we chat about origins and inspirations.



If you’ve not listened to Dark Winter Nights, True Stories from Alaska, we highly recommend it.



Our Favorites



Christen



Mission to ZyxxKing Falls AMOligiesAnd That’s Why We Drink



Rob



Dark Winter NightsCar TalkDuolingo PodcastsBubbly Sesh



We’ll catch everyone in the new year!



Things That Blew Our Minds



Christen: Ultra-compact cameras that are the size of a grain of salt.



Rob: Gunpowder was discovered by Chinese Taoists searching for the elixir of immortality.

Storing and managing all the photos we take with our phones is a perennial challenge. This week we talk about what we do, and all our good intentions.



Storage we talk about (prices at the time of recording)



Google Photos



100GB for $1.99/mo200GB for $2.99/mo



Apple Crapple (iCloud)



50GB: $0.99200GB: $2.992TB: $9.99



Flickr



*Crickets* $6.99/mo – Some breaks for annual pricing



Dropbox



Sure



Smugmug



$7/mo for unlimited, full-res storage



Adobe Cloud Storage



Adobe for teams – cloud storage 100GB



Things That Blew Us Away



Rob: Most people have an above average number of legs.



Christen: That time former Russian president Gorbachev made a Pizza Hut commercial.



Next episode we will podcast about podcasting!

We’ve been thinking about the possible costs of files we leave orphaned up in our online storage. Someone pays to maintain it up in the cloud, on a computer in the sky somewhere. What impacts do all the resources going to maintain the files we never go back to access have on the environment?



First, when we talk about cloud computing, we have in mind services similar to:



Google DriveMicrosoft 360DropboxNetflix (to name a few)



It’s a long list, and we aren’t even getting into video storage and streaming.



In research conducted by MIT, Perdue, and Yale, streaming video makes an impact on the environment in terms of land usage, carbon emissions, and water usage. Turning your video off during a web meeting reduces your environmental impact by 96%.



“To store and transmit all of the data powering the internet, data centers consume enough electricity to account for 1 percent of global energy demand — which is more than the total consumption for many countries”



Reduce the Environmental Impact of your Next Virtual Meeting



Additional reading on the topic and studies by Microsoft and Google are linked below. 



There’s also a link to the Arctic Circle Data Center (ACDC) in development, Kolos, which appears to still be raising capital. Their aim is for more sustainable data storage.




Uncovering the Environmental Impact of Cloud Computing




This article, above, states that digital technologies might seem like less of an impact but they are responsible for 4% of global CO2 emissions. Organizations like MightyBytes attempt to steer companies toward more sustainable solutions.



The Cloud isn’t Inherently More Sustainable



Lucivero, F. Big Data, Big Waste? A Reflection on the Environmental Sustainability of Big Data Initiatives. Sci Eng Ethics 26, 1009–1030 (2020).



Google is messaging about this as well



The Environmental Impact of Keeping Files Online



So what do we do about it? Check out the Digital Cleanup Day website to learn more about how people are creating mindful practices with their digital assets.



Things That Blew Us Away

Have you ever been in a bad meeting? When did you realize it was going off the rails? Do you purposefully sabotage meetings that are floundering? This week we talk about meetings because we’ve been sucked into and stuck in so many that this episode turns into a bit of therapy. We also have been meeting facilitators, and understand that sometimes work must be accomplished – but how do we get there?



Meeting Tips



Are you leading a meeting? Some questions to ask before your meeting:



Does every person need to be there?Who ISN’T represented there?Avoid long introductions about dogs. Maybe do them in chat or via email beforehandHave the courage to shove the car out of the mudWhat is the goal of this meeting?Creative meetings vs. informative meetingsMeetings are not the solution to people not reading email, unless it’s a safety thing.Meetings are not therapy sessions – BUT SOMETIMES THEY ARE 



Zoom Meetings



Know how to mute everyoneHave people raise their handsDon’t ask a question to the whole group if it’s over six peopleHave them raise hands or call on peopleSet people up for success in the meeting. If you want to accomplish something in the meeting, let people know ahead of time so that they can think ahead.



Meetings are Like Dinner Parties



Invite meeting attendees into the meeting as guests. Set expectationsInvite people into conversations who seems to be hanging back. Set the table. Even just the presence of food can help grease the wheels.Followup afterward with notes and actions to keep everyone on track.



What Some Smart People Have to Say About Meetings



Interesting thoughts on meetings by people that do them prolifically and study them – Meeting Facilitation by Doug Ferguson. They alsotTalk about what to do after the meeting and how to talk about what was accomplished. Suggested Tools: Google Docs, MURAL, Miro, Figma



Why Meetings Go Wrong (HBR) includes some controversial strategies like, banning the mute button. They also suggest that if you’re using an agenda, write it in the form of questions to invite people to think deeply about the points.



Things That Blew Us Away



Rob: A family that walks on all four limbs









Christen: Social loafing! The phenomenon that people working in a group exert less effort when working on a goal together. When is it loafing and when is it letting others run with an idea?