MacBreak Weekly Episode 96 Listener’s Guide
Argue if you want, but I will stand by my claim that MacBreak Weekly ranks among the worst episodes I’ve ever heard.
MBW has been going downhill lately, longer and longer episodes with less and less in them. I don’t mind ratholes, but how about ratholes about stuff your audience might care about?
Anyway, tonight when I was listening I decided to make a chart telling you what you can expect.
00:00:04 (What the hell is a netcast? They’re podcasts, Leo, really. Even to Microsoft. Netcasts is meaningless. Please stop saying it.)
00:00:52 Show actually begins after ads and intro music
00:03:20 Leo stops talking about cameras and intros Merlin Mann. Leo then talks about stuff that happened about 6 weeks ago on YLNT.
00:04:50 Andy I introduced and talk about the weather and some other stuff that made no sense to me whatsoever.
00:06:30 Intro Jeff Smith, who is the guy who wrote the “I’m a Twit” song. He’s apparently there because Leo enjoys the song.
00:07:50 “We ought to get to Mac news”
00:08:00 AT&T prices for iPhone!
00:08:45 What sounds like a potato chip bag being opened is apparently hail around Andy I and we go down a weather rathole
00:09:54 Leo (I guess) opens a drink directly into his microphone..
00:10:18 back to iPhone / ATT rate plan talk
00:11:50 Leo is watching the AT&T ‘iReady’ video
00:12:18 Merlin explains how people have been confused about buying a cell phone in the past
00:12:40 Someone tries to piggyback on Merlin being funny by talking over him
00:13:20 Merlin said something funny again
00:13:40 Leo non sequitor / followed by iPhone / ATT sucks discussion
00:17:?? Merlin explains how to get ready / followed by “iReady” discussion
00:19:10 Andy made a joke about “iBend iQuickly”
00:19:40 Someone does a Jar Jar Binks voice. No one should ever, ever do a Jar Jar Binks. Ever. Really.
00:20:?? Remembering life working at McDonald’s training videos
00:21:12 Leo makes a Titanic reference followed by total silence
00:21:13 iPhone rate plans and how lousy AT&T is about pretty much anything, mocking the video
00:35:?? Leo makes a Lily Tomlin/Laugh-In reference / iPhone Rogers sucks more than AT&T
00:39:03 10.5.4 release / ARD trojan isn’t fixed and there’s not much to see here / dangers of upgrading Quicktime/Pro Apps (which has nothing to do with 10.5.4 but might be of interest)
(The iPhone conversation wasn’t bad, but they spent 30 minutes on what amounts to “This video is lame and they are charging a lot more for it.”)
00:45:52 - Zimbabwe rathole -
00:47:27 - “We’re going to take a break” (from what, exactly?)
00:47:35 - reintroduces everyone, and talks to Andy I about Matlock and Andy Griffith
00:48:25 - Starts talking about Audible. If you’ve heard any MBW ever you’ve heard this same discussion. 50k titles. Leo’s pick is ‘Stuff White People Like’
00:50:35 ‘Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs’
00:51:19 Someone jokingly refers to ‘The Spartans’
00:52:09 Picks of the week begin
00:52:19 Jeff Smith - ‘what size’ http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/ ‘appzapper’ http://www.appzapper.com/ (end up talking about Waffle House)
00:54:57 Andy I - Burger King - BK Gold Card - FOR FIVE MINUTES. Leo reminisces about eating with Dvorak. What does this have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing.
01:00:30 Scott Bourne - Cocktail http://cocktail.maintain.se/ $15
01:02:48 Leo - Visigami - http://code.google.com/p/visigami/ - Flickr, Google Images, screeensaver FREE. Leo surfs for pictures of Burger King
01:05:32 - Merlin - had to leave - 40 minutes ago, and Leo is just noticing now.
01:06:24 - Leo “I’m in a daze most of the time” (No… really?)
01:06:40 - Alex - green screen visual effects - rotoscoping - which should be useful to like 0.00001% of the population and costs $1000. http://www.silhouettefx.com/roto/
01:09:50 - Jeff Smith plug - “I’m a Twit” www.RingToneFeeder.com
01:17:14 - starts saying Goodbye / talking about next week iPhone launch / 36 hours of coverage for a phone launch they said was so boring they wouldn’t stand in line. “They get in line so we don’t have to”
01:22:06 - says goodbye and plays song.
on 03 Jul 2008 at 6:46 am # minifig
But the question on everyone’s lips is: Did Leo do his appalling English accent? It’s what I wait for every time, and last week we got a classic ‘Ringo’ attempt. Worth an hour of anyone’s time.
on 03 Jul 2008 at 7:33 am # Domenico Bettinelli
Thanks for doing this so we don’t have to suffer too. What’s frustrating is that they are capable of good and interesting shows. Instead, we get this meandering mess.
What’s worse is that since Leo starting doing his version of “The Truman Show” he’s gotten even less focused. When he doesn’t have the tyranny of a network clock to watch and instead he’s always on, he just goes all ADD or something.
I’ve said before on Twitter that it feels like Merlin is getting bored with MBW. He disappears in the middle of shows, he blows them off, and when he’s on he sounds frustrated when he can’t make his point in the middle of others talking over him.
So much potential is wasted.
Compare this to, say, the Macworld podcasts, which are tight, informative, entertaining, and above all, EDITED!
There’s an hour and 23 minutes of my life I didn’t lose. Thanks.
P.S. Did they really spend more than 7 minutes on the Jeff Smith ringtone plug?