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Clockwise
655: Bananas are Floating, Question Mark!?
00:29:59
Our VPN usage, our favorite Apple Watch bands, whether we use e-ink tablets for notes, and our early internet memories.
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- [00:02]
A
It's Time for episode 655 of the Clockwise podcast from Relay, recorded Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Clockwise, four people, four tech topics, 30 minutes. Welcome back to Clockwise, the tech podcast, where you may be in for a treat. My name is Dan Moore and I'm joined across the Internet by my good friend, my pal, the one and only Micah Sargent. How you doing today, Micah?
- [00:39]
B
I'm doing well, Dan. I was reading along with everything with you and I thought none of this is right, yet you did it and that's what matters.
- [00:47]
A
I only faltered very briefly as I checked the date and made sure that the date was correct, which it was not. And everything is fine here at Clockwise. Don't ask questions.
- [00:57]
B
If the camera was focused on me, it would have. I would have looked like a proud dad. I think you did a great job.
- [01:02]
C
Thanks.
- [01:03]
A
This is of course the show where we talk about four tech topics with two fantastic guests to my left this week it is host of iOS today, Rosemary Orchard. Welcome back, Rose.
- [01:12]
D
Thank you very much for having me. It's always exciting to be here, especially with surprise guests.
- [01:17]
B
Surprise guests.
- [01:17]
A
Who could our surprise guest be?
- [01:19]
B
Oh, who is our surprise guest? Well, their screensaver developer. They're also professional book reviewer. They're also Glasgow tour guide. They're also James Thompson. Hello, James.
- [01:32]
C
Hello. Yes, I was saying that I saw that Clockwise was coming up and I wondered who the guests would be this week and it turns out one of them is me. So this strong start to the day
- [01:44]
B
and canonically, James loves last minute additions to the show because he is definitely not someone who likes to prep things beforehand.
- [01:53]
A
He's got at least five minutes to prep. So here we go. You can listen to everybody else's answers while you concoct your own. Let me kick things off with my topic. My question is, do you regularly use a vpn? If so, which one and for what kind of purposes? Rose, let's start with you.
- [02:13]
D
So I do use a VPN and also because France, multiple App Store accounts because there are some services that are just only available in certain countries and French companies seem to have a thing the apps for. I don't know, your French bank account should only be available to people who are have an App Store account or Apple account registered in France, which is very frustrating for those of us who live in more than one country and would like access to our things in multiple countries. So Yes, I use ExpressVPN when I need to pretend to be somewhere else for, you know, usually just administrative purposes because I can't Physically just pop over to France to check my bank balance, for example. The main VPN that I use though day to day is actually tailscale. If I'm out and about and I want to check on something that's running at home, I use tailscale to hop back into my home network and see what's going on. I don't leave my VPN running 24,7. I find that that just ends up slowing down my connection and is not worthwhile for me. But yeah, I do use a VPN pretty often. I'd say I use a VPN at least five times a week for various things. This is of course excluding work, which I need to use a VPN for. Anytime I want to do anything to
- [03:26]
B
do with work, I use ExpressVPN. The reason why I use that one is not because it's been a sponsor on a number of the shows that I do, but because ExpressVPN is a VPN that has been audited not just by third party companies, but also literally by governments who have tried to swarm and take data and cannot get anything from ExpressVPN because they do all of their stuff in volatile memory. And so that's why I choose that one over others. What I use it for is, you know, if I am going to a hotel or if I'm doing any sort of travel or if I am for some reason at a coffee shop, which I'm never at anymore, but if I am, would turn it on there. And then occasionally, yes, I also use it to appear as if I'm in a different location. But ever since Australian Survivor got a new host, I don't really care about Australian Survivor anymore. And so I have not used it for switching locations in quite some time. James, what about you?
- [04:35]
C
So I also use a VPN. I've got NordVPN. I got a Black Friday deal last year for like a million years worth of VPN service for a reasonable price. As for what purposes? Well, there's the recent UK Online Safety act regulations in the UK that have caused a lot of sites to go dark over here because they don't want to have to comply with the UK UK's age verification rules. And I believe that suggesting that you use a VPN to get around that might be legally dubious. So I'm explicitly not saying that. So I'm just going to say yes, I use it because it lets you go to other countries for your Netflix or whatever. Or maybe I should just say pornography.
- [05:28]
A
All right, call it like it is. I thank you all for your thoughts on that. I think my use case is most similar to Rosemary's. I also use Tailscale, and I set this up a few years ago in large part because of the same things Rose was discussing. Like, I want to access stuff on my local network while I'm out and about, and Tailscale makes that pretty simple to do, which is great. I do tend to leave it running all the time because I sort of checked to see what the. The Internet speed impact is, and it seems pretty negligible to me. And so not having to worry about did I leave the VPN on in my home computer or something like that is. Is, you know, it saves me that trouble and that anxiety. I don't use the geolocation stuff too much. There's not a huge reason to. However, I was traveling recently in Europe and I wanted to download some stuff onto my iPad to watch on the plane flight back. And so I used it to log in to make sure I was logged into the US Versions of the streaming services so I could make sure I could get the shows I wanted to get. And that was really handy. And I like that. I can also, with Tailscale, set up, you know, user accounts for my wife and even my kid has an iPad. And so I could basically set those up in case I needed to get access to other stuff on our network or from the U.S. and so, I mean, Tailscale, it's free, it's pretty easy to set up for the most part, and offers a lot of the same benefits as these other, you know, options, albeit without some of the international benefits, depending on where your own devices are located. But I think it's a super cool service and I really like it. Thank you again for your thoughts on that. Let's go to our second topic, which comes from Rosemary.
- [07:10]
D
Well, this topic today has been inspired by Monday's release on May 4th of Apple's latest Pride merchandise, including a Pride Apple watchtrap. And as you know, the seasons are changing, regardless of northern or southern hemisphere. I was wondering, do you wear an Apple watch? And how often do you swap the strap? Plus, what kind of strap is your favorite strap? Micah?
- [07:35]
B
So I wear an Apple watch every day. Do I swap the strap? No. I used to do that a lot more regularly. Then I got the Ultra and I got the Alpine loop. And I don't think I've ever enjoyed a watch strap more than I do the Alpine loop. It's just, it's easy to put on. It's a beautiful green color, the one That I chose, it is comfortable. It has a light. A light bit of flex to it. And yeah, I just really, really like it. So I just have not had a reason to change to another color. I think the last time I did, I was really trying to. It was like an anniversary dinner or something. And so I switched to a black leather ban band, but that was just a super special occasion. Other than that, I just leave it be and I enjoy it. James, what about you?
- [08:30]
C
I do wear an Apple Watch. I've got one of the product red ones from a few years back and it's become slightly less useful over the last few years because I now need reading glasses to look at things. And yes, I have some in my pocket or whatever, but just glancing at the watch, I've now got it set in your big print. This is the time. And I use it mostly, you know, for payment and for health tracking and things like that. It's the strap that's on it is the one that came with it, which is a sort of black and red one of the Velcro ones. And that's typically what's on it. I have a vast collection of. Of other ones. I missed out on the first Pride, you know, the one with nice primary colors and have a knockoff one that came from AliExpress. I do not like really any of the most recent Pride straps that Apple have done, but particularly this year's. It does not say pride strap to me. It says vague, you know, gesture in the direction of a pride strap. And I also don't like the white in. In those straps, but I'm kind of glad that Apple is still doing them. I wish it in the year of 2026. It didn't feel a bit vague. And is it a prize strap? Who could say?
- [10:01]
A
I do wear an Apple Watch every day. I don't tend to change straps very often. I do have a few others. The main one I have is the sport loop that came with it, which is the main reason it's blue and orange, which I like because it's my. Those are my high school colors. And I have a Blue Series 7. And so it has. The lugs are blue so they match the body of the watch, the little parts that slide in. And that's the main thing that I don't like about swapping to other bands is that they have different colors. And so it looks weird and mismatched, which I don't like as much. I do have, I think, one other sport loop that has blue lugs as well. I think it's like blue and green and I sometimes switch between those. If I go for a run or something and work out and I get the band gets really like, like gnarly and sweaty. I will sometimes swap it out and let the other one dry or clean it off or something. And then I have a like knockoff Milanese loop that I bought at one point for like dressier occasions. But I don't tend to wear it as much, if only because the Milanese loop has a way of catching like arm hair and it's really annoying.
- [11:05]
C
Yeah, yeah, I've noticed that.
- [11:07]
A
Very disappoint. I don't like that aspect of it. So I tend to stick with the sport loop, which is just more comfortable, comfortable in general. I, I bought one of those like solo loops, but I think one of the, that one might have been a knockoff too. I don't remember but I found that they stretch out over time and I just don't, I don't find them as comfortable. I appreciate I've gotten to a point where I don't care as much about fashion as I do about comfort. I think that's actually always been the case anyways to a point where it's more socially acceptable for me not to care about fashion than comfort. So I just wear whatever is most comfortable, which is the sport loop.
- [11:34]
D
That's fair enough. Yes. I, much like James, have a dizzying array of watch straps. And I realized as I changed my watch strap to go to children's birthday princess themed party this weekend that I have kind of stopped changing my watch strap particularly often and I'm going to be making a conscious effort to switch between. Honestly, I've mostly got third party ones of unpronounceable brands containing an amalgamation of letters because you know, you can get pretty ones. And I tend to stick with the fluoro elastomer style because then when you unexpectedly end up with having to wash a dog's paws or something like that, you don't also have a soggy strap to deal with afterwards. I've bought a couple of the solo loops over time from Apple. And if your weight fluctuates at all or you're like on the cusp between sizes, there'll be days when it's way too big and days where it's too small. And that just drives me slightly crazy. So I'm currently wearing a like pale pink sports styled strap, but it's got like a little, nice little teardrop shaped cutout at the top on both sides and it just is Quite breathable and quite comfortable. And I, I'm enjoying switching up my watch strap a little bit more to try and match my outfits. But that also means that I need to actually leave the house for people to apprec. Appreciate that. And I'm not sure about the whole going outside thing. Let's be honest.
- [12:51]
A
No one's making you. It's okay. All right, that's two topics down, two topics left to go. Which of course means it's halftime here at clockwise. And this week's episode is brought to you by Steamclock. Look, a lot of mobile apps get the job done, but they aren't exactly delightful. When an app is great, though, you look forward to adding it to your home screen. SteamClock software builds mobile apps for companies that care about taste. They're a design and development studio based in Vancouver, Canada, and They've been shipping iOS and Android apps for over 15 years. Their clients are growing tech companies that care about mobile but don't have the in house team to build something great. Steamclock works with companies to level up their app so they can go from it's holding us back to it's pulling its weight. Some of their clients discovered the hard way that vibe coding your way to the App Store isn't really a product strategy. What makes Steamclock worth calling isn't just that they execute well. It's that they'll help you figure out the right approach and give you an honest read on your situation before you commit to anything. Their client apps have been downloaded over 10 million times and they've helped five other clients through acquisitions. If you're building something and need a mobile team that cares as much as you do, Steamclock is where to start. Visit steamclock.com clockwise to get in touch. That's steamclock.com clockwise. We love any URL with clock in it Here, clockwise. Our thanks to Steamclock for their support of this show and all of relay. All right, halftime is over. Micah, over to you.
- [14:11]
B
So the remarkable company has a new E Ink tablet out and I was just curious if you have used an E Ink tablet for note taking before. If you haven't, have you considered it? And if you do, what do you think of using an E Ink tablet for note taking and, you know, marking up documents and that kind of thing? James, we'll start with you.
- [14:35]
C
I have one of the bigger Kobos, the Libra color, and I bought the pencil for that at the time because I thought, oh, hey, I can use this to do things. And I have not used it at all. When I'm doing development. I, like, you know, obviously I. Things come to mind and I need to write them down. And I have a actual notepad, physical notepad and pen next to me. And I like the kind of tactile nature of that and sort of scribbling things out when I've done them or whatever. I don't know, with the E Ink tablets, like, what the benefit I would get for those over, like, paper, because it's not like I'm taking those notes and I'm, you know, I want them digitized into text and I want to, like, format that and send it off to somebody else. Because all my notes are just things like, you know, bananas are floating, question mark. And, you know, it's. It's just that kind of level of just complete, transitory, like, need to put thought down. So, I don't know. I mean, if they want to send me one, yes, I would certainly consider it.
- [15:46]
A
I've never used one of these. I think it's a cool device, but something that I know kind of like James saying I would get and never use. I. I mean, one of the big improvements for me was when I was able to start just note taking, using typing instead of handwriting. I struggled all throughout college because my handwriting is very bad and I don't write fast. And if I do write fast, it's illegible. So I appreciate anything that lets me get away from that into something where the notes are actually useful later on. And I also struggle with the idea of a dedicated device for this kind of thing because I. In some ways, I've been trying to reduce the number of devices that I have instead of adding more that are for specific purposes. And so I take all my notes and notes on my Mac or my iPhone or my iPad, whatever device I have. And that's what I love about it, is that they go everywhere. I occasionally will pull out my Apple pencil to make notes, but again, it's usually for cases where I need to, like, draw something or sketch something or even just sort of make a diagram, because I find that very freeing. But it's so rare for me. I almost always am typing things. So I. As cool as these things are, I know it's one of those things I would get and absolutely never use.
- [16:59]
D
Well, in my case, Micah needs to get out of my house. I don't quite know how he's managed it, but literally yesterday I got out my Kobo Ellipsa and found a new battery for the stylus. So I got to go with it because work. My boss has been taking a lot of notes on his remarkable two. I believe it is. He was somewhat defensive about the fact that he bought one, like, right before they released the color. But either way, that's. That's a. That seems like a hand problem. But yes, I got it out because this is not a new device that I bought specifically for note taking. This is a device I bought for being lazy in bed and cuddling up with a really, really nice, big, cozy E reader. But I can also take notes on it. And I've actually really been enjoying it for, you know, a whole two days that I've been doing this with it. It is great. I am not doing this for the ability to digitize my notes forever, to share them with somebody else. These are notes for me, which is probably just as well because I tried converting some of what I'd handwritten into typewritten, and it did a very good job on the letters. But characters, which, as a software developer are quite important. The difference between a dash and an underscore, that. That can make a very big difference. Yeah, it did not do so well on that. But, you know, I was certainly able to, once I had tweaked the pen settings and everything, make some really legible notes. And I'm really enjoying it. I like having the E Ink version. It feels like it's a little bit less strain on my eyes. That said, if I want to do, you know, fancy diagrams and, you know, have the ability to, for example, take a picture of the screen and then annotate it, you know, for. At a conference or something, I will be sticking with my iPad or iPad mini and Apple Pencil for things like that because that was amazing when I was in university doing lectures for my second degree. And yeah, I will be continuing to use that system at conferences, but just as a scratch pad on my desk where I'm not using paper all the time and trying to look for a new sheet of paper and trying to find that one sheet of paper somehow got. Got swept onto the floor by a tail and is now underneath a dog. Yeah, having one device with all my notes on is not a terrible idea.
- [19:13]
B
So I have the Kindle Scribe and I have used remarkable tablets in the past. And I will say that I have been able to make use when I was doing this, like different online seminars and whatnot. Being able to take notes there and actually have the digital versions where it made sense. Sense was great, but I just, yeah, I never stick with them. I made the Mistake of going to the main page of Remarkable site instead of just staying on the page that shows Remarkable's new paper pure. And I say that because I didn't know that they had one called the Remarkable Paper Pro Move, which is a smaller version. And now I'm like, well okay, but if it's a little small thing I could carry around with me everywhere, then maybe that's one I would use. But the fact is I could do that on my phone really. And I don't, so I don't need to get this, but I want it anyway. Thank you all for your answers on that. I don't know what's going to happen next, but we'll see. James, tell us about your topic.
- [20:25]
C
So my topic, which is totally mine and not one that I just inherited, is what are some of your favorite early Internet memories?
- [20:34]
A
Way, way back in the day I would use a dial up connection to access our Internet connection which was via my dad's office. And the cutting edge at the time was the Gopher program which was essentially like a series of hierarchical menus that you would traverse. And I was like, oh, it's so it was like a phone tree basically. And I remember when the World Wide web first became a thing and because I was using a dial up connection, my only way of accessing it was via a text based browser, browser links, which is still around and it was so hard to navigate anything that I was very dismissive at the time. Like this is way harder than Gopher. Why would anybody want to use this instead of Gopher? I did not have access to like a real, you know, I mean there wasn't a real GUI browser for some time. But it wasn't until many years later that I had access to it and was like, oh yeah, I kind of get it now. So I abandoned my, my love of Gopher and bulletin boards and everything for the brave new world that was the World Wide Web. And I guess I never looked back. So I guess I was wrong. That was my bad. Technology prediction is this will never supplant Gopher. That will be the and be all, end all of the Internet forever. How we learn our lessons Rose Well,
- [21:59]
D
I think I came to the Internet a little bit later. I remember distinctly having use my parents computer because that was the only computer we had in the house and use dial up Internet. But I think the first real thing that I remember doing on the Internet was downloading mods for the Sims. That's definitely something that I remember. And also Neopets.
- [22:22]
B
Yes.
- [22:24]
D
And I Don't really remember a huge amount about Neopets. I did Google it, apparently it's still up and running. I did not attempt to resurrect any account information because God knows what horrific Hotmail address I had back in the day. And I probably have access to it somehow, but I'd prefer just to leave that stuff in archive. But yeah, I remember playing Neopets, downloading mods for the Sims and then later when I finally got my own laptop, joining all of my friends on MSN Messenger. Sadly I was too late for the IRC ICQ crowds. But yeah, we were all on MSN Messenger BRB and just typing out the A colon or semicolon in the brackets to try and get whatever emoji it was that you wanted because you know that was just emoticons back then. Now I feel slightly older, but that's okay.
- [23:14]
B
Micah I was going to say we've had very similar experiences. Same for me with instant messaging and certainly Neopets. I think online gaming back then was something that I did or I know it was something that I did, but it was something that I actually enjoyed at the time. And so playing Neopets, playing Runescape, playing a game called Maple Story, playing Habo Hotel, playing Club Penguin, all of those little online games that honestly were probably full of creepazoids to be honest, were a lot of fun. And I remember even playing some of them like maplestory, playing it with my siblings and because I had found it sooner I was, you know, I farmed enough that I was higher level and so I was able to give them like starter gear and that kind of thing. And so that was also fun as well. So yeah, early online gaming is definitely the early Internet memories that are my favorite. James, what about you?
- [24:25]
C
So I was thinking about this and I think this counts as Internet, but I had a like BBS type system that was a UK only thing for the Commodore 64 called Compunet. And this was like probably, I don't know, 86, 87, that sort of time frame. And what I remember most on it was there was this multi user dungeon system like this game multiplayer game called Federation 2. And this was purely text, but it was like you could get in spaceships, fly to planets and all this. And there was one bar on one planet that everybody went and hung out on and really we just used it as kind of like a chat room and you know, I got to know those people really well and I'm like 13, 14 at this point and I ended up off the Back of this going down to London by myself to stay to go and see a Pink Floyd concert, I think with these people and well, staying with a butch lesbian friend. And it was just a great, great time and I am sure you know, just going and staying with random people that you've met off the proto Internet at 14. I wouldn't recommend that as a general rule, but it was great for me and I discovered that a. Well, one other thing I should say is this game charged separately from the thing which meant I ran up a 200 pound bill for one one month and that did not go down well. And I nearly never got on the Internet ever again. But I discovered that all the newsletters were still up like which detailed what had been happening in the game. So if I looked for my character name, which it should be said is Niass, which people may. Wait, who played D and D with me will know that Nyassa is is 100 based on this character from 1987 NIAS. Anyway, I found that the game was still up and running and I like, I logged into it, created a character with the same name as I had back then, went to this particular bar and all the same people were there. It was just, you know, some nearly 40 years later it. And I, I think that is a magical thing that you can find on the Internet.
- [26:58]
A
Maybe, maybe in the post show I'll talk about the logging on to my online games from work and when I was like 17. All right, that is four topics down. We have just enough time for a bonus topic which is just enough time for me. Also remind you to go and check out all our great swag available at Clockwise Social Media. I think we've recently added a beanie with an embroidered Croc clockwise logo. So, you know, if you're looking for something else to get, I mean, I guess Mother's Day is coming up in the US if your mom's a big clockwise fan, go buy some swag at Clockwise Social. All right, bonus topic. It's your birthday. Well, not really, but stick with me here. What do you get to treat yourself, Rose?
- [27:40]
D
I mean, if we're talking, you know, relatively low budget, nice bottle of sparkling wine of some kind for sure. If I had a limited budget, I don't know, possibly the entirety of the books line because I'm really enjoying my books, Palmer. But also all of the Kobos because I really like them and Micah apparently has just got E ink things stuck in my head today, so I guess that's where I'm going at the moment.
- [28:07]
B
I am getting a charcuterie board and I am having it entirely to myself. And maybe I even have some people come and watch me while I eat it to make me really feel like a French King. James. What about you?
- [28:23]
C
I mean you're both so sophisticated. For me it's anything that 10 year old me would really like. So we're talking books, games, comics, Lego. I think that's really where I am. I have not grown at all.
- [28:38]
A
I mean nothing wrong with that. It was my birthday recently and the two things that. Well the thing I treated myself to was a nice bar of chocolate with whiskey and caramel in it it which was excellent. And then I ended up with a couple LEGO sets which I had gotten any in a recent time in like it was like an hour to build Lego. That was like a real treat myself occasion. So. Yeah, I know. The life of a. The life of a dad. Thank you all for that. That brings us to the end of this week's episode. But before we thank our guests, I want to remind all of you that if you would like to get ad free episodes with an extra unwound topic every week, you can become a member of clockwise. Just go to Relay FM clockwise and sign up for just $7 per month or $70 a year and you'll help support the show. And with that we are going to thank our fantastic guest this week, Rosemary Orchard. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [29:28]
D
Thank you very much for having me. It's always a pleasure.
- [29:30]
B
And James Thompson, thanks so much for saving our bacon.
- [29:34]
C
I appreciate this sort of like immersion therapy, like just dropping me in it to get me over my problems with over preparing.
- [29:42]
A
You're welcome. It's a server service that we provide and Micah will be back next week. But until then we remind everyone out there listening, watch what you say and
- [29:50]
B
keep watching the clock.
- [29:52]
A
Bye everybody.