667: The TV Judge Rejects Your Argument

Summary

Clockwise Ep. 667: "The TV Judge Rejects Your Argument"

Recorded: July 29, 2026
Host: Jason Snell (guest hosting for Dan Moren)
Co-host: Mikah Sargent
Guests: Zach Hall (9to5Mac), Allison Sheridan (Podfeet.com)
Theme: Four tech topics in 30 minutes, with a focus on Apple TV favorites, journaling apps, tech maintenance (or lack thereof), and retro-tech explorations.

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers rapid-fire takes on four fresh tech topics: Apple TV+ recommendations, journaling habits (with the Apple Journal app), tech cleaning routines, and adventures in using old technology. Expect candid reviews, personal routines (or proud lack thereof), and some nostalgia-fueled explorations—all delivered with the Clockwise trademark wit and speedy round-table format.

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Main Discussion Points

1. Apple TV+: What Are You Watching & Recommendations?

Starts: 02:00

• Why now? The red carpet for Ted Lasso Season 4 reignites conversation about Apple TV’s growing catalog and big-name events.
• Zach Hall:
  • Bundled Apple TV+ with Apple One Premiere.
  • “The main thing I’ve been watching lately, though is F1 on Apple TV, now that it’s included… I think there’s been like six or eight races so far that I’ve watched live.” (03:00)
  • Also enjoys “Stick”, “Margot’s Got Money Trouble” (“pretty good, like, soul and heart to it”), “Shrinking”, and the most recent “For All Mankind” season (“they did some really good sense in this last season”).
  • Reflects on 14 full seasons watched—a solid Apple TV+ track record.
• Micah Sargent:
  • Loved “Invasion” (“I pretty much just kept watching and watching… after episode one”, 04:33).
  • Enthusiastic about “Murderbot”.
  • Praised “Cape Fear” for unexpectedly high drama (“Mr. Bardem is just outstanding”, 05:07).
• Allison Sheridan:
  • Consults her custom Airtable database to list favorites: “Widow’s Bay,” “Shrinking,” “Severance,” “Pluribus,” “Mythic Quest,” and “Star City.”
  • Highlights older/quirky standouts:
    • “Bad Sisters” — “Irish dark comedy about five sisters and a murder. It is really, really funny.” (05:39)
    • “Lessons in Chemistry” — “Brie Larson is a 1950s chemist. And you can imagine how well that worked out for a woman.”
    • Fumbles with database errors; Matlock and Resident Alien aren’t Apple TV originals, to much group amusement.
• Jason Snell:
  • Notes Apple TV has “cornered the market on heartwarming comedies and sort of like adult sci fi. Those seem to be the strongest areas there.” (06:59)
  • Plugs “Star City,” the “For All Mankind” spinoff (“a little overlooked… a Cold War drama”).
  • Boasts early access: “Season four Ted Lasso… I’ve seen the first four episodes. It’s really good.”
  • Also endorses “Silo” (“an underappreciated show… telling a complete story”, 07:55) and “Dark Matter” (“sci-fi with a premise that will surprise you… complicated and the show embraces that, which I really admire,” 08:50).

Notable Quotes

• Allison, database missteps, jokingly: “I’m ashamed. I feel terrible. Still a great show.” (06:15)
• Jason, on spinoffs: “Star City… set in the same universe but a completely different story because it’s set in the Soviet Union… Really great and I think a little overlooked.” (06:59)

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2. Apple’s Journal App & Journaling Habits

Starts: 09:06

• Zach Hall:
  • Brings up the oft-forgotten Apple Journal app, now on Mac for a year.
  • Shares that the Mac version unlocked a journaling habit (“157 day streak… 225,000 words”).
  • Finds it “a big unlock in terms of having writing flow” and uses it for gratitude, goal-setting, and warming up for work writing.
  • Personal anecdote: Found old entries about missing a previous podcast due to a family emergency. (“Looking back at that, it’s like, oh, that was three months ago.”, 12:45)
• Micah Sargent:
  • Admits journaling often “feels like homework,” but appreciates Journal app’s prompts and contextual reminders.
  • Recommends everyone “flip on those journal prompts even if you’re not planning to journal… just have a moment to yourself where you go, that was nice.” (09:50)
• Allison Sheridan:
  • Never journaled, even as a teen. “Most of my thoughts aren’t that deep.”
  • Considers her weekly blog writing as a form of journaling. (“Does that count as journaling, do you think?” 10:24)
• Jason Snell:
  • Definitively not a journaler: “Journaling is dumb. Who does that? But no, anybody can do whatever they want… the way I approach putting words down… That’s my job, and I am not going to sacrifice a single word that isn’t going to be read somewhere.” (10:55)

Notable Quotes

• Zach, on the Mac Journal app: “Since it’s come to the Mac, I never used it before… I am writing about things not just, oh, here are some issues I’m working through, but also here are some things that I’m glad are not issues right now.” (12:10)
• Jason, on journaling for non-writers: “If I did have words to give, I would write a novel. So no journaling for me. Sorry.” (11:05)

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3. Tech Cleaning & Maintenance Routines

Starts: 16:32

• Allison Sheridan:
  • No scheduled maintenance, avoids cleaning utilities: “I’m a big believer in doing a nuke and pave every year or so.”
  • Fixed issues “when they break”; shares recent Homebrew directory migration saga and early-adopter pitfalls (17:10).
• Jason Snell:
  • “100% fix it when it breaks, or at least when I notice that it’s bad.”
  • Cleans keyboard, screen, and robot vacuum only as needed, usually prompted by visible grime or odd noises. Robot vacuum “requires an enormous amount of maintenance because they’re picking up really gross dirty stuff all the time.” (18:30)
• Zach Hall:
  • Cleans devices mainly before going out in public: “That’s always just a really good cue to give it a good cleanover.”
  • Focuses cleaning effort mainly on children's iPads: “Being an eight-year-old boy, your hands get pretty dirty… and it has to go somewhere.” (19:44)
  • Maintains digital “good habits and hygiene” for storage and organization.
• Micah Sargent:
  • Raised the topic due to lifting a furry Mac Studio: “I might want to set myself a little reminder every three months to kind of clean this out because sometimes it gets purring away and it needs to breathe.” (20:24)
  • Primarily lets side-eye for grime be his notification system.

Notable Quotes

• Jason on robot vacuums: “It’s great that they run all the time but they require an enormous amount of maintenance.” (18:30)
• Zach on kid tech: “Something about being an eight-year-old boy, your hands get pretty dirty and it has to go somewhere and usually it’s the device…” (19:44)

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4. Old Tech: Firing Up Vintage Hardware & Emulators

Starts: 21:18

• Allison Sheridan:
  • Recently learned VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet) with help from OmniGroup’s Ken Case.
  • Asks if others revive old tech or play classic games via emulator.
• Jason Snell:
  • Did exactly that: transferred old Apple II discs, ran AppleWriter and AppleWorks in the Virtual ][ emulator.
  • Nostalgic about old fantasy baseball spreadsheets, “Lode Runner”, and “computer baseball”—prefers the original versions: “Every time I try a remake… I say, nope, it’s the Apple II version or nothing.” (22:57)
• Zach Hall:
  • Guitar pedal from 2008 stopped saving presets.
  • Resort: runs the outdated Xedit app via Windows on a virtual machine set up just for this task.
  • Discovers an online user community for the pedal, finding new use cases and “a whole new thing… I kind of discovered this whole new thing of my pedal that I hadn’t before.” (24:56)
• Micah Sargent:
  • Not much old-tech hands-on, but recently played Nintendo 64 and GameCube games at a friend’s with emulators.
  • Inspired to set up his own GoldenEye emulator at home soon. “Maybe that’ll happen this week.” (26:12)
• Allison (follow-up):
  • Immediately tries out Jason’s suggestion, finds a VisiCalc ZIP “two decades ago… I’m lost, I’m going to have so much fun.” (26:23)
• Group acknowledges the joy and learning in retro computing.

Notable Quotes

• Jason on remakes: “Every time I try a remake or something from a different platform, I say, nope, it’s the Apple II version or nothing.” (22:57)
• Allison, delighted: “I found a Visicalc zip… two decades ago this was uploaded. I love it. I’m just—I’m lost. I’m gonna have so much fun.” (26:23)

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Bonus Topic: Recommend a Non-Apple TV Show

Starts: 27:00

• Zach Hall:
  • “Rooster” on HBO: “Felt like it really just could have been an Apple TV show. I really enjoyed it.” (27:09)
• Micah Sargent:
  • Two picks, both BBC:
    • “The Misadventures of Roma S. Ranganathan,” a comedic travel show with heart.
    • “Sandy’s Wood,” featuring Sandi Toksvig doing (probably mispronounced) woodwork—“She’s fixing a wood,” in a delightfully wholesome show. (27:34)
• Allison Sheridan:
  • “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” on Paramount+ (“We haven’t done any Star Trek. How about Star Strange New Worlds on Paramount?” 27:56)
• Jason Snell:
  • “Taskmaster” (on YouTube) and its international versions, particularly New Zealand.
  • “Spider Noir” on Prime Video (Nicolas Cage as Depression-era Spider-Man detective): “Nicolas Cage really does give a great performance. Nicolas Cage, one of our great actors who is not always in things that are any good, but Spider Noir is good.” (28:48)

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Notable Humor & Memorable Moments

• Database Fails: Allison repeatedly recommends non-Apple TV shows due to Airtable mis-tags, leading to playful jokes about her database management.
  • Jason, mock admonishing: “Judge rejects your argument.” (06:22)
  • Jason, advice: “Don’t vibe code your TV database clearly is the lesson we learned here.” (06:46)
• Journaling Skeptics: Jason gives a wry, “Journaling is dumb. Who does that?” before quickly clarifying his tongue-in-cheek stance to laughter (10:44).
• Parenting & Tech Cleaning: Zach offers a real-life take on the unique grime of kids’ devices (“endorsement for kids,” 19:44).
• Real-Time Emulator Discovery: Allison gets excited mid-episode discovering VisiCalc emulator: “I’m lost. I’m gonna have so much fun.” (26:23)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:00 — Apple TV+ recommendations
• 09:06 — Apple Journal app & journaling
• 16:32 — Tech cleaning & maintenance
• 21:18 — Vintage tech and emulators
• 27:00 — Bonus: Non-Apple TV show picks
• 29:07 — Wrap-up, thank-yous

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Clockwise 667 is a playful, candid, and tech-nerdy episode that roams from Apple TV+ picks to debates over the value of journaling, DIY approaches to device upkeep, and the enduring allure of retro tech. Alongside serious opinions, the hosts and guests keep the mood lively with self-deprecating jokes, good-natured ribbing, and plenty of practical recommendations for listeners to check out next.

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Memorable Sign-Off:
“Watch what you say and keep watching the clock.”

Transcript

[A]

It's Time for episode 667 of the Clockwise podcast from Relay, recorded Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Clockwise. Four people, four tech topics, 30 minutes.

[B]

Welcome back to Clockwise, a podcast that's right. At least twice a day. I am your host emeritus, Jason Snell, filling in for Dan Moran, who is on vacation. We're not going to say assignment, it's vacation. And across from me, of course, one of your regular hosts, Micah Sargent. Hi, Micah.

[A]

Hello, Jason. How are you?

[B]

I'm doing great. Happy to fill in. I think I'm filling in a couple. I'm doing some vacation relief in the next few weeks for you guys. So I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to do it. This is of course Clockwise, a podcast that Dan and I created like 80,000 years ago, 666 episodes ago and are still going strong, where we talk about four tech topics in 30 minutes. We keep it short, we keep it tight and bright and we have two wonderful guests across the table from me. Oh no, wait a second. Where is it? Where your is? Micah Sargent, to my left. Oh, I know how clocks work. It's the editor at large at 9 to 5 Mac, Zach Hall. Hi, Zach.

[A]

Hi.

[C]

I'm filling in for James Thompson. That's a three month long joke.

[B]

No, it's good. I like it. And it's nice to talk to you someplace other than usually like the Steve Jobs theater waiting area when we're going to get briefings and stuff. So it's nice to talk to you here instead.

[A]

To my left, Chief [e-mail] and one of my favorite non music listeners, it's Alison Sheridan.

[C]

Hello, Allison.

[D]

Do you have a long list of those near the top?

[A]

It's just you.

[D]

All right.

[B]

And now the lineup is set and this is how the show goes. Now I give the first topic and it is topical in a different way. There was a red carpet with, with John Ternus and Tim Cook on it because it was the ted Lasso Season 4 premiere. So Ted Lasso is coming back. It's big news. The first really big hit for Apple tv. Apple also did a big Comic Con panel this year for the first time where they had a whole bunch of announce and teasers and cast members and stuff. And so I thought it would be time to ask all of y', all, do you watch Apple tv? And if so, I think it would be good if you could recommend some stuff for other people to watch on Apple tv. Zach?

[C]

I watch Apple tv. I pay for Apple tv. Through the Apple One premiere bundle, the one with everything in it. And at times when I don't do that, I miss it. The main thing I've been watching lately, though is F1 on Apple TV, now that it's included. I've never been an F1 fan. Never been a racing fan, really. I remember, I think in like 2006, I was 16, watching an F1 race on ESPN, maybe on cable TV, and kind of enjoying it and wanting to get into it at the time, but just not having kind of the routine there. And all these years later, because it's on Apple tv, that means I can put it on my Mac. If I'm working on my Mac already on a Sunday morning and it's there. And I don't know, I think there's been like six or eight racist so far that I've watched live. And because it's part of Apple TV, you get the F1TV app as well. And so I looked back at some of the archive races and I watched one from 1990 when I was born, and I was amazed at all of the cigarette sponsors that were there. Yeah, that I've enjoyed in theory. I like that Major League Soccer is now included without being extra. But I haven't watched any of. Any of that. And I've got some, I guess some shows, you know, that I say stand out to me. I really enjoyed Stick, and I'm glad that's coming back for another season. You know, the newest thing is Margot's Got Money Trouble. I watched the first few, I think, like, released like two or three at the start. And then I caught up after the. And watched the rest of it. I thought that had some pretty good, like, soul and heart to it. Shrinking, you know, that season three made me emotional for All Mankind. Season five. That one brought me back in a way that I think a previous season or two, maybe I was not as emotionally attached to it. But then I think they. They did some really good sense in this last season that they've done. And they've got one more coming, but a lot there. And I was just kind of amazed at looking back at my entry of, oh, 14 shows that I've watched the whole seasons of. That's pretty good for Apple tv, I think.

[A]

I do not feel that I have watched a lot of Apple tv. What I really, really liked, I watched it after it was all out, was Invasion. I really liked that show and I was not expecting to, but I sat down and watched the first episode and I pretty much just kept watching and watching and watching and watching outside of that. Remind me. It was Murderbot. Apple tv. Okay, then. Then, yes. That's the other one that I watched and thought, oh, my goodness, I've got to watch every single episode of this. Yeah, I thought that was quite good. Oh, Cape Fear. Also an Apple tv.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I was kind of surprised that it was an Apple tv because it's. I'm. Okay, this is a terrible thing to say, maybe, but I'm not used to it being as incredible in the. The like, drama, thriller as I have found that show to be. I seen that from a lot of the Apple TV stuff that I've watched. And so, yeah, I think Cape Fear is incredible. And Mr. Bardem is just outstanding. What about you, Allison?

[D]

Well, I pulled up my app, my TV watching database. I built in airtable and filtered by Apple TV as one does. And of course, there's the usuals. Widow's Bay, Shrinking Severance, Pluribus, Mythic Quest for All Mankind, and Star City, one of my favorites. But those are kind of the classics. I wanted to bring up a couple of older, weirder ones like Bad Sisters. It's an Irish dark comedy about five sisters and a murder. It is really, really funny. Lessons in Chemistry, where Brie Larson is a 1950s chemist. And you can imagine how well that worked out for a woman. Matlock with Kathy Bates on Apple. That one is.

[B]

You have a data entry problem there.

[D]

I will. I will go. I will. I. I'm ashamed. I feel terrible. Still a great show.

[B]

Judge rejects your argument.

[C]

Stick around for the bonus question.

[D]

How about Resident Alien with. That is really funny.

[B]

That's not an Apple TV show either.

[D]

Oh, my God. I don't even know if I can go on. How about Mythiquest, Mythic Quest. Will you give me that one?

[B]

Yes.

[D]

All right. With Rob McElhenny and Charlotte Nick Dao. I just love, love, love, love that show. I gotta go check my database. You guys carry on while I go check and see what I've done wrong.

[B]

Yeah, don't vibe code your TV database clearly is the lesson we learned here.

[D]

Well, I didn't vibe code it. I wrote it by hand. But my husband has access to it so I could throw him.

[B]

You need to have Claude look good.

[A]

You said do the opposite.

[B]

Do some checking then. Yeah, These are all great. Obviously, Apple TV has cornered the market on heartwarming comedies and sort of like adult sci fi. Those seem to be the strongest areas there. Definitely. Alison mentioned in passing Star City. That is the spinoff of For All Mankind. I just want to give that a plug. It is a Cold War drama, basically. You don't need to have watched For All Mankind. It explains it's set in the same universe, but it's a completely different story because it's set in the same Soviet Union right at the moment of the first episode of For All Mankind, essentially. Really great and I think a little overlooked because it's a spinoff and I am one of those people because in large part because Dan and I do the For All Mankind podcast that I have some screeners, some advanced looks. So I'm gonna brag and say, yeah, season four Ted Lasso. I've seen the first four episodes. It's really good. So I'm just gonna say it's really good. Check it out. Don't, don't. If you're like, I don't know that last season, embrace it. It's back and it's running at full speed. Also, Silo is currently running. I'm a little ahead on those. I'll just say I think the Silo is a great, under appreciated show and it's telling a complete story. They're gonna drop the fourth season next summer and then that's the end of the story. So you will not get, you know, risk being ripped off for the end of the story. And then the other one I want to plug is Dark Matter, which is coming back for its second season. But if you didn't see the first season, Jennifer Connelly's in that it is really great. It is a sci fi show with a premise that will, I think, surprise you and surprise how how the show explores the premise. It's, it's not when you first glance at you, at you think it might be a simple show, but it's complicated and it, and the show embraces that which I really admire about it. And it's also based the unique thing of it's based on a novel and the guy who wrote the novel is the showrunner of the show. So who better to adapt it? And he did a really great job. So a lot of great things on Apple tv. Let's move on to something entirely different. Zach, what do you have?

[C]

Yeah, for me, I've got a question about the Apple Journal app. It's kind of a sleeper app for me, a sleeperhead app for me. So it's been on the Mac for a year now with Mac OS 26 Tahoe. And so my question to you all is, do you use Apple Journal on the Mac? Maybe the iOS version or maybe another method of journaling entirely Micah, I've tried

[A]

using the journal app. I've tried using lots of different journal apps and they end up all feeling like homework for me, which results in me not continuing to use them. But when I first used the journal app and you know, had the prompts turned on and all that jazz and tried it out, I did really appreciate the way that different things that were happening were then suggested to me as potential journal prompts. And it did in that way make journaling feel a little bit easier. And also just kind of, even when I wasn't journaling, I found it helpful to have those little notifications pop up and go, oh right, you did do that earlier this week and you did have a good time when you were, you know, there with your friends. And so, yeah, I don't know, maybe I'm advocating flipping on those journal prompts even if you're not planning to journal and just have a moment to yourself where you go. That was nice. What about you, Alison?

[D]

I gotta say, Zach, I have never been one for journaling or writing in a diary. Even as like a 13 year old girl, I didn't do that. But most of my thoughts aren't that deep. So I do write a few thousand words a week for the blog for all my tech stuff that goes along with my podcast. Does that count as journaling, do you think?

[C]

I think so. I think so.

[D]

All right then yes, I do.

[B]

Okay, I don't know how to answer this. The nice way is to say no, Zach, I don't actually do any journaling so I don't use any apps to do it. The hot takeaway would be like journaling is dumb. Who does that? But no, anybody can do whatever they want. I don't. Because for me, the way I approach putting words down, typing in words into a page, that's my job and I am not going to sacrifice a single word that isn't going to be read somewhere. Honestly is the bottom line, I just don't. I do not have words to give. And if I did have words to give, I would write a novel. So. So no journaling for me. Sorry.

[C]

Yeah, that's interesting. A couple of things. So for one, for me, so obviously bringing this question, I do use a journal app and the Mac version has been a big unlock for me. I've not journaled every day, but I do have a 157 day streak. So since February 23rd, 267 days of entries. And the app gives you some insights into how much you've written. So 225,000 words. Since it's come to the Mac, I never used it before that. One thing that I find in using the app is that I am writing about things. Not just, oh, here are some issues I'm working through or whatever, but also here are some things that I'm glad are not issues right now. Here are some things I'm grateful for. And it's sort of made this habit of. Of sort of a gratitude list as part of my entries. The other thing is, you mentioned Jason work. And so for me, I can get into a slump sometimes where I find it difficult to turn on my brain and start writing. And because I write for work, it's important that I'm good at having that flow. And that flow, I think, is the key word for me. And so by starting my day with an entry of, here's the time of day, here's what's going on today, here's what's on my. It's like I'm almost, like, writing myself instructions for the day, and that gets me in the flow of writing. And so suddenly, oh, now I've got a breaking news blog post to write for 9 to 5 Mac, or I've got a story that I need to do, but I've got some reason that it's been difficult for me to get around to it. And if I just write it out privately to myself a little bit in the Journal app, then suddenly it's almost like I'm giving someone an assignment and then I'm doing that assignment. And so for me, it's been a really big unlock in terms of having writing flow. And so it's helped a lot that way. And I don't do a lot of reflection either, like, looking back, but I did look back at, like, three months ago. I was meant to be a guest on this podcast, and I was writing in my journal entry, like, 10 minutes before the show started. I was getting ready, and then 10, 20 minutes later, I was in the ER. My son had broken his arm at school, and I had to go to the er. And then James Thompson filled in for me. And looking back at that, it's like, oh, that was three months ago. Wow, that's a long time ago. But for me, it's just been a really big unlock in terms of just processing thoughts more and writing out more. And then that makes writing stories easier for me as well.

[A]

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[D]

If you mean things like clean my Mac or Onyx, I don't do any of that. I'm a big believer in doing a Nuke and Pave every year or so. And then when I get a new Mac, I absolutely start from scratch. I didn't once and I regretted it. I didn't like the process at all. I really prefer a Nuke and Pave. So while I've dabbled in those tools, I don't find that they do anything to help me keep my Macs running. Well. I did find a problem recently where I had Homebrew installed on an M1 Mac mini, but it was in the X86 location user local instead of the Apple silicon location, which is op slash Homebrew. This happened because I was such an early adopter. They hadn't put out the new version yet, and I don't think any automated tools would have found that for me. And it took a lot of digging to be able to figure out why that happened. So I'm definitely more in the fix it when it breaks category. And things seem to break a lot for me, so I don't know if I'm doing it right or not.

[B]

I am definitely a fix it when it breaks kind of person. I don't fix the keyboard when it breaks, but it is like when I look down and I see, like stuff on my keyboard, I will unplug my keyboard. I will take the vacuum and vacuum up the keyboard. I've got a little vacuum with a brush that will get a bunch of stuff off and I'll shake it out a little bit and I'll wipe it down maybe. And occasionally I will pop the key caps off and clean underneath. But it's mostly when I notice that it's disgusting. And the truth is that kind of is it for me is if I notice I get a reflection on an unlit MacBook screen and I'm like, oh boy, let's clean that off. I notice a smudge somewhere. And then the other big one for me is I have a robot vacuum cleaner and it doesn't always have to break, but I will notice. I'll be like, you're sounding a little funny or acting a little funny. And that's when I have to go in and do the typical, you know, regular, maybe monthly maintenance of, you know, get Tangle untangling hairs out of the brushes and cleaning it off and stuff like that. And that robot vacuum is man. I mean it's great that they run all the time but they require an enormous amount of maintenance because. Because they're picking up really gross dirty stuff all time. So yeah, But I'm absolutely 100% fix it when it breaks or at least when I notice that it's bad.

[C]

My reminder to like physically clean devices, especially my Mac is often before I. Well either when I'm in public or before I go in public. But that's always just a really good cue to give it a good cleanover because you know when you're just at home and you're using it. I clean my screen often but the keyboard especially and the trackpad, I mean it can get kind of greasy. And also the parts that I don't see the other side of the display of the laptop, it's like I don't see that very much. It's usually open and I'm using it but somehow it gets dirty. And so before I'm somewhere in public I'm like I'm going to give this thing a good clean over. And then on the software side I think I've got pretty good habits and hygiene about keeping everything like nice and organized and not having too much built up and just working within the constraints of you only have this much storage and this much attention and so make sure you, you know everything is managed well so that I'm not running up into. Into caps there. The main cleaning that I do is my, my 8 year old's iPad and less so but my, my 13 year old daughter's tech as well but they stay in cases. My stuff usually out of a case but something about you know, being an eight year old boy, your hands get pretty dirty and it has to go somewhere and usually it's the device and man stuff like that gets, finds a way of getting into the cases and so when I take off the case it's usually just really gross. An endorsement for kids, right? But so that's me.

[A]

The reason that this question came up is because yesterday I lifted my Mac Studio and it was a little furry under

[D]

dust bunnies.

[A]

Dust bunnies B so it made me go. I might want to set myself a little reminder every three months to kind of clean this out because sometimes it gets purring away and it needs to breathe. And that's fair. I will sometimes give my keyboard side eye and when I find myself sort of giving my keyboard side eye more than twice that's my little notification to myself that I need to turn it off and pull out the Clorox wipes and get to work. Outside of that, I don't do a whole lot of scheduled regular maintenance. I am very much falling into the sort of fix it when it needs it, clean it when it needs it, you know, fix it when it breaks way. Thank you all for your answers on that. Let's go to our final topic, which comes from Alison.

[D]

Last week, I spent a bunch of time learning how to use VisiCalc, the very first spreadsheet. And I did that with the help of omnigroup CEO Ken Case. We had an absolute blast doing this. And my question was, is there an any old technology that you fired up just to learn it or maybe relearn it? Maybe an old game and an emulator that used to play. Looking around through archive.org I'm curious whether anybody else does this or is it just me?

[B]

Well, I did something very similar to you because I unearthed all my old floppy disks from my Apple II and transferred them over so I could run them on Virtual 2, a great emulator for the Mac for the Apple II just had a new version come out. I used AppleWriter and Apple Works on Apple II when I was in high school. And man, I don't remember a single thing about how it works. So it was a lot of like, what do I do now? Because remember, this is before the Mac gui, so it's like you have to know what commands to type. So I'm like, do I type question mark here? What do I do to bring up a menu? How do I load a file with appleworks, it has a spreadsheet in it, Fantasy baseball league with two of my friends. And there are spreadsheets of our league on those discs. And like, how do you navigate a spreadsheet? And again, to Alison's point is probably similarly to VisiCalc, because it was undoubtedly a knockoff of VisiCalc a few years later when Apple wanted to build its own little spreadsheet word processor bundle for the Apple ii. But wow, that was kind of mind blowing because we've come so far and my brain has gotten really good at unlearning things I don't need to know in tech anymore. It's funny though, the thing that I actually come back to the most in terms of old tech is old Apple II games that I loved when I was younger and the ones that I revisit the most. There was a computer baseball that was like, no graphics, essentially just like A little dot for the baseball. But you play games against historic teams, against other historic teams. And I loved that thing when I was in seventh, eighth grade and into high school. And so I'll do that occasionally. And Lode Runner, I think the Apple II version of the game, Lode Runner is the best definitive version of that game. And they've remade it a billion times. And every time I try a remake or something from a different platform, I say, nope, it's the Apple II version or nothing. And so I will play that from time to time. So that's my retro tech. It's all Apple II stuff.

[C]

Nice. I have a guitar pedal from 2008 or so. One of the features of the guitar pedal is you can. It's like a multi effects pedal, so you can add distortion or echo or chorus or whatever to your guitar without having a bunch of different physical pedals. And I realized that the button to save your edits, you could edit it and play it live through your amp, but to save what you just did, the physical button had given out. And so the solution around that was it has USB B out of the back and so I could plug it up to my Mac. There's an app that you can use to do the same thing you can do on the device, but do it in software and save that way. But it's Xedit is the name of the app. And it didn't load on the Mac anymore. It didn't make it through probably 32 bit to 64 bit. And so there was no way around that anymore. And it definitely didn't work on Apple Silicon. And so the solution I found was to run that app, the Windows version. So I went through the process of I don't have Windows anywhere around me, so what do I do in 2026 to get Windows without having to pay for software and do a bunch of stuff to get it virtualized. But eventually I did VMware Fusion for free and ran Windows and just enough to get that Xedit app on Windows running so that I could edit the guitar effects pedal and hit save. And I found through that process, like a whole community on forums from the 2010s of people making their own effects. And I was like, oh, you can make a guitar sound like the edge from U2 with all these echoes and all this stuff that I hadn't done before. And I kind of discovered this whole new thing of my pedal that I hadn't before, which was the community that used it as well. I was surprised to find that there was a workaround to it through software. It just took a little journey to find a way to get it to work, but it did. That's mine.

[A]

I have to say that there's not a lot of old tech that I fired up recently to try to learn, but was just at a friend's house recently, and they know how to do all of the things to get the emulators going, going. And so we played a bunch of old Nintendo 64 games, and then GameCube is not as old, but those games as well. And I.

[C]

It.

[A]

It made me really want to play goldeneye again. And so that was. That's so funny, because it was a project. I was like, I'm gonna figure out how to get an emulator set up and play goldeneye. And I haven't done it yet, so maybe. Maybe that'll happen this week. Allison, why don't you round us out here?

[D]

Well, I got to tell you, the whole time you guys were answering, I went to virtual 2 that Jason was talking about and didn't realize I could run an emulator locally on my Mac so I wouldn't have to play VisiCalc in a browser. So now I've been busy installing things, and I found. Oh, my gosh, I found a Visicalc zip from. You know how they tell you like, three days ago, a month ago, this says two decades ago, this was uploaded. I love it. I'm just. I'm lost. I'm gonna have so much fun. Thank you for that, Jason.

[B]

This is great.

[C]

Great.

[A]

Alrighty, folks, we are just about done with this episode of Clockwise. But before that, we've got just enough time for a bonus topic. Jason, what's our bonus topic?

[B]

It's going to be really easy for Allison because she already did it, but I'd like everybody to recommend one non Apple TV show that you. That. Yeah. You think people should check out.

[C]

Zach, I found that rooster on hbo. Felt like it really just could have been an Apple TV show. I really enjoyed it.

[A]

For me, actually, I'm gonna just recommend two, because I've been really enjoying both. One of them is called the Misadventures of Roma S. Ranganathan, and it's a show. It's a travel show on the BBC with comedian Ramesh Ranganathan. But he goes to, like, the worst places in the world.

[B]

He's so great.

[A]

And it's really touching. It ends up being really touching. The other thing is also on the BBC, it's called Sandy's Wood. I love Sandy, and I'm gonna Mispronounce all his name. Tokvig, who is, of course the Danish woman to do Great British Bake Off. And yeah, she's fantastic. And she's fixing a wood. Allison, what about you?

[D]

All right, well, I brought up my database again. I hope this one is right. We haven't done any Star Trek. How about Star Strange New Worlds on Paramount?

[B]

Very nice. Just came back for the fourth season. It was a lot of fun and I've got two since. Secretly, Micah's mentioning people who are Taskmaster adjacent. I'll just say taskmaster is on YouTube and it's great from the UK and then there's also international versions. The New Zealand version is really great. It's just on YouTube. Go watch it. And on Prime Video, Nicolas Cage in Spider Noir is great. If you're like, I don't want to watch a Marvel show. I don't want to watch a superhero show. I don't want, like, seriously, it is a great depression set Spider man show, kind of. But Spider man is Nicolas Cage and he's a noir detective. And there's like, femme fatales and there's. There's a very angry Irish mobster, and there is, like a backstory of the villains. And I am shocked at how much I'm enjoying it. And Nicolas Cage really does give a great performance. Nicolas Cage, one of our great actors who is not always in things that are any good, but Spider Noir is good.

[A]

Folks listening out there, if you would like to get ad free episodes with an extra unwound episode every week, you can become a member of Clockwise, go to Relay FM clockwise to sign up. $7 a month, $70 a year to help support the show.

[B]

And that brings us to the end of this episode of Clockwise. Just time to thank our guest, Zach Hall. Thank you again for filling in for James Thompson.

[C]

Anytime.

[D]

Thank y'.

[C]

All.

[A]

And Allison Sheridan, thank you so much for being here.

[D]

All right. I enjoyed filling in for myself. It was. It's always a pleasure.

[B]

That's good. You did a great job. We're never going to invite Allison anymore. Just you and. And that's it for this episode of Clockwise. We'll be back next week, of course, but until then, we remind everyone out

[A]

there, watch what you say and keep watching the clock.

[B]

Bye, everybody.