almostBetterThanSilence

ABTS-018: John Sonmez Interview

March 9, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:06:21

In this episode of ABTS, Doug and Matt interview software developer life coach, fitness expert, and podcaster John Sonmez.

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-John’s new book: Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual
-John’s blog: www.simpleprogrammer.com
–How To Market Yourself As A Software Developer
–Get Up and Code podcast
–The Entreprogrammers podcast

3 Actionable, Bit-sized Tips

1. The most productive thing you will ever do in your life/career is to stop watching TV.
2. Invest in people skills. Read How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie
3. Have some kind of goal.

I Was The Walrus:

The I Was The Walrus theme song is brought to you by DJ Cutman! Check out his SoundCloud here!

Contestants: Doug vs. John
Category 1: Things that you do not want to find when you come home from work.
Round 1: An asteroid in your kitchen vs. 500 dead hookers covered in bee stings
Category 2: Someone that you would not want to encounter at the supermarket.
Round 2: Voldemort vs. Anyone from Walmart after 2:00AM
Category 3: Worst possible video game concept.
Round 3: A game about being a software developer vs. Podcast Hero (amended to Novel Writer)

How-To-Market-Yourself-02

ABTS-017: There’s A Knock At Basta’s Door

March 6, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:38:30

In this episode of ABTS, Doug, Matt, and AJ discuss a broad spectrum of topics including: viral memes, an early access game review, as well as a new segment that will probably never happen again!

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Tech stuff:

Doug talks about his Surface Pro 3 and the accessories
Matt defends Windows ME
THERE’S A KNOCK AT MATT’S DOOR 

Lastronaut is now available for iOS!

An interview with the developers is on the horizon!
Doug: 8.7/10
Aj: 8.5/10

DO NOT PLAY GAMES WHILE STUCK IN TRAFFIC
Matt’s Apple spoof video (one of the first YouTube videos ever made)

Games We’ve Been Playing:

AJ: Magic the Gathering, Destiny, Lastronaut
Doug: Grow Home, Violet Storm, Lastronaut

Games that come out this month:

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Final Fantasy X/X-2 Re-remaster for PS4
Bloodborne

Some guy beat Fallout: New Vegas without ever healing once!
Five Nights at Freddy’s / Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 / Five Nights at Freddy’s 3
Worst game of the episode: Pregnancy
ABTS Research Division: You used to be able to get Dunkaroos at Walmart, we are not sure if you can now.

Good News / Sad News

Good: Unreal Engine 4 is free
Sad: Maxis is no more

I Was The Walrus:

The I Was The Walrus theme song is brought to you by DJ Cutman! Check out his SoundCloud here!

Contestants: Doug vs. Matt
Category 1: You’re stuck in a doctor’s office waiting room forever. And you can have one item. What is it?
Round 1: Walmart vs. A Crate of Lunchables
Category 2: What material would your Harry Potter wand be made of? And what would be the core?
Round 2: Igneous Rock and Plutonium vs. Twizzlers and Marijuana
Category 3: What USB extension would you not want to have?
Round 3: USB Heating Gloves vs. USB Sony Walkman

#dresspecker

ABTS-016: Japan Is Dying

March 2, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:07:18

In this episode of ABTS, Doug and AJ nerd out and talk about a ton of different anime, including AJ’s Top Ten (in no particular order), as well as a variety of runner-ups. We also play 10 Questions for the first time!

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Recommended Runner Ups:

Dragon Crisis
Ano Natsu De Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Claymore
Sword Art Online
Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion Abridged:
EvAbridged 1.0 This is (not) a Parody
EvAbridged 2.0 Shinji is (not) a Pussy
EvAbridged 3.0 Rei is (not) Pleased
EvAbridged 4.0 This is (not) the End

‘Watch If You’re Incredibly Bored and Wanna Fuck Around’ Runner Ups:

To Love-Ru
Girls Bravo

AJ’s Top 10

Summer Wars (movie)
Speed Grapher
Kaiji
Ben-To
Tengen Toppa Guren Lagann
Princess Mononoke (movie)
The World God Only Knows
Toradora!
Un-Go
Eureka Seven

Japan is dying link

10 Questions Recap:

The 10 Questions theme song is brought to you by Rage Status! Check out his SoundCloud here!

Category: Anime
10: Is the main character a boy or a girl? Have we talked about this show before
9: What are the genres? Comedy, detective caper, action, thriller.
8: Guess: Lupin III
7: Guess: Case Closed
6: Did it come out before 2010? Yes
5: Did it come out after 1999? No
4: Did it come out after 1990? Yes
3: Was it ever on Cartoon Network? Yes
2: Is it in space? Yes
1: Guess: Cowboy Bebop
Answer: Cowboy Bebop

Ben-to

ABTS-015: Frag Castle Games Interview

February 23, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:02:07

In this episode of ABTS, Doug and Bren interview the founders of Frag Castle Games, John Bubriski and Jared Barboza. We discuss the various games they’ve released, their backgrounds in game development, and we play another tournament of IWTW!

Rate Almost Better Than Silence on iTunes if you get the chance!

Frag Castle Games Website
Games: Rock Kickass, RK Runner, Lovey Bird, Shroom Jump, Final Frontier
Frag Castle Github
FragCast Podcast
XNA, MonoGame, Game Maker, ImpactJS
One of five winners for the Github Gameoff 2012 with Rock Kickass
PAX East 2013 Cost Breakdown blog post
Steam vs. Uplay vs. Games for Windows Live
Titanfall, Don’t Starve Together (Klei), Mark of the Ninja (Bren could’ve theoretically burned down in a building playing this game)

I Was The Walrus:

The I Was The Walrus theme song is brought to you by DJ Cutman! Check out his SoundCloud here!

Category: What you would want to have if you were trapped under a frozen lake
Match 1: John vs. Jared
Round 1: Old spice vs. Samus Suit
Round 2: Legos vs. Falcon Punch
Round 3: Reddit vs. Sun Blade from Final Fantasy

Category: Where would you go during a zombie apocalypse?
Match 2: Bren vs. Jared
Round 1: Green Lantern Planet Oa vs. An English Pub
Round 2: Atlantis (from Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire) vs. TARDIS
Round 3: Batcave vs. Mall

frag castle games

ABTS-014: Cartoon Conspiracy Theories

February 20, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:26:48

In this episode of ABTS, we finally have four hosts on at once and listeners are introduced to Mark Choi the newest member of the ABTS team. This episode is all over the place and to top things off we have a tournament of IWTW!

Rate Almost Better Than Silence on iTunes if you get the chance!

Fairly ridiculous games:

–Hubble Trouble a game by Basta (github)
–Frog Fractions (you won’t regret playing this phenomenal game)
–Poocoozi (video)
–Hatoful Boyfriend
–Can Your Pet?
–Don’t Shit Your Pants
–Soda Drinker Pro

Other shit:

-Mark explains his experience with the Occulus Rift
–Watching porn with Occulus Rift is now a thing
–Snapcash
–White lines make your gifs pop (you don’t want to miss this)
–Quantum equations predicts the universe has no beginning
–New Earth-like planet discovered Kepler 186F
–Pluto is not a planet and the Southern ocean is a thing
-Jetsons before the Flintstones?!
-Popwerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack in the same universe
–Pokemon fan theory (creepypasta)

I Was The Walrus:

The I Was The Walrus theme song is brought to you by DJ Cutman! Check out his SoundCloud here!

Category: Something you would want in a post-apocalyptic setting
Game 1: Mark vs. Matt
Round 1: Time Stopping Device vs. Chrystal Pepsi
Round 2: BitBeast in a Bayblade vs. Cuisinart Immersion Blender
Round 3: Rocket-powered sweatpants (not Rocket Power Sweatpants) vs. 64 pack of Charmin toilet paper

Category: Home invasion weapons
Game 2: Matt vs. Doug
Round 1: Abba CD vs. Guitar
Round 2: Richard Kiel as Mr. Larson from Happy Gilmore vs. a Polar Bear with a flamethrower
Round 3:Two signs that say ‘KEEP OUT’ respectively in Comic Sans and Papyrus vs. Gargoyles (specifically the dual bosses from Dark Souls)

ABTS-013: ICANN’T Transfer My New Domain

February 16, 2015 almostBetterThanSilence ABTS, Podcasts 1:09:33

In this episode of ABTS, Doug and Bren discuss the Souls franchise (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II), it’s upcoming successor Bloodborne, phobias, disease-ridden animals, and domain transfer issues.

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-One of the original hosts Joe has disappeared and we don’t know if he’ll return
–Bethesda is going to have it’s first press conference at E3 this year
–Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, Bloodborne
–Chaos Witch Quelaag and the Fair Lady (Chaos Servant Covenant) DON’T KILL EINGYI!!!
–Arachniphobia, Triskaidekaphobia
–Xanga, Myspace
–How to Prevent and Detect Keyloggers
–Automakers fail to fully protect against hacking (video)
–Ghost in the Shell (film)
–Deus Ex: Human Revolution
-Bren could make an entire episode about the ending of Mass Effect
-Dated games: Myst, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
–Boston Dynamics: Introducing Spot (video)
-Doug can’t transfer a newly acquired domain for 60 days due to rules in place by ICANN
–GoDaddy backs out from supporting SOPA (old news)
–Armadillos have Leprosy AND Koalas have Chlamydia
–Killswitch Engage‘s guitarist wins The Price Is Right!

price was right for killswitch engage