Getting Away With It

Jon and Simon discuss lockdown anxiety, international affairs, personal scars and of course, great music. Wanted to get this up there quick, or it might fester in some back corridor and get forgotten. So here it is, no headers or footers, enjoy.     

Jon finally manages to drag Simon to The Barn Theatre, for a bit of culture in the shape of a throughly modern production of Shakespeare.  To the surprise of absolutely nobody, he loves it. 

The morning after the night before... Sitting in the sun... headlining in the beer tent... strange campers... barfing waltzers and strange phrases... Huawei and Google... scanning for skeletons in concrete... tech giants breaking industries... and a poem from Simon. 

Manflu and weak tea… Squeaky doors… Alien Station… Ukulele cases and piano passions… Shooting Dom… Perfectionism and 10,000 hours… Yousician and tricky chords… Simon’s words… Skye and piano pedals… Apple Watch, Google Home and Arkansas… Jumpers, comparatibility, Mario and Zelda… Caymans and Uber… Philips Hue and Raspberry Pi… Intel bugs and iPhone batteries and other rambling chat

The antiques emporium… brass… Simon finds an unwanted Jack Vettriano… string pictures… mirrors, frame making and mural taste choices… marbles and burning holes… Captain Mainwaring and ashtrays… the smallest guitar case in the world… early plastic globes… trains and shut churches… markets… Poundland… and back into Waterstones… idiot drivers… books… games… crap games and other rambles about being sorted for Christmas

Hardware store… corkscrews and dollies… e-cloths… crap lighting… bedding… a veritable cornucopia of tat… black slippers, rat poison and plastic dinosaurs… broken arrow… drones, wooden mushrooms and weed burners… algorithmic retail and store layouts… wine coolers… tools… chainsaws and teasmades… paint names… almost sage and naughty step… plumbing nightmares and a real plumber… home-made wine, knobs and knockers… health, safety and fireworks… a Santa toilet seat and an apology. And a flat cap. 

Pre-Christmas edition: Bitcoin update (and does money exist anyway)… Branson, Sugar, Trump and the illuminati… real cream, imaginary milk, Dale Vince and dreadlocks… Eden and Venus Projects, Dom Joly and ringtones… experiences vs possessions… last-minute present shopping… better-organised better halves… Bristol vs Cheltenham… elves, robots and Tesco home deliveries… stamp collecting and painting Airfix models, puzzles, dry stone walling and the aesthetics of painting by numbers, meccano, mousetrap and spirograph, broken LED watches and stapling thumbs on Christmas morning… and a jingle!

A journey through the vagaries of what it means to lose a pound, how heavy drinking is a great way to give up smoking, and other adventures in the journey to immortality. Or something. 

The fantastic relaunch episode... was unfortunately lost due to operator error. So here we have - a relaunch episode. Covering Bitcoin and other tech, War On Drugs, High Flying Birds, Yes and some other music, the tarmac outside Ed O'Brien's house, dry stone walling, the screams of baby rabbits and a smorgasbord of bits and bobs, in one carefully packaged conversation. Or something. Well, at least it's here. 

Jon and Si take refuge in a coffee shop to talk about the new features of the iPhone, and go on a bit of a ramble about mobile and music history. 

With the hashtag now ten years old, Simon and Jon have a think about just how social media has changed things. For better, or worse. Perhaps Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all are but the wind that blows through this very podcast. Oh and there may be a song. 

On the hottest (but slightly less windy) day of the year, Simon and Jon find a shady spot to discuss the latest developments in healthcare technology. And they totally get to the point really quickly.

Simon asks Jon just how a massive company like BA can fail to keep some of its critical computer systems running after a power surge. It's a very good question - and do your backups, people!

Simon and Jon cover the recent ransomware attack that affected organisations across the world. How did it start, how did it stop and should people be concerned? 

Simon and Jon try to put their awkwardness behind them to cover the impact of technology on employment. They succeed, largely. 

Another noisy environment but that doesn't prevent Simon and Ben from a great discussion on consoles and beyond... with Jon not getting much of a word in edgeways.

In the setting of a noisy cafe and having admitted he knows very little about gaming, Jon drafts in his son Ben to talk to the far more experienced Simon. 

The topic is the history and current state of programming, from Ada Lovelace to the present. The context is rather uncomfortable as Simon's programmer friend Dom brings in his expertise. 

Simon and Jon deal admirably with an unexpected change of topic, covering Bitcoin and its globally-spanning repository Blockchain, which Simon admits is actually a bit interesting. 

Jon and Simon go al fresco to discuss how technology is changing transportation, with connected and driverless cars. As Jon explains the rise of the robots, Simon can't wait to play him his new jingle. 

The duo decide to record the AI episode in Jon's office, which doesn't have the best decor. A mystery voice chimes in - is that the Singularity itself talking?

The pair digress into APIs and programming before tackling cybercrime, viruses and hacking. Jon confesses he has never been onto the Dark Net... and who the heck is Dom?

In this podcast, we learn why Jon shouldn't tell jokes and should get over cloud computing, that neither Jon nor Simon have a brilliant grasp of Geography, and that brightly coloured cars aren't necessarily the safest. 

The conversation starts well but Jon descends into rambling tales of flying unicorns and Star Wars pizza. Simon is less than impressed.

Jon's great idea to record a podcast with Simon doesn't turn out too well, when he admits he doesn't like them very much. Despite things not going quite as planned, the pair agree to give it a go.