Chit Chat Across the Pond

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Dr. Maryanne Garry of the University of Waikato and I break down the meaning of a research paper published in the journal Nature in which subjects were measured to see whether language aptitude had a high correlation with learning to code. The paper can be found at "Relating Natural Language Aptitude to Individual Differences in Learning Programming Languages". Figures we discuss from the open access journal: Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

This week our guest is Bart Busschots with an installment of something he's calling Programming By Stealth-adjacent. It's not part of the regular series of Programming By Stealth, and yet it's not technically very "light" in terms of the chit chatting. Since neither podcast is the right place for it, I've decided to put it in both podcast feeds to be wrong twice. Bart walks us through how to create Quick Actions with Automator (also known as Services) to do some simple but very useful text manipulations using a smidge of JavaScript. Even if you don't want to write these Quick Actions yourself, you can download his services from his Github repo where he's put them up as open source: https://github.com/bbusschots/macos-quickaction-text. You can see how Bart created this in his blog post at [www.bartbusschots.ie/...](https://www.bartbusschots.ie/s/2020/03/06/macos-quick-actions-for-text/)

This week we're joined by Robin Christopherson. Robin is the host of the Alexa skills podcast Dot to Dot and he’s co-host of the weekly Tech Talk show from the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Robin is also Head of Digital Inclusion and part of the globally-acclaimed accessibility and tech team of AbilityNet and has spoken at numerous events in recent years. Oh yeah, he’s also blind. Robin tells us about how the advancements in technology have made such a huge difference in the lives of people with disabilities. He also explains that in the US at least, people with disabilities refer to TABs, or the Temporarily Able Bodied. He talks about th ework AbilityNet is doing in the UK to try to get accountability for companies that don't comply with the laws around accessibility. He suggested an interesting (and funny in a British uncomfortable comedy kind of way) video about Diversish: https://youtu.be/oOQYFZMglCc He's funny and fun even though we're obviously talking about a subject near and dear to his heart. You can follow Robin at his very odd Twitter handle, @usa2day.

Tom Steven, aka Tom on the Internet from [tomontheinternet.com/...](https://tomontheinternet.com/) joins me to tell the tail of how he went from knowing zero about programming to landing a full-time job as a web developer in two years of self-training. Then he talks about the things that surprised him that he learned as a developer in that first year. In listening to Tom, you'll feel like he's not extraordinary and like maybe you could do this too. That is, if you're willing to put the time and energy into teaching yourself all with a laptop and the Internet. I found Tom delightful and entertaining and inspiring, and I hope you will too.

While we were in Las Vegas for CES, we carved out some time to have dinner with our good friend, JF Brissette, who is also the editor of all of my videos for ScreenCastsOnline. He brought his daughter Lila to dinner and she started talking to me about her journey of discovery into accessibility on Apple devices. I asked her to come on the show to talk about her perspective on accessibility as a young person without any disabilities. She's delightful and intelligent and I really enjoyed seeing these topics through her frame of reference. If you'd like to connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn as Lila Brissette.

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This week we're joined by Eleanor Mazzarella, a musician turned programmer. She gives us her background in music from finding a clarinet on a bookshelf as a child to a career as a classical performer. She then walks us through how and why she decided that programming sounded like more fun. She's a funny, delightful storyteller as she weaves in her love of the arts with her love of everything nerdy.

Adam Engst, veteran author of TidBITS for the last 29 years, inventor of Internet advertising and someone who dresses appropriately for the weather joins us for this episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond. Adam explains the fascinating results that IBM has reported since they first decided to give their employees the choice of whether to use a Mac or Windows. I'm afraid this discussion will cement any EVER so slight Apple bias you might have already had, because the statistically-significant correlation between Mac usage and employee success is simply startling. If you'd like to read Adam's article before, after, or during the discussion, you can find it and all of his other fine work at tidbits.com/...

This week I asked Don McAllister, owner of ScreenCastsOnline to come on the show to talk about how he automates the production of his video tutorial podcast business. We start at his humble beginnings as a new convert from Windows with a Mac mini and a monitor, up to and including a global workforce with automated workflows. He's even moved his Mac Pro into MacStadium so it's a resource for his back end production folks. I must do a disclaimer that I do screencasts for Don's show, which means I have a conflict of interest in telling you how awesome it is. We try to stay to the technical parts of the show production but we're both so enthusiastic about the service it's hard to avoid talking about the quality of what Don and his staff creates. You can find ScreenCastsOnline at screencastsonline.com and you can follow Don on Twitter @donmcallister allison@podfeet.com podfeet.com/patreon podfeet.com/slack podfeet.com/facebook podfeet.com/amazon