116: Escape from Pony Island, with pb

This episode starts with a chat with departing tech wizard pb, talking about his time on MeFi, blogospheric history, and the wikipedia pages of Nebraskan high schools. After that, jessamyn and I get into our usual what's-neat-on-mefi routine. This episode covers April 8 through May 2 and is just a hair under two hours.

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Misc
- Pyra labs: the beginning of Blogger
- pb diptych
- mascots, get your mascots
- Get Your Shit Together
- Mr. Rogers wiki


Jobs
- MetaFilter is hiring a new tech person!
- Research Assistant who is also a boardgame fan by blahblahblah
- Photoshop some poorly taken wedding photos to look better? by arnicae
- Looking for a copy of Misi, last spotted in an Ecuadorian book store by tilde


Projects
- Hurt (NIN Fat Angus cover) by lmfsilva
- The Disability Integration Act of 2015 by gauche
- The hats of your mortal enemies, turned inside-out and used as flowerpots by gnimmel (MeFi Post)
- Tameline — Your Twitter, Organized by philosophistry
- Most Popular Video in the World by darkpony


MetaFilter
- NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO ABANDON CAPSLOCK by Hactar
- Where is my Owooooo? by philip-random
- Tweeteorology by not_on_display
- oh my god i hope he only saw the sfw version by Uncle Ira
- Octopuses are famous escape artists. by Existential Dread
- BUT SHE WAS A BUNKO SCREAM JAR by JHarris
- 😬 or 😀? by blahblahblah
- Emoji Tracker. by Rumple
- Or, disdyakis triacontahedron by ChurchHatesTucker
- Nothing Compares by Potomac Avenue
- Velocipedia by Gianluca Gimini by rebent
- adermatoglyphia! by cortex


Ask MeFi
- Did Snapchat hellban my garden injuries? by jessamyn
- In search of brainbreaking episodes of Mister Rogers by PhoBWanKenobi
- How do you find a really good professional organizer? by fermion
- Umbrella Museum comment by mskyle
- Why do so few people live in Wyoming? by Monochrome
- What's the name of this magazine layout technique? by pdinnen
- What Companies Have Remote Tech Support Opportunities? by masquesoporfavor
- What is like MetaFilter, but not brutally depressing? by brennen
- Oh googley eyes, you make stuff come alive by KathrynT (and here's some results)
- What's the most fun / innovative trivia round you've played lately? by bjork24
- Fun, distracting websites for down-time by armadillo1224
- What did Mickey Spillane mean by this word? by Silky Slim


Music
Featured in this episode:
- They Though He Was Part of the Ship by The Great Big Mulp
- The Difference by pugh
- Take Me to Church - live performance by ocherdraco
- Weekend of Arps by ageispolis (and AppleSeed, and CarrotAdventure)


FanFare
- You better believe it's Game of Thrones time again.


MetaTalk
- Testing Inline Flag Notes by pb
- May is #keepmefiweird month by griphus
- Happy birthday Cortex! by scrittore
- *end theme from Incredible Hulk plays* by cortex
- Hiring a new tech person, revisiting expectations by cortex
- MealFilter by feckless fecal fear mongering

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 11:43 AM (29 comments total)

This title is brilliant.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 11:53 AM on May 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

Aaaaaaaaaaah! You included my song! That makes me so happy!

(Also: jessamyn, your snapchat is not boring. It's great! I love it so much.)
posted by ocherdraco at 12:00 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yay! I missed most of these. Thanks!
posted by zarq at 12:11 PM on May 3, 2016

I missed most of these.

I'm convinced the podcast actually discusses some kind of alternate universe MeFi since I usually look at the list of links wondering how I missed them despite visiting the site every damn day.
posted by billiebee at 12:47 PM on May 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

Thanks for having me on, it was fun! Podcasting is hard. I have a new appreciation for it. I'm also cringing at things I should have said but it's too late now, gah.

No peebs, alas. And I was told there would be drayguns.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:51 PM on May 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

pb: No peebs, alas.

How about Pibb? As in "Mr.Pibb"?
posted by wenestvedt at 1:19 PM on May 3, 2016

The Wikipedia link Jessamyn put in seems to be broken?
posted by ODiV at 1:54 PM on May 3, 2016

How about Pibb? As in "Mr.Pibb"?

THEY CALL HIM MISTER PIBBS!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:14 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was told there would be drayguns.

There were AYGS.

The Wikipedia link Jessamyn put in seems to be broken?

Thank you internet rando for fixing it!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:16 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh for pete's sake. I went to find a copy of the Gahan Wilson comic that I was talking about, found it on a Flickr server, did a reverse image search and found it ON MY OWN ACCOUNT where I'd put it seven years ago. Here is it, re: Hundred Years War.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 3:16 PM on May 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm so glad the googley eyes made it.
posted by corb at 10:01 PM on May 3, 2016

I really enjoyed the interview with pb! Whatta guy.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:25 AM on May 4, 2016

Only listened to part of this so far, but actually laughed aloud at "if I never hear the word pony again..."
posted by comealongpole at 1:38 PM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I always assumed his username was the atomic symbol for lead ... was I the only one to be so wrong?
posted by compartment at 6:00 PM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

pb sounds smooth and mellow like a coffee commercial voiceover!
posted by ignignokt at 6:55 PM on May 4, 2016

Pony Island... Island of Lost Ponies... Hmm...
*checks trademark*
well poop
posted by nom de poop at 3:04 AM on May 5, 2016

I always assumed his username was the atomic symbol for lead ... was I the only one to be so wrong?

Chemists tend to be picky about the capitalization or lack thereof in atomic symbols. After all, you wouldn't want to confuse Co (cobalt) with CO (carbon monoxide). So, to me, only "Pb" reads as lead. "pb" "PB" and "pB" do not.

You might object that it's absurd to have a case-sensitive notation system, and you'd probably be right, but it's so entrenched by now that it would be nearly impossible to change.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:14 AM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Am I only one who mentally filled the long-ish pause after pb said "You've got a nice podcast here" with "...sure would be a shame if something happened to it?"

posted by Mchelly at 11:24 AM on May 5, 2016 [4 favorites]

Not at all, Mchelly.
posted by moonmilk at 4:55 AM on May 6, 2016

Chemists tend to be picky about the capitalization or lack thereof in atomic symbols. After all, you wouldn't want to confuse Co (cobalt) with CO (carbon monoxide). So, to me, only "Pb" reads as lead. "pb" "PB" and "pB" do not.

My thinking was that an intended username of "boron phosphide" would transpose the letters, and if it referred to peanut butter it would have to be all caps. So by process of elimination there was only one thing left in the universe that it could be short for.

On a more serious note, case sensitivity isn't absurd at all — the cobalt/carbon monoxide situation you gave is a perfect example.
posted by compartment at 8:54 AM on May 6, 2016

Did I hear something about online trivia?
posted by knuckle tattoos at 5:57 PM on May 6, 2016

Yes. Email me and I can send you details.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:39 PM on May 6, 2016

Oh wow! Made the podcast! Thank you for the kind words, Jessamyn.

I have to clarify, though, that I didn't design the DIA website; an advocate I work with did. From my perspective the bill is the project; the website is just a handy place for information about the bill.

And, although I feel a sense of ownership about it, a lot of people put time and effort into both the text and the introduction; I am one of many working on this issue. Here are some of them getting arrested in front of the White House last month.
posted by gauche at 8:50 AM on May 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

I was listening to this, screaming at my car radio "Dean Kamen wasn't the guy who died riding the Segway, that was the other guy!" but thankfully you corrected yourselves before I could get here and scold you.
posted by bondcliff at 12:23 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh hey, I'm very late to the party but listening now and I'd be up for transcribing 5 minute chunks of the podcast as part of a team of transcription galley slaves down in the bowels of Goodship Metafilter.

I'm so late there's probably nobody still reading, so will message the mods too. But anybody still reading and with me?!
posted by penguin pie at 2:11 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Good thought! I'm not sure how the transcription effort is going these days. Pronoiac was hosting them historically; I'll check with him.

The central place for info is Metafilter podcast transcript page on the wiki.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:19 PM on May 19, 2016

Did someone say they want to transcribe? Go nuts!
posted by Pronoiac at 11:48 PM on May 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am ON IT! That is a seriously addictive thing to do. "Just one more snippet!" "Just one more go at working out how to render Jessamyn's 'Errrrrggghhhh' in written form!"
posted by penguin pie at 7:22 AM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

We can do a more hey-everybody transcriptiony nudge in the coming days, too - thanks for posting that, Pronoiac, and thanks for working on it, penguin pie!
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:05 PM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]