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Welcome to another very occasional episode of the Tic-Tek-Toe podcast with your hosts Marcel Gagné and Evan Leibovitch. In this episode (037), the duo dives into the hardware and software defining 2026, exploring the rising appeal of compact, sealed AI mini-PCs as the perfect workaround for the sticker shock of modern desktop GPUs and RAM .They also tackle the ongoing debate between paying for multiple premium AI subscriptions versus the dream of running fully local models for coding and personal agents Marcel demands the sci-fi promises of personal robots and advanced technology right now, while Evan takes a more cautious, patient approach (surprise, surprise). In the second half, the conversation shifts to a massive summer movie and pop-culture roundup. We've got Mandalorian and Grogu, Project Hail Mary, a John Wick-inspired take on Supergirl, Nicolas Cage in Spider-Noir, a wildly self-aware, meta version of He-Man, and Steven Spielberg's return to the alien genre with Disclosure Day. Oh, and Marcel shares his unapologetic loves for movies where dinosaurs get to eat people.

This is Episode 036 of Tik Tek Toe. Join Marcel and Evan for a caffeine-fueled rollercoaster, from the woes of malfunctioning computers and the magic (and limits) of tech support, Superman lore, running AI models on your own PC hardware, privacy, copyright, the ever expanding wild west of open-source language models, and nostalgic TC tangents, this one is for you.

This is episode 035 of Tic Tek Toe, the premier podcast of whatever captures our attention from one week to the next. Today, Marcel and Evan discuss modern movie musicals (Wicked, Better Man, A Complete Unknown, and more), including great and not so great musicals, not to mention the unmentionable. We talk about making real, honest to goodness movie theatre popcorn at home, and how to make popcorn in the most dangerous way possible. After all the fun is done, we cover a more serious topic. If there is plenty to go around for everyone, and then some, why do so many people have so little. In a world of abundance, why is there so much artificial scarcity.

In today's episode, Marcel and Evan solve all the world's problems, or they don't. This is our post-US election episode, so be warned. We cover browser wars, colas, root beer, cream soda, and other soft drinks, Evan's trip to Florida, understanding why someone would vote for Trump, or not, moving to Bluesky, X/Twitter battles between John Oliver and JK Rowling, and more. Oh, and Evan thinks he can fix the CBC before a new government burns the whole place down. From Saturday Night Live, "The Olympia Restaurant" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJePACBoIo

This is TIC TEK TOE, Episode 033. In this episode, Marcel and Evan cover a lot of ground, from the recent solar eclipse, the Niagara Falls state of emergency, the allure of being there vs watching it on TV (or YouTube), always being connected, smart contact lenses, the Meta Quest 3, and mixed reality, government overreach, video games, wokeness vs based issues in the media and gaming, Sweet Baby, WrestleMania, which Evan inexplicably enjoys, and things that Marcel actually likes, namely things that don't involve televised sports.

This is episode 032 of the TIC TEK TOE podcast, featuring Marcel Gagné and Evan Leibovitch. Today, the boys are talking about why the whole FOSS world has become so boring, and why there may be a solution to that boredom and a renewal of that old open-source excitement courtesy of AI. Links Marcel's "Free Thinkers at Large" Discord server. Chat with us here: https://discord.gg/STbxVA3 "First they came..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_

This is episode 031 or your beloved TIC TEK TOE podcast. Marcel and Evan decide to, at the very least, attempt to take TIC TEK TOE direct to YouTube. While here, they discuss the new tech being used to record, namely Wave.Video, along with virtual reality games (Marcel got himself a PSVR2 headset for his PS5 game console), ChatGPT, artificial intelligence, guardrails, blogging, and attempts to fix the news. LINKS Just a Free Thinker at Large (Marcel's new blog): https://freethinkeratlarge.com You.com, alternative chat-enabled search engine: https://you.com Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey (horror trailer) - https://youtu.be/W3E74j_xFtg

This is TIC TEK TOE, episode 030. Marcel and Evan dissect the topic of art created by Artificial Intelligence using tools like Dall-E, Midjourney, and Marcel's current favorite, Stable Diffusion, and try to see if this is the beginning of the end of the world. Most specifically, the world of art, for artists.  What does the word, "the", mean to an AI? Also, the boys compare notes on what they did during their summer, discuss music and musical covers, and argue vehemently over whether "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey is, in fact, a good song.

This is TIC TEK TOE, episode 029. Marcel and Evan riff, again, on the subject of virtual worlds, wherein Marcel gets ordained as a priest in an imaginary church, gets an honorary doctorate at an imaginary university (you can call him Dr. Marcel, if you like), and obtains dual citizenship from an imaginary country. Between the two of them, they discuss what any of this means in a world that is becoming increasingly virtual. Evan, meanwhile, tries out his new microphone and complains bitterly about tech hardware obsolescence. Who can blame him?

This is "TIC TEK TOE" episode 028 and one for which I (Marcel) must apologize up front. I decided to wear my gaming headset and just assumed that it would be just fine for the podcast. Instead, it's noise cancelling microphone cancelled far more than it should have and my audio sounds clipped and occasionally vanishes into the pits of wherever audio goes. Evan, on the other hand sounds just fine.

This is episode 027 of TIC TEK TOE, your light-hearted look at whatever comes into your hosts' heads. In today's episode, Evan and Marcel discuss slowly getting back out into the (hopefully increasingly) post pandemic world and what it feels like to travel right now. Evan heads east into Quebec and Marcel heads into Niagara Falls for an overnight stay. They discuss wine, feel-good television as a pandemic salve, fear, Jon Stewart's new show, fear, Ted Lasso and sportsball shows, fear, autism in movies and television, fear, aphantasia, a condition whereby a person has no 'inner eye' to visualize, fear, and what we did during the summer break (SPOILER: Marcel started making games in Unity).  Fear not, and enjoy!

This is TIC TEK TOE, episode 26! Marcel and Evan discuss why neither owns a Che Guevara poster, hard to find centrists, progressophobia, why you really should not feed the trolls, platforming and deplatforming, empathy, moral panics, the future of work, the coming collaps of the commercial real estate market, Zoom, real live people, embracing avatars, Yoda (not baby Yoda), and dark circles. In short, the boys cover a lot of ground and, as usual, have trouble staying on topic. Heck, I can't even remember what the topic was. Enjoy!

This is TIC TEK TOE, episode 25! Woo Hoo!  Marcel and Evan discuss the ethics of killing NPCs in video games, simulation theory wars, and why an otherwise respectable university would sabotage its standing in the Linux community. That last bit is juxtaposed with Evan making a blasphemous presentation at the Toronto Linux User Group, GTALUG. The boys also cover running graphical Linux apps in Windows, old style book printing and publishing, turtles, dwarves, giants, and tardigrades. Today's episode features the quintessential Canadian story, and yes, it involves a beaver. Or two. Now that we have drones on Mars, can Amazon deliveries on the Red Planet be far behind?

This is TIC TEK TOE, episode 024, the episode they said we would never do. Marcel and Evan discuss cheese, because . . . well . . . CHEESE! The boys discuss their favourite types, chat about declining attendance in US churches and synagogues and whether Trump has anything to do with it. Because NFTs are a thing now, Marcel and Evan find ways to make fun of them, while decrying the insane price of graphics cards (assuming you can even get them), and whether this whole crypto thing just needs to go away. Then, there's that thing about RMS returning to the FSF which brings up the question of whether the FSF is even still relevant. The boys also discuss the man who should have been the 46th President of the US but will probably become mayor of the city that never sleeps, Andrew Yang.  Remember to tell others about the show. Like, share, subscribe, comment, and all that stuff!

This is episode 023 of TIC TEK TOE, and we're calling this one "The Evil Episode" because it's all about evil, specifically who is evil, who isn't, and just what constitutes evil these days. Once upon a time, especially to those in the Free and Open Source Software (aka FOSS) world, it was Microsoft. These days, however, there's Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (aka GAFA) fighting it out for the crown of ultimate evil. And Microsoft? They're starting to look like one of the good guys. The boys also discuss the banning and/or cancelling of Dr. Seuss, the de-sexing of Mr and Mrs Potato head, the Mars lander and what wind sounds like on Mars. Oh, and Marcel used the wrong microphone source in recording so his audio is kind of subpar.