Jesse Mulligan (00:00): Time for Tech Tuesday. Now Daniel Watson is the managing director of Vertech IT Services. He joins me now. Hi Dan.
Daniel Watson (00:07): Good day. How are you doing, Jesse?
Jesse Mulligan (00:09): Pretty good, thanks. We really enjoyed your Christmas suggestions last time and I understand that you have a few more in your Santa sack for us.
Daniel Watson (00:18): Yes, I do. Now I tend to try all these out before I let people know about them, but that's not always the case. Some of these are a bit more aspirational. Now, this first one, because I'm a bit of a hairy bloke and I do a fair amount of self grooming because you just have to, once you start getting it over a certain length…
Jesse Mulligan (00:39): You just have to…
Daniel Watson (00:41): Yeah, and I've been getting by with a plugin electric set of clippers for a while, but I recently did get a brawn multi grooming kit. It's like portable, it's battery powered and it's waterproof and it's got a whole stack load of attachments including the kind of ones that old men like nose and ear clippers and that kind of stuff. And I was a bit like, oh, do I really need this? I've already got clippers. This actually turns out so much better because a good set of clippers, they don't tug on you here and pull at your face. And having that adjustability to go from a number three to a number five to a number seven or something like that really means it's going to actually keep looking sharp. So I reckon that's a really good gift for the bearded person in your family.
Jesse Mulligan (01:33): And is that not a step backwards, the fact that it's battery powered? Are we not going to be heading down to the hardware store every few weeks to try and get new batteries for a thing when you run out and if you feel like you're constantly...
Daniel Watson (01:44): Paying for it? No, no, no charge, no, no. Sensible. It's a lithium ion battery. These things go for a long time. I've been away for a couple of weeks with this and it takes care of you day-to-day, bring your needs. The other thing, I'm in the volunteer fire brigade. I'm supposed to be somewhat beardless because the breathing apparatus, you've got to form a good seal around your face.
Jesse Mulligan (02:09): Mention the fire hazard....
Daniel Watson (02:11): There is that. Yeah, my idea is that if I get called out to a structured fire, I'm going to take this with me and I'll just shave it off. It was not that attached to it that I'm going to stand outside there and go, not going in mate, taking care of and go, go, go.
Jesse Mulligan (02:29): Great. Great. Brawn multi grooming kit. Suggestion number one. Thank you. I appreciate it. What else do you have for us?
Daniel Watson (02:36): Okay, so just in retrospect, this might be a bit of a man heavy type list.
Jesse Mulligan (02:41): All good. It's all good. Yep.
Daniel Watson (02:43): Ok great...
Jesse Mulligan (02:43): Our listeners can handle it...
Daniel Watson (02:46): So some of us might start to accumulate an ever-growing list of old injuries, aches and pains. I came back from Outward Bound where I just went a bit mental on the rowing kind of thing. I did something to my deltoids between the shoulder blades and the pain wasn't, it was shooting pins and needles and that stuff. I went to my PT, my physical trainer told him about it and he said, oh yeah, come with me for a second. And he whips out this machine out of his bag and it was one of these percussive massage guns and it, it's a bit of a beast. It looks quite, what's the word? Daunting. It's in there and it just, your muscles into submission just repeatedly pummeling them thousands of times per second and they have no choice but just to relax. And now I use it on a fairly regular basis and it's got lots of different head attachments to suit, whether it's up and down the spine, whether it's soft tissue of the neck, need something a bit grunt to dig into big muscles like the glutes or the hammies and that kind of stuff. But one of the best things, Jesse, right, have you ever had a massage from your wife where after about three and a half minutes their fingers get tired? I just really want to watch the tv.
Jesse Mulligan (04:11): No, no, I've, I've got a bigger problem. My wife doesn't start in the first place. She's just not a masseuse. She's not into it. She didn't sign up for it. So yeah,
Daniel Watson (04:21): Sign up...
Jesse Mulligan (04:21): For it. So maybe, I don't know if they have self massage guns, but that'd be my job.
Daniel Watson (04:29): You can do because you can do a fair amount yourself, but it also means because it's doing all the work, all you have to do is point yourself down in front 'em, throw them a gun and they can just do what they're doing and it doesn't take a lot of energy out them or skill and they can get to those bits that you can't get yourself. It has made a huge difference in my quality of life.
Jesse Mulligan (04:53): New York Times October, 2023, the six best massage guns of the year for people who really want to do their research. Thank you. Another great suggestion. And I don't think that's a gendered gift. I'm sure at any gender would enjoy that, Dan, so no problems with that one.
Daniel Watson (05:12): Yeah, it gets shared around the family a fair amount to be honest. The next one, I think just going a bit more into techy space is that more and more people getting things like Alexa or Google Nest, things like that within the house usually for playing new music or it's connected to a speaker, but things like Google Home and Google Assistant can do a lot of extra other things and it goes into when you're going away on holiday, having an app which is connected to things like smart three point plugs that are connected to say a movement sensor to switch on the lights. If there's something going outside, they can all be controlled and connected through to the same system so you can schedule in when to switch the lights on. You can buy LED color for combo packs or like that LED smart bulbs.
(06:13): So you can sit there and you're like, Hey, you want to watch a scary movie? You can switch it to deep red or you want to brighten up the day, switch it to blue. Things like that. I think those things are super cool to shift it around, get the ambiance of the place lined up as well as doing all sorts of things that are useful with regards to smart security lights and being able to decide when you're going to switch on say a fan in the house and those kind of things. There are some really cool bits of technology and I can't really go into all of them because there, there's so much so out there, but if you look up what's compatible with, say if you've got an Alexa smart home devices and or if you've got Google, you look, go down that pathway and dig out so many little things that one by one you could add into your house to improve the whole experience.
Jesse Mulligan (07:14): Not screwing my nose up, Dan. I reckon this is huge for some people and my best friend actually has this whole home set up in this way, but I don't know, we've had an Alexa for a couple of years, we don't use it. It's just, you know what I mean? I think you either are into those sort of things or you just can't be bothered.
Daniel Watson (07:32): Yeah....
Jesse Mulligan (07:34): Once a week we'd say to Alexa, what's the maximum temperature today? And it might save us three seconds rather than looking on our phone off. It'd been a bit underwhelmed by that whole situation, but maybe if someone came and did a kind of fully automated makeover of the house, it'd become a disciple.
Daniel Watson (07:50): Oh, I'm sure. I know there are outfits out there that do exactly that kind of thing, and I'm sure you'd pay quite handsomely for that kind of service as well. But it's available simply by going out. The cheapest thing you could do is probably go out and buy a few of the smart LED light bulbs, install the Google app, add them as a device in there, and then you've got control over your lights from your phone. You can change the color settings and that kind of stuff and then you can add in little bits one by one.
Jesse Mulligan (08:19): We'll agree to disagree on that one I think Dan, but I get it. I know there are people out there excited by that. And there's a couple of options there. And as you say, you just pick a brand really, wouldn't you? And then go online and see what sort of devices are compatible with it. Give us one more if you've got time.
Daniel Watson (08:38): Oh yes. Now what actually gets me quite excited at this time of year is barbecues and especially spit roasts, a lovely summer spit roast where you get a whole beast on a spit and you just watch it turn over an open fire. Not everybody's got that time, right? And if you are hosting a big event like that, there's usually lots of things you need to do and you need to have a pretty good idea about when the meat is ready. Okay, getting that wrong is a bit of a palava because by the time you sort it off the spit and you cut into it and you realize that, oh, it's well under done. You've got the timing wrong for the potato salad and all the rest. So the solution for this is you can get these, there's, it's called the meter. It's a wireless barbecue thermometer. And again, there's an app for that, but the idea is that you can insert the thermometer into the meat, it can be going on the spit and you leave it there doing its thing and you can monitor the internal temperature of that big piece of meat and you'll have a really good idea of when it's going to be ready.
Jesse Mulligan (09:50): I do have one of those, I'll admit I love a meat thermometer and yeah, I've got the wireless one where you can just put it next to you. I never use that. I just go ahead and check it. But either way, getting to know exactly what's going on in the center of that showcase piece of meat is pretty important if you need things to go right.
Daniel Watson (10:11): Yeah, and I'm finding I really do entertaining my wife and I do. However, it's just one less thing you worry about when you are already kind of buzzing about the place, making sure everybody's got to drink and that kind of stuff. You actually do need to find time to actually relax and engage in conversations with the people that you brought around. Otherwise, sometimes you just get to the end of the night and you go, oh, boy that was a bit of palava. Did you get to chat to someone? No, I didn't.
Jesse Mulligan (10:39): Mind you, it's a good excuse. Oh, sorry. I haven't had much time to catch up. Guys have been out looking after the scotch fillet.
Daniel Watson (10:45): Oh, is that when the mother-in-law's out.
Jesse Mulligan (10:48): I love my mother-in-Law. And what a great place to end Tech Tuesday with Dan Watson from Boutique IT Services. Thank you, Dan. Much appreciated.