The Full Nerd podcast has been running for over a decade here at PCWorld, and this month marks a big shift for the show as we transition from broadcasting in the studio to doing it all online.
The main reason? Our own Adam Patrick Murray has left California and decamped to North Carolina, so getting him back in the studio every week would get expensive fast. We just don’t have that kind of budget for plane tickets, so instead we’re doing what most podcast crews do these days and switching to a fully remote arrangement.
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Doing so marks the end of an era for The Full Nerd, and while I regret we won’t be recording the podcast here at the PCWorld offices any more, the silver lining is that this transition will enable us to be more flexible with the show—and perhaps create more exciting opportunities to do cool things down the road, once Adam gets settled in his new home.
We actually started recording the show fully remotely last week, and we took a break from recording this week so Adam can focus on his cross-country move. But before he took off he made time to shoot a behind-the-scenes tour of The Full Nerd studio, and it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan!
Adam shares a lot of fun anecdotes and stories about the construction of the set and the early days of the show, not to mention lots of close-up shots of all the cool tech that lines the walls of the studio.
Check it out if you want to learn why we call this set the “garage” around the office, why there’s a GIF of Gordon eternally running in the background of The Full Nerd and how Adam left his mark on Intel’s 9900K CPU. Also, there’s a quick look at some super-rare hardware we keep on the set, including the old Maximum PC Dream Machines and one of AMD’s super-rare “Project Quantum” NUC competitors!
It’s a fun watch, and one that’s personally meaningful for me since I’ve sat in to record episodes of The Full Nerd on occasion and now regularly shoot videos in the same studio. This is also my second time working at PCWorld after leaving in 2013 to go do other things, and when I came back I was shocked at how thoroughly Adam and the PCWorld team transformed what was once a sterile white studio into such a warm, inviting space.
So while you pour one out for the decade of fun we had recording The Full Nerd out of the garage, I hope you’ll join me in getting excited for what the next chapter of the show can bring now that we aren’t shackled to a studio in San Francisco. Nothing else is changing, of course, so look forward to your regular Full Nerd cohosts Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, and Alaina Yee coming back at you next week with another great episode!
In this week’s episode of The Full Nerd
…nothing happened, because there was no episode of The Full Nerd this week! We took a week off and will be back at it next week, but if you’re itching to hear from your favorite nerds you can also check out our YouTube playlist of every episode ever recorded.
We’ll also continue to record videos out of the old studio for the PCWorld YouTube channel, so make sure to subscribe if you want to keep hangin’ in the garage with us!
Nerd news of the week
PC component prices are still out of control, but it’s not all doom and gloom out there! Here’s a few of the most interesting stories I’ve seen this week:
- Intel patent outlines embedding MicroLEDs directly into CPU package: This could go nowhere, but it sure sounds like Intel has sorted out how to embed microLEDs into chips in a way that lets them light up to communicate issues or just look cool. Personally I’m not a big fan of LEDs on components inside my PC (why does my RAM need underlighting when I never see it?) but this still seems neat!
- Google attempts to launch satellite and escape data center backlash: Didja hear about this? Google’s apparently lashing a fridge-sized server box to a rocket and shooting it into orbit this week to test the feasilibity of putting our data centers in orbit instead of on Earth.
- The Ethernet spec was first drafted on this day in 1980: I had no idea the Ethernet spec was older than I am, but apparently it’s true! I also learned that the RJ45 port we all know and love (especially when gaming online) first showed up a decade later in 1990, which is sort of amazing when you consider it’s still a valued port on desktops and laptops nearly forty years later.
- AMD acquires World Labs AI startup, upping the ante against Nvidia: AMD is set to fork out an estimated $8 billion to acquire a company that employs AI to build virtual spaces that simulate the physical world. Nvidia has already been pushing this kind of tech for use doing things like training robot cars how to drive or teaching robot workers how to navigate a warehouse, and now it seems AMD is getting in on the action. Hopefully we don’t see both companies pull back from enthusiast hardware to focus on selling AI tech to big businesses.
That’s it for your Full Nerd newsletter this week! Until next week, be sure to bookmark PCWorld and keep an eye on the YouTube channel for our latest videos out of the garage. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!
This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.
