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

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.