Topical

Humans are emotional beings, and when you give them an outlet like the internet, there’s bound to be some emotional carnage. When a sneaky visitor attempts to subvert Jelly’s hosting chair, the three decide to explore how emotions affect life on the internet, and what happens when you log off.

In making products, and software in particular, at what point can you call your venture a success? Jelly and Russell take a look at their own ventures and try to determine the best model for creating and selling apps, and how to make such a thing sustainable.

It’s Jelly’s birthday, so Russell breaks out the helium balloons and the two get to the bottom of what birthdays are all about. Along the way they talk about what their ideal birthdays would be, buying gifts and the change that social media has brought to the party.

Having just gotten back from his trip to San Francisco, Russell has just a touch of jet lag. He and Jelly talk about what they’re each like when they’re tired and how easily they can each push through. They then move on to talking their strategies for beating jet lag, from setting their clocks to the destination timezone, to some crazy Australian invention that shines light in your eyes…?

It’s a discussion that’s been brewing amongst developers for many years. In an effort to decide once and for all, Russell and Jelly talk through their preferences for mail clients, photos apps and everyone’s favourite web-based chat app to figure out the solution.

Now that Jelly’s working from home, it seems like the perfect opportunity for he and Russell to discuss the differences between that and working in an office. They discuss what they each struggle with, and Jelly gives some suggestions on how to make working by yourself a little easier.

Russell’s visit to San Francisco has allowed him to briefly experience what being a celebrity is like, from many different angles. He and Jelly discuss what it’s like to be on various sides of this experience, both being recognised, recognising others and watching others be recognised, and try to figure out the important question: is The Rock more famous than the President?

Russell is in San Francisco to attend Google and Apple’s respective developer conferences. Both happen at roughly the same time of the year, and even in the same building. Nevertheless, the two conferences are quite different, and might even say a lot about the differences between the two companies themselves.

From speaking to writing to Matrix-style information download, Jelly and Russell tackle the concept of people communicating with each other, and try and figure out what the ultimate form of communication looks like. Along the way they discuss the flaws with various kinds of communication, along with the issues they have when communicating with each other.

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. Jelly and Russell are looking forward to the weekend, but how exactly do people get themselves out of work mode and into… non-work mode? They enlist the help of Russell’s pals from Shifty Jelly to figure out what people do on their weekends, and whether it even makes a difference.