CCATP #821 for September 17, 2025, and I’m your host, Allison Sheridan. This week, our guest is a real throwback for the show. If you’ve been listening for a very long time, you may remember this guest as creating the best Honda Bob commercial of all time, where he performed it as a Klingon war commander. He’s the man who coined the term for his own podcast, “Making technology work for you.” He’s brilliant, he’s funny, he is, as my father used to say, “drilled off center”. Please welcome back to the show after close to a decade-long absence, the one the only, Knightwise.
Knightwise and I have stayed in contact over the years, sending texts back and forth here and there. This week he sent me a message asking for help finding a way to force macOS into letting his client view his MacBook Air’s desktop (not speaker notes) while giving a presentation. I dug around, testing some ideas, and didn’t succeed in helping him, but when he figured out a solution, he suggested coming on the show to tell us about the creative solutions he comes up with for his clients.
A few links he talks about:
- BetterDisplay Pro on github.com/…
- knightwise.com/… “once in a while” writing and podcasting
- Co-owner of The Rangers at deRangers.be/…
- Look for Jo Hendriks on LinkedIn
Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2025_09_17
Good to hear from Knightwise !
Have to say, I read the Auphonic Transcript as I could do that in a brief break at work where I don’t have the time to listen to the audio.
Just from the transcript – and please forgive me if information went past as there’s a lot of it – I was thinking about the limitations of my 15″ MacBook Air which is equipped with an external hub that connects to both USB C ports that adds several other connections including,HDMI, Ethernet, USB A, microSD – that HDMI connection is pretty wonky.
I was introduced to OBS via Linux podcasts and blogs, but never found a personal use for it, so my introduction was little more than gathering awareness it’s out there.
What would be great is a video link showing what Knightwise helped his client produce. For context.
I didn’t find anything like that on the Knightwise YouTube channel that doesn’t seem active. And while I didn’t find anything about OBS Video on the Knightwise website, I did find the August 10, 2025 blog post, “The end is near ! (for laptops that is..)”.
I don’t have the video production insight to comment on the doctor wishing to make videos, but would ask this:
Wouldn’t it be better to find a better laptop than an Air with its display limitations? Mine’s fine, but I use it ONLY to do text and accounting work away from my desktop. Cost of a new MacBook Pro vs the Pain of Complexity seems marginal, especially if the Air is new enough to resell.
LOVE solutions drilled off center, but love even more doing the least work to accomplish the job, even if that sometimes costs money. Because there’s always Allison’s warning / observation, “everything’s gone fiddly.”
Hey George! 🙂
Our client hasn’t aired an episode yet, but if you want a sneak preview what you can do with OBS i’ll post a link in the comments.
But to give you an idea what you can do with OBS. I mixed together this interview (live) with this famous Belgian Photographer (live) . The guest was at home (with Corona), the host aswel. We pulled in both videostreams live and mixed them together in the look and feel of the customers brand. : https://youtu.be/Kx2RiRstSYQ
The other example was a live show we livestreamed from our studio while pulling in remote guests from Dubai and the US. It’s a good example on how we play around with presentations and slides to keep things interesting: https://youtu.be/Jdgsp_jI9Lw?si=vFFkx8ePIP7dqWIs
On your question regarding the hardware. Yep , a pro would have been better but the air is what the professor bought so .. That’s what we have to work with. And the load for OBS recording on a system is surprisingly low so you don’t need a lot of CPU Cycles to get someplace nice.
Fun blast from the past. But I didn’t see a link for OBS. Did I just miss that?
Hey, Knightwise, thanks for the response!
The two videos linked on YouTube don’t seem much different than a recorded Zoom meeting? The framing seemed higher video quality than the embedded presenters?
What I thought your client (the one with the MacBook Air) was struggling with was creating his entire presenations by himself?
Thanks to your LinkedCar video as a Luddite, I’m thinking of trying to find where the data is being sent out of my 2017 Toyota, I presume using the “Shark Antenna” on the roof. I haven’t been to Toyota for service in some time, but they know how many miles I drive and keep sending me emails about how much my car with xx,xxx miles is worth if I want to trade it in and spend a zillion dollars on a new one.