I called Canon to ask them about some compatibility for a flas and the camera i have and the lady asked me if i have a hot or a cold shoe. What is a cold shoe? I told her i guessed i had a hot one because the contacts for the flash are there in the shoe.
Is that such a thing or was she trying to be funny?

A cold shoe would be one that did not have the needed contacts to allow the flash via TTL to communicate with the camera. for example, a camera that had only the center contact in the shoe or a shoe that had a non-compatible flash on it like a Nikon on a Canon body.

Rick

gotcha thanks