I listen to the podcast Data Driven. One of the questions that they ask all their guests is: What do you think is the coolest thing in technology? This article is my answer to that. The short version is: standards, and the benefits they bring to users. The longer version is below. Standards might seem … Continue reading The coolest thing in technology?
Category: Podcasts
Brains, tools, chess and programming
Seeing how unimportant the chess board and pieces seemed to Beth Harmon in the TV series The Queen’s Gambit, and a recent Software Engineering Radio podcast on The Programmer’s Brain made me think about how programmers work. How much of it is using tools out in the real world, and how much goes on inside … Continue reading Brains, tools, chess and programming
People: an end or just a means?
This post is inspired by an episode of the Art of Manliness podcast, with the psychologist Svend Brinkmann. I guess a good way to introduce it is to give you an example from the podcast. Imagine you go to a shop to buy some milk. You go to the checkout with your milk, and the … Continue reading People: an end or just a means?
Software Engineering Radio Podcast on Web Scale
I'm still working my way through the back catalogue of Software Engineering Radio. I recently listened to a particularly good episode, with Pat Helland. There were a few things specific to web scale, but generally it was good because he explained general concepts very well. I'll mention two of his explanations here, but I recommend … Continue reading Software Engineering Radio Podcast on Web Scale
Auctions and adverts
I'm slowly making my way through the back episodes of the podcast Linear Digressions. Normally it's about machine learning, but there are a couple of episodes (one big episode chopped into two) about auctions. As in, how do eBay and Google make money (not the same way) and which is better? There is some interesting … Continue reading Auctions and adverts
Programmers, mental models and decisions
Introduction I listen to the podcast Art of Manliness - its title is possibly misleading, as it's quite a mix of philosophy, practical skills, self improvement, lives of interesting people and so on. The episode I listened to most recently was about mental models, from Shane Parrish who is the person behind Farnam Street. I … Continue reading Programmers, mental models and decisions
S.E. Radio podcast on latency
I'm still slowly working my way through the back catalogue of the Software Engineering Radio podcast. One episode that I particularly liked is 277: Gil Tene on Tail Latency. It has interesting and useful stuff that helps you see things clearly. For instance: How there's more than one measure of latency (mean, median, 90th centile, … Continue reading S.E. Radio podcast on latency
Fault tolerance
Introduction I am slowly working my way through the 300+ back issues of the podcast Software Engineering Radio. I've got as far as a couple of excellent episodes on fault tolerance with Bob Hanmer. I recommend that you listen to them, even if (like me) you don't have to worry about this kind of thing … Continue reading Fault tolerance
Random Tech Thoughts 