Accidental Tech Podcast

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**Accidental Tech Podcast**

Three nerds discussing tech, Apple, programming, and loosely related matters.

Latest Episodes:

62: Journey Would Be Wasted On You Apr 24, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on pCell and database scaling, including horizontal sharding schemes, tiered data layers, and taking a stand against the "premature optimization" tautology.
When and why do developers learn something new, and why does Marco keep using PHP for everything?
OS X Beta Program for End Users
- What's coming on June 2nd?
Casey and Marco make John proud (spoiler)
New third-generation Thunderbolt details
- MagSafe vs. MagSafe 2
Overcast update
Are iPad sales leveling off? Why?
- How we use our iPads today
- Limitations in modern iOS
- Are iPad apps stagnating?
- Jean-Louis Gassée's take
- Gruber's response
- Casey on T-Mobile's Free Internet (relevant T-Mobile info)
- Apps mentioned:
Will tablets be marginalized by bigger phones and smaller laptops?
After-show:
- Sega CD, 32X, CDX (which Marco thought was codenamed Jupiter, but that was something else), Saturn, and Dreamcast.
- Casey and Marco's video game history and why they don't bother anymore. What do the three hosts do during our free time, anyway?
- Apps mentioned:

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61: Perfectly Neutral Apr 18, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on Photo Stream Web Sites
Follow-up on vinyl, including how Marc Edwards thinks it's evil, and the difference between pleasing and accurate sound. (Marco's open and closed headphones, amp, and DAC)
The Apple insight attained by way of documents released in the Samsung trial
- Creativity, Inc., the book about Pixar by Ed Catmull
Is Greg Christie's departure a contentious story or not?
- This, too, relates to Pixar
- Ken Ferry on getting ideas approved at Apple, as heard on Debug #33
Artemis pCell (demo video)
Scaling servers and how to use MySQL effectively
- Marco's preferred book (but he prefers the second edition)
- Perhaps not use MySQL?
- A long list of MySQL gotchas
- How FriendFeed did crazy schema-less MySQL
After show: why Casey hates his car, thanks to a trip to the movies.

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60: The Great Odwalla Flavor Change of 2013 Apr 11, 2014

Show notes

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em while you sunset Dance Jam
WWDC
- How to make a lottery work, like Shmoocon does
- How to write a live blogging system for keynotes
- Our winnings and losses in the WWDC Don't-Call-it-a-Lottery
- Levels of randomness and Apple's discretionary pool of tickets
- What's the right way to distribute tickets?
- Is today's WWDC really tenable? What could be done?
- AltConf and "CDWW"
Heartbleed
Dropbox's Announcements
- Condoleezza Rice joins their board
- Carousel, a new photo sharing app.
  - Some potential trademark issues with some friends of Marco and Casey's
  - Does this leverage Everpix IP?
  - How the UI is similar to Oldsmobile speedometers from the 80s
Lightroom Mobile
In an unusually angsty after-show, John takes Marco and Casey on:
- Where do crashes really come from?
  - John on Debug #32
- Is Vinyl really better than CDs?
  - IRL Talk #19
  - Casey on IRL Talk #21
  - Christopher “Monty” Montgomery's excellent video explaining audio sampling

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59: The Little Puck That Could Apr 04, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on vocabulary and Michael Abrash joining Oculus.
Amazon Fire TV — no fan!
USB-IF's renderings of their proposed new connector
The giant anti-poaching collusion between Google, Apple, and dozens of other companies (Facebook apparently refused)
Google checking with Steve Jobs first before making a hiring decision
After-show: We tried to predict WWDC dates, not knowing that Apple would announce them 12 hours later, then discussed ticket lotteries and how Apple probably wouldn't build one. (Yeah.)

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58: Always On Vacation In California Mar 28, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on discussing sexism in technology, Anil's experiment, empathy, ad hominem tu quoque, and cultural rigidity.
Facebook buying Oculus:
- Outrage from Oculus' Kickstarter backers, including from Minecraft creator Notch, and the expectations that Kickstarter creates in "backers".
- Why did Oculus sell? How far into the future did Oculus' "vision" extend, and what will happen to its vision now?
- Why did Facebook buy? Does Mark Zuckerberg have a clear vision for Facebook's future?
Facebook's Hack language extension to PHP:
- PHP is poorly designed but very practical.
- The risks of using Hack (Marco's two posts).

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Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired eyewear at a revolutionary price.

57: Smorgasbord of Pronunciation Mar 21, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on the complexity of computer science versus other fields: quotes and videos from MIT's SICP class (9:00–10:45).
The death of the iPad 2, the use of sapphire in Apple devices, sapphire versus Gorilla Glass, and the flexible LG phone.
Haunted Empire, the Jony Ive book, the Jony Ive interview, access to Apple, and hiring hacks for tech stories.
Sony's Project Morpheus VR headset and initial impressions
The GitHub hubbub, sexism, and how to get better (such as App Camp for Girls).

Sponsored by:

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56: The Woodpecker Mar 14, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on software complexity: The Mythical Man-Month, No Silver Bullet, the original Agile manifesto, and what Agile has become.
What we found most useful from our computer-science educations.
Marco's impressions of his new Mac Pro.
External disks, PCI-Express SSDs, and cable management.
John buys a home-theater AV receiver. (The newer version he didn't need)
Stereo vs. surround speakers, and integrated vs. external subwoofers. (Marco's tiny, buggy amp and great speakers).
After-show: Pono, ABX tests, mp3ornot.

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55: Dave, Who Stinks! Mar 06, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on Final Draft and treating warnings as exceptions in production.
Software methodologies. For real this time.
Why don’t software development methodologies work?
Evidence-based scheduling.
Marco plugs FCModel, Casey plugs his Debug appearance, and John plugs bleeps and boops.
After-show: CarPlay, and £1,600 audiophile Ethernet cables (via Dalton).

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54: goto fail; Feb 28, 2014

Show notes

Wolfram Language.
The "goto fail" SSL bug and the chances that it was nefariously introduced by an NSA effort, possibly as part of their $250 million annual budget for such operations.
Apple's warrant canary.
Casey's and Marco's hard-to-find bugs and language misfeatures. (Perl protects John from writing bugs.)
Whether language-interpreter warnings should be treated as errors in production.
The Scriptnotes episode with the Final Draft CEO, the follow-up in the next episode, and Kent Tessman's response.
After-show: Google lobbying against Glass bans while driving, and Objective-C exception conventions.
Next week will be the Software Methodologies show. For real this time!

Sponsored by:

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53: There’s Gonna Be Some Flapping Feb 21, 2014

Show notes

Follow-up on why Flappy Bird was successful.
Kieran Healy's excellent article with science.
John Gruber and Merlin Mann at SXSW '09.
Goofball Jones' anonymous criticism of John's "shtick", and John's defense including many links:
- An explanation of John's "schtick"
- Some podcasts where John talks about things he likes:
- Masterpiece: Ico
- The Incomparable #100: Who Cares What We Think? - Why we do podcasts about what we think of things, good and bad.
- An ATP episode about how we deal with criticism
The massive WhatsApp acquistion by Facebook, the huge value of mobile messaging, and the web giants' chilling effect on competition.
The "Copland 2010" argument that Objective-C needs to be replaced:
- John's original "Copland 2010" article from 2005
- Copland 2010 Revisited (in 2010)
- We Need to Replace Objective-C (Ash Furrow)
- Replacing Objective-C and Cocoa (Steve Streza)
- Objective: Copland 2010 (Guy English)
Separating language shortcomings from API shortcomings.
Casey got us to talk about LINQ briefly.
Long-term evolution of programming languages.

Sponsored by:

Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use.
lynda.com: Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials. Free 7-day trial.
Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CASEY for 10% off.

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