Afleveringen
-
Chris Knight, Head of Data & AI Demand, Delivery & Financial Operations, talks about his work life, and dealing with Neurodivergence
Mark has been fiddling around with Kit and automation for emails for our newsletter.
Chris is says you can only last a week without a dishwasher
Michael calls people Rain Man. Hasn't even seen it.
Subscribe to our new Newsletter! (https://newsletter.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/subscribe) Stay informed about new episodes, and get beautiful news and recommendation links.
Who is Chris Knight?
Chris has a very unusual story of how he eventually landed into his senior role. Buckle in!
Quickfire Questions:
What’s one thing that’s certain to distract you, when you’re working?
When are you at your most focused?
Do deadlines help or stress you out?
What’s something neurotypical people often get wrong about neurodivergence?
One app or tool you couldn’t live without?
You meet someone new at work, and although they haven’t come out and said “I’m Neurodivergent”, you can just tell. What sort of things are you noticing?
What does time management look like for neurodivergent people?
Breaking Prod
Chris is breaking records in style, with an email whoopsie to all customers
Big Topic: Neurodiveristy
What sort of stigma comes with being neurodivergent?
Have you tried during your career did you pretend you weren't neurodivergent, by “masking”?
Did you ever tell yourself, or have other people tell you, “you need to try harder”, even though you felt you were already giving it your all?
When’s the right time to tell your boss/employer?
From the corporate side, what does good support look like from your employer?
In some ways, your Neurodivergence makes things more difficult – are there any ways in which it’s your superpower?
What's your take on medication?
What should parents know about neurodivergence? How do you support your daughter?
News
TikTok Misinformation Is Warping Young People's Understanding of ADHD (https://www.sciencealert.com/tiktok-misinformation-is-warping-young-peoples-understanding-of-adhd) (sciencealert.com)
“of the top 100 most-viewed TikTok videos tagged for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) content, fewer than half matched the professional diagnostic criteria for the condition.”
“using the top 100's five most accurate and five least accurate videos, as judged by clinical psychologists. These 10 clips were then shown to 843 undergraduates taking an introductory psychology course, who were asked to rate them based on their perceived educational value. While the best five videos scored an average of 3.6 from psychologists for accuracy, they only got a score of 2.8 from the students. The worst five videos for accuracy scored 1.1 from psychologists, but 2.3 from students.”
Wes Streeting: there is overdiagnosis of mental health conditions. Health secretary says too many people are being ‘written off’ and that is driving ministers’ changes to welfare (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/19/culture-warriors-overdiagnosis-mental-health-cuts) (The Guardian)
From Wes Streeting: “Here’s the other thing, mental wellbeing, illness, it’s a spectrum and I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis, but there’s too many people being written off and, to your point about treatment, too many people who just aren’t getting the support they need. So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.”
Neurodiverse staff well suited to a changing world (https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/article/neurodiverse-staff-well-suited-to-a-changing-world-pmzztt69k) (The Times, paywalled)
> "People with conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyslexia bring unique skills to the workplace"
Recommendations
Neurodivergence
NHS Website (https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/pharmacy/transforming/initial/foundation/resources/edi/neurodiversity)
ADHD Love, YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ADHD_love)
How to ADHD, by Jessica McCabe (https://howtoadhdbook.com/)
TV
LOL: Last One Laughing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/LOL-Last-One-Laughing-Season/dp/B0DSJRWRHC), reality comedy on Amazon Prime
Gangs of London (https://www.sky.com/watch/gangs-of-london) Action Drama from Sky
Music
Why? - The Well I Fell Into :: Alternative :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-well-i-fell-into/1742837370) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/6s2rZ96eQJvjsN5j9eIv1Y) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAy2wbQa84SouruZQBc91U0iMo0UKIclG)
HHY & the Kampala Unit :: Electronic Jazz :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/hhy-the-kampala-unit/1531710246) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GcuBD0DAlemw4ebJU925p) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5uFxLSDeRApuTFBb1gyjg)
Wilkinson :: Electronic, Drum 'n' Bass :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/wilkinson/3075647) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6m8itYST9ADjBIYevXSb1r) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtaTjkogAC3Xh5J-ZPdX0BQ)
If you've enjoyed the show, recommend it to a friend! Or leave us a rating/review on apple/spotify to help others find us.
Subscribe to our new Newsletter! (https://newsletter.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/subscribe) Stay informed about new episodes, and get beautiful news and recommendation links.
GIVE US FEEDBACK! Do this form, it will take 4 mins (https://forms.office.com/e/gQJFBRJJAY) Special Guest: Chris Knight. -
We have the long awaited and hugely experienced Dave McNeill, talking all things Operations, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineering, tales of incidents, working in a startup environment, opinions on golang and python, and so much more.
Subscribe to our new Newsletter! (https://newsletter.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/subscribe). Stay informed about new episodes, and get beautiful news and recommendation links.
Michael has been feeling old
We're using Vault and wondering about building kubernetes operators
Who is Dave McNeill?
How did you first get into computers?
How did you get your first job in tech?
Where are you working now, What does your day to day job look like?
Quickfire Questions
Vim, VSCode, or vibe coding in cursor?
You can only code in one language for the rest of your life, what do you pick?
Personal texting – preferred platform? Why? Why not whatsapp?
Biggest user crime of making container images?
Oldest piece of untouched software you’ve seen running in production?
Breaking Prod Leaderboard
Surely someone in Ops has seen something go wrong... with account balances?
Big Topics
Hot Takes, and what Dave thinks of them:
* "SRE is just re-branded Ops"
* "DevOps is Dead, Long Live Platform Engineering"
* "Programming Languages will become obsolete, English is the new programming language"
* "Disaster recovery training is just something google wrote in a book and nobody does it"
News
* More supply chain attacks (https://www.wiz.io/blog/new-github-action-supply-chain-attack-reviewdog-action-setup) (wiz.io blog)
Google Acquires Wiz for $32 Billion (https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/03/18/google-acquire-wiz-32-billion/) (helpnetsecurity.com)
Amazon removing privacy options from Alexa (https://www.techspot.com/news/107175-amazon-removing-option-local-alexa-processing-forcing-all.html) (techspot.com)
BYD have a car that charges in 5 minutes (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/18/byd-ev-fast-charging-system-petrol-fuel-speed) (The Guardian)
Recommendations
DevOps, Platform Eng, SRE
The SRE Handbook (https://sre.google/sre-book/table-of-contents/) (Free google book)
A Tour of Go website (https://go.dev/tour/list)
Release It! (https://pragprog.com/titles/mnee2/release-it-second-edition/) (pragmatic prorammer bookshelf)
Platform Engineering, Camille Fournier (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/platform-engineering/9781098153632/) (O'Reilly)
Wardley Mapping (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkePAhnkHeg) (YouTube)
Music
Truthpaste :: Manchester Indie Pop :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/truthpaste/1793805265) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/1jX7jSANud3GSSMfs41KPs) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRsdPzCthUM&t=1s)
Sharon Van Etten - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory :: American singer-songwriter Alternative Album :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/sharon-van-etten-the-attachment-theory/1770826874) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/5aGKc7OL3d1aJodCG2747F?si=o2VqwgKbTIernpKx6ES8GQ) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kwnCx-2Y7F_8SM8dLrOiz8aLML14-9OgU)
The Bug Club :: Welsh indie energetic garage and punk :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/the-bug-club/1552259279) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/7eiTMbuHYUPjrAMjIhAVDB?si=jo2FyAeARCCVfB7stSfTJA) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXs6Ghb4yDtMGHypiRPj7w)
TV
Adolesence (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81756069) (Netflix)
School Swap: UK to USA (https://www.channel4.com/programmes/school-swap-uk-to-usa) (Channel 4)
Podcast
Steering Engineering (https://steering-engineering-podcast.simplecast.com)
If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a recommendation, subscribe to our new newsletter (https://newsletter.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/subscribe), but most importantly, tell a friend! Special Guest: Dave McNeill. -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
We've got Raxit Ramani, a highly experienced Agile Coach and Project Manager talking about Scaled Agile, SAFe, Stories of things being wrong, and how different government bodies have operated in the past.
Subscribe to our new Newsletter! (https://newsletter.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/subscribe). Stay informed about new episodes, and get beautiful news and recommendation links.
Michael is still pale after a weekend in the sun. He didn't shed a tear after being in the Spa's floation tank
Mark dropped a treadmill on his foot.
Raxit had a good job interview
You only need one server, given it is sufficiently powerful...
Quickfire Questions
Your opinion of Agile, in one word.
Personal preference: Public sector or private sector work?
What’s the biggest crime against Jira?
Worst excuse you’ve ever heard for missing a sprint goal or PI goal, or just not having a bit of work done?
Longest you’ve ever seen a story carried over in the next, and the next, and the next sprint?
You join a team, day 1, they show you their organisation stuff, and they do all planning in excel. Do you go with the flow, or immediately advocate something else? Why?
Biggest red flag that someone isn’t really agile?
What’s a task you dread doing throughout the PI increment?
Most valuable certifications?
## Breaking Prod Leaderboard
We have a new winner! With 3 distinct stories!
Big topic for the week
How would you describe to a new developer, the definition of modern agile software development? What’s it all about?
You’ve done a scrum master / agile lead type role before. How does a department know when it’s ready to start thinking about a scaled agile framework?
What sort of problems might they notice first that agile hasn’t seemed to solve for them, even though they’re doing scrum and/or kanban well?
If 5 or so teams have identified the problem, how do they get business buy-in to get someone in to help with a scaled agile framework?
Have you seen a scaled agile implementation fail? What are the biggest mis-steps in scaled agile failing? How would you even know it’s failing?
What sort of stuff gets measured? Are there KPIs?
Does it make any impact on individual contributors? Or is this just something that helps their managers and product owners be better organised?
Do top software companies do this?
Are there any scenarios you’ve seen people implement this, and it was just the wrong idea?
News
Google chrome sale from DOJ (https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/10/doj-google-chrome-sale/) (MacRumors)
Google donates to Trump inauguration (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/09/google-donates-1-million-to-trumps-inauguration-fund.html) (CNBC)
Artists release album “Is This What We Want?”, protesting AI (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/25/kate-bush-damon-albarn-1000-artists-silent-ai-protest-album-copyright) (The Guardian)
HR managers creates 22 fake employees and cashes their pay check for 10 years (https://townflex.com/hr-manager-created-22-fake-employees-steal-2-2-million/) (TownFlex.com)
Recommendations
SAFe & Scaled Agile
Scaled Agile Website (https://scaledagile.com)
The Art of Avoiding a Trainwreck (https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781094752280/ART-Avoiding-Train-Wreck-Practical-1094752282/plp) (Abe Books)
Learning Agile (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-agile/9781449363819/) (O'Reilly)
Tech
Ghostty (https://ghostty.org) vs. Warp (https://www.warp.dev), and oh-my-posh (https://ohmyposh.dev)
Music
Courting - Lust for Life, Or: 'How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story' :: British Alt Rock album :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/lust-for-life-or-how-to-thread-the-needle-and-come/1773066446) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/7m3pnC0KsBgoLlkTkiaId6?si=LQlcNK7ZRFKqOdvi3Ar5yA) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILaWbHwRjXo&list=PLHTo__bpnlYUN_ffmtGQXosM0w-IkQjxz)
Mercury Rev :: American Rock Band :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/mercury-rev/3240538) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/77oD8X9qLXZhpbCjv53l5n) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmXzJaR-kZgt12dhyncGCw)
Fat White Family - Champagne Holocaust :: British Alt Rock album :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/champagne-holocaust-deluxe-edition/1090360470) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/6WeKsrSDY4XHEYenu3HEZc) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSWOXeS19vdpX4GxZTkcj5A)
The Limiñanas :: French Rock band:: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/the-limi%C3%B1anas/389053777) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2joJCoCL4EmiVqic3vZn7n?si=RaChBiS7RyiFSOOXY-WVqQ) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqtSEOA-Toztj74wKq6H7gw)
DJ Counselling - Caring EP :: House album :: Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/caring-ep/1733656722) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/1OlUD0LH7yiFLfDiSatt8l) · YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nu0JuFN5xhXWVQNJhkl327YJNYWCfuN7E)
TV
Drive to Survive (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80204890) (Netflix)
Zero Day (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81598435) (Netflix)
Daredevil: Born Again (https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/series/daredevil-born-again/6Eu8fmI0MaUk) (Disney+) Special Guest: Raxit Ramani. -
We've got Director of Engineering Sam Jones talking all things Engineering Management. How to get into it, how she stays organised, great books to learn from, and how she approaches the challenges of the job.
Michael prepares for putting together an event on developer experience
Sam helps merge 2 companies together
RIP duolingo bird
Who is Sam Jones (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammiej/)?
loosely...
Frontend Dev
-> Team Lead @ gamesys
---> Eng. Manager @ Monzo
-----> Director of Eng. @ Benifex
Quickfire Questions
One to ones, all in one day or evenly spread throughout the week?
Best new joiner swag you’ve ever had?
Scrum or Kanban?
Longest probation period you’ve ever heard of?
Ever failed someone’s probation? Ever failed probation yourself?
Interviewing off camera – yay or nay?
Best team building activity?
Slack or Teams?
Breaking Prod
The near miss that could've topped our leaderboard, working on trading systems
Big Topic
How do you get into it? What does training look like, for an engineering manager?
Skip levels – do you do these? How often?
Best way you’ve improved your abilities as an engineering manager?
The danger zone! What it is and how to work through it?
Is AI coming for your job?
How do you see signs of burnout in people you’re managing?
What are your KPIs as an engineering manager?
Stack ranking employees – necessary evil?
How do you make the jump from managing engineers, to managing managers?
## News
1. Alphabet drops a longstanding ban on AI being used for developing weapons (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy081nqx2zjo) (BBC)
1. ELON MUSK act (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/the-elon-musk-act-aims-to-ban-special-government-employees-from-having-federal-contracts/) (TechCrunch). The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for “Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy”
1. Asahi Linux Hector Martin project leads resigns – maintainer burnout (https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/ashai_linux_head_quits) (The Register)
1. Apple Lamp - Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot research paper (https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/elegnt-expressive-functional-movement) (Apple)
1. Hauwei release tri-folding phone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv_S7KrOlfk) (Youtube - Marques Brownlee)
Recommendations
Engineering Management Books
Resilient Management, Lara Hogan (https://resilient-management.com)
Management 3.0 (https://management30.com/books/management30/)
The Manager's Path, Camille Fournier (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-managers-path/9781491973882/) (O'Reilly)
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management, Will Larson (https://press.stripe.com/an-elegant-puzzle) (Stripe Press)
Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50363684-become-an-effective-software-engineering-manager) (Good Reads)
Managing Humans: Biting and Humourous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, Michael Lopp (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4302-4315-1?gtmf=s)
Scaling People, Claire Hughes Johnson (https://press.stripe.com/scaling-people) (Stripe Press)
Non Engineering Management Books
The Staff Engineer's Path (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-staff-engineers/9781098118723/) (O'Reilly)
Platform Engineering, Camille Fournier (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/platform-engineering/9781098153632/) (O'Reilly)
Music
I Love You, Honeybear - Father John Misty (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/i-love-you-honeybear/931563362) (Apple Music). Royal Albert Hall Event (https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2025/father-john-misty)
Movies
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32063050/) (IMDb)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049403/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_5_nm_2_in_0_q_beetlejuice) (IMDb)
Miscellaneous
Canada vs. USA ice hockey match, 3 fights in first 9 seconds of play (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUa6c7DNmQY) (YouTube)
Next Time
Rax talks about Scaled Agile frameworks
Listen to the end to hear this episodes bloopers!
If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend us to someone else who would like it, leave us a rating/review, or give us some feedback.
Give us your feedback about the podcast (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/feedback)
Special Guest: Sam Jones. -
We've got BAFTA winning Creative Director Nikki Stearman, talking about tech for good. She shares her experience designing and crafting experiences for children who are about to go to hospital, to help them understand what the environment and procedure will be like.
Michael's office refurb continues, as he trades signed music memorabilia for music speakers
The great rebrand is in the works
Lenny steals a lunch
Nikki shows off her BAFTA
Quickfire Questions
Mac or PC?
Greatest gaming console ever?
Greatest game ever?
Most addictive game on your phone?
Yorkshire or East Anglia?
Morris Ring, Morris Foundation, or Open Morris?
Spend a day doing Freelance work, or a day doing your permanent job?
Do you version control your code?
Is big tech fundamentally evil?
Death of Flash – sad or not sad?
Breaking prod?
Well that won't earn you a BAFTA! Nikki does her homework.
Big Topic: Tech for good, making games for kids
Tech for good – conscious choice or something you walked in to?
Do you worry about screen time?
Would you / have you ever taken a role you feel morally ambiguous about?
How close do you get to the end user of your product?
What’s a kid’s first interaction like with the games your company makes?
Does it show demonstrable results in treatment?
Do you make any games in your spare time?
Research from Dylan Yamada-Rice on Exploring Children's attitides towards notions fo the digital good through hybrid arts (https://digitalgood.net/dg-research/exploring-childrens-attitudes-towards-notions-of-the-digital-good-through-hybrid-arts-practice/)
News
Are noise cancelling headphones causing health problems? (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkjvr7x5x6o)
Children’s views on AI will form the manifesto for world leaders (https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/childrens-views-ai-will-form-manifesto-world-leaders?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Text_link&utm_campaign=Turing-News_childrens-views-ai-will-form-manifesto-world-leaders)
AI to help us understand animal’s emotions (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/16/researchers-are-training-ai-to-interpret-animal-emotions/?utm_source=pocket_shared)
Sri Lankan grid taken out by monkeys (https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/10/sri_lanka_monkey_blackout?utm_source=pocket_shared)
Recommendations
Music
This is Classic Club (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/this-is-classic-club/pl.de3d438ba0724b3a8f309f333d9095b2) playlist, dance anthems (apple music)
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Fear is on our Side (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/fear-is-on-our-side/447611770) album, Alternative (apple music)
Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/mystic-cigarettes/279131194) album, electronic (apple music)
Podcasts
Cloud Dialogues (https://www.cloud-dialogues.com) podcast from our guest on episode 7, Georgia Smith
Books
The Power of Bad and How to Overcome it (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/192339/the-power-of-bad-by-tierney-roy-f-baumeister-and-john/9780141975801)
TV
Am I being unreasonable? (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001c3f7/am-i-being-unreasonable-series-1-episode-1?seriesId=m001c3f9-structural-1-m001c3f8) (BBC iPlayer)
If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend us to someone else who would like it, leave us a rating/review, or give us some feedback.
Give us your feedback about the podcast (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/feedback)
Special Guest: Nikki Stearman. -
Michael keeps up with his "listen to 100 albums in a year" resolution.
Mark has a weights rack of shame.
Chris fails dry Jan by a matter of days.
There's a 1% chance we'll all be mush anyway.
GIVE US FEEDBACK! Do this form, it will take 4 mins (https://forms.office.com/e/gQJFBRJJAY)
Chris Hunter
Working in government on a project with other consultancies also contributing. Are they in competition?
Lovely personal github readme (https://github.com/chriswhunter89)
Quickfire Questions
Hurling, GAA, or other?
Most used terminal command at the moment?
Dev or Ops, pick one for the rest of you life.
Dream Industry to work in?
Least enjoyable technologies you've worked with?
Michael's weirdest habbit?
How scared are you AI will take your job?
What's your "getting down to write code" music?
Breaking Prod
Clean sheet, but has seen a team unable to deploy to prod for over a month!
Big Topics
Changing Careers
You’ve had a big career change.
* What made you decide you wanted to change careers?
* Were you frustrated with the day-to-day job, or environment? Lack of variation? Lack of opportunities?
* Presumably you were on at least alright money, was it worrying taking a pay cut?
* Did you have to build a financial buffer to finance the change?
* Do you wish you had done it sooner? Or timed it right?
* How did you go about skilling up?
Coding Bootcamp, at Le Wagon (https://www.lewagon.com/london)
All in person, or online?
What sort of topics did you cover?
Anything you loved or hated?
You had a few months gap after the coding bootcamp, before your job.
Was that nerve wracking? To think you’d spent a few months of time/money, and not yet got a job?
Were you already warmed up to the idea that finding work might just take a while?
Did you get guidance on how to go about getting a job?
Has the content you learned then all been useful? Any cruft?
How is the pay now, relative to your previous role?
Was it a great investment?
Any advice for anyone considering a career change into tech?
News
AI sensors used in homes of vulnerable people (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp827ekneg4o)
Ontario responds to Trump tariff by pitching Starlink deal into the trash (https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/ontario_canada_responds_to_trump_tariff/)
EU's AltStore Gets First Native iOS Pornography App (https://www.macrumors.com/2025/02/03/eu-altstore-porn-app/)
Irish AI minister has never used ChatGPT (https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/04/irish_ai_minister)
Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d95v0nr1yo)
Abandoned S3 buckets and the potential to do harm on a SolarWinds+ scale (https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/04/abandoned_aws_s3/?td=rt-3a)
Elon Musk lies about gaming ability (https://fortune.com/2025/01/20/elon-musk-video-games-scandal-path-of-exile-asmongold-quin/)
Recommendations
Music
The Long Forever, Elephant Tree & Lowrider (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-long-forever/1775636079)
Studio Ghibli, Anime Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/joe-hisaishi-studio-ghibli-works-essentials/pl.9d00cd92b13746c096dd552d24a46a3b)
Podcast
Search Engine: The New Zuckerberg (https://www.searchengine.show/listen/search-engine-1/the-new-zuckerberg)
Movies
Dune 2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15239678/)
The Brutalist (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8999762/)
GIVE US FEEDBACK! Do this form, it will take 4 mins (https://forms.office.com/e/gQJFBRJJAY) Special Guest: Chris Hunter. -
Michael has caved and got a new microphone, China are back in the news, and we've got a better joke than last time.
Michael is on the super stouts
Marie is doing dry "couple-of-days"
What's a plosion? Michael has over-researched micophones
Is Feng-Shui a load of nonsense? Or Real?
Marie rubbishes Mark's new years resolution
Who is Marie Wigmore (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/guests/marie-wigmore)?
Independent contractor for over 3 decades, currently engaged at BT
Jira-avoidance wizard
Graduate of the Youth Training Scheme, proud achiever of 5 O-Levels
Driving Licence holder
There will be a quiz at the end!
Quickfire questions
Inside or Outside IR35?
Microsoft Project Planner or Jira?
AI - scared or not scared?
If you were in charge, what's your RTO policy?
Do you prefer to consult for public sector, or consult for private sector?
Sports Car or SUV?
Most Expensive Dress you've ever worn?
One fashion tip for Mark?
Cat person or dog person?
Breaking Production Leaderboard (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/breaking-prod-leaderboard)
Clean Sheet, or Big Bang?
Marie has a podcast exclusive for us, on the post office scandal. Bloody toffee-crisp eaters!
Big Topics
Contracting
How has it changed?
Are the good times behind us?
How have the big 4 influenced government policy?
Have you ever had any contracts go bad, mid-way through?
In the past, you’ve got a contract coming to an end, it’s not getting renewed, you’ve got bills to pay. What’s the game plan for landing you next gig?
Starting a consultancy
What’s the gameplan for launching a new company?
What are you gonna sell?
How will you get clients?
News for the week
Experts urge caution over use of Chinese AI Deepseek (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/experts-urge-caution-over-use-of-chinese-ai-deepseek)
James Howells suing Newport council again, after partner binned bitcoin wallet, and they won't let him dig up landfill (BBC) (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr0dyy152jo)
Microsoft to acquire tiktok? (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/donald-trump-microsoft-tiktok-purchase-claims)
Google maps renaming, after Trump renaming (The Register) (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/google_maps_trump_order/)
Amazon prime air to launch in Darlington (Tech Crunch) (https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/28/amazons-prime-air-drone-service-is-headed-to-this-uk-town/)
AWS & Microsoft CMA investigation (Computer Weekly) (https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366618449/AWS-and-Microsoft-could-face-targeted-intervention-from-CMA-over-UK-cloud-competition-concerns)
Old news, but relevant:
* Chinese major hardware hack uncovered (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/13/tech-giants-us-chinese-spy-chips-bloomberg-supermicro-amazon-apple)
Recommendations
Music
Justice – Cross (https://music.apple.com/us/album/justice/259751732), electro/dance
Underworld - Second toughest in the infants (https://music.apple.com/us/album/second-toughest-in-the-infants-remastered/1443227490), electro
Sonny Federa (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/sonny-fodera/324128050), DJ, House
TV
Mr McMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/), wrestling documentary
Traitors: Uncloaked finale (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00276n6/the-traitors-uncloaked-traitors-series-3-episode-12), with Claudia Winkleman
Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81685634), documentary
Girl You Know It's True (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21927594/), music movie about Milli Vanilli, who had one of the biggest scandals in music history
The White Lotus (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13406094/), drama, comedy
Gangs of London (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7661390/), Crime Drama
Books
Feng Shui Modern, by Cliff Tan (https://guardianbookshop.com/feng-shui-modern-9781526639998/) (Guardian Bookshop)
Podcasts
Designated Driver, the podcast for fans of Adam Driver (Podbean (https://designateddriveradam.podbean.com))
Jokes
What do you call a Hippo on One Leg?
Change your nickname on iOS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5eHXavk34) (YT video)
Next Time:
Chris Hunter joins us talking about coding bootcamps
Follow us, like & subscribe
Leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts/Spotify etc..
Find the trailers wherever you are:
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ctrl_alt_expletive)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@Ctrl-Alt-Expletive)
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ctrl-alt-expletive/)
Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/ctrl_alt_expletive/)
BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/ctrl-alt-expletive.com)
Our Website (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com), where you'll find our breaking prod leaederboard and nationalities of guests and more.
Special Guest: Marie Wigmore. -
What does James do?
Is Sky a big company?
What's your favourite file format to read from?
Favourite format of book to digest?
East London vs. West London
What even is Burns Night?
Deep fried battered scottish things
James is dropping tables like it's hot... in the first week
Big Topic
Data. Big Data. HUGE Data.
What's it like to leave after more than 10 years at one company? Why the change? Why not sooner?
News
Instagram hides search results for Democrats (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g32yxpdz0o)
UK digital driving licences (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkjjkjy4p8o)
BT scraps EV charging scheme, having only installed... one. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75zwyeq3v9o)
Gotta be over 18 to watch porn in the UK from July (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwye3qw7gv7o)
AI drugs are on the way (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/22/google_deepmind_ai_drugs/)
"Eventually you could imagine personalized medicine where it's optimized, maybe overnight, by an AI system for your personal metabolism"
Is Melania Trump's autobiography written using ChatGPT? (https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/s/DeV5QrX7UL)
Hulk Smash Muck and Zuck (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/14/free_our_feeds_decentralized_social_media/)
AI Brad Pitt dupes French woman out of €830,000 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgnz8rw1xgo)
Excel World Championships with 7.5 hour live stream (https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-excel-world-championship-is-real-and-it-just-crowned-the-king-of-spreadsheets/)
Working from home is “not proper work”, according to Lord Rose, of M&S and Asda (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qww8xdvnwo)
Recommendations
Movies
Civil War (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/)
Music
The Middlenight Men - Issue 2 (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/issue-2/1745318732), rock
Justice - Cross (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/justice/259751732), electronic dance
TV
Mr. McMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/) wrestling, on Netflix
The Day of the Jackal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24053860/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1) on Sky/NowTV
Severance season 2 (https://tv.apple.com/gb/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx), Apple TV
Traitors is finishing this weekend (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0db9b2t/the-traitors), BBC iPlayer
Podcasts
The rest is Entertainment (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-entertainment/id1718287198)
Here comes the guilotine, by Frankie Boyle (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/here-comes-the-guillotine/id1729090748)
Special Guest: James Balloch. -
After an extended break, our first episode of the year is here!
CES 2025 has come and been (https://www.ces.tech/)
* Michael thinks about persuading his cats to come to work
* I want to charge my phone in 5 econds
Are we dry January-ing? No.
Resolutions:
* Mark will play more darts
* Michael will listen to political podcasts and 2 new albums a week
* Georgia will go to places where people will help us meet goals
What's it like being a Consultant Strategist?
Companies are going full on RTO - why? Are governments pressuring big business back into the office?
Breaking Prod
Georgia wastes 50k on unnecessary cloud spend, currently ranked about 2nd on our "Breaking Prod" leaderboard.
Is the future of relationships just dating a robot?
Big Topic
Georgia has been involved in the disability and age care space. Some of the problems we've encountered, and how we can tackle them.
How does Georgia fit it all in?
In the News
Tiktok ban looking likely (https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/10/tiktok-ban-looking-likely-after-u-s-supreme-court-hears-case/)
LG’s creepy air purifiers (https://mashable.com/article/ces-2025-lg-aero-cat-tower-creepy-cat)
Apple Intelligence notification summaries not quite good enough (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/14/bbc-says-it-has-complained-to-apple-over-ai-generated-fake-news-attributed-to-broadcaster)
Facebook ditching fact checkers (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/07/ditching-facebook-factcheckers-major-step-back-public-discourse)
Facebook has AI profiles (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/03/meta-ai-powered-instagram-facebook-profiles)
JP morgan 5 days RTO (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/01/14/jpmorgan-disables-internal-comments-after-employee-backlash-over-rto-policy/#:~:text=The%20bank's%20leadership%2C%20in%20an,week%2C%20with%20only%20limited%20exceptions.)
Ghostty terminal emulator release, from Mitchell Hashimoto (https://ghostty.org/)
Recommendations
Books
Mark read (listened to) Nuclear War: A Scenario (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Nuclear-War-Audiobook/B0CN3NXK3D)
Mark has a potential contender for equally grim (because it’s true), Alexei Navalny’s Patriot (https://www.amazon.co.uk/PATRIOT-Pre-order-inspiring-fearless-opposition/dp/1847927033)
TV:
Black Doves (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27995113/) Spy Drama with Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw
Game of Throws (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34870889/) and Dart Kings on Sky for documentaries about darts now and then.
Severance (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/) Season 2 is out on Friday.
Silo season 2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14688458/)
Traitors season 3 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23743442/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_traitors)
Mr. MacMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/) on Netflix
Music
Cahill Costello (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cahill-costello-ii/1770795493)
Michael recommends getting a Stanley Cup
Next time...
We're hoping to have Sam Jones on, talking about burnout, journalling, and plenty more fun stuff. Special Guest: Georgia L. Smith. -
We've got Jean-Paul Ashby, a.k.a. JP, a recruiter, director, entrepreneur, talking about all things recruitment, CVs, interviews, and more
Lenny Visits Wayde
Michael finishes the last Espresso Martini Mouse
JP sipps a duvel, not a duv-elle
We've got some quickfire questions for JP on all things recuitment.
* Does github activity matter?
* How many interviews is too many interviews?
* What's your go-to interview question?
Big Topics
Recruitment
Michael and Mark get a CV review from the professional.
Comparison of job platforms, LinkedIn meets Otta
Most memorable interviews
Starting a new Venture
Starting your own business! JP talks about his new venture, Torch, how he developed the idea, what does the MVP do?
How JP found a technical founder, and started talking to clients about it.
Michael and I talk about team moves and what the process looks like.
In the News
Broadcom Triples software revenue (https://www.ciodive.com/news/broadcoom-nears-vmware-integration-completion-ai-chips/735547/), somehow. What a mystery.
Starlink competitor IRIS launching in Europe (https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/16/24322358/iris2-starlink-rival-europe-date-cost) – 290 satellites
Tom Hanks is forever young (https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240701-new-tom-hanks-film-here-and-the-unsettling-new-de-aging-technology-keeping-stars-forever-young)
Online Safety Act comes into effect in 3 months (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy83jdpgw5o)
A look at why OpenAI’s K8s server got overloaded and they got locked out (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11th-dec-2024-openai-outage-nutshell-puru-tuladhar-rus9f/)
Aqua finds 336,000 Prometheus servers and exporters are wide open, uses them to get system info and cause dos attacks (https://www.aquasec.com/blog/300000-prometheus-servers-and-exporters-exposed-to-dos-attacks/)
Even Krisy-Kreme aren’t safe (https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/krispy-kreme-doughnut-delivery-cooked-cyberattack)! Why are people attacking a donut company?!
Recommendations
TV
JP also recommends The Day of the Jackal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24053860/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_2_nm_4_in_0_q_the%2520day%2520of%2520the%2520jackal)
Books
Michael has finished Nuclear War: A Scenario (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/461721/nuclear-war-by-jacobsen-annie/9781911709596)
Out and About
Hidden City (https://www.inthehiddencity.com/?utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=1640314045&utm_content=68160131452&utm_term=hidden%20city&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2JXCBnA-qwqLieYIr3P2yrQk4xw&gclid=CjwKCAiAyJS7BhBiEiwAyS9uNdibeQ1_tWP7GG-r96jeoE5JeVmUmyjKlLkDM0IHMIcuFElUxHHSWRoCm3kQAvD_BwE) - a real-world texting adventure to help James Bond
Special Guest: Jean-Paul Ashby. -
It's become less surprising as the weeks fly by that we're still doing it.
Ian gives us his tooling preferences and why.
Cynic to advocate for public cloud
The phones are ringing off the hooks, thanks to Ian Reeves!
What do we think of DHH?
Should you run your own stuff, or pay for SaaS?
Kim Jung Un's inner SuperHero (https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/1hbwaco/is_war_starting/)
Big Topics
Data Center Repatriation.
Why DHH moved 37signals from public cloud to on-prem, here's his blogs on How it started (https://world.hey.com/dhh/why-we-re-leaving-the-cloud-654b47e0) vs. How it's going (https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-have-left-the-cloud-251760fb).
Is this reverting back to on-premise becoming commonplace?
Has the sales pitch for public cloud shifted?
In the news
Broadcom is making some major changes to stop VMware exodus (https://www.techradar.com/pro/broadcom-is-making-some-major-changes-to-stop-vmware-exodus)
Indonesia squeezes apple even harder for $1Bn (https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/after-iphone-ban-apple-offers-1-billion-govt-says-12032024163122.html#:~:text=The%20Indonesian%20investment%20minister%20said,first%20phase%20of%20%241%20billion)
New openAI model is pen tested for reasoning, and subversion. Can it act in its own interests to deceive the user? This is absolutely fascinating (https://www.apolloresearch.ai/research/scheming-reasoning-evaluations)
Landlords Are Using AI to Raise Rents—and Cities Are Starting to Push Back (https://gizmodo.com/landlords-are-using-ai-to-raise-rents-and-cities-are-starting-to-push-back-2000535519)
OpenAI releases Sora (https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24317090/openai-sora-text-to-video-ai-generator-confirmed-release)
Is AI hitting a wall? (https://www.inc.com/joe-procopio/ai-hits-a-wall-what-this-means-for-the-tech-industry/91033881)
Are AI Leaders overly optimistic? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqwSZEQkknU)
Recommendations
Music
Everyday is Christmas, Sia (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/everyday-is-christmas-deluxe/1440098012)
A keen follower told us that the Mark Lanegan tribute gig is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0PzvSvme14)
It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land, Soulsavers (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/its-not-how-far-you-fall-its-the-way-you-land/943433314)
Try out Teddy Swims (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/teddy-swims/1462541757) for some soul/pop
Synthwave Goose's Blade Runner 2049 single (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/blade-runner-2049-single/1388978818) and Hacker music album fit for Mr. Robot (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cracked/1441878746)
Books
Nuclear War, A Scenario by Annie Jacobson (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/461721/nuclear-war-by-jacobsen-annie/9781911709596)
Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0241451930/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QHF1WSJSG62D&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zXxQQcRJkb7x5kthVhMXqRwPOgMI8UaAjtXM3XrIW-z-6Ozsk1Sdp70Y3C_XohPmGYQsQN_i1Wls--TUpAyk8vuA86rmweNWMb5GStXfPYTpivIdVMiMlmOPY2zbjYHpnQk84dw83Gi2CMAC6s5lNts3XrKOspC8-akl6A5RDscylXIsOdzqesIspI-eMZq_kB_IsCfTTtsk0-vXvkNeGQ4vqzM50pgcx1isL01xmj4.yHIzlqMgqkrlUwqorcCq1X1GCtK-pE24JucmONEEdu0&dib_tag=se&keywords=bill+bryson&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733970286&sprefix=bill+bryson%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-1)
TV
True Detective on Sky/NowTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356777/)
Special Guest: Ian Reeves. -
We're still here for number 4.
We add some jingles and an intro.
Michael gets third party confirmation that he's old
All the guests have mugged us off, so it's just Michael and I
Mark predicts the rise of AI Santa
Mark publishes the show too early and forgets about the shownotes and jingles first time round
Michael scours the news with a "2 years or older" filter on.
Social Media sites
Big Topics
Technical diagrams
* What makes a good diagram?
* What are we doing diagrams of?
* Do people use 'em?
Incidents
* MIchael and I recap our biggest hiccups at work
* what happened
* what impact?
All our subscriptions
* everything we've subscribed to currently, is it any good?
* one thing we should ditch?
* Domain Hoarding
In the news
A.K.A. Not news.
* Medium once upon a time said they don't like AI (https://blog.medium.com/how-were-approaching-ai-generated-writing-on-medium-16ee8cb3bc89)
* We get a comment on the LinkedIn which is AI generated
* X loses momentum to reddit in the UK (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/29/ofcom_online_nation?utm_source=pocket_shared)
* Journalists from europe are off X too (https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/european-federation-of-journalists-to-stop-posting-content-on-x-386598/)
* Thoughtworks tech radar is published (https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-gb/radar)
* Platform Engineering Report is published (https://thenewstack.io/the-2024-state-of-platform-engineering-fledgling-at-best/?utm_source=pocket_shared). Michael promises to give some highlights next week
* Some lucky gambling prompter wins $50,000 from Freysa AI, a blockchain connected LLM who shouldn't give out the money (https://x.com/jarrodWattsDev/status/1862299845710757980)
* A 14-year-old kid makes a digital braille reader under $20 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2024/11/30/14-year-old-boy-invents-digital-braille-reader-and-wins-3500/)
* David Mayer gets the Barbra Streisand effect, as ChatGPT has a few crashes (https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-david-mayer-name-glitch-ai-b2657197.html)
Stuff we didn't mention:
Half a cup of water for every chatGPT interaction? Is this real? (https://www.smh.com.au/technology/every-time-you-use-chatgpt-half-a-cup-of-water-goes-to-waste-20241128-p5kubq.html)
Recommendations
Tech
Homey Pro home hub (https://homey.app/en-gb/homey-pro/)
Keepa (https://keepa.com/#!addon) - chrome/brave extension for price comparison on Amazon
iZotope (https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/rx-elements) & Hindenburg (https://hindenburg.com) for audio/podcast stuff
NetNewsWire RSS Reader (https://netnewswire.com)
UsesThis.com (https://usesthis.com/) - interviews for what tools people use to get their jobs done
Music
Michael's got 2 gigs, one of which is a Mark Lanegan (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/mark-lanegan-essentials/pl.1e058facef694d69ac7e4f758feacce2) tribute gig.
Mark recommends some HipHop, Joey Ba.Da.$$ (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/1999/1396290965)
Truck Festival tickets released (https://truckfestival.com)
TV
HiJack thriller on AppleTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19854762/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Hijack)
Dune: Prophecy on Sky/NowTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10466872/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_Dune%253A%2520Prophecy) -
We've got Fredrik Alm, Infrastructure Architect from Sweden on, to talk about Smart Home setups.
Michael goes on mute, leading to widespread panic
DIY Dishwasher APIs
Everyone hates JFrog, but not as much as Mark
We've got Jarvis at home!
Don't touch the mirror
Smart Homes is our big topic
Do we trust Eero? Do we trust China?
Home experiments.
Having guests in your smart home.
Never Mind the AI-BuzzCocks
In the news:
1. Confess your sins to AI Jesus (https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/meet-your-own-personal-ai-jesus-in-this-swiss-churchs-confessional)
2. Mac Mini Clusters for LLMs (https://youtu.be/GBR6pHZ68Ho?si=_jNZyOhPpXEL4D7q)
3. Fancy Bear 'Nearest Neighbour' attack (https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/fancy-bear-nearest-neighbor-attack-wi-fi)
4. Big Cisco Brother is watching you (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/27/workplace_surveillance/)
5. NHS gets blasted for the 3rd time this year, they're using pen and paper (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/26/third_major_cyber_incident_declared/?td=rt-3a)
6. LinkedInfluencers are mostly AI (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/28/linkedin_ai_posts/)
7. Indonesia doesn't care about the latest iPhone, just give them the money (https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/11/22/indonesia-rejects-apples-100-million-bid-to-lift-the-iphone-16-ban)
Recommendations
Smart Home Equipment
* Fred recommends this Homey system, which he can't recommend enough. "It just works, but with everything" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b21Stl9pgig)
* Aqara Doorbell (https://www.aqara-shop.co.uk/product/aqara-smart-video-doorbell-g4-black-finish/)
Music
* Even more Father John Misty: Mahashmashana (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/mahashmashana/1762652806)
* Ghosting Season (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/fade-out-lost-tracks-single/1094684419)
Blogs
* Michael has started a blog (https://blog.heyitsmichael.com/)
* Mark's existing blog (https://mark-mccracken.medium.com)
Books
* Observability Engineering, by Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, George Miranda (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/observability-engineering/9781492076438/)
* The Standard for Program Management (https://www.pmi.org/standards/program-management-fifth-edition)
Movies
* The Platform (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8228288/) & The Platform 2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27729779/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
* The Day of the Jackal, 1973 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069947/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_the%2520day%2520of%2520the)
Special Guest: Fredrik Alm. -
We're back for episode two!
We've got an old friend, Mitan Patel as our guest this week.
Mitan tells us about his career break.
We chat about AI tools.
Mark reviews the last recommendations, badly.
Michael has put some effort into the news.
Mitan was gonna write his recommendations down but his ADHD got the better of him this time.
Big topics
The Career Break. Why? Why now? What are you doing?
Journalling and AI tooling
Bolt.new (https://bolt.new/) and Cursor.com (https://www.cursor.com)
Have I got tech news for you?
O2 unveils Daisy, the AI granny wasting scammers’ time (https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-granny-wasting-scammers-time/)
Cheating the GitHub activity graph (https://github.com/Shpota/github-activity-generator)
Musk $1M giveaway wasn’t random (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/musk_america_pac_sued/)
"We're basically building Webkinz + Sims + Tamagotchi." (https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/your-most-dramatic-human-friend-cant-hold-a-candle-to-the-ai-friends-you-can-soon-wear-around-your-neck)
Robotic dog runs marathon (faster than I ever have) (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/robo_dogs_marathons/)
Google Gemini tells grad student to 'please die' while helping with his homework (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/15/google_gemini_prompt_bad_response/)
Russia be cutting undersea cables (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/baltic_sea_cables_cut/?td=rt-3a)
Northern Ireland cancels IT contract with Fujitsu for Schools worth £485M (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/)
Microsoft PC that is just a wrapper for Windows 365 (https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/19/microsoft-built-a-pc-that-cant-run-local-apps/)
Github giving away $1.25m, $10k at a time for open source peeps to stay secure (https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/19/github-launches-1-25m-open-source-fund-with-a-focus-on-security/)
Christmas Scams cost over £11m (https://12ft.io/https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366615884/UK-consumers-losing-more-than-ever-to-holiday-scams)
Recommendations:
Tools
Bolt.new
Cursor.com
Obsidian
Notion
Music
Michael:
Father John Misty's album Pure Comedy (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/pure-comedy/1193788689)
Worriedaboutsatan (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/worriedaboutsatan/259009902), tasty electro working music
Mark:
Girlie and Frankie by Alexandra Saviour (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/belladonna-of-sadness/1211892421)
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill/1276760743)
Cinema 3000 (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cinema-3000/1758060980)
Mitan
The Low End Theory by a Tribe Called Quest (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-low-end-theory/278911460)
Podcasts
Jim Browning (https://www.youtube.com/JimBrowning) hates scammers, who contributed to O2's Daisy AI, is a guest on Darknet Diaries (https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/143/), fasinating listen on a really good podcast
Apple Music 100 Best Albums radio (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/100-best-albums-radio/id1743037216?i=1000656351917)
TV
Monk (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312172/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
Brian Cox' Wonders of the Solar System (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611787/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
Books
Cujo by Stephen King (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cujo-Stephen-King/dp/1444708120)
Beer
Hepcat IPA (https://gipsyhillbrew.com/product/hepcat-2)
Tippy Yoghurt's Fruity Sour (https://deadtime.co.uk/products/pretty-decent-beer-co-tippy-yoghurts-fruity-sour?srsltid=AfmBOorxteZnqdLKNI_hTWFGEosOLSDUSwLAoCOA3K5KMPd2ji_00dn-)
Jubel peach beer (https://jubelbeer.com)
Roadie IPA (https://www.signaturebrew.co.uk/products/roadie-all-night-ipa-330ml-cans) Special Guest: Mitan Patel. -
We're live!
How early is too early for the Christmas Tree?
How many plugs is the right number of plugs for your workspace?
Who even are these people?
Imposter syndrome is our big topic
Who are these psychpaths that don't get imposter syndrome?
Newsy stuff
Excel turns 40, with a few bloopers of usage in that time (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/28/microsoft-excels-bloopers-reel-40-years-of-spreadsheet-errors)
Google has racked up $2.5 decillion of fines in Russia (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephentelford_russia-activity-7257710903033217024-vtux/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios)
UK Gov website launches an AI chatbot (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephentelford_russia-activity-7257710903033217024-vtux/)
AWS CDK flaw exposed accounts to full takeover (https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/24/aws_cloud_development_kit_flaw/)
Apple Intelligence Ads are out in the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deNzYrTvqCs
Recommendations
Music:
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World, recommended by Michael (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/songs-of-a-lost-world/1768728131)
Therapy?, recommended by Michael again and again (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/therapy-essentials/pl.941fd3aa78954f6b9f988b4d4e0bef8e)
Sleep Token, recommended by Jess (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/sleep-token-essentials/pl.fdb79a40f1944786868890c6e1f94321)
TV
The Day of the Jackal, recommended by Mark (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24053860/)
The Penguin (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15435876/)
Books
Code Dependent - Living in the shadow of AI, recommended by Jess (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Dependent-Living-Shadow-AI/dp/1529097304/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4bghFkC-EctLND2dFkeHuxbwz1zO6lI-lfUGEK_kNLHGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.UdlJ-4KVvV6RvC5f1GhAkF4xGYTFv-d255HsuJxMbC0&qid=1731625709&sr=8-1)
How Big things Get Done, recommended by Mark (https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Big-Things-Get-Done/dp/1035018934/)
Deep Work by Cal Newport, recommended by Michael (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/0349411905/)
Games
Baulder's Gate 3 (https://baldursgate3.game)
Technology
Dagger.io (https://dagger.io) Special Guest: Jess O'Neill.
