2022-02-18 Nerd Roundup!
We had two hangups with Discord, each for 10 seconds or so. Greg has moved to audio only, at least until he can get out of that hotel and find some decent wi-fi. James provided a great background and we got the full talking-head approach. Most awesome. The show continues to get better. This week we even started experimenting with real-time chat during the roundup, with questions and comments back-and-forth from the audience to the panel. If this thing gets any better it's going to involve free pizza. (wink)
Can the game Factorio teach better programming? Are imaginary numbers really imaginary? Is it time to retire the Robustness Principle? Do you need business plans, balance sheets, and the like to kick off your new business? How many people went to jail in the UK over the past 20 years due to faulty software? Hang out with the Nerd Herd and find out.
This should work in iTunes. (This link http://danielbmarkham.com/podcast/rss is a podcast feed) If it doesn't work, here's a direct link to the mp3: 2022-02-18 Nerd Roundup!
| STORY | BUT WHY? |
| My thoughts on writing a Minecraft server from scratch (in Bash) | Why? Because it's fun! Yikes! Crazy has a new home. I'm speechless. |
| How to write idempotent BASH scripts | Ouch. Hits close to home. Author should have expanded this |
| The Factorio Mindset | Dang, there's an essay in here somewhere desperately struggling to get out. Why Factorio? Why Minecraft? Aside from recreating Von Neuman machines, why do coders gravitate to certain kinds of games? Why do some games "speak" to coders more than others? |
| The Harmful Consequences of the Robustness Principle | Oddly enough, this is probably the deepest essay in the world of coding we've done in a while, even though it doesn't look like it. Lots of discussion about components, APIs. scale , the Unix Philosophy etc |
| Imaginary Numbers Are Reality | This is a bit of a redux, but still good. The world comes to us in tuples (My guess is 8-tuples) but we're able to conveniently ignore all of that for day-to-day work. The name "imaginary" was a really bad idea |
| Post Office scandal: Public inquiry to examine wrongful conviction | Over decades? No evidence? What in the living hell are we doing plugging software systems into the justice system? |
| UK makes first seizure of NFTs in tax crackdown | You there! The one with the gif of the dancing horse! Put the phone down easily and step this way. No quick movements! |
| Twitter: I have never looked at a business plan or a balance sheet | The vast, vast gulf between lables of things we think or good or bad and how things actually work in the real world. See above. |
| $3,375 Electromagnetic Gun Declared "A Serious Weapon" During Expert Range Report | Wow! I want one! |
| Navy Releases Timeline For Mysterious 2019 “UAS Swarm” Involving Warships Off California | Ongoing story/drama. Much fun. The missing deck logs are interesting, turning this entire episode into a historical whodunit. I expect movies, series and so forth as this story continues to evolve |
| Security guard doodles eyes onto $1 million painting on his first day | You mean I'm not supposed to do that? How about this dancing horse? |
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