Episode 16: Matt Sherman Interview and Scott Sigler Horror Novels

This time we feature our first INTERVIEW! And we found an absolutely wonderful first interview guest: Matt Sherman, co-founder and CTO of Alikewise and part of the programming team at Stack Overflow Careers (part of the Stack Exchange network.)

Also Bart talks about his love of Scott Sigler techno-thriller-horror novels. No, we're not sponsored. I wish we made money...but this is purely out of love for Scott's books! Check him out on his website!

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekingafterdark/Geeking_After_Dark_16.mp3

Show notes:

• Special guest: Matt Sherman!
• Scott Sigler's Pandemic released January 21st
• Bart totally geeks out on Sigler's books
• Interview with Matt Sherman!
• Co-founder and CTO of Alikewise, an online dating site that matches singles by their love of books
• Kindles are bad! (because we can't see what book you're reading)
• How will books...story consumption...change in the future?
• Matt discusses his work as a Stack Overflow Careers programmer
• How does SO Careers work? (Hint: credibility)
• Stack Exchange uses the MS stack
• Matt works heavily in .NET, C# in particular, with a long history of past technologies from the dot-com boom
• His background is in theoretical physics an philosophy!
• As the dot-com boomed, so did his interest in tech
• His programming background was self-taught
• We find out how programming is much like physics
• Today he is experimenting with projects written in Go
• "Every (computer) language...is a set of opinions." I really liked that quote.
• It's helpful to have a project you want to bring to life when learning to program
• Is there a link between programmers and literacy?
• What's a programmer's day like?
• How does Stack Exchange bring new programmers up to speed?
• There are Stack Exchange programmers that hadn't touched C# before working there!
• Asking questions is hard!

Check Matt out on his blog at clipperhouse.com and his online dating site at alikewise.com. His day job can be found at careers.stackoverflow.com and tweet him at @clipperhouse. His projects can be found on Github!

Episode 15: LinkedIn Not Hacked, Guns, and a Boob-Obsessed B-Movie Director

We're all over the place on this one. We're discussing such a wide variety of things...

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekingafterdark/Geeking_After_Dark_15.mp3 

Show notes:

•  Pete is angling to become a Dogecoin Millionaire
• It's a holiday...how goes the day? (Not great for Bart...)
• Do what you love! (DWYL) - READ THE ARTICLE! https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/in-the-name-of-love/
• Does changing your viewpoint mean problems go away?
• Linked-In takes legal action!
• This confuses people, apparently...
• Is scraping "hacking?" (Hint: no.)
• They're not hacked! http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/cloud-security/3708/amazon-ec2-has-not-been-hacked-nor-has-linked-in
• In tech, truth matters less than wild ass ignorant conclusions
• IPv6 and too many damn devices need firewalls
• Signs things have changed: my washer needs rebooting
• ATMs are running a soon to be end of lifed Windows XP?
• Pete plays with a Disney ride's controls and NEARLY GETS ARRESTED BY DISNEY POLICE FOR HACKING. Not really.
• We talk movies, such as Popatopolis.
• It's a documentary about a prolific B-movie director with a love of boobs, babes and kitsch
• Oh, we have feedback. Norma thought the previous episode was a tad wee bit too repetitive. 
• Does access to so much information make us more self-centered?
• Florida had a shooting. Surprise! Don't text in theaters, kids!
• Guns guns guns guns MURICA!
• Ad hominem "Ghost Gun" attacks aren't a legitimate argument
• Cracked.com has an interesting article on things that both sides can agree on when it comes to guns. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-gun-lovers-haters-can-agree-on/

Episode 14: Is Programming for Me?

This episode is part one of our discussion on the programming profession!

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekingafterdark/Geeking_After_Dark_14.mp3

Show notes:

• Previous episode was the 13th episode and we didn't realize it because nothing blew up
• We talk about Chromecast setup woes
• Bart still likes AppleTV, Pete loves Roku
• What is programming?
• What do you ask yourself to see "Is programming for me?"
• Do you need to be good at math to program?
• Programming is problem solving
• Is there an aspect of programming that lets you know it's definitely not for you?
• What are programmers like (programmer culture?)
• "Brogrammers" - is it a programmer thing or a company thing?
• Female programmers
• Programming isn't a profession where you must be certified to gain employment

Episode 13: Bart and Pete Ramble About Programming

This episode we talk about a programming project Bart used to dip his toes back into the pond of programming and see if he enjoys it.

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/geekingafterdark/Geeking_After_Dark_13.mp3 

Show notes:

•  What should Pete and Norma argue about?
• Blue Snowball...do I sound better?
• Bart worked on a personal project ending on New Year's
• Are programmers intolerant of new programmers?
• Pete doesn't think that's a problem at the company
• There's a bias against certain languages
• Seems strange since .NET compiles down to CIL anyway
• Use the "right" language for the job
• Bart talks about his limited programming background
• Bart relives his capstone of PERL and VB
• If you have a need, that's a motivating factor to learn to program
• The fundamentals of programming can get boring
• Specs are a good idea, or at least thinking ahead about the program
• Visual Studio is intimidating
• Some things aren't intuitive (async timer, I'm looking at you...)
• MS's tools are great for programmers, but overwhelming
• How do you debug?
• There's a lot of magic that abstracts implementation from execution
• Experience gives you a larger body of questions to ask and figure out how your program fails
• Are there materials on how to debug programs?
• Can you get stuck learning a particular tool?
• We might end up doing a multi-part discussion on learning to program
• Pete was looking at coming up with a curriculum for teaching a family member how to program and work in IT