Podcast #116 – What is Technology? Do We Even Know?
Thanks for tuning in for Stack Overflow podcast # 116 recorded Thursday, September 21. We usually record at our Stack Overflow HQ in NYC, but today, in true remote-first fashion, we are being recorded from Florida, Utah, Washington, and NYC.
This episode is brought to you by Oracle. Stack Overflow greatly appreciates Oracle’s support for this podcast and for our community. Learn more about everything that Oracle does for open source, java, and developers like you at oracle.com/developers.
Today is full of firsts:
- Both Joel and Jay are away (probably off in a corner somewhere talking about David behind his back) so David is in the driver’s seat along with first-time co-host and SO VP of Marketing Alexa Scordato.
- The Developer Story this week comes with a song, literally. We welcome Jonathan Lipps, Director of Open Source at Sauce Labs and former philosophy major, to chat about what inspired him to pursue a career in technology, what it’s like maintaining healthy communities on the internet, and what are some of the biggest philosophical problems facing the tech world today.
- Joe Friend, Product Manager for the newly minted Stack Overflow DAG Team, is here to continue our conversation from last week tackling the problem of improving the user experience on Stack Overflow. No mean tweets this week though; we already ran out of tissues.
- We are excited to launch the new Salary Calculator for both developers and employers!
- In the News: Someone built Tetris in Conway’s Game of Life?!?
This week’s Constitution question comes from Twitterer @jbforth4:
“Is it ok to take your shoes off at the office?”
Pro: Take ’em off! CON: Shoes are required
Listen to what our hosts have to say and then post your answer to Twitter using the hashtag #stackoverflowpodcast with either PRO or CON and your explanation, short but punny. The best explanation, whether on the winning side or the losing side, will be read on next week’s podcast and win a Stack Overflow sticker.
Last week’s winner, for the question “Is an OS background process (“D-A-E-M-O-N”) pronounced “demon” or “damon”?” is our very own Nick Craver.
DEE-mon. 2 reasons:
1. Most of them are evil.
2. Damons cost a lot of money and time to save, see: so many movies.— Nick Craver (@Nick_Craver) September 18, 2017
Sorry Nick, we are NOT sending you more stickers…
Today’s Links:
- Thanks again Oracle for your support. oracle.com/developers
- Check out Jonathan Lipps:
- Twitter: @jlipps
- Jlipps.com
- Sauce Labs, Appium
- Books recs: The Shallows and Reclaiming Conversation
- How much has it actually cost to save Matt Damon? Someone did the math.
- Python traffic blog post
- New Salary Calculator blog post
- Tetris question in Stack Exchange Programming Puzzles & Code Golf
9 Comments
I’m looking forward to hearing about the Documentation post-mortem.
That song was really great
Great to hear you guys talking about our work on Tetris in Conway’s Game of Life.
I do want to correct one small detail though. You guys took Mego’s statement that he had to write out the full Game of Life computer bit by bit to a file as meaning that the computer had to be *simulated* bit by bit. I don’t think any of us actually managed to run the full GoL computer; it’s just so massive. There *is* good news though, which is that Dave Greene (a GoL enthusiast/expert) is working on a 512×512 metapixel that can replace the 2048×2048 metapixel we currently use, which would reduce the size of the computer by a factor of 16. That might actually make it possible to simulate the full computer.
Whoa, that’s rad. We’ll mention it this week. Thanks for the info!
I’m pretty sure you had the same joke sponsor last week…
CON: Chemical Warfare is bad. Remember: No Fish; No Feet.
Clearly the answer to this question is:
“Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more”
“The word ‘technology’ means ‘magic’. It’s basically anything that’s really cool that you don’t know how it works. And if it breaks, you have to buy a new one.”
http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/technology
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