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© 2023-2025
Description
Stray Pointers is a podcast where seemingly ordinary people join us for extraordinary discussions.
There are a lot of amazing people out there. I thought that it would be interesting to interview people accomplishing or having accomplished amazing things in a variety of subject areas including computing, BBS's, hacking, health care, music, comic books, writing, illustration, education, journalism, podcasting, startups, electronics, video games, astronomy, agriculture ... you name it.
For more information about the podcast, please see Jim Lawless' Stray Pointers page at:
https://straypointers.com
Illustration is © 2023 by Rick J. Lundeen. Please visit Rick's sites :
https://rickjlundeen.wordpress.com/
https://www.teepublic.com/user/rick-lundeen
There are a lot of amazing people out there. I thought that it would be interesting to interview people accomplishing or having accomplished amazing things in a variety of subject areas including computing, BBS's, hacking, health care, music, comic books, writing, illustration, education, journalism, podcasting, startups, electronics, video games, astronomy, agriculture ... you name it.
For more information about the podcast, please see Jim Lawless' Stray Pointers page at:
https://straypointers.com
Illustration is © 2023 by Rick J. Lundeen. Please visit Rick's sites :
https://rickjlundeen.wordpress.com/
https://www.teepublic.com/user/rick-lundeen
50 Episodes
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Cameron Cunning and Juan Vazquez rejoin the show to discuss our approaches to the forthcoming Advent of Code 2025 coding competition in December. #rust #elixirlang #dlang #Aoc2025 #AdventOfCode #programming Website for the Advent of Code competition: https://adventofcode.com/ Cameron's GitHub Repo: https://github.com/ccunning2/ Jim's AoC2025 GitHub Repo: https://github.com/jimlawless/aoc2025/
Angela Sylvaine returns for her fourth appearance on the show. She and Jim recap the story of her first three novels and her future works including her forthcoming book Cold Snap. Please visit Angela's linktr.ee page for her book order and social media links: https://linktr.ee/angelasylvaine
Telecommunications and BBS pioneer Nick Andrew talks about the TRS-80 Model I workalike known as the System-80. With many hardware modifications, Nick wrote and operated his own BBS on the System-80 in the 1980's. As time went on, Nick continued as a telecom pioneer. #z80 #trs80 #fidonet #bbsing https://github.com/nickandrew https://www.nick-andrew.net/System80/Gallery/512x384/ http://projects.nick-andrew.net/ https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/system-80/
Leor Zolman, creator of the BDS (Brain Damage Software) C compiler for CP/M ... the first commercial C compiler for microcomputers ... joins the show. We discuss his compiler, tech writing, the genesis of The C Users Journal, his book Illustrated C, his path to teaching, and his journey in dealing with autism and trauma. Leor's presentation at VCF East (2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4vrBd2FVCY Leor's Website https://www.bdsoft.com
June 25, 2025 ( recorded on February 13th, 2024) This episode is a reissue of an earlier audio-only episode with added video. Christine Seeman joins the show to discuss a variety of programming languages including Java, Ruby, and Go. We also discuss her live international speaking events. Website https://christine-seeman.com/ Mastodon: @christine@ruby.social NDC London 2020 - 2FA Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTtZQVSnz2M .Net Rocks Podcast (taped at NDC London) https://www.dotnetrocks.com/details/1676 One Does Not Simply Add MFA - YOW! 2022 https://youtu.be/adQZ6r3Y858?si=0IA5XIBzU0U8HOgj
May 16, 2025 Mike Taylor, author of the VIC-20 text adventures Magic Mirror and Nosferatu as well as the Commodore 64 game The Causes of Chaos joins the show. We talk about those early adventure games, his evolution as a software developer, Perl, paleontology, and his book about the 11th incarnation of Doctor Who. Mike's contact information on Mastodon: @mike@sauropods.win https://sauropods.win/@mike/ Mike's website: https://www.miketaylor.org.uk/ Mile's text adventure games: https://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tech/advent/mm/ Mike's paleontology blo Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week: https://svpow.com/ Mike's Reinvigorated Programmer blog in which he discusses everything except sauropod vertebrae: https://reprog.wordpress.com/
Rob Sherman joins the show to discuss his early years of BBSing in the 1980's and his current telnet bulletin-board systems running on Atari 8-bit gear. Rob's telnet BBS's are as follows: Southernamis.ddns.net:23 This BBS runs in the AWS cloud 24/7 on Atari 130XE, 850 interfaces at a lightning speed of 9600 baud. Amis86.ddns.net:9000 This BBS is a complete rebuild of MACE 1986 AMIS BBS. Enhanced and highly modified Nitelite.ddns.net:9000 This BBS is the restoration of the Atari Corporate 8Bit BBS Nitelite ... an amazing part of Atari History. Here's the terminal, SyncTerm, used in the show: https://syncterm.bbsdev.net/
Gunnar Gustafson rejoins the show to discuss audio synthesis in musical gear. He discusses family ties to some very early audio gear and he draws parallels to the evolution of musical synthesizers and the evolution of software development.
This is a video-added re-release of my interview with Rob Swindell. Rob is the author and sysop of the MS-DOS and telnet versions of the Synchronet BBS. He joined the show to discuss the genesis of the BBS, running his own BBS company, and the journey to an open source Internet version of Synchronet. Rob's main site with links to source code repo's and his YouTube channel: http://synchro.net The Synchronet wiki: http://wiki.synchro.net The home page for SyncTerm, the preferred client for telnet BBS's: http://syncterm.net The Synchronet IRC server: irc.synchro.net Rob's uncut interview with Jason Scott for the BBS Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvMFKU04YTk
This is a re-release (with video!) of my interview with software engineer, writer, and publishing entrepreneur Jeff Duntemann. Jeff was the first editor of Borland's In-House Magazine "Turbo Technix" which was supplied to purchasers of early editions of Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, and similar Borland products. He was the Structured Programming columnist for Dr. Dobbs Journal for a number of years. Jeff's Free FreePascal and Lazarus e-book http://www.copperwood.com/pub/FreePascalFromSquareOne.pdf Jeff's Blog https://www.contrapositivediary.com/ The Latest Edition of X64 Assembly Language Step by Step https://www.amazon.com/x64-Assembly-Language-Step-Step/dp/1394155247
Bruce Hoyt and his son Ben Hoyt discuss 70's-era home computing including the MOS KIM-1, The Ohio Scientific Superboard II, and the Ferguson Big Board CP/M machine, BASIC, assembly language, and Forth. Bruce's Pentominos solution has been used to test and benchmark Forth systems. The GForth version is available at the link below: https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/pentomino.fs Podcast Email: straypointers@gmail.com Podcast Website: https://www.straypointers.com
Writer/illustrator Rick Lundeen rejoins the show to discuss his comic book series "The Bombardier" and his graphic novel adaptation of the classic Doctor Who story "The Daleks' Master Plan" Rick's Ko-Fi page is here: https://ko-fi.com/ricklundeen/gallery The Bombardier four-issue series can be ordered here: https://www.indyplanet.com/the-bombardier-1
With video! Software engineers Juan Vazquez and Cameron Cunning rejoin the show to discuss the 2024 Advent of Code, an annual programming competition. Website for the Advent of Code competition: https://adventofcode.com/ Cameron's Github Repo for AoC 2024: https://github.com/ccunning2/AoC2024 Jim's Github Repo for AoC 2024: https://github.com/jimlawless/aoc2024
Brad Arnold, Randy Kindig, and Kay Savetz join the show to discuss their long-running podcast "ANTIC - The Atari 8-bit Podcast" ANTIC web site: https://AtariPodcast.com Kay's BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/savetz.bsky.social Kay's web site: https://www.savetz.com/ Randy's Podcast (Floppy Days - Vintage Computing ) https://floppydays.libsyn.com/ Randy's Twitter: @floppydays Randy's Mastodon: @floppydays@oldbytes.space ANTIC Discord: https://discord.gg/XB5SpA9fuC The list of Antic interview episodes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1neIlWZQQYo_rdJO7XtcPrCtf_zgSquBzL9TA51Bocas/edit?usp=sharing Book reference: "Endless Loop: The History of the BASIC Programming Language" https://amzn.to/40XWn3C The BASIC 10-liner Games List https://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/games-list-2024
Retrocomputing enthusiast Niels Haedecke joins the show. We talk about his telnet/SSH access Wintermute BBS, FidoNet, the RC2014 Z-80 CP/M computer and the telnet BBS he's running on it, the Forth programming language, and the My4th Computer. Niels' GitLab Repo: https://gitlab.com/users/ufud-org/projects Niels' drivers for My4th are published here: http://mynor.org/my4th_software.htm#uart The Wintermute BBS entry in the Telnet BBS Guide: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/wintermute-bbs/ The RC2014 BBS entry in the Telnet BBS Guide: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/rc-box/ You can follow Niels on Mastodon as @Wintermute_BBS@oldbytes.space
Jay Hannah joins the show to discuss his long-time use of the Perl programming language. We also discuss Jay's prominence in several Omaha-based programming groups including the Omaha chapter of the Perl Mongers. Jay's GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/jhannah
Software engineers Juan Vazquez and Cameron Cunning join the show to discuss the Advent of Code, an annual programming competition that takes place every December through the 25th of the month. Website for the Advent of Code competition: https://adventofcode.com/ Cameron's Github Repo for AoC 2024: https://github.com/ccunning2/AoC2024 Jim's Github Repo for AoC 2024: https://github.com/jimlawless/aoc2024 Here's the code for Jim Lawless' Stray Pointers Leaderboard, if you'd like to join in the local competition with us: 1178690-6f8a271f
Daryn Richardon rejoins the show to discuss the 1910 axe murders in Villisca, Iowa and how the event tied to similar events in the same era. We discuss the book The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Train-Discovering-Americas-Elusive/dp/1476796262
Horror novelist Angela Sylvaine rejoins the show to discuss her new novel "Chopping Spree." Angela and Jim exchange local horror-themed urban legend stories. Please visit Angela's linktr.ee page for her book order and social media links: https://linktr.ee/angelasylvaine
Software engineer and Commodore computing enthusiast Bo Zimmerman joins the show to talk about his history with Commodore gear, BBSing, his other computing projects, and his website. Bo's website: https://zimmers.net
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