Bad Voltage

Every two weeks Bad Voltage delivers an amusing take on technology, Open Source, politics, music, and anything else we think is interesting, as well as interviews and reviews. The show is presented by Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge.

3×72: Lawyers guns and money

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we have a single topic this week! [00:00:00] Intro [00:01:05] OpenSSF: open infrastructure is not free, and the OpenSSF are making some noise about it [00:25:16] Outro We’re on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social! Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via […]

10-01
27:31

3×71: Did we do something correct?

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which we complain about the universe, we cannot commit to podfading, and: [00:00:00] Intro [00:01:28] Governments using commercial chat systems [00:20:55] A pro tip for you: udm=14 [00:24:09] iOS 19 refresh (talked about before the beta announcement of “iOS 26”) [00:39:44] Outro We’re on […]

06-11
41:41

3×70: Swallowed up in Crimethink

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage, in which encryption backdoors rear their ugly heads (party like it’s 1999!), Minority Report is not a manual, and: [00:00:00] Intro [00:01:19] The UK government demands that Apple put a back door in their end to end encryption. Apple are not prepared to do this, […]

03-06
48:08

3×69: They Call It Nice

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which Jeremy is sadly unwell (get well soon Jezza!) and so we in theory look at the latest news but actually spend three quarters of the show on one topic! This is what happens when there’s no Jeremy to keep us on track. Including: [00:00:00] Intro […]

01-27
52:43

3×68: In The Abysmal Sea

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we are back, back again, Bad Voltage is back, tell a friend, and we look back a little at the big things that happened in 2024’s tech world: [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:19] Social Media 2024 [00:26:19] Drones in NY [00:30:28] The UK is over […]

12-19
56:20

3×67: Drunk From The Wrong Grail

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there is a particularly excellent shirt, a particularly absent salting of the conversation with, y’know, actual facts and that from Jeremy, and: [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:19] CrowdStrike: how half the computers in the world went down (with thanks to abadidea for research) [00:28:41] Reddit might paywall […]

08-12
58:53

3×66: Return of the Mack

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we return after an unplanned hiatus, there is a squirrel in your car (not a euphemism), and: [00:00:00] Intro [00:04:16] The US government demands that Bytedance sell TikTok, or do they? There’s lots going on in this case, and it leads into lots […]

07-11
53:48

3×65: Not Evenly Distributed

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we look to the year ahead (well, the 10 months ahead) and predict what will happen in the tech industry and the world in 2024. 2024’s predictions: [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:49] Jeremy: Sundar Pichai will not be CEO by end of 2024 [00:06:55] Jeremy: […]

03-01
50:50

3×64: Cassandra Go Home

Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which in traditional Christmas style we look back on our predictions for 2024 and Jono whines about half points. More successfully than usual this year, admittedly. Have a happy holiday season! We’ll be back in the new year. [00:00:00] Intro [00:01:44] Jeremy: Tiktok gets […]

12-14
57:01

3×63: Autonomous Helicopters

Jono Bacon and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which Jeremy is temporarily not present, website hosting issues are acknowledged and briefly discussed, and: [00:00:00] Intro [00:01:16] New York intends to have air taxis by 2025, including bonus London Illustrated News content [00:10:23] Microsoft Teams announce upcoming 3D meetings in VR, including a Lex Friedman/Mark […]

11-18
47:24

3×62: Class One Catastrophic Hypercredibility

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we do a bit of a deep dive into the (semi-)recent trend of finding new ways for creators to get paid. Patreon’s been around for a long time (but could be doing better), and the idea of making a thing and getting paid […]

10-19
40:39

3×61: A Room of Dalmatians

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we revisit an old friend, Room 101, the place where all the things we hate should be banished. At least according to each of us: whether the other two can be so convinced is another thing entirely… [00:04:07] Jono: All videoconferencing except Zoom […]

08-26
51:47

3×60: Never Eat Shredded Wheat

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which multiple minutes of pre-show work are awkwardly wasted, we haven’t got a sign on the roof, and: [00:01:39] GPTBot is launched to crawl your websites and add their technological distinctiveness to its own model, and there is discussion of robots.txt changes [00:11:08] MDN, […]

08-13
01:03:49

3×59: Addition Edition

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we discuss ad-supported services and the (potential?) rise of subscriptions. Have ads gone away, or started to? Are social media networks being supported by ads now pivoting to something else? And are Patreon and sponsorships mostly a boon for small creators, or a […]

06-16
56:37

3×58: Large Langridge Model

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there is unsceptical intensity, we are all eaten by a T-1000, and we have collected a list of concerns about Large Language Model-based AI, which we’re going to dive into! [00:00:00] Introduction [00:04:30] The “free software” concern: it normalises inhaling information for free […]

05-19
01:01:10

3×57: Conspiracyers

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there’s more smoky back rooms than usual, everyone’s on Orkut, and: [00:01:14] Who likes Microsoft Teams? Microsoft promises it’s made Teams less confusing and resource hungry, while Teams surprisingly now has 270m users to Slack’s 20m. [00:08:21] An “open letter” from tech pioneers […]

03-31
41:47

3×56: Hyperbole is the Magic Word

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we spend a show inventing topics which need a whole other show to talk about, we reminisce about Google Plus, and: [00:01:36] Twitter Blue, Meta Verified: the social networks go premium. Is it going to work? [00:35:45] The FBI recommend that everyone uses […]

03-02
01:01:38

3×55: Don the Mast

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we look, as has been threatened a bunch recently, at Mastodon. What’s it all about? Is Mastodon the new Twitter, and is it trying to be? And how far have we got into it? Also, we’re now on Mastodon! @badvoltage@mastodon.social! Come chat with […]

02-18
01:08:27

3×54: The Joe Dolce Music Theatre

Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we create predictions for 2023! What will happen over the next twelve months in the world of tech? Here’s what we think… Stuart: the Texas HB20 social media law will come before the US Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court will uphold […]

01-20
54:52

3×53: Representative but not Shining

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia present Bad Voltage for the last time in 2022, in which we take a look back at our predictions for this year and review how we did. Surprisingly… not as badly as last year. Although as you may expect there is shameless jockeying for extra points. How did […]

12-23
01:03:21

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