Self-Directed Research

<p>This is the Self-Directed Research Podcast! Our hosts, James and Amos, host hyper focused technical deep dives</p> <p>Visit <a href="https://sdr-podcast.com/">sdr-podcast.com/</a> for more information about the podcast, check out all episodes and learn about who we are and how to support us!</p> <p>Questions, comments, interested in sponsoring? Send an email to <a href="mailto:contact@sdr-podcast.com">contact@sdr-podcast.com</a></p>

Intrusive lists for fun and profit

Sure, it's unsafe, but it's not like, UNSAFE unsafe. Visit sdr-podcast.com/intrusive-lists-for-fun-and-profit to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

08-13
58:43

How far can you take OpenFX?

Amos continues on the arc of nerd-sniping themselves to make their videos in the silliest possible way. Visit sdr-podcast.com/how-far-can-you-take-openfx to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

08-06
52:18

Blackmagic Fusion is weird

Amos goes further into automating their video production workflow. Get ready to play a game! Visit sdr-podcast.com/blackmagic-fusion-is-weird to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

07-30
50:44

How is software safety certified

James explains a bit about how safety critical industries think about reliability, the work that goes into shipping safety critical software, and how the Rust language and compiler are a good fit these industries. Visit sdr-podcast.com/how-is-software-safety-certified to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

07-23
53:53

All you need is three iPhones

Amos shares the audio, video, and lighting equipment they use (past and present!) to produce the videos on the fasterthanlime channel. It turns out you can save a lot of money by just buying three iPhones. Visit sdr-podcast.com/all-you-need-is-three-iphones to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

07-16
01:00:32

Traceability

James discusses the concept of software traceability tools, used in safety critical software development, and his wishes for an open source version that could give all of the benefits with a minimal amount of fuss. Visit sdr-podcast.com/traceability to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

07-09
29:33

HTML5 video

Amos explains their choices when it comes to encoding settings for images and for short videos in browsers in 2025. Visit sdr-podcast.com/html5-video to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

07-02
51:40

Typst is pretty neat

James shares a bit about Typst as an excited newcomer to the 'documents as code' ecosystem, while simultaneously throwing a lot of shade at LaTeX, a tool that James and Amos have never really actually used. Visit sdr-podcast.com/typst-is-pretty-neat to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

06-25
41:42

DRM schemes

The top 10? Bottom 10? In any case, enjoy a breakdown of 10 digital rights management schemes. Also, admire Amos' restraint as a YouTuber that they waited until 2025 to make a numbered list. Visit sdr-podcast.com/drm-schemes to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

06-18
52:13

sans-io: meh

James and Amos have a spirited discussion about sans-io, a technique for writing protocol libraries, and the tradeoffs of sans-io when compared to leaning into async/await. Visit sdr-podcast.com/sans-io to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

06-11
37:12

automating macOS

Join us as Amos falls down the rabbit hole of automation tools to bring you, the viewer, the absolute highest quality screenshots and code snippets. Visit sdr-podcast.com/automating-macos to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

06-04
44:41

Proxying is just dumb routing

James and Amos are back, and talking about routing, reverse proxies, and yeeting packets onto the internet. Visit sdr-podcast.com/proxying-is-just-dumb-routing to see the show notes and transcript! This episode is sponsored by Depot: the build acceleration platform that's on a mission to make all builds near instant. If you're tired of watching your builds in GitHub Actions crawl like the modern-day equivalent of paint drying, give Depot's GitHub Actions runners a try. They’re up to 10x faster, with unlimited concurrency, faster caching, support for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they plug right into other Depot optimizations like accelerated container image builds and remote caching for Bazel, Turborepo, Gradle, and more. Depot was built by developers who were tired of wasting time waiting on builds instead of shipping. It's made for teams that want to move faster and stay focused on what actually matters. That’s why companies like PostHog use Depot to cut build times from over 3 hours to just 3 minutes, saving tens of thousands of build hours every week. Start your free 7-day trial at depot.dev and let them know we sent you.

05-28
27:07

The Embedded Buddy System

James shares why you might want to design embedded systems as a network of devices, instead of trying to cram everything into a single chip Visit sdr-podcast.com/the-embedded-buddy-system to see the show notes and transcript! **Sponsor:** Poststation, a tool from OneVariable that makes it easy to set up communication between your desktop, laptop, or an embedded Linux system, to as a many connected microcontrollers as you need. If you're a company building a product around multiple devices, and would like to have all of the "plumbing", tooling, and device management handled out of the box, send us an email to contact@onevariable.com for early access.

12-11
43:26

Merde is not Serde

In a rare direct follow-up episode, Amos shares an even differenter take on Serde, this time focusing on the kind of needs a server would have when handling data. Spoiler: Yes, merde means poop in French. Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/merde-is-not-serde/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by doing. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

12-04
48:21

A different serde

A bit about how serde works well, a bit about how serde doesn't work well, and a bit about a different, questionable way of doing things Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/a-different-serde/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by doing. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

11-27
40:33

My home automation journey

Join us on this adventure as Amos describes the history of Bluetooth & co., the trials and tribulations of connecting devices in their home and how this has helped their mental well-being (yes, really). Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/my-home-automation-journey/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by doing. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

11-20
40:52

Compile Time Crimes

James explains how to combine macros and const-fns to work around limitations of what is possible at compile time, and how to do extremely wasteful calculations at compile time to deduplicate lists of things to make embedded systems go brrr Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/compile-time-criemes/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by doing. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

11-13
36:31

Target triples

The Wonderful Story of Target Triples and Six More Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/target-triples/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by doing. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

11-06
38:47

What good is partial understanding?

An exploration of self-describing vs non-self-describing formats, and how it changes the shape of your programs more than you might think Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/partial-understanding/ to see the show notes and transcript! Descript is the fully featured, end-to-end video editor that you already know how to use. Check out our referral link here to start a free trial - if you decide to upgrade, a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

10-30
34:13

Things you might not have known about clipboards

Amos and James reminisce about how weird clipboards have always been. Or is it pasteboards? Or buffers? Oh boy. Visit sdr-podcast.com/episodes/clipboards/ to see the show notes and transcript! CodeCrafters is a service for learning programming skills by _doing_. Visit our referral link at CodeCrafters to start your free trial. If you decide to upgrade, you'll get a discount and a portion of the sale will support this podcast.

10-23
29:31

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