Talking Tech while Poking Smot

Inebriated again this week, is it becoming a pattern? Only you can find out by tuning in again this week to the Talking Tech while Poking Smot podcast featuring your host, chad_$yntax. This week we discuss dependencies, and when I say discuss I mean waste the first 5 minutes ranting about some bullshit that I can't even remember. I do eventually start talking about dependencies. How they are important, annoying, somehow complicated and potential vulnerable. We then pivot to retreading some ground from last week about docker, kubernetes and environment variables. Then we quickly move on to a question about "web dev basics" which really sounded like "dev ops basics" to me. We end on a question about databases which I give somewhat of an answer to. I'm not entirely sure I answered the question, but to be fair I am also not entirely sure what the question is asking. Who is to say. Not me. See you next week! Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

Another week with ya boi chad_$yntax bringing you the best software podcast available in a format of exactly 31:33 seconds. No one else can top me at that. I would like to see them try. Other than that, we talked about making bots. Chat bots, twitter bots, discord bots, whatever. It's all about the learning experience. It's good practice and not a bad idea for a side project. Some bots can even make money, like moderation tools or bots with integrations. We then move onto a full-stack question about downloading xcel spreadsheets and the ways in which you can accomplish that. After that thrill ride we move onto an abridged "day in the life" of programming. If I made one of those cringe youtube videos all those other software engineers make it would be boring as hell. People who post those kinds of videos are trying to highlight their neat-o office and social life. All that time you spent recording videos of your snacks at the office could have been spent un-fucking your MR I have to review you fucking dipshit. Enjoy your fucking corn flakes, you better be able to deploy and chew at the same time. Otherwise your shortfall becomes my responsibility, and I fucking hate that. Fucking guy.  Where was I... Oh right I have meetings and code every day, see episode 2 for the nitty gritty on scrum and tickets. We then move onto the final boss: koo-burr-net-eez. I kinda stumbled through this one ngl, but I think my general advice still stands. As I'm writing this I'm thinking of better answers. I guess I'll handle my own shortfall next week and re-answer it. Fucking guy. See you next week! Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

It's me again, Chad $yntax, back again for some good ol' rootin' tootin' SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING. This episode we discuss GraphQL and it's pros and cons. After going over time like usual, we quickly segue gracefully to the modern junior dev stack. What you need to know as a full-stack engineer is usually database, back-end language, back-end framework, front-end language, front-end framework. We then go over some example of such. We then somehow spend the rest of our time talking about front-end performance again. I like front-end performance. I like seeing the little checkmark in the lighthouse be green. I like fast loading pages. I like optimizing. Maybe that's why we talked about it too much this week. There's always next week for more coherent answers!  Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

This week I dump on stadia but not necessarily on video game streaming. It's kind of a solid rant without any main points. Like a 4/10 kind of rant. I blame the edibles, I should not have taken the indica ones. We then hard pivot to a classic question of "how would you do it all again" that I regretfully took seriously, but at least I didn't make a whole fucking youtube video about it. We answer a quick question on a utility function without a return in javascript and just as quickly have an existential crisis with the next question on "the sheer volume" of required knowledge. We cap it all off with a question on debugging dev vs. production builds. Those are never fun, I hate those bugs. Half the bloody time it's some asshat recklessly upgrading shit.  Until next time. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

This week's rant is about the amount of RAM I don't have. Silver lining is that the rant has a purpose: to educate you on the prevalence of our lord and savior, JavaScript. Lots of desktop apps nowadays are powered by the same stuff in the browser, you can't escape JavaScript! We then move onto questions about documentation and what it is and why it is important. We go over certifications and whether or not they are worth getting. Then we go over a not-so-stupid question about deciding css values. Then we move onto programming outside of work and how to avoid burnout. I think the real trick is to know that you will burn out so you can control it. Then again I do have ADD so my brain might work different than yours. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com 

For the love of god, just get a password manager already. This time we go into detail on why a password manager is good. After a stark bit of news coming from Uber, we also highlight Social Engineering attacks. Be wary of all fishing! We also highlight how much info someone could access if they had access like we engineers do. There are a lot of internal URLs, tools, and secrets we have access to. So getting hacked is no bueno! We then move onto questions about git branches and how to keep our flow flowin'. We then answer a question about failing at leetcode as a college grad. Sorry to disappoint, but from my experience college is pretty shit at preparing you for programming interviews. Gotta do that on your own, chief. We end with a question about engineering culture. What a week. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

We explain what a CLI is and how a lot of the processing in our world is done through scripting. You will most likely run into shell if you haven't already. It's used from ops to front-end and it's worth learning. At least the basics. You also get to look cool like a hacker man I guess. We then move onto questions. I finish the second part from last week, "what aspects really get under your skin [of software engineering]?" We then move onto the daily routine for a senior guy like myself and what I remember my routine being like as a junior. Turns out I mostly remember Imposter Syndrome. We cap it all off with a question about MongoDB usage in the year of our lord 2022.  Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

Why did I get absolutely blitzed last week? Find out now by using a tactic used by software engineers! We talk about Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and what that means to an incident. If only I could describe the abject terror one feels when receiving a PagerDuty notification. We go over that for quite some time before I finally move my ass on to half-answering a half-question from last week about software as a passion, a.k.a. (SaaP). Logistics brother. Figma is dead. Long live Figma. We then move onto a question about what to learn for being a front-end dev and cap it all off with a question about passion again wow, would you look at that. Two SaaP's in one episode. Perhaps I will elaborate on the things that absolutely KILL my passion next episode... Happy Listening Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

In this episode I get absolutely cross-faded. If you listen you will understand what that means and why I'm having such difficulty writing this description right now. Auto-correct is doing a LOT of work lmao. We talk about the Ballmer peak and what it's like to get absolutely blasted and still write code. In short: It's cool to write code inebriated, I guess. We talk about the cons of using javascript frameworks, and then seamlessly transition, out of order to the next query about side-activities to improve as a software engineer. We find our way back to the age old question of "It's always been done that way" and how to answer it. Then we end with a slight rant that is somewhat tbd about the secret to becoming a god programmer or some shit. I sweat I'lll tell you next episode. So stay tuned. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

A lot of software requires a GUI (Graphical User Interface), and we as software engineers will sometimes have to work with a totally adjacent role. We talk about what the process is like at a high level. Everything from brainstorming to product launch. You may think you implemented that design correctly on the first try and I can almost guarantee you, you are wrong. Next we talk about 😱 THE EDGE 😱. Ooo scary term. Spoiler: It's like 😲 THE CLOUD 😲 but it's the edge of the cloud. We answer a question about wasting time on stupid ass meetings and spending less time coding. We cap it all off with a quick rant about why you should learn a JS framework instead of just working with vanilla. I forgot to answer the cons part of the question. Whoops. That's for next time now.  Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

Nothing is quite as sobering as a pagerduty alert on a quiet evening. We talk about the alerting process for software engineers and dealing with production outages. It feels nice to be needed, but when I am needed I end up reading a lot of logs. I then make a hard right turn to describe the effects of chronic marijuana use and addiction. It's a bit of a ramble, I'll admit, but you should be warned that you stop having dreams. It's kinda nutty when you stop smoking weed because you get an influx of dreams and they are kinda strong. Then we answer some questions about good habits for development and collaborating with others. I put about 20 dollars in the swear jar answering a question about using paper when writing code. Stupid. I kinda run out of time because I want to talk more about "the edge" since it was a good question. There are a lot of SaaS companies popping up offering edge computing. Even Deno is doing it. But at least I define what "the edge" is.  Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

Might have had a bit too much of the ol' giggle smoke this time, but we press on nonetheless. We talk about games like Factorio or Satisfactory and how they are similar in gameplay to standing up software systems. Then I do a quiiick rant on the idea of logging right before I effortlessly segue into questions. We start with a little bit of career advice and the different paths one could take. We then jump into imposter syndrome where my best idea of advice is like "just 4get 4head". All you can really do is be the sponge. We then cap it all off with me trying my best to articulate the traditional workflow of writing software for a product. Now that I'm more sober I have this list, lol: Requirements Gathering, scope definition, writing a PRD (Product Requirements Document) (also at this time the design team starts their process) Defining user stories (As a user, I should be able to log in) Working with stakeholders to itemize and prioritize requirements (usually done in a ticketing system) SPIKE for choosing Tech Stack based on above (Spike is a type of task, means "do research into") Proof of Concept (Prototyping) and subsequent decisions Building and Iteration MVP (Minimum Viable Product)  Release a.k.a. v1.0 So yeah, pretty similar to what the question had, just with different terms and a few extra steps. And remember! Always pet the lizard doggo. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

A.k.a. get canned, laid off, sun-setted, separated, the boot, the pink slip, and getting fired. These are all synonymous with a "reduction in force", the most corporate way to put it. In this episode we talk about it. I give my perspective as someone who has seen this phenomenon more than once. Hopefully you can glean some wisdom from my experience. We then talk about becoming an "expert in a field" and my love/hate relationship with elasticsearch. I then shout into the void about how great "just building and iterating" is. Like anyone has had "building and iterating" for dinner before. I ended up learning a whole bunch about opensearch after this episode. Join me in my pain: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/introducing-opensearch/ We then answer a few questions about learning cloud, and JIRA cards. God I love JIRA cards. They are so great with all of those fields that no one uses. They take so long to load it gives me time to take a piss. Really keeps a cadence to my morning. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

I ramble a bit whilst high on the potenuse about Big O notation. It's good to understand so go google it. In fact, I'll do it for you, click here. Basically means you should understand the amount of times your code may run. Bigger n is bigger problem. We then make a very smooth transition to the importance of walking. Or really any mindless process to help your brain think through your current problem. We then take a hard right to talk about the known unknown matrix. Scary stuff. We then finish the episode off with a couple of questions. "Why do developers use macbooks?", and "how valuable is leet code to web devs?". As always feel free to send me an email with your experiences and questions. I'm curious to know if there are developers out there rocking the Dell XPS or Alienware laptops for development.  Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

I sort of bitch and moan about front-end testing and how I think it sucks ass. In my defense, I have some pretty strong points. If you are a front-end testing wizard scoffing at my notions, feel free to hit me up and tell me all about it. Portfolio websites come up a few times and we talk about the job struggle. We then talk a bit about diagrams and why they are important to framing your mind as an engineer. Ever have to navigate a massive repo to add something just to satisfy the ticket? I have! I talk a bit about some tricks to navigate a big repo and find the right place to edit the code. We cap it all off with another question about portfolio websites and the virtues of being your own boss. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

This one is a doozy, I try my best to describe the concept of "jobs". No not the apple founder. Also no, not the means of exchanging labor for currency. I'm talking about computing jobs aka asynchronous processes. So uh, buckle in. We then talk a bit about optimizing images and videos on websites and how webp is the go to format. (Even though I'm a lazy pile and didn't convert my own dang images on my site) Ever wonder why Netflix works so well streaming video but your local news website can't stream video for shit? Well it turns out scaling video is super not easy and you probably need to outsource it to a firm like mux or cloudinary. We then discuss the ever important meta tags and the even importanter og tags. Then we cap the whole thing off with a hilarious thread I stumbled upon that made me question my own sanity. But hey, what's life without a shot of imposter syndrome every once in a while? They claimed python wasn't used in the industry! Huhwhaa...??? Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

I poo-poo on web3 a bit and describe the process of putting ttpspodcast.com on the blockchain. Visit chadsyntax.eth in your browser, today! (Spoiler: it was not cheap, but I guess it would be cheaper now since... you know... 📉📉📉📉📉) We chat about kubernetes (aka k8s) for just a bit, then discuss what and why is monorepo. We cap it off with answering a css question. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

I just love the lowercase greek L. λλλλλλλλλλλλλ. We discuss serverless, a cloud computing model or also known as the hip new way to run servers and (might) save you money? It's also a framework. We then go on a long description about the interview process I've seen as an engineer the last time I was out 'n about for a new gig. It sucks but hey, what can you do? We cap it off with a question on micro service ideas. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

In this episode we just take a big fat dump on the trash software known Internet Explorer, otherwise known as IE, the worst browser, the slow one, and "el navegador del diablo". In hindsight it used to be the king. The U.S. government wouldn't have sued michaelsoft otherwise. Remember when the government broke up monopolies? Anyway, we pour one out for the homie: Atom aka the og RAM eater and father of all the RAM eating desktop apps we all know and love today. We do a quick review of harvard cs50 on youtube, make sure to check that out. We then answer some questions about mobile development and coworkers who are "that guy". TL;DR: don't be fucking bragging about how many hours you work. Makes you look like a bitch. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com

In this episode we go over SCRUM, or AGILE, or whatever you want to call it. In my 10 years of working this has been the general gist of getting shit done on paper. If you have more in-depth knowledge about these kind of workflows or have a different experience, feel free to email me about it, I would love to learn what others are doing differently. We then answer some questions about problem problem solving and wrap the whole thing up with a long love letter to Next.js. Which I was using before it was cool, just so you know. Email me questions on software engineering: query@ttpspodcast.com If you know your stuff and want to come on the show and chat guest@ttpspodcast.com If you want to collab or sponsor: business@ttpspodcast.com