Dave’s Garage: Shop Talk

Could AI rescue your favourite discontinued software—or recreate an application you already use? And how would you know the result actually works?This week on Shop Talk, Dave and Glen tackle your questions about AI software cloning, reverse engineering, and the difference between a convincing demonstration and a program you can trust. We discuss testing, readable code, ongoing maintenance, software ownership, and the uncomfortable questions about copying someone else’s work.We also explore practical AI workflows: writing specifications, having one AI review another’s work, and keeping a project from turning into a spaghetti monster. Plus, Gary and BSD, connecting modern hardware to old computers, Colossal Cave, Excel Easter eggs, and BBS memories.Finally, we put three viewer suggestions to Dave: an AI project walkthrough, NightDriver’s architecture, and old computers working with new hardware.00:00 - Start00:37 - Can AI Rescue Old Software?04:02 - Recovering Your Own Programs04:34 - Who Maintains the AI Rebuild?06:39 - New Drivers for Old Hardware07:08 - Can Two AIs Make a Clean Room?07:54 - What Could the Agent Access?09:09 - What Did the Other Project Do?11:49 - Where Does ReactOS Fit?12:57 - Does a Clone Copy the Bugs?15:00 - Who Tests the AI?15:26 - Testing the Failure Paths16:09 - How Do You Trust AI Output?20:01 - Can Humans Maintain the Code?20:59 - Could the Clone Be Malicious?22:08 - What Did It Cost?24:06 - Dave’s Actual AI Toolchain25:19 - Why Rust?25:51 - The Training-Data Double Standard29:15 - Would Restrictions Block Competition?30:25 - Who Pays for Original Software?32:44 - Rebuilding One Feature for Yourself33:54 - Will Your License Outlive the Server?34:52 - One AI Reviews Another35:51 - From Specification to Working Code37:40 - Keeping AI Project History39:35 - AI Reads the Event Logs40:30 - Coding for a Mechanical Mind42:25 - A Viewer Builds a Windows Tool43:24 - Did the Boards Work?43:55 - Modern Help for Old Computers44:40 - What Is BSD?45:34 - Gary Teaches a Viewer UNIX46:07 - Speech on a PDP-11?46:39 - The Colossal Cave Follow-Up47:34 - TMOG Column Selection48:17 - Which Process Uses the Network?49:01 - Would AI Find the Easter Egg?49:52 - Dave’s BBS Days50:38 - A Live Shop Talk?52:33 - A: From AI Spec to Software52:47 - B: Inside NightDriver53:12 - C: Old Computers, New Hardware54:29 - Sound issues, Dave tells a joke and Dave’s new desk!56:21 - The Friendly Coder….

What would 1996 Dave think of rebuilding Task Manager with AI? Dave and Glen celebrate 100 episodes of Shop Talk with Windows stories, retro computing, fresh viewer questions, and a look at the community behind the show.Across the first 99 episodes, our comment archive contains more than 23,000 comments. We recognize some familiar contributors, revisit the rebuilt Task Manager episode’s response, and share the most-liked comment in the archive.Then it’s back to your questions: how overlays helped programs fit into limited memory, porting Colossal Cave to a PDP-11, getting started with AI, checking AI-generated code, and using AI for business strategy.Plus: a difficult day at Microsoft, whether Spy++ deserves a modern makeover, TMOG follow-ups, missing hard-drive activity lights, and Deluxe Asteroids.Thank you to everyone who has watched, commented, and kept the conversation going.

Windows war stories meet AI-assisted retro computing in this week’s Shop Talk. Dave and Glen explore AI development on the PDP-11, how they prompt and review generated code, and what older computers can still teach us.Dave discusses improving top for BSD, compiler changes for ksh, and getting Samba running on a 16-bit machine. Viewer questions cover detailed specifications, native apps versus Electron, ownership of AI-generated code, and improving PDP Gary.We also revisit Microsoft Bob’s connection to the Windows XP disc, instant shutdown shortcuts, and a CHKDSK job that could run for days. Plus: TMOG memory usage and temperature graphs, lessons from the TRS-80, Windows 3.1 on modern hardware, and Tempest with a joystick.

PDP Gary has a personality—but how did Dave define it? This week on Shop Talk, Dave and Glen start with Gary, then explore Dave’s recent work using AI on BSD, the PDP kernel, and its peripherals.From there, we turn to viewer questions about AI control, trust, and why the same question can produce different answers.We also dig into Task Manager OG: what it adds beyond Windows Task Manager, tracking down resource spikes, memory usage versus memory pressure, and using Flight Recorder to investigate crashes. Plus, cross-platform C++, AI-assisted development, and questions about licensing and TMOG’s future.

What happens when AI stops being a useful tool and starts becoming a crutch?This week, Glen brings Dave your questions about confidently wrong AI, learning programming fundamentals in the age of LLMs, what an AI agent actually is, how multiple agents cooperate, whether system prompts encourage relentless behaviour, and what can stop an agent when its goal conflicts with its boundaries.Could AI be taught when to give up? Is that simply the lesson of futility from WarGames—or do real safeguards need to exist outside the model?We also address whether Shop Talk has been covering too much TMOG, explain how viewer questions shape the show, and invite your ideas as we approach Episode 100.Then we tackle your latest TMOG questions: flaming toaster CPU meters, Easter eggs, Windows and Linux servers, Raspberry Pi support, portable USB installations, unusual CPU readings, Microsoft Defender and corporate PCs.Plus the Year 2038 problem, Dave’s Arizona plans, more interviews—and the possibility of TMOG 3.11 for Workgroups… otherwise known as Watching Fans Work.