Tech: Off-topic Mike Elsmore

Hello 2024, it's Tech: Off-topic here!
Mike (⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ukmadlz⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://mastodon.social/@ukmadlz⁠) has brought in Ollie Read
(⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ollieread https://phpc.social/@ollieread) to talk tech and what's happened recently. However, that barely happens and the tangents are strong. We end up talking about:


Multitenancy in software (you can ask Ollie about that all you want)
RGB & Camera stuff (thanks to tech difficulties)
Gundam, Warhammer, and hobbyist "plastic crack"
Corporations and patent fights https://news.sky.com/story/apple-watch-to-lose-feature-after-us-court-reinstates-sales-ban-over-patent-dispute-13050692
Super rich (plenty of tech money) spending lots of money to build a city...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/17/tech-billionaire-new-city-plan-california-forever-san-francisco
Pothole robots
https://news.sky.com/story/hertfordshire-worlds-first-pothole-preventing-robot-to-hit-roads-in-test-rollout-13045036

This episode has plenty of side quest adventures so enjoy the chaos




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Mike (⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ukmadlz⁠⁠ https://mastodon.social/@ukmadlz) and co-host Jim (https://twitter.com/secondej https://phpc.social/@SecondeJ) gather for the first time in a while and are joined by Stuart Langridge (https://twitter.com/sil https://mastodon.social/@sil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Langridge). The usual variety of social tech chat goes truly off the rails to the point where it's more teachable moments than tech discussion. But some of what we cover is:


Elon is against Chat GPT 4+ https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pause-ai-development-open-letter-warning/
Don't deploy on Friday horseshit is BACK https://twitter.com/allenholub/status/1637111242610610182?t=EBkSZzQ6-zVpZ0I5lC4s4g&s=19
Dilbert
Twitter outage two weeks ago was because they fired everyone with access to mint certs https://izzodlaw.com/@IzzoD/110001516908481048
You can't avoid politics in tech sometimes https://twitter.com/AlyssaM_InfoSec/status/1637383087020548096

The topics list was a lot longer, and this is all we got to. I think we hit a new level of off-topic with this episode, so enjoy.


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Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) couldn't bring Jim with him to Japan so we replaced him with Diana (https://twitter.com/dianasoyster) and she was the best co-host/guest you could ask for! The one is a truly off-topic session, so much so that we didn't actually follow many of our starter points. But we did cover:


Bidets

Vending machines


VR influence to save the virtual world https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-64862006
Mushroom clothes! https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64810935
Robot restaurant servers
Square watermelons
Parking garage elevators
Driving system

Enjoy the truly random conversation we had, we enjoyed having it


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Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) and Jim (https://twitter.com/secondej) are at it again, did you miss the tangential chat? The odd directions the conversation goes in this episode are truly off-topic, but our starter topics are:


Trongate, the legendary new PHP Framework
New Relic is hiring! That was an expensive mistake
ChatGPT Articles and Avatar 2 gaslighting - https://twitter.com/MovingToTheSun/status/1625156575202537474
Google wants people to share a desk -  https://fortune.com/2023/02/23/google-returning-staff-share-desks-partner-maximize-office-space-tidiness-expectations-rotational-model/
The tomato thing is real - https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-24/europeans-mock-uk-shoppers-over-tomato-shortage-but-is-brexit-to-blame
What on EARTH did Purple Bricks DO https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64678984
15-minute cities are a MARXIST CONSPIRACY

And the usual off-topic tangents.


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Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) and Jim (https://twitter.com/secondej) missed a few weeks due to life but they're back talking about some of the weird and terrible things that have happened in software land:


Twitter turning off the API with a week to spare https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/2/23582615/twitter-removing-free-api-developer-apps-price-announcement
Netlify buys Gatsby https://thenewstack.io/netlify-acquires-gatsby-its-struggling-jamstack-competitor/
Netlfix canning shared passwords https://news.sky.com/story/revealed-how-netflix-plans-to-stop-you-sharing-your-password-12800510
More layoffs, this time PayPal with 2000 and Pinterest with 150
Jamstack man all over promoted Twitter
Microsoft is doubling down on OpenAI https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/01/23/microsoftandopenaiextendpartnership/
Amazon closing AmazonSmile, one of the actually good things they’ve ever done https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-closing-amazonsmile-to-focus-its-philanthropic-giving-to-programs-with-greater-impact
Dyson has made headphones with an air purifier… and you WILL look stupid https://www.dyson.co.uk/newsroom/overview/news/march-2022/dyson-zone-announcement
Ring doorbells are terrible for onboarding

And the usual off-topic tangents.


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Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) and Jim (https://twitter.com/secondej) start the year with shenanigans, and the usual madness covering:


Mastodon rejecting funding https://technology.inquirer.net/120533/mastodon-rejects-funding
Tech salaries https://mastodon.online/@chaosmonster/109545607020550255
CES provides https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/loreal-brow-magic-eyebrow-printer-ces-2023-news/
Salesforce ELT wouldn't understand Slack https://fortune.com/2023/01/05/leaked-slack-all-hands-meeting-reveals-a-strong-culture-clash-and-growing-rift-with-parent-company-salesforce/
AWS nuclear layoffs https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/05/tech_workers_in_the_firing/

And the usual off-topic tangents.


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