This will be a random assortment!
(About Terry Davis, who “was an American programmer who created and designed the operating system TempleOS.” Wikipedia)
Startup: Our Company Has Problems
It’s the spring of 2018, four years after Alex and Matt launched Gimlet, and things are not going well. Audiences are flat, ad sales are flagging, and the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate. And with all of those pressures, Alex and Matt have started to fight.
User Defenders: Is Web Design Dead? with Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman…enlightens us to what the Web was, where it’s at now, and where it could go in the future. He touches on the many short-sighted predictions that tend to prod our delicate psyches such as automation and new technologies poised to replace Web Designers. He encourages us to ignore the rhetoric and continue to learn as tools change how Web Design is done. He also emphasizes that the Web was built on sharing, and that we must continue to share if we want to not only protect its spirit, but keep it alive and thriving.
Fresh Air: The Fascinating World Of The Dung Beetle
Underneath the cow patties in the pasture and the monkey dung in the jungle, there’s a miniature world of sex and violence. Dung beetles with fierce-looking horns are battling over female beetles, and my guest, Douglas Emlen, is studying them.
Internet History Podcast: The Epic Fail of Digg V.4
This story has gone down in Silicon Valley lore as the ultimate cautionary tale. Digg was the earliest high flying startup in early social media. But then, other startups like Facebook and Twitter started to steal the limelight. So Digg tried to keep up by launching the infamous Digg version 4. And… it’s a disaster. Users hate it. So much so, that many people feel that the reason Reddit is Reddit today is because the Digg community fled their en-masse. Digg Version 4 has become a much cited horror story for when a redesign can be so disruptive it can kill a company. So, what’s the real story behind this urban legend? Today, we talk to Will Larson, who today is at Stripe, was a young engineer working on the launch of Digg version 4.
Track Changes: Can We Understand Coders?
Constant tweaking and improving: This week on Track Changes we are joined by friend and tech writer Clive Thompson, to talk about his most recent book Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World. We chat about coder culture, its influence on society, and why the search for efficiency can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Paul and Rich also share their worst bug stories.