Randomly Typed

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Computer science, alpacas and other musings.

Randomly Typed

  • Jan 10, 2021 LATEST EPISODE
  • every other week NEW EPISODES
  • 25m AVG DURATION
  • 34 EPISODES


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Latest episodes from Randomly Typed

34 - DNS design iterations

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2021 30:29


JS and Lance talk about how DNS works and how different improvements have been designed and implemented to overcome a variety of flaws that have arisen over time. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/34

33 - Two Generals' Problem

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2020 22:06


Lance and JS talk about the Two Generals' Problem and try to understand its real impacts on networked systems. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/33

32 - Lossless compression algorithms

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2020 36:47


Lance and JS try to make things smaller! In this episode, we explore how to compress information efficiently in a variety of different ways with different tradeoffs. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/32

31 - Signalling System Number 7 (SS7) and phone networks

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2020 34:57


JS and Lance discover the inner working of the SS7 protocol used in networks by phone carriers, how it’s being abused, and why it’s something we should probably be more concerned about. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/30

30 - How to Bring Down the Internet with Regex

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2020 27:42


JS and Lance chat about a couple of interesting and very public incidents of a regular expression unexpectedly causing major outages at well-known software companies. We walk through exactly how these incidents happened and discover how easy it is to write a regex with no time complexity guarantees.

29 - Great Cannon of China

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2020 13:48


Lance and JS discuss censoring attacks from China targeting Github. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/29

28 - Software Versioning Schemes

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2020 30:58


We’re back! JS and Lance are ready to talk about software versioning schemes. Who would have that boiling down complex software systems into a series of numbers would be so hard?

27 - Dial-up Modems

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2020 28:55


Max and JS talk about dial-up modems and try to understand how they work while sharing their nostalgia. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/27

26 - Variance in Type Systems

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 29, 2020 27:53


Type systems can be intimidating. Listen in as JS and Lance struggle to understand type variance! Contravariance, covariance, invariance, bivariance... What do they mean?! Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/26.html

25 - CQRS: Command-Query Responsibility Segregation

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2020 13:34


CRUD isn’t the only way! Lance and JS talk about how separating reads from writes in your domain models can open up a world of possibilities. Show notes: https://www.randomlytyped.com/25.html

24 - Protocols Over The Air, Used And Abused

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2020 17:13


On this episode, Lance and JS discuss the evolution of wireless car unlocking technologies. We talk about some different type of attacks and how they were countered.

23 - Immutable Data Structures

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2020 24:38


Most data structure are only useful if you can modify them. Today, JS and Lance talk about immutable data structure which don't allow for direct modification but instead encourage extension. We consider the situations in which these could be useful and how to build one from scratch.

22 - Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2020 24:54


JS and Lance discuss the technical and legal implications of digital rights management systems of the past, leading up to the complex and secretive implementations of today.

21 - Voting Systems & Arrow's Theorem

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2019 23:19


JS and Lance continue their conversation about voting systems and ultimately discover how the outcome of an election could possibly be dictated by a single person.

20 - Voting Systems & The Condorcet Paradox

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2019 23:18


Lance and JS examine the social sciences to see what it means to have a fair voting system, and how every system we’ve come up with so far has some fatal flaws.

19 - Gödel's incompleteness theorems

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2019 26:22


Some of the toughest problems in mathematics went unsolved for long periods of time, only for them to be proven hundreds of years later. Can anything and everything eventually be proven with the right level of ingenuity? Gödel's shocking proofs tells us that there are some statements which just aren't provable, even if they appear to be true.

18 - The Halting Problem

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 9, 2019 14:47


We travel back in time to the 1930s to discuss the mathematical landscape which lead to The Halting problem and how a machine constructed as a mental model for a proof defined modern computers.

17 - Applied Cryptography and Security

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2019 33:56


JS and Lance discuss the real-world applications and implications of cryptography with topics like key sharing, password keeping and end-to-end encryption.

16 - Asymmetric cryptosystems and digital signing

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2019 23:44


JS and Lance continue their cryptography explorations by working through an example of RSA, an asymmetric cryptosystem, while discovering its surprising relationship to the concept of digital signatures.

15 - History of Symmetric Cryptosystems

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2019 26:49


JS and Lance are reunited! We go back in time to discover how the earliest cryptosystems worked and cover some ground on the basics of cryptography.

14 - The Slow Web

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2019 21:07


JS and special guest Max discuss the slow web phenomenon and discuss what makes some technological experiences more meaningful than others.

13 - P vs. NP, why not both?

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2019 13:41


We discover why the unsolved P == NP millennium problem is so difficult, and how the ramifications affect our every-day programming.

12 - Bloom filters

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2019 24:28


We talk about Bloom filters, a probabilistic data structure for set membership queries, how they work, and what all the fuss is about.

11 - Libra

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2019 21:14


We explore Facebook's new cryptocurrency and discuss it's potential ramifications on our society and global economy.

10 - Prefix Scans

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2019 17:30


We look at the prefix scan algorithm for the sum operation, and discover how it can be parallelized in a relatively simple but unintuitive way.

9 - Accessibility

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2019 27:50


We discuss the origins of accessibility and how things changed as society moved into the digital age.

8 - Distributed Systems Introduction

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2019 35:58


We go over the fundamentals of distributed systems and get to the bottom of buzzwords like scalability, availability and transparency.

7: Technical Debt

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2019 30:21


We explore the topic of software quality and discover what technical debt actually means.

6: Side Projects

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2019 21:20


We discuss the projects we have been working on in our spare time and what we've learned in the process.

5: Transactions, ACID or Just Basic?

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2019 29:12


In this episode, we discuss the different kinds of database transactions, how they are implemented, and what guarantees they provide.

4: Software Licenses

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2019 28:51


Can I take your code and sell it? We discuss the variety of available licenses and whether they make sense in our current technological landscape.

3: Divide and Conquer

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2019 27:44


In this episode, we discuss divide and conquer algorithms like merge sort, and see why it's more challenging to analyze their complexity.

2: To the Hype Train!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2019 29:37


Are cryptocurrencies just hype? Probably, but let's still talk about how they were created, their merits and their problems.

1: The Simple Complexity Episode

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2019 27:16


An overview of computational complexity theory.

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