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Nick Nisi joins us to dig into the latest trends from this year and how they're impacting his day-to-day coding and Vision Pro wearing. Anthropic's acquisition of Bun, the evolving JavaScript and AI landscape, GitHub's challenges and the AMP/Sourcegraph split. They dive into AI development practices, context management, voice assistants, Home Assistant OS and home automation, the state of the AI browser war, and we close with a prediction from Nick.
Amazon CTO, Werner Vogels, stops by to help us explore his tech predictions for 2026 and beyond. Will companionship be redefined by consumer robots? Will quantum-safe become the only safe worth talking about? Is this the dawn of the renaissance developer? We're infinitely curious why Werner came to this particular set of conclusions. Are you?
Matheus Lima on what makes senior developers actually senior, Tega Brain created a browser extension for avoiding AI slop, Andrew Kelley moves Zig from GitHub to Codeberg, Matias Heikkilä says there's no free lunch for vibe coding, and your SSD data at rest might be at risk.
Matheus Lima on what makes senior developers actually senior, Tega Brain created a browser extension for avoiding AI slop, Andrew Kelley moves Zig from GitHub to Codeberg, Matias Heikkilä says there's no free lunch for vibe coding, and your SSD data at rest might be at risk.
Matheus Lima on what makes senior developers actually senior, Tega Brain created a browser extension for avoiding AI slop, Andrew Kelley moves Zig from GitHub to Codeberg, Matias Heikkilä says there's no free lunch for vibe coding, and your SSD data at rest might be at risk.
Our old friend Lars Wikman returns to the show to discuss Linux distro hopping, Elixir, Nerves, embedded systems, home automation with Home Assistant, karate, and more.
Our old friend Lars Wikman returns to the show to discuss Linux distro hopping, Elixir, Nerves, embedded systems, home automation with Home Assistant, karate, and more.
Let's hear how Wikipedia actually works from long-time Wikipedian, Bill Beutler! Bill has been heavily involved with this "8th wonder of the modern world" for two decades and even built a career on it, founding Beutler Ink –a digital agency known for its pioneering work in Wikipedia public relations. We discuss: the official (and not so official) rules, the editor cabal (which isn't one), the business model (which really isn't one), how an edit sticks (or not), how AI chatbots threaten the future of the site (or don't), and a whole lot more.
This episode is a special crossover between the Practical AI podcast and The Changelog podcast. Chris was recently invited by longtime friends Jerod Santo and Adam Stacoviak, cohosts of The Changelog, to join them on the show. They discuss AI, drones, robotics, swarming technology, and the rise of high-performance edge computing with Rust. Chris points out that open source software, small AI models, and affordable hardware are making home automation and local AI accessible to everyone. From automating household functions to experimenting with drones and single-board computers, Chris describes how hands-on maker projects are shaping a bright future for physical AI, on small budgets and right from the comfort of your own home.Featuring: Jerod Santo – LinkedInAdam Stacoviak – LinkedInChris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, XSponsors: Miro – Get the right things done faster with Miro's Innovation Workspace. AI Sidekicks, instant insights, and rapid prototyping—transform weeks of work into days. No more scattered docs or endless meetings. Help your teams get great done at Miro.com.Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalaiUpcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!This week we have extended show notes below from Chris!Swarming & Fully Autonomous Multi-Agent UxV SystemsChris's Definition of Swarming (anchor link in show notes)Chris's definition of Swarming“Swarming occurs when numerous independent fully-autonomous multi-agentic platforms exhibit highly-coordinated locomotive and emergent behaviors with agency and self-governance in any domain (air, ground, sea, undersea, space), functioning as a single independent logical distributed decentralized decisioning entity for purposes of C3 (command, control, communications) with human operators on-the-loop, to implement actions that achieve strategic, tactical, or operational effects in the furtherance of a mission.”© 2025 Chris BensonConceptual FoundationsSwarm Robotics – WikipediaHigh-level overview of swarm robotics as decentralized robot collectives.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_roboticsSwarm Robotic Platforms – WikipediaSurvey of hardware platforms used in swarm robotics research.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotic_platformsSwarm Intelligence – WikipediaBroader algorithms and theory behind collective intelligence (beyond robots).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligenceAnt Robotics – WikipediaNature-inspired “ant-like” robotics as a special case of swarm robotics.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_roboticsOpen Research & Multi-Robot Resources (Stepping-Stones Toward True Swarms)Programming Multiple Robots with ROS 2 (online book)Free book on multi-robot systems, ROS 2, and the Robot Middleware Framework (RMF).https://osrf.github.io/ros2multirobotbookSimulation with ROS 2 & Gazebo (ROS 2 Humble tutorial)Official tutorial on connecting ROS 2 to Gazebo simulation.https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Advanced/Simulators/Gazebo/Gazebo.htmlSpawning Multiple Robots in Gazebo with ROS 2Hands-on tutorial to launch N robots in Gazebo, each with its own namespace.https://www.theconstruct.ai/spawning-multiple-robots-in-gazebo-with-ros2ROS 2 Multi-Robot Simulation Best Practices (Discourse thread)Discussion of patterns for multi-robot systems (domains, namespaces, Nav2, etc.).https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/multi-robot-simulation-best-practices/38987Getting Hands-On: Consumer Robotics, ROS 2 & GazeboROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2)Official ROS 2 Documentation – Humble (LTS)Main docs for ROS 2 Humble (recommended distro) with tutorials and APIs.https://docs.ros.org/en/humbleROS 2 Installation Guide (Humble)Step-by-step install on supported platforms.https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html“From Zero to Robotics Hero: A Beginner's Guide to ROS 2” (article)Beginner-friendly overview with ideas for where to go next (MoveIt, Nav2, multi-robot, etc.).https://riyagoja.medium.com/from-zero-to-robotics-hero-a-beginners-guide-to-ros-2-90ac9c3b87baROS 2 Tutorial for Beginners (2025 guide)Up-to-date intro that walks you from install to simulating your first robot in 2025.https://www.timesofexplore.com/2025/10/ros2-tutorial-beginners-build-first-robot-2025.htmlGazebo SimulationGazebo Sim – Official SiteModern Gazebo (Ignition) simulator; models, worlds, and docs.https://gazebosim.orgGetting Started with Gazebo (Docs)Official “start here” guide for using Gazebo and Gazebo Fuel assets.https://gazebosim.org/docs/latest/getstartedClassic Gazebo Tutorials (still useful for fundamentals)https://classic.gazebosim.org/tutorialsmicro-ROS (ROS 2 on Microcontrollers)micro-ROS – ROS 2 for MicrocontrollersOfficial site for running ROS 2 on tiny embedded boards.https://micro.ros.orgmicro-ROS GitHub OrganizationRepositories, examples, and tutor...
Let's hear how Wikipedia actually works from long-time Wikipedian, Bill Beutler! Bill has been heavily involved with this "8th wonder of the modern world" for two decades and even built a career on it, founding Beutler Ink –a digital agency known for its pioneering work in Wikipedia public relations. We discuss: the official (and not so official) rules, the editor cabal (which isn't one), the business model (which really isn't one), how an edit sticks (or not), how AI chatbots threaten the future of the site (or don't), and a whole lot more.
Cedric Chin says comparisons of our current AI *maybe-bubble* to the dot-com bubble and the 2008 GFC are limiting, Matthew Prince does a post-mortem on last week's Cloudflare outage, "hl" is a fast / powerful log viewer for humans, Enthusiast Guy's Continuum 93 is a fantasy computer emulator, and a list of things that aren't doing the thing.
Cedric Chin says comparisons of our current AI *maybe-bubble* to the dot-com bubble and the 2008 GFC are limiting, Matthew Prince does a post-mortem on last week's Cloudflare outage, "hl" is a fast / powerful log viewer for humans, Enthusiast Guy's Continuum 93 is a fantasy computer emulator, and a list of things that aren't doing the thing.
Cedric Chin says comparisons of our current AI *maybe-bubble* to the dot-com bubble and the 2008 GFC are limiting, Matthew Prince does a post-mortem on last week's Cloudflare outage, "hl" is a fast / powerful log viewer for humans, Enthusiast Guy's Continuum 93 is a fantasy computer emulator, and a list of things that aren't doing the thing.
Practical AI co-host, Chris Benson, joins us to discuss the latest advancements in AI, drones, home automation, and robotic swarming tech. Chris defines "swarm" with detail/precision and it turns out that what most people are calling a swarm today is NOT a swarm!
Practical AI co-host, Chris Benson, joins us to discuss the latest advancements in AI, drones, home automation, and robotic swarming tech. Chris defines "swarm" with detail/precision and it turns out that what most people are calling a swarm today is NOT a swarm!
Spencer Chang caught our attention with the alive internet theory website, but he creates all kinds of computery things to bring people together around play, connection, and creation. Spencer's experiments with computing-infused objects inspired him to create an entire line of internet sculptures and real-world computing shrines that will hopefully inspire all of us to keep the internet alive and flourishing for years to come.
Spencer Chang caught our attention with the alive internet theory website, but he creates all kinds of computery things to bring people together around play, connection, and creation. Spencer's experiments with computing-infused objects inspired him to create an entire line of internet sculptures and real-world computing shrines that will hopefully inspire all of us to keep the internet alive and flourishing for years to come.
Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.
Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.
Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.
Do you like director's commentaries and extended cuts? This episode is like that, but for this week's News. We go deep on the alive internet theory, Meshtastic mesh networks, Zstandard compression, the FDE job explosion, React's seemingly perpetual dominance, and more.
Do you like director's commentaries and extended cuts? This episode is like that, but for this week's News. We go deep on the alive internet theory, Meshtastic mesh networks, Zstandard compression, the FDE job explosion, React's seemingly perpetual dominance, and more.
Prolific software blogger, Sean Goedecke, joins us to discuss why he believes software engineers need to be involved in the politics of their organization, how to avoid worry driven development, what is "good taste" in software engineering, where agentic coding will take our industry, why getting the main thing right is so important, and how to get your blog to the top of Hacker News.
Prolific software blogger, Sean Goedecke, joins us to discuss why he believes software engineers need to be involved in the politics of their organization, how to avoid worry driven development, what is "good taste" in software engineering, where agentic coding will take our industry, why getting the main thing right is so important, and how to get your blog to the top of Hacker News.
A new AI-led tech role has emerged with a massive increase of job postings, Corey Quinn explains why younger devs won't tolerate pain in the AWS, Thomas Ptacek makes the case that you should write an agent, Paul Kinlan goes deeper on his dead framework theory, and Andrew Gallagher says to stop vibe coding your unit tests.
A new AI-led tech role has emerged with a massive increase of job postings, Corey Quinn explains why younger devs won't tolerate pain in the AWS, Thomas Ptacek makes the case that you should write an agent, Paul Kinlan goes deeper on his dead framework theory, and Andrew Gallagher says to stop vibe coding your unit tests.
A new AI-led tech role has emerged with a massive increase of job postings, Corey Quinn explains why younger devs won't tolerate pain in the AWS, Thomas Ptacek makes the case that you should write an agent, Paul Kinlan goes deeper on his dead framework theory, and Andrew Gallagher says to stop vibe coding your unit tests.
On this seventh iteration of our award-worthy game show filled with obscure jargon, fake definitions, and expert tomfoolery: past winners battle to determine the champion of champions. (Also, Adam.)
On this seventh iteration of our award-worthy game show filled with obscure jargon, fake definitions, and expert tomfoolery: past winners battle to determine the champion of champions. (Also, Adam.)
Andrew Nesbitt builds tools and open datasets to support, sustain, and secure critical digital infrastructure. He's been exploring the world of open source metadata for over a decade. First with libraries.io and now with ecosyste.ms, which tracks over 12 million packages, 287 million repos, 24.5 billion dependencies, and 1.9 million maintainers. What has Andrew learned from all this, who is using this open dataset, and how does he hope others can build on top of it all? Tune in to find out.
Andrew Nesbitt builds tools and open datasets to support, sustain, and secure critical digital infrastructure. He's been exploring the world of open source metadata for over a decade. First with libraries.io and now with ecosyste.ms, which tracks over 12 million packages, 287 million repos, 24.5 billion dependencies, and 1.9 million maintainers. What has Andrew learned from all this, who is using this open dataset, and how does he hope others can build on top of it all? Tune in to find out.
Ahmad Alfy explains how URLs are state containers, Shrivu Shankar shares how he uses every Claude Code feature, Yusuf Aytas laments how AI broke technical interviews, Wu Xiaoyun tells how he saved TikTok $300k during his internship, and TOON is a new serialization format to save us some LLM tokens.
Ahmad Alfy explains how URLs are state containers, Shrivu Shankar shares how he uses every Claude Code feature, Yusuf Aytas laments how AI broke technical interviews, Wu Xiaoyun tells how he saved TikTok $300k during his internship, and TOON is a new serialization format to save us some LLM tokens.
Ahmad Alfy explains how URLs are state containers, Shrivu Shankar shares how he uses every Claude Code feature, Yusuf Aytas laments how AI broke technical interviews, Wu Xiaoyun tells how he saved TikTok $300k during his internship, and TOON is a new serialization format to save us some LLM tokens.
It's a FRIGHT...when your record a podcast with dead projects all around. Tech debt, poor choices, timing, market shift, and optimizing for the wrong things are all lurking around waiting to pop out at you! Just don't forget to push record.
It's a FRIGHT...when your record a podcast with dead projects all around. Tech debt, poor choices, timing, market shift, and optimizing for the wrong things are all lurking around waiting to pop out at you! Just don't forget to push record.
Adam Jacob joins us to discuss how agentic systems for building and managing infrastructure have fundamentally altered how he thinks about everything, including the last six years of his life. Along the way, he opines on the recent AWS outage, debates whether we're in an AI-induced bubble, quells any concerns of AGI and a robot uprising, eats some humble pie, and more.
Adam Jacob joins us to discuss how agentic systems for building and managing infrastructure have fundamentally altered how he thinks about everything, including the last six years of his life. Along the way, he opines on the recent AWS outage, debates whether we're in an AI-induced bubble, quells any concerns of AGI and a robot uprising, eats some humble pie, and more.
The Dead Internet Theory dies, Geoffrey Litt tries to code like a surgeon, Matt Sephton thinks spreadsheets are great for UI design, Nate Meyvis advocates for front-end maximalism, Hemant Pandey thinks 9-5 employment is a great option for most, David Miranda compares React to Backbone in 2025.
The Dead Internet Theory dies, Geoffrey Litt tries to code like a surgeon, Matt Sephton thinks spreadsheets are great for UI design, Nate Meyvis advocates for front-end maximalism, Hemant Pandey thinks 9-5 employment is a great option for most, David Miranda compares React to Backbone in 2025.
The Dead Internet Theory dies, Geoffrey Litt tries to code like a surgeon, Matt Sephton thinks spreadsheets are great for UI design, Nate Meyvis advocates for front-end maximalism, Hemant Pandey thinks 9-5 employment is a great option for most, David Miranda compares React to Backbone in 2025.
It's our first Kaizen after the big Pipely launch in Denver and we have some serious mopping to do. Along the way, we brainstorm the next get-together, check out our new cache hit/miss ratio, give Pipely a deep speed test, discuss open video standards, and more!
Ellie Huxtable's magical shell tool, Atuin, won developers' hearts by syncing, searching, and backing up our shell history with ease. Now Ellie is tackling the desktop with a GUI built to help teams make their workflows repeatable, shareable, and reliable.
Csaba Okrona lays out exactly what Flow is (then shows you how to engineer your way back to it), a smart vacuum turned against an innocent hacker, Matz and the Ruby core team step up to steward RubyGems, Simon Willison things Claude Skills could be bigger than MCP, and Luke Plant looks at technical debt from a more positive perspective.
Csaba Okrona lays out exactly what Flow is (then shows you how to engineer your way back to it), a smart vacuum turned against an innocent hacker, Matz and the Ruby core team step up to steward RubyGems, Simon Willison things Claude Skills could be bigger than MCP, and Luke Plant looks at technical debt from a more positive perspective.
Mike McQuaid and Justin Searls join Jerod in the wake of the RubyGems debacle to discuss what happened, what it says about money in open source, what sustainability really means for our community, making a career out of open source (or not), and more. Bleep!
We're joined by Deepak Singh from the Kiro team. Kiro is AWS's attempt at building an AI coding environment to take you from prototype to production. It does that by bringing structure to your agentic workflow with spec-driven development. Their aim: the flow of AI coding, leveled up with mature engineering practices.
Denis Stetskov describes how we've "normalized catastrophe" in the software industry, Meta is officially handing React and React Native over to a foundation, The New Stack reports on GitHub's Azure migration priority, Miguel Grinberg benchmarks Python 3.14, and The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman published his take on AI art.
Elixir creator, José Valim, is throwing his hat into the coding agent ring with Tidewave –a coding agent for full-stack web development. Tidewave runs in the browser alongside your app, but it's also deeply integrated into Rails and Phoenix. On this episode, José tells us all about it. Also: his agent flow, YOLO mode, an MCP hot take, and more.
Our friends at Cult.Repo launch their epic Vite documentary on October 9th, 2025! To celebrate, Jerod sat down with Evan You to discuss Vite's adoption story, why he raised money to start VoidZero, how developer documentaries get made, open source sustainability, and more.