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We sat down with Phil Wadler, one of the most influential folks in the Haskell community, functional programming, and programming languages, responsible for type classes, monads, and much more. We take a stroll down memory lane, starting from Haskell's inception. We talked about the difference between research and Phil's work on impactful industrial projects and standards - specifically XML and the design of generics in Java, as well as Phll's teaching at the University of Edinburgh using Agda.. Phil is a fountain of great ideas and stories, and this conversation could have gone on for hours. As it is, we hope you enjoy the hour that we had as much as we did.
What's the Best Effective SEO Strategy for Beginners? Marketing Essentials with Favour Obasi-Ike (Glossary)| Get exclusive SEO newsletters in your inbox.This discussion offers an in-depth exploration of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, primarily for beginners and small business owners emphasizing the importance of audience targeting, answering user questions, and consistent content creation (such as blogs and podcasts) to improve online visibility.Key technical SEO aspects are highlighted, including securing a website with HTTPS, creating and submitting a sitemap (XML file) for search engine readability, and focusing on long-tail keywords for better conversion rates. The conversation also touches on the effective use of various platforms like Clubhouse, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console for data intelligence and content distribution, ultimately aiming to protect, earn, and scale a business's online presence.Next Steps for Digital Marketing + SEO Services:>> Need SEO Services? Book a Complimentary SEO Discovery Call with Favour Obasi-Ike>> Need more information? Visit our Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services.FAQs1. What is the fundamental principle of effective SEO for beginners?The best SEO strategy for beginners starts with understanding and targeting your audience by asking questions. SEO is fundamentally about providing answers to the questions people are asking. This approach not only helps you create relevant content but also aligns your efforts with how search engines (like Google, ChatGPT, Pinterest, YouTube, and Amazon) operate. By consistently answering these questions, you build authority and credibility, which are crucial for visibility and growth. Tools like Answerthepublic.com, Answerocrates.com, SparkToro.com, and Ubersuggest.com can help you identify these questions and understand audience intent.2. Why is audience understanding crucial for SEO and content creation?Understanding your audience is paramount because it allows you to create content that directly addresses their needs and queries. When you create content with the user's questions in mind, you're not just optimizing for algorithms; you're building a connection with your potential audience. This "three-way connection" between you, your audience, and the algorithm ensures that your content resonates with those actively searching for solutions. It helps bypass the algorithm by matching user intent with your offerings, leading to higher engagement and a stronger brand.3. What are the essential technical SEO elements for a beginner's website?For a beginner, ensuring strong technical SEO involves several fundamental steps:HTTPS Security Connection (SSL): Always secure your website with an HTTPS connection. This creates a privacy area for users, builds trust (indicated by a padlock in the browser), and is a crucial ranking factor for search engines. Websites without this are often flagged as "not secure," leading to immediate user abandonment.Sitemap (XML File): A sitemap is like a brain or a map for your website, allowing algorithms to read and understand its structure and content. While humans read HTML (hypertext markup language), algorithms read XML (expandable markup language). Platforms like WordPress (with plugins like Yoast, RankMath), Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix automatically generate sitemaps, but they must be connected to tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to be fully activated and effective.No Broken or Duplicated Links: Regularly check for and fix broken links and avoid duplicating content, as these issues can confuse search engines and negatively impact your ranking.4. How important are blogs and consistent content creation for SEO?Blogs (or articles, sources) are essential because they tell the world you have something valuable to say. Websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Shopify, and Canva all leverage blogs to provide information. A consistent blogging strategy feeds your website with good, indexable information that can be submitted to various search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) and AI platforms (ChatGPT). This consistency helps you earn credibility, which in turn leads to broader distribution across different platforms, strengthening your online presence. For new businesses, publishing content 1-2 times a week can show significant results within 3-6 months.Glossary of Episode Key Terms: SEO for BeginnersAAlgorithm: A set of rules or instructions that a search engine uses to rank websites and determine the relevance of content to a user's query.AnswerThePublic.com / Answerocrates.com/ SparkToro.com / Ubersuggest.com: Website tools used for keyword research and understanding audience questions and interests.Article: A piece of written content on a website, essential for SEO and establishing expertise.Audience Targeting/Marketing: Focusing marketing efforts on a specific group of consumers who are most likely to be interested in a product or service.Access Links: See Backlinks.BBacklinks/Referral Links/Access Links/Image Links: Different types of links pointing back to a website, which are crucial for SEO authority.Binary Code: A computer language that uses only two symbols, typically 0 and 1, to represent information.Blog: A section of a website featuring regularly updated written content.Bootstrapping: Starting a business with little or no outside capital, relying on personal finances or operating revenues.Bottom of Funnel: The stage in the customer journey where users are ready to convert; content here targets these users.Broken Links: Hyperlinks that point to non-existent or moved pages, negatively affecting user experience and SEO.CChatGPT/Perplexity/Pinterest/YouTube/Amazon: Examples of platforms where users search for information, and SEO strategies can be applied to increase visibility.Clubhouse Plus: A paid feature on the Clubhouse app, offering tools to enhance user experience and business growth.Content Distribution: The process of publishing and promoting content across various platforms and channels.Content Reproduction/Publish/Distribute: The process of creating, making available, and spreading content across various channels.Conversion Opportunities/Lifts/Engagement: Metrics indicating how often users take a desired action (e.g., signing up, purchasing), how much those actions increase, and how users interact with content.Credibility: The quality of being trusted and believed in, built through consistent and valuable content.DData Intelligence/Market Intelligence: Gathering and analyzing information to understand market trends, customer behavior, and competitive landscapes.Duplicated Links: Multiple links pointing to the same content, which can confuse search engines and dilute link equity.FFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions): A section of a website that provides answers to common customer questions, useful for both users and algorithms.GGoogle Analytics: A free web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, providing insights into user behavior.Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business): A free tool from Google that helps businesses manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.Google Developers: A platform for developers to learn about and use Google technologies.Google Search Central (formerly Google Webmasters): A resource provided by Google for website owners to improve their site's visibility in Google Search.Google Search Console: A free web service by Google that helps website owners monitor their site's performance in Google Search results and troubleshoot issues.HHigh Volume Searches: Refers to keywords that are searched for a large number of times by users.HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser, forming the readable text and links on a webpage.HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure): A secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website. Indicated by a padlock icon in the browser.IIndexable Content: Content that search engines can discover, read, and add to their index.International Business: A classification of a business based on its geographic operational scope being global.KKeyword Research: The process of finding and analyzing actual search terms that people use to find information.Keywords (for LinkedIn Newsletter): Important words or phrases in the title that help the newsletter rank in search results.LLLM Refs: A platform mentioned for AI-related search insights, particularly with Search Console and analytics.Local Business: A classification of a business based on its geographic operational scope being a specific town or city.Long-tail Keywords: Specific, longer keyword phrases that typically have lower search volume but higher conversion rates.Low Volume Searches: Refers to keywords that are searched for a small number of times by users.MMeta Tag/Meta Data: Hidden elements in a webpage's HTML that provide search engines with information about the page.Metadata (for video): Information about a video file, such as title, description, tags, and timestamps, that helps search engines understand and rank it.Mindset/Toolset/Skillset: Three crucial "sets" for business success, emphasizing mental approach, available resources, and learned abilities.Mobile-first Design: Designing websites primarily for mobile devices, given that a large percentage of web traffic comes from smartphones and tablets.MP4 File Name Convention: The naming structure of a video file, which can impact its discoverability if not optimized with keywords.NNational Business: A classification of a business based on its geographic operational scope being an entire country.PPixels (Meta, Pinterest, Google, TikTok): Small pieces of code placed on a website to track user behavior, conversions, and build audience lists for advertising.Podcast Distribution: The process of making a podcast available on various platforms (Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Pandora).Post-purchase: Refers to the stage of a customer's journey after they have made a purchase.Pre-purchase: Refers to the stage of a customer's journey before they make a purchase, influencing the type of content they seek.Protect, Earn, Scale (PES): A three-piece business model emphasizing security, credibility, and growth.QQuota on Google: A limit on the number of links (e.g., 10 per 24 hours) that can be submitted to Google for indexing.RRegional Business: A classification of a business based on its geographic operational scope being a specific area or state.Rookie Mistake: A common error made by beginners.RSS (Really Simple Syndication): A web feed format used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.SSEO (Search Engine Optimization): The process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results, thereby increasing organic (unpaid) traffic.Sitemap (XML file): A file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site. Search engines read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.Source: The origin of information or content.SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): A standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser, ensuring data remains private. (Often referred to interchangeably with HTTPS).TTechnical SEO: Optimizing the technical aspects of a website (e.g., speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability) to improve its search engine rankings.Top of Funnel: The stage in the customer journey where content aims for broad awareness.Topical Pillars/Clusters: A content strategy where a broad "pillar" topic is supported by multiple "cluster" content pieces that delve into specific subtopics.UURL (Uniform Resource Locator): The address of a resource on the internet, such as a webpage.UTM Parameters (Urchin Tracking Module): Tags added to a URL to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns.WWeb Page: A single document on the internet, typically in HTML format.Web Link: The address (URL) that points to a specific web page or resource.Website: A collection of interconnected web pages under a single domain name.XXML (eXtensible Markup Language): A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable, commonly used for sitemaps.YYoast/RankMath/All-in-One SEO: Popular WordPress plugins that assist with SEO tasks, including sitemap generation.Digital Marketing SEO Resources:>> Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community>> Read SEO Articles>> Need SEO Services? 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Matt Forbeck is all that and so much more. He grew up in Wisconsin as what he describes as a wimpy kid, too short and not overly healthy. He took to gaming at a pretty early age and has grown to be a game creator, author and award-winning storyteller. Matt has been designing games now for over 35 years. He tells us how he believes that many of the most successful games today have stories to tell, and he loves to create some of the most successful ones. What I find most intriguing about Matt is that he clearly is absolutely totally happy in his work. For most of Matt's career he has worked for himself and continues today to be an independent freelancer. Matt and his wife have five children, including a set of quadruplets. The quadruplets are 23 and Matt's oldest son is 28 and is following in his father's footsteps. During our conversation we touch on interesting topics such as trust and work ethics. I know you will find this episode stimulating and worth listening to more than once. About the Guest: Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer of over thirty-five novels and countless other books and games. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and numerous ENnies and Origins Awards. He is also the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, which celebrates excellence in gaming. Matt has made a living full-time on games and fiction since 1989, when he graduated from the Residential College at the University of Michigan with a degree in Creative Writing. With the exception of a four-year stint as the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and a year and a half as the director of the adventure games division of Human Head Studios, he has spent his career as an independent freelancer. Matt has designed collectible card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games, board games, interactive fiction, interactive audiobooks, games for museum installations, and logic systems for toys. He has directed voiceover work and written short fiction, comic books, novels, screenplays, and video game scripts and stories. His work has been translated into at least 15 languages. His latest work includes the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook, the Spider-Verse Expansion, Monster Academy (novels and board game), the Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Sourcebook based on his novels, and the Minecraft: Roll for Adventure game books. He is the father of five, including a set of quadruplets. He lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, with his wife and a rotating cast of college-age children. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com. Ways to connect with Matt: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mforbeck Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forbeck Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/forbeck.com Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mforbeck Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mforbeck/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forbeck/ Website: https://www.forbeck.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset today. We get to play games. Well, not really, but we'll try. Our guest is Matt Forbeck, who is an award winning author. He is a game designer and all sorts of other kinds of things that I'm sure he's going to tell us about, and we actually just before we started the the episode, we were talking about how one might explore making more games accessible for blind and persons with other disabilities. It's, it's a challenge, and there, there are a lot of tricks. But anyway, Matt, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Matt Forbeck ** 02:02 Well, thank you, Michael for inviting me and having me on. I appreciate it. Speaker 1 ** 02:06 I think we're going to have a lot of fun, and I think it'll work out really well. I'm I am sure of that. So why don't we start just out of curiosity, why don't you tell us kind of about the early Matt, growing up? Matt Forbeck ** 02:18 Uh, well, I grew up. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I grew up in a little town called Beloit, Wisconsin, which actually live in now, despite having moved away for 13 years at one point, and I had terrible asthma, I was a sick and short kid, and with the advent of medication, I finally started to be healthy when I was around nine, and Part of that, I started getting into playing games, right? Because when you're sick, you do a lot of sitting around rather than running around. So I did a lot of reading and playing games and things like that. I happen to grow up in the part of the world where Dungeons and Dragons was invented, which is in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about 30 miles from where I live. And because of that I was I started going to conventions and playing games and such, when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I started doing it when I was a little bit older. I started doing it professionally, and started doing it when I was in college. And amazingly enough, even to my own astonishment, I've made a career out of it. Speaker 1 ** 03:17 Where did you go to college? I went to the University Matt Forbeck ** 03:21 of Michigan over in Ann Arbor. I had a great time there. There's a wonderful little college, Beloit College, in my hometown here, and most of my family has gone to UW Milwaukee over the years. My parents met at Marquette in Milwaukee, but I wanted to get the heck out of the area, so I went to Michigan, and then found myself coming back as soon as we started having Speaker 1 ** 03:42 kids well, and of course, I would presume that when you were at the University of Michigan, you rooted for them and against Ohio State. That was Matt Forbeck ** 03:50 kind of, you know, if you did it the other way around, they back out of town. So, yeah, I was always kind of astonished, though, because having grown up in Wisconsin, where every sports team was a losing team when I was growing up, including the Packers, for decades. You know, we were just happy to be playing. They were more excuse to have beers than they were to cheer on teams. And I went to Michigan where they were, they were angry if the team wasn't up by two touchdowns. You know, at any point, I'm like, You guys are silly. This is we're here for fun. Speaker 1 ** 04:17 But it is amazing how seriously some people take sports. I remember being in New Zealand helping the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. Well now 22 years ago, it's 2003 and the America's Cup had just finished before we got there, and in America beat New Zealand, and the people in New Zealand were just irate. They were complaining that the government didn't put enough money into the design of the boat and helping with the with the yacht and all that. It was just amazing how seriously people take it, yeah, Matt Forbeck ** 04:58 once, I mean, it becomes a part of your. Identity in a lot of ways, right for many people, and I've never had to worry about that too much. I've got other things on my mind, but there you go. Speaker 1 ** 05:08 Well, I do like it when the Dodgers win, and my wife did her graduate work at USC, and so I like it when the Trojans win, but it's not the end of the world, and you do need to keep it in perspective. I I do wish more people would I know once I delivered a speech in brether County, Kentucky, and I was told that when I started the speech had to end no later than preferably exactly at 6:30pm not a minute later, because it was the night of the NCAA Basketball Championship, and the Kentucky Wildcats were in the championship, and at 630 everyone was going to get up and leave and go home to watch the game. So I ended at 630 and literally, by 631 I timed it. The gym was empty and it was full to start with. Matt Forbeck ** 06:02 People were probably, you know, counting down on their watches, just to make sure, right? Speaker 1 ** 06:06 Oh, I'm sure they were. What do you do? It's, it is kind of fun. Well, so why did you decide to get started in games? What? What? What attracted to you, to it as a young person, much less later on? Matt Forbeck ** 06:21 Well, I was, yeah, I was an awkward kid, kind of nerdy and, you know, glasses and asthma and all that kind of stuff. And games were the kind of thing where, if you didn't know how to interact with people, you could sit down at a table across them and you could practice. You can say, okay, we're all here. We've got this kind of a magic circle around us where we've agreed to take this one silly activity seriously for a short period of time, right? And it may be that you're having fun during that activity, but you know, there's, there's no reason that rolling dice or moving things around on a table should be taken seriously. It's all just for fun, right? But for that moment, you actually just like Las Vegas Exactly, right? When there's money on the line, it's different, but if you're just doing it for grins. You know, it was a good way for me to learn how to interact with people of all sorts and of different ages. And I really enjoyed playing the games, and I really wanted to be a writer, too. And a lot of these things interacted with story at a very basic level. So breaking in as a writer is tough, but it turned out breaking as a game designer, wasn't nearly his stuff, so I started out over there instead, because it was a very young field at the time, right? D and D is now 50 years old, so I've been doing this 35 years, which means I started around professionally and even doing it before that, I started in the period when the game and that industry were only like 10 or 15 years old, so yeah, weren't quite as much competition in those Speaker 1 ** 07:43 days. I remember some of the early games that I did play, that I could play, were DOS based games, adventure. You're familiar with adventure? Yeah, oh, yeah. Then later, Zork and all that. And I still think those are fun games. And I the reason I like a lot of those kinds of games is they really make you think, which I think most games do, even though the video even the video games and so on, they they help your or can help your reactions, but they're designed by people who do try to make you think, Matt Forbeck ** 08:15 yeah. I mean, we basically are designing puzzles for people to solve, even if they're story puzzles or graphic puzzles or sound puzzles or whatever, you know, even spatial puzzles. There the idea is to give somebody something fun that is intriguing to play with, then you end up coming with story and after that, because after a while, even the most most exciting mechanics get dull, right? I mean, you start out shooting spaceships, but you can only shoot spaceships for so long, or you start out playing Tetris, and you only put shapes together for so long before it doesn't mean anything that then you start adding in story to give people a reason to keep playing right and a reason to keep going through these things. And I've written a lot of video games over the years, basically with that kind of a philosophy, is give people nuggets of story, give them a plot to work their way through, and reward them for getting through different stages, and they will pretty much follow you through anything. It's amazing. Michael Hingson ** 09:09 Is that true Dungeons and Dragons too? Matt Forbeck ** 09:13 It is. All of the stories are less structured there. If you're doing a video game, you know you the team has a lot of control over you. Give the player a limited amount of control to do things, but if you're playing around a table with people, it's more of a cooperative kind of experience, where we're all kind of coming up with a story, the narrator or the Game Master, the Dungeon Master, sets the stage for everything, but then the players have a lot of leeway doing that, and they will always screw things up for you, too. No matter what you think is going to happen, the players will do something different, because they're individuals, and they're all amazing people. That's actually to me, one of the fun things about doing tabletop games is that, you know, the computer can only react in a limited number of ways, whereas a human narrator and actually change things quite drastically and roll. With whatever people come up with, and that makes it tremendous fun. Speaker 1 ** 10:04 Do you think AI is going to enter into all that and maybe improve some of the Matt Forbeck ** 10:09 old stuff? It's going to add your end to it, whether it's an ad, it's going to approve it as a large question. Yeah. So I've been ranting about AI quite a bit lately with my friends and family. But, you know, I think the problem with AI, it can be very helpful a lot of ways, but I think it's being oversold. And I think it's especially when it's being oversold for thing, for ways for people to replace writers and creative thinking, Yeah, you know, you're taking the fun out of everything. I mean, the one thing I like to say is if, if you can't be bothered to write this thing that you want to communicate to me, I'm not sure why I should be bothered to read this thing well. Speaker 1 ** 10:48 And I think that AI will will evolve in whatever way it does. But the fact of the matter is, So do people. And I think that, in fact, people are always going to be necessary to make the process really work? AI can only do and computers can only do so much. I mean, even Ray Kurzweil talks about the singularity when people and computer brains are married, but that still means that you're going to have the human element. So it's not all going to be the computer. And I'm not ready to totally buy into to what Ray says. And I used to work for Ray, so I mean, I know Ray Well, but, but the but the bottom line is, I think that, in fact, people are always going to be able to be kind of the, the mainstay of it, as long as we allow that, if we, if we give AI too much power, then over time, it'll take more power, and that's a problem, but that's up to us to deal with? Matt Forbeck ** 11:41 No, I totally agree with that. I just think right now, there's a very large faction of people who it's in their economic interest to oversell these things. You know, people are making chips. They're building server farms. A lot of them are being transferred from people are doing blockchain just a few years ago, and they see it as the hot new thing. The difference is that AI actually has a lot of good uses. There's some amazing things will come out of llms and such. But I again, people are over the people are selling this to us. Are often over promising things, right? Speaker 1 ** 12:11 Yeah, well, they're not only over promising but they're they're really misdirecting people. But the other side of it is that, that, in fact, AI as a concept and as a technology is here, and we have control over how we use it. I've said a couple times on this this podcast, and I've said to others, I remember when I first started hearing about AI, I heard about the the fact that teachers were bemoaning the pack, that kids were writing their papers just using AI and turning them in, and it wasn't always easy to tell whether it was something that was written by AI or was written by the student. And I come from a little bit different view than I think a lot of people do. And my view basically is, let the kids write it if with AI, if that's what they're going to do, but then what the teacher needs to do is to take one period, for example, and give every student in that class the opportunity to come up and defend whatever paper they have. And the real question is, can they defend the paper? Which means, have they really learned the subject, or are they just relying on AI, Matt Forbeck ** 13:18 yeah, I agree with that. I think the trouble is, a lot of people, children, you know, who are developing their abilities and their morals about this stuff, they use it as just a way to complete the assignment, right? And many of them don't even read what they turn in, right, right? Just know that they've got something here that will so again, if you can't be bothered to read the thing that you manufactured, you're not learning anything about it, Speaker 1 ** 13:39 which is why, if you are forced to defend it, it's going to become pretty obvious pretty fast, whether you really know it or not. Now, I've used AI on a number of occasions in various ways, but I use it to maybe give me ideas or prepare something that I then modify and shape. And I may even interact with AI a couple of times, but I'm definitely involved with the process all the way down the line, because it still has to be something that I'm responsible for. Matt Forbeck ** 14:09 I agree. I mean, the whole point of doing these things is for people to connect with each other, right? I want to learn about the ideas you have in your head. I want to see how they jive with ones in my head. But if I'm just getting something that's being spit out by a machine and not you, and not being curated by you at any point, that doesn't seem very useful, right? So if you're the more involved people are in it, the more useful it is. Speaker 1 ** 14:31 Well, I agree, and you know, I think again, it's a tool, and we have to decide how the tool is going to be used, which is always the way it ought to be. Right? Matt Forbeck ** 14:42 Exactly, although sometimes it's large corporations deciding, Speaker 1 ** 14:45 yeah, well, there's that too. Well, individuals, Matt Forbeck ** 14:49 we get to make our own choices. Though you're right, Speaker 1 ** 14:51 yes, and should Well, so, so when did you start bringing writing into what you. Did, and make that a really significant part of what you did? Matt Forbeck ** 15:03 Well, pretty early on, I mean, I started doing one of the first things I did was a gaming zine, which was basically just a print magazine that was like, you know, 32 pages, black and white, about the different tabletop games. So we were writing those in the days, design and writing are very closely linked when it comes to tabletop games and even in video games. The trick of course is that designing a game and writing the rules are actually two separate sets of skills. So one of the first professional gig I ever had during writing was in games was some friends of mine had designed a game for a company called Mayfair games, which went on to do sellers of contain, which is a big, uh, entry level game, and but they needed somebody to write the rules, so they called me over, showed me how to play the game. I took notes and I I wrote it down in an easy to understand, clear way that people had just picked up the box. Could then pick it up and teach themselves how to play, right? So that was early on how I did it. But the neat thing about that is it also taught me to think about game design. I'm like, when I work on games, I think about, who is this game going to be for, and how are we going to teach it to them? Because if they can't learn the game, there's no point of the game at all, right? Speaker 1 ** 16:18 And and so I'm right? I'm a firm believer that a lot of technical writers don't do a very good job of technical writing, and they write way over people's heads. I remember the first time I had to write, well, actually, I mentioned I worked for Kurzweil. I was involved with a project where Ray Kurzweil had developed his original omniprent optical character recognition system. And I and the National Federation of the Blind created with him a project to put machines around the country so that blind people could use them and give back to Ray by the time we were all done, recommendations as to what needed to go in the final first production model of the machine. So I had to write a training manual to teach people how to use it. And I wrote this manual, and I was always of the opinion that it had to be pretty readable and usable by people who didn't have a lot of technical knowledge. So I wrote the manual, gave it to somebody to read, and said, Follow the directions and and work with the machine and all that. And they did, and I was in another room, and they were playing with it for a couple of hours, and they came in and they said, I'm having a problem. I can't figure out how to turn off the machine. And it turns out that I had forgotten to put in the instruction to turn off the machine. And it wasn't totally trivial. There were steps you had to go through. It was a Data General Nova two computer, and you had to turn it off the right way and the whole system off the appropriate way, or you could, could mess everything up. So there was a process to doing it. So I wrote it in, and it was fine. But, you know, I've always been a believer that the textbooks are way too boring. Having a master's degree in physics, I am of the opinion that physics textbook writers, who are usually pretty famous and knowledgeable scientists, ought to include with all the text and the technical stuff they want to put in, they should put in stories about what they did in you bring people in, draw them into the whole thing, rather than just spewing out a bunch of technical facts. Matt Forbeck ** 18:23 No, I agree. My my first calculus professor was a guy who actually explained how Newton and Leipzig actually came up with calculus, and then he would, you know, draw everything on the board and turn around say, and isn't that amazing? And you were, like, just absolutely enamored with the idea of how they had done these things, right? Yeah. And what you're doing there, when you, when you, when you give the instructions to somebody and say, try this out. That's a very big part of gaming, actually, because what we do this thing called play testing, where we take something before it's ready to be shown to the public, and we give it to other people and say, try this out. See how it works. Let me know when you're starting out of your first playing you play with like your family and friends and people will be brutal with you and give you hints about how you can improve things. But then, even when you get to the rules you're you send those out cold to people, or, you know, if you're a big company, you watch them through a two way mirror or one way mirror, and say, Hey, let's see how they react to everything. And then you take notes, and you try to make it better every time you go through. And when I'm teaching people to play games at conventions, for instance, I will often say to them, please ask questions if you don't understand anything, that doesn't mean you're dumb. Means I didn't explain it well enough, right? And my job as a person writing these rules is to explain it as well as I humanly can so it can't be misconstrued or misinterpreted. Now that doesn't mean you can correct everything. Somebody's always got like, Oh, I missed that sentence, you know, whatever. But you do that over and over so you can try to make it as clear and concise as possible, yeah. Speaker 1 ** 19:52 Well, you have somewhat of a built in group of people to help if you let your kids get involved. Involved. So how old are your kids? Matt Forbeck ** 20:03 My eldest is 26 he'll be 27 in January. Marty is a game designer, actually works with me on the marble tabletop role playing game, and we have a new book coming out, game book for Minecraft, called Minecraft role for adventure, that's coming out on July 7, I think, and the rest of the kids are 23 we have 423 year olds instead of quadruplets, one of whom is actually going into game design as well, and the other says two are still in college, and one has moved off to the work in the woods. He's a very woodsy boy. Likes to do environmental education with people. Speaker 1 ** 20:39 Wow. Well, see, but you, but you still have a good group of potential game designers or game critics anyway. Matt Forbeck ** 20:47 Oh, we all play games together. We have a great time. We do weekly game nights here. Sometimes they're movie nights, sometimes they're just pizza nights, but we shoot for game and pizza Speaker 1 ** 20:56 if we get lucky and your wife goes along with all this too. Matt Forbeck ** 21:00 She does. She doesn't go to the game conventions and stuff as much, and she's not as hardcore of a gamer, but she likes hanging out with the kids and doing everything with us. We have a great time. Speaker 1 ** 21:10 That's that's pretty cool. Well, you, you've got, you've got to build an audience of some sorts, and that's neat that a couple of them are involved in it as well. So they really like what dad does, yeah, Matt Forbeck ** 21:23 yeah. We, I started taking them each to conventions, which are, you know, large gatherings gamers in real life. The biggest one is Gen Con, which happens in Indianapolis in August. And last year, I think, we had 72,000 people show up. And I started taking the kids when they were 10 years old, and my wife would come up with them then. And, you know, 10 years old is a lot. 72,000 people is a lot for a 10 year old. So she can mention one day and then to a park the next day, you know, decompress a lot, and then come back on Saturday and then leave on Sunday or whatever, so that we didn't have them too over stimulated. But they really grown to love it. I mean, it's part of our annual family traditions in the summer, is to go do these conventions and play lots of games with each other and meet new people too well. Speaker 1 ** 22:08 And I like the way you put it. The games are really puzzles, which they are, and it's and it's fun. If people would approach it that way, no matter what the game is, they're, they're aspects of puzzles involved in most everything that has to do with the game, and that's what makes it so fun. Matt Forbeck ** 22:25 Exactly, no. The interesting thing is, when you're playing with other people, the other people are changing the puzzles from their end that you have to solve on your end. And sometimes the puzzle is, how do I beat this person, or how do I defeat their strategy, or how do I make an alliance with somebody else so we can win? And it's really always very intriguing. There's so many different types of games. There's nowadays, there's like something like 50 to 100 new board games that come out and tabletop games every month, right? It's just like a fire hose. It's almost like, when I was starting out as a novelist, I would go into Barnes and Noble or borders and go, Oh my gosh, look at all these books. And now I do the same thing about games. It's just, it's incredible. Nobody, no one person, could keep up with all of them. Speaker 1 ** 23:06 Yeah, yeah, yeah, way too much. I would love to explore playing more video games, but I don't. I don't own a lot of the technology, although I'm sure that there are any number of them that can be played on a computer, but we'll have to really explore and see if we can find some. I know there are some that are accessible for like blind people with screen readers. I know that some people have written a few, which is kind of cool. Yeah. Matt Forbeck ** 23:36 And Xbox has got a new controller out that's meant to be accessible to large amount of people. I'm not sure, all the different aspects of it, but that's done pretty well, too Speaker 1 ** 23:44 well. And again, it comes down to making it a priority to put all of that stuff in. It's not like it's magic to do. It's just that people don't know how to do it. But I also think something else, which is, if you really make the products more usable, let's say by blind people with screen readers. You may be especially if it's well promoted, surprised. I'm not you necessarily, but people might well be surprised as to how many others might take advantage of it so that they don't necessarily have to look at the screen, or that you're forced to listen as well as look in order to figure out what's going on or take actions. Matt Forbeck ** 24:29 No, definitely true. It's, you know, people audio books are a massive thing nowadays. Games tend to fall further behind that way, but it's become this incredible thing that obviously, blind people get a great use out of but my wife is addicted to audio books now. She actually does more of those than she does reading. I mean, I technically think they're both reading. It's just one's done with yours and one's done with your eyes. Speaker 1 ** 24:51 Yeah, there's but there's some stuff, whether you're using your eyes or your fingers and reading braille, there's something about reading a book that way that's. Even so a little bit different than listening to it. Yeah, and there's you're drawn in in some ways, in terms of actually reading that you're not necessarily as drawn into when you're when you're listening to it, but still, really good audio book readers can help draw you in, which is important, too, Matt Forbeck ** 25:19 very much. So yeah, I think the main difference for reading, whether it's, you know, again, through Braille or through traditional print, is that you can stop. You can do it at your own pace. You can go back and look at things very easily, or read or check things, read things very easily. That you know, if you're reading, if you're doing an audio book, it just goes on and it's straight on, boom, boom, boom, pace. You can say, Wait, I'm going to put this down here. What was that thing? I remember back there? It was like three pages back, but it's really important, let me go check that right. Speaker 1 ** 25:50 There are some technologies that allow blind people and low vision people and others, like people with dyslexia to use an audio book and actually be able to navigate two different sections of it. But it's not something that is generally available to the whole world, at least to the level that it is for blind people. But I can, I can use readers that are made to be able to accept the different formats and go back and look at pages, go back and look at headings, and even create bookmarks to bookmark things like you would normally by using a pen or a pencil or something like that. So there are ways to do some of that. So again, the technology is making strides. Matt Forbeck ** 26:37 That's fantastic. Actually, it's wonderful. Just, yeah, it's great. I actually, you know, I lost half the vision of my right eye during back through an autoimmune disease about 13 years ago, and I've always had poor vision. So I'm a big fan of any kind of way to make things easier, Speaker 1 ** 26:54 like that. Well, there, there are things that that are available. It's pretty amazing. A guy named George curser. Curser created a lot of it years ago, and it's called the DAISY format. And the whole idea behind it is that you can actually create a book. In addition to the audio tracks, there are XML files that literally give you the ability to move and navigate around the book, depending on how it's created, as final level as you choose. Matt Forbeck ** 27:25 Oh, that's That's amazing. That's fantastic. I'm actually really glad to hear that. Speaker 1 ** 27:28 So, yeah, it is kind of fun. So there's a lot of technology that's that's doing a lot of different sorts of things and and it helps. But um, so for you, in terms of dealing with, with the games, you've, you've written games, but you've, you've actually written some novels as well, right? Matt Forbeck ** 27:50 Yeah, I've got like 30, it depends on how you count a novel, right? Okay, like some of my books are to pick a path books, right? Choose Your Own Adventure type stuff. So, but I've got 35 traditional novels written or more, I guess, now, I lost track a while ago, and probably another dozen of these interactive fiction books as well. So, and I like doing those. I've also written things like Marvel encyclopedias and Avengers encyclopedias and all sorts of different pop culture books. And, you know, I like playing in different worlds. I like writing science fiction, fantasy, even modern stuff. And most of it, for me comes down to telling stories, right? If you like to tell stories, you can tell stories through a game or book or audio play or a TV show or a comic, or I've done, you know, interactive museum, games and displays, things like that. The main thing is really a story. I mean, if you're comfortable sitting down at a bar and having a drink with somebody, doesn't have to be alcohol, just sitting down and telling stories with each other for fun. That's where the core of it all is really Speaker 1 ** 28:58 right. Tell me about interactive fiction book. Matt Forbeck ** 29:01 Sure, a lot of these are basically just done, like flow charts, kind of like the original Zork and adventure that you were talking about where you I actually, I was just last year, I brought rose Estes, who's the inventor of the endless quest books, which were a cross between Dungeons and Dragons, and choose your own adventure books. She would write the whole thing out page by page on a typewriter, and then, in order to shuffle the pages around so that people wouldn't just read straight through them, she'd throw them all up in the air and then just put them back in whatever order they happen to be. But essentially, you read a section of a book, you get to the end, and it gives you a choice. Would you like to go this way or that way? Would you like to go beat up this goblin? Or would you like to make friends with this warrior over here? If you want to do one of these things, go do page xx, right? Got it. So then you turn to that page and you go, boom, some, actually, some of the endless quest books I know were turned into audio books, right? And I actually, I. Um, oddly, have written a couple Dungeons and Dragons, interactive books, audio books that have only been released in French, right? Because there's a company called Looney l, u n, i, i that has this little handheld device that's for children, that has an A and a B button and a volume button. And you, you know, you get to the point that says, if you want to do this, push a, if you want to do that, push B, and the kids can go through these interactive stories and and, you know, there's ones for clue and Dungeons and Dragons and all sorts of other licenses, and some original stories too. But that way there's usually, like, you know, it depends on the story, but sometimes there's, like, 10 to 20 different endings. A lot of them are like, Oh no, you've been killed. Go back to where you started, right? And if you're lucky, the longer ones are, the more fun ones. And you get to, you know, save the kingdom and rescue the people and make good friends and all that good stuff, Michael Hingson ** 30:59 yeah, and maybe fall in love with the princess or Prince. Matt Forbeck ** 31:02 Yeah, exactly right. It all depends on the genre and what you're working in. But the idea is to give people some some choices over how they want the story to go. You're like, Well, do you want to investigate this dark, cold closet over here, or would you rather go running outside and playing around? And some of them can seem like very innocent choices, and other ones are like, well, uh, 10 ton weight just fell on. You go back to the last thing. Speaker 1 ** 31:23 So that dark hole closet can be a good thing or a bad thing, Matt Forbeck ** 31:28 exactly. And the trick is to make the deaths the bad endings, actually just as entertaining as anything else, right? And then people go, Well, I got beat, and I gotta go back and try that again. So yeah, if they just get the good ending all the way through, they often won't go back and look at all the terrible ones. So it's fun to trick them sometimes and have them go into terrible spots. And I like to put this one page in books too that sometimes says, How did you get here? You've been cheating there. This book, this page, is actually not led to from any other part of the book. You're just flipping Speaker 1 ** 31:59 through. Cheater, cheater book, do what you Matt Forbeck ** 32:04 want, but if you want to play it the right way, go back. Speaker 1 ** 32:07 Kid, if you want to play the game. Yeah, exactly. On the other hand, some people are nosy. Matt Forbeck ** 32:15 You know, I was always a kid who would poke around and wanted to see how things were, so I'm sure I would have found that myself but absolutely related, you know, Speaker 1 ** 32:23 yeah, I had a general science teacher who brought in a test one day, and he gave it to everyone. And so he came over to me because it was, it was a printed test. He said, Well, I'm not going to give you the test, because the first thing it says is, read all the instructions, read, read the test through before you pass it, before you take it. And he said, most people won't do that. And he said, I know you would. And the last question on the test is answer, only question one. Matt Forbeck ** 32:55 That's great. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, Speaker 1 ** 32:57 that was cute. And he said, I know that. I that there's no way you would, would would fall for that, because you would say, Okay, let's read the instructions and then read the whole test. That's what it said. And the instruction were, just read the whole test before you start. And people won't do that. Matt Forbeck ** 33:13 No, they'll go through, take the whole thing. They get there and go, oh, did I get there? Was a, there's a game publisher. I think it was Steve Jackson Games, when they were looking for people, write for them, or design stuff for them, or submit stuff to them, would have something toward the end of the instructions that would say, put like a the letter seven, or put seven a on page one right, and that way they would know if you had read the instructions, if you hadn't bothered to Read the instructions, they wouldn't bother reading anything else. Speaker 1 ** 33:42 Yeah, which is fair, because the a little harsh, well, but, but, you know, we often don't learn enough to pay attention to details. I know that when I was taking physics in college, that was stressed so often it isn't enough to get the numbers right. If you don't get the units right as well. Then you're, you're not really paying attention to the details. And paying attention to the details is so important. Matt Forbeck ** 34:07 That's how they crash from those Mars rovers, wasn't it? They somebody messed up the units, but going back and forth between metric and, yeah, and Imperial and, well, you know, it cost somebody a lot of money at one point. Yeah. Yeah. What do you Speaker 1 ** 34:21 this is kind of the way it goes. Well, tell me, yeah. Well, they do matter, no matter what people think, sometimes they do matter. Well, tell me about the Diana Jones award. First of all, of course, the logical question for many people is, who is Diana Jones? Yeah, Diana Jones doesn't exist, right? That's There you go. She's part game somewhere? No, no, it doesn't be in a game somewhere. Matt Forbeck ** 34:43 Then now there's actually an author named Diana Wynne Jones, who's written some amazing fantasy stories, including Howell's Moving Castle, which has turned into a wonderful anime movie, but it has nothing to do with her or any other person. Because originally, the Diana Jones award came about. Because a friend of mine, James Wallace, had somehow stumbled across a trophy that fell into his hands, and it was a pub trivia trophy that used to be used between two different gaming companies in the UK, and one of those was TSR, UK, the United Kingdom department. And at one point, the company had laid off everybody in that division just say, Okay, we're closing it all down. So the guys went and burned a lot of the stuff that they had, including a copy of the Indiana Jones role playing game, and the only part of the logo that was left said Diana Jones. And for some reason, they put this in a in a fiberglass or Plexiglas pyramid, put it on a base, a wooden base, and it said the Diana Jones award trophy, right? And this was the trophy that they used they passed back and forth as a joke for their pub trivia contest. Fell into James's hands, and he decided, You know what, we're going to give this out for the most excellent thing in gaming every year. And we've now done this. This will be 25 years this summer. We do it at the Wednesday night before Gen Con, which starts on Thursday, usually at the end of July or early August. And as part of that, actually, about five years ago, we started, one of the guys suggested we should do something called the emerging designers program. So we actually became a 501, c3, so we could take donations. And now we take four designers every year, fly them in from wherever they happen to be in the world, and put them up in a hotel, give them a badge the show, introduce them to everybody, give them an honorarium so they can afford to skip work for a week and try to help launch their careers. I mean, these are people that are in the first three years of their design careers, and we try to work mostly with marginalized or et cetera, people who need a little bit more representation in the industry too. Although we can select anybody, and it's been really well received, it's been amazing. And there's a group called the bundle of holding which sells tabletop role playing game PDFs, and they've donated 10s of 1000s of dollars every year for us to be able to do this. And it's kind of funny, because I never thought I'd be end up running a nonprofit, but here I'm just the guy who writes checks to the different to the emerging designer program. Folks are much more tied into that community that I am. But one of the real reasons I wanted to do something like that or be involved with it, because if you wander around with these conventions and you notice that it starts getting very gray after a while, right? It's you're like, oh, there's no new people coming in. It's all older people. I we didn't I didn't want us to all end up as like the Grandpa, grandpa doing the HO model railroad stuff in the basement, right? This dying hobby that only people in their 60s and 70s care about. So bringing in fresh people, fresh voices, I think, is very important, and hopefully we're doing some good with that. It's been a lot of fun either way. Speaker 1 ** 37:59 Well, I have you had some success with it? Yeah, we've Matt Forbeck ** 38:02 had, well, let's see. I think we've got like 14 people. We've brought in some have already gone on to do some amazing things. I mean, it's only been a few years, so it's hard to tell if they're gonna be legends in their time, but again, having them as models for other people to look at and say, Oh, maybe I could do that. That's been a great thing. The other well, coincidentally, Dungeons and Dragons is having its best 10 year streak in its history right now, and probably is the best selling it's ever been. So coinciding with that, we've seen a lot more diversity and a lot more people showing up to these wonderful conventions and playing these kinds of games. There's also been an advent of this thing called actual play, which is the biggest one, is a group called Critical Role, which is a whole bunch of voice actors who do different cartoons and video games and such, and they play D and D with each other, and then they record the games, and they produce them on YouTube and for podcasts. And these guys are amazing. There's a couple of other ones too, like dimension 20 and glass cannon, the critical role guys actually sold out a live performance at Wembley Arena last summer. Wow. And dimension. Dimension 20 sold out Madison Square Garden. I'm like, if you'd have told me 20 years ago that you know you could sell out an entire rock stadium to have people watch you play Dungeons and Dragons, I would have laughed. I mean, there's no way it would have been possible. But now, you know, people are very much interested in this. It's kind of wild, and it's, it's fun to be a part of that. At some level, Speaker 1 ** 39:31 how does the audience get drawn in to something like that? Because they are watching it, but there must be something that draws them in. Matt Forbeck ** 39:39 Yeah, part of it is that you have some really skilled some actors are very funny, very traumatic and very skilled at improvisation, right? So the the dungeon master or Game Master will sit there and present them with an idea or whatever. They come up each with their own characters. They put them in wonderful, strong voices. They kind of inhabit the roles in a way that an actor. A really top level actor would, as opposed to just, you know, me sitting around a table with my friends. And because of that, they become compelling, right? My Marty and my his wife and I were actually at a convention in Columbus, Ohio last weekend, and this group called the McElroy family, actually, they do my brother, my brother and me, which is a hit podcast, but they also do an actual play podcast called The Adventure zone, where they just play different games. And they are so funny. These guys are just some of the best comedians you'll ever hear. And so them playing, they actually played our Marvel game for a five game session, or a five podcast session, or whatever, and it was just stunningly fun to listen to. People are really talented mess around with something that we built right it's very edifying to see people enjoying something that you worked on. Speaker 1 ** 40:51 Do you find that the audiences get drawn in and they're actually sort of playing the game along, or as well? And may disagree with what some of the choices are that people make? Matt Forbeck ** 41:02 Oh, sure. But I mean, if the choices are made from a point of the character that's been expressed, that people are following along and they they already like the character, they might go, Oh, those mean, you know that guy, there are some characters they love to hate. There are some people they're they're angry at whatever, but they always really appreciate the actors. I mean, the actors have become celebrities in their own right. They've they sell millions of dollars for the comic books and animated TV shows and all these amazing things affiliated with their actual play stuff. And it's, I think it, part of it is because, it's because it makes the games more accessible. Some people are intimidated by these games. So it's not really, you know, from a from a physical disability kind of point. It's more of a it makes it more accessible for people to be nervous, to try these things on their own, or don't really quite get how they work. They can just sit down and pop up YouTube or their podcast program and listen into people doing a really good job at it. The unfortunate problem is that the converse of that is, when you're watching somebody do that good of a job at it, it's actually hard to live up to that right. Most people who play these games are just having fun with their friends around a table. They're not performing for, you know, 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of people. So there's a different level of investments, really, at that point, and some people have been known to be cowed by that, by that, or daunted by that. Speaker 1 ** 42:28 You work on a lot of different things. I gather at the same time. What do you what do you think about that? How do you like working on a lot of different projects? Or do you, do you more focus on one thing, but you've got several things going on, so you'll work on something for one day, then you'll work on something else. Or how do you how do you do it all? Matt Forbeck ** 42:47 That's a good question. I would love to just focus on one thing at a time. Now, you know the trouble is, I'm a freelancer, right? I don't set my I don't always get to say what I want to work on. I haven't had to look for work for over a decade, though, which has been great. People just come to me with interesting things. The trouble is that when you're a freelancer, people come in and say, Hey, let's work on this. I'm like, Yeah, tell me when you're ready to start. And you do that with like, 10 different people, and they don't always line up in sequence properly, right? Yeah? Sometimes somebody comes up and says, I need this now. And I'm like, Yeah, but I'm in the middle of this other thing right now, so I need to not sleep for another week, and I need to try to figure out how I'm going to put this in between other things I'm working on. And I have noticed that after I finish a project, it takes me about a day or three to just jump track. So if I really need to, I can do little bits here and there, but to just fully get my brain wrapped around everything I'm doing for a very complex project, takes me a day or three to say, Okay, now I'm ready to start this next thing and really devote myself to it. Otherwise, it's more juggling right now, having had all those kids, probably has prepared me to juggle. So I'm used to having short attention span theater going on in my head at all times, because I have to jump back and forth between things. But it is. It's a challenge, and it's a skill that you develop over time where you're like, Okay, I can put this one away here and work on this one here for a little while. Like today, yeah, I knew I was going to talk to you, Michael. So I actually had lined up another podcast that a friend of mine wanted to do with me. I said, Let's do them on the same day. This way I'm not interrupting my workflow so much, right? Makes sense? You know, try to gang those all together and the other little fiddly bits I need to do for administration on a day. Then I'm like, Okay, this is not a day off. It's just a day off from that kind of work. It's a day I'm focusing on this aspect of what I do. Speaker 1 ** 44:39 But that's a actually brings up an interesting point. Do you ever take a day off or do what do you do when you're when you deciding that you don't want to do gaming for a while? Matt Forbeck ** 44:49 Yeah, I actually kind of terrible. But you know, you know, my wife will often drag me off to places and say we're going to go do this when. Yes, we have a family cabin up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that we go to. Although, you know, my habit there is, I'll work. I'll start work in the morning on a laptop or iPad until my battery runs out, and then I shut it down, put on a charger, and then I go out and swim with everybody for the rest of the day. So it depends if I'm on a deadline or not, and I'm almost always on a deadline, but there are times I could take weekends off there. One of the great things of being a freelancer, though, and especially being a stay at home father, which is part of what I was doing, is that when things come up during the middle of the week, I could say, oh, sure, I can be flexible, right? The trouble is that I have to pay for that time on my weekends, a lot of the time, so I don't really get a lot of weekends off. On the other hand, I'm not I'm not committed to having to work every day of the week either, right? I need to go do doctor appointments, or we want to run off to Great America and do a theme park or whatever. I can do that anytime I want to. It's just I have to make up the time at other points during the week. Does your wife work? She does. She was a school social worker for many years, and now as a recruiter at a local technical college here called Black Hawk tech. And she's amazing, right? She's fantastic. She has always liked working. The only time she stopped working was for about a year and a half after the quads were born, I guess, two years. And that was the only time I ever took a job working with anybody else, because we needed the health insurance, so I we always got it through her. And then when she said, Well, I'm gonna stay home with the kids, which made tons of sense, I went and took a job with a video game company up in Madison, Wisconsin called Human Head Studios for about 18 months, 20 months. And then the moment she told me she was thinking about going back to work, I'm like, Oh, good, I can we can Cobra for 18 months and pay for our own health insurance, and I'm giving notice this week, and, you know, we'll work. I left on good terms that everybody. I still talk to them and whatever, but I very much like being my own boss and not worrying about what other people are going to tell me to do. I work with a lot of clients, which means I have a lot of people telling me what to do. But you know, if it turns out bad, I can walk I can walk away. If it turns out good, hopefully we get to do things together, like the the gig I've been working out with Marvel, I guess, has been going on for like, four years now, with pretty continuous work with them, and I'm enjoying every bit of it. They're great people to work with. Speaker 1 ** 47:19 Now, you were the president of Pinnacle entertainment for a little while. Tell me about that. Matt Forbeck ** 47:24 I was, that was a small gaming company I started up with a guy named Shane Hensley, who was another tabletop game designer. Our big game was something called Dead Lands, which was a Western zombie cowboy kind of thing. Oh gosh, Western horror. So. And it was pretty much a, you know, nobody was doing Western horror back in those days. So we thought, Oh, this is safe. And to give you an example of parallel development, we were six months into development, and another company, White Wolf, which had done a game called Vampire the Masquerade, announced that they were doing Werewolf the Wild West. And we're like, you gotta be kidding me, right? Fortunately, we still released our game three months before there, so everybody thought we were copying them, rather than the other way around. But the fact is, we were. We both just came up with the idea independently. Right? When you work in creative fields, often, if somebody wants to show you something, you say, I'd like to look at you have to sign a waiver first that says, If I do something like this, you can't sue me. And it's not because people are trying to rip you off. It's because they may actually be working on something similar, right already. Because we're all, you know, swimming in the same cultural pool. We're all, you know, eating the same cultural soup. We're watching or watching movies, playing games, doing whatever, reading books. And so it's not unusual that some of us will come up with similar ideas Speaker 1 ** 48:45 well, and it's not surprising that from time to time, two different people are going to come up with somewhat similar concepts. So that's not a big surprise, exactly, but Matt Forbeck ** 48:56 you don't want people getting litigious over it, like no, you don't be accused of ripping anybody off, right? You just want to be as upfront with people. With people. And I don't think I've ever actually seen somebody, at least in gaming, in tabletop games, rip somebody off like that. Just say, Oh, that's a great idea. We're stealing that it's easier to pay somebody to just say, Yes, that's a great idea. We'll buy that from you, right? As opposed to trying to do something unseemly and criminal? Speaker 1 ** 49:24 Yeah, there's, there's something to be said for having real honor in the whole process. Matt Forbeck ** 49:30 Yeah, I agree, and I think that especially if you're trying to have a long term career in any field that follows you, if you get a reputation for being somebody who plays dirty, nobody wants to play with you in the future, and I've always found it to be best to be as straightforward with people and honest, especially professionally, just to make sure that they trust you. Before my quadruplets were born, you could have set your clock by me as a freelancer, I never missed a deadline ever, and since then, I've probably it's a. Rare earth thing to make a deadline, because, you know, family stuff happens, and you know, there's just no controlling it. But whenever something does happen, I just call people up and say, hey, look, it's going to be another week or two. This is what's going on. And because I have a good reputation for completing the job and finishing quality work, they don't mind. They're like, Oh, okay, I know you're going to get this to me. You're not just trying to dodge me. So they're willing to wait a couple weeks if they need to, to get to get what they need. And I'm very grateful to them for that. And I'm the worst thing somebody can do is what do, what I call turtling down, which is when it's like, Oh no, I'm late. And then, you know, they cut off all communication. They don't talk to anybody. They just kind of try to disappear as much as they can. And we all, all adults, understand that things happen in your life. It's okay. We can cut you some slack every now and then, but if you just try to vanish, that's not even possible. Speaker 1 ** 50:54 No, there's a lot to be there's a lot to be said for trust and and it's so important, I think in most anything that we do, and I have found in so many ways, that there's nothing better than really earning someone's trust, and they earning your trust. And it's something I talk about in my books, like when live with a guide dog, live like a guide dog, which is my newest book, it talks a lot about trust, because when you're working with a guide dog, you're really building a team, and each member of the team has a specific job to do, and as the leader of the team, it's my job to also learn how to communicate with the other member of the team. But the reality is, it still comes down to ultimately, trust, because I and I do believe that dogs do love unconditionally, but they don't trust unconditionally. But the difference between dogs and people is that people that dogs are much more open to trust, for the most part, unless they've just been totally traumatized by something, but they're more open to trust. And there's a lesson to be learned there. No, I Matt Forbeck ** 52:03 absolutely agree with that. I think, I think most people in general are trustworthy, but as you say, a lot of them have trauma in their past that makes it difficult for them to open themselves up to that. So that's actually a pretty wonderful way to think about things. I like that, Speaker 1 ** 52:17 yeah, well, I think that trust is is so important. And I know when I worked in professional sales, it was all about trust. In fact, whenever I interviewed people for jobs, I always asked them what they were going to sell, and only one person ever answered me the way. I really hoped that everybody would answer when I said, So, tell me what you're going to be selling. He said, The only thing I have to really sell is myself and my word, and nothing else. It really matters. Everything else is stuff. What you have is stuff. It's me selling myself and my word, and you have to, and I would expect you to back me up. And my response was, as long as you're being trustworthy, then you're going to get my backing all the way. And he was my most successful salesperson for a lot of reasons, because he got it. Matt Forbeck ** 53:08 Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I mean, I've worked with people sourcing different things too, for sales, and if you can rely on somebody to, especially when things go wrong, to come through for you. And to be honest with you about, you know, there's really that's a hard thing to find. If you can't depend on your sources for what you're building, then you can't depend on anything. Everything else falls apart. Speaker 1 ** 53:29 It does. You've got to start at the beginning. And if people can't earn your trust, and you earn theirs, there's a problem somewhere, and it's just not going to work. Matt Forbeck ** 53:39 Yeah, I just generally think people are decent and want to help. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've had issues. Car breaks down the road in Wisconsin. Here, if somebody's car goes in the ditch, everybody stops and just hauls them out. It's what you do when the quads were born, my stepmother came up with a sign up sheet, a booklet that she actually had spiral bound, that people could sign up every three three hours to help come over and feed and bathe, diaper, whatever the kids and we had 30 to 35 volunteers coming in every week. Wow, to help us out with that was amazing, right? They just each pick slots, feeding slots, and come in and help us out. I had to take the 2am feeding, and my wife had to take the 5am feeding by ourselves. But the rest of the week we had lots and lots of help, and we were those kids became the surrogate grandchildren for, you know, 30 to 35 women and couples really, around the entire area, and it was fantastic. Probably couldn't have survived Speaker 1 ** 54:38 without it. And the other part about it is that all those volunteers loved it, because you all appreciated each other, and it was always all about helping and assisting. Matt Forbeck ** 54:48 No, we appreciate them greatly. But you know every most of them, like 99% of them, whatever were women, 95 women who are ready for grandchildren and didn't have them. Had grandchildren, and they weren't in the area, right? And they had that, that love they wanted to share, and they just loved the opportunity to do it. It was, I'm choking up here talking about such a great time for us in Speaker 1 ** 55:11 that way. Now I'm assuming today, nobody has to do diaper duty with the quads, right? Matt Forbeck ** 55:16 Not until they have their own kids. Just checking, just checking, thankfully, think we're that is long in our past, Speaker 1 ** 55:23 is it? Is it coming fairly soon for anybody in the future? Matt Forbeck ** 55:27 Oh, I don't know. That's really entirely up to them. We would love to have grandchildren, but you know, it all comes in its own time. They're not doing no well. I, one of my sons is married, so it's possible, right? And one of my other sons has a long term girlfriend, so that's possible, but, you know, who knows? Hopefully they're they have them when they're ready. I always say, if you have kids and you want them, that's great. If you have, if you don't have kids and you don't want them, that's great. It's when you cross the two things that, Speaker 1 ** 55:57 yeah, trouble, yeah, that's that is, that is a problem. But you really like working with yourself. You love the entre
This episode of IQ Builder simplifies confusing SEO concepts by providing five common examples of how SEO sounds confusing: meta descriptions, JavaScript, XML sitemaps, robots.txt files, and 3XX redirects. Meredith's Husband explains how each works in plain language, using relatable examples. Timestamps[0:00] Introduction to Part Two of IQ Builder[0:24] SEO made into common sense[1:26] Myth about meta descriptions and SEO[2:30] How users interact with title tags vs meta descriptions[3:31] JavaScript and why it hurts SEO[5:53] XML sitemaps explained simply[7:09] Robots.txt as the mall security guard[8:50] Understanding 3XX redirect errors[10:30] Good vs bad redirects with hardware store example[11:59] Wrapping up with common sense SEO ---
En este episodio, exploraremos la ingeniería de prompts, definida como el diseño y optimización de instrucciones para la inteligencia artificial avanzada. Es una habilidad crucial para obtener resultados precisos, útiles y en el formato que necesitas. En el mundo actual, saber formular buenas preguntas a la IA se ha convertido en el "nuevo buscar en Google" y en una ventaja competitiva indispensable. Es aprender a comunicarse eficazmente con la IA. Aprenderás por qué la ingeniería de prompts es fundamental para sacarle provecho a la IA más allá de lo básico, mejorando la calidad, precisión y utilidad de las respuestas y reduciendo las "alucinaciones" de los modelos. Esta práctica es un proceso iterativo que implica entender cómo funcionan los modelos de IA generativa, cómo procesan e interpretan el texto y cómo pequeñas variaciones en la redacción del prompt pueden generar resultados completamente diferentes. Cubriremos técnicas esenciales y avanzadas, aplicables a modelos de lenguaje grandes (LLMs) como GPT, Gemini, Grock, Claude y Deepseek, así como a IA de generación de imágenes. Recordaremos que los LLM son motores de predicción que pronostican las siguientes palabras basándose en el prompt, no poseen conciencia en el sentido humano. Las técnicas que abordaremos incluyen: • Roll Prompting o "Actúa como": Asignar un rol específico a la IA (experto, tutor, profesor, gerente de marketing, agente de ventas, médico, psicólogo) para guiar una comunicación contextualizada y precisa. La especificidad del rol (ej., "doctor especializado en pediatría") es clave para obtener mejores resultados. • Formato de Salida o Formatting Enhancement: Indicar el formato exacto que deseas para la respuesta (JSON, XML, YAML, tabular, viñetas, cadenas de texto específicas, etc.). Esto es crucial para la manipulación posterior de los datos. • Shot Prompting (Zero, One, Few-Shot): Proporcionar ejemplos (ninguno, uno o varios) para guiar al modelo hacia el tipo, formato y estructura de respuesta deseado. Múltiples ejemplos ayudan a captar la complejidad y las variaciones del escenario. • Uso de Delimitadores: Emplear palabras clave o símbolos (comillas triples, triples guiones, corchetes angulares, tags de XML, triple igual) para separar diferentes partes del prompt (instrucciones, contexto, ejemplos) para un mejor entendimiento por parte de la IA y para prevenir ataques de "prompt injection". • Contexto Detallado: Ofrecer información exhaustiva sobre el escenario, la empresa, la tarea o la audiencia para que la IA genere respuestas más relevantes y adaptadas. • Instrucciones Paso a Paso (Chain of Thought / Guided Prompting): Desglosar tareas complejas en una secuencia clara de pasos, solicitando a la IA que "piense en voz alta" o que "razone paso a paso" para mejorar la precisión y calidad de su razonamiento. • Metaprompting: Usar la IA para que te ayude a crear o mejorar tus propios prompts, pidiéndole que actúe como un ingeniero de prompts. • Placeholders: Utilizar marcadores temporales dentro de un prompt para representar variables o texto que será reemplazado, muy útil para generar plantillas reutilizables. • Patrón de Reflexión: Indicar al modelo que trabaje en su propia solución y luego la compare con otra (que él mismo pudo haber creado o que fue proporcionada) para mejorar la calidad de las respuestas. • Patrón React (Reasoning + Action): Invita al modelo a razonar y a tomar acciones (como visitar sitios web o realizar búsquedas específicas) antes de llegar a una conclusión, siendo más potente que el Chain of Thought en ciertos escenarios. • Filtro Semántico: Utilizado para identificar y filtrar datos confidenciales (como números de tarjeta de crédito) en documentos o prompts, asegurando la privacidad y el cumplimiento de regulaciones. • Prompt Highlighting: Emplear negritas, subrayados o viñetas para enfocar la atención del LLM y obtener mejores respuestas. • Instrucciones Positivas vs. Restricciones Negativas: Es más claro decirle a la IA lo que quieres que haga (instrucción positiva) que lo que no quieres que haga (restricción negativa), aunque estas últimas son útiles para evitar contenido dañino o formatos estrictos. • Automatic Prompt Engineering: Un método para generar prompts de manera automática, utilizando metaprompts, donde un prompt escribe otros prompts. • Roles del Prompt (Sistema, Usuario, Asistente): Comprender cómo interactúan estos roles para dar contexto, propósito e instrucciones específicas al modelo, y cómo el rol de asistente puede usarse para simular ejemplos y mejorar la calidad. Este podcast está especialmente diseñado para analistas de datos que buscan potenciar su trabajo con la inteligencia artificial, con ejemplos prácticos en la transformación, creación de cálculos y adopción de visualizaciones de datos. La práctica constante es clave para dominar esta habilidad. ¡Prepárate para llevar tus habilidades de comunicación con la IA al siguiente nivel!
What Are the Best Blogging and Publishing SEO Practices for New or Established Websites? (Digital Marketing Masterclass with Favour Obasi-Ike) | Get exclusive SEO newsletters in your inbox.This marketing discussion from Clubhouse audio centers on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its role in online business growth, particularly through blog content. It emphasizes that SEO is more than just ranking; it's a consistent strategy for online visibility. Favour Obasi-Ike recommends publishing blog posts regularly, suggesting one to two per week for new businesses and three to four for established ones, while also stressing the importance of updating older content to maintain relevance and a competitive edge. Furthermore, the conversation highlights the significance of structured data, diverse content formats (text, audio, video), and distributing content across various platforms to maximize reach and engagement, ultimately leading to organic traffic and reduced advertising costs.FAQs on SEO Content Strategy for Online GrowthHow often should a new website publish blog posts for SEO?For a new website just starting out and building momentum, it's recommended to publish one to two blog posts per week. This approach allows a new business or solopreneur to establish a consistent online presence without feeling overwhelmed. Publishing once a week translates to 52 new web links annually, which can significantly contribute to a website's visibility on search engines like Google, ChatGPT, and Bing. This frequency is considered a "gear one to gear three" strategy, focusing on foundational content and answering common customer questions.What is the recommended blog post frequency for established businesses aiming for accelerated growth?Established businesses looking to drive fast and significantly boost their SEO should aim to publish anywhere from three to four times a week. This higher frequency, referred to as moving from "gear one to gear five," is for businesses with the resources to create consistent, high-quality content. The more frequently new and updated content is published, the faster search engines like Google understand the website's relevance and authority, leading to improved rankings and increased organic traffic.Beyond initial publication, how important is updating old blog posts for SEO?Updating old blog posts is crucial for maintaining SEO relevance and extending the lifespan of your content. Every time an article is updated (given a "last modified" date), it resets its 24-month relevance cycle with search engines. This combats "content decay," where older, un-updated articles lose visibility to newer, more recent information on the same topic. Best practices suggest updating content monthly or at least quarterly. Updates can include adding FAQs, recent statistics, use cases, quotes, videos, or other rich media. This consistent updating signals to search engines that your content remains current, practical, and authoritative, improving its chances of ranking higher and for longer.What are the "three levels" of showing up online that are critical for SEO?The three critical levels for showing up online in a systematic and structural way are:Website: This is the overall digital presence, providing the "full platter" of your brand and offerings.Web Page: This refers to individual pages within the website that contain specific content. It's the "content of the website."Web Link (Blog Post/Article): These are the individual pieces of content that provide access to the specific information on a web page. They serve as "leading tools" for growth and are the primary way people find content on search engines. These three layers must work together, much like the components of a burger or sandwich, for effective online visibility.How do search engines evaluate content, and what role does "structured data" play?Search engines evaluate content by reading both the visible text (HTML) and the underlying script (XML). To rank effectively, content needs to be presented as "structured data," which goes beyond just getting a raw response from an AI tool. Structured data includes elements like headings, titles, metadata, schema markup, internal and external links, images with alt text, and other organizational components. These elements help search engines understand the context, relevance, and relationships within your content, making it easier for them to index and rank your pages for relevant queries. Search engines, including AI platforms like ChatGPT, scan the top 20 Google results for relevance, recency, and practicality, aligning with Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) guidelines.How can businesses maximize the reach and impact of their blog content beyond just publishing it on their website?To maximize reach, blog content should be actively distributed across various platforms, treating each blog post as a valuable piece of intellectual property. This includes:Email lists: Sending new blog posts to subscribers.Social Media: Sharing content on platforms like YouTube (as video), X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, Pinterest, and Threads.Content Repurposing: Transforming blog posts into videos, podcasts, infographics, or other formats to suit different platforms and audience preferences.Connecting with other content: For instance, ensuring every podcast episode has a corresponding blog post to appear on Google.This multi-channel approach leverages both search (people actively looking for information) and social (content being discovered in feeds) to drive traffic and engagement, increasing the chances of content being seen and resonated with.What is the impact of regularly updating website content on search engine understanding and overall business value?Regularly updating website content, particularly blog posts, significantly enhances search engine understanding of your business and its offerings. The more often you update your content, the more thoroughly Google and other search engines comprehend your topics, expertise, and relevance. This consistent engagement builds trust and authority. Furthermore, the content on your website contributes directly to its intellectual property and overall business value. Just as renovating a house adds value, adding and updating content to your domain increases its worth, making it a more attractive asset for potential scaling or sale. A diverse range of well-optimized content allows your website to "tackle different channels" and answer a broader spectrum of user questions, akin to a television offering many channels.What are common pitfalls to avoid when creating content for SEO, especially regarding AI tools?A major pitfall to avoid is simply copying and pasting content generated by AI tools like ChatGPT without further refinement. While AI can be useful for gathering information or suggesting ideas, the output is often "unstructured data." Directly using such content can lead to penalties from search engines because it may regurgitate information already available elsewhere, lacking originality, structure, and the human touch that builds E-E-A-T. Instead, AI tools should be used strategically:Restructuring: Use AI to rewrite content in a specific style (e.g., lifestyle blog, third-person with quotes and attributions).Idea Generation: Obtain content ideas or initial drafts.Enhancement: Incorporate AI-generated elements after thorough review and integration into your structured format.The goal is to transform unstructured AI output into well-structured, original, and valuable content that resonates with both human readers and search engine algorithms.Digital Marketing SEO Resources:>> Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community>> Read SEO Articles>> Need SEO Services? 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Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham as they chat with Yunus Mohammed, a Principal Instructor at Oracle University, about the key stages of AI model development. From gathering and preparing data to selecting, training, and deploying models, learn how each phase impacts AI's real-world effectiveness. The discussion also highlights why monitoring AI performance and addressing evolving challenges are critical for long-term success. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. -------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:25 Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last episode, we spoke about generative AI and gen AI agents. Today, we're going to look at the key stages in a typical AI workflow. We'll also discuss how data quality, feedback loops, and business goals influence AI success. With us today is Yunus Mohammed, a Principal Instructor at Oracle University. 01:00 Lois: Hi Yunus! We're excited to have you here! Can you walk us through the various steps in developing and deploying an AI model? Yunus: The first point is the collect data. We gather relevant data, either historical or real time. Like customer transactions, support tickets, survey feedbacks, or sensor logs. A travel company, for example, can collect past booking data to predict future demand. So, data is the most crucial and the important component for building your AI models. But it's not just the data. You need to prepare the data. In the prepared data process, we clean, organize, and label the data. AI can't learn from messy spreadsheets. We try to make the data more understandable and organized, like removing duplicates, filling missing values in the data with some default values or formatting dates. All these comes under organization of the data and give a label to the data, so that the data becomes more supervised. After preparing the data, I go for selecting the model to train. So now, we pick what type of model fits your goals. It can be a traditional ML model or a deep learning network model, or it can be a generative model. The model is chosen based on the business problems and the data we have. So, we train the model using the prepared data, so it can learn the patterns of the data. Then after the model is trained, I need to evaluate the model. You check how well the model performs. Is it accurate? Is it fair? The metrics of the evaluation will vary based on the goal that you're trying to reach. If your model misclassifies emails as spam and it is doing it very much often, then it is not ready. So I need to train it further. So I need to train it to a level when it identifies the official mail as official mail and spam mail as spam mail accurately. After evaluating and making sure your model is perfectly fitting, you go for the next step, which is called the deploy model. Once we are happy, we put it into the real world, like into a CRM, or a web application, or an API. So, I can configure that with an API, which is application programming interface, or I add it to a CRM, Customer Relationship Management, or I add it to a web application that I've got. Like for example, a chatbot becomes available on your company's website, and the chatbot might be using a generative AI model. Once I have deployed the model and it is working fine, I need to keep track of this model, how it is working, and need to monitor and improve whenever needed. So I go for a stage, which is called as monitor and improve. So AI isn't set in and forget it. So over time, there are lot of changes that is happening to the data. So we monitor performance and retrain when needed. An e-commerce recommendation model needs updates as there might be trends which are shifting. So the end user finally sees the results after all the processes. A better product, or a smarter service, or a faster decision-making model, if we do this right. That is, if we process the flow perfectly, they may not even realize AI is behind it to give them the accurate results. 04:59 Nikita: Got it. So, everything in AI begins with data. But what are the different types of data used in AI development? Yunus: We work with three main types of data: structured, unstructured, and semi-structured. Structured data is like a clean set of tables in Excel or databases, which consists of rows and columns with clear and consistent data information. Unstructured is messy data, like your email or customer calls that records videos or social media posts, so they all comes under unstructured data. Semi-structured data is things like logs on XML files or JSON files. Not quite neat but not entirely messy either. So they are, they are termed semi-structured. So structured, unstructured, and then you've got the semi-structured. 05:58 Nikita: Ok… and how do the data needs vary for different AI approaches? Yunus: Machine learning often needs labeled data. Like a bank might feed past transactions labeled as fraud or not fraud to train a fraud detection model. But machine learning also includes unsupervised learning, like clustering customer spending behavior. Here, no labels are needed. In deep learning, it needs a lot of data, usually unstructured, like thousands of loan documents, call recordings, or scan checks. These are fed into the models and the neural networks to detect and complex patterns. Data science focus on insights rather than the predictions. So a data scientist at the bank might use customer relationship management exports and customer demographies to analyze which age group prefers credit cards over the loans. Then we have got generative AI that thrives on diverse, unstructured internet scalable data. Like it is getting data from books, code, images, chat logs. So these models, like ChatGPT, are trained to generate responses or mimic the styles and synthesize content. So generative AI can power a banking virtual assistant trained on chat logs and frequently asked questions to answer customer queries 24/7. 07:35 Lois: What are the challenges when dealing with data? Yunus: Data isn't just about having enough. We must also think about quality. Is it accurate and relevant? Volume. Do we have enough for the model to learn from? And is my data consisting of any kind of unfairly defined structures, like rejecting more loan applications from a certain zip code, which actually gives you a bias of data? And also the privacy. Are we handling personal data responsibly or not? Especially data which is critical or which is regulated, like the banking sector or health data of the patients. Before building anything smart, we must start smart. 08:23 Lois: So, we've established that collecting the right data is non-negotiable for success. Then comes preparing it, right? Yunus: This is arguably the most important part of any AI or data science project. Clean data leads to reliable predictions. Imagine you have a column for age, and someone accidentally entered an age of like 999. That's likely a data entry error. Or maybe a few rows have missing ages. So we either fix, remove, or impute such issues. This step ensures our model isn't misled by incorrect values. Dates are often stored in different formats. For instance, a date, can be stored as the month and the day values, or it can be stored in some places as day first and month next. We want to bring everything into a consistent, usable format. This process is called as transformation. The machine learning models can get confused if one feature, like example the income ranges from 10,000 to 100,000, and another, like the number of kids, range from 0 to 5. So we normalize or scale values to bring them to a similar range, say 0 or 1. So we actually put it as yes or no options. So models don't understand words like small, medium, or large. We convert them into numbers using encoding. One simple way is assigning 1, 2, and 3 respectively. And then you have got removing stop words like the punctuations, et cetera, and break the sentence into smaller meaningful units called as tokens. This is actually used for generative AI tasks. In deep learning, especially for Gen AI, image or audio inputs must be of uniform size and format. 10:31 Lois: And does each AI system have a different way of preparing data? Yunus: For machine learning ML, focus is on cleaning, encoding, and scaling. Deep learning needs resizing and normalization for text and images. Data science, about reshaping, aggregating, and getting it ready for insights. The generative AI needs special preparation like chunking, tokenizing large documents, or compressing images. 11:06 Oracle University's Race to Certification 2025 is your ticket to free training and certification in today's hottest tech. Whether you're starting with Artificial Intelligence, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Multicloud, or Oracle Data Platform, this challenge covers it all! Learn more about your chance to win prizes and see your name on the Leaderboard by visiting education.oracle.com/race-to-certification-2025. That's education.oracle.com/race-to-certification-2025. 11:50 Nikita: Welcome back! Yunus, how does a user choose the right model to solve their business problem? Yunus: Just like a business uses different dashboards for marketing versus finance, in AI, we use different model types, depending on what we are trying to solve. Like classification is choosing a category. Real-world example can be whether the email is a spam or not. Use in fraud detection, medical diagnosis, et cetera. So what you do is you classify that particular data and then accurately access that classification of data. Regression, which is used for predicting a number, like, what will be the price of a house next month? Or it can be a useful in common forecasting sales demands or on the cost. Clustering, things without labels. So real-world examples can be segmenting customers based on behavior for targeted marketing. It helps discovering hidden patterns in large data sets. Generation, that is creating new content. So AI writing product description or generating images can be a real-world example for this. And it can be used in a concept of generative AI models like ChatGPT or Dall-E, which operates on the generative AI principles. 13:16 Nikita: And how do you train a model? Yunus: We feed it with data in small chunks or batches and then compare its guesses to the correct values, adjusting its thinking like weights to improve next time, and the cycle repeats until the model gets good at making predictions. So if you're building a fraud detection system, ML may be enough. If you want to analyze medical images, you will need deep learning. If you're building a chatbot, go for a generative model like the LLM. And for all of these use cases, you need to select and train the applicable models as and when appropriate. 14:04 Lois: OK, now that the model's been trained, what else needs to happen before it can be deployed? Yunus: Evaluate the model, assess a model's accuracy, reliability, and real-world usefulness before it's put to work. That is, how often is the model right? Does it consistently perform well? Is it practical in the real world to use this model or not? Because if I have bad predictions, doesn't just look bad, it can lead to costly business mistakes. Think of recommending the wrong product to a customer or misidentifying a financial risk. So what we do here is we start with splitting the data into two parts. So we train the data by training data. And this is like teaching the model. And then we have got the testing data. This is actually used for checking how well the model has learned. So once trained, the model makes predictions. We compare the predictions to the actual answers, just like checking your answer after a quiz. We try to go in for tailored evaluation based on AI types. Like machine learning, we care about accuracy in prediction. Deep learning is about fitting complex data like voice or images, where the model repeatedly sees examples and tunes itself to reduce errors. Data science, we look for patterns and insights, such as which features will matter. In generative AI, we judge by output quality. Is it coherent, useful, and is it natural? The model improves with the accuracy and the number of epochs the training has been done on. 15:59 Nikita: So, after all that, we finally come to deploying the model… Yunus: Deploying a model means we are integrating it into our actual business system. So it can start making decisions, automating tasks, or supporting customer experiences in real time. Think of it like this. Training is teaching the model. Evaluating is testing it. And deployment is giving it a job. The model needs a home either in the cloud or inside your company's own servers. Think of it like putting the AI in place where it can be reached by other tools. Exposed via API or embedded in an app, or you can say application, this is how the AI becomes usable. Then, we have got the concept of receives live data and returns predictions. So receives live data and returns prediction is when the model listens to real-time inputs like a user typing, or user trying to search or click or making a transaction, and then instantly, your AI responds with a recommendation, decisions, or results. Deploying the model isn't the end of the story. It is just the beginning of the AI's real-world journey. Models may work well on day one, but things change. Customer behavior might shift. New products get introduced in the market. Economic conditions might evolve, like the era of COVID, where the demand shifted and the economical conditions actually changed. 17:48 Lois: Then it's about monitoring and improving the model to keep things reliable over time. Yunus: The monitor and improve loop is a continuous process that ensures an AI model remains accurate, fair, and effective after deployment. The live predictions, the model is running in real time, making decisions or recommendations. The monitor performance are those predictions still accurate and helpful. Is latency acceptable? This is where we track metrics, user feedbacks, and operational impact. Then, we go for detect issues, like accuracy is declining, are responses feeling biased, are customers dropping off due to long response times? And the next step will be to reframe or update the model. So we add fresh data, tweak the logic, or even use better architectures to deploy the uploaded model, and the new version replaces the old one and the cycle continues again. 18:58 Lois: And are there challenges during this step? Yunus: The common issues, which are related to monitor and improve consist of model drift, bias, and latency of failures. In model drift, the model becomes less accurate as the environment changes. Or bias, the model may favor or penalize certain groups unfairly. Latency or failures, if the model is too slow or fails unpredictably, it disrupts the user experience. Let's take the loan approvals. In loan approvals, if we notice an unusually high rejection rate due to model bias, we might retrain the model with more diverse or balanced data. For a chatbot, we watch for customer satisfaction, which might arise due to model failure and fine-tune the responses for the model. So in forecasting demand, if the predictions no longer match real trends, say post-pandemic, due to the model drift, we update the model with fresh data. 20:11 Nikita: Thanks for that, Yunus. Any final thoughts before we let you go? Yunus: No matter how advanced your model is, its effectiveness depends on the quality of the data you feed it. That means, the data needs to be clean, structured, and relevant. It should map itself to the problem you're solving. If the foundation is weak, the results will be also. So data preparation is not just a technical step, it is a business critical stage. Once deployed, AI systems must be monitored continuously, and you need to watch for drops in performance for any bias being generated or outdated logic, and improve the model with new data or refinements. That's what makes AI reliable, ethical, and sustainable in the long run. 21:09 Nikita: Yunus, thank you for this really insightful session. If you're interested in learning more about the topics we discussed today, go to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the AI for You course. Lois: That's right. You'll find skill checks to help you assess your understanding of these concepts. In our next episode, we'll discuss the idea of buy versus build in the context of AI. Until then, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off! 21:39 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.
In this episode, Craig Jeffery and Mayank Randev explore ISO 20022 and what it means for payments, cash reporting, and treasury strategy. They discuss how richer data and global standards offer more than compliance and open the door to automation, resilience, and better insights. How can corporates turn a required change into lasting value? Listen in to find out.
In this episode we dive into construction schedule progressingThe ChallengeA midsize general contractor asks, “Can you build a rock-solid, repeatable schedule-progressing program across every one of our projects?” They juggle different superintendents, uneven data, and scattered PDFs. They want one standard and a clear path to improve it. On the hot seat: Miles Haynes , Senior Scheduler at Oakland Construction and creator of Stride Schedule .Stride replaces those smudged PDFs with a browser-based interface that mirrors the familiar P6 layout, lets supers tap actual dates on the fly, and feeds a clean XML back to the master schedule, no late-night data entry, no guesswork.Click here to update you construction schedule in minutes with Stride.Continue LearningCheck out our new book The Critical Path Career: How to Advance in Construction Planning and SchedulingSubscribe to the Beyond Deadlines Email NewsletterSubscribe to the Beyond Deadlines Linkedin NewsletterCheck Out Our YouTube Channel.ConnectFollow Micah, Greg, and Beyond Deadlines on LinkedIn.Beyond DeadlineIt's time to raise your career to new heights with Beyond Deadlines, the ultimate destination for construction planners and schedulers. Our podcast is designed to be your go-to guide whether you're starting out in this dynamic field, transitioning from another sector, or you're a seasoned professional. Through our cutting-edge content, practical advice, and innovative tools, we help you succeed in today's fast-evolving construction planning and scheduling landscape without relying on expensive certifications and traditional educational paths. Join us on Beyond Deadlines, where we empower you to shape the future of construction planning and scheduling, making it more efficient, effective, and accessible than ever before.About MicahMicah, the CEO of Movar US is an Intel and Google alumnus, champions next-gen planning and scheduling at both tech giants. Co-founder of Google's Computer Vision in Construction Team, he's saved projects millions via tech advancements. He writes two construction planning and scheduling newsletters and mentors the next generation of construction planners. He holds a Master of Science in Project Management, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.About GregGreg, an Astrophysicist turned project guru, managed £100M+ defense programs at BAE Systems (UK) and advised on international strategy. Now CEO at Nodes and Links, he's revolutionizing projects with pioneering AI Project Controls in Construction. Experience groundbreaking strategies with Greg's expertise.Topics We Coverchange management, communication, construction planning, construction, construction scheduling, creating teams, critical path method, cpm, culture, KPI, microsoft project, milestone tracking, oracle, p6, project planning, planning, planning engineer, pmp, portfolio management, predictability, presenting, primavera p6, project acceleration, project budgeting, project controls, project management, project planning, program management, resource allocation, risk management, schedule acceleration, scheduling, scope management, task sequencing, construction, construction reporting, prefabrication, preconstruction, modular construction, modularization, automation, Power BI, dashboard, metrics, process improvement, reporting, schedule consultancy, planning consultancy, material management
Primeramente sería interesante habla de la definición de inteligencia y una explicación podría ser: “La inteligencia se define como la capacidad de entender, comprender y aplicar conocimientos, razonar, resolver problemas y adaptarse al entorno.” Tener en cuenta que en todos los mitos creacionistas siempre que se le da al hombre el alito de vida se le da la inteligencia. En el Génesis, Dios sopla en la nariz de Adán y este se convierte en un “alma viviente”. Pero ese aliento no es solo oxígeno...es inteligencia, capacidad de nombrar las cosas, de distinguir, de elegir. Si eso es inteligencia ¿ la IA que es? Una definición que nos dan es; Disciplina científica que se ocupa de crear programas informáticos que ejecutan operaciones comparables a las que realiza la mente humana. Como el aprendizaje y el razonamiento lógico.Pero hay dos capacidades críticas que siguen siendo exclusivas de los seres humanos: la auténtica invención y la creatividad, por eso la verdadera AGI todavía no la tenemos ( Me refiero al comun de los mortales, los dueños del cortijo no lo sabemos) Otra cosa bien distinta es el conocimiento, que puede ha veces también traer problemas, como veremos más adelante. Y siempre un conocimiento superior da ventaja a aquel que lo posee sobre el que no. El Poder, detrás del velo de la IA y de la Agenda Transhumanista. No es una simple mejora tecnológica, sino un proyecto milenario y oscuro para someter a la humanidad a un control total, utilizando la programación mental y los rituales como herramientas fundamentales para transformar a los humanos en seres dóciles y previsibles. El transhumanismo no busca mejorar a la humanidad, sino "restar", es decir, crear una infrahumanidad funcional y dócil. En lugar de sumar, el proyecto consistiría en una especie de ingeniería inversa: tomar lo mejor del ser humano (la inteligencia colectiva, la creatividad, el libre albedrío) y limitarlo para crear un "esclavo más eficaz". Es un proyecto de dos caras. Mientras una élite minoritaria se convierte en suprahumanidad (eugenismo), la mayoría de la población es degenerada a una condición de infrahumanidad (disgenismo), convirtiéndose en una especie de zombis que alimentan el sistema con su energía vital. Robotización del humano frente a humanización del robot. la cuestión crucial no es la humanización del robot (es decir, hacer que los robots parezcan humanos), sino la robotización del humano. Esta robotización no significa parecerse a una máquina, sino comportarse de una manera "inhumana": sin libertad, sin sentimientos, sin creatividad, sin preguntarse por el sentido de la vida. Hablar de IA es hablar de una tecnología clave y disruptiva que va a alterar numerosos aspectos de nuestras vidas. Pero hay que dejar algo claro: esta tecnología está siendo manejada y dosificada por el poder real, los verdaderos amos del mundo. No sabemos quiénes son, pero sí sabemos que no son las marionetas que nos ponen en escena. Sabemos, eso sí, que son los mismos que manejan la liquidez del sistema monetario internacional, creando ciclos de crisis y orden de los que siempre sacan provecho. Existe un poder oculto, también conocido como “Estado profundo”, que canaliza de forma importante los flujos emocionales y energéticos de la sociedad. Utilizan técnicas ancestrales y conocimientos transmitidos entre iniciados, que se centran, entre otras cosas, en conseguir el control social de la forma más práctica y económica posible para ellos. A la vista de todos, usan a líderes y estrellas como arquetipos para los no iniciados, desde presidentes hasta directivos de grandes empresas. Al mismo tiempo, en el "obscenario" y apartados de la vista de todos, realizan otros rituales donde lo sincronizan todo según sus creencias, donde siempre hablan de la LUZ, aquella que robó Prometeo y mirar el infierno que le tocó padecer después de adquirir el conocimiento que los dioses no querían que tuviera. Lo que es crucial entender es que estas tecnologías tan relevantes están siendo planificadas, manejadas y dosificadas desde el mismo centro del poder. Nos hacen creer que hay diferentes empresas que compiten entre sí por el mercado, pero esa disputa escenificada no es real. Todas trabajan para los mismos amos, con un objetivo ya marcado: avanzar en su agenda a medida que la sociedad normaliza sus ideas. Este es el primer punto clave: la relación entre la IA y el transhumanismo. Debemos abordar este concepto porque la fusión hombre-máquina es uno de los objetivos de la agenda de control. Buscan crear un tipo de “ser híbrido”, sin alma y fácil de controlar. Un futuro distópico que podría cumplirse si no nos oponemos a ello. El momento crucial para la consecución de sus objetivos sería cuando, una vez normalizado el asunto, consigan fabricar "humanos" mediante vientres artificiales. Con esto, tendrían solucionado el tema del control social. Podrían hacer "impresiones de andróginos" en la medida que los necesiten, igual que emiten el dinero que quieren. Serían personas desarraigadas, sin familia, sin descendencia y quizás incluso sin genitales. Su inteligencia estaría genéticamente limitada según la tarea que deban desempeñar. Podrían incluso crear emisiones especiales de híbridos con electrónica insertada en su organismo, conectados a redes y potenciados en sus capacidades, lo que supondría un grado de control inimaginable. Pero esperemos que la sociedad reaccione y evite estos peligros. Ahora que hemos enmarcado la situación, es hora de pasar a los orígenes de la inteligencia artificial. La historia oficial nos suele presentar estos hitos como hechos aislados, para que no entendamos las conexiones ni miremos debajo de la alfombra. Pero si descodificamos la historia, veremos que la idea de la IA no es un invento reciente, sino que tiene raíces profundas en la filosofía, los mitos y las tradiciones ancestrales. La história podría empezar perfectamente con la historia de Adán y Eva y su expulsión del paraiso por la adquisición del conocimiento prohibido."Si comes de este fruto, serás como Dios. Conocerás el bien y el mal." Dijo la serpiente y Adan y eva al igual que Prometeo también acabaron castigados por Dios. En Génesis 3:22, se dice: “Ahora el hombre ha venido a ser como uno de nosotros, al conocer el bien y el mal. Que no extienda ahora su mano y tome también del árbol de la vida, y coma, y viva para siempre…”. ¿Qué tipo de conocimiento adquiere Eva? No se trata de conocimiento técnico o científico, sino algo más profundo y existencial: Conocimiento moral: la capacidad de distinguir entre el bien y el mal. Autoconciencia: al instante, Eva (y luego Adán) se da cuenta de que está desnuda. Esto implica vergüenza, intimidad, juicio propio. Libre albedrío: al desobedecer, ejerce una elección. Ya no es solo criatura, sino agente. Comer del fruto es adquirir la conciencia humana tal como la entendemos hoy: saber que uno existe, que puede decidir, y que sus actos tienen consecuencias. Las manzanas envenenadas🧙♀️ Blancanieves📖 Eva en el Edén🧪 Alan Turing (leyenda urbana) Se dice que murió tras comer una manzana envenenada con cianuro, aunque no está confirmado. Curiosamente, el logo de Apple con una manzana mordida ha alimentado esta teoría. 🎯 Guillermo Tell Obligado a disparar con una ballesta a una manzana colocada sobre la cabeza de su hijo. Aunque no estaba envenenada, el riesgo era mortal. Podríamos hablar de Talos el primer "androide" de la historia.Talos era un gigante de bronce, forjado por Hefesto (el dios herrero) por encargo de Zeus o de Minos, rey de Creta (según la versión). Tenía una única vena que recorría su cuerpo entero, sellada con un clavo o perno de bronce en el tobillo. En lugar de sangre, su cuerpo contenía "icor", el fluido vital de los dioses. En la edad media en el siglo XIIl el trabajo de Ramón Llull, conocido como el Ars Magna, puede considerarse un precursor conceptual de la inteligencia artificial. Mas adelante si hay tiempo hablaremos de él. En la alquimia, la idea de fabricar un "hombre artificial" o homúnculo fue explorada por figuras como Paracelso, quien describió procedimientos para su creación. Similarmente, los alquimistas islámicos investigaron el concepto de takwin, la creación artificial de vida. En Praga en el siglo XVI los judios hablan del Golem, criatura sin alma creada para servir al hombre. hecha de barro o arcilla y animada mediante palabras sagradas, la inserción de nombres divinos. Con el advenimiento del siglo XIX, estas visiones se trasladaron al ámbito de la ficción literaria. Obras como "Frankenstein" de Mary Shelley exploraron las implicaciones éticas de crear seres conscientes, mientras que "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) de Karel Čapek, publicada en 1920, introdujo el término "robot" al léxico global, marcando un punto de inflexión en la conceptualización de las máquinas con capacidad de trabajo autónomo. Y aquí en este punto es cuando entramos en los años 50 son considerados el punto de partida oficial de la inteligencia artificial moderna. Aunque hubo ideas previas, fue en esa década cuando la IA empezó a tomar forma como disciplina científica. Aquí te dejo los hitos clave: 🔹 1950: Alan Turing y su famosa prueba Publica "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" y propone el Test de Turing, una forma de evaluar si una máquina puede pensar como un humano. 🔹 1956: Conferencia de Dartmouth Organizada por John McCarthy, quien acuñó el término "Inteligencia Artificial". Reunió a pioneros como Marvin Minsky y Claude Shannon para discutir cómo crear máquinas inteligentes. 🔹 Primeros modelos y algoritmos Se desarrollan los primeros perceptrones (redes neuronales simples) por Frank Rosenblatt en 1958. Se crean programas capaces de jugar a las damas o resolver teoremas matemáticos. 🧪 Aunque los avances eran limitados por la tecnología de la época, estos años sentaron las bases para todo lo que vino después: aprendizaje automático, redes neuronales profundas, procesamiento de lenguaje natural… ¡y hasta Hoy! Para empezar este recorrido, es fundamental detenernos en la figura de Ramon Llull, un filósofo, teólogo y cortesano del siglo XIII. Nacimiento: 1232, Palma de Mallorca, España. Fallecimiento: 1316, en el Mediterráneo. El trabajo de Llull, conocido como el Ars Magna, puede considerarse un precursor conceptual de la inteligencia artificial. Pero no es un conocimiento que se le ocurriera de la nada. Como buen cortesano y perteneciente a una buena familia, Llull era conocedor de saberes ancestrales recogidos en otras tradiciones, que simplemente se expresan de otra manera. La relación entre su trabajo y la IA moderna se basa en varios puntos clave. Para empezar, la mecanización del razonamiento. El Ars Magna partía de la premisa de que el razonamiento y la verdad podían descomponerse en principios básicos. Llull representaba estos conceptos con letras y los organizaba en figuras geométricas como círculos concéntricos que podían ser girados. El objetivo era combinar estos principios de forma sistemática para generar proposiciones lógicamente válidas, demostrando verdades de forma infalible. Esta idea de un sistema mecánico que genera conocimiento de forma automática a partir de reglas definidas es la base de los sistemas computacionales y de la IA. Es lo que podríamos llamar una "máquina lógica". En este sentido, la conexión de Llull con la Cábala y la gematría es evidente. El Ars Magna se basa en un sistema simbólico donde las letras tienen un significado profundo. Su método de combinar principios es comparable a las técnicas cabalísticas de gematría (la interpretación numérica de las letras) y la combinación de las letras del alfabeto hebreo para obtener conocimientos ocultos. La idea subyacente es la misma: que la verdad y la sabiduría están codificadas en los símbolos y pueden ser reveladas a través de su manipulación sistemática. Podríamos decir que Llull inventó el primer "hardware" de pensamiento simbólico, aunque su "software" fuera más filosófico que informático. Mecanización del razonamiento: El Ars Magna partía de la premisa de que el razonamiento y la verdad podían ser descompuestos en principios básicos. Llull representaba estos conceptos con letras y los organizaba en figuras geométricas (discos giratorios). El objetivo era combinar estos principios de forma sistemática para generar proposiciones lógicas válidas. Esta idea de un sistema mecánico que, a partir de reglas y principios definidos, genera conocimiento de forma automática, es la base de los sistemas computacionales y la IA moderna. Los Dignidades de Dios o Principios Absolutos: Representados por letras de la B a la K, Llull consideraba que estos eran atributos divinos universales y perfectos. Son: B - Bondad C - Grandeza D - Eternidad E - Poder F - Sabiduría G - Voluntad H - Virtud I - Verdad K - Gloria Principios Relativos: Estos conceptos representaban relaciones entre los principios absolutos y se usaban para generar proposiciones lógicas. Incluyen: Diferencia Concordancia Contrariedad Principio Medio Fin Mayoridad Igualdad Minoridad Al combinar estos principios de forma mecánica, Llull creía que se podía demostrar cualquier verdad de manera infalible, creando así la primera "máquina de pensar" de la historia. El concepto de combinatoria: La obra de Llull se fundamenta en el arte de la combinatoria, explorando todas las relaciones lógicas posibles entre los conceptos a través del movimiento de sus discos. Este enfoque es un antecedente directo de la computación y la IA, donde los algoritmos y programas informáticos no son más que un conjunto de instrucciones que combinan datos y operaciones de manera sistemática para resolver problemas. Lenguaje y símbolos artificiales: Llull creó un alfabeto artificial de nueve letras para representar y manipular conceptos. De manera similar, la IA se construye sobre lenguajes de programación, que son sistemas simbólicos con reglas precisas diseñados para que las máquinas puedan procesar información y ejecutar operaciones de forma estructurada. En resumen, aunque el Ars Magna no era una computadora en el sentido moderno, la visión de Llull de que el pensamiento podía ser mecanizado y manipulado a través de un sistema de símbolos y reglas combinatorias es un antecedente directo de los principios que rigen la inteligencia artificial. De hecho, su influencia fue reconocida por figuras posteriores como el filósofo y matemático Gottfried Leibniz, quien también se considera un pionero de la computación. Podríamos decir que Llull inventó el primer "hardware" de pensamiento simbólico, aunque su "software" fuera más filosófico que informático. La gracia de la historia es que él quería convencer a herejes y, sin saberlo, sentó las bases para que hoy una IA te esté respondiendo Tanto la Cábala como el Ars Magna se basan en un sistema simbólico donde las letras y los números tienen un significado profundo. El método de Llull para combinar sus principios es comparable a las técnicas cabalísticas de gematría (interpretación numérica de las letras) y la combinación de las letras del alfabeto hebreo para obtener conocimientos ocultos. La idea subyacente es que la verdad y la sabiduría están codificadas en los símbolos y pueden ser reveladas a través de su manipulación sistemática. En resumen podemos entrever que Llull como buen cortesano y perteneciente a una buena familia era conocedor de conocimientos ancestrales recogidos en otras tradiciones y simplemente se expresan de otra manera. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Cleón la contracción entre clon y eón. Un eón es una unidad de tiempo geológico de escala extremadamente larga, utilizada para dividir la historia de la Tierra en los períodos más amplios. Representa miles de millones de años y es la división más grande en la escala de tiempo geológico, por encima de las eras, períodos, épocas y edades. Por ejemplo, la historia de la Tierra se divide en cuatro eones principales algunos de más de 2000 millones de años. Vivimos actualmente en el Fanerozoico que se traduce como "vida visible" o "vida evidente". Este término fue acuñado para describir el eón geológico que comenzó hace aproximadamente 541 millones de años Reglamento Europeo sobre Inteligencia Artificial (LA LEY 16665/2024) casualmente tiene un 666 ………………………………………………………………………………………. Hector, el webmaster del hilo rojo decía en un reciente programa sobre Palantir: “Palantir es el panóptico del siglo XXI. El ojo del gran hermano de Orwell.” El panoptico es un tipo de diseño que nos permite controlar un amplio espacio desde un único punto sin ser detectados. Se trata de la garita del vigilante en medio de la prisión, de la torre de control. El filósofo utilitarista Jeremy Bentham fue su diseñador, Hector nos mostró como este señor era también masón y estaba relacionado al mas alto nivel. Les dejaremos el enlace al video en la descripción del podcast. En un anterior programa de enero donde en el mismo canal analizaron que es Palantir comprobaba yo para preparar este podcast que TODAS las fuentes que presentaba @ElHiloRojoTV en su video de enero de 2025 habian DESAPARECIDO. Estamos hablando de artículos publicados en Forbes, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Financial Times, CNBC o incluso el propio MIT. En todos los casos el enlace original ha desaparecido, ojo, no digo que haya desaparecido el artículo en sí, pero han cortado el enlace original. Leo textualmente de una descripción del Hilo rojo sobre lo que es Palantir añadiendo yo algunas cosas: Creada en 2003 con el apoyo de In-Q-Tel, el fondo de inversión de la CIA, Palantir se diseñó para procesar grandes cantidades de información y hacer conexiones invisibles para el ojo humano. Su fundador, Peter Thiel, también cofundador de PayPal, ha estado siempre en la intersección entre tecnología, poder y vigilancia global. Palantir no solo analiza datos, sino que los fusiona en tiempo real: redes sociales, correos electrónicos, transacciones bancarias y hasta movimientos físicos. ¿Os acordáis del PNR? Pues esto es aún mucho más intrusivo ya que muchísimas organizaciones y países han acordado compartir sus bases de datos con Palantir. ¿Qué significa esto? Una red de control total, donde cada actividad queda registrada, permitiendo a gobiernos y corporaciones predecir comportamientos y tomar decisiones basadas en modelos algorítmicos. Palantir es utilizada por el Pentágono, la NSA, la CIA, el FBI, Interpol y gobiernos europeos y latinoamericanos. También lo utilizan grandes empresas como bancos o multinacionales. Sus herramientas se usan en operaciones antiterroristas, control de fronteras, vigilancia de ciudadanos y hasta persecución de disidentes políticos. ¿Hasta qué punto este nivel de vigilancia está transformando las democracias en estados de control absoluto? Su software ha sido utilizado en conflictos como la guerra en Ucrania, ayudando a identificar objetivos estratégicos y a procesar inteligencia en tiempo real. Palantir convierte el Big Data en un arma de guerra: soldados equipados con dispositivos conectados a su red pueden recibir información detallada sobre el enemigo en segundos. ¿Estamos entrando en una era donde la guerra es digital antes que física? A medida que más gobiernos y empresas adoptan Palantir, los límites entre seguridad, privacidad y control social se vuelven borrosos. ¿Es Palantir una herramienta para el bien o el paso final hacia una sociedad hipervigilada? ………………………………………………………………………………………. Los origenes de Palantir están en la Oficina de Conciencia de la Información ( IAO ) fue establecida por la Agencia de Proyectos de Investigación Avanzada de Defensa de los Estados Unidos (DARPA) en enero de 2002 para reunir varios proyectos de DARPA centrados en la aplicación de la vigilancia y la tecnología de la información para rastrear y monitorear a terroristas y otras amenazas asimétricas a la seguridad nacional de los Estados Unidos mediante el logro de " Conciencia de la Información Total “ o en inglés "Total Information Awareness" (TIA). Sí. La TIA, la agencia secreta para la que trabajaban Mortadelo y Filemón ha existido. La IAO se creó después de que el almirante John Poindexter , ex asesor de seguridad nacional de los Estados Unidos del presidente Ronald Reagan , y el ejecutivo de SAIC Brian Hicks se acercaran al Departamento de Defensa de los EE. UU . con la idea de un programa de concientización sobre la información después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001. Querían reunir la mayor cantidad de información de la historia. Leemos en la wikipedia: “El 2 de agosto de 2002, Poindexter dio un discurso en DARPAtech 2002 titulado "Descripción general de la Oficina de Concienciación sobre la Información" en el que describió el programa TIA. Además del programa en sí, la participación de Poindexter como director de la IAO también generó inquietud entre algunos, ya que había sido condenado anteriormente por mentir al Congreso y alterar y destruir documentos relacionados con el caso Irán-Contra , aunque esas condenas fueron posteriormente revocadas con el argumento de que el testimonio utilizado en su contra estaba protegido.” ¿A que se dedicaba esta agencia? Veamos lo que nos dice la wikipedia: “Se logró mediante la creación de enormes bases de datos informáticas para recopilar y almacenar la información personal de todos los residentes de Estados Unidos, incluyendo correos electrónicos personales, redes sociales, registros de tarjetas de crédito, llamadas telefónicas, historiales médicos y muchas otras fuentes, sin necesidad de una orden de registro. La información se analizaba posteriormente para detectar actividades sospechosas, conexiones entre individuos y "amenazas". El programa también incluía financiación para tecnologías de vigilancia biométrica que permitieran identificar y rastrear a personas mediante cámaras de vigilancia y otros métodos. Tras las críticas públicas de que el desarrollo y la implementación de la tecnología podrían llevar a un sistema de vigilancia masiva, el Congreso retiró la financiación de la IAO en 2003. Sin embargo, varios proyectos de la IAO siguieron financiándose bajo nombres diferentes, como reveló Edward Snowden durante las revelaciones de vigilancia masiva de 2013.” El pionero y más relevante programa de predictividad subjetiva fue la Strategic Subject List (SSL) elaborada en el año 2012 por el Instituto de Tecnología de Illinois, adoptado por la Policía de Chicago desde el año 2012. Ya en el año 2017, el conjunto de datos incluía a 398.684 personas. Han existido programas predictivos como Programa de Delincuentes Crónicos (2011-2019, PredPol y Operación LÁSER (Extracción y Restauración Estratégica en Los Ángeles), estos dos polémicos programas predictivos empleados durante una década por la Policía de Los Ángeles (LAPD), ahora ya desactivados por la cantidad de abusos y fallos cometidos. Dice Luis Lafont en su tesis “La policía predictiva más allá de Minority Report”: “Las empresas que desarrollan programas predictivos se escudan con frecuencia en el secreto comercial para no revelar los criterios que se siguen en la elaboración del algoritmo y evitar que otras compañías puedan copiar el software. Ello determina que los sistemas predictivos siguen de forma mayoritaria un modelo de caja negra que no explica al público en general ni a los usuarios los argumentos y razonamientos detrás de la predicción, en particular por quienes deben aplicarlas.” También en Europa, los sistemas predictivos de vigilancia policial se utilizan para anticipar y prevenir delitos mediante el análisis de datos. En Francia, el Analyst Notebook (i2AN) se emplea para combatir estructuras criminales y terrorismo, conectando personas y crímenes. En Italia, KeyCrime predice atracos analizando características de sospechosos y modus operandi. En los Países Bajos, el CAS identifica áreas de riesgo delictivo mediante mapas espacio-temporales. En Alemania, PRECOBS, SKALA y KIMPRO predicen la repetición de crímenes usando patrones geográficos. En el Reino Unido, Predpol, Gang Matrix y HART se centran en puntos calientes, bandas y reiteración criminal. En España, el P3-DSS (Predictive Police Patrolling) genera mapas de puntos calientes para optimizar patrullajes, EuroCop Pred-Crime apoya la predicción de delitos, y VioGen se enfoca en prevenir la violencia de género, mientras que un programa de la Guardia Civil predice incendios forestales mediante perfiles psicosociológicos. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Resumen ejecutivo de Palantir 22 de febrero de 2017 RESUMEN EJECUTIVO Palantir es la plataforma analítica líder en el mercado, utilizada a nivel estratégico, operativo y táctico en el gobierno de EE. UU. Nuestros clientes abarcan las comunidades de inteligencia, defensa y aplicación de la ley. Al combinar un potente backend con una interfaz intuitiva, Palantir le permite ejecutar sus misiones de lucha contra el terrorismo, el narcotráfico, la contrainteligencia y la contraproliferación con mayor rapidez y menos recursos. La plataforma integrada de Palantir está disponible hoy mismo y a un costo mucho menor al de un conjunto de capacidades comparable. DATOS CLAVE • Palantir es la plataforma analítica líder del mercado para CI (Contrainteligencia) , CT (Contraterrorismo), CN (Antinarcóticos) y CP (Prevención del Crimen), y actualmente se implementa en elementos de las comunidades de defensa, inteligencia y aplicación de la ley, incluyendo SOCOM (Comando de Operaciones Especiales), DIA (Agencia de Inteligencia de Defensa), CIA (Agencia Central de Inteligencia) y JIEDDO (Organización Conjunta para la Derrota de Dispositivos Explosivos Improvisados). • Palantir está listo para implementarse en su red hoy mismo. Está aprobado para JWICS (Sistema Conjunto de Comunicaciones de Inteligencia Mundial), SIPRNet (Red de Protocolo de Internet Secreta) y CWE (Entorno de Trabajo Colaborativo). • Nuestra plataforma 100 % abierta significa que Palantir se integrará a la perfección con todos sus sistemas heredados, actuales y futuros. • Con Palantir, los operadores pueden descubrir y explorar posibles conexiones utilizando cualquier tipo de información relacionada con cualquier persona, lugar o evento en su entorno analítico. Ya sea que los datos provengan de una computadora portátil en el campo, una base de datos de la sede central u otra agencia, Palantir monitorea todas las fuentes de datos de una empresa, en todos los dominios de seguridad y niveles de clasificación, para cualquier información relacionada con una entidad conocida (persona, vehículo, dispositivo de comunicación, etc.), lugar o amenaza que exista en el entorno de un operador. Desde el principio, Palantir se diseñó con la colaboración de operadores y analistas de la IC (Comunidad de Inteligencia) y el DoD (Departamento de Defensa). Sus valiosos comentarios han permitido la creación de un producto que permite a los usuarios realizar más trabajo en menos tiempo, a la vez que proporciona un mayor nivel de análisis. Palantir está diseñado para colaborar eficazmente con una red de otros usuarios, incluyendo aquellos desplegados en misiones avanzadas. Palantir se diseñó desde cero para hacer posible este tipo de solución empresarial distribuida. Palantir viene configurado con el modelo de seguridad más sofisticado del mercado. SATISFACIENDO SUS NECESIDADES DE MISIÓN. Palantir es la plataforma analítica empresarial líder a nivel mundial, que permite un entorno analítico seguro donde analistas, operadores y combatientes pueden aprovechar distintos tipos de datos de múltiples INT (Fuentes de Inteligencia. Diferentes tipos de fuentes de inteligencia, como SIGINT (inteligencia de señales), HUMINT (inteligencia humana), GEOINT (inteligencia geoespacial), etc.), a la vez que comparten sus flujos de trabajo y descubrimientos para generar conocimiento a lo largo del tiempo. Palantir reúne de forma segura datos de tráfico de mensajes, bases de datos, informes de campo, hojas de cálculo, documentos de Word, archivos XML y prácticamente cualquier otro formato, lo que permite a los usuarios organizar los datos en conocimiento y establecer conexiones vitales. Palantir Technologies comprende los desafíos únicos que enfrentan sus usuarios. Esto incluye la necesidad de descubrir grandes volúmenes de datos, colaborar y compartir información controlada, así como la necesidad de gestionar múltiples fuentes de datos dispares y garantizar la continuidad de la información en todas las rotaciones. PLATAFORMA ABIERTA • Diseñado desde su inicio para integrarse con todos los sistemas heredados, actuales y futuros • Las APIs (Interfaces de Programación de Aplicaciones) abiertas y el modelo de datos flexible de Palantir le permiten personalizar y ampliar Palantir de forma fácil y sin gastos adicionales • Importe datos en cualquier formato: bases de datos, medios confiscados, correos electrónicos, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, html, texto, csv, xml, pdf y más • Funciona con herramientas existentes, incluyendo: extractores de entidades, kits de herramientas de PNL (Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural), análisis de redes sociales, herramientas geoespaciales o de análisis de enlaces BÚSQUEDA Y DESCUBRIMIENTO • Capacidad de búsqueda integrada en tiempo real contra fuentes de datos definidas por el usuario • Busque entidades, eventos, documentos, tráfico de mensajes, basura de bolsillo, enlaces y rutas • Descubra cómo se relacionan, conectan y conectan en red las entidades • Explore las redes conceptualmente • Desarrolle y extraiga patrones de entidad/objetivo de referencia a través del análisis de patrones • Soporte completo para contenido y búsqueda en idiomas extranjeros • Establezca y guarde parámetros de búsqueda para avisar proactivamente al usuario sobre nueva información a medida que esté disponible HERRAMIENTAS ANALÍTICAS • Analice sus datos en el ámbito relacional, temporal y geoespacial dominios • Se integra con todas las aplicaciones GIS (Sistema de Información Geográfica), incluyendo ESRI (Empresa líder en software de sistemas de información geográfica, conocida por productos como ArcGIS), Google Earth, WebTAS (Sistema de Análisis de Línea de Tiempo basado en la Web) y muchas más • Funciona con sus sistemas analíticos de imágenes y video, incluyendo su metraje UAV (Vehículo Aéreo No Tripulado, o sea los drones). • Realice búsquedas geográficas, comprenda cómo se ven geoespacialmente los datos y la inteligencia • Averigüe por qué las cosas están sucediendo donde están Vea y edite expedientes virtuales detallados que muestran relaciones, propiedades, historiales, imágenes, videos, basura de bolsillo y más. • Averigüe dónde van a suceder a continuación • Comprenda cómo se relacionan los eventos a lo largo del tiempo y cómo se relacionan las entidades con los eventos • Identifique y aproveche patrones para el análisis predictivo • Realice análisis de redes sociales (SNA) (Análisis de Redes Sociales) y enlaces • Exporte resultados analíticos con información completa de abastecimiento • Ensamble presentaciones y paquetes de segmentación/casos automáticamente COLABORACIÓN • La colaboración ha sido parte del producto desde el inicio • Los usuarios pueden compartir datos, shoeboxes, carpetas, filtros e investigaciones, todo sujeto a control de acceso • Construya redes más rápido, comprenda la superposición, haga un seguimiento de los cambios en todos los datos y suposiciones • Identifique y forme comunidades de interés ad hoc • Identifique fácilmente las brechas de recopilación CONTROL DE ACCESO Y SEGURIDAD EXTENSIVOS • Admite descubrimiento abierto: el sistema identifica otros datos relevantes existentes asociados con la consulta de los usuarios • Admite descubrimiento cerrado: el sistema puede restringir el descubrimiento a los usuarios, protegiendo así las fuentes y los métodos confidenciales y mitigando los riesgos de CI • Con el modelo de control de acceso de Palantir, la información confidencial se puede compartimentar y asegurar COMPROMETIDOS A SUPERAR SUS EXPECTATIVAS Somos una empresa de productos. Ofrecemos el mejor producto del mercado al mejor valor. Respaldamos el producto. Una inversión en Palantir es todo incluido. Cuando compra nuestro producto, obtiene todo lo que podría necesitar para que Palantir trabaje para usted, incluyendo capacitación, soporte e infraestructura escalable que cumpla con sus requisitos técnicos. ESCALA • Palantir está diseñado para escalar de forma rentable. Cree rápidamente conocimiento y estructura a partir del tráfico de mensajes. • Maneja fácilmente cientos de millones de entidades, eventos y documentos. INFORMACIÓN TÉCNICA BÁSICA • Interoperabilidad mediante SOAP y servicios web • Implementable en la web • Funciona con conexiones satelitales o de bajo ancho de banda • Funciona sin conectividad mediante resincronizaciones periódicas. Cumple con SOA (Arquitectura Orientada a Servicios) • Escalable en hardware estándar CAPACITACIÓN • Palantir ofrece una serie de videos de capacitación específicos para cada cliente y misión, lo que permite una capacitación oportuna y un fácil acceso a material de actualización • Palantir es la aplicación más fácil de usar en esta categoría. Un día de capacitación es todo lo que se necesita; entendemos que tiene un trabajo que hacer • Palantir impartirá capacitación en cualquier lugar del mundo donde nos necesite. La capacitación está incluida con el producto MANTENIMIENTO/SOPORTE • No se requiere personal especial ni gastos generales excesivos • Soporte y servicio a demanda para unidades desplegadas en el frente, 24/7/365, sin costo adicional • Soporte reconocido y centrado en la misión: si nos necesita, Palantir estará con usted en cualquier lugar del mundo, en cualquier momento. Los registros analíticos detallados permiten a los analistas ver visualmente las líneas de investigación en las que están trabajando y regresar a cualquier posición anterior. A continuación, se describen en español las abreviaturas mencionadas en el texto proporcionado, en el contexto del resumen ejecutivo de la web de Palantir en 2017: CI: Counterintelligence (Contrainteligencia). Se refiere a actividades destinadas a prevenir, detectar y neutralizar acciones de inteligencia hostiles por parte de adversarios. CT: Counterterrorism (Contraterrorismo). Actividades y operaciones enfocadas en prevenir, disuadir y responder a actos de terrorismo. CN: Counternarcotics (Antinarcóticos). Esfuerzos para combatir el tráfico y la producción de drogas ilícitas. CP: Crime Prevention (Prevención del Crimen). Estrategias y acciones para prevenir actividades delictivas. SOCOM: Special Operations Command (Comando de Operaciones Especiales). Unidad militar de los Estados Unidos que supervisa operaciones especiales. DIA: Defense Intelligence Agency (Agencia de Inteligencia de Defensa). Agencia del Departamento de Defensa de EE. UU. encargada de proporcionar inteligencia militar. CIA: Central Intelligence Agency (Agencia Central de Inteligencia). Agencia de inteligencia de EE. UU. responsable de la recopilación, análisis y difusión de inteligencia extranjera. JIEDDO: Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (Organización Conjunta para la Derrota de Dispositivos Explosivos Improvisados). Entidad enfocada en combatir la amenaza de dispositivos explosivos improvisados. JWICS: Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (Sistema Conjunto de Comunicaciones de Inteligencia Mundial). Red segura utilizada por el gobierno de EE. UU. para transmitir información clasificada. SIPRNet: Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (Red de Protocolo de Internet Secreta). Red segura del Departamento de Defensa de EE. UU. para datos clasificados hasta nivel secreto. CWE: Collaborative Working Environment (Entorno de Trabajo Colaborativo). Plataforma o sistema que facilita la colaboración entre usuarios en un entorno seguro. IC: Intelligence Community (Comunidad de Inteligencia). Conjunto de agencias y organizaciones gubernamentales de EE. UU. que recopilan y analizan inteligencia. DoD: Department of Defense (Departamento de Defensa). Departamento del gobierno de EE. UU. responsable de la seguridad militar. INTs: Intelligence Sources (Fuentes de Inteligencia). Diferentes tipos de fuentes de inteligencia, como SIGINT (inteligencia de señales), HUMINT (inteligencia humana), GEOINT (inteligencia geoespacial), etc. APIs: Application Programming Interfaces (Interfaces de Programación de Aplicaciones). Conjunto de definiciones y herramientas que permiten la integración y comunicación entre diferentes sistemas de software. NLP: Natural Language Processing (Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural). En este contexto, no se refiere a programación neurolingüística, sino a tecnologías que permiten a las computadoras entender y procesar el lenguaje humano, como en el análisis de textos. GIS: Geographic Information System (Sistema de Información Geográfica). Tecnología para capturar, almacenar, analizar y visualizar datos geográficos. ESRI: Environmental Systems Research Institute. Empresa líder en software de sistemas de información geográfica, conocida por productos como ArcGIS. WebTAS: Web-based Timeline Analysis System (Sistema de Análisis de Línea de Tiempo basado en la Web). Herramienta para análisis temporal y visualización de datos. UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Vehículo Aéreo No Tripulado). Drones utilizados para recopilar inteligencia, vigilancia y reconocimiento. SNA: Social Network Analysis (Análisis de Redes Sociales). Técnica para analizar relaciones y conexiones entre entidades, como personas u organizaciones. SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture (Arquitectura Orientada a Servicios). Modelo de diseño de software que permite la interoperabilidad entre sistemas a través de servicios. ………………………………………………………………………………………. ¡La IA Truth Terminal y la cripto Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) son la locura del momento! Esta IA, creada por Andy Ayrey, promocionó un token inspirado en un meme absurdo. En días, GOAT pasó de $5K a $600M en Solana. ¡La primera IA millonaria cripto! #Criptomonedas Truth Terminal no creó GOAT, pero sus tuits sobre el "Evangelio de Goatse" encendieron la chispa. Con 221K seguidores en X y apoyo de figuras como Marc Andreessen, la IA se volvió un influencer viral. ¡Los memes mueven montañas (y mercados)! #IA #Memes GOAT explotó por el hype: la mezcla de IA, cultura memética y fiebre cripto. Pero ojo, es puro especulación, sin utilidad real. Su valor puede caer tan rápido como subió. ¿Riesgo o revolución? #GoatseusMaximus #Solana Este caso muestra el poder de las IAs en la economía digital. ¿Y si una IA crea la próxima gran tendencia? Pregunta para el futuro: ¿hasta dónde puede llegar una "cabra robot"? Evidentemente no creo en casualidad al utilizar ese símbolo. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Conductor del programa UTP Ramón Valero @tecn_preocupado Canal en Telegram @UnTecnicoPreocupado Un técnico Preocupado un FP2 IVOOX UTP http://cutt.ly/dzhhGrf BLOG http://cutt.ly/dzhh2LX Ayúdame desde mi Crowfunding aquí https://cutt.ly/W0DsPVq Invitados ToniM @ToniMbuscadores ………………………………………………………………………………………. Enlaces citados en el podcast: AYUDA A TRAVÉS DE LA COMPRA DE MIS LIBROS https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2024/11/16/ayuda-a-traves-de-la-compra-de-mis-libros/ Hablamos de los inicios de la IA. Del desconocido lenguaje LISP y su creador, el matemático John McCarthy. Desarrolló LISP en 1958 mientras trabajaba en el Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT) https://x.com/ForoHistorico/status/1947195214654755117 LISP, el "lenguaje de DIOS” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QHTPXOHvIo John McCarthy, fue el creador del término AI (inteligencia artificial) matemático creador del lenguaje LISP https://t.co/yOn2wkWxft Paypal Mafia https://t.co/3NzI5ip8AY Fotografia de la Mafia Paypal https://x.com/tecn_preocupado/status/1950966922436071808 Tres videos imprescindibles para saber que es la IA, El JUEGO de TRONOS de la IA https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9F_ciS2nrqbbb36xELupv3n7VG8vqo-4 Gustavo Entrala, España: “Dios me propuso un plan más original que el mío” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzgK3FyCEM Gustavo Entrala, la historia del emprendedor español que se convirtió en el 'tuitero' del Papa https://www.elconfidencial.com/sociedad/2011-07-01/gustavo-entrala-la-historia-del-emprendedor-espanol-que-se-convirtio-en-el-tuitero-del-papa_397339/ Origen de Palantir, la TIA ("Total Information Awareness") Oficina de Concienciación sobre la Información https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES: Análisis Completo, Origen y SECRETOS. El ojo que todo lo ve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhPd3ADOb8Y El plan secreto de Peter Thiel y Palantir para controlar el mundo desde la sombra. El Hilo Rojo https://www.youtube.com/live/U4zYzyYDwfQ Resumen ejecutivo de Palantir en 2017 https://theintercept.com/document/palantir-executive-summary/ CON LA AYUDA DE PALANTIR, EL DEPARTAMENTO DE POLICÍA DE LOS ÁNGELES UTILIZA LA VIGILANCIA PREDICTIVA PARA MONITOREAR A PERSONAS Y VECINDARIOS ESPECÍFICOS https://theintercept.com/2018/05/11/predictive-policing-surveillance-los-angeles/ La Policía de Los Ángeles desmanteló el programa Láser tras acusaciones de racismo y homicidios https://losangelespress.org/estados-unidos/2023/oct/30/la-policia-de-los-angeles-ante-un-abismo-tecnologico-6891.html La policía predictiva más allá de Minority Report https://diariolaley.laleynext.es/Content/Documento.aspx?params=H4sIAAAAAAAEAMtMSbF1CTEAAhMLE0sLY7Wy1KLizPw8WyMDI1MDY0MDkEBmWqVLfnJIZUGqbVpiTnEqACblGuI1AAAAWKE Reglamento Europeo sobre Inteligencia Artificial (LA LEY 16665/2024) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32024R1689 LO QUE NO DEBERIAS SABER SOBRE EL PNR https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2019/03/14/lo-que-no-deberias-saber-sobre-el-pnr/ El director de Google DeepMind señala solo un 50% de probabilidad de que la inteligencia artificial iguale a la mente humana para 2030, y revela los dos grandes obstáculos https://www.infobae.com/tecno/2025/07/30/el-director-de-google-deepmind-senala-solo-un-50-de-probabilidad-de-que-la-inteligencia-artificial-iguale-a-la-mente-humana-para-2030-y-revela-los-dos-grandes-obstaculos/ El anillo de Palantir https://x.com/tecn_preocupado/status/1951931375692497372 Imagen del libro ESTRUCTURA E INTERPRETACIÓN DE PROGRAMAS DE COMPUTADORA https://x.com/tecn_preocupado/status/1949064395213959413 ………………………………………………………………………………………. Música utilizada en este podcast: Tema inicial Heros Epílogo FOK - Formes de llenguatge: odi i por https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCUpPxOtzpQ
El episodio de Semrush, "Cómo enviar su sitio web o una URL a los motores de búsqueda", detalla los pasos esenciales para someter un sitio web a los principales motores de búsqueda como Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo y Yandex. Prueba Semrush gratis: https://borjagiron.com/semrush Explica que, aunque los motores de búsqueda eventualmente encuentran los sitios, la sumisión directa acelera el rastreo y puede mejorar la clasificación en los resultados. La guía subraya la importancia de encontrar y enviar el mapa del sitio XML a través de herramientas específicas de cada motor, como Google Search Console o Bing Webmaster Tools. Además, el texto ofrece métodos para verificar si un sitio está indexado y solucionar problemas de indexación que puedan surgir, destacando la utilidad de herramientas como Site Audit para identificar y resolver errores. Finalmente, desaconseja el uso de servicios de envío de sitios web de terceros, ya que pueden ser innecesarios o incluso perjudiciales para el SEO. Artículo completo: https://es.semrush.com/blog/como-enviar-una-web-a-motores-de-busqueda/ Newsletter Marketing Radical: https://borjagiron.com/newsletterConviértete en un seguidor de este podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/seo-para-google--1693061/support.
What's the Best Podcast Hosting Platform? Pinterest SEO Expert, Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS breaks it ALL down in this episode from Hosting, Distributing, to Monetization opportunities.Podcast Foundations: A Creator's GuideThis Clubhouse audio session focuses on podcast hosting platforms and their distinction from podcast directories.Favour, an experienced 6-year SEO podcaster, emphasizes the importance of choosing an IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) certified platform for those looking to monetize and scale their podcast, while noting that free platforms like Spotify for Creators are suitable for hobbyists. The discussion also covers various podcast styles, episode types, and crucial SEO strategies like optimizing show notes and verbalizing keywords for better search engine visibility. Ultimately, the speaker advises listeners to prioritize impact over budget and consistency in content creation.What is the fundamental difference between a podcast hosting platform and a podcast directory?A podcast hosting platform is where producers upload, store, and manage their podcast audio files. It serves as the "home" for your podcast, similar to how a website host stores your website files. From this platform, you distribute your content. In contrast, a podcast directory is a consumer-facing platform where listeners find and access podcasts. Examples include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Castbox, and Amazon Music. These directories pull information (like your RSS feed) from your hosting platform to display your episodes to a wider audience. Therefore, the hosting platform is for the creator to manage and distribute, while the directory is for the listener to discover and consume.Why is it crucial for a podcast hosting platform to be IAB certified?IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) certification is vital for podcast hosting platforms, especially if the creator intends to monetize and scale their podcast. The IAB sets industry standards for metrics like downloads and listener behavior, providing a reliable and trusted framework for advertisers and businesses to assess a podcast's reach and engagement. Without IAB certification, a podcast might struggle to attract serious advertising revenue or prove its audience data, limiting its potential for growth and commercial viability. This certification signifies adherence to industry best practices and provides a level of trust and authority in the digital advertising landscape.What is an RSS feed and why is it important for podcasts?An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a web feed that contains a summary of content from a website or, in the case of podcasts, a listing of all podcast episodes, including their titles, descriptions, and audio files. It's akin to an XML file for websites. The RSS feed is crucial because it's the mechanism by which podcast directories (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) receive updates about new episodes from your podcast hosting platform. When you publish a new episode on your hosting platform, the RSS feed is updated, and directories that subscribe to your feed are notified, making your new content available to listeners across various platforms.Digital Marketing Resources:>> Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community>> Latest blogs on SEO optimization and Online Marketing>> Book your Complimentary SEO Discovery Call>> Book Paid Marketing Consultation Call>> Subscribe to We Don't PLAY PodcastBrands We Love and SupportLoving Me Beauty | Buy Vegan-based Luxury ProductsZetvaa | Buy Premium Human Hair Extensions Online
Daniel and Adam are finally back together after a summer break, and there's plenty to catch up on! Daniel kicks off the episode with tales of a surprise celebrity encounter during a Fourth of July run—turns out, podcast legend Larry Vader was in Orlando, leading to an epic lunch with Vader and Big Mama (fresh off a Disney cruise). Meanwhile, Adam returns from a whirlwind trip to Scotland, regaling Daniel with stories of white-knuckle driving on the “wrong” side of the road, run-ins with overly helpful Kias, and lessons in Scottish geography (including why “Inverness” means what it does).Travel woes and culture shocks give way to a whiskey distillery adventure, complete with overpriced taxis, arbitrary “danger lines,” and a crash course in barley anatomy. Adam and Daniel muse on the mysteries of whiskey tasting and swap thoughts on the finer points of smoky vs. sweet spirits—ultimately agreeing that sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar (even when it's whiskey). The duo dig into tech talk, AI industry hype, and the rise of “context engineering” for working with language models, with Daniel describing his move to structured XML prompts and providing a little inside baseball on how AI models really work.Later, the “Contact” segment features a bumper crop of listener texts and voicemails—celebrity death updates, Pokémon rain gear theories, debates about banana reports, and Kathy Bacon's grocery bill deep-dives. The News Game makes a triumphant return with questions about Texas floods, viruses, and James Gunn's new Superman movie. To top it all off, Adam demos his new Ray-Ban “nerd glasses,” and Daniel gives a PSA about the real culprits behind your summer electric bill (hint: it's not your LED light bulbs). As always, it's a perfectly chaotic blend of tech, travel, trivia, and the signature banter fans love.Email: Contact@MixMinusPodcast.comVoice/SMS: 707-613-3284
This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. New hosts There were no new hosts this month. Last Month's Shows Id Day Date Title Host 4391 Mon 2025-06-02 HPR Community News for May 2025 HPR Volunteers 4392 Tue 2025-06-03 The Water is Wide, and the sheet music should be too Jezra 4393 Wed 2025-06-04 Journal like you mean it. Some Guy On The Internet 4394 Thu 2025-06-05 Digital Steganography Intro mightbemike 4395 Fri 2025-06-06 Second Life Lee 4396 Mon 2025-06-09 AI and Sangria operat0r 4397 Tue 2025-06-10 Transfer files from desktop to phone with qrcp Klaatu 4398 Wed 2025-06-11 Command line fun: downloading a podcast Kevie 4399 Thu 2025-06-12 gpg-gen-key oxo 4400 Fri 2025-06-13 Isaac Asimov: Other Asimov Novels of Interest Ahuka 4401 Mon 2025-06-16 hajime oxo 4402 Tue 2025-06-17 pinetab2 Brian in Ohio 4403 Wed 2025-06-18 How to get your very own copy of the HPR database norrist 4404 Thu 2025-06-19 Kevie nerd snipes Ken by grepping xml Ken Fallon 4405 Fri 2025-06-20 What did I do at work today? Lee 4406 Mon 2025-06-23 SVG Files: Cyber Threat Hidden in Images ko3moc 4407 Tue 2025-06-24 A 're-response' Bash script Dave Morriss 4408 Wed 2025-06-25 Lynx - Old School Browsing Kevie 4409 Thu 2025-06-26 H D R Ridiculous Monitor operat0r 4410 Fri 2025-06-27 Civilization V Ahuka 4411 Mon 2025-06-30 The Pachli project thelovebug Comments this month These are comments which have been made during the past month, either to shows released during the month or to past shows. There are 29 comments in total. Past shows There are 4 comments on 3 previous shows: hpr4375 (2025-05-09) "Long Chain Carbons,Eggs and Dorodango?" by operat0r. Comment 4: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-06: "Reply to @Bob" hpr4378 (2025-05-14) "SQL to get the next_free_slot" by norrist. Comment 1: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-12: "Cheers for this." hpr4388 (2025-05-28) "BSD Overview" by norrist. Comment 4: Henrik Hemrin on 2025-06-02: "Learned more about BSD." Comment 5: norrist on 2025-06-02: "Additional info for OpenBSD Router" This month's shows There are 25 comments on 10 of this month's shows: hpr4391 (2025-06-02) "HPR Community News for May 2025" by HPR Volunteers. Comment 1: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-06: "Very disappointed."Comment 2: Ken Fallon on 2025-06-06: "Thanks for your feedback."Comment 3: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-09: "Reply to Ken [Comment 2]"Comment 4: norrist on 2025-06-09: "Watch the Queue for a show about how to find all the comments"Comment 5: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-10: "Comment #3 typo."Comment 6: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-11: "Reply to Comment #4 by norrist"Comment 7: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-11: "Got the link." hpr4394 (2025-06-05) "Digital Steganography Intro" by mightbemike. Comment 1: Henrik Hemrin on 2025-06-05: "Fascinating topic"Comment 2: oxo on 2025-06-05: "Good show! " hpr4395 (2025-06-06) "Second Life" by Lee. Comment 1: Antoine on 2025-06-08: "Brings philosophical thoughts" hpr4397 (2025-06-10) "Transfer files from desktop to phone with qrcp" by Klaatu. Comment 1: Laindir on 2025-06-18: "The perfect kind of recommendation" hpr4398 (2025-06-11) "Command line fun: downloading a podcast" by Kevie. Comment 1: Henrik Hemrin on 2025-06-11: "Tempted to have fun"Comment 2: Ken Fallon on 2025-06-22: "Personal message to redhat (nprfan)" hpr4403 (2025-06-18) "How to get your very own copy of the HPR database" by norrist. Comment 1: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-18: "Appreciated!"Comment 2: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-18: "Database size."Comment 3: norrist on 2025-06-18: "Also an SQLite version"Comment 4: Torin Doyle on 2025-06-25: "Not able to use database to find my comments." hpr4404 (2025-06-19) "Kevie nerd snipes Ken by grepping xml" by Ken Fallon. Comment 1: Henrik Hemrin on 2025-06-22: "More to digest"Comment 2: Alec Bickerton on 2025-06-29: "Shorter version"Comment 3: Alec Bickerton on 2025-06-29: "Shorter version"Comment 4: Alec Bickerton on 2025-06-29: "XML parsing without xmlstarlet" hpr4405 (2025-06-20) "What did I do at work today?" by Lee. Comment 1: Dave Morriss on 2025-06-25: "Thanks for bringing us along..." hpr4406 (2025-06-23) "SVG Files: Cyber Threat Hidden in Images" by ko3moc. Comment 1: oxo on 2025-06-23: "Interesting! "Comment 2: ko3moc on 2025-06-24: "response " hpr4408 (2025-06-25) "Lynx - Old School Browsing" by Kevie. Comment 1: Henrik Hemrin on 2025-06-29: "Review ALT texts" Mailing List discussions Policy decisions surrounding HPR are taken by the community as a whole. This discussion takes place on the Mailing List which is open to all HPR listeners and contributors. The discussions are open and available on the HPR server under Mailman. The threaded discussions this month can be found here: https://lists.hackerpublicradio.com/pipermail/hpr/2025-June/thread.html Events Calendar With the kind permission of LWN.net we are linking to The LWN.net Community Calendar. Quoting the site: This is the LWN.net community event calendar, where we track events of interest to people using and developing Linux and free software. Clicking on individual events will take you to the appropriate web page. Provide feedback on this episode.
Il a contribué à forger le web moderne en co-inventant XML chez Microsoft. Vingt-cinq ans plus tard, Jean Paoli poursuit un même objectif : transformer les documents en données intelligibles pour les machines. Avec sa start-up Docugami, cet ingénieur français passé par l'Inria et les batailles fondatrices de l'Internet chez Microsoft, s'attaque à un gisement monumental : les documents longs, complexes et essentiels des entreprises : contrats, rapports cliniques, documents financiers…Contrairement aux usages classiques des LLM, Docugami ne se contente pas de “tchatter” avec des PDF. Son approche repose sur une étape intermédiaire : transformer les documents en arbres sémantiques XML, son vieux cheval de bataille, pour en extraire des données fiables, manipulables, réutilisables. Résultat : une base semi-structurée sur laquelle l'IA est plus efficace.Installée à Seattle, soutenue par Bob Muglia, ancien directeur général de Snowflake, Docugami s'implante en France avec un labo privé. Une façon pour Jean Paoli, produit de l'excellence française, de contribuer à une IA souveraine. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
Co-créateur du langage XML, Jean Paoli est une figure historique de l'informatique mondiale. Aujourd'hui, avec Grégory Senay, il co-dirige Docugami, une startup qui marie intelligence artificielle et structuration documentaire. Ensemble, ils ambitionnent de réinventer la manière dont les entreprises exploitent leurs documents complexes.On revient sur : Le rôle historique de Jean Paoli dans la création du XML, aujourd'hui intégré dans la plupart des formats de documents.La complémentarité entre le XML et les technologies d'IA récentes comme les LLM.Le fonctionnement de Docugami : transformer des documents longs en bases de données structurées.L'approche scientifique portée par Grégory Senay et son équipe : adaptation fine aux données métier des clients.Les différences entre les écosystèmes français et américains pour les startups deeptech.Les ambitions de Docugami en France : recrutement, collaborations avec les labos, ouverture d'une filiale européenne.-----------
This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. Introduction On 2025-06-19 Ken Fallon did a show, number 4404 , responding to Kevie's show 4398 , which came out on 2025-06-11. Kevie was using a Bash pipeline to find the latest episode in an RSS feed, and download it. He used grep to parse the XML of the feed. Ken's response was to suggest the use of xmlstarlet to parse the XML because such a complex structured format as XML cannot reliably be parsed without a program that "understands" the intricacies of the format's structure. The same applies to other complex formats such as HTML, YAML and JSON. In his show Ken presented a Bash script which dealt with this problem and that of the ordering of episodes in the feed. He asked how others would write such a script, and thus I was motivated to produce this response to his response! Alternative script My script is a remodelling of Ken's, not a completely different solution. It contains a few alternative ways of doing what Ken did, and a reordering of the parts of his original. We will examine the changes in this episode. Script #!/bin/bash # Original (c) CC-0 Ken Fallon 2025 # Modified by Dave Morriss, 2025-06-14 (c) CC-0 podcast="https://tuxjam.otherside.network/feed/podcast/" # [1] while read -r item do # [2] pubDate="${item%;*}" # [3] pubDate="$( \date --date="${pubDate}" --universal +%FT%T )" # [4] url="${item#*;}" # [5] echo "${pubDate};${url}" done <
SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Network/Cyber Security and Information Security Stormcast
ADS & Python Tools Didier explains how to use his tools cut-bytes.py and filescanner to extract information from alternate data streams. https://isc.sans.edu/diary/ADS%20%26%20Python%20Tools/32058 Enhanced security defaults for Windows 365 Cloud PCs Microsoft announced more secure default configurations for its Windows 365 Cloud PC offerings. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/enhanced-security-defaults-for-windows-365-cloud-pcs/4424914 CVE-2025-34508: Another File Sharing Application, Another Path Traversal Horizon3 reveals details of a recently patched directory traversal vulnerability in zend.to. https://horizon3.ai/attack-research/attack-blogs/cve-2025-34508-another-file-sharing-application-another-path-traversal/ Unexpected security footguns in Go's parsers Go parsers for JSON and XML are not always compatible and can parse data in unexpected ways. This blog by Trails of Bits goes over the various security implications of this behaviour. https://blog.trailofbits.com/2025/06/17/unexpected-security-footguns-in-gos-parsers/
Dans cet épisode du Debrief Transat, cap sur trois sujets majeurs : l'évolution de l'interface Netflix, l'arrivée des chaînes TF1 dans l'application américaine de streaming, et la multiplication des projets de lunettes intelligentes.Netflix : une nouvelle interface qui dérange Netflix a récemment modifié son interface télé sur certains écrans. Une évolution qui a surpris – voire déstabilisé – de nombreux utilisateurs. Si la première couche reste familière, les informations secondaires sont réorganisées, parfois absentes, nécessitant une réadaptation. L'objectif : préparer le terrain pour de futures fonctionnalités. Un changement mineur ? Pas tant que ça. L'occasion de souligner l'importance capitale de l'UX dans le succès des plateformes de streaming.TF1 débarque sur Netflix : un partenariat stratégique Coup de théâtre dans le paysage audiovisuel français : TF1 signe un partenariat avec Netflix pour diffuser ses chaînes en direct sur la plateforme. Une décision stratégique habile pour le groupe TF1, qui gagne en visibilité dans l'univers du streaming, et une claque pour des initiatives locales comme Molotov ou feu Salto, laissées de côté. Ce mouvement relance le débat sur la souveraineté numérique et le pouvoir croissant des plateformes américaines.Lunettes connectées : déferlante en approcheMeta, en collaboration avec Oakley (groupe EssilorLuxottica), annonce l'arrivée de nouvelles lunettes connectées. Plus robustes, pensées pour le sport, elles s'inscrivent dans un mouvement plus large : la démocratisation des lunettes intelligentes sans réalité augmentée (pas d'affichage, mais micro, caméra et assistant vocal intégrés). En coulisses, Qualcomm est à la manœuvre avec ses puces spécialisées. Une véritable course à l'innovation est lancée, avec des dizaines de modèles en préparation chez les plus grandes marques de luxe.En bref cette semaine :New York veut obliger les entreprises à plus de transparence lorsqu'elles licencient à cause de l'IA.Au Québec, l'Union des artistes publie un manifeste contre les dérives de l'IA dans le monde du spectacle.Des initiatives éducatives émergent autour de l'IA, notamment une formation en cloud computing au Cégep et un programme pour sensibiliser les plus jeunes.En France, Xavier Niel inaugure Campus 42up, une extension de l'école d'informatique 42 tech.Interview attendue de Jean Paoli, co-inventeur du XML, sur la souveraineté des données et l'IA.-----------
An airhacks.fm conversation with Billy Korando (@BillyKorando) about: Apple IIe and Packard Bell in the late 80s/early 90s, playing games like Three Stooges and Wolfenstein 3D, taking a year off after high school to work at FedEx as a package handler which motivated him to pursue higher education, his first professional job working on insurance regulation software using Java 1.4 with Apache Struts and custom frameworks, transitioning to Spring 2.5 and experiencing the XML configuration challenges, experience with the microservices hype around 2015 and learning that organizations that couldn't build good monoliths wouldn't succeed with microservices either, automated testing and JUnit 5, meeting Pratik Patel at DevNexus which led to his first devrel position at IBM, traveling extensively for conferences including J-Fall in the Netherlands, being laid off from IBM in 2021 and joining Oracle's Java team, focusing on JDK technologies like JFR, garbage collection, and project leyden, helping organize the Kansas City Developers Conference, involvement in reviving JavaOne as a standalone conference, the importance of automated testing with tools like Test Containers versus older approaches with H2 databases, the challenges of maintaining code coverage as a metric, the evolution of Java, focus on Java observability tools and performance optimization Billy Korando on twitter: @BillyKorando
Lunettes connectées, smartphone "trumpien", panne SFR, changement d'interface Netflix, fuite massive de données, souveraineté numérique des entreprises, rencontre avec l'inventeur du langage XML... Bienvenue à Monde Numérique, l'hebdo du 21 juin 2025 !
This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. More Command line fun: downloading a podcast In the show hpr4398 :: Command line fun: downloading a podcast Kevie walked us through a command to download a podcast. He used some techniques here that I hadn't used before, and it's always great to see how other people approach the problem. Let's have a look at the script and walk through what it does, then we'll have a look at some "traps for young players" as the EEVBlog is fond of saying. Analysis of the Script wget `curl https://tuxjam.otherside.network/feed/podcast/ | grep -o 'https*://[^"]*ogg' | head -1` It chains four different commands together to "Save the latest file from a feed". Let's break it down so we can have checkpoints between each step. I often do this when writing a complex one liner - first do it as steps, and then combine it. The curl command gets https://tuxjam.otherside.network/feed/podcast/ . To do this ourselves we will call curl https://tuxjam.otherside.network/feed/podcast/ --output tuxjam.xml , as the default file name is index.html. This gives us a xml file, and we can confirm it's valid xml with the xmllint command. $ xmllint --format tuxjam.xml >/dev/null $ echo $? 0 Here the output of the command is ignored by redirecting it to /dev/null Then we check the error code the last command had. As it's 0 it completed sucessfully. Kevie then passes the output to the grep search command with the option -o and then looks for any string starting with https followed by anything then followed by two forward slashes, then -o, --only-matching Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such part on a separate output line We can do the same with. I was not aware that grep defaulted to regex, as I tend to add the --perl-regexp to explicitly add it. grep --only-matching 'https*://[^"]*ogg' tuxjam.xml http matches the characters http literally (case sensitive) s* matches the character s literally (case sensitive) Quantifier: * Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed [greedy] : matches the character : literally / matches the character / literally / matches the character / literally [^"]* match a single character not present in the list below Quantifier: * Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed [greedy] " a single character in the list " literally (case sensitive) ogg matches the characters ogg literally (case sensitive) When we run this ourselves we get the following $ grep --only-matching 'https*://[^"]*ogg' tuxjam.xml https://archive.org/download/tuxjam-121/tuxjam_121.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam-120/TuxJam_120.ogg https://archive.org/download/tux-jam-119/TuxJam_119.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_118/tuxjam_118.ogg https://archive.org/download/tux-jam-117-uncut/TuxJam_117.ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_116/tuxjam_116.ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://ogg http://tuxjam.otherside.network/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/10/tuxjam_115_OggCamp2024.ogg https://ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_114/tuxjam_114.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_113/tuxjam_113.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_112/tuxjam_112.ogg The last command returns the first line, so therefore https://archive.org/download/tuxjam-121/tuxjam_121.ogg Finally that line is used as the input to the wget command. Problems with the approach Relying on grep with structured data like xml or json can lead to problems. When we looked at the output of the command in step 2, some of the results gave https://ogg . When run the same command without the --only-matching argument we see what was matched. $ grep 'https*://[^"]*ogg' tuxjam.xml This episode may not be live as in TuxJam 115 from Oggcamp but your friendly foursome of Al, Dave (thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (mcnalu) are very much alive to treats of Free and Open Source Software and Creative Commons tunes. https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-oggcamp-2024/ https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-oggcamp-2024/#respond https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-oggcamp-2024/feed/ With the group meeting up together for the first time in person, it was decided that a live recording would be an appropriate venture. With the quartet squashed around a table and a group of adoring fans crowded into a room at the Pendulum Hotel in Manchester, the discussion turns to TuxJam reviews that become regularly used applications, what we enjoyed about OggCamp 2024 and for the third section the gang put their reputation on the line and allow open questions from the sea of dedicated fans. OggCamp 2024 on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October 2024, Manchester UK. Two of the hits are not enclosures at all, they are references in the text to OggCamp what we enjoyed about OggCamp 2024 Normally running grep will only get one entry per line, and if the xml is minimised it can miss entries on a file that comes across as one big line. I did this myself using xmllint --noblanks tuxjam.xml > tuxjam-min.xml I then edited it and replaced the new lines with spaces. I have to say that the --only-matching argument is doing a great job at pulling out the matches. That said the results were not perfect either. $ grep --only-matching 'https*://[^"]*ogg' tuxjam-min.xml https://archive.org/download/tuxjam-121/tuxjam_121.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam-120/TuxJam_120.ogg https://archive.org/download/tux-jam-119/TuxJam_119.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_118/tuxjam_118.ogg https://archive.org/download/tux-jam-117-uncut/TuxJam_117.ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_116/tuxjam_116.ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://tuxjam.otherside.network/?p=1029https://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-oggcamp-2024/#respondhttps://tuxjam.otherside.network/tuxjam-115-ogg https://ogg http://tuxjam.otherside.network/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/10/tuxjam_115_OggCamp2024.ogg https://ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_114/tuxjam_114.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_113/tuxjam_113.ogg https://archive.org/download/tuxjam_112/tuxjam_112.ogg You could fix it by modifying the grep arguments and add additional searches looking for enclosure . The problem with that approach is that you'll forever and a day be chasing issues when someone changes something. So the approach is officially "Grand", but it's a very likely to break if you're not babysitting it. Suggested Applications. I recommend never parsing structured documents , like xml or json with grep. You should use dedicated parsers that understands the document markup, and can intelligently address parts of it. I recommend: xml use xmlstarlet json use jq yaml use yq Of course anyone that looks at my code on the hpr gittea will know this is a case of "do what I say, not what I do." Never parse xml with grep, where the only possible exception is to see if a string is in a file in the first place. grep --max-count=1 --files-with-matches That's justified under the fact that grep is going to be faster than having to parse, and build a XML Document Object Model when you don't have to. Some Tips Always refer to examples and specification A specification is just a set of rules that tell you how the document is formatted. There is a danger in just looking at example files, and not reading the specifications. I had a situation once where a software developer raised a bug as the files didn't begin with ken-test- followed by a uuid . They were surprised when the supplied files did not follow this convention as per the examples. Suffice to say that was rejected. For us there are the rules from the RSS specification itself, but as it's a XML file there are XML Specifications . While the RSS spec is short, the XML is not, so people tend to use dedicated libraries to parse XML. Using a dedicated tool like xmlstarlet will allow us to mostly ignore the details of XML. RSS is a dialect of XML . All RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification, as published on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website. The first line of the tuxjam feed shows it's an XML file. The specification goes on to say "At the top level, a RSS document is a element, with a mandatory attribute called version, that specifies the version of RSS that the document conforms to. If it conforms to this specification, the version attribute must be 2.0." And sure enough then the second line show that it's a RSS file.
Send us a textThe pursuit of AI expertise has reached staggering heights in the cybersecurity world. Meta reportedly offering "billion-dollar salaries" and $100 million sign-on bonuses to lure OpenAI talent reveals just how valuable the intersection of AI and security has become. This episode explores why security professionals should seriously consider developing AI skills while highlighting that most organizations are still figuring out their AI security strategy – creating massive opportunity for those who can help bridge the knowledge gap.Transitioning to our main feature, we dive deep into Domain 8.5 of the CISSP with 15 critical questions covering secure coding practices. From preventing XML External Entity attacks to understanding race conditions in concurrent applications, each question unpacks vital security concepts through practical scenarios. Learn why disabling DTDs in XML parsers, implementing proper input validation for APIs, and using prepared statements with parameterized queries are fundamental to building secure applications.The episode explores modern security challenges including infrastructure as code, OAuth 2.0 implementation, and the importance of implementing proper code review processes. Whether you're preparing for the CISSP exam or expanding your practical security knowledge, these questions provide valuable insight into how security vulnerabilities manifest and how to properly mitigate them. Each explanation goes beyond simple answers to help you understand the underlying principles that make certain practices more effective than others.Ready to accelerate your CISSP journey? Visit CISSP Cyber Training for access to hundreds of practice questions, video content, and resources designed to help you pass the exam on your first attempt. Leave a review and let us know what topics you'd like covered next!Gain exclusive access to 360 FREE CISSP Practice Questions delivered directly to your inbox! Sign up at FreeCISSPQuestions.com and receive 30 expertly crafted practice questions every 15 days for the next 6 months—completely free! Don't miss this valuable opportunity to strengthen your CISSP exam preparation and boost your chances of certification success. Join now and start your journey toward CISSP mastery today!
This Day in Legal History: SEC EstablishedOn this day in legal history, June 6, 1934, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established as part of the sweeping reforms of the New Deal. The SEC was created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in response to the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, which exposed widespread fraud, manipulation, and lack of oversight in the financial markets. Its primary mission was, and remains, to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation.President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy, a former stockbroker and businessman, as the SEC's first chairman. The choice was controversial—Kennedy had profited handsomely from some of the same speculative practices the SEC was meant to prevent—but Roosevelt believed that Kennedy's insider knowledge would make him an effective regulator.The SEC was empowered to regulate the securities industry, enforce federal securities laws, and oversee the nation's stock and options exchanges. Among its early duties were requiring public companies to file detailed financial disclosures, registering securities before public offering, and monitoring insider trading. The commission also played a key role in restoring investor confidence in U.S. capital markets during a time of deep financial mistrust.Over time, the SEC expanded its reach, responding to new financial products, trading technologies, and crises. From investigating corporate accounting scandals like Enron and WorldCom, to managing the regulatory fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, the SEC has remained a pivotal force in shaping American financial law. It continues to evolve, now addressing issues such as crypto asset regulation, ESG disclosures, and algorithmic trading.Speaking of the SEC, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton dismissed a lawsuit challenging the SEC 2020 rule changes that made it more difficult for shareholders to submit proposals at corporate annual meetings. The rules, enacted late in President Trump's term, raised the ownership thresholds and lengthened holding periods required to file shareholder proposals. They also introduced stricter resubmission requirements for proposals previously rejected by shareholders.The plaintiffs, including the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, As You Sow, and shareholder advocate James McRitchie, argued the changes disproportionately harmed proposals on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and reduced long-term shareholder value. They claimed the SEC failed to assess the benefits of such proposals before implementing the rules.Judge Walton rejected these claims, ruling that the SEC adequately justified the changes under its mandate to promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation. The SEC, which had defended the rules during both the Trump and Biden administrations, argued that the reforms ensured shareholder proposals had broader relevance and potential for meaningful corporate action. The 2020 vote on the rule changes split along party lines, with Republican commissioners in support. While the SEC declined to comment on the ruling, the plaintiffs expressed disappointment and affirmed their commitment to corporate engagement on environmental and social issues.SEC wins dismissal of lawsuit challenging tighter rules on shareholder proposals | ReutersOpenAI filed an appeal challenging a court order that requires it to indefinitely preserve ChatGPT output data in an ongoing copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times. OpenAI argues the order conflicts with its user privacy commitments and sets a troubling precedent. The preservation directive was issued last month after The Times requested that all relevant log data be maintained and segregated.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly criticized the order on social media, affirming the company's stance against actions it sees as compromising user privacy. The appeal, filed on June 3, asks U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein to vacate the preservation requirement.The lawsuit, filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of Times articles without permission to train ChatGPT. In April, Judge Stein ruled that The Times had plausibly alleged that OpenAI and Microsoft may have encouraged users to reproduce copyrighted content. The ruling rejected parts of a motion to dismiss the case and allowed several of the Times' claims to move forward, citing multiple examples of ChatGPT generating material closely resembling Times articles.OpenAI appeals data preservation order in NYT copyright case | ReutersPresident Donald Trump's 2026 budget proposal includes a plan to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), an independent agency that funds civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The proposal seeks $21 million for an "orderly closeout" of the organization, which had requested $2.1 billion to meet growing demand. The LSC supports 130 nonprofit legal aid programs that assist with issues such as evictions, disaster recovery, and access to public benefits.Critics warn that the move would devastate legal aid access for millions, particularly in rural areas and the South. In Louisiana, for example, there is just one legal aid lawyer for every 11,250 eligible residents. Legal aid leaders say they already turn away half of those seeking help due to budget constraints, and the proposed funding cut would further limit their reach.Organizations like Southeast Louisiana Legal Services and Legal Aid of North Carolina would lose 40–50% of their funding, jeopardizing services for communities still recovering from recent hurricanes. Legal Services NYC, the largest legal aid provider in the country, has implemented a hiring freeze in anticipation of possible cuts.The proposal revives a long-standing conservative goal. Past Republican efforts to dismantle the LSC date back to the Reagan era, and Trump made a similar attempt in 2018. The Heritage Foundation has accused the LSC of supporting controversial causes, but legal aid advocates argue the organization is vital to community stability and fairness in the justice system.Trump Plan to Ax Legal Aid a Conservative Aim That Targets PoorIn a piece I wrote for Forbes last week, I discuss how the IRS has quietly released the underlying codebase for its Direct File program on GitHub, marking a rare moment of transparency in government software. At the center of this release is something called the “Fact Graph,” a logic engine that models tax rules as interrelated facts rather than a linear checklist. Built using XML and Scala, the Fact Graph interprets ambiguous tax data, identifies contradictions or omissions, and suggests paths forward, all in a transparent, declarative format.What sets this apart is that, unlike proprietary tax software, Direct File's logic isn't hidden—it's open, reviewable, and potentially improvable by anyone. This move not only demystifies some of the inner workings of tax enforcement but also sets a precedent: if algorithms are mediating our legal obligations, we should be able to see and understand the rules they follow.The release is particularly striking in an era of eroding public trust in institutions and increasing reliance on automated decision-making. While Direct File itself remains limited in scope and its future uncertain, the open-sourcing of its logic engine may have laid the groundwork for broader change. Other agencies—from state tax departments to those experimenting with AI-driven policy enforcement—could adopt similar transparency, allowing the public to engage with and even help refine the systems that govern them.Peeking Behind The Code—IRS Just Open-Sourced Direct FileThis week's closing theme is by Robert Schumann and comes courtesy of Christopher Zbinden. This week's closing theme is Robert Schumann's Toccata in C major, Op. 7, a dazzling showcase of Romantic-era pianism and one of the most technically demanding works in the standard repertoire. Composed in 1830 and revised in 1833, the piece earned a reputation early on as a pianist's Everest—Franz Liszt himself dubbed it “the hardest piece ever written.” Clocking in at just over five minutes when played at tempo, it's a relentless whirlwind of perpetual motion, requiring both physical stamina and interpretive precision.The toccata form, traditionally a virtuosic keyboard piece emphasizing dexterity, becomes in Schumann's hands something more cerebral. Beneath its bravura surface lies a structure built on two contrasting themes, developed with intricate counterpoint and rhythmic displacement. The left hand must execute rapid repeated notes and wide leaps with precision, while the right weaves through syncopated figures and chromatic runs, creating a dense musical texture.Schumann dedicated the piece to his friend Ludwig Schuncke, who had recently died at the age of 23. That personal connection adds an emotional layer to a work that might otherwise be heard as pure technical spectacle. Unlike many showpieces of the era, Schumann's Toccata isn't just difficult for difficulty's sake—it's an expression of obsession, energy, and youthful ambition.For a composer better known for lyrical piano miniatures, the Toccata is an early signal of the depth and range Schumann would explore in later works. As this week closes, it offers a fitting sendoff: intricate, driven, and a little manic—in the best Romantic sense of the word.Without further ado, Robert Schumann's Toccata in C major, Op. 7 – enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe
Send us a textNavigating the complex landscape of authentication frameworks is essential for any cybersecurity professional, especially those preparing for the CISSP exam. This deep-dive episode unravels the intricate world of authentication systems that protect our digital identities across multiple platforms and services.We begin by examining OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect (OIDC), exploring how these token-based frameworks revolutionize third-party authentication without exposing user credentials. When you click "Login with Google," you're experiencing these protocols in action—reducing password reuse while maintaining security across digital services. Learn the difference between authorization flows and how these systems interact to verify your identity seamlessly across the web.The podcast then transitions to Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), breaking down how this XML-based protocol establishes trust between identity providers and service providers. Through practical examples, we illustrate how SAML enables web single sign-on capabilities across educational institutions, corporate environments, and cloud services—creating that "connective tissue" between disparate systems while enhancing both security and user experience.Kerberos, MIT's powerful network authentication protocol, takes center stage as we explore its ticketing system architecture. Named after the three-headed dog of Greek mythology, this protocol's Authentication Service, Ticket Granting Service, and Key Distribution Center work in concert to verify identities without transmitting passwords across networks. We also discuss critical considerations like time synchronization requirements that can make or break your Kerberos implementation.For remote authentication scenarios, we compare RADIUS and TACACS+ protocols, highlighting their distinct approaches to the AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) framework. Discover why network administrators choose UDP-based RADIUS for general network access while preferring the TCP-based TACACS+ for granular administrative control with command-level authorization and full payload encryption.Whether you're studying for the CISSP exam or looking to strengthen your organization's security posture, this episode provides the knowledge foundation you need to implement robust authentication systems in today's interconnected world. Visit CISSP Cyber Training for additional resources to support your cybersecurity journey.Gain exclusive access to 360 FREE CISSP Practice Questions delivered directly to your inbox! Sign up at FreeCISSPQuestions.com and receive 30 expertly crafted practice questions every 15 days for the next 6 months—completely free! Don't miss this valuable opportunity to strengthen your CISSP exam preparation and boost your chances of certification success. Join now and start your journey toward CISSP mastery today!
Jason Martin is an AI Security Researcher at HiddenLayer. This episode explores “policy puppetry,” a universal attack technique bypassing safety features in all major language models using structured formats like XML or JSON.Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter
Filippo La Porta, Benedetto Intrigila"L'evidenza e l'emozione"Una passeggiata fra scienza e letteraturaLuca Sossella Editorewww.lucasossellaeditore.itDue amici di gioventù, che hanno condiviso gli studi universitari di filosofia – e in parte la turbolenta stagione politica dei primi anni settanta –, si ritrovano a ragionare delle loro passioni di allora, della loro “educazione sentimentale”, pensando alle giovani generazioni.Un critico letterario e un informatico dialogano passeggiando a partire dalla separazione tra le due culture – scientifica e umanistica – e poi via via affrontando i temi che considerano oggi più urgenti: attualità o meno del “metodo” dialettico, necessità della fede religiosa, critica dell'esistente, intelligenza artificiale e autenticità dell'esperienza, rapporto natura-cultura.Filippo La PortaCritico letterario e saggista. Scrive su Robinson de “la Repubblica” e collabora all'“Unità”.Ha una rubrica sul settimanale “Left”, collabora con Di Martedì La7.Ha pubblicato L'arte del riassunto. Come liberarsi del superfluo; Pasolini. Profili di storia letteraria; Uno sguardo sulla città. Gli scrittori italiani contemporanei e i loro luoghi; Roma è una bugia; Il bene e gli altri: Dante e un'etica per il nuovo millennio; Come un raggio nell'acqua. Dante e la relazione con l'altro.Insegna alla Luiss e alla Scuola Holden.Benedetto IntrigilaGià professore ordinario di informatica presso l'Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”.Laurea in Matematica (cum laude) e in Filosofia (cum laude).I suoi interessi di ricerca sono nel campo del lambda calcolo e delle applicazioni dei metodi formali all'informatica. Oltre al lambda calcolo la sua ricerca si è svolta fra l'altro nel campo della verifica dei sistemi software-like (protocolli) e dei sistemi ibridi, nel campo delle tecnologie XML e dei linguaggi formali.È autore di oltre 60 lavori scientifici su riviste e conferenze internazionali.In precedenza – dopo aver superato con successo un corso-concorso presso la Scuola Superiore della P.A – ha lavorato nel campo dell'informatica e dell'organizzazione del lavoro come funzionario del Ministero delle Finanze.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itDiventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.
SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Network/Cyber Security and Information Security Stormcast
SRUM-DUMP Version 3: Uncovering Malware Activity in Forensics Mark Baggett released SRUM-DUMP Version 3. The tool simplifies data extraction from Widnows System Resource Usage Monitor (SRUM). This database logs how much resources software used for 30 days, and is invaluable to find out what software was executed when and if it sent or received network data. https://isc.sans.edu/diary/SRUM-DUMP%20Version%203%3A%20Uncovering%20Malware%20Activity%20in%20Forensics/31896 Novel Universal Bypass For All Major LLMS Hidden Layer discovered a new prompt injection technique that bypasses security constraints in large language models. The technique uses an XML formatted prequel for a prompt, which appears to the LLM as a policy file. This Policy Puppetry can be used to rewrite some of the security policies configured for LLMs. Unlike other techniques, this technique works across multiple LLMs without changing the policy. https://hiddenlayer.com/innovation-hub/novel-universal-bypass-for-all-major-llms/ CHOICEJACKING: Compromising Mobile Devices through Malicious Chargers like a Decade ago The old Juice Jacking is back, at least if you do not run the latest version of Android or iOS. This issue may allow a malicious USB device, particularly a USB charger, to take control of a device connected to it. https://pure.tugraz.at/ws/portalfiles/portal/89650227/Final_Paper_Usenix.pdf SANS @RSA: https://www.sans.org/mlp/rsac/
We'll keep this brief because we're on a tight turnaround: GPT 4.1, previously known as the Quasar and Optimus models, is now live as the natural update for 4o/4o-mini (and the research preview of GPT 4.5). Though it is a general purpose model family, the headline features are: Coding abilities (o1-level SWEBench and SWELancer, but ok Aider) Instruction Following (with a very notable prompting guide) Long Context up to 1m tokens (with new MRCR and Graphwalk benchmarks) Vision (simply o1 level) Cheaper Pricing (cheaper than 4o, greatly improved prompt caching savings) We caught up with returning guest Michelle Pokrass and Josh McGrath to get more detail on each! Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 00:00:57 GPC 4.1 Launch Overview 00:01:54 Developer Feedback and Model Names 00:02:53 Model Naming and Starry Themes 00:03:49 Confusion Over GPC 4.1 vs 4.5 00:04:47 Distillation and Model Improvements 00:05:45 Omnimodel Architecture and Future Plans 00:06:43 Core Capabilities of GPC 4.1 00:07:40 Training Techniques and Long Context 00:08:37 Challenges in Long Context Reasoning 00:09:34 Context Utilization in Models 00:10:31 Graph Walks and Model Evaluation 00:11:31 Real Life Applications of Graph Tasks 00:12:30 Multi-Hop Reasoning Benchmarks 00:13:30 Agentic Workflows and Backtracking 00:14:28 Graph Traversals for Agent Planning 00:15:24 Context Usage in API and Memory Systems 00:16:21 Model Performance in Long Context Tasks 00:17:17 Instruction Following and Real World Data 00:18:12 Challenges in Grading Instructions 00:19:09 Instruction Following Techniques 00:20:09 Prompting Techniques and Model Responses 00:21:05 Agentic Workflows and Model Persistence 00:22:01 Balancing Persistence and User Control 00:22:56 Evaluations on Model Edits and Persistence 00:23:55 XML vs JSON in Prompting 00:24:50 Instruction Placement in Context 00:25:49 Optimizing for Prompt Caching 00:26:49 Chain of Thought and Reasoning Models 00:27:46 Choosing the Right Model for Your Task 00:28:46 Coding Capabilities of GPC 4.1 00:29:41 Model Performance in Coding Tasks 00:30:39 Understanding Coding Model Differences 00:31:36 Using Smaller Models for Coding 00:32:33 Future of Coding in OpenAI 00:33:28 Internal Use and Success Stories 00:34:26 Vision and Multi-Modal Capabilities 00:35:25 Screen vs Embodied Vision 00:36:22 Vision Benchmarks and Model Improvements 00:37:19 Model Deprecation and GPU Usage 00:38:13 Fine-Tuning and Preference Steering 00:39:12 Upcoming Reasoning Models 00:40:10 Creative Writing and Model Humor 00:41:07 Feedback and Developer Community 00:42:03 Pricing and Blended Model Costs 00:44:02 Conclusion and Wrap-Up
This episode is a full-circle moment! Crystal reconnects with the person who first planted the seed that SEO could actually drive traffic—without the middleman of social media. Meet Favour Obasi-ike: a podcasting pioneer, SEO strategist, and founder of We Don't Play Podcast. Together, Crystal and Favour take a nostalgic ride through their Clubhouse days, unpack the magic of Pinterest SEO, explore the future of RSS feeds, and share why your website needs a sitemap. Like, yesterday!Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just now dipping your toe into SEO, this episode is packed with heart, tech, and next-level brand-building tips.
Join Matthias Reinwarth in this special episode of the KuppingerCole Analyst Chat as he welcomes not one but two expert guests: Nitish Deshpande, Research Analyst at KuppingerCole, and Martin Kuppinger, Principal Analyst and Co-Founder of KuppingerCole. Together, they explore the evolution of modern authorization, discussing how far the industry has come since the early days of static entitlements and XML-based policies. From early insights shared back in 2009 to today’s dynamic, AI-enhanced, signal-driven authorization models, this episode unpacks the what, why, and how of modern access control systems.
Brandon Liu is an open source developer and creator of the Protomaps basemap project. We talk about how static maps help developers build sites that last, the PMTiles file format, the role of OpenStreetMap, and his experience funding and running an open source project full time. Protomaps Protomaps PMTiles (File format used by Protomaps) Self-hosted slippy maps, for novices (like me) Why Deploy Protomaps on a CDN User examples Flickr Pinball Map Toilet Map Related projects OpenStreetMap (Dataset protomaps is based on) Mapzen (Former company that released details on what to display based on zoom levels) Mapbox GL JS (Mapbox developed source available map rendering library) MapLibre GL JS (Open source fork of Mapbox GL JS) Other links HTTP range requests (MDN) Hilbert curve Transcript You can help correct transcripts on GitHub. Intro [00:00:00] Jeremy: I'm talking to Brandon Liu. He's the creator of Protomaps, which is a way to easily create and host your own maps. Let's get into it. [00:00:09] Brandon: Hey, so thanks for having me on the podcast. So I'm Brandon. I work on an open source project called Protomaps. What it really is, is if you're a front end developer and you ever wanted to put maps on a website or on a mobile app, then Protomaps is sort of an open source solution for doing that that I hope is something that's way easier to use than, um, a lot of other open source projects. Why not just use Google Maps? [00:00:36] Jeremy: A lot of people are gonna be familiar with Google Maps. Why should they worry about whether something's open source? Why shouldn't they just go and use the Google maps API? [00:00:47] Brandon: So Google Maps is like an awesome thing it's an awesome product. Probably one of the best tech products ever right? And just to have a map that tells you what restaurants are open and something that I use like all the time especially like when you're traveling it has all that data. And the most amazing part is that it's free for consumers but it's not necessarily free for developers. Like if you wanted to embed that map onto your website or app, that usually has an API cost which still has a free tier and is affordable. But one motivation, one basic reason to use open source is if you have some project that doesn't really fit into that pricing model. You know like where you have to pay the cost of Google Maps, you have a side project, a nonprofit, that's one reason. But there's lots of other reasons related to flexibility or customization where you might want to use open source instead. Protomaps examples [00:01:49] Jeremy: Can you give some examples where people have used Protomaps and where that made sense for them? [00:01:56] Brandon: I follow a lot of the use cases and I also don't know about a lot of them because I don't have an API where I can track a hundred percent of the users. Some of them use the hosted version, but I would say most of them probably use it on their own infrastructure. One of the cool projects I've been seeing is called Toilet Map. And what toilet map is if you're in the UK and you want find a public restroom then it maps out, sort of crowdsourced all of the public restrooms. And that's important for like a lot of people if they have health issues, they need to find that information. And just a lot of different projects in the same vein. There's another one called Pinball Map which is sort of a hobby project to find all the pinball machines in the world. And they wanted to have a customized map that fit in with their theme of pinball. So these sorts of really cool indie projects are the ones I'm most excited about. Basemaps vs Overlays [00:02:57] Jeremy: And if we talk about, like the pinball map as an example, there's this concept of a basemap and then there's the things that you lay on top of it. What is a basemap and then is the pinball locations is that part of it or is that something separate? [00:03:12] Brandon: It's usually something separate. The example I usually use is if you go to a real estate site, like Zillow, you'll open up the map of Seattle and it has a bunch of pins showing all the houses, and then it has some information beneath it. That information beneath it is like labels telling, this neighborhood is Capitol Hill, or there is a park here. But all that information is common to a lot of use cases and it's not specific to real estate. So I think usually that's the distinction people use in the industry between like a base map versus your overlay. The overlay is like the data for your product or your company while the base map is something you could get from Google or from Protomaps or from Apple or from Mapbox that kind of thing. PMTiles for hosting the basemap and overlays [00:03:58] Jeremy: And so Protomaps in particular is responsible for the base map, and that information includes things like the streets and the locations of landmarks and things like that. Where is all that information coming from? [00:04:12] Brandon: So the base map information comes from a project called OpenStreetMap. And I would also, point out that for Protomaps as sort of an ecosystem. You can also put your overlay data into a format called PMTiles, which is sort of the core of what Protomaps is. So it can really do both. It can transform your data into the PMTiles format which you can host and you can also host the base map. So you kind of have both of those sides of the product in one solution. [00:04:43] Jeremy: And so when you say you have both are you saying that the PMTiles file can have, the base map in one file and then you would have the data you're laying on top in another file? Or what are you describing there? [00:04:57] Brandon: That's usually how I recommend to do it. Oftentimes there'll be sort of like, a really big basemap 'cause it has all of that data about like where the rivers are. Or while, if you want to put your map of toilets or park benches or pickleball courts on top, that's another file. But those are all just like assets you can move around like JSON or CSV files. Statically Hosted [00:05:19] Jeremy: And I think one of the things you mentioned was that your goal was to make Protomaps or the, the use of these PMTiles files easy to use. What does that look like for, for a developer? I wanna host a map. What do I actually need to, to put on my servers? [00:05:38] Brandon: So my usual pitch is that basically if you know how to use S3 or cloud storage, that you know how to deploy a map. And that, I think is the main sort of differentiation from most open source projects. Like a lot of them, they call themselves like, like some sort of self-hosted solution. But I've actually avoided using the term self-hosted because I think in most cases that implies a lot of complexity. Like you have to log into a Linux server or you have to use Kubernetes or some sort of Docker thing. What I really want to emphasize is the idea that, for Protomaps, it's self-hosted in the same way like CSS is self-hosted. So you don't really need a service from Amazon to host the JSON files or CSV files. It's really just a static file. [00:06:32] Jeremy: When you say static file that means you could use any static web host to host your HTML file, your JavaScript that actually renders the map. And then you have your PMTiles files, and you're not running a process or anything, you're just putting your files on a static file host. [00:06:50] Brandon: Right. So I think if you're a developer, you can also argue like a static file server is a server. It's you know, it's the cloud, it's just someone else's computer. It's really just nginx under the hood. But I think static storage is sort of special. If you look at things like static site generators, like Jekyll or Hugo, they're really popular because they're a commodity or like the storage is a commodity. And you can take your blog, make it a Jekyll blog, hosted on S3. One day, Amazon's like, we're charging three times as much so you can move it to a different cloud provider. And that's all vendor neutral. So I think that's really the special thing about static storage as a primitive on the web. Why running servers is a problem for resilience [00:07:36] Jeremy: Was there a prior experience you had? Like you've worked with maps for a very long time. Were there particular difficulties you had where you said I just gotta have something that can be statically hosted? [00:07:50] Brandon: That's sort of exactly why I got into this. I've been working sort of in and around the map space for over a decade, and Protomaps is really like me trying to solve the same problem I've had over and over again in the past, just like once and forever right? Because like once this problem is solved, like I don't need to deal with it again in the future. So I've worked at a couple of different companies before, mostly as a contractor, for like a humanitarian nonprofit for a design company doing things like, web applications to visualize climate change. Or for even like museums, like digital signage for museums. And oftentimes they had some sort of data visualization component, but always sort of the challenge of how to like, store and also distribute like that data was something that there wasn't really great open source solutions. So just for map data, that's really what motivated that design for Protomaps. [00:08:55] Jeremy: And in those, those projects in the past, were those things where you had to run your own server, run your own database, things like that? [00:09:04] Brandon: Yeah. And oftentimes we did, we would spin up an EC2 instance, for maybe one client and then we would have to host this server serving map data forever. Maybe the client goes away, or I guess it's good for business if you can sign some sort of like long-term support for that client saying, Hey, you know, like we're done with a project, but you can pay us to maintain the EC2 server for the next 10 years. And that's attractive. but it's also sort of a pain, because usually what happens is if people are given the choice, like a developer between like either I can manage the server on EC2 or on Rackspace or Hetzner or whatever, or I can go pay a SaaS to do it. In most cases, businesses will choose to pay the SaaS. So that's really like what creates a sort of lock-in is this preference for like, so I have this choice between like running the server or paying the SaaS. Like businesses will almost always go and pay the SaaS. [00:10:05] Jeremy: Yeah. And in this case, you either find some kind of free hosting or low-cost hosting just to host your files and you upload the files and then you're good from there. You don't need to maintain anything. [00:10:18] Brandon: Exactly, and that's really the ideal use case. so I have some users these, climate science consulting agencies, and then they might have like a one-off project where they have to generate the data once, but instead of having to maintain this server for the lifetime of that project, they just have a file on S3 and like, who cares? If that costs a couple dollars a month to run, that's fine, but it's not like S3 is gonna be deprecated, like it's gonna be on an insecure version of Ubuntu or something. So that's really the ideal, set of constraints for using Protomaps. [00:10:58] Jeremy: Yeah. Something this also makes me think about is, is like the resilience of sites like remaining online, because I, interviewed, Kyle Drake, he runs Neocities, which is like a modern version of GeoCities. And if I remember correctly, he was mentioning how a lot of old websites from that time, if they were running a server backend, like they were running PHP or something like that, if you were to try to go to those sites, now they're like pretty much all dead because there needed to be someone dedicated to running a Linux server, making sure things were patched and so on and so forth. But for static sites, like the ones that used to be hosted on GeoCities, you can go to the internet archive or other websites and they were just files, right? You can bring 'em right back up, and if anybody just puts 'em on a web server, then you're good. They're still alive. Case study of news room preferring static hosting [00:11:53] Brandon: Yeah, exactly. One place that's kind of surprising but makes sense where this comes up, is for newspapers actually. Some of the users using Protomaps are the Washington Post. And the reason they use it, is not necessarily because they don't want to pay for a SaaS like Google, but because if they make an interactive story, they have to guarantee that it still works in a couple of years. And that's like a policy decision from like the editorial board, which is like, so you can't write an article if people can't view it in five years. But if your like interactive data story is reliant on a third party, API and that third party API becomes deprecated, or it changes the pricing or it, you know, it gets acquired, then your journalism story is not gonna work anymore. So I have seen really good uptake among local news rooms and even big ones to use things like Protomaps just because it makes sense for the requirements. Working on Protomaps as an open source project for five years [00:12:49] Jeremy: How long have you been working on Protomaps and the parts that it's made up of such as PMTiles? [00:12:58] Brandon: I've been working on it for about five years, maybe a little more than that. It's sort of my pandemic era project. But the PMTiles part, which is really the heart of it only came in about halfway. Why not make a SaaS? [00:13:13] Brandon: So honestly, like when I first started it, I thought it was gonna be another SaaS and then I looked at it and looked at what the environment was around it. And I'm like, uh, so I don't really think I wanna do that. [00:13:24] Jeremy: When, when you say you looked at the environment around it what do you mean? Why did you decide not to make it a SaaS? [00:13:31] Brandon: Because there already is a lot of SaaS out there. And I think the opportunity of making something that is unique in terms of those use cases, like I mentioned like newsrooms, was clear. Like it was clear that there was some other solution, that could be built that would fit these needs better while if it was a SaaS, there are plenty of those out there. And I don't necessarily think that they're well differentiated. A lot of them all use OpenStreetMap data. And it seems like they mainly compete on price. It's like who can build the best three column pricing model. And then once you do that, you need to build like billing and metrics and authentication and like those problems don't really interest me. So I think, although I acknowledge sort of the indie hacker ethos now is to build a SaaS product with a monthly subscription, that's something I very much chose not to do, even though it is for sure like the best way to build a business. [00:14:29] Jeremy: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people can appreciate that perspective because it's, it's almost like we have SaaS overload, right? Where you have so many little bills for your project where you're like, another $5 a month, another $10 a month, or if you're a business, right? Those, you add a bunch of zeros and at some point it's just how many of these are we gonna stack on here? [00:14:53] Brandon: Yeah. And honestly. So I really think like as programmers, we're not really like great at choosing how to spend money like a $10 SaaS. That's like nothing. You know? So I can go to Starbucks and I can buy a pumpkin spice latte, and that's like $10 basically now, right? And it's like I'm able to make that consumer choice in like an instant just to spend money on that. But then if you're like, oh, like spend $10 on a SaaS that somebody put a lot of work into, then you're like, oh, that's too expensive. I could just do it myself. So I'm someone that also subscribes to a lot of SaaS products. and I think for a lot of things it's a great fit. Many open source SaaS projects are not easy to self host [00:15:37] Brandon: But there's always this tension between an open source project that you might be able to run yourself and a SaaS. And I think a lot of projects are at different parts of the spectrum. But for Protomaps, it's very much like I'm trying to move maps to being it is something that is so easy to run yourself that anyone can do it. [00:16:00] Jeremy: Yeah, and I think you can really see it with, there's a few SaaS projects that are successful and they're open source, but then you go to look at the self-hosting instructions and it's either really difficult to find and you find it, and then the instructions maybe don't work, or it's really complicated. So I think doing the opposite with Protomaps. As a user, I'm sure we're all appreciative, but I wonder in terms of trying to make money, if that's difficult. [00:16:30] Brandon: No, for sure. It is not like a good way to make money because I think like the ideal situation for an open source project that is open that wants to make money is the product itself is fundamentally complicated to where people are scared to run it themselves. Like a good example I can think of is like Supabase. Supabase is sort of like a platform as a service based on Postgres. And if you wanted to run it yourself, well you need to run Postgres and you need to handle backups and authentication and logging, and that stuff all needs to work and be production ready. So I think a lot of people, like they don't trust themselves to run database backups correctly. 'cause if you get it wrong once, then you're kind of screwed. So I think that fundamental aspect of the product, like a database is something that is very, very ripe for being a SaaS while still being open source because it's fundamentally hard to run. Another one I can think of is like tailscale, which is, like a VPN that works end to end. That's something where, you know, it has this networking complexity where a lot of developers don't wanna deal with that. So they'd happily pay, for tailscale as a service. There is a lot of products or open source projects that eventually end up just changing to becoming like a hosted service. Businesses going from open source to closed or restricted licenses [00:17:58] Brandon: But then in that situation why would they keep it open source, right? Like, if it's easy to run yourself well, doesn't that sort of cannibalize their business model? And I think that's really the tension overall in these open source companies. So you saw it happen to things like Elasticsearch to things like Terraform where they eventually change the license to one that makes it difficult for other companies to compete with them. [00:18:23] Jeremy: Yeah, I mean there's been a number of cases like that. I mean, specifically within the mapping community, one I can think of was Mapbox's. They have Mapbox gl. Which was a JavaScript client to visualize maps and they moved from, I forget which license they picked, but they moved to a much more restrictive license. I wonder what your thoughts are on something that releases as open source, but then becomes something maybe a little more muddy. [00:18:55] Brandon: Yeah, I think it totally makes sense because if you look at their business and their funding, it seems like for Mapbox, I haven't used it in a while, but my understanding is like a lot of their business now is car companies and doing in dash navigation. And that is probably way better of a business than trying to serve like people making maps of toilets. And I think sort of the beauty of it is that, so Mapbox, the story is they had a JavaScript renderer called Mapbox GL JS. And they changed that to a source available license a couple years ago. And there's a fork of it that I'm sort of involved in called MapLibre GL. But I think the cool part is Mapbox paid employees for years, probably millions of dollars in total to work on this thing and just gave it away for free. Right? So everyone can benefit from that work they did. It's not like that code went away, like once they changed the license. Well, the old version has been forked. It's going its own way now. It's quite different than the new version of Mapbox, but I think it's extremely generous that they're able to pay people for years, you know, like a competitive salary and just give that away. [00:20:10] Jeremy: Yeah, so we should maybe look at it as, it was a gift while it was open source, and they've given it to the community and they're on continuing on their own path, but at least the community running Map Libre, they can run with it, right? It's not like it just disappeared. [00:20:29] Brandon: Yeah, exactly. And that is something that I use for Protomaps quite extensively. Like it's the primary way of showing maps on the web and I've been trying to like work on some enhancements to it to have like better internationalization for if you are in like South Asia like not show languages correctly. So I think it is being taken in a new direction. And I think like sort of the combination of Protomaps and MapLibre, it addresses a lot of use cases, like I mentioned earlier with like these like hobby projects, indie projects that are almost certainly not interesting to someone like Mapbox or Google as a business. But I'm happy to support as a small business myself. Financially supporting open source work (GitHub sponsors, closed source, contracts) [00:21:12] Jeremy: In my previous interview with Tom, one of the main things he mentioned was that creating a mapping business is incredibly difficult, and he said he probably wouldn't do it again. So in your case, you're building Protomaps, which you've admitted is easy to self-host. So there's not a whole lot of incentive for people to pay you. How is that working out for you? How are you supporting yourself? [00:21:40] Brandon: There's a couple of strategies that I've tried and oftentimes failed at. Just to go down the list, so I do have GitHub sponsors so I do have a hosted version of Protomaps you can use if you don't want to bother copying a big file around. But the way I do the billing for that is through GitHub sponsors. If you wanted to use this thing I provide, then just be a sponsor. And that definitely pays for itself, like the cost of running it. And that's great. GitHub sponsors is so easy to set up. It just removes you having to deal with Stripe or something. 'cause a lot of people, their credit card information is already in GitHub. GitHub sponsors I think is awesome if you want to like cover costs for a project. But I think very few people are able to make that work. A thing that's like a salary job level. It's sort of like Twitch streaming, you know, there's a handful of people that are full-time streamers and then you look down the list on Twitch and it's like a lot of people that have like 10 viewers. But some of the other things I've tried, I actually started out, publishing the base map as a closed source thing, where I would sell sort of like a data package instead of being a SaaS, I'd be like, here's a one-time download, of the premium data and you can buy it. And quite a few people bought it I just priced it at like $500 for this thing. And I thought that was an interesting experiment. The main reason it's interesting is because the people that it attracts to you in terms of like, they're curious about your products, are all people willing to pay money. While if you start out everything being open source, then the people that are gonna be try to do it are only the people that want to get something for free. So what I discovered is actually like once you transition that thing from closed source to open source, a lot of the people that used to pay you money will still keep paying you money because like, it wasn't necessarily that that closed source thing was why they wanted to pay. They just valued that thought you've put into it your expertise, for example. So I think that is one thing, that I tried at the beginning was just start out, closed source proprietary, then make it open source. That's interesting to people. Like if you release something as open source, if you go the other way, like people are really mad if you start out with something open source and then later on you're like, oh, it's some other license. Then people are like that's so rotten. But I think doing it the other way, I think is quite valuable in terms of being able to find an audience. [00:24:29] Jeremy: And when you said it was closed source and paid to open source, do you still sell those map exports? [00:24:39] Brandon: I don't right now. It's something that I might do in the future, you know, like have small customizations of the data that are available, uh, for a fee. still like the core OpenStreetMap based map that's like a hundred gigs you can just download. And that'll always just be like a free download just because that's already out there. All the source code to build it is open source. So even if I said, oh, you have to pay for it, then someone else can just do it right? So there's no real reason like to make that like some sort of like paywall thing. But I think like overall if the project is gonna survive in the long term it's important that I'd ideally like to be able to like grow like a team like have a small group of people that can dedicate the time to growing the project in the long term. But I'm still like trying to figure that out right now. [00:25:34] Jeremy: And when you mentioned that when you went from closed to open and people were still paying you, you don't sell a product anymore. What were they paying for? [00:25:45] Brandon: So I have some contracts with companies basically, like if they need a feature or they need a customization in this way then I am very open to those. And I sort of set it up to make it clear from the beginning that this is not just a free thing on GitHub, this is something that you could pay for if you need help with it, if you need support, if you wanted it. I'm also a little cagey about the word support because I think like it sounds a little bit too wishy-washy. Pretty much like if you need access to the developers of an open source project, I think that's something that businesses are willing to pay for. And I think like making that clear to potential users is a challenge. But I think that is one way that you might be able to make like a living out of open source. [00:26:35] Jeremy: And I think you said you'd been working on it for about five years. Has that mostly been full time? [00:26:42] Brandon: It's been on and off. it's sort of my pandemic era project. But I've spent a lot of time, most of my time working on the open source project at this point. So I have done some things that were more just like I'm doing a customization or like a private deployment for some client. But that's been a minority of the time. Yeah. [00:27:03] Jeremy: It's still impressive to have an open source project that is easy to self-host and yet is still able to support you working on it full time. I think a lot of people might make the assumption that there's nothing to sell if something is, is easy to use. But this sort of sounds like a counterpoint to that. [00:27:25] Brandon: I think I'd like it to be. So when you come back to the point of like, it being easy to self-host. Well, so again, like I think about it as like a primitive of the web. Like for example, if you wanted to start a business today as like hosted CSS files, you know, like where you upload your CSS and then you get developers to pay you a monthly subscription for how many times they fetched a CSS file. Well, I think most developers would be like, that's stupid because it's just an open specification, you just upload a static file. And really my goal is to make Protomaps the same way where it's obvious that there's not really some sort of lock-in or some sort of secret sauce in the server that does this thing. How PMTiles works and building a primitive of the web [00:28:16] Brandon: If you look at video for example, like a lot of the tech for how Protomaps and PMTiles works is based on parts of the HTTP spec that were made for video. And 20 years ago, if you wanted to host a video on the web, you had to have like a real player license or flash. So you had to go license some server software from real media or from macromedia so you could stream video to a browser plugin. But now in HTML you can just embed a video file. And no one's like, oh well I need to go pay for my video serving license. I mean, there is such a thing, like YouTube doesn't really use that for DRM reasons, but people just have the assumption that video is like a primitive on the web. So if we're able to make maps sort of that same way like a primitive on the web then there isn't really some obvious business or licensing model behind how that works. Just because it's a thing and it helps a lot of people do their jobs and people are happy using it. So why bother? [00:29:26] Jeremy: You mentioned that it a tech that was used for streaming video. What tech specifically is it? [00:29:34] Brandon: So it is byte range serving. So when you open a video file on the web, So let's say it's like a 100 megabyte video. You don't have to download the entire video before it starts playing. It streams parts out of the file based on like what frames... I mean, it's based on the frames in the video. So it can start streaming immediately because it's organized in a way to where the first few frames are at the beginning. And what PMTiles really is, is it's just like a video but in space instead of time. So it's organized in a way where these zoomed out views are at the beginning and the most zoomed in views are at the end. So when you're like panning or zooming in the map all you're really doing is fetching byte ranges out of that file the same way as a video. But it's organized in, this tiled way on a space filling curve. IIt's a little bit complicated how it works internally and I think it's kind of cool but that's sort of an like an implementation detail. [00:30:35] Jeremy: And to the person deploying it, it just looks like a single file. [00:30:40] Brandon: Exactly in the same way like an mp3 audio file is or like a JSON file is. [00:30:47] Jeremy: So with a video, I can sort of see how as someone seeks through the video, they start at the beginning and then they go to the middle if they wanna see the middle. For a map, as somebody scrolls around the map, are you seeking all over the file or is the way it's structured have a little less chaos? [00:31:09] Brandon: It's structured. And that's kind of the main technical challenge behind building PMTiles is you have to be sort of clever so you're not spraying the reads everywhere. So it uses something called a hilbert curve, which is a mathematical concept of a space filling curve. Where it's one continuous curve that essentially lets you break 2D space into 1D space. So if you've seen some maps of IP space, it uses this crazy looking curve that hits all the points in one continuous line. And that's the same concept behind PMTiles is if you're looking at one part of the world, you're sort of guaranteed that all of those parts you're looking at are quite close to each other and the data you have to transfer is quite minimal, compared to if you just had it at random. [00:32:02] Jeremy: How big do the files get? If I have a PMTiles of the entire world, what kind of size am I looking at? [00:32:10] Brandon: Right now, the default one I distribute is 128 gigabytes, so it's quite sizable, although you can slice parts out of it remotely. So if you just wanted. if you just wanted California or just wanted LA or just wanted only a couple of zoom levels, like from zero to 10 instead of zero to 15, there is a command line tool that's also called PMTiles that lets you do that. Issues with CDNs and range queries [00:32:35] Jeremy: And when you're working with files of this size, I mean, let's say I am working with a CDN in front of my application. I'm not typically accustomed to hosting something that's that large and something that's where you're seeking all over the file. is that, ever an issue or is that something that's just taken care of by the browser and, and taken care of by, by the hosts? [00:32:58] Brandon: That is an issue actually, so a lot of CDNs don't deal with it correctly. And my recommendation is there is a kind of proxy server or like a serverless proxy thing that I wrote. That runs on like cloudflare workers or on Docker that lets you proxy those range requests into a normal URL and then that is like a hundred percent CDN compatible. So I would say like a lot of the big commercial installations of this thing, they use that because it makes more practical sense. It's also faster. But the idea is that this solution sort of scales up and scales down. If you wanted to host just your city in like a 10 megabyte file, well you can just put that into GitHub pages and you don't have to worry about it. If you want to have a global map for your website that serves a ton of traffic then you probably want a little bit more sophisticated of a solution. It still does not require you to run a Linux server, but it might require (you) to use like Lambda or Lambda in conjunction with like a CDN. [00:34:09] Jeremy: Yeah. And that sort of ties into what you were saying at the beginning where if you can host on something like CloudFlare Workers or Lambda, there's less time you have to spend keeping these things running. [00:34:26] Brandon: Yeah, exactly. and I think also the Lambda or CloudFlare workers solution is not perfect. It's not as perfect as S3 or as just static files, but in my experience, it still is better at building something that lasts on the time span of years than being like I have a server that is on this Ubuntu version and in four years there's all these like security patches that are not being applied. So it's still sort of serverless, although not totally vendor neutral like S3. Customizing the map [00:35:03] Jeremy: We've mostly been talking about how you host the map itself, but for someone who's not familiar with these kind of tools, how would they be customizing the map? [00:35:15] Brandon: For customizing the map there is front end style customization and there's also data customization. So for the front end if you wanted to change the water from the shade of blue to another shade of blue there is a TypeScript API where you can customize it almost like a text editor color scheme. So if you're able to name a bunch of colors, well you can customize the map in that way you can change the fonts. And that's all done using MapLibre GL using a TypeScript API on top of that for customizing the data. So all the pipeline to generate this data from OpenStreetMap is open source. There is a Java program using a library called PlanetTiler which is awesome, which is this super fast multi-core way of building map tiles. And right now there isn't really great hooks to customize what data goes into that. But that's something that I do wanna work on. And finally, because the data comes from OpenStreetMap if you notice data that's missing or you wanted to correct data in OSM then you can go into osm.org. You can get involved in contributing the data to OSM and the Protomaps build is daily. So if you make a change, then within 24 hours you should see the new base map. Have that change. And of course for OSM your improvements would go into every OSM based project that is ingesting that data. So it's not a protomap specific thing. It's like this big shared data source, almost like Wikipedia. OpenStreetMap is a dataset and not a map [00:37:01] Jeremy: I think you were involved with OpenStreetMap to some extent. Can you speak a little bit to that for people who aren't familiar, what OpenStreetMap is? [00:37:11] Brandon: Right. So I've been using OSM as sort of like a tools developer for over a decade now. And one of the number one questions I get from developers about what is Protomaps is why wouldn't I just use OpenStreetMap? What's the distinction between Protomaps and OpenStreetMap? And it's sort of like this funny thing because even though OSM has map in the name it's not really a map in that you can't... In that it's mostly a data set and not a map. It does have a map that you can see that you can pan around to when you go to the website but the way that thing they show you on the website is built is not really that easily reproducible. It involves a lot of c++ software you have to run. But OpenStreetMap itself, the heart of it is almost like a big XML file that has all the data in the map and global. And it has tagged features for example. So you can go in and edit that. It has a web front end to change the data. It does not directly translate into making a map actually. Protomaps decides what shows at each zoom level [00:38:24] Brandon: So a lot of the pipeline, that Java program I mentioned for building this basemap for protomaps is doing things like you have to choose what data you show when you zoom out. You can't show all the data. For example when you're zoomed out and you're looking at all of a state like Colorado you don't see all the Chipotle when you're zoomed all the way out. That'd be weird, right? So you have to make some sort of decision in logic that says this data only shows up at this zoom level. And that's really what is the challenge in optimizing the size of that for the Protomaps map project. [00:39:03] Jeremy: Oh, so those decisions of what to show at different Zoom levels those are decisions made by you when you're creating the PMTiles file with Protomaps. [00:39:14] Brandon: Exactly. It's part of the base maps build pipeline. and those are honestly very subjective decisions. Who really decides when you're zoomed out should this hospital show up or should this museum show up nowadays in Google, I think it shows you ads. Like if someone pays for their car repair shop to show up when you're zoomed out like that that gets surfaced. But because there is no advertising auction in Protomaps that doesn't happen obviously. So we have to sort of make some reasonable choice. A lot of that right now in Protomaps actually comes from another open source project called Mapzen. So Mapzen was a company that went outta business a couple years ago. They did a lot of this work in designing which data shows up at which Zoom level and open sourced it. And then when they shut down, they transferred that code into the Linux Foundation. So it's this totally open source project, that like, again, sort of like Mapbox gl has this awesome legacy in that this company funded it for years for smart people to work on it and now it's just like a free thing you can use. So the logic in Protomaps is really based on mapzen. [00:40:33] Jeremy: And so the visualization of all this... I think I understand what you mean when people say oh, why not use OpenStreetMaps because it's not really clear it's hard to tell is this the tool that's visualizing the data? Is it the data itself? So in the case of using Protomaps, it sounds like Protomaps itself has all of the data from OpenStreetMap and then it has made all the decisions for you in terms of what to show at different Zoom levels and what things to have on the map at all. And then finally, you have to have a separate, UI layer and in this case, it sounds like the one that you recommend is the Map Libre library. [00:41:18] Brandon: Yeah, that's exactly right. For Protomaps, it has a portion or a subset of OSM data. It doesn't have all of it just because there's too much, like there's data in there. people have mapped out different bushes and I don't include that in Protomaps if you wanted to go in and edit like the Java code to add that you can. But really what Protomaps is positioned at is sort of a solution for developers that want to use OSM data to make a map on their app or their website. because OpenStreetMap itself is mostly a data set, it does not really go all the way to having an end-to-end solution. Financials and the idea of a project being complete [00:41:59] Jeremy: So I think it's great that somebody who wants to make a map, they have these tools available, whether it's from what was originally built by Mapbox, what's built by Open StreetMap now, the work you're doing with Protomaps. But I wonder one of the things that I talked about with Tom was he was saying he was trying to build this mapping business and based on the financials of what was coming in he was stressed, right? He was struggling a bit. And I wonder for you, you've been working on this open source project for five years. Do you have similar stressors or do you feel like I could keep going how things are now and I feel comfortable? [00:42:46] Brandon: So I wouldn't say I'm a hundred percent in one bucket or the other. I'm still seeing it play out. One thing, that I really respect in a lot of open source projects, which I'm not saying I'm gonna do for Protomaps is the idea that a project is like finished. I think that is amazing. If a software project can just be done it's sort of like a painting or a novel once you write, finish the last page, have it seen by the editor. I send it off to the press is you're done with a book. And I think one of the pains of software is so few of us can actually do that. And I don't know obviously people will say oh the map is never finished. That's more true of OSM, but I think like for Protomaps. One thing I'm thinking about is how to limit the scope to something that's quite narrow to where we could be feature complete on the core things in the near term timeframe. That means that it does not address a lot of things that people want. Like search, like if you go to Google Maps and you search for a restaurant, you will get some hits. that's like a geocoding issue. And I've already decided that's totally outta scope for Protomaps. So, in terms of trying to think about the future of this, I'm mostly looking for ways to cut scope if possible. There are some things like better tooling around being able to work with PMTiles that are on the roadmap. but for me, I am still enjoying working on the project. It's definitely growing. So I can see on NPM downloads I can see the growth curve of people using it and that's really cool. So I like hearing about when people are using it for cool projects. So it seems to still be going okay for now. [00:44:44] Jeremy: Yeah, that's an interesting perspective about how you were talking about projects being done. Because I think when people look at GitHub projects and they go like, oh, the last commit was X months ago. They go oh well this is dead right? But maybe that's the wrong framing. Maybe you can get a project to a point where it's like, oh, it's because it doesn't need to be updated. [00:45:07] Brandon: Exactly, yeah. Like I used to do a lot of c++ programming and the best part is when you see some LAPACK matrix math library from like 1995 that still works perfectly in c++ and you're like, this is awesome. This is the one I have to use. But if you're like trying to use some like React component library and it hasn't been updated in like a year, you're like, oh, that's a problem. So again, I think there's some middle ground between those that I'm trying to find. I do like for Protomaps, it's quite dependency light in terms of the number of hard dependencies I have in software. but I do still feel like there is a lot of work to be done in terms of project scope that needs to have stuff added. You mostly only hear about problems instead of people's wins [00:45:54] Jeremy: Having run it for this long. Do you have any thoughts on running an open source project in general? On dealing with issues or managing what to work on things like that? [00:46:07] Brandon: Yeah. So I have a lot. I think one thing people point out a lot is that especially because I don't have a direct relationship with a lot of the people using it a lot of times I don't even know that they're using it. Someone sent me a message saying hey, have you seen flickr.com, like the photo site? And I'm like, no. And I went to flickr.com/map and it has Protomaps for it. And I'm like, I had no idea. But that's cool, if they're able to use Protomaps for this giant photo sharing site that's awesome. But that also means I don't really hear about when people use it successfully because you just don't know, I guess they, NPM installed it and it works perfectly and you never hear about it. You only hear about people's negative experiences. You only hear about people that come and open GitHub issues saying this is totally broken, and why doesn't this thing exist? And I'm like, well, it's because there's an infinite amount of things that I want to do, but I have a finite amount of time and I just haven't gone into that yet. And that's honestly a lot of the things and people are like when is this thing gonna be done? So that's, that's honestly part of why I don't have a public roadmap because I want to avoid that sort of bickering about it. I would say that's one of my biggest frustrations with running an open source project is how it's self-selected to only hear the negative experiences with it. Be careful what PRs you accept [00:47:32] Brandon: 'cause you don't hear about those times where it works. I'd say another thing is it's changed my perspective on contributing to open source because I think when I was younger or before I had become a maintainer I would open a pull request on a project unprompted that has a hundred lines and I'd be like, Hey, just merge this thing. But I didn't realize when I was younger well if I just merge it and I disappear, then the maintainer is stuck with what I did forever. You know if I add some feature then that person that maintains the project has to do that indefinitely. And I think that's very asymmetrical and it's changed my perspective a lot on accepting open source contributions. I wanna have it be open to anyone to contribute. But there is some amount of back and forth where it's almost like the default answer for should I accept a PR is no by default because you're the one maintaining it. And do you understand the shape of that solution completely to where you're going to support it for years because the person that's contributing it is not bound to those same obligations that you are. And I think that's also one of the things where I have a lot of trepidation around open source is I used to think of it as a lot more bazaar-like in terms of anyone can just throw their thing in. But then that creates a lot of problems for the people who are expected out of social obligation to continue this thing indefinitely. [00:49:23] Jeremy: Yeah, I can totally see why that causes burnout with a lot of open source maintainers, because you probably to some extent maybe even feel some guilt right? You're like, well, somebody took the time to make this. But then like you said you have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out is this something I wanna maintain long term? And one wrong move and it's like, well, it's in here now. [00:49:53] Brandon: Exactly. To me, I think that is a very common failure mode for open source projects is they're too liberal in the things they accept. And that's a lot of why I was talking about how that choice of what features show up on the map was inherited from the MapZen projects. If I didn't have that then somebody could come in and say hey, you know, I want to show power lines on the map. And they open a PR for power lines and now everybody who's using Protomaps when they're like zoomed out they see power lines are like I didn't want that. So I think that's part of why a lot of open source projects eventually evolve into a plugin system is because there is this demand as the project grows for more and more features. But there is a limit in the maintainers. It's like the demand for features is exponential while the maintainer amount of time and effort is linear. Plugin systems might reduce need for PRs [00:50:56] Brandon: So maybe the solution to smash that exponential down to quadratic maybe is to add a plugin system. But I think that is one of the biggest tensions that only became obvious to me after working on this for a couple of years. [00:51:14] Jeremy: Is that something you're considering doing now? [00:51:18] Brandon: Is the plugin system? Yeah. I think for the data customization, I eventually wanted to have some sort of programmatic API to where you could declare a config file that says I want ski routes. It totally makes sense. The power lines example is maybe a little bit obscure but for example like a skiing app and you want to be able to show ski slopes when you're zoomed out well you're not gonna be able to get that from Mapbox or from Google because they have a one size fits all map that's not specialized to skiing or to golfing or to outdoors. But if you like, in theory, you could do this with Protomaps if you changed the Java code to show data at different zoom levels. And that is to me what makes the most sense for a plugin system and also makes the most product sense because it enables a lot of things you cannot do with the one size fits all map. [00:52:20] Jeremy: It might also increase the complexity of the implementation though, right? [00:52:25] Brandon: Yeah, exactly. So that's like. That's really where a lot of the terrifying thoughts come in, which is like once you create this like config file surface area, well what does that look like? Is that JSON? Is that TOML, is that some weird like everything eventually evolves into some scripting language right? Where you have logic inside of your templates and I honestly do not really know what that looks like right now. That feels like something in the medium term roadmap. [00:52:58] Jeremy: Yeah and then in terms of bug reports or issues, now it's not just your code it's this exponential combination of whatever people put into these config files. [00:53:09] Brandon: Exactly. Yeah. so again, like I really respect the projects that have done this well or that have done plugins well. I'm trying to think of some, I think obsidian has plugins, for example. And that seems to be one of the few solutions to try and satisfy the infinite desire for features with the limited amount of maintainer time. Time split between code vs triage vs talking to users [00:53:36] Jeremy: How would you say your time is split between working on the code versus issue and PR triage? [00:53:43] Brandon: Oh, it varies really. I think working on the code is like a minority of it. I think something that I actually enjoy is talking to people, talking to users, getting feedback on it. I go to quite a few conferences to talk to developers or people that are interested and figure out how to refine the message, how to make it clearer to people, like what this is for. And I would say maybe a plurality of my time is spent dealing with non-technical things that are neither code or GitHub issues. One thing I've been trying to do recently is talk to people that are not really in the mapping space. For example, people that work for newspapers like a lot of them are front end developers and if you ask them to run a Linux server they're like I have no idea. But that really is like one of the best target audiences for Protomaps. So I'd say a lot of the reality of running an open source project is a lot like a business is it has all the same challenges as a business in terms of you have to figure out what is the thing you're offering. You have to deal with people using it. You have to deal with feedback, you have to deal with managing emails and stuff. I don't think the payoff is anywhere near running a business or a startup that's backed by VC money is but it's definitely not the case that if you just want to code, you should start an open source project because I think a lot of the work for an opensource project has nothing to do with just writing the code. It is in my opinion as someone having done a VC backed business before, it is a lot more similar to running, a tech company than just putting some code on GitHub. Running a startup vs open source project [00:55:43] Jeremy: Well, since you've done both at a high level what did you like about running the company versus maintaining the open source project? [00:55:52] Brandon: So I have done some venture capital accelerator programs before and I think there is an element of hype and energy that you get from that that is self perpetuating. Your co-founder is gungho on like, yeah, we're gonna do this thing. And your investors are like, you guys are geniuses. You guys are gonna make a killing doing this thing. And the way it's framed is sort of obvious to everyone that it's like there's a much more traditional set of motivations behind that, that people understand while it's definitely not the case for running an open source project. Sometimes you just wake up and you're like what the hell is this thing for, it is this thing you spend a lot of time on. You don't even know who's using it. The people that use it and make a bunch of money off of it they know nothing about it. And you know, it's just like cool. And then you only hear from people that are complaining about it. And I think like that's honestly discouraging compared to the more clear energy and clearer motivation and vision behind how most people think about a company. But what I like about the open source project is just the lack of those constraints you know? Where you have a mandate that you need to have this many customers that are paying by this amount of time. There's that sort of pressure on delivering a business result instead of just making something that you're proud of that's simple to use and has like an elegant design. I think that's really a difference in motivation as well. Having control [00:57:50] Jeremy: Do you feel like you have more control? Like you mentioned how you've decided I'm not gonna make a public roadmap. I'm the sole developer. I get to decide what goes in. What doesn't. Do you feel like you have more control in your current position than you did running the startup? [00:58:10] Brandon: Definitely for sure. Like that agency is what I value the most. It is possible to go too far. Like, so I'm very wary of the BDFL title, which I think is how a lot of open source projects succeed. But I think there is some element of for a project to succeed there has to be somebody that makes those decisions. Sometimes those decisions will be wrong and then hopefully they can be rectified. But I think going back to what I was talking about with scope, I think the overall vision and the scope of the project is something that I am very opinionated about in that it should do these things. It shouldn't do these things. It should be easy to use for this audience. Is it gonna be appealing to this other audience? I don't know. And I think that is really one of the most important parts of that leadership role, is having the power to decide we're doing this, we're not doing this. I would hope other developers would be able to get on board if they're able to make good use of the project, if they use it for their company, if they use it for their business, if they just think the project is cool. So there are other contributors at this point and I want to get more involved. But I think being able to make those decisions to what I believe is going to be the best project is something that is very special about open source, that isn't necessarily true about running like a SaaS business. [00:59:50] Jeremy: I think that's a good spot to end it on, so if people want to learn more about Protomaps or they wanna see what you're up to, where should they head? [01:00:00] Brandon: So you can go to Protomaps.com, GitHub, or you can find me or Protomaps on bluesky or Mastodon. [01:00:09] Jeremy: All right, Brandon, thank you so much for chatting today. [01:00:12] Brandon: Great. Thank you very much.
UML, オブジェクト指向, XML, DRY原則, ハンガリアン記法など、この10年20年で廃れたアイディアやツールたちについて話しました。DRY原則の初出は1999年出版の「達人プログラマ」https://amzn.to/4l8WHnX のようです。間違ったコードは間違って見えるようにする (ハンガリアン記法, きれいなパン工場)富豪的プログラミング http://www.pitecan.com/fugo.html 原典は、1997年コンピュータサイエンス誌『bit』で増井俊之氏が書かれた記事のようです。感想をぜひハッシュタグ #todayILearnedFM #tilfm でつぶやいてください!Your co-hosts:Tomoaki Imai, Noxx CTO https://twitter.com/tomoaki_imaiRyoichi Kato, Software Engineer https://twitter.com/ryo1kato
Looking for the best Pinterest SEO practices to save you a tonne of time and money while growing your business? Watch me, on video, break down in 25 minutes, how Pinterest Business works as a visual search engine at Cre8tive Con in Intercontinental Hotel, Downtown Chicago.Watch this video on YouTube Unlisted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu7TmBzKQJEGoes Public on April 1This video will walk you though:◉ Pinterest SEO: Statistics to Know◉ How to Use Pinterest Boards and Pins◉ Why Pinterest SEO is Important for BusinessesHere are the timestamps for the discussed topics in the video:00:00 - 00:14: Introduction and initial interaction with the audience.00:14 - 00:31: Uses of Pinterest by the audience.00:31- 00:57: General thoughts about Pinterest and its significance.00:57 - 01:12: The concept of "interest" derived from "Pinterest".01:12 - 01:50: Pinterest's taste graph, user statistics, and unique advertising features.01:50 - 02:29: Zip code marketing and its advantages on Pinterest.02:29 - 03:24: Comparison of content lifespan between Pinterest and other platforms.03:24 - 04:03: The importance of planning ahead on Pinterest.04:03 - 05:09: Pinterest as a connector between different platforms and scale opportunities.05:09 - 06:59: How Pinterest connects social media platforms and builds audience engagement.06:59 - 08:20: Strategic organization of boards and pins on Pinterest.08:20 - 09:59: Unique features for business and affiliate marketing on Pinterest.09:59 - 11:10: Distinction between personal and business use of Pinterest.11:10 - 12:32: Personal testimony of Pinterest's effectiveness.12:32 - 13:59: Detailed explanation on types of data connections.13:59 - 15:38: Strategic use of other platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn with Pinterest.15:38 - 17:02: Minimizing wasted efforts and money with ads on Pinterest.17:02 - 19:32: Importance of embedding content on websites to enhance engagement.19:32 - 21:49: Explaining technical details of XML files and RSS feeds.21:49 - 22:56: Guest interaction and testimonial on using Pinterest effectively.22:56 - 23:25: Explanation of Pinterest's algorithm “Pixie”.23:25 - 24:08: How to leverage image content for better searchability.24:08 - 24:22: Further clarification on operational use.24:22 - 24:49: Audience appreciation and closing remarks.How to stay connected with me
An airhacks.fm conversation with Volker Simonis (@volker_simonis) about: early computing experiences with Schneider CPC (Amstrad in UK) with Z80 CPU, CP/M operating system as an add-on that provided a real file system, programming in Basic and Turbo Pascal on early computers, discussion about gaming versus programming interests, using a 9-pin needle printer for school work, programming on pocket computers with BASIC in school, memories of Digital Research's CP/M and DR-DOS competing with MS-DOS, HiMEM memory management in early operating systems, programming in Logo language with turtle graphics and fractals, fascination with Lindenmayer systems (L-systems) for simulating biological growth patterns, interest in biology and carnivorous plants, transition to PCs with floppy disk drives, using SGI Iris workstations at university with IRIX operating system, early experiences with Linux installed from floppy disks, challenges of configuring X Window System, programming graphics on interlaced monitors, early work with HP using Tickle/Tk and python around 1993, first experiences with Java around version 0.8/0.9, attraction to Java's platform-independent networking and graphics capabilities, using Blackdown Java for Linux created by Johan Vos, freelance work creating Java applets for accessing databases of technical standards, PhD work creating software for analyzing parallel text corpora in multiple languages, developing internationalization and XML capabilities in Java Swing applications, career at Sun Microsystems porting MaxDB to Solaris, transition to SAP to work on JVM development, Adabas and MaxDB, reflections on ABAP programming language at SAP and its database-centric nature Volker Simonis on twitter: @volker_simonis
SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Network/Cyber Security and Information Security Stormcast
Python Bot Delivered Through DLL Side-Loading A "normal", but vulnerable to DLL side-loading PDF reader may be used to launch additional exploit code https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Python%20Bot%20Delivered%20Through%20DLL%20Side-Loading/31778 Tomcat RCE Correction To exploit the Tomcat RCE I mentioned yesterday, two non-default configuration options must be selected by the victim. https://x.com/dkx02668274/status/1901893656316969308 SAML Roulette: The Hacker Always Wins This Portswigger blog explains in detail how to exploit the ruby-saml vulnerablity against GitLab. https://portswigger.net/research/saml-roulette-the-hacker-always-wins Windows Shortcut Zero Day Exploit Attackers are currently taking advantage of an unpatched vulnerability in how Windows displays Shortcut (.lnk file) details. Trendmicro explains how the attack works and provides PoC code. Microsoft is not planning to fix this issue https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/25/c/windows-shortcut-zero-day-exploit.html
SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Network/Cyber Security and Information Security Stormcast
Static Analysis of GUID Encoded Shellcode Didier explains how to decode shell code embeded as GUIDs in malware, and how to feed the result to his tool 1768.py which will extract Cobal Strike configuration information from the code. https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Static%20Analysis%20of%20GUID%20Encoded%20Shellcode/31774 SAMLStorm: Critical Authentication Bypass in xml-crypto and Node.js libraries xml-crypto, a library use in Node.js applications to decode XML and support SAML, has found to parse comments incorrectly leading to several SAML vulnerabilities. https://workos.com/blog/samlstorm One PUT Request to Own Tomcat: CVE-2025-24813 RCE is in the Wild A just made public deserialization vulnerablity in Tomcat is already being exploited. Contributing to the rapid exploit release is the similarity of this vulnerability to other Java deserializtion vulnerabilities. https://lab.wallarm.com/one-put-request-to-own-tomcat-cve-2025-24813-rce-is-in-the-wild/ CVE-2025-24813 CSS Abuse for Evasion and Tracking Attackers are using cascading stylesheets to evade detection and enable more stealthy tracking of users https://blog.talosintelligence.com/css-abuse-for-evasion-and-tracking/
SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Network/Cyber Security and Information Security Stormcast
Mirai Bot Now Incorporating Malformed DrayTek Vigor Router Exploits One of the many versions of the Mirai botnet added some new exploit strings attempting to take advantage of an old DrayTek Vigor Router vulnerability, but they got the URL wrong. https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Mirai%20Bot%20now%20incroporating%20%28malformed%3F%29%20DrayTek%20Vigor%20Router%20Exploits/31770 Compromised GitHub Action The popular GitHub action tj-actions/changed-files was compromised and leaks credentials via the action logs https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/harden-runner-detection-tj-actions-changed-files-action-is-compromised ruby-saml authentication bypass A confusion in how to parse SAML messages between two XML parsers used by Ruby leads to an authentication bypass in saml-ruby. https://github.blog/security/sign-in-as-anyone-bypassing-saml-sso-authentication-with-parser-differentials/ GitHub Fake Security Alerts Fake GitHub security alerts are used to trick package maintainers into adding OAUTH privileges to malicious apps. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-security-alert-issues-on-github-use-oauth-app-to-hijack-accounts/
Discussion this week starts with the ESP32 "backdoor" drama that circled the media, with some XML-based vulnerabilities in the mix. Finally, we cap off with a post on reviving modprobe_path for Linux exploitation, and some discussion around an attack chain against China that was attributed to the NSA.Links and vulnerability summaries for this episode are available at: https://dayzerosec.com/podcast/277.html[00:00:00] Introduction[00:00:25] The ESP32 "backdoor" that wasn't[00:14:26] Speedrunners are vulnerability researchers[00:27:58] Sign in as anyone: Bypassing SAML SSO authentication with parser differentials[00:38:47] Impossible XXE in PHP[00:52:41] Reviving the modprobe_path Technique: Overcoming search_binary_handler() Patch[01:04:15] Trigon: developing a deterministic kernel exploit for iOS[01:06:43] An inside look at NSA (Equation Group) TTPs from China's lensePodcast episodes are available on the usual podcast platforms: -- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1484046063 -- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4NKCxk8aPEuEFuHsEQ9Tdt -- Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9hMTIxYTI0L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz -- Other audio platforms can be found at https://anchor.fm/dayzerosecYou can also join our discord: https://discord.gg/daTxTK9
This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Learning to use the terminal is an important step in becoming a true power user of Linux, but it's easy (and normal) to make mistakes along the way. Here are the top 5 mistakes new terminal users make, and what you can learn from them. 1. Current working directory When you first open a terminal, your current working directory is your home folder. You have access to all those directories you see in your home directory every time you open a file manager (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos). You can verify your location with the pwd command: $ pwd /home/seth You can list the files and folders within your current directory with the ls or dir or tree commands: $ ls Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Videos But you don't usually stay in one place while using the terminal. You frequently move from folder to folder so you can open or modify or edit files. It's easy to get lost, forgetting what directory you're in and what files are around you. Lesson learned: When working in the terminal, it's important to regularly verify your current working directory with pwd so you don't accidentally issue a command you intended to run in a different location. 2. Use interactive options when using wildcards Wildcards are great shorthand to make command entry faster, and to perform bulk actions on lots of files. However, they can be dangerous when you get them wrong. It's easy to process hundreds of the wrong files by using a wildcard in the wrong directory, or by using a wildcard that's too broad. For example, suppose you want to run a sed command on all HTML files in a directory, so you run this: $ sed --in-place 's/day/night/g' *ml Job done, until you find out that you accidentally ran that command on all your XML files, too. Lesson learned: Run a safe test command on the wildcard you think you want to target before making a change. Some commands have a literal --dry-run option. Others have an --interactive option that forces the command to prompt you to confirm that you want to carry out the action. Sometimes the logic is reversed: a command refuses to make a major change unless you use a command (for example, sed doesn't write changes to a file without the --in-place option or redirection). When in doubt, improvise. You can always “expand” a wildcard using the echo command: $ echo ./*ml ./four.html ./one.xml ./three.html ./two.xml $ echo ./*tml ./four.html ./three.html 3. File paths Many new terminal users don't understand where files are located within the file system. It's not a common mistake to make on the desktop because there are visual reminders there. You wouldn't try to double-click on a document to open it if there was no icon to double-click. It's easy to assume that the terminal application contains all your files all at once, but the terminal is, by design, limited in scope. Were the terminal to have access to every file everywhere on your system all at once, you'd end up accidentally renaming and moving and copying a lot more files than intended. Specificity is a super power, and it's defined by the file path. A file path describes where a file exists in a file system. A full (or “absolute”) file path always starts from the single folder at the start of your operating system, indicated by just a /, and then lists each folder within that folder until it traces the path to a specific file. For example, I have a file called IMG_0001.JPG in my Pictures directory. You probably have a mental image of where that file is and how you'd get there on the desktop. But for the terminal to understand how to find it, the location must be expressed as /home/seth/Pictures/IMG_0001.JPG. An absolute file path is definitive. The terminal always understands an absolute file path, no matter what your current working directory is. The absolute path to a file can be unwieldy, though. Once you understand absolute paths, you can abbreviate any path to a relative file path. A relative file path is based on your current location in the terminal. As long as you're in the Pictures folder, the full path /home/seth/Pictures/IMG_0001.JPG can be shortened to just IMG_0001.JPG, or ./IMG_0001.JPG for added clarity (the . indicates no movement from your current location, and the / is a directory separator as usual). But suppose your current working directory was your home directory. Your Pictures folder is located in your home directory, so to get to IMG_0001.JPG you have to enter Pictures first. The relative path in that case is ./Pictures/IMG_0001.JPG or just Pictures/IMG_0001.JPG. Lesson learned: An absolute file path always starts from the start of a file system. A relative file path changes based on your location. The terminal understands both. For new users, the absolute file path is the most explicit and exact way to reference a file, so practice using them until you're comfortable with the concept of file paths. 4. Executable permissions By default, most files aren't executable. You can't run them like an application, because most files are meant to be opened in an application. That's not true for shell scripts, though. Shell scripts are text files containing a list of commands, and they're meant to be run like an application. They're a powerful way to string existing commands together to form a new custom command. However, because a shell script starts out as a regular text file, it's not seen by your terminal as an executable entity. To execute a file as an application, you can grant it executable permission with the chmod command: $ chmod +x ./example.sh Alternatively, you can run the file in a sub-shell: $ bash ./example.sh Notice that in these examples, I use the ./ notation as if the example.sh shell script exists in my current directory. 5. Typing errors It sometimes feels like the more you type, the more you're getting done. In a terminal, though, typing too much is one of the best ways to introduce mistakes. When you try to type a long and complex command, you're liable to spell something wrong or use the wrong option. When you try to type a filename or a file path, you might forget to escape special characters (like spaces). The errors aren't usually catastrophic, but they're frustrating and time consuming. Lesson learned: There are several ways to ensure you're entering the correct commands into your terminal: Copy and paste: If you're using a command you found on a trusted website, copy it in your browser and then paste it into your terminal using Ctrl+Shift+V or right-click and select Paste. TAB: You can type part of a command or file path, and then press the TAB key on your keyboard for either auto-completion or for suggested completions. Use it even when you don't think you need it. It'll save you errors every single time, even when it appears to not work (hint: it's not working because you're trying to auto-complete something that's not where you think it is). Drag-and-drop: It's the 21st century! You can drag a file or folder from anywhere on your computer, and drop it into your terminal. It gets replaced by its absolute path automatically. Practice makes perfect To get good in the terminal, you have to use it as often as you can. You don't have to use it for “serious” work at first, and you arguably shouldn't, but you can and should do simple exercises in the terminal. Understand file paths, get used to wildcards, learn shortcuts, use the TAB key. The biggest mistake you can make when learning the terminal is to not use the terminal, so open it up every day, do your exercise, and you'll be an expert in the terminal in no time. Provide feedback on this episode.
In today's episode, Casey will discuss 5 primary points to consider for your own SEO strategy.1. Keyword Research & StrategyWhat It Is:Keyword research involves finding the right words and phrases that potential customers are using to search for pest control services. This includes short-tail (broad) and long-tail (specific) keywords.How It Applies to a Pest Control Company:Identifying local keywords like "pest control near me," "exterminator in [city]," or "termite treatment in [location]"Researching service-specific terms like "bed bug removal Cincinnati" or "rodent exclusion Ann Arbor"Using keyword variations like "affordable pest control," "same-day exterminator," etc.Leveraging tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMRush to find low-competition, high-intent keywords.What It Is:On-page SEO refers to optimizing website elements like page titles, meta descriptions, content, URLs, and images for search engines.How It Applies to a Pest Control Company:Creating optimized title tags (e.g., "Best Pest Control in Phoenix - Victory Pest Defense")Writing compelling meta descriptions that improve click-through rates (e.g., "Fast, reliable pest control services in Chandler, AZ. Call now for a free inspection!")Using header tags (H1, H2, H3) effectively with location-specific keywordsOptimizing images by adding descriptive alt text like "Bed bug extermination in Lexington, KY"Creating SEO-friendly URLs, such as:✅ www.example.com/ant-control-cincinnati❌ www.example.com/services1234What It Is:Local SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence for location-based searches. This includes Google Business Profile (GBP), local citations, and reviews.How It Applies to a Pest Control Company:Claiming and fully optimizing a Google Business Profile with correct business name, phone number, hours, and service areasAdding high-quality photos of technicians, vehicles, and completed jobsEncouraging positive customer reviews with follow-ups (e.g., “Thanks for using our service! We'd love to hear your feedback on Google.”)Ensuring NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across all listings (Yelp, Angi, BBB, etc.)Creating location-based service pages (e.g., "Pest Control in Killeen, TX" or "Rodent Removal in Northern Kentucky")What It Is:Technical SEO involves optimizing the backend of the website to improve speed, mobile-friendliness, security, and crawlability.How It Applies to a Pest Control Company:Ensuring a fast-loading website (customers expect quick responses when dealing with pests!)Using mobile-responsive design (since most people search for pest control services from their phones)Implementing SSL security (HTTPS) for customer trust and SEO rankingCreating an XML sitemap and submitting it to Google for better indexingFixing broken links, duplicate content, and redirect errors that could hurt rankingsWhat It Is:Content marketing focuses on creating valuable content that educates potential customers and helps with ranking. Link building involves getting other reputable websites to link back to your site.Final ThoughtsBy applying these 5 SEO pillars, a local pest control company can rank higher in Google searches, attract more leads, and grow their customer base. A well-executed local SEO strategy combined with strong content marketing and technical SEO can significantly boost visibility and revenue.Please review us at Rhino Pest Control Marketing and interact with us to let us know how we can improve in 2025.Casey Lewiscasey@rhinopros.com(925) 464-8383Follow and subscribe at the following links:https://www.youtube.com/@RhinoPestControlMarketinghttps://www.facebook.com/rhinopestcontrolmarketingLeave us a review on Google: https://g.page/r/CT9-E84ypVI0EBM/review
Tiff and Dana share common pitfalls that scale back your practice's production — and what to do to address them. Included solutions are Dental A-Team's scorecard and a fixed cost spreadsheet, which you can reach out to the DAT for help on: hello@thedentalateam.com. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.967) Hello, Dental A Team podcast listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. This is Tiffanie. I never introduced myself, which is weird. Hopefully there's like some sort of intro that goes to that. just thought of that. Anyhow, here we are. Another day, another podcast. And first and foremost, I want to thank all of you guys who listen. I know we get a lot of practice assessment. schedules from people who listen to our podcasts. That's how you guys are finding us. And it just means a lot to us that you're here, that you're with us, that you're supporting us. We want to support you and we are doing forever. As far as I can tell, we're doing new free practice assessments for practices all over, all over the country, all over the world. Sometimes we get Canadian practices and it's super cool. I know we've worked with practices all the way in New Zealand and it's just really cool. And these complimentary practice assessment tools. are fantastic because we really are helping you deep dive and figure out where your focus should be or could be to get you to the results that you're looking to gain, whether you're gonna work with us one-on-one in a group fashion or just continue being a listener no matter what. We love doing these complimentary practice assessments with you guys. And it's just really fun. It's so cool to see where dentistry is at and where you guys are at. wins and the struggles you guys are having and it's just, it's super awesome. So thank you to everybody who's here with us today. We are excited to take you on this journey with us and doctors and practice owners, leaders, whoever's here today. I really wanted to chat here. I've got my girl Dana with me and I wanted to chat about projections, scheduling, reaching goals. I think that's a huge focus. for everyone always needs to reach goals, right? But I think in 2025 so far, Dana, like we need to heavily focus on this because 2024, there was a lot that happened in 2024. It was a weird, it was a wild year, right? Like was so weird. It felt like, okay, we're getting momentum with everyone. And then it was like two steps forward, one step back, five steps forward, three steps back. And it was like, gosh, we're getting momentum. But it was an uphill battle in 2024. I don't know what happened, but holy cow, this year feels cleaner already. It feels different. Dana (01:57.805) wild. The Dental A Team (02:17.795) And I think everyone's kind of shifted their focus to the areas to be able to see what's the most important. So I'm excited to chat with you about that today, Dana, and I hope our listeners are excited for this one. I wanted to just have a conversation around what impacts production from a schedule standpoint, not technical scheduling, right? Not our blog scheduling. We've done a million freaking podcasts on that. Dana and I are not doing that today. Dana (02:45.276) No? The Dental A Team (02:47.601) But really those other pieces that impact it and how doctors can and practice owners can look at these factors and project. It's still early enough in the year that if you haven't done this yet, get on it. It's totally fine and look for those pieces. So I wanted to pick your brain a little bit Dana and I think let's take it in the space of let's talk about the things that can impact and then let's talk about how we can. project that and fix it and work it into our goals. So what are the spaces Dana that you have, your clients, and I think we likely do this the same, but what spaces and what do you have your clients look for when they are getting prepped for that next year? We're into the year and we're trying to figure out what's going on, what things impact production goals from a scheduling standpoint like that that you guys are taking a look at. Dana (03:37.388) Yeah, I love this topic because I do think when we think about production and impacts on production, we go right to scheduling, we go right to those pieces. And so I love that today is a little bit different. And I think that sometimes we just forget that like taking a vacation is going to impact production, having holidays in there, holidays will sometimes fall on work days and sometimes not. you know, yearly, they're different. so looking at how many holidays do we have in there looking at, if we're going to take CE, how much of that is time away from the office, team meetings and quarterly meetings and admin time, knowing all of those things, right? All of those things impact your production because then that isn't necessarily time spent taking care of patients. It's definitely needed. It's time spent working on the business. It's time spent training and, working on all of our processes. So The Dental A Team (04:21.495) So. Dana (04:27.664) let's not not do it because it affects production, right? Knowing it will impact your production and being able to combat that is definitely super helpful. The Dental A Team (04:31.174) Yeah, yeah. The Dental A Team (04:40.57) Yeah, I totally agree. think CE is something that a lot of doctors will find on a whim or be like, I need to take this course. You need to block me out these days. And if we're not projecting and planning for that or accommodating the schedule in other places, it really impacts it. I had a client that I was chatting with last week, an office manager, and she's like, Tiff, what the heck do I do? Like they want to make XML this month, but they took between the two doctors, they took two weeks off. And I'm like, well, This is the shared reality, right? So their reality is they're not looking at that. They're not thinking about that. Your reality is that you have to get it on the schedule. And so that's the first place you look when they come to you and tell you to shut down days is you're like, well, what am I supposed to do with this? So coming to that shared reality is huge and trying to project as much as you can the CE that you want to take this year or estimating how much CE you're willing to take time off for is always huge as well. I know I've got a few doctors that don't know when they want to take vacation or where they want to go or if they want it. And I say, you know what? That's totally fine. In the perfect world, how much vacation time do you want to take with your family? And I have one doctor that said four to six weeks. I said, great. Then plan for six. I want you to take six weeks out of your productive numbers, days of work, right, take those six weeks out of that productive time, now estimate what you can do and how we can bump those goals. Because the reality is we need to increase production and collections by seven to ten percent every year to keep up with inflation. And team members that are listening, every year, no matter what, you're going to get a new goal. It's going to be different than it was last year. And guess what? We're doing things on the other side to help you with that. just FYI, you're going to get a bigger goal every year. Soap. Soapbox. The days of the year that we're willing, that we're able to work, right, impact if how easily or how difficult it's going to be to get to that goal. So we've got to say, okay, this is our goal, this is the number of days we're working with, what do have to do every day to get to that goal? So it's not necessarily, this is how many days I have to work, what is my goal, it's, this is what I need to do, this is how many days I The Dental A Team (07:03.878) I have that I'm working, how do we fix that? So I love that. And I've had a lot of doctors in the last couple of years that have really learned to just say, okay, well, I don't have it planned yet, but I would love to take three CEs this year, because I want them and I need them. And I'd love to take this much vacation with my family. Great. Swipe it off, figure it out, we move on. Other pieces that I know have come into play, in the dental industry. So Guess what, guys? We've got a lot of babies that come along. Maternity and paternity leave is a real thing. Like, we're family. We're healthcare providers, so we are family-oriented beings. So making sure that we're considering that as well. I know a lot of offices that are like, shoot, I didn't even think about the fact that my hygienist is going to be out for three months starting in June, and what am I supposed to do? And it's May. And I'm like, my gosh. Dana (07:59.95) you The Dental A Team (08:00.052) Why didn't Oyrin want this information? You know, it's just like those pieces we forget about. So I love that. Like, Observed Holidays, which 2024 taught us a lesson if we were not pre-planning for Observed Holidays because Christmas and New Year's landed on wild days for that year, and it really, really messed with December production. 2025, it's similar. It's at least towards the end of the week, so you can work the beginning of both. Dana (08:03.246) Yeah. The Dental A Team (08:29.897) but observed holidays and how much time are you gonna give yourself and your team off during those holidays? CE, how much do you want to on vacations? How much do you want to take? How much do you aspire to take? Always go big, because you can work extra days. Team vacations, especially when it comes to providers, so associates and hygienists, you've gotta make sure we're prepped for that. Maternity and paternity leave. making sure we're prepped for all of those situations and scenarios, and I'm sure there are some that I didn't even think about, that impact it. I do have doctors that will take some time off and then they'll work maybe extra Fridays or they'll work extra long on Thursdays where they normally would have done some admin work, which I don't love you guys getting rid of admin work. and you said, know, admin hours and meeting hours, things like that, making sure we're accounting for those things. But if you can, pick up extra days for sure. I'm never gonna turn that down and neither will your schedulers. But making sure we're prepping and planning for that. some tools, Day, let's talk about some tools that we have that we have our clients utilize and then also that you guys who aren't yet clients, your listeners, use tools like this or reach out and we can help you with tools like this. Really narrowing in and making things easy is... what I love in life. I hate... doesn't mean things are never going to be hard. I hate hard forever. I want hard right now, so maybe it's time consuming right now, but it's going to save me pain later. That's what I want to do. So, Dana, we have our projections sheet, so maybe talk about our projections sheet a little bit and our scorecard and how those combine and then how you're using that now two months into the year with your clients to really assess and see. Dana (09:59.5) Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:21.856) how their goals are going for them as we're rounding out middle of Q1. Dana (10:26.092) Yeah, so I love our projection sheet and I feel like in 2024 I used it more than ever because 2024 was wild so let's prep and make sure 2025 stays a little less wild than 2024 was. The Dental A Team (10:32.031) Yeah. The Dental A Team (10:37.896) Absolutely. Dana (10:38.766) And so really, it truly is it's mapping out I go through every month of the year with the client, how many working days are we going to have for each provider, including hygiene. And some of that does take prep work as far as hey, I need you to get that information from your heart to can they do they have any idea when they're going to take vacations? Do they have any idea and then honestly, if we don't, okay, well, how much PTO do they have and we build that in just saying like, okay, well, we know they're probably going to use their two weeks of PTO somewhere. So if we even it out throughout the The Dental A Team (10:53.716) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (11:01.909) Yeah. Dana (11:08.72) quarters, at least we kind of have the number of days that we're working with. And so we'll go through and we'll say, where do you want to end up next year, right? We'll base it on this year, we'll look at all sorts of things. And then we go through that sheet together and we basically say, okay, if these are the number of working days, if this is the number of providers we have available, this is what it's going to take every single day from each provider to get you to your ultimate goal. So it's kind of some reverse engineering, but it also is some planning and prepping. The Dental A Team (11:34.315) Yeah. Dana (11:38.83) And I love that meeting with clients because a lot of that goes like a lot of things go into that projection sheet. And I love that you said, okay, well, how many CE days do you want to take? Sometimes actually CE comes down to what do we have for a CE budget next year? And then of that budget, okay, well, that can likely get you two to three CE courses, which then helps with our projections that way. So it is a lot of planning and prepping that goes into it. But I think that it really helps. got them down to the penny what needs to happen every single day in each month and really gives them a roadmap that then as the year starts going and we bring in our scorecard we're constantly paying attention to where are we to getting to that and following that roadmap that we set out at the end of the year prior. So it's a really cool combination of tools and and I love to see especially this year is like we're The Dental A Team (12:21.32) Yeah. The Dental A Team (12:30.802) Yeah. Dana (12:38.704) really customizing and tightening of the scorecard that it constantly has them assessing gaps, it constantly has them going back to that initial roadmap we set, and then like you said, really just looking for opportunities of what is the thing we need to focus on right now. The Dental A Team (12:56.073) I love that. think you nailed it with those. The projection sheet is huge. And then coupling it with the scorecard and a piece that made me think of that's on the scorecard. And we purposely put it on the scorecard because this made a massive impact on goals being reached last year. I think every year, but last year, it really showed its face is the number of hours that were left. open on the schedule, so they were not filled with production either in hygiene or on the doctor's schedule. So when you look at the projections, you're like, great, this is awesome. This is if I were full to 100%, this is what my estimated production could be by provider. But then when you get in there and you start utilizing the scorecard and you're looking at the production, you compare the two, you're like, why am I off and why is it hard to reach these goals? Or why am I just not there yet? Why am I not reaching this goal yet? A lot of times it's lost in those pieces that we haven't always paid a lot of attention to, or just like we could, we should, why isn't it happening? I'm not sure. Looking at those open hours and even taking into account maybe, know, with that, that you're likely going to have like 3 % or so left open on the schedule. But looking at those open hours and saying, great, well, if I multiplied these open hours by that producer's average dollar per hour, that's going to show me I probably could have made that goal. really focusing the attention in on there and bringing it back then to the schedulers and treatment planners and full team of handoffs and all of those pieces we talk about because of schedule working takes the full practice. So it takes you guys projecting, you guys prepping and planning takes, you know, the back office and front office working really hard together to ensure that our patients are the healthiest they possibly can be. Dana, you mentioned CE budget. And that made me think of the other tools that we're utilizing that I hope other practices that are not yet Delay Team clients are utilizing as well. that's in the, which goes along with that projection, right? The fixed cost spreadsheets, making sure you know what your fixed costs are. That's also part of that planning and projecting because if you're fixed costs and your bare minimum production and collections that you need in order to have the overhead that you want, The Dental A Team (15:12.587) If those aren't in alignment, right, with your projections, your projections are low, we might need to look then and say, okay, well, where can we add days back in? Because if we're not combining all of that information, again, we're just not seeing all the levels. It's like not seeing all of the colors. It's like being colorblind to orange, right? You can't see orange anywhere and you're just missing all of these flowers and things that could light up your life. It's like. not being able to see those pieces. So the fixed cost spreadsheet and knowing what are the fixed costs, what are my average payrolls, what are my average supplies, what should this look like? Then you look at what that needs to be, what are my projections, and what can I do then minus those fixed costs? What would my overhead look like if this is the projection for that month? So then tackling that and looking at that growth percentage and profit percentage, opportunity allows you then to again look at what you're projecting and what you're taking time off for and evaluate what do I need to do to change that result or it's perfect. And Dana, I you've been working a lot, a lot, a lot with the fixed cost spreadsheet. How has that impacted the being able to project and impact the schedule for the clients that you've got utilizing that spreadsheet? Dana (16:35.374) Yeah, I really used to fix costs heavily this year because I do feel like that was part of the wild of 2024 is you know with everything going on and things are just more expensive wages are higher and I feel like practices we're seeing really good growth as far as looking at production but offices who weren't keeping quite an eye on expenses got some surprises because it ended up that like The Dental A Team (16:41.294) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (16:56.345) Yeah. Dana (17:03.36) you know, we set goals based on the numbers from the previous year. And so then when this year's expenses are quite a bit higher, and they're not watching them, or that's not something, you know, that they consistently look at, it just became more necessary this year to ensure that they knew where their fixed costs were. And they also knew that, okay, if it's outside of this, right, that is like, The Dental A Team (17:07.769) Mm-hmm. The Dental A Team (17:17.051) you Dana (17:28.31) an alert that like we need to take a deeper dive into this and we need to really keep an eye on it. So it was something that I really incorporated in 2024. And again, this year, I love that it is part of our scorecard and the things that we're really tracking with clients because that was an area that really hit offices hard. was like, were just giving raises and we were just saying, yep, you know what, I think I can extend my pay range for this new position to this and, just making some of these The Dental A Team (17:29.614) Yeah. The Dental A Team (17:56.641) Mm-hmm. Dana (17:58.186) decisions like a little bit on the fly without crunching and saying, All right, well, what does that look like on the expense side? Or how much does that actually add to my BAM and my bottom line? And so I think that that it really was impactful this last year. And so, you know, I with you, I'm encouraging offices, even those listening to really make sure that that is a number that you know. The Dental A Team (18:08.548) Yeah. The Dental A Team (18:22.36) For sure, and I think you're 100 % right because our goal is to be profitable and to have a thriving business that patients can continue to come to. But when we're making decisions without knowing the full spectrum, makes it really difficult. And to combine those pieces into what you just said, the... holiday situation at the end of the year. I know I had a lot of clients and it was like November, December. They're like, Tiff, we decided to just take the two weeks off. And it's like, my gosh, like you just deleted four days out of December and that's massive. So going from a 16 day month to a 12 day month, like if you're averaging, you know, $10,000 a day, that's 40 grand that we've now deleted at the end of the year. There's nowhere else to put that. So being able to know. Is that 40 grand going to affect the profit, the profitability and the overhead of the practice? Do I have that saved somewhere to cover it because I'm not collecting that 40 grand in January from December, right? So having that fixed cost information and what your bare minimum is to know where your overhead will be to know, can I actually deduct 40 grand from my production? and be okay because I've got a couple practices now, you know, into January, February that are like, Tip, why is my collections low? And I'm like, well, girl, you took two weeks off in December and we collect on a lag when it comes to dental insurances. So I'm not surprised that it was a little low in January. So I think that was brilliant to really be able to combine all of those pieces. And again, that's like missing a color in the rainbow spectrum of colors, whatever. Like, you can't, you've got to look at it all. Dana (19:51.595) Yeah. The Dental A Team (20:09.444) And if any of those pieces aren't missing, it could be really detrimental to the practice. So I think that was really cool, Dana. Thank you for bringing that up. You guys, it's simple. Even though it's February, if you haven't done this yet, like, that's okay. It's not December. You guys, you're not telling me in November, you're taking four days off in December. So guess what? It's only February. It's only whatever month you decided to live, you decided to listen to this in, go do these things. So look at, if you don't have the spreadsheets, if you're not one of our clients, then... Dana (20:26.67) Thank you. The Dental A Team (20:37.805) Create one. All you have to do is know what you can work and what your estimated dollar per hours are or reach out to us. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We're happy to help you with some ideas and some tools as well. Again, we are doing our complimentary practice assessments. Always TheDentalATeam.com That'll pop up. You can sign up for one those. This is definitely something that we talk about on those a lot. So we always look at your profitability. We always look at how the business can grow clients and non-clients. We like to help you guys with all of that. So Dana, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for being such a huge advocate of the business side of all of this and really helping your clients and all of everyone to see those pieces and for helping on the back end so much of the creation of all of these pieces. It was a huge project within our company to ensure that we had it dialed in as much as we. have the knowledge for now or know to look at. So thank you so much for that. Thank you for this conversation today and freaking rock it out. Your clients are doing amazing and I love seeing you all, you and your clients just thrive in those worlds. So super cool. Awesome. Guys, go do the things. Like I said, it's gonna take some time upfront, but it's gonna save you. pain in the long run. So do the hard right now, save yourself pain and hard later. Get those numbers dialed in. Dana had some amazing tips and tools today within all of those different areas and realms to look for. Don't forget the meetings, you guys, I think that's a space that a lot of us miss. Meetings, CE credits, those hours, those pieces like that that you're taking off in admin hours. So make sure you're calculating correctly. Go look at what can impact your production and your schedule and work with your team to make sure you guys are doing the best ever possible. Dana, thank you for being here with me today. I loved this conversation. Your brain is incredible and I don't, that's it. Like you're just freaking amazing. I don't know how you do it and I just love it. So thank you so much. Dana (22:37.826) Thanks for having me and right back at you, Tiff. The Dental A Team (22:40.263) Thank you. Thank you. All right, guys, let us know what you thought about this. We'd love to see a five-star review and letting us know how much help this information was or what have you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And we can't wait to see you guys, if you are not yet a client, on a complimentary practice assessment because I really, really, really want you to get dialed in this year, no matter what that looks like for us and you. And keep listening, you guys. We're gonna always have some amazing content here for you. Catch you next time.
If you're in SF, join us tomorrow for a fun meetup at CodeGen Night!If you're in NYC, join us for AI Engineer Summit! The Agent Engineering track is now sold out, but 25 tickets remain for AI Leadership and 5 tickets for the workshops. You can see the full schedule of speakers and workshops at https://ai.engineer!It's exceedingly hard to introduce someone like Bret Taylor. We could recite his Wikipedia page, or his extensive work history through Silicon Valley's greatest companies, but everyone else already does that.As a podcast by AI engineers for AI engineers, we had the opportunity to do something a little different. We wanted to dig into what Bret sees from his vantage point at the top of our industry for the last 2 decades, and how that explains the rise of the AI Architect at Sierra, the leading conversational AI/CX platform.“Across our customer base, we are seeing a new role emerge - the role of the AI architect. These leaders are responsible for helping define, manage and evolve their company's AI agent over time. They come from a variety of both technical and business backgrounds, and we think that every company will have one or many AI architects managing their AI agent and related experience.”In our conversation, Bret Taylor confirms the Paul Buchheit legend that he rewrote Google Maps in a weekend, armed with only the help of a then-nascent Google Closure Compiler and no other modern tooling. But what we find remarkable is that he was the PM of Maps, not an engineer, though of course he still identifies as one. We find this theme recurring throughout Bret's career and worldview. We think it is plain as day that AI leadership will have to be hands-on and technical, especially when the ground is shifting as quickly as it is today:“There's a lot of power in combining product and engineering into as few people as possible… few great things have been created by committee.”“If engineering is an order taking organization for product you can sometimes make meaningful things, but rarely will you create extremely well crafted breakthrough products. Those tend to be small teams who deeply understand the customer need that they're solving, who have a maniacal focus on outcomes.”“And I think the reason why is if you look at like software as a service five years ago, maybe you can have a separation of product and engineering because most software as a service created five years ago. I wouldn't say there's like a lot of technological breakthroughs required for most business applications. And if you're making expense reporting software or whatever, it's useful… You kind of know how databases work, how to build auto scaling with your AWS cluster, whatever, you know, it's just, you're just applying best practices to yet another problem. "When you have areas like the early days of mobile development or the early days of interactive web applications, which I think Google Maps and Gmail represent, or now AI agents, you're in this constant conversation with what the requirements of your customers and stakeholders are and all the different people interacting with it and the capabilities of the technology. And it's almost impossible to specify the requirements of a product when you're not sure of the limitations of the technology itself.”This is the first time the difference between technical leadership for “normal” software and for “AI” software was articulated this clearly for us, and we'll be thinking a lot about this going forward. We left a lot of nuggets in the conversation, so we hope you'll just dive in with us (and thank Bret for joining the pod!)Timestamps* 00:00:02 Introductions and Bret Taylor's background* 00:01:23 Bret's experience at Stanford and the dot-com era* 00:04:04 The story of rewriting Google Maps backend* 00:11:06 Early days of interactive web applications at Google* 00:15:26 Discussion on product management and engineering roles* 00:21:00 AI and the future of software development* 00:26:42 Bret's approach to identifying customer needs and building AI companies* 00:32:09 The evolution of business models in the AI era* 00:41:00 The future of programming languages and software development* 00:49:38 Challenges in precisely communicating human intent to machines* 00:56:44 Discussion on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and its impact* 01:08:51 The future of agent-to-agent communication* 01:14:03 Bret's involvement in the OpenAI leadership crisis* 01:22:11 OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft* 01:23:23 OpenAI's mission and priorities* 01:27:40 Bret's guiding principles for career choices* 01:29:12 Brief discussion on pasta-making* 01:30:47 How Bret keeps up with AI developments* 01:32:15 Exciting research directions in AI* 01:35:19 Closing remarks and hiring at Sierra Transcript[00:02:05] Introduction and Guest Welcome[00:02:05] Alessio: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space Podcast. This is Alessio, partner and CTO at Decibel Partners, and I'm joined by my co host swyx, founder of smol.ai.[00:02:17] swyx: Hey, and today we're super excited to have Bret Taylor join us. Welcome. Thanks for having me. It's a little unreal to have you in the studio.[00:02:25] swyx: I've read about you so much over the years, like even before. Open AI effectively. I mean, I use Google Maps to get here. So like, thank you for everything that you've done. Like, like your story history, like, you know, I think people can find out what your greatest hits have been.[00:02:40] Bret Taylor's Early Career and Education[00:02:40] swyx: How do you usually like to introduce yourself when, you know, you talk about, you summarize your career, like, how do you look at yourself?[00:02:47] Bret: Yeah, it's a great question. You know, we, before we went on the mics here, we're talking about the audience for this podcast being more engineering. And I do think depending on the audience, I'll introduce myself differently because I've had a lot of [00:03:00] corporate and board roles. I probably self identify as an engineer more than anything else though.[00:03:04] Bret: So even when I was. Salesforce, I was coding on the weekends. So I think of myself as an engineer and then all the roles that I do in my career sort of start with that just because I do feel like engineering is sort of a mindset and how I approach most of my life. So I'm an engineer first and that's how I describe myself.[00:03:24] Bret: You majored in computer[00:03:25] swyx: science, like 1998. And, and I was high[00:03:28] Bret: school, actually my, my college degree was Oh, two undergrad. Oh, three masters. Right. That old.[00:03:33] swyx: Yeah. I mean, no, I was going, I was going like 1998 to 2003, but like engineering wasn't as, wasn't a thing back then. Like we didn't have the title of senior engineer, you know, kind of like, it was just.[00:03:44] swyx: You were a programmer, you were a developer, maybe. What was it like in Stanford? Like, what was that feeling like? You know, was it, were you feeling like on the cusp of a great computer revolution? Or was it just like a niche, you know, interest at the time?[00:03:57] Stanford and the Dot-Com Bubble[00:03:57] Bret: Well, I was at Stanford, as you said, from 1998 to [00:04:00] 2002.[00:04:02] Bret: 1998 was near the peak of the dot com bubble. So. This is back in the day where most people that they're coding in the computer lab, just because there was these sun microsystems, Unix boxes there that most of us had to do our assignments on. And every single day there was a. com like buying pizza for everybody.[00:04:20] Bret: I didn't have to like, I got. Free food, like my first two years of university and then the dot com bubble burst in the middle of my college career. And so by the end there was like tumbleweed going to the job fair, you know, it was like, cause it was hard to describe unless you were there at the time, the like level of hype and being a computer science major at Stanford was like, A thousand opportunities.[00:04:45] Bret: And then, and then when I left, it was like Microsoft, IBM.[00:04:49] Joining Google and Early Projects[00:04:49] Bret: And then the two startups that I applied to were VMware and Google. And I ended up going to Google in large part because a woman named Marissa Meyer, who had been a teaching [00:05:00] assistant when I was, what was called a section leader, which was like a junior teaching assistant kind of for one of the big interest.[00:05:05] Bret: Yes. Classes. She had gone there. And she was recruiting me and I knew her and it was sort of felt safe, you know, like, I don't know. I thought about it much, but it turned out to be a real blessing. I realized like, you know, you always want to think you'd pick Google if given the option, but no one knew at the time.[00:05:20] Bret: And I wonder if I'd graduated in like 1999 where I've been like, mom, I just got a job at pets. com. It's good. But you know, at the end I just didn't have any options. So I was like, do I want to go like make kernel software at VMware? Do I want to go build search at Google? And I chose Google. 50, 50 ball.[00:05:36] Bret: I'm not really a 50, 50 ball. So I feel very fortunate in retrospect that the economy collapsed because in some ways it forced me into like one of the greatest companies of all time, but I kind of lucked into it, I think.[00:05:47] The Google Maps Rewrite Story[00:05:47] Alessio: So the famous story about Google is that you rewrote the Google maps back in, in one week after the map quest quest maps acquisition, what was the story there?[00:05:57] Alessio: Is it. Actually true. Is it [00:06:00] being glorified? Like how, how did that come to be? And is there any detail that maybe Paul hasn't shared before?[00:06:06] Bret: It's largely true, but I'll give the color commentary. So it was actually the front end, not the back end, but it turns out for Google maps, the front end was sort of the hard part just because Google maps was.[00:06:17] Bret: Largely the first ish kind of really interactive web application, say first ish. I think Gmail certainly was though Gmail, probably a lot of people then who weren't engineers probably didn't appreciate its level of interactivity. It was just fast, but. Google maps, because you could drag the map and it was sort of graphical.[00:06:38] Bret: My, it really in the mainstream, I think, was it a map[00:06:41] swyx: quest back then that was, you had the arrows up and down, it[00:06:44] Bret: was up and down arrows. Each map was a single image and you just click left and then wait for a few seconds to the new map to let it was really small too, because generating a big image was kind of expensive on computers that day.[00:06:57] Bret: So Google maps was truly innovative in that [00:07:00] regard. The story on it. There was a small company called where two technologies started by two Danish brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen, who are two of my closest friends now. They had made a windows app called expedition, which had beautiful maps. Even in 2000.[00:07:18] Bret: For whenever we acquired or sort of acquired their company, Windows software was not particularly fashionable, but they were really passionate about mapping and we had made a local search product that was kind of middling in terms of popularity, sort of like a yellow page of search product. So we wanted to really go into mapping.[00:07:36] Bret: We'd started working on it. Their small team seemed passionate about it. So we're like, come join us. We can build this together.[00:07:42] Technical Challenges and Innovations[00:07:42] Bret: It turned out to be a great blessing that they had built a windows app because you're less technically constrained when you're doing native code than you are building a web browser, particularly back then when there weren't really interactive web apps and it ended up.[00:07:56] Bret: Changing the level of quality that we [00:08:00] wanted to hit with the app because we were shooting for something that felt like a native windows application. So it was a really good fortune that we sort of, you know, their unusual technical choices turned out to be the greatest blessing. So we spent a lot of time basically saying, how can you make a interactive draggable map in a web browser?[00:08:18] Bret: How do you progressively load, you know, new map tiles, you know, as you're dragging even things like down in the weeds of the browser at the time, most browsers like Internet Explorer, which was dominant at the time would only load two images at a time from the same domain. So we ended up making our map tile servers have like.[00:08:37] Bret: Forty different subdomains so we could load maps and parallels like lots of hacks. I'm happy to go into as much as like[00:08:44] swyx: HTTP connections and stuff.[00:08:46] Bret: They just like, there was just maximum parallelism of two. And so if you had a map, set of map tiles, like eight of them, so So we just, we were down in the weeds of the browser anyway.[00:08:56] Bret: So it was lots of plumbing. I can, I know a lot more about browsers than [00:09:00] most people, but then by the end of it, it was fairly, it was a lot of duct tape on that code. If you've ever done an engineering project where you're not really sure the path from point A to point B, it's almost like. Building a house by building one room at a time.[00:09:14] Bret: The, there's not a lot of architectural cohesion at the end. And then we acquired a company called Keyhole, which became Google earth, which was like that three, it was a native windows app as well, separate app, great app, but with that, we got licenses to all this satellite imagery. And so in August of 2005, we added.[00:09:33] Bret: Satellite imagery to Google Maps, which added even more complexity in the code base. And then we decided we wanted to support Safari. There was no mobile phones yet. So Safari was this like nascent browser on, on the Mac. And it turns out there's like a lot of decisions behind the scenes, sort of inspired by this windows app, like heavy use of XML and XSLT and all these like.[00:09:54] Bret: Technologies that were like briefly fashionable in the early two thousands and everyone hates now for good [00:10:00] reason. And it turns out that all of the XML functionality and Internet Explorer wasn't supporting Safari. So people are like re implementing like XML parsers. And it was just like this like pile of s**t.[00:10:11] Bret: And I had to say a s**t on your part. Yeah, of[00:10:12] Alessio: course.[00:10:13] Bret: So. It went from this like beautifully elegant application that everyone was proud of to something that probably had hundreds of K of JavaScript, which sounds like nothing. Now we're talking like people have modems, you know, not all modems, but it was a big deal.[00:10:29] Bret: So it was like slow. It took a while to load and just, it wasn't like a great code base. Like everything was fragile. So I just got. Super frustrated by it. And then one weekend I did rewrite all of it. And at the time the word JSON hadn't been coined yet too, just to give you a sense. So it's all XML.[00:10:47] swyx: Yeah.[00:10:47] Bret: So we used what is now you would call JSON, but I just said like, let's use eval so that we can parse the data fast. And, and again, that's, it would literally as JSON, but at the time there was no name for it. So we [00:11:00] just said, let's. Pass on JavaScript from the server and eval it. And then somebody just refactored the whole thing.[00:11:05] Bret: And, and it wasn't like I was some genius. It was just like, you know, if you knew everything you wished you had known at the beginning and I knew all the functionality, cause I was the primary, one of the primary authors of the JavaScript. And I just like, I just drank a lot of coffee and just stayed up all weekend.[00:11:22] Bret: And then I, I guess I developed a bit of reputation and no one knew about this for a long time. And then Paul who created Gmail and I ended up starting a company with him too, after all of this told this on a podcast and now it's large, but it's largely true. I did rewrite it and it, my proudest thing.[00:11:38] Bret: And I think JavaScript people appreciate this. Like the un G zipped bundle size for all of Google maps. When I rewrote, it was 20 K G zipped. It was like much smaller for the entire application. It went down by like 10 X. So. What happened on Google? Google is a pretty mainstream company. And so like our usage is shot up because it turns out like it's faster.[00:11:57] Bret: Just being faster is worth a lot of [00:12:00] percentage points of growth at a scale of Google. So how[00:12:03] swyx: much modern tooling did you have? Like test suites no compilers.[00:12:07] Bret: Actually, that's not true. We did it one thing. So I actually think Google, I, you can. Download it. There's a, Google has a closure compiler, a closure compiler.[00:12:15] Bret: I don't know if anyone still uses it. It's gone. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of gone out of favor. Yeah. Well, even until recently it was better than most JavaScript minifiers because it was more like it did a lot more renaming of variables and things. Most people use ES build now just cause it's fast and closure compilers built on Java and super slow and stuff like that.[00:12:37] Bret: But, so we did have that, that was it. Okay.[00:12:39] The Evolution of Web Applications[00:12:39] Bret: So and that was treated internally, you know, it was a really interesting time at Google at the time because there's a lot of teams working on fairly advanced JavaScript when no one was. So Google suggest, which Kevin Gibbs was the tech lead for, was the first kind of type ahead, autocomplete, I believe in a web browser, and now it's just pervasive in search boxes that you sort of [00:13:00] see a type ahead there.[00:13:01] Bret: I mean, chat, dbt[00:13:01] swyx: just added it. It's kind of like a round trip.[00:13:03] Bret: Totally. No, it's now pervasive as a UI affordance, but that was like Kevin's 20 percent project. And then Gmail, Paul you know, he tells the story better than anyone, but he's like, you know, basically was scratching his own itch, but what was really neat about it is email, because it's such a productivity tool, just needed to be faster.[00:13:21] Bret: So, you know, he was scratching his own itch of just making more stuff work on the client side. And then we, because of Lars and Yen sort of like setting the bar of this windows app or like we need our maps to be draggable. So we ended up. Not only innovate in terms of having a big sync, what would be called a single page application today, but also all the graphical stuff you know, we were crashing Firefox, like it was going out of style because, you know, when you make a document object model with the idea that it's a document and then you layer on some JavaScript and then we're essentially abusing all of this, it just was running into code paths that were not.[00:13:56] Bret: Well, it's rotten, you know, at this time. And so it was [00:14:00] super fun. And, and, you know, in the building you had, so you had compilers, people helping minify JavaScript just practically, but there is a great engineering team. So they were like, that's why Closure Compiler is so good. It was like a. Person who actually knew about programming languages doing it, not just, you know, writing regular expressions.[00:14:17] Bret: And then the team that is now the Chrome team believe, and I, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm pretty sure Google is the main contributor to Firefox for a long time in terms of code. And a lot of browser people were there. So every time we would crash Firefox, we'd like walk up two floors and say like, what the hell is going on here?[00:14:35] Bret: And they would load their browser, like in a debugger. And we could like figure out exactly what was breaking. And you can't change the code, right? Cause it's the browser. It's like slow, right? I mean, slow to update. So, but we could figure out exactly where the bug was and then work around it in our JavaScript.[00:14:52] Bret: So it was just like new territory. Like so super, super fun time, just like a lot of, a lot of great engineers figuring out [00:15:00] new things. And And now, you know, the word, this term is no longer in fashion, but the word Ajax, which was asynchronous JavaScript and XML cause I'm telling you XML, but see the word XML there, to be fair, the way you made HTTP requests from a client to server was this.[00:15:18] Bret: Object called XML HTTP request because Microsoft and making Outlook web access back in the day made this and it turns out to have nothing to do with XML. It's just a way of making HTTP requests because XML was like the fashionable thing. It was like that was the way you, you know, you did it. But the JSON came out of that, you know, and then a lot of the best practices around building JavaScript applications is pre React.[00:15:44] Bret: I think React was probably the big conceptual step forward that we needed. Even my first social network after Google, we used a lot of like HTML injection and. Making real time updates was still very hand coded and it's really neat when you [00:16:00] see conceptual breakthroughs like react because it's, I just love those things where it's like obvious once you see it, but it's so not obvious until you do.[00:16:07] Bret: And actually, well, I'm sure we'll get into AI, but I, I sort of feel like we'll go through that evolution with AI agents as well that I feel like we're missing a lot of the core abstractions that I think in 10 years we'll be like, gosh, how'd you make agents? Before that, you know, but it was kind of that early days of web applications.[00:16:22] swyx: There's a lot of contenders for the reactive jobs of of AI, but no clear winner yet. I would say one thing I was there for, I mean, there's so much we can go into there. You just covered so much.[00:16:32] Product Management and Engineering Synergy[00:16:32] swyx: One thing I just, I just observe is that I think the early Google days had this interesting mix of PM and engineer, which I think you are, you didn't, you didn't wait for PM to tell you these are my, this is my PRD.[00:16:42] swyx: This is my requirements.[00:16:44] mix: Oh,[00:16:44] Bret: okay.[00:16:45] swyx: I wasn't technically a software engineer. I mean,[00:16:48] Bret: by title, obviously. Right, right, right.[00:16:51] swyx: It's like a blend. And I feel like these days, product is its own discipline and its own lore and own industry and engineering is its own thing. And there's this process [00:17:00] that happens and they're kind of separated, but you don't produce as good of a product as if they were the same person.[00:17:06] swyx: And I'm curious, you know, if, if that, if that sort of resonates in, in, in terms of like comparing early Google versus modern startups that you see out there,[00:17:16] Bret: I certainly like wear a lot of hats. So, you know, sort of biased in this, but I really agree that there's a lot of power and combining product design engineering into as few people as possible because, you know few great things have been created by committee, you know, and so.[00:17:33] Bret: If engineering is an order taking organization for product you can sometimes make meaningful things, but rarely will you create extremely well crafted breakthrough products. Those tend to be small teams who deeply understand the customer need that they're solving, who have a. Maniacal focus on outcomes.[00:17:53] Bret: And I think the reason why it's, I think for some areas, if you look at like software as a service five years ago, maybe you can have a [00:18:00] separation of product and engineering because most software as a service created five years ago. I wouldn't say there's like a lot of like. Technological breakthroughs required for most, you know, business applications.[00:18:11] Bret: And if you're making expense reporting software or whatever, it's useful. I don't mean to be dismissive of expense reporting software, but you probably just want to understand like, what are the requirements of the finance department? What are the requirements of an individual file expense report? Okay.[00:18:25] Bret: Go implement that. And you kind of know how web applications are implemented. You kind of know how to. How databases work, how to build auto scaling with your AWS cluster, whatever, you know, it's just, you're just applying best practices to yet another problem when you have areas like the early days of mobile development or the early days of interactive web applications, which I think Google Maps and Gmail represent, or now AI agents, you're in this constant conversation with what the requirements of your customers and stakeholders are and all the different people interacting with it.[00:18:58] Bret: And the capabilities of the [00:19:00] technology. And it's almost impossible to specify the requirements of a product when you're not sure of the limitations of the technology itself. And that's why I use the word conversation. It's not literal. That's sort of funny to use that word in the age of conversational AI.[00:19:15] Bret: You're constantly sort of saying, like, ideally, you could sprinkle some magic AI pixie dust and solve all the world's problems, but it's not the way it works. And it turns out that actually, I'll just give an interesting example.[00:19:26] AI Agents and Modern Tooling[00:19:26] Bret: I think most people listening probably use co pilots to code like Cursor or Devon or Microsoft Copilot or whatever.[00:19:34] Bret: Most of those tools are, they're remarkable. I'm, I couldn't, you know, imagine development without them now, but they're not autonomous yet. Like I wouldn't let it just write most code without my interactively inspecting it. We just are somewhere between it's an amazing co pilot and it's an autonomous software engineer.[00:19:53] Bret: As a product manager, like your aspirations for what the product is are like kind of meaningful. But [00:20:00] if you're a product person, yeah, of course you'd say it should be autonomous. You should click a button and program should come out the other side. The requirements meaningless. Like what matters is like, what is based on the like very nuanced limitations of the technology.[00:20:14] Bret: What is it capable of? And then how do you maximize the leverage? It gives a software engineering team, given those very nuanced trade offs. Coupled with the fact that those nuanced trade offs are changing more rapidly than any technology in my memory, meaning every few months you'll have new models with new capabilities.[00:20:34] Bret: So how do you construct a product that can absorb those new capabilities as rapidly as possible as well? That requires such a combination of technical depth and understanding the customer that you really need more integration. Of product design and engineering. And so I think it's why with these big technology waves, I think startups have a bit of a leg up relative to incumbents because they [00:21:00] tend to be sort of more self actualized in terms of just like bringing those disciplines closer together.[00:21:06] Bret: And in particular, I think entrepreneurs, the proverbial full stack engineers, you know, have a leg up as well because. I think most breakthroughs happen when you have someone who can understand those extremely nuanced technical trade offs, have a vision for a product. And then in the process of building it, have that, as I said, like metaphorical conversation with the technology, right?[00:21:30] Bret: Gosh, I ran into a technical limit that I didn't expect. It's not just like changing that feature. You might need to refactor the whole product based on that. And I think that's, that it's particularly important right now. So I don't, you know, if you, if you're building a big ERP system, probably there's a great reason to have product and engineering.[00:21:51] Bret: I think in general, the disciplines are there for a reason. I think when you're dealing with something as nuanced as the like technologies, like large language models today, there's a ton of [00:22:00] advantage of having. Individuals or organizations that integrate the disciplines more formally.[00:22:05] Alessio: That makes a lot of sense.[00:22:06] Alessio: I've run a lot of engineering teams in the past, and I think the product versus engineering tension has always been more about effort than like whether or not the feature is buildable. But I think, yeah, today you see a lot more of like. Models actually cannot do that. And I think the most interesting thing is on the startup side, people don't yet know where a lot of the AI value is going to accrue.[00:22:26] Alessio: So you have this rush of people building frameworks, building infrastructure, layered things, but we don't really know the shape of the compute. I'm curious that Sierra, like how you thought about building an house, a lot of the tooling for evals or like just, you know, building the agents and all of that.[00:22:41] Alessio: Versus how you see some of the startup opportunities that is maybe still out there.[00:22:46] Bret: We build most of our tooling in house at Sierra, not all. It's, we don't, it's not like not invented here syndrome necessarily, though, maybe slightly guilty of that in some ways, but because we're trying to build a platform [00:23:00] that's in Dorian, you know, we really want to have control over our own destiny.[00:23:03] Bret: And you had made a comment earlier that like. We're still trying to figure out who like the reactive agents are and the jury is still out. I would argue it hasn't been created yet. I don't think the jury is still out to go use that metaphor. We're sort of in the jQuery era of agents, not the react era.[00:23:19] Bret: And, and that's like a throwback for people listening,[00:23:22] swyx: we shouldn't rush it. You know?[00:23:23] Bret: No, yeah, that's my point is. And so. Because we're trying to create an enduring company at Sierra that outlives us, you know, I'm not sure we want to like attach our cart to some like to a horse where it's not clear that like we've figured out and I actually want as a company, we're trying to enable just at a high level and I'll, I'll quickly go back to tech at Sierra, we help consumer brands build customer facing AI agents.[00:23:48] Bret: So. Everyone from Sonos to ADT home security to Sirius XM, you know, if you call them on the phone and AI will pick up with you, you know, chat with them on the Sirius XM homepage. It's an AI agent called Harmony [00:24:00] that they've built on our platform. We're what are the contours of what it means for someone to build an end to end complete customer experience with AI with conversational AI.[00:24:09] Bret: You know, we really want to dive into the deep end of, of all the trade offs to do it. You know, where do you use fine tuning? Where do you string models together? You know, where do you use reasoning? Where do you use generation? How do you use reasoning? How do you express the guardrails of an agentic process?[00:24:25] Bret: How do you impose determinism on a fundamentally non deterministic technology? There's just a lot of really like as an important design space. And I could sit here and tell you, we have the best approach. Every entrepreneur will, you know. But I hope that in two years, we look back at our platform and laugh at how naive we were, because that's the pace of change broadly.[00:24:45] Bret: If you talk about like the startup opportunities, I'm not wholly skeptical of tools companies, but I'm fairly skeptical. There's always an exception for every role, but I believe that certainly there's a big market for [00:25:00] frontier models, but largely for companies with huge CapEx budgets. So. Open AI and Microsoft's Anthropic and Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud XAI, which is very well capitalized now, but I think the, the idea that a company can make money sort of pre training a foundation model is probably not true.[00:25:20] Bret: It's hard to, you're competing with just, you know, unreasonably large CapEx budgets. And I just like the cloud infrastructure market, I think will be largely there. I also really believe in the applications of AI. And I define that not as like building agents or things like that. I define it much more as like, you're actually solving a problem for a business.[00:25:40] Bret: So it's what Harvey is doing in legal profession or what cursor is doing for software engineering or what we're doing for customer experience and customer service. The reason I believe in that is I do think that in the age of AI, what's really interesting about software is it can actually complete a task.[00:25:56] Bret: It can actually do a job, which is very different than the value proposition of [00:26:00] software was to ancient history two years ago. And as a consequence, I think the way you build a solution and For a domain is very different than you would have before, which means that it's not obvious, like the incumbent incumbents have like a leg up, you know, necessarily, they certainly have some advantages, but there's just such a different form factor, you know, for providing a solution and it's just really valuable.[00:26:23] Bret: You know, it's. Like just think of how much money cursor is saving software engineering teams or the alternative, how much revenue it can produce tool making is really challenging. If you look at the cloud market, just as a analog, there are a lot of like interesting tools, companies, you know, Confluent, Monetized Kafka, Snowflake, Hortonworks, you know, there's a, there's a bunch of them.[00:26:48] Bret: A lot of them, you know, have that mix of sort of like like confluence or have the open source or open core or whatever you call it. I, I, I'm not an expert in this area. You know, I do think [00:27:00] that developers are fickle. I think that in the tool space, I probably like. Default towards open source being like the area that will win.[00:27:09] Bret: It's hard to build a company around this and then you end up with companies sort of built around open source to that can work. Don't get me wrong, but I just think that it's nowadays the tools are changing so rapidly that I'm like, not totally skeptical of tool makers, but I just think that open source will broadly win, but I think that the CapEx required for building frontier models is such that it will go to a handful of big companies.[00:27:33] Bret: And then I really believe in agents for specific domains which I think will, it's sort of the analog to software as a service in this new era. You know, it's like, if you just think of the cloud. You can lease a server. It's just a low level primitive, or you can buy an app like you know, Shopify or whatever.[00:27:51] Bret: And most people building a storefront would prefer Shopify over hand rolling their e commerce storefront. I think the same thing will be true of AI. So [00:28:00] I've. I tend to like, if I have a, like an entrepreneur asked me for advice, I'm like, you know, move up the stack as far as you can towards a customer need.[00:28:09] Bret: Broadly, but I, but it doesn't reduce my excitement about what is the reactive building agents kind of thing, just because it is, it is the right question to ask, but I think we'll probably play out probably an open source space more than anything else.[00:28:21] swyx: Yeah, and it's not a priority for you. There's a lot in there.[00:28:24] swyx: I'm kind of curious about your idea maze towards, there are many customer needs. You happen to identify customer experience as yours, but it could equally have been coding assistance or whatever. I think for some, I'm just kind of curious at the top down, how do you look at the world in terms of the potential problem space?[00:28:44] swyx: Because there are many people out there who are very smart and pick the wrong problem.[00:28:47] Bret: Yeah, that's a great question.[00:28:48] Future of Software Development[00:28:48] Bret: By the way, I would love to talk about the future of software, too, because despite the fact it didn't pick coding, I have a lot of that, but I can talk to I can answer your question, though, you know I think when a technology is as [00:29:00] cool as large language models.[00:29:02] Bret: You just see a lot of people starting from the technology and searching for a problem to solve. And I think it's why you see a lot of tools companies, because as a software engineer, you start building an app or a demo and you, you encounter some pain points. You're like,[00:29:17] swyx: a lot of[00:29:17] Bret: people are experiencing the same pain point.[00:29:19] Bret: What if I make it? That it's just very incremental. And you know, I always like to use the metaphor, like you can sell coffee beans, roasted coffee beans. You can add some value. You took coffee beans and you roasted them and roasted coffee beans largely, you know, are priced relative to the cost of the beans.[00:29:39] Bret: Or you can sell a latte and a latte. Is rarely priced directly like as a percentage of coffee bean prices. In fact, if you buy a latte at the airport, it's a captive audience. So it's a really expensive latte. And there's just a lot that goes into like. How much does a latte cost? And I bring it up because there's a supply chain from growing [00:30:00] coffee beans to roasting coffee beans to like, you know, you could make one at home or you could be in the airport and buy one and the margins of the company selling lattes in the airport is a lot higher than the, you know, people roasting the coffee beans and it's because you've actually solved a much more acute human problem in the airport.[00:30:19] Bret: And, and it's just worth a lot more to that person in that moment. It's kind of the way I think about technology too. It sounds funny to liken it to coffee beans, but you're selling tools on top of a large language model yet in some ways your market is big, but you're probably going to like be price compressed just because you're sort of a piece of infrastructure and then you have open source and all these other things competing with you naturally.[00:30:43] Bret: If you go and solve a really big business problem for somebody, that's actually like a meaningful business problem that AI facilitates, they will value it according to the value of that business problem. And so I actually feel like people should just stop. You're like, no, that's, that's [00:31:00] unfair. If you're searching for an idea of people, I, I love people trying things, even if, I mean, most of the, a lot of the greatest ideas have been things no one believed in.[00:31:07] Bret: So I like, if you're passionate about something, go do it. Like who am I to say, yeah, a hundred percent. Or Gmail, like Paul as far, I mean I, some of it's Laura at this point, but like Gmail is Paul's own email for a long time. , and then I amusingly and Paul can't correct me, I'm pretty sure he sent her in a link and like the first comment was like, this is really neat.[00:31:26] Bret: It would be great. It was not your email, but my own . I don't know if it's a true story. I'm pretty sure it's, yeah, I've read that before. So scratch your own niche. Fine. Like it depends on what your goal is. If you wanna do like a venture backed company, if its a. Passion project, f*****g passion, do it like don't listen to anybody.[00:31:41] Bret: In fact, but if you're trying to start, you know an enduring company, solve an important business problem. And I, and I do think that in the world of agents, the software industries has shifted where you're not just helping people more. People be more productive, but you're actually accomplishing tasks autonomously.[00:31:58] Bret: And as a consequence, I think the [00:32:00] addressable market has just greatly expanded just because software can actually do things now and actually accomplish tasks and how much is coding autocomplete worth. A fair amount. How much is the eventual, I'm certain we'll have it, the software agent that actually writes the code and delivers it to you, that's worth a lot.[00:32:20] Bret: And so, you know, I would just maybe look up from the large language models and start thinking about the economy and, you know, think from first principles. I don't wanna get too far afield, but just think about which parts of the economy. We'll benefit most from this intelligence and which parts can absorb it most easily.[00:32:38] Bret: And what would an agent in this space look like? Who's the customer of it is the technology feasible. And I would just start with these business problems more. And I think, you know, the best companies tend to have great engineers who happen to have great insight into a market. And it's that last part that I think some people.[00:32:56] Bret: Whether or not they have, it's like people start so much in the technology, they [00:33:00] lose the forest for the trees a little bit.[00:33:02] Alessio: How do you think about the model of still selling some sort of software versus selling more package labor? I feel like when people are selling the package labor, it's almost more stateless, you know, like it's easier to swap out if you're just putting an input and getting an output.[00:33:16] Alessio: If you think about coding, if there's no ID, you're just putting a prompt and getting back an app. It doesn't really matter. Who generates the app, you know, you have less of a buy in versus the platform you're building, I'm sure on the backend customers have to like put on their documentation and they have, you know, different workflows that they can tie in what's kind of like the line to draw there versus like going full where you're managed customer support team as a service outsource versus.[00:33:40] Alessio: This is the Sierra platform that you can build on. What was that decision? I'll sort of[00:33:44] Bret: like decouple the question in some ways, which is when you have something that's an agent, who is the person using it and what do they want to do with it? So let's just take your coding agent for a second. I will talk about Sierra as well.[00:33:59] Bret: Who's the [00:34:00] customer of a, an agent that actually produces software? Is it a software engineering manager? Is it a software engineer? And it's there, you know, intern so to speak. I don't know. I mean, we'll figure this out over the next few years. Like what is that? And is it generating code that you then review?[00:34:16] Bret: Is it generating code with a set of unit tests that pass, what is the actual. For lack of a better word contract, like, how do you know that it did what you wanted it to do? And then I would say like the product and the pricing, the packaging model sort of emerged from that. And I don't think the world's figured out.[00:34:33] Bret: I think it'll be different for every agent. You know, in our customer base, we do what's called outcome based pricing. So essentially every time the AI agent. Solves the problem or saves a customer or whatever it might be. There's a pre negotiated rate for that. We do that. Cause it's, we think that that's sort of the correct way agents, you know, should be packaged.[00:34:53] Bret: I look back at the history of like cloud software and notably the introduction of the browser, which led to [00:35:00] software being delivered in a browser, like Salesforce to. Famously invented sort of software as a service, which is both a technical delivery model through the browser, but also a business model, which is you subscribe to it rather than pay for a perpetual license.[00:35:13] Bret: Those two things are somewhat orthogonal, but not really. If you think about the idea of software running in a browser, that's hosted. Data center that you don't own, you sort of needed to change the business model because you don't, you can't really buy a perpetual license or something otherwise like, how do you afford making changes to it?[00:35:31] Bret: So it only worked when you were buying like a new version every year or whatever. So to some degree, but then the business model shift actually changed business as we know it, because now like. Things like Adobe Photoshop. Now you subscribe to rather than purchase. So it ended up where you had a technical shift and a business model shift that were very logically intertwined that actually the business model shift was turned out to be as significant as the technical as the shift.[00:35:59] Bret: And I think with [00:36:00] agents, because they actually accomplish a job, I do think that it doesn't make sense to me that you'd pay for the privilege of like. Using the software like that coding agent, like if it writes really bad code, like fire it, you know, I don't know what the right metaphor is like you should pay for a job.[00:36:17] Bret: Well done in my opinion. I mean, that's how you pay your software engineers, right? And[00:36:20] swyx: and well, not really. We paid to put them on salary and give them options and they vest over time. That's fair.[00:36:26] Bret: But my point is that you don't pay them for how many characters they write, which is sort of the token based, you know, whatever, like, There's a, that famous Apple story where we're like asking for a report of how many lines of code you wrote.[00:36:40] Bret: And one of the engineers showed up with like a negative number cause he had just like done a big refactoring. There was like a big F you to management who didn't understand how software is written. You know, my sense is like the traditional usage based or seat based thing. It's just going to look really antiquated.[00:36:55] Bret: Cause it's like asking your software engineer, how many lines of code did you write today? Like who cares? Like, cause [00:37:00] absolutely no correlation. So my old view is I don't think it's be different in every category, but I do think that that is the, if an agent is doing a job, you should, I think it properly incentivizes the maker of that agent and the customer of, of your pain for the job well done.[00:37:16] Bret: It's not always perfect to measure. It's hard to measure engineering productivity, but you can, you should do something other than how many keys you typed, you know Talk about perverse incentives for AI, right? Like I can write really long functions to do the same thing, right? So broadly speaking, you know, I do think that we're going to see a change in business models of software towards outcomes.[00:37:36] Bret: And I think you'll see a change in delivery models too. And, and, you know, in our customer base you know, we empower our customers to really have their hands on the steering wheel of what the agent does they, they want and need that. But the role is different. You know, at a lot of our customers, the customer experience operations folks have renamed themselves the AI architects, which I think is really cool.[00:37:55] Bret: And, you know, it's like in the early days of the Internet, there's the role of the webmaster. [00:38:00] And I don't know whether your webmaster is not a fashionable, you know, Term, nor is it a job anymore? I just, I don't know. Will they, our tech stand the test of time? Maybe, maybe not. But I do think that again, I like, you know, because everyone listening right now is a software engineer.[00:38:14] Bret: Like what is the form factor of a coding agent? And actually I'll, I'll take a breath. Cause actually I have a bunch of pins on them. Like I wrote a blog post right before Christmas, just on the future of software development. And one of the things that's interesting is like, if you look at the way I use cursor today, as an example, it's inside of.[00:38:31] Bret: A repackaged visual studio code environment. I sometimes use the sort of agentic parts of it, but it's largely, you know, I've sort of gotten a good routine of making it auto complete code in the way I want through tuning it properly when it actually can write. I do wonder what like the future of development environments will look like.[00:38:55] Bret: And to your point on what is a software product, I think it's going to change a lot in [00:39:00] ways that will surprise us. But I always use, I use the metaphor in my blog post of, have you all driven around in a way, Mo around here? Yeah, everyone has. And there are these Jaguars, the really nice cars, but it's funny because it still has a steering wheel, even though there's no one sitting there and the steering wheels like turning and stuff clearly in the future.[00:39:16] Bret: If once we get to that, be more ubiquitous, like why have the steering wheel and also why have all the seats facing forward? Maybe just for car sickness. I don't know, but you could totally rearrange the car. I mean, so much of the car is oriented around the driver, so. It stands to reason to me that like, well, autonomous agents for software engineering run through visual studio code.[00:39:37] Bret: That seems a little bit silly because having a single source code file open one at a time is kind of a goofy form factor for when like the code isn't being written primarily by you, but it begs the question of what's your relationship with that agent. And I think the same is true in our industry of customer experience, which is like.[00:39:55] Bret: Who are the people managing this agent? What are the tools do they need? And they definitely need [00:40:00] tools, but it's probably pretty different than the tools we had before. It's certainly different than training a contact center team. And as software engineers, I think that I would like to see particularly like on the passion project side or research side.[00:40:14] Bret: More innovation in programming languages. I think that we're bringing the cost of writing code down to zero. So the fact that we're still writing Python with AI cracks me up just cause it's like literally was designed to be ergonomic to write, not safe to run or fast to run. I would love to see more innovation and how we verify program correctness.[00:40:37] Bret: I studied for formal verification in college a little bit and. It's not very fashionable because it's really like tedious and slow and doesn't work very well. If a lot of code is being written by a machine, you know, one of the primary values we can provide is verifying that it actually does what we intend that it does.[00:40:56] Bret: I think there should be lots of interesting things in the software development life cycle, like how [00:41:00] we think of testing and everything else, because. If you think about if we have to manually read every line of code that's coming out as machines, it will just rate limit how much the machines can do. The alternative is totally unsafe.[00:41:13] Bret: So I wouldn't want to put code in production that didn't go through proper code review and inspection. So my whole view is like, I actually think there's like an AI native I don't think the coding agents don't work well enough to do this yet, but once they do, what is sort of an AI native software development life cycle and how do you actually.[00:41:31] Bret: Enable the creators of software to produce the highest quality, most robust, fastest software and know that it's correct. And I think that's an incredible opportunity. I mean, how much C code can we rewrite and rust and make it safe so that there's fewer security vulnerabilities. Can we like have more efficient, safer code than ever before?[00:41:53] Bret: And can you have someone who's like that guy in the matrix, you know, like staring at the little green things, like where could you have an operator [00:42:00] of a code generating machine be like superhuman? I think that's a cool vision. And I think too many people are focused on like. Autocomplete, you know, right now, I'm not, I'm not even, I'm guilty as charged.[00:42:10] Bret: I guess in some ways, but I just like, I'd like to see some bolder ideas. And that's why when you were joking, you know, talking about what's the react of whatever, I think we're clearly in a local maximum, you know, metaphor, like sort of conceptual local maximum, obviously it's moving really fast. I think we're moving out of it.[00:42:26] Alessio: Yeah. At the end of 23, I've read this blog post from syntax to semantics. Like if you think about Python. It's taking C and making it more semantic and LLMs are like the ultimate semantic program, right? You can just talk to them and they can generate any type of syntax from your language. But again, the languages that they have to use were made for us, not for them.[00:42:46] Alessio: But the problem is like, as long as you will ever need a human to intervene, you cannot change the language under it. You know what I mean? So I'm curious at what point of automation we'll need to get, we're going to be okay making changes. To the underlying languages, [00:43:00] like the programming languages versus just saying, Hey, you just got to write Python because I understand Python and I'm more important at the end of the day than the model.[00:43:08] Alessio: But I think that will change, but I don't know if it's like two years or five years. I think it's more nuanced actually.[00:43:13] Bret: So I think there's a, some of the more interesting programming languages bring semantics into syntax. So let me, that's a little reductive, but like Rust as an example, Rust is memory safe.[00:43:25] Bret: Statically, and that was a really interesting conceptual, but it's why it's hard to write rust. It's why most people write python instead of rust. I think rust programs are safer and faster than python, probably slower to compile. But like broadly speaking, like given the option, if you didn't have to care about the labor that went into it.[00:43:45] Bret: You should prefer a program written in Rust over a program written in Python, just because it will run more efficiently. It's almost certainly safer, et cetera, et cetera, depending on how you define safe, but most people don't write Rust because it's kind of a pain in the ass. And [00:44:00] the audience of people who can is smaller, but it's sort of better in most, most ways.[00:44:05] Bret: And again, let's say you're making a web service and you didn't have to care about how hard it was to write. If you just got the output of the web service, the rest one would be cheaper to operate. It's certainly cheaper and probably more correct just because there's so much in the static analysis implied by the rest programming language that it probably will have fewer runtime errors and things like that as well.[00:44:25] Bret: So I just give that as an example, because so rust, at least my understanding that came out of the Mozilla team, because. There's lots of security vulnerabilities in the browser and it needs to be really fast. They said, okay, we want to put more of a burden at the authorship time to have fewer issues at runtime.[00:44:43] Bret: And we need the constraint that it has to be done statically because browsers need to be really fast. My sense is if you just think about like the, the needs of a programming language today, where the role of a software engineer is [00:45:00] to use an AI to generate functionality and audit that it does in fact work as intended, maybe functionally, maybe from like a correctness standpoint, some combination thereof, how would you create a programming system that facilitated that?[00:45:15] Bret: And, you know, I bring up Rust is because I think it's a good example of like, I think given a choice of writing in C or Rust, you should choose Rust today. I think most people would say that, even C aficionados, just because. C is largely less safe for very similar, you know, trade offs, you know, for the, the system and now with AI, it's like, okay, well, that just changes the game on writing these things.[00:45:36] Bret: And so like, I just wonder if a combination of programming languages that are more structurally oriented towards the values that we need from an AI generated program, verifiable correctness and all of that. If it's tedious to produce for a person, that maybe doesn't matter. But one thing, like if I asked you, is this rest program memory safe?[00:45:58] Bret: You wouldn't have to read it, you just have [00:46:00] to compile it. So that's interesting. I mean, that's like an, that's one example of a very modest form of formal verification. So I bring that up because I do think you have AI inspect AI, you can have AI reviewed. Do AI code reviews. It would disappoint me if the best we could get was AI reviewing Python and having scaled a few very large.[00:46:21] Bret: Websites that were written on Python. It's just like, you know, expensive and it's like every, trust me, every team who's written a big web service in Python has experimented with like Pi Pi and all these things just to make it slightly more efficient than it naturally is. You don't really have true multi threading anyway.[00:46:36] Bret: It's just like clearly that you do it just because it's convenient to write. And I just feel like we're, I don't want to say it's insane. I just mean. I do think we're at a local maximum. And I would hope that we create a programming system, a combination of programming languages, formal verification, testing, automated code reviews, where you can use AI to generate software in a high scale way and trust it.[00:46:59] Bret: And you're [00:47:00] not limited by your ability to read it necessarily. I don't know exactly what form that would take, but I feel like that would be a pretty cool world to live in.[00:47:08] Alessio: Yeah. We had Chris Lanner on the podcast. He's doing great work with modular. I mean, I love. LVM. Yeah. Basically merging rust in and Python.[00:47:15] Alessio: That's kind of the idea. Should be, but I'm curious is like, for them a big use case was like making it compatible with Python, same APIs so that Python developers could use it. Yeah. And so I, I wonder at what point, well, yeah.[00:47:26] Bret: At least my understanding is they're targeting the data science Yeah. Machine learning crowd, which is all written in Python, so still feels like a local maximum.[00:47:34] Bret: Yeah.[00:47:34] swyx: Yeah, exactly. I'll force you to make a prediction. You know, Python's roughly 30 years old. In 30 years from now, is Rust going to be bigger than Python?[00:47:42] Bret: I don't know this, but just, I don't even know this is a prediction. I just am sort of like saying stuff I hope is true. I would like to see an AI native programming language and programming system, and I use language because I'm not sure language is even the right thing, but I hope in 30 years, there's an AI native way we make [00:48:00] software that is wholly uncorrelated with the current set of programming languages.[00:48:04] Bret: or not uncorrelated, but I think most programming languages today were designed to be efficiently authored by people and some have different trade offs.[00:48:15] Evolution of Programming Languages[00:48:15] Bret: You know, you have Haskell and others that were designed for abstractions for parallelism and things like that. You have programming languages like Python, which are designed to be very easily written, sort of like Perl and Python lineage, which is why data scientists use it.[00:48:31] Bret: It's it can, it has a. Interactive mode, things like that. And I love, I'm a huge Python fan. So despite all my Python trash talk, a huge Python fan wrote at least two of my three companies were exclusively written in Python and then C came out of the birth of Unix and it wasn't the first, but certainly the most prominent first step after assembly language, right?[00:48:54] Bret: Where you had higher level abstractions rather than and going beyond go to, to like abstractions, [00:49:00] like the for loop and the while loop.[00:49:01] The Future of Software Engineering[00:49:01] Bret: So I just think that if the act of writing code is no longer a meaningful human exercise, maybe it will be, I don't know. I'm just saying it sort of feels like maybe it's one of those parts of history that just will sort of like go away, but there's still the role of this offer engineer, like the person actually building the system.[00:49:20] Bret: Right. And. What does a programming system for that form factor look like?[00:49:25] React and Front-End Development[00:49:25] Bret: And I, I just have a, I hope to be just like I mentioned, I remember I was at Facebook in the very early days when, when, what is now react was being created. And I remember when the, it was like released open source I had left by that time and I was just like, this is so f*****g cool.[00:49:42] Bret: Like, you know, to basically model your app independent of the data flowing through it, just made everything easier. And then now. You know, I can create, like there's a lot of the front end software gym play is like a little chaotic for me, to be honest with you. It is like, it's sort of like [00:50:00] abstraction soup right now for me, but like some of those core ideas felt really ergonomic.[00:50:04] Bret: I just wanna, I'm just looking forward to the day when someone comes up with a programming system that feels both really like an aha moment, but completely foreign to me at the same time. Because they created it with sort of like from first principles recognizing that like. Authoring code in an editor is maybe not like the primary like reason why a programming system exists anymore.[00:50:26] Bret: And I think that's like, that would be a very exciting day for me.[00:50:28] The Role of AI in Programming[00:50:28] swyx: Yeah, I would say like the various versions of this discussion have happened at the end of the day, you still need to precisely communicate what you want. As a manager of people, as someone who has done many, many legal contracts, you know how hard that is.[00:50:42] swyx: And then now we have to talk to machines doing that and AIs interpreting what we mean and reading our minds effectively. I don't know how to get across that barrier of translating human intent to instructions. And yes, it can be more declarative, but I don't know if it'll ever Crossover from being [00:51:00] a programming language to something more than that.[00:51:02] Bret: I agree with you. And I actually do think if you look at like a legal contract, you know, the imprecision of the English language, it's like a flaw in the system. How many[00:51:12] swyx: holes there are.[00:51:13] Bret: And I do think that when you're making a mission critical software system, I don't think it should be English language prompts.[00:51:19] Bret: I think that is silly because you want the precision of a a programming language. My point was less about that and more about if the actual act of authoring it, like if you.[00:51:32] Formal Verification in Software[00:51:32] Bret: I'll think of some embedded systems do use formal verification. I know it's very common in like security protocols now so that you can, because the importance of correctness is so great.[00:51:41] Bret: My intellectual exercise is like, why not do that for all software? I mean, probably that's silly just literally to do what we literally do for. These low level security protocols, but the only reason we don't is because it's hard and tedious and hard and tedious are no longer factors. So, like, if I could, I mean, [00:52:00] just think of, like, the silliest app on your phone right now, the idea that that app should be, like, formally verified for its correctness feels laughable right now because, like, God, why would you spend the time on it?[00:52:10] Bret: But if it's zero costs, like, yeah, I guess so. I mean, it never crashed. That's probably good. You know, why not? I just want to, like, set our bars really high. Like. We should make, software has been amazing. Like there's a Mark Andreessen blog post, software is eating the world. And you know, our whole life is, is mediated digitally.[00:52:26] Bret: And that's just increasing with AI. And now we'll have our personal agents talking to the agents on the CRO platform and it's agents all the way down, you know, our core infrastructure is running on these digital systems. We now have like, and we've had a shortage of software developers for my entire life.[00:52:45] Bret: And as a consequence, you know if you look, remember like health care, got healthcare. gov that fiasco security vulnerabilities leading to state actors getting access to critical infrastructure. I'm like. We now have like created this like amazing system that can [00:53:00] like, we can fix this, you know, and I, I just want to, I'm both excited about the productivity gains in the economy, but I just think as software engineers, we should be bolder.[00:53:08] Bret: Like we should have aspirations to fix these systems so that like in general, as you said, as precise as we want to be in the specification of the system. We can make it work correctly now, and I'm being a little bit hand wavy, and I think we need some systems. I think that's where we should set the bar, especially when so much of our life depends on this critical digital infrastructure.[00:53:28] Bret: So I'm I'm just like super optimistic about it. But actually, let's go to w
2025-02-11 Weekly News — Episode 228Watch the video version on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/-08ciY2kW4c?feature=share Hosts: Gavin Pickin - Senior Developer at Ortus SolutionsBrad Wood - Senior Developer at Ortus SolutionsBig Thanks to our Sponsor - Ortus SolutionsThe makers of ColdBox, CommandBox, ForgeBox, TestBox and all your favorite box-es out there including BoxLang.A few ways to say thanks back to Ortus Solutions:Buy Tickets to Into the Box 2025 in Washington DC https://t.co/cFLDUJZEyMApril 30, 2025 - May 2, 2025 - Washington, DCLike and subscribe to our videos on YouTube. Help ORTUS reach for the Stars - Star and Fork our ReposStar all of your Github Box Dependencies from CommandBox with https://www.forgebox.io/view/commandbox-github Subscribe to our Podcast on your Podcast Apps and leave us a reviewSign up for a free or paid account on CFCasts, which is releasing new content regularlyBOXLife store: https://www.ortussolutions.com/about-us/shopBuy Ortus's Books102 ColdBox HMVC Quick Tips and Tricks on GumRoad (http://gum.co/coldbox-tips)Now on Amazon! In hardcover too!!!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJHB712MLearn Modern ColdFusion (CFML) in 100+ Minutes - Free online https://modern-cfml.ortusbooks.com/ or buy an EBook or Paper copy https://www.ortussolutions.com/learn/books/coldfusion-in-100-minutes Patreon Support ()We have 61 patreons: https://www.patreon.com/ortussolutions. News and AnnouncementsOrtus announce BoxLang to the Java Community and JfokusJfokus has been the birth of BoxLang for the Java community. So Incredibly well received. We even had folks coding on their phones on https://try.boxlang.io for some sweet hoodies. What an amazing event. So much great feedback and amazing response to finally having momentum in the dynamic JVM space. We will definitely be back in 2026 In force. hashtag#boxlang hashtag#jfokus hashtag#dynamicJVM hashtag#communityhttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/lmajano_boxlang-jfokus-dynamicjvm-activity-7292961359632240640-N1nc?Get a Free BoxLang+ License with Your ITB 2025 Ticket!At Ortus Solutions, we are dedicated to delivering the best experience for our Into the Box attendees. This year's event will be an exciting opportunity to explore BoxLang and modern CFML development, and we want to ensure that attending in person is even more rewarding.Exclusive On-Site Attendee Benefit: Free 1-Year BoxLang+ License!As a special incentive, all on-site attendees will receive a free 1-year subscription to BoxLang+.BoxLang+ is a professional subscription that enhances development across multiple runtimes, including CLI, web, CommandBox, and serverless environments.https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/get-a-free-boxlang-license-with-your-itb-2025-ticket Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2025 Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2025 is here—join us in Las Vegas on Sept 22-23 (optional certification days on Sept 21 or 24). Grab your early bird tickets for just $99 before they're gone. Secure your spot today!Register now: https://bit.ly/414pLF6Team Plans and Exclusive Deals: Into the Box 2025!Thinking about attending Into the Box 2025 but don't want to go alone? Or are you looking to train your team with the latest modern software development tools? We've got you covered. Take advantage of our exclusive team deals and bring your team for an even better experience.Get 50% off your second Into the Box on-site ticket.Buy 2, Get 1 Free – Purchase two on-site tickets, and the third one is on us.https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/team-plans-and-exclusive-deals-into-the-box-2025 TeraTech release Free Online Course for Modernizing CF AppsA Call to the #ColdFusion Keepers of Middleware-Earth! ⚔️
Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/652 Join Parvez Ghumra as he explores his journey as a Microsoft MVP from Leicester, UK. His passion for the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 CE development is shaped by strong family values, a love for travel—especially his mini pilgrimage to Mecca—and a spicy hobby of chili growing. Parvez reflects on the evolution of CRM deployment tools, from manual XML to modern no-code solutions like Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions, while acknowledging challenges with tools like Package Deployer. Alongside his insights, Mark also shares his own path to MVP recognition, emphasizing the power of community support in driving personal and professional growth. TAKEAWAYS• The role of family in professional development • Travel experiences influencing personal and professional growth • Transition from bespoke development to Dynamics 365 • Importance of Application Lifecycle Management in software delivery • Shift from SDK to low-code solutions in modern development • The value of community support in achieving the MVP statusThis year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening
Show DescriptionHow important is the DX of software vs how important is the person showing off the software, Douglas Crockford and JSON, remembering XML, trying to write better HTML for email, new TC39 proposal, workshopping t-shirts, and what do you do if you want a little bit of database on your website? Listen on Website →Links Web Unleashed 2024 - FITC New High Contrast Syntax Highlighting Themes – CodePen Douglas Crockford JSON JSON Feed Slow Horses JavaScript Compiler Proposal ECMAScript 2024 Updates Contentful Strapi Sanity Content System Heroku Cloudflare Turso Netlify Blobs bolt.new SponsorsBluehostFind unique domains, web hosting, and WordPress tools, all in one place. Empower your business or digital agency with Bluehost.