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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the usual off-topic tangents.

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

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

And the usual off-topic tangents.

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

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

And the usual off-topic tangents.

Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) couldn't get Jim to come to play, so instead dragged along Chris Miller (https://twitter.com/ccmiller2018) and Steve Goode (https://twitter.com/sociablesteve1) to keep me company during this holiday episode:

• Myspace Tom to replace Elon Musk https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/myspace-tom-twitter-elon-musk-ceo-position/
• SBF got out of jail for $250m https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64068810
• LastPass leak https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/lastpass-says-hackers-have-obtained-vault-data-and-a-wealth-of-customer-info/
• TikTok reading data from Journalists https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522808/tiktok-journalists-data-accessed-bytedance-internal-audit
• Twitter to have public view counts https://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-adds-public-view-counts-to-tweets/475185/
• Pokemon Samsung Accessories https://www.androidpolice.com/pokemon-samsung-accessories/

And the usual off-topic tangents.

Mike (https://twitter.com/ukmadlz) and Jim (https://twitter.com/secondej) drag along Julia Biro (https://twitter.com/juliadoesthat) and Eli Holderness (https://twitter.com/EliHolderness) for a genuinely unruly and off-topic conversation. Any yes, one of the topics did generate the title of this episode:

• Was anything interesting from DevRelCon?
• That new OpenAI chatGPT bot
• Lensa and its considerations
• New Pokemon called Spidops in the Scarlet/Viole
• Raspberry Pi managed to hire some nutter - https://twitter.com/adacable/status/1600830256780570626
• Literal killer robots - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63883235

And the usual off-topic tangents.

Bonus content: Mike did in fact break the chair and hurt himself https://twitter.com/EliHolderness/status/1601239042967801862