ctrl-alt-expletive

By: Mark McCracken & Michael McCarthy
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  • Summary

  • Join us for a laid back catch up on what's going on in the world of software, enterprise business, news for software and tech, and miscellaneous bureaucracy.
    © 2025 Cracksoft
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Episodes
  • Episode 9: Contracting Insights from 3 decades of Experience with Marie Wigmore

    Episode 9: Contracting Insights from 3 decades of Experience with Marie Wigmore
    Jan 31 2025
    Michael has caved and got a new microphone, China are back in the news, and we've got a better joke than last time. Michael is on the super stouts Marie is doing dry "couple-of-days" What's a plosion? Michael has over-researched micophones Is Feng-Shui a load of nonsense? Or Real? Marie rubbishes Mark's new years resolution Who is Marie Wigmore (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/guests/marie-wigmore)? Independent contractor for over 3 decades, currently engaged at BT Jira-avoidance wizard Graduate of the Youth Training Scheme, proud achiever of 5 O-Levels Driving Licence holder There will be a quiz at the end! Quickfire questions Inside or Outside IR35? Microsoft Project Planner or Jira? AI - scared or not scared? If you were in charge, what's your RTO policy? Do you prefer to consult for public sector, or consult for private sector? Sports Car or SUV? Most Expensive Dress you've ever worn? One fashion tip for Mark? Cat person or dog person? Breaking Production Leaderboard (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/breaking-prod-leaderboard) Clean Sheet, or Big Bang? Marie has a podcast exclusive for us, on the post office scandal. Bloody toffee-crisp eaters! Big Topics Contracting How has it changed? Are the good times behind us? How have the big 4 influenced government policy? Have you ever had any contracts go bad, mid-way through? In the past, you’ve got a contract coming to an end, it’s not getting renewed, you’ve got bills to pay. What’s the game plan for landing you next gig? Starting a consultancy What’s the gameplan for launching a new company? What are you gonna sell? How will you get clients? News for the week Experts urge caution over use of Chinese AI Deepseek (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/experts-urge-caution-over-use-of-chinese-ai-deepseek) James Howells suing Newport council again, after partner binned bitcoin wallet, and they won't let him dig up landfill (BBC) (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr0dyy152jo) Microsoft to acquire tiktok? (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/donald-trump-microsoft-tiktok-purchase-claims) Google maps renaming, after Trump renaming (The Register) (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/google_maps_trump_order/) Amazon prime air to launch in Darlington (Tech Crunch) (https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/28/amazons-prime-air-drone-service-is-headed-to-this-uk-town/) AWS & Microsoft CMA investigation (Computer Weekly) (https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366618449/AWS-and-Microsoft-could-face-targeted-intervention-from-CMA-over-UK-cloud-competition-concerns) Old news, but relevant: * Chinese major hardware hack uncovered (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/13/tech-giants-us-chinese-spy-chips-bloomberg-supermicro-amazon-apple) Recommendations Music Justice – Cross (https://music.apple.com/us/album/justice/259751732), electro/dance Underworld - Second toughest in the infants (https://music.apple.com/us/album/second-toughest-in-the-infants-remastered/1443227490), electro Sonny Federa (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/sonny-fodera/324128050), DJ, House TV Mr McMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/), wrestling documentary Traitors: Uncloaked finale (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00276n6/the-traitors-uncloaked-traitors-series-3-episode-12), with Claudia Winkleman Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action (https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81685634), documentary Girl You Know It's True (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21927594/), music movie about Milli Vanilli, who had one of the biggest scandals in music history The White Lotus (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13406094/), drama, comedy Gangs of London (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7661390/), Crime Drama Books Feng Shui Modern, by Cliff Tan (https://guardianbookshop.com/feng-shui-modern-9781526639998/) (Guardian Bookshop) Jokes What do you call a Hippo on One Leg? Change your nickname on iOS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5eHXavk34) (YT video) Next Time: Chris Hunter joins us talking about coding bootcamps Follow us, like & subscribe Leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts/Spotify etc.. Find the trailers wherever you are: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ctrl_alt_expletive) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@Ctrl-Alt-Expletive) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ctrl-alt-expletive/) Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/ctrl_alt_expletive/) BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/ctrl-alt-expletive.com) Our Website (https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com), where you'll find our breaking prod leaederboard and nationalities of guests and more. Special Guest: Marie Wigmore.
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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • Episode 8: Mark's fancy shaft

    Episode 8: Mark's fancy shaft
    Jan 24 2025
    What does James do? Is Sky a big company? What's your favourite file format to read from? Favourite format of book to digest? East London vs. West London What even is Burns Night? Deep fried battered scottish things James is dropping tables like it's hot... in the first week Big Topic Data. Big Data. HUGE Data. What's it like to leave after more than 10 years at one company? Why the change? Why not sooner? News Instagram hides search results for Democrats (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g32yxpdz0o) UK digital driving licences (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkjjkjy4p8o) BT scraps EV charging scheme, having only installed... one. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75zwyeq3v9o) Gotta be over 18 to watch porn in the UK from July (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwye3qw7gv7o) AI drugs are on the way (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/22/google_deepmind_ai_drugs/) "Eventually you could imagine personalized medicine where it's optimized, maybe overnight, by an AI system for your personal metabolism" Is Melania Trump's autobiography written using ChatGPT? (https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/s/DeV5QrX7UL) Hulk Smash Muck and Zuck (https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/14/free_our_feeds_decentralized_social_media/) AI Brad Pitt dupes French woman out of €830,000 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgnz8rw1xgo) Excel World Championships with 7.5 hour live stream (https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-excel-world-championship-is-real-and-it-just-crowned-the-king-of-spreadsheets/) Working from home is “not proper work”, according to Lord Rose, of M&S and Asda (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qww8xdvnwo) Recommendations Movies Civil War (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/) Music The Middlenight Men - Issue 2 (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/issue-2/1745318732), rock Justice - Cross (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/justice/259751732), electronic dance TV Mr. McMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/) wrestling, on Netflix The Day of the Jackal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24053860/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1) on Sky/NowTV Severance season 2 (https://tv.apple.com/gb/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx), Apple TV Traitors is finishing this weekend (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0db9b2t/the-traitors), BBC iPlayer Podcasts The rest is Entertainment (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-entertainment/id1718287198) Here comes the guilotine, by Frankie Boyle (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/here-comes-the-guillotine/id1729090748) Special Guest: James Balloch.
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Episode 7: Executive Strategy, Consulting, and Age Care

    Episode 7: Executive Strategy, Consulting, and Age Care
    Jan 15 2025
    After an extended break, our first episode of the year is here! CES 2025 has come and been (https://www.ces.tech/) * Michael thinks about persuading his cats to come to work * I want to charge my phone in 5 econds Are we dry January-ing? No. Resolutions: * Mark will play more darts * Michael will listen to political podcasts and 2 new albums a week * Georgia will go to places where people will help us meet goals What's it like being a Consultant Strategist? Companies are going full on RTO - why? Are governments pressuring big business back into the office? Georgia wastes 50k on unnecessary cloud spend, currently ranked about 2nd on our "Breaking Prod" leaderboard. Is the future of relationships just dating a robot? Big Topic Georgia has been involved in the disability and age care space. Some of the problems we've encountered, and how we can tackle them. How does Georgia fit it all in? In the News Tiktok ban looking likely (https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/10/tiktok-ban-looking-likely-after-u-s-supreme-court-hears-case/) LG’s creepy air purifiers (https://mashable.com/article/ces-2025-lg-aero-cat-tower-creepy-cat) Apple Intelligence notification summaries not quite good enough (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/14/bbc-says-it-has-complained-to-apple-over-ai-generated-fake-news-attributed-to-broadcaster) Facebook ditching fact checkers (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/07/ditching-facebook-factcheckers-major-step-back-public-discourse) Facebook has AI profiles (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/03/meta-ai-powered-instagram-facebook-profiles) JP morgan 5 days RTO (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/01/14/jpmorgan-disables-internal-comments-after-employee-backlash-over-rto-policy/#:~:text=The%20bank's%20leadership%2C%20in%20an,week%2C%20with%20only%20limited%20exceptions.) Ghostty terminal emulator release, from Mitchell Hashimoto (https://ghostty.org/) Recommendations Books Mark read (listened to) Nuclear War: A Scenario (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Nuclear-War-Audiobook/B0CN3NXK3D) Mark has a potential contender for equally grim (because it’s true), Alexei Navalny’s Patriot (https://www.amazon.co.uk/PATRIOT-Pre-order-inspiring-fearless-opposition/dp/1847927033) TV: Black Doves (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27995113/) Spy Drama with Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw Game of Throws (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34870889/) and Dart Kings on Sky for documentaries about darts now and then. Severance (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/) Season 2 is out on Friday. Silo season 2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14688458/) Traitors season 3 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23743442/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_traitors) Mr. MacMahon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33301469/) on Netflix Music Cahill Costello (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cahill-costello-ii/1770795493) Michael recommends getting a Stanley Cup Next time... We're hoping to have Sam Jones on, talking about burnout, journalling, and plenty more fun stuff. Special Guest: Georgia L. Smith.
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    1 hr and 28 mins

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