• 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
    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
    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
  • Episode 6: JP talks recruitment, and starting a company
    Dec 20 2024
    We've got Jean-Paul Ashby, a.k.a. JP, a recruiter, director, entrepreneur, talking about all things recruitment, CVs, interviews, and more Lenny Visits Wayde Michael finishes the last Espresso Martini Mouse JP sipps a duvel, not a duv-elle We've got some quickfire questions for JP on all things recuitment. * Does github activity matter? * How many interviews is too many interviews? * What's your go-to interview question? Big Topics Recruitment Michael and Mark get a CV review from the professional. Comparison of job platforms, LinkedIn meets Otta Most memorable interviews Starting a new Venture Starting your own business! JP talks about his new venture, Torch, how he developed the idea, what does the MVP do? How JP found a technical founder, and started talking to clients about it. Michael and I talk about team moves and what the process looks like. In the News Broadcom Triples software revenue (https://www.ciodive.com/news/broadcoom-nears-vmware-integration-completion-ai-chips/735547/), somehow. What a mystery. Starlink competitor IRIS launching in Europe (https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/16/24322358/iris2-starlink-rival-europe-date-cost) – 290 satellites Tom Hanks is forever young (https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240701-new-tom-hanks-film-here-and-the-unsettling-new-de-aging-technology-keeping-stars-forever-young) Online Safety Act comes into effect in 3 months (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy83jdpgw5o) A look at why OpenAI’s K8s server got overloaded and they got locked out (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11th-dec-2024-openai-outage-nutshell-puru-tuladhar-rus9f/) Aqua finds 336,000 Prometheus servers and exporters are wide open, uses them to get system info and cause dos attacks (https://www.aquasec.com/blog/300000-prometheus-servers-and-exporters-exposed-to-dos-attacks/) Even Krisy-Kreme aren’t safe (https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/krispy-kreme-doughnut-delivery-cooked-cyberattack)! Why are people attacking a donut company?! Recommendations TV JP also recommends The Day of the Jackal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24053860/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_2_nm_4_in_0_q_the%2520day%2520of%2520the%2520jackal) Books Michael has finished Nuclear War: A Scenario (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/461721/nuclear-war-by-jacobsen-annie/9781911709596) Out and About Hidden City (https://www.inthehiddencity.com/?utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=1640314045&utm_content=68160131452&utm_term=hidden%20city&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2JXCBnA-qwqLieYIr3P2yrQk4xw&gclid=CjwKCAiAyJS7BhBiEiwAyS9uNdibeQ1_tWP7GG-r96jeoE5JeVmUmyjKlLkDM0IHMIcuFElUxHHSWRoCm3kQAvD_BwE) - a real-world texting adventure to help James Bond Special Guest: Jean-Paul Ashby.
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    1 hr and 40 mins
  • Episode 5: Data Center Repatriation
    Dec 13 2024
    It's become less surprising as the weeks fly by that we're still doing it. Ian gives us his tooling preferences and why. Cynic to advocate for public cloud The phones are ringing off the hooks, thanks to Ian Reeves! What do we think of DHH? Should you run your own stuff, or pay for SaaS? Kim Jung Un's inner SuperHero (https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/1hbwaco/is_war_starting/) Big Topics Data Center Repatriation. Why DHH moved 37signals from public cloud to on-prem, here's his blogs on How it started (https://world.hey.com/dhh/why-we-re-leaving-the-cloud-654b47e0) vs. How it's going (https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-have-left-the-cloud-251760fb). Is this reverting back to on-premise becoming commonplace? Has the sales pitch for public cloud shifted? In the news Broadcom is making some major changes to stop VMware exodus (https://www.techradar.com/pro/broadcom-is-making-some-major-changes-to-stop-vmware-exodus) Indonesia squeezes apple even harder for $1Bn (https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/after-iphone-ban-apple-offers-1-billion-govt-says-12032024163122.html#:~:text=The%20Indonesian%20investment%20minister%20said,first%20phase%20of%20%241%20billion) New openAI model is pen tested for reasoning, and subversion. Can it act in its own interests to deceive the user? This is absolutely fascinating (https://www.apolloresearch.ai/research/scheming-reasoning-evaluations) Landlords Are Using AI to Raise Rents—and Cities Are Starting to Push Back (https://gizmodo.com/landlords-are-using-ai-to-raise-rents-and-cities-are-starting-to-push-back-2000535519) OpenAI releases Sora (https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24317090/openai-sora-text-to-video-ai-generator-confirmed-release) Is AI hitting a wall? (https://www.inc.com/joe-procopio/ai-hits-a-wall-what-this-means-for-the-tech-industry/91033881) Are AI Leaders overly optimistic? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqwSZEQkknU) Recommendations Music Everyday is Christmas, Sia (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/everyday-is-christmas-deluxe/1440098012) A keen follower told us that the Mark Lanegan tribute gig is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0PzvSvme14) It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land, Soulsavers (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/its-not-how-far-you-fall-its-the-way-you-land/943433314) Try out Teddy Swims (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/teddy-swims/1462541757) for some soul/pop Synthwave Goose's Blade Runner 2049 single (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/blade-runner-2049-single/1388978818) and Hacker music album fit for Mr. Robot (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cracked/1441878746) Books Nuclear War, A Scenario by Annie Jacobson (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/461721/nuclear-war-by-jacobsen-annie/9781911709596) Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0241451930/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QHF1WSJSG62D&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zXxQQcRJkb7x5kthVhMXqRwPOgMI8UaAjtXM3XrIW-z-6Ozsk1Sdp70Y3C_XohPmGYQsQN_i1Wls--TUpAyk8vuA86rmweNWMb5GStXfPYTpivIdVMiMlmOPY2zbjYHpnQk84dw83Gi2CMAC6s5lNts3XrKOspC8-akl6A5RDscylXIsOdzqesIspI-eMZq_kB_IsCfTTtsk0-vXvkNeGQ4vqzM50pgcx1isL01xmj4.yHIzlqMgqkrlUwqorcCq1X1GCtK-pE24JucmONEEdu0&dib_tag=se&keywords=bill+bryson&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733970286&sprefix=bill+bryson%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-1) TV True Detective on Sky/NowTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356777/) Special Guest: Ian Reeves.
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Episode 4: Mark's big cash giveaway
    Dec 6 2024
    We're still here for number 4. We add some jingles and an intro. Michael gets third party confirmation that he's old All the guests have mugged us off, so it's just Michael and I Mark predicts the rise of AI Santa Mark publishes the show too early and forgets about the shownotes and jingles first time round Michael scours the news with a "2 years or older" filter on. Social Media sites Big Topics Technical diagrams * What makes a good diagram? * What are we doing diagrams of? * Do people use 'em? Incidents * MIchael and I recap our biggest hiccups at work * what happened * what impact? All our subscriptions * everything we've subscribed to currently, is it any good? * one thing we should ditch? * Domain Hoarding In the news A.K.A. Not news. * Medium once upon a time said they don't like AI (https://blog.medium.com/how-were-approaching-ai-generated-writing-on-medium-16ee8cb3bc89) * We get a comment on the LinkedIn which is AI generated * X loses momentum to reddit in the UK (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/29/ofcom_online_nation?utm_source=pocket_shared) * Journalists from europe are off X too (https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/european-federation-of-journalists-to-stop-posting-content-on-x-386598/) * Thoughtworks tech radar is published (https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-gb/radar) * Platform Engineering Report is published (https://thenewstack.io/the-2024-state-of-platform-engineering-fledgling-at-best/?utm_source=pocket_shared). Michael promises to give some highlights next week * Some lucky gambling prompter wins $50,000 from Freysa AI, a blockchain connected LLM who shouldn't give out the money (https://x.com/jarrodWattsDev/status/1862299845710757980) * A 14-year-old kid makes a digital braille reader under $20 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2024/11/30/14-year-old-boy-invents-digital-braille-reader-and-wins-3500/) * David Mayer gets the Barbra Streisand effect, as ChatGPT has a few crashes (https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-david-mayer-name-glitch-ai-b2657197.html) Stuff we didn't mention: Half a cup of water for every chatGPT interaction? Is this real? (https://www.smh.com.au/technology/every-time-you-use-chatgpt-half-a-cup-of-water-goes-to-waste-20241128-p5kubq.html) Recommendations Tech Homey Pro home hub (https://homey.app/en-gb/homey-pro/) Keepa (https://keepa.com/#!addon) - chrome/brave extension for price comparison on Amazon iZotope (https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/rx-elements) & Hindenburg (https://hindenburg.com) for audio/podcast stuff NetNewsWire RSS Reader (https://netnewswire.com) UsesThis.com (https://usesthis.com/) - interviews for what tools people use to get their jobs done Music Michael's got 2 gigs, one of which is a Mark Lanegan (https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/mark-lanegan-essentials/pl.1e058facef694d69ac7e4f758feacce2) tribute gig. Mark recommends some HipHop, Joey Ba.Da.$$ (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/1999/1396290965) Truck Festival tickets released (https://truckfestival.com) TV HiJack thriller on AppleTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19854762/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Hijack) Dune: Prophecy on Sky/NowTV (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10466872/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_Dune%253A%2520Prophecy)
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    1 hr and 37 mins
  • Episode 3: Fred's OpenAPI dishwasher
    Nov 29 2024
    We've got Fredrik Alm, Infrastructure Architect from Sweden on, to talk about Smart Home setups. Michael goes on mute, leading to widespread panic DIY Dishwasher APIs Everyone hates JFrog, but not as much as Mark We've got Jarvis at home! Don't touch the mirror Smart Homes is our big topic Do we trust Eero? Do we trust China? Home experiments. Having guests in your smart home. Never Mind the AI-BuzzCocks In the news: 1. Confess your sins to AI Jesus (https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/meet-your-own-personal-ai-jesus-in-this-swiss-churchs-confessional) 2. Mac Mini Clusters for LLMs (https://youtu.be/GBR6pHZ68Ho?si=_jNZyOhPpXEL4D7q) 3. Fancy Bear 'Nearest Neighbour' attack (https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/fancy-bear-nearest-neighbor-attack-wi-fi) 4. Big Cisco Brother is watching you (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/27/workplace_surveillance/) 5. NHS gets blasted for the 3rd time this year, they're using pen and paper (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/26/third_major_cyber_incident_declared/?td=rt-3a) 6. LinkedInfluencers are mostly AI (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/28/linkedin_ai_posts/) 7. Indonesia doesn't care about the latest iPhone, just give them the money (https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/11/22/indonesia-rejects-apples-100-million-bid-to-lift-the-iphone-16-ban) Recommendations Smart Home Equipment * Fred recommends this Homey system, which he can't recommend enough. "It just works, but with everything" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b21Stl9pgig) * Aqara Doorbell (https://www.aqara-shop.co.uk/product/aqara-smart-video-doorbell-g4-black-finish/) Music * Even more Father John Misty: Mahashmashana (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/mahashmashana/1762652806) * Ghosting Season (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/fade-out-lost-tracks-single/1094684419) Blogs * Michael has started a blog (https://blog.heyitsmichael.com/) * Mark's existing blog (https://mark-mccracken.medium.com) Books * Observability Engineering, by Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, George Miranda (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/observability-engineering/9781492076438/) * The Standard for Program Management (https://www.pmi.org/standards/program-management-fifth-edition) Movies * The Platform (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8228288/) & The Platform 2 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27729779/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) * The Day of the Jackal, 1973 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069947/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_the%2520day%2520of%2520the) Special Guest: Fredrik Alm.
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • Episode 2: Mitan's OnlyFans beard niche side hustle
    Nov 22 2024
    We're back for episode two! We've got an old friend, Mitan Patel as our guest this week. Mitan tells us about his career break. We chat about AI tools. Mark reviews the last recommendations, badly. Michael has put some effort into the news. Mitan was gonna write his recommendations down but his ADHD got the better of him this time. Big topics The Career Break. Why? Why now? What are you doing? Journalling and AI tooling Bolt.new (https://bolt.new/) and Cursor.com (https://www.cursor.com) Have I got tech news for you? O2 unveils Daisy, the AI granny wasting scammers’ time (https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-granny-wasting-scammers-time/) Cheating the GitHub activity graph (https://github.com/Shpota/github-activity-generator) Musk $1M giveaway wasn’t random (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/musk_america_pac_sued/) "We're basically building Webkinz + Sims + Tamagotchi." (https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/your-most-dramatic-human-friend-cant-hold-a-candle-to-the-ai-friends-you-can-soon-wear-around-your-neck) Robotic dog runs marathon (faster than I ever have) (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/robo_dogs_marathons/) Google Gemini tells grad student to 'please die' while helping with his homework (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/15/google_gemini_prompt_bad_response/) Russia be cutting undersea cables (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/baltic_sea_cables_cut/?td=rt-3a) Northern Ireland cancels IT contract with Fujitsu for Schools worth £485M (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/) Microsoft PC that is just a wrapper for Windows 365 (https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/19/microsoft-built-a-pc-that-cant-run-local-apps/) Github giving away $1.25m, $10k at a time for open source peeps to stay secure (https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/19/github-launches-1-25m-open-source-fund-with-a-focus-on-security/) Christmas Scams cost over £11m (https://12ft.io/https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366615884/UK-consumers-losing-more-than-ever-to-holiday-scams) Recommendations: Tools Bolt.new Cursor.com Obsidian Notion Music Michael: Father John Misty's album Pure Comedy (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/pure-comedy/1193788689) Worriedaboutsatan (https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/worriedaboutsatan/259009902), tasty electro working music Mark: Girlie and Frankie by Alexandra Saviour (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/belladonna-of-sadness/1211892421) The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill/1276760743) Cinema 3000 (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cinema-3000/1758060980) Mitan The Low End Theory by a Tribe Called Quest (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-low-end-theory/278911460) Podcasts Jim Browning (https://www.youtube.com/JimBrowning) hates scammers, who contributed to O2's Daisy AI, is a guest on Darknet Diaries (https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/143/), fasinating listen on a really good podcast Apple Music 100 Best Albums radio (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/100-best-albums-radio/id1743037216?i=1000656351917) TV Monk (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312172/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) Brian Cox' Wonders of the Solar System (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611787/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) Books Cujo by Stephen King (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cujo-Stephen-King/dp/1444708120) Beer Hepcat IPA (https://gipsyhillbrew.com/product/hepcat-2) Tippy Yoghurt's Fruity Sour (https://deadtime.co.uk/products/pretty-decent-beer-co-tippy-yoghurts-fruity-sour?srsltid=AfmBOorxteZnqdLKNI_hTWFGEosOLSDUSwLAoCOA3K5KMPd2ji_00dn-) Jubel peach beer (https://jubelbeer.com) Roadie IPA (https://www.signaturebrew.co.uk/products/roadie-all-night-ipa-330ml-cans) Special Guest: Mitan Patel.
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    1 hr and 25 mins