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Justin and Jason discuss Justin’s new podcasting setup, the current status of Pluggio and Justin’s overhaul of the Pluggio session management system, the need to scratch your creative itches, going on an intellectual sabbatical, why claiming to give more than a 100% effort is stupid, using mock objects for Ajax calls, eliminating coding mistakes via code generation, the importance of maintaining momentum on side projects, wrestling with SQLLite in Titanium, Justin’s frustration with TextMate, how Jason talked Guyon into working on AppIgnite, the basic concept of MashAPI, whether you can get vertigo by staring too long at a monitor, how Guyon is getting a sit/stand desk at work, BackMate – a mobile app for automatically adjusting a sit/stand desk, Jason’s vector-based Javascript graphics library, Jason’s cross-platform messaging library, web workers in HTML5, the net worth of past presidents, Inverted Totalitarianism, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, AntiWar.com, Scott Horton’s interview of Max Keiser, how iPads are selling at 200K per week, Jason’s methodology (or lack thereof) for naming podcast episodes, the power of exponential growth and why you want your numbers to get big earlier, why the No Agenda podcast is like a religion, hosting hackathons as a means of finding top-notch developers, why Justin codes better when he’s drunk, some stories about the Koz, Prolog to the rescue, Google’s new Prediction API, Jason’s idea for web-based business intelligence startup, how the government’s black budget programs are the equivalent to dark matter in the universe, the sudden disappearance of _Why the Lucky Stiff and why visual logic builders have never caught on.
Haven’t started listening but just read a bit through the net worht of presidents link. I can’t believe the journalist thinks that central banking in America has reduced panics. In fact, it has induced more panics and crashes than the sum total of all panics before in its history. I can’t believe he can write that article with a straight face.
Jason’s comments about “doing your best” and “giving 100%” remind me of what one of my soccer coaches said to me after a game. As I walked off the field he asks “did you do your best”, I answered “yes”, he asks “did you give it everything you got”, I answered “yes”. Then he proceeded to tell me that if I had truly done my best and given it everything I could – that I wouldn’t be walking off the field, I would be crawling! I think this was a little harsh for a 17 year old kid, but I have never forgotten what he said. Because it made me realize that we can hardly every really do our best or give 100%. We all have different areas in life that are important to us and if we gave 100% in just one area, it probably wouldn’t leave any time or energy for any of the others. Life is a balance… or a marathon… or something like that.
Thanks guys! *Pressing Play*
That was another fun show, thanks!
I think it works for you because (in addition to your talent and compatibility) you’re not glued to a particular topic or entity. Most podcasts have a specific agenda and after a while they get kinda boring.
It works for me also because we apparently have similar worldviews/tastes about most things and when we don’t, I learn something useful.
Marketing ideas: 1) invite more guests with a decent size following and ask if they could link back to their own episode on here. 2) get invited to other people’s podcasts (“I listen to your show and love it. I could contribute if you like”), share something their audience would likely enjoy and plug your own show in the meantime.
Btw, I agree, you should definitely get something from Appcelerator if their marketing dept is any good. 🙂
Speaking of them… Why does the IDE require a login? Is it running analytics in the background or something? Hmmmm..
As for the iPad/iPhone et al.. As an EE, I’m very curious why Apple is the only one that can make a slick, responsive, “natural” multitouch interface. iPad can’t even run Flash decently (which I imagine is the primary reason why Jobs outlawed it) so the A4 really can’t be superior to the other netbook CPUs out there.
Is it that they have exclusive access to awesome screens which noone else is able/allowed to obtain? Or do they have some really kickass firmware trickery driving the same screens everyone else buys? Boggles the mind..
Yeah, you guys are funny. It’s a good format, this kind of informal chat thing. I especially liked the bit where you addressed the comments from the previous podcast!! 🙂
Thanks for letting me know about the iPad and SVG. I had a feeling it might chug on a low power system (iPad/iPhone) but I really think web workers will help you if you are using JS (e.g. http://html5demos.com/worker). You don’t need to get complicated with it and can simply give a worker process a JS file to run and report back when it’s done. HTML5’s web workers and web sockets would really have helped if I could have used them for mclaren.com! Anyhoo, enough flogging of web workers!
I’m sure you are on this already but check out the Wired app for iPad. It’s amazing. I was following it since they released tech demo videos and concepts last year. It looks great (note: I’ve only seen the videos and do not own an iPad) and I think this is where print media finally embraces the web properly, especially because they can monetize it so much more easily. A talking point for you if you need one… 🙂
I think one of the reasons webkit has gotten so good is because of the need to run on mobile devices. Unfortunately the javascript engine, while fast, is still not quite there yet, but I have high hopes for iPhone OS 4 🙂
one more reason to believe the statements about the power of the A4: “My MacBook Pro runs JavaScript 26.7x as fast as my iPad” (http://globelogger.com/2010/04/my-macbook-pro-runs-javascript-267x-as-fast-as-my-ipad.html)
I’m not a programmer but the Mac coders I know do use Textmate, BBEdit or Coda.
But…it looks like there is a version of UltraEdit for Linux – couldn’t that be run on the Mac? http://www.ultraedit.com/products/uex.html
Love your show. I don’t know what half of it means but its a fun listen!
I enjoyed the show on my way down to the Denver tech center (long commute). I noticed the improved sound quality – it’s great that you both care very much about that. I am not sure if Jason (since you’re also a .NET dev) you have listed to DotNetRocks but their sound is also amazing – they actually each record their own track (while talking on the phone) on their PC and use some software to synch up both tracks then process it. I am not sure what the details of their setup is but they have often said they can provide the details to anyone interested.
On the subject of using Ajax Mock object, great idea. I tend to use stubs for SOAP enterprise web services to speed assembly of components across the team. I had not really considered mocking Ajax calls but that’s a great idea which I will probably apply soon. Especially when used in conjunction with FireBug!
I have always enjoyed the discussion on structured procrastination and have officially started to implement that after one of the shows on the topic. And I agree there are some benefits especially getting things done and completed.
Justin, I was wondering if you’re considering making a touch-version of Pluggio for the iPad. Even though I don’t have one it would seem cool to implement and great to use too. Maybe this could incite you in some new enhancements. Btw not sure if you have noticed that the new version of TweetDeck has scheduled tweet? I still very much prefer the way you have implemented Pluggio. I still have not leveraged all features though so I have room to grow into! I just love the product!
On the topic of SVG and VML, be cautious if you’re planning to target VML as it is very slow. At work we use an imaging product who has also a great web version and although it is rocking fast on Firefox using SVG, the performance of VML is atrocious on IE. So much that our users now only use the rich client since IE is our corporate standard (sigh!).
Although I have used the Mac in the late eighties to do Smalltalk dev for several years, I only rarely use a Mac (mini) these days just to do browser testing on Safari for our web apps. The price tag just seems too high for me plus the cost of buying the Mac equivalent of all the software I use. So I am sticking to Windows 7 which I think really rocks esp. on fast quad core boxes.
Btw have you tried Vim on OSX as an editor? I just recently started to try it a little bit after watching a recent VIMcast on using VIM from inside the Ruby IRB console. I was pretty amazed and am going to try to use it in some scenarios only. (I still like Notepad++).
And talking about Ruby and your mention about Why The Lucky Stiff (_why is his handle) I have a few comments:
– I have very much idolized _why and I think he was an amazingly talented person/developer/artist/musician/educator. You can check some of his writings on Ruby at: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/
– Note that the reason(s) for his online disappearance are actually not confirmed – there are mostly rumors
– Quite a few people (like Magnus Holm for e.g.) have stepped up to the plate to pick up the work he started on many of his projects, like Camping, hpricot, Shoes, and many others. See http://github.com/whymirror
– Most of my Ruby work is now based on Camping, a powerful yet tiny web framework _why created. The code fits in a dense 4K when packed! The expanded version is an amazing feast of meta-programming. See http://wiki.github.com/camping/camping/. I am now a small-time committer on the project and am developing plugins and extensions for it. I love Camping as it provides an MVC structure yet makes writing code fast and enjoyable.
Btw if you could connect with Magnus, @judofyr on Twitter, (in Norway) you would have an amazing show about Ruby on your hands.
I have to stop there as I could go on and on….! 🙂
About marketing TechZing, I would recommend all listeners regular tweet about the fact that they listened to a specific episode and cross link the shows to their blog posts too.
Jason don’t feel bad about commenting back, we all know how it is when you’re working away in your “cave” and can’t be disturbed. Don’t know if you’ve seen or read this brilliant essay called “The Nerd Handbook”, it’s quite brilliant and should be required reading for all those that have to live with people like us 🙂
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html
Btw I loved the COZ stories! That guy sounds like a brilliant mad-man! He could be a regular on the show 🙂
And thanks for buying an Audio Interface! 1. It does indeed show your continued commitment to the show which we all do appreciate, and 2. It was priceless to hear that it was one thing that Jason DIDN’T know! 🙂 Sounded great btw…
One thing about marketing & promotions that I’ll add to all the other great TZing commenters is that you might think about making a webpage/list/archive with all the shows that you’ve had cool guests on. Something like a “who’s who list of shows”, that could help with the link-pollination others mentioned and show some love to the guests you’ve had and give them a nice-easy way to link back to you etc.
No pressure 🙂
And thanks again…
@HabitMix That’s a great story about your soccer coach. I think I’m going to have use your coach’s line myself sometime. 😉
@Emrah I’m glad you like the fact that we don’t stay glued to a small set of topics. I realize that when we go too off-topic for too long we run the risk of alienating our core audience, but after all variety is the spice of life. 😉 Also, if we had to stick to a narrow set of topics I think I would become bored with the show myself.
@Alex Gemmell Yeah, I think “The Truth About Comments” segment worked out pretty well, even if it is a total ripoff of one of Max Kieser’s podcasts. 😉 It’s always fun to try new stuff and if it works as a way to interact with our listeners, then that’s all the better.
@Philippe Monnet Another great comment, Phillip, but it’s way more than I can address here. 😉
I agree that we should ask listeners to blog and tweet about specific episodes. That’s definitely something that Justin has been pushing more than me, but it would probably work if we continue to remind people at the end of every show.
@Ozzy (Bez) I’m glad you enjoyed the Koz stories! He is a character, so I’ll probably tell more stories about him in the future.;)
I laughingly told Sandy about your comment – “It was priceless to hear that it was one thing that Jason DIDN’T know!” because I’ve have a growing sense that I know a lot less than I should about most everything. 😉 It probably just sounds like I know what I’m talking about since I get to pick a lot of the topics. 😉 Nevertheless, your comment did make me feel good about myself for a few days. 😉
@Bill Hey, if you feel a bit lost on half the topics, don’t worry Justin feels the same way! 😉 Seriously, I have a number of VERY smart friends who listen to the show and who always say the same thing to me. 😉 But if you’re still finding it entertaining then I guess we must be doing something right. Anyway, thanks so much for the comment!
@Ozzy (Bez)
Gosh, the reference to the Nerd Handbook was priceless! 🙂
I copied it into an email and sent it to my wife. She loved it and had my son read it too! Supposedly I have a “Den-Cave”! 🙂
try using Netbeans for PHP, it’ll meet all your needs.