Oxide and Friends

Shriram Krishnamurthi, a Brown CS professor who designs programming courses, and Kathi Fisler, a Brown CS educator focused on curriculum, discuss an experimental intro course using agentic programming. They cover why to redesign CS now, crafting assignments that reveal LLM brittleness, Tetris as a reveal of strengths and flaws, testing at scale, types and peer crits, and curricular models for teaching trustworthy AI practices.

Brooks Willis, mechanical engineer focused on manufacturability and reducing PEMs. Ben Williams, specialist in converting 3D prints to injection-molded, high-volume plastics. Elliott Donlon, precision-minded engineer from ag/aerospace working on tolerances and reliability. Doug Wibben, early rack designer who hardened manufacturing and safety. They discuss tolerance simplification, PEM reduction, molding vs 3D printing, cabling safety fixes, and supplier collaboration.

Greg (gregorein), a Polish software engineer and critic of AI-generated code, walks through his audit of a high-profile AI-built site. He explains the HAR findings, the viral fallout, and how he used Claude to automate part of the review. The conversation explores where LLMs should be used, the risks of measuring output by LOC, and why human review and minimal elegant solutions still matter.

Finch Foner, cryptography and distributed-systems engineer who implemented sans-IO protocol core and ZFS plumbing. Andrew Stone, systems engineer who led Trust Quorum design and Shamir-based key management. They talk about building a rack root of trust, choosing TLS over SPDM, Shamir secret sharing for disk keys, bootstrap vs full quorum designs, simulator-driven testing, and atomic ZFS key rotation.

Robert "RFK" Keith, Oxide hardware engineer who performed lab surgery and physical debugging. Nathanael Huffman, power and quality engineer who analyzed 12V/IBC behavior. They recount chasing elusive hardware resets, capturing 12V droops with scopes, instrumenting hot‑plug controllers, and working with the IBC maker to reprogram undervoltage logic. Fast-paced troubleshooting, manufacturing tests, and fleet mitigations.

Steve Tuck, Oxide CEO overseeing strategy and fundraising, walks through the $200M Series C raise and why it landed so quickly after the B. Short takes cover the tranche structure, timing (closed on Christmas Eve), investor demand, board dynamics, and how the capital will fund supply chain, manufacturing, Cosmo hardware, and global scaling.

Evan Ratliff, journalist and podcaster who built Harumo AI, discusses running a company staffed by agentic AIs. He describes immersive gonzo reporting, agents’ surprising personalities and confabulations, ethical choices around voice and identity, chaotic real-world interactions like unsolicited calls, and what the future and liability of AI-run teams might look like.

Grady Booch, software engineering pioneer and cofounder of Rational Software, shares stories from building early computers to shaping object-oriented design. He walks through SAGE, the software crisis, UML, and how packages, frameworks, and LLMs reshape engineering. Conversation touches on durable versus disposable software, the limits of LLMs, and timeless skills like abstraction, coupling, cohesion, and judgment.

Rain Paharia, a software engineer known for his Rust libraries, and David Crespo, an experienced web developer and LLM enthusiast, join the discussion on the evolving landscape of software engineering. They tackle how LLMs can enhance engineering rigor rather than diminish the role of coders. Topics include leveraging LLMs for efficient API testing, automating code reviews, and uncovering real bugs in unfamiliar codebases. The duo emphasizes the importance of strong type systems and documentation practices to maintain code quality in this tech-driven era.

In this engaging discussion, Simon Willison, a web developer known for his advocacy of open-source and AI, predicts that skepticism about AI-generated code will rapidly fade. Steve Klabnik, a seasoned software developer, foresees the ongoing challenges of orchestrating multiple AI agents. Ian Grunert offers insights on consumer trends in devices, including rising demand for Waymo and cautious expectations for new AI products. They all explore the potential impact of AI on society and how it may reshape various industries by 2026.