Accidental Tech Podcast

Follow-up on vocabulary and Michael Abrash joining Oculus. Amazon Fire TV — no fan! USB-IF's renderings of their proposed new connector The giant anti-poaching collusion between Google, Apple, and dozens of other companies (Facebook apparently refused) Google checking with Steve Jobs first before making a hiring decision After-show: We tried to predict WWDC dates, not knowing that Apple would announce them 12 hours later, then discussed ticket lotteries and how Apple probably wouldn't build one. (Yeah.) Sponsored by: Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired eyewear at a revolutionary price. Pixelmator: Full-featured image editing app for the Mac. 2Checkout: Control your checkout experience from pixel to payout with our Payment API. Visit for your free sandbox account.

Follow-up on discussing sexism in technology, Anil's experiment, empathy, ad hominem tu quoque, and cultural rigidity. Facebook buying Oculus: Outrage from Oculus' Kickstarter backers, including from Minecraft creator Notch, and the expectations that Kickstarter creates in "backers". Why did Oculus sell? How far into the future did Oculus' "vision" extend, and what will happen to its vision now? Why did Facebook buy? Does Mark Zuckerberg have a clear vision for Facebook's future? Facebook's Hack language extension to PHP: PHP is poorly designed but very practical. The risks of using Hack (Marco's two posts). Sponsored by: HelpSpot: Simple, powerful, customizable help-desk software with no monthly fees. Use code ATP14 for $100 off. Igloo: Igloo is an intranet you'll actually like. (Nobody likes SharePoint.) Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired eyewear at a revolutionary price.

Follow-up on the complexity of computer science versus other fields: quotes and videos from MIT's SICP class (9:00–10:45). The death of the iPad 2, the use of sapphire in Apple devices, sapphire versus Gorilla Glass, and the flexible LG phone. Haunted Empire, the Jony Ive book, the Jony Ive interview, access to Apple, and hiring hacks for tech stories. Sony's Project Morpheus VR headset and initial impressions The Oculus Rift Michael Abrash's blog posts: Two Possible Paths into the Future of Wearable Computing Part 1 When it comes to resolution, it's all relative Latency – the sine qua non of AR and VR Raster-Scan Displays: More Than Meets the Eye Game Developers Conference and space-time diagrams Why virtual isn't real to your brain Down the VR rabbit hole: Fixing judder John Carmack and his latency mitigation strategies Casey's birthday party as a child Why Oculus hopes Project Morpheus is good The GitHub hubbub, sexism, and how to get better (such as App Camp for Girls). Sponsored by: RemObjects C#: Write native iOS and Android apps using the C# language that you already know. TextExpander: Stop wasting time typing the same things over and over again. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CRITICAL for 10% off.

Follow-up on software complexity: The Mythical Man-Month, No Silver Bullet, the original Agile manifesto, and what Agile has become. What we found most useful from our computer-science educations. Marco's impressions of his new Mac Pro. External disks, PCI-Express SSDs, and cable management. John buys a home-theater AV receiver. (The newer version he didn't need) Stereo vs. surround speakers, and integrated vs. external subwoofers. (Marco's tiny, buggy amp and great speakers). After-show: Pono, ABX tests, mp3ornot. Sponsored by: Transporter: A private cloud storage drive that you own and control. Use code ATP for 10% off any Transporter. Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CRITICAL for 10% off.

Follow-up on Final Draft and treating warnings as exceptions in production. Software methodologies. For real this time. Why don’t software development methodologies work? Evidence-based scheduling. Marco plugs FCModel, Casey plugs his Debug appearance, and John plugs bleeps and boops. After-show: CarPlay, and £1,600 audiophile Ethernet cables (via Dalton). Sponsored by: In Flux: A new music album that explores the interplay between video games, music, and nostalgia. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CRITICAL for 10% off. Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use.

Wolfram Language. The "goto fail" SSL bug and the chances that it was nefariously introduced by an NSA effort, possibly as part of their $250 million annual budget for such operations. Apple's warrant canary. Casey's and Marco's hard-to-find bugs and language misfeatures. (Perl protects John from writing bugs.) Whether language-interpreter warnings should be treated as errors in production. The Scriptnotes episode with the Final Draft CEO, the follow-up in the next episode, and Kent Tessman's response. After-show: Google lobbying against Glass bans while driving, and Objective-C exception conventions. Next week will be the Software Methodologies show. For real this time! Sponsored by: Picturelife: The one app your photos need. Back up, search, edit, and share on Mac and iOS. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CASEY for 10% off. HelpSpot: Simple, powerful, customizable help-desk software with no monthly fees. Use code ATP14 for $100 off.

Follow-up on why Flappy Bird was successful. Kieran Healy's excellent article with science. John Gruber and Merlin Mann at SXSW '09. Goofball Jones' anonymous criticism of John's "shtick", and John's defense including many links: An explanation of John's "schtick" Some podcasts where John talks about things he likes: Goodfellas I Like My Coffee Like My Evil Sith Lords Death Star University Darth Vader's Office is Really Weird Jedi Weekend Wind is the Enemy Skywalker's Eleven Also Known as Endor Journey: Then We Touched, Then We Sang Professor Siracusa's Anime 101 Hangin' With the Totes Masterpiece: Ico The Incomparable #100: Who Cares What We Think? - Why we do podcasts about what we think of things, good and bad. An ATP episode about how we deal with criticism The massive WhatsApp acquistion by Facebook, the huge value of mobile messaging, and the web giants' chilling effect on competition. The "Copland 2010" argument that Objective-C needs to be replaced: John's original "Copland 2010" article from 2005 Copland 2010 Revisited (in 2010) We Need to Replace Objective-C (Ash Furrow) Replacing Objective-C and Cocoa (Steve Streza) Objective: Copland 2010 (Guy English) Separating language shortcomings from API shortcomings. Casey got us to talk about LINQ briefly. Long-term evolution of programming languages. Sponsored by: Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use. lynda.com: Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials. Free 7-day trial. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CASEY for 10% off.

Facebook Paper's gesture usability, in-app tutorial videos, and the design challenge of gestural interface. RootMetrics testing real-world wireless speeds. Despite constant effort to improve usability, what if computers just aren't for everyone? (There's a similar long-standing debate with programming. See 4GL.) The Flappy Bird saga: Whether it's a good game and why the developer pulled it. (See also: Super Hexagon.) Is free-with-in-app-purchase ruining the game industry?. Comcast buying Time Warner and the implications on U.S. broadband competition. The stupid new top-level domains (TLDs). iBeacons and Bluetooth LE in stores and .museums. After-show: Bionic on new TLDs (at 26:50) and whether the TLDs are just a scam by ICANN, Patreon, and yet more on the Mac Pro. Sponsored by: Hover: High-quality, no-hassle domain registration. Use promo code WHOTHEHELLISCASEY for 10% off. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CASEY for 10% off. Transporter: A private cloud storage drive that you own and control. Use code ATP for 10% off any Transporter, or ATPSHARE to get the Transporter Sync for just $75.

The FiOS net-neutrality non-story and last summer's YouTube-throttling story. More FU on iPads going pro, giant-tablet-desk ergonomics, trying to understand John's theory again, and a train analogy from Casey. New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Bill Gates' new wildcard role, and Microsoft's likely future direction. (Marco's post, John Gruber's post, Brent Simmons' post) Paper, Paper, Paper, Fifty Three, and Figure 53. Responsibly naming things by first searching for trademark conflicts and potentially applying for your own trademark. Apple's role in App Store name conflicts. Facebook Paper's opportunity cost to the world. After-show: More on Microsoft and some Retina MacBook Air speculation. Sponsored by: Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code CASEY for 10% off. Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use. lynda.com: Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials. Free 7-day trial.

Follow-up on why an iPad "Pro" needs to be larger and why iOS is "better for people". Can iOS add more power-user functionality without harming its simplicity or usability? Whether Macs should ship with ARM CPUs, how such a transition would be challenging today, and whether Casey should just buy another power adapter. The 30th anniversary of the Macintosh and the experience of using its power switch (photo from iFixit's awesome teardown). Disk-ejecting usability. Using iStat Menus to monitor your performance and assist future hardware decisions. (Or not.) Lenovo buying Motorola's pillaged carcass from Google, and whether they ruined the IBM ThinkPad. After-show: What will we reflect on in 20 years as being the obvious sore spot with computers today? Sponsored by: HelpSpot: Simple, powerful, customizable help-desk software with no monthly fees. Use code ATP14 for $100 off. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code MARCO for 10% off. Cards Against Humanity: A free party game for horrible people.