Zombie Coder | Podcast on RSS.com

Zombie Coder

by The Undead Programmer

Season 2

Code Philosophy: Why Worse is Better (Ep. 15)

The Zombie Coder is back for a new season! Today’s episode focuses on one of the Zombie’s key coding philosophies: Worse is Better. Learn about the history of the phrase and join the “Cult of Done” if you dare. Key Resources for today: Why Perfectionism and Burnout Go Hand in Hand – A lifehacker article addressing the evils of perfectionism Worse Is Better – Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror discussing worse is better with some examples The Cult of Done Manifesto – Read the Manifesto and consider adopting it in one or more areas The Unix Hater’s Handbook – A PDF of the Unix Hater’s Handbook Credits: Audionautix – Intro music

Season 1

CS Topics: Welcome to Hash World (Ep. 13)

In this episode, I conclude a series on Merkle Trees – or, the key technology and ideas behind distributed systems. I hope this episode captures your imagination to the potential applications of the distributed web. Resources and Links: https://www.codementor.io/blog/merkle-trees-5h9arzd3n8 – Codementor article on merkle trees. This covers most of the material I discuss in this episode. https://ipfs.io/ – IPFS project homepage https://odysee.com/ – Odysee Video sharing service operating off of the Hash World Credits: https://audionautix.com/ – Music

Avoiding Death March Projects

What is a death march project? Recognizing Death March projects is easier than you might expect, and avoiding them means simply setting your own boundaries. Death March [Amazon]: The “standard” book describing death march projects. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/changing-death-march-project-parade-6066: Paper describing death march projects https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15782200/one-device-secret-history-iphone-brian-merchant-book-excerpt: Article on the history of the iPhone https://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html: Livejournal post that sparked substantial discussion and reforms in the video game industry https://dzone.com/articles/scrum-is-the-new-death-march: Description of scrum death marches “21 signs of a bad manager”: Article on signs of a bad manager Inc.com: Importance of work-life boundaries TheMuse.com: Article on setting work-life boundaries Business.com: Article on setting work-life boundaries And remember: Don’t work for Sh*tBags!

CS Topics: Rand and Xor Magic

In this week’s episode, we dive a bit deeper into the underlying theory behind how random numbers and the importance behind the XOR operator when creating hashes. This episode does depend on pre-existing knowledge of basic boolean operators. If you aren’t familiar check out this page. GNU C Sources: Look for the linear congruential method in __random_r Sha1 Js Implementation: A well explained implementation of SHA-1 algorithm Md5 Algorithm Wikipedia Page: There’s pseudo code to try implementing in your favorite language. https://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ – Get random numbers from Radioactive decay Credits: https://audionautix.com/ – Music

Nix News: Embedded Linux Update

Today I’ll cover my major take-homes from a couple embedded Linux conferences that I (virtually) attended. Subjects: Let’s be positive All about embedded linux Be prepared: Containers are coming! (Someone please make docker-lite for embedded!) Risc V is up and coming real soon now Learn VSCode if you want a common IDE experience Diversity thoughts – there’s a person behind the email Open Source maintainers ask for our patience Check out Virtual Conferences in 2020 Resources: https://www.raspbian.org/ – The Raspbian Linux Distribution https://www.yoctoproject.org/ – The Yocto Linux Project https://www.docker.com/ – Yep, it’s coming to the embedded world. Time to learn it. https://theia-ide.org/ – An alternative that’s compatible to VSCode https://vscodium.com/ – VSCode without Microsoft’s proprietary brew https://open-vsx.org/ – Alternative extension store for Theia or VSCodium Special Thanks to: https://audionautix.com/ – Rockin’ zombie track

Hope for the Camel’s Second Hump

Today I offer some advice for those currently staring down the barrel of failing midterm grades for CS and Engineering students. The Camel Doesn’t Have Two Humps – Commentary on the retraction of the oft-mentioned article on Computer Science being bi-modal. Reforming Mathematics – A detailed paper on Mathematics pedagogy, including coverage on educational theory and peer reviewed studies. DOJ vs Google – Washington Post story on the DOJ vs Microsoft Edge For Linux – Edge for Linux announcement and information

CS Topics: Hash Functions

Today we cover one of the primary building blocks for blockchain – Hash Functions. References: Introduction to Algorithms 3rd Ed. (CLRS) pg. 262 FNV Algorithm Wikipedia SHA-2 Page

Episode 7 – XLS, XLSX What is Difference?

Today I cover a small “oops” from the UK health center, and extend some thoughts on its relationship to “Real Programming”.

Episode 6 – Sanity while remote for coders

How I’m trying to keep sane while working remote. Some basic guidelines I’ve adopted over years of remote work.

Episode 5 – Ethics of Software Programmers

Today I discuss the implications of ethics in software development. We’ll take a look at some of my personal experience, and 2 new Netflix documentaries: The Social Dilemma, and Challenger: The Final Flight. IBM and the Nazis – HBR podcast on IBM and the Holocaust Twitter apologizes for racist algorithm – Controversy on twitter algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster – Challenger Disaster Clean Coder – code of conduct for software engineers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Dilemma – Social Dilemma Movie Facebook ethics considerations – coverage of Facebook performing user sentiment analysis

1 of 2