Casual Chat

Casual Chat

By Andrew Liu & Hongbo TianTechnology
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Casual Chat episodes

  • #11: Apple and Intel's Nasty Breakup

    Andrew (@liuandrewk) and Hong (@c0fpv) chat about Apple's departure from Intel CPUs and Intel's attempts to get back into the limelight. The conversation then delves into a tangent about upgrading to Windows 11.

    Links:

    • Intel's anti-Apple ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp0xzapm-zY
    • Intel's CEO wants to win Apple back: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-ceo-my-job-is-to-win-apple-back-205012699.html
    • Window's 11 system requirements: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications

      • Follow us on Twitter:

      • Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat
      • Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk
      • Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv
        • 19 min
      • #10: A Disastrous Week for Facebook

        Facebook's been having a rough week. On October 4, 2021, there was a complete outage of all Facebook-owned systems, including Instagram and WhatsApp. The next day, a whistleblower testifies before congress about how Facebook prioritizes profits over public safety, implying that the company may have been complicit with the storming of the Capitol Building earlier in the year. Andrew (@liuandrewk) and Hong (@c0fpv) opine about the whole debacle and discuss whether this news is evening surprising in the first place...

        Links:

        • ARM China splits from ARM UK: https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/the-semiconductor-heist-of-the-century
        • ProtonMail amends its policy after giving up data to the feds: https://www.wired.com/story/protonmail-amends-policy-after-giving-up-activists-data/
        • Prior research shows that Instagram is in fact unhealthy for adolescents: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739
        • The whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before congress: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043377310/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-congress
        • Facebook engineering's official blog post on how the site-wide outage occurred: https://engineering.fb.com/2021/10/05/networking-traffic/outage-details/
        • Mark Zuckerberg's response to the whole debacle: https://www.facebook.com/4/posts/10113961365418581/?d=n

          • Follow us on Twitter:

          • Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat
          • Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk
          • Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv



            • 35 min
          • #9: A Tale of Two Betrayals - ARM China goes Rogue, ProtonMail sells out activist's data

            The company behind ARM processors is currently in disarray. The business has split up into two independent companies, and their CEO is holed up in China. Andrew (@liuandrewk) and Hong (@c0fpv) go over the hilarious story that caused the company to be in these circumstances. Later, they discuss how ProtonMail (the so-called "privacy" email provider) has given out user data, and what it means to have a realistic view of privacy.

            Links:

            • ARM China splits from ARM UK: https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/the-semiconductor-heist-of-the-century
            • ProtonMail amends its policy after giving up data to the feds: https://www.wired.com/story/protonmail-amends-policy-after-giving-up-activists-data/

              • Follow us on Twitter:

              • Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat
              • Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk
              • Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv
                • 39 min
              • #8: How to Make Software Engineers Obsolete

                Github has released a new editor tool called Copilot. It claims to be able to generate code for entire functions. Andrew (@liuandrewk) and Hong (@c0fpv) explore whether Copilot will live up to the hype and the future of licensing issues around training machine learning models off of source code.

                Links:

                • GitHub Copilot's Official Website: https://copilot.github.com/
                • Licensing Concerns with Copilot: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk/status/1412818109329707011

                  • Follow us on Twitter:

                  • Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat
                  • Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk
                  • Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv
                    • 24 min
                  • #7: A Case of (Self-driving) Road Rage

                    In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk) and Hong (@c0fpv) debate the safety of self-driving cars after a Waymo car hits a pedestrian in SF. Later, they dive into Tesla's decision to rely solely on camera vision for its autopilot system and discuss whether that's a wise choice.

                    ~~~

                    Links:

                    * Waymo car teaches innocent pedestrian a lesson: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj83vw/futuristic-self-driving-car-hits-person-the-old-fashioned-way

                    * Tesla stops using radar for autopilot: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-drops-radar-is-autopilot-system-safe-2021-06-02/

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    23 min
                  • #6: Big Tech's Race to Control Podcasting

                    In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk) discusses Spotify's acquisition of various podcasting startups and shares his predictions of the industry with Hong (@c0fpv). Hong shares his experiences as an indie creator, and the chatters compare the strategies of Spotify, Apple, and YouTube in the race to lure creators.

                    Links:

                    * Spotify acquires Podz: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/17/spotify-acquires-podz-a-podcast-discovery-app/

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    20 min
                  • #5: Major Upcoming Innovations to CPUs

                    In this episode, Hongbo (@c0fpv) tells Andrew (@liuandrewk) about a few novel innovations that will change the way CPUs get designed. The discussion slowly converges towards a lesson in hardware fundamentals.

                    ~~~

                    Links:

                    * AMD develops stacked v-cache technology: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16725/amd-demonstrates-stacked-vcache-technology-2-tbsec-for-15-gaming

                    * Google uses machine learning for TPU floor-planning: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527476/google-machine-learning-chip-design-tpu-floorplanning

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    20 min
                  • #4: The Wonderful World of FPV Drones

                    You might have heard of drone flying, but there's an entire subculture of drone pilots who pilot via a first-person view of the drone. In this episode, Hong (@c0fpv) tries to indoctrinate Andrew (@liuandrewk) into trying out FPV drones and explains what makes the hobby so special.

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    23 min
                  • #3: Should the British Monarchy Still Exist?

                    In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk) questions the modern purpose of the British monarchy and whether it's worth the taxpayers' hard-earned money. Hong (@c0fpv) happens to be British and shares his view on the queen and British traditions.

                    ~~~

                    Links:

                    * Russell Brand's reaction video to the Meghan & Harry Interview: https://youtu.be/OyREzWcCPDo

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    10 min
                  • #2: Buying a GPU in a Global Chip Shortage

                    In this episode, Hongbo (@c0fpv) spends 10 minutes complaining to Andrew (@liuandrewk) about the global chip shortage and why it's so hard to buy a GPU right now.

                    ~~~

                    Follow us on Twitter:

                    * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat

                    * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk

                    * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv

                    9 min

                  About Casual Chat

                  From the publisher's feed

                  Find it frustrating to keep up with tech? Every episode, Casual Chat breaks down recent developments in tech such that casual listeners (i.e. you) can understand their implications (while being…