Chit Chat Across the Pond

In yet another delightful conversation with Adam Engst, he fires up the WABAC machine and walks us through his journey to never successfully become a programmer. Two periods in time allowed him to unleash his creativity: HyperCard in the 1980s and today with AI-assisted programming.

The basis for the conversation was his article on TidBITS titled Decades After HyperCard, AI Is Democratizing Development Again.

Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_08_27

CCATP #839 for July 23, 2026, and I'm your host, Allison Sheridan. This week our guest is Adam Engst of TidBITS. Back in April, we talked about his first long road trip with his new Hyundai IONIQ 5 electric vehicle. It's been a few months, and with the aid of some tools, he has a new strategy to talk about in planning extensive driving adventures.

How Planning Made My Second Long EV Trip Stress-Free

Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_07_23

Join the Conversation:

• [email protected]

Support the Show:

• Patreon Donation

Referral Links:

• Setapp - 1 month free for you and me

On the Mac Geek Gab, they have a listener segment they call Cool Stuff Found. But once in a while, someone writes in with Cool Stuff Made. On episode 1143, Darrin Altman wrote in about an app he wrote originally for himself but has made available in the App Store. The app is called Talk for Me from mobiletouchtech.com/.... You see, Darrin has lost his ability to speak, so his app does what it says on the tin: it talks for him. You know I just had to ask Darrin if he’d come on the show, and to my delight, when I asked him, I found out he’s a long-time listener to the NosillaCast — since 2005!

You’ll hear Darrin participating in this conversation, and the voice you hear is coming from his app Talk For Me.w

In this week's episode of "Stay off my lawn!", we have Adam Engst here to talk through his recent article on TidBITS: [Why AI Agents Fill Me with Dread](https://tidbits.com/2026/06/24/why-ai-agents-fill-me-with-dread/)

Adam is an avid lover of technology and is very willing to try new things. He uses LLMs to help him write better, he uses AI tools to help him search the Internet, and he loves AI-assisted coding. But agentic AI lives in a whole 'nother category for him.

In the discussion, Adam mentioned Lex, an AI-based word processor at lex.page/...

When you post online, and you know I'm following you, beware that if you say something interesting, you might be in danger of being asked onto one of my shows. That's what happened to blind knitter and programmer, Jane Jordan.

In our conversation, she talks about how she keeps track of her knitting patterns using an abacus and her unique process for learning how to program.

After Jane and I were done talking, I discovered that she has been listening to the NosillaCast since she got her first Mac, in June of 2005, only one month after the show got started. I thought we'd just bumped into each other on Mastodon. How crazy is that?

If you'd like to connect with Jane, you can find her on Mastodon at @[email protected].

In this week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond, we go into the dark abyss that is Adam Engst's brain and learn how that brain influences his choice of dictation engines. He then explains how he's hacked Apple's dictation into correctly spelling unusual names of places by creating fake contacts. As always it's a fun ride, and as always he has a terrific post on the subject at tidbits.com/...

Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_05_28