Command Line Heroes

Command Line Heroes episodes:

• 05.31.2022

  All Together Now

  Our show is all about heroes making great strides in technology. But in InfoSec, not every hero expects to ride off into the sunset. In our series finale, we tackle vulnerability scans, how sharing information can be a powerful tool...

  
• 05.17.2022

  Invisible Intruders

  What began as a supposed accounting error landed Cliff Stoll in the midst of database intrusions, government organizations, and the beginnings of a newer threat—cyber-espionage. This led the eclectic astronomer-cum-systems administrator to create what we know today as intrusion detection....

  
• 05.03.2022

  Ruthless Ransomers

  It’s a strange situation when someone can hold something hostage from halfway around the world. It’s tragic when your own pictures and files are remotely encrypted. But when it’s a hospital’s system? Ransomware becomes a problem about life or death....

  
• 04.19.2022

  Menace in the Middle

  All communication leaves the possibility for crossed wires. And as we become more connected, there’s a chance for those with ill intentions to steal our information and meddle in our daily lives—with devastating results. Smriti Bhatt breaks down the complexity...

  
• 04.05.2022

  Dawn of the Botnets

  Overwhelming numbers are scary—even in the best of circumstances. You can plan for them, build up your defenses, and do everything imaginable to prepare. But when that horde of zombies hits, their sheer numbers can still cause devastation. Botnets are...

  
• 03.22.2022

  Lurking Logic Bombs

  Logic bombs rarely have warning sounds. The victims mostly don’t know to expect one. And even when a logic bomb is discovered before it’s triggered, there isn’t always enough time to defuse it. But there are ways to stop them...

  
• 03.08.2022

  Terrifying Trojans

  Sometimes a fun game, a friendly email, or an innocuous link can be the most convenient place for an enemy to hide. And its prey is none the wiser—until it strikes. The trojan horse uses many layers of deception to...

  
• 02.22.2022

  Relentless Replicants

  Computer viruses and worms haunt the internet. They worm their way into a system, replicate, and spread again. It’s a simple process—with devastating consequences. But there’s a whole industry of people that rose up to fight back. Craig Schmugar recalls...

  
• 02.08.2022

  Command Line Heroes Season 9: The Horrors of Malware

  Malware haunts us all. Viruses, worms, trojan horses, and the harm they do often corrupts the promise of the internet. But the world of computing continues to grow. Though it’s changed us forever, malware hasn’t stopped us from connecting. Season...

  
• 12.14.2021

  Robot as Vehicle

  Self-driving cars are seemingly just around the corner. These robots aren’t quite ready for the streets. For every hyped-up self-driving showcase, there’s a news story about its failure. But the good news is that we get closer every year. Alex...

  
• 11.30.2021

  Robot as Threat

  When a robot goes bad, who is responsible? It’s not always clear if the user or the manufacturer is liable when a robot leaves the lot. Human behavior can be complex—and often contradictory. Asking machines to interpret that behavior is...

  
• 11.16.2021

  Humans as Robot Caretakers

  HitchBOT was an experiment in stewardship: A small, rudimentary robot unable to move on its own, depending on the kindness of passersby to help it along its journey. Until it met an untimely end. Trust is a two-way street, and...

  
• 11.02.2021

  Robot as Body

  For years, prosthetic technology focused on form over function, on masking lost limbs, rather than agency and usability. But things are changing. Innovations in robotics are giving more people more options, with lower thresholds of entry—and lower price tags, too....

  
• 10.26.2021

  From Compiler: Do We Want A World Without Technical Debt?

  Who says tech talk has to be boring? On Compiler, we dig into tech topics big, small, and strange. We talk to people who know the code, and bring their perspectives back to you. Intrigued? Here's a preview episode. Software development...

  
• 10.19.2021

  Robot as Humanoid

  It’s hard enough to make a functional, reliable robot. Many people also want to make those robots in our image. That’s a tough needle to thread. Often, the most efficient design isn’t the most human-like one. But that isn’t stopping...

  
• 10.05.2021

  Robot as Maker

  One of the first functional robots appeared on TV in 1966. That’s earlier than some of us expect. The Unimate’s televised premiere sparked the world’s imagination. It represented a host of possibilities. Those possibilities, however, also implied a coming competition...

  
• 09.21.2021

  Robot as Software

  Building a physical robot isn’t cheap—even when it’s the final version. Designing a robot and testing it over and over again? That takes a lot of tries. And likely more than a few failures on the way to success. Luckily,...

  
• 09.07.2021

  Robot as Servant

  The 1980s promised robotic servants were in reach. They’d clean up our houses. Bring us drinks. Usher in an era of leisure. We didn’t get robot butlers. But if we look around, we’ll find an army of robotic servants already...

  
• 08.24.2021

  Command Line Heroes Season 8: Broadcasting the Robot Revolution

  Robots have a special place in our imaginations. Writers, artists, directors, and more have shown how robots can change our world—for better or far, far worse. In the real world, robots seem a long way off. But are they? Season...

  
• 06.29.2021

  After the Bubble

  The Y2K bug generated a lot of fear, but all that hype fizzled when the new millennium didn’t start with a digital apocalypse. It turns out that fear was just aimed at the wrong catastrophe. While plenty were riding high...

  
• 06.15.2021

  The World of the World Wide Web

  1995 laid the groundwork for a truly global World Wide Web. But not every country took the same path to connecting to the internet. Some resisted, wanting to create their own version. Others had to fight for access, not wanting...

  
• 06.01.2021

  Looking for Search

  The web was growing quickly in the ‘90s. But all that growth wasn’t going to lead to much if people couldn’t actually find any web sites. In 1995, an innovative new tool started crawling the web. And the search engine...

  
• 05.18.2021

  Shopping for the Web

  We put a lot of trust into online shopping: sharing our names, addresses, and handing over money. In return, we have faith that the purchased item appears at our doorstep in a few days or weeks. That trust didn’t come...

  
• 05.04.2021

  Web UX Begins

  Looking at the internet in 1995 is like looking back at awkward grade school yearbooks—all the weirdness and flaws stand out in stark contrast to what it’s grown into since. And web design took awhile to become a career—but it...

  
• 04.20.2021

  A Language for the Web

  The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) gave everyone a foundation for building and viewing the World Wide Web. In 1995, its standardization led to dominance. Its simplicity helped it spread. And its solid common foundation helped shape the internet. Dr. Belinda...

  
• 04.06.2021

  From NSF to ISP

  1995 was the year that ISPs became the dominant gateway to the information superhighway. But how’d we go from ARPANET all the way to that? It turns out, none of it would have happened without a team of intrepid engineers...

  
• 03.23.2021

  Connecting the Dot-Com

  The year is 1995. The internet starts going mainstream and the dot-com bubble begins its rapid inflation. But 10 years before all of this, a small team of systems administrators made a seemingly simple decision that would turn out to...

  
• 03.09.2021

  Command Line Heroes Season 7: Internet Class of '95

  The internet’s been around for awhile now. And it’s safe to say that it’s changed much of our daily lives. But not so long ago, there were few people who realized how transformative the internet would become. Season 7 of...

  
• 01.19.2021

  Arlan Hamilton: The Investor Who's Opening Doors

  If you think hard work is enough to guarantee success, you haven’t been listening. All season long, we’ve profiled Black inventors who haven’t quite been given their due. Arlan Hamilton is helping reverse that trend by leveling the playing field—and...

  
• 01.05.2021

  Gladys Perkins: The Pioneer Who Took Us To New Heights

  Is the moon made of cheese? Of course not. But can a person walk on the surface? Not too long ago, we couldn’t answer that question. But with the help of Gladys Perkins, we soon figured out that we could...

  
• 12.22.2020

  Roy Clay: The Entrepreneur Who Transformed an Industry

  Roy Clay had to chase after opportunities. But landing a promising position wasn’t the finish line. Roy Clay pushed those opportunities beyond their mandate, transforming an industry in the process. Kathy Cotton recounts how few opportunities Roy Clay had growing up—but...

  
• 12.08.2020

  Dr. Clarence Ellis: The Developer Who Helped Us Collaborate

  It’s not easy to learn how to use computers when you can’t actually touch them. But that’s how Dr. Clarence Ellis started his career of invention—which would ultimately lead to reimagining how we all worked with computers and each other....

  
• 11.24.2020

  Dr. Marc Hannah: The Computer Scientist Who Brought Worlds to Life

  Sometimes an inventor designs a device for a specific purpose. Sometimes it’s to try something new. But successful inventions often shape industries beyond those they initially intended. Dr. Marc Hannah built an invention with far bigger effects than anyone could...

  
• 11.10.2020

  Mark Dean: The Inventor Who Made the Computer Personal

  Dr. Mark Dean has a superpower. He wasn’t born with it. He wasn’t exposed to high levels of radiation. It’s a power he learned from his father. And because of it, he was able to revolutionize the personal computer. David...

  
• 10.27.2020

  Dr. Gladys West: The Mathematician Who Reshaped Our World

  Aristotle and Eratosthenes are big names in geodesy. They got pretty close to measuring the size of the Earth. But the woman who got it done? She grew up a farmer, dreaming of something bigger. And her work changed how...

  
• 10.13.2020

  Jerry Lawson: The Engineer Who Changed the Game

  Many of us grew up playing cartridge-based games. But there's few who know the story behind how those cartridges came to be. And even fewer who know the story of the man behind them: Jerry Lawson. Few people realized how...

  
• 09.29.2020

  Command Line Heroes: Meet the Inventors

  Inventors don’t always get the credit they deserve, even for world-changing breakthroughs. Season 6 of Command Line Heroes tells the stories of ingenious inventors who haven’t been given their full due. These heroes did nothing less than create new...

  
• 08.11.2020

  What Kind Of Coder Will You Become?

  The 10x Coder is often positioned as a mythical developer who can always save the day. Saron and Clive investigate how much of that myth is grounded in truth. Greg Sadetsky argues that coding is much like professional sports—some...

  
• 07.28.2020

  Where Coders Code

  Home office. Corporate park. Co-working space. Funland campus. Coders expect options when it comes to their workplace. The relocation of the average workspace from the office to the home has revealed the benefits of working from home—but also highlighted its...

  
• 07.14.2020

  Becoming a Coder

  Command line heroes are software engineers, developers, programmers, systems administrators—coders. That variety in coding careers is almost as varied as the paths coders take to land their jobs. Saron Yitbarek and Clive Thompson start the season by exploring some ways...

  
• 06.30.2020

  Introducing Season 5 of Command Line Heroes

  After four seasons of epic tales about how command line heroes have shaped the tech landscape, we're tackling a new topic: the job itself. Season 5 covers the job of being a coder. How coding careers begin. How the job...

  
• 05.04.2020

  One More Thing with Steve Wozniak

  Steve Wozniak (aka Woz) has had a tremendous effect on the world of hardware. Season 4 features many of the devices he’s designed, built, worked on, and been inspired by. But for Woz, what’s most important isn’t necessarily the devices...

  
• 04.21.2020

  Consoles: The Dreamcast's Life After Death

  Gaming consoles are pioneering machines. The Dreamcast pushed the limits of what even consoles could do. But that wasn’t enough to guarantee commercial success. Despite that failure, fans say no other console has accomplished so much. The Dreamcast was meant...

  
• 04.07.2020

  Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite

  People never stop tinkering. Hardware hacking didn’t disappear after personal computers became mainstream. But it did change. A new generation of artists, designers, and activists are banding together to change the world—with open source hardware. Hardware hacking used to be...

  
• 03.24.2020

  Smarter Phones: Journey to the Palm-Sized Computer

  Few could imagine what a handheld computer would look like—or even do. But a trio of visionaries saw where computing was headed. To succeed in this new frontier, though, they would need to create everything from scratch, and throw out...

  
• 03.17.2020

  BONUS: Floppies

  Moving from punch cards and paper tape to floppies wasn’t straightforward. Hear the story of An Wang, who pushed computer storage technology forward.

  
• 03.10.2020

  Floppies: The Disks that Changed the World

  The floppy disk was one of the greatest breakthroughs in computing. It helped spin up the software industry with a format that endured for decades. And in some cases, it’s conserved treasures once thought to be lost forever. Before floppy...

  
• 03.03.2020

  BONUS: Personal Computers

  Forrest Mims had a lot to say about Ed Roberts. Hear more stories about Ed's meeting with Paul Allen and Bill Gates, and the partnership they started.

  
• 02.25.2020

  Personal Computers: The Altair 8800 and the Dawn of a Revolution

  The Altair 8800 is why we have computers in most homes today. It was initially designed for hobbyists. But a few visionaries saw massive potential in this strange little machine—and worked hard to make others see it too. What they...

  
• 02.18.2020

  BONUS: Mainframes

  In the 1960s, Dartmouth saw the GE 225 as a massive opportunity for its students. Hear how a few faculty members and students made the mainframe widely accessible.