Compiler

Memes are goofy. They’re easily recognizable. And they’re often used to make a point. So it’s no wonder that people on both sides of the InfoSec community are not only familiar with memes, but often use them in their endless games of cat and mouse. Consequently, memes are often a sign of a breach of security. Because there’s little as satisfying as leaving a meme as proof of your security prowess. 

On this episode of Compiler, we hear from a couple of Red Hatters who rose to an unusual security challenge. And while intentions were good, the memes could have easily been something much more nefarious.
 

Valentine’s Day is a time for roses, candy, wine, and time with that special someone. And more than ever, people are meeting their romantic partners through dating apps and websites. These apps have different features, and can vary in user experience. What technology can meet the unique demands of those looking for love across cultures, time zones, and even across oceans?

In this episode of Compiler, our team goes on a date with Kubernetes to discover how container orchestration speaks to the needs of a constantly-growing user base. From thoughts on scalability, on through to testing and deployment, we hear from those who swipe right on Kubernetes.

In tech, there's a lot of pressure to keep things running smoothly. That makes even a small mistake or a brief outage seem disastrous. When people fail at something, they can experience many different emotions: Anger, regret, or even fear. In this episode of Compiler, Jen Krieger and 2019 TED Fellow Dr. Erika Hamden join us to discuss how we should handle failure, and how teams and individuals can benefit from processing it safely and effectively. 

Compiler is all about asking questions. And we've got some for you—our audience. Help us compile your thoughts about the show by filling out our survey at compilerpodcast.com/survey.

Since the debut of Compiler, our team has posed a few interesting questions, and the answers have gotten people talking. Do the words ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ mean the same thing? How can technical debt become more complex, outside of team areas of responsibility? 

We revisit some of our past topics on the show and let others weigh in on what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what we may have missed on the first pass. 

Want to learn more about Jeff Walter’s work? Pay a virtual visit the Atmospheric Data Science Center or earthdata.nasa.gov.

Working on a popular open source project can be demanding. Just ask the maintainers on GitHub’s ReadME podcast. In a special episode of Compiler, we teamed up with ReadME’s Brian Douglas to learn more about the challenges open source maintainers face—and investigate why burnout seems to be so prevalent in the industry. 

Burnout’s always going to be a problem. But we can still try to avoid it. To do so, we wanted to understand the recipe for burnout: what factors could we identify that seem to bring it about? This episode’s guests share their own experiences and bring the weight of academic research to uncover the reasons too many of our beloved maintainers burn out.

Start-ups. Newly affluent neighborhoods. Overpriced coffee shops. Tech hubs evoke a lot of imagery, opinions, and emotions. Traditionally, if someone wanted a career in tech, they had to make the move to one of these cities. The influx of new people and new ideas into a city can cause shifts in discourse, culture, and power. After all, technology can transform people, and it can transform places, too. 

But things are starting to change. In this episode of Compiler, we unwrap what has made tech hubs into spaces of collaboration and creativity, and how that energy can alter cities over time. Lastly, we speak to a few of the change-makers who are thinking outside of the physical and social dimensions we’ve come to associate with innovation.

We’ve all encountered technical documentation: Readmes, product manuals, and how-to guides, to name a few. Some are good, some are not so good, and some are less than helpful. Open source communities often need more people to write and update their projects’ documentation—but it’s not an easy task. So why not help out?

In this episode of Compiler, we find out why everyone should write at least a little bit of technical documentation. We speak to people who contributed to documentation to help, to learn, and even to start their careers in open source.

If you want to get involved with Fedora—technical writing included—check out whatcanidoforfedora.org.

New tech graduates enter the workforce every year. What generational differences and unique challenges will these younger professionals face? Mentorship is essential to make the transition into enterprise IT, regardless of where a person worked before. But it’s not always clear what mentees need, or what would be most beneficial for them. 

In this episode of Compiler, we speak to people about what makes a good mentor, how learning can go both ways, and what is most meaningful in mentoring relationships.

It’s a good idea to understand the open source licenses governing the projects you use. Luckily, it’s less daunting than you may think. We start with the very basics of copyright and move to open source and the difference between permissive and copyleft licenses—and how they govern the world of open source software. 

But we learn how these distinctions may not be as relevant as they once were. The landscape of tech is changing. Developer culture isn’t what it used to be—and neither is how we consume software. On this episode of Compiler, we ask: Do we still need strong copyleft licenses?

We all know not to walk under a ladder. Or break a mirror. Or do anything that may incur the wrath of the paranormal. Superstitions linger, even in places you may not expect. The devices, software, and general technology we use every day spring from the progression of science. But that doesn’t stop us from coming up with new superstitions. 

From blowing into cartridges to waving cell phones in the air, we’ve come up with some fixes that technically don’t make a lot of sense. This week on Compiler, we ask a few people from tech support whether superstitions have a useful role in solving our technical difficulties.