Kopec Explains Software

The open source movement has completely changed the software industry. In this episode we explain what it means for software to be open source. We dive into the origins of the movement, its split from the free software movement, and some of its key players. We explain the four freedoms, the legal model behind open source licenses, and some of the ethics. Most importantly, we explain the benefits of open source software, and why it has become so ubiquitous. At the end we dive into other areas of the world where the open source model is being introduced.

Follow us on Twitter @KopecExplains.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

Programming languages are what we use to communicate ideas in computing. Software is written in a programming language and most people have a vague sense of what a programming language looks like. In this episode we explain a programming language’s purpose and we categorize programming languages into various paradigms. We discuss some of the characteristics that make one programming language distinctive from another. At the end we dispense some advice for those interested in learning their first programming language.

Follow us on Twitter @KopecExplains.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

Emulators allow software designed for one computing system to run on another. They act as a kind of translation layer, simulating the hardware of the emulated system in software. Common applications include running software designed for video game systems on personal computers, and running business applications designed for a computing platform that the user doesn’t own. We discuss what emulators do, how they work, and some of the legal issues around them in this episode.

Follow us on Twitter @KopecExplains.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

We discuss what it takes to make a mobile app. What are the primary different kinds of jobs that people who work on apps have? What are the phases of the development cycle to go from idea to release? How hard is it to make an app?

We left our talking about one role: product managers/project managers who may facilitate the whole process and we’ll cover them in a future episode.

Follow us on Twitter @KopecExplains.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

Information on the Web is always at our fingertips thanks to search engines. But, what makes them tick? In this episode we go over crawling, indexing, and ranking, the three phases a web page must go through to end up in your search results. We briefly discuss the PageRank algorithm and differences between various search engines. We conclude by discussing privacy issues.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

Computers are not just great for calculating, they’re also great for storing, manipulating, and viewing text. In fact, the majority of the work we do on a computer is “text work.” But, how does a computer actually store text? How is text represented in software? In this episode we dive into the world of character encodings, the way that software represents text.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

What are the technologies that underly the Web? We discuss Web Browsers and Web Servers. We touch on: the protocols they use to communicate (HTTP and HTTPS), the languages they use to render web pages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and server-side technologies like databases and server-side programming languages.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, [CC BY 4.0] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Find out more at http://kopec.live

The Internet is not a single technology—it’s a combination of networking technologies including protocols, physical devices, and software. In this episode we delve into its many layers and try to provide an intuitive understanding about how they all fit together. We cover topics like routing, packets, application protocols, and encryption.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, [CC BY 4.0] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Find out more at http://kopec.live

In this episode we discuss the similarities and differences between iOS and Android. We delve into their history, business models, developer ecosystems, and user experiences. Does it really matter if you use iOS or Android? Listen to this episode and find out.

David Kopec on Twitter

Theme “Place on Fire”, Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

What is a Byte? In this episode we go down to the fundamentals and explain how data is represented in a computer. We discuss what a bit is, both at the hardware level and the software level. Then we discuss other terms like kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte. We give various examples of real world files and their storage needs. Finally, we talk about the evolution of microprocessors from 8-bit to 64-bit.

David Kopec on Twitter

Theme “Place on Fire”, Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live