Software Engineering Daily

Software Engineering Daily

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Software Engineering Daily episodes

  • Dwarf Fortress with Tarn Adams

    “The official motto that we have in our help manual is ‘Losing is fun!’ ”

    Dwarf Fortress is a construction and management simulation computer game set in a procedurally generated fantasy world in which the player indirectly controls a group of dwarves, and attempts to construct a successful underground fortress.

    Tarn Adams works on Dwarf Fortress with his brother Zach.

    Questions
    • What is the objective of Dwarf Fortress?
    • Does the way you’ve designed the gameplay reflect any philosophy about life that you have?
    • What language is Dwarf Fortress written in?
    • Do people build constructs in Dwarf Fortress that you would never have expected?
    • Did your studying complex math at Stanford affect how you’ve developed Dwarf Fortress?
    • What advice would you give to developers listening that want to create their own game?
    • Links
      • Dwarf Fortress
      • Infiniminer
      • Tarn on Wikipedia
      • Sponsors

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        The post Dwarf Fortress with Tarn Adams appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

        1 hr 3 min
      • Accessibility Engineering with Léonie Watson

        Designing software and toolkits with accessibility in mind is important to ensure that everyone has equal access to the internet.

        Léonie Watson is an accessibility engineer and a director at the British Computer Association of the Blind.

        Questions
        • What was your experience as a web developer in the late 90’s dot com boom?
        • What is diabetic retinopathy?
        • How does a screen reader work?
        • What is a common design pattern to refactor inaccessible engineering to be accessible?
        • Can you talk about how a webpage is converted to an audible format with accessibility APIs?
        • How have smartphones affected what its like to be blind?
        • Are there libraries, tools or best practices developers can use to improve accessibility?
        • Links
          • Losing Sight
          • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
          • Web A11y Slack
          • Léonie’s Webpage
          • Sponsors

            Digital Ocean is the simplest cloud hosting provider. Use promo code SEDAILY for $10 in free credit.

            Hired.com is the job marketplace for software engineers. Go to hired.com/softwareengineeringdaily to get a $600 bonus upon landing a job through Hired.

                                  

            The post Accessibility Engineering with Léonie Watson appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

            57 min
          • Creativity and Engineering with Derek Sivers

            “Creativity never comes to you – she will only meet you halfway.”

            Derek Sivers is a programmer, musician, and writer. He has created several companies and products, including CD Baby, which became the largest seller of independent music online.

            Questions
            • As programmers, do we have an obligation to create new things?
            • How did your interest in PostgreSQL evolve?
            • Why does Active Record complicate things?
            • What were the interesting engineering challenges at CDBaby?
            • You wrote a post about loss in 2010 – can you talk a little bit about this and what you learned from this experience?
            • What is the most counterintuitive thing you’ve learned in life?
            • Links
              • The War of Art
              • Superhuman by Habit
              • Simple Made Easy
              • Simplify: move code into database functions
              • Derek on Twitter
              • Sponsors

                Digital Ocean is the simplest cloud hosting provider. Use promo code SEDAILY for $10 in free credit.

                Hired.com is the job marketplace for software engineers. Go to hired.com/softwareengineeringdaily to get a $600 bonus upon landing a job through Hired.

                                     

                The post Creativity and Engineering with Derek Sivers appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                59 min
              • Responsive Government with Santiago Siri

                “Everything has changed around our lives — the way we connect with each other, the way we communicate, the way we work, even the way we fall in love – except the way we govern ourselves, as a society.”

                DemocracyOS is an open-source application for online decision making. The organization’s goal is to enable more responsive and transparent communication with government using modern technology.

                Santiago Siri is the president of DemocracyOS.

                Questions
                • What are the problems with democracy that could be solved with technology?
                • How does the DemocracyOS app work?
                • What are the P2P identity management solutions you’ve explored?
                • Were there any previous nonprofits that went through YC whose path you were able to learn from?
                • Is authority necessary in government?
                • Links
                  • DemocracyOS
                  • Pia Mancini: How to upgrade democracy for the Internet era
                  • The Net Party
                  • Santiago’s Website
                  • The post Responsive Government with Santiago Siri appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                    55 min
                  • Rethinking Documentation with Greg Koberger

                    “If you focus on improving the developer experience, it will naturally translate into good documentation.”

                    ReadMe is simplifying the process of writing documentation. The platform provides a readymade developer hub with the ability to integrate API endpoints into documentation.

                    Greg Koberger is a developer and designer, and the founder of ReadMe. He previously founded a traveling incubator and worked for Mozilla.

                    Questions
                    • What makes good documentation?
                    • Why did you choose Angular as your front-end framework?
                    • What design principles did you focus on when building ReadMe?
                    • What were your weaknesses when you applied to Y Combinator?
                    • Where do you want to be in five years time?
                    • Links
                      • ReadMe
                      • Five Years Time
                      • Phileas and Fogg – Traveling Incubator
                      • Greg Koberger on Twitter
                      • The post Rethinking Documentation with Greg Koberger appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                        1 hr 8 min
                      • Robot-Human Interaction with Stefanie Tellex

                        Robots sometimes need help from humans when solving complex problems.

                        Successfully solving a problem often demands a strong model for communication and well-trained robots.

                        Stefanie Tellex is an assistant professor at Brown University whose research focuses on constructing robots that use natural language to communicate with humans.

                        Questions
                        • The goal of your research is to construct robots that seamlessly use natural language to communicate with humans. How close are we to that goal?
                        • Why is communication between robot and human a problem that is rooted in both linguistics and philosophy?
                        • Why do we need a mathematical framework for communicating with robots?
                        • Do robots perceive our physical environment in the same way that people do?
                        • What is the future of human-robot interaction?
                        • With artificial intelligence, are we summoning the demon, as Elon Musk says?
                        • Links
                          • Stefanie’s Research Page
                          • Best Paper Award at the Robotics: Science and Systems Conference
                          • Asking for Help Using Inverse Semantics
                          • Stefanie’s Talk at RSS 2014
                          • The post Robot-Human Interaction with Stefanie Tellex appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                            51 min
                          • Crocodile Browser with Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime
                            What is it like to be a young software engineer in Nigeria?

                            Osine and Anesi Ikhianosime have a deep understanding of the startup tactics that have led to so many successful companies in the Web 2.0 boom.

                            Their favorite podcast is a16z. Their role models include Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates. They recently worked on a machine learning compression project, inspired by the show Silicon Valley.

                            They are underestimated because of their age, but both of them view youth and naivete as assets. Osine believes it is counterproductive when older people look at him and his brother with condescension.

                            “A young person thinks of about a million different ways to do something. An older person might think of just 500,000. A young person has more ideas, and more ways something can work. An older person should just help guide a younger person, rather than taking over the product.”

                            He emphasized the importance of rapid product development.

                            “Ignorance makes you [similar to] me. Push anything out. A product is stupid, disgustingly designed, ugly, half-baked. You just push anything out. You don’t have the standard,” said Osine.

                            Our conversation reinforced my belief that the world is becoming smaller and that culture is becoming more homogeneous. This shift is driven by software.

                            It was as easy for me to communicate with Osine and Anesi about technology as it is to converse with an American.

                            Osine believes that engineering is more like art, saying “your application represents you.” Anesi sees software development more like a science, saying “design is an art, but software design is more like a science.”

                            The post Crocodile Browser with Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                            40 min
                          • Venture Capital to Software Engineering with Preethi Kasireddy

                            Changing your occupation to a software engineer is easier today than ever before.

                            Former Andreesen-Horowitz partner Preethi Kasireddy saw excited software engineers coming through the doors every day, pitching their ideas.

                            This was her impetus to take the leap and make the career switch to software engineering. She is attending Hack Reactor, a 12-week coding boot camp.

                            Questions
                            • Why did you leave the “best job in the world“?
                            • Why are you becoming a software engineer?
                            • What is Hack Reactor?
                            • Is college a scam that overcharges and underdelivers?
                            • What is the most counter-intuitive thing you learned at Andreesen-Horowitz?
                            • Is it important to talk about the women in tech issue explicitly?
                            • Links
                              • Why I Left The Best Job In The World
                              • Coding Bootcamp vs. College
                              • Haseeb Qureshi: Why I’m Becoming a Web Developer
                              • Preethi on the Andreesen-Horowitz blog
                              • The post Venture Capital to Software Engineering with Preethi Kasireddy appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                                55 min
                              • Health Hacking with Christopher Kelly

                                “One of the problems is that people have become incredibly disconnected with the way that they feel.”

                                Christopher Kelly is a computer scientist and a pro mountain biker who now works full-time as a health hacker.

                                He is a co-founder of Nourish Balance Thrive, where he works alongside two medical doctors, a food scientist and a registered nurse to help people feel and perform better using biomedical testing together with diet and lifestyle hacks.

                                At QCon San Francisco, he will be giving a talk called Debug Me.

                                Questions
                                • Why are technologists getting sicker, fatter, and more tired?
                                • What is your story behind going from a programmer at a hedge fund to a health hacker?
                                • What tests do you do for patients?
                                • What are some ways technologists can improve their health?
                                • Links
                                  • Christopher Kelly at QCon SF
                                  • Nourish Balance Thrive
                                  • Christopher Kelly: Is It Time for Your Midlife Crisis Yet?
                                  • Entrepreneur on Fire: Christopher Kelly
                                  • The post Health Hacking with Christopher Kelly appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

                                    59 min

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                                  Technical interviews about software topics.