The Hacks

You're no doubt hearing about it everywhere you go.  The global economy is having some issues and financial experts are all saying it's about to get much worse. What does that mean for open source projects?  After all, people use open source software for free!  What does a bad economy mean for tech jobs in general?

Chunga is relatively new to the tech space and has a bunch of these types of questions for Tom Hatch. He should know, he's worked in tech his entire adult life. Unfortunately, Tom says the financial experts are correct, we are in for a rough ride. He also says that open source and the tech industry, in general, are far from being immune to a bad economy. With that said, there's an awful lot that tech professionals can do to minimize the effects of a recession!

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It's a weird time of the year. Everyone seems to be taking vacation time before things start getting cold.  Tom and Chunga are no different. Chunga is just getting home from his break and Tom is on his way to start a cruise! 

Thankfully, as their paths crossed, they were able to record a brand new episode of The Hacks, and use their time wisely to talk about something really important like Chungas utterly irrational fear of hard drives. It's true, he's terrified of them! He says they're too complex for what they are, they're temperamental and way too fragile. He crashes hard drives all the time!  What about you?  Do you have bad luck with your computer hardware?

Tom says hard drive tech has changed significantly in the past few years and there's no reason Chunga should continue to have these fears.  He also breaks down the problems, looks at the tech and tries to determine if these issues are legit or if Chunga is creating these problems himself.  Listen NOW!

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Tom is losing his mind. Chunga has been bugging him to do a new Super Nerd Spotlight episode of The Hacks. Tom has been insisting that the two of them have done one of these recently.  Much to Chunga's delight, Tom is wrong!

For today's episode, they've decided to focus on a group of men that Tom calls "The Origin Guys". They're a small group of dudes, who are largely credited with creating modern computing as we know it. Tom and Chunga will look all the way back to the 1960s and '70s and talk about guys like Dennis Ritchie, Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, and many more!

It'll be fun to take at how far we've come from the first day until now!  Believe it or not, it's a really short period of time, and most of these guys are still alive and well!  Can they still be credited for the way we're using computers today?  Listen now to find out!

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It seems like software companies are doing this more and more lately. Have you noticed it? For reasons that are often unknown to the masses, a software company will pivot and change not only their entire business model but their product as well! When companies choose to do this, more often than not, it's a surprise and it's highly disruptive to their customers/users. 

Tom has been through a few of these pivots and he also wanted to do it himself, once upon a time. He says this decision can be the right move but it's far from a sure thing. If fact, even under the best conditions, it can be perilous. 

In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga take a serious look at the reasons that would lead a company to change in this manner and discuss how often it actually works.

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Shout out to Derek Ardolf! He's one of the rock stars on the Salt Core team. A few days ago, he sent Chunga a handful of different blogs and news articles about PyPi, which sent Chunga into a massive rabbit hole. The articles and blogs were all about legitimate projects that have been compromised by phishing and malware attacks through PyPi. 

Everybody loves PyPi, including Tom and Chunga. With that said, they have both been sounding the alarm on The Hacks about these types of channel attacks for years!  Why hasn't more been done about this type of vulnerability? Tom says it simply comes down to the extreme size of open source projects vs. available resources. He also says as far as this type of problem is concerned, we're still in the wild west!  So, is there anything that can be done to deal with these kinds of intrusions?  Listen to this episode of The Hacks to find out!

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Tom and Chunga have just returned from their first in-person convention in 3-years!  VMware Explore was held last week in San Francisco and what a crazy and educational week it was! For both of the Hacks, the experience was both weird and amazing. For Tom, it was also more emotional than he had anticipated.  

VMware Explore was their first chance to meet many of their friends and colleagues in person for the very first time. This convention was also their first chance to talk about and do a presentation for the brand new Idem Project. Tom and Chunga got to see some cool new tech as well.  What did they see?  Listen to this episode to find out and get the full download of their first in-person convention in 3 years!

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Don't make Tom Hatch angry.  You wouldn't like him when he's angry...

Do you want to know what really sends him into a rage? Packaging and distributing Python software. Tom says this process is an all-encompassing disaster! It's something that has plagued Salt Project from day one. 

Why is this? We all know how amazing Python is to create and build in, right? How can the same programming language be so clanky, and troublesome on the back end? Tom and Chunga discuss the various factors that make people so frustrated.  Are there any options to fix these issues?  Listen NOW to find out!

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The pandemic is slowly inching its way into the history books and becoming a chapter that is part of our generation. Companies are starting their slow return back to the way they did things before all of this happened. This includes conferences, tradeshows, and in-person meetings. 

For Tom and Chunga, their return starts next week at VMware Explore! Thousands and thousands of people will descend on San Francisco in order to meet and network, face to face, for the first time in years. Of course, Tom and Chunga will be on hand as presenters, speaking about Salt Project and Idem Project! 

Chunga is curious to see if either one of them will have any rust. Tom says he's far more worried about his imposter syndrome. It's always been something that he's had to battle.

Imposter Syndrome... What is it? Do you have it? In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga will talk about what it is and discuss ways that you can overcome it as we all start getting back to normal.

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Tom has been searching for something most of us don't really think about. He's looking for space in a data center. It may come as a surprise, but it's a much more involved process than you may think! 

Chunga finds that statement fascinating. For most tech professionals, a data center is just something that people use, they know it exists and that's about it. He's curious about why this process requires the careful selection process that it does. After all, a data center is just a big room with a lot of plugs and servers, right?

Tom says that's actually true--kind of. Not all data centers are created equal and you'll need to consider several factors before selecting the one that is best suited to your needs or your business.  What are those factors? Listen now to find out!

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Tom and Chunga learned something new about you recently.  You don't like it when they talk about fitness! They are both very, very, sorry! They'd like to make it up to you with a bonus episode.

Today, Tom and Chunga are talking about something much more in line with what they should be talking about on The Hacks.  Last week, Tom's nephew asked him to help build a new desktop computer. Chunga wonders why people don't build their own machines as much as they did back in the day. Sure, people still build their own computers, but it really isn't as common as it used to be--not even close.

Tom agrees with Chunga and says there are a couple of very simple reasons why people are not investing in custom computer builds anymore. What are they?  Listen to this special bonus episode to find out!

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