The Hacks

Tom is taking a much needed break. Before he left on his extended holiday, he and Chunga had a chat about the decline of remote work in the tech space. This is one of those rare subjects of which Tom and Chunga passionately disagree. Recently, it has come to light that as many as 25% of tech companies have admitted to using a manditory "return to office" policy as a way of reducing staff, publicly avoiding the ugliness of announcing mass layoffs. 

Chunga is someone that has worked from his home office / studio for the majority of his professional life, he loves it!  Tom, on the other hand, not so much. With that said, he has some very strong opinions with regard companies and organizations that choose to use "return to work" as a method of staff reduction.  What does he have to say?  Listen NOW to find out!

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Chunga made an observation recently.  He says we're in the tech industry "silly season"!  Every single day, there's a new, completely crazy, earth-shattering story coming out of a big tech company, somewhere. Tom partially agrees with Chunga, it has been nuts, but he says when it comes to the tech space, it's always the silly season!

One of the biggest stories over the past few weeks has been Apple's announcement.  Open AI is going to be added to anvupcoming OS release. In response, Elon Musk announced that his employees would be banned from using Apple iPhones for buisiness.  They'll also be banned from his corporate property. What do you think about all of this?  Is Apple making a mistake by adding Open AI to their iPhones? What about Elon Musk?  Will other companies and organizations follow his lead?  Tom and Chunga have lots of opinions about these quesions, in this episode of The Hacks!

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For a long time, Tom has wanted to do an episode of The Hacks that's centered around what he refers to as data center "bloopers". Chunga isn't entirely sure what he means by this.

Tom has always been amazed by the cathedral like way in which data centers are built. If you think about it, most data centers are built up and modified over a long period of time. Once your organization can realistically say that the data center is complete, the people that initially planned its construction, and worked on its development, are no longer around. Then, when you add corporate aquisitions into the mix, things become, in a word--chaotic. 

Believe it or not, Tom says this confussion and chaos is much better than the real world alternative.  What does he mean by this?  Listen NOW to find out!

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Chunga saw an article a few days ago, and it really surprised him! This particular article said that agile software has had a 268% failure rate... 268%. While Chunga is shocked to his this news, Tom isn't surprised at all!

How is this possible from and industry perspective? In what world is a 268% failure rate ever accepted? For the record, Tom is NOT a fan of agile software development. To be frank, he hates it, always has! Tom says that agile software is at the core of many of the software industries problems and is the main reason software (generally speaking) doesn't run better. 

Tom explains why and breaks it all down in this episode of The Hacks!

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Tom loves to innovate, it's who he is, and for him, its an unquenchable thrist. The pressure he puts on himself to create something new, is sometimes unhealthy. At the same time, Tom will also tell you that if he would've understood how hard it was going to be to turn Salt into what it is today, he wouldn't have done it. 

Innovation from an emotional and psychological perspective, can be in a word--brutal. Creation is a terrifying task! So... how does one cope, and continue to stay productive? Does Tom have a method to overcome the emotional and psychological challenges that so many (if not all) creative thinkers and innovators face? He sure does!  Listen NOW to find out what his methods are. Here's a hint, these things are really simple!

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Hey everybody, its Toms birthday!  Happy Birthday old man!!

Today on The Hacks, Chunga wants to talk about tech's dirty little secret. This secret, by the way, is how much of the tech industry actually survives! He's talking about "shelfware" and the "cloud shell game". 

Tom says between the two, the cloud shell game is actually worse, and more damaging to companies. He also says it's one of the biggest problems is tech. There's a bunch of really dumb reasons that this shell game is allowed happen the way it does, without anyone crying foul! What are Toms reasons?  Listen NOW to find out!

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One thing that's constant in life is change... It's been a bittersweet few days to say the least.  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom Hatch, the creator of Salt, talks with Chunga about the changes taking place in his life and announces his exit from Broadcom.  Yep, the time has come for Tom to explore some new opportunities!  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom wants to share his love, and gratitude for everyone thats been a part of this amazing adventure, including everyone in the Salt Project community. He also wants to talk about whats on the horizon! 

Fans of The Hacks can rest easy! One things for sure, Tom and Chunga are going to continue to do The Hacks, and talk about all things tech, every single Tuesday!

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It looks like the rumors were true! Recently, IBM announced that they are buying HashiCorp (and Terraform) for a cool 6.4 billion dollars, in cash.

Tom and Chunga both find themselves asking the question, "Why did IBM choose to do this?" They already own Red Hat and Ansible. Did they buy HashiCorp / Terraform because they could, or did they buy it because the should? Chunga thinks it's definitely the former. He's also of the opinion that they made this purchase without having an actual plan. Tom, on the other hand, says it's not quite as simple and people think, altholugh Chunga may be right on this one. Why? Listen now to find out!

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Tom and Chunga both developed a passion for computers in a similar way. Neither one of them started out as a "software guy". Rather, they each got started by building and modifying their own custom built computers. They were "hardware guys", first! That just how it was back in the day.

Today, things seem to be much different, with modern engineers and developers cutting their teeth in software, and staying in that field for their entire careers. Tom says that most modern developers have little to no understanding of the hardware their creations actually run on! Is that a good thing?  Tom will explain many of the reasons this can happen, and he has a bunch of opinions on wether or not it's good for both individuals and companies.  Listen now!

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We live in strange and challenging times. When it comes to world events, one can find themselves, in a word, conflicted. Thats definitely the case for Chunga when it comes to todays topic.

Recently, the U.S. Government voted to continue the practice of warrantless surveillance of its own citizens. Interpol is also joining a growing chorus of law enforcers that want big tech to ditch its use of end to end encryption. What do you think about that? Do you think tech companies should give government agencies a "master key" to their encryption sofware, or end the practice all together?  Are you on the otherside of the discussion?  Is the government outrageously overstepping their bounds and violating the rights of its citizens? 

Chunga is conflicted about this. Tom on the other hand isn't. As a former member of the U.S. intelligence community, he has a very thougtful and clear opinion about all of this!  What does he think?  Listen NOW to find out!

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