Two's Complement

Ben and Matt finish shaving the yak from the prior episode. While waiting for DNS certificate validation to complete, our hosts discuss the "branch based environment" approach to infrastructure, and consider how serverless services make that model a bit cheaper.

Matt and Ben hit the record button while shaving a yak and then attempt to pass it off as a podcast episode. Join our hosts as they troubleshoot DNS problems, fiddle with makefiles, and fail to remember the things that their prior selves did.

Ben and Matt borrow a title from J.B. Rainsberger and talk about how integration tests want to take all your money. Or time. Same thing.

How do you solve a problem like Compiler Explorer sponsors? Matt digs into a surprisingly interesting algorithm problem that is in no way related to compilers. Ben explains how he nearly bankrupted himself by starting a bank.

Ben and Matt descend like Orpheus into the horrifically awful world of tech interviews, to try and extract some sort of humanity from the process. They fail, of course, but discuss some interesting ideas along the way.

Matt and Ben explore their mutual tendency to favor build over buy. Instead of using open source software that may be free-as-in-puppy, our hosts have sometimes built their own solutions, occasionally with hilariously regrettable results.

Ben and Matt examine how fast computers are by comparing them to humans. Turns out they're mind-boggling-ly fast. Or maybe humans are just slow? I don't know, let's not make the humans feel bad. They're trying their best with those adorable squishy meat brains.

Matt and Ben discuss the Rust programming language, recall some hobby projects they've used it for, and speculate about where else it might be used, such as embedded rust. Ben tries to remember how Ethereum works, and fails. Matt makes a ray tracer and a Weird Al reference.

Ben and Matt chat about the Swift programming language with special guest (and Swift creator) Doug Gregor. Doug teaches us a thing or two about Swift's design, and how it could possibly be a C++ successor. Matt rambles; Ben asks intelligent questions.

Ben and Matt talk Carbon, the new language backed by Google, designed to be a successor to C++. Matt discusses his involvement with the project. Ben asks questions and cracks wise.