Measure Twice, Optimize Once

Ben gives his house to an AI named after GLaDOS, and Matt makes the compiler build a Z80. A dying USB dock threatens to end it all.

Ben asks a question that violates Betteridge's law. Matt rediscovers the joy of coding like a caveman on a plane with no WiFi.

Ben's friend is locked out of their AWS account and Matt's AI has decided he's a hacker. The escape route runs through a cheap computer, a mesh network, and Neal Stephenson.

Matt records from the wrong continent and explains how he taught his computer to be a 1950s television. Ben guesses his way to the secret of the colo(u?)r burst and wins today's podcast.

Ben sets out to learn Rust by only reading it, while Matt wonders if you can learn to land a plane from a book. Also: is snark a portmanteau?

Ben asks what happens when you curl google.com, and Matt peels back HTTP until the rabbit turns out to have been in the hat all along. Then a USB hub stages a dramatic intervention.

Ben has stopped talking to Claude directly. Matt hasn't opened his editor in days. They try to work out whether this is fun, programming, or a very expensive slot machine.

Ben asks a simple question about performance and Matt talks for 46 minutes. The one true use case for linked lists is revealed, and a part three is threatened.

Ben interviews Matt with a deceptively simple question: make my program go fast. 44 minutes later, robot dogs are falling over, Grace Hopper's wire makes an appearance, and Matt still hasn't gotten the job.

Ben wipes his PC over Thanksgiving and installs Ubuntu for gaming. Matt recalls the dark days of himem.sys and IRQ conflicts. The universe was created last Thursday, and someone gets a hangover.