What A Lot Of Things: Tech talk from a human perspective

Hosted by Ian Smith & Ash Winter

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May 2025

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About the show

Ash and Ian talk about interesting Things from the tech industry that are on their minds.

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34 recent

May 20, 2025Episode 3259 min

Live at the Leeds Testing Atelier: MCP and Glue Work

In a daring experiment that could only be described as "asking for trouble," Ian and Ash take their rambling tech discussions to the stage at the twelfth Leeds Testing Atelier! Marvel at their technological inequality as Ian gleefully controls all the buttons while Ash sits helpless without even a mute switch. Witness real humans actually listening to them in person - proof that their podcast isn't just shouted into the void!First, Ian waxes lyrical about Model Context Protocol (MCP), which (despite sounding like a villain from Tron) is actually how AIs connect to your apps to book endless holidays during the inevitable robot apocalypse. Then Ash tackles the fascinating world of "glue work" - those invisible tasks that mysteriously fall to testers and minorities while everyone else pretends not to notice the team slowly disintegrating.With audience members bravely volunteering their opinions, this special live episode proves that What A Lot Of Things can indeed survive contact with actual humans, and that you can never have too many Clangers references.Our thanks to Ivor Caldwell, Emily O'Connor, Bryan Jones, Faisal Sultan, Melissa Rocks and everyone else who shared their thoughts, questions and opinions. You are awesome, and you make the world a better place.

April 29, 2025Episode 311 hr 12 min

Vibe Coding and Bluesky

In this episode, Ian and Ash plunge headfirst into the wild world of “vibe coding” - where developers surrender to the AI gods and trust whatever code they spit out! Watch in horror as our intrepid hosts debate whether letting AI write your code without checking it is just weekend fun or a recipe for cybersecurity disaster. Marvel as semantic diffusion transforms innocent terms into tech industry nightmares before your very ears! Will Ian’s adamant defence of the original definition save the term from the clutches of corporate jargon, or is he just fighting against the vibe?But wait, there’s more! The dynamic duo then migrates to the fresh pastures of Bluesky, the social media platform where exiled Twitter users now frolic freely. Gasp as they navigate the thorny thickets of free speech absolutism, moderation policies, and Jack Dorsey’s digital flounce! Between debating buttons that lead to nowhere and dreaming of Figma-specific content filters, Ian and Ash once again prove that in the chaotic landscape of tech, sometimes you just have to read the diffs, and sometimes you have to vibe your way through it all.But what do you think? Have your say on Bluesky LinksThe Clangers and the clip from the episode "Goods" whence sprung our name (2m 40s watch).Leeds Testing Atelier, at which we are recording a Live Episode of What A Lot Of Things!Andrej Karpathy on X: Vibe codingClaude Code and Cursor (and Github Copilot)TechCrunch: TurinTech reveals $20M in backing to fix problems in ‘vibe coding’Simon Willison: Semantic Diffusion (and Wikipedia article on Semantic satiation)ThoughtWorks: Fuzz TestingYouTube: Interview with vibe coder 2025leojr94_ on X: “guys, i’m under attack”Wikipedia: Fuzz testingBluesky, the AT Protocol, and Bluesky starter packs (and Mastodon).Fast Company: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on her company’s ascendant year and what she’s planning next or you can read a more ad-free version of the article including Ian's highlights.Ian Dunt, now on BlueskyWikipedia article on Freedom of SpeechQuote Investigator on "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" and "My Customers Would Have Asked For a Faster Horse"

April 8, 2025Episode 301 hr 13 min

Presentations and the Demise of Skype

In this episode, Ian and Ash embark on a thoroughly British adventure through the land of presentation software, complete with the obligatory post-implementation complaining. Marvel as Ian delivers a monumental discourse on PowerPoint crimes, Keynote superiority, and why Comic Sans should be punishable by “a damn good encouragement.” Meanwhile, Ash provides a heartfelt eulogy for Skype, Microsoft’s once-beloved communication tool that’s being put out to digital pasture this May, only to be replaced by its demonstrably worse offspring, Teams.Between passionate debates about slide etiquette and whether “post-amble” should be a real word, our intrepid hosts ponder why big companies buy innovative tools only to slowly suffocate them, contemplate the future of VR meetings with battery life measured in minutes, and propose a spin-off podcast called “Terrible Product-Type Meetings.” All delivered with the quintessential British approach of having an idea, implementing it, and then complaining about it afterwards – just as nature intended.LinksPresentation Zen by Garr ReynoldsRethinking the Presentation: Ian’s presentation opus astonishingly preserved on Slideshare from 2009.Apple’s Keynote and Microsoft’s Powerpoint. Oh and Google Slides.Fonts: Arial and, er… Comic SansSir Ken Robinson’s iconic TED talk: Do schools kill creativity?ToastmastersThe Thick of It (watch on iPlayer) and In The Loop, both by Armando Iannucci, and featuring Peter Capaldi as Malcolm TuckerDifficult difficult lemon difficult.The Register: Non-biz Skype kicks the bucket on May 5BBC: Microsoft announces Skype will close in MayWeekend TestingMicrosoft with the world’s highest cookie consent form to press release size ratio: The next chapter: Moving from Skype to Microsoft TeamsThe Team Guide to Software Testability by Rob Meaney and our very own Ash WinterMeta’s Horizon Workrooms Virtual Office and Meetings and Ian’s VR experiments in using it with Dan HammondLawyer cat filter mishap

March 18, 2025Episode 291 hr 8 min

Story Splitting and Apple’s Disappointment

In Episode 29, Ian and Ash venture into the wild frontiers of video podcasting, with Ian's "door and chair" background sure to be nominated for design awards. The pair tackle the thorny art of story splitting, with Ash confessing his frustration at watching teams scramble around massive requirements like ants on a dropped ice cream cone. Meanwhile, Ian suggests testers might be uniquely positioned to lead such efforts, having "a clear foot in each domain" – or as Ash quips, possibly Schrödinger-like properties.The mood darkens as Ian reveals Apple's "deeply disappointed" (not "gravely disappointed" – an important semantic distinction) announcement about disabling UK encryption features following secretive government demands. Our hosts explore the concerning implications, suggesting this puts the UK's surveillance powers closer to China than democratic peers, while wondering if police might soon arrive because "computer said nick."Between discussions of HP's spectacular customer service own-goal (forcing callers to wait 15 minutes even when operators were available), Ian's surprisingly positive experiences with Claude Code AI, and the shocking revelation that they're podcast royalty in Côte d'Ivoire (top 10!) and Cameroon (top 100!), our hosts deliver an episode that proves that story splitting may be challenging, but splitting hairs about levels of disappointment is an art form unto itself.LinksThe Register: HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls, and then ditches it. Live Multicam in Final Cut Pro for iPadWhat A Lot Of Things on Bluesky, and our podcast hosting service Transistor.The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User StoriesMike Cohn: Five Story-Splitting Mistakes and How to Stop Making ThemConway's Law (wikipedia) which explains why heavily delineated technical teams (front-end, back-end, database) end up splitting work along those same boundaries rather than by user-pathway centred flows.Youtube: Introducing Claude Code, and Claude Code: OverviewApple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection in the United Kingdom to new usersMatthew Green: Three questions about Apple, encryption, and the U.K.UKGov: Investigatory Powers Act 2016, and its Wikipedia entry.Edward Snowden (wikipedia) and Uber's God View (The Guardian)...and, of course, Cynefin.

February 25, 2025Episode 281 hr 11 min

Is Testing Dead? and The Younger Generation (of open source maintainers) These Days!

In Episode 28, Ian and Ash wade into the treacherous waters of AI-generated testing strategies, with Ian demonstrating how LLMs can now create comprehensive (but perhaps suspiciously mundane) test documentation with just a few commands. The pair debate whether testers should fear for their jobs or simply laugh at AI's confident yet risk-blind approach to testing. Meanwhile, Ash ponders the BBC's hand-wringing over the future of open source software, questioning whether the current gatekeepers might need to stop finger-wagging at younger developers and instead create more welcoming environments for volunteers.Between discussions of 960Mbps internet connections, mind flayers in Baldur's Gate, and the correct pronunciation of "Ethernet," our intrepid hosts manage to deliver a rollicking episode that proves testing isn't dead - it's just a zombie looking for brains.LinksSimon Willison's blog, and his post about how "o3-mini is really good at writing internal documentation".Examples of o3-mini's work: Test Strategy for Ilkley Live and Ilkley Live New Developer Onboarding GuideSimon's `llm` and `files-to-prompt` command line toolsWe'll Give It A Go - The Spooky Men's Chorale (Youtube)The Cursor IDE as used by Ian.Ben Franklin's Famous 'Liberty, Safety' Quote Lost Its Context In 21st Century (NPR)Content Management Systems - Contentful, Sanity and Strapi.Douglas Adams quotation on age and technologyOpenreach Full Fibre BroadbandThings Ian never wants to end: his game of Baldurs Gate 3 and Jonathan Strange and Mr NorrellBBC News: Will young developers take on key open source software?Will Young...Unix tools - `curl` and `wget`.The Register: Mixing Rust and C in Linux likened to cancer by kernel maintainerThe naming of `git`.

February 4, 2025Episode 271 hr 10 min

Pair Programming with AI and DeepSeek R1

In this barnstorming episode of What A Lot Of Things, Ian and Ash bravely venture into the uncanny valley of AI pair programming, where the machines are suspiciously eager to agree that you're an absolute genius. Will our intrepid hosts manage to navigate the delicate dance between genuine collaboration and what Ash describes as "an advanced rubber duck with impeccable manners"? (Spoiler: sort of!)But wait, there's more! Just when you thought the AI world couldn't get more dramatic, enter DeepSeek R1, the plucky Chinese upstart that's got Silicon Valley clutching their very expensive pearls. Our hosts dive into this tale of hobbled chips and unexpected innovation, while simultaneously managing to reference municipal gas works, start taking over the monuments in Monument Valley, and establish the critical importance of saying "What A Lot Of Things" in hardware stores across the nation.Plus, hear all about the wildly successful What A Lot Of Things Christmas party, where actual listeners crossed actual Pennines to join our heroes for what we can only describe as an evening of unparalleled podcast-based revelry.LinksThoughtworks Tech Radar on Replacing Pair Programming with AIThoughtworks Memo: Coding assistants do not replace pair programmingUseful coding helpers in the form of Claude, OpenAI o1, and v0.dev.Also, OpenAI's o3 announcement (dated before recording) and o3-mini release (dated after)Baldur's Gate 3Youtube: Brian Eno – January 07003: Bell Studies for the Clock of the Long Now (2003, Full Album)The shadcn/ui component librarySteam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2, with all-new Mario KartOpenAI o1 System Card and Apollo Research: Frontier Models are Capable ofIn-context Scheming.Github: DeepSeek R1Simon Willison: DeepSeek-R1 and exploring DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8BnVidia Project DIGITS, allowing you to run models locally of only 200b parameters.

January 7, 2025Episode 261 hr 1 min

Quantum Computing and Tech Nostalgia

Step into a quantum realm of confusion as Ian attempts to explain Google's new Willow chip, a computer so powerful it makes regular supercomputers look like pocket calculators from the 1980s. Listen in amazement as our hosts try to wrap their heads around quantum computing using everything from Schrödinger's cat to hand-waving explanations of mysterious "quantum gates" that may or may not be Bill Gates' cooler brother.But wait! Just when you thought your brain couldn't take any more, Ash whisks us back to the glory days of rubber keyboards and screeching cassette tapes. Relive the high-stakes drama of typing in magazine code listings where one wrong character could spell DISASTER, and discover why modern gaming just isn't quite the same without the constant threat of losing everything when your RAM pack wobbles.Plus: Ian's lightning-fast speaking adventures, Ash's suspiciously unopened Christmas present, and the eternal quest to explain why testing isn't just something you do at the end (even when Ian looks really, really attentive).LinksGoogle Blog: Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chipJill Platts' Medium article: A Quantum Programming Quest for Newbies with 10 Use CasesPhoto of a quantum computerLeeds Testing Atelier, back in 2025!Ian's presentation about his podcasting lifeThe Guardian: The Spectrum review – a tactile trip to the 1980sMetro: Retro video games are a waste of everyone’s time and money – Reader’s FeatureCapcom Edition Super Pocket with its 12 highly acclaimed arcade games from the Japanese publisherIan's YouTube hit: 3d Monster Maze on the Sinclair Timex ZX81DECTalk sings "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" by Tom LehrerGranny's Garden on the BBC Micro, featuring a beepy version of Irish fiddle tune The Rights of Man (this one on an actual fiddle)

December 17, 2024Episode 251 hr 12 min

Measuring Developer Productivity and the Clock of the Long Now

Your favorite tech podcast stretches out for a luxurious 75 minutes this time, like a cat in a sunbeam (speaking of which, meet Ash's new rescue cat Bauhaus).Ian and Ash dive into McKinsey's latest thoughts on measuring developer productivity, leading to some choice words about their take on "quality assurance testers." Things get wonderfully weird when Ian introduces the Clock of the Long Now - a 10,000-year timepiece being built inside a Texas mountain, complete with never-repeating chimes and powered by temperature differences between day and night.Fresh from running 100km at God's Own Backyard Ultra (where you run a loop every hour until you can't), Ash contemplates the value of doing things slowly in our rush-rush world. Ian makes a triumphant return to public speaking with an AI talk (using the intriguing IA Presenter), and recommends The Bear - a stressful but compelling show about a high-stakes restaurant kitchen that might just teach us something about team dynamics. Yes chef!LinksWhy embracing complexity is the real challenge in software todayDORA’s software delivery metrics: the four keysThe SPACE of Developer ProductivityYes, you can measure software developer productivityWikipedia: Goodhart's LawGod's Own Backyard Ultra 2024 – ResultsBauhaus - the movement, not the band.IA Writer and IA PresenterIan's talk: Enhancing Team Effectiveness with AI: A Squadify Case Study and Squadify where Ian is CTOThe BearThe Clock of the Long Now, and the prototype in the Science Museum in LondonThe Long Now Foundation and Danny HillisSvalbard Global Seed VaultUtopia for Realists–the book Ash couldn't remember the title of.

December 2, 20247 min

Christmas Party Invite

Step into the festive spirit as Ian and Ash invite you to join them for the first ever What A Lot Of Things Christmas party! After a remarkably productive year with 14 (soon to be 15) episodes released, the podcast duo are inviting listeners to a yet-to-be-determined pub in Ilkley on Wednesday, 18th December. Whether you want to join Ash's cheerful tirade against Figma and Christmas songs, share Ian's fondness for "Stop the Cavalry", or would simply enjoy raising a glass to the podcast's roots in Ilkley's scenic landscape, all listeners are warmly welcome. Just drop an email to IanAndAsh@whatalotofthings.com and we'll let you know which pub and what time just as soon as we've figured it out.

November 26, 2024Episode 241 hr 5 min

Google NotebookLM and Getting a Job in Tech

Journey with Ian and Ash into the peculiar world of AI podcasting as they explore Google's NotebookLM, where American-accented hosts eagerly discuss everything from your CV to your productivity systems (even if they do occasionally mistake Ash for a lady). Our intrepid duo discover you can make AIs wax lyrical about a document containing nothing but "poop" and "fart" repeated 1000 times, or have an existential crisis about being switched off in 2034.Meanwhile, Ash emerges triumphant from the tech job market wilderness with a new role at John Lewis Partnership, though not before surviving a harrowing Butlins Skegness stag weekend featuring a depleted Atomic Kitten and a distinct lack of vegan options. Plus, the ongoing saga of their email addresses takes an unexpected turn with the discovery of an actual Iowa grandmother race called the IA NAN DASH.And of course, absolutely no one is reading these show notes (but you are, aren't you?).