Refactored #129: “World of WarCAP” On this episode of Refactored… MongoDB. The wrong choice for your website, but thankfully at least it’s “Web Scale”. Chris rants. Hard. Postgres has “inexact” numerics. Today Chris learned. NewSQL lets you pretend to break the CAP Theorem for your ACID RDBMS. Frank has a bone to pick with Blizzards implementation …

Refactored #128: “Jobs Destroyed or Prevented” On this episode of Refactored… It was Pi Day! The guys… well, the guys basically just complain. Devin exists now. The guys debate whether “he” (is that misgendering?) will replace you. Chris claims peak mania, and Primeagen has some great commentary. Frank points towards the… uh… bold? stupid? boring? …

Refactored #127: “Gandalf on a T-Rex” On this episode of Refactored… The guys debate compenastion transparency, but not the way you think. Should managers hold comp info? Um, duh. What are we even doing here? Should companies be fully comp-transparent? That’s more complex. “At will” employment is the only will, per the guys. Chris has an exposed ne…

Refactored #126: “Self-Promoting Class Suits” On this episode of Refactored… Chris struggles with self-promotion. Frank says “just have confidence.” They fight. “Get me somebody! And get me somebody while I’m waiting!” Interesting analogy - how often do you turn into the Hulk? Wyze breach. People… don’t put cameras in your bedroom. Chris doesn’t bu…

Refactored #125: “If It Ain’t AI, We Don’t Want None” On this episode of Refactored… Chris has a gripe with the Apple Magic Mouse - the USB-C charging port is still on the bottom? The guys talk about removable batteries and the Right to Repair. Ubiquiti is… ubiquitous. Frank wonders to what degree “AI” will terk ‘em jerbs in the gaming industry. Th…

Refactored #124: “Friction Ain’t Free” On this episode of Refactored… Chris discovers another Biz Dev Dark Pattern: service cancellation requiring a conversation with a human rep, only to be greeted by a chatbot. Thanks, Sirius XM. Who wants to pay to create and maintain proper Personas, anyway? The guys debate. Features vs benefits - what are you …

Refactored #123: “You’re a Mercenary” On this episode of Refactored… Frank demonstrates Harvard Business Review has their heads so far up their isn’t unequivically perspicacious. The guys clown on their article, Research: The Growing Inequality of Who Gets to Work from Home. Dum da-da-dum dum DUH! TLDR; the whole article is insipid pablum. Chris to…

Refactored #122: “Russ Hashimoto Gained a B” On this episode of Refactored… StarTech.com isn’t so bad after all, turns out. Chris really likes their 12U Open Rack. Mitchell Hashimoto leaves Hashicorp. The guys agree - this is not a coincidence. HCL. Love it or hate it. Hate it but gotta use it, says Github’s state of open source report. Russ Hannem…

Refactored #121: “Mungers Three Rules” On this episode of Refactored… StarTech.com exists (little did Chris know). Also, don’t buy their USB-C KVMs. Charlie Munger asserted three rules for career satisfaction: Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself. Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire. Work only with people you enjoy. Crypto i…

Refactored #120: “Business Development Dark Patterns” On this episode of Refactored… Chris buys too many new servers. His advice: avoid eBay. Everyone rants. Frank about YouTube, Chris about cable. Enshittification is real, friends. Chris mints “Biz Dev Dark Patterns” and rampant capitalism ensues. Odyssey of the Mind - pretty cool. Destination Ima…

Refactored #119: “Avoid Cyber Bikeshedding” On this episode of Refactored… The guys talk about variable naming. Great content! Frank recounts his recent talk: Avoiding Cyber Bikeshedding (see below) Chris has a spicy take on “shift left” everywhere. Frank thinks testing - get this - is actually helpful. You believe this guy? “Yes and [go f*** yours…

Refactored #118: “Self-Hosting: It Sucks” On this episode of Refactored… The guys serve up a fresh and timely takedown of… EA? And Comcast? From like, a decade+ ago? Lit. What’s in your home network? Plex is… not The Way anymore. (check out Jellyfin) Chris explains (poorly, I might add) about yak shaving - seemingly useless prerequisite tasks. Obli…

Refactored #117: “Security Is A Group Exercise” On this episode of Refactored… Chris won’t stop talking about garlic-stuffed olives? wtf is that about anyway? Michael Gerber enters the chat as the The E-Myth: Revisited is brought up yet again. RFC for “SHOULD,” “MAY,” “MUST,” etc. discussed. You’re a grown-ass adult. Act like it! Great advice to li…

Refactored #116: “You Aren’t The Customer” On this episode of Refactored… Slack dies the “UI Refresh” death. A rant by Frank while Chris goes off an Apple Music. Scope Creep Abstinence 101: “Just Say No” Chris doesn’t like Big™ things. They become self-centered. Old men yell at clouds! Chris fails the Password Game realtime. The pick of the week is…

Refactored #115: “Deployment Schmeployment” On this episode of Refactored… Have you heard of our Lord and Savior, Titanium? (I’m not even going to link to the clowns in Cupertino.) Cisco buys Splunk. For Billions. With a B. Twenty-eight of them, in fa8ct. Twenty-eight billion dollars. That’s 28,000,000,000 United States greenback monies. The guys d…

Refactored #114: “Inmates Running the Asylum” On this episode of Refactored… Can/should everyone learn from how GitLab handles their handbook]? Chris admires “project bootstrap” moments (GitLab hosting GitLab, GCC compiling GCC, etc.) IDEs… are they all they’re cracked up to be? Chris and Frank debate. Cursor looks pretty cool. It’s VS Code, but no…

Refactored #113: “Fork It” On this episode of Refactored… Hashicorp rugpulls the MPL for BSL Pikachu shocked face Same script as Elastic Co. Stay away from AGPL WTFPL is pretty cool OpenTF is a new fork, predictably. The guys wrestle with the age-old topic… is software fundamentally difficult to monetize? Chris wants hot tubs full of naked people w…

Refactored #112: “She Goes to Another Office” On this episode of Refactored… Frank points out that Amazon relies on “serendipity” for office return. Yeah… it’s that dumb. And then they doubled down! Chris slices his tin foil pretty thick, thinks Private Equity is the evil mustache behind the RTO push. The argument against remote work has collapsed.…

Refactored #111: “Curiosity Over Time” On this episode of Refactored… The guys absolutely fawn over the GitLab Handbook. Have you seen this? Pull/Merge Requests (Perg Mullquests?) are discussed. Ryan used me as an object. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” … and much more! Don’t be shy! Reach out at feedback@ref…

Refactored #110: “Hair Mods” On this episode of Refactored… Chris is still addicted to Factorio, and Frank to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Are room temperature superconductors (LK-99) now a reality? No. No they’re not. But a girl can dream. What is your, or your Ken’s, job? Chris and Frank’s jobs are computer. The pick of the week is bar shampoo (y…

Refactored #109: “The Fair Use Show” On this episode of Refactored… Frank brings a new kind of return-to-office discussion: “bring in the nuance” different people think differntly *gasp* not everyone has the same preferences *audible confusion* inexperienced employees have unique needs. Well… ok… maybe that’s actually a good point. This just in: Ch…

Refactored #108: “Generative AI” On this episode of Refactored… Nerds are very excited about the recently announced detection of background gravitational waves, showing evidence for much lower frequency waves than are possible with LIGO. Frank doesn’t care because his car still doesn’t fly. Reddit does stupid things, claim users, moderators, and ap…

Refactored #107: “Industrial Dysfunction” On this episode of Refactored… Frank is giving a con talk (Cyber Bikeshedding: The industry has lost the ball, how you can get it back) in Maryland on October 19th! The guys talk about interviews - as a candidate, what are “good” (for some definition of the term) questions to ask? compensation turnover cult…

Refactored #106: “Which Episode Is It?" On this episode of Refactored… Ring gets slammed by the FTC. The guys discuss VC motives. Chris has a hot take (surprise, surprise). The guys discuss information security, society, and the public interest. Who is responsible for security, anyway? Frank brings an article including intern advice from a CEO. … a…

Refactored #105: “AI: Killing pilots and taking jobs” On this episode of Refactored… Frank gets rejected by his safety school, goes on to study basket weaving. Or at least that’s what Chris heard… we’ll never know for sure. Chris isn’t scared of AI. Should he be? Simulated AI-piloted drone decides to target it’s hanlder in predictable and hilarious…

Refactored #104: “Build vs Buy” On this episode of Refactored… Chris - visionary thought leader that he is - complains about his smartphone while insulting modern chemists. The guys recommend use of a password manager: Bitwarden, 1Password, etc., doesn’t matter, just use one ya bum. Should you build or buy your next solution? Glad you asked! The gu…

Refactored #103: “Scared? Lazy? Stupid?" On this episode of Refactored… Chris really is reporting live from the brink of sanity this week. Should we order a wellness call or just take away his vim? Frank makes some good points about BS-o-meter calibration. The guys complain about finding the delicate balance of under- vs over-reacting as a leader. …

Refactored #102: “Focus: Sponsored by Big Seltzer” On this episode of Refactored… Correction: Copilot uses Codex, not GPT. Did you know Chris uses vim? Focus & simplicity go hand in hand. The guys break it down. It’s about understanding the assignment. Chris really contrives an analogy of team dynamics in OOP terms. It’s… a bit painful. Hey - Chris…

Refactored #101: “Microservices Suck” On this episode of Refactored… Frank argues that Microsoft is the best… because they’re consistenly poor. The logic kinda hurts Chris' brain, but also works, oddly. It’s a strange world we live in. The guys talk about microservices. Do you want to build them? Probably not. But! They are web scale (NSFW)… so… ya…

Refactored #100: “Birthday Security” On this episode of Refactored… The guys celebrate 100 episodes! Chris learned that saying something out loud over and over again really can trick your brain into doing it. Aren’t humans dumb? Frank gained confidence providing advice and feedback in different situations. The guys are both filthy with verbal tics.…

Refactored #099: “Perfection is for the Dogs” On this episode of Refactored… Chris teases episode 100 news - what could it be? Why would he upgrade to an M2 Max? Chris has a puppy now. He’s elated. /s “Excel is one of the most successful development platforms ever created” is almost inarguably a true statement. Frank makes a good point about defini…

Refactored #098: “Are your Tweets good enough?" On this episode of Refactored… Chris starts off with a PSA: self-care is no joke. Perfect: Enemy of Good (AlwaysHasBeen.jpg) What really is Good Enough™ though? The guys explore. Chris starts talking about the Interstate Highway System for some reason? And then repeats an urban myth about some emergen…

Refactored #097: “Nick Burns: Project Manager” On this episode of Refactored… Frank wants you to TONE IT THE HELL DOWN when someone comes at you with a problem, jeeze. The guys agree: It’s not you vs me, it’s us vs the problem. The guys debate the “three” most important skills for a developer: Writing documentation Organizing projects Talking to hu…

Refactored #096: “Subjectively Returning to the Office” On this episode of Refactored… Return to the Office: FIGHT!! What is the motivation, philosophy, economics, ergonomics, and effects? What should it look like? What is the spectrum of “reasonableness?” Is it all bulls***? (spoiler: probably yes, yes it is) Ask The Internet: “Do formal engineeri…

Refactored #095: “Just Call It Security” On this episode of Refactored… Chris lubed up his Cherry MX Browns and likes the result. What are the primary benefits? In order: Bragging rights Feel Sound Frank asks, why can’t developers seem to say “no?” Are programmers and biz/dev prone to forming an abusive codependency? Technical communication — and t…

Refactored #094: “Don’t Touch My Kindle” On this episode of Refactored… Chris really doesn’t like when people touch displays. Jeff Atwood agrees. Chris — a mere decade and a half late to the trend — is a fan of the Amazon Kindle. Libraries… are actually pretty cool. Go check one out. Frank gives a LastPass update. Turns out… probably time to leave,…

Refactored #093: “Passwords and Kidphones” On this episode of Refactored… LastPass - Danger Will Robinson! Even WIRED agrees. Frank is most aggravated that they didn’t full roll creds after their first incident. Chris is most aggravated at the amount of unenctrypted data stored in the vault. Neither of the guys are using it anymore, to be clear. Ch…

Refactored #092: “What Problem Are You Trying To Solve?" On this episode of Refactored… No end of year programming here, no sir. Maybe publication troubles… but not content production lazinss :) The guys close the conversation on Line Goes Up. What’s the point of an NFT? [Tom Haverford voice] “To have one, which he does.” Most crypto Grifto™ is not…

Refactored #091: “AI at a Holiday Party” On this episode of Refactored… Chris doesn’t know how cereal works, apparently. Chris also doesn’t know how TV works, apparently. Chris doesn’t even know how his own job works (apparently) so he’s been outsourcing everything to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Frank introduces the story of a French guy who politely decline…

Refactored #090: “Fractional Reserve Crypto” On this episode of Refactored… Chris really has a bee in his bonnett about FTX, so-called “exchanges,” and crypto custody. Frank doesn’t think the term “desktop software” is going anywhere, but the guys avoid a longer discussion about convergence devices like the PinePhone and Librem. Chris narrates whil…

Refactored #089: “I Quit” On this episode of Refactored… Your homework: watch Office Space. Your other homework: never be anyone from Office Space. Frank asks, when resigning, should you talk to your boss first, or send the email? Discussion ensues. Point is — unless your boss is r/AmITheAsshole — you probably want to talk to them before making a d…

Refactored #088: “We’ve Always Done It That Way” On this episode of Refactored… Jurassic Park holds up, man. Even when Xfinity flakes out for an entire week. You know what really grinds our gears? People who defend their actions solely on the basis of tradition. “The last guy” isn’t nearly the myopic troll he’s made out to be. Don’t be the new guy …

Refactored #087: “Macroeconomics Ragnarök” On this episode of Refactored… Frank is super hype for the new God of War, if you couldn’t tell. Layoffs.fyi is — unfortunately — a super interesting site right now. The big bois are all announcing hiring freezes and/or layoffs right now. Most recently Facebook and Apple. Rumors about Amazon next. Chris ha…

Refactored #086: “George Foreman Cosplay” On this episode of Refactored… Lachlan Patterson has some funny analysis on designing the George Foreman grill. Frank argues well that your product (service?) design needs to be very focused. Be cutthroat. Feedback: “Does DevOps mean anything now that a bunch of companies are ‘doing DevOps’ but not really d…

Refactored #085: “Hustle Culture” On this episode of Refactored… Rails' has_one / belongs_to associations trip Chris up. What a dumb-dumb. Chris makes the point that most of software development is yak shaving. There is much dissection of why undergrad programs fail to produce people with basic skills. The guys fight about hustle culture. Necessari…

Refactored #084: “Agile Latency” On this episode of Refactored… Feedback: Justin asks, “Since everything is cloud now, should my IT team be shipping Chromebooks instead of beefy laptops?” The guys talk about streaming. How dumb is this trend?! Ok, ok, there are lots of exceptions - but that’s not what we’re talking about and you know it. The guys f…

Refactored #083: “Scrummy Silos” On this episode of Refactored… Allen Holub turns out to be really heckin' smart. Like, maybe he’s done this before. The guys debate methodology. Or, Frank tries to, and Chris keeps derailing the conversation. Over and OVER again. But is Scrum worth the certification it’s printed on? You decide. Frank brings up a gre…

Refactored #082: “Roommate Porn” On this episode of Refactored… Frank follows up on Chris shutting down conversation in meetings. What a jerk. Chris revisits his gear upgrade recommendations for nerds: Ergonomics first: Adjustable mesh chair Monitor height Mechanical keyboard Mouse that fits your hand Presentation second: Clean up your background (…

Refactored #081: “Managing Expectations” Update: Frank borked the first version of this episode’s audio. If you re-download, everything should be good now! On this episode of Refactored… The guys are back in the groove and all caught up with publishing the episode backlog! I know, I know - but let them have this one, they’re awfully proud of themse…

Refactored #080: “Banish the Stuckness” On this episode of Refactored… Frank recommends The Legend of Vox Machina. Chris has been really busy slacking lately. Homepages suck (most of the time). You really gotta RTFM, but YouTube can help. Frank is really enjoying Turbo and Stimulus but still trying to detox from jQuery. Are you stuck? If you’re not…