Chris Tonkinson Podcasts

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…

Refactored #079: “That Time Where the Guys Talk About Time All the Time” On this episode of Refactored… Frank built a library to handle fiscal calendars. It was cooler and less painful than it sounds. Chris has officially gone off the deep end. He thinks - and just hear him out - that everyone should use: ISO 8601 everywhere always for dates 24-hou…

Refactored #078: “To Centralize or to Decentralize?" On this episode of Refactored… Frank is The Riddler. Not the new Paul Dano Riddler, the Jim Carey Riddler at the end where his head looks weird. Frank goes to Blackhat and DEF CON and shares all about it. Spoiler: it was a mixed bag. Chris asks about policy because he’s a dumb corporate drone now…

Refactored #077: “Boost!" On this episode of Refactored… Refactored is now Podcasting 2.0-enabled! Go grab a new podcast app and become the future! Chris has had a good experience with Castamatic in particular. Frank is super jazzed about JS import maps. Seems like it could offer a way to [ctrl]+a, [del] at least some of your JS build pipeline insa…

Refactored #076: “Be Nice to Your Scrum Master” On this episode of Refactored… Chris talks about PodcastIndex.org. He’s like, mad bullish. Like, vegan-evangelist level. Did you know that YouTube is the Internets second busiest search engine? Frank did. The guys fight about Scrum for a while. Is it Good™? Definitely, maybe. Or not. You can’t please …

Refactored #075: “Self-Hosted Post-Quantum Ham” On this episode of Refactored… Frank shares some satire. In response Chris offers a ham-fisted explanation of Poe’s Law and then goes on an old man rant about bad writing in the form of LinkedIn bait (as if it really matters). The guys agree on their… caution… toward the social cesspits with respect t…

Refactored #074: “Use the Dang Frameworks” On this episode of Refactored… Chris is totally geeking out about the images released from the James Webb Space Telescope and then goes on a tangent about proving Einstein right (frame-dragging, gravitational redshift and lensing, gravitational waves, …). Frank claims there are people out there ignoring al…

Refactored #073: “Discoverability vs Expressiveness” On this episode of Refactored… Chris likes DistroTube’s video about Vim where he argues (counterintuitively) that Vim is a better UX than a GUI editor. Is it worth it to learn the arcane sorceries of a terminal editor? The guys debate. Chris says yea, Frank says nay. Vim vs Visual Studio is a gre…

Refactored #072: “Rules of the Road” On this episode of Refactored… Frank runs through the “Rules of the Road” (guidelines for fostering heatlhy creative discussion): Reserve judgement Raise alternatives, not protests You are not your ideas Always converse at a round table The guys agree - leaders should speak last. Feedback: Dave asks, “What are y…

Refactored #071: “User Experience” On this episode of Refactored… Wait — stop the music — developers are… NOT?… good at design? Chris blames the Curse of Knowledge. Frank riffs on that, but we all know he’s skating by. Who’s less tech savvy, teachers or seniors? FIGHT! Frank makes a great analogy to cars, that hide all of their complexity. Chris re…

Refactored #070: “Leadership README” On this episode of Refactored… Frank buys a first-class ticket on the follicle train to vanitytown. Chris pounces on his candid vulnerability to score cheap conversation points. Frank steals the show with a great (stolen) idea: The Leadership README. Credit to Gary Foster and Katie Wilde, in turn. Frank shares h…

Refactored #069: “Days Since Last Rona” On this episode of Refactored… A three week hiatus?!?!?! It was a team effort: Chris rides the Rona and has a rough go of it for two weeks - is he stupid, weak, or both? Frank successfully fails to record the first attempt at 69 (nice). The guys talk $1T Bitcoin, the Etherium PoS merge, fractional reserve ban…

Refactored #068: “Well-Rounded Cyber” On this episode of Refactored… Holy moly y’all — Frank got a new job, and now he’s doing the cybers! Do you lead your personal brand with “ex-Facebook,” “ex-Google,” or similar? You maybe shouldn’t do that, the guys think. The guys discuss the infosec “community.” Cliquey like Mean Girls but boy oh boy can some…

Refactored #067: “Make Boring Great Again” On this episode of Refactored… Frank blows a bunch of money on some hoity-toity markers only to revert back to Expo. Chris remembers the SaltStack vs Puppet decision differently than Frank, but they both agree, they wanted the Boring™ option. Should Everyone Code? No. The answer is no. Not everyone should …

Refactored #066: “The FTC gets it… right?" On this episode of Refactored… Frank bemoans the configuration of new peripherals (like his Shure SM7B). Why is it always such a pain? Chris got a free vacation from airline miles and hotel points. That stuff actually works! The guys discuss the logic - and implications - of the FTC’s recent order for Weig…

Refactored #065: “Incremental Trade-Offs” On this episode of Refactored… The Increment Collector’s Edition has been cancelled due to production challenges. But the reply-all thread is the real story. Here are a few pulled quotes: This is now the “I’m sad about my increment collector’s edition order” thread. Woo! Hoo! My first user therapy group! Th…

Refactored #064: “Rubber Ducking” On this episode of Refactored… Chris revisits PTO policies. He found a better one… but it still doesn’t get the jerb done. The guys compare and contrast the Dunning-Kruger effect with Imposter syndrome. Rubber ducking — if you’re not doing it, you’re doing it wrong. Frank bought a MacBook that isn’t an M1… sooooo… …

Refactored #063: “Dark Patterns” On this episode of Refactored… The FTC probes Amazon for “deliberately confusing” users during signup. Frank has a strong opinion on this one. UI screenshots that were discussed embedded below. Chris was annoyed at how Fruit Ninja kept shoving adds at his son. The guys fight about the meanging of the term satisfice.…

Refactored #062: “Schoooool’s out. For. Ever!" On this episode of Refactored… Coding Boot Camps. They are numerous. They are well-funded. They… promise more than they can deliver? The guys discuss. (TLDR — the phrase “jumpstart, not a shortcut” gets used) Chris misses a crucial opportunity to drop a “Your mom goes to college.” What are entry-level …

Refactored #061: “Career Advice” On this episode of Refactored… The guys talk unlimited PTO. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Spoiler: unlimited PTO is not a panacea. Frank thinks companies that don’t pay out unused PTO are scummy. Chris thinks it encourages better utilization. “crunch” is a term used by the gaming industry to mask a systemtically …