Runtime Arguments

Jim McQuillan & Wolf
  • 5.0 (3)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Conversations about technology between two friends who disagree on plenty, and agree on plenty more.

  1. MAR 7

    23: Containers - What's in the box????

    Containers have become the standard way for deploying applications on servers and the web and sometimes even on the desktop. In this episode we dive into what containers are, how they work, how to build them and what you can do with them. Whether you are using containers in your development environment, deploying on servers in your data center or as a cloud service, containers save time, handle dependencies, increase security and just make things easier and better in so many ways. We discuss several commands to build and run containers and we've included examples here: Dockerfile example: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM ubuntu RUN apt update && apt install -y apache2 ENTRYPOINT [ "/usr/sbin/apachectl", "-D", "FOREGROUND", "-k", "start" ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Build the image using the above Dockerfile:     docker buildx build --tag my_container ./ Run the container:     docker run -p 8080:80 -d my_container Now, point your web browser at http://localhost:8080 (assuming you did this on your desktop) Display a list of running containers:     docker compose ls Attach to a running container and get a shell:     docker exec -it [container name] /bin/bash Stop a container:     docker container stop [container name] Start it running again:     docker container start [container name] Remove a container (after stopping it)     docker container rm [container name] Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 41m

  2. FEB 21

    22: With Claude, I'm doing the right things better and quicker

    In episode 8, Wolf talks about using AI to write code; and a bit of the landscape around that. In this episode, he describes what he’s learned on his journey from just coding to using AI as a major tool in his toolbox for addressing friction in every area of (mostly) work and (a bit of) life. Less about the landscape and more about the applications, the reasoning, the big-picture, and having the right expectations. Links: Claude best practices guide - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/best-practices Claude Opus 4.6: The Biggest AI Jump I've Covered – It's Not Close - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKk77rzOL34 The OpenClaw Saga: Zuckerberg Begged This developer to Join Meta. He Said No - https://youtu.be/5IzPLjqkFaE?si=P-2Ba1WHXmkU_zOj Seth Godin - https://seths.blog/2026/02/how-to-write-a-coaching-learning-prompt/ Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 22m

  3. FEB 7

    21: Everything Is A Database Problem

    Jim brings his vast knowledge of Databases and dives into the history, some theory, some best practices and some choices you can make. Links: Claude best practices guide - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/best-practices Passkeys Server and Client - https://github.com/Runtime-Arguments/passkeys-demo Webassembly History - https://bytecodealliance.org/articles/ten-years-of-webassembly-a-retrospective E.F.Codd - Relational Model of Data for Large Data Banks- https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf - E.F.Codd Lessons about rewriting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 36m

  4. JAN 24

    20: Git protects you

    Git is an amazing tool for managing your source code. Lots of people use it every day but most people barely scratch the surface of what git can do. In this episode, we dive in and explain lots of features from the simple to the complex. Links: Julia Evans Wizard Zines https://wizardzines.com - The main page https://wizardzines.com/comics/inside-git/ - The git specific 'Zine Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 43m

  5. JAN 10

    19: Data centers - Don't we have enough already?

    Data centers are sprouting up every where. Do we really need more of them? In this episode, Jim and Wolf talk about what data centers are, how prevalent they are and what it takes to build them. We talk about the sizes and energy uses and all sorts of other things related to data centers. It was a fun episode to research and very eye-opening. Links: https://statista.com https://cloudscene.com/region/datacenters-in-north-america https://venturebeat.com/infrastructure/inference-is-splitting-in-two-nvidias-usd20b-groq-bet-explains-its-next-act https://energyattheedge.substack.com/p/how-utilities-make-money-capital Wolf’s dotfiles: https://github.com/wolf/dotfiles Direct link to Wolf's Alabaster theme for Helix (now both light and dark): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wolf/alabaster-for-helix/main/helix/dot-config/helix/themes/wolf-alabaster-light.toml The repo for the dotx tool: https://github.com/wolf/dotx Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 15m

  6. 12/27/2025

    18: The one where Jim asks Wolf questions

    This episode is a little different from our normal format. When you listen to podcasts, watch Youtube videos or even sit in a conference room listening to a speaker, they almost always will mention things and assume you know what they are talking about.  And lets face it, we don't always know what they are talking about. In this episode, Jim asks Wolf questions.  Questions about things you hear in other podcasts (maybe even ours) or other places and you don't really understand what they said so, if you are like us, you have to go look up whatever it was they mentioned, just so you can follow along. It's a fun one and we're sure you'll get something out of it. And, if you have questions you'd like answered, please send them to us. We'll probably do this again sometime. Links: HackerNews: https://news.ycombinator.com/ Advent of Code: https://adventofcode.com/ Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 2m

  7. 12/13/2025

    17: Does my key fob have more computing power than the Lunar lander?

    When people talk about the power of their computers, we've heard all kinds of claims: I have more power on my desktop computer than the Apollo had to put a man on the moonThe phone in my pocket has more power than the Apollo space program hadI have more power on my wrist watch than the lunar landerAnd the latest one: I have more power in my key fob than the Apollo capsule hadAre any of these true?  In this episode, we break it down and enjoy a bit of computing history along the way. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer https://www.ibm.com/history/space-shuttle https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840 Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 9m

  8. 11/29/2025

    16: Do you have all the right tools in your toolbox?

    Wolf has lots of great information about the tools you should consider using when developing software projects. Jim chimes in with his own ideas. Takeaways Just a few take-aways this episode and I hope by this point you have already internalized them and this is just a summary. I’ve presented categories: the tools you will absolutely need to get your job done. You will need an editor. You will need language. You will need a source-code control strategy. The first take-away from this episode is these categories! Do you have everything you need? Are you using it when you actually need it? Have you been using print when what you really needed was a debugger?I’m going to separate this next take-away into angles. These angles have the same implication: to get the right tools, you might need to do a little research.Do you know what all a tool in a given category can do for you? If you’re a Notepad user and didn’t know that PyCharm or Helix or VS Code could rename a method and fix it across your entire project in a single command (skipping over things that were spelled the same but weren’t actual uses of that method) … then why would switching even cross your mind?Do the “math”: is an alternative enough better to make you switch? Will you get out of it more than you put into the switch? Git was enough better, for Jim, than Subversion. But in editors, Helix is not enough better for Jim, to make him leave Vim. There’s nothing wrong with that! In every case, it’s never about which is better; it’s about which is enough better. Is the juice worth the squeeze?Maybe one tool is not enough! I personally do the bulk of my editing in Helix; but sometimes, PyCharm does the specific thing I need. Both are at my fingertips. You don’t have to settle for just one tool.And finally, as always for me, the underlying theme is: are you spending whatever it is you’re spending (time, money, effort) on the things with the biggest payback? Using a great editor, an editor that you are great at using, lets you work faster and more effectively. The right tool doing the right job at the right time helps you spend less on your way to the end goal.Links Here's a link to the github repo with the project for reading Meater temperature probes: https://github.com/Runtime-Arguments/meater Hosts: Jim McQuillan can be reached at jam@RuntimeArguments.fm Wolf can be reached at wolf@RuntimeArguments.fm Follow us on Mastodon: @RuntimeArguments@hachyderm.io If you have feedback for us, please send it to feedback@RuntimeArguments.fm Checkout our webpage at http://RuntimeArguments.fm Theme music: Dawn by nuer self, from the album Digital Sky

    1h 34m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Conversations about technology between two friends who disagree on plenty, and agree on plenty more.

Information

  • Creator
    Jim McQuillan & Wolf
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Runtime Arguments
  • Show Website
    Runtime Arguments

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