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. 1D AGO

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 11/15/2025

    15: POSIXLY_CORRECT - What it means to be POSIX Compliant

    Listen in as Jim describes what POSIX is, what it means to be "POSIX Compliant" and why you should (or shouldn't) care. 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 3m

  6. 11/01/2025

    14: You are NOT Google

    Wolf surfaces five fundamentals to becoming a better developer (that you probably didn’t even know you didn’t know)! This is a fiery one! Jim asks questions, and also questions Wolf's choices. Takeaways The problem comes first—ask more questionsStart with the simplest thing that could reasonably workMeasure before you optimize (but don’t be stupid)Understand what’s actually an errorTest so you can evolve, and so that you don’t waste time, money, and effortLinks Solution from Marlon for Jim's problem of maximizing a terminal window vertically https://github.com/Runtime-Arguments/MaximizeVertically 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

    56 min

  7. 10/18/2025

    13: Terminals: Talking to the machine

    Jim takes us on a walk down memory lane! Terminals have been around for a long time, probably much longer than you'd ever guess. Join us as we talk about the history of computer terminals and get a bit into how they work and how they've evolved into the amazing applications that we have today. Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_700Julia Evans Wizard Zines links: https://wizardzines.com/https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal/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 12m

  8. 10/04/2025

    12: GPUs - Can I, Should I, and How?

    It's Wolf's turn this episode, and this one required research! GPUs obviously do tons of work. You see it every time you play a graphics intensive game. You know how crypto-miners are using them. You’ve heard AI companies using them for model building. You’ve got this hardware in your machine! Can you use it? Should you use it? Where even to start? GPUs can help if your problems, data, systems, languages, and architecture align. GPU-based solutions won’t help everyone … but when they do help, oh boy do they really help. Takeaways Platform recommendations: NVIDIA: Richest ecosystem, start here if you have choiceAMD: Improving rapidly, good for PyTorch workflowsApple Silicon: Excellent for unified memory workloadsLanguage recommendations: Python for quickest winsRust/C++ for maximum controlJavaScript for web applicationsLinks Dave Farley explains what's wrong with Vibe coding https://youtu.be/1A6uPztchXk?si=mzEg4mpbTIjaihnP How do graphics cards work https://youtu.be/h9Z4oGN89MU?si=JRrumRPfYU6a0A02  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
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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
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Runtime Arguments
  • Show Website
    Runtime Arguments