Programming Throwdown

Patrick Wheeler and Jason Gauci
  • 4.5 (550)
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  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Programming Throwdown

Programming Throwdown educates Computer Scientists and Software Engineers on a cavalcade of programming and tech topics. Every show will cover a new programming language, so listeners will be able to speak intelligently about any programming language.

  1. DEC 3

    178: Working from Home

    Intro topic: Smart homes News/Links: SpaceX Starship Flight Test Five / Sixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKI7y3DTXkShareDBhttps://github.com/share/sharedbOrion AR Glasseshttps://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/Blade and Sorcery 1.0 is outhttps://www.meta.com/experiences/blade-sorcery-nomad/2031826350263349/Book of the Show Patrick: The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrencehttps://amzn.to/4fry2XWJason: Masters of Doomhttps://amzn.to/3YxuD3c Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Balatrohttps://www.playbalatro.com/Jason: Cursor IDEhttps://www.cursor.com/Topic: Working from Home IntroBackground & WFH experiencesIs it Panacea?Realizing it works better for some than othersInternally MotivatedSchedulingCommunicationsHome SetupDedicated spaceHandling Non-work DistractionsKeyboards, Monitors, Music, … Desk related thingsThe specter of RTO ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 45m
  2. 177: Vector Databases

    NOV 4

    177: Vector Databases

    Intro topic:  Buying a Car News/Links: Cognitive Load is what Mattershttps://github.com/zakirullin/cognitive-loadDiffusion models are Real-Time Game Engineshttps://gamengen.github.io/Your Company Needs Junior Devshttps://softwaredoug.com/blog/2024/09/07/your-team-needs-juniorsSeamless Streaming / Fish Speech / LLaMA OmniSeamless: https://huggingface.co/facebook/seamless-streamingFish: https://github.com/fishaudio/fish-speech LLaMA Omni: https://github.com/ictnlp/LLaMA-Omni  Book of the Show Patrick: Thought Emporium Youtubehttps://youtu.be/8X1_HEJk2Hw?si=T8EaHul-QMahyUvQJason: Novel Mindshttps://www.novelminds.ai/ Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Escape Simulatorhttps://pinestudio.com/games/escape-simulator/Jason: Cursor IDEhttps://www.cursor.com/Topic: Vector Databases (~54 min) How computers represent data traditionallyASCII valuesRGB valuesHow traditional compression worksHuffman encoding (tree structure)Lossy example: Fourier Transform & store coefficientsHow embeddings are computedPairwise (contrastive) methodsForward models (self-supervised)Similarity metricsApproximate Nearest Neighbors (ANN)Sub-Linear ANNClusteringSpace Partitioning (e.g. K-D Trees)What a vector database doesPerform nearest-neighbors with many different similarity metricsStore the vectors and the data structures to support sub-linear ANNHandle updates, deletes, rebalancing/reclustering, backups/restoresExamplespgvector: a vector-database plugin for postgresWeaviate, Pinecone Milvus ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 28m
  3. 176: MLOps at SwampUp

    SEP 24

    176: MLOps at SwampUp

    James Morse: Software Engineer at CiscoSystem Administrator to DevOpsDifference between DevOps and MLOpsGetting Started with DevOpsLuke Marsden: CEO of Helix MLHow to start a business at 15 years oldBTRFS vs ZFSMLOps: the intersection of software, DevOps and AIFine-tuning AI on the CloudSome advice for folks interested in ML OpsYuval Fernbach: CTO MLOps & JFrogStarting QwakGoing from a jupyter notebook to productionML Supply ChainGetting started in Machine LearningStephen Chin: VP of DevRel at Neo4JDeveloper Relations: The JobWhat is a Large Language Model?Knowledge graphs and the Linkage ModelHow to Use Graph databases in EnterpriseHow to get into ML Ops ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 59m
  4. 175: Resume Writing

    AUG 16

    175: Resume Writing

    175: Resume Writing Intro topic:  DSLR Photography vs Camera Phone News/Links: Free Internet while flying by abusing edits to your profile namehttps://robertheaton.com/pyskywifi/Making Animated Characters with AI Arthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSN76gb_Z28On 10x Engineershttps://stackoverflow.blog/2024/06/19/the-real-10x-developer-makes-their-whole-team-better/The Beauty and Challenges of AI-Generated Artistic Gymnasticshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwJIYj3hPAUBook of the Show Patrick: The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liuhttps://amzn.to/3xNEoRBJason: The Checklist Manifestohttps://amzn.to/3W2JjpM Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch)https://amzn.to/3S9VJLfJason: Amazon Qhttps://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AmazonWebServices.amazon-q-vscode Topic: Resume Writing (Courtesy of Matthew C.) Why have a resume?Many jobs require it to get into the considerationToday many are screened for keywords automaticallyLog for future youWhat is a resume?One-page descriptionKey accomplishments & experiencesComparison to CVReferencesHow to write a good resume?Do’sInclude your github if it has good contributionsBe specific (dates, locations, skills)Isolate your specific contributionsBe accurate/honestBe conciseBe ready to discuss any point you have on the resumeList hobbies/activities/extracurricularsDon’tsHave mistakes (especially dates)Use images (most companies use text extraction)Use it as a design portfolioPut social qualities (e.gs. hard-working, motivated, friendly)Use fancy templates/toolsResourcesManager Tools: How to scan resumes https://www.manager-tools.com/2016/05/how-scan-resume-part-1 Google docsLatex/Lyx for CVsHow to think about your career and how it impacts your future resume writing (career planning)Technologies and architectures more than specifics of project detailsHow various choices may age over time ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 41m
  5. 174: Devops

    JUN 10

    174: Devops

    Intro topic:  Social Media Auto Responder LLM News/Links: Amazon releases Amazon Qhttps://press.aboutamazon.com/2024/4/aws-announces-general-availability-of-amazon-q-the-most-capable-generative-ai-powered-assistant-for-accelerating-software-development-and-leveraging-companies-internal-dataCheap RiscV “Super Cluster” from BitluniDIY 256-Core RISC-V super computerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d3PgEXhdYCH32V203Phi 3 Vision Releasedhttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/new-models-added-to-the-phi-3-family-available-on-microsoft-azure/OllamaChatGPT 4ohttps://openai.com/index/hello-gpt-4o/Book of the Show Patrick: MyFirstMillion Podcasthttps://www.mfmpod.com/Jason: A Path Towards Autonomous Machine Intelligencehttps://openreview.net/pdf?id=BZ5a1r-kVsf Patreon https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Dave the Diverhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/1868140/DAVE_THE_DIVER/Jason: Turing Completehttps://store.steampowered.com/app/1444480/Turing_Complete/  Topic: DevOps What is DevOpsDevOps vs SREWhy DevOps is importantEngineering time is expensiveOutages can hurt company metrics & reputationBuild & Testing InfrastructureBazel & Build/Test IdempotencyBuild/Test FarmsBuildBarnGithub ActionsJenkinsInfrastructure as codeTerraformBlue Green DeploymentContinuous Everything!Continuous IntegrationContinuous DeploymentHow to Measure DevOpsBuild TimesRelease cadenceBug tracking / round trip timesEngineer SurveysTime spent doing what you enjoyDevOps Horror Stories ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 26m
  6. 173: Mocking and Unit Tests

    APR 29

    173: Mocking and Unit Tests

    173: Mocking and Unit Tests Intro topic:  Headphones News/Links: Texas A&M University Physics Festivalhttps://physicsfestival.tamu.edu/Rust vs Cpp at GoogleLars Bergstrom (Google Director of Engineering): Rust teams at Google are as productive as the ones using Go and 2x those using Cpphttps://youtu.be/6mZRWFQRvmw?t=27012Is Cosine Similarity Really About Similarityhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05440Xz utils supply chain attackAndres Freund at Microsofthttps://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/what-we-know-about-the-xz-utils-backdoor-that-almost-infected-the-world/ Book of the Show Patrick:80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgeraldhttps://amzn.to/3xyEKLoJason: A Movie Making Nerdhttps://amzn.to/49ycDJj Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Shapez Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playdigious.shapez&hl=en_US&gl=USShapez iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shapez-factory-game/id6450830779Jason: Dwarf Fortresshttps://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/ Topic: Mocking and Unit Tests What are Unit TestsBalance between utility, maintenance, and coverageUnit Test: testing small functionsRegression Test: Testing larger functionsSystem Test: End-to-end testing of programsWhat are mocks & fakesWhen to use mock vs. fakeMocking libraries in various languagesPython: https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.htmlJava: https://github.com/mockito/mockitoC++:  https://github.com/google/googletest ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 35m
  7. 172: Transformers and Large Language Models

    MAR 11

    172: Transformers and Large Language Models

    172: Transformers and Large Language Models Intro topic: Is WFH actually WFC? News/Links: Falsehoods Junior Developers Believe about Becoming Seniorhttps://vadimkravcenko.com/shorts/falsehoods-junior-developers-believe-about-becoming-senior/Pure PursuitTutorial with python code: https://wiki.purduesigbots.com/software/control-algorithms/basic-pure-pursuit Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYR7mmcwT2w PID without a PHDhttps://www.wescottdesign.com/articles/pid/pidWithoutAPhd.pdfGoogle releases Gemmahttps://blog.google/technology/developers/gemma-open-models/ Book of the Show Patrick: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)https://amzn.to/3uEhg6vJason: How to Make a Video Game All By Yourselfhttps://amzn.to/3UZtP7b Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: Stadia Controller Wifi to Bluetooth Unlockhttps://stadia.google.com/controller/index_en_US.htmlJason: FUSE and SSHFShttps://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh Topic: Transformers and Large Language Models How neural networks store informationLatent variablesTransformersEncoders & DecodersAttention LayersHistoryRNNVanishing Gradient ProblemLSTMShort term (gradient explodes), Long term (gradient vanishes)Differentiable algebraKey-Query-ValueSelf AttentionSelf-Supervised Learning & Forward ModelsHuman FeedbackReinforcement Learning from Human FeedbackDirect Policy Optimization (Pairwise Ranking) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 26m
  8. 171: Compilers and Interpreters

    FEB 12

    171: Compilers and Interpreters

    Intro topic: Monitor setups News/Links: BlueScuti, Willis, beats Tetrishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJ5UuknsHUPalWorld accused of being an AI Producthttps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/01/22/palworld-accused-of-using-genai-with-no-evidence-so-far/?sh=26a9651b42394 Billion if-statements to determine if a number is even or oddhttps://andreasjhkarlsson.github.io/jekyll/update/2023/12/27/4-billion-if-statements.htmlSeamless M4Thttps://ai.meta.com/blog/seamless-m4t/ Book of the Show Patrick:Foundation by Isaac Asimovhttps://amzn.to/3SrmgnPJason: Propaganda by Edward Bernayshttps://amzn.to/47JUCXJ Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h Tool of the Show Patrick: The Room Gamehttps://www.fireproofgames.com/games/the-roomJason:Incredibuildhttps://www.incredibuild.com/ Topic: Compilers and Interpreters (Request by Jessica W.) Machine CodeArchitecture SpecificAssemblySingle vs Two Pass CompilerHigh level LanguagesIntermediate RepresentationJVM ByteCode vs Machine Code for portabilityScripting/InterpretersJITProfile Guided OptimizationResourceshttps://www.craftinginterpreters.com/https://nandgame.com/Turing Complete ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 25m
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4.5
out of 5
550 Ratings

About

Programming Throwdown educates Computer Scientists and Software Engineers on a cavalcade of programming and tech topics. Every show will cover a new programming language, so listeners will be able to speak intelligently about any programming language.

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick Wheeler and Jason Gauci
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2024
  • Episodes
    179
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ℗ & © 2011 Programming Throwdown
  • Show Website
    Programming Throwdown

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