/dev/hell

The Development Hell Podcast

Episode 23: The Bozo Brush

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19 Bozo Costumes. Photo by H. Michael Miley

UPDATE Nov 28 2012: We fixed a bad error in the original audio file. Please re-download to get the corrected file

Episode 23 is packed chock-full of awesome guests. We talk about the controversy around the cancellation of BritRuby, and the larger issues of diversity and inclusiveness at tech conferences, with Ashe Dryden and Reg Braithwaite. We also get into the goofiness of Star Trek and the wonder of railroad games.

If you’re the soul in the software, you’ll do these things:

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Links and Notes

Episode 22: Object-Oriented Home Renovation

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First FEMA modular homes arrive in Joplin. Photo by Kansas City District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

We hit the Double Deuce this week with special guest Jim Gay. Jim is the author of Clean Ruby, the upcoming book that applies “Data, Context and Interaction” (DCI) concepts to Ruby and Rails development. Jim is clearly much smarter than us, so we took this opportunity to attack him mercilessly as a representative of the sexist Ruby community. Jim also shares his experiences as a self-published author. In addition, we talk about how True North PHP planning is going for Chris, and Ed’s experiences at Brooklyn Beta.

If you’re a true believer, you’ll do these things:

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Links and Notes

Episode 21: The Grace Hopper Rape Whistle

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The Grace Hopper Rape Whistle. Photo by Liene Verzemnieks

Twenty-one. Like blackjack. Like the gun salute. For those about to rock.

We recorded this episode just a few days after #20, because we were able to get Elizabeth Naramore as a super-special secret guest! She talks to us about Codeconnexx, an open source tech and life skills conference in Indianapolis Nov 8-9. We also talked a lot about getting women to submit talks to conferences, including the success that Jan Lehnardt has had in this area with JSConfEU. We then get into Chris’s experiments with JS testing, and what we think of App.net from a developer perspective.

If you’re support the inalienable rights of all humans, you’ll do these things:

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Links and Notes

Episode 20: Chris Hartjes’s Kitchen Nightmare

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kitchen collapse by Nate Dorr

EPISODE DOS EQUIS! Our 20th show goes out to all the haters. IN YOUR FACE HATERS.

This week we talk about how Chris sucks at cooking food, which segues nicely into a discussion of the True North PHP conference that he’s co-organizing in Toronto in November. Thankfully he will not be catering the event himself. We also talk about Ed’s move from doing PHP to Python for day-to-day work, and the plusses and minuses he’s encountered during the transition.

If you’re a Superfriend, you’ll do these things:

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Links and Notes

Episode 19: Almost an Apology

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Apologies by Christopher Cotrell

After some downtime spent taking mental reps, Chris and Ed are back with a vengeance for one of our best shows. Joining us is Chris Shiflett, PHP fellow and security expert. They talk about how we interact with non-techie members of dev teams, what they’re doing with Node, the state of the Canadian soccer program, heavy vs lightweight frameworks, tribalism in programming communities, and the importance of balancing work with life. We also talk to Chris Shiflett about his role as co-founder of Brooklyn Beta, and what they’re trying to accomplish with the conference.

If you’re more animal than man, you’ll do these things:

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Links and Notes

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
–Robert A Heinlein

Episode 17: This Show Is Terrible

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Clothes dryer by Thom Watson

This week on /dev/hell we talk about mentoring. Chris discusses his experiences taking a young up-and-comer under his wing, and we talk about the PHP Mentoring project. Then we babble about Aspen, an interesting, non-traditional Python web framework. Good and bad stuff in PHP gets knocked around again. Finally, Ed talks about fixing his dryer and yells at the audience.

If you love freedom, you’ll do these things:

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Links

Episode 16: Foam Cowboy Hats

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Yeehaw by waferbaby

After a couple weeks off, we get back into the profane swing of things. We kick off with alittle followup on the previous episode on mental illness, but decide to quit bumming everybody out by moving on to cool tech stuff. Ed talks a little about Reaper, a new digital audio workstation he’s using to do production on the podcast. Then we chat about remote pair programming with browser-based editors like Cloud9. Finally we cover Chris’ experiences at Lonestar PHP, and what each of us gets out of speaking at conferences.

If you care about us, you’ll do these things:

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Episode 15: Whack Job Central

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Main Hall, Hellingly Asylum by howzey

On today’s Very Special Episode of /dev/hell, we talk about Ed’s struggles with depression and anxiety, and how it’s impacted him as a member of the open source community. Yeah, we know, total buzzkill, but this is important stuff. We hope that by talking about it, folks with similar issues will be more likely to seek help.

We’d really like to hear from you about this topic. You can leave us a comment, or send us a link & we’ll collect the responses.

Here’s your homework for this week, suckas:

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Links

Episode 14: The PHP Guy Is Sulking

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Sulking Spiderman by kenjonbro

This week we’re joined by Justin Searls, JavaScript developer and JS testing EXPERT. We talk lots about building and testing “fat” browser apps, particularly about best practices and different testing approaches. After a while Chris felt bad and told us to shut up.

This was the first podcast we broadcast live while recording. Big ups to WonderNetwork for providing the streaming bandwidth, and Engine Yard for sponsoring the podcast. Keep an eye on the @dev_hell Twitter account for info on our next live stream.

If you love us, you will do these things:

  • You should follow us on Twitter here.
  • You should rate us on iTunes here

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