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This livestream took place on August 18, 2020 at noon. This is a recording. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of our next livestream – or bookmark this link and tune in every Tuesday at noon EST to hang out with Ken Rimple.
In this TechChat, Ken and Becca talk about big changes at Mozilla, the laws of UX, Python for microcontrollers, and the tech that brings them joy.
Show Notes
- Mozilla lays off 1/4 of staff in big cutbacks that affect their Rust, WASM teams
- In an awesome show of solidarity, Mozilla ex-staffers have created the Mozilla Lifeboat – a set of job posts that feature ex-Mozillans so people who were laid off have a point person to reach out to
- The Laws of UX
- …Which led to the creation of the full-sized book by Jon Yablonski
- Remember the news post from last month about someone who created a BASIC interpreter for Arduinos? Well, now we have Python for Microcontrollers, and a board (PyBoard) that runs it on bare metal
- Ken posted a quick tutorial on our website about testing web applications on AWS using Cypress
- We also have three other AWS posts by Keith Gregory and Matt Gilbride, which we’ll cover completely next week with a show devoted to theirs. Join us next Tuesday at noon!
Tech is tumultuous right now, with execs in courtrooms, and data and privacy concerns galore. But what tech brings you joy?
- Becca and Ken, both: Spotify!
- Ken: Electric cars, and his Chevy Bolt – zero $ for charging so far in 3 years and runs like a sherman tank
- Becca: Zelle & Venmo, for stalking friends’ transactions and making her own so much simpler
- Ken: Greenlight, the debit card for kids
- Becca & Ken, both: 35mm film. It’s like Christmas morning getting a roll developed. And, that grain… Becca’s film shots are over at beccarefford.com (for a web designer, her personal site sure needs a little help)
- Ken: Apple Watch – fitness / exercise feature, gamification is actually fun
- Line 6 Pod Go – Ken’s all-in-one stompbox machine for guitar, audio interface, output
What We’re Listening To:
- Twenty Thousand Hertz – a podcast that breaks down the most ubiquitous sounds in our culture (Netflix’s TA-DUM, THX deep note, etc)
- In the same vein, Rick Beato’s YouTube series “What Makes This Song Great?” where Rick breaks down popular songs piece by piece to explain why they’re so impressive
- Dead Eyes, produced by HeadGum – “it’s like Serial, but about something really insignificant”. A short and hilarious podcast series of one man’s fixation about getting fired from an acting gig by Tom Hanks, and his quest for answers and resolution
See you next week!