Picture Me Coding

All of my college roommates and friends were fellow computer nerds to some degree. We had a lot of "let me show you what i made" moments. We also played games together, went to movies together, pooled our money to buy groceries, etc. Sad to think that sort of communal nerdery is no longer common.

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Recreational Programming - Picture Me Coding Does anyone program just for fun anymore?  This episode we're talking about recreational programming, with a focus on A.K. Dewdney's Computer Recreations column from the 1980s.  Also, taco s...

Our latest episode is mostly Mike waxing nostalgic about the heyday of recreational programming, especially the late A.K. Dewdney's _Computer Recreations_ column. We also explain taco shops. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Functional Programming: Are We There Yet? - Picture Me Coding To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Scheme, we decided to talk about functional programming: what it is, how's it going these days, and does it still matter in the era of AI.  Although there's b...

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Scheme, we did an episode on functional programming. We trace the history of FP and discuss how FP will or won't fit in the AI programming world. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Our Flag Means Local-First - Picture Me Coding This week Mike and Erik talk about the local-first software movement. There's a pretty cool paper about it from 2019 called "Local-First Software:You Own Your Data, in spite of the Cloud", and there's...

Absolute banger of a @picturemecoding.bsky.social episode on 'local first':
www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

The Infinite Drive: S3 and Cloud Object Storage - Picture Me Coding For our first episode of 2026 (and Season 4), we're talking about Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3).  S3 is probably the biggest cloud service, or at least we think it is, because it is super ...

...and we're back. For our first episode of 2026, we're talking about S3 and cloud object storage. Plus, we finally figure out what an exabyte is. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Salesforce and Low-Code with Kyle Willcox - Picture Me Coding In this episode we discuss working in the Salesforce environment, and low-code platforms generally, with software engineer Kyle Willcox.  Kyle's dev journey from a CS degree at UNC Wilmington to ...

For our last episode of 2025 (and Season 3) we welcome guest Kyle Willcox to talk about Salesforce and Low Code. Also, surf, waves, stingrays, and Plato. Multitudes, baby, multitudes. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Tech News Roundup: Fighting Robots with Poetry - Picture Me Coding For the holiday we're doing another news roundup, although it's mostly about data centers and AI to be honest.  Inside the Data Centers...Korean Data CenterOracle Data Center DebtCloudflare Outag...

We did another tech news roundup for the holiday week, but it's mostly about data centers. We recommend you save it for after the Thanksgiving feast-- it should pair nicely with a food coma and a nice Pinot Noir www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs): How To Survive the Zombie Apocalypse - Picture Me Coding Erik became fascinated with CRDTs while working on a project, so we're talking about how they work, how they simplify some distributed systems, and how they might protect you from zombies.Conflict-Fre...

In this episode we talk about CRDTs. If you don't know what those are, you should listen. It might save you from zombies. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

The Turing Test - Picture Me Coding This episode is about the Turing Test, and Alan Turing's original description of the test in Computing Machinery and Intelligence.  We also discuss a recent work by two UCSD researchers that clai...

In this episode we're talking about the Turing Test, thus possibly becoming the first people who've ever needed to study for it. The Turing Test (aka The Imitation Game) just turned 75. Has it been passed? www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Ubiquitous Computing - Picture Me Coding In 1988 Mark Weiser of Xerox PARC coined the term "ubiquitous computing", and in 1991 he spelled out the particulars of this concept in a Scientific American article called "The Computer for the 21st ...

In the latest episode we discuss the late Mark Weiser's ideas about "ubiquitous computing". Did we achieve it, did we forget about it, or did it morph into something less friendly? www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

The Two Problems With Regular Expressions - Picture Me Coding This week we're talking about regular expressions, aka, regex.  These are a favorite tool of programmers, but they also have a dark side.  Do regex cause more problems than they solve? ...

In our latest episode we talk about regular expressions. What are they, where did they come from, and most importantly: are they evil? www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

The History of Unix, Part 2: Unix not Eunuchs - Picture Me Coding A continuation of our discussion about the history of Unix and its development at Bell Labs.  Erik wonders why Unix became successful and which features were novel and important. Mike just wants ...

We're talking about Unix again, especially about what made it successful. Turns out it might be because the developers didn't start off with any particular objective in mind, they just wanted to make it easier to write programs: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

The History of Unix: Part 1 - Picture Me Coding This week we talk about the early days of Unix, primarily based on Brian Kernighan's book Unix: A History and Memoir, about his days at Bell Labs and the creation of Unix and C by Ken Thompson, Dennis...

This week we're talking about the history of the Unix operating system, focusing on its origins at Bell Labs: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Erik was a guest on the Hugo, Girl! podcast!. I think he's now officially a media celebrity.

Space, Time, and Squishy Pebbles - Picture Me Coding This week we dip our toes into the river of theoretical computer science and immediately drown.  We discuss the amazing and surprising result of researcher Ryan Williams about how space is a more...

For this episode we delve into computational complexity, attempting to build up to Ryan Williams's remarkable recent result regarding space complexity vs time complexity. We are undeterred by not knowing what the hell we're talking about: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Databases Part II: No SQL, No Problem - Picture Me Coding This week we try to make sense of what were once called "NoSQL" databases, focusing on the early entries into the field like Bigtable, Dynamo and Cassandra.  We try to explain how they differ fro...

We're talking about databases again, this time the category of NoSQL databases. This type of database is now over 20 years old, but that wasn't enough time for us to figure them out: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Vibe Coding: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Picture Me Coding This week we host our friends Bobak Farzin and Kevin Fahey to talk about their experiences building applications with AI tools.  Both Bob and Kevin are very tech savvy in different ways, but neit...

This week we talk to our friends Bobak Farzin and Kevin Fahey about their experiences building software with AI tools. While tech-savvy, neither are full-time developers, so they have an interesting perspective on the good and bad parts of vibe coding: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Friends and Relations - Picture Me Coding We're talking about databases again.  Or database management systems, we're not totally sure.  In any case, they are relational databases (or database management systems).The relational data...

This episode we're talking about databases again, specifically relational databases (or relational database management systems, we're not sure) www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Shoulders of Giants: Jim Gray - Picture Me Coding Jim Gray was a key innovator in the area of database technology and he won the Turing Prize in 1998.  He was particularly influential with respect to the definition and formalization of transacti...

We kick off a series of episodes on database technology with a discussion of the late, great Jim Gray, winner of the 1998 Turing Prize and the person most responsible for the concept of database transactions. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Two theories: (1) he's an idiot, or (2) he's an idiot who just revealed the most classified secret of all time.

Language, Meaning, and Functional Programming with Matt Teichman - Picture Me Coding This week Matt Teichman, host of the Elucidations podcast, dropped by the show to chat about functional programming and its surprising relationship to linguistics and philosophy. Matt teaches Linguist...

In our latest episode we have a great discussion with Matt Teichman, a lecturer in computer science at U. Chicago, an OCaml programmer, and host of the Elucidations podcast. We cover linguistics, philosophy, functional programming, libraries, and music: www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

I don't have FOMO, i think i really _am_ missing out

UX Wing Fighters - Picture Me Coding In this episode we talk to Jonathan Whitmire who designed the Picture Me Coding swag, logos, artwork (and t-shirts and stickers and coffee mugs!).He gives us a rundown on what it's like working alongs...

This week we talk to UX expert Jonathan Whitmire about the scope and meaning of user experience and the relationship between designers and software engineers. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Our Flag Means Local-First - Picture Me Coding This week Mike and Erik talk about the local-first software movement. There's a pretty cool paper about it from 2019 called "Local-First Software:You Own Your Data, in spite of the Cloud", and there's...

This week we talk about Local-First software, an exciting new way to think about building software that puts more focus on local data without sacrificing collaboration. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about how tariffs are throwing the PC gaming industry into disarray, and how the era of affordable computing is coming to an end.

@edzitron.com @gamersnexus.bsky.social

www.iheart.com/podcast/1119...

Interpreting the Newses - Picture Me Coding Mike and Erik analyze the tech news again.  The AIs are hallucinating, but gamers are too because of Game Transfer Phenomenon.  The Luddites are back for what's likely a futile effort to kee...

This week we survey the tech news again. It turns out that the world is still weird. The AIs are hallucinatin' but so are the people. Neo-Luddites oppose the robots, but it's just a matter of time until we can't outrun them. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Predicting the Future: Law, Software, and Attorneys Using AI - Picture Me Coding Today Mike and Erik are joined by John Benson, an attorney with a background in digital forensics who has been at the forefront of integrating LLMs into legal practice. The conversation ranges over th...

"The first thing we do is, let’s unplug all the lawyers". This week we talk to John Benson, a lawyer and hacker, about his use of LLMs and other technology in the legal profession. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...

Sailing to Byzantium - Picture Me Coding This week Mike and Erik tackle Byzantine Fault Tolerance! But what's it all about? Gangsters? Generals? Constantinople? Take a journey with us as we sail off into the dizzying complexity of Byzantine ...

This week Erik and i talk about traitorous generals, gangsters, malicious agents, and faulty message sending. Surprisingly, it has almost nothing to do with politics. www.picturemecoding.com/2222783/epis...