Legacy Code Rocks

Simply knowing what is in your software is not any guarantee of safety. We need to know what that software does versus what we expect it to do. We need to know its rules of behavior. 

Today, we talk with Andrew Hendela, a founder of Karambit.ai, a company dedicated to automatically detecting malware and securing your software supply chain. Andrew worked for over a decade automating hard cybersecurity problems. He has many years of experience in cybersecurity leadership and deep technical expertise in fields such as malware analysis and automated cyber attribution. He tells us about software bills of behavior and why SBOMs are insufficient to protect your software supply chain from attacks. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Andrew on LinkedIn and visit Karambit.ai website. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Andrew on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-hendela/

Karambit.ai at https://karambit.ai 

In the age of rising AI, we cannot neglect the topic of the social and political consequences of the code we leave behind. Today, we talk with Amy Newell, a 24-year veteran of the tech industry and an avid activist in issues spanning from local politics to tech. Amy discusses how to engage with emerging technologies, how to use them, and how to create them while being cognisant of the harm we can inadvertently cause along the way. When you finish listening to the episode, visit Amy's website at amynewell.com and check out their newsletter at amywriteswords.com. 

Mentioned in this episode

Amy’s website at www.amynewell.com

Amy’s newsletter at www.amywriteswords.com

Amy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amynewell/

Imagine if you could counter ransomware by exploiting it to create a backup of your attacked data for you. Now, that would be disruptive! 

Today, we talk with Lance James. James is an experienced cybersecurity specialist with 25 years of experience in the field. Building on his programming, network security, digital forensics, malware research, and counterintelligence experience, Lance tells us how to use disruptive thinking to improve cyber security and predict and counter major cyber threats. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Lance on LinkedIn.

Lance on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/unit221b/

Lance’s TedTalk at https://www.ted.com/talks/lance_james_how_attackers_can_use_your_brain_against_you_in_psy_ops

Going from monolith to microservices is one of the most popular topics in software engineering. But jumping the boat without understanding why can be a dangerous (and expensive) adventure. 

Today we talk with Nelida Velazquez. Nelida is a senior software engineer at Cobalt, a cyber security company that offers pentest as a service. As a backend developer, she had numerous opportunities to witness ill-informed migrations from monolith to microservices, and she is sharing her experience with us. 

When you finish listening to this episode, connect with Nelida on X and visit her blog at https://tolkiana.com. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Nelida on X at: https://twitter.com/tolkiana

Nelida’s blog at https://tolkiana.com 

Microsoft invited the Legacy Code Rocks team to attend Microsoft Build Conference and gave us access to the studio on the third floor of the Seattle Convention Center. In this episode, we talk with Raymond Chen, a senior software engineer at Microsoft.  

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

When you finish listening the episode, connect with Raymond on LinkedIn. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Raymond on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-cheng-18460a82/

The Old New Thing at https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/

The Old New Thing (book) at https://www.amazon.com/Old-New-Thing-Development-Throughout/dp/0321440307

Microsoft invited the Legacy Code Rocks team to attend Microsoft Build Conference and gave us access to the studio on the third floor of the Seattle Convention Center. In this episode, we talk with Debbie O’Brien and Max Schmitt, both part of the Microsoft Playwright team.. 

Playwright is a tool developed by Microsoft that allows developers to automate the testing of web applications.. Playwright's unique feature is its ability to handle multiple browser contexts, making it efficient for testing complex scenarios and improving cross-browser compatibility.

The opinions expressed in this episode are Debbie’s, Max’s,  and Scott’s and cannot be attributed to Microsoft or its employees in any way. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Playwright at: https://playwright.dev

Microsoft invited the Legacy Code Rocks team to attend Microsoft Build Conference and gave us access to the studio on the third floor of the Seattle Convention Center. In this episode, we talk with Kayla Cinnamon, the first of the three guests we had an opportunity to chat with at the Conference. 

Kayla is a Product Manager with Microsoft. She’s currently working on Microsoft Dev Home and helps out the Microsoft PowerToys team. Kayla is also the former product manager of Windows Terminal. She tells us about the maintenance and improvements of the Windows Terminal including the brand-new features added to it, such as tab tear-off. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Kayla on Twitter. 

The opinions expressed in this episode are Kayla’s and Scott’s and cannot be attributed to Microsoft or its employees in any way. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Kayla on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cinnamon_msft 

Windows Development Blog at https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/

Microsoft Build 2023 at https://news.microsoft.com/build-2023/

How many of your passwords do you actually know? Now, how many of those passwords are already on the black web? We are living in a fascinating age of transition from personalised passwords dependent on text inputs and our memory to more advanced access solutions. 

To help us navigate this evolution, we talk with Justin Richer. Justin is a technologist working on a wide variety of projects and problems throughout the internet. Justin is the founder of Bespoke Engineering, an independent consultancy specialising in internet security and identity. He is the author of OAuth in Action along with Antonio Sanso. He is the editor of several security standards including http message signatures, GNAP, OAuth dynamic client registration, OAuth token introspection, and vectors of trust, and has contributed to dozens of others. He previously spent 15 years at the MITRE Corporation contributing to many different efforts, including collaboration, identity, serious gaming, and security research programs.

When you finish listening to the episode, visit the Bespoke Engineering website, grab Justin's and Antonio's book, or connect with Justin on LinkedIn or Twitter. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Justin on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinricher/

Justin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/justin__richer

Bespoke Engineering at https://bspk.io

OAuth in Action at https://www.manning.com/books/oauth-2-in-action

There is some disconnect between business people and engineers when talking about technical debt. While engineers understand the metaphor as a credit card debt that has to be paid off entirely and as soon as possible, business people see it more as a mortgage paid in small installments over a long period. 

Today we talk with Dave Mangot, CEO of Mangoteque and the consultant, author, and speaker helping private equity portfolio companies get good at delivering software. As a former architect at SalesForce, Dave is well-placed to tell us how to bridge the gap between the executives and the engineers and tackle technical debt in a technically sound and economical way. 

When you finish listening to the episode, visit the Magoteque website, read the Magoteque blog, and connect with Dave on LinkedIn. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Dave on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmangot/ 

Mangoteque at https://www.mangoteque.com

Mangoteque blog at https://blog.mangoteque.com

Dominica DeGrandis, Making Work Visible at https://www.amazon.com/Making-Work-Visible-Exposing-Optimize/dp/1942788150 

How to ensure that your code review practices are not just an expensive bottleneck in your team’s productivity but its ultimate superpower?

Today we talk with Michaela Greiler, a Head of Research at DX and the owner of a consultancy and training company, Awesome Code Reviews, focused on helping development teams improve their practices and processes. She tells us when to do code reviews, how to get the most value out of them, how to incentivize meaningful code reviews, and much more. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Michaela on Twitter, visit her website, and check out the available workshops and courses at www.awesomecodereviews.com. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Michaela on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mgreiler

Michaela’s website at https://www.michaelagreiler.com

Awesome Code Reviews at https://www.awesomecodereviews.com

Characteristics of Useful Code Reviews: An Empirical Study at Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/characteristics-of-useful-code-reviews-an-empirical-study-at-microsoft/ 

What does it mean to build a cost-free feature in the software, and are cost-free features even possible?

Today we talk with Avdi Grimm. Avdi is a software developer with more than twenty years of experience. During his career, Avdi worked on everything from aerospace embedded systems to enterprise web applications. He is the author of Confident Ruby: 32 Patterns for Joyful Coding and a recipient of the Ruby Hero Award. Currently, he spends his time helping developers deepen their coding practice at Graceful.Dev. He tells us about practices that increase software maintenance costs and how to avoid them. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Avdi on Twitter or LinkedIn, visit his website, and check out his training courses at Graceful.Dev. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Avdi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/avdi 

Avdi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/avdigrimm/ 

Avdi’s training courses at https://graceful.dev

Avdi’s website at https://avdi.codes 

Avdi Grimm, Confident Ruby: 32 Patterns for Joyful Coding at https://www.amazon.com/Confident-Ruby-Patterns-Joyful-Coding-ebook/dp/B00ETE0D2S/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Vvn53&content-id=amzn1.sym.22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_p=22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_r=135-0405864-9131715&pd_rd_wg=PIKbJ&pd_rd_r=01acffe0-cfc0-46a5-b78a-9679fb0ebfcb&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk 

Every once in a while, it is wise to stop for a second and think about why we do things in a specific way and whether we need to change something. This is where rethinking processes kick in. 

Today we talk with Stefanni Brasil, a co-founder of hexdevs, a senior developer at Thoughtbot, and a core maintainer of faker-ruby. Stefanni is also a co-host of the hexdevs podcast, a show helping developers take their Ruby career to the next level. 

She tells us about her keen interest in processes, why they matter, and when the time is ripe to reevaluate them. 

When you finish listening to the episode, visit Stefanni's blog, check out the Hexdevs website, and listen to the hexdevs podcast. 

Mentioned in this episode:

hexdevs website at https://www.hexdevs.com

hexdevs podcast at https://podcast.hexdevs.com

Thoughtbot at https://thoughtbot.com/blog 

Marry Lynn Manns, Linda Rising, Fearless Change, Patterns for Introducing New Ideas at https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Change-Patterns-Introducing-paperback/dp/0134395255

There is an eternal dilemma among software developers - should we try our best to predict the future and build it into our code, or should we just plan for frequent iterations? 

Today we talk with Ashu Chatterji, CEO of Caravel Labs and software engineer with 3+ decades of industry experience, working to reimagine IT consulting as an industry incentivized by innovative outcomes in global sustainability and social justice. Ashu built and led a global practice of "player-coach engineers" that helped sell and deliver path-breaking digital transformation engagements and laid the foundation of Agile software development in Microsoft consulting services. He tells us how to build durable software that will withstand the test of time and the ever-changing needs of its users. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Ashu on LinkedIn and visit the Caravel Labs website to learn more. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Ashu on Linked In at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashutoshchatterji/ 

Caravel Labs at https://www.caravellabs.com 

To build anew or to rebuild? Many developers have a knee-jerk reaction to start building existing software systems from scratch because they think that is the easiest way forward. 

Today, we talk with John Ousterhout. John is the Bosack Lerner Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His current research focuses on new software stack layers to allow data center applications to take advantage of communication and storage technologies with microsecond-scale latencies. He is the author of the book "A Philosophy of Software Design", co-creator of the Raft consensus algorithm, and creator of the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit. He tells us about the software designs of legacy systems, why incremental changes of legacy systems are inevitable, and how to resist the impulse of rewriting large software systems from scratch. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with John on Twitter, read his book, and join his discussion group on software design. 

Mentioned in this episode:

John on Twitter at https://twitter.com/johnousterhout?lang=en

John’s profile at Stanford University at https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/home.php

A Philosophy of Software design at https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ousterhout/dp/1732102201

Raft Consensus Algorithm at https://raft.github.io

TCL/Tk at https://www.tcl.tk/about/language.html

John’s Software Design Discussion Group at software-design-book@googlegroups.com 

Working on legacy code is never easy, but some programming languages make it more enjoyable. 

Today, we talk with Richard Feldman, the creator of the Roc programming language, the author of Elm in Action, and the creator of the Frontend Masters courses Introduction to Elm and Introduction to Rust. Richard tells us about the advantages of the Elm, Rock, and Rust languages and why they are more enjoyable to work with than other languages. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Richard on Twitter, check out his book and courses, and take a look at the Roc programming language. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Richard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rtfeldman

Roc programming language at: https://www.roc-lang.org

Elm in Action at https://www.manning.com/books/elm-in-action

Richard’s Frontend Masters courses at: https://frontendmasters.com/teachers/richard-feldman/