Picture Me Coding

Erik Aker and Mike Mull

Picture Me Coding is a music podcast about software. Each week your hosts Erik Aker and Mike Mull take on topics in the software world and they are sometimes joined by guests from other fields who arrive with their own burning questions about technology.

Email us at: podcast@picturemecoding.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/PictureMeCoding

You can also pick up a Picture Me Coding shirt, mug, or stickers at our Threadless shop: https://picturemecoding.threadless.com/designs

Logo and artwork by Jon Whitmire - https://www.whitmirejon.com/

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22 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 6 min
English

Episodes 22

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S4 · E106
September 11 · 1 hr 1 min
From the Academy to Industry with Alan Dyke
In this episode we interview Alan Dyke, a colleague of Erik's who got his Ph.D from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he did research on Computer-Aided Software Engineering. We talk about Alan's unique journey in software development, going from the academic environment to the defense industry, embedded software, and biotech. We also learn about the crucial importance of calibrating your software for hurricanes. Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E105
August 28 · 59 min
DataCon LA
This week we're talking about Mike's visit to DataCon LA 26. We talk about the conference, various talks he was able to see, and his own experience giving a talk. Compression Represents Intelligence Linearly [2602.17127] The Emergence of Lab-Driven Alignment Signatures: A Psychometric Framework for Auditing Latent Bias and Compounding Risk in Generative AI Instructor spaCy John Snow Labs Hierarchical Navigable Small Worlds (HNSW) | Pinecone Lance Video is a demonstration platform for analyzing and searching video content with LanceDB. · GitHub Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E104
August 14 · 55 min
The Monte Carlo Method
In this episode we discuss the Monte Carlo method, both the technique and its place in the history of computing. The Monte Carlo method is a set of tools that use probability to solve problems that are otherwise intractable. Programs using Monte Carlo were among the first programs created on digital computers. The Monte Carlo Method Nicholas Metropolis; S. Ulam Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 44, No. 247. (Sep. Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines Hitting the Jackpot: The Birth of the Monte Carlo Method | LANL Monte Carlo Sampling Methods Using Markov Chains and Their Applications W. K. Hastings Biometrika, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Apr., 1970), 2014HaighPriestleyRope-LosAlamosBetsonENIAC.pdf The Unheralded Contributions of Klara Dan von Neumann Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E103
July 24 · 1 hr 14 min
The Most Cited Papers from JACM
In this episode we discuss the 5 most-cited papers from the flagship journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, the JACM. The papers include everything from distributed computing to real-time scheduling. Direct Search'' Solution of Numerical and Statistical Problems | Journal of the ACM Impossibility of distributed consensus with one faulty process | Journal of the ACM Robust principal component analysis? | Journal of the ACM Authoritative sources in a hyperlinked environment | Journal of the ACM Scheduling Algorithms for Multiprogramming in a Hard-Real-Time Environment | Journal of the ACM What is HITS Algorithm (Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search)? Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E102
July 10 · 1 hr
The Prehistory of the Internet
This episode started with the question: who first had the idea to connect computers together to make a network? We explore JCR Licklider's ideas about an "Intergalactic Network", some of the earliest attempts at networking, and the ideas that lead to packet switching and the Arpanet. SAGE: Semi-Automatic Ground Environment Air Defense System | MIT Lincoln Laboratory Memorandum for Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network The Arpanet and Computer Networks 60 Years of Networking - by Bruce Davies - Systems Approach Information Flow in Large Communication Nets (1961, Leonard Kleinrock, MIT) On Distributed Communications Networks (1962, Paul Baran, RAND) National Physical Laboratory Proposal for a Digital Communication Network by D. W. Davies June, 1966 Send us Fan Mail
June 26 · 1 hr 5 min
Software Development in 2046
In this episode we discuss a couple of recent papers on just-in-time development and agentic systems and how we think they suggest trends that will affect software development for years to come. We boldly predict that in 2046 people will still not want robot dentists. The Time is Here for Just-in-Time Systems: Challenges and Opportunities MDASH: The MS Security Thing Services: The New Software | Sequoia Capital Understanding Spec-Driven-Development: Kiro, spec-kit, and Tessl Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E100
June 12 · 54 min
Numerology
For the 100th episode of Picture Me Coding we talk about numbers. Mike talks about his favorite numbers, Erik talks about his favorite ports, and we discuss the surprising phenomenon of Benford's Law. Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E99
May 29 · 1 hr 14 min
Do You Even Schedule, Bro? Making a Digital Workout Partner with Doug Burke
This week we were joined by our friend Doug Burke, who runs a company and has been working on his "digital life workout partner", a voice-activated LLM tool. Doug's story is interesting because he does not have a background in software development, and we wanted to learn more about what he's building. Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E98
May 15 · 1 hr 10 min
TokenMaxxing!: Agentic Software Development with Bob Farzin
In this episode we invite back our friend Bob Farzin to discuss our personal experiences with using teams of agents to write software, and we try to parse out the experiences we're seeing on the interwebs, including Steve Yegge's GasTown and Wes McKinney's discussion of agentic development in the context of Brooks's _Mythical Man Month_. "Introducing Beads: A coding agent memory system" Welcome to Gas Town — Steve Yegge's original essay The Future of Coding Agents — Yegge's follow-up Gas Town on GitHub — The actual tool How to Think About Gas Town — Steve Klabnik's analysis A Day in Gas Town — DoltHub's practical walkthrough Gas Town, Beads, and the Rise of Agentic Development — Software Engineering Daily interview with Yegge Top Coding Agents 2025 — Benched.ai comparison guide [April 8, Wes McKinney] AI Agents, The Mythical Agent Month, My Wild AI Coding Setup Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E97
May 1 · 1 hr 2 min
Patricia Selinger and the Birth of Query Optimization
In this episode we attempt to explain query optimization and where it came from. In particular we discuss Patricia Selinger's 1979 SIGMOD paper Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System. Access Path Selection paper (PDF) A Conversation with Pat Selinger — ACM Queue (2006) Database Dialogue with Pat Selinger — CACM (2008) Pat Selinger Speaks Out — SIGMOD Interview (PDF) Patricia Selinger — IBM History System R: Database Research Retrospective — TODS 1981 Graefe, G. (1995). The Cascades Framework for Query Optimization Leis et al. (2015). How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really? PVLDB Vol. 9 — introduces the Join Order Benchmark (JOB) and empirically audits modern optimizers. Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E96
April 17 · 1 hr 34 min
"Big-O Ops": An Interview with Kyle Risse
This week Mike and Erik are joined by Kyle Risse. Erik met Kyle at Scale 23x in Pasadena this year while volunteering for the Tech Team. Kyle has a ton of experience in the field working on networks, infrastructure, linux server operations, and doing stressful operations stuff. In short, he has stories and he was kind enough to come on the show and share them with us! Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E95
April 3 · 58 min
Hash Tables
Some recent articles about research on hash tables made us realize we probably didn't know enough about hash tables, one of the fundamental data structures in the biz. We talk about the history of hashing and hash tables, and some recent results that overturned a 40 year old conjecture on the most efficient way to insert items. Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time | Quanta Magazine [2111.00602] On the Optimal Time/Space Tradeoff for Hash Tables Speeding Up Hash Tables | Communications of the ACM https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/1734714.1734729 [2109.04548] Iceberg Hashing: Optimizing Many Hash-Table Criteria at Once Modern Dictionaries by Raymond Hettinger FOCS 2024 3B Optimal Bounds for Open Addressing Without Reordering Optimal Bounds for Open Addressing Without Reordering Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E94
March 20 · 1 hr 27 min
Scale 23x
We give a report of our experiences at the 23rd version of the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale 23x) in Pasadena. Erik was a volunteer in the network group this year, so we have some behind the scenes stories in addition to summaries of interesting talks and sessions. Scale conf Scale-network repo Erik Reinert’s Youtube Channel Docket BMO and bmo-agent-setup Cline injection attack Adnan Khan Douglas Comer - Wikipedia EDB Postgres Advent of Computing Podcast Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E93
March 6 · 1 hr 32 min
Talking Murderbot with Amy Salley
In this episode we're joined again by Amy Salley, cohost of the Hugo, Girl! podcast, to help us discuss the Murderbot series of books by Martha Wells. We discuss our favorite characters and plots, but also how these books touch on AI, consciousness, and neurodivergence. Galaxy’s Edge Interviews Martha Wells | Author Interview | Sci Fi Blog I didn’t know how non-neurotypical I was until Murderbot We’re Light-Years Away from True Artificial Intelligence, Says Murderbot Author Martha Wells | Scientific American Martha Wells' next 'Murderbot Diaries' book is 'the family roadtrip from hell on Ringworld' (interview) | Space Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E92
February 20 · 57 min
The History of NGINX
This episode we look into the history of the web server NGINX and of web servers more generally. We play myth buster and try to investigate the widespread story that NGINX arose from a need to scale porn sites. Igor Sysoev - Wikipedia Free Software Interview with Sysoev History of Apache How Sysoev Ended Up at Rambler Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E91
February 6 · 1 hr
Recreational Programming
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 shops. https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/recreational-cs.pdf FUN 2026 The New Turing Omnibus Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E90
January 23 · 52 min
Functional Programming: Are We There Yet?
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 been 70 years of research into FP it still hasn't become mainstream. Will AI reverse or accelerate that trend? TIOBE Index The Next 700 Programming Languages An Introduction to Functional Programming Through Lambda Calculus Send us Fan Mail
S4 · E89
January 9 · 1 hr 4 min
The Infinite Drive: S3 and Cloud Object Storage
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 freakin' huge. We talk about how it's built, how it works, and how people use it. Building and operating a pretty big storage system called S3 How AWS S3 Achieves 1 Petabyte Per Second on Hard Disk Drives Using Lightweight Formal Methods to Validate a Key-Value Storage Node in Amazon S3 Picture Me Coding 2025 Spotify Playlist Send us Fan Mail
S3 · E88
Dec 11, 2025 · 1 hr 11 min
Salesforce and Low-Code with Kyle Willcox
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 Salesforce dev to web app developer reveals a lot about both the benefits and pitfalls of working in isolated environments like Salesforce. Kyle is also a sponsored skimboarder and came to California to ride the surf, so he and Erik nerd out on weather and waves. Low Code Exile Skimboards Send us Fan Mail
S3 · E87
Nov 27, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min
Tech News Roundup: Fighting Robots with Poetry
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 Center Oracle Data Center Debt Cloudflare Outage Rust Adoption Drives Android Memory Safety Bugs Below 20% Adversarial Poetry Send us Fan Mail

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