Alive Internet Theory: Human Connection Thrives Amidst AI
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Resources & Recommendations
Books
- "The Changelog News" - A newsletter that includes various tech-related topics and discussions, which the hosts often use as a basis for their podcast episodes.
Research & Studies
- Financial Times Report on Job Postings - This report highlighted the rise of the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) role, indicating a shift in industry demands.
Tools & Software
- AugmentCode - An AI software development platform offering context engines, agents, chat, next-edit, completions, and integration with Slack and CLI.
- Claude Code - An AI tool primarily used for coding, noted for its efficiency in handling new features when given fresh context.
- Depot Dev - A platform aimed at accelerating software builds and deployments, offering faster, more reliable, and observable processes.
- Meshtastic - An open-source, off-grid, decentralized mesh network software designed to run on affordable, low-power devices using LoRa radios for communication in areas with unreliable infrastructure.
- NordLayer - A toggle-ready network security platform for businesses, combining VPN access control and threat protection with a zero-trust approach.
- 7z - A file archiver with a high compression ratio, which the host discussed replacing due to perceived flaws on Linux compared to macOS.
- Zstandard (zstd) - A fast, open-source compression algorithm developed by Meta, used as a replacement for 7z due to its speed and efficiency.
- Tar - An archiving utility that has "stood the test of time" and is being combined with Zstandard by the host for improved archiving.
- Zarch - A personal project by the host to combine Tar with Zstandard, aiming to create a more efficient archiving tool for "mere mortals."
- CleanMyMac X - A macOS application that monitors system performance, including CPU temperature during resource-intensive tasks.
- Waze - A navigation application known for its real-time traffic updates and rerouting capabilities.
People Mentioned
- Spencer Chang (Creator of the Alive Internet Theory website) - Mentioned as the author of a counter-narrative to the "dead internet theory," and invited to the show.
- Kyle Galbraith (Co-founder and CEO of Depot Dev) - Discussed the challenges of software development bottlenecks and the role of Depot Dev in addressing them.
- Nick Nisi - A friend of one of the hosts, mentioned in the context of setting up a Meshtastic network.
- Paul Kinlan - Author of the "dead framework theory" and a previous article titled "Will developers care about frameworks in the future," discussing the evolving role of frameworks in AI-driven development.
- Sean Gaki - Mentioned in relation to his skepticism about the 95% failure rate of AI adoption in enterprises.
- Tyler Hutchinson (Forward Deployed Engineer at Redis) - An example of an FDE, whose job involves embedding with customers to understand their needs and improve product usage.
- Lewis Via - A friend whose newsletter observations on AI agent usage and its impact on library dependencies were referenced.
- Igor Pavlov (Creator of 7z) - The developer behind the 7z archive format and its compression algorithm, LZMA2.
- Thomas Ptacek (Co-founder of Fly.io) - Author of an article encouraging developers to write their own agents.
- Jan LeCun (Chief AI Scientist at Meta) - Referenced for his opinion that current transformer models are not sufficient to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Organizations & Institutions
- TigerData - The creators of Agentic Postgres, a database built for AI agents.
- OpenAI - Mentioned in the context of Sora 2 and its transparency regarding AI-generated content.
- Anthropic - A company leading the AI race, mentioned as an employer of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs).
- Redis - A sponsor and the company where a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) example was given.
- Fly.io - A public cloud built for developers, mentioned as a partner and host for the podcast.
- Meta - The creators of Zstandard (zstd) compression algorithm.
- InterviewQuery.com - A source reporting on the rise of the Forward Deployed Engineer role.
- BuiltWith.com - A website providing data on technology usage, referenced for its statistics on React adoption.
Websites & Online Resources
- aliveinternet.com - Spencer Chang's website, which serves as a counter-narrative to the "dead internet theory" by showcasing human-generated content from the internet's past.
- Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) - The source from which the "aliveinternet.com" website pulls its historical content.
- augmentcode.com - Website for the AugmentCode AI development platform.
- depot.dev - Website for the Depot Dev platform, offering trials for faster builds.
- nordlayer.com/thechangelog - Website for NordLayer, offering a discount with a specific code.
Other Resources
- Lora (Long Range) - A proprietary radio communication technique based on spread spectrum modulation, used by Meshtastic for long-range, low-power communication.
- Westworld - A TV show referenced for the phrase "bring yourself back online."