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Programming Throwdown

Programming Throwdown

By: Patrick Wheeler and Jason Gauci
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Programming Throwdown educates Computer Scientists and Software Engineers on a cavalcade of programming and tech topics. Every show will cover a new programming language, so listeners will be able to speak intelligently about any programming language.℗ & © 2011 Programming Throwdown Politics & Government
Episodes
  • 183: Landing a Software Job in 2025
    Jul 31 2025

    00:00:00 Intro
    00:01:58 Introducing Mark Cunningham
    00:07:01 How Do You Find A Job?
    00:15:43 How to Get the Best Interview
    00:33:06 Tips on How To Pass An Interview
    00:38:38 How to Have a Good Interview
    00:48:12 What is the Reverse Interview?
    00:54:24 What Is The Hiring Manager's Role?
    00:57:12 Reverse Interviews: Red Flags
    01:14:45 How to Negotiate a Tech Offer
    01:23:02 When to Negotiate Your Compensation
    01:35:21 Interview Horror Stories
    01:39:29 How Do You Deal With Fake AI Applicants?
    01:45:32 The Bidding Network

    ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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    1 hr and 47 mins
  • 182: AI Assisted Coding
    Jun 30 2025

    Intro topic: Getting an entry-level job

    News/Links:

    • Mario Kart 64 Fully Decompiled
      • https://gbatemp.net/threads/mario-kart-64-decompilation-project-reaches-100-completion.671104/
    • Q-Learning is not yet scalable
      • https://seohong.me/blog/q-learning-is-not-yet-scalable/
    • Grover’s Algorithm
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQWpF2Gb-gU&vl=en
    • OrangePi has a RISC-V SBC
      • https://linuxgizmos.com/orangepi-rv2-a-cost-effective-risc-v-board-with-m-2-2280-slot-and-dual-gigabit-ethernet/

    Book of the Show

    • Patrick
      • The Will of the Many (James Islington)
        • https://amzn.to/44Dznsz
    • Jason
      • The Intelligence Trap
        • https://amzn.to/3TqoKCB


    Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h


    Tool of the Show

    • Patrick
      • Pokemon Odyssey
        • https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/comments/1l9zdta/pok%C3%A9mon_odyssey_final_release/
    • Jason
      • Netflix Games
        • https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6891422865930303475&hl=en_US


    Topic:

    • Why
      • Speed up development
      • Catch errors faster than type checking/compiling
      • Writing tedious boilerplate code
      • Ask questions and learn local information
      • Look good for hiring managers
    • How
      • Extensions for VSCode & other IDEs for inline suggestions
      • Chat with a selection/file
      • Command-line Tools run at the root directory
      • Local vs Cloud
    • Examples
      • Copilot (VSCode extension)
        • Use the experimental mode
      • Cursor (Custom IDE)
        • Jumps to suggest changes in other places
        • Similar to copilot experimental mode
      • RooCode (VSCode extension)


    ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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    1 hr and 38 mins
  • 181: Memory Management
    May 12 2025

    Intro topic: Video Game Prices

    News/Links:

    • Step one: Jump in the Lava - Abyssoft
      • https://youtu.be/WdadpHLAfdA?si=oXYnhB0EdkR_RaPE
    • Scalable world models for continuous control
      • https://www.tdmpc2.com/
    • Clever code is probably the worst code you could write - Engineer’s Codex
      • https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/clever-code-is-probably-the-worst
    • A new, open source text-to-speech model called Dia has arrived to challenge ElevenLabs, OpenAI and more
      • https://venturebeat.com/ai/a-new-open-source-text-to-speech-model-called-dia-has-arrived-to-challenge-elevenlabs-openai-and-more/


    Book of the Show

    • Patrick
      • The Muscle Ladder - Jeff Nippard
        • https://amzn.to/44Dznsz
    • Jason
      • Metaphysics of War
        • https://amzn.to/4jMjvZ5


    Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h


    Tool of the Show

    • Patrick
      • Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket
    • Jason
      • Phi-4
        • https://huggingface.co/spaces/microsoft/phi-4-multimodal


    Topic: Memory Management

    • Motivation
      • Avoid thrashing / crashes
      • Allocate resources efficiently
      • Keep high uptime
    • Where
      • OS Level
        • Heap management
        • Virtual Memory
      • Language/Compiler Level
        • Cpp
        • Garbage collection
        • Ownership
    • Tools
      • Instrumentation
        • Export to Datadog / Grafana
      • Python: psutil & tracemalloc
      • Valgrind
    • What to do when your program uses too much memory?
      • Reduce data sizes
        • Compression
        • References
        • Lazy initializer
        • Generators & Back Pressure
      • Ring buffers
      • Arena allocators
      • Disk based caching


    ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 46 mins
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