Grumpy old Coders

David and Thomas dive into the critical role of context management and agentic memory with large language models. They explore the core mechanics of AI agents, breaking down the differences between low-level tools, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, and high-level skills, before tackling the token cost challenges of stateless LLMs. The hosts analyze human-inspired cognitive strategies like cont...

After a year-long break, David and Thomas return to discuss CHAOSS (Community Health Analytics in Open Source Software), a Linux Foundation framework for evaluating open source project health. They explore metrics like compliance/security, governance, and community activity. The hosts emphasize that while metrics provide valuable data, community trust and authentic collaboration matter most. They...

In this episode, David and Thomas delve into the concept of Product-Led Growth (PLG). They discuss the differences between sales-led and product-led approaches, emphasizing the importance of user experience and collaboration across teams. The conversation highlights the benefits of PLG, particularly for startups, and the necessity of understanding customer needs and feedback to ensure product succ...

In this episode, Thomas and David discuss the evolving landscape of e-mobility, focusing on electric vehicles (EVs) and their implications for consumers and the environment. They explore various types of electric vehicles, including hybrids and fully electric models, and delve into battery technology, efficiency, and the cost of ownership. The conversation also touches on the charging infrastructu...

In this episode, David and Thomas discuss their use of a large language model to build a chatbot based on documentation. They explain the concept of prompt engineering and how it can be used to guide the model's responses. They also introduce the concept of retrieval augmented generation (RAG). They also discuss the use of knowledge base articles and documentation to influence the behavior of LLMs...

Merry Christmas (or just a happy holiday season)! Thomas and David discuss how technology is part of a wider definition of culture and how techies can contribute to technical education of kids.

Thomas and David talk about Technical Enablement, how David came to work on Technical Enablement projects, how it can help compensating the pains of scaling quickly, Learning Experience Design and more.

Thomas and David talk about how to produce a podcast. You will learn which equipment is needed, which software can be used and how the prep work and post-production looks like. Have fun!

Thomas and David talk about complexity classes, book recommendations, the meaning of the number 37, far too many books, and other life complexities.

The March episode is about 'Agile Software Development'. We explore the history, discuss why 'agile' makes sense, and give a brief introduction into several methodologies. We are also getting a bit grumpy about the fact that 'agile' is sometimes mixed up with 'quick and dirty'.

Thomas and David chat about cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFT-s. Do you want to know why we are all living in a big bubble? Then listen to this episode ;-) .

Thomas and David talk about the year 2021. We had a lot of fun recording this year's episodes of the 'Grumpy old Coders', but there were indeed also deeper topics. We wish you a happy winter time and a great start to 2022!

In this episode our guest, Elena Kolevska, shares her experiences of being a women in technology and software development. We will learn how Elena came to the tech industry, why she considered coding as her profession, what organizations like 'Women in Tech' do for our work life, and more ... .

The 12th episode is called 'Just thingies'. Thomas and David are talking about a piece of art which got some human-machine interaction added with the help of the Arduino open-source electronic prototyping platform. Want to learn more about how to build such little thingies and how David (as a software guy) tended to ignore physics entirely, then have fun listening to this episode!

The 11th episode of the Grumpy old Coders podcast covers a more serious topic. Thomas and David discuss about the dark side of working in ever-changing and demanding work environment.

Data what? Thomas and David are discussing a bit about Data Engineering and Data Science. Not exactly being experts, they are trying to make sense out of it. Interested in what Data Engineering and Data Science actually is? Ever asked yourself what the differences between AI, ML and Deep Learning are? Then this episode is for you!

This is the ninth episode of the tech podcast ‘Grumpy old Coders’. David started to work a bit with Kotlin. So Thomas and David take a look at two of David’s toy projects which kicks off a vital discussion about coding with Kotlin and should give you a good first impression about this programming language. We are referring to some source code examples in this episode. They can be found under 'http...

This is the eighth episode of the tech podcast ‘Grumpy old Coders’. We have two special guests this time. Christoph and Martin are the ‘The Linux in Laws’ and that said they love Open Source Software. We are talking about communism, OSS projects, the OSS business models, licenses, and more. Full disclosure: This episode is very entertaining.

Thomas, Thomas and David are talking about containerization, Docker, Kubernetes and more. Did we clone Thomas, or why does his name appear twice? Guess you need to find out by listening to this episode!

Happy new year! We just entered the year 2021 which means that it is time for a retrospective. Thomas and David are looking back on the year 2020 by discussing some technology related topics and trends.

We have a guest speaker this time. Coding addicted software architect, open source fan, metal head Michael Lück is talking with Thomas and David about "how to avoid ice-cream cones when testing software". Interested what that means? Then you need to listen to this month's episode!

Thomas and David like their services microscopically small. Why? Let’s find out!

Thomas and David just love reactive programming. What is it about? Why should you care? Time to talk about it! In this episode, you will learn the different types of reactiveness in the web to simplify code and boost performance.

This is the second episode of the 'Grumpy old Coders' podcast. Thomas and David saw quite a bunch of programming languages within the last 20+ years. So please enjoy philosophical discussion about several languages and frameworks! Want to join the discussion? Then feel to provide us feedback via https://grumpy-old-coders.org !

This is the first episode of the 'Grumpy old Coders' podcast. The episode is about how architecting a web application has changed in the last 10 years. Enjoy! Feedback is welcome!