Tricky Bits with Rob and PJ and Dave

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! It's that time of the year again...WWDC! Last year's conference was dominated by Apple Intelligence...which never really materialized...what's this year's conference going to bring us? Rob, PJ, and our new co-host, Dave Lewanda (bio episode coming soon) get together to discuss what will be this year&ap...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Way back in the 1960s...computer graphics were born with Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad...then in the early 80s, James Clark at Silicon Graphics publishes his paper on the geometry engine...becoming the birthplace for IRIS GL (later, OpenGL). Then came DirectX...along with a flurry of also-rans... With the explosion of...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! 25 years ago, Avery Brooks of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame, was on a commercial for IBM...where, after decades of promises, asked the question that was on everyone's minds: "It's the year 2000...I was promised flying cars. Where are my flying cars?" In a similar vein, this latest episode explores th...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Exploring NVIDIA's Move from ARM to RISC V in GPUs Rob and PJ return to discuss NVIDIA's strategic shift from Falcon and ARM microcontrollers in their GPUs to the open-source RISC V. The conversation delves into the history, technical considerations, and licensing challenges of microprocessors. They examine why...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! WWDC is coming up and Rob and PJ have some opinions! AI is in the air for everyone this season and WWDC is likely going to be no exception....but with so much AI processing happening in the cloud and Apple having been so focused on data privacy, security, AND user experience...how IS Apple going to thread this needle? Wil...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Microsoft recently introduced its CoPilot + PCs as a fully integrated lineup...based on ARM processors (Qualcomm's Snapdragon specifically), unified memory, and requirements around the onboard TPUs. Hmm...sound very Apple-like, no? With an apparent revitalized push back into the consumer space, what does this mean fo...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Hype is all around around the tech stories that are out there.... Apple has a terrible ad for a thinner iPad! Google is leaving San Fran and moving jobs overseas! Announcements around AI that is going to revolutionize everything!!! Tech companies are acting like big corporations!!! Maybe it is just us...but does anyone ge...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! CPUs have been around for forever as the heart of computers....then came GPUs to enable cool real time graphics...and later bitcoin mining...then some clever folks figured out how train AIs on them...which leads to a new explosion of processing units tuned specifically for AI development (see Google's TPUs, Apple&apo...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! In the arms race of computational performance gains and big market splashes...security issues can pop their ugly head, something going all the way down to the hardware level...and when they happen, they can be brutal. In this episode of Tricky Bits, Rob and PJ discuss a recent article and research on hacking into the M-se...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Ever wondered why a virtual rollercoaster can leave your stomach in knots, despite never leaving your living room? Strap in and brace yourself as we unpack the enigma of VR-induced nausea with the expert insights of Nemanja Milosavljevic from Neurosync Labs. Our latest episode of Tricky Bits zooms in on the battle between...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Hardware is where the digital meets up with physical reality. In the modern world, software can be developed and deployed worldwide in timescales measured in minutes....but despite advances in development, consumer hardware at scale still presents many difficult challenges. Although there are many modern avenues to protot...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! So much of Tricky Bits is an ongoing conversation between Rob and PJ about various tech topics. This particular episode revisits some old topics around game development, its history and costs, and what factors come into play that shape the market today. As a heads up...this one is more conversational than some of the past...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Could Apple be quietly gearing up to redefine the AI landscape? With all eyes on Siri's evolution and Apple's famed secrecy, we delve into the tech giant's delicate dance between user privacy and the cutting edge of AI innovations. Join Rob and PJ  as we unravel Apple's enigmatic strategy, considering...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! 2024 and Tech Layoffs still continue...more than a headline; they're a wake-up call to evaluate the true resilience of our skills in an ever-changing industry. In this episode, we take on a tough subject to better understand the realities of job security, debunking the myth that exceptional programmers are safeguarde...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Maps...we use them almost every day of our lives.....but...what makes maps hard? From the paper maps we used to pull out on car trips to the digital and dynamic maps that we have our smart phones, the problems around making and maintaining maps have been with us for a while. Fortunately...we've got an expert to help...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Rumblings of a major XBox announcement in a post Activision/Blizzard acquisition world slated for mid-Feb 2024 started a number of rumors around what might happen...would all XBox games go cross platform?  What would this mean for the XBox hardware?!? Then on Feb 15th....Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty fulfilled...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! We chatted about the Apple Vision Pro previously and now the reviews are in....how are they stacking up for the Vision Pro and how did our predictions work out for themselves, so far? And what predictions to we have from here? Also...Meta announced dividends at its last earnings call...and now Goldman Sachs analysts are (...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Performance Reviews! Everyone's most beloved topic and favorite activity...but how does that impact company culture...and what kind of incentives do they give rise to?  Rob and PJ dive deep into these questions and explore how much past behaviors that gave rise to success....actually become more important that the pu...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! In this episode, Rob and PJ explore the history of consoles. How did some of the technological advances from the 80s and 90s influence the rise of capabilities we see today? With the increasing convergence in hardware between the XBox and Playstation towards a PC model, where does the market go from here? Is Nintendo the...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! In the second of their two part series on AR, Rob and PJ discuss the Apple Vision Pro, the use case displayed thus far, and whether this thing has legs in the marketplace. They also explore the social (or more precisely, anti-social) aspects of the AR, VR, XR space and question whether this is the right direction to be go...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! In our first two parter... Rob and PJ explore VR, AR, and XR, discussing some of the challenges that these related pieces of technology have faced off, how companies have tried to solve these problems, and where limitations still exist. Unafraid to dive into the deep details, Rob and PJ discuss optics, latency, cameras, a...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! “What, another tech podcast? Why?!?” Having been in the tech industry for multiple decades across a slew of different companies, Rob and PJ may not have seen it all…but they have seen a LOT. More specifically, they have seen what works, what doesn’t and everything in between. This podcast is a deep dive into the technical...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! Barely in 2024, the week of January 8th saw layoffs across multiple tech companies: Google, Twitch, Discord, and Unity. To be sure...this is foreboding sign for 2024. How did we get here? What happened from high flying, highly profitable tech companies that once touted that "they would be different" to becoming...

Enjoying the show? Hating the show? Want to let us know either way? Text us! On December 20th, Insomniac Games was hacked and had games, financial, and HR files leaked to the world. Having both worked there, Rob and PJ dive into the particulars of the situation and analyze where things are and where they might go from here.