Off Script

Are all leaders extroverts? Does agile development mean there is no plan or documentation? Do leaders have to be the best developer? Following on from a recent in-person talk, James and Josh discuss more common tech misconceptions in the area of leadership. 01 Misconception in leadership 01 Leadership is the only way for progression 02 Tech path vs management path 03 Dual track progression 04 Good...

Any team will have a variety of emotional states when responding to problems. How do you analyse, understand and make meaningful decisions based on these differences? In this episode, James and Josh discuss different methods of understanding a team’s characteristics and how taking these into account can lead you to getting the best out of everyone. 01 SDIs 01 Strength, Deployment, Inventory 02 Str...

What are the steps to building a thriving community? What challenges might you face along the way? In this episode, James and Josh draw on their experience of creating and building communities online and offline, sharing their insights on how to make it a success. 04 Starting a community 06 Building trust 08 Give value, not a sales pitch 10 Josh on building a conference 12 Creating a welcoming env...

AI ethics - a hot, divisive topic and rightly so. James and Josh are back with a brand new episode of Off Script to dig in and explore a space that is impacting our lives more and more. 01 Intro 02 Applied AI event 03 Bethan Vincent's talk 03 Jack Sails’ talk 06 Outcomes are not determined by intentions 07 EU Cookie law 09 Tech can’t be decided by those who know the least about the tech 10 Regulat...

James and Josh explore the world of SSGs (static site generators)! The differences between SSGs and full stack frameworks, the associated technologies out there and what to consider with your project when deciding what is best for it. [Recorded 13th July, 2023] 01 Intro 02 The Personal Website 02 Static Site Generators 02 ASTRO  03 Content driven site vs Logic and functional site 04 Jekyll&nb...

What is the blockchain? How has it changed over time? Is it still killing the planet? James and Josh discuss various types of blockchain systems and how they might have some real world applications for social good. [Recorded 13th July, 2023] 1 Blockchain 02 How did it start 03 Bitcoin 03 Ethereum 03 Proof of work vs Proof of stake 05 Hardforking 06 Web3 bros 06 Masterdon & De-centralisation 07...

James & Josh discuss the recent WWDC 2023 conference and break down some of the announcements. Dive in to the episode to hear all their thoughts on the latest developments coming out of Apple HQ and the impact it may have on us. [Recorded 9th June, 2023] 05 - Apple Vision Pro 09 - Product reveals 11 - MacOS Sonoma 12 - Paprika 13 - Safari Profiles 15 - ARC Browser 18 - Widgets 19 - Presenter O...

Returning podcast guest Jack Sails joins James and Josh to discuss developments in large language models! Over this episode they discuss how LLMs are being used, Open AI and its current offerings, tips on how to use them and any concerns they may have around this new technology. [Recorded 19th April, 2023] 02 - Metaverse & Crypto 03 - Online virtual spaces 04 - Chat GPT evolution 05 - GPT-4 06...

There are a lot of misconceptions in the tech world. In this episode James and Josh shine some light and dispel some common myths! 01 - Private browsing is private 04 - Agile development means no planning 06 - Adding more developers speeds up projects 09 - Code should be optimised right form the begining 12 - Usability testing is done once the product is ready 14 - Adding more features makes produ...

Off Script is back! This episode, James and Josh discuss engineering culture and some of the best practices and processes they’ve implemented for reliable development cycles. What’s the release process? How do you monitor the application and ensure robust code quality? How do Infrastructure and security considerations affect the development? All covered in this episode! 02 Release process - Contin...

The state of the world, green engineering, James' wedding, Elon's meltdowns. To round off the year, James and Josh look back at the many ups and downs from the world of tech and beyond. 00 - State of the world 01 - Good to be back in the office 03 - Figma & its Adobe acquisition 04 - Mozilla started to accept Crypto then halted 05 - Web3 06 - Google Fonts Privacy & GDPR breach 07 - Reducin...

James is back from his Vegas trip for AWS re:Invent! In this episode, they discuss James’ impression of the city, the hot topics of the talks and James’ exploration of the variety of American fast food joints. 00 - What Vegas is like 01 - Elastic vs Serverless 02 - Event overview 06 - Redshift Serverless 07 - Zero ETL 08 - Aurora into Redshift 09 - DataZone 10 - QuickSight Q 11 - Keynote: Swami Si...

Following on from the previous conversation about GPT-3, James & Josh discuss the explosion of ChatGPT's popularity. In this episode they explore how it's different from previous iterations, the way its features are impressing the tech community and also where its limitations may lie. 00 - What does it do differently to GPT-3 01 - Maybe prompt writing won't be a job of the future! 03 - A helpf...

What is GPT-3 and how does the future look? How will AI affect work? What ethical dilemmas must we consider? James & Josh talk about all things GPT-3 and the recent surge in the use of AI from business applications to experimental art. 01 - What is GPT-3 01 - DALLE 2 02 - The future of the company 03 - Use Cases 04 - How prompts work 05 - AI Idea generator 06 - Used in GITHub co-pilot 07 - Sum...

In this episode, Josh and James explore Josh’s recent trip to ffconf 2022 in Brighton. They discuss the talks, all the highlights and takeaways raised during the conference. 2 - ffconf hacked gameboy game in gift pack 5 - Talk: Florence Okoye - Designing as we want, to create the experiences that we need 6 - Design justice framework 9 - Talk: Heydon Pickering - Capitalism, The Web, And You 11 - Th...

What is and isn’t an API? How has the technology changed over time? What are new considerations that have arisen? Hosts James & Josh discuss a variety of APIs and the benefits and faults that help refine the APIs of today. 00 - What is an API? 03 - S.O.A.P 05 - Restful API 06 - RSS & JSON 07 - Public API’s 10 - Documentation driven development 13 - React API & GitHub 16 - Graph QL 19 -...

This episode of Off Script, Josh and James explore Josh’s recent trip to Berlin to the single-track conference, Beyond Tellerrand. They discuss and break down all the hot topics for us. 01 Intro 03 Venue 03 The Pac Man Rule - Always leave a gap in your circle! 04 Live subtitles at the event 06 All together now by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino 15 Inviting People In by Michelle Chin - Different ways w...

What are the benefits of using React Native to build mobile applications over platform specific frameworks? Where did it come from and why might it be a good choice for your next project? Hosts James & Josh discuss their use of React Native and how it’s helped streamline app development. 01 How it enables quick UI Iterations & rapid app development 02 Significant use cases 03 Where did you...

How has the Internet of Things changed how we build internet connected devices, and does this approach sometimes overly complicated things? Hosts James and Josh discuss the world of IoT, its real world applications and some of the pitfalls projects fall into. 00 - History of IoT 01 - Anything can be connected via a ESP32 controller 02 - ‘Making things more complex than they need to’ 03 - Petnet Io...

Off Script is back with a special episode as hosts Josh and James reflect on another successful All Day Hey! conference in Leeds and via live stream. Running through the talks and the dynamics of the day, listen in for a breakdown of how it all went and their thoughts on the talks of the day. Hey! Presents are uploading all of the content from the day over the next few weeks so make sure to head o...

On this episode of Off Script, James runs us through his recent trip to South By South West (SXSW) and analyses what it all means with Josh. What were the main talking points? What were the new trends worth noting? Our hosts give us their thoughts on Zuckerberg's appearance & the exciting but possibly dystopic future the new tech could lead us to. The programming of the event Emerging tech tre...

What can we learn from the success and simplicity of Wordle? How can we be more aware of when we’re likely to over-engineer a solution? Hosts James & Josh discuss when to add complexity, when it’s not needed and scenarios where you’re more likely to encounter over-engineering difficulties. Simplicity of Wordle Hosting & Data Responsibility Basecamp Webflow Microservices Governance Splittin...

What is the metaverse and what has it got to do with Facebook? How do NFTs fit into it? Is it all 3D and gaming or is there more to it with business applications? Hosts James & Josh speak with our guest, Jack Sails and discuss where to begin with it and how to make sense of it all. What is the metaverse? What could it be? Where's the transparency? Turning off in these digital space NFTs When i...

2021 has been an eventful year! From January's launch of the AVIF format, April's Basecamp employee speech controversy and the web hitting 30 years old plus much more. Hosts James & Josh take us on a journey through the highs and lows of the year. Thanks to Cooper Press’ Frontend Focus and Ruby Weekly, invaluable resources that helped us go back in time to compile the monthly breakdown. Google...

How do you avoid burnout and keep productivity high? What methods can you use to help produce an efficient flow state? How have companies addressed these issues around hybrid working? Productivity and mental health go hand in hand but how do you manage it? Hosts James & Josh explore these issues around creating a positive motivated team. Burnout Time boxing The side effects of being unproducti...