Software Should be Free

Inspired by https://www.justfivemins.com/p/episode-146-christmas-day-2025-edition happy xmas! FOSS projects this year of 2025: - https://github.com/timabell/disk-hog-backup - https://github.com/timabell/gitopolis - https://github.com/timabell/markdown-neuraxis - It was " Comprehension Debt " not "Cognitive Debt" - close!

# Summary In this conversation, Tim Abell and David Sheardown explore the challenges and innovations in productivity tools and AI coding assistants and the overwhelming landscape of AI tools available for software development. The dialogue delves into the nuances of using AI in coding, the potential of multi-agent systems, and the importance of context in achieving optimal results. They also touch...

Tim & Jim discuss what they've learned trying to use AI tools such as github, gpt, windsurf, claude etc to write code in small and large projects, open and closed source. Jim: luxagen.com RotKraken rkd Vibe coding obama meme David just5mins Windsurf referer link for bonus credits cursor vs windsurf

From the blog - https://0x5.uk/2025/01/31/why-is-reading-bad-code-so-painful/ David's  just-five-mins podcast - https://www.justfivemins.com/ ps, when I said "Increased heart attack" I meant to say "Increased heart rate" 🤕 😆 - but maybe bad code does lead to increased heart attack, so a Freudian slip?!

A piece on leadership and teams needed to create great software projects and overcome the organisational immune system, all without any fan noise, and an intro from Mark . Unicorn project book DevOps handbook (hint, DevOps is *not* a separate team or job title, that's just Ops) Culture - The Fearless Organisation book MeLE Fanless Mini PC Quieter 4C Dead Sea Effect

A flowing discussion with Neil about the life of a contractor, before during and after, with some important mental health lessons hard learned along the way. Neil shares advice for people at every stage in the contracting journey, from tentative first steps to options for going beyond contracting, along with his own journey. Neil: https://www.neilmillard.com/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/n...

David kindly had me on as a guest on his wonderful "just 5 mins" show to talk a bit more about outside-in-testing and answer some of his questions after my last episode on this show on the matter. - Just Five Mins! Episode 78 - Outside in Testing with Tim

A follow up to my blog post on test automation - with an angle that I think is missing in so much of the software industry - outside in fully automated tests from the perspective of the user is THE most important thing - plus don't let your tests see your internals, not even for setup and teardown. (01:53) - automated tests blog (05:20) - axiom 1 - user perspective (07:50) - axiom 2 - the 99th fea...

timwise.co.uk/2024/01/13/new-tool-sln-items-sync-for-visual-studio-solution-folders/ justfivemins.com (David's podcast) buttondown.email timwise.co.uk/subscribe

https://timwise.co.uk/2023/10/20/use-kdiff3-for-merge-conflict-resolution/ https://timwise.co.uk/2023/10/20/git-what-do-'base'-'local'-'remote'-mean/ https://timwise.co.uk/2023/09/28/what-is-hexagonal-architecture/ https://timwise.co.uk/2019/10/14/merge-vs-rebase/ https://timwise.co.uk/subscribe/ https://github.com/rustworkshop/gitopolis/tree/3a8eb6e868a4e42370e8f4d587ad0e8525e9da2e/tests

- beware fast talkers, as Ray Dalio says in Principles https://www.principles.com/ (as a tweet: https://twitter.com/RayDalio/status/1599056902637248514 ) - beware pattern obsessives (any pattern, architecture, SOLID, CQRS, Event Sourcing, Outside-in testing, you name it, someone wears it as a badge) - evolve your architecture - YAGNI, but do think ahead - currently available for c# contracts - bui...

Morning journaling Sunsama daily planning app Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule by Paul Graham Right to represent idea Airtable for making forms and surveys Send me a voice message (may be included in the next show) Let me know you listened!

* Read "Working Identity" for career change https://www.amazon.co.uk/Working-Identity-Unconventional-Strategies-Reinventing-ebook/dp/B004OEIQ7C * Maybe not an agency business... * The contract market is recovering * Yak Shaving - https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ * Trying to build a SaaS in one evening with NoCode (fail) * What's [not very] new in ES6 * Why should software be free? - Clo...

Tim is going to do more digital delivery (contract), while defending time for building useful things for podcasters and being involved in that space, all while being good at email and being a great family man. This episode was livestreamed with video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcWCdVrbTE https://savvycal.com/articles/inbox-zero/ https://charmconsulting.co.uk/ https://businesscoachdirec...

companies house snafu De-fusion of the mind with ACT (A liberated mind) Rich-dad cashflow game

Out at the lake with the dog. Empathy for coding being hard to learn.

From yesterday's morning live stream experiment https://youtu.be/S4rHehuG3SE

David explains what systems integration really means when it comes down to getting things connected, and what things we are trying to connect in the first place.

Where has software been? Where is it going? Integration is the new hotness & problem to be solved.

A little story about two little steam engines racing to the next station. You'll have to listen to find out what this has to do with software.

GTD Book list for the children, and life Refactoring and legacy code Failing to start xchain in 2015 doglost.co.uk @tim_abell - message me if you're listening!

Tim was David Gisbey's assigned mentor at DfE. They discuss with the benefit of hindsight what makes for a good mentorship relationship. David Gisbey (on LinkedIn)

David & Tim improve each other's mental health with some unstructured chit-chat. Being unfixable nerds of course we still cover technology and some useful tools. • https://www.realvision.com/grant-william-keynote-speech • http://danielamerman.com/va/ccc/G4SecBear.html • https://financialmentor.com/ • https://blog.trello.com/gtd-getting-things-done-maximizing-productivity-trello • https://trell...

David and Tim just a have a catchup to keep sane in isolation. They discuss lessons learned from 2 years at the new DfE Digital including how to migrate platforms well, and how to do personal backlogs in the basecamp-shapeup style instead of a single backlog of doom.