With Doug Bierer. Teaching Yourself to Code, Microsoft vs. Unix/Linux, and Not Throwing More Hardware at the Problem

Free the Geek.fm with Matthew Setter

In this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Doug Bierer about his history in computing, a history which if you're a computing hardware or programming nerd, you're going to love. Doug shares how he got in to computing with the TRS-80 and Commodore 64. How he taught himself to program in Assembler during shifts when he had some quiet time, and how music was what lead him to programming. We both recount our time in computing back in the 90's and what it was like to work with Microsoft Windows and UNIX/Linux.

Some key takeaways are:

• Throwing hardware at the problem doesn't fix it.
• Bad code upon bad code just makes more bad code.
• Automating code creation doesn't necessarily result in good code.
• Less is more.

A Giveaway

For a chance to win a copy of Doug's new Book, PHP 8 Programming Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices, leave your thoughts, your feedback on the episode. Doug and I will give one copy of the book to the person that, in our opinion, leaves the most interesting feedback. You can comment at https://www.freethegeek.fm/48, or on Twitter. Make sure you tag the show (@freeingthegeek).

Links

• PHP 8 Programming Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices (Doug's NEW Book)
• Unlikely Source (Doug's Company)
• The TRS-80
• The Commodore 64
• DR DOS
• The Motorola 6809
• Peek and Poke
• Unixware
• Novell
• U.S. Antitrust law
• GitHub Copilot
• Potsdam State University of New York

Guests: Doug Bierer (@bierer_doug).

Hosted By: Matthew Setter.

Thanks for tuning in to Free the Geek. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone who'd make a great guest, email me: matthew[at]matthewsetter.com. This podcast is produced by Matthew Setter for the Web Dev With Matt "network".

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