Programming Throwdown

Intro topic: Getting an entry-level job News/Links: * Mario Kart 64 Fully Decompiled * https://gbatemp.net/threads/mario-kart-64-decompilation-project-reaches-100-completion.671104/ [https://gbatemp.net/threads/mario-kart-64-decompilation-project-reaches-100-completion.671104/] * Q-Learning is not yet scalable * https://seohong.me/blog/q-learning-is-not-yet-scalable/ [https://seohong.me/blog/q-learning-is-not-yet-scalable/] * Grover’s Algorithm * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQWpF2Gb-gU&vl=en [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQWpF2Gb-gU&vl=en] * OrangePi has a RISC-V SBC * https://linuxgizmos.com/orangepi-rv2-a-cost-effective-risc-v-board-with-m-2-2280-slot-and-dual-gigabit-ethernet/ [https://linuxgizmos.com/orangepi-rv2-a-cost-effective-risc-v-board-with-m-2-2280-slot-and-dual-gigabit-ethernet/] Book of the Show * Patrick * The Will of the Many (James Islington) * https://amzn.to/44Dznsz [https://amzn.to/44Dznsz] * Jason * The Intelligence Trap * https://amzn.to/3TqoKCB [https://amzn.to/3TqoKCB] Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h] Tool of the Show * Patrick *  Pokemon Odyssey * https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/comments/1l9zdta/pok%C3%A9mon_odyssey_final_release/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/comments/1l9zdta/pok%C3%A9mon_odyssey_final_release/] * Jason * Netflix Games * https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6891422865930303475&hl=en_US [https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6891422865930303475&hl=en_US] Topic:  * Why * Speed up development * Catch errors faster than type checking/compiling * Writing tedious boilerplate code * Ask questions and learn local information * Look good for hiring managers * How * Extensions for VSCode & other IDEs for inline suggestions * Chat with a selection/file * Command-line Tools run at the root directory * Local vs Cloud * Examples * Copilot (VSCode extension) * Use the experimental mode * Cursor (Custom IDE) * Jumps to suggest changes in other places * Similar to copilot experimental mode * RooCode (VSCode extension) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown]

Intro topic: Video Game Prices News/Links: * Step one: Jump in the Lava - Abyssoft * https://youtu.be/WdadpHLAfdA?si=oXYnhB0EdkR_RaPE [https://youtu.be/WdadpHLAfdA?si=oXYnhB0EdkR_RaPE] * Scalable world models for continuous control * https://www.tdmpc2.com/ [https://www.tdmpc2.com/] * Clever code is probably the worst code you could write - Engineer’s Codex * https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/clever-code-is-probably-the-worst [https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/clever-code-is-probably-the-worst] * A new, open source text-to-speech model called Dia has arrived to challenge ElevenLabs, OpenAI and more * https://venturebeat.com/ai/a-new-open-source-text-to-speech-model-called-dia-has-arrived-to-challenge-elevenlabs-openai-and-more/ [https://venturebeat.com/ai/a-new-open-source-text-to-speech-model-called-dia-has-arrived-to-challenge-elevenlabs-openai-and-more/] Book of the Show * Patrick * The Muscle Ladder - Jeff Nippard * https://amzn.to/44Dznsz [https://amzn.to/44Dznsz] * Jason * Metaphysics of War * https://amzn.to/4jMjvZ5 [https://amzn.to/4jMjvZ5] Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h] Tool of the Show * Patrick * Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket * Jason * Phi-4 * https://huggingface.co/spaces/microsoft/phi-4-multimodal [https://huggingface.co/spaces/microsoft/phi-4-multimodal] Topic: Memory Management * Motivation * Avoid thrashing / crashes * Allocate resources efficiently * Keep high uptime * Where * OS Level * Heap management * Virtual Memory * Language/Compiler Level * Cpp * Garbage collection * Ownership * Tools * Instrumentation * Export to Datadog / Grafana * Python: psutil & tracemalloc * Valgrind * What to do when your program uses too much memory? * Reduce data sizes * Compression * References * Lazy initializer * Generators & Back Pressure * Ring buffers * Arena allocators * Disk based caching ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown]

Intro topic: Grills News/Links: * You can’t call yourself a senior until you’ve worked on a legacy project * https://www.infobip.com/developers/blog/seniors-working-on-a-legacy-project [https://www.infobip.com/developers/blog/seniors-working-on-a-legacy-project] * Recraft might be the most powerful AI image platform I’ve ever used — here’s why * https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/ai-image-video/recraft-might-be-the-most-powerful-ai-image-platform-ive-ever-used-heres-why [https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/ai-image-video/recraft-might-be-the-most-powerful-ai-image-platform-ive-ever-used-heres-why] * NASA has a list of 10 rules for software development * https://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc345/resources/nasa-10-rules.htm [https://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc345/resources/nasa-10-rules.htm] * AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT performance estimates leaked: 42% to 66% faster than Radeon RX 7900 GRE * https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/amd-estimates-of-radeon-rx-9070-xt-performance-leaked-42-percent-66-percent-faster-than-radeon-rx-7900-gre [https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/amd-estimates-of-radeon-rx-9070-xt-performance-leaked-42-percent-66-percent-faster-than-radeon-rx-7900-gre]  Book of the Show * Patrick:  * The Player of Games (Ian M Banks) * https://a.co/d/1ZpUhGl [https://a.co/d/1ZpUhGl] (non-affiliate) * Jason:  * Basic Roleplaying Universal Game Engine * https://amzn.to/3ES4p5i [https://amzn.to/3ES4p5i] Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h] Tool of the Show * Patrick:  * Pokemon Sword and Shield * Jason:  * Features and Labels ( https://fal.ai [https://fal.ai] ) Topic: Reinforcement Learning * Three types of AI * Supervised Learning * Unsupervised Learning * Reinforcement Learning * Online vs Offline RL * Optimization algorithms * Value optimization * SARSA * Q-Learning * Policy optimization * Policy Gradients * Actor-Critic * Proximal Policy Optimization * Value vs Policy Optimization * Value optimization is more intuitive (Value loss) * Policy optimization is less intuitive at first (policy gradients) * Converting values to policies in deep learning is difficult * Imitation Learning * Supervised policy learning * Often used to bootstrap reinforcement learning * Policy Evaluation * Propensity scoring versus model-based * Challenges to training RL model * Two optimization loops * Collecting feedback vs updating the model * Difficult optimization target * Policy evaluation * RLHF &  GRPO ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown]

Intro topic: Lego event space & retail store: https://www.instagram.com/bambeecave [https://www.instagram.com/bambeecave]  News/Links: * StackOverflow Question Count Going Down  * https://gist.github.com/hopeseekr/f522e380e35745bd5bdc3269a9f0b132 [https://gist.github.com/hopeseekr/f522e380e35745bd5bdc3269a9f0b132] * DeepSeek claims its ‘reasoning’ model beats OpenAI’s o1 on certain benchmarks * https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/20/deepseek-claims-its-reasoning-model-beats-openais-o1-on-certain-benchmarks/ [https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/20/deepseek-claims-its-reasoning-model-beats-openais-o1-on-certain-benchmarks/]  * Computer Science Papers Every Developer Should Read * https://newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com/p/computer-science-papers-every-developer [https://newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com/p/computer-science-papers-every-developer] * Nvidia Cosmos - an AI platform to change the future of robots and cars - wins Best of CES 2025 * https://www.zdnet.com/article/nvidia-signs-largest-car-maker-toyota-to-use-its-self-driving-tech/ [https://www.zdnet.com/article/nvidia-signs-largest-car-maker-toyota-to-use-its-self-driving-tech/]  Book of the Show * Patrick: Alice’s Adventures in a differentiable wonderland * https://www.sscardapane.it/alice-book/ [https://www.sscardapane.it/alice-book/] * Jason:  * A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Hulu/Netflix/etc) Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h] Tool of the Show * Patrick:  * Digseum * https://store.steampowered.com/app/3361470/Digseum/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/3361470/Digseum/] * Jason:  * Sqlitedict - Python dictionaries saved to disk Topic: Project Planning and Management * Why? * Gathering feedback * Identifying risks * Deciding future headcount * Documenting / discovering dependencies * Critical path * Schedule * Reduce the bullwhip effect * How it works * SMART goals * specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound * MT is most important * Gantt Charts * Scrum * Agile * Kanban * Tools * Whiteboard (the generic IRL one) * Post it notes * JIRA * Asana * OpenProject * Dealing with uncertainty * Buffering * Issues with recursive padding * Project planning Post-Mortems ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown]

Intro topic: Smart homes News/Links: * SpaceX Starship Flight Test Five / Six * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKI7y3DTXk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKI7y3DTXk] * ShareDB * https://github.com/share/sharedb [https://github.com/share/sharedb] * Orion AR Glasses * https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/ [https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/] * Blade and Sorcery 1.0 is out * https://www.meta.com/experiences/blade-sorcery-nomad/2031826350263349/ [https://www.meta.com/experiences/blade-sorcery-nomad/2031826350263349/] Book of the Show * Patrick:  * The Book that Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence * https://amzn.to/4fry2XW [https://amzn.to/4fry2XW] * Jason:  * Masters of Doom * https://amzn.to/3YxuD3c [https://amzn.to/3YxuD3c] Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h] Tool of the Show * Patrick:  * Balatro * https://www.playbalatro.com/ [https://www.playbalatro.com/] * Jason:  * Cursor IDE * https://www.cursor.com/ [https://www.cursor.com/] Topic: Working from Home * Intro * Background & WFH experiences * Is it Panacea? * Realizing it works better for some than others * Internally Motivated * Scheduling * Communications * Home Setup * Dedicated space * Handling Non-work Distractions * Keyboards, Monitors, Music, … Desk related things * The specter of RTO ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ [https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown]