Hanselminutes - Fresh Talk and Tech for Developers

Kyle Wiens is the CEO and Co-founder of IFixit. IFixit is kind of the Wikipedia of Repair Guides and Teardowns. Scott and Kyle talk about why it's important to be able to fix your own hardware. Do we have the right of repair? Why are so many consumer electronics designed without repairability in mind?

Scott talks with Richard Campbell in this episode of Hanselminutiae LIVE. We did this show on Google Hangouts and you can watch the video at Scott's youtube at http://youtube.com/shanselman if you'd like. We talk about technology, gadgets, new directions, and industry trends.

Greg Borenstein is a computer vision expert, game designer, and author. He's currently a researcher in the Playful Systems Group at the MIT Media Lab. He also works as the futurist for the TV Series "Minority Report." The show tries to stay true to the universe of the movie while imagining a realistic (and socially conscious) future in 2065.

Scott talks to Julius Sweetland, developer of OptiKey. OptiKey is an assistive on-screen keyboard which runs on Windows. It is designed to be used with a low cost eye-tracking device to bring keyboard control, mouse control and speech to people with motor and speech limitations, such as people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) / Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

Poornima Vijayashanker was a founding engineer at Mint.com and now is building an education company called Femgineer. Her new book "Present! The Techie's Guide to Engaging an Audience" speaks to the importance of speaking up. Poornima talks to Scott about why speaking up and improving your communication skills can revitalize your career in tech.

Kyle Simpson, aka @getify, is the Curriculum Manager for MakerSquare and has created a series of books called You Don't Know JS. You can read the You Don't Know JS book series for free on GitHub, but we know you'll want to buy them after you hear this interview. Kyle sets Scott straight and explains why Scott doesn't know JavaScript. It's true, he really doesn't...at least not as well as he thought!

Monica Dinculescu works on Polymer and Chrome for Google. In this episode she teaches Scott all about Web Components and the Polymer Project. Are Web Components the future of the web, and why? Where does Polymer fit in, and what should YOU use if you are starting a project today?

Scott talks to Matthew Cannon about the musical revolution that happened the eighties and early 90s in video game soundtracks. Matthew worked at Ocean Software and composed music for games like Navy Seals, Batman: The Movie, Elf, and many more. Matthew worked on C64, Amiga, SNES, Megadrive, and other systems. How did these systems work and what can they teach us about computing today?

Scott talks with former Googler Kenton Varda about his startup Sandstorm.io. Sandstorm makes it easy to run and manage your own server by simplifying application deployment and security. How does it work and how does it relate to Docker? How is a "personal cloud" different from "a server under the stairs?"

There's lots of discussion around assistive technology on the web, but what about technologies that aren't all about the browser? There are a number of conditions that have made it easier to develop assistive technology (social media, crowdfunding, rapid prototyping tools,etc.) Scott talks to Sylvia Richardson, an accessibility coordinator for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina about some of the many innovations in this space.

Scott talks with coder, tinkerer, and occasional adjunct professor Dawn C Hayes about the intersection of physical computing and creating coding. As we write code more, we have to ask ourselves "but are we improving our world? The community? Our culture?" The advent of wearables, augmented games, and networked objects has the potential to take computing out of the garage and into the collective consciousness. Dawn teaches Scott about how these objects can combine with new thinking around informal learning to engage not only new audiences but the next generation of creator.

Scott talks to Jet.com's Rachel Reese about how Jet uses F#, Azure, and lots more to scale to new heights. What's it like to build a massive system on a functional language? How does using .NET but NOT using C# change how you recruit?

Scott talks to Jacob Krall from Fog Creek Software about how his team used the open source C# Roslyn compiler to bring their ancient VBScript-style language called "Wasabi" into the 21st century. They solved real-world problems in a systematic way with smart decisions and computer science.

Abby Covert is an independent Information Architect and also the President of the Information Architecture Institute. She's the author of "How to Make Sense of Any Mess" and spends her life trying to make the unclear be clear. In this episode, she explains the difference between UX and IA, and sets Scott straight about some common misconceptions about information architecture.

Scott talks to Developer and Designer Catt Small from SoundCloud. When you're a designer AND a front-end developer, where does one half of your personality end and the other half begin? Should prototypes be written in JavaScript and HTML or in a visual prototyping application?