Category: 3-SometimeTechTalk

Matt Van Itallie is the son of a math teacher and a coder - so this explains why he now uses code as data. He is a proud Boy Scout, making it of course to Eagle Scout and beyond. After being a management consultant, he found his way to ed tech, and fell in love with improving code. Outside of technology, he is married with 3 amazing kids. He likes to run, play ultimate frisbee, and has a wicked cool collection of minor league baseball hats.

Sitting a room with the head of Sales, Matt noticed that there were systems like Salesforce that were built to assess the state and future opportunity for business. He then thought, where are these systems for the code itself?

This is the creation story of Sema.

Sponsors

• Mailtrap
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.semasoftware.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mvi/

DBOS Transact is a lightweight, open-source library that makes durable execution simple so you no longer need to worry about manually coding retries and recovery procedures.

Connect with Jeremy on LinkedIn.

Connect with Qian on LinkedIn.

Shoutout to Stack Overflow user Vanita L., whose answer to What does the Swift 'mutating' keyword mean? earned them a Lifeboat badge.

• pre-commit: install with uv
• PEP 773: A Python Installation Manager for Windows (Accepted)
• Changes for Textual
• The Best Programmers I Know
• Extras
• Joke

About the show

Sponsored by NordLayer: pythonbytes.fm/nordlayer

Connect with the hosts

• Michael: @mkennedy@fosstodon.org / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
• Brian: @brianokken@fosstodon.org / @brianokken.bsky.social
• Show: @pythonbytes@fosstodon.org / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)

Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.

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Brian #1: pre-commit: install with uv

• Adam Johnson
• uv tool works great at keeping tools you use on lots of projects up to date quickly, why not use it for pre-commit.
• The extension of pre-commit-uv will use uv to create virtual environments and install packages fore pre-commit. This speeds up initial pre-commit cache creation.
• However, Adam is recommending this flavor of using pre-commit because it’s just plain easier to install pre-commit and dependencies than the official pre-commit install guide.
• Win-win.
• Side note: No Adam, I’m not going to pronounce uv “uhv”, I’ll stick with “you vee”, even Astral tells me I’m wrong

Michael #2: PEP 773: A Python Installation Manager for Windows (Accepted)

• via pycoders newsletter
• One manager to rule them all – PyManager.
• PEP 773 replaces all existing Windows installers (.exe “traditional” bundle, per-version Windows Store apps, and the separate py.exe launcher) with a single MSIX app called Python Install Manager (nick-named PyManager).
• PyManager should be mainstream by CPython 3.15, and the traditional installer disappears no earlier than 3.16 (≈ mid-2027).
• Simple, predictable commands.
  • python → launches “the best” runtime already present or auto-installs the latest CPython if none is found.
  • py → same launcher as today plus management sub-commands:
  • py install, py uninstall, py list, py exec, py help.
  • Optional python3 and python3.x aliases can be enabled by adding one extra PATH entry.

Michael #3: Changes for Textual

• Bittersweet news: the business experiment ends, but the code lives on.
• Textual began as a hobby project layered on top of Rich, but it has grown into a mature, “makes-the-terminal-do-the-impossible” TUI framework with an active community and standout documentation.
• Despite Textual’s technical success, the team couldn’t pinpoint a single pain-point big enough to sustain a business model, so the company will wind down in the coming weeks.
• The projects themselves aren’t going anywhere: they’re stable, battle-tested, and will continue under the stewardship of the original author and the broader community.

Brian #4: The Best Programmers I Know

• Matthias Endler
• “I have met a lot of developers in my life. Lately, I asked myself: “What does it take to be one of the best? What do they all have in common?””
• The list
  • Read the reference
  • Know your tools really well
  • Read the error message
  • Break down problems
  • Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty
  • Always help others
  • Write
  • Never stop learning
  • Status doesn’t matter
  • Build a reputation
  • Have patience
  • Never blame the computer
  • Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”
  • Don’t guess
  • Keep it simple
• Each topic has a short discussion. So don’t just ready the bullet points, check out the article.

Extras

Brian:

• I had a great time in Munich last week. I a talk at a company event, met with tons of people, and had a great time.
  • The best part was connecting with people from different divisions working on similar problems.
  • I love the idea of internal conferences to get people to self organize by topic and meet people they wouldn’t otherwise, to share ideas.
  • Also got started working on a second book on the plane trip back.

Michael:

• Talk Python Clips (e.g. mullet)
• Embrace your cloud firewall (example).
• Python 3.14.0 beta 1 is here
• Congrats to the new PSF Fellows.
• Cancelled faster CPython
• bsky.app/profile/snarky.ca post

Joke: How To Fix Your Computer

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) ChatGPT ranks No. 5 among all websites worldwide 2) ChatGPT is the only website among the top ranked by SimilarWeb that is growing 3) How do chatbots get information if they replace the web? 4) Grok's 'white genocide' messaging campaign 5) What's in a system prompt, with a look inside Grok's 6) The truth about Timothée Chalamet 7) Filing stories directly into ChatGPT? 8) Meta slams into big problems in its Llama AI program 9) Does it matter if scaling is done? 10) IBM survey shows generative ROI is hard to come by despite interest 11) Cohere's revenue trouble 12) Perplexity integrates with Paypal 13) A look at the event calendar ahead

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Connect with Christophe on LinkedIn. 

Instead of a badge, we have a question for you:  If you are a developer who is working with AI agents, what are you building? What tools are you looking for? What problems are you interested in solving with AI tools? Send us an email at podcast@stackoverflow.com. 

Kevin Greene, Chief Security Strategist for the Public Sector at BeyondTrust joins the show for a critical conversation on the evolving cybersecurity landscape in government. Together, we explore the mounting pressures government agencies face from increasingly sophisticated threat actors—and the urgent need for a proactive, threat-informed defense strategy. He also shares his perspectives on the critical role of identity security, the complexities of zero trust adoption, and the emerging role of AI and automation in cyber resilience.

Andrew McClenahan, Senior Director of Government Relations at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and former program leader at the Florida Department of Children and Families joins the show to dissect the growing concerns surrounding program integrity and fraud mitigation in federal and state benefit programs. We dive into what’s happening on Capitol Hill—from executive orders and agency mandates to the shifting dynamics of federal-state collaboration—and discuss the implications of recent USDA guidance on eligibility oversight, performance standards, and funding threats for underperforming states—particularly as pandemic relief funds dry up.

Emily  Bender is a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington. Alex Hanna is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute. Bender and Hanna join Big Technology to discuss what their new book, “The AI‑Con," which they describe as the layered ways today’s language‑model boom obscures environmental costs, labor harms, and shaky science. Tune in to hear a lively back‑and‑forth on whether chatbots are useful tools or polished parlor tricks. We also cover benchmark gaming, data‑center water use, doomerism, and more. Hit play for a candid debate that will leave you smarter about where generative AI really stands — and what comes next.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of The BlueHat Podcast, host Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone are joined by Felix Boulet fresh off his participation in Zero Day Quest. Felix talks about his unique journey from industrial maintenance to becoming a full-time vulnerability researcher, and how that background fuels his passion for hacking and bug bounty work. He explains his method for finding bugs in Microsoft products—particularly in identity systems—and why identity is such a valuable target for attackers. Felix also shares highlights from the Zero Day Quest event, where he focused on building connections, learning from Microsoft engineers, and experiencing the collaborative side of the security community.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• Why identity-based bugs are especially valuable and dangerous in the security world
• When breaking identity controls can be the key to pivoting through an entire system
• How SharePoint's concept of "virtual files" impacts vulnerability validation

Some Questions We Ask:

• What was your first bug bounty experience?
• Can you explain what the flash challenges were and what your experience was like?
• Do you think sharing bug ideas could cost you a bounty?

Resources:

View Felix Boulet on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn   

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast 
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson 
• Uncovering Hidden Risks 

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

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