Category: 3-SometimeTechTalk

Chris Wallis lives in London, and grew up on a farm in the UK. He was the kid running around the countryside climbing trees - until his parents bought a computer when he was 15. Past that point, he didn't leave the house much, learning to code and digging into ethical hacking. Outside of tech, he is into tennis, swimming, alpine skiing and surfing. He finds himself in phases with these sports, and rotates them often.

In the past, Chris was an ethical hacker, and spent a long time busting into big name systems. Eventually, he moved into one of those companies - and he realized that the tooling out there to discover attack surface weaknesses were lagging. He decided to build a platform that got the job done.

This is the creation story of Intruder.

Sponsors

• Vention
• CodeCrafters helps you become a better engineer by building real-world, production-grade projects. Learn hands-on by creating your own Git, Redis, HTTP server, SQLite, or DNS server from scratch. Sign up for free today using this link and enjoy 40% off.
• Full Scale
• Paddle.com
• Sema Software
• PropelAuth
• Postman
• Meilisearch

Links

• https://www.intruder.io/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wallis/

• httptap
• 10 Smart Performance Hacks For Faster Python Code
• FastRTC
• Explore Python dependencies with pipdeptree and uv pip tree
• Extras
• Joke

About the show

Sponsored by us! Support our work through:

• Our courses at Talk Python Training
• The Complete pytest Course
• Patreon Supporters

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.

Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.

Michael #1: httptap

• Rich-powered CLI that breaks each HTTP request into DNS, connect, TLS, wait, and transfer phases with waterfall timelines, compact summaries, or metrics-only output.
• Features
  • Phase-by-phase timing – precise measurements built from httpcore trace hooks (with sane fallbacks when metal-level data is unavailable).
  • All HTTP methods – GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS with request body support.
  • Request body support – send JSON, XML, or any data inline or from file with automatic Content-Type detection.
  • IPv4/IPv6 aware – the resolver and TLS inspector report both the address and its family.
  • TLS insights – certificate CN, expiry countdown, cipher suite, and protocol version are captured automatically.
  • Multiple output modes – rich waterfall view, compact single-line summaries, or -metrics-only for scripting.
  • JSON export – persist full step data (including redirect chains) for later processing.
  • Extensible – clean Protocol interfaces for DNS, TLS, timing, visualization, and export so you can plug in custom behavior.
• Example:

Brian #2: 10 Smart Performance Hacks For Faster Python Code

• Dido Grigorov
• A few from the list
  • Use math functions instead of operators
  • Avoid exception handling in hot loops
  • Use itertools for combinatorial operations - huge speedup
  • Use bisect for sorted list operations - huge speedup

Michael #3: FastRTC

• The Real-Time Communication Library for Python: Turn any python function into a real-time audio and video stream over WebRTC or WebSockets.
• Features
  • 🗣️ Automatic Voice Detection and Turn Taking built-in, only worry about the logic for responding to the user.
  • 💻 Automatic UI - Use the .ui.launch() method to launch the webRTC-enabled built-in Gradio UI.
  • 🔌 Automatic WebRTC Support - Use the .mount(app) method to mount the stream on a FastAPI app and get a webRTC endpoint for your own frontend!
  • ⚡️ Websocket Support - Use the .mount(app) method to mount the stream on a FastAPI app and get a websocket endpoint for your own frontend!
  • 📞 Automatic Telephone Support - Use the fastphone() method of the stream to launch the application and get a free temporary phone number!
  • 🤖 Completely customizable backend - A Stream can easily be mounted on a FastAPI app so you can easily extend it to fit your production application. See the Talk To Claude demo for an example of how to serve a custom JS frontend.

Brian #4: Explore Python dependencies with <code>pipdeptree</code> and <code>uv pip tree</code>

• Suggested by Nicholas Carsner
  • We have covered it, but in 2017 on episode 17.
• pipdeptree
  • Use pipdeptree --python auto to allow it to read your venv
• uv pip tree
  • Also check out uv pip tree and some useful flags
    • --show-version-specifiers to show the rules
    • --outdated notes packages that need updated

Extras

Brian:

• Lean TDD 0.1.1 includes an updated intro and another chapter, “Essential Components”
• VSCode Peacock Extension - color code your different projects

Joke: Sure Grandma

Ryan is joined by Secure Code Warrior’s co-founder and CTO Matias Madou to discuss the  implications of LLMs’ variability on code security, the future of developer training as AI coding assistants become more popular, and the importance of critical thinking—especially for junior developers—in the age of AI.

Episode notes: 

Secure Code Warrior upskills development teams to help companies stay protected against potential cybersecurity threats.

Connect with Matias on Linkedin. 

Shoutout to Lifejacket badge winner Sergey Kalinichenko, who won the badge for their answer to K&R Code for getting an int.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar's comments about a government backstop for its financing 2) Why these statements matter 3) Does OpenAI need financial discipline 4) Do we want to be the discipline police? 5) Should we build a national compute reserve? 6) Why OpenAI is getting so much scrutiny lately 7) OpenAI's ambitious financial plans 8) Elon's $1 trillion pay package gets approved 9) Amazon sues Perplexity 10) Ilya's deposition revealed 11) Farmer insights

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Suzanne Boyd, CEO of Anthro-Tech and a pioneer in human-centered design joins the show to share her journey from growing up in a family of entrepreneurs to founding Anthro-Tech in 1997, by blending her love of anthropology with technology to improve lives through thoughtful design. We unpack the evolution and institutionalization of human-centered design, its impact on government and private sector organizations, and the importance of inclusivity and accessibility from the start of any project.

Ryan welcomes Nic Benders to discuss the complexity and abstraction crisis in software development, the importance of going beyond observability into understandability, and demystifying AI's opacity for understanding and control.

Episode notes:

New Relic is a full-stack observability platform that helps engineers plan, build, deploy, and run software. Read their 2025 observability forecast. 

Connect with Nic on Linkedin or email him at nic@newrelic.com.

Congratulations to user Yochai Timmer for winning a Populist badge on their answer to Reader/Writer Locks in C++. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Erez Druk grew up in Israel, but has been in the Bay Area for many years. He has a common theme in his life of obsessing over his current thing. In the 4th grade it was the saxophone, and later on it was being Israel's board game champion, and then - he became obsessed with startups. Outside of tech, he is married and expecting his first child. He's into exercising, reading and coffee. His favorite is going to a coffee shop with his wife, and having a cappuccino and a pastry - but at home, he leans towards his aeropress.

Eight years ago, Erez met his wife who was heading into medical school. He got to see first hand how folks in the healthcare system work, and how hard their jobs are. After wrapping up his prior startup, he started down the path of building a solution that improved the lives of these clinicians.

This is the creation story of Freed.

Sponsors

• Vention
• CodeCrafters helps you become a better engineer by building real-world, production-grade projects. Learn hands-on by creating your own Git, Redis, HTTP server, SQLite, or DNS server from scratch. Sign up for free today using this link and enjoy 40% off.
• Full Scale
• Paddle.com
• Sema Software
• PropelAuth
• Postman
• Meilisearch

Links

• https://www.getfreed.ai/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/drukerez/

M.G. Siegler of Spyglass is back for our monthly tech news discussion. Today we dig into OpenAI’s newly cleared path to an IPO, what trillion-scale capex vs. current revenue implies, and how Microsoft’s 27% stake, IP rights, and fresh AWS entanglements complicate the story. We debate whether the market can stomach years of heavy losses, why “AGI or bust” creates systemic risk, and what happens if model gains plateau, compute economics flip, or fast followers erase any AGI edge. Finally, we look at Apple’s iPhone 17 resurgence—why it’s hitting now and whether it’s enough without a breakthrough assistant. Tune in for a clear walkthrough of tech’s biggest news with one of the industry’s sharpest analysts.

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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

Today, we are another episode in our series, sponsored by our good friends at Railsware. Railsware is a leading product studio with two main focuses - services and products. They have created amazing products like Mailtrap, Coupler and TitanApps, while also partnering with teams like Calendly and Bright Bytes. They deliver amazing products, and have happy customers to prove it.

In this series, we are digging into the company's methods around product engineering and development. In particular, we will cover relevant topics to not only highlight their expertise, but to educate you on industry trends alongside their experience.

In today's episode, we are talking again with Sergiy Korolov, Co-CEO of Railsware and Co-founder of Mailtrap. In my conversation with Sergiy, we dive into how Railsware delivers value - not just features - by following their BRIDGeS framework, enabling their team to focus on value delivery.

Questions:

• Railsware is proud of its product development approaches, so let’s pave the way to our topic through one of your prominent cases. In its early days, Calendly reached out to you to deliver their product – with a tight budget and a large set of requirements. You’ve said earlier that several of those initial expected features remained unfulfilled. This leads me to the question: to you, what's the difference between shipping features and delivering value, and why do so many product teams get this wrong?
• You’ve been working on several client products, as well as on Railsware’s own. How do you identify what "value" actually means for different stakeholders?
• Railsware is known for its BRIDGeS framework, a useful tool to bring the team on the same page and set the product process straight. Can you walk us through the BRIDGeS framework and how it helps teams focus on value delivery?
• What role does user research and validation play in the BRIDGeS approach?
• Can you share a specific example where applying BRIDGeS helped a team pivot from building the wrong features to delivering real value?
• What's the biggest challenge teams face when transitioning from feature delivery to value delivery?

Links

• https://railsware.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiykorolov/
• https://railsware.com/bridges-framework/
• https://mailtrap.io/