Podcasts by Command Line Heroes

The C Change from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.283882

C and UNIX are at the root of modern computing. Many of the languages we’ve covered this season are related to or at least influenced by C. But C and UNIX only happened because a few developers ...

Dr. Clarence Ellis: The Developer Who Helped Us Collaborate from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.228250

It’s not easy to learn how to use computers when you can’t actually touch them. But that’s how Dr. Cla...

Gladys Perkins: The Pioneer Who Took Us To New Heights from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.223715

Is the moon made of cheese? Of course not. But can a person walk on the surface? Not too long ago, we couldn’t answer that question. But with the help of Listen

Command Line Heroes Season 7: Internet Class of '95 from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.218876

The internet’s been around for awhile now. And it’s safe to say that it’s changed much of our daily lives. But not so long ago, there were few people who realized how transformative the internet...

From NSF to ISP from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.212994

1995 was the year that ISPs became the dominant gateway to the information superhighway. But how’d we go from ARPANET all the way to that? It turns out, none of it would have happened without a ...

Web UX Begins from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.206296

Looking at the internet in 1995 is like looking back at awkward grade school yearbooks—all the weirdness and flaws stand out in stark contrast to what it’s grown into since. And web design took ...

Looking for Search from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.199264

The web was growing quickly in the ‘90s. But all that growth wasn’t going to lead to much if people couldn’t actually find any web sites. In 1995, an innovative new tool started crawling the web...

Robot as Servant from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.184600

The 1980s promised robotic servants were in reach. They’d clean up our houses. Bring us drinks. Usher in an era of leisure. We didn’t get robot butlers. But if we look around, we’ll find an army...

Robot as Maker from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.174417

One of the first functional robots appeared on TV in 1966. That’s earlier than some of us expect. The Unimate’s televised premiere sparked the world’s imagination. It represented a host of possi...

Robot as Body from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.161774

For years, prosthetic technology focused on form over function, on masking lost limbs, rather than agency and usability. But things are changing. Innovations in robotics are giving more people m...

Command Line Heroes Season 9: The Horrors of Malware from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.146940

Malware haunts us all. Viruses, worms, trojan horses, and the harm they do often corrupts the promise of the internet. But the world of computing continues to grow. Though it’s changed us foreve...

Terrifying Trojans from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.138888

Sometimes a fun game, a friendly email, or an innocuous link can be the most convenient place for an enemy to hide. And its prey is none the wiser—until it strikes. The trojan horse uses many la...

Dawn of the Botnets from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.131569

Overwhelming numbers are scary—even in the best of circumstances. You can plan for them, build up your defenses, and do everything imaginable to prepare. But when that horde of zombies hits, the...

Ruthless Ransomers from 2023-12-12T18:57:58.126138

It’s a strange situation when someone can hold something hostage from halfway around the world. It’s tragic when your own pictures and files are remotely encrypted. But when it’s a hospital’s sy...

All Together Now from 2022-05-31T07:05

Our show is all about heroes making great strides in technology. But in InfoSec, not every hero expects to ride off into the sunset. In our series finale, we tackle vulnerability scans, how shar...

Invisible Intruders from 2022-05-17T07:05

What began as a supposed accounting error landed Cliff Stoll in the midst of database intrusions, government organizations, and the beginnings of a newer threat—cyber-espionage. This led the ecl...

Preview_CLH from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.474993

Introducing a show about the developers, programmers, hackers, geeks, and open source rebels who are shaping our digital future.

Ready to Commit: Contributing to Open Source from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.394507

Looking to get into open source but not sure where to start? Are you a contributor trying to understand why only some pull requests get accepted? Or are you a maintainer who’s feeling overwhelme...

The One About DevSecOps: Evolving Security and Reliability from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.380346

Bad security and reliability practices can lead to outages that affect millions. It’s time for security to join the DevOps movement. And in a DevSecOps world, we can get creative about improving...

At Your Serverless: Development Empowerment with Control from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.374866

What does serverless really mean? Of course there are still servers—the basics of the internet aren’t changing. But what can developers accomplish when someone else handles the servers?

S...

Learning the BASICs from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.318429

Becoming a programmer used to require a Ph.D. and having access to some serious hardware. Then, in 1965, a couple of engineers had a radical idea: make it easier for people to get started.

Diving for Perl from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.311220

Languages come and go. A few have the right stuff to rise to the top—and fewer stay there. Perl had a spectacular rise, a quiet slump, and has now found its place in the world of programming. Listen

Heroes in a Bash Shell from 2022-05-04T11:22:02.302226

Shells make large-scale IT possible. They’re a necessary component to modern computing. But it might not have turned out that way without a lot of hard work from a developer at the Listen

Menace in the Middle from 2022-04-19T07:05

All communication leaves the possibility for crossed wires. And as we become more connected, there’s a chance for those with ill intentions to steal our information and meddle in our daily lives...

Lurking Logic Bombs from 2022-03-22T07:05

Logic bombs rarely have warning sounds. The victims mostly don’t know to expect one. And even when a logic bomb is discovered before it’s triggered, there isn’t always enough time to defuse it. ...

Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite from 2022-02-22T11:05:34.932434

People never stop tinkering. Hardware hacking didn’t disappear after personal computers became mainstream. But it did change. A new generation of artists, designers, and activists are banding toget...

Relentless Replicants from 2022-02-22T08:05

Computer viruses and worms haunt the internet. They worm their way into a system, replicate, and spread again. It’s a simple process—with devastating consequences. But there’s a whole industry o...

Robot as Vehicle from 2021-12-14T08:05

Self-driving cars are seemingly just around the corner. These robots aren’t quite ready for the streets. For every hyped-up self-driving showcase, there’s a news story about its failure. But the...

Robot as Threat from 2021-11-30T08:05

When a robot goes bad, who is responsible? It’s not always clear if the user or the manufacturer is liable when a robot leaves the lot. Human behavior can be complex—and often contradictory. Ask...

Humans as Robot Caretakers from 2021-11-16T08:05

HitchBOT was an experiment in stewardship: A small, rudimentary robot unable to move on its own, depending on the kindness of passersby to help it along its journey. Until it met an untimely end...

From Compiler: Do We Want A World Without Technical Debt? from 2021-10-26T07:05

Who says tech talk has to be boring? On Compiler, we dig into tech topics big, small, and strange. We talk to people who know the code, and bring their perspectives back to you. Intrigued? Here'...

Robot as Humanoid from 2021-10-19T07:05

It’s hard enough to make a functional, reliable robot. Many people also want to make those robots in our image. That’s a tough needle to thread. Often, the most efficient design isn’t the most h...

Robot as Software from 2021-09-21T07:05

Building a physical robot isn’t cheap—even when it’s the final version. Designing a robot and testing it over and over again? That takes a lot of tries. And likely more than a few failures on th...

Command Line Heroes Season 8: Broadcasting the Robot Revolution from 2021-08-24T07:05

Robots have a special place in our imaginations. Writers, artists, directors, and more have shown how robots can change our world—for better or far, far worse. In the real world, robots seem a l...

After the Bubble from 2021-06-29T07:05

The Y2K bug generated a lot of fear, but all that hype fizzled when the new millennium didn’t start with a digital apocalypse. It turns out that fear was just aimed at the wrong catastrophe. Whi...

The World of the World Wide Web from 2021-06-15T07:05

1995 laid the groundwork for a truly global World Wide Web. But not every country took the same path to connecting to the internet. Some resisted, wanting to create their own version. Others had...

Shopping for the Web from 2021-05-18T07:05

We put a lot of trust into online shopping: sharing our names, addresses, and handing over money. In return, we have faith that the purchased item appears at our doorstep in a few days or weeks....

A Language for the Web from 2021-04-20T07:05

The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) gave everyone a foundation for building and viewing the World Wide Web. In 1995, its standardization led to dominance. Its simplicity helped it spread. And i...

Connecting the Dot-Com from 2021-03-23T07:05

The year is 1995. The internet starts going mainstream and the dot-com bubble begins its rapid inflation. But 10 years before all of this, a small team of systems administrators made a seemingly...

Arlan Hamilton: The Investor Who's Opening Doors from 2021-01-19T05:30

If you think hard work is enough to guarantee success, you haven’t been listening. All season long, we’ve profiled Black inventors who haven’t quite been given their due. Listen

Roy Clay: The Entrepreneur Who Transformed an Industry from 2020-12-22T05:30

Roy Clay had to chase after opportunities. But landing a promising position wasn’t the finish line. Roy Clay pushed those opport...

Dr. Marc Hannah: The Computer Scientist Who Brought Worlds to Life from 2020-11-24T05:30

Sometimes an inventor designs a device for a specific purpose. Sometimes it’s to try something new. But successful inventions often shape industries beyond those they initially intended. Listen

Mark Dean: The Inventor Who Made the Computer Personal from 2020-11-10T05:30

Dr. Mark Dean has a superpower. He wasn’t born with it. He wasn’t exposed to high levels of radiation. It’s a power he learned from his f...

Dr. Gladys West: The Mathematician Who Reshaped Our World from 2020-10-27T04:25:36

Aristotle and Eratosthenes are big names in geodesy. They got pretty close to measuring the size of the Earth. But the woman who got it done? She grew up a farmer, dreaming of something bigger. ...

Jerry Lawson: The Engineer Who Changed the Game from 2020-10-13T04:25:37

Many of us grew up playing cartridge-based games. But there's few who know the story behind how those cartridges came to be. And even fewer who know the story of the man behind them: Jerry Lawso...

Command Line Heroes: Meet the Inventors from 2020-09-29T04:32:31

Inventors don’t always get the credit they deserve, even for world-changing breakthroughs.  

Season 6 of Command Line Heroes tells the stories of ingenious inventors who haven’t been given...

Where Coders Code from 2020-07-28T04:50:40

Home office. Corporate park. Co-working space. Funland campus. Coders expect options when it comes to their workplace. The relocation of the average workspace from the office to the home has rev...

Where Coders Code from 2020-07-28T04:50:40

Home office. Corporate park. Co-working space. Funland campus. Coders expect options when it comes to their workplace. The relocation of the average workspace from the office to the home has reveal...

Introducing Season 5 of Command Line Heroes from 2020-06-30T05:02:20

After four seasons of epic tales about how command line heroes have shaped the tech landscape, we're tackling a new topic: the job itself. 

 Season 5 covers the job of being a coder. How c...

Introducing Season 5 of Command Line Heroes from 2020-06-30T05:02:20

After four seasons of epic tales about how command line heroes have shaped the tech landscape, we're tackling a new topic: the job itself.

Season 5 covers the job of being a coder. How co...

Smarter Phones: Journey to the Palm-Sized Computer from 2020-03-24T05:31:07

Few could imagine what a handheld computer would look like—or even do. But a trio of visionaries saw where computing was headed. To succeed in this new frontier, though, they would need to create e...

Floppies: The Disks that Changed the World from 2020-03-10T07:05:04

The floppy disk was one of the greatest breakthroughs in computing. It helped spin up the software industry with a format that endured for decades. And in some cases, it’s conserved treasures once ...

Personal Computers: The Altair 8800 and the Dawn of a Revolution from 2020-02-25T08:05:05

The Altair 8800 is why we have computers in most homes today. It was initially designed for hobbyists. But a few visionaries saw massive potential in this strange little machine—and worked hard to ...

Mainframes: The GE 225 and the Birth of BASIC from 2020-02-11T08:05:02

The computing industry started booming after World War II. General Electric’s CEO refused to enter that market. But a small team of rebel employees bent the rules to forge on in secret. They cre...

Mainframes: The GE 225 and the Birth of BASIC from 2020-02-11T08:05:02

The computing industry started booming after World War II. General Electric’s CEO refused to enter that market. But a small team of rebel employees bent the rules to forge on in secret. They cre...

Mainframes: The GE 225 and the Birth of BASIC from 2020-02-11T08:05:02

The computing industry started booming after World War II. General Electric’s CEO refused to enter that market. But a small team of rebel employees bent the rules to forge on in secret. They create...

Minicomputers: The Soul of an Old Machine from 2020-01-28T08:05:04

They don’t fit in your pocket. But in their day, minicomputers were an order of magnitude smaller than the room-sized mainframes that preceded them. And they paved the way for the personal compu...

Introducing Season 4 of Command Line Heroes from 2020-01-14T08:05:04

No one ever said hardware was easy. In Season 4, Command Line Heroes is telling 7 special stories about people and teams who dared to change the rules of hardware and in the process changed how ...

Talking to Machines: LISP and the Origins of A.I. from 2019-09-17T07:05:07

Creating a machine that thinks may have seemed like science fiction in the 1950s. But John McCarthy decided to make it a reality. And he started with a language he called LISP. Listen

The Infrastructure Effect: COBOL and Go from 2019-08-20T07:05:17

Languages used for IT infrastructure don’t have expiration dates. COBOL’s been around for 60 years—and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We maintain billions of lines of classic code for mainfr...

Creating JavaScript from 2019-07-23T07:05:03

A mission to set the course of the world wide web in its early days. 10 days to get it done. The result? An indispensable language that changed everything.

JavaScript was the underdog tha...

Python’s Tale from 2019-06-25T07:05:07

A benevolent dictator for life steps down and changes the course of the Python language forever. Guido van Rossum’s “Transfer of Power” memo brings attention to the way programming languages evo...

Introducing Season 3 of Command Line Heroes from 2019-06-11T07:05:03

Command Line Heroes is back for Season 3. We’re exploring the epic history of programming languages and how communities affect their development. We're talking Python, learning about JavaScript,...

Open Curiosity: NASA, Mars, and Beyond from 2018-12-18T08:01

The best and brightest took us to the moon with the computing power of pocket calculators. Now they’re taking us farther—and they’re doing it with the tech we’ve been talking about all season. O...

Bonus: Developer Advocacy Roundtable from 2018-12-17T15:18

Developer advocates play important roles in open source communities. We brought a few of them together to explain how and why they do what they do.

Sandra Persing (Mozilla), Ricky Robinet...

The Data Explosion: Processing, Storage, and the Cloud from 2018-11-20T08:05

Big data is going to help solve big problems: how we grow food; how we deliver supplies to those in need; how we cure disease. But first, we need to figure out how to handle it.

Modern li...

Fail Better: Embracing Failure from 2018-10-23T07:01

Failure is the heartbeat of discovery. We stumble a lot trying new things. The trick is to give up on failing fast. Instead, fail better.

This episode looks at how tech embraces failure. ...

Hello, World: Programming Languages for the Polyglot Developer from 2018-09-24T07:01

Every new programming language is created to do something previously impossible. Today, there are quite a few to choose from. But which ones do you really need to know?

This episode dives...

Press Start: How Gaming Shapes Development from 2018-09-11T07:01

Before the terms 'open source' and 'internet' were even coined—there were gamers. They created proto-open source communities, sharing and building upon each other’s work. For many programmers, g...

Introducing Season 2 of Command Line Heroes from 2018-08-28T07:05

In Season 2 of Command Line Heroes, we’re living on the command line, tracking the changes that shape the world of open source development. We’re discovering the origins of programming languages...

Days of Future_Open from 2018-03-27T05:00

Imagine a world where open source never caught on, where no one thought it’d be a good idea to make source code available to anyone. In this episode, we imagine this bizarre possibility. And we ...

Crack the Cloud_Open from 2018-03-13T05:00

“There is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer.” Or server, to be exact. Big cloud providers offer a relatively easy way to scale out workloads. But what’s the real cost?

In this e...

The Containers_Derby from 2018-02-27T06:00

The rise of Container technologies opens a new frontier for developers, simplifying the movement of work from machine to machine. As Containers become more popular, though, a new battle emerges....

DevOps_Tear Down That Wall from 2018-02-13T06:00

As the race to deliver applications ramps up, the wall between development and operations comes crashing down. When it does, those on both sides learn to work together like never before.

...

The Agile_Revolution from 2018-01-30T06:00

It's the turn of the 21st century. Open source software is changing the tech landscape. But new patterns of work have now become necessary. Developers search for a revolutionary approach that wi...

OS Wars_part 2: Rise of Linux from 2018-01-16T06:01

It's the 1990s. The empire of Microsoft controls 90% of users. Complete standardization of oper...

OS Wars_part 1 from 2018-01-16T06:00

The O.S. Wars. The 1980s is a period of mounting tensions. The empires of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs careen toward an inevitable battle over proprietar...