• Michael is on the super stouts
• Marie is doing dry "couple-of-days"
• What's a plosion? Michael has over-researched micophones
• Is Feng-Shui a load of nonsense? Or Real?
• Marie rubbishes Mark's new years resolution

Who is Marie Wigmore?

• Independent contractor for over 3 decades, currently engaged at BT
• Jira-avoidance wizard
• Graduate of the Youth Training Scheme, proud achiever of 5 O-Levels
• Driving Licence holder
• There will be a quiz at the end!

Quickfire questions

1. Inside or Outside IR35?
2. Microsoft Project Planner or Jira?
3. AI - scared or not scared?
4. If you were in charge, what's your RTO policy?
5. Do you prefer to consult for public sector, or consult for private sector?
6. Sports Car or SUV?
7. Most Expensive Dress you've ever worn?
8. One fashion tip for Mark?
9. Cat person or dog person?

Breaking Production Leaderboard

Clean Sheet, or Big Bang?
Marie has a podcast exclusive for us, on the post office scandal. Bloody toffee-crisp eaters!

Big Topics

Contracting

• How has it changed?
• Are the good times behind us?
• How have the big 4 influenced government policy?
• Have you ever had any contracts go bad, mid-way through?
• In the past, you’ve got a contract coming to an end, it’s not getting renewed, you’ve got bills to pay. What’s the game plan for landing you next gig?

Starting a consultancy

• What’s the gameplan for launching a new company?
• What are you gonna sell?
• How will you get clients?

News for the week

1. Experts urge caution over use of Chinese AI Deepseek (The Guardian)
2. James Howells suing Newport council again, after partner binned bitcoin wallet, and they won't let him dig up landfill (BBC)
3. Microsoft to acquire tiktok? (The Guardian)
4. Google maps renaming, after Trump renaming (The Register)
5. Amazon prime air to launch in Darlington (Tech Crunch)
6. AWS & Microsoft CMA investigation (Computer Weekly)

Old news, but relevant:

• Chinese major hardware hack uncovered (The Guardian)

Recommendations

Music

• Justice – Cross, electro/dance
• Underworld - Second toughest in the infants, electro
• Sonny Federa, DJ, House

TV

• Mr McMahon, wrestling documentary
• Traitors: Uncloaked finale, with Claudia Winkleman
• Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, documentary
• Girl You Know It's True, music movie about Milli Vanilli, who had one of the biggest scandals in music history
• The White Lotus, drama, comedy
• Gangs of London, Crime Drama

Books

• Feng Shui Modern, by Cliff Tan (Guardian Bookshop)

Podcasts

• Designated Driver, the podcast for fans of Adam Driver (Podbean)

Jokes

1. What do you call a Hippo on One Leg?
2. Change your nickname on iOS (YT video)

Next Time:

Chris Hunter joins us talking about coding bootcamps

Follow us, like & subscribe

Leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts/Spotify etc..
Find the trailers wherever you are:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• BlueSky
• Our Website, where you'll find our breaking prod leaederboard and nationalities of guests and more.

Special Guest: Marie Wigmore.

• Lenny Visits Wayde
• Michael finishes the last Espresso Martini Mouse
• JP sipps a duvel, not a duv-elle

We've got some quickfire questions for JP on all things recuitment.

• Does github activity matter?
• How many interviews is too many interviews?
• What's your go-to interview question?

Big Topics

Recruitment

• Michael and Mark get a CV review from the professional.
• Comparison of job platforms, LinkedIn meets Otta
• Most memorable interviews

Starting a new Venture

• Starting your own business! JP talks about his new venture, Torch, how he developed the idea, what does the MVP do?
• How JP found a technical founder, and started talking to clients about it.
• Michael and I talk about team moves and what the process looks like.

In the News

1. Broadcom Triples software revenue, somehow. What a mystery.
   
2. Starlink competitor IRIS launching in Europe – 290 satellites
3. Tom Hanks is forever young
4. Online Safety Act comes into effect in 3 months
5. A look at why OpenAI’s K8s server got overloaded and they got locked out
6. Aqua finds 336,000 Prometheus servers and exporters are wide open, uses them to get system info and cause dos attacks
7. Even Krisy-Kreme aren’t safe! Why are people attacking a donut company?!

Recommendations

TV

JP also recommends The Day of the Jackal

Books

Michael has finished Nuclear War: A Scenario

Out and About

Hidden City - a real-world texting adventure to help James Bond

Special Guest: Jean-Paul Ashby.

• Ian gives us his tooling preferences and why.
• Cynic to advocate for public cloud
• The phones are ringing off the hooks, thanks to Ian Reeves!
• What do we think of DHH?
• Should you run your own stuff, or pay for SaaS?
• Kim Jung Un's inner SuperHero

Big Topics

Data Center Repatriation.
Why DHH moved 37signals from public cloud to on-prem, here's his blogs on How it started vs. How it's going.
Is this reverting back to on-premise becoming commonplace?
Has the sales pitch for public cloud shifted?

In the news

1. Broadcom is making some major changes to stop VMware exodus
2. Indonesia squeezes apple even harder for $1Bn
3. New openAI model is pen tested for reasoning, and subversion. Can it act in its own interests to deceive the user? This is absolutely fascinating
4. Landlords Are Using AI to Raise Rents—and Cities Are Starting to Push Back
5. OpenAI releases Sora
6. Is AI hitting a wall?
7. Are AI Leaders overly optimistic?

Recommendations

Music

• Everyday is Christmas, Sia
• A keen follower told us that the Mark Lanegan tribute gig is on YouTube
• It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land, Soulsavers
• Try out Teddy Swims for some soul/pop
• Synthwave Goose's Blade Runner 2049 single and Hacker music album fit for Mr. Robot

Books

• Nuclear War, A Scenario by Annie Jacobson
• Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

TV

True Detective on Sky/NowTV

Special Guest: Ian Reeves.