Our guest for the Season Three finale is a legend in the User Experience community. Dave Platt started developing because of a love of mainframe games. He graduated to becoming an author of books on various Microsoft programming tools before concentrating his efforts on UX. We talk UX process, evangelism, and Dave's mission to help senior citizens better leverage technology to stay connected. www.assistedcomputing.org https://boston.craigslist.org/ https://auraframes.com/ https://apps.apple.com/...
Dec 21, 2020•44 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Bill Scott toured the trades and the military before discovering software consulting as a career. Rather than being yet another Commodore 64 disciple, Bill's introduction to programming is a unique story, one you'll have to hear to believe. We also talk about iOT development/hardware hacking, Extreme Programming, and the push for digital transformation. Dover Corporation https://www.dovercorporation.com/ Computer Learning Centers https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/5/Computer-Learning-...
Dec 14, 2020•35 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Jeremy Halperin chased a dream of being in a band, bartending to make ends meet. The progression of life led him to computer science. During his ascension from individual contributor to manager to CTO, he realized that his helpdesk and bartending experience were unexpectedly useful. We talk about the drama formula, watching people hose production servers, and the coolest thing Jeremy has ever done in a job. Jeremy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhalperin / Rarebreed Veterinary Part...
Dec 07, 2020•32 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest Brian King is a veteran of many travels, trials, and tribulations. He has seen the technology industry progress through decades, often seeing the same situations reappear repeatedly. We talk about the difficulty of traveling and job hunting during a pandemic, some underrated European travel spots, and how the Hamilton musical is infecting the minds of parents and kids alike. Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianpking / Ron Chernow book on Alexander Hamilton: https://www....
Nov 30, 2020•42 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Unlike most PoliSci majors, Jesse McSweeney started out his professional career chasing down rogue insurance agents who were ripping off clients. We talk about how to avoid being scammed, being a Scrum master without previously being a developer, and why it just might be worth it to fly halfway around the world to Bora Bora. Jesse's company https://www.iqvia.com / Jesse on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessemcsweeney / The Elements of Scrum https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Scrum-Chris-Sims...
Nov 23, 2020•36 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Damien Scott is a recovering hardware guy living in a software world. Similar to previous Underserved guest Ben Szekely, Damien was recruited out of college to work for IBM. We talk about consulting company truths and myths, how to get a bank to sign off on using open source, and how to spot optimization opportunities at your company. What is Reactive Programming? https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2017/06/30/5-things-to-know-about-reactive-programming/#:~:text=Reactive%20programming%20is%20simp...
Nov 16, 2020•33 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest Paul Krasinski mentored some kids while attending Brown University, and their experience changed his perspective. We talk about playing professional basketball in Europe, the science of tracking audience engagement, and the struggle for companies to engage consumers without being creepy. Paul also discusses his plans to move online relationships into the real world, developing a collaboration and connection space in Plymouth, MA. Newton South High School - https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/...
Nov 09, 2020•45 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Brandon Kindred's dad redirected his excess energy and curiosity to learning programming with a teach yourself in 24 hours book. The same thing happened in school, where a chance encounter (getting caught programming) led to a spot on the robotics team. We talk about lessons learned from robotics competitions, using AI and ML to improve software testing, and where the soft powder is in Colorado. The FIRST robotics organization https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc Brandon's company https://...
Nov 02, 2020•31 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest Jed Maczuba grew up reading 2600 - The Hacker Quarterly (as did your humble narrator). His curiosity about phone systems and computer systems led him to become a Mac user and an IBM employee. We talk about the most underrated skill in management, steering management to best leverage technology, the struggle to exceed the industry average for successful projects (as low as 10%!), and how oil painting is a surprisingly technical hobby. Link to Jed's article on Agile : https://www.linkedi...
Oct 26, 2020•42 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Adria Kyne was in Seattle pursuing a Ph.D. in Chinese Archaeology when the Dot Com boom pulled her into the software industry. Search engines were at war and Microsoft was determined to win the battle with a combination of human curation and machine classification. This led to a 20-year career bringing rigor and truth to search technology and search marketing - an industry often rife with snake oil salesmen and pseudoscience. We also talk about larping and how that hobby led to Adria appearing o...
Oct 19, 2020•36 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Meredith Barnes-Cook started running agile development teams before agile was even "a thing". Her no-nonsense, results-oriented approach to insurance software development led to a successful career at Liberty Mutual and other insurers. We talk about moving from career management to career ownership, getting work done through people not in spite of them, and folding in teams from formerly hostile competitors. Needham High School – Home of the oldest Thanksgiving football rivalry https://needhamhi...
Oct 12, 2020•34 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Season Three kicks off with our guest Jim Martin , CTO of Shepley Bulfinch. Famed architect H.H. Richardson gave birth to the company way back in the 1800s with the design of Trinity Church in Boston, and they have remained in practice ever since. Jim 's job is to make sure technology is an enabler for architects, helping them better design, draw, and deliver solutions to their clients. We talk about growing up with LOGO, the intricacies of CAD software and its IT care and feeding, and Jim 's in...
Oct 05, 2020•39 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast We are back with Part 2 of our BBQ Bonus edition of Underserved! This episode features the tips and tricks that our pitmasters have learned during years of time spent over the smoker. Learn secrets including brining, rub and sauce selection, resting, wrapping, and more. Featured are: Dave White - Director of Software Engineering at Iron Mountain, weekend BBQ warrior https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsw999/ Carlo Crocetti - Owner of Crocetti's and South Shore Meats, the thrill of the grill https://www...
Jul 02, 2020•36 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Just in time for summer - A special 2-part BBQ bonus edition of Underserved! Years back I decided to get good at cooking barbecue and formed a competitive team called Tasty Bytes BBQ. Along the way, we won some contests, cooked some good food, met some great people, and learned a ton. This episode features three friends I have made in the BBQ world. We talk about how they got into BBQ and what they enjoy most about it. Next episode we will feature tips and tricks from all three of them. Featured...
Jun 18, 2020•39 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Capping off Season Two, Bharathi Balasubramanyam (B, for short) tells us about finding computer science when biology class went awry, serverless frameworks, imposter syndrome, and becoming the queen of working remotely. You won't want to miss B's around-the-world experience with Remote Year, where she traveled to 23 different countries in one year all while keeping the same job! Lifescore Labs - https://www.lifescorelabs.com/ AWS Lambda - https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ Remote year - http://bosto...
May 28, 2020•30 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest PK Shiu was building remote development teams long before it was fashionable (or the only way!) to do so. We cover the organizational and people challenges of making remote work, talk a bit about audio production, and about getting kids interested in coding using the Scratch programming language from MIT. https://emoneyadvisor.com/ https://www.pkshiu.com/ https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://www.carylibrary.org/calendar/program-calendar https://theperfectpack.com/author/pkshiu/...
May 12, 2020•30 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest Sara Morgan explains how a sick day led to a love of coding and how questions like, "Would you rather plan a party or take a doorknob apart?" can help point you towards a career. Sara also talks about how your network enables more industry portability than your expertise can, and how important attitude and perspective can be in shaping your future. We also talk about applying technology toward kids' sports and fishing. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.franklincovey.c...
May 04, 2020•32 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Hodges (fellow member of the Commodore Army) applied lots of grit and determination to graduate with a CS degree at a time when 93% were quitting the major. Like our previous guest John Newman, Matt got to view development from a lot of different angles before becoming part of the organization (QA, DBA, Ops, etc). We talk about how being thankful and humble can be a really important part of your career, and how being the Excel stat geek can endear you to your softball team. Stonehill Colleg...
Apr 22, 2020•32 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Khan Klatt has been involved in education technology for the last 7 years, on both the for-profit and non-profit sides of the industry. Khan talks about how some things change and some stay the same between those two worlds, how he got his start in software, the front-end focus in ed tech, and how he applies "otaku" to his hobby of building light displays. CFC’s Mission: https://www.cfchildren.org/blog/2016/04/safe-children-thriving-in-a-peaceful-world/ UIUC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCSA_HT...
Apr 13, 2020•35 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Stasonis, VP of Engineering at Lola.com talks about the trajectory of an engineering career, and how to decide at critical junctures - "Stay or leave a company? Stay technical or consider management? How do I become a good (not average) manager?" Chris also (drum roll) keeps chickens and has automated some of the coop life. We talk a bit about the prosumer-ization of flying private airplanes as well. "Being Geek" - the software developer's career handbook https://www.amazon.com/Being-Geek-...
Apr 02, 2020•38 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast If your team grows 4x in a year it can be hard to keep up! Ken Pickering talks about bracing for the influx, living with a Scala architecture, and working in consumer-facing companies. Hear how boxing competitively provides the necessary stress relief for the software industry (link below to sponsor Ken in this year's Haymakers for Hope charity tournament!) Hopper: https://www.hopper.com/ (and download the App!) Haymakers for Hope: https://haymakersforhope.org/event/boston/2020/rock-n-rumble-x/k...
Mar 22, 2020•36 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest Ben Szekely talks about pioneering semantic technologies at CSI for over a decade. As an SVP and Head of Field Operations, Ben has been applying graph technology to the human data model and other tough problems. In his spare time, he is also an avid skier (think jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter onto a mountain in Alaska) and kiteboarder. Hear about how the highest kiteboard jump in the world happened in Massachusetts Bay! Cambridge Semantics, https://www.cambridgesemantics.co...
Mar 12, 2020•30 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Vikas Singhvi went from the ultimate for-profit industry (financial services software) to a running IT for a non-profit. Hear his lessons learned, along with how to level up using online resources, and what DevSecOps is. We talk about continuous compliance and how to reconcile Agile methodologies with regulated industries. We also cover trying to retain culture and traditions from the old country when living in a new country. Vikas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikassinghvi/ Software ...
Mar 02, 2020•34 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest in Episode 015 is John Newman, Senior Software Engineer (Java/Spring/Oracle). After growing up on a steady diet of BBSes, John went from the physical therapy program to the programming program. After his start in Ops he moved to Dev and has been coding ever since. John talks about developing for the fun of it, his early days on the dial-up bulletin board systems in Boston, and how coaching youth sports helps him with his job. What is a BBS - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_boa...
Feb 20, 2020•35 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast In Episode 014 I talk to Tim Callaghan, VP of Technology at Crunchtime. Tim has some great stories from a previous job where they embraced open source, extended it, and competed with it on occasion. His story about attending a presentation that (surprise!) ended up being about his benchmarking code at a worldwide MongoDB conference is a must-listen! We also talk about inspiring the next generation of coders and cloud provider merits. Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timcallaghan/ @tmc...
Feb 10, 2020•38 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast We kick off Season Two with Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor, Inc. Steve made the long trek across the highway in Needham to talk to me about what initially excited him about computers, what he learned at each stage in TripAdvisor's growth, and what he would go back and tell himself if he had a time machine. We also talk about fencing, the TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation, and the anti-bureaucracy challenge. How does your outlook on acquisitions change from being a $50M company to being a $4B c...
Jan 30, 2020•34 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast It's almost time for the business world to hibernate for a couple of weeks, and Underserved is shipping some yuletide bits to enjoy during the break! We have taken some cuts we did not have room for in our regular episodes and packaged them here. This bonus episode is the end of Season One of Underserved. Season two is coming in early 2020, see you then! Show notes: Buoyancy - Forbes article https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/12/19/10-good-reasons-to-change-jobs-every-3-5-years/#4d8f9cf27...
Dec 13, 2019•32 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast How many people started their data science career at 16 years old? Then took a sabbatical to play with famous jazz musicians? And subsequently bootstrapped the US presence for a Norwegian data science firm? I know one! His name is Russ Wilcox. On this week's Underserved Russel explains how a Tesla sees the world (and how it can be fooled), how to teach an old AI new tricks, and we discuss the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. If you ever wondered how machine learning worked, or if...
Nov 20, 2019•39 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Arvind Singh https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroh/ is a software developer that specializes in security and identity management. He has been a proponent of open source software for over two decades, particularly BSD derivatives of Unix. We talk about how open source is the unsung hero of the Internet, the proliferation of open source licensing models, coming up from the west coast of India to the East coast of the US, and where the best Indian food in Boston is (hint: JP). We also talk restoring bi...
Nov 11, 2019•34 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Brian Adams got into QA by way of customer service, and has developed his testing skills, user empathy, and teamwork to become a top professional. We talk about best practices for performing quality assurance, QA in an agile lifecycle, and making the most out of distributed teams. Brian is also a veteran of multiple marathons (the running kind) so we talk about his rituals and routines. The combined BA/QA role: https://www.emids.com/defining-the-baqa-role/ Microsoft OneDrive is taking over DropB...
Nov 01, 2019•31 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast 
