TechZing is an informal bi-weekly chat show aimed at entreprenures and hackers interested in creating their own web app startup. The show is both educational (with practical advice) and conversational.
167: TZ Discussion – How Darth Vader Got Screwed
Justin and Jason discuss the latest in brain boosting, why to-do lists don't work, the ethics of deleting a user's data after they've closed their account, the upcoming MicroConf 2012 conference, getting more iTunes reviews, Jason's idea for applying a points system to Masterminding, the latest progress on AnyFu, the painful process of acquiring an SSL Extended Validation certificate and why Jason opposed the idea of purchasing an SSL certificate from GoDaddy, encrypting social security numbers, how one of the founders of TheGlobe is applying the Angel List model to Hollywood, why the actor who played Darth Vader still isn't getting paid residuals, some ideas on how to disrupt Hollywood, why ACTA is the new SOPA, the new show segment known as the Doom and Gloom Report, how the oldest ship in the navy, the USS Enterprise, AKA the "Mobile Chernobyl", is heading straight to the Strait of Hormuz, why India is going to pay gold for Iranian oil, how the LAPD coordinated with the CIA on terrorism (which is a big no-no) and Jason's prediction for the evolution of AnyFu.
166: TZ Interview - Anthony Goldbloom & Jeremy Howard / Kaggle
Justin & Jason talk to Anthony Goldblooma and Jeremy Howard co-founders of Kaggle a platform for predictive modeling competitions.
165: TZ Interview - Rob Walling / HitTail
Justin & Jason talk with Rob Walling about the acquisition and release of his new site Hittail.
164: TZ Discussion - War, the Price of Oil and You
Justin and Jason discuss Justin's recent post about converting his site from PayPal to Stripe, Jason's idea for a mathematical equation describing the tyranny of choice, the latest on Pluggio, AnyFu and Appignite, why Jason believes war with Iran is likely and how the price of oil will skyrocket if it happens, the story of how Jason's attempt to sell his house before the market crashed in 2007, 3D printing, RepRap and MakerBot, Colby's awesome new RC helicopter, the DC taxi commissioner who's trying to stop Uber, what kind of jobs belong to the 1%, Jason's idea for crowd-sourcing the identification of logical fallacies in news columns and opinion pieces, whether journalists should be truth vigilantes, how Jason and Guyon built a profiler for Node.js, NASA's discovery that there are 1,500 earth-sized planets within 50 light-years of earth, upcoming interviews and Jason's idea for creating a synthetic university education.
163: TZ Discussion - Shadow Hoppers
Justin and Jason discuss: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, How in-flight entertainment systems are architected, Irish ATM's weird defaults, How Moore's Law may work for years to come due to quantum anomaly, Justin's idea of flipping a house, and much more.
162: TZ Discussion - Happy Christmas
Justin & Jason talk about all sorts of tech and startup stuff on Christmas Eve. 2011.
161: TZ Discussion - The Cycle of Life
Justin and Jason discuss why Peter and Alex were asked to fill in for Jason on last week's show, why our brains seem to get slower over time, Justin's struggle to remain productive while on his six week "work-cation", why Jason accepted a full-time consulting contract with Uber, whether it's worth entering the LAUNCH startup competition if you're not planning on raising money, the process of setting up the AnyFu bank account, switching some of Uber's infrastructure from MongoDB to Redis, comparing Uber's rocket-ship growth rate to it's humble beginnings, the success of Louis C.K.'s DVD experiment, Jason's one-dollar Christmas moment, capturing light at a trillion frames per second, the latest breakthrough in solar panel efficiency, why long vacations and retirement are boring, the only real way to stop SOPA, the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA and the FBI's abuse of National Security Letters, and how Jason's kids helped him get through his mother's death.
160: TZ Panel - The British Invasion
Justin, Alex Gemmell & Peter Cooper talk about various Hacker News stories including The Unintended Effects of Driverless Cars, What really happened aboard Air France 447, More Paypal nonsense, Don't Be A Free User, Why we ditched PayPal for Stripe, 17-year-old wins 100k for creating cancer-killing nanoparticle , Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds.
159: TZ Discussion - A Little Too Clever By Half
Justin and Jason discuss Jason Cohen's WP Engine, the idea for a Kickstarter-like site that would allow customers to prepay for a pre-launched service, getting AnyFu out the door and lessons learned so far, the man-made super flu that could kill half of humanity, why musicians and other creatives seem to get progressively worse over time, 17 Jedi mind tricks for persuading people, understanding the Hype Cycle, selling brand name training shoes in India, and the latest on Justin's juice diet.
158: TZ Discussion - The Economic Efficiency of Bribing Your Kids
Justin and Jason discuss working while traveling, their dissatisfaction with Asana and the low tech solution they've adopted, the pros and cons of "banking your enthusiasm", the Cern Neutrino experiment, how a vacuum isn't empty but contains "class definitions" of real particle known as virtual particles, the TV show John Doe, Arrested Development's deal with Netflix, ideas on how to create AnyFu's legal documents, PicoMoney and the virtual money concept, why SOPA is a nightmare, the best time to submit an article to HN, Jason's experiment in using economic incentives to spike his son's academic and athletic progress, how Roger Craig broke the all-time Jeopardy record using a knowledge tracking web app, three memory hacks that work, the dawn of the robot age, how the inventor of the Super Soaker is creating a new electric car battery and how spacing your kids two years apart makes them smarter.
157: TZ Discussion - Cold Fusion, Zynga Options and Other Fairy Tales
Justin and Jason discuss the progress being made on AnyFu and related business decisions, concepts from the book Running Lean, Paul Paetz of Innovative Disruption, why no one is going to steal an unproven idea, why you want to buy when everyone else is selling and sell when everyone else is buying, how Mark Pincus is attempting to steal equity from his employees, selling equity in private companies on Second Market, whether Andrea Rossi's E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) is real or a fraud, how a new cancer drug is being used for weight loss, how energy efficiency of computing is doubling every 18 months, how the FBI is using GPS trackers without warrants and how Twitter had to turn over user information to the Feds without a warrant, the book The Shadow Factory (about the NSA), what elite achievers do differently and how the founder of Color is off his rocker.
156: TZ Discussion - To Uber HQ and Back
Justin and Jason discuss the tradeoffs of various payment options for AnyFu, Jason's recent trip to Uber's headquarters in San Francisco, Justin's evolving partnership with Company 52 and Pluggio's new design, the possibility of starting a TZ Fund, how news is like junkfood, MongoGate, Node.js for beginners, how to increase your "follow me on Twitter" conversions, why Justin unsubscribed from AppSumo, why Anonymous isn't as anonymous as they need to be, the secret U.S. panel that can put Americans on a "kill list", why the feds want to be able to lie about the existence of public records, and how the New York Times is suing the federal government for refusing to reveal its secret interpretation of the PATRIOT Act.
155: TZ Interview - Mathew Klein / Collective2
Justin and Jason talk to Mathew Klein, founder of trading systems community Collective2 and author of the novels Con Ed and Switchback, about his experiences in the Dotcom crash, researching algorithmic trading systems, bootstrapping a web startup, and balancing his life as an entrepreneur and writer.
154: TZ Discussion - Taking the High Road
Justin and Jason discuss the progress being made on AnyFu and their differing development styles, Anonymous' threat to expose a Mexican drug cartel, useful coding tools and JavaScript libraries, how Jason installed Windows 7 alongside OSX using Parallels and is kickstarting a collaboration with David Fogel on an AI trading project, Justin's partnership with Company 52 and the future of Pluggio, some of Jason's failed partnerships and why it's better to take the high road, how you're the average of your five closest friends, the secrets of a mind-gamer and the 60 Minutes segment on people with extraordinary memory, the Dan Plan and putting the 10,000 hour rule to the test, some of the friendships and collaborations that have resulted from Jason's recent posts on algorithmic trading, the slave-master Node.js library that Jason and Curtis wrote for Uber, a short recap of some of the talks given at Startup School, the Netflix debacle and how Amazon is becoming a publisher, why Jason is so hard to please when it comes to non-fiction books and Justin's book recommendation - Mars.
153: TZ Interview - Joanna Wiebe / CopyHackers
Justin and Jason talk with Joanna Wiebe author of CopyHackers the definitive how-to guide for copywriting for startups!