Unwind

How does a web dev become a CPU engineer? w/ Alex (aolo2)

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 15:33:36 UTC

Welcome to the first episode of Unwind in podcast form! Web developer turned CPU engineer Alex (aolo2) joins us to discuss three amazing programs he made from scratch: a collaborative whiteboard, a chat application, and a processor trace viewer.

For those listening via a podcast feed, welcome to Unwind. Unwind started as a live interview show on Twitch, but this year we've decided to change the format and bring it to podcast platforms. We're still keeping the old Handmade Network Podcast episodes around, so you can listen through the backlog at any time.

This episode is intended to be watched in video form. We recommend watching on YouTube or Spotify.

Show notes:

Alex’s whiteboard program: https://git.some.website/aolo2/desk2/src/branch/sdf
Alex’s chat program: https://github.com/aolo2/chat
Handmade Hero: https://guide.handmadehero.org/
Milton, another Handmade paint program: https://www.miltonpaint.com/
Our 2024 Visibility Jam: https://handmade.network/jam/visibility-2024
Colin’s profiler, Spall: https://gravitymoth.com/spall/

Join the Handmade community: https://handmade.network/

Edited by Vital Ash: https://youtube.com/@vitalash

State of the Network 2021

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 21:26:38 UTC

Rudy Faile - community member, former podcast guest, navy veteran, and systems engineer - joins us to discuss the Handmade movement in 2021, including the Handmade Seattle conference, Handmade projects, and Handmade Network, and where we are planning to go with Handmade Network in 2022 and beyond.

https://handmade-seattle.com/

https://happenlance.com/

https://handmade.network/jam

https://handmade.network/showcase

How The Internet Works, w/ Tyler Leeds & Rudy Faile

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 05:02:42 UTC

Tyler Leeds is a network engineer for Automattic. He works as a member of a small team that manages a massive network, responsible for a massive portion of the entire web. He and Rudy Faile, a coworker of Tyler's, community member, and former podcast guest, join us in this episode to dig into the guts of how networking works at a lower level. We discuss both the technical and human aspects of how the Internet comes together, and what that means for software developers.

Tyler was kind enough to provide a practical example of a BGP update (which we discuss in the podcast) in action for us to check out: https://handmade.network/static/media/podcast/hmn/bgp_example.txt

https://www.cisco.com/

https://automattic.com/

https://www.arin.net/resources/guide/asn/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/routing-information-protocol-rip/13769-5.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/border-gateway-protocol-bgp/13753-25.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_exchange_point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering

The Web's Problems & Future, w/ Ben Visness and Asaf Gartner

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 03:53:35 UTC

Ben Visness and Asaf Gartner—web development professionals and Handmade Network staff members—join us in this episode. We discuss the problems that the web is trying to solve, the source of performance problems in web-based software, how the web could improve practically in the short-term, and how it could improve dramatically in the long-term.

https://jquery.com/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS

https://v8.dev/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document_Object_Model

https://www.w3schools.com/csS/css3_flexbox.asp

https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/trace-event-profiling-tool

https://webassembly.org/

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/evaluate-performance/

Examining Computer Science Education, w/ Demetri Spanos

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 04:12:36 UTC

Demetri Spanos is a machine learning expert, PhD recipient, and former university professor. In this episode, he joins us again to discuss the subject of education, particularly in universities. We dig into the perceived problems of computer science and software engineering education, whether they are real or serious, why they are there, how they have been solved elsewhere, and how we might solve them in the future.

https://www.caltech.edu/

https://www.usc.edu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem

https://ncu.libguides.com/writingresources/synthesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(software_platform)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

https://nodejs.org/en/

https://www.olin.edu/

Ripcord, Programming, and Education, w/ Cancel

Mon, 03 May 2021 18:27:01 UTC

Andrew Richards (also known as cancel), creator of Ripcord, joins us to chat about how he got into low level programming, the development and technical challenges of Ripcord, programming languages, teaching low-level programming, and modern software.

https://cancel.fm/

https://cancel.fm/ripcord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(programming_language)

https://bellard.org/tcc/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undefined_behavior

Funding Handmade Projects, w/ Andrew Kelley & Allen Webster

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 01:39:44 UTC

Andrew Kelley and Allen Webster join us to discuss the funding model of Zig language and making Handmade-style projects self-sufficient in funding.

https://ziglang.org/zsf/

https://4coder.net

https://patreon.com

https://itch.io

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ucHARxVbhrBbuZDbhrGHYDTsYAs8_bMH

https://sourcehut.org/

Andrew Reece

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 05:57:14 UTC

Andrew Reece, creator of Handmade Network project WhiteBox (https://whitebox.handmade.network), a real-time debugging tool, joins us to discuss WhiteBox, low-level programming, improving the cycle of human-computer interaction both in the physical and software spaces, instant feedback, providing insight into the multiple dimensions that define a program and its effects, and the future of computing.

https://whitebox.systems

https://twitter.com/whitebox_sys

https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Visual_Variables

https://www.axismaps.com/guide/general/visual-variables/

http://worrydream.com/

https://futureofcoding.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner

https://llvm.org/

https://clang.llvm.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

https://dynamicland.org/

Building Handmade Teams, w/ Allen Webster

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 05:26:57 UTC

Creator of 4coder and RAD Game Tools engineer Allen Webster joins us to discuss teamwork on a new project he started with Ryan, sparked by topics discussed last time he joined us. Using this project as an example, we explore various problems with approaching a team-based Handmade project as programmers used to working on projects alone, and some of the solutions used for approaching those problems.

https://handmade.network/podcast/ep/14a5407e-5f73-4c59-a422-44c4ece6a1bf

https://4coder.net

http://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf

Martijn Courteaux

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 02:14:08 UTC

Martijn Courteaux, programmer on the SilverNode project (https://silvernode.handmade.network), joins us to discuss the architecture and development of SilverNode, a RAW photo editor to improve the efficiency and abilities of photographers when editing photos.

https://silvernode.io

https://silvernode.handmade.network

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtrDnkbsSQG7UqQm57f17Hw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG

https://halide-lang.org/

https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

https://www.blender.org/

http://media.idlab.ugent.be/

Patrick Eye

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 04:57:31 UTC

Programming educator and community member Patrick Eye joins us in discussing programming education, simplicity, approaches to programming, and game development.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_hierarchy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction_(computer_science)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table

http://changes-game.com/

https://twitter.com/collin_eye

Ramon Santamaria

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 21:12:14 UTC

We are joined by Ramon Santamaria (raysan5), creator of the popular C programming library Raylib for video game programming, to talk about Raylib, API design, education, programming techniques, and simplicity.

https://raylib.com

https://raylib.com/cheatsheet.html

https://solarlune.itch.io/masterplan

https://github.com/Guevara-chan/Midday-Commander

https://www.raylibtech.com/

https://raylibtech.itch.io/

https://github.com/raysan5/raygui

https://github.com/raysan5/rpng

https://github.com/raysan5/rres

Ryan Fleury

Fri, 29 May 2020 07:34:08 UTC

Community member, systems engineer, and U.S. Navy Veteran Rudy Faile joins us in turning the tables by interviewing the usual host of the podcast, Ryan Fleury. Together they discuss Handmade Network's history, its purpose and mission, the web, Ryan's experience and how it relates to Handmade Network, and the future of computing.

https://rudyfaile.com

https://handmade.network

https://handmade.network/projects

https://handmadehero.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBasic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Maker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash

https://www.raylib.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_A_Link_to_the_Past

Ginger Bill

Fri, 15 May 2020 05:39:10 UTC

Creator of the Odin programming language, Ginger Bill, joins us to discuss programming languages, syntax decisions, programming philosophy, memory allocation, non-textual programming, debuggers, empiricism, and tools.

http://odin-lang.org/

https://www.gingerbill.org/article/2018/03/12/on-the-aesthetics-of-the-syntax-of-declarations/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_programming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_programming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming

https://www.gingerbill.org/

https://www.gingerbill.org/series/memory-allocation-strategies/

https://www.gingerbill.org/article/2016/12/01/the-metaprogramming-dilemma/

https://www.gingerbill.org/article/2020/01/25/a-reply-to-lets-stop-copying-c/

Micha Mettke

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 22:11:51 UTC

Creator of the Nuklear immediate-mode UI library and engine programmer at Keen Core joins us in discussing immediate-mode APIs, his library Nuklear, how an immediate mode API can help simplify problems (both technical and team), memory allocators, data structures, and API orthogonality and diagonality.

https://github.com/vurtun/nuklear

https://twitter.com/MichaMettke/status/1235213089026576384

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immediate_mode_(computer_graphics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retained_mode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immediate_mode_GUI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1qyvQsjK5Y

https://github.com/ocornut/imgui

Allen Webster

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 20:09:51 UTC

Creator of 4coder and RAD Game Tools engineer Allen Webster joins us to discuss architectural decisions and challenges in 4coder, text editors, programming languages, programming tools, and a better future of computing.

https://4coder.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_hell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management_(operating_systems)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_preprocessor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)

Demetri Spanos

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:47:21 UTC

Artificial intelligence industry veteran Demetri Spanos joins us in discussing artificial intelligence, machine learning, low level programming, an optimization problem that was solved with making something from scratch, understanding computing and engineering problems, the Internet of Things, and software stacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_computing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_finance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_dynamic_memory_allocation