As computing professionals, we spend much of our time automating. Automating tasks that a human would have done manually in the past.  What's the net impact of all this automation?  Has it ultimately made life for the masses sweeter, softer, simpler, and safer?  

In his latest book, The Glass Cage, Nicolas Carr analyzes this question deeply. He gives great examples, for instance, pointing out that now that our creations are becoming autonomous, our creations encode moral decisions that would have, in the past, been made directly by a human.

In this episode, Bett and Russ discuss the more interesting points from this book: The Glass Cage, highlighting how it relates to our jobs as computing professionals.  

Is Automation Ultimately Our Friend or Foe? (Book Discussion)

IBM is investing billions in commercializing the Jeopardy winning Watson technology.  Recently, they made aspects of the underlying machine learning available in the cloud as services on top of Bluemix. Now anyone can build machine learning into a web site or app--mind blowing!

Listen to this episode as Michael Keeling of IBM explains Watson Explorer and the various machine learning services that are part of the Watson Developer Cloud, which were recently unveiled.

Watson for the Masses (with Michael Keeling)

If you have been following this podcast for any length of time, you know about the SEI's SATURN conference.  Whether you are new to this podcast and SATURN or simply want to know what is planned for this years event, you'll want to listen to this episode to hear what the conference chair, Bill Pollak, and his team from the SEI have planned for this years event.

The 2015 SATURN event takes place in Baltimore, Maryland April 27-30, 2015.  For Software Architects, this is a must attend event.  Also, the event is taking abstracts from speakers through January 16, 2015.

SATURN 2015 and Why You Should Plan to Attend (with Bill Pollak)

When you look back over 2014, and all the new ideas or concepts that you encountered, which struck you as big "a-ha"s -- that is, what did you learn that will reshape how you approach software development next year and beyond? Perhaps listening to Bett and Russ discuss their's you will more easily recall some of yours.

In this episode, Bett and Russ recount their big software related "a-ha"s for 2014.

What are your "A-ha"s for 2014?

Our annual list of the top 10 books we read this last year--fiction and non-fiction.

Top Books for 2014

In this episode, Bett and Russ deliver 10 predictions for 2015.  But don't worry, this isn't one of those predictable prediction podcasts,  No, we wouldn't bore you like that! Instead, we've taken time to also include those futuristic, mind blowing innovations we'd selfishly like to see come about in 2015.


Technology Predictions for 2015

Do you have a passion for software architecture and related topics?  If so, this podcast is for you. 

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