TMO Background Mode Interview with Astrophysicist Dr. Brian Keating

Dr. Brian Keating is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. His specialty is cosmology, and he is the father of the original BICEP project (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) that sought to unravel one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Big Bang. He is also the author of over 100 scientific publications. We chatted about his early years at age 12 in New York and the spark that ignited his interest in astrophysics. And then we got very geeky on cosmology. Brian recently published a terrific, courageous book about his team’s research, some life lessons, the challenges of scientific research, and he makes some valuable suggestions concerning changes to the Nobel Prize award process. After listening to our chat, you’ll want to read his excellent book.

Cybersecurity Tech Accord, Cyberwar Is Now, Social Network Inertia - ACM 458

In this episode, Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet dissect the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pledge by 34 tech companies to do something vague and unlikely. The timing for the announcement is somewhat interesting because we are in the middle of an undeclared shadow cyberwar. They cap the show analyzing what it might take for any new social network to supplant Facebook.

TMO Background Mode Interview with Gravitational Wave Astrophysicist Dr. Chiara Mingarelli

Dr. Chiara Mingarelli is an astrophysicist currently working at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics where she’s a Flatiron Fellow. Chiara received her Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2014, and her specialty is the study of gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime born of a cataclysmic collision of distant, super-massive objects. She’s been a Marie Curie International Fellow at Cal Tech and has worked at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. We chatted about her early years, how she was inspired by the night skies of her hometown in Canada and her early years studying mathematics and physics. There were definitely some challenges in her early career, but her mathematician father nurtured her through. If you’re curious about gravitational waves and Pulsars, this is the show for you.

Mac Keyboards, Trusting Facebook, and Being Profitable and Green - ACM 457

In this episode, Bryan and Jeff discuss Mac keyboards, and what they like about clicky, long-throw keyboards, including the Azio Classic Retro BT keyboard Bryan just reviewed. They also go through a thought experiment on whether Facebook could ever earn our trust on privacy by radically reshaping their policies. They cap the show with a look at how Apple manages to be profitable and green, both.

TMO Background Mode Interview with Ruby Receptionists CTO Katharine Nester

Katharine Nester is the CTO and Chief Product Officer for Ruby Receptionists, a virtual receptionist service. She owes early influence to her father, a computer engineer, and that led to her B.S. degree in computer science from the Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley. Her first job was as a Hewlett Packard software engineer. Katharine is an active member of Portland’s growing tech community where she advocates for more inclusive environments to support women and minorities in the field and is a benefactor of App Camp for Girls. We chatted about the founding of Ruby Receptionists, early technical decisions that were made and how it operates. Katharine tells a great story about her personal career arc as well as what it’s like to be the CTO of a company that supports 7,600 other companies.

Mark Zuckerberg vs. Tim Cook, Apple's New AI Chief, and Making HomeKit Great - ACM 456

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been trading public barbs on privacy, and Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet discuss the public tiff. They also discuss Apple’s hiring of Google’s former head of artificial intelligence and what it might mean for Siri (hint: good things!). They cap the show with a look at what it would take to make HomeKit the premier home automation platform.