Off Script – Details, episodes & analysis

In this conversation, Josh and James discuss AI interoperability and the concept of MCP (Model Context Protocol). They explore the initial skepticism surrounding MCP, the process of building custom MCP servers, and the importance of permissions and security in AI integrations. The discussion also touches on the future of AI integration in various applications, particularly in shopping experiences, and the potential for these technologies to revolutionise how we interact with digital tools.

• MCP is a new way to integrate AI with existing tools.
• Initial skepticism can lead to valuable discoveries in technology.
• Building custom MCP servers can enhance personal productivity.
• Permissions and security are crucial when using AI tools.
• MCP has the potential to go mainstream with the right ecosystem.
• AI can act on behalf of users, changing the way we interact with technology.
• Real-world applications of MCP can simplify everyday tasks.
• The future of shopping may involve AI-driven experiences.
• AI tools need to be intuitive for non-developers to adopt them.
• The evolution of technology often leads to a blend of old and new experiences.

How do you structure and run the perfect tech conference? What things are involved behind the scenes that attendees don’t see? What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own event?

We’re glad you asked! This episode is an All Day Hey! Special where hosts, Josh and James spill the beans on what goes on behind the All Day Hey! conference curtain, how we can collectively safeguard the future of events and what makes running a tech conference like this so special.

Join us in Leeds on Thursday, 1st May for this year’s All Day Hey!
Tickets and schedule at https://heypresents.com/conferences/2025

• 00:00 How to run a conference
• 01:00 Why start a conference? - The aim behind All Day Hey!
• 02:00 What do you want to provide for the audience?
• 03:00 Avoiding trends and providing backed knowledge
• 04:00 How to plan the day of talks to keep people engaged?
• 05:00 Dealing with technical blunders
• 07:00 Process of picking speakers and who to contact
• 08:00 Avoiding talks being sponsored ads
• 11:00 Getting diversity of topic and idea
• 12:00 All Day Hey! is community focussed - how to create this?
• 13:00 How to open up the networking and make it welcoming
• 14:00 How to close a conference to provoke questions
• 15:00 Tips for other organisers
• 16:00 Investing in production quality
• 17:00 Setting up a conference in 2025
• 19:00 Keeping the indie conference alive

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

What are AI risks? What do we need to consider when looking at our projects? Josh and James are are back for another episode of Off Script to dig deeper into this important topic!

• 00 - ISO 42001 Regulation
• 03 - What are the risks
• 04 - Hallucinations
• 05 - How do we critically assess the output
• 06 - Human in the loop
• 08 - Authorised API integrations
• 13 - Prompt Injection
• 14 - Sleeper agent LLM
• 18 - Denial OF Service models
• 22 - Exact phrasing on outputs
• 25 - Rabbit.tech

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

It’s time for our annual review of the year! In this episode, James and Josh discuss the many twists and turns that the last 12 months brought in this 2023 developer round-up.

Thank you for listening this year. We’ll be back with more episodes in the New Year!

• 01 A look back at the year
• 03 The year AI went mainstream
• 05 Tech layoffs
• 07 Open AI x Microsoft partnership
• 08 M2 Apple Mac chips
• 09 Google Bard
• 12 Stephen Wolfram wrote "What is ChatGPT doing.. And why does it work?"
• 13 Web IOS & Ipad
• 15 ChatGPT Plus & Whisper API's
• 15 Parallax hosted "stories on the road"
• 19 React.dev
• 21 Apple vs Epic Games
• 22 Meta fined 1.3B
• 23 EU Cookie policy
• 24 Final Cut & Logic Pro on IOS
• 27 Advent of code
• 28 Chrome added web GPU support
• 29 Native to web based apps
• 30 All Day Hey 2023
• 31 Fluency Bot
• 32 SEC sue Coinbase & Binance
• 33 NASA lost connection to Voyager 2
• 34 Microsoft Type Chat
• 36 Meta Launched Threads
• 38 Temporary disabilities
• 40 Josh joins Glean as CTO
• 41 Apple launched Name Drop
• 42 Air traffic control meltdown
• 43 Hyperdx
• 44 Webflow Conf
• 46 WCAG 2.2
• 47 M3 Macs
• 49 re:invent
• 50 Deno KV
• 51 StyleX
• 53 iA writer
• 54 CloudFlare year in review
• 55 Spotify Wrapped

References:

• [https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/]([https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/)
• https://openai.com/blog/introducing-chatgpt-and-whisper-apis
• https://www.storyblok.com/ev/stories-on-the-road-uk-23
• https://heypresents.com/conferences/2023/schedule
• https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/temporarily-abled/

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

Are all leaders extroverts? Does agile development mean there is no plan or documentation? Do leaders have to be the best developer? Following on from a recent in-person talk, James and Josh discuss more common tech misconceptions in the area of leadership.

• 01 Misconception in leadership
• 01 Leadership is the only way for progression
• 02 Tech path vs management path
• 03 Dual track progression
• 04 Good code is all that matters
• 05 How teams interact
• 06 We'll cross the bridge when its comes to it
• 09 Have to be the best engineer to be a leader
• 10 It’s not about you
• 11 Tech skills trump company culture
• 12 Diversity
• 14 More developers = more velocity
• 17 Documentation is less important for agile teams
• 19 Agile development means no plan
• 22 All leaders are extroverts
• 25 Leadership is lonely
• 27 You don't need a mentor or peers

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

Any team will have a variety of emotional states when responding to problems. How do you analyse, understand and make meaningful decisions based on these differences? In this episode, James and Josh discuss different methods of understanding a team’s characteristics and how taking these into account can lead you to getting the best out of everyone.

• 01 SDIs
• 01 Strength, Deployment, Inventory
• 02 Stress states
• 05 Trickle down management
• 06 Myers briggs
• 07 Performance, Process, People
• 08 Dissecting Josh’s results
• 12 Using the results within a team
• 13 Strengths and weaknesses
• 14 What brings out the best in you
• 15 Being accountable
• 16 Applying the findings

Resources:

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

What are the steps to building a thriving community? What challenges might you face along the way? In this episode, James and Josh draw on their experience of creating and building communities online and offline, sharing their insights on how to make it a success.

• 04 Starting a community
• 06 Building trust
• 08 Give value, not a sales pitch
• 10 Josh on building a conference
• 12 Creating a welcoming environment
• 15 Letting people know your weaknesses
• 16 Trust
• 17 Empathy
• 18 Dealing with conflict
• 20 Don’t fear conflict
• 22 Lack of commitment or direction
• 23 Inclusion
• 24 Avoidance of accountability
• 26 The enemy of accountability is ambiguity
• 27 Shared ownership
• 30 Rethinking views
• 31 Diversity

Resources:

• https://www.executiveagenda.com/resources/blog/five-dysfunctions-team

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

AI ethics - a hot, divisive topic and rightly so. James and Josh are back with a brand new episode of Off Script to dig in and explore a space that is impacting our lives more and more.

• 01 Intro
• 02 Applied AI event
• 03 Bethan Vincent's talk
• 03 Jack Sails’ talk
• 06 Outcomes are not determined by intentions
• 07 EU Cookie law
• 09 Tech can’t be decided by those who know the least about the tech
• 10 Regulation
• 11 AI marking of papers
• 12 Only as good as the dataset it is trained on
• 13 Why as a company would we use this?
• 14 Disclaimers
• 15 AI Consultancy
• 18 Risk
• 19 Oxford Uni CapAI implementation
• 20 What happens when things don’t go right?
• 22 Accountability
• 25 The Trolley problem
• 27 Deontology
• 28 The moral machine self driving car
• 29 7 Things to consider when implementing AI in your business
• 30 Fluency bot for Slack and confluence

References

• https://www.linkedin.com/events/7099321618157461505/comments/
• https://www.moralmachine.net/
• https://www.fluencybot.ai/

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• https://stac.works
• https://parall.ax

James and Josh explore the world of SSGs (static site generators)! The differences between SSGs and full stack frameworks, the associated technologies out there and what to consider with your project when deciding what is best for it.

[Recorded 13th July, 2023]

• 01 Intro
• 02 The Personal Website
• 02 Static Site Generators
• 02 ASTRO 
• 03 Content driven site vs Logic and functional site
• 04 Jekyll 
• 04 Webapps
• 07 Full stack frameworks
• 08 MPA vs SPA
• 10 Islands
• 15 It’s a cms without the cms
• 16 Flexible data structures enforced via TypeScript
• 20 Deployment - compilation step, already do this on most frameworks anyway
• 22 Still require a rich runtime environment of JS deps etc
• 25 Bring your own db and cache
• 26 Environmental impact
• 27 New SSGs

References

• https://docs.astro.build/en/concepts/why-astro/
• https://docs.astro.build/en/concepts/mpa-vs-spa/
• https://docs.astro.build/en/concepts/islands/

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• Stac
• Parallax

What is the blockchain? How has it changed over time? Is it still killing the planet? James and Josh discuss various types of blockchain systems and how they might have some real world applications for social good.

[Recorded 13th July, 2023]

• 1 Blockchain
• 02 How did it start
• 03 Bitcoin
• 03 Ethereum
• 03 Proof of work vs Proof of stake
• 05 Hardforking
• 06 Web3 bros
• 06 Masterdon & De-centralisation
• 07 Microservices
• 10 Real word aplications
• 11 Music Industry
• 12 Coinbase
• 14 Wallet management
• 17 User identity
• 18 Social good smart contracts
• 19 Blockchain kickstarter
• 20 Bored Ape
• 21 Digital art

Find out more about Stac and Parallax:

• Stac
• Parallax