Retreat to attack (Friends)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Do you like director’s commentaries and extended cuts? This episode is like that, but for this week’s News. We go deep on the alive internet theory, Meshtastic mesh networks, Zstandard compression, the FDE job explosion, React’s seemingly perpetual dominance, and more.

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Sponsors:

• Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more.
• Depot – 10x faster builds? Yes please. Build faster. Waste less time. Accelerate Docker image builds, and GitHub Actions workflows. Easily integrate with your existing CI provider and dev workflows to save hours of build time.
• Augment Code – Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates.
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Featuring:

• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Changelog News #169
• Alive internet theory
• The Winamp era
• Meshtastic
• Zstandard
• FDE exploding with 800% more postings
• Dead framework theory
• You should write an agent

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Kapitler

1. Let's talk! (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Tiger Data (00:00:38)

https://www.tigerdata.com

3. Shutdown & Friends (00:02:21)

4. Undead internet reality (00:04:36)

5. Alive internet theory (00:07:18)

https://alivetheory.net/

6. Written By AI (00:09:40)

7. Sponsor: Depot (00:16:47)

https://depot.dev

8. Meshtastic (00:19:36)

https://meshtastic.org/

9. Retreat to attack (00:26:42)

10. Return to analog (00:30:21)

11. Meshtastic use cases (00:34:32)

12. Spec nerdery (00:36:31)

13. Benchmark Z-STD! (00:42:21)

14. Let AI be your guide (00:51:39)

15. Give it the Neuralyzer (00:53:48)

16. Sponsor: Augment Code (00:58:38)

https://www.augmentcode.com

17. Sponsor: NordLayer (01:00:08)

https://nordlayer.com/thechangelog

18. Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE) (01:01:47)

https://www.interviewquery.com/p/ai-forward-deployed-engineer-jobs-2025

19. dead framework theory (01:13:25)

https://aifoc.us/dead-framework-theory/

20. Who needs libraries? (01:26:53)

21. Hypothesize a step change (01:34:09)

22. Pulling legs (01:37:26)

23. Go write an agent (01:38:19)

24. Bye, friends (01:39:21)

25. Next week on the pod (01:41:17)

https://changelog.com/community

26. (your favorite ever show) (01:42:47)