Error 500: Our Lives

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk about whiskey on Mondays, parenting chaos, and Chuck’s hot-water disaster. They dive into open-source dependency drama, including the Stylus package getting flagged as malicious, and the TEA app’s massive data leak. They question the stability of NPM, the illusion of software licensing security, and the ethics of data deletion. They also explore how AI is transforming development workflows—sometimes usefully, sometimes hilariously wrong.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:07) - Whiskey review & rating: Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Whiskey
• (08:15) - Robbie’s domestic chaos & Chuck’s plumbing nightmare
• (13:55) - The Stylus debacle and the fragility of NPM
• (19:05) - Insurance headaches, contractor woes, and house stress
• (25:16) - Mac Minis, podcast metrics, and behind-the-scenes
• (29:09) - Europe drinks better than we do
• (30:37) - Tea's data breach
• (35:33) - Using AI for real-world dev problems (and plumbing fixes)
• (43:01) - Your data is never really deleted
• (46:23) - Why podcast metrics are kind of a scam
• (47:44) - Big Sky Dev Con live episode
• (49:28) - Chuck’s moving to Italy
• (50:09) - Jedi Survivor, Destiny 2, and gaming on the road
• (55:37) - Plugs

Links

• Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Whiskey: https://catoctincreekdistilling.com/roundstone
• Rittenhouse: http://heavenhilldistillery.com/rittenhouse-rye.php
• Copper Fox Distillery: https://www.copperfoxdistillery.com
• Dax: https://x.com/thdxr/
• AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/
• HashiCorp: https://www.hashicorp.com/
• IBM: https://www.ibm.com/
• Sagamore Spirit: https://sagamorespirit.com/
• Stylus: https://www.npmjs.com/package/stylus
• npm 'accidentally' removes Stylus package, breaks builds and pipelines: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/npm-accidentally-removes-stylus-package-breaks-builds-and-pipelines/
• Tea: https://www.teaforwomen.com/
• Tea encouraged its users to spill. Then the app's data got leaked: https://www.npr.org/2025/08/02/nx-s1-5483886/tea-app-breach-hacked-whisper-networks
• NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/
• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/
• CSS: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
• JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
• npm left-pad incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_left-pad_incident
• FakerJS: https://fakerjs.dev/
• David Cramer: https://x.com/zeeg
• MIT: https://www.mit.edu
• Granted insurance: https://www.grantinsurance.com/
• 7-Eleven: https://www.7-eleven.com/
• Accenture: .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}