What A Lot Of Things: Tech talk from a human perspective
Ash and Ian talk about interesting Things from the tech industry that are on their minds.
Ian Smith & Ash Winter
Live at the Leeds Testing Atelier: MCP and Glue Work
In a daring experiment that could only be described as "asking for trouble," Ian and Ash take their rambling tech discussions to the stage at the twelfth Leeds Testing Atelier! Marvel at their technological inequality as Ian gleefully controls all the buttons while Ash sits helpless without even a mute switch. Witness real humans actually listening to them in person - proof that their podcast isn't just shouted into the void!First, Ian waxes lyrical about Model Context Protocol (MCP), which (despite sounding like a villain from Tron) is actually how AIs connect to your apps to book endless holidays during the inevitable robot apocalypse. Then Ash tackles the fascinating world of "glue work" - those invisible tasks that mysteriously fall to testers and minorities while everyone else pretends not to notice the team slowly disintegrating.With audience members bravely volunteering their opinions, this special live episode proves that What A Lot Of Things can indeed survive contact with actual humans, and that you can never have too many Clangers references.Our thanks to Ivor Caldwell, Emily O'Connor, Bryan Jones, Faisal Sultan, Melissa Rocks and everyone else who shared their thoughts, questions and opinions. You are awesome, and you make the world a better place.