Merge Conflict
Join Frank & James for a weekly discussion on the world of technology and development including C#, F#, .NET, web, mobile, and more.
Episode Search
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503: Welcome to Tiny Tool Town
February 23rd, 2026 | 47 mins 49 secs
On this episode we dive into Tiny Tool Town — a GeoCities‑style app hub for tiny developer utilities — and James walks us through building Tiny Clips, a Mac toolbar screen‑capture app he prototyped and shipped using Copilot, agentic workflows, and a plan‑implement‑review cycle. Expect practical takeaways on multi‑model AI pipelines (planning with 5.2, coding with Codex/Opus), CI/publishing tips, sandboxing/TestFlight pitfalls, and why tiny apps are booming.
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502: Rectified Flow Revolution - AI Image Generation Gets Smarter
February 16th, 2026 | 48 mins 55 secs
Discover the machine learning breakthrough changing everything: rectified flow. Frank breaks down how this revolutionary technique replaces 1,000-step diffusion with just 10, delivering faster and higher-quality image and video generation. Learn why major players are adopting it and how it's democratizing AI for everyday creators.
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501: Autopilot, Fleets, and Parallel Agents Explained
February 9th, 2026 | 35 mins 57 secs
In this episode James and Frank walk through the latest Copilot CLI power-ups—Autopilot loops, experimental Fleet/parallel agents, and Opus model/context updates—while demoing how they used plan mode to spin up a full MAUI pet‑insulin app end-to-end. Learn what Autopilot and Fleet actually do, how parallel agents orchestrate work, plus practical tips (watch your context window, use plan mode) for turning AI agents into fast prototypes.
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500: How Frank Builds Apps Has Changed Forever
February 2nd, 2026 | 54 mins 43 secs
On our 500th episode James and Frank celebrate the milestone, reminisce about their mobile‑dev roots, and dig into how AI, the Copilot CLI/SDK and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) are reshaping workflows. Frank demos an MCP‑powered tool that turns app reviews into prioritized GitHub issues and automations — a real example of AI-as-glue — with practical takeaways on prompt engineering, UI extensions, and when to automate versus curate manually.
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499: Going Full Ralph, CLI, & GitHub Copilot SDK?!?!
January 26th, 2026 | 48 mins 41 secs
From SpecKit to Ralph, James and Frank unpack the new era of developer agents—how Copilot, AgentMD workflows and the GitHub Copilot SDK are moving us from simple completions to autonomous, tool-calling systems that can read, write and triage your repo. Expect practical takeaways: why Ralph’s task-loop and clarifying-questions model matters, how to break work into bite-sized tasks to avoid merge conflicts, and how to use the CLI/SDK to auto-fix lint/build failures, triage reviews, and automate everyday engineering chores.
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498: CI/CD fro Mac Apps: GitHub Actions to Notarize
January 19th, 2026 | 38 mins 47 secs
This episode opens with mic and Nintendo banter before plunging into macOS release pain points: sandboxing, hardened runtime, notarization, Sparkle auto‑updates, and automating releases with GitHub Actions and tags. James and Frank offer practical tips—drag builds into /Applications to test signing—and unpack .NET 10 trimming/reflection pitfalls and CI/CD quirks for anyone shipping native apps outside the App Store.
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497: Turning Machine Code into C with AI
January 12th, 2026 | 51 mins 9 secs
In this episode James and Frank dive into the practical realities of using AI in everyday development—arguing that AI shines in brownfield (existing) code because it respects your architecture, while greenfield work rewards iterative prompting. They unpack model quirks: context-window limits, hallucinations, and why trying different models matters. The heart of the show is Frank’s nerdy delight: feeding a 64KB EEPROM through a disassembler and having Sonnet decompile it into readable C, exposing a PID autopilot and hardware checks—proof that AI can accelerate reverse engineering and embedded work. Along the way they share hands-on tips (trim and clean context, use disassembly first, tweak prompts), and fun examples of AI-generated icons and AppleScript. A must-listen for devs curious how AI can supercharge real projects.
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496: All The Holiday Hacks
January 5th, 2026 | 1 hr 12 mins
We kicked off 2026 by sharing our best holiday hacks—everything from ruthless cable management and a one‑cord Thunderbolt dock to rescuing a 2008 Microsoft Surface coffee‑table via reverse‑engineering. James walks through shipping apps and .NET MAUI migrations, plus the messy reality of Android key stores and Google Play signing. Frank demos AI-powered “vibe coding”: generating Christmas cards, quick throwaway apps, and a native BabySmash prototype. We also spotlight Oh My Posh (and James’s sweet visual configurator) and two handy web tools—myfirenumber.com and pdf-diff.com. Tune in for practical hardware tips, app‑store survival strategies, and realistic ways AI can speed small projects from idea to shipped product—plus a few entertaining tech stories along the way.
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495: 2025 Wrapped - The Official Year of AI Development
December 29th, 2025 | 1 hr 24 mins
James and Frank unwrap 2025 as the Year of AI Development, covering new models, the rise of agents, and editor integrations like Copilot in VS Code that changed how developers write and maintain code. You’ll hear practical takeaways—how next-edit, local models, RAG/vectorization and app‑on‑demand sped prototyping, slashed maintenance time, and why the hosts think the AI boom has legs into 2026 despite looming uncertainty.
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494: TV Evolution- CRTs, Aspect Ratios, and Beyond
December 22nd, 2025 | 30 mins 41 secs
Dive into the fascinating world of CRT technology in this episode of How CRTs Work! Discover how these iconic monitors influenced video playback and gaming, from interlaced scanning to the art of synchronization. Learn about the unique challenges of emulating CRT effects today and the lasting legacy of these early technologies. Perfect for retro tech enthusiasts and curious minds alike!