#automation
29 episodes
#2603: Building Agent Skills for Creative Workflows
How composable AI agent skills turn tedious media tasks into one-instruction operations for creatives.
#2567: Beyond Pixels: Controlling Apps Without Vision
How MCP agents can use accessibility APIs and COM to control Windows and macOS apps at the protocol level.
#2554: Bluffer's Guide to Car Talk: Sound Like You Know Engines
Stop saying "it went clunk." Learn the phrases that make mechanics think you know what you're talking about.
#2545: Visual AI Pipelines: Beyond Python Glue Code
From ComfyUI to Dify — a tour of visual tools for building modular AI workflows without writing glue code.
#2536: Self-Hosted Zapier Alternatives in 2026
n8n, Huginn, and Dagu compared for personal automation on your own hardware.
#2477: Stop Polling: Push-to-Deploy for Solo Devs
Why your cron job is obsolete. Push-to-deploy with GitHub Actions and deploy keys — the simplest setup that actually works.
#2473: GitHub Actions Beyond CI/CD: What You're Missing
Cron jobs, self-hosted runners, NPM publishing, and self-healing repos — GitHub Actions does way more than run tests.
#2401: Building Tools That Fit: Small Biz Tech DIY
Why 60% of small businesses hate off-the-shelf SaaS—and how to build tools that actually fit your workflow.
#2391: Browser Automation vs. Geo-Restrictions: The Israeli Case
How browser automation hits a wall with Israel's strict geo-restrictions and anti-bot measures—and what practical workarounds exist.
#2390: Browser Automation: Bridging the Web's Manual Gap
Discover how browser automation is reshaping web interaction, from job applications to navigating geo-restrictions and anti-bot measures.
#2361: Claude Code Meets Linux Logs: Proactive System Maintenance
How Claude Code transforms Linux system administration by automating log analysis and proactive maintenance.
#2359: Claude Code As System OS Doctor — Pushing The Limits
Discover why Claude Code excels as a sysadmin tool despite being designed for developers — and the challenges that come with it.
#2332: Voice-to-Task: Building the Claude Task Planner
How does a voice note turn into a completed task? Dive into the architecture and tradeoffs of building a Claude-powered task execution system.
#2278: Visual Programming's Enduring Tradeoff
Why do visual programming tools keep resurfacing—and why do power users keep hitting their limits?
#2255: Typst vs. LaTeX: The AI-Ready Document Engine
Can Typst succeed LaTeX as the go-to tool for programmatic typesetting, especially for AI agents? We compare the two and explore what makes a docum...
#2253: Why AI Agents Get Three Steps, Not Infinity
Why do AI agents get exactly three rounds of tool use? It's a critical guardrail against infinite loops and runaway costs, not a limit on intellige...
#1930: The Agent Identity Crisis: Workflow vs. Conversation
One automates invoices silently; the other chats in Slack. Why the industry's favorite word means two totally different things.
#1928: Why Webhook Gateways Beat Direct Wiring
Unscale your chaos: Why Kong beats manual webhook sprawl for auth, routing, and latency.
#1923: Scaling Prosumer Automation to Enterprise
Prosumer tools like n8n break at scale. Here's why durable execution frameworks like Temporal and Prefect are the enterprise upgrade.
#1922: From Plumber to Urban Planner: AI Agent Careers
The job titles are changing from "Zapier Expert" to "Cognitive Architect."
#1842: Building a Business on Spreadsheets? Here’s the Escape Plan
Ditch the messy spreadsheets and manual invoices. Here's how to automate your workflow using Google Workspace, Apps Script, and AI.
#1716: Sim Studio: The Figma for AI Agents
See how a visual, node-based tool lets you build complex AI agent workflows without writing code.
#1243: How to Hack a Smart Home for the Sabbath
How do you navigate a smart home when you can't flip a switch? Explore the engineering behind making modern technology Shabbat-compliant.
#1187: Strings of Code: The Ancient Art of Puppetry Meets AI
Explore the 3,000-year history of puppetry and why we are now replacing physical strings with generative code and artificial intelligence.
#558: The Briefing Gateway: Ending the "Pecked by Ducks" Email Era
Tired of flooding clients with emails? Herman and Corn explore the "Briefing Gateway," a tool that uses AI to turn messy pings into organized briefs.
#527: Who’s Really Flying? The Evolution of Aircraft Controls
From steel cables to digital signals: Herman and Corn explore how flight controls evolved and why some modern jets still use 1960s technology.
#106: Why Your AI Needs a Mouse and a Universal Power Strip
Can an AI actually use your mouse? Herman and Corn dive into the world of Computer Use Agents and the dream of seamless machine interaction.
#96: The Secret Language of Lines: The Evolution of Barcodes
Discover the hidden history and complex math behind barcodes, from beach-side sketches to the high-tech future of retail scanning.
#90: The AI Filing Cabinet: Why Chatbots Feel So Lonely
Why can’t we group chat with AI? Herman and Corn dive into the "output problem" and the technical hurdles of communal bots.