npm Worms & RubyGems Coups: Trust Issues in Open Source

This week, Robbie, Chuck, and Adam talk about the worst whiskey they’ve tasted, Tailwind as a “state management library,” and recent security scares in open source. Also — dependency hygiene, developer visa drama, and whether inflated tech salaries are finally being reckoned with.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:14) - Whiskey rating & review: Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• (13:00) - What's with all the recent web dev security issues?
• (28:39) - Is Tailwind secretly the worst state management library?
• (32:45) - Visa chaos: H-1Bs, gold cards, and reverse immigration
• (40:51) - Are tech salaries being intentionally driven down?
• (49:45) - Adam’s AI experiment with Claude + Parallelize
• (54:09) - Why AI should specialize (and stop trying to do everything)
• (54:44) - Best AI tools right now
• (01:01:16) - Chuck’s VPN chaos + funny wifi names
• (01:04:04) - Plugs

Links

• GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/
• Bob Parsons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Parsons
• Intuit: https://www.intuit.com/
• Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey: http://evanwilliams.com/straight-bourbon
• Wrigley Chew: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_Company
• Bazooka: https://www.bazookajoe.com/
• Juicy Fruit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicy_Fruit
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch: https://www.cinnamontoastcrunch.com/
• Jack Daniel's: https://www.jackdaniels.com/
• Crown Royal Black: https://www.crownroyal.com/canadian-whisky/crown-royal-black
• Suntory World Whiskey Ao: https://house.suntory.com/ao-whisky
• Fresca Mixed: https://www.frescamixed.com/
• All Things Open: https://allthingsopen.org/
• Ken Wheeler: https://x.com/ken_wheeler/
• JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
• Ruby: https://www.ruby-lang.org/
• NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/
• GitHub: https://github.com/
• Blockchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
• pNPM: https://pnpm.io/
• Ransom: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117438/
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/
• WordPress: https://wordpress.org
• David Cramer: https://x.com/zeeg
• Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/
• Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/
• SemVer: https://semver.org/
• Google: https://www.google.com/
• Snowpack: https://www.snowpack.dev/
• Socket.io: https://socket.io/
• Guillermo Rauch: https://x.com/rauchg
• Socket.dev: https://socket.dev/
• Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/
• David K Piano: https://x.com/DavidKPiano
• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/
• Next.js: https://nextjs.org/
• OpenAI: https://openai.com
• Amazon: https://amazon.com
• Jason Lengstorf: https://x.com/jlengstorf
• Perl: https://www.perl.org/
• Rust: https://www.rust-lang.org/
• Cobol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL
• Jarred Sumner: https://x.com/jarredsumner
• Bun: https://bun.com/
• Zig: https://ziglang.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Codex: https://openai.com/codex/
• Opencode: https://opencode.ai/
• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/
• Ep 92: Hot Takes, Bun, and Zig with Jarred Sumner: https://whiskey.fm/hot-takes-bun-and-zig-with-jarred-sumner
• Neovim: https://neovim.io/
• Bolt: https://bolt.new/
• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/
• Spec Kit: https://github.com/github/spec-kit
• South Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park
• Proton VPN: https://protonvpn.com/
• HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/
• Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.com
• Stephen King: https://stephenking.com/
• Cujo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cujo
• Nerdy.dev: https://nerdy.dev/
• Starpod.dev: https://starpod.dev/
• Como FC: https://comofootball.com/

Connect with the hosts

• Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner
• Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd
• Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Website: https://whiskey.fm
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf
• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

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Veteran web developers RobbieTheWagner, Charles William Carpenter III, and Adam Argyle host this informal, whiskey-fueled fireside chat with your favorite web devs. They discuss all things web development including JavaScript, TypeScript, EmberJS, React, Astro, SolidJS, CSS, HTML, Web3, and more. They take a unique approach and focus on getting to know the human side of developers and their hobbies outside of work, all while sampling a new whiskey that they rate on their unique tentacle scale.