This week, Robbie and Chuck talk with Tom Barrasso about building modern web apps for $15 flip phones, and the challenges of building for ultra-low-end devices. Tom shares his journey from building a podcast app during the pandemic to working in developer relations at CloudMosa. They dive into digital minimalism, the surprisingly advanced features of today’s flip phones, and what it’s like to work remotely while traveling the globe.In this episode:<ul><li>(00:00) - Intro</li><li>(01:07) - Meet Tom Barrasso</li><li>(02:54) - Whiskey rating & review: Johnny Walker Black</li><li>(12:07) - Hot Take: Tailwind or vanilla CSS</li><li>(12:26) - Hot Take: Fit rebase or merge?</li><li>(13:13) - Hot Take: VS Code sidebar left or right?</li><li>(13:33) - Hot Take: Were smartphones a mistake?</li><li>(16:04) - Is switching to a flip phone easier today?</li><li>(21:17) - Increasingly expensive fast food</li><li>(22:58) - A brief history of flip phones</li><li>(29:13) - Building for devices the modern web forgot</li><li>(34:17) - How AI fits into developing for feature phones</li><li>(39:28) - Language quirks, accents, and phonetic texting</li><li>(42:34) - Tips for digital nomads and Tom’s global travels</li><li>(50:15) - Workplace politics</li><li>(55:21) - What would Tom do if not in tech?</li><li>(59:04) - Plugs</li></ul>Links<ul><li>Johnnie Walker Black:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.johnniewalker.com/en-us/our-whisky/core-range/johnnie-walker-black-label" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.johnniewalker.com/en-us/our-whisky/core-range/johnnie-walker-black-label</a></li><li>CloudMosa:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cloudmosa.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cloudmosa.com/</a></li><li>Cloud Phone:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cloudphone.tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cloudphone.tech/</a></li><li>Opera Mini:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opera.com/mini" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.opera.com/mini</a></li><li>Amazon:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/</a></li><li>Xiamoi:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mi.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.mi.com/</a></li><li>Jack Daniel's:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jackdaniels.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.jackdaniels.com/</a></li><li>Tennessee Honey:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jackdaniels.com/whiskey/tennessee-honey" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.jackdaniels.com/whiskey/tennessee-honey</a></li><li>University of Massachusetts Amherst:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.umass.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.umass.edu/</a></li><li>Macallan:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themacallan.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.themacallan.com/</a></li><li>Tailwind:&nbsp;<a href="https://tailwindcss.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://tailwindcss.com/</a></li><li>Git:&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/GIT" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://github.com/GIT</a></li><li>GitHub:&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://github.com/</a></li><li>C++:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.w3schools.com/cpp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.w3schools.com/cpp/</a></li><li>VS Code:&nbsp;<a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://code.visualstudio.com</a></li><li>Reddit:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reddit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/</a></li><li>Nokia:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nokia.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nokia.com/</a></li><li>AirPods:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/airpods/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.apple.com/airpods/</a></li><li>Uber:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uber.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.uber.com/</a></li><li>Chipotle:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chipotle.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.chipotle.com/</a></li><li>Taco Bell:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tacobell.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.tacobell.com/</a></li><li>McDonald's:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mcdonalds.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.mcdonalds.com/</a></li><li>Motorola Razr:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motorola.com/us/en/family/razr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.motorola.com/us/en/family/razr</a></li><li>Microsoft:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.microsoft.com/</a></li><li>Java:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.java.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.java.com/</a></li><li>Verizon:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.verizon.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.verizon.com/</a></li><li>T-Mobile:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.t-mobile.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.t-mobile.com/</a></li><li>Blackberry:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.blackberry.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.blackberry.com/</a></li><li>Google:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.google.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/</a></li><li>Firefox:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.firefox.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.firefox.com/</a></li><li>KaiOS:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kaiostech.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.kaiostech.com/</a></li><li>Geophone:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophone" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophone</a></li><li>Vercel:&nbsp;<a href="https://vercel.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://vercel.com/</a></li><li>Joe Rogan:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan</a></li><li>Boostrap:&nbsp;<a href="https://getbootstrap.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://getbootstrap.com/</a></li><li>Smashing Magazine:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.smashingmagazine.com/</a></li><li>Apple Watch:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/watch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.apple.com/watch/</a></li><li>JavaScript:&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript</a></li><li>Kindle:&nbsp;<a href="https://amazon.com/kindle" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://amazon.com/kindle</a></li><li>ES3:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_versions.asp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_versions.asp</a></li><li>Ember:&nbsp;<a href="https://emberjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://emberjs.com/</a></li><li>KaiOS.dev:&nbsp;<a href="https://kaios.dev/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://kaios.dev/</a></li><li>TypeScript:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.typescriptlang.org/</a></li><li>Claude:&nbsp;<a href="https://claude.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://claude.ai/</a></li><li>Docker:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.docker.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.docker.com/</a></li><li>Angular:&nbsp;<a href="https://angular.dev/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://angular.dev/</a></li><li>React:&nbsp;<a href="https://react.dev/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://react.dev/</a></li><li>Chuck E. Cheese:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_E._Cheese" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_E._Cheese</a></li><li>ChatGPT:&nbsp;<a href="https://chatgpt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://chatgpt.com/</a></li><li>Gemini:&nbsp;<a href="https://gemini.google.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://gemini.google.com/</a></li><li>Whisper:&nbsp;<a href="https://openai.com/index/whisper/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://openai.com/index/whisper/</a></li><li>Google Translate:&nbsp;<a href="https://translate.google.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://translate.google.com/</a></li><li>The Muppets:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppets</a></li><li>Facebook:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/</a></li><li>PillPack:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pillpack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.pillpack.com/</a></li><li>IKEA:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ikea.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.ikea.com/</a></li><li>PHP:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.php.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.php.net/</a></li><li>Samsung:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.samsung.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.samsung.com/</a></li><li>Bitcoin:&nbsp;<a href="https://bitcoin.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bitcoin.org/</a></li><li>The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Inevitable-Understanding-Technological-Forces-Future/dp/0143110373" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Inevitable-Understanding-Technological-Forces-Future/dp/0143110373</a></li><li>Sam Altman:&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/sama" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://x.com/sama</a></li><li>Wired:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.wired.com/</a></li></ul>Connect with Tom<ul><li>Website:&nbsp;<a href="https://barrasso.me/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://barrasso.me/</a></li><li>GitHub:&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/Tombarr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://github.com/Tombarr</a></li></ul>Connect with Chuck and Robbie<ul><li>Robbie Wagner:&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner</a></li><li>Chuck Carpenter:&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd</a></li></ul>Subscribe and stay in touch<ul><li>Website:&nbsp;<a href="https://whiskey.fm/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://whiskey.fm</a></li><li>Apple Podcasts:&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603</a></li><li>Spotify:&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf</a></li><li>Overcast:&nbsp;<a href="https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603</a></li><li>YouTube:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot</a></li></ul>Whiskey Web and Whatnot MerchEnjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at&nbsp;<a href="https://whiskey.fund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://whiskey.fund</a>.See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

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