John Martellaro

Mike Bombich is the founder and president of Bombich Software, the developer of Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s a backup app for the Mac that has saved the day for many users. He started his career at Bowling Green State University studying aquatic ecology. But he also took computer science classes thinking that one day he would do scientific simulations of ecological systems. Soon, Mike discovered that he had a strong interest the software development process itself. Later, Mike worked for a tech support organization and discovered the real need for software that could back up the new Mac OS X launched in 2001. He created CCC. That got the attention of Apple and landed him a job working on technical solutions for professionals. Mike tells the story about how this app changed his life.

Tim Robertson is the founder and publisher of MyMac. He’s one of the pioneers in our business. Tim tells the story about how, in 1995, he was more or less a jock, but realized that his daughter was going to need to know about computers. After some research, he bought an Apple Performa 410. Learning how to use this computer, and wanting to be a writer, launched Tim into a lifelong love affair with Apple and publishing. Like many, he started writing about what he learned. But at that time, one had to create digital publications with Doc Maker, downloadable from a BBS. Soon thereafter, he was on the internet with the now legendary Mymac.com and a team of contributors. Come listen as we chat about the remarkable evolution of Tim’s publishing career.

Julie Kuehl is an expert WordPress developer for Kanopi Studios. But there’s much more. She built her first website in 1994. She’s studied economics, statistics and web design. She’s written for publications like MyMac, Tech Lounge and The Mac Observer. She’s a popular speaker at conferences. She hosts the SciFi Tech Talk podcast. She’s into cars (Mustang), motorcycles (Harley-Davidson) and holds several black belts in Karate, primarily Soto Kan. She’s taught Martial Arts to police officers in Japan and learned Japanese in the process. Join me and Julie as we geek out and trade stories on our Martial Arts experiences, our first exposure to Unix and web servers in the 1990s, our car loves (more stories: Corvettes, Route 66), SciFi, and her own SciFi podcast. I was wowed. You will be too.

Joanna Penn is a best-selling thriller novelist. She’s published over 20 books and sold over 450,000 copies in 74 countries and five languages. She’s most famous for her ARKANE series described by readers as ‘Dan Brown meets Lara Croft.’ Joanna is also an entrepreneur who teaches writers how to hone their craft. I interviewed Joanna about her past which includes a Master’s degree in Theology from Oxford. Joanna spent years working on computer code before she realized that she wanted to write fiction. And she’s a self-admitted techie, using a Mac and Scrivener. Today, Joanna leverages her background in theology and psychology plus extensive travel to write her thrillers. We talked about the craft of writing fiction and finished up with whether AI agents will ever put us both out of work.

Liz Marley is a software engineer for the Omni Group. Early in life, there never was a time when Liz didn’t have computers. At age four, she started with her dad’s Apple IIGS, and she was encouraged to use it freely. Later, she majored in Computer Science at Harvey Mudd college and soon thereafter landed a job as a software tester. Over the years, her career has taken a series of interesting twists. From software coding to testing to being a product manager and then back to coding. In fact, her work with App Camp For Girls led her to a remarkable career decision and turn of events at the Omni Group. This is must listening for everyone interested in computer programming as a career.

Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Founded in 1990, the EFF is a nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. The EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism and technology development. It has won some important court cases that preserve our rights online, including the use of encryption. (Which wasn’t always a given.) Cindy and I talked at length about her career, notable cases she fought and the work of the EFF, especially in the Apple vs. FBI conflict last spring. Cindy starts with notion that “privacy is fundamental to human dignity and… we can’t have a free society unless people have a private space.” Even if that means law enforcement has to work a little harder. Cindy explains it all.