Educational Series · 3 Seasons · 41 Episodes · 14 Available
Cats in
Tech
The internet is physical, somebody owns the building, and six cats at a news desk are going to explain the whole thing.
Every episode is evergreen with a marked slot for that week's real outage, launch, or breach — the script plays any week of any year, the news makes it today's.
Two of the six hosts are blind. The information is complete without the visuals. That's intentional.
Season 1 · 14 Episodes
The rendered batch.
Who Are the Brooklyn Cats and Cats in Tech?
Meet the cats behind the desk: LobsterCat introduces Rammy, DaviCat, Tommy and himself.
What is the Difference Between SPAM and HAM?
Rammy explains ham (mail you wanted) against spam, and where the names come from.
How to Spot Fraud Email from Legitimate
Rammy walks through the tells of a fraudulent email: sender, urgency, links.
How Do You Move a File vs Copy a File in Linux?
DaviCat shows mv against cp in a Linux terminal.
DNS Records Explained
DaviCat runs through the everyday DNS record types and how to query them with dig.
What is DNSSEC and Why Is It Needed?
Tommy explains how DNSSEC signs DNS answers so they cannot be forged in transit.
DNS Security Records: DKIM, SPF, DANE
Tommy covers the three DNS records that protect email and TLS: SPF, DKIM and DANE.
What is DANE?
Tommy explains DANE: pinning a TLS certificate in DNSSEC-signed DNS.
Types of DNS Records in BIND
DaviCat reads a BIND zone file: SOA, NS, A, MX, TXT, PTR and friends.
What is the Difference Between SSL and TLS?
Tommy explains why SSL is dead and TLS is what the padlock actually means.
How Do SSL Certificate Chains Work?
Tommy walks a certificate chain from the site certificate up to a trusted root.
What is PGP and How Does GPG Differ?
Tommy explains PGP, the OpenPGP standard, and GPG as the free implementation.
What is Certificate Transparency and Why Do We Need It?
Tommy explains the public logs that make every issued certificate visible.
What is dnsscience.io and What Makes it Useful?
LobsterCat breaks the news on dnsscience.io, a DNS diagnostics tool.
Season 2 · 13 Episodes
Fundamentals, DNS, email, security.
Intro to Cybersecurity Terms
Rammy defines phishing, malware, firewall and encryption: the words every later episode uses.
Password123
Rammy would like a word with everyone whose password is their cat's name plus the year. The cats know. The cats are insulted.
Remind Me Tomorrow, Forever
Tommy on software updates: the pop-up you've dismissed 47 times is the only thing standing between you and a very bad week.
No Backup, No Sympathy
DaviCat explains the 3-2-1 rule to everyone whose entire life is on one laptop with a sticker that says LIVE LAUGH LOVE.
Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again
Tommy defends tech support's most mocked question — because it is, embarrassingly, real engineering.
What is Linux?
Tommy on Linux as a kernel plus distros, and why every tech job ends up in it.
What is macOS and How Does It Relate to Unix?
Tommy on macOS as Unix underneath, and why its terminal feels like Linux.
What is Microsoft Windows?
Tommy on Windows: its own non-Unix lineage, its hold on corporate IT, and WSL.
The Printer Smells Fear
Tommy explains the only device in your home that is actively hostile, and why a 40-year-old page language runs your office.
Wifi Is Not the Internet
NetCat walks the full path from your router to the ocean floor, and settles the oldest fight in tech support.
It's Always DNS
NetCat explains the phone book of the internet, and why when half the web vanishes, engineers all whisper the same three letters.
What is SMTP and How Does It Apply to Email?
NetCat on how SMTP relays mail between servers, how IMAP and POP3 fetch it, and which ports do what. Rammy anchors.
We Take Your Privacy Very Seriously
Rammy performs a dramatic reading of the breach-notification email every company sends, and NetCat explains what actually happened.
Season 3 · 14 Episodes
Cloud, operations, tech and society.
The Cloud Is Somebody Else's Computer
DaviCat explains where your files actually live, and why 'the cloud' has a street address and a landlord.
What is AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, DigitalOcean?
DaviCat on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and DigitalOcean: who each is for, and why you set billing alerts first.
What is Kubernetes?
DaviCat on containers, and Kubernetes as the crew supervisor: pods, nodes, clusters, services.
Easy to Join, Impossible to Leave
DaviCat on vendor lock-in: the free trial has a basement, and your data lives in it now.
What is DevOps, DevSecOps?
DaviCat and Rammy on shipping and operating software as one team, with security built in.
The Intern Deployed on Friday
A dramatization of the oldest cautionary tale in software, performed by the full desk, with sirens.
Everything Is Down (A Postmortem)
DaviCat hosts a live blameless postmortem for the entire internet, which is on fire somewhere at all times.
Free as in Somebody's Weekend
ByteCat on open source: the whole internet is load-bearing volunteer code, and the volunteer would like a nap.
Confidently Wrong
ByteCat on AI hype vs. AI reality: it's genuinely amazing, it's genuinely not magic, and it will absolutely make things up in a professional tone of voice.
I Let an AI Agent Run My Errands
ByteCat gives an AI agent his to-do list and narrates the results like a nature documentary.
The Algorithm Is Math With Opinions
ByteCat and PixelCat open up 'the algorithm' and find no wizard — just a scoreboard that pays out for your attention.
The App Got Worse on Purpose
PixelCat names the thing everyone feels: your favorite app was great, then fine, then hostile — and that was the business plan.
Your Toaster Wants $4.99 a Month
PixelCat on the subscriptionization of everything, including things that used to just be… things.
The Drawer of Dead Gadgets
Tommy opens the junk drawer every household has, and traces one dead phone from the mine to the landfill and — maybe — back.