It was really cool how none of the border officials ever broke character.

They kept the stern, unsmiling look, seriously assessing Dudu’s passport against her appearance.

Except the final one, briefly, when he got out his phone and took photos of the pretend passport.

That's cool!

I understand German pretty well, so I get the gist.

(I used to be fluent in German, but that was long ago...)

So awesome, isn’t it!!

The best was, when we got back to Spain, the border guard must have had a note in his system about it.

When we presented our real passports, he stated “I also need to see Dudu’s passport.”

Made my daughter beam with joy.

Way to make a child’s day, Spanish border police!

We showed it at border control. And they ALL played along. We got a Spain exit stamp, a UK entry stamp, and a Spain entry stamp.

All the border guards were serious and took a look, carefully checking that “Dudu” matches her passport photo.

“Never” “always” “must” - these arbitrary rules us devs make up and then insist others must follow to “do it properly”.

You know who doesn’t care at all about all this stuff? Our customers.

Thanks Alex!

You’re one of the listeners I had the pleasure to meet with in real life - something that I hadn’t expected a podcast to lead to.

I hope both you and the company are doing well.

Wait, you write your own replies, Michael?

I thought YOU were an AI. A particularly advanced one.

It's not available. (I checked!)

But I don't think purchasing it would be compatible with my approach to life and business, anyway.

Interesting to hear!

I think this particular competitor closed down because they couldn't get customers. I think they only ever had a few.

Well they closed down some time ago. I just discovered it today.

Their website no longer exists!

Ummmmm....well....you see... Ok, no, we don't :)

I predict that nonsensical phrases like "agentic OS" will stop being used in the next year or two.