iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 28/01/2026

My site to share programming concepts, Playback Press, crossed 180,000 playback views this year. I built it to replace textbooks in my courses. Now people I've never met are using it too. Check them all out here: playbackpress.com/books

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 15/11/2025

I added a small but valuable feature to code playbacks on Playback Press. Since the hand drawn pictures and screenshots are so important to viewers I added a way to search for comments based on the pictures. Hit 'shift + /' on the keyboard to bring up the new media picker search dialog.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 12/11/2025

Now is a great time to learn some non-traditional programming languages. I have two free 'books' of code playback on #Clojure and #Elixir. playbackpress.com/books/cljbook playbackpress.com/books/exbook

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/09/2025

I’m looking for a little feedback. I am working on a playback describing #perceptrons for my #AI course. Here is a link to it: markm208.github.io/cppbook/ai/p... Reach out to me if you have any feedback!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 20/08/2025

I'm looking for experienced developers to write code playbacks for my platform. If you enjoy explaining your code and teaching others, code playbacks are a great way to share knowledge and build your reputation in the dev community. Get the details here: playbackpress.com/contact

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 18/07/2025

I can’t quite believe it myself but… Playback Press has just crossed a major milestone: 40,000+ playback views in a 30 day period!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/07/2025

The future of coding requires that people get better at reading and understanding code, not just writing and generating it. Check out the new features here: playbackpress.com/books All of the books are free but you do have to create an account in order to use the AI features.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/07/2025

- Skill level selection (beginner/intermediate/expert) - One click to ask common questions - Self-grading multiple choice questions are generated in batches now instead of one at a time - Project extension suggestions to build on the existing code

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/07/2025

The new interface is cleaner with tabbed sections for questions, practice problems, and project suggestions. What's new: - Tabbed interface and updated UI - Improved prompts for more specific feedback from the AI model- it really does produce better answers now

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/07/2025

It's been almost a year since I added the first AI assistant to code playbacks on Playback Press. They have been helpful to my students to fill in any gaps in their knowledge and to explore advanced concepts. Today I'm sharing a major update.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 23/03/2025

I'm using the wiki feature of GitHub's repos to host my updated documentation for Storyteller: github.com/markm208/sto... I also have this video which describes creating your own playbacks: youtu.be/LITe23OkSm0 Let me know if you want some help getting started! My students really like them.

Image of new documentation page in repo wiki

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 16/03/2025

💾 Want a quick intro to SQL? Watch me build a database for a fictional pet adoption center and write some SQL queries: 📌 Database Design and Simple SQL 🔗 playbackpress.com/books/sqlboo... SQL queries evolve step-by-step and playbacks show that process visually. They are a great way to learn SQL!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 21/01/2025

Are you teaching a programming course this semester or learning to code? Here is my semi-annual reminder... I’ve written a dozen or so ‘books’ of code playbacks that are available for free (#CPP, #Python, #Clojure, #DesignPatterns, #Elixir, #SQL, #WebDev) on Playback Press playbackpress.com/books.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 06/01/2025

There are two ways to identify points in a playback, either with a comment number or an event number. For example, to start a playback at the second comment: link/to/playback?comment=2 Or, to start at the 100th file edit: link/to/playback?event=100

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 06/01/2025

I just added the ability to share a link to an exact point in a playback using either a comment number or an event number (check out the url in the video). This feature is perfect for students and instructors collaborating on questions, or for pro sw devs doing code reviews.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 03/01/2025

All of the code playbacks on Playback Press have these new features. Try them out! playbackpress.com/books

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 03/01/2025

I love having a little time off at the end of the year to add some features to code playbacks. I have just added two new features to all playbacks on Playback Press: - comments can be read aloud for the viewer - search for comments based on selected code

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 22/12/2024

I’m not familiar with the DrRacket environment but I think separating media (and most code comments too) from source code is preferable. I’m working on an editor plugin tool to do that: github.com/markm208/sto...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 21/12/2024

This last semester was the first one where I integrated an AI assistant into my code playbacks (via the #OpenAI API). The playbacks were used in my Computing Paradigms (#Clojure, #Elixir, #Ruby) and Data Structures (#C++) courses. Below are my observations from the semester. #AI #CodePlaybacks

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 15/12/2024

A few of us had a discussion about the role of AI coding assistants in CS ed. My feeling is that people who learned to code before AI assistants are probably more resilient and prepared to deal with uncertainty in the sw dev process. I could be wrong, but I thought I’d make this fake banner anyway.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 15/12/2024

I made a little word search game, maybe they will like it: markm208.github.io/wordZearch/ Plus, if anyone wants to see how I built it you can see that too: playbackpress.com/books/wordze...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 07/12/2024

A code playback is a guided code walk through of a problem and a solution. The code below is an #Elixir program that estimates poker probabilities using the random number generator and brute force: playbackpress.com/books/exbook...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/12/2024

I have a feeling this will be a LinkedIn banner one day.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

I have a dozen or so free 'books' here: playbackpress.com/books If you login, you can access an AI Assistant to help answer any questions that you have while viewing a playback. It will also generate multiple choice questions to keep you engaged. It works really well!

Playback Press website with available free books.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

You can learn all of this without needing to do any programming or complicated installs (I use SQLite w/DBBrowser). If you do want to incorporate your skills into a programming language (C/C++, Python, or Java) check out: Programming with SQLite playbackpress.com/books/sqlite...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

You can follow this up with my collection of 30 worked examples: Worked SQL Examples playbackpress.com/books/worked...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

Do you want to learn some basic #SQL? The video shows the first 'code playback' in my free introduction to #SQL: Database Design and SQL for Beginners playbackpress.com/books/sqlbook Watch me design and query a pet adoption database.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

Take a break from holiday stress with a creative challenge: learn to program with code playbacks! 🎄💻 Hot topics this season: #Clojure, #Elixir, and beginner-friendly #SQL. And no need to wait for Black Friday—every book is already free! 🎉📚 Explore now: Playback Press playbackpress.com/books

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

If you are curious about learning Clojure check these out! I have a complete introduction to Clojure here: playbackpress.com/books/cljbook

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

Finally, I build on the previous examples and only search prime numbers for the digits 3 and/or 5 in them. I generate the primes with a lazy sequence: playbackpress.com/books/cljboo...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

In the next example, I change the problem to examine the numbers one digit at a time and I look for numbers with a 3 and/or a 5 in them. I use tail recursion with recur to split a number into digits. playbackpress.com/books/cljboo...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

In the first example, I solve the problem demonstrating how to write a Clojure function: playbackpress.com/books/cljboo...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

**Fizz-Buzz** I've been covering #Clojure in my computing paradigms course. I used the classic interview question ‘fizz-buzz’ a few times. The idea is to print numbers but print ‘fizz’ if a number is divisible by 3, ‘buzz’ if its divisible by 5, and ‘fizz-buzz’ if it is divisible by 3 and 5.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 17/11/2024

Here are some of the drawings I made for my CS students this semester. Believe it or not I was an art major for a little bit.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 12/11/2024

fCC has great content, no doubt about that. Here’s another resource if anyone is interested: playbackpress.com/books/cppbook They are guided code walkthroughs with plenty of visuals.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 11/11/2024

I'm not sure if promoting my code playbacks is annoying or not (I hope not)... but I think they are a great way to learn about code. In my #Clojure 'book' I explain the basics for someone who has some programming experience. Check'em out: playbackpress.com/books/cljbook Let me know what you think!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 02/11/2024

I'm the code playback guy! I created Playback Press (playbackpress.com/books) to share my guided code walk-throughs that show how a program evolves step-by-step w/ a narrative from the author. Each playback has an AI assistant. They are all free! Full Vid: youtu.be/uYbHqCNjVDM #Coding #EdTech

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