Friday Links 24-31

I have been lazy and travelling over the last few Fridays. Today is a catch-up post, with quite a few links. 

I recommend the podcast about the Reiser story today and the video about the first BMX park in Nigeria. 

Engineering

The Legacy of Unix - Unix: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan [Podcast]  - The problem with Bookoverflow is the effect on my to-read list.

Story: ReiserFS [Podcast] -  Great summary of the whole Reiser saga, with some things I didn't know already. Tim Bray also has a related post: Remembering Bonnie

Fully documented source code for Elite on the Commodore 64 - if you like reading assembler.

Environment

Weatherwatch: why cooling white roofs cause neighbours to swelter - another change with side effects. 

Spain introduces paid climate leave after deadly floods - more costs caused by ignoring climate change. 

How climate policies reduce air pollution saving lives and money - "Early deaths from air pollution in US could be reduced by between 4,000 and 15,000 a year by 2035, study shows"

Why We Don’t Know AI's True Water Footprint - we often don't know what any business water use is. 

Swiss reject plans for bigger motorways and extra rights for landlords - this mostly happened because the far right was against them too, for the usual migration reasons.

Cycling

Are You Still Getting Your Winter Clothing Wrong? [YouTube] - pretty close to what I do, except that I keep my knees free as long as possible. 

The Ideal Cyclist - "The Ideal Cyclist doesn’t even ride a bike." 

Building the FIRST Skate Park in Nigeria | Encouraged 2 [YouTube] - such a great story and fun to watch. 

Strava’s Big Changes Aim To Kill Off Apps - I am not angry, just disappointed. I think they had good reasons for this change, but the communication and planning was pretty bad. 

BMX hobby has been a lifeline, says woman, 63 - maybe there is still hope for me. 

Mit einem BAMBUSFAHRRAD 5000 Kilometer nach ASERBAIDSCHAN 4K [YouTube, German] - Ingwar travels by bicycle from Germany to the Cop29. Very nice movie.  There are automatic subtitles.

Urbanism

In the Studio: Mia Lehrer and the LA River [Podcast] - people working on improving the LA River.

The five-minute city: inside Denmark’s revolutionary neighbourhood - nice, and expensive. 

Paris Calls for Government Ban on SUVs in Urban Areas - this seems unlikely to happen.

Cycle lanes boosting house prices by up to eight per cent, new study finds -  I wonder if that changes people's minds.

Barcelona mayor defends ban on tourist flats saying ‘drastic’ action needed to cut housing costs - I am not sure if this will really make a difference. 

The Life-Sized City - S03 - Barcelona - Full Episode [YouTube] - Nice to see the old industrial area being refreshed.

Random Sandwich

10 years of the long read: How the sandwich consumed Britain (2017) [Podcast] - I am a big sandwich fan and was quite addicted to the Pret Coronation Sandwich while living in London. They don't do that one any more, which is good for my health. 

Is sleep perfectionism making us more exhausted? [Podcast] - I love tracking all kinds of metrics, including sleep. There is a problem where this can get out of hand. I find it more useful in looking at the past data, if I notice an issue with my health or performance.

Wormholes [Podcast] - Do they exist? Are they useful? Who knows!

607. Is America Switching From Booze to Weed? & 608. Cannabis Is Booming, So Why Isn’t Anyone Getting Rich? [Podcast] - new series by Freakonomics, about cannabis in the US.

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures [Comic] - I might have posted this before, this is my favourite web comic.  

When AI 'Recreates' a 90s Rave [YouTube] - this might be how I remember it. 

A Short History of the 303 in 12 songs 🙂 How the 303 failed successfully - our fav TB-303 patterns [YouTube] - recreated just on the 303.  

Why is vintage audio equipment booming? - nostalgia.

Goldie 'Inner City Life' | The Making Of A Drum & Bass Classic [YouTube] - This made me quite emotional.

Toronto runner takes Strava art to the next level - peak Strava Art 

Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [YouTube] - because nobody cares any more.

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday Links 24-30

Two podcast recommendations today: the one about culture fit and the one about Escobar's hippos.

Leadership

The wrong way to think about culture fit [Podcast] - It is very hard to get this wrong. Similar as values. It is just to easy to abuse.

How Infrequent Retrospectives Reduce Learning Cycle Time and Make Everything Worse - retrospectives are still my favourite part of everything agile.

Using systems modeling to refine strategy.

Engineering 

Martin Fowler Reflects on Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code [Podcast] - another good episode. I would argue that the book could have been a handful of blog posts. If you exclude the reference. 

Build Your Own Radar: Using the Technology Radar as a governance tool [Podcast] - I think thise makes sense for every reasonably sized engineering team. 

Your Security Plan - simplified way to think about your security. 

Migrating in-place from PostgreSQL to MySQL - pretty cool. 

Demystifying The Regular Expression That Checks If A Number Is Prime - what?

Environment

It took 68 years for the world to reach 1 terawatt of solar PV capacity. It took just two years to double it - change is possible if we don't get stuck on the old way of doing things.

2024 'virtually certain' to be warmest year on record, scientists say - I think this has been confirmed by now? 

‘Used like taxis’: Soaring private jet flights drive up climate-heating emissions - thank you rich people!

EU emissions fall by 8% in steep reduction reminiscent of Covid shutdown - some good news.

Urbanism & Cycling

The cyclists tracking down their own stolen bikes - this is probably a bad idea in most cases.

Bicycles save lives: How bikes have been critical after Spain's Valencia floods

100,000 Chinese students join 50km night-time bike ride in search of good soup dumplings  - now I want those dumplings.

Pedestrian-friendly cities have lower rates of diabetes and obesity - not surprising.

Launching a new guide for taking bicycles on trains - very basic at the moment

Central Paris To Limit Through Motor Traffic From Next Week - How long will it take until Paris makes it to the top of the Copenhagenize list?

Random Hippos

The cocaine kingpin’s wildest legacy: what can be done with Pablo Escobar’s marauding hippos? [Podcast] - possibly my favourite invasive species?

Bland, soggy slop or scratch-cooked chilli and pancakes? The best and worst hospital food around the world – in pictures - they all looks good? I would go for the Taiwanese one.

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday Links 24-29

This week's recommendations: the podcast about lawns and why cars are so scary at Halloween.

Leadership

Why Your Meetings Suck (And How to Fix Them): Insights from Dr. Steven Rogelberg 6 | 37 [Podcast] - focusing on 1:1 meetings

Measuring Developer Productivity with Diff Authoring Time [Podcast] - the use case is improving developer experience tools and not measuring developers.

TBM 318: Why Orgs Become Too Tall - again a good overview from John about the causes, some of them are difficult to work around.

Eng org seniority-mix model. - if you want to reduce spending on senior engineers, you have to reduce hiring them, but also reduce promoting into that level.

Urbanism and Transit

Jaywalking is now legal in New York City - the rest of the world: "what?" 

Forget tainted candy: The scariest thing on Halloween is parked in your driveway - "But the biggest reason may be that American streets and cities are designed for cars, and not people."

Crossing the USA by train - did I post this already? It's great anyway, and makes me want to travel large distances by train. 

How Many Hydrogen Transit Trial Failures Are Enough? - people are still clinging to this fuel.

Stuttgart 21: Europe’s Most Controversial Rail Project | DW News [YouTube] - that does look a bit overdesigned, but it will be great once it arrives.

Random Lawns

Lawns: Is yours giving sun king or pink flamingo? [Podcast] - blame the French!

When Does Instagram Decide a Nipple Becomes Female? - great project, and now I am curious when it will happen. 

Clothes Line Animals Series - pretty art.

The Unlikely Inventor of the Automatic Rice Cooker 

"Another clever sales technique was to get electricity companies to serve as Toshiba distributors. At the time, Japan was facing a national power surplus stemming from the widespread replacement of carbon-filament lightbulbs with more efficient tungsten ones." - maybe we see more things switch to electric when energy prices will go down in the future

The Unfettered Selfishness of Digital Nomads - "I think the least we can ask of these people is that they spare us all the self-serving posture of enlightenment."

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday Links 24-28

Mostly urbanism links today. 

This week I recommend the talk by Cabel Sasser, it's weird and fun.

Engineering

gptel - Emacs client for all kinds of LLMs 

SMURF: Beyond the Test Pyramid  - everything is a tradeoff.

Environment

Tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could raise €64bn a year – study - unlikely to happen. 

Fuel duty expected to rise by up to 7p a litre after the budget - it has been reduced before and had been frozen for a long time.

Urbanism

Welsh roads safer this spring compared to last – new data - low speed works. "Collisions and casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads have fallen by almost a quarter compared to the same period in 2023"

Testing back alley laneways to unlock a hidden bike network (plus a visit to a top laneway city) [YouTube] - these don't really exist around here. I imagine the main problem will be the crossings with other streets.

Barcelona tramway between Glòries and Verdaguer to come into service on November 9 - this has been taken forever, and there is still a long way to go for the full connection.

TfL seizes 1,400 vehicles from drivers who ignore London Ulez fines - nice. 

Should Cities Ban Drive Thrus? [YouTube] - I would start fining people who queue on public roads. This also doesn't seem to be an issue in Europe.

Creating the First Bicycle Traffic Model of Barcelona - I am already looking forward to the results. 

Towards the Renaturalization of Urban Spaces: How 08014 arquitectura's Projects are Reclaiming Barcelona's Streets - the agency behind the design of the Superblocks.

Cycling with Balloons in Amsterdam - pretty.

Milliarden-Projekt wird zur Geisterstadt [German, Video] - it looks pretty bad. I do like all the greenery.

Barcelona is turning subway trains into power stations - I think I had this before, this is a new article. 

I went inside a "war on cars" neighbourhood in the UK [YouTube] - LTNs again.

Random Dogs

Dogs Are Entering a New Wave of Domestication - service dogs. 

TBM 317: Yes, Or... - it depends, or does it?

Mosaic Netscape 0.9 was released 30 years ago today - I'm old.

Montserrat monastery to host stage finish of 2025 Volta a Catalunya cycling race - the race comes to my hood again.

Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024) - yes!

‘We were cheeky outlaws getting away with it’: the total euphoria of Liverpool’s 90s club scene " "“It’s a luxury to have something that’s underground and intimate where you know everyone in the room [...] But it can’t last. If it’s brilliant, it’s gonna go mainstream"

Casio made a furry robot designed to cuddle and calm you down - I approve. 

XOXO Cabel Sasser Panic [Video] - great talk. "Appreciate everything endlessly"

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday Links 24-27

Many links today, as I skipped some Fridays due to business and problems with my local workflow for links, which should finally be fixed.

This week I especially enjoyed the video about donated bikes for Ukraine and the podcast Shell Game about scary AI stuff.

Leadership

TBM 313: Chat, Breathe, and Reflect - how to deal with uncertainty, don't pretend you don't have to change your approach. 

Testing strategy: avoid the waterfall strategy trap with iterative refinement. - as always, start with a proof of concept, then iterate, and gather data.

Measuring developer experience [Podcast] - someone plugging his product, but still with some good information.

Are happy workers the way to better results? - the data seems to show this. 

Your company needs Junior devs - I would rather say: your company needs a good mix of seniority.

Engineering

NIST Recommends Some Common-Sense Password Rules - sensible indeed, frameworks should just adapt these in code. 

How we improved availability through iterative simplification - some examples from GitHub in tracking down and improving performance issues.

Committing to Rust in the kernel - summary of the discussion from the 2024 Maintainers Summit

Should we decompose our monolith? - an example of a fictional organisation. 

Uptime nines aren’t equally distributed - it doesn't help if your site is unavailable, when it is supposed to be busy. 

Software service granularity: Getting it right [Podcast] - everything is a tradeoff.

Work

Employers used return-to-office to make workers quit. Then this happened. - spoiler: it's probably the people you want to keep who are leaving.

Inside the chaos of Amazon's RTO mandate - see above. 

Should we focus on making workers happy? [Podcast] - yes.

Environment 

End of an era as Britain’s last coal-fired power plant shuts down - mostly switching to gas, which isn't great either, but there is progress on the renewable front too. 

In Barcelona, the subway trains are helping power the stations - I didn't know this, and this totally makes sense if you don't have batteries on the trains. 

Rich countries silencing climate protest while preaching about rights elsewhere, says study - this makes me sad and angry.

Urbanism

The European Tram Driver Championships: 26 Cities, 52 Drivers, 100% Sporting Drama [YouTube] - last time I post about this … promise. This is a good summary.  You can also check out the full stream.

Barcelona Completes First Phase of a Multiyear Renovation of La Rambla - the renderings are looking good. I haven't been able to check out the progress yet.

London saw a surprising benefit to fining high-polluting cars: More active kids - surprising? 

How are donated bikes rebuilding urban mobility in Ukraine? | With Bikes4Ukraine [YouTube] - some more good news from Ukraine.  

15min-City platform - browse cities on a map and see how accessible they are. When drilling down to individual cities, you can see a detailed map. 

A Map That Visualizes Walkable Neighborhoods Across the US - similar map, but more detailed for US cities.

‘It’s positive’: shoppers react to Oxford Street pedestrianisation proposal - I was always amazed that the road was open for cars. 

Are Taipei's Roads Still a "Living Hell"? [YouTube] - yes and no.

Random Elite

Elite 40th Anniversary Out  - more source code.

The WordPress mess [LWN] - good summary from LWN, in case you were curious, like me. 

Street Artist painting funny fake shadows to confuse people (20 photos) - I like this

Is Alcohol Really THAT Bad?! | Dan’s Journey Back to Health and Fitness (Pt. 6) [YouTube] - yes.

New Amplification - something to look into once my retro amps will give up.

The Alps [Vimeo] - tilt-shift and time-lapse for tiny models effect. Mostly spam for a hotel, but pretty.

601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying? [Podcast] - sometimes we are forced into it, sometimes we believe we actually can do it. 

Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary [Podcast] - about the friends who remade Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

‘A diagnosis can sweep away guilt’: the delicate art of treating ADHD [Podcast] - view from the UK.

Shell Game [Podcast] - scary AI stuff.

Friday Links Disclaimer

Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kinds of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time, you might notice common themes, though.

More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.