Friday Links 25-21

Don't Need Money 
by Poorly Drawn Lines

Some "AI" related stuff today, with the idea of prompt engineering being requirements engineering and how these new tools can enable non-programmers to get closer to the code.

I also liked how much Wil Wheaton likes a new metro line.   

Leadership

RTO mandates lead to us questioning leaders - it was never about RTO. 

Engineering

Prompt Engineering Is Requirements Engineering - I don't think we were ever good at requirements, how are we going to be good with prompts? 

URL Pattern API - this is new, and took quite a while 

How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner - :-) 

To vibe or not to vibe - good compact framework to think about vibe coding … or not. 

Developer Productivity With and Without GitHub Copilot: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Case Study [Paper] - "We did not find any statistically significant changes in commit-based
activity for Copilot users after they adopted the tool, although minor increases were observed."

Mean time to shared understanding: Bridging the gap between citizen developers and developers [Podcast] - citizen developers, aka normal people changing the code. 

RPM 6.0.0 released - RPM v4 turns 25! See here for some history:  Evolution of the RPM package format

Environment 

Troubling scenes from an Arctic in full-tilt crisis - the Arctic is not completely frozen any more 

Urbanism

“…we are all Angelenos who love our city of angels. Our Metro system is an expression of that love for our communities.”  - Wil Wheaton attending a new metro line opening 

Good cities can't exist without public order - it isn't as bad as in the US, but crime does affect transit ridership everywhere. 

Random Money

Minimum Wage Machine - that is a good visualisation of minimum wage 

Rails Needs New Governance - guess who misbehaved again! 

The Ruby community has a DHH problem - yes, he did. 

C2PA Investigations - I'm not really concerned about C2PA or see it be more widely available. It is interesting and probably worth looking into if you are a photographer. 

The Life Scientific: Doyne Farmer [Podcast] - Hacker who became economist.  

Other Links

• Jason Yip: What I’ve been reading this week ending 21 September 2025 

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 25-20

If you have a weird fascination with trams, you should probably check out the full World Tramdriver Championship video. 

Otherwise, the podcast with the author of Code Complete is great, so is the one about a train ride through Canada.   

Engineering

Hashed sorting is typically faster than hash tables - in case it comes up in the next interview :-) 

"Shai-Hulud" NPM attack runs malicious GitHub Action - more NPM fun

Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released 30 years ago today - frames and JavaScript - thank you very much! 

Code Complete with Steve McConnell [Podcast] - great interview. I don't think I ever came across the book. 

Environment 

2025 Sustainability Report - Meta also adding nuclear power to the mix to support AI.

Record sea temperature in June and July: 2ºC above historical average - this is for Catalonia 

Barcelona ranks third in Europe for climate change heat deaths, study finds - winning! 

Side-by-Side Glacier Photos Show Extent of Retreat Over The Decades - just from the US

Urbanism & Transit 

Highlights First World Tramdriver Championship, Vienna 2025  [YouTube] - this time it's a world championship. Watch the full video if you have the time. 

Almost 2,000 vehicles per hour on Barcelona's busiest streets: Gran Via and Aragó - it is pretty bad, but it is getting better. 15% down on previous years.

Barcelona ja té el seu primer mapa de circulació ciclista carrer per carrer [Catalan] - first cycling traffic map for Barcelona

This Train Just Keeps Getting Worse 😢  [YouTube] - they still look pretty great to me, at least the old cars 

Germany's 'Deutschlandticket' price rises again - the current German government are continuing to make everything worse for non-drivers. 

Random Dumpster Fire 

I made myself an Emotional Support Dumpster Fire - cosy 

Why Billionaire Productivity Hacks Won’t Work for You - we are not the same  

Two Slice 2px font "somewhat" readable 

Eye drops could replace glasses or surgery for longsightedness, study says - this is pretty cool, if it ever becomes usable 

Enjoyed the blogging about blogging about blogging - adding another level to this. I am not a big blogger. I am more on the consumer side. 

Other Links

• Jason Yip: What I’ve been reading (and watching) this week ending 14 September 2025 

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 25-19

Small selection today. Some good reads, about the job market, corporate job, and a good podcasts about teams & AI.

Leadership

Organizational design and Team Topologies after AI [Podcast] - a much more balanced view on the changes AI brings to teams 

MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing - a bit older article 

AI Adoption Rate Trending Down for Large Companies - this is more interesting, maybe theory is hitting reality now

The Job Market Is Hell - another thing buggered up by AI

The death of the corporate job. - I like it. I never worked for a corporate job, so I don't know how true it is. 

Engineering

npm debug and chalk packages compromised (Aikido) [LWN] - The aftermath of this is still happening.  

Environment

This is amazing: The @esaclimate office have produced a beautiful set of easy to access tools for using with their satellite data products.  [Mastodon] - Quite a treasure chest

Urbanism

The Genius Plan to Make Amsterdam Car Centric [YouTube] - luckily it didn't happen. 

s the Tube strike turning London’s cycle lanes into a New Amsterdam or a “mosh pits on wheels”? - this looks nice. It also shows how many people use bicycles and public transport.

I Rode the Longest Waterfront Path in the World  [YouTube] - we need more waterfront rides.

Why Paris Is Extending One Of Its Metro Lines... With A Cable Car  [YouTube] - weird, but pretty solution. 

Random Hackers

Children hacking their own schools for 'fun', watchdog warns - didn't everybody at least try this? 

Greece announces €1.6bn relief package to tackle population decline - more EU countries will follow, or allow more migrants in. 

“Some of this stuff is harder to get hold of than rare analogue synths”: Why we’re in the midst of a vintage software revival - keeping old software alive is important 

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 25-18

Quick selection.

This week I liked the podcast with the whaler, and the Chinese cycling industry.  

Leadership 

Rate My Manager - Oh, no! It's pretty new. (Side note: This looks vibe coded) 

Engineering

Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source - very nice. It is one, 7000 line file. 

Browsh - new text-based browser.

BYTE - visual history - I still have my favourite issues, like the one with the Amiga 3000 on the cover. I also remember one about Desqview/X, that I probably have somewhere.

Urbanism

Safety and space at risk as SUVs reach 30% of car market in English cities, researchers warn - we replaced family vans and station wagons with something that is much worse

Barcelona metro opens Correus and Gaudí ghost stations for first time - I am probably not going to get a ticket. This looks fun. See also: Barcelona opens doors to key public transport sites during European Mobility Week

What the end of The Block means - is there something good in the suburbs? 

Radverkehrskonzept 2030 [German] Tübingen cycling plan.  Apparently, the city in Germany who spends most on cycling per person. 

GPS pay-as-you-go rail tickets to be trialled in England for first time - Why would we need this kind of tracking when we have tap-to-pay? 

Random Whales

Extra: A Modern Whaler Speaks Up (Update) [Podcast] - finally an interview with a whaler. 

ReThinking: How you can do more for others with Rutger Bregman [Podcast] - inspiring episode. 

Is China ready to take over the cycling industry? [Podcast] - talking to some Chinese producers. Another interesting shift in the cycling industry.  

Why is the EU not acting on Gaza? [Podcast] - looking at the EU politic side. 

Visualised: Europe's population crisis - sadly nobody cares for 2100, especially not the politicians 

Alcohol is AMAZING  [YouTube] - maybe not.

As beer sales fall, young Germans develop taste for alcohol-free lager - this can only be good, I wonder how this will change the culture. 

The Drug To Master Reality  [YouTube] probably not either. 

Daniel Popper - I love this artist! 

3,000 Eggs Daily: The 400-Year Japanese Tamagoyaki That Still Sparks Dawn Queues [YouTube] - those look a lot better than mine. 

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 25-17

This week I enjoyed the post about dealing with abandoned EV charger hardware and of course, the video about the TI 99/4A. 

Leadership

Nobody Wins at Calendar Tetris - busy doesn't mean productive 

Tech debt isn’t an ‘IT issue.’ It’s a business strategy - yep.

The Management Skill Nobody Talks About - how to fail good. 

Engineering 

Building your own CLI Coding Agent with Pydantic-AI - lots of them are popping up now. It is a good intro to the tools and libraries. 

mise-en-place - I hate having multiple environments. But I have to, this seems nice. 

Escaping the chains of tethered products: the Juice Rescue project - hardware and software hacking of abandoned hardware

Urbanism

What is the real cost of free parking?  [YouTube] - all the NIMBYs you expect. 

This Might Just Be the World's Best Metro System [YouTube] - that is massive 

Random Home Computers 

How the TI-99/4A Home Computer Worked  [YouTube] - my first computer was the TI99/A4 - it was so much fun, and weird. It also was the first assembler I learned.  

Possible Causes Of Your Problems [Comic] - you can adapt the right side to different minorities. 

Spy Novels: A Starter Pack - some more for my long reading list 

Heatwave that fuelled deadly wildfires was Spain’s ‘most intense on record’ - it didn't feel that hot here, but it was long.  

Other Links

• John Freeborn: Weekly Design Links – 8/26/25 

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.