Friday Links 25-01

Very random collection of links today. 

The podcast about how cars change us is pretty good, so is the one about how drugs can influence the brain.

Leadership

Managing Up - I agree that it is mostly about buttering up your boss, while it should be a collaboration.

Engineering

Fish 4.0: The Fish Of Theseus - I am not a fan of rewrites, but this is a good read and apparently a successful rewrite. Moving bits by bit is also a practical approach.

Urbanism

Cake by the bike lane: Cyclists bring cake, mince pies and non-alcoholic Prosecco to thank workers for building new segregated cycle lane - nice idea.

These Two Cities Used to be the Same  [YouTube] - Canadian vs Dutch city.

Das Geld hilft, Carsharing mal auszuprobieren [German] -  The city of Marburg pays people who stop using their cars. It also helps to save money for the city.

Barcelona underground reaches 100 years approaching maximum capacity - 100 years! 

Welcome to the Congestion Zone: New York Toll Program Is Set to Begin - about time. This has started now. 

How Cars Change Us with Tara Goddard [Podcast] - lots of good stuff about language, car-brain, and how your race affects living in cities.

Random Spreads

Watch Bill Nighy's epic rant about Marmite [YouTube] - I smuggle Marmite and Yorkshire Tea too! 

‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off - I think this is starting in Spain now too. I am not sure about the legality.

The Ecstasy of an Open Brain [Podcast] - Certain drugs could bring us to a childlike state and open us up to new and faster learning.

The return of OSCILLOSCOPE MUSIC with the N-Spheres EP [YouTube] - weird and beautiful.

Meet the long-haul trucker who’s clocked 600+ hours on his bike this year - that's pretty impressive

Single cigarette takes 20 minutes off life expectancy, study finds - I can't understand why people still smoke or even start smoking now.

Just Hard Work - Rands talking about RLS, which you probably should join. 

Why OBLIVION Refused to Settle For Green Screens [YouTube] - impressive, time for a rewatch.

On Asphalt We Grow - skateboarding in Ukraine 

Morse code: Ready to transmit [Podcast] - the speed of the masters is pretty remarkable.

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.

2024 in Books

I kept my reading in pretty light. I mostly read crime series, I am following and binged a new one.  

There were some books I have been pretty disappointed with. At least this will reduce my future reading list. 

You can also check out My Year in Books on Goodreads.

Non-fiction

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business - I was joining a company focused on Kanban, which I never used fully before. I wanted to catch up with the ideas and concepts. This is a great book for that. Overall, it turned out the company actually used a long to-do list for their planning and not the more advanced ideas.

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman - I liked his previous book: "Four Thousand Weeks", this is related and extends some concepts. It is also packaged in a nice one-chapter-a-day way.

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach - I wish the updated version would be out already, but this is pretty good. I had it on my to-do list for a while, the great podcast Book Overflow finally triggered me to read it.

My Animals, and Other Animals: A memoir of sorts by Bill Bailey - I like the author and his humour and this is a fun read. 

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness - also great. Some chapters are shared between his two books.

Fiction

Slough House Series by Mick Herron - I binged books 1-8 with some novellas between. The TV series is great, but the books are even better. It is just the right combination of humour, suspense, and action. Highly recommended. 

Levon's Scourge: A Vigilante Justice Thriller by Chuck Dixon - continuing with this series. It was OK. It feels like the series has run its course.

Charlie Cooper Thrillers Series, John Milton Series, Atticus Priest Series by Mark Dawson - I am still following all of these, and they had some new releases this year. 

There now is also an "Atticus Priest Casebook" series. I read the first one, which was pretty bad. They are novellas, and I am going to skip the follow-ups.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I read books 1-3. They are OK, are far too long, and are stretching out some concepts until you get bored with them. Some characters are also completely unbelievable. I suggest you stick to the TV series.

How It Unfolds by James S.A. Corey - this is a new universe and a pretty fun read. This book is also well contained, even though it kicks off a new series. 

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey - I think this plays in the same universe as the previous book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Livesuit by James S.A. Corey - a novella in the same universe as the previous one. Pretty good, though the ending was also predictable.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente - some good jokes in the style of Douglas Adams, but overall pretty boring. 

The Thousand Dollar Man by J.T. Brannan - OK, I guess? I am not going to continue the series. A bit too much random killing for my taste. 

The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey - from the Damascus Station Series. Not as good as the previous ones. I love the style though, a lot of it feels pretty realistic.

DCI Logan Crime Thrillers Series & Robert Hoon Thrillers Series by J.D. Kirk - a friend suggested these, and I am currently binging through all of them. They are easy and quick reads. I love the setting in Scotland and the large consumption of tea and square sausages. All the recurring characters have their background and stories, which are interwoven with the main story of each book. This would make a great TV series. 

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre - I found this through a book podcast. The beginning was pretty good. A bit like Miss Marple meets Bosch. At some point, it turns very weird, though, and not in a good way. 

The Waiting by Michael Connelly - another book in the Renée Ballard series and the Bosch universe. This was possibly the worst book I have read by the author. Too many unrelated story lines, unbelievable coincidences, and random unnecessary cameos.

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.