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.

Friday Links 24-26

If you want to go into a niche topic, watch the one about fire departments in the US, and now they affect cities.  

I also enjoyed the blog from Google about Rust adoption.

Leadership

The Founder Mode Tradeoff - "Wielding power comes at a cost. Ignoring that cost serves no one in the long run. We all love a good hero story, but it’s not the whole story."

Engineering

Radio Survivor: Podcast #342 – The Famous Computer Cafe  [Podcast] - meta episode about the radio show, with one of the creators. 

Transcribing audio with AI using Speech Note [LWN] - nifty! 

Whither the Apple AGX graphics driver? [LWN] - the problem of two programming language styles colliding. 

Deploying Rust in Existing Firmware Codebases - Googles approach of using Rust more.

Urbanism

How American Fire Departments are Getting People Killed [YouTube] - all policy decisions have side effects and are probably about money.

Tokyo Has the BEST Streets in the World [YouTube] - they seem to be designed for purpose and not exclusively for cars.

The Secret to Japan's Great Cities [YouTube] - more on this from Not Just Bikes.

Can Paths Save America's Suburbs? [YouTube] - they certainly make cul-de-sacs more useful for people walking and cycling. Suddenly, you don't just have islands.

Environment

Up in Smoke  [Podcast] - bacteria in smoke from wildfires … something to look forward to!

Meta - 2024 Sustainability Report - doing well apparently? 

When heat turns deadly - heat is more dangerous than previously thought.

Random Satellites

Your Name In Landsat - fun tool, see image above.

THE WIRE’S Bubbles: How do you help an addict? – SHRINK THE BOX [Podcast] - The Wire is still the best TV show, and Bubbles is in the top three of best characters on it.

Is my blue your blue? - I am colour-blind and get "Your boundary is at hue 182, bluer than 89% of the population. For you, turquoise is green. "

End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell - that's a shame. I am pretty sure I included quite a few of their articles in this blog.

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 24-25

The experience of the creator of "One Million Checkboxes" is a fun read. You never know what you will find in your logs. 

I also liked the interview with Michael Feathers. 

Leadership

When to write strategy, and how much? - one is probably enough, and don't start before you understand the context.

Engineering

Michael Feathers Reflects on "Working Effectively with Legacy Code"  [Podcast] - his views on TDD are interesting. 

The secret inside One Million Checkboxes - when you let the internet loose on your site.

Recommending for Long-Term Member Satisfaction at Netflix - they seem to put so much effort in, and it is still so bad for me personally. 

Less Is More: Principles for Simple Comments - I am still subscribed to this and like the little nuggets like this one.

Environment 

Gemeinde kauft Dorf zurück, das abgerissen werden sollte  [German] - municipality buys back a village that was supposed to be demolished for coal mining. Everybody living there had already been relocated to different villages. 

Can climate stripes change the way we think about air pollution? - it looks like only changes in laws can change trends. 

Australia’s ski season could melt away early as snowfall drops to nearly half the average -  "The report also showed local towns, tourism industries and ecosystems relied on the snowfields and could struggle to survive if snowfalls continued to slide away."

Urbanism

Paris Olympics: Could this be the first fully cyclable Games? [Podcast] - is Paris the city moving quickest to be cycling friendly? 

Could driverless vehicles open a door to safe, car-lite lifestyles? - maybe, many predict that the number of cars overall will increase. 

The most (and least) walkable cities in Europe, ranked - I find Barcelona quite walkable, especially compared to Madrid. Lisbon is also not that bad. 

Why is Shibuya Crossing the Busiest in the World?  [YouTube] - it's a lot of people going there because it is.

Disappearing Bicycle: Understanding the Bodily Experience of Cycling - "People do not merely observe the city as they move through it; they actively constitute the city through their mobile practices. "

Labour is right about LTNs – the Tories need to learn the same lesson - "For all the initial noise against low-traffic neighbourhoods, most people like them and they can benefit the public purse"

Random Breaking

CrashFest x The Notorious IBE 2024 [YouTube] - I am pretty sure most of this is impossible.

Take a Nostalgic Dive Through a Visual Cassette Tape Archive - tapedeck.org is a pretty wonderful resource. I think all of my tapes are already on there.

shademap.app & app.shadowmap.org - two sites to calculate the shadows at a certain location and time. I think shademap is the better one.

'When I was cycling, the world was big again': What it takes to replace a flight with a long-distance bike ride - it's about the journey, and this looks like a beautiful 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.