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.