Friday, September 18, 2020

Friday Links

I am an Eurobox kind of guy

Strong on urbanism again this week, but also some interesting random tidbits. It looks like the remote working section will stay with us for a long time. I am so curious about seeing how it will look beginning of next year.

Technology

Rails Concerns: To Concern Or Not To Concern - the example from Basecamp and responds by DHH should really tell you everything about what to do

The Unsuspecting Beauty & Complexity of Web Forms - more than you ever wanted to know about (mostly feedback) web forms

CPC 472 - I found this through a tweet. Great wiki about the Amstrad/Schneider CPC computers from the 80s. The 472 was especially weird 
The reason Amstrad released a special version for the spanish market was a import tax on computers with 64K or less RAM. So Amstrad soldered in an extra 8KB which was not, however, usable by the machine since it was not connected to anything else.

Oh The Messes We Will Make - Kent Beck about why we make a mess when creating systems and when to clean it up

Too tidy? I don't think so. - an answer to Kent Beck

OpenPGP in Rust: the Sequoia project [LWN] - I hate rewrites, but I love Rust, tricky

Production testing with dark canaries - Linkedin testing code before people notice. 

Urbanism

Year-on-year congestion levels in London soar outside city centre as schools go back - all back to normal and even worse

15 Minute Cities! Exploring Transferability and the Life-Sized City [YouTube] - Mikael looking at the 15 Minute Cities idea and comparing it to his neighbourhood  

'We Heard Birds.' Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on How Lockdown Offered a Glimpse at a Greener City - all you need for change is a politican who dares to make decisions, somehow people first need to see change before they can accept it

Cities: where climate action can have the most impact - Google climate efforts especially for cities (more general information about this below)

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, Car Use, and Active Travel: Evidence from the People and Places Survey of Outer London Active Travel Interventions - research on how introduction of low traffic zones affects car use and active travel

Converting parking to people space on 75th helps reenergize Black-owned restaurant strip
- space for people instead of cars improves lives

Sein Traum von einer autofreien Stadt [German] - great article about the efforts to make Hannover's centre car free by 2030, with the usual response from local businesses 

Ökonomen empfehlen City-Maut für München [German] - economists recommend city toll for cars for Munich

Remote 

Lemonade from Lemons: Tiny Desk Conference - what Spotify learned from doing virtual internal conferences

Going async — a case study
- part of Xing going async and what they learned about doing it

Facebook buys an unused headquarters even as more employees work remotely - when REI sold their offices all the remote fan-boys went \o/ - then Facebook bought it and they went :-(

Remote-first at Brex
- good post about going remote-first, even includes the all hands meeting video. I personally don't believe in going all remote forever, but see the advantages of enabling remote employees and async communication 

People are using Red Dead Redemption 2 to hold conference calls - I wonder if this works with Stream on Linux 

Have we just stumbled on the biggest productivity increase of the century? - no

'My company has gone fully remote and I'm despairing': who wins in the new world of working from home? - there is a chance to make it better, but it is going to be hard  
 

Management


What if Your Company Had No Rules? [Podcast] - Netflix apparently has no rules, but they fire you for random reasons any time  
 

Random Baskets

How to choose a basket for your bike - some beautiful inspiration for this important choice 

'If it has an ingredient in the name, avoid it': Adam Liaw on the kitchen appliances you'll actually use
- I confess I have some seldom used kitchen gadgets. My rule is: the bigger they are the more often you have to use them   

Supporting a greener future in Europe - good to see Google moving on this, and even a bit faster than governments are 
 

Interactive: What COVID-19 conspiracy theories mean for vaccine delivery - very annoying the amount of resources you need to work against the anti-vaxxers and other weirdos
 
Why Goodreads is bad for books  - it really isn't
 
What No Fan Has Seen Before: Remastering Deep Space Nine to Maximum Quality  - I am pretty critical of upscaling, but this looks amazing 

Burnout - understanding the other epidemic [Podcast] - I never really tried to understand burnout. I suffererd it myself before and this podcasts brings back so many memories.

Rapid Response: Nothing matters but this. w/Eric Schmidt (frmr Google CEO) [Podcast] - I prefer the Rapid Response episodes, this one is especially good.  

#92 Lisa Feldman Barrett: Balancing the Brain Budget [Podcast] - emotions in neuroscience 

The trouble with Dutch cows [Podcast] - a couple of troubles, but also interesting how strong the government reacted to reduce the problem. I can't see this happening in many other countries

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 kind 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.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Early Friday Links

TI99/4A Home Computer
TI99/4A Home Computer


 

 

Early and short list today, as I am off tomorrow.
 
Remote working seems to become a standard section now. It is interesting how the whole world is dealing with it and everybody having strong opinions about it.
Plus the usual technology, bike lanes and random links.
 

Technology

Fun and Games with Exposure Notifications - I love this stuff. Exposure Notifications is an open protocol by Apple and Google, there are open source reference implementations, most of the code is already available on Linux and someone can be bothered to implement it himself and document it. 

Seamlessly Swapping the API backend of the Netflix Android app - lots of things that only make sense if you have a large amount of engineers twiddling their thumbs. Still interesting.

Remote Working

Remote Work Is Killing the Hidden Trillion-Dollar Office Economy - someone said that this should affect how zoning is handled. If the workers are not coming to the offices any more, then this economy has to move closer to the workers. This could lead to more mixed purpose communities, combining services, shopping and working. 

Generation Work-From-Home May Never Recover - people are different and prefer different ways of working, some don't like to be forced to work in an office and others don't like to work alone from home 

Informal Communication in an all-remote environment - GitLab's very long guide to remote informal communication, with some good ideas for other companies 
 
Buffer Podcast: Working remotely [Podcast] - two Buffer employees discussing how they are handling working in a fully remote company

The big return 3: a closer look at data -  more insights into remote working and returning to offices

Bike Lanes

Why a court says Berlin's new pop-up bike lanes must be scrapped - the far right party found a way to remove the pop up bike lanes. annoying.


Bike lanes might be more dangerous than no lanes at all
- painted lanes are no bike lanes

Random Computers

Marc Andreessen On Productivity, Scheduling, Reading Habits, Work, and More - long interview with lots of interesting stuff 

Tony-os, Pathos, Logos - I can't deal with people like Tony Robbins, but here is a slightly different perspective

Winner Of French Scrabble Title Does Not Speak French - this applies to so many things :-)

The 20 greatest home computers – ranked! - controversial! I would put the TI99/4A on the top and remove the Macintosh (too expensive) and the PC (not a home computer)

Introducing pyLegLight – A Python module for the Elgato Key Lights - I bought an Elgato Key Light to improve my home working set-up. It obviously only comes with apps for Mac, Windows and mobile. Turns out there is a python open source library so  you can remote control it with Linux too!
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 kind 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.
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Friday, September 04, 2020

Double Friday Links

Emma Everesting by CyclingTips

I was off cycling in the Pre-Pyrenees last week, so you are getting two Friday's worth of links today. I caught up a bit with my podcast backlog and some of the longer articles. Especially the Random section is a bit long this time.

 

Engineering

Anti-IF framework - if/else based on type - I do get annoyed by lots of nested if/else or case statements, this is one way to approach it. The question always is if the refactoring is easier to understand.

Three Basecamp outages. One week. What happened? - TIL: Basecamp seem to be hosting themselves 

Supporting Linux kernel development in Rust - I am really looking forward to this. I see a lot of potential in Rust and it could make some of the kernel code safer. The most interesting thing to watch will be the adoption rate and how it influences Rust.

Ruby Creator Yukihiro Matsumoto on the Challenges of Updating a Programming Language - We use Ruby On Rails at work. I am not a fan of Rails, but I do think Ruby is a nice language. Like a lot of dynamic languages it does allow to shoot yourself in the foot by making code unreadable and unmanageable over time. It also is pretty slow. Looks like some of these issues are being addressed.  

Systems Thinking Primer - Nice short introduction

How We Improved Developer Productivity for Our DevOps Teams  - spoiler alert: they automated and standardized things at Spotify 

US Postal Service Files Blockchain Voting Patent - Schneier:

As is pretty much always the case, blockchain adds nothing

Tracing at Slack: Thinking in Causal Graphs - good overview over tracing frameworks and why Slack (of course) invented their own   

Commit 1 million: The history of the Linux kernel - congratulations! I can't remember exactly when I started with Linux, sometimes in the 90s, but I never expected where it would go.

Upgrading GitHub to Ruby 2.7 - we are halfway there, good to see how others approach this. 

Management

On Making Hard Decisions  - Rands how he approached the decision to not leave his house during the recent California fires. Useful for decisions in general. 

24 Key Capabilities to Drive Improvement in Software Delivery - nice check-list, that I mostly agree with

One on One Meeting Guide: James Stanier (SVP of Engineering, Brandwatch [Podcast] - lots of insights on how to handle different 1:1 situations


Hiring Engineers: Junior or Senior? Johnny Ray Austin Shares His Take
[Podcast] - kind of what you expect, but still worthwhile for the perspective

Building a Connected Network of Brains with Jean-Michel Lemieux, CTO at Shopify [Podcast] - I liked this one, gave me some ideas about what to look for in people


GitHub's Feedback Culture: Ryan Nystrom (Director of Engineering, GitHub)
[Podcast] - I think the main problem is creating the "Culture". you can create all the review cycles and conversations, but if people don't live it it won't be valuable.

Urbanism

Road closed or open? The signs revamping low-traffic neighbourhoods - A good way of showing the positive side (streets open for people) instead of the negative (streets closed for cars - which isn't even true).

Rule compliance and desire lines in Barcelona’s cycling network - research article about how people are using the cycling network and somewhat weird junctions in Barcelona

El aire sucio de Barcelona exige un nuevo urbanismo [Spanish] -  how a new urbanism could improve air quality in Barcelona

Sieben Schritte zur autofreien Innenstadt [German] - "Seven steps to a car free city center", how do to it in slow steps, engaging the citizens and communicate well to reduce opposition

So funktioniert das neue McDrive für Fahrradfahrer  [German] - In Germany you were not allowed to use McDrive (McDonald drive in) with bicycles. There is now a solution where you can order on-line and then pick it up at special tables.

Berlin reports rise in fatalities as new bike lanes fail to keep cyclists safe - Berlin is an interesting city for cyclists. There are a lot of bike lanes, but they are pretty bad, articulated lorries are all over the city and drivers are awful. It is no wonder it is dangerous.
 

The Virus 

How the eradication of wild poliovirus from Africa can guide the COVID-19 response - once there is a COVID-19 vaccine it will be a struggle to convince people to get vaccinated, probably even harder in the US and Europe than in the rest of the world 

Google and Apple to roll out phase two of contact-tracing system - This could fix some of the issues with the current apps, mainly the lack of usage. But you will still need an app and local health system support to flag infected people. It will also feed the conspiracy theories.   
 
Early Findings from Fitbit COVID-19 Study Suggest Fitbit Devices Can Identify Signs of Disease at Its Earliest Stages  - interesting, would be even more interesting if Garmin could implement something like this. I don't expect it to be especially reliable though. 

Will a Covid-19 Vaccine Change the Future of Medical Research? [Podcast] - maybe? hopefully? probably not. 
 

Random Pointlessness

An exercise in pointlessness: Emma Pooley on her world-record Everesting - great article about the effort and allure of everesting. This at the same makes me want to do it and definitely not do it. 

From Zelda to Grand Theft Auto: 10 of the best game worlds to get lost in -  these are the type of games I like, where you can just roam and experience a different world. I don't really have enough time for this any more though. I only experienced No Man's Sky a little bit and an older version of GTA. 

Fosdem 2021 will be on-line - I certainly wouldn't have travelled to Belgium for this, maybe in 2022 again. This also makes it a lot easier to attend sessions and rooms.

Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees to Get More Work  - nice hack

The Introduction of Skateboarding to Mongu, Zambia [YouTube] - I love this kind of stories. People get so excited by skateboards. I wish I learned it when I was young, now I am only a fanboy.

Get Lost in 70 Years of Old IKEA Catalogs - I love IKEA, it suits my taste and my wallet. And I don't care that my place probably looks like a copy from someone's else place. And I love the paper or PDF catalogues. I am looking forward to them every year.

Five Essential Dub Techno Records Everyone Should Hear
- nice, dub, techno

Rave on: the rise of middle-aged clubbing culture during lockdown  - sit-down raves? during the day? count me in! 

Blanked-Out Spots On China's Maps Helped Us Uncover Xinjiang's Camps - cool research, also China: WTF

Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean  - Banksy is just amazing in so many ways. The boat already run into trouble because it was to successful picking up people.   
 
, the fact that...  - Tim Bray reviews "Ducks, Newburyport" by Lucy Ellmann. Sound intriguing, but I probably don't have the patience.

Diageo invests in German non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ - as far as I know the Wonderleaf "Gin" came out of a April Fools joke, but the response was so positive that they implemented it. I am teetotal and the moment and I can highly recommend it. There are a lot of new things happening in the non-alcoholic area at the moment. 

Episode 6: Restoring a healthy ocean in the Maldives [Podcast] - not quite the paradise any more, sounds questionable if this can still be stopped  

Other Links

Long Links by Tim Bray - another good collection. Utility Dive seems to be a good source too.

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 kind 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.
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Text-to-speech function is limited to 200 characters