Friday Links

2020 Game

I have been catching up with my podcasts. The environment section is probably here to stay. It will be one of the things of 2021 when people get bored of the virus. 

Management 

TBM 2/52: Start by Counting Things - how to start with metrics

TBM 3/52: Help Your Team Find Its Own Way - definitely worth looking into why these companies prefer six weeks. We tried it too and it wasn't a good fit at the time.

Does Pay-For-Performance Perform? - I am highly sceptical of individual bonuses and instead prefer team or department bonuses to avoid some of the gaming that is otherwise possible

The Beautiful Mess 2020 - the whole TBM collection for 2020. So many good management and product tips. 

I Was Told There Would Be Biscuits - what job training is and what it should be 

6. Innovation is managed chaos, w/Eric Schmidt of Google/Alphabet [Podcast] - Eric Schmidt about the beginning and strategies used at Google 

Improve Team Performance and Turn Around Underachieving Engineering Teams [Podcast] - quite anecdotal, but still some good points 

How Do You Accelerate Product Decision Velocity? [Podcast] - how different companies fight decision paralysis

Engineering

How Fast is Ruby 3 on Rails? - not fast at all

Git clone: a data-driven study on cloning behaviors - nice research on git cloning performance, jump to the end for tips

Food on the table while giving away code - curl creator about living from open source

Sophisticated Watering Hole Attack - the whole Project Zero research results are well scary 

TDD in a React frontend  - I am personally am looking forward to a time when React separates the view from the code and stops looking like PHP from the 90s  

I told you so, 2021 edition - JWZ is unhappy about the state of Linux screensaver security.  

Fast commits for ext4 [LWN] - I love LWN's deep dives into kernel improvements  

Red Hat / CentOS Saga continues

• Red Hat expands no-cost RHEL options
• Red Hat Announces No-Cost RHEL For Small Production Environments

Elasticsearch license change saga

• Banon: License changes to Elasticsearch and Kibana - this never ends well
  
• Elasticsearch does not belong to Elastic - some swearing
• The SSPL is Not an Open Source License - OSI is not happy either
  

Environment 

Wo die Luft in Europa am gefährlichsten ist [German] - where the air is most dirty in Europe

ISGlobal - Ranking Of Cities - ranking cities by how many deaths are caused by pollution. Barcelona makes itito the top ten.

Limiting air pollution 'could prevent 50,000 deaths in Europe' - at some point we will look at this and be utterly ashamed  

Barcelona 2020 pollution levels reach historic lows due to pandemic - back to normal again now obviously

Revival of Trans Europe Express 'key to EU's carbon neutrality' - I don't think they will be quite as chic as in the past, but I would love to take a train from Barcelona to Berlin. 

Does Africa have a voice on climate? [Podcast] - nice story about Vanessa Nakat's journey of climate activisim.

Urbanism

Speeding Toward A Car-Free, Post-Covid Future? - long read, but worth it. Looking into the history and challenges of a car free Barcelona

Ahead of Confirmation Hearing, Buttigieg Explains Transportation Goals - oh no, he is one of the electric and autonomous car guys.

In South Bend, Pete Buttigieg challenged a decades-old assumption that streets are for cars above all else - looks like it isn't just about cars for him though

I won’t make the same mistakes again: Milan mayor on his green Covid recovery plan  - looking towards a more liveable city for recovery from the crisis

Streets Ahead Meets The War on Cars [Podcast] - The US and UK urbanism podcasters meet 

Climaphobia - The B-Movie We're Forced to Watch [Podcast] - the fear of "extreme" weather

Random Games

2020 Game - 2020 was more fun than I rememberd 

2021 Social - Ron's take on the divided USA 

Post Reports: Four Hours of Insurrection [Podcasts] - on the ground reports from the Capitol mess 

Wikipedia at 20: last gasp of an internet vision, or a beacon to a better future?  - don't forget about Open Street Map! They are right not much of the fun internet is left

Goals Survey Results: What Can We Learn From 2020? - 2020 certainly has been a year to rethink your goals 

Why You Should Stop Using Facebook Messenger After Privacy Backlash - all messengers are a bit shit. I do like messenger. For people on facebook already it isn't much worse then not using it. 

Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening - cool research about the effect of opening / closing certain businesses  

Rapid Response: Ten months of pain and hope, w/restaurateur Danny Meyer [Podcast] - another interview with the NYC restauranteur. Cool to listen to the decision they are making and about the learnings

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.