Friday Links 23-17

This week I enjoyed the tiny C compiler post and quite a bit of good news about the environment.

Work

Apply, Network, Repeat - "Skip the cover letter"

I Tried a Secret Google Project!  [YouTube] -  that looks like a pretty amazing and probably expensive way to do video calls. I also have no idea how this would help in group calls.

Rust-out is the workplace phenomenon making us all feel flat - just call it burn-out because that's what it is. 

How Are Leaders Experiencing Remote Work? - results from the Buffer survey

Engineering

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes - this is brilliant.

Ignoring bulk change commits with git blame - first time I heard about this, this would have been useful a few times. 

Credible Handwriting Machine - maybe this puts an end to homework!

No more ‘I took an arrow to the knee’: could AI write super-intelligent video game characters? - if you accept that current "AI"s are wonderful bullshit generators, then this is a good idea. 

Github Copilot and ChatGPT alternatives - I am trying to find something nice for Emacs.

Environment 

EU countries back ban on destruction of unsold textiles - nice

France bans short-haul flights to cut carbon emissions - I like this, especially if it leads to more trains overall. 

The nine hours in which Spain made the 100% renewable dream a reality - and this is without a lot of solar 

Road Transportation Emerges as Key Driver of Warming - surprise! 

Adverts claiming products are carbon neutral by using offsetting face UK ban - Is there something similar happening in the EU? 

Surf champ Lucy Campbell says her sport must be greener - I have to confess I never thought about this. It is also probably a tiny part of the problem.

Urbanism

Deadly Traffic in Suburbia Points to Deep-Seated Structural Problems - stroads strike again 

Can we fix the suburbs? [YouTube] - most likely not anytime soon 

Push for transit, walkable communities growing across US - "Nationwide, the number of pedestrians killed in 2022 rose 13%"

"Sex Work Bollards" is not a band name but should be.  -

Random Bicycles

Official Trailer: The Engine Inside - A Documentary About Using Bicycles To Build A Better Future [YouTube] - I am looking forward to this one, looks fun already

Simply the best: Tina Turner – a life in pictures - RIP

Hard times in the Big Easy [Podcast] - I recently watched Treme, a TV series about New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.  It's mostly about the music, but also touched the crime quite a bit.

Gamification [Podcast] - a critical view on the use of Gamification in organisations. 

Giving It All Away: My Philanthropic Plan - this is not an issue I have, but giving away a lot of money is not easy. 

Adam Savage Unboxes The Ghostbusters Ecto-1 1/6 Scale Vehicle! [YouTube] - I will put this on the list of things I want, don't need and have no space for.

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.

Friday Links 23-16

Clearly, work hasn't been on my mind this week.  The podcast about the future of work is a nice crossover between work and urbanism. 

The drought in Spain is still depressing and has been going through all the news.

Environment

Barcelona’s beaches could vanish as authorities abandon ‘enhancement’ - that would change Barcelona quite a bit.

Still dry

• Unprecedented €2.2bn drought response plan approved in Spain
• Drone footage shows Spanish reservoirs dry amid hottest April on record – video
• Drought spells 'catastrophe' for Spain's olive harvest 
• Fruit growers arrested for using illegal wells in drought-hit Spain 
• Drought prompts French ban on garden swimming pools  

Urbanism

Why are 15-minute cities so unpopular? [Podcast] - because people don't understand them and hate change.

What *is* the future of work? A discussion with Dror Poleg [Podcast] - it's really about cities. 

Arrested Mobility with Charles Brown [Podcast] - racism in policing in the US.

The Hague introduces €50 flat fee for parking to deter drivers

Random Skateboards

skateboardle - how would one even guess these?

Lazy guide to exercise [Podcast] - walking is fine, I guess. 

moderator mayhem - how good of a moderator would you be?

'You can't do that with records': Electronic cassette community reflects on boom in popularity 

Dancing to Ward Off Evil in “Kukeri” - beautiful

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.

Friday Links 23-15

The podcasts about the creator of LZ4 and the one about happiness science were interesting and entertaining.

Leadership

We Pay Out Unused Sabbaticals When Someone Leaves Buffer, Here’s Why - interesting choice.

With or without shared-component team - I don't really like specialised teams in general

Engineering 

Story: From Project Management to Data Compression Innovator [Podcast] - from the creator of LZ4 and ZStandard

Scaling up the Prime Video audio/video monitoring service and reducing costs by 90% - "The move from a distributed microservices architecture to a monolith application helped achieve higher scale, resilience, and reduce costs."

The beginning of the end of the password - Google going passkeys. See also: So long passwords, thanks for all the phish 

Sensenmann: Code Deletion at Scale  - dead code deletion.

Environment

Many Europeans want climate action – but less so if it changes their lifestyle, shows poll - surprise!

Still fine! 

• Drought in Spain: 'If water management doesn't change, the country will become a desert'
• Canal Segarra-Garrigues water canal closes irrigation only to serve 'strictly necessary' water 
• Faced with an early heat wave and a major drought, Spain questions its water management
• Weather tracker: Spain’s spring heatwave breaks April records 
  

Urbanism

Ian Lockwood: Thoughts From an Engineer [Podcast] - conversation between two urbanists

Can cities help us fight climate change? [Podcast] - yes

Using a bicycle to carry a week's worth of groceries in four different ways [Podcast] - I would prefer the baskets over the bags.

David Byrne Rode His Bicycle to the Met Gala - How is this choice "bizarre"?

Random Art

Miniature landscapes inside mint tins – in pictures  

The Man Who Invented Happiness Science: Marty Seligman [Podcast] - interesting how psychology just focused on the negative parts.

Bluesky Facts and Opinions - I'll stick with Mastodon

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.

Friday Links 23-14

I enjoyed the long read about Germany's flat-rate train tickets and the podcast about a British cult.

Leadership

TWH#56: Becoming a Startup VP Engineering - While I am looking for a position like that, it does mean something different for everybody.

How We Handle Severance In Cases Of Mutual Separation - interesting concept.

Environment

German police call for crackdown on growing climate protests - "preventive detention and longer prison terms"

This is fine:

• Spain's Barcelona faces drought 'emergency' in September
• Fish rescued from dried-out river as drought, torrid heat hit Spain  
• Spain braced for record April temperature of 39C as extreme heat causes misery 

Urbanism / Transit

Germany's Flat-Rate Train Ticket  - it happened despite the politics. 

Why Amsterdam is Building a New Red Light District  [YouTube] - are there examples where this kind of change worked?

The Next Great Cycling City [YouTube] - it looks so cold!

Random Books

A Room of One's Own [Podcast] - A perfect episode about something outside my normal interests.

A Very British Cult - Episode 1 [Podcast] - I can't wait for the next episodes. I get emails from similar sounding groups occasionally.

Using ChatGPT as a technical writing assistant - I think this also falls into the category of "stuff that nobody reads"

Mastodon Is Doomed - I disagree.

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.

Friday Links 23-13

Best croissant in Barcelona

For some fun, watch the "Best croissant in Paris" video. 

Less fun: Cory Doctorow about capitalism.

Leadership

Balancing your CEO, peers, and Engineering. - I like the supported/tolerated/resented framework. 

Before your next offsite 

Interviewing engineering executives. - "Avoiding the unicorn search"

Engineering

How We Built a Multi-Task Canonical Ranker for Recommendations at Etsy  - these are so hard to get right.

Work

Some Remote Workers Struggle With Leaving Home: Here’s How We Handle it at Buffer - not very well? 

Four-Day Workweek Update: Here’s How The Buffer Team is Feeling About It, Three Years In - "we encourage teammates to work on that fifth day if they choose to or if needed, based on their workload or the team’s needs."

Environment 

Weather tracker: heat in Spain could smash April temperature record - no rain in Spain. 

‘Frightening’: record-busting heat and drought hit Europe in 2022 - this is fine. 

Ban on disposal of bike tyres in landfill moves closer - I brought my old tyres and tubes to our recycle centre and they had no idea what to do with them. 

Andalucía accused of pandering to far right over plans for Spanish wetlands - not long until we see waterwars.

Urbanism

We Can Have It All: Shorter Commutes, Less Traffic. Why Aren’t We Doing It? - nobody likes change and everybody thinks they like their car. 

What prompted my U-turn on LTNs? I realised I was on the same side as Laurence Fox - nothing is more scary than being aligned with someone you don't liket.

Random Croissants

BEST CROISSANT IN PARIS [YouTube] - best croissant review ever!

Examining capitalism's chokepoints [Podcast] - this is overall very depressing. 

‘Such a fun way to consume music’: why sales of the ‘obsolete’ cassette are soaring - it's not just me! 

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.

Friday Links 23-12

Many videos about urbanism from the last two weeks. 

The articles from LinkedIn about measuring developer productivity and happiness and the one about slack by Marting Fowler are also great.  

This week we also have a short "Music" section. 

Leadership

thedecider.app - a simple tool to choose a decision process … mostly useful for the overview of processes.

Inside Look: Measuring Developer Productivity and Happiness at LinkedIn - both difficult to measure, this is one approach.

Slack - "Slack is the policy of deliberately leaving time that isn't allocated for stories, using that time for unplanned work. Although this seems inefficient, it usually yields a significant improvement for the productivity of a team."

Manager Impact on Report Performance 

Engineering 

Building GitHub with Ruby and Rails - if something hurts, do it more often. And Rails upgrades do hurt. 

Chasing rainbows - designing for the colour-blind.

Environment

This is fine:

• Central Catalonia water authority warns of supply cuts if no rain before May 
• Spain’s Catalonia region in worst drought in decades - BBC News [YouTube]
• 2.6 tons of fish culled in Sau reservoir to preserve water quality amid drought 
• Montserrat mountain closed during weekend due to high risk of wildfire
  

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport To Reduce Emissions With Private Jet Ban, Cancelling New Runway 

Urbanism

Vienna: Getting housing right [Podcast] - affordable housing in Vienna. It works because they are not selling, but some are not happy with this approach.

538. A Radically Simple Way to Boost a Neighborhood [Podcast] - investing not in fancy centres, but areas that need support.

An Urbanist Visits the Last City Built by the Soviet Union - Slavutych, Ukraine [YouTube] - that doesn't look too bad for a city built from scratch.

Getting bike lanes built quickly and cheaply [YouTube] - build temporary, consult, build permanent.

Mikael is doing a series about Paris:

• An Urban Designer Analyses the Crazy Bike Lanes in Paris (Antithesis 1/2) [YouTube]
• The State of Cycling in Paris - Part 1/3 (Thesis) [YouTube]
  

Bike Lanes Have A Deadly Design Flaw - Cheddar Explains  [YouTube] - they lack protection

Less Cars, More Money: My Visit to the City of the Future "In other words, the changes are so obvious, and the amount of win/win synergy so great, that every step we take towards making our cities better, and every car trip we eliminate, will absolutely explode our personal and national wealth upwards for generations to come. "

Warsaw is a Monumental City that RECLAIMED its Waterfront from Cars! [YouTube] - another nice European city 

The Catholic argument against 15-minute cities - one would hope that his is a joke ... apparently it isn't. 

Lessons from the Bike Bus Summit - considering the target group and future growth.

Music

‘We swap mystical ideas and tips on facial hair care’: the caretakers of Andrew Weatherall’s legacy - brings me back to my time in London.

You can now download 900 hours of Andrew Weatherall DJ mixes - on it!

A short film about techno for audiophiles - it is surprisingly difficult to find some of this stuff. I also ended up looking for Hi-res techno, which is even harder. 

Club culture in the 90s and 00s – in pictures 

You can keep your nostalgic club nights – in my 50s, I’ve discovered the magic of the rave 

Random Words

Do We Need a New Word for 'Happiness'? Katie Couric talks to Dr Laurie Santos [Podcast] "Laurie's asked to define happiness; outline the best steps to reach it; and give an honest appraisal of her own struggles to flourish each and every day."

This Thai cycling enthusiast owns some of the rarest bicycles in the world | Remarkable Living  [YouTube] - that is quite an amazing collection and space.

Hungarian Old Computers 

ZX Spectrum Deluxe Collectors Box Now Available For Pre-order - I wasn't a Spectrum user, but this looks pretty cool. 

Blue Lights review – don’t sleep on this fantastically tense Belfast cop show - this started slow, but I did enjoy it in the end.

Other Links

• Ben Crowder: Links #71 
  

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.

Friday Links 23-11

Some nice urbanisation going on in Barcelona. 

I also enjoyed the podcast about scams and trust.

Leadership

The MarsBased Handbook - I love this kind of open handbook. It is silly that everybody has to invent them from scratch.

Engineering

How LinkedIn automates cherry-picking commits to improve developer productivity - "While most repositories (e.g., web services) practice continuous delivery solely from trunk (or main branch), those (e.g., core libraries) that need to stabilize their release or release on a fixed schedule use release branches."

We need better support for SSH host certificates - "Github accidentally committed their SSH RSA private key to a repository" ... that happens 

Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder who predicted rise of the PC, dies at 94

Urbanism

The 15-Minute Cities Conspiracy (with Adam Something) [Podcast] - The Not Just Bikes guy has a podcast now!

Els camins escolars redueixen un 40% el nombre de vianants infants i adolescents atropellats a Barcelona [Catalan] - "School paths reduce by 40% the number of child and adolescent pedestrians hit in Barcelona"

How Paris Kicked Out the Cars - some cars 

Barcelona green space plan could improve health of 30,000, study finds - nice

Barcelona plans new green boulevard on Gran Via above Glòries tunnel - also nice

This Tiny Island has Insane Traffic  [YouTube] - an island that could be completely car free 

This Ponzi Scheme Might END Suburban Prosperity [YouTube] - I am uncertain if any of this applies to Europe

Random Blooms

A striking visualisation of #climatechange: the date of Kyoto cherry blossoms' reaching full bloom, plotted over the past 1000 years.  [Mastodon]

Sideways - Please I beg you. [Podcast] - about scams and trust. I default to trust, but not for emails. 

float.exposed - play with representations of float numbers 

Wavtool - AI-accelerated music production. - we are on the AI train

How to Decide Whether You Should Upgrade A Device — Basic Instructions [Comic] - I was about to buy a new mobile ... I wait a bit longer

Early wildfire in Spain’s Valencia region forces 1,500 villagers to evacuate - and so it begins again

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.

Friday Links 23-10

Lots of urbanism links, but apart from that, I can recommend the "The Pillars of Integrity" podcast episode and the (German) story about a dog "Bambam".

Leadership

#161 Jim Dethmer: The Pillars of Integrity [Podcast] - this was a great episode, not only about the pillars, but the rest of the chat too

Net Promoter Score – Helpful or Harmful? (part 1)  - critical view of NPS

Using cultural survey data.  - I love data from Lattice or OfficeVibe. Making it useful is a lot of work.

Work

The dawn of the four-day week [Podcast] - I wonder if this is one of the things that will go onto the back burner until the financial climate recovers

Urbanism

This Town Did The Impossible [YouTube] - as much as I hate fake old buildings, this looks quite nice

We are living in a golden age of electric cargo bikes - mostly for cities 

The risks of half-hearted bike lanes (in New York City) [YouTube] - most cities are a disconnected mess of half arsed cycle lanes 

The Return of Cargobikes to the Streets of Paris [YouTube] - nice

Design & Aesthetics in the City of Paris [YouTube] - Mikael is doing a series about Paris

These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us [YouTube] - it's not quite as bad in Europe, but it is getting worse 

Why Nancy Is Scrapping Its Magically Bonkers Monorail-Bus-Trams [YouTube] - this would be good if they would replace them with trams 

The end of daylight saving time means an uptick in vehicles crashing into deer  - don't drive if you love Bambi

Random Dogs

Bambam [German] - a story about a dog. I can relate so much to this.

535. Why Is Flying Safer Than Driving? [Podcast] - because you don't let just everybody fly? Less traffic too.

German government in crisis over EU ban on car combustion engines - I really hope that the relevant politicians will have to answer for this ... though probably not.

The era of impossible subscription cancellations is nearing an end - at least in the US

Lance Reddick, star of The Wire and John Wick, dies aged 60 - I might have had a bit of a man crush

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.

Friday Links 23-09

Short one today! 

I enjoyed the conversation about "Brains, hormones, and time" with Dunbar. 

If you haven't subscribed to "The War on Cars" yet, this 100th episode might be a good start.

Leadership

The Backbone of a Successful Team: 1:1s, Skip Levels, and the Delegation Framework (with Spencer Norman, VP of Engineering at Privy) [Podcast] - there is a lot in this. I don't agree with all of it.

Brains, hormones and time - the invisible causes of better workplace culture [Podcast] - Mr. Dunbar talking about his number in a business context. 

Being Right Doesn’t Matter - you have to bring people to your side too. 

How to start a movement / love is the message - Alex about how to maybe start a movement. 

Running your engineering onboarding program. - I agree that a good on-boarding is super important for any company.

Urbanism

15-minute cities: mundane planning concept or global conspiracy? [Podcast] - this is probably the funniest conspiracy theory lately. 

The War on Cars Turns 100 [Podcast] - most likely the most fun urbanisation podcast out there.

Opinion To revitalize downtowns, cities need to stop making this big mistake - converting offices to flats

A (very) Short History of French Politicians & Urbanism in Paris - A Coolville Experience [YouTube] - it always looks like change is very recent, but it is really along processs

Why Bad Street Design is Both Costly and Deadly [YouTube] - very US focus, but it still applies everywhere

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.

Friday Links 23-08

I enjoyed the podcast about Rawls' Theory of justice and the article about "BAU work", which is really about much more.

Leadership

Go Beyond Fixing It: How the VP of Engineering at Box Approaches High-Stake Change (with Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box) [Podcast] - different levels of leadership and focusing on goals

What it takes to scale engineering [Podcast] - interesting insights in GitHub's scaling 

How to tackle friction between product and engineering in scale-ups [Podcast] - I liked the articles, this is good too.

But what about the BAU work? - make work visible, especially hidden work, focus on values, structure teams along values 

Alignment > Autonomy - autonomy alone is not enough

Work

Fixing work's people problem(s) [Podcast]

World’s biggest four-day working week trial ends in success - BBC News  [Podcast] - I might want this more as an employee than an employer

Urbanism

Bicycles become most popular mode of transport on City of London roads - build it and they will come  

UK town “blames” rail freight for congestion - no comment

Random Wolf

Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth? - turns out, we made that up

Rawls' Theory of Justice [Podcast] - "Rawls’ radical idea was that those inequalities must be to the greatest advantage not to the richest but to the worst off."

250 km2 area off Costa Brava coast designated eligible for wind farms - I am expecting some more protests

Dumb Password Rules - good bookmark to keep for future discussions

Why We Rave - I miss raves :-( 

The Dream of the Nineties is Still Alive - "Historical Characters"

Understanding Firearm Deaths by State—and How to Reduce Them - never going to happen

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.

Friday Links 23-07

Another week and too many links.

Slava Ukraini

But more importantly, today is the anniversary of the aggression against the Ukraine people. 

It threw me off-centre quite a bit last year, more than the pandemic and more than many things I can remember living through. 

I won't forget until this is over and Ukraine free again.

Ukraine

Solidarity with Ukraine [Twitter] - Led by Donkeys still doing good work

Grief and defiance in Kyiv on first anniversary of war in Ukraine 

Mariupol The ruin of a city 

Ukraine's Zelenskiy fights back tears for dead on war anniversary 

Ukraine marks ‘hardest day of our modern history’ and vows to fight on 

Leadership

Building your executive network. - as an introvert, I am still struggling with this 

The age of Agile must end - UX people love their waterfall

The age of cargo cult Agile must end. - in-depth look into the roots of agile 

The maze is in the mouse - start-up founder complaining about big company, after selling out to big company 

My Time As An Employee Board Member (The Weirdest Skip-Level) - cool idea. See also: Being on a Board

Retrospectives Antipatterns - "skipping generating insights, getting lost in things you can't change, and being dominated by a loudmouth. "  … all quite common

Tuckman Was Wrong! - I am uncertain if I would go that far, but it is also just a model, not reality.

Engineering 

The (extremely) loud minority - SPA and big frameworks are not as widely used as their proponents make out to be 

The 25 Percent Rule for Tackling Technical Debt - set a budget and stick to it 

Tim Bray diving into Monospace fonts: Modern Mono & More Monos! - I use Inconsolata most of the time.

sadservers.com - test your server fixing skills

Code with swearing is better code. - because we care

Environment 

Revealed: scale of ‘forever chemical’ pollution across UK and Europe - this isn't great and products with these chemicals are still sold widely

“You Should Feel Guilty for Nothing” says Judge, as he finds Seven Guilty and Aquits Two, for Disrupting Esso Terminal in Birmingham - I hope we will look back at these people as heroes.

Science Museum sponsorship deal with oil firm included gag clause - surprise! 

Greta Thunberg: Saving the Climate Means Changing How We Live - and that is why we will fail 

Ultra low emissions zone expansion cut London pollutants by up to 26% – study - turns out cars do pollute

Urbanism / Transportation

How children lost the right to roam in four generations - I don't like to link to this site, but I wasn't able to find the original paper.

Berlin's Transport is INSANELY Good (Even After Being Split In HALF!) [YouTube] - I remember Berlin's cycling infrastructure as much worse 

Why Nobody Lives in Venice [YouTube] - this is the fate of most old towns unless there are policies against this 

Tracking stolen bikes in Amsterdam [Paper] - many interesting insights. "For the context of Amsterdam, this research shows that stolen bikes remain close to the city"

All major road building projects in Wales are scrapped - one country doing the right thing

Report: Cyclists love trains – An analysis of the bicycle friendliness of European railway operators - while local trains in Spain are relative good, the fast ones don't allow bikes 

TfL Press Release - New data shows significant improvements in road safety in London since introduction of 20mph speed limits - the surprises keep on coming 

Frankfurt schafft Parkplätze in der Innenstadt ab [German] - Frankfurt removes parking in the city centre  

The most densely populated square km in the United States - unsurprisingly in New York

Why did my city remove a protected bike lane just five months after it was installed?  [YouTube] - because people hate change and love parking 

One man’s case reveals cars slam into storefronts like 7-Eleven with alarming frequency - 1.14 per day !!!

Conspiracy Theorists Think Walkable Cities Are Really Open-Air Prison Dystopias Now - strong overlap between NIMBYs and conspiracy theorists 

Zombie Miles And Napa Weekends: How A Week With Chauffeurs Showed The Major Flaw In Our Self-Driving Car Future - autonomous cars won't save cities, people nearly doubled their cat milage

Police urge against scrapping low traffic neighbourhood, saying it reduces crime - cars are antisocial 

Berlin’s plan for a car-free city prompts bitter war of words - Germany still digging themselves out of the 90s

Are Parking Lots Ruining Your City? [YouTube] - yes

Random

Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors Because of a Repair Ban  [YouTube] - everybody tries to lock you in

Second illegal rave in one weekend starts packing up - I haven't been invited ... again! 

A fresh, non-commercial approach to social media? What I think about Mastodon as an artist - the non-nerds are arriving too. I really like her paintings. 

Portugal ends Golden Visas, curtails Airbnb rentals to address housing crisis - good on them !

Spain passes law allowing anyone over 16 to change registered gender - Spain is quite progressive in some areas 

Build your own 489MP camera for $150 - a camera from scanner parts

Other Links

• Ben Crowder: Links #66
• Bruce Lawson: Reading List 301  
  

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.

Friday Links 23-06

I highly recommend the article about the man following the UK coastline. 

I enjoyed the interview with Jason Warner too.

Leadership

#158 Aaron Dignan: Change The Way You Work [Podcast]

Better to micromanage than be disengaged. - or maybe neither? 

Voices, Votes, and Vetos: Who Is Making the 100 Million Dollar Decisions? (with Jason Warner, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) [Podcast] - I like his pragmatic approach over processes.

Engineering

The Market for Lemons - critique about the state of front-end development … might apply to all development,

Urbanism / Transportation 

Sharp rise in cyclist deaths on country roads in France blamed on “increasingly aggressive” drivers - I always found cycling in France pretty scary compared to Spain.

Over 220,000 daily bicycle trips in Barcelona - it's not enough. 

Are E-Bikes Worth It? (For Young Families) [YouTube] - yes. 

Amsterdam Just Got Awesomer [YouTube] - it's really better than Copenhagen is most aspects. 

The Battle Over Bike Lanes Needs a Mindset Shift - "If data won’t change minds, customers might."

Is cycling safe? - "The solution to these problems is protected bike lanes"

Environment

EPISODE 321: Sustainability in action: Vaude CEO Antje von Dewitz [Podcast] - now I want to buy only Vaude products. 

‘They get the big picture’: the Swedish tech startup helping cities go green - that looks like a useful visualisation for cities.

Random Games

GTA 5 Player Completes Pacifist Run After More Than 3 Years - I just finished the story mode of GTA 5 ... it was not peaceful.

Life on the edge: meet the man who walked around the UK - amazing story, though I would not finish the whole trail. It seems like he arrived already.

Ukraine: The Handoff [Podcast] - second part of this remarkable story about brining abortion pills to Ukraine

White Collar Crime Risk Zones - that's quite funny

3/11 — The Tsunami: The First 3 Days [YouTube] - this video contains disturbing images.

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.

Friday Links 23-05

The black-tailed prairie dog

This week I recommend the reviews of NoSQL and "Spotify Model". It is good to look back at these hypes after a bit of time and learn from the good and the bad bits.

Leadership

Becoming a Genius Maker: Liz Wiseman's Approach to Multiplying Your Team's Potential (with Liz Wiseman, Author and CEO of The Wiseman Group) [Podcast] - many good ideas about enabling your team to do their best work … instead of you doing it.

How to Prevent Quiet Quitting - Setting Healthy Boundaries at Work [Podcast] - I think the quiet quitting thing is mostly a US concept. 

Culture is A Competitive Advantage: How to Approach The Changing Psychology of the Workforce (with Steve Cadigan, Author and Talent Strategist) [Podcast] - In my opinion we should still aim for keeping people longer in companies. It just means that investments in onboarding and learning can be taken advantage off. 

My critique of “the Spotify Model”: Part 1 - another one of these, but I really like this one.

Setting engineering org values. - So far I haven't come across a good use of values. Occasionally, they sound good and then are not used to make decisions.

Engineering

Git archive generation meets Hyrum's law [LWN] - when people use undocumented interfaces.

NoSQL: The Baby and the Bathwater - "its clear that the movement identified some very real issues, and then overreacted to them"

Environment 

Wind and solar were EU’s top electricity source in 2022 for first time ever - nice. Looking at those graphs, it appears that the trend is not going to stop anytime soon.

Urbanism & Transportation

How good are London's cycling superhighways?  [YouTube] - I am still annoyed that all of this happened after I left.

Fall asleep in Amsterdam, wake up in Barcelona! The NL is getting a new night train in 2023 - can't wait!

Random Ground hogs

I watched Groundhog Day every day for a year. Here’s what I learned - that is pretty remarkable. I watch it at least once a year, which is enough. I do discover something new every time.

Pro Cycling Chef Hannah Grant: ‘I had no idea what I was getting into!’ [Podcast] - I love her books and the TV series. It is definitely worth a look.

How's Life? [Comic] - I can relate.

Backblaze Drive Stats for 2022 - I don't even know why I still read these.

The miracle of the commons - long read criticism of "The Tragedy of the Commons"

‘I use it because it’s better’: why chefs are embracing the electric stove - our house has an old induction stove. I did miss gas in the beginning. Now I would never go back.

Other Links

• Ben Crowder: Links #62
• Weekly Design Links – 01/31/23 
  

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.

Friday Links 23-04

Two podcast suggestions for you today. Exposing rainforest carbon credits: why offsetting isn’t working, which is worrying but expected and Ukraine: Under the Counter, about people coming together to do help.

Leadership

30-60 days in a new leadership role: run experiments for change - that seems early to me

Internal comms for executives. - "Good communication is a series of habits"

Five Ways Toward a Fairer, More Transparent Hiring Process - transparency and good communication is the key here. 

Full Responsibility [Comic] - that's hopefully not future-me.

Engineering

Circle - The C++ Automation Language

Engineering Effectiveness Handbook - one view of engineering effectiveness in a nice format

Work

Stop Looking for the Perfect Job - a "Good Enough Job" is Just Fine [Podcast] - most jobs won't give your life meaning, and that is perfectly fine.

Overcoming burnout: a psychologist’s guide [Podcast] - view from an expert. 

Urbanism

Pepper spray for the school run? The weaponised SUV set to terrify America’s streets - someone is taking the War On Cars too serious.

Environment 

Exposing rainforest carbon credits: why offsetting isn’t working [Podcast] - carbon offsetting always seems too good to be true … turns out it is.

UK climate minister received donations from fuel and aviation companies - I am completely surprised. 

The eviction of Lützerath: the village being destroyed for a coalmine – a photo essay - nice to see international coverage. And this is not about this village, it was always a lost cause.

Random Books

Reading is precious – which is why I’ve been giving away my books - I like the idea of a library in my house, but in reality it would just be catching dust. I love reading on the Kindle.

Ukraine: Under the Counter [Podcast] - a group of people smuggling abortion pills into Ukraine. I can't wait for the second part. Not all heroes wear capes.

The dark side of fine dining [Podcast] - suddenly I don't feel so bad about never eating at Noma.

Quintessence - "Quintessence shows you the top links that the people that you follow on Mastodon tooted or boosted in the last 24 hours."

‘Tragedy upon tragedy’: why 39 US mass shootings already this year is just the start - same, same

mozilla.org's 25th anniversary - good old days!

Other Links

• Weekly Design Links – 01/24/23
  

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.

Friday Links 23-03

I enjoyed the podcast about the seven habits book (which I haven't finished so far) and the post about meetings for engineering organisations.

A lot of good content in the urbanism section this week. The videos about cycling made me miss snow a bit.

Leadership

Starting the year with 7 Habits [Podcast] - since I haven't made it through the book, this was a nice summary

TWH#42: Public Speaking In a Nutshell - I am at the "just do it scared" stage 

Meetings for an effective eng organization. - some of these wouldn't have been my choice, or I would merge them. I never needed to have spec or incident reviews every week.

1:1 question generator - if you really have nothing on your list 

Software and its Discontents, January 2023, Part 1 - interesting perspective from Kellan. I am excited for part 2!

Engineering

The Lisa: Apple's Most Influential Failure - source code is now available

Jira is a Sewer - you might be holding it wrong. 

Ruby 3.2’s YJIT is Production-Ready - that doesn't seem a lot of a speed-up, considering how slow Ruby is.

Urbanism & Transport

The High Cost of Free Parking with Donald Shoup [Podcast] - it took me a while until I understood how broken our parking in cities is

Catalan connections – high-speed rail guide, night train rumors, cross-border links [Podcast] - Spanish high-speed rail is pretty impressive … if you find a route that works for you, and you don't need to take a bicycle with you.

LTNs appear not to push traffic on to boundary roads, London study finds - like predicted 

Tempolimit würde Klima deutlich stärker schützen als bisher angenommen [German] - a speed limit on German Autobahns could save 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 each year. 

Winter urban cycling showdown compares cities in Canada and Finland. Who will win Plus 1 Minus 2? [YouTube] - both look relatively pleasant  

The Cult of Bike Helmets - "When it comes to the dangers threatening cyclists, wearing a helmet is like bringing a knife to a gunfight."

"Cities should not just build green transport but actively dismantle car infrastructure"  - "A strategic reduction in road space means completely reframing the narrative around congestion."

Are Cities Too Reliant on Twitter? - yes! One thing I am missing from Mastodon are all the official local, Barcelona and Catalonia accounts.

Germany's Hidden Amsterdam [YouTube] - "Amsterdam" is a bit exaggerated, still a nice city for cyclists

Random Houses

1018. Léon Krier /// Krier House /// Santa Rosa Beach, Seaside, Florida, USA /// 1985-87 - this just seems wrong

Citizen Kane [Podcast] - I am not a fan of the film. It might be time to review it. 

End of the road for Milltag as cycling clothing brand enters voluntary liquidation - some of my first jerseys were from Milltag :-( 

Balearic Islands seek to ban non-residents from buying property - Barcelona next?

Other Links

• Weekly Design Links – 01/17/23
• Ben Crowder: Links #60 
  

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.

Friday Links 23-02

I have nearly caught up with my podcast backlog! 

This week's post is short nonetheless. 

I enjoyed the podcast about daily scrum meetings and if you can read German, I also recommend the article about digital nomads.  

Leadership

Ep - 20 - What’s wrong with the software engineering industry? feat. Nick Rogers (VP of Engineering at Wagestream) [Podcast] - interesting chat

How to Run Successful Daily Scrum Meetings [Podcast] - many things I agree with, especially: doing daily meetings in Slack is not worth it 

Feature Factories vs. Value Generators - we all (hopefully) want to create value. It's not easy. 

Getting a job as an engineering executive. - I am not even sure I would like to be an executive, but still good insights 

Make an effective executive LinkedIn profile. - Since I will be looking for a new job soon…

Your Best Work - about focus … and maybe mindfulness

Urbanism

Does Your City Have Enough Parks? [YouTube] - Barcelona is about 20%. I wonder how that is counted.

Are cycle tracks in your city built like urban freeways (but without the racism)?  [YouTube] - very true. Even bidirectional or centred bike lanes separate the cyclists too much from the life in the street. 

‘Entrenched car culture’ leaves millions of Britons in transport poverty - "Study finds drivers spending up to a fifth of pre-tax income on running a car as lack of infrastructure deters people from cycling"

Would You Fall for It? [ST08] [YouTube] - a big part of Europe certainly fell for it

Road to nowhere: why the suburban cul-de-sac is an urban planning dead end - I think they can be OK, if they allow through traffic for pedestrians and cyclists. This is not the case here, though. 

‘A very street library thing’: in praise of sharing books with strangers - I love these. I am not sure if they exist in Spain. In the past, I did BookCrossing, which seems more or less dead.

Random OS

Haiku beta 4: BeOS rebuild / almost ready for release / A thing of beauty - I have a soft spot for BeOS, while never have used it myself. Maybe it is time to start up a VM with this.

Strava Raises Prices But Can’t Tell You How Much It Costs Anymore - that is a pretty astonishing mess 

The Nibelungenlied [Podcast] - one of these things that you hear about a lot, but never go very deep. 

The complicated legacy of Spain's super-rich 'indianos' – BBC REEL [YouTube] - I have seen their buildings around Spain. This is a good summary about the history. 

Neoliberale Hippies [German] - critique of "digital nomads", and it doesn't even mention the environmental impact of this parasitic lifestyle 

squadrats - fun Strava tool to make you explore new areas. A bit like the max square in Veloviewer. 

TikTok car-fishing craze leads to closure of ancient Rufford ford - this was fun while it lasted

I Can't Taste Anything, Will I Like The Foods I Hate? | No Taste TASTE TEST [YouTube] - this must be the worst for a YouTube foodie. I hope it doesn't last.

Other Links 

• Ben Crowder: Links #59
  

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.

Friday Links 23-01

Happy new year!  New year, new links!

I am not going to take a break just because I am on funemployment at the moment. 

This week I loved the article about measuring engineering organisations and the podcast about Bauhaus.

Leadership

Measuring an engineering organization. - everything you need to start thinking about your metrics as engineering leader

Hypergrowth in Engineering Organizations: How to Hire, Grow and Support the Atomic Unit of a Team (with Lena Reinhard, Leadership Coach & Consultant) [Podcast] - interesting perspectives and tactics regarding fast growth 

Understanding your environment [Podcast] - your environment shapes you, so be mindful in choosing it 

How to capitalize engineering costs.  - when you have to deal with the finance department 

This Company Is Canceling All Meetings With More Than Two Employees To Free Up Workers’ Time - this will end in tears 

Becoming a Manager of Managers - I think the different scale of problems is the one that can be easily missed.

Engineering

You Want Modules, Not Microservices - or a bit of both

Mistakes You Apparently Just Have to Make Yourself - I might have made some of them myself. 

The Pedestrian Programmer - I now live with just a basic Emacs config

Urbanism 

How London is finally (slowly) turning into a bike city [YouTube] - compared to other cities: yes

Using architectural decision records to streamline technical decision-making for a software development project - AWS on ADRs 

New law in California means drivers must change lanes when overtaking cyclists - this should be the law everywhere 

UK study adds to evidence of air pollution link to long-term illness - surprise!

Random Bauhaus

Bauhaus [Podcast] - history of the Bauhaus movement. I always related it to architecture, but that is only a tiny part of the history.

Six-day illegal rave sees 5,000 people descend on Spanish village - nobody invited me! The village seemed pretty chilled about it.

Danish bank workers celebrate first full year without robberies - Germany, please take note 

Tobacco companies to be billed for cleaning up cigarette butts in Spain - this will be passed to consumers, which is a good thing. 

Alcohol (it must be January):

• So you decided to stop drinking? I did - and these are my year’s lessons
• ‘A trend is starting’: France leading way in alcohol-free drinks boom 
• 12 Months Alcohol Free. What did I learn? What next? [YouTube]
  

Other Links

• Ben Crowder: Links #58
  

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.