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Friday, February 24, 2023

Friday Links 23-07

Another week and too many links.

Ukraine flag on a pole in front of a light cloudy sky
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

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, February 10, 2023

Friday Links 23-06

In game screenshot from Zwift

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, February 03, 2023

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

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.