Friday, April 28, 2023

Friday Links 23-14

Many open old books

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:

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, April 21, 2023

Friday Links 23-13

Croissant on paperbag wih a businesscard from La Pastisseria Barcelona
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. 

AndalucĂ­a 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, April 14, 2023

Friday Links 23-12

Random neon signs
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:

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:

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

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.