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This week, I can recommend the long read about the Stream Deck, the one about books, and the discovery about a 55 year old bug in a game.
Last week, my automation for these failed, so you have to endure twice as many links today.
I also said that I wouldn't post depressing news any more. I am sorry, but the climate crisis and pollution made me do it, so it is your fault really.
Leadership
Gossip, Rumors, and Lies - About staff meetings.
3 reasons to stop hating one-on-one meetings - "After all, what’s a manager’s job? To get results and to grow people."
Developing domain expertise: get your hands dirty. - interesting approaches for different companies. Using the product, and shadowing customer support, seem to be good approaches.
No More Mandatory - "By making something mandatory, you’re taking a rip at my autonomy."
The SECRET To Improve Developer Productivity Is... Being HAPPY? [YouTube] - surprise! The mentioning of The Mythical Man-Month was unexpected. "Job satisfaction is the no.1 predictor of organizational performance"
Work
The Data Is In: Return-to-Office Mandates Aren’t Worth the Talent Risks - I see many advantages of offices, but this is the one you should care about.
Engineering
Open Source AI Is the Path Forward - is it really open source?
Switzerland now requires all government software to be open source - the real open source. "public money, public code"
How to use the new counted_by attribute in C (and Linux) - you look away for a decade and everything changes. This appears to be quite useful for safety.
How I Found A 55 Year Old Bug In The First Lunar Lander Game - nice detective work.
Environment
Urban air pollution and time losses: Evidence from cyclists in London [Paper] - increase in pollution reduces cycling speed. Or: clean cities to go (a bit) faster.
Kew Gardens prepares for climate change tree loss - this is a well-maintained park, now think about all the trees.
PFAS widely added to US pesticides despite EPA denial, study finds - thank you, America!
Sick leaves: tea growers’ climate misery leads to jump in UK prices - this should mobilise the Brits, right?
Ireland’s datacentres overtake electricity use of all urban homes combined - thank you, Ireland!
Sunday was world’s hottest ever recorded day, data suggests - some of these links could be related.
Five protesters and one police officer hurt in French reservoir demonstration - the water wars part #113.
Data centers draining resources in water-stressed communities - "Data centers are not a renewable resource."
The band that doesn't want you to drive to their concerts - artists who care about sustainability.
Microsoft and Google's electricity consumption surpasses the power usage of over 100 countries - no comment.
Urbanism
The Problem with Cities & The Urban Doom Loop Could Still Happen
"To truly recover, cities must diversify their economic base, streamline the construction and conversion of new housing and mixed-use neighborhoods, enhance public services, and double down on what makes urban life attractive in its own right — not just as an employment destination."
Putting design first: six social housing projects from around the world - annoyingly, Denmark is doing it the best again.
BikeBus Summit ‘24 - all a bit different, all good.
Cycling your commute can lower risk of death by 47%, as long as you aren't hit by a driver - roll the dice.
Stuttgart's Urban Rack Railway [YouTube] - if you like trams & co.
The qualities of a great bike city aren't what I expected [YouTube] - cities with higher density help, so do politics and vibes.
Carspiracy - You’ll Never See The World The Same Way Again [YouTube] - sadly, GCN is preaching to the choir.
Random Books
No one buys books - and most books don't earn anything.
Decoding Gen-Z slang and grammar pet peeves with linguist Anne Curzan [Podcast] - I am going to start using "a couple" as meaning "a few" again! Who is with me?
The Famous Computer Cafe 1985-07-12 Joel Berez (Infocom) and Jack Anderson (Young Astronauts) [Podcast] - a bit about Infocom.
VNC Resolver - peek into someone's VNC.
'Not harmful to health': Korea's Buldak spicy noodles return to shelves as Denmark reverses recall - Koreans are still wondering what is going on.
'Superlubricious' coating radically drops friction between metal parts - is it just me, or is everybody thinking bicycle gears?
Scared [Comic] - trust the pros.
[Essay] The Breaking of a Social Contract, or Why I am Switching to Copyleft Licensing - good thinking about the decision.
Munich, home of the Oktoberfest, to open alcohol-free beer garden - "noting that while there were patrons who could drink 10 beers in a night, few would order 10 fruit juices." someone tell them about non-alcoholic beer.
How the Stream Deck rose from the ashes of a legendary keyboard - cool story.
Hackers Steal Text and Call Records of ‘Nearly All’ AT&T Customers - snowflake leak.
