Friday Links 25-04

Have a listen to Greg Korah-Hartman about the kernel development process. Some good and uplifting topics in urbanism this week too.

Leadership

The Product Engineer - I agree with some of it. Every engineer should be a product engineer, but I still think there is a place for product managers. 

Who gets to do strategy? - everybody. 

Ok. So, You’re Failing - how to receive performance feedback, and probably also how to give it.

Engineering

How Linux is built with Greg Kroah-Hartman [Podcast] - first thing I did after this: google Kernel Newbies. I did wrangle the email contributing system in the past.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to Architects About Microservices - mostly because nobody is talking about the same thing and how it relates to the solution. 

6502.sh - because we needed as 6502 written in busybox ash 

How Long Should Functions Be? - "How long, then? Lots of a short functions. A few long ones. The longest long one will keep getting bigger the more functions there are in the system."

Story: Hatetris - Obsession, Friendship, and World Records [Podcast] - I didn't know about Hatetris, it is super frustrating!

Urbanism 

Paris Votes to Make 500 More Streets Car-Free - nice.

How is Ljubljana connected to its nearby forest without a car?  [YouTube] - Barcelona could learn something from this, instead they made it just about illegal to ride mountain bikes in their hills. 

How is a Bike Tunnel this Freak'n Great!? [YouTube] - it is a great tunnel. Would I spend more time than I need in it? Probably not. Should we have more of these? Yes. 

Assignment: Road wars - cycling in Paris [Podcast] - interviews with locals. 

More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent them - "Officials were no longer allowed to design roads for idealised drivers who never became distracted or exceeded the speed limit"

Random Houses

1249. Koh Kitayama (architecture WORKSHOP) /// F³ House /// Yamato, Kanagawa, Japan /// 1994-95 - I love this one!

Growth [Podcast] - starts harmless with pumpkins, then ends up with growing back fingertips, and overpopulation 

Sir John Soane [Podcast] - I usually skip over very local and historical episodes, but this one is great. I have to visit the museum the next time I am in London. 

Stockpile 72 hours of supplies in case of disaster or attack, EU tells citizens - great, back to prepping, at least I am in practice from the pandemic. 

Career advice in 2025. - it is a different world. 

Salad Sandwich (Australia) on Sandwiches of History⁣ [YouTube] - great channel, but this is the first sandwich I now regularly make. 

Nick Cave, singer and writer [Podcast] - desert island discs 

S4 EP7: Sean Evans discusses his upbringing in Chicago, interview techniques, and no-go guests on ‘Hot Ones’ [Podcast] - fun interview with my favourite YouTube host. 

The Life Scientific: Bill Gates [Podcast] - is he one of the good ones now? I can't decide.

Other Links

• Tim Bray Long Links

 

 

 Current Soundtrack:  HOME@mtw#2_ben_klock_25.12.08

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 kinds 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.

Game of Toiletpaper 2025

Heute habe ich zum ersten Mal beim Game of Toiletpaper teilgenommen. Es ist ein virtueller Alleycat der von Regine während der Pandemie gestartet wurde.  Im Prinzip ist es eine Art Schnipseljagd auf dem Fahrrad, aber ohne einen bestimmten Ort gebunden zu sein. Ich konnte das also praktischerweise von mir zu Hause aus machen. 

Der Tag begann nicht wirklich einladend, mit 4C und angekündigtem Regen. Ich habe die wärmsten Stunden abgepasst und am Ende nur ein paar Tropfen abbekommen. Ich bin eine Strecke gefahren, die ich gut kenne, und habe auch darauf geachtet, dass ich nicht so lange unterwegs bin, weil die Hunde alleine zu Hause waren. 

Hier sind die Checkpoints, die ich befahren habe:

#1 Startpunkt/Frauenstraße 

Bei mir war das die Carrer Maria Aurèlia Capmany. Maria Aurèlia Capmany i Farnés (1918–1991), war eine Schriftstellerin, Feministin und Antifranquistin.

Ich hatte von ihr noch nie vorher gehört, aber das hört sich doch sympathisch an. 

Leider ist es eine sehr kurze Straße, an der sich bis jetzt nicht mal ein Gebäude befindet. Auf OpenStreetMap hatte sie nicht mal einen Namen.

#2 Schlimme Straße

Mit der Aufgabe hatte ich etwas Probleme. Mir ist allerdings aufgefallen, dass die Straße zwischen Borras und Monistrol de Montserrat teilweise nur BP-1121 heißt. 

Ich habe zumindest ein „Carretera de Borras a Monistrol“ erwartet. Da es aber eine wirklich hübsche Straße ist, vielleicht hat sie „Carrertera Vistas a Montserrat i el Llobregat“ (Straße mit Aussicht auf den Berg Montserrat und den Fluss Llobregat) verdient. 

#3 Planungssünden

Bei uns im Dorf gibt es nur eine „Radinfrastruktur“ und die ist schon in die Hose gegangen.

Es ist ein kleiner Radweg, der konstant vom Bürgersteig unterbrochen wird. Es gibt diesen auch nur in einer Richtung, und er ist auch recht schmal. 

Fairerweise muss man aber auch sagen, dass dieser wohl hauptsächlich für Schulkinder ist, welche von einem Teil des Ortes zur Schule fahren. Ich bin mir nicht sicher, was die auf ihrem Rückweg machen. 

#4 Fahrradkurier

Da musste ich passen. 

#5 Historisch/architektonisch interessanter Ort

Das war einfach, da ich das Kloster Montserrat praktisch um die Ecke habe. Es feiert dieses Jahr das 1000-jährige Bestehen. Heute mit Musik und Tänzen. Die Autos standen im Stau für den Parkplatz, aber mit dem Fahrrad kann man direkt vor die Kirche fahren.

In zwei Wochen ist dies auch die Bergankunft der vierten Etappen der Volta a Catalunya. Heute waren auch sehr viele Radler unterwegs. 

#6 Geografischer Punkt

Wo ich schon einmal da war: Montserrat ist auch der höchste Punkt in der Comarca Bages, die Region, in der ich wohne. Es ist vermutlich auch einer der höchsten Punkte in Katalonien, den man legal per Straße befahren kann, höher wird es nur in Richtung der Pyrenäen.  

#7 Fahrrad-Menschen

Da musste ich auch passen.

#8 Verkleide dich und schmücke dein Fahrrad

Nur mein Fahrrad wurde verkleidet!

#9 Freundlicher Abriss

Ich habe einen freundlichen und internationalen Emojis-Zettel in die Mitte  unseres Ortes gehängt. 

#10 Nametag 

Ein Ortsschild vom nächsten Ort am Berg hat jetzt einen Aufkleber des englischen „Bike“ Magazins im Design von den 90er mit meiner Unterschrift 😀

Bonus 

Selfie mit Brücke

Die Brücke „Pont Vell de Castellbell i el Vilar“ über den Llobregat von 1452. Heute eine Fuß- und Radbrücke. Der meiste Verkehr geht über eine modernere Brücke, welche erst letztes Jahr verbreitert wurde und einen Fußweg bekommen hat.

 

Selfie mit Tier 

Nachdem das Rudel so brav zu Hause gewartet hat, mussten sie auch auf ein Bild.  

Von links nach rechts: Hoover, Neo, Crash und Baty. 

Katzen nicht im Bild.

Verschönere einen Ort

Ich habe direkt zwei Orte verbessert! Auf OpenStreetMap war der Name der Frauenstrasse nicht eingetragen, und ich habe die Erinnerungstafel für den gefallenen Radler auch eingetragen.

Geisterräder

(Selfie fand ich damit seltsam)

 Zum nächsten Geisterrad, von dem ich wusste, wäre es mir dann doch zu weit. Ich habe stattdessen einen Abstecher zur Erinnerungstafel für Albert Balbis gemacht. Die ist mir einmal beim Vorbeiradeln aufgefallen und ich muss immer wieder dran denken. Die Erinnerungstafel besteht aus der eigentlichen Plakette, mit ein paar kleinen Fahrrädern, und einer Kassette, die auch an dem Felsen befestigt wurde.

Albert war wohl ein aktiver Radler in der lokalen Gemeinschaft, unterwegs auf der Straße und im Gelände. Er wurde Opfer eines Zusammenstoßes mit einem Motorradfahrer, welcher auf der falschen Spur war. 

In den Jahren danach waren wohl regelmäßig Gedenkausfahrten.

Fahrradmusikvideo  

Lieblingsfahrradvideos habe ich nicht, aber diese kommen schon nah dran:

Fazit

Hat Spaß gemacht. Ich hatte Glück mit dem Wetter. Würde ich nächstes Jahr auch noch mal machen, da muss ich mir dann aber wohl neue Orte suchen, um es interessant zu machen.  

Friday Links 25-03

I have been slacking recently, today you are getting a bigger dose of links. 

If you want to listen to something nice, have a look at the episode about developer productivity and about keeping our food fresh.

Leadership

Is engineering strategy useful? - there is always one, best to make it clear 

Developer productivity with Dr. Nicole Forsgren (creator of DORA, co-creator of SPACE) [Podcast] - I loved this episode. Many good bits.

Engineering

See the code that powered the Pebble smartwatches - nice … most of the code, at least.

How AI generated code compounds technical debt - next AI will help us to reduce it again? 

The evolution of Memcached [LWN] - I remember when it first showed up. It was a little bit too late for our startup.

AI Copilot Code Quality: 2025 Look Back at 12 Months of Data - this is just the summary of the document, you have to register to download the whole thing

Kent Beck Reflects on Tidy First? [Podcast] - another book for my long reading list.

ediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands - constraints are fun.

Environment 

Spain could return to the 1980s with a bottle deposit payment system - this will be interesting to see. Recycling here is really not great. 

Lab-grown meat goes on sale in UK dog food - our pets are our main meat eaters. 

Emerging evidence for the impact of Electric Vehicle sales on childhood asthma: Can ZEV mandates help? [Paper] - "States with ZEV mandates are already experiencing measurable public health benefits."

Brake pad dust can be more toxic than exhaust emissions, study says - I kind of would have expected that anyway.

Urbanism & Transport

Natural Handcrafted Artisanal ... Streets?!  [YouTube] - those are some pleasant tiles. 

People Who Cycle to Work Take Fewer Sick Days. But Why? - I am just going to pretend that it is because it makes you happy. 

Huge Tactical Urbanism Project in Kyiv - Kontraktova Square - maybe you can help? (UA subs) [YouTube] - Mikael still doing good in Ukraine. 

Vueling cancels Barcelona-Madrid route - high-speed trains work.

The big impact of workplace commuting on Irish towns and villages - suburbisation

Random Motorbikes

Just Why is the Honda Rune Such a Classic? - I would love to have one of these pointless bikes. Maybe they could make it electric?

Simple Sabotage Field Manual by United States. Office of Strategic Services - apropos nothing. 

After 44 Years, Someone Beat the Donkey Kong Kill Screen [YouTube] - I don't agree with the slo-mo playing.

WikiTok - endless Wikipedia browsing … knowledge-scrolling 

Scientists crack what they say is the perfect way to boil an egg - this seems to be too much work

What if you never come down? The 90s clubbers who wouldn’t let the night end – a picture essay - I am not in those pictures. 

Wayback Machine extension - for Firefox

blocksalat - fun in-browser modular synth 

ISBN Visualization - fun book browsing!

What happened at The Pro's Closet? [Podcast] - more insights into the bike business, it applies to other startups too

The Battle of Valmy [Podcast] - I usually skip the history episodes. This one is good. 

Forever Fresh [Podcast] - how we keep our food fresh 

S4 EP3: Jamie Oliver on public feuds, chopping his finger off on live TV, and his controversial jerk rice [Podcast] - He is a bit weird nowadays, but he did bring me back to cooking when he first showed up on telly. 

Brewing tea removes heavy metals from water, study finds - let's ignore that we are probably adding microplastics. 

The Complete Guide to Sweater Detectives - my favourite genre 

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 kinds 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 25-02

This week, I recommend the blog posts in engineering. Some nice toys to play with.

Engineering

Building Bauble - language to create shaded graphics and animations. You can modify the code in the blog post to play with it.

The Visible Zorker - looking at the inner workings of Zork. 

Building a tiny Linux from scratch - pretty cool, I haven't even built my own kernel for a long time.

Environment 

BBC Trending: Were Valencia's floods engineered weather? [Podcast] - this was a new conspiracy theory for me.

Urbanism

How can urban transport work in extreme winter conditions? [YouTube] - By prioritizing public transport, walking, and cycling. 

142. Congestion Pricing Is Finally Here [Podcast] - The War on Cars interviews people affected by the congestion charge in NYC.

Meet the brothers who built NYC’s favorite congestion pricing tracking tool - "Unsurprisingly, depending on the route and time of day, the new tolling scheme seems to be working — perhaps even better than expected."

Still on track: Barcelona’s metro celebrates its centenary [Podcast] - 100 years!

Random Coffee

From the archive: The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine? [Podcast] - I have given up for a long time. There might be some benefits that I am not getting.

How Quitting Alcohol Transformed My Cycling  [YouTube] - I mainly enjoy the relaxed weekend mornings.

Sites without sound: Oslo leads in quiet, low-emission electric construction - I noticed some electric construction vehicles when I was in Oslo.

PANTHER electric test drive on the race track - Rosenbauer - I like fire engines!

‘I like to break the rules’: Björk on comedy, darkness and the most flamboyant tour of her career - I really like when artists change over time, leaving some fans behind, even if this includes myself.

New Spanish law to "protect" cyclists proposes drivers must slow 20km/h below speed limit before overtaking bike riders - We have the nicest drivers already, let's see if this improves it even more. 

1235. Waro Kishi /// House in Shimogamo /// Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan /// 1992-94 - I have been following this blog for a while. There are many houses I don't like, but this one is nice.

Revisited: just how bad is alcohol for us? [Podcast] - still bad. 

Five years of Covid: Part one and Part two [Podcast] - a review, mostly of the science. 

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 kinds 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 25-01

Very random collection of links today. 

The podcast about how cars change us is pretty good, so is the one about how drugs can influence the brain.

Leadership

Managing Up - I agree that it is mostly about buttering up your boss, while it should be a collaboration.

Engineering

Fish 4.0: The Fish Of Theseus - I am not a fan of rewrites, but this is a good read and apparently a successful rewrite. Moving bits by bit is also a practical approach.

Urbanism

Cake by the bike lane: Cyclists bring cake, mince pies and non-alcoholic Prosecco to thank workers for building new segregated cycle lane - nice idea.

These Two Cities Used to be the Same  [YouTube] - Canadian vs Dutch city.

Das Geld hilft, Carsharing mal auszuprobieren [German] -  The city of Marburg pays people who stop using their cars. It also helps to save money for the city.

Barcelona underground reaches 100 years approaching maximum capacity - 100 years! 

Welcome to the Congestion Zone: New York Toll Program Is Set to Begin - about time. This has started now. 

How Cars Change Us with Tara Goddard [Podcast] - lots of good stuff about language, car-brain, and how your race affects living in cities.

Random Spreads

Watch Bill Nighy's epic rant about Marmite [YouTube] - I smuggle Marmite and Yorkshire Tea too! 

‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off - I think this is starting in Spain now too. I am not sure about the legality.

The Ecstasy of an Open Brain [Podcast] - Certain drugs could bring us to a childlike state and open us up to new and faster learning.

The return of OSCILLOSCOPE MUSIC with the N-Spheres EP [YouTube] - weird and beautiful.

Meet the long-haul trucker who’s clocked 600+ hours on his bike this year - that's pretty impressive

Single cigarette takes 20 minutes off life expectancy, study finds - I can't understand why people still smoke or even start smoking now.

Just Hard Work - Rands talking about RLS, which you probably should join. 

Why OBLIVION Refused to Settle For Green Screens [YouTube] - impressive, time for a rewatch.

On Asphalt We Grow - skateboarding in Ukraine 

Morse code: Ready to transmit [Podcast] - the speed of the masters is pretty remarkable.

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 kinds 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.

2024 in Books

I kept my reading in pretty light. I mostly read crime series, I am following and binged a new one.  

There were some books I have been pretty disappointed with. At least this will reduce my future reading list. 

You can also check out My Year in Books on Goodreads.

Non-fiction

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business - I was joining a company focused on Kanban, which I never used fully before. I wanted to catch up with the ideas and concepts. This is a great book for that. Overall, it turned out the company actually used a long to-do list for their planning and not the more advanced ideas.

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman - I liked his previous book: "Four Thousand Weeks", this is related and extends some concepts. It is also packaged in a nice one-chapter-a-day way.

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach - I wish the updated version would be out already, but this is pretty good. I had it on my to-do list for a while, the great podcast Book Overflow finally triggered me to read it.

My Animals, and Other Animals: A memoir of sorts by Bill Bailey - I like the author and his humour and this is a fun read. 

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness - also great. Some chapters are shared between his two books.

Fiction

Slough House Series by Mick Herron - I binged books 1-8 with some novellas between. The TV series is great, but the books are even better. It is just the right combination of humour, suspense, and action. Highly recommended. 

Levon's Scourge: A Vigilante Justice Thriller by Chuck Dixon - continuing with this series. It was OK. It feels like the series has run its course.

Charlie Cooper Thrillers Series, John Milton Series, Atticus Priest Series by Mark Dawson - I am still following all of these, and they had some new releases this year. 

There now is also an "Atticus Priest Casebook" series. I read the first one, which was pretty bad. They are novellas, and I am going to skip the follow-ups.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I read books 1-3. They are OK, are far too long, and are stretching out some concepts until you get bored with them. Some characters are also completely unbelievable. I suggest you stick to the TV series.

How It Unfolds by James S.A. Corey - this is a new universe and a pretty fun read. This book is also well contained, even though it kicks off a new series. 

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey - I think this plays in the same universe as the previous book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Livesuit by James S.A. Corey - a novella in the same universe as the previous one. Pretty good, though the ending was also predictable.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente - some good jokes in the style of Douglas Adams, but overall pretty boring. 

The Thousand Dollar Man by J.T. Brannan - OK, I guess? I am not going to continue the series. A bit too much random killing for my taste. 

The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey - from the Damascus Station Series. Not as good as the previous ones. I love the style though, a lot of it feels pretty realistic.

DCI Logan Crime Thrillers Series & Robert Hoon Thrillers Series by J.D. Kirk - a friend suggested these, and I am currently binging through all of them. They are easy and quick reads. I love the setting in Scotland and the large consumption of tea and square sausages. All the recurring characters have their background and stories, which are interwoven with the main story of each book. This would make a great TV series. 

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre - I found this through a book podcast. The beginning was pretty good. A bit like Miss Marple meets Bosch. At some point, it turns very weird, though, and not in a good way. 

The Waiting by Michael Connelly - another book in the Renée Ballard series and the Bosch universe. This was possibly the worst book I have read by the author. Too many unrelated story lines, unbelievable coincidences, and random unnecessary cameos.