Friday Links 25-09

First post curated via Readwise Reader. I am creating some scripts to help replicate what I did with Pocket. 

I enjoyed the Komoot goodbye video this week. It is lovely and a bit sad.  

Leadership

Stuff I learned at Carta. - lots of good stuff, maybe not applicable in all organisations. 

Early Days of Agile Development & Is Design Dead? • Martin Fowler & James Lewis • GOTO 2024  [YouTube] - nice chat.

The secrets of a great apology [Podcast] - An important step is to accept that you were in the wrong.

Urbanism

Transport Fever 3 - Cinematic Announcement Trailer [YouTube] - I see trains, trams, bus lanes, but no bike lanes, and also highways going through the city. 

They Tore Down a Highway and Made it a River (and traffic got better) [YouTube] - I have seen pictures before. This goes into quite a bit of detail. 

Another way electric cars clean the air: study says brake dust reduced by 83% - and they are often not much heavier than legacy cars. 

Los Angeles - The Life-Sized City - S04E01 - Full Episode [YouTube] - lots of stuff happening, but an uphill battle.

Random Raves

Be transported to an illegal Acid House rave by the Barbican's new immersive experience - not quite the same, innit?

Digg co-founder offers to save Pocket as Mozilla winds it down - I mostly learned that Digg is still around or coming back. 

Little Lamb Chilling With Cat [YouTube] - emergency-cute. 

I just started using n8n to automate my workflow, and I wish I had sooner - next project?

The Workload Fairy Tale - "the idea that their current commitments and obligations represent the exact amount of work they need to be doing to succeed in their position."

Unreleased Amiga Hardware Plays MP3s - I always assumed the Amiga could play these without help.

Windows Was The Problem All Along  [YouTube] - I am delighted with my SteamDeck. 

A new start after 60: I became a dog-walker – and I’ve never been happier - this is my plan. 

Cory Doctorow on how we lost the internet [LWN] - we are well buggered. 

Komoot Team Says Goodbye - great video. Imagine you have a team like this and fire all of them.

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 25-08

Amiga 1000 by Blake Patterson

Pocket is a big part of how I collect the links for the Friday Links. Sadly, Mozilla has decided to shut Pocket down. My plan is to migrate to Readwise Reader, which seems to be a reasonable replacement. I am now migrating some of my helper scripts to make the change easier. You will see next week if I will be successful. :-) 

Engineering

As US vuln-tracking falters, EU enters with its own security bug database - nice. 

Principal Engineer at John Deere on how extreme programming saved his startup [Podcast] - Quite a bit of XP in there, pretty interesting.

Environment

Climeworks’ capture fails to cover its own emissions - This is never going to be useful. 

Top winemaker ‘may have to leave its Spanish vineyards due to climate crisis’ - "acquiring plots in Benabarre, in the Aragonese Pyrenees, at 1,100 metres, where it is still too cold to grow vines. "

Low emission zones are successful in cutting air pollution, study finds - surprising no one.

Urbanism

More Motornormativity with Marco te Brömmelstroet, aka "The Fietsprofessor" [Podcast] - reviwing the study from a Dutch perspective.

Apple's new $5 billion campus has more space for parking than offices - So much future.

Spain Responds To Exploding Tourist Demand With A Groundbreaking Approach, Prioritizing Regional Growth And Strategic Visitor Management 

Thinking of a trip to Barcelona this summer? Beware – here’s what you’ll find - I don't like opinion pieces. This one mentions many things I recognise about Barcelona, and tourism in general.

How a Highway Became San Francisco’s Newest Park - people will be looking back and wonder why you would have a highway on the seafront. 

Paris races to top of European rankings of cycling-friendly cities for children - beating Amsterdam and Copenhagen. 

Londoners are swapping cars for bicycles at a rapid pace, data shows - This is mostly about the city.

Random Amiga

Brand New ReAmiga 3000 - At some point I have to check if my ancient computers still work.

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen... - Mozilla is shutting down Pocket. I blame AI. 

Sean Penn on dining with Jack Nicholson and Putin, run-ins with the paparazzi, and his relationship with Zelenskyy [Podcast] - He seems nice, maybe a bit too much smoking?  

In the Studio: Esben Holmboe Bang [Podcast] - cooking as art. 

Trailblazer Alfonsina Strada: One Woman’s Battle at the Giro d'Italia | The Power of Sport [YouTube] - If you don't have women's races, perhaps open the men's races up to everybody? 

‘People were buying crossbows faster than I’d like’ – how prepping went mainstream in Britain - "I’m not one to body shame anybody, but if you’re preparing for an apocalypse, you have to be able to kneel." 

The Story Behind That Photo Of The Pinto In Front Of The Mt. St. Helens Eruption - run!

How Sierra Was Captured, Then Killed, by a Massive Accounting Fraud - long read.

Old Tosh - Toshiba's personal stereo radio cassette combo [YouTube] - I want this, ideally in working condition. 

'It's about the music' - DJ duo Slam celebrate 35 years - I have been listening to them for many years. They have a great podcast too.

1264. Akiko Takahashi & Hiroshi Takahashi (Workstation) /// SUM HOUSE 1996 /// Matsushige, Itano District, Tokushima, Japan /// 1995-96 - I like this boxy industrial style.

A kernel developer plays with Home Assistant: general impressions - I am playing with HA again too. I finally have some use cases.

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 25-07

A very random collection this week, with some prepping research. 

The Life-Sized City report from Berlin is pretty cool, so is the one about building a simple game in different engines, I also liked the post about microservices.

Engineering

Microservices Are a Tax Your Startup Probably Can’t Afford - very long read about the pitfalls and some advantages of microservices.

Formally verified cloud-scale authorization [Paper] - fascinating. Maybe only do that if you have a billion calls a second.

I Made the Same Game in 8 Engines [YouTube] - I always wanted to give this a go. There seem to be some easy options.

Environment

Farmers are making bank harvesting a new crop: Solar energy  - "On average, that energy savings and revenue added up to $124,000 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) each year, 25 times the value of using the land to grow crops. "

Urbanism & Transport

The Absolute Best Transportation for Cities [YouTube] - it's true. 

How Can Cities Fix Big Box Stores? [YouTube] - this is mostly a US problem. We are seeing this in Europe on a much smaller scale. 

The Life-Sized City - S04E02 - Berlin - Full Episode [YouTube] - Some new places to check out when I am in Berlin the next time. This is from 2022. 

lars' transport maps- sadly not for Spain. 

This company built its own rail terminal in New York City to avoid relying on trucks

What Should New York City Do About Tourist Helicopters? - ban them, and the ones used as fancy taxis too.

Random Blackouts

The recent Spanish and Portuguese blackout was an interesting day and refreshed my interest in light prepping. Obviously, this only happens after emergencies.  

• Download or order the brochure In case of crisis or war - from Sweden, this is very reasonable. 
• Emergency kit retailers experience surge in sales after Spain and Portugal power outage  
•  Ratgeber für Notfallvorsorge und richtiges Handeln in Notsituationen [German] - German booklet and checklist. 
• Spain-Portugal blackouts: what actually happened, and what can Iberia and Europe learn from it? - nobody knows yet.
  

Smoking: How large of a global problem is it? And how can we make progress against it? - lots of data and graphs on this.

Salt Lake City and Boise adopt official pride flags to skirt Republican bans

Minimum Viable Curiousity - Rands musing about our AI future.

Quite a Ride - Official Reveal Trailer [YouTube] - nice, a horror cycling game.

Desire: The Carl Craig Story - Official Trailer (2025) [YouTube] - I wonder if I will be able to see this. 

the six seconds that changed music forever [YouTube] - the Amen break. 

The TECHNICS Tape Deck (RS-671) [YouTube] - I am even more scared of opening my decks now. 

I Randomly Decided To Pay Off A School’s Lunch Debt. Then Something Incredible Happened. - I don't even understand the concept of lunch dept, but this is an uplifting story in a way. 

Are alcohol-free drinks worth the price in 2025? - it's silly that they tend to be pricier. 

Update: Diese Alpenpässe sind 2025 autofrei [German] - list of passes in the Alps that are for cyclists only on certain days.

Other Links

Tim Bray - Long Links - some good stuff, I learned about the AWS research and the Dafny language.

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 25-06

A few uplifting stories about urbanism and science this week. 

I also really liked the video about the empty virtual world and browsing through Moby's gratis track collection.

Leadership

The best culture book of 2025: The Power of Mattering [Podcast] - I am not 100% convinced, but it is on my to-read stack now. 

TBM 351: The 4 Prioritization Jobs (And Why It Matters) - I would say they are very much related.

Engineering

How should Stripe deprecate APIs? (~2016) - most importantly, they don't use versioning, like many organisations.

Why is there a "small house" in IBM's Code page 437? - spoiler: we don't really know.

Urbanism

Putting the Trans in Transit with Katelyn Burns [Podcast] - transport infrastructure protects everybody.

When Darkness Fell: How Spain’s Blackout Revealed Architectural Truth - interesting idea, sadly without any photos from the blackout. 

UK Ikea boss backs calls to pedestrianise Oxford Street as flagship store opens - "In the past two years, the number of vacancies and candy shops have dropped" 

Cycling in City of London rises by more than 50% - in two years!

How to make cars disappear without banning them - about LTNs being quite successful.

Paris Proves the Power of Pedals: How Cycling Helped Cut Pollution in Half - infrastructure is making a difference again.

Random Science

The Age of Aquaticus [Podcast] - one example of fundamental science unexpectedly leading to big industries. 

Unstoppable: Tu Youyou [Podcast] - the one example of traditional Chinese medicine being useful? With the help of a lot of science, obviously. 

Signal Hill: Caterpillar Roadshow [Podcast] - lovely story about a wonderful Japanese kid doing science. 

The fly-tipped sofa: how an abandoned couch changed a small village – in pictures - I love this. I guess the story would have been different with a fly tipped washing machine. 

mobygratis - 500 free tracks from Moby! Free as in beer, and mostly as in freedom. 

I Spent 30 Days in a Dead Game [YouTube] - there must be many of these around, unless they just shut down. Lovely video anyway. 

demanda.ree.es - nice site to track the Spanish energy mix in real time. You can also browse back to the blackout. 

How Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ altered the course of electronic music - I think this was the first electronic record I heard, my father used to play this. The influence on techno music was pretty big.

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.