2023 in Books

My year in books (according to Goodreads). 8443 pages read in 26 books.

I mostly binged on thrillers and series I am already following. 
Just one non-fiction!

I am currently reading  / being stuck in these: 

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - this is a reread. I read it as a teenager, and I am not getting through it at the moment.
  
• Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder by Dave Barter - collection of articles. The title might be the best bit.
  
• Edges by Linda Nagata - I am not very excited.
  

Fiction

Mark Dawson

I just continue reading his multiple series. 

• Sandstorm (Charlie Cooper Thrillers #1) - a new series in the Group Fifteen universe. It is a short book and quite entertaining. 
• The Red Room (Atticus Priest #3) 
• Pistolero (Beatrix Rose #5)
• Uppercut  (John Milton #22)
• The Chameleon (Charlie Cooper Thrillers)

Viveca Stern

A new series by Viveca. I confess, I only read them because of the cosy setting in Sweden. It is more "Nordic cosy", than "Nordic noir".

• Hidden in Snow (Åremorden #1)
  
• Hidden in Shadows (Åremorden #2)

William Gibson 

I read this after watching the TV series. I tried when it first came out, but couldn't get into it. The series definitely helped, and now I love it. 

• The Peripheral (Jackpot #1)
• Agency (Jackpot #2)

Becky Chambers 

After reading Legends & Lattes last year, I was looking for more cosy books and these were recommended. It was a bit weird and deep, but nice.

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1)
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk and Robot #2)

The follow is another cosy book. This time a truck stop in space. 

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within 

 S.A. Cosby

All the Sinners Bleed - a recommendation by a book podcast. Very well written and quite gritty. The focus was very much on the racial conflicts in the US. 

Tom Clancy

• Without Remorse (Jack Ryan Universe #1)
• Patriot Games (Jack Ryan #1) 

I gave up on the second one. The heroes are just unbelievable, the universe doesn't make any sense. The gun and military worshipping is annoying. And don't get me started on the UK and the royal family in the "Patriot Games".  

My suggestion: stick to the film adaptions. (The "Without Remorse" film is pretty bad too, though).

John le Carré

His writing is great and I love the characters. I just can't get into the period it is playing it. And not a lot happens throughout most of the books, and then something happens quickly, short and mostly depressing.  I am not sure, I am going to try more from him.

• Call for the Dead (George Smiley #1)
• A Murder of Quality (George Smiley #2) - this felt a bit Agatha Christie.
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (George Smiley #3)
• The Looking Glass War  (George Smiley #4)

David McCloskey 

I really like this series. It feels very realistic and gritty. I can't wait for the next instalment. I also follow the author on Instagram, which leads to more book discoveries. 

• Damascus Station (Damascus Station #1)
• Moscow X: A Novel (Damascus Station #2)

Michael Connelly

You can't go wrong with the Bosch universe. 

Resurrection Walk (The Lincoln Lawyer #7) - so much better than the TV series. 

Travis Baldree

Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes #0) - prequel for Legends & Latte, possibly even better. More cosy reading.

I.S. Berry

The Peacock and the Sparrow: A Novel - this might have been the best book I have read this year. It is another spy thriller, that starts so slow that I nearly gave up on it. Over the book, the speed increases exponential to bring everything together into a crash landing.

Comics

Just one comic sneaked into this list. It is a bit of an on/off romance story. 

Batman/Catwoman by Tom King and others.

Non-fiction

I can't believe that I read only one non-fiction book this year.

Simplifying Coaching: How to Have More Transformational Conversations by Doing Less 

This is probably more focused on professional coaches. I still took away many useful titbits that will help me approach coaching in my job in the future. 

References

Only one, too. This is more useful for future planning. I am still waiting for the app for the book, which should make it easier to keep the checklist of climbs.

100 Greatest Cycling Climbs of Spain: A guide to the famous cycling mountains of mainland Spain plus Mallorca and the Canary Islands

Some other book lists I enjoyed

• Tim Bray: Recent Sci-Fi 
• Noahpinion: My sci-fi novel recommendations
• jwz: Recent books

2020 review

2020 was a bit unexpected to say the least. Here is a quick review from my perspective.

This is the second year we are living in the countryside and hour from Barcelona and over the year it turned out to have been a pretty good decision. 

January

Pretty uneventful. I mostly cycled indoors and met the BRCG crew once for a longer ride. A storm hit Spain and led to a bit of damage on our house. 

February

I started a project to hit every restaurant on Passeig de Sant Joan near our office. I would get too far. 

Beginning of the month I listened to an episode of the 80,000 hours podcast about the coronavirus. They are pretty reasonable people and I thought it was probably worth preparing a little bit. 

On our next shopping trip I bought a bit more pasta, canned food and hand sterilizer than usual. My girlfriend looked at me with the worry that I turned into a mad prepper.

March

Bill Bailey

3rd of March we saw Bill Bailey doing a show in Barcelona. It was brilliant. We were in a packed theatre and he was making fun about the virus. 

4th our CEO was in town for the week and I coaxed him into a deploy. 

In fact a lot of our team from the US office was in town and they planned to stay for a while. On the Friday we had a town hall meeting and I suggest we do a test run for the following week where everybody works from home. To my surprise this was accepted as a good idea. Little did we know that by that time the Americans scrambled to get back to the states as the US was closing borders for European flights. 

End of the week the supermarkets were emptied of toilet paper (surprisingly I didn't stock up on that, because we really had enough). 

We did a last trip to Barcelona to visit a Chinese supermarket and pick up stuff from the office. I haven't been in the city since then. 

This was also the day were the lock-down was really announced.

Lucas Hamilton

One highlight was a small virtual group ride with Lucas Hamilton from Mitchelton-Scott, which are my favourite team. It was pretty relaxed until everybody killed me in a sprint.  

April-June

This was a bit of a blur. 

I improved my workspace in preparation to working from home for a long time. 

The lock-down meant that I was not able to go for bike rides for a while.

We spent time on working in the garden and house. 

Enjoyed the nice weather.

Shopping habits also changed, before we went every couple of days and now we try to go maybe every three weeks.This also had the effect to go more vegetarian. You just can't keep animal meat fresh for a long time. 

July

I planned to cycle to Barcelona, but I only made it to my old village just outside for some ice-cream. 

picnic

My sister came with her daughther for a visit from Germany. For her it must have been like visiting a different planet. Germany didn't have any proper lock-down in 2020 and in Spain everybody was super careful and wearing masks.

 

We had a good time, with some road trips and picnics. All very social distanced. 

August

Devex has a company wide week off at the end of August. By some lucky chance some friends planned a cycling trip from Geneva to Nice . We would fly to Switzerland and then ride down to Nice and fly back. It would have been a brilliant trip with good friends and just cycling every days.

 

In the end I decided against it because of the virus thing. It just didn't felt safe to me personally to fly two times and then stay in a different hotel every day. The cycling itself is obviously pretty much perfect for social distancing. 

I decided something closer to home with meeting fewer people would be better. I rented a car and spent a few of days in Berga and a weekend in a fancy hotel in Peramola. I still was able to cycle every day, but met nearly nobody. People in Berga and in the Hotel were also very good at social distancing and wearing masks.

Weather was pretty good all the time. Sometimes so good that I had trouble to find enough water stops on the way. This area is just great for cycling.

September

We left the animals in the care of a friend and went on a camping trip to our favourite camping ground not far from Valencia. On the way to that one and back we stayed in some fancy hotels to get the chance to relax a bit.

The weather was "varied", but it was a a great trip. I do miss camping and holidays, but the animals do make this tricky. Our car and tent is also to small to take our dog.

October

I enjoyed the remaining long days and nice weather with some good bike rides. The lock-down limits for cycling were a bit larger at that time, which gave me the chance for some longer rides. Overall pretty uneventful though.

November

My birthday that I nearly forgot about just now. 

I finally gave up on Instagram, because it got to annoying with a new interface and non stop sponsored posts. This also meant that I don't post photos to Facebook any more, because I just used Instagram to do this. 

December

Usually we have some friends around for Christmas and New Years, but this time it was just us. We still had our traditional duck for Christmas, crispy duck for boxing day and hot pot for New Year Eve. I don't know if I ate more or less than when we have guests. Probably more.

Some Statistics

Books 

I already posted a summary of the books I read this year. I guess I expected to have more time, but I have no idea what happened to the time I saved commuting. 26 books including graphic novels is not bad though. 

Cycling

Not quite as much cycling as I wanted. Since we moved I am missing my daily all year commute. It was short, but pretty effective. And this year I didn't even have my long rides back from work that I did once or twice a week last year.

This winter I definitely increased my indoor cycling. With the current limited range I can cycle outdoors due to lock-down it isn't that bad.

I also managed quite a distance in dog walks, which is also reducing time for cycling. 

Hopefully a bit more for 2021

Blog

I did post 46 of my regular Friday Links, which is pretty good. In June I also changed the format to add a bit of a comment to each link and an image to each post, which was well received by the few people who are reading these.

My most popular posts in decreasing popularity:

• My thoughts on meetings
• My Workspace
• Letting your CEO deploy to production
• Saying goodbye to some legacy code

Overall the visits to my blog are nothing worth mentioning ... so I won't.

 

Looking forward to 2021! How bad can it possibly be? 

 

Book Review: The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project

The Phoenix Project

Someone recommended this to me and I got it for free on Kindle, so I thought I give it a go.

I kind of like the concept of a novelized version of a DevOps book.

I also liked the main characters and the general setup. It seemed a bit weird that a lot of best practices are completely unknown in the fictional company, but I guess this might also exist in the real world.

For most of the book I was question myself why I would even read it, it is close enough to what I had to deal with in some of my jobs and I don't really find my life exciting enough to be made into a book.

One of the problems I see is how rapid change is shown in the book. A very large company is turned around in less than a year and this is even managed in spite of the awful internal company politics.

The Unicorn Project

After reading The Phoenix Project I thought I give this one a try to see the other side of the fictional company. 

The Unicorn Project is the developers view of The Phoenix Project, the timelines overlap and some characters are also shared.

That being said, I found the main character of this book super annoying. Apparently she is "really, really good" and keeps repeating this a few times. There is even half a chapter, which just describes how "really, really good" she is. Getting through the book with her as the central character was painful.

As the first book, this one is also a long list of best practices put into a story. In this book it is put to the extreme though. And there is no reality where all of these could be applied in the short time-frame of the book.

If you are interested into a novelization of a developers life I would suggest to just read The Phoenix Project and skip this one.

On Goodreads

• The Phoenix Project
• The Unicorn Project

Review: The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

The Manager's Path Cover

I should start a list of books I wish I read earlier. This one would definitely be on that list. Thankfully it is fairly recent, so I don't have myself to blame.

Most people that I know in some kind of lead or management role stumbled into them. This was certainly the case for me. One day you are the lone developer in a small shop or start-up and without your fault it does start to grow. All is well until you have a handful of people in the team, suddenly there is a need for some structure and dare I say the word "management".
A lot of developers, including myself, are introverts and also prefer the technology side of a company. Taking on the role of a lead or manager will force you to talk to more people and reduces your time on the keyboard. I never wanted to manage people, but working at my start-up (guideguide, war stories another time) I realised that someone had to do it and if I cared for the company it probably had to be me.

This is where "The Manager's Path" comes in. It explains the path you might take from being a lone contributor to taking on more responsibilities like mentoring, leading on the technical side, to managing teams and finally being a CTO.
It explains every role in great details with real life examples and asks questions to assess your own situation.

Even if you are happy to just being a developer this might be helpful to understand the other side and what to expect from your lead. Maybe it also helps to decide that management is not for you yet and you want to learn more about the technology before you take the next step. Or you decide you just are happy where you are and might never go further than on the technical side.

I did see myself in a lot of the chapters and wished I had someone tell me these things 20 years ago.
Now I will keep it on hand as a reference to look up when I have to reassess roles and help others to grow.
While my title is Technical Director at the moment, in the book I am somewhere between manager of team(s) and manager of managers with a sprinkle of CTO. 

I wonder if there are similar books for other professions, reading this book might be good, but a lot of things are specific to technical careers.

A five star from me. ★★★★★


The Manager's Path on Goodreads
My random highlights

Kindle Oasis 2 (2017)

I am a relatively long user of the Kindle. I got my first Kindle Keyboard in November 2010 and had to replace it twice, once for theft and once because a broken display.

I liked it so much that I was never tempted to switch to one of the newer versions. Most of them come with better displays, back-light, are smaller and lighter, but at the same time remove one feature that I especially like: the page turning buttons.

Last year's Oasis changed that, but the weird charging case turned me off.

Kindle Oasis 2 2017

The 2017 version finally convinced me to upgrade. I like the idea of waterproofed devices, slightly larger display, good back-light and mainly page turning buttons.

I ordered it straight away and received it on the day it was released. It arrived in the usual simple packaging, half charged and nothing in the box besides a micro USB cable.

I read my first book on it already, so I can have a quick review.

So lets start with the good things:

The size is pretty much perfect, even though it has a bigger display it is much smaller and lighter than my previous very old one.

The display is brilliant, including the back-light. Even though I never complained about my old Kindle's display, the new one is obviously better and I can finally read in the dark.

I guess the waterproofing is nice, though I haven't tested it.

The software is much faster and has more features. The goodreads integration that I know from the Android Kindle App is nice. The setup was much faster and it is easy to join WiFi networks.

I have the WiFi + 3G version, which is convenient if you are traveling and want to buy a book at some location without WiFi.

Now the bad stuff:

Micro-USB? In 2017? Really? Not a big problem though, it is still probably used in 95% of the places. Just annoying to switch sides three times every time to align it correctly.

My main gripe: the ergonomics of the device. I know the flush display and metal back look nice, but it just doesn't feel nice. I blame Apple for the obsession with aluminium and glass backs. They feel cold in the hand and the corners are sharp. Compare this to the nicely rounded corners of the Kindle Keyboard, which allows for a nice grip without cutting in your hand or making them cold.

Oasis Case and Kindle Keyboard

I thought I also buy the leather case to make the whole device feel nicer, but besides being ridiculous expensive it also makes the whole thing heavier and doesn't solve the problem of the sharp corners on the front of the device.

My hope is that someone will create a nice silicone case that wraps around the corners and gives a good grip. It will probably be silly cheap too, if it isn't from Amazon.

It still feels better than a lot of books though.

The Oasis is also not cheap.


Summary

+ size & weight
+ display
+ waterproofed
+ software

- Micro-USB
- ergonomics
- case
- expensive

Gran Fondo Barcelona 2016 Review

race number

This year I took part in the second Gran Fondo Barcelona. A Gran Fondo or Sportive is basically a large group ride with a given route, which shouldn't be competitive. The advantage is that you are often travelling on closed roads and there is some support in form of food stops and mechanical support.

I already took part in the 2015 edition, so I knew a lot of the things that were expecting me.

Registration was a lot better this time. It was situated on the top of Montjuic, not far from the Olympic stadium. This time it was held outdoors in a big tent, so it would have been possible to come with your bike. The whole process took only ten minutes or so.
A minor problem was the availability of jerseys, my large version was too large and there were no more mediums available. But they are sorting this out now, so I will have my jersey to remember the ride with a good fit.
As you were required to wear the official jersey on the day I just used the too large version. I don't think requiring these is a good idea. Cyclists are picky about their equipment and I probably would have chosen something a bit warmer. It also makes it impossible to recognise any friends you are riding with. Or yourself on the photos.
Anyway - I got my race pack, which includes the jersey, arm warmers, some energy food and for some reason a pack of beef stock.

sunrise

This time I tried to prepare a bit better than the last time. On the night before I had a massive portion of spaghetti, more than I can usually fit in my belly.

start

Early rise on the day, shower a large muesli and packing energy bars and wind-stopper. It was pretty cold in the morning.

Short ride up to the starting line on Montjuic. I guess there were maybe 600 riders all together. They had the usually horrible euro-techno sound-system and for some reason cheerleaders (!)

stop

From Montjuic we went along the coast to Sitges, where the first food stop was. I skipped that one to keep going a bit faster, but after a kilometre or so we all got stopped by the lead car and basically waited until everyone caught up. This would be a theme that would continue for most of the race. And when we were not stopping the car in front would drive so slow that everyone was riding in one big peloton. This made riding some narrow roads quite tricky.

another stop

I am not a fast rider, but for 120km I was able to see the "leader" in front of me and I even arrived just ten minutes behind him at the finish line. When they said "non-competitive" they really meant it. There was a mention of a minimum speed of 24km/h, but apparently they also enforced a maximum top speed of 30km/h.
At some point we also lost the police escort for further delays.

In the end I only used one food stop to refill my water, with the energy bars I had with me it was enough.

I got away without a puncture too.

medal

But I managed to finish. The finish line is extra special with this Gran Fondo, because it is 10km away from the start, the medal and the pasta party. I heard from some people who didn't know this and so either were surprised by the additional climb or never picked up their medal.

My average over the 138km was 28.88km/h

I would really suggest to move start and finish to the same place. It doesn't have to be in the centre of Barcelona either, which probably would make it easier with space and permits.


Overall I enjoyed myself, but I am not sure I would do it again next year. Compared with Gran Fondo Mussara, which I am doing in May it is just not as well organized. And most of the roads I am riding all the time anyway. It will be more for people who come from other cities and want to also enjoy Barcelona.

In summary, the good parts:

• the route
• registration 
• food stops
• police escort (they where very nice, skilled and helpful)
• the jersey (and replacing it with the correct size)



food stops

• beef stock

the bad:

• distance between finish line and pasta party + medal
• the medal is a bit boring
• "official" and "VIP" cars, they were in the way quite a bit
• slowing down the whole ride, so that really fast riders were probably bored
• random stops

As I said: next sportive is Gran Fondo Mussara mid May near Reus, which will be much harder. Last year I gave up after 120km of 189km. This time I will be hopefully better prepared.

Bloomsky Review Update: Much better

In September I published a review of the Bloomsky Weather Station, which I summarized with "a nice toy with brilliant hardware and rubbish software.".

My main complaint was that it was impossible to share an URL of the station and to get to the data, photos and images in any way.

Today all of this has changed.

Now there is a map with all the stations, and each station has it's own URL like mine for example. It includes the current data and webcam image and last timelapse.





This will already make most people happy, but they didn't stop there. Now every user has his own private dashboard with access to previous timelapses and historical data.

historical data

The historical data gives you nice graphs for the available period and also has a table view with the detailed information.
The feedback of the graphs can be a bit slow especially if you choose a large time span, but it does look really pretty and gives you a quick overview about the weather changes in a longer time frame.

timelapses

The timelapses view is straight forward, you can see a calendar with the available timelapses and you can download the one from the selected date. No bulk download yet as far as I can see.