2024 ·

January 1 Link to heading

Tracksmith: The Year of the Amatuer | YouTube Link to heading

I admire most of the films from Tracksmith on their YouTube channel. And this one goes right up there.

Because the act of devotion reveals a path to fulfillment we can’t find anywhere else.

What a beautiful way to express the potential running holds for some of us.

In running, we are all amatuers.

January 14 Link to heading

Chris Coyier - Exposed RSS Link to heading

I have always admired the RSS discovery feature from NetNewsWire.

Every time a website asks their viewers to Sign Up for newsletter, I just wish they chose to provide their RSS feed as an alternate.

The technology choices for a software project should be influenced by it’s expected velocity. For projects that require hibernation and convenience of long-term reliability, the author proposes to use boring technology. I tend to agree with the idea. Moreover, it’s helpful to use this criteria as a dimension when approaching new project ideas.

I also enjoyed Jim Nielson’s take on this topic.

January 25 Link to heading

Redowan Delowar - Omitting dev dependencies in Go binaries Link to heading

Today I got a chance to finish my 2nd-pass over this article.

Problem: Updating dependencies (Go version -> golangci-lint etc) with least effort.

Essentially, the idea is to add any tooling (such as linters) to the list of dev dependencies in the project. It allows for easier, proactive, frequent updates to the project with dependabot integration. This is not a new idea - other language ecosystems well support it. The issue is primarily related to Go.

However, the practice of using a tools.go file is used in the Kubernetes project, as well as stated in the Go project’s documentation. I intend to can give this a try in one of my projects in the future.

This article had been lurking in a background tab over the past couple of days. So it’s good to finally get this down into words.

February 20 Link to heading

David Moldawer - Page Pacing Link to heading

The best attribute of a physical book is its width.

I use the metrics of Reading Time (on Firefox Reader View) or Number of Words on web content as a measure of expected commitment.

Thanks to digital screens destroying our brains, none of us run marathons anymore, either. We’re sprinters now. When the flow of words bogs down, we set the text aside and move on to another distraction.

Really interesting. I agree with this. Lately, I forward web pages on my Kindle and read it there.

Wherever you write and wherever your writing gets read, pace with pages.

I would be interested in trying out a page based layout design on this blog.

March 6 Link to heading

vlogbrothers: THE BEST DAY | YouTube Link to heading

Sports teams can be treated as community assets. In some domains, modern capitalism has reduced sport teams to franchises - business operated from the PoV of profiteering. This is a very fundamental point connected to TATA IPL and F1 (Visa Cash App RB F1 Team).

I am not trying to judge one against the other. Personal opinions aside, both setups bring value to the table.

Apart from that, as usual, John Green weilds literature with emotion, and grace.

April 1 Link to heading

Steven Scrawls - Quicksilver and Clay Link to heading

Identity is composed from a combination of elements built using “quicksilver” or “clay”.

Quicksilver represents the beliefs, opinions, and behaviours adopted at a superficial level from others. Clay represents the abilities developed from personal experiences through slow, and laborious work.

While quicksilver offers efficiency and speed, it lacks resilience; clay, on the other hand, withstands the fire of hardships.

A balance between quicksilver and clay is necessary to shape a resilient, and authentic self.

June 12 Link to heading

MKBHD: Talking Tech and AI with Tim Cook! | YouTube Link to heading

A couple of key takeaways for me from this interview:

AI can potentially help reduce Screen Time.
“Our [Apple] objective is never to be first. Our objecttive is to be the best.”

June 14 Link to heading

British Council: Cricket (1950) | YouTube Link to heading

This video is the most informative introduction to the game of Cricket I have come across. It provides the enough historical context, and delves the right amount into the complexity of the sport. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

July 15 Link to heading

Half as Interesting: How the UN Translates Everything in Real-Time by Half as Interesting | YouTube Link to heading

Most of the books I found meaningful are products of translation.

Real-time translation of diplomatic speeches at such a grand stage as the UN has far more stakes. While watching speeches in the Indian Houses of Parliaments, I observe similar phenomenon. It makes me wonder how effectively can such powerful people communicate with each other using different tongues.

Distilling a person’s ideas from their words into an essence. Repackaging that essense using a different set of words, and figures of speech.

The act of translation lacks a layer of agency, at least on the surface. After all, it’s not the translator’s original idea that they are communicate, is it?

Interpretation seems to be a unifying skill, to me at least. Unfortunately, I have not translated any piece of work yet. But, it could be a potentially valuable exercise.

August 26 Link to heading

Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya - TIL: 8 versions of UUID and when to use them Link to heading

Handy reference for when to use the different versions of UUIDs.

For DB primary keys, random strings are inefficient for lookups i.e. UUID v4. I will give the v8 with prefix a try for my next project.

October 1 Link to heading

Gary Turk: Look Up 2 - Ten Years Later | YouTube Link to heading

Finally Gary Turk got around to making a sequel to his viral video “Look Up”. The original video was novel and had a profound impact on me. I have kept revisiting it over the past few years, as my relationship with technology and gadgets has evolved. Now, this sequel is a timely and worthy follow-up.

2024