Weekly Thing 287 / Plinky, Piccolo, Privacy
Weekly Thing 287 with fifteen links and eleven journal entries between May 3, 2024 and May 10, 2024. Sent from Minneapolis, MN.
Good morning! ☀️
Yes it is still Spring but this week seemed to flip the bit into summer for me. We've had our first days with real warmth in the air. I've been able to comfortably wear shorts. We've seen the sun in all of its glory on several occasions. It is that delightful time of the year in Northern climates where your neighbors re-emerge from the cold winter and you get to meet everyone anew. Delightful.
It was a good week and now we head into a fun weekend celebrating Mom's! They really are the best. 💖
Currently
Watching: We've started watching Young Sheldon with the first season. Easy short show to end the day with. I wasn't sure about the show in the beginning but I've warmed to it and Sheldon is a great character.
Installing: I upgraded all of my devices to Soulver 3 now that it is available on all of them. Soulver is like a notepad that does math. I like using it for little planning sessions where a spreadsheet is too much, but a calculator isn't enough. And now that Soulver 3 is on all devices and syncs data across I think I'll find it even more useful.
Beautiful tulip garden in a gorgeously manicured lawn in South Minneapolis.
May 5, 2024
South Minneapolis, Minnesota
Notable
Piccolo - A Stackless Lua Interpreter
I wasn't familiar with the term stackless but reading this was a great overview. Plus as many know I have a fondness for Lua so this article caught my attention.
"Stackless" here is jargon that's used in a couple of places, not just in interpreter design. You may have heard that Rust has "stackless" coroutines, and the word "stackless" as I'm using it here means the exact same thing. It means that piccolo's Lua runtime is not "stackful", it does not rely on the Rust function call stack to maintain its execution state, and execution can be suspended at any time.
The examples of how this stackless implementation provides for many benefits are great. The article references inspiration from Stackless Python.
Differential privacy - Explained
The first time I heard the term "differential privacy" it was in Apple marketing on how they were protecting privacy but still getting information to improve usability. However, I didn’t know specifically what it meant. Here is a good definition.
Differential privacy (DP) works by adding a small amount of noise (see Laplace Mechanism) to the result of our query (e.g. a bit of noise to a mean query result). This process guarantees that one person's inclusion or exclusion in the data barely impacts the results, preventing the identification of individual information from the combined data. In other words, if you were to remove one individual from the dataset, you would get the same end result.
There are two approaches to DP:
- Local DP: Adding noise to the data itself (Apple Laplace Mechanism for example).
- Central DP: Adding noise to query results (what most databases/libraries do).
Tons of links to other articles about this technique as well as various libraries.
Companies Are Just a Graph of Algorithms
Interesting framing from Miessler. To reinforce his thought process I would highlight the importance of System Thinking to most businesses. The reason it is important is that any company of size has to think of the systems in the business and optimize them. Additionally think about organizational design. Many of those models focus on functional units with inputs and outputs. Combine those things and you get far away from some organic jazz band and into a choreographed symphony working with a clear set of systems and processes. Given that framing, AI can be very effective at many of those parts.
ENS Labs Unveils Integration with .box Domains: A New Era for Web3 Identities | ENS Blog
I have a thesis around Web3 technology that it will blend into the existing web and be the central force behind a push, which I’m not sure will be big or small, to decentralize services. I dislike how it is used as opposition to the current web stack. And the best example I see for exemplifying this is what the ENS team is doing. Ethereum Name Service is a critical capability that turns thingelstad.eth into my wallet address, just like DNS turns thingelstad.com into my website address. Several months back ENS also made it so I can put my wallet address in DNS and now ENS can resolve thingelstad.com to my wallet address too. The next step is to have a completely merged top-level domain that blends traditional DNS and ENS into one, and that is what I think we'll see figured out with .box.
The defensive arrogance of TL;DR | Seth's Blog
Godin with another nugget of wisdom here.
TL;DR is defensive. Not simply because it defends our time, but because it defends us from change and from lived experience.
…
When we lean into exploration, we're far more likely to find something that matters. Because we worked for it.
A related concept that comes to my mind is the journey matters, not just the destination. Godin references "Dopamine Culture", and Dopamine Nation is in my Audible library on the recommendation of a friend. Godin's little post here also connected my thinking to the book How to Read a Book where Adler asserts a method to reading that takes you deeper into the matter.
Amazon: Wild Margin Expansion - App Economy Insights
I love the visual in this article breaking down the components of Amazon's financials. AWS is now 50% the size of the Amazon.com business, and is contributing a big chunk of the profit. It reports a 34% margin. Wasn't it Jeff Bezos who coined the saying "Your margin is your competitions opportunity."? The problem in this hyper scale cloud environment is the capital required to run a business like this is ridiculous. And there is no way that other companies can acquire capital as cheaply as Amazon.
Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive Announce an Upcoming Vision Pro Project Based on the 'What If…?' Series - MacStories
This sounds interesting and I can’t wait to experience it. It also highlights the kind of thing that I would have presumed Apple would have had dozens of lined up for the Vision Pro. My biggest disappointment of the Vision Pro launch is the lack of content that Apple worked with partners to make available and continuously release after the launch. There needs to be more of this to amp up the entertainment use case for the Vision Pro.
How the US Is Destroying Young People’s Future | Scott Galloway | TED - YouTube
I listen to Scott Galloway on Pivot and I also follow his No Mercy/No Malice newsletter. He frequently references the "transfer of wealth from the young to the old" in a variety of different systems. Here is his TED presentation framing up his argument in a more complete way. The data is stark. I am left with a question of the motive. Is it as he says an intentional effort or is the data a sign of some other decline. However, either way his call to action is valid and right. We should be doing something to make America a better place for our kids. Added bonus that there is actually humor in his talk, not common for TED.
Plinky
This is a new bookmarking service that looks well done, and interestingly is currently mobile only. I like the vibe of this app and also appreciate that it looks designed well. I installed it and it was easy to use and full featured. I'll stick to Pinboard where I have over 14,650 links stored. I find many of the bookmarking services struggle with large databases, and particularly struggle with database synchronization to a mobile device. But if you are just getting started saving links for sharing or reference this looks like a very well designed app. Check out the blog post introducing Plinky as well.
If you are thinking "why would I save bookmarks?" I'll throw out a potential. If you use social platforms and use the "favorite", "star", or "heart" features to indicate interest you could instead share those to an app like this. That way you can get to them, and you can skip feeding the algorithm with your preferences. Plinky has some special case handling for links like these.
Journal
Reflections on No Coffee
May 4, 2024 at 11:13 AM
I haven’t had any coffee since April 1st. I’ve abstained from coffee and caffeine because of three different factors.
- I have high blood pressure and caffeine is not good for that.
- I'm not a good sleeper and caffeine is bad for sleep.
- I don’t have anxiety problems, but tend to be anxious which caffeine can aggravate too.
Going into this I had reduced my coffee intake. A few months ago I dropped my coffee consumption from 24oz a day to 12oz a day. When I did that I noticed no material changes and figured less was probably better. So when I decided to drop it entirely I figured it wouldn’t be that hard since I didn't think I was having that much coffee.
I sure was wrong. Stopping coffee and caffeine was much harder than I expected. The first day was fine, but the second day I had a persistent headache. I felt like I was in slow-motion all day, kind of in a fog. And I was so tired in the afternoon and evening that it was all I could do to stay awake. The third day was the same. It wasn’t until the fourth and fifth days that I started to feel more normal.
I didn't think the caffeine I was consuming was having any real impact on me -- but the impact that the removal had tells a different story.
How about the three areas I was focusing on?
So far I haven’t seen any material change in blood pressure. That is disappointing to me but I think speaks to other factors being more impactful to that metric. The physiology still suggests that combining high blood pressure and caffeine is a bad idea. So abstaining from caffeine is still a good idea even if I'm not seeing it on the blood pressure sensor.
The thing that I have had the most profound improvement in is sleep. Removing caffeine entirely had a more profound impact on my sleep than I could have imagined. Both qualitative and quantitative with the data from the 8Sleep. I'm falling asleep much faster and earlier than I was before. I'm getting about 30 to 45 minutes more sleep a night, mostly by getting to sleep earlier at night and less waking time in the middle of the night. I'm waking up at 6am and feel rested. Something I genuinely have never experienced.
The last factor of anxiety doesn’t have any way for me to quantify. I don’t know of any clear differentiator that I can point to for this. My best indicator would be ease of achieving a peaceful mind when I meditate, but my meditation practice has been very sporadic this month.
I find the sleep improvements to be great. I also do like the lack of dependence on getting coffee in the morning. I do miss the ritual of coffee, particularly on the weekends. I’ve sourced some high quality caffeine free tea to give that a try for when I would like that experience.
I'm not ready to say that I'm not a coffee drinker. We’ll see where the future goes. I’ll just take it one day at a time. 😊
Double rainbow from earlier today. The primary rainbow was so colorful. Even the green is clearly visible. 🌈🌈
My bro-in-law Max and I getting ready for the 80's Prom Murder Mystery Party. 🕵️♂️
Finished game of Five Crowns -- Mazie was the winner!
Squirrels Eat Two Pounds of Chocolate
May 5, 2024 at 4:57 PM
For Mother’s Day I ordered some Freese’s Candy for Tammy. We had these when we were in Milwaukee and she has declared them her favorite Turtles. They are delicious. So I ordered one pound of them for her as well as a pound of salted caramel in milk chocolate.
I timed the order so it would come next week, but they shipped it fast and it delivered even faster. They dropped it off on Saturday at 2:34pm.
In just two hours, an intrepid squirrel approached. The squirrel smelled it, pushed the box around, tipped it over, and got to work at whatever delicious smells were inside.
This rascal even took a break sitting on my chair! 🐿️
After the mayhem was in full swing one of the neighborhood rabbits thought they would check it out too.
Over the course of that afternoon and the next morning several squirrels stopped by to check out the situation.
When we got home we found both boxes of chocolate completely emptied and bits of the box scattered around. I hope those squirrels were miserable from all that sugar.
Bitcoin passed 1 billion total all-time transactions tonight! Currently at 1,000,196,488. 👏
I pre-ordered the Ledger Stax on Dec 10, 2022 and after a very long wait I got notified that they will be shipping in June! I have two on the way. I am looking forward to trying the Ledger Stax out after a 17 month wait!
I’m looking forward to Minnesota Technology Association Tech Connect 2024 event on Wednesday. To have a little fun I created a You’ve met Jamie Thingelstad at Tech Connect 2024 POAP to share with folks that I see there. If you are at the event say Hi and I’ll give you a claim code! 🤝
I collected the ENS 7th Anniversary NFT! I continue to be a big fan of ENS and think it is one of the most important crypto projects.
Also see 6th Anniversary.
MnTech Tech Connect 2024
May 8, 2024 at 8:00 PM
Today was Tech Connect 2024 hosted by MnTech at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. There were over 600 people this year and a number of good presentations.
Sessions I attended:
- Unleashing GenAI: 5 Real-Life Learnings with Jake Krings, Mikey Vu
- The Era of Quantum Utility with Kenneth Wood
- Three Keys to Building AI Products with Speed and Confidence with Patrick Wolf
- Beyond the Bat: Technology’s Impact on Baseball and Beyond with John Avenson, Lisa Moschkau, Sam Henschen, and Jeremy Raadt
- Scaling Cloud Governance through Developer Enablement led by TeamSPS members Troy Jordan, Nathan Carr, Jesse Lang, and Nate Anderson
- Leveraging Generative AI for Business Excellence led by TeamSPS member Jason Popillion
- CIO Leadership Panel with Jennifer Hartsock, Darrin Hebert, Mark Murphy, and Cris Ross
Overall observations:
- There were so many references to AI. Everyone still talking about it and starting to show real-world use cases. There is still more hype than substance here, but the substance seems to be showing up. Multiple companies shared that AI adoption isn’t automatic and you have to make sure you bring people along.
- The quantum computing session was more interesting than I expected and showed how far that technology has come. I think this is still a decade out and a big bet, but accessing quantum infrastructure via the cloud is an obvious go-to-market path to bring this esoteric tech to teams.
- It is super fun to watch the Minnesota Twins technology team because their content is so fun and very advanced stuff. Plus they have a whole production team that makes super high-quality visuals.
Cristo Rey UnGala 2024
May 9, 2024 at 9:00 PM
This evening I was able to attend the first UnGala for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. What is an UnGala? Think of your typical fundraiser kind of event but more of a party atmosphere with live music and more casual dress. We have several students from Cristo Rey as part of TeamSPS so I have known about the organization for years, but it was great to hear more about this incredible school that has gotten 100% of every student ever in attendance accepted into college programs. Many of them becoming the first person in their family to attend college. It is an impressive organization. Feel free to join me in supporting their mission.
At the end of the event we got a team photo with Alberto Vergara who was part of TeamSPS as a Cristy Rey student and is now a full-time Account Executive on our sales team! 👏
Weekly Thing Forum 🆕
Join Lou Plummer, Patrick Hambek, Tom Mungavan, Barry Hess, Eric Walker, and many other Weekly Thing readers in the Weekly Thing Forum. Recent topics include:
- AI controlled F16 fight humans
- Ukraine Aid
- NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth
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- A few thoughts on this weeks Weekly Thing
Briefly
$200 million in fines to four different carriers for illegally selling our location data means nothing. Totally agree with Malik here that until the cost of misusing data goes up we will not see any improvements. → Billions in profits, millions in fines! – On my Om
I mostly have stopped following the drama of Elon Musk, but as a two-Tesla household I have a vested interest in things like superchargers. → What’s happening at Tesla? Here’s what experts think. | Ars Technica
Some background info on the Change Healthcare ransomware attack, including the CEO owning and disclosing that they did pay $22 million in ransom. → UnitedHealth CEO: 'Decision to pay ransom was mine' • The Register
Security risks continue to grow, and even big companies with tons of resources and capital have struggles with it. → Read Satya Nadella’s Microsoft memo on putting security first - The Verge
There is constant YouTuber speculation on the fate of the Vision Pro. This is a new platform that will take years to develop. Similar to the first Apple Watches that were underpowered and didn’t do much. It is going to take some time for VisionOS to find footing, and it isn't a guarantee that it will. → Daring Fireball: Boring News: Vision Pro Sales Are Going Just About as Expected
My friend Patrick reminding us to think more about the "why?" of some of the memes that pass around the social media ecosystem. One of the benefits of removing oneself from social media is you don't even know these are there so it is very easy to ignore. 😂 → Maybe we all should be conspiracy theorists now… – Rhoneisms
Fortune
Here is your fortune… Mother's Day edition?
A gift of a flower will soon be made to you. 🌹
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