Weekly Thing for January 13, 2018
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** Weekly Thing
** by Jamie Thingelstad
January 13, 2018
I had a very special week! I got to spend most of it focusing on professional improvement. 🕴🏻 It was a great opportunity and I took full advantage of it. Every year I try to find a couple of areas to make significant improvements in. Last year it was in managing my time better and making improvements in my GTD practice. This year I’m still framing up my focus areas but I like where it is going.
My learning this week took me to Longboat Key, Florida. It was really nice to get out of the frozen tundra for a couple of days. I had never been on the Gulf side of Florida but it was really nice. Plus it was great to be focus entirely on the work that I was doing there.
**
The fog was very think all day on the Gulf Coast in Florida. I don’t think you could see even a hundred feet. The fog, water and sand blended into layers of grey.
Jan 11, 2018 at 4:45 PM Longboat Key, FL
**
** SPS Tower has a nice ring to it | SPS Commerce (https://www.spscommerce.com/blog/sps-tower-minneapolis-spsa/)
💬 Our office building was recently renamed to SPS Tower! Very cool! 👏
** Rightsizing Infrastructure Can Cut Costs 36% – AWS Enterprise Collection – Medium (https://medium.com/aws-enterprise-collection/rightsizing-infrastructure-can-cut-costs-36-3531a1f6dd99)
💬 Infrastructure cost management in the cloud is a difficult beast to wrestle.
** Apache Airflow (incubating) Documentation — Airflow Documentation (https://airflow.incubator.apache.org/)
💬 This looks really interesting and would be worth keeping an eye on. I like that it’s in the Apache world. Use airflow to author workflows as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) of tasks. The airflow scheduler executes your tasks on an array of workers while following the specified dependencies. Rich command line utilities make performing complex surgeries on DAGs a snap. The rich user interface makes it easy to visualize pipelines running in production, monitor progress, and troubleshoot issues when needed.
** Tesla Model 3: The First Serious Review - The Drive (http://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/17280/tesla-model-3-the-first-serious-review)
💬 Tesla Model 3 review. Looking forward to driving one! Tons of pictures and a lot of detail here.
** xkcd: Meltdown and Spectre (https://xkcd.com/1938/)
💬 😂
** The T2 chip makes the iMac Pro the start of a Mac revolution | Macworld (https://www.macworld.com/article/3245764/macs/the-t2-chip-makes-the-imac-pro-the-start-of-a-mac-revolution.html)
💬 Interesting article about how this new T2 chip in the iMac Pro is handling a significant amount of non-CPU and non-GPU work. On most Macs, there are discrete controllers for audio, system management and disk drives. But the T2 handles all these tasks. The T2 is responsible for controlling the iMac Pro’s stereo speakers, internal microphones, and dual cooling fans, all by itself. The two-stage boot process is interesting and I think a first.
** The Tesla Model 3 Makes The Future Feel Normal (https://jalopnik.com/the-tesla-model-3-makes-the-future-feel-normal-1821684820)
💬 I’m on the reservation list for the Model 3 but I’ve been holding back any excitement with the reality of how unpredictable Tesla ship dates really are. It’s great to see some real (non-rumor) information starting to come out.
** Show your work: The new terms for trust in journalism - PressThink (http://pressthink.org/2017/12/show-work-new-terms-trust-journalism/)
💬 A while back I spent a chunk of time thinking about how open source software principles could be applied to journalism. One of the principles used the exact same wording that Rosen uses here, show your work. Journalism is still being reinvented online, and I like where this is trending.
** Learning to operate Kubernetes reliably (https://stripe.com/blog/operating-kubernetes)
💬 Julia Evans (https://www.jvns.ca) with a very good overview of how they have deployed Kubernetes (https://kubernetes.io) at Stripe. Her words of caution are true for many technology patterns: If you’re considering Kubernetes, keep in mind: don’t use Kubernetes just because other companies are using it. Setting up a reliable cluster takes a huge amount of time, and the business case for using it isn’t always obvious. Invest your time in a smart way.
** Birdcage liners – Joel on Software (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2018/01/12/birdcage-liners/)
💬 Joel Spolsky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Spolsky) weighs in on writing software with ethics and meaning. As software developers and designers, we have a responsibility to the world to think these things through carefully and design software that makes the world better, or, at least, no worse than it started out. 👏
** Legends of the Ancient Web (http://idlewords.com/talks/ancient_web.htm)
💬 Recent talk by Maciej Cegłowski (http://idlewords.com/about.htm) talking about the history of radio and how that was used as a tool of mass influence. Adds some perspective to todays debates about the web and social media.
** No tracking, no revenue: Apple’s privacy feature costs ad companies millions | Technology | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/09/apple-tracking-block-costs-advertising-companies-millions-dollars-criteo-web-browser-safari)
💬 Am I supposed to feel bad that privacy features in Safari are putting a dent in privacy invading tracking networks? I don’t. It makes me happy as it is market validation that these features are working! How rich that an unethical tracking company is calling Apple’s efforts to protect privacy sabotage!
** Cory Doctorow: Persuasion, Adaptation, and the Arms Race for Your Attention – Locus Online (http://locusmag.com/2018/01/cory-doctorow-persuasion-adaptation-and-the-arms-race-for-your-attention/)
💬 Doctorow with some perspective and framing for the attention economy. He posits this as a constant arms race with the predator and prey. There is a war for your attention, and like all adversarial scenarios, the sides develop new countermeasures and then new tactics to overcome those countermeasures. The predator carves the prey, the prey carves the predator. I would encourage us all to ask an important question in the attention war. Is this useful? Be honest with yourself. How useful is something to your objectives. Of course this begs the question that you have to know your objectives, which is another topic entirely.
** The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-strange-brands-in-your-instagram-feed/550136/)
💬 Interesting read on how easy it is to set yourself up as a retail brand and start selling whatever products online. Worthwhile read to understand more about some of these brands that are popping up all over.
** One Player’s 21,000 Hole Quest to Beat the Seemingly Endless ‘Desert Golf’ - Waypoint (https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/a3nnv4/one-players-21000-hole-quest-to-beat-the-seemingly-endless-desert-golf)
💬 Yet another reason I 💛 the Internet. This guy has some serious focus. “It’s straight up impossible,” Yagnow told me, pointing to the 2,599 attempts he made, trying to bend the hole to his will. 2,599 attempts at a single hole! No way did this only take 300 to 400 hours.
** Get Slack-style emoji everywhere with Rocket (https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/01/get-slack-style-emoji-everywhere-with-rocket/)
💬 Want to type emoji easier? Neat utility that brings the common shortcut of Slack and Github to your Mac.
** Feedbin is the Best Way to Read Twitter (https://feedbin.com/blog/2018/01/11/feedbin-is-the-best-way-to-read-twitter/)
💬 Innovative new feature from Feedbin (https://feedbin.com) , which is what I use for my RSS feeds. This is an interesting gap filler for some source that may publish on Twitter but may not publish RSS. I don’t think I would consider using it as an alternative timeline, and don’t think you should use timelines anyway.
** This Is Water - David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI)
💬 Incredibly moving speech that I hadn’t heard the speech from David Foster Wallace (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace) before. Now I want to read his books. Take the time and listen to this.
** 📙 Emojipedia — 😃 Home of Emoji Meanings 💁👌🎍😍 (https://emojipedia.org/)
💬 If you want to go deep on Emoji’s this is the place to do it! 👩🏫
** California Legislature to Hear EFF’s License Plate Cover Bill | Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/california-senate-hear-effs-license-plate-cover-bill)
💬 What? Across the country, private companies are deploying vehicles mounted with automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to drive up and down streets to document the travel patterns of everyday drivers. These systems take photos of every license plate they see, tag them with time and location, and upload them to a central database. I run blocking software on my computer to protect my privacy, but I didn’t realize that the fact that I have a garage is also a privacy tool! I have read in the past about cities using license plate readers and city wide camera systems to track people, but I had no idea this was happening in the private sector too. There seems to be an obvious sabotage opportunity here to have a magnetic license plate cover that is unreadable or deceptive to these systems that you can use while not driving. 🤔
** Book: Principles by Ray Dalio - Feld Thoughts (https://www.feld.com/archives/2018/01/book-principles-ray-dalio.html)
💬 This book has been on my wishlist for a long time and I recently got a copy. Looking forward to reading it!
** Q&A: Edward Snowden on rights, privacy, secrets and leaks in conversation with Jimmy Wales – Wikitribune (https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2018/01/05/free_speech/qa-edward-snowden-on-rights-privacy-secrets-and-leaks-in-conversation-with-jimmy-wales/26810/)
💬 Good interview with Snowden. I appreciate reading and hearing his opinions on these topics. I particularly like his view on protecting privacy. Privacy is the fountainhead of all other rights. Privacy is where rights are derived from, because privacy is the right to the self. Privacy is the right to a free mind. Privacy is the ability to have something, anything, for yourself, for you. It pains me a bit when Julian Assange (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange) and Snowden are bucketed together. I believe Assange is a crypto anarchist. Snowden I believe is actually operating on a defined set of ethics and trying to fix something that he clearly saw as wrong.
**
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062265423/?tag=thingelstad01-20** 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062265423/?tag=thingelstad01-20)
by Dan Harris
Winner of the 2014 Living Now Book Award for Inspirational Memoir Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable.
I was recently given this audiobook and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve been contemplating a meditation practice for a long time, but like the author I get turned off by the sappy side of it. This book isn’t about how to meditate, but it talks about the journey that Harris went on and what he feels the benefits have been. The chapter when he goes on a 10-day meditation retreat is pretty funny to boot.
**
https://letsencrypt.org
Let’s Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org) is a free, automated, and open certificate authority, run for the public’s benefit. All connections to web servers should be encrypted! The biggest challenge with encrypting the web historically has been the cost and hassle of getting an SSL certificate. Let’s Encrypt has changed that entirely by being a free certificate authority. Let’s Encrypt is possibly one of the most important things to happen on the web in recent years. Donate to Let’s Encrypt today! (https://letsencrypt.org/donate/)
**
Headspace: Meditation & Sleep on the App Store
Get happy. Stress less. Sleep soundly. Headspace is your guide to mindfulness for your everyday life. Learn meditation and mindfulness skills from world-class experts like former monk and Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe. Choose from hundreds of guided meditations on everything from managing str…
** Headspace: Meditation (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/headspace-meditation/id493145008?mt=8&uo=4&at=1001lxyE&ct=thingelstad_com)
by Headspace meditation limited
Get the most out of your day with the Headspace app. We’ll help you perform at your best through the life-changing skills of meditation and mindfulness.
Thinking about meditating? I’ve been using Headspace for guided meditation and it’s a solid application. Easy to use and very easy to get started.
Free 5/5 stars
**
- Family movie night watching Leap! Everyone liked it. 🎬 (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/12/family-movie-night.html)
- A smartphone filled with social apps is the physical manifestation of Buddhist monkey mind. (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/12/a-smartphone-filled.html)
- I continue to see more people covering the camera in their laptops. How come nobody covers the forward facing camera on their mobile phone? (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/12/i-continue-to.html)
- Fog. (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/11/fog.html)
- Enjoying 10% Happier on audiobook. Approachable introduction to mindfulness. 📚 (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/10/014252.html)
- We went to the Bakken Museum today which was very fun! They have a demonstration or “game” there where you play another person by quieting your mind and making the EEG reading go down, moving a ball towards the other person. Tammy grabbed this great picture of me quieting my mind… 😊 “Mind like water…” 💧 (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/06/mind-like-water.html)
- Fun with photo booth at Pizzeria Lola! 📷 (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/01/06/fun-with-photo.html)
** The end 🎬
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This work by Jamie Thingelstad is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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