Week in Review 2024-02-12

Busy week. Multiple meetings, planning, alignment, and bugs. The last part, bugs, or specific, user support requests, are a nice to have. It means, that people are using our software, and that the system is working. It’s always a nice feeling to know that the system I helped to build is being used by someone else, even if that also means that some bugs or issues that we didn’t see before are coming out. But hey, that’s software. A never ending bug hunting activity. Last week I didn’t have too much to code at work, besides getting familiar with Pulumi, an infrastructure as code provider, it was a good learning experience as I got to do some work on the infrastructure side, while most of my work is in the back end side.

Although, I might not have coded for work, I did some code for fun. Last Thursday I published The map is the territory, a post about using historical map assets to create ephemeral territories and maps. For creating the maps I build a small Py5 probability-based script, builds these territories. The script can generate unlimited maps, and encodes the required random seed to replicate the territory in the map, thus providing a real map to re-create the territory.

On the personal side, it was a very social week. It included dinners, and indoor skiing. Living in one of the flattest countries on earth, having the opportunity to do some skiing at 30 minutes from home, was something I was not expecting. It was really fun.

Finally, this week I read -don’t remember the source 🤦- about the importance to interact with creators. As we put our time, and in some time resources, into creating things: newsletters, videos, posts, etc. It’s good to appreciate what other people are doing and to interact with them as a way to value and encourage creators to keep with their work. This idea really resonated with me, having people replying to this newsletters really encourages to keep posting, and trying to create better content. Thus, last week I interacted with some creators, by commenting on a video, or even by giving a single like or replying to something interesting I saw online. I will keep this practice for sure.

Now to some interesting links I found along this week:

Mastodon

• Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. So when are Local Authorities going to start investing it? E-cars are about saving the motor industry not the planet. #FuckCars
• The clampdown on “political” content over on Meta’s platforms could impact public sentiment over ongoing human rights abuses around the world. Whether intentional or not, the effect is that the status quo position is always the one that gets amplified. There can be no social change or calls for equality on that kind of social media - except in partnership with the already-powerful with huge follower lists.
• How do you find interesting ideas to play with? Set aside time to explore, and then do it.
• Groundwater vulnerability to drought and flood over a pop density map of México. Thought I'd show the potential effects of drought and flood on people but after finishing this, I'm not sure if it works. I spent way too much time on this so figured I'd share it. Would welcome any comments or suggestions.#rayshader adventures, an #rstats tale
• Found this render that I forgot to share—rail lines of Belgium.#rstats #dataviz #railways #belgium
• The perception of Universal #BasicIncome is mistakenly seen as a handout, when in fact it’s an investment. An investment in human potential, creativity, and overall well-being. Let’s reframe the narrative around UBI and recognize its true power to uplift and embolden our society.
• “You’ve got to offer your content to the hellish, overstuffed, harassment-laden, uber-competitive attention economy because otherwise no one will know who you are. […] The commodification of the self is now seen as the only route to any kind of economic security.” #Culture
• Found a usage I like for ChatGPT: proofreading my English, but if I follow all suggestions, I would add so many grandiose turns of phrase: transformative, pivotal, instrumental, at the forefront …I’m exhausted just reading them. Maybe I’m too low key in my communication? This is a very Belgian trait.#chatgpt #ia
• Using the Overpass API with #Leaflet
• I picked up this cheap kids camera that prints on receipt paper and it might be the coolest camera I own now???Edit: If you purchase one you might want to look for BPA & BPS free paper, will report back once I test some if it prints any differently!#Photography #BlackAndWhite #BlackAndWhitePhotography #Monochrome #minimalism #abstractphotography #abstract
• When someone really loves you, they delete all that ridiculous querystring nonsense from the end of the hyperlink before sending it to you. 💘

Weeknotes

• Dan Catt’s Q1 week six
• Jochen’s weeknotes 2024-02-05

🤖 This post was generated automatically by the weekly script, using content curated in the issues of my repo in GitHub