Month: July 2023

Weeknotes #27: formula-e

Week commencing Monday, 24 July 2023

Photograph of the Formula e grid, Saturday 29th July 2023, taken from grandstand 5, behind the barriers. There is smoke on the grid. The team pits are faintly visible.
Formula-e London 2023

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 5/7. (67%, slipping). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 57,970

Life

  • A conversation that I expected to be difficult on Monday, wasn’t. The repeat conversation on Friday also less difficult than I imagined. Sometimes, you build these things up in your head. The demo I saw was a bit disappointing after all the effort but is making progress.
  • Product Managers should remember to get the domain model and a basic entity relationships sorted before you build the product. So much harder later. But a fun task nonetheless. We agreed, then disagreed and then worked it out.
  • Saturday volunteering at the Formula-e race. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed it even if I didn’t quite get to follow the whole race.
  • Sunday, Dad went to the Ashes (rained off mid afternoon but he got to see test cricket). After dropping him off at The Oval went for brunch with Mum and then the Battersea Power Station. Lovely day for all, in spite of the rain.
  • Radio is not the radio I grew up with. I’m not one of those who clamour to return to days of ILR but I do quite like a presenter to pop in and say hello occasionally. It’s hard to get just the right amount of personality without being intrusive and it’s very personal. I tried the Spotify AI DJ on a couple of days this week. I thought the voice and DJ-bits were quite well done but the music selection didn’t quite work. Maybe there’s potential here which is why I kept going back to it. Another thing called X however.
  • A good take on some parts of the digital advertising industry. Obviously, I disagree with the statement, “Digital advertising is a scam from top to bottom” but I can understand where it’s coming from. I think the article is guilty of assuming ‘digital advertising’ is one thing and it’s not. I first ventured into this discussion in 2014 and I think it’s still valid.
  • Here’s something that resonates: “Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true: the kindest person in the room is often the smartest.” From Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker’s commencement speech at Northwestern University via Daring Fireball

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #26: exhibitions and ABBA

Week commencing Monday, 17 July 2023

A sign depicting a lot for sale in the fictitious Asteroid City. Taken at the exhibition of props from the Wes Anderson film.
Asteroid City exhibition

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 6/7 and Move 5/7. (81%, better). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 58,028

Life

  • Related to last week’s comments about the sand trucks, on Monday morning’s walk we encountered a different tractor doing something else to the sand. Jobs you never knew existed.
  • “Johnson was not undemocratically or otherwise improperly ‘forced out’ of Parliament” is a really interesting article in Public Law For Everyone about a very false narrative being peddled.
  • Speaking of de Pfeffel, there are moves in the UK to compel providers of secure messaging services (WhatsApp, FaceTime etc.) to create backdoors for the security services. Nobody, except politicians, believes it’s possible to have a ‘good guys’ back door that can’t be exploited by the ‘bad guy’. Daring Fireball had a good piece on this which ended with the line, “The legislators themselves surely all depend upon [WhatsApp]” and I simply can’t stop laughing given our former Prime Minister’s stance on his own WhatsApp messages.
  • Saturday morning, to the wonderful exhibition of original sets, props, costumes and artwork from Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. Wholly recommended. I am not sure which was my favourite but I do like the vending machines, the miniature train and the alien.
  • Leaving The Strand, walking through London, we discovered an outdoor exhibition of around 70 super-sized Morph sculptures. It got me asking if Plasticine man, Morph, made it to other countries where viewers may not have seen Take Hart or Hartbeat?
  • And then to The Tower of London. The whole place is fascinating and is a bit TARDIS-like: bigger on the inside that it seems form the outside. The White Tower, which gives the place its name, was built by William the Conqueror. Seeing Traitor’s Gate from the other side was a bit underwhelming.
  • Related, reportedly some of the last people to be imprisoned in the Tower were the Kray twins. It was not for their gangster behaviour in the 50s and 60s though; something to do with not showing up for their National service.
  • Almost 14 months on from seeing the ABBAtars at Abba Voyage, I was back with a different group of friends, to dance to Summer Night City, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), Voulez-Vous and Dancing Queen. Last time I thought the ABBAtars were remarkably convincing to the human eye and, from the standing (dancing) area, nothing’s changed: in fact they may be even more realistic. The ABBA arena is holding up well one year later. The Visitors, remains one of my favourite songs.
  • I know it’s work but this is really good. Agile or agility? What’s important, then, is agility, not Agile™ via Dave Briggs

Media

  • Does your employer have holiday homes for you to use? A lovely interview about treating your staff well and reaping the rewards (and then giving them the rewards): Gap Finders – Richer Sounds founder Julian Richer
  • I am determined not to drag out watching Bosch: Season 3 quite as long as I did the second season. Watched a couple of episodes on the train home on Monday evening and then throughout the week. Not quite finished.
  • I did not get into Schitt’s Creek when it started back in 2015. So we’re at Season 1 now. Thanks to Dave. And all because Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara star.
  • After extolling the virtues of Asteroid City, we watched another Wes Anderson film: The French Dispatch (of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun). Layered, beautifully shot and, perhaps, a wonderful tribute to a type of literary journalism that doesn’t seem to exist (although staff of The New Yorker may disagree).

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #25: threads is here

Week commencing Monday, 10 July 2023

View of the front of Surbiton staton with a taxi and car in front of the station buildings. A few people waiting. Picture in black and white.
Surbiton Station

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (62%, wrong direction). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 53,015

Life

  • The iPhone turns 15. I went to the App Store to find a list of the first apps I downloaded. If you’d asked me, I would have said my first was the Carling Tap app because, at the time, I think that showed off some of the phone’s unique screen and sensor capabilities and is the one I remember the most. Also, I didn’t actually get an iPhone until August; I’d been working for Microsoft and it wasn’t until I left that I switched to iPhone. Around this time 15 years ago it was still being put in a blender at MSFT.
  • Lovely dinner in Surbiton with family this week. Happy Birthday Christine. A lovely town and the station is always wonderful to look at.
  • So, after being introduced last week, it seems that Threads might become a thing. There’s a lot of clamour for Twitter-like features but I really like the algorithm-driven feeds full of people I don’t know. Over the last few days the algorithm has started to tune the feed for me and I like it. Because it’s linked to instagram, I have @curns over there as well.
  • I can access threads in the UK. The rest of Europe can’t. Access to technology from the US tech giants before the test of the continent was never a message on the side of a bus.
  • The Sun ran a story last Friday which it is now, kind-of, back-tracking on and I am left with a feeling that journalism isn’t doing what I think it should be doing. The tabloids have always set an agenda but, I think, not in the way we had this week. And the slavish following of all other news media seems wrong. Do we have the media plurality we should have in a democracy? We certainly have more voices, but, for those with mass reach, there don’t seem that many.
  • Ryde Pride was postponed. Yet The Island was lovely, if a bit windy. We braved sitting outside in spite of the wind.
  • The Ryde Transport Hub appears to be more-or-less finished. The mystery of the No. 9 is now solved. Boarded on Sunday. The lady that got on behind us doesn’t like the new arrangements. I am very much of the opposite opinion.
  • I wish I could find something online that explains why they are extracting the sand from one part of Appley Beach and depositing it at the other end using two trucks, a digger and something to flatten it out.

Media

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #24: Back to the cinema

Week commencing Monday, 3 July 2023

A big television screen in Wimbledon town centre showing The Championships. There are deckchairs in front of the screen with a few people sat on them watching.
Watching Wimbledon in Wimbledon

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (71%, much better). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Total steps: 63,278

Life

  • Why did I restart my Weeknotes? I have no idea but I did. It is nice to have a weekly summary to read back through. And adding the titles makes them a bit more interesting on my site.
  • Monday, to have my eyes tested. Stopped to watch some of the tennis on the big screen in Wimbledon. I could see that OK.
  • In these notes, does going to the cinema count as a life moment or a media moment?
  • Related, that movie was Asteroid City: It’s the first film we’ve been to see in the cinema for a long time. This is a pretty visual movie and benefited from the big screen. The colour palette is wonderful. The expansive desert appears huge and contrasted with the smallness of the town. I am not normally a fan of movies where the narrative/plot/story is almost unfathomable but this has just enough to keep me hooked while continually wondering what the message was and where it was going. I don’t know why I’d recommend it but I would.
  • Wednesday, an appointment at the doctor’s surgery. The digital screen informed me that the fire alarm would be tested tomorrow at 2pm. Not entirely sure why I needed to see that message. Couldn’t it have been scheduled?
  • Related. Filling a repeat prescription used to be easy. The nearby chemist did all the work electronically and sent me a text. The process has gone backwards and now the surgery itself is more involved but is unable to handle proactive notifications when there is an issue. So, when they could handle sending me a notification about a survey to tell them about my experience they, perhaps, didn’t get the high rating they were hoping for. I assume it’ll be ignored.
  • Train travel chaos on Friday evening magically worked out OK when we got our reserved seats and a later connection was on a quieter train. Still delay repayable. Hello, Shrewsbury.
  • Talking of transport. Depressing news if you believe, like I do, that infrastructure is important for prosperity: “London’s place in the hierarchy of world cities cannot be taken for granted”
  • Finally, great meal, great service. The recently refurbish Mytton & Mermaid was absolutely wonderful on Saturday night.

Media

  • In rotation this week for post-Pride week, as heard at last weekend’s “Don’t tell this Bishops”, Chosen Family: “We don’t need to be related to relate, We don’t need to share genes or a surname, You are, you are my chosen, chosen family.”
  • Also, Country Pride, Perhaps a song NSFW but it amused me. Good Lookin’: “He’s bouncing off my booty cheeks, I love the way he rides.”

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

Weeknotes #23: Don’t Tell The Bishops

Week commencing Monday, 26 June 2023

Angie Brown at The Actor’s Church

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 5/7. (71%, much better). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 59,192

Life

  • Tuesday, met up with friends. We started in a bar near King’s Cross but SP thought £6.10 was over-priced for a pint. So, we went to the Water Rats where it was £6.80. We sat drinking and didn’t go in to see Verity Ellen’s Tribute to Beyonce Album Launch but I do wish we had. Not entirely sure what to make of some of the conversation.
  • Related, a taxi from central London to my house is now over £60. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry. Related, related; is commenting on how everything seems more expensive now a factor of the ‘cost of living’ crisis or age?
  • I ended up working late on Wednesday to get speaker notes together for a webinar that we recorded at work. We used PowerPoint to project them onto a screen. A helpful, improvised autocue. I probably won’t watch it back (but, you know, you should).
  • Thursday night to The Island and working from there on Friday. Got a walk to see the sea at lunchtime but it was raining which made it not as great as it sounds. We both finished work before 6pm. So, we went to a pub and discovered pan-fried egg crisps.
  • The Round The Island Race is much better viewed from the Appley with a big wide vista. My photos will never do it justice but, professionals know what they are doing.
  • West End in the Woods was brilliantly done. The Island’s Buses worked really well, which is a relief or else we would have been a bit stranded.
  • The Actor’s church is lovely. ‘Don’t Tell The Bishops’ was celebratory and Angie Brown was a nicely nostalgic act to close with (also, brilliant)

Media

  • If you watch BBC telly you’ll know Duncan Newmarch’s voice. The latest version of his ‘radio’ show, Stuck In the 80s was out this week. Hat tip, Tom Scott and James Cridland. Amazing production. I wonder if it could have been done on live radio? But, this machine would have helped a lot.
  • Being old enough to watch the evolution of YouTube is fascinating: “Every single minute 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. Yet at the top, some of the world’s biggest creators quitting, crying being cancelled. But despite this, there are still 113 million other channels of people giving everything to try and make it big.” UNTOLD: The Cost of Being a YouTuber | Channel 4 Documentaries
  • Not cleaning videos this week, but relaxation came from watching excellent driving under blue lights: Over to the Motorway – 999 run

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.