The on-call week finally got over, and I spent the next few days catching up with work that had piled up. Most of my reads/videos have been focussed on tech again:
- I really enjoyed Dylan Beattie’s talk from a couple of weeks ago, and watched a few more. I’d highly recommend watching Ctrl-Alt-Del: Learning to Love Legacy Code, especially the first 7 minutes for the sheer magic of playful lyrics. A lot of the themes from the talk resonated with my experience at my previous company, where the product was successful enough that I saw a lot of legacy code being either refactored, or replaced. And I was fortunate enough to work with a bunch of folks who wrote the original systems, and could explain why things were done in ways that seemed nonsensical later, but were right for the time when the systems were originally implemented.
- Evo India, an automotive magazine and YouTube channel I’ve been following for a while has a series on old vehicles that did really well or were popular in the Indian markets, called Gone But Not Forgotten. The playlist is a great trip down the memory lane, and the latest episode is on the Chevrolet Tavera. The script writing in this did feel better than the last couple of episodes, although the car in focus itself wasn’t as memorable as some of the other episodes. I eagerly look forward to more episodes in this series!
- Continuing on the automotive theme, MotorInc, a channel that I recently discovered and have fallen in love with, did a first impressions video on the Harley Davidson X440. I may never buy this bike, but it’s a monumental event for the growing leisure bike market in India. And, Shumi, as usual, hit it out of the park with his nuanced opinions.
- Ever since Harshad introduced me to FreeBSD and Michael W Lucas, I’ve come to enjoy mwl’s irreverent but highly insightful style of speaking combined with his deep knowledge of how computers computer. A few days ago, he wrote a small letter to the editor of the FreeBSD Journal as they commemorated the 30th anniversary of the project. I wish more people knew about the gem he is, and learn more from him. Also, he’s writing his next book on a topic very close to my heart, Running Your Own Mail Server. If you just sat straighter and started to stretch your fingers and rise to the bait, I’d highly recommend heading over to mwl’s site, and reading through his draft of the book.
That’s it for this week!