Saturday 19th August, 2023 -Make Things, Take Notes, Profit (Issue #128)
This week is a celebration of makers, builders, creators of all types and the cultures that surround this amazing activity that keeps the world a fascinating place.
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
It’s been quite a week for me both good and bad. Focusing on the good stuff, I deployed a new feature on the website called Notes. I’ve been posting a lot of these, sort of experimenting at the minute to see if it’s something I find useful. So far I think it is. It’s all built using my static site generator. You can find the latest notes here:
There are still some bugs. The archives page version of each day has the notes items in the wrong order. That’s annoying but I’ll fix it, though I’m very close to running out of build minutes again, so probably not till next month.
Here’s one about the notes origin story:
https://markjgsmith.com/notes/2023/08/18/140800-markjgsmith.com
Here’s another about what it’s like preparing the newsletter:
https://markjgsmith.com/notes/2023/08/18/122100-markjgsmith.com
The theme for the newsletter this week is all about makers, builders, DIYers. Of course I’m influenced by my own developments this week, I don’t release new features like Notes very often, so that’s on my mind, but actually looking at the podcasts there’s a lot of stuff by people who are creating things in one way or another.
Anyhow it’s early days for the website’s new notes feature. I’ve setup auto posts to Twitter and Mastodon so each morning the latest links and notes will flow through there. Click around a bit if your interested in what I’m up to, and what I’m thinking about.
On with the newsletter…
Podcasts
Back Together w/ Stig Brodersen and Preston Pysh Ep#570 (The Investors Podcast) - This was one of those aint-podcasting-amazing kind of episodes. These two have been working together for years, but haven’t appeared on a show together for a very long time. They retrace their podcasting journey, through the hilariously amateur beginnings, with no idea what they were doing, through to the present day where their show is very popular yet still kind of underground. A story of friendship, setting sail into uncharted waters and building a distributed remote business in the process. https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/episodes/back-together-w-stig-brodersen-and-preston-pysh
Mr. Bill (Duncan Trussell Podcast) - Fun episode because these two are so very different personality-wise but they share a passion for music and publishing online. It’s cool listening to them become friends, learning and sharing stories from their non conventional lives and finding a lot of unexpected similarities. Mr Bill who I have to admit I had not heard of before, is an electronic music producer from down under. Quite popular by all accounts, playing big festivals etc. I love his accent, and the fact he’s a bit of a tech geek. https://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2023/8/12/mr-bill
This is WORSE than FEARED (Eurodollar University Podcast) - All about China, the disappointing re-opening after COVID, and deflation, and CAPITALISATION. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL21ha2luZy1zZW5zZQ/episode/YTA4OWM0ZTMtOWQwYS00MzBjLTllZjAtMWU1NmRmNDJkNjM3?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwjwwJTAuueAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNQ
Weekly Roundup Ep#17 8.17.2023 (Peter St Onge Podcast) - More economics and macro stuff. I love the way Peter puts together his segments. He’s got a very unique style. It’s like he is Mohammed Ali, every segment’s analysis is perfect and leads to a final 1-2 knock out punch. Or like watching a Michelin star chef, perfectly preparing all the ingredients and then effortlessly reduce something unfathomably complex into a delicious desert that hits the spot every time. I feel like I should be cheering at the end of each piece. It doesn’t even matter what he’s talking about, it’s always just so well put together. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMTc2NTAyLnJzcw/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC0xMzM4OTk1NQ?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwjwwJTAuueAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQsQM
The Dollar Is Starting To MOVE… What This Means For YOU (Eurodollar University Podcast) - Ever wondered how currencies affect each other in the global environment? This is the episode for you. China’s Yuan, India’s rupee and the rising dollar, and what it means for everyone. It’s one of those episodes that connects a lot of pieces to draw a satisfying big picture of something that connects us all. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL21ha2luZy1zZW5zZQ/episode/OTJmOTQ1YmItZDY5Zi00M2M3LWExZTEtZmUzMTc0YjI4ODA4?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwjwwJTAuueAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ1wM
How YouTube and ESPN control the future of everything (Vergecast Podcast) - The sports bit is actually quite good even if it isn’t really in my wheelhouse. College football, cricket and Richard Lawler. Great combo. The YouTube segment is super interesting. It’s an interview with the bloke, Alex Winter, who played Bill in the film Bill & Ted, unless I totally misheard that. Anyway he knows a lot about video, and this episode is all about online video. He made a documentary called The YouTube Effect. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/MmMzNjkxYTItNDlhZS0xMWVkLWE2ZGMtNmZjMTZjYjQwYjA2?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwjwwJTAuueAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ0wY
10 Years Until Chatbots Run The World (Have A Nice Future Podcast) - This is one of those oh-no-ai-is-going-to-take-over-the-world episodes, looks at ‘containment’ and restriction/regulation, modernising institutions, regular people using AI to create conflict, and bots that can make a million bucks. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vZ2V0LXdpcmVk/episode/MjQ0OTQ2MWMtM2JiZS0xMWVlLWJjMTAtMWZmOTEwMDQxNGNl?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwjwwJTAuueAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ5Qo
30 Years of Debian Ep#553 (Changelog Interviews Podcast) - I’m quite a big fan of Ubuntu, I currently use it for most of my server dev work. I’ve had mostly good experiences with it. Debian is the OG Ubuntu. It’s been around for years, with a focus on free as in freedom, it’s a global community of volunteers, with technologists and builders making the decisions rather than marketers and sales folks. Very interesting to hear about how they structured the various entities that together build the distro. Lots and lots of interesting open source commentary including about the current state of things with Redhat and Fedora and Linux running on Apple Silicon. https://changelog.com/podcast/553
Links
Open Circuits - Cory Doctorow writes about his recent trip to Defcon, the famous hacker conference in Las Vegas. Sounds like a cool conference, though personally I think I'd be too worried about getting hacked to enjoy myself. He mentions a cool new book about the tiny electronics that power the computers of the modern world. What's cool is that the book, which is educational, reframes these marvelous tiny inventions, highlighting them as beautiful art. I love this. Take something that seems boring and show why it's actually amazing. It's maker culture at it's best. https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/14/hidden-worlds
A.I. Can’t Build a High-Rise, but It Can Speed Up the Job - Gets into how AI is impacting construction sites, which historically have been quite slow on the uptake when it comes to software and tech. It's about changing the fundamentals, "getting data you need and then using it better" and ultimately do a better job of "coordinating the complex ballet of supplies, labor and timetables" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/business/artificial-intelligence-construction-real-estate.html
A blog post with every HTML element - One for all the web development nerds out there. A few weeks ago I updated all the HTML tags on the website so I found this post mostly fascinating. However I'm reading offline on iOS, so no way to open up devtools to have a look at the page HTML, which made the post a bit tedious. Great reference article, there are so many details to consider. It's amazing how much thought has gone into even just HTML, nevermind CSS and Javascript. https://www.patrickweaver.net/blog/a-blog-post-with-every-html-element
Lots more interesting links on the daily linkblog about all sorts of wonderfully interesting things. Please check them out:
That’s all from me…
Best reguards,
Mark
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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!