Saturday 15th June, 2024 - Big Changes At Every Layer (Issue #168)
Linux desktop movement gets a big boost, the dollar and petrodollar are dying, being a VC is changing, the surprisingly interesting history of men’s suits, EU elections and Microsoft & AI
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
This week’s issue seems to be all about big changes in the world that are happening all around us. There are big changes afoot in many foundational layers of the various systems that underpin our societies. The monetary system is changing, fashions and the way we socialise are changing, worldwide politics is changing, tech funding is changing, and the core tech tools we use are changing. It’s a massive metamorphosis that is happening at every layer. We are refactoring the world all around us, even as we are within it.
That’s the gist of this week’s podcast selection, which I think has turned out to be one of the best for quite a while. It really paints in broad strokes all this massive change that’s happening, in several meal sized chunks. Really wonderful food for you brain and mind to help you position yourself in this world which can at times seem very crazy indeed. Also there’s some really cool bonus episodes at the end, last minute additions.
I’ve spent much of the early part of the week frantically trying to add everything page support to my static site generator’s archives plugin. The everything page has been a big success so far, but the archives are still currently only for individual post types. I want to be able to navigate the archives and see what was posted on a specific day, presented like the everything page, with all items interleaved.
The long and short of it is that I got it working! Yey! But I essentially ran out of build minutes right before merging and deploying the new changes. It was quite an ordeal, with the world pulling me in all sorts of unhelpful directions, egging me on to go down very dangerous paths. But I kept my cool, and the live site didn’t have any outages, though I have been big time punished by the world for not falling into the various traps it put in my way. And so it goes.
Big blogging adventures will have to wait until next month, though not entirely as I have a small amount of minutes left to publish a few days worth of content. Since I’m using git I can continue writing locally and sync everything up later. In the future I hope to have streamlined the user experience, but it’s good to know that you can always fall back to your local git installation and some text files, even if you have no internet.
There’s more about my development stuff on the website. Check it out! :)
https://markjgsmith.com/everything
I wrote some blog posts I think some of you will like:
The Lib Dems pro-EU pro-cannabis ticket https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/06/12/the-lib-dems-pro-eu-pro-cannabis-ticket
Linux desktop for developers movement https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/06/12/linux-desktop-for-developers-movement
Static site generator archives plugin update https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/06/13/static-site-generator-archives-plugin-update
Leo Laporte on AI https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/06/13/leo-laporte-on-ai
I’m particularly into the Linux on the desktop one, I think that’s a great project, and such synchronicity with my blog post about digital collaboration in the VFX industry mentioned in last week’s issue.
I’m putting this issue together a day early because the world is on the warpath again and so I can’t be sure I’ll have electricity or running water by the weekend.
One more thing…
Google podcasts has this note on their website:
“After 23 June 2024, Google Podcasts will no longer be available. Start listening on YouTube Music as an alternative.”
I use them extensively for links to podcasts that don’t have their own website. It’s the cleanest podcast directory UI out there. I have no idea what I’ll use instead. Please send me suggestions. Not having Google Podcasts is a huge loss for me. I don’t suppose most folks will even notice. We really need a high quality place we can use to share podcasts links.
Podcasts
What Happens When the US Dollar Dies ft. Brent Johnson (Raoul Pal: The Journey Man Podcast) - There’s a lot of interesting ideas in this episode all around theories about what might happen as the US dollar slowly dies. Looks at the dollar milkshake theory, at the world US world dollar system, and how most trade worldwide is done in dollars, at gold bugs and the gold standard, and the impossibility of dedollarisation. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vcmVhbHZpc2lvbmNyeXB0b3BvZGNhc3Q/episode/OTI2MjM3NzItMjUwYS0xMWVmLWE3NWYtM2JkN2FmY2YzNWIx?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjI4e_5xteGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQOg
Alex Dang and Ilya Strebulaev on How to Think Like a Venture Capitalist Ep#2087 (Keen On Podcast) - Venture capital is massively important in the tech scene, but times are changing and so is the VC scene. It’s worth understanding how they think, and what makes them tick. That’s what this episode is all about. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC8zMDk0OTQucnNz/episode/c3Vic3RhY2s6cG9zdDoxNDQ5MjQyMjU?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwjI4e_5xteGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQxgU
The Suit, Saville Row, and Smartly Dressed Men (The Rest is History Podcast) - There’s a lot of very interesting history around men’s suits. I hadn’t realised. It’s really a style that took over the world. It’s like the eurodollar system of clothes. It has it’s roots in England trying to carve out it’s own distinct path from the sophisticated French. This rivalry resulted in much cultural change both in old times and in the recent past. The bit about the Beatles and the Stones is particularly interesting, but also how it affected culture around the rest of the world. Great episode. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL3RoZS1yZXN0LWlzLWhpc3RvcnktcG9kY2FzdA/episode/NmZhMTA5ZTYtMjQwZC0xMWVmLThiZTgtMGIyNjliMjBiZmY4?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwjI4e_5xteGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQkwk
Chef’s Choice Ubuntu Ep#566 (Linux Unplugged Podcast) - DFF of Signal37 fame has a new project. He’s moving the default software developer workstation in his company from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, and he’s creating an open source project to make that easier for others. It’s like oh-my-zsh but for an entire Ubuntu installation and configuration. Awesome discussion about this new direction and enthusiasm in the Linux community. https://linuxunplugged.com/566
The End of the Petrodollar | Like Gromen (Bankless Podcast) - Another important money topic vital to understand in the business world. We forget about this, but energy underpins everything, energy is really the base layer of money, there’s no getting around that. The way the world has organised around that in recent times, where we’ve been massively increasing our energy consumption, is thus very interesting. And what’s going to happens as the current order, with the US dollar at the centre, starts to change into a multi-polar world. https://www.bankless.com/the-end-of-the-petrodollar-luke-gromen
The EU election results - and what they mean for tech policy (Politico Tech Podcast) - Some good quality analysis of the recent EU elections, which are likely to have a big effect on all business activities throughout the continent and the effects on the wider world economy. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS95MnJxWWJwNA/episode/Y2FiYmEwYjQtZmJmYy00Yjk0LThiMjQtOWI0NmY4NmEyYjdj?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwjI4e_5xteGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQlA0
Microsoft is All-in on AI Part 1 Ep#593 & 2 Ep#594 (Changelog Interviews) - Microsoft’s transformation from hot startup to evil empire and back to tech innovator has been quite a ride. In recent years they have quite successfully positioned themselves at the centre of the open source community, with their acquisition of Github, and they appear to be good stewards, aware of the responsibility the community has placed in their hands. With that in mind it’s pretty fascinating to hear how they are approaching the AI and language model revolution. It feels like they have gone back to their roots, and the enthusiasm and vision is very impressive and dare I say it catchy. I liked these 2 episodes a lot more than I thought I would. https://changelog.com/podcast/593 https://changelog.com/podcast/594
For the Love of Linux (The Rework Podcast) - DHH gets right into his reasoning for the big move from MacOS to Linux as the default Desktop OS for his company’s software developers, and his new project to make that much easier for others. But also he’s kind of into a bit of Windows too. https://37signals.com/podcast/for-the-love-of-linux/
Update: I’ve listened to a few more awesome podcasts since putting the issue together yesterday, so I’m adding them here as a sort of bonus. I told you this issue turned out pretty great :)
Billy Carson Ep#2160 (Joe Rogan Experience Podcast) - This is this week’s out there piece, and it’s pretty f-ing out there. All about how aliens might have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, records of them in ancient texts, how there might be alien civilisations millions or even billions of years older than our own living on dark planets within our solar system, all be it very far out. This partly broke my brain I think. The fact that this story exists at all is a bit disconcerting, but no point in being scared of such things, better to face it, absorb and learn from it. Then continue building a better future for all. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2Vyb2dhbmV4cC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw/episode/MjM1Y2YxMTYtMjIyOS0xMWVmLTg0ZDUtZWY2ODJiNDE1MjM1?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjI64rFl9yGAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQOg
Everything Is Coming to Bitcoin with Zack Voell and Willem Schroe (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - This one is pretty interesting from a technical point of view, it’s all about bringing BitVM, the etherium virtual machine to Bitcoin, all built ontop of Lightning. Seems the Bitcoin base layer is about to get significantly modernised. Lots of very exciting possibilities. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/everything-is-coming-to-bitcoin
Keeping Up With The Kevorkians - Scar-Jo vs OpenAI, Google Classic (This Week in Google Podcast) - Leo has Ed Zitron on the show and it sure gets pretty firey, they talk AI and about Silicon Valley and try to put all things right in the world, kidding aside it’s a really good episode, lots of arguing but it feels like they actually agree on a lot of things. Would love to listen to more Leo + Ed. Pretty great combo imho. https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google/episodes/769
Update: The world’s been pushing and pulling me all morning, I’m exhausted! I have cramps in my feet! World’s on the warpath no matter what I do! Figured what the heck, another bonus! Listened to this one this morning, and it was so timely I decided to add it as a second bonus episode!
The Bitcoin White Pill with Marty Bent (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - Marty is the host of the TFTC podcast which I listen to so it was great to hear these two have a bitcoin conversation, all about how we should concentrate on the positive things even among all the negativity that’s happening, also touches on the deep state, what it is and how it might be affecting things around us, on corporate media and how grass roots media is changing the game, and on how Bitcoin is changing the whole dynamic because of how it’s incentives are setup. Great episode! https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-bitcoin-white-pill
That’s all from me…
Best regards,
Mark
Consider becoming a patreon, any support would be very much appreciated
Thanks for reading!
If you liked this newsletter you might like my blog, daily linkblog or experimental podcast :)
I’m a freelance web developer, consultant and automation engineer, consider hiring me!
Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!