Saturday 2nd March, 2024 - Antibiotics & Podcasts (Issue #153)
Quartet of Bitcoin, Right to repair, what the fed owns, developing software for satellites, Bach, accessibility & reality of web components in production
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
I’ve been mostly completely offline this past week. I’ve been listening to podcasts but I’m behind on the news cycle. I’m still very ill, though got a great recommendation as to some antibiotics to take for my ailments. I’ve had about 4 days of the antibiotics and I am feeling better, though definitely not out of the woods. Still having the occasional cough attack, also still feel like voming quite a bit. Anyway I hope things continue to improve.
I’ve compiled the list of best pods I listened to while I’ve been stuck here ill. There’s a ton of great stuff. There’s a good mix of money, macro, bitcoin, tech & webdev, but also classical music and global cultures!
There’s not much else to say, static site generator dev work is completely paused. I’m still stuck on the bug I mentioned in newsletter issue #152. Once I figure a way to deal with that I’ll be able to really streamline installs, and loads of tickets in my issue tracker that have been hanging around for ages will magically disappear, because they won’t be necessary anymore. That will be nice.
Hope you are all well.
Podcasts
The Bitcoin Scaling Dilema With Shinobi (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - Scaling bitcoin might be the most important topic right now, because if we have to change some of the fundamental values in order to scale the network, then why bother at all? This gets quite technical, but you will get a clear idea of where we are at with all this. It’s complicated, and definitely doesn’t feel settled, even if many would like you to think it is. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-bitcoin-scaling-dilemma
The right to repair - and play games anywhere (Vergecast Podcast) - The right to repair movement has been around for years now. In a future where ever more of our interactions are mediated in some way, it’s ever more important, so that we can have sovereignty over the devices we own. But the whole area is very nuanced, and at times I’ve felt myself agreeing with the manufacturers. Anyhow, it’s a very complete episode covering all the bases. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/NTM5OGU0YWEtOWVhYS0xMWVlLTgyY2ItZmJmMDUzNTFmZjcy?sa=X&ved=0CAIQuIEEahcKEwjowd6rm9WEAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQLA
What Does the FED own? Ep#98 (Porkopolis Economics Podcast) - Short and sweet episode that answers the question in the title! https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kOGRlY2YzYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/MmE5ZGViODktNjVkNy00OGRhLTk4ZDUtMzYyNjg4YTE2M2U1?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwjowd6rm9WEAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQTw
Nvidia smashes earnings (again), Google’s woke AI disaster, Groq’s LPU breakthrough and more (All-In Podcast) - Probably not their best ever episode, but the segment on Nvidia is very very good, with excellent bigger picture of how it fits into everything. We are in a rare industry-wide build out by major infrastructure providers. Last time a CAPEX frenzy like this happened was likely prior to dot com crash, which got us from piddly 56k dial up to broadband speeds. Of course environment is very different today. Also worth listening to the bit about Groq if you want to know what might come after Nvidia GPUs. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGxpbmNoYW1hdGhqYXNvbi5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw/episode/ZjhlZTY4MTItNDViZi00NWNjLWEwOGQtN2UyM2MwMTZmODlh?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwjowd6rm9WEAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQrgM
Shipping in SPAAAAAACEEE (Ship It Podcast) - They have a new format and new hosts so it feels very different, however the episode is an instant classic. It’s all about the technical logistics of running satellites in space. Do they just SSH in to figure out stuff when things aren’t working? If you are a dev or sys admin or a variant you will undoubtably love this episode. https://changelog.com/shipit/92
Will the Dollar Implode? With Macro Alf (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - Everytime Alf is on WBD he gets better. His explanations are very clear and from a TradFi background. Looks at what conditions would be necessary for the dollar to actually implode. It’s not so simple. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/will-the-dollar-implode
Maasaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach (Conversations with Tyler Podcast) - Completely different to everything else on this list. It was a refreshing break from tech and crypto. My favourite thing about this episode, apart from learning some of the technicalities of being an organ player, was all the cultural moments throughout. There are so many interesting cultural moments, about western religion, and Japan, Asia, Holland, Germany, classical music, it’s a really unique look at some things you might already be familiar with, but from a totally different angle. https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/masaaki-suzuki
What Does Accessibility Really Mean Ep#602 (Shop Talk Show Podcast) - The accessibility discussion is fantastic, really made me question sone of my assumptions. There’s also a really great and very technical wonder into the world of web components. Finally some real world production examples! Chris takes us down the rabbit hole he had to go down in order to fix some bugs at Code Pen. https://shoptalkshow.com/602
The Right to Bitcoin With Dennis Porter (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - This is in the regulation space but it’s very interesting not only because of the cross over with Peter’s football club current legal issues, but just to get a general idea of how politics works at the state level in the US. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-right-to-bitcoin
Why We Shouldn’t Trust Blackrock with Whitney Webb and Mark Goodwin (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - These two get a bit cranky sometimes, but there’s no doubt that they are sone of the most informed about the dodgy dealings and goings on behind the scenes. They full story of Blackrock and Larry Finch is fascinating. He’s basically been doing the same thing for 50 years! Chopping things up into small pieces using computers, then selling those pieces all over the place. You could say he’s mad about fractionally reserving everything. That and so much more in this episode. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/why-we-shouldnt-trust-blackrock
That’s all from me…
Best reguards,
Mark
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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!