2020#45 Readings of the Week

Writing generative stuff is eating away at my free time, reducing reading significantly.

There’s a two-pronged attack on my blog post reading habits: lack of a commute and p5js. When lockdown started, lack of a commute made me miss several weeks of readings, now it’s due to spending my evenings exploring code with p5js. You can see my (finished or considered done for the moment) sketches here. One I’m proud but is not officially published as code is this embroided bird. It is still a WIP, since there are many things I’m not happy with, although the effect “is there”:

NOTE: Generative code, Python, Javascript, Maths, Pandas. Expect a similar wide range in the future as well. You can check all my weekly readings by checking the tag here. You can also get these as a weekly newsletter by subscribing here.

Blot/Painting: generative paint/ink splashes

As mentioned in the preamble, I have been doing a lot of generative coding. It’s so fun. This is the one I’m most proud of, and where I sunk well over a week of non-work time. I hope you like it

An almost entirely intact Roman mosaic villa floor

A twitter thread with the pictures. They are impressive

Go toast

This is not about go the language. The toasts out of this should taste heavenly.

The work-centric standup

This seems like an interesting approach to standups

🔊 Measure what matters

Severely disappointed by this. Starts with a “I know a lot of people” and is followed by “business cases” where CEOs, CIOs of famous companies say how they love OKRs. There is not a lot going on into what makes good OKRs in the book (and anyway, what is there can fit a single sheet). For me the most dangerous part is the OKR itself, as envisioned by Google, Doerr and partly Andy Grove himself. Set a very audacious goal to motivate your employees (à la Google, or Intel) is how you end up with people working until 23 because their numbers don’t add up, burndown and all the rest. No thank you

The one pandas internal I teach all my new colleagues: the BlockManager

I dove into the BlockManager details (i.e. checking the code) for my PySpark internals presentation, Uwe gave me a few pointers and actually this blog post is one of the most informative about it.

JS Tips from Threejs tutorial

As mentioned before, I have been writing a s***ton of Javascript lately. I stopped writing even half-serious Javascript when AJAX was a thing, so having some tips about what modern-ish Javascript looks like is helpful.

Mist showers

I thought about this like 15 years ago. This is a very long post about the story behind it and the future that may hold it.

Text for Proofing Fonts

An interesting read into what takes proofing a font without resorting to foxes and lazy dogs.

Image Approximation with Constant-Color Shapes

Esteban’s blog is an awesome source of generative ideas. This is one I also want to implement.

New Features in Python 3.9 You Should Know About

I could have used the topological sorting on paque, probably. Although with parameter substitution maybe not.

🔊 Pre-Suasion

I’m kind of sad of having picked it up as an audiobook, since it means I could not take as many notes as I take in a normal book. Was entertaining and informative (especially since it’s been many years since I read Influence)

Microsoft Open-Sources GW-BASIC | Windows Command Line

This was the first language I programmed with. I still have the technical manual (gifted by my late uncle) after all these years.

Kafka Needs No Keeper - Removing ZooKeeper Dependency

I’m ambivalent between removing that dependency and losing Zookeeper, which is useful to have there.

Multipole Methods for the Masses

This is super interesting as an optimisation procedure. It was used to model some epidemic 🤔.

A letter to (tech) recruiters

It’s funny because it’s true.

The HSB Color System: A Practitioner’s Primer

I’m trying to understand HSB, but I find it hard.

Roman Finger Counting

It’s a bit like the classic finger counting in binary

Hand-Drawn Voronoi Diagrams : 9 Steps (with Pictures)

Intriguing.

Making Generative Music in the Browser

I have been doing a lot of generative image stuff lately, I’m interested in music as well. Nothing done yet though! I will probably be using (in the beginning at least) p5.sound, though I keep tone.js in the backburner.

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