Espresso Shots 11-25-24
Here's my weekly update with a few interesting random findings that I came across the last week or two. I am going to try to make sure they're here in time for you to enjoy with your morning coffee (or beverage of choice) every Saturday or Sunday, and include some of my thoughts around them.
Gear Drop 🛍️
Due to popular demand I have added a new meme shirt from last week's post that seemed to have a bunch of heads nodding. As the holidays 🎁 are upon us, I'm sure someone on your gift list would enjoy some makoism's to rattle some nerves at the office. (I find "nope" a personal favorite for meetings).
The Latest Drippings ☕️
- They All Use It. Wow, I loved this post, and it tickles something that I've run across not just engineers but entire industries: people who don't even want to think of exploring some new technology (akin to 'that's not the way I used to do it." 'I've assumed that one shared trait between programmers was curiosity, a willingness to learn and that our maxim is that we can't ever stop learning because what we're doing is constantly changing beneath our fingers and if we don't pay attention it might slip away from us, leaving us with the knowledge that's no longer useful.' Amen.
- Self-Sabotaging Innovation: The Art of Doing Dumb Shit. I've mentioned previously the declassified Simple Sabotage Field Manual - a handbook designed to help ordinary citizens disrupt enemy operations through acts of sabotage. What is often called 'business as usual' is more akin to how we are actively sabotaging ourselves.
- Man Who Spent $6.2 Million on Banana Duct-Taped to Wall Says He's Going to Eat It. Well, just when I thought that a Banana-as-Art Sells for $6.2 Million at Sotheby's, the story takes an apparent expected turn into wacky as the reveals what he's going to do with it. Of course, he's going to eat it. Side note: the artist .35 for the banana at a local market.
- Misc. is 'a joyful abundance of things you didn't know you needed to know' from the folks over at Delayed Gratification. I recently discovered this 'beautiful quarterly publication which revisits the events of the last three months to offer in-depth, independent journalism in an increasingly frantic world.' And who can argue with a publication that has a tagline of 'WE VALUE BEING RIGHT ABOVE BEING FIRST' these days?
- Chicago Kare by Duane King. Attention font geeks, here's a faithful reproduction of the bitmap version of the Chicago typeface created by Susan Kare for Apple Computer in 1984.
- Any Similarity to Actual Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental. TIL: 'The persons and events in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional.' That legal boilerplate has been present for almost 100 years because of Rasputin.
- Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar's Santo Tequila Trucks Hijacked in 'Double Heist.' Now $1M Worth of Tequila Is Missing. Coming soon to a theater near you, next years buddy cop film, 'Sip Happens: Flames, Frames, and Fugitives.'
- Why Not Bluesky. Sure, I have an account on BlueSky as I was trying to set up a custom domain, but Tim Bray (as usual) brings up some excellent points before you jump there, especially around their reliance on venture capital — a good read.
- Daisy the AI' Granny Scambaiter' Joins the Fight Against Phone Scammers. Probably one of the best use cases that I've seen for Generative AI to date.
- Ukraine's Resilience Coffee Culture. I loved this reflection on how coffee culture symbolizes resilience and unity during the ongoing war. There's been a whopping 35% increase in just the number of coffee shops since the war began there, as the comfort and familiarity of the coffee-drinking ritual has provided a way to momentarily escape the realities of war
- Expert Explains Why, Essentially, You're Fucked. Yup, watch it; from The Onion.
- Mattel apologizes after Wicked movie dolls mistakenly link to porn website on packaging. Welp, that's a misprint - the web site addresses that were printed on boxes for Glinda and Elphaba dolls, showed a link to wicked.com, instead of wickedmovie.com. Oops.
Amor Fati ✌🏻