WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:17.748 The Weekly Thing, issue 35. Weekly Thing for January 6, twenty eighteen. Published January 7, twenty eighteen. By Jamie Thingelstad. In this issue: Prometheus metrics and labels, Intel kernel memory flaw, password manager ad targeting, encryption lava lamps, best iOS apps twenty seventeen. 00:00:18.348 --> 00:00:38.004 I hope you all had a great New Years and a fabulous start to twenty eighteen! For me the New Year has kicked off with a bang! This week has been a blur of various activities on all fronts. I celebrated my birthday with fun and presents. I’m eager to put my new sous vide cooker to work and make some delicious eats! 00:00:38.504 --> 00:00:56.364 I also kicked off the new year by taking Shawn Blanc's Focus Course. There are a few things I’m thinking about working on in twenty eighteen and establishing more focus is one of them. I decided to take it along with some friends that were also interested. I’m enjoying the course so far! 00:00:57.764 --> 00:00:59.044 Now, the Photo section. 00:00:59.644 --> 00:01:06.988 One of our New Years Eve traditions with the kids is a game of Clue. This year Mrs. Peacock did it with the Wrench in the Hall! 00:01:07.488 --> 00:01:12.046 December 31, twenty seventeen at 9:03 PM Home, Minneapolis MN. 00:01:13.446 --> 00:01:14.691 That's the end of Photo. 00:01:16.091 --> 00:01:17.329 Now, the Links section. 00:01:17.929 --> 00:01:21.775 Link one. Prometheus Blog Series (Part 1): Metrics and Labels. 00:01:22.275 --> 00:01:35.050 Interesting series of blog posts with a solid introduction to Prometheus. Multiple parts Metrics and Labels, Metric types, Exposing and collecting metrics, Instrumenting code in Go and Java and Alerting rules. 00:01:35.950 --> 00:01:40.757 Link two. Dan Harris Knows All Your Excuses for Not Meditating, Note to Self, WNYC. 00:01:41.257 --> 00:01:51.191 I enjoyed this podcast and it spoke to me as I’m one of those people that constantly thinks that meditation would be a good practice for me but I never make the time to do it. 00:01:52.091 --> 00:01:58.626 Link three. 'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign • The Register. 00:01:59.126 --> 00:02:19.681 This reads like a detective novel and dives into some interesting things about how modern CPU's work and what they do in silicon to protect different memory spaces. This looks like a pretty nasty issue but we won't know the real extent of it until the embargo is removed. The aside on the name option for the fix made me chuckle. 00:02:20.181 --> 00:02:41.493 Quote. The fix is to separate the kernel's memory completely from user processes using what's called Kernel Page Table Isolation, or KPTI. At one point, Forcefully Unmap Complete Kernel With Interrupt Trampolines, aka FUCKWIT, was mulled by the Linux kernel team, giving you an idea of how annoying this has been for the developers. End quote. 00:02:42.393 --> 00:02:47.010 Link four. Simulating Chutes and Ladders in Python, Pythonic Perambulations. 00:02:47.510 --> 00:02:58.368 Oh the fun you can have playing with some Python code and a simple game. If you've been subjected to many games of Chutes and Ladders this will give you some new ways to appreciate the game. 00:02:58.868 --> 00:03:18.646 Quote. With two players, this translates to a 1% chance that the game will go 72 moves without either of the players winning. Assuming roughly 20 seconds per round, that is about 24 minutes of play time, though from personal experience I can say it feels roughly twenty times that long. End quote. 00:03:19.546 --> 00:03:23.842 Link five. How cloud speed helps SQL Server DBAs, Blog, Microsoft Azure. 00:03:24.342 --> 00:03:45.517 Nice article going into some depth on how Microsoft has had to completely rethink how they deliver SQL Server to make it work for a cloud platform. I like that this highlights the stuff that often isn't considered as you shift software to a cloud deployment strategy. Velocity and speed are highlighted in ways they never are in other models. 00:03:46.417 --> 00:03:49.481 Link six. twenty seventeen in Numbers • Aaron Parecki. 00:03:49.981 --> 00:03:58.555 Another example of a personal annual report, this one on various metrics that Aaron Parecki has kept for the year. Transportation, beverages… 00:03:59.455 --> 00:04:04.697 Link seven. Ad targeters are pulling data from your browser’s password manager, The Verge. 00:04:05.197 --> 00:04:14.173 Ad this to the list of reasons for why you absolutely should be running protective software when browsing the web. I run 1Blocker, Ghostery and Better. 00:04:15.073 --> 00:04:16.669 Link eight. Spamnesty, Home. 00:04:17.169 --> 00:04:21.487 Lovely! I like how they show the transcripts of previous discussions. 00:04:21.987 --> 00:04:43.749 Quote. Spamnesty is a way to waste spammers' time. If you get a spam email, simply forward it to sp@mnesty.com, and Spamnesty will strip your email address, pretend it's a real person and reply to the email. Just remember to strip out any personal information from the body of the email, as it will be used so the reply looks more legitimate. End quote. 00:04:44.649 --> 00:04:47.385 Link nine. Sense: Track energy use in real time. 00:04:47.885 --> 00:05:05.711 I shared my frustration with the reporting that my power company provides and Luke Samaha pointed me to Sense. This looks like a pretty amazing device and some great data. I like the premise of identifying the changes and then having the user annotate what happened. Wish it cost half as much though. 00:05:06.611 --> 00:05:10.889 Link ten. Encryption Lava Lamps, San Francisco, California, Atlas Obscura. 00:05:11.389 --> 00:05:33.496 There are many many novel ways to generate true random numbers, versus pseudorandom numbers that almost all devices create. This one is a great read and a good photo but it leaves me feeling like it can be a very good answer. Look at the photo that the video is capturing, most of that frame is static. It would seem much better if there was more variety in the frame. 00:05:34.396 --> 00:05:38.428 Link eleven. Best of twenty seventeen: iOS Apps, BrettTerpstra.com. 00:05:38.928 --> 00:05:47.731 Terpstra is a developer and power-user and I always find I learn or discover something when I read the write-ups of apps that folks like this use. 00:05:48.631 --> 00:05:51.080 Link twelve. To Serve Man, with Software. 00:05:51.580 --> 00:06:07.271 Great post and reflections from Jeff Atwood. His thoughts reflect many of the people building things in tech. I think it’s a good thing that people are becoming more introspective on the systems that they create, and asking questions about the value they are bringing. 00:06:07.771 --> 00:06:25.006 Quote. Software is easy to change, but people … aren't. So in the new year, as software developers, let's make a resolution to focus on the part we can change, and keep asking ourselves one very important question: how can our software help people become the best version of themselves? End quote. 00:06:25.506 --> 00:06:31.456 File this into that area of computer ethics that should become part of computer science curriculums. 00:06:32.356 --> 00:06:34.722 Link thirteen. Life Stack, AnomaLily.net. 00:06:35.222 --> 00:06:41.161 Thorough list of tools that this person uses to track and measure various aspects of their life. 00:06:42.061 --> 00:06:46.175 Link fourteen. Checklist-Checklist: A Curated List of Checklists ︎︎. 00:06:46.675 --> 00:07:16.049 Like seeing this. After reading the Checklist Manifesto I started a wiki at CCChecklist.org. The idea of that project was to be a Creative Commons licensed collection of checklists to share. This project is similar just using Github instead of a wiki. I never launched that project, but the concept is still really good. Minor nitpick that this is using Github Flavored Markdown for the checklists and I think Taskpaper would be a more useful and interoperable format. 00:07:16.949 --> 00:07:19.133 Link fifteen. IKEA effect, Wikipedia. 00:07:19.633 --> 00:07:25.124 I had no idea this was a known effect but it makes a lot of sense and the name is pretty awesome. 00:07:26.024 --> 00:07:30.840 Link sixteen. Monitoring Home Power Consumption for less than 25 dollars. 00:07:31.340 --> 00:07:56.444 This is super cool and I might have to try this. I know our house has a wireless meter system, the electric company installed it several years ago. I've never looked into how it works but if it’s this easy this could be a great way to get much more detail on our power usage. If you can get hourly, daily reports on power you should be able to connect your activities close enough to make changes to reduce usage. 00:07:57.844 --> 00:07:59.092 That's the end of Links. 00:08:00.492 --> 00:08:02.497 Now, the Microblog updates section. 00:08:03.097 --> 00:08:13.169 First, entering the world of sous vide cooking with my new Joule. Love that I even get to update firmware on this! Has WiFi and can be controlled anywhere from iOS. 00:08:13.669 --> 00:08:23.041 Second, just finished module 1 of The Focus Course. It is a slow start but I see it building some foundational things. Looking forward to the rest of the modules. 00:08:23.541 --> 00:08:29.070 Third, this was a fun surprise on my Apple Watch this morning. Was this only a Siri face feature? 00:08:29.570 --> 00:08:31.459 Fourth, humbling game of Blokus! 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:34.857 Fifth, it was Mrs. Peacock in the Hall with a Wrench! 00:08:35.357 --> 00:08:39.197 Sixth, time for family New Years Eve. Game of Clue is first up! 00:08:39.697 --> 00:08:48.309 Seventh, got a set of the Bodum demitasse for Christmas. Lighter than my typical Illy demitasse but I like that you can see the espresso. 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:53.563 Eighth, leveling up my coffee fussiness with this new coffee distribution tool. 00:08:54.063 --> 00:09:04.711 Ninth, tyler and I played Super Mario Odyssey through a few levels today and had a blast. The game is filled with little hidden gems. And playing as other characters with the hat is amazing. 00:09:05.211 --> 00:09:16.975 Tenth, first time playing Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries and liked it a lot. Limiting to only have 3 players, but fun routes and tunnels add challenges. Pairs well with snow and hot cocoa. 00:09:18.375 --> 00:09:20.581 That's the end of Microblog updates. 00:09:21.081 --> 00:09:28.153 Thank you for subscribing to the Weekly Thing! If you know of people that would like the Weekly Thing please forward it along! 00:09:29.553 --> 00:09:36.262 That brings us to the end of the Weekly Thing, issue 35. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.