Links

These are some of my favourite links and other resources from across the interwebs:

Blogs/reading

Software/tech

• Dom Corriveau (opens new window): I like Dom's pragmatic, individualised approach to self-hosting.
• Simon Willison’s Weblog (opens new window): LLM news and analyses. I especially enjoyed The Summer of Johann: prompt injections as far as the eye can see (opens new window).
• Stratechery (opens new window):
• Blood in the machine (opens new window)

Other

• Longreads (opens new window): quality longform nonfiction storytelling.

Discovery sites

Sites to discover blogs/sites:

• People and Blogs (opens new window) (available in RSS (opens new window))
• Hacker News (opens new window)
• Bear's Discovery feed (opens new window)

Podcasts

Tech/digital culture-adjacent

• Smashing Security (opens new window)
• Panic World (opens new window)
• Search Engine (opens new window)
• Endless Thread (opens new window)
• Never Post (opens new window)

Other

• A bit fruity by Matt Bernstein (opens new window) for sassy commentary on right-wing influencers.
• Modern Love (opens new window)
• Death, Sex, & Money (opens new window)
• EasyGerman (opens new window) for learning German.

Apps

• NetNewsWire (opens new window) for reading blog posts and other RSS feeds.

Movies

Tech-related

• The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (opens new window)
• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (opens new window)
• Citizenfour (opens new window) (about Edward Snowden)
• Hidden Figures (opens new window)

TV Series

Tech-related

• Halt and Catch Fire (opens new window): I still mean to go through this rad curriculum (opens new window) as I rewatch the series.
• Mr Robot (opens new window)
• Silicon Valley (opens new window)
• Severance (opens new window)

YouTube channels

Tech

• NetworkChuck (opens new window): accessible Linux/networking videos.
• Tailscale (opens new window): The Tailscale official YouTube channel is suprisingly informative.
• Linux Essentials (opens new window): a series of short (<10 mins per video) Linux essentials you didn't know you needed.
• Interview Pen (opens new window): great for prepapring for system design interviews or just learning about, for example, When to use Kafka or RabbitMQ (opens new window).
• CultRepo (opens new window): truly well-made documentaries about some of the most popular open-source software. Previously made (opens new window) by Honeypot, a tech recruitment platform, but now independently owned. A true gift to the developer community imho that gives the inventors of some of the world's most commonly used software much needed credit.
• 3Blue1Brown (opens new window): 3Blue1Brown has a way of explaining math and science concepts in an intuitive way that no one else can. Their Linear Algebra (opens new window) and Neural Networks (opens new window) playlists have been super helpful to me for my Master's courses.

Books

Tech-related

• Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency (opens new window)
• Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (opens new window)

Other

• Dropout (opens new window): Dropout is providing me with some much-needed comedic relief with their flow of fresh improv-style shows. My favourites are Game Changer (opens new window) and Make Some Noise (opens new window).
• VASAviation (opens new window): ATC recordings from interesting events in aviation.
• This (opens new window) is just a good explainer video on Cantor's diagonalization argument (opens new window)
• Eurovision Song Contest (opens new window): I love that the full performances are livestreamed on YouTube.
• Jacob Collier (opens new window): I was first introduced to Jacob Collier when I watched how he improvised the National Symphony Orchestra (opens new window). I also like his colourful outfits, crocs, and spiky hair (opens new window).