Week 2, 2022

Week 2, 10 - 16th Jan 2022

Rob M

Jan 16, 2022 • 2 min read

Another roundup of articles and videos from the week

Links

Exploring System76's New Rust Based Desktop Environment (blog.edfloreshz.dev) - I'm stuck on a broken version of Pop!_OS 21.04 that won't go forward with updates or pick up updates from its current version. But here's the new tweaks to the interface which have been rewritten in Rust
Let's Settle This (neal.fun) - deciding those age-old internet debates once and for all
"Nothing like this will be built again" (antipope.org) - a written account of a tour of one of the most complicated nuclear reactor's in the world. Too complicated for it's own good, the design will be superceded by smaller, simpler designs in future
Crossing Iceland with Payson McElveen (redbull.com) - endurance cyclist Payson McElveen attempts to ride 400km+ right across Iceland in order to set a new fastest known time (FTK). Strava ride link
The Facebook Text Prompt Zombie Land (garbageday.email) - a look into those weird text-prompt viral posts on Facebook, and how they go ridiculously viral
The most important computer you’ve never heard of (arstechnica.com) - the advanced SAGE air defence system that also helped accelerate IBM into becoming a global megacorporation
Ghost in the ethernet optic (benjojo.co.uk) - a kind of scary on-board microcomputer thats built into a fibre-optic SFP, (used for connecting network switches together), can do many things including listening in on network traffic

Streaming

Good streaming videos from this week

Discovered another long(er) form YouTube documentary maker, this time Tom Nicholas covering the sketchy business of paid videos posted by big YT channels. I'm fairly sure the type of video Tom Nicholas is reporting on is something that would never be allowed to broadcast on UK television under adverising laws.

Veritasium: A Story of YouTube Propaganda by Tom Nicholas