Things I read this week
I have a habit of basically saving ever link I come across for some future date where I'll have infinite time to read them all but never actually get around to it. So, I decided to set up a Wallabag server in my homelab that I can at least store them in and access them without having to dig through years of bookmarks from my phone and e-reader. Here's a smattering of the articles that I read through this week:
My CKA Experience
Link: https://mirceanton.com/posts/2022-12-06-my-cka-experience/
Been meaning to read this one for a bit considering that I'm going for my CKA -- just a brief overview of what it was like to take the exam.
Nobody cares about your blog!
Link: https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2022/12/nobody-cares-about-your-blog.html
Honestly, based on the title image for this one, I thought that it was going to be completely different -- about how people from the middle ages wrote diaries that didn't seem to be important but turn out to be valuable resources nowadays. Completely different story though!
Golang is evil on shitty networks
Link: https://withinboredom.info/blog/2022/12/29/golang-is-evil-on-shitty-networks/
Interesting rundown of the internals and how a web request works within Go -- worth a read especially if you work with the language!
I checked if browsers could cache all bookmarked pages locally
Link: https://bitecode.substack.com/p/i-checked-if-browsers-could-cache
Honestly, I might implement this project seeing as I have a million and one bookmarks in Firefox. This would store an offline version of the bookmarks for you to be able to refer to later on!
Postgres: The Graph Database You Didn't Know You Had
https://www.dylanpaulus.com/posts/postgres-is-a-graph-database/
Brief tutorial on how to setup Postgres as a graph database -- another thing that I'll have to implement for a project. Honestly, the things that you can do with just a Postgres database always blow my mind.
Why Do Pigeons Make Noise When They Fly?
https://pigeonspark.com/why-do-pigeons-make-noise-when-they-fly/
Alright, if you know me at all, you know that I have a strange love for pigeons that I foist upon almost anyone that I meet. They just have such a strange and lovely history as animals in almost any country they've lived in. At any rate, this article talks about why pigeons make that sound when they take off -- really cool read even if you aren't in love with these weird little birds.
Why I still have an old-school cert on my https site
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2023/01/03/ssl/
Interesting, short article on the trials and tribulations of using Lets Encrypt -- definitely been on both sides of this. I love Let's Encrypt because it makes things so easy but, absolutely, sometimes it is significantly better just to get your hands dirty and manage things yourself.
It's happening: AI chatbot to replace human order-takers at Wendy's drive-thru
https://www.techspot.com/news/98622-happening-ai-chatbot-replace-human-order-takers-wendy.html
This honestly just feels shitty, for lack of a better way of putting it. Yes, the original intent of technology is to free us up from menial tasks, make our lives easier, and overall make us work less. But, folks will probably lose thier jobs to ChatGPT if it proves to be really useful in this regard. Either way, I am curious how quickly someone could prompt inject their way into a free meal from Wendy's.
Fuck being productive.
https://dostoynikov.bearblog.dev/fuck-being-productive/
The other side of the above article -- if technology is supposed to free us up of everything, why do I not have time to learn something new! Should I even be trying to learn something new or just relax and play with my dogs?!
Do the weirdest thing that feels right.
https://charliebecker.substack.com/p/do-the-weirdest-thing-that-feels
I honestly love this article and think I'll make this as part of a recurring idea for the rest of the year. Sometimes, life will offer you something seemingly great but you hate it or get bored of it, eventually. Been in this position many times and sometimes it just makes sense to do the weirdest thing that you're presented with and enjoy yourself a bit.