Links I’d share in private #14

You can smell autumn approching! LOL! I know, I know, summer ain’t over yet, and we are starting the Back to School period of the year (weeeeeeee!), but for me, I’m already in the mindset for Fall season, pumpkin lattes and colorful trees! I can’t wait for September 🙂

On another note, it’s been a pretty fun August so far, attending tons of free music shows in town. This weekend was the Fête de Pointe-Saint-Charles (my borough), where tons of local/indie artists got to promote their musical talent for two nights during the weekend. Since I only got to go on Saturday night, I got to discover: Vikki Gilmore, Peter Jarvis, Avery Jane, Callahan and the Woodpile, and The Unsettlers. I really enjoyed the shows, and the setup of the scene… it was majestic! See the picture below 🙂

Overall, I had fun listening and discovering new artists, and it was really pleasant to see the crowd attending the show. I really love my neighborhood, and I hope they redo the party next year 🙂

Welcome to another edition of Links I’d share in private, a (bi-)weekly blog post about all the things and content I come across the Internet during my intense web binging, worthy of being shared to you all. It is available for free to anyone accessing my website, but please feel free follow me on my social medias’ presences to stay up-to-date with my writings and witty commentary on anything the world throws to our faces! See my sidebar for a link to all my social medias accounts.

This writing is made possible by those of you who pay to subscribe – thank you! – through my Buy me a coffee account, and you all make it possible to survive in this crazy economy. Really, THANK YOU! And if you haven’t subscribed yet, a minimal 2$ per month can help me a lot. It will help me feed fancy food to my cats! My cats thank you in advance for their worship…humm, the attention you are giving them with your money. Real whores those cats, I swear! 😹 That being said, you can also do only-once donations, it doesn’t need to be a monthly payment. Any amount will help me in my quest to be able to live from my writings!

Keywords: This week’s Links I’d share in private touches on various topics, including: Pride Flags, LGBTQ+ Pride, moving abroad, and expat stories, the appeal of a low-tech lifestyle and analog technology, along with the rise of the underconsumption core movement that challenges consumer culture and promotes sustainable living, the effects of hypertourism and gentrification, the concept of the inner monologue, and the nostalgic losses with streaming services, pirating cars, the incredible murals by Matt Adnate, and the idea of digital detox with the Offline Club, the DEFCON soundtrack, trends in German music, a Pineapple Margarita recipe, DIY seasoning, and Back to School dorm ideas, Ikea Kallax hacks, global design systems, cybersecurity updates from Phrack Magazine, issues in frontend development, the death of coding as a craft, AI in software development, and critiques of Clean Architecture.

TO READ

• Get to learn about ALL the Pride Flags existing in the world (and there are many! Wooooo).
• Seven Women on Choosing to Move to a Different Country: I’ll admit, I’ve been thinking more and more about moving abroad in the future, and reading other people’s stories over their experiences across the world gave me some interesting perspectives. Reading the stories from these 7 women was eye-opening on the reality of moving abroad.
• Analog girly: “I feel like the more experienced and “deep” I get into tech, the more I retreat into… low-tech.” Like Cassidy, I’ve been divng more and more into low tech life. Since my burnout last autumn, I’ve written more on paper than using all the note-taking apps I used to write in; I’ve read more books on paper format than on ebook format.
• Understanding ‘underconsumption core’: How a new trend is challenging consumer culture: YES! The underconsumption movement is gaining popularity (thank you fucking greedflation), and we are seeing more and more talks about it in the medias. The article explores the rise of this movement, a trend where consumers intentionally buy less and prioritize sustainability over materialism. This movement challenges traditional consumer culture by focusing on minimalism, eco-friendly practices, and mindful consumption. It is gaining traction due to growing environmental concerns, the inflation, and a desire for a simpler, more meaningful lifestyle. It reflects a shift in values, where people seek to reduce waste, support ethical brands, and find contentment in less.
• research as leisure activity: delving into the idea of research being a form of leisure, individuals pursue knowledge out of personal interest rather than obligation. It examines how this approach to research can be fulfilling, providing a sense of purpose and joy. The author reflects on the value of curiosity-driven exploration, contrasting it with more formal, goal-oriented research, research that can be a meaningful and enjoyable activity in everyday life.
• Lisbon, a city dying from its own success: one of the reasons why I’m having a harder time to travel anymore is because of this: hypertourism literally destroyed cities lives, helping participate in gentrification of what were interesting neighborhoods and cities. Here is the case for Lisbon in Portugal: “If the pace of the expulsion of locals does not stop, in a few years tourists will only be able to see each other when they climb the Alfama.” “When I go to Baixa or Chiado, I feel like I’m in an amusement park for foreigners. Almost everything is international brand stores or souvenir stores. Tourism has decimated everything”
• Not everyone has an inner monologue in their head. Huuuhhh, you don’t? Mine is sooooooooooo chatty!
• You know what we lost with streaming services online? DVD extra!
• It’s time to start pirating cars. Louis Rossman explains why with a couple swear words in the explanations 😉

TO SEE

• Instagram of the week: Matt Adnate. His hyper realistic murales on buildings is simply amazing!

TO FOLLOW

• On Instagram: The Offline Club. I LOVE the idea of creating a meetup where nobody check their phones, and we interact in other types of activities and chatting to connect. I want one in Montreal! (Thanks to The Sentiers for the link!). Who wants to start a Montreal chapter with me?

“The mistake people make when life hits them with some unexpected, and often unprepared-for, catastrophe is that they think they can just return to life the way it was before.”
― Amy Poeppel

TO HEAR

• The big Hacking convention DEFCON was last week, and they released their official soundtrack on their Bandcamp account. You can listen to it, or buy the album, on their page.
• Manna Heaven Interface – Juni/June 2024 – Deutschmusik : let’s have fun by listening to a mix list coming from Germany! Very eclectic and vibing! “it’s 90 minutes of music from Germany. There is some pop, some techno, some Schlager, and some hip hop. German music right now is incredibly inventive – fresh, unique, linguistically complex, and confident.”

RECIPES

• This week’s cocktail recipe: Pineapple Margarita. Tasty!
• Once you learn who to do your own Italian Seasoning, you won’t buy it in stores. You can also do your own Fajita and Tacos Seasoning.

DESIGN

• If I was rich, there would be subtle signs of it in my house. This green pitcher would be one of them!
• If, like me, you have kids in high school or entering college & university, it’s Back to School time. And who says Back to School says Dorms’ Esthetics fashion. Here an inspiration article with different moodboards of things your kid may desire for their perfect room!
• I’m a big fan of the Ikea Kallax shelf, and this news coming from The Ikea Hackers website is worth celebrating: new models of the Kallax collections are available! Weeeeeee 🙂
• Comparing design systems to find the best qualities: it discusses the challenges and considerations of creating a global design system, highlighting the importance of balancing consistency with flexibility to accommodate different cultural and regional needs. The author emphasizes that a successful global design system requires collaboration, adaptability, and a deep understanding of the diverse contexts in which it will be used. They also suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach is less effective than a system that allows for localized adaptations while maintaining core principles. “I think there’s a lot of value in trying to find which qualities make for very good components, using a standardisation-like process that involves a broad range of stakeholders and avoids blessing-by-a-few. In my ideal world, this can bring us to a place where web developers can get more confidence in how to make their components very good.”

CYBERSECURITY & INFOSEC

• The new edition of the Phrack Magazine is out! Weeeeeeeee! Tons of interesting little articles to read. Phrack is an online zine that publishes hacking, exploit development, vulnerability research, and other topics since 1985. I’ve been following them for literally DECADES (since the late 1990s!).

TECH & WEB

• the Reckoning: Ahhhhhhhhh, reading this is a breath of fresh air! I’m seeing more and more folks from my ex field of work (web development / frontend) complaining about the degradation of the frontend job, and I’m here for it! “Since at least 2016 I have implored the frontend community to step back from the brink of JavaScript excess, acknowledge mobile-first reality, and prioritise users at the margin. Instead, frontend became a responsiblity-free zone, externalising costs onto users and businesses with ‘full-stack’ fairy tales and used-car sales tactics. This has culminated in heartbreaking hurdles to access crucial public services thanks to JavaScript. Modern websites don’t have to feel broken. Better is possible. This series walks through today’s network and device ground truth, stares into abyss of developer practices, and closes with advice for managers and engineers who want to avoid the same mistakes.”
• The Death of Code as Craft: The article explores how the craft of coding is evolving, particularly in the context of modern development tools like AI and low-code platforms. It argues that traditional coding, once seen as a specialized craft, is increasingly being replaced by tools that allow non-experts to create complex software without deep technical knowledge. This shift challenges the idea of coding as a craft and raises questions about the future of software development.“Of course, this is all speculation. The reality is that we’re in uncharted territory, and the path forward is anything but clear. But one thing seems certain: The rise of LLMs will force us to reconsider many of our long-held assumptions about programming and how it should be done. The developers and organizations that are able to adapt, to embrace the power of AI while also understanding its limitations, will be the ones that thrive in this Hunger Games of software. It won’t be easy, and there will undoubtedly be missteps and setbacks along the way. But the potential rewards—a world in which software development is more accessible, more efficient, and more focused on high-level problem solving—are too great to ignore.”
• Clean Architecture is the ultimate Scam: My god, this week is FULL of articles shared criticizing some aspects of the Web Developer/Software Developer job LOL. This article criticizes the Clean Architecture approach, arguing that it introduces unnecessary complexity and mental overhead in software development. The author contends that Clean Architecture overemphasizes abstraction and decoupling, leading to convoluted code that is hard to understand and maintain. Instead, the article advocates for simpler, more pragmatic approaches to architecture that focus on readability and directness, aligning more closely with the actual needs of software projects.