• I had my first day at first day at Octopus Energy.  Initially I was in rushing about as I still needed to do some initial setup so I could use my muscle memory again: move the dock to the left, auto hide it, remap caps to control, swap spotlight and language input changing shortcuts ( ctrl-space <--> cmd-space), pairing my magic trackpad, and so forth.
  
  We used gather, this J-RPG-esque video conferencing website for a chat with my new co-workers. Amazing the number of takes on video chat these days. 
  
  After that I mostly spent of the day reading docs and getting the project up and running locally. There was also a global meeting with the engineering team where I got to introduce myself to everyone.
  
  Working in English left me less mentally taxed at the end of the day, something I must have stopped noticing. I'm a bit afraid that my Japanese will deteriorate. Without a doubt this is the largest project I've worked to date and I know I'm going to learn a lot.
• Covid cases returned to double digits in Tokyo for the first time since last November. Kanagawa was down to 51. Cause for optimism. Let's hope this trend continues 🙏🏻.
• Leo's return to school was delayed as a super typhoon grazed Yokohama on it's way past Japan. No damage, just a lot of rain and a bit of wind. Though my bicycle cover did manage to blow away. ( Update: Found it down at the end of the street and halfway up a hill).
• Love seeing Weekly blog posts picking up momentum on the IndieWeb.
  Saturday: Maquie publishes thingsThisWeek.
  Monday: Michael publishes Weeknotes and James publishes Weeknotes
  Tuesday: I publish The Week.
  Soon we'll have a weekly roundup for each day of the week.
• I started (re)-watching The Lone Gunmen (a 13 episode spinoff from the X-Files). I don't think I've seen it properly since it aired on TV 20(!) years ago. It's a bit corny, but pushes a good message about computing, freedom, and surveillance/privacy. In the opening scene Langly is at a launch party for the Optium 4, a new super fast CPU that (secretly) has a modem embedded in it to "upload your files to the internet, and your credit history, and your tax bracket, and your social security number".
  
  While we don't quite have chips designed / hidden to invade our privacy (yet) we are uploading everything and other data that we previously considered extremely confidential is readily accessible to advertisers – and sometimes we even supply it. Amazing that this issue was raised on prime-time TV. How the times has changed.
  
  

Urban transportation is central to the effort to slow climate change. It can’t be done by just switching to electric cars. Several cities are starting to electrify mass transit.

“It has become a reasonable position to advocate for less space for cars,” said Felix Creutzig, a transportation specialist at the Mercator Research Center in Berlin. “Ten years ago, it was not even allowed to be said. But now you can say it.”

But even after that era, as search engines started to become a reliable and powerful way to navigate the wealth of content on the growing Web, links still dominated our exploration. Following a link from a resource that was linked to by somebody you know carried the weight of a “web of trust”, and you’d quickly come to learn whose links were consistently valuable and on what subjects. They also provided a sense of community and interconnectivity that paralleled the organic, chaotic networks of acquaintances people form out in the real world.
[...]
The net result is that Internet users use fewer different websites today than they did 20 years ago, and spend most of their “Web” time in app versions of websites [..] Truly exploring the Web now requires extra effort, like exercising an underused muscle.

Since I started my IndieWeb journey this month I’ve been thinking a lot about the digital content I’m producing and how I can be more in control of my data, avoiding data silos as much as possible.

1. Tagged with
2. running
3. indieweb

Looking Back on 35

• I (helped) launch two major (different) versions of some factory automation software at work.
• I wrote an article in Japanese that was published in a real-life magazine.
• Interviewed and got a dream job that'll let me have a meaningful impact on climate change.

• Built and released my first project in years (Tanzawa).
• Paid off my car note (6 year loan, paid off in 1.4).
• Fully embraced that I'm an early riser and began prioritizing health.
• Running more months of this year than previous years (though there's still been some big gaps, I'm hopeful).
• Hit over 1 year of weekly The Week posts.
• Dodged 'rona and got us vaccinated very early for our age group (less than a week after eligibility), which gave us full vaccination during delta.
• Took two small overnight stays in Japan (Saitama last November, Yokohama less than a week ago)

Looking Forward on 36

• Go on a couple small family trips in Japan (covid allowing). I'd love to ride the Shinkansen with Leo.
• Continue running and or cycling, but on a more regular basis, rain or shine. Ideally I want to do a couple of 5ks during the week and a longer run/ride on the weekend.
• Reduce my non renewable energy usage (put solar panels on the house).
• Build and release an electricity related side project.
• Reduce my plastic usage / trash (this is difficult as it seems no matter what you buy in Japan, it's wrapped in at least one plastic bag). We throw out about 1 40L bag per week today, which seems like way too much. I'd love to get that down to 1 40L bag per every two weeks, or even per month.
• Introduce Leo to his grandparents. Leo has only met my mom on my side of the family when she came to visit shortly after he was born. I'd like him to meet the rest of the family, so maybe a trip to the US once borders open up a bit more?

If you run a UGC platform (User Generated Content) you either die with an MVP ("minimum viable product") or live long enough to the point that you have to build content moderation. It’s a story as old as the internet and a topic that is seldom discussed.

1. Tagged with
2. blogging
3. social media