Software History

My first attempt at writing an analytics bash script got me excited about bash scripting. My first script displayed the total number of page views my blog receives and the total number of people who have viewed my feed. The program was limited to reading logs for the last two days.

The sun was shining. Palm trees were around; my favourite tree. My taxi arrived. I was headed for the airport.

A curious mix of topics indeed! Join me for my latest podcast episode in which I discuss, among other things, bubbles, programming languages, and use-case driven development. I also talk about Ruben's blog, a source of inspiration that encouraged me to expand the topics about which I write on my blog. In the episode, I also mention the Overnightscape Underground, to which episodes of this podcast are now syndicated. I hope you enjoy the episode!

I made an RSS feed for the OpenAI blog. You can subscribe to the feed in your feed reader using this address:

I am writing a blog post every day from December 1st to December 24th, 2021, about a blogger whose writing or site I follow. My aim for this series is to help you discover new blogs and to help get the word out about content creators whose blogs I appreciate. You can read more about this series in the inaugural Day 1 post.

I have been tasting a lot of fruity coffees lately, including San Jose de Lourdes, a coffee roasted by Neighbourhood Coffee Roasters. As I was drinking this coffee, I was again reminded of blackcurrant juice, like the kind you would get from a diluted juice bottle mixed with water here in the UK.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a vinyl record from Of Monsters and Men. The record is yet to be released but I am eager for it to arrive. I bought the record because the band has turned 10 and I appreciate their music, so much so that I (at least try) to play a number of their songs on my keyboard. Their music captures my attention unlike most other bands I have listened to. There is only one problem: I bought a vinyl record without owning a record player.

I spent the weekend in York after making a somewhat spontaneous decision to visit the city this month. York is an excellent destination for people who enjoy history. There is religious, Roman, royal, political, governmental, and other roots of history to be found in the area. I am astounded at the age of many of the old buildings in the city. It's not every day you can say you saw a cathedral whose construction began over 800 years ago (York Minster).

While I was on a Zoom call two weeks ago, I noticed something that ignited a great sense of excitement. The parlor palm on my desk, which I have had since last year, started to grow leaves. This excited me because after months of few signs of growth, the plant was now changing.

Writing, as I have shared in discussions with many of my friends, helps me think. Through planning and typing words on paper, new ideas come to mind that I had previously not synthesized. Perhaps a scientist could explain why this is the case, or maybe this will remain to be one of the great mysteries behind

My keyboard is illuminated with a stark light. I'm sitting in the same seat I have been for a while. Last I remembered, bright natural light shone through the window. In one moment, I thought to myself:

There are an infinite amount of lives we can live because every decision we make changes the way we live life. The Midnight Library, written by Matt Haig, explores the life of a woman who can travel between lives, allowing her to see the outcome of different ways of living. Unlike everyone else, the main character in The Midnight Library, Nora, can see what happens if she makes—or does not make—a particular decision, without any ramifications.

I subscribed to the selfcare.tech bot on Mastodon a few days ago. The bot has provided messages that have been of particular meaning at a time when, on reflection, I have been a lot harder on myself than I should be. Here are a few Toots(?) posted by the bot recently that particularly resonated with me:

The web platform is vast. There are so many tools available for building websites and web applications. One example is that you can run machine learning models in your browser. This enables many novel applications (with the downside that models, which can be large, need to download so they can run in the web page).

Standart Magazine is a print publication that writes about coffee, from coffee culture to issues facing the industry. The publication is aimed at anyone who loves coffee, not just industry professionals. I have quickly grown to appreciate the depth of content in Standart and have read many issues this year.

You know the feeling when you are immersed in thought and something suddenly stands out to you? I was walking past a park when I noticed a squirrel close by. The squirrel was scouring through the leaves. I speculate it was in search for food. My mind gravitated from human computer interaction -- the topic about which I was thinking -- to the squirrel. I walked slowly, gazing at the park. I noticed another squirrel. Then another. Then another.

I usually write cohesive thoughts on this blog, diving deep into a subject that I find interesting. Today, to spice things up a little bit, I'm going to go for a different format. I am going to write down a list of things that I am either thinking about or have been thinking about over the last few days. I am going to leverage bullet points for this, lest I begin writing one sentence in a new paragaph and turn that paragraph into a whole section.

Unorthodox Roasters caught my eye as soon as I learned about them. They are a roastery based in Kinross, Scotland. They are unorthodox. The names of their coffees are all Scottish. I looked around their website and I thought I should try one of their coffees. Wee Stoater caught me eye, which I believe is their signature coffee.

I wrote a blog post for the Steampunk Coffee blog on what I've learned using the Kalita Wave to brew pour-over coffee.

What equipment do I use to brew with the Kalita Wave?

I was reading a reflection on loneliness and writing. The author, Polina, stated:

Early this morning, I set myself an intention for the day: take note of some of the little things that happen today that bring you joy. My inspiration was my first

Williams and Johnson are a well-known name in the Scottish coffee industry, offering seasonally-rotated coffees. I have been following their presence online for a little while and I had a few questions about their roastery. Kindly, Todd Johnson, one of the founders, reached out to answer the questions I had over email. This interview was an absolute pleasure to do and I hope you enjoy reading it.

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Before I went to sleep, I looked out the window and saw the stars. One shone brighter than the others. This star was almost invitation to gaze out and admire the night. It was midnight. I looked and saw many more stars. I angled my head up high, looking for stars. I crouched down slightly, eager to see if there were more visible.

Last week, I visited the US for the first time. I travelled to New Orleans. After two connecting flights from Scotland and almost a full day of travel, I arrived greeted by warmth, despite the late hour. I couldn't believe how warm the weather was. I took a few photos on the trip that I want to share here on my blog.

I check the word count after I have written every blog post. I do this because Typora, the markdown editor I use, displays a word count in the top left corner of the page. I'm not interested in the metric. It is difficult to avoid. At some point yesterday, my mind arrived at the idea that I should try to track the word count on my blog. I wanted to do this to improve my programming skills.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post brainstorming how to help place more pianos in airports. Pondering what airport -- and indeed any public -- pianos mean to me, I noted:

I started my day with a dose of commentary on words. In my social reader today, I saw a post entitled Indeed... re:words by Ithika On My Mind. Seeing a post title start with the word