Status update, 18/03/2022

This month has had a big focus on music! I just released a 4 track EP called Rust In Peace, which you can listen to on various popular music platforms and (better still) download it from Bandcamp.

The COVID19 pandemic is not over (I can name 5 folk who have been COVID+ just this week), but its effects on society are becoming less, to the point I could even do a launch gig for the EP in the amazing Café Arume in Santiago – my first real “gig” since 2018.

A similar effect is happening at work, in that work-related travel is becoming possible. My current project, on a huge codebase that resembles a famous painting by Hieronymus Bosch, involves making changes that affects 100s or 1000s of developers, who we meet via Slack DMs and audio-only Zoom calls. For the first time in years, on-site visits are a possibility again and while I’m genuinely not keen to make a habit of intercontinental air travel, meeting the organisation face to face at least once would make a huge difference to my day to day work – the issues are much more about managing processes and people than any specific technologies, and this is super hard to do with strangers.

I am also hoping to travel to Italy next month to attend Linux App Summit 2022 in person, so, see you there? Talk submissions for LAS (online + face to face) are open until midnight tonight (18th March), so perhaps its not too late to submit a talk or lightning talk!

A few other interesting steps I’ve taken this month:

• Learn GNOME Shell keyboard shortcuts for moving and resizing windows. You can do a lot with Meta+F7/F8, it turns out.
• Implement the first “Special mix” playlist generator for Calliope; it takes a histogram of my Listenbrainz history, picks a year and finds 60 minutes of songs that I first discovered in that year. Like the old “Mystery years” radio show, but with better music.
• Buy a Norns audio-computer; basically a RPi 3 with a rich ecosystem of experimental audio effects, written Lua and Supercollider. I have been tempted recently by some of the amazing modern guitar pedals like Chase Bliss Mood and Hologram Microcosm, and this is my attempt to avoid buying any of those 🙂