A small but welcome change I noticed in the AWS Sydney office since I was last there. Well done to @rdrkt and the Glamazon folks who made this happen. @insideamazon
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Random Links
Some random links I’ve had open in my web browser lately:
- The BBC have been broadcasting daily episodes of a dramaticization of Susan Cooper’s book The Dark is Rising. It’s also available as a podcast (on pretty much all the platforms), and we’ve been listening along and really enjoying it. If you’ve only seen the terrible 2007 film, you should listen to this and then go out and read the whole series. (Rodd and I have also been having fun casting an imaginary version of this for Netflix. He reckons Peter Capaldi for Merriman.)
- The Most Popular Series Eats Recipes of 2022. I’m amused how many of these are just simple potato recipes. And hey, it includes Tartiflette! I will definitely be making that pork and bean stew next winter.
- Mapping Sydney Billboards: Every QMS advertising panel in Sydney. I saw this linked on a Mastodon thread griping about the new electronic advertising panels. We’ve only been home for 2 weeks and already these things are annoying me. They’re huge and intrusive, and they take up disproportionate space on Sydney’s already narrow footpaths.
- How to Sew Like a Mathematician. Making continuous bias tape has already been a favourite sewing trick of mine – I have a whole blog post and video about it – but I hadn’t thought very deeply about the topology of it. That post goes deep into the details and then tries an interesting technique to start with a regular torus, resulting in “almost” bias tape. 🤯
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AWS folks to follow on Mastodon
I’m still enjoying Mastodon and staying the hell away from Twitter, and it seems like more and more folks are making the switch. If you use AWS and want to follow more folks in the developer community, my colleague Gunnar has curated several lists of employees, Developer Advocates, AWS Heroes, AWS Community Builders, and User Group leaders. Here’s how to get the latest lists and import into your own Mastodon account:
1. Click on the the Actions tab on Gunnar’s Github repo.
2. Click on the latest workflow, whatever it happens to be.
3. Scroll down on the page to the artifacts and click on the list to download a Zip file.
4. Unzip the file. Then go to the Settings page within your Mastodon instance and select “Import and Export” and then “Import” options.
Leave the Import type to “Following list” and Merge so you don’t overwrite your existing followers list. Then select the list you want to import and hit Upload. Easy peasy!
Incidentally, you can see my Mastodon profile at https://aus.social/@web_goddess and follow me if you like, or you can subscribe to an RSS feed of my posts.
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Shared today on Facebook
Blog post: I’ve documented our very last trip from Europe – the 10 days we spent in Paris and Luxembourg at the end of November. Food, art, architecture, castles, and Christmas markets. It was perfect. ❤️
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Shared today on Facebook
Whenever anyone in Germany asked what I missed from Australia, I’d say “The food. No question.”
This is not what I meant, Australia. 🤮🍗
I got a new a iPhone and it came with an AppleTV+ trial, and our new TV has the AppleTV app, and as a result I’ve just binged the first 8 episodes of Ted Lasso, and I FINALLY GET IT. It’s lovely. I know you all said it was, but now I know for myself.
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Photo Post
Whenever anyone in Germany asked what I missed from Australia, I’d say “The food. No question.”
This is not what I meant, Australia. 🤮🍗
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Shared today on Facebook
Blog post: a visit to Dresden and “Saxon Switzerland” last October for the AWS DACH Community Day! I gave a keynote; we saw priceless relics; we climbed to the top of a sandstone cliff in the frickin’ rain; and we rode in a steamboat. 🏰⛰️⛴️
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Shared today on Facebook
My favourite Christmas song! (Are there any other songs where every single verse is a key change? 😂)
My latest #knitting project is finished! We ventured out of the house to Victoria Park to take a photo. The pattern is Sugar Maple and I knitted it from a single skein of Hobbii Twister. It’s a top-down raglan tee with an asymmetrical chevron front that really highlights the colour gradient! More details on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/webgoddess/sugar-maple
Christmas dinner: pork chops with beurre blanc and capers, pumpkin mash, and garlic green beans. (The Snook is *loving* having his induction cooktop again!)
Woot, my knee-jerk don’t-overthink-it pub-quiz answer was Iran which seems to be [✓]. I ‘knew’ it was more populous than…