Hello and welcome to the first issue of Guilherme’s Desk, a quick weekly column where I talk a little about what I’ve been reading, listening, watching and doing! Hopefully I can meet and talk to a lot of new people trough this. Have a good reading!
What I’ve been reading
This year was a terrible one for my readings, and up until some weeks ago I only had read one book this year (Anna: The Biography, by Amy Odell). The drought was ended thanks to When Computing Got Personal: A history of the desktop computer, by Matt Nicholson. I got a promotional Kindle Unlimited subscription months ago and didn’t used, but after I cancelled it I found this book and got instantly hooked! It’s an amazing chronicle of how computers went from room-sized mainframes to the powerful smartphones we have in our hands today. The history of the desktop is full of wonders, luck and problem solving, which shows how much went behind the software we use everyday. If you like technology, you are definitely going to like this book!
Since I finished that book I’ve began reading Bandwith: An Analog Novel, by Elliot Pepper. I read about this book on The Verge some years ago and pre-ordered it, but kinda forgot about. It’s a techno-thriller set in a near future Earth reeling from climate catastrophe where people use “The Feed” to interact with the digital world. The main character is a lobbyist, which is a very interesting choice as it puts him on a unique moral position. So far I’ve been liking the book and the prose is very rich, but the story still needs to kick it in.
What I’ve been listening
I’m a eclectic person and I like listening to almost every genre of music. I’ve been diving more into jazz lately and discovered some gems while watching the Mezzo Live HD channel on the TV. My first recommendation on this column is Timba a la Americana, by the cuban pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa. Naturally it’s a very tropical-sounding album, but what I really like about this album it’s how interweaves fast and paced jazz with more relaxing sounds, giving us a sort of “evening on a holiday abroad” sensation. Also it reminds me of the soundtrack of Animal Crossing, for some reason.
Besides jazz I’m listening to Aalliyah’s self-titled album. I heard her song “Try Again” on MTV 00’s some days ago, which was enough for me to go back to this majestic album. Controversial life and death aside, Aalliyah’s final album it’s a masterpiece that embodied the R&B sound that would define the pop music from early to mid 2000’s. Incredibly, “Try Again” still sounds fresh, 22 years later.
What I’ve been watching
This incredible animated video by Jared Owen showing how the Big Ben works. I’m so amazed by how the Big Ben has to be winded every week!
Also I’m obsessed with The Verge’s video comparing ANC headphones. I’m a huge The Verge fan [1] and I was amazed by this video. It’s so stylish and educational, and I specially like Andrew Marino’s presentation and explanations, he made a topic so often crowded with technical terms into something very simple and accessible to everyone. Hoping to see more of him around.
What I’ve been doing
Following past week’s iOS 17 launch I’ve been exploring widgets, pretty much like everyone else. Also I finally created a Personal Focus mode, with a cool blue gradient for background and a home screen with no apps. The only notifications allowed are phone and WhatsApp.[2]
This week I’m doing a project to setup a CI/CD Pipeline using Jenkins. I did a pipeline using Azure DevOps that would distribute a new build of a website to three environments, and I’m hoping to replicate it locally using Jenkins. But so far I’ve been fighting Docker, which refuses to be installed, for some reason.
That’s it for this week! You can catch up with me here on Mastodon where I’m constantly tooting about technology and pop culture. See you next week!