Hello friends! Welcome to the second edition of my weekly column, Guilherme’s Desk, where I share a little bit of what I’ve been reading, listening, watching and doing. Feel free to comment and chat. Past week was way more busy than I expected, so I don’t have a lot of new stuff to show. Anyways, let’s dive in!

What I’ve been reading

Past week I told you that I was reading Elliot Pepper’s Bandwith: An Analog Novel. I’m still reading it, but I really have to set some time this week to continue it. The story still has to really get me, and I’m hoping things get really chaotic in the next chapters.

This week we lost the great Michael Gambon, and most of my reading was about him. I understand many people complaining how the media always portray him as the actor who played Dumbledore on Harry Potter, but to be frank most of his body of work is almost impossible to watch outside the UK – especially since he was mainly a stage actor.

I find so interesting how the british media cover it’s own cultural sector – it’s not a critic, but a compliment! British media it’s not perfect (far from it), but it covers the country’s cultural scene with intensity and dignity. I’m from Brazil, and I can easily say that my country’s cultural sector has nowhere near the intensity and respect between media x culture as Britain has. My favorite piece this week was this one on the Guardian about people’s experiences with Michael Gambon, a very touching tribute.

Also from the Guardian, two more pieces: this one about Michael Kenna and his amazing photos (loved his use of black and white in empty scenes) and this piece about urban millenial loneliness.

What I’ve been listening

Around the same time I found past week’s jazz recommendation I found the pianist Laurent Coulondre. While browsing the top jazz albums on Mezzo Live HD’s website some weeks ago I caught a glimpse of Coulondre’s name on a album cover, which led me to this week’s jazz pick: Zeitgeist, by the Laurent Cugny Tentet – a group of brilliant French music prodigies brought together by the legendary composer and pianist Laurent Cugny. This album brings some composing by Laurent Cugny himself and other classic jazz material, resulting in a fresh and dense jazz fusion album. It’s sort of a jazz trip over different moods – think of it like a jazz version of The Young Avengers, in a sense that brings together lots of talent in long and epic songs.

What I’ve been watching

I’m some weeks late, but this week I finally watched the series finale for Kamen Rider Geats. I’m a huge fan of tokusatsu^[1] shows, specially the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series. Geats tells the story of a group of people who play the Desire Grand Prix, a battle royale where the winner get his/hers wishes to be true, whatever it be. Geats already had me since the first episode, but the finale solidified it’s position as the best Kamen Rider Series in the Reiwa Era.

The Kamen Rider series is partially licensed in North America, mainly trough Shout Factory. Geats, tough, it’s not licensed, so you have to watch it elsewhere.

What I’ve been doing

My pipeline project using Jenkins is doing great and I had a lot of progress past week. Just have to finish some stuff regarding Nginx and I think it will be ready for next week’s column!

My next project will probably be some tests using WriteFreely (a open source CSM) and Amazon Lightsail. If this project is successful, I’m moving this website to it. Let’s see how it goes!

This week I have a college exams, so wish me luck! As always, you can chat with me on Mastodon. Would love to hear your feedback! See you next week!

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!