Favourite Physicists

Max Tegmark Cosmologist and physicist known for his work on the mathematical universe hypothesis and multiverse theory. His research bridges the gap between quantum mechanics and cosmology, exploring the deepest questions about the nature of reality. The Case for Halting AI Development Max Tegmark joins Lex Fridman to discuss the urgent need to pause advanced AI development, exploring the existential risks of artificial intelligence and what safeguards humanity needs as we approach transformative technologies. ...

May 11, 2023 · 2 min · James M

Favourite TV & Movies

Television Documentaries Planet Earth The Crown Cosmos Comedy Blackadder Fawlty Towers Monty Python Only Fools & Horses The Office The Young Ones Comedians Adrian Edmondson Ben Elton Chris Rock Dudley Moore Eddie Murphy Eric Morecambe Gene Wilder George Carl Jim Carrey John Cleese Mike Myers Norman Wisdom Peter Cook Peter Sellers Richard Pryor Rik Mayall Sacha Baron Cohen Steve Martin Stuart Lee Tommy Cooper Magic Paul Daniels Magic Show (1979 - 1994) Movies Aliens Avatar Avatar: The Way of Water Blazing Saddles Dumb & Dumber Gladiator GoodFellas Interstellar Planes, Trains & Automobiles Stir Crazy The Hateful Eight The Shining The Woman in Red Whiplash Directors Coen Brothers Quentin Tarantino Actors Al Pacino J.K. Simmons Joe Pesci Ray Liotta Robert De Niro

May 11, 2023 · 1 min · James M

Notion

Notion is a comprehensive workspace platform for note-taking, documentation, task management, and knowledge organization. Features Core Capabilities Database and content management with flexible views (table, calendar, gallery, timeline) Wiki and documentation creation Task and project management Team collaboration and permission controls Notion AI (Available as add-on) Q&A Mode: Ask questions about your content and get AI-powered answers Auto-fill: Generate content automatically based on context Summarization: Auto-summarize pages, databases, and meeting notes Content Generation: Create outlines, blog posts, and structured content Writing Assistant: Grammar checking, tone adjustment, rephrasing Use Cases Personal knowledge management and second brain Team documentation and wikis Project and product management Database and CRM systems Meeting notes and action item tracking Writer’s workspace with AI assistance Pricing Free tier: Core features with limited blocks Plus: $10/user/month with Notion AI Business: $18/user/month with advanced features Enterprise: Custom pricing Notion AI transforms the platform from a note-taking tool into a collaborative knowledge system with generative capabilities, making it valuable for both individual and team knowledge workflows.

May 11, 2023 · 1 min · James M

General Links

Technology Linus Tech Tips - Consumer technology & video production TED - Talks on Technology, Entertainment & Design Podcasts Joe Rogan - The Joe Rogan Experience podcast is a long form conversation hosted by comedian Joe Rogan with friends and guests that have included comedians, actors, musicians, MMA fighters, authors, artists, and beyond Lex Fridman - Conversations about science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power PBD Podcast - The PBD Podcast is hosted by Patrick Bet-David where he discusses a wide range of topics from business to current events, politics and sports Personal Blogs Nicely formatted blogs ...

May 10, 2023 · 1 min · James M

DevOps Books

A working DevOps engineer draws from several disciplines at once - distributed systems, operating systems, network engineering, software development, and the organisational side that keeps it all moving. The books below are the ones I have either read cover-to-cover or regularly pull off the shelf to reference. I have added a one-line note on why each one is on the list. Culture and Practice The hardest problems in DevOps are usually not technical. ...

April 21, 2023 · 3 min · James M

DevOps Blogs

Good engineering blogs are one of the cheapest forms of mentorship available. The posts below are from teams and individuals I return to when I want to see how real organisations solve real problems - outages, scaling walls, migrations, and the occasional cultural mistake. Vendor and Platform Blogs These blogs publish architectural deep-dives and reference implementations. They are partly marketing, but the engineering detail is usually genuine. Atlassian DevOps Blog - practitioner posts on pipelines, incident response, and team topology AWS DevOps Blog - pipeline patterns, CDK/CodePipeline how-tos, and multi-account guidance Google Cloud Blog - the SRE-flavoured material that originated at Google Microsoft DevOps Blog - Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, and developer platform posts GitLab Blog - CI/CD and platform engineering content from the GitLab team HashiCorp Blog - Terraform, Vault, Consul, and Nomad in production Individual and Community Voices Ricard Bejarano - SRE at Cisco with sharp posts on minimal container images and infrastructure hygiene Charity Majors - co-founder of Honeycomb, writing extensively on observability and on-call culture Julia Evans - illustrated explainers on Linux, networking, and debugging fundamentals Gergely Orosz - The Pragmatic Engineer - deep dives into how large engineering organisations actually operate High Scalability - architecture breakdowns of well-known systems SRE-Specific Reading Google SRE Books - the foundational texts on SRE as a discipline Increment Magazine - long-form essays on on-call, incident response, and reliability Everything DevOps (Reddit) - less polished, but a useful pulse on what practitioners are struggling with this week How I Use This List Blog posts age quickly. A Kubernetes best-practices post from 2019 may actively mislead you in 2026. When I read any of these, I check the date first and treat anything older than three years as historical context rather than current guidance. ...

April 21, 2023 · 2 min · James M

Blockchain & Web3 Courses

Overview Whether you’re a beginner exploring blockchain fundamentals or an experienced developer building decentralized applications, these curated courses provide structured learning paths from foundation concepts to advanced smart contract development. Beginner-Friendly Resources Start with fundamentals and core concepts: CryptoZombies - Interactive, game-based introduction to Solidity programming. Perfect for complete beginners to learn smart contract basics through engaging gameplay. Blockchain Council Certified Blockchain Developer™ - Professional certification program with structured curriculum covering blockchain architecture, consensus mechanisms, and development fundamentals Web3 University - Open-source education hub with accessible guides and tutorials. Great for understanding Web3 concepts without heavy technical prerequisites. ...

April 18, 2023 · 2 min · James M

Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallets

Overview Hardware wallets are physical devices designed to securely store cryptocurrency private keys offline. They provide cold storage solutions that protect your assets from online threats and exchange hacks, making them one of the most secure ways to manage digital currencies. Unlike hot wallets (internet-connected software), hardware wallets keep your keys isolated from networks where they could be compromised. Hardware Wallet Providers Industry Leaders Ledger - Most widely adopted hardware wallet with strong security track record and extensive cryptocurrency support ...

April 18, 2023 · 3 min · James M

Gavin Wood

About Dr. Gavin James Wood is a pioneering computer scientist and entrepreneur who has fundamentally shaped modern blockchain architecture and vision. As an Ethereum co-founder, he introduced the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) concept and contributed to smart contract foundations - innovations that became the backbone of decentralized applications. Recognizing limitations in single-chain architectures, he founded Polkadot and Kusama to realize his vision of Web3: a heterogeneous, interoperable ecosystem where diverse blockchains can communicate and share security. ...

April 18, 2023 · 2 min · James M

Auto-GPT is now able to write it's own code

Massive Update for Auto-GPT: Code Execution! 🤖💻 Auto-GPT is now able to write it's own code using #gpt4 and execute python scripts! This allows it to recursively debug, develop and self-improve... 🤯 👇 pic.twitter.com/GEkMb1LyxV — Toran Bruce Richards (@SigGravitas) April 1, 2023

April 1, 2023 · 1 min · James M