Tim Berners-Lee: “This is for everyone”

I recently read “This is for everyone” by Tim Berners-Lee. This book is a very good reminder about how we got to ’the internet’. Why did Tim Berners-Lee develop the World Wide Web. And which decision did lead to this beatiful thing that we take for granted today? I especially enjoyed it to read about this topic in the light of all the recent AI developments. Will the web as we know it die? Is it still worth having a blog? What would fundamental models be trained on if there wasn’t a human created internet anymore? Great questions in an interesting time.

Setting up Hugo with Ananke Theme as Module

The intention of this post is to walk through the steps I performed set up a static website with Hugo, add the Ananke theme as module, and deploy the website via AWS Amplify.

The reason for me to write this blog post is that I was hoping to find exactly this documentation somewhere online. But as I could not find it and worked my way through different blogs and videos, I thought, maybe other people might benefit from such a summary.

Holznudel - DIY Letter Press

In this post I want to describe and highlight a funny DIY project named “Holznudel”. It is an open source letterpress which allows you to make prints with lego tiles. It was a lot of fun to build and it is a great activity for the kids - but also for grown-ups. This post is divided into five sections: 1/ discovery 2/ construction 3/ pieces 4/ cleaning 5/ next steps.

Verify Mastodon Profile

With this post, I am trying to verify my Mastodon profile.

Here is the link to my Mastodon presence: @davidbeck auf hachyderm.io

You can find the official documentation on this topic here: Verification on Joinmastodon.

New Website: pegel-konstanz.de

As a tangible outcome of my data analytics mentorship, I created website pegel-konstanz.de. The focus on this website will be on individual analyses of the water level of Lake Constance (Bodensee). But first, I had to get the table stakes functionality right. You cannot discuss the level of the lake without also providing the current level. And that was a lot more work than I expected it to be. But it was and is a great learning experience to support a data pipeline with date and time zone sensitive information.

How to turn Epoxy remains into tools

This post describes my journey from 3D printing to a silicone mat for epoxy upcycling.

For a short description of the project together with the 3D printing files, I recommend to check my GitHub repository on this subject: https://github.com/davidbeckonline/epoxy_tool_mat

What to do with epoxy remains

Over the last couple of month, I tinkered quite a lot with epoxy. It started with some Kintsugi experiments. Later on, I worked on Magic Tonies, which are covered in a separate blog post. The issue with epoxy is that you always have to mix too much of it. You certainly do not want to run out of epoxy while working. And for very small amount, it is difficult to get the right ratio of resin and hardener. This annoyed me, as over time, I threw more epoxy into the trash can, as I actually used. Overall, I used about 500 ml of epoxy over the last two years, to add a number to this.

How to get the stylus cables back into the tonearm of a Pro-Ject Debut III record player

In this post, I decribe the small issue I was facing with the stylus cables on my Pro-Ject Debut III record player.

Situation

After replacing the stylus on my Pro-Ject Debut III, the cables were too long. This wasn’t a technical issue. It was more about aesthetics.

First, I tried to push the cables back manually, but this seemed to worsen the problem. Next step was to ask for help on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/121opwg/how_to_get_project_debut_cables_back_into_tonearm/

How we created a Daruma Magic Tonie

In this post we describe how we turned a Japanese Daruma doll into a Tonie. First, we talk about the term ‘Magic Tonie’. After that, we walk through the process step by step.

Magic Tonie

First of all, I want to explain the term ‘Magic Tonie’, as I am not sure whether it exists. It is a literal translation of the German word ‘Zaubertonie’. The term describes the conversion of figures or other toys into a Tonie for a Tonie Box. Technically, such a Tonie is just a holder for an RFID chip. So what people do to create a Magic Tonie is to extract the RFID chip from a Tonie figure and put it into another object. You could describe it as little ‘hardware hack’. You might want to do this together with your kids - this is what I did.

Update März 2024 - Absage: In einem Schreiben der Senatskanzlei vom 13.03.2024 wurden mir erklärt, dass kein Order vergeben wird. Schade, aber einen Versuch war es auf jeden Fall wert. Hier der Wortlaut des Schreibens:

„[…] Ich stimme Ihnen zu, dass die von Ihnen dargestellten Verdienste von […] hohe Anerkennung verdienen. Zu meinem Bedauern muss ich Ihnen mitteilen, dass die umfangreiche Ordensprüfung ergeben hat, dass die in den Ausführungsbestimmungen zum Statut des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland geforderten Voraussetzungen für die Verleihung nicht gegeben sind. […]“

Analyzing the level of Lake Bodensee with Python

In this post I want to discuss a data analysis experiment I recently worked on. My aim was to use AWS SageMaker and Python to visualize public data. This post is structured as follows: First, I am going to explain the goal. Then, I will briefly describe the setup. After that, I will walk through the individual steps of my analysis.

A short summary of the output can also be found in this Twitter thread:

In this post, I want to share a few thoughts about online advertising and my journey into this industry.

Doubts. Who loves ads? Really, who thinks that ads are great? Yes, there are good ads. Inspiring ads, uplifting ads, ads that make you think, and some ads that just perfectly fit your needs. Now to be honest, the four mentioned types represent a small share of the online advertisements that I am exposed to. I am seeing ads that follow me for way too long (Yes, conversion rate, but are you also checking incrementality? Your frequency cap is my ruined brand experience). Other ads are just boring. When you are working in ad-tech, you recognize that a lot of ads are simply broken. Ads slow your online experience down (have a look at pi-hole, if you would like to check). And then, there are a lot of ads that are not relevant to me. This was enough to make me wonder whether I really wanted to keep working in the online advertising industry. When I was younger, I thought about becoming a physician. I worked in a hospital for three months. It was partly disappointing. I experienced that ‘Health’ is also an industry. And the hierarchy is terrible. Once I was reprimanded because I went through the door before the head doctor. But, of course, as a physician, you are doing good. You help people. Later, I studied environmental science. Again, a lot of dissolution in this field. Great topic, but a lot of work done in the industry are ‘risk management’ activities. It’s about legal compliance. I rarely experienced ambition. That being said, sustainability is more pressing than ever before. Whatever people do to save this planet - in their job or at home - is good. Without my intention, I was offered a job in online advertising. So I took the offer and pivoted from ‘Sustainability Tech’ to digital marketing and advertising technology in 2015. In Q4 last year, during my parental leave, I started to look for a new role. And I was not sure whether I should stick to the advertising and ad tech field. Luckily, I am working for a big corporation. So there is the opportunity to move to new fields without tapping into completely new waters.

I recently watched “Spiritual Letters - The Art of Mr. Paradox Paradise”. That was an interesting experience on different levels.

As the title ‘Spiritual Letters’ indicates, this movie is about letters, but also about the spiritual journey of artist Mr. Paradox Paradise. Furthermore, this movie was my first application of crypto currencies and what some people call Web3. In this blog post I want to cover these three aspects in the given order.