Tobias T– | Notes expressing the moment

Notes expressing the moment

Comment It’s a strange…
Tobias Tom 17th October 2018 at 11:35

It’s a strange feeling to have a 17 year old national champion surfing next to you in the water. Her movements look so smooth and coordinated - mine look like I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe in 17 years I’ll be able to do what she can to today. Most likely: I won’t.

I can still try!
Comment I have been on a…
Tobias Tom 8th October 2018 at 9:25

I have been on a holiday for a little over two weeks now. In this time I did not check any news, feeds or anything that would be involved in my normal procrastinating workday. It felt great!

Today is the first day I‘m back working. With that, all the old daemons are knocking on my door. They want me to read the updates on all social networks, they want me to check all the news feeds. They even want me to start clean. Maybe there is a new todo application that will make things better! Maybe the long lasting dream for an perfect editor can finally be fulfilled.

Shut up.

I‘ll try to resist this demands for as long as I can. I‘m not saying that I can, but I can try. Try to reduce the noise, try to reduce the distractions, reduce the productivity tips from everyone else, just focus on what’s important for the current task. With that, maybe one day my work routine will change for the better.

Today it seems to work. For now.
Comment Expect this site to…
Tobias Tom 21st September 2018 at 3:13

Expect this site to be taken over by Azores content, starting today. Finally another larger holiday since our visit to Cuba.

Feels good to not leave Portugal for that trip.
Comment At least some…
Tobias Tom 14th September 2018 at 12:48

At least some persons involved in this video can answer the question for their job in an awesome way:

I play with a computer game engine until I have a real scary looking scenario of a storm, so that people can understand the danger of it.

I think I've never seen a better explanation that I want to look over and over again.
Comment It’s funny that I…
Tobias Tom 13th September 2018 at 23:20

It’s funny that I have been working on an article about being isolated in “our” new digital world. All that is crushed by one person getting my attention through an RSS feed about an article I wrote “ages” ago.

Somehow this internet thing is strange. I like that.

(The mentioned article will follow, someday/maybe)
Comment Honestly, Matthias…
Tobias Tom 13th September 2018 at 23:13

Honestly, Matthias made a large part of my day today. Usually I write stuff without getting feedback at all. For me that is ok, because it’s about formulating, expressing and writing for myself. Obviously he cared, and gave honest feedback (…real words, not just a like). I very appreciate that.

Seriously, thank you Matthias!

In all honesty, this happened after I wrote the article he is referring to, but it does not change a thing. Express yourself. Write more. Publish more. I still stay true to my initial idea:

… if one word or link helps someone else out there, it’s better then nothing.

It’s not about the ratio or about your personal goal. It’s about “just” doing it.

Good luck Matthias for your new goal!
Comment I have never been a…
Tobias Tom 13th September 2018 at 18:49

I have never been a sporty person. I really never cared. Since I started surfing I knew that had to change. Since February I have been going to the gym three days a week.

Today was evaluation day. A machine tells you how you are doing in terms of body fat and all others things (I don’t understand). In the past it hasn’t been one of my favorites days.

Today we where able to use a new machine which is supposed to cost as much money as a not so small car. I feared that things would be worse for me.

Next to many other things the machine calculated a new metric: the age of my body. Solely based on my body fitness, fat and muscles.

The result? My body is the one of a 24 year old. For a person who is in the upper level of the 30s, that is an astonishing result. Especially if I consider our lifestyle here in Portugal.

People keep telling story’s that sport can improve your life. Maybe there is some truth to that. I had to get 30 something to realize that.
Comment First rule of an…
Tobias Tom 13th September 2018 at 9:43

First rule of an software related team: the team call after a Apple event is reserved to talk about Apple stuff. Not sure if I like that…
Comment Five and a half…
Tobias Tom 12th September 2018 at 13:45

Five and a half hours before the doors open to our concert tonight, already about 200 people in line. Seriously?!
Comment Surfing is something…
Tobias Tom 6th September 2018 at 13:34

Surfing is something I found for myself. For me it's about nature, the ocean, waiting, being grateful for what's there, making the best of the opportunities you get – then from time to time you ride a decent wave… or you realise you have to practice more.

Tim send me a link that he thought might be of interest to me:

like Uber, but for waves

First of all I think nothing should be like Uber, but the idea is kind of appealing. Great waves with the push on a button.

While it might be a dream to have as many waves as possible, I think it is missing the most important part: nature. Surfing is about adapting to different scenarios. Even if they have 50 buttons for different waves, at one point in time you'll know them all. If the wave is approaching, there is only a little chance that something unexpected happens. That's why they want to call them perfect waves.

Overall, it's a great article explaining a little bit about wavepools and why it makes a lot of (commercial) sense for companies to support it. While I cannot say that I wouldn't want to try it, I'll stick to my free ocean. No button needed.

P.S. I'm so looking forward to the winter again:

not quite like standing on the cliffs at Nazare
Comment I'm thinking out…
Tobias Tom 30th August 2018 at 7:17

I'm thinking out load here and would like to read some feedback about this: Does a website need topics?

Frederic (links to a german post) reminded me about that yesterday. He explains that it makes sense for him to create multiple accounts inside different (Mastodon) services because he wants to post diverse things. Different topics that do not fit one audience.

I can very much relate to this. I'm still struggling how to organize content here. I like to write about tech stuff. I like to write about surfing, traveling, photos, conferences, art, architecture, … life in itself. While there might be people that want to read everything, the broader audience might not care about some content that they cannot relate to. While this is my website and I write whatever I want, I still think about my "audience". How can I make it easier for them to get the topics they are interested in?

While I did create different content types, I think a better approach might be topics. If you are into surfing you most likely don't care if it's an article, a note or a photo. Your interest is into surfing. With a topic you could get that. Just that and not the PostgreSQL related topics from which you think they might be a wax brand you've never heard of. (Spoiler: it's not).

That said, it's not that I write that much content on a weekly basis, so I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. If there's some content one is not interested into, they could just skim over it.

Any thought?

P.S. I would call it topics. You can call it whatever you want. Categories. Tags. Hashtags, …
Comment I've been there in…
Tobias Tom 30th August 2018 at 7:34

I've been there in the past: a new column had to be added to a database table, it should have a default value and it should not be allowed to have a null value. As larger the table is, the more reluctant I have been to add it.

With PostgreSQL 11 this seems to be a thing of the past:

Many other useful performance improvements, including making ALTER TABLE .. ADD COLUMN with a non-null column default faster

Want to know some details about this feature and why it's important? Brandur can explain this much better then I could:

One of the biggest reasons to prefer relational databases over document stores and other less sophisticated storage technology is data integrity. […] With a good schema design you can rest assured that your data is in a high quality state because the very database is ensuring it. […] Enthusiasts like me have always argued in favor of strong data constraints, but knew also that new non nullable fields often weren’t possible in Postgres when it was running at scale.
Comment Last weekend I…
Tobias Tom 30th August 2018 at 6:23
Last weekend I stopped my goal to publish something every day. For me it does not make any sense for two reasons:
- when I’m busy doing something else, why should I remind me to break the flow and post something. This includes fun or work.
- when I’m bored and I’m trying to post something out of nothing, who needs that random thought?
The new goal will be to publish more “meaningful” things here. That can be thoughts, photos or articles, but they should be non spontaneous.

For me it’s not about a daily goal, but about the things I want to post. If I want to write for the sake of writing, I can do that in Ulysses without thinking about publishing it.
Comment I think the nicest…
Tobias Tom 17th August 2018 at 17:52

I think the nicest thing about your new social network is that I can subscribe to each and everyone of you via an Atom feed.

Honestly, I don’t need live streaming inside a browser of all the stuff that goes on out there. If it needs my direct attention, you most likely know how to reach me for that.

Good luck for your transition! Seriously.

I’ll try to make my site compatible in the next month, then we can all publish our content where we think it belongs. My secret plan is also to share some details inside my howto section, but I’m not yet sure if that’s practical. We’ll see.

Nevertheless, something seems to change. I like that.
Comment Not sure if this…
Tobias Tom 16th August 2018 at 22:31

Not sure if this daily goal is helping me, but at least I’m getting in some kind of habit of regular (fun) pressure to share something.
Comment Sara Soueidan in…
Tobias Tom 14th August 2018 at 17:13

Sara Soueidan in Just write makes a great point:

Even if only one person learns something from your article, you’ll feel great, and that you’ve contributed — even if just a little bit — to this amazing community that we’re all constantly learning from.

This is similar to what I wrote here:

Starting today I’ll try again to use this thing more again. […] Because if one word or link helps someone else out there, it’s better then nothing.

Except that she has much nicer words for it.

In terms of her large articles, that kind of blocked her, I can also very much relate to. That’s why I never wrote long articles anymore until I broke the cycle with Gone surfing.

Writing is still hard for me, but it’s a skill one can get used to. That’s what I plan to do.

Just write.
Comment I just realized that…
Tobias Tom 13th August 2018 at 18:34

I just realized that I can watch World Surf League events again without a stupid Facebook account. Thank you.

Seriously.

🏄‍♂️🌊🏄‍♀️
Comment More or less I’m…
Tobias Tom 13th August 2018 at 18:13

More or less I’m seriously considering to buy a car. One that would not need to be fill up with fuel or energy at all – if I stick to less then 20km rides to the beach and back. Sounds impossible? Maybe it’s not.

The Sion looks pretty promising for this:

The Sion is equipped with 330 integrated solar cells, which recharge the battery through the power of the sun. […] Under proper conditions the solar cells generate enough energy, to cover 30 kilometers per day with the Sion.

This would still create all the practical problems of a car like parking, traffic road tolls and repairs, bit it would be a great option to go to any close beach in a fraction of the time I need now with public transportation.

Obviously this is for now all a mind thought because it’s not available yet, but that does not mean that one cannot consider it.
Comment If you are doing…
Tobias Tom 10th August 2018 at 14:02

If you are doing open source work, and thought about restricting it to only people doing “good” things, maybe the Just World License is for you:

The Just World License is for developers that agree in general with the principles of open source software, but are uncomfortable with their software being used as part of efforts to destroy lives, our environment and our future.

The idea is pretty great, not sure what implications it might have.
Comment I try to kept an eye…
Tobias Tom 10th August 2018 at 10:35

I try to kept an eye on all the paid digital subscriptions inside my Apple ID. When I wasn't using one enough I cancelled it. Today I have three active ones, and I was satisfied with myself.

The problem is: that is not even close to the truth. After being reminded by Christian that I now have a subscription for Tower, I started to think. Unfortunately there are far more paid solutions that I take for granted. Two surf forecast services, two macOS applications, five web based applications, one streaming service and one hosting provider.

The good thing is that I still want to keep all of them. They are worth paying for.

One question remains: which subscriptions did I forget because I don't use them anymore. If they have yearly payments activated, there's even a good chance that I'll miss to cancel them. Maybe some one should build a subscription app that reminds me of the subscriptions that I have.

How do you keep track of your digital subscriptions?

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