Pesky's links

Using a keyboard, mouse and touchpad

Thu, 07 May 2026 06:26:16 +0000

I first learnt how to touch type many years ago at school through BBC's Bitesize learning, more specifically their Dance Mat Typing game. A few months ago I happend to run into this resource again through Chad McCullough on Mastodon and I was delighted to see it's still active and working. The memories!

QuickQWERTY

Thu, 07 May 2026 06:14:51 +0000

QuickQWERTY is a well designed touch typing website, built by Susam Pal, that helps create muscle memory through units. The website is also open source and the README has some more information. I'm using this to help correct some bad habits I've picked up along the years.

GoVolta stopt met ritten naar Hamburg

Tue, 05 May 2026 16:36:48 +0000

Reports from Martijn van Vulpen and mobilithib both confirm that GoVolta will be suspending their Amsterdam to Hamburg service in June. It seems the carriages will be used on the much more popular Amsterdam-Berlin route, upping the frequency from three to six trips per week. It's also expected that the train service will switch to buses soon until the suspension in June.

I actually believed this would be GoVolta's major differentiator, given there are currently no direct trains from Amsterdam to Hamburg. Also, this service could have been extended in the future to meet their ambitions to connect with Copenhagen.

Zoomquilt - The infinitely zooming image

Sun, 03 May 2026 08:41:30 +0000

Infinitely zooming art by Nikolaus Baumgarten and other illustrators, the about link on has some very interesting internet history on this project.

I discovered this site through the weird_wide_web_hole.

Chasing A380s across the Pacific

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:56:27 +0000

Some close up shots of A380s flying across the Pacific from LouB747, a 747-8 pilot. They look incredible.

20 Years on AWS and Never Not My Job

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 20:26:11 +0000

There's quite a lot of AWS lore packed in here by, security researcher and FreeBSD Release Engineering Lead, Colin Percival.

Discovered via lobste.rs.

On filing the corners off my MacBooks

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:49:22 +0000

Kent Walters writes about filing down the near edge of his MacBook. I was issued a MacBook by my employer last year and that sharp edge was the first thing I noticed. If it was mine to keep I would definitely be filing it down.

Discovered via HackerNews.

Working with Amazon S3 Files

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:51:01 +0000

S3 Files is a newly released feature of S3 that provides a file system on top of your bucket powered by EFS. For reads, the data is loaded into EFS when an object is less than 128KB, by default, for objects equal to or larger than the threshold S3 Files prefers streaming the data directly from the bucket. While writing files, EFS is used and any changes are synched automaticaly with the underlying S3 bucket.

No matter how you decide to dress object storage and treat it like a file system it can always come to bite you, if you're not careful. Here's how renames and moves are handled:

Amazon S3 uses a flat storage structure where objects are identified by their key names. While S3 Files lets you organize your data in directories, S3 has no native concept of directories. What appears as a directory in your file system is a common prefix shared by the keys of the objects within the S3 bucket. Additionally, S3 objects are immutable and do not support atomic renames. As a result, when you rename or move a file, S3 Files must write the data to a new object with the updated key and delete the original. When you rename or move a directory, S3 Files must repeat this process for every object that shares that prefix. Therefore, when you rename or move a directory containing tens of millions of files, your S3 request costs and the synchronization time increase significantly.

Assembling a new study desk from shelves

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:29:32 +0000

In a similar vain to an essay I shared yesterday called The Utopia of the Family Computer, we had furniture that was specifically designed to accomodate this machine and it's peripherals.

It wasn’t an ordinary desk but a fairly specific design: a compartment for the CPU, another for the monitor, a sliding tray for the keyboard, slots for discs, shelves for papers, manuals, and pencils. Everything seemed designed so that each element would find its place and, at the same time, so that the whole would stay contained within a clear structure. That kind of furniture organized more than just objects. It organized a relationship with technology. It suggested that the computer (and with it, the internet) was something used under particular conditions: seated, in that spot, for a certain amount of time. Something that was switched on and off, opened and closed.

I like this, a space designed for a purpose, in todays world this could also help draw a boundary between work and personal time. In an appartement this computer space is usually used during work and personal time, with maybe different configurations or devices to set the boundary, but I digress.

The real reason for me writing this is to share Ruben's post on trying to find and eventually building his own desk! I think it turned out quite well.

The Utopia of the Family Computer

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:01:30 +0000

Jose Ibanez on personal devices and the internet broke out of their initial containment.

The computer stopped being strictly a family object when it began moving into individual spaces. Laptops let the screen leave the common room. Then wireless connections made the fixed point on the wall unnecessary. Later, the smartphone finished altering the scene: you no longer had to go to the computer. The connection began to follow you. Screens started spreading through the house. Then they left it. The connection stopped being something that happened at certain moments and became something continuously available.

Discovered via Satyrs' garden.