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Updates and speeding reading with audio/TTS | Readings


For the last week I’ve focused on 3 topics. One is related to reading, the second to the meetup. But the third one which is a big change, is that I’ve started working at Volkswagen Digital Solutions where I’ll be the data engineer for the Artificial Intelligence team. I’ll be visiting the Lisbon office from time to time which should be fun to get to know more of my team as well as the city. I’ll be sure to write more regarding the role of data engineering in the AI world but for now I’ll be focusing on finishing the semester.

Web Dev

Progress: 0%

I didn’t get to do much on this matter. I’m very keen on testing the Web Serial API to try and improve on the pos.cabeda.dev to handle requests and print receipts. This is the main blocker to replacing the current POS system the local church (I do occasional volunteering) uses which is written in Windows Forms.

Code challenges

Progress: 40%

Not much progress here since I’m focusing on the meetup. I’ve gotten to day 13 while leaving two part 2 challenges to do. I’ve gotten stuck on learning dynamic programming which is an entire new world and although useful requires lots of focused time.

Data Stream

Progress: 98%

I’ve gotten the presentation done and I’ve been training it for the past week. I’m still fixing last minute stuff specially because I’ve migrated to a new mac m3 pro and need to do final validations of the data analysis.

Wellness

Sadly, I didn’t get to do the São Silvestre. Got the flu and decided to stay home and recover. However, on a plus note, I’ve gotten myself to visit the swimming pool closest to me during lunch time. This is relevant to me as I wanted to validate how much time it would take me. And the times were:

  • 10 minutes to get there
  • 10 minutes to get back
  • 40 minutes to swim

This rounds to ~1 hour. With the need to shower, change clothes and well, lunch, it will take at least 1:30 of time. This is feasible, but requires planning ahead. To start, it’ll be a 1 time per week and see how it goes. With the soccer game + running it’ll be a 3 day per week exercise. It gives room for more but this is a good enough to have an healthy lifestyle.

Readings of the week

I’ve spent the week reading “Thinking Fast and Slow”. I’ve been keen on reading it for almost half an year and had gotten to page 50. As I saw my reading speed increase with audiobooks I decided to give a go to text-to-speech (TTS). I’ve payed for ReadEra Premium (wanted to have both scroll and seamless TTS) and I’ve sped through the book in no time. When doing chores or running I’d just listen and before going to bed I’d read a bit more. With the speed set to 1.5x, I was able to comprehend the text so I’ll keep it like this for now.

After finishing the book, I moved to another one from Thomas Piketty and in 2 days I’ve gotten to around 40% of the book. Pretty sweet.

However, I didn’t read any articles and I’ve gotten the omnivore list to 147. So, after reading my current book I’ll be trimming the list down.