Netflix Techblog: Data Movement in Netflix Studio via Data Mesh

My working spaces over the last 7 years

ITNEXT: Lessons learned from managing a Kubernetes cluster for side projects

ITNEXT: An alternative to Google Geocoder API (in Node.js)

Why micro frontends might not work for you.

Firebase Developers: How to setup Firebase Authentication with React in 5 minutes (maybe 10)

TechFolks Amsterdam meetup: Distributed Frontends

Travix blog: Crafting code

Travix Techblog: Using recompose HOC’s to get better performance in forms using Formik and Yup


...and since they're so hard, I've decided to write them here as I learn.

_Know some that are missing here? Let me know on [twitter](https://go.d1m.dev/twitter)_

## isOdd implementation

Happens that you can check if a value is odd or not by shifting it 1 bit and checking if the result is 0 or 1.

In case the result is 0, then it means the given number is an odd number.

```ts
export const isOdd = (num: number) => Boolean(num & 0x01);
``` 


Bitwise operations are fun, but hard to remember...

Bitwise Snippets


I've spent a considerable amount of time looking out for my perfect split keyboard.

It took me a bit more of a year exploring and trying different builds _(which was a lot of fun learning about soldering and how keyboards are built, and I hope I can keep building some keebs as I wish)_ but eventually I've settled into a specific setup.

This article renders a timeline of my split keyboard usage and discovery.

<Box style={{ padding: "20px" }}>
  <Timeline bulletSize={24} lineWidth={2}>
    <Timeline.Item title="December 2020">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">My first split keyboard. You can order and find more info at [zsa.io](https://zsa.io)</Text>
      ![ZSA Moonlander MK1](/assets/photos/moonlander_1.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="March 2021">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">My first DIY split keyboard. I've made a lot of mistakes while soldering this first board, but I've learned a lot about this model in specific. More info at [gh/foostan/crkbd](https://github.com/foostan/crkbd)</Text>
      ![Corne with Moonlander keycaps](/assets/photos/corne_3.jpg)
      ![Corne with Drop MT3 Susuwatari keycaps](/assets/photos/corne_1.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="June 2021">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">Ordered 5 Corne v3 PCBs from JLCPCB and built two of them properly. Got a 3D printed case with tenting and light effects on the bottom.</Text>
      ![Two Corne v3 with Drop MT3 White on Black and Susuwatari keycaps](/assets/photos/two_corne_v3.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="September 2021">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">Built a Boardsource Corne lowprofile. Used nice!nano to make it a BLE keyboard.</Text>
      ![Corne BLE low profile using MBK blank keycaps](/assets/photos/corne_lopro_ble.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="February 2022">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">Ordered some Gravity Keycaps directly from [dailycraft.jp](https://shop.dailycraft.jp)</Text>
      ![Corne BLE low profile using Gravity Keycaps](/assets/photos/corne_lopro_gravity.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="March 2022">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">Got a Corne-ish Zen through a reddit sale. The smallest keyboard I've ever had. This is my current daily driver when working from home or travelling.</Text>
      ![Corne-ish with Gravity Keycaps](/assets/photos/corne_ish_zen.jpg)
    </Timeline.Item>

    <Timeline.Item title="April 2022">
      <Text color="dimmed" size="sm">Built a Kyria. Was really curious about the tenting possibilities, more aggressive staggering and having rotary encoders. I only use this build at the office.</Text>
      ![Kyria Low Profile with MBK Blanks](/assets/photos/kyria.jpg)
      ![Kyria at Netflix table](/assets/photos/nflx-table-1.jpeg)
    </Timeline.Item>
  </Timeline>
</Box>


Timeline with pictures of my split keyboard journey

Split Keyboards Timeline


Amsterdam is a wonderful city and extremely diverse.

I moved here in 2018 after getting a job at Travix, which relocated me from Vila Velha all the way to Amsterdam.

Before that, I had never been in The Netherlands. I moved all the way to a totally unknown country ~10.000km away from my home country without knowing anyone.

As years went by, I managed to make friends, meet my girlfriend, buy an appartment, and settle for good in Amsterdam.

Over the years also I've met many people in a similar situation as I had, or friends coming over to get to know the place. Sometimes they've been here before and know around.

But as it's an ever-changing city. New things pop up, old places close, streets get rebuilt, and so on. 

So I'm always getting to know new places and recommending it to people who are new here. After doing it **so many times**, I made a compilation of the best places I know and the ones I usually like to go.

It ended up being handy to many people, so I decided to make it a post so it can be broadly shared. Hope you enjoy!

## Bars 

- Biertuin _(not only amazing beers but also amazing food. full and half chickens, amazing chicken burger)_
- Craft & Draft
- Arendsnest
- Beer Temple
- Mikkeler
- Walhalla Brewery
- Brouwerij 't Ij _(in a molen!)_

## Cocktails

- Tales and Spirits
- Hiding in Plain sight
- Rosalia's Menagerie

## Clubs

- Bitterzoet
- The School

## Coffeeshops

- Boerejongens
- Barney Lounge
- New Times 
- Prix D'Ami _(my first coffeeshop, very much club vibes, haven't been there in a long time)_
- Tyson 2.0 _(yes, it is Mike Tyson's coffeeshop)_

## Games

- Poolbar
- Tonton Club
- Gamestate

## Skateboarding

- Skatepark NOORD
- Oosterpark Skatepark
- Skate Cafe

## Weed-friendly places

Mostly bars/venues where you can have a beer and smoke a joint without being asked not to.

They might be quite underground.

- Hill Street Blues
- Soundgarden
- BR020 
- Checkpoint Charlie
- Cafe The Minds
- Vrankrijk

## Unusual places

- Mezrab _(story telling place)_
- OT301 _(many different events)_
- LAB111 _(restaurant, vintage cinema, cool vibes)_
- Studio K _(restaurant, community-driven cinema)_

## Restaurants

### South African food

- The Lion's Head

### British food

- The Old Bell

### Indian food

- The Golden Temple

### Vegan food

- Vegan Junk Food Bar
- Dear Mama

### Chinese food

- ~~Panda's Kitchen~~ _(unfortunately closed during the pandemic)_

### Japanese food

- MOJO Japanese Kitchen

### Dutch food

- Cafe Hesp
- Moeders
- De Groene Olifant

### Middle-eastern food

- D&A Hummus

### Kebab / Doner

- LAVINA
- Donerland

### Variety

- Foodhallen
- Albert Cuypmarket

### Pizza

- Loulou

### Korean food

- Gangnam Chicken _(nice fried chicken and mushrooms)_
- FACTORY GIRL
- SEOUL SISTA (korean barbecue)
- Miss Korea (korean barbecue)

### Sandwiches

- JOE & THE JUICE

### Burgers

- Lombardo's
- Cafe Oslo
- Thrill Grill
- Restaurant Zest 
- The Butcher

### Sea food

- Mossel & Gin
- Mr Crab Restaurant
- Volendammer Vishandel J.C.M. Koning
- PESCA

### Thai food

- O-CHA

### Brazilian food

- LOVA
- Casa Nossa 
- Brazuca
- Samba Kitchen
- Tapi 'n Bowls
- Brazuca Rodizio _(not Amsterdam, actually in Hoofddorp)_

### Portuguese food

- Portugalia Tasca

### Mexican food

- Salsa Shop _(fastfood tho)_

### Brunch

- Locals Coffee
- Benji's
- Gs
- Staring at Jacob
- Bali Brunch

### Meat 

- Salmuera _(very busy, reserve in advance. make sure to try the Yuca Frita)_
- Cafe de Klos _(first come first serve, no reservations. the spare ribs are amazing)_
- Cannibale Royale _(often open until late, so might be your last resort for dinners after 9:30pm)_
- Mi Sueno
- Loetje

### Ramen

- Vatten Ramen
- Sapporo Sora Ramen
- Takumi Ramen
 


At the moment of this writing, I've been living in Amsterdam for almost 5 years.

Nice places in Amsterdam


I've always been very into guitars since I started playing at the age at 11, but during my early adult years I was way too busy working into building a career in software and building my life. Since 2022, I've decided to step up and get to play more often again and try different modern guitars and tones _(because now I can)_.

That said, I've been the happy owner of a few guitars for the past year. 

Very recently, my girlfriend got me a Valravn Munnin 8 for my birthday, which is an amazing headless extended range guitar made by Valravn, a small guitar boutique shop based in Ukraine :flag-ua:

The fact that she is also Ukrainian makes it even better: now I live with 6 Ukrainian cats, 2 Ukrainian ladies and also have 1 Ukrainian guitar, which looks, sounds and feels great :smile:

If you never heard of Valravn before, I absolutely recommend you take a look on their [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/valravnguitars/) and [Reverb page]() _(Tip: ping the account directly on Instagram in case you want to buy one of their guitars without the Reverb fee)_

I ended up getting this beauty:

<InstagramEmbed
  url="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq3OlOoIEcZ/"
/>

Let's talk a bit more about it

## How does it sound

Here is a quick riff that I did these days with it:

<InstagramEmbed
  url="https://www.instagram.com/p/CsbMS3UqxEo/"
/>

## The nice things

This guitar is phenomenal for many reasons, but these are the ones that stand out for me:

- **Neck profile:** The neck profile is a very thin C neck profile, and I like that
- **Head stock:** The head stock has a very nice design, which is actually a small touch that I love a lot
- **Inlay:** It has blue luminlay side dots, which helps me a lot with this neck finish
- **Pickups:** Fishman Fluence Tosin Abasi pickups are insanely good for 8 strings. Voice 3 gives a lot of clarity for the 8th and 7th string when clean or with overdrive. Voice 1 and 2 are agressive and good for metal tones.
- **Weight:** It is very light for an 8 string guitar.
- **Action:** The string action came low as I like, super well setup instrument. String tension feels good as well.
  - 8th and 1st strings are 1.25mm, in between all at 1.50mm
  - I liked this action so much that I also changed my strandberg to have the same action. It was .25mm ~ .50mm higher than that.
- **Bridge:** This model came with Valravn's Bridge Rev 2. This bridge is the first fixed bridge I have on a headless guitar and so far I really like it. Tuning stability is pretty good and tuning it is easy.
- **Jack Input:** It has a jack with a locking/release mechanism so your cable never falls.
- **Electronics:** Back plate with magnetic lock so it is easy to change the pickups battery or access eletronics
- **Knobs:** I love the volume and tone knob positions as they don't hit my hands as much as Strandberg one's does

## What could be better

- **Inlay**: I think I have to charge these luminlays? Still didn't got them to work. Never had that problem with my Legator or Strandbergs.
- **Inlay:** Although the neck is a piece of art, the black inlay work on top of the nebula background has a bad contrast and I almost never can see the inlay
- **Jack Input Position:** The jack could be more well placed behind the guitar so it is more ergonomic _(Strandberg does this nicely. Aristides puts 2 jacks in different places, which is also nice here)_
- **Bridge:** I would love to see an 8 string from Valravn with a tremolo bridge. So far seems that only Aristides is leading in this space.

### Price

This is a quite expensive guitar.

I've got it new with Valravn through Reverb for 1,897.23 EUR, including shipping from Ukraine to the Netherlands.

It was shipped on March 27 and arrived on April 17. I probably got lucky with customs, as I only paid ~35 EUR for customs once it arrived in The Netherlands. Not sure what happened there.

## Comparing it with my Strandberg NX 7

Since Valravn is also a headless-only guitar boutique, it is a fair question to ask me how does it compares with the Strandberg.

I don't have an 8-string fixed-bridge strandberg, and with that I can only compare it to my Boden Prog NX 7, which certainly makes my review lack certain aspects that would differ in a 8 string strandberg such as the neck thickness (due to their Endurneck shape) or tuning stability (due to the tremolo bridge of the Prog 7).

But anyway, here is how my strandberg sounds:

<InstagramEmbed
  url="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmokjKAN3RM/"
/>

Talking about differences: some things are obvious.

 - No endurneck, since this is patented and only available on Strandbergs

Some not so much, and you notice after a while:

 - The heel joint is not as smooth as the one in the new Strandberg NX models (but this doesn't mean it doesn't have a good handshake or access to the 24th fret)
 - The bridge is solid, but I miss the internal hex shape that allows you to use an allen key instead of the knobs.
 - Valravn comes with a brass nut. If that is better than what strandberg ships with, I dunno.
 - Strandbergs have a slot for battery. Valravn keeps it with the electronics, which has easy access due to the magnetic plate, but I'd rather have a specific slot (or even better, a USB-C rechargable battery)
 - The scale of the Valravn is much more bigger and aggressive.
 - Valravn uses a straplock with a pin safety mechanism, which is nice to keep the guitar protected but it does hurt my chest when playing seating with it. Strandberg just ships their brand's straplock that has an extra plastic piece to force the strap to lock, without needing this device. Two different designs.

In all honesty, none of these are actual problems, they're really just the differences that stnad out for me.

If you'd ask me if I'd sell my Valravn to buy an 8 string strandberg: I wouldn't. 

If you'd ask me if I'd sell my Strandberg Prog NX 7 to buy a Valravn 7: I wouldn't.

Both are amazing but they have their peculiarities. I'd recommend the reader to buy both, just like I did :smile: But if you have to choose just one, either will be amazing guitars and you'll love them.

## My current rig of guitars 

<InstagramEmbed
  url="https://www.instagram.com/p/Crc_ZzUoOdW/"
/>

From left to right:

- [Ibanez Artcore Tobacco Flat (AF55-TF 5B-04) 2020](https://www.thomann.de/intl/ibanez_af55_tf.htm)
- [Legator N7FP Iris Fade 2021](https://legatorguitars.com/products/2022-n7fp?variant=41301338194073)
- [Valravn Munnin 8 Nebula Finish 2023](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq3OlOoIEcZ/)
- [Strandberg Boden Prog NX 7 Charcoal Black 2021](https://strandbergguitars.com/eu/product/boden-prog-nx-7-charcoal-black/)
- [Strandberg Boden Prog NX 6 Charcoal Black 2022](https://strandbergguitars.com/eu/product/boden-prog-nx-6-charcoal-black/)




and a light comparison between it and my Strandberg Prog NX 7

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