My Evening Reads

By Zac Szewczyk on 2019/05/15 07:44:09 EST in Blogging

I follow a lot of websites. In Keeping Up with Current Events, I list the handful I use to start my day. These get regular updates and help me stay up on current events. I also follow a lot of websites run by independent writers and small shops. These cover many of the same topics, but due to their size, they do not get updated as often. The unique perspective they bring to the table, though, makes for some of the most interesting reading I do. To round out my earlier post, I want to share this list with you today.

Out of the many sites on this list, I can expect to see new content on less than a quarter per day, a handful of others in a week, and the rest on an inconsistent basis. Rather than check each one, I keep up with them using their RSS feeds. In brief, think of an RSS feed as a single file containing a list of all the articles on a website. On April 9th, 2019, for example, the feed for my blog would have looked like this:

2019/04/09 14:26:08: Secure, Private File Sharing (https://zacs.site/blog/secure-private-file-sharing.html)
2019/04/09 14:13:33: Before, Now, and in the Future (https://zacs.site/blog/before-now-and-future.html)
2019/04/08 12:05:49: The Last Four Years (https://zacs.site/blog/the-last-four-years.html)
2019/04/06 11:12:52: Simple, not Easy (https://zacs.site/blog/simple-not-easy.html)

Whenever a new post goes live, that list gets updated. After posting Proxy Innovation on April 10th, my feed would have changed. Take note of the new entry at the top:

2019/04/10 12:28:18: Proxy Innovation (https://zacs.site/blog/proxy-innovation.html)
2019/04/09 14:26:08: Secure, Private File Sharing (https://zacs.site/blog/secure-private-file-sharing.html)
2019/04/09 14:13:33: Before, Now, and in the Future (https://zacs.site/blog/before-now-and-future.html)
2019/04/08 12:05:49: The Last Four Years (https://zacs.site/blog/the-last-four-years.html)
2019/04/06 11:12:52: Simple, not Easy (https://zacs.site/blog/simple-not-easy.html)

RSS readers watch RSS feeds for changes like that. On April 10th, my reader would have shown me a new article called Proxy Innovation. My app of choice, News Explorer, keeps track of feeds for over forty sites. Any time one of those lists changes, when a new post goes live, News Explorer delivers it to my phone. Just like my morning reads, most of the time this yields a handful of articles, one or two of which find their way here, and the rest of which I read for my own edification. Although drawing from many sources, their inconsistent posting schedule means I skim less than 200 titles per day. I break these sites up into groups below, in no particular order, along with a brief note on each.

News #

Although I leave most of the news to Keeping Up with Current Events or, on occasion, the websites in Bookmarks, I do keep close track of a few news-adjacent websites. FedScoop and C4ISRNet help me stay up to date with government-related news and developments in the cyber field specifically.

https://www.fedscoop.com - FedScoop focuses more on general government news.
https://www.c4isrnet.com - C4ISRNet focses more on cyber and electronic warfare-related news.

Adventure #

Recall that I defined “adventuring” as “the vehicles you use to get the gear you pack to the places you want to go.” To break this section up, I divided the sites here into those three categories.

The vehicles you use... #

https://liveworkwander.com - Stepping out of the world of large-scale expedition rigs, Jessica and Jorge adventure in a 70 series LandCruiser. Their journey to this rig made for a great story, and now that they have it, they continue to do all sorts of cool things and post great articles at Live Work Wander.
https://expeditionportal.com/ - The staff behind Expedition Portal churn out some of the best overlanding content on the Internet. If it involves vehicular travel, they cover it — and they cover it well. If you want to get serious about overlanding, start here.
https://blissordie.com - Lilly and Darrel Davis have lived in an RV based on the M1078 chassis since April of 2018. I found their website soon after Two If Overland. Bliss Or Die has a lot of great information for anyone thinking of getting into this space, although it appears defunct.

...to get the gear you pack... #

I like gear. I like reading about it, trying cool new things, and finding the best tools for the job. This has cost me a lot of money in the past, so I stick to reading now. These sites help me do that. Some have a narrow focus — on ultralight backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, for example; others focus on a much broader swath of the industry. These are some of the best sites for gear news on the internet.

https://www.carryology.com - I like backpacks, I own a lot of them, and Carryology helps me keep up with the best the industry has to offer.
http://www.exploringoverland.com/ - Exploring Overland’s Overland Tech & Travel blog focuses more on the types of gear overlanders use. Look here for a mix of gear an individual would use on a day trip, and things like portable fridges.
https://www.yompnotes.com/ - This site seldom sees new posts, but Neil Stevens writes good reviews and does some great work customizing his loadouts. I have great affinity for the DIY gear maker.
https://packconfig.com - The folks over at Pack Config bring an interesting mix of gear reviews, recommendations, and in-depth testing to the table, alongside curated “pocket dumps” that showcase the cool gear their readers carry. These posts in particular have lead to some interesting finds for me.

...to the places you want to go. #

https://huckberry.com/journal - Andy Forch and Richard Greiner said it best, so I will let their words do the talking: They created Huckberry in 2010 for guys who lived in the city but lived for the outdoors — to give guys gear for today, and inspiration for tomorrow. They manage the former with an awesome, curated store, and the latter with the Huckberry Journal. I got lucky enough to stumble across this site a few years ago, and have followed it ever since.

DIY #

I love building things. When I faced buying a storage system for my 4Runner, I chose to build my own. I have grand plans for future projects, and these websites give me even more ideas. Even more important, though, seeing experts practice their craft teaches me to improve mine.

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/ - I work with and build complex, technical tools all day every day, so I know just how fragile these systems can be; Low-Tech Magazine highlights proven, time-tested, and simple solutions to problems that remain challenging even today. I find these writeups at once fascinating and instructive.

Finance #

I have some bold financial goals. Sam, who writes Financial Samurai, comes from a background in finance. Sam’s hard work and shrewd moves allowed him to achieve financial independence at a young age, and while some of his advice is controversial, I appreciate the perspective.

https://www.financialsamurai.com - Financial Samurai

National Security #

I struggled long and hard to find good, non-partisan writing on politics and current events, but that work paid off. These websites produce some of the best analysis in this space.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/ - Lawfare publishes some of the best analysis of current events and the geopolitical landscape on the Internet. Its writers post thoughtful, well-written, and well-researched work. I cannot say enough good things about Lawfare. I also recommend The Lawfare Podcast as well, for an audio program with the same exceptional quality as the organization’s written work.
https://foreignpolicy.com/ - Aside from some subtleties that make me think a few authors lean Left, Foreign Policy comes in a close second behind Lawfare for its in-depth analysis and thought-provoking writing.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ - Foreign Affairs helps me stay up to date on national security news with insightful analysis and detailed reporting.
https://warontherocks.com/ - The trait I appreciate most about War on the Rocks, which covers national security topics, is the depth of knowledge its authors bring to bear in their articles. They do an excellent job of citing relevant reading related to the complex topics they cover. I routinely open a short article that sends me down a rabbit hole and ends with me reading tens or hundreds of pages.
https://tnsr.org/ - The journal counterpart to War on the Rocks, the Texas National Security Review focuses on long-form articles it makes available in a quarterly publication.
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/ - The American Affairs Journal is a quarterly publication with great, in-depth pieces on public policy.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/ - Small Wars Journal covers current events and national security topics.

Artificial Intelligence #

With the explositon of large language models, artificial intelligence went from a niche field to a household topic of conversation. This section lists a few websites I follow to keep up with the field. For a more comprehensive list of sources, and a curated collection of impactful pieces, check out my artificial intelligence reading list.

http://simonwillison.net/ - Simon Willison is an extremely prolific author and a well-respected researcher and practitioner in the artificial intelligence space. I look to him for thoughtful work on practical uses of this new technology.
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu - This collection of authors help me better understand the nuances of the data science field in general.
https://www.noemamag.com/ - Although not strictly focused on artificial intelligence, most of the NOEMA articles I read deal with that topic. These well-written pieces frequently share a unique perspective.

Development #

I would not call myself a good programmer. I know enough to do some damage, but the better I get, the more room for growth I see. These writers seldom talk about the basics, but rather the interesting edge cases, tricks, and lessons they have encountered or learned in their careers as developers. They teach me new things all the time, or just cover interesting tech-related topics.

https://martinheinz.dev/ - A developer for IBM, Martin Heinz talks about a lot of topics I find interesting, including Python development.
http://jvns.ca/ - Julia Evans is a remarkably smart developer; I follow her to become a better one.
https://davidwalsh.name - I have some strong feelings about the design of David Walsh’s blog, and much more positive ones about the great articles he posts there. David writes focuses on front-end development, but also covers languages and technologies on the back end as well.
https://apenwarr.ca/log - The author dives deep on all sorts of developer- and tech-related topics, and does a great job of explaining even the most complex ones.
https://martinfowler.com - Martin Fowler writes about the software development profession, with a focus on sharing lessons learned throughout his career and suggestions for improving the field.
https://bitsofco.de/ - At bitsofcode, Ire Aderinokun writes about front-end development. I have seen a lot of people brush HTML, CSS, and JavaScript off as solved problems, in an age where lazy browser rendering and fast internet connections have masked the importance of smart design. That tide has started to change, though, and Ire’s tips have helped me stay in front of this trend.
https://www.rdegges.com - Randall Degges writes about primarily about development on this lifestyle blog.
https://www.hillelwayne.com - Hillel Wayne also writes about the software development profession, and shares his own lessons and thoughts on improving the field.
https://rixx.de/blog/ - Tobias Kunze’s series on the Python standard library got my attention at first, and his concise, thorough explanations kept me around. I look forward to more great content like this in the future.
https://stackoverflow.blog/ - Stack Overflow is a fascinating company with a unique approach to many problems. On their blog, they write about those interesting ideas.
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/ - Scott Hanselman covers writing and development at a high level, for the most part, but gets down into the weeds on occasion. He has a wealth of knowledge to share on all fronts.

Information Security #

https://www.philvenables.com/ - Phil Venables, CISO at Google Cloud, writes about cybersecurity programs. His advice for their effective operation at the practitioner level, and use at the executive level, is informative.
https://www.mbsecure.nl/blog/ - Marcus Bakker posts of MB Secure does a lot of interesting work in the information security space, perhaps most impactful of which was his company’s part in the development of the TaHiTI Threat Hunting Methodology.
https://bindinghook.com - Binding Hook is one of few “tech news” websites I follow.
https://blog.redteam.pl/ - The folks at Red Team cybersecurity post great writeups and tutorials for network defenders.
https://thedfirreport.com - The DFIR Report posts great, in-depth writeups on current malware campaigns.
https://corelight.com/blog - Zeek is one of my favorite tools, and Corelight frequently publishes instructive articles on making better use of this powerhouse of a tool.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/ - Every time a list of cybersecurity-related sites comes up, so does Brian Krebs’ blog. A prolific writer and self-educated security researcher, his background in investigative journalism helps him write a different kind of story than most in this space.
https://bakerstreetforensics.com/ - Doug Metz writes some interesting posts about information security and other, related topics.
https://offensivecyber.org/ - The Offensive Cyber Working Group is a UK-based initiative to to examine the conceptual, policy, and practical implications of offensive cyber operations.
https://shellsharks.com - Mike Sass’s website is a wealth of information for everyone in the information security space, from beginners to all experience levels.
https://blog.erratasec.com/ - The personal blog of Robert Graham, a security researcher, and David Maynor, who also writes for Talos Intelligence. I enjoy their style, they cover a broad range of topics related to cybersecurity, and their articles always get me thinking.
http://windowsir.blogspot.com/ - Harlan Carvey’s Windows Incident Response blog covers interesting technical topics from high-level threat hunting to low-level forensics
https://www.elastic.co/blog/ - Like Splunk, Elastic also does a good job of posting informative articles for network defenders.
https://decipher.sc - Decipher covers both tech and information security news. It fits the profile for the type of website covered in Keeping Up with Current Events, but due to its low volume I track updates via RSS instead of daily visists.
https://www.netmeister.org/blog/ - Jan Schaumann writes fantastically in-depth posts about networking and network protocols.
https://www.labs.greynoise.io/grimoire - GreyNoise Labs’ Grimoire blog periodically hosts detailed writeups based on problems the engineering team encounters or observations from their sensor fleet.
https://blog.talosintelligence.com/ - Cisco’s Talos Intelligence group is a great source of exploit and malware news.
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/ - Mathew Green covers cryptography some, hence the name, but in more broad strokes writes great stuff on privacy.
https://spacetime.dev/ - Awn Umar wrote two fascinating posts on encryption; I stick around hoping for more.
https://pre.empt.dev/ - A joint project between two researchers, this website has a handful of interesting articles about detection and detection evasion.
https://svch0st.medium.com/ - Zach’s informative posts provide great tips for threat hunting.
https://weberblog.net/ - Johannes Weber covers interesting information security topics.

Miscellaneous #

This last group of websites does not fit into of the genres above, but over the years I have found some great content here. I like the authors, and I like to keep up with their work.

https://secondbreakfast.co - Another lifestyle blog, Will Schreiber writes about tech, current events, and whatever else strikes his fancy.
http://danluu.com - Dan Luu thinks there’s “a desperate shortage of understandable explanation of technical topics”, and set out to fix it with his blog; he’s doing a great job.
http://paulgraham.com/articles.html - Paul Graham writes about a lot of things, but his thoughts on professional development and work in particular are always instructive.
http://www.jeffgeerling.com/ - Jeff Geerling’s Raspberry Pi projects push the limits of what most consider possible for these small devices.
https://commoncog.com/blog/ - Much like Farnham Street, Cedric Chin’s Commonplace blog is an excellent source for personal and professional development. Cedric is an excellent writer, a skill he uses well to convey convey these important lessons. For help getting started, check out the Start Here page.
https://world.hey.com/dhh - Another lifestyle blog, David Hansson writes about his perspective on topics ranging from current events to business.
https://michael.stapelberg.ch/ - Michael Stapelberg consistently posts great articles on his many interesting projects.
https://jenson.org/ - Scott Jenson writes about user experience.
https://www.justinobeirne.com/ - Justin Obeirne tracks Apple Maps’ progress as the company works to map the entire country. The level of detail in his side-by-side comparisons of each version is exquisite.
https://fs.blog - Perhaps the single greatest source of lessons in personal development, Farnam Street topics range from the OODA loop and other techniques for making sound decisions to the use of mental models for rapid and effective decision making to discussions of the value of feedback and how best to act on it. Start with those articles, or work your way through the site’s most popular posts. You cannot go wrong with this excellent website.
https://ferd.ca/ - Fred Hebert does not post often, but I enjoy his longform writing somewhere near the intersection of information technology and philosophy.
https://martinrue.com - Another lifestyle blog, Martin Rue writes about engineering, software development, and other topics of interest.
https://utf9k.net - Marcus Crane writes about tech.
https://snikt.net/ - Andreas Happe’s work on building an LTE modem got my attention, but I stayed for his eclectic writings on interesting, tech-related topics.
http://blairreeves.me - Blair Reeves talks about tech, life, and writing a blog.
https://blog.haschek.at/home/ - Christian Hascheck writes a lot of interesting tech articles on topics like homelab projects and information security.
http://berthub.eu/articles/ - Bert Hubert has written a lot about COVID-19 lately, but I stick around for his thoughts on economics and outsourcing that attracted me in the first place.
https://unixsheikh.com - The Unix Sheikh is just that: a Unix expert with a fascinating backlog of great articles on this ecosystem.
https://acaptainslog.com - Kayla Hodges, a former captain in the Army, writes about her time in the military and the lessons she learned.
https://blog.networkprofile.org/ - Here the author talks about networking and other interesting projects.

The Full List #

Like last time, to make your life a little easier, I list every site below in order of appearance above.

I like big-name websites for keeping up on current events, but I tend to find the best content on sites like these. The advice to “follow people, not places” has served me well, and I encourage you to start doing the same.