Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2021-38.

PHD Comics: The COVID-19 Virus Explained

Tags: science

Nice comics explaining in a simple way how this works.

http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=2047

The Facebook Files - WSJ

Tags: tech, facebook, social-media

This toxic platform is really cumulating loads of issues. Cynicism and lies to protect profits seems to be the norm at least in the upper management.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039

20 Reasons To Quit Social Media - Durmonski.com

Tags: tech, social-media

That’s a good list and a good way to approach social media.

https://durmonski.com/life-advice/reasons-to-quit-social-media/

Agile is Dead, McKinsey Just Killed It - Terem Technologies

Tags: tech, agile

I have to agree there. So long and thanks for the fish I guess.

https://terem.tech/agile-is-dead/

A basis for distribution, licensing and enforcement — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

Tags: tech, licensing, copyright, cla, dco

Interesting description on how the FSF deals with copyright assignments, CLAs, DCOs and the various legal tools needed.

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/FSF-copyright-handling

How To Rapidly Improve At Any Programming Language

Tags: tech, free-software, craftsmanship, codereview

Obviously I strongly agree with this. Participating in code reviews of free software components is a great way to improve. This applies to being a reviewer, submitting code and skimming other reviews.

https://www.cbui.dev/how-to-rapidly-improve-at-any-programming-language/

Modifying The Linux Kernel – New Syscalls – Coding Kaiser

Tags: tech, linux, system, kernel

Nice way to demystify syscalls in the Linux kernel. It’s not that hard to add new ones.

https://codingkaiser.blog/2021/07/17/create-your-own-system-calls%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8Aprocess-weights/

Profiling and improving the runtime of a large pytest test suite | Niklas Meinzer

Tags: tech, python, tests, performance, profiling

Mostly about the general approach on how to profile this kind of things. Still a couple of interesting pytest specific tips in here.

https://www.niklas-meinzer.de/post/2019-07_pytest-performance/

Motion One: The Web Animations API for everyone

Tags: tech, web, frontend, javascript

Looks like a tiny and nonetheless powerful library for animations in web frontends.

https://motion.dev/

No Longer Just Theory: Black Lotus Labs Uncovers Linux Executables Deployed as Stealth Windows Loaders - Lumen

Tags: tech, security, windows, linux

Fascinating attack vector. It was just a matter of time I guess, the more you use blurry frontiers (be it between OSes or other important domains) the more opportunities for exploits show up.

https://blog.lumen.com/no-longer-just-theory-black-lotus-labs-uncovers-linux-executables-deployed-as-stealth-windows-loaders/

Disclosure of three 0-day iOS vulnerabilities and critique of Apple Security Bounty program / Habr

Tags: tech, apple, security

Oops… that looks like bad handling on their security bounty program. Couple of the issues listed are particularly concerning.

https://habr.com/en/post/579714/

A New Battery-Free System Gives Devices an ‘Infinite Lifetime’

Tags: tech, ecology, battery

Bumped into this, didn’t know about their previous experiments. I’m definitely thrilled about this development… I’ll try to find more about it, paves the way to interesting little devices. I so damn hate batteries. :-)

https://interestingengineering.com/a-new-battery-free-system-gives-devices-an-infinite-lifetime

People- vs Results-Oriented Management: Both Work! - Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Tags: management

A bit of an oversimplification of course… still it’s OK since it’s on purpose to get the point accross. In any case it’s a good way to find out where you stand and where your weaknesses are as a manager.

https://jacobian.org/2021/sep/22/people-or-results-oriented/

Bye for now!