Tags: web-review, system, databases, blockchain, bug, windows, orm, programming, spring, tech, copyright, licensing, unix, design, 3d, tdd, browser, wikipedia, lenovo, vendor-lockin, irc, leadership, search, tests, pandas, polars, c++, history, unity, godot, hacking, web, python, type-systems, craftsmanship, uber, firefox, rss, politics, services, business, foss, ethics, ai, rust, funny, javascript, linux, estimates, smartphone, backend, command-line, surveillance, complexity, html, machine-learning, hr, remote-working, interviews, api, attention-economy, surprising, social-media, ecology, java, automotive, dns, react, data-science, web3, postgresql, project-management, privacy, zig, css, frontend, management, distributed, memory, github, culture, safety, terminal, microsoft
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2022-29. This is a very large triple issue since I was mostly away from the keyboard lately. That summer break was good. :-)
Tags: tech, culture, hacking
An excellent piece which raises interesting questions about computer literacy. There’s indeed be a generation of people before the so called “digital natives” who had to know how computers work. Are we loosing this by cuddling people with too much convenience? How much are we then loosing as a society?
Tags: tech, uber, ethics
Disgusting practices… unlawful too… this company is really an overgrown parasite.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign
Tags: tech, uber, ethics, business
I don’t understand this “it is illegal and bad for workers” leading to “let’s change the law to make it happen anyway”. Change your business model already!
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/07/uber-files-leak-gig-economy
Tags: tech, funny, ai, automotive
Mysterious event… that’s the problem with such centralized and homogeneous system, when something fails it is quickly at scale.
Tags: tech, machine-learning, copyright, licensing, github
Very interesting thought experiment around Copilot’s legality. I’d love to see that happen and see what the outcome would be.
https://seirdy.one/posts/2022/07/01/experiment-copilot-legality/
Tags: tech, microsoft, foss
Microsoft being its usual self… now trying to make sure Free Software developers can’t make money through their app store. They claim they like Open Source but only when that’s about getting a benefit for them on platforms they control.
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jul/07/microsoft-bans-commerical-open-source-in-app-store/
Tags: tech, microsoft, lenovo, linux, vendor-lockin
Unsurprisingly, this might be the first device with such defaults… probably more to come until the settings disappear completely. Not cool.
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/59931.html
Tags: tech, unity, 3d, surveillance
Clearly a worrying move from Unity… it wasn’t great before but now the level of trust one can have for games made with that engine will be even lower.
https://www.pcgamer.com/unity-is-merging-with-a-company-who-made-a-malware-installer/
Tags: tech, 3d, foss, godot
Let’s hope we’ll indeed see more indie game creators moving to Godot, it’s a neat engine.
https://jolexxa.medium.com/its-time-to-make-that-indie-c-game-in-godot-cea383151470
Tags: tech, browser, privacy, firefox
Still important to have it around and alive.
Tags: tech, web, web3, blockchain, social-media
Let’s get the historical records straight indeed. Don’t believe the web3 bullshit revisionism.
https://accordion-druid.tumblr.com/post/685175656750972928/dont-lie-to-me-about-web-20
Tags: tech, rss
Looks like a nice tool to handle websites lacking a RSS feed.
https://github.com/wezm/rsspls
Tags: tech, web, rss
As much as I like RSS, it has indeed a few issues. It’s important to keep them in mind.
https://matt-rickard.com/thoughts-on-rss/
Tags: tech, irc
I admit I secretly wish for an IRC revival… been using lesser solutions too much for my taste.
https://sourcehut.org/blog/2022-07-06-sourcehut-and-irc/
Tags: tech, c++
If you’re still confused about [[noreturn]] this is a good short read. Indeed it’s a bit annoying that it is not part of the type system.
https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2022/06/29/that-undiscovered-country/
Tags: tech, windows, memory, system
OK, it’s 2022 and this is still not an adequate ecosystem for system programming.
https://erikmcclure.com/blog/windows-malloc-implementation-is-a-trash-fire/
Tags: tech, unix, terminal, command-line
Very neat trip back in history. Ever wondered what happened in your terminal? This explains it well.
https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/07/20/pseudoterminals/
Tags: tech, dns, history, surprising
OK, now that’s a surprising bit of DNS history.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/07/dns-esoterica-why-you-cant-dig-switzerland/
Tags: tech, databases, postgresql, search
Neat little introduction to Postgres full-text search facilities. Too often overlooked, you can wait before pulling another dependency like Elasticsearch.
https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/postgres-full-text-search-a-search-engine-in-a-database
Tags: tech, spring, orm, databases, java
This shows quite well why I stay away from Spring Data JPA…
Tags: tech, backend, databases
Interesting points about soft deletion… its usual pattern might not be what you need in the end. The proposed alternative is interesting to keep in mind.
https://brandur.org/soft-deletion
Tags: tech, python, type-systems
Interesting paper about the gradual typing experiments done around Static Python. Shows a few interesting properties. I wonder if some or most of it will find its way back to CPython.
https://programming-journal.org/2023/7/2/
Tags: tech, python, type-systems
The developing type system in Python is really having some nice properties now. Well used, it can help quite a bit with checking an API is properly called by user code. This is nothing new to languages with stricter type systems of course.
https://dev.to/flare/typing-your-way-into-safety-4lek
Tags: tech, frontend, react, javascript, web
Good overview on the state management offer around React. Especially interesting is how it frames the different problems one has to keep in mind to maintain state in your UI.
https://frontendmastery.com/posts/the-new-wave-of-react-state-management/
Tags: tech, browser, html, css
Definitely a cool trick. Not really practical yet due to the performance and differences of behavior in the various browsers. Hopefully his will get solved at some point.
https://robbowen.digital/wrote-about/css-blend-mode-shaders/
Tags: tech, data-science, python, rust, pandas, polars
Polars looks like an interesting alternative to Pandas in the industrialization phase of a data processing pipeline. The performance difference are really notable with larger volumes. I’d be interested to see how much of it is lost when using its Python API though.
https://studioterabyte.nl/en/blog/polars-vs-pandas
Tags: tech, tests, craftsmanship, tdd
Likewise I’m more and more unconvinced about the unit vs integration tests distinction. It’s likely a continuum between them. I like the proposed axes for classification here. I wish they’d be a bit more orthogonal though.
https://matklad.github.io/2022/07/04/unit-and-integration-tests.html
Tags: tech, programming, design, api, tests, craftsmanship
I don’t quite subscribe to some of the terms used (even though I see the point of not calling this API). Still I think this is a very good way to approach design, it’s also why I like TDD, the tests force you to see how the code is used. If it ain’t pretty there’s a problem.
https://silverhammermba.github.io/blog/2022/07/10/ui
Tags: tech, c++, surprising
Now this is surprising and unexpected… extremely ambitious as well. I wonder how far this will go, I like the overall idea though.
https://github.com/carbon-language/carbon-lang
Tags: tech, zig, rust, system, programming
In the end, this is a nice conversation about language design…
https://v5.chriskrycho.com/journal/some-thoughts-on-zig/
Tags: tech, distributed, bug, complexity, safety
Discusions around a fascinating and very important class of errors in distributed systems.
https://brooker.co.za/blog/2021/05/24/metastable.html
Tags: tech, project-management, estimates, complexity, management
It feels a bit like cumulating aphorisms and “laws” to prove the point. Still it’s nice to know them at least for the general culture.
Tags: tech, project-management, estimates
Couple of interesting tips. I like how it challenges the usual mythical man-month quote. Indeed sometimes adding people might help, if the conditions are right.
https://www.buildthestage.com/planning-for-project-deadlines-so-you-can-sleep-at-night/
Tags: tech, culture, craftsmanship
I’m not sure the boundaries are a clear as laid out in this article. That said it’s an interesting way to frame things. Also, clearly it’s at the intersection of the so called tribes that the most interesting things happen.
https://josephg.com/blog/3-tribes/
Tags: tech, services, business, craftsmanship
Definitely this, showing care is the best thing you can do in services. Otherwise you can only do a mediocre job.
https://allenpike.com/2022/giving-a-shit
Tags: tech, management, remote-working
Very good points in there. Indeed there’s a natural tension between making and managing. You can’t schedule the day in the same way. After more remote work, indeed we’ll need more async communication.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/remote-first-async-second-dror-poleg/
Tags: management, leadership
OK, unexpected introduction, still the advices are sound: teach, delegate, handle the hard cases.
https://jjude.com/leaders-burnout/
Tags: hr, interviews
I so much agree with this. Interviews are just better one on one. Mind the stress of the candidate.
https://jacobian.org/2022/jul/8/avoid-panel-interviews/
Tags: tech, smartphone, attention-economy
None of this looks like definitive research results on the topic. Still, there are quite a few weak signals pointing in the same direction.
Tags: tech, wikipedia, surprising
Now this is a really strange story… amazing how she managed to be so successful and stay under the radars for so long!
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkgbwm/chinese-woman-fake-russian-history-wikipedia
Tags: ecology, politics
Too little too late? Let’s hope not… now it’s time to see radical changes.
https://www.monbiot.com/2022/07/19/days-of-rage/
Bye for now!