Tags: web-review, 3d, system, gpt, complexity, programming, research, distributed, maintenance, optimization, change, tech, technical-debt, microsoft, windows, crdt, web, mathematics, economics, interviews, graphics, business, criticism, performance, management, frontend, ai, ux, kernel, messaging, agile, e-ink, copyright, hacking, machine-learning, elixir, cost, hiring, productivity, object-oriented, automation, social-media, law, culture, c++, architecture, streaming, work, shader, hr, browser, javascript
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2023-35.
Tags: tech, microsoft, windows, criticism
Microsoft doing Microsoft things in Windows… unsurprising, will never end. Maybe at some point people will move to platforms they really have control on?
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/30/23851902/microsoft-bing-popups-windows-11-malware
Tags: tech, social-media, messaging
Interesting evolution… looks like people will all go back to some chat system? It’ll be the 90’s all over again? Maybe IRC will make a comeback? :-)
Tags: tech, web, copyright, law, gpt, machine-learning
Interesting analysis around the current situation around web scraping and intellectual property. This moved to being mostly dealt with using contract law which makes it a terrible minefield. Lots of hypocrisy all around too which doesn’t help. GPT and the likes will likely be the next area where cases will rise.
Tags: tech, economics, automation, work, ai, gpt
Interesting opinion piece about GPT and LLMs. When you ignore the hype, consider the available facts, then you can see how it’s another extra tool and unlikely to replace many people.
https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2023/7/2/working-with-ai
Tags: tech, streaming, culture
If you only stream it, it won’t be available forever. Keep this in mind when it’s something you find culturally relevant… it might require some conservation work.
https://birchtree.me/blog/a-note-to-young-folks-download-the-videos-you-love/
Tags: tech, e-ink, hacking
I agree with this. They are very interesting devices. Not necessarily easily hackable yet though. It’s definitely getting there.
https://rmkit.dev/eink-is-so-retropunk/
Tags: tech, distributed, crdt, research
Interesting research, this shows opportunities to push CRDTs to the next level.
https://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol16/p856-power.pdf
Tags: tech, elixir, programming, architecture, cost, performance
The claim is huge. The story doesn’t quite say how much is really about Elixir and how much from the revised architecture. That being said, going for something like Elixir has definitely an impact on the architecture… could it be that it pushes for better patterns?
https://paraxial.io/blog/elixir-savings
Tags: tech, kernel, system
Nice article explaining unikernels and showing the example of MirageOS.
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2566628
Tags: tech, c++, criticism
I tend to agree with those, they are among my pet issues with C++.
https://www.thecodedmessage.com/posts/c++-papercuts/
Tags: tech, optimization, performance, architecture, programming
Another partial quote which led to misunderstanding. One should indeed think about performances early on.
https://milen.me/writings/premature-optimization-universally-misunderstood/
Tags: tech, object-oriented, programming
Nice overview of the good uses and wrong uses for classes. We’re far from the abuses of the early times now.
https://geoffviola.github.io/2020/09/07/the-last-vestiges-of-object-oriented-programming.html
Tags: tech, frontend, web, browser, javascript, complexity, maintenance
Nice reasoning. It very well highlights the tradeoffs coming the choice they made. And of course the decision might change if the situation changes.
https://htmx.org/essays/no-build-step/
Tags: tech, complexity, web, frontend
It’s clearly not clear cut, it’s a whole spectrum. I wish more web developers would at least ask themselves the question before having knee-jerk reactions reaching for their favorite framework of the day.
https://gomakethings.com/wtf-is-the-lean-web-anyways/
Tags: tech, 3d, ai, machine-learning
The level of details these techniques are giving now… this is very impressive.
https://repo-sam.inria.fr/fungraph/3d-gaussian-splatting/
Tags: tech, graphics, 3d, shader, mathematics
Nice introduction to domain repetitions. A fascinating concept (IMHO) very much used in procedurally generated content.
https://iquilezles.org/articles/sdfrepetition/
Tags: tech, technical-debt, business
More thinking gets around the debate about tech debt. This is definitely welcome. Using more precise labels can indeed being clarity in conversations.
https://www.honeycomb.io/anything-but-tech-debt
Tags: tech, ux
Good set of patterns indeed. The article is web oriented but this makes sense in other type of applications as well.
https://pencilandpaper.io/articles/ux-pattern-analysis-loading-feedback/
Tags: tech, hr, hiring, interviews
Good list of advices, I regularly see people failing because of fundamental things like this… despite explaining my expectations first. So I’d add: listen to what the interviewer says about how he’s going to assess you.
https://robertheaton.com/interview/
Tags: management, hr
An old one but since I’m aware of companies still doing their performance reviews this way… Don’t fall for it, use a more humane process whenever you can.
Tags: tech, agile, change
Interesting opinion piece. Very often we see people mandating a “process”. It’s almost always the wrong way and how you end up with people following blindly “Scrum by the book” or “SAFe”. The approach proposed here is smarter: give the business constraints, let people choose what works best for them, support them along this journey.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/018-01ff/imposition/
Tags: tech, management, business, productivity
Excellent piece. Be careful what you measure. If you measure the wrong things people will game the system.
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/measuring-developer-productivity
Tags: tech, management, business, productivity
And now the part two, with more warnings about what you measure. Also proposes a few ideas toward the end.
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/measuring-developer-productivity-440
Bye for now!