Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-10.

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KDE Neon shows that the Plasma 6 Linux distro is something truly special | ZDNET

Tags: tech, kde, foss

Another nice review for Plasma 6. Looks like it’s getting mostly very positive reviews. So glad!

https://www.zdnet.com/article/kde-neon-shows-that-the-plasma-6-linux-distro-is-something-truly-special/

CACM Is Now Open Access – Communications of the ACM

Tags: tech, science, research

This is great news, more scientific papers from the past decades will be accessible to everyone.

https://cacm.acm.org/news/cacm-is-now-open-access-2/

French Court Issues Damages Award for Violation of GPL – Copyleft Currents

Tags: tech, copyright, foss, law

This is a nice ruling about GPL violation in France. Gives some more weight to the GPL.

https://heathermeeker.com/2024/02/17/french-court-issues-damages-award-for-violation-of-gpl/

European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls | Ars Technica

Tags: tech, automotive, ux

This is an important request. It has safety implications. It is non-binding request of course, but the insurance companies pay attention to it and so could have an impact.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/

Progressive Web Apps in EU will work fine in iOS 17.4

Tags: tech, apple, law, criticism

Looks like enough people complained that they had to change course. Good, until the next bad move…

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/03/01/apple-reverses-course-on-death-of-progressive-web-apps-in-eu

Nvidia bans using translation layers for CUDA software

Tags: tech, nvidia, computation, vendor-lockin

This was only a matter of time before we’d see such a move. This doesn’t bode well for things like ZLUDA.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-bans-using-translation-layers-for-cuda-software-to-run-on-other-chips-new-restriction-apparently-targets-zluda-and-some-chinese-gpu-makers

Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, water, energy, ecology

This is one of the main problems with using those generative models as currently provided. It’s time for the legislators to step up, we can’t let a couple of players hoard energy and water for themselves.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00478-x

We’re told AI neural networks ‘learn’ the way humans do. A neuroscientist explains why that’s not the case

Tags: tech, neural-networks, ai, machine-learning, neuroscience

Friendly reminder that the neural networks we use are very much artificial. They’re also far from working like biological ones do.

https://theconversation.com/were-told-ai-neural-networks-learn-the-way-humans-do-a-neuroscientist-explains-why-thats-not-the-case-183993

Radicle: sovereign code infrastructure

Tags: tech, git, version-control, p2p

Looks like an interesting approach for a new family of development forges. Fully distributed and peer to peer, I wonder if it’ll pick up.

https://radicle.xyz/

List of 2024 Leap Day Bugs

Tags: tech, time

We’re collectively still failing at handling leap days properly it seems.

https://codeofmatt.com/list-of-2024-leap-day-bugs/

The Hunt for the Missing Data Type

Tags: tech, graph, mathematics, matrix, performance

Indeed, graphs are peculiar beasts. When dealing with graph related problems there are so many choices to make that it’s hard or impossible to come up with a generic solution.

https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/graph-types/

The “missing” graph datatype already exists. It was invented in the ‘70s

Tags: tech, graph, mathematics, performance

A response to “The Hunt for the Missing Data Type” article. There are indeed potential solutions, but they’re not really used/usable in the industry right now. Maybe tomorrow.

https://tylerhou.com/posts/datalog-go-brrr/

Java is becoming more like Rust, and I am here for it! | Josh Austin

Tags: tech, java, type-systems

Don’t fret, this just illustrates the fact that immutable data and algebraic data types are easier to have in Java now. Still that’s very good things to see spread in many languages.

https://joshaustin.tech/blog/java-is-becoming-rust/

CSS for printing to paper

Tags: tech, web, frontend, css, javascript

Nice set of tricks (might also involve Javascript, not only CSS) when you need to format web content for printing.

https://voussoir.net/writing/css_for_printing

DUSt3R: Geometric 3D Vision Made Easy

Tags: tech, 3d, computer-vision

Looks like an interesting pipeline for multi-view stereo reconstruction.

https://dust3r.europe.naverlabs.com/

How I use git worktrees - llimllib notes

Tags: tech, git, version-control, tools

Good reminder that git worktrees exist. They definitely come in handy sometimes.

https://notes.billmill.org/blog/2024/03/How_I_use_git_worktrees.html

Twenty Years Is Nothing – De Programmatica Ipsum

Tags: tech, version-control, git, history

Going back on the history of the introduction of version control in software engineering and how Git ended up so dominant. We often forget there was a time before Git.

https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/twenty-years-is-nothing/

Google Testing Blog: Increase Test Fidelity By Avoiding Mocks

Tags: tech, tests

This is a good explanation of why you should limit your use of mocks. It also highlights some of the alternatives.

https://testing.googleblog.com/2024/02/increase-test-fidelity-by-avoiding-mocks.html?m=1

I’m a programmer and I’m stupid

Tags: tech, programming, craftsmanship, complexity

Interesting how feeling stupid can actually push you toward good engineering practices, isn’t it?

https://antonz.org/stupid/

Defining, Measuring, and Managing Technical Debt

Tags: tech, technical-debt, cognition

A bit of a high level view on technical debt. There’s a couple of interesting insights though. In particular the lack of good metrics to evaluate technical debt… and the fact that it’s probably about “both the present state and the possible state” of the code base. So it’s very much linked to the human cognition in order to conceive the “ideal state”.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10109339

Enabling constraints | Organizing Chaos

Tags: tech, architecture, complexity

Interesting thinking about constraints and their rough classification as restrictive or enabling. I also liked how they’re tied to complexity.

https://jordankaye.dev/posts/enabling-constraints/

The Bureaucratization of Agile. Why Bureaucratic Software Environments… | by Kevin Meadows | Feb, 2024 | Medium

Tags: tech, agile, management, project-management, product-management, culture

A few points to take with a pinch of salt, especially regarding the proposed solutions. Still it makes a very good point that most transformation failures toward agile organizations are due to lack of trust and the swapping of one bureaucracy for another.

https://jmlascala71.medium.com/the-bureaucratization-of-agile-025dd5e2d2d0

These companies tried a 4-day workweek. More than a year in, they still love it : NPR

Tags: management, work, life

Interesting outcome from those experiments. Interesting insights coming from the practices the companies put in place. The failures also bring interesting information.

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/27/1234271434/4-day-workweek-successful-a-year-later-in-uk

Lemmings: Can You Dig It?

Tags: tech, game, history

Very nice documentary about the creation of Lemmings. It’s especially incredible what you can do with a bunch of pixels. This is a lesson in minimalism. And to think it was initially rejected by publishers… This is a fascinating story through and through with a lot of (sometimes surprising) ramifications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAVNKdk9gA

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Bye for now!