Tags: web-review, gpt, programming, information, history, communication, library, maintenance, api, life, foss, ai, memory, data-visualization, python, performance, management, surveillance, ethics, complexity, git, organization, software, criticism, requirements, privacy, tools, security, data-science, microsoft, simulation, funny, social-media, copilot, product-management, machine-learning, cad, probability, java, networking, shell, talk, work, rust, tech, scripting, self-hosting, internet, json
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-25.
Tags: tech, internet, ethics, privacy
Very interesting move. I wish them well!
https://proton.me/blog/proton-non-profit-foundation
Tags: tech, java
Oracle doing Oracle things I guess… The surprising bit to me is the fact that so many people still seem to use Java SE while there are other excellent alternatives.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/oracle_java_licence_teams/
Tags: tech, microsoft, security
A deep dive into the events which led to the SolarWinds breaches. The responsibility from Microsoft as an organization is staggering. Their handling of security matters massively failed once more. I don’t get how governmental agencies or other companies can still turn to Microsoft with sensitive data.
https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-solarwinds-golden-saml-data-breach-russian-hackers
Tags: tech, microsoft, security
Very unsurprising, the harm is probably done though. They’ll have to work hard for their reputation to recover (even though it was probably low already).
Tags: tech, gpt, surveillance
It was already hard to trust this company, but now… that clearly gives an idea of the kind of monetization channels they’re contemplating.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/snowden-openai-calculated-betrayal
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, security, privacy
The creative ways to exfiltrate data from chat systems built with LLMs…
https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2024/github-copilot-chat-prompt-injection-data-exfiltration/
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, data-science, criticism, funny
OK, this is a rant about the state of the market and people drinking kool-aid. A bit long but I found it funny and well deserved at times.
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, self-hosting, criticism
Since there are ways to offset the plagiarism a bit, let’s do it. Obviously it’s not perfect but that’s a start.
https://blog.zgp.org/block-ai-training-on-a-web-site/
Tags: tech, foss, maintenance, life, history
Very interesting piece… shows how someone can end up maintaining something essential for decades. This is a lesson for us all.
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/978463/be23210c163a2107/
Tags: tech, networking, security, self-hosting, internet
This is indeed a real concern… with no propre solution in sight.
https://www.macchaffee.com/blog/2024/ddos-attacks/
Tags: tech, networking, security
On the peculiarities of running a network for a university… this is an interesting way to frame it as basically being an ISP with benefits.
https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/OurNetworkTrafficIsUnknown
Tags: tech, shell, scripting
This is indeed an easy mistake to do. It’s better be avoided.
https://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs
Tags: tech, tools, git, cad
Interesting trick for a zip based format containing mostly text.
https://blog.lambda.cx/posts/freecad-and-git/
Tags: tech, python, memory, performance
Interesting dive into how join()
and generator behave in CPython.
https://berglyd.net/blog/2024/06/joining-strings-in-python/
Tags: tech, programming, python
That’s what happens where references are half hidden in a language. You think each closure get a different copy but in fact they all refer to the same object.
https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/python/UnderstandingClosureOddity
Tags: tech, json, security
JSON, its grammar and the security implications. The approach of looking at a restricted subset is interesting.
https://neilmadden.blog/2023/05/31/regular-json/
Tags: tech, programming, rust
Ever wondered how this operator is implemented in Rust? It’s not that complicated.
https://blog.sulami.xyz/posts/demystifying-rusts-questionmark-operator/
Tags: tech, data-visualization
Why box plots are hard to grasp and probably badly designed. There are good alternatives out there though.
https://nightingaledvs.com/ive-stopped-using-box-plots-should-you/
Tags: tech, complexity, probability, simulation
Some problems are indeed tackled faster by having a simulation allowing to explore potential solutions. It’s tempting to go very formal and theoretical but it’d require more effort and be more error prone.
https://sirupsen.com/napkin/problem-16-simulation
Tags: tech, library, api, maintenance
Good musing about major version numbers and backward compatibility. It is indeed important to communicate breaking changes properly and to not have those too often.
https://blog.cessen.com/post/2022_07_09_major_version_numbers_may_not_be_sacred
Tags: tech, software, programming, work, complexity
It might not look like a lot from the outside, but “just implementation details” in fact hides quite some work and complexity.
https://ntietz.com/blog/whats-behind-just-implementation/
Tags: tech, software, organization, complexity
Very nice piece about the various types of complexities we encounter in our trade, and what we can or should do about it.
https://olano.dev/blog/a-note-on-essential-complexity
Tags: tech, software, management
This is a funny pretense, and yet… If any of this remind you of a real context, this would be paper cuts. Have enough of those and indeed the organization might grind to a halt.
https://erikbern.com/2023/12/13/simple-sabotage-for-software.html
Tags: tech, requirements, software, product-management
This is indeed a good way to classify events probability in requirements. It definitely impacts how you handle them in software.
https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/never-sometimes-always/
Tags: tech, communication, talk
Nice trick, definitely should use it more often.
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/start-presentations-on-the-second
Tags: tech, information, social-media, criticism
Indeed the analogy from “ultra-processed food” is an interesting one in the information context.
https://calnewport.com/on-ultra-processed-content/
Bye for now!