Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-25.


Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure

Tags: tech, internet, ethics, privacy

Very interesting move. I wish them well!

https://proton.me/blog/proton-non-profit-foundation


Licensing teams will target unwitting Oracle Java users • The Register

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/


Microsoft Refused to Fix Flaw Years Before SolarWinds Hack — ProPublica

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


Microsoft delays Recall again, won’t debut it with new Copilot+ PCs after all | Ars Technica

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).

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/microsoft-delays-data-scraping-recall-feature-again-commits-to-public-beta-test/


Edward Snowden Says OpenAI Just Performed a “Calculated Betrayal of the Rights of Every Person on Earth”

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


GitHub Copilot Chat: From Prompt Injection to Data Exfiltration · Embrace The Red

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/


I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again — Ludicity

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/


Block AI training on a web site

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/


How free software hijacked Philip Hazel’s life

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/


DDoS attacks can threaten the independent Internet

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/


We don’t know what’s happening on our networks

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


Why you shouldn’t parse the output of ls - Greg’s Wiki

Tags: tech, shell, scripting

This is indeed an easy mistake to do. It’s better be avoided.

https://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs


Versioning FreeCAD files with git - lambda.cx blog

Tags: tech, tools, git, cad

Interesting trick for a zip based format containing mostly text.

https://blog.lambda.cx/posts/freecad-and-git/


Joining Strings in Python: A “Huh” Moment - Veronica Writes

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/


Understanding a Python closure oddity

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


Regular JSON – Neil Madden

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/


Demystifying Rust’s ? Operator

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/


I’ve Stopped Using Box Plots. Should You? | Nightingale

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/


When To Write a Simulator

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


Major version numbers may not be sacred, but backwards compatibility is

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


What’s hidden behind “just implementation details” | nicole@web

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/


A Note on Essential Complexity

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


Simple sabotage for software · Erik Bernhardsson

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


Never, Sometimes, Always - lukeplant.me.uk

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/


Start Presentations on the Second Slide - by Kent Beck

Tags: tech, communication, talk

Nice trick, definitely should use it more often.

https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/start-presentations-on-the-second


On Ultra-Processed Content - Cal Newport

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!