Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-27.


Online anonymity: study found ‘stable pseudonyms’ created a more civil environment than real user names 

Tags: tech, internet, anonymity, privacy

There’s clearly an interesting balance between full anonymity and no anonymity at all. This is a path to keep discussions genuine and civil.

https://theconversation.com/online-anonymity-study-found-stable-pseudonyms-created-a-more-civil-environment-than-real-user-names-171374


Telegram says it has ‘about 30 engineers’; security experts say that’s a red flag | TechCrunch

Tags: tech, telegram, security, criticism

This organization indeed doesn’t seem healthy. Especially regarding the amount of user data they are responsible of.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/24/experts-say-telegrams-30-engineers-team-is-a-security-red-flag/?guccounter=1


ChatGPT is bullshit | Ethics and Information Technology

Tags: tech, philosophy, ai, machine-learning, gpt, ethics

Makes a strong case about why LLMs are better described as “bullshit machine”. In any case this is a good introduction into bullshit as a philosophical concept. I guess with our current relationship to truth these are products well suited to their context…

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5


I received an AI email - Tim Hårek

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, spam

A new era of spam is on us… this is going to be annoying to filter out.

https://timharek.no/blog/i-received-an-ai-email


regreSSHion: RCE in OpenSSH’s server, on glibc-based Linux systems

Tags: tech, ssh, security

Make sure your OpenSSH server is up to date.

https://www.qualys.com/2024/07/01/cve-2024-6387/regresshion.txt


POSIX 2024 Changes

Tags: tech, unix, posix, system, standard

From the perspective of a given implementation. Still this is a good list of what POSIX 2024 changes. I’m particularly interested to see that per-file-descriptor advisory locks finally made it to the standard. Still some progress to make in this department but it’s a good step already.

https://sortix.org/blog/posix-2024/


Serving a billion web requests with boring code - llimllib notes

Tags: tech, architecture, services, complexity, go, postgresql, databases, react

Nice return on experience of using a simple stack to serve loads of web requests.

https://notes.billmill.org/blog/2024/06/Serving_a_billion_web_requests_with_boring_code.html


Trip report: Summer ISO C++ standards meeting (St Louis, MO, USA) – Sutter’s Mill

Tags: tech, c++, standard

Looks like C++26 is going to be a big deal. The reflection and generation features alone are going to be a game changer. Now if it also gets contracts it’d be really nice.

https://herbsutter.com/2024/07/02/trip-report-summer-iso-c-standards-meeting-st-louis-mo-usa/


Reasons to use your shell’s job control

Tags: tech, shell, processes

This is too often underestimated. This article shows nice uses of job control.

https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/07/03/reasons-to-use-job-control/


X-Ray vision for Linux systems | 0x.tools

Tags: tech, linux, profiling, debugging, tools

Nice suite of tools. The eBPF based ones look promising.

https://0x.tools/


Modern Good Practices for Python Development · Field Notes

Tags: tech, programming, python

Obviously very opinionated. Still probably a nice list to pick from when making your own project specific coding guidelines.

https://www.stuartellis.name/articles/python-modern-practices/


A Structured Approach to Custom Properties

Tags: tech, web, css, frontend, maintenance

Interesting approach to structure CSS custom properties. Should help a bit with maintainability.

https://keithjgrant.com/posts/2024/06/a-structured-approach-to-custom-properties/


Synchronous Core, Asynchronous Shell

Tags: tech, programming, asynchronous

Not really Rust specific, this might be an interesting way to structure your code once async gets introduced. Should avoid some of the usual traps.

https://blog.sulami.xyz/posts/sync-core-async-shell/


There’s plenty of room at the Top: What will drive computer performance after Moore’s law? | Science

Tags: tech, hardware, software, performance

As Moore’s law fades away this question is indeed essential. Looks like there will be more pressure on software and algorithms than before (at last one might say, we had decades of waste there). Streamlining hardware architectures will have a role too, we might see simpler cores in greater numbers.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aam9744


TDD is Not Hill Climbing - by Kent Beck

Tags: tech, tdd, tests

Starting from a wrong analogy to raise real thinking and questions about TDD.

https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/tdd-is-not-hill-climbing


Code Reviews Do Find Bugs

Tags: tech, codereview

Good reasons to really make sure your organization practice code reviews.

https://two-wrongs.com/code-reviews-do-find-bugs.html


Quality and productivity are not necessarily mutually exclusive

Tags: tech, quality, productivity

Good reminder that those two aspects are not necessarily competing which each other. In the long run quality improves productivity. In the short term it might as well.

https://www.haskellforall.com/2024/07/quality-and-productivity-are-not.html?m=1


Planning fallacy - The Decision Lab

Tags: management, organization, cognition, planning, bias

Very good primer on a widespread and very hard to avoid bias. This is why it’s hard for projects to properly meet deadlines.

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/planning-fallacy


The 4 keys to creating team accountability

Tags: tech, team, organization, leadership, management

Interesting tips and actions to help frame the conversation. The goal is to get the team better self-organized and directed.

https://newsletter.canopy.is/p/the-4-keys-to-creating-team-accountability



Bye for now!