Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-38.


Is Tor still safe to use?

Tags: tech, tor, privacy

The quick answer is yes. The longer answer is that more effort is still required to ensure the network has enough diversity of nodes to stay healthy.

https://blog.torproject.org/tor-is-still-safe/


The Subprime AI Crisis

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, business, economics, criticism

This is a very harsh and bleak view on the current generative AI craze. Clearly it survives on some sort of weird faith that things will magically improve. Some decision makers clearly run fully on said faith and lost all kind of realistic view of the situation. They are just very disconnected from the user’s needs.

There’s even a funny quote in there: “Generative AI must seem kind of magical when your entire life is either being in a meeting or reading an email”.

When this bubble bursts, it’s hard to predict what the fallout will be on the tech industry… for sure it won’t be pretty. It also begs the question: what is this industry going to do next? There’s clearly no plan after generative AI.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/subprimeai/


Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer stirs turmoil over smog in Memphis

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, politics, ecology

Need to illustrate how much the current AI arm race is an ecological and social problem? Here is a very pathological case. This is what you get when you let the tycoons behind this completely unchecked.

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/11/nx-s1-5088134/elon-musk-ai-xai-supercomputer-memphis-pollution


Larry Ellison’s AI-Powered Surveillance Dystopia Is Already Here

Tags: tech, oracle, surveillance

People are gasping in horror with Larry Ellison’s latest claims… but really they should realize he’s not dreaming big. All of that is already here in one form or another. Maybe it was time to protest years ago?

https://www.404media.co/larry-ellisons-ai-powered-surveillance-dystopia-is-already-here/


Turning Everyday Gadgets into Bombs is a Bad Idea

Tags: tech, security, war, battery

Or why we should all be concerned and condemn the latest pager and walkie-talkie attacks. They clearly opened a Pandora’s box, it’d be surprising not to see more of those from various organizations. The funds and efforts required make it affordable enough.

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/turning-everyday-gadgets-into-bombs-is-a-bad-idea/


Oracle, it’s time to free JavaScript™

Tags: tech, javascript, trademark, law, oracle

This is a good initiative. It makes no sense for Oracle to still cling onto JavaScript as a trademark.

https://javascript.tm/


Safe C++

Tags: tech, c++

Interesting proposal for a superset of C++ bringing a safe subset. Could it be a way to improve C++ use for the coming decade?

https://safecpp.org/


Threads, asynchronous IO, and cancellation

Tags: tech, asynchronous, multithreading, io

Or why going through an event loop might be more work initially but will make some things easier longer term. Nice way to frame how threads are bringing some opaque state.

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/ThreadsAsyncIOAndCancellation


Real-time Linux is officially part of the kernel after decades of debate

Tags: tech, linux, kernel, realtime

Definitely good news if you have to maintain a real-time Linux system for industrial use. No more patches to carry over.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/real-time-linux-is-officially-part-of-the-kernel-after-decades-of-debate/


Writing an OS in Rust

Tags: tech, kernel, rust

An interesting endeavor to create you own OS using another language than one of the usual ones.

https://os.phil-opp.com/


Backup strategies for SQLite in production

Tags: tech, databases, sqlite, backup

Wish to use SQLite in production? You better have a good backup strategy. This article explains the main available options.

https://oldmoe.blog/2024/04/30/backup-strategies-for-sqlite-in-production/


6 Techniques I Use to Create a Great User Experience for Shell Scripts

Tags: tech, shell, scripting

Shell scripts deserve to be well designed like this indeed.

https://nochlin.com/blog/6-techniques-i-use-to-create-a-great-user-experience-for-shell-scripts


DirectX Adopting SPIR-V as the Interchange Format of the Future

Tags: tech, shader, vulkan, directx

This is good news. DirectX being the other big graphics API if it adopts SPIR-V as interchange format it’ll open the way to more shader reuses.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directx-adopting-spir-v/


PixiJS | The HTML5 Creation Engine

Tags: tech, web, frontend, webgpu, 2d, graphics

Looks like an interesting tool to have in the box for 2D effects on the web.

https://pixijs.com/


Good forms

Tags: tech, gui, html, web, frontend, complexity

A good list to design HTML forms. The bar is indeed high and there’s value in simplicity.

https://daverupert.com/2024/09/good-forms/


The Undeniable Utility Of CSS :has

Tags: tech, web, frontend, css

This is indeed an interesting new CSS selector. Opens the door to doing more in a declarative way and with less Javascript.

https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/has/


Goodhart’s Law in Software Engineering

Tags: tech, management, metrics

We should definitely be more wary of metrics indeed. They help for a while, but at some point you’ll necessarily get unfortunately burnt by them. The only fallback is “good judgement”… do what you can with this.

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/goodharts-law-in-software-engineering/


Building Aggressively Helpful Teams

Tags: tech, team, management

Nice tricks to help the team jell. I should try this more.

https://brittonbroderick.com/2024/08/18/building-aggressively-helpful-teams/



Bye for now!