Blogs

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2025-52. This is the last one of the year, hope you all had a merry xmas.

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Ethics

Tags: tech, ethics

Indeed I wish our profession would have a strong and binding set of ethics like doctors or lawyers. That wouldn’t prevent all problems, but that’d tame some of the issues of our time.

https://inessential.com/2015/02/26/ethics.html

Is Firefox Firefucked?

Tags: tech, web, browser, firefox

This is pretty much where I’m at as well regarding Firefox… Sad state of affairs.

https://kevquirk.com/blog/is-firefox-firefucked/

I foretold that Mac app notarization is security theater

Tags: tech, apple, security

Always hated this notarization with a passion when I had to target Macs… One reason being that it felt fairly useless, and it’s confirmed: it is pretty much useless.

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/12/5.html

Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet

Tags: tech, surveillance, privacy, iot

There are just too many of those cameras deployed. The fact that they are badly secured are compounding the negative effects.

https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/

Generative AI hype distracts us from AI’s more important breakthroughs

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

Add to this how generative AI is used in the totally wrong context… and then I feel like I could have written this piece. I definitely agree with all that.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1129179/generative-ai-hype-distracts-us-from-ais-more-important-breakthroughs/

History LLMs: training the largest possible historical LLMs

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, history, politics, culture

Interesting research. Can it give insights on the pervasive views of the time?

https://github.com/DGoettlich/history-llms?tab=readme-ov-file

An initial analysis of the discovered Unix V4 tape

Tags: tech, unix, history

Interesting historical work. It indeed went through a fast paced evolution cycle.

https://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20251223/?ms261223

x-ray: A tool to detect whether a PDF has a bad redaction

Tags: tech, pdf, security

Interesting tool. Indeed very often people send PDFs with useless redaction in them. Better check first.

https://github.com/freelawproject/x-ray

Passphrases That You Can Memorize — But That Even the NSA Can’t Guess

Tags: tech, security

An oldie now but still the best way to create a passphrase.

https://theintercept.com/2015/03/26/passphrases-can-memorize-attackers-cant-guess/

Go ahead, self-host Postgres

Tags: tech, cloud, databases, postgresql, self-hosting

Things went too far with the cloud monoculture. It’s time to remember that it doesn’t always makes sense, and in the case of databases maybe it’s rarely worth it to go for fully managed options.

https://pierce.dev/notes/go-ahead-self-host-postgres

cargo-coupling: Visualizing Coupling in Rust Projects - じゃあ、おうちで学べる

Tags: tech, complexity, design, architecture, rust

Interesting tool and I like the underlying approach. I wish we’d have good equivalent tools for other ecosystems.

https://syu-m-5151.hatenablog.com/entry/2025/12/21/152559

Rust’s Block Pattern

Tags: tech, rust, pattern

This is definitely a useful idiom. A bit like the immediately invoked lambdas in C++ but less verbose. This is nice to control intermediate variables locality and mutability like this.

https://notgull.net/block-pattern/

Performance Hints

Tags: tech, performance, optimization, memory, c++

Excellent resource for keeping an eye on performance issues in your codebase. It’s very C++ oriented but most of the insights can be generalised to other ecosystems.

https://abseil.io/fast/hints.html

map::operator[] should be nodiscard

Tags: tech, c++, api

I definitely agree there. It looks like a missed opportunity to improve the API and nudge people in the right direction.

https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2025/12/18/nodiscard-operator-bracket/

The Rule of Zero

Tags: tech, c++, memory

Another explanation for the rule of zero in C++. We should definitely stick to it.

https://blog.feabhas.com/2015/01/the-rule-of-zero/

Logging Sucks - Your Logs Are Lying To You

Tags: tech, logging, observability

Lots of good advice on how to improve your logs.

https://loggingsucks.com/

Refactoring with Loops and Collection Pipelines

Tags: tech, refactoring, data

Pipelines are very widespread nowadays, still I don’t see them used much. Having a few refactoring ideas under our belt to replace loops with such pipelines might help.

https://martinfowler.com/articles/refactoring-pipelines.html

On Metastable Failures and Interactions Between Systems – Aleksey Charapko

Tags: tech, distributed, failure, reliability

A good explainer on what metastable failures are and how to try to mitigate them.

https://charap.co/on-metastable-failures-and-interactions-between-systems/

What Actually Makes You Senior

Tags: tech, career, leadership

I think this is a good pick at a core skill for senior developers. Indeed removing ambiguity for the rest of the team is an important factor.

https://terriblesoftware.org/2025/11/25/what-actually-makes-you-senior/

The Code Is Just the Symptom

Tags: tech, organisation, conway, architecture, quality, management, leadership

This is very true. It’s not like whoever produced bad code is particularly stupid, in most cases it’s the context around which breaks the people.

https://medium.com/@rubyghetto/the-code-is-just-the-symptom-c77f43b29320

Take Pride in Your Legacy (Code)

Tags: tech, legacy, quality

The definition of legacy code is ambiguous enough. We generally mean “bad code” (the wrong definition to me…). What about seeing things differently and trying to leave a great legacy behind us?

https://8thlight.com/insights/take-pride-in-your-legacy-code

Well-factored architecture

Tags: tech, architecture, quality

A good list of characteristics to aim for. Gives clue about the quality of your software architecture.

https://jchyip.medium.com/key-practice-well-factored-architecture-b9d53f5549fb

The cardinal sin of software architecture

Tags: tech, software, architecture, data, state

It’s not the only factor leading to troublesome architectures of course. Still, if state and thus data is wrongly handled, you’re indeed on the wrong track.

https://functional.computer/blog/the-cardinal-sin-of-software-architecture

A Definition of Systems Thinking: A Systems Approach

Tags: tech, systems-thinking, complexity

A nice little primer on what systems thinking is about.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050915002860?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=7e18ecfcdd9e2916

Agile Software Guide

Tags: tech, agile

Martin Fowler obviously wrote a lot on the topic. This is a nice guide pointing to some of the most interesting resources on his blog around the agil topic.

https://martinfowler.com/agile.html

How Pairing & Swarming Work & Why They Will Improve Your Products

Tags: tech, pairing

It still something I don’t see happening often. I think it is unfortunate.

https://www.jrothman.com/mpd/project-management/2014/07/how-pairing-swarming-work-why-they-will-improve-your-products/

Essential XP: Card, Conversation, Confirmation

Tags: tech, xp, tests, project-management

Where are acceptance tests coming from? They’re generally the result of a conversation.

https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/expcardconversationconfirmation/

Story Slicing, How Small is Enough?

Tags: tech, project-management, agile

A good justification of why you want to slice your stories finely. It definitely helps steering the project and reduces chances of bottlenecks.

https://agilepainrelief.com/blog/story-slicing-how-small-is-enough/

10 Tips to Get Your Agile teams Better at Story Estimation

Tags: tech, agile, estimates

Nice list of ideas for stories estimations. I applied some of that with nice success.

https://www.liminalarc.co/2014/01/10-tips-better-story-estimation/

Effective Standups around Kanban Board

Tags: tech, agile, kanban

When teams grow the usual standup/daily meeting format doesn’t work anymore. What’s proposed here is a nice alternative.

https://brodzinski.com/2011/12/effective-standups.html

Seven Changes To Improve Flow In Your Software Development Process

Tags: tech, kanban, flow, project-management

Indeed, people getting into lean processes tend to obsess over “eliminating waste”. Sure there might be some waste to clean up but it’s pretty much useless if you don’t focus on the flow of work.

https://flowchainsensei.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/seven-changes-to-improve-flow-in-your-software-development-process/

Cross-Functional Collaboration in Agile: What It Does and Doesn’t Mean

Tags: tech, team, project-management

Indeed, having generalists in teams is definitely what you want. Having only specialists will reduce the project efficiency.

https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/cross-functional-doesnt-mean-everyone-can-do-everything

Hire generalists to help your specialists shine!

Tags: tech, team, project-management, problem-solving

The other advantage of not relying only on specialists. You actually get teams better at solving problems due to the extra context and communication channels the generalists will bring.

https://softwaredevelopmenttoday.blogspot.com/2014/01/hire-generalists-to-help-your.html

Using Brainwriting For Rapid Idea Generation

Tags: knowledge, problem-solving, ux, business, strategy

Definitely required more preparation work than brainstorming. That said it’s a nice alternative, maybe easier to get right.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/12/using-brainwriting-for-rapid-idea-generation/

The Science Of Good Sleep: There’s A Reason You’re Always So Tired

Tags: science, biology, sleep

Lots of insight and advice in here. Are you sure you’re having enough sleep? Of high enough quality?

https://www.elitedaily.com/life/ways-to-get-better-sleep/974053

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Bye for now! And see you in 2026!