Old is new again (at least on the web)

I came across a comprehensive analysis of all the โ€˜inovationsโ€™ in full-stack development, which can be found at https://www.bitecode.dev/p/hype-cycles. It brought back some fun memories ๐Ÿ™‚

Every few years, I found myself needing or wanting to create a website. This involved trying to use “best” tools and frameworks for the job that everyone was hyping at the time

Yet, each time, I found myself gravitating back to good old WordPress, with a sprinkle of jQuery or a lightweight framework.

Why?

Well, I felt โ€˜stupidโ€™ that it took so much time to set up a simple CRUD website using these supposedly “modern” tools.

The rule: simple task needs simple tools, always ๐Ÿ™‚

Weekly breakdown – 22w49d1

Programming

https://faultlore.com/blah/c-isnt-a-language/

Have you ever had luck/cry/luck to maintain C++ ABI compatibility between different linkable codebases, and found it fun? ๐Ÿ™‚

The more I worked with C, the more quirks popped up. Some fun, some not-so-much.

This text is a must read to anyone trying to maintain compatibility between platforms with useful insights from the wild.

And very rare praise to Microsoft as de-facto kings in platform backward compatibility.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7825055/what-does-the-operator-do-in-c

While we are still on C language and its quirks, what ??!??! operator does in C? ๐Ÿ™‚

I would not be surprised if this popped up as a question on ‘good’ interviews, which I would like to steer clear.

Recommended Tools

https://github.com/include-what-you-use/include-what-you-use

I came across this tool long time ago and found it quite handy, especially when working in C++ codebase.

Why? It has potential to one-time reduce your compile time insanely, by just removing include lines that have zero references from current code.
This is quite handy in C++ to limit number of translation units to be compiled, especially when small change in one header triggers big-but-unnecessary re-compilation chain.
And there is insane amount of header-only libraries or code-heavy headers that will exponentially fast increase compile time if not being careful what you include.

News

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/31/opinion_column_relevance_in_business/

Interesting opinion about staying relevant with FOSS.

Weekly breakdown – 22w37d3

Security

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/115/

Listen to the podcast episode and replace mentions of games with i.e. cars.
It should raise a lot of eyebrows.

It is really not hard to image black market for all kinds of:

  • Standard: Enabling features
    Example with BMW’s subscription for more smart headlights, or Tesla’s back seat warmers.
  • Scarier: Disabling features
    Usual theft protection, but also removing any safety limitations, like speed limit, alcohol checks, hands-off-steer check, etc.
    Even now you can buy speed limit disabling feature for even most expensive electric bikes with top-of-line security features that allows you to go from limit of 25 km/h to over 40 km/h where only limit is the battery capacity.

All of this already exists, but at the moment, is not the most scalable business.
To ‘pimp-up’ your current generation cars, you would need to go to a ‘guy’ or a shady shop to make changes.

But the cars are becoming ‘smarter’. Over-the-air updates and all new fancy features allows you to make changes remotely from any part of the world.

And there lies huge black-market opportunity for finding bugs and loopholes, as no software and protection is perfect.
Just check yearly Android bug-list and their severity, even if it is owned developed by all-mighty Google.

If there is a sprawling market for cheats for 50$ games, imagine an opportunity for ‘cheats’ in 50000$+ car.

It is not hard to imagine a 100% online subscription service that will allow you to receive all kinds of un-official โ€™improvementsโ€™ applied automatically to your car.

Thanks goes to Patrik Thunstrรถm for sharing this podcast gem and fun discussion ๐Ÿ™‚

Programming

https://calebhearth.com/fan-out-vs-fan-in

Another way how to look at code complexity and how to prevent it during design or in refactor.

As with everything, it should not be followed blindly, as the original complexity could end up moving into ever-evolving wrapper classes.
Check Law of Demeter for more information.

Big tech monopoly

https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html

One more take on how big tech companies have taken over internet from original intent.
If you have ever found legitimate mail ending up in spam folder of your free mail service out of sudden, or not delivered, this is primary reason.

Old but gold: When the product is free, you are the product.

Fun

https://github.com/IdreesInc/Minecraft-Font

For the ones with kids or feel like one ๐Ÿ™‚

Fragile Manifesto

Go-to manifest, more often than not ๐Ÿ™‚

Weekly breakdown – 22w19d4

New day, new assortment of links ๐Ÿ™‚

Thanks to old colleague Ivica for always good comments.
And for C and C++ lovers and practitioners, in case that you still have not found his blog, please check it out at:

https://johnysswlab.com/

As someone who has written not-so-small number of C++ lines, there are million ways to write bad C++ code, but only a few correct ones.

Security

https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-2021-r3s-216-practical-bruteforce-of-military-grade-aes-1024
When there is a will, there is a way.

IT

https://www.netmeister.org/blog/futurama.html
What Futurama character is your preferred language?

Law

https://writing.kemitchell.com/2022/04/30/Zelensky-Compound-NDA
‘Fun’ take on NDAs, even when its purpose is purposeless in real-life situation.

Games

https://thegamednd.com/the-game-out-of-game/
To the lovers of D&D games, a comment from my friend, summarized by one word: “WOW”

Random

https://bjoernkarmann.dk/occlusion-grotesque
Fun take on creating evolving typeface carved in the tree trunk and how it evolves through years.

Weekly breakdown – 22w17

New week, new useful, interesting, or plain fun links found, at least for me ๐Ÿ™‚

And also a way to offload and preserve good information stored in way-too-many Firefox tabs ๐Ÿ™‚

IT

https://12factor.net/
Good and clean methodology breakdown how to approach software development for Web/SaaS apps, but most of the ‘rules’ are also applicable for all kinds of software areas, even all the way down to embedded (i.e. IoT devices).

https://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2022-04/leogeo.html
On surface, TCP is ‘simple’ protocol. But depending on underlying network behavior, different configuration options and TCP congestion control protocols used can have enormous impact on your networks performance and throughput.
Link above tests different TCP CCP protocols with Starlink internet service with surprising results.
Check ‘Conclusions‘ chapter for breakdown.
Note: It could be fun experiment to test different CCP protocols in noisy 2.4 and 5 GHz environments and WiFi versions. And people are already thinking about it in 5G and beyond mobile networks.

ttps://securityzines.com/
Funny, yet highly informative graphic breakdown of different (mostly web oriented, but again, web is everywhere) security ‘bugs’ and help information.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/single-chip-processors-have-reached-their-limits
Where the future is already moving for the ASICs, since gigahertz fight has plateaued long time ago.

https://iansommerville.com/technology/research-impact/
Short, informative info about (sad) state of research impact in software engineering.
(Topic for another day, but my take on software engineering is that it is less engineering and more old-school apprenticeship)

https://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2022/03/i-dont-need-a-vps-anymore/
Short but useful information what to think about when wanting to setup your own web presence and server in current day and age from decades of experience.

https://www.system.com/graph
New approach to search and graph connection between terms and topics.

Sciences

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-helicopter-spots-gear-that-helped-perseverance-rover-land
Breaking: Helicopter spots extra-terrestrial ‘trash’ on Mars ๐Ÿ™‚

https://interconnected.org/home/2022/04/05/dunbar
Informative breakdown of human social network sizes and its impact.
Companies (especially larger ones) could use extracts from available information to optimize different workflows: from meeting sizes and its effectiveness (magic number 5?), to sizes of complete ARTs (magic number 150?).

https://qchu.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/whats-a-fire-and-why-does-it-whats-the-word-burn/
If you ever wondered what fire is, in way more details that you need and even understand ๐Ÿ™‚

Finance

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-intel-financialized-and-lost-leadership-in-semiconductor-fabrication
One example of what happens when financial people take total control from engineers and push for shareholder and short term gains only through outsourcing, stock buybacks, lack of motivation for innovation, etc.
Same thing happened to Boeing and Sony.

https://devonzuegel.com/post/inflation-propagates-unevenly
One way of looking into inflation and its uneven impact.