Let’s go for my web review for the week 2025-19.
Web Browser telemetry - 2025 edition
Tags: tech, browser, telemetry, privacy
Clearly there is too much telemetry in most browsers by default and it’s worsening. There are a couple of exceptions though.
https://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry-2025-edition/
Time saved by AI offset by new work created, study suggests
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, productivity, economics
Looks like the productivity gain promises are still mostly hypothetical. Except on specific limited tasks of course but that doesn’t cover for a whole job. Also, when there is a gain it’s apparently not the workers who benefit from them.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/time-saved-by-ai-offset-by-new-work-created-study-suggests/
I’d rather read the prompt
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, writing
I like this piece. In most case it’s the thinking which is important not the writing. So even if the language is subpar it’s better if you write yourself… except if it’s not worth the effort in the first place.
https://claytonwramsey.com/blog/prompt/
“AI-first” is the new Return To Office
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, business, organization, culture
When hype meets group think, you can quickly create broken culture in your organization… We’re seeing more examples lately.
https://www.anildash.com/2025/04/19/ai-first-is-the-new-return-to-office/
Tech Companies Apparently Do Not Understand Why We Dislike AI
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, criticism, security, privacy
This also carries privacy concerns indeed even for local models. It all depends how it’s inserted in the system.
https://soatok.blog/2025/05/04/tech-companies-apparently-do-not-understand-why-we-dislike-ai/
Stop treating `AGI’ as the north-star goal of AI research
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, criticism
This is an important position paper in my opinion. The whole obsession towards the ill defined “AGI” is shadowing important problems in the research field which have to be overcome.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03689
Environmental Impact of AI
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, vision, surveillance, energy, ecology
Even with conservative estimates some uses are very much energy hungry… Especially when they support a surveillance apparatus. Many reasons to not get there.
https://clune.org/posts/environmental-impact-of-ai/
A Critical Look at MCP
Tags: tech, ai, gpt, protocols, standard
Looks like the protocols landscape for writing LLM based agents will turn into a mess.
https://raz.sh/blog/2025-05-02_a_critical_look_at_mcp
A Better Man Page Viewer
Tags: tech, unix, documentation, vim
Nice trick! Using vim as man page viewer. I shall try this.
https://www.visualmode.dev/a-better-man-page-viewer
Modern LaTeX
Tags: tech, latex
An excellent introduction to LaTeX! Also does a good job to push more modern constructs (I learn a couple). I hope it’ll push people to pick up LaTeX more often, it mustn’t become a dying art form.
https://assets.bitbashing.io/modern-latex.pdf
Docker Context
Tags: tech, docker, containers
Little known docker feature but definitely useful for remote execution.
https://timharek.no/blog/docker-context/
How to build small and secure Docker images for Rust (FROM scratch)
Tags: tech, rust, docker, containers, security
Nice docker recipe indeed for small and secure containers when you just want to ship a statically linked binary.
https://kerkour.com/rust-docker-from-scratch
Flattening Rust’s Learning Curve
Tags: tech, rust, learning
Good advice on how to learn Rust. I recommend quite some of it.
https://corrode.dev/blog/flattening-rusts-learning-curve/
An Interactive Debugger for Rust Trait Errors
Tags: tech, rust, type-systems, debugging
Looks like a nice tool to navigate mistakes with Rust complex type system.
https://cel.cs.brown.edu/blog/an-interactive-debugger-for-rust-trait-errors/
Rust Dependencies scare Me
Tags: tech, rust, security, supply-chain
There’s clearly a tension between security and ease of pulling dependencies. In a way, it’s “too easy” with cargo and you very quickly end up having to trust a staggering amount of third party code.
https://vincents.dev/blog/rust-dependencies-scare-me/?
Matt Godbolt sold me on Rust (by showing me C++)
Tags: tech, rust, type-systems
A nice example which shows the value proposition of Rust is not simply memory safety. Having a stricter type system and properly designed based types help a lot to catch mistakes early.
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2025/05/06/matt-godbolt-sold-me-on-rust-by-showing-me-c-plus-plus/
The Path to Memory Safety is Inevitable
Tags: tech, security, memory, safety
Security asks for more than a memory safe language. It helps some things for sure, but there are tools for other languages as well, you better start using them.
https://hardenedlinux.org/blog/2025-05-07-the-path-to-memory-safety-is-inevitable/
How to join or concat ranges, C++26
Tags: tech, c++
The ranges are improving in the STL. This is definitely welcome.
https://www.cppstories.com/2025/join_concat_ranges/
C++20 concepts for nicer compiler errors
Tags: tech, c++, type-systems, generics
The introduction of concepts has indeed been a nice improvement to the language.
https://lemire.me/blog/2025/05/03/c20-concepts-for-nicer-compiler-errors/
AAA Style (Almost Always Auto)
Tags: tech, programming, c++
This remains the best explanation of why we should have more use of auto in C++ code.
https://herbsutter.com/2013/08/12/gotw-94-solution-aaa-style-almost-always-auto/
Strings Just Got Faster
Tags: tech, java, performance
Interesting trick in Java internals which is especially improving map lookups.
https://inside.java/2025/05/01/strings-just-got-faster/
Stability by Design
Tags: tech, clojure, reliability, api, library
Illustrated with the Clojure ecosystem, bit there’s nothing inherently specific to the language here. If you want to ensure stability to your users, you need to manage your APIs properly and this article put forward a couple of interesting ideas.
https://potetm.com/devtalk/stability-by-design.html
How Cohesion and Coupling Correlate
Tags: tech, design, architecture, complexity, ddd
A bit of an unusual view about cohesion. The approach is interesting though.
https://blog.ttulka.com/how-cohesion-and-coupling-correlate/
Catalog of Patterns of Distributed Systems
Tags: tech, architecture, distributed
Definitely a handy catalog for designing distributed systems.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/patterns-of-distributed-systems/index.html
Refactoring to Feature
Tags: tech, tdd, refactoring
There are many opportunities to redactor. This one is aligned with Kent Beck’s quote: “first make the change easy, then make the easy change”.
https://functional.computer/blog/refactoring-to-feature
You can’t prevent your last outage, no matter how hard you try
Tags: tech, reliability
This is almost by definition. The post mortem needs to be wisely crafted to look also at previous incidents and the actions to mitigate them.
https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/05/04/you-cant-prevent-your-last-outage-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/
The Curse of Knowing How, or; Fixing Everything
Tags: tech, work, life, culture
You have to know which battles to pick. If you don’t… This article shows well what will happen. And it’ll indeed turn into a curse.
https://notashelf.dev/posts/curse-of-knowing
Know your libraries
Tags: tech, c++, dependencies
It’s written and illustrated in a C++ context, but the advice is widely applicable. You should know well the libraries you use on your projects.
https://arne-mertz.de/2015/02/know-your-libraries/
The magic of software; or, what makes a good engineer also makes a good engineering organization
Tags: tech, innovation, knowledge, learning, organization, team, management, engineering
Or why it’s important to deeply understand what you do and what you use. Cranking features and throwing code to the wall until it sticks will never lead to good engineering. Even if it’s abstractions all the way, it’s for convenience but don’t treat them as black boxes.
Interestingly this article draws a parallel with organizations too. Isn’t having very siloed teams the same as treating abstractions as black boxes?
Quite some food for thought here.
https://moxie.org/2024/09/23/a-good-engineer.html
Partisanship and Sectionalism are Stupid
Tags: tech, agile, business, xp, scrum, kanban
Or why I really hate the whole certification business. Especially for process and practice’s related topics, this pushes the multiplication of brands and churches to sustain them. The right approach is almost always a blend of different influences and flavours.
https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/partisanship/
Your language brain matters more for learning programming than your math brain
Tags: tech, programming, learning
I wonder how much the focus on Python biased that study… Still, maybe we’ve been wrong at so much emphasis on math skills for computer science and computer engineering curricula.
https://massivesci.com/articles/programming-math-language-python-women-in-science/
Burn-up agenda
Tags: organization, meetings
Looks like a nice visualisation for workshops making sure you keep progress in check.
https://caroli.org/en/burn-up-agenda/
My tips on giving technical talks
Tags: tech, talk
Nice and down to earth tips for your technical talk to go well.
https://marcusnoble.co.uk/2025-04-30-my-tips-on-giving-technical-talks/
On The Death of Daydreaming - by Christine Rosen
Tags: tech, life, boredom
Nice piece, aren’t we loosing something when we eliminate boredom from our life?
https://www.afterbabel.com/p/on-the-death-of-daydreaming
Bye for now!