Web Review, Week 2022-49
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2022-49.
I Taught ChatGPT to Invent a Language - by Dylan Black
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, linguistics
Hard not to have at least some ChatGPT related news this week. Plenty of impressive experiments out there… I think this one is hands down the most impressive one. I’m biased though, I like linguistics inspired works.
https://maximumeffort.substack.com/p/i-taught-chatgpt-to-invent-a-language
ChatGPT and the viability of replacing humans with circus tricks
Tags: tech, programming, ai, machine-learning, gpt
Words of caution regarding the use of language models for producing code. This can derail fairly quickly and earlier than you’d expect… without noticing it.
https://adamshaylor.svbtle.com/chatgpt-and-the-viability-of-replacing-humans
Twitter Thrills Far-Right Trolls by Silencing Left-Wing Voices
Tags: tech, twitter, social-media, politics
This is really going down the drain. Right wings extremists basically took over the content moderation vacuum. I wonder how long before this turns into simply into an extremist echo chamber with no real user on it.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/29/elon-musk-twitter-andy-ngo-antifascist/
Samsung’s Android app-signing key has leaked, is being used to sign malware | Ars Technica
Tags: tech, android, security
This shows really bad practices… and lack of transparency, worrying for users.
The architecture of Mastodon
Tags: tech, fediverse, architecture
Nice explanation of the Mastodon architecture, how it propagates messages and interactions or how it scales.
https://softwaremill.com/the-architecture-of-mastodon/
Blockbench
Tags: tech, 3d
That looks like a nice even though a bit niche 3D model editor. I like this kind of style.
GitHub - datafold/data-diff: Efficiently diff data in or across relational databases
Tags: tech, tests, databases
Looks like an interesting tool when you need to diff databases. Definitely something I’d see myself using for large pin tests.
https://github.com/datafold/data-diff
Structured concurrency in Java with Loom
Tags: tech, java, multithreading
Interesting new concurrency model in Java. Probably a good inspiration in other situations.
https://www.davidvlijmincx.com/posts/loom/java_structured_concurrency/
The Git Parable
Tags: tech, git
An old piece, I sometimes like to revisit the basics so here it goes. A nice explanation of how Git is built and how it works internally. It’s of course a simplification in some way but close enough to have a good mental model of what goes on behind the commands we use.
https://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html
A debugging manifesto
Tags: tech, debugging
Excellent piece about the right attitude to have around debugging.
https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/12/08/a-debugging-manifesto/
What I learned from pairing by default
Tags: tech, pairing, programming
Good balanced view about pair programming. I’d definitely like to practice it more, although whole days might be a bit too much and too exhausting.
https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2022-12-07-what-i-learned-from-pairing/
37 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Said the Best Managers Never Actually Want to Be Managers. Science Says He Was Right | Inc.com
Tags: tech, management
I’m not a huge fan of the “Steve Jobs said…” to justify thing, a clear rhetoric trick. Still, I think this short piece nails it down, it’s just better when managers actually know the job. It’s better to promote someone who knows it and coach that person into the job. There’s only one challenge then (which is glanced over in the paper): how to keep this manager technically relevant over time. It’s not that easy in our field.
The Most Brutal Ant: The Slaver Ant Polyergus - YouTube
Tags: science, ants, surprising
No really… ants are scary!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Qsbe1pD8ocE
Bye for now!