Web Review, Week 2025-09
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2025-09.
Open letter to browser and OS makers
Tags: tech, web, http, security
We’re indeed close to universal HTTPS adoption. One last push please?
https://medium.com/@boblord/open-letter-to-browser-and-os-makers-12d65aa314f7
France is about to pass the worst surveillance law in the EU
Tags: tech, privacy, surveillance, cryptography, politics
They really never learn… Whatever the country politician try to blindly fight against cryptography again and again. Let’s hope this one is stopped.
https://tuta.com/blog/france-surveillance-nacrotrafic-law
It is no longer safe to move our governments and societies to US clouds
Tags: tech, cloud, politics, law, privacy, vendor-lockin
Maybe it’ll at least be a wake up call for governments and businesses to let go of their US cloud addiction. There are reasons why you don’t want such vendor lock-in. The political drama unfolding in the United States makes obvious why you should think carefully at how dependent you are from your service and infrastructure providers.
https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/you-can-no-longer-base-your-government-and-society-on-us-clouds/
Y Combinator Supports AI Startup Dehumanizing Factory Workers
Tags: tech, business, criticism
I’m still baffled people are coming with ideas like this for their businesses… The level of cynicism you must have to build such a startup.
https://www.404media.co/optifyeai-ycombinator-startup-ai-factory/
A new Android feature is scanning your photos for ‘sensitive content’ - how to stop it
Tags: tech, google, android, smartphone, security, criticism
Another example that on such ecosystems you’re not really owning your device. Seek alternatives!
Xcode constantly phones home
Tags: tech, apple, surveillance
Not all of this makes sense… Why are they collecting so much from an IDE?
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/2/5.html
How Core Git Developers Configure Git
Tags: tech, git, version-control, tools, command-line
Or why even the core git developers don’t really use the defaults. This piece gives good knobs to play with in order to have a nicer experience.
https://blog.gitbutler.com/how-git-core-devs-configure-git/
Smart Pointers Can’t Solve Use-After-Free
Tags: tech, c++, memory, safety
They help with some issues… but they can’t solve all the memory safety issues of the language I’m afraid.
https://jacko.io/smart_pointers.html
Bookmarklets (and Custom URL Schemes) Are Criminally Underrated
Tags: tech, browser, desktop, linux
This is indeed forgotten features available in our desktop and browsers. It can be very convenient.
https://silly.business/blog/bookmarklets-and-custom-url-schemes-are-criminally-underrated/
The web on mobile
Tags: tech, web, mobile, ux, performance
It could be so much better indeed. Unfortunately in great part this is about UX design and carrying heavyweight frontend frameworks though…
https://adactio.com/journal/21728
Programming Really Is Simple Mathematics
Tags: tech, programming, mathematics, logic
Interesting endeavor… this is nice to have an attempt at a formal definition with no axiom introduced.
https://bertrandmeyer.com/2025/02/25/new-preprint-programming-really-is-simple-mathematics/
A discussion between John Ousterhout and Robert Martin
Tags: tech, craftsmanship, design, tdd, teaching, complexity
Very interesting discussion weighting the main differences and disagreements between a Philosophy of Software Design, and Clean Code. I read and own both books and those differences were crystal clear, it’s nice to see the authors debate them. I’m a bit disappointed at the section about TDD though, I think it could have been a bit more conclusive. It gives me food for thought about my TDD teaching though and confirms some of the messages I’m trying to push to reduce confusion.
https://github.com/johnousterhout/aposd-vs-clean-code
Testing Numbs Us to Our Loss of Intellectual Control
Tags: tech, architecture, design, tdd, complexity
Nice little paper I overlooked. I agree with it obviously. More tests are not a free pass to let complexity go wild. Architecture and design concerns are still very important even if you TDD properly.
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/so/2020/03/09068304/1j30VMzNxLO
Leading while learning
Tags: management, leadership
The proposed three traits are definitely spot on. Too much confidence is a red flag, some balance needs to be found.
Bye for now!