Web Review, Week 2025-16
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2025-16. This is a long one, I have a treasure trove of more than a thousand old links I’ve been sitting on and I’m starting to push a few of the oldies but goodies.
The Post-Developer Era
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, business, hiring
This matches what I see. For some tasks these can be helpful tools, but it definitely need a strong hand to steer them in the right direction and to know when to not use them. If you’re a junior you’d better invest in the craft rather than such tools. If you got experience, use with care and keep the ethical conundrum in mind.
https://www.joshwcomeau.com/blog/the-post-developer-era/
You cannot have our user’s data
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, copyright, criticism
Sourcehut pulled the trigger on their crawler deterrent. Good move, good explanations of the reasons too.
https://sourcehut.org/blog/2025-04-15-you-cannot-have-our-users-data/
Company apologizes after AI support agent invents policy that causes user uproar
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, business, funny
I willadmit it… I laughed. And that’s just one business risk among many.
Elon Musk’s xAI allegedly uses ‘illegal’ generators to power Colossus supercomputer facility
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, twitter, ecology, economics
I hope people using Grok enjoy their queries… Because they come with direct environmental and health consequences.
Why the climate promises of AI sound a lot like carbon offsets
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, ecology, economics, politics
Don’t confuse scenarios for predictions… Big climate improvements due to AI tomorrow after accepting lots of emissions today is just a belief. There’s nothing to back up it would really happen.
These are not the same
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, surveillance, politics, economics
This is a question which I have been pondering for a while… what will be left when the generative AI bursts. And indeed it won’t be the models as they won’t age well. The conclusion of this article got a chill running down my spine. It’s indeed likely that the conclusion will be infrastructure for a bigger surveillance apparatus.
https://tante.cc/2025/04/15/these-are-not-the-same/
LAPD Publishes Crime Footage It Got From a Waymo Driverless Car
Tags: tech, automotive, surveillance
You like having surveillance camera roaming around town? Well, you’re covered…
https://www.404media.co/lapd-publishes-crime-footage-it-got-from-a-waymo-driverless-car/
Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg voices
Tags: tech, hacking, politics, funny
This is definitely a funny hack. I wonder how long the people behind this knew about the vulnerability and waited for the right opportunity to do something with it.
CVE Foundation
Tags: tech, security, politics
Maybe something good will come out of the political turmoil around the CVE Program. This would be nice to see it more independent indeed.
https://www.thecvefoundation.org/home
HTTP headers for the responsible developer
Tags: tech, http
A good tour of the important HTTP headers.
https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/a-http-headers-for-the-responsible-developer
Common shell script mistakes
Tags: tech, shell, scripting
Writing shell scripts is still a craft. Interesting traps are presented here. Also, now better have shellcheck around for any non trivial script.
https://www.pixelbeat.org/programming/shell_script_mistakes.html
When Life Gives You Java
Tags: tech, programming, java
A few interesting tricks to apply to Java code. Some I already did, but the proposed model for algebraic data types I might add to my bag of tricks.
https://oblac.rs/2025-04-15-when-life-gives-you-java/
An Introduction to Modern CMake
Tags: tech, buildsystems, cmake
Looks like a nice resource for CMake. The documentation for it isn’t always great especially for beginners, hopefully it should fill that gap.
https://cliutils.gitlab.io/modern-cmake/README.html
C++20 idioms for parameter packs
Tags: tech, programming, c++, metaprogramming
The language keeps evolving, this is a good reminder that some old idiom can be let go. Parameter packs still need some adjustments to become nicer though.
https://www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/blog/param-pack.html
Raw loops for performance?
Tags: tech, c++, performance, maintenance, optimization
Nice little comparison of raw loops and ranges in C++. As always, measure before making assumptions… Unsurprisingly it ends up on the usual readability vs performance debate.
https://www.sandordargo.com/blog/2025/04/16/raw-loops-for-performance
The Salami Method
Tags: tech, c++, portability, architecture
Interesting architectural proposal for highly portable C++ based libraries.
http://videocortex.io/2017/salami-method/
Avoiding memory fragmentation in Rust with jemalloc
Tags: tech, system, memory, rust, c
If you forgot that the memory allocator can matter greatly depending on your workload.
https://kerkour.com/rust-jemalloc
Atomicless Concurrency
Tags: tech, cpu, hardware, multithreading
Nice trick for highly performance sensitive data structures. Making data CPU local instead of thread local you can make a mechanism which is especially cache friendly.
https://mcyoung.xyz/2023/03/29/rseq-checkout/
Performance Analysis and Tuning on Modern CPUs
Tags: tech, performance, optimization, book
Looks like a nice resource to get better at finding the root cause of performance regressions and optimising code.
https://products.easyperf.net/perf-book-2
Ramblings from Jessie: Setting the Record Straight: containers vs. Zones vs. Jails vs. VMs
Tags: tech, containers, linux, virtualization, security
A bit of a rant, but since it looks like people are still trying to consider all those technologies are equivalent… I think it’s good to have an explanation on what makes containers different.
https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/containers-zones-jails-vms/
Reflections on Unikernels
Tags: tech, kernel, system
They keep being fascinating to me. Nice reflections showing how they can impact regular systems as well. I wonder why OCaml seems to be so prevalent in that space though.
https://dave.recoil.org/unikernels/
Datastar - The hypermedia framework.
Tags: tech, web, frontend, htmx
Looks like an interesting alternative to HTMX to come. Might go further enough that it has the potential to displace things like React as well.
Bilinear interpolation on a quadrilateral using Barycentric coordinates
Tags: tech, graphics, gpu, shader, 3d, mathematics
Wow, very smart approach to solve discontinuity issues when quads are turned into triangles.
https://gpuopen.com/learn/bilinear-interpolation-quadrilateral-barycentric-coordinates/
Shadertoys ported to Rust GPU
Tags: tech, 3d, shader, graphics, rust
Interesting stuff. This should ease greatly sharing code between shaders and the host application, especially for data specification which is easy to get wrong.
https://rust-gpu.github.io/blog/2025/04/10/shadertoys/
WebGL + Rust: Basic Water Tutorial
Tags: tech, 3d, graphics, rust, web
Nice tutorial for rendering water. It gets more complex from there but this one is doing quite a lot already.
https://chinedufn.com/3d-webgl-basic-water-tutorial/
A flowing WebGL gradient, deconstructed
Tags: tech, graphics, shader
Very nice deep dive into the reasoning behind a wavy gradient effect. It shows the best effect have several layers of refinements and tricks. Each trick is explained separately nicely, this is a good read.
https://alexharri.com/blog/webgl-gradients
Don’t Compare Averages
Tags: tech, data, data-visualization
Just looking at averages is indeed quickly hiding patterns. Make sure distributions are visible in some fashion.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/dont-compare-averages.html
4 psychology principles every UX/UI designer should know
Tags: tech, ux, cognition
Important principles to have in mind for proper UX/UI designs. There are more of course, those are the bare minimum though.
https://uxdesign.cc/4-psychology-principles-every-ux-ui-designer-should-know-89876d3bb356
Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?
Tags: tech, design, marketing
It’s meant to be humorous, but this says something interesting about how design and marketing evolves.
https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
Software development topics I’ve changed my mind on after 10 years in the industry
Tags: tech, programming, craftsmanship
A list of opinions on our field. It’s personal and biased of course, so make that you want out of it. I agree with most I’d say. A couple are rather niche though.
https://chriskiehl.com/article/thoughts-after-10-years
Code As Documentation
Tags: tech, programming, engineering, documentation, codereview
A bit of a self-serving post towards the end. Still I like it because it clearly mention that it’s not about dropping all documentation in favor of the code (quite the contrary in fact, documentation is very much needed). It really is about treating code like documentation, putting the same care into it in terms of readability and understandability. If you wonder what code reviews are for… it’s also for this readability concern.
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/CodeAsDocumentation.html
Retrospective technique: “Retro Wedding”
Tags: tech, agile, retrospective
Interesting alternative retrospective format. The way of framing the questions might help get new ideas.
https://scalablenotions.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/retrospective-technique-retro-wedding/
Is your team cross-functional enough?
Tags: tech, team, management
Nice little exercise to quickly figure out if the skillset of a team properly matches their project.
https://blog.crisp.se/2009/02/27/henrikkniberg/1235769840000
Thoughts: XP Revisited
Tags: tech, agile, xp
A look back at XP practices with some interesting insights. This doubles as a good XP primer as well.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/018-01ff/xp-revisited-1/
How to use Event Storming to introduce Domain Driven Design
Tags: tech, ddd, xp, architecture
Looks like a good set of tips of get more DDD practices in place without the badly understood vocabulary which usually comes with it.
https://philippe.bourgau.net/how-to-use-event-storming-to-introduce-domain-driven-design/
Starting Out - What works, how fast, and why?
Tags: tech, agile, coaching
How to get started with putting in place an Agile approach in a team? Clearly structure helps in the beginning. One caveat of the article though: don’t read this as having to respect a book to the letter forever, it’s merely a starting point.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/017-08ff/starting-out/
The Agile Fluency Model
Tags: tech, agile
This model is probably still a better one than certifications or very heavy processes. Far from perfect of course, but at least it gives a compass to teams to see if they’re going in the right direction.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/agileFluency.html
Are You Running from Problems or Solving Them?
Tags: tech, project-management, management, problem-solving, decision-making
If you spend your time in dull meetings and then run like a headless chicken… it’s definitely a sign you should cut down on the meetings and keep only the ones focusing on solving actual problems.
https://www.jrothman.com/mpd/management/2014/05/are-you-running-from-problems-or-solving-them/
The dark side of the Moomins
Tags: culture, history
Are we sure the Moomins are really a cute tale? I always felt them slightly off, but indeed it goes much darker than I suspected.
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2025/04/dark-side-of-the-moomins-tove-jansson
Bye for now!