Web Review, Week 2025-18
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2025-18. This is another big one with old articles, I’m not done purging the treasure trove I mentioned a couple of weeks back.
Security Education Companion
Tags: tech, security, education
Need to teach security basics to your family, friends and neighbors? Here is a nice resource to do a good job there. We often approach the task the wrong way.
https://www.securityeducationcompanion.org/
Future of OSL in Jeopardy
Tags: tech, foss, politics
A reminder that reckless political decisions can have dire consequences for quite a few FOSS projects.
https://osuosl.org/blog/osl-future/
Third Party Cookies Must Be Removed
Tags: tech, web, privacy, attention-economy, standard
I have a hard time seeing browser makers truly drop third party cookies without pushing a worse replacement first… Still, it’s nice to see the W3C take a stand in the matter.
https://w3ctag.github.io/web-without-3p-cookies/
As engineers, we must consider the ethical implications of our work
Tags: tech, engineering, ethics
This opinion piece is getting old… and yet, it doesn’t feel like our professions made much progress on those questions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/05/engineering-moral-effects-technology-impact
How and why to properly write copyright statements in your code
Tags: tech, licensing, foss
This is one of the best references I know on the topic. It’s not that long, to the point and all developers should know it.
https://matija.suklje.name/how-and-why-to-properly-write-copyright-statements-in-your-code
Deep learning and shallow data
Tags: tech, data, machine-learning, computer-vision
A look back at the limitations of deep learning in the context of computer vision. We’re better at avoiding over fitting nowadays but the shallowness of the available data is still a problem.
https://blog.piekniewski.info/2019/04/07/deep-learning-and-shallow-data/
Are “AI” systems really tools?
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, tools
Interesting point of view… what makes a tool really?
https://tante.cc/2025/04/27/are-ai-system-really-tools/
xAI Dev Leaks API Key for Private SpaceX, Tesla LLMs
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, twitter, tesla, security, politics
They’ve been warned of this leak by GitGuardian weeks ago… and did nothing. For people manipulating such sensitive data their security practices are preposterous.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/05/xai-dev-leaks-api-key-for-private-spacex-tesla-llms/
I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server
Tags: tech, compression, security, memory
Nice little trick to get rid of some malicious bots.
https://idiallo.com/blog/zipbomb-protection
The Day Anubis Saved Our Websites From a DDoS Attack
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, security
Of course it helps also against DDoS attacks… tells something about the state of AI scrapers I guess.
https://fabulous.systems/posts/2025/05/anubis-saved-our-websites-from-a-ddos-attack/
Use The Index, Luke: SQL Indexing and Tuning e-Book for developers
Tags: tech, databases
Looks like a good resource to better understand indices in relational databases.
https://use-the-index-luke.com/
O(no) You Didn’t 😱
Tags: tech, performance, complexity, profiling
Nice little article. It’s a good way to point out that aiming for the lowest Big-O approach is often not what you want in terms of performance. Always keep the context in mind, and in doubt measure.
https://mrshiny608.github.io/MrShiny608/optimisation/2025/04/22/OhNoYouDidnt.html
Accurate mental model for Rust’s reference types
Tags: tech, rust, memory, type-systems
Mutable vs immutable is a good first approximation… but it goes further and this little article does a good job explaining why.
https://docs.rs/dtolnay/0.0.6/dtolnay/macro._02__reference_types.html
Making PyPI’s test suite 81% faster
Tags: tech, tests, python, optimization
Good proposals to shorten the time spent executing tests. Tighter feedback loops make everyone happy.
https://blog.trailofbits.com/2025/05/01/making-pypis-test-suite-81-faster/
6 Tips to supercharge C++11 vector performance
Tags: tech, c++, programming
Some tips which are easily forgotten to get the most out of std::vector.
https://acodersjourney.com/6-tips-supercharge-cpp-11-vector-performance/
C++26: Removing language features
Tags: tech, programming, c++
Of course, we’d like more to go away… But that’s already something.
https://www.sandordargo.com/blog/2025/03/12/cpp26-removing-language-features
Get out of my <head>
Tags: tech, html
Nice little resource to better understand some of the tags which appear in
and what they’re used for.Polishing your typography with line height units
Tags: tech, web, css, fonts
Didn’t know we had this unit. It’s welcome indeed.
https://webkit.org/blog/16831/line-height-units/
Techniques for Creating Textured Text
Tags: tech, web, frontend, html, css, fonts
A good tour of various techniques available on the web for making textured text.
https://tympanus.net/codrops/2013/12/02/techniques-for-creating-textured-text/
Against Horizontal Scroll
Tags: tech, html, css, ux, mobile
Avoiding them requires some care when designing the page and CSS.
https://matklad.github.io/2025/04/22/horizontal-scroll.html
9 Anti-Patterns Every Programmer Should Be Aware Of
Tags: tech, design, pattern, programming, engineering
There are clearly more to know. But this is a good list already.
https://sahandsaba.com/nine-anti-patterns-every-programmer-should-be-aware-of-with-examples.html
Differential Coverage for Debugging
Tags: tech, debugging, coverage
This is indeed a good way to guide your debugging. Using coverage information can sometimes reduce the search space.
https://research.swtch.com/diffcover
Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?
Tags: tech, quality, cost, productivity
We often hear that question about the trade off between quality and cost. The question is badly framed though. If it’s low quality it’s requires more effort to add or change features… and so it’s more expensive mid-term (not even long term).
https://martinfowler.com/articles/is-quality-worth-cost.html
Testing sync at Dropbox
Tags: tech, syncing, filesystem, tests
Testing sync engines can be especially challenging. This story from Dropbox gives ideas on how to do it well.
https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/-testing-our-new-sync-engine
What if we embraced simulation-driven development?
Tags: tech, tests, distributed, reliability, simulation, complexity
At some point the complexity is high enough that you indeed need more tools than only handcrafted tests to discover bugs.
https://pierrezemb.fr/posts/simulation-driven-development/
The Practical Test Pyramid
Tags: tech, tests, tdd
A bit long and dated for a some advice. Still it does a very good job going through all the different type of tests you’ll want to find on your project and how they’re structured.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/practical-test-pyramid.html
Unit Tests are not Friends
Tags: tech, tests, c++
Of your tests are friend with implementation classes in C++, then something is wrong. Such tight coupling between tests and implementation is not welcome.
https://arne-mertz.de/2015/08/unit-tests-are-not-friends/
Unit Test
Tags: tech, tests, tdd
Good reference to get an idea about what we should be considering when we talk about unit tests.
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UnitTest.html
Loosely Coupled Tests
Tags: tech, tests
Definitely be careful when using mocks. You can end up introducing too much coupling between your tests and the application code. Use alternative test doubles instead and reduce duplication.
https://8thlight.com/insights/loosely-coupled-tests
You won’t believe how old TDD is
Tags: tech, tdd, history
A reminder that the technique goes back to way before XP.
https://arialdomartini.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/you-wont-believe-how-old-tdd-is/
Visualizations of Continuous Delivery
Tags: tech, ci, sketchnotes
Very nice sketchnotes about Continuous Delivery.
https://continuousdelivery.com/2014/02/visualizations-of-continuous-delivery/
Extreme Programming: Whole Team
Tags: tech, agile, xp, team
What is the “Whole Team” practice from XP? Well, it’s fairly simple in the end… it’s about collaboration really. Needs to be reminded often though.
https://codingjourneyman.com/2015/04/13/extreme-programming-whole-team/
Ways to Make Code Reviews More Effective
Tags: tech, codereview
A good reminder that reviewers have many things to keep in mind and evaluate. This is why what can be automated should be automated.
https://www.infoq.com/articles/effective-code-reviews/
Why pair programing is as much about business continuity as it is about code quality
Tags: tech, pairing, business
Developers tend to push for pair programming mostly for technical and code quality reasons. This is fine, but often the fact that it also spreads knowledge and ensures business continuity is forgotten.
On Pair Programming
Tags: tech, pairing, programming, codereview
A good in-depth article about pair programming. Shows well the pros and cons.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/on-pair-programming.html
Story Points Revisited
Tags: tech, agile, xp, estimates
They’re so misused that it’s better to let them go. Indeed, we can go as far as wondering if estimating stories instead of slicing them is a good idea at all. Doesn’t mean all estimates disappear of course, but at the single story resolution? You likely better invest time in slicing them better.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/019-01ff/story-points/Index.html
The Difference Between a Story and a Task
Tags: tech, agile, scrum
Short and to the point. It needs repeating from time to time for some reason.
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/the-difference-between-a-story-and-a-task
Writing User Stories for Back-end Systems
Tags: tech, agile, scrum
Or why the term “user” in “user stories” need to be seen very liberally.
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/writing-user-stories-for-back-end-systems
Why 90 percent gets Kanban wrong! – and getting it right
Tags: tech, agile, kanban
Indeed, Kanban is massively misunderstood. This is unfortunate, this article does a good job explaining what this is about.
https://www.agileupgrade.com/why-90-percent-gets-kanban-wrong-and-getting-it-right/
5 questions that reveal if a company has a healthy workplace culture
Tags: hr, interviews
As I often says: interviews are also for candidate to evaluate the potential employer. If you’re interviewing there are good questions to ask, here are a few ideas. I think I’m almost never asked those unfortunately…
How to win your first clients
Tags: sales
I generally don’t like this kind of articles. It’s often snake oil salesmen writing this… Now this one has good advice instead. Of course it doesn’t mention how much luck has to be involved as well.
https://oliveremberton.com/2013/how-to-win-your-first-clients/
Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50
Tags: movie, culture, funny
Still a masterpiece if you ask me. I love that movie.
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/04/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-turns-50/
Bye for now!