Web Review, Week 2026-29
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2026-29.
A Better World
Tags: funny, history, scifi
Interesting game. Want to make your own alternate history? Gives pause about what we assume of the past. It stays fun of course.
This is Still Not Normal
Tags: climate, europe
Those maps make things very clear regarding climate change in Europe… and concerning to say the least.
https://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2026/07/this-is-still-not-normal.html?m=1
The Lost Joy of Music Piracy: WhatCD, Oink, and Spotify
Tags: tech, internet, music, piracy, culture, history
Excellent article which gives a glimpse of the Internet culture around music in the late 90s to roughly 2010. It was called piracy but clearly it was a labor of love… the movement kind of faded but artists don’t see much money back. It was a fight for nothing, well at least… not to the benefit of the artists.
https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/music-piracy-what-cd-oink-nine-inch-nails-streaming
“Useful” is not sufficient
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, copilot, ethics, politics, foss
An illustration of the political and ethical acumen being low in our profession in general and in some (most?) Open Source projects in particular…
https://tante.cc/2026/07/15/useful-is-not-sufficient/
Let’s Talk About the Hardware Reckoning
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, hardware, economics
The hardware prices are nuts right now… and there’s no end in sight yet.
https://timemachiner.io/2026/07/16/lets-talk-about-the-hardware-reckoning/
Do Smart Glasses Have a Surveillance Problem?
Tags: tech, facebook, google, surveillance, hardware
Well yes… and hopefully the fashion industry won’t be enough to hide it.
https://www.vogue.com/article/do-smart-glasses-have-a-surveillance-problem
AI Surveillance and Social Progress
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, surveillance, politics, sociology
Not what I signed up for years ago, but it’s the political and social landscape we inherited… Surveillance is being on steroids now, so definitely need to fight it at every turn.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/07/ai-surveillance-and-social-progress.html
Cursor 0day: When Full Disclosure Becomes the Only Protection Left
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, security
There’s clearly an issue with the security and privacy practice of those companies…
https://mindgard.ai/blog/cursor-0day-when-full-disclosure-becomes-the-only-protection-left
The Memory Heist
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, security
Those systems based on LLMs really create crazy security issues as soon as they’re allowed to interact with other systems.
https://www.ayush.digital/blog/the-memory-heist
An update on the scraper situation
Tags: tech, web, ai, machine-learning, gpt, commons
The web scraper situation isn’t getting better… How long can the open web still hold?
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1080822/990a8a5e2d379085/
InfiniteDiffusion: Bridging Learned Fidelity and Procedural Utility for Open-World Terrain Generation
Tags: tech, graphics, simulation, generator
Nifty new approach for infinite terrain generation. This is really impressive work.
https://xandergos.github.io/terrain-diffusion/
The git history command deserves more attention
Tags: tech, git, version-control
It’s definitely bringing nice moves now. It deserves to be used more indeed.
https://lalitm.com/post/git-history/
Measuring input latency on Linux: X11 vs Wayland, VRR, and DXVK
Tags: tech, graphics, linux, wayland, x11, performance
More latency exploration on Linux for games. The results are interesting. Unsurprisingly the X11 vs Wayland difference is much less dramatic than what people make of it.
https://marco-nett.de/blog/measuring-input-latency-on-linux-x11-vs-wayland-vrr-dxvk/
Debugging performance regressions
Tags: tech, nix, guix, reproducibility, debugging, system
Declarative systems like Nix and Guix bring their own set of complexities and challenges. That said, they also bring very interesting properties in terms of full system reproducibility. It can be a real help for integration work.
https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2026/07/debugging-performance-regressions/
Where did my segfault go?
Tags: tech, unix, shell, system
If you ever wondered what is responsible for printing the “core dumped” message, here is your answer.
https://rmpr.xyz/Where-did-my-segfault-go/
Detecting Full Table Scans With SQLite
Tags: tech, databases, sqlite, optimisation, performance
Interesting trick to detect table scans with SQLite. I can see that useful in development to optimize systems.
https://tenderlovemaking.com/2026/07/15/detecting-full-table-scans-with-sqlite/
The Order of Data: defaults, performance, determinism & paging
Tags: tech, databases, performance, reliability
Or how to properly paginate results when you have a database.
https://binaryigor.com/the-order-of-data.html
Understanding the Rust hype for the busy developer
Tags: tech, rust, ecosystem, supply-chain
A nicely balanced view at Rust the language but also the ecosystem. It’s not all pretty and real issues are looming.
Battery packs: Let’s talk about crates, baby
Tags: tech, rust, supply-chain
Another attempt at easing the pain navigating the Rust crates ecosystem? It has its merits as well.
https://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2026/07/15/battery-packs/#fnref:1
How Our Rust-to-Zig Rewrite is Going
Tags: tech, rust, zig
While some rewrite from Zig to Rust… others follow the opposite path. This is an interesting read pointing the strengths and weaknesses of both ecosystem. There’s no one size fits all in our field so it’s important to have this kind of explorations.
https://rtfeldman.com/rust-to-zig
How C++20 improved the for-loop syntax
Tags: tech, c++
C++23 gives us std::ranges::view::enumerate for this particular case now. Still, this is a good illustration of the (too) little used range-based for loop with initializer.
https://lzon.ca/posts/tips/cpp-for-range-init/
C Strings: A 50-Year Mistake
Tags: tech, c, memory
Indeed, this design choice comes with lots of issues. It might have made more sense in the 70s though.
https://longtran2904.substack.com/p/c-strings-a-50-year-mistake
What Every Python Developer Should Know About the CPython ABI
Tags: tech, python, api, abi
A not of a long introduction with generalities about APIs and ABIs. It really gets interesting when it covers the CPython specifics and the challenge they had keeping compatibility at the ABI level. This gives a good idea of the complexities needed to build wheels for Python packages.
https://labs.quansight.org/blog/python-abi-abi3t
Programming Vehicles in Games
Tags: tech, game, physics, simulation
What’s in the physics simulation of cars? A lot actually!
https://wassimulator.com/blog/programming/programming_vehicles_in_games.html
How my images are dithered
Tags: tech, graphics
Another fun exploration of dithering techniques. The variety abounds in this domain I think.
https://dead.garden/blog/how-my-images-are-dithered.html
CORS: What is it protecting?
Tags: tech, web, services, browser, security
A neat and simple explanation of what CORS is and which security issues it helps with.
https://sanyamserver.online/posts/cors/
A modern HTTP request
Tags: tech, http
What’s in a request nowadays? Well, lot of information!
https://nelsonslog.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/a-modern-http-request/
HTMX and Web Components Instead of React
Tags: tech, web, htmx, framework, complexity, webcomponents, react
I wish more teams would have this kind of thinking an really carry it to its logical conclusion. In most case you don’t need an SPA framework.
https://kore-nordmann.de/blog/htmx-and-web-components-instead-of-react.html
What does “playing politics” mean for software engineers?
Tags: tech, leadership, management, organisation, politics
Some of it is probably a bit too cynical (often the case with this author), and yet it has good advice on how software engineers influence the organisation around them.
https://www.seangoedecke.com/playing-politics/
Ownership
Tags: tech, leadership, delegation, quality
Good check list of things to consider when you’re delegating something. It’s pretty much the expectations from the person who delegate to you.
https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/ownership
Life Hacks for Idiots
Tags: life, satire
It’s not complicated, just don’t be a waste of atoms, m’kay? 😉
https://impossiblesongs.blogspot.com/2026/07/life-hacks-for-idiots.html?m=1
Bye for now!