DEV Community: elliottback

[Link] Why I Don't Write Useful Software Unless You Pay Me

elliottback — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 04:18:41 +0000

As of yesterday, there were a grand total of three sponsors for this person's work. THREE. As of today, this number is now 14; however this is no excuse. This person should be funded in a level that is appropriate for how critical log4j2 is used in the ecosystem. There is no excuse for this. This person's spare time passion project is responsible for half of the internet working the way it should. Vulnerable companies to this issue included Apple, Google, my cell phone carrier and basically everyone that uses JavaEE in its default configuration.

"Open Source" is Broken

[Link] The Internet of Beef

elliottback — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 08:10:06 +0000

For the knight, the conflict is the end. Growing it, and keeping it going, is something like an entrepreneurial cultural capital business model (one with no exit from the hell-market of other people; Sartre would be proud).

If conflict in any particular theater shows dangerous signs of actually resolving itself, another must be spun up to take its place, much as businesses that hope to survive must replace markets in decline with new ones.

As a result, on the IoB, the only meaningful transaction is the pitched battle between armies of mooks, the equivalent of a viral hit. The bloodier and stupider, the better for the instigating knights on all sides. The greater the futility, the more useful, since it reinforces a disposition towards conflict for the sake of conflict.

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/01/16/the-internet-of-beefs/

[Link] Flat is the Future of Materials Science

elliottback — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 02:51:44 +0000

As researchers like Dr. Palacios see it, two-dimensional materials will be the linchpin of the internet of everything. They will be “painted” on bridges and form the sensors to watch for strain and cracks. They will cover windows with transparent layers that become visible only when information is displayed. And if his team’s radio wave-absorber succeeds, it will power those ever-present electronics. Increasingly, the future looks flat.

The Superpowers of Super-Thin Materials: In materials science, 2-D is the new 3-D.

[Link] Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires

elliottback — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:11:22 +0000

The source of the trouble is that when people are judged by performance metrics they are incentivised to do what the metrics measure, and what the metrics measure will be some established goal.

Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires