Author: Steven Helferich

Finishing three days of Scala training today. I’ve been mostly writing Ruby for a few months now so it’s nice to have gotten the refresher on Scala topics. No language is perfect, but I have to say I’d take Scala every day over Java if given the choice. Readability is just on another level when compared to the more verbose languages.

In other news, it appears that Zimbabwe is currently undergoing a military coup. The army has captured Robert Mugabe and apparently is attempting to arrest members of the existing elite, including Mugabe’s ambitious wife. Worth keeping an eye on Zimbabwe; this could mean a new chapter in its history.

Anyway, here are the links:

• Firefox Quantum is released by Mozilla, closing the performance gap with Chrome.
• Another person on Medium doesn’t like open offices.
• F-35 contains 8m lines of source code with the last module at 98% completion.
• The Atlantic wants us to revisit Bill Clinton’s scandals.
• Earthquake kills in over 400 near Iran/Iraq border.
• Amazon is making a Lord of the Rings prequel series.

Last night Sydney and I celebrated our one year anniversary. It was a great night; we had an early dinner at the Cliff House, caught the sunset, then went to see Aladdin at the Orpheum. They’ve changed the story of Aladdin a fair amount to fit a less cartoonish interpretation, replacing the tiger and monkey with groups of singing and dancing friends instead. The flying carpet is reduced to only two appearances as it carries the main characters around the stage in a pretty convincing way. The genie is no longer blue, but instead wears a blue outfit. To be honest, the genie’s character seemed heavily inspired by Titus Andromedon from Kimmy Schmidt. The sets and costumes both looked great and functioned well. The crew even included a hefty amount of pyrotechnics in the act. Overall, definitely worth the money to go see it.

In other news, the link I’ve included are from the week, but since I had them already set aside I thought I’d include them in a post. Trump was in Asia this past week, fleeing from negative press at home and trying to make some progress on his foreign policy objectives. So far, the trip has been heavy on positive rhetoric from all parties, but not necessarily equally heavy on details. Anyway, here are the links:

• Intermittent fasting may increase human lifespans.
• What causes the United States to suffer so many mass shootings?
• Waymo to launch driverless taxi service.
• From 3 years ago; Ruby’s problems haven’t changed much.
• Functions vs. Containers.
• Testing with Capistrano.

What a let-down Halloween turned into… Sydney and I did wind up going out, but to be honest most of the crowd was either not in costume or wearing some sort of cop-out costume. I guess the holiday falling on a Tuesday this year thinned the herd a bit. We wound up making the best of it, but hopefully next year people are more enthused.

In other news, it seems like every week we find out more about how corrupt the rich and powerful are these days (maybe always?). One of the Panama Papers journalists was killed in Malta two weeks ago in a car bombing, while this week a new set of files detailing offshore tax havens was leaked. This time even Queen Elizabeth II got in on the action. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince made more headlines by purging 80-something members of the royal family and ruling elite in a “corruption” crackdown. More realistically, this is an attempt to centralize power before the ambitious royal begins his push for massive reforms. Nonetheless, what a world when Saudi Arabia can hold it’s leaders accountable, but we Americans cannot. Anyway, here are the links:

• When “we only hire the best” means “we only hire the trendiest”.
• Google changes Chrome’s DOM APIs, breaks the internet.
• Stack Overflow lays off 20% of workforce as part of priority shift.
• ‘Lambda and serverless is one of the worst forms of proprietary lock-in we’ve ever seen in the history of humanity’.
• Paradise Papers expose more tax havens for the global financial elite.
• House of Representatives still modifying new tax plan amid doubts from high-tax states.

This year will hold the record as the most disorganized Halloween ever. Our famous workplace Halloween event was renamed “Fall Festival” this year for reasons completely unknown causing many of us to not even know it was happening. Great success. Likewise, I’ve noticed maybe 5 merchants with a few lazily set-up decorations with the vast majority doing nothing at all. Has culture died in this country or are we just too lazy to care anymore? The most popular outfit I saw over the weekend was a collection of animal onesies worn by 30 year olds, presumably because they were also too lazy to do more than spend $30 on Amazon. Despite this, Sydney and I will be out the night of Halloween. I’ll be going as OG Mad Max, although don’t expect it to be cosplay quality. I did the best I could with the time I had.

In other news, I’ve stayed out of the news cycle for the most part over the past few weeks, opting instead to make dinner and play some cards at night. I’m definitely happier for it. Anyway, here are the links:

• Splitting strings in Ruby and Python.
• US consumer spending grows at fastest pace in 8 years.
• Carbon Dioxide levels grew at record pace in 2016.
• Mueller’s Russia probe produces indictments to key Trump affiliates.
• The Web died in 2014, we’re left with GOOG-FB-AMZN.
• Strange things discovered on the ancient Silk Road.

First post since getting back from Disneyland and Phoenix last weekend. Of course, two weeks so packed with activity were guaranteed to make me sick and here I am. Luckily, I think I’ve finally turned the corner in time for this weekend. There’s some excitement going on this weekend; Sydney and I will be down in San Jose checking out the Earthquakes play against Minnesota United to secure a playoff spot. I’ve never watched the Earthquakes play so I’m excited to be able to actually make it to a match finally. Broadcasters being what they are, it’s often nearly impossible to watch our local games on streams or TV without the use of a VPN.

Anyway, here are the links:

• One person’s opinion on the meaning of technical debt.
• The effects of copy and paste on code quality.
• China offers to buy 5% of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco.
• Millions of crypto keys contain fatal security flaw.
• Flaw in WPA2 allows attackers to intercept passwords.
• Docker gets out-of-the-box support for Kubernetes.

Back from my friend’s wedding in Santa Cruz. It was a very picturesque event taking place in a grove of conifers on top of a mountain. The crowd enjoyed themselves and the bride and groom looked amazing. Glad to have been a part of it!

You’d think we might be taking it easy after a wedding weekend, but we’re off again this Wednesday for Sydney’s birthday in Disneyland. I’ve never gone for the full ride experience at a Disney park, so there will be a lot of new experiences for me. I’m bringing the camera down with us too so expect a Mickey-Minnie ears picture with the two of us next week.

Anyway, here are the links:

• Elon Musk admits Tesla is struggling with Model 3 production.
• America’s corporations learn to target the 26-year-old Millennial.
• White House drives a hard bargain for ‘Dreamers’ deal.
• Facebook tries, fails for excellence in game-playing AI.
• Interactive sorting algorithm demo.
• A look into the demographics of billionaires.

Heading into a busy two weeks. Later this week I’ll be attending a wedding and the week after that is Syndey’s birthday. Hopefully I’ll still get a chance to post, but if not it might be two weeks before I get another post out.

In other news, Las Vegas suffered a horrible attack last week leaving more dead than the Pulse nightclub shooting. I’ll leave it to the pundits to talk about policy, but I will say this: it’s unacceptable that at this point we can set our calendars by the most recent mass shooting in this country. Something has to change.

Anyway, here are the links:

• The OKCupid tech blog lays out their new A/B test for increasing the number of mutual matches.
• A guide to designing a “perfect” Elasticsearch cluster.
• A visual introduction to compression.
• Potential for natural evaporation as a reliable renewable energy resource.
• An attack in Las Vegas leaves over 50 dead and over 500 injured.
• Michael Pettis gives a talk about the state of the Chinese economy before the party congress.

You might notice the layout for the blog has changed. When I set up this blog, I really just wanted a simple, one-column, black-on-white background, but of course WordPress wants to peddle a bunch of busy, trendy themes at me. After digging for a bit last night, I finally found something that will hold me over until I find something even simpler.

What else is going on? Well, a busy few weeks are about to sweep in, which means I’ll probably be incommunicado again. Chelsea beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League yesterday in a really great match. A few cry from Mourinho parking the bus against every team in Europe. Right now I feel like it’s not even worth touching topics like North Korea, Equifax, healthcare, etc since it’s pretty clear now nothing is going to happen on either of these fronts for a while.

Anyway, here are the links:

• China sets rules for automakers to produce alternative-energy vehicles by 2019.
• Some CEO spent $200k on therapy, pills, and biometrics to improve his health.
• An introduction to logging in Python.
• New Mexico’s new science educational guidelines omit mentions of climate change, evolution, and the age of the Earth.
• Trump’s anti-regulation policy is beginning to take effect.
• Blackhat researchers have shown how to turn web-connected carwashes into death traps.

It’s been a while. Currently getting ready for Halloween; I have 3 different faux leather jackets from Amazon sitting around my apartment for my Mad Max outfit. Honestly, I’ll probably have to send all three back, but I’m trying to be proactive and not wait til the last week to get this all done. This week I’m looking forward to an internal developer conference we’re having at work and not much else. I saw IT about a week back and really enjoyed myself. Next up is Mother, which I heard did just awful.

Anyway, here are the links:

• Yelp’s approach to diversity in hiring.
• A breakdown of academic performance of boys and girls in the Middle East.
• The Ariane 5 Disaster.
• North Korea claims the US has declared war.
• Is Star Trek’s transporter a suicide booth?
• Iraqi Kurds cast a vote for independence despite threats of violence.

Been on the road for basically two weeks straight for a variety of reasons, but I have some interesting articles worth sharing for today. Also worth noting is that today marks the 16th year since the 9/11 attacks. Probably no other event besides the collapse of the Berlin Wall has had such an impact on our world and I imagine we’ll be living with the consequences for a very long time. It’s worth taking a moment to reflect how much our lives have been impacted and how we can do better in the future.

Anyway, here are the links:

• A new blog post on GDP overstatement by prof Michael Pettis.
• A mysterious 15th Century manuscript is decoded as a women’s health guide.
• The Guardian explores how Britain’s aristocracy still thrive to this day.
• Java 9 will not receive long-term support.
• China moves to shut down Bitcoin exchanges.
• NYTimes article covering the current status of Irma and the damages to Florida.