Reminders
Legacy Code Rocks Mastermind Group
Join us for a weekly one-hour call to chat with other developers who are working on legacy code. We're in this space from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Eastern Time, every Wednesday.
Join Us on Slack
Getting the newsletter is just the first step. Join us on Slack to connect with other developers who are working on legacy code. Ask questions, share ideas, and get to know your fellow menders.
News
Fight: the WIRED Guide to Net Neutrality by Brian Barrett
On July 12, to show its support for net neutrality, Corgibytes proudly did its part to raise awareness on this grave issue.
WIRED put together a guide to help people understand why net neutrality is important and the fight to preserve it.
If you have a moment, please read more about it.
Podcasts
Open Data with Edafe Onerhime
Edafe Onerhime is a consultant on Data Science and Data Analysis who has over 20 years of experience answering difficult questions about open data. She has helped governments, charities and businesses make better decisions and build stronger relationships by understanding, using and sharing their data. In this episode, we discuss the history of open data, its importance in building communities and its similarities to open source and open science.
Presentations & Videos
Consider the Maintainer by Nadia Eghbal
Description: Does Open Source have a sustainable future? One of linux.conf.au 2017’s four keynote speakers, Nadia Eghbal will help you find out!
Make Legacy IT a Positive by Corgibytes and SIG
Description: Corgibytes' CEO Andrea Goulet teamed up with Software Improvement Group (SIG) to help you determine what to replace and what to remodel in your legacy systems.
Articles & Blogs
China May Match or Beat America in AI
Excerpt: "China is simply the place to be, explains Mr Lu, and Baidu the country’s most important player. 'We have an opportunity to lead in the future of AI,' he says."
Understanding Generics and Variance in Kotlin by Tomek Polański
Excerpt: "One of the biggest selling points of Object Oriented Programming languages is inheritance... Unfortunately, with generics in Java it is not always so straightforward."
Top 6 Open Source Projects in 2017 by William Belk
Excerpt: "Open source is the coolest. Let’s look at some of the top players for 2017. One of the most interesting things about the list below is how well it shows the maturation of the open source community over the last decade. All the projects presented here (with the exception of Lab41) were released 2014 or later and each is already playing a major role in its respective community."
Open Source NSA
Excerpt: "If you’re a tax-paying American, you may wonder what the shadowy National Security Agency (NSA) is doing with your money. Well, aside from stockpiling vulnerabilities in old versions of Windows, and writing viruses that destroy nuclear centrifuges, the NSA builds and open-sources some pretty cool tech."
Justice for “Data Janitors” by Lilly Irani
Excerpt: "Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke famously declared that any sufficiently advanced technology becomes indistinguishable from magic. Today, the likes of Google, Amazon, and Facebook appear determined to sell us the dream that machines—drones, self-driving cars, and one-click shopping services—can almost miraculously fulfill users’ desires. But what is at stake in hiding the delivery people, stockroom workers, content moderators, and call center operators laboring to produce the automated experience?"
What I Learned from Stack Overflow’s Massive Survey of 64,000 Developers by Quincy Larson
Excerpt: "Today, Stack Overflow released the results of their 2017 survey of more than 64,000 developers. Just like in 2016, I’ve combed through these results and summarized them for you. Here’s a lightning-fast snapshot of what the software development profession looks like in 2017."
Technical Debt in Machine Learning by Maksym Zavershynskyi
"Or how to shoot yourself in the foot with a bazooka."
Excerpt: "Many of us frown upon the technical debt but generally, it is not a bad thing. Technical debt is an instrument which is justified when we need to meet some release deadlines or unblock a colleague. The problem with the technical debt though is the same as with the financial debt — when the time comes to pay the debt we give back more than we took at the beginning. That is because the technical debt has a compound effect."
For Fun
Welcome to Our Startup Where Everyone Is 23 Years Old Because We Believe Old People Are Visually Displeasing and out of Ideas by Bob Vulfov
Excerpt: "Hello, and welcome to our startup. We hope you’re enjoying your complimentary snifter of vaporized coconut water. Once you’re done, please place the glass into one of the blue receptacles around the office, which will send the glass to be washed and dried. Do not place it into one of the red receptacles. The red receptacles take whatever you put inside of them and launch it into space."