Roundup: Alexa uneasiness, defining 'blockchain', good seniority
March 9, 2018
Amazon admits Alexa is creepily laughing at people and is working on a fix - Elena T
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/7/17092334/amazon-alexa-devices-strange-laughter
It's not exactly an explanation as to why this happens, but confirming that people are indeed not crazy when they hear Alexa talking to herself is a good first step.
"Blockchain" is meaningless - Elena T
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/7/17091766/blockchain-bitcoin-ethereum-cryptocurrency-meaning
It was supposed to offer a get rich quick scheme for everyone. Expect to see more of these articles cropping up as the honeymoon period for blockchain is thoroughly coming to an end.
What good seniority looks like - Murray S
- https://medium.com/@keavy/who-i-want-to-work-for-b04ce972c202
- https://medium.com/@BenHolliday/seniority-in-design-5169a39465c8
I've spent some time thinking about what "senior" means in a job title reently. I'm pretty sure it's not just that when you've done 𝐗 number of hours in the job you get to be called "senior", because I've certainly worked with people early in their careers who were clearly senior in everything but time-spent. These two articles explore what "senior" means without talking about time-spent and have given me lots to think about. Particularly around the things I'm not doing that I should be if I want to keep calling myself a "senior" developer.
Track of the Week - Matt T
This always puts a crazy smile on my face and is the accompanying song to the slo-mo (hilarious) video booth from my wedding.