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Unboxed Roundup: Our links for w/c 23rd November 2015

Murray Steele

Nov. 27, 2015

Math.random() in V8 isn't as random as you think - Andrew W

https://medium.com/@betable/tifu-by-using-math-random-f1c308c4fd9d#.yowj1q70f

Mike Malone, CTO of Betable, describes how collisions in request ids generated by using Math.random() in Node.js lead to the worrying discovery that it's PRNG is not as good as it should be.

There’s a nice image that demonstrates the problem:

Ruby 2.3 - what's new? - Murray S

  • https://blog.blockscore.com/new-features-in-ruby-2-3/
  • http://dev.mensfeld.pl/2015/11/ruby-2-3-0-changes-and-features/

Ruby 2.3 is just around the corner so it's time to start exploring what new features it'll have. These articles cover the changes that are coming and give some pointers as to why we might want to use them. I haven't found any guides about performance in Ruby 2.3, but I expect the general trend to be slightly upwards if the graphs on is ruby fast yet are any indication.

How to charge for your Open Source software - Andrew W

http://www.mikeperham.com/2015/11/23/how-to-charge-for-your-open-source/

Mike Perham, author of Sidekiq, gives sage advice on how to earn a living from Open Source software by using a dual licensing strategy.

Earn money by walking! - Alan T

http://www.bitwalking.com/

You could earn money by just walking to work etc. What's not to like?

Standup Bot - Automated Standups in Slack - Andrew W

http://www.sofetch.io/products/standup-bot-private

A self-hosted bot (typically on Heroku) that automates the process of daily standups in Slack and allows you to keep a history of what's said - great for remote teams.

Track of the Week - Martyn E

"It's My Party" - Lesley Gore

Whilst "networking" at Agile on the Beach earlier this year, Claire and I invented a game whereby if you met someone new, you had to introduce them to your colleagues (Gram, Jack and Ben were also along) by singing a song with their name in the title. We tried it on many people and the best one we came up with to introduce me was "It's my Marty and I'll cry if I want to". I never knew who sang the original but it turns out it was a young Lesley Gore, produced by the mighty Quincy Jones. It's quite something!