Unboxed Roundup: Our links for w/c 8th May 2017
May 12, 2017
Isaac Asimov Asks, "How Do People Get New Ideas?" - Henry T
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/531911/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/
A 58 year old letter from Isaac Asimov on how to be creative in a group. Even if you hate the content, the MIT Technology Review website is quite nice.
Chasing "best practices" for better or worse - Murray S
http://labs.ig.com/code-coverage-100-percent-tragedy
When I first learn about some tool or practice that makes development better I tend to apply it in 100% of situations. However, as I get more confident in my abilities using these tools or applying these practices I start to see areas where it's not appropriate to use them. What I struggle with is that I often find it hard to articulate to someone else what trade-offs I'm making when I don't use the tool or practice, especially if that person is still in the "use it all the time" phase. It's hardly ever the case that I can point at some article that says "you don't need to use tool X in situation Y", and even when I can I'm not super-comfortable with an appeal to external authority being the best way to explain something. This article talks about this problem in terms of testing tools and code coverage, but I think the problem is one that applies to all kinds of development work. I'm really keen to work out a better way to express these internalised understandings to other developers. Particularly as I think it'll help me work out if what I'm doing is actually good or not!
Kubernetes clusters for the hobbyist - Elena T
https://github.com/hobby-kube/guide
An opinionated guide on how to setup a Kubernetes cluster on Digital Ocean or Scaleway.
iPlayer Registration - Claire K
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/05/11/bbc-iplayer-now-has-password-controls/
So today I wanted to check out what has been happening in Line of Duty and I found that I would need to register to watch stuff on iPlayer. It also seems that you can purchase the old seasons in the BBC Store, although it is more expensive than Amazon Video...
Is the gig economy working? - Elena T
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/is-the-gig-economy-working
Housework - done, homework - done, sending your dog on vacation - done. A "constellation of data points" now affects how well someone is paid for doing a task and adds to the insecurity of not knowing when your next paycheck is and how much it's going to be. The social effects of the gig economy are still uncertain, but this is a nice exploration of what it feels like to be dependent on one of our new fangled software-driven work roles.
Track of the Week - Sarah B
This is on Spotify’s Throwback Thursday playlist, some classic MJ