Linkies #1 – 13/01/24
Tags: learning, linkies, news, community
Published: 2024-02-13 18:59:51

In my previous ventures, I always used to share the links I've come across with my colleagues. Be it technology related, science, memes. I've also seen other people do the same by sharing links in a distributed mailing lists and always could find some interesting reads.

This is my personal space to share these links with anyone and everyone and have them in a single place, with a little bit of commentary from my perspective.

I'll try to keep to a regular schedule and create a collection of links weekly.

I'll try to group them into a few different subjects, but the subjects should roughly remain the same, but I'd still encourage you all to check them all out, since you might find some curiosities like I did too.

I'll start with some of the older ones that I've gathered and work my way up through the list!

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## Programming

I read a lot whilst I'm trying to solve problems, it helps me understand problems that others face and how they might have accomplished or overcome their challenges. This list is by no means the full list, but just the start on some of the articles that caught my eye throughout the last couple of years relating to software engineering. I'm yet to catch up to my latest linkies.

**Linkies:**

[From Problems to Solutions: Understanding Design Patterns - Hana Belay - 26/03/23](https://dev.to/documatic/from-problems-to-solutions-understanding-design-patterns-3b7i)

> A lot of people always ask which design patterns, but rarely why design patterns. Well, Hana goes in-depth exploring what design patterns are, the types of design patterns and an introduction into some of the design patterns.

[Back-end parallelism in the Rust compiler - Nicholas Nethercote - 11/07/23](https://nnethercote.github.io/2023/07/11/back-end-parallelism-in-the-rust-compiler.html)

> I fell in love with performance testing and benchmarking when working on my little programming language. I've felt the same love when reading Nicholas' experience working on `rustc`. Quite a thorough and very educational write-up on back-end parallelism within the Rust compiler.

[Using your Database as a Queue? - Derek Comartin - 27/07/23](https://codeopinion.com/using-your-database-as-a-queue/)

> Maybe a controversial topic, but nevertheless, a worthwhile read. Derek goes on to explore the idea of using a database as queue, based on work from prequels engineering blog.

[The Might of Monads in Haskell - Arslan Mirza - 27/07/23](https://levelup.gitconnected.com/the-might-of-monads-in-haskell-18b450a0248c)

> Is mayonnaise a monad? Maybe! Join Arslan in delving into Haskels purity and the mighty Monads. I've never given much thought about Monads, but definitely see their use and benefits. And no, there is no mention of mayonnaise in this article.

[How we improved our Serverless API 300x - Daniel Bot - 07/08/23](https://dev.to/epilot/how-we-improved-our-serverless-api-300x-3o27)

> Serverless was is still a big topic. Everyone wants to go serverless, but how can we give up the performance of a big hunk of steel, copper and circuit boards when they offer better performance?
Join Daniel on their adventure in exploring how they managed to increase performance by _\*checks notes\*_ 300 percent!

## Infrastructure

I've decided to have a bit of a split between the actual software and the hardware/infrastructure. They're both work hand-in hand but it seems logical for me.

**Linkies:**

[Kubernetes 101, part VIII, networking fundamentals - Leandro Proença - 13/05/23](https://dev.to/leandronsp/kubernetes-101-part-viii-networking-fundamentals-mo7)

> I remember first I've touched a kubernetes cluster. Terrifying, right? Didn't know where to start or what to do! There are a lot of great articles online on the functionality and operations of k8s, but this one stood out, especially the networking portion.
Leandro goes in-depth explaining the fundamentals when it comes to networking within kubernetes.

[Setting the right requests and limits in Kubernetes - Santhosh Nagaraj - 01/09/20](https://learnk8s.io/setting-cpu-memory-limits-requests)

> One more from my linkies from k8s articles. This one is for sure **a must-read** for everyone. Throughout the last few jobs, I've noticed that we all struggle to right-size our applications and effectively scale. When it comes to kubernetes, understanding what are right and wrong CPU and Memory limits and requests are is crucial.
Santhosh beautifully demonstrates this through this article, diving into every crucial aspect.

[Migrating Critical Traffic At Scale with No Downtime — Part 2 - Netflix Technology Blog - 23/05/23](https://netflixtechblog.com/migrating-critical-traffic-at-scale-with-no-downtime-part-2-4b1c8c7155c1)

> Netflix comes up with a lot of cool stuff. Series, video streaming platform, their tech blog. I've definitely used this as a reference for some of the CPOF (critical point-of-failure) applications that I've worked on. This post is definitely a good place to get up to speed on how to do things well when it comes to no downtime.

[What Is Platform Engineering (And What Is It Not?) - Michael Levan - 27/07/23](https://dev.to/thenjdevopsguy/what-is-platform-engineering-and-what-is-it-not-2jb8)

> Next hot topic, platform engineering. Everyone wants to get in on some of this action. But what exactly is platform engineering?
Michael explores the differences between SRE, DevOps and Platform Engineering, what it consists of, and why the need.

[Understanding the Sidecar Injection, Traffic Intercepting & Routing Process in Istio - Jimmy Song - 06/05/22](https://jimmysong.io/en/blog/sidecar-injection-iptables-and-traffic-routing/)

> Having worked previously designing and creating my own routing sidecars, I can say, please use things that are already built and don't reinvent the wheel. Unfortunately my problem was a little more complex than what Istio could handle. Still, this post goes through a lot of good reading material to understand the hows of sidecar patterns for routing with Istio.

## Security

I am an unprofessional security enthusiast, and I enjoy everything security related.

**Linkies:**

[Security Certification Roadmap - Paul Jerimy - 13/08/22](https://pauljerimy.com/security-certification-roadmap/)

> This is a beautiful collection of security certifications and paths for all of you security enthusiasts. Big applause to Paul for this.

[A Discussion of Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust" - Manan Shah - 01/07/20](https://mananshah99.github.io/blog/2020/07/01/trusting-trust/)

> An old one, but definitely one of my favorite posts I've got stashed away. Beautiful discussion that makes you think, based on the work of Ken Thompson's lecture revolving around trust in computer security. 
> > If you trust the compiler that compiled the compilers compiler, you are a fool - Sun Tzu - 5th century BC

[Exploiting aCropalypse: Recovering Truncated PNGs - David Buchanan - 18/03/23](https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/exploiting-acropalypse.html)

> I remember the day aCropalypse dropped, and my curious mind immediately jumped on my phone to try this out. Wow. It worked.
And it was so simple to replicate.
This post explores how the actual vulnerability was discovered.
We need more posts like these!

[Toothbrush botnet?? - Kevin Beaumont - 06/02/24](https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/111886558855943676)

> An actually recent link. You might have come across some news posts saying that there may potentially be around 3 million, that's right, 3 million smart toothbrushes that were compromised by hackers. For anyone else that dabbles in embedded hardware and the likes, I'm sure you had your eyebrows raised for this too. This thread unravels the actual story and debunks it. Thanks Kevin!
Also a 2 for one, there's a pretty good [write-up from bleeping computer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/no-3-million-electric-toothbrushes-were-not-used-in-a-ddos-attack/) on this.
Fun how quickly things become viral without confirmation.

[Discovering that your Bluetooth car battery monitor is siphoning up your location data - haxrob - 21/05/23](https://doubleagent.net/2023/05/21/a-car-battery-monitor-tracking-your-location)

> I love security, I love hardware. This blog is a cross of both.
haxrob explores how a commonly available and used bluetooth car battery monitor is siphoning your location data.
Very well written and explored, I've always wanted to untangle apps and hardware in the same way, maybe something coming soon..

## Random

For times when you need a break from code.

**Linkies:**

[Photosynthesis is nearly 100% efficient. A quantum experiment shows why - Starts With A Bang - 11/07/23](https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/photosynthesis-100-efficient-quantum-physics/)

> Not your regular tech topic, but definitely an interesting read for all you curious minded people.

[An Open-Source, Free Circuit Simulator](https://hackaday.com/2023/07/30/an-open-source-free-circuit-simulator/)

> I've played around with countless circuit simulators, from ol-reliable LTSpice, to CircuitLab. Some free, some pricey, some haven't moved on since the 90s. So always finding a new circuit simulator to play about with is good, and this one in particular caught my eye.