This Week in Code, November 7th
Tags: twic, h264, docker
Published: 2016-11-07 18:38:58

---
title: This Week in Code, November 7th
published: true
description: An exciting AI partnership, web fonts, icons, and more.
cover_image: http://i.imgur.com/G5QhRDU.png
tags: twic, h264, docker
---

In case you missed any of it, here are some of the most noteworthy links from the past week in our industry.

[H.264 is Magic](https://sidbala.com/h-264-is-magic/) A fascinating look into H.264, the video compression codec standard. This post has great high-level insight into H.264 and compression in general.

[DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI research environment](https://deepmind.com/blog/deepmind-and-blizzard-release-starcraft-ii-ai-research-environment/) StarCraft II will be available to AI and Machine Learning researchers around the world. This is a big challenge for any artificial intelligence program and will be a great platform for demonstrating the incredible advances in the realm. The results of this research will be widely discussed, just like the [AlphaGo challenge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo_versus_Lee_Sedol) was. 

[Web fonts, boy, I don't know](http://meowni.ca/posts/web-fonts/) Critical reading on how custom web fonts affect paint performance on the web and things to consider when implementing them.

[Docker in Production: A History of Failure](https://thehftguy.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/docker-in-production-an-history-of-failure/) A developer writes about a frustrating set of issues they faced since adopting Docker. The subjects of the article are quite debatable, so it's worth reading the comments on the page and [on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12872304)

[I don't like computers](https://www.happyassassin.net/2016/11/04/i-dont-like-computers/) One developer's relationship with their work and the pervasive technology in our lives

[Pornhub Bypasses Ad Blockers With WebSockets](http://blog.bugreplay.com/post/152579164219/pornhubdodgesadblockersusingwebsockets) An analysis of how the company cleverly avoided Adblock detection. The post has been updated to show that several of the ad blocking plugins have shipped workarounds to defend against this. The cat and mouse game continues.

[Why I Became a Software Engineer](https://dev.to/edemkumodzi/why-i-became-a-software-engineer) A software developer discusses their motivation in getting into the field. The article combines unique personal anecdotes with relatable issues in personal motivation, great read.

[Cylance Discloses Voting Machine Vulnerability](https://blog.cylance.com/cylance-discloses-voting-machine-vulnerability) This is a proof of concept video demonstrating voting machine vulnerabilities. With tomorrow being election day, I'd say this is pretty concerning. ðŸ˜

[Jasonette – Create native iOS apps with nothing but JSON](https://github.com/Jasonette/JASONETTE-iOS) This is a fascinating approach to the idea of native app development, using a lot of configuration via JSON to compile a pretty impressive and performant native experience. This is a polarizing idea and quite interesting.

## Podcasts

Here are two episodes about indie entrepreneurial ventures taken on by developers that I really enjoyed this week.

[Indie Hackers with Courtland Allen](https://dev.to/sedaily/indie-hackers-with-courtland-allen) Indie Hackers is a website that profiles independent developers who have made profitable software projects, usually without raising any money.

[The Road to Font Awesome 5 with Dave Gandy](https://dev.to/changelog/226-the-road-to-font-awesome-5-with-dave-gandy) The history and future of the supremely popular font-based icon library.

Ad Fraud with Ben Trenda A look into how companies fight ad fraud, and how prevalent the phenomenon is.

## #DevDiscuss
This week's [#DevDiscuss](https://twitter.com/hashtag/DevDiscuss) Twitter chat was about pair programming, [here are the highlights](https://twitter.com/i/moments/793636238305746944).

There will be no #DevDiscuss this weekend because Tuesday because it conflicts with the US presidential election, which I think is pretty important.