Issue #286

28 January 2022


Issue #286
Pointer.io
Friday 28th January's issue is presented by Teleport

 
Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure. The open-source Teleport Access Plane consolidates connectivity, authentication, authorization, and audit into a single platform.
 
Using ‘Roofshots’ To Make Impossible Decisions
- Scott Triglia
#Leadership #Management #CareerAdvice

tl;dr: "A good plan would result in strong execution and a successful outcome" but this approach failed Scott when managing larger projects. His advice: "make plans that bend and adapt with the changing world around you. I built a habit of forming rough, directional plans, testing them with small bets, and using quick production feedback to reorient myself and start the cycle again."
Designing Tinder
- Ankit Sirmorya
#Scale #Architecture
 
tl;dr: Ankit shows us how to design the architecture for a global Tinder-like service where users can create profiles, view recommendations of other users in geographically nearby regions, like or dislike other recommended users, get notifications when matched and be able to move to a different location and still get recommendations of nearby users.
5 Best Practices For Securing SSH In 2022
- Catherine Blake
#Management #Security

tl;dr: From changing the SSH default options to using a bastion host, this is a good reminder of how to boost the security of your infrastructure.

Promoted by Teleport.
Making The Web Better. With Blocks!
- Joel Spolsky
#WebDevelopment #IndustryTrend

tl;dr: "You’ve probably seen web editors based on the idea of blocks. I’m typing this in WordPress, which has a little + button that brings up a long list of potential blocks that you can insert into this page." Joel thought it would be cool if blocks were interchangeable and reusable across the web, and is creating the Block Protocol doing just that, discussed here.

"One person's constant is another person's variable."

— Susan Gerhart
 
#Management
 
tl;dr: (1) There are enough "known knowns" in the project i.e. things you're aware of and understand. (2) There are no more "known unknowns" i.e. things you're aware of but don't understand. (3) There are too many "known unknowns" - this might be a good indication that you need more info, and a prototype can focus your efforts. (4) You stop learning new things. (5) Falling down the rabbit hole.
Prefer To Change The Code Rather Than Write A Workaround
- Spencer Baugh
#CareerAdvice
 
tl;dr: "I can't count how many times I've heard programmers talking about writing some new piece of code to work around the behavior of some other code which they don't want to change. You are a programmer - you are allowed to change code! In fact, it's your job! Just change the code to do what you want! Fix the bug! Change the behavior! Add the feature!" Spenser illustrates this with common excuses people give.

The Best Engineering Interview Question I’ve Ever Gotten, Part 1
- Arthur O’Dwyer

#Database

tl;dr: "It’s been a while since I was on the receiving end of a software engineering interview. But I still remember my favorite interview question. It was at MemSQL circa 2013... Since MemSQL was a database company, this is a database challenge."
The Baseline For Web Development In 2022
- Alan Dávalos
#WebDevelopment 

tl;dr: (1) We're not answering the user's needs, notably around performance and accessibility. (2) We’re overusing JS: Both in our dependencies and in our own code. (3) We’re underusing HTML and CSS, partly due to IE support, but now that we don’t need to support IE there are many features that become usable.
How did you like this issue of Pointer?
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Notable GitHub Repos
Fig
Adds autocomplete to your terminal.
 
Huginn
Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf.
 
Papers We Love
Papers from the computer science community to read and discuss.
 
Sel
Compiler for thin Symbolic Expressions abstraction layer over Lambda calculus.
 
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