Four short links: 26 March 2019
Software Stack, Gig Economy, Simple Over Flexible, and Packet Radio
- Thoughts on Conway’s Law and the Software Stack (Jessie Frazelle) — All these problems are not small by any means. They are miscommunications at various layers of the stack. They are people thinking an interface or feature is secure when it is merely a window dressing that can be bypassed with just a bit more knowledge about the stack. I really like the advice Lea Kissner gave: “take the long view, not just the broad view.” We should do this more often when building systems.
- Troubles with the Open Source Gig Economy and Sustainability Tip Jar (Chris Aniszczyk) — thoughtful long essay with a lot of links for background reading, on the challenges of sustainability via Patreon, etc., through to some signs of possibly-working models.
- Choose Simple Solutions Over Flexible Ones — flexibility does not come for free.
- New Packet Radio (Hackaday) — a custom radio protocol, designed to transport bidirectional IP traffic over 430MHz radio links (ham radio). This protocol is optimized for “point to multipoint” topology, with the help of managed-TDMA. Note that Hacker News commentors indicate some possible FCC violations; though, as the project comes from France, that’s probably not a problem for the creators of the software.
