I skimmed through dozens of newsletters this week. Here’s some interesting articles I found.

Let It Fail

What a scary title but an insightful article

• Sometimes you have to let systems fail (in a controlled way) in order for people to understand why that system needs more attention (see it to believe it)
• I’d like to add, sometimes systems either don’t fail in the way you anticipate or they fail without major issue. Either way you’ve learned something
• Back pressure is a way to prevent systems (and individuals) from getting overwhelmed and failing by limiting their workload and improving efficiency
• If someone becomes “the hero” and tries to fix everything, they become the single point of failure

Should the moon have its own time zone?

• Every software engineer loves timezones. Why not add one for the moon?
• Actually, it may be necessary for communication between astronauts and various countries
• The European Space Agency proposes a standard time zone for the moon to ease collaboration
• Lunar timekeeping is challenging due to tiny shifts in clock speeds and location variations

Be careful what you type when importing packages

• Attackers upload packages with common typos (known as typosquatting)
• These packages contain malware
• This malware is executed unbeknownst to engineers
• This has been happening for years but the code obfuscations are getting more sophisticated