The Toilet Paper

Science

Mostly just summaries of scientific papers for people without an academic background.

  1. Scotty tries to talk to a computer in the 1980s

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    How laypeople try (and fail) to design LLM prompts

    Coming up with good prompts for LLMs like ChatGPT can be quite a challenge. This study sheds some light on what makes it so hard.

  2. 🤔

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    Can a good philosophical contribution be made just by asking a question?

  3. Wyldstyle

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    How long does it take for a child to pass a LEGO figurine head?

    This is a summary of a paper that poses a simple question and uses a simple method to find a simple answer.

  4. Professor Oak

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    There is a time and place for log statements, but when and where?

    Logging statements can be very valuable for various reasons, but aren’t entirely free of cost. What’s the best way to use them?

  5. A worker whose head has turned into a literal bomb with a lit fuse looks very unhappy.

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    What makes developers tick (like a time bomb)

    Happy workers are productive workers. Limiting unhappiness can be a good way to increase the happiness of your workers.

  6. Talk show host with a small p*nis is angry about something

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    Defining the public value of public service media

    Public service media exist because they provide value to the general public (who also happen to pay for them).

  7. The rocket from the rocket emoji in space

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    Best practices for infrastructure-as-code (IaC) scripts

    This week’s paper presents a catalogue of best practices for infrastructure as code programs.

  8. Steven He’s emotional damage skit

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    “How is your thesis going?”

    Many PhD students suffer from mental health issues. This study investigates the underlying reasons and explores potential interventions.

  9. Dino Megazord

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    Enhancing the pull request experience with meta-bots

    Pull request bots can provide both maintainers and contributors with a lot of useful information, but sometimes less is more.

  10. Four identical Tetrarchs standing next to each other

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Portrayal of Tetrarchic rule in the Roman Empire

    For a long time, the Roman Empire was ruled by just one man. This all changed when emperor Diocletian ascended to the throne.

  11. A flight attendant stands next to the open door of an aircraft

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    Effectively onboarding newcomers into agile project teams

    A qualitative case study shows how we can design a smooth onboarding experience for agile software development teams.

  12. Two people staring at a TV that shows a PM5644 circle pattern with a lot of static noise

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    Proactively detect and fix flaky tests in your test suite

    Proactive detection of NIO tests makes it possible to fix flaky tests before they ever cause any problems.

  13. A piranha plant inside a green warp pipe

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    Make your hiring process a positive experience for everyone

    Leaky hiring pipelines are expensive. This paper presents guidelines that can make them more transparent, fair, and inclusive.

  14. Angry customer at IKEA ignores advice of salesperson

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    What makes a team good at Scrum?

    Apparently a team is good at applying Scrum when it does what the Scrum guide says it should do.

  15. Stylised self-portrait in TikTok’s UI

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    Why is everyone on TikTok?

    TikTok has become incredibly popular in a short time. What sets it apart from other platforms, other than its Chinese ownership?

  16. A sheep in the Star Trek transporter room

    Drinking the Kubernetes Kool-Aid

    Migrating pods between Kubernetes nodes (without killing them)

    When you move a pod to another node, Kubernetes creates a new pod and kills the original. Is there a more humane way?

  17. A remote worker shakes hands with an office worker

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    How to stimulate creativity and innovation in distributed journalistic teams

    Psychological safety and good use of technology can make journalists more creative and innovative.

  18. Exchange of vows at a wedding

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    How to write good commit messages

    In today’s “Things That People Don’t Want To Bother With” blog we’re having a look at commit messages and how to write them.

  19. A bus is about to hit a pedestrian, who jumps away

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    Calculating the bus factor

    The bus factor is a measure of how screwed a software project is when a member suddenly leaves. How should it be calculated?

  20. Entitled short-haired Karen demands to speak with a manager

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    What does toxicity look like in open-source projects?

    Toxicity in open source differs from toxicity on other platforms like Reddit or Wikipedia in unexpected ways.

  21. Someone crawls into a giant nose

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    Bad practices in continuous integration pipelines and processes

    This catalogue of 79 bad smells can help you make your continuous integration processes less shitty.

  22. A delivery driver carries a heavy log on their back

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    The product backlog

    This paper shows that not every paper needs a long, overly descriptive title. It’s about product backlogs.

  23. A container is sent through a stargate in space

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    Cargo-cult containerisation

    Containers are often used for development and deployment of server-side software. For good reason or are we all just cargo culting?

  24. A person holds a model aeroplane while standing on a runway. A descending plane can be seen in the distance.

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    Cargo cults in software engineering

    Imitating others who are successful looks good on paper, but in reality only works when one understands the “why” behind those actions.