Science
Mostly just summaries of scientific papers for people without an academic background.
The Toilet Paper
What does China’s foreign policy really look like?
In its foreign policy messages China claims that all it wants is peaceful cooperation with other nations. Is it speaking the truth?
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Should scientific papers be written using Word or LaTeX?
Most papers are written using Microsoft Word or the LaTeX document preparation system. Is one better than the other?
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Science communication is a skill that needs to be taught
Computer science students are only taught how to communicate to an academic audience, which inconveniently excludes most developers.
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Continuous integration practices (Taylor’s version)
This study suggests that continuous integration practices are kind of like Scrum, in the sense that everyone does something different.
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First make the tests easy, then make the easy tests
The best time to make your software testable was at the start of the project. The second best time is now.
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Why “Nigerian” scammers say they are from Nigeria
Dear Sir/Madam, I am a prince of the Nigerian royal family and I urgently need your help…
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When machine learning meets software engineering
Software engineering and machine learning are like oil and water. They don’t mix – unless you add an emulsifier of course.
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Lessons learnt from preserving the Amsterdam Digital City online community
The Amsterdam Digital City was one of the first online social networks in the Netherlands. How should it be preserved for future generations?
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How many spaces should you indent your code?
None, because tabs are better than spaces! Joking aside, it appears that the exact number doesn’t matter that much.
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Everything that management needs to know about technical debt
Developers often complain about technical debt, but how much does it really hurt the business? According to this study it’s a lot.
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Neurotic software developers have a higher risk of burnout
Some personality types are more susceptible to burnout. This study shows that software developers are no exception to that rule.
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How developers perceive and deal with architecture erosion
Let’s talk about architecture erosion, its causes and consequences, and how developers can identify and control it.
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The QAnon conspiracy theory, and how to counter it and others like it
In other news: conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks have reached the legal drinking age in the US today.
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How to make your software engineering job advertisements gender-inclusive
This week’s paper presents a systematic method to detect gender bias in software engineering job advertisements.
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Spicy papers with a grain of salt, tl;dr edition
I spend a lot of time reading papers. I spend even more time summarising them. Now I made oversimplified summaries of those summaries.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Lead poisoning and death in the Roman empire
It’s not clear whether lead poisoning led to the decline of the Roman Empire, but it did lead to the decline of something within the empire.
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Why snake_case is better than camelCase
There aren’t many reasons why you should choose snake_case over camelCase, but the ones that are there are pretty convincing.
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Why camelCase is better than snake_case
Does it matter whether you use camelCase or snake_case for identifiers? Yes it does! Probably. Maybe.
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A checklist for controlled program comprehension experiments
If you want to study the effect of something on the understability of code, you need a controlled experiment. What are things to do or avoid?
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What is the best programming language for beginners?
This study attempts to provide a more nuanced answer than “JavaScript”, from an educator’s perspective.
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The effect of servant leadership on the effectiveness of Scrum teams
To what extent do Scrum masters make use of servant leadership and how does this affect teams?
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Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy survey respondents
Researchers often use financial incentives to increase response rates for their surveys. How well do these work for online surveys?
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Gender stereotypes are steering girls away from STEM
More female role models may help, but they’re merely a part of the solution.
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Is there a time and place for single-letter variable names?
We are often told that variable names should be meaningful and avoid abbreviations, yet some variables are simply named “k”. What gives?