Welcome to ISSUE #49 of the Overflow! Seven sevens, quite a lucky set of numbers in many cultures. This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: in space, no one can hear you seg fault, setting a clock made of atoms, and the surprising benefits of Comic Sans.
From the blog
The Loop: Adding review guidance to the help center stackoverflow.blog While working on the review queues project, the Public Platform team saw an opportunity to improve the help center and create a space for more canonical articles about reviewing. By adding new, specific review queue help pages, the help center becomes a more accessible and useful resource to all of our users.
The macro problem with microservices stackoverflow.blog In just 20 years, software engineering has shifted from architecting monoliths with a single database and centralized state to microservices where everything is distributed across multiple containers, servers, data centers, and even continents. Distributing things solves scaling concerns, but introduces a whole new world of problems, many of which were previously solved by monoliths.
Podcast 287: How do you make software reliable enough for space travel? stackoverflow.blog We discuss ten tips for preventing runaway code when a spaceship is on the line.
GitLab or Jenkins: Learn about the difference in this eBook promotion GitLab CI offers a complete DevOps workflow without the headache of managing a complicated plugin ecosystem. Download this free eBook to learn the benefits of GitLab built-in CI compared to Jenkins traditional plugin solution.
Interesting questions
How do we decide when a small sample is statistically significant or not? stats.stackexchange.com Statistics that use ‘per million’ look a little silly when the total population is in the thousands.
How was the first atomic clock calibrated? physics.stackexchange.com Atomic clocks aren’t calibrated to time. Time is calibrated to atomic clocks.
Does the sun’s rising/setting angle change every few months? astronomy.stackexchange.com Your TV has not moved its angle to the sun, but the planet it is sitting on has.
What is the impact of an exposed secret key for a JWT token implementation? security.stackexchange.com Repeat after me: JWT heavily relies on the private key to stay absolutely private.
Links from around the web
Replay replay.js.org If you’re a web developer interested in getting into the gaming space, here’s a game engine inspired by React. Translate those skills!
Firefox 83 introduces HTTPS-only mode blog.mozilla.org Security on the web gets another win with Firefox’s new HTTPS-only mode. This mode asks for your permission before it loads any and all non-HTTP resources. It’s a good tool if you are auditing your own applications, as well.
What’s wrong with Comic Sans? www.thecut.com You love to hate it, but Comic Sans is here to stay. What many folks don’t realize is just how readable it is!
Container orchestration tools explained dev.to What are containers? Why do we need them? How do we orchestrate them? Get the basics and more with this solid overview.