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From the Network
softwareengineering.stackexchange.com

What's a good way to use exceptions in a C++ project?

Only catch an exception if you can use it.

workplace.stackexchange.com

My proposals for introducing a new technology keep getting turned down

"Naval architecture is by nature very conservative. It has to be. Too many lives have been lost due to mistakes in naval architecture."

anime.stackexchange.com

Does this bread exist in real life?

A good reminder that, while bread is nearly universal, its form isn't.

superuser.com

Can you replace several ethernet cables with a single fiber line?

Trick question: you're not using Ethernet.

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time.com

ChatGPT's impact on our brains according to an MIT study

It turns out that suffering really is the root of all wisdom.

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Moonbase Alpha: That time NASA made a meme video game

Did you know that NASA made an MMO and the users turned it into a singing contest?

akdev.blog

How questions build software

We've always known that the best way to learn programming is to ask questions, but it's nice to see other folks get on board.

research.roundtable.ai

Proof of Human. Creating the invisible Turing Test for the Internet

...And you will know us by the trail of erratic mouse movements.

henrikwarne.com

Lessons from nine more years of tricky bugs

It's amazing how many of these bugs are in the "Oops!" category.

suthakamal.substack.com

Revisiting Minsky’s Society of Mind in 2025

A 1986 book from an AI pioneer describes where AI is headed pretty well.

dbreunig.com

The drawbridges go up

Interoperability sounds nice and all, but everybody would rather keep their moats.

charity.wtf

On how long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

Those gut feelings might be the best judge of job fit.

sciencedaily.com

Dancing brainwaves: How sound reshapes your brain networks in real time

Oh good, now all the lifehackers are going to optimize their mixtapes.

tailscale.com

Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure

Unless you have a new phone, your apps may not often need to ask "Who dis?"

baldurbjarnason.com

Trusting your own judgement on ‘AI’ is a huge risk

"It works on my machine" but for your easily fooled brain.

about.gitlab.com

How we decreased GitLab repo backup times from 48 hours to 41 minutes

The great thing about open source is that you can fix your own issues.

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Every week we’ll share a collection of great questions from our community, news and articles from our blog, and awesome links from around the web.

Previous issues Subscribe on Stack Overflow

Issue 285: One query to rule them all

This week, we're thinking about the unsimple things in life. For instance, what are we supposed to do with a "dream machine" when its dreaming turns into hallucinations? How are 256 electrodes placed on the brain able to create perfect speech? Can you replace several cables with a single fiber line and still have internet? Are Ghibli breads real, and if so, where can I get one? You know, just everyday ponderings. XX Over on the pod, Stack Overflow legend Jon Skeet joined us to impart some of the tech wisdom that garnered him a million rep points, including the complexities of timezones (very Y2K problem). Plus, Matt DeBergalis from Apollo GraphQL jumped on to to talk the evolution of API orchestration and what it means for modern development stacks. And if you too are pondering about those peskily unreliable "dream machines," you'll be excited to know there are ways to base those dreams in reality. XX And in a world of unsimple things, we'll leave you with a few overly simplified answers: Is using your brain REALLY better for coding than an LLM? (Yes.) What kind of exception should you be throwing in C++? (Trick question, you shouldn't all the time.) Will T.S. Eliot get me fired from Apple? (Almost.) If you want to know more, the full answers are down below. XX

Issue 284: 98 problems on the wall...

This week, we're focused on problems. Secretly, this is also a solution week, because if we just piled on with new problems, geez, what a bummer email that would be. We all know data is becoming a bigger engineering problem, so the podcast talked to folks at Tobiko Data about how they are improving the data engineering toolbox. For those of you in hardware, you know the troubles that tariffs have caused—our other podcast this week talks to MiniProto, a company doing hardware prototyping in the US. XX AI (thought you'd escape it this week, eh?) claims to be a solution, but it often comes with its own problems. We chatted with Vish Abrams, chief architect at Heroku, about the problems with software that vibe coders aren't thinking about. For those of you adopting AI at work, we review our Leaders of Code conversation with the CTO of Cloudflare to figure out how to overcome AI adoption and implementation problems. XX Okay, enough with the problems already. Time for answers! Why were players singing in a NASA MMO? Whose fault are radio buttons? How can I apply to more jobs, theoretically getting me one job? How can we distinguish these smart robots from people on the internet? FYI, these are questions—answers are in the links.

Issue 283: Knowledge for lurkers

This week, we're thinking about the changes taking place within venerable institutions. We talked with the Chair of the OpenJDK Governing Board, Georges Saab, about what the past five years have meant to a 30-year-old language. The biggie: new releases every six months with whatever's done instead of waiting to shove a massive feature-fest out every few years. Over on the Leaders of Code podcast, our CTO talks with Cloudflare's CTO about how the internet—and their jobs making it a better place—are about to get a little cray-cray in the next few years. XX We're also thinking about how to keep making things better, now and in the future. We've got a round table podcast with Stack Overflow's Trust and Safety team about how they put out dumpster fires that are inevitable in any user community. For those of you in the Zoomer generation (or trying to deal with them spotting bad vibes), we've a fantastic look at how this generation learns differently and how AI fits there. XX Fret not, pretty babies, we have a fat stack of fun facts for you to trot out at the next "Kid from Jerry McGuire look-alike contest." Did you know giant snails could have sieged medieval castles? But did you know Marvin Minsky created a framework for thinking about AI agents in 1986? But, but did you know you can spot a bad workplace pretty fast? Bonus: Yes, Mr. Goodwillie, we have your 1987 letter!

Issue 282: No worries about compute

Before we get into the goodies, please take a look at our Developer Survey for this year (link in the footer). It's an annual tradition that builds on the results of previous years to track the tech, habits, and opinions of software technologists. There's more in there about AI this year, but frankly, there's been more AI this year too, and we want to know if it's becoming a part of your workflow or if it's just another hype cycle. XX Speaking of AI, we've got two conversations about AI and an article about the data behind it. First, we chatted with the DeepMind team about Gemini 2.5, that plucky little GenAI tool that's barnstorming all the leaderboards. On the other hand, we've got a chat with mad scientists chaining together open-source models, compute be damned. If you're in the model training biz, we'd like to talk to you about diversifying your datasets. XX Now for the newsletter equivalent of speed dating. Could Leia have saved all those Bothans from doom? Is your List of Despair really about the list? Could you maybe go a little easier on the reauth? And rewiring your brain with jams, bops, and power ballads.