The term Web 3.0 is being thrown around a lot, not just those in the crypto sphere, but investors and everyday folk are starting to talk about it. You know, when your Uber driver or barber is talking about Web 3.0, it has permeated the fabric of society. People have differing opinions on Web 3.0, what it will do for the web, how it will change everything. There seems to be an aura of excitement around Web 3.0, with a hint of ambiguity.
I think it has become abundantly clear that Node.js and how it deals with dependencies is flawed and has become a total liability now. Npm has become the bank vault of the web. On October 22, 2021, a popular Npm package was hijacked and exposed to anyone who downloaded it to a password harvester and cryptocurrency miner for 4 hours. This package is called UA-Parser.js. There is a good chance you might not have even heard of this. However, this package is downloaded almost 8 million times per week. Allegedly some large companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google are using this package.
Does anyone else remember offices? You know, those places you spent upwards of an hour commuting to in standstill traffic or overcrowded expensive public transportation? Shoulder to shoulder, bumper to bumper. Those places where sick coworkers would come into the office and kindly spread their sickness? Despite the pandemic destroying livelihoods, causing widespread mental health issues and changing the way we live, some good has come of the pandemic. The death of the office. The first casualty of the pandemic wasn’t the supply chain. It was the office. As COVID-19 spread, countries began to lock themselves down. People were encouraged to stay home, to only move for essential purposes. As a result, many companies shut their offices down and let their employees work from home.
After weeks of speculation in what has been the worse kept secret, Facebook has announced that it is changing its name to Meta. When they say name change, they, of course, are referring to the corporate umbrella that is the company, not the facebook.com social network. The move is akin to Google rebranding to Alphabet and other companies like BP renaming to Beyond Petroleum. Except, in the case of Google, they didn’t rebrand to escape controversy like Facebook, BP and Phillip Morris have done.
In the world of software and web development, you might have heard of the term 10x engineer. It’s a term that refers to a person who can increase productivity and get work done faster on a team than other developers. It’s a term people often misuse to describe a team member who can do the work of ten people or work ten times faster. In other words, someone with a rare set of skills and talents makes them more productive and makes them far more valuable to their employer.
The world might be attempting to get back to normal under the “new normal” label, but supply chains are still absolutely busted. As we head towards Christmas 2021, things show no sign of going back to normal in the world of logistics and supply chains. Postal service providers like USPS and Australia post are struggling to deal with the large volumes of mail. USPS temporarily suspended postage to 21 countries, including Australia.
If you thought the CD Projekt Red leak of Cyberpunk 2077 and other source code was bad, get a load of this latest leak. Twitch just got hacked entirely, and the entirety of its source code, internal repositories, financial payout information and absolutely everything you can think of has been taken and put online in a 128GB torrent over on 4chan. The anonymous individual or group says, “we have completely pwned them,” and let’s be honest, they’ve well and truly pwned Twitch here. What a massive leak. Some heads are going to roll over in the IT department over this. I am curious how this even happened.
Some of you already know my stance on remote work vs the office. As the pandemic rages on, the world is trying to return to a sense of normality. Name a company that went out of business because its employees had to work remotely. Productivity of employees can be measured in output, not bums in seats in an office. As you’ll soon learn, remote work is no longer a Silicon Valley startup perk to attract talent. It’s now expected by many.
A few short years ago, Quora was the darling of the tech world. A place where you could ask questions and get answers from people at the top in their chosen field. CEO’s, leaders, heavy hitters. The fun part of Quora was how accessible skilled experts were, who would otherwise not be easy to reach. You could ask pilots questions about flying. You could ask police officers about their job. I mean, even astronauts were answering questions on Quora.
Despite having had my Switch since 2017, I am still in love with the console. After a busy life and kids made my Playstation 4 obsolete because it was constantly downloading some massive patch, the instant-on nature of the Nintendo Switch appealed to me. Sure, the Switch is a little rough around the edges, and the screen isn’t the prettiest thing to look at, but it still looks good and performs well.