Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Europe's Cloud Conundrum: A Path to Self-Reliance

2025-03-18

Europe's reliance on American cloud services leaves it vulnerable. Market forces haven't delivered a viable European alternative, and businesses are hesitant to adopt unproven solutions. This article advocates for industrial policy: targeted government procurement, strategic subsidies, and leveraging open-source collaboration to build a sovereign cloud ecosystem. Success hinges on governments developing deep industry knowledge, learning from past large-scale project failures, and fostering homegrown talent to achieve cloud independence.

(berthub.eu)

Tech Industrial Policy

Europe's Digital Sovereignty: Stop Relying on American Clouds!

2025-02-23

The transfer of European societies and governments to American clouds is madness. The author argues this is not only risky given US government policy shifts, but the legal justifications are invalidated by Trump's actions. This reliance stems from convenience, but sacrificing digital sovereignty for ease is dangerous. The article urges Europe to break free from US tech dependence, support homegrown software, and invest in alternatives to ensure digital sovereignty and national security. The convenience of American software shouldn't outweigh the risks of total dependence.

(berthub.eu)

Tech digital sovereignty US tech dependence

Microsoft's Security Scanners Break Single-Use Links: A Shifting Cyber Norm

2025-01-23

Bert Hubert reveals that Microsoft and other email security scanners are visiting links in emails and executing JavaScript, including sending POST requests. This violates the long-standing norm that POST requests shouldn't have side effects, breaking single-use login links. The article discusses the impact on web development and calls for greater transparency from large tech companies when changing internet norms.

(berthub.eu)

Development Single-use links

The Surprising Struggle with UTC Time Strings in C/C++

2025-01-19

This article delves into the complexities of converting UTC time strings to Unix timestamps in C/C++. The author uncovers unexpected behaviors in POSIX time handling functions across various C libraries and languages. The focus is on using `strptime()`, `mktime()`, and `timegm()`, highlighting issues with daylight saving time and locales. Solutions are provided, including using `timegm()` for UTC times and leveraging C++ streams to bypass locale problems. The article concludes by recommending more robust time handling libraries available in C++20 and later, such as Howard Hinnant's tz library.

(berthub.eu)

Development

Lessons Learned in Long-Term Software Development

2024-12-22

This article summarizes lessons learned in long-term software development, emphasizing the importance of keeping code simple, carefully choosing dependencies, thorough testing, and strong teamwork. Drawing on interactions with Mastodon users and experiences at the Dutch Electoral Board, the author highlights the significant risks of excessive dependencies, complex code, and frequent team turnover in long-term projects. He advises developers to periodically review dependencies, write extensive test cases, and meticulously document code philosophy and design decisions to address the challenges of long-term maintenance and technological change. The article also underscores the benefits of open source and the importance of simple code, cautioning developers against blindly chasing new technologies and opting instead for time-tested solutions.

(berthub.eu)

Development dependency management code simplicity