OLDaily

Principles for Microservice Design: Think IDEALS, Rather than SOLID
Paulo Merson, InfoQ, 2020/09/03

We've previously discussed the trend toward distributed infrastructure based on microservices. This article offers a useful contrast with the previous object oriented (OO) paradigm (and thus, offers a technical-level contrast between learning objects, properly so-called, and next generation learning resources). The big different (if I may interpret loosely) is that in OO the parts combine to create a single unified whole (which is why reuse is some important), while in microservices, the parts are loosely joined and may support multiple services (which is why access is important). The ideal in object oriented program is Single responsibility, Open-closed, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation and Dependency inversion (SOLID). The proposed alternative here is Interface segregation, Deployability, Event-driven, Availability over consistency, Loose coupling, Single responsibility (IDEALS). This article covers each of these items in a lot of detail and is well-worth a read for a good technically-specific overview.

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TikTok creativity
Dave Truss, Daily-Ink, 2020/09/03

Some of the most original online work these days is appearing on TikTok (which probably explains better than 'China' why some people want it shut down, what with its user campaigns and such). This short post links to a few highlights (TikTok is mostly a mobile application, and has recently become more insistent on viewers logging in, but you can still see individual snippets in a browser). Dave Truss comments, "What I find interesting is that much of this original work is inspired by a copy culture… a sharing and expanding of creative ideas. Sometimes this is just blatant copying. Sometimes it’s copying with a very creative adaptation, and sometimes it’s just pure parody for a laugh." Eventually 'creators' will get sensitive about 'ownership' and they'll wreck it. But for now, it's great. Image: TikTok.

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Software company sues UBC employee over tweets involving confidential videos
Keith Fraser, Vancouver Sun, 2020/09/03

This was shared with me over Twitter and is worth passing along. In a nutshell, as the headline says, an exam proctoring company, Proctorio, launched a lawsuit against Ian Linkletter (@Linkletter) (Slides), a learning technology specialist at UBC, for "by posting on Twitter links to seven videos meant only for administrators and instructor," alleging that if the information on videos becomes publicly known, "students could change their behaviour or adopt strategies to circumvent the software, giving them an unfair testing advantage over other students." I don't know what legal leap of logic makes that a basis for a lawsuit, but there it is.

It's not surprising that the plaintiff is Proctorio, because as Linkletter says, the company has been “very litigious” and had been aggressive in taking on critics, something I've seen for myself. In fact, it was Linkletter himself who called out Proctorio's CEO posting a student's tech support chat transcript on a public forum (we covered this here). Proctorio itself has been very unpopular - petitioned against by students at CUNY, campaigned against it by students at McGill, sued (unsuccessfully) by students in Amsterdam, despised by students at UBC, criticized in Australia. More.

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Pleroma and Mastodon on the Raspberry Pi 3
Wim Vanderbauwhede, GitHub, 2020/09/03

The Raspberry Pi is a small cheap computer system that almost everyone can afford for their computer projects (it's the crystal radio of the internet age). Mastodon, as we've discussed previously, is a decentralized version of Twitter - so decentralized you can build one on your Raspberry Pi. Pleroma is a lighter version of Mastodon and recommended for the Raspberry Pi. This website has complete instructions and has the tips you'll really need - for example, how to have an internet address from your home (using freemyip.com) and how to set up secure certificates (using Lets Encrypt). Once you're set up, you can invite your friends to join your own private twitter-style network and connect with other networks (called 'instances', since each one is based on its own instance of Mastodon or Pleroma)..

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Elon Musk shows off a working brain implant — in pigs
Rachel Metz, CNN, 2020/09/03

I've covered this sort of direct computer-to-brain interface from time to time over the years as the technology has become more robust, so I view this as an interation in that process. The reason this particular experiment is attracting such interest is, of course, because it is associated with Elon Musk, who as the BBC notes, has a "habit of making bold declarations about projects that end up taking much longer to complete than planned." Probably the same is true here, but the real take-home should be that this technology is being developed, and that we will evenually have direct brain interfaces to machines, new perceptual systems, and to each other. And yes, 'voice in the head hacking' will be a thing. See also Donald Clark: More important than man on the moon - the melding of mind and machine

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