S8:E8 - Can Open-Source Exist in China, Apple Unveils New Accessibility Features, Salesforce Employees vs. the NRA, and More

This week we’re talking about the recent wave of tech layoffs, and React Eurasia’s controversial decision to locate this year's conference in Dubai. Then we speak with Steven Spohn, senior director of development at The AbleGamers Charity Foundation about Diablo Immortal’s native voice chat transcription and speech-to-text accessibility feature, and where we are in terms of accessible design in the video game industry as a whole. Finally, we speak with Jeri Ellsworth, co-founder and CEO of Tilt Five about what some of the inherent challenges are with creating AR devices that might be making it difficult for both Apple and Google to launch the glasses they’ve been talking about for years. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) React Eurasia's 2022 Location Twitter Announcement The Split-Screen Job Market: Low Unemployment, High Turnover, Plenty Of Openings—And More Layoff Headlines Diablo Immortal will launch with native voice chat transcription and speech-to-text The AbleGamers Charity accessible.games Tilt Five

In this episode, we talk about Salesforce employees calling for an end of the company working with the National Rifle Association. Then we speak with Zeyi Yang, reporter at the MIT Technology Review about a recent piece he wrote titled, "How censoring China’s open-source coders might backfire." Finally, we speak with Sarah Fossheim, independent accessibility engineer and creator and maintainer of the Ethical Design guide, about the new accessibility features Apple is bringing to its products. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) RailsConf 'Unconscionable': Thousands of workers at Salesforce, San Francisco’s biggest employer, demand company stop working with NRA How censoring China’s open-source coders might backfire Apple previews innovative accessibility features combining the power of hardware, software, and machine learning

In this episode, we speak with Tara Robertson, a diversity and inclusion consultant about some of the ways the tech industry has continued to fail when it comes to DEI, which is a topic spurred by a recent piece in the New York Times titled, At Wells Fargo, a Quest to Increase Diversity Leads to Fake Job Interviews. Then we speak with Stefan Marr, researcher and Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent’s School of Computing about Shopify’s investment into Ruby at Scale, and the research he will be doing for them. And finally we speak with Fabio Pliger, Principal Software Architect at Anaconda, Inc. and creator of PyScript about, you guessed it, PyScript! Which was unveiled at PyCon US 2022. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) At Wells Fargo, a Quest to Increase Diversity Leads to Fake Job Interviews The Price of Wells Fargo’s Fake Account Scandal Grows by $3 Billion How to Talk to Your Boss About Race Shopify Invests in Research for Ruby at Scale PyScript: Python in the Browser

This week, we feature one of our favorite episodes of our sister podcast, DevDiscuss, where hosts Ben Halpern and Julianna Tetreault talk about creating beautiful data-driven essays with Michelle McGhee and Russell Goldenberg, Journalist-Engineers at The Pudding. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) OpenAI Svelte The Pudding Polygraph Gabriel Florit - On Responsive Design and Data Visualization Who’s in the Crossword? The Birthday Paradox The Gyllenhaal Experiment Life After Death on Wikipedia We couldn’t get an artificial intelligence program to win the New Yorker Caption Contest Nothing Breaks Like A.I. Heart Human Terrain An Interactive Visualization of Every Line in Hamilton Reconstructing Seven Days of Protests How you play Spades is how you play life D3.js GitHub: The Pudding Datawrapper Flourish The Pudding: Our Resources We investigated 200 crackers to learn about food allergies and labelling. Warning: may contain troubling results

In this episode, we talk about Apple's gatekeeping of web-based AR on the iPhone, a neat feature added to Apple Mail that blocks email tracking, and we say goodbye to the iPod. Then we talk about Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s plan to implement passwordless sign-in on all major platforms with Jackie Singh, former senior incident response and threat analyst at Biden For President, who currently is the director of an anti-surveillance nonprofit, which advocates and litigates against government use of mass surveillance. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) Apple is a massive force in AR. It’s also been holding the technology back Apple Mail Now Blocks Email Tracking. Here’s What It Means for You The music lives on: iPod touch will be available while supplies last Apple, Google, and Microsoft commit to expanded support for FIDO standard to accelerate availability of passwordless sign‑ins

In this episode, we talk about Lego expanding its online ambitions and its plans to triple the number of software engineers on staff. Then we’ll speak with Joseph Menn, author of the book, Cult of the Dead Cow, and technology reporter at The Washington Post, about a piece he wrote titled, “Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all.” Finally, we’ll speak with Jen Caltrider, who leads Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included guide, about their research which found that the vast majority of mental health and prayer apps are severely lacking in privacy protections. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) Lego to expand online ambitions by tripling total of software engineers Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all. Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World *Privacy Not Included: Mental Health Apps

In this episode, we talk about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and the Twitter storm it created, especially amongst Twitter employees. Then we speak with Dipanjan Das, system security researcher at UC Santa Barbara, about various large scale hacks in the blockchain space, and how companies and individuals can better protect themselves in the growing Web3 space. Finally, we speak with senior software engineer and popular Tiktoker feleciaforthewin, about how she experimented with the TikTok algorithm and ended up gaining over 300-thousand followers. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) DevNews S8E1: Coding Under Bombing Elon Musk and Twitter Reach Deal for Sale Understanding Security Issues in the NFT Ecosystem Ethereum-based stablecoin protocol Beanstalk loses about $182 million to exploit US officials link North Korean Lazarus hackers to $625M Axie Infinity crypto theft North Korean hackers who stole $600M from Axie Infinity are still laundering their haul, recently moving $4.5M of ETH, after the US tried to freeze those assets Bored Ape Instagram account hacked: NFTs worth $2.8 million stolen A former software developer gained 245,000 TikTok followers by testing her theories about the app's algorithm feleciaforthewin

In this episode, we talk about how a developer irreversibly lost a community of 54-thousand stars and watchers built up over the past 10 years on GitHub, and how unregulated crypto-mining wrecked the power of an entire New York town. Then we speak with Vidushi Marda, senior program officer at Article 19, where she leads the research and engagement on the human rights implications of machine learning, to get her perspective on the Artificial Intelligence regulations and systems different cities around the world are implementing. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) How we lost 54k GitHub stars How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town Cities Take the Lead in Setting Rules Around How AI Is Used Vidushi Marda: Publications Dutch Comfort: The limits of AI governance through municipal registers Emotional Entanglement: China’s emotion recognition market and its implications for human rights Data in New Delhi’s Predictive Policing System

In this episode, we talk about Elon Musk buying the largest share of Twitter and then flip flopping on being on the board. Then we speak with Alex Lebedev, software engineer at HotJar, about his experience living in Ukraine under the horrific conditions of its war with Russia, and about his blog post titled, “Coding Under Bombing.” Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) Twitter Grapples With an Elon Musk Problem Elon Musk Deletes Tweets Criticizing Twitter After Deciding Against Joining Board Twitter Staff ‘Super Stressed’ Over Musk Board Chaos on Day Off Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal: Elon Musk Decides Not to Take Board Seat Coding Under Bombing: 5 Steps to Be Productive Under Stress National Bank of Ukraine NBU Opens Special Account to Raise Funds for Ukraine’s Armed Forces

In this episode, we talk about various ways in which big tech has lent a hand to Ukraine in their war with Russia. Then we talk about Russian disinformation efforts with Dr. Jeffery Blevins, professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Cincinnati and co-author of the book, Social Media, Social Justice and the Political Economy of Online Networks. Then we talk about leaked IBM documents that show the company’s persistent ageism problem with Peter Gosselin, former investigative reporter at ProPublica who co-penned the piece, Cutting ‘Old Heads’ at IBM. Show Notes DevDiscuss (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) Avalanche (sponsor) Airbnb to Provide Housing for 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees Ukraine Gets $22 Million in Crypto Donations to Fight Invasion Meta rolls out encrypted Instagram DMs in Russia and Ukraine Social Media, Social Justice and the Political Economy of Online Networks Meta, YouTube, and TikTok block Russian state media in Europe Reddit has quarantined r/Russia due to misinformation Cutting 'Old Heads' at IBM Making ‘Dinobabies’ Extinct: IBM’s Push for a Younger Work Force