DPL Reading List – November 11, 2016

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.

What Last Week’s Internet Shut Down Really Means (Thanks to Cat Nyberg for recommending this article) – “While we’re patching those insecure home DVRs, routers, and webcams, let’s back up and talk about the implications of IoT for public values generally. Because it’s not just websites that could be affected by unrestrained Internet of Things deployments. We’re not just using IoT in our homes. We’re also going to be using it, in a big way, in the places where 80 percent of Americans live, work, and play: in cities.”

Google’s Chrome Hackers Are About to Upend Your Idea of Web Security – “The team, however, is taking a carrot-and-stick approach: Punishing laggards with its revamped security warnings while also working to make HTTPS easier to adopt. It’s created tools for assessing the components of an HTTPS site, digging up and explaining to developers the flaws that trigger Chrome’s warnings.”

Ways to Make a UI Accessible—Part I (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “This follows on from my Let’s Try Harder With Web Accessibility article and will focus on practical tips you can apply in an effort to make your UI more accessible.”

The Secret Algorithm Behind Learning – “The famous Nobel winning physicist Richard Feynman understood the difference between “knowing something” and “knowing the name of something” and it’s one of the most important reasons for his success.”

The Inevitability of Being Hacked – “All the same, the vastness of the internet can no longer protect us. I can’t count the number of sloppy things I’ve done, security-wise, because I thought I was small enough to escape notice—reused passwords, put private keys in code, left servers open to the world. Nowadays, even the most obscure among us can be found by a roving script, and in a startlingly small amount of time.”

How to Nudge Your Customers Without Pushing Them Away (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “Designing decisions in a way that nudges but does not force consumers to make better choices offers a way to alleviate many of society’s problems. Defaults are one way to nudge consumers. They can automatically enroll people in a designated option unless someone makes an active decision to opt out, or they can nudge people away from an option by requiring them to actively opt in. They work because of people’s well-established bias for choosing default options.”

Status meetings are the scourge (Thanks to Cassey Lottman for recommending this article) – “When something’s written up, people can absorb it on their own time when they have the time. It’s even better for remote teams where timezones don’t overlap. Asynchronous communication like this is the secret to being efficient in groups. Real-time is not. Real-time encourages distraction, asynchronous encourages focus.”