An oral history of Bank Python

The tale of a single register value

Misspecification: The Blind Spot of Formal Verification

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Hey Hope you have a fantastic weekend, here's the last issue of the week! ==================================================================== An oral history of Bank Python Published: 3 November 2021 Tags: python The finance sector, not much unlike the tech sector, has to deal with its own set of unique challenges. In this illuminating article, Cal Paterson presents "proprietary forks of the entire Python ecosystem which are in use at many (but not all) of the biggest investment banks", the collection of which he refers to as "Minerva". ==================================================================== The tale of a single register value Published: 3 November 2021 Tags: networking Software debugging makes me feel a lot like a detective piecing together clues to reproduce the set of events that led to a specific error. Well Jakub Sitnicki's article is a tribute to such sleuthing. In it, Jakub uncovers the secrets of a bug so heinous, network admins have been known to wake up at night in cold sweats at a mere hint of its occurence; "a software bug where the network stack crashes in reaction to a single received network packet, taking down the whole operating system with it". ==================================================================== Misspecification: The Blind Spot of Formal Verification Published: 6 October 2021 Tags: philosophy As humans, we're subject to believing in what people we admire or respect say, often times without taking a second to double check if said statement is true or "correct". This assumption of truth doesn't only extend to people. In this appeal-to-reason article, Alex Weisberger discusses and presents examples of how "this progam was formally verified, so please stop asking me if there are any bugs" doesn't really mean much when the initial specifications were wrong. Want to help? Thank you for reading! If you enjoy the newsletter, I would really appreciate you helping me spread the word by forwarding this to your friends and colleagues! If you want to discuss or comment on this issue, head on over to this page at A Byte of Coding. You can also subscribe there if you're new! Have comments or feedback? Just reply to this email or hit me up on Twitter @AByteOfCoding. Email landed in your promotions tab? Please move it over to primary so you don't miss the latest issues in the future. Thanks for your Support!  Thanks to sponsors and supporters like Євген Грицай, Scott Munro, zturak, pek, Emil Hannesbo, and Joe Hill this newsletter is provided to you for free. If you'd like to also show your support and buy me a monthly meal, you can donate on the Patreon page. It's not necessary, but it lets me know that I'm doing a good job and that you're finding value in the content.

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