Daily Tech News 17 November 2021

• I will pay you cash to delete your NPM module. (Drew DeVault)
  
  NPM - the package manager for Node.js, which is the premier server-side solution for JavaScript programmers - is the single worst thing ever created by the human race. It needs to be destroyed before it destroys us.
  
  Case in point: The isArray module, which is four lines of code that checks whether an arbitrary object is an array by converting it to a string and checking the contents of the string gets 51 million downloads per week.
  
  In any real programming language that would get you horsewhipped, if not dipped in honey and staked out on an anthill. In Node.js this is considered best practices.
  
  Drew's solution is to pay people to delete their packages. isArray disappears and millions of apps fail. Repeat a few hundred times - because Node.js developers are fucking idiots and need to be bludgeoned over the head - and they might eventually stop doing this shit.
  
  
  
• Oh, also, anyone could publish anything to NPM. (GitHub)
  
  Wanted to upload your own code and overwrite a popular package with, basically, anything at all? You could.
  
  Because, GitHub helpfully explains, microservices.

• Brave browser now includes a crypto wallet that supports NFTs. (Engadget)
  
  It works with any EVM-compatible blockchain - Ethereum, Polygon, xDAI, and so on, and will soon support Solana.
  
  I've worked with Solana. I'd sooner eat a bowl of cristal rotos rancheros. Their team might be technical geniuses at the pure blockchain stuff but they have the same sense of API design and data presentation as a dead muskrat does of quantum chromodynamics.
  
  
  
• Kioxia - pronounced kosher - has a new lineup of PCIe 4 M.2 2230 SSDs. (AnandTech)
  
  That might not mean much to you, but the new Microsoft Surface Pro range has upgradeable storage, and being compact devices they require compact SSDs - to be specific, M.2 2230.
  
  My Dell Inspiron 16 Plus also has one of these, alongside a full-size M.2 slot.
  
  
  
• Qualcomm claims the transition of PCs to the Arm architecture is inevitable. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Yeah, not if Qualcomm has anything to do with it. Their current solution for Arm-based PCs, the 8cx, was unimpressive when it first appeared three years ago, hasn't been updated since, and won't be until the end of 2023.
  
  
  
• Windows 10 21H2 is here. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Major new features include an end to this bullshit of updating twice a year.
  
  
  
• Australia has prioritised 63 key technologies including quantum and blockchain. (ZDNet)
  
  Other items on the list include electric, build, and number.

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:09 AM

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