Four short links: 7 July 2017
Nanotube Computing, Civil Service Code, Ghastly Management, and Eminence-Induced Warpage
- Carbon Nanotube Computing — The new 3D architecture is based on novel devices including two million carbon nanotube transistors and over one million resistive RAM cells, all built on top of a layer of silicon using existing fabrication methods and connected by densely packed metal wiring between the layers. As a demonstration, the team built an electronic nose that can sense and identify several common vapors, including lemon juice, rubbing alcohol, vodka, wine, and beer.
- Why I’m Leaving 18F — 18F (and the larger service we created for it and its sibling organizations, the Technology Transformation Service), is being reorganized via administrative order into the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service. […] We were subsequently told that the new Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service would suddenly and immediately become a political position, with a person appointed directly by the White House. In a single day, the White House took direct control of two of the most important shared service organizations in government.
- Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub — For my first few pull requests, I was getting feedback from literally dozens of engineers (all of whom were male) on other teams, nitpicking the code I had written. One PR actually had over 200 comments from 24 different individuals. It got to the point where the VP of engineering had to intervene to get people to back off. From there to an HR-orchestrated firing, in a year (via a pile of undercutting nonsense). Grim, and a textbook lesson in how not to treat your employees and coworkers. Our industry needs an enema.
- Our Obsession With Eminence Warps Research (Nature) — cf “10x engineers.”
