News Aggregator

Demystifying APIs for Product Managers

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 20:12:36

As technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, product managers find themselves at the intersection of innovation and user experience. One key area that has become integral to the success of modern products is Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In this article, we'll embark on a journey to demystify APIs for product managers, starting with the foundational concepts. Understanding the Basics What Is an API? At its core, an API, or Application Programming Interface, acts as a bridge that allows different software systems to communicate with each other. Think of it as a set of rules that enables applications to understand how to interact. APIs can be likened to a waiter in a restaurant, facilitating communication between the customer (client) and the kitchen (server).

Send Time Optimization

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 19:42:35

Did you know that email Send Time Optimization (STO) can improve the open rate by up to 93%? Awesome! Or it might only be 10%. A slightly more credible case study claims that message delivery at the right time resulted in an open rate of 55%, a click rate of 30%, and a conversion rate of 13%. I’ll take that increase any day if there’s a positive ROI. Optimization can be applied to any number of problems. It can be applied equally to content, where it may be to the customer’s benefit, as it can be applied to price, where optimization can deliver the maximum possible price for merchants.

DevOps Service Providers Facilitating ISO 27001 and GDPR Compliance for Organizations

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 18:42:35

A DevOps service company can play a crucial role in assisting organizations with meeting ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance requirements by integrating security and compliance into their DevOps workflows. Such a provider can help with ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance in the following ways: Incorporate security from the start: Integrate security considerations into the development and deployment pipeline from the beginning. This includes code reviews, static and dynamic code analysis, and security testing at different stages of the software development life cycle. Constant monitoring and automated compliance checks: Put in place continuous monitoring and alert systems to identify security incidents and vulnerabilities in real-time. This guarantees quick responses to potential threats or breaches, which is vital for GDPR compliance. Automate compliance checks and tests to guarantee applications and infrastructure configurations satisfy ISO 27001 and GDPR requirements. This can involve automated checks for data protection, access controls, and encryption. Infrastructure as Code (IaC), version control, and audit trail: Utilize Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate the provisioning and configuration of infrastructure, which assists in consistently building systems that comply with security and compliance requirements. Implement version control for configurations, policies, and access controls. Maintain a thorough audit trail that records all changes, simplifying and demonstrating compliance during audits. Consider a fast-growing, medium-sized e-commerce company that has adopted DevOps practices to manage its infrastructure. To achieve ISO 27001 compliance, they must ensure the security and proper setup of their infrastructure.

Lessons From a Six-Month Job Search

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 18:42:35

Now that I’m free to share the news that I’ve landed at Kentik — a visionary company filled by an amazing group of folks who believe that the value of their team goes far beyond what they might offer to the business — I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my job search, comment on the state of the job market, and share some lessons I’ve picked up along the way. Let me be clear — I’m under no illusion that the world has breathlessly awaited the thoughts of a middle-aged white dude and will now, graced with my heretofore-undiscovered wisdom, be a truly better place. People with far more knowledge, experience, and expertise have written and spoken on this topic, with data and examples that are far more eloquent and compelling than anything I could hope to share.

Enable Hidden Fields of SAP BW DataSource

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 18:42:35

Fields Hidden by SAP in Standard BW Data Sources Many times, we would have observed that there are a few fields present in the extract structure of the data source but are not available in RSA6 or the data source that is replicated in BW. This blog talks about all the steps as to how we can enable fields present in the extract structure of the data source, make them visible in RSA3, and fetch the data in BW.

Data Ingestion for Batch/Near Real-Time Analytics

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 18:12:35

In the midst of our ever-expanding digital landscape, data management undergoes a metamorphic role as the custodian of the digital realm, responsible for the ingestion, storage, and comprehension of the immense volumes of information generated daily. At a broad level, data management workflows encompass the following phases, which are integral to ensuring the reliability, completeness, accuracy, and legitimacy of the insights (data) derived for business decisions. Data identification: Identifying the required data elements to achieve the defined objective. Data ingestion: Ingest the data elements into a temporary or permanent storage for analysis. Data cleaning and validation: Clean the data and validate the values for accuracy. Data transformation and exploration: Transform, explore, and analyze the data to arrive at the aggregates or infer insights. Visualization: Apply business intelligence over the explored data to arrive at insights that complement the defined objective. Within these stages, Data Ingestion acts as the guardian of the data realm, ensuring accurate and efficient entry of the right data into the system. It involves collecting targeted data, simplifying structures if they are complex, adapting to changes in the data structure, and scaling out to accommodate the increasing data volume, making the data interpretable for subsequent phases. This article will specifically concentrate on large-scale Data Ingestion tailored for both batch and near real-time analytics requirements.

Monitoring and Logging in Cloud Architecture With Python

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 18:12:35

Logging and monitoring are tools crucial for maintaining your infrastructure’s health. While log data offers valuable insights into the inner processes of applications and databases, error monitoring further intensifies it by addressing vulnerabilities. Integrating both ensures a seamless user experience. Further points of usefulness include: Enhanced Traceability: Logging records every activity and enables traceability of actions, thereby making the system more secure and able to detect any unauthorized accesses. Proactive Problem Detection: Monitoring and alerting allow for early detection and intervention, ensuring uninterrupted service. Compliance and Auditing: In regulated industries, logging facilitates compliance with mandated standards, ensuring readiness for reviews. Automated Responses: Coupled with monitoring, alerting can trigger automatic corrective actions, thereby ensuring system resilience. Over that, logging and monitoring through cloud architecture is crucial since it enables optimal performance and rapid issue resolution. With Python, a language best known for its versatility and simplicity, interfacing with cloud architectures becomes even more seamless. This article delves into the synergy between Python and cloud platforms, which creates the possibility of easier development of more transparent applications.

Crafting Effective Test Cases: A Journey Through Techniques, Challenges, and Solutions

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 17:42:35

In the ever-evolving landscape of software testing, the importance of well-crafted test cases cannot be overstated. They are the building blocks of effective testing, guiding us through the intricate maze of software functionality. Join me on a journey as we explore various test case design techniques, uncover challenges faced, and discover practical solutions, all enriched with personal experiences. The Foundation: Understanding Test Cases Before delving into test case design techniques, let's establish a solid foundation. What exactly are test cases, and why are they crucial in the world of software testing?

Real-Time Remediation Solutions in Device Management Using Azure IoT Hub

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 17:42:35

In today's world, automated compliance and remediation have become essential components of device management solutions for an IT administrator. The ever-increasing complexity and scale of IT systems, coupled with stringent regulatory and security requirements, demand a proactive approach to maintain compliance. Automated systems enable real-time monitoring and continuous checks to ensure adherence to security protocols, industry standards, and internal policies. Automated remediation needs to be near real-time to address incidents, security threats, or non-compliance, preventing potential disruptions to operations and customer experiences. For near-real-time data transfer from the cloud to devices, establishing a bidirectional or duplex connection is commonly required. By utilizing MQTT, devices can efficiently publish and subscribe to messages through the cloud, enabling instantaneous data transfer. The MQTT protocol's two-way communication allows devices to receive information and updates from the cloud instantly, ensuring prompt responsiveness and streamlined data exchange for enhanced IoT operations.

Fluent Interface Design Pattern in Automation Testing

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 16:57:35

Recently, I was going through some of the design patterns in Java by reading the book Head First Design Patterns by Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson, Bert Bates, and Kathy Sierra. It is an awesome book with lots of knowledge about multiple design patterns in Java.

Best Practices for Multi-Module Projects With Spring Boot

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 15:42:35

Most applications in the real world will accumulate a large amount of features and code in the long run. Multi-module projects are a good approach to structuring the application without having to go down the complex path of microservices. The following five tips can help to better organize such Spring Boot projects in the long run. #1 Find a Proper Module Structure In general, the use of two modules, "base" and "web," is a good starting point for Spring Boot applications. The "base" module describes the basic setup, for example, database settings, and provides utility classes. Standards defined here then apply to all further modules. In "web," all modules are combined, and the executable application is built — our executable "fat jar."

A Deep Dive Into Different Types of Caching in Presto

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 15:12:35

Presto is a popular, open-source, distributed SQL engine that enables organizations to run interactive analytic queries on multiple data sources at a large scale. Caching is a typical optimization technique for improving Presto query performance. It provides significant performance and efficiency improvements for Presto platforms. Caching avoids expensive disk or network trips to refetch data by storing frequently accessed data in memory or on fast local storage, speeding up overall query execution. In this article, we provide a deep dive into Presto’s caching mechanisms and how you can use them to boost query speeds and reduce costs.

How To Deploy Llama2 on AWS With Walrus in Minutes

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 14:42:35

In the realm of artificial intelligence, the advent of large language models has been nothing short of a revolution. Models like GPT-4 and, more recently, Llama2, have ushered in a new era of natural language understanding and generation. However, while the development and training of these models mark significant milestones, their true value is unlocked only when they are effectively deployed and integrated into practical use cases.

Power BI Dashboards: Your Guide to Data Analysis and Visualization

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 14:42:35

As per the latest estimate, companies create 328.77 terabytes of data every day globally. This massive amount makes it increasingly difficult for companies to get valuable insights. Here, Power BI lends a helping hand through effective data visualization. In this post, we will dig deep into the world of data visualizations with Power BI dashboard examples. Let’s start with introducing a robust data visualization tool, Power BI. What Is a Power BI Dashboard? A Power BI dashboard is a powerful and interactive tool for data visualization within the Microsoft Power BI platform. It is designed to provide users with a consolidated view of critical data points and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) from different sources. Power BI dashboards are highly customizable, and they have visually appealing interfaces. Users can monitor, analyze, and share useful data insights in real-time with the help of a Power BI dashboard.

JavaScript Naming Conventions Are Important

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 13:57:36

It is no secret that developers have to ponder over numerous everyday tasks. Part of their thoughts is always dedicated to various routine matters, such as "In which module should I place this function?", "How should I name this variable?", or "What should this variable do?". Despite these questions appearing simple and trivial, they consistently consume mental resources. However, if there are ways to simplify this process by automating some routine tasks, thereby focusing attention on more critical matters, it undoubtedly makes sense to take advantage of them. In this context, naming conventions play a crucial role. Acquiring knowledge and employing these conventions judiciously contribute to enhanced code readability, simplifying comprehension, and reducing the developer's cognitive load. However, not all developers are aware of, and sometimes forget, how to correctly apply these conventions, mindlessly diverting their attention to seemingly more critical matters. This, in turn, complicates the readability and understanding of their code, making ostensibly "more critical" tasks more intricate than they could actually be.

Azure Durable Functions: Fan-Out/Fan-In Pattern

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 13:42:35

When working with Azure Functions, one common scenario is importing a file for processing. In our specific case, we encounter an Excel file with thousands of lines that need to be processed, checking the accuracy of values using multiple rules and data sources, followed by sending out notifications. Initially, with a small number of lines, the processing time was acceptable. However, as the size of the Excel file grew, reaching tens of thousands of lines, the processing time became unbearable. In order to overcome this challenge, we will explore the capabilities of Durable Functions and leverage their power to address this issue effectively. Fan-Out/Fan-In Pattern The “fan-out/fan-in” pattern is a technique used to parallelize and consolidate the execution of multiple tasks. During the fan-out phase, tasks are initiated in parallel to perform different activities concurrently. Then, during the fan-in phase, the function waits for all the parallel tasks to complete and combines their results. This pattern allows for efficient parallel execution, reduces processing time, and enables the consolidation of data or results obtained from parallel tasks. It is a scalable approach that maximizes resource utilization and enhances the overall efficiency of Durable Azure Functions.

Unveiling the Magic of AWS CloudFormation Templates

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 13:12:35

In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become an essential tool for managing cloud resources efficiently. AWS CloudFormation, a service offered by Amazon Web Services, simplifies the provisioning and management of AWS infrastructure through templated code, enabling you to build, update, and delete resources with ease. In this blog, we'll dive deep into CloudFormation templates, exploring their power, flexibility, and how they can help you orchestrate your cloud infrastructure like a magician wielding spells. The Art of Infrastructure as Code Before we delve into CloudFormation, let's discuss the broader concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC). IaC is a methodology that treats infrastructure provisioning and management as code. Instead of manually configuring resources, you define your infrastructure using code, making it version-controlled, repeatable, and highly adaptable. This approach has revolutionized the way we work with cloud resources and helps us avoid common configuration errors and inconsistencies.

Amazon Web Services (AWS): Revolutionizing Cloud Computing and Transforming Businesses

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 13:12:35

In today’s digital era, cloud computing has emerged as a transformative technology, enabling businesses to scale rapidly, innovate, and drive cost efficiencies. Among the pioneers in this field is Amazon Web Services (AWS), a comprehensive cloud platform offering a vast array of services. With its robust infrastructure, scalable solutions, and global reach, AWS has revolutionized the way organizations manage their IT operations. This article delves into the world of AWS, exploring its evolution, key offerings, benefits, and its impact on businesses across industries.

Be a Better Team Player

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 12:42:35

API development is a big part of what I love about software. Whether it’s building integrations or crafting APIs for decoupled web applications, it’s usually just me and the code. Most of the time, I work as a solo API developer. Going solo has its perks: fast decisions and full control. But it's a double-edged sword since keeping everything in my head makes handoffs and delegation tricky. And going solo limits the size and complexity of projects I can work on. After all, I am just one person.

Serial GC Tuning

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 12:12:35

Tailored for simplicity and effectiveness, the Serial GC operates with a single-threaded approach, making it particularly relevant for smaller-scale applications and scenarios where stringent latency requirements aren’t the primary concern. In this post, we will explore techniques to tune Serial GC for enhanced performance specifically. However, if you want to learn more basics, you may watch this Garbage Collection tuning talk delivered at the JAX London conference. How To Enable Serial GC You can enable the Serial Garbage Collector in your Java application by adding the following JVM argument when launching your application:

Escaping the Feature Factory

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 11:57:35

TL; Dr: Escaping the Feature Factory — Refocussing From Output to Outcome The feature factory fate is not inevitable; there is hope to avoid becoming a mere cog in the machinery. Learn how! In many large organizations, Scrum teams fall into the ‘feature factory’ trap, focusing more on churning out features than creating real value. It’s too bad that this shift undermines Agile principles and hampers long-term success and innovation. Let’s discuss how and why this happens and what we can do to break the chains of the feature factory.

A Guide to Prometheus Exporters: Techniques and Best Practices

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 11:42:35

If you’re into monitoring, Prometheus is probably an essential part of your stack. Thanks to its expressive query language (PromQL), scalability, and configurable data format, it remains one of the most popular tools for data collection. Paired with Prometheus exporters, the tool can adapt to a variety of surroundings, which is one of its strongest points. With the help of exporters, Prometheus can provide insightful data and effectively monitor a variety of services, including databases, web servers, and custom-made applications.

Exploring the OpenTelemetry Collector

Aggregated on: 2023-11-21 11:12:35

The OpenTelemetry Collector sits at the center of the OpenTelemetry architecture but is unrelated to the W3C Trace Context. In my tracing demo, I use Jaeger instead of the Collector. Yet, it's ubiquitous, as in every OpenTelemetry-related post. I wanted to explore it further. In this post, I explore the different aspects of the Collector:

Getting Started With Jenkins

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 20:57:35

Jenkins has been a staple in software automation for over a decade due largely to its feature-rich tooling and adaptability. While many impressive alternatives have entered the space, Jenkins remains one of the vanguards. Despite its success, Jenkins can have a significant learning curve, and jumping into the vast world of Jenkins plugins and features can quickly become overwhelming. In this article, we will break down that complexity by first understanding the fundamentals and concepts that underpin Jenkins. With that foundation, we will learn how to create a simple pipeline in Jenkins to build and test an application. Lastly, we will look at how to advance this simple example into a more complex project and explore some alternatives to Jenkins.

Scaling SRE Teams

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 19:57:35

This is an article from DZone's 2023 Observability and Application Performance Trend Report.For more: Read the Report From cultural and structural challenges within an organization to balancing daily work and dividing it between teams and individuals, scaling teams of site reliability engineers (SREs) comes with many challenges. However, fostering a resilient site reliability engineering (SRE) culture can facilitate the gradual and sustainable growth of an SRE team. In this article, we explore the challenges of scaling and review a successful scaling framework. This framework is suitable for guiding emerging teams and startups as they cultivate an evolving SRE culture, as well as for established companies with firmly entrenched SRE cultures.

Unveiling the Power of Six Sigma: Exploring the Process and its Belts

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 18:42:35

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, organizations strive to optimize their processes, reduce waste, and enhance quality. Six Sigma has emerged as a powerful methodology to achieve these goals. By emphasizing data-driven decision-making, process improvement, and statistical analysis, Six Sigma has transformed countless companies across industries. At the heart of this methodology lie the Six Sigma process and its accompanying belts, each representing a level of expertise and responsibility. In this article, we will delve into the Six Sigma process and explore the different belts that guide its implementation.

CI/CD Software Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 17:57:35

Nowadays in the agile way of the software development lifecycle, continuous integration and continuous delivery enable software delivery workflows to include multiple teams and functions spanning over development, assurance, operations, and security. What Are Software Design Patterns? Software design patterns are best practices that are followed in order to resolve common problems in development. By following software patterns, a development team can follow the same practices to deliver, build, and deploy code in a much more efficient and systematic way. Software design anti-patterns are the malpractices that can cause harm in the way software development is being done.

Exploring Slowly Changing Dimensions in Data Warehousing

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 17:57:35

In the field of data management, the ability to effectively organize, store, and analyze information is crucial for businesses to make informed decisions. At the core of this practice lies data warehousing, a pivotal component for enterprises aiming to extract valuable insights from vast pools of data. A data warehouse acts as a central repository where data from various sources is consolidated, transformed, and made available for analysis and reporting. This process is not just about storing massive amounts of data; it's about structuring it in a way that makes it easily accessible and meaningful for business intelligence. What Are Dimensions? One of the key concepts in data warehousing is the idea of dimensions. Dimensions are the descriptive attributes (like time, geography, products, etc.) that provide context to numerical (facts) measures (like sales, costs, etc.) in a data warehouse.

Big Data Empowers IoT: Challenges and Solutions

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 17:12:35

In the dynamic landscape of the Internet of Things (IoT), the convergence of Big Data and IoT software is both a boon and a puzzle for developers. The promise of harnessing vast volumes of real-time data from IoT devices to drive intelligent decision-making is enticing, but it comes with its share of complexities. Challenges such as managing data volume, ensuring quality and reliability, handling complexity, operating in distributed environments, and maintaining robust security demand innovative solutions. Fortunately, Big Data tools and technologies offer a lifeline, empowering developers to conquer these challenges and unlock the transformative potential of IoT applications. Challenges and Solutions in Integrating Big Data with IoT Software Integrating Big Data with IoT software offers immense potential, but it also comes with its set of challenges. Here, we'll discuss some of the key challenges and how Big Data tools and technologies can provide solutions.

A Product-Management Approach to Platform Engineering

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 16:42:35

There’s no shortage of research or online material about the software delivery lifecycle. And yet, only now have we begun looking at how to make the SDLC simpler and more productive for developers, using platform engineering and an Internal Developer Portal. To understand what developers need and to deliver the right developer portal for them, we need a product mindset, beginning with an understanding of the different personas using the platform. This blog post is based on a webinar with Kostis Kapelonis from CodeFresh, which you can view here.

Performance Optimization in ETL Processes

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 16:12:35

ETL—Extract, Transform, Load—is far more than a set of operations; it's a complex dance that transforms raw data into valuable insights, serving as the critical backbone for a range of applications, from data analytics and business intelligence to real-time decision-making platforms. As we continue to transition into an era where data is not just an asset but the currency of the digital age, the pressures on ETL processes have increased exponentially. We're not merely dealing with more data; we're also confronting a dramatic uptick in complexity and velocity. What makes ETL performance such an imperative? It’s a multidimensional answer that goes beyond speed. Speed is certainly a factor, but it's also about resource optimization and cost efficiency. With cloud computing changing the cost dynamics and data volumes, pushing the boundaries of existing infrastructures, the agility of ETL processes is becoming a significant determinant of operational success. The costs of inefficient ETL can be debilitating, manifesting as longer lead times for analytics, increased operational costs, and missed opportunities for real-time insights.

Distributed Cloud Architecture for Resilient Systems

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:57:35

This is an article from DZone's 2023 Observability and Application Performance Trend Report.For more: Read the Report Employing cloud services can incur a great deal of risk if not planned and designed correctly. In fact, this is really no different than the challenges that are inherit within a single on-premises data center implementation. Power outages and network issues are common examples of challenges that can put your service — and your business — at risk.

How To Understand and Choose Your First EC2 Instance on AWS

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:42:35

EC2 instances on AWS are virtual servers that can be used to run applications and services on the AWS cloud. They are characterized by resources such as CPU, RAM, storage capacity, or even bandwidth. Before you even begin exploring the different AWS EC2 instances, it is necessary to know your needs and your use cases. You will, therefore, first need to know your applications well and what configurations are necessary to make them work.

How To Deal With AWS’s Ban on Reserved Instances Resale

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:42:35

You’ve probably heard that AWS is no longer allowing its customers to resell Reserved Instances starting January 15, 2024. If you’ve been reselling unused RI capacity directly on the Marketplace or via a third-party provider, this is no longer an option. Keep reading to learn more about the ban and find a way out. Quick Summary of AWS’s Ban on RI Resale AWS will prohibit the resale of Reserved Instances (RIs) acquired at a discount on the Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance Marketplace as of January 15, 2024. This is due to Section 5.5 of the AWS service agreements, which prohibits the sale of discounted RIs.

Legacy App Migration: How Discovery Phase Speeds up Project Delivery

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:42:35

In my previous article, I have already told you about statistics of successful legacy app modernization cases and reasons for failures. It is time to open one more cause that makes companies disappointed in application migration projects, postpone them, or stop halfway. From my up to twenty-year experience, superficial or improper Discovery phases can significantly harm the delivery and trust between a client and their technology partner. Why It Can Be Fatal for a Project By trying to shorten or simplify the discovery stage, companies get the opposite: missed deadlines, delays, and arguments with contractors.

A/B Testing: A Comprehensive Guide With Examples

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:12:35

A/B testing involves comparing two versions of a website or app against each other to determine which performs best. In this experiment, two or more variants of the same page are shown randomly to users, and statistical analysis determines which variation performs best. There are a lot of businesses today that are unhappy with the unqualified leads they get per month. E-commerce stores are struggling with a high cart abandonment rate. The media and publishing houses are also dealing with low customer engagement. Conversion metrics have impacted the overall business growth of different industries.

Enriching IT Asset Management Process With Application Integrations

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 15:12:35

IT asset management is the process of maintaining the life cycle of IT assets in an organization. IT assets include hardware, software, cloud, and information resources that are valuable to the organization. It supports IT service management and ITIL best practices by providing a single source of truth for IT assets. An effective IT Asset Management system with inventory management and cost optimization is required in a business to have a better employee experience. This will enhance employee onboarding and offboarding processes in an organization. Researchers found that employees stay longer in companies that provide a better onboarding experience. On the other hand, if the offboarding process is not efficient, there can be a significant impact on your IT Assets cost.

Examining Use Cases for Asynchronous APIs: Webhooks and WebSockets

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 14:57:35

APIs embrace the webhooks and WebSockets model, enabling event-driven architectures that power many of today’s leading tech platforms. Let’s explore the top five technical merits of asynchronous APIs with examples of companies that have effectively integrated them. What Are Webhooks and WebSockets? Let’s start by examining the difference between webhooks and WebSockets.

What’s Coming to CSS in 2023-2024?

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 14:57:35

It’s already become clear that CSS has evolved beyond its early role as a basic tool for styling websites. Today, it's a multi-functional language that works closely with JavaScript and influences everything from webpage performance to accessibility. Innovations like Flexbox, Grid, and native variables have significantly expanded its capabilities, and these are just the beginning. The updates coming in 2023 can be even more impressive. Most likely, they will have a huge impact on how we design, develop, and experience the web. Beyond the developer’s cubicle, these changes mean faster, more accessible websites, which translates to a better user experience for everyone.

Quality at Source: Rethinking Best Practices in Data Engineering

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 14:42:35

In the age of big data, ensuring the integrity and reliability of data has become a strategic imperative for organizations seeking to harness actionable insights and drive competitive advantage. However, traditional quality assurance practices in data engineering, with their overwhelming focus on downstream testing, are proving inadequate in managing the complexity and scale of modern data ecosystems. To truly deliver trustworthy analytics that power data-driven decision-making, a fundamental shift towards “Quality at Source” is indispensable. Quality at Source refers to the proactive embedding of robust quality practices in the upstream processes of data acquisition, storage, and movement. By prioritizing quality assurance during the foundational stages of the data lifecycle, errors and anomalies can be preempted, leading to substantial gains in productivity and cost optimization. Industry analysts have estimated that reactive approaches to detecting and resolving issues late in the analytics pipeline can inflate costs by over 20% compared to quality controls implemented from the outset.

Building Your Own AI Chatbot With React and ChatGPT API

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 13:57:35

Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots have transformed the way businesses interact with customers online. They provide instant, round-the-clock customer support and engagement, offering a seamless and efficient user experience. In this blog, we will guide you through the process of building your own AI chatbot using React and the ChatGPT API. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a functional chatbot that can understand and respond to user queries, making your website or application more interactive and user-friendly. Why ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI. It's trained on a vast amount of text data, making it capable of natural language understanding and generation. This makes it an ideal choice for building conversational AI applications. You can leverage the ChatGPT API to integrate its capabilities into your own chatbot.

The Most Valuable Code Is the Code You Should Not Write

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 13:42:35

In my previous articles, I wrote about maximizing your competitive advantage as a human software developer against encroaching AI. I illustrated why it will always be hard to write useful software, with or without machine assistance. One thing I didn’t address is how all this may just take away the joy of writing code. I don’t mean your lovingly crafted Open-Source projects. Please continue doing that. I mean the enterprise behemoths we write and maintain for a paycheck. To recap the discussion about efficiency and effectiveness: if AI can write that code similarly well (right now, it's still an if), it will nearly always be cheaper than hiring you to do the job, as well as more reliable (no sick leave) and more flexible (unlimited overtime/no onboarding required). Sorry about that. Mechanization relieves us of manual work that is either too strenuous, dangerous, or dirty. No medieval peasant liked pulling a cart. So, we used horses and other animals. We invented tools and machines, and not just for replacing muscles. Granted, while some mental labor can be mind-numbingly boring, most of it isn’t especially dangerous or dirty. There are uncomfortable exceptions, like social media moderation, but much of it is challenging and good for your brain. So why should we let AI do something that humans already like to do and do well, like writing screenplays or writing songs? A cynical bean counter would argue that it makes no sense to do anything by hand if the machine can deliver acceptable quality cheaper. There’s a niche market for hand-knit garments, but not enough knitters to keep the world clothed.

Extend Your GPTs With C#

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 13:12:35

A couple of weeks ago, OpenAI released GPTs. A GPT is basically a custom ChatGPT chatbot hosted by OpenAI. Its most crucial feature is the ability to extend your GPTs with an API. Magic's most crucial feature is the ability to easily create an API. Magic and GPTs, therefore, become a perfect match, allowing you to create your own custom GPT, something already illustrated in an article we published a couple of days ago demonstrating how to create a Low-Code CRUD-based GPT in a few seconds.

How To Use Shadow Testing To Reduce the Risk of Production Issues

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 12:57:35

Numerous tactics exist for mitigating the potential dangers that come along with shipping fresh modifications in a system. Practices such as automated testing, feature toggles, canary releases, and blue-green deployments are among the more commonly referenced methodologies that can assist in achieving this aim. However, I would like to bring your attention to a less frequently discussed approach known as Shadow Testing. Shadow Testing is a special technique in which we duplicate the traffic for a particular software component that is subject to change and execute both the current and the [new] modified component. The idea is to compare the results from both components to detect disparities that could cause problems in production without affecting the users in production, so only the results from the current component are used to serve the users. See the diagram below illustrating how this works:

From Hadoop to Cloud: Why and How to Decouple Storage and Compute in Big Data Platforms

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 12:12:35

The advent of Apache Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) revolutionized the storage, processing, and analysis of data for enterprises, accelerating the growth of big data and bringing about transformative changes to the industry. Initially, Hadoop integrated storage and compute, but the emergence of cloud computing led to a separation of these components. Object storage emerged as an alternative to HDFS but had limitations. To complement these limitations, JuiceFS, an open-source, high-performance distributed file system, offers cost-effective solutions for data-intensive scenarios like computation, analysis, and training. The decision to adopt storage-compute separation depends on factors like scalability, performance, cost, and compatibility.

Discover the Performance Gain With Retrieval Augmented Generation

Aggregated on: 2023-11-20 11:57:35

Large Language Models (LLMs) are smart enough to understand context. They can answer questions, leveraging their vast training data to provide coherent and contextually relevant responses, no matter whether the topic is astronomy, history, or even physics. However, due to their inability to connect the dots and remember all the details, LLMs, especially the smaller models like llama2-13b-chat, can hallucinate even when the requested knowledge is in the training data. A new technique, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), fills the knowledge gaps, reducing hallucinations by augmenting prompts with external data. Combined with a vector database (like MyScale (opens new window)), it substantially increases the performance gain in extractive question-answering systems, even with exhaustive knowledge bases like Wikipedia in the training set. To this end, this article focuses on determining the performance gain with RAG on the widely-used MMLU dataset. We find that both the performance of commercial and open source LLMs can be significanlty improved when knowledge can be retrieved from Wikipedia using a vector database. More interestingly, this result is achieved even when Wikipedia is already in the training set of these models.

Modern Application Performance

Aggregated on: 2023-11-18 23:12:34

This is an article from DZone's 2023 Observability and Application Performance Trend Report.For more: Read the Report In today's digital landscape, the growing importance of monitoring and managing application performance cannot be overstated. With businesses increasingly relying on complex applications and systems to drive their operations, ensuring optimal performance has become a top priority. In essence, efficient application performance management can mean the difference between business success and failure. To better understand and manage these sophisticated systems, two key components have emerged: telemetry and observability.

Unveiling the Application Modernization Roadmap: A Swift and Secure Journey to the Cloud

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 20:42:34

In the ever-evolving technology landscape, businesses are increasingly recognizing the need to modernize their applications and make the leap to the cloud. This strategic move is not just a trend but a pivotal decision to enhance agility, reduce operational costs, and unlock the full potential of advanced cloud services. Let's embark on a comprehensive exploration of the application modernization roadmap, delving into the intricacies of a swift and secure transition to the cloud. The Essence of Application Modernization As businesses evolve, so do their technological needs. Legacy systems that were once the backbone of operations can become impediments to progress. Application modernization is the strategic process of revitalizing existing applications, making them more efficient, scalable, and aligned with contemporary business requirements.

Mastering Prompt Engineering In AI Language Models

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 20:27:34

Prompt engineering is a vital aspect of leveraging the full potential of AI language models. By refining and optimizing the instructions given to these models, we can obtain more accurate and contextually relevant responses. In this article, we explore the principles and techniques of prompt engineering, along with its limitations and potential applications. Principles of Prompt Engineering 1. Writing Clear and Specific Instructions The success of prompt engineering begins with providing clear and unambiguous instructions. Clear doesn’t necessarily mean a short description. Being specific about the desired output helps the model understand the task more accurately. For example, tell the LLA to be an expert in the field you are asking for.

A Comprehensive Approach to Performance Monitoring and Observability

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 20:12:34

This is an article from DZone's 2023 Observability and Application Performance Trend Report.For more: Read the Report Agile development practices must be supported by an agile monitoring framework. Overlooking the nuances of the system state — spanning infrastructure, application performance, and user interaction — is a risk businesses can't afford. This is particularly true when performance metrics and reliability shape customer satisfaction and loyalty, directly influencing the bottom line.