News Aggregator


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. 

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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. 

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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."

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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How to Handle Secrets in Helm

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

Kubernetes (K8s), an open-source container orchestration system, has become the de-facto standard for running containerized workloads thanks to its scalability and resilience. Although K8s has the capabilities to streamline deployment processes, the actual deployment of applications can be cumbersome, since deploying an app to a K8s cluster typically involves managing multiple K8s manifests (like Deployment, Service, ConfigMap, Secret, Ingress, etc.) in YAML format. This isn't ideal because it introduces additional operational overhead due to the increased number of files for one app. Moreover, it often leads to duplicated, copy-pasted sections of the same app across different environments, making it more susceptible to human errors.

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LinkedIn’s Feed Evolution: More Granular and Powerful Machine Learning, Humans Still in the Loop

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 19:42:34

LinkedIn's feed has come a long way since the early days of assembling the machine-learning infrastructure that powers it. Recently, a major update to this infrastructure was released. We caught up with the people behind it to discuss how the principle of being people-centric translates to technical terms and implementation.  Introduction How do data and machine learning-powered algorithms work to control newsfeeds and spread stories? How much of that is automated, how much should you be able to understand and control, and where is it all headed? 

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The Moat for Enterprise AI Is RAG + Fine Tuning: Here’s Why

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 19:27:34

The hype around LLMs is unprecedented, but it’s warranted. From AI-generated images of the Pope in head-to-toe Balenciaga to customer support agents without pulses, generative AI has the potential to transform society as we know it.  And in many ways, LLMs are going to make data engineers more valuable — and that’s exciting!

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5 Best Practices for Secure Payment Processing in Applications

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 19:12:34

Secure payment processing is vital for ensuring customers can shop safely on your app. Cyberattacks become more frequent each year, with a particular emphasis on stealing financial information. Luckily, you can implement a few best practices to simplify security and protect your clients’ data.  1. Use Multifactor Authentication Multifactor authentication (MFA) is one of the top methods for securing payment systems today. It involves verifying the customer’s identity using a secondary confirmation method. For example, people can verify a legitimate payment attempt by entering a one-time code sent to their verified phone number. 

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Smoke Testing and the Spaceship Analogy

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 18:42:34

Smoke testing, often referred to as "build verification testing" or "sanity testing," is a powerful tool that brings unique advantages to software development teams. It gives confidence that critical functionalities behave as expected and that code stability can be maintained through issue resolution from fast feedback mechanisms. Smoke Testing vs. Regression Testing Smoke testing is a subset of regression testing. Take a regression test suite and extract the absolutely necessary tests that you need for your verifications and your validations. Extract the most critical tests - the ones that if they fail testing then the bugs that have just been uncovered must be fixed immediately. You've got yourself a smoke test suite now! Maybe you plan to release a new feature and you want to conduct smoke testing early for quick feedback. Or maybe you performed a bug fix, performance improvements, or code restructuring, and you want a quick idea if your system was negatively impacted in a big way. Smoke testing is what you need.

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Acting Soon on Kafka Deserialization Errors

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 18:27:34

Event-driven architectures have been successfully used for quite an amount of time by a lot of organizations in various business cases. They excel at performance, scalability, evolvability, and fault tolerance, providing a good level of abstraction and elasticity. These strengths made them good choices when applications needed real or near real-time reactiveness. In terms of implementations, for standard messaging, ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ are good candidates, while for data streaming, platforms such as Apache Kafka and Redpanda are more suitable. Usually, when developers and architects need to opt for either one of these two directions they analyze and weigh from a bunch of angles – message payload, flow and usage of data, throughput, and solution topology. As the discussion around these aspects can get too big and complex, it is not going to be refined as part of this article.

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Use Amazon Bedrock and LangChain To Build an Application To Chat With Web Pages

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

Conversational interaction with large language model (LLM) based solutions (for example, a chatbot) is quite common. Although production grade LLMs are trained using a huge corpus of data, their knowledge base is inherently limited to the information present in the training data, and they may not possess real-time or the most up-to-date knowledge. Here is an example:

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API-Driven Integration

Aggregated on: 2023-11-17 16:12:34

Enterprises must leverage technology's potential to streamline their processes, enhance customer interactions, and foster innovation to remain competitive. It's an established truth that an organization's triumph is contingent on its capacity to smoothly amalgamate systems, applications, and data. Among the most revolutionary approaches in this context is API-driven integration, acting as the linchpin of contemporary business functions. As an integration evangelist with extensive and diverse experience, I hold a steadfast belief that API-driven integration is not merely a passing trend; it's a transformative force poised to reshape how businesses function, excel, and evolve. The widely discussed approach of API-led integration represents a purposeful and strategic method for unifying and aligning diverse systems, applications, and data sources within an organization. It essentially revolves around the seamless connection of various software components, utilizing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as foundational building blocks. These APIs facilitate effective and standardized data exchange and communication among different applications, acting as intermediaries.

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