News Aggregator

Blue-Green Deployment: Update Your Software Risk-Free

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 18:21:17

Anton Alputov, the DevOps architect of Valletta Software Development, shared his DevOps expertise both with me and with the readers. Deploying software updates can often feel like walking a tightrope — one wrong step, and you risk downtime, bugs, or a frustrating user experience. Traditional deployment methods tend to amplify these risks, leaving teams scrambling to mitigate issues post-release. Blue-Green deployment (BGD) offers a powerful alternative, enabling a smoother, safer way to release new versions of your applications.

Redefining Artifact Storage: Preparing for Tomorrow's Binary Management Needs

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 17:21:17

As software pipelines evolve, so do the demands on binary and artifact storage systems. While solutions like Nexus, JFrog Artifactory, and other package managers have served well, they are increasingly showing limitations in scalability, security, flexibility, and vendor lock-in. Enterprises must future-proof their infrastructure with a vendor-neutral solution that includes an abstraction layer, preventing dependency on any one provider and enabling agile innovation. The Current Landscape: Artifact and Package Manager Solutions There are several leading artifact and package management systems today, each with its own strengths and limitations. Let’s explore the key players:

Build Vector Embeddings for Video via Python Notebook and OpenAI CLIP

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 16:21:17

As AI continues to impact many types of data processing, vector embeddings have also emerged as a powerful tool for video analysis. This article delves into some of the capabilities of AI in analyzing video data. We'll explore how vector embeddings, created using Python and OpenAI CLIP, can be used to interpret and analyze video content. Discuss the significance of vector embeddings in video analysis, offering a step-by-step guide to building these embeddings using a simple example. The notebook file used in this article is available on GitHub.

Spring WebFlux: publishOn vs subscribeOn for Improving Microservices Performance

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 15:21:17

With the rise of microservices architecture, there has been a rapid acceleration in the modernization of legacy platforms, leveraging cloud infrastructure to deliver highly scalable, low-latency, and more responsive services. Why Use Spring WebFlux? Traditional blocking architectures often struggle to keep up performance, especially under high load. Being Spring Boot developers, we know that Spring WebFlux, introduced as part of Spring 5, offers a reactive, non-blocking programming model designed to address these challenges.

10 Security Best Practices for SaaS

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 14:21:17

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of guarding your SaaS and the SaaS Security best practices you must implement in your Security checklist to ensure the proper functioning of your app. The seemingly unstoppable growth of SaaS platforms in the industry has made the discussion of securing SaaS Applications a need among organizations. We will also be talking through the challenges and risks the area faces, as well as the regulatory standards that should frame all SaaS application development.

Open Source: A Pathway To Personal and Professional Growth

Aggregated on: 2024-09-23 13:21:17

Open source can go beyond philanthropy: it’s a gateway to exponential learning, expanding your professional network, and propelling your software engineering career to the next level. In this article, I’ll explain why contributing to open-source projects is an excellent investment and share how to begin making your mark in the community. Why Invest Time in Open Source? Great, you’re still here! That means you’re curious about the open-source world and how it can shape your future. Before diving into how to contribute, let’s discuss why it’s worth your time, especially since many of us begin contributing during our time.

Mastering the Art of Data Engineering to Support Billion-Dollar Tech Ecosystems

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 23:21:16

Data reigns supreme as the currency of innovation, and it is a valuable one at that. In the multifaceted world of technology, mastering the art of data engineering has become crucial for supporting billion-dollar tech ecosystems. This sophisticated craft involves creating and maintaining data infrastructures capable of handling vast amounts of information with high reliability and efficiency. As companies push the boundaries of innovation, the role of data engineers has never been more critical. Specialists design systems that certify seamless data flow, optimize performance, and provide the backbone for applications and services that millions of people use.

New Era of Cloud 2.0 Computing: Go Serverless!

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 22:21:16

Serverless computing is one of the fastest-changing landscapes in cloud technology and has often been termed the next big revolution in Cloud 2.0. In the digital transformation journeys of every organization, serverless is finding a place as a key enabler by letting companies offload the business of infrastructure management and focus on core application development. About Serverless Architecture Applications on a serverless architecture would be event-driven, meaning that functions are only invoked on particular events, like HTTP requests, database updates, and messages ingress. That not only simplifies the development process but increases operational efficiency because developers would have to focus only on writing and deploying code, instead of fiddling with the management of servers.

Demystifying Service-Oriented Architecture

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 21:21:16

In the ever-changing world of software, one term that keeps popping up is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). It might sound complex, but fear not! This article aims to be your friendly guide, explaining SOA in plain English for beginners and offering valuable insights for seasoned professionals. Understanding Service-Oriented Architecture At its core, SOA is a method of designing and building software by breaking it into smaller, independent parts. We call these parts "services." Each service does a specific job and talks to others through a well-defined language.

Decoding LLM Parameters, Part 1: Temperature

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 20:21:16

LLM Parameters Like any machine learning model, large language models have various parameters that control the variance of the generated text output. We have started a multi-part series to explain the impact of these parameters in detail. We will conclude by striking the perfect balance in content generation using all of these parameters discussed in our multi-part series. Welcome to the first part, where we discuss the most well-known parameter, "Temperature."

Navigating the Regulatory Maze: Simplifying Data Compliance

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 19:21:16

In an era of increasingly complex regulatory landscapes, IT professionals face unprecedented challenges in managing data compliance. The evolving nature of regulations across various industries demands a proactive and sophisticated approach to data management. I spoke with Steve Leeper, VP of Product Marketing at Datadobi, to learn how StorageMAP 7.0 addresses these critical issues and simplifies compliance management for developers, engineers, and architects.

Open Source .NET Aspire and Dapr: What Are They and How Do They Complement Each Other For Distributed Apps?

Aggregated on: 2024-09-20 18:36:16

Over the last weeks, I've seen many questions from the .NET community on how .NET Aspire compares to Dapr, the Distributed Application Runtime. Some say the features appear to be very similar and think Aspire is a replacement for Dapr (which it isn’t). The TL;DR is: .NET Aspire is a set of tools for local development, while Dapr is a runtime offering building block APIs and is used during local development and running in production. This article covers both .NET Aspire and Dapr, the problems they solve, their differences, and why .NET developers should use them together when building distributed applications that can run on any cloud. What Problem Does .NET Aspire Solve? .NET Aspire was created to solve a problem that many distributed application developers face: running and debugging multiple cloud native apps locally. .NET developers can now use a language they understand well, C#, to configure their microservices and infrastructure dependencies, such as state stores and message brokers. Developers can run and debug their .NET applications using Visual Studio or VS Code with the C# Dev Kit extension.

Observability With eBPF

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 23:21:15

eBPF is a groundbreaking technology that allows you to run sandboxed programs within the Linux kernel. This provides a safe and efficient way to extend the kernel's capabilities without modifying its source code. High-Level Overview Below is an overview of the stack:

Refining Your JavaScript Code: 10 Critical Mistakes to Sidestep

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 21:36:15

JavaScript, the backbone of modern web development, is a powerful and versatile language. JavaScript's flexibility and dynamic nature make it both a blessing and a curse for new developers. While it allows for rapid development and creativity, it also has quirks that can trip up the uninitiated. By familiarizing yourself with these common mistakes, you'll be better equipped to write clean, efficient, and bug-free code. Mistake 1: Not Declaring Variables Properly The Problem One of the most common mistakes beginners make is not properly declaring variables. JavaScript allows you to declare variables using var, let, or const. Failing to declare a variable properly can lead to unexpected behavior and hard-to-track bugs.

How To Handle a Crisis in a Software Project and Solve Disaster

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 20:21:15

Crises are part of life. When it comes to software development, crises are not a matter of "if," but "when," so you always have to be prepared for such situations. Imagine this scenario: Everything seems to be going well with your mobile app development project. Suddenly, the senior developer has to leave the project due to force majeure, and only the junior developers are left to lead the project. The delivery deadline is very close and the client is anxious. What to do?

How Machine Learning and AI are Transforming Healthcare Diagnostics in Mobile Apps

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 19:21:15

Healthcare has long been a data-intensive domain, and today, the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning is opening new frontiers, especially in the field of diagnostics. As developers, we're at the forefront of this transformation, building mobile applications that help both patients and healthcare professionals make better decisions, faster. From improving diagnostic accuracy to speeding up early disease detection, AI-powered mobile apps are becoming indispensable tools in modern healthcare. In this article, we’ll explore how AI is being integrated into healthcare apps to provide diagnostic tools and assist in early disease detection, along with a few technical insights from a developer's perspective.

Battle of the RabbitMQ Queues: Performance Insights on Classic and Quorum

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 17:36:15

RabbitMQ is a powerful and widely used message broker that facilitates communication between distributed applications by handling the transmission, storage, and delivery of messages. As a message broker, RabbitMQ serves as an intermediary between producers (applications that send messages) and consumers (applications that receive messages), ensuring reliable message delivery even in complex, distributed environments. One of the core components of RabbitMQ is the queue, where messages are temporarily stored until they are consumed. Queues play a critical role in RabbitMQ’s architecture, enabling asynchronous communication and decoupling the producers and consumers. This decoupling allows applications to operate independently, promoting scalability, resilience, and fault tolerance.

Predicting Traffic Volume With Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 16:36:15

Effective traffic forecasting is important for urban planning, especially in reducing congestion, improving traffic flow, and maintaining public safety. This study examines the performance of machine learning models of linear regression, decision trees, and random forest to predict traffic flow along the westbound I-94 highway, using datasets collected between 2012 and 2018. Exploratory data analysis revealed traffic volume patterns related to weather, holidays, and time of day. The models were evaluated based on R2 and mean squared error (MSE) metrics, with random forest outperforming others, obtaining an R2 of 0.849 and lower MSE than linear regression and decision tree models.

Server-Side Rendering With Spring Boot

Aggregated on: 2024-09-19 15:21:15

Understanding the shared steps in the project setup is crucial before delving into the specifics of each client-augmenting technology. My requirements from the last post were quite straightforward: I'll assume the viewpoint of a backend developer. No front-end build step: no TypeScript, no minification, etc. All dependencies are managed from the backend app, i.e., Maven It's important to note that the technology I'll be detailing, except Vaadin, follows a similar approach. Vaadin, with its unique paradigm, really stands out among the approaches.

Enhancing Few-Shot Text Classification With Noisy Channel Language Model Prompting

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 22:21:15

Few-shot learning is a fascinating area in natural language processing (NLP), where models are trained to perform tasks with very few labeled examples. Traditional approaches often rely on directly modeling the conditional probability of a label given an input text. However, these methods can be unstable, especially when dealing with imbalanced data or the need for generalization to unseen labels. A recent advancement in this area is the noisy channel language model prompting, which takes inspiration from classic noisy channel models in machine translation to improve few-shot text classification. Here are two concrete examples of problems in few-shot learning that the noisy channel language model prompting aims to solve:

Performing Advanced Facebook Event Data Analysis With a Vector Database

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 21:21:15

In today's digital age, professionals across all industries must stay updated with upcoming events, conferences, and workshops. However, efficiently finding events that align with one's interests amidst the vast ocean of online information presents a significant challenge. This blog introduces an innovative solution to this challenge: a comprehensive application designed to scrape event data from Facebook (opens new window)and analyzes the scraped data using MyScale(opens new window. While MyScale is commonly associated with the RAG tech stack or used as a vector database, its capabilities extend beyond these realms. We will utilize it for data analysis, leveraging its vector search functionality to analyze events that are semantically similar, thus providing better results and insights.

Optimizing Cost and Carbon Footprint With Smart Scaling Using SQS Queue Triggers: Part 1

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 20:21:15

The rising demand for sustainable and eco-friendly computing solutions has given rise to the area of green computing. According to Wikipedia, Green computing, green IT (Information Technology), or ICT sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT. With the rise of cloud computing in the last few decades, green computing has become a big focus in the design and architecture of software systems in the cloud. This focus on optimizing the resources for energy efficiency allows us to focus on cost optimization in addition to reducing the carbon footprint. AWS is one of the cloud providers leading the movement from the front. AWS is investing heavily in renewable energy and designing its data centers with efficiency in mind. According to the Amazon Climate Pledge, Amazon aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and has already made significant strides, including powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Additionally, AWS provides tools like the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator, enabling customers to monitor and reduce their carbon emissions, thereby fostering a more sustainable digital ecosystem.

Kafka Message Testing

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 19:36:15

This article offers an approach to writing integration tests for Kafka-based applications that focuses on interaction specification, making tests more readable and easier to maintain. The proposed method not only enhances testing efficiency but also contributes to a better understanding of the integration processes within the application. The article builds on three ideas presented in relevant articles: writing tests with a clear separation of Arrange-Act-Assert stages, isolation in Kafka tests, and using tools to enhance test visibility. I recommend reviewing these before delving into the material of this article.

Securing Your Enterprise With an Identity-First Security Strategy

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 18:51:15

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market is projected to grow from USD 317 billion in 2024 to USD 1.2 trillion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4%. This substantial growth in SaaS and cloud service adoption is primarily driven by modern technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, and a predominantly hybrid workforce that requires productivity to remain competitive. However, this increased reliance on SaaS software has also led to a rise in cyberattacks. A study from the University of Maryland reveals that hackers attempt an attack every 39 seconds on average. With the emergence of AI, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated. With the average cost of a cyberattack nearing $4.45 million, it is crucial for enterprises to evolve their security infrastructure to protect against the evolving threat landscape posed by modern cyberattacks. Taking an Identity-First Approach to Security Malicious actors are no longer limited to targeting traditional VPN networks for unauthorized access. With the rise of remote work and organizations allowing employees to work from anywhere, attackers are increasingly targeting identities and employing modern techniques, such as social engineering attacks, to gain access to systems. According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 68% of data breach attacks involve a human element, like a person falling victim to a social engineering attack.

Common Mistakes While Implementing Self-Recursive Calls in MuleSoft [Video]

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 18:36:15

What Are Self-Recursive Loops? A self-recursive loop refers to a pattern where a flow or sub-flow calls itself recursively to process data iteratively. This is typically used to handle scenarios where data needs to be processed repetitively, such as iterating over nested data structures, managing pagination, or processing large payloads in chunks. In short, it’s similar to the while/do-while loop in Java.

Zero To AI Hero, Part 4: Harness Local Language Models With Semantic Kernel; Your AI, Your Rules

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 17:36:15

We have covered a lot of grounds in this series so far. If you are looking to start with Semantic Kernel, I highly recommend starting with Part 1. In this AI developer series, I write articles on AI developer tools and frameworks and provide working GitHub samples at the end of each one. We have already experimented with AI Agents, Personas, Planners, and Plugins. One common theme so far has been we have used an Open AI GPT-4o model deployed in Azure to do all our work. Now it is time for us to pivot and start using local models such as Phi-3 in Semantic Kernel so that you can build AI automation systems without any dependencies. This would also be a favorite solution for cyber security teams, as they don't need to worry about sensitive data getting outside of an organization's network. But I believe the happiest would be the indie hackers who want to save on cost and still have an effective Language Model that they can use without worrying about token cost and tokens per minute. What Is the Small Language Model? Small language models (SLMs) are increasingly becoming the go-to choice for developers who need robust AI capabilities without the baggage of heavy cloud dependency. These nimble models are designed to run locally, providing control and privacy that large-scale cloud models can’t match. SLMs like Phi-3 offer a sweet spot — they’re compact enough to run on everyday hardware but still pack enough punch to handle a range of AI tasks, from summarizing documents to powering conversational agents. The appeal? It’s all about balancing power, performance, and privacy. By keeping data processing on your local machine, SLMs help mitigate privacy concerns, making them a natural fit for sensitive sectors like healthcare, finance, and legal, where every byte of data matters.

Case Study: Scaling Intuit’s Revenue Platform for Global Commerce

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 17:06:15

A few years back, in my role as a platform product manager at Intuit, I was charged with the responsibility of building and scaling the revenue platform that fuels all of Intuit’s products such as QuickBooks and TurboTax. The system I managed was integral to Intuit’s trading networks and money-making capabilities which accounted for over $10 billion in annual revenues. This case study discusses the problems, principles of architecture, and best practices that I implemented in order to create a scalable country-agnostic customer-agnostic platform supporting both B2B and B2C transactions. The Challenge: Building a Unified Revenue Platform Intuit’s product suite covers different areas, ranging from accounting software like QuickBooks designed for small and medium businesses (B2B) to consumer tax preparation services like TurboTax (B2C). This compilation posed a special challenge: How do we build a revenue platform that caters to multiple product lines, different pricing models, and varied customer segments while guaranteeing frictionless scalability and performance?

Nobody Cares About Security

Aggregated on: 2024-09-18 16:36:15

Nobody cares about security. There. I said it. I said the thing everyone feels, some people think, but very few have the temerity to say out loud. But before you call me a blasphemous heathen, I will ask for just a few moments of your time to offer context. I even have some ideas and solutions.

Test Automation for Mobile Apps: Strategy for Improved Testing Results

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 21:21:14

We can hardly imagine our lives without the smartphones that we use every day — from staying connected with others to managing tasks. Some people may even become addicted to them: 56.9% of Americans identify as addicted to their phones, with an average screen time of 4 hours and 25 minutes per day and checking their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up. And considering that the number of mobile app downloads across various categories continues to surge, they must operate flawlessly to provide consistently good user experience and allow people to seamlessly perform daily activities.

AI and Technical Debt: Balancing Innovation and Sustainability

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 20:36:14

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize the tech industry, developers, engineers, and architects face a new challenge: managing the technical debt that comes with rapid AI adoption. Jeff Hollan, Head of Apps and Developer Tools at Snowflake, shares invaluable insights on how to balance innovation and sustainability in AI projects. The AI Adoption Dilemma The rush to implement AI solutions has created a unique landscape where organizations must carefully navigate between seizing opportunities and avoiding potential pitfalls. As Hollan points out,

Programming Language With No Syntax?

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 19:21:14

Is it possible to have a programming language that has no syntax? It sounds like a contradiction. Programming languages are all about syntax, plus a bit of code generation, optimization, run-time environment, and so on. But syntax is the most important part as far as programmers are concerned. When encountering a new programming language, it takes time to learn the syntax. Could we just make the syntax disappear or at least make it as simple as possible? Could we also make the syntax arbitrary so that the programmer writing the code can define it for themselves?

Troubleshooting PostgreSQL Low Free Memory

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 18:21:14

Memory usage is one of the most important aspects of the database system. Having not enough memory directly affects every performance metric and negatively impacts the performance. This in turn affects our users and the business. In this blog post, we are going to understand how databases (and PostgreSQL specifically) manage memory and how to troubleshoot low free-memory scenarios. How Databases Read Data To understand how to deal with memory, we need to understand how things work. Let’s see some basic databases and operating systems mechanisms.

High-Load Systems: Overcoming Challenges in Social Network Development

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 17:21:14

I am Alexander Kolobov. I worked as a team lead at one of the biggest social networks, where I led teams of up to 10 members, including SEO specialists, analysts, and product manager. As a developer, I designed, developed, and maintained various features for the desktop and mobile web versions of a social network across backend, frontend, and mobile application APIs. My experience includes: Redesigning the social network interface for multiple user sections Completely rewriting network widgets for external sites Maintaining privacy settings for closed profiles and the content archiving function Overhauling the backend and frontend of the mail notification system, handling millions of emails daily Creating a system for conducting NPS/CSI surveys that covered the two largest Russian social networks In this article, I am going to talk about high-load systems and the challenges they bring. I want to touch upon the following aspects:

Algorithmic Advances in AI-Driven Search: Optimizing Query Processing for Precision and Speed

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 16:21:14

In today’s data-driven world, efficient and accurate information retrieval is crucial. The rapid growth of unstructured data across industries poses a significant challenge for traditional search algorithms. AI has revolutionized query processing and data retrieval by introducing sophisticated techniques that optimize both the precision and speed of search results. This article dives deep into the algorithms behind AI-driven search and how they enhance query processing, enabling intelligent, relevant, and scalable search experiences. From Traditional To AI-Enhanced Query Processing Traditional query processing methods, such as Boolean search and simple keyword-based matching, relied heavily on manual indexing and rigid rule-based systems. These methods often failed to capture the user’s intent or adapt to complex queries. In contrast, AI-enhanced query processing employs machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models to understand the semantics of a query, providing more accurate results by interpreting the context rather than focusing solely on keyword matching.

Founder Mode?

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 15:21:14

TL;DR: The Perils of Founder Mode This article delves into the darker aspects of Founder Mode, popularized by Paul Graham and others. It offers a critical perspective for agile practitioners, product leaders, startup founders, and managers who embrace this paradigm and probably fall victim to survivorship bias; the Jobs and the Cheskys are the exception, not the rule. The article explores how resulting tendencies, such as micromanagement, lack of strategic transparency, team devaluation, and reckless risk-taking, can undermine organizational health, stifle innovation, and conflict with agile principles. These can jeopardize long-term success while making work in organizations with a failed founder mode application miserable for everyone below the immediate leadership level and the founder himself.

Database Keys: A Comprehensive Guide

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 14:21:14

In the world of database management, keys play a crucial role in organizing, accessing, and maintaining data integrity. Whether you're a seasoned database administrator or just starting your journey in data management, understanding the various types of database keys is essential. In this post, we'll explore all the different types of keys, their purposes, and how they contribute to effective database design. To illustrate these concepts, we'll use a simple university database with the following tables:

A Hands-On Guide to OpenTelemetry: Manual Instrumentation for Developers

Aggregated on: 2024-09-17 13:21:14

Are you ready to start your journey on the road to collecting telemetry data from your applications? In this series, you'll explore how to adopt OpenTelemetry (OTel) and how to instrument an application to collect tracing telemetry. You'll learn how to leverage out-of-the-box automatic instrumentation tools and understand when it's necessary to explore more advanced manual instrumentation for your applications. By the end of this series, you'll have an understanding of how telemetry travels from your applications to the OpenTelemetry Collector, and be ready to bring OpenTelemetry to your future projects. Everything discussed here is supported by a hands-on, self-paced workshop authored by Paige Cruz.

Commonly Occurring Errors in Microsoft Graph Integrations and How To Troubleshoot Them (Part 6)

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 23:21:13

This article discusses the following example: changing a column value for a list item of a “user-defined” SharePoint list, which represents a PDF file within a sub-folder of the SharePoint drive, using a DriveItem, which also represents the PDF file. SharePoint lists are central data structures that make it possible to store, organize, and manage information in tabular form. The test aims to demonstrate and explain how the MS-Graph API can be successfully used to change values in a list and correctly transfer this change to SharePoint. This ensures that the integrity of the file is maintained after the change and that no unexpected errors occur during API communication. Microsoft Graph API The Microsoft Graph API is a REST-based programming interface that provides access to a variety of services and data within the Microsoft 365 platform. It offers developers the ability to access a central interface to read, write, and manage data from services such as Azure Active Directory, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and many more.

Observability Agent Architecture

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 22:21:13

Observability agents are essential components in modern software development and operations. These software entities act as data collectors, processors, and transmitters, gathering critical telemetry data from applications, infrastructure, and network devices. This data is then sent to centralized observability platforms where it can be analyzed to gain valuable insights into system performance, identify issues, and optimize operations. By efficiently capturing, processing, and transmitting logs, metrics, and traces, observability agents provide a comprehensive view of system health and behavior. This enables organizations to make informed decisions, improve application reliability, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

Low-Level Optimizations in ClickHouse: Utilizing Branch Prediction and SIMD To Speed Up Query Execution

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 21:21:13

In data analysis, the need for fast query execution and data retrieval is paramount. Among numerous database management systems, ClickHouse stands out for its originality and, one could say, a specific niche, which, in my opinion, complicates its expansion in the database market. I’ll probably write a series of articles on different features of ClickHouse, and this article will be a general introduction with some interesting points that few people think about when using various databases.

Build an Advanced RAG App: Query Routing

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 20:21:13

In previous articles, we built a basic RAG application. We also learned to introduce more advanced techniques to improve a RAG application. Today, we will explore how to tie those advanced techniques together. Those techniques might do different — sometimes opposite — things. Still, sometimes we need to use all of them, to cover all possibilities. So let's see how we can link different techniques together. In this article, we will take a look at a technique called Query Routing. The Problem With Advanced RAG Applications When our Generative AI application receives a query, we have to decide what to do with it. For simple Generative AI applications, we send the query directly to the LLM. For simple RAG applications, we use the query to retrieve context from a single data source and then query the LLM. But, if our case is more complex, we can have multiple data sources or different queries that need different types of context. So do we build a one-size-fits-all solution, or do we make the application adapt to take different actions depending on the query?

The Ultimate Database Scaling Cheatsheet: Strategies for Optimizing Performance and Scalability

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 19:21:13

As applications grow in complexity and user base, the demands on their underlying databases increase significantly. Efficient database scaling becomes crucial to maintain performance, ensure reliability, and manage large volumes of data. Scaling a database effectively involves a combination of strategies that optimize both hardware and software resources to handle increasing loads. This cheatsheet provides an overview of essential techniques for database scaling. From optimizing query performance with indexing to distributing data across multiple servers with horizontal scaling, each section covers a critical aspect of database management. Whether you're dealing with a rapidly growing application or preparing for future growth, understanding these strategies will help you make informed decisions to ensure your database remains robust and responsive.

Leveling Up My GraphQL Skills: Real-Time Subscriptions

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 18:21:13

For a few years now, I’ve tried to identify frameworks, products, and services that allow technologists to maintain their focus on extending the value of their intellectual property. This continues to be a wonderful journey for me, filled with unique learning opportunities. The engineer in me recently wondered if there was a situation where I could find a secondary benefit for an existing concept that I’ve talked about before. In other words, could I identify another benefit with the same level of impact as the original parent solution previously recognized?

Selenium Grid Tutorial: Essential Tips and How To Set It Up

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 17:21:13

Being a tester or a skilled web developer, you need to test your applications for bugs and performance in all the available browsers and operating systems. But with so many dependencies in hand, having not just different browsers, but different versions, too, it surely becomes a hefty task. Most importantly, all these processes must be automated to the greatest extent because in major companies, individually creating test cases and pipelines would be expensive and the most obvious, the least preferable method ever. Now this is where Selenium Grid, an extensively used server-based test automation tool comes into the picture.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Enhancing AI-Language Models With Real-World Knowledge

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 16:21:13

In recent years, AI has made big leaps forward, mainly because of large language models (LLMs). LLMs are really good at understanding and generating text that’s human-like, and they led to the creation of several new tools like advanced chatbots and AI writers. While LLMs are great at generating text that’s fluent and human-like, they sometimes struggle with getting facts right. This can be a huge problem when accuracy is really important

Obfuscation vs Encryption: How To Protect Your .NET Code the Right Way

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 15:21:13

When working on .NET applications, one main concern is safeguarding your code from unauthorized access, intellectual property theft, and reverse engineering. This can be achieved by implementing data and code protection techniques to protect the application. There are two main techniques used to secure .NET code: obfuscation and encryption. But do you know which technique is right? And when to use each? Let’s learn from this guide.

How to Merge Excel XLSX Files in Java

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 14:21:13

In this article, we’re going to learn how to increase the efficiency of a common file merging workflow with the help of a web API solution. Specifically, we are going to learn how to merge Excel XLSX files – one of the most common document types we can expect to work within a file-processing automation environment. Context for Programmatic XLSX File Merging If we’re writing code to solve problems related to file processing efficiency and automation, there’s a good chance we’re creating and/or expanding applications that deal with large volumes of Excel files. We may, for example, find that there’s no automated workflow currently in place (or, perhaps, an inefficient one) to combine the various unique Excel reports created by each individual department in our organization.

Zero To AI Hero, Part 3: Unleashing the Power of Agents in Semantic Kernel

Aggregated on: 2024-09-16 13:21:13

As I promised in Part 2, it is time to build something substantial with our Semantic Kernel so far. If you are new to Semantic Kernel and must dive into code/head first, I highly recommend starting with Part 1 of this series. There is a lot of theory out there, but we explore these articles with a GitHub sample you can easily download and play with to understand the core concepts. I wanted to use Agent Smith from The Matrix, but I can't seem to find one without copyrights. So, DALL-E 3 to the rescue.

Releasing MuleSoft API

Aggregated on: 2024-09-13 23:06:12

MuleSoft Anypoint is an enterprise platform of an API event-driven architecture that allows developers to create design and build an API, and to name a few capabilities where you can share API templates and application assets. It also has a central web interface to manage, integrate, secure, and monitor API performance. Open API Specification MuleSoft API development supports Open API specification.

Setting Up Secure Data Lakes for Starlight Financial: A Guide to AWS Implementation

Aggregated on: 2024-09-13 21:51:12

Continuing on our fictitious financial company, Starlight, series of posts, here is how to set up a data lake on AWS with security as the primary thought. Introduction In the fast-moving financial industry, data is a core asset. Starlight Financial needs to use vast amounts of data for decision-making, improving customer experience, and keeping ahead of its rivals. Consider a data lake: it's a vital part of modern data architectures, letting enterprises store both structured and unstructured data in large quantities of any kind whatsoever. Tony Hoare famously observed that with great data comes great responsibility — and so it is. Eventually, it will be some comfort to know that one of the most important steps for consultancy in validating big data architectures using AWS services has been elucidated. That is to say: test them just like any other system you might use. This is a guide to establishing a highly secure data lake using AWS services, specifically focused on the needs of financial institutions, written by us using a blog structure.