November 2024

I am aggregating here some more or less interesting stuff of various IT related materials which I came across this month. Some of them are strictly related to the things I did or am currently doing.

Some thoughts

This month, I worked on analytics for my personal project, dealing with complex SQL queries. During the exploration phase, I discovered a helpful tool called dataline, created by my colleague Rami Awar. It's a natural language interface for data exploration that made understanding my dataset much easier. It was a great help in understanding what I could achieve with my data.

I also spent time evaluating different AI assistants. After testing several options, I found Claude AI to provide the most useful responses for my needs.

I've been watching DEFCON presentations in my free time. These security talks are fascinating and offer great insights into current cybersecurity trends and challenges. You can find the presentations I watched in the video section at the bottom.

Articles

Joan Westenberg: I Miss the Internet

The real internet. The one we used to have. Before it all got so much less – and somehow so much more – complicated.

High Growth Engineer: 5 Lessons I learned the hard way from 10+ years as a software engineer

Guest post by Staff Engineer, Gourav Khanijoe

Mind Your Image Metadata

A brief introduction to image metadata and how to remove it with exif-stripper.

A Life Engineered: Mid To Staff Engineer In Two Years By Job Hopping

How an SDE-II at Amazon got two promotions by hopping jobs in just two years.

rmoff’s random ramblings: Blog Writing for Developers

To summarise this whole article, bear in mind that these two statements are not mutually exclusive:

Write for yourself. Work out what you would like to read, and write it. Think of the reader and what value you’re providing to them in your writing.

That’s because as a developer writing for developers, you are the reader.

Ryan Cheley: DjangoCon US 2024 Talk

This year, as last year, my general prep technique was to:

Give the presentation AND record it

Watch the recording and make notes about what I needed to change

Make the changes

Productivity

The president's doctor: Why your projects take forever

The president’s doctor isn’t busy with other patients. They sit, and wait, and maybe read a paper on The Correlation Between Presidential Tenure And Grey Hair. They do nothing but be ready for when the president needs them.

Strategize Your Career: 🛡️ My strategy against distractions as a software engineer working in an open-floor office

With distractions becoming more prevalent, engineers need effective strategies to minimize interruptions and enhance their focus. This article offers actionable insights to fight them.

AI

shell_gpt

A command-line productivity tool powered by AI large language models like GPT-4, will help you accomplish your tasks faster and more efficiently.

Python

Jeff Triplett's Micro.blog: 🤷 UV does everything or enough that I'm not sure what else it needs to do

UV feels like one of those old infomercials where it solves everything, which is where we have landed in the Python world.

Django

Efe Öge: Djangoday Copenhagen 2024 and Copenhagen

I had been in Copenhagen for a long weekend for the Djangoday Copenhagen 2024.

Cory Zue: Deploying (Multiple) Django Apps to a Single Server with Kamal 2

If you haven’t heard of it, Kamal is a tool built by the Rails community to deploy applications to any server. They recently released Kamal 2, which makes it easy to deploy multiple apps to the same server, which really helps cut down on costs.

The Practical Guide to Scaling Django

Most Django scaling guides focus on theoretical maximums. But real scaling isn’t about handling hypothetical millions of users - it’s about systematically eliminating bottlenecks as you grow. Here’s how to do it right, based on patterns that work in production.

Tools

neovim

Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability.

LazyVim

Neovim config for the lazy

inirudebwoy/google-photo-takeout-fix

It takes your Google export and fixes date on each photo.

Granian

A Rust HTTP server for Python applications.

Kamal

Kamal offers zero-downtime deploys, rolling restarts, asset bridging, remote builds, accessory service management, and everything else you need to deploy and manage your web app in production with Docker. Originally built for Rails apps, Kamal will work with any type of web app that can be containerized.

Posting

A powerful HTTP client that lives in your terminal.

Posting is an HTTP client, not unlike Postman and Insomnia. As a TUI application, it can be used over SSH and enables efficient keyboard-centric workflows. Your requests are stored locally in simple YAML files, so they're easy to read and version control.

Cloud

Gitpod: We’re leaving Kubernetes

This is not a story of whether or not to use Kubernetes for production workloads that’s a whole separate conversation. As is the topic of how to build a comprehensive soup-to-nuts developer experience for shipping applications on Kubernetes.

This is the story of how (not) to build development environments in the cloud.

Michael Kennedy: Opposite of Cloud Native is?

In this essay, I’ll define a new term for the modern opposite of cloud-native. I think you’ll find it appealing.

Zero Trust Architecture in GCP

Zero trust is a cloud security model designed to secure modern organizations by removing implicit trust and enforcing strict identity authentication and authorization. Under zero trust, every user, device, and component is considered untrusted at all times, regardless of whether they are inside or outside of an organization’s network.

Other stuff

Lifebook

Lifebook is a transformational lifestyle design system that empowers you to ENVISION, PLAN, and ACHIEVE your very best life. On your own terms, and nobody else’s.

Podcasts

Low-Level AI Engineering and Hacking: AIFoundry.org Podcast

This year, the Dev Room we organize with AIFoundry.org, @jarekpitiouk and other great organizers is titled "Low-Level AI Hacking and Engineering." There are plenty of reasons for this focus, but before we dive into those, our main call to action is for everyone to check out the Call for Papers! Feel free to apply with your open-source AI projects. Everyone interested in AI and AI engineering is encouraged to join us at FOSDEM.