150+ Tech Blogs, 15+ Research Journals, Summarized on a Single Feed

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Introduction to Mantine UI


Refine.dev

September 9, 2024

Web
  • UI tools like Mantine make it easier to build modern React applications by providing pre-built components, useful features, and customizable themes.
  • This helps developers speed up their work and create user-friendly interfaces with less effort, making tasks such as designing responsive layouts, managing state, or enhancing user interactions more manageable and efficient.

How I Optimized Large-Scale Data Ingestion


Databricks

September 6, 2024

  • I had a three-month internship as a Product Management Intern on the Ingestion team at Databricks, which allowed me to gain hands-on experience in managing and improving data ingestion processes.

MedFuzz: Exploring the robustness of LLMs on medical challenge problems


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

September 10, 2024

  • Researchers tested several large language models (LLMs) to see how well they could withstand "attacks" or attempts to make them produce incorrect medical information.
  • They found that even the most advanced LLMs, like GPT-4 and Claude-Sonnet, can be tricked into giving wrong answers with enough tries.
  • However, they also discovered that these models tend to converge on a stable level of accuracy when faced with repeated attacks, suggesting that they may eventually become reliable in clinical settings despite their vulnerabilities.
  • To address this issue, the researchers developed a tool called MedFuzz, which can help evaluate the robustness of LLMs and improve their ability to provide accurate medical information.

Slack Workflow Builder: 9 Slack workflow examples to automate your business


Zapier | By Matt Haughey

September 6, 2024

Web
  • Slack's Workflow Builder is a powerful tool that allows you to automate tasks and workflows within Slack.
  • By setting up triggers such as new channel members, scheduled dates, or emoji reactions, you can create custom workflows that streamline various business processes.
  • For example, you can use Workflow Builder to host Q&A sessions, onboard new employees, gather customer stories, and even automate PTO requests.
  • The tool also allows you to integrate with other apps like Asana, Google Calendar, and more using Zapier, expanding its capabilities.
  • With Workflow Builder, you can turn Slack into a lightweight business operating system, saving time and increasing productivity by automating repetitive tasks and information-gathering functions.

An issue was re-port-ed


Reddit | By /u/keepingdatareal

September 9, 2024

Web
Cloud
DevOps
  • Reddit's security team had to deal with a potential issue where one of their systems was exposing sensitive information to the public internet due to a mistake in how they set up their load balancer.
  • A researcher found that anyone could access Prometheus metrics from an exposed port on a random IP address, and after investigating, they discovered that it was because the "loadBalancerSourceRanges" property wasn't set correctly, which allowed any source IP address to access the load balancer.
  • They realized this was due to a specific nuance with Network Load Balancers (NLBs) in AWS, which can act as a passthrough and forward packets without terminating them.
  • Luckily, no sensitive information was compromised, but they had to identify and patch several other exposed endpoints.
  • The team learned that making sure to set the "loadBalancerSourceRanges" property correctly and blocking creation of Load Balancer Services with this issue is crucial, and they're now working on improving their security measures, including setting up a simple nmap-based external scanning solution to alert on potential exposures.

How to make your Spotify private


Zapier | By Katie Paterson

September 10, 2024

Algorithms
  • If you're concerned about your Spotify playlists being public and visible to others, don't worry - you have control over your playlist settings.
  • By default, all playlists are public and appear on your profile, but you can change this by going to Settings in the desktop app and turning off "Publish my new playlists on my profile." To delete a playlist, go to the playlist and tap or click the three dots, then select Delete playlist or Remove from Profile.
  • If you want to keep your playlist private so it's not searchable, make it private by tapping or clicking the three dots, then selecting Make private.
  • You can also share a private playlist with others by getting a link to share via messaging apps, social media, or copying and pasting it into an email.
  • To hide your listening activity from friends who follow you, go to Settings in the desktop app and turn off "Share my listening activity on Spotify." Additionally, you can start a private session when listening to music so that Spotify doesn't use those songs to personalize playlists.

Add enhanced flexibility to your apps with custom claims on Native Authentication


Microsoft Devblogs | By Kaushik Kislay

September 10, 2024

Mobile
Security
Backend
  • Microsoft Entra External ID now offers custom claims for native apps, allowing developers to add specific user data into authentication tokens when users sign up or sign in.
  • This feature enables personalized app experiences by dynamically tailoring behavior based on user data, such as blocking or granting access to features, and can be useful when integrating with external systems due to data residency or regulatory constraints.
  • To get started, you need to create a REST API for token issuance and configure a custom claims provider; the Native Authentication SDK then makes it easy to access and use these custom claims in your app, allowing you to display unique UI experiences or offer exclusive features based on user roles or loyalty tiers.

How banks can drive growth by tapping the hidden value of payments data


Thoughtworks | By Muralikrishnan Puthanveedu, Praveen Ninawe, Manu Iyer

September 10, 2024

  • Banks have access to a vast amount of valuable information through payment data, but they often don't realize its potential for growth.
  • By tapping into this hidden value, banks can gain insights into their customers' spending habits and behaviors, allowing them to offer tailored products and services that meet their needs.
  • This can lead to increased customer engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, revenue growth for the bank.

Navigating the AI frontier: Lessons from the cutting edge


Gitlab | By Michelle Gill

September 10, 2024

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Going all in: Why employee ‘will’ can make or break transformations


Mckinsey

September 6, 2024

  • To successfully lead organizational transformation, leaders need to focus on cultivating employee "will" to change, which requires building a strong core of employees who own initiatives and milestones, empowering a broader group of influencers and managers to amplify transformation-related activities, and energizing all employees about the change.
  • This can be achieved by elevating a core segment of employees to take responsibility for designing and implementing change, empowering them with skills and resources, and creating sustainable work conditions and norms.
  • Additionally, leaders should focus on inspirational communication, developing a clear and motivating case for change that resonates with everyone, and enabling line managers and supervisors to engage employees in face-to-face conversations.
  • By doing so, organizations can create momentum for change programs, improve employee engagement, and ultimately achieve lasting performance improvements and outperform peers.

Announcing the Latest Integrations in Databricks Partner Connect


Databricks

September 10, 2024

  • We are happy to announce that Databricks Partner Connect now has three new ways to connect with other services.
  • This central hub lets you easily integrate partner tools and technologies into your system, making it easier to manage all your data and tools in one place.

Essential JavaScript Concepts to Know Before Learning React – With Code Examples


freeCodeCamp | By Akande Olalekan Toheeb

September 10, 2024

Web
  • To become proficient in React development, it's essential to have a strong foundation in JavaScript.
  • This article provides a comprehensive guide on fundamental JavaScript concepts, including template literals for creating dynamic strings, destructuring objects and arrays, ternary operators for concise conditional logic, arrow functions for defining functions, short-circuiting with logical operators to optimize expressions, array methods like map(), filter(), and reduce() to transform data, and fetching data from external sources using promises and the fetch() API.
  • By mastering these concepts, you'll be able to write efficient, readable, and maintainable React code, effectively handling and manipulating data in your web applications.
  • With this solid JavaScript foundation, you can now dive into React development and build amazing web experiences by experimenting, learning from your mistakes, and staying connected with the supportive React community.

Building a Generative AI Workflow for the Creation of More Personalized Marketing Content


Databricks

September 9, 2024

  • Personalization and scale have traditionally been hard to achieve together.
  • While businesses have talked about creating customized experiences for each individual customer, in reality, they've often struggled to make it work on a large enough scale due to limitations such as time, resources, or technology.

How to Write Cleaner Code Using Mongoose Schemas


freeCodeCamp | By ِAya Nabil Othman

September 6, 2024

Web
  • Mongoose schemas are a way to organize and structure data in a MongoDB database by defining properties and behaviors of documents.
  • They allow you to create multiple models with common fields, known as discriminators, which can be used to store different types of data in one collection.
  • You can also add static methods for operations that affect the entire model, instance methods for custom behaviors on individual documents, and hooks (middleware) to run functions at specific points in a document's lifecycle, such as before or after saving or updating it.
  • These features help keep your code clean, maintainable, and organized, making it easier to build robust applications with MongoDB.

How AI Is Personalizing Customer Service Experiences Across Industries


Nvidia | By Ben Oliveri

September 6, 2024

Performance
AI
DevOps
  • Customer service departments are facing challenges such as high call volumes, agent turnover, and changing customer expectations.
  • To address these issues, businesses are using AI-powered software to boost agent productivity, automate interactions, and optimize operations.
  • This technology can improve service delivery and customer satisfaction across various industries, including retail, telecommunications, finance, and healthcare.
  • By harnessing customer data and collective knowledge, businesses can develop personalized services, product recommendations, and proactive support.
  • With the help of customizable AI solutions, companies can automate ticket management, create effective self-service tools, and support agents with AI assistants, leading to reduced operational costs and enhanced customer experiences.

What are Lifetimes in Rust? Explained with Code Examples


freeCodeCamp | By Oduah Chigozie

September 6, 2024

Backend
  • Rust's borrow checker needs to know how long data lives during program execution to ensure safety, and this becomes tricky in certain situations where explicit lifetime annotations are required.
  • These annotations use a single quote followed by characters for identification (like 'static or 'a), and indicate how long variables live relative to each other.
  • You'll need to use these annotations when working with functions that return references from arguments, structs with reference fields, methods with return references, and enums with reference fields.
  • They help the borrow checker ensure all borrowed references are valid by specifying how long they live.

Revolutionizing Insight into Heavy Equipment Maintenance with GenAI


Databricks

September 5, 2024

  • Maintaining heavy equipment assets such as oil rigs and agricultural combines is a complex task for large companies around the world.
  • These assets are expensive to repair or replace, and downtime can be costly due to lost productivity and revenue.

Building High-Performing Engineering Teams: Best Practices for Managers


Hackerrank | By Nicole Littlejohn

September 9, 2024

Performance
  • To build a high-performing engineering team, managers should focus on hiring the right talent, setting clear goals, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
  • They should also encourage ownership among team members and regularly measure performance using key metrics such as code review turnaround time, cycle time, team morale, and feedback loops.
  • Tools like GitHub, Phabricator, JIRA, Azure DevOps, and Officevibe can help track these metrics and identify areas for improvement.
  • By following these best practices, managers can create a team that meets and exceeds expectations, driving innovation and success for the organization through ongoing learning, careful planning, and strong team dynamics.

Charting a path to the data- and AI-driven enterprise of 2030


Mckinsey

September 5, 2024

AI
Backend
Data Science
Robotics
Algorithms
  • As technology advances with generative AI (gen AI), organizations are looking to leverage its potential to create new medicines, intelligent agents, and increase productivity for all workers, but this also brings new risks and considerations.
  • Data is at the center of it all, and without good and relevant data, these opportunities will remain out of reach.
  • By 2030, many companies will approach "data ubiquity," where data is embedded in systems and processes that drive automated actions with human oversight.
  • To unlock value from gen AI and other technologies, data leaders need to focus on data strategies that deliver competitive advantage by customizing models using proprietary data, integrating data and AI, and doubling down on high-value data products.
  • Data leaders will also need to develop capability pathways that enable scale, build new capabilities for managing unstructured data, and rethink their approaches to risk management as gen AI opens up the door to new types of attacks and unknown risks.

Better technology decision-making is underpinned by ‘sensible defaults’


Thoughtworks | By Yewande Ige

September 5, 2024

  • Better technology decisions are made when we start with "sensible defaults", which means setting up systems or tools in a way that makes sense for most people's needs, rather than trying to cater to every individual preference.
  • This approach helps simplify choices and reduces confusion, allowing users to easily understand and use the technology without needing extensive knowledge or training.

Diversifying global supply chains: Opportunities in Southeast Asia


Mckinsey

September 5, 2024

Cloud
Robotics
Algorithms
  • Southeast Asia is emerging as a prominent manufacturing hub, driven by countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam receiving significant foreign direct investment (FDI) and export volumes.
  • China remains the key leader in production but is helping drive production shifts in the region by moving its manufacturers to Southeast Asia.
  • The growth of electric vehicles is also influencing supply and demand landscapes, with countries like Indonesia and Malaysia playing pivotal roles.
  • Logistics companies are presented with opportunities to capitalize on growing demand for infrastructure and logistics services, particularly in regions such as Vietnam's chemical and electronics exports, Indonesia's chemicals and metals export routes, and Malaysia's electronics and metal exports.

Creating Web App For File Interactions Using RAG: A Developers Guide


Walmart | By Abhijeet Pandey

September 6, 2024

Web
  • A Flask web app has been created using various components such as LangChain, LLM (Large Language Model), Vector DB, and Flask to showcase the importance of the RAG pipeline.
  • The app allows users to select a username and upload files, which then interacts with the uploaded file through a chatting interface, demonstrating the integration of these components.

React Design Patterns


Refine.dev

September 5, 2024

Web
  • This article explains how using "design patterns" in React development can save time and effort by providing tested solutions to common problems.
  • Design patterns help break down code into smaller, more manageable parts that are easy to maintain and scale, making it easier for developers to build efficient and effective applications.
  • The article covers various design patterns such as separating presentation from business logic, using hooks to compose components, managing state with reducers, lazy loading components, and optimizing performance with memoization techniques, among others.
  • By incorporating these patterns into their projects, developers can improve code quality, collaboration, and the overall maintainability of their apps.

Honoring #IconsOfQuality: Michal Drajna, QA Engineer


Browserstack | By Shweta Chhillar

September 9, 2024

Web
AI
  • BrowserStack is honoring Michal Drajna, a passionate QA Engineer who joined Investown as its first test automation engineer to make testing faster and more efficient by implementing automated tools such as Playwright for web applications and Detox for mobile apps.
  • In an interview, Michal shares his approach to staying up-to-date with industry trends, recommending following experts on LinkedIn, watching YouTube content creators, and attending meet-ups and conferences.
  • He's particularly excited about AI and its potential to simplify testing, citing tools like ChatGPT that have sped up test writing and data generation for his team.
  • Michal credits automation with making a significant impact at Investown, allowing the team to catch bugs earlier and release faster, and encourages others to follow his productivity hacks such as time blocking and minimizing distractions to stay on top of their game.

Databricks announces significant improvements to the built-in LLM judges in Agent Evaluation


Databricks

September 5, 2024

  • Databricks has improved its Agent Evaluation feature, which helps customers determine how well their artificial intelligence (AI) models are doing by judging whether answers provided by these models are correct or not.
  • This feature lets users define what it means for an answer to be "correct", measure the accuracy of their AI models, and figure out ways to improve them if they're not performing as well as needed.

How to Implement API Rate Limiting in Strapi CMS


freeCodeCamp | By Oluwatobi

September 10, 2024

Web
Database
Backend
  • Implementing rate limiting in web applications is a necessary best practice to protect against malicious access and DDoS attacks, conserve resources, and ensure optimal server performance.
  • To implement rate limiting in a Strapi application, you can use packages such as koa2-rate-limit or express-rate-limiter.
  • You create a new Strapi project, set up APIs using the Content-Type builder tab, then configure the rate limiter middleware to limit requests within a specified time frame and maximum number of requests allowed.
  • This can be done by initializing a memory store to track user IP addresses and request counts, and defining error handling for when the rate limit is exceeded.
  • You can also use express-rate-limiter to implement route-specific API rate limiting, enforcing rate limits in the routes section of each API.
  • By following these steps and best practices, you can effectively protect your Strapi application from excessive requests and ensure optimal performance.

Next-Level Interactivity in AI/BI Dashboards


Databricks

September 9, 2024

  • This technology makes it easier for people at all levels of an organization to access and use business information and analytics, making it more visual so anyone can understand it.

Reddit marketing: How to get it right (and wrong)


Zapier | By Ryan Kane

September 5, 2024

  • Reddit is a valuable platform for marketers to build their brand and get feedback from potential customers, especially when done authentically and with humility.
  • Entrepreneurs and startups can share their experiences of building their business on Reddit, which can help them improve their product with user feedback.
  • To succeed on Reddit, it's essential to understand its culture and start by being helpful, answering questions, and participating in discussions before trying to market your brand organically.
  • Paid ads can be a faster way to get results, but be careful not to come across as insincere or too promotional.
  • Automating tasks with tools like Zapier can also make Reddit marketing easier, allowing you to focus on creating engaging content that resonates with your audience.

8 Notion tips and tricks for a more powerful workspace


Zapier | By William Nutt

September 6, 2024

  • Notion has many communities where users create helpful content such as videos, newsletters, and templates to assist others with using the platform.
  • Some notable members of these communities have built their businesses around Notion and offer tools and services to support its users.
  • One such user is William Nutt, the founder of Nutt Labs and creator of Notion VIP, who has developed a popular framework called the "Bulletproof method" that many people use.
  • William works closely with Notion, contributing to their help resources and training their support team, and he's also available for consulting services through his company.

How to Transform an Angular Application with Signals


freeCodeCamp | By Anujkumarsinh Donvir

September 10, 2024

Web
Backend
Coding
  • Angular is a popular framework used by big companies to build complex and robust applications.
  • It has features like reactivity which allows the application's UI to change when underlying data changes, but this can sometimes lead to performance issues due to unwanted updates.
  • Recently, Angular introduced signals that allow developers to have more control over change detection and prevent these unwanted updates, making it easier to improve the performance of existing applications built with Angular.
  • This tutorial guides users through transforming an existing Angular application step-by-step to use signals, covering how to create new signal variables, update their values using set and update methods, define computed signals that automatically update when underlying signals change, and enable communication between components using input, model, and output signals.

Simulator-based reinforcement learning for data center cooling optimization


Facebook

September 10, 2024

AI
Backend
Hardware
  • Researchers from Meta used artificial intelligence (AI) to improve data center cooling efficiency by optimizing airflow and energy usage.
  • They combined historical data with simulated scenarios to train a reinforcement learning model that determines the best policy for controlling supply air temperature and flow rate based on current conditions.
  • The AI agent operates in a simulated environment, exploring different actions and predicting their outcomes to optimize energy and water usage while keeping the data center within safety specifications.
  • This approach has resulted in significant savings of 20% in energy consumption and 4% in water usage over a two-year pilot period.
  • Meta plans to apply this methodology to its future data centers at the design phase, aiming for sustainability from day one, and is rolling out the AI-powered cooling system to existing facilities to achieve further energy and water savings.

19 New Games to Drop for GeForce NOW in September


Nvidia | By GeForce NOW Community

September 5, 2024

  • GeForce NOW is adding new games to its library and announcing upcoming releases for September and beyond.
  • This month, 19 new games will join the cloud gaming service, including Age of Mythology: Retold, a revamped real-time strategy game with improved visuals and gameplay.
  • Other notable additions include The Casting of Frank Stone, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and more.
  • Members can stream these games on various devices without having to download them.
  • In September, Frostpunk 2, FINAL FANTASY XVI, and other titles will be added to the library.

What the real estate industry needs to know about experiential retail


Mckinsey

September 5, 2024

  • Experiential retail is a growing trend where retailers create immersive experiences for customers to engage with their brands, often through long-term leases in high-traffic locations.
  • This type of retail can increase omnichannel sales by drawing customers into stores who may later buy online, and can also boost brand awareness among tourists and locals alike.
  • Real estate owners and operators who attract experiential retailers can benefit from increased dwell time, higher foot traffic, and the potential for a non-competitive ecosystem of complementary retailers nearby.
  • To attract these retailers, owners must offer valuable data on demographics, shopping habits, and traffic patterns, and may need to provide tenant improvement allowances or adjust their rent structures to reflect the benefits of omnichannel sales.

Roadmaps for Microsoft Dev Box and Azure Deployment Environments are now live!


Microsoft Devblogs | By Anna Soracco

September 10, 2024

  • Microsoft has just released plans and upcoming features for two of their services, Microsoft Dev Box and Azure Deployment Environments, which are designed to make it easier to develop software in the cloud.
  • They're sharing this information as a way to show how much they care about making developers' experiences better with these tools, and they're excited to continue innovating and supporting cloud development.

Announcing TypeScript 5.6


Microsoft Devblogs | By Daniel Rosenwasser

September 9, 2024

Web
Backend
  • TypeScript has just released version 5.6, which includes several exciting new features and improvements to help make your coding experience easier and more efficient.
  • One of the main highlights is that TypeScript can now catch potential bugs in JavaScript code by flagging down suspicious examples, making it harder for typos and bad function calls to slip through.
  • Additionally, TypeScript has introduced a new feature called "region-prioritized diagnostics" which allows editors like Visual Studio Code to provide faster feedback on errors and suggestions when working with large files.
  • Other notable changes include the ability to use arbitrary module identifiers in code, improved support for ECMAScript modules, and various bug fixes and improvements to existing features.
  • Overall, TypeScript 5.6 aims to make your coding experience smoother and more enjoyable by catching potential issues early on and providing faster feedback when working with large files.

HR leaders’ role in M&A: An interview with Lisa Blair Davis


Mckinsey

September 6, 2024

  • Lisa Blair Davis, global head of HR for Johnson & Johnson's MedTech division, shares her insights on how HR plays a crucial role in mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
  • She emphasizes that people are at the heart of M&A success, not just technology or financials.
  • Davis explains that HR should be involved early on in the diligence process to understand the target company's culture, talent, and leadership team.
  • By doing so, they can identify key individuals who can help lead the integration and retain top talent.
  • She also stresses the importance of collaboration, communication, and being adaptable when integrating acquired companies into a larger organization.
  • Davis advises HR leaders to do their homework, be ready for any situation, and not box themselves in too much when it comes to retaining top talent.

Unveiling the process: The creation of our powerful campaign builder


Grab

September 10, 2024

Algorithms
  • Grab's marketing platform, called Trident, allows teams to create complex campaigns by combining events, conditions, and actions using a concept called "treatments".
  • Treatments are essentially rules that trigger specific actions when certain conditions are met.
  • To make campaign creation more intuitive, the team developed features like Counter, which keeps track of user interactions, Delay, which schedules actions for later, and Limit, which restricts the number of times an action can be taken.
  • The platform also includes a visual UI to design campaigns as flowcharts, which can then be converted into treatments.
  • When campaigns are updated, the system identifies which treatments need to be removed, updated, or added based on the changes made to the campaign's flowchart structure.
  • This allows teams to create engaging and dynamic campaigns while preserving their visual representation and ensuring seamless execution.

9 email drip campaign examples and best practices


Zapier | By Hannah Herman

September 5, 2024

Web
AI
  • A drip campaign is a series of automated emails sent to customers or leads at specific times, triggered by events such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
  • These campaigns are essential for lead nurturing and can be used to deliver personalized marketing at scale.
  • To create effective drip campaigns, use email automation software, segment your audience, and send targeted messages.
  • Place important information above the fold, keep emails simple and skimmable, and analyze your campaigns to adjust as needed.
  • Examples of successful drip campaigns include timely intro emails like Peloton's invitation to start using their app, achievement notices like Acorns' end-of-year wrapup, and personalized onboarding emails like nkoda's sheet music app tutorial.

They’re so back, to school


Notion | By Brian Sholis

September 6, 2024

  • As kids return to school, parents often feel overwhelmed by managing daily schedules, meal plans, chores, and extracurricular activities.
  • Notion, a tool typically used for work and study planning, has become a lifesaver for many families as it helps organize household responsibilities and reduce stress.
  • Two users, Vicky Chris and Katy Stalcup, have created templates in Notion to simplify tasks such as meal planning, grocery shopping, scheduling kids' activities, and even managing the family budget.
  • By using these templates, they've saved time and reduced headaches, leading them to create more custom tools for their families.
  • The collection of templates aims to provide inspiration and help other parents find a solution to manage their busy lives.

Canonical’s Anbox Cloud brings new development and testing features to improve in-vehicle infotainment


Canonical | By Bertrand Boisseau (Bertrand Boisseau)

September 9, 2024

  • Anbox Cloud is a powerful tool for developers to create next-generation automotive infotainment systems and applications.
  • You can experience its features at IAA Transportation 2024 in Hanover, Germany, or learn more about it through a webinar on October 9th.
  • Alternatively, you can contact them directly to discover how Anbox Cloud can revolutionize the automotive sector.

Noisy Neighbor Detection with eBPF


Netflix | By Netflix Technology Blog

September 10, 2024

DevOps
Hardware
  • The authors improved the performance of their system by accessing task struct members directly and implementing early exit conditions to skip expensive operations for kernel tasks.
  • They used eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) technology to monitor Linux kernel metrics in real-time, gaining valuable insights into CPU usage, scheduling decisions, and noisy neighbors that affect performance.
  • This project not only helped refine their CPU isolation strategies but also deepened their understanding of eBPF, a promising tool for infrastructure observability and business logic optimization.

Error Boundaries in React - Handling Errors Gracefully


Refine.dev

September 9, 2024

Web
  • Error handling is crucial for any application to provide a good user experience and prevent the app from crashing when errors occur.
  • In React applications, we use Error Boundaries to handle errors in declarative code.
  • An Error Boundary is a React component that catches JavaScript errors anywhere in its child component tree, logs those errors, and displays a fallback UI instead of the corrupted component tree.
  • It works like a try...catch block, but for React components, and is useful when working with imperative code.
  • To use an Error Boundary, we need to implement the componentDidCatch lifecycle method which receives two arguments: error and info.
  • We can then display a fallback UI using the error boundary's state and provide a reset function to retry the render.
  • Best practices include avoiding wrapping the entire application in a single error boundary, finding the right balance between using too many or too few error boundaries, and implementing try...catch blocks for asynchronous code like API requests to handle errors effectively.

Practice hack: how to review previous lessons on Duolingo


Duolingo | By Duolingo Team

September 10, 2024

  • On Duolingo, you can review old content by finding your current place in the course and clicking on the colorful unit label at the top of the screen to see all completed and upcoming sections.
  • You can then click on any section to go back to specific units and practice targeted grammar or vocabulary topics, giving you control over how and when you learn.
  • This feature allows you to review old content whenever you want to help remember vocabulary and grammar through repetition and build your skills for when you need them.

Announcing Advanced Security and Governance in Mosaic AI Gateway


Databricks

September 9, 2024

AI
  • We are introducing several new features to Mosaic AI Gateway, which will help our customers speed up their work with artificial intelligence (AI) by making it easier and more efficient.

Are You a Dalia? How We Created Data Science Personas for Spotify’s Analytics Platform


Spotify | By Spotify Engineering

September 5, 2024

  • The author and their team at Spotify created six "personas" to describe the different types of people who work with data on the company's analytics platform.
  • These personas include Paola the Product Strategist, Eli the Extensive Explorer, Ivan the Influencer, Daryl the Data Viz Artist, Sigrid the Systems Engineer, and Dalia the Data Dabbler, each representing a distinct way of working with data.
  • To create these personas, the team used a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative insights from user interviews with quantitative analysis of employee data.
  • They found that understanding who their users are is crucial for building products that meet their needs, and by creating these personas, they were able to develop solutions that better serve each type of user.

Quantifying images’ “conceptual similarity”


Amazon Science

September 5, 2024

AI
Robotics
  • Researchers have developed a new way to measure how similar two images are, which is important for training computer vision systems.
  • Unlike traditional methods, this approach uses natural language descriptions of the images to assess their similarity, rather than just comparing pixel patterns.
  • The method works by generating multiple descriptions of each image at different lengths and then calculating the probability that each description refers to either image.
  • By looking at how quickly these probabilities change as the description length increases, the system can determine whether two images are similar or not.
  • This approach overcame several challenges in measuring image similarity, including randomness, lack of canonical properties, and adversarial manipulation, and was shown to be more accurate than existing methods, even when compared to human annotations.

Build a Discord Voice Bot to Add ChatGPT to Your Voice Channel


Assembly AI | By Michael Nyamande

September 5, 2024

Web
AI
Backend
  • Discord is a platform where people can chat, talk, and communicate with each other online.
  • To build a bot on Discord, you need to use special tools called APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow computers to talk to each other.
  • In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a bot that can understand what users are saying in real-time, respond to their questions, and even talk back to them using a computer voice.
  • We'll use three main APIs: AssemblyAI for understanding speech, OpenAI for answering questions, and ElevenLabs for creating the computer voice.
  • First, we set up the bot on Discord and make it join a voice channel where users can speak.
  • Then, we record what they say and send it to AssemblyAI to understand what they're saying.
  • Next, we send that understanding to OpenAI to get an answer, and finally, we take that answer and turn it into a computer voice using ElevenLabs.
  • Once we have all the parts working together, we can put them into one big code that makes our bot work.
  • This is a fun project that shows how computers can understand what humans are saying and respond back to them in their own language!.

6 ways to automate Facebook Messenger


Zapier | By Ellie Huizenga

September 10, 2024

AI
DevOps
  • If you're getting lots of Facebook messages about your services and struggling to keep up with responses, you can use automation to scale your process.
  • With Zapier, a workflow automation tool that integrates with thousands of apps, you can create automated workflows called Zaps that help you respond faster and more efficiently.
  • For example, you can set up a Zap to send quick replies to Facebook messages, or use AI to write personalized responses based on customer questions.
  • You can also send new Facebook messages to your team chat app, email, or even text message your phone for instant notifications.
  • Additionally, you can track Facebook messages in a project management app or Google Analytics to help you stay organized and efficient.
  • By automating these processes, you can provide a better customer experience, respond more promptly, and scale your responses without sacrificing quality.

A look at the technology trends that matter most


Mckinsey

September 5, 2024

AI
  • The tech sector remains strong despite market challenges and dips in investment, with innovation and interest in areas such as generative AI, robotics, and renewables continuing to grow.
  • According to McKinsey's Technology Trends Outlook 2024 report, gen AI is driving interest and investment in other trends, including digital twins and advanced connectivity.
  • Robotics is becoming more general-purpose and attracting increased interest and investment, while electrification and renewables are seeing growth and investment due to the need for sustainable energy sources.
  • CEOs can benefit from planning their communication strategies ahead of time, allocating 30% of their time to stakeholder engagement, and being prepared to manage crises by regularly stress-testing their company, having a built-in command center, keeping a long-term perspective, and maintaining personal resilience.

Cost savings on serverless compute for Notebooks, Jobs, and Pipelines


Databricks

September 5, 2024

Cloud
Backend
  • We've made our serverless computing capabilities available to everyone.
  • This means you can start working on projects quickly, without having to worry about setting up and managing servers, and our system will automatically handle tasks in the background.

How to create an approvals table with Zapier Tables


Zapier | By Elena Alston

September 5, 2024

AI
Algorithms
  • To set up an approvals workflow using Zapier Tables, start by creating a table and adding a button field to trigger automated actions when clicked.
  • You can choose to have the Zap run automatically or manually review records before processing them through connected Zaps.
  • To build the Zap, select the trigger app and event, then add action steps such as sending notifications in Slack or emails.
  • You can customize the message text by pulling in data from your table using field mappings.
  • Test the Zap to ensure it's working correctly, and once you're happy with it, publish it.
  • Finally, test out your table by approving and rejecting records to make sure everything is working smoothly.

CTRLorALTer: Conditional LoRAdapter for Efficient Zero-Shot Control & Altering of T2I Models


Apple ML Research

September 6, 2024

  • Researchers have developed a new approach called LoRAdapter to control how image generation models create images based on text descriptions.
  • This system allows for fine-tuned control over both the structure and style of the generated images, essentially giving users a lot of flexibility in customizing their output.
  • It uses a special type of block that can adjust its behavior without needing any specific training data, making it highly efficient and effective, even surpassing other current state-of-the-art methods.

6 ways to automate Recruit CRM with Zapier


Zapier | By Hannah Herman

September 9, 2024

  • Recruiting involves finding the right talent, making sure they're a good fit, and offering them a job, similar to sales.
  • To make this process easier, hiring teams use customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Recruit CRM, but also rely on other apps such as forms, Slack, and spreadsheets.
  • With automation from Zapier, you can connect these apps and create workflows that do work for you, freeing up your time to focus on recruiting.
  • You can automate tasks such as adding candidates to Recruit CRM from online application forms, sending emails based on activity in Recruit CRM, getting notifications when there are updates, sharing new jobs online, connecting Recruit CRM with a spreadsheet, and even getting AI-generated summaries of candidates.
  • By automating these repetitive tasks, you can make recruiting more efficient and human, allowing you to focus on building relationships with potential employees.

Surviving 40 years in the software industry [Interview with Jack Herrington Podcast #140]


freeCodeCamp | By Quincy Larson

September 6, 2024

  • On this week's podcast, I interviewed Jack Herrington, a software engineer who overcame Dyslexia and struggled with bad grades in school to have a successful 40-year career at companies like Nike and Adobe.
  • He also runs a popular YouTube channel called Blue Collar Coder.
  • We talked about how he got into game development as a kid, moved to Australia for his first developer job, started blogging and writing programming books, and more.
  • The episode is available on YouTube or through the freeCodeCamp Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other apps, and you can also check out links to Jack's social media and some of the topics we discussed.

Does the Resource Compiler have a separate preprocessor or doesn’t it?


Microsoft Devblogs | By Raymond Chen

September 10, 2024

  • It seems there's been confusion about how the C preprocessor and the Resource Compiler work.
  • While it's true that the stand-alone rc.exe program started as a version of the C preprocessor, the two have since diverged and are not exactly the same thing.
  • The Resource Compiler uses its own built-in preprocessor for 32-bit versions and has unique features like code page settings, whereas the C preprocessor doesn't support these options.
  • Additionally, when you ask the C compiler to produce a preprocessed file, it's more of an intermediate step in the compilation process than a direct representation of what the preprocessor does.

What’s new with Databricks SQL


Databricks

September 10, 2024

Database
  • Databricks SQL has been updated with new features and improvements that make it easier to use, run faster, and cost less than before.
  • This means users can now access and work with data more efficiently without breaking the bank.

“Breaking Barriers: Enhancing Accessibility to Reddit with AI” at KDD 2024


Reddit | By /u/sassyshalimar

September 5, 2024

AI
  • Reddit's mission is to bring community and belonging to everyone, everywhere, which includes making its platform accessible for people with disabilities.
  • To achieve this, the team presented a tutorial at the ACM SIGKDD conference on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance accessibility of social media content.
  • The tutorial showed how AI can help create short captions for images, transcribe audio clips and video descriptions, summarize complex posts, and convert text to speech, making it easier for people with visual, hearing, or cognitive impairments to engage with Reddit's community.
  • By removing barriers and making content accessible, Reddit aims to empower everyone to participate fully and share their perspectives, ultimately fostering a more inclusive society where individuals with disabilities can connect, learn, and contribute equally.

How the Comma Ok Idiom and Package System Work in Go


freeCodeCamp | By Temitope Oyedele

September 9, 2024

  • The "comma ok" idiom is a way of handling potential errors or missing values in Go by using a comma-separated return value, where one part represents the outcome of the operation and the other indicates whether it was successful.
  • This can be used for map key lookups, type assertions, channel reads, and more, allowing you to safely check if something exists without causing panic.
  • On the other hand, packages in Go are collections of related code that help structure your project logically, making it easier to manage dependencies and maintain your codebase.
  • When declaring a package, its name should be brief, meaningful, and written in lowercase characters, and it's essential to follow naming conventions and use the init() function for package-level initialization operations.
  • Mastering these two concepts will improve code readability, make your code more maintainable, and reduce the likelihood of errors.

Let’s meet at World Summit AI and talk about open source and AI tooling, with a dash of GenAI


Canonical | By Andreea Munteanu (Andreea Munteanu)

September 10, 2024

  • You can already book a meeting with one of our team members by using the link provided below to schedule an in-person meeting with them.

Major update on the ingress controller


Adidas | By Ángel Barrera Sánchez

September 6, 2024

Network
  • The company upgraded its ingress controller to improve security, but it was a complex process involving thousands of resources and multiple teams.
  • They introduced new default settings that increased security but also required changes from other teams.
  • During the upgrade, some applications experienced issues with duplicated headers, which were resolved by collaborating with those teams.
  • After the migration, they monitored the system for days to ensure everything was working smoothly, eventually dropping the old ingress controller and load balancer once all teams had updated their configurations.
  • The process was successful, allowing them to switch controllers without significant disruptions, and provided a valuable learning experience for the team.

3 Chrome updates to help you stay on top of your tabs


Google Chrome | By Kayce Hawkins

September 10, 2024

  • Chrome has recently updated its features to make it simpler for users to organize and access their tabs on both mobile phones and desktop computers.

A desktop touched by Midas: Oracular Oriole


Canonical | By Aaron Prisk (Aaron Prisk)

September 6, 2024

  • The Ubuntu Wallpaper Competition is just one of many ways to contribute to the Ubuntu community.
  • If you're interested in getting involved, you can find more information on how to participate at a dedicated webpage.

Building an Uber Clone with Flutter and Supabase


Supabase

September 5, 2024

  • This tutorial shows you how to build a basic Uber-like app using Flutter and Supabase, a database service that allows for real-time geospatial data handling.
  • You'll learn how to create a map-based interface, find available drivers, confirm fares, and track rides in real-time.
  • The process involves setting up a Supabase account, initializing the database with PostGIS extension, defining models for the app's data, implementing main UI components, and creating edge functions for route calculations and driver assignments.
  • You'll also learn how to update the car icon on the map as the driver moves and show a completion modal when the ride is finished.
  • By following this tutorial, you can build a functional Uber clone and understand how to handle real-time geospatial data using Supabase and Flutter.

GitLab named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms


Gitlab | By Ashley Kramer

September 5, 2024

  • This information comes from a report by Gartner Inc., a research company, and its affiliates.
  • The report does not recommend or endorse any particular vendor, product, or service, but rather presents opinions of Gartner's research organization.
  • The findings should be viewed in context with the entire report, which is available upon request, and should not be taken as fact.

How to make a Google Meet meeting


Zapier | By Deya Bhattacharya

September 5, 2024

Web
  • To set up a Google Meet meeting, you can use various methods such as starting from the Google Meet web app, mobile app, Google Calendar, or Gmail.
  • From the Google Meet web app, click "New meeting" and choose to create a meeting for later, start an instant meeting, or schedule in Google Calendar.
  • On mobile, open the Google Meet app and tap "New", then select "Create a new meeting" or "Schedule in Google Calendar".
  • You can also use Gmail to start a meeting by clicking on the "Meet" tab and selecting "New meeting".
  • Additionally, you can automatically create Google Meet meetings using Zapier, which connects your apps into automated workflows.

Slack vs. Discord: Which should you use? [2024]


Zapier | By Justin Pot

September 5, 2024

Hardware
  • Slack and Discord are two different apps that serve similar purposes, but they're designed for different uses.
  • Slack is ideal for businesses and teams, while Discord is better suited for online communities and gaming groups.
  • Despite their differences in branding and design philosophy, both apps have many similarities, such as their layout and features like text chat, video calls, and integrations with other apps.
  • However, Slack excels at text chat organization and has more polish, while Discord shines in audio and video quality, making it perfect for gaming and community building.
  • Slack also offers thousands of integrations with business applications, whereas Discord relies on third-party bots and workarounds.
  • In terms of pricing, Slack's free version is limited, while Discord is mostly free, but Slack offers more control for companies and has features like direct messages that live within a specific instance, making it more secure for businesses.

Announcing the Office Add-ins Development Kit for Visual Studio Code (public preview)


Microsoft Devblogs | By Mingjia Liu

September 9, 2024

Web
Coding
  • Microsoft has released a new tool called the Office Add-ins Development Kit for Visual Studio Code to help developers create and debug Office add-ins in a streamlined way.
  • With this kit, you can easily set up your environment, create new projects with templates or samples, and preview your add-in in Microsoft Office applications like Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
  • To get started, you need to download and install Visual Studio Code, Node.js, and a Microsoft 365 subscription, then install the Office Add-ins Development Kit from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.
  • Once installed, you can choose between creating an add-in from a template or a sample, which will guide you through setting up the project with basic files and scaffolding.
  • You can then preview your add-in in Office apps using the "Preview Your Office Add-in" feature, and debug the code to make sure it works as expected.
  • The kit is currently available for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word add-ins, but Microsoft plans to support other Office applications and platforms soon.

The 6 best AI writing generators in 2024


Zapier | By Harry Guinness

September 9, 2024

AI
  • AI writing tools are becoming more common and integrated into various apps, making them easier to use.
  • Some notable AI chatbots include ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, which can be used for free.
  • Other apps like Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Wordtune, Grammarly, Notion AI, Coda AI, Surfer, and Frase offer AI features to help with editing, improving writing, SEO optimization, and content creation.
  • Many email and texting apps also have AI-powered tools available, often with a free trial option.
  • This makes it simple for users to try out different tools until they find the one that fits their workflow best.

Live Media Reimagined: NVIDIA Holoscan for Media Now Available for Production


Nvidia | By Sepi Motamedi

September 9, 2024

AI
Backend
  • Companies in the broadcast and streaming industries are switching to new technology called software-defined infrastructure to make their operations more flexible and efficient.
  • NVIDIA Holoscan for Media is a platform that allows live media and video pipelines to run together with AI on the same equipment, making it easier for companies to use and develop new tools to enhance production and delivery.
  • This platform includes various applications such as AI captioning, graphics, and video processing, and can be used by developers to simplify their work and integrate emerging technologies like AI into their systems.
  • Many companies are already adopting this technology, including Beamr, Qvest, and Speechmatics, which believe that it will help them innovate and improve their services.

Learn to Build Your First Blazor Hybrid App!


Microsoft Devblogs | By Sweeky Satpathy

September 10, 2024

Web
  • We're starting to code now and building our first Blazor Hybrid app, which combines web development with mobile apps using .NET MAUI.
  • To help us along the way, we have access to some great resources such as workshops for Blazor Hybrid, .NET MAUI, and general Blazor, as well as tutorials on how to build our first .NET MAUI app and create web apps with Blazor.

How to Use HTML Attributes to Make Your Websites and Apps More Accessible


freeCodeCamp | By Elizabeth Lola

September 6, 2024

Web
  • This article helps you make your website more accessible by explaining important HTML attributes for accessibility.
  • You'll learn about ARIA attributes and how to use them correctly, such as aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby, which provide alternative text for screen readers.
  • Other crucial attributes include role, which defines the purpose of an element, tabindex, which controls keyboard navigation, and title, which provides additional information in a tooltip.
  • The article also covers best practices for using these attributes to ensure that all website visitors can use your site easily, including those with visual, auditory, or motor impairments.
  • By following this guide, you'll be able to create more inclusive web experiences that everyone can enjoy.

Implementing a RAG chatbot using Databricks and Pinecone


Databricks

September 9, 2024

  • Imagine giving your business an intelligent bot to talk to customers - this is basically what a chatbot does.
  • It's a computer program that helps companies communicate with their clients and provide them with information or solutions to problems they might be having, all through text-based conversations.

Start a club on Notion!


Notion | By Drew Evans

September 10, 2024

  • College students can boost their campus experience by joining or starting a club and using Notion, a free organizational tool with a student org discount.
  • Two clubs, the App Development Club at Oregon State University and Waterloo Formula Electric at the University of Waterloo, share how they use Notion to stay organized and productive.
  • The App Development Club has over 600 members who focus on teaching students app development skills through workshops and project collaborations, using Notion for planning events, managing projects, and sharing knowledge.
  • In contrast, Waterloo Formula Electric is a team of engineers building and racing electric cars, with Notion helping them track their manufacturing process, manage documentation, and avoid past mistakes.
  • Both clubs praise Notion's flexibility and ease of use, recommending it to other clubs as a way to foster collaboration and productivity without losing focus on their projects and goals.

Super Discoverability for a Super App


Swiggy | By Farhan Rasheed

September 10, 2024

Web
Mobile
Algorithms
  • The company Swiggy decided to create a feature called "Instamart" which allows users to easily access their most used features of the app by creating shortcuts on their phone's home screen or in the app drawer.
  • To do this, they had to get user consent to enable the shortcut feature and then implemented it in the code.
  • They also changed the label from just "Instamart" to "Instamart by Swiggy" to make it more discoverable for users searching for either Instamart or Swiggy terms.
  • This change resulted in a 30% increase in clicks on the app drawer entry.
  • The team used code to create the pinned shortcut and requested permission from the user to pin it, but noted some limitations of this approach, such as only being able to disable the shortcut programmatically and requiring Android 8 (Oreo) or higher to support it.

The best video editing software in 2024


Zapier | By Tim Brookes

September 9, 2024

Web
AI
  • There are many video editing apps available, but some stand out for their ease of use and features.
  • For beginners, Filmora and CapCut offer user-friendly interfaces with advanced features like object tracking and chroma keying.
  • If you're an Apple user, iMovie is a great option as it's free and deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem.
  • For those willing to invest time in learning, DaVinci Resolve and industry-standard apps like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro offer powerful tools.
  • Mid-range editors like Filmora and PowerDirector 365 strike a balance between simplicity and features, while other options like Camtasia for screencasts and VEGAS Pro for Windows users also have their strengths.

New Report from the Linux Foundation and Natural Resources Canada: Open Source and Energy Interoperability


Linux Foundation | By andrewb@proximabiz.com (The Linux Foundation)

September 6, 2024

Backend
  • The use of open source technology in Canada's energy sector has the potential to improve grid reliability and efficiency, increase innovation, and enhance interoperability between utilities and connected devices.
  • However, despite its benefits, the country remains slow to adopt this technology due to barriers such as reliance on proprietary systems, regulatory disparities, and privacy concerns.
  • To overcome these obstacles, experts recommend collaboration among stakeholders, government incentives, education, and capacity building to promote open source participation and establish interoperability standards.
  • By embracing open source approaches, Canada can increase innovation, efficiency, and sustainability in its path towards clean energy and grid modernization.

Increase your Microsoft Teams app’s visibility and adoption with asynchronous link unfurling


Microsoft Devblogs | By Sukhmani Lamba

September 10, 2024

Web
Security
  • To make your Microsoft Teams app go viral, focus on getting users to share its content within group chats, meetings, and company-wide posts in Teams channels, as widespread sharing boosts engagement among existing users and attracts new ones.
  • To amplify this effect, you can use link unfurling, a feature that enriches shared links with interactive content previews showcasing your app's value and increasing the likelihood of users engaging with the link.
  • With asynchronous capabilities, viewers can now preview content without installing your app, boosting discovery and motivating new users to click the link and install it for deeper engagement.
  • This is achieved by automatically unfurling links after a message has been sent, making it easier for users to share and discover your app's content.

The McKinsey Crossword: Look Both Ways | No. 197


Mckinsey

September 10, 2024

  • You can either play this interactive puzzle online or print it out when you're ready to solve it.
  • You can also check back every Tuesday for new puzzles or sign up to receive a reminder each week when the next challenge is available.

6 ways to automate Mighty Networks


Zapier | By Hannah Herman

September 9, 2024

  • You can use Zapier to automatically notify you about important activity on your Mighty Networks community, such as new signups or questions, so you don't have to waste time watching for it.
  • With Zapier's flexible workflows and webhooks, you can also create custom notifications based on any app with an API, and automate tasks like sending new member invites.
  • This way, you can focus on building a strong community and forming real relationships, rather than doing tedious manual work, making Mighty Networks the center of powerful automation workflows for engagement.

How to Use JavaScript Array Splice


Refine.dev

September 5, 2024

  • The JavaScript `splice()` method allows you to modify an array by adding or removing elements at specific positions.
  • It's a powerful tool for cleaning up code and making it more efficient.
  • For example, if you have an array `[1, 2, 'a', 'b', 5]` and you want to delete the middle elements and insert new ones in their place, you can use `splice()` with destructuring to achieve this in a single step while getting instant access to the removed elements.

Speaker diarization vs speaker recognition - what's the difference?


Assembly AI | By Ryan O'Connor

September 9, 2024

  • Speaker diarization is a process that groups audio segments by speaker identity without knowing who they are, essentially labeling each part of a conversation with a letter (A, B, etc.).
  • This is useful for understanding conversation structure and can be applied in business meetings or call centers.
  • Speaker recognition, on the other hand, identifies or verifies a speaker's personal identity using vocal patterns, which requires training data to compare voices.
  • It's often used in security systems, voice-activated devices, and smart homes.
  • A combination of both techniques can achieve segmented audio with identified speakers, allowing for more accurate analysis.
  • Additionally, there are subcategories like speaker verification (verifying a preselected identity) and speaker identification (mapping a voice to a pool of potential identities), which have different applications and requirements.

How Statically and Dynamically Linked Go Binaries Work


freeCodeCamp | By Alex Pliutau

September 10, 2024

Backend
Network
Coding
  • When we compile Go programs, it can produce either statically linked or dynamically linked executables.
  • Statically linked executables bundle all needed libraries into the final program file, making them easier to deploy and distribute, but potentially larger in size.
  • Dynamically linked executables, on the other hand, link with external shared libraries during runtime, allowing for smaller executable sizes, reusing popular libraries like libc, and benefiting from system updates without re-linking the program.
  • Understanding how Go's compiler works is crucial for developing robust cross-platform applications, and it's essential to choose between static and dynamic linking based on specific project needs, considering factors such as deployment ease, binary size, and security concerns.

What is data analysis? Examples and how to get started


Zapier | By Shea Stevens

September 10, 2024

AI
Data Science
  • Data analysis is the process of examining and interpreting data to help solve problems and make informed decisions in business.
  • It involves understanding both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (words) data to paint a complete picture.
  • There are five main types of data analysis: text analysis, statistical analysis, diagnostic analysis, predictive analysis, and prescriptive analysis, each serving a different purpose.
  • The data analysis process includes decision-making, collecting relevant data from internal and external sources, cleaning the data for accuracy, analyzing it to find patterns and trends, interpreting the results to draw conclusions, and visualizing the findings in graphs, charts, or dashboards to communicate insights to stakeholders.
  • By automating data collection and using various tools and software, businesses can efficiently collect, clean, analyze, and interpret their data to make informed decisions and achieve their goals.

How to add a dropdown list in Google Sheets


Zapier | By Jessica Lau

September 10, 2024

Algorithms
  • To keep your Google Sheets organized and accurate, you can use dropdown lists to add or organize data with ease.
  • A dropdown list includes a list of values such as numbers or categories that you can select from by clicking on a cell in your spreadsheet.
  • You can create a dropdown list using preset values or existing data already entered in your spreadsheet.
  • To do this, select the cell where you want to add the dropdown list, go to Data > Data validation, and enter your options.
  • If you're using existing data, simply highlight the cells with the values you want to include and right-click to add them as a dropdown option.
  • You can edit or remove a dropdown list by clicking on the cell, selecting Edit, and making changes in the Data validation rules panel.
  • Using a dropdown list helps reduce typos and incorrect info, saves time, especially when collaborating, and opens up more options for using Google Sheets, such as creating forms for data collection, inventory management, and surveys.

Break for Async User-Unhandled exceptions in the Visual Studio Debugger


Microsoft Devblogs | By Anders Sundheim

September 10, 2024

Backend
Coding
  • In .NET 9 and newer projects, the Visual Studio Debugger will now automatically break when an async method throws an exception back to framework code, making it easier to identify and diagnose issues in ASP.NET applications.
  • This change addresses a long-standing issue where exceptions thrown from user-code async methods into non-user code framework methods were not properly tracked by the debugger.
  • With this update, you'll be able to see where and why unhandled exceptions occur, leading to faster debugging cycles and improved productivity.

The 10 best platforms to create and sell online courses in 2024


Zapier | By Kiera Abbamonte

September 5, 2024

  • When choosing an online course platform, consider your budget, time constraints, and goals - whether it's teaching, growing an audience, or earning income.
  • Start with a course marketplace to test the waters, then move to launching your own website once you've validated your content.
  • Don't worry about switching platforms, as most support content migration for free or a fee.
  • The right platform should let you focus on creating great content, not fussing over getting it out to your audience.

The Fundamentals of Qdrant: Understanding the 6 Core Concepts | Airbyte


Airbyte

September 9, 2024

AI
Backend
Algorithms
  • Qdrant is an open-source vector database designed for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.
  • It stores high-dimensional vectors as points, which are similar to rows in relational databases but exist within collections.
  • Each point has a unique ID, an optional payload with extra information, and a vector representing its semantic meaning.
  • Qdrant supports various operations like updating vectors, deleting points, and querying based on similarity or metadata restrictions.
  • It also offers features like multitenancy for restricting access to specific user groups and quantization for reducing vector size to improve performance, but potentially sacrificing accuracy.
  • Indexing strategies like Hierarchical Navigable Small Worlds (HNSW) are used to efficiently locate similar vectors.
  • By integrating Qdrant with Airbyte, users can connect it with other data sources and enhance their AI capabilities through end-to-end retrieval-augmented generation workflows.

How to perform Speaker Diarization in Python


Assembly AI | By Ryan O'Connor

September 10, 2024

AI
Backend
  • To perform speaker diarization on an audio file, you need to use AssemblyAI's API and Python SDK.
  • First, install the SDK with pip in your terminal, then set up a configuration for transcription and enable speaker labels by setting `speaker_labels=True`.
  • After transcribing the audio file, you can print out who is speaking when by iterating through each segment of the transcript and printing off the speaker label and text.
  • This will give you a list like "Speaker A: Call is now being recorded..." which shows who is speaking at different times in the conversation.
  • You can also add timestamps to the transcript if needed, showing exactly when each speaker spoke.
  • Speaker diarization is used to identify unique speakers in an audio file without prior knowledge of the speakers, as opposed to speaker recognition which requires a set of known speakers and a training period.

Introduction to React Table - TanStack Table Adapter for React


Refine.dev

September 6, 2024

Web
  • TanStack's library allows you to manage data and tables on the web without being tied to any specific framework, so it works with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and more.
  • It has a special adapter just for React called React Table, which helps you use its features in a way that feels natural to React developers.

Collaborators: Silica in space with Richard Black and Dexter Greene


Microsoft Research | By Alyssa Hughes

September 5, 2024

AI
  • Dr. Richard Black and student Dexter Greene from Avenues are working together to create a new version of the Golden Record, which was included in the Voyager spacecrafts 50 years ago.
  • The record represents humanity and Earth to potential extraterrestrial beings, encapsulating our existence through visuals and sounds.
  • This new version is being created using Silica, an archival storage technology that stores data inside fused silica glass.
  • The process involves writing data with ultrashort laser pulses and reading it with a microscope.
  • Silica is designed for storing archival data in the cloud, which needs to be kept for many years or longer.
  • It's especially useful for industries like finance, healthcare, media, and scientific research that need to keep large amounts of data.
  • The team is also thinking about how to include everything about humanity without leaving anything out, as they believe it's worth capturing who we are with the fullest picture possible.
  • Even if there's no intelligent life outside our planet, this project is still valuable for us to reflect on ourselves and improve what we've done in the past and can do in the future.
  • The team plans to get the record ready within the next couple of years and collaborate with space agencies to send it into space.

Why is F# code so robust and reliable?


Microsoft Devblogs | By Shchur Vladimir

September 9, 2024

Web
Database
Backend
  • The article discusses how the programming language F# helped a team develop robust and readable code for their EasyCoin project, reducing bugs to nearly zero.
  • F# features such as immutability by default, discriminative unions with exhaustive check, no nulls by default, idiomatic way of dealing with missing values, and strict dependency order all contributed to this success.
  • Additionally, F# allows developers to avoid common issues like exceptions in business logic, typed primitives, and explicit dependency injection, making it easier to write maintainable code.
  • The language also supports a functional approach to concurrency using actors or channels, which simplifies reasoning and reduces shared data bugs.
  • Overall, the team found that F#'s features helped them write robust and readable code with minimal bugs, resulting in happier customers and a more efficient development process.

Maintaining Hundreds of API Connectors with the Low-Code CDK and Connector Builder | Airbyte


Airbyte

September 5, 2024

Backend
Data Science
  • Airbyte introduced a low-code framework called the Connector Builder, which allows developers to create API connectors without writing complex code.
  • This framework simplifies the development process and enables users to build and maintain connectors more efficiently.
  • The low-code CDK abstracts common logic and reuses components across multiple connectors, reducing code duplication and implementation time.
  • It also provides a comprehensive UI that guides developers through the process of building connectors, allowing for smoother testing and iteration.
  • Airbyte migrated 38 existing API connectors to the new framework, resulting in improved connector quality, reduced maintenance burden, and empowered community contributions.
  • The low-code CDK has revolutionized how Airbyte develops and scales its catalog of API connectors, making it easier for users to integrate with various APIs and contributing to the success of Airbyte 1.0 release.

Secure open source container infrastructure with GitLab and Chainguard


Gitlab | By Fernando Diaz

September 9, 2024

Web
Cloud
Backend
  • This content explains how to use GitLab to automate security testing and scanning of software applications.
  • It provides examples of how to set up jobs in a .gitlab-ci.yml file to run unit tests, build container images, and scan for vulnerabilities using various tools such as Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Infrastructure as Code Scanning (IaC), Container Scanning, Dependency Scanning, License Compliance, Secret Detection, Web API Fuzzing, and Coverage-guided Fuzzing.
  • It also mentions that these scanners can be easily added to a pipeline by importing the appropriate scanner template in the .gitlab-ci.yml file.
  • Additionally, it touches on using Chainguard with GitLab to provide additional build integrity guarantees and prevent tampering.

Introduction to HTMX


Refine.dev

September 6, 2024

Web
  • HTMX is a small JavaScript library that makes it easy to create dynamic and interactive web pages without writing complex code.
  • It uses server-driven state management, which means the server controls what happens on the page, allowing for seamless updates and animations with just CSS and HTML.
  • This library also includes an extension framework and can handle complex state management, making it a powerful tool for building dynamic applications.
  • With HTMX, you can create smooth transitions, animations, and even cancel requests made by buttons or forms, all without relying on JavaScript.

4 ways to automate QuickBooks Online


Zapier | By Daniel Kenitz

September 9, 2024

DevOps
  • Staying on top of your business finances throughout the year can make tax season less stressful, and automating tasks with QuickBooks Online and Zapier can help achieve this.
  • You can automate notifications for new payments and invoices, connect accounting and eCommerce apps to track orders and sales, back up transactions in a spreadsheet like Google Sheets or Airtable, and even use webhooks to integrate with other business-critical apps not supported by Zapier.
  • By setting up automated workflows called "Zaps," you can free yourself from manual updates and focus on your business, receiving email alerts or Slack messages when payments come in, new expenses are registered, or invoices are due, ensuring your books stay up-to-date and giving you peace of mind about your cash flow.

Bun v1.1.27


Bun

September 7, 2024

Security
Backend
Data Science
Coding
  • Bun, a JavaScript runtime, has released version 1.1.26 with several key improvements and bug fixes.
  • Now, Bun's built-in watch and hot reloading feature supports watching arbitrary file types, allowing developers to import any type of file for real-time updates.
  • Additionally, Node.js compatibility has been improved with fixes for crashes and errors in N-API packages like DuckDB and Next.js middleware.
  • Other notable changes include resolving issues with AES-GCM encryption, Buffer handling, and out-of-memory errors.
  • The release also addresses problems with the mssql package, node:http agent, and fetch reliability on Windows.
  • Furthermore, several bugs have been fixed, such as truncated large files, terminal screen clearing issues, and performance improvements for Map and Set in Bun's deepEquals function.
  • Overall, this update enhances Bun's stability and functionality, making it a more reliable choice for developers.

Times, they are a changin’, so we’re automatin’


McDonald's Tech Blog | By Global Technology

September 10, 2024

  • Automating change management processes using workflows can help companies speed up their market entry by streamlining tasks and approvals, making it easier for developers and employees to work efficiently, reducing operational risks, and enabling growth through scalable automation.
  • This technology helps integrate various systems and tools, allowing companies to keep up with increasing changes in modern architecture and agile practices, ultimately enhancing the overall experience of everyone involved.

UI-JEPA: Towards Active Perception of User Intent Through Onscreen User Activity


Apple ML Research

September 9, 2024

Performance
  • Researchers have been trying to develop systems that can predict what people want when they interact with digital devices, but current methods require powerful computers and large amounts of labeled data.
  • To address this issue, a new framework called UI-JEPA was proposed, which uses self-supervised learning and a decoder to predict user intent from unlabeled data.
  • This approach has been tested on two new datasets and outperformed existing systems in terms of accuracy while using significantly less computational resources and being faster, making it more suitable for use on devices such as smartphones.

Celebrating and Honoring Testers on World Tester’s Day


Browserstack | By Shweta Chhillar

September 9, 2024

  • Today is World Tester's Day, celebrating the hard work of testers and quality engineers who ensure our products are reliable and efficient.
  • A tester's day typically involves testing various devices and browsers to find bugs before users do, writing test cases for unlikely scenarios, and collaborating with development teams.
  • Despite the challenges, including long hours and tight deadlines, testers play a crucial role in keeping the tech world moving.
  • To make their lives easier, companies like BrowserStack provide tools that automate mundane tasks and help replicate bugs across multiple environments.
  • As a token of appreciation, BrowserStack is honoring industry icons who share their knowledge with the community, and invites you to nominate someone who has made an impact on your software testing journey using #IconsOfQuality.

5 ways to automate Linear with Zapier


Zapier | By Hsing Tseng

September 5, 2024

DevOps
  • Linear is a powerful tool for managing software projects, but manual tasks like creating recurring issues and sending notifications can slow you down.
  • Zapier helps automate these repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on building great products.
  • With Zapier's automated workflows (called Zaps!), you can set up Linear to create recurring issues, notify your team about new issues, turn emails and chat messages into issues, transform issues into project tasks, and more.
  • This automation saves time and creates a seamless workflow between Linear and other tools you use, allowing you to manage your projects more efficiently and effectively.

Facebook automation: 6 ways to streamline Facebook Pages


Zapier | By Elena Alston

September 10, 2024

AI
Algorithms
  • Facebook automation helps businesses manage their online presence without manual effort.
  • It allows you to automate tasks such as sharing content from your blog or YouTube across various social media platforms, using AI to analyze and manage your social activity, managing online reviews and customer testimonials, posting on a schedule, sending notifications for new posts, and promoting company events.
  • With tools like Zapier, you can connect multiple apps and automate these tasks, saving time and resources.
  • This way, you can focus on engaging with your audience, optimizing your strategy, and making your social media presence more impactful.
  • By automating your Facebook Page management, you can keep your online presence up-to-date while growing your business without the hassle of manual updates.

6 ways to automate ClickSend SMS


Zapier | By Nicole Replogle

September 9, 2024

  • ClickSend SMS is a multi-channel business messaging app that lets you interact with customers over text, voice, email, and more from one hub.
  • To manage your contacts and conversations efficiently, you can use automated workflows called Zaps to connect ClickSend SMS to other apps like Google Sheets, Mailchimp, or Slack.
  • For example, you can set up a Zap to send an automatic welcome message to new leads, save incoming texts to a spreadsheet, or notify your team of new messages in ClickSend.
  • These automations can help you follow up with customers quickly, keep your contacts list updated across marketing tools, and appear present on multiple channels at the same time, saving you time and effort.

Asia–Pacific’s family office boom: Opportunity knocks


Mckinsey

September 9, 2024

AI
Security
Backend
Game Dev
Algorithms
  • The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing significant growth in ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth families, with an estimated $5.8 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer between 2023 and 2030.
  • This presents a substantial opportunity for banks, insurers, multi-family offices, asset managers, and WealthTechs to provide differentiated services to family offices.
  • Family offices in Asia-Pacific differ from their Western counterparts in terms of governance models, investment strategies, and operating costs, with the average single-family office requiring at least $100 million in assets under management to be viable.
  • To address the needs of these complex clients, service providers can consider a framework of scalability, solutions, service, and security, including adopting new pricing models, leveraging partnerships, using data and AI for deeper insights, and prioritizing data security and privacy.
  • By doing so, financial firms can help family offices achieve their financial goals and set each family up for success for generations to come.

Enhancing Customer Support through AI-powered ticket issue categorization


Razorpay | By Swati Agarwal

September 6, 2024

Backend
  • A company improved its ticket issue categorization process using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
  • The old process was manual and required users to select categories themselves, but this new system uses natural language processing to automatically assign a category based on the user's description of their issue.
  • If the resolution steps are automated for that category, the system generates a potential resolution, which is then verified by an agent before being communicated to the user.
  • This has significantly improved accuracy from 60% to 85%, allowing for better analysis and insights into ticket issues, ultimately enhancing efficiency and customer support.

Riverbed Data Hydration — Part 1


Airbnb | By Xiangmin Liang

September 10, 2024

Backend
  • Riverbed is a framework designed by Airbnb to optimize how data is consumed from system-of-record data stores and update secondary read-optimized stores.
  • It uses a concept called materialized views - denormalized representations of data that can be queried in a predictable, efficient manner.
  • The framework consists of two main pipelines: the Source Pipeline, which consumes changes in system-of-record data sources and publishes notification events to the Notification Pipeline; and the Notification Pipeline, which constructs and sinks materialized view documents from these events.
  • The Notification Pipeline is where the magic happens, with operations like ingestion, join, stitch, and sink that work together to transform raw data into usable and functional models.
  • One of its most critical components is the Join operation, which uses a DAG-like structure called JoinConditionsDag to store relationship metadata among data sources and another structure called JoinResultsDag to efficiently store joined results.
  • The Stitch operation then transforms these varied data pieces into a more usable model called the StitchModel, which is finally written into data sinks like Apache Hive or Kafka for ingestion.

Simplified, faster development with new capabilities in Databricks VS Code Extension


Databricks

September 10, 2024

  • We're excited to announce new features for the Databricks Visual Studio Code Extension.
  • This update makes it easier to set up projects built on Databricks by allowing users to quickly and efficiently manage their work in a single interface.

Improving Efficiency Of Goku Time Series Database at Pinterest (Part — 3)


Pinterest | By Pinterest Engineering

September 9, 2024

DevOps
  • The GokuS application at Pinterest was initially experiencing huge memory usage due to storing time series objects, so they decided to analyze its characteristics.
  • They found out that almost half of the stored data was deleted and replaced daily, most time series were empty, and nearly half had no data in the last four hours.
  • To resolve this issue, they planned to store time series in object pools for reuse, which would reduce memory usage by 30-40 GiB and fragmentation.
  • Additionally, they reduced costs by replacing legacy code with more efficient ones and re-evaluating hardware instance types, allowing them to accommodate a 30% increase in storage without adding new capacity, resulting in overall cost savings of 70%.

The musical ABCs of songs on Duolingo


Duolingo | By Álex Adame Basilio

September 5, 2024

  • Duolingo's music course offers a wide variety of songs and styles to practice, from classical pieces like Mozart's "Air" to show-stopping Broadway melodies like "Give My Regards to Broadway".
  • You'll also learn holiday classics like "Jingle Bells" and folk songs like "Oh, My Darling Clementine", as well as jazz, gospel, country ballads, spirituals, and rock n' roll.
  • The course covers different genres and styles, including dance music like the waltz and tarantella, and teaches you to express emotions through music.
  • With Duolingo's music course, you'll be able to develop your musical versatility and enjoy a wide range of familiar songs, from classic Christmas carols to modern rock hits.

LLM Assisted Segmentation for Games


Databricks

September 6, 2024

  • Segmentation projects are key to making games more personal for each player, which helps keep players interested and playing longer, reduces the number of players who stop playing (churn), and overall increases how much time players spend on the game.

4 ways to automate JobAdder with Zapier


Zapier | By Hannah Herman

September 6, 2024

  • Hiring teams use multiple apps to manage their applicant pipeline, but manually switching between these apps can be time-consuming and inefficient.
  • Zapier is a workflow automation software that connects these apps, such as JobAdder, email marketing tools, and spreadsheets, to automate tasks and free up more time for the hiring team.
  • With Zapier, you can create automated workflows (called Zaps) to perform tasks like adding new contacts to your mailing list, sending emails based on JobAdder activity, connecting JobAdder with a spreadsheet, and turning form responses into JobAdder candidates.
  • By automating these tasks, hiring teams can work more efficiently, reduce manual labor, and create great candidate experiences.

Three Ways to Ride the Flywheel of Cybersecurity AI


Nvidia | By Bartley Richardson

September 5, 2024

AI
Security
  • As companies adopt generative AI, they're also using it to enhance their security against potential threats, much like how early internet adopters used its benefits to become proficient in modern network security.
  • Three top security threats for large language models (LLMs) can be addressed with AI: prompt injections, sensitive data disclosure, and access control risks.
  • To prevent prompt injections, AI guardrails can be built into or placed around LLMs.
  • To detect and protect sensitive data, an AI model trained to sanitize datasets can help safeguard against revealing confidential information.
  • Finally, AI can assist in providing access controls for LLMs by detecting privilege escalation.
  • By deploying AI in meaningful use cases, organizations can become familiar with it and ultimately trust it as a form of automation that enhances their security and makes cybersecurity better.

Volvo Cars EX90 SUV Rolls Out, Built on NVIDIA Accelerated Computing and AI


Nvidia | By Ali Kani

September 5, 2024

AI
Data Science
Hardware
Robotics
  • Volvo Cars' new electric SUV, EX90, features NVIDIA's advanced computing technology to ensure its customers have access to the latest safety features and capabilities.
  • The car's onboard computer can perform over 250 trillion operations per second, making it an "intelligent mobile device on wheels" equipped with a suite of sensors and cameras.
  • Volvo Cars is also planning to upgrade to NVIDIA's next-generation processing system, called DRIVE Thor, which will quadruple the computing power and improve energy efficiency sevenfold.
  • To support the development of autonomous driving features, Volvo Cars has invested in NVIDIA's AI training systems, known as DGX systems, to train and test advanced safety features in the cloud, allowing them to deliver safe vehicles with peace of mind for customers.

Zapier Canvas: Visualize, plan, and automate business-critical processes


Zapier | By Elena Alston

September 5, 2024

AI
  • Zapier Canvas is a free AI-powered tool that helps you visualize and automate business-critical processes by creating a bird's eye view of how your Zaps, apps, data, and teammates tie into a specific process.
  • With Canvas, you can outline every step and app along the way, plan new processes, optimize existing ones, and share them with your team for collaboration.
  • You can also use AI-powered recommendations to suggest Zaps that could automate parts of the process.
  • Key features include an AI builder to help create processes automatically, automated steps to add new or pull in existing Zaps, and grouped nodes to organize complex workflows.
  • Once you have a plan, you can transform it into an automated solution with Canvas.

What is Cache Poisoning? How Hackers Manipulate Web Caches and How to Avoid It


freeCodeCamp | By Manish Shivanandhan

September 5, 2024

Web
Backend
  • Cache poisoning is a cyber-attack where hackers manipulate the stored data in a web cache, making it serve malicious content to users instead of the real page they requested.
  • This happens when a hacker identifies which resources on a website are cached and crafts a request that includes harmful content, which gets stored as a legitimate response by the cache server without being checked for validity.
  • To protect against this, websites should always sanitize input from users, use secure caching headers to avoid caching sensitive data, control cache key settings to prevent user-specific parameters from being cached, implement HTTPS to ensure data integrity, and properly validate requests to prevent attackers from injecting malicious content into cached responses.

AssemblyAI's C# .NET SDK + Latest Tutorials


Assembly AI | By Smitha Kolan

September 6, 2024

AI
Backend
  • AssemblyAI has released a new .NET SDK that makes it easy to use their Speech AI models with C# programming language.
  • This SDK allows you to transcribe audio and video files, identify speakers, detect topics, summarize content, and even redact sensitive information.
  • They've also provided example code on how to get started and have published tutorials on building a Discord voice bot, an AI-powered video conferencing app, detecting scam calls, and more.
  • Additionally, they offer YouTube tutorials on using AssemblyAI's Speech Recognition model to detect languages in speech, real-time speech recognition, and building a chatbot with large language models.

I'm anti to-do list—here are the 6 lists I make instead


Zapier | By Elise Dopson

September 6, 2024

  • A traditional to-do list can sometimes cause anxiety and stress because it focuses on what's left to do rather than what you've already accomplished.
  • To combat this, some people have found alternative approaches to task management, such as creating separate lists for different types of tasks, like "things I need to do" (urgent and important), "monthly goal list" (important but not urgent), "can I outsource or automate this?" (repetitive tasks that can be delegated), "spare time to-do list" (small tasks that take less than 15 minutes), "things I've already done" (to focus on accomplishments), and "things I have permission not to do" (tasks that are okay to skip).
  • By using these alternative lists, you can manage your tasks in a more productive way and reduce stress.

Create better lead magnets with FlippingBook


Zapier | By Krystina Martinez

September 6, 2024

  • You've created a lead magnet like an eBook to grab people's attention, but now you want them to take action and talk to your sales team or make a purchase, but a static PDF makes it hard for them.
  • FlippingBook helps turn that PDF into an interactive flipbook with forms, videos, and links, making it engaging and easy to interact with.
  • You can track leads in real-time using Zapier, which connects with Google Sheets and other tools, so you can see who's interested and adjust your strategy to get results.

How AI Helps Manage 100,000 Engineering-Related Documents: Overcoming Content Management Challenges


Salesforce | By Scott Nyberg

September 5, 2024

AI
Security
Robotics
  • Salesforce has a massive library of over 100,000 documents to help its customers use their products and platforms effectively, but managing such a large collection is a big challenge.
  • The company's content team uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve documentation efficiency and accuracy, which results in better support for users, more value from Salesforce products, and a more positive experience overall.
  • AI helps with tasks like creating technical videos, finding related content, processing customer feedback, and even translating documents into different languages, making it easier to maintain consistency and accuracy across the vast content library.

Better-performing “25519” elliptic-curve cryptography


Amazon Science

September 10, 2024

Performance
Cloud
Security
Backend
Hardware
Algorithms
  • Amazon's team developed faster and more efficient versions of cryptographic algorithms, such as RSA and x25519, using formal verification to ensure their correctness.
  • They used these techniques to improve performance on various CPU architectures, including Graviton2 and Arm64 chips, with boosts in speed ranging from 37% to 113%.
  • The team also optimized the Ed25519 signing operation, increasing its number of operations per second by an average of 108%, and made similar improvements for other cryptographic algorithms.
  • To facilitate integration into applications, Amazon created bindings for AWS-LC (Amazon's cryptography library) in multiple programming languages, including Java, Rust, and CPython, allowing developers to easily leverage the optimized algorithms for their cryptographic needs.

GraphRAG auto-tuning provides rapid adaptation to new domains


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

September 9, 2024

AI
Robotics
  • GraphRAG is a tool that uses large language models to create a comprehensive knowledge graph from any collection of text documents, allowing it to generate responses to complex queries.
  • The knowledge graph creation process, called indexing, involves using domain-specific prompts to instruct the LLM on what entities and relationships to extract from the source content.
  • However, manually creating these prompts can be time-consuming, so GraphRAG developed an automated tool that generates domain-specific prompts based on a sample of text data.
  • This auto-tuning process allows GraphRAG to rapidly adapt to new domains and produce high-quality results.
  • By comparing default and auto-tuned prompts, the team found that the auto-tuned prompt yielded a larger knowledge graph with more entities and relationships, enabling it to better serve global search queries.
  • The improved knowledge graph also enabled GraphRAG to provide valid responses to complex queries, such as identifying the relationship between Ashley Llorens and Chicago.
  • This development makes GraphRAG more accessible and turnkey, removing many of the challenges involved in working with new datasets, and invites users to try out these capabilities using GraphRAG's core library and Azure-based solution accelerator available on GitHub.

Askia, an Ipsos company, achieved faster, reproducible builds with vcpkg


Microsoft Devblogs | By Augustin Popa

September 9, 2024

Web
Performance
Database
Backend
Coding
  • Dimitri Rochette from Askia, a software company specializing in survey creation and data analysis tools, shared their experience with vcpkg, a package manager for C++ developed by Microsoft and its community.
  • After switching to vcpkg and CMake, they were able to reduce build times, eliminate 300,000 lines of code, ensure consistent and reproducible builds across multiple platforms, access a vast array of libraries, streamline their onboarding process, and standardize the use of microservices in a multi-repository environment.
  • With vcpkg's binary caching feature, they reduced CI build times and costs by saving even single compilations of packages like OpenSSL or Python.
  • They now utilize CMake and vcpkg for all new projects to expedite the onboarding of new developers and have tripled their team size in a few years.
  • Dimitri described vcpkg as a game-changer, revolutionizing dependency management with consistent builds, caching feature, and streamlined onboarding process.

How to use Zapier to automate Notion


Zapier | By Krystina Martinez

September 9, 2024

AI
DevOps
  • Zapier helps you automate tasks and connect different apps, including Notion, to streamline your project management workflow.
  • With Zapier's integration with Notion, you can create automated workflows called Zaps that trigger actions in Notion based on events such as new database items or page updates.
  • You can also use searches to find specific items in Notion and take actions like creating new pages, adding content, or sending notifications when certain conditions are met.
  • To connect Zapier to your Notion workspace, you need to be a workspace owner and grant access to Zapier, which will then allow you to set up Zaps that integrate with other apps like Google Calendar, Slack, and more.
  • By automating tasks and integrating different apps, you can save time and stay on top of your work in Notion, from tracking tasks and projects to organizing customer information and logging online research.

The AI Blues


Oreilly | By Mike Loukides

September 10, 2024

AI
Algorithms
  • A recent article suggested that the quality of output from generative AI systems has decreased over time, but this may be due to users becoming less forgiving rather than a genuine decline in AI's capabilities.
  • The author believes that as people have gotten used to using AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini for real work, they've become more critical and expect better results.
  • The author ran some experiments testing the ability of language models to write complex poetry and implement algorithms correctly, finding that while they initially struggled with these tasks, they've since improved significantly.
  • However, even with this improvement, users may still find AI output lacking in insight or originality, highlighting a fundamental limitation of language models that rely on predicting next steps based on training data rather than true intelligence.