The hottest Database Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Redis and Python: 20% of effort, 80% of effects

Bite code! • 1467 implied HN points • 03 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Python Database Programming Web Development
  1. Redis is a powerful companion for Python, used for caching, sharing states, and creating queues.
  2. Redis is easy to use and highly efficient, widely employed in the industry for tasks like caching and inter-process communication.
  3. With basic features like lists, hashes, and sets, Redis has vast utility in tasks such as caches, queues, and inter-process communication.

We could make our homes easier to decarbonise by using a crazy, sci-fi technology called a "database"

Odds and Ends of History • 737 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Decarbonisation Database Data Collection
  1. Decarbonizing homes by replacing gas boilers with heat pumps is a known solution, but the challenge is logistical and costly for homeowners.
  2. Creating a central register of gas safety certificates could help target incentives for upgrading inefficient boilers, improve data collection, and hold landlords accountable.
  3. Adding gas safety certificate management to the Gas Safety Register's contract during the upcoming tender can facilitate the implementation of the central register at a minimal cost to the government.

Talking NHL Ice Design With the World’s Premier Rink Historian

Uni Watch • 530 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🎾 Sports Database
  1. David Crabtree is a leading expert in hockey ice design, focusing on NHL ice surfaces.
  2. TheFaceoff.net is a valuable online database dedicated to hockey ice design, similar to uniform databases for sports like baseball and football.
  3. Crabtree's interest in hockey graphics extends beyond ice design to other visual aspects of hockey, like uniforms and logos.

Normalization Vs Denormalization - Taking A Step Back

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 612 implied HN points • 21 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Data Engineering Database Data Modeling Normalization
  1. Normalization structures data to reduce duplication and ensure integrity.
  2. Goals of normalization include eliminating redundancy, minimizing data mutation issues, and protecting data integrity.
  3. Denormalization introduces redundancy strategically to improve read performance, useful for reporting, analytics, and read-heavy applications.
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Blockchain as a Database (Part 1)

Cryptocurrency and Friends • 275 implied HN points • 11 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Blockchain Governance Database Cryptocurrency
  1. A blockchain serves the purpose of allowing users to compute a copy of the same database with confidence.
  2. For worldwide agreement on a blockchain, a consensus protocol is needed to enable all parties to agree on new data blocks.
  3. Implementing rules for parsing data blobs on blockchains requires operational enforcement and governance to ensure consistency and security.

How I made Quickview, my AI-based Crypto Newsletter

Implementing • 19 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Crypto Database Automation
  1. Quickview is a newsletter created to share AI-based summaries of YouTube videos from crypto creators, helping subscribers stay informed and connected with the crypto community.
  2. Database modeling for this project involves tables for videos, creators, categories, languages, summaries, and newsletters on Substack, creating a structured system.
  3. Automation in the process includes collecting YouTube videos, generating summaries with ChatGPT, and publishing a new post daily using scheduled tasks and Heroku, optimizing efficiency.

Eventual Business Consistency

Software Design: Tidy First? • 134 HN points • 04 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Business Data Management Programming Systems Database
  1. The goal is to achieve eventual business consistency by closely matching what's in the system with real-world events.
  2. Different data storage methods like storing dated data or double-dated data come with trade-offs in complexity and accuracy.
  3. Bi-temporal systems use two dates to track when data changes occurred in reality and when they were recorded in the system for better business operations.

Datetime vs Timestamp datatype in databases - Which one is better?

Arpit’s Newsletter • 176 implied HN points • 26 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Data Database Storage
  1. In databases, you can use DATE, DATETIME, or TIMESTAMP data types to store date and time information, each with its own range of values.
  2. DATETIME is best for storing static timestamps like appointment schedules, while TIMESTAMP is ideal for recording event timestamps with efficient storage and automatic timezone handling.
  3. Consider factors like range, storage requirements, and use cases when choosing between DATETIME and TIMESTAMP for accurate and efficient temporal data storage.

Indexing/Querying strategy with BoltDB

Hasen Judi • 107 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Database Querying Performance Flexibility
  1. In a B-Tree based storage system like BoltDB, you need to be explicit about indexing and querying data, unlike relational databases that automatically handle indexing.
  2. By maintaining bidirectional mappings between terms and targets, and incorporating priorities for sorting, you can efficiently retrieve and sort data without unnecessary overhead.
  3. BoltDB enables indexing data by any criteria, offering flexibility in ranking objects and improving relevance in search results, while eliminating the overhead associated with SQL databases.

Data Persistence Q&A

Hasen Judi • 71 implied HN points • 02 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Database
  1. Reinventing the wheel in data persistence can lead to more efficient and simplified systems than using relational databases.
  2. Having a persistence engine that writes data to disk as needed ensures reliability, scalability, and preserves disk lifespan.
  3. In handling object deletion within the indexing system, it's better to mark objects as deleted rather than cascading deletes, allowing for explicit control over data management.

How Discord Handles Billions of Messages [System Design Sundays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 17 Oct 22
🕹 Technology System Design Messaging Database Search Engineering
  1. Storage is crucial in system design, requiring detailed analysis of data generated for efficient handling.
  2. Discord uses Cassandra as its database to manage the storage of messages efficiently.
  3. Indexing messages and using tools like ElasticSearch are key for efficient search functionality in large data sets.

Will PostgreSQL switch to a Thread-based model ?

Engineering At Scale • 14 implied HN points • 24 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Database Architecture Modeling Software Development Performance
  1. PostgreSQL currently uses a process-based model for handling client connections and managing data.
  2. The process-based model offers advantages like fault isolation, security guarantees, and efficient resource management.
  3. Although there are advantages to the process-based model, the community is considering a switch to a thread-based model for PostgreSQL in the future.

libSQL: Diving Into a Database Engineering Epic

Luminotes • 2 HN points • 23 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Database Engineering Replication
  1. SQLite is widely used and respected in critical industries due to strong engineering ethics and a commitment to reliability and backward compatibility.
  2. Forking a project like SQLite, as seen with libSQL, requires competent developers, a clear purpose, and a focus on maintaining high standards to ensure success.
  3. libSQL offers innovative features like different wire protocols, virtual WAL, user-defined WASM functions, and replication to the edge, showcasing the project's evolution and dedication to excellence.

Generating 10k+ sessions/month with programmatic SEO

thedevmarketer • 1 HN point • 12 Jun 23
🕹 Technology SEO Marketing Development Analytics Database
  1. Generated 10k+ sessions/month with programmatic SEO by focusing on long-tail keywords and relevancy to the product.
  2. Used a proof of concept (POC) to test the SEO project before fully developing it, ensuring viability and success.
  3. Successfully launched the programmatic SEO project leading to over 12,000 sessions in four months, showcasing significant growth.

Adobe’s new AI-powered Premiere Pro features eradicate boring audio editing tasks

pocoai • 0 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Database Frontend Development Artificial Intelligence GPU
  1. Adobe Premiere Pro introduces AI-powered features for audio editing efficiency.
  2. Pinecone adopts serverless architecture for its vector database, offering cost reduction and faster search capabilities.
  3. Locofy launches Lightning, a tool converting design prototypes into frontend code, simplifying development tasks.

My Backend Template for Node.js

Implementing • 0 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Node.js APIs Database Framework
  1. The project structure for a Node.js backend, inspired by the Model View Controller (MVC) approach, includes folders for controllers, models, and utilities to maintain context information for HTTP requests effectively.
  2. The use of a custom logger within the application without relying on external libraries provides flexibility and control over log formatting and content, allowing easy debugging and monitoring.
  3. Switching from MySQL to Postgres for personal projects offers advantages in terms of transaction handling, materialized view creation, cost-effectiveness in hosting, and better performance for certain tasks.

[Mock]Design a URL Shortening service like goo.gl or bit.ly

The ZenMode • 0 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Design Security Scaling Database
  1. A URL shortening service converts long URLs into short, unique ones for easy sharing and remembering.
  2. The steps in shortening a URL involve inputting the long URL, generating a unique short URL, storing the mapping, and redirecting users to the original URL.
  3. Designing a URL shortening service includes high scalability, availability, key generation methods, security measures like rate limiting, and handling data growth using tools like distributed databases.

Making use of Alpes bit embedding in a vector database

Experiments with NLP and GPT-3 • 0 implied HN points • 10 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Database Programming
  1. You can create semantic searches for your knowledge bases using Alpes bit embeddings in a vector database.
  2. There are different methods presented, like using numpy to have easy embedding serving with minimal dependencies.
  3. Faiss and Milvus are other options for managing larger quantities of embeddings efficiently in vector databases.

An algebraic curiosity

Minimal Modeling • 0 implied HN points • 18 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Database
  1. There is always one non-1NF relation in every real-world database.
  2. The relation discussed is undeniably not in the first normal form.
  3. This construction exists in every WordPress installation, among other databases.

Pizza Place Payments

Money in Transit • 0 implied HN points • 23 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Payments Software Database Events Architecture
  1. Understanding the separation of orders and payments is crucial for developing useful payment applications.
  2. When building payment applications, ensure past orders and payments are unaffected by future changes in products and variants.
  3. Invoices notify about payments, receipts prove payments; keep both immutable and associated with an order.