The hottest Development Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

The Greenfield Project Trap

Alex Ghiculescu's Newsletter • 169 implied HN points • 16 May 23
🕹 Technology Development Software Projects Challenges Engineering
  1. Working on greenfield projects may not be as great as perceived because they lack real challenges.
  2. Legacy code and requirements are what make software development interesting and ignoring them can lead to project failure.
  3. Seek out technical challenges that come with real constraints, as they create value for customers and are opportunities for growth.

Top 10 OSS Risks

Resilient Cyber • 99 implied HN points • 13 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Software Security Development Open Source Risk management
  1. Open Source Software (OSS) is widely used, making up a large part of many software applications. However, it's essential to be aware of the risks it poses, as vulnerabilities in OSS can impact many users simultaneously.
  2. One major risk is the compromise of legitimate OSS packages, where attackers can hijack code or repositories to insert malicious elements, which can then spread to organizations using that software.
  3. Another concern is outdated or unmaintained OSS, which can lead to security issues if the software isn’t updated regularly. Organizations need to keep track of the OSS they use and ensure it's actively maintained.

🎅🏻 Konfig’s Open-Sources Gift, GitHub Copilot Free Plan, Fake Stars on GitHub, & More

HackerPulse Dispatch • 2 implied HN points • 24 Dec 24
🕹 Technology AI Tools Open Source Development Workplace Wellness
  1. Konfig has shared its entire codebase for developers to learn from, even though the startup didn't succeed. It's a chance for others to see what works and what doesn't.
  2. GitHub Copilot now offers a free plan, making coding easier for everyone. You can get up to 2000 code completions a month, which can really help you with your projects.
  3. Fake stars on GitHub are becoming a problem, as they can mislead developers about the popularity of projects. This issue can even lead to security risks, so always check the authenticity of repositories.
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Universal Early Childhood Daycare Has Been Proven to Damage the Children Who Have Been Through It

Year Zero • 93 implied HN points • 13 Aug 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Childcare Mental health Parenting Development Psychology
  1. Child mental health has significantly worsened over the past few decades, with a rise in serious mental illnesses among young children.
  2. The introduction of universal early childhood daycare in the mid-1980s may have contributed to the ongoing child mental health crisis.
  3. Research suggests that full-time center-based daycare for infants under 1 year old may lead to long-lasting negative impacts on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Tech Talks Weekly #6

Tech Talks Weekly • 19 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Conferences Data science Engineering Development
  1. Tech Talks Weekly shares recent tech talks from major conferences like Devoxx and NDC. It's a great way to keep updated on the latest in tech.
  2. There's a special edition featuring over 550 talks from Kubernetes conferences. This provides a huge resource for anyone interested in cloud technology.
  3. The newsletter encourages sharing with friends and colleagues to build a community. Spreading the word helps more people connect with the tech talk content.

Forcefully deterministic unit testing

Stateless Machine • 3 HN points • 18 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Testing Development
  1. Unit tests should not interact with anything outside the program. This keeps tests clean and focused just on the code being tested.
  2. To make testing easier, functions should use interfaces to handle outside interactions. This allows for fake implementations during testing.
  3. By controlling how the outside world is accessed in a programming language, tests can be made deterministic. This means results are reliable and consistency is ensured.

Building Applications with LLMs

Sunday Letters • 79 implied HN points • 19 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Software Development Engineering Open Source
  1. GPT-4 can do amazing things, but it has limitations because it mainly rearranges data. That makes it hard to create complex programs with just one function.
  2. The Semantic Kernel was developed to add more features like memory and procedural control, allowing for better application building with LLMs.
  3. There's a focus on creating a library of common skills and connectors for tools, which can help developers build richer experiences using familiar services.

The Otonomist - February 2023 Issue

The Otonomist • 99 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🔮 Crypto Development
  1. Otonomos refreshed their brand message and product offerings in February 2023.
  2. They highlighted a new 'Pro Kit' for launching a crypto fund in the British Virgin Islands.
  3. The OtoCo platform went through essential maintenance and updates for increased anti-fragility.

To Pause or Not to Pause, that is the Question.

The Cognitive Revolution • 39 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Innovation Safety Development
  1. The Open Letter from The Future of Life Institute urges AI labs to pause for at least six months in training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 to develop safety standards.
  2. Different experts have varying perspectives on the necessity and benefits of pausing AI development, with concerns about potential risks of superhuman intelligence.
  3. There is caution and optimism regarding the deployment and potential dangers of scaling GPT-4, emphasizing the need for extreme caution and consideration of risks and benefits.

AI and the end of integration testing

Sunday Letters • 39 implied HN points • 17 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Software AI Development Testing Engineering
  1. AI will change how we build software, making traditional integration testing much harder or even impossible. This is because the possibilities for what software can do will become nearly infinite.
  2. Without effective integration testing, we will rely more on monitoring and telemetry to ensure software is working well in real time. Companies will need to focus on creating systems that check themselves while they run.
  3. New challenges will arise, like how to assess things like 'helpfulness' or 'safety' in software. We may need to create new measures and standards to evaluate these more complex qualities.

Back-end for Front-end Pattern in Ecommerce

Cristian’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Development Architecture APIs Microservices Patterns
  1. Back-end for Front-end (BFF) pattern helps reduce front-end complexity by acting as an interface between front-end and microservices/APIs.
  2. BFF pattern separates front-end requirements from back-end concerns, making the application easier to maintain and more resilient to API changes.
  3. Implementing BFF pattern can improve error handling, maintainability, and performance in an ecommerce platform by allowing for better control over API consumption and reducing network steps.

No Dev? No Problem: How I Built and Launched an App with ChatGPT-4

Step-by-step Product • 39 implied HN points • 13 May 23
🕹 Technology Development AI Coding Tech stack
  1. LLMs allow people with little or no coding skills to become developers, expanding possibilities for creating products faster.
  2. Planning and preparation are key before building an app with ChatGPT, considering the tech stack, structure of prompts, and debugging strategies.
  3. Creating an app with ChatGPT can be fast and insightful, but requires caution with APIs, defining the tech stack, and utilizing the tool's assistance for aspects like backend development and SEO.

LLM Hallucinations 🤦

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 39 implied HN points • 27 Jul 23
🕹 Technology AI Computing Software Development Innovation
  1. LLM hallucinations are a tough issue for researchers and developers, but new methods are being developed to help reduce them. This gives hope for better solutions in the future.
  2. Several techniques like function calling and context-free grammar are emerging to tackle LLM hallucinations, which may improve accuracy.
  3. LMQL from SRI Lab is showing promise among various solutions and is gaining attention for its potential benefits.

3 ways to improve LLM Agent chains with debugging

LLMs for Engineers • 59 implied HN points • 03 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Software Development Applications Tools
  1. Keep an eye on the costs when using LLM chains. Each call adds to the total, and this can add up quickly with many queries.
  2. Use clear and meaningful names for API parameters. This helps improve the accuracy and reliability of LLM-powered applications.
  3. Make sure your LLM chains actually call the necessary tools. Sometimes, the system might pretend to do it without following through, which can lead to problems.

The Startup CTO's Handbook | Zach Goldberg

Dev Interrupted • 37 implied HN points • 20 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Engineering Leadership AI Metrics Development
  1. The core sections of The Startup CTO's Handbook include Management Fundamentals, Technical Leadership Concepts, and Hard Technology Decisions.
  2. Conducting career history interviews when hiring can reveal a candidate's mindset and how they handle challenges.
  3. Engineering leaders can stay technically relevant by reviewing pull requests and taking courses, even when not coding regularly.

Bamboo Ceiling 2.0: James Wang and Asian representation in the NBA

The Pick and Roll • 19 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
🎾 Sports Basketball Representation Development Talent NBA
  1. James Wang's journey from Taiwan to Sydney to professional basketball showcases the importance of hard work and persistence in pursuing dreams.
  2. The lack of Asian representation in the NBA, especially Chinese players, highlights challenges related to developmental focus on size versus modern game dynamics.
  3. Reflecting on the need for developing holistic basketball skills, like read and react decision making, to enhance the diversity and competitiveness in the sport.

Playing the game vs. finding a cheat code

De Novo • 99 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
🔬 Science Biology Development Research Genetics
  1. Playing the game versus using cheat codes can be applied to various situations like growing oocytes and making Pokémon.
  2. Advantages of playing normally: it may take longer but strengthens understanding; button mashing can lead to quicker results but might have unforeseen issues.
  3. In different scenarios, like making natural products or evaluating computer code, deciding between conventional methods or shortcuts is crucial.

How to Create a Bot that Notifies you on Telegram

Implementing • 19 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Development Web scraping
  1. Creating a bot to monitor computer temperature and send notifications can be useful to prevent overheating issues.
  2. Learning how to create a Telegram bot involves steps like creating the bot on Telegram using BotFather and deploying the code on platforms like Heroku.
  3. Setting up a Cron job using tools like Heroku Scheduler allows the bot to execute functions periodically to send notifications at specified intervals.

Software Supply Chain Attack Types

Resilient Cyber • 79 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Software Development Supply Chain Threats
  1. Software supply chain attacks are not new and have been happening for decades, with many recent high-profile cases shining a light on them.
  2. There are several types of attack vectors, including issues with developer tools, negligence in following security practices, and problems with trust and code signing.
  3. Malicious actors often combine different attack methods to cause harm, so it's important for organizations to have strong security measures in place to protect their software supply chain.

The 2FA app that tells you when you get `012345`

Jacob’s Tech Tavern • 35 HN points • 19 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Mobile Apps Development Software Bug Fixing
  1. The app's creator derived inspiration for the 2FA app from spotting interesting patterns in the codes, like counting sequences and repeated numerical patterns.
  2. The concept was proven through a proof of concept demonstrating local code generation and push notifications for rare interesting codes.
  3. The app development process included tackling challenges like storing multiple 2FA accounts securely, implementing interestingness features, and improving performance with optimized processing tasks and notifications.

Introducing CodeYam: The Software Simulator

CodeYam’s Substack • 5 HN points • 04 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Software Simulation AI Development Product Management
  1. CodeYam is a software simulator that automatically isolates every feature of your software and creates simulated data to help visualize how code changes will impact the product and users.
  2. The simulator generates interactive demos that allow developers to test code changes effectively, share progress with stakeholders, and help new team members understand the application and code faster.
  3. As AI becomes more involved in coding, the human team members will need to define, validate, and improve the product created by AI, making high-quality tools like CodeYam essential for effective communication and understanding of the software being built.

Orphan, Shadow, and Zombie APIs

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 02 Nov 24
🕹 Technology APIs Software Development Cloud Data Management
  1. APIs can be categorized based on their usage and management status. Knowing if an API is 'orphan', 'shadow', or 'zombie' helps understand if it's being used or managed properly.
  2. An 'orphan' API is one that is documented but not used, wasting resources without serving a purpose.
  3. A 'shadow' API is used but not documented or managed, while a 'zombie' API is outdated but still running, consuming resources without support.

What Is LangChain Expression Language (LCEL)?

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Development Programming Applications
  1. LangChain Expression Language (LCEL) helps build applications using large language models. It simplifies the process of creating apps by breaking down components into a clear sequence.
  2. LCEL combines pro-code and low-code approaches, making it easier for developers to create reusable pieces of code. This can save time and help manage complexity in applications.
  3. With LCEL, you can run operations like invoking and batching in a structured way. This makes it easier to manage how different parts of an application work together.

The API Integration Nightmare

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 31 Oct 24
🕹 Technology APIs Software Development Integration Networking
  1. APIs are meant to connect different applications, but integrating them can be really frustrating. Many developers face issues with poor documentation and unclear instructions.
  2. Experimenting with APIs often reveals surprises, like missing parameters or unexpected responses. This can make it feel like you’re constantly troubleshooting without getting anywhere.
  3. Managing multiple APIs adds even more stress because they often don’t follow the same standards. This can lead to lots of headaches when trying to make everything work smoothly together.

Gloves Off

The Radar • 19 implied HN points • 27 Dec 23
💼 Business Leadership Talent Management Development Assessment Bias
  1. Old ideas and worn-out concepts in talent management must be identified and discarded to allow for genuine progress.
  2. Binary labels like 'hard skills vs soft skills' and 'introvert vs extrovert' are misleading and can hinder accurate talent assessment.
  3. The concept of 'high potential candidate' often introduces bias and leads to poor decision-making, hindering talent development and organizational growth.

What's the next development model?

Sunday Letters • 39 implied HN points • 25 Jun 23
🕹 Technology AI Development Programming Software Trends
  1. We’ve seen different development models evolve with technology, like mainframes and mobile, and now we are seeing a shift with AI. Each model has changed how we program and solve problems.
  2. AI brings new challenges in terms of monitoring and managing open-ended behavior in applications. We need to figure out new ways to ensure our AI tools act appropriately and are tested well.
  3. The future of development might see 'codeless' programming, where AI tools can manage coding tasks and teams focus more on their intentions. This could completely transform how we approach software development.

Frontend as part of the engineering culture

Sergiy’s Substack • 4 HN points • 07 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Engineering Interviewing Leadership Culture Development
  1. Frontend engineering should be treated as a first-class citizen within organizations, with equal importance and attention given to both design and performance.
  2. Interview processes for frontend roles should focus on problem-solving skills relevant to the job, rather than algorithm memorization.
  3. Maintain a balanced leadership focus on both frontend and backend, communicate the importance of frontend work, and provide resources for learning and appreciation of frontend development.

6 Technologies you Should Know as a Software Engineer in 2023

Implementing • 19 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Development Frameworks Tools Courses Data Management
  1. Importance of continuous learning in the field of web development, especially in mastering foundational concepts like math and computer science.
  2. Key technologies like Docker, Node.js, Git, Elasticsearch, Redis, and React are essential for developers to learn for successful software engineering in 2024.
  3. Utilizing online resources like free YouTube videos, paid courses on platforms like Udemy, and official documentation can assist in gaining proficiency in various technologies.