The hottest Infrastructure Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Technology Topics

How "new type" helps avoid production outages

Blog System/5 • 4 HN points • 09 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Infrastructure Testing Patterns
  1. The 'new type' idiom in programming involves wrapping native types in domain-specific types to prevent errors when passing values to external APIs.
  2. Avoid using primitive types like integers or strings directly in your code base by creating new types like `Username` and `Size` for better code structure.
  3. Adopting the 'new type' pattern can help prevent production outages by catching issues like function argument swaps early on and enforcing correct usage through type safety.
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Japan, of the Future

Political Currents by Ross Barkan • 12 implied HN points • 28 Apr 23
🌍 World Politics Japan Foreign Relations Democracy Economic Development Infrastructure
  1. Japan features advanced public transportation infrastructure like high-speed trains and clean, efficient metro systems.
  2. Japan's historical significance and economic growth have shaped societal norms and attitudes towards outsiders.
  3. Despite economic challenges and political stagnation, Japan maintains a unique cultural identity and commitment to technological innovation.

Alissa Walker on the Past, Present, and Future of Transportation

Exasperated Infrastructures • 9 implied HN points • 02 Aug 23
🌍 World Politics Transportation Urbanism Infrastructure Policy Public Health
  1. Transportation planning should prioritize filling gaps that benefit the most people in need
  2. Engagement with communities is crucial for building strong, resilient transportation policies
  3. Investing in everyday needs like sidewalks and public bathrooms can significantly improve quality of life

Why the US can't have nice things, part 2

Chris Arnade Walks the World • 5 HN points • 23 Dec 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Travel Public Transit Social Issues Infrastructure Society
  1. Efficient international travel can be hindered by long lines and bureaucratic challenges.
  2. Public transportation systems in cities like NYC are in need of improvement to ensure safety and cleanliness for all passengers.
  3. Social trust is a crucial element in society, and its decline can have far-reaching negative impacts.

To Build or to Reuse? A CDK Question

Making It Up • 1 HN point • 11 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Infrastructure Code Cloud Computing Development Architecture
  1. CDK offers the flexibility to reuse existing resources or create new ones in your architecture for different environments.
  2. By incorporating conditionals and the ability to import resources via ARN, CDK allows code deployment into both fresh and existing environments from the same codebase.
  3. Using CDK, it's feasible to create custom constructs with logic for reusing or building infrastructure, making it simpler to manage and deploy resources across different states of environments.

What's holding America's freeway removal movement back?

Urben Field Notes • 10 implied HN points • 12 Apr 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Infrastructure Community Public Health Environmental Impact Urban Development
  1. Pioneering freeway removal projects are being completed, but more difficult challenges remain
  2. There's a need for a stronger response to concerns about displacement and gentrification in freeway removal projects
  3. There is a lack of attention on the pollution and public health impacts of urban freeways, requiring clear data for advocacy

Daily Exasperation #9

Exasperated Infrastructures • 7 implied HN points • 14 Aug 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Infrastructure Legislation Public interest Urban planning
  1. The author discusses the lack of efficient travel options between cities in the US compared to Europe.
  2. There is a call for a change in legislative approaches to prioritize people's interests over moneyed ones.
  3. The article emphasizes the need for a clearer vision for New York City's future to address current and potential issues.

Gia Biagi on the Past, Present, and Future of Transportation

Exasperated Infrastructures • 4 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Transportation Urbanism Infrastructure Policy Collaboration
  1. Gia Biagi emphasizes the importance of understanding the impact and responsibility of a transportation department on the city's infrastructure.
  2. Chicago's uniqueness lies in its historical urban planning foundations, its continuous lakefront paths, and its negotiation of its river system, alongside its persistent efforts to address issues of segregation and systemic racism.
  3. Improvements in transportation planning require a balance between system-level thinking and attention to one-foot level experiences, as well as a recognition and utilization of expertise at all levels and across different scales.

Gradient Flow: Scalability, Privacy, and AutoML

Gradient Flow • 39 implied HN points • 21 May 20
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Infrastructure Virtual Events Work Recommendations
  1. Improving performance and scalability of data science libraries is crucial in the field. Tools like Pandas and Apache Arrow are popular choices for data scientists.
  2. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) is a promising technique for privacy-preserving analytics. It allows computation on encrypted data without decryption, but requires additional techniques for complex real-time models.
  3. Virtual conferences are becoming more prominent, offering opportunities to learn about AutoML, data tools, and industry insights from experts globally.

Gradient Flow #39: Becoming TikTok, Next-gen Workflow Orchestration and Forecasting

Gradient Flow • 19 implied HN points • 15 Jul 21
🕹 Technology Data Tools Infrastructure Automation Forecasting
  1. The newsletter discusses next-gen dataflow orchestration and automation systems like Prefect, a startup that helps manage dataflows.
  2. It introduces cool new open source tools like Greykite, a flexible and fast library for time-series forecasting.
  3. BytePlus, a new division of ByteDance, is offering the technology behind TikTok to websites and apps, presenting interesting challenges in the global market.

Gradient Flow #35: Optimizing Inference, Workflow Tools, RL in Large Enterprises

Gradient Flow • 19 implied HN points • 20 May 21
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Data science Infrastructure Workflows Reinforcement Learning
  1. Companies are optimizing deep learning inference platforms to handle millions of predictions per day
  2. The future of machine learning relies on developing better abstractions for deep learning infrastructure
  3. Large enterprises are increasingly using reinforcement learning and advanced tools like Knowledge Graphs for improved data analysis and workflow management

Is the next crunch in the AI race the lack of data center space?

danvdb • 1 HN point • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Data Centers Energy consumption Infrastructure Market Dynamics
  1. The AI industry might face a shortage of data center space with the increase in NVIDIA H100 GPUs.
  2. The energy consumption from the forecasted 4.5 million H100 GPUs in 2023/24 could exceed the data center capacity, posing a challenge.
  3. Existing data centers may struggle to retrofit the necessary equipment and manage the power demands of the upcoming surge in GPU servers.

DevOps Concepts #2: Autoscaling

Cloud Weekly • 8 implied HN points • 03 Jun 23
🕹 Technology DevOps Cloud Computing AWS Infrastructure
  1. Autoscaling allows you to adjust resources automatically based on traffic, ensuring your application stays performant and resilient.
  2. Auto Scaling Groups in AWS help manage resources by defining minimum, desired, and maximum instances, allowing for easy scaling up and down.
  3. AWS Auto Scaling Groups provide strategies like simple scaling, target scaling, and step scaling to optimize costs and react to traffic based on predefined metrics.

Norman Garrick on the Past, Present, and Future of Transportation

Exasperated Infrastructures • 7 implied HN points • 03 Apr 23
🎭️ Culture Transportation Urban planning Sustainability Social justice Infrastructure
  1. Norman Garrick highlights the need for cities that prioritize people on foot over vehicles going at high speeds.
  2. He discusses the challenges of car dependency, especially in countries like Jamaica, and emphasizes the importance of transit, bike, and pedestrian planning.
  3. Garrick advocates for creating car-light cities that are free from the dangers, noise, pollution, and costs associated with cars, focusing on designing for people's quality of life and low-carbon urban environments.

Retrospective on a Kenyan Payments Workflow

Vivid Leaves • 2 HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Payments Infrastructure Ecommerce APIs
  1. Ecommerce players in emerging markets often face challenges with cash management due to low card adoption and customer trust issues, leading to a need for innovative solutions like payment upon delivery.
  2. M-Pesa in Kenya revolutionized cashless payments with its mobile money network, which played a crucial role in enabling online commerce and providing a solution for payment workflows in the region.
  3. Creating unique solutions, like using M-Pesa for cash remittance and optimizing delivery routes, can help businesses navigate operational challenges and improve efficiency in regions with specific infrastructural characteristics.

Wonders of our World #3: Undersea Cables

Of All Trades • 6 implied HN points • 22 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Engineering Global Infrastructure Economy Society
  1. Undersea cables are critical for global communication, commerce, and collaboration, carrying majority of international data traffic.
  2. The evolution of undersea cables from telegraph to fiber-optic technology has significantly increased data capacity, reliability, and speed.
  3. The undersea cable network is a remarkable feat of human engineering, showcasing global interconnectedness and the importance of unseen digital infrastructure.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 366

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 19 implied HN points • 26 Nov 20
🕹 Technology Data science Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Software Engineering
  1. Pinterest improved its machine learning signals by updating its data infrastructure. They moved from a Lambda architecture to a Kappa architecture for better real-time performance.
  2. DoorDash built a feature store to handle the massive amounts of data needed for its machine learning models. This helps them manage costs and maintain fast performance when retrieving data.
  3. When choosing between a data lake, warehouse, or lakehouse, it's important to consider the specific needs of your data platform. The right choice depends on the tools that best fit your project requirements.

Russian Banking's Birth by Mutiny

Vivid Leaves • 4 implied HN points • 26 Jul 23
💼 Business Banking Economics Transition Infrastructure Monetary Policy
  1. The collapse of the Soviet banking system birthed the modern Russian banking system through a series of rebellions and creation of new banks.
  2. The Soviet economy transitioned from a market vacuum to a market economy due to cooperative entities and the birth of private commercial banks.
  3. Formation of the Central Bank of Russia and rapid bank privatization led to a banking system with significant infrastructure challenges and financial instability.

Life is a Highway: The Long and Winding Road to Poverty Alleviation

Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones • 1 HN point • 04 May 23
🌍 World Politics Infrastructure Poverty China Economics Transportation
  1. Improving rural roads is crucial for poverty alleviation in China.
  2. Highway construction plays a significant role in connecting remote areas and enabling economic growth.
  3. Investing in highways for rural areas can stimulate tourism, create job opportunities, and enhance economic activities.

One week with an e-bike has changed my life

Wheel’s Substack • 1 HN point • 27 Mar 23
🏝 Travel Transportation Infrastructure Safety
  1. Electric bikes are faster, safer, more comfortable, and healthier than cars for city commutes.
  2. Infrastructure improvements, like connected bike paths and dedicated lanes, are crucial for promoting electric bike use.
  3. An e-bike charging network, better cargo bike parking, lockable storage, and a shift away from car-centric cities are essential for making electric bikes a viable alternative.