Discover the future of software from the people making it happen.Listen to some of the smartest developers we know talk about what they're working on, how they're trying to move the industry forward, and what you can learn from it. You might find the solution to your next architectural headache, pick up a new programming language, or just hear some good war stories from the frontline of technology.Join your host Kris Jenkins as we try to figure out what tomorrow's computing will look like the best way we know how - by listening directly to the developers' voices.
Databases, Ambitions, and a Testing Silver Bullet? (With Joran Dirk Greef)
How far would you go to get the kind of database you want? How deep into the stack would you dive to re-architect a system for the kind of performance, reliability and scale you believe in? Today's guest has decided to go all in, as he’s tackling the database problem from the fsync up. In this week’s Developer Voices we talk to Joran Dirk Greef, whose ambitions—combined with the lacklustre performance of his project's payment system—have led him to build a new database called TigerBeetle, that tackles some meaty problems. They’re attempting to build a database that can be durable in the face of fsync-corner cases, highly available in the face of all kinds of hidden network problems, and performant enough to outpace existing financial systems. And on top of all those goals, they’re doing it with an interesting new language you may not have heard of - Zig.What makes him want to take on this big a challenge? What problems keep him awake at night? And what is he doing to turn all that ambition into an achievable launch strategy? Listen on and find out…–TigerBeetle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TigerBeetleDBTigerBeetle on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3TlyQ3h6lC_jSWust2leGgKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Joran’s QCon ‘23 Talk: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3TlyQ3h6lC_jSWust2leGgViewstamped Replication Revisited (paper): https://pmg.csail.mit.edu/papers/vr-revisited.pdfGithub Test Cases for Journal recovery code: https://github.com/tigerbeetle/tigerbeetle/blob/b4dd441502894cbe9d48cb90ff0bc6a12c378591/src/vsr/journal.zig#L1181-L1213MySQL transactions per second vs fsyncs per second: https://sirupsen.com/napkin/problem-10-mysql-transactions-per-second
Starting A Tech Business. Again. And Again. And Again. (with Michael Drogalis)
Ever wanted to start a tech business? Michael Drogalis has done it successfully in the past, and now he’s trying again (and again and…) as he makes a very public attempt to start 4 new tech businesses in the next 4 quarters.He’d sound completely mad, except he’s got form: His last Kafka-based company got bought out by a tech giant, giving him enough of a safety net to try something new. And for his new approach, he’s doing the exact opposite of ‘stealth mode’. He’s publishing every step of his 4-by-4 challenge, wins and losses, for all to see. It's entrepreneurship for the Reality TV era. 😁In an unusually vulnerable episode of Developer Voices, we talk about everything from solo software development and marketing strategies, to the inner struggle of starting out on your own, with no guarantees that the world will care. And this time with everyone watching. -- Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Follow Michael’s journey: https://michaeldrogalis.substack.com/Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-drogalis-01029924/Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelDrogalisSteal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon: https://austinkleon.com/steal/
How Do You Assemble a Complete Software System? (with Ben Gamble)
Ask any software developer about their favourite stack, and they'll probably have strong opinions. (They might even have a snappy acronym for it, like LAMP or JAM or...) But if you ask any business about their stack, things aren’t so clear. They'll probably tell you the key components, and then add a laundry list of extra parts that got glued on later. The reality is, assembling large systems gets complicated. And with more and more options coming out every year, that potential complexity is only growing. These days, a good software developer must also be part researcher, and part explorer. So this week we're going to survey the landscape, and head out on the hunt for workable architectures. And joining us to do it is Ben Gamble. He's worked in fields as diverse as video games, enterprise software and AR headsets, and these days works for an Everything As A Service company helping people find and assemble the missing pieces their system needs. Who better to guide us through the software landscape? If you've ever worried that your system is too complicated, or is missing important parts, or you're just yearning for an architecture that feels more cohesive and less like a box of parts, come exploring with us.--Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenGamble7The Schemaverse: https://schemaverse.com/Nerdsniping: https://xkcd.com/356/Tremor: https://www.tremor.rs/Anna McDonald’s talk on Completion Criteria: https://www.confluent.io/events/kafka-summit-london-2023/pragmatic-patterns-and-pitfalls-for-event-streaming-in-brownfield/Temporal.IO: https://temporal.io/
Clickhouse: Faster Queries, Faster Answers (with Alasdair Brown)
In modern systems, the amount of data keeps getting larger, and the time available keeps getting shorter. So it's almost inevitable that we're augmenting our general-purpose databases with dedicated analytics databases.This week we dive into the world of OLAP with a thorough look at Clickhouse, a high-performance, columnar database designed to "query billions of rows in microseconds."Alasdair Brown joins us to discuss what Clickhouse is, how it performs queries so quickly, and where it fits into a wider system. We talk about its origins as a Google Analytics-like, and how it's grown into one of the most popular OLAP databases around.There's a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of questions to ask, all in the service of faster answers...--Alasdair's Blog: alasdairb.comAlasdair on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@sdairsabAlasdair on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alasdair-brownKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Clickhouse: https://clickhouse.com/Tinybird: https://www.tinybird.co/Birdhouse in your Soul: https://youtu.be/vn_or9gEB6g
What problems does Apache Kafka Solve? (with Neil Buesing)
Neil Buesing is a seasoned Apache Kafka® user, and a respected voice from the Kafka community who specialises in helping companies make the best use of Kafka. And that makes him the ideal person to ask the $64,000 question: What problems can Kafka actually solve for me? Because Kafka's definitely interesting, and it can be fun, but to earn a place in the toolbox it has to make life easier. In answering that question, Neil covers a tonne of ground, from queuing and quasi-databases, transitioning from batch to real-time, and solving general software integration headaches. If you have data problems, big or small, join us to figure out if Kafka is the answer. -- Kinetic Edge: https://www.kineticedge.ioNeil on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nbuesingNeil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nbuesing/Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Building an Enterprise Eventing Framework (Conference Talk): https://www.confluent.io/en-gb/kafka-summit-san-francisco-2019/building-an-enterprise-eventing-framework/Synchronous Kafka (Conference Talk): https://www.confluent.io/resources/kafka-summit-2020/synchronous-commands-over-apache-kafka/Dev Local: https://github.com/kineticedge/dev-localKIP-714 - Client metrics and observability: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-714%3A+Client+metrics+and+observability
DIY Consensus: Crafting Your Own Distributed Code (with Benjamin Bengfort)
How do distributed systems work? If you’ve got a database spread over three servers, how do they elect a leader? How does that change when we spread those machines out across data centers, situated around the globe? Do we even need to understand how it works, or can we relegate those problems to an off the shelf tool like Zookeeper?Joining me this week is Distributed Systems Doctor—Benjamin Bengfort—for a deep dive into consensus algorithms. We start off by discussing how much of “the clustering problem” is your problem, and how much can be handled by a library. We go through many of the constraints and tradeoffs that you need to understand either way. And we eventually reach Benjamin’s surprising message - maybe the time is ripe to roll your own. Should we be writing our own bespoke Raft implementations? And if so, how hard would that be? What guidance can he offer us? Somewhere in the recording of this episode, I decided I want to sit down and try to implement a leader election protocol. Maybe you will too. And if not, you’ll at least have a better appreciation for what it takes. Distributed systems used to be rocket science, but they’re becoming deployment as usual. This episode should help us all to keep up!--KubeCon talk on the FCD bug: https://kccncna2022.sched.com/event/182N9/lessons-learned-from-etcd-the-data-inconsistency-issues-marek-siarkowicz-google-benjamin-wang-vmwareThe Raft paper by Diego Ongaro and John Ousterhout: https://raft.github.io/raft.pdfThe EPaxos Algorithm: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dga/papers/epaxos-sosp2013.pdfLevelDB: https://github.com/google/leveldbBenjamin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbengfortBenjamin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbengfortBenjamin on GitHub: https://github.com/bbengfortRotational Labs: https://rotational.io (check out the blog!)Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
Teaching, Guiding & Inspiring The Next Generation of Programmers (with James Q. Quick)
How do you get started as a programmer? And how do experienced programmers help them as they start their journey?This week's guest is a developer-turned-teacher, James Q. Quick. A former coder and developer advocate, he's s been been working on tutorials, courses and bootcamps to teach aspiring developers how to get started with JavaScript. We talk about why people get into programming as a new career, what they need to succeed, and what James thinks is the best indicator of success.We also discuss what's new and exciting in JavaScript, James' favourite up & coming libraries, and dive into the JavaScript vs. TypeScript debate.James’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/jamesqquickJames’s website: https://www.jamesqquick.com/Astro website builder: https://astro.build/James’ Astro course: https://astrocourse.dev/Svelte framework: https://svelte.dev/Vite build tool: https://vitejs.dev/James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesqquickKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
jOOQ - Crossing the Object-Relational Bridge (with Lukas Eder)
Sooner or later, every programmer will have to cross the gap between their programming language and their database. It feels like it should be easy, but in practice it’s always a much wider chasm than it seems, and every tool that bridges that gaps comes with its own strengths, weaknesses and opinions.This week we take a look at a relatively new library for database access—jOOQ—by chatting with its author, Lukas Eder. This episode takes in the simple questions like syntax, the thornier ones like supporting multiple databases, and the deeply philosophical ones like how we even think about data and data-processing.If you’re a Java (or JVM) programmer, there’s a new tool to learn here, and even if you're not there’s food for thought and ideas to borrow for the next time you need to SELECT…jOOQ: https://www.jooq.org/YesQL: https://github.com/krisajenkins/yesqlDatomic: https://www.datomic.com/XTDB: https://www.xtdb.com/The Elm Architecture: https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
Inside the World of Competitive Coding (with Mathis Hammel)
Whether you’re trying to ace the coding interview, sharpen your programming skills or just have some fun learning new things, the world of competitive coding has something to offer you. Some people join with dreams of hitting the podium, and plenty of others are just competing to be their better selves.Either way, Mathis Hammel is a veteran of the competitive coding scene and he’s going to give us a view into that world, tell a few war stories and share some tips how you can play better, faster and stronger…ICPC: https://icpc.global/Advent of Code: https://adventofcode.com/Advent of Code, Day 18, 2022: https://adventofcode.com/2022/day/18Clash of Code: https://www.codingame.com/multiplayer/clashofcodeCodeForces: https://codeforces.com/CodeWars: https://www.codewars.com/HackerRank: https://www.hackerrank.com/Mathis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mathishammelKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
Unison: A Programming Language for Distributed Computing
“Software development has not caught up with the internet age.” So says this week’s guest, Rúnar Bjarnason. But what does that mean? What would a programming language for the internet age look like?Rúnar’s answer is Unison. A language that completely rethinks the way distributing computing can work, from the source code up. Borrowing some key ideas from git, it challenges the way we think about code-sharing, compilation, versioning and more. --Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Rúnar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/runaroramaRúnar’s book, Function Programming in Scala: https://amzn.to/46I9jewUnison website: https://unison-lang.orgComplete and Easy Bidirectional Typechecking for Higher-Rank Polymorphism (pdf): https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~nk480/bidir.pdfDo Be Do Be Do (pdf): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.09259.pdfRúnar’s Øredev conference talk: https://youtu.be/EgIVzOobD48Cloud icons created by Freepik - Flaticon: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/cloudComputer icons created by xnimrodx - Flaticon: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/computer
The Evolution of Databases & the Future of Database Technology (with Ben Stopford)
Have you ever been overwhelmed by the number of databases on offer? This week we welcome database expert Ben Stopford as a guide to help us map the database landscape and make sense of it all!Join us as we embark on a journey through the history of databases, tracing the path from Edgar Codd to the multitude cloud-era of options available today. Discover the strengths of various database styles and explore the tradeoffs between general-purpose databases like #PostgreSQL and highly customised ones like #Cassandra or #Snowflake.We delve into the realm of the cloud and the opportunities it brings, both for users and the database vendors themselves. And then we examine the challenges that arise when you're forced to connect multiple databases across an organisation. Should you look at Event Sourcing? Or Event Streaming, and how exactly do they differ?Finally, we look towards the future, discussing Ben's vision of an ideal database and which programming language he would choose to build it in.Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Kris on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins
The Open Source AI Revolution Begins Now...
LLMs like ChatGPT are not just fascinating, they're becoming increasing useful in our working lives. They've graduated from novelty to valuable tool. But building those tools is still in the hands of huge companies. Or is it?In this week's episode of Developer Voices, we're learning how you can run LLMs on your own laptop, and how you can customize the system to make a tailored research assistant, a better documentation-searcher, and much more. All you need is a guide on which pieces you need, and how they fit together, and that's exactly what this week's guest—Tobi Fankhänel—is here to take us through.A leaked memo from Google recently outlined how the Big Company Advantage has almost completely eroded, and how the next wave of LLM development is going to come from the open source community. So hackers rise up - the open source AI revolution begins now!--Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Tobias on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-fankh%C3%A4nel-749712180/Tobias’ blog: https://blog.exxample.euLangChain: https://python.langchain.com/docs/get_started/introduction.htmlEmbeddings: https://weaviate.io/blog/vector-embeddings-explainedVector Databases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_database"We have no moat" – Google Employee on Open-source LLMs: https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-we-have-no-moat-and-neither“Attention is all you need” - https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2017/file/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Paper.pdfTimeline since Meta open-sourced their first-gen models: https://www.semianalysis.com/i/119223672/the-timelineRun LLMs on CPU only or, since May, mix CPU and GPU usage: https://github.com/abetlen/llama-cpp-pythonSamantha: https://erichartford.com/meet-samanthaEmbedding model leaderboards: https://huggingface.co/spaces/mteb/leaderboardOpen-source LLMs: https://huggingface.co/spaces/HuggingFaceH4/open_llm_leaderboardLLaMA: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/large-language-model-llama-meta-ai/Blog post: Design-pattern ‘In-context learning’ https://a16z.com/2023/06/20/emerging-architectures-for-llm-applications/#section--2Tobi's GitHub branch ‘In-context learning with LangChain’ https://github.com/aviav/turmbauten/blob/spaghetti-code/CHANGELOG.mdPrompt Syntax Cheat Sheet: https://github.com/oobabooga/text-generation-webui/tree/main/characters/instruction-followingGoogle Workspace Labs Sign-Up: https://workspace.google.com/labs-sign-up/GMail Workspace Labs Demo Video, click ‘See it in action’: https://workspace.google.com/solutions/ai/#m10Prediction trading on open-source LLMs vs GPT-4: https://manifold.markets/PeterWildeford/will-i-peter-wildeford-think-that-t-c95ff3c1b385
Gren: The friendly, fullstack, functional future?
Time to put another new #programming language - and its creator - under the spotlight, as we talk to Robin Heggelund Hansen, the creator of Gren. Gren is a Norwegian word meaning 'branch', which is appropriate for a language that started as a fork from its roots in Elm.With Gren, Robin's trying to create a safe, sane, #fullstack language that puts the power and elegance of functional programming working seamlessly on the server and the browser. But how and why do you do that? What design choices to do make, how much time do you spend on adding new features vs. improving the developer's experience of the existing ones? And most importantly...how do you pronounce Gren correctly? 😅Gren Website: https://gren-lang.orgGren Zulip: https://gren.zulipchat.com/Gren package site: https://packages.gren-lang.org/Example projects written in Gren: https://github.com/gren-lang/example-projectsGren on Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@gren_langGren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gren_lang Gren language proposal on parameterized modules: https://github.com/gren-lang/compiler/issues/81 Elm Website: https://elm-lang.org/ Robin on Mastodon: https://snabelen.no/@robinheghan Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkins Kris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/ Kris on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins
PostgreSQL in the Cloud
What's going on with Postgres? Joining us for his perspective is Raouf Chebri, a Developer Advocate for PostgreSQL and the cloud service Neon. We catch up on what's new and important in recent versions of Postgres, what Neon have been doing to make Postgres work well in the Cloud, and what Raouf's life is like as a professional singer of Postgres's virtues.Neon: https://neon.tech/Neon’s architecture: https://neon.tech/docs/introduction/architecture-overviewThat CEO quote: https://twitter.com/nikitabase/status/1563913187862335489Raouf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/raoufdevrelKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
Building a Thriving Community Around Your Software with Ale Murray
Are you trying to build the community around your software? And what does “building a community” really mean? What are we building communities for?Join us on Developer Voices as host Kris Jenkins sits down with Ale Murray, a seasoned community manager with nearly a decade of experience, to discuss her tips for building a thriving tech community. Ale shares her insights on why community building is essential, how to identify your target audience, and how to approach community building with the right mindset. She also offers practical advice on how to handle challenging situations, such as dealing with negative feedback and managing conflicts within the community. Whether you're just starting out or looking to improve your existing community, this conversation offers valuable insights and actionable tips to help you succeed.Ale on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ale_amurrayKris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkinsKris on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins