In this New Stack Makers podcast, Xun Wang, CTO of Bloomreach, brings insights from his time at Nvidia, particularly lessons from its founder, Jensen Huang, to his current role in e-commerce personalization. Wang emphasizes structuring organizations to reflect the architecture of the products they build, applying a hands-on, detail-oriented approach that encourages deep understanding of engineering challenges. He credits Huang for teaching him the importance of focusing on fundamental architecture rather than relying on iterative testing alone. Wang highlights the impact of generative AI (GenAI) on Bloomreach, explaining how AI-driven search is essential to understanding human language and user intent. As GenAI reshapes application development, Wang stresses the need for engineers to adopt new skills in AI manipulation, while still maintaining traditional coding expertise. He advocates for continuous learning, acknowledging the challenge of staying updated in a rapidly evolving field. Wang, himself, reads extensively to keep pace with innovations, underscoring the importance of staying curious and adaptable in today’s tech landscape. Learn more from The New Stack about Entrepreneurship for Engineers: How to Grow into Leadership Engineering Leaders: Switch to Wartime Management Now How Teleport’s Leader Transitioned from Engineer to CEO  Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Code reviews can be highly beneficial but tricky to execute well due to the human factors involved, says Adrienne Braganza Tacke, author of *Looks Good to Me: Actionable Advice for Constructive Code Review.* In a recent conversation with *The New Stack*, Tacke identified three challenges teams must address for successful code reviews: ambiguity, subjectivity, and ego.Ambiguity arises when the goals or expectations for the code are unclear, leading to miscommunication and rework. Tacke emphasizes the need for clarity and explicit communication throughout the review process. Subjectivity, the second challenge, can derail reviews when personal preferences overshadow objective evaluation. Reviewers should justify their suggestions based on technical merit rather than opinion. Finally, ego can get in the way, with developers feeling attached to their code. Both reviewers and submitters must check their egos to foster a constructive dialogue.Tacke encourages programmers to first review their own work, as self-checks can enhance the quality of the code before it reaches the reviewer. Ultimately, code reviews can improve code quality, mentor developers, and strengthen team knowledge. Learn more from The New Stack about code reviews:The Anatomy of Slow Code Reviews One Company Rethinks Diff to Cut Code Review TimesHow Good Is Your Code Review Process?Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

In the New Stack Makers episode, Adi Polak, Director, Advocacy and Developer Experience Engineering at Confluent discusses the operational and analytical estates in data infrastructure. The operational estate focuses on fast, low-latency event-driven applications, while the analytical estate handles long-running data crunching tasks. Challenges arise due to the "schema evolution" from upstream operational changes impacting downstream analytics, creating complexity for developers. Apache Iceberg and Flink help mitigate these issues. Iceberg, a table format developed by Netflix, optimizes querying by managing file relationships within a data lake, reducing processing time and errors. It has been widely adopted by major companies like Airbnb and LinkedIn. Apache Flink, a versatile data processing framework, is driving two key trends: shifting some batch processing tasks into stream processing and transitioning microservices into Flink streaming applications. This approach enhances system reliability, lowers latency, and meets customer demands for real-time data, like instant flight status updates. Together, Iceberg and Flink streamline data infrastructure, addressing developer pain points and improving efficiency. Learn more from The New Stack about Apache Iceberg and Flink:Unfreeze Apache Iceberg to Thaw Your Data LakehouseApache Flink: 2023 Retrospective and Glimpse into the Future 4 Reasons Why Developers Should Use Apache Flink Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Bob Wise, CEO of Heroku, discussed the impact of generative AI (GenAI) coding tools on software development in a recent episode of The New Stack Makers. He compared the rise of these tools to adding an "infinite number of interns" to development teams, noting that while they accelerate code writing, they don't yet simplify testing, deployment, or production operations. Wise likened this to the early days of Kubernetes, which focused on improving operations rather than the frontend experience. He emphasized that Kubernetes' success was due to its focus on easing the operational burden, something current GenAI tools have yet to achieve.Heroku, acquired by Salesforce in 2010, is positioned to benefit from these changes by helping teams transition to more automated systems. Wise highlighted Heroku’s strategic bet on Postgres, a database technology that's gaining traction, especially for GenAI workloads. He also discussed Heroku's ongoing migration to Kubernetes, aligning with industry standards to enhance its platform.Learn more from The New Stack about HerokuThe Data Stack Journey: Lessons from Architecting Stacks at Heroku and MattermostKubernetes and the Next Generation of PaaS Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

After the XZ Utils backdoor vulnerability was uncovered in March, the OpenJS Foundation saw a surge in inquiries from potential open source JavaScript contributors. Robin Ginn, executive director of the foundation, noted that volunteer-led JavaScript communities often face challenges in managing these contributions. The discovery that a single contributor, "Jia Tan," planted the backdoor heightened vigilance, especially when new contributors requested admin privileges. Ginn emphasized that trust is not synonymous with security, especially in open source projects where maintainers must be vigilant about who can access their repositories.The XZ vulnerability highlighted broader concerns about the security of open source software, particularly in projects with only a single maintainer. Despite receiving a significant grant from Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund, the foundation remains under-resourced, with just two full-time staffers supporting 35 projects. Ginn urged companies that rely on open source software to invest in it by hiring maintainers, ensuring these critical projects are properly supported.Learn more from The New Stack about open source vulnerabilityLinux xz Backdoor Damage Could Be Greater Than Feared Unzipping the XZ Backdoor and Its Lessons for Open Source Linux xz and the Great Flaws in Open Source Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Paige Bailey, who began coding at age 9 in rural Texas, now leads the GenAI developer experience at Google. In a conversation with Chris Pirillo on The New Stack Makers, Bailey reflected on the evolving role of software development in the era of generative AI. While she once urged her nieces and nephews to pursue computer science degrees, Bailey now believes that critical thinking and problem-solving may be more crucial for future tech careers. She emphasized that generative AI is democratizing software development, making it more accessible and enabling developers to focus on creative tasks rather than the minutiae of coding. Bailey's experience at Google highlights this shift, as she now acts more as a reviewer and overseer of AI-generated code. She sees GenAI not as a replacement for developers but as a tool to accelerate their creativity and tackle longstanding backlogs. Bailey believes the key is ensuring everyone understands how to effectively apply generative AI to their work.Learn more from The New Stack about the future of development: 7 Ways to Future Proof Your Developer Job in the Age of AI The Future of Developer Careers 4 Forecasts for the Future of Developer RelationsJoin our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Anne Currie, a leading expert in sustainable tech and part of the Green Software Foundation, discusses practical steps for building resilient, sustainable software in an episode of The New Stack Makers. With 30 years of experience, Currie co-authored Building Green Software, emphasizing the tech industry's role in the energy transition. She highlights the complexity of adapting technology to renewable energy, involving extensive research and debunking misinformation. Currie discusses the importance of energy proportionality—the idea that increased utilization improves a computer's energy efficiency—and how this concept aligns with modern DevOps practices that reduce carbon emissions while enhancing speed, cost efficiency, and security.Currie also emphasizes architecting systems to operate on renewable power and draws parallels between managing variable grid power and internet bandwidth. Using examples like video conferencing, she illustrates how software can adapt to fluctuating resources. The episode also touches on potential pitfalls like greenwashing and the challenges in accurately naming concepts like energy proportionality.Learn more from The New Stack about sustainability: Sustainability: How Did Amazon, Azure, Google Perform in 2023? Sustainability Focus: Cloud Efficiency, Not Carbon Emissions Developers Should Press Cloud Providers on Sustainability Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game. https://thenewstack.io/newsletter/

In an era marked by complexity, the golden path is essential for software architects, asserts James Watters, senior director of R&D at VMware Tanzu, Broadcom. This approach, emphasizing fewer application patterns, simplifies life for security personnel, developers, and infrastructure teams. VMware defines the golden path as streamlining software development, crucial in today's economic climate. Watters highlights this in the Broadcom report: State of Cloud Native App Platforms 2024, noting that 55% of organizations favor this method for its consistency and security. Watters, a pioneer in platform as a service since 2009, helped establish Cloud Foundry and now drives VMware Tanzu. Tanzu's golden operations offer standardized, consistent processes across platforms, crucial for efficiency and security. Watters advocates for minimal DIY in favor of operational consistency, providing commands for building, deploying, and scaling applications. Tanzu’s focus is on integrating AI to enhance user interfaces and data access, impacting platform engineering significantly in the coming years. This integration aims to offer a better developer experience while maintaining security and efficiency. Learn more from The New Stack about golden paths: Golden Paths Start with a Shift Left Platform Engineering Not Working Out? You’re Doing It Wrong. How to Pave Golden Paths That Actually Go Somewhere  Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Maintaining and ensuring the success of a microservice-based system can be challenging. Sarah Wells, a seasoned tech consultant with over 20 years of experience, offers valuable insights in her book "Enabling Microservices Success" and a discussion on The New Stack Makers podcast. Drawing from her tenure at the Financial Times (FT), Wells illustrates how transitioning to microservices and adopting DevOps and SRE practices enabled FT to accelerate software releases from 12 annually to over 20,000. This transformation required merging IT organizations, investing in automation, and fostering team autonomy. Wells emphasizes that successful microservices adoption depends not only on developer expertise but also on organizational structures. She highlights the importance of continuous delivery and proactive communication, especially during critical periods like major news events. Additionally, she discusses the evolving roles of senior engineers and the need for flexibility in defining architectural responsibilities. Wells advocates for "engineering enablement" over "platform teams" to better support effective service management and evolution. Learn more from The New Stack about enabling successful outcomes of microservices: What Is Microservices Architecture? 4 Strategies for Migrating Monolithic Apps to Microservices Continuous Improvement Metrics for Scaling Engineering Teams  Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game. https://thenewstack.io/newsletter/

In August 2023, the open source community rallied to create OpenTofu, an alternative to Terraform, after HashiCorp, now owned by IBM, adopted a restrictive Business Source License for Terraform. Ohad Maislish, co-founder and CEO of env0, explained on The New Stack Makers how this move sparked the initiative. A few hours after HashiCorp's license change, Maislish secured the domain opentf.org and began developing the new project, eventually named OpenTofu, which was donated to The Linux Foundation to ensure its license couldn't be altered.Maislish highlighted the importance of distinguishing between vendor-backed and foundation-backed open source projects to avoid sudden licensing changes. Before coding, the community created a manifesto, gathering significant support and pledges, but received no response from HashiCorp. Consequently, they proceeded with the fork and development of OpenTofu. Despite accusations of intellectual property theft from HashiCorp, OpenTofu gained traction and was adopted by organizations like Oracle. The community continues to prioritize user feedback through GitHub.Learn more from The New Stack about OpenTofu: OpenTofu vs. HashiCorp Takes Center Stage at Open Source Summit OpenTofu Amiable to a Terraform Reconciliation OpenTofu 1.6 General Availability: Open Source Infrastructure as Code Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

In the early days, the internet was a decentralized space created by enthusiasts. However, it has since transformed into a centralized, commerce-driven entity dominated by a few major players. The promise of the fediverse, a decentralized social networking concept, offers a refreshing alternative.Evan Prodromou, OpenEarth Foundation's director of open technology, has been advocating for decentralized social networks since 2008, starting with his creation, Identi.ca. Unlike Twitter, Identi.ca was open source and federated, allowing independent networks to interconnect.Prodromou, a co-author of ActivityPub—the W3C standard for decentralized networking used by platforms like Mastodon—discusses the evolution of the fediverse on The New Stack Makers podcast. He notes that small social networks dwindled to a few giants, such as Twitter and Facebook, which rarely interconnected. The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk disrupted the established norms, prompting users to reconsider their dependence on centralized platforms.The fediverse aims to address these issues by allowing users to maintain relationships across different instances, ensuring a smoother transition between networks. This decentralization fosters community management and better control over social interactions.Check out the full podcast episode to explore how tech giants like Meta are engaging with the fediverse and how to join decentralized social networks.Learn more from The New Stack about fediverse:FediForum Showcases New Fediverse Apps and Developer NetworkOne Login: Towards a Single Fediverse Identity on ActivityPubWeb Dev 2024: Fediverse Ramps Up, More AI, Less JavaScriptJoin our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game. https://thenewstack.io/newsletter/

In a recent episode of The New Stack Makers, recorded at the Open Source Summit North America, Matt Hartley, Linux support lead at Framework, discusses the importance of the "right to repair" movement. This initiative seeks to allow consumers to repair and upgrade their own electronic devices, countering the trend of disposable electronics that contribute to environmental damage. Framework, a company offering modular and customizable laptops, embodies this philosophy by enabling users to replace outdated components easily.Hartley, interviewed by Chris Pirillo, highlights how Framework’s approach helps reduce electronic waste, likening obsolete electronics to a form of "technical debt." He shares his personal struggle with old devices, like an ASUS Eee, illustrating the need for repairable technology. Hartley also describes his role in fostering a DIY community, collaborating closely with Fedora Linux maintainers and creating user-friendly support scripts. Framework’s community is actively contributing to the platform, developing new features and hardware integrations.The episode underscores the growing momentum of the right to repair movement, advocating for consumer empowerment and environmental sustainability. Learn more from The New Stack about repairing and upgrading devices: New Linux Laptops Come with Right-to-Repair and More Troubling Tech Trends: The Dark Side of CES 2024 Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Blockchain technology continues to drive innovation despite declining hype, with Distributed Ledgers (DLTs) offering secure, decentralized digital asset transactions. In an On the Road episode of The New Stack Makers recorded at Open Source Summit North America, Andrew Aitken of Hedera and Dr. Leemon Baird of Swirlds Labs discussed DLTs with Alex Williams. Baird highlighted the Hashgraph Consensus Algorithm, an efficient, secure distributed consensus mechanism he created, leveraging a hashgraph data structure and gossip protocol for rapid, robust transaction sharing among network nodes. This algorithm, which has been open source under the Apache 2.0 license for nine months, aims to maintain decentralization by involving 32 global organizations in its governance. Aitken emphasized building an ecosystem of DLT contributors, adhering to open source best practices, and developing cross-chain applications and more wallets to enhance exchange capabilities. This collaborative approach seeks to ensure transparency in both governance and software development. For more insights into DLT’s 2.0 era, listen to the full episode.Learn more from The New Stack about Distributed Ledgers (DLTs) IOTA Distributed Ledger: Beyond Blockchain for Supply Chains Why I Changed My Mind About Blockchain Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

The Linux xz utils backdoor exploit, discussed in an interview at the Open Source Summit 2024 on The New Stack Makers with John Kjell, director of open source at TestifySec, highlights critical vulnerabilities in the open-source ecosystem. This exploit involved a maintainer of the Linux xz utils project adding malicious code to a new release, discovered by a Microsoft engineer. This breach demonstrates the high trust placed in maintainers and how this trust can be exploited. Kjell explains that the backdoor allowed remote code execution or unauthorized server access through SSH connections.The exploit reveals a significant flaw: the human element in open source. Maintainers, often under pressure from company executives to quickly address vulnerabilities and updates, can become targets for social engineering. Attackers built trust within the community by contributing to projects over time, eventually gaining maintainer status and inserting malicious code. This scenario underscores the economic pressures on open source, where maintainers work unpaid and face demands from large organizations, exposing the fragility of the open-source supply chain. Despite these challenges, the community's resilience is also evident in their rapid response to such threats. Learn more from The New Stack about Linux xz utils Linux xz Backdoor Damage Could Be Greater Than Feared Unzipping the XZ Backdoor and Its Lessons for Open Source The Linux xz Backdoor Episode: An Open Source Myster Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Suman Debnath, principal developer advocate for machine learning at Amazon Web Services, emphasized the advantages of using Python in machine learning during a New Stack Makers episode recorded at PyCon US. He noted Python's ease of use and its foundational role in the data science ecosystem as key reasons for its popularity. However, Debnath highlighted that building generative AI applications doesn't necessarily require deep data science expertise or Python. Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s generative AI framework introduced in September, exemplifies this flexibility by allowing developers to use any programming language via an API-based service. Bedrock supports various languages like Python, C, C++, and Java, enabling developers to leverage large language models without intricate knowledge of machine learning. It also integrates well with open-source libraries such as Langchain and llamaindex. Debnath recommends visiting the community AWS platform and GitHub for resources on getting started with Bedrock. The episode includes a demonstration of Bedrock's capabilities and its benefits for Python users. Learn More from The New Stack on Amazon Bedrock: Amazon Bedrock Expands Palette of Large Language Models Build a Q&A Application with Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Titan 10 Key Products for Building LLM-Based Apps on AWSJoin our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game/

Nathan Peck, a senior developer advocate for generative AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS), shares his experiences working with Python in a recent episode of The New Stack Makers, recorded at PyCon US. Although not a Python expert, Peck frequently deals with Python scripts in his role, often assisting colleagues in running scripts as cron jobs. He highlights the challenge of being a T-shaped developer, possessing broad knowledge across multiple languages and frameworks but deep expertise in only a few.Peck introduces Amazon Q, a generative AI coding assistant launched by AWS in November, and demonstrates its capabilities. The assistant can be integrated into an integrated development environment (IDE) like VS Code. It assists in explaining, refactoring, fixing, and even developing new features for Python codebases. Peck emphasizes Amazon Q's ability to surface best practices from extensive AWS documentation, making it easier for developers to navigate and apply.Amazon Q Developer is available for free to users with an AWS Builder ID, without requiring an AWS cloud account. Peck's demo showcases how this tool can simplify and enhance the coding experience, especially for those handling complex or unfamiliar codebases.Learn more from The New Stack about Amazon Q and Amazon’s Generative AI strategy:Amazon Q, a GenAI to Understand AWS (and Your Business Docs)Decoding Amazon’s Generative AI StrategyResponsible AI at Amazon Web Services: Q&A with Diya WynnJoin our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Mike Fiedler, a PyPI safety and security engineer at the Python Software Foundation, prefers the title “code gardener,” reflecting his role in maintaining and securing open source projects. Recorded at PyCon US, Fiedler explains his task of “pulling the weeds” in code—handling unglamorous but crucial aspects of open source contributions. Since August, funded by Amazon Web Services, Fiedler has focused on enhancing the security of the Python Package Index (PyPI). His efforts include ensuring that both packages and the pipeline are secure, emphasizing the importance of vetting third-party modules before deployment.One of Fiedler’s significant initiatives was enforcing mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA) for all PyPI user accounts by January 1, following a community awareness campaign. This transition was smooth, thanks to proactive outreach. Additionally, the foundation collaborates with security researchers and the public to report and address malicious packages.In late 2023, a security audit by Trail of Bits, funded by the Open Technology Fund, identified and quickly resolved medium-sized vulnerabilities, increasing PyPI's overall security. More details on Fiedler's work are available in the full interview video.Learn more from The New Stack about PyPl:PyPl Strives to Pull Itself Out of TroubleHow Python Is EvolvingPoisoned Lolip0p PyPI PackagesJoin our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

The name "Falcon" for the UAE’s large language model (LLM) symbolizes the national bird's qualities of courage and perseverance, reflecting the vision of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi. TII, launched in 2020, addresses AI’s rapid advancements and unintended consequences by fostering an open-source approach to enhance community understanding and control of AI. In this New Stack Makers, Dr. Hakim Hacid, Executive Director and Acting Chief Researcher, Technology Innovation Institute emphasized the importance of perseverance and innovation in overcoming challenges. Falcon gained attention for being the first truly open model with capabilities matching many closed-source models, opening new possibilities for practitioners and industry. Last June, Falcon introduced a 40-billion parameter model, outperforming the LLaMA-65B, with smaller models enabling local inference without the cloud. The latest 180-billion parameter model, trained on 3.5 trillion tokens, illustrates Falcon’s commitment to quality and efficiency over sheer size. Falcon’s distinctiveness lies in its data quality, utilizing over 80% RefinedWeb data, based on CommonCrawl, which ensures cleaner and deduplicated data, resulting in high-quality outcomes. This data-centric approach, combined with powerful computational resources, sets Falcon apart in the AI landscape. Learn more from The New Stack about Open Source AI: Open Source Initiative Hits the Road to Define Open Source AI  Linus Torvalds on Security, AI, Open Source and TrustTransparency and Community: An Open Source Vision for AI Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Crash-level bugs continue to pose a significant challenge due to the lack of memory safety in programming languages, an issue persisting since the punch card era. This enduring problem, described as "the Joker to the Batman" by Anil Dash, VP of developer experience at Fastly, is highlighted in a recent episode of The New Stack Makers. The White House has emphasized memory safety, advocating for the adoption of memory-safe programming languages and better software measurability. The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) noted that languages like C and C++ lack memory safety traits and are prevalent in critical systems. They recommend using memory-safe languages, such as Java, C#, and Rust, to develop secure software. Memory safety is particularly crucial for the US government due to the high stakes, especially in space exploration, where reliability standards are exceptionally stringent. Dash underscores the importance of resilience and predictability in missions that may outlast their creators, necessitating rigorous memory safety practices.Learn more from The New Stack about Memory Safety:White House Warns Against Using Memory-Unsafe Languages Can C++ Be Saved? Bjarne Stroupstrup on Ensuring Memory SafetyBjarne Stroupstrup's Plan for Bringing Safety to C++Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

In the push to integrate data into development, time series databases have gained significant importance. These databases capture time-stamped data from servers and sensors, enabling the collection and storage of valuable information. InfluxDB, a leading open-source time series database technology by InfluxData, has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer a managed open-source service for time series databases. Brad Bebee, General Manager of Amazon Neptune and Amazon Timestream highlighted the challenges faced by customers managing open-source Influx database instances, despite appreciating its API and performance. To address this, AWS initiated a private beta offering a managed service tailored to customer needs. Paul Dix, Co-founder and CTO of InfluxData joined Bebee, and highlighted Influx's prized utility in tracking measurements, metrics, and sensor data in real-time. AWS's Timestream complements this by providing managed time series database services, including TimesTen for Live Analytics and Timestream for Influx DB. Bebee emphasized the growing relevance of time series data and customers' preference for managed open-source databases, aligning with AWS's strategy of offering such services. This partnership aims to simplify database management and enhance performance for customers utilizing time series databases. Learn more from The New Stack about time series databases:What Are Time Series Databases, and Why Do You Need Them?Amazon Timestream: Managed InfluxDB for Time Series Data Install the InfluxDB Time-Series Database on Ubuntu Server 22.04Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.