Videos

Abstract Is your app alone and trembling in a dark, single-region of a cloud platform, suffering with failures, latency, and retry storms closing in on every side? In this talk, you will learn how to modernize a single-region application, using a multiple-region or multi-cloud architecture. You’ll see why connecting geographically distributed applications to data sources in a different region is an anti-pattern. I’ll demonstrate how even destroying an entire region will prove the value of active-active level resilience. I will…

Abstract Suppose you want a new feature which requires a lower-level language to get the performance it needs. Or maybe your code is already low-level, but a new feature could be built much faster in a higher-level language without a noticeable performance hit. Or maybe you want to migrate incrementally from one language to another. Whatever the motivation, calling functions across languages while staying within the same process is commonly overlooked in favor of more familiar techniques like spinning up…

Abstract 37signals pioneered “Shape Up” a macro-level methodology focused on product/engineering collaboration, which was developed by their former Head of Strategy, Ryan Singer. Shape Up helped 37signals manage periods of extensive growth and a rewrite of their flagship product from scratch for its 2.0 release. In the Foreword to Singer’s book, “Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters,” 37signals CEO Jason Fried explains that Shape Up does not require “daily stand ups, design sprints, development sprints,…

Abstract Scaling workloads have gotten faster and faster throughout the years, but what about the metrics that drive scaling? From virtual machines to pods in Kubernetes, the rules for scaling haven’t changed all that much. Your app’s CPU/Memory increases, scale up. What if we had a way to fetch any metrics we want from internal or external sources? What if instead of waiting for increased utilization to scale our app, we can predict it? Using custom and external metrics, we…

Abstract Software developers are often tasked with well-defined responsibilities. These include implementing small tickets or delivering large-scale features based on detailed specifications. Effective engineers develop many skills to be more effective in a structured environment, such as breaking down large units of work into small ones, coordinating tasks among a team, or hands on tasks like debugging code. When building an entirely new product, you need to choose where to focus your attention to validate the idea quickly. This talk…

Abstract A digital twin is a virtual representation of real-world entities and processes. Digital twin systems have the potential to transform businesses by accelerating holistic understanding, optimal decision-making, and effective action. Adopting digital twin systems can even help organizations achieve their sustainability goals. A digital twin of a healthcare facility rendered in 3D and using XR can help epidemiologists get an up-to-date view of the state of disease spread; using real-time sensor readings for data acquisition, a digital twin of…

Abstract Let’s set the stage, shall we? First, we have the starting cast: Kris Nova, Quintessence, and the plucky but nascent beginnings of the Hachyderm community. Then we have the stage: The Watertower, home of the beloved motly crew of Nova’s animaniac named servers, nestled lovingly in the basement. Next, we have the Hachyderm infrastructure team. Myself, Dominic, Malte, and Tani. And then, well, we have the problem. Cast your mind back to November of 2022. Twitter’s on fire, and…

Abstract Ten years ago, languages were a big part of the computing landscape, influencing a great deal of the way startups and enterprises tackled big challenges. The culture of an organization could almost be defined by the choice of language that they made to develop key solutions. But today, programming languages have become less prevalent, and new languages are no longer appearing. In this talk, I will discuss where we’ve been, and how we got to where we are today,…

Abstract Why you should consider a meta-framework for your React, Svelte or Vue project? In the dawn of the JavaScript front-end application development days, there were heavyweight development frameworks like Angular.js, Ember, and before that, jQuery. In those days, the framework had to do most of the heavy lifting, and developers used to back-end development looked for familiar patterns and features to their server-side brethren. When React took over most current-day single-page application development, it did so by being very…

Abstract We all know that the key to successful software development is iteration and feedback loops, whether that takes the form of the red-green-refactor cycle, or agile project planning. But not all feedback is equally valuable. How do you know if you’re poised to spin gold or just spin in circles? We propose a novel archetype for virtuous feedback cycles: the humble Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL). We’ll talk about the history of REPLs and how they revolutionized early programming environments. We’ll examine…