Niamh Walsh

One thing I’ve learned in my first 10 months at Meta… Don’t ask a senior eng what to do or how to do something. Instead, explore different approaches and ask the senior eng which they would recommend. For example, when devising the tech plan for a new feature that requires storing and retrieving new data, don’t simply ask what data solution you should use. Instead, scour internal wikis, existing code patterns, etc, to learn about the data storage solutions available. Then list out the pros and cons specific to your use case in terms of latency cost, capacity usage, reliability, implementation complexity, etc. Sending that breakdown to the senior eng (along with your own proposal for what you think the best choice is) will not only make their lives easier, but prove to them that you’re capable of working at the next level. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if there’s a quick question that a senior engineer could answer in 30 seconds, but would take you 2 hours to figure out on your own, it makes sense to ask. What do others think? What types of questions should you ask senior eng and how should you decide whether to ask a question or figure it out on your own? #softwareengineer

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The policies being driven forward by Thierry Breton around the EU AI Act have been utmost damaging for the European tech industry, and they need to be revised as soon as possible. We need to better balance driving European innovation through data collection and modeling with conflicting needs such as data protection and safety. We need to ensure we can turn these developments into businesses that can be the pillar of the next generation of companies that provide productivity growth in Europe. We have no other choice - either we do this here, or we will have to take over products developed in the US and in China, as it already happened with search engines, cell phones, and social networks. We wouldn't want to let this happen with AI applications in robotics or digital assistants. #euacc #euaiact #aiact

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What Is Design Porn = I have watched Design Porn since I had a 20+ years career in Silicon Valley Software Engineering before transitioning to a no-good manager type since 2012. Finally I am doing a post on this deviant behaviour. = The referred article is Design Porn: 8 Reasons Why WhatsApp Was Able to Support 50 Billion Messages a Day With Only 32 Engineers This post by Neo K. outlines the incredible story of WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum. And the engineering techniques used to scale WhatsApp. Ok ... why is this excellent technical article is Design Porn To understand this we need to briefly visit the semantics of Pornography itself. in Porn sex is Performed - not Enjoyed. The sex is unreal since it is performative theater by hardcore professionals who may be under the influence of energy boosting drugs. Often people fall for the porn trap - they watch performative sex and then they cannot match performance as captured in their mind. This leads to shrinkage of their natural performance and in some cases totally destroys the partner relationship and retention. I think this amount of Pornography Theory is enough to explain the Design Porn phenomenon. = In Design Porn what happens is successful content creators line Neo K. takes architecture and design principles from successful companies to create beautiful Design Porn. Folks please understand this: For WhatsApp - the success or ramp to success came first. The Design was necessitated by the pathway to success. Design was caused by WhatsApp success not Design caused WhatsApp success Design is Correlated with WhatsApp success - not a Cause of it. Two or more variables considered to be related, in a statistical context, if their values change so that as the value of one variable increases or decreases so does the value of the other variable (although it may be in the opposite direction). For example, for the two variables "hours worked" and "income earned" there is a relationship between the two if the increase in hours worked is associated with an increase in income earned. If we consider the two variables "price" and "purchasing power", as the price of goods increases a person's ability to buy these goods decreases (assuming a constant income). Correlation is a statistical measure (expressed as a number) that describes the size and direction of a relationship between two or more variables. A correlation between variables, however, does not automatically mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the values of the other variable. Causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other event; i.e. there is a causal relationship between the two events. This is also referred to as cause and effect. Clear? = I will now discuss how Design Porn harms you. The parallel to Sexual Porn is eerily similar. In Design Porn you are gulping somebody else's Design Performance unique to their context. Real life is messy - be mindful of that!

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"Blazing Fast: Uber Serves 40 Million Requests per Second, Slashing CPU Cores by 95% from 60K to Just 3K, with Integrated Cache" 🚀 Don't Just Band-Aid Your Performance: Cache Like a Pro 🛠️ Cache is every developer's first line of defense against sluggish apps. But simply throwing a cache at a problem is like slapping a bandage on a gushing wound. It might offer temporary relief, but it won't fix the underlying issue. Uber’s epic struggle: While trying to make their apps faster and able to handle more users while stuck with old-fashioned storage. When there's suddenly a massive increase in people wanting to read data, it pushes them right to the edge of disaster. ❌❌ A BIG TECH HURDLE❌❌ Solution: Docstore comes to the rescue. Beyond the Quick Fix: 1.DocStore Query patterns - It turned out that more than 50% of the queries coming to Docstore are ReadRows requests. Build what’s required and what makes sense. 2.Bypassing Cache - Bypassing the cache in Uber's microservices ensures strong consistency for critical flows like retrieving items in an eater's cart, while leveraging cache for less critical tasks such as fetching a restaurant's menu. 3.Brilliant Cache Invalidation Strategy using CDC and Flux - Cache Invalidation is one of the critical problems in Software Development. This strategy ensures cache consistency within seconds, preventing the risk of uncommitted transactions affecting cache integrity. 4. Special Redis Codec for Row Reads: Unique row values in MySQL are cached in Redis using a special codec to ensure compatibility. This facilitates sharing cache resources across databases while maintaining data isolation. 5. Cache Warming and Cross-Region Replication: Instead of using inbuilt Redis replication, Leveraging the Query Engine for Cross-Region Replication ensures consistency. 6. Sharding Differently: Sharding Redis clusters differently from the database scheme optimizes caching for diverse data access patterns, enhancing overall system performance and scalability while resolving potential inefficiencies in cache management and data retrieval. 7. Adaptive Timeouts: Optimizing Redis Performance with Dynamic Timeouts. This prevents issues like premature failures or excessive latencies. Percentile latency ranges: P75 latency decreases by 75%, and P99.9 latency drops by over 67%, all while curbing latency spikes. ⏱️ As of the current date, CacheFront supports over 40M requests per second across all production Docstore instances, with continuous expansion. 📈 Blog Link : https://lnkd.in/ghvAY3_Z This is undoubtedly one of the finest reads I've encountered on distributed cache systems. I highly recommend giving it a read. 📚 Big Thanks to Preetham Reddy Narayanareddy Afshin Salek Piyush Patel Zurab Kutsia Eli (Oleg) Pozniansky #Systemdesign #distributedcache #cache #p99latency #systemdesign #design

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What a honour to take part in building resources to teach primary school students about AI! 🦾 Well done to the Code for Life team!! Resources are available for all primary teachers and you can find out more below ☺️ Here’s a teaser: https://lnkd.in/eeAvt3C9

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Hello Everyone, Welcome to Part 2 of our series on Building a Cache Iteratively. In this instalment, we'll delve into the concept of introducing threads into the equation, understanding the challenges of concurrent access, and devising a solution within a data structure. We'll tackle these issues in the most basic yet effective manner, gradually building a reliable system. You can find the detailed discussion in the following Medium article: https://lnkd.in/gsKYTyzN For those interested in exploring the code base, it's available on GitHub: https://lnkd.in/gp-dTVdU Feel free to dive in, explore, and share your thoughts! #LRUCache #Cache #LLD

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🚀 Ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of tech tools out there? 😅 You’re not alone! I have been getting a lot of questions about how I approach learning new technologies, and I realized it’s time to share my insights! ✍️ In my latest article, I outlined my personal strategies for mastering new tech tools efficiently. 💡 https://lnkd.in/dxDTwA-C Whether you are a seasoned developer or just starting out, these tips can help streamline your learning process and boost your productivity. 📈Curious about my journey? 🌟 Check it out and let’s discuss how you tackle learning in this fast-paced tech world! 🤔💬 #Learning #TechTools #DeveloperJourney 

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Principal Engineer Staff Engineer Distinguished Engineer (my favourite) I’m going to say it and it’s likely a little rhetorical: I dislike all these terms immensely. Please can someone give me the canonical description for what they are supposed to mean? (I know I can use a search engine or AI to do it… I want to know what people think they mean). The industry I work in is in danger of disappearing up its own backside. What’s wrong with: Software engineer Why do we need to differentiate? The only reason I can see is signposting to people with differing levels of experience or different sets of responsibilities. If we need to do that then, I’m not sure our teams are set up correctly in the first place. #software #softwareengineering #softwaredevelopment #productdevelopment

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sharpening writing skill is one of killer skill!

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🔍 A Beginner’s Guide to Threads, Processes, and Context Switching 🔍 Hello, fellow developers! Ever wondered how threads and processes work in computing? Or what does context switching mean? Check out my latest Medium article where I break down these concepts with easy-to-understand examples! https://lnkd.in/eB6FhZyc In this article, I explain threads, processes, and context switching with simple, relatable examples, making it perfect for beginners and those looking to refresh their knowledge. #Threads #Processes #ContextSwitching #Multithreading #Concurrency #SoftwareDevelopment

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These books focus on more than just coding—they teach how to think like a systems architect and solve complex challenges.📚💡

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I echo Pere Martra' s urgency for the European Union to advance in artificial intelligence and other key sectors. While Europe boasts incredible educational systems and social safety, its conservative approach often limits the entrepreneurial spirit seen in places like the United States and parts of Asia. These regions not only embrace but celebrate risk as a pathway to innovation, which starkly contrasts with the European caution that can hinder our global competitiveness in rapidly evolving fields such as AI and blockchain. To truly lead in technological innovation, Europe must strike a balance between its commendable focus on security and a more dynamic approach to business and technological advancements. Promoting a startup-friendly culture, reducing regulatory constraints, boosting venture capital funding, and fostering an ethos of 'intelligent risk-taking' are critical. Such steps are vital not just for keeping pace, but for steering global innovations, leveraging our rich intellectual and educational heritage to play a pivotal role in the next technological revolution.

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We're headed down the complex path of "replacing and improving upon activities you might do with your smartphone" with natural conversation. Try creating your own AI conversational agents at iyo.studio and let us know if you have feedback!

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What does playing a game like Elden Ring add to your on-call game? It teaches you to be resilient and more importantly the fundamentals of understanding the patterns in front of you to be well prepared and make quick decisions. I share a first person experience of leveling up on the field, how to deploy Node.js on Kubernetes and why great observability is important: https://lnkd.in/dsq4Km7W

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Have you ever dreamt of an improbable books crossover, like Frodo from 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 becoming the main character of the 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺 or Emma Bovary from 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘺 acting as a modern-days Shakespearean Juliet? Well, all of this is now possible! I'm thrilled to introduce my latest #opensource product for #storytelling: 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬-𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐫-𝐚𝐢 𝐯𝟎.𝟎.𝟎: built with #ReactJS and shipped through Vercel, this #webapp combines the power of two #AI tools: - #gpt4omini by OpenAI, which takes care of cooking new and intriguing plots starting from the user's instructions, the titles and the summaries of the two books to mix (summaries are scraped through Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia API) - #text2img realtime API by ModelsLab, which provides a stable diffusion pipeline to create a thumbnail for your newly-generated story Everything is provided under a simple and intuitive #UI, which uses #chatscope's React template kit. Curious of trying? The app is already live at: https://lnkd.in/dsS6jDsh And you can also have a tour of the GitHub repo (and leave a little ⭐ while you're there): https://lnkd.in/djHQ8gkg The documentation is still under construction, but will become available soon😊 Have fun!📚📚

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Any dev will be able to tell you the importance of iteration speed when building software. One pattern that I'm seeing folks building with Superblocks is increasing ramping up that iteration speed to a whole new level. The killer combination: An engineer + someone from the design or product team + an end user of the internal application. Having everyone being able to collaborate takes a linear process and basically squashes it down to a single meeting. For example: 1. After a 60-90 minute call, it's common to leave these meetings with at least the scaffolding of a usable end application as it can be built in real time with real data. 2. A lot of the time they'll walk out of the meeting with a v2 or v3 of the project just because they were able to fit so many iterations of feedback from experimenting with different ideas. 3.. The end-user feels invested in the tool. This is especially important for internal software where getting adoption to use the tool is frequently a challenge.

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New partnership between Stack Overflow and Open AI. I will be super interested in seeing how this impacts the short and long term accuracy of LLMs in the future. In this video Theo shares a very thought-provoking picture of what this could mean for LLMs in the future. https://lnkd.in/gph_wGPs

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