Skip to main contentSkip to navigation

Advent developer blog 2016

The Guardian development teams look back on 2016, with one blog post for every day of advent

  • A supermassive black hole in the core of galaxy named MCG 6-30-15. Scientists for the first time have seen energy being extracted from a black hole. Like an electric dynamo, this black hole spins and pumps energy out through cable-like magnetic field lines into the chaotic gas whipping around it, making the gas - already infernally hot from the sheer force of crushing gravity - even hotter.

    Scanamo: simpler, safer DynamoDB access for Scala

    DynamoDB provides a completely managed key-value store with some querying capabilities, but AWS’s Java client from Scala can be cumbersome and error-prone. The Guardian’s open-source library, Scanamo, provides a simpler alternative that reduces the scope for runtime errors.
  • Cutting a blue network cable with scissors

    Multiple DNS: synchronising Dyn to AWS Route 53

    In a time of frequent DDoS attacks we run through how we increased our DNS resilience by using multiple providers at little extra operational cost.
  • Should implicits carry a warning? Actually, they already do

    Implicits and type classes in Scala

    What are implicits? What are type classes? And why do they go so well together? Here are the answers I wish I’d had before diving into the Guardian’s codebase
  • Getting ready for the Hack Days

    Creating a culture of learning at the Guardian

    We’re creating a product and user experience (UX) toolkit to help our product managers and UX designers build skill and confidence in their roles. Here’s what we’ve learned so far about creating a culture of learning within the Guardian Digital team.
  • Pipeline inspection

    Testing in Production: rethinking the conventional deployment pipeline

    How using a lightweight continuous deployment pipeline, which focuses on production validation instead of a large suite of acceptance tests, allows us to iterate on the Membership and Subscriptions apps at speed.
  • Product workshops in full swing on Ada Lovelace Day

    Introducing the Guardian Digital’s self-organised Diversity & Inclusion group

    The Guardian Digital team talk about why they started a diversity group, and what they’ve been up to this year
  • The Guardian website after breaking in Safari

    What we learnt from our mistakes in 2016

    In 2016 a few things went wrong when building theGuardian.com. Lets take a look at some of the slip-ups and what we learnt from them so you can avoid our mistakes
  • Monkey Buffet Festival

    The Assumptions Buffet

    1 day, 4+ concepts, 12+ users, 10x things learnt. The assumptions buffet is great technique for product discovery
  • A bridge with a padlock as the keystone and people crossing it.

    Real-world software security lessons

    Can common-sense and our real-world intuition show us how to write secure software?
  • Hacker using laptop. Lots of digits on the computer screen.<br>DY8H5T Hacker using laptop. Lots of digits on the computer screen. gstock privacy internet hacker data security

    Levelling up our client side developer experience

    Client side development moves pretty fast. If you stop and look around once in a while, you’re probably missing a bunch of dependencies.
  • Silicon Valley Sign, San Jose, California<br>CWFY33 Silicon Valley Sign, San Jose, California

    What we’ve learnt from Startup Culture

    For all of it’s talk of limitless pivots, funding rounds and football tables, Startup culture can teach established companies a thing or two.
  • The Guardian VR

    Stepping into a new world: What we have learnt from The Guardian VR

    Last month we launched The Guardian VR on Daydream, Google’s VR platform. It was a roller coaster ride and here is what we learned.
  • 1996, JERRY MAGUIRE<br>TOM CRUISE 
Character(s): Jerry Maguire 
Film 'JERRY MAGUIRE' (1996) 
Directed By CAMERON CROWE 
06 December 1996 
CTJ27738 
Allstar/TRISTAR 
**WARNING**
This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of TRISTAR
 and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company & can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film.
A Mandatory Credit To TRISTAR is required.
The Photographer should also be credited when known.
No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company.
Entertainment 
Orientation Landscape

    “Show me the money!”

    Lessons learned from Tom Cruise-based software development.
  • Final keynote of Code Mesh 2016 - Joe Armstrong and Alan Kay are seated onstage before the talk begins

    Code Mesh 2016

    Code Mesh is a conference for non-mainstream programming languages. Here are a bunch of things we have learned, along with out highlights!
  • Amazon Echo review - blue lights

    Adventures with Echo

    In September, we released our flash briefing and skill for the Amazon Echo. Since then, we’ve tried to figure out how people are using this device. Here are some of the things we’ve learned.
  • People hiking together at sunrise

    Guardian Digital Fellowship 2017

    We are launching the new Guardian Digital Fellowship scheme for 2017. Find out about how you can apply and help shape the future of digital media.
  • Production monitoring screenshot

    Testing in Production: How we combined tests with monitoring

    How the Guardian Digital team supplemented traditional monitoring with production testing to provide a comprehensive alerting system
  • Does the desire to have perfect software stop you from deploying as rapidly as you’d like?

    Perfect software: the enemy of rapid deployment?

    In traditional and slow moving software delivery teams, the brakes are well and truly applied by endless cycles of painfully slow manual regression test cycles. The logical thing to do when considering moving towards a rapid release cadence is to speed up your regression by automating. Sally Goble, head of quality at the Guardian, argues that this is not right or necessary
  • Mentor guiding student during the Towers of Hanoi at the Guardian Coding Workshop

    The Guardian coding workshop

    This past summer 4 developers volunteered from the department to teach Python to 10 students ages 17-26.
  • The art of the design sprint

    The art of the design sprint

    Our small team has taken Google’s formula for creating and testing new ideas in a week, and adapted it to work at the Guardian.
About 22 results for Advent developer blog 2016
12