tl;dr in tech - Issue #64
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tl;dr: Lorin recently gave a lecture in a graduate software engineering course on the value of technical writing for software engineers. There are 3 goals when writing:
1) Building shared understanding.
2) A tool for your own thinking.
3) Influence in a larger org when you’re at the bottom of the hierarchy. Lorin also advises on how to improve technical writing.
Via: Writing Docs Well: Why Should A Software Engineer Care? -Â Lorin Hochstein
tl;dr: "The Uber Eats system handles several hundred million product images and millions of image updates are performed every hour. We have implemented a content-addressable caching layer that very effectively detects duplicates and thereby reduces download times, processing times, and storage costs."
Via: Deduping And Storing Images At Uber Eats
tl;dr: Senior Solutions Engineer at GitHub conducted an experiment to understand tradeoffs between productivity and hardware. "When you ask a developer whether they’d prefer more or less powerful hardware, the answer is almost always more powerful hardware. More powerful hardware means less time waiting on builds - and that means more time to build the next feature or fix a bug. But even if the upfront cost is higher for higher-powered hardware, what’s the actual cost when you consider the impact on productivity?"
Via: Experiment: The Hidden Costs Of Waiting On Slow Build Times -Â Natalie Somersall
tl;dr: The CTO at Amazon elaborates on the following:
1) Cloud technologies will redefine sports as we know them.
2) Simulated worlds will reinvent the way we experiment.
3) A surge of innovation in smart energy.
4) The upcoming supply chain transformation.
5) Custom silicon goes mainstream.
Via: Tech Predictions For 2023 And Beyond - Werner VogelsÂ
tl;dr: "Balancing these opposing principles is what makes good naming so hard. The amount of knowledge conveyed in a single word is what makes good naming so powerful. The exact balance will depend on the size of the codebase and developer team, the domain complexity, frequency of use and many other factors."
Via: Taming Names In Software Development -Â Joseph Glass
tl;dr: 14 useful tips including the following:
1) Search for the request’s ID - often log lines will include a request ID and searching for the request ID of a failed request will show all the log lines for that request.
2) Build a timeline - keeping all of the information straight in your head can get confusing, so keeping a debugging document where I copy and paste bits of information.
Via: Tips For Analyzing Logs - Julia Evans
tl;dr: Broken down into 3 categories. Tips for:
1) Assessing a startup’s trajectory.
2) Assessing your fit with the role and the team.
3) Assessing your startup readiness & shifting to a scrappier startup mindset.
Via: From BigCo To Startup: 20 Tips For Evaluating Early-Stage Companies & Making The Leap