Chris McCord, a developer renowned for his Elixir and Phoenix expertise, shares insights from his YouTube speedrun integrating a self-hosted Llama AI. Tyler Young discusses the enhancements in his parameterized testing library, making tests more user-friendly. The team dives into the potential of adding CRDTs to the Mnesia database for automated conflict resolution. They also express excitement for ElixirConf 2024, highlighting key topics like security advancements, coding techniques, and community engagement in the ever-evolving Elixir world.
The podcast highlights the integration of self-hosted language models into applications, emphasizing the importance of reliable local testing environments for consistent development.
Discussion on Mnesia's potential CRDT integration suggests advancements in automated conflict resolution, enhancing its performance in distributed systems.
Deep dives
Integrating AI into Applications
A recent demonstration highlights the potential of integrating small language models (LLMs) into existing applications. The process involves setting up a self-hosted LLM to generate suggestions for tasks in a to-do list application, using REST API calls to interact with the model. While the speed run video showcases the ease of implementing AI features, it raises important questions about local testing environments and maintaining consistency across developer setups. The need for reliable setups that ensure repeatability without incurring high costs is emphasized, fostering discussions around best practices for local development when using AI.
Enhancements in Testing Libraries
The release of the parameterized test library version 0.2 introduces significant improvements for testing frameworks, making it easier to handle multiple test scenarios. This version supports longer test names and comments in markdown table formats, enhancing code clarity and maintainability. The library allows developers to create a more diverse array of test cases through organized tables, addressing the complexity involved in comprehensive testing strategies. Contributions from the community have played a crucial role in these updates, indicating growing collaboration around improving testing tools.
Advancements in Distributed Databases
The Amnesia database is set to potentially incorporate native support for automated conflict resolution, leveraging conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs) to tackle challenges associated with distributed writes. Originally designed for high-speed performance by sharing address space with applications, Amnesia's architecture raises questions about its effectiveness in handling data consistency across distributed systems. Ongoing academic efforts, specifically a PhD project, aim to explore the feasibility of these enhancements within the Erlang ecosystem. If successful, this could significantly improve Amnesia's usability, especially in environments where conflict resolution is critical.
News includes Chris McCord's speedrun video on adding a self-hosted llama2-7b to an existing application, Tyler Young's release of parameterized_test v0.2.0, major updates in Oban Pro's new launch week, potential for CRDTs being added to Mnesia DB, Zach Daniel's blog post on Igniter for code generation, and a preview of ElixirConf 2024 with exciting speakers and topics, and more!
https://x.com/chris_mccord/status/1815409966611648705 – Chris McCord does a YouTube video speedrun of adding a self-hosted llama2-7b to an existing application. He's running it against Ollama and making REST API calls to it, showing how to run the Ollama server on a private Fly.io IPv6 network using auto-stop and auto-start features.
https://x.com/TylerAYoung/status/1815391743484870980 – Tyler Young shared a new release of his library parameterized_test, version v0.2.0, which includes support for longer test names, comments in tables, and Obsidian markdown table format.
https://github.com/s3cur3/parameterized_test – GitHub repository for Tyler Young's parameterized_test library that makes it easier to create tests using multiple combinations in markdown tables.
https://x.com/Exadra37/status/1815694986345611683 – The Mnesia database may receive native support for automated conflict resolution via CRDTs, sponsored by ErlangSolutions and developed by Vincent Lau.
https://x.com/sorentwo/status/1791166342034255938 – Oban Pro's launch week introduces unified migrations, worker aliases, better support for distributed databases, faster unique job checks, and the @job decorator for small jobs.