The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Brian Kernighan, a pioneering figure at Bell Labs during the birth of Unix and now a professor at Princeton, shares his wealth of knowledge on software development. He reflects on the enduring legacy of the C programming language and discusses modern languages like Go and Rust. Kernighan recounts the innovative atmosphere of Unix's inception and explores the evolution of programming methodologies. He emphasizes the importance of foundational tech education for future developers while advocating for flexibility in programming environments.

Jessica Kerr, a software developer at Honeycomb, shares her journey and expertise in observability and developer relations. She discusses the thrill of getting projects into production and the importance of monitoring them. Kerr also addresses the challenges of context switching with pull requests and offers insightful book recommendations. She connects game theory to team dynamics, emphasizing collaborative coding and the advantages of ensemble programming. Dive into her innovative views on gamification in software and learning, ensuring developers stay engaged and satisfied.

Feross Aboukhadijeh, an open-source developer known for projects like Socket and WebTorrent, joins to discuss the launch of Socket, a tool designed to secure the open-source supply chain. Feross highlights how supply chain attacks have eroded trust in open-source software. He explains Socket’s proactive approach to treating all open-source code as potentially malicious and discusses the alarming prevalence of risks like typo-squatting and package compromises. The conversation sheds light on the collective responsibility needed to enhance security in the tech community.

In this conversation with Toby Padilla, Co-founder at Charm, they dive into transforming the command line into a glamorous experience. Toby shares insights into innovative tools for terminal applications and the future of SSH interfaces. The discussion explores the balance between creativity and user privacy, along with the exciting integration of interactivity in command line tools. They also highlight the development of CLI apps in Go, using the Bubble Tea framework and the urge for richer multimedia experiences in terminal usage.

Annie Sexton, a UX Engineer at Render and author of the insightful blog post 'Git Organized: A Better Git Flow,' shares her revolutionary approach to Git workflows. She advocates using 'reset' instead of 'rebase' to streamline collaboration and reduce cognitive load. Annie dives into the intricacies of maintaining clean commit histories and discusses the balance between individual feature development and teamwork. She also addresses cognitive challenges in Git management and emphasizes aligning workflows with personal strengths for enhanced efficiency. Join her journey of curiosity and innovation in software development!

Jacob Kaplan-Moss, software developer and co-creator of Django, shares his insights on effective engineering hiring practices. He emphasizes the importance of work sample tests as authentic simulations of real job tasks. Jacob critiques traditional interview methods and discusses tailoring assessments to match specific roles. He introduces eight key principles for hiring engineers, advocating for a respectful candidate experience. Additionally, he explores the innovative idea of reverse code reviews as a method to enhance evaluations while ensuring a focus on both technical and interpersonal skills.

This week, Nora Jones, Founder and CEO of Jeli, shares her insights from chaos engineering at Netflix and incident analysis at Slack. She emphasizes the importance of learning from incidents to improve team resilience. Nora discusses creating developer-centric tools and the emotional complexities of incident reviews. She explores knowledge silos, the balance between quantitative and qualitative insights, and the evolving role of incident analysts. Additionally, she reflects on how studying real-world incidents can enhance software practices and decision-making.

Forrest Brazeal, a Pwnie Award-winning songwriter and cloud advocate, creatively fuses music with tech education. He shares his journey as a 'cloud bard,' explaining how songs like 'The Ransomware Song' and 'Look At You Now (The Google Cloud Song)' simplify complex topics. Brazeal also discusses balancing technical skills with creative expression, providing humorous anecdotes about yodeling and load balancers. His insightful commentary on Big Tech highlights both challenges and innovations, proving that music can be an engaging way to explore technology.

Paul Copplestone, CEO of Supabase, dives into the exciting developments in the Postgres world. He reveals how Supabase has skyrocketed to over 80,000 databases while still in beta, positioning it as a strong open-source alternative to Firebase. The conversation touches on the balance between innovation and profitability in open-source projects, navigating challenges in serverless environments, and enhancing real-time applications with Postgres features. Copplestone emphasizes community engagement as essential for growth and adaptability in the tech landscape.

Matthew Ahrens, co-founder of the ZFS project at Sun Microsystems, shares the intriguing journey of the ZFS file system. He discusses its architectural innovations like copy-on-write and the evolution from a proprietary model to open-source. Matt explores the critical features that ensure data integrity and management, including RAID-Z capabilities. He also hints at exciting future developments such as a cloud-based ZFS object store, emphasizing community involvement and collaboration in its ongoing enhancement.