The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Justin Searls, a software developer and the mind behind the podcast Breaking Change, joins to discuss Apple's AI challenges, particularly the stagnation of Siri. He argues about the decline of stability in the tech job landscape and introduces his innovative project, POSSE Party, designed for effortless online presence management. The conversation also touches on the implications of recent tech trends and the importance of quality over quantity in development, along with some amusing anecdotes about personal experiences in coding and podcasting.

Ilya Grigorik, a distinguished engineer at Shopify, dives deep into the complexities of securing e-commerce checkouts. He discusses the rise of sophisticated threats like digital skimming and the importance of PCI compliance. Ilya shares insights on optimizing checkout performance and the innovative sandboxing approach used to manage third-party integrations safely. He also touches on how tools like Retool and advances in AI are reshaping developer efficiency and security in the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape.

Dive into the world of sensory computing as Amelia Wattenberger critiques the tech landscape. Discover how the Learnk8s team transforms cluster management with a spreadsheet, and hear the unanticipated feedback from Cursor. Governments aim high with an open-source Notion alternative, while XPipe revolutionizes server access right from your desktop. Explore AI innovations enhancing team collaboration and follow the humorous twist of an AI's quirky refusal to code!

John Long, a product designer and developer skilled in front-end technologies and AI, joins the conversation. He shares his insights on the battle between Next.js and Rails and highlights the transformative role of AI in design. John discusses the advantages of using Framer for web development and their love for Figma. They explore how AI tools enhance both development workflows and creative processes, emphasizing the need for designers to adapt and expand their skill sets amid evolving technologies.

Beyang Liu, CTO & Co-founder of Sourcegraph, sheds light on transforming software development with AI. He discusses how tools like Cody and AI agents optimize coding processes, tackling complexities in large codebases. The conversation dives into automating code reviews for consistent feedback and improving code quality to reduce technical debt. Liu also emphasizes the importance of context-aware code search and evolving code generation models, all aimed at enhancing developer productivity in high-performance teams.

Vibe coding is becoming the new norm, with AI reshaping the coding landscape. Discover how the Model Context Protocol (MCP) might enhance AI interactions. Social media algorithms are discussed for their impact on mental health and public opinion, sparking strategies for independent thought. Automation tools are emerging, yet the importance of a human touch in content creation remains crucial. Finally, the conversation touches on whether software development managers should still actively engage in coding.

Our award-winning JS Party game show is back with a new name, a new channel, and the same ol’ survey-response-guessing fun! The JS Party crew join us to see who knows y’all best. Survey says! Join the discussionChangelog++ members save 9 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Augment Code – Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates. Retool – The low-code platform for developers to build internal tools — Some of the best teams out there trust Retool…Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Doordash, LegalGenius, Amazon, Allbirds, Peloton, and so many more – the developers at these teams trust Retool as the platform to build their internal tools. Try it free at retool.com/changelog Temporal – Build invincible applications. Manage failures, network outages, flaky endpoints, long-running processes and more, ensuring your workflows never fail. Register for Replay in London, March 3-5 to break free from the status quo. Featuring:Nick Nisi – Website, GitHub, Bluesky, Mastodon, XAmal Hussein – GitHub, XKevin Ball – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XChristopher Hiller – Website, GitHub, Mastodon, XAmy Dutton – GitHub, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XJerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: More dev game shows! Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Antirez has returned to Redis! Yes, Salvatore Sanfilippo (aka Antirez), the creator of Redis has returned to Redis and he joined us to share the backstory on Redis, what’s going on with the tech and the company, the possible (likely) move back to open source via the AGPL license, the new possibilities of AI and vector embeddings in Redis, and some good ’ol LLM inference discussions. Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 5 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:Augment Code – Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates. Retool – The low-code platform for developers to build internal tools — Some of the best teams out there trust Retool…Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Doordash, LegalGenius, Amazon, Allbirds, Peloton, and so many more – the developers at these teams trust Retool as the platform to build their internal tools. Try it free at retool.com/changelog Temporal – Build invincible applications. Manage failures, network outages, flaky endpoints, long-running processes and more, ensuring your workflows never fail. Register for Replay in London, March 3-5 to break free from the status quo. Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps close to your users — global Anycast load-balancing, zero-configuration private networking, hardware isolation, and instant WireGuard VPN connections. Push-button deployments that scale to thousands of instances. Check out the speedrun to get started in minutes. Featuring:Salvatore Sanfilippo – Website, GitHub, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XJerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: Deep Seek on Ollama Claude Sonnet 3.7 is out! <antirez> - We are destroying software Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Dive into the evolving JavaScript ecosystem as a veteran returns after a decade away. Hear personal stories about the early days of Linux and the role of innovation in tech. Discover how Markdown is revolutionizing text archiving while NextEdit simplifies code updates. Exciting advancements in CSS are also on the table, along with a unique spin on gamifying Git that could change how developers interact with their code. It's a nostalgic yet forward-looking exploration of the software development landscape!

In this lively conversation, the hosts dissect a recent Fly.io outage and its implications for service reliability. They delve into the inner workings of Pipely, a web app adventure filled with technical challenges and community engagement. The discussion also touches on the implementation of clickable chapter timestamps for enhanced user experience. Plus, they share humorous anecdotes about DevOps distractions and set up their personal AI home labs. Expect playful banter and insights on improving software development practices!