JUXT Cast

Episode Notes In this engaging episode of the JUXT Cast, Jeremy Taylor and Malcolm Sparks sit down with Ryan Robitaille, the founder of Rabbit, https://github.com/ryrobes/rvbbit. Ryan shares his unique journey—from working with Oracle systems as a young Solutions Engineer to becoming a creative force in the world of data visualization. Ryan explores his experience building Rabbit, a tool designed to bridge the gap between proprietary BI tools and custom-built engineering solutions. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional tools like Tableau, Ryan envisioned a platform that offers the "best of both worlds": the simplicity of drag-and-drop dashboards with the power and flexibility of live coding and version control. Key Takeaways from the Episode: The Origins of Rabbit: How Ryan’s passion for combining artistry and data engineering sparked the creation of a platform that feels like a "game engine for data." Balancing Build vs. Buy: Insights into the perpetual organizational dilemma of purchasing BI tools versus building in-house solutions. Clojure’s Role: How Clojure and its philosophy of "code is data" played a pivotal role in Rabbit's architecture and flexibility. The Tableau Experience: Ryan reflects on Tableau's transformative early days and where the tool has hit its limits. Empowering End-Users: Why Ryan believes tools should offer a low bar for entry but a high ceiling for complexity. With fascinating anecdotes and deep technical insights, this episode sheds light on how data platforms can evolve to empower creativity, transparency, and collaboration.

Episode Notes This latest episode of the JUXTCast features Gene Kim, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, celebrated researcher, and multiple award-winning Chief Technology Officer. Gene is widely recognized for his contributions to the DevOps movement and for co-authoring influential works such as The Phoenix Project and The DevOps Handbook. In this engaging discussion, Gene reflects on his career journey, from his time as the founder and CTO of Tripwire to his rediscovery of the joy of programming through Clojure. The episode explores key themes including high-performing technology organizations, the transformative role of AI in programming, and the strategic importance of modularity in systems design. The conversation also offers unique insights into the evolving role of AI in augmenting developer productivity and creativity. Gene shares his hands-on experience with pair programming and discusses the intersection of REPL-based programming, economic principles in software design, and the future of junior developers in an AI-enhanced ecosystem. Thoughts on a “DORA for GenAI and developers” study: https://x.com/RealGeneKim/status/1856146004724330862  2 hour pair programming with Steve Yegge! https://twitter.com/RealGeneKim/status/1860507119096869363 Description of what I did while walking dog: https://twitter.com/RealGeneKim/status/1853860996689064211  “From Naptime to Big Sleep: Using Large Language Models To Catch Vulnerabilities In Real-World Code,” https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2024/10/from-naptime-to-big-sleep.html?m=1 XTDB: https://docs.xtdb.com/quickstart/sql-overview.html

Episode Notes In this episode, JUXT’s CEO Jon Pither, CTO Malcolm Sparks, and Head of Delivery Joe Littlejohn, are joined by guest Software Engineer Jake Howard to engage in a thoughtful discussion on the enduring static vs dynamic typing debate. While static typing has long been a staple in programming, the conversation leans toward the growing appeal of dynamic typing in modern software practices. The team explores how dynamic typing allows for quicker iteration, greater flexibility, and better adaptation to shifting project demands. They also take time to weigh the structure and reliability that static typing provides, making for a balanced look at both approaches.

Episode Notes Our guest is Niall Murphy, CEO of Stanza - a company founded by a group of experienced SREs with a vision to provide the tools, coding platform, culture and community to give any organization industry-leading reliability. Niall previously worked at Google where he co-authored the book "Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems" (2016). In this podcast episode, we discussed Niall's extensive experience including his role within an important era for Google's infrastructure transformation beginning in the late 2000s, and the wider contemporary challenges in the SRE landscape. Niall's reflections on operating distributed systems has lead him to the conclusion that there is still a profound missing gap in SRE tooling between discovering 'signals' and taking 'actions'. The conversation begins by alluding to a couple of other recent podcasts we've recorded on distributed systems in 2024, one with Mark Burgess and the other with András Gerlits. Happy listening!

Episode Notes In this podcast episode, JUXT CTO Malcolm Sparks, JUXT Head of Delivery Joe Littlejohn, and XTDB Head of Product Jeremy Taylor spoke with guest Mark Burgess, an independent researcher and writer. Formerly a professor at Oslo University College in Norway and the creator of the CFEngine software and company, Mark was invited to write the foreward (https://sre.google/sre-book/foreword/) to Google's 2016 book: "Site Reliability Engineering - How Google runs production systems". They discuss Mark's journey to developing Promise Theory and explored techniques to 'scale simplicity' in the creation of large, reliable systems. One common (yet false) assumption is that all components of a system can be trusted to be 100% reliable. This misconception can lead to costly workarounds in production. They touch on the 'congruence' debate, considering whether and to what extent we should be concerned with the inherent inefficiencies in 'the automated building of things from scratch.' They also discuss the counter-intuitive observation that digital systems are far more complex and less resilient than analog systems, and how this may be due to the absence of an error-correcting mechanism in digital systems to maintain equilibrium. Please let us know if you have any points to add or if you were inspired by any part of the discussion. Happy listening!

Episode Notes Our guest is Lukas Eder, creator of jOOQ (https://jooq.org/) - a fluent Java API for SQL building and execution. In this episode, JUXT Head of Product Jeremy Taylor and Lukas Eder discuss the often under-appreciated power and significance of SQL for developers, and how Lukas' jOOQ library helps Java developers sidestep the pitfalls of ORMs. Lukas has been developing jOOQ since 2009 and has diligently supported many thousands of companies with their use of relational databases since then. He has written huge amounts of documentation and blogged extensively to advocate for SQL. As mentioned during the introduction, the inspiration behind recording this episode was an excellent talk Lukas gave a few years ago titled "How Modern SQL Databases Come up with Algorithms that You Would Have Never Dreamed Of": https://www.youtube.com/embed/wTPGW1PNy_Y?si=hfxju9VPSfhlIb70.

Episode Notes Our guest is András Gerlits, founder of OmniLedger - a technology for simplifying distributed consistency across systems. In this episode we discussed the various interpretations of the idea of ‘consistency’ in software and technology more generally. András has been developing OmniLedger for several years and has written about the many problems it attempts to solve on his blog. These problems include the basic challenges of database scaling, the issues that typically arise through the adoption of microservices, and the pitfalls of distributing transactions. Since recording this episode, András has published a walkthrough of what ‘Observer-Centric Consistency’ looks like, by applying OmniLedger across a single database namespace that is transparently replicated across two federated instances of a Sprint Boot ‘Petclinic’ demo application. The code (configuration) for that walkthrough can be found here: https://github.com/omniledger/spring-petclinic At the end of the recording we mentioned the XT24 conference that took place in May - you can see a write up of that here. Please sign up to our newsletter in the footer of this page to be first to hear about our future conferences.

Prof. Viktor Leis discusses a new query language paper, critiquing modern SQL. They delve into machine learning in databases, PostgreSQL critique, and performance gains in database systems. Exploring clear separations of concerns in software engineering, challenges in defining layers, and the importance of standards in query languages.

Episode Notes Beyond the headlines, this JUXTCast episode exposes the intricate challenges in managing and securing complex IT systems, providing a more detailed understanding of the Horizon scandal, and hopefully serving as a straightforward reminder for individuals and organizations to stay vigilant and proactive in ensuring the reliability and integrity of the technology that we use and trust. The JUXT team — Malcolm Sparks (CTO), Joe Littlejohn (Head of Delivery) and Alex Davis (Senior Software Engineer) — were joined by Andras Gerlits, adding an important perspective to the conversation: Andras Gerlits' work: http://omniledger.io/ Andras Gerlits' blog: https://andrasgerlits.medium.com For more insights on this episode, please check out Malcolm's post: https://www.juxt.pro/blog/juxtcast-horizon/

Nathan Marz, Founder & CEO of Red Planet Labs, discusses the new Clojure API to Rama and its conceptual foundations. The podcast explores the transition from Storm to Rama, the release of the Clodra API, the importance of deep thinking and side projects, and the internal workings and replication process of a system. The podcast also delves into a novel approach to testing distributed systems, involving deterministic simulation and error reproduction.