Forem: Big Tech Digest

6 Must-Read Tech Newsletters for Software Engineers In 2024

Big Tech Digest — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 17:42:34 +0000

How can you always stay updated while minimizing distractions? Consider adopting a strategy of learning from high-quality manually-curated engineering newsletters. One day, I asked myself: if I had to choose only a few technical newsletters focused on engineering, which ones would they be?

To compile my list, I considered various factors:

Usefulness;
Relevance;
Length (as I tend to avoid long newsletters);
The authors’ experience;
Number of subscribers.

Most newsletters I recommend are available for free, while others require a monthly subscription fee of $10–15, often with a few free issues for everyone.

Here are the seven best picks for all software engineers. Let’s get started!

1. Tech Talks Weekly

Tech Talks Weekly is a newsletter delivering the latest trending tech talks across 100+ conferences like Devoxx, NDC, GOTO, JSConf, JSWORLD, dotJS, and more. They’ve also built a compilation of the most watched talks in 2023.

From the author:

“The only source you need to stay up-to-date with all the recently uploaded tech conference talks.”

2. Big Tech Digest

Delivered bi-weekly to your inbox, this carefully curated free newsletter brings you a collection of links to the latest engineering blog posts from Big Tech companies and startups. Aimed at all Software Engineers and AI/ML folks at any level, Big Tech Digest is your gateway to a staying up-to-date with the tech world. Subscribe now to join our community and embark on a never-ending journey of continuous learning!

3. Pragmatic Engineer

The Pragmatic Engineer is the #1 technology newsletter on Substack, offering a wide selection of long reads covering a variety of topics: engineering approaches, engineering culture, hiring, compensation, onboarding, retaining, attrition, working Big Tech and high-growth startups, tech news and technology trends.

From the author:

> “Altogether, these newsletters add up to about 5–7 books’ worth of information; more than half a million words (550,000 to be more exact.)”

4. Architecture Weekly

The #1 newsletter around software architecture. If Event Sourcing, CQRS, DDD, Event-Driven, or Hexagonal architecture catch your interest, this newsletter is for you.

From the author:

> “Internet is full of decent content, but it’s not easy to filter the noise and find what’s essential. I’m doing that for you. Every week, I gather a list of Software Architecture resources that helps to boost your skills.”

5. BetterDev

BetterDev provides a collection of informative, high-quality resources from the web around software development. One of the most “meaty” newsletters I subscribe to.

From the author:

> “BetterDev.Link collects links around the web that aims to help you learn something new. The topics aren’t tight to any specific programming languages, technologies or frameworks but attempt to include resources that might help you learn a thing or two from them.”

6. Hacker Newsletter

This is a weekly HackerNews roundup curated by hand. It’s another “must-subscribe” as it’s only focused on the top posts from HN every week.

10 Best Javascript Newsletters in 2024

Big Tech Digest — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 19:29:08 +0000

Photo by Stephen Phillips on Unsplash

I’m presenting ten best JavaScript newsletters to subscribe in 2024 for every JavaScript enthusiasts. Staying up-to-date in the JS landscape nowadays is challenging, given the almost infinite number of frameworks, approaches, and libraries popping up here and there every couple months.

To simplify and speed up your “**information intake**”, I’ve put together a list of newsletters that capture the entire JavaScript ecosystem and community.

Let’s get started!

1. JavaScript Weekly

Over a decade-long presence with 170,000+ readers who appreciate its comprehensive coverage of JS-related content, including tutorials, news, tools, and job listings.

JavaScript Weekly

2. Big Tech Digest

Get the latest articles from over 300 engineering blogs like Meta, Google, Uber, Airbnb, Doordash, and more sent to your inbox every two weeks. Aimed at those who work in tech including frontend and full-stack engineers. Also, a shameless plug.

Big Tech Digest

3. Tech Talks Weekly

Tech Talks Weekly is a newsletter delivering the latest trending tech talks across 100+ conferences including Javascript, Web, and Frontend like JSNation, JSConf, ReactConf, Vue.js Nation and more. They've also built a compilation of the most watched talks in 2023.

Like above, aimed at those who work in tech.

Tech Talks Weekly

4. This Week In React

Probably the largest React newsletter with 30 000+ subscribers authored by Seb @ ThisWeekInReact.com. See the latest issue here.

This Week In React

5. React Status

A React-focused newsletter with a familiar structure from the team behind JS Weekly and Node Weekly. Provides a strong focus on React tips and tools.

React Status

6. Jscrambler Newsletter

A 10-minute monthly digest focusing on JS apps, client-side attacks, security threats, and global privacy regulations. Ideal for security-conscious enterprises and tech folks.

** Jscrambler Newsletter**

7. JavaScript Kicks

A daily selection of the finest JavaScript articles, hand-picked by developers. Includes a general section covering high-level programming topics, as well as content for React, Angular, Vue, and Node.js.

JSK Weekly

8. Vue.js News

A weekly roundup of the hottest Vue news, tutorials, and useful libraries.

Official Vue.js News

9. Node.js Weekly

A well-rounded weekly update on Node.js from the editors of JavaScript Weekly featuring important news, tutorials, useful tools, and job listings.

Node Weekly

10. Awesome JavaScript

Part of the LibHunt network, offering a weekly overview of the most popular JavaScript news, articles, and libraries.

Awesome JavaScript Weekly

Conclusion

In conclusion, with the dynamic nature of the JS ecosystem, these newsletters offer a great way to stay up to date with the latest Javascript news all the time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!

7 Must-Read Tech Newsletters for Software Engineers

Big Tech Digest — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:36:50 +0000

To compile my list, I considered various factors:

Usefulness;
Relevance;
Length (as I tend to avoid long newsletters);
The authors’ experience;
Number of subscribers.

Most newsletters I recommend are available for free, while others require a monthly subscription fee of $10–15, often with a few free issues for everyone.

Here are the seven best picks for all software engineers. Let’s get started!

1. Pragmatic Engineer

From the author:

> “Altogether, these newsletters add up to about 5–7 books’ worth of information; more than half a million words (550,000 to be more exact.)”

2. Big Tech Digest

3. Architecture Weekly

The #1 newsletter around software architecture. If Event Sourcing, CQRS, DDD, Event-Driven, or Hexagonal architecture catch your interest, this newsletter is for you.

From the author:

4. BetterDev

BetterDev provides a collection of informative, high-quality resources from the web around software development. One of the most “meaty” newsletters I subscribe to.

From the author:

5. Hacker Newsletter

This is a weekly HackerNews roundup curated by hand. It’s another “must-subscribe” as it’s only focused on the top posts from HN every week.

6. InfoQ newsletter

This is a weekly newsletter aimed at more senior developers. Focused on the current trends in the tech industry.

7. LeadDev

Another weekly newsletter for senior developers and team leads focusing more on the people, culture and leadership side.

Things To Look For In A Code Review

Big Tech Digest — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 07:02:29 +0000

Hi folks 👋! Big Tech Digest is evolving. On top of the standard newsletter with the latest Big Tech and startups engineering blog post links sent to you twice a month, I will periodically write entries like this, delving into various aspects of Software Engineering that will help you build and design better systems.

The first entry in this series focuses on code reviews. Over the years, I’ve been putting together a checklist I always refer to when performing a code review. The items in this list led to significant improvements and notably enhanced the quality of what would be merged into the main branch on many occasions in the past. Furthermore, I recommend that code authors also use this list before submitting a Pull Request to expedite the review process.

I encourage you to start using the checklist today. Go further and standardise the code review process within your team or organisation by using this list as an inspiration.

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

General

⭐️ Make sure the code works as expected. Give it a local/dry run and test it manually.
1. Make sure the logic works as expected.
⭐️ Make sure the code is consistent with the rest of the code base. Check if it meets the team’s/company’s standards and conventions.
⭐️ Ask the code author to highlight the main changes and focus your attention there.
⭐️ Assess if the code is based on assumptions.
1. Ask the code author to validate them before merging.
⭐️ Identify new code conventions that can be derived from the Pull Request. If so, propose an ADR.
⭐️ Make sure the code fits in the overall architecture.
⭐️ Ensure all expected business errors are handled in a reasonable way.
⭐️ Check if the code/solution is over-engineered.
⭐️ Run Code Inspect in your IDE (e.g. IntelliJ).
⭐️ Look for compiler/linter warnings.
⭐️ Check if the code is easy to understand, read, and reason about.
⭐️ Improve naming.
⭐️ Check if logging is added where necessary.
1. Check if all errors/exceptions are logged.
2. Consider adding warning logs where necessary.
⭐️ Ensure tech and business metrics are being collected.
⭐️ Make sure alerting is added with reasonable thresholds if necessary.
⭐️ Make sure the code is extendable/evolvable where needed.
⭐️ Ensure the code is easily testable.
⭐️ Check if validation is added where necessary.
1. Propose the alternatives for validation error handling if there are any.
⭐️ Assess if it’s worth adding that new library/dependency.
⭐️ Check if optimising the code is possible while maintaining all other mentioned requirements.
⭐️ Check if the code is placed in reasonable packages/directories/modules.
⭐️ Assess if there is any performance penalty for introducing the new code.
⭐️ Check if error log messages are understandable and carry enough information.
⭐️ Ensure the necessary documentation is added.
⭐️ Check if the order of arguments is consistent across the classes/layers.
⭐️ Keep security in mind and look for potential vulnerabilities. Try to abuse the new code.
⭐️ Make sure the proposed time-outs are reasonable.
⭐️ Ensure retries are added where necessary.
⭐️ Propose adding a circuit breaker added if required.
⭐️ Look for DB query optimisations.

Testing

⭐️ Ensure automated tests exist (unit, integration, acceptance).
⭐️ Run code coverage to find missing tests.
⭐️ Ensure tests are easy to read and understand.
⭐️ Ensure test names are easy to read and understand.
⭐️ Make sure tests are checking the actual requirements.
⭐️ Ensure all edge cases are tested.
⭐️ Check if new tests are slow and propose to optimise them, if possible.
⭐️ Ensure that the E2E/integration tests added in this PR are really needed.
1. Understand the test performance penalty of adding those.
⭐️ Run tests many times to check if they’re flaky.
⭐️ Ask yourself if some of the tests could be removed.

Best code review practices for code authors

👉 Strive to get your PR reviewed as early as possible.
👉 Ask for feedback early, ideally before start writing the code. Remember: the cost of addressing PR comments is higher than consulting the proposed solution before writing the code.
👉 Highlight the most crucial change(s) in the PR so that the code reviewer can focus their attention on that part during the review.

Best code review practices for code reviewers

👉 Balance “perfect” vs “good enough”. Striving for perfection often makes PR reviews slow and painful.
👉 Balance “personal preference” vs “underlying principles”. Base your comments on “underlying principles” and established/agreed team standards, not personal preference unless strongly justified.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what else you look for in a code review!

Resources

Big Tech Digest #3

Big Tech Digest — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 14:11:21 +0000

Hi there 👋! Welcome to Big Tech Digest. This is a manually-curated newsletter that brings you a collection of links to the latest engineering blog posts from Big Tech companies and startups. Aimed at all Software Engineers (backend, frontend, data, DevOps, mobile) and AI/ML folks at any level, Big Tech Digest is focused on engineering problems and their proposed solutions at tech companies that I find particularly interesting. No marketing or non-tech stuff. Subscribe now to join our community and keep learning!

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

// 📫 Engineering blogs digest

Recent, selectively picked blog posts from tech companies’ engineering blogs.

[Lyft] Building Real-time Machine Learning Foundations at Lyft describes Lyft’s road to real-time Machine Learning with Streaming by Konstantin Gizdarski
[Paypal] Intro To JavaScript Service Workers by Patricio Vargas
[Spotify] Analyzing Volatile Memory on a Google Kubernetes Engine Node explains in detail how memory analysis works and how a new analysis method can be used on any GKE node in production today by Marcus Hallberg
[Meta] Meta developer tools: Working at scale goes through tools that help developers at every stage of the workflow while working at extreme scale at Meta by Neil Mitchell
[Zendesk] Writing an Istio WASM Plugin in Go for migrating 100s of services to new auth strategy by Shane Hender
[Doordash] How DoorDash Built an Ensemble Learning Model for Time Series Forecasting by Qiyun Pan and Hanyu Yang
[BlaBlaCar] How we used machine learning to fight fraud at BlaBlaCar tells a fascinating story how Machine Learning combats different types of Fraud at BlaBlaCar by Thomas Pocreau
[Linkedin] New Approaches For Detecting AI-Generated Profile Photos by James Verbus
[Etsy] The Problem with Timeseries Data in Machine Learning Feature Systems by Kyle Gallatin and Mackenzie Starr
[Github] How to use GitHub Copilot: Prompts, tips, and use cases is a great tutorial on how to use GitHub Copilot productively by Rizel Scarlett and Michelle Mannering

// ⭐️ Misc

a.k.a. the nerd section 🧑‍💻!

Concurrency, Bugs and Databases discusses a few real-world scenarios where concurrency causes bugs and their possible solutions by Mohak Puri
PostgreSQL reconsiders its process-based model Postgres is well-known for its process-based architecture, where a new OS process is spun for each connected client. Is it time for a change? by Jonathan Corbet
try lets you run a command and inspect its effects before modifying your live system.
MacOS command-line tools you might not know about
DeepLearning.AI and AWS are jointly launching a new hands-on course Generative AI with large language models on Coursera.
Go 1.21 Release Candidate is there!

Thanks for reading Big Tech Digest!

P.S. Please don’t forget to spread the word if you found this digest interesting!

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

Big Tech Digest #2

Big Tech Digest — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 14:07:55 +0000

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

// 📫 Engineering blogs digest

Recent, selectively picked blog posts from tech companies’ engineering blogs.

⭐️ [Netflix] Ensuring the Successful Launch of Ads on Netflix uncovers best practices when rolling out new major features at Netflix by Jose Fernandez, Ed Barker, Hank Jacobs
⭐️ [Expedia] Understanding Real-Time Application Monitoring explains how observability and monitoring improve operational excellence at Expedia by Ritesh Kapoor
⭐️ [Airbnb] Metis: Building Airbnb’s Next Generation Data Management Platform how Airbnb evolved its data catalogue into a platform for managing and governing its data warehouse at scale by Xiaobin Zheng
⭐️ [Paypal] Unlocking the Power of JunoDB: PayPal’s Key-Value Store Goes Open-Source is a new, extremely scalable and highly available key-value NoSQL store by Yaping Shi
⭐️ [Netflix] Migrating Netflix to GraphQL Safely discusses no-downtime migration to GraphQL at Netflix by Jennifer Shin, Tejas Shikhare, Will Emmanuel
⭐️ [Cloudflare] Examining HTTP/3 usage one year on by David Belson and Lucas Pardue
⭐️ [Etsy] Building Etsy’s Search by Image Feature describes Etsy’s journey to search by image feature by By Eden Dolev and Alaa Awad
⭐️ [The Guardian] Roll Over Rollups! The Big Future of Ophan’s Historical Data how the Guardian’s real-time analytics tool pivoted from ElasticSearch Rollups to BigQuery and what we learnt along the way by Sam Hession
⭐️ [Cockroachlabs] Data loss prevention during outages (you might be losing data without knowing it) discusses the tradeoffs between synchronous and asynchronous replication by Charlie Custer and John Sheaffer
⭐️ [Confluent] GPT-4 + Streaming Data = Real-Time Generative AI describes a framework for how streaming and GPT can work together by Michael Drogalis
⭐️ [Angular] Angular at Google I/O 2023 by Emma Twersky

// ⭐️ Misc

a.k.a. the nerd section 🧑‍💻!

⭐️ Memory Allocation is a brilliant ELI5-style introduction to memory allocation with malloc and free by Sam Rose
⭐️ View Counting at Reddit explains the magic behind post view counting at scale using Hyper Log Log by Krishnan Chandra
⭐️ The HTTP crash course nobody asked for is a comprehensive explanation of HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 mechanics with examples in Rust by Amos

Thanks for reading Big Tech Digest!

P.S. Please don’t forget to spread the word if you found this digest interesting!

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

Big Tech Digest #1

Big Tech Digest — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:55:39 +0000

💡 Subscribe to the official newsletter here to receive one email every two weeks!

// 📫 Engineering blogs digest

Recent, selectively picked blog posts from tech companies’ engineering blogs.

⭐️ [Airbnb] Improving Performance with HTTP Streaming discusses how HTTP Streaming can improve page performance and how Airbnb enabled it on an existing codebase by Victor Lin
⭐️ [Meta] Building and deployig MySQL Raft at Meta by Anirban Rahut, Abhinav Sharma, Yichen Shen, Ahsanul Haque
⭐️ [Dropbox] Investigating the impact of HTTP3 on network latency for search by Tiffany Fong , Mike Lyons , and Nikita Shirokov
⭐️ [Cockroachlabs] What is operational resilience and how to achieve it
⭐️ [Trivago] Building Our First GraphQL Server with Go: An Implementation Guide by Kutlu Eren
⭐️ [Booking.com] Generating Tailored Travel Recommendations by Lucy (Jingyu) Zou
⭐️ [Github] Inside GitHub: Working with the LLMs behind GitHub Copilot Developers behind GitHub Copilot discuss what it was like to work with OpenAI’s large language model and how it informed the development of Copilot as we know it today by Sara Verdi
⭐️ [Cloudflare] Unbounded memory usage by TCP for receive buffers, and how we fixed it provides a detailed explanation of how excessive memory allocation in TCP sessions can impact performance by Mike Freemon
⭐️ [The Go Blog] Go Developer Survey 2023 Q1 Results
⭐️ [Angular Blog] Angular v16 is here! by Minko Gechev

// ⭐️ Misc

a.k.a. the nerd section 🧑‍💻!

⭐️ Load Balancing explores the ways that a single load balancer might distribute HTTP requests to a set of servers with a help of some fantastic visualizations by Sam Rose
⭐️ A Gentle Introduction to CRDTs is distilling all the hard understanding work into a condensed and easy to understand set of reading for a software developer without any background in CRDTs or distributed systems.
⭐️ The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!) is an absolute must-read if you haven’t done so yet by Joel Spolsky

Thanks for reading Big Tech Digest!