Software Engineering Daily

Let’s Talk Bitcoin is one of the most popular podcasts about cryptocurrencies. Adam B. Levine started it after three other podcasts he started did not get the traction he had hoped for. Adam parlayed the success of Let’s Talk Bitcoin into a network of podcasts–the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network–which also includes one of my favorite shows, Epicenter. Adam joins me on today’s episode for a discussion of so many topics:Continue reading...

Laura Shin is the host of Unchained, a podcast about cryptocurrencies and decentralized technology. For every episode, Laura does significant research and preparation, so the content turns out polished and high quality. Her enthusiasm for the subject of cryptocurrencies comes through in her reporting. Podcasting about cryptocurrencies requires walking a fine line. Cryptocurrencies have a mixture of drama and exciting technology–which are both great for a journalist. But you can’tContinue reading...

Social networks can make you feel connected to a global society. But those social networks are controlled by a corporate entity. The profit motivations of the corporation are not directly aligned with the experience of the users. Mastodon is an open source, decentralized social network. Eugen Rochko started building Mastodon in response to his dissatisfaction with centralized social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In the Mastodon model, users can runContinue reading...

Go is a language designed to improve systems programming. Go includes abstractions that simplify aspects of low level engineering that are historically difficult—concurrency, resource allocation, and dependency management. In that light, it makes sense that the Kubernetes container orchestration system was written in Go. Erik St. Martin is a cloud developer advocate at Microsoft, where he focuses on Go and Kubernetes. He also hosts the podcast “Go Time,” and hasContinue reading...

Software engineers have interacted with operations teams since software was being written. In the 1990s, most operations teams worked with physical infrastructure. They made sure that servers were provisioned correctly and installed with the proper software. When software engineers shipped bad code that took down a software company, the operations teams had to help recover the system—which often meant dealing with the physical servers. During the 90s and early 2000s,Continue reading...

The Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized global, peer-to-peer file system. IPFS combines ideas from BitTorrent, Git, and Bitcoin, creating a new way to store and access objects across the Internet. When you access an object on almost any website, you are accessing the object via a location address—a URL. The URL tells you where to find the object. If the object is a photo on Facebook that youContinue reading...

The pubsub pattern allows a developer to create channels, which messages can be written to and read from. Pubsub messaging is useful for multicast messaging–when you want to publish messages from a producer, and have multiple consumers who are subscribed to the publisher receive those messages. Almost any application that reaches a high level of complexity will need a pubsub system of some kind. The pubsub system itself can beContinue reading...

Most technology companies rely on open source software projects. But open source software projects are often maintained by a group of people that is not affiliated with any particular company. When an open source project develops too much technical debt, it can become a tragedy of the commons. Who is responsible for maintaining these open source projects? This is the motivation for open source bounties. Companies and individuals who relyContinue reading...

“The Federal Reserve System is fraudulent. Whatever its stated purpose, its effective purpose is to create a mechanism of deficit spending by politicians, through the insidious invisible taxation of monetary debasement (aka inflation).” These are the words of Erik Voorhees, the CEO of crypto financial exchange ShapeShift. Long before he started ShapeShift, Erik was opposed to some of the core principles of the global financial system, in which he seesContinue reading...

We sign many different types of contracts throughout our lives. We sign a mortgage to get a loan for a house. When we go to the hospital, we sign a piece of paper that defines how our medical data can be shared between organizations. These pieces of paper represent our opting into an agreement that will be mediated and enforced by computer interactions. We can’t see the code behind thoseContinue reading...