Software Engineering Daily

Public data is not always so accessible. It is nice when you can request data simply by making an API call, but that is the exception rather than the rule–especially when we are talking about data managed by the government. Oil and gas drilling data falls into this category. Oseberg is a company that is building a tool for analyzing oil and gas data. Oseberg is a rich dashboard forContinue reading...

Firebase is a backend-as-a-service. The key efficiency of a backend-as-a-service is that it enables developers to go from having a 3-tier architecture (client, server, database) to a 2-tier architecture (client, backend-as-a-service). The team who started Firebase built it as a pivot. They had started a social network, and then they realized there wasn’t a good backend for chat tools. And so they started a chat-as-a-service tool, for people who wantedContinue reading...

When you purchase an ebook you must agree to the Terms of Service that tell you what you can do with it. What is actually in that terms of service? What are you agreeing to when you buy an ebook? The answers might surprise you. In this episode, Srini Kadamati interviews Chris Groskopf  on how the rise of digital products has eroded the idea of traditional ownership. They discuss digitalContinue reading...

Artsy is an online art marketplace. This might sound like a simple engineering problem–you just set up a basic ecommerce site, list some pieces of art, and start making money, right? The art world is complicated. There are four major pillars: patrons, art fairs, galleries, and auctions. Bringing these different parts online is not trivial. And in order to do so, Artsy has to work with the existing ecosystem. ItContinue reading...

Many countries in the developing world are undergoing a technological revolution which is shaping how they tackle problems around infrastructure, health, education and finance. Young people are at the forefront of developing solutions to the problems in the developing world. These young people creating technology and businesses to foster innovation and growth. Countries in the Middle East are no exception to this. Despite the difficulties the region faces such asContinue reading...

Convolutional neural networks are a machine learning tool that uses layers of convolution and pooling to process and classify inputs. CNNs are useful for identifying objects in images and video. In this episode, we focus on the application of convolutional neural networks to image and video recognition and classification. Matt Zeiler is the CEO of Clarifai, an API for image and video recognition. Matt takes us through the basics ofContinue reading...

Software consultancies solve problems involving management and software engineering. A large company might hire a software consulting company to give an external opinion on software architecture, or on an organizational structure. Sometimes a consultancy is brought in to help integrate a new technology, or do a major refactoring. Scaling a software consultancy to meet the varying demands of clients presents a unique challenge. Software companies that make money from media,Continue reading...

Suddenly, automation is changing our world faster than anyone anticipated. For technologists, the world is becoming convenient and high-leverage. For non-technologists, the job market is evaporating. Haseeb Qureshi and Quincy Larson join me for a roundtable discussion on automation, jobs, and artificial intelligence. Haseeb and I have had numerous discussions about this topic before, and Quincy is the founder of Free Code Camp, which teaches people to learn programming forContinue reading...

CRISPR is a technique for altering the human genome. It might be the most powerful tool for biological modification that we have ever discovered. In this episode, we explore CRISPR: how it works, why it exists in the natural world, and the implications for being able to modify DNA so easily. Geoff Ralston is a partner at Y-Combinator. He wrote an article entitled Hacking DNA: The Story of CRISPR, KenContinue reading...

There are certain experiences when a product solves a problem so thoroughly and elegantly that it lifts a weight off of your shoulders that you didn’t even know was there. Dropbox did this with file storage. Slack did this with group collaboration. Zencastr does this for recording podcasts. Before I used Zencastr to record my podcasts, like most podcasters, I used a Skype plugin. There were a number of inconveniencesContinue reading...