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Articles by Jennifer Smith
Web scraping gets complicated fast: JavaScript-heavy pages, changing HTML, rate limits. This guide covers 13 tools, from Requests + Beautiful Soup to Scrapy, Playwright, Firecrawl, and Apify, with a table showing which one fits which job. 👇
Web scraping gets complicated fast: JavaScript-heavy pages, changing HTML, rate limits. This guide covers 13 tools, from Requests + Beautiful Soup to Scrapy, Playwright, Firecrawl, and Apify, with a table showing which one fits which job. 👇
This is such a fun idea š Now Iām curious to see what other developers are using for their setups.
This is such a fun idea š Now Iām curious to see what other developers are using for their setups.
A provider goes down at 2 AM and your fallback quietly returns wrong answers? 😬 This post covers 7 AI gateways and the production lessons nobody tells you upfront ⏰ Read it before you deploy 🔥
A provider goes down at 2 AM and your fallback quietly returns wrong answers? 😬 This post covers 7 AI gateways and the production lessons nobody tells you upfront ⏰ Read it before you deploy 🔥
I Compared 5 LLM Gateway Tools for Real-World Production Use
When an LLM application starts handling real users, calling a model API is usually easy. The problems show up around it. One provider hits a rate limit, another slows down, an endpoint goes down, retries drive up costs, or the application needs to switch models without rewriting half the codebase. This is where an LLM gateway becomes useful. It sits between your application and model providers, giving you a central place to manage routing, reliability, observability, and access.
I Found 20 Best Design Tools That Actually 10x My Productivity.
Designing faster does not always mean working faster. I have had plenty of days where I opened a design tool expecting to finish a simple screen and ended up spending hours fixing spacing, rebuilding components, searching for assets, creating wireframes, or switching between different apps to get one idea ready. That made me rethink what a productive design workflow actually looks like.
π The Bug That Only Happened on Fridays π π±
π The Bug Every Friday afternoon, our checkout service started throwing intermittent 500s. Not all requests, maybe 1 in 50. Not every Friday either. Just most Fridays, starting sometime after 2 pm, and always gone by Monday morning. π© The error was unhelpful in the way only database errors can be: error: sorry, too many clients already Connection pool exhaustion.
I trained my AI agent to burn less money. Here's what actually worked.
A few months ago I became convinced my AI assistant was bleeding money through incompetence. It felt true. Sessions ran long, things failed, and the meter was always spinning. So I did what I do with any suspected leak: I measured it. I streamed 45 days of local session transcripts through a script that classifies every failed tool call and prices the recovery turn that follows it. It covered 660 session files, roughly June through early August.
I Compared 5 Open-Source LLM Gateways for Enterprise AI
Great breakdown, this matches what we've seen operationally. One thing I'd add to the "how to pick" section: the fallback behavior under partial failure matters more than the feature checkbox. A lot of teams pick a gateway because it has "fallback ✅" on a comparison table, then get burned in production because it only triggers on hard errors (5xx) and not on a provider that's just gotten slow.
My work gets dismissed as AI slop. Here are the receipts.
People have started telling me that my writing sounds like AI. I published that sentence in a LinkedIn post recently because it kept being true, and the fuller version is this: hours of verified work, read for about ten seconds, filed under slop, with nothing in it checked. It stung, and I wrote the sting down as data, which at least settled the question of whether I still have feelings. Here is what makes my version of this complaint unusual. The accusation is half true.
I Let AI Design Tools Build My Portfolio Site — Clients Noticed
A portfolio website should make it easy for a potential client to answer three questions: What do you do, who do you work with, and can you actually deliver? The problem is that building a portfolio that communicates all three can take far longer than expected. I wanted to see if AI design tools could handle the first version without making the site look like another generic AI-generated template.
The Weekend I Broke Up with Claude and Moved My Entire Estate
A solo operator's play-by-play of migrating two years of workflows, automations, and muscle memory in 48 hours. I broke up with Claude this weekend. It was a real migration. I spent forty-eight hours moving every workflow, every automation, and every snippet of muscle memory I had built over two years. The prompts, the contexts, the project templates, and the debugging rituals all had to come with me. It started Friday evening. I asked Opus to refactor a Cloudflare Worker. We had agreed on the plan.
I set out to climb "graph engineering." It was the ladder I'd been standing on for 25 years.
Part 1 of this series left one rung unclimbed. Rung 12, graph-based orchestration, was the frontier where I assumed the real engineers lived. Before I climb anything, I do my homework, so I set out to answer a prior question first: what does "graph" actually buy you? The term is everywhere right now (graph engineering, GraphRAG, knowledge graphs, graph databases), and it arrives wrapped in the specific tone vendors use when they want you to feel behind.
I was released from the role of a lifetime. So I built an AI estate that runs while I sleep.
I went from all-hours calls and escalations to deafening silence. In January, I was unexpectedly released from the role of a lifetime — VP of Operations, a seat on the executive leadership team. Before that role I'd worked from home for more than four years; I was honestly terrified of going back to an office, and then surprised myself by getting in earlier and earlier until I was often the first one in the building. I loved that job. When it ended, the house got very quiet.
I Gave an AI Agent Nightly Merge Rights to Every Repo I Own (With a Budget and a Kill Switch)
I run about twenty production and support repos by myself — a content site with a curated data feed, a couple of scheduled scrapers, some Cloudflare Workers, and the usual pile of half-dormant tooling that accumulates around all of it. There is no ops team. Maintenance debt on a solo estate doesn't announce itself; it just compounds quietly until the day you need the thing you didn't maintain. So I built a robot to do the maintenance, and — this is the part people react to — I gave it merge rights.
My Auto-Publish Pipeline Shipped a Two-Year-Old News Story. Here's the Fix — All Three Layers of It.
I run a content pipeline that finds industry news, has an LLM judge score it, and publishes what clears the bar. Fully automated, Cloudflare Workers and D1, one operator: me. It runs daily and the whole point is that I don't babysit it. In July it published a news story from 2024 as if it had just happened. Nobody was harmed. One item, niche site, caught on a routine quality check within a few days, unpublished.
A Dead-Man's Switch for Scheduled Jobs (Because Silent Failures Rot Data)
A scheduled job has two failure modes. The loud one throws an error and your alerting catches it. The quiet one just stops running, and nothing catches it, because your alerting is wired to the job itself. No job, no error, no alert. The data it maintains gets staler by the day and every downstream system keeps serving it like nothing's wrong. I run a handful of production systems by myself.
Complex Health Care Needs of Children Exposed to Sex Trafficking: Reflections from a Specialty Pediatric Program
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The Impact of Performance Testing on Shaping User Experience
Performance testing services extend beyond mere speed; they focus on curating an exceptional user journey tailored to resonate with your target audience. Utilizing core methodologies such as load testing, stress testing, soak testing, and scalability testing, performance testing thoroughly explores various facets of an application’s capabilities. The intrinsic link between performance testing and user experience is indisputable.
A surge in mobile applications accompanies the proliferation of smartphone users. From solving everyday problems to serving critical functions in healthcare and military domains, these apps have become indispensable. However, with this popularity comes heightened expectations for quality. To ensure the satisfaction of clients and users alike, thorough performance testing is paramount. It’s only possible to launch a mobile application with it.
A Guide on Insurance App Testing to Optimize Cost and Time-to-Market
Insurance plays a crucial role in protecting individuals and assets from unexpected risks. As the demand for insurance products grows, enterprises face the challenge of delivering high-quality, reliable applications. This is where insurance app testing becomes vital. By identifying and resolving defects early, insurance app testing enhances app quality, stability, and reliability.
Exploring 12 Different Types of Mobile App Testing
Testing mobile apps involves a thorough process comprising multiple tests to evaluate different facets of an app. Let’s delve into some of the major types of mobile application testing: A. Functional Testing Functional testing guarantees that every aspect and feature of a mobile app operates as intended. It involves verifying the user flows within the application. This testing is typically performed at the beginning of the testing process.
Mastering Roku Test Automation: Innovative Strategies to Overcome Common Obstacles
In an age dominated by the digital experience streaming services on smart TVs are no longer a luxury but a necessity. With Roku being a leader in the smart TV ecosystem ensuring its smooth and uninterrupted performance is paramount. Enter Roku test automation – an imperative process to guarantee that users get the top-tier experience they expect and deserve.
Enhancing the Efficacy of Mobile Banking with AI-Powered Testing
The financial services sector is transforming today's rapidly digitizing world. The emergence of mobile banking applications has provided unparalleled convenience to consumers, but with this evolution comes the responsibility of ensuring seamless, error-free user experiences. To achieve this, effective mobile banking performance benchmarking becomes paramount. Moreover, leveraging technologies such as AI-based testing can greatly elevate the quality and efficiency of these benchmarks.
Top 20 Automated API testing Tools for Effective Software Testing
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have become the backbone of software development. They enable different applications and services to communicate seamlessly, fostering innovation and efficiency. As businesses increasingly rely on complex software ecosystems, understanding and utilizing the right API tools is essential for developers and organizations. The Evolution of APIs in Modern Development APIs have revolutionized the way software systems interact.
Automation Testing Traps: Navigating the Six Common Roadblocks
Characterized by rapid changes and heightened customer expectations, enterprises are re-evaluating their software development and testing approach. Speed and confidence have transitioned from mere preferences to essential components of successful software delivery, critical for enterprises striving to thrive in this dynamic modern software environment. Consequently, many teams have embraced automation as a solution to enhance efficiency and quality at various stages of development.
How to Improve Mobile Game Performance and User Experience
Gamers have become accustomed to seamless mobile gaming experience. The rise of mobile games backed by affordable smartphones with great hardware specs, has expanded the gaming audience and increased user expectations regarding performance, quality, and overall satisfaction. As mobile game developers strive to meet these demands, mastering the art of mobile game testing becomes essential.
How Setting Up Appium Framework For Android Works
Appium is a testing framework that simplifies mobile testing by allowing developers to write tests in any language of their choice while providing the flexibility and scalability needed for modern app development. Appium tests native, hybrid, and mobile web applications and supports various languages. This architecture is simple yet effective. The WebDriver protocol connects the application under test and a client library that can send commands over HTTP to control how the application behaves.
Top 4 Popular Android Test Automation Frameworks During an Economic Downturn
The demand for mobile applications continues to surge as the importance of technology in our lives grows. In today's highly competitive app market, delivering high-quality and bug-free apps is more important than ever. With numerous options available in the app stores, it's crucial to stand out by providing a seamless user experience, and this is where investing in a robust mobile app testing framework comes in.
A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing Between Appium and XCTest (UI) for iOS App Testing
Especially for mobile applications, automated testing has become a crucial step in the software development cycle. Automation of the testing process is now required due to the ever-increasing complexity of mobile applications in order to guarantee their quality and dependability. There are a number of technologies on the market for automated testing of iOS applications, including Appium and XCTest for User Interface (UI).
Top 24 Integration Testing Tools You Should Know About in 2024
In today's digital age, creating complex software applications demands seamless integration of various components. Integration testing ensures these components work harmoniously together within the application. Integration testing evaluates how software modules interact to meet system requirements. While crucial, manual testing can be time-consuming and error-prone. Integration testing tools automate this process, identifying bugs in module integration.
Maximizing ROI in Banking with Real Device Testing in the Cloud
The banking sector is adapting to latest trends. Gone are the days when customers were content with visiting brick-and-mortar branches for their financial needs. Now, with the ubiquity of smartphones and the internet, customers expect seamless, instant access to banking services anytime, anywhere. This transformation has put immense pressure on banks to deliver flawless digital experiences.
Security as a Cornerstone for Increasing ROI in Cloud-Based Real Device Testing
In the rapidly evolving landscape of software development, cloud-based testing has become a pivotal strategy for businesses aiming to deliver quality software. Real device testing enables companies to utilize a wide range of physical devices, greatly improving the precision and dependability of their testing processes. However, the flexibility and scalability of cloud-based environments introduce unique security challenges that need to be addressed.
AI for Smarter Test Automation Strategies
Test automation has long been a cornerstone of software quality assurance, speeding up processes and ensuring robust outcomes. However, traditional test automation approaches often face limitations in terms of test coverage, efficiency, and defect detection. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) enters the scene, revolutionizing how organizations approach test automation.
iOS App Testing (Automation and Manual) - A Comprehensive Guide
In the competitive landscape of the digital era, delivering a flawless iOS application is of paramount importance. iOS app testing, a crucial phase of app development, ensures top-tier quality, functionality, and user experience. This process incorporates various test types, tools, and strategic methodologies tailored specifically for the iOS platform. Being well-versed in iOS application testing equips developers with the confidence to navigate this intricate landscape effectively.
How AI is Transforming Automated Testing
Automated testing has dramatically improved efficiency and speed in software quality assurance, and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pushing this process even further. AI-based testing is reshaping the landscape, providing capabilities beyond traditional automation. This blog discusses how AI is transforming automated testing, exploring its benefits, challenges, applications, and future trends that shape software development.
A Complete Guide to Playwright Automation Framework
The Playwright framework has emerged as a robust tool for automating web applications in the ever-evolving test automation landscape. This guide delves into the Playwright framework's intricacies, features, and benefits and provides insights on how to leverage it for efficient test automation. Whether you're new to test automation frameworks or are experienced, this guide will help you understand the potential of the Playwright framework and how it stands out among other test automation tools.
7 Effective AI-Powered Test Automation Tools
The world of software development is evolving rapidly, thanks to AI and machine learning. One area that’s seen a giant leap forward is automated testing. With AI-driven tools, testing is faster, more accurate, and more efficient than ever. By using AI, companies can tackle even the most complex testing scenarios easily and reduce human errors. This means high-quality software gets released faster, creating better user experiences and saving costs.
Streamline Testing With Top Codeless Testing Tools
In software development, the demand for rapid and efficient testing is higher than ever. Traditional testing methods that require extensive coding knowledge can be a bottleneck for teams striving to meet tight deadlines. Enter codeless testing tools, which offer the power of automation without the need for programming skills. This blog explores the top 15 codeless testing tools in 2024, highlighting their features and benefits.
Boost Your Mobile App Performance: 4 Testing Best Practices
A poorly performing app can lead to disgruntled users, negative reviews, and, ultimately, lost revenue. To ensure your mobile app stands out and keeps users engaged, you need to make performance testing a priority. This blog will walk you through ten best practices for mobile app performance testing, helping you to optimize your app’s performance and deliver an exceptional experience to your users.
How Cloud-Based Solutions Are Impacting DevOps
Software development necessitates agile methodologies and robust infrastructure to support continuous integration and delivery. DevOps helps teams collaborate better, ensuring smoother and faster software delivery. Cloud-based solutions for DevOps have become integral in this context, providing the flexibility and scalability required to meet software development demands. What are Cloud-Based Solutions for DevOps?
Automated Test Execution: Benefits, Types, and Process
In the fast-paced software development world, ensuring applications' quality and reliability is paramount. Automated test execution plays a crucial role in achieving these goals. By leveraging automation, organizations can enhance their testing efficiency, improve test coverage, and ensure quicker release cycles. This blog delves into the benefits, types, and processes of automated test execution, providing a comprehensive understanding of its significance in modern software development.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting the Right Automated Software Testing Tools
Software testing is highly essential in the software development lifecycle. Selecting the appropriate testing tool is pivotal for effective test automation and project success. As technology advances, the demands of the software market escalate, pushing industry players to deliver high-quality products swiftly through agile methodologies. To meet these demands, software testing teams require robust tools to execute precise test cases efficiently.
Strategies to Master Mobile App Testing
Mobile apps are a major part of our daily lives. Ensuring their functionality, performance, and security is crucial. Mobile app testing, therefore, plays a pivotal role in delivering high-quality applications to users. This blog provides comprehensive insights, tips, tricks, and strategies to master mobile app testing. Understanding Mobile Application Testing Mobile application testing is a critical phase in the app development lifecycle.
Top Automated Testing Tools for 2024: A Comprehensive Guide
In today's ever-evolving technological landscape, the possibilities for test automation are limitless. With advancements over the past decade, you can streamline processes, save time, and boost productivity significantly compared to years ago. If you've been relying on Selenium for automation testing, it's time to explore the myriad options available. Several test automation frameworks and tools are designed to help you write efficient test cases and execute them seamlessly.
Top 10 Cloud Performance Testing Tools in 2024
In today's digital landscape, the race is on for businesses to launch high-quality applications quickly, with time to market being a critical factor in their success. However, with effective testing, these applications can stay within expectations. This is where performance testing becomes crucial. Performance testing involves simulating heavy loads to assess the performance of applications and infrastructure, ensuring they can handle the demands of real-world scenarios.
Guide to Improving QA Testing with Gen AI
Quality Assurance (QA) testing is critical to the software development lifecycle. It ensures the product is bug-free and meets the required standards and specifications. However, traditional software testing methods are time-consuming and prone to human error. Enter Generative AI (Gen AI) is a revolutionary technology transforming automated QA testing.
Top DevOps Monitoring Tools in 2024
DevOps has become a crucial methodology in software development. One key component of a successful DevOps strategy is the use of DevOps monitoring tools. These tools provide insights into application performance, reliability, and security, ensuring seamless delivery and operational efficiency. What are DevOps Monitoring Tools?
Revamping Test Reports: 6 Essential Steps for Improvement
The data-driven realm of software testing and quality assurance mandates the creation of clear, actionable, and insightful test reports. These reports provide a snapshot of product health and are fundamental in determining future development and testing strategies. In a competitive ecosystem where user experience optimization and seamless functionality are paramount, improving your test reports is not just a suggestion—it’s a necessity.
Navigating the Future: Exploring Appium Testing for Smart TVs
In the realm of software testing, smart TVs represent a distinct challenge. Their unique interfaces, embedded features, and distinct operating systems demand specialized tools and expertise. Enter Appium, a powerful testing tool, that has been extended to support platforms like LG Webos TV and Samsung Tizen TV. This article will delve deep into how Appium facilitates smart TV testing, ensuring a seamless experience for viewers.
Regression testing - A Detailed Guide
In the fast-paced landscape of rapid software development, where upgrades and modifications are frequent, it is crucial to ensure the stability and quality of software products. Regression testing plays a vital role here. Regression testing is a fundamental testing process that consists of repeated testing of the existing features of any tool, application, or system as it receives new upgrades.
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As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Jennifer
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