Patrick McFadin
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Articles by Patrick McFadin
Agent traffic is already breaking modern infrastructure. Enterprises need to face it head on.
Content Paint Get the full story: Subscribe for free Join peers managing over $100 billion in annual IT spend and subscribe to unlock full access to The Stack’s analysis and events. Your link has expired. Please request a new one. Your link has expired. Please request a new one. Your link has expired. Please request a new one. Great! You've successfully signed up. Great! You've successfully signed up.
AI Use Cases to Triple, Finds Apache Cassandra Poll
If you’ve been around the Apache Cassandra project long enough, you develop a sense of where distributed databases are heading. The long-time contributors to this project have consistently anticipated the future of data infrastructure, often years ahead of market trends. That’s why the latest Apache Cassandra user survey results feel less like news and more like validation: We’ve been building exactly what users need, together as a community.
Apache Cassandra 5.0 and DataStax: The Benefits of Staying in Sync
As an Apache Cassandra® committer and long-time advocate, I'd like to walk you through the relationship between the open-source Cassandra project and DataStax. With the recent release of Cassandra 5.0, it's the perfect time to explore how this collaboration drives innovation and benefits the entire community, while also examining the challenges faced by those who diverge from the main project.
The State of AI: 4 Things You Should Do Today
After reading my previous post on the current state of large language models, you might wonder, "OK, so where do we go from here?" Well, buckle up because we're about to dive into how you can become an AI power user in this evolving landscape. As I explained previously, LLMs are starting to level out in capabilities and quality. They also represent a new competency in application development that is evolving and maturing in real time.
Execs Invest in Platform Engineering: Here's Why
Development teams are more agile than ever, developing and deploying new applications at the speed required to be competitive in increasingly more saturated markets. One of the ways developers have become more agile is through adopting cloud native technologies like containers and Kubernetes, which offer a lightweight and dynamic infrastructure for faster application development. Although containers are known for being fast and efficient, they are also not simple to manage.
Agile Reinvented: A Look Into the Future
Agile methodologies transformed software development over 20 years ago and have continued to evolve alongside technological advancements and shifting business practices. In fact, agile is currently undergoing a period of retrenchment and uncertainty, as some question its relevance and others find ways to reinvent agile for their specific needs.
Rust vs. Zig in Reality: A (Somewhat) Friendly Debate
At last year’s P99 CONF, one of the most popular talks was about how moving data closer to your users can save hundreds of milliseconds in latency “even if your code sucks.” But sometimes, when you’re working on ultra-low-latency applications where every millisecond matters, every element must be designed for performance — from the code itself, to the language it’s written in, to the infrastructure it’s running on and everything it interacts with.
4 AI Power User Success Strategies
If you’ve been following along with my previous article on the current state of large language models, you might wonder, “OK, so where do we go from here?” Well, buckle up because we’re about to dive into how you can become an AI power user in this evolving landscape. As I explained previously, LLMs are starting to level out in capabilities and quality. They also represent a new competency in application development that is evolving and maturing in real time.
In the Age of AI, What Should We Teach Student Programmers?
In a world where AI has created powerful tools for coding, what exactly should computer science teachers tell the young programmers of tomorrow? On the front lines of the future, educators are grappling with what stance to take — with a little help from nonprofits and professional trade associations. The ongoing discussion offers a unique perspective on a very real need being confronted: to understand where we’re at, in order to define where we want to go.
In the Age of AI, What Should We Teach Student Programmers?
In a world where AI has created powerful tools for coding, what exactly should computer science teachers tell the young programmers of tomorrow? On the front lines of the future, educators are grappling with what stance to take — with a little help from nonprofits and professional trade associations. The ongoing discussion offers a unique perspective on a very real need being confronted: to understand where we’re at, in order to define where we want to go.
Rapid Innovation In Vehicle Connectivity Is Creating New Developer Roles
I have worked in the software industry for the past three decades and, in that time, have seen considerable evolutions in software development. I am passionate about understanding technology’s impact on people’s daily lives and what technology consumers want to pay for. As society evolves, the technological landscape shifts in tandem, reflecting the changing values, needs, and behaviors of the population.
Even Data-Driven Companies Fall Short of Their Data's Potential
A recent survey found organizations that relied on data to guide business decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic emerged stronger and better positioned to navigate the market volatility. Investments in data pay off — or have the potential to. The path from data investment to desired outcomes is not linear.
How To Build Scalable Real-Time Applications With JavaScript
Real-time apps provide real-time reporting and analytics to help businesses make faster and more informed decisions, while also offering a better user experience and enhanced security. This article will consider the challenges and solutions of building scalable real-time applications with JavaScript in 2024, focusing on WebSocket implementation, server-sent events (SSE), and libraries like Socket.IO to manage real-time communication effectively.
Hackathon Tips to Boost DevOps Innovation
Enterprises have gotten pretty good at adopting DevOps practices, but scaling them can be difficult. To be sure, newer disciplines like platform engineering and roles like compliance architects are valid manifestations of DevOps. But sustaining and expanding a productive DevOps operation requires constant validation and growth. That’s why we see more companies turning to the humble hackathon to sustain their engineering culture.
The Current State of LLMs: Riding the Sigmoid Curve
You might have noticed a shift in the air if you’ve been following the AI space lately. The unbridled optimism of a year ago has given way to a more somber, realistic outlook. As someone who spends most weekends knee-deep in AI code and has contributed to projects like LangChain and LlamaIndex, I’ve had a front-row seat to this transformation. Recently, I attended two AI conferences — the AI Quality Conference and AI Engineer World’s Fair — and the change in sentiment was palpable.
The Current State of LLMs: Riding the Sigmoid Curve
Sam Altman Now Elon Musk files new lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman CNN • 56m New York CNN — Elon Musk filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman Monday, re-opening a legal battle in his fights over artificial intelligence.
How to Manage Linux Software
This article on services fits into a larger series of Linux articles covering various sysadmin topics, including hardware identification and managing system processes. You can build a lab environment by following the information in the Linux: Companion Lab for Linux Skill Blocks Repository article.
Bypassing eBPF to Protect Runtimes in Kubernetes Apps
SEATTLE — Kubernetes is a good fit for the scale needed to run generative AI applications. But GenAI poses a security problem that requires new approaches to protecting runtimes in Kubernetes applications. If anything, CloudNativeSecurityCon earlier this summer showed how deeply complex the problems become with new attack vectors that compound with GenAI.
Linux: Secure Yourself With GnuPG on Linux
GnuPG (aka GNU Privacy Guard) is a free, open source replacement for Symantec’s PGP suite that allows you to encrypt and sign data security. With GnuPG, you can protect files on your local system and even communications with third parties. With a versatile key management system and access to several public key directories, GPG is a must-have for security-minded Linux users. GnuPG can be used from the command line and is supported by email apps such as Thunderbird.
How To Manage Linux Log Services
This article on services fits into a larger series of Linux articles covering various sysadmin topics, including hardware identification and managing system processes. You can build a lab environment by following the information in the Linux: Companion Lab for Linux Skill Blocks Repository article.
Introduction to Flutter - How Does It Compare to Tauri?
When I looked at Tauri last week, I was asked how it compares with other similar app-building projects. Flutter is more of a platform and uses the Dart language, but I think with Tauri supporting mobile builds it might be time to look at where Flutter is right now. Flutter is “an open source framework by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multiplatform applications from a single codebase.” It can compile down to ARM for full mobile support.
Linux: Mount Remote Directories With SSHFS
The Secure Shell (SSH) isn’t just about allowing you to remote into servers to tackle admin tasks. Thanks to this secure networking protocol, you can also mount remote directories with the help of the SSH File System (SSHF). SSHFS uses SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) to mount remote directories to a local machine using secure encryption, which means the connection is far more secure than your standard FTP.
New Eleventy Supports ESM and NY Times Embraces React 18
This week, Eleventy, aka 11ty, released its version 3.0 beta, which it is touting as “ESM-friendly.” “We did it. It’s happening. After 18 alpha pre-releases and over a year of work, our very first beta release of Eleventy 3.0 is now available,” the team wrote on its GitHub release notes. ESM stands for ECMAScript Modules, and it’s a modern JavaScript module format natively supported in most web browsers. It’s a “,” explained web developer Jacob Jackson.
Kafka 3.8 Brings Faster Startups to Java Developers
Java developers who wrangle with Kafka are getting some love from the new release of the open source data streaming platform. The project has packaged the latest version, Kafka 3.8, in a GraalVM, a container for enterprise Java environments. While not jaw-dropping, for Java developers this is some good news, noted Confluent Developer Advocate Sandon Jacobs, who, prior to joining Confluent, worked as a Java developer on Kafka.
Supercharge AIOps Efficiency With LLMs
Senser has been an AI company from day one. We operate within the AIOps category, using machine learning to graph production Cloud and IT environments and provide our customers with deep insights into the root cause and change impact. While the buzz around implementing generative AI capabilities in the observability market is recent and loud, we’ve been quietly evaluating the specific roles LLMs can play in bolstering our offering over the past year.
Netflix Open Sources Maestro, a Next-Gen Data Workflow Engine
Video and gaming streaming service Netflix has released as open source the workflow orchestrator that its army of data scientists and analysts use every day to understand user behaviors and other large-scale data-driven trends. The Maestro workflow orchestrator, released under an Apache 2.0 license, was designed to support hundreds of thousands of workflows and has completed up to 2 million jobs in a single day for the media company.
Synthetic Monitoring With OpenTelemetry
Synthetic monitoring is used to proactively test and monitor production systems, ensuring performance, availability, key functionality and assessing user experience. There are several types of monitors, ranging from simple pings to fully automated web interactions. Modern engineering teams are now using OpenTelemetry and distributed tracing for production monitoring and troubleshooting, but mostly in a manual, reactive manner.
FinOps Can Turn IT Cost Centers Into a Value Driver
The reality is that IT has traditionally been a major cost center within the business. Rather than contributing to profits, it often results in high operational expenses. Back-office inefficiencies, like those within IT, cost companies up to 30% of revenue every year. In today’s economy or any economy, this model is not sustainable, particularly as companies strive to increase tech investments over the next year and beyond. However, there is good news.
Google Cloud Adds GenAI, Core Enhancements Across Data Platform
In concert with its Next ’24 event in Tokyo this week, Google Cloud is making an array of announcements across its entire data platform, including the analytical and operational sides. Platforms involved include flagships like BigQuery and Spanner, but also supporting components like Looker, Analytics Hub, Cloud SQL and Bigtable.
Beyond React: How Astro and Its Server Islands Work
React and its virtual DOM paradigm has been at the forefront of frontend development for a decade now, but there’s been a swing towards simplicity and web-native features in more recent frameworks. Astro is a great example; and it also now has the support of Netlify, a leading player in the current web landscape.
Cloud Migration Regrets: Should You Repatriate?
Enterprises are expressing regret about their cloud migrations. That’s one of the most common sentiments about the cloud we’ve heard in our cloud advisory practice over the past few years. The legacy capital expense (CapEx) model was slower and more bureaucratic than a cloud operating expense (OpEx) model, and the cloud was viewed as a panacea that would increase business agility and shorten time to market. Enterprises pushed workloads to the cloud, regardless of appropriateness.
Setting Microservices Up for Success: Real-World Advice
Once you’ve built a microservice-based system, you’ve got to keep it running and make it successful for your organization — and that can be harder than you think. Sarah Wells knows a thing or two about managing a microservices system successfully. In this episode of The New Stack Makers, she described her experiences in a conversation with me.
AWS Discontinues Git-Hosting Service CodeCommit
As part of an apparent effort to clean house, Amazon Web Services will pull the plug on its git-based source control service, AWS CodeCommit. “After giving it a lot of thought, we made the decision to discontinue new access to a small number of services, including AWS CodeCommit,” AWS Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr wrote, sharing a prepared message on the X social media service Tuesday.
Excel Gets Local Python Boost With Anaconda Code
Anaconda has developed a new local experience for Python in Microsoft Excel, allowing users to run Python code within Excel spreadsheets without an internet connection. Today, Anaconda announced the public beta release of Anaconda Code within its Anaconda Toolbox for Excel. Anaconda Code empowers users to write Python code directly within Excel and run it locally.
CrowdStrike: A Wake-Up Call for eBPF-Based Endpoint Security
The recent IT outage disabled 8.5 million computers, knocking out hundreds of businesses including airlines, hospitals, retail, media, etc. After dealing with blue screens on their system for hours, and in some cases a day or two, the question on every industry leader’s mind was: How do you future-proof your computers from Blue Fridays like these?
Supergraph: A Solution for API Orchestration and Composition
Supergraph: A Solution for API Orchestration and Composition sponsor-hasura,sponsored-post-contributed, Image from eamesBot on Shutterstock. In the previous post in this series, we discussed the complexities of building and consuming APIs in enterprise data landscapes. These environments involve multiple data domains managed by different teams and numerous applications, leading to challenges due to constrained resources and conflicting goals.
Ansible vs. Salt: Comparing Configuration Management Capabilities
Salt is a fundamental ingredient in cooking, cherished by chefs and home cooks alike for its ability to enhance flavor, improve texture and contribute to the overall balance of a dish. When creating a more complicated dish, it might be necessary to use salt multiple times: Salt is often added at different stages of cooking to layer flavors and ensure even seasoning throughout the dish. Different components of a dish might require separate seasoning to ensure each part is properly flavored.
Debian Retools APT for Better Dependency Management
“The stuff we got we don’t need, and the stuff we need we don’t got,” an old Army supply sergeant used to bitch at us back in our military days. And certainly these days, many a system administrator is echoing a similar sentiment about all the open source dependency packages on their systems.
Linux: Prevent Overwriting Files With chattr
The Linux kernel is well-known for being the basis of one of the most secure operating systems on the market (or “distributions” in the language of Linux). One of the reasons this is so is because of the granular file permissions that are inherent to the OS. With a few commands, you can control who has access to what and how much access they have. There’s chmod to change basic permissions and there’s chown to change ownership. There’s also the chattr command. Say what?
New OpenTofu Release Challenges Terraform's Dominance
The new OpenTofu comes with features developers have been asking for for years. In a move that’s sure to catch the attention of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) community, OpenTofu has released version 1.8, packed with features that users have been clamoring for since the project forked from HashiCorp’s Terraform. This latest release isn’t just another incremental update. Its headline feature is the introduction of early variables/locals evaluation.
Score: New CNCF Sandbox Tool for Infrastructure-Centric Dev
The open source project Score does not only serve as a platform-oriented tool for developers to simplify Kubernetes deployments. It does not only function solely as a policy-setting and control mechanism using so-called guardrails. It does not only operate as an all-encompassing portal, relying mainly on graphical interfaces as a developer project.
Navigating the Risks of Third-Party JavaScript Integrations
Earlier this year, research from digital reference library DataReportal found that internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 spend an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes consuming the internet. A new generation of online destinations is serving more engaging and interactive experiences than the static sites of yesteryear, which means they can hold a consumer’s attention for extended periods.
AI Beyond Chatbots and Assistants: Adaptive Applications
AI Beyond Chatbots and Assistants: Adaptive Applications sponsor-couchbase,sponsored-post-contributed, Featured image by Matt Wang on Unsplash. AI has impressed the world with natural language chatbots and coding assistants. But as the hype comes to a peak while legal and regulatory issues are unclear, decision-makers are starting to wonder: Is that all there is? How can AI provide deeper value in applications? The full answer remains to be seen, but perhaps the future lies in adaptive applications.
Choosing When To Use (or Not Use) LLMs as a Developer
“My daughter will never know what it’s like to be lost.” I forget who said that about 10 years ago, but the message sank in and resonates more deeply as we are ever more profoundly augmented by tech. The speaker was referring, of course, to the fact that almost nobody younger than 15 (now 25) is ever without the handheld GPS wayfinding device that we anachronistically call a phone.
Hidden Threats Lurk in Outdated Java
Keeping your enterprise systems as secure as possible should be obvious, shouldn’t it? Unfortunately, with so many security aspects to consider, this is often neglected in some of the most important places. The Java runtime, for example. Until 2019, keeping your JDK updated with the latest security patches was straightforward and did not come with a direct cost.
Scaling Knowledge Graphs by Eliminating Edges
Knowledge graphs enable the linking of related content in a way that complements vector similarity. In much the same way that hyperlinks allow connecting a website with related information, edges in the graph enable connecting content with other content that’s relevant but not necessarily similar. Often, this provides a more complete context for the generative AI application to reference, leading to more complete answers.
Could eBPF Save Us From CrowdStrike-Style Disasters?
Brendan Gregg, Intel Fellow and system expert, argues that eBPF can prevent future-Crowdstrike-like disasters. Others aren’t so sure. In the aftermath of the CrowdStrike Windows security fiasco, security experts and developers alike are looking for a safer way to run low-level security programs.
Top Developer Skills for AI and Cloud Jobs
There’s no denying that it’s a tough job market for IT professionals. The industry hasn’t bounced back from more than 18 months of tech layoffs. Not only are there more tech job applicants than ever, you are now competing in an AI-backed job market that’s haunted by ghost jobs. Software developers are under immense pressure to stay technically relevant in the face of an increasingly complex, cloud native, AI-driven technical landscape. How can you stand out to find your next job in tech?
Open Source or Closed? The AI Dilemma
Artificial intelligence is in the middle of a perfect storm in the software industry, and now Mark Zuckerberg is calling for open sourced AI. Three powerful perspectives are colliding on how to control AI: All AI should be open source for sharing and transparency. Keep AI closed-source and allow big tech companies to control it. Establish regulations for the use of AI. There are a few facts that make this debate tricky.
How To Build an AI Agent That Uses RAG To Increase Accuracy
How To Build an AI Agent That Uses RAG To Increase Accuracy tutorial, Photo by Rick Rothenberg on Unsplash. The combination of retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and function calls can greatly improve the capabilities of LLM-based applications. RAG agents based on function calling combine the benefits of both approaches, relying on external knowledge bases for accurate data retrieval and executing specific functions for efficient task completion.
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