Whether it’s appreciation or discomfort, one of the best way to put your feelings out there on the internet is through memes, which has a great attention span on the user viewing them. Whenever a meme appears on the internet with respect to software development, most of them have something to do with stack overflow as if the complete software development lifecycle depends on it, and the development of software is not possible if stack overflow was never invented. But, the endless man-hours that are invested in the design of the architecture of a software, its coding implementation, testing, bug fixing, deploying, and scaling any software product cannot be achieved with the knowledge that stack overflow alone offers. Sure, whenever we get a blockage, whether it’s related to some syntax error in a programming language, networking tweaks, memory corruption, or some here and there common mishaps, then it’s the fastest way for a solution. What is the actual problem? First, we need to learn about the exact nature of the problem and then develop an approach for solving the same. Assuming you have a developer profile, there comes a certain requirement for building a feature X. Needless to say, that you are involved in a legacy project whose majority of code is written in the C programming language. There are a few ways through which you can approach this particular problem - You start coding in the same language C (of the project) for this feature from Day 1, and you will modify the architecture or fix the code on the go as and when the issues will arise, and you are done implementing the feature. CASE - 1 → Result - Unless you are a very experienced developer or you have the hand of God with you, there are alarming chances that you might have written poor code, or introduced a bad architecture, or might have introduced certain bugs for other parts of fine working code, or the code you have written cannot be scaled, or simply better code could have been written which would have sustained for the future also. You take one or two days, and you devise a proper architecture and strategy of how the execution should suppose to work, divide the feature that has to be implemented into small tasks, and see if those tasks are already been done. If those tasks were already implemented, then we could just reuse that code since it was working in the production also. Upon devising the strategy, the same would have been consulted with the team leader or some experienced developer who might have suggested a better approach, thereby changing your approach to solving the problem. CASE - 2 → - Result The implementation would still be in C in this case, so no new programming language experience could have been gained. True, this approach would have taken a little bit longer than the previous approach, but in the end, you would have come out with a better design-solving approach.  This will result in a properly documented code with fewer bugs along with multiple peer reviews which will definetly sustain the future requirement. There is a lot of urge in you for multiple programming languages, and you feel that the required feature will be pretty easy to implement if done in another programming language, say Python. So, you build the feature in Python and write a C wrapper on the top of your feature, and you communicate with that feature through the APIs from your C Legacy code. CASE -3 → - Result The advantage of this type of implementation is your knowledge gained from learning new programming languages, creating a wrapper around a library, and API communication which is a pretty cool thing. There may come certain times when a load of delivering the particular feature is tremendous, and most of your colleagues are busy with some other things, then proceeding with CASE-1 seems like a wise choice. However, if the feature is not so crucial for production, then CASE-3 seems like a wise choice. If your feature is going to be deployed in an environment with huge traffic, then CASE-2 seems to be the best choice, keeping scaling in mind. So, it all comes down to, where do we study and exactly what it is that we need to study? This answer can be divided into two parts. You will face two types of problems in your work environment. One will be of the general sense, which includes memory corruption, basic commands and syntax error, firewall issue, routing issues, installation, and environment-specific problems, library dependencies, and things like that. Rote learning of these types of things is not required as they will be automatically absorbed by your mind as and when you will proceed and solve them with the help of resources provided on websites like stack overflow. The second type of problem is of the specific sense, which includes that there is a certain problem with your architecture, and the code breaks down in production due to that. It may be during scaling of TLS connections or processing asynchronous MySQL requests, complex IP tables rules, composite Gstreamer pipelines or binding multiple ports for media processing, or things like that. The solutions to these types of problems are not one-liners or come in a paragraph, at least most of the time. They are almost difficult to track on the web, and the solution to the problem comes  after reading a ton of resources. The solution for any tricky architecture-based problems/scaling core software comes after multiple hits and trials of connecting the dots between the multiple resources, which is mainly possible through experience. The main problem is that the number of resources and information available decreases as soon as the technicality and specificity of the problem increases. For, e.g., A ton of resources are available for the IP tables command, but no specific mention of command where IP tables can balance the VoIP protocol (SIP) or the DIAMETER protocol. There are tons of examples of Dynamic IPSec Library Strongswan, but there is little to no information on the load balancing of static XFRM IPSec-based security associations. Nokia, Huawei, and Ericsson are deploying the 5G in the world as we speak, whereas there are little to no concrete resources to easily explain the 5G on the internet. However, there is a catch. Whatever work you are doing, there is a very high chance that others are doing it too. Very often, some open source project is dedicatedly working for the same cause as your company, except they are providing the service for free. If your work involves deployment, then you have OpenStack, Docker, and Kubernetes for you. If your work involves dealing in CI / CD, then Jenkins and Travis are your buddies. If you are into a media server or telecom domain, then Freeswitch and Asterisk do it for you. If you are into complex media manipulations, then OpenCV, Gstreamer, FFMpeg do it for you. If you are into Databases, then MongoDB and MySQL do it for you. You get a general idea. It’s inevitable to make mistakes. But, to remain in this competitive world, we need to be very selective as to what we are feeding on. Solving complex problems, studying different architectures, learning about working on multiple open source projects, understanding coding guidelines, and writing clean code along with its tests will help you a lot in the future. As to how to declare an Integer in C or export JAVA_HOME, don’t bother your mind and let stack overflow take care of these small issues. In other words, you need to make efforts towards the specific issues that you believe are very challenging and demanding while letting the stack overflow take care of small issues like compilation problems due to dependency issues and stuff like that.

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2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Database

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Open Source

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Optimization

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Software Architecture

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Open Source

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Software Architecture

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Database

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Optimization

Problem Solving in Software Development: Specialization Vs. Generalization

IBM estimates that in 2021 a data breach incident costs enterprises . Even though the workforce is returning to offices in varying capacities, research on the topic indicates that managers are planning for a hybrid work future. According to Gartner, 82% of business leaders plan to let employees continue to work from home (WFH) in at least some capacity, while 47% plan to allow employees to do so permanently. $4.24 million on average Some companies - being a notable example - have turned to the work from anywhere (WFA) model to give their employees the option of working from an office or home, and even from a geographic location of their own choice. Spotify Cybersecurity-wise, this means that an increasing number of workers will access their online work environment through vulnerable networks, and additional security measures have to be put in place to mitigate the connected risks. The risks of a hybrid work environment The switch to remote work left managers dealing with several cybersecurity threats stemming from unsecured home devices and networks, as well as unprotected internet traffic. When the majority of employees work from a single location, there is only a need to protect the main network - which is less demanding than protecting as many endpoints as there are employees. "More employees working from anywhere means more devices connecting remotely, i.e., outside of the secured corporate network. As a result — businesses' control over data is slipping rapidly," says Juta Gurinaviciute, Chief Technology Officer at . NordLayer "As such, it is critical to understand what remote workers are doing with that data and rework the new 'normal' to make it more effective and secure," Gurinaviciute says. The elements that build for security and privacy that may normally be available in a controlled corporate physical environment setting with defined physical barriers are routinely obliterated in WFA environments. And the risks associated with WFH are amplified when the move is made to WFA. This is because it includes not only our home base but also frequently working on the road at customer locations, airports, coffee shops, and just about anywhere with wired or wireless connections. "Adapting to working from home was a challenge to cybersecurity personnel everywhere, but the growing trend of working from anywhere entails a new set of threats to consider," adds Gurinaviciute. "Working from anywhere usually means using unencrypted public Wi-Fi, which can lead to information being intercepted, malware being distributed. There is an array of ways in which hackers exploit unsecured public networks, and businesses have to adapt their cybersecurity strategies accordingly." Adapting cybersecurity protocols The consequences of poor cybersecurity hygiene while working remotely can include anything from compromised sensitive data to unauthorized access to the organization's infrastructure. Secure communications while working remotely can be ensured by the combination of technical solutions and controls with proper (OPSEC). employee operations security "Typically, when it comes to securing your teleworkers, the first item on the agenda is developing a corporate policy," says Gurinaviciute. "This policy should outline what's acceptable in a remote working environment, how data is handled, what levels of authorization are available, etc. Risk-based decisions can also be made depending on the types of devices employees use for teleworking (for example, company-issued devices, personal laptops or smartphones, etc.). Devices that haven't been issued specifically by the company should be subject to more stringent controls," says Gurinaviciute. Since every remote employee is a potential threat to the integrity of a given company's data, businesses are shifting their cybersecurity strategies away from the castle-and-moat approach. Previously, companies thought it was enough to have a robust, perimeter defense-oriented approach to cybersecurity. Now, network security solutions based on the Zero Trust principle are replacing traditional, static defense strategies. In the Zero Trust framework, the given network is protected by granting users and devices access to only those parts of the network that are essential to their task. In such a system, every user is authenticated before being allowed to access the needed data through an encrypted tunnel. Because of this, even if a device gets compromised, it can't cause network-wide damage. Organizations that have Zero Trust-based system in place enhance their cybersecurity in three key areas - secure access, secure browsing, and increased cybersecurity training opportunities, adds the expert: NordLayer "First, a comprehensive security framework of this kind allows the remote employees to safely connect to the company network without putting the whole network at risk. Second, web browsing becomes considerably safer, allowing cybersecurity personnel to ensure employee browsing habits are not potentially harmful to the company. Finally, due to the automated nature of Zero Trust-based systems, managers gain more time to educate their personnel on best cybersecurity practices, which is crucial because defrauding humans is one of the chief enablers of successful cyberattacks."

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cybersecurity

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Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cybersecurity

WFH/WFA Workplace Create New Cybersecurity Threats: Are You Prepared?

While starting to work with end-to-end tests, one of the first questions is where to store them. Alongside source code or in the separate repository? Two solutions, both slightly different. Each of the approaches has its pros and cons – but which to choose? In this short article, I've tried to describe them both. They're different, and from your perspective, you've to choose which one to use, which isn't simple at all. I believe that this could help you a bit. Project repository Store tests alongside source code keep everything in the same place. You've both app-related and tests-related stuff like tasks, workflows, etc. in the same spot. It causes, that the developers could execute everything much easier than searching some commands in another repository. It closes the gap between the developers and test engineers (SDET's). There aren't any barriers. When the tests fail, they would fail on the programmer branch, so it'd be his job to maintain them. That's the mental shift when things are together. You wouldn't be responsible for bringing back the tests to love after every failure. Or find the person which going to fix them or the development is blocked. The point is, that storing everything in the same repository, there aren't any other “strange” places where some code checks the developer's job and makes it easier to maintain. What's more, when the newest feature changes the application flow and breaks tests, you don't have a problem with different versions of tests and apps. They're synced because of the same repository. No concern with merges and only one thing which left would be to maintain them on the same branch as the feature is and push a complete working solution. The time when tests aren't compatible with the newest application version shouldn't exist. Example structure <application-repository>/<root>/app

<application-repository>/<root>/tests Separate repository When the test code is in “another” project, and it usually breaks — the developers probably won't care about it. It's going to be your job to maintain the tests and unstuck the blocker. Unfortunately, when things are separated, it would reduce the collaboration between team members. If your organization has a clear distinction between the developers and test engineers, a separate repository will widen that gap. One wouldn't work on each other solutions. That's really not a situation you should go to. The most beneficial would be working together on both, the application code and tests, as a team. Imagine a situation. From the developer's perspective. You've created a feature that breaks some of them and wants to merge it, fast. The obvious is, the tests would fail, so you've to set up another repository, maintain the tests and prepare requests, or just merge the feature without properly working tests. It would create a gap because it's impossible to merge both, new versions of the code at the same time. In that scenario, each of the repositories going to have workflow according to its needs – which is good. It will separate the contexts, so the person which going to start working on one of the projects will have only things related to that. The application has tasks related to building and running the application, and tests will contain jobs to set up the application under tests and execute them. But it has downsides too. It's just annoying to run the whole flow on local machines. You'll need to execute commands in different places, which brings up the complexity. Of course, I didn't say that only the test's repository has to contain tests – nah. The application should have its own. The developers should write unit tests alongside the source code and execute them in pipelines. Separating the repositories keeps a more clean environment. Repositories contain only things it's concerned about. It's made easier to navigate on the daily basis. But there's a downside to this approach. You'll have more moving parts to your workflow, which makes things more complicated along the way. For example, with new developers, setup everything it's going to be a little more difficult in front of a situation, where everything is in one place. Example structure <application-repository>/

<tests-repository>/ Conclusion Project repository Increase ownership through the team, Closes the gap between the developers and test engineers, No problem with merging, you'll always have synced versions between tests and application, Everything app and tests related going to be in the same place. Separate repository Decrease ownership through the team, Widen the gap between the developers and test engineers, Could be a situation where tests aren't working on the newest application version, A cleaner environment, only things concerned about are in the repository. Reading the article and points above, it seems like a single repository is a straight winner. But it's just how it works for me, most of the time. It doesn't mean, that it's the best solution for your organization. It always depends – on your project architecture, company structure, how many people you have, and how you're working as a test engineer. The best would be to talk to your teammates and decide as a team which could work better for you. Work together on that topic. I assumed that you have in-house test engineers. If not, then, probably you should choose a separate repository for the tests.

Flow

Alongside

Storing Tests On The Project Repository Vs. Storing Tests On A Separate Repository

For decades, finance and data systems relied on centralized systems. This bottleneck created gatekeepers of commerce and information that made a fortune from their positions of power. Blockchain platforms eliminated these middlemen and ensured that commerce and data control were more democratic and accessible. Transacting parties benefit from a public and transparent blockchain to provide clarity on all transaction charges they incur and other vital information. In all, a blockchain exists as a data structure and a state machine designed purposefully to record preceding events and all user-initiated user interactions. Depending on the creator, different accounting models might be used to keep track of this “state system.” Therefore, there is a state transition with every block defined by the state transition logic. For every state transition, there is an automated update of the system to reflect the status of the new state. This scheme applies in all blockchains regardless of workflow used, mainly unspent transaction output (UTXO) or account models. The difference between UTXO and the account models depends primarily on how the book-keeping is handled. Differences between Accounting and UTXO Blockchains The first main difference between the UTXO and account model system lies in the type of “accounting” in place. In the UTXO arrangement, the blockchain is based entirely on individual transactions grouped into blocks, more like a cash system. All outputs must therefore be spent as a whole because transactions contained in the previous block are immutable and permanently stored in the blockchain. Meanwhile, digital assets are traced more like a bank with accounts in the account-based model. Here, digital assets held in an address are represented as balances. The “account” balance will increase when coins are deposited and reduce when spent. Accordingly, it is possible to spend partial balances, unlike in UTXO systems where outputs must be spent wholly. All these balances in the Account system are stored in the global state and updated per transaction on the node levels. The second is on scalability. Here, there will be two ways to look at each system. On one side, consideration is on storage requirements, and on the other, the view is on which system is best for deploying layer-2 solutions for better scaling. Account models are more efficient in memory storage, meaning nodes can save more money. Transaction sizes are relatively smaller than in UTXO systems since transactions usually capture basic information regarding the sender, receiver, amount, and digital signature. With this, it is also easier to onboard new nodes because only a little data is required for syncing. These properties mean Account models are more suitable for layer-2 deployments. On the other hand, state channels and sharding scaling solutions run more efficiently on UTXO than in accounts blockchains because the UTXO model is more like a verification system, a construction allowing for faster deployment of these scaling options. On Privacy, there are benefits to both systems. For instance, the UTXO model makes it harder for third parties to link transactions. On the other hand, accounting models are built for fungibility, translating to easier cataloging. If a user sending a transaction in a UTXO blockchain constantly changes their receiving addresses, it would be tough to track the owner since a new address has no previously known owner. To crack its identity, it would require advanced chain analysis. Still, prioritizing transparency over fungibility in UTXO systems means accounting-type blockchains have an edge with better privacy. By default, these networks have a “coin-mixer” like feature. All deposits add up to the previous balance making it harder to determine which assets were from which addresses. On spending, an external observer would, therefore, know which assets are being spent. To Cap It Up Both models have their benefits depending on the use case. While one blockchain can use the UTXO system to ride on sharding, the other development group can deploy the accounting model to tap on fungibility and coin-mixing features. Modern blockchains have built a hybrid system to tap on both systems. Meanwhile, Cardano identifies the benefits of UTXO accounting and has added smart contracting to release an extended UTXO system with smart contracting, resulting in massive benefits for DeFi dApps searching for security and low bandwidth requirements.

Cardano

Chain

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Ethereum

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Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Ethereum

3 Differences Between UTXO And Accounts-based Blockchains

The DeFi world has witnessed rapid growth from its number of protocols and amount of  TVL. According to Footprint Analytics,  10x of new protocols in numbers have been deployed in DeFi this year, and so is the DEX sector, from 24 in January to 269 in November. In terms of TVL, DEXs have currently contributed 30% to the overall DeFi industry. ** ** ** ** However, even though DEXs are one of the key components of DeFi, many people argue that DEX cryptocurrency trading will never replace CEXs because they: Lack of efficient market maker mechanisms. Have high gas fees due to congestion on the Ethereum network In this article, we will explain how DEXs are solving these two major problems. How DEXs solve the market maker problem AMM, Automatic Market Maker ** ** Currently, the top projects in terms of trading volume are using the AMM trading model. These include Curve, Uniswap, Sushiswap and Balancer. DEX Uniswap, Sushiswap and Balancer, have reached over $1 billion in token trading volume. The AMM model is not perfect and has run into several problems. For example: Functional layer limitations, where quotes and trades on an AMM DEX need to be completed based on the real-time status of the exchange pool. For on-chain transactions, the entire process from market making to trading needs to be done on-chain, congesting the network and creating high gas fees Slippage occurs when the size of a single trade is too large compared to the size of the exchange pool, causing a big impact on the expected price and the executed price. For example, when a user purchases an ETH quoted at $1,000, while the market price of the ETH has dropped to $995 at the final settlement due to network congestion, but the user still has to pay $1,000 for an ETH, which means the user has paid extra $5  for the ETH, and this $5 is the positive slippage. These shortcomings of the AMM model have been met by corresponding DEX platforms that have continued to refine the AMM mechanism. ** ** The biggest reason why , which occupies the leading position among DeFi projects, is that it has been positioned as a decentralized exchange specifically designed for stablecoins since its inception, and has also made breakthroughs in solving the problems of high slippage and high gas costs of the AMM model. So are the updates of Bancor from v1 to v2, allowing users to pledge unilateral assets and earn gains protected from slippage. Curve Uniswap continues its iterations from V1, V2 to V3.  The upgrade of Uniswap V2 is to expand trading pairs to support any ERC-20 token, enabling LP Token to be automatically compounded.  Regarding Uniswap V3, it provides more options to liquidity providers (LP)  such as the price range to improve their capital utilisation and the fee ratios (0.05%, 0.30%, 1.00%) selection. PMM,  Proactive Market Maker ** ** According to Footprint Analytics, in early June, the DEX project DODO's TVL broke through from $49 million to over $200 million in a matter of days, an increase of more than 340%, by using its own original PMM algorithm, which gives users lower slippage than the AMM protocol and lower impermanent losses on individual asset exposures. PMM means Proactive Market Maker and is the main difference between DODO and other DEXs. The core of PMM is to guide prices by introducing price parameters from oracle to obtain the current market price of a particular token. This allows a large amount of market-making capital to be gathered around the mid-market price, allowing for a relatively flat price curve and providing more liquidity. This also means that PMM has a higher capital utilisation and lower slippage, offering better prices. DMM, Dynamic Market Maker Kyber’s DMMs reduce impermanent losses and increase the profitability of liquidity providers through dynamic fees by monitoring the volume of on-chain transactions. DMM will operate like any other AMM when the market is at its normal state. The DMM will raise the fee when the volume of transactions is higher than usual. When trading volumes are lower than usual, the DMM reduces its fees. This is similar to the revenue maximisation strategy of professional market makers, which dynamically adjusts the market maker. How DEXs are reducing gas fees DEX Aggregators A DEX aggregator consolidates liquidity and intelligently delivers orders to enable users to optimally execute trades, reducing transaction costs, number of trades, and gas fees. There are a number of representative DEX aggregator projects emerging, including 1inch, Matcha, and Paraswap, with a focus on the 1inch aggregator project. ** ** 1inch supports passing orders through multiple liquidity agreements that automatically matches users with the optimal transaction path and executes redemptions with one click. 1inch is a DEX aggregator The DEX aggregator uses advanced algorithms to discover the most efficient exchange path by searching through multiple liquidity protocols so that traders can get the most efficient price for their trades. According to Footprint Analytics, 1inch's TVL and trade volume trends are relatively flat, with 1inch v2 trading at number 9 in the head DEX protocol trade rankings, indicating that the aggregator is also constantly updating its version to offer better deals to users. ** ** ** ** As mentioned above there are problems such as inefficiency and difficulty in finding the best exchange rate for the transaction path. Aggregators can find the best token exchange rate for users in the shortest possible time, and through various strategies, such as connecting protocols, maximizing profit, and minimizing gas fee, users can receive the exact quoted amount, allowing them to complete the best transaction at the best price and avoid losses and risks caused by price fluctuations. Conclusion Earlier, DEXs replicated the order book model of as the market-making mechanism. However, gas fees and slippage have made them a second choice to trade crypto and earn interest  on stablecoins compared to their centralized competitors. CEX However, the blockchain ecosystem is constantly being updated and iterated, and various projects are also breaking through and innovating. DEXs are now solving problems such as network congestion, high gas fees, and low capital utilization. These improvements are providing better experiences and more premiums to projects and users, greeting a lot of potential for the future of DEXs. Data Source: Footprint DEX Dashboard

Uniswap

Maker

fees

Oracle

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2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency

DEXs Are Winning Against CEXs By Reducing Slippage And GAS costs

Eventually, all projects end up with a need to speed up service responses or some heavy calculations. The fast and easy solution is to use cache. Usually, there is Redis or Memcached but we don’t really need them in single instance microservices. Sometimes it’s better to use a simple in-memory cache in your Go app and today I want to show you the main ways to implement it. Simple map The first way is a simple explicit implementation of cache. Usually, it uses map and stores structs there. Also, there is a need to watch the expirations of keys and the cache size. I put all the implementations in . a GitHub repository package go_cache

import (
	"errors"
	"sync"
	"time"
)

type user struct {
	Id    int64  `json:"id"`
	Email string `json:"email"`
}

type cachedUser struct {
	user
	expireAtTimestamp int64
}

type localCache struct {
	stop chan struct{}

	wg    sync.WaitGroup
	mu    sync.RWMutex
	users map[int64]cachedUser
}

func newLocalCache(cleanupInterval time.Duration) *localCache {
	lc := &localCache{
		users: make(map[int64]cachedUser),
		stop:  make(chan struct{}),
	}

	lc.wg.Add(1)
	go func(cleanupInterval time.Duration) {
		defer lc.wg.Done()
		lc.cleanupLoop(cleanupInterval)
	}(cleanupInterval)

	return lc
}

func (lc *localCache) cleanupLoop(interval time.Duration) {
	t := time.NewTicker(interval)
	defer t.Stop()

	for {
		select {
		case <-lc.stop:
			return
		case <-t.C:
			lc.mu.Lock()
			for uid, cu := range lc.users {
				if cu.expireAtTimestamp <= time.Now().Unix() {
					delete(lc.users, uid)
				}
			}
			lc.mu.Unlock()
		}
	}
}

func (lc *localCache) stopCleanup() {
	close(lc.stop)
	lc.wg.Wait()
}

func (lc *localCache) update(u user, expireAtTimestamp int64) {
	lc.mu.Lock()
	defer lc.mu.Unlock()

	lc.users[u.Id] = cachedUser{
		user:              u,
		expireAtTimestamp: expireAtTimestamp,
	}
}

var (
	errUserNotInCache = errors.New("the user isn't in cache")
)

func (lc *localCache) read(id int64) (user, error) {
	lc.mu.RLock()
	defer lc.mu.RUnlock()

	cu, ok := lc.users[id]
	if !ok {
		return user{}, errUserNotInCache
	}

	return cu.user, nil
}

func (lc *localCache) delete(id int64) {
	lc.mu.Lock()
	defer lc.mu.Unlock()

	delete(lc.users, id)
} We use a user’s ID as the key of a cached item. Since there is a map, all updates/reads/deletes take O(1) time. Pros explicit implementation good performance Cons extra time to implement a cache for each data struct extra time to test the cache logic extra time to fix bugs gCache Library abstracts away the cache management and includes various configurations. For instance, you can simply set up the cache eviction rules, max size, expiration TTL, etc. The gCache library package go_cache

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"github.com/bluele/gcache"
	"time"
)

type gCache struct {
	users gcache.Cache
}

const (
	cacheSize = 1_000_000
	cacheTTL  = 1 * time.Hour // default expiration
)

func newGCache() *gCache {
	return &gCache{
		users: gcache.New(cacheSize).Expiration(cacheTTL).ARC().Build(),
	}
}

func (gc *gCache) update(u user, expireIn time.Duration) error {
	return gc.users.SetWithExpire(u.Id, u, expireIn)
}

func (gc *gCache) read(id int64) (user, error) {
	val, err := gc.users.Get(id)
	if err != nil {
		if errors.Is(err, gcache.KeyNotFoundError) {
			return user{}, errUserNotInCache
		}

		return user{}, fmt.Errorf("get: %w", err)
	}

	return val.(user), nil
}

func (gc *gCache) delete(id int64) {
	gc.users.Remove(id)
} Pros production-ready cache management single interface that works with any data type different cache eviction policies: LRU, LFU, ARC Cons need to manually cast a cache value on each read that leads to poor performance the library hasn’t been maintained for a while BigCache Library is fast, concurrent, evicting in-memory cache written to keep an enormous number of entries without impacting performance. BigCache holds entries on the heap but omits GC for them. BigCache library package go_cache

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"github.com/allegro/bigcache"
	"strconv"
	"time"
)

type bigCache struct {
	users *bigcache.BigCache
}

func newBigCache() (*bigCache, error) {
	bCache, err := bigcache.NewBigCache(bigcache.Config{
		// number of shards (must be a power of 2)
		Shards: 1024,

		// time after which entry can be evicted
		LifeWindow: 1 * time.Hour,

		// Interval between removing expired entries (clean up).
		// If set to <= 0 then no action is performed.
		// Setting to < 1 second is counterproductive — bigcache has a one second resolution.
		CleanWindow: 5 * time.Minute,

		// rps * lifeWindow, used only in initial memory allocation
		MaxEntriesInWindow: 1000 * 10 * 60,

		// max entry size in bytes, used only in initial memory allocation
		MaxEntrySize: 500,

		// prints information about additional memory allocation
		Verbose: false,

		// cache will not allocate more memory than this limit, value in MB
		// if value is reached then the oldest entries can be overridden for the new ones
		// 0 value means no size limit
		HardMaxCacheSize: 256,

		// callback fired when the oldest entry is removed because of its expiration time or no space left
		// for the new entry, or because delete was called. A bitmask representing the reason will be returned.
		// Default value is nil which means no callback and it prevents from unwrapping the oldest entry.
		OnRemove: nil,

		// OnRemoveWithReason is a callback fired when the oldest entry is removed because of its expiration time or no space left
		// for the new entry, or because delete was called. A constant representing the reason will be passed through.
		// Default value is nil which means no callback and it prevents from unwrapping the oldest entry.
		// Ignored if OnRemove is specified.
		OnRemoveWithReason: nil,
	})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("new big cache: %w", err)
	}

	return &bigCache{
		users: bCache,
	}, nil
}

func (bc *bigCache) update(u user) error {
	bs, err := json.Marshal(&u)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("marshal: %w", err)
	}

	return bc.users.Set(userKey(u.Id), bs)
}

func userKey(id int64) string {
	return strconv.FormatInt(id, 10)
}

func (bc *bigCache) read(id int64) (user, error) {
	bs, err := bc.users.Get(userKey(id))
	if err != nil {
		if errors.Is(err, bigcache.ErrEntryNotFound) {
			return user{}, errUserNotInCache
		}

		return user{}, fmt.Errorf("get: %w", err)
	}

	var u user
	err = json.Unmarshal(bs, &u)
	if err != nil {
		return user{}, fmt.Errorf("unmarshal: %w", err)
	}

	return u, nil
}

func (bc *bigCache) delete(id int64) {
	bc.users.Delete(userKey(id))
} We used JSON to encode/decode values, but there is an opportunity to use any data format. For instance, one of the binary formats — Protobuf, can boost performance significantly. Pros production-ready cache management the rich configuration of cache maintained the cache does not trigger GC, therefore excellent performance on big cache size Cons need to implement your encoder/decoder of values Benchmarks goos: darwin
goarch: amd64
pkg: go-cache
cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8257U CPU @ 1.40GHz
Benchmark_bigCache
Benchmark_bigCache-8     	 1751281	       688.0 ns/op	     390 B/op	       6 allocs/op
Benchmark_gCache
Benchmark_gCache-8       	  772846	      1699 ns/op	     373 B/op	       8 allocs/op
Benchmark_localCache
Benchmark_localCache-8   	 1534795	       756.6 ns/op	     135 B/op	       0 allocs/op
PASS
ok  	go-cache	6.044s BigCache is the fastest cache. gCache loses in performance because of the need to cast values from interface{} Conclusion We researched different ways of in-memory cache in Golang. Remember that there is no best solution, and it depends from case to case. Use the article to compare the solutions and decide which one fits the needs of your project.

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The number of projects moving to Binance Smart Chain is growing. This new blockchain platform is decentralized and high-speed, allowing users to make transactions much faster than Bitcoin and Ethereum. It also has a built-in sidechain system that can handle an unlimited number of concurrent transactions. BSC is an attractive proposition. On average, the gas price on BSC is only 10%-20% of that on Ethereum. But, recent growth has come from "whales" such as high-value traders, according to a report published recently by the blockchain data firm Nansen. Nansen concluded from blockchain data, including the active addresses labeled as big traders by Nansen and stablecoin transactions by value on BSC, the layer 1 blockchain supported by Binance. One DeFi engagement platform - - recently came out of stealth and officially launched on the Binance Smart Chain to change the balance of power and make it easy for regular users to enjoy DeFi. The platform will offer various engagement enhancement opportunities to users who use selected decentralized exchanges through its advanced engagement-enhancing program. LaCucina As part of the launch campaign, LaCucina will allocate perks to users who provide liquidity to select liquidity pools on Uniswap, Pancake, and Sushiswap in summer 2021. The users will not have to do additional staking or pull their tokens out of the DEXs to claim their rewards. The platform's flexible engagement enhancing system, or Cooking Plans, is designed to prioritize factors other than the stake size, such as the time when users made the stake, its duration, and other engagement factors. This allows small users to punch above their weight with well-timed and committed engagement. Many DEXs and farms offer lucrative opportunities with high-percentage yields. Yet, they are often designed to benefit the crypto whales, allowing the rich to get far richer, while those who hold less see prolonged growth. These benefits derive from staking protocols that mostly reward users who stake large sums into the liquidity pools rather than their dedication to bringing liquidity, no matter the staking amount. LaCucina evens the playing field by rewarding engagement more fairly, fun, and flexibly. The platform currently employs a four-pronged engagement enhancing system for its users to encourage DeFi engagement, distributing the platform's native utility "LAC" token. Here's how it works, with programs that enable users to maximize their yields in a fun and unique way. These include external farming, where users who stake their tokens into promoted liquidity pools at the top 10 select decentralized exchanges may receive "LAC" tokens in LaCucina's "Ovens" (equivalency of farms), which serves as an additional engagement layer on top of other DEXs. A rewards multiplier system offers a fun way for users to get involved at a low level. Each of LaCucina's "Ovens" will have its own tailored set of "Cooking Plans," engagement enhancing policies that may prioritize early or lasting liquidity provision, resulting in small users enjoying DeFi more than in any other platform. Keeping the cooking metaphors going, LaCucina lets its users cook up "dishes." The LAC token can be used, among other things, to get "Secret Ingredients" - special NFTs, such as "Space Mushrooms" and "Martian Worms." These NFTs are created and released on an ongoing basis and represent an image of a specific ingredient. These NFTs could be used to cook a pizza, zuppa, pasta, or other non-transferable NFT dishes, which are not only visually appealing but will also carry a multiplier value that may boost user earnings in the "Ovens" to a greater extent. Finally, NFT avatars are available. Users can mint specialized alien avatar NFTs to compliment the exosystem. The NFTs are guaranteed to be unique, distinctive, minted on the blockchain, and wholly owned by the user. The NFTs are theme-related, with the Genesis Theme (available since December 2021) consisting of a limited 10,000 avatars. LaCucina will announce a future series. "LaCucina was born out of the necessity for projects to create appealing and attractive ways to incentivize users to engage with and promote such projects. None of the existing DEXs and farms out there offer the level of flexibility that LaCucina offers, resulting in biased allocations of rewards, in such a way that the rich get richer and the small players do not stand a chance of properly enjoy DeFi," says LaCucina's Head Chef. "But the vision doesn't stop there. LaCucina plans to be the most impartial launchpad for crypto projects, facilitating direct engagement between projects and users and allowing projects to reward users for their engagement with the project directly. LaCucina's roadmap for the near future offers a truly special product and aims to set a new standard for launchpads."

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No matter what professional field you work in, higher productivity is likely one of the goals you aspire to. It can, however, be tricky. There is no single way to improve your productivity. Moreover, different strategies work for different people. For some, making lists and breaking every task into smaller tasks helps them do much more in less time. For others, productivity means offloading recurring or repetitive tasks. That’s where comes into it. automation Over the years, task automation has become much more accessible to the masses. Gone are the days when you had to be a technical wizard and write complicated code to automate even the most basic task. Now, you can easily do the same in no time by using various tools. The most prominent of these tools are nifty programming packages called APIs. Since their invention, there are few industries that APIs haven’t affected. APIs have helped all kinds of professionals maximize productivity and improve application quality. For everything from scientific research to product development in enterprises, innovative API platforms like provide high-quality and trustworthy APIs. apilayer This article gives you a general sense of just how powerful and useful APIs are. It also gives you a glimpse into what has caused them to become so popular within the development community. Why Is Automation So Important In The First Place? Technology has become increasingly sophisticated and seems to be moving in a specific direction. Makers and developers strive to create tech intelligent enough to adapt and work autonomously. This aspiration to automate technologies to the extent that they learn seems straight out of science fiction. It is, however, rapidly becoming reality. People everywhere are pushing for automation, but not only because technology has become smart enough. We are also more pressed for time. Everyone wants to improve their bandwidth and get more work done. Automation comes in really handy here. It can take care of reasonably complex tasks while you focus on more urgent or creatively intensive issues. Automation is a new staple in workflows in many industries. Whether it is a robust software development framework like DevOps, or operating large machines in factories, automation brings significant boosts in productivity. Furthermore, using APIs from sources like apilayer makes automation quick and easy to implement. In addition, APIs help ensure the quality of the automation and the data it uses too. What Benefits Come From Automating With APIs? Automation is an essential part of any strategy that aims to maximize productivity. Because of this, there are many tools and applications to help you make it happen. Some of them require significant manual configuration, while others are ready-to-use. For more complex endeavors, however, most professionals turn to writing scripts for better control. APIs provide you with an interface made of all the methods you may need for a specific use case. Most scripts, however, need a constant stream of reliable data for calculations or require functionality that would otherwise take days to implement. With APIs, you can fulfill these needs with a few lines of code. By choosing your APIs wisely, you can automate your tasks and forget about them as you focus on more critical issues. Automating through APIs significantly reduces the complexity of your scripts. APIs also introduce a layer of abstraction that even non-technical individuals can understand and implement. In addition, APIs make your automation secure and ready to execute at any part of your workflow. Essentially, APIs are one of the best tools you can use to meet your automation requirements. Once you choose to automate through APIs, however, you also need to ensure you choose a top-tier API provider. After all, how robust your APIs are determines how seamless your automation is. That is why you should source your APIs from a platform like apilayer that ensures all of its APIs are trustworthy and easy to use. What Are The Different Scenarios Which You Can Automate With APIs? You may have heard the buzz around API automation, but you may not have heard specific use cases. There are many scenarios where automating repetitive tasks with APIs improves overall task completion and contributes to better multitasking. These scenarios are remarkable evidence of how helpful API automation can be to your workflow. Let’s take a look at some exciting API automation scenarios. Assessing And Automating Your Cryptocurrency Strategy Cryptocurrency is all the rage these days and it is experiencing a surge in investment and attention. It is, however, still a developing niche. This means that until it stabilizes, you need to constantly monitor your cryptos. By using a robust and reliable cryptocurrency API, you can automate your trading strategy based on the price data you receive. Enhancing Your Security Efforts By Email And/Or Phone Number Validation Cybersecurity is incredibly important. Not all enterprises and individuals, however, have the resources to invest in completely securing their applications. By using a phone number and email validation API, you can validate your user information. It can help add a layer of surety to your application user base. Successfully Localizing Your Application With Language Detection There are applications on the market for almost everything you need. Unfortunately, most of them are in English. Language restrictions can severely affect the reach of your application. With a language detection API, however, you can customize your application for a broader user base based on their local language. How Does apilayer Help Your API Automation Initiative? With apilayer, you can breathe a sigh of relief because our APIs are all based on the same fundamental requirements. These requirements ensure enterprise-grade functional reliability. Here are some key requirements for apilayer APIs: apilayer APIs use a cloud-based infrastructure, so they are always active. You don’t have to worry about security gaps. Robust Back-end Infrastructure: Data doesn’t only need to reach your API safely, it also needs to reach you quickly so you can complete tasks and move on. Blazing Fast Response & Data Retrieval: Fast data doesn’t mean unreliable data. apilayer APIs fetch data from only the most trustworthy sources. Sourcing Data From Trusted Sources: Technology will keep getting better, so the APIs need to stay at the top of their game by regularly updating their implementation and optimizing them. Regular Update Cycles: Each API comes with a reliable support system which you can look into for guidance or help when using the API to minimize compromise on productivity. Dedicated Support System: Based on these fundamentals, apilayer has a wide array of diverse APIs that offer all kinds of data and functionality. You can get data about the weather, aviation, currencies, forex trading, and even live news. In addition, you can get APIs to help with language detection, web scraping, and PDF conversions. Think you are ready to explore the exciting world of automation through APIs? . Give apilayer a go and see yourself sharing our passion for API By Emad Bin Abid. Also published on https://blog.apilayer.com/why-we-love-automation-through-apis-and-you-should-too.

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— certification is a sought-after certification in the industry. In this article, I share my exam preparation experience and some helpful tips. AWS Solutions Architect Associate My Experience I passed the exam in . Here is what I felt about the exam: November 2021 The exam seems to be heavily focused on VPC and EC2 components of AWS. You may have seen this mentioned in almost all online posts or threads that you’ve read about exam preparation. It is absolutely true. I found that the exam questions are mostly focused on situations about transitioning from on-premise architecture to cloud architecture. That’s also the reason why there are more questions about EC2 and VPC architecture. So, while going through AWS services, think about scenarios where each of the services could be a replacement for services used in different types of on-premises architectures. I think having a high-level understanding of where each of AWS services fits in different categories makes it easier to tackle exam questions. For example: since I already had experience using AWS services for a few years before I took the exam, I classified the services in four main domains — Storage, Compute, Identity, Security. By doing so, I didn’t have to memorize each and every detail of all the services. Exam Tips In general, prepare for this exam just like you would prepare for any other exam, but also consider following tips: It is helpful to review some topics every day. Since the Associate Certificate exam is not heavily focused on scenario-based questions as compared to the Professional Certificate exam, you want to be familiar with all the AWS topics mentioned in the exam . So, it is an excellent idea to go over . guide AWS FAQs Remember, your certification won’t be worth much if you do not have hands-on experience with using the AWS services. So, while going through the topics, make sure to try them out in AWS console or the CLI. Go through practice tests a few times before the exam. I used the practice tests available on . You could find similar tests on some other sites. Even though the following book is related to SAA-C01 Exam, it still has relevant content for SAA-C02 O’Reilly Learning Focus on VPC, EC2, and resilient architecture. As of November, 2021, the Design Resilient Architectures domain was worth 30% of the exam. Questions related to VPC, and EC2 components come up in the Design High-Performing Architectures domain as well. In general, it's critical to understand the VPC architecture, and how some applications on the internet can communicate with your application within the VPC and vice-versa. Overall, if you have been using AWS services for at least a year, you should be able to pass the exam by reviewing the topics and preparing for about a month. It is crucial that you focus on the topics related to the services that you don’t have hands-on experience with. First published here

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In decentralization, we trust, and in our community, we believe! This interview is part of the ! For those reading about it for the first time, HackerNoon has built a partnership with Everscale (Formerly Free Ton) - a decentralized, community-powered blockchain movement for free internet! This is the last month to participate in the contest. You can see all here. #Decentralized-Internet writing contest #Decentralized-Internet stories So, without further ado, let’s start the interview. #Thank you for joining us! Please tell us about yourself. Well, my day job is that of a Cloud solutions Architect, which in itself is a start to decentralization moving beyond the physical data centers, albeit within an organization. My extra-curricular interests have revolved around blockchain and metaverse tech for a while now. I also own a few parcels of Land in the Sandbox, and I spend time in Decentraland and Somnium space at various events. Also, I am working on creating experiences on my Lands and helping out projects with their metaverse journey. #Let's discuss centralized internet first. What is your opinion on the centralized internet? What are its pros/cons? The pro - In one word, governance. Whilst it may be hard to argue against decentralization where there is no place for government regulation, there is no denying this could potentially be a problem. One example is extremist groups can utilize decentralized communication, and with no central entity in control of the mechanism used to disseminate their information, how can we shut it down. The same also can go for cyberbullying. The cons, governance, some governments’ definitions of what they could consider extremist groups could be stretched out to include anyone from protesters to a book reading group. The centralized internet also allows organizations too much control of personal data. #What does decentralization mean to you? Decentralization will take our personal data out of the hands of organizations. We will no longer need to store our personal data with the likes of Facebook and Google, who make their money by monetizing that data. The individual will be in control of their own data. #How decentralization changes the internet? As I’ve stated in our internet activities are under constant surveillance, our user data is regularly tracked and collected by corporations, by application developers, and by governments. In a decentralized peer-to-peer blockchain alternative, the community will own and operate the infrastructure, taking control from governments and corporations. #What is the best thing about decentralized internet? A decentralized internet based on blockchain will ensure data security. It makes the internet a public resource. Existing Internet platforms, user data, and applications are typically hosted on central servers, allowing companies to create detailed profiles of their users. This data has been used to manipulate populations and election results; we only need to look at Facebook’s scandal. Cambridge Analytica Blockchain technology on a decentralized internet will mean your profile data is yours to keep or share when you decide to. All you will need to access applications is your Blockchain wallet. You won’t need hundreds of login names and passwords to remember. A hacker will gain nothing from hacking an application to learn usernames and passwords because there are none. #What are the biggest challenges in the way of the decentralized web? The unbridled freedom that comes with decentralization means that without the rules and regulations of a centralized platform, people can take advantage of this freedom to spread hateful views and misinformation without fear of being banned. The answer to this challenge can be decentralization in itself. The blockchain is inherently transparent, and this kind of false info could be filtered at a user level. However, this does put the reliance on the user to do their due diligence. This can only be a good thing and again puts the power in the hands of the user. #Do you have any apprehension or fear related to the decentralization of the internet? As mentioned in my last answer, the freedom decentralization brings with it and the advantage this will give those who wish to perform harm. The majority of communities will undoubtedly self-regulate appropriately; however their always exceptions. #How do you see the future of the decentralized internet? A Decentralized internet is going to change a lot of things, it’s going to have a bit impact on the current major centralized internet organizations. They will no longer be in control of the user will. It’s going to become much more integrated into everyday life, and you will have control. You’ll no longer be subject to what Google or Facebook want you to see. You’ll make these decisions you’ll decide what info to share. #Thank you for your time! Any closing thoughts/advice for the readers? The truth is a truly decentralized internet could well be a long way off. It will rely on the interoperability of a lot of permissionless platforms. I think Meta has the user numbers to rule at the moment and will be around for quite a while. However, as your average, non-technical user gets used to this on Meta platform, which I have no doubt will be permission-based (read my article to understand why). This will change, and users will migrate to decentralized apps eventually. About-my-ambivalence-towards-a-centralized-metaverse

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We have all created or shared a video or two in our lives, whether on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. Naturally, people want to share or even recreate the attention-grabbing, trending, or just downright entertaining content. The content we make can reach millions of people and go viral, be ignored, or land somewhere in between. So why is your content’s engagement plateauing? How do you get more viewer ratings? I think we all know the answer is algorithms, but the term, while common, is still pretty mysterious. We know that algorithms rule social media, but what does that mean, exactly? The content we upload must meet certain criteria to be prioritized for certain people. The algorithms on different social platforms rank your content and recommend it to users across the board if it’s something the algorithm thinks that users actually want to see. If you plan to make content or improve how your existing content ranks on different platforms, you need to understand how different algorithms respond to the content you make. Across the board, one thing is pretty certain: video is a king. According to , video content generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. WordStream According to Kyle Evora, a video content specialist at , videos that focus on highly searched topics pop up in search results more often  than other formats. That’s why TechnologyAdvice produces detailed, yet concise, videos of key competitors in each software category. TechnologyAdvice "Videos based on software topics and reviews are found primarily through search functions on social media like YouTube and Facebook. The primary metrics that work well with the current algorithms are views and watch time.” How An Algorithm Works And How To Work It Algorithms are often seen as roadblocks, but if you understand them, you can use them to your advantage. The key is to understand how to craft content that algorithms want to see rather than try to fight them. Algorithms are programmed to favor videos with the best viewer satisfaction. Whether it’s a boomerang-style looping video or a mini-commercial for your business, any type of video is fair game as long as it can garner positive reactions. In other words: if you make videos that viewers enjoy, the algorithm will pick up your content and show it to others because that is what it reacts to. Content that’s relevant and has an experience that feels unique and personal is a good way to get you in the algorithm’s good graces. , for example, offers a unique experience by allowing brands to share their products with consumers in real-time, which is as relevant as it gets. Its built-in Live Selling templates make it easy to create live selling videos on the fly, all branded with your logos, fonts, imagery, and colors for a signature streaming look. Using a tool that helps jazz up your videos with customized imagery or that gives you an edge, like going live, helps increase the odds of viewer engagement and, as a result, algorithmic favoring. Switcher Studio Simply put, algorithms determine which content to deliver to you based on your behaviour . For example, when YouTube recommends videos to you, it’s because the algorithm is basing your preferences off of what you’ve watched in the past and what similar viewers are watching as well. Why does the algorithm do this, you may ask? Because the higher the viewer satisfaction is, the more likely viewers will stay on the platform, which means they will watch more ads. This exchange between making relevant and relatable content and YouTube recommending your videos to users who will watch them is how YouTube makes money. The timing and consistency also play significant roles in your content’s engagement rate and ranking with the algorithm. The more engagement your content gets, the more likely it will be rewarded by the algorithm. Having topics in your content like pros and cons, product alternatives, and question-based posts are the easiest ways to encourage viewers to engage with your content and catch the algorithm’s attention. Algorithms are not as mysterious as you might initially think. Creating content topics that are strategic and intentional, and using formats that rank better, like video, go a long way in increasing your viewership, engagement, and the likelihood of being recommended by the algorithm.

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Hello friends! Let’s do something new today (well it’s not new to be honest). Where did it all start? I was trying to download videos from Reddit and found that the browser extensions available were either paid or not working. But, thankfully there were some websites that did work just great. I tried that for quite a while until I found it boring to open the website every once and then I felt a need to download something. So, I thought why not create a for the same which could be easily passed on the link and have the file downloaded. Python script Before we Start… Reddit has a different way of storing videos so as to make it harder to download (but we will anyways). It stores the video without the audio at one place and the audio at another URL and when we use the Reddit player it loads and plays both of these simultaneously. So, we will download both of these and stitch them with . ffmpeg The audio URL just replaces the quality factor with ‘audio’ in the video URL. Let’s say the video URL is : Let’s act now… Libraries that we need to install for system calls to run ffmpeg subprocess : to work with command-line arguments sys : for web scraping bs4 (aka BeautifulSoup) : for making HTTP requests requests : to parse json data json : to work with media files it should be installed on the machine ffmpeg : Kicking off… # imports import subprocess
import json
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
import sys # getting a response using the URL url = sys.argv[1]    # gets the url passed in the command-line
headers = {'User-Agent':'Mozilla/5.0'}
response = requests.get(url,headers = headers) # finding the post id for the Reddit post post_id = url[url.find('comments/') + 9:]
post_id = f"t3_{post_id[:post_id.find('/')]}" What does the response have..? The response is the whole HTML file written for that particular Reddit page. But as Reddit is a dynamic website most of the HTML we see is generated using JavaScript and so are the media files. Therefore, to find the links to the media files we’ll have to find the script tag with the data. I googled it and found that a file can simply be obtained from a Reddit link appending at the end of each Reddit link and the video URL’s could be easily grabbed from there. But, I decided to dig into the original HTML code and find the script tag with the data.  And I found it. It was in a tag with the attribute set to . Let’s find extract that using JSON .json script id ‘data’ BeautifulSoup. # processing the response to find the data if(response.status_code == 200):    # checking if the server responded with OK
  soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text,'lxml')
  # I looked up the original code of the reddit page 
  # to find where all the data was and it was in a script tag
  # with the id set to 'data'
  required_js = soup.find('script',id='data') 
  
  json_data = json.loads(required_js.text.replace('window.___r = ','')[:-1])
  # 'window.___r = ' and a semicolon at the end of the text were removed
  # to get the data as json
  title = json_data['posts']['models'][post_id]['title']
  title = title.replace(' ','_')
  dash_url = json_data['posts']['models'][post_id]['media']['dashUrl']
  height  = json_data['posts']['models'][post_id]['media']['height']
  dash_url = dash_url[:int(dash_url.find('DASH')) + 4]
  # the dash URL is the main URL we need to search for
  # height is used to find the best quality of video available
  video_url = f'{dash_url}_{height}.mp4'    # this URL will be used to download the video
  audio_url = f'{dash_url}_audio.mp4'    # this URL will be used to download the audio part # downloading the video and audio files with open(f'{title}_video.mp4','wb') as file:
    print('Downloading Video...',end='',flush = True)
    response = requests.get(video_url,headers=headers)
    if(response.status_code == 200):
        file.write(response.content)
        print('\rVideo Downloaded...!')
    else:
        print('\rVideo Download Failed..!')

with open(f'{title}_audio.mp3','wb') as file:
    print('Downloading Audio...',end = '',flush = True)
    response = requests.get(audio_url,headers=headers)
    if(response.status_code == 200):
        file.write(response.content)
        print('\rAudio Downloaded...!')
    else:
        print('\rAudio Download Failed..!') # using ffmpeg to stitch the video and audio into one subprocess.call(['ffmpeg','-i',f'{title}_video.mp4','-i',f'{title}_audio.mp3','-map','0:v','-map','1:a','-c:v','copy',f'{title}.mp4'])
subprocess.call(['rm',f'{title}_video.mp4',f'{title}_audio.mp3']) Finally! We have our video downloaded successfully and the other downloaded files too are trashed. I didn’t explain a lot of things in detail but I hope this article does really get you interested towards learning . I’ll also recommend learning the tool. Wish you a happy coding journey! 🙂🙂🙂 Web Scraping ffmpeg

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How to Write a Python Script to Download Reddit videos

About 30 years have passed since the very first ransomware attack. While the combination of a creative human mind and new technologies has helped create working solutions against one of the nastiest cyberattacks in the world, ransomware is still a menace capable of destroying both private and corporate lives. Ransomware works by encrypting the user’s data, making it unreadable. If a user wants their data back, a ransom must be paid. However, nothing guarantees you’ll get your files even if you agree to pay. In most cases, the attacker flees without giving you the key to deciphering your computer or infected files. We can agree that prevention is the best remedy to prevent ransomware. A well-established and secure IT infrastructure is a must, especially if you run a corporate network full of clients’ and business’ sensitive data whose theft might threaten to affect your future. Keep reading to learn more about ransomware, its most common forms, and the best ways to prevent it. How Does Ransomware Work? Ransomware is based on asymmetric encryption, a type of cryptography that uses a pair of keys to encrypt and decrypt files. Once the ransom is paid, the attacker gives the user the private key to unlock their files and reaccess them. However, that’s not always the case. Even though it’s impossible to decipher your files without the key, it’s not recommended to pay the ransom either – the keys to some older versions of ransomware are possible to break, as many antivirus programs have developed that option. Ransomware can enter the system through various channels – downloading files from shady websites, email scams, and targeted attacks. Once exploited, ransomware starts encrypting the victim’s valuable files, including Word documents, images, databases, and programs containing confidential information. But that’s not all. Ransomware can spread very quickly, exploiting other vulnerabilities and potentially infecting the entire organization’s network and systems. The next step toward recovering the files lies in paying the ransom, typically within 24-48 hours, in cryptocurrency. Why is Ransomware Spreading so Quickly? Malware kits are available anywhere, allowing even non-tech-savvy thieves to use the latest encryption methods to take over the victim’s network. Anyone who wants to employ ransomware with filthy end goals may consult a growing ransomware Marketplace and get a malware kit from malware authors, who profit by requesting a cut in ransom processes. Besides, the use of the latest technologies and the companies’ tendency to neglect cybersecurity allow for more efficient ransomware employment, which is now capable of encrypting the entire disc instead of particular files on the user’s device. Which are the Most Common Types of Ransomware? No one can say the exact number of ransomware that emerge every day, but there are two main types of this insidious cyberattack – crypto-ransomware and locker ransomware. Crypto-ransomware works by encrypting the user’s files, making them unreadable and unusable. It’s a more frequent form of ransomware cybercriminals use to generate income, as the solution for data recovery is paying the ransom. In most cases, there is a deadline the victim must meet if they want their files back. On the other hand, locker ransomware aims to lock the user out of their device. Instead of their valuable files, the users face the entire system hijack. To get it back, they must pay a ransom within the deadline set by the attacker. Other common forms of ransomware are the following: Bad Rabbit CryptoLocker CryptoWall CTB-Locker Jigsaw Keep in mind that new forms of ransomware arise every day, and each of them is worse than the previous. For that reason, it’s essential to reinforce your system and mitigate the risk of a cyber threat that could put your company or personal life at risk of being exposed to unreliable sources. And that leads us to the following section – Prevent Ransomware attacks And that leads us to the following section – Prevent Ransomware attacks How to Prevent Ransomware Attacks? You can protect your network from various types of malware by implementing the latest anti-ransomware solutions and being careful when exploring the web. For instance: 1. Install the Latest Antivirus and Anti-Ransomware Program Antivirus software has always been one of the most viable cybersecurity solutions. The most recent programs feature the most advanced technologies like content filters and virus scanners, which allow you to detect and block the threat before it makes any changes to your system. By implementing cutting-edge antivirus software, you can reinforce your system security and do your job with peace of mind. Besides high-end endpoint solutions, you can enjoy free versions that provide a stellar user experience and next-level protection from the most dangerous forms of cybercrime. 2. Avoid Unknown USB Sticks to Prevent Ransomware Attacks USB sticks conveniently transfer malicious software, including ransomware, into a system. For that reason, cybercriminals leave infected devices in public places, hoping to trick someone into using them. Therefore, never use USB sticks from unknown sources, as it may be a way to let the attacker lock your system. 3. Don’t Open Suspicious Email Attachments. Ransomware is widely spread through email attachments. If the sender’s email address seems suspicious, ensure you delete the message immediately – if you open the attachment containing ransomware instead, it will be executed automatically on your device. 4. Use VPN to Prevent Ransomware attacks If you’re using a public WiFi network, it’s recommended to encrypt it with a VPN. Virtual Private Network will keep your computer safe from network vulnerabilities and unauthorized access to your sensitive data, which comes in handy for online transactions or sharing personal files. 5. Ensure Your Systems are Up to Date Obsolete software versions or false licenses expose your system to various kinds of vulnerabilities. For that reason, make sure your programs are up to date, containing the latest security patches. That way, attackers will find it more challenging to find gaps in your system protection. Conclusion Your system security is in your hands. Perform careful actions, avoid suspicious sites and email attachments, and never trust a stranger with a USB stick. All these “amenities” open the door to cyber threats and advanced forms of ransomware that no one can deal with. Backups can save you from the total loss, but you cannot rely on them entirely. If cybercriminals encrypt them, as well, you can say goodbye to your files. Remember that you cannot have too many security measures – be careful, and ransomware will stay away from you!

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