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How Would 'Universal Creative Income (UCI)' Work? 

¿Cómo funcionaría el 'Ingreso creativo universal (UCI)'?

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「ユニバーサル クリエイティブ インカム (UCI)」はどのように機能しますか?

Como funcionaria a 'Renda Criativa Universal (UCI)'?

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“通用创意收入 (UCI)”将如何运作？

As software engineers, we’ve all been there… You come across a large, establish codebase that has little-to-no documentation. This is either something you’ve written yourself and long forgotten, or you’ve been thrown into an existing project with nothing but a few “ ” comments. It’s a really relatable problem, as we all think that our code is self-explanatory while we’re writing it, but in reality if you came back to it in 3 months, you’d need some guidance. What I’ll attempt to provide in this post, is a tried and true method I’ve used in the past to add documentation where none exists, without feeling overwhelmed. this is here to prevent the world from ending Tooling There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. Use modern tooling that’s in use elsewhere in the ecosystem of the language you’re in. Most of these tools come with some very useful output-generating utilities that can give you a good handle on how much missing documentation there is, and how much you’ve written along the way. Some examples: : Javascript documentation YUIDoc : Java documentation Javadoc : Go documentation GoDoc : Language agnostic, but big in the C/C++ realm Doxygen Aside from the obvious benefits of formatted output and standards, you’ll also be using something that other developers will understand and be able to contribute to. Start with the Data and Move Outwards I’ve found that it’s always easiest to begin documenting a system from its data model. These objects are generally quite simple, and form the heart of any data-driven application. The data layer arguably contains the most important information to explain, as it is usually a prerequisite for most of the rest of the application. Once you’ve laid down some high-level documentation in the data layer, move outwards from there. This could be services, controllers, presentation, etc. Fidelity As with many of the projects we tackle in our field, they should be defined with levels of fidelity. You can think of this as the amount of effort and “polish” that needs to go into something before it can start to achieve its goals. For example, if you were building a login page, it may be ok to just have a username and password field, without the need for forgot/create/verify email functionality. Similarly (in the real world) if you were building something physical, like a road, you may be able to get away with dirt or stone for the first pass, but will eventually move up to something more permanent. Defining your desired fidelity is hugely important when tackling green-field documentation. What this means with respect to documentation is that you don’t need to write perfect novellas for each method, complete with param tags and full return declarations. Start with something low-fidelity: as sentence or two for a method, just to get the point across. As time goes on, and the most complex areas of the code become known, you can dig into something higher-fidelity with in-depth explanations and examples. Coverage Similar to the practice of starting with the lowest level and moving outwards, you also don’t need to make sure that every method on every class or utility has docs. Cover the things that are hard to understand, or contain complex logic that might not be easy to decipher when you aren’t “in the zone.” Don’t waste your time documenting a method called , but maybe spend some time on things like leftPadWithSixZeros handleMonthlyBilling. Peer Review If you have the luxury of working on a team that has a code review process, use it for you documentation! There’s nothing better for your docs than making sure other people understand them. I’ve been on teams where people will literally proof-read your docs, and I’ve been on others where a one-line comment that just restates the method name as a sentence was acceptable. Peer review can be amazingly helpful when documenting, let along that it might also give your fellow engineers the urge to write some documentation of their own. All in all, documenting a codebase that has been neglected can seem like a really difficult problem. Tackle it like you would tackle anything else, considering granularity, scope, fidelity, and tooling, and it won’t be so bad. In the end, it will be incredibly helpful when bringing new people up to speed, or even when bringing yourself back up to speed after some time away from the code. I’ve written the simplest Spring applications consisting of a few controllers, services, and repositories, but when returning to them after some time away, I’ve kicked myself over the lack of docs. is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the family. We are now and happy to opportunities. Hacker Noon @AMI accepting submissions discuss advertising &sponsorship To learn more, , , or simply, read our about page like/message us on Facebook tweet/DM @HackerNoon. If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our and . Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted! latest tech stories trending tech stories

Insurmountable Documentation Shortfalls

THE RICH BOY

Introduction These six productivity tips will supercharge your productivity as a Node developer. You'll save hours of time which you can then invest in other activities. This is not a complete list of everything you should be doing, but these techniques alone will drastically improve your productivity if you are not already using them. Discovering all of these techniques took me years, but you can learn them all in less than a day. Very experienced engineers would probably already be doing at least some of these techniques. Use the fuzzy finder Many of us are still working with large monolithic codebases that sometimes have thousands of files. How are you supposed to find , hidden in amongst the thousands of files and hundreds of folders in your project? Manually go looking for the file through the directory tree? Ask another developer who is more familiar with the codebase? employee.js /src/authentication/userTypes/employee.js .js Nope, just use the fuzzy finder and type in and you'll have found your file in seconds. employee.js Here’s how it works. In , press and then type in the name of the file you are looking for. The result will appear instantly. vscode Alt+P If you are using IntelliJ or WebStorm, press twice quickly (aka double shift) instead of pressing . shift Alt+P Use a real debugger instead of console.log() Back when I was a mid level engineer, learning how to use a debugger was one thing by itself that supercharged my productivity. I could do in a couple of hours work that might have taken me a day to do. Fixing bugs and building out features was much easier. I've found debugging especially useful when exploring unfamiliar codebases that I didn't write. You can easily see the results of even the most complex logic written in weird ways. Its much easier to reason out complex, convoluted logic when you can run it line by line and see how things change. If you've ever used to print a value to the console, you might know how tedious it can get if you are trying to debug something complex. It prints one value at a time and you need to write a new statement for each value you want to see. If the value you are looking at changes, you need to it again. Its a bit like poking around with a blindfold or in the dark. console.log() console.log() console.log() Human working memory is limited so once you've manually printed enough variables, the values will start to disappear from your mind and then you'll have to print them again or write them down somewhere. Trying to keep it all in working memory takes valuable brain resources that you could redirect towards making your code work the way you want it to. Enter the debugger - set a breakpoint in your code then run your app. When your app reaches the line you set a breakpoint on, you'll be able to see all variables in scope in the debug tab. There is no more need to juggle lots of values in your working memory. With just one action, you can now see everything instead of just one value at a time. I started with just debugging my own application code but as time went by and I became more senior, I found I could get great insights by debugging framework code (such as the code for ). I was able to find answers to questions that weren't even listed in the documentation of the frameworks I was using. express If you want to learn how to set up your debugger, see my other article . Supercharge Your Node Productivity With Debugging Use and avoid "callback hell" async/await Consider the following examples with and without . async/await Without : async/await function addFavoriteProduct(favoriteProduct) {
	const user = userRepository.get(userId).then((user) => {
		const userProfile = profileRepository.get(user.profileId).then((userProfile)) => {
			const favoriteProducts = productsRepository.getFavoriteProducts(userProfile.favoriteProductsId).then((favoriteProducts) => {
				favoriteProducts.add(favoriteProduct);
			}).catch((error) => {
				// Handle error
			})
		}).catch((error) => {
			//Handle error
		});
	}).catch((error) => {
		// Handle error
	});
} This is an example of "callback hell". It contains many nested operations and is hard to maintain. If you had any more nested operations you'd be heading towards the anti-pattern. Pyramid Of Doom I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bug in there I didn't notice because the code is way more complicated than it needs to be!. I'm not even going to try to get it working, because there is a better way. This used to be the standard way to do this type of operation in NodeJS up until very recently. Because of this, many older examples and tutorials online still teach this style, so be careful about what you read online in places like Stackoverflow. If you see this style of code you should be aware that its no longer best practice. Find a different example elsewhere or try to refactor it to be better, like the example below. With : async/await async function addFavoriteProduct(favoriteProduct) {
	try {
		const user = await userProfile.get(userId);
		const userProfile = await profileRepository.get(user.profileId);
		const favoriteProducts = await  productsRepository.getFavoriteProducts(userProfile.favoriteProductsId);
		await favoriteProducts.add(favoriteProduct);
	} catch (error) {
		// Handle error
	}
} As you can see, this example is much cleaner and easier to understand. It’s way less likely to have bugs hidden in it because it is simpler. To use you need to be on Node 8 or higher, so recent versions of Node will support it.  You'll need to use it inside an . Declare one by adding , e.g. . async/await async function async async function get() Share your work early with a public URL Did you know you can get a public URL for a Node application being served from or on your local machine, even if it is behind a firewall or corporate network? It doesn't require any networking config and you can do it in a single command with , for example . localhost 127.0.0.1 expose expose 80 as myapi.expose.sh This lets you share your work early with your collaborators - such as other engineers, customers, or product managers and get fast feedback without needing to set up a full deployment pipeline. You could be writing a back-end API, share a public URL for that, and then do live debugging as the React front-end developer you are collaborating with sends a request from their application to your API. Why not do live debugging while webhook providers send you webhook requests, instead of spending hours reading their (often not so great) documentation? If you are on Linux, run this to install expose curl -s https://expose.sh/sh/install-linux.sh | sudo bash If you are on a Mac, run curl -s https://expose.sh/sh/install-mac.sh --output install-mac.sh && sudo bash install-mac.sh For Windows head over to the and download the file. Installation Page exe Then you can run where is the port number your app is running on. More instructions are available in the . expose <port> <port> Documentation Use scripts to automate repetitive tasks npm Need to compile your JavaScript, run a linter, or do your unit tests? Instead of remembering the commands to run each of these, you can add NPM scripts to your file to run them. package.json {
  "name": "myapp",
  "main": "app.js",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc -p ./",
    "watch": "tsc -p ./ -w",
	"test": "jest",
	"lint": "eslint",
	"start": "nodemon app.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
	.....
  }
} This example uses TypeScript, the superset of JavaScript that adds type safety. I run my app I first need to compile my code into plain JavaScript that can run. node To run the script, run . Here I can run to compile my code and to compile in watch mode, automatically recompiling for each change. npm run <script_name> npm run build npm run watch and are special scripts and you can just run these as and . test start npm test npm start Start your app with to get fast feedback nodemon If you make a change to your code after starting your app with node (e.g. ) you need to press to stop your app and then start it again to get the new change. While it might not sound like much and only takes a few seconds to do, doing this repeatedly over time will add up. node app.js ctrl+c Let us say it takes you five seconds and you do this on average 1000 times in a week. That's 5000 seconds or about an extra 1.3 hours of work that you didn't need to do per week. The difference with is that when you update your code, your application automatically restarts. nodemon Before you use you need to install it, so run . nodemon npm install -g nodemon To start your app with is almost the same as using . Just replace with , for example, you might run instead of . nodemon node node nodemon nodemon app.js node app.js In my example, is my application’s main entry point. Because of this any change I make to any file in my project will automatically trigger to restart my app. app.js .js nodemon Here's what it looks like: $ nodemon app.js
[nodemon] 1.18.9
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching: *.*
[nodemon] starting `node app.js`
Example app listening at http://localhost:3000 # My app has started up

#####
# Here, I make a change to app.js while nodemon is running.
#####

[nodemon] restarting due to changes...
[nodemon] starting `node app.js`
Example app listening at http://localhost:3000 # Now, my app automatically restarts and picks up the change Now when I make changes, the application automatically restarts saving me lots of time which I can then invest in other things. npm script, like in the example in the previous section. Pro tip: Combine this with a start Conclusion This isn't a complete list of things you can do to increase your productivity as a Node developer, but it’s a good starting point. These simple things can save you lots of hours of unnecessary work. If you found this article useful, please consider sharing it to help others. Happy Coding!

6 Ways A Node Developer Can Drastically Boost Their Productivity

Strategies for taking an idea from inception to launch The Problem Almost software engineer I know has half-completed at least a dozen projects in their “spare time.” Everyone has a brilliant and fun side-project that they’re working on. Most never complete it. I’m personally guilty of this, and have been for the better part of the past 10 years. I even keep a list of ideas on my phone that I consider so important to me, that once when my son deleted it, I wiped and restored my entire phone from a backup just to get it back. every Writing software (and building things in general) is fun, challenging, and ultimately very rewarding. However, as the problem you’re trying to solve approaches resolution, the rewards start to diminish. Whether the “problem” is learning a new technology, solving a complex computer science problem, or putting something together that you’ve never done before; once you finish the hard stuff, your reward-based interest declines. Once this starts to happen, most will ultimately discard the remaining boilerplate work that needs to be done, and put the project on the shelf. On to the next idea… This is a . failure to launch Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/failure_to_launch/ Why does this happen? Launching an application into the world is hard. It’s scary. It requires you to have a definition of done- . It requires you to be disciplined and put in actual work, in addition to the fun stuff. Most projects I’ve half-completed lost my interest once I had to write the basic, but necessary portions (think field validation, authentication, build scripts, etc.). For me it’s always been all about the reward of solving the hard problem, and once that’s gone, the project soon follows. enough Another huge reason an idea fails to launch is that the person or people working on it simply don’t have the time to work on it. Life is busy, and side-projects are often the lowest priority on a long list of things to do each day. Aside from this, as we all know, writing code takes a serious amount of attention. Getting in the zone takes time, then you actually have to produce something. What can you do about it? When it comes to advice on how to solve this problem, a lot of people will give you an insanely simple three word sentence: Just do it. “Just do it” doesn’t help you at all. It may motivate some people, but most will need a more concrete explanation of how to overcome the specific issues that cause a failure to launch. Source: Nike is actually quite easy when you consider the odds that what you are launching will be successful. Most of the fear involves questions posed to yourself along the lines of: Overcoming fear What if it doesn’t scale? What if it’s hugely successful? What if it isn’t successful? What if it doesn’t work at all? What if people hate it? All of these questions boil down to the same thing: the idea succeeding or failing. The way to overcome them is to consider the ultimate outcome of launching versus not. If you launch you may be successful, so some of your fears may be valid, but the probability of massive success is quite small. On the other hand the potential upside if you are successful is huge. Chances are, you won’t be massively successful, but you’ll never know without trying. If you do launch, and you aren’t successful, it’s the same ultimate outcome as if you had just walked away half-way through and shelved the idea. The main point here is that launching and validating your idea is the only way to overcome this fear. Being the rational creature that all engineers are, just use that big logic-driven brain of yours to prove your emotions wrong. is a tough concept to master, especially when you want what you’re putting out into the world to be as perfect as possible. Redefining your view of “as perfect as possible” to more closely align with “the minimally viable solution to the problem you’re trying to solve” will go a long way (thanks Lean Startup). Definition of done-enough Lots of people will tell you to launch a landing page and an advertising campaign, and to never write a single line of code. That’s fine if you’re in it solely for the business and don’t want to have any fun ahead of time slinging some code. I think there’s a happy medium to be reached here where you can write just enough, solve just enough hard problems, and still not waste too much time building something nobody wants. That happy medium becomes your definition of done- . enough to work on a side-project, especially now that you’re planning to work on it to its completion and launch, can be incredibly hard. Much like the probability of success can help rationalize away fear, the potential upside can help rationalize carving out more time in your day. If I told you that your idea was going to make you 5 million dollars in the next year, you’d have no problem finding the time. Finding the time Aside from the potential financial and professional gains, there’s another reason that helps me to find the time: the feeling of accomplishment. It’s a lot like going to the gym (I would imagine) in that you don’t want to spend the time, but afterwards you feel amazing. Sleeping a few hours less each night and cranking out a product to its completion will make you feel amazing as well. Finding the time should be the least of your worries, because in reality you have a limitless supply of it, until you don’t. In My Case I mentioned above that I keep a list in my phone of potential business ideas. I’ve been writing this list for a really long time, and have put in varying degrees of work for a handful of them. Recently I decided that I was finally going to finish something (not the first time I’ve decided this). I picked an idea that I thought I could complete in a reasonable amount of time, and held myself to it. What I launched is a website monitoring tool. This is not an amazingly disruptive idea. This is not something new. This is however something I built from scratch and launched to the world, and that feels great. Schezzle My approach was different with Schezzle, instead of stealing an hour or two a couple times a week, I forced myself to work on it for 4–5 hours a night. I accomplished this by pouring a cup of coffee after my kids went to bed. This accomplished two things: It was a small gesture to myself that I was committed to working that night. I basically drugged myself awake, so I may as well get some work done. Once I got through the fun parts I started to lose interest, but instead of shelving it I broke up the boilerplate into small sections that I could complete in one 4–5 hour session. This then started to feel like I was chipping away towards the goal of launching. One night I built login, the next I built the docs. The next I worked on the build process, and so on. Eventually this lead to a done-enough product, and I launched. To wrap this up, I think it’s important to know that you’re not alone in your failure to launch. Again, almost every engineer I know has [not] done it too. Hopefully this helps you form a strategy to beat your own prohibitive habits and ship something to the world. Whether it’s successful or not is up to you, but I promise you that taking it to market will feel good either way.

Failure to Launch

Sometimes or maybe all the time it is very hard to explain the technical concepts in a layman’s language. The kind of explanations a 2 year old could relate to. Today I will try to go as low as I can to tell a story about the USSD technology. By now am getting a bit technical, but chill and assume everything is well. What is USSD? On a daily basis we have many things we interact with but we have actually never known their real name. USSD is one of them. According to Wikipedia USSD stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data which is a global system for mobile to communicate directly with a program sitting on the service providers(Safaricom, Airtel, Orange) computers. If you didn’t get the above I want you to think of any operation you do on you phone which is not sms, internet or making calls. Let’s pick an operation, say checking credit or buying bundles (not bundles ‘mwitu’). The process normally involves you entering a number in your phone with a unique structure. *144# or *544# When you dial the above numbers you will get a prompt giving you either data or instructions to follow to get respective services. This screen shows a sample request of user originated USSD request. I believe by now you can relate to the technology. Now I want to jump straight and explain the magic that happens for this to be able to take place. So basically what happens is this: User dials the provided USSD code. The request is forwarded to the mobile service provider. The provider routes the request through a gateway to the machine hosting the application. The application process the requests it receives and sends back feedback. The feedback is processed by the provider and sent back to the mobile phone. I am going to explain how to create a USSD application. The magic behind USSD For the spell to be successful you will need a magic wand which has several components: Postman Client for Chrome Running web server (LAMP, Xammp etc) Sublime text editor Brain Cup of coffee (several) When you satisfy the above requirements, you will now be bestowed power by Dedi ( the of a fictional ancient Egyptian to write and execute the spell. name magician) Note that for this tutorial we are not going to use a live gateway but just simulate the way it would happen in the real environment.* Spell 1 To develop for USSD their are key things you need to understand. Some of them are basic programming skills which include conditional statements, Switch statements etc. The reason is because we are going to be doing a lot of string manipulation to extract data and interpret the request sent to us by the USSD gateway. One thing you should note is that the USSD gateways speak different languages i.e send strings with different naming. For this tutorial we are going to adapt the following as our sample request parameters. ‘MSISDN’ => ‘254714611388’, (phone number sending the request) ‘SESSION_ID’ => ‘355562002’,(Session incase you need to perform audits) ‘USSD_STRING’ => ‘58*1234*456*252’, (This the string that contains the requests sent from the USSD gateway, basically it is the answers the user give when prompted on the phone.) All the answers(data entered by user on mobile phone) are separated by ‘*’ and every answer the user enters is concatenated to the existing string. So you need to be conversant with explode() function for php. Spell 2 This spell is now where the rubber meets the road. It involves creating a sample code do to emulate a process. For this course I will consider a registration system for people in a constituency. One very important thing you need to know in USSD is the use of keyword CON and END. CON keyword is used when implying to a continuous request. For example when you expect a user to enter an answer. END is used to terminate the USSD session. When you append this at the beginning of you script, it will tell the provider that the session has ended and thus user is not given an input box afterwards but rather an ‘ok’ or ‘exit’ Below is a sample php code which is also commented to make it easier understand what is happening. <?php#We obtain the data which is contained in the post url on our server. $text=$_GET[‘USSD_STRING’];$phonenumber=$_GET[‘MSISDN’];$serviceCode=$_GET[‘serviceCode’]; #we explode the text using the separator ‘*’ which will give us an array. $level = explode(“*”, $text); //check to see of the text variable has data to avoid errors.if (isset($text)) { The first request will have an empty text field and thus should show the welcome screen to the user. Note the user of CON keyword. if ( $text == “” ) {$response=”CON Welcome to the registration portal.\nPlease enter you full name”;} We check each level to make sure it has data and has been passed or is next in line. Hopefully you will figure out what takes place here. if(isset($level[0]) && $level[0]!=”” && !isset($level[1])){ $response=”CON Hi “.$level[0].”, enter your ward name”; }else if(isset($level[1]) && $level[1]!=”” && !isset($level[2])){$response=”CON Please enter you national ID number\n”; }else if(isset($level[2]) && $level[2]!=”” && !isset($level[3])){//Save data to database$data=array(‘phonenumber’=>$phonenumber,‘fullname’ =>$level[1],‘electoral_ward’ => $level[2],‘national_id’=>$level[3]); //Insert the values into the db SOMEWHERE HERE!! We end the session using the keyword END. $response=”END Thank you “.$level[1].” for registering.\nWe will keep you updated”;} Also note that we echo the response for every successful request. header(‘Content-type: text/plain’);echo $response; } ?> Spell 3 If you have endured to this point, I should give you a ninja sticker. :-) The third spell will help us know whether our code is working or not. So to test the code download it from https://gist.github.com/drizzentic/18522c06e4529c58bc82fefe429e319b and follow this steps: Place the code in you webserver folder i.e htdocs or /var/www/html open postman client put the url to where the code is hosted e.g localhost add the parameters specified in spell 1 to the request url e.g http://localhost:9000?MSISDN=0713038301&USSD_STRING=&serviceCode=*144# Kindly note that the USSD string should be empty for you to see the welcome page. send the request and check postman response window for the response from the server. e.g this represent the feedback the user gets on their mobile phone when the make a request. Modify the USSD string by adding you name e.g http://localhost:9000?MSISDN=0713038301&USSD_STRING=John Doe&serviceCode=*144# Different prompt will come. To proceed to the next step put a ‘*’ after your name to act as the separator. Do this for the rest of the prompts until you reach the end. e.g http://localhost:9000?MSISDN=0713038301&USSD_STRING=john doe*Nairobi&serviceCode=*144# The above procedure will come in handy when you are developing USSD applications. Testing on the live environment is very costly, so before you can get a testbed to test, stick to postman. Spell 4 It is not very important but you can as well do it. Add USSD as a skill to your linkedIn profile :-) To help other people get the free news kindly press the heart button to show love for the work and spread the news. is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the family. We are now and happy to opportunities. Hacker Noon @AMI accepting submissions discuss advertising &sponsorship To learn more, , , or simply, read our about page like/message us on Facebook tweet/DM @HackerNoon. If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our and . Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted! latest tech stories trending tech stories

Creating USSD Applications

Disclaimer: This is NOT a press release by Netflix. Just my honest review of tech that helps us binge great content without hassle. — , , , , and (formerly )—are known for creating addictive products and experiences that no user wants to let go of. Similarly, , Google Maps, or Amazon are admired by their users for how they solve daily problems or add value to our lives. FAANG Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Alphabet Google Instagram Of the FAANG and FAANG-adjacent products included in the list above, I believe for being a technological marvel. Netflix isn't (comparatively) getting as much attention as it deserves Before writing this piece, I talked to a number of my colleagues, with whom I talk about tech and latest products from time to time. But never about Netflix. Netflix sure. shows, Netflix technology? Not as much. Maybe that’s the beauty of a truly magical product - users not even realising all the magic that’s happening. But it is. magic, Fair enough though, we are used to just passively WATCHING what’s being played in front on us. Whether you're a Peaky Blinders person or more of a MindHunter fan, chances are, you don't often give much thought to how it is you’re able to stream all of your favourite shows without any hassle. In this post, I unpack the Netflix model so you know more next time you get automatically sucked in to the next episode. Let’s get started! The OTT leader - NFLX With the digitization of video content, all new and existing OTT Platforms have been focusing on the simple formula of good content + latest recommendation algorithmic technologies = exceptional user experience. Of all the OTTs currently on the market, Netflix has no chill. Netflix believes in keeping the podiums of streaming technology and content at an equal level. The reason Netflix is top-of-mind the second someone talks about streaming content platforms, is its open-ended efforts of not only making the content widely accessible to all ranges of devices, but combining that with lesser network speed and data requirements, through cutting edge technology. Take the used by Netflix for an example. In early 2018, Netflix introduced its co-developed Dynamic Optimizer powered by AI techniques, which scrutinizes each frame of a video, then re-encodes, and compresses its size by an enormous amount without deteriorating its image quality. Dynamic Optimizer This increases their appeal to the Netflix users that stream content on portable devices like smartphones and tablets as they can use Netflix without exceeding their monthly bandwidth capacity. All of this is a result of amazing tech stack used by Netflix. Let’s take a look at Netflix’s robust tech stack and get a hold on the back-end reasons for its seamless user experience. Netflix Tech Stack Even with access to loads of highly addictive content, the success of an OTT provider wouldn’t be guaranteed if not backed up by a robust tech stack. To ensure an all-round support and compatibility, the Netflix tech stack comprises many programming languages (e.g. Java, JavaScript, Python, Kotlin and Swift). and security is owed to its use of Python. Kotlin imparts much required tooling support and also comes handy with other programming languages due to its interoperable nature. Python being the part of Netflix’s arsenal, also ensures the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for features like user personalization and data-economical encoding respectively. Netflix’s much appreciated scaling culture Netflix tech stack also consists of utterly comprehensive libraries which polish user experience and frameworks to act as a spine for the development processes. The user friendly interfaces of Netflix are promised by Reactjs, the JavaScript UI library. It uses NodeJS as a framework and WinJS to facilitate the development of its Windows application. Being a digital content platform, Netflix tech stack has to consist of a backend tools, processes and architecture that shout competence and reliability through its reputation. Reliable Backend of Netflix Before 2008, Netflix used their own data centers to track customers, maintain inventory and customer billing. When they took the shot at cloud computing due to its advantages over data centers, they went with Amazon Web Services which seemed to be the perfect fit for Netflix in terms of security, scalability, flexibility and functionality. Netflix uses reliable Amazon EC2 Servers for cloud hosting and Amazon RDS and Amazon DynamoDB for Database-as-a-service. Apart from this, Dynomite acts as a Database Cluster Manager in Netflix tech stack. It offers great advantages by supporting pluggable persistent and in-memory storage engines.There are also tools like AWS elastic Transcoder used by Netflix to format videos appropriately which saves you from buffers. Netflix uses AWS for a plethora of services through different accounts for different aspects of their business such as subscriptions, content delivery and personalized recommendations. These multiple accounts in AWS ensure autonomy amongst teams and hence result in quick addition of features and updates. Apart from this, the sophisticated Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) also ensure quick deployment. Other Backend tools include Kafka which scrutinizes user history and stores data which can be accessed to compute personalized user recommendations through algorithms like Restricted Boltzmann Machines and SVD++. Spinnaker is another tool developed at Netflix’s inventory. it is an open source program which gives the developers room for experimentation and they can make small changes, test them over a subset of users and then implemented full-fledgedly after obliterating the bugs found during those automated tests. at Netflix - Tech Stack of Netflix DevOps Netflix tech stack may have all the important components, but it would still be incomplete without devops. Netflix tech stack and techniques are thoroughly drenched in DevOps. According to Dianne Marsh, director of engineering for engineering tools at Netflix, context is very important for the developers. It helps them wrap their head around the business needs and hence increases their productivity drastically. It also promises frequent and highly-automated code releases. Netflix tech stack uses GitHub for code collaboration and version control. This ensures that different teams get a hold of their responsibilities of themselves and their work and its impacts on the wider ecosystem. Jenkins is the part of the Netflix stack for ensuring Continuous Integration. Apart from this, Apache Mesos and Sumo Logic are used for Server Management and Log Management respectively. They also use Crittercism for mobile error monitoring and Boundary and LogicMonitor for Performance monitoring. Another great DevOps practice used at Netflix is building for failures. This means that they are finding new solutions for the plentitude of problems that can cause them downtime. For this, they have a tool called ‘Chaos Monkey’. All it does is randomly selects Netflix’s production instances and disables it so that their dedicated teams can find a solution to future proof any customer impact. Innovations in Content Production Even after having such a comprehensive tech stack of Netflix being a content creation company first and then a tech company, faces hindrance in adapting new technologies due to the fact that business of content creation is very, very slow to adapt to new technology. Although this slow acclimatization of the content creation business also gives Netflix an edge over its competitors. As Netflix is looking to put another leg into original content creation, it is amalgamating technology with content production to introduce tools for the production process. Tools like contacts manager and interactive breakdown tools for scripts can come in handy to the production crews. One such app that facilitates the production process is called Move which simplifies  crew management, scheduling shoots, etc. Conclusion With an ambitious innovation team, Netflix is the perfect example of a company keeping up with the . Apart from being a Digital Content Platform, Netflix surely will emerge as a leading tech company owing to its hefty investments and support in technology and innovation which is quite evident by its open source programs. pace of technological advances

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cahillresources.com

1-10 employees

Since 2017

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EVERGREEN INDEX #2244

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