StackToHeap
By Manoj Mahalingam
StackToHeapApr 30, 2020
How Practical is Reinforcement Learning?
In the 22nd episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with Raju Kandaswamy from ThoughtWorks about his experience with Reinforcement Learning (RL), XR (eXtended Reality) and Robotics.
We focus on what reinforcement learning is, how it fits in the overall ML landscape and what the practical challenges with RL are.
Raju Kandaswamy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajukandasamy/
Frontend Engineering at Gitlab
In the 21st episode of the StackToHeap Podcast, we talk with Kushal Pandya who is a Senior Frontend Engineer at Gitlab. We talk about the general Frontend landscape at Gitlab and how they balance internal priorities and open source contributions from the community. We also talk about the remote work culture at Gitlab. Kushal also provides detailed info on the release process at Gitlab and even the plans for upgrading to Vue 3.
Kushal Pandya on LinkdedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kushalpandya/
Computer Science Lessons in Tamil
In the 20th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with TamizhVendhan S from Ajira Tech about the Computer Science Lessons he has been publishing in Tamil. We talk about his motivations for doing the lessons in Tamil, what topics he intends to cover in the lessons and where he sees this initiative evolving towards.
TamizhVendhan S on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamizhvendan/
Learn CS in Tamil Initiative - https://www.learncsintamil.com/
Pair Programming: Is it for everyone?
In the 19th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, Srikanth Nutigattu, Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks, talks to us about his experiences with and thoughts about Pair Programming and whether it can work for every organization and team. We also talk about the relevance of pair programming in remote organizations, be it because of current situations or if the organization was already remote.
Srikanth on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/srikanthnutigattu/
Introduction to Taiko - A web application testing library
In the 18th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk to Nivedha Senthil from ThoughtWorks about Taiko - a Node.js based web application testing library with some nifty features like proximity selectors. We talk about how Taiko came to be, the challenges while developing a library adhering to some lofty design principles and where the Taiko is headed.
Show Notes
Nivedha on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nivedha-senthil/
CloudSkew - Diagramming tool with a focus
In the 17th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with Mithun Shanbhag about his product CloudSkew.
CloudSkew is a tool for creating cloud architecture diagrams. It comes with a huge set of cloud icons, built-in documentation editor and support for looking up information on cloud resources like documentation, SLAs and pricing.
Show Notes
Mithun on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mithunshanbhag/
CloudSkew - https://www.cloudskew.com/
CloudSkew Architecture details - https://www.cloudskew.com/about/cloudskew-architecture.html
Training, mentoring and running bootcamps
In the 16th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with Magesh S from Sedin Technologies on his initiative around training, mentoring and running boot camps for Software Developers, especially junior developers.
Magesh is also an organizer and active participant in developer communities like the Facebook Developer Circle: Chennai Chapter and Chennai Geeks. We also talk about how community efforts like meetups can help students and junior developers get better at their jobs.
Show Notes
Magesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/imagesh/
Facebook Developer Circle: Chennai Chapter - https://www.facebook.com/groups/DevC.Chennai
ChennaiGeeks - https://www.facebook.com/groups/chennaigeeks
Books that developers read - Part 1
In the 15th episode of the StackToHeap podcast, I would like to introduce a new series covering books that developers read - be it technical, non-fiction or fiction.
In the Part 1 of this series, we talk with six developers about their favourite books.
Developers in Part 1 -
Anushree Subramani - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anushreesubramani/
Archanaa Ravikumar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravikumar-archanaa/
Matild Reema - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matild-reema/
Shreya Chakraborty - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrechak/
Suganthi Krishnavathi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/suganthik/
Varadharajan Mukundan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/varadharajan-mukundan-621b5417/
The need for Service Meshes
In the 14th Episode of the StackToHeap Podcast, we talk with Tarun Pothulapati from BuoyantIO. We talk about what Service Meshes are, what's the need for them and who should and shouldn't be using them. BuoyantIO are the creators and the primary sponsors of Linkerd, one of the big names in the service mesh space.
Tarun on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tpothulapati/
Introduction to GitOps
In the 13th Episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with Gaurav Agarwal from Agarwal Consulting on GitOps, how it differs from the more prevalent methods of doing deployments and infrastructure as code and where we can see GitOps going in the future.
Gaurav Agarwal on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/algogrit/
Discussing the ThoughtWorks Tech Radar
In this episode, we discuss the four main themes of the May 2020 edition of the ThoughtWorks Tech Radar - https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar
We are joined by Krishna, Nithya, Selva and Senthil and we have a fun conversation on remote work, Kubernetes, improvements in the data and ML space, GraphQL, Rust, Deno, PyTorch, Vue.js and many more
Story of a Startup Tech Co-Founder
Data Ingestion and Processing Patterns
We discuss about the data ingestion issues, handling PII data, DSL for onboarding new data sources and using notebooks for orchestrating the Spark jobs.
A Freelancer's Journey
Naren is extremely active on Twitter, do reach out to him - twitter.com/DudeWhoCode
Building a Multi-Tenant Business Process Management System
Navigating these uncertain times (for final year college students and others)
The world has changed and things look very uncertain across any industry. We are hearing news of companies withdrawing campus offers, being silent or extending dates. There is also massive confusion around pursuing higher studies, especially abroad, at this juncture.
We talk with Rajesh Mupalla from Avalara on how students can navigate these uncertain times and prepare themselves for the troubles and, hopefully, the opportunities that arise as well.
The two of us also commit our time to help students who reach out to us for any help, information and contacts to the best of our abilities.
Rajesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/codingnirvana/
Me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manojlds/
Me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/manojlds
Becoming a Certified Kubernetes Administrator
On the 6th episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with Venkataraman Prasanna from Francium Technologies who recently got certified as a Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA). We go through his motivations for getting certified and the preparations he made to achieve the same.
Venkataraman Prasanna on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/venkataraman-prasanna-61a73515/
Tarka Labs blog post - https://medium.com/tarkalabs/my-views-on-the-cka-exam-92a3e59810da
Reflections with women on their tech journey
In the 5th episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with three amazing women developers from Avalara - Anitha, Reema and Rucha. The conversation begins with discussion around their favourite things in the programming world and the hardest problem they have had to solve in their careers so far.
We also talk about the challenges that women developers face in the industry and finish with advice that these three successful developers have for young girls and women in schools and colleges who may be thinking about or on the verge of entering the software industry.
Data Science at a Telecom Company
Managing Data Pipelines at Scale
High Availability Postgres clusters on Kubernetes
In the second episode of the StackToHeap podcast, we talk with two amazing developers from ThoughtWorks - Krishna and Nitya - on how they managed 100+ Postgres clusters on Kubernetes and the challenges they face.
Topics
- Introductions
- Motivations
- Challenges
- Setup details and handling Postgres updates
- Handling Kubernetes Upgrades
- Postgres Operator and other alternatives
Krishna and Nitya's talk at Pgconf India - https://pgconf.in/conferences/pgconfin2020/program/proposals/142
PS: Apologies for the dog barking in between.
Internship in the time of Lockdowns
In this very first episode of the StackToHeap podcast, I talk with five energetic and awesome interns / new grad joinees at my company, Avalara.
The main focus of the episode is on how the new intern / grad bootcamp is progressing during the time of global lockdowns with everyone working remote. The conversation also moves towards how or how not college education has helped the new comers into the world of Software Engineering. With a college dropout in the mix, we got all viewpoint covered!