23 episodes

A podcast about software development and developing ourselves as software engineers. Hosted by CJ Avilla and Colin Loretz.

Build and Learn CJ Avilla, Colin Loretz

    • Technology
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

A podcast about software development and developing ourselves as software engineers. Hosted by CJ Avilla and Colin Loretz.

    Chris Oliver: Building a Life (and Businesses) on Rails

    Chris Oliver: Building a Life (and Businesses) on Rails

    In this episode, we talk with Chris Oliver about his deliberate approach to building GoRails and his other businesses on Rails. In a tech world that only seems to be moving faster and faster, we discuss the slow and steady path he has followed to create a fulfilling life for himself and his team while shipping awesome Rails things for his customers.
    Some links to things we discussed:

    Build Your Saas Episode: Nobody in SaaS wants to talk about this
    Build Your SaaS Episode: Super Fun SaaS Sales Tax (Part Deux)

    Die With Zero book

    Some of the things Chris and his team work on:

    GoRails
    Jumpstart Rails
    Hatchbox Hosting
    The Remote Ruby Podcast
    and many other things you can find at https://excid3.com/

    • 49 min
    Streamlining global ingress with ngrok

    Streamlining global ingress with ngrok

    In this episode, we're joined by Alan Shreve, the founder and CEO of ngrok, to discuss the future of software development and the emergence of innovative tools that simplify complex tasks -- like ingress. We talk about ngrok's solid approach to error handling, which enhances troubleshooting and user experience by assigning unique codes to each error. The conversation also delves into the evolution of ngrok, an "ingress as a service" platform designed to streamline the setup of web application infrastructure by abstracting complexities of networking, thereby reducing your workload.
    We address the challenges in distributed systems and the importance of automating processes, focusing on the role of tools like Heroku, Vercel, and CloudFlare in managing infrastructure and security. We explore the concept of edge computing and globally distributed applications, envisioning two potential futures - one with advanced storage layers handling global distribution and another where applications can split between the origin and the global edge.
    The discussion also highlights the shift in the industry away from tasks like memory management and assembly language and the rise of cloud-based tools, which lowers the barrier to entry for new developers. Despite the potential pitfalls of abstraction, like the reduced need for developers to tinker and learn, we see this as a positive development. We wrap by emphasizing the end goal of software development - delivering a product that serves the customer's needs, facilitated by tools that simplify and standardize the development process.
    Resources:

    ngrok: ingress as a service - https://ngrok.com

    Introducing ngrok-go - https://ngrok.com/blog-post/ngrok-go

    ngrok-go library - https://github.com/ngrok/ngrok-go

    Introducing ngrok-rs - https://ngrok.com/blog-post/ngrok-rs

    Vim plugin for GitHub CoPilot - https://github.com/github/copilot.vim

    Stripe's Embeddable Payment Components - https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-element

    • 40 min
    Forest Bathing, RailsConf, and Developer Communities

    Forest Bathing, RailsConf, and Developer Communities

    CJ and Colin are back to chat about getting outside, recap the recent RailsConf and discuss building and participating in developer communities in 2023.
    Getting Outside


    The Nature Fix book
    Outside 365
    RailsCamp in Hawaii

    RailsConf 2023 and Webhooks Workshop

    Webhooks Workshop Github Repo 
    Marp Markdown Presentation Tool
    Ruby Central YouTube Channel 
    RubyConf San Diego


    Some other cool events/conferences that we've attended

    Blue Ridge Ruby Conf
    Rails SaaS
    RailsConf
    RubyConf
    RailsWorld
    LaraCon
    WordCamp
    GDC
    Apple’s WWDC
    Google I/O
    Startup Weekends
    NASA Space Apps
    Follow us on Twitter

    @buildandlearn_
    @cjav_dev
    @colinloretz

    • 32 min
    ChatGPT, LLMs, OpenAI, doom or boon?

    ChatGPT, LLMs, OpenAI, doom or boon?

    In this episode, Colin and CJ discuss using the new GPT tools for work and play.

    Open AI
    Large language models
    Generative AI
    How do we use it, and is it going to be doom & gloom?
    How We Use It

    Brainstorming & riffing on ideas I was building something in React and hadn’t touched React in a few years. I had all this iteration going on in my components to generate dynamic content. Still, I wanted the topmost component to be able to have references to all these components to download them all as images in a zip file.

    Assistance with math-based things like animation or rendering graphics 
    Example: I had to display a bunch of circles in a 2nd plane in a random pattern
    Computers are pretty good at that


    Learning how to do something new faster Explain this to me like I’m 5

    Summarizing
    We use Descript for editing this podcast
    Shifting the tone of writing, building a writing style
    Writing video scripts
    Finding obscure information
    Story arcs
    Brushes to write tailwind classes
    Jokes
    DnD character sheets
    Bing to find esoteric star wars character that’s buried on Wookiepedia
    Doom and gloom or boon?

    What does this mean for the future?
    Privacy & security concerns Voice clones and scams (create a safe word!)

    Productivity + time Are we just going to be expected to be more productive with more output because cApItaLIsM


    Constitutional AI (Anthropic) 
    give it principles to train on vs having human input
    https://www.anthropic.com/index/core-views-on-ai-safety


    ChatGPT coauthored a PR to a major open-source project
    via Ruby Weekly: How long is it until ChatGPT makes a pull request to Rails? Oh, it (sort of) just happened. Ultimately it's still under the name of Rails core team member Guillermo Iguaran, however.Everything in this pull request, including the code, tests, changelog, commit message, pull request title and description has been created by ChatGPT with some guidance. If you believe ChatGPT is infringing your copyright please let me know.People to follow
    (Written by Notion AI)
    Here are 5 social media influencers to follow to stay up to date about AI:

    Rachel Woods (@the.rachel.woods on TikTok, @rachel_l_woods on Twitter)
    Logan.GPT (dev advocate for OpenAI)
    Swyx (shares a lot of thoughts on AI)
    Lex Fridman (MIT researcher and AI podcaster)
    Siraj Raval (AI educator and YouTuber)
    Tools
    Github Copilot

    Copilot X for VS Code & VS Extension
    Copilot Docs
    Copilot CLI
    Copilot Voice
    Copilot for PRs
    Resources

    Wolfram Alpha - How ChatGPT works
    Siraj Raval - Automated AI YouTube channel
    the.rachel.woods on safe words
    Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
    Anthropic - AI Safety
    RubyWeekly - ChatGPT Co-authored PR

    • 36 min
    Digging into the HackerRank Survey 2023

    Digging into the HackerRank Survey 2023

    In this episode we dig into the HackerRank annual survey that was released a few months ago for 2023 including the top in demand skills from employers in this uncertain tech and economic environment. Note from Colin & CJ: This episode was recorded in November 2022. It is amazing how much changes in a few months.
    Languages By Volume of HackerRanks

    Java
    Python
    SQL
    C++
    Javascript
    Bash
    C#
    Go
    Typescript
    R
    PHP
    C
    Swift
    Ruby
    Methodology for languages 

    To estimate employer demand for specific programming languages, we looked at HackerRank Work tests where a specific programming language was required, or where specific library questions were asked. Skill demand was estimated by the number of HackerRank Work tests using specific library questions.
    On the preference – or supply–side, we tracked submitted languages by candidates when they have multiple options available, as well as their proficiency in those languages. We also included HankerRank Community practice data to get a full spectrum of skill preferences.
    Notable these results are not survey results like the Stack Overflow survey
    Demand for most languages growing, but not equally
    Is there potential bias in the types of companies that use HackerRank? Companies that are more likely to use Java for example

    Top 5 Skills in demand 

    Problem Solving
    Machine Learning
    REST APIs
    React
    HTML/CSS/JS
    REST API shows sustained drama-free demand growth 😂
    Keep an eye on Go and TypeScript


    Outlook

    Tech hiring (and everything else) hit headwinds in 2022
    Overall, the tech industry continues to growing
    Other Links Mentioned

    Art of Product Episode Episode 218
    Build Your SaaS
    Founder's Quest Podcast
    Build and Learn around the web


    Twitter: @buildandlearn_


    Colin: @colinloretz


    CJ: @cjav_dev

    • 34 min
    Keith Casey: Webhooks & webhooks.fyi

    Keith Casey: Webhooks & webhooks.fyi

    In this episode about webhooks.fyi, we're joined by Keith Casey from ngrok. You'll hear about webhooks.fyi an information-rich resource for learning how to build and consume webhooks. webhooks.fyi is an open source knowledge base and directory listing and analyzing different webhook providers. We discuss webhook security, signature verification, forward compatibility, and more.
    Other Links from the Show

    https://webhooks.fyi
    ngrok.com

    Webhooks to Revolution the Web from @progrium
    What are Webhooks 

    The Self Provisioning Runtime 
    CaseySoftware
    Build and Learn around the web- Twitter: @buildandlearn_- Colin: @colinloretz- CJ: @cjav_dev

    • 42 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
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1 Rating

irreverentmike ,

Approachable and encouraging

This podcast is an easy listen - it's well-edited, and clearly two knowledgeable technology buffs talking about their craft, and expanding their minds through active learning.

Looking forward to more. Keep it up, y'all! 🚀

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