Meta Tech Podcast Meta

The basic version of Threads for web was built in just under three months by two engineers, mirroring the nimble engineering practices we talked about on this podcast before when it came to launching Threads for Android and iOS. In this episode, Pascal is joined by Ally and Kevin, two engineers on the Threads Web team. They talk about how shared infrastructure with other Meta web properties allows them to move fast and how they manage to balance the need to ship new features with the desire to craft delightful experiences for their users. 
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
Threads: https://threads.net
StyleX: https://stylexjs.com/ 
FlowJS: https://flow.org/ 
Introducing Meta Llama 3: https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-llama-3/
Building custom silicon for the future of AI: https://www.metacareers.com/life/building-custom-silicon-for-the-future-of-ai
Building Meta’s GenAI Infrastructure: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/03/12/data-center-engineering/building-metas-genai-infrastructure/ 
Timestamps
Intro 0:06
Intro Ally and Kevin 1:44
Why focus on Web? 2:48
Kevin's contributions 4:42
Focus on craft 6:18
Editing Threads 7:34
Ally's contributions 10:40
Prioritising delight and shipping features 12:02
Launching Threads Web 13:30
Shared Infra 16:13
Tech Stack 19:15
The DevX of Meta www 23:51
Challenges 30:57
Favourite bit of polish 34:32
Outtakes 39:18

Every day, trillions of image download requests are made from Meta’s family of apps. Zuzanna works on the Media Platform Team that owns the entire flow from serving images from the CDN to displaying the pixels on your phone. One of the project she and her team recently worked on was rolling out HDR images to Instagram and Threads and in this episode’s interview, Zuzanna tells show host Pascal how they partnered with large phone manufacturers to develop and roll out the new feature.
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
Fresco: https://frescolib.org/ 
Timestamps
Intro 0:06
Intro Zuza 1:44
Image Infra Team 3:23
The scale of images at Meta 5:10
Measuring quality 10:01
HDR photos 12:13
HDR file formats 19:02
HDR photo availability today 22:34
Partnering with phone vendors 30:40
Why photos after videos? 32:27
Outro 36:22

Distributing binaries and toolchains to developers is a pain but DotSlash makes it a breeze. Instead of committing large, platform-specific executables to your repository, DotSlash combines a fast Rust program with a JSON manifest prefixed with a #! to transparently fetch and execute the binary you need. Tune in to our interview with Andres and Michael to learn more.
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
Simple Precision Time Protocol at Meta: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/02/07/production-engineering/simple-precision-time-protocol-sptp-meta/ 
Meta Time libraries on GitHub: https://github.com/facebook/time 
DotSlash - Simplified executable deployment: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/02/06/developer-tools/dotslash-simplified-executable-deployment/ 
DotSlash website: https://dotslash-cli.com/ 
DotSlash on GitHub: https://github.com/facebook/dotslash 
Timestamps
Intro 0:05
Intro Andres 2:30
Intro Michael 3:39
Andres's Projects at Meta 3:54
Michael's Projects at Meta 5:00
What is DotSlash? 5:30
DotSlash vs LFS 6:04
DotSlash vs buck2 run 7:08
Where is DotSlash used at Meta? 8:45
How does DotSlash work? 9:37
DotSlash on Windows 13:15
How DotSlash is built 16:21
Bundling the rust toolchain 17:14
Automated DotSlash file generation 20:33
DotSlash and remote execution 24:53
Storage providers 26:27
Why open-source? 30:05
Limitations 34:17
Cache Eviction 36:59
Outro 39:22
Bloopers 40:15

For the second time in just a few months, we are talking Python on the Meta Tech Podcast. Python 3.12 features a whole range of new features, many of which were contributed by Meta. Carl and Itamar join Pascal to talk about their contributions to the latest release, including new hooks that allow for custom JITs like Cinder, Immortal Objects, improvements to the type system, faster comprehensions and much more. In their discussion, they talk not just about how and why those features were built but also the process of upstreaming and engaging with the community. 
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
“Lazy is the new fast: How Lazy Imports and Cinder accelerate machine learning at Meta” - https://engineering.fb.com/2024/01/18/developer-tools/lazy-imports-cinder-machine-learning-meta/
“How Meta built the infrastructure for Threads” - https://engineering.fb.com/2023/12/19/core-infra/how-meta-built-the-infrastructure-for-threads/
Cinder on GitHub - https://github.com/facebookincubator/cinder
“Meta contributes new features to Python 3.12” - https://engineering.fb.com/2023/10/05/developer-tools/python-312-meta-new-features/
Timestamps
Intro 0:06
Carl Intro 2:09
Itamar Intro 3:27
Teams and Missions 5:10
Python 3
Faster Coroutines 8:57
Code Watchers and JIT Hooks 12:10
When to upstream 13:53
How to upstream to CPython 16:19
History of Cinder 21:35
Why not upstream Cinder? 25:48
Cinder hooks in CPython 29:34
Free Threading 34:10
Outro 37:08

For this last episode of 2024, Pascal talks with Devi, an AI research director at Meta. They talk about the history of AI at Meta, some of the basic terms, how Meta's approach to developing and using AI differs notably from other companies and what the future has in store.
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
Meta AI Blog: https://ai.meta.com/
Purple Llama: https://ai.meta.com/blog/purple-llama-open-trust-safety-generative-ai/
AI Alliance: https://ai.meta.com/blog/ai-alliance/
Audiobox: https://ai.meta.com/blog/audiobox-generating-audio-voice-natural-language-prompts/
Emu Video and Emu Edit: https://ai.meta.com/blog/emu-text-to-video-generation-image-editing-research/
Meta AI Agents: https://about.fb.com/news/2023/09/introducing-ai-powered-assistants-characters-and-creative-tools/
Timestamps
Intro 0:00
Introduction Devi 2:27
AI vs ML 4:00
History of AI at Meta 6:03
Deep learning and LLMs 9:32
LLMs vs GenAI 11:42
Multi-modal models 12:21
Meta's AI agents 14:33
Meta's open approach to AI 16:53
Image and video generation and editing 22:28
Most exciting future AI developments 27:17
Outro 28:57

We’re jumping into our time machine and going back to 2018 for an interview with Will B. about the various twists and turns that led to the creation of Instagram Stories. We will be back with a fresh interview next month.
Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.
Links
Rebound: https://github.com/facebookarchive/rebound Origami Studio: https://origami.design/ Timestamps
Intro 0:06
Will Bailey 1:14
Early FB iOS app 7:16
Release Trains 11:52
The End of HTML5 13:29
Migration to Native 16:05
Facebook Home 17:02
Design Collaboration 22:03
Instagram 26:33
Slingshot 27:57
Instagram for Android 29:54
Instagram Stories 35:37
Rebound 41:25
Outro 44:41