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The best problem-solving writing in software engineering — databases, performance, security, frontend and distributed systems, in one feed.

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Performance — Simplify, Batch, and Cache: How We Optimized Server-side Storefront Rendering - Shopify

Simplify, Batch, and Cache: How We Optimized Server-side Storefront Rendering - Shopify

On December 16, 2020 we held Shipit! presents: Performance Tips from the Storefront Renderer Team. A video for the event is now available for you to learn more about how the team optimized this Ruby application for the particular use case of serving storefront traffic. Click here to watch the video. By Celso Dantas and Maxime Vaillancourt In the previous post about our new storefront rendering eng

SEShopify Engineering·December 10, 2020Performance
SRE & Ops — Resiliency Planning for High-Traffic Events - Shopify

Resiliency Planning for High-Traffic Events - Shopify

On January 27, 2021 Shipit!, our monthly event series, presented Building a Culture of Resiliency at Shopify. Learn about creating and maintaining resiliency plans for large development teams, testing and tooling, developing incident strategies, and incorporating and improving feedback loops. The video is now available. Each year, Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend represents the peak of activity f

SEShopify Engineering·December 10, 2020SRE & Ops
Engineering — Making Websites Easier To Talk To — Smashing Magazine

Making Websites Easier To Talk To — Smashing Magazine

Modern websites aren’t inseparable from screens any more. Between phone assistants, home speakers, and screen readers, more and more people are using the web without even looking at it. Websites need to evolve in kind. In the article, Frederickk O’Brien will try to break down what that means for websites going forward, what designers can do about it, and why this might finally be a leap forward to

FOFrederick O BrienFrederick O Brien·December 10, 2020Engineering
Engineering — Deprecating the __cfduid cookie

Deprecating the __cfduid cookie

Cloudflare is deprecating the __cfduid cookie. While we have never tracked end-users across sites or sell their personal data, we don’t want any customer to think they need a cookie banner because of what we do.

SSergiSergi·December 9, 2020Engineering
Frontend — npm ruin dev

npm ruin dev

In 2020, I rediscovered the enjoyment of building a website with plain ol’ HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no transpilin’, no compilin’, no build tools other than

JKJeremy KeithJeremy Keith·December 9, 2020Frontend
Databases — Upgrading and updating PostgreSQL

Upgrading and updating PostgreSQL

Update/ upgrade: what's the difference? This blog post covers the best ways of upgrading or updating PostgreSQL to the latest release.

HSHans-Jürgen SchönigHans-Jürgen Schönig·December 9, 2020Databases
SRE & Ops — GitHub in the enterprise

GitHub in the enterprise

During the last year alone, over 56 million developers created more than 60 million new repos and made more than 1.9 billion contributions on GitHub. These developers are building the…

EBErica BresciaErica Brescia·December 9, 2020SRE & Ops
SRE & Ops — How Facebook keeps its large-scale infrastructure hardware up and running

How Facebook keeps its large-scale infrastructure hardware up and running

Facebook’s services rely on fleets of servers in data centers all over the globe — all running applications and delivering the performance our services need. This is why we need to make sure our server hardware is reliable and that we can manage server hardware failures at our scale with as little disruption to our […]

CWChris Wiltz·December 9, 2020SRE & Ops
Design & UX — Ethical Considerations In UX Research: The Need For Training And Review — Smashing Magazine

Ethical Considerations In UX Research: The Need For Training And Review — Smashing Magazine

Research is an essential part of creating good UX. We are often in roles where we interact with our users in order to collect data to inform our UX. We need to ensure our UX research is compliant with ethical standards of research conducted with humans. To do this, we need to have an awareness of potential ethical issues in research, training on how to conduct ethical research, and a systematic re

VVictoryoccoVictoryocco·December 9, 2020Design & UX
Security — Good-bye ESNI, hello ECH!

Good-bye ESNI, hello ECH!

A deep dive into the Encrypted Client Hello, a standard that encrypts privacy-sensitive parameters sent by the client, as part of the TLS handshake.

CPChristopher PattonChristopher Patton·December 8, 2020Security
Security — OPAQUE & PAKE Protocols

OPAQUE & PAKE Protocols

OPAQUE is a PAKE protocol that allows for password authentication without revealing the actual password to a server. Learn more about the OPAQUE protocol.

TTatianaTatiana·December 8, 2020Security
Networking — Improving DNS Privacy with Oblivious DoH in 1.1.1.1

Improving DNS Privacy with Oblivious DoH in 1.1.1.1

Oblivious DoH (ODoH) makes secure DNS over HTTPS (DoH) queries into private queries which prevent the leakage of client IP addresses to resolvers. The new proposed ODoH standard addresses this problem and today we are enabling users to use this protocol with 1.1.1.1

TSTanya, SudheeshTanya, Sudheesh·December 8, 2020Networking
Frontend — TypeScript & Relevance

TypeScript & Relevance

In our wide world of building for the web, we have every opportunity to talk about tools. We lunge to fill every gap we find in our projects with a definitive

JAJake Albaugh·December 8, 2020Frontend
Frontend — Very Extremely Practical CSS Art

Very Extremely Practical CSS Art

I've always enjoyed the CSS art people create, but I’ve never ventured into it much myself. I'm familiar with many of the tricks involved, but still find it

MSMiriam Suzanne·December 8, 2020Frontend
Distributed — Sponsored Post: Toptal, IP2Location, Ipdata, StackHawk, InterviewCamp.io, Educative, Triplebyte, Stream, Fauna - High Scalability -

Sponsored Post: Toptal, IP2Location, Ipdata, StackHawk, InterviewCamp.io, Educative, Triplebyte, Stream, Fauna - High Scalability -

Who's Hiring? * Looking to rapidly hire Top Software Developers? Get Started with Toptal. Toptal will match you with top-quality, pre-screened freelance software developers that meet your project requirements. All in under 48 hours. Get started right away with a no risk trial. * InterviewCamp.io has hours of system design content. They also do live system design discussions every week. They break

HSHigh Scalability·December 8, 2020Distributed