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Learning and Development

Jul 18 2019

InRhythm’s Cloud Engineering Digest: Cloud, scale, microservices… and Java is there for you.

In this new digest you’ll find latest news, updates and recommendations about cloud-native architecture, patterns and anti-patterns in distributed systems and microservices.

It’s official: Apache Kafka 2.3 has been released!

Micronaut 1.1 GA has been released. You can find more details here.

Apache Dubbo, a Java-Based RPC Framework, Graduates to Top-Level Project

Project Loom: Lightweight Java threads

GraalVM 19.1: Compiling Faster

Java 13 Enters Feature Freeze and Ramp down

AWS Control Tower: The easiest way to set up and govern a new, secure multi-account AWS environment

Read:

5 Principles for Cloud-native Architecture: What it is and how to master it

API Gateways and Service Meshes: Opening the Door to Application Modernization

Patterns in Distributed Systems

Microservices adoption anti-patterns

Tell us what you think! What are you reading now? Let us know in the comments below or @GetInRhythm on Twitter

Written by Nick Logvynenko · Categorized: Cloud Engineering, InRhythm News, Learning and Development, Newsletters · Tagged: cloud engineering, JavaScript, microservices, scale

Jun 11 2019

InRhythm’s Cloud Engineering Digest: Cloud world news, Git, Splunk and 10 books to read in 2019

May was pretty quiet, but the JVM/cloud world is moving forward.

Gloo is a feature-rich, Kubernetes-native ingress controller, and next-generation API gateway.

Pivotal continues improvement of Spring Cloud Data Flow and releases 2.1 GA version. This lib got few major updates in a last month and seems it’s priority for Pivotal

Git 2.22 released

Microsoft Launches Several New Machine Learning Services  and Extends Its Cognitive Services

Open Liberty 19.0.0.4 Released with Support for Reactive Streams Operators 1.0 and JDK 12

Splunk Connected Experiences: The Power of Splunk Wherever You Are

Another cool feature from Splunk: Splunk Augmented Reality (AR) provides direct access to the Splunk dashboard by scanning a QR code or NFC tag that is pasted to a specific server rack, or any real-world object, with a mobile device.

JEP 355: Text Blocks (Preview) – multi line strings are now text blocks, with the preview (probably) coming in Java 13

Read:

10 Books Java Developers Should Read in 2019
Reactive Relational Database Transactions
Consumer driven contracts with Spring Cloud Contract
Corda: Looking Forward and Back, Blockchain on a JVM Stack
How to create a code review process that doesn’t suck

Tell us what you think! What are you reading now? Let us know in the comments below or @GetInRhythm on Twitter

Written by Nick Logvynenko · Categorized: Cloud Engineering, InRhythm News, Learning and Development, Newsletters

Apr 16 2019

InRhythm’s Cloud Engineering Digest: Fighting for Performance in the Java Ecosystem

Among the many communities and tools comprising the vast Java ecosystem, competition is intense. In this issue of our cloud engineering newsletter, the news you need: JDK 12 brings new GC, lazy initialization in Spring Boot, and the next generation Quarkus framework is here.

39 New Features (and APIs) in JDK 12

Microsoft Announces the General Availability of Java Support in Azure Functions

Building Self-Contained, Installable Java Applications with JEP 343: Packaging Tool

Quarkus is a Kubernetes Native Java framework tailored for GraalVM and HotSpot, crafted from best-of-breed Java libraries and standards. The goal of Quarkus is to make Java a leading platform in Kubernetes and serverless environments, while offering developers a unified reactive and imperative programming model to optimally address a wider range of distributed application architectures.

Spring Boot 2.2 M1 shows clear direction for spring, offering significantly faster binding of large numbers of configuration properties, faster startup, and lower memory footprint when using the Actuator and Opt-in support for lazy bean initialization.

Lazy Initialization in Spring Boot 2.2

A new open-source project from Google, Tekton is a powerful yet flexible Kubernetes-native open-source framework for creating continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) systems. It lets you build, test, and deploy across multiple cloud providers or on-premises systems by abstracting away the underlying implementation details.

Further Reading

How Airbnb Simplified the Kubernetes Workflow for 1000+ Engineers

DevOps as Code

Focus on Integration Tests Instead of Mock-Based Tests

Comparing TDD Flavours

Tell us what you think! What are you reading now? Let us know in the comments below or @GetInRhythm on Twitter.

Written by Nick Logvynenko · Categorized: Cloud Engineering, InRhythm News, Learning and Development, Newsletters

Apr 12 2019

Virtually Real or Really Virtual


“Am I a man dreaming I am a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I am a man? Between me and the butterfly there must be a difference. This is an instance of transformation.”
– Chuang Tzu, 4th century BC

Escapism is perhaps the most addictive vice for your average wetware human being. Ever dream? Ever wished you were stronger or smarter or cuter? There’s probably a pill for that. There’s also a fancy pair of glasses you can buy with a mouse click that will transform you into a Stygian Prince or a butterfly, bestow you with 10 charisma or turn you into whatever it is you are not (and want to be).

In our cranium sits a virtual reality machine connected to our eyeballs and other sensory apparatus, and the great thing about our brain is that it’s both in the deception business and a real sucker. Your brain is easily fooled; all it takes is a little stimulation. There is a long history of people and companies who have worked to construct our felt reality through control of what, and how, we perceive. Let’s take a look at the history of Virtual Reality (VR) machines, and trace our stumble towards the Oculus Rift and the Lenovo Mirage.

Stereoscope (1838)

Antique stereoscope

A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. Our brains already do a lot of post-production work to process the sensations those two marbles in our skulls produce, so why not exploit that fiction to flood our visual landscape with three-dimensional extrusions of black-and-white pictures of people wearing funny clothes?

View-Master (1939)

Red viewmaster device

The View-Master system was introduced in 1939, four years after the advent of Kodachrome color film made the use of small high-quality photographic color images practical. Tourist attractions and travel views dominated View-Master’s lists of available reels, an early hint at how strong our desire to “virtually travel” is. Unlike many of the early attempts at VR, the View-Master has managed to maintain its charm, leading to a new version built for the modern, goggle-driven VR world.

Sensorama Simulator (1962)

black and white image of man in Sensorama device

This magnificent construction was a machine that played a 3D film accompanied by stereo sound, aromas, and wind in order to create an immersive sensory environment. It was one of many 3D-related creations that visionary inventor and cinematographer Morton Heilig gave the world. His ideas for adding layers of sensory stimuli to augment a simple cinema presentation led the way towards today’s “virtual reality” experiences. Rama-lama-bing-bong-whoosh. Heilig also invented the first head-mounted VR experience, the Telesphere Mask. Ever hear of him? No? Now you know what “forgotten genius” means.

The Sword of Damocles (1968)

Man wearing Sword of Damocles VR device

Widely considered to be the first VR and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD) system. It was created in 1968 by “The Father of Computer Graphics” Ivan Sutherland with the help of his student Bob Sproull (who later did things like work on inventing the personal computer and the laser printer while at PARC). Given this sort of brain-trust and explosive innovation, it isn’t surprising that it was anticipated that true virtual reality would become a real reality very soon. As soon as some of the, um, practical difficulties were solved.

Tomytronic 3D (1982)

Tomytronic 3D device with box

The Tomytronic 3D was a series of portable, handheld gaming devices produced by Takara Tomy Co. Ltd. The device featured a strap so the player would be able to wear it around their neck between uses. The Tomytronic simulated 3D by having two LCD panels that were lit by external light through a window on top of the device. Released in 1983, it was the first dedicated home video 3D hardware. Given that this was nearly 40 years ago, that a small, cheap, almost-good-enough consumer VR product was produced at all shows how excitement around this tech has never been in short supply.

Virtuality Group (1993)

Man using VR gaming machine

Virtuality produced a line of virtual reality gaming machines built to fill video arcades in the early 1990s. The machines delivered real- time (less than 50ms lag) gaming via a stereoscopic visor,  joysticks, and networked units for multi-player gaming. The technology and gameplay with this system was pretty darn good—the problem was that they hitched their pixelated wagon to arcades just when that entire industry was about to be eclipsed by the rise of home video gaming systems.

Virtual Boy (1995)

Virtual Boy gaming device

A 32-bit table-top 3D video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, the Virtual Boy was marketed as the first “portable” video game console capable of displaying “true 3D graphics” out of the box. A perennial innovator, Nintendo unfortunately stretched their ambitions a little too far on this one. Nevertheless, by the time we got to the Wii it was clear that there was a real demand from consumers for something to take them (at least a little) outside of reality.

Oculus (Now)

Oculus VR device

Technology is starting to catch up. New breakthroughs are occurring every week. Early adopters are eager to jump on board. Think of how the social web opened up the internet to the masses—everyone jumped in, including (in not-insignificant numbers) Baby Boomers. VR—after many exciting short flights and spectacular crashes—may have finally have found just the right mix of price point and technology.

In addition to entertainment and advertising, expect to see huge VR growth in these key industries:

  1. Tourism. The strong market for “virtual tourism” that the View-Master stumbled into discovering is already being catered to via experiences like “The Wild Within…an interactive, 360* video that allows travelers to experience the pristine coastal wilderness of British Columbia, Canada in a truly immersive way.” Or how about the “Marriott Teleporter,” which frees guests of the hotel chain to “travel” without packing a bag. Remember Sensorama? Check this: “They were taking inventory of the breeze, the sea spray and sensations like that…so we’ve used mechanical elements like industrial grade misters and fans in the Teleporter to recreate those sensations. It’s like an amusement park crammed into a closet.”
  2. Healthcare. VR exposure therapy allows patients to confront their phobias and fears, helping them cope with a myriad of conditions: fear of flying, fear of heights, fear of public speaking, agoraphobia, arachnophobia, social phobia, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder due to motor vehicle accidents. VR is even being used to treat those with phantom-limb pain. Researchers at the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Laboratory have created “SnowWorld,” a brain-tricking snowscape that helps burn victims during bandage changes and wound cleaning – excruciatingly painful experiences that traditional pain-killers like morphine do little to assuage. VR is even being used to train surgeons, to the relief of cadavers everywhere. It’s clear that this technology is delivering real, transformative, benevolent good for many.
  3. Skilled Trades. With the cost of education rising, and access to good trade schools disappearing for many, VR offers new opportunities to learn at a much lower cost, and from anywhere. For example, those training to be welders are doing so virtually in greater numbers. Picking up from the times of flight simulators (another very early “VR” use), simulations are being used to train people to do dangerous jobs without putting them in dangerous situations. In general VR, may do enormous good by opening up education for many who simply do not have access to it today.

Written by Sandro Pasquali · Categorized: InRhythmU, Learning and Development, VR · Tagged: AR, oculus, virtual reality, VR, vr gaming, vr headsets

Apr 10 2019

Recognizing and Remembering the Importance of Women in Tech Communities

Women in Tech at InRhythm has always been an evolving group that has taken different shapes to meet the needs of its members, but throughout we’ve always recognized the importance of women in tech and the need for representation. For a while, our leaders were stuck in a rut on the direction of the group, so we returned to the original mission statement from the group’s founding:

“Women and non-binary people are alarmingly underrepresented in technology. The Elephant in the Valley survey found that 84% of women ‘have been told they are too aggressive,’ and ‘60% of women in tech reported unwanted sexual advances.’ Queer, non-binary, trans people, and women of color experience pay disparity, discrimination, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexual harassment in the workplace.

At InRhythm, we want to provide our female and non-binary engineers, designers, and operations professionals with a network and support system as they learn and grow. We aim to develop programs and initiatives that will help our team integrate and communicate with one another.

The goal of this community is to facilitate communication between women and non-binary members of IR across clients, and to create a safe space to talk about issues we may experience specific to our identities.”

In our quest to move fast and evolve constantly, it’s easy to forget to take a moment to see what’s at the heart of what we’re working towards. Returning to our mission provides an important grounding and realigns our vision going forward. All that said, we’ll be continuing to align ourselves around our mission to continue to move the needle on the issues that are important to our members.

Community Outreach

One of the biggest issues the Women in Tech community has been trying to address is increasing our membership numbers here at InRhythm. Driving change here involves commitment at all levels: one, in the hiring process and the people we recruit, but also in the foundation we create for future women to enter the field. Young girls and women are dissuaded and disillusioned from pursuing careers in development—and involvement in STEM in general—due to systemic factors, gender biases, and disparities in the workplace.

We know there’s an issue, so how do we solve the problem? Women in Tech is taking a proactive approach, creating future initiatives with the aim of starting ripple effects that turn into waves. Our partnerships, with organizations like Girls Who Code, is one path to reaching young girls and women to open up their minds to the possibility of careers in software development. The group has reached over 90,000 girls in just six years through initiatives like local clubs and immersion programs, providing critical opportunities for girls to see themselves represented in the field and get hands-on experience in this exciting industry.

Through our research, we know that one of the primary challenges that girls face in pursuing computer science as a career is a lack of female role models. Girls are more likely to grow up to be innovators themselves if they have access to women already in the field, underscoring the importance of representation, mentorship, and self-image. The Women In Tech Lesson Plans introduce middle school students to female role models and spark the interest of girls to pursue an education in computer science.

Investing in and bringing in prominent speakers will also help to inspire not just the InRhythm community, but external Women in Tech members within other local chapters. A special shout-out to Sandro, our Web Practice Lead and Brian, a senior engineer, for mentioning Compassionate Coding co-founder April Wensel. She has been in the software industry for many years and has tried and tested different solutions to harness the power of kindness and compassion through her company.

Changing the status quo when it comes to gender representation can be a monumental task, but by laying the groundwork for the future and reaching out to the young girls who are would-be women in tech, we can enact lasting change. Gender disparity is a difficult chicken-and-egg problem to solve, but in our experience, the women of InRhythm are proactive, exceptional leaders and we believe there is room for everyone in the development space. If we continue to encourage STEM-field participation and support fellow women in the field, we know the next generation will rise to the challenge.

Written by InRhythm · Categorized: Culture, Learning and Development, Women in Tech · Tagged: gender representation, women in technology, workplace equality, workplace representation

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