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2024-12-17

Getting to 2M users as a one woman dev team [video]

  • Nadia Odunayo, founder and CEO of The StoryGraph, manages a reading community with over a million users as a solo developer, highlighting her determination and technical skills.- Her background includes experience as a software engineer at Pivotal Labs and coding education from Makers Academy in London.- Her story exemplifies the potential of a "one person framework" in tech entrepreneurship, balancing professional and personal interests like dance and reading.

Reactions

  • StoryGraph, a book tracking app developed by a single developer, Nadia Odunayo, has reached 2 million users, sparking discussions about alternatives and the limitations of competitors like Goodreads.
  • Nadia Odunayo is recognized for her significant contributions to the Ruby on Rails community, highlighting the impact of individual developers in tech.
  • The discussion also explores the broader theme of small teams achieving substantial user bases, with comparisons to successful projects like Stardew Valley and WhatsApp.

Moon

  • The article provides an in-depth exploration of the Moon's orbit around Earth, its surface features, and its influence on phenomena such as tides and eclipses.
  • It discusses the Moon's phases, surface craters, and the phenomenon of earthshine, highlighting the Moon's subtle impact on human life and its role as a constant presence in the night sky.
  • The piece reflects on the Moon's gravitational interactions with Earth and the Sun's influence, offering a comprehensive understanding of our celestial neighbor.

Reactions

  • A user recounted their journey with a Celestron 11" SCT telescope, initially facing challenges with long exposure photography but finding success and appreciation in lunar photography.
  • The discussion included shared experiences, telescope usage tips, and praise for educational content, particularly Bartosz Ciechanowski's interactive explanations of celestial phenomena.
  • The conversation underscored the moon's significance in both personal enjoyment and educational contexts, with users expressing gratitude for detailed and engaging astronomical content.

Always go to the funeral (2005)

Reactions

Go Protobuf: The New Opaque API

  • The Go Blog announces the introduction of a new Opaque API for Go Protobuf, enhancing memory efficiency and reducing pointer-related bugs by hiding struct fields and using accessor methods.
  • The Opaque API supports lazy decoding, optimizing performance by decoding fields only when accessed, and is recommended for new development, with a Hybrid API available for gradual transition.
  • The Protobuf Edition 2024 will make the Opaque API the default, and feedback is encouraged on the Go Protobuf issue tracker, with reference documentation available on protobuf.dev.

Reactions

  • The discussion highlights the complexity and unique characteristics of using Protobuf and gRPC in the Go programming language, with some developers finding it challenging.- Alternatives such as JSON-RPC, MsgPack, and Varlink are considered simpler, while tools like ConnectRPC and Buf are suggested for improved compatibility and performance.- The conversation underscores the trade-offs between different serialization and communication protocols, including the benefits of Protobuf's schema language and the challenges of using JSON for APIs.

MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style

  • MIT cognitive scientists compare the complex language of legal documents, or "legalese," to magic spells, suggesting it conveys authority through its archaic and intricate style.
  • The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights that legal documents often use complex structures like "center-embedding," which contribute to their difficulty in comprehension.
  • Despite efforts to simplify legal language since the 1970s, progress has been slow, and the study aims to promote clearer legal writing for better understanding.

Reactions

  • An MIT study indicates that legal documents are complex due to traditional practices and the specific audience they target, primarily lawyers.
  • Lawyers use "legalese" for its familiarity and precision, despite its difficulty for non-experts to comprehend, as it must align with varying case law.
  • The study underscores the challenge of simplifying legal language while preserving its authority and legal integrity, as changes can have significant legal consequences.