During the week of October 5th, I had an opportunity to attend the AWS re:Invent 2015 conference in Las Vegas, of all places. As someone who has built an entire career on putting together custom application server software, I should be the last one to get excited about server-less applications. Just like Salesforce’s “no software,” Amazon’s “server-less software” mantra is about a world where application development is not limited by IT, software to install and servers to manage.
Banking Technology is in Dire Need of Standartization and Openness
A few weeks ago Investors Bank in New Jersey overhauled their systems. As a result Mint became incompatible with Investors and Investors customers could no longer view their account in Mint. There is anecdotal evidence1 that Mint uses the Yodlee platform2 for the integration. As it turns out, there is no standard mechanism by which external … Continue reading Banking Technology is in Dire Need of Standartization and Openness
I Stand With Ahmed
This week a precocious 14-year old immigrant Ahmed Mohamed wanted to impress his teachers with a clock he made at home. He built it into one of those pencil boxes you buy at a craft store that look like a small brief case. The teachers and school officials thought it looked suspicious and called the … Continue reading I Stand With Ahmed
Setting Up Cross-Region Replication of AWS RDS for PostgreSQL
As of today AWS RDS for PostgreSQL1 does not offer cross-region replication. Short of switching to one of the RDS offerings that do support it, there is a few options to consider.
Top Ten Differences Between ActiveMQ and Amazon SQS
UPDATE 2/15/2018: This post was originally published in 2015. While it is informative in its own right, a lot has changed in AWS since then. In particular, AWS now offers managed ActiveMQ. Please read a more up-to-date article on the topic: Which AWS messaging and queing service to use? 1. Persistence and Durability ActiveMQ Depending on … Continue reading Top Ten Differences Between ActiveMQ and Amazon SQS
We Live in a Mobile Device Notification Hell
We live in a notification hell world of smartphones, and every year it is getting worse. Our presumably smart devices are incapable of differentiating what is important and what is not.
What Every College Computer Science Freshman Should Know
In a few weeks new college freshmen will begin their classes. Some of them will choose to pursue a degree in Computer Science. Over the course of the four years in college they will be surrounded by like minded people who are at least as smart as they are and are just as interested in … Continue reading What Every College Computer Science Freshman Should Know
Ten Questions to Consider Before Choosing Cassandra
1. Do you know what your queries will look like ? In traditional SQL you design your data model to represent your business objects. Your queries can then evolve over time and can be ad-hoc. You can even create views, materialized or otherwise, to facilitate even more complex analytical queries. Cassandra does not offer … Continue reading Ten Questions to Consider Before Choosing Cassandra
On Maintaining Personal Brand as a Software Engineer
Man’s wisdom is in what he writes, good sense at the end of his pen; and using his pen he can climb to the height of the scepter in the hand of his king -- The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain Moses Ben Maimon (aka Maimonides) lived over … Continue reading On Maintaining Personal Brand as a Software Engineer
Big Data Should Be Used To Make Ads More Relevant
It is 2015 and by now advertising agencies could have figured out the best way to deliver relevant ads to viewers. They have not. Hulu is the prime illustration of this phenomenon. We canceled our DirecTV subscription and declined to use Comcast for anything more than Internet access for over three years now. When I … Continue reading Big Data Should Be Used To Make Ads More Relevant
The Dulin Report 
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