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Today we’re going to dive deeper into Docker’s union file system (UFS) layers. Author will try to explain how layers work and then how to use them properly to reduce the size of your images. By Mac Rusek.

Docker containers are made of layers. Whenever we add, change, or delete files, we add a new layer on top of the old one. A combination of all those layers or the union is what the user or container sees; it’s a top-to-bottom view. On the other hand, the actual layered perspective is different.

The article puts forward few rules, which should help you to keep overall images small:

• Whenever we commit something, we add a new layer
• The image is a stack of layers and the user sees only the top one
• Image size is a sum of all layers
• We can flatten the image by export and import, but we lose the commit history
• We can assign several tags to one image
• We should tag generously
• Don’t forget to keep the latest tag for the actual latest release

From the user perspective, we can see only the files that are left after all operations, but under the hood, everything is still there. Everything we add and then remove is still in our image. It’s helpful in general, as we have access to all commits, so we know what’s happened and when it happened. Good one!

Value-stream mapping (VSM) is a lean manufacturing technique popularized in the 90s after its successful applications in the manufacturing industry with companies like Toyota. Written by Tiffany Jachja.

A VSM is also known as a material and information flow map. Using this map, you can identify areas of improvement and map your current state to your future state. This blog post summarizes the key concepts of VSM and shares how you can use VSM within your IT organization.

The content of the article is split for:

• Value stream map symbols and components
• Creating a value stream map
• Evaluating a value stream map
• Harness your value stream

There are some more ways to look at a Value Stream Map, which borrows from lean manufacturing concepts. To optimize the flow of value you have to consider mura(unevenness), muri(overburdening), and muda(waste). Good read!

Learn the basics of WebSockets and Socket.IO while pairing your first real-time server with a React frontend. Everybody builds chat apps with Socket.IO these days yet messaging applications are only the tip of the iceberg. Think a moment about it: there are a million of other things you can build within the real-time domain. By Valentino Gagliardi.

One thing to keep in mind is that Socket.IO is not an WebSocket implementation. The authors state that “Socket.IO indeed uses WebSocket as a transport when possible, but a WebSocket client will not be able to connect to a Socket.IO server, and a Socket.IO client will not be able to connect to a WebSocket server”.

In the following post we will start with some basic concepts all the way through exploring what Socket.IO and React can do for us when paired together. By the end of the article you will build a super simple real-time application.

The article explains how what you need to know for building your own app:

• What a WebSocket is
• Requirements
• The WebSocket protocol, Node.js and Socket.IO
• Preparing the project
• Hands-on
• Designing the server
• Implementing the server
• Implementing the React client

… you will get also all the code wel explained. After this tutorial author suggests exploring Socket.IO’s documentation to learn more about Rooms, Namespaces and other API methods. Good read!

Marguerite Ward wrote this piece about monetary evaluation of various jobs using different programming languages. If you’re self-isolating and have extra time on your hands, or if you recently became unemployed and are looking to gain an in-demand skill, learning how to code could help your career.

While some hiring managers don’t require a job applicant know a specific coding language (the coding skills are often transferable across languages), it does help to know which languages are associated with the highest-paying jobs.

According to jobs site Indeed.com, the two most in-demand jobs of 2020 are software architect and full-stack developer, both of which require a proficiency in coding.

Tech company HackerRank polled over 116,000 software engineers to find out which languages are associated with the highest salary.

From C++ and Python to Ruby and Perl, here are the top 15 coding languages associated with the highest salaries worldwide, along with online courses to learn them. Have a read to find the best paying programming language!

A few weeks ago I discovered Roam which brands itself as “a note-taking tool for networked thought.” Let’s have a look at how to use Roam Research to achieve your personal growth goals. Written by Anne-Laure Le Cunff.

To me, the strongest use case is to develop your metacognition, a fancy way of saying “thinking about thinking” or “knowing about knowing.” Instead of blindly cramming new information inside your head, Roam encourages you to literally connect the dots—to create your own links and metaknowledge, thus increasing both your memory and understanding of new information.

The article describes author’s experience with researching a complex topic such as Simulation Hypothesis – which posits that all of reality is an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation.

She used Roam and the article describes:

• Roam as a tool for networked thought
• Roam Research is powered by bi-directional links
• Roam as a tool for self-reflection
• A few limitations of Roam Research
• An organic approach to knowledge management

… and more. Ready to get started? Check another article from Anne-Laure – beginner’s guide to Roam with five easy-to-follow steps to get started. Excellent!

Much of the work undertaken by artificial intelligence involves a training process known as machine learning, where AI gets better at a task such as recognising a cat or mapping a route the more it does it. Now that same technique is being use to create new AI systems, without any human intervention. By David Nield.

For years, engineers at Google have been working on a freakishly smart machine learning system known as the AutoML system (or automatic machine learning system), which is already capable of creating AI that outperforms anything we’ve made.

The new system is called AutoML-Zero, and although it may sound a little alarming, it could lead to the rapid development of smarter systems - for example, neural networked designed to more accurately mimic the human brain with multiple layers and weightings, something human coders have struggled with.

“It is possible today to automatically discover complete machine learning algorithms just using basic mathematical operations as building blocks,” write the researchers in their pre-print paper. “We demonstrate this by introducing a novel framework that significantly reduces human bias through a generic search space.” Follow the link for full details and further resources. Nice one!

Ivo Šiško has written this article about how to extend your JAMstack application with some dynamic functionality using serverless. He will guide you on his journey of implementation 2 dynamic features to static page.

The first feature was to offer the product for the user when he enters the web page and if he is interested, ask him to fill a two-field form to get the product in the e-mail. The second feature was saving that info in the Google Sheets on the Drive using the Google Sheets API.

As the web page is just a simple static page with no backend and simple cms, hosted on the Netlify, author opted for the Netlify functions.

The article then provides all the necessary information about:

• Feature 1: Sending an email
• Feature 2: Interacting with the Google Sheets

To be able to test the functions while developing them itt is easiest to use Netlify dev CLI. It allows us to manually invoke the functions, test them and logging in the console, just by starting the dev environment using netlify dev or ntl dev command.

Since the client already had an account on Sendgrid, Ivo used the Sendgrid API to send the email via @sendgrid/mail – the official package for node from Sendgrid. All steps are explained with all the needed code provided. Good read!

At Ericsson, they are fortunate enough to frequently work and speak with IoT leaders in the industry. Ericsson thrives on hearing what excites their partners most about IoT, what challenges they have faced, and if we can help solve any, and what they think the future will look like in the industry. On Ericsson blog.

Throughout recording the last 10 episodes of their IoT podcast, they gathered the insights from these conversations which are extensive, and compiled some favorites form each episode:

• Focus on long-term success
• Digital transformation is a company effort
• The three key questions
• Focus on the value, not the tech
• Monetize data

We liked: Secure connectivity is the base business that operators offer customers. However, operators have an opportunity to climb the IoT value chain and grow their business into different verticals by leveraging their data.

For the full list and further resources links (including podcast) follow the link to the original article.

Kubernetes has seized center stage in the DevOps world when building and migrating applications to a cloud-native environment. In reality, Kubernetes is a means to an end — to scale operations of containerized microservice architecture. By Daniella Pontes.

Managing deployment, scaling, upgrading and updating of the various microservices of fragmented applications running on containers is not a trivial task, certainly already beyond manual processes. So automation is the only way to go. Kubernetes came to take the role of orchestrating containerized workloads.

The article is split into these parts:

• InfluxDB Cloud 2.0 Kubernetes monitoring
• Watching the watcher
• Other good reasons
• Key lessons learned

Scaling monitoring is not about adding more manual processes and controls. Scaling cannot be coupled with higher complexity, and surely, must embrace empowering developers — with observability, predictability and prescriptive means – to ensure that monitoring is doing its job. Good read!

Nataly Birch wrote this article about importance of well crafted product update email. The product update email is a unique type of newsletter. Although it seems that it does not differ from others, it is a collaboration between marketing and product teams.

The product update newsletter is all about brand new features or upgrades of the system. However, no one likes to read boring documentation and bug fixes. Everyone expects a story that is exciting and enlightening. It should reveal important improvements and promote the product or bring customers to landing pages. Therefore, unlike transactional emails, welcome emails or seasonal emails, these newsletters require turning boring things into exciting ones.

The article goes in some detail over:

• Subject lines
• Tips for product update emails
• Content
• Design a product update email
• Collection of great product update email newsletters

A good product update email is all about a good story. No one likes reports about changes. What people want is to know how these changes will improve their lives. Nice one!