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Kotlin, a modern programming language developed by JetBrains, has gained immense popularity among app developers in recent years. With its concise syntax, interoperability with Java, and powerful features, Kotlin has become the language of choice for Android app development. In this article, we will explore why Kotlin is a great choice for beginner app developers, how to get started with Kotlin, and essential tips and tricks to enhance your Kotlin app development skills. By lset.uk.

The article does a good job explaining:

• Why choose Kotlin for app development?
• Getting started with Kotlin
• Kotlin syntax basics
• Essential tips for Kotlin app development
• Common pitfalls to avoid in Kotlin
• Best practices for writing Kotlin code
• Kotlin libraries and frameworks for App Development
• Advanced Kotlin features for experienced developers
• Resources and courses to enhance your Kotlin skills

Kotlin has become the language of choice for many app developers due to its powerful features, excellent tooling support, and interoperability with Java. Nice one!

Ansible vs Terraform battle continues to escalate as the DevOps environment focuses more on automation and orchestration. These two tools help in automating configurations and deploying infrastructure. Terraform offers to deploy Infrastructure as a Code, helps in readability and lift and shift deployments. Ansible is a configuration management tool for automating system configuration and management. By Sandeep Kumar.

The article then deals with:

• What is Terraform?
• What is Ansible?
• Similarities between Terraform and Ansible
• Difference between Terraform and Ansible provisioning (Terraform vs. Ansible)
• Orchestration vs. configuration management
• Declarative vs. procedural
• Mutable vs. immutable
• State management

… and more. Terraform comes with good scheduling capabilities and is very user-friendly. It integrates with docker well, as docker handles the configuration management slightly better than Terraform. But there is no clear evidence of how the target devices are brought to their final state, and sometimes, the final configuration is unnecessary. Ansible comes with better security and ACL functionality. It is considered a mature tool because it adjusts comfortably with traditional automation frameworks. It offers simple operations and helps to code quickly. But, on the other hand, it is not good at services like logical dependencies, orchestration services, and interconnected applications. Good read!

When multiple threads modify a shared state, it can lead to unexpected results. This problem was already discussed in the previous item, but now I want to explain it in more detail and show how to deal with it in Kotlin/JVM. By Marcin Moskała.

Java also provides some collections that have support for concurrency. The most important one is ConcurrentHashMap, which is a thread-safe version of HashMap. We can safely use all its operations without worrying about conflicts. When we iterate over it, we get a snapshot of the state at the moment of iteration, therefore we’ll never get a ConcurrentModificationException exception, but this doesn’t mean that we’ll get the most recent state.

The article then will guide you through:

• The problem with threads and shared state
• Synchronization in Kotlin/JVM
• Atomic objects
• Concurrent collections
• Do not leak mutation points

Multiple threads modifying the same state can lead to conflicts, thus causing lost data, exceptions, and other unexpected behavior. We can use synchronization to protect a state from concurrent modifications. The most popular tool in Kotlin/JVM is a synchronized block with a lock. Follow the link to the full article to learn more!

When the application development process is completed, it’s high time to introduce your special product to the world. First publishing may be thrilling and tricky. Today, we will guide you through the release process on the Google Play Store, which is undoubtedly the leader in the number of published apps and users. By Julia Rasich.

Steps mentioned in the article:

• Create a Google Developer account
• Add a merchant account
• Prepare the documents
• Study Google Developer Policies
• Technical requirements
• Creating the app on the Google console
• Store listing
• Content rating
• Pricing the application
• Upload APK and send it for review

But remember that the journey does not stop at publishing. Running a mobile application requires continuous efforts to get it trending, otherwise, competition will overshadow the app. Good read!

The cool features that come along with apps are what draw the interests of users. Apps make phones “smart” and through their benefits, apps have drastically transformed how we function today. Adept programmers are getting busy, designing, and building apps of their own and embedding them with favorable features. By Eshna Verma.

In this article we will cover the top 5 Android App development fundamentals that you should know before you begin programming an Android application:

• Master the language
• Familiarity with the right application development tools and environment
• Knowledge of the application components
• Awareness over fragmentations, android application, threads, loaders, and tasks
• Choosing the right tools

77% of Americans today own a smartphone, and apps are where the majority of their time is spent. When it comes to Android App development, there’s a lot to learn, so consider getting started with Simplilearn’s Google-authorized Certified Android App Developer training course. Good read!

In early 2022 the discount that had been available for large blocks of IPv4 addresses disappeared. For the first time in years, /16 blocks and larger began to sell at an increasing premium. By Q2-2023, small and medium-sized blocks sold for a 30-35% discount to larger ones. By Lee Howard.

Source: https://circleid.com/posts/20230817-ipv4-prices-supply-and-demand-in-2023

The bifurcation of the market is clearly between those /16-and-larger blocks and all smaller ones. The overall need for addresses is immediate and outweighs variation in price. Relatively small price variations don’t dampen the need in this theoretical scenario.

However, supply may very well influence pricing. And pricing impacts supply. Let’s look only at transfers smaller than /16, since the dynamics change at /16 and larger. Considering long-term price trends, prices increased at a very steady rate 2014-2018, before flattening in 2019-2020 and then spiking in 2021. At this point, prices of small blocks have returned to where they would have been had the original (2015-2020) steady rate of increase simply continued. Interesting read!

Open standards are the hidden architecture that underpins everything from communication protocols to how our devices talk to one another. These standards provide a shared language that ensures compatibility and drives innovation. However, until recently, there was a significant gap in understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those involved in creating these vital tools. By The Linux Foundation.

Recognizing this gap, the Linux Foundation commissioned the report titled “The 2023 State of Open Standards.” Authored by Jory Burson, this groundbreaking report delves into why open standards are crafted, the primary objectives behind the research, and what it means for the future of information and communication technology (ICT).

People think of standards development as something that doesn’t really change, but that’s not true at all - we’re making new standards all the time for increasingly complex needs and goals. The evolution towards open ICT standards reflects a broader cultural shift towards transparency, collaboration, and democratization. Unlike proprietary standards, open standards are developed through a community-driven process, ensuring diverse input and perspective.

The report highlights the importance of open standards as “recipes for reality” influencing various aspects of our lives. Could you elaborate on how open standards impact both technical and strategic decision-making for organizations? Good read!

Adopting platform engineering will allow tech organizations to be more adaptable to changes toward in a business direction. One such extreme change is cloud portability, which is not uncommon anymore in today’s business but has a significant effect on developer experience. Most companies start their journey with a single cloud provider, embracing the cloud native functionalities that these services offer. They build expertise, write automations and leverage as much of the cloud as they can. By Pravanjan Choudhury.

Some of The hurdles of cloud portability mentioned:

• Obscured documentation
• Skill gap
• Automation rewrites
• Development interruptions
• Cross-cloud environment drifts
• Retraining overhead

From our experience, an optimal cloud strategy involves using the best tools a cloud offers while staying flexible enough to use other cloud options when needed. To achieve this, businesses can use standardized cloud services, add protective layers, manage policies in one place and use automated deployment tools. This creates a cloud strategy that’s strong but can adapt when needed. Good read!

Generative AI, a form of machine learning that creates content like text and images in response to natural language requests, is a game-changing technology. From boosting productivity to improving personalization, generative AI tools deliver a string of benefits. By Rachael Shah @f5.com.

For example, in a recent poll by Gartner, more than 2,500 executives indicate customer experience and retention (38%) as the primary purpose of their generative AI investments. That’s followed by other areas like revenue growth (26%), cost optimization (17%), and business continuity (7%).

Here are just a few of the many ways in which generative AI can abruptly turn a positive, beneficial experience into a costly and negative security headache:

• Leaking sensitive corporate data
• Disseminating misinformation and biases
• Mishandling personally identifiable information (PII)

To protect against threats of using generative AI in the workplace, companies must take a zero trust approach. Remember that the key tenet of zero trust is, “Never trust. Always verify.” And one key strategy of zero trust security that you should prioritize today is detecting access to generative AI tools. Good read!

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Functions-As-A-Service Platforms, Q2 2023. By alibabacloud.com.

The report states that Functions-As-A-Service (FaaS) platforms should deliver a “world-class developer experience, provide robust security capabilities and enable everyday use cases with enhanced workload portability.” Vendors in the Wave, including Alibaba Cloud’s Function Compute were evaluated across 40 criteria grouped into three high-level categories – Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence. Alibaba obtained the highest score (4.43 out of 5.00) in the Current Offering category.

Alibaba Cloud’s serverless computing platform Function Compute for highly simplified, scalable and efficient infrastructure Function Compute has a proven track record across a variety of use cases, which include supporting online events, audio and video content, gaming and e-commerce, among others. One example is HEROZ, a Japanese artificial intelligence company providing solutions to a range of sectors, which was looking for a solution to lower its operations and maintenance (O&M) costs as well as better manage its peak and off-peak computing traffic periods. Good read!