76. The W3C and Standardizing the Web
When you think about it, it's kind of miraculous how the web as we know it works as well as it does. No matter the device, browsers are able to render sites fairly accurately–even those built over twenty years ago. How this happened is no accident. The W3C, a dedicated standards body, has been around nearly as long as the Internet has existed, ensuring exactly how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript should work. Tobie Langel, who is part of the W3C, will tell us how these standards are introduced and ratified.
Special Episode: Giving Back in Today’s World
More and more people are turning towards fundraising platforms as a way of contributing to the causes they care about. Softgiving is one such service which prides itself on working closely with influencers, pairing them with charities that they care about and helping them set up campaigns on their livestreams. Matt Pfaltzgraf, their CEO, and Brian Wetzel, their CTO, talk with Julián Duque about what makes their platform both unique and successful.
Special Episode: Celebrating our Pride
June is Pride Month in the U.S. and, against the backdrop of a pandemic and protests, celebrating one's identity has never been more necessary. We've established a dialog with several LGBTQ+ individuals to talk about what coming out to a community has meant for them. They also delve into the importance of lifting others, through their various non-profit work, and how the spirit of volunteering is essential for creating a stronger society.
Johnny Boursiquot on Serverless Go and Site Reliability Engineering at Heroku
In this podcast, Johnny Boursiquot, Site Reliability Engineer at Heroku, sat down with InfoQ podcast co-host Daniel Bryant and discussed topics that included: why Go is a useful language for building Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) style applications; how Heroku implement the role of Site Reliability Engineer (SRE); and why the ability to teach is such a valuable skill.
75. gRPC
A Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a protocol for communication between a client and a server, and, while it's not a new concept, Google has evolved the idea with their own version: gRPC. Learn more about gRPC from Doug Fawley, who is the tech lead for the Golang implementation. He'll talk about the different ways in which clients and servers exchange information, as well as why gRPC is a necessary step forward.
74. How Dev.to Built a Community
With six million unique users a month and 350,000 registered users, Dev.to has become the place for developers to engage with a broader community. The team behind the site has focused a lot of its energy on making sure the site is reliable, regardless of network speeds, and safe, with plenty of guidance and moderation tooling in place. Ben Halpern, its CEO, and Jess Lee, its COO, answer questions from Julián Duque on how they were able to build this fast-growing social network for tech.
Special Episode: When Giving Back Saves 1000s of Jobs
In order to support small businesses affected by the COVID-19 shutdowns, the government launched a loaning program to disperse funds to help businesses keep their workforce employed. This program turned out to be extraordinarily popular, crashing the government website and using up all of the funds. MX Technologies was tasked to come up with a more automated solution, and over one long weekend, got an app running on Heroku to process applicants faster. Greg Nokes, a Master Technical Architect at Salesforce, interviews two members from MX, Garrett Thornburg, an engineering team lead, and Brett Allred, its CPO, on how they pulled this off.
73. The Blockchain, Beyond Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have gained popularity as people seek to reclaim more privacy in their online activities. But the underlying concept is built on a technology called blockchain, and while it's often associated with cryptocurrencies, its potential can be applied in many more places. Host Owen Ou interviews Adam Hanna and Melanie Plaza at AE Studio to talk about what the blockchain is (and isn't), building on top of blockchain platforms like Ethereum, and the future implications for blockchain networks.
Special Episode: Celebrating Technology, Asian Heritage, and Our Communities
May is Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month. On this episode, members of Salesforce's Asian employee resource group–Brian Chan, Anna Chan, and Vikram Sreedhar–talk about their experiences as part of the Asian community entering the world of technology. Find out what binds them together, despite their disparate backgrounds, heritages, and geographical locations. They'll share their personal stories, advice on how to get into technology, and how to give back to your communities.
Special Episode: Active for Good
During a time of uncertainty, it can be helpful to remember that opportunities to provide help are all around us. One such group with a unique approach to philanthropy is Active for Good. Active for Good is an app which tracks the number of calories you burn, and in exchange for that movement, donates a meal packet to malnourished children. Troy Hickerson and Luke Mysse join Charlie Gleason to talk about their work on Active for Good, sharing their personal stories of how they got involved as well as providing inspiration on what "good tech" can look like.