Programmer Weekly (Issue 254 May 15 2025)

Author

Rahul Chaudhary
May 15, 2025

Welcome to issue 254 of Programmer Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

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Quote of the Week

"The most likely way for the catastrophe to unfold is for the code to work exactly as specified." - Ward Cunningham


Reading List

The article introduces Nerdlog, a lightweight, command-line log analysis tool designed as a simpler alternative to Graylog. Built for high-volume environments, Nerdlog emphasizes speed and minimal maintenance, making it ideal for developers needing efficient log querying without the overhead of complex infrastructure.

In this post, the author recounts their experience attempting to disable Windows Defender by interfacing directly with the Windows Security Center (WSC) API. The endeavor, undertaken during a vacation in Seoul, involved navigating complex technical challenges, including hardware limitations and intricate debugging processes. Despite the setbacks, the author successfully developed a tool named "defendnot," highlighting the unforeseen complexities of reverse engineering in a constrained environment

Jupyter has announced the integration of the R programming language into its browser-based platform, JupyterLite, through a WebAssembly distribution called emscripten-forge. This development allows users to run R directly in the browser without the need for server-side infrastructure, enhancing scalability and accessibility for scientific computing.

Netflix’s ad event processing system, launched with Microsoft in 2022, integrated components like the Microsoft Ad Server, Netflix Ads Manager, and Ad Event Handler to manage ad requests efficiently. To support growth and scalability, Netflix later introduced an Ads Metadata Registry that stores ad metadata centrally, optimizing performance by referencing metadata instead of embedding tracking info in client tokens.

Build resilient GitHub Actions workflows with lessons from recent attacks.

Implementing microservices prematurely can hinder startup productivity due to added complexity in deployment, testing, and development workflows. Instead, startups should begin with a monolithic architecture to maintain simplicity and speed, transitioning to microservices only when scaling challenges necessitate it.

This guide details the process of distributing macOS command-line tools by creating signed and notarized installer packages. It covers obtaining necessary certificates, building universal binaries, and ensuring compliance with Apple's Gatekeeper requirements.


Watch, Listen

In this video, Chris Aniszczyk from the CNCF discusses the challenges and shifts in building businesses around open source projects. He also shares insights on navigating the balance between community needs and business goals.

Learn how to differentiate between Legacy Code & Tech Debt, understand when and how to tackle both, and discover powerful techniques like the Strangler Fig pattern for gradual and safe system evolution. Shawna Martell uses a real-world case study of Carta's HR integrations to illustrate these concepts in action, providing actionable takeaways.

An interview with Anatoli Zenin, co-author of "Apache Kafka in Action," about the current state and future of Apache Kafka. They discuss Kafka's role in real-time data processing, its architectural implications, and the challenges in building a full database on top of it.


Interesting Projects, Tools and Libraries

Scraperr is a self-hosted web scraping service that allows you to scrape websites and save the data to a database.

Clippy let's you run a variety of large language models (LLMs) locally on your computer while sticking with a user interface of the 1990s.

Collaborative office suite, end-to-end encrypted and open-source.

Open-source and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics that is 10x more intuitive.

A bash-compatible shell, implemented in Rust.


Our Other Newsletters

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