2023.05.08 - AI isn't the app, it's the UI

Title: 2023.05.08 – AI Isn’t the App, It’s the UI

Angular v16 & Deno KV & HTMX & Programming types & 仁 & 青年

This Week’s Highlights

AI isn’t the app, it’s the UI https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/05/01/ai-isnt-the-app-its-the-ui/
A realistic understanding of generative AI can guide us to its ideal use case: not a decision‑maker or unsupervised agent hidden from the end user, but an interface between humans and machines.

Angular v16 is here! https://blog.angular.io/angular-v16-is-here-4d7a28ec680d
Version 16 is the stepping stone for the future improvements coming to Angular’s reactivity and server‑side rendering over the next year. We’ll be moving the Web forward by innovating in developer experience, performance, while enabling you to build for everyone!

Announcing Deno KV https://deno.com/blog/kv
We’re thrilled to introduce Deno KV, a strongly consistent key‑value database, globally replicated for low‑latency reads across 35 worldwide regions. Related: Introducing Vercel KV.

HTMX Is the Future https://quii.dev/HTMX_is_the_Future https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35829733 https://htmx.org/
User expectations of the web now include a super‑smooth, no‑reload experience. Unfortunately, that expectation is usually met with single‑page applications (SPAs) that rely on libraries and frameworks like React and Angular—very specialized tools that can be complicated to work with. A new approach is to put the ability to deliver this UX back into the hands of engineers who built websites before the SPA craze, leveraging their existing toolsets and knowledge, and HTMX is the best example I’ve used so far.

Web Summit Rio 2023: Building an App in 18 Minutes with GitHub Copilot X https://github.blog/2023-05-05-web-summit-rio-2023-building-an-app-in-18-minutes-with-github-copilot-x/
Missed GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s Web Summit Rio 2023 talk? Read his remarks and get caught up on everything GitHub Copilot X.

In‑Depth Reads

Bulletproof React https://github.com/alan2207/bulletproof-react
A simple, scalable, and powerful architecture for building production‑ready React applications.

Monoliths Are Not Dinosaurs https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2023/05/monoliths-are-not-dinosaurs.html
Building evolvable software systems is a strategy, not a religion. Revisiting your architectures with an open mind is a must.

Google “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI” https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-we-have-no-moat-and-neither https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LH3751pEeqBWxe375m0kXA
Leaked internal Google document claims open‑source AI will out‑compete Google and OpenAI. Related:

• Video: Geoffrey Hinton talks about the “existential threat” of AI
• [“AI教父”最新万字访谈：人类或是AI演化过程中的过渡阶段] (a lengthy interview with the “godfather of AI,” suggesting humanity may be a transitional stage in AI evolution) https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20230506A086D000
• [ChatGPT背后的语言模型简史] (a brief history of the language models behind ChatGPT) https://www.bmpi.dev/dev/deep-learning/nlp-language-models/
• Using generative AI to imitate human behavior
• Discover How to Write a ChatGPT Slack Bot in Node.js

The Malware Threat Landscape: NodeStealer, DuckTail, and More https://engineering.fb.com/2023/05/03/security/malware-nodestealer-ducktail/
We’re sharing our latest threat research and technical analysis of persistent malware campaigns targeting businesses across the internet, including threat indicators to help raise our industry’s collective defenses. These malware families—DuckTail, NodeStealer, and newer strains masquerading as ChatGPT and similar tools—targeted people through malicious browser extensions, ads, and various social media platforms with the aim of running unauthorized ads from compromised business accounts.

The Leadership Myth in Replicated Databases https://maheshba.bitbucket.io/blog/2023/05/06/Leadership.html
I’ve heard multiple times that a strong notion of leadership somehow simplifies replication. I don’t think this is true. I explain why in this post.

How LIquid Connects Everything So Our Members Can Do Anything https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2023/how-liquid-connects-everything-so-our-members-can-do-anything
In this post we explain how LIquid, LinkedIn’s graph database, delivers value for our members and customers by helping them quickly find what they’re interested in—whether it’s advice on skills, finding specialized talent for an important project, or connecting with a coach—all in real time.

记一次艰难的 debug 历程 https://blog.codingnow.com/2023/05/debug.html
Before the May 1 holiday I ran into a particularly stubborn bug that took me two full days to squash. Its sheer obstinacy ranks among the top three challenges of my career, so I thought it worth documenting.

Programming Types and Mindsets https://world.hey.com/dhh/programming-types-and-mindsets-5b8490bc
One of the longest‑running schisms in programming is static vs. dynamic typing. I’ve heard a million arguments from both sides throughout my career, but have seen very few actually convince anyone. Rationalizations masquerading as reason rarely win in matters of faith; the rider will always justify the way of the elephant.

Fresh Finds

• Chrome: Improved video calling with faster AV1 encoding

• Qwik Reaches v1.0: Qwik is a full‑stack web framework that brings a fundamentally new approach to delivering instant apps at scale!

• Mock Service Worker: Seamless REST/GraphQL API mocking library for browser and Node.js

• Introducing storage on Vercel

• NodeBB v3.0: The Node‑Based Forum System

• Marked V5.0: A markdown parser and compiler. Built for speed.

• Inquirer: A collection of common interactive command‑line user interfaces.

• Krita: Digital Painting. Creative Freedom

• The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide

Products & Others

Heptabase – My Vision: The Roadmap https://medium.com/heptabase/my-vision-the-roadmap-d2fbf92fdf97
In short, to help knowledge workers integrate their knowledge lifecycle of exploring → collecting → thinking → creating → sharing, we’re building an ecosystem of tools that optimize information interoperability, context retrieval, and collective knowledge creation, with the end goal of evolving a contextualized knowledge internet. That’s my vision of Heptabase.

人最重要的能力是什么？ [https://www.zhihu.com/ques…] (content truncated)

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.