We were working on the data powering the Xbox console frontend for searches. For example, the metadata that powers a search like "romantic movie". The data was stored in Azure tables. We were all thinking about backup strategies for the data, serialization and deserialization etc. My suggestion was to simply create timestamped copies of the table. That is, if the table was X, the backup would be X_2026-01-18-14-25-00. This required no serialization and deserialization, could run entirely in memory and could shard the processing and was brutally fast. Also, by distributing the copies across multiple regions we could be more reliable. A simple and dumb solution vs a complex one :)
Claude Code is very good; good enough that I upgraded to the Max plan this week. However, it has a long way to go. It's great at one-shotting (with iterations) most ideas. However, it doesn't do as well when the task is complicated in an existing codebase. This weekend I migrated the backend for the SaaS I am building from Python to .NET Core. It did the migration but completely missed the conventions that the frontend was using to call the backend. While the converion itself went OK, every user journey was broken. I am still manually testing every code path and feeding in the errors to get Claude to fix it. My instructions were fairly comprehensive but Claude still missed most of it. My fault that I didn't generate tests first, but after this migration that's my first task.
Created modfin.lyfbits.com. Wrote it to help me model and determine various types of investment scenarios. Continuing to work on it. Not strictly vibe-coded. I use a brainstorm -> write specs with Gemini (requirements, APIs, user journeys, user experiences etc.) -> ask Claude to implement from Specs -> iterate and refine until it is exactly what I want it to be.
I have found that the initial specs only go so far; as I use, "what's missing" becomes clearer.
Workflow is build -> checkin to git -> build container -> deploy to Cloud Run. I have a number of instructions for Claude for logs, frontend, backend, logging etc. based on my past experience. Note that I am mostly a backend developer (AWS, Azure, GCP); I can't code frontend to save my life and on that front, the agents are helping me realize ideas rapidly.
I believe the reason for divesting from the registrar business had to do more with ICANN rules that require Google not both be a registry operator and a registrar. Google does have a large registry business with 60+ TLDs so they could not also be a registrar (even if not for the same TLDs). It wasn’t really a money thing AFAIK.
1) Software Engineers should follow structured processes and methods to solve problems. They might look different: state charts, sequence diagrams, formal methods, SDLC etc. However, they often don't because expediency wins over correctness. Where it does matter such as process control systems, embedded systems, they do follow these processes rigorously.
2) That said, there are a lot of folks who may not be aware of these methods because they didn't receive formal training. That is the beauty of our field; you don't need somebody to certify you if you can invent solutions and solve problems. I will refer you to what happened to the author of strongtowns.org. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/1/30/lawsuit-update.... So, no, I beg to differ. We don't need a board of wise old men lording it over the rest of us.
3) We are conversing on, reading the article via, accessing content over the Internet. This is public infrastructure. Without the software engineers who invented/built BGP, TCP/IP, SNMP, etc., we would not be able to do this.
I tried porkbun. Really wanted it to work. Tried to transfer two domains to them from Google. For some reason, their payment system kept declining my perfectly fine Chase Visa card. It wasn't a problem with Chase. The transaction didn't even show up. There was no fraud notification etc. Gave up and moved to CloudFlare. I suspect they might need to fix payment services first.
