Architectural Insights: Designing Efficient Multi-Layered Caching With Instagram Example

Caching is a critical technique for optimizing application performance by temporarily storing frequently accessed data, allowing for faster retrieval during subsequent requests. Multi-layered caching involves using multiple levels of cache to store and retrieve data. Leveraging this hierarchical structure can significantly reduce latency and improve overall performance. 

This article will explore the concept of multi-layered caching from both architectural and development perspectives, focusing on real-world applications like Instagram, and provide insights into designing and implementing an efficient multi-layered cache system.

How to Schedule Form Availability and Limit Submissions in Google Forms

When you create a Google Form, it is public by default meaning anyone who has the link to the form can submit a response. There forms, whether they are quizzes, polls or surveys, have no expiration date and they can collect unlimited number of responses until the form owner chooses to close it manually.

However, there are scenarios when setting limits on Google Forms can be beneficial. For instance:

  1. Contests and Giveaways: Limit entries to a specific number, on a first-come, first-served basis, and close the form automatically.
  2. Event Registrations: Set a closing date and automatically close registration forms after the event date.
  3. Quizzes and Assignments: School teacher can add restrictions and keep the form open only during specific days and hours, mimicking in-class availability.

Limit Google Form Responses

Google Forms doesn’t natively support the ability to schedule forms or limit responses. However, you can easily incorporate this functionality into your forms with the help of Form Notifications add-on for Google Forms. The add-on is primarily designed to send form responses in an email message but it also includes features to schedule Google Forms and limit responses.

How to Set Limits in Google Forms

Install the Forms add-on, go to your Google Form and click the add-ons menu (it looks like a puzzle icon).

Open Google Forms Limiter

From the menu, choose Email Notifications > Open App > Options > Limit Google Form Responses and you’ll see the settings panel as shown above. This is where you can easily control when and how many people can submit your Google Form.

1. Close Form after a Certain Number of Responses

You can specify the maximum number of responses that your Google Form should accept. Once the form has received the specified number of responses, it will automatically close itself and no new responses will be accepted.

You can also specify a custom message that will be displayed when someone accesses your closed form.

2. Close Form after a Specific Date and Time

You can specify the exact date and time when your Google Form should be closed for new responses. The form will automatically close itself on the specified date and time and no new responses will be accepted.

You may also specify an open date and your closed Google Form will automatically open on the scheduled date. This can be useful for event registration forms where the registrations should be opened for public only on a specific date.

Limit Google Form responses

3. Open and Close Form on a Recurring Schedule

You can easily set up a recurring schedule and keep your Google Form open only on specific days and within specific hours. The above example shows the form being available only on weekdays between 11:00 AM and 3:45 PM.

The Form limiter is written in Google Apps Script. You can find the source code on Github should you wish to roll out own form limiter.

Also see: How to Automate Google Forms

Important Things to Know

  • The form will close based on whichever condition is met first, either the response limit or the closing date.

  • All times mentioned are in the local timezone of the user’s browser who is setting up the form schedule and limits.

  • Due to Google add-ons’ technical constraints, the actual opening and closing times of the form may differ from your set times by about ±30 minutes.

  • If you would like to manually close your Google Form for new responses, open the Form, go to the Response tab and uncheck the Accepting Responses option. You can re-open the form anytime later by checking the Not Accepting Responses button.

Essential Relational Database Structures and SQL Tuning Techniques

Understanding the structures within a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is critical to optimizing performance and managing data effectively. Here's a breakdown of the concepts with examples.

RDBMS Structures

1. Partition

Partitioning in an RDBMS is a technique to divide a large database table into smaller, more manageable pieces, called partitions, without changing the application's SQL queries.  

How do you use LLM AI tools in your daily programming workflow ?

I am curious how other programmers that I have no interaction with in this subject , are using LLM AI tools in their daily programming workflow.

Although I use them I have an issue recommending them to others in my company because I believe you have to have a certain amount of experience to understand the B..S.. parts from the real useful ones. The coding hallucinations are starting to become so great that you can't tell if a library that the code uses doesn't exist (and never existed) because the usage and references are plausible. When you ask general programming questions you usually get answers that are common misconceptions and far from the truth. e.g. Some moments ago Gemini told me that when it replied that Memory tables are not faster than MyIssam or InnoDb it meant that most servers have less RAM than the table size !!! (maybe that was accurate 15 years ago ... but again ... not even then ... )

But... I realize that more and more ChatGPT and maybe even more Gemini , are part of my starting point when I search something related to programming.

What is your experience so far ?

An Approach To Synthetic Transactions With Spring Microservices: Validating Features and Upgrades

In fintech application mobile apps or the web, deploying new features in areas like loan applications requires careful validation. Traditional testing with real user data, especially personally identifiable information (PII), presents significant challenges. Synthetic transactions offer a solution, enabling the thorough testing of new functionalities in a secure and controlled environment without compromising sensitive data.

By simulating realistic user interactions within the application, synthetic transactions enable developers and QA teams to identify potential issues in a controlled environment. Synthetic transactions help in ensuring that every aspect of a financial application functions correctly after any major updates or new features are rolled out. In this article, we delve into one of the approaches for using synthetic transactions.

Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Age of Cyber Threats

Critical Infrastructure Protection is the need to safeguard a nation/region's important infrastructures, such as food, agriculture, or transportation. Critical infrastructures include transportation systems, power grids, and communication systems. Critical infrastructure protection is important to communities because any damage to these infrastructures is dangerous to global economies and the world.

 A cyber or cybersecurity threat is a harmful act that seeks to steal data, damage data, or disrupt digital life. Cyber threat is also the possibility of a successful cyber attack that aims to gain prohibited access to damage, disrupt, or steal an information technology asset, computer network, intellectual property, or any other form of sensitive data. Critical infrastructure protection is important to communities because any damage to these infrastructures is dangerous to global economies and the world.

Top 5 Common Cybersecurity Attacks MSPs Should Know in 2024

As Managed Service Providers (MSPs) continue to play a crucial role in managing IT services for businesses, understanding the landscape of cybersecurity threats becomes paramount. The year 2024 is no exception, with cybercriminals employing more sophisticated methods to breach defenses. This article delves into the top five common cybersecurity attacks that MSPs should be aware of in 2024, providing insights into prevention, mitigation, and the indispensable role of reliable backup solutions in ensuring data resilience.

Introduction to Cybersecurity for MSPs

In an era where digital threats are constantly evolving, MSPs must stay ahead of the curve to protect their clients effectively. The dynamic nature of cybersecurity demands continuous learning and adaptation to safeguard against new threats.

Here’s Why Developers Quit Their Jobs

Labor shortages plague the tech industry. Software development companies feel the weight of these challenges more than most, and many are taking the wrong approach to fix them.

Recruiting skilled developers has been IT leaders’ top challenge for two straight years, but focusing on new hires isn’t the solution. The developer labor market is highly competitive, and turnover is high. Consequently, it may be more helpful to focus on retaining current devs instead of finding people to replace them.

Architecture: Software Cost Estimation

Estimating workloads is crucial in mastering software development. This can be achieved either as an ongoing development part of agile teams or in response to tenders as a cost estimate before migration, among other ways.

The team responsible for producing the estimate regularly encounters a considerable workload, which can lead to significant time consumption if the costing is not conducted using the correct methodology.

Enhancing DevOps With AI: A Strategy for Optimized Efficiency

In the ever-evolving landscape of software development, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into DevOps practices emerges as a transformative strategy, promising to redefine the efficiency and effectiveness of development and operational tasks. This article explores the synergy between AI and DevOps, outlining its potential benefits, challenges, and practical applications through code examples. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview catering to professionals seeking to leverage AI to enhance their DevOps processes.

The Convergence of AI and DevOps

DevOps, a compound of development (Dev) and operations (Ops) emphasizes the continuous integration and delivery of software, fostering a culture of collaboration between developers and IT professionals. The incorporation of AI into DevOps, or AI-driven DevOps, introduces intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and enhanced decision-making into this collaborative framework, aiming to optimize workflow efficiency and reduce human error.

Mastering Data Preparation for Effective Dashboards

A Concise Guide To Mastering Data Preparation for Effective Dashboards

In the era of data-driven decision-making, Dashboards have become indispensable everyday tools for visualizing data insights and trends. However, the effectiveness of these dashboards is heavily dependent on the structure and the quality of the underlying data. This article dives into the critical processes of data cleaning, data blending, and data modeling and provides a roadmap for data preparation that powers insightful, actionable, and effective dashboards.

Foundation: The Three Pillars of Data Preparation

Before a dataset can be transformed into a compelling dashboard, it must undergo a meticulous data preparation process. This process ensures that data is accurate, consistent, and in a format that can be easily and effectively analyzed and consumed by the data visualization tools. 

The Enterprise Journey to Cloud Adoption

"Migrate" comes from the Latin "migratio," meaning to move from one place to another. In information technology, migration entails understanding new systems' benefits, identifying current system shortfalls, planning, and transferring selected applications. Not all IT assets must be moved; migration can mean moving a part of them. This article will delve into the details of transferring IT assets to public clouds like AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Many factors can influence the decision to switch to the cloud, such as expiring data center leases, the high costs of data center management, outdated hardware, software license renewals, geographical compliance needs, market growth, and the need to adjust resources to match demand quickly. Executive backing is crucial for a company to begin its cloud migration journey. This support is the cornerstone for any large-scale migration success. Leadership must unify their teams for the journey, as collaboration is essential. Attempts by isolated teams can lead to problems. Regular leadership meetings, whether weekly or bi-weekly, can overcome hurdles and keep the migration process on track.

Explore Salesforce OAuth Authorization Flows and Its Use Cases

Have you authorized an application to access Salesforce without giving your credentials to that application? Then, you must have used a Salesforce OAuth authorization flow. OAuth is a standard for authorization. Salesforce uses several OAuth flows, and all these flows have the following three steps in general. 

  1. The client app requests access to a protected resource in Salesforce
  2. The Salesforce authorizing server, in response to the request, sends the access token back to the client app
  3. The resource server (Salesforce) validates the access token and approves access to the protected resource

It is also important to understand the difference between authentication and authorization. Authentication is about verifying WHO you are, whereas authorization is about verifying WHAT you can do. A username and password are the most common type of authentication. Profiles or permission sets are associated with authorization. 

AI Against AI: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence To Detect Deepfakes and Vishing

In today's digital age, the proliferation of Deepfake technology and voice phishing (vishing) tactics presents a significant challenge to the authenticity and security of digital communications. Deepfakes manipulate audio and video to create convincing counterfeit content, while vishing exploits voice simulation to deceive individuals into revealing sensitive information. The need to accurately identify and mitigate these threats is paramount for protecting individuals and organizations from the potential consequences of misinformation, fraud, and identity theft.

Understanding Deepfakes and Vishing

Deepfakes are created using deep learning techniques, especially Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), to generate or modify videos and audio recordings, making them appear real. This technology can swap faces, mimic voices, and alter expressions with high precision.