Elixir Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Sophie DeBenedetto on the Future of Elixir and LiveView Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, Sophie DeBenedetto emphasizes the importance of the Elixir community's commitment to education, documentation, and tools like liveBook, fostering an environment where people with varying skill levels can learn and contribute. The discussion highlights LiveView's capabilities and the role it plays in the future of Elixir, encouraging members to share knowledge and excitement for these tools through various channels.

Sophie invites listeners to attend and submit their talks for the upcoming Empex conference, which aims to showcase the best in Elixir and LiveView technologies. Additionally, the group shares light-hearted moments, reminding everyone to contribute to all types of documentation and promoting an inclusive atmosphere.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Updates on the latest release of the Programming Phoenix LiveView book
• The importance of community connection in Elixir conferences
• The future of documentation in the Elixir ecosystem
• The Elixir community's commitment to education and documentation
• LiveBook as a valuable tool for learning and experimenting
• Encouraging contributions across experience levels and skill sets
• Importance of sharing knowledge through liveBooks, blog posts, and conference talks
• Core Components in Phoenix LiveView, and modal implementation
• Creating a custom component library for internal use
• Reflecting on a Phoenix LiveView Project Experience
• Ease of using Tailwind CSS and its benefits in web development
• Advantages of LiveView in reducing complexity and speeding up project development
• LiveView's potential to handle large datasets using Streams
• The role of Elixir developers in the rapidly evolving AI landscape

Links in this episode:

Sophie DeBenedetto – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiedebenedetto
Programming Phoenix LiveView Book – https://pragprog.com/titles/liveview/programming-phoenix-liveview
Empex NYC - https://www.empex.co/new-york
SmartLogic - https://smartlogic.io/jobs
Phoenix LiveView documentation: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html
Live sessions and hooks: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.Router.html#live_session/1
LiveView: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html
Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/
Reuse Markup With Function Components and Slots
LiveView Card Components With Bootstrap
Building a Chat App With LiveView Streams

Special Guest: Sophie DeBenedetto.

Michael Lubas on the Future of Elixir Security Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode of Elixir Wizards, Michael Lubas, founder of Paraxial.io, joins hosts Owen Bickford and Bilal Hankins to discuss security in the Elixir and Phoenix ecosystem. Lubas shares his insights on the most common security risks developers face, recent threats, and how Elixir developers can prepare for the future.

Common security risks, including SQL injection and cross-site scripting, and how to mitigate these threats
The importance of rate limiting and bot detection to prevent spam SMS messages
Continuous security testing to maintain a secure application and avoid breaches
Tools and resources available in the Elixir and Phoenix ecosystem to enhance security
The Guardian library for authentication and authorization
Take a drink every time someone says "bot"
The difference between "bots" and AI language models
The potential for evolving authentication, such as Passkeys over WebSocket
How Elixir compares to other languages due to its immutability and the ability to trace user input
Potion Shop, a vulnerable Phoenix application designed to test security
Talking Tom, Sneaker Bots, and teenage hackers!
The importance of security awareness and early planning in application development
The impact of open-source software on application security
How to address vulnerabilities in third-party libraries
Conducting security audits and implementing security measures

Links in this episode:

Michael Lubas
Email - michael@paraxial.io
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellubas/

Paraxial.io - https://paraxial.io/
Blog/Mailing List - https://paraxial.io/blog/index
Potion Shop - https://paraxial.io/blog/potion-shop
Elixir/Phoenix Security Live Coding: Preventing SQL Injection in Ecto

Twitter - https://twitter.com/paraxialio
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/paraxial-io/
GenServer Social - https://genserver.social/paraxial
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@paraxial5874

Griffin Byatt on Sobelow: ElixirConf 2017 - Plugging the Security Holes in Your Phoenix Application
Erlang Ecosystem Foundation: Security Working Group - https://erlef.org/wg/security
Article by Bram - Client-Side Enforcement of LiveView Security

Special Guest: Michael Lubas.

Cory O'Daniel and the Future of DevOps in Elixir Programming Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Cory O'Daniel, CEO of Massdriver, talks with Sundi and Owen about the role of DevOps in the future of Elixir programming. They discuss the advantages of using Elixir for cloud infrastructure and the challenges of securing cloud systems. They elaborate on their hopes for the future, including processes and automation to streamline operations so programmers can spend more time doing what they love … writing software!

Major topics of discussion in the episode:

Cory’s ideal ratio of hot sauce to honey (recommended for chicken)
Why this episode was renamed “how Cory almost killed his dad."
The history of deployment with Elixir and Erlang
The benefits of using Kubernetes to deploy Elixir applications
The future of Elixir DevOps and Massdriver's role in solving related problems
Benefits of reducing the operational burden for developers
Whether Elixir is a good fit for Kubernetes
How DevOps has changed over the last 10 years.
The confusion about what DevOps actually means
The idea of "engineers doing everything" is not sustainable
A future where engineers don't need to know much about DevOps, and can focus on writing code
Minimizing the operational burden for developers
Monolithic application vs. microservices
Why Massdriver does not use Webhooks to update configurations
Security, access to source code, and potential source leaks
The idea of multi-cloud, site-wide outage, and cloud agnosticism
Hybrid cloud vs true multi-cloud
Standardizing methods of packaging and deploying applications in the future

Links mentioned in this episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic
Massdriver — https://www.massdriver.cloud/
State of Production Survey (with Sweet Raffle Prizes) — https://blog.massdriver.cloud/surveys/state-of-production-2023/
$5000 Massdriver Credit — https://www.massdriver.cloud/partners/elixir-wizards
Elephant in the Cloud Blog Post — https://startups.microsoft.com/blog/elephant-in-the-cloud/
RIAK — https://github.com/basho/riak
Otel — https://hexdocs.pm/
Terraform — https://hexdocs.pm/terraform/Terraform.html
DigitalOcean — https://www.digitalocean.com/
Heroku — https://www.heroku.com/
Linode — https://www.linode.com/
Docker — https://www.docker.com/
Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/
Webhooks — https://hexdocs.pm/elixir_plaid/webhooks.html
GitOps — https://hexdocs.pm/git_ops/readme.html
Helm — https://helm.sh/docs/

Special Guest: Cory O'Daniel.

Season 10 Kickoff: The Hosts Discuss The Future of Elixir Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

It’s the season 10 premiere of the Elixir Wizards podcast! Sundi Myint, Owen Bickford, and Dan Ivovich kick off the season with a spirited conversation about what they hope to see in the future of the Elixir programming language, experiences that inform their predictions, and excitement for this season’s lineup of guests.

They touch on how Elixir has evolved in the previous ten years and how the range of use cases has expanded beyond web development.

The hosts introduce the season 10 theme: The Next Ten Years of Elixir
Dan explains his initial hesitation and how he was ultimately won over by the language
Owen talks about functional programming and why Elixir piqued his interest
Sundi compares Elixir to other languages she’s worked with and why she thinks it’s more intuitive and readable
Sundi talks about her recent experience using Flutter for mobile application development
The hosts express excitement about the various ways Elixir is currently being used and its potential for growth
The Wizards express interest in hearing from guests this season to gain more perspective
They discuss Phoenix, LiveView, documentation, Flutter, Dart, and resources available to the Elixir community, and the benefits of being fluent in different programming languages
Owen suggests that Elixir and Phoenix are optimal for projects with limited resources and leaner teams
They highlight the importance of building resource-efficient apps that work well on low-powered devices
Dan expresses his desire to embrace types more but acknowledges that a first-party typing system is unlikely
The speakers discuss how Elixir has made complex tasks more accessible through features like LiveView, Phoenix Presence, WebSockets, Pub/Sub, Nerves, and ML libraries
They express excitement about the possibilities for the future of Elixir

Links mentioned in this episode:

That's a Wrap: Season 9 Finale with Sundi, Bilal, Owen & Dan! Dec 29, 2022

Show notes

Elixir Wizards Season 9 is coming to an end! In the season finale, hosts Sundi, Bilal, Owen, and Dan reflect on the guests and highlights that made this season unforgettable. We thank you for joining us as we parsed the particulars and can't wait to reconnect next season for more insightful conversations!

*Please remember to take our LISTENER SURVEY so we can come back bigger and better for Season 10 – Coming in early 2023!! *

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

Marcelo Dominguez on Command and Query Responsibility Segregation Dec 22, 2022

Show notes

Today on Elixir Wizards, Marcelo Dominguez, co-founder at Mimiquate, joins us to parse the particulars of command query responsibility segregation (CQRS). Mimiquate is a specialized team of developers providing solutions for their clients with Elixir, Ruby on Rails, and Ember. Tune in to learn the benefits and potential applications of CQRS.

*Please remember to take our LISTENER SURVEY so we can come back bigger and better for Season 10 – Coming in early 2023!! *

The Wizards catch up with Marcelo and hear about ElixirConf Uruguay and Advent of Code 2022
Marcelo and the hosts run through their experience with CQRS and event sourcing
The definition of CQRS
What is the elevator pitch for CQRS
Marcelo distinguishes between database writes and reads
What are some limitations of the CRUD pattern
How to know whether your application will benefit from the CQRS pattern
What tools are in the Elixir ecosystem for implementing CQRS
How to quickly recover from outages within a mature CQRS application
How multi-node distribution impact CQRS architecture

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Eventsourcing and CQRS in Elixir
CQRS Pattern (Microsoft)
Commanded (Hex Docs)
Advent of Code
Marcelo’s Advent of Code Gist for Day 1

Marcelo Dominguez on LinkedIn — https://uy.linkedin.com/in/marpo60
Marcelo Dominguez on Twitter — https://twitter.com/marpo60
Marcelo Dominguez on GitHub – https://github.com/marpo60
Mimiquate – https://www.mimiquate.com/
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

Chris Miller on Crafting a Programming Language Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

Today on Elixir Wizards, Chris Miller, software engineer at Corvus Insurance, joins us again for an in-depth discussion on the different approaches to programming. We dive into the conception and origin of new languages and how they evolve to solve new problems over time.

*Please remember to take our LISTENER SURVEY so we can come back bigger and better for Season 10 – Coming in early 2023!! *

Key Points From This Episode:

The hosts catch up with Chris and learn a bit about Corvus Insurance
What excites Chris about programming language and new ways of thinking
Chris' fascination with all different types of languages from Chinese to Greek to C++
We get a refresher on the concept of Domain Specific Language
What DSL is being used for certains problems in the domain at Corvus Insurance
Why a coder should care about the crafting of a programming language
We discuss why all coders don't only write assembly code
Chris breaks down how he has attempted to write his own programming language
We learn some inside tips on how stay within the abstract boundary when building a domain
How Chris' experience with multiple coding languages has influenced his work in Elixir
What the advantage of knowing multiple languages is

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Corvus Insurance on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CorvusInsurance
Corvus Insurance -- https://www.corvusinsurance.com/
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

Frank Hunleth and Joe Martin on the Particulars of Nerves Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

Today on Elixir Wizards, we speak with two great minds in the Elixir community: Frank Hunleth from SmartRent and Joe Martin from Company Six. Join us to parse the particulars of Nerves, from production and terminology, to stacks, customization, and how they function.

*Please remember to take our LISTENER SURVEY so we can come back bigger and better for Season 10 – Coming in early 2023!! *

Key Points From This Episode:

How both Frank & Joe became interested in Elixir
We learn what nerves is currently being used for in production
How Nerves is being utilized within farming and energy companies
What the elevator pitch for nerves would be
How well nerves play with pre-existing embedded projects in other languages, especially when having to coexist within a system
How much can a user customize nerves
What is Buildroot and the functions that it serves
Frank explains how there are two worlds: elixir world & nerves systems
Joe and Frank let us know what they are most excited about in the near future of nerves and Elixir

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

LISTENER SURVEY – https://smr.tl/survey2022
Nerves Livebook – https://github.com/livebook-dev/nerves_livebook
Frank Hunleth on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhunleth/
Frank Hunleth on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fhunleth
Frank Hunleth on GitHub -- https://github.com/fhunleth
Joe Martin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-martin-265861b2/
Joe Martin on GitHub – http://github.com/josephmartin09
SmartRent -- https://smartrent.com/
Company Six – https://www.co6.com/
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

Jenny Bramble on Testing and Collaboration at Papa Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Today on Elixir Wizards, we chat with Jenny Bramble. Jenny is the Director of Quality Engineering at Papa, a platform that connects older adults and low-income families with companionship and a helping hand with daily tasks. Tune in to learn more about Jenny's experience with testing and team collaboration at Papa.

Key Points From This Episode:

Jenny tells us about her journey to learning Elixir (for 8 years now!)
We learn about the 24 talks that Jenny has done as a keynote speaker
The breakdown of her talk this year at Elixir Conf on upgrades
How Jenny got in to writing tests after going to college for computer science
What goes into developer handoff and how that varies depending on the company and team
The connection and importance between customer service and empathy
What it's like to work in Quality Engineering and Testing at Papa
What is testing?
She provides helpful tips of things that tend to be caught up by QA during code reviews
Jenny has a course on management for Test Automation coming out in 2023!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jenny Bramble on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybramble/
Jenny Bramble on Twitter — https://twitter.com/jennydoesthings
Jenny Bramble on GitHub -- https://github.com/jennydoesthings
Papa -- https://www.papa.com/
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

Harper Atlas on Tailwind From the Perspective of a Designer Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

We are excited to have SmartLogic's own Harper Atlas as our guest on Elixir Wizards today! Harper, a product designer at SmartLogic (and cat lady at home), joins us on this episode to parse the particulars of the Tailwind framework from a designer's perspective. Join us to gain insights from our first non-engineer guest in this spirited conversation with Harper!

Key Points From This Episode:

We learn about Harper’s journey into the UX field
Harper breaks down her day-to-day life as a product designer at SmartLogic
What the difference between FigMa and FigJam is
The good & bad sides of Tailwind
What goes into developer handoff and how that varies depending on the company and team
The importance of finding common language and bridging the gap between developer island and design island within a developer handoff
The features that Harper doesn’t like about Tailwind
How Tailwind has started to feel like the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Harper gives developers some advice on how to be more helpful to designers while working in a Tailwind space

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Harper Atlas on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/harper-atlas
Harper Atlas on Twitter — https://twitter.com/harperatlas
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
SmartLogic Twitter — https://twitter.com/smartlogic

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