September 2022 Summaries

The text discusses harnessing the power of reliable blockchain data with real-time query capability, specifically focusing on using Astra DB's Ethereum Blockchain dataset and Stargate API to simplify application development. It highlights the challenges developers face in accessing and managing blockchain data, such as lack of real-time availability, high costs, and complexity of navigating decentralized systems. The article then demonstrates how Astra DB's Ethereum Blockchain dataset can be leveraged to build applications like a real-time feed of every new NFT minted. It also provides an example of using simple API calls to pull necessary metadata from the dataset, reducing backend code complexity and allowing developers to focus on building their products. The text concludes by encouraging developers to subscribe to DataStax Tech Blog for more stories and follow them on social media for updates in the developer community.

Jennifer Edwards, a leadership coach and author of "Bridge the Gap," recently appeared on the Inspired Execution podcast to discuss common challenges faced by leaders today. She emphasized the importance of showing up authentically during challenging times and highlighted the need for healthy communication in business settings. Edwards also shared her advice on managing emotions during high-stakes conversations, including practicing radical compassion and taking time-outs when necessary. Her insights can be applied to both professional and personal contexts.

Temporal Co-Founder and CTO Samar Abbas discusses how the company empowers developers to build "invincible" apps using Astra DB. Developers often spend time worrying about their application's resiliency, but what they care most about is business logic - the part of the program that decides how data is created, modified, stored, and displayed. Temporal aims to make developers more productive by removing infrastructure management burdens and allowing them to focus on building business logic. The company chose Astra DB as their database solution due to its reliability and partnership potential. By creating durable execution in cloud-native app development, the future of invincible apps is looking promising with Temporal and Astra DB.

The DataStax Product Documentation Team has released several new features for their documentation site, focusing on improving the user experience for developers using DataStax cloud products such as Astra DB and Streaming in the Astra Portal. These updates include a new landing page with card-based layout to highlight important information, enhanced left-hand navigation for quick access to specific product documentation, and dark mode option. Additionally, a feedback form has been implemented at the bottom of each page to collect user input for continuous improvements. The team is also exploring videos, try-it API functionality, and other new experiences based on developer trends and user feedback.

In this third post of the Astra DB Crypto Blog Series, we introduce IPFS gateways and guide you through running your own to store NFT metadata on AWS. An IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a distributed system for storing and accessing data, making it popular in Web3 due to its decentralized nature. We set up an IPFS gateway to distribute our NFT's metadata faster and at a lower cost. Running your own IPFS gateway can be done using AWS as the cloud service provider, following instructions for the latest version of `go-ipfs`.

Kelly Battles, a strategic and financial leader at McKinsey, HP, and Quora, shares insights on her career journey, risk-taking, and work-life balance in an episode of Inspired Execution. She emphasizes the importance of understanding current events and seeing the world from different perspectives, as well as being passionate about one's work to make a positive impact. Battles discusses how she took risks throughout her career, including leaving her hometown for Princeton and saying "no" to certain opportunities that didn't align with her priorities at the time. She also shares her practical approach to achieving work-life balance by establishing priorities and using time blocking to allocate time equitably over a year. Battles encourages people early in their careers to be thoughtful and intentional when saying "no" to opportunities, and to enjoy the decision and move forward.