Can we use AI to make compression better? Yes we can! In this post I outline a compression algorithm for English text built on top of GPT-2 that achieves an order of magnitude better compression ratio than gzip (and is several orders of magnitude slower to run 😉)

Although we usually hear about SSL/TLS in the context of securing HTTP traffic, it can actually be used to secure any socket connection. Today I explore what this looks like in Python.

Most of us come across computer networking concepts all the time, whether setting up websites, setting up docker containers to talk to each other, or debugging distributed systems. I realized my networking fundamentals are a bit lacking, so I spent a few hours reading and building.

I recently came to the conclusion that nicely formatted code tends to be better organized. Now I even think that automatic linters can (occasionally) expose ways to reorganize code and eliminate some code smells.

Doing and re-doing the same thing in different ways tends to be a good way to build expertise. By asking the same question numerous times in technical interviews, I realized repetition can open new sights even with very simple tasks. In this post I’ll walk through one of my favorite interviewing questions and several quite different ways of approaching it.