In Java, the finalize method has been part of the language since its early days, offering a mechanism to perform cleanup activities before an object is garbage collected. However, using finalizers has come under scrutiny due to several performance-related concerns. As of Java 9, the finalize method has been deprecated, and its use is highly discouraged.
Delayed Garbage Collection
Finalizers can substantially slow down the garbage collection process. When an object is ready to be collected but has the finalize method, the garbage collector must call this method and then re-check the object in the next garbage collection cycle. This two-step process delays memory reclamation, leading to increased memory usage and potential memory leaks.
Welcome to the distributed systems series. In this article, we are going to learn about consistent hashing and its usage in distributed systems. Why consistent hashing is important and how it plays a role in designing distributed systems such as databases, cache, etc. Let’s first understand what is hashing and how it is used to distribute data across machines. Then, we will understand what is consistent hashing.
Hashing
Hashing is a technique that generates a unique ID for an object. A simple example would be the hashcode function in Java, which returns a unique ID for an immutable object. This returned ID is used to choose the bucket from an array of buckets for storage and retrieval. In order for this hashing function to return the correct value, the object or key that we use to hash should be immutable. This is how hashing works in Java to store and retrieve the value in the HashMap data structure. If you know how hashmap works, the concept is pretty similar in distributed systems. In distributed systems, we have an array of machines to store the data, and we have to decide which machines should hold the specific data. The following diagram explains how hashing is used to store {key, value} data on different machines.
Is a generative AI preamble necessary for a newsletter focused on Knowledge Graphs, Graph Databases, Graph Analytics, and Graph AI? Normally, it should not be. However, the influence of generative AI on the items included in this issue was overwhelming. There is a simple explanation for that.
It's been a year since Generative AI burst into the mainstream with the release of ChatGPT. Notwithstanding a rather spotty record both in terms of technical performance and accuracy as well as in terms of business reliability, there's no denying that Generative AI has captured the attention of executives worldwide.
In 2023, the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Alpaca, Falcon, Llama 2, and GPT-4 indicates a trend toward AI democratization. This allows even small companies to afford customized models, promoting widespread adoption. However, challenges persist, such as restricted licensing for open-source models and the costs of fine-tuning and maintenance, which are manageable mainly for large enterprises or research institutes.
The key to maximizing LLM potential is in fine-tuning and customizing pre-trained models for specific tasks. This approach aligns with individual requirements, providing innovative and tailored solutions. Fine-tuning not only enhances model efficiency and accuracy but also optimizes system resource utilization, requiring less computational power than training from scratch.
The world of artificial intelligence is seeing rapid advancements, with language models at the forefront of this technological renaissance. These models have revolutionized the way we interact with machines, turning sci-fi dreams into everyday reality. As we step into an era where conversational AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, a new contender has emerged in the AI arena: Llama 2. Developed by Meta AI, Llama 2 is setting the stage for the next wave of innovation in generative AI.
Let’s dive into the details of this groundbreaking model.
If you’re planning to launch an ecommerce store, selecting the right platform to run your online business is one of the most crucial Aspects of the process. This is because it will determine a lot of what you can and can’t do, how you’ll do it, and what it’ll cost you. While there are various options available, WooCommerce and Shopify are two of the most commonly recommended platforms. Given the conflicting opinions you get when comparing Shopify vs WooCommerce, it can be tough to know what to believe. To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled an in-depth comparison of these two ecommerce heavyweights.
Digital marketing is the marketing done through internet. online marketing/internet marketing/digital marketing helps your brand to stand out with fellow competitors in creative way.
Online marketing is considered to be the best than the conventional/traditional marketing in many ways such as
due to affordability, easy to reach out to your customers, due to availability of many tools ,etc.
A business without a digital channel is looked down since having a digital platform for your brand can really help in creating a credibility among the audience.
WordPress is a flexible platform that works well for different types of websites. Whether you’re running a blog, news site, magazine, university, college, eCommerce store, or business website, WordPress can manage a variety of tasks efficiently. Its versatility makes it suitable for handling diverse website needs effectively. Email newsletters are a great way to increase […]
Search engines opt to show different formats of results depending on what’s searched. Among those, you have regular results (title and meta description), Q&As, advertisements, and rich snippets. In this article, we’ll talk more about what rich snippets are and how you can use them. Then we’ll show you how to use rich snippets in WordPress. Let’s get to it!
Internet of Vehicles, or IoV, is the product of the marriage between the automotive industry and IoT. IoV data is expected to get larger and larger, especially with electric vehicles being the new growth engine of the auto market. The question is: Is your data platform ready for that? This article shows you what an OLAP solution for IoV looks like.
What Is Special About IoV Data?
The idea of IoV is intuitive: to create a network so vehicles can share information with each other or with urban infrastructure. What‘s often under-explained is the network within each vehicle itself. On each car, there is something called Controller Area Network (CAN) that works as the communication center for the electronic control systems. For a car traveling on the road, the CAN is the guarantee of its safety and functionality, because it is responsible for:
Josh Comeau has a new learning guide out for CSS grid: An Interactive Guide to CSS Grid. I like how Josh gets into the “mental model” right away, because that’s the biggest thing with big APIs like this: you need to get the basics of how it works in your head so you know when and why to reach for it. The niche details are less important. You can look them up. Mostly you need to understand that the thing exists and what it is capable of. Ideally you can write a basic setup from memory. Then the more niche stuff you reference. Josh’s guide, especially with the interactivity, loads you up with that mental model.
Josh has done the same before with an An Interactive Guide to Flexbox. The interactive bit goes a long way in locking in that mental model. In my CSS-Tricks days, our guide to flexbox was also decent at explaining the model I think, and also was a decent reference guide at the same time. But it didn’t have that interactivity so people were left to extracting the information to their own code to play. Once people are writing their own layout code, I’d wager that’s also a pretty big moment for locking in a mental model. CodePen editable embeds might be a good way to bring that to guides like this. I know that a very lot of people had their ah-ha moment with flexbox via Flexbox Froggy, and I think it’s that combination of interactivity and real code that made that so effective.
Speaking of Cool Josh Ideas, have you seen his operator lookup page? JavaScript has a pretty decent number of operators, and some of them you really have to look up to remember sometimes:
Sometimes my brain goes… what’s the one where you set the value, but if the value is null, provide a fallback. Which is this one.
My brain goes a little like this. This is really common code to see, but it’s actually invalid JavaScript:
import lodash from "lodash";
If you see code like that, traditionally, it means that the JavaScript will be going through a processor of some sort that is going to resolve "lodash" to some actual location where that code can be found. If we wanted that code to be valid JavaScript, we’d either have to:
Import from a relative file path (e.g. that string has got to start with a dot or a slash)
Import from a URL
The latter being like:
import lodash from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.21/+esm'
But now, the original import statement actually is valid. That is, as long as we use an import map. From Yoshi’s article, something like:
Think of it like string replacement. The "lodash" in the import statement becomes "/node_modules/lodash-es/lodash.js" and a valid relative file path import. That could be a URL as well.
I like the idea that an import map can help orchestrate imports across an entire codebase from one place, and eliminate a lot of repetition, and be a tool in using less build processes.
I talk about them quickly in a video I did the other day if that’s helpful. There is some extra nuance to them, like an import map key can replace only part of an import path if that’s helpful.
Shout out to Flavio Copes for the recent release of The Valley of Code which looks like a great reference, up from “first principles”, of web development work. Not a lot of guides like this are so comprehensive the start out with URLs and DNS before going on to higher level languages like HTML and CSS.
I shared a video of Szenia Zadvornykh’s Crowd Simulator the other day (just because it’s awesome). It’s just one image if you can believe that. Us early 2010’s developers remember sprite sheets.
It’s almost like those illustrated people are the result of some fancy drawing algorithm. Well, here’s something like that! CSS-PEEPS is “one CSS file, one <div>, and over 5 MILLION combinations” of people.
That’s me in 2 years when I inevitably need glasses and try hair regrowth techniques doing my “well actually” look.
So while React/Next.js may be relegated to the enterprise and legacy systems in a few years, they completely transformed front-end development and created ripple effects in many other technologies. One of many great ideas stemming from this stack is JSX. I think JSX has a chance to stay relevant and useful beyond React/Next.
I’m maybe a little more bullish on Next.js because it does a lot really well, has a lot of momentum, support, and has some DX that is hard to match. But that’s a little besides the point. JSX, as an industry thing, might just end up having bigger influence over time than React itself. It’s just a pretty good HTML templating language.
Are you looking for a way to replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress?
The default WordPress theme and plugin editors are plain text editors with limited functionality. By replacing these editors with better tools, you can use advanced features like access control, child theme creation, file downloads, and more.
In this article, we will show you how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress.
Why Replace the Default Theme and Plugin Editor in WordPress?
The default theme editor in the dashboard of your WordPress website allows you to make direct changes to the code in your theme files.
Similarly, the plugin editor lets you edit the code of the installed plugins on your website.
These built-in editors have text editor interfaces that lack advanced features like access control, file download/upload, and child theme creation. This makes it time-consuming for you to add and maintain custom code.
Plus, if an unauthorized person gains access to your WordPress admin area, then they can easily access the default editors to edit your theme and plugin files. This can allow them to install malware on your website.
By replacing these editors with a plugin, you can easily customize your WordPress themes and plugins from the dashboard by adding or removing code snippets, customizing colors, modifying various template files, CSS styles, and more.
This will allow you to make quick changes to your theme or plugin without accessing your website files via FTP.
You can also create child themes, control editor access to make your website more secure, and even upload files to your plugins and themes from your computer.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the different parts of our tutorial:
Upon activation, you need to head over to the Theme Editor » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, check the ‘Yes’ box for the ‘Enable code editor for theme’ option.
After that, if you want to disable the default WordPress theme editor, then you need to check the ‘Yes’ box next to the ‘Disable WordPress theme file editor?’ option.
Once you have done that, just switch to the ‘Plugin Editor’ tab at the top.
Here, you need to check the ‘Yes’ box next to the ‘Enable code editor for plugin’ option.
You can also disable the default editor by choosing the ‘Yes’ option for the ‘Disable WordPress plugin file editor?’ setting.
Next, switch to the ‘Code Editor’ tab from the top of the page.
From here, you can choose a theme for the code editor from the dropdown menu. This will display the code in your theme and plugins in different backgrounds and font colors.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Editing Your Theme Files Using the Theme Editor
Now, you need to visit the Theme Editor » Theme Code Editor page from the WordPress admin dashboard.
Once you are there, you need to select the theme that you want to edit from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen. Next, you must choose the theme file where you want to add code from the sidebar on the right.
After that, you can easily add, remove, or edit code to your theme files from the theme editor on your screen.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update File’ button to store your settings.
You can also download the file you just edited by clicking on the ‘Download File’ button. If you want to download the whole theme instead, then you can click the ‘Download Theme’ button.
Editing Your Plugins Using the Plugin Editor
If you want to add code to your plugin files instead, then you need to visit the Theme Editor » Plugin Code Editor page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, choose a plugin to edit from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen.
After that, you can select a plugin file to edit from the sidebar on the right and then edit it using the plugin code editor.
Once you are satisfied with your changes, just click the ‘Update File’ button to store your settings.
You can even download the file you just edited by clicking the ‘Download File’ button.
If you want to download the plugin with all the changes that you have made, then you can click the ‘Download Plugin’ button instead.
Configuring Access Control With the Theme Editor Plugin
The Theme Editor plugin even lets you control access to your theme and plugin editors in WordPress. However, this feature is only available in the pro version of the plugin.
This way, only users who you approve will be able to edit the themes and plugins on your website.
By using access control, you make your website more secure by allowing only trustworthy users to make changes to your files, reducing the risk of malware.
First, you need to visit the Theme Editor » Access Control page from the WordPress dashboard.
From here, you just need to check the options in the columns that you want the WordPress user roles to have access to.
For example, if you want the editor to have the ability to update theme files, then you need to check that box in the ‘Editor’ row.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Creating a Child Theme With the Theme Editor
If you want to create a child theme to customize your WordPress themes, then you can visit the Theme Editor » Child Theme page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, you will first need to choose a parent theme from the dropdown menu in the middle and then click the ‘Analyze’ button.
Once that’s done, you must provide a name for your new theme directory and select where to save your child theme stylesheet.
After that, you can even provide a name, description, author, and version for the child theme that you are creating.
Once you are done, just click the ‘Create New Child Theme’ button.
Now that you have created a child theme, you can edit the selector, web fonts, CSS, child style, and theme files from the menu bar at the top of the page.
The changes that you make will automatically be saved in your child theme.
Bonus: Use WPCode to Add Custom Code to Your Website
Adding code to your website using plugins or theme file editors is always a bit risky because the smallest error can break your WordPress website and make it inaccessible.
That is why we recommend using the free WPCode plugin instead to add custom code to your website. It is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market.
Upon activation, you need to head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, you can use the WPCode snippet library to add pre-made code snippets to your WordPress site.
However, if you want to add custom code, then you can also do that by clicking the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will open the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by adding a title for your code snippet.
After that, you need to select a code type from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen. For example, if you want to add PHP code, then you just need to select the ‘PHP Snippet’ option.
Next, simply add your custom code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.
Once you have done that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ mode.
Your custom code will be automatically executed on your site upon activation.
Finally, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.
After that, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to save and execute the custom code on your website.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to safely update WordPress and our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins to grow your site.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Producer-consumer patterns are used extensively in systems all around us. In producer-consumer pattern-based systems, producers write data that one or multiple consumers consume. This pattern allows producer systems to scale while distributing functionality among multiple consumer systems. Just like any other distributed system, the uptime of a producer-consumer system depends on how well it protects itself from the various failure modes and, when impacted, how quickly it can recover.
In this article, we analyze the various failure modes of producer-consumer systems, their impact, how we can detect the failures, mitigate them, and review the protections we can put in place to prevent the failure modes from happening.
My post about my 6-month job search generated some attention and conversation. The comments helped me clarify some of the more specific lessons I’ve learned recently or that I knew but were reinforced by the experience. After taking time to organize them into a somewhat coherent structure, I’m ready to share. Here are the first lessons on the list.
If you want to encourage and enable continuous improvement within your enterprise, analytics can go a long way toward helping you achieve your goal. When you provide access to augmented analytics solutions for your business users, you distribute knowledge and engender fact-based decision making, helping your users to accurately complete tasks and plan for future success.
McKinsey recently surveyed 2000 businesses and found that 83% of high-tech/media/telecom, 76% of banking, and more than 50% of consumer companies identified as continuous improvement organizations. There is good reason for these results. Continuous improvement improves results! And, as McKinsey reports, continuous improvement companies seek to eliminate costs and to empower employees to improve efficiency and growth of product and service innovation.
Delayed Garbage Collection
If you’re planning to launch an ecommerce store, selecting the right platform to run your online business is one of the most crucial Aspects of the process. This is because it will determine a lot of what you can and can’t do, how you’ll do it, and what it’ll cost you. While there are various options available, WooCommerce and Shopify are two of the most commonly recommended platforms. Given the conflicting opinions you get when comparing Shopify vs WooCommerce, it can be tough to know what to believe. To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled an in-depth comparison of these two ecommerce heavyweights. 
Search engines opt to show different formats of results depending on what’s searched. Among those, you have regular results (title and meta description), Q&As, advertisements, and rich snippets. In this article, we’ll talk more about what rich snippets are and how you can use them. Then we’ll show you how to use rich snippets in WordPress. Let’s get to it! 
