192: Operational Elixir: Scrappy Startups Edition

In this second installment of our series, we're joined by Philip Brown, who returns to share his insights on running lean startups in the Elixir ecosystem. We dive into the art of supporting Elixir systems on a shoestring budget. Philip will walk us through his must-haves for MVPs, offering practical advice on how to leverage cost-effective solutions without sacrificing functionality. We'll discuss the balancing act between delivering a product and managing expenses, and highlight the essential tools that keep a scrappy startup's Elixir system robust yet affordable. Tune in for a candid look at making the most of limited resources, insights into Prise.com, ElixirMerge.com strategies, and more for the aspiring bootstrapper!

Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/192

Elixir Community News

• https://github.com/erlang/eep/pull/59 – Erlang EEP 68, a new JSON module, has been accepted and merged into OTP's standard library.
• https://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0068 – Details on Erlang EEP 68, which claims to significantly outperform other JSON libraries like Jason and jiffy.
• Speculation on whether EEP 68 will be included in OTP 27 and its performance compared to existing JSON libraries.
• https://github.com/electric-sql/pglite – PostgreSQL has been redeveloped as a WASM library called PGlite, allowing it to run in browsers and other environments without additional dependencies.
• https://twitter.com/sasajuric/status/1762394843341353390 – Announcement of the printing of 'Elixir in Action 3rd Edition' and its rank on Manning's bestseller list.
• Remember to use the "devtalk.com" or "mljuric3" coupon codes until March 9th for 45% off the ebook.
• Release updates on Language Server Protocols (LSPs) for Elixir and Erlang, detailing new features and improvements like autocomplete and diagnostics.
• https://twitter.com/zeddotdev/status/1757882887972528152 – Zed, a high-performance, multiplayer code editor now offers support for Erlang.
• https://zed.dev/ – Zed editor's official website where you can find more information about its capabilities and open source nature.
• https://twitter.com/thmsmlr/status/1762210503810507140 – Thomas Millar introduces kino_livereload, a library for LiveBook to auto-reload cells when source code changes.
• https://github.com/thmsmlr/kino_livereload – GitHub repository for kino_livereload, showcasing its live reload feature for LiveBook cells.
• https://fly.io/phoenix-files/what-if-s3-could-be-a-fast-globally-synced-key-value-database-that-s-tigris/ – An article describing Tigris, a globally-synced, S3-compatible file storage service designed for Fly.io.
• Explanation of how Elixir applications can take advantage of Tigris as a key-value store using :erlang.term_to_binary for storing any Elixir data structure.
• https://twitter.com/wojtekmach/status/1759511154131427516 – Release announcement for Req v0.4.10, an HTTP client for Elixir with added functionality for stubbing responses in concurrent tests.
• https://elixirforum.com/t/req-a-batteries-included-http-client-for-elixir/48494/34 – Elixir Forum discussion thread about the latest updates and features in Req.
• https://hexdocs.pm/req/Req.Test.html – Documentation for the Req.Test module, detailing new functions for stubbing HTTP responses in tests.
• https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebee/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md – Changelog for Bumblebee's recent releases, including updates and new feature highlights.
• Mention of contributions from Jonatan Kłosko and added Bumblebee features such as Mistral LLM support and the :seed option for generating inputs.
• https://twitter.com/polvalente/status/1762234885777817666 – Nx v0.7.0 is released with EXLA's MLIR implementation, enabling new possibilities like quantization and Apple Metal support.
• https://github.com/brainlid/langchain – Update to the Elixir LangChain library to align with the latest features of Bumblebee, allowing conversations with various LLMs.
• Additional details on how the updated LangChain library supports LLMs like Llama 2, Mistral, and Zephyr, and its flexibility in changing conversation models.

Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com

Discussion Resources

• https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/133 – Previous interview with Philip about his service Prise.com
• https://elixirmerge.com – Elixir Merge newsletter
• https://github.com/elixir-haystack/haystack – Haystack - Simple extendible search engine written in Elixir
• https://fly.io
• https://sentry.io/
• https://www.appsignal.com/
• https://github.com/wyeworks/boom
• https://postmarkapp.com/
• ElixirMerge sends email's at 8:00am in the user's timezone.
• https://sendgrid.com/en-us
• https://resend.com/
• https://aws.amazon.com/ses/
• https://plausible.io/
• https://clarity.microsoft.com/
• https://github.com/spreedly/kaffe
• https://www.metabase.com/
• https://clarity.microsoft.com/ – Microsoft Clarity

Guest Information

• https://twitter.com/philipbrown – on Twitter
• https://github.com/philipbrown/ – on Github
• https://yflag.com – Page about his consulting services
• https://culttt.com – Blog
• https://elixirmerge.com – Elixir Merge newsletter

Find us online

• Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
• Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
• Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
• Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
• Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
• David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
• David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
• Cade Ward - @cadebward
• Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social

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