D20bench - Benchmarking LLMs with Dungeons & Dragons Combat
How I turned a D&D combat engine into an LLM benchmark, why the models only looked stupid, and how a language model ended up beating my scripted AI. Open source, and you can help.
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How I Built a D&D Combat Simulator in Three Weeks
I kept asking LLMs who would win D&D battles. They kept getting it wrong. So I built BattleCast - a grid-based 5e combat simulator with 317 monsters, 12 hero classes, and 10,000-trial Monte Carlo. It hit #1 on r/dndnext.
e4developer is back
After a long break, e4developer is back. New role at Meta, new side projects, and a fresh start for the blog.
E4developer, Facebook, chess and life in 2020
It has been a while since I last time wrote a post here, hence I wanted to update you on what is happening with the website (why the lack of activity) and what’…
Journey to DevOps - Talk at the DevOps Roundabout
On the 24th of September 2019, I had an opportunity to speak at the very first DevOps Roundabout meetup in London. You can watch my talk on YouTube.
AWS IAM - Looking at some of the more advanced features
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is one of the most important services available in AWS. Most people know that you can create user accounts and assign…
AWS Solution Architect Pro, Good Habits and Blogging
I have been posting a little bit less recently. In some ways, it is easier to write two blog posts a week than one blog post once in a while.
Code Sharing in Microservices Architecture - YouTube Course
I am very excited to share with you my mini video course on “Code Sharing in Microservices Architecture”. The course consist of 5 videos: This is the first time…
You should learn multiple programming languages
The first language I used to write a small program was Pascal. Since then I have worked professionally with Java, JavaScript, Groovy and a few more. Currently…
Microservices - Why Do You Need A Service Mesh?
Working for consultancy, I already had a chance to build microservice based systems in large financial organisations as well as public sector ones.
Quick Guide to all the “Ops”
You probably heard about Ops, DevOps, maybe even about GitOps! This short article is a “jargon buster” explaining what all these different terms mean and which…
Which Java JDK should I use? Which provide free LTS?
With Oracle stopping free updates for Java 8 and effectively only maintaining free updates with the latest Java release (12 at the time of writing) a natural…
“The Journey to DevOps” - my first white paper
I am quite excited to share with you “The Journey to DevOps” (announcement and the download link here), the first white paper that I have published with my…
Java 9 to 12 - all the language modifications
We have all had quite a lot of time to get familiar with Java 8 and all the amazing features that it provided us with. Since then quite a lot have happened…
“Just in time knowledge” and the value of knowing a little
To be a good software developer you need to know some things very well. You can’t get away without actually knowing your programming language of choice…
What makes a good software developer CV?
Writing CV is a bit of a game. You are trying to create a short piece of writing, focused on yourself, that will get you to the interview. Ideally…
Deliberate Practice for Software Developers
You might have heard of the 10,000-hour rule. It supposedly takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at something. This number will, of course…
Alexa, say a Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you missed these blog posts at least a little bit. I had a good rest during the festive period and feel ready to start writing and hacking again. In this article, I want to tell you about my most recent fascination- programming for Alexa (Echo) enabled devices.
I wrote 100 blog posts in 2018 - how it went and what’s next?
I wanted to write 2 blog posts a week in 2018, which would result in at least 100 blog posts in a year… This is the number 100! I could not be happier! In this centenary blog post, I look back at the journey that took me here. I will also share with you some of the ideas for this blog in 2019.
Software architecture in the world of microservices
The topic of software architecture comes up often when discussing microservices. Many newcomers to microservices are not sure how to handle discussing…
Having just the right amount of technical debt
Today I want to talk to you about technical debt. This is a topic that comes up a lot and often generates some emotions. Developers often want to have a minimal…
Making your machine learning idea real with AWS
Machine Learning and its applications are getting more popular every day. For many developers, building a machine learning powered application seems like a…
Reddit API Authentication with Java/Spring
I am a big fan of Reddit. The platform is great for learning and sharing programming knowledge… In fact, it contains so much knowledge and opinion…
Java surprises - Unexpected behaviours and features
Java is a very mature programming language – in fact, it is over 21 years old, so if it was a person it could drink even in the USA! With age comes wisdom…
Leading developers vs managing them
Words like leadership and management are used often when discussing software projects. While they may sound similar, they are quite different and are often (but…
How to learn AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the most popular Cloud solution out there. More and more companies are using it every day. It makes development easier, safer…
My favourite Design Pattern - Strategy
Among many OOP design patterns described, the one that influenced my development the most is the Strategy Pattern. In this article, I will briefly explain what…
Should you let your developers work from home?
It seems that everyone wants to work remotely these days. Why wouldn’t they? There are some obvious benefits, such as reduced commute and working from the…
Single Responsibility Principle - do you know the real one?
Single Responsibility Principle, as defined in the very famous set of SOLID principles, is often misunderstood. When asked what it means…
“Algorithms to Live By” - My Favourite Developer Audiobook
Today I want to share with you a review of the most exciting book I have listened to so far -“Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions” by…
The Physics of the Agile Methodology
There are numerous articles out there talking about agile teams and how being agile will change your life/project. I agree with what Agile Manifesto proposes…
Should you use Spring Boot in your project?
Spring Boot is enjoying, a seemingly never-ending growth of popularity. While only released in 2014, it has managed to overtake the Java serverside in less than…
Implementing Minimax Algorithm in Java
If you want to write a program that is able to play a strategy game, there are good chances that you will be looking at a Minimax algorithm.
Please, stop writing so many “for loops” in Java!
In this blog post, I want to take you back to basics and talk about Java for loops. To be honest, I am writing this blog post partially for myself…
Audiobooks - a secret weapon of a busy software developer
I have blogged about my road to productivity recently. I received a comment there from one of my readers asking me if I have a secret weapon that helped me be…
Microservices and cross cutting concerns
When thinking about microservices, we mostly imagine autonomous teams working on independent services. Despite all that independence, things such as log…
Simulating the Secretary Problem with Java
You might have noticed that I like reading books. I have recently read “Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions” which absolutely…
My road to productivity - start finishing and producing
Being productive and motivated- who wouldn’t want that? I used to think that some people are just born more motivated, that some people simply are this way.
Tips for “whiteboard” and “paper” coding interviews
In my career as a software developer, I have interviewed over 100 people. Most of these interviews were face to face interview involving coding on paper or a…
Java vs Groovy for Microservices
In the past three years, I was involved in developing microservices architectures. In Java, with Spring Boot and in Groovy with Grails.
How to be a good Scrum Master? Start with this book!
“Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership” – a book that I picked up recently based on it being the number one selling book about Agile…
Designing an Object Oriented Chess Engine in Java
I love playing chess. I also love programming. How to marry the two? How about playing chess against a chess engine (chess playing program) that I have designed…
Learning Java / Spring / Microservices with Pluralsight
You might have seen recently some Pluralsight promotion on my page. There are two reasons for this. Reason number one- I became a Pluralsight Affiliate and I…
My favourite Software Development Quotes
“All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection” – David Wheeler. In this article, I look at my favourite quotes relating to…
Spring Boot - Best Practices
Spring Boot is the most popular Java framework for developing microservices. In this article, I will share with you the best practices for working with Spring…
Reddit - the Java goldmine
Have you heard of Reddit? It is an amazing place on the Internet, where people share links and ideas. It has also a very active programming community.
Using Redis in Microservices Architecture
In this article, we will look closer at a fascinating open source project. Meet Redis! You may be familiar with Redis already, in that case…
My Family Chess Collection
You may know that playing chess is my passion. The name of this website- E4developer comes from the chess move I start my games with – e4.
When to use a Java framework like Spring?
I have recently been writing a lot about microframeworks and my enthusiasm for them. Even though I think they are amazing, they are not always the answer.
E4developer Newsletter – July 2018 – Number 5
Thank you for reading my newsletter. I have some exciting news to share with you! I have started E4developer YouTube Channel! You can visit and subscribe now.