Toptal Blog
The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, finance experts, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.
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Hunting and Analyzing High CPU Usage in .NET Applications
Software performance in production is hard to analyze. Things can go wrong at any time, and code can start executing in ways that weren’t planned for. In these cases, what do we do? In this article, Toptal engineer Juan Pablo Scida analyzes a real scenario of high CPU usage of a web application. He covers all the processes and .NET code analysis involved to identify the problem, explains how the problem was solved, and most importantly, explores why this problem happened in the first place.
Juan Pablo Scida
Juan is a software architect with more than 10 years of experience. He is a certified .NET and Java developer, and loves Node.js and Erlang.
Optimized Successive Mean Quantization Transform
Image processing algorithms are often very resource intensive due to fact that they process pixels on an image one at a time and often requires multiple passes. Successive Mean Quantization Transform (SMQT) is one such resource intensive algorithm that can process images taken in low-light conditions and reveal details from dark regions of the image.
In this article, Toptal engineer Daniel Angel Munoz Trejo gives us some insight into how the SMQT algorithm works and walks us through a clever optimization technique to make the algorithm a viable option for handheld devices.
Daniel Munoz
Daniel has created high-performance applications in C++ for large companies such as Dreamworks. He also excels with C and ASM (x86).
Skype Tips for Remote Teams
Toptal has a strong remote culture), to say the least. To keep up with each other, we need a tool to keep team members in sync, where we can reach any other person at a moment’s notice. We use Skype as our main communication channel among Toptal’s core team.
Over the years, Skype has grown a lot, and has become a versatile tool that can be used on all of your devices at once, syncing chat amongst them, and providing a simple way to call and share screens. It is a tool that we leverage every day for our internal operations.
As heavy Skype users, there are a few things we’ve noticed that might not be clear to everyone. Here are a few tips on how you and your remote team can get the most of of Skype.
Alvaro Oliveira
Alvaro is great at matching technologies and people to projects. At Toptal, he successful matched thousands of developers with clients.
Learn to Code: Wisdom and Tools for the Journey
It’s no surprise that more and more people, from all kinds of backgrounds, are deciding to learn to code. But, each person who tackles the task is soon faced with an unpleasant reality: Learning to program is hard. Contrary to expectations, the feeling of “I don’t get it,” may persist unabated long into the journey, making once bright-eyed beginners feel hopeless, lost, and ready to give up.
The moral of the story is this: Be prepared. The path to programmer paradise is a long one, and without the right mindset at the beginning, it can quickly lose its appeal. In this article, I’ll attempt to give you some guidance on what to expect on your journey, how best to go about it, and what tools and resources you may find helpful along the way.
Nick McCrea
Nicholas is a professional software engineer with a passion for quality craftsmanship. He loves architecting and writing top-notch code.
What Does Force Touch Mean For UI And UX?
Force Touch is not a new idea. BlackBerry experimented with the concept back in 2008, and a few Android phone makers also examined the possibility of using Force Touch on their products. In fact, Force Touch support has been a part of Android for years; it was introduced in Android 1.0.
Nermin Hajdarbegovic
As a veteran tech writer, Nermin helped create online publications covering everything from the semiconductor industry to cryptocurrency.
Speeding up Application Development With Bootstrap
Bootstrap, one of the most used HTML/CSS/JavaScript front-end frameworks, offers a little more than just fancy customizable user interface elements. It provides a great starting point for many types of projects, a plethora of components, and many nifty styles predefined for responsive layout and utility classes to help keep your HTML and CSS code clean.
In this article, Toptal designer Lijana Saniukaite walks us through some practical Bootstrap tips and best practices to speed up your application development.
Lijana Saniukaite
Lijana has 11+ years leveraging her skills in full-stack web/mobile development, QA, project management, entreprenueurship, and design, too.
Debugging Memory Leaks in Node.js Applications
Memory leaks in long running Node.js applications are like ticking time bombs that, if left unchecked in production environments, can result in devastating outcomes. These bugs are often considered to be hard to find. However, with the right tools and a strategic approach, memory leaks can not only be solved but also avoided in the future. In this article, Toptal engineer Vladyslav Millier gives us insight into what memory leaks are, how some sophisticated debugging tools can be used to find memory leaks, and how to plug them once and for all.
Vlad Miller
Vlad is a versatile software engineer with experience in many fields. He is currently perfecting his Scala and machine learning skills.
Is Open Source Open to Women?
The fact that women are underrepresented in tech is nothing new. However, while we’ve seen the gender diversity reports from companies like Google, Facebook, and many more, a look at the number of women in the open source community suggests that the numbers might be worse than these reports imply. In this post, Toptal COO Breanden Beneschott shares the results of a study looking at gender on GitHub and considers a few reasons why GitHub is so male-dominated, including a few ideas on how we can make the open source community a more welcoming place.
Breanden Beneschott
As the co-founder of Toptal, Breandan was instrumental in the creation of Toptal’s. He helped set up our infrastructure in 40+ countries.
The GWT Toolkit: Build Powerful JavaScript Front Ends Using Java
The GWT Web Toolkit, formerly known as Google Web Toolkit, is a set of development tools for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications using the Java programming language. What makes GWT not “yet another Java tool to write web apps,” is the fact that the heart of the toolkit is a compiler that converts Java into JavaScript, enabling developers to write front-end web applications while leveraging all of Java’s strengths.
Alberto Mancini
Dr Alberto spent 20 years working as a researcher in Applied Math & is experienced in managing large computational infrastructures.
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The History of Remote Work, 1560-Present (with Infographic) (Updated)
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