SE Radio 661: Sunil Mallya on Small Language Models
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Release Date: 03/25/2025
SE Radio 665: Malcolm Matalka on Developing in OCaml with Zero Frameworks
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Malcolm Matalka, founder of Terrateam, joins host to talk about the reasoning behind choosing a not-so-widespread language (OCaml) and (almost) totally avoiding frameworks for the development of Terrateam. While discussing the reasons for choosing this specific programming language and the advantages and disadvantages of using external frameworks, they also consider a range of related topics, including static vs. dynamic typing, the use of monorepos, and the advantages of choosing a single language that can be used both for web front ends and server back ends. The episode ends with...
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SE Radio 664: Emre Baran and Alex Olivier on Stateless Decoupled Authorization Frameworks
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Emre Baran, CEO and co-founder of Cerbos, and Alex Olivier, CPO and co-founder, join SE Radio host to explore “stateless decoupled authorization frameworks. The discussion begins with an introduction to key terms, including authorization, authorization models, and decoupled frameworks. They dive into the challenges of building decoupled authorization, as well as the benefits of this approach and the operational hurdles. The conversation shifts to Cerbos, an open-source policy-based access control framework, comparing it with OPA (Open Policy Agent). They also delve into Cerbos’s technical...
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SE Radio 663: Tyler Flint on Managing External APIs
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Tyler Flint, CEO of , joins host Robert Blumen for a conversation about managing external vendor dependencies, including several best practices for adoption. They start with a look at internal versus external services, including details such as the footprint of external services within a micro-services application, and difficulties organizations have tracking their service consumption, quantifying service consumption, and auditing external services. Tyler also discusses the security implications of external services, including authentication and authorization. They examine metrics and...
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SE Radio 662: Vlad Khononov on Balancing Coupling in Software Design
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Software architect and author Vlad Khononov joins host for a discussion on balancing coupling in software design. They start by examining coupling and its relationship to complexity and modularity. Vlad explains the historical models for assessing coupling and introduces his updated approach, integration strength, which aims to simplify earlier frameworks and adapt them for modern practices. The episode explores three dimensions of coupling: integration strength (knowledge sharing), distance (proximity of components), and volatility (likelihood of change). Vlad illustrates how design...
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SE Radio 661: Sunil Mallya on Small Language Models
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Sunil Mallya, co-founder and CTO of Flip AI, discusses small language models with host . They begin by considering the technical distinctions between SLMs and large language models. LLMs excel in generating complex outputs across various natural language processing tasks, leveraging extensive training datasets on with massive GPU clusters. However, this capability comes with high computational costs and concerns about efficiency, particularly in applications that are specific to a given enterprise. To address this, many enterprises are turning to SLMs, fine-tuned on domain-specific...
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SE Radio 660: Pete Warden on TinyML
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Pete Warden, CEO of Useful Sensors and a founding member of the TensorFlow team at Google, discusses TinyML, the technology enabling machine learning on low-power, small-footprint devices. This innovation opens up applications such as voice-controlled devices, offline translation tools, and smarter embedded systems, which are crucial for privacy and efficiency. SE Radio host speaks with Warden about challenges like model compression, deployment constraints, and privacy concerns. They also explore applications in agriculture, healthcare, and consumer electronics, and close with some...
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SE Radio 659: Brenden Matthews on Idiomatic Rust
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Brenden Matthews, a seasoned software engineer, entrepreneur, and author of the Idiomatic Rust and Code Like a Pro in Rust books (both from Manning), speaks with SE Radio host about Idiomatic Rust. They start with a look at what "idiomatic" means, and then discuss Generics, Traits, common design patterns you'll see in well written Rust code, and anti-patterns to avoid. Matthews suggests some tools that can help you immediately write idiomatic Rust, as well as what building blocks can also help. This episode examines what Generics are and how they compare to other languages, as well as what...
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SE Radio 658: Tanya Janca on Secure Coding
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Tanya Janca, author of Alice and Bob Learn Secure Coding, discusses secure coding and secure software development life cycle with SE Radio host . This session explores how integrating security into every phase of the SDLC helps prevent vulnerabilities from slipping into production. Tanya strongly recommends defining security requirements early, and discusses the importance of threat modeling during design, secure coding practices, testing strategies such as static, dynamic, and interactive application security testing (SAST, DAST and IAST), and the need for continuous monitoring and...
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SE Radio 657: Hong Minhee on ActivityPub and the Fediverse
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Hong Minhee, an open source developer and creator of the Fedify ActivityPub library, discusses the ActivityPub protocol and the fediverse with SE Radio's . They explore ActivityPub use cases, including microblogging applications such as Mastodon and Misskey, as well as activities built into the specification such as Like, Follow, and Accept. They also discuss extending the specification to include properties like Discoverable and Suspended, how different implementations communicate when they don’t implement the same extensions, ND the use of JSON-LD and why it is challenging to implement....
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SE Radio 656: Ivett Ördög on Rewrite versus Refactor
Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers
Ivett Ördög speaks with host Sam Taggart about rewrite versus refactor -- a choice that many projects face as they grow. It's a topic that inspires a lot of dogmatic feelings. They discuss how companies and projects end up at this crossroads and consider some strategies to try to avoid it. Ivett challenges the myth that you should never rewrite but points to two key factors that need to be present for a successful large-scale rewrite or refactor. They end by talking about how to get management on board for such large-scale rewrite or refactor projects. Brought to you by and .
info_outlineSunil Mallya, co-founder and CTO of Flip AI, discusses small language models with host Brijesh Ammanath. They begin by considering the technical distinctions between SLMs and large language models.
LLMs excel in generating complex outputs across various natural language processing tasks, leveraging extensive training datasets on with massive GPU clusters. However, this capability comes with high computational costs and concerns about efficiency, particularly in applications that are specific to a given enterprise. To address this, many enterprises are turning to SLMs, fine-tuned on domain-specific datasets. The lower computational requirements and memory usage make SLMs suitable for real-time applications. By focusing on specific domains, SLMs can achieve greater accuracy and relevance aligned with specialized terminologies.
The selection of SLMs depends on specific application requirements. Additional influencing factors include the availability of training data, implementation complexity, and adaptability to changing information, allowing organizations to align their choices with operational needs and constraints.
This episode is sponsored by Codegate.