onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Upgrade Your Bot’s Spreadsheet Skills with n8n and Function Nodes

The Side Effect Club

3 min read

The Side Effect Club: Upgrade Your Bot’s Spreadsheet Skills with n8n and Function Nodes “`html

Why Your Bot Stinks at Spreadsheets and How to Fix it (Hint: n8n + Function Nodes)

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Side Effects

dgtalbug

onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club

The Side Effect Club: Emergence of Vector Databases: Overhauling the Data Infrastructure Landscape

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club: Mastering Java’s CountDownLatch for Smooth Thread Races

dgtalbug

onJune 5, 2025

CountDownLatch at a Glance If your Java app is juggling multiple parallel tasks and you’d rather not let performance…

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club: exceptionally() — Your Fire Drill or Deadlock Disaster

dgtalbug

onJune 4, 2025

TL;DR Locking your code with a mutex is only half the battle. exceptionally() is your emergency exit when errors…

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club: allOf() vs .every() – Fast-Fail Validation in JS

dgtalbug

onJune 4, 2025

Key Insights ### Core Behavior allOf(), in most JS frameworks and validation libraries, is a thin coat of varnish…

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club: thenApply() – Java’s Synchronous Hero or Threading Trap?

dgtalbug

onJune 3, 2025

What is thenApply? # Synchronous by design Java’s thenApply() isn’t an async ninja—it’s a synchronous transformer that runs your…

The Mutex Club

The Mutex Club: Mastering thenCompose() in Java CompletableFuture

dgtalbug

onJune 3, 2025

TL;DR: Stop Nesting, Start Composing If your Java code is generating CompletableFuture<CompletableFuture<T>>, you’ve lost the async memo. thenCompose() flattens…

The Side Effect Club

The Side Effect Club: Emergence of Vector Databases: Overhauling the Data Infrastructure Landscape

dgtalbug

onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Emergence of Vector Databases: Overhauling the Data Infrastructure Landscape Vector Databases: No Longer the Jeopardy Question No One Knew the Answer To Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Vector databases are transforming the data landscape by managing unstructured data more efficiently. They provide superior speed and scalability, making them essential for modern applications. The rise of Generative AI has boosted their popularity. These databases complement traditional systems rather than replace them, enhancing overall data strategies. Table of Contents Demystifying Vector Databases Databasing – Not Just Keeping up With the Joneses Why Vector Databases are the ‘New Black’…

The Side Effect Club: Upgrade Your Bot’s Spreadsheet Skills with n8n and Function Nodes

dgtalbug

onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Upgrade Your Bot’s Spreadsheet Skills with n8n and Function Nodes “`html Why Your Bot Stinks at Spreadsheets and How to Fix it (Hint: n8n + Function Nodes) Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The Side Effect Club: Rise of RAG Chatbots: Going Beyond ‘Fancy FAQ’ Intelligence

dgtalbug

onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Rise of RAG Chatbots: Going Beyond ‘Fancy FAQ’ Intelligence “`html Your AI Assistant Isn’t as Smart as You Think: Fancy FAQs vs. The Real Deal Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes RAG systems significantly enhance chatbot capabilities compared to traditional FAQ bots. Chatbots often function as knowledgeable-sounding parrots rather than intelligent assistants. The hallucination risk can lead to misinformation from AI assistants. RAG allows chatbots to incorporate real-time data and improve accuracy. Dynamic responses from RAG systems provide a better user experience. Table of Contents Meeting the Chatbot: A Reality Check Enter RAG: Your Chatbot, Evolved Why…

The Side Effect Club: Mastering and Unraveling Loops in n8n: Your Guide to Workflow Automation

dgtalbug

onJuly 8, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Mastering and Unraveling Loops in n8n: Your Guide to Workflow Automation “`html Making Sense of Mischievous Loops in n8n: More than a Sisyphean Struggle Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes Remove the loop? Nah! That’s the heart and soul of your entire automation drive. The Hidden “Stall” Costs and the Explosive Nodes The hidden booby trap is this: unexpected stalling or a workflow going kaboom thanks to a stumbling block called a node. Picture this – inside your finely tuned loop is a node that stumbles on a grouchy API response or a party-pooping RSS feed. One…

The Side Effect Club: Debunking the Phantom ‘Spring Boot 4’: Unveiling the 2025 Update

dgtalbug

onJuly 9, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Debunking the Phantom ‘Spring Boot 4’: Unveiling the 2025 Update “`html Spring Boot 4: The Phantom Update Estimated reading time: 5 minutes No official release of Spring Boot 4 as of July 2025. The latest stable version is 3.5.3, released in June 2025. Significant updates include support for Java 21 and enhanced observability. The development community is buzzing, but “Spring Boot 4” remains a myth for now. Table of Contents The State of Spring Boot in 2025: A Tale of Two Sources Unwrapping the Package: What’s New in Spring Boot 3.2–3.5 Fact-check for Phantom “Spring Boot…

The Side Effect Club: Unlocking AI and LLM Mastery: Top 10 Books for 2025

dgtalbug

onJuly 9, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Unlocking AI and LLM Mastery: Top 10 Books for 2025 Tackle AI and LLM Head-On: 10 Must-Read Books To Ace Your Game in 2025! Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes Discover the essential books for mastering AI and LLM technologies. Understand the difference between Machine Learning and AI engineering. Learn about real-world applications and challenges in AI deployments. Equip yourself with knowledge on prompt engineering for LLMs. Explore the future of AI technologies through deep learning insights. Table of Contents Peeling Back the Layers of AI and LLM Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Reality AI Books…

The Side Effect Club: Airtable: Simplifying Databases for the No-Code Generation

dgtalbug

onJuly 15, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Airtable: Simplifying Databases for the No-Code Generation The Rise of Airtable: Sweeping Database Dinosaurs off their Feet? Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Airtable simplifies database management with a user-friendly interface. It combines the power of relational databases with the ease of spreadsheets. Collaboration features aim to reduce the chaos of emails and nested folders. Airtable is poised at the forefront of the no-code movement. Traditional databases may need to reassess their position in light of Airtable’s rise. Table of Contents Introducing Your Cool New Tech Bestie: Airtable Making Database Fancy, Not Baffling If Excel and Database…

The Side Effect Club: Virtual Threads Replace Async/Await in Modern Programming

dgtalbug

onJuly 26, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Virtual Threads Replace Async/Await in Modern Programming From Async/Await to Virtual Threads: The Game-Changer in Concurrency Programming Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes Async/Await and Virtual Threads represent a significant evolution in concurrency programming. Virtual Threads offer lightweight alternatives to conventional thread-based models. This evolution changes the way developers structure concurrent software. Tools like LangChain and Pinecone optimize this transition for better performance. ARM Holdings’ influence on concurrent software design is noteworthy. Table of Contents: Behold Async/Await – Concurrency’s Old Flame Right, so what about Virtual Threads? The Evolution – Reaching the Zenith of Concurrency Summing It…

The Side Effect Club: Databricks Lakeflow July 2025: Major Pipeline Upgrades

dgtalbug

onJuly 26, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Databricks Lakeflow July 2025: Major Pipeline Upgrades “`html Surf the ‘Wave’ of Efficiency with the Latest Upgrades in Databricks Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Riding the wave of efficiency with the latest updates in Databricks Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines! Beat the heat with Databricks’ fresh and FREE training – A beach vacay for the brainy! Databricks X LangChain – an AI Love affair. Translations, more powerful, precise, and productive than ever! Table of Contents The Rainbowed World of Declarative Pipelines The Extravaganza of New Features Riding the Pinecone Wave Free Training Frenzy Question to…

The Side Effect Club: Metal 4 Brings AI Development Directly to Your Mac

dgtalbug

onJuly 26, 2025

The Side Effect Club: Metal 4 Brings AI Development Directly to Your Mac Apple’s Metal 4: Turning Mac Developers into AI Powerhouses without the Cloud Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes Embrace the age of self-reliant AI development with Apple’s Metal 4. Think global, develop local – that’s Apple’s new AI mantra with Metal 4. Metal 4 isn’t just a tool; it’s the heart of a revolution for AI on Macs. Table of Contents The Dawn of Local AI with Apple’s Metal 4 The Magic Behind Metal 4 And What It Means For AI Development The Future Is Local – Cloud…

About

DgtalBug

Sr. Software Engineer

I fell for programming like a nerd falls for a mechanical keyboard. From Spring Boot to React, NestJS to NextJS, and recently Docker, TypeScript, and Go — I’ve been obsessively chasing elegant code and scalable systems like they’re rare Pokémon. (And yes, I use dark theme. Always.)

Over the years, I’ve worn many hats — architecting systems, debugging nightmares, teaching peers, and occasionally yelling at CI/CD pipelines like they owe me money. My current mission? To help developers learn faster, build better, and interview smarter.

Whether it’s Data Structures, System Design, or just beautifully architected microservices, I believe in sharing what I learn and learning by sharing.