How to Automate Emails in Python Using Built-in smtplib Library

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Python's built-in smtplib library allows developers to automate email sending without third-party services or paid APIs. The guide covers sending plain-text and HTML emails, attaching files, and triggering alerts based on conditions such as price drops or backup completions. To use Gmail, developers must generate a 16-character App Password via Google Account Security, since Google blocks standard password authentication for scripts. Credentials should always be stored as environment variables rather than hardcoded in scripts to prevent accidental exposure on platforms like GitHub. Gmail's free tier supports up to 500 automated emails per day, making it sufficient for personal projects, while bulk use cases are better served by services like Mailgun or SendGrid.

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How to Build a Two-Phase Confirmation Boundary for AI Voice Actions in Tencent RTC

A tutorial on DEV Community outlines how to prevent premature tool execution in Tencent RTC voice companion applications by introducing a two-phase action boundary. The core problem arises when a user interrupts or retracts a voice command after the AI model has already generated tool arguments, potentially causing unintended actions like posting a room message. The proposed solution enforces a strict rule: the model may only prepare an action, while a fresh, explicit user confirmation is required before any commit occurs. The architecture routes RTC audio through speech recognition, an application turn coordinator, and an LLM or Dify agent, validating proposals server-side before seeking user approval. The tutorial uses TypeScript and Tencent RTC's Conversational AI infrastructure, classifying tools by their effect — from read-only to sensitive — to determine the appropriate confirmation policy.

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AI Image Editing's Real Challenge Is Defining What Must Stay Unchanged

A developer building an AI photo editing workflow found that model quality is not the primary obstacle in AI image editing. The harder problem is precisely defining which elements should change and which must be preserved — such as keeping a product's logo, shape, and color while only replacing the background. This distinction matters because, unlike text-to-image generation, editing operates within strict constraints rather than open-ended creativity. The developer proposes a simple framework: explicitly pair every change instruction with a corresponding preservation requirement. Reference images also play a key role, acting as visual contracts that clarify ambiguous instructions like color, texture, or style more effectively than text alone.

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Ex-Intel Analyst Shares Prompt to Help ChatGPT Detect Circular Reporting

A former intelligence analyst with over 20 years of experience has published a detailed prompt designed to help AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude identify circular reporting and potential disinformation in source material. Circular reporting occurs when multiple sources appear to independently confirm a claim but actually trace back to a single, sometimes unverifiable, origin. The analyst observed that AI assistants, despite their fluency, are susceptible to this same trap — presenting confident answers that fall apart when sources are traced. The shared prompt instructs the AI to map citation chains explicitly, flag coordinated language or suspicious timing, and distinguish confirmed manipulation from unverified suspicion. Notably, the prompt also directs the assistant to report cleanly when no issues are found, preventing it from manufacturing concerns to appear thorough.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Shopify Swaps Redis for MySQL in Inventory System, Achieves Better Scalability

Shopify has replaced Redis with MySQL for its inventory reservation system, which handles the temporary holding of stock during payment processing for millions of daily orders. The engineering team found that Redis, while fast, introduced operational complexity by requiring two data stores to stay in sync and offering weaker durability guarantees compared to MySQL's ACID compliance. By leveraging MySQL InnoDB's row-level locking and the SKIP LOCKED feature introduced in MySQL 8.0, Shopify was able to handle high-concurrency reservation operations without the overhead of maintaining a separate Redis cluster. The migration reduced infrastructure complexity and cost while meeting the strict consistency and throughput demands of peak shopping events like Black Friday. The move challenges the common assumption that Redis is always the superior choice for high-throughput, low-latency backend operations.

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