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COLORANG! A (SLIGHTLY) NEW WAY TO VISUALIZE RGBA COLOR

A color picker that linearly blends RGBA color to a gray value that you can specify on a slider.

Learn more about their 90-day pilot.

LESSONS LEARNED REINVENTING THE PYTHON NOTEBOOK

This article goes through Marimo and addresses the shortcomings of traditional IPython notebooks. It uses a directed acyclic graph (DAG) to model dependencies between cells to eliminate hidden state and guarantee code/output consistency. To be maintainable, the notebook files are pure Python, making them easy to version, share, and run as standalone scripts or web applications.

THE API DATABASE ARCHITECTURE - STOP WRITING HTTP-GET ENDPOINTS

Instead of writing HTTP GET endpoints manually, it might be better to use a PostgREST server that directly exposes (with security enabled) database views and tables. This allows data modification to be handled by the existing backend. It also allows adjustments of HTTP-GET APIs through SQL views.

YOU DON'T NEED A CSS FRAMEWORK

CSS frameworks can help in the early stages of development, offering speed and consistency, but they become difficult to maintain over time. The alternative is to build your own custom CSS, either from scratch or using a starter codebase. Modern CSS features make the need for preprocessors less necessary.

THE THREAT TO OPEN SOURCE COMES FROM WITHIN

The open-source software community is facing threats from both external and internal sources. While the recent attack on the XZ library by a state-sponsored actor shows the community is still strong, internal conflicts arising from licensing disagreements and accusations of code theft are a more serious threat. These conflicts are due to competing interests between cloud companies who seek to profit from OSS and OSS companies seeking sustainable business models.

PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY IS A PRODUCTIVITY KILLER: HOW TO BUILD FOCUS

To overcome the perceived difficulty of new, challenging tasks, block distractions and break down the problem into smaller achievable goals. Then, once you've gained momentum, don't stop until you reach a natural stopping point.

HEADLESS UI V2.0

Headless UI is a collection of unstyled UI components for React and Vue that integrate easily with Tailwind CSS. Headless UI v2.0 introduces new features like built-in anchor positioning, a checkbox component, and improved accessibility for faster UI development.

OMNICLIP

Omniclip is an open-source video-editing application for the web browser. All videos edited using Omniclip are stored and edited locally. It features trimming, splitting, rendering, and adding text, audio, video, and images.

JAM.DEV

Jam is a browser extension that allows you to create a bug report on a web page with one click. Upon clicking, the extension will capture an instant replay of the bug happening on your web app and include all of the developer logs.

STACK OVERFLOW USERS SABOTAGE THEIR POSTS AFTER OPENAI DEAL

Stack Overflow users are upset about the site's new partnership with OpenAI, which will use Stack Overflow's content to train OpenAI's AI models. In protest, users are deleting or altering their posts, while Stack Overflow is banning them for doing so.

LET'S COMPILE LIKE IT'S 1992

This is a tutorial on how to compile the 1992 source code for Wolfenstein 3D on modern systems. The process involves setting up a DOS environment using DosBox, installing the Borland C++ 3.1 compiler, and then linking and compiling the game files.

THE ANATOMY OF A SUCCESSFUL TEAM SQUAD

The Spotify Squad Model has small, cross-functional teams called squads that are given a lot of autonomy. This author successfully implemented a hybrid approach, creating temporary squads for specific projects while maintaining the traditional team structure. For teams or companies considering using this model, they recommend starting small or with a specific project and then gauging its effectiveness from there.

100,000 STARS

100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser.

MICROSOFT DONATES $1 MILLION TO RUST FOUNDATION

Microsoft has donated $1 million to the Rust Foundation to support the language's infrastructure and fellowship program and to help ease the workload of maintainers.

THE SOFTWARE BEHIND SILICON (76 MINUTE AUDIO)

This is an interview (with a transcript available) with Aart de Geus (co-founder of Synopsys) and Sassin Ghazi (CEO of Synopsys) about the software that powers the design and manufacturing of semiconductors.

ANDROID IN THE TIME OF AI

In the AI era, Android needs to leverage its strengths, such as access to user data and integration with the wider Google ecosystem, to deliver AI features that go beyond just surface-level "party tricks."

WHY REACT RE-RENDERS

Many developers work professionally with React for years without understanding how its re-rendering process works. This tutorial helps readers build a mental model for when and why React re-renders and how to tell why a specific component re-rendered. Knowing how React's render cycle works can help developers understand when to use React.memo and when to wrap functions in useCallback.

PROTOBUF EDITIONS ARE HERE: DON'T PANIC

Google has introduced Protobuf Editions, a new feature flag system that lets plugin maintainers granularly control the behavior of generated APIs and runtimes. Editions combines existing proto2 and proto3 functionality and is backwards-compatible. It is recommended that developers stick with proto3 for now.

WHAT'S THE BEST LOOKING/PERFORMING WEBSITE YOU'VE EVER SEEN? (REDDIT THREAD)

Web devs on Reddit give opinions on the best looking website they've seen and why they're so good. Stripe and GitHub are common winners. Animations are usually done with Lottie and the Web Animations API.

IT'S ALWAYS TCP_NODELAY. EVERY DAMN TIME

Nagle's algorithm, designed in the 1980s to reduce network overhead from small packets, often causes latency problems in modern distributed systems. This developer argues that TCP_NODELAY (which disables Nagle's algorithm) should be the default behavior on modern systems.

CODEHELIUM

CodeHelium is a React editor component that compiles, executes, and returns the outputs of any user-written Python code using WebAssembly.

COMMAND-K

Command-K Is a React component for command menus. You render items within the menu and the component will automatically filter and sort them.

TINY WORLD MAP

tinyworldmap is a lightweight map library for web apps that need to function offline or on low-bandwidth connections. It integrates with Leaflet and offers customization options like city labels and borders.

I REVIEWED 1,000S OF GRAPHQL VS. REST PERSPECTIVES

GraphQL has a great developer experience, but also introduces complexity in areas like caching, access control, and performance optimization. REST APIs are usually a better starting point for most teams.

RUBY TYPING 2024: RBS, STEEP, RBS COLLECTIONS, SUBJECTIVE FEELINGS

This developer wanted to add static type checking to their Ruby gem but found RBS, the recommended approach, to be inconvenient. RBS requires maintaining separate type definition files and has limited support for tools like RSpec. Sorbet, an alternative approach, might have been a better choice.

POSTGRES MESSAGE QUEUE

Postgres Message Queue is a lightweight, open-source message queue.

ELLIPSIS

Ellipsis is an AI dev tool that reviews pull requests and converts GitHub comments into working, tested code.

A/B TESTING ON THE FRONT-END

The Split SDK is used for A/B testing the front-end in two ways: 1) loading both variations and using CSS to reveal the correct one (avoiding flicker), and 2) using a loading page and then redirecting the user to the appropriate variation.

Guide

LOST IN TRANSLATION: THE BUG THAT SPOKE RUSSIAN AND CRASHED MY APP

This author was debugging a seemingly random crash in their app, Lipo Manager, which occurred only after certain users updated their phones. They found the crash only happened if the device language was set to Russian due to an encoding issue with SQLite. The fix was simple: manually set the device locale to 'ru' specifically for Russian users. The root cause of this bug on the developer's side was because they used ORMs for data persistence on Android.

HOW TO EXECUTE END-TO-END TESTS AT SCALE

QA Wolf built a cloud-native infrastructure on Google Cloud that allows it to run large-scale end-to-end tests. Customers initiate test runs that are orchestrated by a Run Director service, with tests executing in isolated pods for reliability. QA Wolf's system not only isolates tests, but also allows the company to run tests in parallel, automatically retry failures for flake detection, and optimize resource usage to keep costs down.

STREAMLINE DESIGN SYSTEMS ACROSS WEB FRAMEWORKS

Mitosis is a tool that lets you write UI components once and use them across different web frameworks like React or Vue. This saves development time and ensures a consistent look and feel for your applications. By working with Figma, Mitosis can also streamline the process of turning designs into code.

5 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR WORK WITHOUT BEING COCKY

Sharing your work is necessary for career growth and visibility, but can be intimidating. Some good ways to share your work more naturally include using demo sessions, sharing designs before implementation, using retrospectives to acknowledge your contributions, and posting on cross-team chat channels.

THE SIMPLE SECRET OF PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE

Productive people have deep work sessions where they concentrate solely on the task at hand. It's important to schedule dedicated sessions of deep work as it actively trains your brain to focus for longer and allows you to get more work done.

A DEVELOPER'S EXPERIENCE REWRITING A NOVEL-WRITING APP

This author rewrote their novel-writing app, Fablehenge, from React to Svelte because Svelte offered faster development, less code, and a more enjoyable experience. Svelte's challenges include styling child components and Svelte 4's reactivity model. The author believes Svelte's advantages outweigh these and that Svelte could become the leading framework for new projects.

DON'T GET DUPED BY TITLES

FAANG companies might down-level experienced hires because they focus on the project's complexity, not just workers' titles. To avoid this, take on challenging projects at your current job and be clear about your target level with the recruiter. Don't be discouraged by a title change as it might just be a company-specific term.

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RX

Rx is a command-line tool that makes it easy to create, use, and share development environments. It integrates with whatever tools you're currently using and gives you a long-running VM in the cloud that is kept in sync with your local machine.

SEMANTIC CACHE

Semantic Cache is a tool for caching natural text based on semantic similarity. It's ideal for any task that involves querying or retrieving information based on meaning, such as natural language classification or caching AI responses. For example, two pieces of text can be similar but not identical (e.g., "great places to check out in Spain" vs. "best places to visit in Spain"). Traditional caching doesn't recognize this semantic similarity and misses opportunities for reuse.

LLAMA3.JS

A JavaScript implementation of Llama 3 using node-mlx, code modified from mlx-examples.

LLAMA3.JS

A JavaScript implementation of Llama 3 using node-mlx.

THE SEARCH FOR EASIER SAFE SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING

June is a new systems programming language that aims to be easier to learn and use than Rust. It simplifies memory management using grouped allocations, so related data shares a single lifetime rather than tracking individual lifetimes as in Rust.

THOUGHTS ON OPENAI

This is an internal Microsoft email from 2019 that reveals concerns about falling behind Google in AI and the motivation for partnering with OpenAI. Microsoft watched how Google Search and other AI integrations were getting better while it struggled to replicate the same success. Google's BERT-based models were ahead of Microsoft not just due to talent, but also because Google had ample AI infrastructure in place.

SELECTING THE BEST NODE.JS VERSION MANAGER

Choosing the right Node.js version manager can streamline your workflow. This article explores various options like NVM, FNM, and Volta, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It concludes that Volta is the current frontrunner for its ease of use, cross-platform support, and ability to manage toolchains.

SCOPE, NOT TITLES

FAANG companies evaluate your interview performance based on the scope of your past work rather than your job title, so focus on demonstrating the scope of your responsibilities to avoid being down-leveled.