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If you're not familiar with it, Copilot is an AI-based code completion tool, created by GitHub and OpenAI. What it does is suggest whole lines or chunks of code while you're writing. And a lot of developers initially loved this concept. But after nearly a year of heavy use, I've decided to call it quits.
This week, in transition jobs. And this is my last week at the company I've worked for the last 3 years. It's a bittersweet moment, but I also had a lot of free time these last few days and I got to catch up on my RSS feed!
Few games transcend time, becoming more than just a fleeting memory of digital entertainment. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is such a game, a masterpiece that has left an indelible mark on the hearts of gamers and the landscape of the gaming world.
I've been hoarding a ton of bookmarks for years now and haven't found an excellent way to share some of the more interesting stuff. So, I've decided to start my own, heavily inspired by Sadiq Saif's Reading List series.
In the quiet, pixelated corners of our memories, where the echoes of chiptune melodies linger, the Analogue Pocket has emerged—not merely as a gaming device but as a bridge across time. It's a conduit to the past, a nostalgic journey that rekindles the flames of our gaming history. It is an ode to a piece of technology that honors the legacy of handheld gaming.
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There's a growing conversation about the true essence of personal blogs. Should they be a polished showcase of professional achievements or a canvas for unbridled creativity?
The city of Los Angeles finds itself shrouded in an unprecedented darkness. The year is 2022, now defined by a catastrophic event known simply as the Blackout, marked not just by the absence of light but by the erasure of electronic data—a reset of culture and society.
Our online activities have expanded to include everything from streaming movies and music to playing video games and participating in video conferences. With such diverse uses, the quality of our internet connection is more important than ever. L4S promises to revolutionize our online interactions by addressing a pervasive yet often overlooked problem: bufferbloat.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet is not a permanent archive of our shared digital experiences. Instead, it's a dynamic and ever-changing environment shaped by technological advancements and corporate decisions. This reality is particularly evident in the video game preservation field and the broader context of digital content consumption.
Navigating the constantly evolving world of web development can be challenging, especially when creating efficient yet lean web applications. Two insightful pieces, one by Baldur Bjarnason and another by Chris Coyier provide valuable insights into web developers' dichotomies and struggles.
In the nascent era of the web, SEO was a concept as esoteric as the personal computer itself—a curiosity, a future fantasy. Today, this landscape has shifted monumentally. SEO has become omnipresent, molding the internet and social media's contours, but at a potentially steep price.
In an era where disinformation is the new currency and social media algorithms determine what is "true," the necessity of libraries has never been more pressing. Yet, here we are, watching the very foundations of these institutions crumble, not by accident, but by design.
Google has been on a long, winding road that seems to have led it far from its original mantra of "don't be evil". One of the most glaring examples of this detour is AMP. It was supposed to be the savior of the mobile web. Instead, it turned out to be more like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
In small teams, you're spread thin, constantly multitasking. Enter pull requests, the epitome of asynchronous collaboration. They're how you keep the bar high when running lean.
Refactoring is not just about cleaning up; it's about future-proofing the codebase. It's about making it easier for the next developer (or even future you) to understand what's happening. But companies don't usually reward this.
Ever watched a hacking scene in a movie and cringed at how unrealistic it was? As someone who has spent years in the trenches of software development, these scenes are not just inaccurate; they're painful to watch. They're a caricature, a gross oversimplification of a complex and nuanced field.
Climate change is no longer a distant, abstract threat. It's here, it's now, and it's personal. We've inherited a world on the brink of climate collapse. But it doesn't have to define our future.
We often take the permanence of our online data for granted. But as recent events have shown, this is a dangerous assumption. Archiving can help you regain control of your data and ensure you have a copy safe from the whims of the digital world.
I'm excited about ActivityPub. I see its potential to shake up the social web, which has long been a playground dominated by tech giants. Meta has promised to hook up Threads into ActivityPub, but I can't help but wonder about the implications for data privacy.
It's a tale as old as the web itself—a realm where practicality takes a backseat, and uselessness reigns supreme. Countless websites, often dismissed as trivial or bizarre, cater to specialized niches. However, amidst the chaos and clamor, the spirit of uselessness perseveres. It seeks refuge in the hidden corners of the web, in communities that revel in the delightful absurdity.
Working remotely as a web developer offers incredible flexibility, but let's face it, distractions are a struggle for us all. Dave Rupert's thought-provoking piece, Bag of Distractions, got me pondering the allure of the digital realm and how it impacts our productivity as we toil away in our home offices.
In 2013, Google Reader was deemed unnecessary and was cast off into the void. But as users scramble to escape the clutches of algorithm-driven feeds, they’re running back to RSS.
Let's dig into Ashley Shew's piece on tech and accessibility from MIT Tech Review. It's all about the real deal with assistive tech and how we can shape a more inclusive future.
Taking and sharing photos is a cornerstone of the iOS experience. Yet Apple has inundated us with features without ensuring the user experience is improved.
Trans people should have the same rights as anyone else. They should feel safe going about their daily lives like the rest of us. Their voice and vote should carry the same weight.
I was a remote worker before 2020. But I think I speak for most pre-COVID WFH folks when I say that the lockdown destroyed our way of life.
It's easy to lose sight of the physical relationships we once had with the media we consume in the digital age. The ease with which we can collect and store data has altered our relationship with media and how we organize it. We can reclaim this relationship by developing better systems for organizing and prioritizing information.
Things v3.17 was released and brought a much-needed overhauled Shortcuts integration. This means you can now create your location-based reminders with the help of travel triggers.
A Pen Addict episode discussed the importance of having the right tools for optimal productivity and simple elegance to them. Here's a list of the most important tools I use daily as a web developer.
I was given open access to the internet at a young age back in 1999-2002. It was the early web. A digital garden where anyone could express their creativity with a hand-crafted digital persona, often completely disconnected from their true selves. And I miss the sense of discovery more than anything. But in today's hyper-connected web, there are still a few places where you can still experience this feeling.
Blogging has been something I've struggled to do consistently for longer than a few months at a time. But as I've matured and my relationship with the internet has matured, I've developed a healthier relationship with the online communities I frequent. And I'd love to share more of my thoughts.
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I come from a long line of coffee lovers. My ancestral land in Central America has been growing delicious coffee for centuries. On the other hand, I am stuck looking for sub-par coffee from some overpriced online vendor claiming to have _the best coffee known to humankind_ for the low price of $39.99/bag.
I recently resurfaced a nostalgia for my childhood gaming days. And maybe I should do something about it and hunt down the stuff I used to play with as a kid.
A utility we take for granted daily is hardly accessible to a large portion of the country. So many of these underserved communities are taking matters into their own hands.
I was dissatisfied with the current bookmarking solutions, so I made a custom one instead. This started with a myriad of Airtable bases, and then—for some stupid reason—I decided to roll my own hosted database.
When your data is the source of revenue, whoever has it will do anything to protect it and reassure you that it is best placed in their hands. But when it isn't at risk of being lost, it's being utilized to violate your privacy.
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After a rough year, 2021 was shaping up to be rough as well. And it was. But somehow, I cannot recall much about it. Every day was more or less the same.
Early in our careers, we're exposed to several principles which are thought of as hard rules one must abide by. And while constraints can yield innovation, they shouldn't be at the cost of having a maintainable codebase.
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Most of us spend much more time at home than usual. I'm used to spending weeks indoors without seeing the light of day. Although being told I can't go out makes things far more stressful for some reason.
So much happened in such a short amount of time. I've occupied myself with work to the point that I hardly did anything else but code this month. But I still managed to squeeze in some interesting stuff.
This was a solid start to the Year of Focus. I've been working hard this month on optimizing the site and cleaning up my feeds (podcast and RSS).
Last year's theme was a success. This year, I want to take advantage of the extra time I carved for myself and focus on the things that matter.
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In this second installment of Spreadsheets, I want to detail my attempt at making a database for all my lists. I don't recommend this approach; there are plenty of more user-friendly solutions to this problem. But that's no fun.
I like lists. I make them all the time to help me keep track of just about anything I need to know. After some time, these became spreadsheets. And now, it's a sizable amount of Airtables.
Every year, the guys over at the Cortex podcast develop a theme that sets an overarching idea guiding their decisions. That got me thinking of recent media consumption changes I've made recently.
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For many of us, procrastinating is the norm, and getting some work done is the day's accomplishment. I have no idea how to solve that problem. And that's not what this post is about. But let's talk about it anyway.
