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Detect Changed Files with git
26.10.2020
There are numerous reasons to want to know which files have been added or modified in a git repository, one of which is your text editor highlighting those files. Another use case is running tasks against only files which are presently changed, like lint or other validation routines. So how can...
Let’s Create Our Own Authentication API with Nodejs and GraphQL
13.10.2020
Authentication is one of the most challenging tasks for developers just starting with GraphQL. There are a lot of technical considerations, including what ORM would be easy to set up, how to generate secure tokens and hash passwords, and even what HTTP library to use and how to use it. 
In...
Run Gulp as You Open a VS Code Project
13.10.2020
When I open my local project for this very site, there is a 100% chance that I need to run this command before anything else: gulp. I set that up fresh less than a year ago so I’m on the latest-and-greatest stuff and have my workflow just how I like it. I did a few more tweaks a few months...
A Bit on CI/CD
27.8.2020
I’d say “website” fits better than “mobile app” but I like this framing from Max Lynch:
Every production mobile app ultimately has a set of recurring tasks around integration, testing, deployment, and long term maintenance. These tasks often must be automated across...
Brazil’s Central Bank Tasks Group With Laying Out Road Map to Digital Currency Issuance
24.8.2020
The 12-member team will submit their findings – and propose a CBDC issuance model – to the central bank in 180 days
Match Accented Letters with Regular Expressions
6.8.2020
Regular expressions are used for a variety of tasks but the one I see most often is input validation. Names, dates, numbers…we tend to use regular expressions for everything, even when we probably shouldn’t. The most common syntax for checking alphabetic characters is A-z but what...
Block Links: The Search for a Perfect Solution
25.5.2020
I was reading this article by Chris where he talks about block links — you know, like wrapping an entire card element inside an anchor — being a bad idea. It’s bad accessibility because of how it affects screen readers. And it’s bad UX because it prevents simple user tasks, like selecting text.
But...
Free SSL Certificates with ZeroSSL (Sponsored)
12.5.2020
During my early years in web development, one of the most costly and annoying tasks was securing and installing security certificates on client websites. Most providers charged hundreds of dollars for SSL certs and getting them configured properly was a huge source of stress. Securing sites is much...
Some Little Improvements to My VS Code Workflow (Workspaces, Icons, Tasks)
22.4.2020
I did a little thing the other day that I didn’t know was possible until then. I had a project folder open in VS Code like I always do, and I added another different root folder to the window. I always assumed when you had a project open, it was one top level root folder and that’s...
My Visual Studio Code Setup: Extensions and Themes
22.4.2020
Matthias Ott’s posted his VS Code setup. I find lists like this (I rounded up some recent updates of my own) irresistible, probably because, like y’all, I spend an awful lot of time in VS Code and wanna make sure I’m getting the most out of it.
Things from the list that stood...
Making Money on Lockdown: 5 Effortless Ways to Earn Cryptocurrencies Online
20.4.2020
The various government responses to the coronavirus caused a lot of havoc across the global economy and millions of people are now out of work. A number of nation states have not lifted the lockdowns and no one’s really sure when the slew of shutdown industries will open again. While people...
Microsoft Patents New Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data
29.3.2020
Microsoft has patented a cryptocurrency mining system that leverages human activities, including brain waves and body heat, when performing online tasks such as using search engines, chatbots, and reading ads. “A user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously,”...
Creating an Editable Webpage With Google Spreadsheets and Tabletop.js
5.2.2020
Please raise your hand if you’ve ever faced never-ending content revision requests from your clients. It’s not that the changes themselves are difficult, but wouldn't it be less complicated if clients could just make the revisions themselves? That would save everyone valuable time, and  allow...
Why do we have different programming languages?
13.1.2020
"But why do I have to learn Python?" She wailed, "I like Scratch!"
"I know," I said, "But there are different programming languages for different sorts of tasks."
"That's stupid" she said
I can empathize with the little girl in Terence Eden's story. In high school, I got super into Turbo Pascal....
Coinbase Closes Earn.com One Year After $100M Acquisition
23.12.2019
Coinbase is shutting down the startup Earn.com which it acquired for an estimated $100 million last year. The email service allowed senders to pay users in digital currency for replying to commercial messages or completing tasks. Also Read: Coinbase Acquires Earn.com for an Estimated $100 Million...
Just Sharing My Gulpfile
11.12.2019
Seemingly out of the blue, the Gulp processing I had set up for this site started to have a race condition. I'd run my watch command, change some CSS, and the processing would sometimes leave behind some extra files that were meant to be cleaned up during the processing. Like the cleanup tasks...
5 Easy Ways to Earn Cryptocurrency
4.11.2019
The days of individuals mining popular cryptocurrencies are over. The amount of time and energy required to mine bitcoin is immense and you’d be competing with business with massive mining farms. What you can do, however, is chip away at earning cryptocurrency via a few simple tasks that...
A Comparison of Static Form Providers
18.9.2019
Let’s attempt to coin a term here: "Static Form Provider." You bring your HTML <form>, but don’t worry about the back-end processing that makes it work. There are a lot of these services out there!
Static Form Providers do all tasks like validating, storing, sending notifications,...
weatherstack: an Amazing Weather API (Sponsored)
18.9.2019
One of my first tasks each day is checking the weather; it’s a necessity for knowing what my children and I should wear, if I’m going to need to water the lawn or need to shovel snow, and if I can take meetings out on my patio. It’s also been one of my worst web […]
The post...
Let’s Give Grunt Tasks the Marie Kondo Organization Treatment
6.8.2019
We live in an era of webpack and npm scripts. Good or bad, they took the lead for bundling and task running, along with bits of Rollup, JSPM and Gulp. But let's face it. Some of your older projects are still using good ol' Grunt. While it no longer glimmers as brightly, it does the job well...