Since last year, I've finally finished two WordPress plugins I wasn't able to completely figure out, I've built new tiny apps that I previously would be stuck on, I am improving existing projects that I have up to Github now, and more. I think my abilities are enhanced by probably 25-50%.
Middle management for software engineering has gone through a paradigm shift. The trend for businesses is flatter structures, manager roles with more responsibilities and this reality largely includes being as deep in the code as direct reports.
Since 2023, most roles I reviewed or interviewed for were player/coach roles, often close to 50/50 split. In my last EM role, I was hired for exactly this.
I found very few EM roles that are primarily managing with only "being in the code"; I can count on my hands out of hundreds of Engineering Manager roles. Probably closer to 95% or more EM roles require hands-on technical work similar to Tech Lead roles.
I have noticed this as well, and if you're interviewing at a startup, it's almost guaranteed to be a highly technical position. Either a hybrid EM/Tech Lead role or a hybrid EM/architect role.
I watched that last year. It's very interesting research and seems effective not just for Alzheimers but for treatment of addiction as well. I'm seriously counting on this treatment for any family members who may end up being diagnosed with it later in life.
I would say an actively harmful TypeScript. Just a couple of days ago, I had bug in production because apparently the union of two types is not the intersection but the sum. It exploded because one type had a method that the other didn't. That's an absolutely horrible footgun
My journey into building computers and networking were partly driven by Anandtech. I bought and sold quite a few things on the forums, too. I always thought Anandtech was one of the higher quality tech publications. RIP to one of the best.
I'm glad to hear the forums are still going to be around. They certainly aren't as popular as they once were but I still consider myself a part of that community and enjoy conversing with the old timers once and awhile.
I started with Part 4 intentionally, it stands alone from the other three.
This article is a damning call out of the web development industry and how we've gone down a bad path for the Javascript-first landscape of websites and services.
Regarding the Ad Tech section, I found value in the August 6th episode of Security Now titled "How Revoking!" where he's talking about 3rd-party cookies handling in Firefox.
Generally speaking, I'm sure it's difficult to find a general balance between privacy and usability, and I tend to want a purist viewpoint on blocking all 3rd-party cookies if I set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict. The above episodes explains why it's not 100% doing what we expect, which was troubling to hear!
Except that studies show that users expect both similar content and experiences regardless of device. Responsive web design, with progressive enhancement, is the foundational bridge to make this experience work well.
Just because someone experiences a less than ideal experience of RWD in one or more places doesn't mean to group all RWD UI experiences together as bad.
It's more practical spend less time developing and testing one global component than more than one.
I think there's a "theory" of rotating UX (same features in one way when in one space, another way in another space). But I can't find writings on this.
Browser spec creators and browser vendors have been implementing touch and non-touch UI differences in common primitive features since the 2010s. Example, if you use at a <select> element on desktop browsers and mobile browsers, I would say it falls into a similar idea as rotating UX. There are countless other examples, too.
Could there be improvements? Absolutely, and that's where we get to have a voice.
The big takeaway from this presentation is CSS offers so many things that were mostly Javascript previously. Going forward, sometime in 2025, it will be less compelling to use libraries an frameworks for many web native interactions and features.
Firefox, please hurry up your support for many mentioned features in this video!
