These days, most of my work is very related to the online world. Building web sites, reviewing web applications, integrating with web services, coordinating people who are far away from each other, etc. Whenever I find a new tool or service or an innovative, interesting idea about working online, I share it in this category.
Browserling – an awesome cross-browser testing service, has a collection of Web Developer Tools, which are as simple to use as possible. Â There are now more than 80 (!!!) tools, according to this Peteris Krumins blog post, that provide immediate help with things like converting dates and times, formats like CSV, JSON, Markdown, HTML, XML, etc, generating passwords, minimizing or prettifying HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more.
One of the benefits of having your own blog is all the archives that are accumulated over time. Â Web services, platforms, and social networks come and go, and so does your content when you choose to use them. Â But with your own piece of the Internet, you get to keep it all.
It’s always interesting to see what I was into and what I was thinking like years ago. Â Especially when it comes to predictions and forecasting. Â Especially with the technology, which moves so fast.
Here is, for example, something that I shared 5 years ago (to the day): Â On how Google+ will succeed. Â Now that never happened. Â In fact, almost the opposite is happening:
Horowitz made a point to emphasize, once again, that Google+ isn’t going away. Instead, he reiterated that the company will be offering “a more focused Google+ experience.”
In other words, Google+ has a core set of users that really do enjoy using the service. “Google+ is quickly becoming a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them,” Horowitz said.
More specifically, Google plans to continue to offer new features in Google+ and move “features that aren’t essential to an interest-based social experience” into existing products.
This just tells you how “trustworthy” is my opinion on things…
Ars Technica runs a nice overview article “How the Internet works: Submarine fiber, brains in jars, and coaxial cables“. Â It features plenty of cool images, statistics, and details of the Internet wiring from under the sea to the last mile to the last 100 meters. Â It’s mostly focused on UK, but it provides a good understanding of what’s involved in the modern day connectivity.
P.S.: On a less serious note, here’s The IT Crowd take on how the Internet works. Â Thanks to Maxym Balabaev for a reminder.
From this article, I’ve learned about an excellent (for our times) 10k Apart competition:
With so much of an emphasis on front-end frameworks and JavaScript runtimes, it’s time to get back to basics—back to optimizing every little byte like your life depends on it and ensuring your site can work, no matter what. The Challenge? Build a compelling web experience that can be delivered in 10kB and works without JavaScript.
Think you’ve got what it takes? You have until September 30th.
I can’t wait to see the submissions and all the ways to squeeze the awesomeness of the modern web into just 10 kilobytes.  This reminds me of the Perl Golf posts over at PerlMonks and Assembly PC 64K Intro from my childhood early days (here are some examples).
“Git Workflow Basics” is yet another take on the git workflow. Â This subject has been covered in a variety of ways before (here, here, and here, for example), but I think it’s super important for every developer to understand, so if all the other attempts left you puzzled and confused, have a look at this one. Â It’s pretty straight forward.
One thing in particular that I would like to emphasize:
And hey: remember to review your own pull request before asking for reviews of your teammates. You’ll spot a lot of small things you didn’t notice (style issues, typos, etc) and will allow your colleagues to focus on what really matters.