2024.07.29 - The New Internet

Title: 2024.07.29 - The New Internet

no-code & DRY & 乔布斯 & 文化自信 & 坏脾气

This Week’s Hot Topics

The New Internet https://tailscale.com/blog/new-internet
Instead, the tech industry has evolved into an absolute mess. And it’s getting worse instead of better! Our tower of complexity is now so tall that we seriously consider slathering LLMs on top to write the incomprehensible code in the incomprehensible frameworks so we don’t have to. And you know, we old people are the ones who have the context to see that. It’s all fixable. It doesn’t have to be this way. Before I can tell you a vision for the future I have to tell you what I think went wrong.

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Airtable’s new Cobuilder unlocks instant no-code app creation https://blog.airtable.com/airtable-cobuilder-launch/
Modern companies need custom applications that meet their unique business needs. But the status quo no longer cuts it: SaaS point solutions are brittle and siloed, and building traditional in‑house software development is slow, expensive, and not flexible enough to adapt to quickly evolving company priorities. The future is no‑code.

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How to review code effectively: A GitHub staff engineer’s philosophy https://github.blog/developer-skills/github/how-to-review-code-effectively-a-github-staff-engineers-philosophy/
GitHub Staff Engineer Sarah Vessels discusses her philosophy of code review, what separates good code review from bad, her strategy for finding and reviewing code, and how to get the most from reviews of her own code.

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DRY – the common source of bad abstractions
The worst and hardest‑to‑maintain code that I've seen or written has been in pursuit of DRY – Don't Repeat Yourself. It's one of the first design principles engineers learn and we love to go wild with it.

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So you think you know box shadows? https://dgerrells.com/blog/how-not-to-use-box-shadows
I want to share some of the worst possible things one can do with box shadows all on a single div. Things which shouldn't work at all yet somehow they do. But before getting into that, a question must be answered. What exactly is a box shadow?

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Deep Reads

乔布斯「遗失的访谈」全文：我不在乎犯错，只在乎是否在做正确的事 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jwzNzU3UZOjbsj888o2_Nw
I firmly believe that in the next decade or two, founders of Chinese heritage will have the chance to build companies as great as Apple—standing at the intersection of technology and the humanities, brimming with technical force and imagination, benefiting everyone’s lives. But I also believe that if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would tell you not to try to become Steve Jobs, not to obsess over his story and products; only then can new legends arise. That may sound unrealistic today, just as it did when he first started.

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Open Source AI Is the Path Forward https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/open-source-ai-is-the-path-forward/
Meta is committed to open‑source AI. I’ll outline why I believe open source is the best development stack for you, why open‑sourcing Llama is good for Meta, and why open‑source AI is good for the world and therefore a platform that will be around for the long term. Related: Google DeepMind - AI achieves silver‑medal standard solving International Mathematical Olympiad problems.

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Beyond Automation: Unveiling the True Essence of BDD https://blog.scottlogic.com/2024/07/26/beyond-automation-unveiling-the-true-essence-of-bdd.html
Many organisations claim they are applying Behaviour‑Driven Development (BDD). When you discuss BDD with them, they often present numerous feature files as evidence of their adoption of the BDD methodology.

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How Airbnb Smoothly Upgrades React https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/how-airbnb-smoothly-upgrades-react-b1d772a565fd
Incrementally modernizing our frontend infrastructure to roll out the latest React features without downgrades.

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How to make complex Chrome extensions: a zero gravity guide https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/how-to-make-complex-chrome-plugins-a-zero-gravity-guide
Building a complex browser extension isn’t exactly easy—especially for first‑timers or folks who feel unsure of what they’re doing! Not to worry. We’ll show you the essentials for building a full‑featured Chrome extension using a real example from the Evil Martians casebook! We’ll also share some other useful tips and cool recommendations, so read on!

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CSS Grid Areas https://ishadeed.com/article/css-grid-area/
A fresh look at the CSS grid template areas and how to take advantage of its full potential today.

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How to choose the best rendering strategy for your app https://vercel.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-best-rendering-strategy-for-your-app
Optimizing performance in the way you deliver code.

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Copying is the way design works https://matthewstrom.com/writing/copying/
Whether you believe that it’s worthwhile or worthless to copy, whether you think that copies are a valuable part of the design community or a scourge, you are using software, hardware, websites and apps that all owe their existence to copying. As long as there is design, there will be copying.

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The Philosopher King, the Demiurge and the Programmer https://www.simplethread.com/the-philosopher-king-the-demiurge-and-the-programmer/
The relationship between the Programmer and the Program is one not often considered through the lens of metaphysics and ethics. As established in the previous piece, the Programmer is burdened by a responsibility to embrace and submit to the greater Truth or λόγος (Logos) in their work. Plutarch, a Platonist, described the λόγος as the “go‑between” between God and humanity and we will consider what that metaphysical hyper‑space may contain by investigating the metaphysics of Plato.

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Fresh Finds

What’s New for JavaScript Developers in ECMAScript 2024 Node.js adds experimental support for TypeScript Astro 4.12: Server Islands Enhanced Data: An experiment in UI density created with Svelte

GeoStyler: Generic Styler for GeoData Design beautiful patterns from endless variations MikroORM 6.3: Schema first? litegraph.js: A library in Javascript to create graphs in the browser similar to Unreal Blueprints.

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The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide Briefer – Multiplayer notebooks with schedules, SQL, and built‑in LLMs

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Products & Others

文化自信从哪里来 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wyn_8na7vfs4Z5Sr-Xm3BA
Chinese civilization has endured for millennia, surviving countless hardships while remaining vibrant. Its unique historical trajectory and rich cultural heritage provide a deep, lasting drive for our cultural confidence. To firmly uphold cultural confidence, we must cling to the excellent traditional culture of China— the crystallized wisdom and essence of our civilization, a standout advantage of the Chinese nation, our deepest cultural soft power, and the foundation for standing firm amid global cultural turbulence.

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关于气感：不要去找那些-金刚功答疑 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/U1iMqhIaf_lNiHbfO1gmqQ
Don’t chase the “feeling”; understand? Don’t look for a sensation when practicing the “Vajra Longevity” method. Don’t seek any “qi feeling.” When you truly cultivate and reach a certain level, you’ll naturally go where you intend, following your heart without forced effort.

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.