My MacBook Neo review: webartisan.info/jd-s-2026-ma...

🔥 Want to use light mode on just one flux component in your otherwise dark-mode app?

Want a checkerboard pattern? No need to use multiple `linear-gradient()` layers anymore. `conic-gradient()` has been supported cross-browser since 2020! PS: if you can, upvote stackoverflow.com/a/65129916/1... to make it the top answer and get more people (and AI) to use modern, well supported #CSS

It's official! I'm releasing "The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing" next week on Tuesday (14th Jan 2025) 🎉 👉 Pre-order: webdevfreelancing.com There's also an audiobook version that's been recorded by @jdlien.com! Let me tell you now, it sounds amazing! 🔥

If you work with databases enough, you’ll eventually need to migrate a database from one RDBMS to another. This can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be! My latest article for @aaronfrancis.com covers planning migration of a DB from SQLite to Postgres. masteringpostgres.com/articles/mig...

It's that time of year when we look back at all the things we've done to remind us that maybe we've actually come further than we think we have. Here's my 2024 year in review going over a bunch of the crazy things I've done this year! webartisan.info/jds-2024-yea...

I love these sorts of handy reference sheets when trying to learn a new skill. Regex is so handy to have down cold as a programmer or sysadmin: media.datacamp.com/legacy/image...

I'm reading @joshwcomeau.com's newsletter and it's fascinating seeing the difference between US and Canadian pay for developers as well as this interesting stat: If you call yourself an "Engineer" you make almost double what you do as a "Developer". And it's the same job. Ha!

I don't know what it is about me but it's almost like sprawling, messy legacy systems hunt me down and find me. How lovely it would be to just spend all my time on a beautiful, shiny greenfield Laravel app or something!

I've been freelancing from home for over six months. I have to say—the feeling of social isolation in this situation is a real thing, even for very introverted people like me. Some days I really miss how easy it was to chat with a coworker or grab a coffee. I'm bad about making a habit of that.

I've been writing a ton of stuff about databases lately, but I'm seriously considering a diversion into comedy writing. Heck, why not combine both? 🤔

If you've wondered whether SQLite or PostgreSQL would be a better choice for you or want to understand the differences between these popular (but very different) RDBMSes, here's my latest article for @aaronfrancis.com's DB blogs with a nice explainer: masteringpostgres.com/articles/pos...

Hey, fellow database nerds! 👋🤓 I've written a fresh new article for the blog at @aaronfrancis.com's Mastering Postgres course. Today's topic: PostgreSQL vs. MySQL. You've heard of both and wondered what the differences are. I go deep in the article, but here's a teaser: 🧵

I don't know if all these AI tools are replacing software engineers wholesale, but if my credit card bill is representative of other developers', they are replacing a lot of software engineers' income with subscriptions! I don't know, maybe I'm just a sucker for wanting to tinker with these things.

I wonder what changed in iPhones that resulted in a torrent of people butt-dialing each other by accident. I’ve done it myself! I suspect a combo of things, but this went from something that never happened from 2007-2023, and now it seems quite frequent! 🤔 Good UI case study to be done here.

I just finished narrating, recording, editing, encoding, and tagging the audiobook version of @ashallendesign.co.uk's book, The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing! Whew! That was a lot of work. Over 5.5 hours of finished audio for your educational listening enjoyment. I'm stoked for its release!

I feel this, and I bet a lot of my followers do, too.

@aschmelyun.com I hope you have a great day!

I’m helping @ashallendesign.co.uk with his book about Freelancing as a web developer. We are going to release it on the World Wide Web in both print and as an audiobook! I’ve heard there are stores that are trying to sell books online, but will this really catch on?

Access Route Model-Bound Models in Laravel Form Requests with "#[RouteParameter]" 🚀 ashallendesign.co.uk/blog/laravel...

"Free background-image remover in the browser!" ⚡️ Excited to announce bg.addy.ie, a free little app that removes backgrounds from images directly in your browser! Privacy-friendly. Uses Transformers.js, RMBG-1.4 & MODNet.

Videos on YouTube now: Title: "DON'T make the mistake of buying this! Worst product ever!" Thumbnail: "Guy with pained expression looking like he was shot in the stomach" Video Content: Blasé video where guy runs benchmarks and concludes "Yeah, everything is pretty good, it's alright" So annoying.

This a thing that's so ridiculous that everyone asks "Why on Earth would you go through the trouble to build this?" but I love that one person said "Why not?" and just built it because they thought it'd be fun. It comes with a fascinating writeup of all the crazy challenges Nolen had to solve!

Ha. Clearly, OpenAI are doing some extreme price discrimination, but at least if you happen to be in a position to need a tremendous number of requests, you’ve got an option if it’s worth it for you.

I’ll leave this here. Someday when my wife won’t get upset about me spending all my free time on music production, I’ll have a go at remaking or remastering this album. I’m proud to have produced this even though it’s far from perfect. music.apple.com/ca/album/eur...

Apple Music has a 2024 Replay thingy, it’s kind of fun to see my top artists. My top album (Europa by Cosmic Cadet) was the one I made myself, so at least I made someone’s list! 😂

Ever wondered how primary keys work in SQLite? If you want to make the most of your databases, you'll need to understand these, as they are different from most RDBMS systems. I wrote an article for @aaronfrancis.com's High-Performance SQLite course covering this. Here's a rundown:

Truth. How can you not love this guy?

Very cool new feature, although I don’t own a Vision Pro. Absolutely not worth it yet, though it’s a cool tech demo. I just hope Apple adds some features to make an ultrawide display a bit more useful on macOS.

There's this evergreen joke on software development that goes something like this: "We're done with 90% of the project. Which means we only have the other 90% left to go." It's funny because it's true. It's also why experienced engineers are in-demand: they are the "finishers." AI tools: not now.

Everyone is posting their “Bluesky profile roast”. What a clever little site! “@jdlien.com is like drinking a craft beer brewed with a hint of sarcasm—distinctive, bitter, but you keep coming back for more.” blueskyroast.com/roast/jdlien...

I bet if Bluesky added the ability to edit posts, that'd be a nice big slap in the face to X. Sure, you can finally do it now, but only on paid accounts, and the way you can do it is pretty limited (for good reasons, as the potential for abuse is high).

This sucks — if you're a well-known person and choose to use your own domain, you should probably register the typical account names you use to avoid this (e.g., I registered @jdlien.bsky.social for this reason, although I originally used that for a bit before @jdlien.com

This is spot on!

Wow, for the years I've worked with PostgreSQL, I only now realized that I (and everyone else) pronounces it incorrectly! It was named "Postgres" because it came after "Ingres", and in 1996 tacked on "QL" after adding SQL support. It's "Post-GRES-cue-el" www.craigkerstiens.com/2018/10/30/p...

Vite 6.0 is out ⚡️ vite.dev/blog/announc...

There are so many fun things you have to know when you alternate between editing large quantities of prose in British, American, and Canadian English.

I'm on the homestretch editing @ashallendesign.bsky.social's book "The Web Dev's Guide to Freelancing". I'm stoked for its release! After an all-nighter going through "Client and Project Management", Ash's sage advice gives me the confidence to go out and take on big new projects. Great info here.

I almost can't believe it, but I just booked General American accent training. Soon I'll be able to say "A loud shout went about the house when the cat found a mouse, and
pounced." without all the United Statesians laughing at me. Well, probably not, but that's the dream.

This is a neat video from @veritasium-science.bsky.social about what happened to Amelia Earhart. I was (briefly) an aviator when I was younger so it was fascinating for me to learn more about that. youtu.be/zTDFhWWPZ4Q?...

I’m just gonna leave this here:

Hard agree, here. There are so many way better ways to evaluate if someone will be a competent developer. Leetcode is so irrelevant to the actual day-to-day work of a SWE.

Super cool! This platform will be so great for us nerds sharing coding tips!

Did you know there’s a site to search for starter packs of people to follow? Built by @mubashariqbal.com blueskydirectory.com/starter-pack...

I’ve been using Tailwind 4.0 since it went Alpha and it has been incredible. Now that it’s in Beta, you’ve got to give it a try. Just a beautiful developer experience. Way to go, @adamwathan.com and team! tailwindcss.com/blog/tailwin...

This bit resonates with my experience so far. Bluesky feels fresh and fun in a way that Twitter nor X hasn’t for a long time and the quality of engagement is better. I’m not ready to leave X yet, but that time may come soon!

Clearly Anthropic is no joke and is a serious player in the frontier LLM space. It’s my go-to for code generation at the moment.

SQLite has a reputation for being slow but can perform extremely well, especially when configured with PRAGMA commands. @aaronfrancis.com and I wrote an article explaining what these commands are and what the ideal settings are for most databases: highperformancesqlite.com/articles/sql...

This @kentcdodds.com article implies most opportunities come from relationships borne of in-person interactions. I agree. Most opportunities in my life came from real-world relationships. When so much is AI slop and scams, relationships are more important than ever. kentcdodds.com/blog/ai-is-t...