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Week in Review - CSS selectors, MutationObserver, opening GitHub Issues via...
I finished writing an extension for Chrome to hide comments. I wrote about my reasons for writing it before, but even as I was writing about it I had more features in mind and a few things I wanted to...
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I continued working on "Hide Comments Everywhere" this weekend. At this point, it's just been fun to learn new things and see how I can evolve it. According to the stats page there's about 20 users...
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Hacktoberfest 2017
Is it silly that a t-shirt and some stickers motivates thousands of developers to contribute to OSS during the month of October? I mean, they're cool stickers! Not just any old stickers. And last...
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Do your future self a favor... don't future-proof your code
Imagine you just got a request at work to add a new feature to the codebase - nothing too big. Just doing what you need to do would be easy enough, but you've seen something like this before. You...
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Think twice before posting that embarrassing photo of your future adult
Imagine you woke this morning to find out someone you trusted had posted an embarrassing photo of you online. Wait, not one - there were dozens, posted over several years! These were times when you...
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5 Ways to Tame the Erlang Beast
When I switched from C# to Erlang, it was a steeper climb than I had anticipated. There's a lot that's different - static vs dynamic types, object-oriented vs functional, the immutability of variables...
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Sick of all the noise on Twitter? I was too. So I wrote a Chrome extension to...
I happened across a great Chrome extension a year or so back, called Hide YouTube Comments, which does what it says very well. The YouTube comments section has always been full of vitriol spewed by...
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Our first family computer in 1992
Time for a trip down memory lane! (run now..) My parents brought home their first computer back around 1992. I still remember it surpisingly vividly, considering it was 25 years ago. It was right...
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Building a train table, and other non-dev pursuits
Not too long ago, someone asked me what it's like programming, to not have a physical product at the end of the day. It's mainly an intellectual pursuit, turning someone's (usually a company's) idea...
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Think twice about that hot new feature no one knew they wanted
One of the most difficult things when developing an application is knowing when to say "no more", or at least "not right now". It's always tempting to add another feature. It's too easy, in fact. At...
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An infographic for Chrome extensions (a first for me)
Who doesn't like a good picture over a thousand words? An infographic is just a pictorial representation of some data - maybe a graph, or chart, or some other kind of short, single-page, at-a-glance...
View ArticleI pay for your app/service... how many ways do you need to make money off me?
I found this nifty little phone app that does a single thing and does it well. You can scan QR codes with it, and it decodes the information and generates several links - to amazon, ebay, target, etc -...
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Tunnel vision, sharing problems, and obvious solutions
Ever had a solution staring you in the face and didn't even realize it? I have. It's always one of the obvious ones that (in hindsight) I can't believe didn't occur to me sooner. Like the blinds in our...
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A new personal challenge - 30 APIs in 30 Days
It's getting too cold to do anything productive outside, and I've got a week-long holiday break coming up soon, so I think it's time for a little personal challenge. I've been kind of fascinated by...
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Day 1 - Twitter API
To kick off my 30 APIs in 30 Days challenge (also on GitHub), let's check out the Twitter API, how to use it and what it has to offer. You can start with their getting started guide if you like, but...
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Day 2 - Instagram API
Continuing the 30 APIs in 30 Days challenge (also on GitHub), I think we'll stick with the social media theme for now and check out the Instagram API. First though, two things to consider: If you're...
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Day 3 - Backblaze B2 Storage API
Continuing my 30 APIs in 30 Days challenge (also on GitHub), today I want to experiment with the Backblaze B2 Storage API. If you're not familiar with Backblaze, they're a handy and inexpensive service...
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Day 4 - Dropbox API
Continuing my 15 APIs in 15 Days challenge (also on GitHub), today I played around with the Dropbox API, or DBX as they apparently call it. Dropbox provides file storage that syncs between your...
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Day 5 - Slack API
Continuing my 15 APIs in 15 Days challenge (also on GitHub), I thought I'd check out the Slack API. Slack is a popular communication and collaboration tool. First though, two things to consider: If...
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Day 6 - Google Maps API
Continuing my search for 15 APIs in 15 Days (also on GitHub), I checked into the Google Maps API. Google is a service that... a provider who.... they run the Internet. They have this little mapping...
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