Web Developer Monthly 💻🚀

14th issue! If you missed the last few months, check them all out here.

If it’s your first time here…(otherwise skip this part)

Being a web developer is a fantastic career option. You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems. One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top performing web developer, coder, programer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly newsletter is going to be focused on keeping up to date with the industry, keeping your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time. I will be sharing the most important articles, podcasts and videos of the month. Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

What you missed in August as a Web Developer…

Become a JavaScript Testing Master 👩‍🔬 👨‍🔬

Tests are important. We all know this, but sometimes we can get lazy. Well, we no longer have an excuse because we have a nice organized list of JavaScript and Node.js testing best practices. Spend a day to read through this. It is well worth it.

Free Tools For Web Developers ✂️

Some tools and assets to help you build your next project since we are best friends by now (unless this is your first time reading my articles… in that case let’s take things slow):

1. Generate pretty looking waves for your next project

2. Another Free logo maker!

3. A nice little tool to make page maps

4. Free art and illustrations for you to use

5. Turn any website into an API. Free up to 1000 API calls.

6. Make a website act and look like a Terminal. Good portfolio idea.

7. Ever wonder how people share awesome code snippets? This is how

8. Want to work remote? People seem to love the idea. Here is a new job board for remote jobs

9. Here are some free startup templates

YES 10 free tools this month. Pretty generous right?! You should definitely give this article a 👏 , share with your friends and subscribe right now. Sorry for being demanding.

PHP News 🧞‍♂️

Our first mention of PHP in this newsletter! WHAT IS GOING ON, TRAITOR!?? Don’t worry, I haven’t jumped ship. But since this is a Web Development newsletter, we should learn about things outside of our JavaScript bubble. PHP has a new proposal to create a dialect of PHP (code named P++) that will live alongside PHP that will potentially be strictly typed (think TypeScript vs JavaScript).

React News 💎

It wouldn’t be a monthly recap without some React news. What crazy things did they get up to?

• Apollo Client now uses React Hooks. So you can keep being trendy.

• React 16.9.0 with some new features. They also made an update to the roadmap. Looks like we have to wait a bit longer for the Concurrent Mode and Suspense for data fetching.

• React has a new Developer Tool (Ok, it’s just an update, but still pretty nice). There is actually a fun tutorial you can follow here.

• Ever wonder how to use TypeScript with React? Is it worth it? This article does a nice job summing things up for you.

• No more figuring out layouts every time you start a project. Here is a grab and go solution.

• Another blog post on how to be better with React Hooks. Sometimes I wonder how good a solution is if it requires so much explanation.

Python is Eating the World 🐍

Ever heard of Python? It has been growing like crazy the last couple of years. Don’t worry, JavaScript isn’t going anywhere and if you know JavaScript, it’s not hard to pick up Python. Here is a great read on how it got so popular.

PS, I’m releasing a course this month on Python. It’s going to be pretty big and complete. You can see what I will be teaching here.

Privacy News 🌋

A nice writeup of how a JIRA issue exposed internal project boards of organizations like NASA. This is actually not new, but still a fun read.

Google team found some new vulnerabilities that allowed iOS phones to have a monitoring implant downloaded onto them simply by just visiting certain websites.

Microservices Architecture Cons 🌿

Always good to read different sides of the story. This article does a great job outlining some of the situations in which you may not want to implement a Microservices architecture, and instead stick to your monolith.

CSS Animations + Transitions 🌈

A nice little guide to using CSS animations and transitions to improve your designs. You probably don’t need to know these in so much detail, but the blog post has some pretty nice examples of beautiful animations you can do just with CSS.

While we are on this design topic. Here is the best chrome plugins for designers and a way for you to create your own SVGs.

Performance Quick Tips ⚡️

More performance articles from Google’s web.dev website. This is a nice “to-do” list if you really want to optimize your website. Just don’t go down a never ending rabbit hole with this one.

Global News For Developers 📰

Three big stories this past month:

• Less than half of Google searches now result in a click. Some interesting implications here for web developers.

• Last month’s newsletter, we mentioned Kazakh government is trying to make citizens install their own certificates to read their encrypted web browsing. Well, Google, Apple, Mozilla move to block Kazakh surveillance system.

• Hong Kong might see its internet go behind the Chinese firewall.

The Greatest VS Code Setup in the World 🏰

Ever wished there was a list of the greatest plugins and extensions for VS Code in one location so that you have all the tools needed to be a full stack developer? Well, somebody made the list and it is pretty good. Just don’t go around installing everything… only install the ones you actually need.

Ace Your Next Tech Interview 🎯

A great resource for you to bookmark because there is no way you can read it all in one sitting. But this will be a great tool for you to use as you get prepared for coding interviews. Some excellent advice and tips in here.

What Is Good Software? 🧱

Sometimes we get caught up in our code and our own views. Take a break, and read this article. If you start mentioning things from this article in your next interview, the interviewer is going to love you.

How Does HTTPS Work? 🚠

Easy. Just follow this article and its cute animations to be able to explain to all of your friends how HTTPS works. We need more things explained with animations.

Big Tech News 🏢

• If you can hack the Apple iPhone, you get $1million. Good luck. Apple’s push towards more security and privacy keeps getting stronger. WebKit (used for Safari Browser) has a new policy on what they allow when it comes to tracking online. You can read more about it here. Ps in comparison, this is what happens every time you open up a Chrome Browser.

• Facebook is starting to get less and less love, although it doesn’t seem to affect the popularity of Instagram. Posts like this that show how to delete your facebook profile. But if you’re using Whatsapp or Instagram, it’s still part of the same company. Oh, and if you have the Facebook “Like” button on your website, you should think twice. You might get a fine from the EU.

• Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has more cash than Apple now. Just a lowly $117 billion in cash. If you are ever wondering what these companies do with all that cash, this is a great video on the topic.

• Google Maps now has AR enabled directions. Never leave your home again.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

Find fruit trees in the wild. Now this is a great personal web project! We have enough To Do List apps in the world. Let’s all move to Find Fruit Trees apps in React/Angular/Vue (data sources provided in the link). Cool? Cool.

Ps did you know that July was the hottest month on record?

Best Resource of the Month ✅

A great explanation of how we got to where we are in the web development world. Looking forward to the 2nd part of this post. Sometimes posts like these explaining the “why” are more helpful than the very common “this is the latest, newest, way to do something using this library” blog post.

Trick of the Month 🌗

A distraction free way to browse YouTube videos… pretty useful since when was the last time you learned something from the YouTube comment section?

By the way, my full time job is to teach people to code in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all of my courses by visiting the courses page.