The Spinneret: Issue #11

My Updates

Notable changes in my life, on my website, and in other projects.

I spent most of the last month getting my bearings at Stackbit, beginning to explore the wide world of developer experience/relations/advocacy.

During that time, I've been mostly laying the groundwork and planning for what's the come, which isn't super exciting. I can't wait until this turns into something I can share with you all, which I expect to happen in October or November.

I'm also finishing up a hybrid app using Ionic. I'm anxious to get that out the door so I can get back to focusing on my website and its content. I have big plans in the works!

My Words

New blog posts and videos I published last month.

The piece I was most excited about this month was How to Convert Static HTML into Powerful Templates, partially because it was my first piece published for Stackbit, but mostly because it's the first in a series of three that will take beginners on a Jamstack journey. All will be released by mid-September.

And just a few other articles during a quiet month.

Guest Articles

• Everything You Need to Know about CSS Position Property by Pratham

New Terms

• WTF is a Regression?
• WTF is an Environment Variable?

And The Rest

• How to Set Environment Variables in JavaScript Projects
• Safely Force Pushing in Git
• Adding S3 Credentials for Node.js AWS SDK

My Reads

Articles and news I read last month that I found interesting, with some commentary.

Two big announcements from startups I really like:

• Algolia raised $150 million
• Contentful raised $175 million

These are huge deals! Word on the street is that Contentful's next round may be IPO. That will mark one of the first Jamstack tools to go public. I'd say that validates the movement. 🙂

I also came across MACH Alliance, which seems to be a more generic Jamstack, though it seems like it hasn't really caught on yet.

And two others that caught my attention:

• Modular code with Nunjucks and Eleventy (because it's very similar to the pattern I created for my site
• The Dilemma of Naming Font Size Variables (because it's really weird, but a fun exploration in naming, which is hard)

My Finds

New tools that I've recently discovered. They aren't necessarily new.

And a wide assortment of tools that caught my attention.

• GitHub Next's Flat Data: I seriously geeked out about this one. I love the idea of flat data. Local files are such a great data source. I won't go into detail here, except to say that GitHub really did this up nicely, making flat data more fluid, actionable, and compelling.
• Gitpod and StackBlitz: Dev environments in the cloud. These are gaining in popularity. I don't why I'm so skeptical of their effectiveness. I guess I should try one out.
• NoCodeAPI: I've shared a handful of these with you before, like TakeShape, StepZen, and RapidAPI. It's a tool that brings together responses from other APIs into one place, so your front ends only have to worry about working with a single API.
• Pitch: A collaborative presentation tool. I'm sticking with Deckset for now, but this could be great if you need to collaborate on a presentation.
• Icon8 Vector Illustration Styles: I'm typically using Noun Project for my icons, but this looks intriguing, as it also includes vector illustrations, and all for free.

That's all for this month. See you soon!

As always, I welcome feedback on this newsletter (and any content I put out there). Say hello on Twitter.