useEffect vs useLayoutEffect
The simple rules for when to use each.
How We Built It: Spotify Lite, One Year Later
What if, for some users, the very best Spotify is a little less Spotify? Spotify Lite started as an experiment that had to be proven, both from a technical and a product-market fit perspective. In 2017, we found that a significant portion of registrations in some of our fastest-growing markets were happening on Android devices much older than what we were used to seeing in North American and Europ
An attempt at implementing char-rnn with PyTorch
An attempt at implementing char-rnn with PyTorch
Dreaming Of A Magical December (2020 Wallpapers Edition) — Smashing Magazine
Let’s welcome December with some new wallpapers! Designed by artists and designers from across the globe, they are available with and without a calendar for the month. All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper. We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their
A Thanksgiving 2020 Reading List
If you want to relax in an active and learning way this Thanksgiving weekend, here are some of the topics we’ve covered on the Cloudflare blog this past week that you may find interesting.
Reactive Variables In GraphQL Apollo Client — Smashing Magazine
Reactive variables work with GraphQL Apollo and offer you the same functionality with Redux or Context API without the complexity or extra layers that come with these other tools. A reactive variable in GraphQL Apollo is easy to use and doesn’t have as much setup process compared to Redux. In this article, Daniel Don will look at how to set up reactive variables, how the GraphQL cache polices come
My list of magic numbers for your turkey day enjoyment
Copy Docs: Make Your Microcopy Full And Consistent, And Maintain It — Smashing Magazine
Copy docs is a framework that allows product designers and writers to manage their in-product copy in a smart way. In this article, Valeriia Panina shares her experience in how the copy docs technique turned out to be a game changer for her workflow. The copy docs technique was a game changer for Valeriia’s workflow and she’d be happy if it boosts yours, too!
Moving Quicksilver into production
We previously explained how and why we built Quicksilver. This second blog post is about the long journey to production which culminates with Kyoto Tycoon removal from Cloudflare infrastructure and points to the first signs of obsolescence.
Playfulness In Code: Supercharge Your Learning By Having Fun — Smashing Magazine
In the product-focused world of development, it can be easy to forget the joy of making for the sake of making. By dropping the ‘Why’ and ‘How’, and focusing instead on the ‘What’ of weird, wonderful ideas, you can nurture a totally different side to your skill sets. You can read the docs, you can follow the tutorials, but wouldn’t you be more motivated by trying to make something unique, somethin
Day 11: learning about learning rates
Day 11: learning about learning rates
Getting to the Core: Benchmarking Cloudflare’s Latest Server Hardware
A refresh of the hardware that Cloudflare uses to run analytics provided big efficiency improvements.
How You Might Build a Modern Day Webring
I'm sure different people picture different things when they think about webrings, so let me clarify what I picture. I see an element on a website that:
Whatcha watchin’? Custom notification controls
Earlier this year, we upgraded the notifications experience on GitHub, focusing on filters that get you straight to the updates that matter most to you. Just last week, we shipped…
Day 10: Training an RNN to count to three
Day 10: Training an RNN to count to three
Behind the feature: the making of the new Auto Layout
The evolution of Auto Layout and more on the latest version
Take action: DMCA anti-circumvention and developer innovation
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 22-year old United States law meant to strike a complicated balance between art, code, and speech on the net — impacting users…
Day 9: Generating a lot of nonsense with an RNN
Day 9: Generating a lot of nonsense with an RNN
Creating WebGL Effects with CurtainsJS
This article focuses adding WebGL effects to <image> and <video> elements of an already “completed” web page. While there are a few helpful
Upptime
GitHub Actions are like free computers.
Computational Notebook
Day 8: Start with something that works
Day 8: Start with something that works
This message cannot be pasted into the Signal app
Introducing split diffs in GitHub Desktop
The latest version of GitHub Desktop includes split diffs, PRs with Actions status, more control over stashing, and discarding changes from files.
Feedback: UIs, Mac pains, hardware, teaching and octal
New Sample: Image Flipping Extension
Learn to build your first Dropbox Extension using sample code in node.js
Updates to our Terms of Service and Privacy Statement now merged
As part of GitHub’s commitment to developers, we open source the policies that govern our platform and welcome feedback at any time in our site-policy repository. When we make material…
Release Radar
We’re here to bring you the latest and greatest releases for November 2020. These are exciting new releases from some of the coolest projects around. There’s everything from world-changing tech…
Standing up for developers: youtube-dl is back
Today we reinstated youtube-dl, a popular project on GitHub, after we received additional information about the project that enabled us to reverse a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown.
Day 5: drawing lots of faces with sketch-rnn
Day 5: drawing lots of faces with sketch-rnn
Creating A Continuous Integration Test Workflow Using GitHub Actions — Smashing Magazine
The convention when contributing to projects on version control platforms is that there is the main branch containing the functional codebase. Then, there are other branches in which several developers can work on copies of the main to either add a new feature, fix a bug, and so on. If there is any error, it can easily be traced and fixed before integrating the changes into the main branch. It can
How do you write simple explanations without sounding condescending?
How do you write simple explanations without sounding condescending?
UK Black History Month at Cloudflare
Cloudflare celebrated UK Black History Month remotely!
Super simple start to Firebase functions
The simplest getting started guide for Firebase Cloud functions
My WordPress Comments Wishlist
A built-in commenting system is one of the reasons people reach for WordPress (and often stay there long-term). While I do think having a comment system is
The Cleanest Trick for Autogrowing Textareas
Earlier this year I wrote a bit about autogrowing textareas and inputs. The idea was to make a <textarea> more like a <div> so it expands in
Day 3: an infinitely tall fridge
Day 3: an infinitely tall fridge
Super simple start to Netlify functions
Easily create server code without worrying about managing servers yourself
Bienvenue Cloudflare France! Why I’m helping Cloudflare grow in France
I am incredibly excited to announce that I have joined Cloudflare as its Head of France to help build a better Internet and expand the company’s growing customer base in France. This is an important milestone for Cloudflare as we continue to grow our presence in Europe.
Netlify Background Functions
As quickly as I can:
Day 2: Rails associations & dragging divs around
Day 2: Rails associations & dragging divs around
Day 1: a confusing Rails error message
Day 1: a confusing Rails error message
A new way I'm getting feedback on my zines: beta readers!
A new way I'm getting feedback on my zines: beta readers!
The Internet is Getting Safer: Fall 2020 RPKI Update
The cap of two hundred thousand routing cryptographic records was recently passed. We thought it was time for an update on a major year for RPKI.
Building Serverless Front-End Applications Using Google Cloud Platform — Smashing Magazine
The use of serverless applications by developers to handle the business logic of their applications in on the high increase, but how does the Google Cloud — a major service provider within the public cloud — allow developers to manage serverless applications? In this article, you will learn what serverless applications are, how they are used on the Google Cloud, and also scenarios in which they ca
ClickHouse Capacity Estimation Framework
We use ClickHouse widely at Cloudflare. It helps us with our internal analytics workload, bot management, customer dashboards, and many other systems.
I'm doing another Recurse Center batch!
I'm doing another Recurse Center batch!
Data Visualization With ApexCharts — Smashing Magazine
In this article, you will be exposed to ApexCharts and to the different types and variants of charts it provides. Along the way, we’ll build several types of charts and learn how we can customize the appearance of our charts. By the end of the article, you will be able to integrate different types and variants of chats in your applications with ApexCharts.
HelloSign API Webinar for the UK, Germany, and France
We’re hosting webinars on the HelloSign API in the UK, Germany, and France. Register today and come learn about the HelloSign API.
Vercel Analytics for Gatsby
Starting today, Vercel Analytics is available for Gatsby projects – without any configuration.
Looking Ahead: Five Opportunities on The Horizon According to Tech Leaders
Dozens of top leaders and thinkers from the tech industry and beyond recently joined us for a series of fireside chats commemorating Cloudflare’s 10th birthday. Here are some of the highlights.
What Can Web Designers Do With Their Unused Designs? — Smashing Magazine
Do you have a hard time throwing away mockups, logos and other content you’ve created for clients? The good news is that you don’t have to see rejected or unused designs as a sign of failure or waste. You can actually repurpose them and give them new life on other projects, for other customers, and even within your own business. I’ll explain four ways to do this in this post.
Smashing Podcast Episode 28 With David Darnes: What Is Eleventy? — Smashing Magazine
In this episode of The Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about Eleventy. What is it and how does it fit into your Jamstack workflow? I spoke to David Darnes to find out.
Commit your vote on election day!
Closing that priority issue you’re working on can wait—put down your keyboard and vote! Millions of you already have, and your vote in national and local elections may just impact…
Keeping Netflix Reliable Using Prioritized Load Shedding
Getting stuck in traffic is one of the most frustrating experiences for drivers around the world. Everyone slows to a crawl, sometimes for a minor issue or sometimes for no reason at all. As…
GitHub Game Off 2020 theme announcement
The theme for this year’s Game Off is MOONSHOT. moonshot – noun an extremely ambitious and innovative project the act of launching a spacecraft to the moon a hit or…
Spotify’s New Experimentation Platform (Part 2)
So you’ve read of our two-part series about the new Experimentation Platform we’ve built at Spotify, and now know why we decided to invest in a new platform. In Part II, you’ll get a more detailed look at how we assigned users to experiments, how we analyze results and ensure test integrity.
Be Kind, Be Curious (November 2020 Wallpapers Edition) — Smashing Magazine
Give your desktop a makeover with this new collection of wallpapers. Designed by the community for the community, the wallpapers come in versions with and without a calendar for November 2020. Since so many beautiful and inspiring designs have seen the light of day as a part of this ongoing series, we browsed through our archives on the look for November goodies from the past. You’ll find a select
Little Things on My Personal Site
I updated my personal website the other day. Always a fun project since it's one of the few where it's 100% just me. It's my own personal playground with no
13 ghoulish games to play, hack and slash this weekend 👻
WARNING: This post contains zombies, werewolves, extra dimensional beings, mummies, and more! Proceed at your own risk. Trick or treat yourself to some fangtastic Halloween-themed games this weekend. These were…