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The best problem-solving writing in software engineering — databases, performance, security, frontend and distributed systems, in one feed.

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Design & UX — Smashing Meets Accessibility

Smashing Meets Accessibility

The videos from Smashing Magazine's recent event on accessibility were just posted the other day. I was invited to host the panel discussion with the speakers, including a couple of personal heroes of mine, Stéphanie Walter and Sarah Fossheim. But I was just as stoked to meet Kardo Ayoub who shared his deeply personal story as a designer with a major visual impairment.

GGGeoff GrahamGeoff Graham·March 10, 2025Design & UX
Frontend — Quick Hit #38

Quick Hit #38

Chrome has delayed shipping @function to Chrome 139! A wise choice, if you ask me; functions will set a before and after in CSS.

JDJuan Diego RodríguezJuan Diego Rodríguez·March 9, 2025Frontend
Frontend — A CSS-Only Star Rating Component and More! (Part 2)

A CSS-Only Star Rating Component and More! (Part 2)

In this second article of a two-part series, Temani Afif demonstrates an alternative approach to creating the star rating component from the first article using experimental scroll-driven animations rather than using the border-image property.

TATemani AfifTemani Afif·March 7, 2025Frontend
AI & ML — How we built enterprise search to be secure and private

How we built enterprise search to be secure and private

Many don’t know that “Slack” is in fact a backronym—it stands for “Searchable Log of all Communication and Knowledge”. And these days, it’s not just a searchable log: with Slack AI, Slack is now an intelligent log, leveraging the latest in generative AI to securely surface powerful, time-saving insights. We built Slack AI from the…

IHIan HoffmanIan Hoffman·March 7, 2025AI & ML
Engineering — Let's Talk About The American Dream

Let's Talk About The American Dream

A few months ago I wrote about what it means to stay gold — to hold on to the best parts of ourselves, our communities, and the American Dream itself. But staying gold isn’t passive. It takes work. It takes action. It takes hard conversations that ask us to confront where we’ve been, where we are, and who we want to be. That’s why I’m incredibly honored to be joining Alexander Vindman in giving a

JAJeff AtwoodJeff Atwood·March 6, 2025Engineering
Frontend — Quick Hit #37

Quick Hit #37

The very first public draft of the CSS Form Control Styling Module Level 1 specification has been published as of yesterday. Still a work-in-progress but what

GGGeoff GrahamGeoff Graham·March 6, 2025Frontend
Engineering — PGDay Austria Returns

PGDay Austria Returns

We are delighted to announce that PGDay Austria will be returning to Vienna in 2025. Find all updates on the event here.

CBCornelia Biacsics·March 6, 2025Engineering
Performance — How To Fix Largest Contentful Paint Issues With Subpart Analysis — Smashing Magazine

How To Fix Largest Contentful Paint Issues With Subpart Analysis — Smashing Magazine

Struggling with slow Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)? Newly introduced by Google, LCP subparts help you pinpoint where page load delays come from. Now, in the Chrome UX Report, this data provides real visitor insights to speed up your site and boost rankings. Matt Zeunert unpacks what LCP subparts are, what they mean for your website speed, and how you can measure them.

MZMatt ZeunertMatt Zeunert·March 6, 2025Performance
AI & ML — Finding leaked passwords with AI: How we built Copilot secret scanning

Finding leaked passwords with AI: How we built Copilot secret scanning

Passwords are notoriously difficult to detect with conventional programming approaches. AI can help us find passwords better because it understands context. This blog post will explore the technical challenges we faced with building the feature and the novel and creative ways we solved them.

AMAshwin Mohan, Courtney ClaessensAshwin Mohan, Courtney Claessens·March 4, 2025AI & ML
AI & ML — Building multimodal AI for Ray-Ban Meta glasses

Building multimodal AI for Ray-Ban Meta glasses

Multimodal AI – models capable of processing multiple different types of inputs like speech, text, and images – have been transforming user experiences in the wearables space. With our Ray-Ban Meta glasses, multimodal AI helps the glasses see what the wearer is seeing. This means anyone wearing Ray-Ban Meta glasses can ask them questions about […]

CWChris Wiltz·March 4, 2025AI & ML
SRE & Ops — A case for QLC SSDs in the data center

A case for QLC SSDs in the data center

The growth of data and need for increased power efficiency are leading to innovative storage solutions. HDDs have been growing in density, but not performance, and TLC flash remains at a price point that is restrictive for scaling. QLC technology addresses these challenges by forming a middle tier between HDDs and TLC SSDs. QLC […]

CWChris Wiltz·March 4, 2025SRE & Ops