Bostonian Adam

Tag: Around the web

  • Sharing tech news and resources – Jan 2023

    Wow it’s 2023 already. There were a few articles and resources that I meant to share but did not, and even though some may be from last year, the information in them is still relevant and useful.

    Resources

    • Want to understand the different between Git, GitHub and GitHub Desktop, then check out this YouTube video, I definitely recommend it. (Video by Coder Coder via youtube.com, February 1, 2022)
    • A very helpful and useful HTML resource about what not to do and how to do it right (Source: HTML Best Practices via github.com)
    • Anyone who works with HTML emails knows that it can be a pain sometimes to troubleshoot issues across different email clients or even different versions of an email client such as Microsoft Outlook, and I found this Litmus article to be useful. (Source: Outlook Email Rendering Issues and How to Solve Them via litmus.com, August 18, 2022)
    • To opt out of personalized advertising on your iOS device or Android, make sure to do these few easy steps on your phone so you won’t be tracked. (Source: Delete this secret ID hiding on your phone that gives away your personal details via komando.com, November 25, 2022)
    • If you have ever searched your name on the internet and found personal information in the search results, well you can do something about it, make sure to check out this article. For me, #2 on their list is the most important as data collection sites are annoying and seem to be popping up more and more. (Source: Your Private Data Is All Over the Internet. Here’s What You Can Do About It via cnet.com, April 4, 2022)

    Tech News

    • Google Chrome web browser is going to stop being supported on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 soon. Google Chrome version 109 will be the last version of the web browser that will be available on those older Windows operating systems, as Google Chrome version 110 will require Windows 10 or later. (Source: Google Chrome will stop working properly on millions of Windows PCs next week via metro.co.uk, January 3, 2023)
    • If you use the Google Chrome web browser, then definitely check out this article about it using your computer’s memory. (Source: Enable This Setting to Stop Chrome From Hogging So Much Memory via lifehacker.com, December 9, 2022)

  • Sharing tech news and resources – July 2022

    I wanted to share a few articles regarding tech news and also a few interesting links I found around the internet. First, I posted a few quick notes in bullet points and then I list out a few articles/blog posts I found that I wanted to share with you and give my thoughts.

    • I was on GitHub this week and noticed an article on their The ReadME Project, about turning the tables in your job interview where you ask the interviewer some important questions that I found interesting and useful. You can read the article, Interview the interviewer, on GitHub.com.
    • Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have both had updates recently to fix exploits, so as always, make sure all of your web browsers are updated to the latest version to keep safe.

    Gmail has a new view

    Google’s Gmail has a new integrated view coming, which tries to make it easier to switch between Gmail, Chat and Meet. I was able to see this new view with one of my Gmail addresses and don’t worry, there are no big changes to your Gmail. You can read more about the new view and see images of it in the article, Updated timeline for the new integrated view for Gmail, on WorkspaceUpdates.GoogleBlog.com.

    Google Keep

    Google Keep is my favorite app to keep notes on my cell phone and a new update brings a feature that lets users drag and drop images saved in Google Keep to a third-party application. This info was found in the article, Google Keep now lets you drag and drop images to other apps, on AndroidCentral.com.

    NES games in 2022?

    I love playing video games so seeing this next story was really cool. GitHub posted on their LinkedIn, how some people are still creating games for the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). The post included a link to a Reddit post where the author explained what they tried and also gives links where to find the kits to do the same. The original NES was the first console my brother and I had, so hearing about this brings back good memories. This is really cool to see and I wonder what talented people may make with these kits.

    Need to erase data on your hard drive?

    The Washington Post has an article talking about how to delete data from your hard drive that I found interesting. I am no computer hardware expert so I can’t say these are the best ways to do just that, but do note that one of their approaches is to actually take the hard drive out and physically smash it to pieces. You can read the article, Deleting files is not enough. Here is how to properly erase hard drives., on WashingtonPost.com.

    Google Chromebook

    I bought a Google Chromebook a few years ago when they were on sale on Amazon.com and I’m glad I did. It has been useful for when I went out of town for personal or business trips. I highly recommend getting one for basic computer use (checking email, going online and visiting websites, editing text documents and completing other basic tasks). I found an article where the writer switched to a Chromebook for a week and gave their thoughts, you can read the article, I switched to a Chromebook for a week. Here’s what surprised me as a Windows user, on DigitalTrends.com.

  • Sharing resources and tech news – June 2022

    This will be a quick blog post where I wanted to share a few online resources and also discuss a few interesting articles with a brief summary and get your thoughts.

    Resources

    • AnimatiSS – A collection of CSS animations for your web projects. If you visit the website, click the “STYLES” button to see the different CSS animations you can choose from. (Credit goes to Ray Villalobos for sharing this link on LinkedIn)
    • Avataaars Generator – A free online avatar generator
    • Tabler Icons – A free open-source collection of icons to use for your website or app. (Credit goes to Ray Villalobos for sharing this link on LinkedIn)

    Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe is currently testing a free web version of its popular Photoshop software in Canada, where users can use its core functions. According to the article I read there is no timeline when the free web version will be available to other locations. This info was found in the article, Adobe plans to make Photoshop on the web free to everyone, on TheVerge.com.

    I personally think this is great, especially for those who have never used Adobe Photoshop before. I remember before my wife and I started paying for the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, which includes Photoshop, we had to use free image editing software and I could never get use to the user interfaces, and they were missing features (or I couldn’t find them LOL) that Photoshop had. Also, the high price tag that Photoshop once had (before Creative Cloud) kept us away from it. Are you going to try out the free version of Photoshop or are you already paying for it with Adobe Creative Cloud?

    Google News

    Do you use Google News on your desktop? Well if you do, you most likely have seen an option to switch to the new look. The biggest change was moving the main categories from the left side of the page to across the top which I like. If you want to read more about this, check out the article, Google News gets more personal with desktop redesign, on TheVerge.com.

    Amazon Alexa

    Amazon is working on something creepy… they are developing a feature for Alexa which can emulate anyone’s voice. The article I read even suggests it could emulate a dead person’s voice. This info was found in the article, Amazon demonstrates Alexa mimicking the voice of a deceased relative, on CNBC.com.

    To me, this screams security concerns and ethically just wrong, but that’s just me. My wife and I don’t even have Amazon Alexa. What do you think of this? What benefits does this bring?

    If you made it all the way down here, thanks for checking out my blog post, I appreciate it. Stay safe and try to do everything in love, the world really needs it.

  • Sharing resources and articles – August 2021

    It’s been a long time since I’ve posted one of these, a post where I share resources and interesting news from around the web in the past month.

  • Sharing resources and articles – September 2019

    Here’s a quick sharing resources post with a few links to websites and articles I found interesting.

  • Sharing resources and articles with you: UX, favicon, bad habits and more

    I came across a few good articles, blog posts and tools that I wanted to share with you, from UX to avoiding bad habits and unprofessional vocabulary and more.

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    If you have any reactions or thoughts about these articles or tools listed, please let me know by leaving a comment.

  • Sharing resources with you: LinkedIn profile and job searching tips, and optimizing Google fonts

    I came across a few good resources I wanted to share with everyone, ranging from LinkedIn profile tips to job interview tips to optimizing Google fonts performance.

    • LinkedIn profile tips – Blog post from dev.to, you may not agree with every tip that is listed but they’re something to look at and consider
    • Things to not say in a job interview – Blog post from roberthalf.com, with tips on things to not say during an interview, most are obvious
    • 12 best job search websites – Blog post from roberthalf.com, with a list of job searching websites (a little arrogant of themselves to list their website as #1)
    • Optimizing Google Fonts Performance – Blog post from SmashingMagazine.com, where they give great tips on how to optimize load times for Google Fonts on your website

  • Using “srcset” for your images and more image delivery techniques

    After watching a recent video posted by Google Chrome Developers on YouTube, I wanted to blog about using the “srcset” attribute in the “img” tag in your HTML code to make more web developers aware of this easy-to-use/add code that will help your website. Definitely make sure to watch the video and check out the example HTML code using “srcset” in an “img” tag all down below.

    Reduce image size: use srcset to automatically choose the right image (from Google Chrome Developers YouTube channel)

    So to implement the “srcset” attribute into your “img” tag all you need to do is use the HTML as in the below example.

    <img src="images/default.jpg" srcset="images/default-200.jpg 200w, images/default-400.jpg 400w, images/default-600.jpg 600w">

    As stated in the above video, the web browser will do all of the hard work as it will decide what image best fits on the website and if the web browser doesn’t support “srcset” then it will default to the image in the “src” attribute. Need more information about “srcset”? Then check out MDN’s documentation on responsive images.

    July 2022 update

    Jashele, of devjashele.tech, a developer I follow on LinkedIn and Twitter, wrote an article, Simple Ways to Improve Website Image Performance, and also posted a YouTube video (see below) talking about responsive images using “srcset” step-by-step. Make sure to check out Jashele’s article and video, and give her a follow.

    Responsive Images with HTML to Improve Site Performance

  • Free online courses and learning sites

    There are a lot of free online resources, including tutorials and courses. I put together a list of websites that offer free online courses that I wanted to share with others, hoping to help others. If you know of other websites that offer free online courses, please leave a comment. These websites are geared more toward courses on technical topics and coding/programming.

  • Take a full page screenshot in Chrome

    Here’s a quick tip that I thought would be helpful for others (and myself in case I forget in the future). I needed to take a screenshot of a website in the Chrome web browser and I remembered there was an option in the Dev Tools to do this but I couldn’t find it.

    So I searched around online and found an answer, which is pretty simple and quick without having to install any extensions. Here’s what to do:

    1. Open the Dev Tools (hitting the F12 key)
    2. Press the “Ctrl”, “Shift” and “P” keys at the same time
    3. Scroll down the list and find the light purple “Screenshot” rectangles and click the one with “Capture full size screenshot”
    4. A prompt will come up asking you where to save the screenshot and you are done

    My thanks go to hackernoon.com for the answer to my problem.