Christian Heilmann

The browser console has a count method

July 14th, 2022

When debugging or analysing JavaScript, you often see people trying to find out how often a certain function is called. The common way to do that is to use a global counter variable to increment and log in the function. var i = 0; function test(){ // other functionality i++; console.log(i); // other functionality }var […]

TIL: Visual Studio Code does markdown autocompletion for in-page links

July 5th, 2022

When you write markdown files, headings automatically also get an ID generated so they become in-page targets to link to. This is also used to create a table of contents in various publishing systems. Today I learned that VS Code also offers these generated IDs as an autocomplete when you type links. If you wrap […]

Web development is like assembling IKEA furniture

July 1st, 2022

I’m currently putting things together for a new flat and I realised that there are a lot of similarities between assembling IKEA furniture and doing web development. You get a huge bag of seemingly random parts and you should sort them before you start Everything is standardised and uses building blocks The manual is meant […]

Taking screenshots of streaming video services using Browser Developer Tools

June 28th, 2022

One of the more overly strict features of video players in modern operating systems is that you can not use screen recording or screenshot tools to record content from streaming video platforms like Netflix or Disney+. Whilst I understand the need for DRM and preventing recording a streaming program, taking screenshots is a different matter. […]

One line of CSS to add basic dark/light mode

June 20th, 2022

When you have your OS set up in dark mode seeing bright form elements is grating. By starting your style sheet with a single line of CSS, you can make sure that people using dark mode get dark form elements and backgrounds and those using light mode, light ones. You can see it in this […]

Newsletter

Check out the Dev Digest Newsletter I write every week for WeAreDevelopers.

160: Graphs and RAGs explained and VS Code extension hacks Graphs and RAG explained, how AI is reshaping UI and work, how to efficiently use Cursor, VS Code extensions security issues.
159: AI pipelines, 10x faster TypeScript, How to interview How to use LLMs to help you write code and how much electricity does that use? Is your API secure? 10x faster TypeScript thanks to Go!
158: 🕹️ Super Mario AI 🔑 API keys in LLMs 🤙🏾 Vibe Coding Why is AI playing Super Mario? How is hallucinating the least of our worries and what are rules for developing Safety Critical Code?
157: CUDA in Python, Gemini Code Assist and back-dooring LLMs We met with a CUDA expert from NVIDIA about the future of hardware, we look at how AI fails and how to play pong on 140 browser tabs.
156: Enterprise dead, all about Bluesky and React moves on! Learn about Bluesky as a platform, how to build a React App and how to speed up SQL. And play an impossible game in the browser.

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