Christian Heilmann

Automatically starting a server when starting a debug session in VS Code

March 17th, 2022

Back in January, I posted about a launch.json file to turn VS code into an end-to-end web debugging environment. One of the features people told me was missing was to start and stop a server with the debugging session. So here is how to do this. We add two more lines to the existing `launch.json`, […]

Noise cancellation for development

March 14th, 2022

I like noise cancelling headphones. Using them, I can sleep better on planes and find much more detail in music I enjoy. In the office, they are a visual clue that I am currently unavailable for feedback as I want to concentrate on a task at hand. We live in times of a constant information […]

Want to improve Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge? File an issue on Github

March 9th, 2022

Today we released a new GitHub repository for the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge where you can file issues about problems, bugs and feattures you would like to see. You can also view the list of existing issues and add your comments. There’s an official blog post on the Microsoft Edge blog but here’s why […]

Showing different titles depending if the tab is active or not

February 10th, 2022

I just encountered a sneaky thing I had not seen, although it probably worked in 1999 already. A web site was showing a different title on the tab, depending on it being active or not. The whole trick is to use the blur and focus event handlers on the window to change the title. window.onblur […]

Sending email notifications from GitHub organisations to different emails

February 1st, 2022

I’m part of a few organisations on GitHub and had one email address for notifications. This annoyed me as I didn’t want company notifications to my personal account as I couldn’t answer these. As it turns out, you can set up several email addresses in your GitHub account. In settings, go to Access > Emails […]

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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