12 Or So Must-Read Newsletters For Web Developers

If one wishes to stay abreast of the changing tech landscape in this age of decreased attention times and information overload, then a regular curated list of articles, links, or blog posts is invaluable.

In my humble opinion these are the top newsletters out today that concern web development and software/hardware tech. This list is a mix of development and design, software and hardware, news articles, tutorials, and blog posts.

The usual caveat that the Web is in a constant state of partial failure and is scattered with many defunct newsletters. Natural law states that this list of links will quickly become out of date. Let me know any suggestions via email.

• Hacker Newsletter Hacker News, condensed. Essential information and monthly job boards too.
• CSS Animation Weekly All about CSS Animation.
• Webdesigner Depot: Does what it says on the tin. Professional web designer newsletter, with articles on UI/UX, optimization, tooling, design trends, and free stuff.
• CSS Tricks: E’nuff said.
• React Status: Get your React on.
• JavaScript Weekly: Can be a very interesting and educative time-sink.
• FrontEnd Focus: What morphed out of the HTML5 Weekly newsletter.
• Ruby Weekly: Maybe you are seeing a pattern here?
• Web Tools Weekly: “Front-end development and web design newsletter with a focus on tools. Each issue features a brief tip or tutorial, followed by a weekly round-up of various apps, scripts, plugins, and other resources to help front-end developers solve problems and be more productive.”
• MIT Technology Review - The Download (weekday newsletter): “The mission of MIT Technology Review is to bring about better-informed and more conscious decisions about technology through authoritative, influential, and trustworthy journalism.” Robotics, AI, blockchain, self-driving vehicles, ethics in tech, cybersecurity and much more. Also offer other weekly newsletters on specialized topics.
• Web Design Weekly: R.I.P.

Best 2018 Chicago Tech Events for Students

I’ve lived in Chicago three years so here are my favorite tech meetups and recurring events in terms of my interest and availability to students in general. Most require an RSVP.

• If you’re a student in higher education in Illinois, (and even if you’re not,) then I highly recommend signing up for Illinois Tech Association and their newsletter.
  • Webinars and networking events, talent portal job board.
  • When subscribing, choose the “Insider” newsletter for early notice of events.
  • Coming soon is a code challenge competition this fall, 2018 ITA Tech Challenge.
  • Anita Borg Institute Chicago chapter hosts the 3rd Annual diversiTECH Hiring Fair August 15 2018 at The Connectory, 5th Floor of Merchandise Mart.
• Chi Hack Night
  • Civic Hacking and guest presentations, food, coding, meeting people.
  • They coordinate via Twitter/website.
  • You must RSVP with your name (and show ID) to attend.
• Chicago Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design:
  • a11ychi on Meetup and @a11ychi on GitHub and Twitter.
• Chicago Ruby
  • Hack Night scheduled this Wednesday night,tomorrow in fact.

• Girl Develop It

• Illinois JUG Chicago && Chicago JUG

• Nerd Therapy
  • at the Nerdery, worth a visit just to see their office space.
• Tech In Motion
  • They host annual gatherings and tons other events.

• 8th Light University

• React Chicago on Meetup
  • Next event Lightning / Short Talks is on Wednesday, August 29, 2018.
• BLUE1647 Meetup - Tech, Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation
  • Currently no events, but a great place to visit, also on Twitter.
• Built In Chicago on Meetup
  • Use Meetup page to coordinate events. You receive specific instructions to attend on event descriptions.
  • Also the Built in Chicago site itself, part of the BuiltIn network. It’s useful.
• Super useful calendar of Chicago Tech Events, also on Twitter.

From jQuery to Vanilla JavaScript

No disrespect to jQuery, a phenomenal and lasting tool, but I saw fit to extirpate it from my blog’s code. I set about untying it from the underpins until coming to the last remaining use case, simply opening external links in their own window/tab. The problem was recreating the ready() function to know when page content has finished loading, without requiring all the machinery of jQuery.

Existing jQuery snippet:

jQuery(function ($) {
  //Change target attribute of external links
  var domain_root = document.location.protocol + '//' + document.location.host;
  var all_links = $('a').each(function (index, element) {
    if (element.href.substr(0, domain_root.length) !== domain_root) {
      element.target = '_blank';
    }
  });
});

Replaced by Vanilla JavaScript snippet:

var domReady = function(callback) {
    document.readyState === "interactive" || document.readyState === "complete" ? callback() : document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", callback);
};

domReady(function() {

  var links = document.links;

  for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
    if (links[i].hostname != window.location.hostname) {
      links[i].target = '_blank';
    }
  }
});

Now using domReady() as vanilla JS analogue to jQuery’s ready() function.

Shout out to beeker.io for providing a complete solution!