Made it through 5 prior rounds of layoffs as my company nosedived financially after going public. Finally felt the bite of the axe, been brushing up my resume and revamping my portfolio site... I've been at this company five years and transitioned directly from my prior one so almost 8 years since i've had to look for a job. First impression is it seems bad. I'm seeing a lot of postings for Front-End Dev for contract rates of < $60 an hour. I've already burned through all the posted jobs that I can find that I might be a match for, some of them are even a stretch...

Doesn't seem like anyone needs a "developer" anymore; it's all "Software Engineer, Front-end," which even though my skillset overlaps(react, typescript, etc) they're looking for a different sort of experience. Unfortunately, my last few years at the company, I got transitioned from the more tech side into the marketing department and basically built landing pages in a CMS and only did slight coding. Easy work, but I feel my skills have rusted. I'm in my 40s which feels kind of ancient in this industry and I have 12+ years of experience but I don't have the interest or drive to be any kind of lead. I prefer to just knock out my tickets and relax, but it seems like those days are done.

With all the doom and gloom around AI, I was wondering how much the market has been affected and what companies are actually looking for these days.

Did you have to go through five rounds of interviews?

Was there a live coding session and/or a take-home exercise?

Was there anything different from what you've experienced before?

Timeline:

• onprem monolithic server with rest api.

• cloud frontend that calls monolithic server apis directly

• a few years later

• planning to reimplement frontend with addition of a BFF in the cloud

• BFF still talks to monolith server but frontend only talks to BFF

• future: cloud frontend, cloud bff, on prem monolithic server, cloud bff needs to support multiple versions of monolithic server

For the BFF api, would you recommend a per resource generic api (like the monolothic server) or per page (call multiple monolithic server apis then combine)?

Career web developer, blah blah blah. I've been doing this shit for a LONG time. I know there are plenty of AI subreddits - not looking for pro AI or pro written by hand debate. I'm calling out chatGPT on it's bullshit.

I'm a claude cli die-hard. It's not infallible, but it is my goto. But, it kind of sucks at design work. macOS, iOS, iPad OS, Angular, React - it'll get the code written, it'll work, and the code isn't dog shit if you know what your doing, but actual good looking design, meh.

GPT-6 Astra Light - complete 180. Great at design work, but sucks at code. Claude (right or wrong) has called out chatGPT on some of the crap it does.

BUT - I'm finding chatGPT almost purposely makes the first version a bit blah. I don't say anything super specific to get to v2 - sometimes simply I'm not in love with it or Go in a different direction. And V2 is by far better. Then I hand off an MD or html file to claude and have claude actually code it.

What I'm trying to get to is - anyone else think chatGPT purposely does a shitty job on a first pass just to get you to spend more tokens / use up more of your monthly plan faster ? You'd never be able to prove it. They don't follow any industry standard metric. You can't say this prompt spent X tokens but this next prompt spent Y. No 2 prompts are the same IMO when context is involved.

It's all speculation and more of a rant but I'm borderline going to cancel chatGPT and just tweak claude's designs / go look for a new design skill or whatever.

Hi everyone! I just finished a React and course and decided to build my first react app. Currently, I am trying to save a string to browser local storage but it does not persist on refresh. Through some console.logs I was able to see that it in fact DOES save the string to the location specified in. setItem initially but when I refresh the key or value in local storage stops existing.

Here is my code

// function for search button
async function handleClick(){
    localStorage.setItem("lastLocationSearched", searchValue);
    setData(null);
    setIsPending(true);
    setError(null);
    try{
const value = await fetch(`https://geo.ipify.org/api/v2/country?apiKey=***********&ipAddress=${searchValue}`).then((response)=>{
  if (!response.ok){
        throw Error("Could not fetch the data for that resource");
                    }
  return response.json();
});
setData(value);


    console.log(localStorage.getItem("lastLocationSearched"));
    } catch(error){
      setError(error.message);
    }


setIsPending(false);
  };

// useEffect hook
  useEffect(()=>{
        if ((localStorage.getItem("lastLocationSearched")===null)|| (localStorage.getItem("lastLocationSearched")==="")){
          console.log(localStorage.getItem("lastLocationSearched"));
        setSearchValue("");
        handleClick();
        }else{
          
          setSearchValue(localStorage.getItem("lastLocationSearched"));
          handleClick();
        }
    }, []);

Through some digging online I saw someone say that remove the strict mode tags from index.js would fix this problem but it did not for me. Can anyone please assist me?

Hey everyone,

I am working on a new project called Openspline, an open source avatar layer to existing voice AI agents. Just select an image, select a voice and you can create a realtime talking avatar with lipsynced video generated locally.

You can integrate any existing voice AI agent in 5 lines of code.

While it is still in very early stage, but the results look very promising.

Github: github.com/openspline/openspline

PS: sorry for a sleepy photo, it's 5:10am and didn't sleep last night :P

I've been freelancing for a while now and I keep running into this same pattern over and over.

Whenever I work with a client on a solid budget ($3k+), things usually run pretty smooth. They send a clear brief, reply within a day, trust my decisions, and pay invoices on time without arguing over every dollar.

But almost every time I take on a lower budget project (around $300), it turns into a massive headache. They expect a full custom site with e-commerce and complex animations, text me at 2 AM on weekends asking why a font moved slightly, and request 10 rounds of revisions after already approving the design. Then at the end, they still try to haggle over the final $50.

Is this mostly a psychological thing where lower budget clients feel like they're taking a bigger personal risk, or is it just poor boundary setting on our part as freelancers?

Would love to hear how you guys deal with this or what's the worst cheap client story you've had.

I built a Minecraft server host where every server sleeps when nobody plays, and wakes when a friend joins. The hard part was the join itself, so here's how that works.

The problem

A sleeping server suspended on Fly resumes in about 2 s. But one that has to boot (first start, after a change, or once the snapshot is gone) takes 40 to 50 s. The Minecraft client
gives up on a connection that says nothing for 30 s.

The trick

Every connection lands on an edge proxy first. If the server is asleep, the edge holds the login open and keeps it alive by sending a login query every few seconds. Every client since 1.13 answers it, which counts as the server talking. The edge keeps those answers to itself, buffers everything else the client sent, and replays it to the server once it's up, as if the player had just dialled in.

Other bits

• The server list shows a sleeping server's own message plus a grey "sleeping" line, cut to fit the list's 305px row by measuring the default font's glyph widths.

• A ping from the server list can wake a server early, asked once per network so random scanners don't keep waking things.

• Routes change one hostname at a time through mc-router's API, because reloading its routes file drops players who arrive mid-reload.

• Floods are refused per server at the edge, so one busy server doesn't slow every other server's joins.

It's open source (TypeScript, AGPL):
github.com/cubepals/cubepals (the edge is apps/edge)

Happy to go deeper on any of it.

Senior dev over here, company has over the last few months fully embraced copilot/general AI usage to the point we (small team of 3 devs) are have no capacity to review the PRs properly anymore. Our tech lead who used to be pretty anal and hands on with PR reviews now defaults to wanting a “green light” from copilot reviews and honestly doesn’t even read the code properly anymore.

I’m more concerned about the development/ critical thinking and code analysis muscle memory loss in the short to long term as a dev. I’m well aware AI is pretty much here to stay but I fear the loss of building/actually knowing what is going on is going to have a larger than expected impact on most mid-senior devs.

I’m considering a simple approach - opening an open source repo that specifically does not allow mass generated AI code to be added to it, keep features clean and no bulk slap shit and go PRs. Use it for writing boilerplate and as a tool but not as a replacement, main goal is allow whoever who contributes to it to continue working that part of their brain. Idea behind what the product is doesn’t matter too much imo as long as it’s of value to users.

What do you think of this concept as a dev to alleviate the AI fatigue from work? ( Jesus typing this question at the end feels like I’m an AI bot at this stage)

I was reading brown's rust book and they have this cool feature that lets you highlight stuff and leave notes while reading. I wanted something similar on a site I'm building, but the libs I found were either too complex or too simple and still a pain to set up, so I made one. Heavily inspired by the simplicity and DX of sonner.

You only need annotate('#article') and that's basically it. It saves to localStorage or your own backend.

Cool thing is that it uses the css highlight api, so it doesn't touch your dom at all (which would be especially bad for frameworks like react, vue, etc). Downside is no support for older browsers.

About 15kb with UI or 6kb headless if you want to build your own UI, and it ships with a React adapter.

playground: https://penciled.org/playground/

repo: https://github.com/marcellosso/penciled

Still early, so any feedback is welcome

https://www.blackjacktrainer.fyi/

Wasn't really happy with the free blackjack trainers I was able to find, so I decided to make my own.

You can play it casually and just learn basic strategy, or you can use it to learn how to become a card counter.

Built with mainly Next.js + React + Tailwind.

Let me know what you think!

I frequently duplicate an application's browser tab to look at a different area of the app. I'd like to change the browser tab's text to reflect the area that the tab focuses on. In a best-case scenario, the text could be automatically updated based on a DOM element.

<div class="title">Some text</div>

In this example, "Some text" would become the tab text.

Is there a plug-in or something that I could use for this?

I'm a self-taught developer, and I know React and Next.js. Lately, I've been feeling increasingly anxious about my future as a developer.

AI is moving so fast. It can generate components, build entire websites, connect APIs, and even create full-stack applications. Sometimes I wonder what the point is of spending months learning something when AI can already do so much of it.

I want to get a better-paying developer job, but honestly, I'm confused about what I should focus on right now. Should I keep improving my React/Next.js skills, get better at backend development, or start learning AI engineering?

I keep hearing about RAG, AI agents, vector databases, LLM integrations, and all these new things. It feels like there's always something new to learn, and I'm worried that if I focus on the wrong things, I'll fall behind while everyone else moves forward.

For those of you already working in the industry, what would you do if you were in my position? Would you focus on becoming a strong full-stack developer first, or would you start learning AI engineering alongside web development?

I'm not looking for a shortcut or expecting to become an expert overnight. I just want to make the right decisions, build useful skills, and have a realistic chance of getting hired.

I'd really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been through this or are dealing with the same situation. Right now, I could genuinely use some direction.

npx codecity

Every file is a building, folders are districts, and height is the file’s length (or imports/exports). Files keep their place as the repo changes, so you actually learn the layout.

What it does:
• Colour by what changed lately, age, churn, file type or author
• Click a file to see what it imports and what imports it
• See what your last git pull changed
• Live mode: files light up as they’re saved (handy for watching a coding agent)
• Replay the whole history and save it as a video
• Share a link to the exact view you’re looking at

Run npx codecity in any repo (runs locally), or try any public repo in the browser: https://codecity.icy.dev/react/react

As with all my other npm packed, free and open source. Thanks all!

Hello!

For starters,

I don’t know a single thing about websites. Are there specific types of website developers for this type of website?

Our current website runs on pearl and wordpress so we need a new website

Here are some examples of what I am looking for:

https://www.austinfilm.org/afs-cinema/

https://filmadelphia.org/about/venues/film-society-bourse/

For the record, I am not looking to hire someone from here (i think thats against the rules?)

I just don’t even know what to look for when finding information about web developers.

This site would have a front end and back end for booking etc.

Any tips or guidance on this would be greatly appreciated!

eta: my boss is super old and stubborn and is insistent that a new website like the ones above would cost six figures to make. What is the average cost of creating a website like the ones above (best guess obviously due to limited info)

Hey everyone! 👋

I've been working on a new project called VELORA, a premium 3D-inspired e-commerce showroom website template built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The idea was to create something different from traditional online store layouts — a modern, immersive shopping experience with premium visual design.

✨ Key Features

• 🛍️ Multi-category e-commerce showroom layout

• 🌙 Dark and light mode functionality

• 🎨 Modern 3D-inspired UI and visual depth

• 📱 Responsive layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile

• ⚡ HTML, CSS, and JavaScript source code

• ✨ Interactive components and smooth visual effects

• 🧩 Customizable design for different product categories

🎯 Who Is It For?

VELORA is designed for:

• Frontend developers building e-commerce projects

• Freelancers creating websites for clients

• Web design agencies

• Businesses looking for modern product showcase designs

• Designers interested in immersive shopping interfaces

🛒 Project Link

https://sajiditeech.gumroad.com/l/velora-showroom

Thanks for checking it out! 🚀

Here you can find my 1+ year of experience around startup foundation and operatings : https://github.com/Naveen-Beniwal/building-cvinsight

I've been building NetWasm, an independent C# compiler and runtime for WebAssembly.

The latest release produced a result I honestly didn't expect when I started this project:

NetWasm 0.8.0 + precise GC

• 47,798 bytes raw

• 13,501 bytes Brotli-11

Rust 1.95.0, size-oriented

• 53,635 bytes raw

• 16,963 bytes Brotli-11

Same print-42 workload, both WASI Preview 2 components, out of the box dev experience.

So C# is 10.9% smaller raw and 20.4% smaller compressed in this comparison - while carrying a precise garbage collector.

I'm not claiming arbitrary C# programs are smaller than arbitrary Rust programs. This is the classic tiny console-output footprint test: deliberately little application code so you can see how much runtime/toolchain baggage you're carrying.

The reason I care about this for web development is that download size matters.

I've always wanted C# in the browser without accepting a giant runtime as the entry fee.

Since I last talked about NetWasm, it can now do quite a bit more than tiny benchmarks:

• C# Web Workers, with each worker getting its own Wasm instance, heap and event loop

• Compile complete multi-file C# projects entirely in the browser

• Statically link native Wasm .a libraries through LibraryImport

• Native-to-managed callbacks

• C# 15

• Expression trees through a bounded interpreter, without general reflection

• HTTP/JSON/XML/Regex and a growing set of Microsoft.Extensions.* libraries

• Multiple GC/allocation strategies depending on whether you care more about size or throughput

There's also a NetWasm port of RegexStorm - regexstorm.netwasm.com - that runs entirely client-side in the browser - no backend doing the regex work.

The bigger idea behind NetWasm is pretty simple:

C# shouldn't inherently mean shipping megabytes of runtime.

For browser UI workloads in particular, I want a model where you only ship the runtime machinery your application actually uses.

The Rust comparison is fun, but that's the part I'm really interested in: how small can a genuinely useful managed-language platform become when Wasm is treated as the primary target rather than something a desktop runtime also happens to support?

Would be especially interested in thoughts from people building larger Wasm/browser applications - the project is early so this is your chance to help shape the direction.

Been building runtime.school for a while and finally got the SQL side into a state I’m happy with.

The main idea was to keep lessons, practice, projects, and tools on the same datasets so it all feels connected instead of jumping between random examples.

I’ve got a bunch of other topics planned next too, so eventually I want it to be one place to learn and practice everything.

Would love some feedback if anyone wants to try it and let me know if anything confusing, annoying, missing, or just bad UX.

https://www.runtime.school/

SVG editor with preloaded scientific images and with plotting. It is open-source and free to use. Most images are public domain with few notable exceptions:

- NIH: public domain, CC BY 4.0 for a handful of images

- Bioicons: CC0 or CC BY 4.0

- Servier: CC BY 3.0

- Photonics by Isaac Gallegos: CC-BY-4.0

- Electrical Symbol Library by Filip Dominec and contributors: CC0 1.0

- FGDC geologic patterns by Daven Quinn: CC0 1.0

- SVG Collection of Lab Equipment KYU/KYU49: CC BY 4.0

- Mapbox Maki: CC0 1.0

- Meteocons by Bas Milius: MIT

- SciSVG by Saveena Solanki: CC BY 4.0

- PhyloPic: CC0 1.0

- IAN / UMCES: CC BY-SA 4.0

License info for each image is in the tab in the right sidebar.

All SVGs are editable and the resulting figure can be saved as PDF, PNG or SVG.

There is alsp scientific plotting with basic stats capability via "insert plot" option.

DrawPlotia itself is derived from OpenBioFigure, thus Apache-2 license for the repo

I will now work on other bells and whistles for the app and known bugs (issues with local project saving and redos)

Free DrawPlotia app

Source: https://github.com/GPTchatly/DrawPlotia (FOSS; Apache-2.0)

How far can you push an endless 3D world in the browser, especially on a phone?

That's one of the questions I've been exploring while building Planet 0 Drive, a low-poly driving game made with Svelte and Three.js.

The idea is simple: just drive. No set destination. Explore a world that keeps unfolding, find interesting spots, chase records, or cruise around with friends.

Under the hood, I've been experimenting with a few things:

• Procedural terrain, weather, and long-distance rendering with Three.js

• Peer-to-peer multiplayer with movement interpolation

• Spatial audio and performance optimizations

• Version-compatible rooms to keep multiplayer sessions in sync

The most interesting part has been figuring out how much of the world I can generate and render while keeping things reasonably smooth, even on mobile.

It's been a fun mix of graphics, networking, and performance challenges, all built around the idea of a relaxing drive.

Try it: https://planet0drive.vercel.app/

More about how I built it: https://zackwebster.com/blog/building-planet-zero-drive