From the blog

WebSockets for fun and profit stackoverflow.blog
Seamless communication is a must on the modern web. As internet speeds increase, we expect out data in real time. To address this need, WebSocket, a popular communication protocol finalized in 2011, enables websites to send and receive data without delay. With WebSockets, you can build multiplayer games, chat apps, and collaboration software that work on the open web.

A programmer’s holiday carol stackoverflow.blog
For the holidays, please enjoy this tale of a fullstack Scrooge visited by the ghost of Pull Requests past.

Podcast: Time For Some Major League Hacking stackoverflow.blog
To kick things off, we talk about Yap, a fun new project from Paul’s company, Postlight. Yap is “an ephemeral, real-time chat room with up to six participants. For our interview this week we sat down with Jon Gottfried and Mary Siebert from Major League Hacking. Jon is the company’s co-founder and Mary is the Hackathon Community Manager. We discuss how this organization has become a global phenomenon over the past few years, reaching hundreds of thousands of developers.

Interesting questions

Found a good question or answer? Share it with the hashtag #StackOverflowKnows. We’ll include our favorites in the future.

Why does Visual Studio have a long compilation when replacing int with double? stackoverflow.com
Is a double that much more difficult to compile than an integer?

Has anyone attempted to characterize chess mathematically? chess.stackexchange.com
From the Knight’s Tour to the 8 Queens, there has been a lot of fascinating mathematics done around chess.

What are the engineering principles for a train to get electricity from the railway? engineering.stackexchange.com
Something to ponder over during rush hour: How does a train get electricity?

Why is JavaScript not compiled to bytecode before sending over the network? softwareengineering.stackexchange.com
According to one of the people who worked on the ECMAScript standards, there was almost no advantage to compiling JavaScript before sending it over a network.

Links from around the web

It is 2019. Update Your Footer. updateyourfooter.com
It’s the end of the year, and you know what that means! That’s right, the first thing that came into your head: you should update your website’s footer.

Z’s Still Not Dead Baby, Z’s Still Not Dead 24ways.org
Flat design might give you the ZZZs, but you know what doesn’t? Using those Zs for cooler-looking websites!

Don’t call a React function component kentcdodds.com
In React, when people say, “ah, components are functional now,” it’s easy to think that you can call them as if they’re functions. Though that’s (sort of) what’s happening under the hood, it could lead to some weird bugs. Here’s a great explanation of why.

9 Evil Bash Commands Explained dev.to
There are some bash commands that can do solid damage to your machine if you’re not careful. This is a great list to help you learn how to prevent that damage and be terminal-savvy!

SQL Murder Mystery mystery.knightlab.com
If you want to practice your SQL chops, here’s a fun “murder mystery” game for you to explore a database and find the killer.

Who knew that chemistry could be so entertaining? spectator.co.uk
Explore the quirky history of how many natural elements were named.

Find yourself a hobby! findyourselfahobby.com
Are you unsure of what you want your new year’s resolution to be? Here’s a fun little site for inspiration.