Code for a Living Archives

code-for-a-living April 23, 2020

The final Python 2 release marks the end of an era

For you Python users who have been unwilling (or unable) to upgrade to version 3, there’s yet another reason to get motivated: python.org has released Python 2.7.18, the absolute last official release for Python 2. While it doesn’t add much in terms of features, it does act as a milestone. This release comes after official…

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living April 20, 2020

Brush up your COBOL: Why is a 60 year old language suddenly in demand?

The suddenly strained unemployment systems often run on a 60-year-old programming language, COBOL. So, how can you learn it, make big bucks, and save lots of state agencies that need new code to deal with all the new government stimulus programs?

Charles R. Martin

code-for-a-living April 15, 2020

Reading the spec: COVID-19 Contact tracing from Apple and Google

Culture and science are happening in real-time during the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic, which means that Apple and Google are working together in collaboration with health and governmental organizations and rapidly publishing specifications and standards.

Paul Ford

code-for-a-living April 13, 2020

Socializing with co-workers while social distancing

As we increase our social distancing efforts and have fewer people around us, building connections and socializing becomes ever more important for our mental health. We spend a lot of time at work and a decreasing amount of time socializing outside of it, so turning some of that work time into a social time can serve two purposes. For it to be effective, though, you can’t just push socializing initiatives alone.

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living April 6, 2020

A practical guide to writing technical specs

Writing a technical spec increases the chances of having a successful project, service, or feature that all stakeholders involved are satisfied with. It decreases the chances of something going horribly wrong during implementation and even after you’ve launched your product.

Zara Cooper

code-for-a-living March 25, 2020

Tracking down performance pitfalls in Vue.js

When we built the game as a single-page app and queried the domain, it was such a memory hog. The game jam was over, but I couldn’t let it go. It kept bugging me. Was it Vue.js? Was it Netlify? Was it our hacky code? I had to find out.

Daniel Madalitso Phiri

code-for-a-living March 23, 2020

Defending yourself against coronavirus scams

Like a lot of you, I’m pretty glued to the news these days, trying to balance unease with calm realism. In trying times like these, we look for resources for critical information and ways to help people less fortunate than us. That’s the good news; the better angels of our nature see difficult situations—fires in…

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living March 18, 2020

How to develop a defensive plan for your open-source software project

Open source software is becoming more and more popular. Here's how you can create a plan to ensure that your open source implementation is secure as well as effective.

Sam Bocetta

code-for-a-living March 16, 2020

How event-driven architecture solves modern web app problems

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the problems driving innovation in modern web development. Then we’ll dive into the basics of event-driven architecture (EDA), which tries to address these problems by thinking about back-end architecture in a novel way.

Bogdan Sucaciu

code-for-a-living March 13, 2020

Scaling your VPN overnight

We're 100% remote, as of Monday. And one of the critical tools that helps us work securely is our VPN. This article covers how we made our decision and best practices to follow.

Ben Popper Director of Content

code-for-a-living March 12, 2020

Working from home tips from our experienced remote employees

We asked some of our veteran remote workers, folks who have spent years doing this, for tips on how to make remote work effective, enjoyable, and sustainable.

Ryan Donovan