TLDR Web Dev 2024-05-06

ML beats recruiters 🤯, Big Tech in wartime 💨, system design interview rejections ✍️

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Articles & Tutorials

Time-based CSS Animations (5 minute read)

Time-based CSS animations offer a new approach to creating animations without using traditional keyframes. The technique uses a custom CSS variable that tracks time in milliseconds, providing a way to manipulate CSS properties in real time. This article goes over various examples of such animations with code examples, showing off how to control animation duration, frame rate, easing, and more with precision.

Figma's journey to TypeScript: Compiling away our custom programming language (17 minute read)

Figma recently migrated its custom Skew programming language to TypeScript, a move made possible by improved browser support for WebAssembly and internal optimizations. This transition allows for seamless integration with Figma's existing codebase and external libraries, easier onboarding for new developers, and access to the TypeScript developer ecosystem. In this article, the Figma engineering team goes over their migration process, which was done gradually and automatically so as to not disrupt developer workflows internally.
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Opinions & Advice

Staff+ interviewers, what are the reasons you reject someone in a system design interview? (Reddit thread)

People are usually rejected in system design interviews due to their inability to analyze and articulate trade-offs in design decisions. They aren't able to explain their design choices clearly and justify the pros and cons of each. Other rejected candidates try too hard to find a single “perfect” solution or overengineer their solution.

We can have a different web (11 minute read)

The current web is dominated by large platforms and ads - much different from the “old web” which focused more on creativity and community. To build a better version of the “old web,” we could build protocols that resist “digital toll booths” that are established by businesses today. It'll take experimentation, but the tools are there to build a more user-driven web again.
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Launches & Tools

I'm writing a new vector search SQLite Extension (7 minute read)

SQLite-vec is a pure C SQLite extension that provides vector search capabilities directly within SQLite databases. It offers custom SQL functions and virtual tables for fast vector search and vector manipulation.

Stirling-PDF (GitHub Repo)

Stirling-PDF offers PDF manipulation features (splitting, merging, converting, etc.) within a locally hosted web environment.

GitHub Copilot Workspace (4 minute read)

GitHub Copilot Workspace assists developers throughout the entire software development process, from brainstorming a project plan to writing and testing code, using natural language.
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Miscellaneous

Are recruiters better than a coin flip at judging resumes? Here's the data (15 minute read)

A new study reveals that recruiters are only slightly better than a coin flip at judging resumes and predicting which candidates will pass technical interviews. They only correctly chose who to interview 55% of the time and different recruiters often disagreed on the same resume. Recruiters were found to subconsciously favor candidates from top companies. Simple ML models trained on objective performance data were found to be more accurate than human recruiters in predicting interview success.

Three things we learned about Apple's AI plans from its earnings (4 minute read)

While Apple is investing heavily in AI across its product lineup, it won't be building massive data centers to support it. Instead, Apple will follow its typical 'hybrid' cloud approach, using third-party services with its own infrastructure combined. Apple is expected to announce more AI-powered features at WWDC in June.

Fifty Years of the Personal Computer Operating System (11 minute read)

Gary Kildall created the first successful commercial operating system, CP/M, in 1974. His company, Digital Research Inc. (DRI), established CP/M as an industry standard, but later lost out to a Microsoft offering that copied its appearance and functionality. Despite this, Kildall continued to innovate, contributing to the development of important technologies such as CD-ROM encyclopedias and early computer animation.
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Quick Links

Gemini in Android Studio (Website)

The Android Studio IDE now has built-in code completion and chat features powered by Gemini.

How to use SQLite as a NoSQL Store (2 minute read)

You can use SQLite as a NoSQL store by creating a table with a path column (for unique document identification) and a data column (to store JSON strings).

Most Big Tech companies are in wartime mode (1 minute read)

Big Tech companies that used to be in “peacetime” mode are now in “wartime” mode, indicated by layoffs, cost-cutting, and the tougher hiring landscape.

DNS traffic can leak outside the VPN tunnel on Android (4 minute read)

Some Android VPN apps can leak DNS traffic outside the VPN tunnel, even with privacy features like "Always-on VPN" or "Block connections without VPN" enabled, due to bugs in Android itself.
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