PiccalilliMore Front-end Bloggersread at source
The Index: Issue #206
CSS Golf A fun spin on CSS challenges here where you try to fix an issue in as little "strokes" as possible. FaceTypes As the strap-line says, a collection free fonts that are actually worth using. I made a weird web page every single day in October and lived to tell the tale A nice write-up from Jenn with some very sage advice for people using LLMs a lot for their development work. Open source says no A collection of open source projects that have explicitly banned AI contributions. Big walk used AI in 'the final stretch' of development, kicking off intense awards debate This caused quite the discourse on Bluesky 😬 Some little ways I’m using CSS :has() in the real world Here's one from the Piccalilli archives that you might have missed to wrap up this issue. P.S. this is a good website from personalsit.es . Sponsor message JavaScript for Everyone has a huge new update! Mat Marquis has been hard at work to create 3 new modules, 20 new lessons — including practical exercises — and 13 re-worked lessons. It's a lot of good new stuff and people that have previously purchased the course get all of this for free ! Use the link here to save 20% off your purchase. Get the course and save 20%
PiccalilliMore Front-end Bloggersread at source
JavaScript for Everyone: New Game+
We have great news. After months of effort, 3 new modules, 13 completely re-worked lessons and 20 new lessons (including practical exercises), JavaScript for Everyone's Updated content is now live! Check it out! We took feedback from the community about what they thought was missing from the course and overwhelmingly, people wanted practical exercises. It makes sense: JavaScript is a complex language to learn and there's not many better ways to cement new knowledge than by actually building with it. Mat took this feedback as a challenge, formulated a plan and got to work , disappearing into a text editor and reappearing with pretty much a whole course's worth of new and updated material. It's really inspiring to me, personally, because doing anything while it felt like our industry was being decimated felt impossible. Mat's resolve to keep doing what he does well: teach people, has been unmatched and the benefactors of that effort are everyone . JavaScript for Everyone was already the canonical, high quality educational resource for learning JavaScript, but now, it's at a whole new level. So what are you waiting for? Take it for a spin and truly understand how JavaScript works! Check it out!
PiccalilliMore Front-end Bloggersread at source
The Index: Issue #205
Poznote In our endless search for a Notion replacement, this one is showing real promise. Fixing illustrations on a dark background with CSS The drop-shadow property is so overlooked considering how useful it is. This is a great use of it! Death comes for XSLT It's so frustrating that browsers are ignoring the one main rule: don't break the web . How to quit Spotify and improve your life in the process This one weird trick to improve your life. (We recommend TIDAL or Qobuz) Introducing adaptive dark mode It's interesting to see this concept back — this time from Safari — considering how much of a dreadful job Google did half a decade ago in Chrome. We'll see how it goes! CSS nesting: use with caution Here's one from the Piccalilli archives that you might have missed to wrap up this issue. P.S. this is a good website . Sponsor message When anyone can make anything, we can make you stand out. AI technologies have given anyone the ability to bring their ideas to life, but to produce a high quality service that actually works for the people it needs to work for requires experience, specialist skills and creativity. We’ve got heaps of all of that here at Set Studio and we've got availability starting in 2027, so check us out and see what we're about. Check out our work
PiccalilliMore Front-end Bloggersread at source
The Index: Issue #204
CSS-Tricks has a new owner! This really is a big win for the web and it should fill you with hope. We're not done yet ! The Serotonium — Music shared with friends This does exactly what is says on the tin and the volume of extremely good recommendations is mind-blowing. Anthropic files its ‘IPO’ — but all the key numbers are missing If the immediate glazing of Anthropic's IPO documents on social media was getting you down, then have a read to get yourself back level again. Digital recipe management for fastidious cooks An interesting look into the world of managing your recipes and what options there are. Local Wikipedia This is such a cool tool that allows you to filter Wikipedia by your chosen location. CSS nesting: use with caution Here's one from the Piccalilli archives that you might have missed to wrap up this issue. P.S. this is a good website . Sponsor message When anyone can make anything, we can make you stand out. AI technologies have given anyone the ability to bring their ideas to life, but to produce a high quality service that actually works for the people it needs to work for requires experience, specialist skills and creativity. We’ve got heaps of all of that here at Set Studio and we've got availability starting in 2027, so check us out and see what we're about. Check out our work
PiccalilliMore Front-end Bloggersread at source
If we stop, we lose
It's been a rather morale draining era in the making websites industry since the wider tech industry decided to gamble everything on LLMs. We at Piccalilli see it amongst the community and feel it ourselves. You'll also have noticed the velocity of posts has slowed down somewhat on this website with no new courses announced either. There's a couple of reasons for that. First, the numbers have taken a dramatic tumble — industry-wide — but also, aside from being very busy in the studio , we've been tired . Swimming against this particular current will do that, even for folks like us that have always operated like that. Something else you might have noticed is that a lot of other educators have gone a lot quieter this year too. I'm writing this post today to hopefully try and fix that. A shot in the arm I had a delightful conversation with CSS-Tricks head honcho, Geoff , yesterday. Aside from the excellent vibes as a result of CSS-Tricks being back as an independent publisher , I started in a rather glum mood. After spending a few minutes listening to Geoff's exciting plans though I really perked up. We're nowhere near CSS-Tricks here, but we've always looked up to them as an example of what years and years at the top of your game looks like. Sure, the DigitalOcean acquisition didn't work out, but the fact that the publication is not only back, but well up for the fight against the supposed death of web education is really inspiring to me. I needed that win, as did many others . I needed it so much, it's spurred me on to write this article to hopefully give us all a shot in the arm. There is no inevitable future and education will always matter A comment I see all the time is "we don't need articles and courses because we can just ask an LLM now", which I guess is true, but I could also eat an entire can of spray cheese. It ain't gonna nourish me! AI technologies have given anyone the ability to bring their ideas to life, but to produce a high quality end product that actually works for the people it needs to work for requires experience, specialist skills and creativity. That is a reality, which aside from Silicon Valley's best efforts, is why there are still working developers out there, regardless of "frontier model" power. Human developer's experience is necessary because LLM outputs still (somehow, after hundreds of billions of investment) fall short. Let me repeat that: their experience is necessary . Who inevitably contributed to that experience? Yep: educators. Let's get to work then This article is mainly addressed to fellow educators, but also to people that write on their personal blogs. You must keep going because people still need us . If we don't, we lose. The LLM era is opening up an enormous skills gap that's only going to get wider as the industry continues to pull up the ladder, eliminating entry level positions. We're needed to help people really understand how all of this stuff works , so even if they are at the behest of LLM mandates , they can produce better outputs. The technology is going nowhere — that toothpaste is long out of the tube — but how many other hype cycles have underwhelmed in the end? Spoiler, all of them The economics of the AI industry simply do not work and the technology — albeit ever-present in development — will fall into its actual place eventually, as a niche tool . With all of this in mind, we're fighting back too, so I'm opening up the guest authoring on this site again , just like Geoff is over on CSS-Tricks . I'm determined to get this website cooking again and I would love to share your words with the rest of the industry. Let's buck up our ideas and get cracking, everyone. There's lots to teach and I know we've got plenty of fight left in us. To quote our very own Mat Marquis : You and me, we’re not done until we say we’re done Don't let the bastards grind you down.