Russia complains about reactions to their attacks

I always wonder what a person might feel when officially complaining about the fact that there is any reaction to the russian invasion attempts.

How blind or else immoral a person can be? Who ever should trust current russian officials?

And: How worse can it get? Spoiler: Probably infinitely.

Make use of the "zero width no-break space" character

There's one character in Unicode I really like: The zero width no-break space, or . I use it for giving an element the line height it would have, would it contain text but when it should in fact stay empty - e.g. for vertically aligning an input field in a row with other input field, where the one in question does not have a label text above it.

Simply use the escaped unicode form in CSS adding a pseudo element:

.zero-width-no-break-space::before {
    content: '\FEFF';
}

Make IntelliJ format HTML files nicely (from a frontend developer's perspective)

I am using IntelliJ now with my current job, and I dislike the way it does formatting of HTML files (and of course all the backend and Java developers do not really care the same way I do).

Fortunately I finally figured out how to do it:

1. Install NodeJS (I recommend doing it using nvm) and Yarn (npm is fine as well, but I prefer Yarn)
2. Set up a package.json file, e.g. by running yarn init
3. Install Prettier, Babel-eslint, eslint and eslint-plugin-babel:
   yarn add --dev prettier eslint babel-eslint eslint-plugin-babel
4. In IntelliJ, go to File > Settings > Plugins > Marketplace and install "File Watchers" and "Prettier"
5. In IntelliJ, set up File Watchers for HTML under File > Settings > Tools > File Watchers and add a watcher for the file type HTML, set up the arguments --parser html --write $FilePathRelativeToProjectRoot$ and under "Advanced Options" make sure that the options "Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher" and "Trigger the watcher regardless of syntax erorrs" are unchecked.
6. Create a .prettierrc file in the project's root directory with at least this configuration: {
     "htmlWhitespaceSensitivity": "ignore"
   } - this will prevent Prettier formatting closing ">" characters from inline HTML tags to sometimes end up on separate lines.

Hooray, now IntelliJ does a nice HTML file formatting the way a frontend developer like me can enjoy it.

New book arrived!

Yay, last weekend I finally received the new second edition of Martin Fowler's "Refactoring - Improving the Design of Existing Code".

I just started reading the introduction, but it already turns out that this book is more than just a repetition of stuff I thought I already knew. I guess it will finally teach me how to really refactor JS code, how to write proper tests and how and when to apply design patterns in JS.

It's easy to read and I already love this book. Highly recommended!

Learning React & Redux

I am currently learning React & Redux - yep, I didn't catch up with FE frameworks mainly because I did not care about learning more and blamed it on working alone and having two little children at home.

But now I am catching up finally with videos:

1. I started watching Wes Bos'  "React for beginners" more than one year ago and stopped because I wanted to switch learning Vue.js with a Udemy course which I also only started watching.
2. I watched Frontend Masters' "Complete Intro to React v4" which I think is pretty cool and compact. It helped that I had been starting with Wes Bos' React course long ago.
3. I watched Wes Bos' (updated) "React for beginners" completely and having watched 2) before helped a lot.
4. Currently, I am watching Wes Bos' "Learn Redux" and I guess I have to watch it once again. Without a current personal React project, it is hard to store all this information in my mind and understand it.
5. Then I plan to watch Wes Bos' "Fullstack Advanced React and GraphQL", which I have already bought during the winter season sale.

I'm having a hard time learning, but I do not give up. Sometimes it all seems to be so elegant and easy, but then again when I want to do something on my own it turns out that I am missing the big picture still. Unfortunately, there is no "React pill" I simply can swallow and get it all. Also, I don't know what the best way for learning would be for me - I guess having a buddy pairing me would be best.

Anyways, it makes things easier now that I have accepted that watching video tutorials several times is not a bad thing. If it helps me understand things, then it's good.

Weekend

Spending my weekend with my (married) family - this is way more important than Clean Code and Software Craftsmanship, and especially not contradictory.
It always helps to get back down on earth.

My reading list

I just finished the current version of my reading list, featuring all technical or scientific books I've read and could easily track down (because these are the ones I bought online at Amazon). There are way more books I've read - I do not mention the crime and SciFi stories I always read in-between, and there are more books I've read but did buy elsewhere, so I didn't want to track those down as well, although one day I might add some of those.
From now on I will try to keep this list up-to-date as good as I can. The latest reads are on the top of the list.

Possibly nice for all (not only new) GIT users

I Just found this really old entry in my drafts folder and decided to release it (the links had partly to be replaced with archived versions):

1,5 months ago I started working with GIT, whilst I've been using SVN before. These days I found this really nice tutorial on GIT (I've given the official "pro git" manual a try, but didn't become happy enough):
GIT in a nutshell by Jonas Jusélius. These 20 pages (properly typeset in LaTeX - for those who know what it means) are a really nice hands-on tutorial for everyone who has to quickly dive into the daily GIT usage at work.
Then if things go wrong, this very neat poster might become handy: GIT pretty by Justin Hileman. Print it out and hang it onto the wall next to your working place.

Reanimating my blog

I've just finished reading the eBook The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride (Robert C. Martin Series) from Sandro Mancuso (and just noticed that this book dates back to Dec 2014) which I really enjoyed a lot - if only for reaffirming my mindset.
Anyways some of the outcomes of reading this book are:

• I reactivated my Twitter account - this time following only some few people that I think are most relevant for my job as an FE developer:
  Jake Archibald (@jaffathecake), Bruce Lawson (@brucel)‏, Wes Bos (@wesbos)‏, Remy Sharp (@rem)‏, Kyle Simpson (@getify)‏, Rob Dodson (@rob_dodson)‏, Axel Rauschmayer (@rauschma)‏, Sacha Greif (@SachaGreif)‏, David Walsh (@davidwalshblog)‏, John Resig (@jeresig)‏, Chris Heilmann (@codepo8)‏, Paul Irish (@paul_irish)‏, Addy Osmani (@addyosmani) ‏and last but not least Dan Abramov (@dan_abramov)‏.
  It turns out that almost every hour I receive interesting Tweets through this selection, but this is already way too much, so possibly I'll unfollow some of them soon.
• I reanimated my old blog "Morgens um 7 ist die Welt noch in Ordnung" (the title of the German adaptation of Eric Malpass's book "Mornings at seven".) mainly as a form of personal developer diary - so sorry if this blog isn't of any interest to you.
• I decided that besides finally learning React & Redux, I have to become better at TDD (esp. learning how to only write the right/relevant tests) and should learn about Domain Driven Design - any recommendations for good reads on TDD and DDD welcome!

SassConf 2013 on vimeo

I'm used to watching YouTube videos for developers, but the (first ever) SassConf 2013 has now published their videos (16 videos) on vimeo and the quality is really good - plus: You can download all videos in different qualities, something I've always been missing on YouTube:
SassConf 2013 on vimeo

Deal of the day!

When robots rule the world:

Schönes Weihnachtsgeschenk für die liebe Mutti

Generationsübergreifendes Weihnachtsgeschenk:

HTML newsletters - invaluable advanced tutorial

For all those of you that hae struggled for finding the right way to create today's perfect HTML newsletter, here comes the last bit of information I found hard to find: Background images and Outlook!

Read on at campaignmonitor...

My Review of Head First jQuery

Originally submitted at O'Reilly

Head First jQuery

Head First jQuery

Great, but...

By RBloeth from Berlin, germany on 11/27/2011

 

4out of 5

Pros: Well-written, Easy to understand

Cons: Too many errors

Best Uses: Novice, Student, Intermediate

Describe Yourself: Developer

As all Head First books I know so far, also this one is simply great. But: At least the PDF edition I bought 3 days ago contains so many errors that it should undergo serious proof reading again.
The errors are technical, so if you're a beginner and start to learn jQuery with this book, it might cause damage to your understanding.
Dear folks at O'Reilly: Please withdraw the first edition and do your homework. You could then also update the contents to use jQuery 1.7 (e.g. using on() and off() instead off bind() and unbind().
Nevertheless I love this series!

I will definitely recommend this book to my friends as soon as the errors are corrected!

(legalese)

Loving memories...

I've just stumbled upon this animated GIF:

Possibly nice for all (not only new) GIT users

1,5 months ago I started working with GIT, whilst I've been using SVN before. These days I found this really nice tutorial on GIT (I've given the official "pro git" manual a try, but didn't become happy enough):
GIT in a nutshell by Jonas Jusélius. These 20 pages (properly typeset in LaTeX - for those who know what it means) are a really nice hands-on tutorial for everyone who has to quickly dive into the daily GIT usage at work.
Then if things go wrong, this very neat poster might become handy: GIT pretty by Justin Hileman. Print it out and hang it onto the wall next to your working place.

Just fell in love with Sublime Text 2

Icon design by Nate Beaty

 Nate BeatyI just fell in love with the great cross-platform coding text editor "Sublime Text 2" after having read this article on nettuts+.

I have been looking for the ideal text editor for what seems like ages. Under Windows I stuck with Notepad++, whilst most OS X guys use TextMate - if they don't use vim, that is.

Under Ubuntu it was difficult - first I've tried Geany, then used Netbeans. After that I've tried to get used to vim/gvim, then turned over to Komodo Edit, which I really thought would be my final destination. Until I'd given Sublime Text 2 a try. One of the big pro's to me is: It is cross-platform, free to try (and to use, but I've just purchased a license for it, which is valid per person, not per install) and it combines block editing with some of the great TextMate features. Btw you can use all TextMate bundles with Sublime Text 2.

If you've never seen it, give it a try. And of course you can also use it with all your vim shortcuts - read the article on nettuts+ to learn how.

I thought this would be a parody of Erdogan - maybe it is...

The Turkey Dictator

Big Allianz is watching you?

Da scheint es in der Tat spannende Jobs zu geben...

"Bei der Allianz drücken die Datenschützer beide Augen zu", las ich eben auf Telepolis.

Wenn ich diesen Beitrag richtig interpretiere, dann hat die Allianz also ihr eigenes Unternehmen, mit dem sie z.B. säumige oder womöglich laut Expertensystem auffälig gewordene Kunden regelmäßig orten kann - ohne rechtliche Grundlage, und unsere Datenschützer finden das erstrebenswert?

This makes me feel...

Sehr schöne Sache, ich kann es mir lebhaft (o.k., vielleicht nicht ganz so lebhaft) vorstellen:

Touring the Recreated 1969 Birthplace of the Internet at UCLA