window.showDirectoryPicker opens up a whole new world
Chrome introduced a new API, window.showDirectoryPicker() that allows the user to grant access to a directory on their computer and allow a website to read/write everything inside.
Steve Harrison
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Latest posts
Translucent sidebars in Electron apps
macOS Tahoe introduced slight translucency for app sidebars, and you can add the same effect to an Electron BrowserWindow using the vibrancy property.
The Productive Programmer
Thoughts on being a productive programmer.
Next.js 16's Turbopack breaks npm link
Update: They've now updated the documentation. I've also edited this post to be less ranty. Next.js 16 makes Turbopack the default bundler now, which brea
How to avoid npm link issues
When using component libraries, you'll often need to use npm link in order to test changes to the component library in an app that uses the component libra
Pre-record your demos
Meta was in the news recently for two failed live demos: Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI glasses demo failed in EPIC fashion today 🤣pic.twitter.com/O0UFeoCar7
What's new in AI in October?
It's been a while since I did a tech roundup! A lot has been announced in the way of AI—let's dive in. Anthropic has released updates, including a "comput
Local-first development & InstantDB
An emerging trend that I think is as exciting as AI and crypto is local-first development. The general idea is that apps should be able to work offline, su
Exploring CloudKit JS
Apple's CloudKit framework offers a secure way to store app data and make it available to all of a user's Apple devices, tied to their Apple account. I was
Markdown Style Guide
Here is a sample of some basic Markdown syntax that can be used when writing Markdown content in Astro.
Query strings & cache keys
We were building a page that used query parameters to filter a list of items. I'll use a generic example for this post: let's say we have a Next.js SSR loc
OpenAI announcements, dev creates entire web game using ChatGPT, and creating UI components with AI
OpenAI introduces GPT Store At OpenAI's first developer conference, Sam Altman announced a way to create custom AI bots and share them on the Op
What's new in CSS in 2023
Here's a PDF copy of my slides from my talk "What's new in CSS in 2023" at Web Directions Summit.
Photorealistic AI avatars, poisoning generative AI, Apple Event 31 Oct, and CSS :has/:where/:is selectors
You can now create AI avatars for training videos with D-ID. But these are not your average 3D avatars from Meta or Apple. They look photorealistic. Welcom
AI meets typography, grifting from crypto -> AI, and copying startups in your country
AI OpenAI will host its first developer conference on 6 November. And startups in incubator Y Combinator's program have presented their ideas: 5 neat AI
Titanium iPhone, increasing sales with the "IKEA effect", coding with AI, and more native Mac code editors
Apple's new iPhone launch event is scheduled for the 13th September, where they're expected to release a new iPhone 15 with a USB-C port and a new Apple wa
Python in Excel, AI face search, and deep-cloning JavaScript objects natively
Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel: There is now a reverse image lookup that uses facial recognition to find all images of a person publicly on the web
NVIDIA 2D -> 3D, crypto now less volatile than oil, design like Mozart, and code better with Nova!
AI Google Chrome will summarize entire articles for you with built-in generative AIThe AI-powered notes in Chrome are launching first on Android and iOS.T
Deep fake avatars, guessing your password using audio + AI, and new web dev features
An AI-generated deep fake has been making the rounds—I think it's pretty convincing: [NEW] - Joshua Avatar 2.0 🤖✨. Both of these video clips were 100% AI
Tech roundup - Friday 4 August 2023
Uber has finally turned a profit! CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also mentioned that they are developing an AI chatbot for customer service, marketing, and other au
Tech roundup - Friday 28 July 2023
The Line NEOM is a new urban area planned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be built in its northwestern Tabuk Province. The site is north of the Red Sea,
Tech roundup - Fri 21 July 2023
AI The AI artist community keeps coming up with amazing images generated in Midjourney. Check out the cover image above (you can view the whole series her
Tech roundup - Fri 14 July 2023
Threads has passed 100M users in five days since its launch last week, overtaking ChatGPT as the fastest growing app of all time (for comparison, ChatGPT r
Tech roundup - Fri 7 July 2023
Well the big talk of the week: Meta has launched Threads, their Instagram Twitter competitor and it passed 2 million users in the first 2 hours! I've playe
Tech roundup - Fri 30 June 2023
AI Toyota has released a generative AI tool for designing cars: 1. Toyota Design AI Toyota (yes that company lagging in EVs somehow cares about AI) rele
Tech roundup - Fri 23 June 2023
AI news Meta has announced Voicebox, a generative AI model that can help with audio editing, sampling, and styling. It can remove unwanted background audi
Tech roundup - Fri 16 June 2023
NASA has released a new X-plane designed to reduce fuel consumption. Ford and GM have agreed to adopt Tesla’s EV charging connector (as opposed to the CCS
Tech roundup - Fri 9 Jun 2023
Sydney F-Enders and SydCSS Presentations This week, I gave a presentation on Advanced Testing in Playwright at the Sydney F-Enders meetup on Tuesday and W
Tech roundup - Fri 2 Jun 2023
Well, it's only 4 sleeps away from the biggest Apple reveal since over a decade ago: the AR/VR headset! Apple have a nice little teaser AR graphic that you
Tech roundup - Fri 26 May 2023
Generative AI in Photoshop Photoshop has released some amazing new generative AI features this week! You can now select an area and generate new AI imager
Tech roundup - Fri 19 May 2023
This week, Apple rolled out Tap to Pay in Australia, with Westpac and Tyro Payments the first payment platforms to offer this feature to business customer
Tech roundup - Fri 12 May 2023
Happy Friday! Wendy's is partnering with Google to create an ordering chatbot for their drive-thrus, and I know for certain the first thing I'm going to s
Tech roundup - Fri 5 May 2023
So much innovation is happening at the moment, a truly exciting time to be alive! I don't have any trouble filling these weekly roundups. News Coinbase
Tech roundup - Fri 28 April 2023
Happy Friyay! Adobe has released Firefly, a generative AI tool that allows you to create graphic designs from text prompts, convert pencil sketches into s
Tech roundup - Fri 21 April 2023
Hello from Sydney, I just got back from Tokyo! Another week, so much happening in tech, I love it! News Apple opened their first two Apple Stores in Ind
Tech roundup - Fri 14 April 2023
Hello from Singapore! It seems like a lot has happened in tech this week, so I'll be doing a recap followed by what I'm reading (spoiler: it's a book about