Join millions of viewers! Our engineers craft human-written articles solving real-world problems weekly. Enjoy fresh technical content and numerous interviews featuring modern web advancements with industry leaders and open-source authors.| This Dot Labs
The current Model Context Protocol (MCP) spec is shifting developers toward lightweight, stateless servers that serve as tool providers for LLM agents. These MCP servers communicate over HTTP, with OAuth handled clientside. Vercel’s infrastructure makes it easy to iterate quickly and ship agentic AI tools without overhead. Example of Lightweight MCP Server Design At This Dot Labs, we built an MCP server that leverages the DocuSign Navigator API. The tools, like get_agreements, make a reques...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
The article explores how AI is no longer just speeding up coding - it’s actively reshaping the choices we make as developers. From self-reinforcing loops around popular stacks like React and Node.js to AI-generated apps.| This Dot Labs
The Future of Dates in JavaScript: Introducing Temporal What is Temporaal? Temporal is a proposal currently at stage 3 of the TC39 process. It's expected to revolutionize how we handle dates in JavaScript, which has always been a challenging aspect of the language. But what does it mean that it's at stage 3 of the process? The specification is complete It has been reviewed It's unlikely to change significantly at this point Key Features of Temporal Temporal introduces a new global object with...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Building a Next.js application connected to MongoDB can feel like a match made in heaven. MongoDB stores all of its data as JSON objects, which don’t require transformation into JavaScript objects like relational SQL data does. However, when deploying your application to a serverless production environment such as Vercel, it is crucial to manage your database connections properly. If you encounter errors like these, you may be experiencing Connection Storming: MongoServerSelectionError: con...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
See how you can extend the OAuth 2 flow in Docusign Extension Apps to integrate with non-OAuth system, or build custom onboarding flows.| This Dot Labs
Curious about PHP’s quirks? Discover how type juggling, loose comparisons, dynamic properties, and other oddities can trip you up—plus what’s changed in PHP 8 to fix (or introduce) new surprises.| This Dot Labs
Roo Custom Modes Roo Code is an extension for VS Code that provides agentic-style AI code editing functionality. You can configure Roo to use any LLM model and version you want by providing API keys. Once configured, Roo allows you to easily switch between models and provide custom instructions through what Roo calls "modes." Roo Modes can be thought of as a "personality" that the LLM takes on. When you create a new mode in Roo, you provide it with a description of what personality Roo should...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Must-have Features of Coding Agents Autonomous coding agents are no longer experimental, they are becoming an integral part of modern development workflows, redefining how software is built and maintained. As models become more capable, agents have become easier to produce, leading to an explosion of options with varying depth and utility. Drawing insights from our experience using many agents, let's delve into the features that you'll absolutely want to get the best results. 1. Customizable ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
When it comes to building fast and scalable web apps with Next.js, it’s important to understand how rendering works, especially with the App Router. Next.js organizes rendering around two main environments: the server and the client. On the server side, you’ll encounter three key strategies: Static Rendering, Dynamic Rendering, and Streaming. Each one comes with its own set of trade-offs and performance benefits, so knowing when to use which is crucial for delivering a great user experien...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
You'll also understand why you might prefer this tool over other feature flag solutions out there.| This Dot Labs
Part 2 of the “scientific mindset” series dives into the structured world of scientific debugging. Rather than relying on guesswork, we’ll explore how to form testable hypotheses to pinpoint and resolve software defects efficiently.| This Dot Labs
What if your contract details stuck in PDFs could ultimately become the secret sauce of your business automation workflows?| This Dot Labs
Before she was a software developer at freeCodeCamp, Jessica Wilkins was a classically trained clarinetist performing across the country.| This Dot Labs
Ashley Willis has seen Developer Relations evolve from being on the sidelines of the tech team to having a seat at the strategy table. In her ten years in the space, she’s done more than give great conference talks or build community—she’s helped shape what the DevRel role looks like for software providers. Now as the Senior Director of Developer Relations at GitHub, Ashley is focused on building spaces where developers feel heard, seen, and supported. “A decade ago, we were seen as a...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
If you’re a developer, you’ve probably heard of Cursor by now and have either tried it out or are just curious to learn more about it. Cursor is a fork of VSCode with a ton of powerful AI/LLM-powered features added on. For around $20/month, I think it’s the best value in the AI coding space. Tech giants like Shopify and smaller companies like This Dot Labs have purchased Cursor subscriptions for their developers with the goal of increased productivity. I have been using Cursor heavily f...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Internationalization in Next.js with next-intl Internationalization (i18n) is essential for providing a multi-language experience for global applications. next-intl integrates well with Next.js’ App Router, handling i18n routing, locale detection, and dynamic configuration. This guide will walk you through setting up i18n in Next.js using next-intl for URL-based routing, user-specific settings, and domain-based locale routing. Getting Started First, create a Next.js app with the App Router ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Some leaders build products. Some lead engineering teams. Kelly Vaughn is doing both. As Director of Engineering at Spot AI—a company building video intelligence software—Kelly recently expanded her role to oversee both Product and Engineering for their VMS offering. That shift means juggling strategy, execution, and team development, all while helping others step confidently into leadership themselves. And yes, she still finds time to speak at conferences and answer DMs from people navig...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Vercel & React Native - A New Era of Mobile Development? Jared Palmer of Vercel recently announced an acquisition that spiked our interest. Having worked extensively with both Next.js and Vercel, as well as React Native, we were curious to see what the appointment of Fernando Rojo, the creator of Solito, as Vercel's Head of Mobile, would mean for the future of React Native and Vercel. While we can only speculate on what the future holds, we can look closer at Solito and its current integratio...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Vercel is usually the go-to platform for hosting Next.js apps, and not without reason. Not only are they one of the sponsors of Next.js, but their platform is very straightforward to use, not just for Next.js but for other frameworks, too. So it's no wonder people choose it more and more over other providers. Vercel, however, is a serverless platform, which means there are a few things you need to be aware of to keep your costs predictable and under control. This blog post covers the most imp...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Angie Jones is a veteran innovator, educator, and inventor with over twenty years of industry experience and twenty-seven digital technology patents both domestically and internationally. As the VP of Developer Relations at Block, she facilitates developer training and enablement, delivering tools for developer users and open source contributors. However, her educational work doesn’t end with her day job. She is also a contributor to multiple books examining the intersection of technology a...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Ellie Zubrowski doesn’t walk a traditional path. In the three years since graduating from a university program in Business Administration, she biked across the U.S., studied Kung Fu in China, learned Mandarin just for fun, and completed the #100DaysOfCode challenge after deciding she wanted a career switch. That same sense of curiosity and willingness to jump into the unknown now fuels her work as a Developer Advocate at Pieces, where she leads product launches, mentors job seekers, and hel...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Incremental Hydration in Angular Some time ago, I wrote a post about SSR finally becoming a first-class citizen in Angular. It turns out that the Angular team really treats SSR as a priority, and they have been working tirelessly to make SSR even better. As the previous blog post mentioned, full-page hydration was launched in Angular 16 and made stable in Angular 17, providing a great way to improve your Core Web Vitals. Another feature aimed to help you improve your INP and other Core Web Vi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Lessons from the DOGE Website Hack: How to Secure Your Next.js Website The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) launched a new website, doge.gov. Within days, it was defaced with messages from hackers. The culprit? A misconfigured database was left open, letting anyone edit content. Reports suggest the site was built on Cloudflare Pages, possibly with a Next.js frontend pulling data dynamically. While we don’t have the tech stack confirmed, we are confident that Next.js was used from ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Vercel previews offer a great way to test PRs for a project. They have a predefined environment and don’t require any additional setup work from the reviewer to test changes quickly. Many projects also use end-to-end tests with Playwright as part of the review process to ensure that no regressions slip uncaught. Usually, workflows configure Playwright to run against a project running on the GitHub action worker itself, maybe with dependencies in Docker containers as well, however, why bothe...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
CSS Container queries, what are they? Intro Media queries have always been crucial to building web applications. They help make our apps more accessible and easier to use and ensure we reach most of our audience. Media queries have been essential in frontend development to create unique user interfaces. But now, there’s something new: Container queries. In this blog post, we’ll explore what Container queries are, how they differ from media queries, and why they’re so amazing. So, let’...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
The 2025 Guide to JS Build Tools In 2025, we're seeing the largest number of JavaScript build tools being actively maintained and used in history. Over the past few years, we've seen the trend of many build tools being rewritten or forked to use a faster and more efficient language like Rust and Go. In the last year, new companies have emerged, even with venture capital funding, with the goal of working on specific sets of build tools. Void Zero is one such recent example. With so many build ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Laravel is a mature, robust, and powerful web framework that makes developing PHP applications a breeze. In particular, I want to demonstrate how to create a website that can be used to convert videos online using queue jobs for processing and temporary URLs for downloading the converted files. This article is aimed at those who aren’t very familiar with Laravel yet. Prerequisites There are many ways to set up Laravel, and which is the best method may depend on your operating system or pref...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
CSS is actually good now! If you’ve been a web developer for a while, you’ll know this hasn’t always been the case. Over the past few years, a lot of really amazing features have been added that now support all the major browsers. Cascading and selector specificity have always been a pain point when writing stylesheets. CSS cascade layers is a new feature that provides us with a lot more power and flexibility for tackling this problem. We no longer need to resort to tricky specificity h...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
The Importance of a Scientific Mindset in Software Engineering: Part 1 (Source Evaluation & Literature Review) Today, I will write about something very dear to me - science. But not about science as a field of study but rather as a way of thinking. It's easy nowadays to get lost in the sea of information, fall for marketing hype, or even be trolled by a hallucinating LLM. A scientific mindset can be a powerful tool for navigating the complex modern world and the world of software engineering ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Writing queries with the D1 Client API In the previous post we defined our database schema, got up and running with migrations, and loaded some seed data into our database. In this post we will be working with our new database and seed data. If you want to participate, make sure to follow the steps in the first post. We’ve been taking a minimal approach so far by using only wrangler and sql scripts for our workflow. The D1 Client API has a small surface area. Thanks to the power of SQL, we ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Building a Stripe App: A Step-by-Step Guide to QR Code Generation Why Build a Stripe App? I recently participated in an audio space with the Stripe team, and something they said really stuck with me: the Stripe app store is a growing area that isn't overly saturated yet. There's a lot of potential for new apps, and companies can use this opportunity to grow. I work at a company called This Dot Labs, and we've created several Stripe apps and even own one. After looking at the data, I can confi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Nate Emerson is both a self-taught developer and a computer science university grad. How is that possible? In this episode, Nate talks about his unusual career trajectory, and what it has taught him about the differences between being self-taught vs. formal education in software development. Along with Tracy Lee and Jason Torres, he discusses leadership principles, such as extreme ownership, the value of confidence in engineering, and how humility and teamwork contribute to organizational suc...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Paul McCollum, author of "Practical Salesforce Architecture", shares his journey from microbiology to tech, discussing his work at Nortel Networks, and his transition into enterprise architecture with Salesforce. They explore the importance of empathy in engineering, how user-centric design motivates developers, and the evolution of agile development. Paul emphasizes solving real user problems over technical tasks and how continuous learning keeps work exciting. Chapters Introduction – [00:...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode, Rob Ocel sits down with Gant Laborde, CIO at Infinite Red, to explore Gant's journey in the tech industry, his transition into leadership, and his role as a Chief Innovation Officer. Gant shares insights into the challenges and rewards of innovation within a company, how to manage upward and downward effectively, and the importance of trust in leadership. They also discuss the evolving landscape of AI, the significance of experimentation, and the courage needed to make bold d...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Jesus Padron from the This Dot team shows you how to integrate AI models into a Next.js application. Jesus walks through the process of running Meta's Llama 3.1 model locally, leveraging OpenAI's Whisper for speech-to-text conversion, and using OpenAI's TTS model for text-to-speech conversion. By the end of the episode, listeners will know how to create an AI voice assistant that processes voice input, understands the content, and responds audibly. Chapters: Introduction to the Episode (00:00...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, we sit down with Shashi Lo, Senior UX Engineer at Microsoft and the founder of the Gridiron Survivor project. Shashi shares his approach to mentoring junior developers by helping them bridge the gap between boot camp and their first job in tech. We cover the challenges of onboarding, the importance of code reviews, and how companies can better support new talent by investing in mentorship and training. Shashi also talks about his experience with buil...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Rob Ocel, Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Danny Thompson sit down with Kyle Tryon, Senior Developer Advocate at Depot, to talk all things Docker, dev containers, and modern build systems. They break down how Docker simplifies development by solving those "it works on my machine" problems, how cloud-based caching speeds up builds, and why tools like Kubernetes are becoming essential for scaling modern apps. Kyle also shares his journey from fixing laptops in retail to becoming a leading voice in t...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Dr. Mike Saylor, CEO of Black Swan Cybersecurity and professor of cybersecurity at UT San Antonio, shares his journey from starting his first computer business to leading a successful cybersecurity company. He discusses entrepreneurship, the challenges of building and growing a business, and the importance of strong partner relationships. Along with Rob Ocel, he covers strategies for managing client relationships, navigating partner models, and balancing direct sales with partnerships. 00:00 ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Nick Taylor, Senior Software Engineer at OpenSauce discusses the current state of open source, including the challenges around funding, sustainability, and contributor burnout. Nick shares insights into how open source has impacted his career and highlights the growing importance of tools like TypeScript in the open-source ecosystem. The panel also discusses the evolution of TypeScript, its widespread adoption, and its role in shaping the modern web ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Stacie Frederick, Chief Product Officer at Stanza, discusses how her engineering background informs her work in product management, particularly in understanding user needs and building solutions for Stanza, which focuses on improving reliability engineering for development teams. Stacie shares her approach to balancing the needs of current users with future growth, the importance of clear customer personas, and how friction can arise when product teams misalign with user goals. The conversat...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Machine Learning and AI expert Shivay Lamba, discusses the evolution of machine learning tools, and his work on MLOps and deploying large language models (LLMs). The conversation covers the accessibility of AI, the power of JavaScript in machine learning through tools like TensorFlow.js, and the growing importance of ethical AI practices. Shivay also discusses the transition of web-based AI tools, the importance of transfer learning, and how developers can break into the space of AI and machi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel chat with Jason Torres about the challenges of breaking into tech, especially for self-taught and underrepresented developers. Jason shares his journey from a 15-year career in the film industry to pursuing software development, discussing the emotional and financial hurdles involved. They also discuss the importance of networking, finding a niche rather than mastering everything, and the impact of the tech downturn on junior developers. Chapters Introduction and Tech C...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, host Rob Ocel and co-hosts Adam Rackis, Tracy Lee, and Danny Thompson discuss the importance of unit testing for maintaining code quality and reliability, emphasizing its role in scaling projects and ensuring long-term stability. The conversation also highlights the benefits of TypeScript in improving code safety and developer productivity, sharing experiences on how it catches errors early in the process. They also examine the growing role of AI in ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this JS Drop, Simone is joined by Ferdinand and Baptiste from Nuxt Labs to explore the latest updates in the Nuxt ecosystem. Ferdinand kicks off with an introduction to Nuxt Labs and its dual mission of supporting the open-source Nuxt framework while building sustainable products like Nuxt Studio, Nuxt Content, and Nuxt UI. Baptiste takes over with a live demo, showcasing how to create a website from scratch using Nuxt Studio. He demonstrates the platform’s powerful content management fe...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, host Rob Ocel is joined by Adam Rackis, Danny Thompson, and guest Braydon Coyer, Senior Front-End Developer at LogicGate to talk about using Angular Signals for improved state management and DOM performance. Braydon explains how Signals simplify Angular development and offer better readability and efficiency compared to traditional methods like RxJS. The conversation also touches on hiring in the AI era, discussing challenges around take-home tests a...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Danny Thompson, Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, hosts a conversation with Theresa Mammarella, JVM Engineer at IBM, and Brian Sam-Bodden, Applied AI Engineer at Redis. They explore their talks at JCONF in Dallas, Texas, covering topics like GenAI architectures in the Java community and OpenJDK's Project Valhalla. Their conversation covers Java’s evolution, AI applications, semantic caching, and how these technologies are impacting developme...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Matt Biilmann, CEO and co-founder of Netlify, for an in-depth discussion about the company's incredible growth journey—from a bootstrapped two-person startup to a global platform serving over 5 million developers and powering sites for major companies like Unilever and Asana. Matt reflects on the key lessons he’s learned while scaling Netlify, including raising $212 million in venture capital and growing the team to 200 employees. He shares valuable insights on balancing day-to-day operat...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Leadership Exchange, host Tracy Lee welcomes Jeremy Edberg, CEO of DeVos and former first employee at Reddit, to discuss leadership, engineering culture, and team building. They review Jeremy's career journey from Reddit to Netflix and beyond, sharing insights on scaling engineering teams, the impact of culture on development practices, and hiring strategies. Jeremy reflects on the evolution of his management style, emphasizing the importance of human connection in lead...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Rob Ocel, Danny Thompson, and Adam Rackis talk with Michael Liendo, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, about building practical AI applications and tackling challenges like scalability, multimodal functionality, and cloud infrastructure choices. Michael shares insights on tools like AWS Amplify and DynamoDB, discusses strategies for managing cloud costs, and explores the evolving role of prompt engineering. Michael previews his upcoming talks at AWS r...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Leadership Exchange, Tracy Lee welcomes Anita Ballaney, Founder of MyHealthQ, to discuss the future of healthcare delivery models and the impact of technology. Anita discusses the evolution of care, from its community-driven roots to today's telemedicine and AI-driven advancements, while emphasizing the need for change in payment models that have long been stuck in outdated practices. They explore how AI can revolutionize healthcare by eliminating inefficiencies, improv...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Leadership Exchange, John Crichton, Chief Technology Officer at Lightning Step Technologies, shares insights on balancing privacy and compliance requirements while fostering innovation in the electronic medical records (EMR) space. The discussion explores the complexities of healthcare data, the evolving use of AI to improve efficiency and patient care, and the importance of servant leadership in building high-performing teams. John also reflects on his experience trans...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Danny Thompson, Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, talks with Tanner Linsley, Creator of TanStack, about his latest project, TanStack Start. They discuss the challenges of existing frameworks like Next.js and Remix, the development of TanStack Router, and the future of React Server Components. Tanner also explains how caching strategies and fine-grained invalidation can transform the user experience. Chapters - Introduction & Tanner’s Background (00:00) Going Full-Time on TanStack (01...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Ty Allen, Founder and Fractional CPO at Neso Advisors, discusses his product management journey, from his early days at Georgia Tech and a successful startup to leading teams across various industries. Ty shares valuable insights on building adaptable roadmaps, balancing tech debt with feature development, and connecting product strategy to company vision. He also highlights the importance of a “bottom-up” roadmap approach and maintaining flexibility while ensuring strategic alignment. Ch...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, CSS expert Kevin Powell discusses the evolution of CSS, from the early days of CSS3 to the rapid advancements with Flexbox, Grid, and the latest innovations. Kevin explains how CSS is making strides to integrate features that previously required JavaScript, like scroll-driven animations and popovers, simplifying development and improving performance. He also touches on the importance of understanding the fundamentals of CSS, debugging techniques, and...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Annie Sexton, Developer Advocate at Fly.io, to discuss Fly.io’s approach to simplifying cloud deployment. Annie shares Fly.io's unique position as a public cloud that offers the flexibility of infrastructure control with a streamlined developer experience. They explore Fly.io’s private networking and distributed app capabilities, allowing developers to deploy applications close to users worldwide with ease. Annie also addresses common challenges in distributed systems, including latency, ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of The Leadership Exchange, host Rob Ocel, VP of Innovation at This Dot Labs, sits down with Scott Roehrenbeck, CTO of Apptegy, for an in-depth discussion on leadership, process improvement, and the role of people in building effective teams. Scott shares insights from his 20+ years in tech, reflecting on the evolution of his leadership style, the importance of balancing process with flexibility, and how to support team autonomy while maintaining consistency. They also discuss...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this JS Drop, Danny Thompson is joined by YouTuber Jack Herrington to explore a unique TypeScript and AI project that lets you recognize TV show characters in real time. Just point your camera at a character, and instantly get their details or even chat with them as if they were real! Jack walks through the tech, explaining how client-side face recognition and server-side AI work together to make this possible using the Versal AI library. They discuss prompt engineering, building efficient...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this video, Rob Ocel and co-hosts Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Danny Thompson talk with tech educator Ankita Kulkarni about her journey from engineering leader to full-time educator. Ankita shares insights on teaching Next.js, bridging practical knowledge gaps, and helping developers tackle real-world challenges. They discuss Next.js as a React-based framework, its benefits, and the challenges it presents for beginners. Chapters Introduction to the Podcast and Guests 00:01 Meet Ankita Kulka...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Unstructured data lacks a predefined format, posing challenges for machine understanding. However, companies like Unstructured offer solutions to overcome this hurdle. This JSDrops training hosted by Nina Lopatina explores how Unstructured utilizes tools such as Google Drive and Astra DB to convert unstructured data into machine-readable formats, opening new possibilities for businesses and individuals. In this Video, Nina reviews the setup process, discussing the critical roles of API keys a...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of Leadership Exchange, host Rob Ocel chats with Jerry Reghunadh, Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture at Data Nimbus, about leadership, AI adoption, and data-driven decision-making. Jerry shares his career journey, insights on leveraging tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and strategies for building effective data pipelines. They explore how companies can avoid "analysis paralysis," adopt AI strategically, and evaluate new technologies to solve real-world problems. Tune in...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Danny Thompson sits down with Ferdinand Como and Baptiste Leproux from Nuxt Labs to uncover the story behind Nuxt Studio, a tool that's transforming how developers and non-technical users interact with Nuxt applications. Ferdinand and Baptiste share how Nuxt Studio bridges the gap between developer customization and user-friendly content management. Built to empower agencies, freelancers, and their clients, Nuxt Studio combines powerful features like...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Dondi Black, Chief Product Officer of Issuer Solutions at TSYS, to explore the transformative journey of innovation, cultural shifts, and emerging technologies in the payments industry. Dondi shares her insights from three decades in the field, discussing how her organization leverages synergies, empowers teams, and implements measurable strategies to drive innovation and transformation. The conversation dives into the practical applications of generative AI, privacy-enhancing technologies, a...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, recorded live at All Things Open in Raleigh, NC, hosts Rob Ocel and Danny Thompson sit down with Dr. Sally Wahba, Principal Software Engineer at Splunk. Dr. Wahba shares her experience tackling on-call burnout, offering insights into reducing fatigue through better observability, automation, and thoughtful team practices. The conversation also touches on mentorship and growth in the tech industry, including practical advice for junior engineers navig...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Join Tracy Lee and Mark Shenouda in this JS Drop episode as they discuss AI and GenUI with Tejas Kumar. Learn how to use DataStax Astra DB, Vercel AI SDK, and other cutting-edge tools to build smarter, more dynamic applications. This session covers everything from vector searches to generating interactive React components, offering practical tips and hands-on demos for developers. Chapters [00:00:00] Introduction to JS Drop [00:02:30] Tejas Kumar’s AI Presentation Overview [00:05:00] Demo: ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web podcast, Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel sit down with Sarah Shook, a UI/UX engineer at Hunter Industries. They discuss the topic of Sarah’s THAT Conference talk on color theory, exploring the intricacies of RGB, HSL, and hex color models. The discussion also touches on the importance of understanding how color accessibility impacts your page’s performance. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Guest Introduction 01:30 - Balancing Work and Parenthood 03:20 - Family-Fr...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Jesse Tomchak shows viewers how to use the new React compiler to automate memoization and useCallback to optimize React components. He demonstrates the manual process of optimizing React code and then shows how the React compiler simplifies this by automatically managing these optimizations. He also demonstrates setting up and configuring the compiler in React v18 using a Babel plugin, and explores the generated output to explain how the compiler enhances performance. Chapters Introduction an...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Ivan Barajas Vargas, CEO and Co-Founder, at MuukTest discusses his journey from QA expert to engineering leadership, emphasizing the importance of adapting to changes in QA and effectively utilizing resources. Along with Rob Ocel, Ivan highlights the impact of AI technologies on effective QA testing, and the limitations of AI in understanding user experiences. Ivan stresses the importance of adaptability in the evolving field of QA. He highlights the need for QA professionals to stay updated ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Jimmy Jacobson, CTO at Codingscape, sits down with Tracy Lee to discuss engineering consultancy management and team organization. They talk about professional development, hype cycles, and the benefit of investing in social media and marketing both as an organization and as an individual. Both Jimmy and Tracy stress the importance of a flat team structure, which fosters professional development and encourages collaboration among team members. As technology continues to evolve, so do business ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
What is it like to transition from technologies to Fractional CTO? How much do systems matter when operating at the C Level? Ankur Jain, Fractional CTO and Founder at Sprout discusses the transition from being a technologist to a fractional CTO, and how to define and meet engineering KPIs. He emphasizes the significance of systemizing and design thinking in problem-solving, stressing the need to understand customer needs and deliver effective solutions. By adopting a systematic approach, busi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Kent C. Dodds joins Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel at THAT Conference-WI for a discussion about his journey from being an Angular developer to becoming a leading figure in the React community. Kent shares his motivations for making the switch, detailing how React's focus on JavaScript fundamentals and its incremental adoption of new features appealed to him. He also reviews his current and upcoming projects, including the launch of EpicWeb.dev, a comprehensive platform designed to provide end-to-end ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel sit down with Mark Thompson, aka "Mark Techson", to explore key themes around personal branding, workplace culture, and leadership. Mark shares his journey of building a strong personal brand, discussing how consistent online presence can shape public perception and create professional opportunities. The conversation provides valuable insights into the art of leading without a formal title, emphasizing the importance of cultural sensitivity and gradual influence in work...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Angela Nelms emphasizes humility, transparency, and continuous learning as essential elements of effective leadership and company culture. Her insights shed light on leadership's critical role in organizational success, the essential elements of great leadership, and how to embrace failure as a means of combating workplace toxicity. Angela emphasizes that customer service and a positive work culture form the foundation of company success. By fostering humility and transparency, leaders create...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Lee Dash, SVP of Digital Innovation at Medistrava, sheds light on the pivotal role of user experience (UX) within pharmaceuticals. Lee underscores the importance of effectively delivering scientific content to healthcare professionals and the inherent challenges in innovating UX within an industry steeped in traditional systems. This episode navigates the complexities of adapting user-friendly interfaces to pharmaceutical contexts and the ongoing endeavors to elevate UX. Lee stresses the sign...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Leon Revill, uncovers the profound impact of nurturing trust, collaboration, and shared responsibility within teams. His interview with Tracy Lee explores the importance of fostering an environment where mistakes are embraced as valuable learning experiences, steering clear of blame and focusing on growth. Firstly, Leon emphasizes the need for organizations to cultivate a blame-free atmosphere, encouraging team members to take risks and glean insights through failure. By reframing mistakes as...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Cassidy Williams is the CTO at Contenda and shares her journey of how Contenda pivoted and the inside play on how the team was able to successfully change their thinking and strategy to accomplish this. Contenda's current product focus is Brain Story, an app that utilizes AI to help people brainstorm ideas. Rob and Cassidy highlight the importance of having "bad ideas" and normalizing them. Cassidy shares her team’s Slack channel called “bad ideas”. This channel allows team members to f...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Adrianna Bailey, Maersk's SVP of Engineering and business CIO, underscores the shifting attitudes about engineering leadership by highlighting that employers are no longer solely looking for individual technical prowess but those who can foster team success. Adrianna emphasizes the importance of leaders staying abreast of technological advancements and continuously honing their skills to effectively guide and nurture their teams. Central to effective leadership is a comprehensive understandin...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Revathi Pillai, the Chief Engineering Officer of Mutualink, emphasized the significance of clear communication, collaboration, and transparency in software engineering leadership, and shared her journey from engineer to manager and shed light on the importance of self-advocacy for women in the workplace. Along with Tracy Lee, Revathi discussed the delicate balance between developing new features and maintaining existing products. By managing cost reduction projects and considering technical d...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Joseph Bironas, CTO of Stanza stresses the importance of empathy in leading startups, where high-pressure environments demand understanding team members' motivations and fears. By cultivating a culture of psychological safety, empathetic leaders empower teams to excel and contribute their best work. Beyond technical skills, empathetic leaders prioritize diverse perspectives and individual strengths in hiring practices, fostering collaboration and inclusivity within teams. The conversation hig...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Engineering Leadership series, Dan Gigangi shed light on the crucial role that engineering leaders play in promoting a culture of learning within their organizations, focusing on the importance of adapting communication styles, expanding impact beyond coding, setting long-term visions, and navigating the challenges of transitioning from technical roles to leadership positions. One of the key points emphasized by Dan Gigangi is the significance of adapting communication ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In today's digital landscape, the need for secure identity verification has become paramount. With the increasing risks of personal data exposure and the rise of sophisticated cyber threats aided by Artificial Intelligence, it is crucial to adopt robust verification processes to protect individuals and organizations alike. In a recent discussion with Rod Boothby, CEO of ID Partner Systems, the significance of trusted institutions for identity verification was emphasized, particularly the effi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this JS Drops presentation, Ronald Williams, Senior Community Programs Manager at Cypress.io, discusses key tips for cultivating and capturing value within a developer community. Ronald emphasized the need to differentiate between creating useful content and deriving business gains from it. He highlights the significance of reporting the impact of initiatives by combining both aspects, stressing that it's crucial not only to focus on providing valuable content for the community but also to...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Shuchi Mittal, the Head of Cloud enablement at Honeywell, discusses how she as a leader in platform engineering has been able to transform internal platform engineering teams at other organizations by providing teams with value-added services, and how they effectively managed costs. She talks about how to treat these teams as customers, and delivering services that meet the customer needs, but also charging them for their usage. By providing policy-compliant infrastructure and unique services...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Maggie Pint, Engineering Manager at Istari, discusses the trend for companies to focus on streamlining their processes and reducing complexity to deliver products faster and more efficiently versus spending time on innovation this past year. This trend has led to the convergence (maybe consolidation) of product management and engineering roles, where engineers are not only responsible for building the product but also for shaping its strategic direction. Maggie and Tracy discuss whether this ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Anthony D. Mays discusses code exercises, landing your first job, and how to succeed in interviews. He shares his personal journey to becoming a software engineer and career coach, and emphasizes the importance of not only having technical knowledge but also a strong problem-solving process. The conversation also touches on the role of senior engineers in guiding and empowering junior engineers, the interview processes at different companies, and tip...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Rachel Lee Nabors talks about the challenge of remaining current with new APIs and libraries, and how to prioritize which technologies you should invest your time in. Along with Tracy Lee, Rachel discusses their project of refactoring a demo using modern APIs and the benefits of challenging oneself with browser native APIs. The conversation also covers Rachel's involvement in standards development, and the evolving web technologies landscape. Timestamps [00:00:00] Intro. [00:03:10] Refactored...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tracy Lee and Jonan Scheffler discuss the world of developer relations engineering and community engagement. They talk about the importance of building genuine relationships with developers and providing valuable resources to the community, and explore the challenges of aligning DevRel with marketing efforts and the effectiveness of different content formats. Jonan Scheffler’s Socials TwitterGitHubYouTubeLinkedin More Resources on DevRel Intro to DevRel: 5 Reasons Why DevRel Teams FailThis ...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
As businesses strive to stay ahead of the curve, understanding the needs of developers and translating them into tangible business goals has become increasingly important. Sam Julien, Director of Developer Relations at Writer, discusses the devrel role in a recent interview with Rob Ocel. According to Sam, one of the key aspects of developer relations is the ability to bridge the gap between technical and marketing teams. This requires individuals who can effectively communicate the needs and...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
TypeScript has become an essential tool for developers seeking to enhance the robustness and maintainability of their codebases. While many are familiar with the basics of TypeScript, there are advanced concepts that can take your TypeScript skills to the next level. In this JSDrops Training by Josh Goldberg, viewers will explore some of these advanced TypeScript concepts, including schema validation using Zod, leveraging TypeScript's powerful type inference capabilities, and effectively util...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tejas Kumar and Tracy Lee discuss AI models, tool calling, and Vercel's AI SDK for generating components. They explore AI agency, the importance of AI democratization, safety concerns, regulation, and the need for human oversight in AI development. The conversation begins with AI models and tool calling, emphasizing AI agents' abilities to self-reflect and collaborate. They highlighted Vercel's SDK for generating components, which simplifies the development process and makes AI engineering mo...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
In this episode of Modern Web, Josh Goldberg discusses the benefits of TypeScript ESLint v8 and as well as other various topics related to JavaScript tools, AI in coding, and industry dynamics. Josh breaks down the latest version of TypeScript ESLint, v8. He points out the big performance boosts and introduces the cool new feature of type-aware linting. With this, developers can catch potential errors and follow best practices by using TypeScript's static type checking. This not only cuts dow...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Join Jack Herrington and Tracy Lee at CascadiaJS 2024 as they talk about content creation, experimenting with new tools, and continuous learning. They cover some of the latest in what’s going on in the Vercel, Next.js, and Deno Deploy ecosystems, and what these teams are doing to enable easy deployment and better community collaboration. Tracy and Jack's discussion highlights the lack of educational resources on advanced web development topics. This scarcity poses an opportunity for develop...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Dominic Farolino, a software engineer on the Chrome team, discusses his involvement in adding observables to the web platform. By incorporating observables into browsers, developers can simplify their workflows and streamline complex APIs (like the Resize Observer). This not only will saves time and effort but also allows developers to focus on creating exceptional user experiences. Adding observables to the browser will drastically affect RxJS. RxJS is a popular library for reactive programm...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tracy Lee, Ben Lesh and Adam Rackis discuss the current state of React and its potential future. React and Vercel: A Positive Change? One of the key topics of conversation revolves around React and its relationship with Vercel. It's worth noting that high-profile React core team members have recently made the move to Vercel, which many see as a positive change. This move brings fresh perspectives and expertise to the project, potentially leading to exciting developments in the future. However...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Traditional businesses now must embrace digital changes to stay competitive. This means more than just using technology; it means making digital solutions a part of every aspect of your business. Here are 5 essential tips that will help you navigate the path of adopting technology effectively. Integrate Technology Into Your Core Mission: Mistake: Treating technology as a siloed entity, whether within your organization or outsourced. Solution: Embrace the idea of being a tech company, integrat...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Ben Lesh host special guest Chance Strickland to discuss topics around new web APIs, CSS, Tailwind, and react server components. They go into detail about a new web API that allows the implementation of dark mode to be really easy, and get excited about how many of these new APIs open up new possibilities for creating user-friendly interfaces that adapt to individual preferences. Chance is curious about the implementation of React Server Components, and how RSCs wi...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Jean Roberts is the field CTO of financial markets at DataRobot and shares her experience on technology adoption, transformation, and AI, both predictive and generative. She has had an unconventional career path, transitioning from investment banking to pursuing a Ph.D. in strategy and applied stats. Her journey led her through various roles in the financial sector, touching on investment banking, equity research, and data science teams, where she leveraged NLP on doctor's notes to predict st...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Rob Ocel sits down with Atila Fassina, a Developer Relations Engineer at Crabbula and a member of the Developer Experience team for SolidJS. Atila's involvement with SolidJS began after a conversation with Ryan Carniato, the creator of the framework. He was immediately drawn to the framework's plans and its focus. Atila expresses his excitement about the upcoming release of SolidJS and Tauri V2. Atila and Rob discuss the significance of comprehensive documentation in software development. Ati...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Cory Minton, the Field CTO at Splunk joins Rob Ocel in an episode that revolves around how to be a better engineering leader, intentionality, and what we can all do to be better humans. Cory is a Field CTO at Splunk, where he engages with the company's largest and most significant customers, addressing challenges in cybersecurity, IT operations, and observability. He talks about the importance of combining technology expertise with business acumen to help leaders make informed decisions. A ma...| This Dot Labs RSS feed
Dr. Christine Dee is a technologist and research psychologist for IBM, focusing on AI ethics. She reflects on her decade-long experience with AI and the evolving landscape of AI technologies. She highlights the challenges of AI and the increasing focus on open AI, emphasizing the need for more structured conversations around trust, ethics, and responsibility in AI. There is a widespread adoption of AI across various industries and the growing interest in AI, particularly generative AI like Ch...| This Dot Labs RSS feed