CodeNewbie

Colleen is a military spouse, mother of three, and taught herself how to code over a number of years. She learned to code and became a freelance developer with little time, little money, and a lot of patience. She tells us how she did it, and how you can do it too. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Operation Code Reshma Saujani's TED Talk "Teach girls bravery, not perfection"...

Anil Dash has been in tech for a long time. He’s a vocal advocate for inclusion and humane tech, writes amazing blog posts (and tweets!), and is now the CEO of Fog Creek. He shares how he navigated his impressive career in tech and how he builds kindness and community into his company's products. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Fog Creek Software Glitch StackOverflow Anil D...

You type in a url and you get a website. But how did you get that website? What are all the little steps that happen when you request a page and (hopefully) see that page in your browser? Julia Evans breaks down how the internet works and gives us an amazing introduction to computer networking. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Networking! Ack! (Julia's zine) Netcat Cat (comm...

If you’ve been trying to figure out what JavaScript framework you should learn, Sarah is here to help. She explores the differences (and similarities!) between JavaScript frameworks like Vue.js, React, and jQuery, and what new developers should think about when deciding which tool to learn. She also shares how she got into coding, a journey she started as a science illustrator. Show Links Partner...

Many companies use cookies, tracking, and behavioral ads to help them sell more things. But it also means they collect a lot of data on what we do and who we are, raising online privacy concerns. What does that mean for developers? Laura Kalbag explains how those tools work and what we as developers should think about when building our own products. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (s...

What is bitcoin? How do cryptocurrencies work? What is the blockchain? Preethi Kasireddy, a blockchain engineer, gives us a gentle introduction to the world of digital currencies. She walks us through how it all works, what developers should care about, and how she transitioned from a career in finance to being a blockchain engineer. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Bitcoin...

If you've heard of containers and this thing called Kubernetes, but you're not sure exactly how they work and what they are, this episode is for you. Kelsey Hightower of Google gives us a newbie friendly tour of the world of containers. We talk about what problems they solve, and what new developers should know about them. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Kubernetes Heroku D...

What's the value of a computer science degree? Is it worth going back to school for? We talk to a computer science student and professor to help us answer these questions. Ashley Fong is a history major who's going back to school to get her CS degree online. She shares how she made that decision and what her experience has been like. Dave Thomas is a programmer who recently became a professor. He...

You want to get started in open source, but where do you start? How do you pick a repo? And once you do, what's the best way to help out, especially if it's your first time? Richard Schneeman is here to help. He's the creator of Code Triage, where you can sign up for repos and get an open issue sent to your inbox. He talks about different ways first-timers can get started, and how small contributi...

You've heard of augmented reality, but you're not sure how to get started. Molmol and Zach, the wife and husband coding team, give us a solid intro to AR and how they've built powerful experiences and beautiful stories using AR tools. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) ARKit SceneKit Swift Recording audio in space (Zach's project) Codeland Early Bird Tickets Codeland Conf Code...

Working with CSS can be frustrating, and sometimes just plain painful. But if you listen to Jen Simmons talk about CSS, her passion for it might rub off on you. She gives tips on how to make your next CSS adventure more enjoyable, explains how the CSS working group determines new features, and shares the honest ups and downs of her own coding journey. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie!...

You put on a headset in a real life beauty salon in real life, and, in seconds, you’re transported to a virtual one. It’s full of colors, shapes, music, and the soothing voice of a narrator. She explains that you’re in a different world now, and you’re about to contribute to the “synaptic lineage.” The setting is intriguing and futuristic, the story is unique, and every detail so carefully laid ou...

This is the last week to submit a talk to Codeland, our annual tech conference, so we wanted to give you some insight on what makes a good talk, a good speaker, and a good proposal. You'll hear from Lara Hogan, who literally wrote the book on public speaking, and Kelsey Hightower, speaker and chair of many tech conferences. They share their personal speaking stories (and nightmares!), how they pre...

Applying to your first technical role (or your second!) can be a long and intimidating process, especially when you're not sure how to stand out. What do tech companies really care about? What should you put on your resume? What should you leave out? We talk to in-house recruiter, Eddie Washington, to give you the scoop on how companies evaluate your application and what you can do to increase you...

You use the browser all the time, but how much do you really know about it? Lin Clark walks us through all the steps a browser takes to translate your html into pixels on the screen. She also makes these wonderful coding cartoons. She shares her techniques and her process, and how you can apply them to your next technical blog post. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Code Cart...

Alicia Carr grew up surrounded by domestic violence. So when she learned about coding, she decided to build a mobile app to help women escape domestic abuse. Her app, Pevo, got the attention of Apple, who featured her in their WWDC promo video. She shares the technical challenges of building this app, the personal challenge of learning to believe in herself, and how she learned the skills to bring...

Web animation can be creative and fun, but what does it have to do with building a website? How do you use it in a form or a basic landing page in a way that's actually helpful and not just cute? Rachel Nabors helps us understand what web animation looks like and how to use it to create powerful user experiences. She also shares her own inspiring journey of going from cartoonist to coder. Show Lin...

You've got an amazing website. It's beautiful, functional, but it takes forever to load. What do you do? Where do you even begin to debug that? Lara Hogan, VP of Engineering at Kickstarter and author of the book, Designing for Performance, breaks down common web performance issues, tools you can use to diagnose the problem, and how to use AB testing to measure your results. We also have another ep...

Technical interviews are the worst. They’re hard, they’re scary, and they often feel like they’re designed to make you feel stupid. But no worries! We’re here to help. We take a behind-the-scenes look at the interview process at two very prestigious companies, Etsy and the New York Times. Developers La Vesha Parker and Tiffany Peon break down each part of the interview process, giving you examples...

Kim’s a designer and developer who’s always had a side project. But her latest project was a bit different. Not only did she have to learn a new framework (React), she had to learn it and build her app in a few weeks to make her very public deadline. She shares her process for learning a new javascript framework, and the frustrations she experienced even as a seasoned developer. We also hear from...

Wes Bos is pretty popular in the JavaScript and learn-to-code community. He produces tons of tutorials, blog posts, videos, many of them free, for people to learn and grown as developers. He takes us behind-the-scenes, sharing how he learns, how he works, and how he slowly, eventually got over his hatred for JavaScript to become a beloved JavaScript teacher. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeN...

Vaidehi decided to take on a year-long challenge. She'd pick a computer science topic every week, do tons of research and write a technical blog post explaining it in simple terms and beautiful illustrations. And then she actually did it. She tells us about her project, basecs, how it's changed her as a developer, and how she handles the trolls and negativity from people who don't appreciate her w...

Rec Room is the most popular virtual reality game. It's a social space where you can play dodgeball, ping pong, darts and more with people from all over the world. But when you're inviting everyone to play, how do you make sure that everyone is safe? What happens when a player attacks someone? What does an attack even look like in a virtual world? Cameron Brown, Chief Creative Officer at Against G...

We kick off the first episode of our official first season with Stephanie Slattery, a front-end engineer who specializes in accessibility. She breaks down the world of accessibility, giving you the perfect introduction to this topic. She explains the five categories of disabilities, shows us how to implement suggestions from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and shares why she’s so passion...

In our final episode of our Codeland mini-series, Katrina Owen shares what it really takes to get that mentor you've always wanted, Quincy Larson gives us his best practices for writing technical blog posts people will actually read, and Nell Shamrell-Harrington explores what it really takes for an open source project to be successful and what you should know as a future contributor. Show Links Pa...