The first full version of Stardown has been released! Stardown is a free browser extension I created for copying markdown links for websites. One click on its icon copies a markdown link for the current page. A double-click copies markdown links for all tabs. Right-clicking a website gives you a markdown link for where you right-clicked. Although I have tons of bookmarks, I save even more website links into markdown files in Obsidian and notes about software I’m working on....

Creating browser extensions is easier than I expected, but still has some challenging parts. A great way to start learning how to make extensions is the Chrome dev docs. Creating your first extension requires a lot of trial and error. It gets easier as you learn how extensions work and how to use the browser APIs. On sites like Stack Overflow, many discussions have answers that make assumptions, such as that you’re creating a content script and so have access to the document variable (which is not accessible in background scripts)....

Docker is a tool that makes running software easier by creating a container, which is like a little virtual computer with a more predictable configuration than most computers. Containers are very portable, by which I mean they can be created in and run in any operating system that can run Docker. For example, a container could run Linux within it, and the container itself could run on Mac, Windows, and Linux....

I see a lot of confusion about value types and references types. Although I’m not sure how common this perspective is, here’s how I think of it. First of all, value types have value semantics and reference types have reference semantics. The semantics of a type is the behavior of variables of that type. Let’s say there are two variables, a and b, that have already been created and have the same type....

Online accounts can be lost without warning, but making that loss less painful is easy. Full disclosure, there is one referral link marked with an asterisk (*) below that gives me account credit and gives a discount to anyone who signs up for a paid service with it. How much do you depend on the services of big tech companies like Google, Apple, or Microsoft? If one of your accounts was suddenly stolen or an algorithm decided to lock it, how devastating would that be?...

There’s always room for improvements worth their time to make. Over years of extensively using computers, there are some tricks I’ve found that I don’t see others use as often as I expect. I’m not affiliated with any of the services, products, or companies mentioned here. learn about tech gradually and bravely Everyone becomes overwhelmed or frustrated by technology sometimes. People good with tech tend to: return to difficult challenges to try again after some rest reduce how often they become frustrated by spreading out challenges over time take notes to make it easier to continue where they left off after breaks not be afraid to guess and try things ask others for help If this page gets overwhelming, maybe bookmark it, close it, and read another section later....

Privacy is not about whether you have something to hide. It’s about whether bad people can do bad things to you, because security is impossible without privacy. If others can look over your shoulder any time, they can see all your passwords. If you couldn’t hide the key to your home in a pocket or purse, others could copy the key. If the walls of your home were glass, anyone could see your home defenses, where you keep valuables, when you’re sleeping or away, and how to disarm or unlock any alarm systems, safes, etc....

There are many ways you can share Go code and applications. Here are a few. publishing to the Go package index (pkg.go.dev) This allows anyone with Go installed to download your package with go get or go install. go get is for getting code, and go install is for installing executables. More details on those commands are in the Go docs and this Stack Overflow discussion. Here are the official docs on publishing to pkg....

Here’s why some languages are impressive to me. The languages are sorted alphabetically. C C is the oldest widely used language, and almost all of today’s widely used languages were heavily influenced by C (at least indirectly). It tends to have the fastest execution speed of all high-level languages and has relatively few features which makes it quick to learn. C is used in spaceships and space exploration rovers, among many other cases....

Don’t spend too much time choosing your first programming language. It can be a difficult choice to make, so here are some notes on what several languages are good for. If you will soon start a course, bootcamp, etc. that might choose a language for you, figure out which one and start learning ahead. It can be good to focus on just one language for a while when you’re learning your first language....