Tools & Platforms

The Odin Project is a comprehensive, open-source curriculum designed to teach aspiring web developers the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the industry. It covers everything from HTML and CSS to JavaScript and Ruby on Rails, and it’s completely free to use.  The Odin Project takes between two weeks and ten months to complete the Foundation portion of the curriculum. Others have finished the entirety of The Odin Project in under seven months while others have taken several years. However, the time it takes will vary depending on your prior experience, how many hours a day you can … Read more

Pluralsight is a learning platform that provides a range of courses for individuals who want to learn new technical skills or improve their existing ones. Pluralsight is good for beginners who are looking for a flexible and affordable way to learn skills that can propel them into the tech industry.  There is a bunch of information online for beginners looking to get into software development and picking the best resource is difficult. With 7000+ courses there is enough content for people to go from beginner to advanced on Pluralsight. The 1 million+ individual users are great social proof that Pluralsight … Read more

A lot of software engineers believe Linux is better for programming and 47% of them use it for professional software development. It seems like most people who are interested in coding and computers, even on a general level, favor Linux over other operating systems. There are quite a few reasons that most people who enjoy programming prefer to use Linux. The major one is that this system supports almost all major programming languages, including Ruby, Java, Perl, Python, C, and C++. The package manager is also ideal for getting things done. 32.8 million people choose the Linux operating system for … Read more

Companies tend to lease, sell, repurpose or recycle old laptops and electrical products. We generate 48,000 tons of electrical waste a minute so making sure businesses correctly handle old laptops and computers is essential. The technology revolution has improved millions of people’s lives and spawned industries that wouldn’t have been viable without it. However, everything comes at a cost. Breaking down old laptops and computers, or even repurposing them is difficult. It means that correctly disposing of electronics can be difficult. Thankfully, old laptops and computers can still be useful to companies and they tend to treat the electronic device … Read more

After a software vulnerability was found in code blocks in April 2020 developers have begun asking if Code::Blocks is safe. Having a piece of software with security flaws on your computer can be a recipe for disaster if it is exploited. Despite the announcement of the vulnerability Code Blocks is considered safe but you need to download it from reputable sources. Like any application you must use official sources to acquire the software, otherwise, you could be left open to attack. Let’s take a look at what Code Blocks does and discuss whether the application is safe for software engineers … Read more

You should use Bootstrap instead of pure CSS if you are looking to create projects quickly, keep consistency across a large team, use a modern approach to CSS, and want JavaScript out of the box. Bootstrap powers 27.4% of websites used today and has some fantastic benefits.  It is worth clarifying that we are not going to discuss learning Bootstrap instead of CSS. As a new developer, you should always start with the fundamentals and then work your way to frameworks and libraries. Getting to grips with how the language works under the hood will pay dividends in the long … Read more

Understanding where Joomla stores articles are vitally important if you are a developer and looking to work on the platform. Each content management system stores its data in slightly different ways. It makes switching between the different platforms difficult, especially if you are a developer and need to implement a new feature. Joomla is one of the most well-known platforms in the content management space. It has a 2.8% market share, sitting just behind WordPress and Shopify, and is used by millions of websites. Getting to grips with how things work under the hood will have big benefits if you … Read more

Wix designers have been able to charge more and more due to the growth in popularity of the platform. Wix now has a 1.8% share of the content management system market but just five years ago it only had 0.4% of the market. The 350% increase has brought with it over 200 million users and has allowed Wix designers to increase their prices.  Wix designers usually charge anywhere from $400 to $3000+ for a website depending on the size and complexity. For smaller tasks that require an hourly rate Wix designers usually charge between $25 and $100. The enormous range … Read more

HackerRank is one the most popular technical assessment tools available today. Companies like Dropbox, Lyft, TransferWise, and 2000+ other companies conduct the technical stages of their interviews on HackerRank. While more than 15 million developers use it to hone their coding skills and participate in competitive programming. HackerRank is good for developers because it allows them to practice the questions they’ll face in a technical interview. It also means they can practice on the the same interface they’ll be using. The coding challenge platform is also good for employers. It provides a one-stop shop for assessing a candidate’s technical skills … Read more

Coding challenges have become all the rage during developer interviews and have made sites like HackerRank extremely useful.  Companies are using coding tasks as a way to screen out potential applicants who don’t meet their standards. They are a pretty controversial topic in the programming community because these challenges rarely transfer over into relevant developer skills.  Overall, HackerRank is extremely useful for job applicants because it prepares you for the type of questions you will be asked during the technical stages of your interview. Most employers now use platforms like HackerRank to narrow down their candidate list so it allows … Read more

WordPress is a fantastic option for anyone looking to build their online presence.  Around 36% of all websites online use a website as a content management system (CMS) making it the most popular choice in the world. WordPress sites around the world welcome millions of users every single day. The platform’s ability to scale has been doubted in the past and some have questioned the number of posts a WordPress site can handle.  There is no hard limit on the number of users a WordPress site can handle. WordPress dominates 65% of the CMS market share and for good reason. … Read more

Wix is used by more than 4.5 million websites, so it’s easy to see why people are starting to wonder whether it will replace web developers altogether.  The platform is one of the most popular drag-and-drop website builders on the market and is used across the globe. It allows people with zero coding ability to quickly and easily put together simple websites. However, Wix is unlikely to replace web developers because of the platform’s various limitations. It is used to run 1.7% of all websites online but can’t provide the level of customization and number of features required by most … Read more

Tools like Webflow have reportedly been set to replace web developers for decades. Each iteration of a successful website builder is always pipped to put web developers out of business.  The no-code movement is in its infancy at the moment but getting a lot of traction with entrepreneurs looking to bring their ideas to life without the technical know-how. Webflow is one of many platforms that helps people build customized websites using a what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) visual editor.  But will Webflow replace web developers? Webflow is used by 0.4% of all websites online but won’t … Read more

GitHub is the largest and most popular version control platform on the planet. It has more than 40 million users and over 190 million repositories.  GitHub is safe to use but was built for collaboration, not security. So, you must actively take steps to keep safe on GitHub and avoid dangerous code. You can make a repo private to avoid prying eyes but this is only one side of the equation.  Version control is one of the many skills you need as a developer and using GitHub forms an enormous part of that.  Let’s take a look at how safe … Read more

Nearly 40% of websites are built using WordPress. The content management system is the most widely used in the world.  But is there a restriction on the number of posts WordPress can handle? WordPress can handle as many posts as you need. There is no limit to the number of posts you can have on a WordPress site. TechCrunch has 100,000+ posts and still runs smoothly.  Growing a large site can be difficult and it is good to understand the pitfalls you can face when you have a lot of pages on your WordPress site. Let’s take a look at … Read more

WordPress accounts for an incredible 37% of all sites online. The platform is enormous, but are there some restrictions to the number of pages you can have? There is no hard limit on the number of pages a WordPress site can handle. WordPress’ code does not set a limit on the page count and sites like BBC America have more than 45,000 pages. So, you can have as many as you want.  However, if you are going to create a large website, it’s worth understanding the implications of having large numbers of WordPress pages.  We’ve taken a look at what … Read more