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  1. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:13:51 +0530

    Regex (Regular Expressions) is like a super-powered search function with pattern recognition. Think of it as upgrading from "find this exact word" to "find anything that matches this flexible pattern." It's your Swiss Army knife for text manipulation.
    Core Concepts: Building Blocks
    Literal Characters
    The simplest regex - exactly what you type.
    # Find "cat" in text grep "cat" file.txt Metacharacters: The Special Operators
    These characters have superpowers - they don't match themselves but control pattern behavior.
    # These are metacharacters: . ^ $ * + ? { } [ ] \ | ( ) Essential Regex Symbols Reference
    Symbol Meaning Example Matches . Any single character c.t cat, cut, c@t ^ Start of line ^Hello Lines starting with "Hello" $ End of line bye$ Lines ending with "bye" * Zero or more of preceding ca*t ct, cat, caat, caaat + One or more of preceding ca+t cat, caat, caaat ? Zero or one of preceding colou?r color, colour {n} Exactly n occurrences a{3} aaa {n,} n or more occurrences a{3,} aaa, aaaa, aaaaa {n,m} Between n and m occurrences a{2,4} aa, aaa, aaaa [abc] Any character in brackets [aeiou] Any vowel [^abc] Any character NOT in brackets [^0-9] Any non-digit [a-z] Character range [a-zA-Z] Any letter \ Escape special characters \. Literal dot | OR operator cat|dog cat or dog () Grouping (cat)+ cat, catcat, catcatcat Character Classes: Pre-Built Shortcuts
    Shorthand Equivalent Meaning \d [0-9] Any digit \D [^0-9] Any non-digit \w [a-zA-Z0-9_] Word character \W [^a-zA-Z0-9_] Non-word character \s [ \t\n\r\f] Whitespace \S [^ \t\n\r\f] Non-whitespace Practical examples to practice regex knowledge
    Here are some examples of regex in action. I am using grep command for pattern matching. You can also use sed or awk or even a programming language like Python.
    1. Basic email validation
    This is the content of emails.txt that contains some invalid email formats too.
    john.doe@example.com invalid-email mary@company.co.uk test@test admin@server.local not_an_email.com jane+newsletter@gmail.com The goal is to only match the valid email addresses. Focus on the regex pattern inside quotes.
    grep -E "^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$" emails.txt Email construction is like building blocks: ^ starts from line beginning, [a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+ matches username with one or more occurence of letters/numbers/and symbols, @ is literal @, [a-zA-Z0-9.-]+ matches domain name with any occurences of letters/numbers, \. matches literal dot, [a-zA-Z]{2,} matches extension (2+ letters), $ ensures line ends here.
    This will be the output of the command:
    john.doe@example.com mary@company.co.uk admin@server.local jane+newsletter@gmail.com 2. Phone number extraction
    This is the content of contacts.txt that contains some invalid phone number formats too. The correct format is to have 3 digits for area code, 3 for exchange and 4 for number. This is typical US style of phone number, and they often have phone numbers displayed with separators, too.
    John Smith: (555) 123-4567 Call me at 555.987.6543 Phone: 555-555-5555 Invalid: 55-555-5555 Emergency: (911) 911-9111 Contact: 5551234567 Here's the regex that filters only the correct phone numbers. The -o ensures that regex only returns the matching part from the line.
    grep -oE "\(?\d{3}\)?[-.\s]?\d{3}[-.\s]?\d{4}" contacts.txt Phone patterns as flexible templates: \(? = optional opening parenthesis, \d{3} = exactly 3 digits (area code), \)? = optional closing parenthesis, [-.\s]? = optional separator (dash/dot/space), \d{3} = 3 digits (exchange), another optional separator, \d{4} = 4 digits (number).
    This will be the output of the command.
    (555) 123-4567 555.987.6543 555-555-5555 (911) 911-9111 Did you notice the impact of -o option of grep? The putput doesn't contain the entire matching lines, only the part that matches the
    3. Extract IP address
    This is our log.txt file that contains some IP addresses.
    2024-01-15 10:30:22 192.168.1.100 GET /index.html 2024-01-15 10:31:45 10.0.0.55 POST /api/login Invalid IP: 999.999.999.999 2024-01-15 10:32:10 172.16.254.1 GET /dashboard Not an IP: 192.168.1 2024-01-15 10:33:33 8.8.8.8 DNS lookup This is the regex that will extract the matching pattern:
    grep -oE "([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}" log.txt IP addresses follow dot-separated quartets: ([0-9]{1,3}\.) captures 1-3 digits followed by literal dot, {3} repeats this pattern 3 times, [0-9]{1,3} matches final 1-3 digits. Like building "123.456.789.012" format.
    192.168.1.100 10.0.0.55 999.999.999.999 172.16.254.1 8.8.8.8 Yes, I know that 999.999.999.999 is not a valid IP address but the idea here was to match numbers in the pattern and extract them.
    4. Password strength checker
    Here's a sample file with random passwords of varying length.
    Password123 weakpass STRONGPASSWORD Strong123Pass 12345678 Abcd1234 short1A VeryLongButNoNumbers This is the regex that you can use with grep:
    grep -E "^(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*\d).{8,}$" passwords.txt Lookaheads act like security checkpoints: ^ starts line, (?=.*[a-z]) = "somewhere ahead find lowercase", (?=.*[A-Z]) = "somewhere ahead find uppercase", (?=.*\d) = "somewhere ahead find digit", .{8,} = match 8+ characters, $ ends line. All conditions must pass.
    Run it and you should see an output like this:
    Password123 Strong123Pass Abcd1234 5. URL extraction
    Here's a sample HTML code and we are going to extract the URLs from it.
    <html> <body> Visit https://example.com for more info. Check out http://blog.company.net/articles Invalid: ftp://files.server.com Also see https://secure.payment.org/checkout?id=123 Email: mailto:contact@site.com </body> </html> This is the regex you could use. Again, mind the use of -o to extract only the matching part of the lines.
    grep -oE "https?://[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]*" webpage.html URL patterns mimic web addresses: https? = "http" with optional "s" (s? means zero or one occurence of s), :// = literal protocol separator, [a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]* = any web-safe characters (domains, paths, parameters). Like grabbing complete web links.
    https://example.com http://blog.company.net/articles https://secure.payment.org/checkout?id=123 6. Extracting date formats
    From the various kinds of date formats listed here:
    Meeting on 12/25/2024 Invalid: 13/45/2024 Project due: 01/15/2025 Bad format: 1/1/24 Conference: 03/30/2024 ISO format: 2024-12-25 Another ISO: 2025-01-15 Wrong: 24-12-2024 Let's extract the ones in MM/DD/YYYY format:
    grep -oE "(0[1-9]|1[0-2])/(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])/[0-9]{4}" dates.txt Date validation uses logical ranges: (0[1-9]|1[0-2]) = months 01-09 OR 10-12, / = literal slash, (0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]) = days 01 to 09 OR 10 to 29 OR 30 to 31, / again, [0-9]{4} = exactly 4-digit year. Like checking calendar validity.
    12/25/2024 01/15/2025 03/30/2024 7. Match and extract credit card numbers
    Sample transaction.txt file with dummy credit card numbers:
    Payment: 4532-1234-5678-9012 Card: 4532 1234 5678 9012 Compact: 4532123456789012 Invalid: 1234-5678-9012 Another: 5555-4444-3333-2222 Short: 1234567890123 We will only extract the credit card numbers:
    grep -oE "[0-9]{4}[-\s]?[0-9]{4}[-\s]?[0-9]{4}[-\s]?[0-9]{4}" transactions.txt Credit cards (usually) follow 4-4-4-4 digit blocks: [0-9]{4} = exactly 4 digits, [-\s]? = optional dash or space, repeated 4 times.
    4532-1234-5678-9012 4532 1234 5678 9012 4532123456789012 5555-4444-3333-2222 Now don't show me an American Express card ;)
    8. HTML tag removal
    Here's a sample HTML code:
    <div class="content"> <h1>Welcome to Our Site</h1> <p>This is a <strong>sample</strong> paragraph.</p> <a href="https://example.com">Click here</a> </div> And we remove all the tags in brackets:
    sed 's/<[^>]*>//g' webpage.html HTML tag elimination uses bracket matching: < = literal opening bracket, [^>]* = any characters EXCEPT closing bracket (zero or more), > = literal closing bracket. Like scissors cutting out everything between angle brackets.
    Welcome to Our Site This is a sample paragraph. Click here Bonus tips: Mind these for writing better regex
    It is always easy to write a regex that may seem to match your pattern but also end up matching a lot more. I cannot cover all such situations, but here are a few common mistakes you should avoid.
    1. Forgetting to escape
    # Wrong: will match any character instead of literal dot grep "192.168.1.1" file.txt # Correct: escape the dots grep "192\.168\.1\.1" file.txt 2. Greedy vs non-greedy
    # Greedy problem with HTML echo "<b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i>" | grep -oE "<.*>" # Returns: <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i> # Better approach echo "<b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i>" | grep -oE "<[^>]*>" 3. Case sensitivity
    This is more of a grep feature.
    # May miss uppercase variants grep "email" contacts.txt # Better: case insensitive grep -i "email" contacts.txt 4. Anchor your patterns
    No need to search entire files if your pattern is at the beginning.
    # Slow: searches entire line grep "pattern" hugefile.txt # Fast: anchored search grep "^pattern" hugefile.txt # If pattern is at start 5. Use character classes efficiently
    # Slower grep -E "[0123456789]" file.txt # Faster grep -E "[0-9]" file.txt # or grep -E "\d" file.txt 6. Testing your regex quickly
    The easiest way to test your regex is to feed it the extact match you are looking for. Once it matches that, you can try feeding it patterns that it should not match.
    Basically, just echo the pattern to grep.
    # Quick test with echo echo "test string" | grep -E "your_pattern" You can also use some online regex validator if you want.
    Final thoughts
    To be quite honest, it is never easy to learn or master regex, especially if you don't use it every day. Still, knowing (most of) the metacharacters helps a great deal.
    There is a famous joke in the community:
    "The number of times I used regex is equal to the number of times I had to learn regex"
    Also remember that a readable regex beats clever regex. Future you will thank present you for clear, documented patterns!
  2. by: Daniel Schwarz
    Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:36:48 +0000

    Chrome 139 is experimenting with Open UI’s proposed Interest Invoker API, which would be used to create tooltips, hover menus, hover cards, quick actions, and other types of UIs for showing more information with hover interactions. The Interest Invoker API makes these components declarative and hover-triggered, meaning that you create them with HTML, and then the web browser handles the mouseenter and mouseleave events for you, sans JavaScript.
    You’d use it like this:
    <a interestfor="target-id">Interest trigger</a> <div id="target-id" popover>Interest target</div> CodePen Embed Fallback It’s not stated anywhere that they must be declared as popovers, but they do bake the right accessibility hints in.
    I want to spend a little time looking at the pieces of this feature, how they‘re used as currently proposed, and offer a few thoughts based on my experience playing with them.
    Ready to dive in?
    The interest trigger
    The trigger is what the user will hover (or long-press on touchscreen devices) to reveal the interest target. I’d call it an “invoker,” but to avoid confusing it with the Invoker Commands API (which is kind of similar), I’ll stick with “trigger” or “interest trigger” for now.
    The interest trigger can be:
    a link (<a>), a button (<button>), or an image map area (<area>). And it should have the interestfor attribute whose value should reference the id of the interest target. Here are examples for each supported element:
    <!-- Link --> <a interestfor="link">Interest trigger</a> <div id="link" popover>Interest target</div> <!-- Button --> <button interestfor="button">Interest trigger</button> <div id="button" popover>Interest target</div> <!-- Image map --> <img src="" alt="" usemap="#map"> <map name="map"> <area interestfor="area" shape="" coords="" alt=""> </map> <div id="area" popover>Interest target</div> If the interest target is a popover (like it is in the examples above), then the interestfor attribute replaces the popovertarget attribute that’s normally required for declarative popovers. So, instead of this:
    <!-- Button --> <button popovertarget="button">Interest trigger</button> <div id="button" popover>Interest target</div> …we’re looking at this:
    <!-- Button --> <button interestfor="button">Interest trigger</button> <div id="button" popover>Interest target</div> The interest target
    The interest target is what’s revealed when the user hovers (or long-presses) the interest trigger. Again, this should be a popover, and it’s important to use the right type of popover because they have different functional and accessibility behaviors.
    popover attributes that are valueless, empty, or use the auto keyword can be dismissed lightly, i.e., using the esc key, or by clicking outside of the popover. When opened, these popovers close all hint and other auto popovers (at least, the ones that aren’t nested).
    <div id="target-id" popover>Interest target</div> <!-- Equivalent to --> <div id="target-id" popover="">Interest target</div> <!-- Equivalent to --> <div id="target-id" popover="auto">Interest target</div> hint popovers (the newest type of popovers) can also be dismissed lightly, but only close other hint popovers when opened:
    <div id="target-id" popover="hint">Interest target</div> manual popovers do their own thing. They can’t be dismissed lightly, don’t tell other popovers what to do, and we can have more than one of them open at a time. They’re suuuper chill.
    <div id="target-id" popover="manual">Interest target</div> However, Open UI’s explainer and Chrome’s current implementation suggest that interest targets disappear on mouseleave regardless of the type of popover we’re working with. But redefining popover behavior in this context (or any context) feels wrong to me. If the interest target’s popover attribute is set to manual, for example, shouldn’t it persist after mouseleave?
    Open UI discusses browsers baking the accessibility in depending on the popover type, which justifies interest invokers building off of popovers, but I think accessibility should depend on the content (unless overwritten using ARIA attributes) rather than the popover type.
    In short, it seems like interest invokers are designed to be used with popovers but for all the wrong reasons (in my opinion anyway). That said, it’s early days still. Interest invokers are very experimental and it’s certainly possible that I’m overlooking something.
    They’re otherwise straightforward, which is on-brand for Open UI (look at the Customizable Select, after all). They take commonly-used JavaScript-powered components (such as exclusive accordions, invoker commands, and yes, popovers) and make them possible with declarative HTML.
    That said, there are some JavaScript events that we can use, too. Let’s take a look at those.
    Interest invoker JavaScript events
    While I imagine that you’d only need to listen for the interest and loseinterestevents for certain edge cases, JavaScript events for these new declarative HTML features are fairly standard, and they’re there should you need them:
    interestTrigger.addEventListener("interest", () => { /* User showed interest */ }); interestTrigger.addEventListener("loseinterest", () => { /* User lost interest */ }); But what does “interest” mean, exactly? That’s worth digging into next.
    Interest delay (and the CSS of it all)
    You’ve probably noticed that when you show or lose interest, there’s a short delay in the popover showing or hiding itself. This is extremely annoying at first, but when you actually start to build with interest invokers, you realize how necessary it is.
    Here’s the demo again, so you can try it out (in Chrome 139 or Canary for now):
    CodePen Embed Fallback One problem is that if you accidentally mouseleave the interest trigger and the target (which can be very easy to do when the target is too small), then it all disappears. This is even more annoying, but luckily the hide delay allows you some recovery time. Similarly, the show delay offers keyboard and screen reader users the opportunity to skip the interest target, while also preventing it from being triggered accidentally with a mouse pointer.
    Having said that, if the interest target is unobtrusive, then removing the show delay shouldn’t cause any harm. You could also remove the hide delay for keyboard and screen reader users, who aren’t likely to “lose interest” accidentally. We can do this by setting two new CSS properties, interest-show-delay and interest-hide-delay, to 0. The default is 0.5s and is set on the interest trigger (but not the interest target):
    /* If unobtrusive */ .unobtrusive[interestfor] { interest-show-delay: 0; } /* If keyboard-focused on a trigger */ [interestfor]:focus-visible { interest-hide-delay: 0; } /* If keyboard-focused within a target of interest, or target of partial interest (these are always keyboard-triggered), the interest trigger that currently has interest or partial interest has the hide delay removed */ body:has(:target-of-interest :focus-visible, :target-of-partial-interest) [interestfor]:where(:has-interest, :has-partial-interest) { interest-hide-delay: 0; } Note: Interest delays are currently buggy, especially with unitless values. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
    About those pseudo-selectors, though…
    Basically, when navigating to an interest trigger using a keyboard or screen reader whose target contains more focusable elements, this is referred to as showing “partial” interest. (I would’ve gone with “potential interest” personally, but I digress.) When this happens, the interest target’s focusable elements actually aren’t focusable (making it easy to skip them, if needed) unless the user hits the option+up/alt+up keyboard shortcut or equivalent screen reader hotkey.
    There’s even a message that we can customize by targeting :target-of-partial-interest::after:
    :target-of-partial-interest::after { content: "Press ⌥↑ to activate."; } CodePen Embed Fallback While you probably shouldn’t change the message content (since it displays the correct keyboard shortcut for the user’s device by default), we can style it by selecting this way.
    The user agent also throws this in:
    :target-of-partial-interest { interactivity: not-keyboard-focusable; } The not-keyboard-focusable value is new, and prevents the keyboard focus (like tabindex="-1" but for CSS, which is super interesting in its own right).
    A full breakdown because, frankly, that was a lot:
    :has-interest: Triggers with “mouse interest” :has-partial-interest: Triggers with “keyboard interest” :target-of-interest: Targets with mouse interest :target-of-partial-interest: Targets with keyboard interest :target-of-partial-interest::after: The message displayed when targets have keyboard interest interest-show-delay: The <time> before which the interest target appears interest-hide-delay: The <time> before which the interest target disappears interest-delay: Shorthand for interest-show-delay and interest-hide-delay It works with anchors, too
    Nothing really new here as far as what we’ve already discussed, but I find it cool that we can use anchor elements declaratively just like interest invokers:
    CodePen Embed Fallback Conclusion
    On the surface, interest invokers are simply hover-triggered popovers, but touchscreen devices have never handled hovering well. In addition, hovering is susceptible to human-error, and we certainly don’t want to force keyboards and screen readers to tab into a minefield of focusables. There’s a lot to consider, and Open UI have done a wonderful job of ensuring that user agents do the lion’s share of it.
    But there’s still more to consider. For example, how exactly would we open interest targets on touchscreen devices? Long-press + “View more info” from the context menu seems to be the best approach at the moment, but that’s a tough one!
    And, as we’ve discussed, there’s a lot for us to consider, too, such as those delay timings and how interest invokers should be styled. What should interest triggers and targets look like when they have interest? What about the hotkey instruction? We’re talking about some new concepts here, that might require new UX conventions.
    Honorable mention: We’re also getting interactivity: not-keyboard-focusable out of this, which could help us to build keyboard-friendlier components with CSS.
    There’s a lot to love here, and I just know that people are going to create incredible tooltips and hover cards and more with this.
    A First Look at the Interest Invoker API (for Hover-Triggered Popovers) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
  8. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Tue, 22 Jul 2025 07:05:00 GMT

    When it comes to grammar checking, Grammarly is the premium tool for it. It's a proprietary tool and it was among the first one to make a mark as a web-based Grammar checking tool.
    Then there is LanguageTool (partner link). This is the tool that we use here in our team. It is/was open source, made in Germany and offers hosted service for free or for a price (you get additional features). LanguageTool was acquired a couple of years back and since then it's privacy policy has changed as it processes data on US servers, instead of European ones.
    Recently, I came across a new grammar checker tool, Harper, and I am sharing my experience and my views on this new open source tool.
    Meet Harper, a local first open source grammar checker
    Harper is a new project coming from Automattic developer, Elijah Potter. Automattic is the company behind WordPress, world's most popular Content Management System (CMS).
    The idea is to have a local first tool that doesn't depend on the cloud for any processing or stores away the data. That's a W right there.
    Harper is currently available as browser extension and plugin for Obsidian and VS Code. It is a new project and I hope they release more extensions, specially for LibreOffice, in the future.
    Try HarperI tried the Firefox add-on and tested it while writing this review itself.
    Features that I like
    Now, Firefox already has a built-in spell checker and I believe Chrome and other browsers may also have it. So, do we need a third-party browser extension for this purpose? The short answer is yes.
    The built-in spell checker in Firefox is limited. It will underline even when you use a brand name. It is essentially a spell checker and hence it just checks for spelling mistakes. It won't warn you if you use "the the" two times in row. It won't warn you even if you write 'an pineapple'.
    Harper is definitely msarter than the default spellchecker of your web browserHarper does these things and it does that without interacting with a central server. Everything is processed locally.
    Here's what Harper is capable of:
    Spell checking (obvious) Spotting repetition (example, double the the) Spotting multiple simultaneous spaces in a sentence Save words to dictionary (excellent) Correcting the use of a/an Common misused words like "despite of" which should be "in spite of" or "despite" or "its/it's" Styling issue with comma usage Another interesting feature is that Harper uses different colors for different type of mistakes. This way it is easier to visualize the mistakes and their types.
    The option to add strangely spelled words into the local dictionary is an excellent feature.
    Save special words in your local dictionaryYou can access this local dictionary by accessing the extension settings.
    And this is where you'll see various settings that you can change. You can even bring your custom dictionary as long as the words are in their own line.
    You can also choose between American, British, Canadian, and Australian English dialect.
    Harper extension settings📋As you can see, it seems Harper only supports English language at the time of writing this article.There are also a huge list of rules that detects errors like "along time" and suggest "a long time" as the alternative. The list is huge and that's why there is the option to search for a rule.
    There is no option to add your own rules though.
    Fast but how fast, rally?
    Harper claims to be faster than both Grammarly and LanguageTool. I don't have data to prove it. But I cal show you this video in which I show how quickly Harper gets into action as I type.
    0:00 /0:28 1× Since the processing is local, the suggestions are pretty fast actually.
    Harper is not perfect, of course
    For example, here I deliberately mistyped "video in" as "videoin" and Harper didn't suggest it as one of the possible correct options.
    And I think it limits itself to suggest maximum three suggestions or the most it can fit in a line.
    Harper offers limited suggestionsAnother thing is that Harper is not as intelligent as I would want it to be. I am an excellent tester for grammar tools. I make so many mistakes and on so many levels that even the best grammar checkers throw in the towel.
    That's why I tested Harper against LanguageTool with a sentence with multiple grammatical issues.
    Harper was primarily so focused on the spelling of Wikimedia and Cloudflare that it forgot to point out other grammatical mistakes.
    The weird thing is that both Cloudflare and Wikimedia were correctly spelled. Usually, Harper is good at recognizing brand names, except in this case where it made two false positives in a single sentence.
    On the other hand, LanguageTool did indicate that there are some grammatical mistakes worth looking for.
    Neither could correct the sentence entirely, as the correct sentence I was aiming for was:
    Yeah! I know. No AI can guess what goes in my mind when I make these typos. It takes real intelligence to deal with such stupidity 😜
    At least in Ghost, the CMS I use to publish content on It's FOSS, sometime the suggestions tooltip wouldn't close until I start typing something. It's minor but annoying.
    Conclusion
    Both Grammarly and LanguageTool have evolved to writing assistant with AI features.
    But here's the thing. Sometime simplicity is the best feature you look for. Not everyone is a professional writer looking for additional features to improve their work.
    For a casual user, a no-fluff, simple grammar checker is more than sufficient to save them from embarrassing typos and grammatical mistakes in their emails.
    And Harper is an excellent choice at that. It is definitely better than your browser's built-in spell checker, it is an open source software and it processes your data locally.
    If you are not dependent on a more professional tool like LanguageTool or Grammarly, you should definitely 'upgrade' to Harper.
  9. by: Chris Coyier
    Mon, 21 Jul 2025 17:54:20 +0000

    Our very own Stephen Shaw was on an episode of Web Dev Challenge on CodeTV: Build the Future of AI-Native UX in 4 Hours. I started watching this on my computer, but then moved to my living room couch to put it on the big screen. Because it deserves it! It honestly feels like “real” TV, as good as any episode of a home renovation show or the like. Only obviously better as it’s straight down the niche of web maker nerds like us.
    All three teams in the episode were building something that incorporated AI usage directly for the user. In all three cases, using the app started with a user typing in what they wanted into a textbox. That’s what the input for LLMs thrives on. I’m sure in all three cases it was also augmented with additional prompting and whatnot, invisible to the user, but ultimately, you ask something in your own words.
    LLMs were interacted with via API and the teams then dealt with the responses they got back. We didn’t get to see how they dealt with the responses much, but you get the sense that 1) they can be a bit slow so you have to account for that 2) they are non-deterministic so you need to be prepared for highly unknown responses.
    The episode was sponsored by Algolia, which provides search functionality at it’s core. Algolia’s APIs are, in stark contrast to the LLM APIs, 1) very fast 2) largely deterministic, meaning you essentially know and can control what you get back. I found this style of application development interesting: using two very different types of APIs, leaning into what each are good at doing. That’s not a new concept, I suppose, but it feels like a fresh new era of specifically this. It’s not AI everywhere all the time for everything! It’s more like use AI sparingly because it’s expensive and slow but extremely good at certain things.
    I admit I’m using AI more and more these days, but 95% just for coding help. I wouldn’t call it “vibe coding” because I’m very critical of what I get back and tend to work on a codebase where I already essentially know what I’m doing; I just want advice on doing things faster and help with all the rote work. What started as AI helping with line completion has expanded into much more general prompting and “agents” roaming a whole codebase, performing various tasks. I’m not sure when it flipped for me, but this whole agent approach to getting AI help is actually the most comfortable way working with AI and code for me now.
    I haven’t tried Claude Code yet, mostly because it’s command-line only (right??) and I just don’t live on the command line like that. So I’ve been mostly using Cursor. I tried Windsurf a while back and was impressed by that, but they are going through quite a bit of turmoil lately so I think I’ll stay away from that unless I hear it’s great again or whatever.
    The agentic tools that you use outside of your code editor itself kind of weird me out. I used Jules the other day for a decently rote task and it did a fine job for me, but was weird to be looking at diffs in a place I couldn’t manually edit them. It almost forces you to vibe code, asking for changes in text rather than making them yourself. There must be some market for this, as Cursor has them now, too.
    It really is the “simple but ughgkghkgh” tasks for me that AI excels at. Just the other day I was working on an update to this very CodePen blog/podcast/docs site which we have on WordPress. I had switched hosting companies lately, and with that came a loss in how I was doing cache-busting CSS. Basically I needed to edit the header.php file with a cache-busting ?v=xxx string where I <link>ed up the CSS, otherwise shipping updated CSS wouldn’t apply when I changed it. Blech. CodePen deployed sites will not have this problem. So, anyway, I needed a simple build process to do this. I was thinking Gulp, but I asked an AI agent to suggest something. It gave me a variety of decent options, including Gulp. So I picked Gulp and it happily added a build process to handle this. It required maybe 3-4 rounds of discussion to get it perfectly dialed in, but all in all, maybe a 10-minute job. I’d say that was easily a 2-3 hour job if I had to hand-code it all out, and much more if I hadn’t already done exactly this sort of thing many times in my career. I’m definitely starting to think that the more you know what you’re doing, the more value you get out of AI.
    While we’re at it, I’ll leave you with some AI-ish bookmarks I’ve had sitting around:
    humanify: “Deobfuscate Javascript code using ChatGPT” Derick Ruiz: LLMs.txt Explained (Basically dump your docs into one big .txt file for LLMs to slurp up on purpose. Weird/funny to me, but I get it. Seems like npm modules should start doing this.) Ryan Law also has What Is llms.txt, and Should You Care About It? Steve Klabnik: I am disappointed in the AI discourse. (If you’re going to argue about something, at least be informed.) Video: Transformers.js: State-of-the-art Machine Learning for the web. AI APIs baked into browsers will be a big deal. More privacy, no network round-trip, offline support, etc.

  12. A Primer on Focus Trapping

    · Blogger · 07/21/25 01:14 PM

    by: Zell Liew
    Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:14:17 +0000

    Focus trapping is a term that refers to managing focus within an element, such that focus always stays within it:
    If a user tries to tab out from the last element, we return focus to the first one. If the user tries to Shift + Tab out of the first element, we return focus back to the last one. This whole focus trap thing is used to create accessible modal dialogs since it’s a whole ‘nother trouble to inert everything else — but you don’t need it anymore if you’re building modals with the dialog API (assuming you do it right).
    Anyway, back to focus trapping.
    The whole process sounds simple in theory, but it can quite difficult to build in practice, mostly because of the numerous parts to you got to manage.
    Simple and easy focus trapping with Splendid Labz
    If you are not averse to using code built by others, you might want to consider this snippet with the code I’ve created in Splendid Labz.
    The basic idea is:
    We detect all focusable elements within an element. We manage focus with a keydown event listener. import { getFocusableElements, trapFocus } from '@splendidlabz/utils/dom' const dialog = document.querySelector('dialog') // Get all focusable content const focusables = getFocusableElements(node) // Traps focus within the dialog dialog.addEventListener('keydown', event => { trapFocus({ event, focusables }) }) The above code snippet makes focus trapping extremely easy.
    But, since you’re reading this, I’m sure you wanna know the details that go within each of these functions. Perhaps you wanna build your own, or learn what’s going on. Either way, both are cool — so let’s dive into it.
    Selecting all focusable elements
    I did research when I wrote about this some time ago. It seems like you could only focus an a handful of elements:
    a button input textarea select details iframe embed object summary dialog audio[controls] video[controls] [contenteditable] [tabindex] So, the first step in getFocusableElements is to search for all focusable elements within a container:
    export function getFocusableElements(container = document.body ) { return { get all () { const elements = Array.from( container.querySelectorAll( `a, button, input, textarea, select, details, iframe, embed, object, summary, dialog, audio[controls], video[controls], [contenteditable], [tabindex] `, ), ) } } } Next, we want to filter away elements that are disabled, hidden or set with display: none, since they cannot be focused on. We can do this with a simple filter function.
    export function getFocusableElements(container = document.body ) { return { get all () { // ... return elements.filter(el => { if (el.hasAttribute('disabled')) return false if (el.hasAttribute('hidden')) return false if (window.getComputedStyle(el).display === 'none') return false return true }) } } } Next, since we want to trap keyboard focus, it’s only natural to retrieve a list of keyboard-only focusable elements. We can do that easily too. We only need to remove all tabindex values that are less than 0.
    export function getFocusableElements(container = document.body ) { return { get all () { /* ... */ }, get keyboardOnly() { return this.all.filter(el => el.tabIndex > -1) } } } Now, remember that there are two things we need to do for focus trapping:
    If a user tries to tab out from the last element, we return focus to the first one. If the user tries to Shift + Tab out of the first element, we return focus back to the last one. This means we need to be able to find the first focusable item and the last focusable item. Luckily, we can add first and last getters to retrieve these elements easily inside getFocusableElements.
    In this case, since we’re dealing with keyboard elements, we can grab the first and last items from keyboardOnly:
    export function getFocusableElements(container = document.body ) { return { // ... get first() { return this.keyboardOnly[0] }, get last() { return this.keyboardOnly[0] }, } } We have everything we need — next is to implement the focus trapping functionality.
    How to trap focus
    First, we need to detect a keyboard event. We can do this easily with addEventListener:
    const container = document.querySelector('.some-element') container.addEventListener('keydown', event => {/* ... */}) We need to check if the user is:
    Pressing tab (without Shift) Pressing tab (with Shift) Splendid Labz has convenient functions to detect these as well:
    import { isTab, isShiftTab } from '@splendidlabz/utils/dom' // ... container.addEventListener('keydown', event => { if (isTab(event)) // Handle Tab if (isShiftTab(event)) // Handle Shift Tab /* ... */ }) Of course, in the spirit of learning, let’s figure out how to write the code from scratch:
    You can use event.key to detect whether the Tab key is being pressed. You can use event.shiftKey to detect if the Shift key is being pressed Combine these two, you will be able to write your own isTab and isShiftTab functions:
    export function isTab(event) { return !event.shiftKey && event.key === 'Tab' } export function isShiftTab(event) { return event.shiftKey && event.key === 'Tab' } Since we’re only handling the Tab key, we can use an early return statement to skip the handling of other keys.
    container.addEventListener('keydown', event => { if (event.key !== 'Tab') return if (isTab(event)) // Handle Tab if (isShiftTab(event)) // Handle Shift Tab /* ... */ }) We have almost everything we need now. The only thing is to know where the current focused element is at — so we can decide whether to trap focus or allow the default focus action to proceed.
    We can do this with document.activeElement.
    Going back to the steps:
    Shift focus if user Tab on the last item Shift focus if the user Shift + Tab on the first item Naturally, you can tell that we need to check whether document.activeElement is the first or last focusable item.
    container.addEventListener('keydown', event => { // ... const focusables = getFocusableElements(container) const first = focusables.first const last = focusables.last if (document.activeElement === last && isTab(event)) { // Shift focus to the first item } if (document.activeElement === first && isShiftTab(event)) { // Shift focus to the last item } }) The final step is to use focus to bring focus to the item.
    container.addEventListener('keydown', event => { // ... if (document.activeElement === last && isTab(event)) { first.focus() } if (document.activeElement === first && isShiftTab(event)) { last.focus() } }) That’s it! Pretty simple if you go through the sequence step-by-step, isn’t it?
    Final callout to Splendid Labz
    As I resolve myself to stop teaching (so much) and begin building applications, I find myself needing many common components, utilities, even styles.
    Since I have the capability to build things for myself, (plus the fact that I’m super particular when it comes to good DX), I’ve decided to gather these things I find or build into a couple of easy-to-use libraries.
    Just sharing these with you in hopes that they will help speed up your development workflow.
    Thanks for reading my shameless plug. All the best for whatever you decide to code!
    A Primer on Focus Trapping originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
  13. by: Umair Khurshid
    Mon, 21 Jul 2025 17:00:49 +0530

    Modern infrastructure operations depend on automation not only for efficiency, but also for repeatability. Among the many tasks automated in daily workflows, package management is one of the most frequent. For systems based on RPM package formats such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and older versions of Fedora, Ansible provides a native module that integrates directly with the yum package manager.
    While newer systems may rely on dnf under the hood, the yum module in Ansible remains fully functional due to backward compatibility. In practice, it continues to be the primary interface for managing packages on RPM-based systems through Ansible playbooks.
    Let's see some of the usual package management you can do with Yum module in Ainsible.
    RHCE Ansible EX294 Exam Preparation CourseLearn all the essentials of Ansible with this hands-on tutorial series. It is ideal for RHCE Ansible EX294 exam preparation.Linux HandbookAhmed AlkabaryInstalling and removing packages declaratively
    The most common use of the yum module is to ensure that specific packages are present or absent on a system. Unlike imperative shell tasks that install software unconditionally, Ansible modules operate declaratively. This means administrators specify the desired end state, and Ansible ensures that the system reflects that state.
    - name: Ensure Apache is installed ansible.builtin.yum: name: httpd state: present This task confirms that the httpd package is installed. If it is already present, no changes are made. If it is missing, it will be installed.
    Removing package, in our case the Apache package, is also straightforward:
    - name: Remove Apache if no longer required ansible.builtin.yum: name: httpd state: absent This is how you can install and remove a package cleanly and idempotentlyon the command line just by changing the value of the state parameter.
    Working with multiple packages
    Administrators frequently need to install or remove multiple packages in one task. The yum module accepts a list as the name argument:
    - name: Install common utilities ansible.builtin.yum: name: - git - wget - curl state: present This example ensures that Git, wget, and curl are all installed on the target system. The task will only trigger a change if one or more of the listed packages are not already present.
    Keeping packages up to date
    Another common requirement is to upgrade packages to their latest available version in the configured repository. Here's how you can do it using the yum module:
    - name: Upgrade nginx to the latest version ansible.builtin.yum: name: nginx state: latest This guarantees that the latest available version of nginx is installed. It is particularly useful in playbooks designed to bring systems to a known and up-to-date state before deployment.
    Installing RPM files directly
    In addition to repository-based installations, the yum module can also handle local RPM packages. This is useful when installing custom software or vendor packages not found in public repositories.
    - name: Install a local RPM ansible.builtin.yum: name: /tmp/package-name.rpm state: present If the RPM has unmet dependencies, yum will attempt to resolve them using the system’s configured repositories.
    It is also possible to disable GPG signature checking when required, such as in development environments or controlled test scenarios:
    - name: Install without GPG checks ansible.builtin.yum: name: /tmp/unsigned-package.rpm disable_gpg_check: true state: present This should be used cautiously and avoided in production systems.
    Repository-aware behavior
    Ansible separates package management from repository configuration. If custom or third-party repositories are required, the yum_repository module should be used to define them explicitly:
    - name: Add a third-party repository ansible.builtin.yum_repository: name: example description: Example Repository baseurl: https://repo.example.com/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/ gpgcheck: true gpgkey: https://repo.example.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-example enabled: true This step is often necessary when deploying systems in air-gapped environments or when using hardened baselines with restricted repository access.
    Coordinating with services and handlers
    Package installation is often tied to service management. A typical pattern is to notify a handler that starts or restarts a service after the package has been installed or upgraded:
    - name: Install Apache ansible.builtin.yum: name: httpd state: present notify: Restart Apache handlers: - name: Restart Apache ansible.builtin.service: name: httpd state: restarted This mechanism ensures that service restarts only occur when required, reducing unnecessary churn during routine deployments.
    Platform awareness and compatibility
    Although many RPM-based systems now rely on dnf internally, the yum module continues to operate correctly.
    From my experience, you are bound to encounter a legacy CentOS system, often still running CentOS 7 or earlier where yum is the default and only available package manager.
    For Fedora and RHEL 8+ systems, the dnf binary is usually a drop-in replacement that maintains CLI compatibility, and Ansible handles this transparently.
    However, if you are seeking full consistency, the dnf module is available as an alternative, with nearly identical syntax and behavior. For most use cases, the choice between yum and dnf is a matter of policy rather than absolute technical necessity.
    New to Ansible? Learn from our "Learn Ansible Quickly" course. This is a fully practical, hands-on course for learning Ansible Automation. It will get you up and running with Ansible in no time. Ideal for RHCE Ex294 Exam.
    Ansible Course Wrapping Up
    Whether used in simple playbooks or integrated into large-scale CI/CD pipelines, the yum module remains an essential component of system provisioning workflows. Its compatibility with RHEL and its derivatives makes it a practical choice for both legacy environments and modern deployments.
    If you are already familiar with yum commands, adopting the Ansible module is a natural progression. It introduces structure without removing control, and supports fine-grained state management without requiring custom shell logic.
  14. by: Sreenath
    Mon, 21 Jul 2025 06:38:35 GMT

    "If there is a media out there, VLC can play it!". I want to say the same thing about Kitty and its versatility.
    If you didn't know already, Kitty is one of the most comprehensive terminal emulators available in Linux.
    It offers image support, ligatures, animated cursors, and a whole lot of productivity tweaks. I could write a mini-book if I had to explain each one in full detail.
    I am not going to do that. Instead, I'll share some of my favorite features and tweaks I use with Kitty.
    Installing Kitty
    Since Kitty is a pretty popular terminal emulator, it is available in the default repository of most of the Linux distributions.
    In Ubuntu, you can install a slightly older version of Kitty by using the APT command:
    sudo apt install kittyArch Linux users can install it from the Extra repo:
    sudo pacman -S kittyFor Fedora,
    sudo dnf install kittyIf you are any other distro user, or your system repo provides an older version of Kitty, use the official pre-built binary from the Kitty team.
    curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdinOr, download binary from the GitHub releases page.
    Download Kitty1. Generating default config
    Kitty offers a huge configuration possibility, but through its config file. This config file should be kitty.conf located in ~/.config/kitty directory.
    It is always good to use the default config file and make changes to it rather than creating a config from scratch.
    Open Kitty and use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+F2. This will open the Kitty config in a new window. If not present already, it will create one for you and open it.
    For me, it opened in the Vi editor. If this is not needed, you can quit the config using the Vi shortcut :q (without any changes).
    0:00 /0:11 1× Open Kitty config file using the shortcut in Kitty. This will open the config file in Vi editor.
    Then open it in your favorite command line editor or GUI-based text editors.
    nano ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf2. Setting a different font
    A proper monospace font can increase the terminal aesthetics. Here, we will set the terminal font as JetBrains Mono font.
    Before proceeding, make sure the font is installed on your system.
    First, list the set of supported fonts using the command:
    kitty +list-fontsFrom the list, note the exact name of the font you want to use:
    List FontsNow, open Kitty config and scroll down to the line that says font-family. Here, remove the comment in front of the item and change the name as follows:
    font-family "JetBrains Mono"Set a Font💡Kitty supports setting individual font as well, like Bold, Italics, etc.Setting font alone is not sufficient; you should be able to change the font size as well. Fret not! Kitty has an option here.
    Search for font-size. Uncomment the line and change the value to sufficiently large.
    Font Size3. Re-setting scrollback
    One of the most essential features in a terminal is a sufficiently long scrollback lines.
    Many commands like cat, do not use a pager like less to print text. So, if a text has a huge number of lines, more than your scrollback, then the beginning parts of the text will be unreachable.
    At the same time, setting a huge scrollback line is also not advised. Since the scrollback lines are stored in RAM, more scrollback lines means more hit on the RAM usage.
    A value of 10000 will be good for most users, and a 2000 is also fine for a GUI-only user.
    On the Kitty config file, find the line scrollback_lines. By default, the value is 2000.
    To change, uncomment the line and add a value, say 5000.
    scrollback_lines 5000Scrollback LinesThe scrollback pager feature in Kitty allows you to open your terminal’s scrollback history in a full-featured pager program (like less or nvim) for easier navigation, search, and copying.
    By default, this is disabled. You need to enable it by specifying the value in MB.
    Scrollback Pager History💡Use most instead of less and add colors to your pager system.4. Hiding mouse on typing (for keyboard addicts)
    For terminal power users, the mouse may feel like a distraction. In Kitty, you can play with the mouse presence in several ways. Hiding the mouse immediately when you start typing is my preference.
    To get this action, set the mouse_hide_wait variable to a negative value.
    mouse_hide_wait -3.0If you make this value any positive number, the terminal will wait for that many seconds and then disable the mouse if no mouse action occurred within that time range.
    Hide Mouse CursorIn the screenshot above, I set the value to 5.0 seconds. So now, no matter you type or not, the mouse will be disabled if you don't touch your mouse for more than 5 seconds.
    Set it to 0 and the mouse won't hide at all.
    5. Setting window size
    Kitty remembers the window size from the last session by default, so you don't need to resize it every time.
    Still, you can set the default window width in Kitty.
    Window SizeThe remember_window_size yes is self-explanatory. The window size will be remembered with Kitty instances.
    You can set the initial_window_width/height key to a required size and then disable the remember_window_size so that the new instances always open in the specified size.
    This is specifically useful in the next section, where we disable the window decoration and thus you can't resize the terminal with mouse anymore.
    6. Hiding window decorations
    If you are using tiling window managers like Hyprland, it is good to avoid the title in Kitty. You won't find any serious use for it, because window resizing is done differently in tiling window managers.
    Search and locate the hide_window_decorations option. Uncomment the line and change its value to yes from the default no.
    Hide Window Decorations7. Customizing the tabs
    Like most of the terminal, Kitty offers tabs as well. The difference is that Kitty offers some ways to make the tabs look unique.
    Tab bar position
    You can use the tab_bar_edge key to specify whether you want the tab list at top or bottom. The default is bottom, and that is fine.
    Tab bar style
    There are several cool styles available for the tab bar, like fade, slant, separator, powerline, and custom.
    We will be going with the powerline, which is pleasing and can be quickly made work. Uncomment the line and change the value.
    tab_bar_style powerlineNow, the powerline offers another key called the tab_powerline_style. This can be set to angled, slanted, round.
    All these looks cool, but I will be going with round which along with the Catppuccin Starship prompt will look aligned.
    tab_powerline_style round 0:00 /0:32 1× Tabs in Kitty
    8. Changing the shell
    Most of the Linux distributions come with Bash as the default shell. Many users, on the other hand, love the ZSH shell.
    The most common way people follow is to change the system shell. But that applies to all the terminals.
    Here comes the use of shell key. You can set a shell for only the Kitty terminal and the rest of the system will use the default bash shell.
    For this, first find the command location of your desired shell using the which command:
    which zshFor me, it is /usr/bin/zsh.
    Now, search for the shell key in Kitty config.
    💡If you are searching for the shell using the editor's find tool, search for shell ., so that you reach the result directly.The default value is . which means the user's default shell is used as Kitty shell.
    Remove this . and paste the location of your desired shell.
    shell /usr/bin/zshChange Shell💡You can set a default editor as well using the editor key in Kitty configuration file. The procedure is the same as changing shell.9. Notifying on command finish
    With Kitty, you can get a desktop notification when a long-running command finishes up.
    For this, uncomment the notify_on_cmd_finish key and set its value to invisible or unfocussed.
    I am going with invisible, since, as per manual, it will:
    notify_on_cmd_finish invisibleIf you are more into detail, set a time limit for the long command.
    I am going to set 20 seconds as the duration of a long command.
    notify_on_cmd_finish invisible 20Notify on Command FinishThere is more to explore in this section for you!
    10. Changing themes
    Kitty offers a huge number of themes. Run this command:
    kitten themesThis will download the themes from the repo and display it to you.
    Scroll down to see them all. Once you find the perfect one for you, press the ENTER key to apply the theme!
    Also, use the / button to start a search.
    In the small video below, you can see that I apply Catppuccin theme to Kitty.
    Applying theme to Kitty Terminal
    Once you have selected the theme, press enter and it asks whether you want to modify the config or add the theme to ~/.config/kitty/themes.
    I will press the M key so that the Kitty Config is modified and the theme is set.
    11. Animating cursor tail
    Latest versions of Kitty support setting a cool cursor animation.
    📋The values for the keys in this section need to be fine tuned as needed for your satisfaction.To enable it, first search for the key cursor_trail. Uncomment it. I have set a value of 200 for it.
    Now, set a value for cursor_trail_decay and cursor_trail_start_threshold as shown in the screenshot below.
    Cursor Trail ValuesNow, reopen Kitty. You can see a cool cursor trail animation when the cursor is moved significantly.
    0:00 /0:19 1× Showing Cursor Trail Animation
    12. Automatic dark and light theme change
    Kitty supports automatically changing themes according to the system dark and light mode.
    🚧This is supported in Kitty version 0.38+. So, if you are using Ubuntu 24.04 or related system, the default package repo version of Kitty doesn't support this.For this, first open Kitty and run:
    kitten themesNow, from the list of dark theme, select a dark theme and press enter.
    Select a dark themeIn the next page, press the D key so that this theme is the default theme for the dark mode.
    Now, run the kitten themes command again. This time, select a light theme from the list and press enter. In the next screen, press the L key, to make the selected light theme default for light mode.
    Set light mode themeRun kitten themes one more time and select a theme at random, and in the settings screen, press the N key to make it the default in case of no preference.
    No preference mode themeThat's it. Now, the Kitty will show the theme based on the current system mode.
    You can take a look at the ~/.config/kitty folder to make sure that the dark, light, and no-pref mode themes are present as config file.
    Theme files saved for different modes. 13. Setting a background image
    Take the customization to the next level by adding an image as the background for Kitty terminal.
    Locate the key background_image in the kitty config file.
    Background Image and LayoutSet its value as path to the image file. Also, change background_image_layout to a required value, as shown in the screenshot above.
    And you can see that my kitty terminal now has an entirely different look that matches the theme of It's FOSS. Good for the social media videos.
    Set background image14. Adding a watermark/logo
    Want to spice up the terminal even more? Let's add a small logo as well!
    Make sure you have a small image, say 50x50 sized images. This will make things easy. There is a scale option window_logo_scale, but that may require some trial and error.
    Now, in the Kitty config, locate the key window_logo_path. Uncomment it and change its value to the path of the logo file.
    Also, fix the position of the logo using the window_logo_position key.
    Use the window_logo_alpha key to set a fade to the logo.
    Set Window LogoThat's it! Save the config file and reopen Kitty to view the result.
    It's FOSS Logo Applied15. Setting mouse actions
    You can define what the mouse buttons do in Kitty using the mouse_map option in the Mouse Actions section.
    The general syntax is:
    mouse_map button-name event-type modes actionFor example, the default middle-click to paste from selection action is set in Kitty using:
    mouse_map middle release ungrabbed paste_from_selectionKitty offers a wide range of customization, and I have mentioned some of the cool ones that I use regularly.
    There are more power user friendly features, like:
    Keyboard shortcuts mapping. Using Kittens to extend the functionality, etc. Explore the vast possibilities of Kitty by using it.
    Conclusion
    You saw a glimpse of customized Kitty terminal in our terminal makeover video first.
    Subscribe to It's FOSS YouTube ChannelWe discussed internally and decided to do a dedicated tutorial on customizing Kitty. And hence this article.
    I understand that customizing the terminal is not everyone's preference but I like changing things to make them look asthetically pleasing. Kitty is my current favorite, even though I am thinking of using Ghostty.
    Please let me know in the comments if you like this article or if you notice any issues with the config changes.
  15. By: Janus Atienza
    Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:11:31 +0000

    Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
    The Internet of Things or IoT is changing a lot of industries. It connects devices and provides levels of automation that you can’t even begin to imagine. However, as connected devices are increasing, which is projected to reach more than 40 billion by 2030, security remains a major concern. 
    A single vulnerability in an IoT ecosystem can expose sensitive data, disrupt operations, and compromise entire networks. As a result, Linux has become very important in secure IoT deployments, offering flexibility and security features. 
    The Demands of IoT Security
    IoT devices work in diverse environments with limited computational resources. Unlike traditional computing systems, IoT devices face unique challenges like being lightweight, energy-efficient, and capable of running continuously with minimal maintenance. 
    They are also targets for cyberattacks. In critical apps like medical devices or autonomous vehicles, a breach in an IoT device can lead to data theft, unauthorized access, or even physical harm. To address these challenges, IoT deployments require an OS that is:
    Secure by design Customizable to specific use cases  Capable of receiving regular updates to patch vulnerabilities Linux excels in meeting these demands, becoming the main choice for those building secure IoT ecosystems.
    Linux: A Foundation for Security
    Linux’s open-source nature is its greatest strength for IoT security. Unlike other OSs, Linux’s source code is publicly available. As a result, the global community of developers can scrutinize, test, and improve it 
    Due to this transparency, vulnerabilities can be identified and patched quickly. For IoT devices, where a single flaw can cause some major issues, this type of fast response can be very helpful. Linux’s modular architecture also lets devs create minimal, purpose-built systems. By stripping away unnecessary components, devs can reduce the attack surface. 
    Over-the-Air Updates for Long-Term Security 
    IoT devices often work in the field for years. So regular software updates are very important to address newly discovered vulnerabilities. However, updating millions of devices which are there all across the globe is a logistical challenge. 
    This is where IoT device management plays a pivotal role. It lets organizations maintain a secure fleet of devices through efficient over-the-air updates. Linux’s flexibility makes it an ideal platform for implementing OTA update systems, allowing developers to push patches, firmware upgrades, and configuration changes seamlessly.
    Robust Access Controls and Isolation
    When we talk about securing IoT devices, it comes down to controlling who or what can access things, and keeping different parts of the system separate. That’s where Linux really does it work. It has some powerful tools, like SELinux and AppArmor, that act like very strict bouncers. 
    These tools allow devs to set up rules about what every process and user on the device is allowed to do. Somehow, if a hacker manages to break into any part of an IoT device, these rules will prevent them from making more damages. Also, Linux supports containerization technologies like Docker or LXC.
    Cost-Effective and Long-Term Viability 
    For those who are deploying IoT solutions, cost is a very critical consideration. Linux’s open-source nature eliminates licensing fees. As a result, it is a cost-effective choice compared to proprietary operating systems. The affordability also extends to dev tools, as Linux offers several free and open-source software for building, testing, and deploying IoT applications. 
    Also, Linux provides long-term support releases, such as those provided by Ubuntu and Debian. It ensures that IoT devices can receive security updates and maintenance for years. Now, this is very important for industries like healthcare and industrial automation.
    Challenges in Linux-Based IoT Security 
    While Linux offers many advantages, it is not without challenges. The complexity of configuring secure Linux distributions requires expertise. Plus, misconfigurations can introduce vulnerabilities. 
    The diversity of IoT devices also tell you that not all Linux distributions are equally suited for every use case. By mixing Linux’s strengths with security measures, you can mitigate risks and make sure of the integrity of IoT deployments. So, you should adopt best practices, like: 
    Keep your devices updated and patched regularly to tackle any known security flaws.  Put strong network security in place, like firewalls and systems that detect intrusions.  Use Linux’s built-in security features, such as SELinux and AppArmor, to enforce tight access controls.  Make sure to thoroughly test and audit your IoT devices to pinpoint any potential weaknesses. Endnote
    You can see that Linux really stands out when it comes to securing IoT deployment. It’s very flexible and packed with strong security features. Itc can also handle growth easily, and has an amazing community backing it up. 
    As it can adapt to so many different types of hardware and works well with new security systems, it’s perfect for powering the next generation of IoT devices. IoT is changing everyday and Linux’s open-source nature and collaborative environment will continue to be a key player in building IoT solutions that are secure, dependable, and innovative. For anyone who is planning to build strong, future-ready IoT systems, choosing Linux is very important.
    The post Why Linux Is the Backbone of Secure IoT Deployments appeared first on Unixmen.
  16. by: Andy Clarke
    Fri, 18 Jul 2025 16:12:05 +0000

    A while back, our man Geoff Graham treated us to a refresher on the CSS initial-letter property, but how can you style drop and initial caps to reflect a brand’s visual identity and help to tell its stories?
    Here’s how I do it in CSS by combining ::first-letter and initial-letter with other unexpected properties, including border-image, and clip-path.
    Patty Meltt is an up-and-coming country music sensation. My brief: Patty Meltt is an up-and-coming country music sensation, and she needed a website to launch her new album. She wanted it to be distinctive-looking and memorable, so she called Stuff & Nonsense. Patty’s not real, but the challenges of designing and developing sites like hers are.
    First, a drop cap recap. Chris Coyier wrote about drop caps several years ago. They are a decorative letter at the beginning of a paragraph, often spanning several lines of text. It’s a typographic flourish found in illuminated manuscripts and traditional book design, where it adds visual interest and helps guide a reader’s eye to where they should begin.
    Study manuscripts from the Middle Ages onwards, and you’ll find hand-decorated illuminated capitals. The artists who made these initial letters were fabulously called “illuminators.” These medieval versals went beyond showing someone where to start reading; historiated letters also illustrated the stories, which was especially useful since most people in the Middle Ages couldn’t read.
    A basic drop cap On the web, drop caps can improve readability and reflect a brand’s visual identity.
    A brief refresher on properties and values
    In CSS, drop caps are created using the ::first-letter pseudo-element in combination with initial-letter. As you might expect, ::first-letter targets the very first letter of a block of text, enabling you to style it independently from the rest of a paragraph. The first number sets how many lines tall the letter appears, and the second controls its baseline alignment — that is, which line of text the bottom of the cap sits on.
    p::first-letter { -webkit-initial-letter: 3 3; initial-letter: 3 3; } Because browser support still varies, it’s common to include both the unprefixed and -webkit- prefixed properties for maximum compatibility. And speaking of browser support, it’s also sensible to wrap the initial-letter property inside an @supports CSS at-rule so we can check for browser support and provide a fallback, if needed:
    @supports (initial-letter:2) or (-webkit-initial-letter:2) { p::first-letter { -webkit-initial-letter: 3 3; initial-letter: 3 3; } } The initial-letter property automatically calculates the font size to match the number of lines a drop cap spans. On its own, this can make for quite a first impression. However, drop caps really start to come to life when you combine initial-letter with other CSS properties.
    Tip: Interactive examples from this article are available in my lab.
    Shadows
    Text shadows applied to first letters (live demo) When I want to lift a drop cap off the page, I can add a single text-shadow. Shadows can be colourful and don’t have to be black. I created a full live demo you can check out.
    p::first-letter { /* ... *// text-shadow: 6px 6px 0 #e6d5b3; } But why use just one shadow when two hard-edged shadows will turn a cap into a classic graphic typographic element?
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ text-shadow: -6px -6px 0 #7d6975, 6px 6px 0 #e6d5b3; } Examples showing unstyled, single text shadow, and two text shadows (live demo) Strokes
    A text shadow applied to a first letter (live demo) The text-stroke property — shorthand for text-stroke-width and text-stroke-color — adds an outline to the centre of the text shape. It’s a Baseline feature and is now widely available. I can make the cap text transparent or colour it to match the page background.
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ text-stroke: 5px #e6d5b3; } Backgrounds
    Solid and gradient backgrounds applied to first letters (live demo) Adding a background is a simple way to start making a cap more decorative. I could start by adding a solid background-color.
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ background-color: #97838f; } To add a lighting effect, I could apply a conical, linear, or radial gradient background image (here’s a demo):
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ background-color: #e6d5b3; background-image: linear-gradient(135deg,#c8b9c2 0%, #7d6975 50%); } And even an image URL to use a bitmap or vector image as a background (and here’s that demo):
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ background-color: #e6d5b3; background-image: url(...); background-size: cover; } Background images and a background clipped to text Things become even more interesting by clipping a bitmap, gradient, or vector background image to the text while setting its colour to transparent. Now, the image will only appear inside the text space (demo).
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ background-clip: text; color: transparent; } Borders
    Two examples of borders applied to first letters, one square and one rounded You might think borders are boring, but there’s plenty you can do to make them look interesting. I could start by applying a solid border to surround the cap box (demo).
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ border: 5px solid #e6d5b3; } Then, I could apply border-radius to slightly round all its corners (demo).
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ border-radius: 1rem; } Or, I might round individual corners for a more interesting look (demo):
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ border-top-left-radius: 3rem; border-bottom-right-radius: 3rem; } A border radius applied to the first letter, where the top-left and bottom-right edges are rounded (live demo) And then there’s the border-image property, a powerful, yet often overlooked CSS tool. By slicing, repeating, and outsetting images, you can create intricate borders and decorative drop caps with minimal code.
    A CSS border image applied to a first letter (live demo) You can insert a bitmap or vector format image, or drop a CSS gradient into the border space:
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ border-style: solid; border-width: 10px; border-image: conic-gradient(...) 1; } Clipping
    Clipping first letters The clip-path property lets you define a custom shape that controls which parts of an element are visible and which are hidden. Instead of always showing a rectangular box, you can use clip-path to crop elements into circles, polygons, or even complex shapes defined with SVG paths. It’s an effective way to create visual effects like this right-facing arrow. Clipping the drop cap into an arrow shape isn’t just decorative — it reinforces direction and hierarchy, literally pointing readers to where the story begins. Here’s a demo of the following example.
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ padding-inline: 1rem 2rem; background-color: #e6d5b3; clip-path: polygon(...); } Or a glossy sticker shape cap, made by combining clip-path with a gradient background image and a text shadow (demo).
    Transforms
    Two examples of transforming first letters, one rotated (demo) and one scaled (demo) You can transform a drop cap independently from the rest of a paragraph by rotating, scaling, skewing, or translating it to make it feel more dynamic:
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ margin-inline-end: 2.5em; transform: skew(20deg, 0deg); } And with a little trial and error to arrive at the correct values, you could even flow the remaining paragraph text around the cap using the shape-outside property (demo):
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ display: block; float: left; shape-outside: polygon(0 0, 0 200px, 250px 600px); shape-margin: 50px; transform: skew(20deg, 0deg) translateX(-60px); } Drop caps don’t just help guide a reader’s eye to where they should begin; they also set the tone for what follows. A well-designed drop cap adds visual interest at the start of a block of text, drawing attention in a way that feels intentional and designed. Because it’s often the first element the reader sees, caps can carry a lot of visual weight, making them powerful tools for expressing a brand’s identity.
    Designing for Patty Meltt
    Patty Meltt wanted a website packed with design details. Every element added to a design is an opportunity to be expressive, and that includes her drop caps.
    Her biography page is presentable, but we felt a focus on where someone should start reading was lacking.
    Patty Meltt’s biography without a drop cap From the selection of designs I showed her, she felt the sticker-style cap best suited her brand.
    To implement it, first, I added a cursive typeface which matches her branding and contrasts with the rest of her typographic design:
    p::first-letter { font-family: "Lobster Two", sans-serif; font-weight: 700; } I changed the cap colour to match the page background and added a semi-transparent text shadow:
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ color: #140F0A; text-shadow: 6px 6px 0 rgba(163,148, 117, .8); } Next, I clipped the cap box to a visible area shaped like a sticker:
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ clip-path: polygon(...); } …before applying two background images — a noise-filled SVG and a radial gradient — that I blended using a background-blend-mode:
    p::first-letter { /* ... */ background-image: url(img/cap-noise.svg), radial-gradient(circle, #e6d5b3 0%, #cdaa65 100%); background-blend-mode: soft-light, normal; } Patty Meltt’s biography with a stylsh new drop cap (demo) The result is a drop cap that’s as stylish as cut-off jeans and a pair of gator-skinned boots.
    Conclusion
    Styling drop caps isn’t just about decoration — it’s about setting a tone, drawing readers in, and using every detail to express a brand’s voice. CSS has the tools to go beyond the default: gradients, textures, borders, and even complex shapes all help transform first letters into statements. So don’t waste the opportunities that drop caps give you. Make ’em sing.
    Getting Creative With Versal Letters originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
  17. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Fri, 18 Jul 2025 17:00:30 +0530

    The AWK series continues with two more chapters. I have changed my initial plan to completely publish the AWK series in a couple of weeks. Instead, I'll go for two new chapters each week.
    The good thing is that we also have an upcoming systemd series by our partner educator, and it should be published next week.
    I hope you like learning from these new series 💪
    💡Next Friday (25th July) will be Sysadmin appreciation day. Would be nice to plan something to observe this day. It's our day after all.  
     
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  18. By: Janus Atienza
    Fri, 18 Jul 2025 07:42:22 +0000

    Today, enterprises require robust, scalable IT infrastructure to maintain competitiveness. As businesses expand, their network demands grow exponentially, necessitating solutions that ensure reliability, security, and efficiency. Managed networks can provide a strategic advantage by offering centralized control, proactive monitoring, and seamless scalability. These services allow organizations to focus on core operations while ensuring their IT backbone remains resilient and adaptable.
    Read on to learn how managed networks support scalable IT infrastructure in modern enterprises.
    The Role of Managed Networks in Scalability
    Managed networks enable enterprises to scale IT infrastructure efficiently in various ways. With managed support, organizations can adapt to growing demands while maintaining reliability and cost efficiency.
    Here’s the role of managed networks in scalability:
    Proactive Monitoring and Maintenance
    One of the primary benefits of managed networks is continuous monitoring. IT teams can detect and resolve issues before they escalate, minimizing downtime. For instance, in Linux/Unix environments, where server uptime is critical, proactive maintenance can ensure optimal performance. Automated tools can also track system health, log anomalies, and apply patches, reducing manual intervention.
    Hence, for enterprises leveraging Linux/Unix-based systems, investing in managed network support can help optimize performance. These operating systems, known for their stability and security, are widely used in enterprise environments. However, managing large-scale Linux/Unix networks requires specialized expertise, making managed services an invaluable asset.
    Enhanced Security and Compliance
    Security remains a top priority for enterprises, especially those handling sensitive data. Managed networks can implement robust security protocols, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and regular vulnerability assessments. Linux/Unix systems can also benefit from these measures, as they’re often targeted due to their prevalence in enterprise and cloud environments. By enforcing strict security policies, managed service providers (MSPs) can ensure compliance with industry regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA.
    Linux/Unix Optimization in Managed Networks
    Managed networks can enhance Linux/Unix performance. With expert management, businesses can achieve faster deployments, seamless scaling, and reduced latency in high-demand environments. Here’s how managed networks can optimize Linux/Unix performance:
    Customized Configurations for Peak Performance
    Linux/Unix systems are highly configurable, allowing enterprises to tailor their environments for specific workloads. Managed network providers can optimize kernel parameters, filesystem settings, and network stack configurations to enhance throughput and reduce latency. For instance, adjusting TCP/IP settings in a Linux server can also significantly improve data transfer speeds in high-traffic scenarios.
    Automation and Scripting Efficiency
    Automation is a cornerstone of scalable IT infrastructure. Managed networks can leverage scripting tools to automate repetitive tasks such as backups, user management, and software updates. In Unix-based systems, cron jobs and shell scripts can streamline operations, ensuring consistency across distributed environments.
    Cost Efficiency and Resource Management
    Managed networks can drive cost optimization through various solutions, reducing overhead while ensuring scalable, secure networks that grow with enterprise demands. Here’s how modern enterprises can ensure cost efficiency and proper resource management:
    Reducing Operational Overhead
    Maintaining dedicated in-house IT teams for enterprise-scale network management requires significant recruitment, training, and retention investments. Managed networks can eliminate these costs by providing on-demand expertise and pay-as-you-go service models.
    Additionally, businesses can avoid the financial burden of maintaining full-time Linux/Unix specialists while gaining access to enterprise-grade infrastructure management. This operational efficiency allows organizations to reallocate resources toward core business initiatives while maintaining optimal network performance.
    Scalable Cloud Integration
    Modern enterprises can increasingly deploy hybrid and multi-cloud architectures combining Linux/Unix servers with leading platforms. Managed network providers can streamline these complex integrations through automated provisioning, cross-platform monitoring, and unified security policies. Their expertise in Kubernetes orchestration, serverless computing, and virtualized environments can ensure seamless workload portability and elastic scaling. This can eliminate cloud vendor lock-in while optimizing performance across distributed infrastructures.
    Future-Proofing IT Infrastructure

    Managed networks can empower enterprises to stay ahead of technological evolution by deploying adaptive, forward-looking solutions. These include:
    Adapting to Emerging Technologies
    Modern enterprises can face exponential technological evolution with AI workloads, IoT ecosystems, and edge computing architectures. Managed networks can provide the infrastructure agility needed to adopt these innovations seamlessly. For Linux/Unix environments, this translates to optimized support for cutting-edge protocols like MQTT, real-time data processing through Apache Kafka, and distributed computing frameworks like Hadoop while maintaining system stability and performance benchmarks.
    Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Enterprise operations demand bulletproof continuity plans to mitigate risks from cyberattacks, hardware failures, or natural disasters. Managed networks can deliver comprehensive protection through automated encrypted backups, geo-redundant failover clusters, and hot-swappable network configurations. Linux/Unix systems can particularly benefit from enterprise-grade tools for backups, high-availability clusters, and snapshot-based recovery. These can ensure sub-15-minute RTOs and zero data loss scenarios.
    Final Thoughts
    Managed networks are indispensable for modern enterprises seeking scalable, secure, and efficient IT infrastructure. By keeping the information mentioned above in mind, businesses can optimize Linux/Unix environments, reduce operational costs, and future-proof their networks. As technology advances, enterprises that adopt managed network solutions will maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital world.
    The post How Managed Networks Support Scalable IT Infrastructure In Modern Enterprises appeared first on Unixmen.
  19. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:47:19 +0530

    AWK isn't just a text processor - it's your personal calculator and string manipulation wizard rolled into one. You have already experienced AWK's mathematical capabilities. Now explore the string functions.
    AWK offers a bunch of built-in functions to deal with strings. Here's a quick look at them:
    Function Purpose Syntax Example Result length(s) String length length(string) length("hello") 5 substr(s,p,n) Extract substring substr(string, pos, len) substr("hello", 2, 3) "ell" index(s,t) Find substring position index(string, target) index("hello", "ll") 3 split(s,a,fs) Split into array split(string, array, sep) split("a,b,c", arr, ",") 3 (returns count) sub(r,s,t) Replace first match sub(regex, replacement, target) sub(/o/, "0", "hello") "hell0" gsub(r,s,t) Replace all matches gsub(regex, replacement, target) gsub(/l/, "1", "hello") "he110" match(s,r) Find regex position match(string, regex) match("hello", /ll/) 3 sprintf(f,...) Format string sprintf(format, args...) sprintf("%.2f", 3.14159) "3.14" tolower(s) Convert to lowercase tolower(string) tolower("HELLO") "hello" toupper(s) Convert to uppercase toupper(string) toupper("hello") "HELLO" AWK's string functions let you clean, transform, and analyze text data with precision.
    Let's create a few sample test files.
    user_data.txt:
    john.smith@company.com John Smith Active mary.johnson@company.com Mary Johnson Inactive bob.wilson@COMPANY.COM Bob Wilson Active alice.brown@company.com Alice Brown Pending charlie.davis@external.org Charlie Davis Active sara.miller@company.com Sara Miller Active And log_entries.txt:
    2024-06-29 ERROR Database connection failed for user admin 2024-06-29 WARNING High memory usage detected on web01 2024-06-29 INFO Backup completed successfully 2024-06-29 ERROR Invalid login attempt from 192.168.1.100 2024-06-29 DEBUG Session cleanup started 2024-06-29 WARNING Disk space low on /var partition Length and Substring Functions
    Let's find out users who have long email addresses in the user_data.txt file:
    awk '{ email_length = length($1) printf "%-25s: %d characters", $1, email_length if (email_length > 23) printf " (long email)" printf "\n" }' user_data.txt The length() function gives the length of the string here and then a simple comparison does the job.
    john.smith@company.com : 22 characters mary.johnson@company.com : 24 characters (long email) bob.wilson@COMPANY.COM : 22 characters alice.brown@company.com : 23 characters charlie.davis@external.org: 26 characters (long email) sara.miller@company.com : 23 characters The length() functionNotice how the email address with 26 characters doesn't fit in the specified field of 25?
    Now let's take it to the next level by extracting the user and domain names from each email address. This will test the use of substr function.
    awk '{ at_position = index($1, "@") if (at_position > 0) { domain = substr($1, at_position + 1) username = substr($1, 1, at_position - 1) printf "User: %-15s Domain: %s\n", username, domain } }' user_data.txt So what I did here was to use index() to find the @ symbol and substr() to split email into username and domain parts.
    User: john.smith Domain: company.com User: mary.johnson Domain: company.com User: bob.wilson Domain: COMPANY.COM User: alice.brown Domain: company.com User: charlie.davis Domain: external.org User: sara.miller Domain: company.com The substr() functionCase Conversion Functions
    Let's standardize email domains to lowercase by using the tolower function:
    awk '{ printf "%-25s -> %s\n", $1, tolower($1) }' user_data.txt It will convert email address to lowercase for consistent email formatting.
    john.smith@company.com -> john.smith@company.com mary.johnson@company.com -> mary.johnson@company.com bob.wilson@COMPANY.COM -> bob.wilson@company.com alice.brown@company.com -> alice.brown@company.com charlie.davis@external.org -> charlie.davis@external.org sara.miller@company.com -> sara.miller@company.com Convert email address to lowercaseLet's take it a bit further by creating display names from email addresses.
    Extract the user name first and then separate them at the dot (.). Also make the first letters in uppercases.
    awk '{ at_position = index($1, "@") username = substr($1, 1, at_position - 1) # Convert to proper case display_name = toupper(substr(username, 1, 1)) substr(username, 2) gsub(/\./, " ", display_name) # Replace dots with spaces printf "Email: %-25s Display: %s\n", $1, display_name }' user_data.txt Worth noticing is substr(username, 2) which doesn't have length specified and thus it takes everything from position 2 till the end. I also used the global gsub although there is no such need in the sample data bit if a username had multiple names separated by dot, it would be handled properly. More on it in the next section.
    Email: john.smith@company.com Display: John smith Email: mary.johnson@company.com Display: Mary johnson Email: bob.wilson@COMPANY.COM Display: Bob wilson Email: alice.brown@company.com Display: Alice brown Email: charlie.davis@external.org Display: Charlie davis Email: sara.miller@company.com Display: Sara miller Extract the name from the email address and convert to proper cases.Pattern Replacement with sub
    Clean up log entries by removing timestamps. Use the subtitue function sub() to remove the date pattern from the beginning of each log line.
    awk '{ # Remove date at beginning sub(/^[0-9-]+ /, "", $0) print "Clean log:", $0 }' log_entries.txt The regex basically looks one more occurrence of a number or dash at the beginning followed by a space and replaces it with ... nothing. And thus remvoving that part completely.
    Clean log: ERROR Database connection failed for user admin Clean log: WARNING High memory usage detected on web01 Clean log: INFO Backup completed successfully Clean log: ERROR Invalid login attempt from 192.168.1.100 Clean log: DEBUG Session cleanup started Clean log: WARNING Disk space low on /var partition The sub() functionLet's make our output more readable by adding color emojis.
    awk '{ sub(/ERROR/, "🔴 ERROR", $0) sub(/WARNING/, "🟡 WARNING", $0) sub(/INFO/, "🔵 INFO", $0) sub(/DEBUG/, "🟢 DEBUG", $0) print $0 }' log_entries.txt It looks better, right?
    2024-06-29 🔴 ERROR Database connection failed for user admin 2024-06-29 🟡 WARNING High memory usage detected on web01 2024-06-29 🔵 INFO Backup completed successfully 2024-06-29 🔴 ERROR Invalid login attempt from 192.168.1.100 2024-06-29 🟢 DEBUG Session cleanup started 2024-06-29 🟡 WARNING Disk space low on /var partition Colored emojisgsub is used to replace globally, for all the matches, not just the first one like sub.
    sub vs gsub
    Both sub() and gsub() work on replacing a pattern. The major difference being that gsub will replace all the matches while sub only replaces the first match.
    Here's a simple expression that uses sub:
    echo "2024-07-17" | awk '{ x = $0; sub("-", ":", x); print x }'It outputs:
    2024:07-17Expression that uses sub() functionAnd if I use gsub:
    echo "2024-07-17" | awk '{ x = $0; gsub("-", ":", x); print x }'The date is properly formatted with all - replaced with :
    2024:07:17Expression using the gsub() function💡 Did you notice I used the entire expression in one line?
    It could also have been written like this:
    echo "2024-07-17" | awk '{ x = $0 gsub("-", ":", x) print x }'But when you write an AWK expression in one line, you need to separate the commands with a semi-colon ;.
    In multiline AWK expression, the commands are separated by newline character.
    Multi-line awk commandsString Splitting
    Let's use the server_metrics.txt file from the previous chapter:
    web01 75.5 4096 85.2 45 web02 82.1 2048 78.9 62 db01 68.9 8192 92.3 38 db02 91.2 4096 88.7 71 cache01 45.3 1024 65.4 22 backup01 88.8 2048 91.1 55Now, we parse server names into components. What kind of servers are they (web or db) and what numbers do they have:
    awk '{ # Split hostname into parts n = split($1, parts, /[0-9]+/) if (n >= 2) { server_type = parts[1] # Extract number gsub(/[^0-9]/, "", $1) server_num = $1 printf "Type: %-8s Number: %s\n", server_type, server_num } }' server_metrics.txt The split() function separates server type from number in hostname patterns like "web01", "db02".
    Type: web Number: 01 Type: web Number: 02 Type: db Number: 01 Type: db Number: 02 Type: cache Number: 01 Type: backup Number: 01 The split() functionString Formatting
    Create a server status report:
    awk '{ status = "OK" if ($2 > 85) status = "HIGH CPU" if ($4 > 90) status = "HIGH I/O" if ($5 > 70) status = "HOT" printf "%-12s | CPU:%5.1f%% | RAM:%4dMB | I/O:%5.1f | %3d°C | %s\n", $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, status }' server_metrics.txt It creates a formatted status dashboard with aligned columns and status indicators. I let you figure out the code on your own as a practice exercise.
    🪧 Time to recall
    In this chapter, you learned the following:
    String functions: Manipulate text with length, substr, index, split Case conversion: Standardize data with toupper and tolower Pattern replacement: Clean and transform text with sub and gsub These functions transform AWK from a simple text processor into a complete data analysis and reporting tool.
    Practice Exercises
    Try these exercises with the sample files I've provided:
    1. Extract just the domain names from all email addresses
    2. Clean email addresses by converting to lowercase and removing extra spaces
    3. Calculate the percentage of disk space used across all partitions with the following data:
    /dev/sda1 50G 35G 12G 75% / /dev/sda2 100G 80G 15G 85% /home /dev/sda3 20G 8G 11G 45% /var /dev/sdb1 500G 300G 175G 65% /data In the next chapter, you'll learn about arrays - AWK's most powerful feature for advanced data analysis and grouping!
  20. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:45:01 +0530

    AWK handles numbers like a built-in calculator. I would say like a scientific calculator, as it has several built-in mathematical functions. You can perform mathematical operations directly on your data fields without any special setup.
    Let me create some sample files for you to work with:
    sales_report.txt:
    Product Price Quantity Discount_Percent Laptop 1299.99 5 10 Desktop 899.50 3 15 Tablet 599.00 8 5 Monitor 349.99 12 20 Keyboard 99.99 15 0 Mouse 49.99 25 12 server_metrics.txt with fields hostname, cpu_percent, memory_mb, disk_io, temp_celsius:
    web01 75.5 4096 85.2 45 web02 82.1 2048 78.9 62 db01 68.9 8192 92.3 38 db02 91.2 4096 88.7 71 cache01 45.3 1024 65.4 22 backup01 88.8 2048 91.1 55 🚧I'll be using printf command a lot to format the output in the examples in this chapter. While I explain them a little, it would be much better if you made yourself familiar with printf command in bash.Bash printf Command Examples [Better Than Echo]You may print simple outputs with echo command but that’s not enough for complicated formatted outputs.Linux HandbookAbhishek PrakashBasic Arithmetic Operations
    To refresh your memory, here are the basic arithmetic operators in AWK:
    Operation Operator Example Result Description Addition + 5 + 3 8 Add two numbers Subtraction - 10 - 4 6 Subtract second from first Multiplication * 6 * 7 42 Multiply two numbers Division / 15 / 3 5 Divide first by second Modulo % 10 % 3 1 Remainder after division Exponentiation ^ or ** 2 ^ 3 8 Raise to power You already know that the order of execution matters in arithmetic. So, let's clear that as well.
    Priority Operations Example 1 () Parentheses (2 + 3) * 4 = 20 2 ^ ** Exponentiation 2 + 3 ^ 2 = 11 3 - Unary minus -5 * 2 = -10 4 * / % Multiply/Divide/Modulo 6 / 2 * 3 = 9 5 + - Add/Subtract 5 - 2 + 1 = 4 With the basics aside, let's do some calculations.
    Calculate total revenue and discounted pricing
    Calculate total revenue for each product in the sales_report.txt.
    awk 'NR > 1 {total = $2 * $3; print $1, "generates $" total}' sales_report.txt It multiplies price (second field $2) by quantity (third field $3) to show total revenue per product, skipping the header line with NR > 1 (line number greater than 1).
    Laptop generates $6499.95 Desktop generates $2698.5 Tablet generates $4792 Monitor generates $4199.88 Keyboard generates $1499.85 Mouse generates $1249.75 Total revenue and discounted pricingNow, let's apply discounts to calculate final prices:
    awk 'NR > 1 { discount_amount = ($2 * $4) / 100 final_price = $2 - discount_amount printf "%-10s: $%.2f (was $%.2f, saved $%.2f)\n", $1, final_price, $2, discount_amount }' sales_report.txt The long expression above calculates the discount amount and final price, showing original price and savings with formatted output.
    The complicated part here could be to understand the formatting I used with printf. This is why I suggested reading about it at the beginning of this tutorial.
    Quickly, %-10s sets the width to 10 with left alignment (-), %.2f sets the floating point to two decimal points.
    Laptop : $1169.99 (was $1299.99, saved $130.00) Desktop : $764.58 (was $899.50, saved $134.93) Tablet : $569.05 (was $599.00, saved $29.95) Monitor : $279.99 (was $349.99, saved $70.00) Keyboard : $99.99 (was $99.99, saved $0.00) Mouse : $43.99 (was $49.99, saved $6.00) Calculate final pricesCalculate server temperature in Fahrenheit
    Let's take it to the next level with temperature converter.
    awk '{ fahrenheit = ($5 * 9/5) + 32 printf "%-10s: %.1f°C = %.1f°F", $1, $5, fahrenheit if (fahrenheit > 140) printf " (HOT!)" printf "\n" }' server_metrics.txt The expression above converts Celsius to Fahrenheit using the conversion formula and flags hot servers in our sample text file server_metrics.txt:
    web01 : 45.0°C = 113.0°F web02 : 62.0°C = 143.6°F (HOT!) db01 : 38.0°C = 100.4°F db02 : 71.0°C = 159.8°F (HOT!) cache01 : 22.0°C = 71.6°F backup01 : 55.0°C = 131.0°F Calculate server temperature in FahrenheitAdvanced Mathematical Functions
    AWK provides built-in mathematical functions for more complex calculations and you'll see some of them in this section.
    Function Purpose Example Result sqrt(x) Square root sqrt(16) 4 sin(x) Sine (radians) sin(1.57) 1 (90°) cos(x) Cosine (radians) cos(0) 1 (0°) atan2(y,x) Arc tangent of y/x atan2(1,1) 0.785 (45°) exp(x) e^x (exponential) exp(1) 2.718 log(x) Natural logarithm log(2.718) 1 int(x) Integer part int(3.14) 3 rand() Random 0 to 1 rand() 0.423 (varies) srand(x) Set random seed srand(42) Sets seed to 42 Calculate the square root for performance metrics
    Let's create performance index from the server metrics file. It will use the sqrt function:
    awk '{ performance_index = sqrt($2 * $4) printf "%-10s: Performance Index = %.1f\n", $1, performance_index }' server_metrics.txt It creates a composite performance metric using square root of CPU and disk I/O product.
    web01 : Performance Index = 80.1 web02 : Performance Index = 80.6 db01 : Performance Index = 79.8 db02 : Performance Index = 89.8 cache01 : Performance Index = 54.4 backup01 : Performance Index = 90.0 Calculate Square Root for Performance MetricsRandom number generation
    Let's generate random server maintenance schedules:
    awk '{ maintenance_day = int(rand() * 30) + 1 maintenance_hour = int(rand() * 24) printf "%-10s: Schedule maintenance on day %d at %02d:00\n", $1, maintenance_day, maintenance_hour }' server_metrics.txt Remember rand() generates a random number between 0 and 1. So, I multiplied with 30 (for days of months) and 24 (hours of day) and only tool the integer part with int().
    Thus we have a script that assigns random maintenance windows within a 30-day period.
    web01 : Schedule maintenance on day 15 at 08:00 web02 : Schedule maintenance on day 3 at 14:00 db01 : Schedule maintenance on day 22 at 02:00 db02 : Schedule maintenance on day 8 at 19:00 cache01 : Schedule maintenance on day 11 at 05:00 backup01 : Schedule maintenance on day 27 at 16:00 Random number generation⚠️ rand() is not so random in subsequent runs.
    Run the script a few times. Do you notice something weird? The output stays the same. What's the big deal? Well, you would expect rand() to generate random values in each run and thus giving a random result each time, right? But that doesn't happen here.
    You see, rand() will generate a random number between 0 and 1 only for the first run. All the subsequent runs will produce the same random numbers.
    To make it generate radom numbers in each run, set up seed with srand().
    🪧 Time to recall
    You now have essential mathematical capabilities:
    Arithmetic operations: Perform calculations directly on data fields Mathematical functions: Use sqrt, int, rand for complex calculations Practice Exercises
    1. Create a formatted sales report with sales_report.txt in table format with aligned columns showing product, price, quantity, discount, and final revenue. The final output should look like this:
    | Laptop | 1299.99 | 5 | 10.00% | 5849.95 | | Desktop | 899.50 | 3 | 15.00% | 2293.73 | | Tablet | 599.00 | 8 | 5.00% | 4552.40 | | Monitor | 349.99 | 12 | 20.00% | 3359.90 | | Keyboard | 99.99 | 15 | 0.00% | 1499.85 | | Mouse | 49.99 | 25 | 12.00% | 1099.78 | 2. Calculate the average price of all products in the sales report
    3. Convert all temperatures to Kelvin (K = C + 273.15)
    4. Find which server has the highest CPU usage and by how much
    In the next chapter, you'll learn about dealing with string manipulation in AWK.
  21. by: Geoff Graham
    Thu, 17 Jul 2025 13:23:52 +0000

    Folks have a lot to say about “liquid glass,” the design aesthetic that Apple introduced at WWDC 2025. Some love it, some hate it, and others jumped straight into seeing how to they could create it in CSS.
    There’s a lot to love, hate, and experience with liquid glass. You can love the way content reflects against backgrounds. You can hate the poor contrast between foreground and background. And you can be eager to work with it. All of those can be true at the same time.
    Image credit: Apple I, for one, am generally neutral with things like this for that exact reason. I’m intrigued by liquid glass, but hold some concern about legibility, particularly as someone who already struggles with the legibility of Apple’s existing design system (notably in Control Center). And I love looking at the many and clever ways that devs have tried to replicate liquid glass in their own experiments.
    So, I’m in the process of gathering notes on the topic as I wrap my head around this “new” (or not-so-new, depending on who’s talking) thing and figure out where it fits in my own work. These links are a choice selection of posts that I’ve found helpful and definitely not meant to be an exhaustive list of what’s out there.
    WWDC Introduction
    Always a good idea to start with information straight from the horse’s mouth.
    In short:
    It’s the first design system that is universally applied to all of Apple’s platforms, as opposed to a single platform like Apple’s last major overhaul, iOS 7. It’s designed to refract light and dynamically react to user interactions. By “dynamic” we’re referring to UI elements updating into others as the context changes, such as displaying additional controls. This sounds a lot like the Dynamic Island, supporting shape-shifting animations. There’s a focus on freeing up space by removing hard rectangular edges, allowing UI elements to become part of the content and respond to context. Apple also released a more in-depth video aimed at introducing liquid glass to designers and developers.
    In short:
    Liquid glass is an evolution of the “aqua” blue interface from macOS 10, the real-time introduced in iOS 7, the “fluidity” of iOS 10, the flexibility of the Dynamic Island, and the immersive interface of visionOS. It’s a “digital meta-material” that dynamically bends and shapes light while moving fluidly like water. It’s at least partially a response to hardware devices adopting deeper rounded corners. Lensing: Background elements are bended and warped rather than scattering light as it’s been in previous designs. There’s gel-like feel to elements. Translucence helps reveal what is underneath a control, such as a progress indicator you can scrub more precisely by seeing what is behind the surface. Controls are persistent between views for establishing a relationship between controls and states. This reminds me of the View Transition API. Elements automatically adapt to light and dark modes. Liquid glass is composed of layers: highlight (light casting and movement), shadow (added depth for separation between foreground and background), and illumination (the flexible properties of the material). It is not meant to be used everywhere but is most effective for the navigation layer. And avoid using glass on glass. There are two variants: regular (most versatile) and clear (does not have adaptive behaviors for allowing content to be more visible below the surface). Glass can be tinted different colors. Documentation
    Right on cue, Apple has already made a number of developer resources available for using and implementing liquid glass that are handy references.
    Introduction to Liquid Glass Adopting Liquid Glass Landmarks: Building an app with Liquid Glass Applying Liquid Glass to custom views ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Hard to Read’: Designers React to Apple’s Liquid Glass Update
    This Wired piece is a nice general overview of what liquid glass is and context about how it was introduced at WWDC 2025. I like getting a take on this from a general tech perspective as opposed to, say, someone’s quick hot take. It’s a helpful pulse on what’s happening from a high level without a bunch of hyperbole, setting the stage for digging deeper into things.
    In short:
    Apple is calling this “Liquid Glass.” It’s Apple’s first significant UI overhaul in 10 years. It will be implemented across all of Apple’s platforms, including iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and even the Vision Pro headset from which it was inspired. “From a technical perspective, it’s a very impressive effect. I applaud the time and effort it must have taken to mimic refraction and dispersion of light to such a high degree.” “Similar to the first beta for iOS 7, what we’ve seen so far is rough on the edges and potentially veers into distracting or challenging to read, especially for users with visual impairments.” Accessibility
    Let’s get right to the heart of where the pushback against liquid glass is coming from. While the aesthetic, purpose, and principles of liquid glass are broadly applauded, many are concerned about the legibility of content against a glass surface.
    Traditionally, we fill backgrounds with solid or opaque solid color to establish contrast between the foreground and background, but with refracted light, color plays less a role and it’s possible that highlighting or dimming a light source will not produce enough contrast, particularly for those with low-vision. WCAG 2.2 emphasizes color and font size for improving contrast and does provide guidance for something that’s amorphous like liquid glass where bending the content below it is what establishes contrast.
    “Apple’s “Liquid Glass” and What It Means for Accessibility”:
    “When you have translucent elements letting background colors bleed through, you’re creating variable contrast ratios that might work well over one background, but fail over a bright photo of the sunset.” “Apple turned the iPhone’s notch into the Dynamic Island, Android phones that don’t have notches started making fake notches, just so they could have a Dynamic Island too. That’s influence. But here they are making what looks like a purely aesthetic decision without addressing the accessibility implications.” “People with dyslexia, who already struggle with busy backgrounds and low-contrast text, now deal with an interface where visual noise is baked into the design language. People with attention disorders may have their focus messed up when they see multiple translucent layers creating a whole lot of visual noise.” “It’s like having a grand entrance and a side door marked ‘accessible.’ Technically compliant. But missing the point.” “The legal landscape adds another layer. There’s thousands of digital accessibility lawsuits filed in the U.S. yearly for violating the ADA, or the American Disabilities Act. Companies are paying millions in settlements. But this is Apple. They have millions. Plus all the resources in the world to save them from legal risks. But their influence means they’re setting precedents.” “Liquid Glass: Apple vs accessibility”:
    “Yet even in Apple’s press release, linked earlier, there are multiple screenshots where key interface components are, at best, very difficult to read. That is the new foundational point for Apple design. And those screenshots will have been designed to show the best of things.” “Apple is still very often reactive rather than proactive regarding vision accessibility. Even today, there are major problems with the previous versions of its operating systems (one example being the vestibular trigger if you tap-hold the Focus button in Control Centre). One year on, they aren’t fixed.” “State, correctly, that Apple is a leader in accessibility. But stop assuming that just because this new design might be OK for you and because Apple has controls in place that might help people avoid the worst effects of design changes, everything is just peachy. Because it isn’t.” “Liquid Glass” by Hardik Pandya
    “The effect is technically impressive, but it introduces a layer of visual processing between you and your memories. What was once immediate now feels mediated. What was once direct now feels filtered.” “While Apple’s rationale for Liquid Glass centers on ‘seeing’ content through a refractive surface, user interface controls are not meant to be seen—they are meant to be operated. When you tap a button, slide a slider, or toggle a switch, you are not observing these elements. You are manipulating them directly.” “Buttons become amorphous shapes. Sliders lose their mechanical clarity. Toggle switches abandon their physical affordances. They appear as abstract forms floating behind glass—beautiful perhaps, but disconnected from the fundamental purpose of interface controls: to invite and respond to direct manipulation.” “The most forward-thinking interface design today focuses on invisibility – making the interaction so seamless that the interface itself disappears. Liquid Glass makes the interface more visible, more present, and more demanding of attention.” “Liquid glass, now with frosted tips”:
    It’s easy to dump on liquid glass in its introductory form, but it’s worth remembering that it’s in beta and that Apple is actively developing it ahead of its formal release. A lot has changed between the Beta 2 and Beta 3 releases. The opacity between glass and content has been bumped up in several key areas. Tutorials, Generators, and Frameworks
    It’s fun to see the difference approaches many folks have used to re-create the liquid glass effect in these early days. It amazes me that there is already a deluge of tutorials, generators, and even UI frameworks when we’re only a month past the WWDC 2025 introduction.
    Create this trendy blurry glass effect with CSS (Kevin Powell) Liquid Glass design using CSS (Nordcraft) Adopting Apple’s Liquid Glass: Examples and best practices (LogRocket) Liquid Glass Figma File CSS Liquid Glass Effects (DesignFast) Liquid Glass UI Framework Liquid Glass CSS Generator Experiments
    Let’s drop in a few interesting demos that folks have created. To be clear, glass-based interfaces are not new and have been plenty explored, which you can find over at CodePen in abundance. These are recent experiments. The most common approaches appear to reach for SVG filters and background blurs, though there are many programmatic demos as well.
    Using a CSS-only approach with an SVG filter with backdrop-filter with a series of nested containers that sorta mimics how Apple describes glass as being composed of three layers (highlight, shadow and illumination):
    CodePen Embed Fallback Same sort of deal here, but in the context of a theme toggle switch that demonstrates how glass can be tinted:
    CodePen Embed Fallback Comparing a straight-up CSS blur with an SVG backdrop:
    CodePen Embed Fallback Contextual example of a slider component:
    CodePen Embed Fallback Using WebGL:
    CodePen Embed Fallback Assorted links and coverage
    A few more links from this browser tab group I have open:
    “Apple’s Liquid Glass is exactly as ambitious as Apple” (Fast Company) “Apple unveils iOS 26 with Liquid Glass” (9to5Mac) “Apple Announces All-New ‘Liquid Glass’ Software Redesign Across iOS 26 and More” (MacRumors) “Apple just added more frost to its Liquid Glass design” (The Verge) “Apple tones down Liquid Glass effect in iOS 26 beta 3” (The Apple Post) “More assorted notes on Liquid Glass” (Riccardo Mori) A bunch of CodePen Collections Getting Clarity on Apple’s Liquid Glass originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
  22. by: Abhishek Prakash
    Thu, 17 Jul 2025 04:27:47 GMT

    After Denmark and France, now we have another positive news from Europe as two major open source projects join hands to offer open source alternatives to popular enterprise tools Jira and Confluence.
    Europe on a Roll: Plans Open Source Alternative to Confluence and JiraEuropean organizations are going all in for digital sovereignty with open source tools.It's FOSS NewsSourav RudraStart of something new, something good? I sure hope so.
    💬 Let's see what else you get in this edition
    Ubuntu 24.10 EOL. Bottles project needing help. Commodore making a surprise comeback. And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes! 📰 Linux and Open Source News
    Mozilla VPN is finally available on Flathub. Amazon's entry into the vibe coding space is here. Bottles needs your help to sustain development. Plasma Bigscreen has been revived, and it looks very promising. Ubuntu 24.10 has reached end-of-life; upgrade before you face issues. Ubuntu 24.10 Reaches End of Life: Here’s What to Do NextIt’s the end of the line for Ubuntu 24.10.It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra🧠 What We’re Thinking About
    AI slop in vulnerability reports submitted to curl is becoming a big issue.
    Death by a thousand slopsI have previously blogged about the relatively new trend of AI slop in vulnerability reports submitted to curl and how it hurts and exhausts us. This trend does not seem to slow down. On the contrary, it seems that we have recently not only received more AI slop but also more human slop. The latter … Continue reading Death by a thousand slops →daniel.haxx.seDaniel Stenberg🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and More
    Learn how to use Emacs as a terminal multiplexer. Here are 10 beautiful fonts for your Linux terminal. Uncover the mystery of exit codes in Linux. It's not what you think. Ever had Arch gobble up 30 GB for an Electron update? I investigated it and found a fix. And learn a few things about using the terminal in this article. You might discover something new 😄
    19 Basic But Essential Linux Terminal Tips You Must KnowLearn some small, basic but often ignored things about the terminal. With the small tips, you should be able to use the terminal with slightly more efficiency.It's FOSSAbhishek Prakash Desktop Linux is mostly neglected by the industry but loved by the community. For the past 13 years, It's FOSS has been helping people use Linux on their personal computers. And we are now facing the existential threat from AI models stealing our content.
    If you like what we do and would love to support our work, please become It's FOSS Plus member. It costs $24 a year (less than the cost of a burger meal each month) and you get an ad-free reading experience with the satisfaction of helping the desktop Linux community.
    Join It's FOSS Plus 👷 Homelab and Hardware Corner
    Commodore is back from the dead! Well, sort of. Someone has purchased the copyrights and launching new hardware for retro computing fans.
    Commodore is Back from the Dead!80s called, and they want you to know that you can pre-order the latest version of the Commodore.It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra✨ Project Highlight
    In the mood for listening to podcasts? Cozy is a nice Linux app for that.
    Cozy: A Super Useful Open Source Audiobook Player for LinuxCozy makes audiobook listening easy with simple controls and an intuitive interface.It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra📽️ Videos I am Creating for You
    I explored Gradia, the new screenshot tool everyone in Linuxverse is talking about.
    Subscribe to It's FOSS YouTube Channel🧩 Quiz Time
    Today we have a fun quiz that will tell you what kind of Linux distribution you are.
    Which Linux Distro Are You? [Fun Quiz]You are a person, but still, you could match up with a distro.It's FOSSAbhishek PrakashAre you good with Git? Prove it, or Git good (pun intended).
    💡 Quick Handy Tip
    On Dolphin file manager, you can quickly find specific files by enabling the filter bar with Ctrl+I or via Edit → Filter. Type text like .mp3 to show only matching files. Press Esc to hide the filter when done.
    🤣 Meme of the Week
    🗓️ Tech Trivia
    The German Army began using the Enigma machine on July 15, 1928, to send secret messages. It looked like a typewriter but scrambled letters into code. Years later, Alan Turing helped figure out how to break it.
    🧑‍🤝‍🧑 FOSSverse Corner
    One of our FOSSers is proposing a monthly call for talking about Linux from Scratch, are you interested?
    Linux from Source | Who’s up For a Discussion?I’m considering the idea of possibly having a monthly meeting on Jitsi to discuss aspects of building Linux from source code. It would be somewhat similar to Linux from Scratch or BLFS. It would give members of the group a chance to talk to other people and discuss any issues they may have with building from source. Members could brainstorm what types of applications, configuration settings and/or features they would want in a custom built system. It would be an in depth way to learn more ab…It's FOSS CommunityLaura_MichaelsAs a member, you can now find sign-in link from the header menu. Makes logging in easier.
    ❤️ With love
    Please share it with your Linux-using friends and encourage them to subscribe (hint: it's here).
    Share the articles in Linux Subreddits and community forums.
    Follow us on Google News and stay updated in your News feed.
    Opt for It's FOSS Plus membership and support us 🙏
    Enjoy FOSS 😄
  23. by: Neeraj Mishra
    Thu, 17 Jul 2025 03:36:01 +0000

    DevOps tooling has become mission-critical. What used to be a niche engineering function is now a core business driver. And with the DevOps automation market projected to hit $72.81 billion by 2032, your choice of tools can literally make or break your product velocity.
    Whether you’re a CTO at a scale-up, a DevOps engineer in the trenches, or a founder juggling release chaos, choosing the right automation tools is no longer optional, it’s strategic.
    After diving deep into what’s working across the industry, here’s a fresh, no-fluff look at the top DevOps automation tools actually making a difference in 2025. Data-driven, real-world examples, and yes, links included.
    Why It Matters More Than Ever
    DevOps isn’t just a buzzword anymore it’s the backbone of modern software delivery. If you’re looking to implement or optimize your pipeline, check out our DevOps services to get started the right way.
    85% of organizations are using DevOps practices 49% say it helps them ship faster Teams are saving up to 30% in infrastructure costs DevOps-driven pipelines are 60% faster than traditional approaches In a world where product timelines are measured in sprints, not quarters these numbers aren’t just impressive. They’re survival stats.
    Top 10 DevOps Tools Making Waves in 2025
    1. GitHub Actions – The Community-Powered Automation Engine
    If your team lives in GitHub, Actions probably already lives in your life. With 13,000+ prebuilt workflows, it turns complex CI/CD tasks into something even your intern can automate.
    Used by: Stripe, deploying thousands of times per day with custom workflows that boosted deployment success from 94% to 99.2%.
    Why it works:
    No infra to manage Huge community marketplace Limited flexibility for very custom setups Best for: Startups, OSS projects, GitHub-native teams
    2. GitLab CI/CD – The All-in-One Platform
    GitLab isn’t just a Git repoit’s your DevOps Swiss Army knife. CI/CD, issue tracking, security scanning, and even Kubernetes deploys, all in one platform.
    Used by: GitLab itself (meta!) over 300 daily deployments using AutoDevOps.
    Why it works:
    Unified platform, strong DevSecOps features Bit heavy for small teams Best for: Mid-to-large orgs, security-conscious teams
    3. Jenkins – The Customization King
    Love it or hate it, Jenkins still powers some of the biggest pipelines in tech. With 1,800+ plugins, it can be whatever you need if you have the patience.
    Used by: Netflix, with thousands of custom Jenkins jobs powering their microservices.
    Why it works:
    Total flexibility Requires hands-on care (and probably a Jenkins wizard) Best for: Large orgs with complex deployment flows
    4. CircleCI – The Speed Demon
    If you need fast, reliable builds, Circle Is your tool. Intelligent caching and parallelization cut build times dramatically.
    Used by: Shopify, who dropped test time from 25 to 8 minutes and doubled deployments.
    Why it works:
    Fast builds, Docker-first Free tier is tight, pricing can scale quickly Best for: Fast-growing teams, Docker-heavy apps
    5. Azure DevOps – The Enterprise Glue
    Deep Microsoft integration and enterprise features make Azure DevOps a top pick for large organizations. It’s not the flashiest, but it gets the job done.
    Used by: Progressive Insurance Cutting deploy times from 4 hours to 30 minutes.
    Why it works:
    Enterprise-grade, multi-platform, hybrid-friendly Can feel heavy if you’re not a Microsoft shop Best for: Enterprises, .NET-heavy teams
    6. Space lift – IaC Done Right
    If Terraform is at the heart of your infrastructure, Space lift should be on your radar. It’s like Jenkins, but designed for infra-as-code from the ground up.
    Used by: Revolut to manage AWS deployments across 30+ accounts catching 15+ production issues early.
    Why it works:
    Drift detection, policy-as-code, great Terraform support Newer ecosystem Best for: Platform teams, IaC-heavy orgs
    7. Tekton – Kubernetes-Native Pipelines
    Built for Kubernetes, Tekton brings CI/CD inside your cluster. It’s lightweight, cloud-native, and plays nicely with K8s workflows.
    Used by: Red Hat for OpenShift Pipelines.
    Why it works:
    Kubernetes-native, scalable, cloud-agnostic Needs K8s know-how Best for: Cloud-native teams, Kubernetes shops
    8. AWS Code Pipeline – The Serverless Solution
    For AWS-native apps, Code Pipeline offers end-to-end CI/CD with zero servers to manage.
    Used by: Airbnb Running 2,000+ daily deployments with Lambda and Code Pipeline.
    Why it works:
    Fully managed, integrates tightly with AWS Vendor lock-in, not as flexible Best for: AWS-heavy teams, serverless apps
    9. TeamCity – The Developer-Friendly CI/CD
    Built by JetBrains, TeamCity is loved for its smooth UI and tight IDE integration.
    Used by: Stack Overflow to streamline builds and reduce runtime by 40%.
    Why it works:
    Great UX, smart analytics, IDE sync Better suited for JetBrains/tooling-heavy orgs Best for: Dev-focused teams, .NET lovers
    10. Harness – The AI-Powered Newcomer
    Harness is all about intelligence AI that predicts failures, optimizes deploys, and offers killer rollback strategies.
    Used by: JP Morgan Chase Detecting and preventing 23+ production issues last year.
    Why it works:
    Smart automation, strong security, observability built-in Pricey and complex for smaller teams Best for: Large enterprises, mission-critical apps
    Which One Should You Choose?
    No tool is one-size-fits-all. The best advice? Start with your team’s size, budget, stack, and pain points, then choose the DevOps automation tools that actually fit—not the ones with the flashiest feature list.
    Final Take
    The DevOps world is growing 17.7% CAGR fast. And the tools you choose today? They’ll shape your team’s velocity, stability, and culture for years to come.
    Just remember: simplicity scales. Don’t over-engineer your pipeline if you don’t have to.
    The post 10 Best DevOps Automation Tools in 2025 appeared first on The Crazy Programmer.

  24. 402: Bookmarks

    · Blogger · 07/16/25 07:42 PM

    by: Chris Coyier
    Wed, 16 Jul 2025 19:42:27 +0000

    Pins are dead!
    Long live bookmarks!
    Pins was never a good name for the feature we have on CodePen where you can mark a Pen or Collection to more quickly jump back to it from anywhere on the site. The word is too similar to “Pen” that it’s just awkward, not to mention it’s not exactly and obvious metaphor. A bookmark is a much more clear term and icon, so we decided to switch to it.
    Switching the UI is kind of the easy part. It’s kind of a cultural thing at CodePen, but when we make a change like this, we change it 100% through the entire code base, down to the database itself. In order to do that, we had to chunk it into stages so that those stages can roll out independently, but in order, to make it seamless.
    Now that it’s done, we were able to extend the functionality of Bookmarks a bit, such that bookmarking a template is extra useful. One place to see that is on the new Create page.
    Time Jumps
    00:05 You’re still here! Thanks for listening! 01:51 Pins are changing to… 04:51 How do you get alignment on changes or new features? 08:35 Figuring out the new icon 09:44 Updating the documentation 17:32 How does this affect templates?
  25. by: Sourav Rudra
    Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:04:59 GMT

    The rise of AI-powered coding tools has reshaped developer workflows worldwide. Interactive development environments are becoming more intelligent, adapting to how programmers work.
    Microsoft is actively evolving VS Code into an AI-first IDE by integrating powerful language models and automation. Meanwhile, Amazon recently launched Kiro, aiming to simplify coding with a fresh approach.
    Amidst all this, Windsurf, the most popular AI code editor out there, has found itself in murky waters, with its founders and top talent being poached by Google and its assets being quickly acquired by Cognition.
    If all this has made you rethink using Windsurft, then you are not alone. With this list, I will be highlighting some of the most promising AI IDEs and developer tools available for Linux users.
    🚧This list includes both FOSS and non-FOSS apps. We included the latter as they are available for Linux.1. Zed
    Zed is a fast, open source code editor built with Rust and designed for modern developer workflows. It supports Linux natively and aims for low latency, real-time collaboration features.
    Besides core editing, Zed integrates with AI assistants like Copilot, Anthropic, and Gemini, letting you speed up coding with AI-powered completions and code analysis. It also includes native Git support and a built-in terminal for seamless development.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Native Linux support AI-powered code completions Written in Rust for performance and safety Zed2. Cursor
    Cursor is a popular AI-powered code editor built as a fork of VS Code, designed to provide advanced AI-assisted coding features. It integrates AI models for multi-file code understanding, generation, and chat-based support.
    Widely adopted by developers seeking a more intelligent IDE experience, Cursor supports Linux natively and offers seamless integration with common development workflows.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Native Linux app with regular updates VS Code fork with built-in AI capabilities Advanced multi-file code understanding and generation 3. Flexpilot IDE
    Flexpilot IDE is a free, open source AI-native IDE that’s a fork of VS Code. It supports Linux and lets you choose your own LLM from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Mistral, and local models via Ollama and LMStudio.
    It offers features like inline completions, panel chat, multi-file edits, and AI-powered commit messages. Not only that, but it also supports extensions from the VS Code ecosystem, making it easy to adapt to existing workflows.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Bring-your-own-LLM Can be used inside a web browser Uses native APis for great extension support Flexpilot IDEFlexpilot is an Open Source IDE for AI-Assisted Coding Experience 🚀Flexpilot is almost like VS Code, only a bit better with built-in AI features. Learn why I created it and how you can use it.It's FOSSCommunity4. Kiro
    Kiro is an AI-powered IDE developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that focuses on spec-driven development to help development teams quickly move from prototyping to production.
    It is powered by Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4, with Sonnet 3.7 as a backup option. Kiro is also built on an open source VS Code base, allowing it to leverage a solid foundation to support familiar workflows, seamless plugin compatibility, and effortless migration of user settings.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Spec-driven development approach Agent Hooks for automation Support for MCP Servers Kiro5. Tabby
    Tabby is an open source, self-hosted AI coding assistant designed to integrate seamlessly into development workflows. It offers features like code completion, an answer engine, and inline chat to help developers write and debug code more efficiently.
    In addition to its technical capabilities, Tabby prioritizes transparency and data control.
    By enabling users to deploy the assistant on their own local infrastructure or private cloud, Tabby allows organizations and individuals to maintain complete ownership of their code and sensitive information.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Self hosted, open source solution AI-powered code completion and contextual suggestions Integrated answer engine and inline chat for quick answers Tabby6. Claudia
    Claudia is a GUI-based toolkit for Claude Code AI development built as a desktop app. It is designed to make working with Claude-powered code assistants approachable and efficient for developers.
    It includes essential tools like a visual project browser for organizing sessions with metadata and previews, custom AI agent creation using tailored system prompts, and a session timeline with checkpoints that allow users to branch, save, and review past work using visual diffs.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Detailed usage analytics view GUI for Claude Code AI development Built-in tools for creating and editing custom AI agents Claudia7. Warp
    Warp (partner link) is a modern terminal built for teams, designed to improve developer productivity with a powerful and collaborative command-line experience.
    Unlike traditional terminals, Warp provides a fast, native UI built in Rust and introduces features like input blocks, autocomplete, and AI command suggestions to streamline workflows and reduce context switching.
    It includes built-in support for team collaboration, allowing users to share commands, access reusable workflows, and leverage AI assistance directly in the terminal.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Fast, native terminal Many collaborative features for teams Command palette and AI auto-completion Warp8. Tabnine
    Tabnine is an AI-powered code completion assistant designed to accelerate and simplify software development while keeping your code private, secure, and compliant. It offers highly personalized, context-aware code completions for snippets, lines, and full functions.
    Unlike other coding assistants, Tabnine lets you control where and how it’s deployed, whether SaaS, VPC, or on-premise. This ensures that your intellectual property remains protected without storing or sharing your code externally.
    ⭐ Key Features
    Protection from IP liability AI-powered chat assistant to generate code Context-aware AI code completions TabnineWhich vibe coding IDE do you think is a worthy Windsurf replacement? Share it in the comments.

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