Hello friends!

I'm writing this on my way to speak at in London! Cheerio!     Well, my phone blew up this past week. went viral! I made the emoji in the tweet as just a fun thing to add to Slack, and lo and behold, turns out a *lot* of people wanted to do the same. You really learn about the power of social media when stuff like this happens. Distant family, random siblings of high school friends, and old classmates have been messaging me out of the blue because of this tweet! Granted, the annoying side of it is that *so many* reposts of my tweet have been made. A bunch of Instagram accounts with millions of followers reposted it (most of the time without credit, frustratingly), and it made it to the front page of /r/me_irl and /r/memes on Reddit, too. It's been a fun few days, but I am definitely looking forward to getting my notifications back to normal! Several people have mentioned submitting the emoji to the Unicode Consortium to make it official. I think that would be super fun, but I'm not fully sure how to go about it (or if it would be more work than it is worth). If any of you out there know about the process and/or want to help me out submitting it, that could be a fun mini side project!   We had a bunch of submissions this past week for summing numbers in arrays! , , , , and are some great solutions in a variety of languages!   This week's question: Example: > nonRepeat('candy canes do taste yummy') > u     What do you call a burning jacket? A blazer!   That's all for now folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and don't spoil TV shows for your friends.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week! I went to Las Vegas for the first time for a bachelorette party and won $11. It was very exciting. But not as exciting as the world of web development.     This past week I went to a developer relations meetup! It was a fun time, a bunch of people were in town for the Microsoft Build conference. Plus, I got to see some old friends from my dev evangelism days, and some people I had only known on the internet before! Also my cousin Samantha (also a dev) and I , which is always a good time. :)    Last week, I had you calculate the angles in an n pointed star. sent in an efficient Java solution! private static double starAngles(int n) {   return (double)(n - 4) * 180 / n; } This week's question: Examples: oddSum([9, 14, 6, 2, 11], [8, 4, 7, 20]) > [9, 20], [14, 7], [11,8] oddSum([2, 4, 6, 8], [10, 12, 14]) > null (or whatever falsy value you prefer)     What do I know about bonsai trees?  Very little.   That's all for now, folks! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and don't litter.

Hey friends!

I hope you had a great week! I myself finally that I got ages ago. It's HUGE and I'm so happy with it! Anyway, onwards!     This past week a feature I led at CodePen was finally released, ! Before, the mobile editor was a completely separate section of the codebase, and only had the ability to toggle between code panels and zoom in and out. Now, the editor works at any size (wide, short, thin, and tall), and includes the same zoom ability, in addition to the console, the ability to share to different platforms, view and add comments, add to and create collections, and moooore. I'm super happy with the release, and I hope you check it out and enjoy!   Last week I had you make a "click outside detector" in whatever language you wanted. Rebecca wrote an awesome , and Stuart made a ! This week's question: Hint: The sum of the angles at each point of a 5 pointed star is 180 degrees, and at a 6 pointed is 360 degrees.     A horse walks into a bar. "Hey," the bartender says. "Sure," the horse replies.   That's all for now, folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and don't pretend to like things you don't.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week! I've personally been cleaning up my home a (building on the theme from last week) and have been pretty happy with the results. Anyway, onwards!   (shameless plug)   In addition to cleaning a bunch this week, I've also re-upped my Skillshare subscription and have been taking several classes there. I've been trying to get better at design in general (mostly for laser cutting purposes), and I've been pretty happy with the short courses they have on the subject! I promise this isn't an ad. Although if you wanted to use , I wouldn't be opposed... :)   Last week, I had you build something using the Swatch beat time! Andrew built (I didn't know what Spring Boot was, so that was cool to see), and Stuart built using CodePen for the first time (woo hoo)! This week's question:     I've been trying to get my husband to read Pride & Prejudice. Whenever I do, he just says, "I’m too good for it, and I have a feeling that it’ll try to lecture me."   That's all for now folks! Have a good week! Be safe, make good choices, and learn something fun.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week! To those who celebrate it, I hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday. Ours was great, we had a really good message at church (happy to share it with anyone who asks). Anyway, back to the web!     This past week I designed and laser cut for myself! I've been trying to come up with a good way to store my keyboards without taking up too much space, and I'm really happy with the result. We got new standing desks in our home office too, so between the stand, the desks, and getting rid of a bunch of old things we don't use, our office is looking nice and organized. It's SO great for my productivity. Who knew that a clean, organized space would help get work done?    Last week, I had you sort strings in a given alphabetical order. Dimitris wrote ! This week's question:     I always thought a snail would move faster without its shell. Turns out it only makes them more sluggish.   That's all for now, folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and clean up your desk.

Hellllooo friends!

Just got back from a vacation to Hong Kong and Korea! It was super fun and packed full of sightseeing and eating and visiting family. Anyway, onwards!     Thanks so much for all of your entries in the raffle last time! Congrats to Krish, Maria, Sarah, Bryan, and Kevin! The past couple weeks have been a huge whirlwind. The first few days of my vacation I was in Hong Kong with my husband and brother-in-law, where we ate all over the place and explored some cool markets. The next chunk was spent touring around South Korea visiting family, and it was awesome. We got to do karaoke a couple times, checked out a PC gaming café (which is a genius concept, by the way), hiked on a mountain and along a beach, and ate . It was my first time in both China and Korea, and it was a really unique experience. I admit I'm still getting over the jet lag, but I'm getting there! Also, of course, I bought some mechanical keyboard parts and dozens of face masks, so I'm set to live my best life for a while 😉 Now that I'm back, I'm ready to get back in the swing of things at CodePen, build some keyboards, and laser cut some projects!   Last week, I had you find parenthesis depths in a string! Wesley wrote up in Rust, Michael wrote , Stuart , and Dimitris ! This week's question: Example: alphSort(') > for green best are learning switches typing the     How do you find Will Smith in the snow? You look for the fresh prints!   That's all for now folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and don't be a jerk.

Hello my lovelies!

This is a very exciting newsletter for me to write, because of this thing! Wow! It's kind of mind-blowing, I feel like I started this just a short while ago. Time flies when you're having fun! Because it's a little 2 year party over here, I have some giveaways for y'all! I'll post those below. Until then, the usual!     I've got some exciting giveaways for you folks as a big thank you for following along with me for so long! and have very generously offered some things for you folks because they are awesome and love all things code and keyboards. They are the best. is giving away 3 t-shirts in the size of your choosing! . is giving away a $50 gift card! ! Along with these lovely folks, I'm also giving y'all , and I'll also personally be sending out a free Google Home to a lucky person too! But  I'll be running a random number generator to determine the recipients. Also, quick side note, I'm working on making a new mechanical keyboard switch. If you're interested, ? Thank you again for being here. It really means a lot to me. It makes my day so much better to hear from you and see tweets and messages from people that enjoy reading this.   This past week, I had you do some math by finding trailing zeros in a base 16 factorial. We got some great answers from , (who did it twice!!), , , and ! This week's question: Example: parenDepth("( a((b)) ((c)d) )") > 3 > 0     If the moon landing was real, then how come I still see it in the sky??   That's all for now folks! Have a great week, and thank you again for sticking around. Be safe, make good choices, and don't fall for any April Fools' jokes!

Hey friends!

Hope you've had a great week so far! I've had a fun one, going to a couple meetups and working on some new things at CodePen. Let's boogie!       We had a ton of responses this week! , , , , , , , , and  all did a great job finding numbers that were perfect squares and cubes. This week's question: trailing(6) > 1 // 6! = 720 (base 10) = 2D0 (base 16)     One of my friends gets paid less than minimum wage for watering plants. He's a pour guy.   That's all for this week! Be safe, make good choices, and cut your nails.

Hola, friends!

I hope your week has been going great so far! I myself just got back from Spain and am very jetlagged (hence why this is being sent on a Wednesday evening instead of early Monday morning). Vámonos!     Like I mentioned above, I was in Spain this past week! I was there to speak at , and it was a blast. I got to meet some wonderful people who I had only known via Twitter (and CodePen!) before, and spoke a lot of Spanglish. I did a talk on making art with CSS (similar to the one I did at Generate Conf last September), and live-coded making this . I'm hoping talks will be up soon (probably on ), though you can probably get the gist of it from seeing the Pen there! Overall, it was a super well-organized event, and I'll definitely be applying to go back!   This past week, Daniel and Stuart to the question of printing a spiral over a 2D matrix! This week's question: Example: squareCubeNums(100) > 1, 64 Bonus: Try to do this in less than 10 lines of code!     I like to play chess with the old folks in the park. I admit it's hard to find 32 of them, though.   That's all for now folks! Hope you have a great rest of your week. Be safe, make good choices, and remember to check in with your family now and then.

Hey friends!

Wow, if I'm being honest, I totally and completely forgot to send a newsletter last week. Oops. I'm sorry about that! Hopefully it got you closer to inbox 0! Let's boogie.     This week I've been prepping to go to Spain! I'm speaking at this week about creative coding and making art with CSS, and I'm super pumped. It looks like I'm one of the few English speaking presenters at the event, so it might be a Spanglish talk. We'll see how it goes! In other news, this past week we released a feature I worked really hard on at CodePen: a ! Under the hood there's a TON of changes, but the biggest user-facing one for you is that you can use a bunch of really great futuristic JavaScript features right out of the box. If you test it out, please share what you make, I'd love to see it!   Last time around I had you map digits on a dial pad to a string. and had great responses! It was a challenging question, kudos guys. :) This week's question: Example: arr =  [ [1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12] > printSpiral(arr) > 1,2,3,4,8,12,11,10,9,5,6,7     Who's the coolest doctor in the hospital? The hip doctor!   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and wash your dishes.

Hey friends!

I hope your week was smashing. Mine was super productive! Let's ride.     This past week was a good one for me. I got some laser cutting done, we released some new stuff at CodePen, I got my inbox down to less than 10 (!!) emails, I got to see some friends from out of town, I cleaned a lot around the house, and I started a couple good books. I admit I've been fairly stressed out in weeks prior to this one, so it was nice to clear my head and get a ton of tasks done. It really is a domino effect, once you get one big thing done, it's like you hunger for finishing more and more! Moral of the story: finish that thing!   Last week I had y'all remove an element from an array to make its sum odd, and we got a bunch of great responses! Nice work , , , and as always, ! It was fun seeing this problem solved in so many different languages! Michael also emailed his in: def removeForOdd(arr)    first_odd =-1    sum = 0    arr.each_index { |x|       sum += arr[x]       # next loop if we found the odd already       next if first_odd >= 0       first_odd = x if arr[x].odd?    }    return -1 if sum.odd?    return -1 if first_odd == -1 # no odds    # if the two above don’t return then    # we are even and have identified the first    # odd so return that index    first_odd end This week's question:   We all just want to belong. But some of us are too short.   That's all for now, folks! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and respond to those emails you've been putting off!

Hello friends!

Hope you're having a good week so far! I've been dealing with some funky bugs this week, which have given me plenty of highs and lows. Onward!   (this isn't web-y but I thought it was cool)   Lately, I've been hand-writing out my notes and tasks more and more. It's been really helping me stay on track, and remember what I need to do. In doing this, I realized that most of my notebooks are kind of flimsy, and I have to go through them to see if I need to keep any sheets of paper or if I should just recycle them after I use them up. I wanted to get some kind of high-quality binder, but they tend to be pretty expensive. So, after some brainstorming, I decided to make myself a binder with my Dremel laser cutter out of leather! After scribbling out a bunch of math for the sizes and widths of everything (some of you might remember I was on Twitter), I and I am SO happy with ! The binder can fit any standard loose-leaf paper, so I can add paper as I go and recycle sheets I no longer need over time. Plus, it's really easily rollable, so I've been able to roll it up in my bags and carry it easily without worrying about if it bends too much. It was a really fun project! I'm considering putting it on Etsy or something for those who want to get one of their own. If you'd be interested, let me know!    Last week, I had you make a palindrome! , , and gave great answers. :) This week's question: Example: > removeForOdd([2,4,6,7,8]) > -1 > removeForOdd([4,4,4]) > -1 > 0     I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off!   That's all for now, folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and don't be afraid of difficult conversations.

Hey friends!

Sorry for being little late this week! The big winter storm that hit Seattle has kept me indoors so much that I've needed to take breaks from the internet. Anyway, onwards!     Honestly, it hasn't been a very active week. Since the snowstorm in Seattle have left us mostly homebound, I've been mostly working and watching cars unsuccessfully attempt to go up the icy hill by my house (which has been both funny and sad). I'm sure I'll have a more exciting update next week, heh. Stay warm!   Last week I had you explain functional programming! Kyle gave . This week's question: Example: makeAPal('hi') > 1 // for ihi or hih makeAPal('xx') > 0     My husband is fed up of my constant wordplay jokes, so I asked him, "How can I stop my addiction?" "Whatever means necessary," he replied. ⁠ "No it doesn't." I said.   That's all for now folks! Have a good week. Be safe, make good choices, and do your dishes.

Hey friends!

I am writing to you from my garage, where I am using my sister's and my !! I have had some tough problems to solve at work, and boy, laser cutting at the end of the day is such a treat. Let's get scootin!   It was a week of releases. Surprise, you're behind!   Like I mentioned in the intro, I'm laser cutting as we speak! I finally got a bunch of materials to mess around with, and my first little project was earlier this week! Currently I'm making some coasters as a gift for a friend, and I'm planning on making some keyboard parts later this week. It's a BLAST. I'm thinking about starting an Etsy shop or something so I can have more excuses to use it, otherwise my house is going to be so full of small wood and plastic and leather parts (not that that's a bad thing). That being said, if you yourself want something laser cut, feel free to reply to this or ping me on Twitter, maybe we can work something out!   Last week I had you validate a "Boggle" puzzle, and ! This week's question:      I don't mean to be rude, but I found the Super Bowl to be super boring. No offense.   Alright friends, that's all for now! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and fold your socks.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week. I had an incredibly busy one, but luckily the work done last week is starting to pay off already. Let's get scootin!     Honestly, it was such a busy week that I didn't do much "extracurricular" work/reading/etc. I'm hoping that the coming weeks are not nearly as busy as this past one! That being said, I discovered of multiple people producing music based on a single clip, and it was very cool to see how that worked.    We had a bunch of responses this week! I had you check if a string is repeated, and we had answers , , , and of course, in . I hope you had fun with it! This week's question: Example: w = 'skated'; q = 'feast'; grid[][] = {   "axmy",   "bgdf",   "xtet",   "raks" }; > true > false     My husband kicked me out of the house for my bad Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions. I'll be returning!   That's all for this week friends, have a good one. Be safe, make good choices, and water your plants.

Hello friends,

I hope you had a good long weekend (to those of you in the US) and an enjoyable week! I finished my first projects for grad school this past week, and whew, doing homework is a very different mindset that I haven't used in a long time! Anyway, let's get crackin.     The world lost a wonderful person this week. I found out on Thursday that my undergrad advisor Gloria Cain passed away, and I was heartbroken. Gloria was a funny, smart, and kind person. She was a parent to the computer science kids when we didn't have one to go to. She helped her students accomplish so much, from getting into classes to earning scholarships to interviewing for jobs. Several of us would go hang out by her office regularly just to chat and enjoy her hilarious, quirky sense of humor. I know for a fact I wouldn't be where I am today without Gloria Cain. She was a friend, a mentor, a helper, and a joy to be around. She retired my senior year of college, and to thank her. The world would be a better place with more Gloria Cains in it. I enjoyed keeping up with her after her retirement and my graduation, and  "A friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the best things you can be." - Winnie The Pooh   Last week, I had you return all the numbers less than n that had only the digits 1 or 5 in them. Check out  answers! This week's question: Example: repeat('pi', 'pipipipi') > 4 repeat('danger', 'cassidy') > -1     What do you call a person who never farts in public? A private tutor!   That's all for now, have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and be a friend.

Hello, world!

I hope you had a great week! Mine was pretty stressful (big project at work, plus the start of grad classes), but really good. Let's get scootin!     I started my first courses for my master's degree this week! My favorite thing I've learned about so far are . It's an aptitude test from the 1930s that is completely visual (no verbal or reading elements are in it), and is pretty fun to try out. The first part of the course is called Computational Psychometrics, which is the design of computational agents that can take the same kind of tests that humans do when they are tested for intelligence or knowledge or aptitude. So, you guessed it: My first homework assignment is to build an AI agent that can solve a set of those Raven's problems! I'm terrified and not entirely sure how to start (they're all SO different), but luckily I have a few more lectures to go through that hopefully will help me through.   Last week I asked you some questions about pointers! with some solid answers. This week's question: Example: oneOrFive(20) > 1, 5, 11, 15     A word of advice to you: never date a tennis player. Love means nothing to them!   That's all for now folks, have a good week! Be safe, make good choices, and donate those clothes you haven't worn in a while.

Hi there!

Happy 2019! I hope you had a great start to the year. Let's keep it going!      Phew, this was my last week before starting my master's program in computer science. Between class registration and the anticipation, I admit I'm pretty stressed out! I've been trying to take advantage of my limited free time by reading more, hanging out with friends, and playing board/video games. Everything starts ramping up in this next week, so we'll see how it goes! Side note: my sister Cami and I got our Dremel laser cutter delivered this weekend! We're planning on doing an unboxing of it sometime this week, and we'll be streaming it on if you'd like to check it out with us.   It's been a while since our last interview question! This one was asking for the greater of two powers, and and had answers! - What is the difference between passing by value and passing by reference? - What does it mean for a pointer to be null? - What happens when you use the dereference operator (&) on a null pointer?     I have decided that I will be telling jokes about furniture this year. Sofa, so good!   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and make attainable goals!

Hello friends!

Ah! The end of the year is upon us! Merry Christmas Eve, by the way. I hope you're with people you care about this week, and if not, I hope you get to be soon. Onwards!     This past week, I 3D printed that I modeled from scratch! A long while back (as in, November of last year) I wrote in this letter that I wanted to learn 3D modeling, and I finally made something with the skill, at last! I used for the modeling (I had learned Autodesk softwares before but didn't have them on my computer), and was pleasantly surprised at the flexible online interface. I can't wait to print more! I probably won't be sending a letter next weekend as I'll be with family and friends for the new year, but I wanted to say thank you SO much for reading this every week (or just whenever you get to it, I know y'all are busy). It makes me so happy to see replies and interactions from you, and knowing that I might make your day just a little bit better keeps me writing this. I'm so grateful for you! Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)   Last week, I had you swap binary digits to make the longest string of 1s possible. Nathan did an awesome of his solution! Mark also wrote a ! This week's question: Example: greaterPow(3, 5) > a^b is greater greaterPow(2, 4) > Both are equal     "This is just nonsense!" I yelled, as I returned the perfume that didn't smell like anything.   That's all for now, folks! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, New Year, Festivus, and whatever else you might celebrate. I'm so grateful for you. Be safe, make good choices, and close out 2018 with something you'll be proud of.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week! Mine was very productive. Let's get right to it!     This past week I found out that an article I wrote was published... in print!! I wrote an article for about making art with CSS! If I'm being honest, when they approached me and asked for an article, I thought it was for a blog post or some online journal and just didn't ask questions. It was only later that I saw on Twitter that someone had bought and read the magazine that I realized it was a physical copy! There's something about print that feels that much cooler. Being able to hold it in your hands and own it is so much more satisfying (I imagine this is how physical book readers feel, and those who still buy CDs or DVDs or records). Anyway, I haven't found a copy of the magazine yet myself, but I'm determined to get one in a physical store, and geek out about it being in print, in person!   Last week, I had you reverse words in a string (except for the first and last word)! We had a bunch of great answers. Here's , , and !  Joe's Python answer: def revMid(s):     li = s.split()     for i in range(1, len(li) - 1):         li[i] = li[i][::-1]     return ' '.join(li) and Sumaiya's Python answer! example1 = "I want some cake" example1 = example1.split(' ') def reverse(word):     tempList = []     index = len(word) - 1     for char in word:         tempList.append(word[index])         index -= 1     separator = ''     return separator.join(tempList) def reverse_middle(example):     last = len(example) - 1          for word in example1:         if word == example1[0] or word == example1[last]:             print(word, end= ' ')         else:             print(reverse(word= word), end=' ') reverse_middle(example= example1) This week's question: Example: 111011101') > 7  (Swap the 0 at index 4 with 1 at index 10) binarySwap('000111') > 3 (No swaps needed)     Twenty years from now, kids are gonna think the song, "Baby it's Cold Outside" is really weird, and we're gonna have to explain that it has to be understood as a product of its time. "You see, kid, it used to get cold outside..."   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and stretch your neck right now and fix your posture.

Hi there!

Welcome back, I hope you had a great week! I had a birthday this past week and had a blast celebrating with family and friends. Let's go surfing.     Like I mentioned before, I had a birthday this past week! I got to see a bunch of friends and family, which was great. One of the most fun activities was indoor skydiving! It was terrifying. I screamed the entire time. I lost my voice. Worth it! One of the jumps we did was in virtual reality, where you had a VR headset on and watched a real skydiver fly while you were in the wind tunnel. I also screamed constantly during that one, while also feeling like I was skydiving in the future. Also, last week at CodePen we released a new UI feature, ! It looks like a very simple change, but under the hood, there were a LOT of changes. We added in some juicy things like React, GraphQL, Cypress, and mooore, which were both challenging and fun to write.   Last week, I had you write some CSS! This week's question: Example: reverseMid('I want some cake') > I tnaw emos cake     I once fell for a guy who only knew 4 vowels. Unfortunately he didn't know I existed.   That's all for now folks! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and stay focused! If you'd like to support what I'm doing, here's and . Or, if you would like to support an organization, check out !

We're baaaaack!

Hey friends! It's been a while! I've been traveling all over (I've been on 9 plane rides in the past 3 weeks, phew) and I'm so glad to be back home. Let's catch up!     Wow, it feels so long since I wrote one of these! I am finally back from traveling all over for holidays and vacation. Since getting back, I have almost caught up on Fortnite and The Good Place, so as you can probably tell, I've been productive. A big part of the vacation I took with my husband was food. My goodness, we ate such delicious food. In Athens we had some of the best cheese I've ever had, in Venice we had some of the best pasta I've ever had, and in Barcelona we had some of the best meat I've ever had. The thing that struck me about these meals is that they weren't at very fancy restaurants, they were just at random places in the cities. I admit, I can't think of a "typical" food in the United States where you could pop in to any random spot in that city and have your mind blown like we did on the trip. I wonder if it's a "grass is always greener" situation, or if we just need to get better at food over here. Welp, anyway, I guess we'll just have to keep eating to find out!   Last time, I asked you to determine if a number's digits were balanced. Kyle sent in ! This week's question: (Heads up, submissions in a link will be easiest to see for me, but you can submit it however you'd like!)     It's weird, when I eat wheat, it gives me a huge headache. But, if I get the wheat from someone else, I'm fine. It's just migraine.   Glad to be back folks, thanks so much for sticking around. Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and eat something tasty!

Hello friends!

Hope you had a great week! I was off in North Carolina for a wedding this past week. I had never been there before, and it was beautiful! Heads up, I'm going to be traveling for the next couple weekends, and probably won't be sending this out. Think of it as your chance to have one less email preventing you from getting to inbox zero. Anyway, onwards!     Honestly, it's been pretty hectic around here so I don't have much to say in this section! The wedding last week was great, my sister Cami and I roadtripped a bit around the East and saw (which we didn't know existed) and the Smoky Mountains for the first time, which was fun. This next week my husband and I are *finally* going on our honeymoon! Really looking forward to some traveling and then Thanksgiving with family. So, all this being said, have a great week, and if you're in the United States, I hope you voted!   We got a good amount of responses for this past week! If you want to see, check out , , , and ! This week's question: Example: freq(12345678) > true freq(3.1415926535) > false freq(1337) > false     6:30 is the best time on a clock, hands down.   That's all for now folks! Be safe, make good choices, and let me know if you learn something in the next few weeks!

Hello friends!

Hope your week was great. It's been a rough week politically in the US, and I hope this newsletter can at least give you a small bit of relief from it.     This week I saw a bunch of different people from my past, out of the blue. A friend from high school + college visited, then later at the grocery store I saw an old intern friend from several years ago, and while working at a cafe, a high school friend I hadn't seen since I graduated served my tea! It's a small world after all. I tried looking up some statistics of running into people you know randomly, and it's . Anyway. It was a really, really rough week in the news in the US. I've had a hard time logging in to Twitter and emails and seeing all of the hard-to-read headlines. All I can really say about it right now is: vote, stop hate when you see it, and log off regularly to give yourself a break.    Last week I had you produce a list of numbers that were a product of primes less than a given number n. Aditya wrote up his solution in Java !  This week's question: Extra credit: Do this question in less than O(n^2)! Can you do it in O(n)?     Today I found out my toaster isn't waterproof. I was shocked!   That's all for now, folks! Have a good week and fun Halloween. Be safe, make good choices, and wave back at babies who wave at you.

Hi there friends!

Based on your responses to my last letter, we're back to scheduling these so you get them at the beginning of the week! Woo hoo! Let's get groovin.     The I designed have officially started shipping! It's been surreal seeing something that I've been working on for so long out in the wild. I've been seeing around the internet, and it's been so fun populating it more and more everyday. It's been , and it's a fantastic feeling being able to start and finish a project like this. As this chapter closes, another one begins... what it'll be, that's TBD. 😉   Last week I had you remove excess parenthesis from a string. Laura sent this answer! def remove_excess_parentheses(s):     """     :type s: str     :rtype: str     """     # maintain a stack of parentheses where each parenthesis also has its index attached (for removal afterwards, if necessary)     stack = []     res = []     l = len(s)     for i in range(l):         if s[i] == "(":             stack.append((i,s[i]))             res.append(s[i])         elif s[i] == ")":             if len(stack) != 0:                 top = stack.pop()                 res.append(")")             else:                 res.append("")         else:             res.append(s[i])     for i,c in stack:         res[i] = ""     return "".join(res) This week's question: Example: primeProducts(30) > [6, 10, 14, 15, 21, 22, 26]     No matter how much you push the envelope, it's still stationary.   That's all for now, folks! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and stretch your arms and neck regularly. Do it now.

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great week. I've been doing some experimenting, if you can't tell, switching up the dates and times when I send this out. Do you have a preference? Reply to this email or to let me know!   (shameless plug, I'm proud of this one!)   This past week, I found out I was accepted to grad school! I'm going to be pursuing my Master's degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech starting next semester! Now, I'm not going to be moving to Georgia (for better or for worse). I'll be doing the whole thing online! I am both excited and nervous for it. I've always been interested in pursuing deeper CS knowledge, and I can't wait to get started. It's about to get even nerdier around here.   Last week, I had you implement a circular linked list! In case you need some direction with that, on the subject. This week's question: Example: balance('4-3)+5+)6+(5+9)*(8)+9(') > 4-3+5+6+(5+9)*(8)+9     It’s very rare that a defibrillator fails, but when it happens, nobody is shocked.   That's all for this time, friends! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and stop procrastinating on that thing.

Hello friends!

Hope you've had a great week so far! I myself have luckily not been too busy, so I've been catching up on projects I've been meaning to work on and playing plenty of Fortnite. Gotta enjoy it while it lasts!     This past week I've finally gotten to do some things I've been meaning to do for a while! Some have been more practical (like getting my inbox down to less than 40 emails... someday I'll get inbox 0 again), and some have been a little more silly. For example, I'm finally building my giant LEGO Bugatti set, and my sister Cami and I have been setting up our Dremel 3D printer! We've been , and there will definitely be more to come now that we're not traveling as much. :)   Last week, I had you implement a power function! Daniel sent this one in in C#: static double Pow(double b, double exp) {     if (exp == 0) return 1;     else if (exp > 0) return b * Pow(b, exp - 1);     else return 1 / Pow(b, -exp); } This week's question:     (P+L)(A+N) = PA+PN+LA+LN Ha! I just foiled your plan!   That's all for now folks, I hope you have a great weekend. Be safe, make good choices, and check expiration dates before you eat things.

'Ello gov'na!

I was in London for this past week! I gave a talk, and then got to walk and see the city for the first time. It was great! But now, it's surfin' time. Onwards!     Phew. this past week has been a whirlwind with my London trip! I had been to London before briefly for an event (years ago), but this was my first time actually getting to see the city. My friend walked me all over showing off the touristy sites like Buckingham Palace and the London Eye, and I got to eat typical Brit food like "cheeky Nandos" and fish and chips. It was a blast! The conference was great too. I spoke aboutalbeit mildly stressful) environment. I definitely recommend checking out GenerateConf in future years, it was a wonderful event!   Last week I had you get placements based on test scores! .  This week's question:     I dig, you dig, he digs, she digs, they dig, we all dig. It's not the most exciting poem, but it's very deep.   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a good one. Be safe, make good choices, and teach someone something new!

Hello friends!

Another week, another pursuit. Toot toot. Let's go.     For those who don't know, I designed a a little over a year ago, , and this week, I finally got with legends and colors all together! I'm so happy to see this project finally come to life, and to a close.  It's weird that this project is ending, but also really exciting. Whenever something ends, that means something is about to begin. :)   Last week, I asked you a non-coding question: Would you continue to contribute to an open-source project if you found out that it was being used for some projects that contradict your personal values? Here's some of your answers: This week's question:     I have 2 heads, 5 arms, 372 legs, and 1238761 eyes. What am I? A liar.   That's all for now, folks! Have a great rest of your week. Be safe, make good choices, and get your work done.

Hello friends!

Welcome back! I hope you had a great week, and for you Americans, a great long weekend. A little late this week, sorry about that. Let's boogie!     This past week was my first week at ! It was (and still is) awesome so far. This truly is my dream job. The team has been fun to get to know, and because we're small, it's so exciting to make an impact right away. I also spoke on on the episode released on Tuesday, if you'd like to check it out! One thing that I am really still getting used to is working from home/remotely. I'm planning on joining a co-working space and planning my days consistently, but it's definitely an adjustment. In terms of productivity, it's fantastic. No interruptions really helps me get stuff done. That being said, the lack of interruptions makes me so focused that I don't get up from my desk regularly enough! So, I'm working on that. If you have tips in that regard, I'm all ears!   Last time, I had you solve a maze of 1s and 0s! We got some great answers from , , and ! This week, we're going to change it up with a non-coding question. Reply to this email with your response! I'm looking forward to reading them (and let me know if you don't want me to share your replies anonymously to next week's letter):     What's a bad speller's blood type? Typo!   That's all for now folks, have a good one. Be safe, make good choices, and apply critical thinking to your decision-making.

HELLO FRIENDS!

It's been a while!! I missed you. I really enjoyed having some time off in between jobs, but now we're back to business. In case you missed it: I am starting this week at as a Senior Software Engineer!     Phew, the time between jobs was fun, but flew by so fast! I spent a lot of it cleaning up and doing chores that I haven't had time for, visiting co-working spaces (since CodePen is a remote team), getting a library card, and setting up a for my sister Cami and I to make things and show the woooorld. Plus I played Fortnite a lot and went hiking, so there were some relaxing times too. :) I'm so excited for my new job to start. for years, and it was a dream of mine to work there someday. It feels surreal, and I feel very blessed!   Last time, I had you write a tic tac toe game! submitted ! This week's question:     I went to the library the other day and got a book about revenge. Unfortunately I didn't return it on time, so when I brought it back, the librarian said, "you'll pay for that."   That's all for now, folks! Thanks so much for sticking with me, even when I don't send these every week. I hope you have a good one. Be safe, make good choices, and go read a book.

Hey friends!

Hope you had a great week last week! I sure did. I'll let you read about it below. You're getting some Personal News™ that I haven't shared anywhere else yet!     I have news, I have news! This is my last week at Amazon. I've enjoyed getting to work () with my sister, meet interesting people, and help make Alexa better for skill developers out there. That being said, I've missed coding and the web community a ton, and being on a smaller team. So, announcement! I'm going to be joining as a senior software engineer later this month!! I am SO excited to be a part of a brilliant team that is building a place on the internet that I love. CodePen has been a dream company for me for a long while, and I can't wait to get started. I'll still be living in Seattle and speaking a bunch, and will be that show off what CSS can do. :) Woo hoo!   We had a bunch of great answers again this week! I asked you to merge some arrays and y'all were able to it out pretty quickly. (click each word to see them)! And Andrew gave a cool Python one liner! Code up a tic-tac-toe game to test your algo out!     At a hotel restaurant, a man named Joe sees an attractive woman sitting alone at the next table. Suddenly, she sneezes, and a glass eye comes flying out of her head. It hurls past Joe, and he snatches it from the air and hands it to her. "This is so embarrassing," she says she pops her eye in place. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Let me buy dinner to make it up to you." He agrees. The woman is an excellent conversationalist, pretty, and Joe finds they have a lot in common. He says, "You are the most charming woman I've ever met. Are you like this with every guy you meet?" "No," she answers, "You just happened to catch my eye." (Cassidy's addition: where did you come from, where did you go, where did you come from caught-an-eye Joe)   That's all for now! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and stay hydrated.

Hi there!

We're back. I had a great week at Node Summit and learned about some new things coming out in the JavaScript world ( was my favorite) and spoke about Electron (, obviously)!     This past weekend was the Seattle Mechanical Keyboard meetup! It was a great time. I spoke about , watched a SUPER interesting talk about , and saw so many keyboards. It was a blast, and I can't wait for next time!   We had a solid showing of responses this week for removing leading zeros! . Click those words to get the scoop. Also, Andrew emailed this one-liner in: const removeLeading = (arr) => arr.reduce((acc, curr) => (!acc.length && !curr ? [] : [...acc, curr]));  This week's question: Example: arr[][] = [ [1, 3], [2, 4, 5], [0, 9, 10, 11] ]; > mergeN(arr) > 0 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11      Two monkeys enter a bath. Monkey 1: Oooh oooh oooh aaah aaah aaah Monkey 2: Calm down, it isn't that hot   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a great. Be safe, make good choices, and don't sacrifice happiness for productivity.

Hello friends!

Hope you had a great week and a good start to this one! I'm off in SF this week (hence the slower than usual letter). So far I've overheard 3 startup pitches at cafés. 😉 Onward!     This week I'm speaking at ! I'm excited to see folks who love playing with JavaScript as much as I do, learn some new things, and hopefully have some fun content to share/topics to build with. I've never been to Node Summit, but the talks look interesting. You can't really go wrong with JavaScript! Well... maybe you can, but ANYWAY it should be a fun time. if you're around!   Last week I had you find squares in a rectangle. sent in a solution, as did !  This week's question: removeLeading({0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 3}) > 1 0 2 3      I lost my mood ring yesterday... not sure how I feel about that.   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and do your laundry.

Hey friends!

Welcome back! I hope you had a great week. Mine was busy, as usual. I started watching the show Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it's super intense. I've never watched a full, legitimate anime before (outside of Pokémon, of course), and it's been a great experience so far! Anyway, let's boogie.
 

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Web links of the week

Goodbye Microservices: From 100s of problem children to 1 superstar
10 JavaScript Animation Libraries to Follow in 2018
The CSS Paint API
How to build a roadmap in 3½ steps
 

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Something that interested me this week

This past weekend, my husband Joe and I went salsa dancing in Seattle! It was so fun. I used to dance a lot when I was in college, but haven't kept it up much since, so I'm pretty rusty at the moment. Joe doesn't really have experience outside of the events I've brought him to, so it was a learning experience for the both of us. :)

That being said, the internet is at our side! I found this great video for learning the basics, and we've been figuring out how to do it ourselves ever since. Fun fact, we "choreographed" (if you can call it that) our wedding dance by watching just tons of YouTube videos, picking out our favorite moves, and pushing them all together. Technology is amazing.
 

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Interview question of the week

Had some solid answers to last week's question about printing string subsets! Stuart wrote his in Kotlin, and Charles wrote a great answer in Python:

Hey friends!

Welcome back! I hope you had a great week. I hiked for the second weekend in a row and my feet hate me. But at least the internet is cozy. Onward!     This past week I got that I'm super excited to build! I think I'm going to livestream the build process. I haven't actually livestreamed anything formally at home before so I'll have to figure out how to set up my space so that you can see what I'm doing and how to not take up the entire kitchen. We'll see how that goes. My sister Cami and I used to play with LEGOs all the time growing up. We didn't play video games as kids (we have made up for that as adults), so LEGOs were our main source of fun. We would build and play for hours and hours, and would dream of having a LEGO room in our houses one day. When I opened the box this past week, a childlike yelp came out of me, I couldn't help it! It felt like a dream come true getting to play with such a big, cool set, and the first step to having a real LEGO room. :)   Last week, I had you write a function that returns the longest number in a string. We got three great submissions , , and ! This week's question: Example: printSubsets('abc') > "", "a", "b", "c", "ab", "ac", "bc", "abc" Bonus points: do it recursively!     That’s a nice ham you've got there... it'd be a shame if someone put an 's' at the front, and an 'e' at the end...   That's all for now, friends! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and compliment someone today.

Hello friends!

Happy 4th of July to the Americans in the room! And to everyone, really. It's just a bigger deal here. Hope you had a great week! I personally did some hiking this past weekend and have lost the ability to move without groaning like an old woman. But enough about how attractive I am. Let's learn!     Since we have this mid-week lull because of the 4th of July, I've taken the time to finish up some small bugs in projects I've been working on, and I also did a fun non-coding project: I made on them! I drew the switch in pencil a while back and have been wanting to do something with it. So, I took a picture of it with my phone, stuck it in Adobe Illustrator, traced the image, and then made a pattern out of it (which involved reading many tutorials, I'd never done that before)! I colorized it in Photoshop and then made some resized and custom versions for the different products I wanted, and then stuck it on  (this is a referral link, sorry, but hey, it gets you $10 to spend). I doubt I'll make any cash on this project (I didn't mess with pricing at all), but it'll be fun to see if people end up buying anything! Feel free to share the link above with friends who might want some switches in their lives. :)   Last week's question was an interesting one about filling spaces with water. submitted a !  This week's question: Example: longestNum('cassidy543is000always12091so232hungry') > 12091     Why do ducks have feathers? To cover up their butt-quacks!   Alright friends, have a great week, and talk to you soon! Be safe, make good choices, and remember to sit up straight.

Hey team!

Welcome back! Sorry I missed out on sending this out last week. If I'm being honest, I totally forgot and went to bed early. Oops. 🙃 Anyway, onward!     My goodness friends, it was a crazy week of news. It really made me think about the capacity of humans to take bad news. I don't know if there's been any studies on the subject (I couldn't find any), but we're at a point in history where we're absorbing more news and information than ever before. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and small when you're so bombarded by . That being said, here are some of the things I've been grateful for during the past week for giving me a mental break: - Incredibles 2 + Ocean's 8, both really fun movies I genuinely enjoyed - The Great British Baking Show, basically a show chock full of wholesome memes - Fortnite, my latest game obsession - CodePen Challenges, it's so fun both coding and seeing what people have made - /r/MechanicalKeyboards, my home - The Steam Summer Sale, fun for the brain, bad for the wallet   Last time, I had you return a pair whose product is closest to a number, given an array and said number. !  I'm excited about this week's question, it's funky (and one that someone was given recently ): Example: waterTrap([2,0,2]) > 2 Structure is like this: {3, 0, 0, 2, 0, 4}) >10 Structure is like this: (We can trap 6 units of water between 3 and 2, 1 unit on top of bar 2, and 3 units between 2  and 4)     How do you think the unthinkable? With an itheberg.   That's all for now, folks! Hope you have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and wash your hands.

Hey friends!

I hope you had a great week! Let's get scootin.
 

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Web links of the week

date-fns
Learn to build your own desktop chat app with React and Electron, one step at a time
ml5.js: Friendly Machine Learning for the Web
The React is “just” JavaScript Myth​
React Application Manager
 

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Something that interested me this week

Phew, this past week was super busy for me! I was in 4 different states last week for 2 conferences, a wedding, and visiting some friends.
While doing all this traveling, I thought about how much a flight actually costs an airline. Between employing the staff that cleans and secures the plane, to the flight attendants, to the pilots themselves, as well as the cleaning and fuel costs, plus probably some kind of rent situation with airports... it was fascinating to think about. I found a Quora answer on the subject that was helpful, but didn't really cite any sources. The next thing I found that quenched my curiosity thirst was this PDF of a general cost breakdown.
Long story short: airlines make BANK. My last flight had 37 rows in it, with 6 people across each row, so 222 people. Let's say we (on average) all paid $250 per ticket, that's $55,500. For a flight that costs less than $4000 per hour for about a 3 or 4 hour flight, that is a pretty sweet margin. You learn something new everyday!
 

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Interview question of the week

A bunch of you did the question for reversing a queue this week! Emma emailed me her solution:

Hi friends!

We're back. I hope you had a great week!     I'm pretty stressed out right now, I admit! I have some really big projects and events coming up this next week, plus I'll be traveling (when I send my next letter, I will have been in 4 different states in 4 days), plus I have a friend's wedding to attend. Yikes! For stress relief, I've been taking breaks by watching the Great British Bake-Off on Netflix. My word, that show is wonderful! The hosts are so funny, the judges are fair, and the events in the show are exciting but not too tense. I really love it so far. It's also great for writing code (or this newsletter) without having to worry about specific plot points. I highly recommend it if you need a break.   Last week, I had you write a function that returns the sum of 1*1! + 2*2! + ... + n*n! given n. Here's my solution to the problem! function factSum(n) {   return _factorialize(n+1) - 1; } // My helper function that returns a factorial: function _factorialize(num) {   if (num < 0) return -1;   else if (num === 0) return 1;   else {       return (num * _factorialize(num - 1));   } } This week's question:     My husband gives me alphabet soup all the time, claiming I love it, but I don't. He's just putting words in my mouth!   Thanks for reading, friends! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and keep your shoulders back.

Hey friends!

I was traveling a lot this past week (3 states in 6 days!) and I didn't have time to write this last time. So, this week is PACKED with HARD-HITTING jokes and links and stuff.     Phew, so glad to be getting this out the door. I have had such a crazy couple of weeks with family in town, big projects at work, and traveling. That being said, I hope you had a great couple of weeks and (if you celebrate it) a very happy Memorial Day! In terms of what I've been interested in... I recently discovered the . It's a completely mechanical calculator from the World War II era, which is fascinating to me! They're super expensive online, so I'll have to just read schematics or something to learn more about it. My next project I'd like to build is some kind of mechanical calculator, even if it's just basic addition or something. I'm fascinated with how little machines like that work. Plus, with today's technology, I might have to try 3D printing some parts!   I didn't do the last letter's question, and none of you did either. Oops. Hope you can figure it out! This week's question:     A couple jokes for you this time! I got my husband a "get better soon" card. He's not sick or anything, I just think he could be better. Have you ever tried blindfolded archery? You don't know what you're missing!   Thanks again for reading friends! Until next time! Be safe, make good choices, and use sunscreen.

Hey friends!

Hope you had a great week. And to all you moms out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day!     I've been watching the show Friends for the first time over the past few weeks. It's been fun seeing so many references that I never really understood before, and how styles changed over the years. And how their not having cell phones really caused a lot of problems. :) I'm almost done, only a couple seasons left!   Last week, I had you implement a data structure and some functions for the board game Monopoly. Hope you enjoyed that one! Example: > charAt(5) > a > "fish".contains("i") > true     What did Batman say to Robin before they got in the car? "Get in the car"   That's all folks! Be safe, make good choices, and watch out for birds.

HELLO!

So so sorry this is late this week. I've been super busy with work last week and this week and have had very little time to myself! That being said: It's surfin' time.     This past week, my sister and I started a new Twitch show called ! Every Tuesday at 11am PT, we'll be working through building an Alexa skill ~live~ on Twitch. It's very silly but we have a good time doing it. Plus, every stream is recorded so if it's not saved on Twitch (I know the platform deletes some videos over time), we'll stick it on YouTube or something somewhere to save it forever. And hey, because this newsletter is late, that means you get to watch the show TODAY if you catch it! Please come say hi!   Last week I had you take an array and sort it with a stack. This week's question:     Today my husband asked me, "could I have my book mark?" and I broke into tears. He still doesn't know my name is Cassidy.   Phew, we made it! Sorry again about the tardiness. Have a great week! Be safe, make good choices, and say please & thank you.

Howdy friends!

It's that time of the week.
A day late.
Oops.
Onward!
 

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Web links of the week

Writing WebAssembly by Hand
Gooact: React in 160 lines of JavaScript
Halftone video effect
How To Create An Audio/Video Recording App With React Native: An In-Depth Tutorial​
 

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Something that interested me this week

I saw the Avengers: Infinity War movie this weekend. I won't spoil it. But all I have to say:

Hello friends!

You made it. Thank goodness. Let's move.     This week I went through some fun typography tutorials. I thought was particularly fun. I used the techniques described in the article in Photoshop instead of Illustrator, which was interesting to figure out. I didn't know what to do with the pretty words I was suddenly able to make, so I made with one of the things I made! I'm all about passive income, even if it's just a few cents here and there. It adds up! I'm hoping these tutorials (among others) will help me make new fun things for people, while I learn more in the process.   Nobody did last week's question of counting palindromes in a sentence! I unfortunately didn't have time to solve it myself, but I found for your perusal. This week's question:     Why is "dark" spelled with a "k" and not a "c"? Because you can't see in the dark!   That's all for this week, folks! Have a good one. Be safe, make good choices, and don't be afraid to be emotional.

Hello friends!

Another week, another . Hope you had a good one, and if you didn't, I hope this next one is better! Apologies for sending this so late.     As some of you know, I really enjoy playing the . This week I made a pull request that was merged to the website that I play on, ! The front-end for the website is all open source (, they even have an API for you to make go bots easily), so it's being improved fairly regularly. The pull request I made was a super small (as in, one line of code), but it legitimately made me enjoy the site more. Whenever you open the site and you have a slower internet connection, the "loading" message on your game appears, and the shadow for that message was the color #888888, which is a light-ish gray and not the color of a normal shadow. I always thought it was ugly but didn't really think much of it, until I realized the site was open source. My pull request made the shadows are a soothing rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.26), AKA, a semi-transparent black color, and was merged in the next day! Now, whenever I get on the site and see that loading message, I get to see my pretty shadow, and I love it. It's the little things! I guess the lesson here is that even small changes can make an impact. :)   Got some great replies to last week's question about removing numbers greater than n in a list! is a link to a solution. :) This week's question: Examples: > "Hannah eats an evil olive in her Honda Civic" > 3 > "Flee to me, remote elf!" > 1   It's a mechanical keyboard week!   I once cut down a tree just by looking at it. It's true, I saw it with my own eyes.   Alright friends, that's all for now. Be safe, make good choices, and compliment someone today.

Hey friends!

Hope you had a great week, and this one is even better. Speaking of this week, if you want in on my Scrabble keycaps I designed, , and if you want the full Scrabble keyboard,  left!     This was a fairly busy week for me! , did a lot at work, and also learned a fun new game that a friend gave us for our wedding this past winter. The game is called and it's basically an escape room built with cards. It was a blast to play, while stressful. It's one of the more cleverly designed games I've played in a while, and I highly recommend it! I also played several games of Settlers of Catan this weekend. I did not win. I don't want to talk about it.   Last week, I asked you to tally the number of land masses in a matrix of 0s and 1s! submitted ! Nice work, Andrew! This week's question:     What's it called when the blood bank makes a spelling error? A type-O!   And that's all for now, friends! Thanks for reading. If you'd like to support the stuff I'm doing, I've got , , and an inbox looking for jokes. As always, be safe, make good choices, and look up from your screen now to rest your eyes.

Happy Easter, friends!

And if you don't celebrate Easter, happy Sunday! :)     This was a busy week! Some of the things that happened: - Went to the meetup - Talked about keyboards on - Performed at with the Seattle Video Game Orchestra - Watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Live - Practiced with my friend's electric guitar band - Coded on some secret things - Launched a group buy for a - Tweeted crap And thus, I have nothing more to say here. I am tired. Onward!   Last week I had you reverse the diagonals in an n*n array. ! This week's question: Example: [ [0,1,1,1], [0,0,0,1] [1,0.1.0] [0,0,1,1] ] > 3 bodies of land Bonus points: Do this without allocating extra memory!     A man goes to a funeral and asks the widow, "Mind if I say a word?" She says: "Please do." The man clears his throat and says: "Plethora." The widow replies: "Thank you, that means a lot."   That's all for now, folks! Be safe, make good choices, and stay humble.

'Ello, friends!

Welcome back. I was a little slow to send out the letter this week due to, well, life happening. Onward!     I started playing this week. It is SO FUN. It's exactly what I would want in a game inspired by the Hunger Games. 100 players are dropped on an island, and a "storm" surrounding the island gets smaller and smaller so all players are slowly forced into the middle to battle it out. Last person standing wins. I'm not that good at it yet (I've been in the top 25 about half the time and top 10 maybe a quarter of the time... getting there!), but it's been really fun trying different strategies and just learning little nuances of the game. I would love for more melee options for when you haven't found a weapon but want a fair fight. Maybe in later editions. :) Anyway, if you are ready to procrastinate on cleaning your room this week, check it out! It's free and pretty darn fun.   Last week, I had you write a program for a laundromat. I got a fun response from ! Thought it was a really clever use case. :) This week's question: Example: diagreverse({1, 2, 3,                      4, 5, 6,                      7, 8, 9}) > {9, 2, 7,     4, 5, 6,     3, 8, 1} Bonus: Do it for all types, not just integers. Double Bonus: Determine a way to do something similar for a matrix of n*m elements.     One of the awesome readers of this, Gaby, sent this one to me last week. I love it! What kind of car does an egg drive? A yolkswagon!   That's it this time, friends! Thanks for reading. If you'd like to support the stuff I'm doing, I've got , , and an inbox looking for jokes. As always, be safe, make good choices, and restart your computer regularly.

Hello!

Phew, it's been a crazy week for me, but I'm glad we both got through. Let's go!     If I haven't spammed your Twitter feed enough this week about it, I'll tell you again: I released a project this week that I've been working on for AGES! It's a , officially licensed by Hasbro! Also, if you already have a board lying around that needs some flavor. The caps are actually selling better than the board bundle, which is exciting! This project has definitely had its ups and downs and I'm so glad it's finally out there for people to see. I first designed it after having a dream about typing on a Scrabble board. I mocked it up and played with the colors for a while, and then realized that if I ever wanted the design to see the light of day, I had to get permission to use it. And thus began the cold-calling. I emailed and messaged sooo many people on LinkedIn and elsewhere trying to find anyone that would hear me out, and finally got connected to an account executive who loved the idea! After getting him on board, I had to get someone who would help me manufacture it. Luckily, at a keyboard meetup last summer, I got connected to some of the folks at Massdrop who had told me that if I could get a license for my idea, they could help me bring it to life. And they did!! Massdrop has been awesome about helping me with the contracts with Hasbro, getting samples from the manufacturers, getting ~pretty~ mocked-up images of the keycaps, and they're going to help with distribution, too. It's been a lot of time and emailing and tweaking and hoping it'd work out, and it's so satisfying to see it finally get there. I won't tell you to buy it, but if you've got family or friends who like Scrabble, maybe this could be a great gift idea for them. ;)   Last week, I had you take in the coordinates of two rectangles and determine the area of their intersection! I got some fun answers from and  this time around. Keep 'em coming! This week's question: Bonus points: make a user interface on top of the program for someone to pick a machine and use it!   I'm celebrating keyboards this week. Here's some cool ones.   What's blue and doesn't weigh much? Light blue!   That's all for now, folks! Thanks for reading. If you'd like to support the stuff I'm doing, I've got , , and an inbox looking for jokes. As always, be safe, make good choices, and don't forget to floss!