🎟️ "Inspiration is applying what you’ve received." - Derek Sivers

Hey friends!

August is done, we're through! Finished! Now that September is here, I'll be napping and you can wake me up when September ends. Ha. But anyway, let's learn.

Was this forwarded to you? You can subscribe here!

Web links of the week

HTML Partials + Server Reducers: An Alternative to React-Style SPAs
CMYK Concentric Curves
Rolling the Dice with CSS random()
Style your underlines
View Transitions: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Something that interested me this week

This was a really exciting week for our family: my husband became a citizen of the United States! The ceremony was great. 95 people were sworn in from more than 40 countries! The judge had everyone applaud for each person's home country, and gave a really wonderful speech about how we are a nation of immigrants, and how we have to work to make our communities better for everyone. I admit when the news is frustrating and overwhelming at times, it's hard to even fathom being patriotic... but this ceremony was an exception. I'm really grateful that we've made it across the finish line after a long journey getting here!

Sponsor

AI is breaking the old rules. Your database has to keep up. MongoDB wasn't retrofitted for AI; it was born for it, handling the messy, dynamic data that AI thrives on. Join MongoDB.local NYC on Sept 17 at the Javits Center for talks, demos, hands-on labs, and networking. Unlock new possibilities for your data in the age of AI. Register here and use code SOCIAL50 to save 50%!

Interview question of the week

Last week, I had you make a restaurant order summary! Order up Amine, Taylor, Dennis, Miguel, Elke, Joey, Sergio, Stephen, Laasya, John, Nico, and Ten!

This week's question:
Imagine a simplified version of the game Battleship played on a 2D grid. The grid represents the sea, and each cell can either be empty (.) or contain a part of a ship (X). Ships are placed horizontally or vertically, and there are no adjacent ships. Given a grid, count the number of battleships in it. Extra credit: can you make a layout generator for the game given these rules?

Example:

const ships = [
  ['X', 'X', '.', 'X'],
  ['.', '.', '.', 'X'],
  ['.', '.', '.', 'X'],
  ['.', '.', '.', '.'],
];

numberOfShips(ships)
> 2

(you can submit your answers by replying to this email with a link to your solution, or share on Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Mastodon)

Cool things from around the internet

How to poop outdoors in a way that won’t harm the environment and other hikers
Athena 1800 with GMK Hooty
Reuben Wu draws aerial geometries with drones and lasers across remote landscapes
Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters

Joke

It's amazing how much a colon can change a sentence!

For example:

Jane ate her friend's sandwich.
vs.
Jane ate her friend's colon.

That's all for now, folks! Have a great week. Be safe, make good choices, and make your community a little better!

Special thanks to Ezell, Ben, Kinetic Labs, and Marta for supporting my Patreon and this newsletter!

cassidoo

website | blog | github | bluesky | twitter | patreon | twitch | codepen | mastodon