Feed - Cassidy Williams

Time containers 🔗

I keep busy, because I know no other way! [...]

Voice lessons taught me that I should be... true to myself 🔗

How karaoke preparation turned into self-discovery, through singing lessons! [...]

Making a simple React microphone component 🔗

The browser has some nice built-ins for building a microphone recording component, so you don't have to use third-party libraries! [...]

Why JavaScript variables don't always update 🔗

The way JavaScript assigns and references variables is sometimes weird, let's learn why. [...]

Layering CSS gradients 🔗

You can layer CSS gradients as background images, even for text! Check out how I did it for making a marker-like highlight. [...]

Traveling to technical events: A guide 🔗

Here's my current recommendations and gear for traveling to events as a techie! [...]

Analog girly 🔗

I like being able to do things without relying on the algorithms and connections in the world! [...]

Building the Micro Journal 🔗

I built myself a digital typewriter! [...]

Getting paid is weird and sometimes hard 🔗

I should make more money, right? [...]

Actually try on your job applications 🔗

It can be a pain to put in more effort on job applications, but it takes you further than you think. [...]

The Productivity apps I use in 2024 🔗

Cassidy's current "stack" of task-tracking, calendar, and note-taking apps [...]

Figma Config recap 🔗

I spoke at Figma Config 2024 in San Francisco! [...]

Being funemployed, and all that jazz 🔗

What is a girl to do when her startup goes kersplat? Why, she blogs about it, of course! [...]

Greetings, future billionaires 🔗

Sometimes I am floored by how much money some people have. [...]

The Merge in Berlin recap 🔗

I went to Berlin for the first time and spoke at The Merge, a developer experience conference! [...]

Nice keyboards make me want to write blogs 🔗

I don't actually have anything to say, but I want to type on my keyboard right now [...]

I rewrote my blog! And website! They are one! 🔗

I merged my personal website and my blog into one beautiful baby—er, website. [...]

Front-end Design Conference recap 🔗

I spoke at Front-end Design Conf in St. Petersburg, Florida, and it was great! [...]

Seattle and the internet 🔗

The internet today reminds me of when I used to live in Seattle. [...]

Non-traditional push presents 🔗

New parents often are given very baby-oriented gifts, and here's some that are more about them. [...]

I love reading fantasy again 🔗

Brandon Sanderson books have brought me back to loving a good adventure story! [...]

Building W-9 Crafter 🔗

I built an app for generating Form W-9s for U.S. contractors and freelancers, here's how! [...]

Styling a CSS pseudo-element with JavaScript 🔗

JavaScript can't target pseudo-elements, but that doesn't mean you can't mess with them! [...]

Jumblie has a database! 🔗

Using the power of Supabase and Netlify Build Plugins, I was able to make Jumblie a bit cleaner under the hood! [...]

Tips for posting on LinkedIn 🔗

I took a workshop from LinkedIn about how to post well, and they had helpful insights! [...]

How to test a browser extension locally 🔗

Here's a step-by-step guide for quickly testing browser extensions locally in Edge or Chrome. [...]

Sorting Git branches 🔗

If you're tired of your git branches being alphabetically sorted, you can change that! [...]

Use CSS accent-color to style your inputs 🔗

If you want a quick styling win, you can set a color for your input and progress HTML tags! [...]

HTML "self-awareness" with sibling indexing in JavaScript 🔗

Make your HTML more "self-aware" with a fun little trick to get its own index. [...]

Base CSS for your text-based pages 🔗

Sometimes the defaults your web browser gives you aren't very cute. Here's a lil snippet I use to fix that. [...]

Kind of annoyed at React 🔗

Just a little ranty rant about my fave JS library, ya know. [...]

I miss human curation 🔗

Where are my internet friends? And where are their weird blogs? [...]

Jumblie 100 🔗

Today is the 100th Jumblie puzzle day! [...]

Experimenting with AI voice 🔗

I tried out the ElevenLabs Beta! [...]

Cassidy Williams... who is she 🔗

Cassidy Williams, this one, here, is the real one, don't listen to the others! [...]

Buh bye, 2023 🔗

2023 is over, let's recap. [...]

Stock options, vesting, and exercising, oh my 🔗

Here's some advice around stock options and why they are... the way that they are! [...]

Publishing to my blog from Obsidian 🔗

This is how I publish to my Git-based blog straight from Obsidian (kind of) [...]

Ideal fishing spots 🔗

Sometimes our success is pushed to the side when the conditions aren't right, but that's okay. [...]

Geek mama... saying no 🔗

I can't "do it all" right now, but I can do some. Sometimes. [...]

Making a single line break in markdown 🔗

Here's how you can add single line breaks in your markdown documents! [...]

Cassidy's Gift Guide 2023 🔗

I've got some gift suggestions for the nerds in your life! [...]

Jumblie Build Log 🔗

I built Jumblie, a jumbled word search game. Here's how! [...]

A use-case for CSS :has() 🔗

I found an unexpected use case for the newly, fully supported :has() selector! [...]

My first go tournament 🔗

I participated in the 2023 Chicago Rapid Open! [...]

Adding co-authors to TinaCMS's Git commits 🔗

You can add co-authors to the TinaCMS bot now more easily [...]

How and when to use keys in React 🔗

When you render lists in React, you need to use keys. [...]

Thirteen Potions Build Log 🔗

I made a game called Thirteen Potions for js13kgames, here's how I did it! [...]

Trying out TinaCMS 🔗

I'm trying out TinaCMS to make it faster and easier to post here! [...]

Calling an imported API at runtime in Astro 🔗

When you want to call an API at runtime in an Astro component, you have to import it in a different spot! [...]

Co-authoring Git commits 🔗

Sometimes you want to be able to credit others in a single Git commit, and luckily that's possible! [...]

Why I like Astro 🔗

Astro is the latest framework on the block that I've really been liking! [...]

Maternity TV 🔗

The shows that I've watched during my maternity leave [...]

Dear Cassidy of 2 months ago 🔗

A letter to my past self about the roller coaster of emotions I've been through. [...]

Open standards, trust, and Google 🔗

We should build and use software that uses open standards, and be careful about the companies in which we place our trust. [...]

Removing trailing space underlines from groups of anchor tags 🔗

Sometimes when you have a bunch of anchor tags, the trailing spaces around them are underlined. Here's how to fix that. [...]

Turning todos into tadas 🔗

Learning to focus on what I did do, rather than what I didn't. [...]

My c-section experience 🔗

I had a c-section recently and delivered my first baby! It was a lot. [...]

Three ways to set headers with Netlify and Astro 🔗

If you need to set headers in your Astro site to deal with CORS or custom requests, here's a few ways how! [...]

The Productivity apps I use in 2023 🔗

My current 'stack' of task-tracking, calendar, and note-taking apps [...]

Memorize quotes 🔗

Memorizing quotes is probably one of my favorite easy 'life hacks'. [...]

When useEffect runs 🔗

useEffect can be challenging to understand, and manipulating exactly when it runs is a good skill to have! [...]

Quirky local delights 🔗

I love the weird things that remind you that you're home. [...]

Setting up Netlify Redirects with Astro 🔗

Making Netlify Redirects work with Astro is a quick one-line change! [...]

Loving and hating the streak 🔗

I have a love/hate relationship with my GitHub streak. [...]

The small, private wins 🔗

Sometimes I can't really share what I work on, and I just gotta deal with that and be happy! [...]

Importing SVG files as React components with Vite 🔗

With create-react-app, it was easy to import SVG files as components. Now with Vite, you can do the same! [...]

See ya, 2022 🔗

2022 is over, taking a lil look back on how it was. [...]

My language brain is... broken? 🔗

I think in one language when I hear another, and... I have no idea why. [...]

Two(ish) months at Contenda 🔗

I've been at Contenda for about two months! [...]

Passing Markdown components to React or Preact in Astro 🔗

When you want to pass Markdown components to a non-Astro component (while using Astro itself), you need slots! [...]

Hello, world 🔗

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet (but for real) [...]

Saying goodbye to my crappy vision 🔗

My vision sucks... for now, with LASIK on the horizon! [...]

Moose facts 🔗

I learned a lot about moose and need to tell people, namely you, about them [...]

Customizing my Zsh Prompt 🔗

Cassidy updated her Zsh prompt to have some fun colors, the date, and git information. Here's how! [...]

Renaming a folder on the GitHub website 🔗

Sometimes when you're working with the GitHub UI, you need to rename a folder before cloning it to your computer. Here's how! [...]

Make line breaks work when you render text in a React or Vue component 🔗

Sometimes you just want those pesky newline characters to actually work! [...]

Use Unicode characters for bullet points in CSS using ::marker 🔗

If you don't want to use plain bullets, the ::marker psuedo-element is for you! [...]

The Productivity apps I use in 2022 🔗

Cassidy's current "stack" of task-tracking, calendar, and note-taking apps [...]

Adding a lang attribute to your Next.js site 🔗

Updating your Next.js sites to have a language set for screen readers is important for accessibility, and only takes a few lines of code! [...]

Build wicked fast sites with Astro: An Introduction 🔗

Astro is the latest new framework that seems pretty dang nice! [...]

React 18 Alpha is out! Now what? 🔗

They kept us in Suspense!! [...]

Shallow Routing in Next.js 🔗

Shallow routing isn't a deep topic. Heh. Heh heh. [...]

Pursuing Passive Learning 🔗

A little update on how some of my learning is going! [...]

Making a virtual credits sequence for your video calls with OBS and CodePen 🔗

It's always good to lead with pizzazz when you're ending a call. [...]

An Incredibly Serious Discussion about Next.js at Reactathon 🔗

Next.js is very, very serious and you should never, ever joke about it. Ever. [...]

Enabling AMP in your Next.js projects 🔗

You must appease the SEO gods. [...]

Adding Babel presets and plugins in Next.js 🔗

Babel presets and plugins help you add even more functionality to your code! [...]

React Children: The misunderstood prop 🔗

Both human and React children could use some help being understood. [...]

Query an API at both build time and runtime with Next.js 🔗

There's pros and cons to calling APIs at different times! [...]

How to turn off telemetry in Next.js 🔗

Don't let 'em catch ya! [...]

Add Web Monetization to your sites with Snippet Injection 🔗

You can use Netlify's snippet injection to add web monetization to any of your apps! [...]

Logging in Next.js 🔗

Where will your logs be? Depends on where you call them. [...]

Deploy from CodePen to Netlify in less than 30 seconds 🔗

It's faster to deploy from CodePen to Netlify than it is to read this blog post. [...]

React Strict Mode in Next.js 🔗

Strict mode helps you, help yourself. [...]

Environment variables in Next.js and Netlify 🔗

Environment variables in Next.js are pretty straightforward, and importing them to Netlify ain't too bad either! [...]

Global Styles in Next.js 🔗

Sometimes you'll want some styles that can be applied across your Next.js applications. [...]

Making a custom 404 page in Next.js 🔗

Don't be lost, don't be unfound, a 404 page gives you steady ground! [...]

Absolute Imports in Next.js 🔗

Get rid of those long, gross import statements in your Next.js apps! [...]

Why you should code together: Mob Programming FAQs 🔗

Our team at Netlify loves coding together, remotely! [...]

Building a custom React media query hook for more responsive apps 🔗

CSS only gets you so far, sometimes, when you want to pay attention to window sizes! [...]

"Escaping" Next.js to access the browser 🔗

When things are server-side, there's some tricks to get back to client-land! [...]

What is React Fast Refresh? 🔗

Hot module reloading has a new look! [...]

Next.js: Should I use SSR or SSG? 🔗

Next.js allows you to both server-side render and statically generate websites. Why would you choose one over the other? Read and find out! [...]

Using React Context for state management in Next.js 🔗

Ever wondered how you should manage state information across your Next.js applications without installing anything extra? Look no further! [...]

Follow your dreams (literally): How I designed and launched the Official Scrabble Keyboard 🔗

The Scrabble keyboard has been a passion project of mine, and now it's real! [...]

Building todometer: a meter-based to-do list 🔗

Just released my latest side project with Electron, React, and Redux! [...]

Building My S60-X Keyboard 🔗

After a bunch of trial and error, I built and programmed my first mechanical keyboard! [...]

L4 Digital: First Impressions 🔗

This week was my first week at L4 Digital! [...]

Writing Practice: The Agua Caliente Airport 🔗

I did a writing exercise using a random Wikipedia page. And puns. [...]

Subconscious Learning 🔗

I've been learning about... learning lately, specifically subconscious learning. Here's what I've found! [...]

Pure CSS3 Text Carousel 🔗

I built a pure CSS text carousel because I couldn't find one I liked. Here's how I did it, and tweaks for later. [...]

Closures in JavaScript 🔗

Closures in JavaScript are an important concept that all JS devs should know. So here's a summary for you. [...]

Messing with Sketch Club 🔗

I got the app Sketch Club and have really enjoyed making some fun drawings! [...]

5 applications of linear regression that will drive him crazy 🔗

Push these sexy applications in his mind to spice things up and drive him nuts. [...]

Adding Keyboard Shortcuts to your React Apps 🔗

Using the Mousetrap library, you can add keyboard shortcuts to your React apps. [...]

Making the Whitney Houston API 🔗

I made a Whitney Houston API. Because why not. [...]

Picking your brain: Cold call email etiquette 🔗

I get a LOT of emails from people asking to "pick my brain." Here is how I wish people would approach this. [...]

One year at Venmo 🔗

I've been at Venmo for a year! [...]

A Brief History of the PNG 🔗

The PNG file format has been around forever... sort of. Not really. [...]

The CSS Image Values Spec 🔗

The CSS Image Values Spec allows you to cleanly blow up pixel art on the web. [...]

Finding a Mentor 🔗

Finding a mentor isn't always as explicit as it seems. [...]

The positives coming from the negatives 🔗

From the negatives we see and experience online, together we can create positives. [...]

A Weekend at BattleHack Boston 🔗

I had my first hackathon experience as a Venmo employee this past weekend, and boy was it fun! [...]

My last days at ISU 🔗

I'm leaving Iowa State in a few weeks, which is both a bummer and very exciting. [...]

How to ask for help 🔗

Some people don't know how to ask for help. Luckily, there's a proper way to do it. [...]

10 Tips for Successful Public Speaking 🔗

Public speaking is the number 1 fear out there. Let's conquer it together. Lovingly. [...]

The laptop you need for college 🔗

Too often people go for the biggest and best laptop out there, when there are reasonable, affordable options. Let's talk about it. [...]

HackISU Hackathon!! 🔗

We had the first ever Iowa State hackathon! [...]

How to Ace an Interview 🔗

Interviews are scary, but they don't have to be. When you're on the spot, it's best to be prepared. Let's prepare you. [...]

Things you should have on your LinkedIn profile 🔗

As much as I'd like to say that your looks will get you far, sometimes actual information is good to know too. [...]

What is Computer Science ACTUALLY like? 🔗

You might question CS as a major, but I'm here to tell you not to! [...]

Feedback is awesome 🔗

I love getting feedback from people. You learn most from it. [...]

My Talk at TEDxDesMoines 🔗

I spoke at TEDxDesMoines, come hear what I had to say! [...]

My "romantic" Valentine's Day plans! 🔗

Don't be fooled, I'm coding on Valentine's Day. [...]

HTML+CSS Tutorial, Part 2 🔗

This is part 2 of a two-part tutorial for beginners as an introduction to HTML and CSS. [...]

HTML+CSS Tutorial, Part 1 🔗

This is part 1 of a two-part tutorial for beginners as an introduction to HTML and CSS. [...]

Here come the 2013 Mashups! 🔗

Here's some of my favorite mashup music of the year! [...]

Design Your First iPhone App 🔗

It's not too bad to start building the phone app of your dreams! [...]

Tips for remembering names 🔗

Because we've all panicked about this at some point or another. [...]

5 Questions to Ask Your Boss 🔗

The squeaky wheel gets the grease! [...]

Networking as a college student 🔗

Networking is one of the most important skills you can develop! [...]

A Weekend at PennApps 🔗

I went to PennApps to hack some apps and take some names! [...]

Crushing the Impostor Syndrome 🔗

Sometimes you don't feel like you're good enough, and that you're fooling everyone. You're not alone. [...]

Startup Weekend Ames 🔗

We built some fun things at Startup Weekend! [...]

Happy Pi Day! 🔗

It's the mathiest day of the year! [...]

I went to the White House! 🔗

My sister and I were so thrilled to be included in such a cool event! [...]

What's a house that's white in Washington D.C.? 🔗

My sister and I got some exciting news! [...]

Grace Hopper in Baltimore! 🔗

I'm at a huge women in tech conference! [...]

Facebook's 2012 Summer of Hack 🔗

I got to check out the Seattle Facebook offices for their summer hackathon! [...]

This is how a rock star feels 🔗

I had an incredible day!! [...]

How my big bod broke a bus 🔗

I am a real Spaniard now! [...]

System.out.print("My Major"); 🔗

I'm studying computer science! [...]

The T in Often 🔗

Don't pronounce it! [...]

Amazing and Free Software 🔗

Here's some great free software! [...]

The Wrist Keyboard 🔗

Someone made a wearable keyboard! [...]

Hello. 🔗

Wee a blog! [...]