This article shows how to build end-to-end, code-first LLM observability in a FastAPI application using the OpenTelemetry Python SDK. Instead of relying on vendor-specific agents or opaque SDKs, we wi  ( 19 min )

Today Quincy Larson interviews Luke Ciciliano. He's a front-end developer who runs Modern Website Design, a software consultancy that builds solutions for small to medium sized businesses. He taught h  ( 5 min )

The way JavaScript handles time has evolved significantly, from the built-in `Date` API to Moment.js and now Temporal. The new standard fills gaps in the original `Date` API while addressing limitations found in Moment and other libraries. Joe Attardi shares practical “recipes” for migrating Moment-based code to the new Temporal API.  ( 21 min )

Last year, our ML team shipped a fraud detection model that worked perfectly in a Jupyter notebook. Precision was excellent. Recall numbers looked great. Everyone was excited – until we tried to deplo  ( 19 min )

Before I started building auth into my own projects, I didn't think too deeply about what was happening to passwords behind the scenes. Like most developers, I installed a library, called a hash funct  ( 8 min )

Depending on cloud apps means that you don't truly own your notes. If your internet goes down or if the company changes its rules, you could lose access. In this article, you'll learn how to build you  ( 6 min )

Recursion is when a function solves a problem by calling itself. It sounds odd at first — why would a function call itself? — but once it clicks, you'll find it's often the most natural way to express  ( 9 min )

In the world of Software Engineering, there are plenty of programming languages to learn. And there are both low-level and high-level options. I’ve tried my hand at a few of them, and the one language  ( 17 min )

When you create an article, such as a blog post for freeCodeCamp, Hashnode, Medium, or DEV.to, you can help guide the reader by creating a Table of Contents (ToC). In this article, I'll explain how to  ( 9 min )

Real-time data powers much of modern software: live stock prices, chat applications, sports scores, collaborative tools. And to build these systems, you'll need to understand how real-time communicati  ( 9 min )

For years, developers have been hacking around the limitations of `border-radius`, using clip-path, SVG masks, and fragile workarounds just to get anything other than round corners. The new `corner-shape` property finally changes that, opening the door to beveled, scooped, and squircle corners.  ( 17 min )

Software development has always evolved alongside the tools we build. There was a time when developers wrote everything in assembly language. Then higher-level languages arrived and made it possible t  ( 21 min )

Let’s go over a few demos using the new customizable feature that may be wild, but also give us a great chance to learn new things in CSS. Abusing Customizable Selects originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 16 min )

Some forms stay UI, while others quietly become rule engines. Here’s why these two different approaches exist and how to choose between them.  ( 18 min )

How we look at the stacking order of our projects, how we choose z-index values, and more importantly, the implications of those choices. The Value of z-index originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 14 min )

Many product teams still lean on usability improvements and isolated behavioral tweaks to address weak activation, drop-offs, and low retention – only to see results plateau or slip into shallow gamification. Anders Toxboe updates persuasive design for today’s reality, clarifying what has actually held up over the last decade.  ( 25 min )

UX design is entering a new phase, with designers shifting from makers of outputs to directors of intent. AI can now generate wireframes, prototypes, and even design systems in minutes, but UX has never been only about creating interfaces. It’s about navigating ambiguity, advocating for humans in systems optimised for efficiency, and solving their problems through thoughtful design.  ( 15 min )

Sure, we can select the element in CSS with, you know, a simple element selector, html. But what other (trivial and perhaps useless) ways can we do it? The Different Ways to Select in CSS originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 9 min )

Our newest Smashing Book, “Accessible UX Research” by Michele Williams, is finally shipping worldwide — and we couldn’t be happier! This book is about research, but you’ll also learn about assistive technology, different types of disability, and how to build accessibility into the entire design process. This thoughtful book will get you thinking about ways to make your UX research more inclusive and thorough, no matter your budget or timeline. Jump to the book details or order your copy now.  ( 14 min )

Choosing between Popover API and Dialog API is difficult because they seem to do the same job, but they don’t! After a bit lots of research, I discovered that the Popover API and Dialog API are wildly different in terms of accessibility and we'll go over that in this article. Popover API or Dialog API: Which to Choose? originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 13 min )

What happens if you rebuild a single tooltip using the browser’s native model without the aid of a library? The Popover API turns tooltips from something you simulate into something the browser actually understands. Opening and closing, keyboard interaction, Escape handling, and much of the accessibility now come from the platform itself, not from ad-hoc JavaScript.  ( 19 min )

Do you need a little inspiration boost? Well, then our new batch of desktop wallpapers is for you. Designed by the community for the community, the wallpapers in this collection are the perfect opportunity to get your desktop ready for spring — and, who knows, maybe they’ll spark some new ideas, too. Enjoy!  ( 15 min )

Despite what’s been a sleepy couple of weeks for new Web Platform Features, we have an issue of What’s !important that’s prrrretty jam-packed. The web community had a lot to say, it seems, so fasten your seatbelts! What’s !important #6: :heading, border-shape, Truncating Text From the Middle, and More originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 11 min )

TL;DR: We can center absolute-positioned elements in three lines of CSS. And it works on all browsers! Yet Another Way to Center an (Absolute) Element originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 10 min )

Meet our brand new conference for designers and UI engineers who love the web. That’s [SmashingConf Amsterdam](https://smashingconf.com/amsterdam-2026), taking place in the legendary Pathé Tuschinski, on April 13–16, 2026.  ( 14 min )

Read an explanation of the recent CVE-2026-2441 vulnerability that was labeled a "CSS exploit" that "allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside a sandbox via a crafted HTML page." An Exploit … in CSS?! originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 13 min )

Browsers don't just let you bookmark web pages. You can also bookmark JavaScript, allowing you to do so much more than merely save pages. A Complete Guide to Bookmarklets originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 12 min )

Let’s get nuanced in this article and discuss the capabilities of both SVG and raster imaged so that you can make informed decisions in your own work. Loading Smarter: SVG vs. Raster Loaders in Modern Web Design originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 12 min )

Every high-resolution hero image, autoplay video, and complex JavaScript animation carries a cost. Sustainable UX challenges the era of “unlimited pixels” and reframes performance as responsibility. In 2026, truly sophisticated design is defined not by how much it adds, but by how thoughtfully it reduces its footprint.  ( 15 min )

Danny has several ideas for how we could use :near(), a proposed pseudo-class that detects when the pointer is near an element. Potentially Coming to a Browser :near() You originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 13 min )

The distinction between "components" and "utilities" seems clear at first glance, but gets a little blurred when working with them in Tailwind. Distinguishing “Components” and “Utilities” in Tailwind originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 9 min )

What makes streaks so powerful and addictive? To design them well, you need to understand how they align with human psychology. Victor Ayomipo breaks down the UX and design principles behind effective streak systems.  ( 22 min )

Lee accepts a challenge: arranging text in a spiral that animates as a vortex on scroll... all in CSS. Spiral Scrollytelling in CSS With sibling-index() originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 10 min )

Interop 2026 is officially a thing and there's plenty of new (and even old) CSS features that we can look forward to being cross-browser compatible and consistent! Interop 2026 originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 13 min )

If you've ever wondered how chat applications like Slack, Discord, or WhatsApp work behind the scenes, this tutorial will show you. You'll build a real-time chat server from scratch using Go, learning the fundamental concepts that power modern commun...  ( 36 min )

Today Quincy Larson interviews Robby Russell. Robby created the open-source project Oh My ZSH. Oh My Zsh is a framework for managing your Zsh configuration for your command line terminal. It's been extremely popular among developers for more than a d...  ( 7 min )

This issue of What’s !important is dedicated to our friends in the UK, who are currently experiencing a very miserable 43-day rain streak. Presenting: the five most interesting things to read about CSS from the last couple of weeks. Plus, the latest features from Chrome 145, and anything else you might’ve missed. TL;DR: lots of content, but also lots of rain. What’s !important #5: Lazy-loading iframes, Repeating corner-shape Backgrounds, and More originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 5 min )

Designing for mental health means designing for vulnerability. Empathy-Centred UX becomes not a “nice to have” but a fundamental design requirement. Here’s a practical framework for building trust-first mental health products.  ( 21 min )

In most languages, the stack and heap are two ways a program stores data in memory, managed by the language runtime. Each is optimized for different use cases, such as fast access or flexible lifetimes. Go follows the same model, but you usually don’...  ( 11 min )

Extracting text from PDFs sounds simple until you try to do it. And it can be even more challenging for JavaScript developers, with various libraries to choose from and so on. I encountered this problem while I was building my SaaS app. I scoured thr...  ( 22 min )

Most React developers don’t break the data fetching process all at once. It usually degrades gradually, slowly. Traditionally, you may have used a useEffect here, a loading flag there, and an error state along with it to tackle data fetching. Moving ...  ( 18 min )

This is the second part of a small two-part series. In this article, we will explore another type of grid: a pyramidal one. We are still working with hexagon shapes, but a different organization of the elements., while exploring other different shapes. Making a Responsive Pyramidal Grid With Modern CSS originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 12 min )