It’s another Potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about Sass, Houdini, JS requirements, tips for your first dev job, dev laptops, databases, Frontity, and more! Linode - Sponsor Whether you’re working on a personal project or managing enterprise infrastructure, you deserve simple, affordable, and accessible cloud computing solutions that allow you to take your project to the next level. Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Linode’s Linux virtual machines and develop, deploy, and scale your modern applications faster and easier. Get started on Linode today with a $100 in free credit for listeners of Syntax. You can find all the details at linode.com/syntax. Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, you can use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more. Visit linode.com/syntax and click on the “Create Free Account” button to get started. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Auth0 - Sponsor Auth0 is the easiest way for developers to add authentication and secure their applications. They provide features like user management, multi-factor authentication, and you can even enable users to login with device biometrics with something like their fingerprint. Not to mention, Auth0 has SDKs for your favorite frameworks like React, Next.js, and Node/Express. Make sure to sign up for a free account and give Auth0 a try with the link below. https://a0.to/syntax Show Notes 02:35 - What are the use cases of SASS/SCSS in 2021? Would you still choose it over CSS (or something else?) in a new project? 05:26 - What ever happened to CSS Houdini? 08:49 - With all these JS being transferred, have you ever tried to challenge yourself to build a project that doesn’t involve any JS (in the front end alone); (e.g. just HTML+CSS)? I find it funny how I can pretty much use amazon.com with JS disabled, but I literally cannot view the angular docs if I disable it. 11:40 - As we all know, Tim Berners-Lee made the web. Apparently, after seeing everyone’s data getting harvested by tech companies, he decided to make a project called Solid (https://solidproject.org/) that allows people to own their data and control all permissions to it. So if a user logs into your app with Solid, rather than storing their info on your server, you’d store it in their Solid Pod. Do you think this could save both Web developers’ conscience and disk space in the cloud? 15:47 - I am about to start my first developer job. What practices can I start to really get off on the right foot and lay down a foundation for a successful career? 18:57 - Have you guys ever used your dev skills to trade for other goods or services? For instance, helping out an auto mechanic with their website in exchange for brake service on your car or creating a site for a barbershop traded for free haircuts for a year. If so, how do you go about starting that conversation? 22:14 - What’s your take on DRM? Have you implemented/integrated something like Widevine in any of your platforms/projects? How does one go about doing such a thing? I can’t seem to find any good docs on that. I personally can relate as to why it’s there, but end up hating it anyways. I recently found out that Prime Video only allows SD(sub HD) content on Linux and it had something to do with the Widevine DRM they employ. I got outraged and eventually canc