Four Neat Things

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. Ars Technica notes that JavaScript recently turned 30:

Today, JavaScript appears across virtually every corner of web development. The Stack Overflow Developer Survey for 2024 found that 62 percent of developers use JavaScript, making it the single most popular programming language (web or otherwise) for the twelfth year running. JetBrains' State of Developer Ecosystem Report placed JavaScript at 61 percent usage among surveyed developers, with TypeScript, a JavaScript superset that adds static typing, growing from 12 percent adoption in 2017 to 35 percent in 2024.

The language now powers not just websites but mobile applications through frameworks like React Native, desktop software through Electron, and server infrastructure through Node.js. Somewhere around 2 million to 3 million packages exist on npm, the JavaScript package registry.

The piece makes this sound all the more incredible by noting the language's origin in "[Brendan] Eich's initial 10-day hack."

2. Something else from 30 years ago, the release of Toy Story, is the occasion for the Steve Jobs Archive to release the below previously-unseen 1996 interview with Steve Jobs on Pixar's early days.

Several people I respect have recommended the interview, and this post is a reminder to myself to watch it, already!

3. Asimov Press presents an essay titled "A Most Important Mustard," about the origins of Arabidopsis thaliana, which is a common model plant in the field of molecular biology:

A. thaliana's primacy as a plant model, however, extends beyond molecular genetics; it's been employed to decipher the genetic control of flowering, leaf and root formation, hormone signaling, circadian rhythms, and plant -- pathogen interactions. And because many of its genes and pathways are conserved across plant species, insights gained from Arabidopsis routinely guide crop improvement and environmental research, making it a central reference species. It has even grown in space in an orbital laboratory, proving its resilience is not gravity-dependent. [link removed]

Anyone with an interest in molecular biology or the modern agricultural revolution the field has made possible will likely find this well-written, accessible history worth reading.

4. YesNotice -- Know the moment 'no' turns to 'yes.' The name and blurb for this new website just about spell it out, but it elaborates:

YesNotice ... notifies you the moment something you care about changes from no to yes. For example, if you want to be notified when a product is back in stock, or when a website goes online, or when a domain becomes available, YesNotice can notify you via email or SMS the moment that change happens.

The rest of the landing page explains how it works, and gives some interesting use cases, such as website monitoring, book releases, and local announcements.

I haven't tried it yet, myself, but there is a link that provides a free demo with no requirement to sign up.

-- CAV