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- AI Gets Its Doctorate
AI Gets Its Doctorate
Also: Automated Tests, Coding Mentors, and More!
David Thurman
April 24, 2025
Morning folks! This is Beyond Code - the newsletter designed to help developers build their careers, one Thursday at a time.
Note: This newsletter is not sponsored. Any websites/tools/apps we recommend are purely because we enjoy them personally
Did You Know…
The First Webcam Was Used to Watch Coffee
In 1991, University of Cambridge staff rigged up a camera to monitor the coffee pot so they wouldn’t waste trips to an empty one. Thus, the first webcam stream was born.
Innovation through caffeine–some things never change
Handy Coding Tool
Exercism – Practice Coding with Mentorship
Exercism is an online, open-source platform offering code practice and mentorship across 75+ different programming languages. It provides exercises and real-world coding challenges to help you improve your skills.
Key Features:
Get mentored by real developers
Thousands of coding exercises
Code online or offline
Instant automated code feedback
Website: https://www.codeium.com/
Tech Highlights
What’s Happening In Tech?
AI Revolutionize Healthcare Efficiency: AI-driven diagnostics have reduced healthcare diagnosis times by 40%, improving efficiency and accuracy in identifying diseases earlier than ever before (source)
ChatGPT Enhancements Boost Creativity: OpenAI has improved ChatGPT’s contextual understanding by 25% and introduced a new Canvas feature for rendering React/HTML code. GPT-5 is set to launch in May, further advancing conversational AI (source)
The Pet Tracker That Goes Global: SATELLAI unveiled the first satellite-connected pet tracker, ensuring your furry friends stay safe no matter where they roam. Solar-powered and capable of functioning in dense wilderness, this device is perfect for adventurers and their pets (source)
Programming Tip
Use Automated Testing
Automated tests are like a safety net that catches issues before they land in production. They also give you the courage to refactor without fear.
Why It’s a Must:
Confidence: Quick verification that your changes haven’t broken anything.
Documentation: Tests can serve as examples of proper usage.
Faster development: Fewer manual checks when you have consistent tests.
Types of Tests:
Unit Tests – Test individual functions or classes.
Integration Tests – Ensure multiple components work together.
End-to-End Tests – Validate the entire user flow from start to finish.
Ask the Experts
“If you could go back to when you first started your career, what is one piece of advice you would give?”
I would have told myself that I needed to focus more on execution at a faster rate – I slowed myself down a lot because I would spend days finding all answers by myself, because I was convinced that I needed to prove myself and do it all on my own. Your team and mentors are there to help you – use them!
Open Source Highlight
Translate Your App with Tolgee
Tolgee is an open-source localization tool that simplifies translating your app. It provides an intuitive UI for managing translations and works well with modern frameworks.
Why It’s Awesome:
In-context translation editing.
Supports integration with frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.
Reduces the pain of managing localization files.
Website: https://tolgee.io/
What’s Open Source?
“Open sourced projects” refer to projects that have their code open to the public. They allow anyone to contribute to the project and help maintain it. Not only are they a great way to get hands on experience early on in your career, they also provide you a way to add bigger projects to your resume!
Shameless Plug
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Pop Quiz
What’s the Problem with This Loop?
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
for i in range(len(numbers)):
numbers.pop(i)
print(numbers)Find the answer at the bottom of the newsletter!
Rate this weeks newsletter: |
Pop Quiz Answer: Modifying a list while iterating over it based on its original length causes unpredictable behavior and will likely raise an error. In this case, the list shrinks with each .pop(), so the index eventually goes out of bounds.