The First (and Last?) Unkillable Phone

Plus: AI Drops a Mixtape, Tricky CSS, and... Magic?

Author

David Thurman
February 27, 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…

A Vintage Nokia 3310 Could Last a Week on One Charge

Released in 2000, this phone had a legendary battery life and was nearly indestructible.

I guess we traded in that for our 10 hour battery life of watching TikTok videos. Progress..?

Handy Coding Tool

Make Your Overcomplicated Architecture Readable - LucidChart

Diagrams are worth a thousand words—especially when your system architecture is a labyrinth of microservices. LucidChart helps you create flowcharts, network diagrams, and more, making even the messiest designs comprehensible.

Key Features:

  • Drag-and-drop interface for quick diagramming

  • Supports collaboration with real-time updates

  • Integrates with Google Workspace, Slack, and Atlassian

Tech Highlights

AI and the Music Industry: Harmony or Horror?

Suno

As AI continues its march into the music industry, it’s revolutionizing how songs are created, discovered, and even protected. But is this a harmonious blend or a discordant disruption?

AI-Powered Music Creation: Tools like Suno and Udio allow users to generate songs from text prompts, enabling musicians to explore new genres and styles with ease.

Universal Music’s Ethical AI Push: Universal Music partnered with an AI company to develop an “ethical” music generator, aiming to create new tracks while protecting artist rights. (Source)

Impact on Jobs: A recent study predicts that individuals working in the music sector may lose nearly a quarter of their income to AI advancements within the next four years, highlighting the technology’s profound economic implications. (Source)

AI is composing its way into the music world. Only time will tell on how this duet will turn out

Note: AI tech improves, the streaming count on Mr. Roboto continues to climb. Coincidence? 🤔

Programming Tip

Use Constants for Magic Numbers

“Magic numbers” in your code are confusing and hard to maintain. Replace them with named constants for better clarity.

Why it helps:

  • Readability: Constants explain what the number represents.

  • Maintainability: Change the value in one place instead of hunting it down everywhere.

// Bad
if (userRole === 3) {
    // Admin logic
}
// Good
const ADMIN_ROLE = 3;
if (userRole === ADMIN_ROLE) {
    // Admin logic
}

Ask the Experts

“What qualities do you think set successful software developers apart from those who struggle to find success in the industry?”

I think humility is a very important quality as an engineer; you will sometimes be wrong or not understand something, no matter how experienced you are. Being willing to ask for help, or to admit that you were wrong is very important not only to earn and maintain the respect of your peers, but also will accelerate your rate of learning.

James N, Senior Software Engineer @ Clayton

Open Source Highlight

Build Better Dashboards - Appsmith

Appsmith is an open-source platform for building internal tools and dashboards quickly. Whether you need a user-friendly UI for a database or an admin panel, Appsmith has you covered.

Why It’s Awesome:

  • Drag-and-drop interface for UI components.

  • Connects seamlessly to APIs and databases.

  • Customizable with JavaScript.

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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• Courses for building your tech career.
• Interviews with professional developers.
• Handy resources to make coding life easier.
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www.beyondcode.app - Join for free!

Pop Quiz

CSS Refresher - What Color is the button text?

<div id="special">
  <button class="button">Click Me</button>
</div>
.button {
  color: white;
}

div .button {
  color: black;
}

#special .button {
  color: red;
}

Find the answer at the bottom of the newsletter!

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Pop Quiz Answer: An element with id="special" and class="button" will have red text because #special .button is the most specific selector.