DEV Community: Sebastian Alsina

Need help? Looking for homies? Join our Web Dev Chat with Like-minded Individuals. Everyone is welcome.

Sebastian Alsina — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 23:19:59 +0000

Hiya!

I've created a Discord servers for like-minded developers to commune. You can join here.

WorldWideWeb is a new Discord server for humans who...
🐥 Want to find like-minded individuals with similar interests in web development.
🦄 Need help on their web-related projects.
🐸 Seek to hire talented developers, or seek to be hired for their talents.
🧬 Want a place to share, talk about, and find information on web-related projects.

Web developers of all kinds are invited—wether you're a pro, a beginner, or simply are interested in learning a thing or 2, you're welcome to join us.

Personally, my focus is in JavaScript based technology, so we currently have channels for a bunch of JavaScript frameworks, such as React.js and Electron.js. We've also created channels for most of the common languages, such as CSS, HTML, PHP, Python, and more.

We're actively developing this server, so we're open to creating new web-related channels desired by users.

We're also just starting off, so if anyone is interested in becoming a contributor (helper, administrator, etc.), we could surely use some help.

I hope this grows into an inviting place for web developers of all trades.

Seeya there! :)

Join
https://discord.gg/HhvVybh

Generate .mobileconfig files to make mailbox set-up a breeze for your clients

Sebastian Alsina — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 22:23:16 +0000

https://mobileconfig.vercel.app/

Ever heard of .mobileconfig files?

.mobileconfig are small .plist files that can be used to deploy a configuration payload for various settings and apps on iOS and macOS devices.

Traditionally, they're used to set-up mailboxes that utilize custom a custom domain name or custom IMAP hostnames without the need to manually enter your mailbox username, password, and other data on each device.

This make is very useful for deploying a mailboxes to multiple devices with ease, and makes it extremely easy to deliver access to mailboxes you host for you clientele, employees, or partners.

They can skip all the complex manual configuration and simply tap on the .mobileconfig file you've sent them to automatically configure their inboxes.

I found myself manually creating .mobileconfig files too ofter, so I built a solution I'd like to share with the world.

Here's how you can generate `.mobileconfig` for your mailboxes.

https://mobileconfig.vercel.app/

Utilizing the web-app is quite simple. Just enter your mailbox credentials including your IMAP + SMPT hostnames, usernames and passwords, and the intelligent super-computer robot will generate your file and present you with a button to download it or a button to copy the URL, should you chose to send it to someone.

The web-app also features a API, which allows you to enable your app to generate .mobileconfig files programatically.

You can also preview the .plist file live on the website after it's been generated. Take a moment to read through and learn how they work. You could copy the contents of the preview into your own email.mobileconfig and it'll work just like the one the web-app offers for download.

The absolute best part about the web-app is that it does not store anything and does not have a database, so you can live 100% confidently that your data won't ever be misused. The source of the website + API is open source available on GitHub.

Now you're a master of all things email.

Never again spend 45 minutes explaining to your grandma how to set-up her custom @familyname.com email inbox you've set up for her.

I want to mention my happiness with the services at Vercel which make this little app possible. The website uses Next.js and Vercel's Serverless Functions to make this possible.

Do yourself a service and check out Vercel, and while you're at it... why don't you follow me on Twitter?

Cast your vote: What’s the best front-end framework?

Sebastian Alsina — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 19:22:15 +0000

I figured there was no better community to ask then dev.to!

What’s the best framework or toolset for developing a front-end for your website or web—app?

There’s many to choose from, including, but not limited to:

React.js
Next.js
Gatsby
Vue.js

Personal, I’m absolutely in love with the environment around Next.js + Vercel. The tooling is amazingly easy to use, and server-side rendering is a must-have for most of my projects.

I started my React journey with creat-react-app, but Next’s superiority when it comes to file-based page routing blows it out of the water for me.

So: What’s your pick?

Check the temperature of your Raspberry Pi on any OS with `pitemp`

Sebastian Alsina — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 23:12:05 +0000

There's nothing funner then setting up your brand new Pi, especially if you picked up a starter kit that includes a case and a fan. A good case and fan allows you to overclock the Pi to higher speeds, allowing some pretty cool things.

If you're like, that brings some worry to table!

What if my Pi is getting too hot and it burns my board?

Although this scenario is not probable due to the Pi's smart cooling system that will automatically throttle the CPU if it reaches a temperature of about ~85° C, it's always a good idea to test the temperature of your Pi during initial set-up. When your Pi'c CPU is throttled, it slows down and loses its ability to perform at its max—that's not something we want happening.

I'd recommend checking the temperature of your machine somewhat regularly, just to ensure new processes aren't causing your machine to throttle.

Unfortunately, if you're running an OS other than Raspbian—the Raspberry Pi's recommended/default OS—the available tooling for checking temperature is limited.

Fortunately, there's a command line utility named pitemp (that I built) to quickly check the temperature of your machine. It's built in JavaScript and works on most OS's available for the Pi (Ubuntu, Linux Arch, etc.) and on almost all platforms, including macOS and Windows.

https://pitemp.vercel.app/

Here's how you can use pitemp. It's just a single line of code.

Usage

Requires NodeJS.

1. Using `pitemp` with `npx`

The suggested usage is npx, because that way you'll always be running the latest version of pitemp without installing it. npx is installed by default with npm. You can get npm by installing NodeJS.

npx pitemp

// pitemp is reporting every X seconds.
// Main: 62.322° C - Max: 62.322° C

2. Installing globally and running

You can install pitemp globally with your favorite package manager.

npm install -g pitemp
yarn global add pitemp

Then simply run pitemp with the command.

pitemp

// pitemp is reporting every X seconds.
// Main: 61.323° C - Max: 62.826° C

You can read the full documentation and view the flags available on the pitemp NPM page. pitemp is an open source tool built in Node.js. Drop it a star on Github!

Now you know how to ensure your Pi does not become deep fried. Run a stress test and see how high you can push it... with a decent fan, you should never hit 85° C or more—even if you're overclocked.

Once you're done with that, shoot me a follow on Twitter. Thanks for the read!

Updating `rsync` on macOS, so you're not stuck with 14 year old software

Sebastian Alsina — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 07:51:56 +0000

rysnc is a very useful command line utility to synchronize folders between locations. You can use it to transfer large folders between drives or remote locations. I use it to deploy Node apps to my Droplet almost everyday.

Unfortunately, macOS (even Big Sur!) ships with version 2.6.9—a version that came out 14 years ago (in 2006).

rsync --version
// rsync  version 2.6.9  protocol version 29
// ...

Fortunately, updating rsync is very easy. We'll use Homebrew (brew.sh) for macOS to do so.

Here's how to do it in 2 steps and 5 minutes.

Install Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

snippet from https://brew.sh/

Update rsync

brew install rsync

Now, checking the version should return a newer version of rsync. Your version might differ if you're reading this in the future (or the past?).

rsync --version
// rsync  version 3.2.2  protocol version 31
// ...

A grand benefit of updating to a newer version is the implementation of the --info=progress2 flag, which prints the progress of the rsync operation allowing you to ensure the process is working. Extremely useful.

Optionally, you can create an alias, making rsync print with progress every-time. Here's a preset of flags I always use.

alias rsync="rsync -az --info=progress2"

rsync flags and documentation.

Now, enjoy your super-powered rsync on macOS and follow me on Twitter. :)