DEV Community: Hieu Nguyen

Web Dev Bootcamp ∙ Introduction

Hieu Nguyen — Fri, 01 May 2020 22:40:02 +0000

Introduction

Welcome to the Web Dev Bootcamp!

If you have an interest in web development or are trying something new, then you are in the right place.

Curriculum

Introduction

Learn the standard web technologies - HTML, CSS, and Javascript
Advanced Javascript ES5 and ES6 features
Bash Commands
Overview of Git

Backend

Introduction to NodeJS and ExpressJS
Understand how API and requests works
Database with MongoDB and Mongoose
Authentication in Node

Frontend

Learning React - components, states, styling
Connecting React with Redux
Connecting React client to API

Deploying App

Learn how to deploy web app to heroku

Conclusion

Review
What to do after completing the course

Getting Help

You can get help by:

following me on twitter
submitting a github issue
join the Devsurvival discord server
post your question in the discussion section below each post

Getting Source Code

You will find all relevant source code for this bootcamp here

Good Luck and Have Fun 😄

Start Learning

My Love And Hate Relationship With Hackathons

Hieu Nguyen — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 13:00:00 +0000

My First Hackathon

I was hanging out at one of my favorite developer communities, devto, and I ran into a post written by one of the admins at Devto announcing that Twilio was hosting their 2020 hackathon at Devto. The hackathon is hosted online, so you don’t have to relocate to participate. I happen to be in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, so given my abundance of time and boredom, I joined my first hackathon.

What is a hackathon?

Feel free to skip this part if you already know what it is or if you want to validate what I am saying is for the most part accurate.

“A hackathon is simply a gathering of developers who share similar interests and are trying to solve some problem in society using current technologies” ~ Hieu Nguyen

The general gists of it is:

They propose a theme.
You brainstorm some ideas around that theme by yourself or with other people.
Once you have an idea, start planning and implementing it.
Testing and fine tuning your application.
Show time - there is usually a chance for you to present your project or post it on some forum for others to see
Receive feedbacks - this is very useful because other developers (some are a lot better than you. Trust me, I learned from personal experience) will look at your application and point of things that you might have missed or complement you on the things they liked.

The goal is not to produce a battle tested application with many features. It is about working together and building something minimally functional to showcase your ideas. Think of it as planting the seed.

Theme and Brainstorming

For this particular hackathon the themes were:

COVID-19 Communications : an app to help folks communicate during this challenging time, either to stay connected or to help resolve COVID-19 related challenges.

Engaging Engagements : an app that a company could implement to better engage with their customers or to manage their business.

Interesting Integrations : an app that integrates Twilio with at least one other API.

Exciting X-Factors : an innovative or unexpected app that doesn’t necessarily fit any of the above categories, but is a clear winner nonetheless.

learn more

Note: you have to integrate one of the Twilio API into your application. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called the Twilio Hackathon.

My approach to comming up with an idea

I did not rush head first into the hackathon like many people would. Yes there was a time limit. However, it is entirely up to you to manage your own project, so I waited a good week or so. During this time, I was searching for ideas and looking at other people’s submissions to gain some inspiration. The worst thing that can happen is you did something that some else did. To avoid this, do your research and really think outside the box. Some questions you might asks are:

What problems am I facing that I can solve using technology?
Do other people also have this problem?
Are there existing technologies that fix or alleviate this problem?
Can the existing solution to this problem be improved and maybe I can make it better?

My humble beginnings

Since this was my first hackathon, I decided to take the safe route and choose something very simple. A lot of people think that at every hackathon, you have to build something complex with a lot of functionalities. Yes there will be submissions that are crazy advanced and complicated, but bare in mind that it is YOUR hackathon experience. You are free to go at your own pace.

So in this spirit, I built an app that lets you sign up for an account with your phone number, set a timer, and once the timer runs out, you get a text message telling you get off your electron device and offers a suggestion for something else you can do.

I called it: Device Police. I know not the greatest idea or name for that matter, but it suited my level of experience and was achievable within the time constraint.

view full submission

What I love about hackathons

Own your ideas - the nature of a hackthon to challenge your critical thinking and creativity really helps you to think of new ideas.
You are your own boss - Unlike a school project or a work project, a hackathon project is for the most part controlled entirely by you. Besides the theme and several criteria that they imposed, you are not really restricted by any schedule or standards. You want to build it the night before the submission deadline? Go at it! The internet is your oyster.
Meeting awesome people - Sometimes you get to team up with complete strangers with a completely different set of perspectives and skills. This is really good because whatever skill you lack, that person might be able to compensate, and vice versa. Many of these relationships can last a lifetime. They could be your future co-worker at a startup or a friend who considers coding as a conversational topic.
Building presense - Think of a hackathon as an audition for programmers. You prepare your act, polish it, show up on audition day, and cross your finger hoping you pass. Hackathons provide a stage and an audience that may include potential employers. Even if you don’t win it, being present and making something cool and useful is enough to turn a couple eyes in your direction.
Free and unlimited membership - Most of the time, a hackathon is sponsored by some big company who are willing to spare a small percentage of their fortune to scout potential hires or to establish interests in a certain field. For you, that means admission is typically free. The only thing you pay is time, passion, and maybe a little dignity. You will make mistakes, but don’t let that discourage or prevent you from joining a hackathon. Keep in mind that you are surrounded by people who makes a living by fixing bugs or faults in an application that is how you learn.

What I don’t like about Hackathons

Note: Some of these do not apply to hackathons hosted online, but they are fair expectations of an in-person hackathon.

Unrealistic time constraint - a lot of hackathons tends to span a day or two. This small window translates to sloppy code and bugs. Many projects fall through because they could not accommodate a roadblock or a nasty bug.
Toxic environment - If you’ve attended a hackathon in person, then you probably have noticed that they are usually not organized with health and productivity in mind. You are in this crowded space. Lots of talking and cursing(a natural tendency when your codes doesn’t work). When it comes to food offerings, don’t expect a michelin star meal. They often prep pizzas, caffeinated drinks, and other unhealthy food.
Too much socializing and not enough coding - One of the perks of being at a hackathon is meeting people. However, like they always say: too much of a good things is a bad thing. It can become very distracting when you are trying to complete your project and socialize at the same time.

Should you join a hackathon?

If you haven’t been to one before, then I would definitely advise to try it at least once.

If you have previous experiences with hackathons, then make your best judgement and considered how much value you gained from attending it. If it wasn’t good, what could you have done differently? How could the organizers make it better? Would you consider doing an online hackathon?

How To Earn A Free Ticket To A Computer Science Internship

Hieu Nguyen — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 23:46:37 +0000

Who is this post for?

If you are a computer science student who’s actively looking for an internship or preparing to do so, definitely keep reading. If you have a genuine interest in computer science and are considering a career as a developer, feel free to keep reading. If none of the above applies to you, but your curiosity is killing you, I guess I can’t stop you 🤷

Background

I have done 2 internships. One at UPS and the other at Rawlings Group. The first internship was the harder job search of the two, which was expected because I did not have any relevant job experience. After doing multiple interviews and working at two different companies, I have noticed things that were helping me land more interviews and ultimately more job opportunities. In this session, I am going to share some tips on how to land your internship and things that I have done to greatly increase the chances.

New fish in the sea

credits tounsplash-logo
Sense

Just like a freshman in highschool, you are the small fish in the vast, diverse tech industry. I mean a really small fish, like a sardine compared to shark. The shark has years of experience in the sea. It knows how the environments behaves and how to adapt. As a newcomer, it can be tough to fit in and dig a room for yourself in this rapidly changing environment. If you started out feeling this way, then we were born in the same school of fish.

However, we consume, learn, and ultimately grow. With each stage of our growth, we must find a new shell or hole to fit in. In this post, I am going to show you how to find your next hole or internship as a small fry in the sea.

Cutting to the chase

Here is a list of things to follow to guarantee your next internship.

The extra mile - There is only so much stuff that a computer science degree can teach you. When most universities are designing their computer science curriculums they are asking: What should I teach that will provide the most fundamental skills and will remain relevant 20 years from now? 9 times out of 10, a highly demanding programming framework or a trending language does not make the cut. The reason why they are not taught is simply because in the next couple of years, something else will replace it, which means they have to redesign their course. For these reasons, I implore you to not wait for your professor to feed you all the technical knowledge you need to succeed. Those who are successful are the same ones going the extra mile to obtain the skills needed in the REAL world. How?
1. Start by finding your interests. It could be a coding language or a technology. For instance, I was interested in web development, so I choose to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript
2. Research your topic and gather resources
3. Train and Apply - use online tutorials, courses, and documentation as a learning aid. Once you know it enough, start applying it by building something or teaching it to someone else(blog, video tutorial, answering question).
4. After you have apply what you’ve learned to build or produce something tangible, you can start leveraging it in your interviews and on your resume.
Cast a wide net - This one is a no-brainer. Don’t apply to just your favorite companies or the ones that shows up in the top 500 fortune companies list. By doing so, you are limiting your own chances of scoring an internship.
Networking - Having a presence in the tech industry can be pivotal in getting an internship. Many of your connections can help provide a direct line to new job opportunities and a beneficial relationships with potential employers. They say it is always easier to ask a favor from someone you know as oppose to a stranger. How?

Create a LinkedIn account and reach out to potential employers.
Join a developer community like devto or reddit.
Build a profolio website and share it
Get involved in social events and conferences.
Join a hackathon - many employers will search for potential hires at a hackathon. Regardless, it is a good experience to have on your resume.

4.“NEVER GIVE UP”

via GIPHY

Let’s face it. You are going to be turned down once or twice, but don’t let that overshadow how much success is in store for you once you’ve earned a ticket to your internship.

4 Wonderful OS For Computer Science Students. Number 3 is a must.

Hieu Nguyen — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 23:46:37 +0000

⏭️ Skip to list

What is an operating system?

For the sake of brevity, an OS or operating system is a piece of software that runs your hardware in a computer. It provides a level of abstraction and offers the convenient user experience that we all know and love. The invention of modern day operating system helped to bridge the gap between humans and computers. Computers existed before operating systems came about. However, using one at that time required a high degree of computer knowledge that most people did not have.

How does the choice of operating system affects computer science?

As a computer science student myself, I was forced to dig deep into what a computer is and how they work. Contrary to the belief that computer science is just about learning algorithms and coding. There are many layers in a computer

There is the hardware layer(hard drives, CPU, RAM, registers, cache). Then there is the operating system and application layer. Choosing an operating system will affect the entire composition of a computer.

As a computer science student you are forced to go down these layers and interact with them. Choosing the right operating system for these tasks can make a difference in your learning experience and how successful you will be.

Not all operating systems are the same

Window is not the same as mac. Mac is not the same as Linux. Linux is not the same as Windows. Although they achieve similar goals, how they are implemented is a different story. Remember as a computer science student, you are not concerned with using the operating system, because anyone can do that. You are concerned with how Pit works!

Top 4 OS for computer science students

Note: The order is not an indication of one being better than the other.

Window - The most popular operating systems, and chances are, you are running it right now. This is good for basic computer tasks like file management and browsing the internet. You can also do programming on window, but some of the tool-chains is not the most forgiving to install or use.
Mac OS - Most developers you see at hackathons or conferences will likely sport a macbook running Mac OS. There are good reasons for that: the hardware is good, it’s reliable, no-headache when setting up new tools or working with existing popular technologies, stunning interface. However, the main benefit for a computer science student is the terminal. Even if you are using an IDE or integrated development environment, you will find yourself coming back to the terminal from time to time. The terminal provides some very powerful features such as file management, installing packages and modules, compiling your code, and executing your code. Since Mac OS is based on Unix, the development experience is pretty similar to linux. However, since Mac OS is proprietary, you are prevented from seeing the source code and doing certain things that violate the term of use. Even if it was for learning.
Ubuntu - Open source, linux distribution. These two things are the main reason why every computer science students should use Linux. There are many distributions of linux that you can choose from. This flexibility allows you to hop between different linux operating systems while still maintaining the core functionality. The fact that it is open sourced means that you can look at the source code and try to learn how it works. you can even change it if you want to! This transparency provides the perfect learning environment for a computer science students. The expectation is for you to learn how a computer works, software and hardware. What better way to do that than by using a naked operating system. Similar to how you dissect a frog to learn how it functions, you need to dissect an operating system and all its underlying components to learn how a computer functions. In addition, you can install ubuntu on virtually any computer!
Chrome OS - This one is relatively new to the market, but it is slowly growing into the developer’s community. You can use it to run python and Node, and support for linux features is slowing creeping its way in. Some of the main attractions of Chrome OS is its affordability and simplicity. Amazon sells these chromebooks for less than $500.

Parting advice

Whatever you decide on, know the differences between these operating systems and when to use one over the other. There will be a point in your education or career where you are not given the choice in which operating system to use. For instance, I had to use linux for my operating systems class or else risks failing the class because the tests used to validate the projects were written specifically for linux. So it is in your best interests to dap your feet in the water with what is available.

Learn The Truth About Getting a Computer Science Degree In The Next 5 Minutes

Hieu Nguyen — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 10:46:37 +0000

credits tounsplash-logo
Matt Ragland

What is Computer Science?

According to Techopedia

Computer science is the study of both computer hardware and software design. It encompasses both the study of theoretical algorithms and the practical problems involved in implementing them through computer hardware and software.

Dictionary.com defines computer science as

the science that deals with the theory and methods of processing information in digital computers, the design of computer hardware and software, and the applications of computers.

These definitions can be a mouthful sometime and the meaning can sometimes get lost in the jargon, so let’s pick out some keywords.

Software - There are many forms that is thing exists in. It could be an app on your phone, your desktop programs like a pdf reader, or a website. At the end of the day, they are just lines of text. What makes these lines of text different than a regular piece of text is that the computer views them as commands. When you type print "hello world". To a normal human being, it is the equivalent of writing I love chicken nugget. However, to the computer, these words are quite different. The computer thinks: “ooh ooh, I just received a command to do something. Let’s see what it is…Yes I can definitely print ‘hello world’ for you. No problem …printing…printing…Here you go. I am done printing your message :)”
Theory - The logical reasoning and analysis of how a computer and software function using models and mathematics.
Computer - a software can be run on any hardware that is able to store and process data. It could be your smart washing machine, but the majority of the software are designed to be run on a computer.
Hardware - There is a misconception out there that software and data exists in a realm outside our physical world like magic 🌈. However, as any computer scientists will tell you, that is far from the truth. Data must be stored on a physical hard drive. There are electrical components and moving parts that helps to read and write data to your hard drive. In order to run your command, you need a central processing unit or CPU. CPU is a hardware that exists in your computer. Its job is to process information and do whatever it is you tell it to.
Algorithm - So we have a command that prints "Hello World", but now we want it to take in some input like a name and give us an output like print "Hieu". This can be achieved using an algorithm. An algorithm is like a black box that you can pour some inputs into, and then get something back from it.

Why Do People Get A Computer Science Degree?

Money - Average salary for a software developer in the United States is $76,525. This value can changed depending on where you live and the level of experience with the highest pay ranging from 100k - 350k. Despite the high pay, most of these people would keep do their job and love doing it for even a fraction of their current salary.
They Love Doing It - many programers consider their work as artistic. In fact, programming or coding requires a high degree of creativity and critical thinking. It is similar to the high that other artists experience. They just want to keep doing again and again.
They Want To Change The World - Many programmers dreams of one day developing something that will revolutionize the world. They draw their inspiration from the likes of Mark Zurkerberg who developed Facebook.

Do I need a Degree To Be A Software Developer?

Absolutely Not. In the age of the internet, there is really no limit to what you can learn online.For instance, I wanted to build a blog a couple of weeks ago, but I did not have the technical knowledge to do so. My computer science program wasn’t going to help. I was too busy doing calculus and solving algorithms problem. However, I wasn’t going to give up there. I researched online on how to learn web development and starting a blog. Within a couple months, my blog was up and running.

Self-taught to a Career

Once you are feeling confident, you can start looking for work. Since you don’t have a degree, the only thing that is going to back you up is experience , experience , and more experience. There are many ways to accumulate experience:

Build and publish a successful app.
Join a coding bootcamp
Network with other developers
Freelancing
Contribute to open source
Blogging - teaching what you have learned to someone else. If done correctly, this approach can mark you as an authoritative figure in your niche. Note: patience is required for this route as you have to start building your creditability and fan base.

Is It That Simple?

There are several reasons why you should still want a computer science degree.

Direct Access to Job Market after graduation as many companies are looking to hire new graduates.
Understanding The Fundamentals - Many computer science skills, such as data structure and operating systems, are just not taught at the same level in a self-taught environment compared to a college class.
Networking - You are surrounded by professors, experts, and other students who all shared the same interests, so being able to find a connection in your field is trivial.
Internship - Many universities will offer opportunities to complete internships for class credit. Doing an internship provides you with some real world perspectives and skills that are likely not taught in school. Plus, you get the 💰💰💰
College Experience - Just do it so you can say you’ve done it philosophy.

Mac - Changing Font Size Without Lowering Display Resolution

Hieu Nguyen — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 22:40:32 +0000

Many other guides on this topic solve this problem by changing your display scaling. Although this methods works and is fairly simple, it does result in a minor degradation of visual quality or display resolution.

This tutorial is a little bit different. I am going to show you how easy it is to change your system font without the side effects of lowering your resolution. Let’s get started.

Who is this guide for?

If you are a person who likes to take your gadgets and experiment with them, then this guide is for you. If you are just trying to quickly change the font size or the scaling of your mac’s appearance without downloading extra software, then I recommend using the provided display settings provided by Apple in your mac’s preferences.

Step 1

Download TinkerTool. This tools allows you to tweak certain things in your mac that are usually not exposed to the common user. Don’t worry it is legal 😉.

Step 2

Open the Tinkertool dmg file and open the TinkerTool app. There will be a couple pop-ups, just click continue on those.

Step 3

Navigate to the “font” panel. Once you are there, you can change any of the available font options according to your needs. There is no need to save your changes once you are done, just restart any application and you will see the update, and that is it. You can always go back and fine tune it to suit your preference.

How do I reset everything and pretend this never happened?

Simple. Navigate to the reset panel and click “reset to pre-tinkertool state”.

“It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.”-Terry Pratchett,

TwilioHackathon - DevicePolice Available Now!

Hieu Nguyen — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 18:41:56 +0000

What I built

DevicePolice is a small tool that helps you curve your habit of spending too much time on your device. As a result of COVID-19 and the quarantine, more people are staying at home and consequently spending more time on their device. However, staying at home doesn't mean you have to give up all activities. There are plenty of things that you can do in the comfort of your own home.

How it works

A user sign ups for an account using their phone number.
They get transported to a dashboard or pieces of one at least 😰
They set a timer. How many hours, minutes, or seconds they want
Request is sent to Node and Express server.
The server starts a timer independent of what state the client is in => you can close the browser or refresh the page and the timer is still running.
When the timer is over, you get a text message to your phone reminding you to get off your device! It also includes a recommendation for something else you can do 😄

Note: there is also a feature to delete your account if you no longer want to use it. We don't keep any of your information (phone number, etc...) after you delete your account 👍

Demo Link

Check it out!
Device Police

Link to Code

frontend
If you just want to try it out locally:

git clone https://github.com/htnguy/device-police-frontend.git

backend

git clone https://github.com/htnguy/device-police-backend

How I built it

Backend

NodeJS - server runtime for JS
Express - web framework
Mongoose - ODM that makes working with MongoDB feel like heaven
MongoDB - database for storing users, verification tokens, etc...
Twilio Node Helper - The whole point of this hackathon => Makes interacting with Twilio SMS API much easier.
JSONWebTokens - authentication
Bored API - getting a random activity that you can do instead of being on your device.

Frontend

React - the wonderful UI library that we all know and love.
Gatsby - Awesome static site generator
Axios - making API Request from client

Deployments

Backend - Heroku (it is free and super easy to deploy your node app)
Frontend - Netlify - great hosting for Gatsby and React app.

Both of these have continuous integration with Github => push new changes => redeploy app 😄

Walls that I bumped into

Coming up with an idea - This part was the most difficult aspect about this project. I was so conscious of what other people have done, so that this project doesn't seem redundant.
Authentication - this app does not store any emails or other credentials besides your phone number and a password, So coming up with a reliable and secure way of authenticating a user was one of the top priorities.

Let me know how I can make it better 💡

The Power Of Bookmarking Websites

Hieu Nguyen — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 22:40:32 +0000

What is Bookmarking?

Credits to: unsplash-logo
五玄土 ORIENTO

Bookmarking is the practice of saving a website to your browser for easy access at a later time. On Google Chrome, there is usually a star at the end of the URL bar that lets you bookmark the current page. Pretty straight forward, but it is one of the most under-appreciated feature.

Why you should start Bookmarking

Bookmarking allows you to quickly save a website, so you can look at it later like an interesting article that you want to read later. You can bookmark your most visited sites, such as Youtube or Twitter. People tend to visit these sites with high frequency throughout the day, and being able to directly go to them with a click of a button can be a time saver.

Please save yourself from a carpal tunnel by clicking that star to save the website. Otherwise, bookmark your frequently visit websites so you can avoid the common habit of doing a google search every time… Cmon, we have all been there. Me: trying to get to Youtube

typing “yout” in the URL bar
waiting for the google search algorithm to do its things
its done finally! (Click the first Youtube result)

Bookmarking on Steroid

Are you convinced yet? Bookmarking in its simplest form is great, but what if you have hundreds of websites? Start grouping websites into directories! This is where the true power of bookmarking lies in. Organizing related websites into folders allows you to quickly and intuitively find a website you are looking for. For instance if I was looking for a website I bookmarked about a hackathon, I can intuitively go into my bookmark directories : code -> hackathon -> my_hackathon.com

It might be cumbersome or even pointless to do it this way, but at least give it a try 🙏. I had some doubts when I first started, but the investment was totally worth it now 😄

Blogging As A Learning Tool

Hieu Nguyen — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:40:32 +0000

What is Blogging?

Photo Credits To: unsplash-logo
NeONBRAND

This question has probably been answered a thousand times, but I will answer it from the perspective of a computer science student which might differ a little bit with the conventional views.

Besides being a great tool for sharing new ideas or maybe passing along some useful information. Blogging can also serve as a learning tool for the writer themselves. Just consider what is going on inside the blogger’s mind when they are writing. For instance, if you were writing a blog about how to build a website, you first have to know how to do it yourself. Once you know how to do it, your next challenge is to formulate how you are going to deliver it to the audience. Some questions you might ask:

How should I break down the problem?
What are some questions or challenges that my audience will have if I wrote it this way?
Can I simplify it even further to enhance understanding?
Will this information be overwhelming?
If I was in their shoes, what would I wish the author could have done better?
Can some people see the value in reading this post?

These are not all the questions going through the bloggers mind, but it paints a pretty good picture of the thinking process.

How Does Blogging Helps You Learn?

There is a common understanding that a true expert of anything can explain their topic to even the most unintelligent of us. This concept is called The Protégé Effect, the act of teaching someone else as a mean to learn. Sounds selfish, but it works. I have practiced this method multiple times when learning a new programming skill, and I must confess that I am a better programmer because of it.

What’s Next?

The next time you confront a new learning challenge, write about it and try to teach it to someone else!

What If I am Wrong?

Before becoming a blogger, I always had some reservations about how other people would react. However, I learned that a blog is the best place to make a mistake 😄 When you are wrong about something people are quick to point out your mistakes, and you as the writer, should take those criticisms and feedbacks and improve from them!

Happy Blogging 🌟 😃 🌟!

COVID-19 vs College Students

Hieu Nguyen — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:40:35 +0000

Hope you all are doing well in this tough time 😄

While time is an expendable resource for most of us, I just wanted to share some of my experiences as a college student during Covid-19 and hopefully get a good discussion going.

3/16/2020 - I received an email from my school calling for an extension to the spring break. I was not shocked, but was kind of expecting this to happen given the precedent that we were in. So I waited until 3/18/2020.

3/18/2020 - I received another email from my school. All in person lectures are cancelled and remote delivery will be the primary means of getting material until 4/7/2020 (not the end of the semester => there is still a chance that we get to come back 😄). I was already taking a few online classes, and was ready to take a few more. However, a lot of my peers were not ready for this transition. Some just learn better if they can attach the voice to a physical presence and when they are constrained by a controlled learning environment.

3/20/2020 - Extension of remote classes to the summer semester:sad:. This is it. It is really happening. We are the next generation to experience an educational shift that carries a high degree of uncertainty.

Changes:

increase in video lectures
greater utilization of collaborative networks: Discord, Slack, BlackBoard Collab, Microsoft Teams, etc...
increase # of emails from school and teachers
test were delivered online using special browsers that block access to other applications (respondus lockdown). Professors will attempt to maintain the integrity of the testing environment by enforcing certain restrictions: no phones, your desk must be clean, no electronics, you need a webcam, the webcam has to be pointing at your face the whole time, no standing up, the list goes on... This is sometime hard to do when you are in your own living space and are not mentally situated for a testing situation (you are taking a real freaken test, but it feels like you are taking an online quiz in your spare time).
Project presentation. This one has been the most difficult thing to do; It is sometimes hard to find a compatible time.

As a student, what are some of the issues you deal with? How have you coped with these issues? What can be done to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on student's learning?

Top 10 Discord Servers For Developers

Hieu Nguyen — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 22:40:32 +0000

What The Heck is Discord ?

Discord is a community based chatting app that allows you to directly connect with other people within your niche. Although Discord was initially built for gamers, it grew and people from all walks of life started using it to empower their connectivity.

One of those communities is obviously the developer’s communities. I say communities , plural, because there are multiple sub-communities. One might focus on web development while another might focus on game development.

Here Are My Top 10 Discord Servers To Join As a Developer

Did I Miss One?

There are a lot of servers, so narrowing it down to a handful is quite a difficult task, so if I missed a very reputable one, please forgive me 😥 and post it in the comment below.

Here are the additional suggestions made by contributors like you:

Reactiflux
Vue Land
Typescript
Laravel
Qovery

How Many Hours Do You Code In a Day During a Crisis

Hieu Nguyen — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 22:40:32 +0000

At the time of writing this, I was under locked down due to the coronavirus. There was not a lot that I could do to pass the time. I could waste time on youtube or browse the latest viral news. Instead, I decided to code and learn something new while I’m at it. Yeah yeah, “overachiever over hurr”. What? I like to code. Coding and A LOT of free time is a perfect combination.

For the last week or so, I have put in an average of 6-8 hrs a day ≈ a full day job without the pay.

DEV Community: Hieu Nguyen

Web Dev Bootcamp ∙ Introduction

Introduction

Curriculum

Introduction

Backend

Frontend

Deploying App

Conclusion

Getting Help

Getting Source Code

Good Luck and Have Fun 😄

Start Learning

My Love And Hate Relationship With Hackathons

My First Hackathon

What is a hackathon?

Theme and Brainstorming

My approach to comming up with an idea

My humble beginnings

What I love about hackathons

What I don’t like about Hackathons

Should you join a hackathon?

How To Earn A Free Ticket To A Computer Science Internship

Who is this post for?

Background

New fish in the sea

Cutting to the chase

4 Wonderful OS For Computer Science Students. Number 3 is a must.

What is an operating system?

How does the choice of operating system affects computer science?

Not all operating systems are the same

Top 4 OS for computer science students

Parting advice

Learn The Truth About Getting a Computer Science Degree In The Next 5 Minutes

What is Computer Science?

Why Do People Get A Computer Science Degree?

Do I need a Degree To Be A Software Developer?

Self-taught to a Career

Is It That Simple?

Mac - Changing Font Size Without Lowering Display Resolution

Who is this guide for?

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

How do I reset everything and pretend this never happened?

TwilioHackathon - DevicePolice Available Now!

What I built

How it works

Demo Link

Link to Code

How I built it

Backend

Frontend

Deployments

Walls that I bumped into

Let me know how I can make it better 💡

The Power Of Bookmarking Websites

What is Bookmarking?

Why you should start Bookmarking

Bookmarking on Steroid

Blogging As A Learning Tool

What is Blogging?

How Does Blogging Helps You Learn?

What’s Next?

What If I am Wrong?

COVID-19 vs College Students

Top 10 Discord Servers For Developers

What The Heck is Discord ?

Here Are My Top 10 Discord Servers To Join As a Developer

Did I Miss One?

How Many Hours Do You Code In a Day During a Crisis

So what about you? What crisis are you in right now? How has that affected your productivity?