DEV Community: Emmanuel C. Ngowi

tag and @import Which one should you use?

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 07:49:14 +0000

Most of us have come across something like this:

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300,400,600,700,800');

while importing Google Web Fonts into our CSS. It's the way to import a certain style into our stylesheet for the sake of UX and UI.

However, this is not highly recommended when it come to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), this is because by doing so your webpage will automatically become heavier (therefore it would take extra few seconds in loading it's contents to your users)

Well, there's a way for you to avoid such problem. It's highly recommended to use <link>

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300,400,600,700,800" rel="stylesheet">

instead of @import If you're concerned about SEO and Performance, it's recommended to use <link> tag because it can preload the font therefore minimize the loading time.

Kindly note that, SEO and Performance are the key for your website growths and sustainability, hence choose appropriate systems that would give you an edge in today's competitive cyber environment.

Until next time friend, be safe

Make It Safer! Make it Useful for All.

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 12:11:25 +0000

Hello friends, today I would like to remind you of something useful

According to Statista website they said that as of January, 2021 there are 4.66 Billion Users of Internet this is equivalent to 59.5% of all people in the World are able to access the Internet. For now I guess the number is even more higher than the one recorded in January, 2021.

With that humongous number of global users of internet it's true that, it's very difficult to tackle numerous problems such as Cyber-Bulling, and Racism as well as other related problems and challenges.

But, we are as a part of Dev community have to stand and fight against such issues and the following are tips I do believe can be a way forward to do so:

1. Creating Interactive Cyber Environment

I do believe this one isn't a new concept to you but I think it's worth clarifying it once again
Interactive environment are type of cyber environment in which all users (4.66 billion people) can access the contents of your works without any problem.
Here I'm speaking about people with visual impairments and auditory impairments, they're also human beings and they deserve to get information and if you have created a website that don't have features to support people like them, you'll be leaving them behind. Hence by saying Interactive Cyber Environment I mean the inclusiveness of contents within our websites.

Tips
In creating websites make sure that you include 'alt' attribute in your videos as well as images. People with visual impairments rely on screen readers to convert web content to an audio interface. They won't get information if it's only presented visually. For images, screen readers can access the alt attribute and read its contents to deliver key information (source: FreeCodeCamp).

2. Have in-depth knowledge about Cyber-Security Principles

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
- Sun Tzu

Cyber security is wide topic and it's almost impossible to discuss it all over here, but important thing to remember is that "You have to know the enemy and yourself" in this context the enemies are Cyber Security Threats and Yourself is "Your digital platforms like Websites, Apps and etc.
There're numerous resources you can utilize in learning Cyber-Security Principles that would be useful to you and your company or organization you're working for;

Google Digital Skills have a complete course about it (Go and learn from them)

3. Don't be part of Things we're all fighting against

We are all users of Internet (and some of us here are the Creators of contents within Internet) we use social medias like Facebook and Twitter (to name a few), there are countless people in those platform doing unethical things like Identity Theft! they like to minimize that by calling themselves Parodies! But to me if you're a parody who didn't seek full permission from the actual accounts or contents you're representing then you're Identical Thief too!

Don't copy, use or produce anything from anyone without her/his approval, don't engage into any digital fights by saying offensive words to anyone regardless of what mistake he/she did to you (Within these platforms potential customers, potential employers and partners are seeing you)

Just imagine a company like Google would like to hire you, being a tech company they can conduct assessment of your digital presence and habits, trust me you can be superb candidate for the job in one of their many department but the way they'll see your online conduct (Oh my!) they'll will terminate all interests in you.

Therefore
We need to be careful on almost everything that we do, from the way we create numerous products to Internet Users (4.66 Billion people) to the way we use these products (i.e. Social Medias)
Don't criticize or condemn anyone because humans are creatures of emotions. By creating a safer and useful environment for all it will be a better place to learn, enjoy and interact.

Until next time friends, फिर मिलते हैं (see you)

If you found this useful let me know in the comment section, I would like to hear your thoughts too.

You can follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ngowi_inc) where I'm sharing my journey in Programming and Entrepreneurship!

Don't Give Up, Just Yet.

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 15:19:49 +0000

Hello friends, It's been a while since we last talk, well today I want to share with you something which I believe will aspire you to inspire others.
We are living in a World affected by numerous problems, from global warming to poverty and global pandemic of Covid-19 and its effects on economies and people's lives. We all have to agree that, we are living in some really hard times!. One thing I'm really certain is, we will overcome this and any other problem that may come our way in one way or another we will prevail all of them.
I took my time off learning computer programming through freecodecamp.org because I wanted to practice some of the basic knowledge I've already acquired through their impressive program
I've shared some of those projects here (in dev.to) and some are in codepen.io.
However, in some points in my learning phase I've found myself being angry for not being able to either understand the concepts or ability to complete the required projects (there are some challenges that developers in freecodecamp.org should compete before completion of certain topic or concept) it's really confusing sometimes (maybe you have found yourself in a similar situation) through these two scenarios I would feel sad, and angry at the same time and in some cases I would switch off my laptop and go out (just to rest for some time)

While I'm out there I ask myself some tough questions like, "I'm I a Quitter?, Why I started learning coding in the first place?, What's my end goals in life?

Through those questions I found my balance again to stand up and restart the entire concept (for instance, applied visual design concepts) and by doing so I would be able to easily Understand and finish all of its challenges!

My message to you is learning to code isn't easy, as a matter of fact nothing worthwhile is easy, so don't feel sad or angry on yourself for not being teachable or understanding the concepts or even unable to complete coding challenges, maybe you have been learning too many concepts at once or maybe it's just a burnout!, take it easy and learn at your own pace.
Remember a certified Bachelor Degree applicant has to spend 2-4 years in University, so there's no rush for you to learn HTML + CSS + JavaScript and other languages in just 1 week to 2 months, It takes time to learn and understanding valid concepts in each language (from markup languages to programming languages)
Don't give up! You got this and remember that you're getting better everyday because you're investing into yourself.

May you carry on the passion to learn, and Practicing what you've learned through doing Projects! and regardless of what adversities you might find yourself into, just believe that you can overcome it, you're better than your adversities and know that each and everyone here in Dev.to Community are ready to assist you through shared experiences of our journeys.

Until next time friends, be safe and let's carry on building a safer and exciting projects

P.S:
If you would like to connect or chat with me in Twitter here's my handle https://twitter.com/ngowi_inc

Finally I contributed to a repository in GitHub.

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 06:48:53 +0000

Hello there, today I would like to share with you one of my longest desire and fear. For long I was longing for contributing something in GitHub and often I was telling myself, "this isn't for you man, you're a beginner and that's deep stuffs for real awesome and geniuses people who code like machines!" Lol I was wrong because, first I didn't know anything about Git and GitHub and I kept lying on myself that those two ain't for me.
Yesterday I read a post on google about the importance of Git and GitHub to developers from beginners to experts, that's where I got my AHA! stage and I decided to login into my unused account on GitHub, since I had read a little bit of concepts such as repository, fork, branch and pull request. I decided to search for repository that used some of languages I'm familiar with (in this case Html5 and Css) and Voila! I saw one and decided to give it a go.
The project needed me to create a webpage that will helps pets find home
It needed to have two directories (index.html) and (style.css) as well as (readme.md)

I see this project fruitful to me because I was exposed to work on creation of various elements in html and doing some impressive styling and what's really important it exposed me to the fact that I didn't understood the concept of adding audio in html5, therefore it gave me a chance to re-learn the concept once again from YouTube (link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bl2WVQGfiE

I'm glad that I finally finished this project and you can find it here
https://github.com/Ngowi-Inc/pet-store

A lesson I've learned is in learning about web dev we really need to practice things we have learnt because watching tutorials isn't sufficient enough to ensure that you have sufficiently understood the taught concepts.
All the best in your learning objectives for today, be safe and until next time
Ciao.

Adding map to your web content

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 14:12:08 +0000

Hello friends, today I tried to create a map inside a webpage. I read some nuggets from stack overflow for inspirations but unfortunately for me I couldn't find any, (so I decided to dive in a head first in a book written by Jon Duckett) and after a quick read I got my AHA! moment and Voila! I opened my online code editor (codepen) and decided to create an iframe element.

Let's see what's Iframe element (HTML5 Element)

Let's assume you're creating a restaurant website and you have placed all required elements, as well as attributes and the site is lovely and responsive even to people's who need to use screen readers software to access the contents of that site. But you might need to place a map inside your site so that your customers won't be asking the same question, ("where's your restaurant located?") over and over again.
Therefore iframe element will assist you in putting another webpage inside of your webpage (For instance, based on our example there: iframe element will help you to put a google map inside your restaurant website)

Iframe element must include:

(src) attribute 2.(height) attribute and
(width) attribute

Hope I explained in a simplest way possible, be safe and please enjoy your day.

Today I created a short webpage with HTML and CSS

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 13:18:30 +0000

Things I learned about Web Dev

Emmanuel C. Ngowi — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 22:40:28 +0000

Hello there, I am Emmanuel Ngowi and today I am really excited to the extent of writing my first ever post here in dev.to community. First of all this platform is really great and interactive and that's what I needed most in these early days of being an apprentice in learning about web development.

I started learning about Web Dev in January of 2021 and for the past 6 months I have covered the basics of HTML5 and CSS.
I start learning the basics with Khan Academy (they have such a great curriculum and they have some wonderful motivational and educational videos with people who have done great job in tech world as well as business and entrepreneurship)
After completion of their course I was recommended by a friend to use resources provided by Freecodecamp.org to learn more about web development if I'm that interested in those stuffs, I checked their content and due to their impressive curriculum I decided to give it a go and re-learned again HTML and CSS.
I was really excited when I discovered that there are more than hundred thousand people in Twitter and collectively they had formed a developer community in that platform and I followed some of them there (they are such positive people and they're simply inspirational)

What I learned so far is:

Don't fall in the trap called "Learn Web Dev in 30 Mins"
Web Dev is too huge and 30Mins timeframe to learn all about it is almost impossible to do so, so avoid those tricks because I believe that there's no shortcut in achieving anything worthful in this World.
Give yourself a time to learn
There's no race in learning phase, the goal is to understand the concepts and not cramming them out. I would like to quote Hussein Bolt "The Fastest man alive"
"Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself."
Worrying is a misuse of your imagination. Instead of wasting your energy in worrying, utilize that time to become better and stronger.
Interaction with other developers is a must
(listen, read, watch, and start a conversations with your fellow developers) regardless your a beginner or even 30 year experienced developer interactions is what makes us human beings. It's great to your physical and mental wellbeing.
Do projects
(from Html and Css to the programming languages like JavaScript and Python) it is must to commit yourself in doing some projects, don't stop with "I get this, I know this one is easy!" just do that project and if you encounter a setback kindly use platforms like these to ask and learn more.
Avoid Burnouts
I do believe in time management, don't overwork yourself. Switch off that Laptop, or Desktop and take some rest, go out and do your part in making this World of ours a better place, talk with friends and people closest to you instead of just using tech products like social medias. Be social, do some workouts, listen to music and so much more, remember there's life and living it to the fullest is our priority too. People in year 1045 were happier and connected too although they didn't had Facebook or Instagram.

These are things I have learned from my 6 months of learning and doing some projects in 2021. Hope it will help someone in being a better developer.
All the best in your journey to learn and be an agent of transformations in tech universe.
Until Next time, be safe.