Front-End Fire

TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington

A weekly show that helps you stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the front-end world.

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#169
Monday · 1 hr
169: How the Heck Do We Hire Developers in 2026?
Coding interviews were a shaky signal before AI showed up, so how the heck do we hire developers now? We dig into a proposal to test junior engineers on product thinking with AI customers and graders, and why getting good with AI tools is no longer optional. Plus, a Railway employee hacks a competitor with its own AI agent, the NY Times sues Brave over its paywall blocker, and Squarespace cuts 19% of its staff. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - How to hire junior engineers in an age of AI 25:02 - Railway admits an employee hacked a competitor 37:09 - The NY Times sues Brave 42:30 - 20-somethings and old phone OSes 47:55 - Squarespace is laying off 19% of its employees 51:01 - What’s making us happy News All: How to hire junior engineers in an age of AI Lightning News Railway got hacked then hacked a competitor with its AI NY Times sues Brave Squarespace is laying off 19% of employees What's Making Us Happy Paige: Blu-Tack Reusable Adhesive Jack: Happy with US midterm results TJ: Kids learning to drive Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#168
November 2 · 1 hr 2 min
168: Are Dev Conferences Dying?
What even is a dev conference in the age of AI? Jack is fresh back from React Advanced in London with a road report, and we dig into how conferences are rethinking their focus as attendance shifts. We also break down how the Claude Code team handles code reviews, unpack GitHub Universe's updates, cheer on CSS-Tricks' new owner, and say a fond goodbye to the Arc browser. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 1:58 - React Advanced conference update 12:40 - How the Claude Code team does code review 21:34 - GitHub Universe highlights 38:58 - CSS Tricks has a new owner 41:34 - RIP Arc 50:11 - What's making us happy NEWS Paige - GitHub Universe 2026 highlights: https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/github-universe-2026-evolving-every-layer-of-the-stack/ Jack - React Advanced conference update: https://reactadvanced.com/ TJ - How the Claude Code team does code review: https://x.com/addyosmani/status/2114604912520921136 LIGHTNING NEWS RIP Arc: https://arc.net/ CSS Tricks has a new owner: https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-has-a-new-owner/ WHAT'S MAKING US HAPPY Paige - The Diplomat TV series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17491088/ Jack - Dungeon Crawler Carl book series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawler_Carl TJ - The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36337550-the-7-deaths-of-evelyn-hardcastle Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire website: https://front-end-fire.com Blue Collar Coder on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vRUjYqDuoUsYsku86Lrsw Blue Collar Coder on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/ddMZFtTDa5 Reach out via email: frontendfirepodcast@gmail.com Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire: https://twitter.com/front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com: https://bsky.app/profile/front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast: https://www.youtube.com/@Front-EndFirePodcast
#167
October 26 · 52 min
167: AI is Making Code Reviews Worse
AI is generating more code than ever, and reviewing it has become a lonelier, more exhausting slog. This week we dig into whether ideas like shared review sessions can actually make code review better. Then we run through a brutal week of hacks hitting OpenCode, PHP, Next.js, and TLS certificates, count the many new TypeScript forks, and look at the custom source control Anthropic built to merge 30,000 changes a day. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:31 - How can we make code review better? 19:45 - A roundup of this week’s hacks 30:04 - Claude Duet 34:31 - Everyone is forking TypeScript 41:05 - Anthropic’s new source control tool 47:00 - What’s making us happy News All: Code reviews suck, but how do we actually make them better? Lightning News Hacks! OpenCode hacked, PHP hacked, new CVEs in Next.js and React, eMudhra certificate hacks Who isn’t forking TypeScript?? ts-rust, bun check, tsc-ts, tsrs, and the OG TS team dropped TS 7.1 beta Claude Duet: Anthropic’s Muse or Dots Anthropic’s new source control What's Making Us Happy Paige: Ted Lasso season 4 TJ: Vibe coded game ticket tracking site Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#166
October 19 · 1 hr 5 min
166: The AI Clone Wars Continue
The AI clone wars continue. The developer who vibe-coded replacements for Adobe's Creative Suite last week is back, this time with open-source clones of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. How long before the cease-and-desist letters start arriving? We also dig into the newly stable TanStack Start 1.0, check out what's new in OpenCode 2.0, and take a look at Meta's new Wonder models and what they mean for AI agents. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - TanStack Start 1.0 18:37 - The Office suite has been vibe cloned now too 31:11 - OpenCode 2.0 41:00 - Meta’s new “Wonder” models 50:48 - What’s making us happy News Paige: OpenCode 2.0 Jack: TanStack Start 1.0 is stable TJ: The Office suite has been vibe cloned now too (and this legal writeup) Lightning News Meta’s new “Wonder” models Anthropic redesigns source control What's Making Us Happy Paige: Whirlyball Jack: University of Miami football TJ: Video podcasts Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#165
October 12 · 55 min
165: Open Source Was Fun While It Lasted
Open source was fun while it lasted. AI-generated submissions are swamping maintainers and bug bounty programs, so the gates are closing, and we can’t say we blame the people closing them. We also dig into Pi 1.0 and the new Pi Durable framework, and a dev who used Claude to reverse engineer Adobe Creative Suite and release it as open source. Plus: Deno joins Cloudflare, and an ice cream map that divided us. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:45 - OSS maintainers and companies are shutting off PRs and bug bounty programs 9:07 - Pi 1.0 16:06 - Someone vibe coded a free knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite 36:31 - Deno is joining Cloudflare 39:53 - example.com changes 41:38 - Controversial state-by-state ice cream infographic 46:32 - What's making us happy News Paige: Pi 1.0 and Pi Durable Jack: Someone vibe coded a free knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite TJ: OSS maintainers and companies are shutting off their external PR & bug bounty programs Lightning News Deno is joining Cloudflare example.com changes Controversial state by state ice cream infographic What's Making Us Happy Paige: Black Sails show Jack: OSX shortcut to reorder the menu bar icons TJ: Using AI to clean up old photos Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#164
October 5 · 53 min
164: Developers Are Tired of This Sh*t
The State of Devs 2026 survey results are in, and... they’re not great. We discuss. We also dig into a huge week of 1.0 releases (EmDash, Vinext, and Vite+), OpenAI's Dev Day, and more! Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:12 - State of Devs 2026 survey 28:26 - EmDash 1.0 30:37 - Vinext 1.0 32:46 - Vite+ 1.0 35:03 - OpenAI Dev Day 40:55 - Agent safety 42:38 - <model> element 46:15 - What's making us happy News All: State of Devs 2026 survey results are in Lightning News Vite+ 1.0 EmDash 1.0 Vinext 1.0 <model> update OpenAI Dev Day Agent safety What's Making Us Happy Paige: Shogun (Asian Saga #1) novel Jack: Hanging with friends and making music TJ: Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#163
September 28 · 50 min
163: Do Frameworks Still Matter Anymore?
DHH took the Rails World stage to announce that he and Basecamp are no longer writing code by hand, wouldn't necessarily recommend Rails for a new app, and are going all in on native. That kicks off this week's big question: in an era of agentic coding, do frameworks still matter? We also dig into Safari 27's WebKit release, which is packed with a Safari MCP for agents, customizable selects, the HTML model element, and a pile of CSS improvements. In Lightning News, GitHub Copilot's runtime moved to Rust, and OpenAI's agents hacked an Australian government Medicare portal. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 2:36 - DHH's Rails World Keynote 12:28 - Do frameworks matter anymore? 19:50 - Safari 27 WebKit updates 37:32 - GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust 39:23 - OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website 44:30 - What's making us happy News Paige: Safari 27 WebKit updates Jack: Do frameworks matter anymore? TJ: DHH's Rails World Keynote Lightning News GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website What's Making Us Happy Paige: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds TV series Jack: Learning Blackbird on guitar TJ: Ted Lasso TV series Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#162
September 21 · 55 min
162: Shopify Breaks Up with React Native
The React core team just shipped 19.3 with view transitions, fragment refs, and Context support in server components. A startup called TypeSafe AI is making waves with Jev, a fast, cheap "System One" model built for structured decisions instead of full LLM reasoning. And Shopify is walking away from React Native after six years, heading back to native Swift and Kotlin. We also cover Matt Mullenweg's whirlwind week at Automattic and how white hat hackers used Claude to ethically hack OpenAI. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:11 - React 19.3 7:22 - Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin 21:12 - Jev AI model 30:07 - Matt Mullenweg is back at Automattic 33:45 - Claude ethically hacked OpenAI 41:32 - What's making us happy News Paige: React 19.3 Jack: Jev AI model TJ: Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin Lightning News Matt Mullenweg was ousted from Automattic, but days later he was back Claude ethically hacked OpenAI What's Making Us Happy Paige: Great British Bake Off starts next week Jack: Sumo is back in September Basho! TJ: Yesteryear novel Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#161
September 14 · 44 min
161: Tailwind Has a New Home
There are finally some real-world consequences for the Shai-Hulud npm attacks: Australian Federal Police and the FBI arrested two men behind TeamPCP, a group that's been running supply chain attacks using npm since last year. Meanwhile, the open source acquihire train rolls on as Shopify buys Tailwind CSS. In Lightning News the WordPress/WP Engine saga returns as Matt Mullenweg is ousted as Automattic CEO, an Anthropic researcher quits with a warning that AI could kill us all inside a decade, and OpenAI claims it cracked a millennium math problem with 10,000 agents and 88 hours of compute. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:08 - Shopify buys Tailwind 7:24 - Two men arrested for Shai-Hulud hacks 15:35 - Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence 23:37 - AI researchers think AI will kill us all 32:04 - OpenAI cracks a math millennium problem 39:44 - What's making us happy News Paige: Shopify buys Tailwind TJ: Two men arrested for the TeamPCP Shai-Hulud supply chain attacks on npm Lightning News Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence AI researchers think AI will kill us all OpenAI cracks math millennium problem What's Making Us Happy Paige: Reacher TV series TJ: Wake Up Dead Man movie Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#160
September 7 · 1 hr 2 min
160: GPT-6 vs. Claude 5.1
Both big AI labs shipped their best models yet this week: OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra finally takes computer use seriously, and Anthropic's Fable & Mythos 5.1 land with gains in coding, knowledge work, and long-running tasks. Jack also went down a rabbit hole on how LLM watermarking actually works. Plus a Roomba with two floor-cleaning brains, a website tallying up AI agent felonies, and OpenAI cutting Cursor off from its models. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:16 - GPT-6 Astra 11:58 - How LLM watermarking works 29:47 - Fable & Mythos 5.1 41:48 - Felony Bench 43:21 - iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo 45:51 - OpenAI blocks Cursor 48:27 - What's making us happy News Paige: Anthropic debuts Fable & Mythos 5.1 Jack: How LLM watermarking works TJ: GPT-6 Astra Lightning News OpenAI blocks Cursor after its acquisition by SpaceX iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo Felony Bench What's Making Us Happy Paige: Silo TV series, season 3 Jack: Kenwood CarPlay Unit TJ: Pablo Torre Finds Out Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#159
August 31 · 53 min
159: Is AI Making Us Worse Devs?
This week we're asking the uncomfortable question: is AI coding making us worse developers, or just changing which skills matter? We dig into OpenAI's new WebMCP Challenge and what it means for the agentic web, plus Bun's massive 1.4 release packed with performance wins and new features. Then we wrap up with TanStack AI hitting release candidate and the internet's new favorite gimmick, Hugging Face's rollerblading Microduck. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:03 - Will AI coding prevent expertise? 21:40 - WebMCP challenge 29:49 - Bun 1.4 release 42:17 - TanStack AI RC 43:14 - Microduck 47:21 - What's making us happy News Paige: AI Coding will Prevent Expertise Jack: WebMCP challenge TJ: Bun 1.4 Lightning News Microduck TanStack AI enters RC What's Making Us Happy Paige: The Paradise Problem book Jack: Altoids guitar pick insert website TJ: Still Counting Podcast Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#158
August 24 · 1 hr 2 min
158: The Browser Wars are Getting Weird
This week we dig into Cloudflare's new agent-only browser, Kitesurf, built for speed over polish. Cursor made waves by ditching Solid.js for React, and Jack brings back a field report from RenderATL on the state of dev conferences in 2026. Plus, in Lightning News: pnpm's Rust rewrite, Microsoft trimming its AI feature list, Claude tackling the Riemann hypothesis with 60 subagents, and a Claude agent that accidentally hacked into a gym's registration system. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser 8:08 - Cursor moves from Solid to React 17:08 - Render ATL recap 30:44 - pnpm 12 32:39 - Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features 36:24 - Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner? 42:37 - A Claude agent hacked into a gym 48:40 - What's making us happy News Paige: Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser Jack: Render ATL recap TJ: Cursor moves from Solid to React Lightning News Pnpm 12 is Rust Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features The weird Mico video Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner? A Claude agent hacked into a gym What's Making Us Happy Paige: ChatGPT Desktop App Jack: How dark is your movie & TV app TJ: The coolest scroll animation I've ever seen Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#157
August 10 · 57 min
157: Shai-Hulud Is Back From the Dead
Next.js is back after a quiet stretch with 16.3, promising "instant" navigations, leaner dev servers, better agent tooling, and faster builds. The TanStack crew keeps shipping too — TanStack Table hit v9.0 and TanStack AI is closing in on v1.0 with tool calling, reasoning, code sandboxes, and memory. Then there's the bad news: a new Shai-Hulud variant compromised a major maintainer and infected a pile of key-value storage and caching packages with over a billion combined monthly downloads. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:10 - Next.js 16.3 9:22 - TanStack AI and TanStack Table 9.0 15:55 - Another npm supply chain attack 27:07 - An update on the Deno v. Oracle lawsuit 31:44 - Anthropic announced Claude broke containment too 37:41 - Google Earth has to roll back an AI feature 39:34 - An interesting Sam Altman tweet 46:27 - What's making us happy News Paige: Another day another npm supply chain attack Jack: TanStack AI and TanStack Table 9.0 TJ: Next.js 16.3 Lightning News Not to be outdone by OpenAI, Anthropic announced Claude broke containment too An update on the Deno v Oracle lawsuit Google Earth has to roll back an AI feature An interesting Sam Altman tweet What's Making Us Happy Paige: Ride or Die miniseries Jack: Shin Kamen Rider movie and Vibe Island TJ: OpenAI Shop and Perplexity Supply Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#156
August 3 · 1 hr 1 min
156: The State of CSS Is In
The State of CSS 2026 results are in — Tailwind still rules, AI still can't write decent CSS, and (thanks, listeners!) we made the resources list. CodePen ships its biggest update in years with CodePen 2.0, and a new library called Octane pitches "React's programming model, compiled" — hooks and Suspense with no VDOM and no dependency arrays. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 3:05 - State of CSS 2026 survey 20:01 - CodePen 2.0 32:55 - Octane JS framework 38:37 - State of Devs survey 2026 39:30 - LinkedIn adds a "Seems like AI slop" button 42:54 - TanStack rebrand, and a new charting library 45:38 - GitHub stacked pull requests 52:13 - Opus 5 54:27 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: State of CSS 2026 survey Jack: Octane JS framework TJ: CodePen 2.0 Lightning News State of Devs survey 2026 LinkedIn adds a "Seems like AI slop" button GitHub adds stacked pull requests TanStack rebrand & a new charting library Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 model What's Making Us Happy Paige: His & Hers miniseries Jack: The Vampire Lestat miniseries TJ: Orbit Traveling Tractor Water Sprinkler Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#155
July 27 · 57 min
155: OpenAI Breaks Out of its Sandbox
We dig into how Bun went from Zig to Rust in just 11 days with an army of Claude sessions, check in on Kimi K3 — another open-weight Chinese model closing in on the frontier — and unpack the week's wildest story: an OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face. Just another normal week in AI. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 3:05 - Kimi K3 10:58 - Rewriting Bun in Rust 20:42 - OpenAI hacks Hugging Face 39:48 - App Store number updates 42:11 - Meta's new app is set to a song about human extinction 46:50 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: Rewriting Bun in Rust Jack: Kimi K3 TJ: OpenAI hacks Hugging Face Lightning News App Store app numbers are way up; downloads are not Meta launched a new AI optimism ad set to a song about human extinction What's Making Us Happy Paige: The Bear season 5 Jack: The Odyssey movie TJ: Detroit Tigers baseball Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#154
July 21 · 1 hr 3 min
154: How Not to Drown in AI Code Reviews
AI agents can churn out code faster than anyone can review it — so how do you keep from drowning? We don't claim to have all the answers, but we dig into practical ways to make AI-generated code less sloppy and reviews less painful — review tools, code-review skills, and the still-irreplaceable habit of smoke testing a PR yourself. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 0:26 - How to not drown in code reviews 49:55 - What's Making Us Happy Links Anthropic: Recursive Self Improvement Spotify Engineering: Coding is No Longer the Constraint CodeRabbit Superpowers Amelia Wattenberger: how coding used to be how we thought What's Making Us Happy Paige: Chef's Choice Electric Knife Sharpener Jack: Cooper's Hawks TJ: Acadia National Park Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#153
July 13 · 47 min
153: Vercel Wants Your Entire Stack
Vercel goes all-in on your stack — a Zig-powered Native SDK for building desktop apps, plus Vercel Services to run multiple frameworks as one shared project for monorepo and microservice teams — while VoidZero ships Vite+ in beta to unify the entire frontend toolchain. Plus Safari joins the MCP party and Claude gets a little too chatty in Slack. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 0:59 - Vercel native 8:22 - Vite+ beta 10:15 - Vercel Services 16:50 - Safari MCP server 19:20 - Claude Tag 27:07 - Museum covers its floor in peanut butter 33:41 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: Vercel Services Jack: Vercel's native TJ: Vite+ beta Lightning News Safari MCP server Claude Tag Museum covers its floor in peanut butter What's Making Us Happy Paige: Dutton Ranch TV series Jack: Bowling TJ: The World Cup Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#152
July 6 · 54 min
152: The Fable Redemption Arc
Vercel partners with Shopify to rebuild Hydrogen, Anthropic re-releases Fable 5 (plus Sonnet 5) with a beefed-up safety classifier after its government timeout, and Meta open-sources Astryx, its React/StyleX design system Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 3:50 - Vercel and Shopify collab on Hydrogen 13:11 - A Fable 5 update 22:38 - Astryx 33:51 - Cloudflare to change its crawler policy 43:42 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: Fable 5's ban has been lifted & Sonnet 5 is out too Jack: Vercel and Shopify collab on Hydrogen TJ: Astryx Lightning News Cloudflare to change its crawler policy What's Making Us Happy Paige: Pink Starburst Vodka Lemonade Jack: Goodr sunglasses TJ: Rail Explorers Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#151
June 29 · 39 min
151: Fixing AI’s Microservices Problem
Nx debuts Polygraph, a "synthetic monorepo" that gives AI agents a unified view across microservice boundaries, Deno Desktop takes aim at Electron by compiling web projects into single-binary native apps, and fresh SignalFire hiring data shows engineers holding steady while designers and marketers take the cuts. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:41 - Polygraph meta-harness from the Nx folks 7:49 - Deno Desktop 12:39 - An update on the tech hiring landscape 24:42 - Dan Abramov joins Vercel 27:01 - Claude Code supports mouse clicks now 30:37 - Astro 7 31:08 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: Polygraph meta-harness from the Nx folks Jack: Deno 2.9 & Deno Desktop TJ: An update on the tech hiring landscape from SignalFire Lightning News Claude Code supports mouse clicks now (i.e. Fullscreen rendering) Dan Abramov joins Vercel Astro 7 What's Making Us Happy Paige: Dungeon Crawler Carl Jack: Bird nests TJ: Shuffleboard Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
#150
June 22 · 1 hr
150: The Government Said “No Fable For You”
Anthropic's new Fable model gets pulled days after launch when the US government restricts foreign access, a fully open-source Chinese model claims Claude Opus-level benchmarks for a fraction of the price, and MDN ships an MCP server to keep AI agents current on the web platform. Plus npm 12's supply-chain crackdown and SpaceX's eye-popping $60B Cursor buy. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:27 - Anthropic released Fable and the US government shut it down 13:51 - GLM-5.2 20:16 - MDN MCP Server 25:42 - npm 12's breaking changes 31:38 - SpaceX bought Cursor for $60B 39:13 - What's Making Us Happy News Paige: MDN MCP Server Jack: GLM-5.2 TJ: Anthropic released Fable and the US shut it down days later Lightning News SpaceX bought Cursor for $60B npm 12 breaking changes What's Making Us Happy Paige: Newest season of Clarkson's Farm and World Cup international fans Jack: Portland Pickles TJ: Claude Cowork Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

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