#free tools list for web development

[varunshrimediasolutions]

𝐄𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐛 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐞 𝐔𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠

Introduction

Having the appropriate tools at your disposal can make the difference between creating a mediocre website and a masterpiece in the dynamic field of web creation. Possessing a strong toolbox is crucial for efficiency, productivity, and producing amazing digital experiences, regardless of expertise level in development. In this article, we'll go into the fundamental tools that every web developer needs to know, which include debugging tools and code editors.

Web development: What is it?

The process of creating and managing websites and web applications is included in web development. Coding, designing, testing, and user experience and performance optimization are just a few of the many tasks involved. Web developers use a variety of tools, frameworks, and computer languages to make their work interactive on the Internet.

Advantages of Using Web Development Tools:

Using web development tools speeds up, improves efficiency, and reduces the error-proneness of the development process. These tools frequently include debugging capabilities, syntax highlighting, and code auto-completion, which help engineers write cleaner code and find and fix problems more quickly. Furthermore, a lot of web development tools have connections with collaboration platforms and version control systems, which makes teamwork and project management easier.

The Top 15 Tools for Web Development:

Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

a code editor that is both lightweight and highly capable. It comes with built-in Git integration, debugging tools, and a large library of extensions to expand its usefulness. It is compatible with a broad variety of programming languages. 

Sublime Text

Known for its simplicity and speed, Sublime Text is an advanced text editor. It is a favourite among developers because it provides a distraction-free writing environment, robust search and replace features, and customisable key bindings. 

GitHub

​GitHub is an online platform that uses Git for version management. Web developers working on team projects will find it to be a useful resource since it offers capabilities for collaboration, code review, and project management. 

Chrome Developer Tools

Included with the Google Chrome browser are several web development and debugging tools. It enables developers to troubleshoot JavaScript code, examine and modify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in real time, and assess page performance.

Bootstrap

A well-liked front-end framework for creating mobile-first and responsive websites is called Bootstrap. It offers a collection of JavaScript and CSS elements, like buttons, grids, and navigation bars, to help with design efficiency and device uniformity.

​jQuery

jQuery is a feature-rich, feature-rich, and speedy JavaScript library that makes client-side scripting chores easier. It provides a large array of tools for event handling, animation, and DOM manipulation, which facilitates the creation of dynamic and interactive web pages.

React.js

Facebook developed React.js, a JavaScript library for creating user interfaces. It is perfect for developing intricate web applications with dynamic user experiences because it enables developers to design reusable user interface components and manage states quickly. 

Angular

​Google created this front-end framework, which is based on TypeScript. With capabilities like data binding, dependency injection, and out-of-the-box routing, it offers a complete solution for creating single-page apps. 

Sass

Sass is a preprocessor scripting language that adds nested rules, variables and mixes to the CSS framework. It gives developers strong tools for managing stylesheets and structuring code, and it also makes writing CSS code easier and more maintainable.

Postman

​Postman is an API development, testing, and documentation collaboration tool. By enabling developers to create, test, and automate API calls, they may simplify the use of APIs and guarantee their dependability and efficiency.

Adobe Photoshop

Web developers commonly use Adobe Photoshop, a visual design program, to generate and edit images, graphics, and user interface elements. It lets developers create visually appealing webpages and web apps with its rich toolbox for image editing, retouching, and composing.

Firebase

Google built Firebase, a comprehensive platform for developing mobile and online applications. It makes it simple to create and deploy web apps without having to worry about managing infrastructure by offering a number of features like real-time databases, hosting, authentication, and analytics.

npm (Node Package Manager)

The package manager for JavaScript that is used to install, share, and manage dependencies for web development projects is called npm (Node Package Manager). With more than a million reusable code packages hosted on it, developers can take advantage of pre-existing solutions and expedite their work.

ESLint

JavaScript code patterns can be detected and reported on using ESLint, a static code analysis tool. Cleaner and more dependable code is produced as a result of its ability to help developers enforce coding standards, detect grammatical problems, and find possible bugs early in the development process.

Gulp

Designed to automate repetitive operations in the web development workflow, Gulp is a task runner built on Node.js. It saves time and effort in the development process by enabling developers to specify and execute specific actions, such as optimizing pictures, minifying JavaScript, and converting Sass to CSS.

In summary

Having the appropriate tools is crucial in the rapidly evolving field of web development. The tools listed in this article can help you improve the quality of your websites and online applications, produce cleaner code, and optimise your workflow, whether you're designing, testing, debugging, or coding. 

These fundamental tools will ensure that you're prepared for every web development project that comes your way. Add them to your toolset.

Read more of our articles here 👇

Why A Website Is Important For A Small Business

[the-nox-syndicate]

SysNotes devlog 1

Hiya! We're a web developer by trade and we wanted to build ourselves a web-app to manage our system and to get to know each other better. We thought it would be fun to make a sort of a devlog on this blog to show off the development! The working title of this project is SysNotes (but better ideas are welcome!)

What SysNotes is✅:

A place to store profiles of all of our parts

A tool to figure out who is in front

A way to explore our inner world

A private chat similar to PluralKit

A way to combine info about our system with info about our OCs etc as an all-encompassing "brain-world" management system

A personal and tailor-made tool made for our needs

What SysNotes is not❌:

A fronting tracker (we see no need for it in our system)

A social media where users can interact (but we're open to make it so if people are interested)

A public platform that can be used by others (we don't have much experience actually hosting web-apps, but will consider it if there is enough interest!)

An offline app

So if this sounds interesting to you, you can find the first devlog below the cut (it's a long one!):

(I have used word highlighting and emojis as it helps me read large chunks of text, I hope it's alright with y'all!)

Tech stack & setup (feel free to skip if you don't care!)

The project is set up using:

Database: MySQL 8.4.3

Language: PHP 8.3

Framework: Laravel 10 with Breeze (authentication and user accounts) and Livewire 3 (front end integration)

Styling: Tailwind v4

I tried to set up Laragon to easily run the backend, but I ran into issues so I'm just running "php artisan serve" for now and using Laragon to run the DB. Also I'm compiling styles in real time with "npm run dev". Speaking of the DB, I just migrated the default auth tables for now. I will be making app-related DB tables in the next devlog. The awesome thing about Laravel is its Breeze starter kit, which gives you fully functioning authentication and basic account management out of the box, as well as optional Livewire to integrate server-side processing into HTML in the sexiest way. This means that I could get all the boring stuff out of the way with one terminal command. Win!

Styling and layout (for the UI nerds - you can skip this too!)

I changed the default accent color from purple to orange (personal preference) and used an emoji as a placeholder for the logo. I actually kinda like the emoji AS a logo so I might keep it.

Laravel Breeze came with a basic dashboard page, which I expanded with a few containers for the different sections of the page. I made use of the components that come with Breeze to reuse code for buttons etc throughout the code, and made new components as the need arose. Man, I love clean code 😌

I liked the dotted default Laravel page background, so I added it to the dashboard to create the look of a bullet journal. I like the journal-type visuals for this project as it goes with the theme of a notebook/file. I found the code for it here.

I also added some placeholder menu items for the pages that I would like to have in the app - Profile, (Inner) World, Front Decider, and Chat.

i ran into an issue dynamically building Tailwind classes such as class="bg-{{$activeStatus['color']}}-400" - turns out dynamically-created classes aren't supported, even if they're constructed in the component rather than the blade file. You learn something new every day huh…

Also, coming from Tailwind v3, "ps-*" and "pe-*" were confusing to get used to since my muscle memory is "pl-*" and "pr-*" 😂

Feature 1: Profiles page - proof of concept

This is a page where each alter's profiles will be displayed. You can switch between the profiles by clicking on each person's name. The current profile is highlighted in the list using a pale orange colour.

The logic for the profiles functionality uses a Livewire component called Profiles, which loads profile data and passes it into the blade view to be displayed. It also handles logic such as switching between the profiles and formatting data. Currently, the data is hardcoded into the component using an associative array, but I will be converting it to use the database in the next devlog.

New profile (TBC)

You will be able to create new profiles on the same page (this is yet to be implemented). My vision is that the New Alter form will unfold under the button, and fold back up again once the form has been submitted.

Alter name, pronouns, status

The most interesting component here is the status, which is currently set to a hardcoded list of "active", "dormant", and "unknown". However, I envision this to be a customisable list where I can add new statuses to the list from a settings menu (yet to be implemented).

Alter image

I wanted the folder that contained alter images and other assets to be outside of my Laravel project, in the Pictures folder of my operating system. I wanted to do this so that I can back up the assets folder whenever I back up my Pictures folder lol (not for adding/deleting the files - this all happens through the app to maintain data integrity!). However, I learned that Laravel does not support that and it will not be able to see my files because they are external. I found a workaround by using symbolic links (symlinks) 🔗. Basically, they allow to have one folder of identical contents in more than one place. I ran "mklink /D [external path] [internal path]" to create the symlink between my Pictures folder and Laravel's internal assets folder, so that any files that I add to my Pictures folder automatically copy over to Laravel's folder. I changed a couple lines in filesystems.php to point to the symlinked folder:

And I was also getting a "404 file not found" error - I think the issue was because the port wasn't originally specified. I changed the base app URL to the localhost IP address in .env:

…And after all this messing around, it works!

(My Pictures folder)

(My Laravel storage)

(And here is Alice's photo displayed - dw I DO know Ibuki's actual name)

Alter description and history

The description and history fields support HTML, so I can format these fields however I like, and add custom features like tables and bullet point lists.

This is done by using blade's HTML preservation tags "{!! !!}" as opposed to the plain text tags "{{ }}".

(Here I define Alice's description contents)

(And here I insert them into the template)

Traits, likes, dislikes, front triggers

These are saved as separate lists and rendered as fun badges. These will be used in the Front Decider (anyone has a better name for it?? 🤔) tool to help me identify which alter "I" am as it's a big struggle for us. Front Decider will work similar to FlowCharty.

What next?

There's lots more things I want to do with SysNotes! But I will take it one step at a time - here is the plan for the next devlog:

Setting up database tables for the profile data

Adding the "New Profile" form so I can create alters from within the app

Adding ability to edit each field on the profile

I tried my best to explain my work process in a way that wold somewhat make sense to non-coders - if you have any feedback for the future format of these devlogs, let me know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disclaimers:

I have not used AI in the making of this app and I do NOT support the Vibe Coding mind virus that is currently on the loose. Programming is a form of art, and I will defend manual coding until the day I die.

Any alter data found in the screenshots is dummy data that does not represent our actual system.

I will not be making the code publicly available until it is a bit more fleshed out, this so far is just a trial for a concept I had bouncing around my head over the weekend.

We are SYSCOURSE NEUTRAL! Please don't start fights under this post

[stagkingswife]

Take Notes Like Stag Part 2: Unrecorded Entity Note Taking Exercise

Part 1: Spirit Encounters Part 3: Spell "Lab Notes" Part 4: Signs & Omens The early stages of developing a relationship with an unrecorded entity can be frustrating and confusing for many people.  The most commonly recommended first steps for getting to know a new entity are research and reading the entities myths and those don’t apply to a completely unrecorded entity and only help so far for an entity whose general type may be recorded in myth and folklore, but not them in specific.  My general advice for getting to know an unrecorded entity of any kind is to take it slow and get to know them the same way you would get to know a new person in your life.  Ask them about themselves every time you communicate with them, and keep track of each encounter using the format in part 1 - pay attention to themes, symbols, imagery, anything that you notice starts to repeat across multiple encounters.  Once you feel like something might be a defining feature or factor of the entity, something fixed that you’re sure of, make note of it and you can then run this exercise.  For this exercise you’ll need a few sheets of paper, a writing implement, the information you’ve been gathering, and a form of divination.  Yes/no forms of divination is fine for this, but something with more nuance is preferred and will give you more detailed answers in later steps. 

Review your existing notes on this entity and find a defining feature of the entity, this can be something that’s been repeated often enough in your notes on your earlier encounters to become a pattern, or something that’s happened less often but was experienced very strongly.  You’re the judge in this step of what is important enough to single out for this exercise, you can always do it again with something else if one iteration of it doesn’t prove fruitful.  

Get your paper and writing tool and write your feature in the center of the page.  Then create a brainstorming web of free associations with anything and everything that comes to mind springing from the starting point. Add as many spokes to the web and layers to each spoke as you can think of and fit.  

There are no wrong answers in this step - this isn’t you telling the entity they are associated with any of the things in the web, you’re making a list of things to ask them about.  

(If you’ve never made or heard of a brainstorming web before here’s a link to a template)

Then go through each item on the web with your divination tool for confirmation or denial from the entity of the association. -- Yes/No divination can give you a yay/nay on an association, “Yes, this is associated with me�� or “No, this is not associated with me.”  But a more nuanced form of divination can unlock ones you didn’t think of with “no, but…” or “yes, and…” type answers.  For instance if you started with the center word of “harvest” because you had the indication that the entity was associated with the harvest and from there you branched out to “grain.” You used your tarot cards to confirm “grain” and you pull the Three of Cups, which is a very harvest-y card so you could take that as a yes, but the guide book for your deck specifically mentions fruits and vegetables instead of grains.  You can then follow up on fruits and vegetables vs grains to see if the entity strongly favors one over the other.

Record your results in your ongoing notes for this entity.  Remember:

An example: When I was working on Returning my pantheon of unrecorded entities, The Forgotten Ones, I would get to know an entity organically through divination conversation, dreams, Otherworldly visits, etc. for maybe a few months before I had enough fixed points of data that I thought it was was worth going through this exercise.  Then I would take an afternoon or an evening and run it multiple times for each data point I had, once through for a symbol that had appeared multiple times, once for a theme that the entity consistently used, once for an animal that they had shown a preference for, once for a flower they favored for offerings, etc.  I like to do this exercise in a trance, to add a little oomph to what is basically word association, but that’s not strictly necessary.  My goddess Brona, when I started working on her one of the few things I knew about her was that she was an entity that existed in the in betweens. Because she was so strongly liminal, so intrinsically neither here nor there I had trouble pin down more details on her even as I became very close to her.  So I ran this exercise on the word “liminal” before I had gathered much else for her.  Here is a sample of that map for her, that I just made for this post, so it’s all things that I know are associated with her - I can’t find my original, and at this point it’s hard to think of incorrect examples.

[technofeudalism]

Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, is required to remove a controversial login checkbox from WordPress.org and let WP Engine back into its ecosystem after a judge granted WP Engine a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit.  In addition to removing the checkbox—which requires users to denounce WP Engine before proceeding—the preliminary injunction orders that Automattic is enjoined from “blocking, disabling, or interfering with WP Engine’s and/or its employees’, users’, customers’, or partners’ access to wordpress.org” or “interfering with WP Engine’s control over, or access to, plugins or extensions (and their respective directory listings) hosted on wordpress.org that were developed, published, or maintained by WP Engine,” the order states. In the immediate aftermath of the decision, Automattic founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg asked for his account to be deleted from the Post Status Slack, which is a popular community for businesses and people who work on WordPress’s open-source tools. 

“It's hard to imagine wanting to continue to working on WordPress after this,” he wrote in that Slack, according to a screenshot viewed by 404 Media. “I'm sick and disgusted to be legally compelled to provide free labor to an organization as parasitic and exploitive as WP Engine. I hope you all get what you and WP Engine wanted.” His username on that Slack has been changed to “gone 💀” Mullenweg began to publicly denounce WP Engine in September, calling the web hosting platform a “cancer” to the larger Wordpress open-source project and accusing it of improperly using the WordPress brand. He’s “at war” with WP Engine, in his own words.  In October, Mullenweg added a required checkbox at login for WordPres.org, forcing users to agree that they are not affiliated with WP Engine. The checkbox asked users to confirm, “I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise.” The checkbox was still present and required on the WordPress.org login page as of Wednesday morning. Automattic and Mullenweg have 72 hours from the order to take it down, according to the judge’s order.  WP Engine sent a cease and desist demanding that he “stop making and retract false, harmful and disparaging statements against WP Engine,” the platform posted on X.  Automattic sent back its own cease and desist, saying, “Your unauthorized use of our Client’s intellectual property has enabled WP Engine to compete with our Client unfairly, and has led to unjust enrichment and undue profits.” WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power. In October, Mullenweg announced that he’d given Automattic employees a buyout package, and 159 employees, or roughly 8.4 percent of staff, took the offer. “I feel much lighter,” he wrote. But shortly after, he reportedly complained that the company was now “very short staffed.”   All of this has created an environment of chaos and fear within Automattic and in the wider WordPress open-source community.  Within 72 hours of the order, Automattic and Mullenweg are also required to remove the “purported” list of WP Engine customers contained in the ‘domains.csv’ file linked to Automattic’s website wordpressenginetracker.com, which Automattic launched in November and tracks sites that have left WP Engine. It’s also required to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, including reactivating and restoring all WP Engine employee login credentials to wordpress.org resources and “disable any technological blocking of WPEngine’s and Related Entities’ access to wordpress.org that occurred on or around September 25, 2024, including IP address blocking or other blocking mechanisms.” The judge also ordered Mullenweg to restore WP Engine’s access to its Advanced Custom Fields (“ACF”) plugin directory, which its team said was “unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent” and called it a “new precedent” in betrayal of community access. “We are grateful that the court has granted our motion for a preliminary injunction,” a spokesperson for WP Engine told 404 Media. “The order will bring back much-needed stability to the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine is focused on serving our partners and customers and working with the community to find ways to ensure a vigorous, and thriving WordPress community.” A spokesperson for Automattic told 404 Media: “Today’s ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly. We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits.” 

[educationmore]

Python for Beginners: Launch Your Tech Career with Coding Skills

Are you ready to launch your tech career but don’t know where to start? Learning Python is one of the best ways to break into the world of technology—even if you have zero coding experience.

In this guide, we’ll explore how Python for beginners can be your gateway to a rewarding career in software development, data science, automation, and more.

Why Python Is the Perfect Language for Beginners

Python has become the go-to programming language for beginners and professionals alike—and for good reason:

Simple syntax: Python reads like plain English, making it easy to learn.

High demand: Industries spanning the spectrum are actively seeking Python developers to fuel their technological advancements.

Versatile applications: Python's versatility shines as it powers everything from crafting websites to driving artificial intelligence and dissecting data.

Whether you want to become a software developer, data analyst, or AI engineer, Python lays the foundation.

What Can You Do With Python?

Python is not just a beginner language—it’s a career-building tool. Here are just a few career paths where Python is essential:

Web Development: Frameworks like Django and Flask make it easy to build powerful web applications. You can even enroll in a Python Course in Kochi to gain hands-on experience with real-world web projects.

Data Science & Analytics: For professionals tackling data analysis and visualization, the Python ecosystem, featuring powerhouses like Pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib, sets the benchmark.

Machine Learning & AI: Spearheading advancements in artificial intelligence development, Python boasts powerful tools such as TensorFlow and scikit-learn.

Automation & Scripting: Simple yet effective Python scripts offer a pathway to amplified efficiency by automating routine workflows.

Cybersecurity & Networking: The application of Python is expanding into crucial domains such as ethical hacking, penetration testing, and the automation of network processes.

How to Get Started with Python

Starting your Python journey doesn't require a computer science degree. Success hinges on a focused commitment combined with a thoughtfully structured educational approach.

Step 1: Install Python

Download and install Python from python.org. It's free and available for all platforms.

Step 2: Choose an IDE

Use beginner-friendly tools like Thonny, PyCharm, or VS Code to write your code.

Step 3: Learn the Basics

Focus on:

Variables and data types

Conditional statements

Loops

Functions

Lists and dictionaries

If you prefer guided learning, a reputable Python Institute in Kochi can offer structured programs and mentorship to help you grasp core concepts efficiently.

Step 4: Build Projects

Learning by doing is key. Start small:

Build a calculator

Automate file organization

Create a to-do list app

As your skills grow, you can tackle more complex projects like data dashboards or web apps.

How Python Skills Can Boost Your Career

Adding Python to your resume instantly opens up new opportunities. Here's how it helps:

Higher employability: Python is one of the top 3 most in-demand programming languages.

Better salaries: Python developers earn competitive salaries across the globe.

Remote job opportunities: Many Python-related jobs are available remotely, offering flexibility.

Even if you're not aiming to be a full-time developer, Python skills can enhance careers in marketing, finance, research, and product management.

If you're serious about starting a career in tech, learning Python is the smartest first step you can take. It’s beginner-friendly, powerful, and widely used across industries.

Whether you're a student, job switcher, or just curious about programming, Python for beginners can unlock countless career opportunities. Invest time in learning today—and start building the future you want in tech.

Globally recognized as a premier educational hub, DataMites Institute delivers in-depth training programs across the pivotal fields of data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. They provide expert-led courses designed for both beginners and professionals aiming to boost their careers.

Python Modules Explained - Different Types and Functions - Python Tutorial

[fujocoded]

Funding FujoCoded: Stretch Goals!

It’s time! With our first goal met (🎉 thank you!), let’s talk about stretch goals. We have quite a few planned, so we're going to go through them one by one and explain what they are and why we chose them!

Before we go down the list, here's something fun:

Sticker Unlock: At 45 backers, we also unlocked one more sticker!

The goal of our campaign is to cover business expenses most of all. The unlocked content is an extra token of gratitude for your support that also helps us meet our own targets! 

With that said, let's get to our stretch goals...

$4,000: "That's Why I Ship On Company Time" Ao3 Sticker

At $4,000 we'll unlock one more sticker design that you can add to your collection! 

Our first version of this "shipping" sticker features VSCode and a terminal, but there's more than one type of shipping... here's to the other one!

$5,000: "Using NPM with Javascript" Article

Next up, we have our first article. Our plan is to add an Articles section to @fujowebdev where we'll collect simple, free guides to help beginners get past the roadblocks we see them encounter!

This first one will cover the basics of NPM, a core element of modern JavaScript!

"How do I install this JavaScript library? How do I run this open source JavaScript project? How can I get started creating my blog using a tool like @astrodotbuild?" are some of the most common questions we get in our Fandom Coders server. 

Let's give *everyone* the answer!

$6,000: Offering Website Art Prints

Next up, we'll turn the excellent art on our website into prints! These will be (probably) 8x10-sized art prints that will look amazing without breaking the bank. Full specs soon!

...and speaking of the site, you have tried moving the windows, right?

$7,000: "Catching Up With Terminal" Article

Next, another common issue for beginner developers: how to start learning how to handle the Terminal.

This will require some research to determine the major roadblocks, which is how our project operates: active learning from those going through it all!

$8,000: "Crucial Confrontations" Article

And last (for now), something very dear to us: an article extracting some wisdom from the book "Crucial Confrontations": https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Confrontations-Resolving-Promises-Expectations/dp/0071446524

This may seem like an unusual choice, but it highlights how our teaching goals go beyond programming to cover collaboration!

After years of working within our community, we repeatedly found that developing effective communication and confrontation skills helps our collaborators thrive. Unfortunately, the world doesn't teach us how to effectively (but kindly) hold each other accountable.

Some of our most involved collaborators have read this book and found the tools within it transformative. Given this experience, we deeply believe that making some of this wisdom easily accessible (without having to read the full book) will allow all of us to collaborate better!

If we can reach $8,000, this will enable us to test this hypothesis and learn how teaching soft skills beyond programming influences what we're able to achieve! It's a bold idea, but we're excited to see how it turns out in practice.

Help us make it there!

And that's all...for now!

If you want to hop on Twitch right now, you can join us as we put some extra polish on our shiny new FujoCoded website.

And remember, you can back our campaign here to help us achieve these goals and more:

[type-2-blog]

Summary of Read-It-Later App Alternatives Following Pocket's Shutdown

This document summarizes several read-it-later applications as alternatives to Pocket, which Mozilla shut down in May 2025. Pocket users have until October 8, 2025, to export their data. The alternatives offer varying features and pricing models:

Paid Options with Significant Features:

Matter: Offers AI-powered co-reading, podcast transcription, and reading speed adjustments. A yearly subscription costs $79.99, but a discount is available for Pocket users.

Instapaper: A long-standing app with iOS and Android support. A yearly premium subscription ($59.99) unlocks features like note-taking, text-to-speech, and full-text search. Pocket users get a three-month free trial upon importing their data.

Raindrop.io: Primarily a bookmark manager, but also functions as a read-it-later app. A yearly subscription ($33) provides AI-powered organization, full-text search, and other features.

Plinky: Allows saving and categorizing various link types. A pro subscription ($3.99/month, $39.99/year, or $159.99 one-time) removes link, folder, and tag limits. A 50% discount on the Pro tier was offered until the end of May 2025.

Paperspan: A simple app with a reading list, note-taking, and text-to-speech. A monthly subscription ($8.99) unlocks advanced search and playlist creation. Note that this app hasn't been updated recently.

Readwise Reader: Integrates with Readwise for annotation features, offline search, and an AI assistant. Requires a $9.99/month Readwise subscription after a 30-day trial. Offers Pocket archive import.

DoubleMemory: An Apple-focused app with offline reading and search. Offers monthly ($3.99) and annual ($17.99) subscriptions.

Recall: Uses AI to summarize content and categorize it. A free plan allows up to 10 AI-generated summaries; a $7/month plan offers unlimited summaries and other features.

Wallabag: An open-source app available as a €11/year hosted subscription. Offers reader mode and supports importing from other services.

Free or Primarily Free Options:

Readeck: An open-source web app (with a hosted version planned for 2025) for organizing web content. A mobile app is also under development.

Obsidian Web Clipper: A free open-source browser extension for saving web pages to the Obsidian note-taking app.

Karakeep: An open-source bookmarking app with AI-powered tagging.

Dewey: A "save everything" app with organizational tools and AI bulk tagging. Paid plans start at $7.50/month.

The document notes that this list is not exhaustive and more tools may be added.

This information is current as of the date of the document. Since the document's date is not specified, it is advisable to verify the pricing, features, and availability of these apps with their respective websites before making a decision.

[first-digi-add]

Importance of SEO vs AEO vs GEO

Introduction

In today’s digital world, Businesses want to appear on Google and other search engines when people search for their products or services. This is where SEO comes into focus. But now, along with SEO, new terms like AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) have come into focus. So, what are these? Which will be more significant in 2025? Let’s find out in simple words.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is the process of making your website or web pages for search engines. It will help to Google to rank websites on the search engine result pages. In seo, these things are included :

Unique Content:

Keywords

Backlinks

Fast Speed and Mobile-Friendly Website

Meta Tags & Alt Text

Why Local SEO Matters

It makes the source of potential visitors to your site less expensive.

It helps build trust among users.

It increases brand awareness.

It works for the long term.

But SEO is changing. Now people are searching differently. They use voice search or ask AI tools instead of typing on Google. That’s why the new effective way has come & the AEO & GEO is the origin for solving the people’s issue.

How to Use SEO (Step by Step):

Choose the Right Keywords What your customer would search for. To select the right keywords, we can suggest using Google keyword planner or Uber Suggest, which are free tools & easy to use. Example:If you have a Digital Marketing Company, your keyword might be “Best Digital Marketing Agency in Pune.”

Write Helpful Content Create blogs, service pages, or FAQS that answer people's needs. Example: A blog titled ‘Top Digital Marketing Agency for Grow your Business’, a Digital Marketing Agency using your keywords naturally.

Build Links (Backlinks) For the backlinks, we have to list our business on local directories, we have to collaborate with bloggers to get a good response, or we can get featured in news articles for the result. This helps your ranking grow faster.

Benefits of SEO:

Brings free, organic traffic to your website Helps build trust and authority online Increases leads, sales, and brand visibility Works long-term without paying for ads every time

What is AEO?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. This is the next level of SEO. It is focused on helping your content or question become the best answer to questions people ask online. People now talk to their phones and smart speakers like: “Hey Google, what is the best hair oil for dry scalp? “Alexa, where is the nearest coffee shop?” and “Hey Siri, what is the time in Paris?”

Why is AEO important in 2025?

Nowadays, everyone uses voice search instead of typing.

For voice search & getting fast response, we use Google devices like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, which are good & popular...

AEO helps with SEO by giving answers & so we need this to be the top one.

How to Use AEO (Step by Step):

Write in a Q&A Format Start blog posts or website sections with clear questions and short answers. Example: ‘What is digital marketing?’ followed by a 40-word answer. Create an FAQ Section Include frequently asked questions by your clients and provide straightforward answers. Use Short Sentences Voice assistants pick short, clear answers and avoid long or complicated words. Use Schema Markup (with Developer Help) Local Business schema helps search engines crawl your address and location better. Schema markup increases the chances of voice search results & it is the best way to get smart ways in SEO instead of typing.

Benefits of AEO:

AEO makes work faster & easier by increasing the chances of voice search.

Great for mobile users who prefer talking over typing.

Builds instant trust as users hear your answer first.

Gives your brand authority as a helpful expert.

What is GEO?

GEO Stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. Geo is the most advanced and latest form of SEO. This is a new method where we optimise content for AI tools like Chatgpt, Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot. These tools are capable of generating answers, not just showing the results. They read many websites and then give one clear answer. So, in GEO, the content must be Useful and trustworthy, Easy for AI to read and understand, written with expert knowledge, & Updated regularly. In short, GEO is about writing content that AI tools will use in their answers.

How to Use GEO (Step by Step):

Create Long, Detailed Content: Write deep guides, tips, and how-to articles in your field of knowledge. “Complete Guide to Choosing the Best Digital Marketing Course in India”.

Write in a Friendly and Natural Tone: Use simple, real language like you’re talking to a friend. AI tools like human-style content, not robotic writing.

Keep Your Content Updated: Update old blog posts with new data, prices, trends, or answers to current questions.

Show Author & Business Info: Add your name, company profile, or sources. This helps AI trust your content more and include it in its answers.

Benefits of GEO:

Your content gets used by AI in real-time answers Builds long-term authority in your industry Helps you get visibility even outside of Google Ensures that the content you publish remains relevant for digital search in the future

Conclusion

As new updates in SEO keywords are not the only useful things in the seo, but trends are AI is a smarter & easier way of SEO. In 2025, it’s about providing real answers that are useful to both people and AI tools. So, whether you are a business owner, marketer, or blogger, start using SEO, AEO, and GEO, AEO, and GEO together. This will help you grow online, reach more people, and stay ahead in the digital world. If you want your business to grow online in 2025 and beyond, don’t depend on old SEO methods alone. Learn and apply AEO and GEO too. These are not just fancy new names. There are new ways of getting found online through voice search, direct answers, and AI tools.

[avatarofthearchives]

Ranking Magnus Archive Episodes From Most Favorite To Least Favorite

(Disclaimer: I don't think there's a single Magnus Archives episode that I genuinely dislike, so even the lower rated episodes on this list are still pretty good in my eyes.)

Season 1: Lost John's Cave, The Piper, Across The Street, Infestation, A Distortion, A Father's Love, Skintight, Desecrated Host, Hive, First Hunt, Dreamer, Do Not Open, Angler-Fish, Confession, Colony, Alone, Anatomy Class, Growing Dark, First Aid, Burnt Offering, Lost And Found, Old Passage Ways, Piecemeal, Strange Music, Squirm, Freefall, Page Turner, Human Remains, Boatswain's Call, Killing Floor, Arachnophobia, Schwartzwald, Cheating Death, A Sturdy Lock, Vampire Killer, The Boneturner's Tale, Burned Out, Thrown Away, Taken Ill, The Man Upstairs.

Season 2: Burning Desire, Literary Heights, The New Door, Still Life, Too Deep, Lost In The Crowd, Trail Rations, Recluse, Personal Space, A Long Way Down, Distant Cousin, Thought For The Day, The Kind Mother, Librarian, Underground, Held In Customs, Burial Rights, Binary, First Edition, The Tale Of The Field Hospital, Hard Shoulder, The Butcher's Window, Tightrope, Exceptional Risk, Pest Control, Takeaway, Blood Bag, Book Of The Dead, Section 31, Crusader, Observer Effect, The End Of The Tunnel, High Pressure, Fatigue, Children Of The Night, The Smell Of Blood, Grifter's Bone, Foundations.

Season 3: Family Business, Another Twist, Creature Feature, Testament, Tucked In, Upon The Stair, Stranger And Stranger, A Guest For Mr. Spider, Dead Women Walking, The Masquerade, The Coming Storm, Sneak Preview, Thrill Of The Chase, Nightfall, I Guess You Had To Be There, Cruelty Free, Monologue, Drawing A Blank, We All Ignore The Pit, Total War, Light's Out, The Show Must Go On, Nothing Beside Remains, Cracked Foundation, Return To Sender, Dust To Dust, The Uncanny Valley, A Matter Of Perspective, Eye Contact, Taking Stock, Breathing Room, Containment, Body Builder, Dig, The Eyewitness, Nesting Instinct, Absent Without Leave, Third Degree, Possessive.

Season 4: The Eye Opens, The Last, Panopticon, A Gravedigger's Envy, Bloody Mary, Chosen, Weaver, Heart Of Darkness, Entombed, Cul-De-Sac, Doomed Voyage, Left Hanging, Threshold, Web Development, Far Away, Infectious Doubts, Scrutiny, Sculptor's Tools, Decrypted, Time Of Revelations, Civilian Casualties, Rotten Core, Reflection, Zombie, Nemesis, Cost Of Living, Concrete Jungle, Love Bombing, The Puppeteer, Submerged, Dead Horse, Remains To Be Seen, Flesh, Extended Surveillance, Meat, Heavy Goods, Big Picture, The Architecture Of Fear, Dark Matter, The Movement Of The Heavens.

Season 5: Last Words, Curiosity, Seeing It Through, Recollection, Connected, A Cozy Cabin, Dwelling, The Sick Village, Roots, An Appointment, Blood Ties, Wonderland House, What We Lose, Like Ants, Scavengers, Quiet, Checking Out, Fire Escape, Strung Out, Accomplice, This Old House, Locked In, Ignorance, Processing Line, In The Trenches, Peers, Monument, Epoch, The Worms, Parting, Night Night, Wellbeing, Adrift, The Gardener, The Great Beast, Precipice, Centre Of Attention, Revolutions,

[hqmillioncorn]

you're caught up in a web of hatred

Of course Cremia wasn't going to listen to him. As if things were going to be any different now than they had been just a few weeks before. Butter had tried his best to try and tell his mother that the Thirteenth, her home, wasn't the same. That her world was gone. He couldn't help but feel sorry for his mother at first. It was just in his nature. At his core Butter was good, kind, and always put his loved ones first. And this very belief would prove to be Cremia's downfall.

with @ windupnamazu 's butter moontide

lalapril 25: respite

butter takes a seat by the campfire with babycorn

Shaaloani Station was abuzz with activity.

That sort of thing tended to happen when you went ahead and gathered a whole team of people to work together to build a veritable weapon on wheels.

A little special something whose sole purpose was to help breach the stronghold holding them back from reaching Yysulani. 

Which was, worryingly enough, now encased inside of a very eerie looking dome.

Predictably one of the busiest workers at the station was of course Eorzea’s own Butter Moontide. Everyone’s favorite little task do’er and finisher'er. Right now he was keeping himself busy carrying several boxes full of tools that a few people working on the Dawnblazer’s outer shell had requested.  

Butter looked around, tapping his foot in place. “Now where do you go…?” There were so many people working on so many sorts of things but somehow he was always just able to tell what went where and to who. 

Call it a special sense he had developed over the years after helping so many people. Experience throughout the years was also the reason why he seemed to be so good at working on train parts.

Turns out it wasn't that different than woodworking! Who would have guessed?

After a bit of looking, he spotted someone. “Aha!” There-! A group of train workers standing around looking a little stressed about something. That must have been them, anyone would be a little nervous if they suddenly found themselves unable to do anything to help.

Butter quickly ran over as fast as he could. As he got closer he could see their worried frowns turn into relieved smiles. It made him really happy he could help cheer them up, especially since things were pretty dire right now. 

“Hey there!” One of the workers tipped their hat to Butter. “Thanks for the helping hand!”

“It’s really no problem! I’m glad I could help!”

For a brief second Butter wanted to ask if he could also help with whatever they were also doing. Delivering those tools was the last thing on Butter’s never ending to-do list so he was free for now. 

But as much as he loved just doing his little tasks, or whatever favor someone asked him to do, he knew full well the limits of his stamina by now. 

He was going to need all the energy he could muster if he was going to help make this plan happen. Not only that, he had also decided he was going to go inside the dome with the others. 

After seeing what happened in Tuliyollal he knew he wasn’t just going to stand around and watch as somebody else went ahead and dared to hurt the people he cared most about in the entire world. 

Not this time. This time things would be different. 

Right now though, the one thing he needed to do was sit down for a second or two and then get right back up to get some more things done later. Butter knew there was a campfire already lit, he had seen some people sitting by there earlier so maybe he could just sit there for a while?

When he got closer he noticed that there was only one other person sitting by the fire and she was looking right at him. Just staring. It almost made him stop right in his tracks. 

From here Butter couldn’t tell if Babycorn was blinking or not. 

The last he had seen of Babycorn was just about an hour ago when he saw Lunya and G'raha carrying her away with a block of wood embedded in her teeth. Clearly something happened there but it was kind of obvious what Babycorn tried to do. 

Another thing that was obvious to Butter was that Babycorn was probably asleep. He learned pretty early on that she had the habit of falling asleep with her eyes open, or semi-open. 

Butter slowly walked closer to Babycorn, as he suspected she just kept staring ahead at nothing. It was bringing back some unpleasant memories for him but Butter already knew what was going on. 

She was just sleeping, nothing more. He could hear the sounds of Babycorn’s occasional snoring. Trying to eat train tracks must have really taken it out of her. “I should let her rest…” Considering what was coming up they all probably needed to take as much downtime before things just kept going and didn’t stop. 

He stepped around Babycorn, making as little noise as he could. His steps were light and he was holding his breath. ‘So far so good…’ After some more careful maneuvering he was finally able to sit down across from Babycorn. 

Unfortunately for Butter, the very same reason that caused Babycorn to fall into the habit of sleeping with her eyes open had made her what was perhaps the lightest sleeper in Eorzea. 

As soon as Butter sat down, Babycorn woke up with a jolt. “Ack-?!” She lost her balance and fell down on her side. Thankfully she didn’t land anywhere near the fire. With her eyes actually open this time she quickly noticed Butter sitting across from her. 

And for some reason he was upside down. “Woah! Hi Butts! Good morning!” Her mood instantly brightened whenever she saw him, it didn't matter what was going on. 

This was now even more obvious by the addition of her new tail, which right now was very busy quickly wagging back and forth.

“Good morning Bebe!” 

Butter walked up to her and helped her back up. In an instant the world turned right back around just like how it was before. “Woah! Thank you! You’re amazing Butts!!” He was really good at doing that. It made sense, he got a lot of practice doing it around Babycorn. 

Butter smiled, “Thank you!” 

“Do you wanna sit with me?!” 

Babycorn had just gone out and said it. She bounced excitedly and grabbed Butter’s hands. “I really wanna sit with you!” For the first time today Butter wasn’t busy doing something so now was her chance to strike! “Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!!” 

“Of course!” 

“YAAAAAAAAAAAY!” 

Babycorn let out a cheer and jumped in the air, landing on the ground with her legs crossed together. “Don’t worry I already shooed and ate all the bugs here! So don’t worry about them!” 

Butter had never felt more reassured. He laughed and sat right next to her. Apparently he hadn’t sat close enough to her because Babycorn took it upon herself to scoot even closer to him. 

Then if that wasn’t enough, “Can I put my head on your shoulder?!” She asked, very nicely.

“You can ahead!” 

As if she even needed to ask.

“Hehe!” Babycorn laid her head on Butter’s shoulder and nuzzled herself closer. She let out another wave of giggles when she felt Butter petting the top of her head. 

It didn’t take very long for Babycorn to fall back asleep. 

Butter was used to this by now. He lost count of just how many times she’d fallen asleep while leaning on him. Even so he could never bring it upon himself to wake her up, so he usually just stayed next to her until she woke up. Sometimes he would even fall asleep alongside her.

This happened to be a case of the latter. As Butter quickly found himself unable to keep his eyes open.

There was no telling how much time had passed since he fell asleep. It could have been a full day or even less than a minute. The only thing Butter really knew was that Babycorn had woken up before him. 

“Hey Butts…” She was looking right at the fire. 

Butter also noticed that his head was resting on Babycorn’s shoulder. She hadn’t moved either when he’d fallen asleep. “Hi Bebe…” He let out a yawn and straightened himself out, stretching out his back. “I guess we both sort of fell asleep huh?” Butter chuckled to himself. 

Babycorn smiled, just a little, but said nothing otherwise.

The fire was burning brightly against the growing darkness of the evening. 

This was as good a time as any. “Um…Butter? Can I tell you something?” They were alone and after everything Babycorn was worried she might ever get a chance to tell him this. She needed to tell him. 

Butter noticed that Babycorn used his full name for once. Whatever she wanted to tell him must have been important. “You can tell me anything. It’s okay.” He looked right at her, resting his hand on top of her’s. 

Babycorn took in a deep breath, in and out. 

“I’m sorry.” 

…huh? Had Butter heard her right? “Sorry about what?” Whatever it was he was sure that it was probably something Babycorn didn’t need to apologize for. “Is this about the train tracks? Because I’m sure it won’t take a long time to fix them!” They were probably already back in place at this point honestly. 

Babycorn moved her hand away from Butter’s. She held one in the other, nervously wringing them together. “No. It’s…I…” How could she even begin to explain this?

At this point would Butter ever forgive her? She was just fooling herself into thinking he would. 

“Babycorn.” Butter spoke up. He almost couldn’t take it anymore. “If you want to tell me something. You can. Everything will be okay I promise.” 

“I…” Babycorn turned away, placing her tail in between her and Butter. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t help your parents.” 

There was no way he heard her right. “My parents…?” The same ones that kidnapped Babycorn against her will and almost killed her? The ones that were more than happy to abandon their children for so many years and for the rest of their lives?

Why would Babycorn be sorry about not helping them?

“...I should have done what they wanted. And because I didn’t-they left you and Pancake alone…”

“No. You were right to not help them.”

Cremia and Scotch would have left them regardless. He didn’t even want to consider what would have happened if Babycorn had used up all her energy. It wasn’t like he already didn’t have nightmares about it. 

Nightmares of finally finding Babycorn and watching her fade away right in front of him…

“If I was just a little stronger…If I kept that portal open a little longer and then…” 

Then something would had happened.

Babycorn wasn’t sure what would have actually happened if she was able to keep the door to the thirteenth opened for longer than she did, but she was completely convinced that it would have been for the better.

This was unbelievable. “Babycorn! They kidnapped you?!” Butter had no idea how much he had to emphasize the fact that she had been taken against her will. The very idea that Babycorn felt like she needed to apologize and feel responsible for what happened to them was making him a little mad. 

“I know…I know but…” This thought had been endlessly chipping away at the back of her head ever since she first woke up in that infirmary bed. “I COULD have done something! I didn’t do anything and now your parents are trapped in the Thirteenth and who knows if you’ll ever see them again-!” 

“They choose to do that! My parents walked into that portal completely by choice! Nobody could have done anything about it! Not even you.” 

“I could have kept it open! I KNOW I could have!!” 

Butter knew Babycorn was wrong. There was nothing she was capable of doing in the state they found her in. When Butter picked her up from the ground he couldn’t even feel a pulse at first. 

“If only I just did what she told me to do earlier…then maybe I wouldn’t have gotten her trapped in the Thirteenth…”

“If you listened to her you would have died.” 

It looked like Babycorn hadn’t even heard what Butter said to her.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to give them a way to come back…”

“They forced you to open it!” 

Babycorn hunched herself over and tried to hide herself under her arms. “I…I took your mom and dad away…They’re gone and it's all my fault..I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” If only she had listened. If only she was strong enough. If only…

Now Butter and Pancake had lost any chance to be with their parents and it was all because of her. 

Enough was enough. 

Butter gently grabbed Babycorn’s hands, slowly he moved them away from her to reveal the shivering lalafell underneath. “I need you to listen to me Babycorn Corn Starsinger.” Once he could see her again Babycorn let Butter hold her hands but she just couldn’t look him in the eye.

“You don’t owe anyone an apology for what happened. Especially not me or Pancake.”” Butter took a deep sigh before continuing, “My parents did what they did out of their own choice. None of us had anything to do with it. Not me, not you, not anyone but them.” 

Babycorn remained silent, looking down at their hands. Somehow they found themselves interlocking fingers with each other. Then Babycorn looked up. 

“You don’t have to say you’re sorry! I promise! Because I’m not mad at you! Pancake isn't mad at you! I'm mad at my parents for what they did to you, to Pancake, to everyone...” 

“...To you.” Babycorn reminded him. 

Butter could only smile in response. “Babycorn I want you to know that I would send my parents into a portal with no escape a million times over if it meant you would be safe and sound.” 

“HuH?!”

Okay maybe that was a liiiiittle dramatic but it’s not like he didn’t mean it just a bit. 

He really did love her that much. 

Babycorn was starting to piece it together.

Butter noticed her expression grew strange, almost like she was thinking something over. "Bebe? In context it made sense. He hoped she was finally realizing she didn't need to feel pity for his parents.

Which is why he was so caught off guard when Babycorn lunged forward and pressed his head in between her hands. "Urp?!" Her bright yellow eyes were staring right at him.

"I know I'm not that smart Butts. I know I don't know a lot of things!" Her gaze grew more intense. "But I do know that Butter Moontide is the sweetest, nicest, bravest and the most awesomest son any mama or papa could ever have asked for!"

"Bebe..."

"And Pancake is so smart and amazing! It's been awesome to see her grow up! YOU did that Butter. She loves you, just like Cinnamon does. Just like all of us do! Your parents are s-so stupid for just deciding to leave you behind!"

Butter let out a sniffle, "They sure were huh...?"

Babycorn wasted no time in embracing Butter in the tightest hug that she could. "I'm happy you're here Butter. You, Pancake and everyone."

"I...I'm happy I'm here too..."

Both Babycorn and Butter spent more time sitting by the campfire. Watching the skies and enjoying the knowledge that neither of them were going anywhere anytime soon.

By now the campfire had almost gone out. 

Babycorn wiped at her eyes and her nose. “Okay! Well I'm not sorry anymore! I couldn’t have done anything. I know that know cause Butts told me!” Sure, she still wished things had gone differently and there could have been a happy ending for everyone but sometimes things just don’t work out that way.

Butter chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. “You're right. And that's okay!" At that point no one could have changed anything. Good ridance! As Lunya once said. Butter couldn't have agreed more.

“They left knowing there was probably no way back.”

Even back then the very first thing Butter had done after everything was over was check run straight to Babycorn. 

His priorities were right where they belonged.

There was just the matter of one little tiny thing Babycorn still felt a little bad about. 

“Just so you know I called your mom a really mean name.” 

Ah, was that it?

“If you ask me I think you should have called her a really really mean name.”

[antheraea]

Flash Was Killed Because It Was Objectively Dangerous

I get it, I get the Flash nostalgia and the fondness for old Flash games. I was big on Neopets before they decided to ruin the art and make all the pets samey paper dolls to play dressup with (completely ruining the point of the far more expensive "redraw" colors like Mutant and Faerie and Desert). I have fond memories of Newgrounds games and I even managed to take a class for a semester in high school where I could learn flash.

But I also remember how terrible it was. And you should too.

Leaving aside all of the issues involving performance and inaccessibility (such as being easily broken by bog-standard browser actions like the back button, and its ability to modify web code AND OS code in real time likely broke a lot of accessibility tech too), Flash was legitimately one of the most dangerous web technologies for the end user. An end-user is you, or more specifically back then, child-you.

According to Wikipedia and its sources, Flash Player has over a thousand vulnerabilities known and listed and over 800 of these lead to arbitrary code execution.

What is arbitrary code execution? That's when someone can just run any commands they want on a machine or program that didn't intend it. A fun way to see this is in this infamous Pokemon tool-assisted speedrun where they manage to get an SNES to show the host's twitch chat in real time. It's not so fun though when it's someone stealing all the files on your computer, grabbing your credentials so they could clean out your Neopets account (yes, really, it was a pretty common concern at the time), and other nefarious works. Also, there was a time where it allowed people to spy on you with your webcam and microphone.

Oh and on top of all of this, Flash had its own "flash cookies", which could not be cleared by ordinary means and thus could be used to track users indefinitely, at least until Adobe slapped a bandaid over it by introducing yet another screen an ordinary person wouldn't know to use. (I assume this is how the infamous neopets "cookie grabbers" worked, so they could get into your account. This is mainly what I remember about using Flash back in the early 2000s lol) So it not only was a "stranger taking over your machine" concern, but a bog-standard privacy concern too, arguably a precursor to our current panopticon internet landscape, where greedy websites would track you because they could and maybe get some money out of it, facilitated by this technology.

When Apple decided to block it, it wasn't out of greed; Steve Jobs cited its abysmal performance and security record, among other issues such as an inherent lack of touchscreen support, and Apple cited specific vulnerability use-cases when blocking specific versions before they nuked it entirely. When Mozilla, who makes Firefox, decided to block it, it's not like they would've gotten money out of doing so, or by offering an alternative; they did so because it is fucking dangerous.

Your ire and nostalgia is misplaced. Flash was not killed by our current shitty web practices that ruin unique spaces and fun games. Flash was killed because both Macromedia (its original developers) and Adobe were incapable of making it safe, if that was even possible, and it was killed after third-parties, in an unprecedented gesture, collectively threw their hands up and said enough.

Well, that and HTML5 being developed and becoming more widespread, being able to do everything Flash can do without being a pox on technology. One could argue that you should bemoan the lack of Flash-to-HTML5 conversion efforts, but that requires asking a lot of effort of people who would have to do that shit for free...and if they have to run Flash to do so, opening themselves up to some of the nastiest exploits on the internet.

Nostalgia is a fucking liar. The games themselves I think are worth having nostalgia over (look, I still find myself pining for that one bullet hell Neopets made and Hannah and the Pirate Caves), but Flash itself deserves none of that, and absolutely deserved to be put in the fucking ground. You're blaming the wrong causes. It was terrible.

(specifics and sources found via its wikipedia page, which has a lot more than is mentioned here. and also my own opinions and experiences back then. lol)

[quietmarie]

Anyone can program (yes, even you)

"Programming is easy"

I saw some variations of this statement shared around the site recently, always in good intentions of course, but it got me thinking.

Is that really true?

Well it certainly isn't hard in the way some developers would want to make you believe. A great skill bestowed only upon the greatest of minds, they're the ones making the world work. You better be thankful.

That is just elitist gibberish. If anyone ever tells you that programmers are "special people" in that way, or tries to sell you on the idea of "real" programmers that are somehow better than the rest, you can safely walk in the other direction. They have nothing of value to tell you.

But I think the answer is more complicated than a simple "Yes, programming is easy" too. In all honesty, I don't think it's an easy thing to "just pick up" at all. It can be very unintuitive at first to wrap your head around just how to tell a computer to solve certain problems.

One person in the codeblr Discord server likened it to cooking. That's a skill that can be very hard, but it's also something that everyone can learn. Anyone can cook. And anyone can program.

I really mean that. No need to be good at maths, to know what a bit is or whatever it is people told you you need. You're not too old to learn it either, or too young for that matter. If you want to start programming (and you can read this post), you already have everything you need. You can write your first little programs today!

One of the cool things about programming is that you can just fuck around and try lots of stuff, and it's fine. Realistically, the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work the way you imagined. But you'll never accidentally trigger the fire alarm or burn your house down, so feel free to just try a bunch of stuff.

"Okay I want to learn programming now, what do I do?"

That's awesome, I love the enthusiasm! As much as I'd love to just give you a resource and tell you to build a thing, you still have to make a choice what you want to learn first. The options I'd recommend are:

Scratch: A visual education tool. The main advantage is that you don't have to worry about the exact words you need to write down, you can just think about the structure of your program. The way it works is that you drag and drop program elements to be executed when they should be. You can relatively quickly learn to make cute little games in it. The downside is that this isn't really a "professional" programming language, so, while learning from Scratch will give you the basics that apply to most languages and will make switching to another language easier, you're still gonna have to switch sooner or later. Start here: https://scratch.mit.edu/

Python: The classic choice. Python is a very widely used, flexible programming language that is suited for beginners. It is what I would recommend if you want to skip right to or move on from Scratch to a more flexible language. https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ is your starting point, but there's also a longer list of resources here if you want to check that out at some point.

HTML/CSS/JavaScript: The web path. HTML and CSS are for creating the look of websites, and JavaScript is for the interactive elements. For example, if you ever played a game in your browser, that was probably written in JS. Since HTML and CSS are just for defining how the website should look, they're different from traditional programming languages, and you won't be able to write programs in them, that's what JS is for. You have to know HTML before you learn CSS, but otherwise the order in which you learn these is up to you. Your JavaScript resource is https://javascript.info/, and for HTML and CSS you can check out https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web.

I put some starting out resources here, but they're really just that - they're for starting out. You don't have to stick to them. If you find another path that suits you better, or if you want to get sidetracked with another resource or project, go for it! Your path doesn't have to be linear at all, and there's no "correct" way to learn things.

One of the most important things you'll want to do is talk to developers when you struggle. The journey is going to be frustrating at times, so search out beginner-friendly coding communities on Discord or wherever you're comfortable. The codeblr community certainly tends to be beginner-friendly and kind. My DMs and asks are also open on here.

[the-digital-buzz]

How Digital Marketing Training Can Help You Start Your Own Business

Starting your own business in today’s digital age means navigating a complex online landscape. Consumers are constantly engaging online, which means a strong digital presence is essential for any new business. However, understanding and mastering the tools and strategies required for effective digital marketing can be challenging without the right training. This is where a digital marketing training institute becomes invaluable. With the right digital marketing skills, you can drive your business's growth from the ground up.

In this guide, we’ll explore how digital marketing training can provide a solid foundation for launching a business. By examining core skills, tools, strategies, and expert tips, you’ll understand how digital marketing training can be a game-changer for entrepreneurs.

1. Building a Strong Online Presence

The first and most essential step in creating a successful business is establishing a credible online presence. Digital marketing training teaches you the importance of branding, website development, and content creation, helping you build a brand that resonates with your target audience.

Personal Branding: Training will help you identify your unique value proposition and communicate it effectively.

Website Development Basics: Many digital marketing training programs cover web development basics, helping you create a user-friendly, SEO-optimized website.

Content Creation: Content is the backbone of any digital strategy. Learning how to create engaging blog posts, videos, and infographics will attract and retain customers.

Expert Tip:

Use free tools like Canva for graphic design and WordPress or Wix for creating a basic website to get started.

2. Understanding SEO to Attract Organic Traffic

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial to ensure that your business can be found by potential customers. A digital marketing training institute will provide comprehensive knowledge on how SEO works, including keyword research, on-page SEO, and technical SEO aspects.

Keyword Research: Learn to identify and target keywords relevant to your business that your potential customers are searching for.

On-Page SEO: Training will cover techniques like optimizing titles, headers, and meta descriptions to improve search engine rankings.

Technical SEO: Advanced training may include aspects like website speed optimization, mobile compatibility, and sitemaps, which are essential for ranking well on search engines.

Expert Tip:

Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner can assist in finding and analyzing keywords to help you rank higher on search engines.

3. Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness

Social media platforms are powerful tools for promoting a business, but effective social media marketing requires strategy. Digital marketing training will teach you to create engaging content, understand analytics, and develop ad campaigns to increase reach.

Platform Selection: Training will help you determine which social media platforms align best with your target audience (e.g., LinkedIn for B2B or Instagram for younger demographics).

Content Strategy: You’ll learn how to craft posts that engage followers, tell your brand’s story, and drive interactions.

Advertising Campaigns: Learn how to use paid advertising effectively on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, helping you reach a wider audience at a relatively low cost.

Expert Tip:

Use scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to manage and track your social media posts, saving time and ensuring consistency.

4. Harnessing Email Marketing for Customer Retention

Email marketing is a highly effective channel for keeping customers engaged and building long-term loyalty. Through digital marketing training, you’ll understand the nuances of email marketing, from list building to crafting effective email campaigns.

Building an Email List: Learn strategies for collecting customer emails through website sign-ups, social media, and landing pages.

Crafting Email Campaigns: Training often covers how to write compelling emails, create drip campaigns, and send personalized messages.

Analyzing Email Performance: You’ll learn how to use analytics to measure open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, enabling you to refine your strategy.

Expert Tip:

Platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact are user-friendly options for beginners, offering templates, analytics, and automation options.

5. Leveraging Content Marketing to Educate and Engage

Content marketing is an excellent way to establish authority in your field and attract customers through valuable content. A digital marketing training institute will help you understand how to create a content calendar, generate relevant topics, and repurpose content across different channels.

Creating a Content Plan: Training will teach you to create a strategic plan that includes blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics.

SEO-Optimized Content: Learn how to structure content to rank well on search engines, helping your business attract organic traffic.

Repurposing Content: With guidance, you can maximize content by repurposing a blog post into social media snippets, videos, and newsletters.

Expert Tip:

Try using tools like Grammarly for proofreading and Yoast SEO to optimize content for SEO directly within WordPress.

6. Understanding Analytics to Make Data-Driven Decisions

Knowing how to interpret data is crucial for evaluating the success of your digital marketing efforts. Most digital marketing training programs include a module on analytics, focusing on metrics that matter most to new business owners.

Google Analytics: Learn how to track website performance, including visitor demographics, behavior, and traffic sources.

Social Media Analytics: Training will guide you on using platform-specific analytics to measure reach, engagement, and conversion on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Understand how to analyze conversion rates and make adjustments to improve customer acquisition.

Expert Tip:

Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console from day one to monitor performance and make informed decisions based on real data.

7. Running Effective Digital Advertising Campaigns

Digital advertising can give new businesses an instant boost by reaching specific demographics. A digital marketing training program will teach you how to run effective campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

Creating Ad Campaigns: Training covers campaign structure, audience targeting, and budgeting.

Retargeting Ads: You’ll learn how to use retargeting to re-engage potential customers who have already visited your site.

Analyzing Ad Performance: Most programs cover ad metrics, allowing you to understand cost-per-click (CPC), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Expert Tip:

When starting, allocate a small budget for A/B testing on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to determine what works best for your target audience.

8. Developing a Holistic Digital Marketing Strategy

A successful digital marketing strategy combines multiple channels and tactics to drive brand awareness and sales. Digital marketing training provides an understanding of how each marketing channel works together and teaches you how to develop an integrated strategy that aligns with your business goals.

Setting Goals and KPIs: Training will help you define measurable goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress.

Aligning Marketing Channels: You’ll learn to integrate SEO, social media, content, and paid ads into a cohesive strategy.

Tracking Progress and Adapting: Training emphasizes flexibility, encouraging you to continuously assess and adjust strategies based on results.

Expert Tip:

Tools like Trello or Asana can help you organize your marketing tasks, assign deadlines, and track progress effectively.

9. Gaining Industry Insights and Keeping Up with Trends

Digital marketing is constantly evolving. Enrolling in a digital marketing training institute helps you stay current on trends, tools, and best practices, which is essential for success in a competitive business landscape.

Industry Updates: Many training programs offer regular updates on industry trends, such as AI in marketing, voice search, and algorithm changes.

Networking Opportunities: Being part of a training institute often allows you to network with industry professionals, opening doors for partnerships, mentorships, and collaborations.

Access to Resources: Training institutes often provide access to exclusive resources like webinars, workshops, and case studies that keep you ahead of the curve.

Expert Tip:

Follow reputable sources like Search Engine Journal and HubSpot for regular industry updates and best practices.

Conclusion

Starting a business can be daunting, but with the right digital marketing training, you’ll have the tools and knowledge to succeed. A digital marketing training institute equips you with essential skills, from SEO and content creation to analytics and advertising, that can help drive growth for your new business. With guidance on creating a solid online presence, engaging with customers, and making data-driven decisions, digital marketing training is a valuable investment for aspiring entrepreneurs. By understanding and leveraging digital marketing strategies, you can position your business for success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

[islandwizards]

The Best Free WordPress Plugins You Should Use

If you're running a WordPress website, plugins are essential for adding functionality, improving performance, and optimizing the user experience. At Island Wizards, a company dedicated to providing WordPress headless and Shopify services, we understand the importance of selecting the right plugins for your website. To help you get started, we've compiled a list of the best free WordPress plugins that you should consider for your site.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular and comprehensive SEO plugins available. It helps you optimize your content for search engines by providing keyword analysis, readability scores, and detailed SEO suggestions.

Key Features:

Real-time page analysis

XML sitemap generation

On-page optimization for readability and keywords

This plugin ensures that your content is SEO-friendly, which can boost your site's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

2. WPForms

Every website needs a reliable contact form, and WPForms is one of the easiest form builders out there. With its drag-and-drop functionality, you can create beautiful forms in minutes, even if you're not tech-savvy.

Key Features:

Drag-and-drop builder

Mobile responsive

Spam protection

WPForms makes it simple for your visitors to get in touch with you, making it a must-have for businesses like Island Wizards.

3. Elementor

For those looking to design stunning web pages without coding, Elementor is the go-to plugin. This free page builder offers a user-friendly interface that allows you to create custom layouts and designs.

Key Features:

Drag-and-drop editor

100+ templates

Mobile-friendly designs

At Island Wizards, we recommend Elementor for clients who want full control over their website's appearance without relying on custom coding.

4. WooCommerce

If you're running an online store, WooCommerce is the ultimate plugin for e-commerce. It powers more than 30% of all online stores, and it's fully customizable, allowing you to sell anything from physical products to digital downloads.

Key Features:

Built-in payment processing

Inventory management

Customizable product pages

As experts in WordPress and Shopify, we at Island Wizards often integrate WooCommerce for clients looking to build a robust online store.

5. UpdraftPlus

Backing up your website is crucial, and UpdraftPlus simplifies this process. This backup plugin allows you to store your backups in the cloud or download them for safekeeping.

Key Features:

Scheduled backups

Cloud storage integration

Easy restoration

At Island Wizards, we always advise our clients to have a backup strategy, and UpdraftPlus is the perfect solution for that.

6. Smush

Website speed is critical for user experience and SEO, and Smush helps by compressing your images without sacrificing quality. This image optimization plugin reduces file sizes, making your site faster and more efficient.

Key Features:

Lossless image compression

Bulk image optimization

Lazy loading

Faster websites tend to rank higher in search engines, and at Island Wizards, we prioritize performance for all our clients.

7. Wordfence Security

Security is a top priority for any website, and Wordfence provides a comprehensive security plugin to protect your site from malicious attacks.

Key Features:

Firewall and malware scanner

Login security

Real-time threat defense feed

With security being a major concern, we at Island Wizards strongly recommend Wordfence to all our WordPress clients.

Conclusion

Whether you're just starting out with your WordPress site or looking to enhance its functionality, these free plugins are essential tools for success. At Island Wizards, we specialize in WordPress development and can help you integrate these plugins into your site seamlessly. Choosing the right plugins can significantly improve your site's performance, security, and overall user experience, ensuring your website operates at its full potential. Explore more about our service… https://islandwizards.com/blogs/when-you-should-consider-moving-your-store-to-shopify/ https://islandwizards.com/blogs/understanding-the-importance-of-ui-ux-in-website-design/

[rebsultana]

Elixir Review: The Ultimate AI-Powered Amazon Affiliate Website Builder

Introduction: Elixir Review

Affiliate marketing success depends on automation in the ever-changing industry. The revolutionary AI tool Elixir brings an innovative Amazon affiliate website builder which makes it easy to build high-conversion sites with search engine optimization. Through its automated system Elixir offers complete building capabilities for Amazon affiliate websites alongside built-in hosting solutions and 99 premium AI integrations together with attractive website designs after the 60-second process.

Technological breakthrough Elixir delivers a new solution for users who encounter problems with standard web creators and hosting providers along with lengthy content production. A single click provides users with a functioning affiliate site having unique content and optimized product listings for traffic-ready performance.

This thorough review reveals all aspects of Elixir including its features together with benefits and costs as well as the value it provides.

Overview: Elixir Review

Vendor:  Mike & Radu

Product:   Elixir

Launch Date:  2025-Feb-24

Front-End Price:  $27

Discount Coupon: Special One Time Discount

Niche: Affiliate Marketing, AI Powered Tools, Website Builder

Guarantee: 30-days money-back guarantee!

Recommendation: Highly recommended

Support Email:  info@help.serapiscode.com

What is Elixir?

The cloud-based platform Elixir functions as a self-operating platform to establish affiliate websites certified by Amazon. This solution provides a technical-free affiliate marketing approach for people looking to get passive earnings through Amazon partnerships.

The software utilizes advanced 99-in-1 AI technology through DeepSeek alongside Sora AI and ChatGPT 03-mini PRO as well as Google Gemini Ultra Advanced and DallE 3 HD and Whisper AI and Midjourney Mega and Leonardo PRO and Copilot Pro to develop automatic review sites with products and SEO content.

[44gamez]

Echocalypse codes (January 2024)

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How do I redeem Echocalypse codes?

Redeeming Echocalypse is easy. You simply must comply with these easy steps: - Launch Echocalypse in your gadget - Faucet the icon button within the high left nook (it is advisable to full the tutorial to entry this) - Hit the essential knowledge tab - Faucet redeem code - Enter your code - Hit redeem - Get pleasure from your freebie

What are Echocalypse codes?

Echocalypse codes offer you useful in-game goodies courtesy of the developer, Yoozoo Video games, who tends so as to add new ones to coincide with occasions. So bookmark this web page to remain updated with the newest freebies. There you could have it, the entire present Echocalypse codes. For much more motion, take a look at our greatest cellular RPGs listing, or head on over to our Genshin Impression tier listing, Honkai Star Rail tier listing, and Zenless Zone Zero tier listing. Read the full article