Dev.to·Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Dev.to - Wednesday, January 14, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Claude Code Plugin CLI: The Missing Manual

Claude Code for me is like a best friend at work, I use it in my daily coding work, and non coding tasks, like sorting supplier invoices, summarizing account payables, though I always verify its output, the productivity gains are huge. More and more I find myself relying on Claude Code plugins (skills, hooks, commands, etc). Commonly, I would write these myself partly as a learning exercise as it gets you thinking about the underlying mechanics of Claude Code, but also because I have specific ne

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Understanding the RAM Model of Computation

Ever wondered how computer scientists analyze algorithms without worrying about whether you're running on an M1 Mac, an Intel server, or a Raspberry Pi? The answer lies in the Random Access Machine (RAM) model—a theoretical framework that abstracts away hardware details while still giving us accurate predictions about algorithm performance. The Random Access Machine is an idealized model of how computers work. Think of it as a simplified blueprint that captures the essential features of real com

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CES 2026: My top 5 picks!

CES 2026 just wrapped up ... and I can't stop thinking about how the timeline between "impossible" →← "shipping next quarter" is just collapsing! Here are the top 5 things that caught my fancy 🤩 • LEGO bricks that react to how you play with them. Chips smaller than a stud + built-in sensors. Swing a lightsaber & it hums in real-time. No app, no screen. Just intelligent physical play. • Paper batteries already in production w Logitech & Amazon. Biodegradable, non-flammable batteries + zero lit

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The Ultimate Guide to Shopify Cart Debugging: How to Save Hours with Shopify Theme Devtools Cart Panel

TL;DR: Stop console.logging your cart state. Shopify Theme Devtools gives you a visual cart inspector, history tracking, test automation, and scenario management—all in your browser while developing themes. If you've developed Shopify themes, you know the pain: Manually adding products to test cart states Using console.log({{ cart | json }}) to debug Rebuilding complex carts after every page refresh No way to test edge cases like gift-with-purchase items or subscriptions Tracking down which Java

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Inside Git: How It Works and the Role of the .git Folder

For many developers, Git feels like a magical incantation. We type git add . followed by git commit -m "fixed stuff", push it to a remote server, and hope for the best. When it works, it’s fantastic. When it breaks, it feels like trying to defuse a bomb while blindfolded. The key to moving from blind memorization to true mastery lies in understanding what happens beneath the surface. Git isn't just a list of commands; it is a beautifully designed system for managing information. By peeling back

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Headless vs. Real Browser Testing: The Strategic Guide for Modern QA Teams

In the fast-paced world of software development, the choice between headless and real browser testing is more than a technical decision - it's a strategic one that impacts your release velocity, product quality, and team efficiency. Each method serves a distinct purpose in the testing lifecycle, and understanding their nuanced strengths and limitations is crucial for any QA professional or development lead. Drawing from years of scaling automated testing frameworks, I've seen teams thrive by str

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The iOS Safari Full-Height Video Fix That Actually Works (After 4 Hours of Everything That Doesn't)

If you've tried to make a full-screen hero video work on iOS Safari, you've probably spent hours reading the same recycled advice that doesn't actually solve the problem. I just burned an afternoon on this, so let me save you the pain. The problem: You want a background video that fills the entire screen on an iPhone. The bottom keeps getting cut off, or there's a gap, or the content below the fold is hidden behind Safari's toolbar. You Google it. You find 50 articles. None of them work. What th

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Inside Dark Web Monitoring: How Data Leaks Are Identified Responsibly

Understanding Dark Web Leak Monitoring (Reality vs Myth) When people hear “dark web monitoring”, they often assume hacking, buying databases, or digging through stolen data. In real-world defensive security work, none of that happens. Practically, dark web monitoring is threat watching and signal analysis. Security researchers treat the dark web as one more intelligence surface—similar to Twitter, Telegram, GitHub, or paste sites—where threat actors publicly announce what they claim to have.

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BMAD: The Agile Framework That Makes AI Actually Predictable

Introduction Vibe coding with an AI feels a bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall, sometimes something sticks, other times you end up untangling a bigger mess than you started with. You chat, iterate, shrug, and then spend hours debugging an AI hallucination that looked perfect three prompts ago. Enter BMAD: the Breakthrough Method for Agile AI-Driven Development. BMAD isn't another plugin or magic prompt but it's a lightweight, team-shaped framework that gives your AI collaboration structu

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Why I built my own portfolio template

I’ve reviewed a lot of developer portfolios recently — including my own old one — and I noticed the same issues again and again: cluttered UI too many colors and gradients animations that distract instead of guide project cards with zero context slow Lighthouse scores painful mobile experience Most portfolios end up being: “Here are some GitHub links and a big hero headline” But a portfolio is supposed to: communicate your role show real outcomes, not just tech stack tell a short story make it

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