Browser Extensions

Over the past two weeks, my partner and I worked on building our browser extension. This experience helped me understand more clearly browser extensions even work. Even though the extension itself had it few bugs and more features needed to implement, it felt useful. Dividing responsibilites and given one that suits your strong suit really helped get this project going.

We’ve seen a few other browser extensions as well. Some extensions focused on productivity, while others focused more on humor. It’s crazy and hard to understand how people come up with these ideas sometimes. I myself always gets into a brain fart.

My biggest takeaway from both my own group and others is that building something usable is more important than making something complicated. Clear design and purpose make a project more meaningful. It’s also ok if the project itself have a long way to go because that’s what open source is for.

Thoughts on the OSS Summit Videos

A talk by Craig McLuckie discussed the risks involved when developers rely on AI tools. It made me realize that even though AI can help generate code faster, developers still need to understand and review what they are using. When it comes to documentation, even AI might need some reveiwing.

I also watched a conversation between Linus Torvalds and Dirk Hohndel. Linus talked about how he started projects because he personally needed them. He also believe that well if there’s going to be AI, might as well use it and move faster with it.

Presentation Skills Reflection

After watching many student and conference presentations, I learned that presentation style makes a big difference. The best presentations were easy to follow and explained ideas clearly. Speakers who showed demos and spoke confidently made their projects easier to understand.

One important lesson for me is that confidence and preparation are very important. In the future, I want to improve by practicing more and making sure I explain ideas clearly instead of rushing. My mind can go empty when I think about what if I say things wrong. But, maybe if I have a clear structure to follow through, it could be easier.