Yesterday, some of us, developers, were hit hard by the AWS outage. Many websites went down for a few of hours, some of us couldn’t even continue working on your projects due to the outages of services like CircleCI.

Raqib50 means "Watch50" in Arabic. Why Raqib50 [Watch50]? Because there are 50 Members of Parliament in the National Assembly in Kuwait, and Raqib50 is an app that helps hold each of them accountable for their actions.

A revolution in social care is coming. Helpr, a platform connecting social care workers with care recipients, is launching soon and it will change the British social care system. As Helpr’s partner, Netguru has helped develop the system, which includes a web platform and mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices. We’re proud to have contributed to such a worthwhile initiative and we will continue to support Helpr’s creators, Peter John and Steve Dailey. We encourage you to learn more about the project by reading our case study or the interview with Helpr's founders.

Linguistics and philology are commonly considered as humanities. They are rarely associated with exact sciences, whereas programming would be more likely related to maths in the popular opinion. However, those two areas are closely related, and my experience proves that a degree in linguistics can help one become a good web developer. After all, both deal with languages. Linguistic studies provided me with the skills and knowledge necessary to rock in coding. I believe that I’ve got a considerable advantage in learning how to code and here are some arguments to support my point of view.

Airbnb, LinkedIn, Walmart, Uber, and even NASA (!) have used Node.js in production. Since its early days, the framework has been adopted as an enterprise-level tool by giants such as Netflix, Microsoft or eBay. The benefits of Node.js are countless, but you should also be aware of its constraints. Get a full picture of Node.js and avoid making serious mistakes in development that could cost you money.

PostCSS is a tool for transforming styles with JS plugins. These plugins can lint your CSS, support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more.

Prague still has a long way to go before they can compete with top European startup hubs like London, Berlin or Amsterdam. That said, the city offers enormous untapped growth potential for emerging companies.

Netguru is among the fastest growing companies of its kind, we have made the fifth place in the Deloitte Fast 50 CEE ranking twice in a row. We could not have done it without our Business Development Team. We face multiple challenges every day: international clients, enterprise projects and the very nature of the B2B market. Kuba was happy to shed some light on how Netguru’s Business Development Team has achieved sustained success not in spite of, but thanks to these challenges.

Speaking of security, there is a very nice article about how to secure your Ubuntu server in 10 minutes. In this blog post, I’ll try to use the hints from that article, and create a playbook that should apply everything within 30 seconds.

Martin Key is a Project Manager at whym, which is a live translation app for travellers as well as for tourist businesses like hotels and airports. The app connects the user with professional interpreters from the InterpretersPortal. At the moment the app supports 13 languages. We asked Martin a few questions to learn more about his business.

Life is all about solving problems. Getting to the bottom of one issue usually creates two new ones, but this is what makes life so special. Some problems affect everyone – managing a family budget, finding the shortest route to a destination, or sorting laundry. Fortunately, with the help of algorithms and a healthy dose of creativity, everyday activities can become something more exciting than your run-of-the-mill entertainment.

Hi, Ruby fans! We’re more than happy to see you in another edition of the Ruby Brief. Have a look at what’s changed and discover new stuff created recently in the world of Ruby.

Abdullah Alkhonaini is a co-founder of Raqib50, an online non-profit website that holds Kuwaiti members of parliament (MPs) accountable by making their voting records and other work accessible to the public (parliament watch). The app is powered by Ruby on Rails, and tracks MP activities: suggestions, committee reports, votes. Raqib50 is run by a non-profit initiative. We spoke with Abdullah to learn more about his experiences with buidling a startup.

Finán O'Donoghue is the founder and CEO of Campsited.com, a Dublin based startup that provides an easy way for campers and holidaymakers to find and book campsites, touring parks and holiday parks. We spoke with Finán to learn more about his startup.

Sketch is one of the best UI design tools at the moment. It is the first design tool created with the intent to satisfy the sublime needs of product designers. Many times, Sketch was such a nice surprise that I was amazed how intuitive it is.

Improving your website doesn’t end at employing the best staff to implement your vision. Sometimes you need to listen to the voice of the people. This is where optimization testing comes in. Let’s dive into that subject to learn what it is and how it can help you.

Some time ago, I finished my first Product Review report for a client, who is developing a platform for purchasing videos, photos and texts from journalists from all around the world. The essence of a Product Review is the analysis of all the data and metrics collected throughout the development process, as well as a qualitative usability analysis. Thanks to such approach, we are able to find missing features in the client’s app, analyze the client’s outstanding needs and estimate the app’s overall potential. In this article, I will share some tips on how to get through a Product Review process successfully and write reports like a pro.

This is really important.

It is very hard to be perfectly focused on your work throughout the whole day when you work on a creative project. Some time ago, I started searching for a solution on how to overcome obstacles such as procrastination and unfocused work. Eventually, I found a book that changed my life: “The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play” by Neil Fiore. This book has been my how-to-be-productive bible since then. In this article, I’ll share with you the key take-away points from Fiore’s book as well as my personal tips and tricks to improve productivity.

Testing a React/Redux app can be a problem. Recently, with new tools being created every day, choosing the right tool has become harder than ever. In this article, I will show you how to use Jest to get your tests done.