A new kind of experience

Last Thursday I headed off to a small town called Zeewolde to go to a conference I’d never been to before. The conference is called May Contain Hackers and it’s a completely different conference compared to the ones I’m used to attending. May Contain Hackers is a so-called Hacker Camp. It’s run once every four years in The Netherlands, and it relies heavily on building a community with volunteers that can sign up to work anywhere between a couple of hours to several days.

Instead of sleeping in a hotel, everybody sets up their tents wherever they’d like (with some restrictions), and you’re free to do whatever you want (again, with some restrictions). Some folks just set up their tents and use them for sleeping, but others brought huge tents that were loaded with desks, computers, server racks, and / or entire kitchens. These people were part of Villages which was quite interesting.

Some of these villages were open to visitors, some even served their guests food while others had built cool devices like a machine that can pour you a perfectly balanced cocktail.

And while a normal conference will last just a few days, May Contain Hackers lasts a whopping five days!

Attending this conference was an extremely different experience for mem and I liked it a lot! Seeing a community of people come together and build a short-lived town almost was quite refreshing. What’s also refreshing is that I found the crowd to be quite diverse which isn’t something I had expected initially. And the best part is that the camping site is family friendly.

This year I didn’t bring Oliver and Dorien, but next year they might just have to join me…

Cheers!
Donny

Practical Core Data

Practical Core Data helps you learn Apple's Core Data framework without requiring any prior knowledge. You'll learn how to integrate Core Data in UIKit and SwiftUI applications. The book also covers data modeling, synchronizing your store with a custom backend or CloudKit, profiling and improving performance in a Core Data app, and using Core Data in unit tests.

By the end of the book, you'll know exactly how you can start using Core Data in modern applications.

Practical Combine

Practical Combine is a book that will help you learn Combine from scratch. You will learn about all aspects of Combine in a natural flow where you're eased into functional reactive programming with simple examples, and the difficulty gradually builds up to complicated integrations in later chapters.

🎶 Currently on repeat 🎶

If you follow me on Twitter you probably know that I play guitar. I'm a huge music lover and want to share this with you. In this section I will share a new album that I've been enjoying a lot every week.

Architects - Tear Gas New Architects music means that I feature it here. Simple as that. What’s even better is that alongside this new single, Architects have announced that they’re releasing a whole new album called “Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit” that will be released on October 21st of this year. I’m super excited for this release and if the two currentlty available singles are a good sample of what to expect, this album’s going to rock! Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Music

Other content that I really want to share with you

About coding outside of work

I’m sure that most of the folks that read this newsletter will either code outside of work as a hobby because they enjoy it, or they do it because they feel like they have to in order to keep up. And a smaller group of you all might have decided that coding is their job, not their hobby, and have made the decision to not do coding outside of regular working hours. Is any one of those three correct? Is any of them wrong? I don’t think so. And it seems like Jeroen from AppForce1 has a similar opinion. If you’re wondering whether you should be coding outside of working hours, check out this post.

An article by Jeroen Leenarts

Variable Color in SF Symbols 4

On iOS 16, we have a new version of SF Symbols that expands the coloring capabilities for SF Symbols greatly. Learn everything you need to know about the new variable color capabilities that are available for SF Symbols on iOS 16.

An article by Sarun W.

Women Who Code Mobile Summit

On July 27th, Women Who Code held a Mobile Summit. While I didn’t have a chance to properly attend all of the talks and sessions, the lineup is super impressive. Feel free to check out the lineup to see what I mean! And even though the conference is already over, you can still gain access to the sessions and videos through the Women Who Code YouTube channel. So make sure to subscribe, and ring that bell!