A Tasty Treats NEWSLETTER for Web Developers

Issue #60:

Aaand we’re back. Kicking off 2026 with Issue #60 of the Snack Pack. Hope you had a great break, survived the holidays, and set some reasonably realistic New Year’s resolution

A brand-new framework-agnostic AI toolkit from TanStack just dropped — and the JS community is all in.
Can CSS fix optical illusions? Dark mode typography gets surprisingly deep.
“You don’t need to memorize syntax.” So… what actually makes a real developer?
Why did Anthropic really buy Bun? Tell us your opinion
Lottery Every Second: why wait a week for disappointment when you can have it now?

Using CSS to fix the irradiation illusion

FROM CJ

Adam dives into how to adjust perceived font weight for dark mode without layout shift.

TanStack AI Alpha: Your AI, Your Way

CJ'S LINK

The TanStack team are giving triangle company a run for it's money with a brand new framework agnostic AI toolkit with major backing by the JS community.

INSPECT

WES'S FIND

A new background coding agent built by Ramp. It’s totally remote and Sandboxes, built on OpenCode and Cloudflare. You can use it via their snazzy Web UI, a chrome extension or ping it from Slack .

A Website To End All Websites

ofc CJ's IT's link

The internet used to be a better place. An essay by Henry.

FUN stuff

we love fun

Lottery Every Second

Why wait a week for disappointment when you can have it every second?

hexclock

The current time displayed as a hex color.

The Feed

New videos 3×/week

Why Did Anthropic Buy Bun?

Habits and Changes We Want to Make in 2026

A Look Back at Web Dev in 2025

NEW JS / CSS Features in 2025

CJ's CORNER

writing javascript as fast as possible

feeling behind as a programmer

All Hail The Algorithm

Some good stuff™ from the socials

JNS

@_devJNS

hot takes:

you don’t need to memorize syntax. 
google exists. AI exists. 
what actually makes you a real developer is logic and problem-solving.

6:9 PM • Nov 4, 2025

498

Retweets

6912

Likes

Read 353 replies

What makes you a "real developer"?

Tony Lea

@tnylea

Ok, I'm probably biased since I've built way more back-ends in PHP than JavaScript...

but I kinda love this hot take 🌶️

10:21 PM • Jan 12, 2026

Retweets

Likes

Read 8 replies

Dimitri Mitropoulos tells us why JavaScript is not a good language for the back-end.

SHAMELESS PLUG

SENTRY just released Unity SDK 4.0.0 (their biggest update yet):

Console support, logs, user feedback and more

READ ABOUT IT

A Tasty Treats NEWSLETTER for Web Developers

​Using CSS to fix the irradiation illusion

FROM CJ

​TanStack AI Alpha: Your AI, Your Way

SAN FRANCISCO MEETUP