Synk #2 - 🏦 Barclays, 🐘 PHP and ⛓ Safe Links.
Tags: webdev, news, career, showdev
Published: 2020-07-25 14:09:21

---
title: Synk #2 - 🏦 Barclays, 🐘 PHP and ⛓ Safe Links.
published: true
description: A biweekly snapshot of the web development industry. Issue #2.
tags: #webdev #news #career #showdev
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rhn42zqevn7wzo83znmm.jpeg
---

Hey! 👋 I posted a while back about [launching a newsletter for developers](https://dev.to/skepticalhippoh/launched-synk-a-newsletter-for-web-developers-9gl). I'm over the moon to finally be able to share our newsletter with everyone in the __DEV__ community. This is our second issue, which we feel is a major improvement over our very first one. Let us know what you think!

If you enjoy the content and want more of it, make sure to subscribe over at [Synk](https://synk.sh) for a biweekly delivery straight to your inbox!

#📰 The News

##[🏦 Barclays used Wayback Machine as CDN](https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/03/barclays_bank_javascript_wayback_machine/)

An inquisitive [Twitter user (@immunda)](https://twitter.com/immunda/status/1278783894683336704) found that Barclays had been using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine as a CDN for some of its JS assets. Not sure how that one got through QA!

💬 Discuss: [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/hkhvsm/barclays_bank_serve_their_js_assets_through_a_3rd/)

##[Microsoft will drop official support of PHP on Windows](https://laravel-news.com/microsoft-dropping-php-support)

Though it's likely that someone in the community will pick it up, Microsoft will no longer officially support PHP on Windows. Will this affect you?

💬 Discuss: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Ocramius/status/1281315727593611264/)

#🔭 Code Discovery


##[Check out a real-world app in different languages!](https://github.com/gothinkster/realworld)

When you want to learn a new language, you'll often follow a tutorial that'll lead to the creation of a to-do app, or something similar. But what abou real world apps? In this GitHub project, you'll be able to see a "Medium.com clone" and what it looks like in all kinds of different languages. Neat!

💬Discuss: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/synk_sh/status/1283500900636663810)

##[Get inspired with these app ideas](https://github.com/florinpop17/app-ideas)

Learning is already hard, and trying to think of ways to apply your learning can often be even harder. Instead of doing everything yourself, why don't you check out these ideas for apps to inspire you? Who knows, you may even make something successful with one of them!

💬 Discuss: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/synk_sh/status/1283501183747989509)

#🎓 Career Development

##[A tale of two dads(or what to do when saying something silly in the workplace)](https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/hqmug1/remote_internship_accidentally_called_my_manager/)

Whether you've called your manager dad like this Reddit user, or accidentally sent a message on Slack asking everyone to give you a sex (sec), the most important thing to remember is everyone makes mistakes!

##["Why did this take so long, you only added two lines of code!"](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/hr0frb/youve_only_added_two_lines_why_did_that_take_two/)

Regardless of what we may think, a lot of people outside the industry seem to think that the more lines of code you write, the more you are actually contributing to the product/project/company/happiness-of-manager. Here are some things you can say when someone asks why those 2 lines of code took an equal number of days to write.

#🤔 Miscellaneous

##[Some portfolio advice by a veteran](https://twitter.com/dan_spratling/status/1277543614663536645)

Twitter user and industry veteran Dan Spratling recently took it upon himself to shell out some advice regarding dev portfolios. Read on and you might find something useful for your own site.

##[How to structure Express apps](https://kentcdodds.com/blog/how-i-structure-express-apps/)

Kent C. Dodds, JS teacher and Twitter afficionado, shows us how he structures his own Express apps. This is a very useful guide for both those of us just starting our Express journey, and those who may wish to check out a different opinion.

##[Careful when using the target="\_blank" attribute](https://twitter.com/frontenddude/status/1277862161663119360?s=20)

Something that happens very often in web development is that we tend to forget how important the basics are, especially when it comes to security. In this case, let's remember how important it is to use the target="\_blank" attribute safely.

💬 Discuss: [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/hiimnd/using_the_target_blank_attribute_can_expose_your/)

Want to help us improve? Give us a shout [@synk_sh](https://twitter.com/synk_sh)