🚀 Doom Meets TypeScript

Hey everybody!

This week, we’re diving into how AI is reshaping internet businesses, why Doom is now running inside TypeScript, and the scaling challenges of S3. Plus, we take a hard look at Apple’s software quality decline and why CSS mastery is still essential for frontend developers.

Quick Links

🪦 AI is killing some companies, yet others are thriving - here’s the data
AI is shaking up the internet’s biggest content sites, slashing their traffic as chatbots and AI search deliver instant answers. Platforms like WebMD, G2, and Chegg, once thriving on SEO and ad revenue, are seeing a Product-Market Fit Collapse, as Brian Balfour calls it. Key turning points include ChatGPT’s launch and Google’s AI Overviews. The game is changing fast, and this blog dives deep into the data.

🤯 Doom Inside TypeScript
In a mind-blowing technical achievement, Dimitri Mitropoulos has done the impossible, getting Doom (1993) to run entirely within TypeScript's type system. After 18 months of development, his project processed 177 terabytes of TypeScript types over 12 days just to render the first frame. Likely the largest TypeScript codebase ever, this feat pushes the boundaries of what a type system can do.

🗄️ A guide to S3
Andy Warfield, VP and distinguished engineer at S3, shares insights from his USENIX FAST ‘23 keynote on the challenges of scaling massive storage systems. In this guest post, he breaks down three key perspectives on scale that come with building and running a system as large as S3. From technical hurdles to operational complexities, Warfield’s deep dive offers a rare look behind the scenes of one of the world’s biggest storage platforms.

🍎 Apple's Software Quality Crisis
Apple users are paying premium prices, but are we getting premium reliability? Eliseo Martelli argues that Apple must refocus on transparency, performance, and extended support. Once known for “it just works,” Apple’s software now struggles to keep up with its hardware. After months of frustration, Martelli questions his future in the ecosystem, urging Apple to prioritize quality over feature creep and reclaim its user-first ethos.

🖼️ Knowing CSS is mastery to Frontend Development
This article explores the growing disconnect between modern web development tools and a fundamental understanding of the browser ecosystem. While developers rely on React, TypeScript, and styling frameworks like Tailwind or MUI, many lack deep knowledge of CSS, JavaScript debugging, and performance optimization. The author argues that while these tools improve the developer experience, they also introduce inefficiencies, unnecessary dependencies, and performance issues.

More Reading

• The Developers Guide to Working Abroad

• Mozilla has just deleted the following: “Does Firefox sell your personal data?”

• This developer built the World Wide web from scratch.

• Introducing GPT-4.5

• Many younger coders no longer understand how their code really works.

• What would happen if we didn't use TCP or UDP?

Is Using AI in Coding Interviews Cheating?

Should we be allowed to use AI or LLMs during coding interviews?

Of course not, right?

Well, let's rethink where the future is headed.

This may just be a reality before too long. We'll discuss it in this video. I think you'll be surprised.

Until next week,

Travis.