Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

The DeepLearning.AI short course on  Spec-Driven Development with Coding Agents  introduces a professional paradigm shift in how we build applications using agentic coding assistance.  Rather than "vibe coding"—where developers rely on quick, high-level prompts that often lead to technical debt—SDD brings engineering rigour back to the process.  Agent is the muscle, but the SPEC is the brain - In this workflow, the human takes on the role of a senior architect, providing the "blueprints" (specifications), while the AI agent acts as the "muscle" to implement those designs.   The 1 Hour 20 Minute video course has 15 short lessons - Introduction - 4 mins Why spec−driven development? - 4 mins Workflow overview - 3 mins Set up your environment - 5 mins Setup - 1 min Creating the constitution - 10 mins Feature specification - 3 mins Feature implementation - 1 min Feature validation -...

GitHub's web editor (used in issues, pull requests, comments, Markdown files, etc.) has built-in keyboard shortcuts that work in the standard Markdown editing mode - Keyboard Shortcut Description Ctrl + B Inserts Markdown formatting for bold text Ctrl + I Inserts Markdown formatting for italic text Ctrl + E Inserts Markdown formatting for inline code (one-liner) Ctrl + K Inserts Markdown formatting for a link Ctrl + Shift + 7 Inserts Markdown formatting for an ordered (numbered) list Ctrl + Shift + 8 Inserts Markdown formatting for an unordered (bullet) list Ctrl + Shift + . Inserts Markdown formatting for a blockquote Ctrl + Shift + P Toggles between Write and Preview tabs (in comments, issues, PRs, or file editor) Ctrl + Enter Submits the comment/form (in issue/PR/comment fields) Ctrl + V (with text selected) ...

This Week I Learned -  *  Potato Prompt  used in Custom Instructions can make AI stop being a collaborator and start being a "Devil’s Advocate" -  " Whenever I type the word 'Potato' followed by an idea or argument, I want you to ignore your 'helpful' persona. Instead, act as a Hostile Critic . Your only job is to find the 'holes' in my logic. Point out three specific ways my argument could fail, two assumptions I’m making without proof, and one counter-argument I haven't addressed. Do not be polite; be precise. " * Yann LeCun and his team have developed LeWorldModel, the first stable model built with his Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA). Their aim is to create models that go beyond just predicting words, focusing instead on truly understanding the world and how it functions. * Distillation is a technique where an older “teacher” AI model is used to train a newer, “student,” model that replicates the capabilities of the earl...