Dana Ciocan
@danaciocan.com
I am a Senior Engineer at Octopus Energy. I love being creative in my spare time. I make my own clothes and grow my own food. My pronouns are they/them. I blog about technology at danaciocan.com
Had a fantastic time at #TechMids 2025. What an event! So lovely to see so many familiar faces and I learned a lot from all the talks. Well done and thank you to the team of organisers who clearly put a LOT of love and care into it. This is why grassroots events are the best 💜
November 14, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Had a fantastic time at #TechMids 2025. What an event! So lovely to see so many familiar faces and I learned a lot from all the talks. Well done and thank you to the team of organisers who clearly put a LOT of love and care into it. This is why grassroots events are the best 💜
I'm heading to conf.techmids.org tomorrow and if you're based in the Midlands and work in tech, you should totally join - there are still tickets available!
TechMids Conf - A community-driven tech conference
TechMids Conf is an all day, full stack conference on Friday 14th November 2025 Come along for a day of inspiring talks, social chatter and fun.
conf.techmids.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:19 AM
I'm heading to conf.techmids.org tomorrow and if you're based in the Midlands and work in tech, you should totally join - there are still tickets available!
Just finished 'Deceptive Patterns: Exposing the Tricks Tech Companies Use to Control You' by Harry Brignull - very illuminating book. Highly recommend anyone working for a tech company in a design, product or engineering capacity to give this a read
November 6, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Just finished 'Deceptive Patterns: Exposing the Tricks Tech Companies Use to Control You' by Harry Brignull - very illuminating book. Highly recommend anyone working for a tech company in a design, product or engineering capacity to give this a read
Wrote a blog post about code reviews: danaciocan.com/lets-talk-ab...
Slowly getting back into the swing of things again 😊
Slowly getting back into the swing of things again 😊
Let's talk about code reviews
Quick tips to make your feedback shine
danaciocan.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Wrote a blog post about code reviews: danaciocan.com/lets-talk-ab...
Slowly getting back into the swing of things again 😊
Slowly getting back into the swing of things again 😊
Interesting... appwrite.io/blog/post/wh...
I've only used TanStack Query so far but might have to have a go at TanStack Start at some point soon 🤔
I've only used TanStack Query so far but might have to have a go at TanStack Start at some point soon 🤔
Why developers are leaving Next.js for TanStack Start, and loving it
The React world is full of opinions, and every few years a new framework changes how we think about building apps. Next.js has been the default choice for a long time, but recently, more developers ha...
appwrite.io
November 3, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Interesting... appwrite.io/blog/post/wh...
I've only used TanStack Query so far but might have to have a go at TanStack Start at some point soon 🤔
I've only used TanStack Query so far but might have to have a go at TanStack Start at some point soon 🤔
I made a silly Halloween CSS art codepen codepen.io/dana-ciocan/...
you might want to open it up and hover over his face 😆
you might want to open it up and hover over his face 😆
Mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas
...
codepen.io
October 30, 2025 at 9:26 PM
I made a silly Halloween CSS art codepen codepen.io/dana-ciocan/...
you might want to open it up and hover over his face 😆
you might want to open it up and hover over his face 😆
I definitely feel like a JavaScript developer trying to use TypeScript a lot of the time, so doing some Total TypeScript learning today to try and improve
res.cloudinary.com/total-typesc...
res.cloudinary.com/total-typesc...
October 29, 2025 at 10:32 AM
I definitely feel like a JavaScript developer trying to use TypeScript a lot of the time, so doing some Total TypeScript learning today to try and improve
res.cloudinary.com/total-typesc...
res.cloudinary.com/total-typesc...
This seems really cool! Love the fact that web components stuff is all community-driven and it's native web tech.
daverupert.com/2025/10/cust...
daverupert.com/2025/10/cust...
The killer feature of Web Components
The personal blog of Dave Rupert, web developer and podcaster from Austin, TX.
daverupert.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:50 AM
This seems really cool! Love the fact that web components stuff is all community-driven and it's native web tech.
daverupert.com/2025/10/cust...
daverupert.com/2025/10/cust...
Super interesting article showing RSCs don't magically improve performance without some serious rearchitecting of your application: www.developerway.com/posts/react-...
React Server Components: Do They Really Improve Performance?
A data-driven comparison of CSR, SSR, and RSC under the same app and test setup, focusing on initial-load performance and the impact of client- vs server-side data fetching (including Streaming + Susp...
www.developerway.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Super interesting article showing RSCs don't magically improve performance without some serious rearchitecting of your application: www.developerway.com/posts/react-...
I love all the new features coming to CSS the last few years but it's so hard to keep up! Glad there are videos like this to summarise it in a fun and easy to digest way 😆
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW6G...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW6G...
Adam Argyle - 25 new & rad feature of CSS
YouTube video by CascadiaJS
www.youtube.com
October 25, 2025 at 6:01 AM
I love all the new features coming to CSS the last few years but it's so hard to keep up! Glad there are videos like this to summarise it in a fun and easy to digest way 😆
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW6G...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW6G...
Some interesting announcements - love that RSCs are becoming less of a Vercel-only thing and Vite+ looks great! Though I wonder whether paid licensing will reduce adoption www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Js...
Evan You | Vite Beyond a Build Tool | ViteConf 2025
YouTube video by ViteConf
www.youtube.com
October 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Some interesting announcements - love that RSCs are becoming less of a Vercel-only thing and Vite+ looks great! Though I wonder whether paid licensing will reduce adoption www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Js...
I honestly don't think I've ever seen this tag before (or I forgot - it happens!) and it sounds very handy if you've got forms that update some content on a page
HTML’s Best Kept Secret: The output Tag
Make your dynamic content accessible by default with the HTML tag that time forgot.
denodell.com
October 14, 2025 at 7:09 AM
I honestly don't think I've ever seen this tag before (or I forgot - it happens!) and it sounds very handy if you've got forms that update some content on a page
I'm easing myself back into blogging. One topic I've wanted to write about for a while is fixup commits - one of those Git skills that is a real game changer. It seems finicky and weird initially, but once you get it, you'll never add a "fix typo" commit ever again! danaciocan.com/fixup-commits
Fixup commits
Learn how to clean up your git history
danaciocan.com
October 9, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I'm easing myself back into blogging. One topic I've wanted to write about for a while is fixup commits - one of those Git skills that is a real game changer. It seems finicky and weird initially, but once you get it, you'll never add a "fix typo" commit ever again! danaciocan.com/fixup-commits
Did my first talk in my new job and remembered how much I enjoy it. Might make it into a blog post 🤔
October 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Did my first talk in my new job and remembered how much I enjoy it. Might make it into a blog post 🤔
Adding this `minimumReleaseAge` setting to our pnpm repo because I am not taking any chances given what's been happening the last few weeks... pnpm.io/settings#min...
Settings (pnpm-workspace.yaml) | pnpm
pnpm gets its configuration from the command line, environment variables, pnpm-workspace.yaml, and
pnpm.io
September 23, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Adding this `minimumReleaseAge` setting to our pnpm repo because I am not taking any chances given what's been happening the last few weeks... pnpm.io/settings#min...
Interesting article: leadthroughmistakes.substack.com/p/when-fear-...
I've worked in spaces where people have acted in this kind of way and it has silenced the folks around them. As this article explains, it doesn't have to stay this way - it is possible to change!
I've worked in spaces where people have acted in this kind of way and it has silenced the folks around them. As this article explains, it doesn't have to stay this way - it is possible to change!
When Fear pretends to be Respect
The moment I learned those around felt fear more than respect
leadthroughmistakes.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Interesting article: leadthroughmistakes.substack.com/p/when-fear-...
I've worked in spaces where people have acted in this kind of way and it has silenced the folks around them. As this article explains, it doesn't have to stay this way - it is possible to change!
I've worked in spaces where people have acted in this kind of way and it has silenced the folks around them. As this article explains, it doesn't have to stay this way - it is possible to change!
This was a fun but tricky challenge: cantunsee.space
Can't Unsee
A game where you need to pick the design that is most correct. Test your attention to details!
cantunsee.space
September 15, 2025 at 8:25 AM
This was a fun but tricky challenge: cantunsee.space
Very interesting podcast about loneliness in tech leadership: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ge...
No One Teaches You This- Matt Asbury- Loneliness
YouTube video by 106 Recruitment
www.youtube.com
September 12, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Very interesting podcast about loneliness in tech leadership: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ge...
Just attended a training session on engineering culture and haven't felt this inspired in a long time! I have missed programming feeling like a craft rather than a relentless onslaught
September 11, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Just attended a training session on engineering culture and haven't felt this inspired in a long time! I have missed programming feeling like a craft rather than a relentless onslaught
Wild that phishing was the cause of this week's NPM issues: socket.dev/blog/npm-aut...
Scary really - can't say that I wouldn't have fallen for that...
Scary really - can't say that I wouldn't have fallen for that...
npm Author Qix Compromised via Phishing Email in Major Suppl...
npm author Qix’s account was compromised, with malicious versions of popular packages like chalk-template, color-convert, and strip-ansi published.
socket.dev
September 10, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Wild that phishing was the cause of this week's NPM issues: socket.dev/blog/npm-aut...
Scary really - can't say that I wouldn't have fallen for that...
Scary really - can't say that I wouldn't have fallen for that...
Such a cool article on how to animate colour changes using CSS
A while back, I was building a particle animation, and I ran into some weird issues. The particles were turning grey, mid-animation. And sometimes, they wouldn’t change color at all!
Turns out, there’s a pretty big limitation with color transitions. I share some solutions in my brand-new post!
Turns out, there’s a pretty big limitation with color transitions. I share some solutions in my brand-new post!
Color Shifting in CSS • Josh W. Comeau
A little while ago, I was trying to animate an element’s background color, so that it cycled through the rainbow. Seems easy, but it turns out, browsers have a surprisingly big limitation when it comes to color processing! In this tutorial, we’ll dig into the issue, and I’ll share a couple of strategies you can use to work around this limitation.
www.joshwcomeau.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Such a cool article on how to animate colour changes using CSS
Well, I broke something in my third week 😅 currently busy repeating to myself “you’re not a proper engineer until you break something”
September 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Well, I broke something in my third week 😅 currently busy repeating to myself “you’re not a proper engineer until you break something”
Today I actually felt useful at my new job 🎉 and I got a PR up for review just before the weekend which means I'm not going to be thinking about work until Monday - win!
August 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Today I actually felt useful at my new job 🎉 and I got a PR up for review just before the weekend which means I'm not going to be thinking about work until Monday - win!
I honestly forgot how much brain power starting a new job takes up. Early nights for me for the foreseeable!
August 27, 2025 at 7:26 AM
I honestly forgot how much brain power starting a new job takes up. Early nights for me for the foreseeable!