Lone Wolf Dev turned Open Source Super Contributor Tom Mondloch [Podcast #190]

Tom Mondloch discontinue programming aft he vanished organization college. After a fewer years of overseas jobs, he decided to get backmost into programming and discovered freeCodeCamp. He was conscionable learning his ain way, and didn't deliberation freeCodeCamp's linear program would beryllium worthy his time. But he stuck pinch it, sewage good, and yet started contributing to our unfastened root project. He's since joined freeCodeCamp's unit and archetected freeCodeCamp's full relational database curriculum, which you tin tally successful your browser aliases correct wrong your VS Code editor. Tom shares tips for: - Brushing up connected your programming skills if you've taken a fewer years off - Contributing to unfastened source - Using AI codegen devices sensibly and not relying excessively heavy connected them He besides talks astir the domiciled of vocational college, his emotion of the outdoors, and really moving remotely allows him to proceed to unrecorded successful mini municipality mediate America without the request to move to a large city. A immense convey you to the 10,889 benignant folks who make this podcast imaginable by supporting freeCodeCamp done a monthly donation. Join these benignant folks and thief our ngo by going to https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about: 🔗 freeCodeCamp's regular coding challenges successful Python and JavaScript: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/introducing-freecodecamp-daily-python-and-javascript-challenges-solve-a-new-programming-puzzle-every-day/ 🔗 Mrugesh's article connected AI Assisted Coding (that Tom utilized for his hackathon project): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-become-an-expert-in-ai-assisted-coding-a-handbook-for-developers/ 🔗 Jessica Wilkins who helped Tom pinch his hackathon task connected the freeCodeCamp podcast section #111: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/podcast-jessica-wilkins-classical-music-learning-to-code/ News items: 1. freeCodeCamp conscionable published this broad beforehand extremity improvement people wherever you build your ain browser-based codification editor. You tin codification on astatine location and build your ain azygous page app improvement situation pinch tabs for editing your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Along the way, you'll study immoderate intermediate JS techniques that let for instant unrecorded preview, truthful you tin spot the results of your codification changes correct away. (4 hr YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/code-your-own-code-editor/ 2. I besides made a speedy announcement astir immoderate large improvements to our halfway Full Stack Development curriculum. In short, we're breaking down our caller coursework into a bid of six caller certifications you tin gain on the measurement to the capstone cert. These see Python, Relational Databases, Front End Libraries, and more. (5 infinitesimal read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/introducing-freecodecamp-checkpoint-certifications/ 3. freeCodeCamp besides conscionable published this caller people that will thief you walk the Databricks Data Engineer Associate certification exam. Andrew Brown is simply a CTO who has passed practically each DevOps exam nether the sun, and he teaches this course. He'll present you to cardinal concepts for illustration Clusters, Structured Streaming, Data Lakes, and more. (8 hr course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/prepare-for-the-databricks-data-engineer-associate-certification-exam-and-pass/ 5. Enjoy this breezy publication astir Cosine Similarity and the domiciled it plays successful Large Language Models. As its author, Manish, says, Cosine Similarity is “a span betwixt quality connection and instrumentality understanding. It allows a exemplary to dainty meaning arsenic geometry, turning questions and answers into points successful space.” Not only will you study the mathematics involved, you'll besides spot it implemented successful Python code. (10 infinitesimal read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-does-cosine-similarity-work/ 6. Krazam America's Next Top Model Context Protocol Server skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVrCPo8eB3A Song of the Week: A Taste of Honey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhD58dP9kq8 Chapters 0:00 - Introduction 0:08 - Community News 0:13 - Front End Development Course 0:56 - New Certifications 1:34 - Databricks Certification Guide 2:03 - Cosine Similarity Tutorial 2:34 - Developer Comedy 3:10 - Song of the Week 3:42 - Interview pinch Tom Mondloch 4:50 - Daily Coding Challenges 8:20 - The Hardest Part of Creating Challenges 11:05 - Future Features for Challenges 15:00 - LLMs vs. Daily Challenges 15:47 - Tom's Programming Journey 17:05 - Returning to Programming 19:56 - Transition to Open Source Contributor 23:24 - Relational Database Curriculum Development 27:33 - Language Curricula 30:33 - AI Assisted Development 33:11 - MAME Machine Project 35:52 - Advice for Open Source Contributions 36:25 - Hopes for 2026