Improving WhatsApp chat history exports

‘Twas a brisk rainy morning in Vancouver…

…when I woke up to the news of WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy. If you are anything like me, your relationship with social media platforms is complicated. News of privacy policy changes automatically feels as if you’ve been backstabbed even though you likely haven’t even attempted to understand the intent of the actual policy changes. That is what we call distrust. And no other tech company in the world radiates distrust quite like Facebook does. As someone with Cambridge Analytica PTSD and a history of social media reluctance, I’m always looking for a reason to jump ship and the news of WhatsApp’s policy changes was my signal to peace out for good.

Friendship ended with WhatsApp. Now Signal is my best friend.
“Use Signal” as Musk says
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How I made my first full-stack web app

Summary

  • I built an expense and budgeting application called Tendie Tracker powered by Python, Flask, Heroku, and more
  • Harvard’s CS50 course on EDX provided the initial learning and motivation for building a web app
  • Google solved most of the problems I couldn’t solve on my own
  • Online dev communities were a major source of motivation and helped me push through daily challenges
  • The app was briefly popular in dev / learning communities and generated in the first week: 1.5k visitors from 91 countries, 150 registered users, and a lot of connections with other devs
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