Halfway through each month, our newsletter for developers: The Dev Times, brings three reads that our own developers found interesting on the web, and two Transloadit updates that may interest you.

Distroless docker images - Language-focused docker images, minus the operating system

Distroless docker images - Language-focused docker images, minus the operating system

Pioneered by Google, Distroless allows you to package only your application and its dependencies in a container image and run it with a really light footprint. Distroless container images include NO package manager, shell or other programs that come with a typical OS container image. It therefore not only reduces unnecessary code, but limits the attack surface as well. Learn more. ›

Say goodbye to refactoring - Clean code is not a goal

Say goodbye to refactoring - Clean code is not a goal

In Dan Abramov's blog, Overreacted, he explores a situation in which he focuses on refining a colleague's code without considering the complications that may arise from tinkering with someone else's work. He discusses how it can be counterproductive to put clean-looking code above functionality, and how sometimes you need to just bite the bullet and go with what's best for the code base rather than your personal pride as a programmer. Check it out. ›

updtr - Effortlessly update npm modules

updtr - Effortlessly update npm modules

Based on npm outdated, updtr installs the latest version and runs npm test for each dependency. If the test succeeds, updtr saves the new version number to your package.json. If the test fails, updatr will roll back the upgrade and your project will continue working as it did before. This is a great improvement over existing tools like ncu, which gives you no guarantee that your project will still function after upgrading. Read more. ›

The /digitalocean/ store Robot

The /digitalocean/ store Robot

We just introduced the new /digitalocean/store Robot, which allows you to export your Assembly results to DigitalOcean's Spaces Object Storage. This adds another option to the range of file exporting providers we already support, such as Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files and Dropbox. In this article, we're guiding you through the process of setting up a DigitalOcean Spaces account, transcoding files and exporting them to your storage space. Enjoy! ›

Zapier Integration 2.0

Zapier Integration 2.0

We are excited to announce that we have released version 2.0.0 of our Zapier integration! The spectacular thing about this new update is that you can now create Assemblies with as many file inputs as you like. This opens the door to some wild use cases like automatically converting media added to a Google Sheet. Check it out! ›