We're back, existing in the context of Markdown.

This month, along with featuring the latest industry news, informative blogs, and community voices, we're highlighting a slew of product updates, including the highly requested Dark Mode.

It was a busy month, so let's get to it…

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🌟 Visionary voices

• Nina Breznik's proposal to bring more devs into the Polkadot ecosystem.
• Patrick O'Grady breaks down Vena, an optimistically responsive consensus protocol.
• Suyash Bagad and Justin Thaler published The Sum-Check Protocol over Fields of Small Characteristic.

📄 Product updates

Dark Mode enabled

The Markdown text editor you know and love has a fresh new look.

Now, not only can you enable dark mode in your Edit mode, but you also can enable it for View and Both modes. Simply click on the 🖌️ in the upper right-hand of your note and select dark mode.

Improved Share menu

You'll find some adjustments to the Share menu (in the upper right-hand of your text editor.) Specifically…

• Separate tabs for Publish and Share: This change makes it easier to find and use the specific feature you need without any confusion.
• Invitees on the first page: You'll find the section with all invitees and the ability to add/remove users in the first level of the Share menu for easier navigation.

With these changes, the menu will be more intuitive and user-friendly.

Revamped colors

You may also notice a few changes to the color scheme in HackMD. We’re updating our color scheme to bring a more modern and cohesive look to the platform. We aim to enhance the overall aesthetic without compromising the simplicity and functionality you love.

Sleek PDF exports

We know how important it is to take your documents wherever, whenever.

With our enhanced PDF export feature, all Markdown elements, including UML diagrams and LaTeX formulas, are rendered flawlessly.

So whether you're brainstorming on the go, preparing a report, submitting research for publication, or anything in between, you can trust that your docs maintain their formatting and clarity.

One-time password (OTP) support

We’ve heard your feedback and have made significant improvements to our OTP system.

Now, if you’re ever blocked by reCAPTCHA, you can receive a one-time password via email. Simply enter the correct OTP to log in smoothly, even after being initially blocked.

To take advantage of this feature, make sure you’ve added an email and password to your account settings. This way, if you get locked out by reCAPTCHA, you’ll be able to regain access quickly and easily.

Additional updates and fixes

• Improved offline detection and handling: We’ve made several enhancements to how HackMD detects when you’re offline and handles the transition back to being online, ensuring a smoother user experience.
• Keyboard shortcut fix: We’ve fixed an issue where keyboard shortcuts could be triggered while editing comments. Now, you can edit comments without unexpected interruptions.
• Pseudocode block rendering: A bug that caused line numbers in pseudocode blocks to render incorrectly has been fixed.

🖋️ From the blog

Why every developer needs to create a brag doc

A brag doc is a personal record of your professional accomplishments, projects, and milestones. It’s a powerful tool that can help you keep track of your achievements, advocate for yourself during performance reviews, and enhance your career growth.

It allows you to create a clear and compelling list of your achievements, making it easier to advocate for promotions, raises, and new opportunities. It clearly articulates all the work you've accomplished and visually illustrates just how much and how impactful that work has been.

Learn why this doc is crucial for your career and how you can create one yourself.

📰 Industry news and trends

• Blazing fast websites with speculation rules.
• Web3 users reached an ATH of 10M in Q2.
• Google unleashes 2M token context and code execution for Gemini developers.
• Solana adds 'Blinks' and 'Actions' so users can trade crypto on their favorite social apps.
• Parasoft's latest release offers several new automated features for testing Java, C#, and .NET apps
• Consensys acquires Wallet Guard to help protect MetaMask users against hacks and scams.
• GitLab's DevSecOps report highlights AI challenges.
• Web3 Foundation funds Dot Play to elevate Polkadot gaming ecosystem.
• Provable software systems have a lot of promise.
• Animoca looks to go public in Hong Kong or Middle East in 2025.

Do you have an article or paper you'd like featured in the Markdown Memo? We'd love to hear from you! Tag us on Twitter or share it in Discord.

Until next time…

We can't wait to see what you create.