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Can an emoji give a browser a heart attack?

Why a single emoji broke Safari, the state of JS, and a UI kit for the OG gamers.

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FEDSA team
February 15, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Welcome to another edition of the FEDSA Feed!

We know it’s just past Valentine’s Day, so whether you’re celebrating a romantic development or just happy your production server didn’t crash over the weekend, we’ve got you covered!

The last thing one wants for Valentine’s Day is a broken heart. Allen Pike walks us through an unusual bug, a simple heart emoji from Noto Sans falling back to an svg in Safari, and causing a major performance bottleneck.

Read about the broken heart here

The latest State of JS survey is out, and it's React and Typescript most of the way down. As usual, it's a fantastic piece of work, beautifully built and full of data, but take the results as a reflection of developer sentiment rather than a definitive state of the industry. Is React top of the tree? Definitely. Is Angular dead? Definitely not.

Check it out here

Looking for a design system battle-tested in the fires of Azeroth? Now you can relive the feeling of early LAN parties and getting ganked in DOTA 1. All in a new Warcraft 3 inspired UI library.

Check it out here

KRS’s AI-First Intern Cohort

KRS is developing engineers for an AI-first world. Our interns work on a live KRS point-of-sale product, using AI to reduce time spent on routine coding and increase time spent understanding problems, thinking systemically, and designing solutions for complex, real-world environments.

The programme prioritises judgement over speed, teaching interns how to reason about trade-offs, system behaviour, and impact, and when to rely on AI-generated code versus human architectural thinking.

Several of these interns will soon be ready to join external teams. If you’re looking to bring AI-literate, product-ready engineers into your workforce, contact Ayesha at [email protected].

EVENT REPLAY

Why AI Feels Smart – and Why That’s Dangerous | FEDSA Talk Summary

A deep dive into why AI appears intelligent, how large language models actually work, and why this creates risks for learning, design, and software development — from over-reliance and false confidence to creativity loss and education challenges.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Why Voice Assistants Matter in South Africa with Xola dos Santos, Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup

In this talk, "Why Voice Assistants Matter in South Africa," Xola will highlight the importance of voice technologies in empowering users. We'll cover key design principles

Keen to share your knowledge at an upcoming FEDSA event? Sign up to be a contributor.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES:

  • 2U is looking for a Product Designer to support their Experience Design team. Apply here

  • Ozow has a Junior UX Designer position available for a passionate designer in the early stages of their career. Apply here

  • Allan Gray is looking for a mid-level Frontend Developer. Apply here

  • Loot.co.za is hiring a Full Stack Engineer to work on both their internal and customer-facing applications. They primarily work in Next.js and Java. Apply here

  • LekkeSlaap is looking for a mid-level designer to join their team as a UI/UX Designer. Apply here

  • Flash is hiring a C# Software Developer. Apply here

If you’d like to share your open roles here, reach out here for more information.

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