Most people will default to bcrypt when choosing a hashing algorithm for storing sensitive information — but why? Are there other choices? Indeed! In this video we’ll take a look at scrypt, PBKDF2 and my favorite: argon2. If you’ve had to store sensitive user information in a database, you’ve probably…

When I started writing The Imposter’s Handbook, this was the question that was in my head from the start: what the f*** is Big O and why should I care? It took a while but I think I figured it out. Many people want to qualify the efficiency of an…

A remainder and a modulus look so very similar, but they are not the same thing and worse, are treated differently by different programming languages. Do you know how your language handles mod? Get ready, here comes some fringe pedantry that could very well be the difference in an interview…

Writing a full text index in PostgreSQL is an art form. You need to know what your users are looking so you can build the right index AND you need to understand how they write their search terms. Thankfully, Postgres is here to help. A few years ago I wrote…

Writers often talk about “finding their voice”, but what does that even mean? There are ways to loosen the control your internal filters have on your ability to express yourself. — One thing that gets me into trouble constantly is when I write something challenging. The topic doesn’t matter, but if there are feathers to be ruffled I tend to think “well… here comes a breeze friendo”. Writing, to me, is all about truth. Not “The Truth”, but my truth. Things…

Nitro is an exciting web server created by the unjs team, who are also the people behind Nuxt. Nitro is a study in simplicity and a wonderful tool for your JS belt. — I’ve been writing a fun book over the last few months on Nuxt 3 and it’s based on my experience building out bigmachine.io as well as the individual course sites I have. …

There are too many crappy demos out there. It just takes a little extra time and some empathy to tie your tutorial to a real problem. — A few weeks ago I asked a simple question on Twitter: If you’ve been thinking about learning SQL but didn’t or haven’t, what’s stopping you? Would love to know more :) light me up! The responses were mixed, but a friend of mine confided in me that SQL is just…

I finally saw Top Gun: Maverick tonight and it was everything I hoped it would be: adrenaline, spectacle and Tom Cruise blowing things up. A perfect prequel to one of my favorite movies: Oblivion. — Joseph Kosinski has a story to tell, apparently, and I’m here for all of it. Yes, I’m more than a few months late to seeing Top Gun: Maverick but I blame that on the fact that I live on an island in the middle of the ocean with exactly zero…

Can a blog be turned into a book? Yes! But it can’t be just any old blog — the writer has to have something to say and no fear of saying it… like Troy Hunt. Here’s the story of how I turned his blog into a book. — Four years ago I was reading Troy Hunt’s blog thinking: “this guy can write”. Good writing is all about being truthful — true to yourself, the story you’re writing, and most of all true to your readers. …