How to write Bash one-liners for cloning and managing GitHub and GitLab...
Edit: An earlier version of this post's title seemed to suggest I encouraged moving away from GitHub. This was not, in fact, the intention, so the title has been revised. Few things are more satisfying...
View ArticleHow to set up a fresh Ubuntu desktop using only dotfiles and bash scripts
One of my most favourite things about open source files on GitHub is the ability to see how others do (what some people might call) mundane things, like set up their .bashrc and other dotfiles. While...
View ArticleHow to do twice as much with half the keystrokes using `.bashrc`
In my recent post about setting up Ubuntu with Bash scripts, I briefly alluded to the magic of .bashrc. This didn’t really do it justice, so here’s a quick post that offers a bit more detail about what...
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SQL injection and XSS: what white hat hackers know about trusting user input
Software developers have a lot on their minds. There are are myriad of questions to ask when it comes to creating a website or application: What technologies will we use? How will the architecture be...
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Hackers are Googling your plain text passwords: preventing sensitive data...
Last week, I wrote about the importance of properly handling user input in our websites and applications. I alluded to an overarching security lesson that I hope to make explicit today: the security of...
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How users and applications stay safe on the Internet: it's proxy servers all...
Both Internet users and Internet-connected applications can benefit from investing in cybersecurity. One core aspect of online privacy is the use of a proxy server, though this basic building block may...
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Migrating to the cloud but without screwing it up, or how to move house
For an application that's ready to scale, not using managed cloud architecture these days is like insisting on digging your own well for water. It's far more labour-intensive, requires buying all your...
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Secure application architecture basics: separation, configuration, and access
Software developers today are encouraged to focus on building, and that’s a great thing. We’re benefitting from maker culture, an attitude of “always be shipping,” open source collaboration, and a bevy...
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Personal cybersecurity posture for when you're just this guy, you know?
“Zaphod’s just this guy, you know?” – Halfrunt, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The book, not the movie. Definitely not the movie. Some people (🙋🏻) are really into cybersecurity,...
View ArticleHow to quickly batch resize, compress, and convert images with a Bash one-liner
Part of my Hugo site continuous deployment workflow is the processing of 210 images, at time of writing. Here’s my one-liner: find public/ -not -path "*/static/*" \( -name '*.png' -o -name '*.jpg' -o...
View ArticleA portable Makefile for continuous delivery with Hugo and GitHub Pages
Fun fact: I first launched my GitHub Pages site 1,018 days ago. Since then, we’ve grown together. From early cringe-worthy commit messages, through eighty-six versions of Hugo, and up until last week,...
View ArticleA lightweight, tool-agnostic CI/CD flow with GitHub Actions
Agnostic tooling is the clever notion that you should be able to run your code in various environments. With many continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) apps available, agnostic...
View ArticlePublishing GitHub event data with GitHub Actions and Pages
Teams who work on GitHub rely on event data to collaborate. The data recorded as issues, pull requests, and comments, become vital to understanding the project.With the general availability of GitHub...
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A cron job that could save you from a ransomware attack
It’s 2019, and ransomware has become a thing.Systems that interact with the public, like companies, educational institutions, and public services, are most susceptible. While delivery methods for...
View ArticleBash and shell expansions: lazy list-making
It’s that time of year again! When stores start putting up colourful sparkly lit-up plastic bits, we all begin to feel a little festive, and by festive I mean let’s go shopping. Specifically, holiday...
View ArticleThe care and feeding of an IoT device
Giving someone a puppy for Christmas might work really well in a movie, but in real life often comes hitched to a multitude of responsibilities that the giftee may not be fully prepared to take on. The...
View ArticleHow to print newlines in command line output
Surprisingly, getting computers to give humans readable output is no easy feat. With the introduction of standard streams and specifically standard output, programs gained a way to talk to each other...
View ArticleSecurity for the front-end developer
While cybersecurity is often thought of in terms of databases and architecture, much of a strong security posture relies on elements in the domain of the front-end developer. For certain potentially...
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Word bugs in software documentation and how to fix them
I’ve been an editor longer than I’ve been a developer, so this topic for me is a real root issue. 🥁 When I see a great project with poorly-written docs, it hits close to /home. Okay, okay, I’m done.I...
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Concurrency, parallelism, and the many threads of Santa Claus 🎅
Consider the following: Santa brings toys to all the good girls and boys.There are 7,713,468,100 people in the world in 2019, around 26.3% of which are under 15 years old. This works out to...
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