Blog
Guides, deep dives and practical notes on the problems these tools solve.
- Base64 encoding explained: when to use it, when not to
Base64 turns binary into text-safe ASCII, but it isn't compression or encryption. Here's what it actually does and where it fits.
6 min readencodingguide - Choosing image formats: WebP vs AVIF vs PNG vs JPEG
A practical decision guide for picking the right image format based on content type, browser support and file size.
7 min readimagesperformance - A practical guide to CSS Grid vs Flexbox
Both are layout systems, but they solve different problems. Here's how to decide which one fits, with real examples.
7 min readcssfrontend - Writing safer regular expressions: avoiding catastrophic backtracking
ReDoS bugs come from a small number of recognizable patterns. Here's how to spot them and write regexes that stay fast on any input.
7 min readregexsecurity - HTTP status codes developers actually need
Not all 60-odd status codes matter day to day. Here's the practical subset, what each one actually implies, and common mix-ups.
7 min readhttpnetworking - Content Security Policy from scratch
CSP is one of the most effective defenses against XSS, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here's how to build a policy that actually works.
8 min readsecurityhttp - Structured data (JSON-LD) that search engines actually use
Most schema.org types have no effect on search results. Here are the ones that do, and how to mark them up correctly.
7 min readseojson-ld - Semantic versioning and dependency ranges explained
What major.minor.patch actually promises, how caret and tilde ranges differ, and why lockfiles exist at all.
7 min readsemverdependencies - Why browser-based developer tools are safer than online converters
Most 'online' formatters upload your data to a server. Here's why client-side processing matters, and how to tell the difference.
5 min readprivacyarchitecture - Timezones, UTC and ISO 8601: dates without bugs
Why 'store dates in UTC' is only half the rule, how ISO 8601 avoids ambiguity, and the daylight saving edge cases that break naive code.
7 min readdatetime - A practical guide to formatting, validating and converting JSON
Indentation, key sorting, common parse errors, and when to convert JSON to YAML, XML or CSV instead.
7 min readjsonguide - UUID vs ULID vs nanoid: picking an identifier
Three popular ways to generate unique IDs, how they differ in sortability, size and collision risk, and when to use each.
6 min readidentifiersbackend - CSS generators that actually save time
Gradients, shadows, glassmorphism and layout builders are quick wins — if you know what to copy and what to write by hand.
6 min readcssfrontend - Color contrast and WCAG: making UI accessible
How WCAG contrast ratios are calculated, which levels apply to which content, and practical fixes for common failures.
6 min readaccessibilitycss - The technical SEO checklist developers actually own
Titles, canonicals, structured data, robots.txt and sitemaps — the parts of SEO that live in your codebase.
8 min readseoguide - Cron expressions demystified
Reading and writing cron schedules field by field, common patterns, and the timezone trap that catches everyone eventually.
6 min readcrondevops - Compressing and converting images without uploading them
How Canvas-based compression works, when WebP wins, and how to keep quality while cutting page weight.
6 min readimagesperformance - Image optimization for the web: formats, compression and sizing
A practical framework for picking a format, a resolution and a compression level so images stop being the heaviest part of the page.
7 min readimagesperformance - Subnetting and CIDR explained without the headache
What a /24 actually means, how to calculate usable hosts, and how to read a CIDR range without a lookup table.
8 min readnetworking - CSS gradients and shadows: a practical recipe book
Linear, radial and conic gradients, layered box-shadows, and glassmorphism — patterns you can copy straight into a design system.
7 min readcssdesign - Choosing a hashing algorithm: MD5 vs SHA-1 vs SHA-256 vs bcrypt
Checksums, digital fingerprints and password storage all use 'hashing' — but the right algorithm depends entirely on the job.
6 min readhashing - Understanding JWT: structure, claims and safe verification
What is actually inside a JSON Web Token, which claims matter, and why decoding a JWT is not the same as verifying it.
7 min readjwtsecurity - Regex patterns every developer should know
A working set of regular expressions for emails, URLs, whitespace and validation — plus how to test them safely.
7 min readregex