Anatomy of an API Client

In my earlier post on API Clients, I laid down some thoughts on a very rough architecture on the subject.

The idea is to clearly separate the interface used by end-developers (consumers) from the inner workings of the API client, dealing with serialization and other IO gritty details.

Notifications

This is NOT about HTML Notification API.

This is about designing a service to provide clients with notifying its users. It's about the production and the delivery of messages to users, or other clients, and not the display per se.

Password Security Done Right

There's a misconception that passwords are utterly flawed, since most people reuse only a couple across sites.
And there's also a false sense of security as soon as passwords are put into place in an application.

Using passwords is like skating on thin ice: there's so many things that could go wrong and turn a very secure site into a hacker's heaven.

User Security: Overview

In a previous post, I laid out the basis for defining user information in most applications.

One of the many aspects that involves users is security including authentication, authorization, and other secure processes and protocols.

User security is a serious matter because we often see poor judgement used when implementing it.

Since more and more of our lives is now digital (bank accounts, memories with photos and videos), it's alarming to see such a poor state in user security.

Users

It's pretty rare to stumble upon a web site that doesn't invite you to register or subscribe to something.
Most, if not all, web sites out there hold some sort of user information, ranging from just an email address to send you updates, promotions, etc. to complete-if-you're-for-it social sites asking one the most intimate piece of information about one's life.

I lay down here some thoughts on how to design user information at a high level.

HPCC: Getting Started

HPCC stands for High Performance Computing Cluster. This doesn't mean however that one needs a fleet of servers to get started with it.

I present here what one needs to start using HPCC and have fun extracting, transforming and loading data, big and small, simple and complex.

It boils down to two tasks: setting up the cluster and setting up an IDE.

Meet HPCC

When it comes to dealing with Big Data, there doesn't seem to be that many popular choices. If one considers all vendors, with proprietary and open source solutions, that list might be a bit bigger, yet what usually first comes to mind is Hadoop.

In the end, it will boil down to what fits, in terms of integration with already-in-place technology, in terms of existing know-how and skills, and ultimately what exactly needs to be accomplished.