http://moi.vonos.net/Mine of Information Atom Feed2023-12-12T00:00:00ZSimon Kitchinghttp://moi.vonos.nettag:moi.vonos.net,2023-12-12:/2023/12/monorepos/Monorepos and Polyrepos2023-12-12T00:00:00Z2023-12-12T00:00:00Z
<p>Have you ever thought deeply about monorepos and polyrepos? Me neither, until I happened across a video on the topic and ended going down the rabbithole into a world of various opinions. I’ve since collected a lot of the info from various sources and <a href="/architecture/monorepo">written an article</a> in case you are now curious…</p>
tag:moi.vonos.net,2023-12-01:/2023/12/httpapis/HTTP APIs, REST APIs, and Others2023-12-01T00:00:00Z2023-12-01T00:00:00Z
<p>A video presentation from one of my favourite IT presenters prompted me to read the original paper on REST, and <a href="/architecture/http-apis-procon">think about the various options</a> for offering network APIs to business functionality, eg REST APIs, HTTP APIs, and gRPC. There’s nothing deep or revolutionary in my conclusions but perhaps you would find it interesting. Feedback always welcome.</p>
tag:moi.vonos.net,2023-09-29:/2023/09/biden/Biden on Democracy2023-09-29T00:00:00Z2023-09-29T00:00:00Z
<p>Joe Biden, President of the USA, has just made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmByTVCLdhw">one of the most important political speeches of all time</a>. I’m not a US citizen, but this may still be the most significant speech of my lifetime affecting the world I live in. Please watch..</p>
tag:moi.vonos.net,2023-09-03:/2023/09/tech-breadth/Maintaining Technical Depth2023-09-03T00:00:00Z2023-09-03T00:00:00Z
<p>Mark Richards has an excellent short presentation on developing and maintaining <a href="https://www.developertoarchitect.com/lessons/lesson3.html">technical depth as an architect</a>. His primary point is that nobody can be an expert on everything, but an architect should at least be aware of the existence of the most important tools for solving a wide range of problems - including new ones that are becoming popular.</p>
<p>He recommends starting each work day with 20 minutes of research, <em>before</em> reading emails. He also suggests some sources of info:</p>
<ul>
<li>the <a href="https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar">Thoughtworks tech radar</a>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.infoq.com">InfoQ</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dzone.com">DZone</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Sounds like good advice to me.</p>
tag:moi.vonos.net,2023-08-30:/2023/08/vpns/The Uselessness of Consumer VPNs2023-08-30T00:00:00Z2023-08-30T00:00:00Z
<p>Many of the Youtube channels that I follow are promoting VPNs as their “sponsors”. That’s a shame.</p>
<p>VPNs were useful in the past, but in the last years just about every website and mobile app has integrated network encryption. Therefore VPNs these days are pretty pointless for normal people and are close to being a scam.</p>
<p>In any browser, try visiting a site using the non-encrypted protocol <code>http:</code>, eg <a href="http://www.google.com">http://www.google.com</a> or <a href="http://www.youtube.com">http://www.youtube.com</a> or <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">http://www.nytimes.com</a>. Notice that you immediately get redirected to the <code>https:</code> version, ie the encrypted one - at which point a VPN adds no benefit. Then try searching for “nytimes” in google - the recommended link will be the https one. Any website which requests data from you will <em>certainly</em> use https. And all serious mobile apps also already use encrypted communications.</p>
<p>Yes, DNS (Domain Name Service, ie hostname lookup) isn’t encrypted by default yet, so someone controlling the network you are on can see the “hostnames” (overall websites) which you visit (though not the individual pages). However that’s not so important - and many browsers optionally support dns-over-https (aka DOH) if you really want (search for details).</p>
<p>And of course the provider of a VPN gets a lot of detailed info about your network access…ie you’re moving your privacy vulnerability from the provider of the network you’re currently using to the VPN provider. What’s more, without a VPN you are exposing small amounts of data to a large number of networks (eg the various WIFI networks you might use) plus a large amount of data from your local ISP <em>in your legal region</em>, while with a VPN you are exposing all that information to a single centralized point which can potentially make better use of it (against your interests) and which <em>is operating in a legal region which might not be accountable to you</em>.</p>
<p>In summary, if you happen to live under a repressive regime, a VPN might bring some value. If you wish to access content which is blocked in your country, it might help. However otherwise the value of a VPN for most people is zero. For more info, see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp-INfssWBo">Knudsen</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY">Scott</a>.</p>