August 2021
75 posts: 6 entries, 20 links, 8 quotes, 41 beats
Aug. 24, 2021
Aug. 25, 2021
API Tokens: A Tedious Survey. Thomas Ptacek reviews different approaches to implementing secure API tokens, from simple random strings stored in a database through various categories of signed token to exotic formats like Macaroons and Biscuits, both new to me.
Macaroons carry a signed list of restrictions with them, but combine it with a mechanism where a client can add their own additional restrictions, sign the combination and pass the token on to someone else.
Biscuits are similar, but “embed Datalog programs to evaluate whether a token allows an operation”.
Allo shows the ultimate failure of Google's Minimum Viable Product strategy. MVP works when you have almost no competition, or if you are taking a radically different approach to what's on the market, but it completely falls on its face when you are just straight-up cloning an established competitor. There's no reason to use a half-baked WhatsApp clone when regular WhatsApp exists.
Aug. 26, 2021
Aug. 28, 2021
Dynamic content for GitHub repository templates using cookiecutter and GitHub Actions
GitHub repository templates were introduced a couple of years ago to provide a mechanism for creating a brand new GitHub repository starting with an initial set of files.
[... 1,413 words]Aug. 30, 2021
Building a desktop application for Datasette (and weeknotes)
This week I started experimenting with a desktop application version of Datasette—with the goal of providing people who aren’t comfortable with the command-line the ability to get Datasette up and running on their own personal computers.
[... 1,423 words]Unshipped work is inventory and it costs you money as it spoils
Aug. 31, 2021
