Victoria Drake @victoria@mastodon.technology

New on the blog: required reading for leaders in cybersecurity.

(https://victoria.dev/blog/leading-with-a-cybersecurity-mindset/)

The new Internet.

(https://victoria.dev/neofeed/the-new-internet/)

It’s a beautiful day.

(https://victoria.dev/neofeed/memorial-day/)

Whenever I dig back into the fundamentals of computing, I’m once again pleasantly surprised at how often the concepts help to grow everyday-life problem solving skills. (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/thoughts-on-the-fundamentals/)

I’m open-sourcing my MSCS notes at https://openmscs.com/. Want to learn along with me? The GitHub repo is here 👉 https://github.com/victoriadrake/open-mscs/ (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/7dfe5d66-2ad6-47de-a7aa-e647afd0d87a/)

If you want it, find it. If it doesn’t exist, make it. If you don’t know how, learn. (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/b61c9824-edfd-46ee-a901-467184f81c03/)

There are two hard problems in computer science:

1. Cache coherence
2. Naming things
3. Off-by-one errors

(https://victoria.dev/neofeed/a742565c-4124-4faa-a0f3-e4b7bf5e6470/)

What’s something you’ve figured out that would improve the lives of most people if they did it too? (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/60c9c9de-aedf-48b2-b417-5d819c154b58/)

When what seems like half the planet noped out of WhatsApp after its terms of service update, applications like Signal (which I highly recommend) saw an unprecedented increase in user traffic. Signal had so many new users sign up that it overwhelmed their existing infrastructure and lead to a 24-hour-ish outage. The small team responded impressively quickly, especially given that a 4,200% spike in new users was utterly implausible before it ocurred.

The downside of so… https://victoria.dev/blog/digital-resilience-redundancy-for-websites-and-communications/

@kristof Yes, the latter. That said, this is only for a hack-about server set up.

@nurinoas None that would offer any different advantages, I'm afraid. Most of my focus is on redundancy rather than significant alternative features.

Happy to learn of alternatives that folks like, if you have them!

Matrix is an open standard for decentralized real-time communication. The specification is production-ready and bridges to tons of silo products like Slack, Gitter, Telegram, Discord, and even Facebook Messenger. This lets you use Matrix to link together disjoint communities in one place, or create an alternative communication method that works with, but is independent of, communication silos.

You can create your own self-hosted Matrix chat for as little as $3.50 USD… https://victoria.dev/blog/create-a-self-hosted-chat-service-with-your-own-matrix-server/

I hear this question a lot: “Do I raise or return this error in Python?”

This is probably because the right answer will depend on your situation and the goals of your application logic. Either choice can help you ensure your Python code doesn’t fail silently, saving you and your teammates from having to hunt down deeply entrenched errors.

Here’s the difference between `raise` and `return` when handling failures in Python, and how to ensure your code doesn’t fail… https://victoria.dev/blog/do-i-raise-or-return-errors-in-python/

How to write good documentation: https://victoria.dev/blog/how-to-write-good-documentation/

Why do whiteboard interviews not work? Wrong answers only. (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/49cf5aab-af5f-4c0e-aa40-36a7afca2bfb/)

Yes, you _can_ have an interactive search feature on your static site! No need for servers or paid subscriptions here. Thanks to the open source Lunr and the power of Hugo static site generator, you can create a client-side search index with just a template and some JavaScript.

A number of my readers have been kind enough to tell me that you find my blog useful, but there’s something that you don’t know. Up until I recently implemented a search feature on… https://victoria.dev/blog/add-search-to-hugo-static-sites-with-lunr/

Consider that the biggest obstacle to your product’s cyber security may be embarrassment. (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/3e33a025-0fe4-463b-b1be-ac375406bc98/)

When choosing your new product name, you can save yourself a lot of grief by asking, “What would this sound like if someone verbed it?” (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/a7051260-cff3-426c-bc90-7701469703a8/)

Want your own website but not sure how to start? Describe your web dev skills to me in a sentence and I’ll respond with the perfect stack for your own home on the web. (https://victoria.dev/neofeed/bb1f25ba-d5d5-4a81-982d-0c1689edc946/)