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Article Roundup - Week of 05/01/2017

Article Roundup

Upgrade your SSH keys!
Security recommendations are always changing, and I bet you probably have an older SSH key that is needs improving. These directions are Linux/Mac focused but still provide good information even if you are using Windows. Thanks to Craig for sending this article my way.

Microservices Talks
There was recently a Tech Summit for Microservices. All of the talks given were recorded and have been posted for free! Since there is no real standardization around the microservice architecture this is a great way to get a peek at how other companies are doing things. I haven’t been through a lot of them, but I highly recommend Susan Fowler’s talk.

Software Engineering Daily
Software Engineering Daily is daily podcast that covers some very interesting topics. Below are a few podcasts that I recommend:

Improved JavaScript performance, WebAssembly, and Shared Memory in Microsoft Edge
MS Edge has some new performance improvements around memory allocation for functions. They have also added WebAssembly and some features that will be a part of ES2017.

Modal & Nonmodal Dialogs: When (& When Not) to Use Them
Modal dialogs interrupt your workflow and require immediate attention, nonmodal dialogs do not interrupt your workflow. Each has a use case and a time when it should be be used. This article is a nice overview of what these dialogs are and how they should and should not be used.

Themes: A Small Change to Product Roadmaps with Large Effects
A small change in how you look at your product backlog and roadmap can lead to massive changes for your customers. Instead of focusing on Features focus on Themes. This is a longer read, but well worth it.

How we fine-tuned HAProxy to achieve 2,000,000 concurrent SSL connections I haven’t read through all of this article just yet, but 2 million concurrent SSL connections is an impressive feat and seeing how it was done is really interesting.

Caddy - HTTP/2 Web Server With Automatic HTTPS
I had not heard of Caddy before, but it looks like an incredibly easy to use web server. The fact that is automatically sets up Let’s Encrypt makes it even better.

CSS Poly Fluid Sizing using calc(), vw, breakpoints and linear equations
One heck of an article title, but the gist of it is this: make your fonts scale smoothly between screen sizes even if they don’t scale consistently. It’s a nice piece, bit a bit of algebra.

How to Organize a Large React Application and Make It Scale
Structuring an application is always easy when it is small, but as it grows you realize where you shot yourself in the foot. That is why I always like seeing how other people structure their code, the more you know and have seen the better you can make your life later.

ECMAScript modules in browsers
ES6 modules are starting to have support in modern browsers. So far the feature is mostly behind feature flags and not ready for production use, but it is still a good time to learn how things will be done in the browser. There are some important differences from what you have probably been doing while using from Babel, so read up!

An Overview of JavaScript Testing in 2017
Testing trends change and keeping up on them is always important. This article provides a great overview of the current landscape and resources to learn more about specific topics.

Reckon you’ve seen some stupid security things? Here, hold my beer…
Some of the security issues here are absolutely horrifying, you may end up with nightmares. You have been warned.

The truth about microservices
Microservices are not necessarily the recipe for success you think they are. There is a lot of complexity involved. A senior manager from Red Hat spoke at Red Hat summit the other day listed eight of the biggest challenges associated with microservices.