Following the fruitful series of open source contributions that include Kraken.js, PayPal has done it again with react-engine that brings true isomorphism to modern Web apps.
PayPal, You Got Me At ‘Isomorphic ReactJS’
Don’t Take Micro-Services Off-Road
Any attempts at nano-services, trying to deploy micro-services manually, using them because they are trendy without real need, or re-using them between multiple systems will result in a disappointment we don’t really need at the moment.
Isomorphic Apps Part 2: Node, React.js, and Socket.io
When I was a kid, I went to the movies to watch Mel Brooks' "History of The World, Part I". I had a great time and could not wait for the sequel (that featured, among other things, Hitler on ice, a Viking funeral and laser-shooting rabbis in 'Jews in Space' teaser). Alas, 'Part II' never came.... Continue Reading →
Micro-Services for Dysfunctional Teams
Update: I have received a ton of feedback on this post, and some of the well meaning criticism is concerned with the term 'dysfunctional', considering it a bit 'judgy' from somebody that is supposed to help these same teams. Apart from yielding a catchy title, Hacker News reader was spot on when he declared my... Continue Reading →
Should I Build a Site or an App? Yes!
Yes, I know. I stopped blogging to take a desperately needed break. Then I returned only to be hit with a mountain of fresh, 'hit the ground running', honest to God January work that knocked the air out of my lungs and pinned me down for a while. Then an IBM colleague tried to ask me... Continue Reading →
Angular.js 2.0, Index Investing and Micro-Services
Now here is somebody with all her eggs in one basket, literarily. I used it to illustrate what index investing tries to avoid. I thought of index investing while reading the bitter and often hilarious reactions to the announced changes in Angular.js 2.0 on Reddit. I also thought about my experience with Google services. Watch me tie all... Continue Reading →
Micro-Services and Page Composition Problem
Dispite many desirable properties, micro-services carry two serious penalties to be contended with: authentication (which we covered in the previous post) and Web page composition, which I intend to address now. Imagine you are writing a Node.js app and use Dust.js for the V of the MVC, as we are doing. Imagine also that several... Continue Reading →
Sharing micro-service authentication using Nginx, Passport and Redis
And we are back with the regularly scheduled programming, and I didn't talk about micro-services in a while. Here is what is occupying my days now - securing a micro-service system. Breaking down a monolith into a collection of micro-services has some wonderful properties, but also some nasty side-effects. One of them is authentication. The... Continue Reading →
HA All The Things
I hate HA (High Availability). Today everything has to be highly available. All of the sudden SA (Standard Availability) isn't cutting it any more. Case in point: I used to listen to music on my way to work. Not any more - my morning meeting schedule intrudes into my ride, forcing me to participate in... Continue Reading →
Node.js Apps and Periodic Tasks
When working on a distributed system of any size, sooner or later you will hit a problem and proclaim 'well, this is a first'. My second proclamation in such situations is 'this is a nice topic for the blog'. Truth to form, I do it again, this time with the issue of running periodic tasks,... Continue Reading →
