Cesar Figueroa cesarfigueroa

Better local require() paths for Node.js

Problem

When the directory structure of your Node.js application (not library!) has some depth, you end up with a lot of annoying relative paths in your require calls like:

const Article = require('../../../../app/models/article');

Those suck for maintenance and they're ugly.

Possible solutions

This is no longer a bug. I'm keeping the gist for historical reasons, as it helped to get it fixed. Make sure to read the notes by the end of the post.

How to remove hide the select arrow in Firefox using `-moz-appearance:none;`

TL;DR (or, the fix)

Set -moz-appearance to none. This will "reset" the styling of the element;
Set text-indent to 0.01px. This will "push" the text a tiny bit^[1] to the right;

Simple file/stream encryption using OpenSSL

Create and store a 512-byte random encryption key named secret:

$ mkkey secret

Encrypt the contents of file with the secret key and write it to file.enc:

$ encrypt secret < file > file.enc

Twilight Theme Terminal Colors

Based on the timeless TextMate theme.

Basic Colors

Foreground:     #FEFFD3

Background: #141414

Sessions and Conversations

HTTP is a stateless protocol. Sessions allow us to chain multiple requests together into a conversation between client and server.

Sessions should be an option of last resort. If there's no where else that the data can possibly go to achieve the desired functionality, only then should it be stored in the session. Sessions can be vulnerable to security threats from third parties, malicious users, and can cause scaling problems.

That doesn't mean we can't use sessions, but we should only use them where necessary.

Adding, Accessing, and Removing Data

Friendly URLs

By default, Rails applications build URLs based on the primary key -- the id column from the database. Imagine we have a Person model and associated controller. We have a person record for Bob Martin that has id number 6. The URL for his show page would be:

/people/6

But, for aesthetic or SEO purposes, we want Bob's name in the URL. The last segment, the 6 here, is called the "slug". Let's look at a few ways to implement better slugs.

	Element.prototype.$ = function(query) { return this.querySelectorAll(query); };
	Window.prototype.$ = function(query) { return document.querySelectorAll(query); };

	Element.prototype.attr = function(attribute, value) {
	if(value != undefined) { this.setAttribute(attribute, value); }
	else { return this.getAttribute(attribute); }
	};

	Element.prototype.indexWithin = function() {
	var nodes = this.parentNode.childNodes;

	# SSL self signed localhost for rails start to finish, no red warnings.

	# 1) Create your private key (any password will do, we remove it below)

	$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.orig.key 2048


	# 2) Remove the password

	$ openssl rsa -in server.orig.key -out server.key

	var parser = document.createElement('a');
	parser.href = "http://example.com:3000/pathname/?search=test#hash";

	parser.protocol; // => "http:"
	parser.hostname; // => "example.com"
	parser.port; // => "3000"
	parser.pathname; // => "/pathname/"
	parser.search; // => "?search=test"
	parser.hash; // => "#hash"
	parser.host; // => "example.com:3000"

	[$2ø\]d:
	[[d;!>][d;!-@%\]#d;!=[%0\]?%]m:
	0[1+$101\>][$15m;!0=$["FizzBuzz "]?~[$5m;!0=$["Buzz "]?~[$3m;!0=$["Fizz "]?~[$ . " "]?]?]?]#