Scheming Your Schema: How to Migrate Databases Without Moving to Siberia

Scheming Your Schema: How to Migrate Databases Without Moving to Siberia

Ah, database migrations - the digital equivalent of renovating your house while still living in it. As someone who once accidentally turned a user table into a digital pancake stack (tasty but useless), let me guide you through this minefield with hard-earned wisdom and questionable humor. Step 1: Plan Like a Chess Grandmaster Before writing a single line of SQL, diagram your current state and desired end state. This isn’t just busywork - it’s your insurance against “oh-crap” moments at 2 AM....

May 28, 2025 · 3 min · 625 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Why Hardcoding Credentials Is Like Keeping Spare Keys Under Your Welcome Mat (And When You Should Do It Anyway)

Why Hardcoding Credentials Is Like Keeping Spare Keys Under Your Welcome Mat (And When You Should Do It Anyway)

Let’s address the elephant in the server room: hardcoded credentials are the pineapple pizza of cybersecurity - universally maligned, yet secretly enjoyed by developers in specific contexts. Before the security purists come at me with pitchforks and zeroday exploits, let me explain why sometimes, in controlled development environments, leaving credentials in plain sight can be the pragmatic choice. The Devil’s Advocate Docker Compose File Consider this perfectly reasonable sin: # docker-compose....

May 28, 2025 · 3 min · 593 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Caching in Wonderland: Surviving Distributed Systems Chaos With Hazelcast

Caching in Wonderland: Surviving Distributed Systems Chaos With Hazelcast

Picture this: you’re Alice falling down the rabbit hole of distributed systems, and Hazelcast is your Cheshire Cat - always grinning with solutions. Let’s build a distributed caching system that even the Queen of Hearts would approve (just don’t mention cache invalidation at tea time). Preparing the Mad Hatter’s Toolkit First, let’s brew our dependency potion in the pom.xml cauldron: <dependency> <groupId>com.hazelcast</groupId> <artifactId>hazelcast-all</artifactId> <version>5.5.0</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-cache</artifactId> </dependency> Now let’s configure our looking glass (hazelcast....

May 27, 2025 · 3 min · 481 words · Maxim Zhirnov
The Case Against Code Reuse: When Writing from Scratch is Better

The Case Against Code Reuse: When Writing from Scratch is Better

We’ve all been there - staring at a 10-year-old utility class that’s become the Frankenstein’s monster of your codebase. “But it’s reusable!” your teammate insists, as you discover it now contains 47 optional parameters and a hardcoded reference to IE6. Let’s explore when writing fresh code might save your sanity (and your stack). The Hidden Costs of Reuse 1. The Overgeneralization Trap Reusable code often starts with good intentions: // The "Swiss Army Knife" string processor function processText( input: string, options: { trim?...

May 27, 2025 · 3 min · 513 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Building Data Dragons: Taming D3.js and React for Stunning Visualizations

Building Data Dragons: Taming D3.js and React for Stunning Visualizations

Picture this: You’re standing in a cave full of raw data nuggets, armed with nothing but JavaScript and ambition. That’s where D3.js swoops in like a fire-breathing dragon - powerful but temperamental. React becomes your knightly armor, helping you tame the beast. Let’s forge some visualization magic together! Setting Up the Arena First, create your React colosseum: npx create-react-app data-dragon-den cd data-dragon-den npm install d3 @visx/scale Now let’s create our first SVG canvas....

May 26, 2025 · 3 min · 516 words · Maxim Zhirnov