marknotfound | the blog

Building just because (a.k.a. The Khakis.zip Origin Story)

I've been building software professionally for over 10 years now. I started when I was young, maybe 13 or something. I'm 32 now so I've been writing code in some form or another for most of my life. When I was a kid it was fun and creative. I just made whatever websites I felt like, eventually making websites for Counter Strike clans or World of Warcraft guilds.

You don't have to be curious, but it sure is nice

In the software biz you don't have to be curious, but it sure is nice. It's important to understand the systems and constraints that we work in. There's often a lot of moving parts, and having a mental model of those moving parts when you're building is critical. How do you do it?

I guess I'm full-stack now

Approximately 5 minutes ago I had the epiphany that I'm full-stack now. I've always considered myself a backend guy. But it sort of all at once just dawned on me that I've been doing full-stack for over 3 years now from UIs in React to REST/GraphQL APIs to even some infrastructure.

How to disable GraphQL introspection in Graphene

Introspection in GraphQL allows an attacker to learn everything about your API's schema including queries, mutations, types, fields, and directives. It is therefore important to disable introspection on production GraphQL APIs.

Reverse engineering Linear's sync magic

Linear is an issue tracker and project management tool for software engineering teams. This is an oversimplification, especially given their ambitions to be much more than that, but it’s enough to provide some context.

Building RunDash - Django + HTMX

One of my guiding principles behind RunDash's tech stack is that it should be kept as simple as possible. It is meant to return to a simpler time in web development before single page applications or microservices. That isn't to say it isn't modern though. While RunDash is not technically a single page application, full page loads are rare. You will not find webpack or React or babel in the packages.json.

Building RunDash - Part 1 of ?

Over the last year, I've had a lot of fun tracking my progress with Garmin Connect and Strava. They expose tons of data points about each run - pace, distance, heart rate, elevation gain, cadence, etc. These tools are amazing. Strava is a great social network where my friends and I can congratulate eachother after races or particularly grueling workouts. Garmin provides insights into how training is going. Who doesn't love seeing a chart with a positive trend?

Race Report: Philadelphia Half Marathon 2021

The last time I wrote about running was seven months ago in April 2021. I had only been running for about eight weeks at that point. My longest run back then was 6.57 miles at a pace of 10:48 min/mile and I'm not even sure I ran the whole thing. Still, I was proud of that and still am! I ran pretty regularly three times a week until July when I went on a five week road trip to Seattle and back (I should write about that next). Turns out running while driving across the country, camping, and staying in the odd La Quinta Inn is tough to maintain.

Chia Network plotting & farming

Chia Network is a newer blockchain and smart transaction platform that aims to be greener, more efficient, and more secure than Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is founded by Brahm Cohen, the inventor of the BitTorrent network. The project is still young - mainnet launched just seven weeks ago on March 19, 2021. Instead of using specialized hardware to "mine" as in Bitcoin or Ethereum, excess storage space is put to work to "farm". In this post I'll share some of my thoughts since I started farming Chia.

Running is kinda hard

In elementary school gym class they used to make us run a half mile from the middle of a big field around a baseball field backstop, then around a tree stump some distance away and back again. It wasn't fun and I was miserable every time we did it and I've hated running since. I've always been more of a wheels guy — skateboarding, biking, and roller/ice hockey.

For whatever reason, I started running at the beginning of March 2021 - a year into the pandemic.

Enter the ~Blogosphere~

I've got hobbies and dang it I'm gonna write about 'em. Since the pandemic began, I've gotten into all sorts of weird shit that I never thought I'd be into. Running, blockchain tech, impromptu road trips, and now blogging. You're gonna hear about all of it here, but first let's do the obligatory "blog tech" post.