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Notes for the small jobs around real work

Practical guides for freelancers, developers, and people who spend their day fixing details, cleaning inputs, and making work move a little faster.

URL Encoding Explained: What %20 Means and Why It Matters URL encoding converts special characters into percent-encoded sequences so they can be safely transmitted in a URL. Here is why %20 is a space, which characters need encoding, and how to do it correctly. Developer Tools SHA-256 vs MD5: Which Hash Algorithm Should You Use? MD5 is broken, SHA-1 is deprecated, and SHA-256 is the current standard for most use cases. Here is a clear breakdown of when to use each algorithm and when to avoid cryptographic hashes entirely. Developer Tools How to Generate a Secure Password (And Why Complexity Matters) Length beats complexity for password security. Here is what the evidence says about strong passwords, what NIST recommends, and how to generate one you can actually use. Developer Tools Regex Cheat Sheet for Developers: Patterns, Syntax, and Examples Regular expressions are one of the most powerful and most avoided tools in a developer's toolkit. This cheat sheet covers the patterns you will actually use, with live examples. Developer Tools How to Format and Validate JSON: A Developer's Practical Guide Malformed JSON breaks APIs silently and makes debugging painful. Here is how to validate JSON, understand its syntax rules, and avoid the most common mistakes. Developer Tools Base64 Encoding Explained: What It Is and When to Use It Base64 encodes binary data as ASCII text, making it safe to transmit through text-only systems. Here is when to use it, when not to, and how it works under the hood. Developer Tools JWT Explained: Structure, Claims, and How to Decode One JSON Web Tokens appear everywhere in modern authentication flows. Understanding their three-part structure helps you debug auth issues, validate claims, and avoid common security pitfalls. Developer Tools DNS Records Explained: A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME and More DNS records control everything from where your website lives to whether your emails get delivered. Here is what each record type does and when you need to change it. Web & DNS