Pretty much anything IT related; from tutorials to thoughts and experiences in programming, DBA, sysadmin, tech, security, hardware, software, tools... There is so much to talk about, and still so much to learn!
This is the beauty of IT: no matter how much you work, learn and practice, no matter how much time and efforts you put at it, there will still be something you don't know. Something you missed. Something more. Something new (or only new to you!) to deep dive in. It's also the most frustrating part of this field: you can't know everything.
Is it really that impossible? Yes, it is.
Does-it means that we should not try? Maybe.
Will-it prevent us to keep trying? Surely not!
uws-reverse-proxy is an easy-to-use 0-dependency* reverse proxy based on uWebSockets.js I created to solve a problem I encountered recently for one of my clients.
This package enables use of uWebSockets.js and any HTTP server on the same port in a matter of seconds and fewer than
ten lines of code 
When it comes to websockets the first package name that pop out of our mind in the NodeJS ecosystem is... Socket.IO. I would be very surprised if you were surprised!
The thing is that Socket.IO is one of the less efficient solutions when it comes to performances. The different wrappers it's based upon just add a tremendous overhead to websocket handling, and still has opaque to non-existent backpressure management as it can be seen in issues #3158 and #4435.
Many other alternatives exist, but when performances start to be a major concern, you must find something more efficient. That's why I would want to introduce you to uWebSocket.js!
In simplest cases and for simplest projects, we don't bother with SSL certificates... until we start to work with some feature that won't work without it like WebRTC or PWA. Same thing if you want to start working with third party APIs.
Generating self-signed certificate quickly becomes mandatory, and managing them between several projects can be challenging if you don't do it properly...
Have you ever heard about Root Certificates? It makes our lives better
So... we did install everything we needed on our VPS to fulfill our client (ITRocks) requirements. The app is running blazing fast, it's secured and all but...
Did you think it was enough? Or did you secretly hope that there will be more? Maybe both!
Let's go a step further with this last part. To be fair, this part could have been itself an entire series, but we've already learned a lot, and what can be done next is... an almost infinite number of things depending on your use cases.
In the previous part, we presented the project, installed required packages and even pulled the source code of our incredible app ITRocks into its own folder.
The thing is... the real work hasn't been done yet. Be sure that serious stuff will happen in this second part, so stay
with me. This is when it starts to be very interesting! Don't worry, though... it's not that hard, I promise 
We must configure our tools and our VPS to put our app in production. So go grab a cup of warm coffee, open a new terminal and follow me into that really exciting phase!
Fully configuring a VPS is not that hard nor that long, but when we start our IT journey it's an intimidating task.
Today, we'll configure one from scratch (and for fun ). Let's dream about a NodeJS application that must connect
to a MongoDB instance hosted somewhere else. To spice-it up a little, our fictive project called IT Rocks is both
an HTTP server and a WebSocket server. It must be able to send emails to our customers too.
And... since it's a very serious project, it needs to be accessible within restrictive networks as well. Why? Because... what would be an IT task without a tricky part?
Fully configuring a VPS by hand when everybody seems to only rely on cloud nowadays? Really? You'd be surprised to find out that many companies still use VPSs or dedicated servers, especially when they want to run a non-conventional web application, their own private cloud or even to reduce infrastructure costs.
And that's not to mention the fact that many cloud providers (like AWS) just provide you an instance that is... a VPS that still needs to be configured!
In this series of three articles, let's dive into a case study based on several real setups.
What an inspired title for a first article posted on an IT blog, isn't it? Sadly, I wasn't able to resist the temptation, and here's what it looks like!
This idea of sharing about my projects and experience is not quite new. I have long wanted to start a website like this but never found either the time or, to be honest, the courage to do so. So long that I didn't even graduate when I thought about it, something like 9 years ago.