Articles
Notes on the
awkward bits.
Short pieces on what these tools actually deal with — why a compressed image got bigger, what a token really contains, which JSON rules bite. Written when there is something worth saying.
·6 min
Why your “compressed” image came out bigger
Compressing a screenshot as JPEG can double its size. The reason is what each format assumes about the picture you gave it.
·5 min
Base64 is not encryption
It has no key, hides nothing, and makes data a third larger. Here is what it is actually for, and the mistakes that follow from confusing the two.
·7 min
The JSON rules that trip everyone up
Trailing commas, single quotes, comments, NaN. JSON looks like JavaScript and is much stricter, and the parser error rarely says so.
·8 min
What is actually inside a JWT
Three base64 segments, one signature, and a lot of confusion about which part proves what. A short tour, and why decoding is not verifying.