Blog
Developer guides, tool deep-dives, and the story behind DevCrate. Written by William Andrews.
Unix timestamps explained — converting, formatting, and avoiding the common mistakes
What Unix timestamps actually are, how to convert them in JavaScript, Python, SQL, and the command line, the milliseconds vs seconds trap, timezone gotchas, and the Y2K38 problem.
Read post →How to decode and debug a JWT without installing anything
Read any JWT's header and payload instantly, understand every standard claim, and diagnose the most common auth errors — expired tokens, audience mismatches, wrong algorithms — from the decoded contents alone.
Read post →URL encoding — what it is, when it breaks, and how to fix it
Percent-encoding, encodeURI vs encodeURIComponent, the %20 vs + space trap, double-encoding bugs, and how to construct query strings without breaking everything.
Read post →SQL formatting — a practical guide for developers
Why SQL formatting matters more than most developers think, and the conventions — uppercase keywords, one clause per line, CTEs, leading AND — that make queries readable by anyone on the team.
Read post →Regex cheat sheet for developers — patterns you'll actually use
A practical reference covering the patterns developers reach for most: email, URL, phone, date, IP address, slugs, password rules, and more. Bookmarkable and copy-paste ready.
Read post →Why Your API Keys and JWTs Are Safer in a Browser-Based Tool
When you paste a JWT or API key into an online tool, where does it actually go? Most developers don't know — and the answer should change which tools you use.
Read post →How to Test WebSocket Connections in the Browser (No Install Required)
A practical guide to testing WebSocket endpoints directly in your browser — debug auth flows, inspect JSON frames, and verify your server before writing a single line of client code.
Read post →I Built 21 Browser-Based Dev Tools in Pure HTML/CSS/JS — Here's What I Learned
An honest account of what went right, what broke me, and what I'd do differently. Spoiler: the JavaScript was the easy part.
Read post →When AI Over-Engineers: A DevCrate Case Study
A story about the over-engineering bias inherent in AI agents, and why sometimes the dumbest solution is actually the smartest. Based on a real debugging session building DevCrate.
Read post →Cron expressions explained — a complete guide with real examples
Five numbers, five fields, and a syntax that every developer copies from Stack Overflow and immediately forgets. This guide covers everything you need to read and write any cron expression from scratch — including common mistakes and platform differences.
Read post →A developer's guide to JWTs — how they work and why they break
JWTs are everywhere in modern web development. Three sections separated by dots, each Base64-encoded. The whole thing looks like noise until you know what's inside — and once you do, it makes complete sense.
Read post →A developer's guide to JSON — formatting, validation, and common mistakes
JSON is everywhere — and yet it trips developers up constantly. One missing comma, one extra bracket, one set of single quotes instead of double, and the whole thing breaks. This guide covers what you actually need to know.
Read post →Why I built DevCrate — and what makes it different
Every developer has a tab problem. By the time you've solved it you have eight tabs open, you've pasted sensitive data into four different websites, and you're not entirely sure any of them are private.
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