The abstractions we build in programming can be represented as models of bookkeeping in the form of state changes and transformations. Realizing they are nothing more than bookkeeping empowers the abstraction by enabling breakdown of the state into trackable components.

Although an increasing portion of the web is adopting HTTPS, a core part of the web infrastructure lags behind in the form of plaintext DNS. The authentication problem of DNS is resolved by DNSSEC, but the queries are still plaintext. There’s currently a number of competing solutions that offer both authenticity and privacy concerns, namely DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS, and DNSCrypt. I’ll leave it to Cloudflare’s blog to explain DNS, DoT and DoH, and the work towards both: DNS Encryption Explained. Due to operating systems not yet supporting encrypted DNS resolvers, some work needs to be done by the user, and this post describes part of the work using CoreDNS.

At one point in my adult life, I learned about the morning-lark vs. night-owl spectrum. It is then when I realized I’m a night owl and there’s a flock of others like me out there. It is an odd feeling to suddenly realize you are not an oddity among humans. In fact, 30 percent of people are night owls. All of a sudden you realize you are not broken. You are not alone. I have been reading the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, and it helped realize more and more we are not abnormal. We are merely existing in a societal setup that is hostile to our genetic makeup and in constant battle of survival until the next evening which is when we feel like ourselves. This post will not be concerned with the science, for which you may refer to the book, rather I will try to cover the experience. I’ve already passed a draft of this by a friend with whom I had a conversation and found many similarities. We are not weirdos (okay, maybe we are).