API

A good API makes useful data and resources available to consumers, while sweeping the confusing details of the system under the proverbial carpet.

TWIL vol.4 (blocklists and APIs, encoding vs encryption, and does AI have an uncanny valley?)

TWIL vol.4 (blocklists and APIs, encoding vs encryption, and does AI have an uncanny valley?)

This week I learned about malicious site blocklists and some APIs that might be interesting to dig into, read up on encoding vs encryption, and pondered whether AI could dip into the uncanny valley.

6 space-related APIs to check out ahead of the Artemis I launch

6 space-related APIs to check out ahead of the Artemis I launch

The week of NASA launching Artemis I is a good time to check a few of the many APIs that make tons of raw space data accessible for anyone to use.

Searching historical newspapers with the Chronicling America API

Searching historical newspapers with the Chronicling America API

I've got a few old newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s, and find them fascinating. And so I was excited to stumble on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America API, which 'provides access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages'. Let's check it out.

Using the IP Geolocation API to find info about an IP address

Using the IP Geolocation API to find info about an IP address

Last year I caught an article about a simple, free service called ipify that returns your IP address. It became so popular the author soon found himself dealing with billions of requests per month! Here's a look at that API and the IP Geolocation API that it spawned.

Querying Amazon's product details with the Amazon Product Advertising API

Querying Amazon's product details with the Amazon Product Advertising API

This API is allows you to query the Amazon catalog, either with keywords or by targeting specific products, and extract details about those products in order to promote (advertise) them. I'm hoping that the question/answer area is one of those details that can be extracted, but we'll see.

Access yesterday's Internet with the Wayback Machine API

Access yesterday's Internet with the Wayback Machine API

The Wayback Machine, a product of the Internet Archive, is an ambitious tool that's been documenting websites for many years. It's useful when a page you need is removed by the original author. Let's take a look at their API and how we might make use of it.

A look at the many ways APIs can authorize access

A look at the many ways APIs can authorize access

After writing about so many APIs and having to figure out the auth process for each, I wanted to compare and contrast how some of these services approach authentication and authorization, and why they might've decided to do it the way they did.