Subscribers to Apple’s iCloud+ have the option of using custom domains with iCloud Mail. You can either purchase a domain through iCloud or bring your own domain. The experience here relates to the bring your own domain option.

Configuring the domain to work with iCloud Mail requires several new domain DNS records. I manage the DNS records for my domain on Netlify. Apple verifies these records before completing the setup.

Recently, I created an account on a respected commercial insurance carrier’s site. The site restricted passwords to a maximum of 15 characters.

Account Creation Limits Password Length

I know enough about information security to know that this is bad. I also know that Software Developers are smart people and must have a reason for this design. Being curious, I decided to ask our new AI overlords why they think this choice was made by the developer.

Knowing how to use Regular Expressions (Regex) to solve a technology problem is a superpower. You’ll encounter Regex in lots of different places. Most programming languages have some version of Regex built-in and many command-line tools allow you to use Regex patterns. Even Visual Studio Code has a Regex pattern search option.

Despite its power, developing Regex patterns requires mastering the strange pattern structure. It takes time to develop the skill of crafting patterns with no outside help. Writing a pattern usually requires a Regex tool. These are my some of my favorite resources to help with creating patterns.