Server Upgrade Test - Please Ignore
Published: 02/03/2012
Just upgraded my PHP version. Hopefully all it still well. Might be a couple bogus twitter messages.
I want to try using MongoDB for this blog at some point which required a little upgrading.
Your Security Sucks
Published: 01/16/2012
Along with 24 million of my not so closest friends I too got an email telling me that Zappos suffered a breach in which they lost control of their user database through some as yet un-disclosed breach.
Fortunately they did keep the credit card numbers separate from the user accounts and according to them only kept hashed passwords in that database. But losing personally identifiable data still can cause customer pain, and hashed passwords unless done really well can still lead to recovering enough passwords to create trouble. So far there is no discussion of how the exploit happened, or for how long it was active. We may never find out, as the details are usually not something a company wants to discuss.
At least they seem to have owned up to it, which itself is disaster PR 101, although the exact sequence of events probably won't ever be known. But why does this continue to happen?
How Much Work Space Is Necessary For a Programmer?
Published: 01/03/2012
The contract I just started is at a recognizable (at least the part I work at) company housed in a large campus setting. Yet everyone is packed in like sardines. The parking facilities cannot even support all the people who work there yet they have no plans to build anything else. Does this make any sense or am I too picky?
I have a grand total of 12 square feet including my little table and chair. Most of the other folks in the group don't have much more including the manager yet they seem to not notice or care (many have worked for years for this company). Both contractors and employees are crammed in alike.
To me I feel like I have been squeezed into a closet except you can look out and see everyone close by. Many people zone out with headphones which I guess provides some sense of quiet. Everywhere you look there are people in little groups and pressed into corners. Yet this isn't a sweatshop but a large technology company.
Why Do So Many Large Websites Fail Basic HTML 101?
Published: 01/01/2012
I am about to work for a large recognizable company where I will be doing iOS development as well as help out on their mobile website. Curious as to what I am getting into I took a peek at the mobile website and their main website.
Not pretty. Both sites fail miserably on validation, including obvious flaws that aren't even valid syntax. Hopefully I can gently nudge them into making things better without immediately pissing anyone off.
The main site uses Vignette, a particularly vile web content management system I remember examining at some point in the past decade. Many of these systems are very expensive and generate particularly crappy HTML. I wish browsers could punish really terrible HTML but the developers bend over backwards to accommodate almost every kind of error which allow these dreadful content management systems to continue to exist.
Computer Furniture Sucks
Published: 12/19/2011
My dad spent most of his life in the furniture industry as a hands-on manager. He valued modern design and techniques but always with a connection to old school craftsmanship. He pioneered using computers and automation and looking at advancements in materials and construction techniques. So I grew up with an appreciation for what good solid furniture looked like.
Anyone looked at computer desks lately? Absolute pure unadulterated crap.
Do the people who design and sell these actually use computers? Or did they buy one in the 1980s and continue to use it as a design metaphor? Desks mostly seem designed for tiny grandmothers running PC's with Windows 95 stuffed into a dusty corner. They assume you live in a studio apartment and have to cram a desk between the washer and dryer. They build enclosures for giant ugly boxes that have 12 inch displays. Mice, what's that?