The Internet Home of Kevin L. Collins
Computers
Posts dealing with computers.
I agree 100%
0Rich Bowen re-tweeted this link a few moments ago. After reading it, I must say: I agree 100%!! (It even ties into some of the frustration I vented a few weeks ago here on my blog.)
While the post was written about the PERL IRC channel, it also applies to almost every IRC channel that I have visited.
In addition to the reasons given in that post why the “teach the man to fish” argument is flawed, let me add one more. In nearly every case that I have arrived in an IRC channel, I have arrived there because I have already looked at the books that I have, I have already looked at the manuals that I can access, I have already searched with Google and I still have not found the answer I’m looking for.
I don’t drop into the IRC channels because I want someone to do my work for me, I drop in there because I can’t figure something out and I’m tired of wasting time. I need experienced guidance, not a simple RTFM.
So for those of you who regularly hang out on ##php, #perl, #ubuntu and #apache: Be aware that not all of us are trolls looking for handouts.
Gnome Unity – I HATE IT!
1Let me start by saying that I’m sick and I know that is amplifying my frustration, but the title is true none-the-less.
As I have stated, I’m re-coding my company’s Intranet site. To do that, I’ve installed Ubuntu on my laptop (the machine I’m on now). I did that because it gives me a machine that, for all intents and purposes, is an exact copy of my web server in a mobile platform. That way I can develop on the machine, copy the stuff to the web server and things just work. In the past, it’s been great.
It’s been great for another reason as well. With Linux (Gnome for sure, probably the other desktop managers as well) I can have multiple virtual desktops. Currently I use 6 – primarily focusing on 3 of them – one for coding, one for testing/debugging and one for research (Eclipse, Firefox/Terminals, and Firefox/Google/XChat respectively.)
Until “Unity” came around, this had worked flawlessly. But now I have two big issues:
The first is with my keyboard getting lost. Almost every time that I change desktops (with the ctrl-alt-arrows), when I return to Eclipse, the keyboard is non-responsive. I think I’ve narrowed this down to another application retaining “focus”, but I can’t stop it. I can cure it by going to an empty desktop, taping an arrow key and then returning to Eclipse. This I can work around.
What I can’t work around is Compiz loosing its mind and in the middle of a desktop switch, just hanging. That’s what happened not 15 minutes ago. I was switching from my “testing” desktop back to my “coding” desktop because I had forgotten to save a the file with some PHP functions in it. One that I had spent all morning writing. (Yes it happens). I hit the keys to return to Eclipse. The screen showed the overlay of the virtual desktops, put me on the Eclipse desktop, and then just froze. I had mouse control, the cursor was moving. I had partial keyboard control, I could switch to the console and verify that Compiz was consuming 100% of one of the two cores of laptop’s processor. But that was basically it. I couldn’t tell Eclipse to save, I couldn’t get compiz to “un-freeze” – I was dead in the water. So I did the only thing I could, typed “reboot -n” at the console and watch my work go up in smoke.
GAH!
Which brings me to another question: Why can’t Eclipse hold on to the unsaved “buffer”? Vi can. Firefox can. Why not Eclipse?
Back to work, Kevin, back to work.
Web Coding: I’m lost, but I’m enjoying it.
3For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been rewriting my company’s Intranet site. During that time, I’ve discovered that several things have changed since I originally wrote the code nearly 6 years ago. In that time, I’ve basically forgotten everything I did and I’ve had to relearn PHP, MySQL and HTML.
I’ve basically left the heavy hitting of the HTML and CSS to the “Skeleton” framework that I’ve been using, so there’s not much of a learning curve there.
When it comes to PHP, I’ve switched gears – or tried to – from procedural to Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Every query to the database that I have written in the new code is done with OOP methods. I’m liking it, mainly because of the inherent security that comes along with the new methods of communicating with the database.
I’m sure that MySQL has evolved in the past 6 years, but for my needs, it really hasn’t. The SQL statements that I’m writing now are pretty much unchanged from the originals.
There hasn’t been a day go by since I started this that I haven’t hit a brick wall on something. Yes I’ve gotten frustrated, but I’ve enjoyed solving the problem.
Which brings me to where I left off coding yesterday. I ran into a problem involving Javascript/JQuery and what I wanted to have happen (PHP functions). What I didn’t realize is that Javascript is client side processing. PHP is server-side and I can’t figure out a way to make them talk to each other in a pleasing manner. (I’m wanting to use a AJAXy type page refresh to pass data to PHP which requires a normal page refresh.) I’m still working on that, but I’m finding precious little information.
And that brings me to my complaint: IRC based support.
When I first wrote the Intranet, I was active in a local group of Linux users – LPLug. That group has basically disbanded and all of the people have moved on to other locations. The sad part about that is that I can’t call on them for help anymore. What’s worse is that the groups that I can call on have basically become “pass-the-buck” kind of groups.
I have a problem, like this Javascript issue. It involves, Javascript, HTML, PHP and in the end MySQL. Since I’m writing the function in PHP, I ask the question to the PHP folks. They discover that the problem is triggered because of the Javascript interaction and they say “Go talk to the #Javascript people.” I go over there and tell them about my problem and they say “Well that’s a PHP problem, go to ##PHP and ask them.”
Really? I’m certain that BOTH groups know the solution to my problem – because they both have experience with each other’s processes. So why do I have to spend so much time explaining my problem – to multiple groups – just to get told to go somewhere else.
I know the main issue here is the lack of my knowledge and experience, but seriously, why is it that these groups have become so polarized that neither of them are helping me. You’d think they work for the US government or something, Geez.
Houston, we have a problem. I think.
0This morning I updated the journal on the development of the new NEI Intranet. One of the things that I commented on was how I was afraid that the site would have security concerns – mainly because I don’t know enough PHP or the ways to prevent such problems.
That prompted me to look for a way to find out IF the site had problems. My thought was, if I could find out what the problems were, I might have enough time to fix them before I was forced to put the site into production. A Google search later landed me a utility called “Skipfish“. It’s a web site analyzer that can point out all kinds of issues – including security problems.
I’ve been running Skipfish on the development site for nearly an hour. According to the statistics, so far the site has 3290 informational issues and 993 medium issues. I’m not exactly sure what the issues are at this point because the scan is still running, but I can tell you: I’m concerned.
I’m hoping that the issue counts Skipfish is displaying are repetitive counts per run and not unique issues. If not, then I REALLY have my work cut out for me. I can’t in good conscience put the site into production – accessible from the Internet – with security issues in it. I know there is always the possibility of a threat from the INSIDE too, but I’m much less concerned about that than Johnny Hacker and his ten million friends.
All I have to do is wait for the run to complete and then I’ll see where I stand. More to come…
Updating Code
0For that past couple of days I’ve been trying my best to understand what I did in the old version of the NEI Intranet and then look for the proper way of doing the same things in the latest version of PHP and MySQL. So far the biggest hurdle I’ve had to jump is to drop the use of the “mysql_” series of commands and move them to the PDO format. I think I’ve gotten to a point where I semi-understand how to use the various tools that PDO provides and I like them. The make for cleaner, more read-able code too.
As far as pure progress on the revisions though, it’s slow going. I’ve basically gotten the layout of the pages done. I’ve gotten access to the database and pulled information so that I can use it for authentication and permission levels. I’ve began to look and weed out the unused navigation bits and functions.
There is an inherent problem with look at all of this existing code…the more I look, the more I find things that need to be fixed or changed. That’s going to lead, in the end, to me basically re-writing 95% of the site and not gaining much additional functionality. I’ll end up with a better site, but no one will notice because it’s only better behind the scenes.
Oh well, I’ll know, right?
