The ScatterBrain Chronicles
The Internet Home of Kevin L. Collins
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?
It’s Friday, have you cleaned malware from a PC this week?
1Yesterday around 9 A.M., one of my co-workers called to inform me that they had a “popup” message on their computer while browsing the web. First thought through my head was: “Here we go again…”. Before I even connected to the remote machine I knew what I was going to see. Another fake virus/malware/infection warning. I was right. As soon as I connected, I saw the warning: “You’re running unprotected, please click here to subscribe and removed the following infections.”
GAH! I’m am sick and tired of wasting my time cleaning this garbage up! Why can’t this stuff be stopped?
So, after spending 3 hours on the machine via PCAnywhere, I came to the conclusion that remote cleaning wasn’t going to work. I dispatched a person from each office to meet half-way to deliver the machine back to me. Around 2:30 yesterday afternoon I finally got a few moments to look at it.
Problem is, once the machine booted Windows, the keyboard and mouse became non-responsive. Either Windows had locked up, or the malware didn’t like being disconnected from the Internet (because I refuse to plug the NIC up until it is clean or temporarily running some other operating system). Either case, as it stood the machine was useless.
This morning I’m sitting in front of it watching it run a ‘dd’ from the Ubuntu Live CD, duplicating its hard drive onto another for further analysis. I don’t know how successful I’ll be, but I’m going to try to bring this machine back from “windows death”.
I know I may end up blowing the hard drive away and re-loading the system, but I want to at least try to find out what this malware did and how the machine got infected. I’m tired of not knowing and simply formatting and reloading. I want to get to the bottom of this.
Scratch that; reverse it.
0After a night of thought (a most unsettling night of nausea to be honest) I’ve thought better of loading Windows 7 onto my laptop. While my laptop doesn’t have the guts to run a virtual machine for any *real* work, it should have enough to run two browsers for checking my layouts. So I’m pushing forward with Ubuntu and probably Virtualbox.
During the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep I ran across a few things that might help me make the layout process quick and (hopefully) cross-browser compliant.
The first is the “1KB Grid System” by Tyler Tate. With it, I’m hoping to take the Intranet from a confusing mess of content and layout to a complete dream of separation. Goal: Making cosmetic updates in the future easier.
I also found “The Design Shack” website. With the information in there I’m hoping to use recent techniques to make the Intranet page quicker and easier to look at.
One thing that really chaps me though is this: If you design something according to standards, why should you have to test it to make sure it works? It should just work. So why is it then that every browser on this planet that “conforms to standards” does not present the design in the same way? HMMM? Microsoft? Apple? Mozilla? Google? Anybody?
UPDATE: I just found this on “Coding Smashing Magazine“, which is a very detailed look at what I’m complaining about – cross platform testing. I don’t know that I’ll go all the way and use 15-20 different browsers, but a setup with IE8, IE9 and Safari (and probably Chrome, because I like it) will get me started.
Changes to the Laptop
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Image via CrunchBase
So I started to layout the changes required for the new NEI Intranet this morning. A couple of things came to mind and were quickly shot down.
During this planning and organizing session one thing came to the top: The new site would need to be compatible with both Internet Explorer 8+ and Safari (because of the widespread use of iPhones and iPads at the office).
This brought me the realization that my laptop, which is currently running Ubuntu Linux, really couldn’t be used to test the new code because I can’t use IE or Safari on Linux.
So, very shortly now, I’m going to back up my work to date and load Windows 7 on my laptop. That way I can load both IE and Safari along with my favorite Windows editor (notepad++) and use Putty to access the code on the development server. (I’m toying with the idea of using WAMP on the laptop instead, but that’ll come later.)
I know, I could use VMware or VirtualBox. But this machine barely has enough resources to run Ubuntu or Windows 7 alone. I think having even a small virtual machine for just testing would be enough to break its back.
It’s off to work I go…
0Once again, it’s a Monday and I’m off for work. Weekends are too short and I’m not taking advantage of them like I should.
I did make it out to Keeneland yesterday and scouted some spots to take photos from – assuming that these spots are OK with the track officials. There’s two really nice spots that I could get pics of the horses as they round the last turn. Possibly one problem with them though, they are right on the outside rail and not in the main grandstand. So I’m not sure if it’s cool to be there during races. I think during workouts the spots will be fine, but I’ll need to call and find out them during the races.
Fall is here, I know it is. The leaves are changing and yesterday was the best day weather-wise this entire year. I really can’t wait until the snow starts to fly.
Anyway, I’m off for work. Later all.
