Category Archives: technology

It was always my opinion that the “installer wizard” is a suboptimal method of delivering and deploying applications on client machines. Compared to the default (preferred) ways of installing applications on other platforms, the process of downloading and clicking through … Continue reading →

I spend a great deal of time on the command line. That’s how I usually manipulate files, do little maintenance tasks, run tests from and etc. Because of this I like to make that environment nice to look at. I … Continue reading →

Having created a really simple Pastebin, how about we embark on something more ambitious. An actual web app with all the usual trappings: user accounts, session management, email notifications and etc. On the other hand, I shouldn’t try to build … Continue reading →

We haven’t done one of these threads in a while have we? Let’s share our favorite shell tips and tricks. I’ll talk about Bash because that’s what I use in my day-to-day work. If you happen to be Zsh user, … Continue reading →

In Part 4, I mentioned the Codeception test framework, but didn’t really get to use it because their page temporarily went down and I didn’t feel like trying to hunt down the documentation from third party sources. That outage seemed … Continue reading →

In the previous installment we built a semi-working skeleton of our application. It is time to finally get down to the business and make it talk to the database and actually save and retrieve out content. Normally this would be … Continue reading →

Welcome to the third installment of PHP-ing like a productive person. It’s code writing time. Here is how I like to start: touch index.php Yes, I’m a toucher. Sue me! The Front Controller The index file seems like a good … Continue reading →

In part one of this series I imparted some serious knowledge and discussed a lot of theoretical bullshit. Not all of it went over well, and not all of it was PHP specific. A lot of the stuff we talked … Continue reading →

PHP gets a lot of flack for being a shitty language. This reputation is unfortunately well deserved. It is an ugly, quirky, idiosyncratic mess. But at the same time, PHP remains one of the most popular web programming languages out … Continue reading →

LaTeX is fully extensible. Just about every command you can think of can be overloaded and redefined in your document. Or the document class definition. Or a custom made package file. This is the beauty of this system. You can … Continue reading →

How do you tackle big refactoring projects for your chosen language, framework and platform? I’ve been sort of struggling with a very old, twisted and convoluted PHP mess as of lately, and I’m finding that there are just not that … Continue reading →

As an educator, I am absolutely frightened when I read articles like these. Just the opening sentence chills me to the core. Observe: There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is hampering their … Continue reading →

Back in 2008, at the height of the Web 2.0 craze I wrote a post titled JavaScript will the the next big language. Four years have passed, and yeah – it happened. Not necessarily in the way I expected it … Continue reading →

We did this a few times before but I figured we might as well do it again. If you don’t know what the hell am I talking about, let me explain. I’m talking about a thread in which I ask … Continue reading →

This fine morning KDE greeted me with a particularly nasty warning: Seems like it is time for some spring cleanup… And by spring, I of course mean winter. But where to start? Well, the best place is usually to nuke … Continue reading →

As you know the northeast was hit by Hurricane Sandy last week. New Jersey, which is my primary base of operations was hit pretty badly leaving thousands of residents without power. If you follow me on Twitter you have probably … Continue reading →

Computing happiness, apparently it is a thing now. As I write this, I’m sitting at home, Hurricane Sandy is bellowing outside my window and rain is slowly trickling into my basement. I live on borrowed time, in existential dread – … Continue reading →

Here is something I always tell to fledgling programmers, interns and the like: if you have made something, and it would take you more than 5 minutes to recreate it from scratch, it needs to be under version control. Why? … Continue reading →

The mouse is probably the best and the worst invention in the history of computing. Without early pointing devices such as mice and track-balls we likely would not have graphical user interfaces in the form they exist today. These devices … Continue reading →

We live in a day and age when most of us use more than one computing device on a daily basis. Not everyone can afford to actually own multiple computers, but many at the very least have access to a … Continue reading →

Every IT department has “regulars” – users who submit tickets so frequently they ought to be issued customer loyalty cards. Users whose computers spend more time on the help desk bench than on their desks. Users who use the Ash … Continue reading →

As you may or may not know, I am a big fan of Vim, Tmux and the Solarized theme. Unfortunately, these three components don’t always go together very well. As a rule, I tend to use the dark Solarized theme … Continue reading →

Let’s say you set up a brand spanking new Unix/Linux box somewhere, or gain access to a bran new shell account on which you expect to be doing some work. What are the top three things you install first? I’m … Continue reading →

In the last few weeks I have talked to quite a few people who are very angry at Apple for the way iPhone 5 came out. Anger, disappointment and strange amount of love for Samsung are dominant emotions during all … Continue reading →

If you have me in your Circles on Google+ or follow me on Twitter then you have probably already seen the article I want to talk about. If not, why are you not following or circling me? You totally should! … Continue reading →