We at phux are setting up a world wide event dubbed “Consumer Blackout”, where we will be shutting down our personal ISP’s for 24 hours at 1am Eastern on December 31st. You can find the event page on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/ConsumerBlackout. You don’t need to sign up for the event on Facebook but, we would like to keep track of the number of participants.

Event Overview:
One day without accessing the internet. One day to show the big corporations that we can exist without them. The fat cat needs to go on a diet, and you can help. We need to take a stand and show the corporations that we are not just sheep. We are more than a status on a social network. More than a six figure annual bonus.

Your rights, your freedoms, your very essence as a human being is being sold to the highest bidder, and all anyone ever cares about is sharing with the world that they just had toast, or they’re dying their hair red and they hope it doesn’t turn out shitty, or what studid show is on and what they think about it. You have so many opinions about people, shows, books, movies, school, haircuts, pets, drama, rumours, funny pictures, sad pictures, that you fail to realize that all of these things are necessary for you to remain oblivious to the fact that it’s only a matter of time before everything that you own and cherish as a human, your basic human rights, and everything that they mean will soon be a denomination folded up in somebodies wallet!

Ryan: “Invite your friends. We need to show the world that the cashcow known as the internet is sustained by us, and us only. Maybe then big money-making companies, who make their money from us using the internet, but wish to control what we think, say, and do on it will get the hint that we aren’t fucking around anymore. Think of this as an Occupy Wallstreet for the internet! We need to take a stand on the streets, and on the wire! Time is running out.”

We hope you will join us in this decisive strike.

Best regards,
Nito

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a huge number of emails sent out as part of a phishing scam involving ACH and FDIC. Below are what the emails read (they may change over time):

Subject: FDIC notification
From: no.reply@fdic.gov
Message: Dear customer,
Your account ACH and WIRE transaction have been temporarily suspended for security reasons due to the expiration of your security version. To download and install the newest installations read the document(pdf) attached below.

As soon as it is setup, you transaction abilities will be fully restored.
Best Regards, Online Security departament, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Subject: ACH Payment 2318207 Canceled
From: account.manager@nacha.net
Message: ACH Payment Canceled

The ACH transaction (ID: 51800395),
recently initiated from your checking account (by you or any other person),
was canceled by the other financial institution.

Rejected transaction
Transaction ID: 8574210513218
Reason for rejection: See details in the attachment
Transaction Report: report_082011-65.pdf.exe (self-extracting archive, Adobe PDF)

13450 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100 Herndon, VA 20171 (703)561-1100 2011 NACHA – The Electronic Payment Association

These emails contain an attachment. Do *NOT* download or open this file. It will install a variant of the Zeus or ZBot trojan on your system. They aim for account information, mostly regarding banking. Again, if you receive an email do not open the attachment. If your email provider allows you to mark it as a phishing email, do so and then delete it (if it hasn’t been already).

Are you one of the many people that hates all the Facebook application spam crap? Whelp, this entry is going to show you how to block all apps from your feed.

First: Click “Account” at the top-right of the page, and then “Privacy Settings”.

Second: Find “Apps and Websites” at the bottom of the page, and click the link entitled “Edit your settings”.

Last: Find “Apps you use”, which should be at the top of the page, and click the link entitled “Turn off”.

After confirming, you should now have an app free news feed on Facebook. Enjoy.

SolaceNet has been a project of mine for about a year and a half. I talked with one of my good friends, and we decided to sit down and start work on it. We didn’t even have a name for it until about two months into the project, lol. Some of you who don’t read my blog or know me are probably asking yourselves ‘what the hell is SolaceNet anyways?’. Whelp, I hope to break down what SolaceNet is in this post since I haven’t really done that yet.

So what is SolaceNet?

We hope that it will become the number one destination for gamers world wide. Social networking for gamers, by gamers is pretty much the basic concept of it. Now we know there’s hundreds of ‘gaming social networks’ out there, but none of them can actually pair you with other gamers you may know from specific games (and we don’t even need your email and password to find them!(Sorry, I just really dislike that type of spam – which is what it is)).

But why reinvent the wheel?

Good question, and the answer is pretty straight forward.. If you have no competition, there is no real motivation to improve and expand. That’s the philosophy that all businesses *should* have, though they usually don’t.

Do you see companies like Facebook or Twitter as competition?

In some ways, yes. Facebook and Twitter are two great social networks, but they’re not really setup for gamers. If I wanted to post that I just earned an achievement on XBL, I’d have to connect a third parties web application to post it for me.

So you’re opposed to using third party applications?

Not at all, I encourage the integration between websites. However, having multiple social networks do the work that could be done by one is wasteful in my opinion. Centralizing all data without having to create, set up, maintain and keep track of multiple accounts sounds a lot easier and cleaner, doesn’t it?

Dennis Fong has already created two gaming social networks. How do you plan on competing with someone with that much experience under their belt?

Yeah, Dennis created two of the largest and most well-known gaming social networks, but it comes back down to the motivation to improve and expand. He has virtually no competition. XFire was purchased by MTv, and hasn’t had any major overhauls since. He then turned around and developed Raptr that trumped XFire in every aspect. So aside from that, there’s no one to compete with. A few social networks here and there, but they’re all platform specific – XBOX here, PS3 there. We have quite a few things on SolaceNet that will make us a strong competitor with Dennis and his team of developers over at Raptr.

Can you be more specific when you say “a few things”?

At this point in the development stage, I can’t disclose every part of SolaceNet. Competition is all about knowing your competitors and creating something bigger and better after all.

Where can gamers go to check out SolaceNet?

Gamers can head over to SolaceNet.com and sign up. We’ll be giving everyone who signs up now exclusive access to our alpha and beta versions of the website and software.

How is it that after so many generations of people fighting for freedom of everything they can, they still just file in line to do what the next guy or gal tells them to? We held our special elections yesterday for mayor, and ended up with one of the most corrupt businessmen in the city.. I’m going to try to breakdown why this probably happened (in my own thoughts)..

First here were our choices..
Tom Richards (Dem), who used to run RG&E until he sold it off for a nice fat severance (I read 24 million dollars), leaving ~200 people jobless. ‘Nough said…

Bill Johnson (Independents & Working Family).. This guy ::sighs:: He was our former mayor, who thought it would be smart to purchase a ferry to run from here to Toronto, CA. The ferry first crashed on its maiden voyage out of a port in Australia, then crashed again in NYC. We sold it, not once, not twice, but three times, buying it back for more than we sold it twice (this means we lost more money). And then he had the audacity to say that he would purchase another ferry if it were privately invested if he won this election… Yeah, he came in second in the ballots – go figure..

Alex White (Green).. I’ve met Alex, and I’ve spent time getting to know him (prior to his campaign). He’s a highly intelligent person, who probably would have done more for the city than any mayor we’ve had in the past 30 years. This was the only one actually giving ideas and suggestions that would help build our city back up into the colossus that it once was. He went live on the net to campaign, allowing free and open suggestions and questions, without any bias, and answered honestly, without pause. Another plus? He didn’t slander – at all.

Out of the three candidates, Alex was the only one that would have brought real change to our city.. So why did Mr. Richards win? Well let’s look at the psyche of a voter.

Voters are more likely to vote for names that they have heard more. Alex wasn’t as well funded as either of the other ‘big dogs’, and didn’t get as much coverage. Johnson and Richards were both on every other commercial in this city. Richards and Johnson were both well known prior to the election. My grandmother (Dem) said something that irked me, but goes with this.. “Not too hard of a choice.. Guy [Johnson] who wants to bring another ferry, guy [Richards] who was in office with Duffy (most recent mayor), or a nobody [White].”. Obviously, she didn’t do her research on White, and just went off what others said.

A voter, especially the older ones, are diehard party voters. Since there was no Republican candidate, I assume that the percentages were split between mostly between Richards and Johnson (Based on talking to Republicans, my estimate is ~ 63% Richards and 35% Johnson, leaving 2% for White. A greater percentage were against Johnson as mayor again).

The main point of this post, is to try and rattle you out of a state of disillusion… People need to stop following what everyone else says and does and think for themselves….

Fallen Earth is a post-apocalypse based game. Those that have played it may classify it as a Fallout copy made into an MMORPG, which isn’t entirely false. The game although having been out for over a year and a half now, is still rather clunky to play. The actual game engine they use is outdated, and can cause severe video lag spikes in the game. The trailer videos for this game are graphically enhanced, as the graphics in-game on highest settings do not even come close to what they make it look like in trailers.

Pros:

Cons:

Overall, this game rates around a 6 for me. I think it definitely has potential if the developers worked out the core issues, and either went with or redesigned the engine they’re currently using. Also, I understand from a sales point of view that micro-managing your character(s) keep a member playing, which in turn continues to generate revenue, but come on.. The amount of mindless grinding to get ahead is ridiculous. And if you have no vehicle and your waypoint wasn’t set, you could find yourself wandering aimlessly through the wastelands trying to find where you’re supposed to go – which sometimes isn’t bad, since you need to collect so much “scrap” and what-not to craft anything you need, or to just make a few extra chips so you can purchase the manual to learn how to craft the upgrade.

If you enjoy post-apocalyptic games, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this. However, if you have a short attention span or you get upset quickly over little things, you may want to stay away from this game until they work out most of the kinks. Also, if you do end up getting this game – there is an in-game item giveaway over at Alienware Arena. Enjoy.

You know what really irks me? People in leadership who sit there and point fingers at their subordinates. Placing all the blame on others. The simple fact of the matter is that being in a leadership role, be it a manager for retail company, ceo of some fortune 500 or just a simple project manager like myself, the majority of the blame rests on your shoulders.

Let’s take myself for example. As a project manager, it’s up to me to make sure that each project I undertake is developed in an orderly fashion with the highest quality and rid of any bugs we can find before it goes live. If it’s not on time it’s my fault, because I didn’t push myself and the rest of the team hard enough to finish with-in the deadline or I didn’t give correct instructions on what needs to be done. If the quality is crap, it’s because I didn’t force the graphic designer to put their heart and soul into the project. If it’s riddled with bugs, it’s because I didn’t make the team test it enough before letting it go live.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Your subordinates are just as guilty as you are, because they didn’t come to you with questions or concerns, or they didn’t seek extra training, but even if that’s the case, it’s still your responsibility to go around and check up throughout the day. Ask them if everything’s going smoothly, if they need any help or if they need extra guidance.

In the military we used the saying “shit rolls downhill”. Which basically meant that if someone in a leadership role got “chewed out”, then the rest of the squad, platoon, company or battalion would as well afterward by the initial person that got “chewed out”. That has to be the stupidest fucking concept I have ever witnessed. I understand that you need to maintain a level of “alpha dog” over your “pack”, but come the fuck on. Negative reinforcement is bullshit, and society has shown time and time again that it brings you barely any real results. The only way negative reinforcement works, is if you can actually do physical or psychological harm to the person (fascist dictator type shit), which is illegal in the US (aside from the military and their corrupt ass-backwards style of the legal system).

Basically, in short.. Don’t treat your employees like shit, and don’t just sit there and point fingers at them because *you* fucked up. Remember that without your employees, you wouldn’t have a business – period.

This weekend was uneventful, just as I like it..

Friday I started work on the function to automatically collect data for any given game within our database. This required a modified version of the scraper script I wrote for MetaCritic.com. Pulling a game from our database, I rewrite it to MC’s URL standards ie. “Random Game Name: Goes Here” should be sent as “random-game-name-goes-here”. After rewriting the name, I simply pull the page with all the games details, parse through it and grab all the data to populate that specific row. I ran into a minor snag while pulling the publisher’s line. I had written a simple str_replace for single whitespace, but hadn’t thought they would use tabs – how stupid of me to think the developers of another website would actually use web standards. So I wrote an additional function to clean up any type of whitespace that I may encounter, be it a space, linebreak, tab or anything else.

Saturday I focused on the administration panel. I quite enjoy working in HTML5 and CSS3, and I have written the front-end of the admin panel in them (We can’t write the main website in html5 and/or css3 since not all browsers support them, yet). I started and finished the dashboard, member management and game management pages. Since this is a public blog, I can’t go into much more detail than that as it would be a security risk. I also went out to the Pittsford plaza with Nikki. Parking was horrendous. I drove around the parking lot for about 10 minutes before I found an empty spot. Parking at Wegmans was easier, and I didn’t have to back out – always a plus for me.

Today (Sunday) I set my focus on cleaning and consolidating code on the pages for the main site and space within the database. I had a broad idea of what I wanted to accomplish, so I set to work. First thing that had to be done, was removing the vast amount of space being used within the database for the timelines. I simplified it by creating a simple string split into three chunks (a|b|c). Not only will this save us an average of 82% space over a life-time, but it simplifies our job and allows us to create dynamic posts. Whereas having set posts would consume more resources trying to parse them all out piece by piece and use more space within our database. Checking the type of post (a), allows us to use the correct display template. B and C are used for the actual dynamic data, whether it be a user, game, or something else.

Now that I had written the basic string for dynamic posts, I had to convert the old code over and test it out. I hit a snag that had me randomly cursing to myself. Turns out I had missed a single character in one of my regex matches. Hate it when that happens… Fixed it, tested and works – yay! All posts are now dynamic, and can be changed through an array which can have strings added or removed at any time through the admin panel.

Think I’m done for the night, since my eyes are starting to tweak meaning that I need a break from staring at my lcd’s.

As a project manager, I’m in charge of overseeing the development of projects. I was recently asked about my technique, and how I’m able to output a steady flow of web applications in such short amounts of time, compared to the larger companies who tend to take an exorbitant amount of time.

What can wait, and what can’t?

Sticking strictly with the original idea(s), notes and layout(s) is always the best way to develop a project, but there may be times when you sit down with your team or client and more ideas come up. You have to decide what can wait, and what can’t. There’s a few things you need to consider before you make the decision to archive the idea for after release.

Is it a necessity?
Does it need to be integrated in order for the website to function correctly?

How long will it take to write and integrate?
Time is always a big deal in the development stage. If it’s going to push your projected release back more than a month, you should make sure it’s something that has to be there prior to launch.

Will the database and SQL statements need to be edited or rewritten?
Having to go back and edit or rewrite SQL statements may seem trivial, but after your application is live you’re looking to decrease downtime. Changes to the database structure can prove to be more of a problem than it would be to spend a little more time on the initial development.

These are only a few questions that you should be asking yourself, your team and the client.

Your undivided attention.

Each project should get your undivided attention. This is why smaller web companies and teams tend to thrive more than their larger counterparts. Taking one project per team at a time will put you and your team(s) under a LOT less stress, and allow for the fastest completion of a project. Dealing with client’s one at a time is a lot easier than having an inbox or voicemail full of questions or ideas for multiple and then trying to sort them out in a timely manner.

Wait, what? I didn’t get that email..

Make sure everyone’s on the same page. It’s not fun trying to explain to a client that you’re behind because of no communication or someone not completely understanding what needs to be done.

Large companies make me lol irl.

Big companies tend to take mass projects at once, which put their developers (if they aren’t outsourcing to another country, which at least 1/3 do) in an extremely stressful situation as they’re usually assigned to more than one project at a time. Large companies tend to only see clients as dollar signs. Have you ever actually read some of the contracts these guys make you sign before they agree to developing your dream? Most have clauses stating that even if you back out of the development or postpone it, full payment will still be due. This – in my professional opinion – is wrong. I understand the need for profit, and that when a client cancels a project, you’re potentially losing out, but charge for work completed, not as a whole. This brings me to my next topic – source rights.

Source rights are the rights to the actual source code, images, etc. Many companies will charge you an additional fee for this, starting around $1,000 (lowest I’ve seen). This is mostly used for free advertising, as they can (and most likely will) place their companies name and web link on your front page. For the people that understand the basic concept of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you know that free link placement on your index is never something you want, unless it’s reciprocal. Even then, it depends on the quality of the web page yours is on.

The simple fact of the matter is, you can’t just go around and share personal information across unsecure channels.

If I were to create a social network right now, ask you for your name, home address, telephone numbers and email accounts, then go on to say “All information entered within this network can and will be broadcast to whomever asks for it.”. How many people do you think would enter any information? Social networks are not meant for sharing personal information outside of its own network. People do not want their information shared, and if you do so without consent of the user, you’re liable to all sorts of lawsuits.

His points were all directed towards the “openness” of the internet – being able to access all points of information without restriction. This is still done to a point – yes, even on social networking. See, there’s this little thing called personal security settings.. A user can choose to allow information to be picked up from search engines, and any other crawlers that may scan that site, but to allow for all of a users personal information to be shared.. Well now, you may just as well create a new database account, post the credentials for it on your front page and let everyone have at your members table.

And his views on Apple, although I agree with him, are pointless. You don’t sign up to Ebay to shop for goods sold on Amazon, do you?

Seriously, some people need to think about the foolish things they say before they talk – especially when it’s going to the media, and ultimately on to the web where it does what? Gets shared freely without restriction to the whole of the web.

Good game, dumbass.

You can view the article expressing Tim Berners-Lee’s views here.

As we work on Solace, it’s becoming apparent to me just how large of a undertaking this project is. Although with the addition of two new developers, the task doesn’t seem quite as daunting as it was when Ryan and I started development. Still, the amount of work load on each dev’s lap is tremendous, and I’m wondering just how long it’s going to actually take to get this software and website up and running in a stable condition.

Our original projection had been the end of this year, but that was back in the beginning of the year. Now it’s the end of the year, and the entire website is undergoing a complete rewrite – front and back-end. I guess we’ll take it one day at a time. I just hope it doesn’t become to overwhelming, because we can’t afford to hire additional developers at this point…

I’ve recently been working on a new OSS project, and it’s finally been released on the phux Development forums. As it’s open source, it will remain free and the community has full access to modify it as they wish. If you do modify it, we ask that you post the mod’s in our modifications forum so that other users can have the chance to use it if they want.

Public modifications that are deemed fit by the community and the phux dev team, may be added to the phux releases (granted that the publisher gives us permission). Enjoy, learn and share.

Link: http://forum.phux.org/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=20

Open sourcing the world, one app at a time.
~Nito @ phux Development

Sorry about the downtime. After about 12 hours of the site being down, it finally picked up the new DNS servers. We decided to change hosting companies, after our websites were getting throttled for hours, leaving visitors getting only half loaded pages, or pages not loading at all. Not good. So, after a couple of days of combing through web hosts, we’ve come to HostGator with the hopes of a better tomorrow.

Now, for those who don’t know, we were previously with HostMonster. They implemented CPU Throttling on their servers. They say this is for the better good of all accounts. The real reason for this? It’s likely that due to the economy (if you look at the time-line, it makes sense) they implemented a way to throttle the connections to every website across the map, to stop from “over-using” their bandwidth, which in their own writing, is unlimited. Unlimited at what cost? The cost of not having a usable website for an average of 7% of the month. This is a HUGE hit to take, for anyone.

Greedy bastards, pure and simple. And their excuses when you ask why your website is being throttled so much? “Your (As in you, the customer) scripts are faulty” or “You’re calling too many sql queries” <–WTF?! Now, I tested this with a single static pages website. No sql queries, no php. Just simple html, with css, images and some text. It was throttled for an average of 1.8 minutes every 3 hours. Total time up: ~2 days. Total hits: 7… Seven hits, no sql, no php, and it was throttled.. Seriously? All I have to say, is that if you plan on going with HostMonster, make sure you’re ready to have a lot of unexpected downtime.

Just wanted to wish all my readers a happy 4th of July before it’s over. We spent the weekend up in the Thousand Islands. A few fireworks Saturday night, but nothing worth spending the night outside to watch. The fireworks here in Rochester are still going off, and I assume they will be for the next week or so as usual.

Anyways, hope every one is having a safe and fun weekend, because I know I sure did. =)

Recently, I’ve been asked by a few people what my thoughts and opinions are on the fees that banks impose on their customers. Banking fees are an unneeded hassle. For a lot of people, they can be the difference between eating and going without food. There’s quite a few fees that banks impose to squeeze out every penny they can from people. I’ll be going over some of the ones that I’ve either encountered, or have enough knowledge about to post on.

Overdraft fees are probably the most widely known. This is a fee that a customer is charged because they ended up spending more money than was in their account. Now, my beef with this one is that banks should have a safety net for customers. I’m sure everyone’s aware of the magnet strip on the backside of your debit/credit card(s). This is used to identify your card, and is tracked in real-time. Now, if you take that into affect, a bank *should* be able to in fact track your purchases. Most purchases aren’t updated in your banking account until the transaction has been confirmed via the business you made the purchase at. If this were implemented, a cease could be sent if you try to make a purchase over your balance (The same way your credit cards do if you try to make a purchase over your spending limit). The average overdraft fee is $25 (United States) but, can run up to $40 depending on the financial institute you’re with.

Maintenance fees most likely come in second. This is a fee that is usually imposed if your balance is under a certain limit (determined by the bank). Honestly, you have to seriously ask – who the hell came up with this idea? Now, if my account isn’t at the predetermined balance set by my bank, how could it help to impose a fee? I know from reading that my bank imposes a $8 maintenance fee and a $35 overdraft fee. Here’s a dramatic example based on my banks fees. Say my bank account has $7.99 in it, and they decide to hit me with a maintenance fee. This would deduct $8, leaving me with a balance of negative 0.01. Now because of that, my account would then get an overdraft fee for $35, making my new balance negative $35.01. Could you imagine getting that, all because your account didn’t have the designated amount set by some six figure a year CEO…

The easiest way to avoid fees is to use the bank as little as possible. Some of you are probably saying “But all my money goes in there!”. My question to that is – why? I tell this to everyone I know, and anyone who asks me – If you only have a checking account (most people do these days), always make sure that you keep at least $50 in it at all times for emergencies. This should be your minimum balance, making sure that you won’t get a maintenance fee for not having the min balance limit. On top of the $50 you have, if you pay bills with checks, electronic payments or your debit card, make sure to have just enough to pay them. The rest can be kept in a home safe (You can get firesafe safe starting at $30 – a great investment), or a safe deposit box. If you’re into stocks, then put some into the stocks. Direct Deposit is a great invention, and I strongly suggest that you use it but, I also suggest that you withdraw what you’re not going to use on bills and put away outside of the bank.