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

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…

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. =)

Haven’t written a post in over a month. I’ve been working for a bit-torrent website as lead developer, as well as working on a past project (phuximg), which is a image hosting script designed mainly for torrents and gaming guilds. It’s ran around memberships, and teams, which sets it apart from most of the other image scripts, that only allow you to manage your own personal images – if at all. It will be Open Source – as most of my scripts are – and will be posted on SourceForge.net.

Beside being a web and software developer, I also have a family. For the past couple of months, my grandfather has been going through chemotherapy for multiple cancers. It started with cancer in his blood, which led the doctors to find cancer in his esophagus and elsewhere in his body. I suppose it’s possibly caused from the drinking and smoking he did earlier in his life.

I’ve watched him slowly degrade from the energetic man I looked up to as a child, to what he’s become due to the cancer and chemotherapy. A walking skeleton with flesh pretty much sums his appearance up now. The doctors said that the cancer could spread to his brain, and after the past few days, it seems that has happened. He’s delusional and paranoid. He has barely eaten anything in the past three days, and has started to live in his own world.

I spent the better part of Saturday night and Sunday morning making sure he didn’t some how injure himself. After being awake for over 24 hours, I finally crashed around 6am Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon brought more delusions. He thought that the bathroom was the den, and attempted to use the bathroom near one of the couches. He started walking around the house with no pants on afterward.

Later, we found him in the kitchen with all the stove burners on, and the sink filling up with hot water. He started rambling about getting the gas and electric company, and having my grandmother arrested. After a couple of minutes of that, he started spouting about my grandmother and uncle stealing all of his money, and put his finger in my uncles face, who grabbed his wrist. I quickly grabbed my uncles hand, and sternly told him to let go (The urge to punch my uncle in the face for that almost got the better of me). I started to lead him in to the living room to sit down, when he started ranting about the food being poison. I assured him that was the same food we had eaten earlier that day, and got him in to the recliner in the living room.

I sat down with him, while my uncle made him a cup of coffee. He asked why this was happening to him, and all I could do was shake my head. He then started talking about god, and how “the rest of them” were the devils servants, referring to my grandmother and uncle. He then put out two fingers, and drew a cross in the air, stating that he had forgiven me of anything I had done in the past. I smiled and got his coffee.

I’ve been periodically checking on him for about 4 hours now. He’s been asleep for about 3, and hopefully that will help…

-Nito

After installing Windows 7 on my main box, I started going through old data cd’s, looking for anything I may need to throw back on it. While I was going through some from years ago, I found a few songs or poems – or whatever the fuck they are – that I had written. These may not be suitable for younger people to look at – not that most of my posts are anyways… I will be randomly adding one every once in awhile. Possibly when I have nothing else to write about.

These were most likely written in very bad times in my life, and misspelled words are common in my work. I can’t really be assed to make corrections, so they’ll be posted with the errors (as-is).

These are by all creative rights, my property. Any use of them without written or verbal permission from myself is infringement, and I will sue the fucking shit out of your ass for every penny you have. I will also make sure that I get any and all pets you have, so that I can rename them, and post pictures of them in retarded ass clothing with signs in the picture of things animals may think.

This is one of my darker ones, and it seems I didn’t finish it – or I did, and just didn’t save it? Or it’s possible that I wrote the rest on actual paper, and it got tossed away… The document title says it’s called “Prom Night”..

Hey there buddy, youre invited to the prom
But its not the standard usual dress
Its trench coats and other peoples flesh
No need for a date, we supply the girls
Our diminions of death, laced in black pearls
With hell as the setting, fire lights the room
Sit down, take it easy, and pop a shroom
Shes not real, just stay in your seat
Time for orderves, and youre fresh meat
Carry you to the pit in the upstairs loft
Barbequed ribs, so tender and soft

Well, it has certainly been a while since I last blogged. I’ve actually been extremely busy with work, and a minor back injury I had last week. Nikki and I are going to view an office building later today at 6 for Frag Designs. We’re looking for more clientele, so if you’re in the Rochester, NY area and need a website created or updated, drop us a line. We prefer to only work locally, although we have done websites for out-of-state companies before. We find it easier to communicate, and get everything situated if we can have actual sit downs.

Aside from work, there hasn’t been much going on. One of the Phux members, Ryan, is back around and doing good. I’m still hearing about one of my old employers screwing people over with their websites. In my next post, I’m going to tell everyone a little story about a place named Ebiz Site Designs.

Until next time,
-Nito

I’d like to welcome all the new visitors there may be, and welcome back the old ones.

I just finished migrating the database to this new server, and *hopefully* changed all the link-backs in my posts. If you find any link-backs to the old site (nito.phux.org), you can leave a comment on this post. I’ll appreciate it.

I’m going to be trying to dim down the swearing, but I can’t promise anything – I enjoy swearing, because it usually reflects my attitude towards what I’m writing better. Like this whole fucking FaceBook patent ordeal… Didn’t hear about it? Oh, I’ll most definitely be writing about it later today.

Until next time,
-Nito

After looking for another hosting company, I managed to find FatCow.com. Now, this company might look worth the little amount you’ll pay for their hosting, but remember that you get what you pay for, lol.

I think I paid around $60 for a one year lease with Fat Cow. As soon as I logged into the control panel, I noticed why it was so inexpensive – there wasn’t much there. My first issue was with cronjob’s – there simply was none. I went through 3 or 4 agents before I got it resolved with a billing guy (I was trying to cancel my account), who asked me to hold for a few minutes while he went and had it put into my account.

So now I have a half-assed cronjob – It had a combobox with ‘Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly’ in it.. Seriously? I can’t even set up a cronjob to run when I want it to? Are you fucking kidding me here?! Whatever, moving on…

My next issue is with their FTP. I managed to upload a few files a day (if I was lucky) before the FTP just started timing out and wouldn’t connect anymore. So, I went into the control panel, thinking I could use their java based FTP – WRONG! Browse for a file, click upload and get a message “PHP extension can not be uploaded for security reasons” or something along those lines. Awesome, right?! I also can’t upload htaccess, so their java ftp client is useless.

I finally contacted their tech team about the FTP *goes to look for chat log*. Oh, that was the chat I actually X’ed out of due to their tech being a complete idiot, and trying to blame me for the issue. I explained to him, that I have no issues with any of the other FTP accounts I work in (around 8 or 9 other servers), but he still tried to say it was on my end. I eventually got sick of that shit, and just closed the window out of frustration.

I called up their billing department right after that, and had the hosting canceled and refunded (or so I was told), leaving me with a parked domain, that was quickly transferred over to another host. After about a week of waiting for the refund, I opened a chat session with their billing dept. a little bit ago.

info: Thank you for contacting support.

Please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we’ll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you.

Please hold for the next available operator to respond.

info: You are now chatting with ‘Nina Scott’
Nina Scott: Hi Nito. My name is Nina Scott, how are you today?
Nito Belmont: Good. I was wondering when I was going to get the refund for my hosting I canceled last week
Nina Scott: Thank you for the authentication.
Nina Scott: Could you please let me know the username of the account which you have cancelled?
Nito Belmont: The same one I entered for this chat.
Nina Scott: May I place you on hold for 2 to 3 minutes while I review your account?
Nito Belmont: Sure
Nina Scott: Thank you for holding.
Nina Scott: I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Nina Scott: I’m sorry, in order to assist you, I am going to have to ask a member of our team who specializes in this issue to take care of this for you.
Nito Belmont: Ok..
Nina Scott: Could you please hold for 2 to 3 minutes, while I provide you with the link to access the resolution of the issue?
Nito Belmont: Yes
Nina Scott: Thank you for holding.
Nina Scott: I have noticed that we have downgraded your account to Domain Parking account. I have escalated the issue for refund.
Nina Scott: You can expect a response regarding your issue within 24-48 hours. You can view the ticket status and resolution at:
Nina Scott: http://www.fatcow.com/member/sconsole/
Nito Belmont: Now, am I going to expect issues dealing with whoever takes this, due to it being opened on or after my 30 days?
Nito Belmont: Because I canceled the account last week, thinking I wouldn’t have to do anything further.
Nina Scott: No, your account is not yet cancelled. We have downgraded it to Domain Parking account.
Nina Scott: It is a free account.
Nina Scott: We will issue the refund within 24-48 hours.
Nito Belmont: But I canceled the hosting
Nito Belmont: The billing person I spoke to on the phone said I would receive a refund for that
Nina Scott: Yes, hosting plan is canceled and it is downgraded to Domain Parking account.
Nina Scott: Yes, we will issue the refund of your account.
Nito Belmont: Alright
Nina Scott: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Nito Belmont: Nope. Have a nice day

So after a week of waiting, and me having to contact their billing department, I should hopefully be getting a refund in the next couple of days. And now, it’s time for the actual review…

This company has semi-decent support, with the occasional assholes who think they know everything and you’re always wrong. You’ll probably end up getting different answers from each staff member you talk to. Example: Two tech’s told me Fat Cow does not support cronjob’s, the billing guy told me they did, and had it added.

Hopefully, if you decide to go with this company, you won’t have the issues I had. I don’t know how this company has managed to be ranked first in a lot of the hosting lists, but that shit needs to be changed. Fat Cow is a decent hosting company, IF you’re running html files or a pre-packaged script you install from their control panel, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone I know after the bullshit I went through.

I think you’re better off using a free hosting provider over these fucking idiots.

[UPDATE: 1PM]

Hello,

Per your request, we have downgraded your account ‘XXX’ to Domain-Parked. This package is for free of cost with no hosting space so that you can manage your domain name. Also, I have refunded the amount of $39.16 to your credit card ending with ‘XXXX’ on July 28, 2009 which was charged towards the hosting. Please allow 7-10 days for this refund to appear on your credit card statement.

If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.

Sincerely,

(Name Censored)
Billing Specialist

Nito Belmont contacted FatCow
How am I only being refunded $39.16. The original bill was for $62.99. If the domain parking is free that means you’re trying to charge me $23 for the domain name…

Oh yes, fun fucking times… I love when businesses try and rip you off. I’m sure there’ll be more to come, as I try and pull my money from their clammy claws.

Until next time,
Nito

I started working on Midget URL again today, and ended up a few functions I think it needed…

1. Added a search function. This allows anyone who wants to look up what the actual site is for a Midget URL to see all the information we have on it. It includes the real URL, total clicks (an overall count of how many people have clicked that particular link) which can be helpful if you’re trying to keep track of it, the date the link was added to our database, and the description (which is completely optional) that the uploader added.

2. The “Look Up” page, which displays the search query output. I also added WebSnapr’s Thumbnail API, so visitors are able to see the image prior to visiting it.

3. If you’ve been to Midget URL before today, you’ll notice that there is now a “Deletion Password” box in the upload form. This will allow the user adding the link to delete the link at their own discretion. (I’m still working on the actual deletion page)

What do we have planned for the future of Midget URL? More functionality, while still keeping it as simple as possible. Possibly user defined url’s. Maybe even a true masking (No ad’s) service… But for now, we’ll stick to the basics, and keeping it simple and user-friendly.

Until next time,
Nito

There’s not many non-profit’s out there that catch our eye, but when we saw this one, we had to jump onboard. Brandon over at Soap Box Included is starting a free weekly newsletter that will run 12 weeks starting next week.

The newsletter will give advice on how to manage and pay off your student debt, as well as links to a weekly spotlight scholarship that you may be eligable for and available jobs. This is ofcourse, one of the biggest economical issues facing us right now. Millions of students and graduates, stuck under thousands of dollars in school loans.

We’re proud to sponsor this newsletter, and hope that all of our subscribers along with anyone else who reads our blog(s) will support it. You can check out the website here.

-Nito