Ciprian
Ciprian appreciates good UI design, and enjoys utilizing and studying the psychology behind it. Ciprian transitions easily between front-end and back-end environments, thriving on moving projects from conception to launch. He has designed and developed content management systems, which he constructed from the rudimentary basics, as well as many other web applications.
Prevention Measures for Cross-Site Request Forgery That Do NOT Work
Posted on Saturday, 27 March 2010 00:52
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a type of attack that occurs when a malicious Web site, email, blog, instant message, or program causes a user's Web browser to perform an unwanted action on a trusted site for which the user is currently authenticated
A Quick Look at Cross Site Scripting - What is Cross Site Scripting?
Posted on Saturday, 27 March 2010 00:11
To understand what Cross Site Scripting is, let's see a usual situation, common to many sites.
What is a Good php code ?
Posted on Friday, 26 March 2010 23:44
I don't have a set notion of the perfect answer to the question, but I do know the kinds of things I'm hoping to hear.
Optimizing SQL
Posted on Friday, 26 March 2010 23:08
Use SQL for the things it's good at, and do other things in your application.
5 tips for optimizing mysql queries
Posted on Friday, 26 March 2010 22:41
- use the explain command
- use less complex permissions
- specific mysql functions can be tested using the built-in "benchmark" command
- optimize where clauses
- use statement priorities
JavaScript WYSIWYG Editor – TinyEditor
Posted on Friday, 26 March 2010 21:14
TinyEditor is a simple JavaScript WYSIWYG editor that is both lightweight (8KB) and standalone. It can easily be customized to integrate with any website through CSS and the multitude of parameters.
Stress management for programmers
Posted on Friday, 26 March 2010 20:26
Programming is an exercise in mental stamina, and a developer may have to hold intense concentration for hours at a time. This can cause unnecessary stress for the programmer, and also physical pains, such as a sore wrist, back aches, and eye strain. Unless you are the type that eats, and breathes programming, you will probably feel the wear and tear of this career over time. But there are a few programming stress management tips I could give that can make your days go by smoothly.
If you are just starting a degree in Computer Science or you are a graduate that is about to get his/her feet wet, then remember to always pace yourself. Don't let your job take a hold of your quality of life, because the only way to create great code is to have a clear mind. I usually plan the type of work I will do for the next day, and not try to do more or less than the task at hand. You have to develop a tunnel vision when it comes to coding, and I usually tackle a small problem first which helps build momentum. If I still feel good by the time I solved the problem, I will keep going and do more work until I feel drained.
The humble to-do list
Posted on Saturday, 20 March 2010 18:13I want to share with you all what I've learnt from my mistakes I have made myself in the past that have slowed down or even completely stopped progress.
Social Networking Software: 12 Ways to Build the Next, Best Social Network
Posted on Thursday, 25 February 2010 18:20
Do you want to be the next YouTube, Flickr, Match.com or Facebook? Then, you need to find the right social networking software. Dating sites, friend networks, video sharing portals are all built on networking platforms that give members control over their personal profile and encourage user-generated content.If you can get it right, Social Networking is the key to the kingdom. You will never have to worry about your next blog post, because users will post and manage their own content. You will be free to focus on the important stuff like marketing, partnerships and monetization.
Of course, great social networks need great software. No one wants to play on a slow network and users won’t create profiles if they think your software isn’t secure. When choosing a social networking platform, you need to make sure the software looks professional, is stable and will be around for the long haul.
Here are the programs and platforms you’ll encounter in your search for social networking software.
BoonEx Dolphin Social Community Software.
Now on version 7, Dolphin is a fully mature network platform with lots of Web 2.0 features: forums, blogs, groups, video sharing and recording, private chat with video, built-in music player, whiteboards, and even an open source iPhone App that you can connect to you social network. Dolphin has an community of collaborators building extensions and offering support — this is an important thing to look for when choosing any open source software! There is a nice marketplace set up that allows new users to purchase things like installation services and templates.Though open-source, Dolphin isn’t exactly free social networking software. You’ll need to pay licensing fee if you want to completely brand your social network as your own.
Elgg Social Engine
Elgg is the underlying social engine which provides the building blocks to create social applications and sites. The default install includes profiles, groups, blogs, the ability to embed or upload a variety of media, simple social bookmarking tools, tags and categories, and a microblogging feature called “The wire” which is akin to running your own twitter service. Elgg is a fully extendable networking platform with an active development community and 766 available plugins at last count. There are plugins to add everything from geolocation capabilities to an in-network marketplace.For users that require more robust support for their social networking site, there is also a fee-based Enterprise edition available from elgg.com.
Anahita Social Engine for Joomla
Anahita is a light and scalable open source solution for building all kinds of custom social networks. Developed as Joomla 1.5 extension, the software doesn’t try to copy the already-established networking giants (a la the many Myspace or Facebook clones). It’s working to be a viable framework for whatever types of networks are coming next. The feature list includes: Ajax-rich people profiles, Extendible Activity Updates, Lead-Follow-Mutual Social Graphing, Application Gadgets, Facebook Connect, amazing MVC social app development API, Amazon Cloud Storage compatibility and more.
An URL by any other name would still work like an URL ( subdomains )
Posted on Friday, 12 February 2010 18:40Over the past weeks, I've been getting a lot of questions and comments about URLs and naming conventions. Here are a few typical queries:
- Department X has the address http://departmentx.case.edu. Our address is http://www.case.edu/school/foobar/
foobar.html. Can you change our address to http://foobar.case.edu? - How can we get a shorter address for our page? Our long URL is wreaking havoc with our marketing.
- Our site has a long address that we've been printing in our mailings. We're not getting as much traffic as we hoped because the name is too long to type. How can we shorten it?
Today I'll address the first question, relating to subdomains, then continue the discussion on naming conventions in an upcoming article.
Subdomains: http://yourname.case.edu vs. http://www.case.edu/yourname vs. http://www.case.edu/your division/yourname
Here at Case we use a a hierarchical naming structure, featuring addresses such as http://www.case.edu/your division/yourname, on the main Case Web server. Subdomains, addresses such as http://yourname.case.edu, are used by Web sites housed on other servers because this is the most efficient way to include such sites within the case.edu domain. Subdomains aren't by nature special or better, they simply provide a technical solution to a technical problem. Sites housed on the main Case server cannot be changed to have subdomain addresses, but that's okay, there is no advantage to doing so. My former colleague, Kevin Adams, explains this in detail in his article Subdomains vs. Accounts - Case's Naming Conventions.
On personal and business sites subdomains are typically used when content resides on a different server or when content is topically distinctive from the main site—but not so distinct that it would benefit from a unique domain. For example, http://maps.google.com offers a distinctly different service than the search engine found at http://www.google.com/, but the common use of the google.com domain let's users know that both services are produced by the same entity and reinforces the Google brand. Google Analytics however uses http://www.google.com/analytics/ (a subfolder instead of a subdomain) as the analytics service is more closely tied to the search engine service.
Webmasters at Case and other universities could argue that their sites are topically distinctive—after all we house sites on topics ranging from Art History and Art to Darwin and Evolution—but collectively such subjects tie together in furtherance of our educational mission. There's no compelling reason to distinguish them through the use of subdomains.
Can't subdomains enhance search engine optimization (SEO)?
From what I've read the answer is no, although people have tried to use subdomains to cheat the system. When someone searches for a particular word or phrase most search engines will limit the number of results it shows from any given domain. Thus if you search for "Web Development Blog" on Google, you'll see that this blog shows up twice (Google's limit is normally 2 results). The main page shows up in the results as does one of the individual entry pages. The entry page is indented below to show that it is coming from the same site.
It used to be that subdomains were treated as separate sites, so marketers might distribute related content across subdomains so additional listings would show up on search engine results pages (SERPs). While this was helpful to marketers it wasn't so helpful to users, so Google has refined their algorithms, so that subdomains aren't given an automatic advantage. Relevance comes first, so this doesn't mean you will never see more than 2 subdomains appear on the same SERP. (A search for "Case Western Reserve" shows several subdomains.) It simply means that with all content being equal the subdomain won't have an advantage over a subfolder when it comes to issues of SEO.
If I can use a subdomain I'll have a shorter address than I have now.
While a subdomain may result in a slightly shorter file name, that will probably have very little impact on your marketing strategies. I'll discuss URL length and naming conventions further in an upcoming entry.
