All entries of my technical and business blog

Easy MCrypt encryption class

Aug 17, 2010 php security

For whatever reason, I can never remember the exact coding of MCrypt. And maybe that is a good thing - so I stop doing so much code duplication and start using a class I wrote. For this reason, I’ll save you the same frustrations and share how I do my encryption.

SimplePHPMailer: now with required fields

Aug 10, 2010 php
SimplePHPMailer - my open source plug-n-play emailing script for PHP newbs - has been updated. It now has required fields - no more blank submissions! Check it out here with the updated download link.

Hide Email Addresses while still using mailto: Header Redirect

Aug 3, 2010 php

Everyone I’ve spoken to recently no longer puts mailto:// links in their code for fear that the owner of that address will get more spam. However, there are still legitimate uses for a link like this. In order to foil very simple email parsing bots, I’ve come up with the following script.

Facebook Message System - in PHP

Jul 27, 2010 php

Update: I’ve gotten a lot of comments on this code. This was a simple proof of concept at the time when Facebook was creating messages like this. They no longer do it in this manner. I also am not supporting any updates to this code. Thanks for your interest!

So Facebook has been really cool in the way that they have designed and implemented some new paradigms in the electronic communication realm. However, one thing is a problem: they’re too smart. They have hired the best of the best - and have made that the norm. The rest of us are struggling to keep up.

My NonDisclosure Promise

Jul 6, 2010 business

As you may remember, I wrote a piece about why I do not sign any NDAs here. I’ve had some time to reflect on that entry, and I want to move forward. I want to give any client I work with my new “promise” - the Non Disclosure Promise. Let me tell you a bit more why I choose not to sign NDAs, and what I can offer you instead.

Book Review: Expert PHP 5 Tools

Jun 30, 2010 php

Where was this book 4 years ago? Or even 2 years ago? (Uh - it was published in 4/2010… so… just in the author’s head apparently).

Time off for B-day is done

Jun 29, 2010 misc-web
Normally, I’ve been trying to release a new blog entry every Tuesday. I took this last week off to celebrate my birthday. Tomorrow should restart the grind. :)

Restrict your .git directory on live site

Jun 15, 2010 git security

Do you use Git to manage your repository? If so, do you use it to check out code onto the server as well? If you do, you really should restrict access to your .git directory if it’s in your public root. (If you’re using things like Zend Framework, chances are your root directory is not your public directory, so you have less to worry about.)