Complication is What Happens When You Try to Solve a Problem You Don't Understand</h1> <article> <h1>Complication is What Happens When You Try to Solve a Problem You Don't Understand</h1> <p>andy — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:32:42 +0000</p> <p>Code should be simple. Code should be <em>butt</em> simple. Code should be so simple that there’s no way it can be misunderstood. Good code has no nooks. Good code has no crannies. Good code is a round room with no corners for bugs to hide in.</p> <p>We all know this. So why does most code <em>suck</em>?</p> <p>Because it’s written by people who don’t understand the problem they’re trying to solve.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=ovoKX-WAgUs:rfB27quJF7M:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=ovoKX-WAgUs:rfB27quJF7M:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=ovoKX-WAgUs:rfB27quJF7M:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Enabling "Personal Sites" with PHP on Lion</h1> <p>andy — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:27:11 +0000</p> <p>After <a href="/content/migrated-snow-leopard-lion-nice">switching over to Lion</a>, I had to re-enable personal sites to continue working on a side project. Fortunately, it’s just as easy in Lion as it was in Snow Leopard. I’ll walk through the setup process in this article. Note that you’ll need administrator access for a few steps in the process, so you’ll need the admin password.</p> <p>In Snow Leopard, the quickest and easiest way to get sites set up was to use the “Web Sharing” feature of the <span class="caps">OS</span>, and it looks like Lion works the same way.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GCqrE7SlIwQ:0csNjvS824U:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GCqrE7SlIwQ:0csNjvS824U:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GCqrE7SlIwQ:0csNjvS824U:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Stupid Coding Tricks: Slugifying in SQL</h1> <p>andy — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:11:55 +0000</p> <p>Last night I was working on a project codenamed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugatinus">Jugatinus</a>, and I needed to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug_(web_publishing)">slugify</a> some author names. Rather than write a Java program (ugh, <em>work</em>) or define a custom PostgreSQL function to do it (<em>booooring</em>), I stubbornly cowboyed it up and just used a regular old <span class="caps">SQL</span> update. It ended up looking like this:</p> <p><pre class="brush:sql"> UPDATE author SET slug=regexp_replace(trim(regexp_replace(lower(name), '[^0-9a-z]+', ' ', 'g')), '[ ]+', '-', 'g'); </pre></p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=QrhPLYKhT_Q:EKeVFj9MGZ4:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=QrhPLYKhT_Q:EKeVFj9MGZ4:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=QrhPLYKhT_Q:EKeVFj9MGZ4:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Learning How to Program</h1> <p>andy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:28:57 +0000</p> <p>Eventually, every programmer blogs about how to become a better programmer. It seems to be the price of admission to the industry. Programmers are a vain lot, and every one of us likes to think he has a unique viewpoint to contribute with insightful advice and meaningful guidance. The reality is that the “learn how to program” post is cliché. There are so many that each new one is nothing more than an echo of some old, vaguely-remembered, proto-learn-how-to-program-post. No one should write another. There’s no point.</p> <p>So <em>obviously</em> I’m going to write another.</p> <div style="width:480px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"> <p style="text-align:center;">Programming is exactly like this.</p> </div> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=8-soeI3lpFs:uTgs477qLtA:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=8-soeI3lpFs:uTgs477qLtA:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=8-soeI3lpFs:uTgs477qLtA:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>The Evolution of an Analytics Team</h1> <p>andy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:23:58 +0000</p> <p><span class="caps">WCG</span> recently turned 10 years old, and it’s gone through incredible changes over that time. And even though I’ve only been with <span class="caps">WCG</span> since August 2010, in those 18 months I’ve seen my little part of the business, the Analytics team, turn completely upside down. It’s moved 3 times, seen both clients and colleagues come and go, seen weddings, and welcomed children into the world. And I’ve got to say, we’ve got some pretty great digs now:</p> <div style="width:380px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"> <p style="text-align:center;">Go Ahead, Pardner.</p> </div> <p>As it’s grown from a small handful of incredibly talented people to a team of almost 40, the work has changed, too. Looking back, we’ve come through two, and we’re just starting a third.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=FrvOyZkmK1A:xGfUgY1_BlQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=FrvOyZkmK1A:xGfUgY1_BlQ:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=FrvOyZkmK1A:xGfUgY1_BlQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Migrated from Snow Leopard to Lion -- Nice!</h1> <p>andy — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:26:05 +0000</p> <p>Today I migrated to a new work laptop. Always exciting, especially when you’re <em>also</em> upgrading to a new <span class="caps">OS</span> version. In this case, I moved from Snow Leopard to Lion.</p> <p>Yes, I actually was excited.</p> <p>Shut up.</p> <p>In addition to being excited, I was also prepared for a royally painful migration, since every migration I’ve ever done was royally painful. However, I’m happy to report that in this case, it was (almost) dead simple. As simple as it should always have been.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GxxBBCL5j3E:Tj9Wl7TAJ9I:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GxxBBCL5j3E:Tj9Wl7TAJ9I:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=GxxBBCL5j3E:Tj9Wl7TAJ9I:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Announcing Projects, and Jsonification</h1> <p>andy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:06:12 +0000</p> <p>One of my goals for <span class="caps">SIGPWNED</span> has always been that it would be a place where I could share not only my ideas and my writing, but also my work. And so today I announce a new section of my site, the <a href="http://www.sigpwned.com/projects">Projects</a> section, as well as my first open source project <em>ever</em>: Jsonification.</p> <p>The projects page will be where I keep a laundry list of all of my most current projects and where they stand at the moment. Right now, I’ve got <a href="http://www.sigpwned.com/content/my-twitter-search-tool-whatstwending-now-online">WhatsTwending</a> there, as well as the new project I’m announcing in this post.</p> <p>Jsonification has <a href="http://www.sigpwned.com/projects/jsonification">its own project page</a>, so I’ll let you head over there to read <em>all</em> about it. I’ll just mention the high points here, as paraphrased from the project page:</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=UubF0h9593A:1_y4OpKfIjo:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=UubF0h9593A:1_y4OpKfIjo:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=UubF0h9593A:1_y4OpKfIjo:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Top 4 Ideas for Twitter's New Annotation API</h1> <p>andy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 05:02:04 +0000</p> <p>Now that I’m fully recovered from <a href="http://chirp.twitter.com/">Chirp</a> and have had the chance to <a href="http://www.popcap.com/extras/pvz/">relax a bit</a>, it’s time to start talking about what’s most important now that Chirp is over:</p> <p>What the <em>hell</em> are annotations for?</p> <p>If you weren’t at Chirp (or you were there but weren’t paying attention), the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_twitter_annotations_mean.php">Twitter Annotations <span class="caps">API</span></a> will let you attach arbitrary metadata to tweets. So just as Twitter clients can attach <span class="caps">GPS</span> coordinates to tweets, so too will you be able to attach moods, who you were with, or funny pictures of cats to your tweets.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=5x_Mcux_i_M:VC6Ptz9DyLE:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=5x_Mcux_i_M:VC6Ptz9DyLE:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=5x_Mcux_i_M:VC6Ptz9DyLE:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>My Twitter Search Tool WhatsTwending is Now Online</h1> <p>andy — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:15:21 +0000</p> <p>One of the primary messages we heard at Chirp was that Twitter is hard to use. For those of us who know and love Twitter, and use it every day, hearing that from Twitter execs came as a bit of a shock. For us, Twitter’s a snap. But our skepticism was quickly replaced by a sense of surprise when <a href="http://twitter.com/ev">@ev</a>, Twitter’s <span class="caps">CEO</span>, put up a video of a Stanford grad (yes, <em>that</em> Stanford) trying for five minutes to get Twitter on her phone and <em>failing</em>.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=AxSQE7-NJcU:3PUbsrlbpjs:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=AxSQE7-NJcU:3PUbsrlbpjs:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=AxSQE7-NJcU:3PUbsrlbpjs:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Most Popular Twitter Clients at Chirp, by Users and by Tweets</h1> <p>andy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:34:28 +0000</p> <p>Last night, I posted <a href="http://sigpwned.com/content/hackathon-project-twitter-client-use-chirp-day-1">a data set</a> about which Twitter clients were the most popular on Day 1 of Chirp. Since then, I’ve gotten a few requests for data about which Twitter clients are popular here at Chirp normalized to <em>users</em> instead of to <em>tweets</em>.</p> <p>Ask, and ye shall <em>receive</em>.</p> <p>Here are two new data sets: one with clients counted by users, and a refresh of clients counted by tweets collected about 5 minutes after the first.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=gii2Dkgw_f8:fCB9BwdsaLc:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=gii2Dkgw_f8:fCB9BwdsaLc:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/sigpwned?a=gii2Dkgw_f8:fCB9BwdsaLc:V_sGLiPBpWU"></img></a> </div> </article> </main></body></html>