As a software developer I’m constantly challenged with avoiding annoying spammers. I easily spend 30% of my time working against people that serve no purpose but to bother me. The challenge isn’t simply blocking bots and spammers on development projects, it’s balancing the blockage with the loss of real users.

A good test case, the techdiversions.com mailing list. The concept is simple, a side-panel area where visitors can sign up for our mailing list to receive industry news, video game promotions and game release dates. The mailing list, from a business perspective, keeps users remembering who you are so they come back next time to buy from you and not your competition.

Enter the spam bot. This little bot comes along each day and causes endless headaches for my wife, the store owner, when she wants to manage her mailing list and user-base. This bot, for whatever reason, signs up for the mailing list with bogus e-mail addresses five times a day with ten new sign-ups each vist. Thats around 50 new sign-ups a day!

(more…)

Recently, the “digg clone” CMS Pligg was informed of a security attack that can compromise the entire management system by a hacker.

It’s only a matter of time before a hacker exploits the vulnerability because this is an open sourced project and anyone can see the code changes, thus a hacker with some coding knowledge should be able to reverse engineer (quickly) the code and begin writing an exploit.

I’ve contacted one of the Pligg folks to get more information on the situation so that we at Media Crumb want to know the in’s and out’s of the problem spot and work our clients through the solution. For Pligg projects that do not alter the sources or have not altered the login sources, its a snap to update.

For those that have manually altered the sources, the diff’s are a bit more complex. Make sure, however, you get the update installed. You can find more on Pliggs forum here and get the updates you need a.s.a.p!

There are thousands of creative people in the world but it seems only a handful get their projects done. Many folks have come to me with the “I have an idea for a great website” or the “I have this great application that needs to be coded” comments but nothing ever arises from it.

In some situations. they ask for my help bringing their concept to life. However, I have found there are only so many in hours in the day to write software and taking on everyones bright ideas just isn’t feasible. In most situations, the people whom invent the ideas are quite capable of carrying it out on their own but never move forward with it.

Then there are developers that actually have an idea, build on the idea, write down some concepts and start writing the software. Months into the project they lose heart, interest or just never get it done. Most of those same developers start a new project and never tie off the ends of the first project. They repeat this behavior several dozen times.

If you never finish a project you really have gained nothing mentally positive from the experience. Sure, you may have learned some neat techniques and creative design concepts but there is no satisfaction. You really gain satisfaction by publishing “version 1.0″

Nobody may use your first release or even know it exists. But, without hitting this important milestone you can never really look back at the idea and be proud from what you learned and what you’ve accomplished. There is a high level of satisfaction for calling something “done.”

(more…)

Everyone wants to think they’re a great programmer. Great programmers create bugs just like greenhorn programmers, the difference is, great programmers can turn around bugs quicker. How do they turn bugs into working code so fast?

• History always repeats itself
• Handle error cases up front

Remember, history always repeats itself. You’ll find yourself making the same rudametary bugs for awhile. If you know your own fatal flaws you’ll be ready to fix your bugs before you even start. How many times have you said “GRR! I always do that!”? Enough to know your own common mistakes and eventually learn from them. But remember, history always repeats itself.

Next, handle your errors up front before you put your code out into the wild. Software development is not an easy task and it comes with a lot of headache and head pounding frustration. That is why we’re a special breed; not everyone can code. The best rule to follow, expect to have bugs and plan accordingly.

When you come to a logical branch in your software think “how can this go bad?” Because, in a few situations, it will go bad. It is said that developers only write three to four lines of working code a day. That might be a bit off by todays standards (or too high?) but it shows us something: We code a lot but only write a few working statements.

(more…)

Yet another lost art, the functional specification. Many large development firms require months of functional specifications and round table reviews before going live with a project. Why? Perhaps, to throw “red tape” at a problem when you could be coding the solution right this instant?

There is something these big companies have learned which many folks miss time and time again, designs lead to stable products. Should you still write a software design for a one person project? Of course! The depth of design may not be as great as a six man project run by a company like Cisco Systems but a design does matter.

There are plenty of sites you can visit that show “piss poor planning.” Some sites lack vision and scalability because they didn’t think ahead. Here is a question:

When you drive a car do you look straight down over the hood or do you look ahead on the roadway?

You look ahead! Those that do not tend to swerve a great deal and cause mass hysteria on the roads. Do all people look ahead when driving? Heck no! But they should; it leads to a smoother ride with less accidents.

You can apply this logic to any type of coding or web design. Don’t think “what can I do now?” think “how can I plan for success?” Developing a web application can be done by a single developer at a PC with no clear vision but a an awesome concept that can bring much success.

(more…)