matterkkila.com / Recent Posts

why coding in php is like watching gay porn

2009-08-18T19:54:43+00:00

I was talking to a friend on IM tonight and the conversation eventually turned to coding and the different projects each of us was working on. My friend, a long time PHP developer who is now working in Python, commented about how much he loves working in Python.

What follows was my response:

"Yeah, I feel so much cleaner when I get to code in Python. Things just make sense to me. At first you're like 'hrm, that's weird.' Then a few days later you're like, 'oh yeah, that makes total sense.' With PHP you only get the first part."

To put it another way, coding in PHP is like watching gay porn and not knowing it. You keep waiting for the girls to show up and they never do. Then you're just a guy watching gay porn.

Disclaimer: I make my living coding in PHP.

security, you're doing it wrong

2009-08-12T11:56:17+00:00

I was reading through a white paper today, I won't say which one it was or what company produced it, but one paragraph in particular caught my attention.

"The system uses cryptographic hashing based on the popular MD5 algorithm. The algorithm is designed so that any changed byte of the hash propagates new changes throughout the remainder of the calculation. The result is a completely different hash that is nearly impossible to break."

Um, really? MD5 is secure? Maybe you should read a little more into the subject. Here's a link for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

People, really, please stop using MD5. Switch to something stronger. SHA-1 or SHA-2 maybe?

the almighty dollar

2009-06-30T06:55:48+00:00

Yesterday, after pleading guilty to 11 criminal counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, Bernard Madoff was sentenced by the federal courts to 150 years in prison.

By comparison, the average sentence for a man convicted of rape is 9.75 years (117 months) and the average time served for rape is 5.4 years (65 months). (http://ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/1996/m-rape.htm)

I agree that what Madoff did was wrong, that he ruined countless peoples lives. I agree he should spend the rest of his life in jail and pay restitution to his investors. But when it comes down to it, it's just money.

I am not sure if I am arguing that his sentence was too harsh or that rape sentences are too lenient, maybe a bit of both. What I am really asking for is a bit of perspective on the matter. The man was a cheat and crook but by comparison, is what he did 15x worse than rape?

stay classy

2009-04-10T13:13:18+00:00

If you're a dumb person, surround yourself with smart people. If you're a smart person, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you. I like disagreements, provided they are constructive.

Last week Digg launched a new product, DiggBar, to a mixed response. For a little background, the DiggBar is really two products in one:

1. A URL shortener that turns long URL's like http://matterkkila.com/2008/11/02/decisions-are-made-those-who-show/ into shorter versions like http://digg.com/u19nx that makes them easier to send across a number of platforms (i.e. email, im, twitter, etc).

2. A frame bar that sits on top of websites you visit using a digg shortened url, that looks something like this:

I have been using this product internally for a few months now and find it pretty awesome. A lot of work went into it by a lot of people at Digg. It is something we were and are really proud of.

I have heard a number of arguments from people, some of them actually very interesting and speak to the very nature of what a URL is and how one should be used, while others have been less than constructive. The most common ones I have heard center around the topics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and "Framing".

While this post won't talk about these disagreements specifically I would like to point out two things I have come across this week.

and

To which I reply: Stay classy.

it's hard to believe

2009-03-06T13:48:39+00:00

It's hard to believe that we haven't been able to sustain the growth we have had over the last 10 years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average from January 9, 1970 to March 6, 2009.

decisions are made by those who show up

2008-11-02T16:06:40+00:00

November 4th is just around the corner and millions upon millions of Americans will converge on their designated polling places and cast a vote for the next President of the United States. With all the turmoil in the world, the war, the economic meltdown, and the coming recession, the significance of this election hasn't escaped anyone's notice. Every American, Man, Woman, child, Black, White, Asian, Jewish, Catholic, and Atheist alike will be looking to the next president to guide us.

Democracy is all about compromise, about working together and solving differences, about everyone's voice being heard. There are too many people who live in countries which don't allow their citizens to vote, don't allow woman to vote, that don't allow the press the freedom to write what they want, or people to say what they think.

I am not going to tell you who to vote for, everyone needs to make that decision themselves but let me tell you this. I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat, an Independent or Libertarian. I don't care if you pray to God or Allah, praise the Buddha or worship Satan. I don't care if your first choice didn't make it to their parties primary, or isn't on the ballot.

Decisions are made by those who show up. Vote.

./unfuck.sh

2008-05-27T20:32:44+00:00

Any coder will tell you that sometimes things just don't work right. The output isn't what you expected, the data isn't getting into the DB for some unknown reason, the cache isn't getting updated. There are a number of things that can occur when you work on a large code base.

Anytime something like this happens here at Digg we often joke about wanting a ./unfuck.sh script that will magically fix things. This would have to be some magical piece of software with all sorts of machine learning and AI in order to find and fix the problems we have on any given day.

Well the other day I gave a stab at writing one. Turns out it only needed a few lines of code to get working.



if ( committer.name == 'Joe Stump' ) { rollback(); } 

if ( committer.country == 'canadia' &&

     committer.species == 'dirtyfilthyhipster' ) { redoalljs(); }

For those who might not know. Joe Stump is the architect here at Digg and regardless of how often we joke about his code, he is pretty good at what he does. The person from Canadia, or Canada as some like to say, and happens to be a hipster, who we joke about being dirty and filthy as most hipsters are, is Micah Snyder. He is Digg's JS wizard. He even has a wizard hat that he wears when he is coding. One of these days I will remember to take a picture of it.

kevin rose interviewed by a puppet

2008-05-22T08:11:44+00:00

Here is the video

This is one of the funnier videos I have seen of Kevin. It is amazing to work at a company where everyone have a great sense of humor and can laugh at themselves. Absolutely hilarious.

A few memorable quotes:

Puppet: Let me talk to you about another company of yours, Pownce. Whats going on there? You would think with Twitter being in such shit shape constantly that you would pownce on it? No pun intended.

...

Kevin: Thats a nice little stash you got there.
Puppet: Thanks it took me 65 years to grow it. When you grow up kid maybe you will have one too.
Kevin: I still can't grow one, I wish I could.

...

Puppet: Here's the question I really want to ask. Running these three companies, how do you find the time to bang all the chicks you do?

official rules for fantasy kick ball and wiffle ball

2008-05-17T13:56:39+00:00

Fantasy Kickball Rules and Regulations:

1. dress up like a unicorn or pegasus or minotaur or wizard or some shit.

2. Kick the ball with your foot. Or when applicable, your hoof.

3. Flying lead-offs are prohibited. This means you, Pegasus.

4. Wizards are limited to one magic spell per three innings.

5. Instead of the normal two visits, cyclops pitchers are allowed four visits to the mound by the manager per inning before they must be removed from the game. This is because cyclopses can't see too good.

6. If you are Mercury, a rolled kickball glancing off either foot wing shall be ruled a foul ball.

7. If you are the San Diego Chicken, a kickball making any contact with you shall be ruled a fowl ball.

8. If you are a giant letter A, E, I, O, or U, a kickball making any contact with you shall be ruled a vowel ball. In some cases, this rule also applies to the giant letter Y.

9. If you like shitty puns, you're welcome.

10. Giant Laser-Beam-Shooting MegaRobot 9000 can do whatever the hell he wants, including batting out of order, smashing foes, and committing credit-card fraud.

11. Throwing the ball at runners is permitted; if a runner is hit while they're not on base, they're out. Invisible Man, we really need you to go by the honor system here.

12. Hercules must replace all kickballs damaged by the power of his mighty kick.

13. Participants are encouraged to be pitchers rather than belly-itchers, and batters rather than broken ladders.

14. Reenactments of the film "Pterodactyl," starring Coolio, shall be strictly enforced.

=====

side games may include:

1. "peg a pegasus," in which you throw a kickball as hard as you can at someone dressed like a pegasus. this will probably be me.

2. "fantasy fantasy kickball," in which you draft players who play kickball and receive points based on their real in-game stats.

3. "50 centaur," the rapping man-horse.

4. "pipes of pan...demonium!" not sure what this is yet, i just like the sound of it.

courtesy of Tim Moynihan

how to make money and influence people

2008-05-16T09:17:09+00:00

It has been almost a year since I moved out to Silicon Valley to become a programmer at Digg. Before I left I continually worried if I was making the right decision. I was moving away from my family, my friends, the cost of living in S.F. is so much larger than in Michigan that I would essentially be taking a pay cut to come here.

I wasn't happy with the company I worked for. The job I was doing was OK and the people I worked directly with I really liked but it was a company of 450+ people where I was just another cog in the machine. The company itself was a family owned publishing/media company for B2B, they had been around for many generations and had never considered doing business on the web till around 2002. So most of the staff outside the "internet" department had no idea what the internet was or how it worked or even how to make money with it.

That in and of itself isn't a problem. The real problem was that they were unwilling to admit they didn't know what they were doing and it was next to impossible to get them to listen to any of the suggestions that came out of our group.

So after 3 years I was so frustrated with the "politics", and believe me there was a lot of it, I decided to look for a job somewhere else and the opportunity to work for a company like Digg was too good to pass up.

So I packed up my entire car, left Michigan, and drove across country in 4 days. I haven't looked back since. Regardless to say that working at Digg is pretty much the best job I ever could have. The people are all smart, fun to be around, motivated, and hard working. I still keep in touch with a few friends from Michigan and even a few from my old company.

In talking with my friends from my former, undisclosed, employer I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice. When I left the company, shortly after, a number of other people from the Internet group left as well, as much as 30% of the staff. The only response from the CEO's was to hire faster. Not once did they ask, "Why are so many people leaving?".

With the current downturn in specific sectors of the economy, like the construction industry, their profitability it taking a hit. Now they are still profitable, they are still making money, but just not as much. So what do they do to help fix this. Send out an email that starts with the following lines:

”Tardiness costs U.S. businesses more than $3 billion each year in lost productivity. The effect on the bottom line of the average business is significant: An employee who is late 10 minutes each day has, by the end of the year, taken the equivalent of a week’s paid vacation.”

When I read stuff like this and hear about it from my friends, I know I absolutely made the right choice. Working at a company like Digg, for people like Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson, people who "get it". Not just the internet, but how to motivate people to work hard and foster creativity. Allowing me to do things I never thought I could do before. I consider myself a very lucky person.