There are numerous articles on the web about how to properly use bcrypt in PHP. So this time, rather than write yet-another-how-to-use-bcrypt article, I’m going to focus on the mistakes that are commonly made when implementing bcrypt. So, let’s dive right in:
The holidays can be a trying time of year for everyone, with all the gift buying and stress and all. I wanted to take this time to make a plea. The open source software that all of us use is powered by volunteers! Show them your support by donating! I’m compiling a list here of prominent contributors to donate to, and I strongly urge you to consider saying “thank you” to people who work hard to give you the tools and knowledge that you use every day! So, without anything further:
I’ve got a few talks coming up in the near future, so if you can make one of these events, be sure to come say hi to me!
The fourth video in the Programming With Anthony series is live! In this video, we’ll explore the basic principles of prepared statements, and why you should use them instead of using escaped input directly in queries.
Brandon Savage has recently posted two blog posts portraying his opinion that using private visibility on class methods can be considered harmful in a lot of situations. While I understand the point he is trying to make, I can’t say that I agree with it. I do like private visibility and think that it’s actually under-used in a lot of software. But it’s not because I think Brandon is wrong…
I’ve been playing around with tempting engines a lot lately. For a recent project, I needed the ability to re-use the same template set in both JS and PHP (coupled with the History API, providing seamless dynamic behavior, yet still having raw content pages). Realistically today, there’s only one choice for that sort of requirement: Mustache. I’ve learned a lot while playing with Mustache, and it’s really changed my entire viewpoint on presentation layer construction.
The third video to my Programming With Anthony series is up! In this video, I talk about variables in PHP and how they work under the hood. I explain the difference between variable references and object references, along with the semantics of each. Give it a watch!
Encryption can be a complex beast of mathematical operations. In this video, we explore the evolution of modern cryptography and some of the basic underlying principles that it uses to keep data secure.
So, for the past few days I’ve been talking about a secret project that I’ve been working on. Well, today I’m pleased to announce the project. I’ve been working on starting a series of YouTube videos about programming. The first of these videos is about Paradigms (Procedural, OOP, Functional). Plenty of future ones are planned, but the topics, order and even if they happen is completely up to you! I want your feedback on the concept. Is it something worth pursuing? Any topics you’d like to see? Any other comments about the concept? You can reply to this post, or to the video itself. So, without further adue, here’s the video:
The other day, PHP 5.5 Alpha 1 was released to the public for the first round of testing the new features that are coming out. One of those new features is the Simplified Password Hashing API that I proposed (and was accepted). I have received a lot of feedback and criticism of the new API in the months since it’s been committed. I figured now that Alpha 1 is out and people can play with it, I should respond to some of those items, and give a little bit more insight into why it was built the way it was…