A Little of Both – Page 3 – A Little About Technology

finally{}: Every Which Way But Loose

I recently saw yet another discussion online about PHP’s infamous naming convention exceptions and needle/haystack rotations. All the typical vitriol was there from the PHP haters, but I was very happy to see several new programmers add to the conversation or ask for clarifications and receive very supportive and educational responses from the thread. PHP is nothing if not consistent in its status as a recipient of the internet’s hatred. However, I am forever proud of our community’s ability to ignore the hate and still welcome and encourage newcomers.

But do the haters have a point about our inconsistencies?

DNS Records for Domains Without Email

Often, I need to quickly set up a website for someone who is not using email at the moment (or may never). These are the DNS records I add in order to help prevent spam. Note: Do not set these if you need to send email from the website, like from a contact form, registration system, or shopping cart.

finally{}: Experts or Out-of-touch?

After talking to someone about ideas for new security education, I popped over to check out the latest OWASP Top Ten list. A quote on their homepage stood out to me:

This category represents the scenario where the security community members are telling us this is important, even though it’s not illustrated in the data at this time. https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/

The experts in their community were telling them that a specific issue was critical and widespread enough to warrant a place in the top ten, but the data they collected from codebases and users didn’t reflect this at all. Is this because the issue is too up-and-coming to be reflected in the current boots-on-the-ground numbers, but we need to act now because it will soon be a huge issue? Or is this a situation where the experts work on a level so different from the standard developer that the security risk is only applicable to them and not in everyday circumstances?

Can’t Authorize SSH Key in cPanel

I was working on a new website that is on a shared host using cPanel. I contacted the host and had them activate SSH access on the account for me, and then I added my public key using cPanel’s import feature. After adding my key, I clicked on “Manage” to authorize the key for use, but I just got a blank cPanel screen with no options on it other than the “Go back” link.