The True Power Of Open Source

It's not really a secret, but I'm not a huge fan of the modern education system in America (I only speak about America, because that's the only education system that I have experience with). I'm not just talking about "higher education", but education as a whole. There are many problems with it, but I don't really want to get into enumerating the problems. What I want to talk about is the lessons that education can learn from the Open Source movement.

Programming With Anthony - Encryption

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.

Programming With Anthony - Paradigm Soup

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:

Designing An API: Simplified Password Hashing

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...

Change: A Two Faced Devil

There's nothing as universally controversial in this world as change. Change can be (in aggregate) for the better or for the worse, yet people will always be split down the middle. Some will believe that the change is a good thing, and others will see it as a bad thing. Often your view points will be dictated by your perspective and how the change will directly effect you. When it comes to software projects and change, what's the right thing to do?

Anatomy of an Attack: How I Hacked StackOverflow

Almost two years ago I had stumbled upon a pretty significant vulnerability in the StackExchange network. I say stumbled, because I wasn't actually trying to attack the site. Circumstance just showed me a door. The actual attack is pretty interesting, and it holds a lesson for everybody who builds or maintains websites or server infrastructure. So here's the story on how I hacked StackOverflow...

I am not a programmer. And neither are you!

Last weekend I was at the True North PHP conference in Toronto, Canada. Aside from being an incredible experience (really, it was an incredible conference, huge props to Chris Hartjes (@grmpyprogrammer) and Peter Meth (@mrpmeth)), it was an inspiration. I was particularly inspired by both of the keynote speakers. They both really took really unique spins on programming and how the culture of open source inspires, enables and empowers programmers to do cool and important things. The problem with all of this is that I hate the term programmer. I think it unfairly paints a picture of what we do. Let me elaborate.

Slides for SOLID Talk at TNPHP

This afternoon, I gave another talk at TrueNorth PHP. The talk is a version of a previous talk that I gave on Object Oriented Design. I've changed it significantly, so here are the slides.

Slides for Cryptography Presentation at TNPHP

This morning, I gave a talk at TrueNorth PHP. The talk was aimed at explaining the basics of Cryptography as needed for the average developer. It is intended to give a high level understanding of cryptography and cryptographic techniques. So, with no further adue, here's the slides: