Author Archives: Mike G.

Pro Tip: Installing PHP 5.2.9 on CentOS

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Mike G.

CentOS in my opinion is the best way to go in terms of server distros. Some people, including myself, are frustrated at the fact that some software is slow to be updated out of a fresh install: specifically PHP. At the time of this writing, PHP 5.1.6 is the version shipped with CentOS 5.4. While I’m sure they have their reasons for this, we still have to write our applications effectively — 5.1 just doesn’t cut it anymore Continue reading →

Posted in PHP | 10 Comments

How I Create Secure Passwords

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Mike G.

Recently I was asked about my technique for creating passwords. This made me think and was surprised to realize that as far back as I can recall, I’ve never had any problem remembering passwords. I’ve managed to do this by … Continue reading →

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The Factory Pattern in JavaScript

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Mike G.

We could also call this article, “JavaScript Constructors Considered Harmful.” I recall reading a post recently which describes factory methods as a best practice. I can’t tell you how thrilled this made me as I’ve been advocating this for years, … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Design Patterns, JavaScript, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Synchronous Execution in JavaScript

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Mike G.

Complex front-end web applications generally consist of many components which are initialized and configured at load time. What I’ve come to find out quite recently is that some browsers simply can’t handle too many things going on at once (eg: … Continue reading →

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Upcoming Talk: Object Oriented JavaScript

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Mike G.

I will be presenting Object Oriented JavaScript at AjaxWorld this year. You can find the talk’s abstract below. I’m still working on the slides so if there is anything you would like me to touch on, I’m open to suggestions. … Continue reading →

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Review: Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Mike G.

… or How to Write a Good JavaScript Book It’s widely known that the vast majority of JavaScript books that exist are bad. Unfortunately, I have another one to add to the list: Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson. I fought … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, JavaScript, Opinion, Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Teaser: Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Mike G.

Yesterday I received a review copy of Learning Dojo by Peter Svensson (via Packt Publishing). Over the next week or two, I’ll be reading it and taking some notes on the book’s content. When I’m done, I’ll follow up with … Continue reading →

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2009

Posted on January 1, 2009 by Mike G.

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to 2009. It seems to be the trend these days to be blogging about the past year — I think that is a healthy activity, and I would love to do the same here but … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Life | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Professional Entrance Exams

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Mike G.

In a recent surge to bring new freelancers (and full-timers) in to work with us, we began to make candidates take an entrance exam. I debated with myself over this for quite some time because I wasn’t really sure if … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

AjaxWorld 2008 Wrap-up

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Mike G.

So I’ve gone dark for a while, I know. You don’t need to remind me. Truth be told, I put almost every ounce of spare time into perfecting my talk that I just presented this week at AjaxWorld West 2008. … Continue reading →

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