Twas the Night Before Demo

This is an ancient post (2007!) from a long-defunct startup where I led the dev team. Since it’s about that time of year, I thought I would share here. I wrote the second stanza. Twas the night before demo and all through the chat the devs were heads-down churning code as they sat. The profiles […]


The War on Driving

This is a guest post from the Master of All Things Testy, Chris Hartjes aka Grumpy Programmer. He serves as one of the organizers of the True North PHP Conference next week and is a vocal software testing advocate. He had some opinions on my last post, so I’m sharing my space with him: Despite his constant […]


Pacific Northwest PHP 2015

Last week, I returned from the inaugural Pacific Northwest PHP Conference in Seattle, Washington. Like most conferences in the PHP community, there was a strong vibe of getting together with old friends, making some news ones, and enjoying tasty beverages together while we learn cool things. There were a number of great sessions ranging from Sara Golemon talking about PHP […]


So you want to build an App..

I’m contacted a few times a month by people who want to build (usually mobile) apps. Or more properly, want someone to build apps for them. While I don’t begrudge or criticize their hopes or goals, we need to look at things critically and honestly. Also, I’m tired of telling people the same thing over and […]


Social APIs for Social Evil

Note: To be clear, I am not accusing AirBnb or Facebook – or anyone else – of allowing this. According to my understanding of their Acceptable Use Policies and the law, this is way out of bounds and likely to result in trouble for all involved. Do not do it. Updated March 2018: I have […]


Every API Company has Three User Interfaces

This was originally published on the Clarify.io blog, reproduced here. When I joined Twilio in early 2011, I learned that API companies have three user interfaces: First, there’s the website. It’s what we all think about because it’s the first thing most users see. We have designers, UX people, and similar who spend a lot of […]


OPM Background Check Hack – A Different Angle

Last week, the Office of Personnel Management announced that the security clearance background information (the dreaded SF-86 form) was compromised. I wrote about it in “Why this security breach is worse than all the others combined” and considered the implications of it. But this snippet from Arstechnica made me think of something else: A consultant who […]