Trust Nobody
One important lesson when developing applications (I’m focusing on websites here, but this applies to all types of applications) is to ditch user trust.
In a nut shell, do not trust any input you receive from a user. Seriously, do not assume it is clean and good, treat all user input (whether it be cookies, text from a text box or something else) as potentially dangerous. Check it, filter it, escape it.
Never let input from a user go straight into your database or on to a page without it being filtered. If you let it straight into the database you leave yourself open to SQL Injections and other attacks.
This is why you should clean up all input. (Click for bigger version)
Keep that in mind when you are developing an application, any and all user input needs to be checked out, torn to pieces, ripped apart, put back together before being considered safe.
Haiti Quake
This is the first time I’ve ever actually donated to any sort of disaster relief. Not because I was selfish, but because I was lazy. I did not have a credit card, so could not easily donate. I did not own our phone line, so could not donate this way.
This quake and relief call has coincided with me switching banks from National Bank to Kiwi Bank. Now that I’ve shifted I’ve a brand shiny new debit card, and I used it to donate to the Red Cross.
The forum I moderate (Gaia Online) is offering to match contributions made to the Red Cross up to the value of $10,000 US. Even though some call into question the motives for such action (we call them cynics), the point is if you donate to the Red Cross through Gaia, your donation will be matched by them. Ultimately it means more money going to help Haiti.
If you are going to donate to the Red Cross or another charity (try to stick to ones that are well known, there are a lot of scams going around right now), try doing it so a company of sorts will match your donation. Even if you aren’t a member of Gaia you can still get them to match your donation, information is provided in this thread.
Striped Backgrounds
Just a FYI for all of you web designers out there about pretty striped backgrounds.
I’m actually unsure if this is a LCD screen thing, or all of them in general. I actually don’t remember it from my old CRT screen, but let’s face it, who has a CRT these days? (OK, I’ll admit it I have one…)
Some websites like having a striped background, with an image like the following.
It does look pretty neat, and when it’s full-paged background it can give a webpage an interesting look.
The trouble is, scrolling. On screens like mine images like that do not work well when scrolling. The background does this weird flickering thing when scrolling along, and it does mean the website looks less cool, and more cheap.
I’d seriously advise you skip the tiny little stripes in background images. Try larger ones, they can look pretty good as well. Or, you know, a solid colour doesn’t hurt either.
