H2Code

Dirt Simple Facebook Authentication with Flex

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:11:57 -0800

Ok I was trying to make the pbking library work this morning and it was ticking me off, so I just rolled my own simple script that does the authentication and I thought others might find it useful.

Here it is:

http://github.com/jubishop/facebook-flex/tree/master

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Dreaming

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:26:11 -0800

My friends and I were discussing lucid dreams earlier

Everybody wants a lucid dream

Because this real one is full of a lot of rules

And nobody looks forward to waking up.

We said that we never remembered our dreams

But we all agreed that we have them

It's so weird that so much of our time and experience

Can just fall away to be forgotten forever

I was thinking what it means to be happy

Are you happy if you fall asleep smiling but you wake up in tears?

I dreamt of when I said I was leaving

And I dreamt of when I left

I dreamt of that time we went sailing,

And I dreamt of all those delicious restaurants.

I dream of Sally's fur. It was so soft.

Somehow it was softer than it should've been. Too soft.

Sometimes I feel like happiness is the plastic bunny on the greyhound track.

And some days I just don't feel like leaving the gate.

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Where I spend my time

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:19:44 -0800

I was pondering where exactly I spend my 168 hours of life every week.

56 sleeping.

40 working.

14 exercising.

7 showering/hygienics

2 going to the bathroom

7 walking (my main form of commute)

5 eating

5 doing laundry / vacuuming / household crap / errands

1 dressing

1 at physical therapy

---

That leaves me with 30 hours of truly "free" time per week to squeeze in new and exciting things...which isn't too bad, I guess. I'd like to drive that number up much higher, though. ;o)

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Best Career for the Times

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:58:58 -0800

So I was thinking that if we say people have a 20 year prime that is 18-38 then mine is 2000-2020.

I'm spending it as a Software Engineer working on the Internet, and that seems optimal for this era. We have our pick of places to work, we get paid well to exercise our brains, and we get to play a bunch. It's a good job.

I suspect 2020-TBD will be Nanotech/Biotech.

If my prime was between these other dates, I'd have been:

1974-2000, Desktop Software Engineer: Because there was no web, but we did have computers, so, duh.

1946-1973, Journalist: I always wanted to be a journalist when I was a kid and I think this would've been a good time for it. Newspapers were still going strong, and news was really for the first time being propagated worldwide in virtual real-time. There was also a lot of interesting news to cover between McCarthyism, The Cold War, The Cultural Revolutions of the 60's, Vietnam, and finally: Nixon.

1910-1945, Pilot: Flying seems like fun, but nowadays being a Pilot is probably like being a computer administrator. This would've been the time to fly a plane, when it was a prop-engine you and your mechanic buddy built and flew over the local farmland. Crashing was something you could reasonably survive, and not crashing was an act of true skill.

1860-1909, Biologist: This was the golden age for biology. Darwin figured out evolution, and Mendel figured out genetics. The world of biology was ripe for innovative thinking and new discoveries once mankind figured out the explanation for life in general.

1760-1860, Politician: The time of Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine. When slavery was being disputed, and strong democratic nations were emerging. The French Revolution gave us such things as the metric system, and was easily as interesting as our own.

1600 - 1760, Astronomer: Newton had just invented the Telescope, so unless you were extremely good at like reverse-engineering trigonometry (ahem Copernicus) this was your first opportunity to really discover new things about the cosmos. Everything from binary star systems to other galaxies to about a bajillion new stars were discovered during this time period.

1350 - 1600, Mathematician: Back before the really brilliant bastards made math impossible to advance. This was the period when logarithms and trigonometry were invented. It would've been a fun time to explore the edges of mathematical understanding. Trying to advance math beyond Newton is just too hard.

100 - 1350, Inventor of mechanical novelties for my village/town: Well there probably wasn't much else to do, and the inventor-person was probably revered and fairly indispensable so maybe I'd have gotten a nice house or first pick of slave when we conquered new villages and such.

400 BC - 100, Philosopher: Ahh the greeks and romans. Science would've been fun too but they were more into Philosophy and I like to be a man of the times. Also there's huge fame potential for this period. I really don't think Aristotle/Plato/Socrates deserve the amount of fame they've achieved for their silly philosophical crap.

Hominid - 400BC, Simple tool maker for my tribe/family: Again, not much else to do. I'd have been bored, and so might as well try to make some tools. Depending on how far back we go, I might have been interested in trying to figure out how to make fire or wheeled carriages.

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The crappiness of code

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:34:28 -0800

If Facebook were my first job out of college, I'd stare agape at the code, awestruck by it's disorganization and inconsistencies. As it is, since I've SEEN many code-bases at many companies, I recognize that Facebook's code is actually pretty clever and good.

When I was in college I imagined companies containing gleaming, well-documented, well-architected code. The kind my Professor would give an A. I thought people actually USED those verbose comment-blocks we were forced to incorporate in our class projects.

In the real world shit has to get done. Not everything can be polished and repolished. Nonetheless I still think programming in a production environment is a form of "engineering" that lends itself to great sloppiness.

1) Code is hidden. Sure your peers can review it, but it's still far more hidden than the engineering done on say a suspension bridge. Outwardly, your code could work just as well as good code, but inwardly it could still be a disorganized, unmaintainable mess.

2) Code is cross dependent. With a lot of engineering in other disciplines, the physical parts allow for more isolation for each engineer. The aeronautical engineer working on the wing is definitely not going to be using the same moving parts as those working on the engine. Well refactored code on the other hand may include a lot more interdependence.

3) It's all the same "stuff". This goes with 2. All 100+ Facebook engineers are working on the same material: code. Engineers on other large projects are often across lots of extremely different disciplines. This differentiation in engineering results in isolation of tasks so that one can't depend upon another.

4) Everyone touches virtually everything. Again with 2 and 3, communication is so important with code because of how intermingled our tasks are. In other disciplines an engineer would be horrified to know that other engineers were coming around willy-nilly and tweaking small portions of his original work. This is why commenting is so necessary.

5) It's iterative. Large websites, like facebook, don't just build something once and call it done. It's not a matter of blueprinting, designing, architecting, and implementing. It's more like trying to build a working automobile by attaching 4 wheels to a mattress and pushing it downhill and then sitting on the mattress and working on it while you careen onward.

6) It's massive. 100's if not 1000's of engineers can work on the exact same single functioning product. That's a pretty large scale.

7) It's normally not life-threatening. Most software, like facebook, isn't going to kill someone if it breaks. This just lends to faster and shoddier practices as companies race to engineer more features and nobody has to be extra careful about the liability of someone dying. This would be in contrast to say planes, bridges, or NASA shuttles...

8) Pieces are easily swappable. Code is so cheaply malleable. If you are building something that weighs thousands of lbs of steel, then the physical cost of its construction requires that you get it right the FIRST time. Code is much more of a touch-and-go process. Thus things are left in shoddier states because you can always tweak it further later.

If we were to imagine code as a skyscraper. Then it's like the architect's build the scaffolding, but then, for each floor, they let an entirely different group fill in the contents. Each group makes different decisions, and some of the groups decide to pull out the original scaffolding altogether and replace it with their own. Then some of those groups get together and connect their custom scaffolding with extra ladders down the side of the building. Before it's over they've dug tunnels underneath and built walkways to other buildings.

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Facebookr!

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:25:42 -0800

It's been a long time since I updated my blog but I figured I'd try to revive it now that I'm back in geek-world.

I started at Facebook this past monday. I eat free food, I meet great people, and I work under the watchful eye of caring ergonomists. What more could a rockstar-dev possibly want. ;o)

I've posted photos to my Facebook profile here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=688626964

On the first day we're given several lectures about everything in facebook from it's cornucopia of amazing internal tools to it's extreme transparency and confidentiality. Facebook rocks.

I have a 30" monitor. I have great coworkers in "bootcamp" working together, preparing for full-time teams within Facebook. I take mid-day off to go to the gym. Life is good. I eat for free (did I say that already? ;o))

I'm 26 today. I don't know about you, but I've always had goals I set for myself as I "grew up". I've exceeded every reasonable goal I've ever set for myself, and at this point I'm floundering to figure out exactly what my next goal should be.

On the one hand: I want my goal to be ambitious, and I don't want to give up now. On the other hand: I don't want to simply "settle" for amazing stock options with Facebook. I want to found my own company, and be a multimillionaire......In any case, there seems no better option for the near-future then to try and excel at Facebook.

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Oh, George Carlin

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:30:19 -0700

For some reason I never thought you'd die. You always maintained the sharpest young-minded outlook on things. In your last HBO Special you stooped and you coughed but you were as brilliant as ever.

I will remember you in a vein similar to Carl Sagan, someone who's replacement I doubt I'll ever see. You both shaped my mental development and how I saw the world.

It always hits me when someone dies with whom I felt I related. Karl Vonnegut was another. They shared thoughts and ideas that never occurred to me before, and in that moment somehow I felt close to them, as if we were both now part of an elite group, privy to great enlightenment.

I never gave these people anything but in a way they gave me so much.

Life's not fair.

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Flexamater released!

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:40:12 -0700

I've released flexamater.

http://flexamater.rubyforge.org

It's a Flex testing framework, written in Ruby. ;o)

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Don't Fear Freedom

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:51:56 -0700

I bought this poem off a guy selling it on the street, along with his own self-bound novel (which is pretty much unreadable, but I bought a copy anyway...gotta admire the guy's effort...)
---
The great ones of any age
have done one thing
that we know them by,
that we admire and envy
and that we are afraid of ourselves:
Whatever they wanted.

They have said whatever they wanted,
walked wherever they wanted,
seen whatever they wanted,
love however they wanted,
killed whomever they wanted,
and died whenever they wanted.

They've never given a rat's ass
for what you've seen heard been told tell
feel or think that they should do.

They'll even trick you
so that you can't move into their tower.

It's lonely at the top.
There's only room for one.
---

I understand why the guy has no publisher. ;o)

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Deliver me disaster

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:30:27 -0700

My dad was badly addicted to cigarettes. He would smoke 3+ packs a day. Then, at the age of 39, he got lung cancer. He survived, and then proceeded to quit smoking.

When he'd tell the story to others, he'd always say that he wished he could start smoking again, just to go through the process of quitting, because it was the best thing he'd ever done for himself. I always thought that was odd, at the time.

But now I understand what he meant, I think. Humans derive great joy from tackling and accomplishing tasks that seem daunting if not undoable, at first.

I weighed 200lbs 2 years ago, now I weigh 150 and can run 5 miles in 35minutes. I almost wish I could be fat again, just to go thru that transformation once more.

I think we all secretly hope for disaster to befall us or our community. I wished Y2K was going to happen. I invite the tsunami to sweep thru downtown Seattle and force me to run for the hillsides.

I wish I'd get fired. I wish I'd get evicted. I want to declare bankruptcy. I want to struggle. Life's too easy.

Deliver me disaster.

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