Jonathon Hibbard

Member since: Feb 21st, 2008

Jonathon Hibbard's Latest Comments

Blog Activity

Blog	# of Comments
Engadget	7 Comments
Download Squad	7 Comments
Engadget HD	1 Comment

Recent Comments:

Farewell to Facebook, at least for now (Download Squad)

May 13th 2010 3:52PM I couldn't agree more with the author of this post. I hate facebook now, and it all started when they decided to "share" my information with the world, WITHOUT my ok.

I may not have anything to hide, but I DO have my identity to hide from the world if I don't want them to know it.

PHP too slow for Facebook, builds its own faster version (Download Squad)

Feb 1st 2010 11:11AM I never said I was smarter than the developers at Facebook. I do, however, stand by point that it's at the developer's code that speed is affected.

Any developer will tell you that when working, no matter if it's Facebook or Joe's Supermarket, when you work for a fast-paced company, they want solutions fast. They want them fast because that's what their audience calls for. But when we write the code fast, we sometimes make quick solutions rather than optimal solutions. And we end up saying "we'll fix this after we publish it. we'll make it faster!"...but that day doesn't come. And since our solutions "work", our bosses don't want to give us the time to make the necessary optimization changes that we, the developers, see and know need to be done.

But that happens everywhere, every day. If facebook held off on production of any other new features, could their developers find a faster way? OF course they could! That's why they went from being an ASP shop to being a PHP shop, because they gave them that time.

Either way, they're doing it again, except this time someone said "we should just build our own logic that adheres to own companies needs, not rely on a language that is meant for everyone. it's not personal enough to do what only we need". And that's what happens, even at google. it's part of evolving. I wish them luck.

PHP too slow for Facebook, builds its own faster version (Download Squad)

Feb 1st 2010 11:01AM Sebastian,
I sense a baiting attempt here, but I'll bite this once. I dunno what you are a fan boy of, and I wasn't saying you were. I was saying in general, when you ask a developer of a particular language which is better, obviously that developer is going to side with what they know: which they should! And that's because that's what they know best to provide the best solution.

Secondly, I did say PHP wasn't the prettiest or fastest, but my point is that none are. Your post reeks of singling PHP out, from your article's title, all the way through your post. You even go so far as to say that maybe Facebook won't be slowest website on the internet once they get away from PHP.

So, I hope this answers your questions. If you can't take the heat of being corrected, do the work authors are suposed to do when they publish something like this for such a huge audience: DO SOME RESEARCH! :)

PHP too slow for Facebook, builds its own faster version (Download Squad)

Feb 1st 2010 9:40AM While I will say that there are all sorts of solutions out on the net, I can't say that this is PHP's fault as much as the developer's fault.

Don't get me wrong, I realize that Facebook is perhaps the *largest* social networking site on the internet. However, they still have developers who run the schemas that this website is generated off of. I've also seen Facebook's runtime model they use for publishing their pages, but I personally think it's their model that is flawed.

They make way too many requests, and the manner in which they deliver their content is not optimal. But the fact remains that companies end up out-growing languages they used to initially get their name out on the block, just as Google wrote their own versions that could better server their own personal needs.

I've said this many times, and I'll say it again: It isn't the language that holds a company, website, or arch. back, it's the developers themsevles. One can only do what one understands from a language. Had this been .NET, Ruby, Python, Perl, etc, you would probably be hearing the exact same thing happening again, and this is mainly because they have found that the model they built their framework around isn't working at the optimal speed.

But for the author to say "was simply amazed that Facebook has been running interpreted PHP all this time -- it's definitely not the fastest (or prettiest) language in the west.", it just goes to show this author's misunderstanding of PHP or any other language for that matter.

PHP is not the fastest, it's not the prettiest, but no language truly is either. It's only as FAST and PRETTY as the developer him/herself makes it! Not what fanboys say is faster or prettier.

The Age of Privacy is NOT over (Download Squad)

Jan 11th 2010 10:08AM Yet one more reason why I don't even read ReadWriteWeb anymore. Their whole staff try to push their political ideas onto people, they put words in other people's mouths, and are just, quite honestly, a very unreliable source of information.

Password Masking: love it or leave it? (Download Squad)

Jun 28th 2009 8:21PM The fact is, masking is a great alternative to just showing the password you are wanting to type on your login.

What if you leave your computer unattended while typing in the password?

What if while in the middle of typing in your password, you minimize a window, and forget about it, just to restore the window in front of a co-worker?

Masking is a great thing, and anyone who says it should be unmasked either doesn't understand security or basically is hoping FOR it to make their lives of cracking easier.

Either way, masking isn't exactly "secure" either. The password is still being stored in plain text.

The best solution is to use SSL for login forms. However, masking is just an absolute necessity for the sake of eye-ball security.

Just because there are idiots out there who can't use a keyboard doesn't mean the rest of us should suffer.