fiksuhuuto, sentti, kakusuu and maybe all other finnish penny auction sites are just scams

Let's make it simple: stay away from those finnish penny auction sites such as fiksuhuuto and sentti... I spent several hours today on those sites and recognized that the admins add a bunch of ass sucking auto-bidding bots sucking the credits away from the real bidders. I lost money though I havent made any purchase, what an ass ! I hate this shitty fucking scam idea, thought it was innovative at the beginning though.

Detecting browsers javascript hacks in a tweet

Hi folks.

I am recently very fond of the term "code in a tweet" which means that a very useful piece of source code can even fit a Twitter post.  Below here is the shortest javascript that can detect IE browser by Andrea (yeah, IE sucks and we have to detect it to eliminate its problems)

[sourcecode language="jscript"]

IE='\v'=='v'

[/sourcecode]

Moreover, Gareth Heyes has come up with other browser detections and gather them together

[sourcecode language="jscript"]

//Firefox detector 2/3 by DoctorDan
FF=/a/[-1]=='a'
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//Firefox 3
FF3=(function x(){})[-5]=='x'
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//Firefox 2
FF2=(function x(){})[-6]=='x'
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//IE detector I posted previously
IE='\v'=='v'
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//Safari detector
Saf=/a/.__proto__=='//'
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//Chrome
Chr=/source/.test((/a/.toString+''))
[/sourcecode]

[sourcecode language="jscript"]
//Opera
Op=/^function \(/.test([].sort)
[/sourcecode]

Usage: The variable assignment is the abbreviation of the browser e.g. FF, IE, Op, Saf, Chr which return true or false.

And this is the most interesting part: one-liner to rule them all
[sourcecode language="jscript"]
B=(function x(){})[-5]=='x'?'FF3':(function x(){})[-6]=='x'?'FF2':/a/[-1]=='a'?'FF':'\v'=='v'?'IE':/a/.__proto__=='//'?'Saf':/s/.test(/a/.toString)?'Chr':/^function \(/.test([].sort)?'Op':'Unknown'
[/sourcecode]
Usage: B will return a string of the abbreviation of the browser
Tell me what do you think? And if you find any cool stuff like that let me know.

MooTools the Ajax experience

[Updated] Sorry to be arrogant and simple minded but I always think jQuery rocks and try to inspire as many people as possible to use or move to jQuery because of  one simple reason: the more users and developers use jQuery the better it is and the more plugins will be created.

[Updated] jQuery 1.3 is out and it is super fast ! Read more



I have once used Mootools for one of my projects and it turned out to be running well. The performance was fast and I had no problem implementing its animation effects and plugins. However, I found several complaints about mootools on the Internet that will affect my choice of JS library in the future.

1. Mootools does not have any well organized or responsive forum.


2. It does not even have all of the many useful threads that were written for 1.1 available. What it does have - a Google group - is so undermonitered that John Resig’s profile shows up on the home page (now what does that say about JQuery responsiveness)! I have never, never! gotten a response to any of the requests I have made on the Google group page, despite my not being a noob.


3. No plugins are available unless you already know where to find them, or you write them yourselves. As oppossed to J which makes it easy to get plugins. Yes I know they posted something on the blog.


4. SVN was dumped for GIT. Maybe not bad from a technical standpoint, but I don’t know how to use GIT, and am not about to start learning.


5. I rarely see the core developers on IRC, probably because we have different hours. But it is very difficult to get answers there, and thread is downright insulting to noobs - no matter how much he wants to learn. Worse though, the channel is not be stored. All of the questions and answers that are served are only to individuals - they cannot be accessed by someone who is searching for an answer. And lets face it - IRC is not good for most users. Is it so hard to have a chat box on the screen that allows for normal people to communicate, or at least to be able to see the thread?! I know a good framework that can be used to write such a tool!

If you gonna set up a web startup ...

Wanna be the next Google? Do I hear a "Yes" elsewhere ? I have loads of thoughts on this since I love doing web startup. So let's do this checklist to realize...

1. Do you know absolutely everything about your business? Do you eat your own dog food? Those "Well, I will use my product later when it is fully developed/established" or "Ehr, I will use my service later, got things to do now..." will definitely fail, more here

2. Are you ambitious/motivated enough? Doing startup is not doing your everday work, if you work only 8 hours a day and spend the rest of the day relaxing then you better quit it. Most IT staff work 8 hours per day under excellent management and what will make your company the next Google since there is no difference between you and other normal IT staff.

3. Do you have a successful team? From Taneli

Startup teams should be about things like attitude, values, goals, objectives, motivation, trust, learning, courage, energy, intensity, competence, superior judgement and good communication (emphasis on feedback).

They should not be about: micro-management, processes, business plans, formal matters, profit and loss statements, reports, politics, non-action, vague visions and missions, long hours and exhausted managers, strict roles and responsibilities.

Success Teams are often full of leaders. There isn't just one central person responsible of leadership: everybody leads, and they lead to every possible direction: their own teams, colleagues, their bosses, partners etc.

And in the end, let's discuss a quote from Kristoffer Lawson:

New startups are fantastic because they still think it's easy so they'll go for it and only later realise the deep hole they got themselves into :-)

Now you decide: do you give up or go forwards with the lessons learnt. If you decide to continue, chances are you'll have now learnt stuff the hard way and will be much better tomorrow. You need to be hammered to eventually become world-beaters!

We solved the problems with Flash 10

As you may know Flash 10 came out a week ago and due to its change in security policy we had to change the uploader as well as fix our flash player. It was fun doing pair programming with Kelvin. I myself was coding a brand new navigation, a forum and its feed. Thanks to MVC architecture, those things only cost me a week and it was a piece of cake. Meanwhile, Kelvin has completed tailoring the feed system and the flash player. Nice, MahShelf is running with its full speed.

Things learned from Muxlim

The purpose of this entry is not to disparage the muxlim website but to remind myself that those things may happen to young startup and show the lesson of avoiding them.

1. Try your best not to show the users errors, instead inform them something more friendly like "Oops, something weird happened".


2. Why does Muxlim use the Agavi framework? Is it supposed to be the next generation one? I have never heard of it before I met the error. But the real question is that isn't it too risky to use a early-staged framework due to the lack of documentation and support? But I believe that the folks at Muxlim has made a right choice.


3. Team MahShelf has something to learn from this error: let's release frequently and constantly. Look at the latest date that Muxlim released the next version of their website :2008-07-09. Let's move our asses to make the next release faster :D


4. Doctrine is a good ORM in my opinion, so I need more time to think how to migrate from Propel to Doctrine and it will be a severe pain in my head. Oh well, it is still fine, I have made several "180-degree" decisions like that since I was in charged of MahShelf project :D

PS: For those who still do not understand this entry is about, Muxlim.com is a social network found in Finland and this entry was inspired by its error shown during its down time.

Summer holidays, a month off means more tasks for me

Hi, long time to see in this blog. And that was because I have been in my summer holidays in Espoo, Finland. It is such a nice city though there was not many interesting activities there. For me, hanging out with friends is enough fun.

Here is the list of things happened while I am away:

• Tasks, tasks, more tasks are coming and I have no choice but to finish it in order to keep up with the schedule.


• A brand new forum for Vietnamese students in Finland. It was created with the passion to replace the old one which is not quite well-organized and supported. Take a look and enjoy yourself there. :D

Updated: Looks like the old admin board did not accept to migrate to the new one. I agree that the old one has been the playground for the early students for a while and it has a great impact on them. But why did not they realize that the old fun time just passed away, the playground is rotten because of the way they administrated it: full of irrelevant posts in some important forums, no connection with other Vietnamese students in other cities and absolutely no help to the newcomers.

I heard that the only (functional) admin shares no access to the control panel to the other admin. Therefore he is the one who responsible to upgrade, react on emergency and have total control on the backend. If that was true then I do not have anything to say more, a communist forum, ehr ?

Hmm, feel free to post comments here :)