New Year, New Post
I'd like to say that I have an excuse for not posting in months, and I do 
. Unfortunately, I can't announce it for another two months, but it's fairly huge, and something that anyone in mobile development will be more than excited for.
Now that you are excited and can't wait for me to spill the beans, I will distract you with links to some incredibly cool things that you should know about a la LinkPost style (yeah, I'm a little cruel sometimes).
Google I/O 2012 is in JUNE and it's THREE DAYS! June 27-29th 2012 - Check the official blog post for details.
Using CSS3 to animate web banners (annoying yes, but the geek factor is off the grid!... yeah, bad and wicked late tron joke) - Check out this page and learn about it.
Knifeparty is ridiculously awesome if you likes the dub(ub-wub-wuuuuub-wub-ub-ubuwub)step! They released a free EP called 100% No Modern Talking which can be yours by visiting their website and giving them an email to spam (that requires no validation...). There is some language on "Internet Friends", but to each their own. In case you wondered, Knifeparty is two members of the freakishly awesome band pendulum, so you know they are good.
Derezzed on floppy drives... Man why did we kill these things? analog tech has such a good sound!
A post from WebResourcesDepot on the CSS3 presentation machine named impress.js, I love the trade-shows lately that give their presentations inside of a browser. Just makes powerpoint look as dated as it is. Amazing work, check it out.
Now that I work on a mac I have learned that life without XAMPP sucks. MAMP is workable, but I have an aversion to forking out money to access the apache server that is built into OSX. Luckily there is a much cooler alternative that isn't nagware and that will help you auto-install tons of webapps (including joomla and wordpress). Check out AMPPS, easy, free, and works on linux, mac, and windows. Good News! @blender has pointed out in the comments that XAMPP is totally mac ready and available, check it out and live life happy again!
I hate to glom onto other talent, but another post from webresourcesdepot is right up there on the awesome charts. Everything you need for node.js (my new favorite scripty server language). Go to his node.js post, revel in his links, built something useless, then something cool, and then something useful
That's all for now, but there are plenty more. Over at CSS-Tricks Chris has started a new podcast called ShopTalk, and they have already interviewed the Johnathon Snook (if you don't know of Mr. Snooks work, you need to leave right now and Google it. I don't even mind, I give you my permission, go, go now and do it!). Head over to the podcast and listen to it, remember they take questions and answer them so if you are stumped, give it a go and see if your question can get solved by some truly great minds on the web.
Lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY/ANNIVERSARY E-COM DEVBLOG! That's right, this makes year number 4 of me and my crew wrecking the internet and putting it back together the way it was meant to be with tips, links, tutorials, and the occasional waste of time. It's been a great four years and I hope that we can keep the magic going for another four. Hang out because I have a feeling that this year is going to be one of the best years the internet has ever seen. And don't worry about that Mayan 2012 thing, I heard it straight from the aliens that abducted Elvis to make him their ruler, it's a total hoax 
Print This Post
Awesome IE Tool
I had to get another post in before the 6 month mark. And it just so happens I ran into this awesome tool that is quite handy in terms of testing code in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. In the past I've always used the IEDeveloper toolbar (or Spoons browser sandbox before M$ got all copyrighty on them and made them remove it) and it's fairly adequate in allowing me to test the various versions of IE. However there have been times It's missed the mark or in one case wouldn't work at all with the portal I was trying to log into (IE6) So when I ran into this little beauty I was instantly captivated (as captivated as one can be when doing anything that has anything to do with IE). Behold the Internet Explorer Collection.
Maybe I'm just behind the times but this is amazing. Multiple standalone installs of different versions of IE. You can even install really really old versions like 1.x (I didn't but you can). I installed IE6, IE7 and IE8, I don't run windows 7 either at home or work so I can't install IE9.
To be fair I'm still in the test drive phase and haven't removed my IETester install yet but so far it's looking good. The only complaint I have is IE Developer Toolbar is only available in IE8, and while Developer Toolbar is not exactly firebug (but, it has gotten better with IE8) it's about all you have when troubleshooting an IE specific issue.
Before downloading read the comments on the download site. I mention it because they seem to be about 50/50 good vs bad. The software works for me so far on Windows XP Pro SP3, if anything changes I'll update this post.
Print This Post
A few grid systems to keep an eye on
I've been attempting to look into the future and what I've found is that you can either code static and pray that your code fits the spec of your end-user, or you can attempt to throw media-queries at everything and hope you had enough to make the design stick.
So where does that leave grids? Grids let us throw a design up and make it look pretty and proportioned. That isn't to say that your design will still look fantastic on someone's imported-Nokia as it did on your cinema display when you pounded the design out, but using a good grid system can help ease the pain of making things a little more responsive and a lot less "borked".
Here are three grid systems worth taking a look at:
- Simple Grid - Simple grid takes after it's namesake, it is a system focused on simplicity and keeping everything elegantly small. While I haven't created a project with this yet, I'm feeling like my weekend is going to be spent playing with this.
- Golden Grid - Ever heard of the Golden Ratio? This grid system is based on that principle and claims to handle almost any screen (from 240px to 2560px wide).
- 1140px CSS Grid System (1140gs) - The ever popular 1140px grid system. Since 1140px is the new hotness for design, we are finally starting to break the shackles of 1024x768 users. However that isn't entirely true, we still have to plan ahead for mobile devices. This is what makes 1140gs so brilliant. It handles the media-queries for you and can handle switching your design out for a much smaller screen. I've used this one on a few projects and while it does take a design shift the results have been worth it.
No that's not anywhere near the entire list of grid systems, but they are the ones that I find to be the most exciting (this month). And I've even used the 1140gs on a few projects (that were met with success). This list should at least get you started. If you do anything cool with any of these (or even some other grid system), drop a link in the comments so we can all see your handiwork.
Print This Post
CronMaker, your cron problems are over
I found a new tool and I am on blog posting kick so I thought I would share with everyone. The tool is http://www.cronmaker.com/ and it helps with making cron expressions for use with quartz scheduling. Now don't get me wrong the quartz is well documented and it is easy to build the expressions, but I always have to go look it up anyway. This saves me a step. Put in when you want it to run and bam! there is your expression. Don't forget to hit with your spice weasel.
Print This Post
Initializr a quick Html 5 site template
I was playing with eclipse orion today and it suggested using Initializr to start a page. Although I still don't have orion working I want to comment on Initializer.
It's awesome. It's easy. It's great if you just want something fast. Check it out. http://initializr.com/
Print This Post
Google I/O 2011
This post is mostly an announcement, but I thought I'd take a minute and share with everyone that Google is doing something great this year. Rather just have a few sessions recorded and a few slides to share a week or two after the Google I/O show this year, they will be offering some of the sessions live. Click the badge below to learn more, and on May 10th and 11th use it to watch the show!
This means you get to watch the show even if you were not able to come to the event. To see what sessions will streamed live check out the session schedule and look for the LIVESTREAMED text and video icon. Some entertainment will also be streamed (Jane's Addiction performance anyone?)
If you are going to the show and want to meet up, feel free to find me . During lunch there is a high probability that I will be in the developers sandbox at the iFit Live booth.
Print This Post
Video Playback on Motorola Xoom
I've had a Motorola Xoom for about a month now, and I have to tell you I love it... for the most part. There is one major flaw with it, the video playback is a travesty. Normally when you grab an android device you figure that you can throw anything you want at it and it will playback (it did on my HTC Hero, and it does on my Samsung Epic).
(continue reading after the break)
Print This Post
A Few Tips on Avoiding Online Scams
This may be a little out of the norm for the dev blog but I think it's worth mentioning.
I got a call from a cousin of mine today asking me about a work from home website she was considering. She wanted me to look into it for her, so she emailed me the link. When I clicked on the link my browser couldn't find the url. I tried again, nothing. Again only this time I removed all query strings and went to just the home link of the url...still nothing. So I waited an hour or so, only to come back and get nothing. The following is my email response to my cousin.
I still can't get a page to load from this link, and googles link doesn't work either. That makes me a little nervous about this one, it's not uncommon to have a website up to take credit card transactions and then down a day or two later like it never existed. Only instead of $98 they got away with your credit card info. A few things to look for when paying online:
1) is the site secure? you can tell this by looking for an https in the address bar of the browser (i.e. https://www.site.com) the 's' is the important part, it literally means secure. But just because the 's' is there doesn't mean it's really secure. look for a padlock type image in the bottom right corner of your browser or sometimes it appears in the url bar as well (I think Internet Explorer puts it in the bottom right corner but I could be wrong) if the lock is unlocked or broken your connection is not secure. DO NOT process an account transaction over an unsecured line even if you trust the company. The reason is your information is sent over the internet in plain text and vulnerable to any sniffer out there. A secure line will encrypt your data and decrypt it when it arrives at it's destination.
2) Only shop at well known trusted sites. if you are not familiar with a particular site it's a good idea to Google it, check bbb.com for info on them and if your gut tells you "bad idea" follow it.
3) Never respond to Phishing emails, these are emails designed to get you to give up personal information. An example is something from a bank maybe you have an account and maybe you don't but they'll ask you to verify your account number via email. NEVER communicate with any financial institution through email if you are sending sensitive data. If you get this type of email from an institution you have a relationship with, call them first using a number from their website (Google it) or on your checkbook or credit card.
When it comes to work at home jobs I'm not really an expert but I do know there are a lot of scams out there. Some are just after $100 a person and there are a lot of people who will risk that, but more than likely if this site isn't up again by tomorrow (and my bet is it won't be) they were trying to harvest credit card numbers. Generally speaking, if it's something as easy as copy and paste links, or stuffing envelopes, or comes with a guarantee or promises instant wealth it's a scam. A monkey can be taught to copy and paste, and nobody can guarantee a job, even the top colleges don't claim that.
As far as certifications go, there are a lot out there, the best approach would be to do some research on the certification, is it legitimate? Is there a market for it? Most Certifications are printed on an 8x11 piece of card-stock paper, anyone can fake one on almost any printer, they might even have you print it yourself (which tells me they don't take their own certification seriously).
Print This Post
Handy PHP Debugging Tools
I'm sure most folks who read this blog are already set in their ways of debugging things. And many probably already have a few custom built methods they use to look at raw data on the fly. However for those few who might be in need or are possibly looking for another approach this post is for you .
I used to rely solely on a step through debugger to help me debug code, and don't get me wrong stepping through code is a great way to see what the heck is going on (especially in code you are unfamiliar with and was written by monkeys), however for the last year or so I've been learning new techniques and tricks for getting my raw data visible without having to step through the code.
My all time favorite method is
echo "<pre>".print_r($array, true)."<pre>"; |
but there are times that is not good enough. like when you are trying to see data run in shell_exec() or when the page changes before you can see the echo. So to combat this I've written a method that drills through an array or an object and spits the data out in a file in a format similar to the aforementioned. I call it pre()
observe
function pre($array, $mode = 'w', $indent = "\r\n") { if(is_array($array) || is_object($array)) { $filename = 'C:\logs\dnate_pre.log'; $handle = fopen($filename, $mode); fwrite($handle, getArrayKeysAndValues($array, $indent)); fclose($handle); } else { writeToFile($array, $indent); } } |
and if you're wondering what the getArrayKeysAndValues() method does, here it is.
function getArrayKeysAndValues($array, $indent = "\r\n\t") { $txt = ''; if( is_object($array) ) { $array = get_object_vars($array); } if(is_array($array)) { $txt .= " => Array ("; foreach($array as $k => $v) { $txt .= $indent."\t[".$k."]"; if( is_array($v) || is_object($v) ) { $txt .= getArrayKeysAndValues($v, $indent."\t"); } else { $txt .= " => ".$v; } } $txt .= $indent.")"; } return $txt; } |
Occasionally I've run into a limit of how many times getArrayKeysAndValues() can call itself (100) so in cases like that I've also got a method I call kill() that kills the script and spits the output out on the browser. Not very subtle but gets the job done.
Obviously you'll have to have the log files in the proper directory on your machine. Then just include the file and call the desired method.
The rest are in the download, feel free to offer suggestions or comments.
Print This Post
Happy 3rd Birthday DevBlog!
As of last week it has been 3 years since Dustin and I opened the doors, and while life has taken us different directions we keep on posting.
It's true, it really has been 3 years and to tell the truth we've gone a bit farther than I even thought we would. When we started this blog it was a place for us to drop notes and help us help others with learning code, programming, and even do a little off-topic random posts. I flooded the devblog with posts I'd grabbed from other resources, and Dustin threw in some fantastic PHP and jQuery work. Here's to another year and hoping that we continue to get bigger and better.
And now some interesting/boring facts about the DevBlog:
Our most popular post is "PhoneGap - The missing android/windows guide"
While the United States is the country that visits us the most, we have far more visitors outside The States than in them.
Visitors from the United States make up 24% of our traffic, while Germany makes up 13% and India makes 12%
Australia spends the most time on the site, followed closely by our United Kingdom visitors.
This post makes 123 posts on the DevBlog.
Print This Post