SubscribeApr 13 IMANDIX Cover Pro
I recently discovered a very neat program that we’ve begun using on one of my hobby sites.
IMANDIX Cover Pro automatically converts any image into a 3D preview of what it would look like as the cover of a CD or DVD case.
Apr 11 WordPress comment management bug?
I’ve recently become aware of an issue with managing comments in Wordpress 2.5. I’m not sure if it’s a bug or if it’s simply a poorly implemented “feature”, but I’m going to call it a bug.
Apr 9 fileNice – a PHP-based file browser
While working on one of my Web sites the other day, I had the need to install some sort of file browsing script that would allow the user to choose a particular file, then insert a link using TinyMCE.
I realize that MCEFileManager is available, but it is commercial software, and I was really looking for something free.
I happened across a script called fileNice. It’s a pretty nice file browser and is extremely simple to use. There are quite a few things I probably would have done differently had I written the script, but it works pretty well, and it took me about five minutes to install and configure rather than five weeks (or months) writing my own full-featured file browser.
Apr 8 How Spammers Attack Drupal Posts Immediately
On our sister site CenterNetworks, we use the open source content management system (CMS) Drupal. I’ve used nearly every CMS package, both free and the systems costing large sums of money and Drupal is my favorite.
On CN we get hammered with spam every day. So much spam that I had to turn off comments after three months because every post (some 2000+) gets hit.
One thing I’ve noticed is that within moments of posting some new content, spams begin to come in. Not minutes, hours or days, but moments. And after doing some research into our system and into the way Drupal handles content, I’ve realized why this happens.
Apr 7 PuTTY – a free telnet/SSH client
I’ve recently acquired two new hosting packages; one at work and one for my hobby sites. Both packages offer me, the consumer, a great deal of control over the server. One of the things offered by both of my hosts is an SSH connection.
Now, I realize that a great deal of hosts offer SSH connections to their customers nowadays, but many will lock the client down so much within those SSH sessions, that there is no point in even logging in that way. For instance, at Netfirms, you have SSH permissions, but about the only thing you can do is log in and log back out again. You can’t list the contents of a directory, you can’t use rsync to copy files to and from remote locations, etc.
Anyway, onto the point of this article: With my newfound freedom through SSH, I needed to find a decent SSH client that I could use on my Windows machines. I did a quick search and came across PuTTY.
Apr 7 10 Common Errors When Implementing Accessibility
Web developers attempting to build accessible websites often make the same mistakes time and time again. Although they’re trying their hardest sometimes their overzealousness gets in the way and actually hinders the accessibility of their websites.
The below 10 guidelines tell you what not to do, so you too don’t fall foul to these same common accessibility errors…
Apr 5 Quick warning about MS Access data types
The other day, I discovered a minor inconvenience in the way MS Access handles the “Yes/No” (or boolean) data type.
You should be aware, when working with MS Access, that any “Yes/No” field in your table can only accept boolean true and boolean false (or “true” and “false”, “yes” and “no”, 1 and 0, etc.). It will not accept NULL.
Standard programming practice is, when there is not a “default” value for a field, to insert NULL if the user does not explicitly declare a value. Unfortunately, the fact that Access throws an error if you try to insert NULL into a “Yes/No” field really puts a damper on that logic.
As the title says, this is just a quick warning for people that may be using MS Access for their databases. I’m not sure if the same is true for MS SQL or not, but it’s obviously a non-factor with MySQL, since MySQL doesn’t offer a boolean data type.
Apr 4 The Definitive Guide To Stylesheet Planning
The more we rely upon CSS, the larger and more complex stylesheet files become. Planning and organising your stylesheet is essential to creating a lean, manageable website. There are many ways of organising CSS code but the following are best practice…
Comment your stylesheet
Commenting your stylesheet makes it much easier to find the information or the commands you’re looking for.
Apr 3 FreeMeter – A Bandwidth Meter
After my unfortunate adventures with the bandwidth limitations of my Internet connection, I decided to search the Web for some sort of utility that would help me monitor and hopefully limit my downloads and uploads.
While I didn’t find anything that would actually limit my downloads and uploads (no utilities that would temporarily disable my Internet connection if I got close to my limits), I did find a really nice utility for monitoring my connection.
Apr 2 AJAX Accessibility for Websites
AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is an innovative way of using existing technologies to create highly interactive web applications. AJAX allows portions of the page to be updated without having to refresh and reload the entire page. It can increase site performance significantly and provide cutting edge user interfaces. Unfortunately it can also be a source of concern for delivering fully accessible web sites.
