Beginnercode.com » Blog Adventures

20100914 MKE PHP Meetup Live blogging

^Lestat — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:26:36 +0000

6:20 Intro, and new people introducing themselves to the group.

6:27 Aaron talked about his car, and introduced Kevin Schroeder, Zend Technolgies tech evangelist.

6:30 Kevin tells us of his background (cool nerdy stuff)

A book he wrote

Kevin offered $100 off zendcon in our group, as well as a drawing for a free ticket (1,400 value).

Drawing for a free version of Zend studio at tonights meeting.

In my opinion live blogging is very distracting to me…

Kevin is going into the framework now and it will take about an hour. Im done bloggin for now…

Zend Studio is pretty cool. Especially code tracing.

7:20 break time.

Javascript: Focus() on a textbox

^Lestat — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:09:47 +0000

A dirty way to run js script inline and bring focus to an element:




    
         Login:

Notice that both the form and form element have an ID

Return key doesn’t play nice in web form using Internet Explorer

^Lestat — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:40:00 +0000

I ran across an interesting situation where some users of mine were complaining that a form I created “didn’t work”. Kind of strange to get this complaint after almost a full year of operation. I remember testing the xhtml and css design in both firefox and IE browsers and it all checked out. What I didn’t think of checking was the behavior of browsers when one presses the return key. With the help of Fiddler (thanks to Casey Williams for the Fiddler suggestion) this is what I discovered:

	IE	Firefox
Submit Button Clicked	All inputs $_POSTed	All inputs $_POSTed
Return Key Pressed	All inputs $_POSTed except form buttons	All inputs $_POSTed

(For a larger, more detailed image click here)

As you can see, when my IE users were pressing the return key, the button itself was not being $_POSTed. So what right? Well what if you were checking if the submit button was pressed before doing any processing? Like so…

< ?php
if(isset($_POST['button_name'])){
    // validate the user entries...
}
?>

This would fail if the user hit the return key in IE7. I haven’t tested earlier versions.

View the example. Test it in both browsers.

Right now the only thing that was suggested to me was to add a hidden field to mimic the submit button in your form like so:

That works just fine.

From perusing irc and several forums, the only response as to WHY this happens are comments like “It’s IE, what do you expect?”. I’m already annoyed that IE doesn’t think it has to adapt to web standards, but this ont really caught me off guard.

I’m wondering if any readers might have some input on my inputs ;P

Talk like a pirate day 2008

^Lestat — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:46:35 +0000

Ahoy there!
Just a reminder that today is talk like a pirate day! Arggghhh!

All posts and comments for today will be translated in to pirate speak by using the nifty text plugin from Dougal Campbell. It looks like it hasn’t been updated in a while, but it still works. At least in version 2.1.3.

So what are you waiting for people!? Let’s have some fun in the comments!

Screen shots a snap with Vista snip tool

^Lestat — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:50:33 +0000

I was searching my Vista accessories for hyperteminal and stumbled upon a built in screen shot tool in Vista called Snipping Tool. I’m sure to most it’s nothing new, but coming late in the game leaves for more surprises!

You can find it in the start menu -> all programs -> accessories.

By default there is an outline around any window space that you choose to grab. This can be turned off by clearing the check box in the options ->“Show selection ink after snips are captured“.

You can take snips of menus and the like this:

Open Snipping Tool
Press Escape
Navigate to the menu, or start menu area
Press Ctrl + Print Screen (PC)
Use the snip tool

Of course to take screen shots of the snipping tool, I needed to use the old stand by Screen Grab Pro. Otherwise it took a selection of the desktop behind the app.

Technorati Tags: Vista,snip tool,screen shot

Wordpress and Windows Live Writer

^Lestat — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:00:33 +0000

I haven’t posted much (No, this isn’t a blogpology) lately. Mainly because I haven’t had the passion to write about anything. Secondly because I just don’t want to do the work of messing with the UI and entering one.

Thanks for the tip from my buddy TDavid who pointed me toward Windows Live Writer.

The setup was simple for this machine (Vista Business edition sp1). It’s got some really neat features. First off inserting hyperlinks is a snap. So is adding pictures. Also drag and drop tables, and image resizing.

It also includes preview views, and category selecting, tagging, and you can post date posts.

You can post drafts, post live, and even save drafts locally. I find it much easier to use than the WP UI.

Get paid to test with google

^Lestat — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:18:00 +0000

Via googlfied:

According to Blogger Buzz Google is looking for user experience research blogging with google blogger. As mentioned in the FAQ you first need to sign up. After you have signed up you may or may not be selected depending on what they are looking for:

For each study, we need to make sure that we invite people who match our target user profile for the product we are researching. We also want to get a good balance of ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience, so please be honest with your answers. It’s easier for us to match you to a suitable study when we have more information about you, so if you fill in as much of our sign-up form as you can, it’s more likely that you will be invited to participate.

There are different experience sessions where you will work with a google researcher 1 on 1, on the phone, or in a group. It looks like some of the research will be done in person at google. Except you have to find your own way there. The pay looks pretty decent too.. “typically we pay $75 for each hour that you spend with a Google researcher”. The FAQ also mentions the average time commitment is in the range of 1-1.5 hours during business hours.

I think this is great customer service. It seems they want to see how users view and work with their goods. It also gives an opportunity for users in the test to request features, changes to existing features, as well as having features removed. I wonder if this is a result of googlecanyouhear me?

All in all I think this is a smart move and I’m quite curious what will come out of this.

google, blogger, blog

Site Upgrades

^Lestat — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:39:06 +0000

I went for it. I upgraded (finally) from WP v1.2 to v2.1. Along with it I chose a new theme for beginner code. I really like that its very symmetrical. I didn’t want to change partly because it’s something different. But why not.

Upgrading Word Press was fairly easy. Just follow the steps outlined at the WP blog.

Then I chose this simple-tech theme from the Word Press Theme viewer. I chose it because it looks easier to tweak for the adsense heat map. It was hard to find themes that I liked visually, that also had a left column out of the box.

“Why Blog” Survey

^Lestat — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:51:33 +0000

Darren Barefoot has put out a survey of 16 blogging questions entitled “Why Do You Blog”. He’s collecting data for a speech he is giving in Vancouver Canada in Feb. He wants to hear from anyone who has created a blog. Take the survey and random submissions will win a prize. Some of the prizes include; an iPod Shuffle, 2 books, or a $50 Canadian gift certificate. All you need to do is link to his survey!

I think it’s worth the entry just to hear his findings.

Why did I start beginnercode.com? It first started out of curiosity. What was the point? To me it first seemed almost like a personal diary. But as time moved on I realized I could use it to share any of my programming or tech experiences with people who were maybe looking for the same information. It’s been a while since I’ve written any programming related posts lately. My family life has taken more precedence. However, I haven’t lost interest!

There is much to write about. So much web, so little time…

Contests, iPod Shuffle, Survey, Free Stuff

BlogMad Beta Testing

^Lestat — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 20:18:28 +0000

I have had the recent pleasure of being added to the BlogMad beta testers. I haven’t ever tested anything before so this has been really quite exciting…

BlogMad is a surfing/ traffic service. If you have an account there you can use it to view other blogs. While viewing other blogs, you receive credits. You can use the credits for various items. You can upload a banner from your site, and purchase impressions to be shown to other viewers while they surf. This can bring you traffic. You can also use your credits for other things.

I figured I would make a good tester for a few reasons;

1. I’m not biased. Although I have found some similar services I did dislike, I still gave them a whirl. There are some I do like, but I’m always open to others.

2. I’m fairly new to blogging. Beginnercode has only been up since August.

Firstly I had to login to the site and check it out. I looked for general items as a user. For example, I found asthetics that were broke – or ugly. I found some things, but nothing major. There were a few navigational issues I found to be quirky etc. Some of this is to be expected due to it being Beta, that’s what we testers are for!

Then I looked for functionality of links and features within the site and did the same thing.

Some of the nice features I like:

10 Second Surf Times!
Update 2/15/06
– The 10 sec surf time is only for this Betea run * see comment #1 *
Control which blogs you view/block/Or add to favorites.
del.icio.us is incorporated into the blogbar
(Add favorite blogs direct to your del.icio.us account!)
You can edit your action bar (your account navigation bar).
Play Games to win credits.
Transfer credits to other users.
Messaging between other users with an email type account.
Buy text ads and banner space with credits.
Random Credit Prizes.
(I was awarded 95 bonus points while taking these screenshots!)
Referral credits – get credits just by referring someone to join.
Blog Rankings. This rating depends on how many blogs you have viewed and how many have viewed you. If you gain in ranking you get additional benifits such as: Additional credits per referral; More messaging space; BlogMad lotto tickets; and you can add more blogs to your account.

In the end what it means for you – More traffic (ideally). I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops as it goes live. Click the banner below to get an account early before they go live. They are already accepting referrals!

BlogMad, traffic, blog traffic