Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Creating a Sleek Calendar

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

In this tutorial we are going to create sleek calendar using php with a good looking UI and a navigation. Let’s get started !!

Setting up workspace -

  • Basic knowledge of php, html and css.
  • Local server installed on your PC.

Step 1

First of all create the project folder on your server and inside it create a php file.
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Posted in PHP, Software, Web Programming | 3 Comments »

What Makes a Great Web Developer? Twitter Developers Respond.

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

twitter_great_developer

Recently, as I was reading some older articles on good programming characteristics, I got to thinking specifically about web developers. The role of a web developer is critical for any website project or application, so I turned my questions to Twitter to get some input. The responses I got were overwhelming and filled with different opinions and advice. I saw this as a great opportunity to discuss what the development community thinks makes a great web developer. Let’s take a look at the findings!

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Posted in Software, Web Dev. Links, Web Programming | 15 Comments »

Hacking Add-ons To Work in Firefox 3.5

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Please be sure to realize that hacking the add-ons could cause Firefox to stop working. Please be careful!

I in no way think this is the best way to get add-ons to work, but if there is no version for Firefox 3.5 and you can’t live without it why not give this a try.

The other day, I upgraded my Firefox browser and was sad to see a bunch of my add-ons were not compatible. One of the add-ons happened to me my indispensable RSS reader (Sage). I then read that there is a way to hack it into behaving.

It isn’t necessary that the plug-in does not work in Firefox 3.5; it may just be that the developer set the max version so something like 3.0.* which doesn’t match 3.5.

The way to fix this is to try and set the max-version for Firefox to 3.* which means any Firefox 3 version.

Here are the steps on how to go about this:

1. Download the add-on in any browser but Firefox, and save to desktop

2. Change file extension to *.xpi.zip

3. Extract the zip files to your desktop

4. Open install.rdf in your text editor

5. Scroll down until you find the <em:maxVersion>

6. Change the value between this tag to: 3.*

7. Save the file, and close

8. Zip up all the files again

9. Take out the .zip and replace it with .xpi

10. Drag the .xpi file into your web browser and install it

Voila, you know should have a working add-on. This may not work with all add-ons but happened to work without a hitch for “Sage”.

Posted in Software | 2 Comments »

Firefox 3 advancing, but IE6 not going away…

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Yesterday I proceeded to download the newest version of my favorite browser (Firefox). Firefox 3.5 has many improvements such as speed, security, and features.

I was proudly telling people to upgrade via Twitter and Facebook, when someone made a great comment. It stated,

“I don’t want to hear about Firefox advances! Not until I know IE has caught up! Slow down FF!”

Now, I still enjoy the neat things that Firefox is doing, but seeing IE6 fade into the oblivion would make me more excited. Frankly, Firefox 3.5 is light-years better than IE8 – never mind comparing it to IE6. Remember we as developers can’t really use the new features until it works across all browsers anyways.

Here are the latest browser statistics according to W3Schools,

Both

IE – 41%
Firefox – 47.7%

IE

IE8 – 4.2%
IE7 – 21.3%
IE6 – 14.5%

Firefox

3.0 – 44.3%
2.0 – 2.9%

Is there a reason that pretty much all Firefox users upgrade to the newest version, and IE doesn’t? Well I think there are a couple reasons:

  1. Firefox prompts you to upgrade, and makes it real easy
  2. Firefox promotes its product better, and makes sure to improve it each time
  3. On the other hand, IE focuses its time and effort in implementing a COMPATIBILITY MODE?!?!

Will Microsoft ever learn from their mistakes? Maybe they should focus on their operating systems…

Instead of dwelling on the negatives, let’s focus on some of the cool new Firefox features!

Improved View Source

Have you ever found it annoying in the past when you go to view a sites web source and you need to copy and paste a URL just to check it out? Firefox 3.5 now converts these URLs into actual links that you can click on. It is such a little thing, but should save me a TON of time!

View Source Firefox

Private Browsing

Private browsing is a nice security feature that Firefox has added. When you select this mode (Tools>>Start Private Browsing) no history will be recorded. This is a feature that mirrors in some ways what Google Chrome did with its “incognito window”.

Firefox Private Browsing

New JavaScript Engine

Perhaps the most talked about feature is the dramatic improvement in performance. We as internet surfers don’t read the web, we SCAN. We are creatures that want information as quick as possible, and nothing is ever fast enough.

Firefox’s new “TraceMonkey” JavaScript engine keeps the JavaScript executing at top speeds.

Firefox JavaScript Engine

Location Aware Browsing

This feature allows Firefox to determine your location using your IP Address. It will then allow websites to tailor their sites depending on what location you are browsing their site from.

Flickr is one site that has already implemented this. It determines your location and then shows photos from other people in your local area.

Location Aware Browsing

Support for HTML 5 and @font-face

Firefox 3.5 now supports @font-face which allows a designer to add a fancy font to an element using CSS. Remember IE is still trying to figure out the box model, so they haven’t added this feature yet.

HTML 5 is also the new standard projected in the near future. Firefox likes being ahead of the curve as you probably have noticed. HTML 5 includes audio and video tags, along with supporting the <canvas> element which essentially is a drawing surface.

Conclusion

I hope this review of Firefox 3 has encouraged you to upgrade, and if you are on IE6 maybe it is time you upgrade?

If I missed any neat features please leave a comment below.

Posted in Software | 5 Comments »

Browser Refresh Automation (XRefresh)

Friday, June 19th, 2009

I normally don’t review programs that I have downloaded, but I feel XRefresh is one of those programs that will make your web development work flow that much faster.

The sole purpose of XRefresh is to refresh the browser as you modify source files. I hope you can see the benefits of this. The following are the steps you take to get it working:

  1. Download XRefresh (requires firebug)
  2. Once installed, you tell XRefresh which folders you want it to monitor.
  3. You open up your local file (PHP/HTML) in the browser as well as in your code editor of choice
  4. Change something in your file, and save it.
  5. Go back to your browser and it should have automatically refreshed. It does this by detecting the save commands!

The main purpose for this is when coding PHP locally you can have it automatically refresh to save you the same of switching windows all the time. Save what you’re doing in the IDE… look at the other monitor and have your change. No need to ALT-TAB and then hit Refresh!

One problem I have seen so far is that if you are changing a CSS file, something goes wonky with the images. If you have a solution for this please share it in the comments!

I recommend you get this software and try it out for yourself. Let me know what you think of it in the comments.

Posted in Software | 3 Comments »

 
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