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from the inside, out
February 17, 2010 - 22:50
- ipad - sandbox - Olympics - LOST - splash
I know I haven't written anything lately, but it's not because I don't care.
It's actually the opposite, I've been updating a ton of code on this site over the past few months and I hope to make a lot of the new stuff live soon.
Ugg to me for it taking this long, but a lot of the new stuff I write will be used in CT, making the process worthwhile but time consuming.
After this next round of updates are made to this site, I hope my blog posts are shorter but more on point to one topic/issue/idea/whatever and more frequent.
Until then, here is the run down:
-LOST is amazing, obviously. Last night's episode was one of my favorite in a while. I really enjoy the way the story line has focused on Jacob and the 'Man in Black' as well as the 'flash sideways' or whatever they are called. The latter is really enjoyable because we get to see these characters who we've spent the past handful of years learning about get put in situations that we can really appreciate, enjoy, and ponder. It's going to be sad to see LOST come to an end but I will always appreciate the years we had together.
[i]'Tis better to have loved and LOST than never to have loved at all [/i]
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
-The 2010 Winter Olympics have been awesome (minus the tragedy involving [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodar_Kumaritashvili" target="_blank"]Nodar Kumaritashvili[/a]). I always enjoy watching the obscure sports we rarely get exposed to on network tv. Thus far though, I am unsure what type of medal Vancouver would get for it's job hosting, we will have to judge once it's all said and done.
-iPad : I would like one when it comes out, but will hopefully be able to wait until one is released with a front facing camera. The ability to video chat on one of those things is just too appealing to not wait for (hopefully). I don't want to get into the details of my opinion on the new device at this time but I am excited to use one at sometime in the near future.
-the worlds best mother is also the world best cook:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/166.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Mom and me, picture taken by Dad [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-sometimes, some things I am working on are in a sandbox that is live on this site, feel free to check it out sometime, but be warned that you will likely find many of the items boring and broken :)
[a href=" http://sethdesantis.com/sandbox/" target="_blank"]sandbox link[/a]
good night friends.
It's actually the opposite, I've been updating a ton of code on this site over the past few months and I hope to make a lot of the new stuff live soon.
Ugg to me for it taking this long, but a lot of the new stuff I write will be used in CT, making the process worthwhile but time consuming.
After this next round of updates are made to this site, I hope my blog posts are shorter but more on point to one topic/issue/idea/whatever and more frequent.
Until then, here is the run down:
-LOST is amazing, obviously. Last night's episode was one of my favorite in a while. I really enjoy the way the story line has focused on Jacob and the 'Man in Black' as well as the 'flash sideways' or whatever they are called. The latter is really enjoyable because we get to see these characters who we've spent the past handful of years learning about get put in situations that we can really appreciate, enjoy, and ponder. It's going to be sad to see LOST come to an end but I will always appreciate the years we had together.
[i]'Tis better to have loved and LOST than never to have loved at all [/i]
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
-The 2010 Winter Olympics have been awesome (minus the tragedy involving [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodar_Kumaritashvili" target="_blank"]Nodar Kumaritashvili[/a]). I always enjoy watching the obscure sports we rarely get exposed to on network tv. Thus far though, I am unsure what type of medal Vancouver would get for it's job hosting, we will have to judge once it's all said and done.
-iPad : I would like one when it comes out, but will hopefully be able to wait until one is released with a front facing camera. The ability to video chat on one of those things is just too appealing to not wait for (hopefully). I don't want to get into the details of my opinion on the new device at this time but I am excited to use one at sometime in the near future.
-the worlds best mother is also the world best cook:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/166.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Mom and me, picture taken by Dad [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-sometimes, some things I am working on are in a sandbox that is live on this site, feel free to check it out sometime, but be warned that you will likely find many of the items boring and broken :)
[a href=" http://sethdesantis.com/sandbox/" target="_blank"]sandbox link[/a]
good night friends.
try two
January 20, 2009 - 12:23
- Splash - LOST - GTA4 - pugs
sooo....about an hour ago I thought I submitted a blog entry, but I must have hit the wrong button or something...because it didn't post :-(
Lucky for you it didn't post! The last entry was a horrible disaster that started as a long ramble about nothing and ended as a long ramble about technology.
I will spare you the wordiness and the ramble and the technology...maybe.
-It is hard to recreate something when there was nothing to even begin with.
-This past three day weekend, it was way too cold to do much that involved leaving the house for extended periods of time. That, and the fact that I had previously signed up to "pug sit" those three nights gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and play a decent amount of Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox 360 and to put in a good amount of work into this website.
-GTA4: Great game, I played it a lot when it came out but more recently it say behind newer releases such as Gears of War 2 and FIFA 09. I am currently on chapter 4 and hope to finish the game in the near future.
-sethdesantis.com : I don't know why I picked this web site as the focus of the vast majority of web efforts I was to make during this extended weekend, but I did. I've decided to start working on a "Splash 9" version of the site. This whole number increase in site version number is being made primarily due to the wide scope of files being affected during this upgrade. After a fairly long evaluation of where the site currently stands, I decided that for the most part, I am happy with the look of the home page, and therefore the majority of major changes will be behind the scenes. The current framework of the site primarily depends on page loads to get and send information, I am looking to implement an AJAX approach (currently only used in User Registration and User Control Panel) throughout the entire site (or at least a significant amount in the home page and totally for the Blog page). Besides generic page cleanup that I am doing on many unreleased files which are copies of current files, Splash 9 will use AJAX to handle all blog functions. Tackling this functionality is easier than it normally would have been due to the fact that it wasn't too long ago I wrote the code to does this exact thing, but for Cooperstown. One of the hurdles I was concerned about was reading/parsing blog posts written[saved] in one format when the format it is intended to expect is fairly different. My current blog posts (this one I write now) have all of the information saved as HTML (information like the tags to insert links or pictures, or make something bold and italic). The code I was going to use does not expect HTML tags, rather it expects custom tags that I decided on before hand, that get read by the code and then parsed into the HTML. I think the latter approach offers more long term flexibility with how your posts are displayed. Anyhow, the code wasn't made to use regular HTML tags but after only a few modification (which will end up serving as improvements to the current version used in CT), it was reading and displaying everything correctly. Soon I will be able to switch Blog entry Pages and will be able to use the one I created for CT, which is much much better than this one. I've added a little section of code already where I can enter the date that posts switched formats and then the correct styles will be used. All of the code that was previously written to handle non HTML tags is simply ignored.
Just think about how exciting my blog posts will be once I can enter them in my new, robust, Blog Entry Page!!! ha, PUKE, my posts will never be exciting :-(
At least not if I talk about that kind of stuff.
Let's see...
-"The Neighborhood Ball" Inauguration show was more entertaining than I previously anticipated.
-LOST starts tomorrow, I'm too excited to discuss.
-SU Basketball has been offering a lot of reasons to be happy lately, it could be an emotional roller coaster of a season.
-One of the Splash 9 improvements are bigger pictures with more accurate dimensions being displayed in blog posts, I've implemented that functionality already. Feel free to browse through old pictures in posts in the Blog section of the site, and feel free to enjoy this recent picture:
Good night.
Lucky for you it didn't post! The last entry was a horrible disaster that started as a long ramble about nothing and ended as a long ramble about technology.
I will spare you the wordiness and the ramble and the technology...maybe.
-It is hard to recreate something when there was nothing to even begin with.
-This past three day weekend, it was way too cold to do much that involved leaving the house for extended periods of time. That, and the fact that I had previously signed up to "pug sit" those three nights gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and play a decent amount of Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox 360 and to put in a good amount of work into this website.
-GTA4: Great game, I played it a lot when it came out but more recently it say behind newer releases such as Gears of War 2 and FIFA 09. I am currently on chapter 4 and hope to finish the game in the near future.
-sethdesantis.com : I don't know why I picked this web site as the focus of the vast majority of web efforts I was to make during this extended weekend, but I did. I've decided to start working on a "Splash 9" version of the site. This whole number increase in site version number is being made primarily due to the wide scope of files being affected during this upgrade. After a fairly long evaluation of where the site currently stands, I decided that for the most part, I am happy with the look of the home page, and therefore the majority of major changes will be behind the scenes. The current framework of the site primarily depends on page loads to get and send information, I am looking to implement an AJAX approach (currently only used in User Registration and User Control Panel) throughout the entire site (or at least a significant amount in the home page and totally for the Blog page). Besides generic page cleanup that I am doing on many unreleased files which are copies of current files, Splash 9 will use AJAX to handle all blog functions. Tackling this functionality is easier than it normally would have been due to the fact that it wasn't too long ago I wrote the code to does this exact thing, but for Cooperstown. One of the hurdles I was concerned about was reading/parsing blog posts written[saved] in one format when the format it is intended to expect is fairly different. My current blog posts (this one I write now) have all of the information saved as HTML (information like the tags to insert links or pictures, or make something bold and italic). The code I was going to use does not expect HTML tags, rather it expects custom tags that I decided on before hand, that get read by the code and then parsed into the HTML. I think the latter approach offers more long term flexibility with how your posts are displayed. Anyhow, the code wasn't made to use regular HTML tags but after only a few modification (which will end up serving as improvements to the current version used in CT), it was reading and displaying everything correctly. Soon I will be able to switch Blog entry Pages and will be able to use the one I created for CT, which is much much better than this one. I've added a little section of code already where I can enter the date that posts switched formats and then the correct styles will be used. All of the code that was previously written to handle non HTML tags is simply ignored.
Just think about how exciting my blog posts will be once I can enter them in my new, robust, Blog Entry Page!!! ha, PUKE, my posts will never be exciting :-(
At least not if I talk about that kind of stuff.
Let's see...
-"The Neighborhood Ball" Inauguration show was more entertaining than I previously anticipated.
-LOST starts tomorrow, I'm too excited to discuss.
-SU Basketball has been offering a lot of reasons to be happy lately, it could be an emotional roller coaster of a season.
-One of the Splash 9 improvements are bigger pictures with more accurate dimensions being displayed in blog posts, I've implemented that functionality already. Feel free to browse through old pictures in posts in the Blog section of the site, and feel free to enjoy this recent picture:
Good night.
Splash 8.42 is now live.
February 24, 2008 - 12:38
- Splash - Photo Album Page - Blog Page - LOST
I dislike my tendency to not document more things that cross my mind and my life, in my blog. Substitute blog with any other method one would use to document/discuss whatever they choose, I think it is beneficial to have a place to do these things. It's interesting to think about the differences between an online blog and a personal diary. Both could serve the same purpose, but hopefully don't. I do not keep a diary. Every time I think the word diary I think of a girly book. Substitute diary with journal. I do not keep a journal, but I used to. Holy crazy, I would never document any of the stuff in those books in an online blog. Maybe I still do keep a journal and it's just been a long time since my last entry. Yes, no reason to close that book just yet, I revise my previous statement.
There is a bunch I would like to talk about, but I just don't know where to begin. Instead, I will do something I haven't done in like 7 months, I'm going to list some pending and outstanding web site features and issues.
-The current version of the splash page is technically 8.41, but I am now deeming it 8.42 to account for minor undocumented changes.
-Photo album page:
This page is to be replaced by my 3rd generation album page, which is currently on it's 10th revision (pic10.php). The page currently linked to via "Picture Album Beta" is pic8.php . The 2nd generation page was only linked to via a blog post, it was never more than a proof of concept page. The most relevant outstanding issues with pic10 include:
-IE not unhidding hidden divs after thumbnails are loaded and resized. This is a difficult issue that I believe will be resolved using proper image loading.
-the inability to honor $_GET[] variables, therefore being unable to jump to specific albums. This functionality will likely not be very difficult to implement.
-the page sometimes not displaying properly on it's initial load. This problem will likely be fixed when I work on handling $_GET variables. For now, a user refresh should do the trick.
-various minor styling and external linking issues. Not a major issue, nothing I am dreading to fix.
-The bottom line is that this page is a disaster, from a coding point of view. I implemented a ton of new techniques I had just learned, and it is painfully obvious. I learned new and better way of doing things on the fly, and implemented them as such. My plan is to implement/fix the above bullets without having to re-code the entire page. I am pleased with how the page works from a user point of view and will be happy if I can wrap it up and not worry about it ever again.
-Blog page:
This page was never intended to be used as long as it has been. It was coded in a weekend and and lacks a ton of features. I am saddened by the fact that it is was people get if the link to me via RSS feeds. The most relevant outstanding features and issues with this page include:
-The inability to view and post comments.
-The fact that all posts are displayed when the page is entered directly.
-The "tag cloud" could use some help.
-I like the look of the page. The images that are used to give it the feel of an actual book are pictures I painstakingly took of a blank page in one of my previously mentioned journal books; getting shots that would seamlessly repeat along the Y axis took some time.
-None of the above issues are difficult to implement. I have been reluctant to do any work on this page because I will likely re-build/code it from the ground up. I'm not sure how high of a priority this is at this time.
-Backend pages:
User control page and user log page:
-I am currently working on a project with a friend that will likely yield much improved backend pages (administrative pages not for users). Our project specifically deals with user logs but will likely prompt me to redo the majority of my backend pages.
-I am happy enough with my current Blog post entry page to not feel the need to work on it at all, at this time. I am currently running version 0.010 of this page.
Running parallel to the website in regards to projects I am dedicated to working on is Discomentary Volume One. I would say that this video project is my number one priority. With that said, I can't just bang it out with a ton of man hours, it's stuff that needs to be thought and re-thought about. I am close to reaching one milestone with Discomentary, once that is reached, I will begin a ton of footage editing and cutting.
I'm kind of tired right now so I'm not going to write much more.
This pic is from the other day. I'm holding the best rubber bouncy ball ever made. I got it at the NBA store in NYC. I went online to see if I could buy more but I couldn't find it listed in the online catalog. I instead bought a box of 50 bouncy balls from a store other than NBA.com . It was a mediocre alternative pick, but it was the best I could find. Yes, those balls join the new LOST Xbox 360 game and a new Bluetooth headset as items I purchased that night drunk.
From the inside, out, good night.
There is a bunch I would like to talk about, but I just don't know where to begin. Instead, I will do something I haven't done in like 7 months, I'm going to list some pending and outstanding web site features and issues.
-The current version of the splash page is technically 8.41, but I am now deeming it 8.42 to account for minor undocumented changes.
-Photo album page:
This page is to be replaced by my 3rd generation album page, which is currently on it's 10th revision (pic10.php). The page currently linked to via "Picture Album Beta" is pic8.php . The 2nd generation page was only linked to via a blog post, it was never more than a proof of concept page. The most relevant outstanding issues with pic10 include:
-IE not unhidding hidden divs after thumbnails are loaded and resized. This is a difficult issue that I believe will be resolved using proper image loading.
-the inability to honor $_GET[] variables, therefore being unable to jump to specific albums. This functionality will likely not be very difficult to implement.
-the page sometimes not displaying properly on it's initial load. This problem will likely be fixed when I work on handling $_GET variables. For now, a user refresh should do the trick.
-various minor styling and external linking issues. Not a major issue, nothing I am dreading to fix.
-The bottom line is that this page is a disaster, from a coding point of view. I implemented a ton of new techniques I had just learned, and it is painfully obvious. I learned new and better way of doing things on the fly, and implemented them as such. My plan is to implement/fix the above bullets without having to re-code the entire page. I am pleased with how the page works from a user point of view and will be happy if I can wrap it up and not worry about it ever again.
-Blog page:
This page was never intended to be used as long as it has been. It was coded in a weekend and and lacks a ton of features. I am saddened by the fact that it is was people get if the link to me via RSS feeds. The most relevant outstanding features and issues with this page include:
-The inability to view and post comments.
-The fact that all posts are displayed when the page is entered directly.
-The "tag cloud" could use some help.
-I like the look of the page. The images that are used to give it the feel of an actual book are pictures I painstakingly took of a blank page in one of my previously mentioned journal books; getting shots that would seamlessly repeat along the Y axis took some time.
-None of the above issues are difficult to implement. I have been reluctant to do any work on this page because I will likely re-build/code it from the ground up. I'm not sure how high of a priority this is at this time.
-Backend pages:
User control page and user log page:
-I am currently working on a project with a friend that will likely yield much improved backend pages (administrative pages not for users). Our project specifically deals with user logs but will likely prompt me to redo the majority of my backend pages.
-I am happy enough with my current Blog post entry page to not feel the need to work on it at all, at this time. I am currently running version 0.010 of this page.
Running parallel to the website in regards to projects I am dedicated to working on is Discomentary Volume One. I would say that this video project is my number one priority. With that said, I can't just bang it out with a ton of man hours, it's stuff that needs to be thought and re-thought about. I am close to reaching one milestone with Discomentary, once that is reached, I will begin a ton of footage editing and cutting.
I'm kind of tired right now so I'm not going to write much more.
This pic is from the other day. I'm holding the best rubber bouncy ball ever made. I got it at the NBA store in NYC. I went online to see if I could buy more but I couldn't find it listed in the online catalog. I instead bought a box of 50 bouncy balls from a store other than NBA.com . It was a mediocre alternative pick, but it was the best I could find. Yes, those balls join the new LOST Xbox 360 game and a new Bluetooth headset as items I purchased that night drunk.
From the inside, out, good night.
Splash 8.41
September 10, 2007 - 10:17
- Splash - AJAX
[This will be boring to everyone]
I have updated the sites current index page, splash 8.41 is now live.
Updates include:
-The user name submission input in the user information box (displayed when a user is logged in) now uses AJAX. The page is not refreshed when the submit button is clicked.
Worthy to note, I have decided to take out the use of AJAX for user login for the main (splash) page. This decision was primarily made due to multiple parts of the main page relaying on whether or not a user is logged in. Implementing an AJAX approach would have required me to update all of those different sections whenever a login or logout occurred. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it (especially when so many other things are broke or simply missing)"
I have decided to focus my coding attention to a new picture page. I have placed a link to the one I was previously working on in the right column. It offers a different option for navigating photo albums, but you will see it's shortcomings are bountiful. If you think an album's thumbnails are taking a while to load, scroll down, as you will likely see the progress. I am going to scrap this page in lieu of a new layout I have been thinking about.
Any feedback regarding personal preferences for online photo browsing are welcome.
sleepy and full, good night.
I have updated the sites current index page, splash 8.41 is now live.
Updates include:
-The user name submission input in the user information box (displayed when a user is logged in) now uses AJAX. The page is not refreshed when the submit button is clicked.
Worthy to note, I have decided to take out the use of AJAX for user login for the main (splash) page. This decision was primarily made due to multiple parts of the main page relaying on whether or not a user is logged in. Implementing an AJAX approach would have required me to update all of those different sections whenever a login or logout occurred. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it (especially when so many other things are broke or simply missing)"
I have decided to focus my coding attention to a new picture page. I have placed a link to the one I was previously working on in the right column. It offers a different option for navigating photo albums, but you will see it's shortcomings are bountiful. If you think an album's thumbnails are taking a while to load, scroll down, as you will likely see the progress. I am going to scrap this page in lieu of a new layout I have been thinking about.
Any feedback regarding personal preferences for online photo browsing are welcome.
sleepy and full, good night.
splash 8.34
July 16, 2007 - 12:23
- splash
-I made some slight improvements to the comments section. At some point, users will be able to select a user pic (avatars). The current live page is now Splash 8.34 .
I think the following picture is cool. I saw it on digg and it's link is this.
The picture reminded me of the cat from my porch, I bet it had a similar encounter.
Good night.
I think the following picture is cool. I saw it on digg and it's link is this.
The picture reminded me of the cat from my porch, I bet it had a similar encounter.
Good night.
that is that
July 15, 2007 - 10:21
- random - U20 soccer - Harry Potter - Montreal - splash
So, the issue with the cat turned out to be a semi false alarm. It took around an hour for someone to show up to check it out. During that hour, I periodically attempted to get the cats attention, it would acknowledge my efforts by barley opening it's one eye and couldn't come close exerting any energy. Much to my surprise, when the police officer showed up it hobbled off the couch and started to walk around. The officer definitely agreed that it needed to be taken in by an animal shelter, but our efforts of trying to lure the cat into captivity with a bowl of milk were unsuccessful. I will continue to keep an eye out for the cat, with the hopes that I can get it in a basket or something and get it to the right people.
I DVR'd "John From Cincinnati", I am really excited to watch it soon. "Letters from Iwo Jima" just got released in HD on Xbox Live, they had the standard def version out for a few weeks but I felt it was worth waiting for this previously announced version to finally be downloadable. I heard it was even better than "Flags of Our Fathers", yet I don't see how, as it is unlikely to have any people who were later sung about by Johny Cash. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, it was very good. Definitely the best one yet. Very, very good. I don't read the books so I never know what is going to happen next! It is so exciting for me. People always say I am missing out on a ton but I don't really care, maybe I will get it on audio book someday, maybe not. I bet I enjoy the movie better than anyone who has read the book, maybe there is something to be said about that!
After a good run, USA got eliminated from the U20 Men's World Cup. I am pretty disappointed that I didn't plan my summer better, they were held in some parts of Canada which are definitely close enough for me to Travel to. Specifically Montreal. In College, I took the 1 credit course, "Model UN". I did enjoy in the mock diplomatic sessions but the main reason I took the class was for the big conference held by McGill University in Montreal. I took Model UN for three years. The two years I went to Montreal were very awesome, absolutely crazy crazy times. The one year I didn't go was not as fun, at least in terms of that class. I went out the night before the trip pretty hard, I thought staying up late would would just lead to a quick bus trip via a long nap, yet I did not consider the scenario of me sleeping through my alarm clock. Just reminiscing about waking up 10 minutes after the bus was supposed to leave, still being a tad tipsy, grabbing my already packed bag, and running across the snowy campus, just to see the freshly made bus tracks, gives me the weebee geebies. I talked up that trip so much that everyone I knew, knew about the trip. Having to goto my classes those days and explaining to students and faculty alike about why I was there was not very cool at all. I hate being rushed, or even worse, too late.
On that solemn note, we should wrap things up. I have modified the live index page of this site a little bit ,this is now Splash 8.2 . The most significant addition is the ability to add a user name under "user information"[for users who are logged in]...a feature that was present for a while, but then disappeared. I can't even remember when or why I took it out.
...and a screen shot from the final minutes of the game, which I enjoyed at a cool new sports bar right around the corner:
...and from the inside, out, good night.
I DVR'd "John From Cincinnati", I am really excited to watch it soon. "Letters from Iwo Jima" just got released in HD on Xbox Live, they had the standard def version out for a few weeks but I felt it was worth waiting for this previously announced version to finally be downloadable. I heard it was even better than "Flags of Our Fathers", yet I don't see how, as it is unlikely to have any people who were later sung about by Johny Cash. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, it was very good. Definitely the best one yet. Very, very good. I don't read the books so I never know what is going to happen next! It is so exciting for me. People always say I am missing out on a ton but I don't really care, maybe I will get it on audio book someday, maybe not. I bet I enjoy the movie better than anyone who has read the book, maybe there is something to be said about that!
After a good run, USA got eliminated from the U20 Men's World Cup. I am pretty disappointed that I didn't plan my summer better, they were held in some parts of Canada which are definitely close enough for me to Travel to. Specifically Montreal. In College, I took the 1 credit course, "Model UN". I did enjoy in the mock diplomatic sessions but the main reason I took the class was for the big conference held by McGill University in Montreal. I took Model UN for three years. The two years I went to Montreal were very awesome, absolutely crazy crazy times. The one year I didn't go was not as fun, at least in terms of that class. I went out the night before the trip pretty hard, I thought staying up late would would just lead to a quick bus trip via a long nap, yet I did not consider the scenario of me sleeping through my alarm clock. Just reminiscing about waking up 10 minutes after the bus was supposed to leave, still being a tad tipsy, grabbing my already packed bag, and running across the snowy campus, just to see the freshly made bus tracks, gives me the weebee geebies. I talked up that trip so much that everyone I knew, knew about the trip. Having to goto my classes those days and explaining to students and faculty alike about why I was there was not very cool at all. I hate being rushed, or even worse, too late.
On that solemn note, we should wrap things up. I have modified the live index page of this site a little bit ,this is now Splash 8.2 . The most significant addition is the ability to add a user name under "user information"[for users who are logged in]...a feature that was present for a while, but then disappeared. I can't even remember when or why I took it out.
...and a screen shot from the final minutes of the game, which I enjoyed at a cool new sports bar right around the corner:
...and from the inside, out, good night.
splash 8.1
July 10, 2007 - 11:30
- iPhone - splash - photo album
-sometimes the iPhone does not "awaken" after sliding the little slider across the screen. I hope that gets fixed.
-I am still having an issue porting my verizon number to AT&T, I am now told it can not be done, yet I am still holding onto a small glimmer of hope.
-due to the possibility that I might have to contact a massive number of people to tell them my new number, I am going to try to get this site a little bit more up to par, with the hope that if I do send a huge BCC email, I can mention this place.
-I have just made my "splash 8.1" page the current index page. It includes a few minor fixes throughout the page but the biggest improvement is the photo album preview bar. This version is the JavaScript version I created what seems like forever ago. I added some random content to the right side of the page as well.
-work on the new photo album section is still coming along well. I have taken a few days off working on it to perform some simpler "house cleaning" around the site. I am currently a little stuck, specifically with hiding an image until it is fully loaded, then resizing it using a formula I was recently able to dig out of the deep crevices of my brain, it involves high school math, yet it took me a few days to remember it. Just so we never forget, here it is:
newImageHeight = (imageHeight * N) / imageWidth
newImageWidth = N
now that was dorky, yet it works (for images where width > height).
I am confident the solution to my current issue on the album page is overcome able, I just need to sit down and pound away at the issue for a little while.
-last weekend got pretty out of control. here is an odd picture from Saturday night, pre-craziness time:
I'm tired, hot day tomorrow, softball @ 6, need sleep and water, have a good evening.
-I am still having an issue porting my verizon number to AT&T, I am now told it can not be done, yet I am still holding onto a small glimmer of hope.
-due to the possibility that I might have to contact a massive number of people to tell them my new number, I am going to try to get this site a little bit more up to par, with the hope that if I do send a huge BCC email, I can mention this place.
-I have just made my "splash 8.1" page the current index page. It includes a few minor fixes throughout the page but the biggest improvement is the photo album preview bar. This version is the JavaScript version I created what seems like forever ago. I added some random content to the right side of the page as well.
-work on the new photo album section is still coming along well. I have taken a few days off working on it to perform some simpler "house cleaning" around the site. I am currently a little stuck, specifically with hiding an image until it is fully loaded, then resizing it using a formula I was recently able to dig out of the deep crevices of my brain, it involves high school math, yet it took me a few days to remember it. Just so we never forget, here it is:
newImageHeight = (imageHeight * N) / imageWidth
newImageWidth = N
now that was dorky, yet it works (for images where width > height).
I am confident the solution to my current issue on the album page is overcome able, I just need to sit down and pound away at the issue for a little while.
-last weekend got pretty out of control. here is an odd picture from Saturday night, pre-craziness time:
I'm tired, hot day tomorrow, softball @ 6, need sleep and water, have a good evening.
Splash 7.006 + Photo Album Beta
January 23, 2007 - 8:36
- Photo Album - Splash
This version of the Splash page is currently being listed as the index.
-Minor updates have been made to the splash page, majority of updates have been to Photo Album page.
Photo Album Page:
-Basic Framework is complete, yet improvements to album navigation and selection are still to come
I am pleased with the progress of the Photo Album page. The look is far from the final, but the navigation has a decent user interface thus far.
Notable functionality:
-When a picture is selected from the side preview area, the preview pictures are updated so the currently "selected" photo also appears as the first preview image. The code still needs some tweaking, but for the most part, it is working as I had originally planned.
-Minor updates have been made to the splash page, majority of updates have been to Photo Album page.
Photo Album Page:
-Basic Framework is complete, yet improvements to album navigation and selection are still to come
I am pleased with the progress of the Photo Album page. The look is far from the final, but the navigation has a decent user interface thus far.
Notable functionality:
-When a picture is selected from the side preview area, the preview pictures are updated so the currently "selected" photo also appears as the first preview image. The code still needs some tweaking, but for the most part, it is working as I had originally planned.
Splash 7.005
January 16, 2007 - 10:56
- comments - splash
Splash 7.005 is out of Sandbox and is currently listed as index page.
Improvements have been made to the Blog Comments functionality as follows:
-user login is now required prior to posting a Blog Comment
-small layout enhancements have been made to comments section, more work still to be done.
-further security measures have been added to comments section, most security measures will never be 'blogged' about in great detail.
-user id is now being posted with comments. this step took very little time to implement, as the database and code has been written with this functionality in mind. The user id will eventually be replaced with a user name.
I think it is worth wile to note the use of user login for the blog comments section. This section is the first 'mainstream' part of the site to require user login. Additionally, the users id is now being associated with every comment. The work put into developing/testing/tweaking/etc the user login/registration part of the site is finally paying off. Although this is a small use of this functionality, it is a first of many projects which will require and use user login.
Outstanding blog/comments issues include:
-Comment post date/time, all aspects
-blog post date/time, formatting of same needs some work
-blog box still needs some work
Improvements have been made to the Blog Comments functionality as follows:
-user login is now required prior to posting a Blog Comment
-small layout enhancements have been made to comments section, more work still to be done.
-further security measures have been added to comments section, most security measures will never be 'blogged' about in great detail.
-user id is now being posted with comments. this step took very little time to implement, as the database and code has been written with this functionality in mind. The user id will eventually be replaced with a user name.
I think it is worth wile to note the use of user login for the blog comments section. This section is the first 'mainstream' part of the site to require user login. Additionally, the users id is now being associated with every comment. The work put into developing/testing/tweaking/etc the user login/registration part of the site is finally paying off. Although this is a small use of this functionality, it is a first of many projects which will require and use user login.
Outstanding blog/comments issues include:
-Comment post date/time, all aspects
-blog post date/time, formatting of same needs some work
-blog box still needs some work
Splash 7.003
January 14, 2007 - 14:40
- splash
This version of the splash page is currently out of the Sandbox and is being listed as the index page.
I have been working on several projects over the past week, some notable improvements include:
-Much work has been done on my Control Panel page. I spent many hours adding features and improving the user interface. I have added the functionality to delete/modify user records. The delete function took me as little longer than expected. The code to perform the DB Query was very straight forward, but my desire to add a confirmation pop-up prior to executing the Delete Query was not very straight forward. This feature required interaction between HMTL, PHP, and Javascript to the extent of which I have never performed. After some lengthy on-line research, I learned the techniques required to pass/access the variables required for the confirmation pop-up. The solution I choose was to pass the FORM variable to Javascript as a JS variable, and the METHOD GET to pass the variables from Javascript to PHP, which evaluates the user response and performs the proper action. I also did some experimenting with how, and more specifically, where I use the PHP to process forms within a page. Since the vast majority of the forms I use thus far submit their data to the same page the form is on, I wanted to experiment where I can display any messages from the form processing code. I discovered there is a lot that can be done to enhance the user experience by displaying useful messages when different tasks are performed (select/modify/delete/etc records). On my Main Control page, I have developed a message box that displays various messages as the user performs these different tasks. I am excited to say, that without the intention of coding the page to work like a typical AJAX page such as in Gmail, where certain parts of the page are updated without the entire page being reloaded; it turned out to be just that. When the user performs a task, part of the page is modified, without a reload. This makes it seem like the user is using an application, opposed to working on a web page. It appears that the foundation I have built over the past few months in the arena of using PHP/Javascript/and HTML to handle/process forms can be greatly expanded on with more work/research on the specifics of building AJAX pages. I feel that I am familiar with the tools needed and used to develop these pages, but I have done little studying on the idea behind AJAX. I am not going to focus much attention into this area just now, but do anticipate I will in the near future.
-I did some work on the user registration page. It is not finished yet, work needs to be done on it's appearance, but it functions just fine; which allowed me to feel comfortable with releasing it, as well as Splash 7.003, to be "live".
-I took out the beta registration "box", and replaced it with a registration box, which will either welcome a logged in user, display text/link to register.
-I still have not worked much on developing new photo album and blog pages. I was waiting to get the recently completed login pages to function correctly, as there isn't much sence in creating pages that require user login, without viable ways to register and login. Work will soon start of this content.
-I started work on and have already posted a header image for the splash page. Currently, it is a collage of 8 different pictures that I have taken throughout the years. I will continue to update this picture from time to time.
There are many new projects that I am excited to begin work on, and several old ones that need some attention (tag cloud, recent albums, etc...). I also need to do some research into why many of the PNG images are not displaying their opacity correctly in IE. Currently, part of the images that should be partially or fully transparent, are being displayed as a shade of gray. I am sure I will find much information regarding this issue with some research, but it is not of the highest priority at this time. This is one of several IE bugs I will look to fix in the future.
I have been working on several projects over the past week, some notable improvements include:
-Much work has been done on my Control Panel page. I spent many hours adding features and improving the user interface. I have added the functionality to delete/modify user records. The delete function took me as little longer than expected. The code to perform the DB Query was very straight forward, but my desire to add a confirmation pop-up prior to executing the Delete Query was not very straight forward. This feature required interaction between HMTL, PHP, and Javascript to the extent of which I have never performed. After some lengthy on-line research, I learned the techniques required to pass/access the variables required for the confirmation pop-up. The solution I choose was to pass the FORM variable to Javascript as a JS variable, and the METHOD GET to pass the variables from Javascript to PHP, which evaluates the user response and performs the proper action. I also did some experimenting with how, and more specifically, where I use the PHP to process forms within a page. Since the vast majority of the forms I use thus far submit their data to the same page the form is on, I wanted to experiment where I can display any messages from the form processing code. I discovered there is a lot that can be done to enhance the user experience by displaying useful messages when different tasks are performed (select/modify/delete/etc records). On my Main Control page, I have developed a message box that displays various messages as the user performs these different tasks. I am excited to say, that without the intention of coding the page to work like a typical AJAX page such as in Gmail, where certain parts of the page are updated without the entire page being reloaded; it turned out to be just that. When the user performs a task, part of the page is modified, without a reload. This makes it seem like the user is using an application, opposed to working on a web page. It appears that the foundation I have built over the past few months in the arena of using PHP/Javascript/and HTML to handle/process forms can be greatly expanded on with more work/research on the specifics of building AJAX pages. I feel that I am familiar with the tools needed and used to develop these pages, but I have done little studying on the idea behind AJAX. I am not going to focus much attention into this area just now, but do anticipate I will in the near future.
-I did some work on the user registration page. It is not finished yet, work needs to be done on it's appearance, but it functions just fine; which allowed me to feel comfortable with releasing it, as well as Splash 7.003, to be "live".
-I took out the beta registration "box", and replaced it with a registration box, which will either welcome a logged in user, display text/link to register.
-I still have not worked much on developing new photo album and blog pages. I was waiting to get the recently completed login pages to function correctly, as there isn't much sence in creating pages that require user login, without viable ways to register and login. Work will soon start of this content.
-I started work on and have already posted a header image for the splash page. Currently, it is a collage of 8 different pictures that I have taken throughout the years. I will continue to update this picture from time to time.
There are many new projects that I am excited to begin work on, and several old ones that need some attention (tag cloud, recent albums, etc...). I also need to do some research into why many of the PNG images are not displaying their opacity correctly in IE. Currently, part of the images that should be partially or fully transparent, are being displayed as a shade of gray. I am sure I will find much information regarding this issue with some research, but it is not of the highest priority at this time. This is one of several IE bugs I will look to fix in the future.
Login Update
January 7, 2007 - 11:26
- user login - splash
* still in sandbox
User login, registration, and registration confirmation pages are now live. I recently changed the variable I am passing via the session arrays. At first, I was only passing the unique user id number, corresponding to the user record in the DB. After some lengthy considerations, I have decided to pass an array of user information (nothing sensitive), opposed to only the user id. Instead of using multiple session variables, I am passing one variable, an array of user information. As of right now, I have only implemented this change on my main splash login page (index page), and not the user login page I recently made; thus, sessions started in the login page are not being read correctly on the splash page (and vice versa). This will be a quick fix, as I only need to change the way the session is being created in the login page. I purposely have two separate login processing scripts. This allows me to test changes in one VS changes in the other. Ultimately, I will almost certainly have only one login script that gets called wherever needed. I decided to change the session variable to be an array to cut down on the number of DB queries that needed to be performed per page load. I doubt they were causing much of a performance issue, but I like the idea of getting commonly used user attributes such as first name from an array, opposed to a query.
I still have some site/code housecleaning to do, with issues such as the one described above, as well as other behind the scene things, that needs to be done prior to making this splash page the live index page.
Hopefully by the end of today or in the next few days, these things will be done. I am pleased with the progress of integrating user login to the site. All of the work done now, will make the creation of future page/site content that takes advantage of user login, much quicker to create.
User login, registration, and registration confirmation pages are now live. I recently changed the variable I am passing via the session arrays. At first, I was only passing the unique user id number, corresponding to the user record in the DB. After some lengthy considerations, I have decided to pass an array of user information (nothing sensitive), opposed to only the user id. Instead of using multiple session variables, I am passing one variable, an array of user information. As of right now, I have only implemented this change on my main splash login page (index page), and not the user login page I recently made; thus, sessions started in the login page are not being read correctly on the splash page (and vice versa). This will be a quick fix, as I only need to change the way the session is being created in the login page. I purposely have two separate login processing scripts. This allows me to test changes in one VS changes in the other. Ultimately, I will almost certainly have only one login script that gets called wherever needed. I decided to change the session variable to be an array to cut down on the number of DB queries that needed to be performed per page load. I doubt they were causing much of a performance issue, but I like the idea of getting commonly used user attributes such as first name from an array, opposed to a query.
I still have some site/code housecleaning to do, with issues such as the one described above, as well as other behind the scene things, that needs to be done prior to making this splash page the live index page.
Hopefully by the end of today or in the next few days, these things will be done. I am pleased with the progress of integrating user login to the site. All of the work done now, will make the creation of future page/site content that takes advantage of user login, much quicker to create.
Splash 7.002
January 3, 2007 - 10:3
- css - splash
* - still in sandbox
I would like to wish everyone a happy new year! I was lucky enough to welcome in the new year with some college friends in my hometown; so the chance to meet up with some good high school friends was greatly appreciated.
I have been all over the place with recent site improvements. The majority of my efforts have been focused around some element or another of user login.
-I started work on a main control panel for DB functions (view/edit/etc). Like my blog entry interface, I am the only intended user, as such I usually focus less on appearance and more on usability/functionality. Even so, the simple fact that nothing I am doing has any sort of time line, other than any I choose to put on myself, I have the chance to take my time on all aspects of the sites development. I would like to think that any interface I build for myself would certainly be solid enough to easily be ported for multiple applications/uses. The progress I made thus far on this control panel is encouraging. Without intending on it, the page is slowly beginning to resemble the current DB interface I use, phpMyAdmin.
-I started work on a user login screen yesterday. It s currently under my "links" section. I started working on it for a few reasons. I wanted to re-write the login code, cleaning up certain areas; I wanted a page for people to be sent to when trying to access a restricted part of the site; and I was looking for a new page to use the sessions with. Thus far, the best thing that has come out of the page is an experiment I tried tonight with the CSS, which has yielded some nice design options. So far, I have only tested it in FireFox, and I am not very optimistic for it's chances of surviving the IE gauntlet, but at least this is a start. I'm sure this method of displaying information is posted all over the place, but I was excited to thing of it as a "What if?" and actually implement it as I had originally envisioned it, without many complications (note I said it likely wont work in IE, yet). I was looking to add some more information on the login screen, but I kinda liked the simplicity of nothing at all except the login form (bad UI, but it's my site). I decided on using the Javascript method of hiding/displaying DIVs as I previously posted about. It worked as expected. Then I thought it would be cool if more of the page changed, so I started fooling around with the position/size of the hidden DIV. Finally, after some Photoshop fun, I made the background for a DIV which would lay completely over the other DIV (background only), so the login form will still be displayed, but the background wont. At this point, everything can be modified with general ease. I fooled around with a graphic for a while tonight, but look forward to working on it again, sometime soon. On an unrelated note, the login/logout is currently working well, with the exception of the sessions. Sessions are being carried over from the "splash" page to the "login" page, but not the other way around. I will work on that as well in the near future.
There are also some visual differences that I added a little while back. The 470 "Main" column now has new background boxes. They aren't the final look I will likely go with, but I think they are nice for now.
As I look around the site, there are a ton of things that I need to go back and work on/fix, and luckily, I have plenty of time to do it. I think I will put an emphasis on content that will require user login. The entire idea around login is so I can put up stuff like photos and videos, with the ability to control access. I guess we will just have to wait and see what and when new stuff will get put up :-) Have a good night.
-and sorry for such incredibly boring/bland/blah blog posts. At this point, they are helpful for me to track the progress of the site, some day, hopefully, I wont still be designing the site!
I would like to wish everyone a happy new year! I was lucky enough to welcome in the new year with some college friends in my hometown; so the chance to meet up with some good high school friends was greatly appreciated.
I have been all over the place with recent site improvements. The majority of my efforts have been focused around some element or another of user login.
-I started work on a main control panel for DB functions (view/edit/etc). Like my blog entry interface, I am the only intended user, as such I usually focus less on appearance and more on usability/functionality. Even so, the simple fact that nothing I am doing has any sort of time line, other than any I choose to put on myself, I have the chance to take my time on all aspects of the sites development. I would like to think that any interface I build for myself would certainly be solid enough to easily be ported for multiple applications/uses. The progress I made thus far on this control panel is encouraging. Without intending on it, the page is slowly beginning to resemble the current DB interface I use, phpMyAdmin.
-I started work on a user login screen yesterday. It s currently under my "links" section. I started working on it for a few reasons. I wanted to re-write the login code, cleaning up certain areas; I wanted a page for people to be sent to when trying to access a restricted part of the site; and I was looking for a new page to use the sessions with. Thus far, the best thing that has come out of the page is an experiment I tried tonight with the CSS, which has yielded some nice design options. So far, I have only tested it in FireFox, and I am not very optimistic for it's chances of surviving the IE gauntlet, but at least this is a start. I'm sure this method of displaying information is posted all over the place, but I was excited to thing of it as a "What if?" and actually implement it as I had originally envisioned it, without many complications (note I said it likely wont work in IE, yet). I was looking to add some more information on the login screen, but I kinda liked the simplicity of nothing at all except the login form (bad UI, but it's my site). I decided on using the Javascript method of hiding/displaying DIVs as I previously posted about. It worked as expected. Then I thought it would be cool if more of the page changed, so I started fooling around with the position/size of the hidden DIV. Finally, after some Photoshop fun, I made the background for a DIV which would lay completely over the other DIV (background only), so the login form will still be displayed, but the background wont. At this point, everything can be modified with general ease. I fooled around with a graphic for a while tonight, but look forward to working on it again, sometime soon. On an unrelated note, the login/logout is currently working well, with the exception of the sessions. Sessions are being carried over from the "splash" page to the "login" page, but not the other way around. I will work on that as well in the near future.
There are also some visual differences that I added a little while back. The 470 "Main" column now has new background boxes. They aren't the final look I will likely go with, but I think they are nice for now.
As I look around the site, there are a ton of things that I need to go back and work on/fix, and luckily, I have plenty of time to do it. I think I will put an emphasis on content that will require user login. The entire idea around login is so I can put up stuff like photos and videos, with the ability to control access. I guess we will just have to wait and see what and when new stuff will get put up :-) Have a good night.
-and sorry for such incredibly boring/bland/blah blog posts. At this point, they are helpful for me to track the progress of the site, some day, hopefully, I wont still be designing the site!
Splash 7.001
December 29, 2006 - 12:25
- splash
* still in sandbox
-Work has been done on user login/logout. A beta tester sign-up form was added to the main column on the Splash page. Additionally, when a user signs-up for beta testing, a beta testing graphic is floated on the upper right hand corner of the main window; when clicked, it displays a form to submit issues found while navigating the site. Reallistically, I am unsure how much use this "issue" form will get, but it was a worthwhile project involving multiple MySQL DB's, PHP sessions, and the interaction between code written over the past few months. After some frustrating hours of dealing with many MySQL errors being generated as different queries to different DB's were being called, I believe I have accomplished the goal I initially came up with earlier today. The beta tester sign-up form acts as a pre-registration, as it adds volunteers to the main user DB, albeit in limited capacity. I believe after the work done today, some of the content and personalization ideas I have, made possible with allowing users to login and enter information/preferences, seems more realistic, as I can now approach any tasks from a better angle, avoiding errors that cost a lot of time today.
-Work has been done on user login/logout. A beta tester sign-up form was added to the main column on the Splash page. Additionally, when a user signs-up for beta testing, a beta testing graphic is floated on the upper right hand corner of the main window; when clicked, it displays a form to submit issues found while navigating the site. Reallistically, I am unsure how much use this "issue" form will get, but it was a worthwhile project involving multiple MySQL DB's, PHP sessions, and the interaction between code written over the past few months. After some frustrating hours of dealing with many MySQL errors being generated as different queries to different DB's were being called, I believe I have accomplished the goal I initially came up with earlier today. The beta tester sign-up form acts as a pre-registration, as it adds volunteers to the main user DB, albeit in limited capacity. I believe after the work done today, some of the content and personalization ideas I have, made possible with allowing users to login and enter information/preferences, seems more realistic, as I can now approach any tasks from a better angle, avoiding errors that cost a lot of time today.
Splash 7.000
December 26, 2006 - 12:30
- splash
* still in sandbox
First off, Merry Christmas! As the title suggests, this post will unfortunately be of a technical nature opposed to talking about the very nice Christmas holiday I am currently enjoying.
I have been working on many different Splash elements over the past week, some were written a few months ago and now I'm finally getting to use them in a more "real life" scenario. I will go into some of the quick details about some of the different changes/updates/issues that are in Splash 7.
* - "Digg" button. I enjoy browsing digg.com and as such, I wanted to give readers of my blog the option to digg my blog posts if they felt so compelled. Realistically speaking, I do not anticipate many people to ever read any of my blog posts, so I doubt this functionality will really be used, but it pays a little homage to the efforts of Kevin Rose and his crew. I am not sure if the button is currently working correctly. I think I need to tweak to the code that is generating the variables passed to digg. The button is a definite side project that is of low priority as well as low complexity.
* - New layout. I have modified the size of the two columns I currently used. The new "main" column has been increased in size to 470px and the "sidebox" column has been decreased in size to 250px. This change was prompted by my desire to have the option of adding banners that are 468px wide. It is also nice to give the blog entries and RSS feeds a little more real estate to use. When I went to implement the new dimension, I was also able to clean up the CSS style sheet a little bit. There are currently a few classes that aren't live, but will be in the next few days. I have added new top bars for the different sections on the splash page (ie:links,donate,blog entries, etc...), however they appear to not be displaying correctly in IE 7, in the case that I saw, the top bars were being cut off approx 30-50px on the right side. I will continue to look into this issue, as well as various other issues regarding the page displaying correctly on the carious browsers. I've also started putting all of the pages head and footer information in external PHP files, in the name of more maintainable code.
* - Apple ads. This new splash currently displays a few different Apple ads. With the similar train of thought as the Digg button, these ads are more a tribute to a company I am a fan of, than an attempt to make money. Currently there is a "sky scraper" ad in the sidebox adjacent to the RSS feeds and a collection of banners from televisions I enjoy that are also available for download on iTunes. These ads are also a nice hands-on tutorial for affiliate programs. An additional benefit of the ads is simply a little more content that will hopefully make the splash page a little more interesting.
* - Paypal Donate button. I just couldn't resist giving people the ability to send me money! A little disclaimer, I can choose how to spend any money given by said payer to said payee! ha.
* - User login. This is my current project for Splash 7. I am just now in the process of adding some code I wrote back in September of this year. I had bought a PHP/mySQL book and was going through some of the chapters. I had spent a good amount of time on user login, logout, register functionality as well as time spent starting and using sessions. I am making good progress on adding and testing this functionality, and I expect it to go through many revisions until I am satisfied to enable it on a site wide scale.
Well, that's the brief on some of the things i have been working on in Splash 7. I'm not in a huge rush for any of the projects but the fact that I'm so close to getting the user sessions to work correctly will likely prompt me to spend a lot of time in the near future working on it. There are many really exciting things that user login will allow me to do, so we will see what comes of this.
First off, Merry Christmas! As the title suggests, this post will unfortunately be of a technical nature opposed to talking about the very nice Christmas holiday I am currently enjoying.
I have been working on many different Splash elements over the past week, some were written a few months ago and now I'm finally getting to use them in a more "real life" scenario. I will go into some of the quick details about some of the different changes/updates/issues that are in Splash 7.
* - "Digg" button. I enjoy browsing digg.com and as such, I wanted to give readers of my blog the option to digg my blog posts if they felt so compelled. Realistically speaking, I do not anticipate many people to ever read any of my blog posts, so I doubt this functionality will really be used, but it pays a little homage to the efforts of Kevin Rose and his crew. I am not sure if the button is currently working correctly. I think I need to tweak to the code that is generating the variables passed to digg. The button is a definite side project that is of low priority as well as low complexity.
* - New layout. I have modified the size of the two columns I currently used. The new "main" column has been increased in size to 470px and the "sidebox" column has been decreased in size to 250px. This change was prompted by my desire to have the option of adding banners that are 468px wide. It is also nice to give the blog entries and RSS feeds a little more real estate to use. When I went to implement the new dimension, I was also able to clean up the CSS style sheet a little bit. There are currently a few classes that aren't live, but will be in the next few days. I have added new top bars for the different sections on the splash page (ie:links,donate,blog entries, etc...), however they appear to not be displaying correctly in IE 7, in the case that I saw, the top bars were being cut off approx 30-50px on the right side. I will continue to look into this issue, as well as various other issues regarding the page displaying correctly on the carious browsers. I've also started putting all of the pages head and footer information in external PHP files, in the name of more maintainable code.
* - Apple ads. This new splash currently displays a few different Apple ads. With the similar train of thought as the Digg button, these ads are more a tribute to a company I am a fan of, than an attempt to make money. Currently there is a "sky scraper" ad in the sidebox adjacent to the RSS feeds and a collection of banners from televisions I enjoy that are also available for download on iTunes. These ads are also a nice hands-on tutorial for affiliate programs. An additional benefit of the ads is simply a little more content that will hopefully make the splash page a little more interesting.
* - Paypal Donate button. I just couldn't resist giving people the ability to send me money! A little disclaimer, I can choose how to spend any money given by said payer to said payee! ha.
* - User login. This is my current project for Splash 7. I am just now in the process of adding some code I wrote back in September of this year. I had bought a PHP/mySQL book and was going through some of the chapters. I had spent a good amount of time on user login, logout, register functionality as well as time spent starting and using sessions. I am making good progress on adding and testing this functionality, and I expect it to go through many revisions until I am satisfied to enable it on a site wide scale.
Well, that's the brief on some of the things i have been working on in Splash 7. I'm not in a huge rush for any of the projects but the fact that I'm so close to getting the user sessions to work correctly will likely prompt me to spend a lot of time in the near future working on it. There are many really exciting things that user login will allow me to do, so we will see what comes of this.
Splash 6.636
December 17, 2006 - 5:36
- splash
this splash is out of sandbox, current index.
-fixed some IE display issues at the sacrifice of some small style preferences as well as code that validates without warnings. I will look to resolve these new issues, but they are not a high priority at this time.
-fixed some IE display issues at the sacrifice of some small style preferences as well as code that validates without warnings. I will look to resolve these new issues, but they are not a high priority at this time.
Splash 6.635 - update
December 17, 2006 - 14:34
- splash
* still in sandbox
successfully eliminated 2 errors/129 warnings. The solution ended up being a combination of formatting some text prior to being added to the the RSS array; and doing a little CSS house cleaning such as calling an ID more than once, etc...
I am unsure how these improvements will affect the way the page is displayed an IE. I will soon work on that issue.
successfully eliminated 2 errors/129 warnings. The solution ended up being a combination of formatting some text prior to being added to the the RSS array; and doing a little CSS house cleaning such as calling an ID more than once, etc...
I am unsure how these improvements will affect the way the page is displayed an IE. I will soon work on that issue.
Splash 6.635
December 17, 2006 - 13:9
- splash
* in sandbox
-currently the Tidy HTML Validator is displaying 2 errors/129 warnings. The vast majority of the issues are in the RSS content. It appears that there are some broken tags in some of the feeds description text. I will look to do some string formating prior to the information being pushed to the array.
-the page is displaying very poorly in Internet Explorer. I will work on solving the issues described above, in the hope that some of the IE issues will also be resolved.
-currently the Tidy HTML Validator is displaying 2 errors/129 warnings. The vast majority of the issues are in the RSS content. It appears that there are some broken tags in some of the feeds description text. I will look to do some string formating prior to the information being pushed to the array.
-the page is displaying very poorly in Internet Explorer. I will work on solving the issues described above, in the hope that some of the IE issues will also be resolved.
Splash 6.633
December 16, 2006 - 4:18
- rss - splash
This version of splash is being used as current index.
Improvements:
-first 3 RSS feeds are displayed for each RSS feed source, the rest of the feeds for that source are being put into a DIV with visibility that is, at first hidden, with an option to display.
-CCL DIV is now displaying properly
Splash 6.632
December 16, 2006 - 12:39
- rss - splash
* in Sandbox
added following elements to RSS feed array:
-feedimg : this column contains the graphic for the RSS feed. I am pulling it out of the URL tags. Due to my my limited knowledge of RSS feeds, I am currently grabbing whatever image appears between the URL tags, which from what I have noted thus far, always falls between the CHANNEL tag and the first ITEM tag. I was disappointed to learn that not all RSS feeds link to "feed image". The script works regardless of whether or not "feed image" is present. Currently, I am unsure whether or not I will either choose to use only RSS feeds that have a "feed image", in the name of consistency; or if I will use some feeds without a "feed image", in the name of content. I believe I will be able to find the type of content I want fed through the use of feeds that have a "feed image". Additionally, I am hoping that a feed without an image is the exception, not the rule.
added following elements to RSS feed array:
-feedimg : this column contains the graphic for the RSS feed. I am pulling it out of the URL tags. Due to my my limited knowledge of RSS feeds, I am currently grabbing whatever image appears between the URL tags, which from what I have noted thus far, always falls between the CHANNEL tag and the first ITEM tag. I was disappointed to learn that not all RSS feeds link to "feed image". The script works regardless of whether or not "feed image" is present. Currently, I am unsure whether or not I will either choose to use only RSS feeds that have a "feed image", in the name of consistency; or if I will use some feeds without a "feed image", in the name of content. I believe I will be able to find the type of content I want fed through the use of feeds that have a "feed image". Additionally, I am hoping that a feed without an image is the exception, not the rule.
Splash 6.631
December 16, 2006 - 15:1
- rss - splash
*in Sandbox
After a small struggle, I am successfully adding a RSS feeds Channel Title to the feed. At first glance, I believed this task would not be very difficult; but the way I am parsing the XML Document (RSS feed) presented some obstacles in choosing the correct title, and then displaying only the correct title with the corresponding feed. I ended up getting more familiar with different approaches PHP offers in regards to parsing XML documents, but in the end, I stuck with a heavily modified version of the original parsing script. I am now passing an array of RSS feeds from my parsing script to the calling page. I am hopping that this approach will offer the most flexibility with displaying RSS feeds in multiple locations, as any particular page would demand. The array of arrays (array feeds[] holds multiple feed[] arrays) contains information about a feeds source and corresponding link/title/date, future versions would possibly contain feeds source image/etc. My next step is to clean up the code and to modify the appearance as well as number of feeds displayed.
Splash 6.630
December 13, 2006 - 13:27
- splash
Splash 6.630 is now out of sandbox and listed as index page.
Splash 6.629
December 13, 2006 - 10:24
- Sandbox - Splash
*still in Sandbox
Additions:
-RSS feeds, that do nothing right now. They are being displayed using arrays. One array of feeds, which contains another array (a feed), consisting of title/link/description/... you get the idea. I'm not completely sure why the tutorial I was looking at (PHPbuilder.com's) used a MySQL DB to store the values, but I'm sure if I read it again in it's entirety I would find out :-) But anyways, I need to start using multiple feeds, and then only displaying a few items from each, additionally, I need to format the output much more than it currently is. A nice little project for a sleepless night.
Immediate projects to be done:
-figure out why CCL div box is displaying weird
-figure out why RSS div box is displaying weird
-figure out why there is a grayish box around my images when viewed in IE.
All in all, I am pleased with the progress of the entire splash page. There a some projects, such as:
-the tag cloud
-user login
-blog and photo album page(s)
-blog entry page in general (although I have to admit it looks pretty good, considering I created it only for me to see)
-and countless other projects that are either started somewhere or that are still floating around in my head!
that I look forward to working on.
Have a good night!
Additions:
-RSS feeds, that do nothing right now. They are being displayed using arrays. One array of feeds, which contains another array (a feed), consisting of title/link/description/... you get the idea. I'm not completely sure why the tutorial I was looking at (PHPbuilder.com's) used a MySQL DB to store the values, but I'm sure if I read it again in it's entirety I would find out :-) But anyways, I need to start using multiple feeds, and then only displaying a few items from each, additionally, I need to format the output much more than it currently is. A nice little project for a sleepless night.
Immediate projects to be done:
-figure out why CCL div box is displaying weird
-figure out why RSS div box is displaying weird
-figure out why there is a grayish box around my images when viewed in IE.
All in all, I am pleased with the progress of the entire splash page. There a some projects, such as:
-the tag cloud
-user login
-blog and photo album page(s)
-blog entry page in general (although I have to admit it looks pretty good, considering I created it only for me to see)
-and countless other projects that are either started somewhere or that are still floating around in my head!
that I look forward to working on.
Have a good night!
RSS Feeds : update
December 12, 2006 - 13:37
- Splash - RSS
The solution definitely does not require MySQL, rather, a multidimensional array.
RSS feeds
December 11, 2006 - 9:12
- Splash - RSS
I'm currently working on adding some RSS feeds from other sites to my splash site. The code isn't in the sandbox yet, but it shouldn't be too long before I can get some beta examples on the Splash page currently being displayed in the sandbox. Ideally, I was looking to write the RSS aggregator code myself using PHP and MySQL. After searching high and far on the Internet, I decided that the two practical options I was willing to consider where, a) use some scripts already written such as MagpieRSS or b) use the code in a tutorial, such as PHPBuilder.com's "Reading RSS feeds in PHP Parts 1 & 2" and modify it to fit my needs. I choose the latter, the tutorial does a decent job explaining the steps, and this isn't isn't a project I have a ton of time to put into at this moment. I think that ultimately I will come up with a good solution as well as some good knowledge on one approach to displaying RSS feeds.
The next step will obviously be to create my own RSS feeds from blog and picture album posts.
Besides that, I am almost ready to transfer the hosting of this site to another hosting company. Among many reasons for this change was the fact that this move will most likely solve the issues I am having with uploading files to the server, which will then allow me to post pictures in Blog posts. Once that all happens I think I will finally be ready to post some Blogs about more than my boring splash page! But until then... enjoy my sloppy/broken tag cloud, photo album previews that don't link to any photo albums, and overall boring user interface :-)
The next step will obviously be to create my own RSS feeds from blog and picture album posts.
Besides that, I am almost ready to transfer the hosting of this site to another hosting company. Among many reasons for this change was the fact that this move will most likely solve the issues I am having with uploading files to the server, which will then allow me to post pictures in Blog posts. Once that all happens I think I will finally be ready to post some Blogs about more than my boring splash page! But until then... enjoy my sloppy/broken tag cloud, photo album previews that don't link to any photo albums, and overall boring user interface :-)
Splash 6.625
December 3, 2006 - 13:41
- sandbox - splash
*still in sandbox
minor updates:
-fixed date/time display for blog and comments within
-possible fix for blog time entry, TBD after this post
-"View All Albums" div is nested/hidden within "Recent Albums" side box
minor updates:
-fixed date/time display for blog and comments within
-possible fix for blog time entry, TBD after this post
-"View All Albums" div is nested/hidden within "Recent Albums" side box
Splash 6.623
December 2, 2006 - 0:0
- splash
*Still in Sandbox*
Features:
-Sandbox link/graphic:
.yet to be tested in IE
-Sidebox: All Photo Albums
.developed to eventually be placed in collapsible div, possibly to be displayed under "Recent Albums".
-new tag cloud is in beta phase, still having issues determining (then displaying) "hot tags"
Outstanding issues:
Splash:
-date/time display for blog
Site:
-photo album page
-blog pages (individual and all)
Other:
-picture upload/display for blog posts
Additional "to-do":
-create header graphic/navigation
-implement new color scheme
-primary focus has thus far been almost solely on content generation/display, focus will not change until many more strides are made in this area.
Features:
-Sandbox link/graphic:
.yet to be tested in IE
-Sidebox: All Photo Albums
.developed to eventually be placed in collapsible div, possibly to be displayed under "Recent Albums".
-new tag cloud is in beta phase, still having issues determining (then displaying) "hot tags"
Outstanding issues:
Splash:
-date/time display for blog
Site:
-photo album page
-blog pages (individual and all)
Other:
-picture upload/display for blog posts
Additional "to-do":
-create header graphic/navigation
-implement new color scheme
-primary focus has thus far been almost solely on content generation/display, focus will not change until many more strides are made in this area.
Splash 6.620
November 19, 2006 - 0:0
- web dev - splash
Splash 6.620
-to do:
-correct date/time output
-enable user login
-link tags to corresponding tag results
-create new picture page(s)
-create blog page(s)
-enable blog entry file upload
-modified/new:
-created "tag cloud" in very beta form
-updated add comments section, still needs work
-to do:
-correct date/time output
-enable user login
-link tags to corresponding tag results
-create new picture page(s)
-create blog page(s)
-enable blog entry file upload
-modified/new:
-created "tag cloud" in very beta form
-updated add comments section, still needs work
Splash 6.615
November 18, 2006 - 0:0
- web dev - splash
All posts will continue to be deleted until testing is complete.
Splash 6.615
- 3 active databases for blogs: entry, comments, tags
- blog posting is getting close to complete, but file uploading still needs to be resolved, as does the comment post/display interface
-no user login is currently enabled
- photo album is still in legacy status, photo links need to
be worked on
- more sidebar content needs to be developed including possible "tag cloud", ability to browse blogs (as splash will only display recent posts in future revisions), ability to browse all photo albums (still need to narrow down interface design)
Splash 6.615
- 3 active databases for blogs: entry, comments, tags
- blog posting is getting close to complete, but file uploading still needs to be resolved, as does the comment post/display interface
-no user login is currently enabled
- photo album is still in legacy status, photo links need to
be worked on
- more sidebar content needs to be developed including possible "tag cloud", ability to browse blogs (as splash will only display recent posts in future revisions), ability to browse all photo albums (still need to narrow down interface design)