Studio 12a

Translating Photoshop font sizes to scalable and accurate web font sizes can be a real challenge! I found a great link today with an very useful equation and a mention of a technique I’ve used previously. I used the combination today for a client project.
The challenge in translating designs is that designers often use points […]

Choosing a Content management system remains to be an issue for site maintainers and web site owners. The first issue seems to be “Do we need a CMS?”. The second issue is, of course, cost.
A common misconception is that there requirement of size before an organization can benefit from a Content Management System. Even small […]

Here’s a little code to show and hide divs or layers that is backwards compatible to Netscape 4 and IE 4. This is older code, but great for sites where you want to show and hide divs or layers but don’t have the need for the newer JavaScript libraries like Prototype or Scriptaculous.

Open Source stacks have become more prevalent over the last 3 years. Open Source stacks offer integration of varied softwares, flexibility through code transparency and highly customizable integration methods. Open Source stacks aren’t necessarily inexpensive but they are free from vendor lock-down and offer long-term cost savings.
More companies are being formed around Open Source software […]

Looking to integrate Vbulletin and Mediawiki? After much time working on just this issue, I have a suggestion…vbWikiPro. vbWikiPro is a “stack” integration of vBulletin and MediaWiki that authenticates against the vBulletin tables and autocreates MediaWiki users for a seamless integration of these two applications.
You can even integrate vBulletin into non-vb pages by using some […]

There are generally four ways to position elements on a page.

Position:static
Position:absolute
Position:relative
Floats
Margins

There are pro’s and con’s to each of these methods and it’s easiest to research before you start implementing. In addition, I often do sketches of the layout before starting to code HTML markup and CSS. Once you understand how the layout works, you can […]

I worked today on an issue where PHP was unexpectedly printing headers to the browser. I spent a while trying to track this down.
I followed the execution sequence and noticed, by using debug statements and the headers_sent() function in PHP, that headers were printing just after an include statement but there was no print(), echo() […]

I recently had a need for cross language encryption and decryption of cookies. More specifically, I needed to encrypt cookies in perl and decrypt the same cookies in PHP. After many Google searches, I finally found a post on a mailing list and contacted the author, Josh Kuo.
I don’t always expect a response when e-mailing […]

SSH is a tool used via command line by programmers and admins to connect securely to another server. The server could be across the room, or across the globe. In my work as a web developer, it’s one of the most useful tools I have at my fingertips daily. Once you learn it, you’ll want […]

I’m thumbless today on my right hand due to overuse of my several year old trackball. My thumb is in a splint and I’m having to learn to rely more on my left hand. I understand splints are controversial but it discourages me from using my thumb, so I’m happy.
I have been procrastinating purchasing a […]