Archive for January, 2008
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
I've just been debugging display issues in the CSS in Knowlege Constructs FAQ-Tastic tonight. Firefox and Safari on Mac were a breeze to get right: just pull all the margins and padding off of ol.faq with a .nonumbers ol class that I'd already been using. It was especially easy to figure it out with the Web Developer's Toolbar on Firefox.
Unfortunately a quick excursion over to the Darkside and Internet Explorer (the blinkers through which 92% of the visitors to our clients still see the web - among Folivision vistors Internet Explorer users are a minority), showed that the CSS code just wasn't working. Indentation had gone totally astray.
In the absence of Web Developer's Toolbar for Internet Explorer, there is no way to get instant Internet Explorer preview. The closest thing is to open up the file directly from the server and save it back to the server. Usually, I am set up with two monitors on my desk, a 20" Samsung 205B for the Windows box and an HP LP3065 for the Mac work station. It's just a matter of editing in CSSEdit or BBedit on the Mac, saving onto the server and pressing F5 on the PC keyboard.
We've installed a Linux machine now - the first of many - and I had to give up my 20" Samsung 205B and plug the Windows box back into the HP LP3065. (Both monitors are highly recommended, btw.)
Pushing input and switching keyboards was not efficient (3 movements instead of one, along with a screenflash each time).
So I decided to take the plunge and go looking for a Windows XHTML/CSS editor which would allow me to open up files from the server. It was either that or move a monitor.
html kit screenshot
I'd had a quick run-in with HTML-Kit a couple of nights ago which I found via somed SEO research I was doing (htmlkit are doing some serious link selling) but had not been happy at all with the tool. It was ugly and clumsy. Nothing like being at home on BBedit (which while arguably drab, is not clumsy). The website was particularly stressful with it's ugly and unreadable four column layout. Would you want to trust your html and CSS editor to people who can't build a readable web page? Me neither. While version 292 is free, all future versions and advanced functionality are relatively expensive, with just part of the pro package costing $65. I don't know if the guys at htmlkit have a drug habit they are supporting with their newfound commercial activities and advertising but something is seriously amiss.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Alec
IT |
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
I've just deployed a FAQ page onto one of the client websites using the Wordpress FAQ-Tastic plugin onto one of our client. I took some notes on the deployment and have written up a long FAQ-Tastic review. FAQ-Tastic was written by John Godley for Knowledge Constructs.
FAQ Tastic's default layout
Executive Summary
While not without issues, if you are thinking of using your FAQ page as a live resource you should definitely consider FAQ-Tastic. There's a lot of power under the hood. Don't miss the full FAQ-Tastic review with deployment notes.
By Alec
WordPress |
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Photoshop CS3 Save to GIF Droplet
(Mac OS X version)
If you use Photoshop CS3 and post screenshots to the web, this little droplet will save you a lot of trouble. For some reason it is impossible to convert ImageReady or previous Photoshop versions Droplets to Photoshop CS3.
Installation and Usage Instructions:
- download the zip
- decompress
- move to the folder of your choice (I have a special folder for Photoshop and Image Ready droplets)
- title your images for upload (spaces are okay - PS3 will convert them to hyphens)
- drop your images on the droplet
- your web ready GIF's will appear in your desktop folder
For equally unknown reasons is also extremely difficult to create a droplet which will actually open your image and resave it as you would like right in the folder where it lies.
Even my version here will save the GIF file to your desktop, rather than the folder where the original lies (my preference). Desktop isn't bad, as you can then upload the image and archive the extra desktop files every couple of days in a date named folder in a desktop archive folder.
Current advice on the Photoshop forum is to use the Image Processor or to move to Fireworks (a program I and many other Photoshop users have never opened up, let alone want to leave running constantly in the background). Image Processor is a nice piece of kit, but it's suited to bigger jobs, whole folders. What I need is something to convert my screenshots from .png to .gif or .jpeg for posting to the web. Nothing against PNG - it's a great format, but my web server will be very full very fast with the 500 KB files it generates. Moreover, much as I like images, there's no reason for anyone to have to wait that long to download screenshots.
So I need a droplet just to take the PNG and save it as GIF. This is that droplet.
BTW, you should never convert your screenshots to jpeg, except a very high quality compression algorithm. The only reason to prefer jpeg to GIF for screenshots - which are usually mainly text - is if they include photos.
References:
By Alec
WordPress |
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
All software documentation should be written by Germans. Here is a thorougly Teutonic guide to detoxing a Window's box. It could only be a friend's home computer.
- no right minded developer would ever let his computer get to this state.
- no competent sysadmin would give employees the leeway to do this on the corporate network
Microsoft Windows System Tray Run Amok
Some good pointers and getting the invevitable Autorun out of there - which is something which will be useful for us at Foliovision:
Using Sysinternals' AutoRuns tool I had a look at all the different places that can be used for running software on logon or boot, and apart from all the (presumably) tiny gadgets and widgets I also found a lot of the ubiquitous pre-loading parts of all sorts of common software: Adobe's PDF Reader, Microsoft Office, something from iTunes and several others....
Nobody in their right minds would boot their machine in the morning and manually launch Acrobat Reader, all MS office apps and every application they might possible use that day just to have them ready. It is immediately apparent to even the novice user that this is probably not making the machine more responsive.
But this is - almost - exactly what happens with all the auto run entries: You just don't see them on the screen immediately. So one thing I always do after installing any software is double-check whether it just registered some sort of auto run and if so remove it.
This is the result you are aiming for at the end:
Windows XP System Tray in Healthy State
Normally we do all this by hand, but I am going to try the Autoruns tool. It looks like a great way to speed up the cleaning process. Check Daniel's article for how to detox an XP computer without formatting the drive. Frankly, I think if I was going to go to this much trouble I would just move the data off and format and then back. There are too many things that can go wrong if you don't format the drive. But in these days of 500 GB standard hard drives, his tips willl become more valuable.
20080206 Update
I've found a great tool for cleaning out the start menu: Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel. Autoruns is wonderful but it is a bit overwhelming for non-programmer types.
Don't let the long name deceive you. Startup Control Panel is just 34 kb. As Mike says "like all my programs, it's very small and won't burden your system". I recommend the .exe version which you run only when you need to. The less clutter in the way of startup the better.
Startup Control Panel screenshot
BONUS TIP
While you are there, be sure to avoid Mike's Clipomatic. While attractive and including the functionality I'd like, Clipomatic has weird issues on XP which prevent it from functioning correctly.
M8 Free Clip
I've had to keep the Foliovision Windows boxes on the very ugly but functional M8 Free Clipboard. If anyone has any better ideas for a free or inexpensive multi-clipboard, I'm all ears.
By Alec
IT |
Saturday, January 5th, 2008
I just read the strangest apologia for a new service: Uh, why’s the official Tumblr blog on WordPress? (broken link - http://blog.davidville.com/2007/02/23/why-wordpress/#comments)
Simply - all the CMSy stuff it comes with. Blogs are an awesome platform. WordPress lets our entire staff contribute to the same blog, maintain tags and slugs, save and give feedback on drafts, upload and store media, back and forward publish posts, group our archive by month, lets our audience comment, lists trackbacks, et cetera, et cetera. It’s awesome! Blogs rock! But we knew this. WordPress is the perfect way for a business like ours to communicate with our audience.
Sounds good to me. David Karp goes on to write about the advantages of Tumblr: "posting with zero obligations, little or no comment". Great for wisecracking, difficult for communicating.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Alec
WordPress |
Friday, January 4th, 2008
google mail ads
One of my clients recently moved to Google Apps as their full time email solution.
I had my reservations at the time, but more on privacy grounds than technology ones. It turns out there are technology issues as well. My client was very excited about improved spam filtering from Postini. After the move he told me right away that he was getting a lot less spam.
This same client runs an insurance business with online application forms. Those forms go to special unfiltered email boxes. Of course those addresses aren't released publicly.
So they get all their forms and don't have to worry about miscreant insurance filters (most of my other clients are in real estate and we have filtering issues in real estate and mortgages as well).
Over the holidays, we couldn't figure out why Adwords was sometimes claiming more completed applications than the client was receiving. My tests were working. Finally we compared lists.
My client wasn't getting all the completed applications that were going into the database.
It turns out that Google Apps/Mail were deleting quotations (even though they were coming from his own domain).
What's the solution?
There are several, including setting up filters which move the wanted mail into a special saved box or the archive (why would you want your fresh mail there), but the best one is to add the address which you want whitelisted to your contact book.
- Click on and open an email from the sender that you want to whitelist.
- Click on the little down-pointing-triangle-arrow next to “reply”
- Add sender to contacts list.
Here is what the Add to Contacts function looks like when highlighted:
Gmail white list - Add to Contacts:
Nasty looking Ads - Not in My Email Thank You
There are other solutions for white listing a whole domain. In this case, you need to create a special folder for white listed mail and set up a mail filter for the domain in question sending it to one of the folders. How this works is that the incoming mail is filtered before going through Postini's spam filters. In general, this is commendable engineering as anything white listed will really get to its mail box and runs no risk of being lost in a spam filter.
Here are the eight steps:
- Click on "Settings" at the top right.
- Click the "Filter" tab in the yellow headings section.
- Click the link "Create a new filter".
- In the Choose search criteria section in the "From" field type in the email address or if it's a trusted website then you may opt to simply type the main name of the domain (eg. "howtomarketyourstuff.com" without the quotes).
- Click the "next step" button.
- Select the "Star it" radio box.
- Click the "Create Filter" button.
- The emails will end up in your Starred folder.
Convenient enought but it wouldn't work for my client or many other Gmail users.
Why not? Well, this client actually handles his Google App mail through Outlook when he is not on vacation so extra folders in Gmail looks like a problem waiting to happen. Perhaps someone else who runs Outlook and Gmail can let me know if the extra folder with its mail will turn up in Outlook or not...
Frankly, there were a number of deals which my client missed while the quotations were in Google Mail's Spam Folder. It took us longer to track down the hole than normal as it was not consistent and my client was away on holidays with limited computer access).
I have to say free apps can be awfully expensive.
By Alec
IT |
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Wordpress are finally getting around to updating the Admin theme.
This is a great idea. From the beginning Wordpress has generally looked great when going out with visitors but she dresses awfully sloppily around the house.
The front end just keeps getting better as the backend stagnates.
Unfortunately, current previews of the updated Wordpress 2.4 Admin interface show a getup which looks worse if anything, than what's there now.
I'm having visions of Mambo circa 2004. What's with the dreadful new brown and orange? The blue on blue colour scheme is about all the Wordpress Admin Panel has going for it aesthetically.
The only good looking Admin interface for Wordpress has been Steve Smith's Wordpress Tiger Administration, which first saw the light of day in June 2005.
Tiger Admin Page Management
Tiger Admin Dashboard
I gleefully ran Wordpress Tiger Administration for about six months back in 2005. Sadly, Wordpress Tiger Administration doesn't run on Internet Explorer - there's some very fancy CSS involved, which Steve didn't feel like bending to Internet Explorer. As Wordpress Tiger Administration is free, who can blame him?
The end result though as the clients started to edit the sites themselves, I didn't want to be using an interface that was in any way different than theirs. Otherwise, I just might now know if a site was working properly.
John and I talked about doing an Admin panel redesign but John talked me out of it for compatibility reasons. Had I known just how long the stagnation would go on, he might not have dissuaded me so easily.
In the end we did create Foliovision Edit Templates, now part of the full Foliopress CMS suite with Foliopress WYSIWYG, Foliopress SEO Images and Foliopress Advanced Page Manager and Foliopress Dashboard.
foliopress edit templates
foliopress advanced page management
foliopress dashboard
Frankly, Foliopress Edit Templates and Foliopress Advanced Page Manager look better to my eye than what's coming Wordpress 2.4. I'd still like to see a first rate designer have a go at the CSS.
As soon as John gets our registration and download system setup, I will release them for download for free non-commercial use. All of the Foliopress Admin enhancements are easily installed plugins which are fully compatible with all Wordpress versions between 2.1 and 2.2 so switching over is not difficult.
By Alec
WordPress |
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
One of the beta testers for Foliopress WYSIWYG has just complained that Foliopress WYSIWYG is not compatible with PHP4. Apparently PHP5 is still only 6% of the installed PHP base across all webhosts.
That figure should be enough to strike terror into any developer. But that number will change very soon as PHP4 has hit the end of the line.
PHP4 incompatibility started off not as a deliberate decision. Generally I like wider compatibility.
But on serious consideration, I'm not worried about Foliopress WYSIWYG being PHP5 only.
Why not?
- Our own webhost no longer supports PHP4 (they will put up with it on legacy projects, but strongly discourage it).
-
One click image posting from Foliopress WYSIWYG
via updated KFM right click: this image and caption
were posted with a single click
One of the core components in Foliopress WYSIWYG is Kae Verens's brilliant KFM (Kae's File Manager) which we have turned into an advanced image manager (see illustration right). Kae is no longer supporting PHP4 in future development: "PHP4 is a hindrance. My own project has already announced a similar plan - we will no longer be catering to PHP4 after the present release."
- PHP5 has been available for 3 years now and is thoroughly tested and is at version 5.2.5
- PHP5 has a lot of improved functionality over PHP4.
- PHP4 will start to disappear like dry brush this year. In six months there will no longer be PHP4 legacy issues as anybody keeping their online applications up to date will have moved on to PHP5 for one reason or another.
- Foliopress WYSIWYG target user profile: our users will be running PHP5 for the most part. If not now, in two months. Anyone who cares enough to change the default text editor in their Wordpress or Drupal install is likely the kind of person to be running PHP5 and not PHP4.
Sometimes releasing new software is great. One isn't hindered by legacy issues. We are looking to the future - Foliopress WYSIWYG will be PHP5 only. In any case, Foliopress WYSIWYG is good enough that it's worth upgrading in a heartbeat to PHP5.
Other Discussion: PHP4/PHP5 Compatibility Decisions
By Alec
WordPress |
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
We have occasionally - say about once a month - had small problems with our cable internet (Chello.sk). We've been lucky - the longest we've been down is one and a half hours and most of the time it's less than this.
Even a single day with internet down for a whole day would cost the company three times more in lost productivity than the cost of the second high speed connection for the year.
So we've done what every modern business should do. We now have redundant high speed internet from T-Com.
Which is a good thing as our cable internet is down today. But no big deal, I just swapped the router over to the DSL connection and we were all ready to get back to work. Well, almost.
With Mac OS X, switching over from one network connection is as easy as renewing your DHCP lease in the Network preference pane - the OS will usually do so automatically.
mac os x switching network
With Windows, it's a little more difficult as the computer will not want to switch over automatically, even if you open up the Local Area Connection Status and press repair.
That's not enough. After some positive messages, you will get an error saying that Windows is unable to repair DNS.
The simple but tiresome solution is to restart your computer. No big deal for one computer but for seven, a real pain in the neck.
There is a faster way. Open up Start -> Run and type:
ipconfig /flushdns
Your connection should be immediately live.
So now we have redundant internet for the whole office with just swapping over a single cable.
In terms of a longer term solution, we are thinking buying a load balancing router.
Unfortunately the reviews of all of them from the
D-Link DI-LB604
whether the D-Link DI-LB604 4-Port Load Balancing Router
or the Linksys RV082 have been so rotten that there doesn't seem to be any point in buying one for less than a thousand dollars. That's a lot of money for about $50 worth of hardware. Especially hardware which doesn't work very well.
At that price, it makes more sense to build your own load balancing Linux server. At least that way, one is future proofed. Load balancing routers are in their infancy and have to get better and cheaper over the next two years. I have no interest in paying the early adopter tax and then struggling with a shoddy solution.
What distribution or software to use. Reliable sources (tech support at Cartika webhosting) suggested doing it the Untangle Gateway Platform - which is free for DIY or $25/month with full support. Another well-known free alternative is pfSense (Wikipedia info). For background, read this good IBM article on setting up a network router on Linux.
The issue with any of this setup is the hours it will take to get it working properly. Later this month, I'll probably have our new IT guy Alexander sit down and figure out Untangle on an old server from Vienna. If any of it works, I'll let you know.
In the meantime, just remember cable swap and ipconfig /flushdns.
By Alec
IT |
