Links for March 17th through April 24th

Links for March 17th through April 24th:

  • XSD Schema XML Validator A XSD Schema validator in Java, provides lots of useful information; use it with a schema and an xml instance
  • Three20 Three20 is a collection of iPhone UI classes, like a photo viewer, and general utilities, like an HTTP disk cache. Three20 is derived from the Facebook iPhone app, which is one of the most downloaded iPhone apps ever.
  • CSS Decorative Gallery …How to decorate your images and photo galleries without editing the source images. The trick is very simple. All you need is an extra <span> tag and apply a background image to create the overlaying effect.
  • Comet (programming) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Comet is a neologism to describe a web application model in which a long-held HTTP request allows a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it
  • Cocoa Is My Girlfriend » Cocoa Tutorial: awakeFromNib vs applicationDidFinishLaunching A very good overview of the 'startup' procedure for objects stored in IB nib/xibs.
Read More

Private Tags WordPress Plugin

The “Private Tags” WordPress plugin allows users to specify a list of tags or categories to keep hidden from the public – all posts within the specified tags/categories, and the tags/categories themselves, will not be visible to anyone but the original author.

Alternatively, in ‘inclusive’ mode specify a list of tags/categories to make public – all other tags/categories will remain hidden.

Read More

AutoRate 1.5.0 release

Autorate150.pngThanks to the efforts of Brandon Mol and a few dedicated testers, AutoRate 1.5.0 is ready for public consumption. Sporting a brand new rating algorithm and shiny new interface, this new version features more intelligent, more adjustable rating.

Read More

Sneak preview of my new web framework Michaelangelo

I’ve been working on a new web framework which provides image theming – a little like what Elegant Grunge does with its image frames, but much more sophisticated.

For example:
boathouse.jpg

A dynamic caption

thailand.jpg

This is a PHP framework that uses the common GD library to manipulate images.

It’s main interface is a content filter – give it HTML, containing images, and it will return the same HTML modified so that the images are now the converted versions, according to their ‘class’ attributes, with appropriate width/height attributes, etc. This makes it super easy to work with.

It stands alone, but it is also going to be a WordPress plugin (as you can see on this site, it’s already operational), a Joomla plugin, and I’m considering establishing a web service too, so those who don’t have adequate software on their server can still use it.

IMG_1773.jpg

It has a plugin-based architecture so anyone can add new ‘themes’ (props to my partner Katherine for that beautiful wooden frame, by the way). I’m going to also implement a simple XML-based plugin schema, and possibly an interface to it, so that it’s easy to do so. I’m planning a ‘community’ style directory site to host contributed styles.

The base frame rendering code is such that it is trivially easy to add a new ‘theme’. It extracts segments from a single frame image, and handles seamless tiling to make the frame the right dimensions, so you don’t even have to worry about overlapping regions.

I will release it soon, after adding a little more content – keep your eyes peeled.

For now, check out the Michaelangelo showcase, which gives an idea of the different styles, and contains an interactive sampler to play with styles (IE users should stop being IE users to view this).

Doing my bit to beautify the web.

Read More

Align comments in Textmate

Unless I’m using Objective-C, which is fantastically self-documenting, I often like to add comments to parameters to remind me of what they do. For example:

imagecopy($image, $frame, 
          ($x=max($width-$this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapWidth], $this-&gt;topLeftCap[kCapWidth])), // Destination x
          0,  // Destination y
          $x,  // Source x
          0,  // Source y
          min($this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapWidth], $width-$this-&gt;topLeftCap[kCapWidth]),  // Source width
          $this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapHeight]); // Source height

The only thing is, it looks terrible and is very hard to read. I usually carefully insert spaces before the comments so they line up, but that’s really hard to maintain.

I use Textmate, and found an ‘Align Assignments’ script by Chris Poirier which applies very nice formatting to a block of assignments.

Some trivial modifications resulted in a similar script to align comments. Hit Ctrl-Option-Command-/, and:

imagecopy($image, $frame, 
          ($x=max($width-$this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapWidth], $this-&gt;topLeftCap[kCapWidth])), // Destination x
          0,                                                                            // Destination y
          $x,                                                                           // Source x
          0,                                                                            // Source y
          min($this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapWidth], $width-$this-&gt;topLeftCap[kCapWidth]),      // Source width
          $this-&gt;topRightCap[kCapHeight]);                                              // Source height

Here it is:

Align Comments.tmCommand.zip

Read More

Mandatory internet filtering in Australia

This is copied from an email I recently sent out to everyone in my address book

Mandatory internet filtering – I actually thought this issue was over with, but it appears I was wrong.

If you’re not already aware of the issue (which is probably unlikely), there’s a factsheet from GetUp

The latest news here is that the secret blacklist (which is secret – Freedom of Information laws have been modified to deny any kind of public oversight) has been leaked, and contains all kinds of nasty stuff, but also a fair amount of relatively benign stuff: “a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.” The Age

The general concern is that this would be a secret, unaccountable system, a ‘loaded gun’ that could too-easily be subverted (Thailand’s internet content was originally intended just to filter out child pornography, but is now apparently used to silence sites that criticise the royal family). No western democracy has gone down this path before. Already it has been reported that there’s very little accountability to the blacklist administration process (“They have absolutely no review process whatsoever; the decision to ban content is final, and there is no judicial oversight. The decision is made by a single ACMA staffer, even someone part of a graduate process…” The Age)

That’s the worst of it – there’re other issues about the filter raising the cost of Internet access, and slowing down the Internet ‘up to 87%’.

GetUp has a petition in progress – I recommend that you sign it, if you feel so inclined:

If you’re as angry about this stuff as I am, I recommend writing a letter to Senator Conroy, as well (I wrote this one). His email address is [email protected].

Wikileaks, the website set up to hold documents submitted anonymously by whistleblowers, has apparently been brought to its knees by the huge number of requests from people looking at the leaked blacklist. Does anyone else find it hilarious that the very content the government has been trying to censor has now had a huge spotlight focused on it? Oh, man…

The summary on the Wikileaks page regarding the ACMA’s blacklist is worth a read, too. “…History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted into anti-democratic behavior.”

Read More

Links for March 6th through March 16th

Links for March 6th through March 16th:

Read More