For a new project I've been working on, I needed to pull the image attachments from all incoming mail, store them separately. I couldn't find any snippets online for this so I had to create my own. Here's what I came up with. As always, it's a bit rough but is a [...]
I've had a lot of requests to turn some of my Twitter apps into mobile services. Most companies, like Twitter itself, use Short Codes (like 40404) to accept and send txt/sms messages. Short codes are very expensive (the cheapest solution I found started at $500 per month for a randomized short code of [...]
Just to keep my blog semi updated (seems I'm just letting this place collect dust), here's what I'm working on for today. This design won't be used. I liked where it was going, the client didn't. Figured I'd share it before I toss it. Also, I'm working on something new for this blog. It [...]
After a week or so of very hard work, we decided trying to clean everything up and restore the house was a futile attempt. Everything we really wanted to save/couldn't afford to replace immediately was cleaned up, boxed, and stored at my brother's house. After a couple weeks of cleaning and boxing, the [...]
A friend needed to push/send items from an RSS feed to his Twitter account. Here's the code in a nice .zip file. Very simple and rough, but it gets the job done nicely. Feel free to add to/modify. http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/KSDtwitter.zip
I'm upgrading wordpress so things might be hairy for a few hours..
Just upgraded from wordpress 2.3 to 2.5 -- the admin area has a few changes. The biggest change is the style and placement of everything. I like it and will adjust quickly but I really wish I could move my category selection box to the side nav again...I hate having it at the bottom. Other than that, I'm pleased...I really like the new autoupdate feature for plugins (is this new or have I overlooked it for this long?)...
I started on this last night around 10pm and had the basic code finished around midnight. It's fairly simple (and yes, another Twitter application): a user goes to www.SecretTweet.com and types in a secret. Their secret "tweet" is then published to @secrettweet. It's kind of like postsectret but for Twitter. I might add some features to it in the future...it all depends on the popularity.
I want to keep this as free as possibly from my other online activities; therefor, I have created a tumblr account that will host all of my twitter updates, all of my photoblog updates, all of my del.icio.us bookmarks, all of my youtube videos (rare), and all of the posts to this blog in one single place. It's very simple and rather unorganized....it gets the job done, though.
FaxZero.com - If you're making a casual fax, this is the way to go. It's free, it's online, and it's private. The only downside is the ad that is displayed on the coversheet. Other than that, the fax is 100% normal. Another great thing is it makes multiple delivery attempts so if the fax fails on the first attempt, a second try will come in about five minutes (tested this myself and love it).
The Ultimate Steal - If you're a college student, you can receive a discount on the Microsoft Office Bundle. I haven't tried this yet but I'm definitely going to in the near future. It's Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $60.
JumpCut.com - For those fond of the "For Dummies" series, this is for you. JumpCut is a service from Yahoo! that provides online video editing with some really cool features and it's 100% free (even the storage space). I use it for all my small projects and just general playing.
IBuyJunkMail.com - From Steve Rhode. I used to talk to this guy every morning at Concord University before I went to class. He's a pretty nice fellow and this experiment of his might be worth your time if you're in need of cash quick.
Skip Forced Faceboook Invites When Adding New Apps (add this link to your quick links bar!)
With RescueTime.com, track all of your computer habits (both online and offline).
I first came across this website while searching for a to-do list manager. I started to pass it up but figured it looked well developed so I should give it a shot. Here are my current stats for this week (updates automatically every week...how awesome is that? You don't have to make your stats public, either...but what do you have to hide? haha!)
Give it a try: RescueTime.com.
These are all used very frequently and always provide the information I was looking for or the result I was wanting. My favorite addon out of them all, though, has to be Screen Grab (number 4 on this list; it's just the way I ordered them).
Alexa Sparky
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5362
"Sparky is a free FireFox browser plugin built by Alexa, that accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you visit without interrupting your Web browsing."
Cooliris Preview
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2207
"Cooliris Previews gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the Cooliris preview window immediately appears to show you the content. To email it, just click."
Google Advanced Operations Toolbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1258
"This toolbar provides a shortcut to some of Google's advanced search functions..."
Screen Grab
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
"Screengrab saves entire webpages as images..."
IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419
"IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox..."
What are your favorite Firefox addons?
I've been posting over on Vox.com for quite some time. Over the past year, however, my posts have been marked as private or "neighborhood viewing only". I'm reverting back to self-hosted blogging for the customization and control. As for the blog itself, don't expect much -- very informal, very quick, random stuff.