http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog Notes, memoirs, and ideas Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:52:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Shouts & Hollers is an online "ezine" of sorts that is published by Charleston, WV, area bloggers.  Bill Gardner got in contact with me to answer a few questions regarding a recent sideproject of mine.  Read it here. Thanks Bill! http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/an-interview-with-shouts-hollers/ Via http://www.polyp.org.uk http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/word-harder/ Bored and playing with different tools in Illustrator. http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/unicorn-flatulence/ We've been working with Flash in my Intro to Computers in Art class and I wanted to play with with Flash a bit more than the assignment I've been working allowed me to (even though the assignment has allowed me to play and learn quite a lot, a clock wouldn't ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/awake-time/ My roommate lives off Chinese takeout and McDonalds.  Here's a menu with an amusing typo. Going home for the first time in a while this weekend.  Happy Birthday, Dad! http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/buffet-all-you-cat-eat/ The assignment: "Create a vector-based self-portrait. Using the photographs we've taken in class as a guide, make a vector-based self-portrait with Adobe Illustrator. The object of this project is to be as visually detailed and honest as is possible while using only strokes and shapes. Illustrator-based effects such as blurs, ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/11/vectorized-self-portrait/ I just realized I haven't shared any of the stuff I've done since I've been back in school.  Here are two pieces created within the past few weeks. This first one was a project for a class.  Here's an excerpt of the requirements: "This project is conceptually simple - create a ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/10/some-graphic-stuff/ Discovered this via StumbleUpon but the site quit working when I sent it to a friend.  Too much traffic from SU, I'm guessing. http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/10/political-humor/ October is breast cancer awareness month so I decided to change my blog/twitter color scheme to have a pinkish tint for the month of October. I urge you do the same. D2 http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/10/pink/ Update: To prevent any confusion the code highlighter might cause in the post, I added a plain text version of this post here. I noticed a lot of sites allow user submitted content but prevent autolinking of urls. Some of the most common instances of this are on Twitter sites ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/09/php-autolink-text-twitter-replies/ What we're doing: turning the .php extension into .whatever Why we're doing this: security, seo, or because you want to (then you'll have to answer why for yourself) How to do this: In your .htaccess file, we're going to tell apache to parse your choice of a single or multiple .whatevers as php. So ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/07/masking-php-via-htaccess/ Just to compare two of the different ways to effectively do a proper redirect... PHP: (old.php) .HTACCESS Redirect 301 /old.php http://www.kevinsmithdesigns.com/new.php -------------- I much prefer .htaccess so you can delete old.php and keep track of all redirects via one file (.htaccess). .htaccess is also probably the safest way to redirect (if you're the SEO conscious type) http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/06/301-permanent-redirect-php-and-htaccess/ Strip all symbols and other non a-z, 1-0 characters from a string using the handy-dandy ereg_replace. And the output would be: "First Middle Last" --- This is very basic but I see a lot of people going about this the long way around with snippets that are 10-15 lines long (when they ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/05/only-allow-alphanumeric-characters/ For an example, visit SecretTweet.com and click in the textbox up top--the only textbox on the whole page. The captcha, tags field, language field, and submit button all are hidden until needed by the user. Hidden content until onfocus! Hooray! http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/05/javascript-onfocus-onblur-show-hide-table-div/ I had thought it was impossible until now: Here's a screenshot of the ad taken directly from the adwords panel: And here's a screenshot of the ad showing up in my adsense: So just to be sure someone hadn't magically used the exact same wording and punctuation as me, I click on my ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/05/my-adwords-ads-showing-in-my-adsense/ For the past several months, www.KevinSmithDesigns.com forwarded to /blog (where you are now).  I decided to change that and turn the root directory into a sort of a one-stop resource for everything me.  It's just something quick that I threw together just to get the information out there.  So, check ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/05/kevinsmithdesignscom-gets-a-makeover/ If you are pulling information from a mysql database and want to insert either ads (like adsense) or just repeat the headers after every X amount of results, here's my way of doing it: INSERT ADSENSE CODE HERE See a working demo of this at www.SecretTweet.com -- the ad script is repeated ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/04/insert-ads-between-mysql-results/ Awesome Light Graffiti Pictures | Abduzeedo - graphic design | design inspiration | design tutorials (tags: cool photography tools tutorial graffiti light art photos inspiration) CSS Menu Generator (tags: builder blog code css design development downloads free resources tools generator webdesign menu) Mizuno's Super Airbrush PP Tutorial! (56K Warning) - Canon Digital Photography Forums (tags: ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/04/links-for-2008-04-05/ I recently downloaded Firefox 3 Beta 5 (the supposed last stage of beta for the new browser) and, after a few hours of usage, decided to note a few things about it.  I'm no professional developer or anything; I'm just sharing my opinion on things. What I'm Sure I Like: GMail is ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/04/personal-review-of-firefox-3-beta-5-screenshots/ 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 ... http://kevinsmithdesigns.com/blog/2008/04/upgrading-wordpress/