Kevin Smith

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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 much faster.

The Applications tab in Options.  Makes me happy.

The new Page Info options.
The new Malware Protection.  ThumbsUp!

Multiple text selects via the control key.

The new download manager.  It's clean and you can pause/resume downloads efficiently...awesome.

---

What I'm Sure I Don't Like:
Folder menus seem to lag quite heavily sometimes.  This might have been my computer having a blonde moment, though.
Only one of my extensions for FF2 had an upgrade...but this has nothing to do with Firefox..I just don't like it lol.

The default theme's back-forward navigation buttons -- They're soooo close together I found myself repeatedly hitting back instead of forward (and forward instead of back).  Eventually, I went to Backspace and Shift+Backspace.

---

What I'm Unsure About:
Smart Bookmarks -- While it's a nice idea, put most used bookmarks and recently visited sites in a folder on the quick links bar totally eliminates the usefullness for me.  I have most most visited sites on my quicklinks bar already.  And if they would have left the recently visited/address bar alone, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place.  Which leads me to my next point:

The new recently visited dropdown address bar

Tabscrolling forward and reverse.  It just doesn't seem efficient to me.

Bookmark tagging (just like del.icio.us and other services) -- Good idea for webservices but I'd rather stick to the basics with my applications.

---

What I'm Indifferent About:

The hyped "One-Click Site Info!" -- this was available before (with two clicks) and really doesn't have that much of an impact on me.

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.

mozunk.tumblr.com

Note: This piece of code wasn't entirely created by me. Also, I don't claim to be knowledgeable in javascript...I'm just sharing.

function expandCollapse() {
for (var i=0; i<expandCollapse. »
arguments.length; i++) {
var element = document.getElementById »
(expandCollapse.arguments[i]);
element.style.display = (element.style. »
display == "none") ? "block" : "none";
	}
}

Which will allow you to expand and collapse a div in css. I needed this for a new addition to VisitMatewan.com that I'm working on. Handy....

If a user inputs information that generates an error OR if he/she leaves a field blank, save them time (and increase your turnover) by using sticky forms. It's so simple and improves usability so much...

Let's say we're collecting first and last names (to keep it simple):

 
form.php
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
 
		// Print the results.
		echo '
<h1>Your Name:</h1>
 
First: ' . $_POST['first'] . ' Last: ' . $_POST['last'] . '
 
';
 
	} else { // Invalid submitted values.
		echo '
<h1>Error!</h1>
 
Please enter a valid name.
 
';
	}
?>
<h2>Your Name</h2>
<form action="form.php" method="post">
 
First:
<input type="text" name="first" size="30" maxlength="40" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['first'])) echo $_POST['first']; ?>" />
 
Last:
<input type="text" name="last" size="30" maxlength="40" value="<?php if (isset($_POST['last'])) echo $_POST['last']; ?>" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit!" />
<input type="hidden" name="submitted" value="TRUE" />
</form>
 

So, if a user inputs a first name but no last name (or last but no first), it will show whatever the user has already typed (and preventing them from having to type it again)...if the form is lengthy, this is very handy and such a time saver.

Multidimensional arrays are basically arrays within arrays. So, let's make one.

 
<?
//Our first array is going to be for dairy products:
$dairy = array(1 =&gt; 'Milk','Cheese','Yogurt');//Our second array is going to be for animals:
$animals = array(1 =&gt; 'Cow','Duck','Horse','Chicken');
 
//Now let's pretend we wanted to combine these arrays (I should've chosen something like Months and Years or States and Territories...but I'm sticking with dairy products and farm animals ;) ....)
$combined = array('Dairy' =&gt; $dairy, 'Animals' =&gt; $animals);
 
//Idea: This is the best way to categorize interests for personalized profiles etc....
//Echoing what we've just done...
echo "I want to echo Cow!  {$combined['animals']['Cow']}";
 
?>

Of course, if you're just wanting to echo Cow, just use echo "Cow";...but if you're building things from arrays like drop down menus or if you're collecting interests, this is helpful.

I started a sideproject called Voolia a few weeks ago so I could send multiple urls through Twitter. After getting it to a stable state (meaning it functions perfectly for what I want to do lol), I just left it alone. I checked the stats on it today to find that it has been getting some attention from random websites...pretty neat.

You might be surprised at how simple the base of the site is. It's under 50 line (counting empty lines and comments!) ...check it out:

 
<?
//define vars
$links = $_POST["links"];
$email = $_POST["email"];
$dateadded = date('Y/n/j');
 
//build callsign
// Notice that I don't user lowercase l and the number 1....too easily mistaken for eachother.
function createsign() { $chars = "abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz023456789ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
srand((double)microtime()*1000000); $i = 0; $pass = '' ;
while ($i <= 2) { $num = rand() % 33; $tmp = substr($chars, $num, 1);
$pass = $pass . $tmp; $i++; } return $pass;}
$callsign = createsign();
 
//Check if callsign already exists...
 $q2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links WHERE callsign='$callsign'");
   $q3 = mysql_fetch_object($q2);
    if($q3->callsign == $callsign) {
$callsign = createsign(); //do it again
}
 
//insert vars
$insertlinksquery = "INSERT INTO links (links, dateadded, email, hits, ip, callsign) VALUES ('$links', '$dateadded', '$email', '0', '".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."', '$callsign')";
$runinsertlinksquery = mysql_query($insertlinksquery) or die(mysql_error());
 
//now do a foreach and insert each url within the murl as $callsign+1;
//first, we pull up what we just insertted ...i need to make this more efficient!
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links WHERE callsign='$callsign1'");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$linksrow = $row['links'];
 
$i = 0;
$chunks = spliti ("
", $links, 100);
//print_r($chunks);
foreach ($chunks as $value) {
if($value == "") { $newstring = "http://voolia.com"; $cliprow = "http://voolia.com"; } //get rid of empty links from bookmarklet and replace with voolia.com for kicks and giggles
$i++;
$individualcallsign = "$callsign$i";
$insertindividual = "INSERT INTO links (links, dateadded, email, hits, ip, callsign) VALUES ('$value', '$dateadded', '$email', '0', '".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."', '$individualcallsign')";
$runinsertindividual = mysql_query($insertindividual) or die(mysql_error());
}
?>
 

Isn't that amazingly simple?...I think so. With just a tiny bit of .htaccess manipulation, you can have your own url redirection service....I find these handy.

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!)