If you’ve checked out BitLy Pro, you’re probably pretty excited like I am. I saw it and immediately registered saray.me for a short URL. When I went to sign up, I found it was still in a queue system where you had to wait to get an invite. In the mean time, I still want to start using my domain. (more…)

With Twitter’s new @anywhere features, it’s now possible to brand your tweets from your own web page. While I still like using Tweetdeck or Seesmic for my actual interaction on twitter, I have started tweeting a bit from my own web page as well. (more…)

I wasn’t in favor of the Facebook fanbox on the site I was working on… but that’s what the client wanted - and that is what they get. I added it and moved on. Well, later, I started noticing a bit of errors in my Javascript Error log. I looked back at the newest edition: the fanbox. Depending on where I was connecting from, that box would take another 3 to 20 seconds to load.... (more…)

So I got permission at the beginning of March to add an Internet Explorer 6 deprecation message to one of the sites I’m working on. (more…)

The other day I ran across an issue with the FileStyle jquery plugin. Whenever a new file was chosen, windows and Internet Explorer would put c:\fakepath\ before the filename. Turns out its not FileStyle’s issue - but a security feature of Internet Explorer. (more…)

From time to time, I get approached with a new project from an excited business person. They are just bursting to tell me all about it, to see if I can help them out (or even make it for them), and looking for some clarification on their next steps. This inevitably is hindered by my reluctance to answer their first email. You know that email. The one that includes the attached Non Disclosure Agreement. (more…)

I’ve been researching caching and compression techniques for my external resources for some time. My first design of JEMDiary was very greedy with HTTP connections. Couple that with having a less-than-perfect host (Dreamhost bleh…), users could feel the burn. I didn’t like it because it would even take ME forever to use my own website. I went on to discover many different key points I use when creating sites now - the Steps to Optimize... (more…)

So the other night I was thinking about using xdebug on my PHP code. I then totally had a brain explosion: I’m always forgetting to profile my MySQL queries. explain is a great command for this. However, as the lazy programmer I am, I don’t know if I’m always going to do this on all of my queries. In an attempt to save myself time, I started brainstorming an idea. (more…)

As you probably know by now, I’m a huge fan of Eclipse PDT. Well, I wanted to stop using MySQL GUI tools for a bit and explore Eclipse tools. (more…)

I started the Milwaukee PHP Users group a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, today we had to cancel a meeting because of the outpouring of snow… but it’s on for the 4th tuesday of the month. (more…)